The Lonely Cache
Posted on September 7, 2024 by Bruce

Gen Con 2024 – a Recap

Posted on August 6, 2024 by Bruce

I was planning on doing a recap of MINI Takes The States when – “WHAM!” I got hit with Gen Con. As many know I am a registered “Kidult” aka a child who never really grew up. I was retained in third grade because the school felt I was “immature” now as I close in on 60 I read comic books, play with LEGO bricks, and carry around a stuffed monkey- so the retention didn’t work. One of the things I’ve been testing during the early phases of my retirement has been discovering what I am really passionate about. Gen Con highlights one of those things- Gaming.

Last year was my first chance to actually attend all four days of the con. I attended multiple sessions on Puppetry and tried out a few games. In the past I would arrive and spend the day in the exhibit hall wandering aimlessly throwing money around buying games for my classroom. This year I switched things up a bit more. Instead of puppetry I focused on games, and those were divided into two categories: miniature war games and role playing games.

For Level Zero to Level One Players- A Bit of Advice

You will be overwhelmed… there are a lot of people and a lot of things going on. If you are planning on going all four days (which I recommend) plan on going with the flow. Look at what is being offered. If you see something that sounds amazing- see about getting a ticket for it, or buy some generics and hope they have an opening. For the most part you can spent fours days wandering the exhibit hall and just playing games when someone calls out from a booth- “Would you like to see our new game?”

Does it matter which days you go? Not really, Sunday is a shorter day, so it is a bit cheaper, and some activities will have concluded by then. Cardhalla would be destroyed and the balloon sculpture is popped Sunday morning. Besides that any day is good. This year the hall was really busy on Thursday. Next year? Who knows?

Unless you have something specific you are trying to get wait until the crowd dies down before entering the hall. This year I had games scheduled for 9:00AM or before, so except for one day, I missed the throngs of angry villagers storming the doorways to get into the exhibit hall.

Another thing- use the App. If you are with a group, share your schedule through the website. Hopefully they’ll figure out a way to add sharing to the app next year. so you know where to find the rest of your party.

If you are a teacher and can afford it (I know being a teacher and being able to afford something is kind of an oxymoron) I suggest getting a Trade Day badge and going Wednesday to those sessions. Bring play into your classroom, no matter what the high paid consultants who haven’t set foot in a classroom for over a decade say. I wish schools in Indiana would start a little later to allow teachers to attend Gen Con. It would be nice if the Dept. of Education even could sponsor teachers to learn about the importance of play. Most teachers that I know spend those first couple of days bored in meetings wishing to be in their classroom setting things up. The problem is a Trade Day Badge gets you a four day badge and teachers are usually teaching the first two days which IMHO is stupid- just start school on Monday. I also kinda wish they’d open Trade Day up to retired educators…

My First Game for Gen Con 2024

Thursday began with a “funnel” in Goodman Games: Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) system. Those who know about role playing games (RPGs) know that part of the fun is making a character. I recall one system that took days to go through character creation and I still have no idea how what brand of baby formula I had in infancy impacted my character’s game play. In a role playing game you assume a role. kind of like an actor and all you have is the writer’s overview of the character. In this play and you are a new character and your decisions determine if you live or don’t.

I played what was called a “funnel” in DCC. My friend Brian was running the game and each player was given four characters from a village to play. These were not adventurers, these were pig farmers, a cooper, a trader, basically the characters out of the book I read on MTTS- NPCs by Drew Hayes. We begin waking up on a ramp leading to a pit surrounded by the beautiful music of a choir. Each group of four characters is run by a player sitting around the table. Our job was to live long enough to figure things out and escape. You are given four characters because the chance of survival is low. As characters died the GM would stamp that portion of your sheet. If you lost all four characters you got up walked out to a gong and rang it. At this point the area would erupt in cheers at your death. I’m not going to give away anything else, but it was fun and I look forward to trying it again. As my friend said- he’d most likely be editing this adventure once the con was over as that is his retirement gig… what a life, if only I could spell.

*Spoilers*

My notebook pages from the funnel… Sometimes I draw to help visualize the location, other times I will draw out the situation. Then sometimes I try to flesh out the characters or monsters. In this case you can see a lot of trying to figure out where we were and where things were, along with some monster bits. If you couldn’t tell one of my funnel characters “Jean Claude” was a trapper so I drew him accordingly. The Star Trek Adventure games didn’t lend themselves as well to drawing, and in a miniatures based war game, you don’t have time to draw things out.

It’s all in the Dice

I guess this would be a good time to mention polyhedral dice used in lots of games. We all are familiar with the common cube shaped die, six-sided nice random number generator. Most role playing games use a bunch of different sided dice. Enough different kinds to make it expensive. DCC uses even more “funky” dice, so I, of course, had to buy a set when everything was over. During my the games, dice were loaned out, but as the great gamer once said, “You can never have enough dice.”

Other Games-

I focused on playing this time around, and my next game (also with Brian) was called “Rivet Wars” kind of a science fiction steampunk World War 1 battle game. My side (Germany) against his side the Allies. The hardest part about this game was turn order. Turn order is the basic order in which you do things during your turn. In this case: deploy units, attack, and move. Which was counterintuitive to deploy, move, attack. It threw us both off even though Brian had played the game before. When you are in a “Learn to Play” game, they rules are gone over and you start with simple basics, and then rules are added as you play. It’s a nice introduction to a game. These are usually led by people who love the game and play it often. My last game for the day was in the evening, so I had time to walk through the “Bazaar of Deva” aka the exhibit hall. More on that later.

Gen Con takes up pretty much all of downtown Indianapolis, most of the convention center is used to create a massive exhibit hall, those not are then used by game companies and groups to play or teach people games. As are the ballrooms and meeting spaces at every connected hotel. They even use Lucas Oil Stadium to house an open game library and that’s where I played DCC, Rivet Wars, and AerodromeACE. It is also a nice air conditioned place to sit back and relax with food if things get too crazy everywhere else.

My last game for day one was learning a game that won’t be by released until October -Star Trek: Into the Unknown. Basically this is a spaceship game using ships from the Star Trek Universe around the time of the The Next Generation and Deep Space 9. I got started early and took command of be the Defiant against a Jem Hadar fighter ship. We started off just scanning the system as an intro act. Then we started a rescue mission that ended up with some pew, pew, pewing so we could experience the combat system. Like many combat systems it seemed fairly straight forward, the ships looked nice, you had crew member that added a dynamic. The issue is that this becomes (like many games) a collector game. You need to collect things to be competitive. I love Star Trek and the ships are very cool – an Enterprise D with a saucer section that separates! But the question I will return to is – “Will I play it enough?”

That ended Thursday. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday looked similar with the games being different. I played the recent update of the Star Trek Adventures role playing game twice. One a spy mission, and another repelling a boarding party. I’m cutting the GM’s some slack since the new version came out a few days before the Con and they seemed a bit confused since they hadn’t really played it before. I think the publisher could have better prepared the GM’s especially since these folks were the ones promoting the games. Like my current game using the “FATE” system it seemed like as long as you could convince the GM enough you could do anything. Not as concrete as Dungeons & Dragons, so I found it was not to my liking. I guess I’m more “Lawful” than I care to admit. Unlike a game like “Dogfight!” that I purchased after playing, I did not buy the 2nd edition of Star Trek Adventures. I have had the first edition since it came out, and really never found a group I was comfortable enough with to play it. The first group I tried made me look like someone who knew nothing about Star Trek! The second group never got past talking about playing.

Lucas Oil Stadium as it should be, filled with games!
Cecil prepares for the funnel
Rivet Wars
Star Trek: Into the Unknown
Ship Controls
The Enterprise NCC-1701D
It’s Monkey Time!
Star Trek Adventures
Dogfight
Space Alert
AerodromeACE
My plane controls for AerodromeACE
Yes, I did get a copy of the new Player’s Handbook

One of the other games I played was called Space Alert and was a cooperative game. A cooperative game is one where everyone is trying to beat the game. In this case we are all on a spaceship and have 10 minutes (real time) to accomplish your mission and keep the ship safe. The hardest part was when a player didn’t listen to the discussion (or thought they were the one everyone was talking to – and Sue says I think it’s always about me!) so when they programmed their actions it overlapped with other people 🙄. This created chaos with our limited resources. Fun game but requires a group to play. So I probably won’t ever play it except at a con.

The other two games I played were World War 1 dogfight games. The first one was based on Wings of War and we were part of two squadrons attacking a giant monkey on a skyscraper in New York. The other one I had played the science fiction (Battlestar Galactica) version last year and decided to try a Sopwith Snipe instead of a Viper. I actually was able to shoot down two enemy planes during the missions we flew. I happen to get shot down so my wings were awarded posthumously.

The question is would I either purchase or play these games again? The dogfight games I would, I even checked and I once owned Wings of War, but since I never had the opportunity to play it at home it no longer is in my game library. Space Alert was another one that was fun, but I’m not seeing myself having the chance to play it at home. I purchased the rules for Dungeon Crawl Classics and the funky dice. Just to be prepared. As for the second edition of Star Trek Adventures… I’m not sure. I have a bunch of resources for the first edition that have sat on a shelf. After playing it, I’m not sure I like the game mechanics, but that could be the issue of Modiphius not preparing their GMs well enough, coupled with my experience last year where I spent 2 hours listening to a lecture about how the game is played without ever playing the game. So is it the GMs, is it Modiphius, or is it the game? Star Trek into the Unknown… The price point is a bit too high for a game I may never play. The ships are amazing, but I’m just not sure I need to get into another high priced miniature game. Unlike some of the massive Star Wars games, this does have a mission component, but once you’ve played out the missions… what’s next?

Level One Players- How Does One Go About Playing Games at Gen Con?

Your badge gets you into the Exhibit Hall which includes some games, there are a bunch of places that are demoing games and have other activities, but if you want to do something for the most part you need a ticket.

  • Step one- get a badge when they go on sale (Remember GenCon sold out this year, so you might want to do this early.
  • Step two- wait patiently for the event listings to get posted. They will go live about a week or two before you can purchase tickets.
  • Step three- add events to your wishlist. Put them in a preference order, your wishlist gets filled in order so think about this.
  • Step four- when it tickets go live get into the queue and submit your wishlist. Cross your fingers. The Queue is long, but you might get lucky.
  • Events get added up until Gen Con. You can also get generic tickets and use them if there are open spots. Those with actual tickets get in first. AerodromeACE wasn’t live when I first filled out my wishlist, I added it later.
  • Your badge and tickets will arrive to your mailbox (signature required) before the Con… or you could brave the Will Call line, which this year wasn’t as bad as the merch line.

My2024 Official Schedule:

  • Thursday 9:00-1:00 The Doom Spell of Amarath Seahold (DCC)
  • Thursday 1:00-3:00 Rivet Wars (Brian had the tickets he was before me in the queue)
  • Thursday 6:00-8:00 Star Trek: Into the Unknown – We started early and therefore ended early.
  • Friday 9:00-11:00 Space Alert Learn to Play
  • Friday 9:00-3:00 Player’s Handbook Early Release pick up
  • Friday 1:00-3:00 Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition – Enemies Without
  • Friday 3:00-4:00 Dogfight! Rule the Skies in 20 Minutes!
  • Saturday 8:00-11:00 King Kong: Monkeying Around!
  • Saturday 12:00-2:00 Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition – Through Fire and Fury
  • Sunday 10:00-2:00 AerodromeACE WW1

Most games started around the time they should have… people are late, sometimes even the GM. One of the Star Trek Adventure games almost ended because we had reached the old college 15 minute rule waiting for the GM. Most ended early, which was fine, giving me enough time to get to whatever was next, and have a bathroom break. By actually playing games this year two things happened: First, I didn’t spend that much in the exhibit hall. Secondly, the days went by quickly. It also caused me to actually talk to people, which I guess is a good thing.

The Hall of Wonders

The exhibit hall, like most cons are where most level one players hang out with their mouths agape trying to figure out what to buy first. As I started to go to cons this was where I spent most of my time. It didn’t matter the con, the exhibit hall was a hall of wonders filled with delights to tempt any and all forms of geek. Each hall has its own flavor in this case, lots of games (duh). Since Fantasy Role Playing pretty much started at Gen Con, a lot of the stuff on sale has a fantasy twist to it. You want a cloak, a sword, a witches/wizards hat? Games cover so many pop culture and historical topics, everything is covered in the hall. The hall also is attached to a large gaming area used by companies for tournaments or to just give people a chance to try out games. That was where I played Star Trek: Into the Unknown, and battled King Kong on the Empire State Building. You could spend all four days wandering the hall and be very content. The doors to the actual selling portion of the hall closed and gaming went into the late hours of the night.

Things to watch out for: As with most conventions people are oblivious. They are focused on one thing, and the people around them are not it. You have a wide variety of people (something great about gaming) but you also have wagons, rolling carts, and board game bags. Board game bags are backpacks designed to hold a bunch of games… which mean they still out over a foot. and the people wearing them tend to turn and hit people accidentally. Getting hit in the face with a bag filled with boxed games can leave more than a mark. So just be aware of your surroundings.

Maybe the Holy Grail?

There were thousands of games being played, demoed, and sold at Gen Con. I was fortunate enough to figure out how to get a copy of the soon to be released 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook. Now I’m not one who played D&D through all its iterations. I started with Advanced D&D in the 80’s moved to Middle Earth Roll Playing (based on ICE) in college, then stopped until 5th edition came out. So this is really my first rules change that I’ve been interested in. I’ve only taken a cursory look at the book and it looks like there have been some changes, but mostly in layout and placement of information. Basic changes I’ve noticed (besides races becoming species) the loss of half any “Race/Species” You no longer can play a half-elf or half orc, they’ve also added the Aasimir to the Player’s handbook, I’m guessing as a way to balance out the Tiefling. Besides that the layout seems much more user friendly, I especially like the class Spell list being a part of the class description instead of a massive list in the Spells, section. There is information that is being mentioned, but with a “see the DM Guide for more information.”

I’m not an expert player, and have limited myself to playing just a few classes so I can’t say much more than these basic “Aha!” noticings. I know there’s a lot more, but until I create a character and play it, I’m not sure how these changes will help or hurt the game. Many people online have used this as a way to promote their favorite RPG and how it is superior to D&D. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. It just can be hard to switch when the audience for non-D&D RPGs is small. Pathfinder is probably the easiest to find a group. Since I don’t have that many people to game with I’ll probably stick with whatever they are playing which is currently FATE (which I’m not excited about) and D&D.

With the 50th Anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons, the US Postal Service also released a series of stamps to celebrate. Not being an avid stamp collector, I’m using them to send cursed mail as I pay bills that require stamps.

Whining, Grumbling, & Complaints

There are always people complaining to complain. I’m trying to figure out why people post certain things on Social Media. After MTTS I really don’t know why. Maybe they want the attention, the dopamine rush… There is a Fans of Gen Con group on Facebook which is great about giving out good information, but also like most Social Media provides a soapbox for complainers.

For Gen Con, most of the posts dealt with the horror (Oh the HORROR!!!) of hotels, and parking. Then came the cost of Food trucks, and why Indianapolis? Why not someplace bigger? Please note I have only attended Gen Con since it moved to Indianapolis, and I live in Indianapolis so housing is not an issue for me. To me it is an Whimventure® at home. My niece flies out from Baltimore to attend so our only problem is only having cars that seat two people and getting out the inflatable mattress since we only have guests at the house once a year (and this is that time). Like MINI Takes The States people seem to think the governing organization has control over everything… they don’t. They don’t control if the air conditioning works in the hotel room you packed 6 guys in for four days because you wanted to save some money. They have no control over the hotel staffing and if your room is clean or ready. They don’t control if the food trucks charge too much. They don’t control the number of parking spots and if one of the lots got sold weeks prior to the event. They have no control over the wagons, ginormous bags people use, or if attendees use deodorant. They have no control over how many exclusive items are available and if they happen to sell out just as you get there Sunday afternoon. They can only control certain things and learn from past experience. Complaining to everyone online and saying you will never attend Gen Con again is silly, and serve no useful purpose. It’s the midwest, people try to be nice, there will be road construction. It’s August, it will be hot and humid. If you had a horrible time- don’t come back, nature abhors a vacuum and other people will fill the emptiness you create. Those people might appreciate that a bazillion people have gathered together to play and celebrate each other’s uniqueness.

If you want to keep up with the problems people have just join the Fans of Gen Con Facebook Group… As I said, they give out great information, and help you to keep track of when things are happening, but it also can be a place for people to whine and complain about things. Who knew that Gen Con has rules against cosplaying in paramilitary or police style costumes? That some cosplayers use these “police” assault team outfits to push their way through crowds? I always wondered… now I know. Like many conventions I could see the weapon check tables at the entrances, but there are so many entrances.

My complaints? Getting a copy of the Player’s Handbook througjmhnh the ticketing system was clunky. I heard of a number of people who just gave up. I just put it in my “wishlist” and then kept pushing buttons on my keyboard starting at 7:00AM until it ended up in my cart. It took a post about putting it on my wishlist, to help me get it on the second day. I probably would have given up after two attempts.

What I Learned This Year at Gen Con

I learned to pace myself. I only signed up for a few things each day. The most was three. This gave me time to play, eat, and explore. I played this time around. I decided to try to play some games instead of going to informational sessions. Thursday first time slot is nice but in some cases that’s the slot people skip (tired from travel, or celebrating being at Gen Con) so you might not have a full game. Be patient, these people are volunteers and sometimes not given the preparation needed to run a perfect game. Many have read over the material once or twice, but may never have run a party through the game until you sit down at the table. Be patient with your fellow players… like you this may be their first time playing, or it might be the 500th. Enjoy and understand that you aren’t getting a prize for winning (in most cases) so just relax and have fun. For me, I have a number of games at home that gather dust, this is my chance to actually play them, or at least try them out. I learned that I like games where the rules are more straightforward. I’m not one for games where I haver to explain or try to convince the GM about what I’m doing every time. Let me roll my dice and know that I succeeded, or that I didn’t. I guess I like games that are more black and white. I liked the DCC funnel! It was a great way to learn the mechanics, but also a way to create a character based on actual experiences, rather than having to create a complex backstory. My best character was a cooper… who now is off to adventure since his entire village was kidnapped and fed to a choir of ghouls.

My Haul

Like any geek related convention everyone proudly displays their “Haul” all the stuff they purchased. For me, I’ll just list it:

  • Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Players Handbook
  • Dungeon Crawl Classics Rulebook (Softcover)
  • One set of ‘Funky” Dice for DCC (purple)
  • Dogfight! Rule the Sky in 20 Minutes!
  • Pocket Cats
  • Two sets of “regular”RPG dice from Roll4Intitive (they have a nice easy to read d4) & DiceGuardians called the Lucky Lich (sharp edged and “pretty”)
  • A cat shaped dice tray *squee*
  • D&D postage stamps
  • a bunch of pins & stickers because pins and stickers are cool.
  • Overpriced food and beverages because it’s a con, and all food and beverages are overpriced.

On the Road, Again

Posted on July 9, 2024 by Bruce

It’s time to head off on another Whimventure®! This time It’s MINI Takes The States (MTTS) which is always a lot of fun. As I prepare for the final push to leave I head to the starting point Albuquerque, New Mexico. It will take me a couple of days to get there since I am no longer allowed to drive straight through after the MTTS Lubbock to Indy drive which the court of public opinion (not as political as the Supreme Court) certified me as “insane”, but since it didn’t get dark until I was almost in Illinois, I figured it wasn’t that bad… You never realize just how big and barren Texas is until you have to drive through it.

I will be joining hundreds (if not thousands) of other MINI owners as we motor together (and apart) across the country, What MINI is call calling #CampMINI. Like many campers there are those excited, and those anxious. I’m a little in-between. The anxious ones make me anxious, but having been doing this since 2006, I’m not too worried. I know that things happen, and you just go with the flow. There are people who are packing for an expedition into the unknown. Basically like “Moto-Preppers”, (Did I just make up another new word? 🤪) people ready for the end of the world while they are on the road. I think maybe they’ve watched the various Mad Max movies too many times. Read “Along The Scenic Route” by Harlan Ellison, or ‘Why Johnny Can’t Speed” by Alan Dean Foster- I think they believe driving through the wild, wild west is like that. Then there are those who have everything planned out to the minute, and are concerned that they have not been given the second by second details.

They just announced the apps they will be using, A navigation one and an event – social connectivity one. As with any technology, some of them are a little glitchy right now. The event doesn’t officially start until Saturday so they will be working on bugs the rest of the week. I was able to make sure Cecil had his account set up- I’m superfluous. Sue is still having difficulties, so we’re trying to figure out if it is because she is set up as a co-pilot, or because she uses the same app for work. Unlike the folks with their multiple lists I’ve been putting together a notebook so I don’t forget things (like stopping mail). I started writing down Geocaches and Adventure Labs for the route, but stopped. There are just so many… except in Durango😉.

We have some plans, but mostly, it’s going to be a time to see old friends who we only see at MINI events like this. We will most likely be driving by ourselves. Although driving in a group is safer, especially when confronted by the bands of post-apocalyptic gangs roaming the nuclear wasteland known as the American west. Hmmm… bI might just need to draw a Mad Max MINIon sometime…

When it comes to groups, we have found that it is really hard to have a Whimventure® when you have to worry about a line of cars getting lost, while you are trying yourself to get lost. I’d rather deal with the stress of being on the road alone being passed by hundreds of MINIs than trying to figure out what happened to the green MINI that was behind me, and listening to radio chatter about cars missing the stop light. If you can find the right group it works, but keeping the band together over the years can be difficult. Plus that’s a lot of stress on the person leading and the one in the back.

This in NOT a Geocaching Trip

OK we will be caching, because that is a really great way to see cool things that other people miss. What we won’t be doing is trying for a cache in every county, or getting as many caches as we can along the road. We know people who would call that a vacation, I am not one of them. Sue has a list, I have a list. I’ve gone over a number of virtual caches in the cities we stop at and wrote down the logging requirements. Some are easy- “Take a picture of yourself here.” Others are being ignored- “Email me the answers to these questions as you visit these 14 different locations. Use complete sentences, proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Do not log the cache until you have heard back from me.” Ummm… I don’t think so. If you’ve read this blog for long enough, you know proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling are not my strengths.

A Typical Day

I’ve gone over this before but it might be nice to hear it all over again. If things go the way they have in the past a typical day will start with a line of cars trying to get into the “Rise & Shine” location. One year people started lining up at 3:00 AM, hopefully that won’t be the case. It may be an open field, it may be a parking lot. There will be tents and port-o-lets. During the morning people will eat breakfast and talk about stuff. We’ll check in and get our button for the day and desperately try to get whatever the coveted SWAG is this year (in 2022 it was magnets for each stop). There will be button and SWAG trading, or just handing out. Announcements, will be made, games will be played, charities will be mentioned, breakfast burritos or pancakes will be eaten. We will head off for the day, sometimes escorted by the police. People will turn left when they should turn right. People will get lost. Mid-way through the day there should be a “Surprise and Delight” some people will stop, some won’t. It could be the line of cars to get in is too long, it could be that the delight isn’t delightful enough for them. We will then drive into our next stop and search for our hotel. Next morning we’ll do it all over again.

Normally, about a day or two into the trip one of us will get grumpy over something stupid. We’ll drive in silence for a few hours and then get back to normal. When you’ve been married for over 30 years you get into a routine. It would be nice to avoid this part, but… if it happens, it happens. Too much togetherness with two introverts can lead to a little grumpiness.

We will have a lot of time on the road and at each destination city to explore. Which is why I have a list of geocaches and have been looking at Adventure Labs in each location. We’ll also be checking out local micro-breweries and brewpubs. Nothing fancy, just normal stuff with a local flair.

Our Route – A Whimventure® In The Making.

As for driving, my trip to HeroesCon in Charlotte was around the same distance (and time) as each day I’m driving solo to get to Albuquerque. Much less than my trips to New York. Don’t even get me started on my drive from Lubbock in 2014! When by myself I tend to get up early and just drive until I get to the destination. I did Denver to Los Angeles in 2014 also… that was a year filled with stupidity.

  • Solo Day 1: Indianapolis to Tulsa – 635 miles (9 hours)
  • Solo Day 2: Tulsa to Albuquerque – 650 miles (9 hours) Pick Up Sue at the airport
  • MTTS Day 1: Albuquerque to Durango – 220 miles (5 hours)*
  • MTTS Day 2: Durango to Grand Junction – 165 miles (4 hours)*
  • MTTS Day 3: Grand Junction to Salt Lake City – 350 miles (5.5 hours)* Evening Event at the Gallivan Center.
  • MTTS Day 4 & 5: Choose Your Own Adventure Salt Lake City to Bozeman – 410 miles
  • MTTS Day 6: Bozeman to Missoula – 230 miles (4 hours)*
  • MTTS Day 7: Missoula to Spokane – 260 miles (5 hours)*
  • MTTS Day 8: Spokane to Yakima – 260 miles (3 hours)*
  • MTTS Day 9: Yakima to Seattle – 140 miles (2.5 hours)* Evening Event at the Museum of Flight.
  • Day 12: Seattle – Troll Hunting – ???
  • Day 13: Seattle to Bellingham – 90 miles (we have a tour of GCHQ that morning and are spending the rest of the day with family)
  • Days 14 to 17: Bellingham to Indianapolis via Fargo- 2,350 miles – Trolls in Detroit Lakes, MN!
  • Total estimated mileage: 5,750 miles (not counting driving around town, getting lost, or other excursions- did I mention we still hadn’t planned out the “Choose your Own Adventure” portion of the trip?)

*MINI’s estimated time on the road. In most cases we will be entering the city before we can check into our hotels.

It’s funny, we really don’t have the “Choose Your Own Adventure” or the trip home planned out. 😱 We have a few ideas and must do bits. There’s a Thomas Dambo Troll in Jackson, Wyoming, we need to get a geocache in North Dakota, and Thomas Dambo just placed a bunch of trolls in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. We have a National Park Pass, and some ideas, it just matters what we decide to do, where we decide to go. Day 4 we are going to need a hotel room. Our route home will retrace some of MTTS, so if we hear of something awesome that we missed, we might be able to see it on the way back.

For our return, we’ll drive as far as we want, stop when we need to. We should drive about 600 miles each day, but some days will be longer than others and I usually have the rule that I rarely stop if I’m in a state bordering Indiana, I might as well push a bit and sleep in my own bed, with my cats- who I will be missing and worrying about the second the garage door closes as I head out.

I’ve loaded my phone with a couple of audiobooks: Slaying the Dragon – A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons by Ben Riggs that I looked at when at The Book Loft in Columbus, OH. I also checked out NPCs by Drew Hayes, a comic fantasy story about a bunch of non-player characters in a game and what happens when the game isn’t being played. These should last me for the entire drive to Albuquerque. With Gen Con coming up I figured these might be interesting. I’m still figuring out what I want to focus on- Gaming & building with LEGO bricks have taken a back seat to drawing and comics. I also still need to get the classic Mini working- Oh the things to deal with after MTTS and Gen Con.

I’m only missing the coveted MINI Financial Services Magnets from 2022 because I really don’t want them to go missing. Alfie (aka Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All) , Cecil, and I are ready to hit the road tomorrow… once I finish packing. 155,573 miles on the odometer before we head out.

This Week in Comics (My Pull List 7-3-24) & Star Trek vs. Star Wars?

Posted on July 4, 2024 by Bruce

I saw a recent comic dealing with the basic differences between Star Trek and Star Wars that I found amusing and enlightening…

I come from a weird time.  I grew up with Star Trek in reruns, and was 11 when Star Wars came out in the theaters.  As an adult I definitely see differences and understand that Star Trek is Science/Speculative Fiction and Star Wars is Fantasy with Science Fiction aspects (planets, spaceships, & rayguns).  As pop culture has taken over society and it seems like for the most part, the fans are different. 

I’ve joked that real Star Wars Fans really don’t like Star Wars, and that’s what makes you a true Star Wars fan. There is a lot of discussion online about how bad whatever the latest thing is.  Then we get into things like the original releases vs. Special Editions vs. Prequels vs…. Did Han shoot first? Disney is ruining the Brand. George Lucas is ruining my childhood. This director or that director is ruining… Don’t even get started with casting decisions! There’s a lot of bad talk happening in Star Wars fandom, and a lot of people being just mean (embracing the dark side). This is all coming from the people who LIKE Star Wars!

I enjoyed how Star Wars sparked a change in the world.  Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek Movies… it made science fiction popular and main stream.  I recall my brother and I running around whacking each other with broomstick light sabers, while my mother wondered what happened to the broom and mop.  Star Wars got me into reading as a middle schooler.  “Splinter of the Minds Eye” by Alan Dean Foster was one of the first books I recall reading on my own.  

You see, I’ve always loved Science Fiction from Flash Gordon serials to the 1950’s flying saucer movies… but I recall as a kid growing up in the Bay Area my dad taking us to a Star Trek fan club meeting and falling asleep the the episode “Arena.”  I had starship plans, I still have the Technical Manual that I carried around as an elementary school kid.  I could name off the various ships in the Federation. I had similar stuff for Star Wars- sketchbooks, The Art of Books I never really got into the toys for Star Wars since I was just old enough to not be as into toys, my neighbor had them. for the record: I preferred the Y-Wing to the X-Wing for the record. My favorite ship is the Enterprise (“No bloody A, B, C, or D”).

As a fan base one thing Star Trek has is the concept of IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations) which helps when others talk about “best” and “worst.”  In Star Trek they kinda accept everyone’s right to like even what you personally don’t.  Which leads me to Prodigy.  Canceled by the powers that be after one season.  Paramount was able to sell the rights to Netflix after a massive online campaign to save the show.  Kinda an internet version of what happened to the Original Series back in the 60’s.  They are now trying the same thing to save Star Trek’s other animated series “Lower Decks” which they announced the next season would be it’s last.

The show was pretty much finished when Paramount decided to cancel it and make the show disappear from their streaming service. Netflix, this week, released season 2 of Prodigy in a 20 episode (about 10 hour) bingeable dump.  Prodigy was the Star Trek franchise’s idea for a “kid show” co-produced by Nickelodeon.  There are a lot of things to unpack from this series.  I don’t want to give away any spoilers for either seasons.  So I’ll start with where in the timeline does this happen?  This isn’t much of a spoiler and because the first season has little to do with the Federation so it’s hard to tell.  We know this happens after Kathryn Janeway is made an admiral.  So sometime after Voyager’s return and during the time of the films.  The second season tells us this all happened before the first season of Picard.  So as the Romulans are being relocated (think the point in which the “Kelvin” timeline starts).

Season 2 actually ends with the Utopia Planetia shipyards being destroyed which was a flashback in Picard season 1.  The crew of the Protostar is a bunch of misfits trying to escape slavery on a at that point unknown planetoid.  A mix of young aliens with no idea about Star Fleet or the Federation.  So this is an introduction to the universe of Star Trek with the main characters being like the companion in Doctor Who, the audience’s surrogate. Pretty much every detail is covered for a newbie even that none of the characters speak the same language, so how do you communicate?

A few spoilers, but with a second season you know problems from the first season have been sort of solved.  The first season <spoiler> gets the crew and lost starship Protostar to the Federation and deals with what happens then, bad things, bad bad things. While the second season deals with how our characters figure out how to live in the Federation preparing to join the Academy and attempt to rescue someone mentioned in the first season who was lost in time… then hijinks ensue.

There are lots of twists and turns through both seasons, but my favorite possible episode 13 from season 1 which dealt with the crew landing on a planet that the Enterprise interacted with during their five year mission and a “minor” violation of the Prime Directive that impacted the civilization for some amusing results.

I have enjoyed this series and frankly all the various series for their own merit.  IDIC.  Have I liked every episode? Nope.  I joke about the first season of most Star Trek series aren’t great.  The actors need time to figure out their characters.  The writers need to figure out the world.   Around season three they get it.  Prodigy like Lower Decks, being animation allows some freedom that would be difficult or expensive in live action.  Season 2 is worth a watch and actually does a nice job of taking care of some complaints people had about season 3 of Picard.  Not all the plot holes are addressed, but at least one is tidied up. I just wish they had episodes of Will Wheaton’s The Ready Room for these, or even each season… that would be amazing.

As for the final decision when it comes to the battle between Star Wars and Star Trek… I like both, but if I have a choice – I’ll watch Star Trek. I have kept up with Star Wars, and enjoyed my visit to Galaxy’s Edge in Florida (I made a droid & a lightsaber). Yes, Star Wars has books and various TV shows, but the core is really the movies, where the core for Star Trek is the television shows. I’ve invested untold hours in the Star Trek Universe and have the scars to prove it. Now if they would only build a Star Trek Theme Park. 🖖

Now to this Week’s Comics:

Public Domain #6 – I thought I’d lost contact with this one… The first arc was dealing with a family and the rights to a character the father had created… Now we get to actually doing something with this character. OK actually this is al the “Real World” stuff and the comic with the superhero will be coming out soon.

Black Radiant #29 & 29.5 – In the last two issues we had come close to the end, each version of Black Radiant was tasked with a challenge that could save the world… SO what happened? Who Lives? Who Dies? Which person is actually the better Black Radiant? Read it and find out.

Justice Society of America #10 – One of first Legion of Super Heroes Comics had the Legion go up against Mordru an evil wizard. With Huntress (Lost in the multiverse Helena Wayne) building a Justice Society from reformed villains we have a young Mordru coming in trying to change his future, and learning that while the end may justify the means… it isn’t always that neat and clean.

Batman #150 – I know a secret! So what happens if you know who Batman is? What would you do? This is the story of a small time crook (former henchman) who know Batman’s secret identity and what he does with the information… It is a bit surprising but fits with the newish direction of Batman.

Then, of course, theirs a short tie-in story for the summer blockbuster Absolute Power…

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 – Another crossover taking control of a comic? Wha? Huh? This time it’s the “Infinity Watch” Which I guess, for an Annual issue isn’t too bad. Someone needs to study Temporal Mechanics 101.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man # 22 – Blood Hunt yipee! Yes, Vampires, yes, fights, yes, vampires. Sadly I see that there’s a DC vs. Vampires comic coming up, so more vampires! I really need to find other comics to read.

Rogue Sun #20 – Rogue Sun the immortal hero fighting to save the world again occult menaces, decides to start taking his role a bit more seriously as he plans to take out his big bad guy. At least he understands he has some work to do before hand. How does skipping school and heading off with a biker girl aid in his training?

Sons of Star Trek #4 – The end of the series, so no spoilers! Let’s just say I thought it was satisfying and still would like to know all the craziness that brought the universe together- Tuvix, Mariner, Morn… So many right turns in Albuquerque!

Rocketeer Jet Pack Adventures – I found this on the shelf of my LCS and picked it up… It is a book of short stories (so I won’t destroy my imagination by having to look at pictures… I can make the pictures in my mind). The book is actually 10 years old and I need to sit back and read it.

It seems that after the last Earth shattering finale for the merry Marvel mutants we are back with new team line ups and new titles. This teaser is to get me interested in all the titles and… it’s not doing anything for me.

I’m having enough trouble dealing with two Batman titles, two Superman titles, multiple Spider-Man titles (that at least have different Spider-Men in them), do I really need to be reading all these X-Men books? I watched X-Men ’97, but a dozen mutant books?!? Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Exceptional X-Men, NYX, X-Force, X-Factor, Sentinels, Phoenix, Wolverine (also in Uncanny), Dazzler, Storm, Mystique, and let’s not forget the ad for Storm joining the Avengers!

Let’s not even get into the decades on continuity I need to wade through… If you love the X-Men (I do like the X-Men, but I really stopped reading them back when they had one title) this looks like it is a great time for you. New #1 issues, some new characters, and some cool stories. Enjoy! IDIC!

Planning & Packing for MINI Takes the States

Posted on July 1, 2024 by Bruce

As we close in on the start of MINIUSA’s “TransAmerican Motortastic Road Trip to End All Road Trips Rally” How does one prepare for this? In the immortal words of Douglas Adams “Don’t Panic.” I’ve watched Social Media since the dates and route were announced and there are a lot of people who either are anxious, or have never actually driven their car outside of their town, county, or state before. I suffer from travel anxiety, but I guess I’ve pushed beyond my fear enough times that some things I’ve gotten a “This too shall pass” kind of attitude. Do I like it when my car has issues on the road? duh. no. I panic just as much as any normal person would. I just understand things happen. While this is my process, your mileage may vary.

How Do I Prepare?

First things first, I do my best to keep Alfie (aka Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All) in good operating condition. I rotate the tires regularly, change the oil, bring it in for scheduled maintenance to the dealership. I tried another local garage once and found that they were just as expensive and didn’t have the experience or resources that the dealership had. Interesting experiment. So now about two weeks out, my car is at the dealership getting a once over and oil change. Having an olderish MINI I want to give them time if parts needed to be ordered. I also have the dealership do a full detail inside and out. It’s pricey but I only do it once every two years, and it makes Alfie look nice in the sea of other nice looking MINIs.

So Alfie has a clean bill of health before heading out. What else do I do? I pack some extra oil and a bottle or two of fuel additive since we will be dealing with gasoline from a wide variety of locales and high altitude. I may not need either, but I’m an old Boy Scout so I’ll be prepared. Outside of that I have my usual quick cleaning kit some microfiber towels, window cleaner, and spray cleaner (Griot’s Speed Shine). So I feel good Alfie is ready to go.

What About The Humans?

Sue is responsible for her stuff, and I deal with mine. They have stores if we forgot anything. I have a small cooler that we will put water and soft drinks (pop, soda, coke, or whatever your region calls it) and a bag that will contain snacks. We usually go with a Chex Mix, and trail mix, maybe beef jerky or gummy bears. I’ll be driving through Texas so I know I’ll pass a Buc-ee’s at some point if I need to restock. The LEGO bag is the stuff I have for the car that usually is in the glovebox and a few other items. Since My MINI is currently in for service, this stuff is at home.

Since I am old I have various medications I need to take on a daily basis. This is a long trip so I contacted my insurance company to make sure I was allowed by the rules of the policy to actually get enough to last the entire trip. Anytime I put in a refill early it gets dinged, so I wanted to make sure. I figured out that by the time I return I will have been out of everything for a couple a weeks. I also waxed nostalgically about when you could just go to a pharmacist and say “I need extras” and the reply would be “Sure, hope you have a nice trip!”

I don’t know how people who drive a MINI convertible do it, the roadster has a ginormous boot (trunk for non-MINI folks) so we can live out of it without a problem. We had issues when we rented a MINI convertible in May. I’ll need to pack at least one MINI shirt for each day of the event. I already know I’ll wear the 2006 MTTS shirt, the MINI United Shirt, and the “Most expensive MINI shirt ever” besides that I need to pick 4 more- hopefully not all black although all old school MINI shirts are black.

So I might have a few MINI shirts I’ve gathered over the years… I also know I’ll be picking up a few along the road.

About halfway through we have a couple of days on our own so we could do laundry. In the past if you were part of the ‘Going All the Way” group MINI provided a small laundry service midway through… not anymore. I’ll pack jeans and shorts, with the full knowledge that I will most likely wear them more than once. I’ll also pack a couple pairs of shoes. One pair that is more comfortable for driving, and another pair for hiking and walking around. I might also throw in a pair for the evening events, although black tie is optional at these events. 🤪 I know heat will be an issue, but I will pack a light jacket or some rain protection (be prepared). I’ll also pack a couple of hats- my Tilley and a baseball cap. Some people will pack for each day in a different bag… whatever works for you. I’m planning on bringing a separate bag for dirty laundry that way my clean clothes don’t mix with my… other stuff. Don’t forget electronics and chargers. While I will be using my phone as a GPS I will also pack all the various chargers and a FRS Radio (set to channel 7 sub 21). Most electronics will be plugged into the car charger throughout the trip, but better safe than sorry.

Then There’s SWAG

I often roll my eyes and joke over the people who bring all these things to give away… I’m just as bad as all of them. I have been keeping a notebook for this trip and figured out all the different things I’m bringing to make other people happy. I have buttons, stickers, and a top secret very unique and limited edition duck. My hope is that everything I have I will not be bringing back with me. With the passing of a friend (MINIon 0666) I also have some items for those who knew him to honor and remember him. I will be passing most of those off to another friend (MINIon 0001) for distribution.

A couple days ago I finally went through my bags from MTTS 2022. I hadn’t opened them since we had returned home. I’m glad there wasn’t anything edible, or alive in there. I won’t say I was shocked by the amount of stuff I had, more like I was shocked by how little I had. I think of MTTS like some of my first Cons that I went to as an adult. I would take pictures of everything, because “WOW!” and now I know what I like, I know what I want and I know I don’t need another button or duck or whatever. My Lanyard from MTTS 2022 had only two personal buttons on it, the rest were ones given out by MINI. I had another lanyard that had the destination buttons on it. I’ll actually be taking off those personal buttons and pins to wear them this time around.

Your Tribe, or not…

My first MTTS (2006) I took it as a Rally and we drove straight to Indianapolis from St. Louis. We were helping the local club with the lap around the Motor Speedway, so I had a commitment. I wish I had taken more time to enjoy the road, and the people. 2008 was weird being four different events. We did Chicago (Road America) and then flew to L.A. We pretty much did it on our own, hanging out with friends from our local club and in L.A. I invited my family to join us. At MINI United in 2009 we met people from around the world and expanded our group. In 2010 we drove with some of them along the route and created the MINIons group. From 2012 – 2016 that group was our motoring crew. In 2018 Sue and I decided we wanted to go “rogue” adjust explore. Driving with a group can become stressful. Where is everyone? Who needs to use the bathroom? Do we stop at this attraction? What about lunch? Dinner? While it was fun, we embraced being by ourselves and catching up with everyone in the evening, or at breakfast. In 2022 Sue and I decided to go even more rogue, with Sue driving her MINI and me driving mine. It was a logical issue in which I had things to do beforehand and had to get home. While Sue had work and then went to visit family. This time around, I’m driving and Sue will meet me in Albuquerque we will then head off on our Whimventure. Will we drive with the MINIons? Maybe, but I know we have other things on the list.

Worried about finding your tribe? Don’t be, it is something that happens naturally. Those extroverts out there will march up and start creating a group (if they haven’t already). The introverts will sit back and meet people at breakfast, at the surprise and delight, or just on the road. Your driving group might change every day. The important thing is to have fun on your terms. If driving around with a bunch of people is your thing- great! I’m sure it will happen. If you just don’t know, it’s OK to drive with a group and then cut out later in the day. Be polite, say “Thanks” and you look forward to seeing them tomorrow at breakfast. You won’t hurt anyone’s feelings. As I said, sometimes (especially for whimventuring® introverts) it can be stressful driving with a large group.

Who are the MINIons? For the most part these are a mysterious group of people I have met along the road or people who were invited by other MINIons. We’ve basically grown up in the MINI community together and we are all over the place. We laugh together at the antics of those “serious” MINI owners. “My LXM number is lower than yours” kind of people.🙄 We try to help out when possible, but basically we take everything in stride. We live by the Book of Motoring and the idea of “Not Normal.” The group has traveled together, but also many go rogue and have their own Whimventures®. Of which Cecil (my stuffed monkey bent on World Domination and usual co-pilot) approves of these actions.

Plans & Schemes

List? What list? Now as we close in on leaving I’ve been going through Geocaching.com, the Adventure Lab App, Atlas Obscura, Roadside America, and other sources to see what might be on the route or nearby to see. We don’t know what the route will actually be, or the Surprise and Delights along the way. For us, our major goal won’t happen until we start heading home, after a short visit to check on my brother and how he’s handling retirement. We need to find caches in two more states to have found a geocache in every state in the lower 48. This leaves only Alaska and we will have completed the entire U.S. Outside of that we have Trolls to find and a visit to Groundspeak’s Headquarters in Seattle. I’ve created a list in Atlas Obscura, of things that look interesting. Along with a list on Geocaching.com, both will be constantly updated, and no, we won’t see everything on the list. Most of the geocaches are virtual ones, We’ll use the app to catch actual hides nearby as we stop for things.

I do recommend using either Geocaching or Adventure Labs as a way to explore new places. Download the apps create an account and go have some fun. Geocaching is using a GPS (or your Phone) to find something hidden by another player. Think of it as a treasure hunt. Sign the log, put it back where you found it, log it online and take a look around. Most Geocaches take you places people don’t usually go to. Think of it as a local showing you around. A Virtual Cache takes you to a place and you either need to send in the answers to some questions, or take a photo of yourself at the place. Adventure Labs use geo tracking and as you get close to a location a question pops up that you need to answer. These tend to be tours of local art, or historically significant places. A nice way to learn about where you are visiting. I like them because, unlike geocaches, I don’t need to dig through plants to search for them, I just need to find the answer on a plaque.

This Week in Comics (My Pull List 6-26-24)

Posted on June 27, 2024 by Bruce

Not much going on this week… Mostly getting the house and the boys ready for our trip out west for MINI Takes The States. Yes, I’ve blogged about various MINI things it shouldn’t be a surprise to you. I’ll be taking a hiatus for the blog while on MTTS since I will be without a computer and my phone isn’t as reliable as I would like for blogging. If you want to keep up follow Cecil’s Adventures on Facebook and Instagram. I’ll post recap once I’m back.

With my older brother’s birthday I’m feeling a little bit older too. Fortunately he’s still older than me and for a few months TWO years older! I’m realizing that I need to focus bit more on all the stuff I have in the house that serves no purpose. So upon my return from MTTS I hope to redouble my efforts in going through things I haven’t touched in over a year. Is this stuff bringing me joy, or making me a bit overwhelmed? With Gen Con and New York Comic Con coming up, I need to do some serious thinking. My current plan is to just enjoy both Cons, but not really buy that much at either. We”ll see how that works.

This Week’s Comics:

Action Comics #1066 – The Battle of Hastings? (Sorry inside joke) The Fight with Brainiac is coming to a head with Brainiacs Queen online can Superman and his allies possibly defeat Brainiac? Who will make a sacrifice to help change the tide of the battle? The second story goes through Lex and Lena Luthor’s father/daughter issues.

Star Trek Defiant #16 – Can the crew of the Defiant survive against the evil hive mind that has taken over Starbase 99 and hopes to take over the universe? Again with the ultimate sacrifices… and then a bit of a twist once you think everything is over “and they all lived happily ever after.”

No/One #9 – In the penultimate issue- Pittsburgh holds a referendum and decides that you have the right to defend yourself if you think you might be in danger. That’s right- deadly force if you THINK someone might do something, sometime to hurt you. So after multiple bloodbaths because with great power there must also be great responsibility and people aren’t known for being very responsible… what will happen next? Sadly this is getting pretty close to reality, but comics are just silly and don’t have anything to do with social commentary. 🙄

Primer #4 of 4 – The conclusion of what seems to be the first arc of Primer’s story. Can Ashley save her foster parents from the crazed villain who wants all the superpower paints for himself? Will Ashley be able to get through the “Heroes Journey and become a real hero? Only reading this issue and a really cool costume can reveal the future fate of Primer.

The Department of Truth #23 – It looks like I missed issue #22, so I’ll need to go back and get it to see how that arc ended. This is a great starting point for those unaware of The Department of Truth. It’s a history lesson on how the department was set up and who started it all. It’s a Wonderful Story… (Hint, not a spoiler). For those who don’t know about the Department of Truth, in this world, if enough people believe something is becomes real. UFO’s were’t real until enough people considered the possibility, Bigfoot? same thing. Basically a world in which if a conspiracy theory can get enough people to believe it will tip the balance of reality. So who would have been put in charge of this when it first came to light?

U & I #5 of 6 – Penultimate issue and knowing this world I’m concerned about how it will all end, because not all comics in the Resistance Universe have happy endings. U tries to get Isabelle to see the world the way he does, and Isabelle’s Uncle conspires with the bad guys to find and eliminate U. Will it work? Next issue with tie everything up one way or another.

The Flash #10 – This arc is leading to the summer mega event Absolute Power which may be why I’m just kind “meh” about it. Are the speedsters actually the problem? What does math have to do with it? Will Wally finally join in? Will I be doing reviews that say “Absolute Power. ’nuff said”?

Detective Comics #1086 – In Batman the Zur En Arrh arc seems to be neatly finished, leaving Bruce Wayne with a clear new beginning and I’m happy about that. Detective Comics, Bruce is still fighting the Orgham’s and their control over Gotham. Let’s add in his Rogue’s Gallery to make things interesting. Which side will they take?

The Spectacular Spider-Men #4 – SO last time we dealt with Miles and Peter things were… weird. Miles was in a relationship with Kamala Khan, and Peter was married with kids to Gwen Stacey?!? Yes, I know, Gwen is dead on this Earth, then again so are a lot of the people Peter was dealing with. We get to peak behind the curtain and find out who has been responsible for Arcadium- Arcade and Mentallo. along with their mysterious (until the last page) funder. Fortunately, thanks to Shift and Peter’s psychological issues (aka the Parker luck) the veil is removed and you have two very angry Spider-Men out to take care of whoever made them happy.

They’re More Like “Guidelines”

Posted on June 23, 2024 by Bruce

Once upon a time… When I first bought a MINI Cooper there were only a few of us and MINI catered to the idea that a small car was unique. During that time their ad folks came up with a bunch of advice for MINI owners all part of the “MINI Book of Motoring” which was handed out at dealerships to prospective owners so they would understand what they had gotten themselves into by taking that “first step into a larger world” by just looking at a MINI. I keep a copy of one in my glovebox as a reminder of those simpler times.

MINIs marketing was irreverent and dry, never being too serious and had advice and new vocabulary like “Farking Spot” which was when someone parked and was hidden from view by other cars making it seem like the spot was empty so you would get your hopes up and think you could park there. The idea was as a MINI owner you should keep this in mind and not pull all the way in, line up your boot with the surrounding cars. Other things like wear dirt as a badge of honor and Miles = Memories were ways to say “Have fun, drive and don’t worry.”

Owning a MINI meant you were off to adventure and mostly fun. I do my best to follow this holy scripture, better than many people follow the rules set forth by their organized religions. You wonder where the concept of “Whimventure®” came from? It adds the MINI concepts to times when you can’t Motor. These are just some highlights from the holy book:

The car, besides being small, was quirky and there were things you had to get used to- like the switches for the windows and locks were in the center column, not on the door. Then executives decided that they were being marked down on all important surveys for these quirks and started changing things- making MINI bigger, and moving things around so it was more “normal.” One of my favorite advertising campaigns was one of the last pushing the uniqueness of the MINI- “Not Normal.” Sadly, while MINI is still unique in some cases, the newest models are just like most cars on the road. As I have stated elsewhere, I do like the current interior with the ginormous round screen, but I really can’t tell from the outside that it’s a MINI unless I see the logo. You can’t miss the logo- it’s almost as big as a classic Mini!

During the early days MINI set up some rules, created by marketing and cobbled together from various local clubs. They also were shorthand for those found in the “Book of Motoring.” These have kind of stuck. Unfortunately, many owners don’t have a clue about them (kind of like many church goers haven’t a clue about what their religion actually is about 🤪). MINI has become successful enough that most owners think of it as a car. Something to get them from Point A to Point B (See the definition of Motoring in the MINI Book of Motoring). The concept of “motoring” has vanished. If you adopt a pre-owned MINI you may never know about the community. For those in need here are the Official Rules as presented at MTTS (MINI Takes The States) in 2022 (Cecil was added for clarity):

  1. Always park next to another MINI. Notice it doesn’t say “Back into the spot.” I don’t understand the importance of backing in, but to many that is also a rule. I think since back up cameras became standard it became more of a thing. Originally maybe it was to be able to drive off quickly… I’m sure there is a reason, but not compelling enough for me to participate. I just think of the times when I’d go see the Indianapolis Symphony and all the old folks would slowly and laboriously back their cars into spots… 🙄
  2. Wave, dammit. This can be disheartening since so many owners have no clue about the “rules.” Either that or they are on their phones. The other issue I have found is I wave to cars and then realize that it wasn’t a MINI! MINI has done such a great job making sure that the design doesn’t get dinged in surveys that I can’t tell a MINI from a Hyundai, from a KIA.
  3. Give your MINI a name. I have always done this, but then again my grandmother did this with all her cars. When you name your MINI it starts to develop a personality and becomes your partner in crime and one of the family. Yes, it’s “Not Normal” but that’s what MINI was all about. My first MINi was Penfold, my classic Mini is Tink, my current Roadster is Alfie although he prefers to be called Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All. Sue’s MINI is Poppy.
  4. No two MINIs should be alike. The MINI term is “Youification” you want your MINI to stand out in the crowd. I once owned a black Honda Civic sedan… do you know how many times I came up to the wrong car in a parking lot?
  5. Treat SUV drivers with compassion. This rule was before MINIs started to be as big as some SUVs. We are supposed to feel sorry for the SUV owners because they can’t possibly have as much fun as we do in our little cars zooming around them, and gas mileage. I know many Jeep Wrangler owners would argue this point.
  6. Put away the middle finger. “Carma” be nice to people, there is no reason to be in a bad mood if you are driving a MINI. For many of us this is so true. We get in our little car and smile as we hit the road. Every trip is fun, even if it’s just to go to the drug store to pick some aspirin.
  7. Embrace the MINI community. This can be difficult, but learn about the MINI groups around you and online. When my brother bought a MINI the first thing I told him to do was find out about the club nearby. I recall my first experience with a car club. It was Sue’s Honda S2000 and everyone involved was a guy, and all they talked about was their cars. They wouldn’t talk to her, since she was a “girl.” I had to keep pointing them in her direction since I rarely drove the car and knew very little about it. My first MINI club meeting we talked about life, (and our MINIs) but everyone there was treated the same. It was right before the first Mickey & MINI and we were all excited to head down to Florida. Now it has to do with online groups and MINI events around the country. Yes, I missed MINIs on Top to go to a comic book convention.😱
  8. Find a copilot who’s ready for adventure. For the most part I have Sue, but when she thinks what I’m about to do is too silly, or she has other things to do (work) I have Cecil. Yes, my copilot is a stuffed monkey, but that monkey has been on more adventures than most people and having a stuffed monkey as a copilot is definitely “Not Normal.”
  9. Admire your MINI. I like to add – admire other MINIs too. It’s all part of the Youification thing, your MINI is yours, and someone else has made their MINI uniquely theirs. I have seen a multitude of MINIs and each one is different and amazing.
  10. They call it #37. Always be ready to rally. This is the core of whimventuring. Since the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964 Mini (the car was #37) has had a “Rally Heritage” that we should embrace. Be ready to hit the road at a moments notice, you never know when an opportunity my come up.

Are there other “Rules”? Everyone has added or changed them. Unfortunately, like having a large menu, at a restaurant it gets confusing. Sometimes it’s hard to remember which ones to follow, and we sometimes forget. Gordon Ramsey’s first act when he swoops in to save a failing restaurant is usually to make their menu smaller and easier to navigate. So 10 rules is fine, if we all know and follow them as best we can. If you go to a large MINI event you’ll see most people following these and other obscure rules.

I know, I know… What about ducks? There are some MINI owners out there who like to put ducks on other people’s MINIs. This is a way to say “Hi!” “I like your MINI” “quack” or whatever. While it is a Jeep thing, according to many, a MINI owner started it. Ummm… sure, fine, whatever. Even if that is the case Jeep is doing a much better job at it, along with the Wave (See Rule #2). While driving home from North Carolina I saw multiple Jeep Wranglers with windows filled with ducks… I didn’t see a single duck on a MINI. Should we stop? No, you be you. If it makes you happy, go ahead. If you get mad because people say it’s a “Jeep Thing” maybe MINI should invest more in PR, but I don’t think they really care. People might get angry over who started it (See Rule #6). In a time of “Alternate Facts” the winner writes the history books (or bans them). This is a battle I don’t choose to fight, but I find it amusing to poke the bear when people start getting really serious about it.

The best response I heard from someone when it comes to ducks was “Google it!” Like the Internet is ultimate proof. You google “Ducks on cars” and every link and AI assist gives you stuff about Jeeps and some person in Canada who “started” it. I don’t know, like I said and I don’t really care. I know there are many who do, which is why I bring it up. Yelling about it won’t change the fact that Jeep seems to do the duck thing better.

Next Steps?

I suggest we all start with a personal focus on one rule that we can do without worrying about anyone else. I don’t care which rule it is… For me, It will be #2 Waving. I have a friend who always gives a peace sign ✌️. For me I will do my best to give the Vulcan “Live Long, and Prosper” sign 🖖. I know I will forget sometimes, but with MINI Takes the States coming up I should have a lot of practice. Of course the sad part is not getting a wave back. There’s nothing I can do about that, just be happy I spread the joy, the “logical” joy of owning a MINI and not being normal.

Mostly, You should make friends along the way. It starts with a simple wave. You may find people who you wouldn’t normally hang out with who are awesome people and the only thing you have in common is MINI. Just remember there is probably only one thing that doesn’t fit in a MINI- that’s politics, especially in this day and age. See Rule #6. One thing all MINI owners can agree on is that the MINI (no matter how much bigger they make it 🙄) is an awesome car.

MINI Takes The States 2024 is coming up and if you are attending it’s a great time to get into practice following the rules and becoming a better Motorer. People will wave, people will park and gather, people will duck, and button, and sticker, and whatever… MTTS is uniquely MINI and an awesome opportunity to motor with other like minded “Not Normal” individuals. If you happen to be along the route… look out for us- “We’re all mad here.” 🤪

This Week in Comics (My Pull List 6-19-24)

Posted on June 20, 2024 by Bruce

Well, you’ve already sat through my gushing over HeroesCon, so what else can I say? If you haven’t go back the read it.

This Week’s Comics:

Helen of Wyndhorn #3 – I’m really liking this story and am interested in where it will go from here. We’ve been dealing with a series of flashbacks as Helen learns that her father’s fantasy stories weren’t fantasy stories. Her grandfather is pretty much a fantasy hero and she’s now learning the family business. The thing that get’s me is the present day piece and figuring out how it will tie in… more to come.

Batman # 149 – Wait a second! After everything that’s been going on… and on… and on… This arc comes to a conclusion? Loose ends are tied up and amazingly enough it only took the death of Bruce Wayne. 😉 I’m curious as to what will happen next now that a new “normal” is being created and Bruce Wayne, is more in touch with his feelings and what is really important to him.

Titans #12 – The Titans against Vanadia- a super fan given powers and made to believe the Titans are in danger… from the Titans? But just as victory has been achieved she is destroyed. The Titans confront T.O. Morrow and Nightwing gets a little surprise too.

Ultimate Spider-Man #6 – Peter finally tells his family about what has happened- something about confronting Wilson Fisk and not being prepared for it… “Gee Dad? Did you get hit by a bus?” That and May just can’t keep a secret… although she was doing a pretty good job for 4 months. Yes, we finish the issue with Peter finally being called “Spider-Man”! 6 issues in and he gets his name!

Man’s Best #4 – Who’s a good boy? Our friends are off in search of Doc and the Captain, once they find them… we learn more than we had bargained for.

The Displaced #5 – How do you not disappear? stay together with the others from Oshawa… but that doesn’t always work, it seems Emmett is “The Special.” Which obviously means something, but we don’t know right now, what we do know is this isn’t an isolated experience- it will happen again.

Star Trek #21 – The Sisko takes the pan dimensional Gods head on as he tries to correct everything that happened during his fight with Kahless. Will he be able to save the Oregonians? More importantly, will Beverly be able to see Wesley?

The Amazing Spider-Man #52 – Peter Parker is the Green Goblin-Man?!? Can Peter be saved? Who will help peter and what do the Sinister Six and J. Jonah Jameson have to do with it?

Captain America #10 – Cap is still searching for change agents to save them from Death. I’m still kinda missing him fighting fascists. Here he comes up against one the change agents who is fine not being saved, and her reasons are enlightening.

Eureka! An an Actual COMIC Con!

Posted on June 17, 2024 by Bruce

You’ve heard me complain (and complain and complain and complain) about supposed “Comic Cons” that focus almost exclusively on stars of stage, screen, and TV not a whole lot about comic books.  I heard a lot about HeroesCon being a comic focused Con. It was started and is still run by a local comic shop owner in 1982 and has stuck to a vision of what the term Comic Con means. All I know is next time in Charlotte, I want to stop by his shop which I have also heard is amazing.

Day 1 (Friday) Welcome to Valhalla, Mecca, Heaven, Brigadoon, Shangri-La, Neverland… you get the idea:

After driving in and picking up my badge on Thursday, I woke up ready to take on the Con.  I had a few specific goals, mostly dealing with getting something’s signed by artists who I don’t get to see that often. I brought some books out of my library and collection to get signed.  I also had some commissions I was hoping to get.

Lugging around books can be exhausting and with my hotel a half mile away I was already adding to the aches & pains that come with being old.  I decided to only bring half, focusing on those artists listed as only being at the con Friday & Saturday. 

I waited in line to get in (I had not paid for the VIP badge that would let me in early) and overheard conversations.  Conversations about COMIC BOOKS!  If people bc were talking about who they saw it was a comic book creator, not some guy who played that one guy it that show.  Jim Steranko seems to get around because most sighting were of him, at breakfast, at Whole Foods…

Once they started letting us into the hall I tried to orient myself.  I had written down the table numbers of my short list and just wanted to lay eyes on each location.  I stopped by David Petersen’s table to get on his commission list.  I was hoping for a Rocketeer Mouse, but David sadly informed me that he no longer was doing mice as someone else’s character.  I completely understand.  Especially after having drawn over 365 different monkeys.  While I own a page from Mouseguard Winter 1152 I had my heart set on a commission.  I asked him instead to do a science fiction mouse- and as with all my requests, that was it besides a “have fun.”  I had no idea what I’d end up with, but knowing Dave’s skill and artistry it will be awesome.  I then went over to see Tony Harris who I had asked about a commission once he announced opening his list online.  I checked in and as best I could do chatted with Tony & Becky (after missing out on talking to Dave Stevens so many years ago, I embraced my inner “Bob” and tried to get over being an socially awkward introvert) it was awesome because Tony also had back issues of Ex Machina and I was missing issue 7 (How could I be missing one issue from the entire run?🙄).  Then I wandered still looking for certain people while checking out each booth.  The numbering scheme was a bit weird and table numbers tended to be covered by art, or just the normal table set up. What I noticed was the large number of comic sellers who had… comic books!  Not just any comics, but really cool ones.  Then I started to see so many… weird comics?  Not weird, but ones the regular “Muggle” wouldn’t understand.  For example almost every booth had a row of comics with Dave Stevens covers!

When I think about going to a con I’ve always imagined walking up to a booth, flipping through a long box and finding one of my grail issues. I’ve always been disappointed. Booths usually have the big titles, those popular with the general public. Here I started looking and was face to face with comics I had never seen. Now I had to actually think about which issues I’m missing and what I want to actually buy. So many holes that could be filled. I was good, and probably overwhelmed so I didn’t buy that much.

Then you have the artists… so many amazing artists (over 400). I know I wouldn’t have time to see everything and everyone the first day and was , of course, carrying around books I wanted signed by artists I either couldn’t find or weren’t going to arrive until two.

Skottie Young
David Petersen
Charles Vess
Tony Harris
“MouseGuard 2419”
The Rocketeer by Tony Harris

I headed up to my first session, a presentation on Dynamic Figure Drawing by an anatomy professor from SCAD.  It was great!  While I won’t completely change my style I learned a lot that will inform my approach to drawing.  I hung around for the next session which was a focus on character building.  We went through an exercise dealing with creating an antagonist and protagonist for a story we haven’t really worked through.  I focused on a science fiction story I’d been thinking about and was very pleased with what I came up with.  Will this become something I do more of?  Maybe… I like the concept, but it still needs a lot of work. 

Upon returning to the hall I wandered some more, a lot of the usual suspects at cons this size were noticeably missing.  There weren’t that many places selling props, or t-shirts.  Yes, there was a booth selling foam swords, and another with martial arts weapons, no one exclusively selling light sabers.  The art was tame compared to some of the gore filled, soft pornography that will be the focus of many booths at comic cons. Again I was blown away by the shear number of people selling comic books.

an entire row of Dave Stevens’ covers
Starbucks got into the act.

At the end I checked in with Tony and saw my almost finished Rocketeer ❤️❤️❤️.  Then headed out to see about dinner and maybe an Adventure Lab.  Dinner won out and I headed next to the Drink & Draw.  

Drinking and Drawing: a perfect combination especially for a good cause.

Drink & Draw is a an event in which attendees get coasters and then draw on them.  Coasters are $1 each and 6 for $5.  Supplies are available and you drink (cash bar) and draw.  The coasters are then sold. All proceeds go to Parkinson’s research.  Coasters (and other art) are divided onto tables $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, and if you have to ask you probably can’t afford it.  You were supposed to turn your coasters into a table where their value would be determined.  I didn’t know and just dropped mine on the $5 table.  While drawing, I had a great conversation with an AP Science teacher and felt sorry for the guy she was with.  Get two teachers together and all we they talk about is school.  It was great to think -” “not my problem”, but sadly also how bad things are around the country and how education is just the “Peter Principle” in action. At the time I didn’t buy any coasters, the ones I looked at were a bit out of my price range.

Day 2 (Saturday) but wait, there’s more: 

After a nice breakfast at the hotel I walked the half mile to the convention center and got there a little over an hour before the show started.  Waiting in line listening to people talk about this being the only true “Comic” convention. The idea seemed to be that Heroes Con is 100% Comic Books, Baltimore Comic Con is about 90%, Mega Con in Florida is the next in line according to these folks, and everything else has evolved into a star studded photo-op con calling itself a “Comic Con.” I was amazed at the number of people who did podcasts, and had YouTube channels greeting each other and talking shop while I listened in.

I decided once I got in, to see about the line for Skottie Young. I had been a fan since he had done the art in Marvel’s The Wizard of Oz adaptations. I even have a flying monkey drawn when I first saw him at C2E2 and picked up a page from an Oz book at another Con. The day before, I saw the line and tried to jump in, but was told by a volunteer that they were marking the end. On Saturday, there was a nice family in front of me that made me realize more than ever that this isn’t a hobby for everyone. I had three comics I wanted Skottie to sign. Basically the latest issues of Spider-Boy, Miles Morales: Spider-Man, and Amazing Spider-Man. Marvel had put out Skottie Young variant covers of pretty much every comic this month and I figured I had these open my pull list- why not? The guy in front of me was an online reseller, he had brought 50 comics (the limit announced online) for Skottie to sign. These were multiple copies of various issues. From what I understood talking to them they had driven from Michigan for the day. These were strictly for resale, and I kept hearing about how much they would be worth. Now when you get something signed it used to be free. Now it costs something. If you buy something at the table, whatever you buy usually comes with a signature, if you bring something in… it is about $5 or more per book and some artists will limit the number of books you can bring. To me I kinda feels like this is turning comic books into Beanie Babies. I’ve been collecting comics since I was in 3rd grade. I don’t care if it’s popular, for me it’s the character, the art, the story. Just because Wolverine and Deadpool are the latest big thing, doesn’t mean I running out to buy them. So I had to chuckle at this guy and his poor family waiting in line. Will he make a killing? Probably, I hope so. Trends will shift and popular artists will stop being popular as new artists move up the ranks. After an hour or so in line, Skottie did sign my three issues, since I didn’t have the signatures witnessed, and the comics graded and bricked, thy probably aren’t worth anymore than they would be normally, but…

I spent a lot of time trying to hunt down certain creators and once I figured out how end caps were considered in the grand scheme of things it made it easier. One of those was Howard Chaykin. Funny thing was I had run into Howard a couple of times, but couldn’t find his table. I had my copy of American Flagg #1 and The Scorpion #1 I wanted him to sign. Fortunately he was doing a presentation in the afternoon so I started there. Howard Chaykin is one of my crazy heroes. He’s blunt, honest, and has done some amazing comics that definitely aren’t for kids. I was introduced to him in the 1980’s with American Flagg which has sadly gone on to foretell some of the crud we deal with now. The artwork was unique for time and it was (for a kid in high school and college) just a wonderfully dystopian view of society. Howard’s session was wonderful but filled with enough adult content and words, I won’t quote anything here. It was amusing when someone with a family tried to sneak in towards the end (probably to get a seat for the next session) and Howard and the moderator both told them they needed to leave, this was not a kid friendly session.

The second session I attended was on lettering. I recall my first New York Comic Con when Webcomics were just hitting their peak and I attended Webcomics Boot Camp. They critiqued my comics and the biggest issue (besides me not monetizing the strip) was my lettering. The exact comment was “Lettering is an art” with the insinuation that I did not have those skills. So they recommended I just use a hand writing font, which I have done ever since. This session was very educational in that I learned so much about what I didn’t know when it came to the history and importance of role of Letterers in comics. I’m still soaking it all in and will try to improve what I do. Will it actually work? Probably not, but I have the time to try.

I kind of rushed around after that trying to check out tables, and booths I had missed. Found some really cool stuff and even bought a page from JL8, a webcomic I had followed for years. When I buy an actual page, it is for two reasons- first I like the art, but secondly I want to see the process the artist goes through. In this case, it’s the end of an arc, but what I got to see was how the page was put together, and (after a session on lettering) how Yale did his lettering. The blue line, the layout, everything is on the page for me to see.

The Auction

The day ended with the Auction. The proceeds go to charity and to help offset the cost of the Con. A three day badge for HeroesCon costs the same as one day at New York Comic Con. Some artists also asked that the proceeds from the sale of their piece got to Heroes Initiative or to Parkinson’s research, so It isn’t just for the Con. A number of these pieces of art were actually created onsite, there was a stage in which artists would come up and create artwork in front of everyone. There were so many amazing pieces of artwork and the hardest part was just time, I’m getting old and tired out to too fast. I also looked at all the pieces and I kept thinking I just purchased three original pieces of art.  Did I really need another one? Was there anything out there that was just calling out to me, the Chris Giarusso Spider-Man was amazing.  I had Chris on my list, but he was busy drawing when I walked by. Scottie Young’s Deadpool and Wolverine was cool, but they aren’t characters I really have an interest in. They may be popular, but… There were a lot of pieces there that made me think “Wow I’d love to have them,” but I had to think where would I put these? I decided that maybe I didn’t need to bid, so I wanted to just see what the prices are going for, I left early, around 10 o’clock. They were trying to get through as many lots as possible with that happening, things went a lot cheaper than I thought they would. While I was there some pieces went for a couple thousand dollars, but the majority of pieces came in between $250-$500 each which really, for original art, isn’t that much. I now wish i had hung around a little bit longer and would love to have known when they actually closed everything down, but I’m old and my inner introvert needed time to be alone and recharge.

Day 3 (Sunday) on the road again: 

While I have a chance to head back today is also a travel day.  While I love cons, I also love being home and taking all this creative energy and doing something with it.  Usually, if it is a travel day I just want to get from point A to point B.  While I enjoy traveling, I miss my cats.  I’d also say I miss Sue, but I know she’s out caching and even though I was about 9 hours away, I thought I might just beat her home (for the record she beat me home by 30 minutes- if only I hadn’t stopped at Buc-ee’s!). My whole thing, which annoys Sue, is when it comes down to a travel day that’s what I want to do – get home or to the next destination. So while I considered going back to the con on Sunday I decided instead I would just go home and at about 8:30ish Sunday morning I popped in the MINI and started heading home via a different route, which was through Asheville, North Carolina instead of going back through West Virginia. The thing I found is, this is Sunday and this is the South so it gave me a reason to not stop. Since when I hit Asheville most of the places that I would want to stop wouldn’t be open until long after I pass them so that it makes me just go straight and deadhead home. Note: the Sevierville Buc-ee’s is a zoo with horrible traffic and bigger crowds or at least more people squished together than I saw at HeroesCon. The Richmond Kentucky Buc-ee’s was better, but still had numerous people thinking the gas pumps were parking places. 🙄

Overall Impressions

It was amazing, I’ve been to many Cons over the years and this was by far the best when it comes to Comic Books. Early on C2E2 and San Diego were great, but they have morphed into pop culture cons. HeroesCon was exactly what I, as a comic book fanboy, need. The fans are just that, fans. They love the medium of comics and it shows. I haven’t mentioned the cosplayers, not because they weren’t there or they weren’t great, but they weren’t “Professional.” They were fans who loved a character enough to dress up as them. You could see the love put into their costumes, not the perfection (although some were amazing), but the hours of love. These are people who if you asked about their character would be able to tell you their favorite story, not that it came from a video game they like.

(Right) Squirrel Girl cosplay for my friend Janet

My “haul” from HeroesCon 2024 – from tea to art supplies to original art from some of MY heroes.

I loved the fact that unlike a lot of Cons there were no media stars, no wrestlers, no towers of t-shirts, no one calling me to their table to give me a hard sell about their comic or whatever they were selling. There was an understanding, a mutual respect between the participants that you know what you wanted and would stop and look if something caught your eye. If you had questions you’d ask. It was a small town comic con- the kind that is usually housed at the VFW, on steroids. Those cons might have the local comic book creator at a table, here you had over 400 creators.

Will I be back? Most definitely. Although this tends to fall the same weekend as A2CAF, and Brickworld, along with numerous other events I like, I see myself making HeroesCon a priority. While I like A2CAF and Brickworld, both are more tied to my past life as an educator. So as I look at the calendar, HeroesCon 2025 June 20-22 has been penciled in.

Sue and I talk about retiring to someplace when the time comes… We’ve considered North Carolina for decades now. We started to create a rubric of what places needed and HeroesCon ticks the “Geek” box for me. Unfortunately every place we look at then gets mentioned in some magazine or website as a great place to retire and the prices shoot up. Next time I go, I’ll still come in the night before, but I think I will get a hotel room for Sunday also. Maybe in Asheville on the way home, just so I don’t have my typical travel day anxiety and a reason to stop by some of my favorite places the area.

Last Week in Comics (My Pull List 6-12-24)

Posted on June 17, 2024 by Bruce

I’m going to make this one quick with no pre-banter (except this) because I have an entire entry on HeroesCon (spoilers- it was AMAZING!)

This Week’s Comics:

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight The Kryptonian Age #1 – A long time ago DC decided to open up the multiverse with Elseworlds. This was their way to tell unique stories about classic characters. Basically DC’s Version of “What if?” with the exception that What If? usually would go back and retell a marvel story changing one thing – What If Wolverine Killed the Hulk? kinda stuff. Elseworlds would do something like create a world in which Little baby Kal-El lands just outside of Gotham City and is raised by the Waynes, not the Kents. Lot’s and lots of Batman (very popular character) stories… One was Gotham By Gaslight. Take the Batman story and move it back in time to the Victorian Era. Dc has returned to Elseworlds, this time continuing the Gotham by Gaslight story and by the title it seems that Superman might play into it. As of right now, we are being reintroduced to the world of Victorian Gotham City and the issues plaguing the residents.

Spider-Boy #8 – Can Bailey save his friends and make everything right again? With a little help from his friends… anything is possible. But will his mother remember him? The issue is full of fun and games and puzzles as Bailey tries to keep a lasting memento from happier times from being destroyed by a fourth Wall breaking villain.

Lawful #1 – Imagine a world… First issues tend to try to lay the groundwork for the world in which the story takes place. Unless it’s already in an established universe (DC/Marvel) this can be interesting. In the case of Lawful the world has magic, and if you break the rules bad things can happen. first it might be something simple, but as you break more and more rules, you end up changing into something not quite human. We have Sung who as a young boy follows the rules, and his friend who doesn’t (isn’t that always the way? I enjoy seeing how a new series starts and this one has got me waiting for issue #2.

Miles Morales Spider-Man #21 – Sadly, If Marvel keeps going with these crossover stories, I’m going to end up dropping a number of titles. We just finished Gang War, so now we’re in Blood Hunt. ’nuff said.

Strange Academy Blood Hunt #2 – Hey! Vampires! and The class tries to track down Darkhold and try to save the world. Who’s the good guy who’s the bad guy? Who is going to end up saving them- yes, plot twist and surprise guest!

Spectacular Spider-Men #3 – OK- Color me confused… Miles going out on a date with Kamala, Peter married to Gwen (with kids)?!?! Something is going on that makes me want and need to reread the last issue.

Batman and Robin #10 – The conclusion to this arc with Batman and Robin trying to stop Man-Bat from destroying Gotham. While the loose ends form the arc are nicely tied up, new questions are brought up and a new adventure awaits on Dinosaur Island! (play dramatic music)

Ultimate X-Men # 4 – This is one of those comics that i think is going to be amazing, once I have a chance to binge the entire run. Right now (for me) its a bit confusing, and I’m trying to figure out it it is the sale of the storytelling, or just that Haven’t really read X-Men since the Claremont/Byrne days (not including Ultimate X-Men).

Planning a Whimventure®- MINI Takes The States 2024

Posted on June 11, 2024 by Bruce

I know I’ve posted about this before, heck I spent a year drawing monkeys based on MTTS badges. So this is a pretty big thing for me, but it’s also just another Whimventure.
In 2006 MINIUSA, back when they did some amazingly innovative things, decided to put together a cross country roadtrip to celebrate the MINI JCW GP the end of their first iteration of the new MINI. It ran from Monterrey, CA to Limerock CT. They had no clue what they started. Over the years it’s changed into the current version. Every two years MINI owners get together and rally. With the exception of COVID this has been the case. So how do I plan for this? Like any other Whimventure, with a few subtle changes.

There might be an app, we’ll know closer to the start. People have been on the various groups in Social Media asking questions, trying to sell things to help offset the cost of the trip. Some people get sponsors. Some people take it way too seriously. Think of it this way, it’s like going on a cruise where you know where all the ports are, but you are captain of your ship and decide how to get from port to port. Online, be nice, but right now, I’m doing a lot of ignoring, there are “experts” out there, I’m not one of them. Your mileage may vary. I’ve been doing MTTS since 2006. I’ve been on all or part of every single one. My favorite, was probably 2012 (I know it was my wife’s favorite). I’ve seen the event evolve into what it currently is. Do I miss somethings from the past? Sure, but I also understand things change. I’ve learned a lot over the years, and forgotten even more than I’ve learned. As I get ready to head out next month, here’s what I’m doing. It’s your Whimventure® you do you.

MotoringFile does have a nice report on MTTS although it is is filled with ads (somebody’s got to pay for it) You can also go to the MINI Takes the States website for the official word along with so many groups in social media, many being set up as I type this to grab your information and sell you shirts, stickers, magnets, hand knit socks and other stuff. Caveat Emptor.

The Route

This year the route starts in Albuquerque and ends in Seattle. So there’s the first part- getting to the starting place. Some people ship their MINI, I prefer to drive. It will be a drive in which I’m playing some of it by ear, not knowing where I will stop for the night. I do know I am planning on arriving a day early to just take a breath.


In the past only the stopping locations were known. It looks like they have announced a basic route along with host cities. The thing is now, the morning event is pretty much the only mandatory thing each day. So once you get into the city you have time to explore before getting up the next morning and starting all over again.

In the past there were morning events and then an evening event. People really had no time to see where they landed for the night. Making sure you got into town on time added a level of stress to everyone, although some of those evening events are the most memorable parts of the experience. One of my favorites was Washington D.C. in 2012 and watching fireworks over the Mall from the Newseum.
How do so plan for the route? I don’t. I will check Atlas Obscura and Roadside America for quirky place between point A and point B. I also will see what cool places are at the destination. Sue will check things like geocaches with massive favorite points, and stuff like that. We will use the Geocaching and Adventure Lab Apps for ideas as to where to make that left turn instead of right. Now we are on the look out for Thomas Dambo’s Trolls. We will deviate from the route when needed or just on a whim.

Hotels

It’s one night, so it isn’t that big of a deal. Early on MINIUSA had set host hotels with room blocks. Usually these were boutique hotels and a bit pricey, now it’s every MINI owner for themself. Some grab hotels the second the host cities are announced, others wait until the morning venue is announced. I waited until I had time, there is no rush. You could do it on the road if you really wanted, but some cities the number of hotel rooms may be scarce. Should you be close to the morning event? How about downtown? It’s up to you. There will most likely be a line to get into wherever the morning event is happening so just how far do you want your drive & what do you want to spend? We’re kinda all over the place. I just didn’t want to be in a hotel that would smell of antiseptic or so loud that I can’t sleep. It’s only one night. I just finished booking my hotels, and it’s a mixed bag of types and locations. Some cities were really expensive, others, not so much. I’m from Indiana so my idea of expensive, might not match yours.

Packing

They have stores throughout America (it’s called “capitalism”) and while corporate greed has been driving up prices if I really need something I can stop by a store along the route. I understand that there are Dollar General Stores every 200 yards in some communities. So while I do pack, I also don’t worry too much if I forget something.

The First MTTS Grill Badge from 2006
One of the tubs of other MINI SWAG from various events over the years. I consider myself conservative and very selective on what I actually keep.

This is the opportunity to wear all your MINI t-shirts! If you’ve been doing this as long as I have, you have a bunch to choose from. One thing I will guarantee is that you will come back with more shirts than you had when you left. I used to bounce between not wanting to be like everyone and wanting to fit in. Which means wearing a MINI shirt everyday and not wearing one. This time around, I’ll pull out some of my classic shirts (mostly black, because… classic MINI shirts were ALWAYS BLACK) I figure I don’t have a chance to wear these much, so why not?

As for anything else, I pack some jeans maybe a pair of khakis, socks, underwear, my meds (since I am old), a toothbrush, and some toothpaste. I may have time to do a load of laundry since there is a break between Salt Lake City and Bozeman, but who knows what I might want to do instead. It is only 9 days on the road with MINI so I should be able to fit most of my stuff in a carry-on. You may need to plan more if you own a MINI Convertible and are traveling with someone. I know my Roadster is more than capable to take on the task of lugging Sue’s and my stuff around. I also pack at least two pairs of shoes. I learned that wearing the same shoes every day for more than week can get uncomfortable. Also, some shoes are better for driving while others are better for walking.

Buttons and Stickers and Ducks… Oh My!

Here’s where it gets interesting. Originally MINIUSA would provide participants with lanyards and then each day you would get a button in the morning. It was a way to prove you had actually been to wherever they had stopped. Jim McDowell (then VP of MINIUSA) had his Bulldog button, which was coveted and only given out by Jim. You had to do something besides just ask for it. I recall the first ones were given out to those people willing to lift their leg like a dog near a fire hydrant… Cecil decided to make his own button the next MTTS (maybe some others, but I only remember Cecil’s). The next MTTS the floodgates opened and more and more people had buttons to exchange. There isn’t enough room on a lanyard for all the buttons! Then people started giving out other items, stickers, business cards, koozies, you name it. MINI still gave out things, but I think after The Great Thermal Umbrella Stampede it hopefully has settled down. What is the big item everyone wants? Who knows what will happen this year. In 2022 it was MINI Financial Services magnets from each destination. With people stealing them off of cars which is very unMINI like.

Why? Are these are ways to prove your existence? Like having 1,000,000 Facebook “friends” or followers or whatever. It gives people a sense of belonging, of importance. It’s nice that someone is tracking you down so they can have a complete set of buttons. At some point the question becomes, what will I do with all this stuff? My “collection” is in a tub, in the basement. I may do something with it sometime.

Do I have SWAG to give away? Yes, I’m a lemming. My problem is I get so many ideas and it is so easy to have things made now days. I have a button for MINIon 4238 (that would be me) I have a button for MINIons Take the States along with a sticker. I have a classic MINI Takes the States sticker. I have a “Start in the Wrong Place” button and sticker. I even have Whimventure® Stickers. My plan is to not have anything specifically MTTS related left before I get to Seattle. So I didn’t buy that much of any item – maybe 50. (It also makes my stuff a lot more “collectible.”)

What the duck?!? Yes, while the Jeep World (that has a much better PR department) has been overwhelmed by “ducking,” the urban legend is that it all started with MINI. I’ve seen news reporting both. Some people will place ducks on your MINI. I have avoided this, probably because I just haven’t found a duck I like, plus, I like things that are unique. Will I be putting ducks on people’s MINIs? You’ll know when the time comes. If I had a 3D Printer… things would get ugly.

What should you do? Whatever you want. If you want to pass out ducks, or buttons, or stickers, or hand knit socks… do whatever you want and what you can afford. Owning a MINI isn’t cheap, going to #CampMINI isn’t cheap. Don’t feel the pressure to do anything you don’t want to. Some MINI Owners will do everything, others will do nothing. Don’t be surprised if you have some left over.

Past Experience – A Typical Day

Get up, get out of bed, drag a comb across your head. Once you check out of your hotel, head to the Rise and Shine. Wait in line and be directed where to park by the friendly and helpful parking staff. You’ll get to know these folks and everyone else working the event over the course the Rally. There will be people with ginormous flags marking their location because… I really don’t know, but it makes them happy.

If it’s your first time, have your paperwork in order. Be that printed, or on your phone, or tattooed to your ankle. When you are checked in you will get a lanyard and a badge for whatever you paid for. In this case, I’m guessing one day, will get a wristband, “Going All the Way” will get one kind of badge, if you are only doing half (Ending in Salt Lake City or starting in Bozeman) you’ll get another.

Check in every day this might be getting your badge scanned, it might be something else entirely, but check in. You should also be able to pick up a paper map for today’s route. They’ve tried a bunch of different technological solutions, but a paper map makes a lot of people more comfortable. There will be breakfast there (maybe even yummy breakfast burritos).

There should be a row of tables, and tents. One of the tables is where you check in. There will be a bunch of people looking lost (these will be the people just joining). Each table will offer something different. There will be SWAG, MINI Financial Services, MINI Service, a local charity, I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but basically like a comic book convention walk the tables, enter in the raffles they are having, pick up the SWAG. Throughout the morning there will be announcements, and entertainment, and the “Pocket of Doom.” Meet people, look at and admire everyone’s MINI and the You-ification they have done to make their MINI “Not Normal.” After the final raffle drawings and announcements (maybe even an auction of rare MINI related stuff) everyone will be asked to get ready to leave. This means, everyone will rush to the bathrooms. Once everyone is back to their cars, the lines will be sent off to much fanfare. After you leave the location, it is up to you as to what you do next.

Somewhere on the route, there might be a “Surprise and Delight” what is it? I don’t know, it’s a surprise. It usually is a roadside location or someplace cool. Sometimes there is SWAG there to pick up. This makes those folks who need it all (See the Great Thermal Umbrella Stampede) rushing to get there first so they don’t miss out! Other times along the route you might see a group of MINIs stopped for a photo op. Stop and see what’s so exciting. Maybe they just stopped on a whim, maybe for ice cream.

You’ll see a MINI on the road- don’t forget to WAVE. If you have a radio you might call out to them. Channel 7 sub 21 is typical for MINI, but some groups set their own so that they can avoid unnecessary chatter. When you get to your destination, check into your hotel. Explore the city if you have a chance. Eat dinner, got to sleep and do it all again the next day.

I have always said when you buy a MINI you get a new family… usually with an overwhelming number of weird uncles and aunts who your parents have told you to not follow their example. MINI Takes The States is a great way to get to know other people who love their MINIs as much as you do. If you didn’t why would you spend the money to register, and be a part of this adventure? Over the years I have sat with many of my friends who I would never have gotten to know if it weren’t for this crazy little car. I look forward to meeting new people and just having fun once I arrive in Albuquerque.

Something Will Go Wrong

Yes, as they say “The best laid plans of mice.” It could be something new they are trying like a map app, or breakfast, or they run out of whatever SWAG is in demand this year, or your hotel, or whatever. Be patient, be kind. Yelling and complaining will get you nowhere and it is the most unMINI thing I can think of. MINIUSA and the people working MTTS will do everything in their power to make sure you have a great time (kinda like staying at a Disney Resort) but they can only do so much and be so nice. If something goes wrong, DON’T PANIC, “It’s all part of the show.” To prepare ahead of time, I’m taking my 2012 Roadster in for a check up (Tire rotation, fluid top off, alignement check) and at least an oil change. Alfie (aka Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All) has been on every MTTS since 2012 when he went cross country on temporary plates, he’s not missing this one if he can help it. If something goes wrong, I know MINI will have people there to help and will schedule time at the nearest dealership if needed. It won’t be free, but it is a bit of piece of mind. Getting to Albuquerque and back home, I’m on my own (unless I win Roadside Assistance for a year in a morning raffle). but that’s all part of the adventure.