Comic Books

Posted this on a BBS message board (yes, those things still exist) and thought I'd copy/paste it here as well... This was in the Memories area of Fido_net



Any memories of comic books?

My first comic was a Little Monsters issue that my
big brother (one of them, the younger, yet larger,
of the two) brought to me while I was in the
hospital after having my appendix removed. It was
my first exposure to comic books and I liked it!

I was 10 at the time, in 77, and my dad talked
about the 'funny books' he saw as a kid. I already
knew who Superman and the rest of the Super-Friends
were thanks to Saturday morning television, and
next thing I knew my dad was picking up a handful
of comics at the gas station every week or two.

I still have all of those earlier ones, in bags,
in boxes. Over the years I've had as many as 800
Comic Books, sold a few, traded a few, but still
have the ones that have sentimental value.

Well, recently I decided to 'get them back out'
and inventory them and even try to fill in some
holes on some of my favorite series. DC Comics
Presents was one that ran for 97 issues and I
remember buying BRAND NEW the first dozen or so
issues, so now I'm looking for more.

Flash is my favorite all time character, and I
know there's no way I'll ever be able to collect them
all, back to the 60's, as they are just too expensive,
but I want to fill out my collection from the time I was
reading them "new" to the end (I got out of comics
before the series ended with issue 350).

Yes, I could go to eBay and just 'buy it now' on
most of what I'm missing, but there's two problems
with that... Number one, the cost. You can find
pretty much anything out there if you're willing to
pay the price, and I'm not willing to do that. :-)
Yes, I look for deals and bargains, and won't pass
them up, but there's no 'thrill of the chase' if
you're just clicking 'buy it now.' There IS some
thrill of the chase when you're hunting that bargain
though... ;-)

And second - there's just something fun about riffling
through a box of comics at a vendor's booth at a
convention (I picked up four issues of DC Comics
Presents at Comic Con Memphis a couple of months ago)
or asking about the silver and bronze age at a comic
shop. Having these things IN YOUR HAND is part of the
fun. :-)

Codenames

Thanks, Vanessa, for the gift of gaming!

Rest of ya'll - Vanessa gave me a gift for my birthday a few weeks ago - a trip to the Jackson Escape Room as well as two games - Double Feature and Codenames.

A few nights ago Vanessa and I got Codenames to the table for a few 2 person rounds. Well, today at my mom's for Easter we had SEVEN people around the table playing! It was a great time for this here gamer. :-)

We Escaped!

Jackson now has an 'escape room' place - http://jacksonescaperooms.com

I had mentioned to Vanessa that I would like to go sometime and she surprised me by booking a room completely up with 10 slots. She and I, of course, our good friends Deb & Tracy (who have done all the rooms BUT this one, which is why she chose it, so they could do it with us), Colton & Tiffani (and Andrew, though he probably won't remember it), our good friend Michael and his new wife Leigh and my old high school buddy Craig.

We went into a locked room and and then and it was so funny when Tracy thought but instead it was . Oh my! :-)

Seriously, though, I can't tell you ANYTHING about it for two reasons - 1) I hate spoilers and 2) you agree not to share anything from inside the room. I can tell you we did "intrigue" and now I'm hooked and want to go back and do the others! Thank you babe! It was a GREAT time!!!

We are already looking at what's available in the Indianapolis area so we can do one with Kyle & Devin (and her friends?) when we make our next trip there. Maybe if we can make it to Gencon this year we can do one with some podcasting friends I've made...

She also surprised me with a couple of board games that I had been wanting for some time... Double Feature - a party game about movies, but not movie trivia. I had heard about it on a podcast and I think it will be a great thing to bring out at Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.

The other was Codenames, which almost every podcast I listen to mentioned it as being THE best party game of 2015! Again, thank you babe! You treat me too good!!!

The rest of my gift will be tomorrow - I have a massage booked at 3:30. I plan to work through lunch and leave early, then leave from there and head straight home. Ahhhh.....

Daily Blog

Sitting at Colton & Tiffani's apartment - Vanessa and I are having a visit with the kids and Andrew. Had fun making him laugh.

I'm trying to do some writing daily - either song writing, blog writing, or both. Unless I get home and get some song writing done tonight looks like it'll just be the blog today. :-)

I have yet to make it to an X-Wing Store Championship this season, and doesn't look right now like it's going to happen, but maybe. I am planning to make it back to Henderson Family Dance Saturday night though. If you're in the area (or want to make the drive), you'll enjoy the music and the dance floor.

Nothing else to report on right now, gentle reader, but happy to at least say hello. :-)

Gonna leave you with this little thing my sister and I did on Facebook...

New Lyrics

While Vanessa was preparing supper last night (that's dinner to you city folk), we were talking about different things. I was looking at Timehop and there was a note from several years ago where I mentioned I had played a 1943 Gibson Flattop. We were trying to remember where that was and Vanessa said, "Bobby Stallcup?" I said I wasn't sure - then we remembered the guy at the Baptist Men's music thingy we used to go to. There was one night I passed my Takamine off to another guy and played his old Gibson most of the night. :-)

Minutes later my cell rings - Caller ID? Bobby Stallcup. :-)

He said he had a phrase that was going through his mind and he can't get it out. Having co-written two songs with him for my CD Homegrown, I knew that when he has a phrase it means something, so I grabbed some paper and wrote it down. I then wrote down the notes he had in mind.

We ended our call with a promise that I would work on it. We had supper, did some laundry, etc. and all the while I'm humming a tune and muttering some words. No, it's not a complete song and it's not even a complete chorus, but I like it...

One last thing - Bobby DOES have a guitar I would love to own. He has an Alvarez Missouri Nine String. It's basically the top half of a six string and the bottom half of a 12 string, so you get the true bass licks and runs of a six while the 'ring' of a 12.

Future plans

Future plans...

Thinking back on Gencon 2014, one of the best parts was the cosplay. There were people dressed in all sorts of outfits - sci-fi, super hero, video games - you name it. A recurring theme was Steampunk, and on the last day we even saw a Steampunk Han & Chewie.

One of the first things we saw was a wonderful Vader costume. He proceeded to Force Choke Vanessa... :-)

Even Vanessa got into the action with her ears and tail -

Fast forward to a few weeks ago... Vanessa and I attended the Jackson Comic Con. Had a great time - saw some WONDERFUL cosplay, especially in the Star Wars theme.

They had other things as well, like several movie cars. This one was actually outside -

And then there were other 'props' that were on display...

I was particularly impressed with this lady's makeup and costume and the custom crafted saber she held!

There was a booth in Jackson that had some 'cosplay guns' for sale. We noticed they were nerf and water guns and decided we could do that...

The next weekend we went to Memphis Comic Con and saw more of the same! So we decided to check out Goodwill the next time we were in Jackson. We found the following items and the total price for ALL of it was less than seven dollars!

Brought them all home - cleaned them up good - and as far as 'future plans' go they will be sanded & painted and 'sci-fi'd up' & steampunkified up for cosplay. Very exciting. :-)

And yes, I will publish work in progress pics... I bought some 'star washers' today on a plumbing run to Lowe's to help with the work...

Post Birthday

Now I can talk publicly about the party yesterday. :-) It was Vanessa's 50th birthday and I had wanted to give her a surprise party. Our friend Hope had wanted to help, so she supplied the decorations and the cake. Another friend Heather wanted to help as well so she took care of the snacks and agreed to help decorate. Another friend Lisa was there early so she helped with last minute decorations. Thank you - ALL THREE of you! - for a wonderful job.

Angela was not able to attend but brought cupcakes, which were GONE in no time. :-)

But the biggest thank you of all was to the MANY wonderful friends that took time out to come and help celebrate and show Vanessa just how much she is loved. It touched her heart, I know, but it also touched mine! There are some special friends that were, due to last minute sickness or other issues, unable to attend, and we both understand that completely! NO hard feelings at all.

To the special friends from pretty far out of town that meant their round trip travel was as long or longer than the party was planned for, that touched my heart in a completely different and special way. THANK YOU! Some even stayed around after and we had a very nice dinner at Applebees with a table full. And then, of course, the talking into the later evening on the parking lot.

A truly wonderful day!