The Big C's(Caffeine, Chocolate, Comics and Computers)

Oops.

I did that thing I always do - I forgot to remind the internet that I was alive for several weeks! Nay, months, even!

I can't help that, though. Life has been a double - bladed edge of climax and disappointment lately. A trip to Brighton with the girlfriend to , and therefore inevitably Dave's Comics, reignited the purebred nerd lurking somewhere in my mangled cultural identity and thus I've set about assimilating myself into the world of spandex and superheroes again. However, my preference for the bloody and occasionally disturbing meant I skipped the endless back issues of Spidey and friends and scooped up as much Jhonen Vasquez/Mark Millar/The Darkness as I could for my money. Don't get me wrong, I love Spider Man, but Peter Parker never ripped out a man's heart and ate it (Shut UP, Marvel Zombies).

I also finished college with some pretty decent grades. So, off to Uni in a few months, with all my worldly belongings and a desire for some sort of digital or print related career. This is what I really wanted to write about - for the past month, my girlfriend Lisa has essentially been living with me, sort of like a precursor for the next year coming, and it's been interesting. Despite our many, many similarities, we have one fundamental difference which continues to become a bone of contention (However small it is).

It's called "Lifestyle", and the papers would have you believe that it's the difference between dying, and well, just not dying for a little bit longer, really. Despite having studied it for three years now, I still pay the media little regard when it comes to our own health. Our lives are our own, and while I will not begrudge someone who goes for daily jogs or lives entirely on nuts, wholegrain and water their choices, I will argue to my last nerve if they try and question mine.

If I sit on my arse playing MMOs and eating cake all day, I am aware that I will get fat. Obviously I do not care, otherwise I wouldn't do it. If I did care, I would go straight to the closest newspaper and beg them for the latest tidbit of bullshit claiming that holding kittens for too long can cause cancer, or that going to the dentists increases chances of lactose intolerance, or that if you abandon coffee, video games, chocolate, and weed you become IMMORTAL AND GAIN THE POWER TO STRIP THE PUDGY FLESH BREATHERS OF THEIR FOOLISH THOUGHTS OF INDEPENDENCE (Oh, wait. That's the worldwide media).

My girlfriend is no fool - she'll laugh equally at the pathetic, reader - harvesting articles. She's one of those borderline sensible healthy people and though she loves me for me, not for my lifestyle or pastimes, I do sense a slight... polarization. She wants to walk places after meals, I want to curl up out of direct sunlight with A Song of Ice and Fire. We have an equal uneasiness about each other's habits - she wants me to be as passionate/aware about health as she is, and I want her to be as laid back and relaxed about it as I am. If I'm in the mood to be what is considered healthy, I will be. I'm a happy little vegetarian with a love for confectionery, and my body is a 50/50 divide of muscle and fat. I'm not fat, but I'm a little round about the edges, a weight which I easily sustain.

I don't even know why I'm thinking about this tripe, to be honest.

Anyway, I just finished reading Squee's Wonderful Big Giant Book of Unspeakable Horrors and it was bloody fantastic. So was Kick - Ass, the graphic novel of my favourite superhero movie of recent times, which for some diabolical reason I have only just gotten around to reading. I'm carving through A Song of Ice And Fire like a hot knife, currently on A Storm of Swords Part 1. I've also been playing The Darkness again in preparation for the second one, just picked up a PSP to play Birth By Sleep, and I've been enjoying Duke Nukem Forever. It's a terrible game, but it reminds me so much of the PlayStation days I can't help but giggle at the lurid stream of puerile tedium that is the Duke's long awaited return.

That's all for now!