Here We Go Again...

Obama: "We are at war."

Good lord, people! Doesn't it get old?

And Mr. Obama, what happened to change?

(Not that I'm tremendously surprised, just disappointed, as approximately usual with the government.)

Less is More: The Truly Great Superheroes.

Everyone knows Batman, Superman, Spiderman, the X-men. The great superheroes--those with their names in the papers, their powers on display. The merest 5-year-old can tell you what Superman can do, and what his weakness is.

This isn't so good. Part of the requirement of herodom is secrecy. You appear to have no identity outside of your costume--you are a terrifying mystery, outside the bounds of normal society and therefore a threat to those who try to break the rules of normal society to their advantage.

I want to argue that these well-known superheroes fail, no matter how spectacular they are, simply because we know them. And that we are overlooking the major superheroes completely. Heroes who play the game successfully, never let us know they have secret identities, or powers, or weaknesses.

I'll prove it. The other thing that heroes have is a look. A costume that only changes with serious plot enhancement.

Now there are also people in the comics who have a look. Jonah Jameson. Commissioner Gordon. These people are normal, right?

Right?

There you go. Jim Gordon is the best superhero ever. We don't even know he has powers.

New Direction

I'm going to take this blog in a new direction. We're going to focus a bit more on writing, words, and language, and less on personal experiences--though those may come into play anyway as they arise. (Who has personal experiences everyday, anyway?)

I mean, the blog is called 'Word-Fu', is it not?

Strange Friends

Got an email today. Was a little odd. Came from a friend of mine named putput@centurytel.net. The ever-mysterious putput said:

Hi there
Hey where have you been recently ? I could not get any news from you for a long time. Anyway, I found a decent pharmacy store from google last week. I decided to give a shot because it was Canada Licensed Drugstore. Well the prices were % 65 cheaper than the local pharmacies in my region. So I took a chance. I took my medicines in my hand 3 days after i ordered and they were packed very well as they claimed that they provide full anonymity. Needless to say medicines are legit and they give me what i want :) If you need any medicine without any prescription, give it a try until the discount ends.
Take care of yourself. I included the url below. See you later.

My friends are strange. They email out of the blue after months without contact just to tell me about a 'decent pharmacy store from google'. This is the generosity of my friends.

Moreover, I am a good friend, because I am not going to correct my friend's English. Nor even point out his or maybe her mistakes.

President Ninja

Does this mean he has been trained as one?

Maybe if you trained hard you could follow in his footsteps. Work from the ground up, you know. Start by getting a job here.

Not convinced? You should go here.

Happy Birthday, Seamus Heaney!

It's his birthday today, and lots of people are celebrating.

UPDATE: Here is his Nobel lecture, too.

Lemon graph, very pretty

Correlation may not imply causation, but it's sure fun to pretend.