The Lonely Cache
Posted on September 7, 2024 by Bruce

A Year in MINIons- MINIon #0020

Posted on March 21, 2015 by Bruce
I0020 mentioned podcasts before and how there are some I’ve just kept with since I first discovered them.  White Roof Radio, Podcacher, and Decoder Ring Theatre.  I discover the last one while just randomly searching for something new, and instantly knew it was my kind of show.  I remember listening to the original “Shadow” and one of my favorite short stories is “Jeffty is Five” by Harlan Ellison, so I’m a sucker for nostalgia.  So Decoder Ring Theatre produces a series of radio dramas in the style of the 1930’s & 40’s, one featuring “Black Jack Justice” crime noir with a comedic twist, and then the adventures of “Canada’s Greatest Super Hero” the Red Panda.  (Did I mention this group is out of Toronto?) I’m a very grumpy person if I miss an episode.  So I present MINIon #0020- named after the episode the introduced one of Cecil’s favorite villains, and what I thought was my radio call sign- until I was informed otherwise.  Listen to it and see if you can’t figure it out 🙂 Episode #20  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

A Year in MINIons- MINIon #0097

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Bruce
0097There are a few icons in the MINI community, when I bought my first MINI I was told about MINIon #0097, a “MINIGuru,” and over the years I have been helped out by this good samaritan and expert on all things MINI.  He put in the pulley, air intake, and infamous “Zoomer’s” exhaust in my first MINI.  He helped to diagnose the initial issues with the classic including the advice to drive straight home after Mini Meet East in Alcoa, Tennessee and not drive the Dragon with a broken steering rack. Most recently he loaned me a scan gauge on MTTS 2014 and with a glance told me it was the thermostat.  I will always recommend MINIon #0097’s shop in Atlanta if you need any bits or bobs, work done on your MINI, or an honest opinion about a mod.

A Year in MINIons- MINIon #0064

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Bruce
0064Over the years I’ve learned that there are many different kinds of geeks, and I’ve spoken about this multiple times in the past.  So many people think that if you are a geek on one topic, you’re a geek in all topics… umm… nope.  You see I consider myself a geek when it comes to comic books, and Star Trek.  When it comes to stuff like manga, Stargate, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer- no so much.  In some cases it’s because they reached peak popularity when I was busy with other things. It’s not that I don’t appreciate other pop culture things, but I just may not have spent enough time to become a geek.  One of those blackholes in my geek rep is video games.  I’m old enough to have played “Pong” and an Atari 2600… but you see I had an older brother.  My brother was really good at playing video games, to a point where it was easier to just not play.  So while I did play some games, I tended to avoid video games at home.  A few years ago I even tried World of Warcraft with my older brother.  I dropped out because he had already maxed out his character and would swoop into to “help” and it just stopped being fun.  I felt like Parzival hanging around killing off kobolds and waiting for them to respawn to gain experience.  Soon I decided it wasn’t just my brother being helpful, but I was too much of an introvert to deal with the social aspects of MMORPGs.  For the record my favorite arcade game growing up was the Star Trek Strategic Operations Simulator, which was a simple vector graphics reimagining of Spacewar.  Although I did spend a lot of tokens in the Star Wars X-Wing simulator (sitdown version).

A Year in MINIons- MINIon #1883

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Bruce
1883Arrgh! A’vast ye scurvy ooks!  I’ve had an image for a while of a pirate MINIon.  There are many stereotypical pirate motifs and have probably missed a few.  Then again, MINIon #1883 shares the publication date of “Treasure Island”   maybe he knows where the treasure, or bodies are buried.

A Year in MINIons- MINIon #0387

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Bruce
0387So I’m getting back into the hang of work all day, come home and drawing. Not as bad as I remember it. Today’s MINIon has been brought to you by the color green, and the number 387. For those who have had the misfortune to have known me since I was a child (hmmm… actually I don’t think there is anyone here who fits that description). I had red hair as a kid (my ancestors were kicked out of Ireland for sheep rustling- or at least that’s the story I’ve heard). My hair was more auburn than red, my older brother… the part that isn’t white, is still very red. So I know about the Irish genes fair complexion, freckles, sunburn (all the time).  On MINI Takes The States I usually get asked about if my sunburn hurts, because I tend to forget to apply sunscreen at least one day and that day tends to be a bright sunny day, in the desert. Happy St. Patrick’s Day- and don’t forget pinching the wrong person can get you arrested and a black eye.

A Year in MINIons- MINIon #0008

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Bruce
0008For those who don’t know, Terry Pratchett, author of the “Discworld Series,” passed way… Let’s start by saying I’m I a big fan of certain authors.  Unfortunately, many of the authors I read either die, or stop writing.  You see, I’m a fan of a rather narrow genre called “Comic Fantasy”  It all started in high school. with Robert Lynn Aspirin’s “MythAdventures”.  After that I moved on to the Discworld Series in which “Sir Terry” commented on the world’s issues through the lens of a fantasy world.  I’ve read many of his novels and, frankly, recommend any, and all of them…  His first novel in this series “The Color of Magic” defines a few things, including the importance of the number 8,  my favorite colour- violet, and the character “Rincewind.”

A Year in MINIons- MINion #2015

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Bruce
2015Really? I decided to do a “Year in MINIons”? It’s past 11:30 and I still haven’t posted today’s MINIon.  What was I thinking? As a commentary for today’s MINIon, let’s just say when Cecil learned that a certain movie would have “minions” in it, he was first perturbed, and then he saw what studio was making it and decided that it wasn’t a big deal, since only on rare occasions had that studio produced anything original, creative, or with any staying power… within a year it would be forgotten. Now he’d just like to remind everyone that he was using the term MINIon long before any film came out with “cute little yellow creatures” in it- not the other way around.