Too Much Noise

          Sometimes it's fun going through all this paper at the office, interesting little things seem to jump out from time to time. For example, old court documents that list the governor, attorney general, etc. in the upper right corner: "Governor Mitt Romney". Also, I found some correspondence with a dude named Marrk; yes, there are two Rs; yes, that's his first name. After work, Iris determined that she wanted to watch the Sanjay Gupta CNN documentary on marijuana with me, and I acceded with some interest. The program was not bad, though of course there were parts that were sensationalized owing to CNN's target demographic. Dr. Gupta presented a balanced view of marijuana as a recreational and medicinal drug, and I think it's a positive that he didn't go all in on this point. Had he done so, he might have achieved hero status in the stoner community, which in turn would diminish his credibility to more conservative folks.
          Later, Sean and I watched more JLA and played Civ IV, but the show took a strange twist tonight. The last few episodes, while still classically superficial and formulaic, have begun to incorporate more character development; one of the episodes we watched tonight took that trend and ran with it. Somehow, this installment managed to combine Aquaman, Solomon Grundy, the JLA (naturally), the awesomely understated Dr. Fate, and shambling horrors torn straight from Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. All this terror would have been wasted on a typical beat 'em up storyline, but this episode killed off a character (not pulling any punches in the process), mused on what it means to have a soul, and even challenged a character's atheism. I also can't restate the "tentacled body horror from hell oh my god that appendage does not belong there what even" aspect of this plot arc enough, because paired with Dr. Fate's ominous mysticism, it gave the episodes enough of a creepy spin to both enhance and mute the philosophical questions raised therein. A+, would watch again.
          Quote of the day:
"Not only did they just kill a character, they explored mortality and faith." - Sean, on JLA

Hawkgirl: "Are you out of tricks yet?" Dr. Fate: "Not entirely."