Batman's dream journal
In the evening, i went to the parent information event at Kirby's school. It was nice to get a lot of information beforehand, i'm thankful for the staff for having done so much work, so the administrative things could be handled without much of a hassle. What bothered me was, that we took Kirby out of religious education, yet, the pen they'll get this year, will be handed over by Saint Nick … you can't get rid of the church. Struggled to keep my mouth shut during the proceedings, i'll talk with Kirby's teachers when the time has come to hand over the pens. What i agreed to was, to get replacement nibs for the pens; which isn't a chore due to me already having a bunch of them in my pen replacement parts arsenal.
I shouldn't be anymore, yet again shocked me, how little—or none—some other parents talk german. We're having this huge discussion about the acquisition of language not working anymore. It didn't work as perfect as everybody seems to remember in my early school years; we've had kids who i have no idea about, how they passed classes. It's a miracle how those families could partake in society, with other languages than german not being talked in agencies. And today, people are criticizing the availability of different native speakers in, for example, agencies, and that it furthers the creation and perpetuation of "bubble societies".
What i'm trying to say is: We can't fault the kids for not being able to speak or understand german, when their parents can't. But i have no idea, how we could solve this problem. But i'm hopeful; last year, i helped at an alphabet festival at Kirby's school, taking care at the "finding words for pictures and spelling them" station during the activity part of the festival. I was amazed by every single pupil, by their determination, most of them not going the easy route, finding and spelling "big words". The kids are alright, it's our duty to keep them in that state, so they can develop. Now, how do we do that?
First thing i did in the morning, was reading the first issue of the new volume of Batman, written by Matt Fraction—who is one of those people i'll follow for a few issues, no matter, what they do. His Batman is particular, in that i did not think, that it's a book that suits him—even though one of his first superhero comics was Punisher War Journal—, and when the first previews were released, it felt underwhelming. Jorge Jiménez artwork was great, but it showed Batman in bright daylight, so the fanboy woke up and complained. Then i listened to a few interviews Fraction did about Batman, and with some context, i was intrigued. I've read a few bits and pieces of Chip Zdarsky's Batman run, which so far i like for trying to make use of the franchises rich history, and what Grant Morisson left on the table, which made people uncomfortable—despite Batmans fall from the moon to earth, which was awesome and made perfect use of the medium. Given the negative feedback Zdarksy got—like every Batman writer mainly gets—it felt like DC Comics wanted to troll the readers with putting Fraction behind the writer's desk.
How was the first issue? It was fine. New ideas, a new bat for the bellfry—which helps bring back a figure, i missed over the last couple of years—, and a cliffhanger, that probably won't, yet could open up complex stories. It made me consider picking it up in physical form again.
Read an interview with a journalist who chose assisted suicide after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. The article send small waves through the ether, because the topic is rather controversial in austria; most people seem to think, if the rules would be less strict, we'd had mass assisted suicides of elder people, who have large inheritances to give to their beneficiaries. That says more about the people than what will actually happen, i presume. Saying it frankly: we euthanize animals without a second thought, so they don't have to suffer, humans on the other hand, have to be kept … functioning for as long as possible, no matter the suffering it causes.