The Rodeo Has Begun

 And, oh, this poor guy.

Of course, who am I to talk. Imagine all the ribbing I took in grade school with a name like Big Anklevich...

Time To Get Prepping

 I glanced up the other day, and saw this on the TV.

This is concerning. If we’re not ready for the zombie apocalypse, what are we going to do when the really bad stuff like the dragon scourge begins?

The most amazing thing is that they did a study on this! A STUDY! They employed people to find out if Texans were ready for the zombie apocalypse. 

I once worked as a telemarketer for a few months, and I wanted to kill myself after a while, but if I was calling around with a survey about whether people are ready for the zombie apocalypse, I might have actually enjoyed my job.

The other thing that I wonder about is...is this a message to us? Are those in the know trying to let us know that something is headed our way? Maybe I shouldn't be laughing about how stupid it is to conduct a study about how ready Texans are for a fictional plague...

Murder

Rish posted this on my Facebook the other day, because it made him think of me.

I've been living the carnivore lifestyle for a while now to control my diabetes (as long as my addiction to carbohydrates like sugar hasn't gotten its claws in me and I'm on a bender). Once you learn about it, you come to agree with Poison Ivy here. But she's got it a little wrong. It's actually suicide. 

I know, you think I'm crazy, but look into it. See what those crazy carnivores have to say. Maybe you'll find out that what you've been told your whole life isn't true. Seems obvious that something's wrong when you look at the state of the health of our country and the world.

Three Dorks In A Fountain

The crossover event to end all crossover events thunders on today as Rish Outfield releases the second episode including his story "Fountain of Knowledge."

Rish sent me lines to read, and I just realized that I totally forgot to do them. I guess, rather than waste the time it takes to hound me for the lines, he just said "eff it," and moved on without them. He'd already read the lines himself, and replacing his lines with mine is just more work anyway.

So, you will only hear me in the post-show conversation. Marshal is also there, and we have ourselves a good time, hopefully you will too when you follow the link over to Rish's blogpost for the episode. Or, if you don't like a good time quite that much, you could just right-click the link HERE to download the episode. Or, if you are one of those that is filled with hate for all mankind, you could just click the play button down below.

Lara By Me

That's a pretty lame pun in the title, right? Can you even tell what I was going for? I thought Lara, what is that like? And Laramie, the city in Wyoming, was the only thing that came to mind. And, since we're going to talk about a cover that I made for Rish for Lara and the Witch, I thought, Lara by me. Utter crap. What's worse, I typed up all these words to explain it. Pitiful as can be.

Anyway, as you know, Bob, I've been doing a lot of covers recently both for my own stuff and for Rish as well. The other day, Rish asked me to make a cover that could be used as the image for the Lara and the Witch series page on Amazon. He gave me a picture of a mushroom and I whipped up this cover for him.

Then I remembered the he had asked me to make the mushrooms more blue. I also remembered that we had used a light blue in the old covers that we'd made for the early stories instead of this green. I used green because we were talking about a witch, but the glowy blue is a thing in the story if I remember right, so I made this new version.

It looks pretty good, right? Don't you think that image would look great on the cover of a paperback collection of the Lara and the Witch stories that Rish has written so far? Somebody put the pressure on that guy, and I'll even make it for him.

What Price Peace?

Over on the Journey Into... Podcast, Marshal has now finished up our three-part crossover event to end all crossover events. He has published his story which is called, "What Price Peace." 

I do a voice in the story and also, Rish and I stick around afterward for the post show conversation. So, if you haven't yet, you should check it out. 

You can follow the link over to Journey Into... or you can just right click HERE to download the episode. Heck, you can even take the easy way out and just hit the play button below.

Getting Ready For Halloween

It's still a long time away, but I'm already getting prepared. I'm like a Halloween prepper. Getting ready for that zombie apocalypse.

Today, I found this awesome zombie Iron Man at Walmart, and I had to scoop it up right away.

I think it will look pretty good beside the zombie Captain America that I got in 2021 when they put out the previous wave of Marvel What If... figures.

They also have a Scarlet Witch zombie figure that I've seen everywhere. They have about ten of them at every Target I go to. I didn't want to get her if I didn't have the Iron Man, but now that I do, I think I'll pick her up too. We'll see if I can't make a whole zombie Avengers. Was Thor or Hulk in that episode? I can't remember. It'd be cool to get zombies of them too.

Lara In Love?

Rish has a Valentine's story set in the Lara and the Witch universe...the Lara-verse? Anyway, he had me make a cover for him. He provided the picture, so I really didn't do much. I think it turned out pretty good, though.

Looks like you can get it on Amazon if you'd like.

Tied Down Tight

We went camping last night, and took our canoe with us for the first time despite owning the thing for at least ten years. 

I’m always so afraid that my tie down job won’t be sufficient and the canoe will come loose and cause a huge accident, so I just skip bringing the canoe along. Weird, considering that we got the canoe from my wife’s parents in Canada and therefore had to drive it down 1000 miles tied to our roof. Then we moved to Houston and drove it 1500 miles tied down to my roof again. With that much successful experience under my belt, I ought to laugh in the face of a one hour drive to a nearby lake, yet I always fear disaster. 

Well, this time around, I overcame my fear, and we had a good time tooling around the lake in our canoe.

I guess I should finish this off with that Tim Allen gorilla grunting noise.

Ironically

You know that trend of wearing shirts that are supposed to be vintage and goofy and random. “State champs, 1988” or “Camp Hiowatha, counselor, 1979” that kind of thing. Well, I think I may have found the ultimate shirt for that, only it’s for a real thing that was on the midday news, I think. 

Unfortunately it’s a large, and thanks to the last few months of me indulging in my addiction to sugar, I’m a waaaaay bigger than mere large. So I’ll have to lose a bunch of fat to fit it. By that point, it’ll be vintage too.

As American As Apple Pie

My wife always gets this sauce to put in with her pot roast, but today is the first time I noticed the name on the bottle.

 

What the hell? "American Dinner" pub style pot roast? Nothing says America like a nice pub. The sauce tastes like all those American pubs have been making their roasts centuries I bet.

Honking And Honking

Saw this bumper sticker the other day.

This guy must have the most frayed nerves ever, because I imagine he never stops getting honked at every time he goes out in this car.

My Paper Copies Arrived

It took a lot longer than I expected, but this came in the mail the other day.

These are those author copies of the book that I ordered a while back. I think I mentioned them in this post.

It's really exciting to be able to hold a book of mine in my hands. Unfortunately, I don't think either the cover design or the formatting is up to snuff. It looks pretty darn amateurish. I'm going to have to sit down and put a bunch more work into it until it looks the way I want it to.

So, don't order a copy of this book yet (not that anyone was considering it or anything). I'm going to fix it up and try again. I'll let you know when it's time to make your order, you can be sure of that.

Book Goal

Despite the title of the post, I don't really have a book goal. I mean, I don't have a particular number that I'm shooting for on the year or anything. I just decided this month that I would stop wasting my free time listening to things that only bring me down and make me angry, and instead get back to listening to audiobooks that make me happy.

I have a lot of time that I could be listening to books, and I feel like doing so would likely help me with inspiration for my creative endeavors as well.

So, here's my list of books I managed to read this past month.

1. Memory’s Legion by James S.A. Corey
2. A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony
3. The Source of Magic by Piers Anthony
4. Castle Roogna by Piers Anthony
5. The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
6. The Sword of Destiny Andrzej Sapkowski
7. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

I feel like that's a pretty good start. Most people in the world don't read seven books a year, and plenty don't read that many in ten years, so I should be somewhat proud of that. 

 

Now that I've gotten started, we’ll see what I can manage next month.