Five Things on a Friday: Groot & Rocket Raccoon Edition

I mentioned this yesterday, but let me just start by reiterating that this has been an incredible bear of a week.  I won’t get into the details, but bottom line, I feel like I’ve been sprinting on a treadmill, running hard but getting absolutely nowhere.  The weekend promises to be the same but even moreso, and then next week opens with 10” to 12” of snow on Monday, and there’s no end in sight after that.

So.  It’s pretty much all Groot and Rocket Raccoon today, and truth is, I don’t even want to try talking about anything else.  Take that for what it’s worth.

Godzilla!

Meant to put this up yesterday, but the day itself was such a zoo that I never had a chance.

Among other things, my daughter Hannah has her first book report due at the end of the week, including an oral presentation.  At the same time, she's also got try-outs for the school play, which is a big deal when you've been taking voice lessons for two years.  So we've been dealing with an important life lesson this week, i.e. procrastination is bad.  However, we've had to handle it with kid-gloves because I don't want to risk wrecking Hannah's emotional state right before she has to perform; that won't accomplish anything positive.

The one good thing that happened yesterday was that I got out for a run at lunchtime.  Four miles in almost exactly thirty-one minutes, for a 7:40/mile average.  That is way faster than I probably needed to run, but like I said, this hasn't been the easiest week.  At a certain point, you have to balance the spiritual with the physical, and I tipped the balance in favor of fixing my soul.

Anyway, this is why I'm more than ready to see Godzilla wreck the City.

Headlines That Caught My Eye

The New American Way of War (Slate)
Slate gives an overview of the headlines.  Since I read it and liked it, I'm linking it first.

In a nutshell: War is all about Special Operations and the Navy going forward.

Erin M. Evans on D&D's 40th Anniversary

Ms. Evans is one of my favorite current Forgotten Realms authors.  And since I have nothing else to run today, let's take a listen to what she has to say about D&D's 40th Anniversary.

Finally Got Out

Snow, beach, bike, sun...  What else can you ask for?

Down by Marnick's in Stratford.

Sunday's Stray Thoughts

Wasn't planning to do a post this morning, but then I saw this presumably homemade Red Sonja Lego minifig, and well, this is how posts are born.

“@ivygirl851: @GailSimone pic.twitter.com/kB4ec0kUah” Red Lego Sonja!
— Gail Thorkenstonen (@GailSimone) February 23, 2014

Saturday Morning Trials and Tribulations

In case you're wondering, I've been feeling like absolute shit all morning.  It was a really stressful week, and then I slept weird last night, so that by the time I woke up this morning, I had a ripping headache.  The knot on the back side of my neck pulled all the muscles tight across the top of my head, and on top of that, I had a lot of sinus pressure.  That led to stabbing pain behind my eyes, which was no doubt also at least partially the result of staring at a computer screen all week.

Anyway, it was not good.  I won't say that it was quite as bad as a migraine, but it hurt like Hell, and I felt nauseous and bloated on top of everything.  Worse than that was the fact that lying down made the headache worse because it increased the sinus pressure in my head.  So I couldn't just roll over and sleep it off.  I had to actually get up and hope that I'd start feeling better sooner rather than later.

Five Things on a Friday: The Cosmic Olympic Edition

I’ve only really got two things on my mind this week--the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Olympics.  Take that for what it’s worth.

1. Guardians Trailer Feedback.

The trailer for this summer’s Guardians of the Galaxy movie premiered on Tuesday night, and then I ran it on the blog on Wednesday morning.  I liked the trailer tremendously, of course, but beyond that, here’re my initial thoughts:

Seen on Twitter

I'm listening to Justin Beiber as I put this together, so if it's even more inane than usual, now you know who to blame.

Apologies in advance for how long it's gonna take this post to load.

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Canada win gold in women's curling beating Sweden 6-3 http://t.co/SQZ1P9zDFS #Sochi2014 #lovecurling pic.twitter.com/mpyTTNF4cD
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) February 20, 2014

Hardly a shocking result.  They've been dominant all tournament.

Great Britain's women took bronze.

Guardians of the Galaxy Trailer

Oh man...  That movie looks as crazy as it can be.  But my kids are gonna LOVE it!

Guardians of the Galaxy Trailer?

If you believe the hype, then today's the day we'll finally see the trailer for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, due out August 1st.

The Newest Winter Olympic Event

The Penguin Slide!

Here's Hannah, showing the form that made her the Gold Medalist in this event.

 

A Look at Blog Traffic and the Overall State of the Blog

Readership is up.  I'm not sure exactly how much, and I have no way of knowing who exactly is reading, but I do know that folks are coming by and checking out the blog.  If that's you, welcome!

Let me just say, I'd love for you to drop a comment or two if you have the time, and you see something you like.  First, because--as I said--I've no way of knowing who's here.  Second, because if you don't let me know why you came, I don't know what to do more often.  Third, because I think a blog works best when there's a sense of community amongst readers, and though I've tried to foster that here, we're not there yet.  And finally, because although I have a few metrics that hint at what my total readership is, the reality is that they're crude tools.