The Tease of Things I Don't Need

Behold! The Anticlimax!

Thanks for the check-ins, etc., but most of my time and energy's been taken up with things I'd rather not be doing. Worse, on one scale none of that matters because I still spend much of my day trying not to be seen, as I'm always one awkward question away from having to explain how I haven't found the time nor energy (and try not to let slip that even rarer is any interest in doing it) to get a particular, ne'er ending project rolling. The situation's an extremely important one or two steps more complicated than it seems, but I'm not going to be discussing that with anyone.

It's all combined to put me back in one of my almost perpetural dark moods, and so I've been less fit company than I normally am, which isn't much in the first place. No one wants to be hanging around someone who's often dangerously close to sincerely hoping for a massive stroke to take him out of the game. Truly.

So, hardly worth a nearly two week silence, here's a ramble.

Gas prices, another record quarter for oil company profits, and the Shrub giving a big shrug about it, making some lame promise about investigating anything improper... as if he understands the meaning of the word.

Almost every political news story fills me with impotent rage, and so have become easy to (once more) let the steaming rush of cultural sewage pass with as little notice as I can spare.

This week sees the release of United 93, the opportunistic, exploitational work of based-on-a-true-story! fiction that almost can't help slipping into being a joke once we get enough distance from the event to make jokes. A few cell phone calls and a plane crash does not an historical record make. It's going to be tear-jerking, rabble-rallying muck. The relatives and friends of the 40 passengers were all involved in coaching the actors in the "recreation" of the events of the flight. It's difficult to imagine the events on board the plane will be much more realistic than some swarthy types, at least one of them with a unibrow judging by what I saw of the trailer, shrieking in arabic, taking control of the plane only to eventually find all 40 passengers crouch furtively in their chairs as they begin to open their shirts to reveal their superhero costumes before they move in a doomed attempt to retake the plane.

It could turn out that it's well-acted by the cast of unknowns and may be a good movie, but it's being misrepresented as more of a solemn bit of history rather than any sort of entertainment, and I'm not interested in stomaching it.

The people were in a terrible place at an awful time, and I feel for the losses of their friends and relatives... but it's impossible for me to see this as anything but some easy emotional button-pushing and opportunism masquerading as tribute. Like any bad historical fiction, people will be exposed to this and some of them will delude themselves into believing they know what happened.

Eh. It's not worth all this rant, but I found it bubbling up and what's a blog for?

As you might suspect, I'm not going to be in line to buy tickets to it this weekend.

Otherwise, around here it's mostly been mundane details.

Last weekend, the Federal return cash having appeared in our checking account, I paid off an auto loan five payments early and started to push the money at some other debts, too. I also finally started to get the other van out of mothballs by taking care of the various fluid checks and refills, hit some parts up with lubricant and replaced the battery. It squealed a little when I first started it moving - it had been sitting in the same spot for nearly 13 months - but it started right up. I re-registered it online last week, that paperwork and sticker coming in yesterday, so I'll make an appointment to get that street legal again (mechanical and emissions inspections) next week.

We're getting a handle on what to expect come next tax time, given the disability payments my wife's receiving. It appears we get a pass at the local and state levels since it's not earned income, but federal is another matter. I've decided my best approach is to increase my withholding amount from my paycheck, so as to make it as painlessly incremental as possible. I already have my base withholding rate set at the higher, single rate, but I may need to do more than that to avoid owing anything next year. I'd considered putting some of this year's refund aside in an INGDirect account or a 12-month CD, but it makes more sense to apply that money to debts -- all of which are hitting me for more in interest than I'd make on any of those accounts -- and take care of next year's tax picture gradually.

On more entertaining (at least to me) fronts, Wizkids has been continuing to unveil the Sinister set. Some ups, some downs, but still mostly a set I'm looking forward to. The quality of the sculpts is coming through in many of the shots, and experience has shown that these look much better in person than they do in their promotional pics. (Here we have the sculpt they did of The Beetle.)

Most of my complaints keep coming back to the issue of prize-only Limited Edition pieces that are increasingly aimed simultaneously at players, general collectors and comics fans. Let me try to summarize my objections:

Making these special pieces - which are the same sculpt as seen in the main set, but are named for the characters' alter egos (e.g. "Peter Parker" on a Spider-man piece) and have a unique dial intended to represent that character in some special way, sometimes a very specific period in the character's history - as event prizes is an attempt to get collectors and comics fans to come compete at events. The distinctions made between the veteran Madrox and the LE James Madrox found the vet without an X-Men Team Ability while the LE, which was intended to capture the character in his first appearance are a little shaky. The LE is given super strength, to capture the malfunctioning tech suit he was wearing in that first appearance, but at that stage he was a solo player. Professor Xavier, founder of the X-Men, didn't show up until after the action was over, and then only to take the kid away where he could be properly helped.

(So as not to be into unrelieved criticism, I do want to point out that lead designer Seth Johnson's approach to Madrox, the Multiple Man was inventive.)

Having seen that, inexplicably, the experienced Nighthawk is sans Team Ability, while his rookie is given the Sinister Synidicate (presumably meant to capture the feel of his Squadron Sinister association) and his vet is given the Defenders TA. Why inexplicable? Well, he literally jumped from the Squadron Sinister to Defenders within a single story, so there's not much to back up the notion that he was running around as an active, solo element for any stretch of time. I will be mightily ticked off if #203 - the as-yet-unrevealed Kyle Richmond LE - has the Defenders TA. It'll remind me far too much of the Avengers TAed Tony Stark LE from Armor Wars, while his experienced version was left with no TA. (Admittedly, in that instance there was more of a reason for it, as Iron Man was away from the team for a long stretch, but the fact still remained that a versatile, Avengers-related piece at a highly playable 150 points has been denied most of us.)

So, we have pieces that have a broad appeal, passed out in a very narrow, limited fashion, and so command and continue to command higher prices on the secondary market (primarily ebay). This means that the people showing up at events in hopes of getting one are far more focused on winning than they are in playing for fun. Some insist that these are not mutually exclusive, and I accept that that's the case for some people, but on the whole the ones I've met where that applied were assholes. They love the fact that prizes are put up that the rest of us will care about, because it makes their "accomplishments" feel more important. If they just gave out certificates, gilded versions of existant pieces, coupons for free boosters, advance boosters from upcoming sets -- cash for Chrissakes! -- it would be so much more reasonable.

I've spoken with quite a few of the "this is a competitive game!" folks, and I can guarantee that I spend more on each expansion than almost any of them, and it urks me that I'm being forced to either go back to ignoring the LEs, pushed to play in events where the mood is increasingly competitive and so less and less fun, or pony up the cash to deal with the LE-hoarding sharps and/or people with a connection to Wizkids who receive these through other channels. Is it so wrong to want to have the option of being able to in some fashion buy these pieces directly from the company?

Once more, a lot of fuss over very little. Still, such are the tiny goblins I feel fit to wrassle these days.

That reservation aside, I'm looking forward to the set, and have tossed a couple images from the set.

A magazine due out the middle of next week should mean that a full set disclosure (I believe we're still 7 characters short on the confirmed list) is in the offing at least as far as names and sculpts are concerned.

I finally put in my order for the DC Giants set a week or so back, and am curious to see how far into May they'll begin shipping those.

A new box of comics due to arrive Friday, with luck I'll be able to stretch- & zone-out in a recliner and read through most of the stack Friday night. Such pitiful joys am I reduced to.

Plenty of other chores to take care of around the house, and I'm going to head back to help my mom with some things -- probably Saturday -- so the weekend's going to be busy.