These 3 Things - Dispatches from The Blip

Snap Out of It

I’ve got 15 posts drafted here on Substack. Some are half-baked ideas, 3/4-baked ideas, and ideas dependent on more work. The last couple of months have been a lot.

And I am snapping out of it. Snapping out of trauma and depression, seeking help, centering myself, and reminding myself to let go. Now that Dad’s health is not so much on my mind (he’s a goddamn T-1000, I swear to God), I can focus on my own. I’ve been doing the bare minimum of therapy that my ACA insurance covers. In the second session, I was already in a better place.

I’ve made some cold calls to old friends and connected to talk. I’ve got good dental and doctor’s appointments coming up. See Dad’s health—am I also a T-1000?

Doing one simple thing, like making a pizza date with a friend, intermittently is also good. If I am tipping toward ‘The Darkness’, I know this will recharge me.

Early in AA, we all shared how proud we were to do our laundry. Seriously, go to a couple of meetings (if you are reading this, you need it — JUST KIDDING) and set a timer for when someone romanticizes doing laundry and how good it feels and how they never used to do it or never paid bills on time… It’s inspired deep thought from what seems mundane. I’ve been steadfast about doing laundry since I got sober. It’s just reliable as fuck to do something that makes your life better once a week.

I often think of creative blog ideas, podcast interviews, and short news format digital creations. I tried to make a new Substack repository for some of them. The browser saves drafts for me, and for some reason, that is where I keep them. I’ve been quiet here lately. I watch and block lots of Instagram and Facebook reels. There is so much other garbage out there that I don’t want to dump my version of this garbage on everyone. I don’t want the Evil Spock version of me blocking me because I made some unfunny observations by talking to myself as different characters about what I used to wear in 2004. I mean, I could do that, but it’s kind of not ‘what I do’.

There are great creators and exceptions to this rule, but most of this is just ‘not for me.’ It’s not for me to consume, and certainly not for me to create.

I like to write. I get opportunities to do so. And one I am very honored and excited about is coming up. It will let me revisit something that’s been missing since The Blip. I don’t think I will be the TikTok, YouTube, or Twitch sensation I was when I learned how to video edit during the pandemic. I will be happy to be a writer and podcaster and let others, literally and figuratively, “Do The Dance.”

That, and my professional life—work, things that pay the bills, shows, marketing, and promoting on social media take up most of what one would consider free time. But this also incorporates the important social interaction I need to fight loneliness.

But the past few months…I have been ‘Up Against It’. My Jenga tower is usually pretty high, but I was at my maximum when more wooden blocks were being added. COVID, Dad in Hospital, a run of shows back to back…weeks I couldn't get to the laundry on my Sacred Laundry Day.

Then, as I heard of John Fetterman returning to work after dealing with his depression, I wised up. I asked for help. I did all the things I mentioned above.

Then yesterday… BLAM!

I was riding my bike and viscerally felt like I snapped out of it. Even if briefly. I felt like I came back to the world after the Thanos Snap, materializing from dust onto Edwin H. Land Boulevard onto my bike headed home, Five Years Later. It was maybe 2 months, but you get the idea. Did Marvel show people reappearing? I honestly forgot. I will probably ask ChatGPT.

Please go back and imagine my re-Blipification as a Star Trek thing in your mind’s eye. Glitter. Not Dust. Oxfords. Not Brogues.

Though this is more of a free-form post, and I had only meant to give you a list of three things that have my attention right now, I will be so bold as to tease more to come. Free Comic Book Day was great, funny, and fun. That story is, indeed, coming.

---

Friendly Reminder - It’s Memorial Day Weekend:

---

THESE 3 THINGS

1 - “THAT” NEBULA VIDEO

It’s a sign that things aren’t that interesting to Stacey if she falls asleep. We’ve spent the last three nights trying to get through Quantumania. Yes, Virginia, there is a Kang, and he is not so much conquering anything any more.

We rarely see movies in theaters together, but we will see Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3 in nice seats. She wanted to go to the theater for the Super Mario Bros. Movie, so I bought it, and we were happy enough at home! Very funny! Wow, we saw The Avengers in the theater together, but it’s almost impossible to make all superhero movies a date night now!

This morning I spent 25 minutes with Karen Gillen’s video below. She said she got in trouble for doing it, but this is great. The kind of thing that doesn’t get released because of an NDA. I would imagine that she’s given this to Marvel for some approval because she is showing all kinds of BTS things you don’t see on a slick-produced “Digital Whatever” extra. Good interactions with artists, runners, handlers, and dancing in actor tents. Some things look similar to how we do things in the music industry, and I love this stuff.

I just started an MCU rewatch because, why not? As always, The Incredible Hulk (2008) is such a different movie, but it is still part of the continuity. It is hard to get over the hump. I realized the Hulk rights must have ended up in Universal’s hands because of the MONSTER element. It’s just so obvious, but I never picked on that before. And, real quick, did Stan Lee’s SoBe-drinking character die in this movie? Another one for ChatGPT or Bard.

I am a complex man with layers

• I can’t picture Ruffalo in this movie

• I like Norton’s Bruce

• I can’t picture Norton with The Avengers

• My Dad’s name is Bruce

• No one is going to recast my Dad

The MCU, including Guardians, also has some great tunes for when I want to rock out. AC/DC, anyone? I’m trying to listen to more music this year, so my algorithmic year-end data doesn’t shame me for listening to the same 10 albums all year! Which I do…and it will!

Gillen has been Nebula since 2014, with the same costume helper artist for the past 5 years and 4 movies, and that got me thinking about The Blip, time passing, and my usual head spinning at the passage of time in general.

We came to love Karen as Amy Pond in her Doctor Who role in 2010, and every day I wish I had a TARDIS.

2 - Spotify For Podcasters

We (at League Podcast) were using Anchor.fm to send our podcast through a third party to get some ad revenue. Pennies. I’m also not a huge fan of Spotify, but I am no dummy. I know people are there!

Our original RSS feed is still on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Stitcher, and wherever you get your podcasts! Maybe you listen to podcasts on MP3, like in a browser, as a download, or something equally weird. All options for that are over at leaguepodcast.com/podcasts.

The Inflammatory Writ from above is to tell people to follow us on the newly branded Spotify for Podcasters. We have a page there! If you listen to your podcasts on Spotify, please subscribe, support, or listen to us there!

The ad model is similar to the deal we had with Anchor, but there is a minimum listenership (through their platform, of course, causing more work for small podcasts like ours to do any reporting)! But I am a calm blue ocean about that. We don’t care if you have a Surface, an iPad, a Zune, a Mac, or Peter Quill’s Walkman. We want you to listen! New shows are coming, we swear. Just tidying up around here! You can move all that stuff out of the way if you want to sit down!

We are ramping up new episode production, but I have reposted all of our 2023 podcasts to attract people to our Spotify for Podcasters link. Hit the button!

3 - Quotes of the Week

I don’t have permission to use these quotes, but these are what kept me going and avoiding burnout this week. They are, of course, out of context, and the inflection is mine, but maybe you can get all philosophical with them. It’s like that joke about ‘Toast Fucking’ in Brain Candy (or is it?).

The “Hot In The Cold Cut Kitchen Award” goes to:

“I am at zero percent…as a man right now…and I know you are too!”

and..

The “Am I Literally Looking In The Mirror? Award” goes to

“well, we all gotta do the thing!”

That’s it. See you after the long weekend or the next Blip (whichever comes first).

Subscribe, comment, or click on the Spotify link, you dopes! Just kidding. but I’m not.