When I was younger, I was obsessed with X-Men and their powers (but I never read the comics...honest...I only watched the show and played with the action figures). I sincerely believed that if I tried hard enough, I too could have mutant powers. For hours at a time, I would try moving the TV remote from across the room to my hand by sheer will. All I had to show for that were headaches from staring at the remote all cross eye for too long.
After watching a superhero movie the other night, I got to thinking about mutant powers again. As a diploma-ed geneticist, I reasoned that not all mutations could be used in a fight, like the X-Men. I mean how you are going to fight alongside Wolverine's animal claws when your mutant power is making animal calls? Will your ability to boil water in a watched pot or the power to do long division in your head really keep the evil forces away? It is like that poor kid on Captain Planet that fought with the power of Heart while everyone else had Earth, Wind, or Fire. Lame.
I realized that I too have one of these non-fighting mutant powers. I have the ability to watch TV shows on DVD quicker than anyone else. I am being serious. I have the uncanny ability to make any show fix the schedule I want. I may have to leave for campus in 17 minutes, yet some how I am able to watch a 22 minute Will & Grace episode before leaving. I swear I can watch 4 episodes of the West Wing in the time it takes most people to watch 3 episodes.
The picture at the top is one I took in London almost 2 years ago with Bryan Singer, the director of the X-Men and Superman Returns movies. At first I had no idea who he was, so I called over some official-looking woman to find out. After demanding to know if she was famous too, I was informed it was him. I see it as proof of my evolutionary progress.
As I once told my Dad when he said I was self centered and demanding, "yes, Dad, I do believe that the world evolves around me."
