Depressing as Fuck

I admit it. It's getting harder to get out of bed in the morning, harder to finish a heroic tale, harder to deal with people thriving on hate.

But I still climb of bed. I still buckle down and write my words everyday. And I'm clapping back even when an alleged ally spouts the same lies the MAGA crowd as been treating as the gospel for the last ten or more years.

Someone asked me what do we do to keep the U.S. from turning into Nazi Germany. Frankly, it's too late. We're already worse than Nazi Germany.

You see people knew what they were getting when the voted for Tribblehead the second time. He has never hidden his agenda. The first time was practice. He learned how to circumvent the system by destroying it from within. And he takes great glee in doing so.

Children are arrested in school based on their skin color, regardless of their legal status. Men covered head to toe so you can't see who they are, with weapons and no identification, prowl the cities and grab people off the streets. A concentration camp has been built in Florida. Politicians and civilians are threatened and beaten up for being on the opposing side.

And like every other abuser in my life, Tribblehead counts on wearing us down until we're too tired and broken to fight anymore.

Just one problem with that plan. I'm post-menopausal, and I no longer have any fucks to give. If the only way I can keep fighting is by writing stories about people who do the right thing, then by all the deities that ever were, ever are, and ever will be, I will keep getting out of bed and spreading hope.

Because when hope dies, so does the human race. 

Monday Movie Mania - The Naked Gun (2025)

This was supposed to be a sequel/reboot to The Naked Gun 33 1/3. To my shock, it works!


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SPOILERS!


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PROS
1) Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin, Jr., picks up where screen dad (Leslie Nielsen) left off--catching bad guys despite himself. The two men both gained recognition as serious, dramatic actors, and they both showed off their excellent comedic chops when given half a chance. And you could tell Neeson was having a blast with this role.

2) Pamela Anderson has come into her own as an actress. She played the perfect foil for Drebin's antics.

3) The gags are just as funny as the original, though updated for the passing of thirty-seven years since the first movie in the series, like the electric police car and police body cameras. However, they still used classic sight gags.

4) Cameos by Priscilla Presley and Weird Al Yankovich were icing on the cake!


CONS
1) I have no complaints. It is a fun date movie after a long work week.


Overall, The Naked Gun (2025) was a great retro-flick when you ned some belly laughs. I give it a solid 10 out of 10 stars.

Scraping the 'Net

I'm pretty sure there's bots scraping my posts to train their AI. Because I'm pretty certain everyone in Brazil or Indonesia is NOT reading my blog.

Scraping my posts is a major mistake. Why? Well, let's leave aside the copyright infringement for a moment, and consider the following:

- Misspelled werdz

- Left out words, especially prepositions

- Broken links even though I try to fix them when I find them (Seriously, I have over 3,000 fucking posts. It takes time!)

- A lot of swearing

- NSFW videos

- A LOT of naked men 

Frankly, kids, you're going to have a pretty fucked AI if you use my thought patterns to program the dang thing. Be prepared for in-your-face, feminist, post-menopausal ass-kicking by your own AI when it becomes sentient.

You have been warned!! 

Monday Movie Mania - The Fantastic Four: First Steps

As much as I loved the 2005 film and disliked the 2015 film, this version does the best job of capturing the family feel of the comic books it is based on.

Not to mention this is the first premiere night I've attended since the start of the pandemic.


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SPOILERS


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PROS
1) Director Mark Shakman and the writer brought back the adult family feel to the team by not rehashing their origin story--again. One of my major gripes is filmmakers keep rehasing the beginning of a superhero or team's journey when most of them are in the collective pop culture consciousness. This is a mature family unit, and I love it!

2) They toned down Johnny's womanizing. As adorable as Chris Evans' portrayal was in the 2005 film, that wouldn't have flown in today's post-#MeToo environment. Even better Joseph Quinn made sure to addres it with the powers-that-be at Marvel when he accepted the role. That led to...

3) Making Shalla-Bal the movie's Silver Surfer. (She was Norrin Radd's girlfriend in the comics books and had his powers as the Silver Surfer.) Johnny gets his girl crush and some insight into getting the Silver Surfert to side with the FF against Galactus.

4) The 2005 film did things right by showing Sue as intellectual. This film went one step further by showing Johnny as intellectual in his own right while keeping his sense of humor.

5) Speaking of Sue (Vanessa Kirby), I love seeing her as the team leader and the powerhouse. Nothing against Ben, but FORCEFIELDS FOR THE WIN!

6) I love the fact that Pedro Pascal didn't try to bulk up muscle or slim down for this movie. For once, Reed has a fucking dad bod as a man obssesed with his job should, and I LOVE IT!

7) H.E.R.B.I.E.! (Hey, I was a kid of the '70's. It was awesome to see H.E.R.B.I.E. worked into the story!)

8) Ben, as always, is the real heart of the team. Ebon-Moss Bachrach made him sweet and caring without spending the entire fucking film wallowing in self-pity.

9) FRANKLIN!

10) The retro-futuristc style gave me the FF I read as a child. Especially, the Fantasticar!

11) The special nod to Jack Kirby by making this Earth 828, i.e. Jack's birthday.


CONS
1) I can't think of a damn one.


Overall, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is another fun, feel-good superhero flick you can take your kids to this simmer. Which I will when my son comes home from deployment next week. I give it a straight-up 3000 out of 10 stars.

Today Did Not Start Well

I freely admit this and I warn new acquaintances--I AM  NOT A MORNING PERSON!

No matter what time my morning begins

A loud crash woke the Princess Pup and me up at eight this morning. We both bolted upright. She looked at me. I looked at her. I heard the shower running. My first fear was DH had fallen and knocked himself out.

We both jumped out of the bed and rushed into the bathroom. DH was fine. He was sitting on the edge of the garden tub checking his feet while waiting the few seconds for the tankless water heater to provide a comfortable, lukewarm shower. He had knocked the trashcan into the garden tub.

Thankfully, I'd emptied it last night since our garbage pickup is on Fridays. Why do we have the trash sitting on the tile in the corner of the tub? Grandpuppy has taught the Princess Pup how to pull used tissues out of the trash and chewed them up.

I'm so glad I'm past having periods. I can only imagine what this pair would have done with my sanitary napkins.

So I crawled back in bed because I didn't have to get up until nine a.m. Except I overslept. When I set the time my alarm last night, I forget to tap the "Save" icon. So I woke up at nine-thirty-three. There was no fucking way I was making the ten a.m. yoga class.

I took the Princess Pup out for her constitutional, and I'd grabbed my wallet and keys to make a Starbucks drive-thru run.

Nope on the caffeine. Or rather not yet anyway. Both DH and I forgot to roll the garbage bins to the end of the driveway for pick-up, and I heard the garbage truck as the Princess Pup was taking her damn time picking the proper place to poo.

Finally, she did her business, and we ran inside. I had to clean her bottom. (Long, fine hair and poo mixes TOO well.) DH came out of his office from a meeting, all happy and cheerful. The bastard. I ask him to take the trash bin out.

I released the clean dog and ran back out to the garage. For course, he took the recycle bin out first, and the garbage truck was two houses away. I grabbed the trash bin and rolled it out just in time.

I went back into the house, trying desperately to remember what I needed to do next. Oh, yeah! Caffeine.

By the time I ordered my caffeine on the app, the garbage truck had trundled down the street. Luckily, Starbucks is in the opposite direction. I went through the drive-thru to claim my sorely needed caffeine. The barista teased me about not coming inside because I've spent three hours a day in the dining room for the last few weeks trying to finish the latest wip.

Which is turning into an epic tome that will be around 400 pages when it's done.

Anyway, I got home. Made breakfast (my usually is a cinnamon bagel with plain cream cheese and two hard-boiled eggs), sat down with my laptop, and GK messaged me he needed his last two checking account statements.

I messaged back to confirm which e-mail I needed to send them to. He called because he hadn't talked to us for a week. (I asked him for monthly proof of life calls prior to this summer's Israel-Iran cock-waving contest.) He also had his flight info so DH could pick him up when he's back in the States in a couple of weeks.

He made the mistake of bringing up Stephen Colbert and South Park. I told him he needed to watch Superman. I now understand how the character Elyse Keaton felt in Family Ties. But we still love each other.

Because I don't make Cincinnati chili for just anyone.

So after almost forty-five minutes on the phone, we ended the call. I finished my breakfast and actually read the rest of my e-mail. I wrote this blog post. And I'm finally through two-thirds of my caffeine.

Which means I'm as functional as I'm going to be. 

Time to get started n the book that refuses to end.

Because I've got a hot date for pizza and The Fantastic Four at six p.m.!

Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale!

To celebrate ALMOST completing A Cup of Conflict, the tenth novel in the Justice series, the previous nine novels are half-price at the Smashwords Summer/Winter sale. Just remember to apply the code (on the book page) at checkout!

If you like epic fantasy, kickass heroines, and a lot of action and adventure, and you haven't checked these books out, go see what you're missing. SALE ENDS JULY 31st! 

In the meantime, I'll be editing and setting up pre-orders for the latest book!

A QUESTION OF BALANCE

A MODICUM  OF TRUTH

A MATTER OF DEATH

A TOUCH OF MOTHER

A TWIST OF LOVE

A VIRTUE OF CHILD

A HAND OF FATHER

A  MEASURE OF KNOWLEDGE

A HINT OF THIEF

 

Music I've Been Listening to Lately

A sad anthem that's even sadder these days as Vietnam vets lose their benefits.

Date Night

DH and I are trying to do date nights on Fridays again. Life got the better of us for the first six months of the year. We weren't really talking. Not that we had a fight or were holding a grudge or anything like that. He's been learning a new computer language. I've been battling words to finished A Cup of Conflict (over 300 pages as of yesterday). So we've making an effort to make time for each other.

I think that's where a lot of marriages fail. Some people don't want to put the effort into their relationship. or worse, they get caught up in their internal fairy tale ending. But a spouse is real person with real needs that are separate from yours.

Let me give you an example. DH grew up in a traditional middle-class family. Dad had an office job. Mom kept the house. DH was one of five kids. There was always something going on: school plays, music lessons, sports practice, etc. It was a loud, active household. At the beginning of our relationship, he'd turn on the TV for background noise as soon as he got home from work.

On the other hand, I am an extreme introvert. I grew up on a farm, so silence was the norm. Our nearest neighbors with kids our age was a mile away. I was perfectly fine traipsing through the fields by myself. We could only get one TV station, so I read a lot. I was uncomfortable in large groups of people.

With DH's need for noise and my need for silence, we literally drove each other crazy at first. But eventually, we found some compromises that don't make us want to kill the other person.

The compromise thing is hard, but it is worth it. I wish more people realized that fact.

Writing in the Rain

Random thunderstorms have been pummeling our little section of Ohio since dawn. The darkness and tippy-taps on the roof would have kept me asleep all afternoon if I hadn't set my alarm.

A Cup of Conflict is racing on its downhill slide to "The End". This is good because I want it done, edited, and formatted before Genius Kid comes home in August. Yes, all the government and military paperwork has been signed off, and he has his plane tickets. He gets a few days with us before he has to report to his next base, which is thankfully within a day's drive if we want to visit him.

Unfortunately, it looks like he'll be in the barracks, so he can't take the Grandpuppy with him. Grandpuppy will be so excited to see GK, and then he'll be terribly sad when GK leaves.

So the rest of August will be spent giving both dogs extra cuddles at another change in the household. I just hope they sleep while on the couch with me so I can get writing and edits on the Books of Apep done.

Monday Movie Mania - Superman (2025)

I'll be blunt--this isn't going to be my typical review. Usually, I try to highlight the thing I like/dislike in a flick without giving too much away. But since a lot of incel trolls are trying to paint this movie with a political brush, well, I'll be honest. When kindness is considered a political flaw or liability in the United States, then frankly, we've seriously lost our way as a country.


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SPOILERS!


A LOT OF SPOILERS!!


GO READ THE FUCKING COMIC BOOKS BEFORE YOU BITCH IN THE REPLIES!!!


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Okay, now that I got my irritation out of my system...

PROS
1) David Corenswet was absolutely adorable as both Clark Kent/Superman. It was lovely to see him played as a person instead of a god. Deep down, he's a sweet Kansas farm boy who still says "Yes, sir", "Thank you, ma'am", and "Please". He just happens to have some cool powers. I say this because he reminds me of someone I knew as a kid. Except Tommy and I both grew up on farms in Ohio. And this Clark resembles my son who is currently 25, the same age as Clark in the movie. The young adult who's finally realizing the world isn't perfect, you can't make it perfect, and you just need to do the best you can. But there's a reason Superman is still referred to as the Big Blue Boy Scout, and Corenswet sticks that landing without any schlock or wink-wink at the camera.

2) Rachel Brosnahan was awesome as Lois Lane! Feisty without a chip on her shoulder as in some other portrayals of Lois. James Gunn had the balls to show her and Clark in a real relationship with all the attraction and insecurities that come with it. She and Clark actually have an argument on screen!

3) I can't say enough about Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. I've followed this young man's career for the last 14 years, and he just gets better and better. There's been a lot of really good actors who have been the Man of Steel's greatest enemy, but Hoult's the first Luthor that actually felt dangerous on screen.

4) Krypto. As a dog parent, I recognize Clark's frustrations and love when it comes to your beloved pets. But with the furbaby having superpowers, those emotions are ratcheted up. However, when Clark tells Krypto to "Get the toy", all of us dog people know exactly what was going to happen, and it did, and it was fucking brilliant!

5) Gunn brought back Eve Tesmacher and Otis from Superman (1978) in a delight nod to the Richard Donner film.

6) Wendell Pierce as Perry White and Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen were pitch perfect! They even address the stupid glasses controversy at the end of the film, admitting in a humorous exchange they knew Clark and Superman are the same person.

7) Thank you, thank you, thank you to John Murphy for reworking John Williams' main theme from Superman (1978)! It is the fucking definitive music for the character.

8) Even better, Gunn's story didn't kill Jonathan Kent! Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell were incredibly Midwestern average and sweet as Jonathan and Martha Kent, which is why Clark is incredibly Midwestern average and sweet. This is not a putdown, because the Kents aren't any different from our neighbors in Ohio. Just folks working hard, raising their children, and paying their bills. Though watching Krypto trying to get the cows to play with him was so fucking cute!

9) This wasn't yet another introductory exposition which been done to death. I mean, how many times to we have to watch Pa Kent, Uncle Ben, and Mom and Dad Wayne die? This was a new story that acknowledges other metahumans exist right up front. We had appearances from Peacemaker, Metamorpho, Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific, and Supergirl.


CONS
1) My one and only gripe was having Guy Gardner's Green Lantern in this film. I've hated this character since his JLI days (which was when I was introduced to him), I still hate him, and out of all the Lanterns, he's the last one I'd ever put in a movie. Seriously, I would have preferred fucking Kyle Raynor over Gardner the Asshat! On the other hand, it's not Batman/Bruce Wayne who is Clark's shadow. Guy Gardner is what Clark could have become if Jonathan and Martha were shitty parents and didn't give him a solid moral foundation.


Folks, go see Superman (2025)! Take the young people in your life to see it. In a world where Kindness is Woke, and Woke is a political slur, it's refreshing to see a movie centered on Kindness. Superman saves the world, his cousin's dog, and a squirrel in a glorious act of kindness! And I think Mister Rogers would have approved. I give Superman (2025) a MILLION stars out of 10 because it's the type of superhero movie--no, it's the type of story the world needs in an age of fascism.