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.
Tuesday – 09 November 2021 Today, I had the opportunity to volunteer/chaperone for Team DiVa’s class, as they participated in the Junior Achievement City “BizTown.”
JA BizTown combines in-class learning with a day-long visit to a simulated town. This popular program allows elementary school students to operate banks, manage restaurants, write checks, and vote for mayor. The program helps students connect the dots between what they learn in school and the real world.
There was an additional bonus: The girls had NO IDEA that I’d be there.
That was a definite #win.
Both ladies were the CEOs of their respective businesses:
Diana…
…CEO of Smith’s Marketplace
Vanessa…
…CEO of Zion’s Bank
I didn’t work with either of the ladies. I was assigned as a volunteer in City Hall. I worked with the Mayor (CEO), Town Treasurer (CFO), Attorney, Two Account Executives, and a DJ.
City Hall
City Employees
Twenty businesses were represented, ranging from retail, food services, utilities, a school district, news and television outlets, and even sports. Each business started the day by taking out a loan from one of the two banks; kids were then responsible for making sure that their businesses made money, paid payroll, created and/or paid invoices, and more. Businesses could also create ads to run on the radio or television – which created revenue for the media outlets and hopefully turned into awareness – and sales – for the business featured in the ad.
The morning opened with an opening meeting and remarks from the Mayor, along with speeches from a few of the business’ CEOs. Diana, gave one of the opening speeches.
Diana’s Opening CEO Speech
One of the things that I wasn’t aware of until the day was over: She didn’t have a script for her speech. (There WAS a script for her speech, but her volunteers didn’t tell her to bring it. *facepalm*) She ad-libbed her entire opening, based on things she heard from some of the CEOs who spoke before her! She was so calm and cool about it that I – and I’m sure no one else, aside from possibly the JA staff – had no idea that she was going completely off-the-cuff with her remarks.
After the speeches, it was off to the proverbial races!
At first, it was a little like herding cats – this was largely due to the amped-up energy of the kids, trying to figure out what to do and how to do it. (As volunteers, we were there to support and guide, not to do the jobs for them.) Some things were done “a little” out of order. Some things got overlooked, until someone realized that something was missing. But, after a while, they got the hang of things and the day, while hectic and a bit frenetic, moved along nicely.
The day ended with a closing meeting, during which Vanessa gave one of the CEO speeches.
Vanessa’s CEO Closing Speech
In all, it was a great event and I was glad to have been part of it. I was also incredibly proud of not only the ladies, but also of the City Hall employees and how well they did.
Tuesday – 12 April 2016Monday – 18 April 2016 Monday – 27 April 2016 I finally saw Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justiceearlier thislast week two weeks ago. I’ve been trying to write this summation of my thoughts since then. More or less. At times, it just felt like too much drudgery to finish. But, here it is.
I managed to avoid most spoilers, either in conversation or in the media, before seeing the movie. There was one nominally big one that slipped through the cracks, but I thought it might have been a misinterpretation. (It wasn’t.) I will most likely pick up that thread later in this post.
Like my Man of Steel review, this is going to be a two-part review: The first part will be more of a synopsis and spoiler-free. The second part will be more in-depth. Consider yourselves duly warned.
Part One: Synopsis I mostly enjoyed this movie.
With the passage of time, ive come to realize how little about the movie I truly enjoyed.
It appeared to draw from the following sources, among others:
Some would contend that there were too many moving pieces in this film and that never works. I’d counter with a look at X2: X-Men United. That story took four storylines from over 20 years of X-Men lore and wove them into a compelling story. This, however, threw a lot at the audience in its two-and-a-half hour runtime… and there’s still (at least) thirty minutes of footage that will be seen on the DVD/Blu-Ray release.
And, seventy-five years after her introduction, we finally got Wonder Woman on the big screen. She was introduced with an air of mystery that I hope will be expanded upon in her feature film, due out next year. For the in-costume screen time that she did have, I was pleased with how she was presented: She was a warrior and one, it seemed, who enjoyed a good fight.
I give this movie five SuperBats… possibly six, with Diana’s brief appearances adding three of those stars:
( )
Part Two: In-Depth Observations Now that the niceties are out of the way, let’s get to the heart of the matter.
This was a dark movie. Granted, Batman is in it, but I expected a Superman with a much lighter tone to juxtapose against the Dark Knight’s… darkness. That was not what audiences got.
This Superman was still rather aloof and somewhat removed from the people. Yes, there have been stories around that concept, but for the most part, Superman has seemed to enjoy not only being a role model, but also just being with and around people. Well, more people than just Lois Lane and Martha Kent. There was talk of – and a little lip-service towards – him being a symbol of hope for people… but it seemed more like they were just trying to convince the audience of that than anything else.
The Batman we saw could have been lifted directly out of The Dark Knight Returns: Older, world-weary, hardened. He perceived Superman as a threat to be negated and he also gave action to the growing sentiment of wariness and fear… even if he was pushed into this action through Lex Luthor’s machinations. That point, I’ll come back to in a few paragraphs. While I can understand Bruce’s rage-filled dream about Superman taking over the world, what I cannot fathom is why he would have any notion of parademons, the firepits of Apokolips, or Darkseid at this stage of the game. Hell, he shouldn’t even really have an inkling until Lex started ranting at the end of the movie… if even then.
Lex Luthor. There are many ways to get him wrong. Richard Donner didn’t do it. Bryan Singer didn’t do it. Hell, even the writers on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman didn’t do it. But, this Lex… I don’t know. The genius was there, but there was something missing. Perhaps it was in the way that he came off as a bit manic in some/many scenes. Perhaps it was an attempt to show the smartest man in the room, whose mouth literally couldn’t keep up with all of the lines of thought going on in his mind. I don’t know. I think that he did morph a bit from a less manic Lex and more of the cold, calculating Luthor that I was used to seeing in scene on top of the LexCorp tower with Superman.
Once again, I found that I enjoyed Amy Adams’ Lois Lane. She was tenacious and willing to fight for the stories that she felt needed to be told. You could see that she truly cared for Clark, with his best interests at heart, but also saw the dangers in the shadows that he didn’t – or wasn’t willing to – see.
The brightest spot, in terms of characterization, was Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. To be honest, I was worried about what we would get. This, they got right. We didn’t get a lot of backstory – that’s being left to next year’s movie. While I would have liked to have known a little more about what she does for a living – she’s an antiquities expert/dealer, a fact I discovered from the packaging of a Wonder Woman figure for the movie – I was happy that Snyder got the “warrior princess” part right. And that was done very well. I loved the fact that, once she got into the thick of the fight, you could see that she was enjoying it, almost reveling in the ability to cut loose.
A friend pointed out something that I hadn’t considered: Snyder used Diana to effectively stop the plot (or at least put it on “Pause) while she “…watched trailers for the next movies.” True. For those who aren’t following: After Bruce Wayne decrypted Luthor’s file on metahumans and sent it to her, the story got derailed to show clips of the three unknown metas.
I mentioned Bruce Wayne’s buttons getting pushed by Lex Luthor above. Here’s where I come back to that point. I’ll grant you that Lex is traditionally considered one of the most intelligent characters in the DCU. What I would love to know is how did he figure out the identities of two of the most guarded figures in the DCEU?! Granted, if you watch Lois Lane’s movements enough, pick up on the fact that “where goes Lois, so too goes Superman.” Put that together with the fact that she started dating a guy – roughly Superman’s size and build – about the same time he showed up on the scene and it’s arguable that you could deduce that Clark is Superman, given enough time. In fact, Lex figured that out in comics in the second issue of Superman (1987), but rationalized it away, thinking that no one with Superman’s powers would waste his time pretending to be… just human. But, figuring out that Bruce Wayne is Batman? Nope. Can’t see it. And, being able to lead “the world’s greatest detective” on a snipe hunt for a man who not only doesn’t exist, but there’s a ship in the harbor that he’s been staking out with the exact same name and he can’t figure it out?! Nah, man. You lost me there.
Then there’s Zod Doomsday. I’m amazed at how quickly Lex not only wrapped his not-yet-bald head xenotechnology and took control of the ark/Fortress of Solitude, but let’s also give him a hand for mastering xenobiology in about 10 minutes. “Lex E. Coyote, super genius…“
And the death of Clark Kent was handled even more ham-fistedly than in the comics. And that’s saying something.
I was struck by something that Christopher Tapley wrote in his review of the movie for Variety:
“… given that Snyder is obsessed with iconography, a visualist more than a storyteller. “
That phrase triggered something for me. After reading it, I considered some of the movies that Snyder has directed: 300, Man of Steel, Sucker Punch, and Watchmen. While I enjoyed all of those films – and even purchased three of the four – I realized that Mr. Tapley was right. Snyder has a keen ability to make something look visually stunning… but, unless he is (more or less) directly adapting something – 300 or Watchmen, for example – the story is kind of thin. And this movie was no exception to that rule.
As much as I enjoyed Man of Steel for the things that it did differently with the character, I just couldn’t muster that same satisfaction out of this movie. Wonder Woman pulled a lot of this movie’s fat out of the fire for me. I am not disappointed that I paid to see it (in IMAX, even) for the spectacle, but I’m on the fence whether I’ll be putting down money to buy the DVD/Blu-ray… unless the extra footage seriously helps the story. And that’s a pretty strong statement, coming from the guy who saw Green Lantern in the theatre twice(!) and bought the movie on Blu-ray.
Thursday – 29 July 2021 On tonight’s installment of How Interesting Can Your Evening Get…?
MAILBOX HIT AND RUN!
We were getting ready for dinner when we heard a loud crash. As we were in different rooms, Sara asked if I was alright; I told her that whatever caused the noise, it wasn’t me.
I went outside to investigate (or let’s face it: “be nosy) but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary… until I got to the corner of the garage and noticed a mailbox in the driveway!
Oddly, our mailbox wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
I looked at the car and thought that it belonged to one of our next-door neighbors, but couldn’t figure out “how” or “why” it had happened. Fortunately, a neighbor was out and was informed that…
A woman under the influence of “something*” jumped the curb,
Scraped the fire hydrant,
Ran over a park strip shrubbery,
Ran over our – and our neighbors’ – mailbox…
…and then fled the scene ON FOOT!
ADDED BONUS: One of our neighbors chased after her, also on foot.
Looking at the scene of the crime, I found our mailbox:
The police came. Reports were filed. The car was impounded. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera… But, to my knowledge, they still have not caught the culprit.
And, it looks like “Install New Mailboxes” will be on the weekend agenda.
How’s YOUR Thursday night?!
* – The “what” of the aforementioned “something” has not been determined, but the attending officer found multiple needles in the car.
Tuesday – 13 July 2021 This has been an interesting day.
I woke up this morning to the sound of the coffee maker making coffee. However, the thought process that accompanied hearing that went more like this:
Why is the coffee pot on so early… on a Saturday?!
I decided to let it go, rather than to get up and stop it and restart it later. We’d just have to deal with twice-baked coffee.
Reality settled in a few moments later, a little sadly. I got up and started the day.
Fast forward to noon: We’re having a Teams-based training session, that I had to support. #LifeInIT About thirty minutes before the meeting, I went to Crown Burger (local, family-owned chain) to pick up lunch. Since it was National French Fry Day, potato-y goodness was in the forefront of my mind. And a pastrami burger seemed like a good counterpart for it.
I got back to the office, joined the meeting, muted my mic, and made sure that my camera was off. And then began to eat.
In order to make things easier to organize on my computer’s desktop, I lifted my laptop lid to rearrange screens. Almost immediately, I received three (3) messages, all basically saying the same thing: I want french fries, too!
Nine Hells…
I’d neglected to check to see if opening my laptop screen would cause the camera to automatically activate. (It did.) And, thus roughly two-hundred people had the opportunity to watch me shoveling french fries into my mouth. (It wasn’t quite that gluttonous an event, but you get the gist.)
Once I realized what happened, I ran through a short and semi-panicked checklist to see if I’d done anything untoward after opening my laptop (I hadn’t) and shut down the camera. Mischief managed, I resumed eating. And quietly thanked God and the rest of the Heavenly Host that I hadn’t leaned in for a bite of my burger. My big thought – after realizing that I hadn’t done anything truly embarrassing – was: If people watching me stuff fries in my face was the worst thing that happens to me today, I’m fine with that. And, let’s be honest: All things considered, it was a fairly innocuous thing to have caught on camera. And it actually makes me laugh, when I think about how it must have looked to everyone.
Fast foward again to this evening… We’ve extended Team DiVa’s bedtime to 9:00 PM in the past couple of months, with a caveat: They can stay up until nine, but they have to be in their room and can read in bed. Typically, one of them will ask Sara to join them. Tonight, I got called up to the big leagues! Vanessa asked me if I’d read with her. I was delighted to do so. It also gave me the opportunity to finally start in on a book that I’ve had for months: Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer. I’m about twenty pages in, but I’m liking it.
Hopefully, Sunday Wednesday won’t be quite as eventful.
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.
Monday – 26 April 2021 As I write this – 34,000 feet above… wherever I am… I am reflecting on the whirlwind of the past weekend.
A few weeks ago, I received my second COVID-19 vaccination. At the time that I had scheduled it, Sara suggested that I should go visit my mother. I couldn’t fault her logic and that’s what I did. Among other things.
I flew into BWI Thursday afternoon, arriving much later than planned, thanks to a mechanical issue with my outbound flight.
I had made plans with three of my Godparents’ kids – and my three oldest friends – to meet up at our aunt’s house as a surprise to her. It’s been over 15 years since the four of us have been in the same place at the same time. Unfortunately, my flight delay caused me to miss seeing one of them. But, the surprise for my aunt worked all the same, as she didn’t connect the dots as to why three of “her kids” just showed up so unexpectedly. (I later found out that she had attributed the arrival of two of them to having recently talked with their mother.) When I showed up, she was surprised. Again. She even asked if I knew that the others would be there. I smiled and simply told her, “I told them to be here.” It was great to see everyone.
Leaving there, I took “the back way” from her house to my father’s. I knocked on the door and my father answered. I told him that I thought I might have taken a wrong turn somewhere. He laughed at that and ushered me into the house. Surprise #2: CHECK!
Years ago, when my paternal grandmother was alive, I’d occasionally drive from North Carolina to West Virginia to visit her for the day. I’d often arrive unannouced, so that she wouldn’t go to a lot of trouble preparing lunch for me. (Surprising no one, she still wound up feeding me well whenever I did that.) Since I’d showed up unexpectedly in Baltimore, I figured that I could get away with a light something to eat. My father is most definitely my grandmother’s son. Within minutes, he’d prepared a meal of mashed potatoes, green beans, chicken, sweet potatoes, and rice. Again, I ate well.
The next morning I woke up – perhaps a bit more leisurely than I had originally intended – and watched the finale of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” I had some speculation as to how the series might/should end and had decided to prepare the day’s #CapesAndCoffee Instagram post to reflect that. I also posted it Thursday night, so that they were still firmly in the “fan speculation” camp, rather than the “Spoilers, Sweetie…” camp.
After getting ready, I stopped by my Godsister, Tammy’s, house and basically told her “Get in, Loser. We’re going to North Carolina for the weekend. She needed some time away, after dealing with the recent loss of her mother. She fought me for a while, but eventually decided to go, after her husband agreed that a change of pace might do her good.
The drive to NC was good. And slow. Construction traffic slow. Extra hour-and-a-half construction traffic slow. Fortunately, I had Tammy with me. We gabbed the whole way down.
We arrived at my mother’s just as they were getting ready for dinner. The look of surprise on her face as she saw the two of us at the dinner table was priceless and easily worth all the Secret Squirrel-like efforts it took to keep my trip a secret.
Saturday, I drove into Greensboro to meet my friend, Don, for lunch. While waiting, I stopped in to visit my old comic shop stomping grounds, Acme Comics. It was fun to be in familiar (though updated and different) surroundings. When Don walked in, the manager immediately recognized him and we all chatted for a bit.
Our original lunch choice had a longer wait than either of us wanted, so we went to Mac’s Speed Shop – a barbecue place. The food was good, but again, the company was better. Over lunch, I noted to Don that we actually met 31 years ago (plus or minus a couple of weeks) from this weekend. At Acme Comics. Trippy.
After we parted ways, I ran an errand for my sister and headed home. On the way, I called William, a friend with whom I also hadn’t seen/spoken with in a while. As we chatted, I remembered that he lived on the way back to Mom’s… if I changed my course a little. So I did. As I got nearer to the address that I remembered, I realized something: He’d moved in the past few years. Bugger. I didn’t remember “where” that was, although I knew that it was in the same rough area. I pulled off the road I was on, into a cul-de-sac, to get the new address. As I pulled further into the circle, I saw a truck. With the logo of the company William works for on the side. That’s right, serendipity and/or dumb luck put me at his front door.
I went in and saw William, his wife, and his youngest son… whom I hadn’t seen since he was roughly Team DiVa’s age. I also noted to William that we’d met 31 years ago, when he worked at Acme. William then called his daughter, my Goddaughter Britney (so named long before Ms. Spears became a household name) and turned the phone in my direction. She told me to hold on, she was coming over, as she only lived a few miles down the road. I hadn’t seen her in about the same number of years. She also introduced me to her husband and toddler. (I told William that he must be getting old.) It was yet another good reunion.
Back home to hang out with the family. I also installed a new shower head (the errand). We watched part of the memorial for DMX, which was something of a hot mess. And by “something,” I mean “totally.” We used Mortal Kombat as a palate cleanser. It was, as Don had called it, “big, dumb fun.”
Sunday afternoon saw Tammy and me back on the road, heading home. She admitted that she didn’t realize just how good that was for her and how much she needed it. She even told me that I won that round. I told her that I wasn’t trying to win, I was just trying to help.
The drive back was marred by the revelation that my old familiar stop in Richmond – Friendly’s Restaurant – was no longer there. (There are actually NO Friendly’s in Virginia these days, apparently. Mood: CRUSHED. I was able to ease the pain with a chocolate-dipped cone from the Dairy Queen one exit further up the road. Traffic then got a bit dodgy, not because of construction, but because of a couple of accidents. It wasn’t as stop-and-go as the construction traffic on the way to North Carolina, but it did go from freeway speed to 45 MPH more than “a few” times.
After dropping Tammy off, I called a cousin with whom I hadn’t spoken in far too long. He was at his sister’s house, not far from my father’s… so I stopped in to see them both.
Turns out that we haven’t seen each other in over 15 years! This was also made evident as I was introduced to two of my second cousins, both of whom had been born in that time.
Back home. More food.
This morning, I got ready, packed, and took my father – my stepmother wasn’t up for it – out to breakfast at Miss Shirley’s. I had a delicious omelet with lump crab meat. Crab. Not Krab. Straight out of the bay. Did I mention that it was delicious? Because, it was. I dropped Dad back at home, said “Goodbye” to the parents and headed back to the airport.
But, wait! There’s more!
My flight to Salt Lake City had a stopover in Detroit. I got to see Amy – former Utah resident and Evie’s breeder – for the first time in five years!
She brought a very tasty gyro and coffee(!) with her. We didn’t have a lot of time to spend, but it was great to see her.
Back to the airport and on to SLC. At this point, we’re about forty-five minutes from landing.
To say that this was a good weekend would be a horrible understatement. Seeing my mother was the main point of this trip. Sure, I’ve been able to see and talk with her online, but to BE there and talk with her was on an entirely different level. Add to that the fact that I was able to:
Surprise BOTH sets of parents…
AND surprise my aunt (not just me, but also with the others!)…
AND see so many other family members and friends…
AND be able to give my grieving Godsister a couple days’ respite and breathing room?
All of these things together were a great balm for the mind, body, and soul.
Saturday – 23 January 2021
I spent a bit of last evening chatting with my brother-in-law, John, and my nieces. We hadn’t chatted in many months, possibly not since before the pandemic hit.
It was fun to be able to see/hear of my Niece 1’s advances into geeky nerd-dom, which I fully support. During one part of our chat, she asked about the action figures visible on shelves on the wall behind me. There was a lot of “Wow…,” as I showed her those and explained to her that there were even more in the bookcase below the shelves. At one point, she noted that Black Widow was her favorite figure; I went to pull out two figures (classic comic and Endgame versions) and with a total pre-teen deadpan, she said, “Uncle Rob… don’t flex on me.” Which cracked me up.
Niece 2 perked up at this point, asking me if I had THIS figure and THAT figure. I showed her the ones she asked for. She was happy.
The Niece 3 was delighted just to show me her Baby Yoda and to inform me that it was “Upside-down Day,” as she rotated the iPad they were on so that she would appear upside-down. I also got to explain to her where Venom came from and how he was “related” to Spider-Man.
Niece 1 may have gotten a bit of flexing revenge as we were closing out our conversation and I was talking with John. She asked if I played “Breath of the Wild” and I told her that I didn’t have a Switch. She just walked away with a grin. I’ll give her that one. This time.
It was nice to have an opportunity to see and chat with them, as they are far away and schedule alignment doesn’t always work out.
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.
Saturday – 31 October 2020 To say that this Hallowe’en has been different from others in recent memory is… well… a gross understatement. But that didn’t stop us from making it a good day.
The day’s costumes…
Here are this year’s pumpkins — Diana turned hers into a fairy house
Searching for bones in barn owl pellets…
Sara set up a scavenger hunt for Team DiVa, which was a BIG hit.
We had a visit from a another, mysterious Grim Reaper
We had a dinner of Mummy Dogs, FrankenFries, and Spiced Apple Spider
There was bobbing for apples and trying to eat doughnuts suspended by a string…
And even an impromptu magic show!
We rounded out the night with our traditional viewing of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949).”
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.
King T’Chaka: What is wrong, my son? T’Challa: I am not ready, Baba. King T’Chaka: Have you not prepared to be king your whole life? Have you not trained and studied, been by my side? T’Challa: That is not what I am talking about. I am not ready to be without you. King T’Chaka: A man who has not prepared his children for his own death has failed as a father. Have I ever failed you? T’Challa: Never.
John Kani and Chadwick Boseman as King T’Chaka and Prince T’Challa in Black Panther
Friday, after a four-year long battle with cancer, Chadwick Boseman departed this world. Too soon. Too young.
It turns out that it was we who were not ready.
I did not know him personally. I never had the opportunity to meet him. But, I appreciated the works of his that I saw. I also appreciated his love for his fan base and his dedication uphold what appears to have been a rather high personal standard.
The world is a little bit darker place with his death.
I wish his family and loved ones well in this time of loss.
I could sit here and find any number of things to say about his life, his work, and even his legacy. The historic figures he portrayed, as well as characters created specifically for stage and film. Instead, I will simply refer you to the following links for a few of things in which I was privileged enough to participate that tied into his role as Black Panther:
Unfortunately, recordings of the Black Panther-related FanX panels in which I participated do not appear to be available.
T’Challa: In my culture, death is not the end. It’s more of a stepping off point. You reach out with both hands and Bast and Sekhmet, they lead you into the green veld where… you can run forever.
Chadwick Boseman as Prince T’Challa – The Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War
