SIMUL8: WB’s Charmed Ones SIM 4 Life So, basically, what if the cast of WB’s Charmed, premiering in 1998, were a household of friends making a living, selling paintings? When you’re playing the simplest version of Sims 4, it’s not like you have the Modifications to remake that world, though our player, Dawn, has bought one package of three ‘mods’ and a couple of other small ones. So, after that, she could’ve created the characters again as Magic Users. She’s only been at her latest game hobby basically here in April- it was Minecraft last month. She hasn’t tried Fortnight, where I imagine you could also build characters with similar powers. But it’s not quite the powers that make characters enjoyable, though when you’re a little kid, or just one at heart, imaginative appeal goes a long ways. She tried to recapture the looks of the actors, though she’s mused you don’t get to radically change heights. That’s too bad, because we’d already have our own Guillermo, a Sim of late night ...

So, Mad Scientist. After attending a couple of local karate classes at the end of 2018, I’d pictured a nebbish incel fellow- a stand-in for my own position, but someone more locked in his own little world- to characterize the Mad Scientist idea in my novel, Chrysalis of the Butterfly. Yet, when it came time this week to try out characters as Sims, he became a She. She, however, did not gain a name, other than, perhaps, Regina, in passing. Her Sim is named first name Mad, last name, Scientist. I’ve been developing Chrysalis of the Butterfly over five years, now. I thought I could put off working on it until I had reviewed and created an epilogue for I’d Go Anywhere With You, completed a short story called “Faded Einstein,” and written an epilogue, if not further chapters, on the book I’d called Great Job! You Get A Star! I’m thinking a bit of calling it The Five Star Kid. I thought, get music ready to play for people this summer and fall. Get those two previous books prep...

My original first posts were removed due to my own Copyright concerns at the time. When I began publishing here on April 4th, 2009, I had this story, and this photograph from the cosmos, and joy that I was allowing myself the decadent luxury of writing my own Fantastic Four story, while opening the door to my own Integr8d Soul fiction concepts. I felt compelled to try to re-capture something of the wonder I felt as a child, combined with soul-searching stories turned into adventures. Now, I realize those stories didn't have but a small slice of relatable every day stuff, and were more or less homages to the melodramatic comics style. When I included Escondido as my setting for "The Vanishing Wave"- an idea of mine long predating the Marvel Universe, which had only seen 'Iron Man' by 2009, but long after Jim Starlin's original Thanos battles in 1991 that led to people being snapped very temporarily out of existence- I really wanted to reclaim the feeling I...

Here's Penelope Medina's "Lupe's Story." This was her Merit Badge presentation. Her mom, Mo, asked friends to help voice a few of the characters. I tried reading several, because it was frankly more fun than I was having on average in January, 2021. I even read in Batman's voice for one character. If you can figure out which ones are Me, feel free to leave a guess! I encourage all of you to support your little Girl Scout friends.

Comedian Jack Lively is skillfully managing his temptations while under house arrest, but starting with his anonymous confrontations on the local Open Mic Night, he's laughing his way over the edge. I posted about David Kempf's They Laughed at Me over on GoodReads. It was interesting to take some concepts i've been mulling over and see how they are refracted in this funny, titilating, and oft times, harrowing novel. I was pleased my observations immediately after finishing apparently made the author's day. You always hope people will read your book. It's great they should buy it, but it is something to know they read it. When you learn WHAT it made them think of, your art becomes a third creation: the one in the reader's head comes out to play. What comes out of Jack's head to play is intriguing. I comment on his moral center in the review, but you might ask yourself a few questions about why you both want to see the character come to his senses an...

One thing about reading Yi: your sense of revulsion at the depravations of his enemies will probably enlist your investment in the Admiral overcoming his larger-than-life hardships. His foes, even those with some redeeming quality, repulse decency. They ravage with a very hyper-masculine, testosterone-ridden sort of aggression, but channeled with a lust for devastation, and a desire to break people. It is a time and place in the world with no refuge for those who are not warriors. Their fate is never marked by some romantic exception; when the brave fall, the weak, die. This story drives that point home, as Yi Soon Shin, avenging the destroyed Navy and Korean dead, becomes Hunter and Destroyer. There is no negotiating, only an increasingly-desperate need to out-smart the barbaric invasion, as well as work within the ever-sabotaged coalition of brave Korean forces. Now, Yi maintains his command, his body wrecked by Songo's tortures and fierce combat, while allied with Ming ...

OK, I can show you the posts where these ideas criss-crossed, but hear this out: So, wait, this started, how? This began, and I'll confirm who the fan is if he likes and be sure to show him this (hi, Mark Engblom), with a comparison between Aunt May's wheatcakes and probably, Aunt Bea's pancakes. We have great fun on the Marvel Comics 1961-1986 group and its affiliate decades and pages; this began as one of those things. Suddenly, as I imagined Spider-Man in Mayberry, I realized it's exactly the sort of thing that will draw eyes even if it is declared 'done awfully' in some vernacular. It is just too cool and funny and sweet an idea not to at least become a horrible voice drama (a radio show, as I might say). But if you could shoot this live action, with a few old vehicles, the woods, a couple of good exteriors, and lower-fy the budget as a point of aesthetics, Spider-Man- and Aunt May- are strong enough as characters, flexibly comic and dramatic like The...