Books and Such

I was listening to a series of podcasts earlier this year about the Pulp Heroes from the 1930s. I found the idea of the pulp novel to interesting and so I set out to grab some and read them.

I started with the first John Carter of Mars book entitled Princess of Mars. This was by Edgar Rice Burroughs who is most known for Tarzan. John Carter also stared in a Disney movie that flopped earlier this year due to the horrible marketing campaign attached to it. Check out the movie, it was a really good watch. Anyways, I really enjoyed the book. It was an easy read and it was easy to see the impact it had on sci-fi as a whole. I felt like I had missed out on not reading John Carter when I was younger.

I moved on to Doc Savage after I finished John Carter. These were less refined than the John Carter books. There were roughly 180 Doc Savage pulps from the early 1930s to the late 1940s. The books are what they are. Mass produced serialized fiction. Sometimes poorly written, sometimes poorly thought out and sometimes rushed to fit the story into the 120 page limit that these pulps required. You're not getting classics of literature with these novels. But, they are incredibly fun books. There's good action and a great sense of adventure that comes with the Doc Savage novels. You can really see the seeds that he planted in other characters like Superman, Dirk Pitt and Indiana Jones. You can probably polish off a Doc Savage novel in a couple of sittings and you might remember the story if you're lucky. I've started reading these between books to kind of reset for the next big read. They work well in that capacity.

Then I tried the Destroyer novels. There's about 150 of these and they've been coming out since the early 1970s. He is not considered to be a pulp hero but he shares a lot of similarities to them. The main character is named Remo Williams and it's about his adventures as a government agent. These books are a little more developed than the pulps of the 30s. There's attempts at characterization. You come to know Remo and are expected to see the human side, not necessarily just the adventurer/hero. The books also pack a decent sense of humor. Again, these aren't classics of literature. They're just fun romps to kill a few reading sessions with. These also run $2.99 for the Kindle.

I also acquired some of the Shadow's pulp novels. I am a huge fan of the radio show from the 30s and 40s but I have yet to dig into these very much. The Spider is also on my radar but I just have too much to read to give him serious consideration at this time.

If you want something fun and simple, give Doc Savage, Remo Williams or John Carter a look.

Boo Berry

It's getting to be fall and you know what that means. No, it's not about leaves changing color or Halloween. We're talking about Boo Berry!

Boo Berry has become a seasonal cereal that pops up for the Halloween season, along with Frankenberry. Boo Berry is a unique choice in the cereal world for it's blueberry flavor. My wife and I both excitedly purchase a couple of boxes the first time it appears on the shelves. Where we live, you have to buy it on first sight because it tends to go quick.

It's kind of become my life goal to convert as many people as possible to Boo Berry. I successfully got my wife to love the cereal and I few friends here and there. My best friend Justin and I usually exchange excited texts the first time Boo Berry appears.

If you haven't tried it, go out and get some now. You owe it to yourself to try this rare and unique cereal.

That time of year again...

It's fall and that means football. Usually, I would be super excited about that but I have to be honest that my love of football has died a lot in the last several months. Junior Seau's suicide has effected my love of football in a similar way to how the Benoit murders effected my love of pro wrestling.

Last year, Chris Nowinski appeared on an episode of Bill Simmon's podcast. The subject of the day was concussions and the impact that multiple concussions had on a person. For those that don't know, Nowinski was briefly a wrestler and had to retire from multiple concussions. He then devoted his life to researching concussions. He described the impact of a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy aka being punch drunk. The fallout of this condition can be depression, dementia and overall increase in aggressive behavior.

It was a real eye opening interview as he discussed how kids playing at even the Pop Warner level can do irreversible damage to their brain. Needless to say, after that interview I become very convinced that if I had a child I wouldn't let them play football or soccer. I decided the risks to their long term health were not worth allowing them to play a game for a few years.

Fastforward to this year and Junior Seau's suicide. It wasn't confirmed or anything but it seemed to fit the pattern of the guys that were suffering from depression due to the repeated brain trauma. I was just kind of just done with football at that point. I still watch some games here and there this season but I completely lack the passion that I once did for the game.

There's something about watching guys and in the back of your mind knowing that you're watching these guys damage themselves in such a way. I feel like there's a disconnect going on in a lot of ways. People mourn these guys when they pass but they don't attribute the lifestyle to the end result. I saw the same kind of reactions in the post Benoit wrestling community. There were people that gave up and there were people trying to make this weird case that Benoit the performer was not Benoit the murderer. It's a really weird case that was being made at the time.

Either way, that's my take on football currently. I still watch, I'm just lacking the diehard passion that I used to have.

The New 52 - One Year Later

If you run in comic book circles, this was the big news of the last year and a half or so. I'll spare the gory details but essentially DC started every book over at issue number 1 and rebooted their universe. It was a big deal at the time and it sold really well. I checked out a number of the 1st issues at the time. Some were good, some were bad, a lot were mediocre.

It's a year later, the dust has settled to a degree, so what's my ultimate take on DC's New 52 a year into it? Well, frankly, it's mostly a mess. I would say that overall, that I'm less interested in the current DC than I was the pre-52 books. Here's the list of what I'm reading on a monthly basis:

Batman
Batman and Robin
Nightwing
Green Lantern
Flash
Earth Two
Justice League Dark
Justice League
Frankenstein
Swamp Thing
Animal Man

11 titles for me. Now here's where it gets interesting. Of these 11 books, 4 of them could have existed in the pre-52 universe. The Bat-books and Green Lantern weren't really rebooted, they kind of just picked up where the pre-52 books left off. Past those 4, Flash and Justice League are always a read for me. The Flash has been okay and Justice League has been bad. The horror/magic books have been a real revelation though. Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Frankenstein and Justice League Dark all fall into that category. I really enjoy those titles on a monthly basis. Side note to that, Swamp Thing and Animal Man build on their Vertigo titles so are more of a soft reboot.

11 titles seems like a good deal. But before the reboot I was also reading Teen Titans, Red Robin, Batgirl, Detective Comics, JSA, Green Lantern Corps and a few other titles. Overall, I've slimmed the list down a few books and it's going to get even slimmer when Frankenstein gets cancelled in a few months.

So, what are my issues with the New 52 after a year?

Muddy Continuity Waters:

There are previous events that still happened in this Universe. Barbara Gordon still got shot by the Joker but got better for example. So you're always a little confused on what counts and what doesn't. Certain events carried over and others didn't and they don't really bother to tell you what they're working with. Which leads me to the next point...

There's a lot of baggage for a new universe:

It wasn't a hard reset and that caused issues. The universe feels a little lighter overall but there's still a lot of baggage hanging around. Characters like Hawkman don't make sense again. The Bat-Family has a ton of baggage as there's all this unstated history that you aren't 100% sure about.

Inconsistent between books:

This is where I rip on Justice League a lot. If you read Justice League, Green Lantern and Aquaman in particular are nothing like the characters in their solo titles. This is even more confusing when you realize that Geoff Johns writes all three titles. Green Lantern in particular is glaring. He's this immature, pig headed, idiot in Justice League and this mature, seasoned veteran in his own title. I know it's hard to keep a character spot on between books... but it's the same writer!!!

Lack of new creative voices:

Welcome to the New 52 same as the old DCU. This was actually a complaint before the first book even landed. You screwed up your old universe to the point that you felt the only way out was to throw it all out the window. Okay, fair enough. Wait, what? Those guys that ruined the old universe are writing the new universe? But, but, but... nevermind... it hurts my brain too much to think about. Anyways, a few new talents came aboard but the writing roster stayed virtually the same. This New 52 is being written by the people that screwed up the old universe. Seems like a bad idea to me.

Those are the bigger problems that I see with the New 52. Generally, I have liked it a little less with each passing month. Here's hoping things get a little better with some more time.

Beginners Guide to Geocaching From a Beginner

I've posted about it a few times in the past. This is my newest hobby that I finally took the plunge on this summer. I missed about 2 months for various reasons but on Labor Day I was in a park and found one and it set me back on the Geocaching trail. Yesterday, I found my 31st cache. Not a huge number compared to others but I feel I'm started to get the hang of things.

Let's get things started off here. If you want to get started go to Geocaching.com for the listings. From there, pick a few and head out. Keep these ideas in your head though. I'm going to leave out the more common sense ideas.

What You'll Need:

You should always keep a pen on you. The smaller caches won't have room for a pen. If you can't sign the logbook, you have no way of verifying that you were there. I would also recommend a flashlight, tweezers, something to probe unseen areas and swag if you want to leave something behind.

Don't be discouraged by early failure:

Easy, medium, hard... they all get a little easier with every cache you'll find. I was telling Kelly the other day that getting from 21-30 was easier than 11-20 which was easier than 0-10. Every find will teach you a little bit more about where to look. When I first started out, I had no idea where to look and I depended on my GPS heavily. Now, I can sometimes pick out the hiding spot without even looking at my GPS.

You'll slowly learn and your mind will start to work like a geocacher. Suddenly you'll arrive at Groundzero and start looking for holes in trees or fallen logs to find your cache. Where in the beginning, you'll probably have to luck into a couple of caches.

Sometimes, just put down the GPS:

I can be guilty of this. You wander around back and forth because your GPS can't zero in on a consistent location. You look away for 2 seconds and see the cache immediately. I would say, I've done that 5 or 6 times already. I'm getting better about stopping and looking instead of staring at the little numbers on my phone.

Research, research, research:

I usually go out early Saturday or Sunday morning and try to polish off a number of caches before the muggle (cacher word for non-players) starts to really get dense. This is nice for picking off a number of high traffic area caches with little interference.

Before that, I plot out my path for that trip. I know in what order I'm going, I read the description completely, read the log entries and look at the placement of the cache on the map. Why do I do this? Because my success rate of finding caches that I go in cold for is much lower. The more I research and prepare, the better my odds are when I go out looking. There's nothing worse than walking a mile to a cache and then having to walk a mile back empty handed. Research will increase your odds of success.

Dress appropriately:

This was my first big lesson as a cacher. Wear pants!!!

No, seriously... wear pants. If you're going off the beaten trail at all, which most caches in the woods will require, you're going to want pants. You're going to be walking through some thick underbrush at times in the summer and it will save you a lot of bug bites and possible poison ivy to do this.

I always wear pants when I plan to geocache in the woods.

Sometimes, the cache just isn't there.

This has happened to me, I think twice so far. Went up to a cache, didn't find it and was confused because that was the only possible location it could be in. Left, came back at a later date and the cache is suddenly there. I have no idea why this happens when there's nothing in the logbook about it being gone. It just happens.

Read the last several log entries:

This will save you a massive headache. If the last several cachers have logged Did Not Finds on this cache, there's a good chance it's gone. If no one has logged anything on the cache in several years, it might be gone too. If the last post is asking for owner maintenance then you might want to hold off for a few days until the owner fixes it. The logs exist for a reason.

There are some helpful hints that might not be super apparent at first. I hope this helps anyone that is thinking about going after their first cache soon or who has just started finding a couple.

My day...

The company I work for has a program called 'Invest A Day'. Essentially as an employee you get 1 day a year where you can take off work and do some charitable work. Some people go to a pet shelter, others go to a soup kitchen, etc. There's all sorts of things that one can invest their day in.

I decided to do it this year and my boss pointed me to a food kitchen working out of a nearby church. It sounded good so I filled out my paperwork and contacted the man that coordinates and I was ready to go.

I arrived at 10 this morning. We unloaded his van and started to strategize our day. The menu was open faced roast beef sandwiches with gravy, mashed potato casserole and fruit salad for desert. The meal started at 6 so we had a little time here and there to chill out and talk a bit.

The man's name was Michael and we had a lot in common. We both leaned about the same on the political scale, we were both into guns and we were both trying to lose weight. So on top of cooking, I got to know Michael and we came to know each other quite a bit. Later, some other people from my company showed up and I got to know them a little bit too.

The work wasn't too bad as I've worked in similar kitchens in my younger days. I pulled apart the roast beef, pulled the stems off some grapes and helped make the mashed potato casserole. It was nice to see that the people coming in that night would get a good quality meal.

It was a really good experience overall. It was nice to give back to the community a little bit. It was a nice change of pace to take a few hours out of my life and do something selfless instead of self involved. I talked to Michael at the end of the day and this is an ongoing thing. I plan to go out and help with serving and preparing meals after work maybe once a month or so. That was my day...

Another one of those "adulthood" posts.

September hit and that brings on the usual stresses as an adult:

"I better start buying Trick or Treat candy."
"Crap, I haven't saved a dime for Christmas this year."
"It's going to be getting dark really early soon."

and so on and so fourth.

It kind of amazes me how condensed the rest of the year becomes once Labor Day passes. You start gearing up for leaves and Halloween and then Christmas and New Year's are here before you know it. It's a very different pace than when you were in school and college.

September and October were back to school season. You had to readjust to a lifestyle with responsibility so those months could just drag on for a really long time. September always felt like a month that lasted forever and October was pretty long too. The same with December really, you were always eager for Christmas to get here so it took forever. Now, Thanksgiving ends and Christmas gets here so fast you almost wish you had another week to prepare.

I think for me, it's mostly about routine. I get up, go to work 5 days a week and then try to enjoy my weekends as much as possible. You fall into that lifestyle and suddenly the weeks, months and even years fly past you. You kind of just get lost in the day to day flow of things and suddenly, you're some distant point in the future and don't know how you arrive there.

I'm not sure why I was thinking about it this weekend. I brought it up to Kelly a few days ago as some side conversation on our commute home. Anyways, I really do need to start buying Trick or Treat candy. Better add that to the list...