...Can't. Sleep. Urrgh!

I discovered comic books rather late in life. I mean, as a grade school kid I would read comic books from time to time, but I didn't really get interested in them until high school. Brian, who sat behind me in homeroom, introduced me to them. By the time I was a junior, I was reading the larger format pulps like Conan the Barbarian, Kull, Red Sonja and Thor, and tried mightily to emulate the drawing style. After much effort, I became subpar. Oh, well, a graphic artist I'm not. I did learn one exceedingly valuable writing tool from the comics, though: SUPERHERO SPEAK. 

If you're familiar with comic books, you're probably familiar with the speech/thought bubbles that are where speech or thoughts are placed to accompany the illustrations. And of course folks like Thor, Wonder Woman and Conan are superheroes. And they often get into struggles, fights, and feats where extreme concentration is required. In instances like these, every superhero reverts to superhero speak- and this is not to be confused with pithy remarks or simple statements of fact. For example, of the following-

"The blog waits."

"I should finish the blog"

"Must. Finish. Blog. AUUURRGGYHH!"

-(the first is a lame pithy remark, and the second is a statement). Only the third example is superhero speak. Note each word is capitalized, each has a period after it, and there's what some would consider to be a requirement for true superhero speak: the somewhat unpronounceable expression of supreme effort, almost always completely capitalized, and finished with an exclamation (sometimes this last bit can be the entire superhero speak- as sometimes words get in the way, and you can bet your bottom local currency that these folks listen to pop music). Please note also: superhero speak is always expressed as two words, and is never anything other than a noun. It is not pluralized, conjugated or declined.

Wrong example: The superheroes spoke was like this: "This. Is. Wrong", grammarian! "ARRRRRRGH!" (Note: the parts in quotes is correct superhero speak- "grammarian, of course, is the "villian" and should be capitalized).

Correct example: Erase. This. Grammarian! SKREEESSSHK!

I hope this clarifies the title just a bit, as I bring this up because I went to bed at midnight, and for the third night in a row could not get to sleep in a reasonable amount of time. No clue why. So, I decided to make use of the time and get one more blog in before the end of the month.   

I'm happy to report that since my cataract surgery earlier this month, my vision has improved dramatically. 

I think that's about all for now. Oops- before I forget, a thank you and shout to all of my readers around the world and on the ships at sea- the blog broke 14K views worldwide. I've got a new reader somewhere (they're somewhere in Eurasia, but I hesitate to give a shout out because of current conditions there [no, it's not in the Middle East]). Still no one in Antarctica. Sigh. I'm putting the blog to bed... I've got least another hour and a half before I do the same.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.