Day 809

Aka Friday 19^th April 2019

It’s Good Friday today and that’s my first working week in over two years done and I’m in the garden, relaxing with a nice cool drink, some chilled music and some quality comics:

By Night #10, in which we learn more about the current CharlesCo (or rather the Trust that manages the CharlesCo assets) and Jane, Heather and Gnart travel through the Otherworld to find Chet Charles. John Allison (creator and writer), Christine Larsen (illustrator), Sarah Stern (colours with Goncalo Lopes) and Jim Campbell (letters) have created a fun world, with a nigh-perfect blend of realism and comedy, emotion and laughs, that makes each issue a joy to read. 8/10. 

Redlands#12, is atmospheric as the previous issues (the Southern Gothic-ness almost drips off the pages) and ends the current arc. Feeling like the calm before the storm, with the Devil looking back at how he met Alice, Ro and Bridget and how they have changed since then, while he decides/reflects on his decision to “destroy them all”. There are also notes from each of the creative team (Jordie Bellaire, writer and colour artist, Vanesa R. Del Ret, artist, Clayton Cowles, letterer and production, Becca Carey, backmatter designer, and Heather Antos, editor) in the back reflecting/commenting on Redlands and what it (and the creative process) means to them, which acts a as positive counterpoint to this issues story of the Devil deciding to kill our protagonists (heroes doesn’t seem quite the right word to describe, nor does anti-heroes or villains). 9/10.

In Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt #3 the stakes get much higher as the ‘alternate universe’ Peter Cannon explains what happens after he fooled his Earth into saving itself and how that led me to trying to save other Earths, while making mincemeat f our Peter’s team mates. There are plenty of nods to Watchmen, but the creatve team (Kieron Gillen, writer, Caspar Wijngaard, artist, Mary Safro, colorist, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, letterer) make sure that the story remains something unique and itself and that these nods don’t overshadow the story or distract your attention. And I think our Peter ends the issue in the Erath from Eddie Campbell’s Alec! 8/10. 

And as it was a day off work I was able to go for a Long Walk, managing to walk 11.09km (or 6.89 miles) in 2 hours, 2 minutes and 2 seconds, which burnt 1,100 calories and took 13,834 steps:

The working week went well, I’m working in a team with good people, although being the temp I do feel a little bit separate, probably because everyone else is fulfilling a role, while I’m completing discreet, defined tasks, e.g. if I finish a task I need to go and ask for something new to do, whereas everyone has a flow of work and know what task they need to do next. It also means that I feel a little bit guilty if I take a quick break to chat/bond, ‘cause in the back of my mind I’m thinking that “I’m not being paid to chat!”. 

So far I’ve only had two problems, the first is that I worry that I’m doing the work wrong, that when I say that I’ve finished someone’s going to look at my work and say that I’ve entered the data backwards or something and the other problem is that working has thrown out my old schedule. I’ve got less time to do my work-out, to read, watch films/TV, etc. and there’s defo no time for my Long Walk, but it’s something that I should be able to adapt to, just have to do some time management, treat it like a project and use some project management tools, do extra at the weekend…

…and I did the G2 Crossword:

…which went even better than yesterday’s crossword, as I only had to cheat on a thirteenth of the clues (2 out of 26), but it should really have been a clean sweep, I should have gotten ‘resort’ from ‘holiday centre’ and ‘repentant’ from ‘contrite’, I knew that it meant sorry, but couldn’t get from sorry to repentant!