In late June, I made the obligatory geek blog post about a dearth of updates at a geek blog post, and expressed my hope of getting back on track with writing throughout the summer.
Only one post followed, detailing our long-overdue cable-cutting.
Why?
Primarily, the things I planned to write about fell to points of low interest, and time has been sparse.
We haven't played Animal Crossing: New Horizons in weeks, but joy for it waned as early as the June break to focus on my continuing education class. Though many friends played, and a couple new friends were even made through the game, my visits to their islands were few, and theirs to mine even fewer, usually to water flowers to theoretically help along our breeding and cloning efforts. When those became frustratingly slow-going, and fun daily routines became chores, the fact that our character was stuck on an island with mostly the same daily cast of characters became another layer of social distanced isolation.
I made the mistake of starting to work through my comics backlog with Marvel titles.
The first was the intentionally limited series, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Its flashbacks to untold stories from the happier times in the mythology reminded me of how ultimately disappointing the newest trilogy was, in the end. On the other hand, the tales set in the new Disney theme park didn't help the acute sadness that - given the state of COVID-19 now and our seeming collective unwillingness to take action to seriously mitigate its spread - an October 2021 trip to Disney World to enjoy Galaxy's Edge along with the 50th anniversary celebrations is a fading dream.
The second was Future Foundation. It was everything that I love(d) about some modern Marvel comics: diverse and youthful cast, callbacks to legacy characters and events balanced with references to recent continuity, energy and optimism. See also: Runaways, Champions, Unstoppable Wasp, Sam Wilson: Captain America, et al. It also was everything I despise about today's House of Ideas: inconsistent creative team (new artist after 3 of its 5issues...?) and a promising premise aborted by an abrupt cancellation. See also: every title above, except for the MIA Runaways, apparently returning in February.
Together, the experience of reading these 10 comics soured me on moving through the rest of the stack for several weeks. I've just started at them again. Die! Die! Die! continues to be outrageous but irresistible, and The Plot by Vault Comics might just be better than the similar Gideon Falls, an Eisner Awards darling that I also read and love.
The only title that I have read day-of this past half-year has been Excellence. The fact that I was struck by how prescient it was when racial justice protests erupted in response to George Floyd's murder now, upon much more reflection, makes me realize how intentionally oblivious I was to that state of our nation. I'm working on it.
In addition to the aforementioned Learners Edge continuing education class, countless hours the past few months were spent puzzling out how to continue the project-based, collaboration-intensive IMAGE program I teach and coordinate. That intensified in August. We started classes this week, and I meet the first of two classes of new 3rd grade students in less than an hour after this writing.
I've been busy. The things about which I write here were things I haven't done much lately. Friends and I are gearing up for the start of our Pathfinder 2nd Edition Extinction Curse campaign next weekend, and I have been playing and loving the Xbox One port of Pathfinder: Kingmaker. The Boys Season 2 is nuts. I'm excited to read some of the comics that now have several issues banked and ready to binge.
Maybe I'll write more sooner rather than later.
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