Ambition

Ambition: a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.

Truly successful people don't get to where they are by pure luck.  They work hard.  They work harder than anyone else.  My favorite success stories are the ones involving the man or woman that started from the bottom and worked their way to the top.  They couldn't have made it without drive, direction and ambition.  You'd be surprised at how many people don't know the meaning of the word.   These people didn't wait for opportunity, they seized them.  I try to surround myself with as many of those people as I possibly can.  My younger sister is definitely one of those people, I actually look up to her.  She seems to have boundless energy, I wonder if her faith in god has anything to do with that.  I'm 40 years old and I know that I don't have a whole lot of time life on this planet and I need to start making the most of my opportunities.  It sometimes difficult to maintain my ambition when I'm surrounded by unambitious people at my job.  Lack of production is not only accepted but seems to be welcomed which means more work is put on myself and the few others that get things done.  I wouldn't mind so much if I was financially compensated for the extra work but I'm not.  The slackers make more than myself because they've been there longer.   But if I allow myself to give into the slackers I will be no better than them.  But I would be a fool to kill myself working harder than I have too.  I wonder how the successful people deal with such problems on the job.  Firing a lazy employee doesn't seem to be an option anymore thanks to some  well intention but misdirected human resource person.  And ineffective management.  I started talking about ambition and it turned into a self absorbed rant-I'm so sorry folks.  Perhaps my ambition should lead me to finding another job.  I have grown rather comfortable there and probably should get out of my comfort zone.  I'm talk more about it on my next podcast, Xen speaks this Saturday.  Have a great day everyone.  

Astonishing X-Men Issue 2

2nd Issue
The story picks up right were it left off.  Our heroes on their way to downtown Manhattan to deal with the hostage crisis.  Meanwhile Dr Kavita Rao just announced to the world that she has found the cure for mutancy.  She parades the little girl from the very first scene in issue one to the crowd and informs them that she will be their lab rat for their new vaccine.  At the exact same moment the X-Men have arrived on the scene and are considering their options.  The gun totting thugs didn't concern them but they were concerned about the big villain whom none of them had seen before.  We quickly discover that the hostage taking was only a ploy to draw the X-Men out.  Before the group of bad guys know what's happening they X-Men have already made their move.  Kitty Pride stealthy fazing people through the floor while Emma Frost plays game with the minds of the weaker assailants.  And while they are distracted Beast crashes through a window while Cyclops and Wolverine burst through the walls crawls out and optic blast blazing.  followed by Emma Frost whose in her diamond form.  They quickly make short work of the thugs and find themselves face to face with the big bad.  A fight ensues and they get their butts handed to them by this alien bad guy whose clearly an alien.  Things were looking bleak when reinforcements unexpected arrived in the form of Lockheed, Kitty's pet dragon.  He burns the alien bad guy by breathing fire on him.  Later the X-Men are standing before the press answering dumb questions.  Back at the Xavier School for the gifted where news of the cure have reached the students.  And emotions range from elation to terrified and confused.  Of course Emma's first thought is to kill Dr Kavita Rao, an opinion seconded by Wolverine.  Emma's all to aware of the implications while the others don't seem to concerned.  This begins the tension between Emma and Kitty.  She tells Kitty that she's back with the X-Men because she asked that she be there.  She tells here that she need someone on the team she hadn't fought alongside,  Someone who would be inclined to watch her if she ever went astray.  Kitty lets her know that she would keep an eye on her anyway before phasing through a wall-so cool.
Meanwhile Beast sneaks into Benetech to see his old friend and colleague and friend Dr Kavita Rao.  She justifies her reasoning for creating the cure. Beast true reason for visiting her was to find out if the cure really works.  Thus concludes the 2nd issue.  This was another strong issue.  The art has really grown on me.  We're seeing the dynamics of the new team starting to play out.  A team where Emma Frost seems firmly entrenched in the role of second in command- filling the void left by Jean Grey.  I find the story so far to be very compelling as it builds to something much bigger.  And what that something is I can't wait to find out.

The Astonishing X-Men

1st Issue.
This 25 issue run was done by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday.  It was the first comic I bought after a 10 year abscence.  This story arc pics up months after the Grant Morrison's New X-Men run.  I strong advise you check that out as well.  If your not a Grant Morrison fan already you will be after that run.  With the dust settled and the Xavier School for the gifted rebuilt things have once again taken on a sense of normacy.  Our heroes still reeled from the loss of Jean Grey, who was killed by Magneto, posing as Xorn who was in turn killed by Cyclops.  Two of the Stepford Cuckoos, Esme and Sophie also lost their lives.  The new arc opens with a young girl suffering from a nightmare where she has apparently killed her mother and now about to do the same to her father.  The little girl wakes up from the nightmare and is comforted by someone who appears to be a doctor.  We then move to Kitty Pride returning to the Xavier school. She relives different memories( good and bad) as she makes her way from the drive way to the inside of the manison.   She then phases through a wall and into the auditorium when a assembly is in progress.  I'm not sure if it's the first time they have met.  We find out that Emma Frost and Scott Summer aka Cyclops are the acting heads of the school while Professor Xavier recovers from his last ordeal.  Ms Frost is giving a speech letting the new class know what to expect when giant sententials crash into the auditorium.  Come to find out it was a hologram cursity of Emma Frost. Who over the course of the New X-Men came to be one of my favorite characters.  Her cool, icy personae, she swag, beauty and intelligence make a dynamic character.  What I love about her character is that she's not the cookie cutter goody two shoes that Cyclops and the rest of the X-Men are.  She was the only survivor of the massacre that occurred in Gonisa where 16 million mutants were murdered.  I probably should have done a review of New X-Men before doing this one and I just might.  Her morals are adaptable which have caused her to come into conflict with the other X-Men on more than one occasion.  I'm going to have to check and find out when she first joined the team.  Seeing her as an X-Men now is still a bit jarring.   She may have went a little overboard but she wanted to see how many of the students were looking for a fight.  However it didn't sit well with the other X-Men.  The next scene sees Emma and Scott in bed together which makes the next scene hilarious.  Wolverine sits hunched on the foot of the bed staring at them while they sleep.  He apparently doesn't approve of Emma and Scott's relationship.  A super human fight ensues on the school lawn for all the students and staff to see.  Even though she's dead Jean Grey still cast a giant shadow that Emma can't escape from.  Once tempers have calm Scott calls a meeting with Emma, Wolverine, Kitty Pride and Beast in attendance.  He then tells them that because of the negative light that's been cast on mutants lately he wants to reform the X-Men in a attempt to change public opinion on mutants.  He then informs Kitty that she was chosen because of her mutant ability, a non aggressive ability that wouldn't frighten people.    Meanwhile Dr Kavita Rao is holding a press conference.  Also at the same time a high society party is high-jacked by a group of armed thugs.   We then show a scene of Scott listening to the news and griping the  bridge of his nose with his thumb and index fingers.  He clearly has the weight of the world on his shoulders as he contemplates his next decision.  The next scenes show the doctor giving a press conference, followed by one of the unknown villain that hijacked the party.  Finally we come the iconic, defining scenes of the volume of the newly reformed X-Men suiting up.  "We have to Astonishing them," Scott's words to Wolverine.  Thus ends the first issue.

Greetings and salutations.  As spring approaches the nice weather starts to bring out all sorts of people whom you don't see during the cold weather.  I've recently started to workout with a good friend.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to take on a workout partner and especially a workout partner whom I would have to train and supervise.  But we just finished our second workout and it has actually gone well.  She willing excepts my instruction but we'll see how long that last lol.  I love seeing people self improve and I especially love taking part in someone's positive transformation.  I can't wait to get this work week over with.  Now I have to eliminate more sugar from my diet but it's proving to be extremely difficult.  A friend of mine from work has been without sugar for three days now.  I'm a little afraid and taking some time to think things through.  I need to kick caffeine too but that will be a pain in the ass too.  The last time I kicked it I had the worst headache for three days.  I have recently received more good news in regards to my hard work over the years.  Things are starting to pay off.  We had to change the name of our podcast to Xen Talk.  We have decided to gear our podcast toward television shows, video games and comic books.  We've been reviewing iZombie, Star Gate SG1, The Flash and Arrow.  If you have a show that you think should be on our radar please reach out to me.  Our new podcast in Xen Talk.  We're on iTunes and Podcast Republic.
Until the next time amigos and amigas.