Hello Top Men and Top Women. No, it’s not Hammer Time. It’s Blog Time!

So Bobby Heenan passed away yesterday. In my mind, and I know I’m not alone in this, he was the greatest manager of all time. and one of the all-time great announcers. He was so good at his job of making people hate him. Then later in his career, people just fell in love with him. Looking back now, I can appreciate how funny he was. He was sick for a very long time and persevered. I can only imagine that he and Gorilla Monsoon are toasting each other in the commentator’s booth beyond.

I don’t have much else to talk about this week so I’ll just say RIP Brain and call it a week.

Have a good seven and we’ll do this all again next Monday. Carja V.

Happy Labour Day to all the Top Men and Top Women out there! I hope you’ve enjoyed your long weekend. I’ve still got a week to go! Yeah! Vacation baby! Then it’s back to five-day work weeks. Boo!

So it turns out that behind the food court with the totally cool authentic Mexican food counter, that’s behind the Cafe Morgane there’s a bookstore. I’d never even heard of it before but it’s owned by local author done good, Bryan Perro.  I was introduced to the store by a friend who warned me before we went in that they didn’t have any English books on the shelves and that if I wanted any I’d have to order them. Well wouldn’t you know, the first shelf I looked at there was an English graphic novel, Amulet Volume 1, The Stonekeeper. Right away the front cover appealed to me, with a cute bunny-looking character whom I would later learn was named Miskit. I took it being in English as a sign and picked it up. I think I’m hooked. Volume 2 is already on its way from the good people at Amazon. It’s scheduled for nine volumes with the last two yet to be published. It has a creepy, melancholic vibe going for it but in a charming and cute way. Kazu Ibuishi, you have a new fan.

I got in a few more plays of the Harry Potter deck-building game, Hogwarts Battle. I’m really enjoying it. The first two scenarios are great introductions and the game really ramps up the challenge in Game 3. The second attempt wasn’t as much of a nail biter as the first and I’m thinking it may be a little easier with more players. I’m looking forward to playing through the remaining scenarios in the box.

I think there’s an interesting dynamic between Cyran and Red Rich. Cyran is my Charlie Brown, a lovable loser type of guy. Red Rich is full of self-confidence and a little delusional. You could say he’s a little like Peppermint Patty in that sense. Cyran is a little more comfortable letting his snarky side out when he interacts with Red Rich because, well Red Rich can be a little maddening. This next storyline explores their dynamic. I’m having fun with it.

I decided against an Armello theme for the next set of mash-ups. When I was taking a closer look at the costumes, they weren’t quite what I had in my mind. Weird. Anyway, I’m doing wrestling flashbacks instead. I’m thinking the first set will get me pretty close to Christmas so I might split the faces and heels up and revisit a Holidays theme in between.

That’s all for this week. Have a good seven and we’ll do this all again next Monday. Carja V.

Hello. The weekend is over. Long live the newborn week! Seven days may it live and then die like weeks do.

I revisited an old friend over the weekend: X-Wing Miniatures Game. It’d been some time since I played but I was talking with one of the fine patrons of Les Dés Truqués and it turned out he had quite a few ships but had never played. I said that was easy to fix and so we made plans to play. Those plans came to fruition quicker than expected. Typically in this sort of situation, we say we’ll do something and then forget about it. The very next time Pat came to the store he had his ships with him and we played. Even though I was a little fuzzy on the basics, I built a quick team and we started. I got off to a nice start and took out one of his heavy hitters. Then I made a colossal error. I turned left instead of right and my big ship flew right out of the play area. Fortunately I still had Wedge in play and that made all the difference. Victory to the Alliance. Now the urge to buy more ships has been rekindled. Oh cruel fates! You hate my wallet so!

I can’t say enough good things about Board Game Bliss. I ordered a game on Tuesday and by Friday it was waiting for me at the post office. They’re a great Canadian store with a sizable collection of games in stock, including a lot of imports that you won’t find in most North American stores. This time around I picked up Roll Player. It’s a game about making RPG characters. Talk about meta. Sight unseen I backed the expansion on Kickstarter. I could have included the base game with my pledge, but it was pointed out to me that the base game was at retail so I could save some time (and some money) and order it sometime between then and when the expansion was slated to be delivered. It’s a pretty neat game. It has a solitaire variant where you just try for the best score.

I finished the Space Age remakes over the weekend. Now I have to design some costumes for Skitter and Chae. I’ll need to do a little research for that. Should be fun.

The Coin Tales storyline has begun. I’m happy with the way it turned out. I’ve got a week or two of strips left to draw for it but I know where it’s going. It’s a story that went pretty much as planned which is a rarity for me.  These shorter storylines work well for me. I don’t feel locked in like I did for the last few arcs. The next planned arc is a Deema story. She hasn’t been seen in the strip since September so I think she’s due for some screen time.

That’s all for this week. Have a good seven and we’ll do this all again next Monday. Carja V.