Twitter says this is totally a thing: the You Are The Reason hashtag

So, Twitter says this is totally a thing- a very popular trending hashtag, You Are The Reason... (insert banal experiences here). And in keeping with the custom now of pouring out any fleeting thought or opinion, no matter how private, people have been pouring all and any into the toilet of human condition. I think the idea of this particular hashtag is that it lets people vent publicly, or pour out their hearts to certain people, or act as a sort of confessional. The problem being that as a confessional it's about as leak proof as using a colander for a submarine; the sentiment to others, while genuinely nice, probably means bugger all to anyone else so such a public airing seems weird; and in getting vocal about the things that really grind your gears online, especially in such a concise manner as 140 characters, things might get lost in translation and you'll unwittingly or wittingly come across as someone you're not.

As Mr Charlie Brooker so brilliantly put it in a recent CiF piece for The Guardian this week, "Online, you play at being yourself". You might be a grumpy person in real life, like I am. That might extrapolate as the only feature of personality through comments online, as it sometimes does for me. At the same time, wildly exaggerated comedy anger vented through this hashtag might be picked up on as hilarious or banal, when you're neither or both in small parts.

And yes, I understand the irony/ hypocrisy of passing any comment on an online occurance by creating a larger version of those tip-tap-typings that inspire such resignation and grumpiness. But it's my blog, so I'll do what the hell I want. It isn't that I abhore change. I just want the things that people talk about, whichever way they choose to do so, to have quality, be necessary and interesting enough to abide. The same qualities I expect from people's conversation- people can be exceptionally verbose about naff all. And I'm right, so there.

So here's to you, internet- #youarethereason I despair that perhaps twenty years down the line we won't speak to each other any more, just laugh, chuckle, sigh, smile knowingly, all in relation to the ridiculous if prolific spoutings we pin to the world's biggest, most dog-foul rooted lamppost and expect anyone to care about.

Graphic Novel Review- Catwoman: Crime Pays

Sticking with the powerhouses, this week we're with DC, and a graphic novel collected from Catwoman issues from a few years ago- Catwoman: Crime Pays, written by Will Pfeifer, pencilled by David and Alvaro Lopez, and coloured by Jeromy Cox.

Selina Kyle's having a bad day. She's shipped her daughter off, with the help of a mystery financial backer (guess who, he has a mansion and Bat-everything), to stay out of harm's way. Then her flat blew up, and she escaped half-Catwoman-ified, half barefoot, maskless, terrified. To make matters worse, whoever it is knows about her enough to take the back-up suit and mask stored in a place she told no-one about. She's tried to be a mum, to balance who she is, and in the opening pages all of this has happened, leading her to cut her hair short and take her counterpart's suit. She's back, and angry.

Twitter says this is totally a thing: Zombie Poetry

Okay, so, Twitter says this is totally a thing- Zombie poetry. It was trending on the social networking site and one of the publishers I follow- I forget which, but I think it might have been Random House- was asking for suggestions of famous poems re-hashed for the zombie age. Which got me thinking, after firing off a couple of tweets in reply with off the cuff couplets. So.

Here are my first two offerings to the great altar of undead verse, not originals, but re-workings in the vein of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and Sense & Sensibilities & Sea Monsters- Be glad your nose is on your face, adapted from the Jack Prelutsky poem of the same name, and Oh, Zombie on a dais, a riff on Shelley's Ozymandias. Feel free to read them, rip them apart with a couple of chainsaws strapped to a canoe paddle, and throw the offal-shaped criticism and opinion my way. Ta.

Passing Comment- 'Corrie' complainers to feel the back of my hand

I would like to say that I have a lot to say about this issue, and that my first reaction to the story that cropped up on my Yahoo! news feed was eloquent, succinct and profound. Unfortunately I can't say that as it isn't true- reading the story, my first reaction was "Oh, fuck off!"

Before we go any further, for anyone who missed the soap's Monday night episode or (like me) doesn't watch Coronation Street, this is what is causing such kerfuffle. A single soap-star slap on a ten-year-old character's legs in retribution for killing the pet fish.

Graphic Novel Review- Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle.

This week, to get back into the Marvel powerhouse and take a look at a storyline the internet and fans alike seem to agree has to be read if you're a fan, we're looking at Iron Man: Demon In A Bottle, written by David Michelinie and Bob Layton, pencilled by John Romita Jr with Carmine Infantino.

It's not a bad story, establishing Stark as a businessman worried about his company and his private life as an Avenger and hero, but the fact that it's not a bad story doesn't really weigh against everything else.

Passing Comment- Antony Worzel Thompson-gate

Or how the dwarfs delved too greedily, and too deep.

Here's Television chef Mr Worrell Thompson.

He caused kerfuffle over Christmas by shoplifting goods from his local Tesco with the ingenious plan of not swiping them at the self-service machines. He then released an apology, saying- "I am not the first, and I certainly won't be the last person to do something without rhyme or reason". According to the Metro he said "'I've been racking my brains to think why on earth did I do it and what was going through my mind at the time, but I just don't know.'"

Graphic Novel Review- Sandman Vol.4 Season of Mists

Sticking with Vertigo this week, to give the Marvel and DC powerhouses a rest, and again because Stevenage Library has a shockingly poor selection in its graphic novel section shelf. Not to say the odd gem isn't there- it just means that dipping in and out of series, normally habit of mine, is now enforced, and I have to start in the middle with most things. As I have here, with Volume 4 of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series, Season of Mists. I picked it up with a little trepidation and annoyed that I couldn't start with the other three, but it is a great largely self-contained volume so I needn't have worried.

My sole exposure to The Sandman has been people continuously pointing out ho much some rather half-formed ideas and short stories I worked on at university held similarity to it, something I resented at the time, firstly as I had never read the series and despite or because of saying as much people didn't seem to believe I wasn't plagiarising and secondly because I knew enough people were saying it for it to be true and to have completely ruined any chance of what I was writing standing up to comparison. I wasn't wrong, and neither were they.

Back with a vengeance

This post's title refers to two things- the first is the activity of this blog, which as Gandalf Greyhame might say on entering unto it, "is somewhat lessened of late"; the second is the all-consuming, omniscient latching-on capabilities of Hell's Eyeballs, formally known as Facebook. Recent developments, changes and releases have changed the site. As users for many years, the vast majority of us shouldn't be and probably aren't alarmed or even surprised that these changes have taken effect. And why should we be? The site has been undergoing unannounced changes since it's popularity made it what it is, and it's not as if the Timeline feature wasn't announced. But should we worry? It's now possible, for the first time ever, to stalk people more effectively than ever before.

If you want to know anything about that girl you've watched from behind your cubicle partition in the office, that man who's always been cooler than you to the point where you've not plucked up the courage to be his mate or your current/ex- girlfriend/boss depending on where your intimacy boundaries lie in the workplace, you can.

Introducing new Timeline, the all-new system from Facebook!