Check For Radiation

This is a very brief one, but the last time it rained, water was getting into the underground parking garage at work, and it was pooling along the walls and under people's cars.  And under my car, specifically, I thought it made a familiar pattern, so I took a picture:

What does this look like to you?  Is it my own brain playing tricks on me, or is that the spitting image of a famous fictional(?) character?  And is Tokyo safe right now?

No More Embarrassing Than Usual

 I saw a young lady walking out of the library today that I hadn't seen in months.  I stopped her and said, "Didn't you used to come in here, like, every single day?"  

She asked me how long I had worked here (guess that makes me pretty darn memorable) and when I told her, she said, "Yes, I used to come in here pretty much every night to study."  

"That's right!" said I, and I guess she sensed I found her attractive because she said, "I used to come here with my boyfriend."  

"Right," I lamented.  

"He's not my boyfriend anymore," she added, to which I exclaimed, "Thank god," before she finished, "...he's my husband now."

Ah.  Well, that is, was, uh, is a good thing then.  "I, uh, guess it worked out then," I said, and she walked away.  Not a huge embarrassment, but there's a wedding tonight I have to wait for, so I wrote it up anyway.

You Sweet Summer Child

There was a toy sale the other day, and I somehow convinced my nephew to come with me and help me set up and watch the booth*, which was a major coup for me.  We traded off watching the booth and looking at what other vendors had, and to my nephew's surprise, he probably sold seven to nine items, making it well worth his while.

One of the times it was my turn to watch the booth, he went off to look, and came back with a purchase from somebody down the way.

"What did you get?" I asked him.

He had a Star Wars Black Series figure in his hand, and said, "It was only five dollars.  I didn't even look it up, I just grabbed it!"

"What is it?" I asked again.

He held it up so I could see.  It was Jar Jar Binks.

"I don't know who this guy is," my nephew said, "but he's so cool, I just had to get him."

"Huh," I said, and still say.

*It's terrible to go to one of these things and not be able to sneak away and see what other vendors have, or worse, have to ask a stranger to watch my booth while I run to the bathroom.  I've done it before, and while it's embarrassing, I usually find a couple of friendly folks who are happy to help.

Rish Outcast 335: In Security 11 (Are You Seeing This?)

After a bit of political talk--what can one do against such reckless hate?--Rish talks about a possible intruder in the building.

Also, dealing with criticism, a book signing, A.I., sickness, a possible Halloween program, a couple with unbelievable stamina. And Trump--did he need to be brought up in this episode? Probably.

If you want to download the episode, Right-Click HERE.

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Logo by Gino "Are You Peeing This?" Moretto.

Probably Not A Ghost

The jury is out on whether I believe in ghosts, though it has been interesting hearing people's ghost stories and theories here at the library, but I saw another one today.

If you look here, you can see that the woman entering the building appears to be missing her face.

It's not just missing details, but it seems to be completely smooth.

Yes, Rish, but that is a notoriously shitty camera, you might be saying.  Uh huh, but look at the side view here:

It's complelely smooth.  At least it looks to be.

Now, you MAY be saying, "Rish, you did this to her, you twisted phuck.  You took an image and erased her face in some kind of Photoshop program."  To which, I say, Hey, you're giving me an awful lot of credit.  I suppose I could figure out how to do that, but to what end?  

There was just a faceless woman in the library, and I noticed it, otherwise I would never have written this post.  

You understand.

I tried to get a close-up before she reached the stairs.  It didn't help.

Rish Outcast 334: My Friend of Misery 5

In the final segment of the novella, Brielle Montrose has moved far away from her brother...but does that mean she is also far from his supernatural associate?

I hope you have enjoyed this (lengthy) presentation. I think I know which one I plan to do next, but if you have a suggestion, feel free to put it out there.

If you want to download the episode, Right-Click HERE.

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Logo by Gino "My Friend" Moretto.

Marshal & I Consume Some BURNT OFFERINGS

Maybe a bit overcooked in places.  In the latest Outfield Excursions episode*, Marshal and I take a look at 1976's BURNT OFFERINGS, where a family moves into an old house, one that might be haunted . . . or might actually be something worse.

The movie wasn't spectacular, kids . . . but the ending sure was.  Check out our conversation HERE!

*In actuality, this is not the latest episode--or even the second-to-latest episode.  If you support Marshal on Patreon, it turns out you can hear these episodes when they are new, not two or three months old.

Yub Nub?

Me n' Big Anklevich were just the right age to love the Ewoks.  The generation before ours equated them with all that went wrong with Star Wars (in 1983-85, as short-sighted as that seems), and later generations had their own problems.  But hey, I like the Ewoks just fine, and had all the action figures Kenner made, except Logray (ironically, one of the least-valuable).

But Hasbro doesn't make a lot of them anymore.  I remember Toys R Us had a boxed set of Ewoks that was worth its weight in gold, even though they were mostly the same figure over and over with different accessories.

Anyway, that is unnecessary backstory that serves to a) provide context, and more importantly, b) to pad out this blog post a little bit.  The point of all this is that, when I was crossing the lawn the other day from parking my car, I saw something that had been dropped in the front yard, and I paused.

To my eyes, the first thing I thought I was seeing was an Ewok.  This looked like an action figure of a random Ewok, random enough I didn't immediately recognize it.  But Hasbro has done a lot of them over the decades.  And some of those figures have become pretty valuable recently (but only to people around my age, but with a lot more money).

So, back to the mysterious object in the grass.  It didn't look like an Ewok that belonged to me, but my nephews sometimes go to thrift stores and have bought Star Wars stuff in the past, so I thought it might have been dropped by one of them.

Of course, let me interrupt the narrative right here with a bit of metacommentary.  It may be that I look and see an Ewok where anybody else would look and see something else, and you, having seen the photos, know exactly where this is going.  But it looked like an Ewok to me, and in posting the picture here, it still pretty much does.

But no, it was not an action figure of any sort, Star Wars or otherwise.  Upon much-too-close examination, what was in the grass in our front yard was merely a dog turd.  Fun.

I don't rule out the possibility that the dog turd originated from the forest moon of Endor, though.

Rish Outcast 333: My Friend of Misery 4

Rish presents the fourth chunk (a technical term) of his novella "My Friend of Misery."

Can Brielle Montrose convince her brother to abandon his new best pal? Or is it far too late?

If you want to download the episode, Right-Click HERE.

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Logo by Gino "My End of Misery" Moretto.

Gutterball

There was a toy sale my cousin and I went to in April, and as we were putting out our wares, we came across a Spongebob Squarepants Happy Meal toy that belonged to neither of us.  As there were bound to be many children there that day (as well as rain, wind, and hail), my cousin figured he could put a sticker that said "Free" on it so someone who actually wanted it could take it off our hands.

Typical of me, I made a sticker for it that said "FREE (Warning: toy is cursed)" on it.  No, not funny in the slightest, but when has that ever stopped me?

And a few minutes later, a child did indeed see the Spongebob toy and show it to his mother, who read my sticker and said, "No!  Put it back, it says it's cursed."  And . . . well, yeah, I guess that was a little bit funny.

Anyway, once the torrential rain came down, the ball was forgotten, and the next week, when we got together to sell, my cousin took the "cursed" sticker off of it, and just gave it away without comment.  End of story.

But today was another toy sale, in a much, much smaller venue, and both my cousin and I had tables next to each other.  The organizer of the event had found a little plastic ball while setting up, and put it on his desk so that anyone who wanted it could take it (for free).  I mentioned it to my cousin, and we both had the same idea: the ball was free, sure, but it was cursed.

Anyhow, the toy selling day came and went without much incident.*  I sold only two or three things (might only have been two), but my cousin did better, and I really see these as social outings more than all-or-nothing business trips, so it was a fair day.  We were packing up our stuff and carrying it to my cousin's car, when I looked down at the gutter.  There was the ball Jwill had had at his table, lying between the sidewalk and the street.

It was easy to imagine an unlucky child leaving the venue, his cursed ball in hand, and starting to cross the road before being flattened by a Cybertruck that, true to form, didn't even stop to apologize.  And there was that ball again, just waiting for the next poor soul to pick it up.

*The only incident of measure, not really even worth mentioning, was that I had offered to bring an expensive toy (one selling for between $140 and $150 on eBay), but had told people I would be asking $120 for it, and when I spoke to my nephew about the possibility of it reaching $200 or so around Christmas, he said, "Then why let it go for less?" because he knows me well enough to see me selling it for $100 or even $80 because I'm incapable of sticking to my guns.  So, I told him before I left that I would stick to my guns and not sell it for less than what I was asking for.  My cousin told me the same thing ("Just say no when someone offers you fifty"), and I vowed to be tough for the first time ever.  So, when a couple of people asked me its price (even though it said it had $120 right on it), I told them I couldn't go lower.  But one guy wouldn't stop needling me about doing just that.  I told him, "Yeah, I could go lower, but I'm not going to on this one."  But he just wouldn't stop ("Nobody's bought it for $120 yet--just drop the price"), and toward the end of the day, after a stranger texted me and said he'd give me full price for it if I still had it that afternoon, this guy--who is not a stranger, and I have gone as far as to drive to my sister's house to get an item from her basement to sell to him--came up to me (this was maybe the fourth time that day), and said, "Okay, here's my final offer: $105," I said, "Sorry, it's not for sale anymore," and I took it off the table and set it aside.  
He did not respond well to this.  "Okay, great," he said, and angrily walked back to his booth (across the room), upset that I had wasted so much of his precious time (I had bought three things from his own booth, which I suppose I regret now).  He hadn't previously been a friend of mine or anything, but after today, he never would be.

Rish Outcast 332: You're My Obsession

Rish is head over heels for this 2026 Horror movie OBSESSION, directed by Curry Barker, which has made a ton of money and garnered a bunch of praise. And while Rish tries to skirt spoilers, here's one: he never quite manages to properly explain why the movie was so scary to him.

While we're at it, why not talk about John Collier's "The Chaser," adapted in the first season of The Twilight Zone?

Warning: TMI and thematic spoilers.

Download the file directly by Right-Clicking HERE.

Why don't you support me on Patreon HERE?  You afraid or something?

Logo by Gino "You're My Depression" Moretto.