A momentary diversion...

Wow! It’s been a while! There are so many things I could mention in this blog post:

I could mention the awesome Beautiful Girls concert I went to last week, but since there’s only this one dude who reads this blog - and I’m fairly sure he was at the concert - there’s little point.

I could pull a news story at random from The Australian’s web site and use it to illustrate how silly the Government and/or The Australian is. But that would be too easy, and I promised not to talk politics.

I could mention this game, but I think it’s just too addictive for you guys to handle.

I could talk about what a beautiful day it was yesterday, but when I start blogging about the weather I know it’s probably time to turn in my keyboard and join a hippy commune.

So instead of any of that I’m going to share with you the wonderful story of my first purchase over the Internet. Yes, tech savvy as I am, up until about a month ago I’d never actually bought anything online. This was mainly due to the lack of a payment facilitator, a deficiency which has now been resolved in the form of a Visa debit card.

Wanting to test out said card, I went post haste to the Achewood site, where I ordered all seven volumes of the Achewood comics in print. Transaction was effected through PayPal, and just a tip for all you non-Americans: don’t choose the ‘I want PayPal to rape me by way of their ridiculous exchange rate’ option. Choose the ‘I’ll take my credit card’s mystery rate’ option. Your card might still rape you, but at least there’s a sense of adventure about the process.

After I’d placed my order, the wait was an anxious one. Would my delivery reach Australia? Would it get through customs? Would Australia Post use it as a football in a game of parcel soccer (a sport I imagine they play in their warehouses)?

Then, on Monday, I got a note saying that the comics were waiting for me at the Post Office. Hooray! I retrieved them, took them home and read the first of the seven volumes straight away. Achewood is one of those series where the characters are really developed – it’s often hard to get the humour if you don’t have the back story. As an experiment, check out this comic, with the explanation that Lie Bot = George, and Philippe is basically a small cute child.

Achewood is gaining a lot of acceptance. One of the characters wrote an article recently for the Sydney Daily Telegraph (funny, funny shit), and they’ve been featured in Time magazine.

Graham Linehan, creator of Father Ted, Black Books and The IT Crowd, is also a big fan: "[n]ot satire, not parody... Achewood is my current favourite thing. My friends are divided between those who love it, and those who stare blankly at each last panel like a horse being presented with a banjo. Those latter friends are under review. Sometimes I look in their eyes and I feel I never really knew them."

So jump on the bandwagon. Read Achewood from the start. Your brain will love you.