Yet again, I predicted our local weather forecast had changed — to one of snow falling all weekend — thanks to my “human barometer” super power. I’m more accurate than the local meteorologists. Still, I wouldn’t mind giving this ability (and its humidity-induced headaches) back. ;-)

I got home tonight just in time to swing through the Taco John’s drive-thru and park myself in front of the TV for Smallville‘s double-episode movie. Its first hour hooked me easily. Then, as is typical with any of the superhero stuff, my second hour was spent on Wikipedia trying to piece together who all these people were and how they related to each other in this version of the DC Universe. They explained everything fairly well on-screen. The impromptu computer session was more the result of me being both a tad obsessive and a research monster.

When I take my personal tendencies into consideration, it’s probably one reason I gravitate toward Japanese and Korean comics over a lot of the English-language comics. Manga and manhwa stories aren’t necessarily more self-contained, simple or streamlined. They can get just as complicated as anything else.

The background information I need to more fully enjoy Asian comics tends to be portable and cumulative across multiple, entirely unrelated titles. Think general societal and cultural knowledge — from details about daily life to mythology and folk tales — rather than the knowledge of a vast continuity, starring a cast of thousands. They’re closer to my experience reading Bill Willingham’s Fables (from Vertigo), which uses fairy tales, nursery rhymes and legends as its starting point. I still like the superhero sagas, but it takes me less time to dig into and be entertained by manga.

Time really is a factor these days. I’ve had both Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers and the last Harry Potter paperback sitting unread in my living room for a couple months. I won’t get to them this weekend, though. I have to do some work reading, but it will be fun… and you’ll hear about it post-podcast.

Two days posting in row? Really? (Yay!) ^_^