Sunday Samplers are a “lightning round” of different subjects, whatever I feel like talking about, no matter how random or trivial or rambling. They’ll make appearances whenever I feel like it, but it’ll always be a Sunday.
No AI was used in the creation of this blog post. I have been using em-dashes since high school, and I’ll be damned if I let either the plagiarism machine or terminally online witch hunters take them away from me. Also, any art is by either real people or myself (which you will easily spot cuz it’ll look like trash).
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There are only a handful of things that I’d think of as “end of an era” signifiers for me. Most are major historical events, things like the fall of the Berlin Wall or 9/11 where you just knew that going forward things were going to be VERY different. But there are always smaller examples, ones that affect a niche area but do so in a way that will leave ripples within that niche for years. Personal examples for me are Sega stopping its hardware production, Y100 abruptly being replaced, and Cartoon Network introducing Adult Swim.
Marvel Comics moving out of New York City definitely qualifies as an “end of an era”.
Yes, I’m aware that DC moved long ago, but that felt a little different. DC didn’t tie so much of its general vibe, both as a company & in the stories, to NYC in the same way Marvel historically has. It’s impossible to picture certain core characters being based in literally any other city. It’s cliche to say that NYC has its own culture and energy, but even from the few visits I’ve gotten to make there, it truly is a unique place that qualifies for that description. Marvel channeled that and made it foundational to the books’ very existence. Lee, Kirby, Gruenwald, so many other creators & staffers… they were all New Yorkers in some way and brought that into their work. DC used fictional proxies for real cities, so it didn’t have that same recognizability, and its efforts to start using real-world locations always felt awkward. It was one of the biggest things that was unique to Marvel as a universe.
As a company, Marvel has felt adrift for a long time, but it’s been admittedly worse in recent years. The X-Men have been mangled into something unrecognizable from what I once loved, newer characters that managed to click with audiences have been misused until they’re at best ruined & at worst turned into someone’s Poochie (looking at you, Ms. Marvel); and reading the current Spidey titles is now considered a form of self-harm by the APA because they’re just THAT bad. In a weird way, it makes sense that they’ll be moving away from what’s been their physical home in this era, since so many of the titles already have.
However, I can’t be the only person who feels like this is a harbinger of the end of the direct market. They haven’t said that they’re going to wind down or discontinue single issues, but I could see the increased proximity to their corporate bosses leading to them realizing that those are probably a money sink. Along with stuff like the Diamond implosion and the discovery that Oni Press is now responsible for publishing Archie Comics’ properties & series (which, given the hot mess legal battle between the founders' estates in the 2010s, kinda makes sense), this feels like an ill portent for the standard way comics has operated. Maybe that’s a good thing in the long term, but it’ll hurt a lot of people, especially shop owners, in the short if that change actually happens. But we’ve been half-expecting the direct market to die since the late 90s, so maybe my concerns are unfounded.
Oh, and as for the related news about CB Cebulski being replaced… eh. I honestly thought that he never should have been given the position if only because of his “Akira Yoshida” antics and how that was, at its core, a way to circumvent the legal regulations that wouldn’t let him be hired as a freelancer while in the editorial hierarchy. That he was sold as being an actual Japanese writer and that his “respect” for Japan was limited to whatever he had half-absorbed while his friends were watching Akira in another room is incidental to him using this goofy-ass framing to COMMIT FRAUD. And write some truly garbage comics while doing it, too. Good riddance to him and good luck to Stephen Wacker.
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This. Took. FOREVER.
It’s not blocked yet, hence the weird corners. I swear they’ll be better after it’s blocked; I just really hate blocking and save it for the absolute last.
Due to money issues (which are still ongoing & which I would appreciate any help with), I have been focusing entirely on working on my WIP backlog. This includes finishing up the two subscription boxes from Annie’s Attic that I have, one that was a gift & one that I got myself during a sale. This is from the gifted one, the Happy Days Granny Square Afghan kit (note, they stopped doing new subscription boxes this year, but any of the affected projects can still be bought as kits with all materials except hooks & notions). I believe this is the 2nd-to-last pattern in Book 7, with a square made of four mini-squares being the last one for that.
But yeah, this particular pattern was a pain because you had to pull through nine loops at once to get the bobble effect. And I’m pretty sure that I screwed up the pattern a little bit as far as the staggered lineup of the bobbles. At least it still looks decent.
As for progress on my other Annie’s project, the Midnight Mosaic Moroccan Tile blanket, check below in the cat photo. I cannot get a cat-free shot of this project.
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It’s been ten years since I became a homeowner. In that time, I have learned the following:
The cleaning never stops, even before you have pets.
This applies triple to yardwork, even with a small yard. If you can afford it (unlike me), consider arranging for regular landscaping/mowing. Because otherwise, you will be in my boots, fighting a losing war against weeds & wild saplings/shrubs for the rest of your known life.
New appliances will be the most welcome things you will get as gifts. I love my chest freezer so much that I’m tempted to leave everything to it in my will.
Be ready for something important to break at the worst possible time.
Talk to your homeowners insurance as little as humanly possible. They’ll use repainting a windowsill as an invitation to raise your rates.
Security systems are necessary evils.
Everything you’ve heard about small town bureaucracy is true.
You will either have super chill & helpful neighbors or absolute nightmares. There is no in-between, and you have no say in which you get. Just try your best to be an example of the former to anyone else.
You can plan all of the renovations you want, you will probably never have the time/energy/money/skill to make them a reality.
Wallpaper is Satan’s favorite decorating choice.
For all of the downsides, the ability to live somewhere with space around you and where you can fix minor issues yourself instead of being surrounded by strangers & dependent on an overtaxed maintenance crew is worth the hassle.
This house is my sanctuary. Everything I love is here, from happy childhood memories when my grandparents owned it to my precious pets. I love it infinitely even when it’s flukey. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
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Lightning-squared round! Because I survived the experience… BUT AT WHAT COST?!!
Just mentioning again that I still need some help, and this is where to find the places to do it. I’ve trimmed out most of my extra expenses, including all but my 2 main streaming services (since I don’t have cable), most of my Patreons, & my pull list. If not for me, do it for the baby beasts.
You think these two can hold down a job? Have you seen their appalling mousing record? They’re 1-5!
Probably just did the dumbest thing I’ve done online in quite a while and voiced my opinions on TRAJQ on a fandom hub. To understand, read this previous post and also this one, and understand that people who are in the “fandom” for TRAJQ think Peter Lawrence is a tragic genius, that every other iteration was inherently inferior (including the source series itself), and that Jessie is the greatest character to have ever existed are my niche nemeses. In particular, it was characterizing her having a panic attack - something I am not unfamiliar with - as somehow “mental weakness” and “proof” of season 2’s staff being chauvinists. Cuz girlbosses apparently don’t have uncontrollable mental reactions, and if you think they should, you CLEARLY are a sexist monster who doesn’t appreciate Strong Female Characters. They’re basically living, breathing examples of reactionaries’ strawmen of people who only want “role model” women in their media, only unlike the reactionaries’ examples, season 1 Jessie actually FITS the stereotype. Oh, and I said that shipping is for absolute bottom feeders, because it is. Anyway, if I get SWATted, that’s who did it. In that case, I humbly request that you avenge me.
In regards to DC and their city proxies, that one map that they released (I think in the 80s) has endlessly cracked me up for years. Why? Cuz they put Gotham in New Jersey right where Camden is. Either that’s a happy coincidence or someone knew EXACTLY what they were doing.
Magia Exedra decided to introduce my favorite pint-sized mad scientist veteran magical girl, and the part of me that still misses MagiReco is very happy that I managed to get her for my roster. Kinda wish she was a healer, though, cuz that game desperately needs more healers.
Genuinely shocked to see someone recommending the 80s Jonny Quest. Consensus among fans of the show is that it’s the weakest season (I mostly blame the combo of early outsourcing and the drive to make it “toyetic” with poor additions like Hardrock). But hey, any sincere positive recommendations are always welcomed in this post-[as] age.
I briefly forgot that Stephen Wacker was the guy who was in charge of 52 until he left DC entirely. And MAAAAAN, you could tell when he left cuz that’s when it went off the rails and became a crossover with another crossover via yet another crossover. Remember WWIII? The unnumbered books that supposedly could be read in any order but actually couldn’t and somehow took place entirely between 2 issues of 52 (i.e. within the course of a single week)? It really felt like he was the only guy standing between the other editors who wanted THAT mess and narrative coherence.
Oh, older wrestlers, when will you learn that you will never be ~pure~ enough for the sickos and/or Wrestlesky set? Even if you do share their exact politics, even if you’re on record apologizing for saying typical Aughts sentiments that are now considered taboo, it’ll never be enough. They WILL find some reason to turn on you. Unless you deliberately cultivate a terminally online presence catered specifically to them (in which case you’ll be given a pass for your obvious & well-documented history of being diametrically opposed to them politically, which is the worst sin one can commit in their eyes), you’ll inevitably wind up in their crosshairs. These are people who go well beyond mere fickleness.
Yeah… not really feeling the new Umamusume career scenario. The story’s nice, but I’ll stick to Unity Cup for building my characters.
As much as some venues will attempt to claim otherwise (yes, I was peeking back at Bluesky, I gotta stop being nosy), it’s been fun seeing what a cultural exchange the World Cup wound up being. Folks like my parents got to learn that watching soccer actually can be fun, and visitors from abroad learned that our junk food is indeed that tasty & that we aren’t all rude.
RIP Bill Oddie. I wasn’t too familiar with The Goodies, but I did know some of his music, notably The Knitting Song.
I swear AEW goes out of its way to make me irritated with it. The latest example is partnering with Adult Swim for an as-yet-unnamed special project. Given that there’s significant overlap between the worst of the [as]-holes (especially the “Venture Brothers cured my self-diagnosed cancer” branch of the species) and the worst of the sickos, it makes sense that they’d cater to that gaggle. But MAAAAN, I really wish there was a competitive wrestling company run by/aimed at people who log off now & then instead of this. It’s like they WANT to stop themselves from ever reaching even a whiff of mainstream audience popularity.
Every time I see people, especially younger people, glazing the Showbiz Pizza guy and ignoring everything from his weirdly self-destructive arrogance to his open gleeful racism to some of his iffier character decisions (like having the lone female be apparently the only teenager among adults & the only character performed by an actual kid or having the gorilla use a stereotypical “southern black guy” voice), I wonder if they’d have those fandom/nostalgia blinders knocked off if he wasn’t seen as the “underdog” creator who had “lost” in the merger. Cuz so many of the things they excuse from him would get any other creator pilloried. The whole “having your characters sing a song about how you wish you could constantly drop the hard-r slur like you used to in the Good Ol Days” thing alone should disqualify him from their adoration.
Oh hey, my hate-read webcomic resumed. And it’s focusing on one of the designated jerk characters. Can’t wait for her to have a “karmic death” scene that the fandom & the creator’s defense squad will insist is ACKSHULLY super tragic because of something revealed only on the Discord, trotting out the tired “teen hero automatically equals tRaUmAtIzEd child soldier” line, or a combo of both. Cuz that’s what happened last time with a designated jerk character, and it was especially bad because the character in THAT instance was a would-be murderer.
Also can’t wait for the hate-read creator’s biggest white knight to show up & insist that “everyone knows who you’re talking about” even though history has proven that I keep things vague enough that they never do, and all said white knight does IS draw undue attention to their bestie’s wasted potential webcomic. Cuz if my history with them on social media is any indicator, they’re hate-reading ME. Well, at least they’re reading.
Honestly, given that it'll never improve, I'm just stopping the hate-read altogether. I'd rather be inspired by things that I actually LIKE.
Saying “If MY job asked me to do something I disagreed with, I’d refuse to do it”, followed by complaining about your lack of employment, is the kind of lack of self-awareness that makes the internet endlessly entertaining.
Every time I glance back at comics I used to read, even via reviews, I see some example of terrible misapplied therapy-speak using characters that would never be affected by it, let alone speak it.
There comes a time where you have to admit that you were introduced to something that you wound up really enjoying via people who thought it was “lol so stoopid” and that the stuff they found oh so offensive was a mix of overblown & grasping at straws. But these people are referenced earlier in this section (see if you can spot them) and I’ve since realized that they’re full of shit, so there’s no point in feeling oddly guilty that you like it.
Holy cats, the latest Walten Files… It’s feature length, and the handling of Rosemary’s grief is more intense & harrowing than even the most gruesome horror in the series. The artistic evolution of this series has been amazing to witness in real time. This has grown so far past its “FNAF-based analog horror” roots. And I never expected it to reference one of the worst yet obscure nightclub fires in history. But given that fire is a constant low-key theme for this entry, maybe it’s apt. (It also debunks one of my less-liked theories, I think from Nexpo, so I appreciate that. But I can’t give details without spoilers, so…)
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That’s it for this entry, and hey, it actually WAS a sampler of various topics for a change! As promised, here’s the cat-based update on my Midnight Mosaic blanket. Been hard working on the last two rounds of the center part because it’s big enough to count as a blankie for my little diabeetus boy.
He’s gonna be so bummed when I finish with the center and start work on the squares. So am I, cuz those square patterns are… uh… not easy.
See y’all next time…
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