Some Thoughts and a Rapid Review

Nancy, the pugs' other parent, predicted that Seattle will have a heat wave for the next five weeks, as every single other time I've come to housesit for them, Seattle has had a heatwave. So far, so good. Yesterday cleared up and got sunny about the time the pugs and owners left, and today has been mostly nice. This means I have to pay extra attention to watering Nancy's garden (which was featured in a book!). But luckily I'm not taking care of pugs, so it doesn't mean I'm going to have to deal with long walks in the hot sun.

I've been watching some guys down the street re-roof a house. They started this morning by tearing off the old roof, then they put down new materials, looks like plywood sheets. Now that are covering the wood with rolls of tarpaper (I think). If they were to keep going, I think they'd finish easily by sundown. In the meantime, the guys working on the house across the street either took a very long lunch or already quit for the day.

I have a small dilemma... I want to read my next AIT/Planet Lar book from the box, but I also just got today's comics and want to read them. And I've got two more books from the series that I'm starting to review in this blog entry, and two books out from the library! What to read, what to read?

Am I the only person in comic book fandom who doesn't care who is going to die in DC's upcoming "Identity Crisis"? Even Neilalien seems intrigued.

The bit about Namor in the last blog entry reminded me of one of my pet peeves. I get this a lot, actually. People assume that because I like Aquaman, there is no way I can possibly like Namor. It happens all over in fandom. If you like "Star Wars", you must hate "Star Trek". If you read Marvel comics, you must hate DC. It's like people think that no one can possibly be open-minded enough to enjoy a whole bunch of things in the same genre. For the record: I liked both Star Wars and Star Trek most of my life, as well as Doctor Who and a dozen other science fiction shows. I don't read much Marvel, but I have nothing against them and actually enjoy the Spider-Man book I'm reading quite a bit. I like Namor. He's different than Aquaman in a great many ways... Aquaman has never attacked New York for one thing, and Namor has those pointed ears... but that doesn't mean either one is superior in general. I don't get where the "either your with us or against us!" attitude in fandom comes from. It seems rather counter-productive and silly to me.

And now for something completely different:

Sidekicks (hardcover) by Dan Danko and Tom Mason: Guy Martin is just a normal kid... well, until he got his power last year, then he could run 92.7 miles per hour... faster than Fastest Man Alive Man! And three weeks ago, Guy became a Sidekick, joining the other sidekicks in Sidekick Clubhouse. And it didn't take him three weeks to realize that being a sidekick isn't all it's cracked up to be. That's the premise. And the execution is quite funny. The book is written first-person with Guy as the narrator. He's down-to-earth and long-suffering, facing situations that are quite silly and sometimes dangerous. This is a fun book, definitely worth a look for superhero fans, particularly ones who like to read silly books. Amazon recommends it for ages 9 to 12, I recommend it for anyone who is young at heart.