If it isn't already obvious, I've a great big fan of Supergirl. As mentioned elsewhere, there have been many Supergirls, and my scope of reference is limited to post-Crisis on Infinite Earths. I prefer my superheroes to be more complex and troubled individuals anyway. (I do feel that the current run by Kelley Puckett is getting a little too long-drawn; #26-32, that is 7 issues, running through the same arc of whether Supergirl can save a boy who is dying from cancer). Anyway, I can't say with any certainty, but I believe one of the trend starters happened during the 1986 reboot of Superman, when it was decided that he wouldn't be able to push planet and other god-like things.

The DCU has been, in the last two years, undergoing a revolution of its own. Ever since Identity Crisis got the whole 2nd and 3rd crises under way, stories have become so epic they can no longer be contained within a single title. While cynicism might suggest that this is simply a move to sell more comics, I must say that the the stories now, because of the added contextual depth and complexity, are much more fulfilling reads. Unfortunately, the current Supergirl incarnate Kara Zor-El is split over so many other titles that many people I hear have just given up. Even her trades don't do credit to all her appearances (and some are really lame one-liner bit parts I must admit), and I have yet to find a proper indexing of her story. And seriously, her own title can become incoherent without some of the fillers from elsewhere. For example, an issue made reference to her time in space with Green Lantern Hal Jordan, and I was going, "Wha wha wha?" It was only much later that I discovered this particular adventure to be contained within the first two volumes of The Brave and the Bold. While this arc does do justice to the character, it is irritatingly the norm for Supergirl to disappear into the background in whatever offshoots she appears in. Two examples come to mind: the 2005/2006 Infinite Crisis storyline, and the Vengeance arc in Superman/Batman.

This problem is prohibitive to anyone picking up her title since character is still trying to find herself. It's completely different from Superman, where I have never found a need to pick up Superman/Batman or Justice League because he behaves the same there as he does in his own titles. No monkey business, no unorthodox maneuvers, very consistent. However, while incidents here and there contribute somewhat to understanding Supergirl's angst, it's tiring to chase after a separate title only to be let down with an anti-climax where she is concerned. That being said, Action Comics #867 is a critical one-shot for Kara that any fan should get your hands on because it reveals a lot of the fear and loneliness that she feels from being the last person to have memories of Krypton, which in turns explains why she resists melding into Earth's human culture; being part of something means you risk losing everything all over again.

Whatever the case, I've decided to put together my own chronological index, that I will periodically update. And by chronological, I refer to the way I think the story flows linearly rather than date of publication. If you would rather read using the latter way, then be prepared to become lost as you try to figure out how Kara can be in the 31st century and One Year Later at the same time...good luck! Also, I would hardly call my list complete; I've scoured high and low to make sure I got everything I came to know off, but things like the DCU Infinite Holiday Special still elude me, and I'm not going to fork out on a trade just for one issue. This list will also go off on tangents sometimes because I believe in reading whole arcs, which means I finish the story even after Supergirl mysteriously disappears. An actually, I still don't have a clue how she ended up in the 31st century, although I suspect that this will never be covered, and readers are just expected to imagine how she ended up chasing a giant through space after Jeph Loeb's run in #5. If you were like me and always thought that she may have been blown away at the end of Infinite Crisis, well, she is in the last two-page spread of #7, so this theory doesn't check out. the final story arc of the old Justice League might offer a clue. Finally, although I would like to give DC the benefit of the doubt and say that certain crossovers don't fit because of POV differences, I'm more inclined to blame the mess between Amazons Attack! and Wonder Woman as an editorial screw-up. Ok, so here goes:

1. Superman/Batman #8-13 (collected in Superman/Batman Vol. 2: Supergirl)
2. Supergirl Vol. 5 #1-5 (collected in Supergirl Vol. 1: Power)
3. Superman/Batman #20-25 (collected in Superman/Batman Vol. 4: Vengeance)
4. Justice League of America #122-123 (collected in JLA Vol. 19: World Without a Justice League)
5. Superman #223 (collected in Superman: The Journey)
6. Infinite Crisis Special #1 (collected in Infinite Crisis Companion)
7. Infinite Crisis #1-7 (collected in Infinite Crisis)
8. Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #16-19 (collected in SLSH Vol. 3: Strange Visitor from Another Century)
9. Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #20-25 (collected in SLSH Vol. 4: Adult Education)
10. Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #26-30 (collected in SLSH Vol. 5: Dominator War)
11. Action Comics #850 (collected in Supergirl Vol. 4: Beyond Good and Evil)
12. Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #31-36 (collected in SLSH Vol. 6: The Quest for Cosmic Boy)
13. World War III #1-4 (collected in World War III)
14. Supergirl Vol. 5 #6-9 (collected in Supergirl Vol. 2: Candor)
15. Superman Vol. 1 #650 (collected in Superman: Up, Up and Away!)
16. The Brave and the Bold #1-6 (collected in The Brave and the Bold Vol. 1: The Lords of Luck)
17. The Brave and the Bold #7-12 (collected in The Brave and the Bold Vol. 2: The Book of Destiny)
18. Supergirl Vol. 5 #10-19 (collected in Supergirl Vol. 3: Identity)
19. Wonder Woman #5-13 (#6-10 collected in Wonder Woman: Love and Murder)
    Amazons Attack! #1-6 (collected in Wonder Woman: Amazons Attack!)
20. Supergirl Vol. 5 #20-22 
21. Teen Titans #49
22. Wonder Girl #1-6 (collected in Teen Titans Spotlight: Wonder Girl)
23. Teen Titans #50-55 (#50-54 collected in Teen Titans: Titans of Tomorrow)
24. The Brave and the Bold #17-18
25. Superman Vol. 1 #668-670 (collected in Superman: The Third Kryptonian)
26. Supergirl Vol. 5 #23-27 (collected in Supergirl Vol. 4: Beyond Good and Evil)
27. Supergirl Vol. 5 #28~33 (collected in Supergirl Vol. 5: Way of the World)  
28. Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom #1~5 (collected in Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom)
29. Action Comics #866-870 (collected in Superman: Brainiac)
30. Superman Vol.1 #679
31. Supergirl Vol. 5 #34 (collected in Supergirl: Who Is Superwoman?)
32. Superman/Batman #62
33. Superman's Pal: Jimmy Olsen #1
    Superman: New Krypton Special #1
    Superman Vol. 1 #681
    Adventure Comics Special featuring the Guardian #1
    Action Comics #871 (collected in Superman: New Krypton Vol. 1)
34. Supergirl Vol. 5 #35
    Superman Vol. 1 #682
    Action Comics #872
    Supergirl Vol. 5 #36
    Superman Vol. 1 #683
    Action Comics #873 (collected in Superman: New Krypton Vol. 2)
35. Supergirl Vol. 5 #37
    Superman Vol. 1 #684
    Action Comics #874 (collected in Superman: Mon El Vol. 1)
    Supergirl Vol. 5 #38
    Superman Vol. 1 #685
    Superman: The World of New Krypton #1
    Action Comics Annual #12
    Action Comics #875
    Supergirl Vol. 5 #39
    Superman Vol. 1 #686
    Superman: The World of New Krypton #2
    Action Comics #876
    Supergirl Vol. 5 #40
    Superman Vol. 1 #687
    Superman: The World of New Krypton #3
    Action Comics #877
    Supergirl Vol. 5 #41
    Superman Vol. 1 #688
    Superman: The World of New Krypton #4
    Action Comics #878
    Supergirl Vol. 5 #42  (Supergirl Vol. 5 issues collected in Supergirl: Who Is Superwoman?)
36. Supergirl Vol. 5 Annual #1
37. Superman Vol. 1 #689
    Superman: The World of New Krypton #5
    Action Comics #879
    Supergirl Vol. 5 #43
    Superman Vol. 1 #690 (Superman Vol. 1 issues collected in Superman: Mon El Vol. 1)
    Superman Secret Files 2009 #1
38. Final Crisis #1-7 (collected in Final Crisis) 
39. Teen Titans #66
40. Justice League: Cry for Justice #1~
41. Trinity #25~52 (collected in Trinity Vols. 2 and 3)
42. Blackest Night: Superman #1-2

Just looking at this list, if it doesn't already strike you how often Kara appears outside her title in somewhat significant portions, then you should look again. And the problem is that these aren't always neatly collected in trades. For example, Kara leaves the Teen Titans in #55, which isn't in the Titans of Tomorrow trade. So if you missed that, you're going to be left scratching your head, especially since the word is that she's about to join the Justice League. Also, if you decide to skip Amazons Attack!, then you're going to be wondering what the deal with the President's plane is in #20 of her own series. She's also slated for some big role in Final Crisis (yeah, I've heard that before) and another run in The Brave and the Bold. Super, blech. Stay tuned!

Due to an interesting change in circumstances just two days after I made the original post, a relative amount (yes, the evaluation is totally qualitative, and it's meaningless to quibble over such boundaries) of its contents no longer apply. It was an unsettling time for sure, and I'd rather not have people ask me what the hell that was all about. Nonetheless, what is in fact a more nuanced discussion of the incident exists elsewhere.:)

An interesting picture caught my eye in the 11th July edition of mypaper. Namely (left):
 
The thing is that this particular edition was so filled with images of bento boxes that I assumed the "fishes" in the picture to be plastic decorations on a balloon. How mistaken I was! Those Plasticine-looking fish are actually Balloon Lumpfish, and are very much alive. Check out the bewildered look on the fish second to from the left! Here's a close-up stolen off the Net:

And I came across this while searching out, so what the heck, it made my day, haha.
 
Why is it labeled Nevercaughtfish I wonder. Maybe this one IS plastic.

Ok, because someone actually sat through my photographs on Japan, I realized that I had better expedite a solution on the ambient music problem. A quick Google exercise later and voilà, problem solved. I needed a file host that would retain the file extension on my BGMs, and FileDen.com has proven to be a highly satisfactory solution. Strangely, the files then refused to be streamed under my old coding. It works offline on my computer, but doesn't off my web host. I garner that the host probably lacks support for something technical that I don't understand...and you know I oh so hate to be defeated by technology. I therefore resorted to the not-so-elegant but simple solution of embedding the BGM directly into the HTML code. Although this means that the music won't start with the slideshow, I have found the discrepancy to be negligible after some testing on my own. So, apart from the fact that I'm still 28-years-old on my Web site, I am glad to say that almost everything else has been returned to a state of normalcy.:)

Anyway,  I was shopping around for some free Web hosting, with the important requirement that no banner ads should appear on any of my pages in any form. There are some dubious one I must say, where the main page of the site doesn't even look legitimate. Others like the Webhostplanet family (yeah, there's a bunch of different sites with exactly the same layout etc., duh!) don't engender much trust - while the opening page says no ads will appear on your site, the small print says that by signing up, you give them permission to place ads. Huh?!

Finally, I settled on Zymic Webmaster Resources. To be honest, I'm still holding my breath on this one. I have transferred everything over, and my site is now running at http://jpstbcj.vndv.com/. However, FTP uploading wasn't smooth with many failed connections, and the URL itself sometimes requires multiple refreshes before it finally loads. It also blocks mp3s (fair enough), so my slideshows are muted till I figure out a way around this. Many of the transferred files are also smaller than the original, so without further testing, I'm assuming that the host is running some kind of compression; this might also explain why the page loads rather slowly. I'm no techie, so I'm just doing some deductions here. Whatever the case, the forum posts suggest that this vndv domain might be new, so I hope these are teething problems that will soon be resolved. In the meantime, I once again have a little corner of the WWW to call my very own.:))

I just had the opportunity to read Army Daze again (the first time I read in was in primary school), and I must say that it is much better than the movie; golly (and I'll get to this term later), the pacing got really slow at times, which took away from one's immersion, not within the movie, but into our own nightmarish recollections. Certainly, and as I also mention in my little book list blurb, the real setting is a lot more vulgar. I was in Alpha platoon in BMTC1 in Pulau Tekong, and we had this aqua OC who would always shout out, "You fucking recruits, want to suck my dick is it?" Well, he said it enough times for the birth of an urban legend regarding what happened to the recruits who went off into his office.

Then, there was the memorable third sergeant C. B. Lee. Hey, who can forget such a name, eh? Well,  this dude was a real beng, and his hobby was to give a bunch of us nickname. He called me Gomer Pyle (and he wasn't the first to remark on the resemblance, although I certainly don't see it). So anyway, whenever he said, Gomer Pyle, Gomer Pyle, hit it!" I had to say, "Golly!" But he didn't really pick on me much - there was this poor sod called S. A. Tan (no kidding) who was called Cookie Monster. When the sarge went, "Cookie Monster, Cookie Monster, hit it!" he had to go, "C is for cookie and its good enough for me," with a growling accent no less.

But the thing I remember C. B. Lee most for was a stirring speech he gave very early on; he said that as recruits, even the cockroaches in the drains had more rights than us, and he wasn't kidding when he said that. I don't think instructors can get away with this kind of talk anymore (when I left, vulgarity was already frowned upon), but those were the days. There was no logic to many of the things. Like when, during our first swimming lesson, the PTI ordered us to get into warm-up position when nothing had even been taught to us. His next line was something like, "Fucking hell, don't know how to get into position is it? Never mind, all knock it down!" Or, what about when you wrongly called a sergeant sir? Well, you had to repeat this tongue twister, "I will not call my sergeant sir and my sir sergeant" at speed, would inadvertently get it wrong, and would then be punished for it. Oh, and I think they can't do this now, but the instructors always had a way round the no-more-than-20-pushups-at-one-time rule. They would simply find fault with whatever you were doing and send the count back to zero. E.g., "Chao recruit, cannot count is it? Never mind, start from zero," and so on and so forth.

This was my first BMT. But since I spent the latter parts of it as a PES C temp, I had to go back and do it again a year later at Nee Soon Camp. Interestingly enough, I was part of a Hokkien peng section. Apart from the fact that they liked to stick their fingers up your ass hole (and I mean IN your rectum), they were quite cool people really. I dunno...I always thought that they looked up to me as the only Air Level, wishing that maybe they had a greater knack for studying. This second modified BMT had its fair share of characters too. Most notably was this former Manhunt winner, all buff and all, but was excused everything! I remember he went for the BIC in PT Kit because he was excused uniform and all. He recently appeared in a commercial for some piece of property chatting up a girl and all that. Man, if you'd see him back then, haha. And he was fit! He could run the 2.4 (before he was excused running) faster than the instructors (oh they tried, but they could huff and puff all they wanted to no avail). And during the gym session, he would do half presses and all that when the PTI turned their heads...funny.

Anyway, you're not supposed to have fun in the army, and the whole point of the bald heads and all is to make you lose all sense of being an individual after all. Not that I appreciated the crap that was dished out of course. But back to my main point: there is no movie or book that I have seen that truly captures the abuse that was a staple of National Service back then, which means that any adaptation of army life will always fall short. Oh and, if you ever wondered about all those Chinese profanities you were spouting with such fervor, there's actually a Wikipedia entry on it. :P