Posted on General

Dread Spherical 2026

I’ll be announcing pre-orders and more info about the book in the weeks ahead.

Watch this space and my social media accounts.

(NOTE: this is a teaser for the cover, which was created using Stock images, not AI)

422 thoughts on “Dread Spherical 2026”

  6. Watched the first 20 minutes of Das Boot.

    How dare my Apple TV start with the dubbed version!

    Sounds like Jürgen Prochnow did provide his voice for the English Dub but bleh! Bleh! I say I will watch it another day in German.

  7. I just wrapped up a SLAM interview… The guy isn’t very well-known, but man, his words were incredible. I don’t usually get so verklempt after an interview, but this guy floored me. I need a minute.

  24. Since we watched Monarch, we decided to go back to the 2014 Godzilla.

    Damn, what a frustrating movie. Intentionally frustrating, teasing monster fights for most of it without any payoff. And good lord is the main character dull. And good lord are GodzIlla’s giant insectoid opponents uninteresting.

    It still gets a half-hearted thumbs up, but what a waste.

  27. When doomscrolling read a quote by Admiral Nimitz that claimed that the intelligence fuck ups ended up being a kind of blessing with Pearl Harbour as if the US had known of the attack they would have engaged the Japanese fleet with their carriers and lost.

  30. Thursday’s gaming, with a different group, has been cancelled as one of them is ill. Apparently it’s not the week for get togethers

  32. last week I saw Christy at the cinema, this week it’s on VOD.

    This is why I’m not surprised cinema attendance has not recovered after the pandemic,

  35. Going to a Christmas party later this afternoon. It looks like the snow will hold off until this evening so, with luck, we’ll be home before it starts and the highway gets stupid.

  38. What’s your name, the guy asked the kid.
    P, puh, puh, p, p, Peter, replied the boy
    Do you have a stutter? The guy asked kindly
    No, says the kid. My dad had a stutter. The person who did up my birth certificate was an asshole

  41. One day Jesus was walking through a secluded garden in heaven when he saw a man crying.

    Why are you crying? He asked. This is heaven, there should be no tears or sorrow

    The man wiped his eyes and said, I know. It’s just, a long time ago I had a son under, let’s say, mysterious circumstances. After many trials he went through a miraculous transformation. A book was even written about him and he became known the world over. When I came here, I was hoping I’d see him here, but I haven’t

    Jesus looked at the man incredulously and said, Wait, you wouldn’t happen to be a carpenter?

    I am, replied the man

    Jesus smiles and opened his arms wide, Father, he said with joy.

    The old man looked at him doubtfully and said, Pinocchio?

  42. So I only watched Kubrick’s The Shining last year for the first time.

    Never seen it at the cinema though , hopefully going to rectify that tomorrow with it’s 45th anniversary release this week.

  43. Joe decided to go to a fortune teller. She sat down and said, you will have unspeakable sorrow in twelve years.

    Understandably, after hearing this, Joe was feeling down. So, upon leaving the fortune teller, he decided to cheer himself up by going to the pet store and getting himself a puppy

  44. So we tried out the Angry Axolotls card game. We’d missed a critical point in the rules until about halfway through the game, but even so, I can’t recommend.

    • Of all of them on the list, the only one I saw was “Electric State”. I’m not sure why so many pick on this movie, but I really like it. It’s not going to win any Oscars, and it has some derivative narrative elements, but the characters are likable, the robot designs and personalities are inspired, and overall a fun experience. It seems to succeed where a lot of YA adaptations fail.

  52. Crap joke for today:

    I came home from work to find my wife painting the spare bedroom she wants to use as her home gym.

    I asked what she was doing and she told me her plan. Then I asked, “why are you wearing your ski parka over your fur coat?”

    She picked up the can of paint and pointed to the instructions and read this to me, “for best results use two coats.”

  54. Three men die on Christmas Eve. At the pearly gates Saint Peter says, To get into heaven, you must show something that is in the Christmas spirit

    The first man flicks his lighter and says, this is a candle. Saint Peter lets him in.

    The second man pulls out a key ring and jangles them. These are jingle bells, he says. Saint Peter lets him in.

    The pulls a lace bra and g string from his coat.

    How does that represent Christmas? Asks Saint Peter

    The man replies, They’re Carols

    • I’ve been in that room! I got a tour of the Microsoft Human Factors group when I was at a conference and that room was part of the tour. I also worked in a lab in graduate school that had similar rooms that were build on their own concrete platform and then had the rest of the building constructed around them. According to my faculty advisor, the best use of those rooms was that he had a previous grad student that would practice on the bagpipes in there.

  58. I’d never seen To Live And Die in LA, so I gave it a shot.
    Better than I’d expected! But still full of 80s cop movie cliches. It’s like The French Connection meets Miami Vice meets Lethal Weapon.

    It blows my mind that anyone thought “Hey, let’s get Wang Chung to score this movie,” but the music is pretty good. The title song is a classic.

    It is amazing to me that movie producers in the 80s thought William L. Peterson was a viable leading man.

  59. A man walked into a bar, sporting a black eye

    The bartender asked what happened.

    The many says, I run a small store with two employees, Mary and Jack. The store is not doing well so I have to let one of my employees go.

    This morning, Mary came in first so I pulled her aside and said, I’m either going to have to lay you or Jack off.

    Hence the black eye

  60. Sunday recap:
    All 3 of us are <100%, so it was a bunch of xmas arts and crafts.

    For the evening viewing, I subjected the family to It's A Wonderful Life. Everyone made it to the end!

    Later on, Tiffany and I started Banshee, made it about 20 minutes into ep 1, then switched over to finally see what all the hype has been about for The Bear. That ep 1 was much better.

    • I prefer The Bishops Wife to IAWL, for a better Jimmy Stewart Xmas movie watch ‘The Shop Around the Corner’.

      I’m in a singles group (not about dating) and IAWL gets a lot of flack about Mary in the alt universe being portrayed as miserable being alone and a librarian as if that was a fate worse than death.

  65. To add to the season of jolly, our sole remaining car is in need of serious repair.

    So we’re putting band-aids on it and shopping for a new one.

  68. Since my Mam died, every Xmas I buy myself a gift so I’ve got something to mess around with on the day.

    This year I have no idea what to get.

    • We have that exact box cover in our house right now. This is a go-to quick game for us.

      Funny article. Imma guess that whoever wrote that didn’t see one day of the 70s or 80s.

  73. Kitty gets to spend the day at the vet. At 18 years old, a regular checkup means being sedated so they can take blood and urine.

  77. So, the life of a Mangan (in this house, at least) is never dull.

    We pulled the trigger and got a 2024 VW Tiguan yesterday. It’s nice! I haven’t really had time to enjoy it or think much about it yet, but – – woo hoo.

  82. Pimping the latest. Save Ferris!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR5EM-fZqBM&t=140s

    On the latest Support Life And Music SLAM: Music Survival Guide, Jack Mangan and Sheila Unwin, Ed.D. hang with Monique Powell, iconic singer of Save Ferris. They were one of the absolute best of the 90s Ska bands, and they’re still delivering good times and great music today.

    Lyrics reference: Save Ferris

    SLAM bumper: Rich Catino

    “I believe that every person that buys a ticket to a Save Ferris show is precious, and deserves our love and respect.”

    “I cared immensely about them, but they didn’t care about me.”

    “You make your own waffles in the morning.”

  83. It’s the husband’s birthday today. We had Dairy Queen for lunch, then picked him up a slice of chocolate cake to have with tea later

    • Especially the main score. You know the one.

      I’d hard disagree that anyone knew what they were doing on that movie.

      Except for whoever designed the look of the ships and the robots. Those folks and John Barry were brilliant.

  85. Remember , when you go to Christmas parties, eat food from other people’s plates.
    That’s their calories. It doesn’t count

  89. So over here in old Blighty (and probably North America), Steven Spielberg’s first film Duel is getting a theatrical release. A 4K restored version.

    Unless something else intervenes I will get to see it at the cinema for the first time.

    Of course I”ve seen it on tv mutiple times.

    • I fondly recall renting Duel with my dad when video stores were barely a thing. Great memory, great movie. I’d love to catch it in the theater.

  90. Jake was dying. His wife sat by his bedside the whole time.
    As he felt the end was near, he said to his wife weakly, “I need to confess”

    “Shh,” said his wife, “you have nothing to worry about”

    “No,” said Jake, shakily, “I must tell you, during our years together I slept with your sister, best friend, sister-in-law, and mother…”

    “I know,” said his wife softly, “now you just lay back in piece and let the poison do its work”

  91. JW: Le Samourai:

    Another film off the vague list of films I really should get around to watching.

    No happy ending here, it’s Melville film after all, but few actors looked cooler than Alain Delon in the 60s.

  94. I’ve been into the old reads lately. I recently read a 1927 novel called We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. Apparently it was an inspiration for 1984. The version I read included an afterword by George Orwell

    Now I’m reading a graphic novel called Death Striked: The Emperor of Atlantis based on a 1943 opera written by two prisoners of a Czech concentration camp

    Maybe next I’ll go for something more modern 😉

  96. Crap joke for the day;

    A man and woman—both married to other people—get stuck sharing a sleeper cabin on a cross-country train.

    At 1am, the man whispers, “Could you grab me a second blanket? I’m freezing.”

    She grins, “I’ve got a better idea. Just for tonight… let’s pretend we’re married.”

    “Awesome!” he says.

    “Great,” she snaps… “Get your own f*cking blanket.”

    After a pause, he farted.

    • The first time I was able to donate blood (freshman year of college) was a huge event at the university, and they had a giant bin of cassette tapes for donors to take from. I had no idea who Chris Rea was, but really liked the album cover for The Road To Hell. It then became a favorite of mine, although it was my go-to album when I was depressed because, man, is that album ever depressing.

  101. Crap joke for today:

    My wife asked me in a seductive voice if I’d ever seen a crumpled up £20 note.
    I said “No”
    She unbuttoned her blouse, reached into her bra and pulled out a crumpled £20 note. I smiled and took it.
    She then asked if I’d ever seen a crumpled up £50 note.
    I said “No”
    She pulled up her skirt and removed a crumpled up £50 note from her panties. I smiled and took it. Then she asked me if I’d ever seen £20,000 all crumpled up.
    Excitedly I said “No”
    She said “You better look in the garage then”.

  102. A man was having fun at a party when he Shaw this really tall ladder. A sign beside the ladder said, “$1 to climb the ladder to success”
    Having spent most of his money on alcohol, the man said, “fuck it” and gave one of his last dollars.

    This was a very long ladder and it took a long time to climb, however, after nearly twenty minutes he reached the top where he finds a man in a very expensive suit.
    “Who are you?” Asked the drunk man.

    “Congratulations,” said the man in the suit, “I’m Cess”

  106. Two pretty good jokes from my younger (she got them from a joke book:

    What do pizza and comedy have in common?

    Both can be ruined by a bad delivery.

  109. A woman goes to a tattoo artist and asks him to put Thanksgiving inside one thigh and Christmas inside the other.

    Curious, the tattoo artist asked, “why would you want Thanksgiving and Christmas tattooed on you I ever thighs?”

    “Because,” replied the woman, “My husband always complains there’s nothing good between thanksgiving and Christmas “

  110. Your crap joke for this evening:

    Two old Jewish men, Sid and Al, are sitting in a Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles one day. Sid asks Al, “Do you know of any people of our faith born and raised in Mexico?”
    Al replies, “I don’t know, let’s ask our waiter.”
    When the waiter arrives, Al asks, “Are there any Mexican Jews?”
    The waiter says, “I don’t know, Senor, I ask the cooks.”
    He returns from the kitchen a few minutes later and says, “No, Senor, the cook say no Mexican Jews.”
    Al isn’t satisfied and asks, “Are you absolutely sure?”
    The waiter, realizing he is dealing with ‘Gringos,’ replies, “I check once again, Senor.”
    While the waiter is away, Sid says, “I find it hard to believe that there are no Jews in Mexico. Our people are scattered everywhere.”
    The waiter returns and says, “Senor, the head cook say there is no Mexican Jews.”
    Al asks, “Are you certain? I just can’t believe there are no Mexican Jews.”
    The exasperated waiter says, “Senor, I ask EVERYONE… All we have is Orange Jews, Grapefruit Jews, Prune Jews, Apple Jews, and Tomato Jews!”

  111. Bonus crap joke:

    Walked into Best Buy wearing a Star Wars shirt.

    Employee: “Are you a big Star Wars fan?”
    Me: “Yea!”
    Employee: “What’s the internal temperature of a tauntaun?”
    Me, wracking my brain for the right line: “Uhhhhh…idk that one.”
    Employee: “Lukewarm.”

  113. A dog and a cat were arguing over which people love more.

    The dog said, “I can prove people love dogs more. They like us so much they named a body part after us.” He points to his teeth, “They have canine teeth.”

    The cat just looks at him and says, “Yeah, you’re not going to win this argument.”A dog and a cat were arguing over which people love more.

    The dog said, “I can prove people love dogs more. They like us so much they named a body part after us.” He points to his teeth, “They have canine teeth.”

    The cat just looks at him and says, “Yeah, you’re not going to win this argument.”

    • Why did it repeat the punch line? That’s just silly.

      Note: I did something wrong the first time I typed this and the comment was “awaiting moderation”. Instead of retyping it, I copied from the previous. Obviously I screwed up my copy/paste

  114. Another crap joke:

    A farmer was sitting in the neighborhood bar getting drunk. A man came in and asked the farmer, “Hey, why are you sitting here on this beautiful day, getting drunk?”

    The farmer shook his head and replied, “Some things you just can’t explain.”

    “So what happened that’s so horrible?” the man asked as he sat down next to the farmer.

    “Well,” the farmer said, “Today I was sitting by my cow, milking her. Just as I got the bucket full, she lifted her left leg and kicked over the bucket.”

    “Okay,” said the man, “but that’s not so bad.”

    “Some things you just can’t explain,” the farmer replied.

    “So what happened then?” the man asked.

    The farmer said, “I took her left leg and tied it to the post on the left.”

    “And then?” the man asked.

    “Well, I sat back down and continued to milk her. Just as I got the bucket full, she took her right leg and kicked over the bucket.”

    The man laughed and said, “Again?”

    The farmer replied, “Some things you just can’t explain.”

    “So, what did you do then?” the man asked.

    “I took her right leg this time and tied it to the post on the right.”

    “And then?”

    “Well, I sat back down and began milking her again. Just as I got the bucket full, the stupid cow knocked over the bucket with her tail.”

    “Hmmm,” the man said and nodded his head.

    “Some things you just can’t explain,” the farmer said.

    “So, what did you do?” the man asked.

    “Well,” the farmer said, “I didn’t have any more rope, so I took off my belt and tied her tail to the rafter. In that moment, my pants fell down and my wife walked in..

    Some things you just can’t explain.”

  120. Type into google “women are” and see what it wants to fill in. For some reason, the second choice when I did it was “not little men”

    Now I want to know who goggled that in the first place for it to come up

  122. If you don’t know, Martinelli’s is sparkling non-alcoholic juice that comes in glass wine bottles. We have it at every family holiday meal.

    I was sorely tempted to take a bottle to drink in the car as I drove my eldest daughter home tonight, but I didn’t want to spend an hour at a DUI stop over it.

  124. Merry day after Christmas, all! To my Deadpan Secret Santa – thank you!!! I don’t know if I mentioned it here or on Facebook, but the GameStop-exclusive Strahd was the one Funko Pop I really wanted. I haven’t been that excited about a Christmas present since I was a little kid! 😀

    • 1. I had no idea there was a FunkoPop Strahd (but of course there is).
      2. This is the most endearing post of the week.

      I’m already excited for Deadpan Secret Santa 2026.

      • Aww, that’s great! Thank you! And yes, he was a GameStop exclusive in 2021, I think. He’s supposed to be getting a new FunkoPop design soon, but the new design annoys me because Funko’s designers show him turning into a swarm of bats. Apparently, they aren’t aware that D&D-verse vampires can only turn into a singular bat. :silly:

        Tonight I’m working on Curse of Strahd fanart as a present for one of my local writer friends. I also drew Star Trek fanart as a present for my dad, which I sent off today. The rest of my cards and letters will be sent out in the next week.

  125. So watched Excalibur for the first time tonight.

    Not too shabby for a 1981 fantasy film.

    A bit of googling revealed that the bit of classical music it’s famous for was used in Old Spice adverts in the 70s. I already knew that but had not known they preceded the film.

    • I must confess, I was also shocked when I saw your post about seeing Excalibur for the first time.

      It’s still the standard for a cinematic portrayal of the King Arthur story, IHMO.

  128. In case you were wondering…
    One of the hot things with the kids right now is MP3 players.
    Specifically ones that look just like the old iPods but with modern insides and connectivity and open source software (maybe?).
    Both of my kids have them.

    Go figure

      • My early Commodore 64 days used a standard cassette player that we had to manually hit the play button on to load programs from.

        Eventually, we were able to get the fancy Commodore version that was able to be controlled automatically from the C64 itself. We were living in tall cotton then, my friend!

        • My neighbor friend had a VIC-20 with a cassette drive. We could save programs to it, but it was possible that we could write lines of code that exceeded its memory limitations. Maybe six pages of code. LOL

  129. So leaving the cinema today, lost my balance on the stairs and fell on my ass, which was lucky cos if I had fell forward it would have been down the stairs and I would probably have done some serious damage to my self. Thankfully two other people helped me to get back up but a reminder how easy it is to mess up, especially as you get older.

    Not looking forward to tomorrow as my back is going to be sore.

  130. A man walks into a barber shop and asks, how long for a hair cut

    The barber looks at the full shop and says, about two hours

    A few days later the same man walks into the barbershop and asks, how long for a haircut?

    The barber looks at his shop and says, about three hours later.

    A few days go by and the same man comes in and again asked, how long for a hair cut

    This time the barber says, about an hour and a half

    After the man leaves, the barber looks to his assistant and says, hey, can you follow that man? He keeps asking about a haircut but then never comes back. I want to know what his deal is.

    So the assistant leaves and the. Comes back a short while later
    So? Asks the barber, where does he go?

    The assistant replies, your place

    • I muss confess, many of those “wrong ways” I wasn’t even aware were ways people did things.

      Though, I’m still not putting deodorant on before I go to bed, that’s just weird.

  135. My Goodreads year in review says I read 75 books in 2025. Since some of them were graphic novels only 25 pages long, not sure if that number really counts.

  137. One of the Xmas gifts was the Sky Team board game. We’ve failed to land in our first 3 attempts. Once out of having no idea what we’re doing, once out of a miscommunication that’s part of the game mechanics, once because we couldn’t roll a single “4” on 3 dice in the Landing Round.

    I saw some negative reviews, but we’re really liking it so far.

    • It’s rated 4.8 out 5 on Amazon. Sounds cool. This year, we dialed back the number of board games because we still have around 6 in shrink wrap, and we haven’t gotten around to playing them. I did get my son “Heat” which we played the basic version of. It was a lot of fun, if a little daunting, to get started. We’ve begun to collect simple games to play if we don’t have the energy to play a complicated one. Last year, “Skull” was a hit, and we played it more than any other. This year, “Trio” looks to be the winner.

  140. They moved our mailboxes today. We were told it would happen, just not when. The problem is, it wasn’t moved to where I was told it would be. I ran into a Canada Post employee inspecting the new mailboxes. He went through his sheet and couldn’t find my house number. He is contacting his supervisor and they will phone me to tell me where my mail is.
    *sigh*

  143. Closing out 2025 with some good news. I’ve accepted an offer for an unpaid board position on a local music and film charity. That’ll be an extra way to do some good in 2026!

  144. “And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.” – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

  146. And, with that, Stranger Things is done. No spoilers from me.

    Overall, while this last season was pretty uneven, I found the finale pretty satisfying. I appreciated that we spent a good bit of time after the resolution spending time with what happens to everyone afterwards. Too many stories have the good guys beat the villain and then … credits.

  152. We were also pleased with the Stranger Things finale. Overall, it’s been a fun ride.

    I’d eventually like to redo it from the beginning.

  153. About 20 or so of my Operation Winter Wave packets were just put in the mail. Van, I like you too much to make you pay import duties on a little shipping envelope like that, so you’ll get the card and letter (eventually), but not the mask. Sorry. Still love you all <3

  155. Question – – mainly for Bunny because of her background in publishing – – but anyone can chime in.

    If I buy an ebook from Amazon, and then the author updates it, do I automatically get their updates in the book in my Kindle app? Or do I have to take some kinda action to see the changes?

  156. So, is the US now actually at war with Venezuela?
    (Even if it’s not “official”)
    It seems, kidnapping its president might mean such

  159. In less dystopian news: I’ve started watching an amazing documentary called “1982: Greatest Geek Year Ever,” which is just loaded with commentary and facts about the incredible movies that came out that year. Poltergeist, ET, Blade Runner, Wrath of Khan, The Thing, Tron, Megaforce…

    The point is made early on: these movies were so great because there were lots of big studios who were willing to take chances. Now there are a small number of big studios who will only ever greenlight safe products.

    I highly recommend, even before I’ve finished watching.

  161. It’s frankly disturbing how many people on social media want to start WW3 with the hope that none of the Russians and Chinese ICBMs would actually work.

  167. Crazy times, indeed. All fevers break, but if they’re bad enough, they sometimes do permanent damage before they’re done.

    Stay safe, centered, and hopeful, my friends.

  168. Hey Ed, I got your Christmas letter today. I see it was postmarked December 10th. That should tell you something about our two countries 😛

  171. I did just record one of my all-time favorite interviews… The guy was 15 minutes late – – I thought for sure I’d been ghosted, but then he appeared in the Zoom window.

    Someone I think will be appreciated round these parts.

  172. Good news! I got a proof copy in the mail for Dread Spherical!
    Bad news: There are some serious formatting issues. I believe it’s on their end, but there are some missteps that I personally **could** have made. IDK.

    Even with the issues, it looks great. If some madman destroys all of civilization, I can at least say I have a copy of my Tomi book in print.

    • On a related note, I noticed October 31 was the last podcast version I have downloaded. Are you not uploading them any more?

      • I had no idea :-/ Shame on me.

        I’ve left the audio uploads to someone else, so I’ve been focused on YouTube.

        I just uploaded episode 37 – – which is your episode. I’ll see about bumping the rest and getting us caught up.

  177. Your crap joke for the day:

    A man is in his boat out on the lake with a bucket full of fish that he had just caught. A wildlife officer spots him and pulls his boat up alongside. Seeing the bucket of fish in the man’s boat, the wildlife officer asks to see his fishing license.
    The man tells the officer that he doesn’t need a fishing license.
    The wildlife officer looks down at the bucket and says “You definitely need a license to be catching fish, I can see that you’ve been fishing today. You have live fish right there.”
    The man says “Oh no, those are my pet fish. I just brought them out here for the day to enjoy the lake.”
    “Pet fish?” Replied the wildlife officer.
    “Oh absolutely, I let them out of the bucket and they swim around and play, but when I whistle they all jump right back in. They are very well trained.”
    The wildlife officers scratches his chin, then says. “I’ve never heard such a thing. Well, I’ve got to see this!”
    The man dumps the bucket of fish into the lake, then calmly turns and looks at the wildlife officer.
    The wildlife officer says, “Well, call them back.”
    The man says “Call who back?”
    The wild life officer says, “Your pet fish.”
    “What fish?!” replied the man.

  180. I watched One Battle After Another over the course of 2 nights… Not fully what I expected. I 100% get why it’s Oscar-bait and will likely win a few trophies, but – – I didn’t love it.

    You should watch and decide for yourself. Every single actor is wonderful in their roles. There are lots of things to recommend, but also lots of WTF elements.

  181. IMPORTANT

    Ryah and I talked about scheduling another Zoom MMMmmmeetup. Who’s in to do an hour of silliness and kvetching? Maybe in February?

  182. So it’s been 40 years since Labyrinth was released. Watched it for the first time all the way through at the cinema tonight.

    An early role Jennifer Connolly and she was a better actor than Bowie.

    • The trailers were a bit misleading as to the type of story you’d get. But overall, we enjoyed the story. It was more thoughtful than we expected.

  193. So the secret film at the cinema tonight was Rental Family, Brendan Fraser playing an actor who is paid to pretend to be family members in Japan.

    Enjoyed it.

  195. I had an interview guest cancel last-minute today, saying there was an ICE situation in their neighborhood.

    I hope future generations learn from the history we’re writing, since too few learned from what was written for us.

    • The “he was never funny” backlash is amusing. There was a time when Dilbert was hilarious, relatable, and a force for good. I lost touch with the comic about 10 years ago, so I don’t know when it “stopped being funny,” or if it ever did.

      It is a shame that his legacy will be less about Dilbert, and more about what a shitty person he became. His cancer announcement contained a personal dig at Joe Biden, FFS. Not a statement about perceived world issues caused by the Biden Admin – – a potshot at Biden himself. May none of us ever become that lost.

      • I lost touch with Dilbert and Scott Adams before any of the controversy. But I definitely have a hard time with the “he was never funny” BS. Sounds too much like people trying to justify something. Scott Adams, from what I understand now, was (or became) an asshole. No arguments there. But Dilbert was funny as hell. There is no denying that. The humor was there.

    • The tragedy of Kent State woke a lot of people up. My hope is that this tragedy will do the same. The real test is the midterms. Will the cheetio in charge cancel elections over some invented “voter fraud conspiracy,” and if so, will Congress kick him to the curb as a clear violation of the Constitution? I don’t know. But it will decide where I spend the rest of my residency.

  201. Well for three consecutive evenings from Friday I will be watching the extended editions of the LOTR movies at the cinema.

    My bladder and backside will be sorely tested.

    • That’s like 12hours of LOTR in 3 days! You’ll be speaking Elvish by the end of it.

      Sounds fantastic. I assume they’ll have intermissions.

  202. A friend bought a t-shirt from Temu with a Newcastle Brown Ale logo on the front.

    He then started pointing out the mistakes compared to the real logo on brown ale bottles.

    I took his word for it as I haven’t held a bottle of the stuff in decades.

  203. JW: Starfleet Academy E1

    Didn’t hate it, Paul Giamatti is shaping up to be a fun scenery chewing villain.

    Made the mistake of looking at comments in threads, a lot of hatred for chunky people in the cast.

  207. My social media annoyance today is people saying about a show “it’s not aimed at me”.

    Like I need a show aimed at a fat almost 60
    Year old bloke to actually enjoy anything.

    Grrrrr!

    • I’ve used that description for movies and shows before. I don’t expect things to be tailored to me or my preferences. To me it means that I recognize that something is well made, but that I still didn’t like it. This is opposed to my saying that something was poorly executed. It just wasn’t something I’m into.

  209. I’m seeing all the expected responses to Kathleen Kennedy’s departure as Star Wars chief.
    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce9y3y292l5o

    I think some bad decisions were made during her tenure, but I also doubt if the blame lies solely with her.

    Dave Filoni is the best choice to be her successor. He’s well-suited to the role, and will also likely see less pushback from execs who don’t respect the material, except as a moneymaker.

  211. Well there was no intermission, my backside is sore but I enjoyed seeing the extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring tonight.

    • I too also as well share your obsession with MST3K. Big news indeed as it looks like Joel is fully stepping away. I’m glad that Shout! is still in the mix (as part of the merged company) and there is some hopeful talk of continuation in there. I really hope we continue to get some new content and they don’t just want to distribute what already exists.

  214. So there is a new series on the Peacock streaming service called Ponies, it’s about two widows of two CIA personnel that go back to Russian in the the 70s to spy for the CIA and try to find out what happened their husbands.

    Watched the first two episodes and enjoying the series so far.

      • Great song. He’d been swimming in groupies while he was married to Lisa Bonet. The Neneh Cherry song, “Buddy X” calls him out on it. Lisa Bonet found out and left him, so a bunch of songs on this album were trying to get her back.
        They became friends again – – it was Lisa who cut off his dreadlocks – – but she never took him back.

  216. So to sum up: my older daughter comes by today for board games and dinner. Then we do big family stuff for a few days. Then I have huge SLAM stuff going on, in big push to make this thing work, without me needing to go back to corporate.
    Meanwhile, my mom had a terrible day yesterday and is actually open to a permanent or temp assisted living facility. She doesn’t require me onsite atm, but I need to be ready to go back there at any time.
    And oh yeah, the hostile fascist takeover of my country is ramping up its intensity.

    And as soon as my artist gets back to me with my cover, I’m going to put Dread Spherical up for presale.

    I’ve got my hands full, fam.

      • Greatly appreciated! I will let you know.

        I will also pop in here as often as possible, but this upcoming week looks to be even busier than usual.

    • I especially sympathize on the front with your mom. I moved my mom close to me in Florida about 3 years ago when her husband passed away and watched her health decline steadily and then very suddenly at the end before losing her a few months ago. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do in my life. I am super happy that your mom is open to assisted living. Mine was not and I think she would have wound up being far more happy there.

      Also seriously hope you manage to keep the SLAM stuff going without needing to go back to a corporate gig. Hearing how excited you were to get into SLAM and away from the grind when you first started was fantastic. I hope it gets to stay exciting for you.

      • So sorry, JF. For you and the whole family. That must have been really hard.

        My mother has also been stubborn about assisted living. I don’t know how open she is to it. She’s currently in the hospital in NJ. It’s going to be a turbulent year. Even for me.

        • My mom had a hard time getting the distinction between assisted living and nursing home. It was all nursing home in her mind.

          If you need to vent to someone that get’s what you’re going through, I’m always available.

  218. JW: Return of the King.

    Well the last LOTR film has been put to bed.

    Although I’ve had the extended editions on DVD for ages I’ve not watched them at home or the cinema till this weekend. Anyway great films and even though the third film was almost a hour longer than the theatrical release, it didn’t feel that much longer. Even the multiple endings didn’t feel onerous this time.

    • We own the Extended DVDs. It’s really the only way to watch them. For the Mouth of Sauron, if nothing else.
      The theatrical cuts were great for the first viewings, of course.

  226. Did “Ultimate Jam Night” at the Whisky. It’s a tiny place. And wow, that’s comedian Hal Sparks up there singing Cheap Trick and Spinal Tap songs.

  232. Crazy night. I met so many amazing musicians at the Metal Hall of Fame gala. The biggest surprise was Rockwell. Rockwell!

    My friends sang his “Somebody’s Watching Me” song at him. So embarrassing.

  237. In the unhappier side of things… Things are still uncertain on the east coast, but – – it still isn’t time for me to go back there.

    Feels like the time is coming soon, though. Hoping I’m wrong.

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