Ain't That A Kick In The Heart

It's a little scary, at times, when you realise just how thin a margin you live by. When you are forced to notice that your entire body runs on a very tight set of parameters, and a single deviation from one of these parameters can lead to some serious issues.

A palpitation can feel like many things, depending on how serious it is. For me it felt like someone reaching inside my torso and flipping something upside down, and all of a sudden my lungs were just bellows. All they did was suck stuff in and push it out again. Breathing was something that I did twenty seconds ago.

I recovered, obviously. I'll be okay. I'm still not totally on my feet - doc's orders, I'm not work-healthy until this time next week, and I'm on a caffeine and energy drink restriction (which is killing me). Also the usual spiel about eat healthier so on so forth.

He told me himself that were my heart weaker, that might not have been a palpitation at all. It could have been something a lot more serious. I count my blessings.

So I'm sick again. Mostly stuck indoors again, though almost certainly for less time than before.

Great.

Battle Raps For Nerds: Transformers

Your face reminds me of what Prime did to Megatron
Even when he got put back together he still looked wrong
Even Unicron couldn't fix the manged mess
Looking like a sex toy and whining like Rudolf Hess

I'm gonna merge and combine like the Constructicons
I'll Devastate you, bitch, getting Bruticus because it's on
Will Onslaught you in Brawls and then Swindle you into shellshock
Blast-off into a Vortex, Quintesson, I am GRIMLOCK

Mighty like Brawn and twice as brave as Bumblebee
You can call me Mirage because this bitch can't even see me
Demonstrate my Superion aerial tactics sky high
I'll leave you like Silverbolt, so shook up that you can't fly

Isolate your weakness and then savage it like Computron
Like Seekers I'll intercept your shipments and steal your Energon
Ignore your Soundwave monotone and just to make you feel vexed
I'll let you think you have a chance before I call on Metroplex.

Meditations On Caped Crusaders

It isn't the power that makes a hero.

You'd think it would be, wouldn't you? After all, Spider-Man isn't just a guy with an unhealthy obsession, he arrived at his monicker via radioactive spiderbite. Iron Man isn't just a millionaire genius playboy philanthropist, Steve Rogers isn't Captain America because he's a bit patriotic, and Batman isn't just a bloke with a very limited wardrobe.

But then we think about it, and we realise - power isn't what makes these people heroes, either.

Let's face it. The heroes aren't the only ones with power. For every man or woman that would give up everything to uphold their moral code, you'll find a dozen that have no moral code, that would happily murder, steal and cheat their way to victory. Some of them stone-cold sane, some of them significantly less so.

Certainly - Doctor Octopus, Lex Luthor, The Violator and Critical Maas all have the power to do great things, to save lives, to prevent tragedy, to act as heroes. But none of them do. That is left to Spider-Man, to Superman, to Spawn, to the other Specials.

The stuff of heroism isn't, then, to be found in the power to do the deed; it lays in the will, and for that deed to be a righteous one.

I'm a librarian. I am a strong advocate of carrying comic books in libraries. Not just the literary types - all types. For every copy of Watchmen, V For Vendetta and Maus, I'd like to see collected editions of Batman, X-Men, Superman, Iron Man, the Green Lantern, and Captain America, because all of these things teach lessons.

The lesson is that it isn't the capacity you have to enact change that matters - what matters is the change you make. That at the end of the day the value of a life shouldn't be measured in the scale of its deeds, in the quantity, but in the quality.

Because Galactus can devour planets, Apocalypse can end everything, the Black Lantern Corps are death incarnate, and Bane's genius can lay low even the greatest - but all of them were beaten, by men and women brave enough to do the right thing.

And that's why I want comic books in my library.

Apathy And Its Trappings

Today is a very, very meh day.

It is a day full of meh. A day so meh-ful - so indifferent, so bloody standard - that it defies further classification.

I mean I have no idea what to do today. I don't have the will to do anything. Not sure if I am hungry or thirsty, no real way to prioritise. Everything just feels like make-busy work.

Urgh.