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Yeah, Graphic Fiction is just a glorified term for comics, but who cares? We can even call it Graphic Literature. Meh. I started reading comics way back in 1994. Or was it 1993? Whatever. The point is, I’ve been a comic book geek for more than a decade now and I’ve read a lot of the best that the industry can offer. As a true fan of the medium, it’s hard to pick just 5 great pieces of comic book goodness from the dozens of stories I’ve read, but I managed to do it.

#5: Identity Crisis - It’s probably the most disturbing superhero story I’ve ever read. Also, the most touching. Written by Brad Meltzer, this spandex drama involves rape, murder, witch hunts, triumph, and great loss. One gripe I have about it, though, is that Superman cries. Again.

#4: Y: The Last Man - Although I’ve only read the first three volumes of the collected editions, I still hold it in the highest regards. It doesn’t involve superheroes, but it does involve a global catastrophe, a reluctant everyman hero, a monkey, and lesbians. I can’t wait to read the rest of the story. Curse local comic shops for not having copies of volumes 4 onwards! Bah.

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I love the rain. The gloomy weather. The cold smugness of my bed. Whenever it’s raining, I get the urge to stay in my bed and indulge in my guilty pleasures like watching a DVD movie and its extras, reading comic books or graphic novels, and being alone. Yes, being alone in my cold bed during a downpour is one of my guilty pleasures. That’s why I love the rain.

Yesterday, it was raining a lot. I would have stayed all day in my bed, but I had something else that needed to be done. I had to canvass for a private resort in Pansol for our team building on Saturday. It’s probably our last team building with our current team leader. It has to be special. So we’re going all out on food, alcohol, amenities, alcohol, food, and alcohol. Hehe.

I went to Alabang first to purchase some stuff for my rainy day lovefest with myself. I got a copy of the latest issue of DC Comic’s 52 (a weekly comic book!), a copy of Y: The Last Man: Cycles (the 2nd collected edition of the Y: The Last Man comic book series which I totally dig right now), a copy of the Kami nAPO Muna tribute album to the APO Hiking Society, and a DVD of George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead (zombies are frickin’ awesome!). I’m going to write reviews on these purchases in the near future because they’re so frickin’ cool.

On the way to Pansol, I listened to my new CD. I fell in love with Imago. Awesome rendition of “Ewan”. Anyway, listening to the whole album made me want to go straight to UPLB and start a moni session with my brods and sisses at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. As I canvassed Miramonte for 3 private resorts with clean comfort rooms (a requirement by my team lead. hahaha!), I decided not to go to LB and just go home to commence my rainy day lovefest with myself. 2 pm moni sessions will have to wait for another time.

After eating lunch, I was supposed to watch Land of the Dead, but I saw they were showing 50 First Dates on HBO. I decided to watch it first (for the 1,396,150th time!) before I wet myself with Mr. Romero’s zombiefest. I read the Y: The Last Man graphic novel during the movie because it was making me want to hold somebody, and that’s not good if you’re alone during a rainy day. After the Sandler-Barrymore movie, I went straight to the gory masterpiece of Mr. Romero. And after that, I watched all the DVD extras. The rainy day lovefest with myself was a success!

I can enjoy a rainy day with friends and loads of alcohol. I can enjoy it cuddling with someone under the bed sheets. I can enjoy it by myself with all my guilty pleasures. Whatever I’m doing and whomever I’m doing it with, I can enjoy the gloom of a rainy day. That’s why I love it. If only I can will it to rain whenever I feel like it, that’ll be orgasmic.

I am not a futurist. I can’t predict what’s going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, or 10 years from now. I can’t anticipate the future even if I try. So I just don’t.

I did not foresee last week that I would be bringing a Shakey’s Manager’s Choice pizza to my mother, my father, and my aunts at the Asian Hospital last monday. My mom had a very high fever so she was required to be confined for a couple of days. It was their first real taste of my salary. 6 months after I got my first payslip from my current job. I was both proud and ashamed.

I did not foresee 6 months ago that I will last this long on my job. First, I told myself that I’ll probably won’t even make it to 2 months. But here I am. A regular employee of one of the biggest call centers in the world. I was so surprised that I made it this long that I celebrated by purchasing the DVD of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King to complete my LOTR DVD collection, and the Ultimate Fantastic Four: The Fantastic and Y: The Last Man: Unmanned trade paperbacks. Geek heaven.

I did not foresee during my graduation that I would still be seeking the sanctuary and warmth of UPLB even when most of the familiar places and faces there are already gone. I never anticipated that I would love UPLB so much up to the point where I’m making the unfamiliar people and spots… well… familiar.

I am nowhere near being a futurist. Every freaking day, it’s always a brave new world for me. It’s not Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World where everything is so different that it’s scary. It’s a brave new world where everything is both familiar and refreshingly new. There are always shiny old things and new familiar faces. Nothing stays the same. Nothing is perfect. The imperfection of the world requires me to yearn for tomorrow. A chance to be better. And discover new flaws. New cracks in the big bad brave new world.

I don’t mind cracks. God puts cracks in everything. That’s how the light gets in.