Not in Nottingham

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Nov 262018
 

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I didn’t have the best of Fridays. Part of it is work-related and not something I’ll get into in detail here. Suffice it to say not everybody has the same sense of humour. Then I had the brilliant idea to catch the late show, completely miscalculating how much time I had to get to the theatre before the show started. And then my phone died while I was on route so I couldn’t contact the person I was meeting there. So I got there over twenty minutes late for the start of the movie. Fortunately my friend had the common sense to go in without me and not scrap her evening. That would have made me feel even more guilty. I simply turned around and caught the next bus home. Two hours of bus-waiting-and-riding. Not super fun.

Having screwed up my Friday movie-watching plans I decided to triple down on movies on Saturday. I caught Ralph Breaks the Internet, Fantastic Beasts 2 and, the main reason I went to the movies this weekend, Robin Hood.

I’m a Robin Hood buff…a Hoodie? I’ll generally catch any new series or movie to see the new take and love to read Robin Hood stories. What I’d most like to see is a faithful retelling of the classic legend, but apparently that’s too boring, so Hollywood needs to jazz it up a bit, to varying degrees of success. Apparently there’s a Kevin Costner vehicle somewhere that exists but I couldn’t tell you because that movie does not exist in my universe (okay I kinda liked Little John and Alan Rickman as the Sheriff). I’ve been more forgiving of the other adaptations and this latest one, while not at all faithful or even realistic, was at least quite entertaining and interesting enough that it gets a positive grade from me: a solid B+. More than enough to say that I will watch it again.

In gaming news, we pulled out a win in game 3 of our Too Many Bones campaign. The tyrant fight was tough and we completely failed our first attempt because we couldn’t focus enough damage on the tyrant in the same round and he kept healing. Our second attempt we focused on clearing the board so that we could try to combine our efforts on the tyrant and that seemed to be the correct strategy. It also helps that he didn’t roll his healing ability nearly as much.

That’s about all that’s fit to print this week. Have a good seven and we’ll do this all again next Monday. Carja V.

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Hey Now! You’re An All-Star!

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Nov 192018
 

What’s there to do on a Monday night? Write a Monday Blog and hopefully post it properly!

Throughout the week, I’ll typically think of things that I feel might make for a good blog topic. And then on Monday comes and I remember none of it. I really should write these things down.

One thing I remember is that there are few things more disheartening than to be walking to the bus stop for the last bus only to see it roll on by a full 2-3 minutes early when you’re a half-block away. Especially when you’re carrying two bags full of heavier-than-they-should-be board games. I say this knowing full well that there ARE things more disheartening and that in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not that big of a deal, but it sure did suck yesterday.

The Wing Camp story line will finish the Thursday before Christmas with an epilogue to follow on the Thursday after Christmas (I’ll be drawing that epilogue this week). Christmas is on the Tuesday in between so there should be something Crismus-related going up (note to self: think of a Crismus-related one-off). Wing Camp will not surpass To Derp or Not to Derp for the title of second-longest story line. These stats are probably only interesting to me. I continue to find it interesting to see how long these stories can get considering how I always think I’ll somehow tell them in like 10-15 strips. With that said, I guess I need to decide what the next story line will be. Who would you all like to see featured?

I will end things with a thought: It’s too soon for buses to be wishing people Merry Christmas on their displays. Way too soon.

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

Excelsior!

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Nov 122018
 

No song titles this week. Just a blog about the man.

So I guess it took me a long time to know who Stan Lee was. But looking back, my first introduction to him was from when he would do the voice-over bumpers for Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. I didn’t really watch the show, but I remember that distinctive voice that I would later learn was Stan’s.

I’ve waffled between being a True Believer (a Stan-ism) and a fan of the Distinguished Competition (another Stan-ism). I’m more of a DC guy now but in my teens, I was definitely on team Marvel. Marvel just seemed more relevant and that’s something Stan Lee was always championing for. He pushed for comics to be more than just kiddie fare.

He had a hand in the creation of so many iconic characters. It’s really amazing. My life would be markedly different without those colourful creations that he helped breathe life into for so long.

By the time I really started reading comics, Stan was more of an ambassador for the brand. Stan was an incredible hype man. His shilling just came by so easily and so earnestly. It was actually endearing.

I got to meet Stan the Man back in 2011. Well, “meet” is a strong word. I got to spend about ten seconds getting my picture taken with him at Montreal Comic Con. The throngs of fans wanting to meet him was so large that it was really all they could allow to let everybody get a chance at the autograph and photo sessions. We all knew it was likely the last time such an opportunity would present itself to us and we all jumped on it. At least we got in to see his panel. It was just so cool to hear him tell his stories. He was a great storyteller.

From his first notable cameo in Spider-Man, it’s been fun catching all his cinematic moments. Supposedly he was able to film an appearance for the next Avengers movie. It’ll be bittersweet to see him on the big screen one last time.

Yeah, so this is pretty rambling. I just wanted to say some words. And now they’re said. So RIP Stan Lee. Thanks for the memories.

 

Now You’re Mine

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Nov 062018
 

Hey there reader, glad to have you back for some more bloggishness.

Did everybody have a good Hallowe’en? I forgot to mention in my last blog post how my mostly useless pop culture trivia knowledge scored me ten bucks at the Hallowe’en party. So they had a Hallowe’en trivia challenge and even though I wouldn’t qualify the spooks and scares as a topic I’m super knowledgeable in, what I DID know, combined with the support of the others on my team did get us the first prize which was a fifty dollar gift certificate split five ways. Groovy. I used on Fox in the Forest, a really nice two-player trick taking game. So yay useless trivia!

FCL had their monthly wrestling show on Saturday and I have to say it felt a little…lacking. Maybe it was the classless comments from the people sitting around us the whole time, but there was also no standout match this month. Next month, my old friends the Reno Brothers are going to be in the main event, so that’s something I’m looking forward to. I had a delicious thai chicken burger prior to the event and some bubble tea and I was with friends so it was still a good evening overall.

The new Destiny set is coming out this week. And Keyforge is coming out next week supposedly. Why are all these companies releasing all this cool stuff when I need to be saving money to buy Christmas presents? The fiends! Even worse are the Kickstarter projects. I’m paying now at the worst time, for stuff I won’t get for months. Ahh, first world problems.

I’m back at drawing X-Men mash-ups. I’ve got three pieces completely finished, two more that need shading and one that I haven’t started colouring yet. That puts me ahead of schedule which is nice after having to hurry to get through all the Hallowe’en mash-ups these last couple of weeks. But once I get into a rhythm it isn’t as hard to keep at it. Three of those X-Men pieces were done over this past week.

We had to skip last week’s Star Wars RPG session as some of the players couldn’t make it. We’ll be making it up for it with two weeks of play back to back. I’m looking forward to Wednesday. I almost feel prepared this week.

That’s all the news that’s fit to print. I’m about to try my hand at Gwent. I may talk about this next Monday. Until then, have a good seven! Carja V.

You Think You Know Me

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Oct 302018
 

Hey! It’s the last Monday of October.  Two months to go to 2018. Crazy how time flies, isn’t it? Somewhere, a Buick is laughing.

The beard is gone. I shaved it all off on Saturday for a Hallowe’en party costume. Ted “Theodore” Logan does not have a beard…except for that one scene where he does, but that’s not the scene I was depicting so there you have it. I looked at myself in the mirror this morning as I was getting for work and I scarcely recognize myself. It’d only been a few months, but I’d gotten really used to the beard. At work, there were some double takes and even a couple of “Something’s different…” There were some people who genuinely (or so they say) could not tell what was different, which I find kinda funny. I’m torn on growing it back. On the one hand, I actually like the beard. On the other hand, maintaining it is a pain. But back on the first hand, I hate shaving. So yeah, maybe I’m not as torn as I first thought.

I got My Little Scythe over the weekend. It is so CUTE! The original Scythe looks good for its theme, but that theme interests me all of naught. My Little Scythe has cute anthropomorphic animals, which I think it’s safe to say is one of my jams. It’s simple enough that kids can play, but not so simple that there’s no interest for adults. And did I mention it’s cute? Top notch production values.

I did a crazy thing on Sunday. Fantasy Flight Games is having their annual holiday sale and all the Star Wars: The Card Game stuff was like 66% off. For the price of 10 expansions, I got like…30 expansions. Yeah. I did that.

The last set of Hallowe’en pics is set for Wednesday. Red Rich and Chae are going to close things out for us. I still need to colour and shade Chae’s picture, but I should be able to get that done for Wednesday.

That’s about all the news that’s fit to print this week. Have a good seven and we’ll do this all again next Monday. Carja V.

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