Stuff

[avram]

Bulletproof Monk

For some odd reason, the only front cover credits on Bulletproof Monk are for the artist, Michael Avon Oeming, and the forward, John Woo. I don’t know why neither of the writers (Brett Lewis, R.A. Jones) nor the inker (Jason Baumgartner) is credited till the inside.

Anyway, I thought it was pretty lame. Oeming’s art (pencils, I presume) looked more detailed with Baumgartner inking it than it does in Powers, where he does his own inking, but it still managed to hold my interest only occasionally. Too many of the characters look alike, too many of the action scenes seem stiff. The Oeming solo pinups in the back (covers from the original pamphlet publication, I assume) are lovely.

And the writing isn’t much either. There’s a good line or two, but the dialog seemed awkward (trying to deliberately capture the feel of translation from Chinese, perhaps), and the plot hackneyed. Most of the characters don’t even have names — the crime boss’s daughter is just called “Daughter” throughout, and the leader of a gang is “Leader”. There’s a surprising twist ending that I saw coming before the halfway point.

Working

I got the first check for that freelance job. They haven’t yet sent me the files I’m supposed to be working on. Till they do that, the first installment is free money, but I don’t get any more till I turn stuff in. But hey, income.

WreSLLing

I spent way too long last night trying to get the latest version of OpenSSL to install on my machine. It configured and built fine, but won’t install over the existing installation, even under sudo. And I need an installation with header files so I can install Stunnel and get secure access to my ISP’s mail and news servers.

Living in the future

I’ve been reading through the Atkins book. It recommends a diet high in protein and fat, like steak, and avoiding grains.

I suddenly realized that I’m living in the world of Woody Allen’s Sleeper. The Bush administration is going to regret banning cloning when a tragic accident leaves nothing remaining of Dubya but his nose.

Old-fashioned snail mail

A letter from zoe_trope! Huzzah!

Comments

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Interesting comments on the translation(?) of Bulletproof Monk.

Culturally appropriate, that. Not having personal names used, I mean.

[avram]

Well, the comic wasn't translated, but the characters are all Chinese (or Tibetan), and it's never said what language they're supposed to be speaking.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Ah. It's consistent with many East Asian cultures, though.