CALL ME CHILDISH, BUT....

I am loving this show entirely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s right, I’ve been watching a cartoon of late! But not just any cartoon, a pretty awesome one!

Wolverine and the X-Men is OMG teh haxxor awesomeness. Animation is awesome, storylines are gripping, and it features characters from all corners of the X-Men universe, not just the major characters like Cyclops and Wolverine (who is frankly, over-rated) but also other characters like Dust and Nitro and so on. And Gambit appears, but is a bit of a jerk, and there’s Emma Frost and damn it, an appearance by the Hulk!

Unwritten law of the universe: any show, no matter how bad, is ultimately made awesome if one of its characters has to fight the Hulk at anytime. Don’t care if you win or lose. Just go up against the Not-So-Jolly Green Giant and your show will be Emmy-Award material in my opinion. I’d love to see McDreamy or Serena van der Hoostwhatever from Gossip Girl take him on. (Serena could probably give him a nice shirt to match his purple pants, though).

And watching that show shall inspire this entry:

TEGENCE pays tribute to the X-Men, his childhood Heroes!

THE ORIGINAL TV SHOW.

I must confess: I’ve been a fan of these Stan Lee/Jack Kirby-created mutant heroes (and villains) since I was a little kid. When I was a wee kid of about 9 or ten, there were only two main superhero shows on TV, if I recall (Power Rangers doesn’t count and they only showed Batman as part of an abysmal show called Whats Up Doc which featured hosts with bad acting and slapstick Bugs Bunny cartoons): these were Superman and X-Men (7 pm, every Monday, RTM 1! Back in the day where Astro was non-existent and I was too young to enter 18-SX movies! So see? Local programming isn’t that bad, after all!)

And the plot of EVERY damn Superman cartoon was like this:

1. Lois and Clark go on a fun adventure
2. Lois: Help! I’m being attacked by aliens/gangsters/robots/armchairs arrgh!
3. Clark: This is a job for..(tears open clothes to reveal lingerie big S on chest)
4. Superman beats up aliens/monsters/etc seven ways from Sunday
5. Lois: Oh Clark! It’s a shame you weren’t here when that manly Superman appeared to save me!
6. Me: Silly SILLY! It’s him, you silly!!! Just take off his silly glasses! (keep in mind I was 9 at the time, and didn’t know any good swear words, so my cursing was a lot milder in those days)

Basically, the plot of Superman was exactly the same as Popeye, except without the spinach and Lois was slightly prettier than Olive. So, was it any surprise I watched X-men instead?

The original X-Men cartoon, I have to admit, was AWESOME. Blew my mind entirely. Such a contrast from Superman, who was so invincible and who everyone loved: the characters from X-Men were all human, flawed in their own ways.

I was especially amazed at the idea that people hated the X-Men, even though they were essentially the heroes, merely because they were mutants, people with super powers that everyone could not understand and therefore feared. These people were doing all they could to help humans, even though they were made outcasts and feared. And that really impressed nine-year old me.

Another thing was that, heh, I was a bit of a weird outcast kid myself at nine. Was bullied quite a bit in primary school, after all, you used to be really short for your age and speak with a lisp (wait, I still do on both counts!) don’t be surprised if other kids come and harass you when all you want to do is read. Which in a way I think was why I especially empathised with the X-Men: in a sense, they were like me, considered strange and persecuted because of it.

Apparently X-Men was highly commended in its day for its mature handling of subject matter. Happened to re-watch a few episodes recently, and I myself was quite taken aback by how the show handled stuff such as death, religion, hatred and persecution, especially to a young audience. I mean, this was a show that KILLED off one of its main characters in the SECOND episode. Nine-year old me was impressed. Heck, twenty-one year old me is still impressed!

Of course, when I was young, all this fancy literature analysis stuff was not a big priority, and I just tuned in to see people in spandex fight other people in spandex, all the while accompanied by loud explosions, flashes of coloured light and so on. I was freaking hooked.

Oh, and the show’s theme song!!!! Damn!!!! It blew my freaking mind! To this day I think its one of the best theme songs ever for any TV show. Keep in mind, when I was nine, most of the music I had heard was either church hymns or nursery rhymes. Therefore, a show that had an intro with people doing awesome things, to an ELECTRIC GUITAR with KILLER RIFFS. Daaaaaaaaammmmnnnn.

(If I come across as a very easily impressed kid at nine, yes. I was.)

My favourite character, though it may sound clichéd, was Gambit.

He must clearly be such a manly man that he can go around wearing hot pink leather without anyone commenting or making bad jokes.

Of the other male characters (yes, I was the age where anything to do with girls was auto eeew territory) could not relate to Cyclops or Wolverine, they being the charismatic leader and beserker killing machine respectively. I think I could relate most to Beast, being a (mostly) peace-loving bookworm, but obviously did not want to be blue and hairy and walk around in nothing but a Speedo all day.

Gambit, on the other hand, was mysterious. He never really talked, but when he did, had such a cool accent, and could make stuff (especially playing cards) explode by touching them. For some reason, thought this was the Coolest Thing in the World and wanted to be like him in everyway. Went around for a while saying stuff like ma chere and ruining perfectly good decks by throwing cards all over the place. How my mum put up with me, I don’t know.

COMICS AND X-MEN EVOLUTION

Have to admit, never really read the comics. Don’t think I even knew where to buy them, for one thing. Shame, they looked pretty cool, although the artists seemed to be on a mission to strip Storm down to a bikini every two issues. Someone has a fetish..

Also never watched X-Men Evolution for one reason: I HATED the idea of having Nightcrawler (one of my favorite characters) as an insecure teenager. Nightcrawler is gallant and confident, damn it! Talks and acts like a swashbuckler! Finds strength in his religion! Not an emo little boy worried about how he looks! And he seemed to have a crush on Shadowcat, which is oh-so-wrong because Shadowcat is clearly meant to be with Colussus!!!!

BAMF!

Yeah, I adore Nightcrawler. One of my favorite characters: his powers are cool, and he is a really complex character. And he’s devoutly Catholic! In this day and age, when a lot of the times, members of the Catholic faith are portrayed as either close-minded bigots or keepers of forbidden knowledge (I blame you, mr Has-Been Dan Brown!) its nice to have a positive portrayal of a man of the faith. Although he is blue and resembles a demon. Complete with pointy tail. Oh well. No one’s perfect. In fact, its for the better: good lurks in every form and shape, after all.

THE MOVIES

Well. First X-Men film was pretty cool, although it didn’t wow me. Also, used to Rogue being the sassy, confident Southern belle from the TV show, was a bit taken back to see her so shy here, though was no real fault of the directors. It also had Mystique, who faithful readers may remember I have quite a fondness for, and so, enjoyed that.

And it had Ian McKellan. As Magneto, coolest X-Men villain ever!

Unwritten Law of the Universe 2: Ian McKellan playing anything is automatically awesome. It can be Magneto or Gandalf or Strawberry Shortcake or Guy with Long Broom 3. It will be awesome.

Magneto I adore for the same reason as Nightcrawler: he has awesome powers (in fact, I think he could do anything if he really tried) but is also a very complex, twisted character. In some ways, he could be seen as the good guy: he’s an idealist at heart, and really cares for the mutant race, only so much to the point he is willing to destroy everything else. Which is an irony, considering his background as a Holocaust survivor.

X-Men 2 had three of my favourite X-Men characters: Mystique, Magneto and Nightcrawler. It was a pretty awesome show, and remains one of my favourites today.

X-Men 3 I do not want to talk about. I don’t know what the director was smoking, or whether he somehow hates me so much he aims to destroy everything I love about the series. He introduced DOZENS of mutants, only to give them each like 2 minutes of screen time and we never hear from them again. Psylocke! Multiple Man! Colossus! Arch-Angel! Juggernaught! Director Brett Rattner could have done so much more with each of them, such a waste of potential!!!

And seriously. I will not go into plot points like the Magneto’s pointless raising of a bridge, or how they defeated Dark Pheonix, because that would take too long. Why kill off Xavier, Cyclops and depower Mystique and Magneto??? And Dark Pheonix! Defeated so easily and embarrassingly she should never have been brought back from the dead as it is! I weep for X-Men 3. It has caused me much heartache. Between this and Max Payne, I have little reason to live.

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN

And, back to the show I’m watching now.

Its pretty cool, although Surfthechannel only has up to episode 9, and I’m desperately waiting for Torrent to download the rest, especially since episode 10 apparently has an appearance from Mystique.

Also glad as one of my favourite characters is part of the main cast:

I think its pretty obvious why I’m fond of Emma Frost.

But seriously: she’s a pretty cool character as well. A bitchy psychic who can turn herself into diamond. Awesome. Plus, she’s so much more interesting than Jean Grey, Cyclops’s OTHER girlfriend, who I have to say, I find boring at times. All she seems to be doing is dying and coming back to life as Pheonic or Dark Pheonix or Polka-Dotted Pheonix or whatnot.

(Btw, Jean Grey, Emma Frost..why does Marvel not give codenames to their female psychics? Is there some kind of discrimination here? Yes, I know they are technically Marvel Girl and White Queen, but they barely use those names, so they don’t count!)


So, there you have it. My tribute to the X-Men, best superhero team ever. They clearly rock my socks (and shoes, and in the case of Emma Frost, occasionally trousers) off.

Am now waiting for X-men Origins: Wolverine to be coming out soon, Gambit is going to be in it!

TEGENCE FIXES HIS LAPTOP AND MAKES ANALOGIES

My laptop has been crashing like crazy recently. Which, along with laziness, will probably explain the lack of an update. Was very frustrating. My Internet becomes slower than a dyslexic sloth, programs don’t work, and the Blue Screen Of Death appears every ten or twenty minutes to put an end to everything fun I do. Party pooper.

Since I spend a lot of time on the Net (playing Online Mafia and writing and stalking Neil Gaiman on his blog..by the way his birthday was five days ago, happy belated birthday, Mr. G!) this was a colossal frustration and so pondered on changing my laptop. Unfortunately, I know just as much about computers as Paris Hilton knows about quantum thermodynamics. For me, RAM is a male sheep with big-ass horns, a processor is friendly Mr. Raju from down the road who works in Campbell Soup, and Firefox is the villain in the next Batman movie. (seriously though..Firefox. isn’t that a really cool supervillain name? He/she could have fire-based powers! And be part fox! Or be cunning like a fox! Or be foxy! Or have an army of foxes, all set on fire! Or work at Fox Studios! I think you get what I mean.)

And so, thought of buying a new laptop, but since I am poorer than Richie Rich after being blackmailed in the infamous Casper the Over-Friendly Ghost sex scandal, decided that perhaps a simpler thing to do would be to try and fix my laptop. Yes, I have almost zero knowledge of PCs, and the saying ‘seperti tikus membaiki labu’ popped immediately to mind, but decided it was better than anything else.

Did not exactly aim to achieve much. After all, I don’t exactly have the best history when it comes to battles with machines. My previous confrontation, the clash between the evil Duke Can Opener, in the fields of Reading (see older blog) did end in disaster after all. But I figured, its not like the problem could get any worse, and if my laptop did go wonkier than a psychopathic gorilla high on tequila, well, it could come in useful in other situations. You could close it and put it on a chair, to sit on if your seat is wet. And..well, can;’t think of other things. But you know what I mean.

So, since I had such limited knowledge, decided to just go the easy way first. Go to System Restore, find a date before the crashes started to happen frequently, and restore my computer settings to that date. Actually the closest thing to time travel I will probably ever do.

So I did all that, and waited. Did not expect it to work.

And so, was incredibly surprised when it did. Honestly, since the day I tried out that nonsense two weeks ago, my computer has not crashed a single time.

YEA!!!!
And lo, Tegence did triumph over the Adversary, the Blue Screen of Death
And restoreth he the systems of his laptop
And his is the Internet connectivity, the productivity
And the downloaded wallpapers of Scarlett Johansen, blessed be her hotness
Now and forever!

Alright, alright, blasphemous exaggeration there. But felt very proud of myself, hurrah! Did not realise fixing it would turn out to be so simple.

Got to thinking, though, after fixing the laptop.

If only real-life problems were as easy to solve as this.

Something happens in your life? Said something you regret? Committed a crime you know are sorry for? Ruined your life, or the life of a loved one? Voted for McCain?
If only it were possible to just System Restore your life: no matter how bad you screw things up, just return to a happier time before all that happened, and go on from there.

Life sadly, is more complex than that. We hardly ever get second chances, after all: mess up once, and you have to deal with whatever consequences happen, which sometimes feel way too hard to handle. God knows I’ve made my share of mistakes and mis-steps.

But then again, the past builds you up for you are now, after all. I like to believe in the idea of God’s plan, after all: that everything, no matter how bad, has a purpose and reason that will come together to create the best possible outcome for you. It does sound ridiculously optimistic (and this from me, to add!) but I believe in it.

To add, messing with the past always ends in disaster after all. Have seen The Butterfly Effect and countless other cheap science-fiction movies after all. Learn from your mistakes, move on, no point in focusing on them and wishing things in the past had worked out better.

But another strange thing that I have realized after some thinking: for the first time in quite a long time, I am actually very satisfied with my life. Honestly. These times are indeed some of the happiest I have ever been. Granted, its not perfect (5 hour weekend classes come to mind) but I have to say, this is the happiest I have been in a long, long time.

I live my own life in the way I want it to be. Though others may judge me, or I am misunderstood: I’m pretty happy with how I am now, my conscience is clear, and I’ve come quite a long way. And that is all that matters.

And that is all.