Time for a change

I'm getting older. I'm currently 38 years old, soon to be 39, and I am over weight with a family history of both weight and heart problems. 2 years ago I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and recently my blood sugar levels have been high, probably due to my sweet tooth and lack of monitoring.

 Earlier this year one of my pop culture icons, writer/director/podcaster Kevin Smith suffered and survived a widow maker heart attack. He had already been taking steps to lose weight but his doctor told him he had to lose more after the heart attack. Now he is literally half the man he used to be and he is a spokesperson for Weight Watchers, along with other celebrities like Oprah Winfrey.

My Dad was 39 when he had his first heart attack, his Dad was 27. My Uncle Gord (my fathers brother) passed away at the age of 44 due to heart attack. My Grandpa was 51 when he died. It's time to get my shit together. I'm probably about 80 pounds overweight and I need to change that. I have, like my pop culture icon Kevin Smith, joined Weight Watchers and am on a diet. There's definitely been an adjustment as I am finding out how much my sweet tooth adds into my weight and it has and will be hard giving up some things; but it is for a greater good. I want to live.  So going forward hopefully I will be less of what I am now, weight wise that is. My initial goal is to get down to 250 pounds, which may be a lot for most but I am 6 foot and big built (think football player shoulders/build) so to go down to 250 is a good starting goal for me. I do want to lose more but that will come once I've achieved my initial goal.

Wish me luck!

The Comic Book Pile:Summer 2012

***Note***
This is an unpublished blog post from 2012. Not sure why I never posted it, it was interesting to see how much has changed in 6 years. I've inserted some updated comments.
- Chris Sept 25th 2018
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2012: (2018)

I am currently blogging while on my vacation in Fairview, Alberta. The family and I are visiting my Grandparents-in-law. (Sadly we did not make our annual trip to Fairview in 2018)
We are having a blast as always. But onto the blogging:

 

As you no doubt know I am a huge comic book fan. I order most of my comics on line from a company out of Quebec called 'Comic Pull' (I no longer order comics through Comic Pull. I get my comic books digitally from comixology and I order trades from Amazon) . I also have a 'pull list' at the 'Comic King' comic book store in West Edmonton Mall (Which has now been closed for probably 2-3 years. The last owner was a bone head and not a comic book fan and had no clue how to stay in business. I really did not like him and I am glad to see his business fail, although I am sad to see no comic book store in the mall. I have a lot of fond memories of WEM Comic King as it was my first comic book store).

I read a lot of comics in a month so I've decided to do a quarterly update segment where I tell you what I feel is the best of what I read (I never kept up with that nor do I want to do that now...lol). Some titles will not change from month to month because my favourite titles are pretty solid, but I'll try and include something different. If your thinking about picking up some comic books to try I hope this segment will help. in my opinion this truly is a great time to be reading comics.  

 

Top 10 Comic Books (In my opinion)

 

1- Batman (DC). Best written and drawn book out there!! (Still good with Tom King currently writing it)

2- Invincible (Image). Created and written by Robert Kirkman (creator of 'The Walking Dead' comic and TV show) (Sadly this book ended earlier this year but still worth checking out)

3- Daredevil (Marvel). Written by the great Mark Waid. This book is a lot of fun. (Waid no longer writing and I stopped reading it)

4- Fantastic Four (Marvel Comics). Jonathan Hickman is a great writer and this is a fun thinking man's comic book. (Hickman no longer writing and it just relaunched with Dan Slott writing after a 3 year hiatus of the title. So far it is good) 

5- Earth Two (DC) Still a new title but this is a great read by James Robinson (Starman) (No longer being made)

6- FF (Marvel) This is the sister book to the Fantastic Four and is written by Hickman. Fun book. (No longer being made)

7- Saga (Image) Written by Brian K. Vaughan this is a cool sci-fi comic book. Romeo & Juliet-ish it is. (No longer reading. got very boring)

8- Justice League (DC) Written by Geoff Johns, art by the legend Jim Lee. The back up 'Shazam' story is great too. (No longer reading. Johns no longer writing)

9- Aquaman (DC) Written by Geoff Johns. This really is a fun book to read and yes it is Aquaman. (No longer reading. Johns no longer writing)

10- Flash (DC) I was a fan of the Flash but with the relaunch of the 'New 52' this book got really good. (No longer reading. Got boring and redundant in my opinion)

 

Mentions: Swamp Thing (DC)(No longer reading) , Secret (Image) (No longer being made), Action Comics (DC), Hulk (Marvel)(No longer reading) , Batman Incorporated (DC)(No longer being made) .

 

Trade I'm reading: Starman Omnibus 1, paperback from DC comics. Reprinting this series from the 90's written by James Robinson (Earth Two). this is a fun book to read. the art is not the best but it suits the story I think.

  

See you in the fall for more of 'The Comic Book Pile'!! (No you won't)
(But more blogging goodness next week as always!)

Netflix Reviews: ‘Lost in Space’

‘Lost in Space’:

I was never a big fan of the original series. I remember watching it as a teenager on the Sci-Fi Channel (now known as ‘SyFy’) and it was just too goofy for me. I grew up on ‘Star Trek’ the original series on CBC and only got exposed to Lost in Space when my family got satellite tv...too little too late. It was cool to see a child Bill Mummy, whom i knew as ‘Lennier’ on Babylon 5, on the show. Also I couldn’t help but wonder if I was related to June Lockhart...

The less said about the 1998 Lost in Space film the better...

Now we have this new series. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it from friends and coworkers but I was hesitant to try it but I did and it was ...ok. The actors are good, especially the kid actors because it is tough casting good kid actors but they did a great job. The series looks great but I have a feeling their creativity was limited by the budget. Instead of the Jupiter 2 being lost and traveling through space it’s marooned on one planet. Instead of the space family Robinson encountering different aliens we get one episode of giant alien bats. The robot is not a member of the crew, it’s an alien artificial intelligence which may or may not be evil. And Doctor Smith has gone from being a bumbling sabatoer to a psychotic woman who steals the real Doctor Smiths id (whom was played by the original Wil Robinson: Lennier himself ‘Bill Mummy’). 

This series was ok but suffers from a lot of lazy writing (seriously I’m blind and need tears to see...lazy) which as I said earlier may be the result of budget constraints. And to be honest i was not a fan of Parker Posey as ‘Doctor Smith’, but the rest of the cast was good. 

I’ll check out season 2 and they ended the season with a good set up. And this show is better than Star Trek: Discovery! 

2.5 stars out of 5. 

Stigma

So recently I shared my story of battling insomnia. And as I had said I had bouts of insomnia from time to time over the years but never like this time. I believe this insomnia was being cause by both a change in my medications and stress. I literally would sleep for an hour or so and be wide awake for the next fourteen hours, fall asleep for an hour or so and repeat. I don't care who you are: no one can live like that for days at a time and function properly let alone be effective and productive in a work place setting. I missed 3 days of work due to this, in those days I managed to get in to see my doctor (which was not easy because he is very busy), I managed to get a prescription for sleeping meds, use them and get back into a functional routine so I could return to work in a safe manner.

Well when I got back it seemed I was being punished for having missed the last three days. Agreements made between me and a co-worker for some reason became null and void due to my absence, even though my absence in no way affected my co-worker or would have changed our work arrangement in any way. Obviously I cannot go into specifics but suffice to say my co-worker took advantage of my situation to get one up on me; talk about kicking someone when they are down. Also a person above me helped to change the arrangement I had with my co-worker even though neither of us directly work for him; he chose to stick his nose in our business because he seemed to not be happy with my absences for some reason even though they in no way affected him.

Long story short I was going through a bad time and people took advantage of that and kicked me when I was down (metaphorically not literally). It has helped me understand what people go through with mental illness and all the stigma that goes with it. Insomnia is obviously not a mental illness (although mental illness can cause insomnia that is not the case here) I was judged for not going to work due to insomnia. I heard whispers and saw some eye rolls when I returned to work (Suck it up, quit being lazy, go to bed earlier, etc. were no doubt being floated around behind my back). In my experience I find this treatment is the same for people who suffer from mental illness. "Poor you, suck it up already, I've been through worse, etc." are often muttered behind the backs of people with mental illness. I like to think I'm better than that because my Mom worked in the mental health field and she taught me a lot but the truth is before I learned about mental illness I too judged others who suffered from it. I just didn't understand the affects of mental illness. Just like I didn't understand what true insomnia felt like or how it can affect the mind and body until I had it.

My final thought on the matter:
Unless you have suffered from something, whether it be insomnia or mental illness, don't judge someone who is suffering from it. You cannot truly understand what they are going through.
Be patient and be kind to one another and don't take advantage or kick people when they are down.

Is there something wrong with me?

Tuesday 

So my life has been a little upside down the last few months. A lot of stressful stuff going on but just when things seem to be turning around more shit happens and I deal with it. But as a result the last few weeks I’ve been having troubles sleeping. Over the years from time to time I’ve had bouts of insomnia but I just can’t seem to shake this one. Honestly the last time I had insomnia was so long ago I cannot remember exactly. I’m normally a very good sleeper; my head hits the pillow and I’m out within a minute or two.

I went to emergency Tuesday night in the hopes of speaking to a doctor about my insomnia and maybe get some suggestions and I got nothing. The nurse on duty looked at me like I was crazy when I told her why I was there. Then I briefly talked to the doctor whom was sitting there and she basically told me to make an appointment with my own doctor. To say the least I was not impressed. The emergency department was not busy and from what I could see they only had one patient; for some reason they just didn’t want to deal with me and told me I should go and book an appointment the next day. This is the first time I’ve been treated like that at the Barrhead hospital. I’ve got an appointment to see my doctor Wednesday. 

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Thursday 

Well after visiting the doctor he prescribed some meds for me to take and I took them and last night I had the best sleep in weeks. Hopefully I’ll be getting my sleep schedule back on track 

Has ‘Shameless’ jumped the shark?

So the new season of ‘Shameless’ made its debut Sunday night and...yep it back and it is tired. I really enjoyed this show years ago in its earlier seasons because it was original and made me both laugh and feel emotional. But the last couple seasons have felt very tired and unoriginal. Just a retread of what they already did. Franks capers now are just silly and dumb. Fiona is boring and apparently the actress who plays her doesn’t want to come back for another season. Deb is just annoying, Carl’s storyline is no fun anymore, V and I can’t remember his name bartender guy stopped being funny about 3 seasons ago. 

The term ‘Jump the shark’ comes from the later seasons of the sitcom ‘Happy Days’ when the Fonz literally put on some water skis and jumped a shark. It was then they said Happy Days has gone too far and ended soon after. Well when ‘Shameless’ made Ian Gallagher a gay Jesus they jumped their proverbial shark. 

TNG Season 8?

 TNG Season 8?

A person should not dwell on the past but sometimes you cannot help but do so. TNG ended with season 7, and in my opinion it ended on a very sad note. There were only a handful of episodes from that season that I actually liked, and they are:

- "Parallels" Ep 11 (Worf finds himself randomly shifting between alternate realities) This was a fun episode and I like the idea of alternate realities. Neat to see a possible romance between Worf and Troi.

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- "The Pegasus" Ep 12 (Commander Riker's former Captain boards the Enterprise to retrieve the USS Pegasus. Features Terry O'Quinn as Admiral Eric Pressman). This episode was the best of the season. O'Quinn was excellent in his role. Great to see Frakes shine as Riker. Final episode with the Romulans as the big bad, wish they had had Andreas Katsulas as 'Tomalok' on this episode, but it wasn't meant to be.

- "Homeward" Ep 13 (Worf's human foster brother violates the Prime Directive to save a doomed primitive race). I like Paul Sorvino and it was great to see him as Worfs brother. This was a good episode but far from great.

- "Journey's End" Ep 20 (Wesley considers his future, as the Enterprise is ordered to remove Native American colonists from a planet that is about to fall under Cardassian jurisdiction. Appearance of Eric Menyuk as The Traveler). I always like the character of Wesley and it was great to see Wil Wheaton back for his final appearance.

- "Bloodlines" Ep 22 (DaiMon Bok returns to exact revenge on Picard, by trying to kill the son Picard never knew he had. Guest star Lee Arenberg as DaiMon Bok, but not the same actor who originated the role, Frank Corsentino). This actually was a poor episode, I only included it because it was neat to see the Bok story return from the first season. But it sucked that Bok was played by another actor, even with all the make-up you could tell it was not the same person.  

5 episodes out of 26 or so done that season...not good. I'm thinking maybe with some of the creative staff going off to do DS9 and some left to prep 'Voyager' is what hurt TNG in that 7th season. The series finale too was very bad and not a fitting end to the series. 

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Not many good episodes that final season. Which is why they needed another season. Apparently Paramount signed a deal with its stars for an 8th season. Patrick Stewart (Picard) and Brent Spiner (Data) reluctantly agreed to an 8th season but no more. Paramount was apparently even considering bringing in other actors to replace Picard and Data for a 9th season. Ronny Cox who had played "Captain Edward Jellico" who took command of the Enterprise for 2 episodes would replace Picard and Elizabeth Dennehy as "Commander Shelby" would replace Data. It would have been interesting and an 8th season should have happened because the 7th season sucked, ending the show on a sour note because of it. Unfortunately it was business that destroyed the proposed 8th season.

Paramount was set to launch their UPN television network and they wanted Star Trek to be its primary show, this new network was set to launch in January 1995. Problem was Paramount was already producing Star Trek: TNG and Deep Space Nine for syndication and couldn't put one of them on their network because of all the syndication deals they had in place. So the decision was made to end TNG at the end of season 7 and create a new Star Trek series for the UPN network. TNG ended in May 1994 with a lousy final season and final episode and a new Star Trek series was created and launched in January 1995: Star Trek Voyager.

 I'm sure if the Paramount executives could have foreseen the end of UPN in 2006 and the poor ratings and reviews for "Voyager" they would have stayed with TNG for at least one more season...

Thanks for reading. See you next time.

Live Long And Prosper.

When 'Star Trek' re-invents itself...

Back in 1989 we Star Trek fans were introduced to a new ultimate villain in the Trek Universe, they were called 'The Borg'. They are a race hive mind which assimilates other races and technologies whether they like it or not. They threaten to end our individuality and turn us all into mindless drones as part of their overall collective. Its a scary thought to lose ones own individuality which makes the Borg perhaps the scariest of all the Trek alien races. 

But in this post I am discussing how from time to time Star Trek likes to take what works and change it anyway with most times terrible results. Long before JJ Abrams and the creators of 'Star Trek Discovery' reinvented the Klingons the Borg were reinvented. And like the new Klingons they took something that worked and made it worse: 

Klingon design 1979-2005

Klingons 2018

Now the Borg looked good in their initial use from 1989-1995. They were emotionless yet they had a underrated scariness about them :

Now with the film 'Star Trek: First Contact' the Borg were reinvented to be angry zombie like villains. They seemed to be something more out of a horror film than a science fiction one:

And I also found this chart online which apparently explains the differences in the Borg:

Put simply there was nothing wrong with the Borg. They did not need to be re-invented but were for some reason that escapes me. And it continues today with the new Star Trek movies and series. I'm a firm believer that if something is not broken do not try to fix it. I really do not want to see anymore aliens reimagined in future Trek installments. Star Trek is starting to not feel like Star Trek anymore

:(

Meeting the real Kurt Cobain

As a kid I never really listened to Nirvana until I was 16 and it was years after the suicide of lead singer Kurt Cobain. I knew of them of course and I was a huge fan of the Weird Al Yankovic song ‘Smells like Nirvana’, but when it actually came to listening to their music I never did at first. 

Then Cobain committed suicide and threre was a ripple effect felt around the world. You see not long after his death there was a young teen boy (who was probably my age or a year or two older) who committed suicide by shooting him self in Edmonton. I don’t remember the details exactly but I do remember Nirvana being blamed. The kid left his CD player on repeat playing Nirvana when his body was discovered. They said he was imitating Cobain, they said Nirvanas depressing lyrics made him depressed, and no other children should listen to Cobain... and my parents bought into the anti-Nirvana propaganda. 

I’m sorry that those parents who lost their son to suicide but to blame Nirvana is ridiculous. It’s like when Fredrick Wortham blamed comic books for juvenile delinquency in the 1950’s...kids will be delinquent with or without comic books. Like wise kids have committed suicide long before Nirvana ever showed up on the Pop charts. But it’s always easier to blame someone else than it is to accept the fact your kid wasn’t perfect and had mental health issues. 

So it was a few years later when I was 16 when my cousin Tyler introduced me to Nirvana and 22 years later I am still a fan. In fact when I bought my vinyl record player last year the first record I bought was the best of Nirvana 

So I recently watched the documentary ‘Cobain Montage of Heck’. It was really well done and definitely delves into the minds eye of Kurt Cobain. Yes he was an addict but there was more to it than that. My dad always said to me “Never judge a person unless you’ve walked a mile in their shoes”. Cobain was a troubled person with real problems and like a lot of people turned to drugs as a form of self medicating. Sadly he couldn’t beat his demons but he did leave behind a legacy of great music that will be enjoyed for generations to come. He did for alternative music what Elvis Presley did for rock and roll. It’s hard to believe he was only 27 years old when he passed. I truly hope he found peace in death that he couldn’t find in life. 

If your a Nirvana fan you’ll like the documentary. 

See you next time