Not Dead Yet

I went to Ross today, and yes, as I mentioned in my earlier post, the toy section was greatly reduced. There was a much smaller selection than there has been for the last while, but I found a new figure there that I hadn't seen at any Rosses so far. This Endor Village Princess Leia was there for $6.

I considered buying it when it was full price and warming the pegs at Walmart, because I love anything Return of the Jedi, but I really wanted to get the poncho wearing Leia instead.

Now that I have this new figure, though, I wonder if I shouldn't steal Wicket off that shelf and put him on a shelf with her. That would look pretty good. Or, who knows? Maybe I might find a Wicket at Ross in year or so. Then I could have one on each shelf. Maybe the Golden Age of Ross isn't quite gone yet.

My Other Toy For Christmas

A couple of days ago, I was raving on a post about how much I loved my Prince John figure that I got for Christmas, but that wasn't the only toy my kids got for me this year. Little Anklevich got me this:

I just finished putting it together, and I have to say that I love it. As is usually the case for me, it's not real Legos. It's a Chinese knockoff. But I'm not particular. I'd get Megablocks or Mega Construx or Lepin or whatever the hell it might be if it looked cool like this.

The one problem is that you sometimes get weird stuff happening in your set. This was supposed to come with a dog that represented Dug. It just wasn't in the package. Whoops?

It came with that squirrel, but not Dug. Somebody must have dropped it while packing the bag, I don't know. 

This was my wife's profane text response when I told her Dug was missing.

The other issue was Russel's hair. The picture of Russel on the booklet shows him with hair, but the figure came with a hat that had no hair attached to it.

What's worse is that it's one of those figures that has a second face printed on the back of its head that you can choose. Normally, those faces are covered by the figure's hair, so it doesn't look like some kind of Voldemort freak show. Not this guy, though. The hat doesn't cover that extra face, so he has a second face that can talk to whoever's behind him.

All in all, though, it's a great set. I love those old Pixar movies, and Up was one of my favorites. I really miss those days when Pixar was batting a thousand. These days, their average wouldn't even land them a spot on the Cedar Rapids Kernals much less the all-time batting title they were going for back then.

Dreadnoks

It's been a while since I talked about anything that I got somewhere other than Ross, but here's me finally doing that again. Check out this guy:

If you loved GI Joe like I did, or maybe a fair amount less than I did, then you recognize that guy as one of the Dreadnoks, who were Zartan's compatriots. That particular one is called Buzzer.

I have Zartan, and up until a little while ago was content to simply pose him mixed in with Cobra Commander, Destro, and the other enemies of GI Joe. But then, Hasbro finally decided it was time to make the Dreadnoks. I wasn't crazy for the Dreadnoks as a kid, but they were a really big part of the cartoon, and when I heard they were making them in the GI Joe Classified line, I decided I would get all three of the original Dreadnoks and put them with my Zartan in a special grouping.

I'm pretty stoked, because I managed to find both Ripper and Buzzer already.

Those three look good together, right? The last guy in the group, Torch, hasn't come out just yet. He's in an upcoming wave of figures that I will certainly pounce on as soon as I see him in stores.

Although, after all the things I've seen in Ross the last few months, I wonder if that was a good idea. I didn't want the chance of not getting all three of the Dreadnoks, so I paid full price, but there seems to be a lot of them left over in the Targets now. I wonder if I could have just waited and got them all for much cheaper.

I guess that's what happens when you really want something versus just being happy to have it if you find it for cheap. I have both Tomax and Xamot to go with my Crimson Guards. I never cared too much if I hat Tomax and Xamot, but when I found them for super cheap, I was happy to have them. The Dreadnoks I want more than that, so I took steps to ensure I actually got them, even though it cost more. I suppose that's what they mean when they say supply and demand.

Four Weeks Of December

Well, it's been four weeks now, and I'm still going, and still managing to keep to my goal.

I've already hit my goal for the month, which was 30,000.

33015 / 30000 (110.05%)

I'm already to 110% of the goal in fact. That's pretty exciting. I still have three days to go, so as long as I don't blow it and not make my goal every day for the rest of the month, I'll be over 36,000 words for the month. Take a look at this chart. It's from May of 2020.

That's my all-time record for words in a single month. 37,710. That number is well within my reach, and it is only my first month writing 1,000 words a day in the year. So, I guess I'm doing pretty well this time around.

So, how is the year going cumulatively so far?

I'm just a titch under 60,000 for the year already. What is that percentage-wise?

59928 / 304475 (19.68%)

So, I'm only a titch under 20%. I suppose 20% would be at 60,000 words. That's pretty exciting too.

So, all in all, things are going well. I'm cruising along on my book, "Caught Up in Christmas." It is 52,831 words long so far. I'm writing in chapter sixteen right now, and the story is about to take a turn for the worst. We'll have to see what our plucky heroine, Noelle, can do to defeat her enemy.

That's about all I have for you today. So, I'll send you on your way, and I'll be back in a couple of days with a full month wrap up. Will I beat my all-time best? I'd have to write 1,565 words per day to reach it, so it's kind of unlikely. But then again, maybe I should take it as a challenge. Hmm...

Then again, just managing to get a thousand every day might be a victory, because the rest of the month will be a little wacky, with a lot of things going on that make it hard for me to write at all. We shall see, I guess.

Switched It Up For New Years

I swapped out my Blink-182 quote from my blog header to a new one just for the New Year's holiday.

It's just a limited time offer. I'll only leave that quote up for a couple of weeks and then probably switch back to the old one about not giving up on your daydreams. After all, that's more appropriate for a guy who is trying to write a ton of novels this year. However, I couldn't resist adding that somewhat pessimistic quote from the recent Blink-182 holiday tune called "Not Another Christmas Song." At least something good happened in 2023. I'm not dead, am I?

Actually, 2023 was pretty good for me, so I can't complain. I did some pretty good things, and it's only going to look up even more next year when I hit my goal in weight loss, hit my goal in writing, and hit my goal in number of consecutive cartwheels performed by a 50-year-old man.

Anyway, move along. Nothing to see here...

The Golden Age Of Ross

For the last few months, Ross, one of my favorite stores for toys, has been a magical place. Rish Outfield has been calling this time period the golden age of Ross. They've had a whole lot of really great stuff and it's been priced so low that even a cheap ass like me can't turn it down. 

I've been regaling you with my Ross finds here on this blog for the last while, and I could keep going for a while to come, because of how many things I've picked up there. For example, the other day I found Copperhead at Ross for $6. I like that guy, and would have loved to buy him before now, but not for the $25 that they were asking when I saw it at Target months ago.

$6 is a great price, and I couldn't turn that down, so I didn't. It was a cool Cobra guy that I could add to my group since I moved Zartan out to go elsewhere. Copperhead looks pretty good in there, right?

It's funny to see that they even made a Copperhead figure. Originally, he was the driver for the Water Mocassin boat, but they aren't making anything like that these days. Anytime they make a vehicle, they want to charge and arm and a leg for it...in fact, they go ahead and ask for both arms and both legs. So, I can't see them ever getting around to a thing like the Water Mocassin, but you never know. for one thing, it doesn't have to be that fancy. The only moving parts on the original one were the fan at the back and the canopy in the front. They should be able to make that and make it cheap, but don't count on it happening.

Anyway, I'm getting off track. We're talking the golden age of Ross. It's sad to see a golden age come to an end, but I think we may be there for Ross. I just went to one of my local Rosses this morning for the first time since Christmas, and the toy section is greatly reduced. There's way less selection, and I wasn't able to find anything worth buying. That's not something that happened much in the last few months, so I fear our special time has come to an end.

It was bound to happen. The boon was only there to service the present buying public, and now that there's nothing to get presents for, why would they keep the toys around? I have to wonder what they did with all the toys that were on the extra tables they'd added though. Did they just pile them up on a pallet in the back and shrink wrap them to send them back to the warehouse? Or did people actually buy enough on Christmas Eve to make it so that they could condense the toy section back into it's single aisle in the store again? Who knows.

Prince John The Phony King Of England

Christmas was just the other day, and one of my daughters got me the best present. I figured I had to talk about it on here, because that's all I do on here is talk about this kind of stuff.

It's not often that someone in my family can get their hands on an action figure for me as a present that I really want without me being involved in the process myself. Collecting action figures is a thing that requires a lot of specialized knowledge. Who makes what figures? How do you buy Super7 figures or where can you find Neca figures and so on.

So, when I get figures for Christmas, I usually put them on a list of ideas for folks to buy for me, or I bought them myself and then had my wife let the kids give them to me as my present. It's kind of lame, because you never get any really good surprises on Christmas, but this year was a little different.

My daughter gave me this for Christmas this year:

This is the Super7 Disney Ultimates Prince John from Robin Hood. I wanted this thing so bad, but those Ultimates go for about $55. Back when they first began the line, it was $35, and I had a hard time coughing up that much for the Thundercats figures I got, but it was even worse when the second wave came out, and they had raised the price to $45. Now they're at $55, and I am really regretting starting the collection of Thundercats, because the last few figures are going to be so expensive, even though they're the smallest ones.

So, that paragraph basically explains why I didn't already have this figure. It was just too expensive. Now, I wanted the figure so badly, though. Disney's Robin Hood was a touchstone in my youth. It was the first VHS cassette that my family owned, so we watched the hell out of that thing. I suspect that there is no movie in the world that I have seen more times than Robin Hood.

On top of that, it's pretty great. It's a really fun movie with great music and a lot of funny gags. I can quote that whole movie nearly word for word. If you paid attention to episodes of The Dunesteef over the years, then you certainly heard me quote a line or two (after which Rish Outfield always groaned).

So, it's not a surprise that my daughter got me something from Robin Hood, because she would know very well how much I liked it. The surprise is that she knew these figures existed, and that she caught them on a Black Friday sale for half price. It makes me really proud. What a great job she did this year. I love my present.

Now I need to watch for another sale, so I can get the Robin Hood in his stork disguise figure. When's our next chance for a sale...memorial day?

OMAD & BBBE Carnivore | Surviving Christmas On Carnivore? | Journey to One-derland | Week 30 Roundup

I had a bit of an oopsy at the end of last week, and gained several pounds of water weight, so I decided to straighten up and fly right. I did just roast beef and eggs for most of the week. How did that serve me? Did I get better results? Or do I need to try something else? Moreover, it's the week of Christmas. Temptations abound. How did I fare? Did I make it out of the week as a carnivore? Or did I fall pray to one of the many pitfalls in place for Christmastime? Watch and see just how it went, folks.

Anklecast 62 - Klaus Kringle

Since this is a Christmas story, I figured there's no point in waiting the usual week to post it, because it will be well after Christmas has passed before anyone could possibly listen to it. So, I'm giving you a Christmas gift and posting it a few days early, to have the episode come out on Christmas Day. Hope you enjoy it.

I said I'd done my piece for Christmas this year, but I was wrong, and I'm here to share one more Christmas story before we ring in the new year. Scott is a recently single dad who watches over his young son, Ryder. He finds his life to be miserable and tedious, until Klaus Kringle comes along and shows him that it could be so much worse.

Afterward, I talk a little about my new goal of writing over 300,000 words in 2023-2024, and give a little report about how the first two months have gone. Merry Christmas and happy New Year, and thank you so much for supporting me in 2023. 2024 is going to be even better!

The story is up on the Anklecast feed on whatever your favorite podcatcher may be, or you can just right click HERE to download the file. In fact, I want this to be easy for you, so if either of those are too much for you, you can just click the play button below and it will play right here and now.

Last Post Of The Parade

It's Christmas Eve, so I don't have any more time to share more, but here are a few more pictures of my Christmas toy decorations.

 That's not everything, but I'm gonna call it good enough. Hope you enjoyed the parade.

If You've Ever Wondered

If you've ever wondered where Santa shops for his groceries, I can solve that mystery for you. I went to Kroger today to grab eggs and bacon for our Christmas breakfast, and a package of chocolate chips for whatever the hell my wife is planning on baking this weekend. I had the eggs and bacon in my hand, and turned into the baking aisle to get the chocolate chips when I was greeted by this sight.

That's right, that's Santa Claus, and I think he was just shopping here at Kroger. He sure wasn't there for an appearance. One year, back in 2006, they had Santa Claus at our local Walmart on a chair made from 12-packs of Coke...

So Santa makes appearances at grocery stores, but this one was just shopping.

I wasn't the only one taking pictures of the guy from afar, but then I figured that he would be down for a selfie with me, because you don't go out dressed like that and expect no one to bug you for a picture, and I was right. He was happy to oblige.

So now I don't need to go to the mall to get my picture with Santa. I'm all set for this year.

Anklecast 62 on Patreon

Anklecast 62 is now available on Patreon. It wasn't supposed to be a Christmas episode this month, but I knew I wasn't going to have time to do something else, so here it is. I'm presenting my novella, "Klaus Kringle." It's a pretty good story about a single dad who is having a hard time with his new responsibilities and growing to resent his son, but then everything changes, and suddenly, his priorities in life do as well.

If you're interested, head over to Patreon and check it out. I probably won't make people wait as long as usual for this episode to hit the regular feed, but most months, you get the episode a week sooner than everyone else, so it's an awesome exclusive club that you're a member of, and it makes you way better than everyone else who isn't a true fan at all but just a poser.

Week Three In The Books

Okay, folks, we're now finished with three whole weeks of writing 1,000 words a day. Here's what my chart looks like after day 21:

So, I'm at 24,714 words on the month. My goal for the month is a mere 30,000, so I'm quickly approaching that achievement. My meter says...

24714 / 30000 (82.38%)

That I'm at 82.38%. The 21st is only 67.74% of the way through the month, so I'm way ahead. It's much more likely that I'll reach 35,000 words.

For the year, I'm at:

Hey-O! Over 50,000. Not that there's any reason to be excited about that other than that it is a nice round number. Still, 50,000 seems like a lot, doesn't it?

If we multiplied my total from right now by six, I would be over my overall goal. That would come out to 309,762. Since we're well under two months, that means that I am in a good position to succeed. 

In fact, I'm in a great position to succeed because November will certainly be the lowest output of any month I have for the rest of the year. I mean, I've already eclipsed the word count for November in December, and it's only the 21st. From here on out, I'll have a much higher word count.

Let's see what the meter says for the year.

51627 / 304475 (16.96%)

16.96% percent of the way there and we are 15.03% of the way into the year. My lead is widening with every week. I'm almost a full two percent ahead now. 

As far as what I am writing, I am getting into the good stuff of my book, "Caught Up in Christmas." It's 45,625 words long so far. I don't think it's going to reach a really high word count, but it will likely get at least to 70,000 before I'm done, maybe even 80,000. If you want to volunteer to be a beta reader for me when it's done, let me know, and I'll send out the first draft to you to peruse and trash to your heart's content.

I guess that's it. I'll be back again next week with another report. We'll see how hard Christmas week turns out to be.

Not Trying To Hide It

Years ago, they used to call breakfast cereals things like Sugar Smacks.

And clowns were considered fun and happy instead of terrifying. As time moved on, however, they had to hide the absolute unhealthiness of their product, so they changed them from Sugar Smacks to Honey Smacks (and swap out the frightening clown for an inoffensive cartoon frog).

Of course, honey is the exact same thing as sugar, but Americans have been tricked into thinking that it's healthy because it's naturally produced by bees instead of engineered by Dr. Mindbender in a food lab. They probably should have removed the word smack from the name too, considering what people use it for these days, but it's nice that they didn't. Then maybe people might understand just how horribly addictive this kind of food is.

Anyway, in light of that shift from honesty to hiding the truth over the last fifty years, I found it refreshing when I saw this product on the shelf at Ross while I waited in the monstrously long line.

That licorice is just called HEY SUGAR. You don't have to break through any programming to understand that it's bad for you. You know right away. Not that it will stop most people, were all so addicted to sugar that there's no stopping when you're in the clutches of a craving, but you know what you're getting at least. 

They need to label the other things we eat every day with more honest names like that as well, eh? All the sauces we buy could be called HEY INDUSTRIAL CHEMICALS and vegetables could be rebranded to HEY CARCINOGENS and ramen could be HEY DIABETES and pasta could be HEY OBESITY!

It would be fun, huh?

Terrorized

Ross has been getting more new stuff. Rish sent me a text the other day saying that he'd found these at Ross:

It's Toony Terrors! I've always kind of loved those toys. In my mind, they make me think of Scooby-Doo. It's like they took legitimately terrifying things, and Scooby-Doo-ized them so that they look more like Old Man Witherspoon from the Old Abandoned Amusement Park in a mask instead of the terrifying thing that they actually are.

Today, I found my first one:

I am completely unfamiliar with The Miner. Rish tells me he's from My Bloody Valentine. Needless to say, I didn't buy it. If I don't even know the character, then I don't need the toy, but there is another problem. Ross wants very non-Ross-like prices for them. Look at the price tag.

Normally, a Ross price tag will say, comparable value $25, Ross price $5.99. This time around, it's like one of those weak sauce Walmart Rollbacks. $15 down to $12? I have one Toony Terrors figure that I bought at full price a few years ago. When I bought it, $12.99 was the regular full price. This seems like a slap in the face from Ross.

I went to a second Ross, and found a bunch more too.

Many of those are ones that I wouldn't but, even if the price was really low, but several of them I would if only the price was right. $12, however, is not right. I would not get to play for the Showcase Showdown if I'd guessed $12 on these.

I did decide to buy one of them. They had a Freddy Krueger, and I figured I liked that enough to pay the $12. I took it to the front, and it didn't have a price tag on it, so the lady said, "I'll just make it the same price as this other one." She was referring to the GI Joe figure I was also buying.  Ross prices the GI Joes reasonably.

I feel a little bad, because I knew what price it was supposed to be, and I could have said something. I suspect they would have run somebody back to check the price of others or something. The line was really, really long. So long that I considered not waiting in it, even though I had two things I wanted to buy, and I didn't want to hold up the people behind me any more than necessary. Besides, it was working out in my favor, so I shut up and let it go, and got Freddy for a reasonable price.

He can't even stand up without that figure stand, and it was hard as hell to get the peg into the hole in his foot. Not well designed, but it fit in there eventually. He's pretty cool. He'll be fun to put up at Halloween time.

Maybe after Christmas, they'll lower the price on the rest of those guys, though I highly doubt it. They'll probably sit unbought for months on their shelves.

More Monsters

What did I tell you the other day about Ross? They're just on one this December. I went back today, and found another one of those Universal Monsters.

I guess I'm in collect them all mode right now. I'm a friggin Pokemon master or something. I'd really like it if I found Dracula at some point. Rish found the Wolfman and the Invisible Man at a Ross he went to, so I think it's highly possible that I'll wind up with more of them before I'm done.

The Christmas Parade Heads To The North

I guess today, we can talk about my Game of Thrones guys.

Game of Thrones has the most wintry setting since Hoth in the story. Not only do they have the normal snowy place called Winterfell, but then there's a second setting way to the north. The Wall is there to keep the zombie hordes from sweeping down through Westeros and killing everyone. These zombies aren't just zombies, they're ice zombies. So, they're perfect for toy-related Christmas decorations.

I already showed my ice zombie dragon in an earlier post, too, if you remember.

But I also have a scene that includes our favorite noble yet unlucky family from the north.

I think someday I'd like to upgrade this display. Imade that little castle wall behind them, and decorated it with flags and tinsel, but it seems like it could benefit from a design made by somebody who knows what he's doing. I tried to do that wall as cheaply and easily as I could, but maybe if I put some time into it, it would look really nice. The bricks in the wall suck, and don't really give off the feel of being a castle that they are standing in front of. Maybe if I tried again, but made it more to scale, that might help, I bet.