Weekly Update - 7/16/25

Good lord, I did not realize how much of a mental toll this year had taken on me until I was sitting in a cafe on the Rhine River with some friends, and just let the weight of the world slip off my shoulders. It isn't even me personally - it's the whole damn country going to shit. But hey, I've had a chance to spend some time with friends, heard some great live music, discussed how weird it is to be a non-beer drinker in Germany, talked about how hilarious it is there were rivalling castles on opposite sides of the river... and I made it back through customs and immigration without anyone asking me to show them the contents of my phone, so that's something.

I wasn't so sure things were going to be fine on the way there, though. Four hours left into our flight into Frankfurt, the airplane cabin lights came on and I heard something I've never heard in nearly 50 years of flying - "We are currently experiencing a medical emergency onboard. Is there a doctor on the plane?" Wild, right? And they won't tell you anything more about it for the rest of the plane, so I don't know if the person was find or whatnot. Crazy. I know I mentioned this all in last week's news post, but I'm still reeling from it.

I got back Sunday, tried to stay up as late as I could (made it to 9pm!) then slept until almost 2pm the next day, as my body attempted to throw out all the internal clocks in my body and build new ones. Once I got back to some sort of vaguely functional state, I went and finished the recent chapter of QT2, and made sure to let the writer's room have a pass at it, see if I'd made any weird errors or whatnot. A few minor tweaks and adjustments, and it's now live for everyone, and I'm already moving in to working on the next thing.

I also went out and saw "Superman" last night, and I'm glad James Gunn understood the assignment - give us fun, give us bright, give us hope. DO NOT GIVE US SNYDER. I understand the Snyder-verse has its fans, but I have never personally been one of them. I want to enjoy my superhero films, not feel like I'm getting an Ayn Rand lecture with some Joseph Campbell sprinkled in. That said, the 'Superman is an immigrant' is 100% true, and also 100% within continuity, so anyone who thinks that's 'woke Superman,' go back to sleep. I'm done taking 'woke' as an insult, because the opposite of it is to be sleeping, just like I'm done with being called 'an elite' being intended as an insult. In the English language, words mean things.

Overall, it wasn't a perfect movie - but it was a good-to-great, fun superhero movie, and that's enough. (Also, Nathan Fillion is a BLAST as Guy Gardner, aka the shittiest Green Lantern, but I could really watch him in anything.)

I'm going to spend part of tomorrow sending everything I owe to the public sites for the last few weeks and also working on more content to get pumped out. I definitely feel reenergized, so we'll see how much I can get pushed.

I will be travelling again next week, but just for a few days and just to the Midwest (my first show at Red Rocks - Something Corporate/Jack's Mannequin/Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness), so I'll do what I can to make sure it doesn't impact getting content out. I'm going to introduce my friend to Runza while we're there. Of course, when I get back, there's another series of Magic: The Gathering prereleases I have to judge. But I feel like I've got tons of energy now, so I'll do what I can to keep the pedal to the metal.

To close, here's the upcoming public schedule: 7/19 - Before The Storm 15, QT2:34, Pack 15, Neon Stonehenge 12; 7/26 - Captains' Days 4, Silversmith 5; 8/2 - QTUM 6; 8/9 - QT2:35.