The Briar Patch

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...

 I think I have always wanted to travel, but I was nervous for a very long time. When I was young, my uncle worked on offshore rigs outside Africa. He was also young at the time, in his twenties. No family, no responsibility, just good money. On his days off, they would provide him a ticket home or anywhere he wanted. If I could go back and have that same chance, I would take it in a heartbeat! Young, with a pocket full of cash and a ticket anywhere, is the dream, and I am sure it was for him, too. So he would work, travel, work, maybe come back for a couple weeks and repeat. So, to me, he was the coolest; he would bring home pictures and stories of all these places, and since I was a child, I am sure I did not hear nearly all the good stories. I thought I wanted to be that cool when I grew up. Looking back, I can say it would be way more interesting to say, "Man, you should see what it looks like when the sun rises over the Effiel Tower." Then to say, "Man, I was drunk ...

I said I wouldn't do any more random posts for a bit, but I have to do this one! Call it for my mental health. I have been doing my own writing again, which has been enjoyable. Then, I go online and see people whining and whining about the Rings of Power. I have an easy fix; if you hate it that much, don't watch! It is easily one of the top things on TV or streaming or whatever we call sitting at home mindlessly watching a screen these days. This show is making me hate nerds! "Oh, that's not how Tolkien had it written in his writings!" I have yet to read them all, AND it probably isn't. The events covered in this series are all compacted. That what goes on happens over hundreds or thousands of years, and they are writing it all together; if you try and make a TV series that covers thousands of years, you are going to run into all kinds of other problems, so yes, they took a short cut to try and make an epic into a shorter series (The opposite of making the Hob...

  The MCU hasn't been the same since Endgame. It has had a few decent TV shows, and let's be honest, Guardians 3 was terrific. Spidey and Doc Strange were alright, and also, a ton of crap has come out. Moving forward is looking iffy, even with a fantastic movie out and hopefully one on the way. Here are my mini highlights, and of course, there are spoilers, so be warned. So, let's talk about RDJ coming back to the MCU. It reeks of desperation. The most popular actor of the first 10 years has to come back to revamp the entire franchise. Have things really gotten that bad?? Is Cap coming back if Brave New World bombs? I will give it a shot; RDJ is a great actor. I know he can pull the roll-off, but there had better be one hell of a well-written plot to get there. I am making an assumption he is a clone? A variant? If they say he looks strikingly close to Tony and wears a suit of armor, I might lose it. Let's assume Dr. Doom will be a big bad and not wasted as a one-shot. ...

I am putting the Last of Us part 1&2 as a single paragraph. Not because they aren't great but because, in reality, they are short! The fact is 2 is the reason this blog came into existence. There was a debate I saw online. Was Ellie right, or is Abby right? I am gonna weigh in on that. Neither is right! Both of them get all murdery and both of them suffer for it. That's the whole point of game 2. Personally, I am an Ellie supporter. Of course, that is because of game 1. You play as Joel, and it is so well written that you start to grow attached to Ellie. So, of course, when someone brutally murders Joel, you gonna want revenge. Game 2 gives a different view; if you had been Abby or her father in game 1, we would have wanted revenge against them! Some strangers come and kill all your friends and murder your father; we would be rooting for Abby. It is legitimately the exact same thing that happened to Ellie. Strangers come and murder her father. The game does a fantastic job ...