An amazing fantasy

Spider-Man turns sixty this year. He must be getting a bit arthritic as he swings around New York, unless he's got the proportional lifespan of a spider as well as all the other stuff. But the internet tells me that "many male spiders reach maturity within two years and then die after mating," so he probably wouldn't want to.

In any case, we're getting a big celebration comic for the anniversary, and I do like the look of the creator lineup in the ads!

I mean, I'm probably sold already by the time I'm half-way down that list, because I'll buy pretty much anything with Kurt Busiek's name on it, and wouldn't want to miss Neil Gaiman's take, or Jonathan Hickman's. And Dan Slott's pretty great, too. And Armando Iannucci? Seriously? That's got to be worth a look, at least.

But one name that nobody seems to be getting excited about in the comments section of the internet posts I've seen so far is Rainbow Rowell, whose revival of Runaways was just brilliant, and exactly the kind of thing you'd want to see in a Spider-Man anniversary special! I could go on about it for hours, using phrases like "Rainbow Rowell's revival of Runaways" quite recklessly and regardless of my difficulty pronouncing the letter R. That's how cool I think she is!

So yes, I'll be getting this comic, however overpriced and minimal its content might be. I do have a problem with calling it "Amazing Fantasy #1000", though. I don't really know why sticking "#1000" on the cover of American comics is still cool, especially when it comes to something like Amazing Fantasy. It's not like there's a long history of Amazing Fantasy comics that we're celebrating - there were six issues of "Amazing Adventures", followed by eight more of "Amazing Adult Fantasy" (because in 1961, calling a comic 'adult fantasy' meant 'ten-year-old kids who are worried they might be too old for comics will buy this one'), and then one "Amazing Fantasy #15" that was the first appearance of Spider-Man. And then they cancelled it and decided to give Spidey his own self-titled comic instead.

Couldn't they call it "Amazing Fantasy #60"? Or #720? Or #735, as if it had come out monthly ever since #15? I'd buy that.

This must be how TV newsreaders feel

I'm wearing pyjama bottoms and a proper work shirt, complete with cufflinks.

I don't think I've sufficiently embraced the possibilities of zoom meetings before now. I should vary the way I clothe my lower half every time. Just imagine all the strange things I could be wearing, when everyone's only seeing my serious top half! It'll be particularly fun if I stand up without thinking and show the Queen (I assume I'll be having a zoom call with the Queen some time soon; my invitation probably just got lost in the post) my frilly pink tutu.

Top of the table

 Season Fifteen is go, in the world of Memory League! And just when I'm busy with easily half a dozen little projects all week - seriously, they do all come at once, with a vengeance!

But I'm in division 2a this time, with an interesting lineup of opponents, and hopeful of doing better than last time around. First match is against Guillaume, who's a tough cookie - in fact, they all are. Against most opponents I generally hope to get a win in cards, and less definitely in numbers, but everybody tends to be very good at images nowadays, and are often better than me at words, and you need a win in at least one of those to get to the four points you need for victory. I'll just have to see how it goes. And hope my opponents make mistakes.

The best thing, of course, is that I'm top of the league! Thanks to the wonders of alphabetical order - and isn't it a good thing that I changed my memory league name from "Zoomy" to the regular Sunday-go-to-church "Ben Pridmore" to set a good example in the early days when people were complaining about the anonymity of nicknames? I'd hate to be in the red zone to start with...

A busy schedule

Things always seem to come along all at once, rather than patiently taking turns. I've complained about this before, but the universe hasn't reconfigured itself to suit my preferences yet.

So I'm going to London tomorrow in my latest chapter of celebrity status as a mind sports competitor - I won't give any more detail than that, since I haven't asked the people organising it if it's okay, and I'm perhaps more cautious about that kind of thing in my old age than I used to be. Indeed, it's just occurred to me as I write this that they asked me for links to my social media accounts and I said my only presence on social media is my facebook. In fact, this blog probably counts too, doesn't it? I suppose it doesn't really come to mind when you say 'social media', and indeed there's not so much of a social side of things since it's basically just me shouting into the void that is the internet. Does anybody actually read this? Post a reply if you read it! But it is the kind of thing a TV person might want to check to see if I'm in the habit of publicly saying things that would cause a media frenzy. I'll tell them about it tomorrow.

And anyway, I really don't ever cause a media frenzy. Except maybe that time with the chimpanzee, and even that was kind of low-key frenzy.

And then a week tomorrow I'm starting a new job. Or actually, I'm having induction sessions on Tuesday and Thursday mornings next week, even though I won't have officially started the job then. Which makes it okay that on Wednesday I'm having an interview for a different job, which was arranged fractionally before I accepted the job I'm actually starting. It's very poor form to have a job interview in your first week at a new place, but I don't think there are any rules about having one the week before you really officially start somewhere.

I need the practice at job interviews, you see - I'm awful at them. I never get jobs based on an interview (this new one, like the one before, was I think mainly a result of having worked with someone at the new place before now) and I need to get good at them. I need to practice not replying to "Why do you want to work for us?" with "Well, I don't, really." And replying to "Can you give us an example of when you did x, y and z?" with "Must I? I don't remember things like that, I just do my job..."

So this interview on Wednesday will be a good no-pressure way to practice interview technique, without worrying that I'll be jobless and penniless if I don't get it. And it's a good job of the kind I'd really quite like to get, so maybe I'll end up with the luxury of being able to choose between two jobs! Although if either company are among the hypothetical people who do read this blog, that would be a bit embarrassing - maybe I could avoid this kind of complication by not telling the internet all about me, but where's the fun in that?