So, about a year ago I tried reading spiderman comics. I watched the 1994 Spiderman cartoon as a kid. I watched the movies. Technically I'm in Spiderman 3. I played the video games. Always been a spiderman fan, and then realized that for some reason I just never read the comics.

So I came here and tried to get myself straightened out. Because since issue #1 back in the 40s or whatever, he was in Action Comics, and then he got his own series. When he got his own series, all the way through today, it's supposed to be one continuous story. Stuff that was written in 1955 is still part of the continuous story today. The problem with that is, I'm not going to just read issue 1, and then catch up on a literal 80+ year old backlog of monthly issues. Nobody has time for that. But even if it's the same story, doesn't mean you're not in a new chapter.

So they started adding smaller numbers on the pages to correspond with whatever the current story is. If you understand whats going on, it makes sense. But for someone who's never picked up a comic before, that makes no sense. "Oh, this is issue 900, but it's also issue 1." WHAT????

Instead, here's what I suggest they do once they finish up their current run. Next time they shake things up, let's make a fake name. Let's say they build up to some big fight between whomever in the current run. When they have their big payoff, and everything ends, have Spiderman sitting on a grass hill. Suit tattered. Cuts. Bruises. Exhausted. He looks up, and sees Mary Jane Watson at the top of the hill above him. Closeup of Mary Jane, as she says "Hey Peter...can we talk?"

The inner back cover just shows a preview of the next months comic cover. It's simplistic. It's just a shot of spiderman against solid color background.

The Amazing Spiderman #4000 or whatever(Big font)

A new beginning: Chapter 1 (really small font. Almost like fineprint, but slightly bigger)

And from then on, the Logo/font does not change at all until we get to a new story. So lets say "A new beginning" runs for 48 issues. On issue 48, again you'd get that inner back cover showing a preview of next months issue.

The Amazing Spiderman #4049

Aunt Mae's shameful secrer: Chapter 1

Same font sizes as before, but, they'll look visually different. And each new story may or may not have a new writing or art teams. Each new story is considered like a soft reboot of the series. By that I mean it's all one continuous story, but with each new story they will take things in a different direction. But that doesn't mean it retcons anything. Nothing is hard rebooted. Uncle Ben is still dead. So they CAN still reuse characters, and have their past affect their version of the story. But the story is segmented, but continuous.

We may just not see certain characters for 10 years at a time. Do we really need Electro to constantly be around? I'm thinking each of these stories will last 2-3 years. So while they do the story about Scorpion, you may not see Venom, or Carnage, or Doctor Octopus. Or Sandman. Because they're not the story being told right now. But maybe on issue 4049 the preview cover for Chapter 1 of Aunt Mae's shameful secret, you just see Scorpion on the street level, with Aunt Mae wrapped up in his tail, as Spiderman is swinging to her rescue. So just from that preview picture alone you know that Scorpion is about to have his story told, and it involves some secret from Aunt Mae's past. Bad enough to get Scorpion to come after her.

And just from that one back cover alone, you now know that the direction is about to change, we're changing stories, we're changing characters, and based on the art style, you may see a totally different visual art style. And you should know from that back cover preview exactly what to expect for the next 2-3 years until this story is told.

And then? Another soft reboot. Another story. We do it all again.

This makes it clear which story each comic belongs to, just by the cover. Even to non-readers, it would be instantly apperent that this was issue 7 of A new Begining. It's issue 4007 of the main series. From there, you know to google A new beginning to see what that it is, and just like that, you have a new reader who knows exactly where to jump in.

Now for the best part. The fact that each soft reboot issue 1 is basically a preview of the next 2-3 years means that if you're ever looking for the Doctor Octopus story, but don't remember which one that is? All you gotta do is check wikipedia for the name of all the stories. And each wikipedia article should naturally always have the cover of issue 1.

Now you just gotta look for the cover with Doctor Octopus. Might not see him again for years, but you know exactly which arc he's in.

HOPEFULLY this will put an end to some of the stupid stuff I've heard happens in the comics. Why is there a second Doctor Octopus? Why are there Peter Parker clones? I'm not asking why in the stories. I'm asking why a writer thought that was a good idea. Doctor Octopus exists. You don't need two.

Peter Parker clones just dilute what makes Venom special. I'm all for introducing new characters. In fact, if a character doesn't work out, you don't need to kill them off. They just fade into the background noise and never get referenced again. Their story still happened, but nobody ever thinks about it.

But when you come up with new characters, the first thing that should be asked is "What is special about this character, and why will it be a challenge for spiderman to defeat them? Do not get me started with the fact that I just learned there's like a BILLION symbiots. Seriously???

Venom is special because Eddie Brock is an asshole, but he's not a villain. The Symbiot is a villain, but it needs Eddy. So it's kind of this inbetween of Spiderman's greatest enemy, but also, competitor. Because Venom is a hero too. He just hates Spiderman.

And then with Carnage, he's special because Cassidy is already a serial killer. Even without the symbiot he's ALREADY a villain that you should fear. Then make him basically into an overpowered spiderman clone. And since Carnage isn't having it's host resist the chaos, he makes the symbiot into giant axe blades, or claws. It's basically freddie kruger in a symbiot suit.

So what makes them special if theres thousands more just like them? They were yin and yang. While venom and spiderman were also yin and yang. but Carnage and Spiderman are so far separated that they are NOT anything alike. But now you got all these other symbiots so it's just diluting what makes those characters great.

Yeah, if I were the one soft rebooting this shit, all the other symbiots would be put on a rocket, sent off to space, and never mentioned again. Carnage and Venom somehow stay. So, it's kinda like retconning, without retconning. The storys still happened, but they mean nothing now, don't worry about it, moving forward.

Ok, so imagine in the spiderman universe, if some character like Dr Strange, started casting spells on people. Except NOT Dr Strange, because he wouldn't do this. But find a character who's able to cast spells and is a villain.

So this spell is just cast on a single random ordinary guy. He had no powers before the spell, but now after the spell he brings disease everywhere he goes. 50 mile radius around this guy. Everybody gets sick. While he himself never gets this illness. He's immune to it.

So whichever villain cast this on him did so and then framed the guy for some terrorist attack. So now this carrier of disease is sent to some max security prison. The idea being that the original villain is using this guy as a trojan horse to kill Kingpin, who's also locked up. Only problem is, due to some mix-up, the guy gets taken to a regular jail instead. All the inmates, and all the guards are dead within a month.

The other part of the spell is that if this guy is killed, the entire universe explodes. So you can't just kill him. But now NYC has this massive prison complex with thousands of cells, and only 1 prisoner. And they can't put any staff or inmates in there, or they'll die. They've been feeding him via remote control drone delivery. But that's a band-aid solution. So instead they build an artificial island off the coast. with a 75 mile restricted water access. On this artificial island they create ways he can grow his own food, and be self reliant.

Problem averted, right? Because now NYC can use it's already existing jail again. But now that the character is established, you can actually develop the character.

So remember, this guy was NOT a criminal. He did NOT have powers. He's just as much a victim in this, as anyone else. But the government treats him as a terrorist because of what happened at the jail. People see him as the cause of death, because nobody is quite sure whats going on. So they just blame him, and that's it.

After so many years on the island in isolation, he finds a way back to the mainland. And why? Because HE doesn't understand how it works either. He just wants to live a normal life, and doesn't understand why everyone around him keeps dying. So he comes to the city, in search of his family.

Then yada yada spiderman somehow finds out that if he reaches the shore, thousands will die. If he gets close to the guy, he'll die. And with that, we have spiderman using help from Tony Stark to use autonomous Ironman suits to essentially swoop him up, bring him back to the island, and then talk to him via video conference. And this is where we find out that he's not a bad guy. He's just frustrated, scared, and alone. Spiderman empathizes with that, and starts being this guys friend with daily chats.

And now, you have set up for the future, a new character that can be used as a weapon against their will to kill an entire city if taken hostage somehow. He's powerful, because you can't get near him to fight him. But also, he's just a guy with the spell swirling AROUND him. All of his thoughts and motivations are NOT death. But death does follow this guy everywhere he goes.

I think it would be best if this guy when we first meet him is timid and weak, and apologetic for everything in life, whether it's his fault or not. And by the end, he can become completely deranged as a result of isolation, but still not a bad person. A tragic story of a life. And then you can use him against his will in the future.

Maybe Green Goblin's glider can go fly to him, and kidnap him. Then he's essentially used as a bomb. God dammit. I want his Super Villain name to be "Bomberman", but that's already a video game. That would get confusing.

You know how comic books are. Eventually he'll be full on evil. Or maybe mind controlled by someone else. Or maybe he has mental health issues. I hate to say it that way, but that's how comic book villains are written. Evil super villain, and then his motivations behind being evil is because he has mental health issues.

Now I wish this were a thing.

I don't get to watch movies very often. Surprisingly I have one kickass movie setup though. It's a 1080p video projector that also does 3D.

So I just watched Spiderman:Homecoming. Yes, I know, I'm SUPER late to see it. Sue me.

But you know that feeling where you just want to talk about the movie you just watched? Well, I have that, except nobody else BUT me just saw this movie for the first time. So nobody else is dying to talk about it but me.

Ok, so, first off......what was the pacing of that movie??? The first third of the movie it felt like it couldn't find it's footing. Like it was almost a parody of a spiderman movie.

BUT CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE CASTING FOR A MINUTE??? I'm DYING to talk about the casting!!! This is my first time seeing Tom Holland as Spiderman, and the voice clicked almost instantly, but I wasn't quite sold on the full performance until about halfway through the movie. There was some a scene on the rooftops where it really clicked. This was a teenager with super powers....but still very much a teenager. Once that clicked into place, I began to enjoy Tom Holland as Spiderman a LOT more.

And Micheal Keaton as Vulture??? Oh my god! Chefs kiss. If you look back to the original trilogy, when they had the green goblin and his hoverboard, functionally it's pretty much the same character. Green guy flies around with mechanical flying thing, and fights Spiderman. Yes, I'm oversimplifying things, but you can see the comparison.

Except, I actually LIKE the Vulture in this film. The Green Goblin just looked like a stuntman in a motorcycle helmet. I never felt that Green Goblin was ever actually a psychopath, or a killer, or hardly even a threat. It just came off as "Now's the time for the big supervillain battle" and then Green Goblin would fly in.

With Vulture, there's a clear and distinct reason he has these things. Micheal Keaton plays the roll so well that you almost overlook the massive plot hole. They have alien technology, they've used it to perform robberies for over 8 years, and at no point did the police, or the government, or the Avengers ever thing to look into that? Weird.

OH!!! And as good of casting as I think Tom Holland and Micheal Keaton are, there's some real BAD casting too. Why is Aunt Mae a hottie? She looks like she's any age between 30 and 60. It's like every single scene she looks a slightly different age. There's no consistency. Aunt Mae is an 85 year old woman. This Aunt Mae doesn't look anywhere near 85.

I don't know what's coming in the next few movies. I'm watching them all this week. I've never seen them. I don't know why. I saw "The Amazing Spiderman" back in 2012 I think, and I just did not enjoy that movie.

When I was 10 years old, I saw the Super Mario Bros movie in theaters. The one with Bob Hoskins, and John Liguizamo. I remember in the theater thinking for the longest time "Why aren't they in their suits???".

I understood the plotline reason why Tony Stark took away Peter's high tech spidersuit. I also understand why Peter had to wear a makeshift costume. What I don't get, is why Peter didn't sew his own traditional looking spiderman costume, without any of the tech. He spent like a third of the movie without his spiderman costume.

The movie also scrapped some of the bigger characters entirely. There is no mention ANYWHERE of Mary Jane. The closest thing is "Michelle" says she goes by "MJ" in a blink and you'll miss it moment.

There's also no J Jonah Jameson. I don't even see the Daily Bugle anywhere.

I felt like while he was in high school they could have had a professor without an arm, and he's just Dr Conners. I thought that was a missed opportunity. Also a missed opportunity to not have the high schoolers we know about. Like Mary Jane, Eddie Brock, Harry Osborne. Though they did have Flash Thompson. For some reason instead of a preppy white rich jock, they made him a short (arabic?) toothpick size twerp that you just want to slap in the back of the head. When I think of Flash Thompson, I'm thinking of a tall built football player type body. I'm pretty sure even without super powers Peter could have easily knocked Flash out.

The whole movie feels like a prequel. The characters are written well. I can very much believe these are high schoolers going through their own high school years. While Peter is going through.....a lot.

What I don't get is Tony Stark. He shows up, gives a 15 year old a biological weapon with a built-in "kill mode" which really wants to turn itself on. Then blows him off as if he's being annoying. Then leaves him alone in a suit which is somehow both extreme high tech, but also whose security is broken with a pair of tweezers and a usb drive. Then he takes the suit away from Peter because he fought Vulture which was immature and wreckless. Then at the end of the movie he attempts to give spider an even CRAZIER suit because he fought Vulture which was mature, and the brave thing to do.

Honestly, I feel like Tony Stark should have had waaaaaaay less screen time. MAYBE a cameo. He should not have been important to the plot. In fact, I'd prefer there were no high tech suit. It was just Spiderman trying to impress Tony Stark, who maybe gives him a phone call or a zoom meeting. Outside of that, he should be like "Peter, I'm busy. Just handle it, ok?" At least then maybe we wouldn't have to deal with half the movie in a make-shift costume.

Speaking of the costume, I hate it.

I hate it because as little as the original trilogy contributed to the Spiderman movies, they did have one cool thing. That suit is THE definitive Spiderman suit. This suit, the high tech one, was just flat. It looked like CGI the entire time. It looked like when you're watching Space Jam, and there's cartoons on screen while real humans are ALSO on screen. The cartoon on screen doesn't look natural, and it breaks the immersion. That's what this suit did at all times. At no poZendayaint did it even look like Spiderman was filmed wearing the greenman costume, and then CGI it on in post. I felt that the whole movie.

On a personal level, I feel cheated. I asked what movies I should prepare me for the new spiderman movie, and I was told to watch

Spiderman Homecoming

Spiderman Far From Home

Spiderman No Way Home

In that order. Well, I feel like there was a MASSIVE story just before this movie started. I mean, they're talking about alien technology that blew up in NYC, and now this guy is cleaning up the mess. That's how he becomes Vulture.

But hold on.....what alien mess??? What happened??? I feel like we're picking up at the end of the story rather than the beginning.

Now AFTERWARDS I find out I'm supposed to watch Winter Soldier first. Which C'mon.......how many movies are all connected??? I'll have watched 4 spiderman movies this week by the time I leave the theater having watched the new one.

But even that's not the full story. Because I could watch Winter Soldier. And I'm sure there's like 5 movies before Winter Soldier, since that movie is a sequel in itself.

So I would have to go back to at least 2008 to watch the full story. Or maybe it goes all the way back to the first IronMan movie. I think that came out in 2004? That's too many movies to watch. These movies need clear chapter ends. So people can jump off, and new people can jump on.

And what is this Ned character supposed to be??? I don't remember him from any previous Spiderman media. Why are they painstakingly trying to make him be Barbra Gordon post accident??? It works for her, because she USED TO BE Batgirl.

Ned is just.......Ned.

And what kind of name is "Happy"???

AND WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE BOAT ALL ABOUT??? It gets split down the middle, and then IronMan is like "Well, if I push the sides back together then the ship will be water buoyant again. That's how water works.....

Ok, I think that's enough for now.

Guys, go watch that movie for the first time if you haven't already. And if you have, go do the whole Men in Black eye flashy memory wipe thing. THEN go watch the movie for the first time....again.

And then share your thoughts. Just don't spoil anything with the next few movies.

Also.....is it supposed to be implied that Liz is Toones step-daughter? Or am I reading too much into that? I know he keeps saying "his daughter", but I don't know any step-dads that think of their "kids" as "step-kids". It's just "this is my kid". Because they cast the mom to at least look like she could be Liz's mom. But Liz doesn't look mixed at all. So, I'm not sure he's the dad.

It's been about 30 minutes since the movie ended. The more it sits with me, the more I'm thinking Tom Holland might have a chance to be the defining Spiderman. I'll see how the other movies go.

And I just love Micheal Keaton as Vulture. I kinda wish they'd have put him in make-up a bit, to make him look older, but outside of that, perfect casting.

Not that there was much competition, but Keaton is now THE actor I think of when I think who's the best Vulture. Best Batman. Best Vulture.

Yeah! I said it! Who's a better Batman? George Clooney? Pssshhh!!! Please! George Clooney is a smug bastard, but he's not a great Batman.

So I had an idea for a new method of security. A bulletproof alien costume pajama set. Here's how it works. You put on this full body pajama that's also bulletproof, and also made to look like an alien costume. And it pairs with an alien sleeping mask.

So now, when someone breaks into your house, the lights come on, they see this alien looking thing. It confuses them. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT???"

Either they run in fear, or the confusion gives you the advantage for a second or too. Enough time to fire a gun, or swing a bat. The point is, he'll be confused as hell for a second or two, while you won't be. You'll just be starting your attack from the getgo.

And in the event that he reaches for a gun, the alien suit is bulletproof. Just don't get shot in the head. I can't picture a bulletproof sleeping mask.

Ok, so it's 1993, and Dennis Nedry has been living/working on this island full of dinosaurs for the last 5 years. He's been frustrated with his pay rate for doing IT work debugging 2 million lines of code.

He's at a point where asking for a raise is look upon with deaf ears from his millionaire (which today would be billionaire) boss.

So he starts talking to a rival company. He accepts a job to steal all these vials of dino dna, to hand over to this other company which wants to build their own Jurassic Park. They have none of the research done, and this one move catches them up on 15 years worth of research.

So he writes a code, which disables security, on an island where the only think seperating you from beast is electricity. He shuts that off.

Now he's taken the vials, the dinosaurs are running wild, he's driving in the rain, and despite living here for the past 5 years, is uncertain where the docks are. He takes a turn too fast, crashes his car into the directions sign, and now he has no clue which direction to go. Worse still his jeep is now stuck in the mud.

And this is where it gets really stupid. Instead of trying to pull his jeep OUT of the ditch, he climbs DOWN a hill over a waterfall. This is not a dinosaur paddock, because there are no fences, but it is an artificial jungle area with plenty of trees.

He connects the rip cord from his jeep to a tree at the bottom of a waterfall, and the bottom of a hill.

Now lets pause for a minute. Let's say this island had no dinosaurs. He's just on an island, in a storm, stuck in mud. Lets say nothing stops him from using the rip cord.

His jeep would then pull itself towards a waterfall, and then roll down a hill. Best case scenario, it somehow ends up upright, and not on it's side.

It would still be stuck in the mud, but now it's also at the bottom of an unclimbable hill.

And remember, the boat is at the dock saying they leave in 15 minutes. All this time fussing with the rip cord, is all on the clock, which started back when he was in the control center BEFORE he turned off power, and stole the embrios.

Realistically, he's likely got 5 or so minutes to get to the dock in a storm where he doesn't even know which direction to go.

Dennis Nedry didn't fail because of a dilophosaurus. He failed because he was stressed, full of anxiety, had a half thought out plan, and no foresight to execute the plan.

Which is insane, when you consider he had no issue with the hard part. Writing the code to terminate security. Syncing up the code to your watch so you have an exact down to the second knowledge of when the camera turns off. And a way to slip out the building with a shaving can full of dinosaur dna vials. Once you get to the jeep, that SHOULD be the easy part!

Instead, he got lost on an small island with very few roads, that he should by this point know like the back of his hand.

Now for the kicker.

Not once in the movie did they ever say what his plan was to avoid legal actions.

Lets say he gets away with it. He can't do it again. It'll be obvious who did it by the next day. So what does he do? Would police not just arrest him, and extradite him to the united states to stand trial?

None of his plan ever had a chance of working.

So a few days ago, I posted a message asking if this was even possible. I got Minecraft up and running on my Retroid Pocket Flip 2 without any microsoft account.

I only play single player, but maybe there is an unofficial server one of you host, that I could play on? I've never played Java edition before, so I never played online.

I'm also getting used to minor differences between Java and Bedrock. Like crafting items is so different. It's very akward with a controller. Took me a day or so to figure things out.

Also, are there SUPPOSED to be this many enemies when you first start? I was building my little survival dirt hut, and then when night time came, I counted 14 creepers. My hut kept getting blown up. I had no time to rebuild, because creepers survive the day, and for some reason were very glitchy at first. They were staying still until they saw me, then they'd fly at me like an enderman, only to instantly explode. No Hssss. Just instant bombing. 14 times in one day cycle.

I've got a bunch of torches around my house now. And I built a creeper disposal system. Shame they don't drop gun powder if they fall. Oddly enough, zombies still drop rotten flesh if they fall.

Still waiting on skelitons to fall into my trap.

Now I just gotta figure out an enderman disposal system, and a spider disposal system.

Also, the game says I've been here for 25 game days. I've yet to see a single animal besides octopuss. Is that normal?

In the 1980 election, Reagan won 44 states. Only 6 voted for Carter. In the 1984 election he won 49 states.

That's the kind of landslide tRump has wet dreams about.

But it also reminds me of other countries like Russia, when they have an "Election", and then the standing dictator wins 95% of the vote. It's then an open secret that the vote was tampered with, but who's going to stop it?

The 1980 and 1984 elections have that same vibe to them.

And the policies he enacted are the reason the usa are a shithole now. Reagan is like the original OG corrupt profits over people president.

Are we SUUUUURE those elections were legit?

Ok, so I just want minecraft java edition running on my Retroid Pocket Flip 2. Which from a hardware perspective is identical in everyway to the Retroid Pocket 5.

I can use Game Native to get PC games running.

My device also came with PovavLauncher. I don't know what it does, but it's minecraft related. Although it appears to be an android app.

Does anyone know where I should look for a guide?

I just find this whole segment SO odd. It's like they're trying to lean into this negative vibe that video games are scary, and dangerous. Then they use examples that are in no way dangerous or scary. They're just different than things they did at the time, but in no way harm anyone.

They also use deceptive editing. First they talk about the 900 numbers which cost per minute. And it's true. Those absolutely existed for video games. You could call them, and pay like 99 cents per minute to listen to a pre-recorded message telling you how to play the game. Think of a guy reading off a gamefaqs walk through at a time when gamefaqs didn't exist. So that was one of your only options. The other option was magazines and books. Strategy guides came a bit later. I remember seeing them in the late SNES era. I remember a Super Mario RPG stratagy guide. I remember a Chrono Trigger guide. Earthbound actually came with it's own strategy guide.

But I don't remember that with NES era games. What are you going to put in your Super Mario 3 strategy guide? "Go right."

Yeah, you could list all the secrets, and put a map, and screen grabs of each level. But, how many pages is that really? 10? You could probably put the full level for 5 levels per page, and that turns into 10 when you front ant back each page. So SMB1 had 32 levels. That'd be 4 pages. SMB3 had 90 levels. So 9 pages for that strategy guide.

I think the problem was just NES games didn't have the complexity and length to necessitate a strategy guide. SNES had a MASSIVELY improved space to work with. games for the first time were massive enough to make a magazine sized book dedicated to this game. That's how much the games grew. That's how much content there was now.

But on NES, it just wasn't there yet. And the internet wasn't a thing in the 80s either. So these 900 numbers made BANK.

But the 900 numbers were not exclusive to video games. I remember the NFL had one probably in each city I would imagine. I remember commercials during NFL games that we could call and hear all the news and info updated daily, from our Cleveland Browns. Sometimes they had interviews with the players. I know my dad said a guy he worked with had called that number, and sometimes it was just the audio feed of what interview he did with sports center, or a local radio station. They also had a guy who just spread gossip. The one my dads coworker was convinced of in the early 90s, was that Bernie Kosar was going to buy the team because Art Modell was frustrated with the conditions of the stadium. Keep in mind, that was 1991. Art Modell moved the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore to become the Baltimore Browns. Until Cleveland sued Art Modell, and they couldn't be the Baltimore Browns. So they became the Baltimore Ravens. Which are still a team to this day. After they moved to Baltimore they claimed they had been fighting the city to get a grant from Cleveland to fix the stadium, but Cleveland said no. So instead of a billionaire owner fixing his own stadium, Art was asking for tax dollars, and Cleveland said no. So he left with the players. And Cleveland had to wait until 1999 to get the longest term worst team in the NFL. Since 1999 I think the browns have made the playoffs twice. And only in the first round. Bars in Cleveland make BANK.

I also remember a 900 number for the WWF (now known as the WWE) with the Mean Gene Hotline. They had a guy who interviewed wrestlers onscreen. Well, they gave him a hotline where he interviewed wrestlers daily for the hotline. Which is easy when all the rumors and gossip are controlled by you, since your show is scripted. So you can get Mean Gene to say "Folks, I think Hulk Hogan might be due for a comeback!" if you know that Hogan is 2 weeks away from being healed from an injury. You know you plan for Hogan to be at the next show. So you have Mean Gene give that out as gossip, then it turns out to be true. Now you got people addicted to getting the early news. And they're paying money per minute to listen to outcomes of predetermined matches, before the matches are even announced.

But the segment makes it seem like these 900 numbers for video games are predatory for just video games. They had 900 numbers for everything back then. Every sport had one. Every soap opera on daytime TV had one. Religion had a lot of 900 numbers. They had one that would give you the winning lotto numbers before the numbers were drawn. Which is weird because they were never right once. Nobody ever won money with their numbers. Ever. But they had a disclaimer before each call stating that they are not responsible for any gambling done with this information. Which is basically like saying "You agree not to sue us, if you don't win the lottery."

And then, immediately AFTER the 900 number part, they say that an 89 year old woman calls Nintendo daily to play legend of zelda.

THAT IS VERY DISINGENUOUS!!!

Because they didn't lie. I'm sure in 1991 there was an 89 year old woman calling Nintendo to talk to a game counselor to get help with her game. I'm not disputing that. The part that feels like they're manufacturing outrage is the fact that while Nintendo DID run a daily hotline where you could talk to someone, who would walk you through the game, they did NOT do so through a 900 number. They did it through 1-800-255-3700. That number does not charge money. That number is still in operation today. I don't know if you can still do the whole game guide over the phone thing.....but they will help you if you need. Like if you need to send something in for repair. Or if you need information on how to do a thing with your switch. Or where to find this product. I imagine game help requests had to have died off since......let's call it 2002. I know that would be pretty late to still be running a hint hotline, but I don't actually know when they stopped. Or maybe they didn't. Maybe they will just read gamefaqs to you over the phone. I guess I can't say I've attempted to do that in maybe close to 30 years.

I remember as a kid I would call about Metroid, and Zelda and Punch Out. That was was the late 80s. I think I stopped around 1996 when the library got an internet demo computer. And then you'd go to best buy, and they have all these demo computers of the computers they're selling. And back then, it was just a legit computer unrestricted connected to the internet. Now, I will admit I never attempted to go to a porn site while standing on the floor of a best buy. But as far as I could tell, they didn't filter anything out from the internet back then. I remember going to Nintendos website, and I had a notebook and a pen. I would just take notes. And it didn't even feel like it was inconvenient. I'm sure Gen-Z reading this story is like "YOOOOO!!!!! MY BOY WAS COOKED IN THE STONE AGE!!!"

But no. That's just how it was. You had the library. You had demo units at best buy. You could print from the library. I think back then it was 10 non-color sheets. That might have varied by library, but that was my experience.

I feel like I'm rambling....

Ok, so I can tell this idea is crazy, but I can't tell if it's good.

The basic idea is, imagine a giant woodstock style weekend. With the massive property and hundreds of thousands of people.

Instead of tents, imagine if there were plastic houses. With kind of like a lego connection to assemble it. So you just click it into place, and maybe tighten something to make it secure, but essentially you assemble this little temporary housing, and then live in it for a few days. Then disassemble it, put it in your car, and away you go.

I was thinking you could also use it in a pinch if you have a sudden burst of refugees all in one place at the same time. It's not optimal, but sometimes wars happen, and you have a massive shift in population faster than housing can catch up with. This would temporarily alleviate that problem to some extent.

I'm currently playing "Cassette Beasts". Pretty fun game that takes the pokemon formula, and turns it on its head.

I will not play long and involved 300 hour games. It's too much. I want bite sized games.

The internet said this game is 25 hours long. Except thats bullshit. There are 130 monsters. I've caught 16. I've been playing for 17 hours. I don't know if this game has "gym leaders". But if they do, I haven't seen them yet.

I have no bad words about the game, other than the fact that it takes 10 minutes (I timed it) to go from not yet opening the game, to get to a title screen. It also crashes pretty regularly. Meaning you gotta wait 10 minutes AGAIN.

But the point is, I've barely scratched the surface of this game, and I'm approaching the time period where most people have beaten games.

Am I just bad at games?

About 6 years ago I had an analogy. The analogy was birthed because during covid discussion of vacines would go off the rails as idiots got emotional from their news talking head bullet points. I would try to make a point, and rather than listen, and engage in critical thinking, I was getting CNN and Fox News talking points argueing things that were never even said by me, but they were being argued as part of a broader discussion on tv.

So I needed a fake topic that no one had emotions over. Something there were no talking head points on. No parachute for these mouth breathers to fall back on.

At the time, the 2020 election was about a month away. Trump was still president. I feared a 2nd term would be far worse than his first. Sanders a few montbs prior, before the summer, was looking to be the only option democrats had. Which would have been great. Then Biden came out of 5th place in 2 weeks, and became the top pick. So I made an analogy of the differences between the parties.

I said:

I want you to imagine that Russia has a government building with a very healthy lawn. A government lawn. And for some reason it's seen as a mark of national pride. A lawn that Russia uses to belittle the USA. They claim to be the superior country, because their lawn is greener. So now the USA has to make the lawn of the white house greener than the Russian lawn.

Here's how the democrats would handle it. They would have 50 different viewpoints, and argue for 50 different solutions. In the end, nothing can get done because they're all argueing which method will result in the greenest lawn. In the end, they do nothing. Brown spots remain on the white house lawn.

Meanwhile republicans don't argue. They just find the guy with the loudest voice, and all get behind his plan 100%. Even if it's terrible. The end result is that trump finds an intern, gives him $100 to go to home depot and buy as much green paint as he can. Then they'll paint the lawn green. Only to discover that the 4 buckets of paint isn't nearly enough to paint the whole lawn the same color. So their response is to just dump the paint all in one spot. Let it flow where it runs, and then call that a huge sucsess. Even though all you did was slightly color a 30 foot radius of a huge farm a slightly greener green. Then take publicity photos in just that one spot, and brag about how you did it. All the while the democrats, who did nothing, are blaming the republicans for not actually doing the job. Both sides calling the other a hypocrite for doing nothing but blaming the other sides failures.

---

Ya know.......now, 6 years later, we got a UFC event on the white house lawn, and they repainted the pool so now it's becoming a swamp. Because blue paint promotes warmer water in pools, and creates conditions that allow algae to grow.

Soooooooooo, remove the russian element from my fake analagy. Change the paint color to blue. Put in the pool instead of the lawn, and now somehow I lose the ability to use that analogy because now people are emotional over the white house lawn and UFC. Now people are emotional over republicans painting things at the white house with disasterous results.

I specifically thought out my analogy to be so stupid that people won't get tripped up in the minor details, and instead concentrate on the core contrast in how the parties (don't) work.

Now I'm fucked. If I start to use that analogy, they'll just say "Oh, they lost the right for the white house lawn to be a matter of national pride when they put on that UFC event."

Or

"They won't use green paint. They probably have extra blue paint left over from the reflection pool."

sigh

Ya know.....you can't just take the stupid things I say, and make them reality.

So, I'm watching some old pro wrestling. Specifically WCW Starrcade 1996. The match is Rey Mysterio Jr VS Jushin Thunder Liger.

Just to catch everybody up to speed:

Rey Mysterio Jr is an American wrestler, of Mexican herritage. His hometown is San Diego.

Jushin Thunder Liger is a Japanese wrestler.

Both of these men wear masks, but very different styles. Jushin's mask and overall style reminds me of ancient Japanese fables of dragons, and very sharp edges, and kind of like an anime come to life.

Rey Mysterio takes the overall theme of the tradition of Luche Libre masks, and makes it his own. Once you know Rey Mysterio's style, you can always instantly tell his mask from the millions of OTHER similar style masks. His style draws elements of Mexican culture, religion, and sometimes the number 619 (which is San Diego's area code).

Ok, now that we're all caught up to speed.....

I'm watching this match, and at this point in time, Jushin is known around the world as the absolute legendary best in the style that he does. It's a very fast paced, move around the ring. Do all the things. Jump around. Flip around. You get the idea.

And Rey has a very similar style. Important to note that while Rey would later overtake the spot as most famous cruiserweight, he had not even come close to that yet. Rey is very early in his career. He's still proving himself and low on the card, but with potential.

Jushin has been a legend all over the world, and is just coming to the end of what was considered his peak. So you got Jushin in the end of his prime, against future legend as he's just fighting to get onto the card. So to see them meeting here is kind of a fascinating dynamic. If this match had never happened, it's the type of thing fans would have drooled over the concept. A dream match. Endless debates would be had over how the match should/would go.

I hope I'm hyping up the concept well enough to raise interest in seeing something like that. Because if I have, then I will have done a far better job of selling this match than WCW did. Because this crowd is BORED!!!

That's when it hit me. This show is in Tennessee. The crowd is like 80% at least, "good ol' boys" style of white people. So what they're seeing is a Japanese guy vs a Mexican guy. Yes, he's from San Diego. He even makes that part of his whole persona. His finishing move that he uses every match is called "The 619". Very much American. But still, Mexican heritage.

They aren't bored. They're racist. They don't want to cheer the Japanese guy, because he's a foreigner. They don't want to cheer Rey because he's a Mexican. So their only option left is to just sit there awkwardly in silence and wait the match out.

And that was 1996. Nothing has changed. If anything they've boiled over even worse. We see this big arching shot of this crowd that's somewhere between 15k-20k people. I am willing to bet that statistically speaking, someone in that crowd shot was part of J6. I'd put money on that, if we had any way to identify every person and confirm if they did or didn't. The only reason I don't say it was more, is because this footage was shot in 1996. Which means anyone younger than 39 at J6 couldn't have been in this crowd.

But think of that. This isn't a divided crowd. A crowd of this size all came together, and all collectively agreed that it was OK to be racist together, and not cheer for the guys who weren't white and american.

Our problems in the modern day are the same problems we've had since the post civil war years. And this match shows that. There was no meeting where they all agreed beforehand. This was just the natural instinct of the entire crowd.

Because the match was great. You couldn't have asked for these two to give a better match at those points in their careers. Rey wasn't as seasoned as he should have been, but still great. Jushin was slightly getting over the hill, but still great. Performing in a style that was still relatively new to American audiences.

So it's new, it's fresh, it's fast paced, it's TV ready. This match today would fit right in, since the style is more established now. This match should have gotten an amazing reaction. Instead silence.

1996?

2026?

They're the same picture.

In life there are 4 types of people. Doers, thinkers, watchers, and instigators.

The doers do things. They have a plan, and they just do it. Doesn't even have to be their own plan. But it becomes their plan the moment they do it.

The thinkers don't pay attention to what has happened, they think of what they want to happen. They study what works, what doesn't work, and why. Then they think of their plans for the future. They may not even be the one to execute the plan, but they set the plan in place.

The watchers watch what everyone is doing. They don't influence outcomes. They just watch, and take notice of what is happening to develop a greater sense of information gathering.

And the instigators are usually self motivated. They stir shit up, to divide people for personal gain. Usually there is no plan. Just the fastest path to get others divided, and see how to benefit as it comes.

Well I'm a watcher. And 30 years ago I began noticing trends. I'd see local politicians tell my city (Cleveland) that their administration was going to be the one to bring Cleveland back on top. And then nothing happened. Then the next Mayor said they were going to put Cleveland back on top. And nothing happened. And then the next mayor said they were going to put Cleveland on top. I was at one of these city hall press confrences in 2004. I asked newly elected Mayor Jane Cambell what the plan was to put Cleveland on top as she claimed. Her answer was basic politician speak. Saying a lot of words to get people to nod their heads in agreement, but not actually saying anything of substance. I watched as everyone in the room clapped and smiled and was assured by her obviously prepared answer. This wasn't a plan. It was a dodge. Don't answer the question, but make everyone feel as if you did.

Around this time, it started coming out that Mike White, Mayor in 1996, was found guilty of corruption, fraud, financial embezzlement. The works. Then I watched as everyone around me started nodding and saying they knew it all along. Bitch, no you didn't. You didn't say a word. I didn't know either, but I was 13. I still watched as everyone felt luke warm about Mike White. And somehow this became Jane Cambells problem. She had a very short term. Never heard from her again.

And then came Frank Jackson. Again, I saw the reaction as luke warm water. He stayed mayor for like 15 years. Just because every election we hadn't heard of any new fraud. Then towards the end, his grandson was involved with organized crime, and he hadn't done anything of note his entire tenure.

What I also notice is that people like this, the doers, they don't face real reprocussions. Occasionally they do. I'd like to have seen Mike White imprisoned. That didn't happen. Instead, he just faded into obscurity. Stole millions in tax dollars meant for the schools, in a time when I was going to school. I remember our schools never had enough books. Never had enough supplies. Teachers underpaid. All so this asshole can get another bonus.

And you can apply this at a national level too. The athletes that make it to the big time. The NFL, THE NBA, the MLB, ect. They can rape women, and keep their jobs getting paid millions of dollars. They can drink and drive and when the cops come, they don't reach for their handcuffs. They reach for their cell phone to grab a selfie.

So 30 years ago, I said karma isn't real. There are good honest people in this world. You'll never hear from them unless you work with them, or are family to them. But they don't get a massive bonus sent to them from a corporation for helping the needy, the sick, the elderly, the mentally different. They don't get a free pass from law enforcement for making an honest mistake. Some of them get shot by the police for being not white.

Look at our president. Go out on the street and ask 100 people if they think he's a pedophile or not. I would be shocked if it wasn't a 100% yes. Yet, there he is. He's the president. I STILL think he rigged the system to do it.

Think he'll face jail time? Think he'll be hit with Karma? Did Nixon get a jail sentence, or a pardon?

Karma isn't real.

So, if you research the history of space exploration, you'll find one result keeps happening over and over and over and over.

They keep exploding.

It's not surprising. Their basic foundation is that they are rockets. Even from their original designs, rockets have always been built with the purpose of exploding. They're weapons. But, before they were weapons, the ORIGINAL idea, was to use the propulsion to exit Earths atmosphere and into space. The only problem is that when this was being designed, I forget the guys name, but he was a scientist that the nazis had captured. He designed the rockets for space craft. Hitler then took the designs and thought "Let's blow up London!"

So, once the war was over, the United States came over, and recruited him into NASA. His designs were how NASA got started. Modified versions of his original designs are what Apollo 11 used to get to the moon. So, the design CAN work. However, there were 10 Apollo missions before that didn't reach the moon. The first one ended disastrously.

The Challenger shuttle ended in disaster.

Even though they aren't NASA, recently in the past month Elon Musk's SpaceX had an explosion. Jeff Bezos also had a rocket explode. So this is still an issue.

And I always wondered, what would happen if you just took a commercial jet, and flew above the clouds? Well, they DO fly above the clouds. So what would happen if you just kept going "up"?

And I'm sure you can't just grab a stock Delta Airlines 747 and fly into orbit, but why not design a space craft, which more resembles the take-off of an airplane? Drives forward really fast, and then lifts? Except it's not flying NYC to LA. It just keeps lifting and lifting, until it's in orbit.

You could put thrusters on it to go forward in space. And then for landings, you wouldn't drop off into the ocean. You'd just land at an airport. The crazy thing is, the people of NASA are so talented, that they could route the whole thing, in a way that they land at whichever airport they want. So they'd know ahead of time NOT to schedule any landings or takeoffs for this 3 hour period of time when the space craft lands.

And I bet with enough time, they could get the experience to reduce that 3 hours, into 15 minutes. Knowing exactly when they'll arrive. Also no more of this breakaway pods that fall back to earth after detatching, or the other ones which just float out in space forever.

But I'm sure I can't be the only one with this idea, so I figure the most likely is that it's a scientific restriction. Where they can't do it, because......and this is where the explanation would be.

Anyone know the explanation?

Ok, so this idea actually can't happen, but just imagine the possibilities.

I want to travel back to 2002 when they were making the Sam Raimi Spiderman movies. I want to take the cast they had working the Daily Bugle. I want them to star in a sitcom that is shot like The Office. The entire show takes place inside the Daily Bugle, with J Jonah Jameson basically having the Micheal Scott role. Except in the J Jonah Jameson style.

And since you only ever get to see/hear from 3-4 people besides Jameson, I figure you could fill out the cast with entirely new characters made just for this show.

No....I didn't just think this up as an excuse to get more Betty Brant/Peter Parker interactions. I also really like the actor who played J Jonah Jameson in those movies. Really nailed the role.

OH! And I guess Eddie Brock will eventually show up as a freelance photographer you see every few episodes, but just in quick scenes. Which, unfortunately would mean Topher Grace. Always hated that casting call. He would have made a GREAT Spiderman. Terrible Eddie Brock/Venom.

Well, now I'm just ranting I suppose.

Ok, so I won't bore you with the back and forth details that led up to this. The important thing to know is that I needed to talk to a human at the IRS to ask a very simple question that would take just a few minutes to look into.

Me trying to call for 3 days dozens of calls dealing with this shit. I eventually figured out how to prompt the AI to let me push buttons to reach menus.

After all that I plotted out what each option does.

ALL OF THEM either lead to a pre-recorded message that says to visit the website, OR attempts to transfer you, before telling you there are no agents taking calls for that option.

Eventually, I wondered what would happen if I said to the AI agent "TAX FRAUD".

Boom. Straight through to an agent.

I feel bad for lying to the hotline, but also, I was left no valid options to talk to a human. Once I said tax fraud, my issue which I had spent probably 100 calls in 3 days trying to get through, was over in 10 minutes. And 6 of those minutes she put me back on hold to research my issue.

Fuck AI