MTG: A Lot of Sol (Ring)!

A couple of years ago now, I wrote a post detailing my History of Magic, and in it I included the iconic card that is the face of magic to me, Sol Ring. I included a whole bunch of pictures of various versions as it has been re-released with new sets, as special editions and as promotional releases for special events. One such version was the Masterpiece Series: Kaladesh Inventions Foil version.

This particular masterpiece series was very limited and some cards in it went sky high in price while others stayed more reasonable ($40-80 being what I call reasonable). There were 54 cards in total and about 40 of them all stayed under the $200 mark. That’s actually pretty surprising. But those remaining 14 cards. The top card was one called Mana Crypt and it has been running around $950 on average at a place called TCG. So on a lark, I looked up the Sol Ring version, just to see if maybe I could pick one up for the sake of simply having a shiny.

Holy smokes! There were only 9 copies available that were under $1000! A typical magic card weighs about 0.06oz. So with the foiling, lets just go wild and say this particular Sol Ring weighs 0.1oz. For $1000. To put that in perspective, 0.1oz of gold is worth about $180 currently. Is that insane or what?!? We’re not talking about artistic treasures from history here folks. The Kaladesh Inventions cards were released in 2016.

A Sol Ring as pictured immediately above costs about $15. So I could buy about 60 (I’m giving myself leeway for shipping, jerks who don’t actually send near mind condition ones, etc) regular versions for my Sol Ring Collection OR I could buy 1 Super Duper Special Version that I’ll never play with, never use but simply put it behind plastic and let it sit there, knowing I own it. I’m not going to do either of those options, but it’s fun to think about. If I win the lottery some day, you know?

Just for the record, I bought that group of Sol Ring’s when the price was almost half of what it is now.

Universe 1 ★★☆☆☆

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: Universe 1
Series: Universe Anthology #1
Author: Terry Carr (ed)
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 213
Words: 63K

Man, I had forgotten what utter balderdash was written by hippy wannabe’s in the 70’s for SF. Bunch of prententious wanktards thinking sex and psychology are enough to sell a story without having to actually write a good story. There’s a reason most of the authors in this collection are completely forgotten today and probably made zero impact back in their own time. What a bunch of losers. People like them are what gave SF a bad name.

And yet.

There are at least 14 volumes in this series. I’ve got some random ones and despite my trashing above, I’m going to give the editor, Terry Carr, one more chance. But after this book, each one has to impress me or I’m dnf’ing the series and consigning Mr Carr to the dust bins of forgotten history, where he already appears to be though if I’m being honest.

★★☆☆☆

Groo and the Tale of King Sage (Groo the Wanderer #13) ★★★✬☆

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: Groo and the Tale of King Sage
Series: Groo the Wanderer #13
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 24
Words: 2K

The Sage, introduced in Groo #7, becomes the King of a small but prosperous country. Groo stumbles across said country and asks to be made a general of the armies. For some reason, the Sage can’t say no to Groo and thus makes him a general. To mitigate Groo’s “groo’ness”, he sends him off to guard the northernmost pass of the country. Along the way, Groo makes everyone become a farmer and thus brings discontent to the whole country. The Sage is deposed and beats Groo about the head to show his displeasure.

This was an amusing little story. AND IT ONLY COST 75¢. In comparison, Bone #16 cost $3, four times as much. And Aragones gives us not only an amusing story with a start, a middle and an end, but it is also in color. Now maybe the paper material itself was pulp and Bone was high quality paper? But let me tell you, if I had $3 in 1986, well, really, I’d probably spent it at the dollar bin at Bradley’s (a now bankrupt and defunct department store) buying star wars figurines, BUT if I were to spend it on comics, I’d choose 4 months of Groo over one month of Bone every single time. Even right now, I would choose the same exact thing, ie, star wars figures, then if you forced me, Groo comics, hahahaha 😀

I am also finding the ads just as fun as the stories. In this comic, there is an ad for Captain America: The Broadway Musical. I kid you not. And here’s the proof:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/e315pnzbj189mpg/groo13.jpg

Now, that is even better than the ad for the Jetson’s I saw in the previous Groo comic! I did a google search and sure enough, Marvel did try to get Captain American onto the stage and they failed. I hope you all join me in thanks for that failure. Nobody needs to see Cap tippity tappitying around. It did make me wonder though, what kind of parent would just send in their kids info to some complete stranger they saw in a comic book? And what kind of little girl is reading Groo? Probably not one who sings and dances is my guess 🙂

★★★✬☆

• All of My “Groo the Wanderer” Reviews

A Requiem: Bookstooge, and Silent Smartfood Popcorn, Strike Back!

Near the beginning of October (my goodness, it feels like that was forever ago) I was Banned Again from the wordpress forums for infractions unknown. I of course did not let this deter me from haunting the forums and making smart remarks in my head about both the people asking for help and the supposed staff.

But I couldn’t have endured these cold, cruel months without my good friend and Food of the Gods, Silent Smartfood Popcorn.

Every weekend when my voice was silenced by the tyrannical powers of WordPress (boo! hiss!), Smartfood helped me to go on. He reminded me that he never had a voice to lose in the first place and that I was still his friend. He also had no artificial colors, artificial flavors or preservatives so he was good for me.

I just hope that someday each and every one of you can find a friend like Silent Smartfood Popcorn was to me. While it lasted, he was the best bag of popcorn a guy could want. So long Smartfood, you’ve left your mark on my life. You are not forgotten.
(and neither are your 10,000 cousins still in the grocery stores!)

Mirrors (Hunter Bureau #1) ★★★☆☆

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: Mirrors
Series: Hunter Bureau #1
Author: Blaze Ward
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 146
Words: 49K

Sometime in the future, when mankind has almost destroyed himself, aliens give us a chance at survival. At a cost. We are no longer our own masters or owners of our own planet. While not in vile slavery per se, we ARE in servitude. We are the playground for aliens who can shape change and thus is born the Hunter Bureau.

Normally shape changers work alone, but this time they got smart. A pair come to Earth and one of them tries to take over a Hunter, only to be foiled by his own inexperience. He then takes over a retired Hunter while his partner begins setting things up so they can play in peace for years to come.

The problem is, the Hunter is no weak minded fool and the alien shape changer finds himself being taken over from the inside out. In the end, they form a mutual symbiosis and decide to hide the fact that the worlds top Hunter is now an alien shape changer. For the good of humanity of course.

The writing style for this book. Staccato. Bambambam. Like a gun. Going off. Right. In your ear. Choppy sentences. Cut off like a machete was taken to them. It was like the author was skipping whole sentences because he knew what he meant but as a reader it was incredibly frustrating. There were multiple instances where I had to read several paragraphs several times to figure out what in the world was going on. That’s just bad writing.

There were also a couple of key words that I only see used by people of certain political persuasions that I vehemently disagree with. I’ll be the first to admit that I could be reading too much into things, so I’m not giving that much weight in my judgment for this book. I didn’t even bother to record what they were so as not to take that idea with me into the next book.

The story itself was pretty interesting though. Realizing that the main character ISN’T the main character we thought he was amused me and I have to admit, I thought it was clever. In many ways, this reminded me of Timothy Zahn’s Quadrail series and the protagonist, Frank Compton. That same dry voice, that same almost emotionless state of being, it just struck me. But thankfully Ward does a bit better at characterization here so it’s not quite THAT dry or emotionless 😀

Good enough for 3stars and giving the next book a chance. By no means a great book or world changing though.

★★★☆☆

Blood Lust - MTG 4th Edition

Wintermint Dumpstagramm - Double the Fun

♪Double your pleasure♪
♪Double your fun♪
♪Double your dumpstas♪
♪Now you’re done!♪

A Sabbath Letter #3

While Mrs B and I both aggressively work on keeping our lives from being overcome with busy’ness, sometimes an idea needs some concrete forms to crystalize. I found the following Sabbath email very helpful in that regards.

“Be still and know that I am God”  Psalm 46:10 

I was recently given a book with a very odd title: Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools, by Tyler Staton. Mr. Staton is the lead pastor of a church in Oregon and the national director of the the 24-7 Prayer Movement in the United States.  The book cover tells me that it will “open or reopen the lines of communication with your Creator,” and will show you how to “practice multiple positions of prayer, including silence, persistence, confession, and more. I want to share with you for this Sabbath message the first of the monks’ prayer postures—“Be still and know.”

Mr. Staton begins the second chapter reminding us of how truly difficult it is to “be still,” compared to the days before the invention of the clock, the light bulb, and the I-phone. For example, a 2019 survey found the average I-phone user was staring at his phone screen for over five hours each day! He includes an anecdote about the Christian philosopher, Dallas Willard, who was asked, “What do I need to do to be spiritually healthy?” After a long pause he answered, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life!” So if hurry, along with “busyness and overload,” crowds God out of many Christians’ lives, learning to “be still” is a good antidote.

For being still, Mr. Staton suggests that his readers try this method, and perhaps you would like to try it sometime this Sabbath day!

• First, create a daily ritual. Choose an ordinary quiet place like your favorite chair in your bedroom.
• Second, sit straight up with your two feet planted firmly on the floor.
• Third, lay your hands in your lap, palms open, facing up.
• Fourth, close your eyes and breathe in deeply and slowly three times.
• Fifth, pray something simple and invitational like “Here I am Lord” or “Come, Holy Spirit.”
• Sixth, be quiet. Be still. Wait!
• Seventh, set a goal of at least two minutes before you open your eyes. Gradually work this up over a period of weeks to ten minutes.

When I tried this, I kept repeating to myself, “Be still and know that I am God” to keep out distracting thoughts. Finally, I decided it had been a good five minutes and opened my eyes. When I looked at my watch, it had only been two and a half minutes!

God help us all to learn to “Be still” in this hurried, frantic world of instant gratification. The Sabbath is a great time to practice this!
Shabbat shalom,

Christ’s Blessing on you all this Sabbath.

Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future (Santiago #1) ★★★★★

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: Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future
Series: Santiago #1
Author: Mike Resnick
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 328
Words: 116K

Another re-read of an old favorite and thankfully, this time it stood the test. Like other “favorites” I had read this in highschool and Bibleschool multiple times and loved it. Read it again in ‘12 and loved it then too. But after my time in November of re-reading a couple of old favorites and finding them wanting, I went into this very hesitantly.

And wonder of wonders, it was grand and big and all space shoot’y and awesome and everything that I wanted in a Myth of the Far Future! It’s a simple story with simple characters and a simple universe. If you want massive backstories explaining every single detail, forget it. If you want characters with bio’s running from their childhood to the present, forget it. Use your own flipping imagination for once and Resnick will give you the ride of a lifetime here. I can see myself moving beyond this like I have the other books, but I am reveling in the fact that right now, it is still the same fantastic book as ever.

The other thing I’m going to talk about here are the various covers.

This is the cover of the mass market paperback that I read back in the 90’s. That orangey yellow is what made it stand out on the revolving book rack in the library. The guy with the funny haircut holding out the paper with the spaceship in the background promised mystery and adventure and cool stuff and boy howdy, I got all of that.

When Resnick turned his books into ebooks, I believe he had to use new covers because he didn’t own the rights to the originals. So he went with this stock photo (and he used it for the sequel ebook too) and overall, it works well. We’re dealing with Space and the farthest reaches of where mankind can go, so something haunting like this feeds into that idea.

This is the ebook cover this time around. Resnick is now dead, so I don’t know if he chose this before his passing or it ended up the decision of his estate. Either way, it’s rather blah and very homecomputer graphics looking. Why you would choose to read this book based on that cover is beyond me.

And that should wrap things up. Cheers!

★★★★★

• Santiago (2012 Review)
• All of My “Mike Resnick” Reviews

Eye of the Storm (Bone #16) ★★☆☆☆

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: Eye of the Storm
Series: Bone #16
Author: Jeff Smith
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 22
Words: 1K

We get 22 pages of Gran’ma Ben, Thorn and Fone Bone running in the dark and rain away from a huge swarm of rat creatures and Gran’ma Ben being all angry about the red dragon. Fone hollers out for the dragon’s help, it comes and chases the rat creatures away, disappears and Gran’ma reveals that the dragon doesn’t always come and that’s why she is so angry at it. The issue ends with a big text “Next: Gran’ma’s Story”.

Gotta admit, if I had paid the cover price of $3 and this was all I had gotten, I’d have screamed bloody murder, called Smith some foul and uncomplimentary names and quit Bone and begin an Anti-Jeff Smith crusade to destroy him for taking my hard earned money and giving me nothing but this. I do not know how this comic survived, I really don’t! Smith is milking this like it’s a pregnant holstein cow (the black and white ones you always see in movies or cartoons giving milk) and he’s doing it shamelessly. I was actually tempted to just stop myself right now in a show of solidarity with my imaginary self. But of course I didn’t pay $3 for this and I am going to keep reading. But knowing that the next couple of issues will be prequel stuff about Gran’ma Ben means that not only has the forward motion of the plot (which we really haven’t had any of for quite a few issues it seems) stopped, but now we’re going backwards. Sigh.

That being said, while I really do try to keep the author out of the story in how I rate or review things, my opinion of Smith is about at its lowest so far. What he gave me could have been done in about 5 pages and the story line advanced a bit more. When I started reading this individual issue by individual issue I was wondering why there were so many (I believe there are 55 issues) and now I know.

I realize you might be wondering why I don’t just dnf this or read them all at once and call it a day. The truth is that I couldn’t afford comics until my later teen years and thus never had the experience of reading something on a monthly basis. That experience is what I am trying to capture by reading this series this way. While it is voluntary on my part, back in the day it wasn’t voluntary and I want to know what that was like, frustrations and all. So that is why. Whether it makes sense to you or not 🙂

★★☆☆☆

• All My “Bone” Reviews