The Hunt For a New LCS

It is not easy

Some things in life are easy to come by, like a good burger. Sure not all of them will be fantastic but they do the job. Some things are much tougher to find. Take a local comic shop (LCS) for example. A good one is a rarity.

Now my knowledge of a good LCS stems from living in Winnipeg and Edmonton. Those cities are not a hub for selling comics. I do understand that fact but you would figure it would be possible to find a few shops worth visiting once I returned to Winnipeg.

I found a great LCS in Edmonton when I first moved there 3 years ago. The search when I first arrived was extensive as there was a plethora of shops in my vicinity. Exploring shop after shop I began to whittle down my list. If the shop did not much selection, off the list you go. If the shop raised cover prices because of the exchange rate, I will not be coming back to this shop. I am in fact ok with this if they follow the exchange rate but some shops just would add an extra dollar and say it was the exchange rate when the dollar was even, while other shops actually took money off the cover price when the Canadian dollar was stronger. Why treat your customers like A Comic Book Guy does to his customers on The Simpsons when I am trying to give you money, not even sure how you are still in business so I will not be back.

Eventually I found Wizards . It was close to home, had a great group of employees and a good selection of books. Score one for me!

Then it all came crashing down when I up and moved back to Winnipeg. I touched on that a little last week.

No big deal though right? I just go back to the LCS I grew up at and did business with for 10 years. Wait a minute! Currently a loud buzzer has just gone off, telling me I can no longer do that. Sadly The Bookshelf has moved to the other side of the city and has focused more on selling used books rather than comic books. Sigh.

So now I have got a dilemma and I need some help. What shop is worth getting my hard earned (as I am currently unemployed those last two words make me a total liar) money?

LCS A – Pro : 5 minute walk from home. Owner is very polite but does not talk to his customers unless he has too. It is a toy store, so they have a lot of useless items I could spend my money on other than books.
Con : As it is a toy store they really have no selection of comics to purchase other than what you order yourself. I must give 3 months notice if I want to cancel a book (really not a fan of this one but I understand it).

LCS B – Pro : Still in walking distance but it will be a 10 minute car ride once winter arrives. Amazing selection, they will have every book that is released waiting on the rack.
Con : Owner is a douche bag and I that is me putting it nicely. Cover prices are raised considerably ($2.99 book = $3.99, $3.99 = $4.79, trades are ludicrous!).

LCS C – Pro : Owner and I have a good rapport. I know exactly what I am getting into. Bonus is that it is also a used book store as well.
Con : It is a 40+ minute drive. Probably would not be able to make that trip each week. Not much selection.

Laying out my pros and cons I still can not make a decision. That probably stems from being indecisive about everything but that is for another day.

I am thinking about possibly pulling books from LCS A or C and just making a trip to LCS B when a book comes out that my friends think I need.

I have also been tossing the idea around of cancelling all my books and switching to trade paper back only. Not sure if I could pull the trigger on that because I love my weekly trek to pick up my books but it just may have to come down to that.

What would you do?

Side of Hog and Some Shoots

A pairing of food to love

Food is delicious. I could eat all the time if my stomach would allow me to. I also love to cook and every once in a blue moon you come across two types of food that go exquisitely together: peanut butter and jam, bacon and eggs, steak and potatoes, beets and…well nothing goes good with beets. Although they still are delicious.

You wouldn’t expect these two foods to go in the same dish only because they would be difficult to place and eat together but I have managed since finding this wonderful couple to put them in a number of dishes.

This all started on a day when I was making sushi for a few family members. With them not being the biggest fans of raw fish I needed to come up with a few new sushi rolls to add to my repertoire. I did the simple chicken roll, smoked salmon roll and a few others, but I needed some kind of vegetable roll. I wanted it to be different too, something I had never eaten in sushi before, or something that does not get eaten too much in general.

Flipping through The Encyclopaedia of Sushi Rolls by Ken Kawasumi I found this little gem, the asparagus roll (bottom center in picture). Now I like asparagus but it is not one of my favourite vegetables, unless it is doused in cheese sauce (but my love of cheese is for another day!). As I skimmed the ingredients of the simple recipe I was intrigued, asparagus, bacon and a little bit of mayonnaise.

It was effortless to prepare, different, and I now really wanted to try it. So this was the “vegetable” roll I was planning on making. Yes I realize bacon is not part of the vegetable food group. For that reason I altered the recipe and put in less bacon and more asparagus. It turned out wonderful and become the roll we were all fighting over.

Now I know that I need to make at least 2 of these rolls every time I make sushi. Who knew, asparagus and bacon would go so well together. I am sure someone knew about this before me and I just never came across it, but it got me thinking.

What other dishes would bacon and asparagus go good in to spruce up the flavour?

I have tried a few that worked: bacon and asparagus omelette, BBQ’d steak wrapped in bacon and asparagus, grilled cheese with asparagus and bacon and asparagus and bacon stuffed chicken. I have only had one failure so far: bacon and asparagus stir fry (although this could have been the type sauce I used).

You should all try this wonderful combination. I am not going to say it will change how you look at the culinary world but it could! It may open your eyes to try pairing other unique foods together to see if they taste a little like bliss.

Here is the recipe for the asparagus and bacon grilled cheese.

What you need: 3 slices of bread, butter or margarine, 3 pieces of asparagus, 3 pieces of bacon, cheese.

First cook your bacon. I did mine in the microwave because it is much faster but you would probably get more flavour out of your bacon if done in a frying pan. Cook the bacon as desired (crispy bacon is better though!). While the bacon is cook ing you can slice the cheese. You need enough cheese to cover both sides of the bread. The cheese on both sides, once melted, will keep your asparagus and bacon from falling out of your sandwich.

Now is the time to cook your asparagus. I used the microwave again. Place the asparagus on a plate with a little bit of water, enough that it all won’t evaporate, put another plate upside down on top to steam the asparagus. Cook in the microwave until finished, it normally is just over a minute on high. Spread a little bit of margarine on one of the slices of bread, only on one side of the bread, and place it margarine side down on the frying pan (element on oven should be on medium-high). Cover the slice with cheese and place your bacon on top.

As this side of the bread is beginning to brown you can take your asparagus out of the microwave and place it on top of the bacon. You can now place the remaining cheese on top of the asparagus. Spread margarine on the other piece of bread and place margarine side up. Flip sandwich once first side is cooked, and take out of frying pan when other side is finished. Viola! You just made yourself a delicious asparagus and bacon grilled cheese sandwich.

Getting Personal

Faster than I expected

When I started the process of creating Stacks of Words (now cenquist.com) I was not sure how personal I wanted to get on this blog. I knew eventually I would touch on myself or my life in some way but I did not expect it to be one of my first posts. Not that I have a problem sharing this, or the rest of my life, since I am fairly open with everyone about pretty much everything.

The letter I wrote below was written during one of my sleepless nights after my 5 year relationship with my fiancée abruptly ended. To say that I wrote this when I was coherent would probably make me a liar, I am not sure if I really was coherent, due to the lack of sleep. I would read this letter many times to cheer me up, at least in some way, and help me fall asleep. That was before I even started the editing process.

The raw version of the letter below is almost identical to the edited version you will read. I felt as if I did not to lose too much of the emotions I was trying to convey during those moments. If you wish to see that raw version of the letter, send me an email, as I saved it in a separate file just in case I was not happy with the edited product.

Some people may not believe in what I have to say in this letter and that is fine. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions but I am always looking on the optimistic side of life. It has even gotten me into trouble a few times because I ignore the signs a pessimistic person would have seen a mile away, probably with their eyes closed. That will not change me; I will always be looking into the good of everyone before I see the bad, no matter how many times it bites me in the ass.

I titled this A Letter to a Loved One but I am not sure if that will stick around. Enjoy and please leave comments below, they are much appreciated.

Sometimes a loved one can do something that is completely unexpected. These sudden curveballs make your mind bend into a continuous state of confusion. Sure you want to understand it but you know you never will. The emotions you have are all over the place, making you even more confused. Time will heal these wounds even though they will never fully disappear.

A light will eventually make its way into your life again. It could be a good long while, but it will happen. This light, let us call it a blinding happiness, will remind you of the past when you experienced that blinding happiness, that was suddenly taken from you, for the very first time. It was joyous the first time and it will be even more so the next time.

You may worry that when you once again find a sense of blinding happiness it will fade or be stolen away again. And you have every right to worry, but you should not let being afraid of it happening stop you from trying to once again hold a sense of blinding happiness in your life. Not only should you jump for it head first, once you find this blinding happiness again, but you should overcome those fears and trust in yourself.

Everything happens for a reason. This may seem like the epoch you have waited for. It very well may not be, but it very well could be. The renewed blinding happiness is the turning point for you or it could just be another trip into the darkness that teaches you another one of life’s many lessons.

Learn from these. You need to grow from them. Maturing from the “mistakes” will only make you a better person. As they say, “time heals all wounds”, but you must allow yourself to be healed.

Keep your head up. Optimism is not a mask that blurs your vision of blinding happiness. It is the dream that you will find that blinding happiness again. Do not be a pessimist. You will only hurt yourself with that attitude.

As you grow, you yourself will become a blinding happiness for someone else. Remind yourself of this. Treat this blinding happiness with the respect that you expect in return. Be honest, loving, and communicate.

Everyone has a blinding happiness. You will find it. Although you may have to cross a few more hurdles than others to find it. These hurdles will cause you to fall. In time the damage from the fall will heal. It will be worth it. As you will have your blinding happiness.

Honesty

It is definitely the best policy

I am not sure what I plan to get out of this new project I have decided to christen Stacks of Words . Yes it will keep me writing, and this is my main goal for starting this blog. However, I do not have any specific plan for Stacks of Words .

What can you, the reader, get out of Stacks of Words ? Sticking with a policy of complete honesty on this site, I have no idea. At least for now I am not sure. Stacks of Words is going to be jumping all over the place with no sense of direction. Eventually it will find an identity but until then it will just be an amalgam of random content that will be accessible at your convenience or curiosity.

I am making no promises here but I am aiming to have at least one article per week. It could be something as simple as a restaurant review (the first article to be posted other than this!) or an excerpt from a script I am working on. The most likely item you will find on Stacks of Words will be a review or article devoted towards my favourite past time, devouring a story. By devour I mean that I am always reading, watching, or listening to a story, looking for inspiration for my own creations to share with the world. The majority of the articles on Stacks of Words will probably be written about stories presented/told through one of the mediums I am frequently consuming: movies, comics, TV, theatre, or novels. It is also very possible that I may post a short story once in a while. You can expect a range of material for you to gander at while you should more than likely be working!

You may not stick around for the entire ride but I think Stacks of Words is going to be around for a long time. Again I need to be honest, it may only last a month but there is only one way to find out!