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This reminds me of the suggestion that Congresspersons be required to wear outfits like NASCAR drivers so that we can tell at a glance who's sponsoring them.

Zebra mussels found in pet stores

I didn't like Christopher Reeve's portrayal of Clark Kent (though he's still the best ever Superman, imho), but I can't fault Brandon Routh for delivering when asked to imitate it as closely as possible. I've been reading comics with Carol Danvers in them since her team up with Spider-Man against the Super Skrull in the 1970s, and the only time I recall her not being an arrogant hard case was just after Rogue stole her powers and Prof. X had to rebuild her memories from the ground up. Her movie depiction wasn't warm, or soothing to male viewers' threatened egos, but it seemed pr

Derek Chauvin guilty of all charges. Good.

IIRC Diamond was also distributor for Hero Games. And the reason Darren couldn't pay me if full for Ultimate Mystic, Mystic World and Arcane Adversaries for several years was because Diamond wasn't paying him. While I wasn't pleased with Darren, really, what could he do? He was getting screwed, too! So I am pleased to hear about any trouble for Diamond. Dean Shomshak

Anti-vax fundies were protesting the venue where I got my shot this morning. I may exercised my 1st amendment rights -- and my middle finger. 😇

I'm getting my 2nd shot in a couple hours.

“It's my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of sumbitch or another. -- Malcolm Reynolds” Personally, I'm sure that Lincoln (along with every single other human what came cryin' into the world) had his accomplishments, his mistakes, his merits, and his flaws. He was neither angel nor demon, just human.

I had a lengthy response but will just say, I cannot accept the use of modern standards for behavior applied retroactively to Abraham Lincoln. That strikes me as a revisionist standard that no human being of any era would withstand the scrutiny of. Particularly any human being in a leadership role. But really anyone. Anyway, carry on. I will continue to consider him one of the few truly great Presidents and a champion of his time for human liberty. Errors and all.

Set for the first dose of Moderna on Tuesday. Second dose April 27...which means both my wife and I will be fully vaccinated in time for some anniversary celebrations in May.

I can't help but contrast movie Captain Marvel with movie Wonder Woman. The former follows the trope of having a woman show how strong she is the same way that men are expected to show strength: be hard, suppress your emotions, because emotions are "weakness." Wonder Woman sacrifices none of what are commonly thought of as the "feminine" qualities of compassion and love. Rather than make her weak, they give her strength.

In a nutshell:

I heard he needed a handler because his mouth had little to no filter. I kinda understand and respect that lol. RIP.

Foxbat has featured in a number of silly adventures in past Champions campaigns of mine. There's the one where he decided to kidnap Adam West and Burt Ward at a mall opening, and had his group (the Foxbat Five) dress up as various villains from the 1960s Batman TV show. He also had the Photonic Optiocal Waveform (POW) hologram generator to produce visual sound effects (POW! BAM! CRASH!) throughout the fight. Before even running into the Foxbat Five, the heroes had decided to ALSO dress up as Batman foes, and managed to pick the exact same 5 characters. There's also

Flame war in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

"My body is a temple: ancient, crumbling, probably cursed."

Okay, we have to stop with the Ever Given jokes. That ship has sailed.

I actually feel that Evans and Chiklis pulled this off pretty well. But then, Chiklis was a fan of the Thing before the movie and wanted to play him and Evans seems to be very good at embracing whatever characters he plays. I know that move gets panned a lot, but really, its not for the portrayals of the 4, but for Doom since they cannot seem to get him right. I actually liked the 4.

I can't comment on the "Kane" series because I've never read it, but Opal reminds me of a discussion a friend of mine read on RPGNet: on the inverse relationship between literary merit and gameability. Like, Anna Karenina: the RPG? No. It would never work. But Knight Rider: the RPG? The game practically writes itself. The PCs all work for the mysterious Foundation, which equips them with an artificially-intelligent super-car. They fight crime! Dean Shomshak

I saw it put as “it’s not okay for the untrained civilian to panic, but it’s fine if the trained cop with the gun does”.

Hooray! A monopoly is dead! Now if only someone can bring back spinner racks and distribute comics to everyplace a book or magazine is sold rather then just to bookstores (of some type).

You're certainly welcome to your opinion but I'm glad you're in the minority. I've really enjoyed the last 10 years for the most part and I'm pretty interested all the tv and movie projects coming up. They are a mixture of the most popular characters currently out there, new characters and some fringe characters being given a chance to shine. This hardly seems random, but actually a pretty smart strategy IMO.

...until someone nominates him to the Supreme Court. Sorry. I'll be on my way now.

All by itself, Mexico would offer quite sufficient scope for a Champions supplement. Trust me on this. No, I'm not Mexican, or have even been to Mexico. But I ended up writing a large chunk of Mexico City by Night for White Wolf (Vampire: the Masquerade). In a mere few months of research and writing I learned that Mexico City is, all by itself in the real world, more gigantic and fantastical than I could possibly do justice to. I did my best given the time allotted, but the vampire-specific material was less beautiful and horrible and strange than what I got from tourist guidebooks

My mother has had her first dose of vaccine. This has been a long running saga as some people maybe aware of. Next jab will be on June 12. There were some people being given the usual dose and some like my mother who had to have more care or problems.

Got my first dose of Pfizer tomorrow; my wife's is next Monday, while my son's is the following Thursday!

Slight change in plans - originally was scheduled in a location about 2 hours from me, but got a call from our local hospital saying that they can get me in on Friday...for the J&J vaccine. That'll get me fully vaccinated about a week ahead of my wife, so I've got that going for me...which is nice.

Over in the Turakian Age is Seriously Underrated thread, Steve Long mentioned the possibility of publishing a book version of the talk on worldbuilding he gives at conventions. That reminded me: I haven't posted my favorite technique for designing societies. I've shared versions of this essay with several friends and colleagues over the years. Most recently, I adapted it for White Wolf's game Exalted and posted it on a forum for that game. But it can apply anywhere. In fact, it isn't just for Fantasy settings. Y'all might as well have it too. Interested persons might try coming up with Case St

I just received my second Moderna injection. Soon I will be invincible!

“Evil isn’t the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive as Evil, maybe more so, and it’s a hell of a lot more common. What we really need is a crusade against Stupid. That might actually make a difference.” ― Jim Butcher, Vignette

I think it is a bit disingenuous for people to call the theatrical version of the movie "Joss-tice League", as if Whedon was the visionary mastermind behind what we got. The real culprits were WB execs who couldn't keep their meddling fingers out of the pie, even when Snyder was in charge. Whedon was merely the knife with which they butchered what Snyder had begun. Geoff Johns gleefully engineered Snyder's removal and convinced Whedon to take the reins for a nice, fat paycheck. Whedon was never going to have the time or resources to make what anyone would truly call "his Justice League". His g

If only it were the good local Mom & Pop doughnut place instead of Krispy Kreme...

From old campaigns long ago: First mission of the campaign, the heroes defeated generic terrorists, but one of them knocked a terrorist into a VIP hostage, doing body damage to both. Afterward, as the press arrives, the hero who hates the press flees, and the other secretive hero also flees, leaving behind the only player with a "cannot tell a lie" limitation to speak on camera. "And how did the Senator get injured, <superhero>?" "He was...uh...struck by a terrorist. " In a later campaign, a darker and grittier "street-level" game, my cha