Okay, I get the point. I'll start being positive. Here are some relatively minor things that have recently come to mind that I'm very happy about:
1. I've got the entire first run of Excalibur. Now, this comic ran for 125 issues with about half-dozen one-shots/annuals and four issue mini-series on top of that. It took me the better part of eight years to get the entire thing together. I only started collection the series on a monthly basis starting around issue 74, so I had to find all the back issues which proved to be incredibly difficult because the series was never that popular. The most difficult ones to find where between issues 56 and 68. In the end I got the last couple I was missing through eBay. I had to buy twenty issue collection for the three issues I need to complete the collection. It cost me more to ship the damn thing to my house than it did to actually buy it. I don't know anyone who shares my love of this series and that's okay. I'm just proud that I got all of them, paying less that three dollars for most of them (which is cheap considering that the average price of comic books these days).
... That's about it. It's not that life is all that bad, it's just that it stuck me today that I was insanely happy about this discovery. It might have something to do with finding out that there's going to be a new Excalibur series. It's not going to be the same, but it should be interesting.
Excalibur isn't the only the entire series run that I've got, but it is certainly the most impressive because of its length and its completeness. I've got more issues of certain other series, but I'm missing random issues or entire chunks here and there. Plus, a lot of them I had always collected on a monthly schedule OR I got them en mass. I like going out and trying to find it. It's always more exciting when you find something after you've hunted for it or accedentally stumbling across it when you least expect it.
That's why used bookstores have always held a special place in my heart because you're never sure what you're going to find, and you've got to be open to whatever selection is available. You can't always get what you want, but you can find something you weren't expecting. Half my library is built around that principle. I rarely pay more than twenty dollars for a book (school books being the exception, not the rule). These are, in my opinion, the hidden gems of the mass produced culture. Where's the excitement of going to one store where everything is just laid out for you. Yeah, it saves time, but what are you saving time for? Why can't shopping be exciting? Why can't your "free" time be spent outside the confines of boxstores and pre-packaged consumerism. If you're going to a part of the capitalist system, why not do it with some flare? This might be why I don't like those huge stores... or maybe this is just my tripped out rationalisation. Either way, I like my reasoning for not shopping at Wal-Mart. It's silly and awesome at the same time. This isn't a revolutionary statement, it's just a blog post. Now I've got to figure out how I explain I buy my food at supermarkets instead of speciality stores (the current reason is because I live in the suburbs and that's all that's around for miles and miles).
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