Marshal and Rish Talk THE FANTASTIC FOUR

Were you one of the millions of potential viewers that skipped seeing FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS in the theater?  Well, it's still playing in a handful of theaters, and if you want to hear Marshal Latham and I talk about how good it was*, then you might want to hear our review of it, over at his Comics Cave sub-podcast.

Feel free to check it out HERE.  And, if you ever wonder why we're so behind on these kind of reviews, well, go support Marshal at his Patreon, and you can hear them a wee bit closer to release.

*Complete with spoilers, unfortunately.

Warning: if you wait for the streaming release, Galactus won't be nearly as impressive.

Rish Outcast 307: Like Stamp-Collecting

After going to two different comic-related sales, Rish talks about comic books, and a chilling prediction someone made.

Also, Fake Sean knows a special place where boys and girls can all be queens every single day.

To download the episode, Right-Click HERE.

To support me on Patreon, click HERE.

Logo by Gino "Likes Damp Collecting" Moretto.

Rish Outcast 304: A Group Hug Saves The World

After watching Marvel's THE THUNDERBOLTS (spoiler warning), Rish muses about the possibility of solving problems with a hug instead of a fist.

And Fake Sean tries his own squeezin, touchin, and lovin.

Download the episode by Right-Clicking HERE.

Support me on Patreon HERE.

Logo by Gino "Group Slug" Moretto.

Crack For Kids

Several years ago, someone interviewed Joe Quesada, then Editor-In-Chief of Marvel Comics, and asked him about the appeal of the medium.  He (somewhat infamously) said, "Comics are so addictive.  Put bluntly, they're crack for kids."*

And yeah, I know of which he speaks.  I was absolutely ADDICTED to comic books in the late eighties and the start of the Nineties, and kept having singing lessons my Junior and Senior year of high school (despite never being a good student) just so I could borrow my mom's car to go to the lesson, and sneak over to the comic store afterward.  Every spare dime I had went toward comics, and I still only got about half of what I wanted.**

Anyway, cut to today, when I went to the local comic book shop for the first time in ages (I assumed it had been since 2019 or '20, but the cashier said I'd last made a purchase in 2016).  I really just wanted to talk to the employee about comics and collections and his advice about what to do with my old books and hear his stories of widows or grandchildren bringing in their dead loved ones' books and finding out they had something of a goldmine on their hands.  I love those kinds of stories (and not to get off on another tangent, I spent an hour listening to a comic seller at a con tell me moving stories of people blindly discovering a book they had would pay off their house and the like, as inspiring as any church sermon).

But the guy had none, and frankly, wanted to do anything other than talk to me.  I tried changing the subject to something he MIGHT be more interested in, like old Magic The Gathering cards I had from the Nineties, but he simply didn't need any new friends.  I know comic shop proprietors have a reputation of being jag-offs, but this guy wasn't that, he just wanted to be left alone to do his internet searches or look at his phone, and I get that.***

While I was talking to him, a kid (around twelve, I'd say, but prepubescent, so he could have been ten or younger) asked me, "Are you interested in buying comic books?"  My initial thought was, "No, I'm here for the filet mignon," but I couldn't say that because I knew I wouldn't be able to spell it in this post.  Instead, I said, "Well, yeah.  How about you?"  I thought maybe the kid would tell me about his favorite characters and the semi-valuable issues he owned, then I could blow him away with having bought the first appearances of Venom, Deadpool, Silver Sable, Jubilee, Bishop, Cable, and the living black Spider-man suit when they were new. 

But no, he opened his backpack and said, "I've got some comic books here.  Do you want to buy them?"  Immediately, the dude behind the counter called over, "Hey, you can't sell stuff in here, you know that." 

I told the kid I would look at what he had to offer if he wanted to step out to the sidewalk--and yes, having typed it out, I now realize why the police were called on me.  Whoops.****

Anyway, the boy went away, having been chastened by the Comic Book Guy™, and crossed over to the role playing game side of the store, where he started talking to the Mormon missionaries that were playing Magic The Gathering there, about Pokemon cards.  This is NOT a lie, and is sort of important to the point of writing this blogpost, okay?

He--the boy--had his eye on some Pokemon cards and while I asked the cashier how much a back issue of Dazzler was (it was early enough that Rogue was still a villain--an era I'm almost completely ignorant of), I could hear him ranking the cards in order of how much he wanted them.

Well, the back issue was surprisingly cheap, and it turns out nobody EVER buys old comics from them, to the point where the Comic Book Guy™ said that if somebody brought in an issue of Fantastic Four #1 to sell to the store, he would tell them to take it elsewhere.  (again, he really told me this)  

The child was still darting around, hanging close to the rare card case, as though he'd had nothing but sugar packets that day.  I asked the cashier, "Is he the son of someone who works here?" and she said, "No, he's just a boy who comes in and buys cards sometimes."  No idea why he wasn't in school, but hey, I didn't have a good excuse for not being at work, or why I would be in a comic book store four decades outside of my childhood, so I'm not one to judge.

I paid for my comic and as soon as I stepped away, the boy ran up to me and said, "Did you want to see my comics?"  I said, "Sure, but I don't want you to get in trouble."  He said, "I don't care; I need money for cards," and took out a stack that ranged from the Eighties to the 2010s.  One of them was Web of Spider-man 29 which, believe it or not, I was never able to afford when I was a kid.  I said to him, as softly as I could, "Would you take twenty bucks for that one?"*****

He said, "I need money for Pokemon cards.  Would you give me thirty for the whole stack?"

I said, "Yes, but I don't have thirty.  You can have what I do have, though."  He said, as though I had argued with him, "Would you give me twenty-five?"  And it was weird, he glanced back, not to see if he was being observed making a n in-store transaction and breaking the rules, but to see if the Pokemon cards were still there.  "Sure," I said, and gave him twenty-six dollars, which was all I had.  He greedily snatched it away from me, handed over the books (there were about fifteen in all, probably none of them valuable, but I'm certain he could have gotten five or six apiece for half of them), and turned and ran--RAN--to buy those cards, not at all unlike a junkie on the street.

So, though I am loath to contradict Mr. Quesada, I have to argue that while comic books may be crack for kids, there's something out there that's even worse.

R.B.O.

*To be fair, this quote may be apocryphal.  I did do a search on it, and nothing immediately came up. But cards on the table . . . it was a Yahoo! search.

**Now, with hindsight, I wish I had bought extras of the books that became invaluable afterward, but of course, nobody knew which books those would be, hence the risk of speculation.

***Right now, I want no one to approach me asking about where to find something in the library, just long enough to finish my blog post.

****That bit is a joke, but not the kind you can freely tell nowadays (I think I blogged about working on a TV show a decade back when a little kid and his mom pulled into the lot at the same time and later, when we were checking in, the boy exclaimed, "Hey, you're that guy from the parking lot!"  The assistant director said, "Say what?" and I kid you not, the child actor said, "He asked if I wanted to get in his van."  This is not a made up story, and I'm sure I blogged about it, all those years ago.

*****Not to keep annoying you with these footnotes, but I have no idea what that comic is worth (and I don't even care, really), but I was never able to read that issue as a lad, and the boy was a hustler, which I was also never able to be, then or now.  So I either took pity on him, or with three mediocre to fair income streams, I felt like I could toss a bit of cash his way.  Also, it was my turn to buy lunch today, but Jeff arrived before me and paid for my meal anyway, so I was streets ahead. 
P.S. I did look it up, and the book is utterly worthless.  Whoops.

Rish Outcast 230: Step-Dads & Adopted Fathers

 Marshal Latham joins Rish in talking about the depiction of step- and adopted parents.

To Download the Step-Episode, just Right-Click HERE.

To support me on Patreon, Step-Click HERE.

Step-Logo by Gino "Wicked Stepbrother" Moretto.

Blog 5/7 & 5/8

5/7

DR. STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS was a Sam Raimi movie.  I found that pretty entertaining.  It also had nothing to do with SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, but was much more a follow-up to "WandaVision."  That surprised me.

It went pretty dark, with gruesome scenes that I felt tiptoed up to the edge of what you could get away with in a PG-13 movie.  Thematically, it was really dark also. 

I had tried to avoid social media in case of spoilers, and for the most part, I succeeded (going by the trailers, I wasn't sure even know who the villain of the film would be). 

It's my mom's birthday, and a bunch of the family members are giving her a surprise party in the park, like we did last year, and the year before (though it was in her backyard in 2020), but I jetted off to the library beforehand and tried to work hard on "Balms and Sears."

And you know what?  I got it to 39,000 words.  Easily too.

It's only the seventh, and it'll be 40K by the time the moon is full again.  Cool.

WRITING OR EXERCISE: Writing.

5/8

My four year old nephew likes watching this inane YouTube channel where a bunch of twenty-somethings destroy walls or electronics or art, screaming like castrated howler monkeys all the while.  It bugs the crap out of me, but since I'm not his parent, I can rarely force him to mute or change it, just because I want him to (I'm not considered an authority figure, for the most part).

This afternoon, though, his mother heard I Castrati Urlanti, and made him turn it off.  He was upset, complaining about being bored, and so I said, "Let's play a game.  You go out in the hall, and I'll hide your stuffed animal in your room.  Then you come back in and look for it."  He was hesitant, but I had already grabbed the stuffed fox, so he went out eventually.

I hid the fox, and told him he could come in now . . . but he didn't come.  

I went looking for him and found him in my room.  "Hey, come find the fox," I said, and he found the fox in about thirty seconds in his room.  I told him I'd hide it again, then asked, "Hey, what were you doing in my room?"  

"Hiding your wallet," he said.

(I absolutely ADORE this picture.  It's probably the greatest photo on the internet . . . barely edging out that one of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square on VJ-Day)

We went into my room as fast as possible, and I said, "Where?  Where's my wallet?"  He told me I had to look for it.  But my room is not like his room--my room is like the final shot in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, but instead of recovered artifacts, it's filled with thousands dirty socks and used handkerchiefs.  I couldn't find my bed, let alone a 3x4 wallet.  "Okay, I give up," I said, "Where did you hide my wallet?"

He concentrated, shook his head, and said, "I don't remember."

Late that afternoon, I took the boys out for a drive.  My uncle had mentioned "a turtle sanctuary" a couple of miles away, and we'd talked about going for weeks.  He gave me directions, and we actually found it on our first try, but there was no turtle sanctuary there.

Years ago, it was the bad part of town with lots of trees and dark shadows that young people called Rape Avenue (I can't imagine why).  But in the decades since then, they'd beautified it, landscaped, put in lots of lights, and now young people go there to sit on picnic blankets and teach their children to fear universal health care.  And somebody built a duck pond complete with a fence around it to keep (most of) the children from drowning in it.

Apparently, there were turtles there in years past, but now there were posted signs NOT to dump your turtles and goldfish in there (it said nothing about dogs and cats, though), so there were no turtles to be found.  There were many ducks, though, and families were giving them breadcrumbs and Quaker oat cereal.

Still, we all missed the turtles, to be frank.

I left writing too late today, and nearly failed completely.  It has been pissing rain since before the sun went down, so I wasn't in a hurry to go out running, but now it's 1:39am, and I haven't written a word.  I sat down to write, and grabbed a container of peanuts while I did it.  Well, I've never been allergic to peanuts before, but I certainly had an allergic reaction tonight.

Now that I've taken two Benadryl, and my sneezing has subsided (my throat is still itchy, and my eyes are still swollen), I'm gonna get a few words in, and then call it a night.

WRITING OR EXERCISE: Writing

November Sweeps - Day 688

My nephew (the now-fourteen year old) finished watching all seventeen seasons of "Grey's Anatomy," and then moved on to something called "Private Practice," which is apparently a spin-off that's gone, holy shit, six seasons of its own.  The lil bastard watches five or six episodes a day (on schooldays) and more the rest of the time, and I berated him for it once again.  Why would he watch something that I hate when he's never watched any of the Disney+ Marvel shows?  

So, he said he would watch the first episode of "Hawkeye" with me this afternoon.  I was happy to watch it again, and it was over quickly, with plenty of time to get work done and go to the library after.  But then we went on to the second episode, and watched that through, and that was fine too, but I was a bit rushed now to get my work AND get a library visit in.  But my nephew hit Skip, and the third episode started up.  I told him, "Hey, this is the last one, okay?  We'll watch the first three, and then on Thursday or Friday, we'll watch the second three."  I would have very little time to write and get my work done, but I could make do. 

Unfortunately, when the third episode ended, he hit Skip to start watching the fourth.  I told him I couldn't, got up, and turned the TV off.  I went to my room, looked at my to-do list, and heard the TV in the living room come back on.  He had started watching "Hawkeye" without me.  Well, that couldn't stand, so I went back out there and said, "No more episodes, I can't watch with you."  He said, "So?  I'll just watch it by myself."  It bummed me out, so I sat on the couch for a minute before getting my work done.  A half hour later, the episode was over, and I hadn't moved.  Now, there was only time to get my work done OR go to the library.  And my nephew Skipped to the fifth and final episode.  I grumbled, but stayed put.  When that episode ended, I threw my coat on and drove over to the library with less than an hour to spare.

And now, I've spent ten minutes blogging.  Sigh.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In December: 2011

I typed about four hundred words, and that's good an all, but I misspelled the word "position" just now, and couldn't figure out how I'd gotten it wrong ("positition"), then got it in my head to look up the old video game Pole Position on Wikipedia . . . for no reason whatsoever.  It became this thing in my mind that I absolutely HAD to do, I can't explain it.  I think my more religious relatives might say that it was the Devil whispering in my ear, tempting me away from what is right (would Devil be capitalized?  It's a title, right?), but why would Beelzebub* want me not to write, or to care about Pole Position, a game I haven't thought about in, what, thirty years?

I also wrote a couple of paragraphs on "Hatchling" before I recorded, which was smart because it didn't eat up any audio space.

Push-ups Today: 111
Push-ups In December: 2045

I took my mom to the doctor's office today, and they did all sorts of memory tests on her.  It was rather fascinating, although I felt bad that she struggled with them, although she didn't technically fail any.  I think I'll talk about it in my Patreon address next week, since it was so strange.

Words Today: 949
Words In December: 12,494

*He lets me call him "Bill."

November Sweeps - Day 685

So, I was stressing out quite a bit this morning.  Not sure why, but I was feeling it.  Now, I'm at the library a few hours later, and I'm more calm about things. 

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In December: 1711

So, I've got a story presentation at tomorrow's Christmas party, and the thing that had me so stressed was that I got it into my head that, since I had to write the story anyway, I could use it for the Christmas episode of my podcast next week.  But I talked to other people who said it didn't have to be a masterpiece or anything.

So, I sat down at the library and started writing it.  I got about six hundred words (okay, slightly more than that):

And I was thinking, I could write a short version and a long version, and the short one I'll read at the party, and the long version, I'll read in Hell.  It seemed like a good plan to me.

Of course, before I got to seven hundred words, the screen went blue and I got a message saying that there was an error and the computer had to restart.*  So, the computer restarted, and everything was lost.

Big, so predictable the Germans could set their watches by it, told me this was what I get for not using Googledocs. 

So, I guess I'm going to start again now.  But this time, I'm writing the story in an email window.

I wrote out the long version, including everything, which came to 1436 words, then I hacked and slashed it, finally deciding to be finished with a three page 899 word story.

And weirdly, now I feel calm, and am not even all that upset about the crashing computer earlier (now that everything's saved, I guess I mean).

It's pretty rare that I write a story (even a short one) in a single day, so technically, I started it yesterday and finished it today.  But I'll take the win.

Push-ups Today: 100
Push-ups In December: 1734

We saw SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME tonight.  I got tickets for my nephew and my cousin and me about two weeks ago (there was buzz that the showings would actually sell out, despite the world we now live in).  My cousin ended up bringing his fifteen year old daughter and her friend at the last minute, and they sat all the way in the back, but we could hear them coo-ing and squealing and cheering throughout.

The movie was quite good.  I liked it a great deal--especially the ending--but wasn't quite as moved by anything in it as I had been with Clint Barton trying to talk to his son on the phone when he couldn't hear him.  But hey, you do you.

Words Today: 1495
Words In December:10,999

*This happened a bit more than a year ago, and was the reason I stopped using their computers.

November Sweeps - Day 661

Well, nothing to blog about today either.  I'm seriously falling behind on this thing.

Shoot, time ran out while I was at the library.  I should've left twenty minutes ago.

Sit-ups Today: 111
Sit-ups In November: 2366

My cousin and I watched the first episode of "Hawkeye" tonight (I had drank a Coke Zero around eleven to prevent myself from falling asleep--again--and it kicked in around one and kept me awake until four or so), the newest of the Marvel Studios shows on Disney+.

Hawkeye is the most unsung of the Avengers (now that Black Widow finally got a measly one-and-done film), and is highly underrated.  He seems to be the one who has aged the least in the eleven years since they introduced him, since he never looked particularly young in his previous appearances, but it's interesting to see his kids (and wife) get older and older with each installment.  I suspect this series is going to a passing of the torch show, enabling Jeremy Renner to retire from the franchise and use Hailee Steinfeld from this point on (it took me three tries to spell her name right.  Come on).  And while that is a sad reminder that twilight is upon us all, and soon, night must fall.  Still, that is the way of things, the way of the Force.

We'll have to get together again next week to catch the second episode (Disney released two episodes at the same time, perhaps because of the Thanksgiving holiday, and maybe I'll talk more about it then.  I did love the moment when he took his children to a Chinese restaurant and the owner said it would be no charge because he had saved the city.  That kind of thing would happen all the time in real life.

Of course, there's a moment when he's standing at a toilet and sees that someone had written "Thanos was right" on the porcelain.  That would happen in real life too.

Push-ups Today: 125
Push-ups In November: 2662

One of my friends on Facebook likes to "Mark himself safe" from hearing Wham's Last Christmas from November 1st until he hears the song, and it really amuses me.  Tonight, as I was getting off the exit from my cousin's house, the song came on the radio.  And it was bloody divine, truly one of the best songs of my lifetime, not just counting Christmas songs.  Agree to disagree, whatever.*

So, I got on Facebook and posted that, as of 2:14am today, I had failed the "Last Christmas Challenge."  Hopefully, that amuses someone else.

Words Today: 583
Words In November: 16,113

*And I apologize for using that word.  I try not to overuse the really filthy words on my blog (though the occasional "fuck" and "bunt" does slip through), but sometimes, you don't have to hit Shift-F7 . . . you know the exact word that's appropriate.

November Sweeps - Day 643

I'm at the library again, and after the frankly sad number of words I wrote at the cabin yesterday and the day before (but hey, I got lots of recording--two podcasts and two stories--done, and edited a full episode and four chapters of an audiobook), I thought I'd come over for an hour or two, and see if I couldn't raise those numbers.  I should not care about the numbers (and mostly, I don't), but there's a good feeling you get when you do the word count and it's in the thousands, as opposed to the hundreds (or teens).

Sit-ups Today: 100

Sit-ups In November: 522

My cousin and I went to see THE ETERNALS, the latest of the Marvel Studios releases.  There had been a lot of bad buzz about it these last couple of weeks, and it's the only MCU film to get a "rotten" on Rotten Tomatoes.  I thought it was interesting, with impressive visuals, and way too many characters.  It's actually pretty amazing that somebody somewhere thought they could satisfyingly introduce ten main titular characters, a love interest or two, and a villain, and that we could keep it all straight.

I was particularly upset that the movie name-dropped both Superman and Batman, but Big Anklevich pointed out how SPIDER-MAN name-dropped Superman in 2002, and I loved that like it was donut-flavored Pepsi.  Sigh.

A few things in the movie didn’t really work, but I’ve got to say, even if it’s the first “rotten” MCU movie, and if it doesn’t make its money back, it was one of the more ambitious films of the last ten years . . . and it’s always better if a movie swings for the fences and fails than doesn’t aspire to anything and fails.  You know?

Push-ups Today: 100

Push-ups In November: 582

I wrote for a little while, then lost interest, but I really shouldn't have--I emailed myself the Will Choner story I started last year, and was trying to format it into MS Word (you'd be surprised how much of a pain that is, in addition to just figuring out where the new paragraphs are), and tried to add little details to the book.  Even though it was only a year ago, I didn't recognize much of what I had written, and when a girl hires Will to find her lost cat, I had no idea how it was going to turn out.

Sometimes I wish I were a real, professional writer.  Of course, I sometimes wish I were Al Pacino's butt double, like Joey Tribbiani in the first season of "Friends."  Remember that?  "He goes into the shower, and then I'm his butt."

Words Today: 1425
Push-ups In November: 5482

September Sweeps - Day 580

I'm at the library, and going to do the bare minimum of words today (like yesterday!).  I'm quite serious about not writing every day in September (it's Goal Number One), but another of my goals (Number Five) is to finish my novel, so I gotta figure out a way to do both.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In September: 461

I went to see SHANG-CHI tonight with my cousin.  It wasn't really one I was looking forward to (the ad campaign, while much better than that of SNAKE EYES, was pretty similar, and I could forgive someone for confusing them), but I felt obligated to Marvel Studios for the countless hours of joy they've given me, so I will go to every one, until the magic is gone.*

I had mostly avoided spoilers (someone said a title character from another movie shows up, someone said it was basically a remake of BLACK PANTHER but with Asians, and someone said it had a nearly perfect Rotten Tomatoes score . . . and the first one ended up being true, but in the most throwaway manner imaginable), and hoped I would enjoy it as much as Marvel Studios' lesser films.  I was worried about Awkwafina, because she tends to be so grating in every role I've seen (like a less endearing Gilbert Godfried) that I feared she'd taint the whole production.

But I needn't have worried.  It was as excellent as ever, with fun, action, pathos, laughs, and special effects and scenery that weren't like anything I'd seen before.

I had played back seat movie producer for the last couple of years, wondering why Kevin Feige would feel the need to spend two hundred million dollars on a Shang-Chi movie, on a Eternals movie, when the safer bet would be to make a much smaller, much cheaper movie out of characters with much more limited appeal (not every Marvel film has to be THE AVENGERS in cost and scope).  But his attitude seemed to be Go big or go home, and gosh darn it, he knocked it out of the park again.  

Guess that's why I pay to watch the movies instead of being paid to make them.

Oh, and I even ended up liking Awkwafina's character, which is even more amazing.

Push-ups Today: 55
Push-ups In September: 326

Oh, I meant to say that I got home from the movie, packed up my things (my family was going to the cabin at 7:30 the next morning), and got in bed, turned out the light . . . and remembered I hadn't done any push-ups (I had done sit-ups and my run before it got dark).  I laid there for about thirty seconds, debating what to do, then forced myself out of bed, into the living room, and zomped out a few push-ups, then went back to bed, knowing I had eked out the bare minimum effort in life once again.

Beats the alternative, though.

Words Today: 1095
Words In September: 2149

*This applies even more to THE ETERNALS, which has been--so far--even less appealing than SHANG-CHI, as far as characters and situations I'm invested in.

August Sweeps - Day 570

Well, the sun is starting to set (a full hour earlier than it did in June, if I had to guess), and I'm done with my writing here at the library.  I blogged, answered a couple of emails, and did try to write, but mostly I just sweated (not sure what's wrong with me, but my hands are sticking to the keyboard--maybe the air conditioning went out in this place) and surfed the net.

I discovered this website called Quora the other day, where people ask public questions and experts (or just regular Joes) can get on there and answer them.  I've read at least a hundred of them over the past week, wasting hours that I could've been doing something else.  But I find it interesting, similar to the message boards and bulletin boards I've frequented since discovering the internet in 1995.

A great many of the Q&As on Quora are political in nature, and those seem to be the ones that are always "suggested" to me.  I've tried to stick to the Star Wars and Marvel Comics subjects, but the great majority of the Star Wars ones seem to be questions about the Prequel era or anti-Disney, and the even greater majority of the Marvel ones are "Who would win in a fight between Captain America and Red Guardian?" or worse, "Who would win in a fight between Thanos and Shazam?" (I HATE it when people mix Marvel and DC, or ask Star Wars versus Star Trek questions.  Maybe that's just me, but it's something I've always despised)

And I guess I can go into why.  The thing is, it's something very juvenile, that boys like to think about, and the comic creators learned early on that the only thing that comic fans enjoy more than seeing a hero take on a bad guy is seeing that hero take on another hero.  So, they come up with various ways to have the heroes duke it out with each other, most lazily (and most often) because of a misunderstanding.  And who will win largely depends on whose book this fight is occurring in.  But just as important is, who does the writer want to win?  A writer can come up with any B.S. reason the character he's rooting for can win a fight with the other guy, even if it's something as ridiculous as Punisher fighting Spider-man or Captain America fighting Wolverine.**

I refuse to answer--or even look at--questions like that, because the answer is, "Whoever Stan Lee says would win," or "Go outside and talk to another person, just for a few minutes," both of which are correct answers.

I have posted one question myself (in the DC Comics section), asking "What does Lex Luthor think of Amanda Waller? Does he admire her, fear her, loathe her, or consider her an ally?"  I asked this because I'm a fan of the Luthor character (I realize he's been written a dozen different ways by a hundred different writers over the years), and wondered, after seeing SUICIDE SQUAD 2 (what I'll be calling it from this point on), what the famous DC villain would think of Waller.  I honestly didn't know if he would like her or despise her.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In August: 2576

Push-ups Today: 70
Push-ups In August: 3010

Words Today: 684
Words In August: 16,930

*The best example I can come up with is the Superman/Spider-man team-up book in the mid-Seventies, where they contrived a strength-boosting ray to hit Spider-man with so that he'd be as powerful as Superman, at least as far as strength goes, and the fight wasn't over in a single page.  Even worse, though, is when they'll have Batman (who is a regular, unaugmented human being) fighting Superman (or Wonder Woman, or Solomon Grundy, or Darkseid), who is essentially a god.  That fight, despite how much I love Batman, should be over in a single panel.

June Sweeps - Day 501

Last week, I went to my cousin's house, and we stayed up to watch the premiere of "Loki," the newest series from Marvel Studios.  It dropped at midnight Pacific time, so it was quite late when we got to see it (and we had to reboot my cousin's television partway through because Disney+ never works right on his TV).  But because of that, I was kind of sleepy, and because of that, I didn't glean all that I maybe should have out of the show.  Didn't even enjoy it all that much.

But everybody else I talked to absolutely loved it, and so I asked my cousin if, last night, we could re-watch the first episode around midnight, in preparation for the second one.  He was amenable to that, but did look over several times, even before "Loki," to make sure I hadn't fallen asleep.  To make doubly sure I'd be awake, I drank a soda around eleven-thirty or midnight, and it had kicked in by the time the new episode dropped.  I still don't know that I love the show--I like my God of Mischief with a little more power and a lot of bite--but I was totally awake throughout.

Even so, it was very late when I went home, and I could feel my brain slowing down, even if my body was totally fine, so I played the Only 9's and 10's game on the radio, which, because it was a very clear, starry night, got incredible reception and stations from cities a hundred miles away.  Having said that, I couldn't find any good songs* as I drove, and it was about ten minutes of searching through stations before I landed on "Amanda" by Boston, the first truly great song of the evening.  I sang along, and found several more great songs before I got home, arriving closer to four than to three in the morning.

And I remembered, as I neared home, that I hadn't done all of my push-ups--that I still had a hundred more to do, and there was no chance I'd be awake long enough to do a hundred.  To my surprise, when I got home, the living room had been decorated for my nephew's fourth birthday, and the floor had been covered in balloons.

So, I couldn't really do push-ups if I wanted to.  Except that I kind of needed to do them, even if I was the only person who cared if I did or not.  So I got up on the couch, and stuck my arms in a small space between balloons, and leaned over and did my push-ups that way.  And I made it through them, all in one sitting (or leaning, in this case).  I've never done a hundred push-ups in a row before, and probably couldn't replicate that right now if I tried (which I most certainly will not, good sir!).

Sit-ups Today: 100 (these were slow and boring, at the end of the night, with no music or video to distract me.  Often, I'll take my laptop upstairs and set it next to the mattress on the floor where I stick my feet to do sit-ups, and it gives me something to focus on while I do it.  I recommend you do the same . . . not that you need it--you're looking better than ever.  How do you manage it?)

Sit-ups In June: 1738

So, I'm at the cabin again, and even though you deserve it so much more than I do, I was so happy to be back here, what, three days since I last was.  It's pre-flowers, but seems like this has to be the most beautiful time of the year up here.  I dunno, maybe I'll feel differently when there are a million yellow flowers in July, or a dozen shades of orange in October.  Or white, as far as the eye can see, in January.

When I arrived, I saw something in the big trap immediately.  But it wasn't my friend the badger, or the woodchuck my niece let go free--it was a skunk.  I didn't dare get close, even to take a picture, because if it sprays, it'll smell like that throughout the cabin, for days certainly, maybe for weeks.  And it's not like that would do anything about the skunk, like my brother's idea of shooting it would** (he also suggested dragging the cage into the sunlight, but that requires getting close enough to the cage that it might spray anyway).

It's so hot back home that it's actually pretty warm here.  I opened the windows during the night for the first time this year--the night was oddly silent, since you can usually hear frogs or birds or crickets or CHUDs, and I can't really explain why--and never even considered building a fire (not that you're supposed to).

And the gnats, which had been a Biblical plague last week, had calmed way down this trip.  There were still plenty buzzing around, but not swarms of them, and it was a calm, warm, lovely end of the day.

Like one of the young people I seem to have such disdain for, I was standing among the majesty of nature and the beauty of the wilderness, staring down at my phone.  I could've stayed there for an hour, texting my brother, reading Facebook posts, looking at Instagram.  In the distance, across the lake, I heard a strange horn-like sound.  When it came again, I recognized it as the trumpeting of an elk.  I asked my brother if deer also trumpet, and he said that was an elk thing.  It did it, off and on, another half dozen times while I stood there.  The sound was alien and super creepy, but hey, I've been told that I am too.

Push-ups Today: 50
Push-ups In June: 1882

I don't know how much more of all this I'm going to take, since every year, as Scrooge said, I find myself another year older and not an hour richer.  But ah well.  I enjoy my stories and podcasting, and really, you've got to find something to live for, otherwise why not catch up on your sleep?

Words Today: 425
Words In June: 12,095

*Well, technically, they have to be "great" songs, not just good, so that's harder.

**I remember one summer when we were still working on my dad's house, we caught a skunk--probably in the same trap--and my brother came up with this idea that, instead of shooting the skunk, we drown it instead (he had had a bad experience shooting the animals).  So we covered the trap with an old blanket, and the two of us gently--gently!--lifted the trap and then lowered it into the cows' watering trough.  It drowned the skunk, certainly, but while it was my job to take the dead animal to the back of our property and throw it over the fence (there were no neighbors in that direction--literally, for twenty miles or more), it was my brother's job to empty out the trough because soaking a skunk there made the water undrinkable. 

May Sweeps - Day 489

You may be under the impression that Big Anklevich and I are friends.  This is not technically true.

For example, this morning, I got a text from the man that read, "Finally, a good version of that song you like has been released."  It included a link (which I shall not post here--you deserve better than that), which I clicked on . . .

And it turned out to be "drivers license" as covered by Kidz Bop.

In case you have lived a charmed, sweet life of blissful ignorance, Kidz Bop is an evil abomination.  It's this truly ghastly musical program that's been going on for decades, in which a pop song is covered by a group of prepubescent child singers, effectively ruining anything that was charming about the song at any point in its life-cycle.  Sometimes, they do videos in which they lip-synch while dancing.

Kidz Bop is to music what explosive diarrhea is to the Junior Prom.  And as you know, Bob, I know what I'm talking about.

Big Anklevich is decidedly NOT my friend.

(this is supposed to be a torn-up Olivia Rodrigo photo...
but like the rest of my life, it didn't quite work)

Sit-ups Today: 111
Sit-ups In June: 533

Yesterday I read an article about Betteridge's Law, which states that any headline that ends in a question mark can very likely be answered "No."  It entertained me, and reminded me of the thousands of garbage clickbait articles I've seen links to over the years, that ask shite like "Will Hillary Force Your Daughters To Have Abortions?" or "Is This NASA Evidence Of Life On Mars?" or "Was Vin Diesel Robbed At Most Recent Oscars?" or "Did Daisy Ridley Just Reveal The Ending To The New Star Wars?" or "Is Kirk Cameron A Misunderstood Genius?" or "Will Rish Outfield Wake Up Next To Girl Who Plays Harley Quinn Tomorrow?"

I love this little dictum (if I'm using that word right), and hope I remember it for years to come.  Doubtlessly, knowing about it will be useful in any number of social situations.  Unfortunately, I've already forgotten the name of the adage, even after typing it in the previous paragraph.  Sucks to be me.

The reason I'm mentioning this to you is that I was looking for an image to put on my blog two days ago (I still haven't posted it), and I came across the headline "Did Emilia Clarke Just Drop A Hint That She'll Be Playing Spider-woman In The MCU?"

I really like Clarke, and I really like Spider-woman (you wouldn't believe how long I've been a fan--probably longer than you've been alive).  I feel like Jessica Drew has the potential to be as beloved a character as, say, Nick Fury or Star-Lord or even Black Panther.  And I think Clarke is as pretty as that classic costume Jessica Drew wears/wore/wears.*   

But because of Betteridge's Law, I knew I didn't have to click on the link to know the answer is No.  Thanks for saving me ten minutes, good sir!

"You're very welcome, mate!"

Push-ups Today: 178
Push-ups In June: 482

Crap.  I went ahead and read the article.  That makes me the loser, between the two of us.  And hell yes, Ian Betteridge was right.

This is the lake from two nights ago.  I hope it conveys at least part of how beautiful it looked.

Like the Spider-woman costume.

My brother and sister and her family and Cathexis and her boyfriend and his family are all going up to the cabin tonight, and tomorrow, we're going to sand the decks and paint/stain them (and paint the doors).  I was told there was no room with my sister or my . . . whatever my niece's boyfriend is to me (niecefriend?), but that I can go with my brother tomorrow, as long as I get up as early as he does.

So, that's what I'll do.  If I had some ambition, I would record some audio, and maybe another podcast episode, or at least go to sleep earlier than I usually do, so I wouldn't be exhausted and useless tomorrow.  Not that it takes ambition to sleep, so I watched a movie instead.

And I didn't get a lot of writing done today.  These things happen in fits and jerks.  

And speaking of jerks . . . kidz bop.

Words Today: 415
Words In June: 3180

*It is, in my opinion, the best female costume in Marvel Comics history.

May Sweeps - Day 478

The other day, Big Anklevich let me know that one of my blog posts was NSFW (which stands for Not Safe For Work, for you senior citizens out there), and that I needed to watch what sorts of pictures I post on here.  So, for his benefit anyway, I removed the picture of naked Hitler achieving full-color climax, and replaced it with a black and white smiling Hitler photo.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In May: 2412

Are you familiar with the Marvel Comics character MODOK?  He is a bad guy, the leader of AIM, and his name is an acronym short for Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing.  

My first exposure to the character was in 2006, when ToyBiz put out an excellent version of him in their Marvel Legends releases.  I just loved the name, and kept the figure all these years.

But now, in 2021, Hasbro has put out their own version in a big, expensive, deluxe package.*  I knew I didn't NEED it, since I still have--and quite like--the 2006 one.  But yesterday, I saw it on store shelves, and I was sorely tempted.

Then, when being told that they were on sale this week . . . I bought three.  Sigh.

Push-ups Today: 66
Push-ups In May: 2699

Fungible.

I went to the library, thinking I'd get some writing done.  But instead, I blogged and surfed the internet.  I got tricked into clicking on an article about the "Charlie Bit My Finger" video being removed from YouTube ("You won't believe why!"**), and it included an interview with the boys' father, who said that the "Charlie bit my finger, it really hurt!" video has touched so many people and changed so many lives, I pretty much had to stop reading.

There is one girl in view wearing a mask (oh, another one just walked past--oh, and she has a boyfriend with a mask too!), and everybody else is maskless.  Yesterday at Walmart, I saw an obviously-too-young girl running a register, and she was so pretty as to make me stop in my tracks.  She looked at me, somewhat alarmed, and I said, "It's nice to see people's faces again."

Would've been a perfect opportunity for her to say, "Ugh, speak for yourself," but she only nodded and continued ringing up purchases.

Now I will TRY to write something (my word count for the day stands at 27 words).  

Damn.  I made reference to carbolic acid just now, and then had to go online to see if it was what I thought it was.  And then . . . it was Wednesday.  Somehow, I had fallen through a trapdoor into internet obscurity, and woke up reading the script to Monty Python's "Election Night Special."

But hey, I got into it when I went back to it.  I wrote the climax, and got an idea for the next moment in the story, which I should be able to write up tonight or tomorrow.  With any luck (or more accurately, effort), I'll have finished the whole thing this week.

A very brave Kevin Phillips Bong there.

Words Today: 937
Words In May: 15,338

*Shoot, I am reminded now (in looking up photos) that another company put out a smaller, cheaper version in 2015 or so, and that I also bought that version when it went on clearance.  I may have a problem.

**It would seem that some greedy pervert bought the rights to the video, thinking he would gain all the monetization from this point on, but has yet to reupload it.

May Sweeps - Day 475

My back feels a lot better today.  However, every once in a while, tying my shoes, picking up something off the floor, digging a hole to bury another of my other personality's victims, and worst of all, sneezing, will cause a spasm of pain, or maybe whatever's on the threshold of pain.  I mentioned it yesterday, but sneezing is just a natural part of the spring season for me, and I'm surprised, now that it costs me such discomfort, by how many times I sneeze each day (probably four times today so far).*

It's a gross, rainy day again today, with strong winds blowing dust through the air that coats the windshield of my car and leaves everything slightly grungy . . . like my soul.

Sit-ups Today: 111
Sit-ups In May: 2090

Last night, I called Big Anklevich and we did a podcast for my 200th episode of the Rish Outcast.  It was, in many ways, what we used to do every week or two, and I missed it.  We presented a story of mine from 2011, and Big brought up a criticism he had with the story, and it struck me: I'd heard this same complaint from him before.  But I couldn't think of what other story I'd written that was similar enough to it to make him suggest the same change, so as soon as we were done, I went into my old files, finding the 2011 ones . . . and sure enough, not only had he made that particular critique, but I had done a revision incorporating that very thing, and somehow not used it for the podcast version.

Sigh.  So, I figured I'd sit down tonight and re-record that section of the story, going by the second draft, and then splice it into the finished production.  And, while I was at it, I'd have Big voice two of the characters, and splice those lines in as well.  It's entirely possible I can drive down to the cabin next Wednesday and spend all night writing and editing, so there's something to do.  I guess we'll see the 200th episode in June instead of May.**

Push-ups Today: 172
Push-ups In May: 2394

There is a team (very much like the Guardians of the Galaxy) that are sometimes-allies of the X-men called the Starjammers, created by Dave Cockrum, with a bunch of different aliens as members, and, of course, a human from Earth as their leader (Corsair, who is Cyclops's absent father).

For some reason, I was always fascinated by the great big green reptile member of their team, partly because he looks exactly like Marvel's Abomination character down to the gills . . . but mostly because of his name.

  

It's Ch'od.  

For some reason, I wasted an entire hour reading wikipedia entries about Ch'od, the Starjammers, their allies and enemies, Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel, and finally, Captain Britain.  One thing that I find strange about that character (who I've been aware of since 1988) is that nobody knows who created him.

One more interesting thing about Captain Britain is that, when he was first introduced in the above costume, the symbol on his chest denotes royalty to Americans, but was the logo on egg cartons in the U.K., and was eventually replaced with the flag costume that's still used today.

Unfortunately, I didn't get anything done here at the library today.  I should be ashamed of myself, having wasted over and hour sitting here surfing the internet, but dude, I just don't care right now.  It's been a fine run, both the blogging and the writing (not to mention all the exercise), so I'm going to give myself permission to slack off today and go home early. 

I hereby give you permission to slack off too.

Words Today: 153
Words In May: 13,329

*The weird thing is, and if you're educated, maybe you can explain why, the most painful thing is the way my body takes a deep hitching breath in anticipation of sneezing (perhaps filling the lungs, perhaps straightening the spine, I dunno), to the point where, a few minutes ago, I actually didn't sneeze at all, just almost did, the jolt chasing it away.

**I guess that means I should start recording songs again, if I'm going down to the cabin every week