If anyone wants a comic about two guys communicating over telephones, they can have this:

In the amazing days of the Twenty-First Century, humanity has found itself reaching into the vast and mysterious universe and found danger. Who can keep the Earth safe in this time of cosmic change? None other than Gus Comet, Rocket Officer! Soaring through the cosmos in his Rocketship, Gus Comet battles evil aliens, captures space criminals, and explores new planets of all kinds. Hooray for Gus Comet!

Gus’s crew includes:
Brains O’Brien, a scrappy rough-and-tumble super-genius orphan from Brooklyn. Hyram, a talking cyborg hyena who solves mysteries. And, Andrianna: Princess of the Robots.

I don’t think that anyone can argue that the golden age of science fiction would be a bit disappointed about how the twenty-first century has turned out. I am the first to admit that we’ve got some great technology going on with out internets and our computers, but it is all kind of lazy technology. It’s the sort of technology that makes sitting around really great, but isn’t exactly the stuff of Adventure. I approve of sending robot drones to Mars and all that, but there’s no denying that the world would feel a little bit more special if we had heroic people off doing wonderful things at the frontiers of human experience. That’s a world I want to live in. Shame on us for not being there. If I ever had a means to tell stories of Gus Comet, the juxtaposition between his adventures and the mundane truths of our world would be at the forefront.

It has come to the part of the year when I’m supposed to start thinking about what classes I need to take next year, so I’ve been doing that.

Every English class I’ve had so far has assured us that the more we read, the quicker we will get at it. I disagree. I read an awful lot and have done so for about as long as most of my fellow students have been alive. I remain a pitifully slow reader (as I said, just a while ago). By the claims that the English Professors are making, I should have plenty of experience points to make myself a reader guy of outstanding levels. But I don’t.

As I’ve said before, I specifically picked classes in which I’d read at least some of the reading material, to give myself a bonus head start, and in spite of that I still feel like I am behind. I look at the classes for next year and there is much less that I’ve read, so it is only going to get harder. I expect School Level 2 to really make me feel like an idiot.

(Every English class so far has also assured us that English degrees are much in demand in the job market. It really comes across as bad self confidence on the part of English departments)

So I said to Marq: “I bet I could convince a kid that hippos are just female rhinos.”

Though I only meant that I’d trick the kid for a conversation or so, he proceeded to plot out a brilliant scheme in which a billionaire might be able to raise a child in such a manner as to think this fact was true. He then took that to its logical conclusion: At some point, this victim would realize that something was up, and would try to escape. I decided that this is the best idea for a movie I’ve ever seen.

Just imagine it! An action-packed thrill-ride of our young protagonist careens from chase scene to chase scene, swordfights through exotic locales, and tracks down every lead to find out the truth that has been hidden so long. The truth that hippos are not just female rhinos.

Okay, Hollywood. We’re ready for millions.

Okay, remember how I mentioned that I wanted to get a bunch of work for school done last week? I did not get as much done as I would like, but I did some. That is something. I did an mathematical assignment for my Astronomy class, which I was happy to get through. I only have to do about four math questions a month for my Astronomy class, but it always takes me hours to get through.

I also managed to read two short stories I needed to get done, so that’s nice. I really realize what a painfully slow reader I am. Johnny Five I ain’t.

For essay-writing, I did nothing. I did plenty of researching, but I haven’t written one essay, and now I’m back in class, break’s over.

Haiku!

Seventeen rabbis
walked into thirty-two bars
to help out some jokes.

Also, remember the time I sat in some other class that was before one of my classes? Well yesterday I noticed that that class was not in the room before my class. Perhaps the had been moved somewhere else or the class had been cancelled, it doesn’t matter, what mattered was that I took the advantage of their absence to sit in class and do some work. While I was in there, a steady parade of students from the class usually held in that room would walk in, see that their class wasn’t there, and leave. This parade continued at least until the halfway point of the phantom class, meaning that they would have been a half-hour late if the class had been going. Even when the class isn’t happening, those kids still manage to make me think they’re idiots.