Drill My Brain

I've been watching the Phantasm movies by way of "A Very Joe Bob Xmas" and I wandered off on a tangent from one scene:

TALL MAN: Let me free you of this imperfect flesh that binds you to time and space!

ROBIN: Okee-dokey.

TALL MAN: It's no use struggling. There is no esc-- Wait, what?

ROBIN: I'm down with what you're selling. Bring it on!

TALL MAN: Look at this freaky drill thing I'm gonna use. Doesn't that terrify you?

ROBIN: LOL. Stop teasing me. Eternity's a wastin'!

TALL MAN: I -- I think I need to go pray.

ROBIN: Hey! Where are you going? GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE AND DRILL MY BRAIN, MOTHERFUCKER!

Fiesta Snow

I took a peek outside with my cat and it's snowing a bit today. Speckle wasn't too happy about that. 

The funny thing is that, while the snow was blowing around, someone was blasting salsa music across the neighborhood. 

So there she is, covered in frosty confetti, looking at me like, "This is the worst Mexican restaurant ever."

Comfort Movies

Among the shelves of DVDs in my house and the vast ocean of streaming options, I've got a few of what I call comfort movies. It's not so much that they're great films, although many of them are. There are plenty of movies I love that aren't comfort movies, though. 

It's not just me. Occasionally, late at night (you might call it early in the morning, if you're a bad person) Tom will decide he's done with whatever he was doing, settle into the couch, and watch The Time Machine (the 2002 version with Guy Pearce). That's how he winds down that long evening of world-building or drinking or both. I don't think he's ever described it as a comfort movie, just a good one, but that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. 

Like comfort food, a comfort movie feels like home. It doesn't matter how many times you've seen it; it never gets old. If anything, familiarity makes it better. Just looking over the three I picked to go with this post – my current main comfort movies – I'm noticing that they're all kinda chatty, fun movies that don't take anything too seriously. I don't think that part is a requirement, even if we're only talking about me.

Anyway, here's my list. I'd love to hear who else has comfort movies and what a few of them are.

• Murder By Death (1976): I first saw this in the theater as a kid and it's been a favorite ever since. Everyone in my immediate family and several friends I tied down Clockwork-Orange-style to watch it will quote lines from it at the slightest provocation.
• Go (1999): I missed this one initially but saw it shortly after as a rental. I was never a huge partier or anything like that, but this brings back the times I did visit the night life and I feel like I know these characters.
• Scare Me (2020): I discovered this one during this year's Halloween Season horror binge. I think calling it horror is a little iffy. It's definitely about horror, but I wouldn't really say it is horror. Anyway, the fact that it's so recent makes it an oddball as a comfort movie, but I watched it twice the night I first saw it and have re-watched it several times since and kinda want to watch it again right now, so yeah, it counts. I get such a strong sense of being in that cabin in the mountains, trading stories by firelight, and it's a nice feeling. It's such a great depiction of people creating together, too. It reminds me of some of the better role-playing game sessions I've been in. I've never had much luck collaborating on fiction projects -- that seems to be something I have to do alone -- so it doesn't remind me of that, but anyway, the energy is cool. 

2020: A Little Bit Closer

"I've been swimming in a sea of anarchy. I've been living on coffee and nicotine. I've been wondering if all the things I've seen were ever real, were ever really happening." -- Sheryl Crow

I'm doing the 2020 retrospective post a little early this time, because December, especially the end of December, is going to be a really busy time for me. 

Everybody I know has been all "OMG 2020 is the worst!" This year's been pretty good to me, though. The only major downside was that, despite a strong start, I didn't get much writing done for most of the year. That seems to have turned around, but the lost time is still gone.

In January and February, I continued my habit of finding a hidey-hole and working on The Nameless Way. That habit kept me in touch with the work and helped me do more at home, too. We made it to one convention before everything shut down in March. Even after that, I got a lot of gaming in through Hangouts. That's how my geographically-challenged regular groups had been meeting anyway.

Social Necromancy

 A Christian friend once told me that ouija boards don't hook you up with the dead, that you're really talking to the demons that clung to them in life. I don't know if that's, like, official doctrine, but it seems like a logical extrapolation. Anyway, the point is, it's the same with social media. You're not talking to your friends; you're talking to their demons.

Chili Chatter

Update 11/16/2020: My opinions on the various pepper flake blends have changed some, but I'm not gonna go back over all of them except to say that Asian Reds is now my all-purpose go-to and Sweet Heat is really good when you grind it up.

 

I love hot peppers. To the right, there's a picture of some habanero bits that I dried in a toaster oven with sugar and salt. Habanero is about the limit of my heat tolerance. Despite their deliciousness, I usually only eat habanero peppers straight up when I want to shock myself out of a funk. 

Okay, here's where I start sounding like a shill because mostly I'm blathering on about some stuff I bought from this one place, Flatiron Pepper Company.

There were several that looked good, so I ordered a bunch: Four Pepper Blend, Sweet Heat, Hatch Valley Green, Asian Reds, and Smoke Show. The Four Pepper Blend (Arbol, Ghost, Habanero, Jalapeno) is probably the one I'd buy if I had to pick one. It's got a nice heat level and plenty of flavor. I could see using this in place of any of the others. That's not to say they're all the same, just that this one would do even when one of the others would be a better fit.

 

I was really pleased with Smoke Show (Chipotle, Smoked Ghost, Carolina Reaper) as well. As the name suggests, it's made with smoked peppers and the flavor definitely comes through. It's also the hottest of the ones I got. I think it's the hottest one they have except for "I Can't Feel My Face."

Yes, there's one called I Can't Feel My Face (Carolina Reaper, Ghost, Scorpion, Habanero). I keep looking at it and thinking I should order this and try it but, remember what I said about habaneros? That's the mildest pepper in this mix. The Scoville ranking is over 750k. I'm willing to admit that I have limits.

I was a little disappointed with Sweet Heat (Scotch Bonnet, Ancho, Red Bell). I mean, I knew it would be mild, but it's really too mild. The heat gets completely lost in anything I add it to. That might be okay, but the flavor does too. It has a nice flavor. Sweet, in case you hadn't guessed. It tastes good when I just chew it up by itself. Gnawing on a spoonful of pepper flakes isn't really what I'm looking for in a dining experience, though. Maybe someone with a more, whatchacallit, discerning palette would be better able to appreciate this.

Likewise Hatch Valley Green (Big Jim, Sandia, Jalapeno, Habanero), although in some ways I have the reverse complaint. It's got about the heat level I expected for Sweet Heat, but I'm not wowed by the flavor. I dunno. I'm still experimenting with all of these, so maybe I'll find some other uses that make it shine. Right now I'm mostly mixing it with one of the others, which is also what I'm doing with Sweet Heat.

 

I use Asian Reds (Gochugaru, Thai Chile, Ghost, Tien Tsin) for pretty much the stuff I imagined I'd use Sweet Heat for. It's not as sweet, but it goes with the same kind of things and has a respectable burn. I even put it on otherwise plain buttered toast for breakfast. Or, you know, whenever. And of course I put it on Chinese food. Restaurants around here have to worry about pasty mid-westerners (as opposed to pasty southerners like me) going all Karen because their Kung Pao has more bite than a poblano, so they tend to go extremely light on the spices. This stuff is the cure.

I guess that wasn't too shill-ish. I did have a few criticisms, after all. BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! I've got this coupon link they gave me. You can use it to get $5 off an order, and then I get a coupon if you use it.

Try Nihilism

Last weekend would have been Gen Con if not for the plague. I wasn't going this year anyway, so I didn't care, but most of my friends were bummed. Tom even resolved to come up with a "hoot" to fill the void. Once everybody agreed to have it in Point Pleasant, West Virginia (home of the Mothman) I was on board too.

My original plan was to do a Mothman-inspired adventure I had run at Gen Con a few years back, but a request for D&D inspired me to finally try out the 5e Adventures in Middle Earth rules. This was a last minute switch, so I went with one of the adventures in the Bree-Land Region Guide instead of making up my own. That area has always been one of my favorites.

Tom and I got to Point Pleasant on Wednesday, snapped a picture of the statue, confirmed that the Lowe Hotel (right across the street) really was closed, and proceeded to turn our room at the Quality Inn into a walk-in fridge. Tom did Tom stuff while I read through the adventure and crammed as many of the Middle Earth rules back into my brain as I could.