I had a rather busy weekend. I have a very odd work schedule now with the new Netscape launched. My editorial shift is basically 8-2 Monday through Thursday and then again on Saturdays. Since in addition to being one of the lead anchors for the site, I’m also the Managing Editor, I inevitably have some administrative things to work on after my shift is over.
Friday was my “off day.” Only since Netscape is sort of like my newly born baby child that I group birthed with Jason, Brian, and Alex (man, if it were a real kid, it would be one really smart, psycopathic, and ugly kid), I’m finding that there are no real off days. I spent all morning on Friday replying to user feedback emails, on phone calls, sending emails to the team, and IMing with the Anchors on duty and some of the developers. Then around 1pm Kristin was on the verge of threatening divorce, so we went out to Lido Beach, Long Island, pictured here:
When we arrived, I ran straight to the ocean and walked into the freezing cold waves. It was so cold that I walked in a man, but came out a boy. It was cold, filled with seaweed, and I stepped on a crab at one point. The waves were nicely sized. Many went a good foot over my head and I enjoyed bracing myself as if I were still a tackle in football and slamming into the wave crashing into me. The waves made for good riding too, and I kept walking out, smashing into the waves with my shoulder, then getting right in front of one and riding it a good fifty feet into shore. It was fun and I stayed out in the cold water for a good thirty minutes to the amazement of my wife and mother-in-law. My neck was sore the next day from stiffening against the waves.
When I came to shore, I was sitting resting for a while and then I asked for my cellphone and was soon checking email and replying to a few on my 8125. We left the beach at about 4:30 and went back to Kristin’s parents’ place, where we had grilled swordfish for dinner. Shortly after arriving, I pulled out my laptop and the EVDO card and was on the computer for much of the time between arriving and dinner, checking email, chatting with Alex and Tom, and crawling the site.
Saturday, I woke up to another anchor shift, then Kristin and I went to look at apartments, then I came back and worked on the site more. Sunday, I woke up and crawled the site, helping Karina answer some of the reader questions we’ve been receiving via our feedback form. Early afternoon, I unplugged and we went out to Long Island again to see Superman and have dinner with Terry, Mike, and Laura in celebration of Terry’s birthday.
Superman was very good, although I’d be hard pressed to say whether or not it was worth X-Men 3 falling as short as it did of its two predecessors. Singer would have made an excellent X-Men 3. Would it have been better than this Superman? Hard to say. I really enjoyed this film, although it moved more slowly in spots than I would have liked, and there were a few too many Christ-figure allusions interwoven in the story line. I mean, the Superman mythology is already pretty heavily-laden with such stuff without adding to it as they did in this film. Was it better than the original Superman movies. I & II? No. The others, yes. It didn’t have the same power that Batman Begins had over its predecessors.
When we were driving out to Long Island for the movie, Kristin and I began talking about these superhero movies and superheroes in general, and I told her that I was definitely a Marvel guy over a DC Comics guy. Spiderman, the Hulk, the X-Men, the entire Marvel Universe of superheroes are based in humanity. They are humans who are simultaneously blessed and cursed with a gift (as most of us are), and they must learn—are often forced to learn—how to manage that gift without squandering it and without letting it destroy. DC heroes on the other hand are separate from us. Superman is an alien, a savior figure, and Clark Kent is the facade he must wear daily. (Aside: Superman’s “American Way” also rings a bit odd in 21st Century ears used to hearing things from a world economy, rather than the fractured cold war propaganda of the 1950s). Batman is a vigilante driven by revenge who wears the facade of the rich man, Bruce Wayne, through whom he was born. But he’s not a normal man. He’s never really lived a poor man’s life. He’s a rich man. become vigilante, twice separated from the rest of us. There’s too much separatism and elitism in the class structure of the DC superheroes, I guess. Give me Spiderman, a guy who just wants a normal life with a girl he loves but feels the burden of his powers and his responsibility through a failing that left his uncle dead. He’s guilt driven. It’s more human.
In any case, I checked email when I got back last night. I loaded Netscape to see how it was doing. It’s my kid right now. I need to check on it. I don’t stop working. Not really. It’s a blessing in my life that I need to take care of and help grow, even though it is taxing at times. We’ve planned some vacation soon, however. We’re going to visit Jason, Maria Jose, and little Anna over in London. I’ll try not to check email too much when we’re there…Â
Update: Well, we sat down and had a reality check today and realized that a trip to London in the midst of selling one place and moving to another, complete with all the unexpected expenses of added furnishings, painting, etc, might not be the sanest course of action. So a week off driving out to taste some wine out on the Island or to an upstate spa for a few days instead…
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