adventure lab – My Geek Odyssey

This Week in Comics (My Pull List 5-15-24) and traveling with the Monkey

Posted on May 16, 2024 by Bruce

So last weekend we headed to Mansfield, Ohio to go prison. What does this have to do with comics? Not much, but it does have something to with environment and images. You see one of the MINI groups we run with planned a tour of the Ohio State Reformatory. This is the same group that had tour of the Randolph County Asylum, hmmm… coincidence?

Why the Ohio State Reformatory? It was the location for the film “The Shawshank Redemption.” It’s an impressive building from the outside and a work in progress on the inside. Sue and I spent the night before in Mansfield and did some geocaching and adventure labbing. There is an Adventure Lab that takes you to many of the locations used in the film which was cool. It seems that thanks to “Hollywood Magic” Mansfield took the place of Maine with almost every scene being shot there except the final scene on the beach… which was done using primitive AI technology 🤪 (it wasn’t, they actually went to the U.S. Virgin Islands).

I understand the importance of drawing from real life and one of those things I always find frustrating is trying to do that with a group of people wanting to move onto the next spot. or trying to draw while also trying to learn about the place from the tour guide. So I take some photos and maybe use them as inspiration when needed. So far I haven’t needed, but someday I might.

Cecil came along (of course) and since this is a newish group of people I got to explain the monkey all over again. My usual response is “I’m an old elementary school teacher, and this is my class mascot. I take him places and my students like to see where he’s been.” As you get know me, you know he’s a lot more than that. Besides being a character in this comic (when I actually draw the comic) you learn he’s my extroverted personality. He does all the silly things, I don’t do. He’s my excuse to come up to complete strangers and ask for a photo. He’s an icebreaker for when I’m too shy to talk to someone. He’s an alter ego… with a big ego. I have friends, not because of me, but specifically because of the monkey.

I just remember being at a MINI event and someone was coveting the exclusive MINIon badge that each person in the group I drove with had. They met someone from the group and when they found out I was involved asked I was still carrying around that stupid monkey. I found out about it. When they came up to me and asked if they could get a badge, because they had heard I was the guy to talk to (I am the guy to talk to), I replied that being MINIon 4238 I was so far down the line, I had nothing to do with it. They needed to talk to someone with a lower MINIon number. Don’t ever disrespect the monkey.

This Week’s Comics:

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #20 – One of those “filler issues” that I actually like. It gives you a chance to build up characters and relationships without much chaos. Of course there is some chaos, but still and nice art walk with friends and “Shift” stats to gain a bigger role, which is nice. Of course we have to end the whole thing with Vampires since that is the summer mega event. 🙄

Action Comics #1065 (House of Brainiac 3) – we’ve got Lobo, Superman, the whole Super Family against Brainiac and a special guest appearance by the Space Cabbie! It seems that Brainiac has a city collection more vast that we first thought and this will play into future issues (next in Superman #14).

Batman and Robin # 9 – Batman captured by Man-Bat and Robin still trying to figure things out… and finally doing it. getting the Principal to snap (I think it really had to do with low test scores and not getting teacher evaluations done on time) and the identity of “Shush.” So now Gotham is about to be “saved” in some weird psychotic way by Man-Bat. Let’s see- No Zur En Arrh, no Orghams, it’s interesting to try and figure out when in Batman’s timeline all these stories are taking place. It’s a comic, it really doesn’t matter.

Dark Ride #12 – It looks like the conclusion. Who will end up controlling Devil Land? Who lives? Who dies? It has been an interesting ride as we see the story behind Satanic Disneyland.

Fishflies #6 – Yes! a history lesson and we finally learn why a giant bug is running around the county and what his purpose is. I like the way the flashback was done monochromatically. How will the news at the end impact the story?

U & I # 4 of 6 – So the bad guts go after U. Can Isabelle save him? I frankly have sadistically enjoyed the trouble Isabelle’s uncle has gotten himself into- Karma is beautiful. Unfortunately, it might not work out well for U & I in the end, but we have two issues to get there.

The Displaced #4 – It’s been months since the small town of (weird, I don’t remember it’s name) disappeared from the map and memories of everyone in the world, except those who escaped it. Those folks now are forgotten the minute they leave your sight. This has lead to some interesting ways to dealing with life- rob someone, and they don’t remember it, check into a hotel, and they don’t remember you did and give the room to someone else. Now it’s starting to wear on everyone… the way to escape? leave everyone, and go off on your own… although it looks painful, you then disappear too. Where do you go? I think many hope they return to the friends and family they lost when the town vanished.

It’s interesting, when I read this comic I go back and think of how people come in and out of our lives. Sometimes you forget them, others you don’t. I feel bad, because I’m one of those teachers who, try as I might, can’t remember all of my students. After 35 years, 3 schools, and thousands of kids, my memory is faulty. Having taught elementary school doesn’t help, because kids age and change (I think it’s called puberty) which doesn’t help. Worse yet is 20 minutes after a former student leaves, sad that I don’t recall their humorous exploits, I remember everything, and feel even worse. What’s also sad are the number of kids (now adults) who come up and tell me they were “bad kids.” In 35 years I’ve only had a handful of kids who were “bad” and most of them it was their parents who really made them memorable (or the thing of nightmares).

Ultimate X-Men #3 – We learn the story of Mei the white haired girl with lightning bolt earrings. The last word of the speech bubble in the last panel… “mutants” I wonder what that could mean?

Star Trek #20 – Since this takes place in a pre-Picard time period as the Theseus gets and overhaul at Utopia Planitia we get to meet Commander Liam Shaw who seems to be making the rounds in the comics since he can’t make the rounds anymore streaming because <SPOILERS>. So off they go where “No Man Has Gone Before” in hopes to save the Organians. Who will they meet? Dr. Crusher is hoping to be reunited with Wesley.

The Second Happiest Place on Earth – Day 5 “Troll Hunting”

Posted on March 15, 2024 by Bruce

Thursday: Walked 6.27 miles

Yes, I said troll hunting!!! After a quick discussion in the morning we decided to go troll hunting by doing an adventure lab focused on the trolls created by artist Thomas Dambo we found one early on and decided to skip a few of the touristy spots to go walking and looking for trolls. It didn’t influence our decision at all that there was an adventure lab connected to finding the Trolls… nope, not at all.

Being married for over 30 years there gets to be a bit of mutual martyrdom, especially when traveling. Neither of us wants to have the other one do things they don’t like… or if we do at least in moderation. I’ll spend time in a yarn or fabric shop and Sue will spend time at a comic book shop or LEGO Store. It’s a trade off but we each feel as if we are getting the better end of the deal. Trollhunting was my idea, but since they were tied to Adventure Labs and a few geocaches I hope it evened out. The one thing we both realized was just how out of shape we are. We may have only walked six and a quarter miles, but it was over various terrain, something it looked like the Danes were used to, and we weren’t.

So today we squelched through mud, and walked on trails to answer questions about five different trolls hidden in the Danish countryside. There is a 6th “bonus troll” but we decided not to back track to hunt him, we were tired and wanted to head to Billund. We did decide that (like many of our trips) that we really enjoyed Denmark even being here on the off season. We’ve already talked about not spending enough time in Copenhagen and how we really want to return sometime when everything is open. I’ve also decided that I really want to make sure that I use my passport at least once a year. I guess I just added a #71 to the bucket list. Tomorrow is the actual reason for the trip… the LEGO House Fan Tour.

Note: The Troll Map shows that there are actually a few trolls near us, in Ohio and Kentucky. I’m also checking out other places we will be heading out over the summer, the troll hunt never ends… The ones in Chicago were removed and Indiana is too scary a place for trolls to inhabit. 😢

The Second Happiest Place on Earth – Day 3 “Alas Poor Yorick”

Posted on March 13, 2024 by Bruce

Tuesday: Walked 5.48 miles

We did a lot today starting with a Troll hunt. There is an artist who makes giant trolls around the world. A bunch are in Denmark, one was on our way to Helsingor (Elsinore) and the castle Shakespeare used as inspiration for Hamlet. Also on the way were a number of caches and adventure lab stages. I dropped off the first of my travel bugs- let’s see what happens. Geocachers know that in the U.S. travel bugs and geocoins tend to go missing. I even did a comic about Cecil’s collection. In Europe, that is not the case, While not the general rule I have found (anecdotal evidence) that even when the attached object goes missing the tag will still travel from cache to cache or event to event and be logged. I brought two Trackables with me- A MINI Cooper Hot Wheels , and a Geocoin that I had picked up at a local Leap Day event. I decided more than that would be overkill and add stress to the trip. (Update: the Trackable MINI was picked up while we were still in Denmark🤞that it will get moved around)

There were some caches and an Adventure Lab around Krønborg before and after we toured the castle we were able to get the AL completed. Remember: a lot of things don’t open until April so a number of the things that would be open were just starting to get ready. If you’ve toured a large historic house in the U.S. or another castle in Europe you might understand the way things go- it’s a big house with history. There is a reason why this spot was picked. Who the heroes and who are the villains change and what time period they want showcase can determine that. All this does is make me realize how much I don’t know when it comes to other country’s history. By the law of Tourists in Europe we had now completed the requirements by visisting a cathedral and now a castle, the tourist police cannot arrest us- one less anxiety I have to deal with.

After handling the cold (it’s next to the ocean- sea breezes bring about cold.) we headed for the hotel with a minor detour to Denmark’s oldest geocache located near one of Sue’s favorite places, a bog. We walked the geopath and signed the log. Cecil dropped off the last of the trackables he had and we headed to Copenhagen and the hotel to defrost, rest up and get ready for whatever tomorrow will bring.

The Second Happiest Place on Earth – Day 2 The Bellybutton of Denmark and Beyond

Posted on March 12, 2024 by Bruce

Monday: walked 6.41 miles

I learned in my research a couple of things- first, museums are closed on Mondays and Sue told me LEGOland doesn’t open until the end of the month. 😢 This turned Monday into a “play it by ear” day… which means catering to our whims. After waking up and then crashing again… I’m glad that elephant was on guard. I looked around our room and realized that we had just let our suitcases explode and after a knock on the door from the cleaning crew, decided we may need to get our act together. because we were off to Odense where I had booked the next hotel… but what circuitous route should we take?

Using Geocaching & Adventure Labs (AL) as ways to explore unknown areas.

I’m not too fond of geocaching to just get numbers or color in a map or grid (That’s Sue). That’s why I don’t cache that much around home. I have returned to attending local events, but mostly that’s what I do unless we are traveling. When traveling geocaching opens the area to me unlike so many other things. It’s like having a local show you around. Once we checked out of the hotel we decided to take a bit of a walk around Billund before leaving. I think I did well choosing a hotel walking distance from LEGO House. This will make getting to Friday’s Tour easier. We wandered the area around LEGO House to make sure we had an idea of our environment (no guard elephants to keep us safe now). We popped into LEGO House and decided to leave before I got to the point of just staying, or buying stuff. So instead we picked up a few AL stages and an actual cache before heading to Jelling to do a bit of the same. Why Jelling? Jelling is home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a Viking Museum (see note about Museums & Mondays). After wandering around Jelling doing one of the ALs and picking up at least one geocache we realized that we were cold, and that we had been smart bringing cold weather gear, just not smart enough to put it on. We then headed to our stop for evening, Odense.

Interestingly today was planned specifically as a day of acclimation. For us to get used to being outside and walking in late winter, early spring temperatures, but also to get a feeling of how long it takes to get from place to place. In the U.S. if I’m planning a long drive I tend to divide the distance by 60 to get a conservative idea of how long it will take. We found in England, that wasn’t the case. It took longer, maybe it was because we were not on major roads for a lot of it, but the anxiety in me decided that having a day to figure things out might be good. What did we discover? That we are going places “off the beaten path” so plan for more time than you think. Sue got the car, so Sue was the driver… it was out of my control.

After Jelling we arrived in Odense, parked the car and headed to the hotel. The hotel had given us parking recommendations, so the lot was just around the corner. Check in wasn’t until 16:00 but we thought we’d check to see if we get in at around 14:00. We could, and we plopped in the room for a few minutes before heading out. We were told “turn right” to get to pretty much everything so we did, so as to get the lay of the land. We then started hunting around to see about caches and Adventure Labs leading us to the cathedral of St. Canute. The hard part was the entire adventure lab was in Danish! It required me to flex my tech muscles and use Google Translate and then special characters when typing in answers. We still haven’t figured out one part… so we can’t complete it. Not to worry, there are other AL that we haven’t finished and probably won’t. You see early on the default was to create a sequential route. You couldn’t move on to the next stage until you answered the question. Most AL didn’t have a reason to have an order, so it just gets in the way and makes you retrace your steps a larger scale version of the old “drunken bee dance.” One thing that was awesome about Odense was the lack of cars in the city center. It’s all either bikes or pedestrians. The bikes are fast, so you need to keep alert, but it was nice to not have to worry so much. Wish it had not been Monday, I would have liked to visit the Hans Christian Andersen Museum… maybe another time.

While we did eat in Amsterdam, Spicy Korean Fries at BrewDog, our first real meal was at a nice cafe towards the end of the afternoon. The experience was a bit different compared to the U.S.- order and pay first at the bar. Sue had a stir fry thing and I had a “spicy sandwich.” Both were excellent but not Danish cuisine. Sometimes you just want “food.”

Afterwards, we camped out for a bit in the room, but decided the one thing we didn’t want to do was go to sleep too early. I looked out the window and tried to figure out what was going on in a building across the street. Tables and bright colored stuff on the wall. First thought, it was some kind of a Sue store- it sold fabrics, yarn and sundries. I kept looking and saw what looked like a dragon head on the wall. Later Sue got tired of me puzzling over it and decided we needed to pick up provisions for tomorrow which would require a walk by the building. It was a geek store- by which I mean games, comics, books, cosplay/LARP (Faraos Cigarer a chain of stores throughout Denmark- the name comes from TinTin). I decided to quietly walk in and check it out… oh my! I really need to brush up on my TinTin and other European comics! After a while decided to head out… checking their hours for tomorrow, I saw on the door they were actually closed! The door was open for the gaming group, not customers! 😳🙄 At the local grocery store we picked up snacks for the road and some drinks- the Danish version of Vitamin Water. Then it was off to bed to be ready for the drama and tragedy the next day would bring.