Posted on General

Dread Spherical – the Novel

Jack Mangan has returned to set matters right.
At long last, Tomi’s story is told in full, from her hidden birthright. . . to her time as lead battlecoder for the Shogun. . . to her fugitive days pursued by warlords and digital gods. . .

Dread Spherical is an action-packed examination of what it means to exist, to love, and to suffer in times of conflict.

Available now from Amazon. Click here to order.

586 thoughts on “Dread Spherical – the Novel”

    • I only ordered 20, but I’m planning to order more.

      I’ll have a table at this year’s Phoenix Fan Fusion, formerly known as Phoenix ComiCon. I’ve also been invited to do an event at a local bookstore, am waiting eagerly to hear back.

  9. And btw, we took the little one to see Project Hail Mary yesterday.

    That’s the best new movie I’ve seen in the theater in a long time.

  13. My husband is funny. Since we aren’t gaming today, I said to him, “We have snacks, we can hold them until next week.”
    What he heard is, “We have snacks.” and has already opened the bag of sweets. Silly man.
    (for game days we always buy two salt snacks and one sweet)

  14. So I switched to ad supported Disney + subscription as it was getting too expensive.

    Bloody hell the ads are frequent and two minutes at time which is so annoying. Netflix does ads so much better.

    Going to give it a month before cancelling.

  20. I got new glasses as mine were really old. I usually wear contacts but wanted glasses for backup. Picked them up today and am currently wearing them. While the vision itself is clear, it’s just so weird looking through glass lenses instead of having (the feeling of) nothing between you and sight.

      • Yeah I don’t trust my self sticking anything directly on to my eyes.

        I’ve been wearing glasses since childhood so there is nothing weird about looking through glass lenses to me.

  21. So Austin Powers was frozen for 30 years from the groovy 1960s until he woke up in the 1990s.

    If you were to make a movie now with the same premise, the character would be frozen in the mid-late 1990s.

    • Someone waking up from the 90’s would probably have an even harder time wrapping their heads around the world today. Star Trek lies about everything.

  22. Crap joke for the day:

    Guy goes into a barber shop for a haircut.

    There’s the barber, another guy and a little boy sitting on a chair.

    The guy sits in the barber chair to get his haircut.

    He asks the barber, “Is that your son?”

    Barber says, ‘No, he just a kid that hangs around here. And he’s dumber than a box of rocks. Watch this.”

    The barber reaches into his pocket and pulls out a dime and a nickel. Calls the little boy over.

    “You can have one of these but only one. Which one do you want”

    The kid grabs the nickel and runs out the door. Everybody laughs.

    Later, the guy is walking down the street and sees the little boy sitting outside the store eating an ice cream cone.

    “You know, when the barber offered you those two coins, the smaller one is worth twice as much as the bigger one you took…”

    The kid smiles and says, “Yeah, I know. But if I take the dime, they quit playing.”

  28. The husband is in an olds hoop state of mind. Watched the first episode of old shoe Fireball XL5. It’s right up Van’s alley

  33. So a lot of tourists on threads post beach photos that state “at the beach in Newcastle”.

    Thing is Newcastle doesn’t have a beach they are posting photos from towns on the east coast, towns that are not called Newcastle.

    /gnashes teeth

  37. Today one of the local movie channels has the husban’s nod of approval. We just watched the original West World, nest up is Silent Running, followed by Jason and the Argonauts

    Today it’s the best channel ever

  39. The Glendale Cat Cafe did its grand opening today, with a special $10 for 30 minutes deal, which was a pretty great way to spend a half-hour.

  43. We watched “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” last night. As a movie, it wasn’t very good. It was aimless and did not clearly layout what the movie was about. But, it was a very interesting insight into the artist, and his Nebraska album. I enjoyed it from that perspective.

    • The KC Convention Center is pretty huge! Was Planet Comicon able to fill out the whole building? Fun Fact: In the early 2000s I spent some time working for A Zahner, https://azahner.com/, the metal fabricator that did the metal sculptures on top of the pylons of the convention center. They did a lot of metal siding for various Frank Gehry projects around the world.

  47. As for female-fronted Japanese metal bands, I don’t have many recommendations, other than the ones talked about. I wouldn’t classify Gacharic Spin as metal, definitely alternative, but not metal. Still a cool band. And I’ve heard a bit about Nemophilia, but I haven’t listened to them much yet.

    If we are talking about other genres, I have a lot more recommendations

  48. The KC Convention Center is pretty huge! Was Planet Comicon able to fill out the whole building? Fun Fact: In the early 2000s I spent some time working for A Zahner, https://azahner.com/, the metal fabricator that did the metal sculptures on top of the pylons of the convention center. They did a lot of metal siding for various Frank Gehry projects around the world.

  49. So setup up a passkey for my PSN account, first time I’ve used a passkey, so far it doesn’t doesn’t to be better than using the old two factor authentication.

  58. I learned today that there’s a sketchy site using jackmangan dot com without the www. (My phone browser gave me a warning when I tried to click through to it. . . so investigate with caution).
    I didn’t even know that was possible.

  65. Super Mario Galaxy is nuts. More coherent and likable than I expected, but still 2 hours of madness. There’s gotta be 10,000 little references and things to see in every frame.

    Modern animated movies seem to lean all in on overstimulation. I’m not trying to be “ old man yells at cloud,” just making an observation.

  70. As you celebrate today, remember it’s about a man giving up a weekend so we can fight a bunch of wars in his name

  76. My copy of Spherical Tomi arrived Saturday!
    Now I have to hope I live long enough to get time to sit down and read. ☹️

    When I read, I like to get into it. Picking up a book and reading a few pages at a time “when you have a moment”, ruins the flow for me.

  77. The husband is trying to convince me Psycho is actually a movie on morality since the only reason she ended up at the motel is because she was on the run after stealing a bunch of money.

  78. So tonight I saw the horror film ‘Undertone’ at the cinema.

    Wasn’t happy with the ending but damn the use of sound made it very creepy.

  79. Today should be an historic celebration of one of our greatest achievements.

    Instead, history books will remember the worst of humanity behaving as the worst of humanity.

    • Right?
      How many slang terms have we seen come and go with the seasons.
      Give it a month and the internet will have moved one.

      Funny note. Talking to an old guy like me last night and he was telling me about having sent a message out to his group saying he would “be out of pocket” one afternoon.
      He had several, “20 something” employees who were scandalized because they had never heard that term and thought it was some kind of slang for getting drunk or the like.

  85. Kinda tired after 2 long days… I watched a few Jason Bonham Led Zeppelin songs… Jason is telling one of his long stories..(which are great)… Headed toward the exit… Then he sings the riff to Kashmir….

    Turned right back around.

  88. A crap joke for the PGA’s “Masters Tournament”
    “What’s the difference between a golf ball and a Mercedes?

    Answer: Tiger Woods can drive a golf ball 300 yards, without hitting a tree.

  90. So watching The Right Stuff for the first time.

    Now some of the actors in the movie have died but seeing the actor who was an old man in The Walking Dead series as a much younger guy feels a bit weird.

  91. The band on the stage near my booth just did “Play That Funky Music,” and you’d have thought there was run at Costco. The place went nuts.

  93. We have this one friend we game with and, I’m not sure why, but they always win. Seriously, it can be a brand new game they’ve never played before but they always seem to understand the mechanics immediately and will inevitably win.
    And yet, being the masochists we are, the husband and I still enjoy playing with him.
    (yes, I know it’s the company)

  94. Finally got to catch “The Hail Mary Project” at the theater this afternoon. Really enjoyed the audiobook and I thought the movie did a good job translating the story.

    • We’re getting a lot of pressure from friends to see it in the theatre. Everybody says that’s the way to see it. It’s not going to happen, but 8 hear good things

      • The Missis has informed me that we are no longer going to the movie theater. I was like, really, why? She said when you watch a film at home, you don’t have to fight crowds, you can pause and take a potty break whenever you need to, and you don’t have to spend a fortune on snacks. I expected to feel a sense of loss, but I can’t say that I did.

        • I’m largely the same, but my wife and daughter wanted to catch this on in theater. I think the last time I’ve been to an actual theater was for Dune part 2.

          • This is the first movie I’ve seen at the theaters since before the pandemic. And the reason we stopped going is that theaters are not accessible. It’s too much of a challenge for T to get around. And we agree with all the other points. We miss going to the theater, but it just doesn’t work for us anymore.

  95. So finally got around to playing with a DJI Neo I bought about a year ago.

    You have to register it yearly for a fee to legally fly it outside in the UK as it’s not classed as a toy drone so just had to fly it around the house.

    Even using the phone it was very stable in flight and easy to land on the palm of my hand.

    Going to have to register it now so I can take it outside.

  96. I listen to “The Rest is History” podcast.
    Thy just did a 4 part series on the KKK.

    Some interesting revelations –
    That organization has had 3 distinct iterations.
    The 2nd (and perhaps worse) version started in the 1920’s.
    The MAIN focous of their agression was NOT people of color (although yes, they stated POC were not equal to “white” people). Their main focous was … Catholics!
    (May explain some of trump’s actions)

    Also this second iteration was started by one guy, a traveling salesman/grifter who saw it as a way to make money and when he hooked up with a pair of advertising professionals who had just run a campaign for EUGENICS, it took off.
    That KKK was nothing more than a pyramid scheme and in its first year it made its owners 8 million in 1920s dollars… and did a lot of social damage.

    The more you know.

    • What a perfect storm of the worst of humanity. Organized hatred, violence, intimidation, dehumanization, grift, exploitation all under one hood.

      The formula clearly works and continues to work.

      • So apparently it was during this 1920’s stretch of the KKK that the current President’s father got involved with them and was apparently arrested at one of their functions.

        It all kind of starts to fit together.

  99. Tonight I rewatched Amélie at the cinema, it was recently re-released for it’s 25th anniversary.

    Goodness I adore this film, quirky French humour and a lovely soundtrack.

  100. The next thing: the insurance just cleared, so tomorrow we’re have the bathroom demolished. We had a leaky pipe that caused a little bit of damage. We caught it early, but not early enough.

    • For those with TLDR-

      The duo followed Pufnstuf with The Bugaloos (1970-72), the Claymation series Lidsville (1971-73), Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-75) and Land of the Lost (1974-76), which spawned an ill-fated Will Ferrell movie adaptation in 2009. Those shows were wildly popular in syndication as well.

      “We screwed with every kid’s mind,” Marty told THR. “There’s a Krofft look — the colors. There’s an edge. Disney doesn’t have an edge.”

  103. Crap home for today:

    An hour into an Airbus 380 flight from London to New York. A young blonde in economy stood up, gathered her purse from the overhead locker and strutted up to and through the dividing curtain and sits her ass down to into a first-class seat.
    The flight attendant rushes quickly over to checks her ticket and after she does so says,
    “Ma’am, you paid for an economy seat, this is the first-class section- could you please return to your allocated seat.”

    The blonde replies,
    “Hey, listen and listen good, I’m blonde, I’m beautiful, I’m going to New York, and I’m staying right here!”

    She point blank refuses to move, so the flight attendant has no option but to tell the pilot and co-pilot about the situation.
    The co-pilot comes out to see her and tries to explain, but the blonde repeats,
    “I’m blonde, I’m beautiful, I’m going toNew York, and I’m staying right here!”

    He comes back and tells the pilot. The pilot says,
    “She’s blonde? Don’t worry, I’ve got this – I speak Blonde. After all, I’m married to one.”
    He comes out of the cockpit and walks to where the blonde is sitting, whispers something in her ear,. After a moment’s thought the blonde stands up and says,
    “Oh, I’m so sorry!” and returns to her seat in economy.

    Everyone is stunned. “What on earth did you say to her?” they all ask.
    He smiled and replied,
    “I told her first class isn’t going to New York.”

  104. Your Crap joke for today:

    An hour into an Airbus 380 flight from London to New York. A young blonde in economy stood up, gathered her purse from the overhead locker and strutted up to and through the dividing curtain and sits her ass down to into a first-class seat.
    The flight attendant rushes quickly over to checks her ticket and after she does so says,
    “Ma’am, you paid for an economy seat, this is the first-class section- could you please return to your allocated seat.”

    The blonde replies,
    “Hey, listen and listen good, I’m blonde, I’m beautiful, I’m going to New York, and I’m staying right here!”

    She point blank refuses to move, so the flight attendant has no option but to tell the pilot and co-pilot about the situation.
    The co-pilot comes out to see her and tries to explain, but the blonde repeats,
    “I’m blonde, I’m beautiful, I’m going toNew York, and I’m staying right here!”

    He comes back and tells the pilot. The pilot says,
    “She’s blonde? Don’t worry, I’ve got this – I speak Blonde. After all, I’m married to one.”
    He comes out of the cockpit and walks to where the blonde is sitting, whispers something in her ear,. After a moment’s thought the blonde stands up and says,
    “Oh, I’m so sorry!” and returns to her seat in economy.

    Everyone is stunned. “What on earth did you say to her?” they all ask.
    He smiled and replied,
    “I told her first class isn’t going to New York.”

  107. https://www.npr.org/2026/04/13/nx-s1-5783924/2026-rock-roll-hall-of-fame-inductees

    There’s hand-wringing every ear about the RnR Hall of Fame inductees, which is silly. I’m in favor of including musicians from Rock n’ Roll-adjacent forms, like Rap, Country, Jazz, World Music, whatever. I almost never object.
    I have had some beef with a few of their snubs, and with their disrespect of Heavy Metal bands. They’ve taken a step in the right direction (finally) with the induction of Iron Maiden.

    Although it’s unlikely Iron Maiden will show up.

    • We’ve been watching the new season of Monarch, and with Wyatt and Kurt changing roles, I brought up the idea of an EFNY sequel with Wyatt to Teresa. LOL In other streaming news, did anyone else laugh when Mireille Enos showed up on “For All Mankind”?

    • Remaking it is simply an attempt at a cash grab.
      It wasn’t good movie.
      What made it something I’d watch again tomorrow is Kurt’s performance.
      You can’t remake that.

  110. Got a hair cut this morning. I used to have salt mixed in my pepper coloured hair, now I have pepper mixed in my salt coloured hair.

  112. Crap joke for the day:

    A Old Guy shuffles into A ice Cream Parlour

    Painfully he manages to climb onto a stool

    Waitress comes around he orders a Banana split

    Crushed Nuts? asks the waitress

    No he replies Arthritis..

  113. So tonight’s film was something I was completely unaware exited till today. From 2021, an adaption of Heinlein’s ‘The Door into Summer’ that was made in Japan.

  114. So tonight’s film was something I was completely unaware existed till today. From 2021, an adaption of Heinlein’s ‘The Door into Summer’ that was made in Japan.

    • Tried to start last night, but couldn’t due to iPad enshittification. (First world problems).

      Will catch it with Tiffany in a few days, once her work marathon is finished.

  118. “We found another leak!”

    Not what you want to hear when the demo team has removed the sink, tile, and walls in your bathroom due to the first leak.

  121. After Van‘s recent report of re-watching Amélie, I dug out my DVD copy and watched it tonight. Man that is such a sweet film! Of course it’s cinematically wonderful but also just such a sweet story.

  123. Your bad dad joke of the day:

    To stop ants coming in to your house leave a saucer of milk outside. The adult ants drink it & it has an effect on ant reproduction. The young are born without toes so they can’t climb in to your cavity walls.
    This effect is called lack toes in toddler ants.

  124. So I finally watched Akira.

    Impressive animation and a plot that was old hat even by 80s standards.

    I mean even Trek did an episode where somebody gains god like powers and has to be stopped.

    Anyway glad to have finally watched the movie.

    • Yeah, but they did it with *style*. And that style was hugely influential. 😀

      BTW, the manga is excellent, and the movie only adapted a fraction of the story. The author, Katsuhiro Otomo, not only did the adaptation, but was also the director.

    • It’s been years. I wonder if I’d make it all the way through a rewatch.

      I can believe that Akira hasn’t held up all that well, but it’s still impressive for its time. And I’d argue that we’d never truly seen godlike destruction like that onscreen before.

      Artists have pointed out that every single frame of that movie is a work of art with meticulous detail. Definitely some iconic images from it.

      TETSUOOOOooo!

  127. Your crap joke for the evening:

    A madam opened the door of her upscale brothel in Miami, Florida and was greeted by a sharp-dressed, confident man in his late 40s.

    “Can I help you?” she asked politely.

    “I’m here to see Isabella,” he said.

    The madam raised an eyebrow. “Isabella is our top girl — very expensive. Perhaps you’d prefer someone else?”

    He shook his head. “No, it has to be Isabella.”

    A moment later, Isabella arrived and said, “My rate is $10,000.”

    Without blinking, the man handed over the money, and they went upstairs. An hour later, he quietly left.

    The next evening, he returned. Isabella was surprised — not many come back at that price. Still, he paid again and went upstairs.

    On the third night, he showed up once more. By now, everyone was stunned. Again, he paid the $10,000 and spent the hour with her.

    Afterward, Isabella couldn’t help but ask, “No one’s ever come back like this… where are you from?”

    He replied, “Chicago.”

    She smiled. “Really? I’ve got family in Chicago!”

    He nodded. “I know. Your sister passed away recently. I’m her lawyer… she asked me to personally deliver your $30,000 inheritance.”

    Moral of the story – in life, three things are guaranteed…

    Death
    Taxes
    And when a relative dies, getting screwed by a lawyer.

  131. Your crap joke for the day:

    A little old lady went to the grocery store and put the most expensive cat food in her basket.

    She then went to the checkout and told the cashier,
    “Nothing but the best for my little kitten.”

    The girl at the register said,
    “I’m sorry, but we can’t sell you that cat food without proof that you actually have a cat.”

    So the little old lady went home and came back with her cat.
    The clerk checked and sold her the food.

    The next day, she returned and put the most expensive dog food in her basket.

    At the checkout, she smiled and said,
    “Nothing but the best for my little puppy.”

    The clerk replied,
    “I’m sorry, but we need proof you have a dog.”

    So the old lady went home, brought back her dog, and bought the food.

    The following day, she returned carrying a small box with a hole in the lid.

    She asked the clerk to stick her finger inside the hole.

    The clerk hesitated… then did it.

    She quickly pulled her finger out and said,
    “Eww! That smells like poop!”

    The old lady smiled sweetly and said,
    “Yep… now I’d like to buy three rolls of toilet paper.”

  132. I have a question about how to credit something.
    If you ask AI to do a picture, then take that picture and create a black and white line drawing of it yourself.
    Do you credit AI or do you credit person who did the subsequent line drawing? Both?
    I’m sure it might be a little difficult to say without seeing both the original AI drawing and the line drawing.

    • Are you able to see the artist(s) the AI program cribbed from?
      If you just used the image as inspiration and made a new image with no AI output, I think you could just credit the line artist.
      If you drew a replica and there’s no AI in the final image, I think you could credit the original artist(s) and the line artist.
      If there’s AI in the final image, then I’d probably note the AI app used, plus whatever artists it cribbed from, plus the line artists.

      ^^^All just my best guesses.

    • Funny, I was thinking of a reverse issue this weekend. What if I trained AI to draw in my style by uploading a bunch of original sketches I made? Then I instruct the AI to draw, in my style, several layouts for a graphic novel. Can I take credit?

      • For the first example, I think AI gets credit for “initial image development provided by AI”
        I think in this 2nd instance using the AI tool would be similar to any other artist tool, whether it was a straight edge ruler or photoshop.
        To not mislead people though, you could credit “image finishing provided by AI, trained by me”

        It’s a new world and it’s going to need some new terms.

        • There’s a terrible quote about great artists, which I won’t talk about, but this article does: https://medium.com/ben-shoemate/what-does-it-mean-good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal-ee8fd85317a0

          This question comes up in a lot of exhibits I’m involved in: Did the artist steal, reference, or were they inspired by something? We usually have pictures to offer comparisons. And everyone has a slightly different take on the whole process.

          From my point-of-view, no artist works in a bubble. They have looked at and referenced a huge body of works in their career, and most of it never gets credit because it is part of the process of creating art.

          Every artist uses art reference material; either from catalogs, online images, photos they take themselves, etc. If it gets credited can depend on how that material is used. If they use it as inspiration and draw/paint something on their own, that is fine. If it is traced or copied, then it will likely get credited. People tend to notice these “borrowings” because they actively look for them in art.

          So, to make a long story short, I think it depends on how much “copying” you are doing from the original image. If you want to credit the AI work, you could just say “inspired by” or something like that. In the art world you’ll occasionally see something credited as “After” some artists name or some title. That was one way artists credited an artist or piece of art. How you want to do it, is up to you.

          • I kinda like the “Good artists create, great artists steal” quote in the way I first internalized it.
            I never read that as encouragement to clone someone else’s creation and call it your own (Lichtenstein, cough). That’s plagiarism.
            I read the quote as: Take the tiny building blocks of the original (a chord, a pattern, a phrase, a facial expression…) and use them in your own way to build your own thing.

            e.g.: Stevie Ray Vaughan openly flouted his Jimi Hendrix influences, but he never ripped him off.

            But maybe I’ve been reading that quote wrong for decades.

          • I dislike the quote because people seem to take the wrong lesson from it. And I think your interpretation is closer to the original intention.

  134. Just finished Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen on Netflix by the makers of Stranger Things. A short eight episode show that was pretty good

    • I’m going to go with version 2, with the Baroness’ vocals.
      I think the main reason is I can understand the lyrics so it engauged me.

      Enough that I have Spotify playing that whole session now.

  140. We finished the first season of the new “Young Sherlock” on Amazon. It’s from Guy Ritchie, who among other things, did the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies.

    We enjoyed the take on a Sherlock “origin story”. It’s on Amazon Prime.

  142. Heard a speaker tonight talking about the future of Alzheimer’s research and how research is going to switch towards prevention instead of cures.
    Sadly, a cure is going to involve bringing back to life dead tissue in the brain and that’s a long way off.
    However, this guy has worked with several companies that are using big data and AI to sift through trillions of data points and they are coming up with possible predictors of future Alzheimer’s. The idea being that if you can catch it before it starts killing off structures in your brain you can make simple changes in your lifestyle and give yourself significantly more HEALTHY time, perhaps 10 years. The key is using genetics to make changes not aimed at the general public but changes tailored specifically to YOU and how your body currently functions.
    One of his company’s stated goals is “tailored, preventative healthcare” instead of agressive, “after you are failing” treatments.
    The idea is to “Increase the quality of your life” and not “lengthening your death”.

  150. I had a phone conversation yesterday with an old Photon friend who’s still very much into Laser Tag sports; his expertise on the whole subject was mind-blowing. There’s still a worldwide, active subculture dedicated to the game and all the varying systems, and this guy is right in the thick of it. Which is awesome.

    As a tween, I thought we were onto the “sport of the future” and that we’d all grow up to be professional Laser Tag athletes. Then all of the centers started to close down.

  151. So yesterday, in my slapdash quest to watch old movies I’ve never got round to watching in almost six decades of life, I watched The Ghost and Mrs Muir.

    George Sanders playing a cad, Rex Harrison as the grumpy sea captain ghost and Gene Tierny as the widow. It was a very charming movie.

  153. Social media friends may have seen some of my updates from the Phoenix International Jazz Fest. It was a an afternoon of fantastic music, and we had some good traffic at the SLAM booth. We even sold 2 t-shirts!

    the main entertainment was probably me rebuilding the booth every time a strong gust of wind blew through.

  157. Since I had to read this today, you have to as well:

    “Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) takes place in 1936, 45 years before it’s release. It’s been 45 years since 1981.”

  159. An artist goest to the gallery owner and asked how his paintings sold.

    I have good news and bad news, replied the owner

    The good news is, a man came in and looked at your work. He then asked if I thought your paintings would go up in value after your death. When I said yes, he bought all your paintings here.

    That’s great news, said the artist. What’s the bad news.

    He was your doctor

  161. The Seven Dials miniseries is pretty enjoyable. I’m not sure if it was some lost Agatha Christie mss, or just one I’d never heard of before.
    I kinda rolled my eyes at the fifteenth ending, but whatev.

  162. We also watched the Owls of Ga’Hoole movie from awhile back. The little one had read book 1, so she was critical of the changes, but she liked it overall. She kept saying, “What’s with all the slo-mo?” (It’s Zack Snyder, kid).

    I also think it’s a pretty good movie. Trite and cliche, sure, but fun. I wish they’d made more.

  163. If you are in the mood for an arty, feels like an expanded Twilight Zone episode movie then check out Rose of Nevada when it hits VOD.

  165. It’s not every day that you’re on a conference call with Lady Gaga’s mom.
    I was on a massive group call with the Born This Way Foundation.
    She gave a lovely little speech for the 100-or-so of us in attendance and then dropped off.

  167. The unfortunate part about having a daughter with schizophrenia is she can sometimes be unreliable.
    Of course, as a mom, I’m supportive and totally understand.
    However, on a totally selfish note, I now need to find a cover artist that is cheap.

  175. So this bank holiday weekend will be seeing Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Highlander at the cinema. Separate days though.

    • The top part of that list looks fantastic. I especially want the ramenrito. It’s not till they get down to the hot dogs that it starts to get unsavory for me. The odd mixtures of sweet with hot dogs or pickles with oreos doesn’t seem terribly delicious.

  180. We went to a Cosmic Baseball game tonight. It was kinda like a Savannah Bananas game (I guess?) except that halfway through the game, the lights went out and everything glowed in the dark. It kinda looked like Tron on the field.

    • And we went to the biggest Savannah Bananas game in their history last night in College Station. 102,000 in a sold out stadium. It was definitely an experience.

      • That’s wild. I’m glad I got to see what it’s all about. There were some laughs and cool visuals, but I don’t think I ever need to do it again.

  181. Your crap joke for the day I start on my 7th decade:

    A woman is walking through the park when she notices a very attractive man sitting on a bench. He’s reading a book and eating fruit from a Tupperware container. After a moment, she gathers the courage to approach him.

    She walks over, sits beside him, and says,
    “Sorry to bother you. I know this may be a little forward, but I’d love to grab coffee with you sometime.”

    Flattered, the man replies,
    “Sure… but what makes you so certain we’d get along so well?”

    “Well…” the woman says, “a couple of things, actually. I noticed you’re wearing a Metallica T-shirt—they’re my favorite band of all time. When they went on their …And Justice for All tour, my parents took me to see them in Chicago. I was 12 years old, and it was the first concert I ever went to. I absolutely love Metallica.”

    The man is stunned.
    “I saw them in Chicago too! It was the first concert I ever went to on my own. My best friend Mike and I told our parents we were sleeping at each other’s houses, snuck out, took a bus into the city, and saw them at the World Music Theater!”

    They both laugh, amazed.

    “And if that’s not weird enough,” she continues, “I noticed you’re reading Mark Twain. I was a communications major in college, and I wrote my thesis on how Twain used satire to comment on current events—kind of like modern satirical news. He’s my favorite author.”

    Now the man is truly taken aback.
    “No way! I was an English major—I specialized in 19th-century American literature. This is probably my fourth or fifth time reading Tom Sawyer. I love Mark Twain.”

    At this point, they’re both in disbelief.

    “Okay,” the woman says, smiling. “Here’s the icing on the cake. I noticed you’re eating a prune. Prunes are my absolute favorite fruit. When I was a kid, my grandfather had a farm with an orchard—mostly apples and lemons—but he kept a few plum trees just for my sister and me. Every year, we’d help harvest them, and he’d dry them. By Thanksgiving, he’d have prunes saved just for us. I love prunes—you’re eating one—this has to be fate. What do you say?”

    The man sets down his fruit, smiles, and replies,
    “It’s a date!”

  186. Thank you all, managed to catch two movies today, Thrash and The Sheep Detectives.

    The latter had a Babe vibe and was a lot of fun.

  193. Ear infections have kept the little one home from school today and yesterday. :-/

    For the curious: apparently kids antibiotics still taste terrible.

  196. The new Arcade Fire album is a full-on on ambient New Age record, like the massage room soundtrack.

    That’s not a bad thing, but it’s a little weird.

    I wish I liked it more.

  202. Day 3 of the little one home sick from school, and we’ve already called out for tomorrow. Her spirits are good, but the fever keeps hanging around between 99 and 102.

  203. I spoke with another guitar hero of my youth today. I’d met him a few times before, but this was the first time we really talked.

    I was a little fuzzy from the exhausting week, but I think it went OK. I only rambled myself into a corner one time.

  204. And we caught the Daredevil: Born Again season finale. Satisfying, frustrating, unsettling – – it was a good season.

  205. We are trying to take a family trip to China.
    They do not make this easy.

    Apply for a visa is quite the process and involves having to take your passport to their consolate. Which turns out to be a plane flight away from all of us.

    Alternatively, you can take a chance to mail your passport to a “visa handling service” who, for a large sum of money, will take your passport to the consulate and then return it to you.

  207. Clumsy typing almost led to me sending “If the tide won’t wok later,” which is a very different message than “If the ride won’t work later.”

  211. My corollary to the Turing test

    Caller: “hi this is Diane. Do you remember when I called and talk to you about Medicare benefits?”

    Me: “was that when you told me you liked pudding?”

    Caller: (long pause as computer sort through to try to find an appropriate answer. Can find none because my response makes no sense. So computer finally gives up and pretends. I didn’t say that.)
    “Great! So do you have Medicare part a and B?”

    Me: “so you’re telling me you’re a robot.”

    Caller: “so you do you have Medicare part a and B?”

    Me: “ you’re a walking through the desert and you come across a turtle on its back. What do you do? “

    Caller: “OK goodbye.”

    I’ve used this several times and it’s always a computer. I assume a human would also be confused by the “pudding” statement but they would try to respond to it with something like a “um, no. That wasn’t me” or at least a “What?”
    At which point you could congratulate them on passing the test and both have a laugh about it. Really the secret is just getting them to have a human conversation off topic. The AI won’t understand how to do that.
    I just like the pudding test because it’s both so out of the blue and completely non-threatening.

      • Same. I don’t answer the phone anymore unless I’m expecting the call. The scammers are happy to share voice recordings, which can be used to deep fake your voice for other scams.

      • Yeh. That’s usually my policy but I was in that terrible zone where I was waiting for a guy to call me and I don’t have his number in my phone.
        So any number that called and looked real, I had to answer.

      • I wish I could use that route. But I use my same phone for personal and work and deal with people all over the country. So I’m stuck answering. Verizon has an almost OK paid spam blocker, but it’s almost as much effort to manage as just answering the phone.

  215. Fucking pneumonia now.

    The doctor said it’s the manageable kind, that with antibiotics, we should be fine to keep our mother’s day plans. . .

    I like our doctor very much. . . I’m NOT a doctor, but I’m still saying we stay home on Sunday. I’m open to seeing how everyone feels on Sunday morning.

  219. The other day, we gave “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” a try. I liked it better than TCat. I think it was a worthy successor to the original and will watch the next one. I especially loved how they reused the musical cues. TCat wasn’t a fan of making it more YA, but we both agree it was *much* better than the 2016 reboot attempt.

    • I recall that the first half of the 2016 Ghostbusters was hilarious, but that it eventually devolved into a CGI snoozefest.

      I remember very little of Afterlife. There was a sweet tribute to Egon, IIRC.

    • I think that the highlife moments of my life were times I exposed my self to possible embarrassment … but that didn’t end in embarrassment.
      The ones that did are still painful.
      I would agree though, taking the risk yielded great emotional payoff.

  227. Went out for brunch, I got back to find the husband had vacuumed the entire house. I need to go our more often.

  234. Your crap joke for the day:

    After the community sing-along led by Sister Patricia at the piano, it was time for the star of the show – Harry the Hypnotist!

    Harry announced that he was about to put the entire audience into a trance.
    “Yes, each and every one of you, all at the same time,” he declared confidently.

    The excited chatter faded into silence as Harry carefully withdrew, from his waistcoat pocket, a beautiful antique gold pocket watch with a delicate chain.

    “I want you to keep your eyes on this watch,” said Harry, holding it high for everyone to see.
    “It’s a very special and valuable timepiece that has been in my family for six generations.”

    He began to swing the watch gently back and forth while softly chanting,
    “Watch the watch – watch the watch – watch the watch.”

    The audience grew mesmerized as the watch swayed rhythmically. The lights twinkled as they reflected off its gleaming surface. A hundred and fifty pairs of eyes followed its slow, hypnotic motion.

    Then suddenly, they were under Harry’s control.

    However, just as the trance took hold, the chain of the old watch snapped. The beautiful timepiece fell to the stage floor and shattered on impact.

    “Shit!” said Harry.

    It took three days to clean up the Senior Citizens’ Centre — and Harry was never invited back again.

  235. Someone on Threads asked how many years would you have to add to your age to make 80.

    Me: fuuuuuuccckkkkk!

    .. and Death laughed.

  240. Jack’s latest news item #2:

    This one is exciting! I’m doing a “Book Birthday” release party for Dread Spherical at a local mom n pop bookstore next week. There’s apparently going to be cake and everything.

  247. Well this week I get to see the original Jurassic Park at the cinema as part of the Spielberg season.

    Since I’ve only seen it when it was originally released I’m wondering if it still holds up.

    • Curious to get your take. I think the first 2 JP movies are both still great, even if some characters do some really stupid shit in the second one.

      • I still found the kids bloody annoying, the SFX still mostly hold up and the plot is basically Westworld with Dinosaurs replacing the robots.

        Enjoyed tonight’s rewatch.

    • At the time it was commented that Jones voice was so loud the lead singer of The Cardigans had to be recorded separately so as to be not drowned out.

      No idea if that was true though.

    • I not so quietly loved The Cardigans back in the day, although I’d be fine if you erased “Lovefool.”

      I had not heard of this before. That is. . . something.

  259. Well, I didn’t intend that mildly aggressive tone up there. Apologies if it came acress as combative, Bunny. Let me try again:

    I know a bunch of artists, but they’re either very expensive, not quite professional skill level, nowhere near the style of your previous books, or some combination of the above.

    • that’s ok, I knew what you meant. I went onto Fiverr and found someone. It’s a little more than I hoped but decided to bite the bullet and go with it anyway. They are sending preliminary sketches today.

  260. Your crap joke for the day:

    Four beer company CEOs walked into a bar.

    The CEO of Budweiser ordered a Bud Light.

    The CEO of Miller ordered a Miller Light.

    The CEO of Coors ordered a Coors Light.

    The CEO of Guinness ordered a Coke.

    The first three asked the CEO of Guinness why he didn’t order a Guinness, to which he replied:

    “I figured if you three weren’t ordering beer it would be rude for me too.”

  265. Author PJ Schnyder, aka Piper J Drake, of our old larger community has died. She had a pretty long battle with cancer.

    I didn’t really know her personally, so this doesn’t hit me personally, but I know many of our old friends are devastated.

  266. The little one asked what her last year of college will be.

    2040 – – assuming she does 4 years straight out of high school. 2040!

    I’ve known these numbers since before she was born, but it still gets me every time I think about it.

    • HG Wells (1866-1946)

      To live longer than HG Wells I would have to survive to 2047, doesn’t seem that far away does it?

  271. We watched “Remarkably Bright Creatures” last night and quite enjoyed it. I had heard of the book but didn’t know anything about the story.

  274. Funny thing,
    I thought I had seen “The Boys” to it’s final episode. Because I remember how it ended and some of the final seems.
    I realized last night (as I watched Season 5 ep1 that I had not.
    What had happened is that a year or so ago I got the graphic novels through Hoopla and had read the whole story!
    Between the actual images in the graphic and my brain’s ability to imagine, I had built memories of moving images I had never actually seen.

    The human brain. Crazy huh?

  278. Husband: did you know a woman says about 30,000 words a day but men only 15,000

    Wife: that’s because we need to repeat everything we say

    Husband: what?

  279. An elderly couple went to a fast food restaurant and ordered a single burger, one order of fries and one drink.
    Some of the patrons watched as the man carefully cut the burger in half and gave he and his wife each a half. He then counted out the fries and again gave half to both himself and his wife.
    As he was placing two straws into the drink, one of the other patrons came up and offered to pay for a second meal so they could each have their own.
    No, no, said the wife, it’s ok, we always share everything
    The woman proceeded to eat as her husband watched her but didn’t eat himself.
    After a bit, another patron came up and offered to buy a second meal.
    This time the husband replied, no, that’s ok, we always share everything.
    Oh, said the patron. Then asked, but why aren’t you eating while your wife does?
    The husband replied, I’m waiting to use the teeth.

      • Same, I may have related this story before (likely because I’ve been posting to the Deadpan for 20 years.) There was a time when I was in middle school my close friend Steve and his mom would go and see movies out of town during the summer. Being a scifi kid I was pumped for E.T. and my more sports minded friend was pumped for Rocky 3. Turns out I liked Rocky 3 more than E.T. and he liked E.T more than Rocky 3.

  282. Friday: Mandalorian & Grogu.
    Saturday: Dread Spherical book signing event in downtown Glendale – – followed by an in-person podcast recording panel.
    Sunday: Return of the Jedi at the Phoenix Symphony (we had free tix!).

    It’s been a heckuva Memorial Day weekend.

  283. All day yesterday and today: terrible pain in my calf. Tiffany thinks it could be something horrible, so I’ll be going to have a look at it tomorrow.

    Are we having fun?

      • Same. There was a little bit of deux ex machina, but whatever. It worked.

        I’ve heard the comics’ ending was a bit different.

    • The quote I saw from someone in the top end of things (producer? director? Can’t remember) is that he new it was a bit different from the comic but that that HE needed a happy ending.
      I appreciate that right now in my life.

      I’m about halfway through the finale season and knowing that somehow, for someone in this story, the good guy will win…it helps me slog through the horrific maga parallels.

      I kind of need hope right now.

  291. Any Robyn Hitchcock fans here? I got a book, so I’ve been doing some investigating. I have dug plenty of “Alternative” bands in my day and had plenty of friends in this scene, but somehow never heard his stuff.

  293. So there are seven Steven Spielberg films I’ve not seen before, going to cross one off that list be seeing Empire of the Sun today.

  294. I asked ChatGPT if Dick Van Dyke had ever appeared on the Mary Tyler Moore show and it responded that my question seems inappropriate.

  295. I don’t often look at Threads, but this was a gem:

    “ This isn’t Idiocracy.

    In Idiocracy, the President is trying his best and when he finds the smartest man in the world, he puts him in charge of fixing things.

    This is way worse.”

  296. Wow, I really don’t check in here often enough. To answer the Planet Comic Con questions above:

    Rhettro – that’s really cool! Yes, Planet Comic Con did fill out the entire main show floor, and at least most of the meeting rooms in the adjacent building. It was a huge event and a lot of fun! The demand is outgrowing the supply there – the line for regular attendees to get in was enormously long the whole time I was there.

    Jack – Actually, the main cosplay that I took pictures of myself in at PCC is my original character. She is Lady Ourana Aerins, Sixth Bride of Count Strahd von Zarovich. She was my player character in our online [i]Curse of Strahd[/i] D&D campaign, which we ended with a dramatic TPK (but we had a good time!). To this day, I enjoy imagining and writing about her and her party-mate Belindrah’s further adventures as vampire spawn. 🙂

    On a related note: Did one of you guys send me the copy of [i]Ironsworn: Starforged[/i] I got a few weeks ago? If so, thank you very much! I will definitely check it out and probably play it with my in-person gaming group one of these days.

  297. In the “it never stops” category, we have two anxious appointments in the next two days.

    We’ve always been pretty good about clipping the very old kitty’s nails, but she has some ingrown claws on one paw. This will require a stressful, worrisome vet visit.

    It’s been a week.

  298. If your tv won’t play the b/w version of Spider Noir, just adjust your the saturation setting on your tv till the display goes b/w.

  299. I’ve not seen Legally Blond, today is the day, 25 years after it’s release, I get to see the movie at the cinema.

  302. I gotta be honest, I’m not as much of a hockey guy as you remember, but I am still aware of what’s going on, and I occasionally watch highlights or a live game when possible.

    One of the heroes of my favorite NJ Devils championship teams took his own life yesterday. It’s shaken the entire hockey world.
    RIP Claude Lemieux.

    • Yeah. I was very sad last night to learn of his passing. He’s only a couple years older than me. I remember the horrible rivalry between the Avs and the Wings. Like him or hate him, Lemieux left everything on the ice.

  303. In exciting SLAM news: I’m gonna do another new page soon to announce our next big thing. I will say: I got an absolute giant involved. I kinda can’t believe it. One of my childhood heroes.

  307. There’s a huge ass Storm going on right now. Heavy rain and winds gusting to 80 klicks.
    And I have to go into the city. Yuck

  310. Just back from seeing Backrooms at the cinema, weird film and didn’t fill me with desire to watch the YouTube series it’s based on.

  312. I forgot to mention – – we took the young’un to Fanwing Fest this past weekend, which was a celebration of the Wings of Fire YA series. The author was there in person (she was super nice – – even commented on my Totoro t-shirt).

    The event tickets were about $30, and it was sold out. There had to have been about 1000 people there. We spoke to a mother and son who’d traveled from Florida just to attend.

    Wild.

  316. Because our schedules are crazy, I ended up taking the little one with me to the Classical guitarist concert last night. She did great! We did a late night trip to IHOP as a reward.

    The guitarist is Edith Pageaud, who’s one of the most incredible players in the world. ANNND she played Gnossienne No. 1 from Erik Satie, which has been my musical obsession for the past year.

    • I only heard of the initial consignment agreement which sounded like a win-win. And then it went off the rails. What a mess.

  319. So I’ve made my big social media announcement. I’ll update this site with a new page later today (It’s time anyway). This is the news:

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    June 4, 2026

    Support Life And Music proudly announces the first annual SLAM Awards this summer, recognizing those who’ve contributed to the betterment of musician mental health.

    The event will feature an incredible cast of awardees and guests, including Rob Halford, Michael Alago, Darryl DMC McDaniels, Jason McMaster, Pamela Trepanier Parks, George Musgrave, and many more – – hosted by superstar Cathy Rankin. Support Life And Music will continue to release more details leading up to the show, which will release as a very special SLAM: Music Survival Guide episode.

    Watch and subscribe to Support Life And Music’s social media and website to stay up-to-date.

    #SummerOfSlam

  321. Well.
    My parent’s house closed yesterday.
    So that story is mostly closed.
    His Polevault equipment won’t be picked up until next Saturday but it is stacked up beside the driveway, ready to go.

    As I post this, my dad is currently in the recovery room. He had his pacemaker replaced this morning.

  324. In OTHER big news, I have to get off the computer and head into downtown Phoenix. I have a table to peddle my wares at Phoenix FanFusion (ComiCon) this year!

    Wish me luck.

  330. CW: Cape Fear E1

    Nice build up of Cady fucking with the family he wants to destroy before doing the deed.

    It’s a new AppleTV series based on the Scorsese remake.

  332. Phoenix Fan Fusion is behind us. It was many things – – including fun.

    Some highlights:
    The little one’s book almost sold out.
    I sold a few copies of Dread Spherical and some S.L.A.M. stuff.
    Patman stopped by the booth!
    I introduced Chuck Tomasi and Mike Stackpole, who’d never met in person.
    We bought a book from James A Owen. He autographed it with a dragon picture, which I was told later was rare.
    I sat on a panel! It’s been a long time.

    Terry Brooks was there! I didn’t meet him, but it was still awesome to see him out and about with his fans.

    Played the vector Star Wars arcade game. The little one actually blew up the Death Star on Easy! Then she asked me to take over. I destroyed the middle level, but couldn’t get past Hard.

    I’ll post more pictures to the various social medias.

    • I wished I could have attended, but I had a date with an iceberg. Glad you got to meet Patman, I got to see a lot of the Con through his pictures he posted. Earlier in the year, I had the idea that I could host games of Gaslands at the Con this year, because it seems not many are aware of the game, and then we were invited to go to Alaska by my brother and my sister in-law. So we had to skip. Funny enough, a PHX gaming group ended up hosting huge games of Gaslands this year, so I guess I wasn’t needed? LOL I may reach out to them about helping next year. Anyways, glad you and the little one had fun!

      • Thanks for making that connection. It was exciting to meet Patman in person.

        It sounds like the Alaskan cruise was the right decision.

        • It was a fun one, and we got to see more of southern Alaska and western Canada than any other means. But, I doubt we’ll do another cruise. Our next vacation will be to fly to a destination and stay there a week to really explore it, rather than lots of time on a ship with short 4 hour excersions.

  335. Well today I get to see one of my fav Spielberg films at the cinema, Bridge of Spies.

    Also booked a ticket for a Discloure Day showing this week.

  337. We’re rewatching the Toy Story movies in preparation for Toy Story 5.

    We just did 3, which is funnier than I remember, but also easily the darkest and my least favorite of the bunch.

    What really redeems it is the final 5 minutes. And Buzz’s Spanish Mode.

  342. From Russell T Davies’s Instagram page:
    russelltdavies63

    And so GOODBYE from me to Doctor Who but HELLO to a big new future for the show, as the BBC announces it’s putting the show out to tender. As a result, there won’t be a Christmas Special – we only cooked that up to guarantee a future when no one knew what would happen, but now we do know, there’s no need for it. You’ll have to wait a bit longer for new Doctor Who… but you’ll be waiting for MORE Doctor Who than a one-off. So it’s worth it! For the record: there was no script, I never wrote it, and no actor was ever approached to play the next Doctor. You may disagree; fine, sit in that chair and wait to be proved right. You’ll wait a lonnng time Now I’m as excited as anyone to see what comes next! Will they keep the theme tune? Will they lose the blue box? Will they bring back the Drahvin?! It’s all up for grabs, which is so Doctor Who, exciting and unpredictable and new! Here comes the future, vworp vworp

  343. There was three of us in pre-op yesterday. Arious medical people were in and out asking questions, etc. I guess one of the women had refused to sign the permission that, under the very rare case something went wrong and you needed a blood transfusion they could give you one.
    Her reason, they couldn’t give her any guarantees so she’d rather die than risk getting blood that might have come from someone vaccinated as she didn’t want any vaccine in her.

    I understand standing by your principles (even if I don’t agree with them) but that seemed a little extreme.

    I had to bite my tongue on that one

  348. Jack – glad you had such a great time at Phoenix Fan Fusion! That sounds amazing!!

    I have the opportunity to hang out with one of my writer friends at our local Gothicon, where he will be selling a gothic poetry anthology and I will be selling vampire-themed, decorated pin badges. I made the first few on Tuesday night at our local makerspace. I plan to go back and make more later.

    Rhettro – I’ve done two slightly different Alaska cruise routes and very much enjoyed both, but yeah, I get it. Not much time for immersion in any one place.

    Bunny – hope you’re recovering well.

    In other news, on Wednesday night, my in-person TTRPG group had a mini Session Zero for our new Eberron campaign. It’s a sequel to the old one that was killed by the big OGL debacle, and features two returning characters (mine and Nicole’s) and two new characters played by folks who weren’t available for the first one, but are now. We also started playing the Labyrinth TTRPG in the time we had left. Droop the Goblin, Clash the Firey (named after the main puppeteer), Lady Salvina the rabbit Knight of Yore (think Judy Hopps if she were a Muppet), and Missy the Worm are such a fun party for that game, and we had an absolute blast. I love that group <3

  351. So I’m comfortable saying it here in this remote corner of the internet: I’m no longer with that one particular Hall of Fame.

    I’ll keep the details light in this comment, because this page is still visible. I’ll just say: a few of us were targeted in a very unprofessional email about the SLAM Awards.

    I’m proud of everything I contributed there. I like a few of the people who are still involved. I wish them success in the future.

  355. Your crap joke for the day:

    So I said to the vicar: “This is a lovely old church, vicar”

    He said: “It’s Norman”

    I said: “Oh right, this is a lovely old church Norman”

  358. I left a half-empty mug of tea next to my phone on the nightstand. This morning there were little hardened splotches on the phone surface.

    Detective Jack has deduced that the cat was drinking from my tea mug overnight.

  361. One of the interesting perks of living where I do (if space related things fuel your imagination)…
    I was up on the mountain that overlooks town last night, waiting for a concert to start. It was just before sunset.
    Then heard what sounded like the rumble of thunder… except it kept going and instantly I knew what it was.
    Looked to the South East and there was the plume just rising.
    It was a rocket engine test. Someone said it was Blue Origin testing their engine. It was a clear evening and the test went on for what seemed like minutes as the brilliant white plume of steam towered over the already hundred something foot tall test stand.

    Just so cool.

  363. So I finally saw Boogie Nights at the cinema yesterday, the 4K restored version.

    Nice cameo from Alfred Molina. So far haven’t come across a Paul Thomas Anderson film I haven’t like and this one didn’t change my mind.

  369. We just finished up the first (only?) season of The Boroughs on Netflix last night. Billed as “Stranger Things with Senior Citizens” – it definitely has that vibe, though that does oversell the premise a bit. Still, good cast and a not super deep monster mystery story. We enjoyed it.

    I’ve read that the show creator would like to do two more seasons, though this first one is a pretty self contained story on it’s own.

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