Two years ago I began collecting and playing the card game Marvel Champions. I bought the base game and then began collecting a bunch of individual hero packs and various villain scenarios, basically a bunch of stuff to make the game better. I chronicled said adventures in the first Acquisitioning post.
Now, at the same time I was playing with SavageDave and Spalanz via whatsapp. I was having some issues finding some of the hero packs and Dave, living in the great country of Netherlands, was able to track down a collection of 6 hero packs, for about half the price of what I'd pay for the individual packs. He bought them for me. Plans were made for getting it from the Netherlands to the US. Plans fell through. Other plans were made. Those plans fell through. Dave has "connections" with "The Family" and even THEY let us down. (I'll say no more so Dave doesn't get any necktie justice).
In desperation, we turned to the absolute last resort. The least competent, the most corrupt, the worst possible choice. Yes, we turned to the national mail systems of our respective countries. We had truly hit rock bottom. But even the worst can sometimes deliver. And Deliver they did, voila!
To make things even better, Dave sent me a nice birthday card. I loved that! I hope that getting this collection will convince me to do another gaming post on MC. But don't hold your breath, my resistance to games is well known, some might even say legendary.
Can you share some obscure/unusual words you like to use when writing
The problem is that while I have a wide vocabulary, I don't compare it to the nitwits of today. So most of the words I use are completely normal. If you are me. If you're not me, well, you're el crewedso. See, I'm multilingual too.
Do you have pets (if yes, photos!)
Nope. Never have, never will.
What brings you joy?
Sitting at an outdoor cafe, sipping an iced sweet chai, while writing for hours in my current journal. Just looking off into the distance, thinking, writing.
If there’s anything that can make you look forward to tomorrow, what would that be?
Knowing I have the day off so I can go to the aforementioned cafe ;-)
Best vacation destination from your experience?
Hawaii. Best place ever. As long as you don't have to do the driving.
Do you count steps?
Don't have time. Work keeps me moving.
Favorite meal?
Pizza! I could eat pizza forever.
The last song you listened on repeat?
The Resident Evil theme song. By Marilyn Manson of all people :-D
How many blogs do you have?
What’s your favorite quote?
give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, 9 lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. ~Proverbs 30: 8b-9 ESV
Now I'm supposed to nominate 11 other bloggers and ask 11 new questions. However, I know something about you all that you don't.
This
review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained
therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to
copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions.
Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted
Permission
Title:
Little House in the Big Woods Series: Little
House #1 Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder Rating:
4 of 5 Stars Genre: MG Historical Fiction Pages:
87 Words: 33K Publish: 1932
What
a delightful gem of a book! While I’m stating this is middle grade
level, it is simple enough that it could easily be read by elementary
school age kids. We get a year in the life of the Ingalls family from
the viewpoint of Laura, who is 4 at the beginning of the book and 5
by the time the story wraps up. It is a very positive outlook to
things, just like you’d expect from the memories of someone that
young. They wouldn’t understand some of the bad and would just
accept things as they are, because they don’t know any different.
My
mom read these to me growing up before I could read on my own and
then I read them on my own at some point. Might have even read them a
couple of times. But I never did read them as an adult and since I
needed some ya/childrens books to keep me from being a total old
grump, I decided on these. This book delighted me and I feel like
I’ve made a great choice to go through the Little House series
and I am looking forward to reading more. That makes a book a success
in my eyes.
★★★★☆
From
Grokipedia
The
narrative of Little House in the Big Woods follows
the Ingalls family's experiences through the seasons in their log
cabin in the Wisconsin wilderness. In the fall and early winter, Pa
hunts deer and other game to stock the larder, and with Uncle Henry's
help butchers their fattened pig, preserving the meat as roasts,
sausages, headcheese, lard, and other provisions while hanging
venison and storing vegetables outside to freeze. During
the long winter evenings, Pa plays his fiddle for family singing and
tells vivid stories of past encounters with bears and panthers,
including Grandpa's sled ride chased by a panther and Pa's own narrow
escapes, which both delight and unsettle young Laura. Pa
also molds bullets by melting lead over the fire and pouring it into
a bullet mold to prepare ammunition for his rifle. Laura
frequently feels afraid of the wild animals surrounding the cabin,
such as wolves howling close by at night, the time Ma mistook a bear
for the cow Sukey and slapped it before fleeing with Laura back to
safety, or imagining panthers lurking in the shadows, yet she feels
protected and secure inside the sturdy little house with her family
nearby. Christmas brings a joyful gathering when Uncle
Peter, Aunt Eliza, and their children visit, filling the cabin with
relatives, homemade gifts including a new rag doll named Charlotte
for Laura, mittens, candy, festive food, and storytelling around the
fire. As late winter transitions to spring with a "sugar
snow," the family travels to Grandpa's for sugaring-off,
collecting maple sap from the trees, boiling it into syrup and sugar,
and celebrating with neighbors at a lively dance featuring music and
food. In spring, preparations lead to the family's
first trip to town, where Laura and Mary marvel at the store and
village sights. Summer brings visits to and from
neighbors, along with garden tending and other warm-weather
activities. In fall, harvest time involves relatives helping Pa
and Ma with field work and grain processing, while the family resumes
preparations for the coming winter.
This review is written with
a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede
all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing
without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at
WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Death of a Doxy Series:
Nero Wolfe #42 Author: Rex Stout Rating:
3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Mystery Pages:
139 Words: 51K Publish: 1966
While this was an ok entry in the long running Nero Wolfe series, I
find myself not enjoying these post 1950’s books as much as the
earlier ones. Stout has moved Wolfe through time and the culture has
changed significantly (not for the better in my opinion) and so the
tone of the books are different. That might work very well for some
people, but for me, not so much.
Orrie Cather is one of Wolfe’s helpers but he has always played
such a small role that to have him thrust into the middle of things
was unsettling. Coupled with the fact that he’s not actually
involved in this book (he spends almost all of it in jail) made it
doubly unsettling to me. The whole subject matter (a whore, who is
pregnant, blackmail, infidelity) left a bad taste in my mouth and I
don’t know if I’d ever read this particular book again.
It is still well-written and up to snuff in regards to Stout’s
skill, but I just didn’t like the subject matter from start to
finish. And that is why I’ve knocked a half-star from my usual
rating of a Nero Wolfe book.
★★★✬☆
From Grokipedia
Death
of a Doxy opens with Orrie Cather, a recurring
freelance operative for Nero Wolfe, asking Archie Goodwin to enter
the apartment of Isabel Kerr, a former showgirl living as the kept
mistress of wealthy banker Avery Ballou, to retrieve personal
possessions that Isabel had taken and was using to threaten Orrie's
engagement to airline stewardess Jill Hardy.[5][3] Archie
discovers Isabel bludgeoned to death with an ashtray, leaves the
scene without alerting authorities, and informs Orrie of the
murder.[5] Isabel's sister, Stella Fleming, subsequently finds
the body and notifies the police, who identify Orrie's fingerprints
and belongings at the scene, leading to his arrest as the prime
suspect.[5][3]Despite lacking a paying client, Nero Wolfe commits to
proving Orrie's innocence, joined by Archie, Saul Panzer, and Fred
Durkin, who conclude—based in part on Saul's reasoning that Orrie
would not have involved Archie if guilty—that Orrie is
innocent.[3][5] The investigation focuses on those aware of the
secret apartment, including Stella and her husband Barry Fleming, a
mathematics teacher, and Isabel's close friend, nightclub singer
Julie Jaquette (real name Amy Jackson).[3][5] Wolfe coerces
cooperation from Avery Ballou by threatening to publicize his affair
with Isabel, eliciting the revelation that Ballou had been
blackmailed by someone using the alias Milton Thales—a name
referencing a figure in the history of mathematics.[5] This clue
points suspicion toward Barry Fleming.[5]The inquiry also uncovers
that Isabel was pregnant, complicating motives surrounding her
death.[5] To expose the killer, Wolfe recruits Julie Jaquette to
serve as bait in a carefully orchestrated trap, placing her at risk
as the murderer attempts to eliminate her.[3] For her
protection, Julie is brought to stay in Wolfe's brownstone, where she
actively participates in the plan.[3] The ruse, involving a
substantial cash offer tied to keeping certain facts private, forces
the culprit into the open, resulting in the identification of Barry
Fleming as both the blackmailer Milton Thales and Isabel Kerr's
murderer, with his motive connected to preventing blackmail and
protecting personal secrets.[6][7][3] Orrie Cather is exonerated
and released.
I distinctly remember this card because I bought four of them to build my first real themed deck, one built around merfolk. It cost $2 a card and I was making minimum wage of $4.25 helping my neighbor who was a painter. Once I took taxes and tithes out, it cost me an entire half day to buy the four cards. Four Cards, that I could only use in ONE deck. It was a big commitment but at the time, it felt worth it. I made that merfold deck and then was promptly beaten every time I used it. I didn't win a single game against my friend, hahaahahaa. He was a better player than me and he was a better deck builder than me.
I had a lot of fun playing that deck however. Not "quite" enough to overcome losing every time, but I didn't hate playing it. I guess I couldn't have asked for much more as a teen.
This review is written with
a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede
all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing
without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at
WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Silent Death Series:
The Shadow #27 Authors: Maxwell Grant Rating:
3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Crime Fiction Pages:
160 Words: 50K Publish: 1933
It’s
been a while since we had a good Mad Scientist type story and this
fit the bill perfectly. Mixing in the Gang Leader brought in a bunch
of toughs for The Shadow to fight with as well and that is always
good.
Another
story that I enjoyed.
★★★✬☆
From
Bookstooge
A
Mad Scientist, who has been experimenting with various ways to kill
people with invisible means (ie, electrical, chemical, etc), teams up
with a crooked Investor and a Gangster. They plan to kill other
investors that will help the Crooked Investor, thus spreading the
wealth amongst the three.
Things
go wrong when The Shadow intervenes at the first attempt and it
becomes a duel between the Mad Scientist and The Shadow to see who
can kill the other first. The Shadow rewires one of the Mad
Scientist’s traps and the Mad Scientist ends up electrocuting
himself to bbq. Yum, the other, other white meat!
Here we go, another thrilling post where Imperator Bookstooge wows you with thrills and chills and amazes you with his Indiana Jones style adventures. Oh wait, that's that other blog. Here we just sit around on the couch and complain about those kids playing their music too loud. Yeah, that sounds more like it.
Sunday started out like most Sundays, waking up about 6am. Have a lazy morning of blogging and sipping on a rockstar, deciding what sounds good for breakfast. That first choice of the week is the most important after all. We made our daily run to the local grocery store for donuts or apple turnovers and then we headed to church. All I can say is thank goodness for my Loop ear plugs! Those drums were LOUD. We had a little going away party for one of the families, who are moving to the deep south. Once we got home it was lunch, chores and then Mrs B took off for work. I continued the chores theme while doing blogging and watching tv. Sunday afternoon is the time I watch tv. That's it, so while I don't actually care that much WHAT I watch, I just like the routine of it.
Monday, I woke up with a food hangover. Because I'm by myself for Sunday afternoon and evenings, I tend to overeat and for whatever reason, it always makes me feel terrible Monday mornings. I blame the diabetes, even if my sugars stay good. The job for the day didn't help, as we were pretty much thrown a folder and told "figure it out" by the Company President. The site itself was covered in poison ivy. Most of the big pine trees had the 2inch thick hairy vines that are the signature of mature poison ivy. When we got back to the office we used a whole bunch of post-contact poison ivy wipes. And when I got home, I scrubbed down again with Tecnu. I've been using that stuff since the 20teens and boy does it work! Haven't had a serious case of poison ivy since starting it. I was exhausted though and I think I feel asleep around 8pm.
Tuesday I felt much better when I woke up. Then I got to work and found out we were setting "blue tops" (technically pink, like in the picture above) at a nearby site. They are a 8in nail with a bunch of colored "feathers" stick up so the heavy machine operator can see them without getting out of his bulldozer or driller or whatever. They aren't bad if you're hammering them into a lawn, as shown above. The problem was that the developer of the site we were working had pulled off all the good topsoil and replaced it with total garbage soil that was over 50% rocks the size of softballs and 25% of smaller rocks mixed in with the remaining dirt. Meant we had to use our power drill to get these pinktops into the ground. I also had to wear knee pads because there is no way you can kneel on those stones. So 125 pink tops later, the work day was done. And we had 125 to look forward to for the next day. With rain forecasted, whooowheee!
Wednesday continued the pinktop adventures. I took an Aleve as soon as I got up that morning to get ahead of the pain I knew I was going to be experiencing. And pain there was. My back hurt from bending over. My knees hurt from kneeling on stony ground. The back of my knees hurt from the strap of the kneepads I had to wear, because it chafed something fierce. My shoulders ached from using the power drill and then hammering the big nails into the ground. I came home and once I did some necessaries, went straight to bed.
Thursday was a rain day. Our office manager texted us all Wednesday evening that we weren't working Thursday because it was going to rain all day, quite heavy at times. Under those conditions, you just can't get anything done. Mrs B didn't have to go into work until midmorning, so we got up at our usual time and went to a local diner on the Oval. It was really nice to eat hot comfort food on a raw morning and to know we didn't have to rush. So we dawdled and then came home. Mrs B took a short, food induced, nap before heading off to work and I spent the day on the couch recovering from the previous two days. Did some blogging and watching the weather out the windows. It always cheers me up to watch it pour outside (we got close to an inch of rain that day) when I am comfortably ensconced inside.
Friday started out really well. We had 3 small jobs and we absolutely blew through the first 2. Then the third job hit and we just stalled and stalled hard. Both of us were grumpy by days end but we finished and went home. I ended up doing chores before Sabbath and then ate dinner. For whatever reason, food always tastes better to me when I'm grumpy. It's not worth it but it is a small consolation when I'm feeling like life is just roughing me up.
Saturday is obviously in the future, but I have it on good authority that I'll be going to men's meeting in the morning, that we will be going to the SDA church, that Mrs B will be leading the singing during service and that we will come home and do a whole lot of nothing. If that all pans out, I'll be ok with it!
Stay tuned for next month's installment, when Imperator Bookstooge will amaze you all by staying up until 10pm. Yes folks, it could happen!
