So I found out that I was the #2 salesman in my store's district last week. I attribute it to two things. One, I'm awesome. And two, I've stopped giving a f***. Seriously, it was that simple. I think the turning point came when I realized that this is just a summer job for me now. No longer do I rely on it to do much other than sustain my bank account while I wait for the school year to start back up. It was a nice feeling. And it was a feeling that I've had for about the last two weeks, until I hurt myself at work. Now I need a tetanus shot.
Anyway, back to how awesome I am. I also found that customers actually respond positively if I'm a complete asshole to them. For example, a customer wanted to buy a monitor, so she starts saying that she needs a monitor, I cut her off, point to a random monitor, and tell her to buy it.
She asks, "what that one?" and I replied, "I don't know. I just randomly pointed to one." And then she bought it. True story.
So it's not even that my sales pitch is really that different, it's that my attitude changed. Also, the fact that I do go around and just tell people how awesome I am helped.
I am an avid comic book reader, a fact that I don't really try to hide. I would say that on some weeks, I read about twenty books. I'm just bringing this up because I might try to throw a comic book review or two into my posts every so often. Like right now:
Superman 701 - Written by JMS, this is the reason he went to DC. Wonder Woman seemed to be a complete afterthought for both him and the company. However, his first issue on Supes is the best I've read in a long time. And here's the kicker: absolutely nothing happens in this issue. Nothing. No fights with intergalactic warlords or the US Military or anything so humdrum that has been present for the last year or so. No. In this issue, he walks. He does fly once to prove to a reporter that he is indeed Superman and to talk to a person thinking of killing herself, but that's it.
The reason he walks? In the previous issues, a woman said that if Superman hadn't been so caught up in his New Krypton shit, then he would've been able to use his X-ray vision to see her husband's cancer and he could've been saved. Yeah. That was the setup for this arc. But this makes Supes realize he has become disconnected from the rest of the world, so he decides, in a very Forrest Gump-like fashion, that he's going to walk.
So he spends the rest of the issue just walking around, fixing people's problems for them, big or small.
And I liked it. Really liked it. After WW 600, I was ready to curse JMS's name, but not yet. Now I can't wait t see where Superman goes from here.
And, just because I can, here's another take on a recently wrapped event: X-Men: Second Coming & Uncanny X-Men: The Heroic Age-
The 'trilogy' of X-stories came to an end this past week with Second Coming #2 - The Finale. Honestly, this issue didn't do anything for the X-Men or for the story it was tying up. Most everything had been covered in the previous issue, but we did get to see Beast leave and Storm bitch out Cyke for X-Force. Really? I'm sick of comics doing this. The same thing happened when Wonder Woman snapped Maxwell Lord's neck and Ollie Queen put an arrow right between Prometheus' eyes in that the characters are all mortified that deadly force has been used, but really? Do any of the readers feel the same way? Most don't, if the readers I've talked to is any indication.
And, in the case of Storm, it's not exactly like her hands are clean. Isn't she the one who killed several Morlocks in order to retain leadership? Didn't she hold Marrow in her arms while holding Marrow's still beating heart in her hand? Yeah. Thought so.
And the new X-Force lineup is just weird.
And how many times did we need to see Cyke reach out to Hope only for her to yell at him for sending Cable into the future to help destroy the Nimrods/MasterMold? Or to have Magneto be the one to comfort her.
I did, however, think that X-Men the Heroic Age was pretty good. That actually wrapped things up and gave the X-Men a new direction (one, oddly enough, that was the direction Joss Whedon was pointing them in with the beginning of his Astonishing run) as well as kind of touched on some things, like the future of mutantkind. It also featured Cyclops hunting dinosaurs in the Savage Land with Steve Rogers. Awesome.
I need to search through my notes to find other fun facts for the Zero series, especially since only the first book is available right now, but I will put more in my posts as I come across them.
Until then, remember that you can still get my book for free on smashwords.com from now until August 1st. Use coupon code: GE48N at checkout to get it free.
Buy Project Zero: Bulletproof from Smashwords (also available on the iPad's iBook store):http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/10007
In all honesty, who did X-Force kill that wasn't brought back to life by the techno organic virus, or a clone. No I'm serious, go back and read X-Force, the most they did was killed brainwashed mutant chruch haters, and in the long run, does anyone really care? And when does Storm words matter? Is she even an X-Man anymore. Wasn't their a pointless mini-series that proved this point as well? My whole problem with the X-Force argument was, didn't we do this twice already. Once during the Utopia crossover, and then after the Utopia crossover. Fraction is really starting to beat a dead horse on Uncanny. And I like the New X-Force, except Fantomex.
ReplyDeleteI dislike the new X-Force for the reason that it doesn't make sense. Warren knows that the new team is now going directly Scott's orders, and he is far too loyal to go off on his own like that. Psylocke has the body of a ninja assassin, but in mind and spirit she's still a British aristocrat and I don't think she's a good fit. Deadpool, well, he's the flavor of the month and he is good at killing, but Logan doesn't trust him, so why would he have a spot on the team. The only one to me that makes sense is Fantomex as he's proven his ability to kill and, in the end, his loyalty to his people (mutants).
ReplyDeleteTrue, most of who X-Force killed was brought back by the T/O, but for some reason that doesn't matter. And I guess Storm rejoined with Ellis' run on Astonishing.
The biggest problem, I feel, is that for most of the X-writers (not just Fraction) is that they've all just been spinning their wheels while waiting for all the crossover events to wrap up so they can get back to just writing some X-Men stories. 'Course, now it's all about the vampires. Wooooooooh...