Wednesday – 24 April 2024 The other night, I decided to wind down the evening with a White Russian. The cocktail, that is. I made it a bit stronger than planned – I couldn’t decide whether to name it “Natasha” or “Piotr,” based on how it put me on my ass in short order.
Nevertheless, it was a damned fine beverage.
Tonight, I decided to have another… though not quite as strong. I’m hoping that this is more “Illyana” than “Darkchylde.”
Tuesday – 2024-04-02 Sometimes… if we’re lucky… a confluence of events occurs and really just makes your day. Today was one of those days for me. Let me start from the beginning…
Thing One I woke up this morning, expecting an average Tuesday. I got my morning coffee and headed to my office/Room of Stuff to read before starting the day. After my reading time was done, I looked at my Memories on Facebook to try and garner some small bit of inspiration for today’s #CapesAndCoffee action figure picture. I scrolled back and found an entry on World Autism Awareness Day from five years ago and read the comments on it… for what felt like – and may have actually been – the first time. They made me smile. Broadly.
Thing Two About fifteen minutes later, I found myself scrolling through Twitter – that’s right: “Twitter;” I said what I said – and saw that Gail Simone had posted about one of my favorite characters, Jeff the Land Shark (or… just “Jeff”):
I stumbled across this reply…
…and it was “Game on,” because I have done a few pictures featuring Jeff and his hero, King Shark, including the ones below, in which the pair (along with Gwenpool and Ghost-Spider) do meet:
…and tweeted as much:
I figured that was the end of it, until this popped up on my phone:
What the WHAT?! The Bear, herself, retweeted me!? YeahbuhWHAT!?
Thing Three Riding on my own personal Cloud Nine, I received a not-so-random instant message:
Hi, I just wanted to thank you for your support and thoughts on the Key Bridge Situation. I work for the MDTA communciations department (The entity that runs/ran the Key Bridge) and I was on site of the collapse last Tuesday at 2:30 am and have been swamped ever since. Hearing my favorite podcast (Been listening for over 13 years) talk about it was unexpected but super appreciated. Please tell the podcast thank you from me. Also, I think you are a super awesome addition to Geekshow and your knowledge of comics is awe inspiring. So keep being awesome! -Christopher [last name withheld]
A bit of context: I am member of Geekshow Podcast. As a Baltimore native, on this past weekend’s show, I wore a “Vintage Baltimore” sweatshirt and spent some time talking about the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge following the collision of the container ship, Dali, into one of the bridge’s piers. I also had things to say about some of the less-than-stellar comments that people with the power – and anonymity – of the Internet have made, as well as a brilliant case of talking out the side of one’s neck from a certain politician. Given the pressure that those involved with the clean-up and recovery of the bridge are under – original estimates put the timeline for replacing the bridge at up to ten (10) years! – the last thing they need are newly-minted armchair experts dragging them with ill-informed “Why nots” and “What ifs.”
This message was the true icing on the morning’s cake. Beyond the kind words about me being on the show, learning that something I said had meaning and weight and importance to someone meant the world to me.
Coda These things all happened within just over an hour of waking up. They were a delightful way to start the morning and carried me through the day!
December is two-thirds over. It’s almost time for a visit from a certain figure who has been called “jolly” and classified as an “Elf,” although almost all of the Frost Elves I’ve ever seen have a slightly more pale – almost bluish – complexion.
But, let’s face it: All racial types have outliers. So, I guess it isn’t really “a thing.”
Speaking of which: If you’re not familiar with Neil Gaiman’s short story “Nicholas Was,” go find and read it.
Today started with brunch with some of the Clitorati. We were originally going to go to Prohibition, but as we didn’t have a reservation – and didn’t want to wait for 60-ish minutes for a table, we wound up at the Factory of Cheesecakes. And there was coffee. And mimosas. And coffee.
Our conversation covered many topics, including (but not limited to):
Movies.
Television.
Alcohol.
Politics.
The Politics of Alcohol in Utah.
Parenthood.
I’ve missed these conversations – even when we disagree on points – because we tend to have our perspectives broadened by entertaining different viewpoints.
After that, I tried to track down a battery to replace the one in our garage door opener. It was a failed attempt, despite the all-knowing Google telling me that a vendor near home had one. BAH. Fortunately, I found another vendor that carried it and Sara was able to pick it up while running an errand.
The afternoon wrapped up with me watching an NFL battle between the Green Bay Packers and the Ravens. The Packers won… by one point… marking the second time in three weeks that the Ravens have lost by trying to win on a last-ditch two-point conversion. Not the call I would have made, but there’s probably a good reason (or dozens of them) that I’m not coaching in the NFL. And it is surprisingly easy to coach from the safety and comfort of an armchair.
Stray Toasters
I’ve been watching Arcane: League of Legends over the past couple of weeks. I have not played LoL, so this was an introduction to the world of the game. I was taken by the animation style and the world-building they did over the course of the nine episodes of the first season.
I also recently finished Masters of the Universe: Revelation. I watched episodes of the original He-Man and the Masters of the Universe growing up, but it was more “something to have on” than “I LOVE THIS SHOW!” And, the old cartoon was also part of the “Every show has to have a poignant lesson for kids” cavalcade of shows.
Revelation, however, was a solid, well-written and well-cast show. That didn’t pull punches. Nor did it try to be the original show… much to the obvious chagrin to many old-school die-hards. (What I really wanted to say there was “People who can’t get out of their own way and past their own head-canon to enjoy something new.” But that would have been a little harsh. Not as harsh as “Whiny people – mostly guys – who are mad that it isn’t exactly the same as their power-fantasy childhood nostalgic favorite cartoon,” but you get the gist.)
A commercial for the new Matrix movie just came on, and I’m wondering why it wasn’t just called Matrix: Rebooted.
I guess that I should also mention that I saw Spider-Man: No Way Home last week. There was A LOT to take in. Yes, there is something that I wasn’t 100% happy with – and have found that a friend agreed with me on that point – but I really liked the movie. It hit all the right beats and lived up to its hype. And more importantly, it surprised me in places. Well done, Sony and Marvel. Well done.
Sunday – 06 June 2021 Kids can delightful, laughter-inducing angels of joy.
They can also be emissaries from the deepest pits of Hell.
And sometimes they can be both, within a matter of minutes. Seriously. The change can be as fickle and swift as the direction from which the wind blows.
Something that people – usually those who’ve had a kid or two before you – neglect to tell you is about the vigor with which kids sometimes glom onto new things, like toys, games, TV shows, or music.
Our ladies are BIG FANS of the L.O.L Surprise Dolls line of toys, for example.
And, NO, I’m not giving them flak for that, given that I have an ever-growing collection of dollsaction figures “photography subjects.” I’m self-aware enough to realize how hypocritical that would be.
Likewise, they have become big supporters of our Nintendo Switch, especially when they ask me to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
And when I say “ask me to play,” I actually mean “get me to play so that they can tell me what to do/where to go in the game.”
I won’t even go into how they’ve binged TV shows that catch their interest, but I will say that I had NO IDEA how many “magical girl,” Sailor Moon-esque series there were and I’m sure that we’ve only barely scratched the surface there.
And, music…? Same brand, different flavor.
I should have known that something was up when I started listening to Jungle’s Busy Earnin’ and they effectively put it on solid repeat on our smart speaker.
But I didn’t.
Perhaps I should have gotten a clue when they did the same thing with Just Loud’s Soul Train.
Nope.
Ghostbusters (I’m Not Afraid), by Fallout Boy? Still nope.
Sucker, by the Jonas Brothers? I might have started to get an inkling of an idea. Maybe.
What can I say, I’m a slow learner sometimes.
The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights?
Okay, by this time, I finally managed to find two brain cells to rub together and come up with “a clue.”
Their latest infatuation has been Dua Lipa. Mostly Levitating…
…but they have branched out a bit and will just tell the smart speaker to shuffle her songs. And it’s not just playing her songs, but randomly breaking out into song, like they’re on Fame or in Enchanted. Repeatedly.
At this point, I might as well just save some money and quit my Spotify and Amazon Music subscriptions because I have in-home, stereophonic singing. On repeat. Sometimes with the added benefit of dancing.
Tuesday – 17 October 2020 Just so you know, the irony is not lost on me.
That moment when you realize that the thing you joked about and maybe even mocked a bit becomes something you own.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself…
Back in the 90s, my friend, Christine, was a pretty big fan of Saban’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. As any good friend would, I gave her a fair bit of good-natured grief about it, over the years. But, I also got it: MMPR was one of her warm, fuzzy, happy places, much like some comics were – and still are – for me.
So, you can imagine how stupidly and ironically funny it is to me that I would be able to take this picture. At home. Thirty-odd years later.
Yep, that’s right… I have added all five of the Quick-Change Color Kids to my tiny plastic friends.
It started with the Pink Ranger, as a figure to use with Gwenpool and Ghost-Spider for my Wednesday #CapesAndCoffee posts. (Because “On Wednesdays, we wear pink.” Duh.) Then, I wound up getting the Blue Ranger, because I have a horrible song-related pun in my head that’s eventually going to work its way out. Next up, the Yellow Ranger. She was fiendishly hard to find when released – and I also still had no interest in getting her when originally released – but word got out that a local clearance center wound up with a dozen or so, and I thought, “Why not,” and picked up two. That turned out to be a fortuitous move, as a friend who collects figures had a Yellow Ranger with a bad paint job. I offered up my extra Ranger… for which he traded me the Black Ranger.
Damn. Now I had four-fifths of the team, I couldn’t let that go. So I wound up ordering the Red Ranger last week.
Yeah, I know.
Fast forward to this past Saturday: I’m up early with Evie and, after a trip outside to let her use the loo and run around a bit, we were hanging out on the sofa. I was surfing channels and wound up hitting Shout Factory TV. And there it was: Super Sentai Zyuranger – the show from which Saban’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was… derived, if not born. (If you’re not familiar with the “how” and “why,” check out the MMPR episode of The Toys That Made Us.) And I watched about half of an episode. It was the introduction of the Green Ranger. In SSZ, the Green Ranger turns out to be the brother of the Red Ranger, as opposed to a relatively random kid chosen to foil the Rangers’ efforts.
So, here we are. I will also freely admit that I’m debating whether or not to add the Green Ranger to the Color Guard, at this point.
But, as I said above: The irony is not lost on me.
Monday – 26 October 2020 I guess they’ve really been more “ellipses” than “circles,” but let’s not get too pedantic here. Regardless, as of 7:00 AM EDT this morning, I have completed fifty of them. “Them” being orbits of the sun.
The best part: It doesn’t feel like it’s been fifty years.
Playgrounds say “youthful,” right?!
In the last fifty years (that still sounds really weird…), I’ve been able to do a lot of amazing things. I look forward to discovering and doing a lot more.
I need to bring up kids, for a minute. (Don’t worry, this stays with the “circle theme.”) Becoming a parent has been a highly educational experience. And I don’t mean helping them with schoolwork while they are distance learning, either. I mean in terms of seeing things “for the first time,” again. (See? brought it back right there.) The most recent example of this came over the weekend:
I’ve had an old game, X-Men Legends, on my mind, since referencing it in a “Capes and Coffee” post a couple of weeks ago. So, I unearthed my Xbox – my Gen1 Xbox – Friday night. After a little searching, I found my copy of Legends… along with the 2001 Spider-Man game, X-Men: Next Dimension, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance.
I fired up X-Men: Next Dimension first, because… X-Men fighting game! That was a slog. Not just the play, but also the graphics – they were far from “high definition.” That didn’t stop me for playing for an hour or more before going to bed.
Saturday, I played a little bit of Legends.
And that’s when Vanessa came out to see what I was doing, eyes wide as if to ask “What is THIS videogame goodness that I have not seen or played before…?!” She asked if she could play and I let her. She was over the moon. While I had a nostalgic fondness for the game, she was discovering it for the first time. (I make a point of not typically telling the ladies “how” to play games, so they have to learn on their own and also have the experience of playing without me just walking them through games.) Vanessa did ask me to help her get past Mystique at one point; I obliged.
Sunday afternoon saw both ladies playing – handing off the controller at first and later playing co-op, after they had unlocked another character. Both of them discovering new things.
And having fun.
And I’ve had fun “replaying” the game, albeit vicariously.
These two young ladies keep me – and Sara – on our toes. And I don’t really think that we’d want it any other way.
Continuing the Sara and Team DiVa train of thought – and returning to the birthday mainline – they made sure that I had a good birthday. They let me sleep in (a bit) this morning. Evie came in and gave me her happy birthday wishes. Sara went to off to work, leaving me at home with Team DiVa and Evie. Later in the day, I went gallivanting around town; I found nothing that I couldn’t absolutely live without, however. Back at home, we had dinner from Macaroni Grill (“Hello, Chicken Marsala!”) and an ice cream cake. And, yes, there were presents:
A new sketchbook,
A gift certificate to my local comic shop,
The new Madden game,
The new Rogue and Pyro Marvel Legends set, and
a candy dispenser that Team DiVa made without our knowledge or assistance!
Yeah, the ladies worked together to make a candy dispenser, based on something they saw in a science video series. They said that it wasn’t quite the same as the one they saw, but this one works pretty well – candy goes in the top and comes out the bottom! We have some precocious kids! (I discovered, after taking this picture, that the candy dispenser was NOT for my birthday, but was a family present. Oh, well. I’m still very proud of them!)
Fun Fact – Something that didn’t dawn on me until last night: I was born on a Monday. And thus, the theme of circles I started this post with has another level of depth.
Sunday – 31 May 2020 This morning, I woke up a little earlier than expected. Nothing was wrong, I was just awake. I went to the kitchen to start coffee a’brewing, opened the blinds, let Evie out of her crate. A pretty typical start to the day.
After taking Evie outside for an uneventful – and non-productive – excursion, I came in, sat on the sofa, and turned on the TV. The past few weeks, I might have turned on CBS Sunday Morning, but my heart just wasn’t up for news today. I flipped past NBC’s Meet the Press and wound up letting it play in the background, while I distracted myself with other things.
At 9:00, I turned to Heroes & Icons to watch an episode of Old Man in TightsThe Adventures of Superman, because… Superman.
George Reeve in The Adventures of Superman
As the last few episodes that I’ve watched were in color, I was a little shocked to see that it was a black-and-white episode. When the title card came up, it was one that I didn’t recognize: “Superman on Earth.” So, I sat back and took it in…
It was the FIRST episode of the first season, one that I’d never seen in all of the years I’ve watched the show! It went all the way back to just before Krypton’s explosion, as Jor-El tried to explain the ruling council members that they should make preparations for the planet’s demise.
Sidebar: If you have a young, hot-shot scientist – who isn’t given to hyperbole and whose expertise no one has had any reason to doubt, by the way – and he tells you, “We’re on the clock… start building ships, ’cause we need to raise up and roll out,” you might want to listen to him. Just saying.
Anyway, you know the spiel:
Jor-El tells the old dudes.
They scoff.
Jor-El and Lara put their only child in a prototype rocket.
Planet goes ‘splodey.
Rocket lands on Earth.
And here’s where things get a little different than what most people currently know about Superman: There’s no Jonathan or Martha Kent.
That’s not to say that there aren’t any Kents, just not the ones modern audiences know. The characters that we’ve come to know as “Jonathan” and “Martha” were originally named “Eben” and “Sarah,” even in the comics. Still farmers. Still in Smallville, Kansas. Just not “Jonathan” and “Martha.”
Man, that would have screwed things up in Batman vs. Superman…
But, I digress.
In the 22 minute episode, not only did we see all of the above, but also:
a twelve-year-old Clark wondering why he was different than other kids and being consoled by Martha.
The death of Jonathan.
Clark’s journey to Metropolis, and
How Clark met the Daily Planet gang AND scooped Lois on the first appearance of Superman.
All-in-all, I was not only thrilled to see an episode I’d never seen, but I also quite enjoyed how tightly – if dripping in 50’s Sci-Fi cheesiness – it introduced the characters and set up all you needed to know about Superman.
Friday – 15 May 2020 For the past seven or eight weeks, my manager has held “check-in” meetings with my team. These meetings aren’t so much about day-to-day business; they are more light-hearted and casual – just making sure that we are all maintaining our sanity during quarantine and working remotely.
One of the things that my manager is big on is having our cameras on during meetings. He thinks, and I agree, that it fosters a level of openness, bolsters the sense of community, and helps focus on the people in the meeting rather than just having disembodied voices in your ear.
We – the various IT departments – have been expanding our use of Microsoft Teams as a collaborative and communication tool over the past year. We are in the middle of actively migrating everyone else over from Skype to Teams. There have been a lot of training sessions that have gone along with this. A LOT.
Our Service Delivery team has also been providing less formal, more conversational sessions, highlighting some of the features of Teams and showing how different departments can make use of Teams to be more efficient and effective. One of the features that seems to be a hit with most users is the ability to either blur your background or to upload your own backgrounds to be used during video calls.
During our last check-in meeting, my manager casually threw out the idea of having us joining today’s meeting using a background that represented us or something we enjoyed. Everyone said, “Okay,” and went about the rest of our day.
Challenge: ACCEPTED
I spent some time over the past few days looking for a specific type of picture. I didn’t find anything that sang to me in the way that I hoped, but I kept looking. I wound up using a background I downloaded a few weeks ago, which still suited my purposes just fine.
And that is how I wound up dressed as Nick Fury – complete with scars, eyepatch, and overcoat – “sitting” in a S.H.I.E.L.D. conference room during today’s meeting.
Sunday – 26 April 2020 This morning, I got up when Evie started whining. She didn’t want to go out, she just wanted to be out of her crate. No big deal. She stepped out of her crate, stretched, and immediately proceeded to plop down in a chair and doze for the better part of the next hour. I turned on CBS News Sunday Morning and half-watched/half-dozed through the show.
Just before breakfast, while trying to decide when I wanted to get on to the “less fun/more work” part of the day, I flipped to H&I (Heroes and Icons) and found an episode of The Adventures of Superman or “Old Man in Tights,” as Jess used to call it.
George Reeves in The Adventures of Superman
I grew up watching this show, so to say that I have a soft spot for it – cheesy as its 50s standards may be – is something of an understatement. It still makes my inner 5/6 year-old grin like a fiend. I watched a few minutes, before heading to eat.
I had also noted that a couple of episodes of Batman – yes, the 60s Adam West and Burt Ward series – was airing next. Team DiVa finished breakfast in enough time to watch the last third or so of the first episode. When it finished, Vanessa shouted “Next episode!” Did my geek heart proud, it did. She and Diana watched it. They made no comment as to whether or not they wanted to see other episodes. I won’t push the subject; we’ll see what they decide.
After Batman, there was an episode of Wonder Woman. I watched most of it. Not even remotely ashamed to admit it. Added bonus: Roy Rogers was the guest star.
Lynda Carter and Roy Rogers
I did a little IMDB-digging and found out that this episode, titled “The Bushwackers,” was Rogers’ last appearance on TV or film. The episode also featured Richard Eastham and Henry Darrow, both of whom were television staples of the 60s, 70s, and 80s… as well as a very young, pre-The Young and the Restless Kristoff St. John.
I would like to thank everyone – and there were a lot of you – who took time out of their day to wish me well as I start another 2?93,000,000 mile trip around the sun. It made the day that much more special to know that people thought enough of me to write or call. So, a very heart-felt “Thank you” to each of you.
As my birthday was on a Saturday, I took Friday off. I even went to the gym. (WHAAAAT!?) Yeah, first time in [REDACTED] that’s happened. Friday night’s soreness spoke to that. Loudly. There was a trip to The Train Shoppe and I took myself out for Chinese food for lunch, as well. Later in the evening, I had dinner with Team DiVa – no SaraRules!, as she had to work – and a few friends.
Saturday included sleeping in, breakfast spaghetti (!), a VERY cool birthday present…
“In brightest day, in blackest night…”
…heading to a hobby shop to pick up more accessories for Action Figure Theatre, and then cake and ice cream with Sara and the ladies.
Sunday started with a dusting of snow (!), once again proving my statement that it usually snows in SLC before November. There were chores to be done, but we also took a trip to the Clark Planetarium.
Not On My Watch
Any Landing You Can Walk Away From…
Into the Unknown
The night was capped with dinner with Sara’s side of the family, MORE cake and ice cream, and Hallowe’en cookie-decorating.
In all, it was an excellent start to 49. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings.
Wednesday – 31 July 2019
Yesterday morning, my Inbox contained an email from Starbuck’s (the coffee shop, not the Viper pilot 🙁 ). It was an ad for their nitro cold brew. One of the tag lines for it was: “Cold, lush and velvety-smooth. ”
Naturally, this almost immediately reparsed in my head as the introduction to a new prime-time PI show:
Thursday – 25 July 2019
The Lady SaraRules! has made it her current mission to watch all four of the 80s/90s Batman movies:
Batman (1989) – Michael Keaton
Batman Returns (1992) – Michael Keaton
Batman Forever (1995) – Val Kilmer
Batman and Robin (1997) – George Clooney
We watched Batman a few nights ago. While a bit dated, I still enjoy it. Although, I admit that Burton’s concept of a Batman who kills misses the mark a bit. I actually enjoy both Keaton’s Bruce Wayne and his Batman.
We watched Batman Returns last night. I seemed to recall that I thought the movie was “okay,” when I originally saw it, but that it felt a little… “off.” Watching it again, I found that it was not only “not good,” but that it was steeped in sexual… I can’t really call it “innuendo,” because there was absolutely no subtlety to it.
Tonight, we’re watching Batman Forever. I remember enjoying this movie years ago. Even going so far as to defend it against naysayers. I watched it again a few years ago and discovered that nostalgia (and lack of age/sophistication) when I originally saw it colored my opinion. That is to say: “It ain’t a great movie.” I’d daresay that the best part of this movie is its soundtrack. This movie was also the beginning of the end of the Batman franchise for nearly twenty years. Joel Schumaker, who directed both this and its follow-up, has gone on the record as saying that he thought that audiences wanted a campy film, more in the vein of the 60s televsion show. (aNot the case.) And I never really paid attention to some of the musical cues before; there seem to be some call-backs to the way they used music in the 60s show. Holy crap. I forgot that Drew Barrymore was in this!
At some point, Sara wants to watch Batman and Robin (or “Robin II,” as my friend Nizlee calls it). She is on her own for that one. I haven’t watched that movie since seeing in the theatre over 20 years ago… and I don’t really see a reason to break that streak. And the best part of this movie really is its soundtrack.
Maybe I’ll be able to convince Sara to watch Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. I mean for the sake of completion, of course.
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) – Kevin Conroy
Monday – 17 June 2019
Yesterday was Father’s Day. My day started with Team DiVa and Evie waking me up for breakfast – after I got to sleep in. (Not a bad way to kick off a day, to be honest.) For breakfast, I had French Toast, eggs, bacon, and fresh berries. I was then told to get dressed and get ready for a series of adventures that Team DiVa had planned for me. I was intrigued.
Our first stop was a Bonwood Bowl. Somehow, the little ladies had decided that I would really like to go bowling. (They weren’t wrong.) A frame or two into the first game, I realized that my bowling balls and my hands weren’t going to be friends and wound up having to switch to a house ball. My first game wasn’t great, but it was fun; I had a better second game. From there, I was taken to a (relatively) nearby Baskin-Robbins for ice cream. Double-scoop waffle cone. Aw, yeah.
Back home for a little down time, while Sara and the girls prepared lunch. Let me clarify that: I was told that downstairs would be a good place for me to be while they got things ready. When I was finally able to come back upstairs, there was no one there. That was… odd. Turns out that they had set up a picnic in the backyard: Ham, roast beef, pretzels, and berries. It was very cute and sweet.
The rest of the afternoon was rather full of doing lots of nothing. I also played a little Skyrim involved, as the ladies played LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2.
Later, we headed off to dinner with Sara’s side of the family. Then back home, to get the ladies ready for bed. Once they were down and out, Sara and I headed to the backyard for cigars and drinks, which was an excellent way to wind up the day. And, after all of that, I found myself back in Skyrim again for a couple of hours before calling it a good day.
And, my Father’s Day presents included some fun items:
