all my keysmash are belong to you

Words cannot express how much I want (and possibly need) The Manga Guide to Statistics. God, if only I had known about it last semester.

Speaking of comics, I went to my first Comic Con last weekend. I'm not usually a comics convention-going person, but my friend was working the audio equipment, so I went. One of Manila's most awesome bands performed, but unfortunately I only arrived as they were finishing their set. (Okay, so this band -- Gorgoro -- are awesome mainly because of one thing: they have a puppet for a frontman. A puppet who is only trying to find his estranged father, yes he has backstory.) There was also a large "Goodbye, Tita Cory" banner that people were writing farewell messages on. And I got some nice loot! ( 'Chiaroscuro: The Private Lives of Leonardo da Vinci', 'Trese', 'Skyworld: Apocrypha', aaand )

And I'm not putting Purchase #4 under the cut, because.

4. My faaaaavorite purchase is a 4-part miniseries called Elmer by Gerry Alanguilan, which is an alternate history in which chickens became sentient. That's right, on February 3, 1979 -- or the Great Awakening -- chickens gained human consciousness. I prefer parts 3 and 4 because the allegory becomes less in-your-face, but the whole thing is quite intruiging. The premise is awesome and each part quite short that I couldn't stop. Gaiman-approved!

SENTIENT CHICKENS. CHICKEN MARRIAGE. EXTREMIST CHICKEN RIGHTS GROUPS. Hiding your chicken friends in the basement because otherwise your neighbors would kill them for being abominations! The protagonist gets beat up at school because he wouldn't cluck like his bullies told him to! BIRD FLU. omg.

The first part is available online here.

I admit, at first I wasn't sure whether Elmer is set in the Philippines (it is) because the characters have what I consider to be an American way of talking. Really, I feel I should've figured it out from the plants and architecture, and I shouldn't have been so unhinged by 'Americanisms', 'cos I mean, look at me. I drop U's, use Z's, and do your mom-with-an-O every night. The English in the Philippines is, so to speak, more American. I'm still deconstructing my own dichotomies.


I've been slow in replying to comments, sorry :(. Obviously the solution is to whore for even more comments. Meme me up, Scotty: Top 5 me!

Hey, remember yonks ago when I said there should be a Merlin crossover community? Someone was listening! BEHOLD: merlin_xovers \o/!