Hoop Dreams Vs. Beating The Black Dog

* = Why am I turning to a fictional character on a comedy show for advice on how to live my life? Oh that's right it's because Ron Swanson and he's always RIGHT!





I’m not sure I have a whole lot to write about today, but I figured what the ‘hey’. I have a lot of nervous energy today over going to go see John Carter after work. You see Princess Of Mars was the first real book I ever read. I remember it was the first book I checked out from the Iola Public Library. I walked over from my parent’s house it was like two blocks. I went through those tall shelves looking at the titles and those evocative covers. I just couldn’t choose. Then I saw this cover;

I was drawn in. I’m still not sure why. I was a comic book kids, mainly Hulk, Captain America, & Iron Man, a child of G.I. Joe, Mask, Star Wars, & He-Man. I loved bright four-color heroes smashing baddies. I hadn’t yet discovered D&D or Conan, Solomon Kane wasn’t even a glimmer in my eyes, eldritch & cosmic stories were beyond my comprehension. This was the gateway. Reading Edgar Rice Burroughs tales of Barsoom where what catapulted me into other strange alien vistas like Jack Kirby’s Fourth World, his early tales of Thor & the Silver Surfer, gave me a window to the Kree/Skrull War, they led me to Heinlein, gave me a pass to take that mental shuttle to Arrakis, and helped to lay the foundation of high class Nerdery that I reap the benefits of daily.

See without this formative brick I wouldn’t be who I am. I firmly believe that what we choose to surround ourselves with; people, music, art, and of course literature say a lot about who we are or who we wish to be. So Edgar Rice Burroughs and his thrilling tales of Mars are just as important to me as Saturday mornings in the back of the liquor store with my dad watching Godzilla movies. It’s means as much as that first copy of Bullfinch’s Mythology that my father gave me that I read until it disintegrated. All those days with my He-Man toys fighting imaginary battles in the backyard wouldn’t have happened as vividly without this foundation.

There is a reason I’m a dreamer. Why I can’t shut off my imagination. Why when other people are talking about budgets or policies where I work I’m thinking about how I cool it would be read a Kieron Gillen penned Shazam/Captain Marvel comic, or how to schedule in a Gamma World game to my rotation, or how to work in the idea of Expedition To The Barrier Peaks into my current D&D Game, etc. It’s not that I don’t care about ‘real’ things, I do. Anyone who has read my ranting on this blog should know that by now, but it’s not what I love. I love the theatre of the imagination. I love ideas, dreams, stories, & the impossible. Princess Of Mars is as directly responsible for this as anything else in my life, so I’m sure you can understand the giddy nervousness I have about going to see the movie.

I didn’t mean for that to be quiet as soul bearing. You know it’s funny as uncomfortable as I can be talking about things like love, failure, loss, and other highly emotional issues I’m VERY uncomfortable talking about the formation of who I am and the passion it brings out in me. I’m not sure why but it feels like I’m exposing something raw and pure. Something I don’t want ‘hurt’ or tainted. I’ve just never thought about it that way before, interesting.

Huh.

Well I’m not sure where to go from there, so how ‘bout some…

RANDOM CRAP!

- March Madness starts today!
- I just want to point out you can have an opinion and state it in the comments and I won’t be offended. If you love you some Ron Paul, like someone I don’t know who posted in an old blog apparently does, I like the idea of you asking for clarification. If having kids isn’t your ‘bag of dicks’ and you want to state that that’s fine as well. I don’t mind having a discussion, see Heidi & I’s discussion on Transvaginal Ultrasounds. I will say don’t treat your opinion like fact. This is my blog, so that’s my job. I do however invite discussion, especially intelligent discussion, so don’t feel like you have to apologize for having an opinion, all I ask is don’t act like it’s fact and don’t be a dick.
- After the movie tonight Cassandra and I go back into the sewers below Baldur’s Gate, and you know what that means? Kobold Warriors COME OUT AND PLAAAAYAAA!
- John Carlson? Your excited by another pass catching TE? The Vikings already have Kyle Rudolph, so why do you need another guy who does the exact same thing? Neither are really blockers, so how will they deal with the fact that they released both their starting Guards have two suspect offensive Tackles? These two are NOT ‘Gronk’ & Hernandez in New England. ‘Gronk’ can straight up block and both those guys are durable and have speed. Rudolph and Carlson are good receivers, but both have been dinged up. This, to me, is just a strange pick up.
- Romeo Crennel lock up your wife Peyton Hillis is now a Chief!
- I think I have an interesting idea for D&D that will come into play once the current stuff is done. If you’re one of my players skip the rest of this please, thanks! Seriously, you’ve been warned there are spoilers ahead. I’m not joking. So I was thinking the other day about the 90’s comic XO-Manowar. It was a comic about a Visigoth warrior who is kidnapped by spider aliens to use as food. He steals a living armor and escapes back to Earth, but it’s been a thousand years or so later. So you have Conan the Barbarian in Iron Man’s armor in a modern world. It’s a really great concept. This coupled with my often mentioned love of Expedition To The Barrier Peaks & Pathfinder’s new ‘Distant Lands’ book has led me to an idea. What if I use aliens in my D&D Campaign? I could use the Therian miniatures I have from AT-43.

They are suitably creepy and alien. I wouldn’t need a reason really, but I figured having one might be sort of cool. So these ‘Others’, that’s what I’m thinking of calling them, are from a planet in the Known World’s solar system. They’ve been using the PC’s planet for slave labor for 1,000s of years. In fact the Drahjar’s lightning weapons are simply old weapons that the ‘Others’ left in a massive conflict 1,000 years ago when they attempted to ‘farm’ a large city. They were beaten back. The ‘Others’ don’t really use magic per say, but that’s what their technology comes off as. They use slave labor to construct their colonies and as servitors & once these beings ‘break down’ they use their raw biological materials to construct their warrior class, which is what the PC’s would deal with. So while not technically ‘Undead’ they would have the Undead keyword. I think this may be my second ‘arc’ with the current D&D group. I think it could work, and I think it could scratch my ‘crazy’ itch.
- Saturday night we’re busting out the fire pit. It should be a gorgeous night.
- Movie-A-Thon tomorrow night! I’m still not completely sure what the final line-up of ‘Rappers Turned Actors’-A-Thon will be. I have to say I’m extremely excited though. There are serious rumors of Deep Blue Sea! So I’d get my monthly allotment of Ladies Love Cool James & get to watch Sam Jackson get eaten by a hyper intelligent CGI Shark! WIN-WIN!

I much more mellow now, and I’m sure you’ve had enough for today…

“She cried to the southern wind
About a love that was sure to end
Every dream in her heart was gone
Headin' for a Showdown

Bad dreamer, what's your name
Looks like we're ridin' on the same train
Looks as through there'll be more pain
There's gonna be a Showdown

And it's rainin' all over the world
It's raining all over the world
Tonight, the longest night

She came to me like a friend
She blew in on a southern wind
Now my heart is turned to stone again
There's gonna be a Showdown

Save me, oh save me
It's unreal, the suffering
There's gonna be a Showdown

And it's rainin' all over the world
It's raining all over the world
Tonight, the longest night”





* = This one's for you Dave!