The Briar Patch

Time to post this, I realize I started it a month or easily two months ago. A lot has happened over that time, so some of this is dated. It is easier to make quick entries like this right now so sadly for the next little bit I doubt I will be working on any travel blogs. The next two entries will be a two parter and MAYBE by the time they are up my life will be calmed down and I can get back to travel..... It is time for the X-Men to save the MCU. Ratings are down, we have super hero hangover even F4 didn't do amazing. Its time for the Phoenix Saga. They have tried with two terrible movies and it ended both X-Men runs. Time to do 20 movies like the Infinity Saga with Phoenix in the background until the final showdown with her as well, the villain. I want to see the original 5 in the first movie and yes Magneto as the villain. A few solo offshoot movies and Giant Sized X-Men is your first crossover. You can cover so many classic stories and please do Mutant Massacre, the whole MCU c...

I started this before I decided I needed to concentrate on one thing. So this is my last focus pop culture / comic blog for a while. Pretty happy I have been doing travel writing, but I want to get this posted, so I have no distractions. Comics, I love them. I have loved them since grade 3-ish?? So, 8 years old, 35-year love affair. I mean, it started before that. What are comics besides still cartoons, and what kid doesn't like cartoons? I guess I am gonna go on about my comic history in this blog. (This was started before I decided to focus more on my writing. So for real, last non-travel blog for a bit) Saturday morning cartoons are the start of it. It is true that back in the 80s and 90s, we had Saturday morning cartoons. There wasn't just a network dedicated to cartoons; you had to slot them in! It was a treat to see them, and we all loved them. It would make sense that a generation raised on cartoons would enjoy comics, a physical copy to hold in your hand and reread anyt...

 So a quick pop culture blog, it has been a bit. I wanted to keep up to date. I mean soon part two of my trip will be up, just cant believe how long editing takes. Anyways here we go Ball hockey has been interesting. After an AWFUL last season they bumped us down a div. I played game 1, we won 7-2 and then I was gone on holidays. While I was gone we won all our games and got bumped back up. Since then we are 1-4. One of those is a forfeit since we had an Oiler game and no one showed. Maybe I am just bad luck... Actually I am having my best games ever. Most points per game I have ever had but we aren't winning. Here is the thing, a couple of our loses have been dramatic. Both times we were down 6-4. Both times we pulled our goalie and scored, then dominated for last 30 seconds. 30 seconds more and we would have tied the games. So I feel we are in the right div, just need to play harder. Would be nice to win a div again. Sadly still to low to get to provincials. I think I need to giv...

I am going to start out with how winning Edmonton is! Them Elks sure are doing good! Still no wins so far this season. Overall they are 7 - 33 since changing their name. I don't believe the universe works like this but it sure does seem go woke go broke.... They had more wins in their final season as the Esk than they have the entire time they have been the Elks. Also watching vids from K-days this year. What the hell Edmonton? While I have been writing a few entries to try and make this city and well the world in general a better place, then I watch videos from K days and think fuck it, its a damn cesspool just let it sink. Look out for number one and let idiots ruin everything for everyone. Like literally we can't even have a carnival without numerous fights and bear fucking spray. God damn we are embarrassing. Then I try and put it all aside and remember I have been to Kdays with friends when we were much younger and a fight broke out. Maybe these people that look like ass c...

 Damn you James Gunn! Damn you to hell! I wanted to sit and bitch about how you were killing the "hard" work DC had put into creating a shared universe. I wanted to say your Guardians series had gone downhill. Then I watched Guardians 3. If you take out the massive Avengers crossovers, it is a top 3 project probably. Top 5 for sure. I don't even know how many movies and shows they have churned out but this is among the best. So MAYBE you will make DC much better.... Anyways Guardians 3 watch it! IMO it is WAY better than the second and hell maybe better than the first that I still think was over rated. It has it all. A great plot, comedy, action and man does it hit the feels FFS. I am not a huge fan of some of the end, the new "team" meh but not sure if they will move forward with that or if it is more just giving characters a way to move on. Warlock should have had a much bigger role & I really thought the High Evolutionary would be a much bigger threat. I ...

So I started out ranting about comics and the things that were pissing me off. Not just comics but pop culture in general. I decided I don't want to do just negative things anymore. SO while all the original paragraphs are here I did ad in some thoughts on current runs I am really liking and tried to put some positivity in. So sorry if this one is long. You can skip the angry parts if you want.... Ill start pleasant. I have said it before and I will say it again AWA has become my favorite comic studio. I love the fact even if "powers" are in the comic they are usually background to good story writing and usually not much for powers anyways more dark and gritty. The truth is this whole blog post was inspired by a series of theirs New Think. It literally is the smartest written, half assed political / "woke" series I have ever read. I hate wokeness but I loved it. It really took a good hard look at humanity, showed our flaws yet not once did I say wow this is prea...

 I am a grown ass man, 40. I have a good job and do have hobbies that get me out of the basement like hockey, walking my dogs and hopefully a lot of golf and fishing this summer. I enjoy gardening, what I am getting at is I dont think I am what a ton of people think of when I say this I LOVE ME SOME COMICS! (Not 100% true my wife did send me a link to Weird Als White and Nerdy recently and said it was me) Well thats not fair with the rise of the MCU I think a million more people are into comics that may not have been 15 - 20 years ago. It really boggles my mind the MCU has been around for over a decade, I do think we all have some super hero hang over but this entry isn't about movies just pointing out the success of movies that I think has helped comics sales overall. Anyways a bit about what I am into these days and a few trends I hate....... First off I got into comics in the late 80s early 90s. My babysitter had 2 sons, the oldest had a comic collection he didn't like us to...