Low Income Super-Heroes Pt. I

I would never be able to be a super hero.  With my post-university life only a few months away I am beginning to feel the weighty necessity of soon acquiring some sort of job which pays an income (preferably with a very small workload).

The super-hero must take on the responsibility of bread winning, as well as
every-day-battles-to-the-death-winning.  So, while I pull out my unwashed hair at the the very thought of applying for jobs (eerily similar to applying for scholarships) super heroes not only hold down a job in order to bring home the bacon, they also save the world time and time again.  I suppose this is the challenge of Peter Parker, who always seems to struggle with his life's balancing act and I suppose this epiphany explains my fondness for the wall crawling angsty hero.

In keeping with the super hero theme of the camp, I will make this a multi-part blog post, because, you can't tell a super hero story in one go.

My weekend consisted of a camp for low-income kids.  The benefits included: kids having weekend mentors, parents getting a weekend away, affordable for families with low income and I get to hang out with kids, play games and puppeteer a robot named Ollie who will never find true love.

I'll start with a description of Han, my little buddy.  I wasn't sure what Han would look like, but I was looking forward to getting some one on one time with him.  Being a 6th year student and a boy, I was excited to have a weekend of adventures.  I was then informed that Han had Asperger Syndrome.  Bring it on.  A reprisal of King Duncan.

I didn't know what Han looked like until I saw him.  I hadn't seen a picture of him, but his yellow bedazzled cowboy hat and full body blue and red sweatsuit (an shell of clothing he would not shed the length of the weekend) gave him away.  He was one inch shorter than I and had a good 50 pounds more of gravity working on him.  He wasn't fat, really.  Just a thick built young boy.

Han's favorite topics of conversation:

• Video Games
• I was able to connect with him on several points here.  Han is rather high-functioning, but most of his focus for the weekend was on camp and his friends; exactly where my focus would have been.
• Horror Movies
• The Ring, The Blair Witch Project, any movie with "Exorcism" in it's title and a plethora of movies I had never heard of.  The conversations would go something like Han asking me if I had seen such and such movie.  I would respond with a yes or a no.  Regardless of my answer he would begin to tell me, in vivid detail about different monsters, creatures, beasts, gremlins, homonculus nightmares or ghosts/zombies/undead and their ravaging of a human person.  I would respond with something like "Well, it's a good thing all of those movies are made up."  To which he would reply, "No, only some of them are."
• That was pretty much our conversation choices of the weekend
• It was a good weekend and we did talk about more than these two things.  But those topics dominated the time.  Ahh to be young again... Oh to have another chance with the French Student Teacher....

Han left camp asking me if we could be Facebook friends, youtube account friends and if we could be "brothers from another mother."  I told him the camp would only let me be his "brother from another mother." He conceded the point only when I promised I would friend request him on Facebook in a few years.

I'd now like to take some time to discuss Grant Morrison.  Grant Morrison had an impressive beard.  It was lengthy, but did not travel up the sides of his face. It remained around the base camp of his chin.  At one point during necklace/craft making (I attempted to make a Preying Mantis about one foot in length... but I ran out of time... and skill) Grant had taken bits of wire and some beads and made a hat that wove down into his beard.

Masterful.

I had a good chat with Grant while the kids were attempting to conquer the "Tumbling Rock Wall."  We spoke about our personal histories, what we have done and will do with our lives and what we thought of things like politics and people. The best bit I remember from the conversation was centered around television.  He gave his away maybe ten years ago.  I was happy to hear that I wasn't the only crazy anti-TV hooligan running around with questionable facial hair.  He the told me, as our conversation concluded, that he was working on getting together some young guns to blow up the antennae towers, I told him to count me in either her in Australia, or to lead up a chapter back home.

At the end of the camp, Grant was praising one of kids.  He described his little buddy on the low ropes course as, "being like a bat out of hell."

I think Grant might be one of those people I'll never see again.  A ghost of a memory or a waking dream.  So, here's to you Grant Morrison, good luck with the TV Antennae and with finding yourself.

Everything described in this blog today was or is better than Nicki Minaj.  Spider-Man 3 wasn't mentioned, but now that it has I must specify that everything described in this blog today was or is better than Nicki Minaj, except for Spider-Man 3, which was terribly worse than Nicki Minaj.

Cheers,
Melmoth

P.S. Part 2 of Low Income Super-Heroes: The Low Budget Puppet, will be released on schedule when I intend it to be released in 1-5 days.