Tag Archives: DPchallenge

The Springs in Fall — 2015 Photos #21: Lithic Landscape Lollygagging

April 1, 2016 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 6 Comments

Palmer Park!

Day Five was the last full day of our week in Colorado Springs. I had a late-morning appointment that left me with an hour or so to waste after hotel breakfast #4. I scoped out my options on the east side of town and decided to hang out at Palmer Park, nothing I’d heard of before my vacation research. It’s a plot of land slightly smaller than Central Park, but encapsulating all the Rocky Mountain scenery I’d been exploring and driving around all week. The best part was, the petite peaks of Palmer Park were a picnic to perambulate.

Right this way for nature and scenery and panoramas and such!

C2E2 2016 Photos: Dance of the Mad Deadpools

March 20, 2016 By in Comics/Lit, Conventions & Events Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
Dance of the Mad Deadpools!

Toting around a boom-box blaring mad beatz, roaming the show and rapping all Friday long, that’s Deadpool on the left with his funky pal Spidey, whose costume is red enough that he basically counts as an honorary Deadpool.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: my wife and I spent two days at the seventh annual Chicago Comics and Entertainment Exposition — or “C2E2” to Ichabod Crane and other acronym haters out there — where Midwest comics fans in particular and geeks in general gather together in the name of imaginary worlds from print and screen to revel in fiction and touch bases on what’s hot or cool at this moment in pop culture. Larger shows like San Diego have garnered the nickname “nerd prom”, which I don’t care for because I have issues with the word “nerd”, but I’ll agree the always fascinating cosplayers make every con quite the extraordinary masquerade ball.

Longtime MCC readers know Deadpool cosplayers have been a rapidly growing demographic in previous cons. C2E2 is the first con we’ve attended since the Merc with a Mouth got his own movie in theaters that’s raked in a ridiculous $340 million at the American box office with no signs of stopping anytime soon. So naturally his variants once again ruled the dance floor and were the belles of the ball.

Right this way for Deadpool! Deadpool! DEADPOOL!

The Springs in Fall — 2015 Photos #15: A Most Vibrant House of Worship

January 29, 2016 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Cadet Chapel!

After lunch on Day Three, I headed back to the hotel to rendezvous with Anne, who had reported to work hours early by request in exchange for an earlier departure. They would’ve been more than happy to let her work ten or twelve hours, but excess overtime hadn’t been part of trip planning. She also really liked the idea of having time to rejoin me on the sightseeing before all the best places closed. She’d missed out on nearly everything I did Monday. In my book, she deserved to see more of what Colorado Springs had to offer.

We did our best to make it count. Next stop: the U.S. Air Force Academy, one of the few military installations in the city that allows civilians inside. We’re not allowed access to all 18,500 acres, but of all the permissible parts, the most fascinating is the Cadet Chapel.

Most of these photos were shot inside the nave during early sundown. Above: the view toward the altar. Below: straight-up shot of the vaulted, pointed ceiling.

Cadet Chapel Ceiling!

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The Springs in Fall * 2015 Photos: Circles of Sugar and Joy

January 1, 2016 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Amy's Donuts!

Of all the food we enjoyed during our six November days in Colorado Springs, none made a more lasting impression than these six sweet, intricate, handcrafted circles filled with creative ingredients, sinful carbs, and a heaping helping of love.

Right this way for the names and my motives behind this purchase…

Christmas is Over for Now

December 28, 2015 By in Mundane Tags: , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Xmas Countdown!

With one Christmas countdown ended, now another Christmas countdown has begun. The chalkboard Santa in our annual Christmas diorama is a little too anxious to push us forward, encourage us to start saving up already, and have us ignore the next fifteen major holidays in favor of his. Nice try, Santa, but you were too late to stop the one store I saw this afternoon that already had Valentine’s Day swag on the shelves, right on schedule.

Right this way for light musings as we prepare to burn off what’s left of 2015!

Breakfast with the Blue Screen of Death

December 12, 2015 By in Mundane Tags: , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Blue Screen of Death!

Anne and I went out for our usual Saturday breakfast today and were greeted with a fun reminder of how much the restaurant business has changed since ye olden tymes. The young crew members who provided us with grade-A coffee and service explained the error happened the night before and…well, here it still was. Oops!

I can vouch for the fact that restaurant tech support, even for major corporate chains, isn’t always a 24-hour service. Back in the day, though, we didn’t need it to keep our menus from crashing.

Right this way for another quick memory of The Way Things Used to Be…

2015 Road Trip Photos #26: Ornate for the Divine

November 8, 2015 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

St Louis Cathedral!

On the morning of our second full day in New Orleans, one of our first stops was St. Louis Cathedral. The majority of the structure dates back to 1850, with minute portions integrated from still older predecessors. It’s the centerpiece of Jackson Square (as you’ll notice in the preceding chapter), free for tourists to visit (donations are suggested), serves an active congregation, and remains the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans.

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My October Symphony of Treats

October 30, 2015 By in Mundane Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments
Salted Caramel Pizookie!

Best of show: the Salted Caramel Pizookie at BJ’s Restaurant and Brewery in Avon, Indiana — an oven-baked caramel cookie as big as a Personal Pan Pizza, filled with almond toffee, pretzel bites, and both white and dark chocolate chips. Because that’s obviously not enough, on top is vanilla-bean ice cream, caramel sauce, and more dark chocolate chips. Just looking at this photo counts as 500 calories. Sorry, dieters.

October has been a delicious month for us, and not because of those tiny prepackaged candies that Big Chocolate wants us all to worship. In that spirit, today we present a montage of five happy treats that provided me much-needed happy-time boosts through a month of unprecedented busyness. Enjoy!

Right this way for four more reasons why I’m not a size Medium!

Ordinary Groceries, Extraordinary Cause

October 16, 2015 By in Indiana Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

COOKIES!

Sorry, folks. None of these are for you. If it makes you feel better, I couldn’t have any, either.

Right this way for a mini-sequel to an event from last year!

2015 Road Trip Photos #5: Signs of the Revolution

August 11, 2015 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , 9 Comments

Freedom Walk!

Day Two, early Sunday morning in Alabama: we arrived at our first stop in the heart of Birmingham, a few hours before most of the city would wake up, some fifty years after our country began to wake up.

The four-acre Kelly Ingram Park is an idyllic public gathering spot, a touch of verdant life in a graying downtown, and a momentous landmark of tumultuous times. In the 1960s the stone walkways beneath our feet once hosted impassioned demonstrations against oppression, segregation, and various acts of racism both institutional and internal. Today various signs and statues around the park serve as reminders of what it was like to walk in their footsteps and stand where they took a stand.

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2014 Road Trip Photos #31: Outtakes on the Way

May 31, 2015 By in Indiana, Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , 9 Comments
Starry Night Buffalo!

This “Starry Night” buffalo was one of several unexpected sights we saw while driving but weren’t in a position to pull over for careful posing. I slowed my roll, my wife got the shot, and then I totally overlooked it while I was compiling the Day 5/6 Fargo/Moorhead pics. Let’s just pretend we were saving the best buffalo for last.

With each year’s travelogue we like to conclude with a second-chance review through the hundreds of photos we took to see which photos were unfairly cut from the final roster, which ones didn’t fit into the narrative but possess their own merit, and/or which ones slipped through the cracks for no valid reason. The eight pics in this first set of outtakes share a common bond: all were taken on the way there and back again while our vehicle was in motion. No brakes, no setup, just snapping as quickly as we could. It’s all a part of the MCC No Attraction Left Behind initiative.

(As always, photos are clickable for enlargement and resolution and such.)

Right this way for more sights and signs on the way!

MCC’s Top 15 Favorite Cosplay Photos of 2014

December 6, 2014 By in Conventions & Events Tags: , , , , , , , , 9 Comments
Bucky, OLD SCHOOL.

Extremely honorable mention: Captain America’s sidekick Bucky, comics old-school style.

As of last weekend my wife and I officially finished our 2014 convention schedule. We attended seven cons this year, our new all-time record. In addition to our annual Chicago trips, Indianapolis itself became the epicenter of a Midwest convention explosion and offered us more opportunities than ever to meet comics creators, greet actors old and young, buy cool stuff, and see lovingly crafted costumes drawn from across several decades and all available media. Some cons fared better than others; some will return in 2015 with lessons learned and bigger plans than ever; and at least one will be a mere footnote in local geek history. At least two more newcomers, Wizard World Indianapolis and Culture Shock, are also inviting themselves to the dance for 2015. Somehow our convention bubble is bursting and expanding at the same time.

We here at Midlife Crisis Crossover would like to thank the crew and guests of all the cons we attended this year, throw a shout-out to those people we met whose names we didn’t catch (and vice versa), and salute the scores of cosplayers we saw, photographed, and appreciated for their presence, their fandom, their inspired creativity, and their fortitude in the face of the physical rigors, the construction costs, the naysayers, the gatekeepers, and the gawkers like us who stop you every three feet because either (a) we don’t get you but we love what you did, or (b) we do get you and your brilliant character choice just made our day.

In particular, this entry goes out to fifteen of the standouts we captured from among that vast, maddeningly talented crowd. Thanks for helping make our 2014 an unprecedented, wondrous, far-out year of geekiness.

Right this way for the niftiest of the nifty!

The Spirit of Health Care Yet to Come (for me)

September 18, 2014 By in Mundane Tags: , , , , , , , , 3 Comments
Health Care.

I can think of four or five things wrong with that sign.

After five months without a chronic back-pain incident, I wake up this morning with slight, tender stiffness. Clock in at 7 a.m. Twenty minutes later my back begins to throb a little. I grab cafeteria breakfast at 7:30. Five minutes and three bites after sitting back down at my desk, the throbbing promotes itself to full-on spasms. Waves of pain roil outward from my lower back, on and off for thirty to forty minutes. So much for this week’s overtime.

Back pain and I are no strangers. It’s a recurring issue for me caused by, I’m told, years of poor posture plus the weight I’ve regained over time in the years after my diet. Some bouts last a day or two; some, only an hour before the pain dissipates at the mercy of ibuprofen. Not every incident requires a medical intervention.

And then there are days like today…

Terracotta War Comes to the Heartland

August 12, 2014 By in Indiana, Misc. Media Tags: , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Terra Cotta Warriors

Here’s something we never thought we’d see visiting the American Midwest: real Terracotta Warriors, straight out of the world-famous Shaanxi province collection. They seemed a fascinating thing, but we were surprised that their current caretakers would allow the collection to be split up.

Rare are the opportunities to see such unique creations up close, to examine the once-painted clay surfaces, the cracks from erosion and light restoration, the intricate textures of these sculptures carved over two millennia ago. Other artifacts exist from the same century, circa 200-odd B.C., as shown below. They’re interesting in their own way, but they’re hardly the stars of the show.

Terra Cotta Warriors

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“Breakfast Supper Nights”: a Tribute to EXTRA Breakfast for Dinner

June 18, 2014 By in Mundane Tags: , , , , , , , , 17 Comments

Breakfast for dinner!

Behold one of the greatest pleasures of my work month: that very special occasion known as “breakfast for dinner”, or in some circles “breakfast for supper”. Always consult your local linguist for proper lingo before discussing cool things.

Tonight was that night for us, a bit of perfect timing for me since I’d had salad for lunch. Don’t get me wrong: fine salad, varied ingredients, fresh quality, but it only whets the appetite through part of the afternoon. Come three p.m. I’m already scrounging through my desk for emergency cheese-‘n’-crackers or stale chips left over from previous months’ birthday pitch-ins. But the premature hunger pangs are worth it if you know there’ll be a feast waiting for you when you eventually get home once you’re done working too much overtime yet again. Thankfully my wife has taken to making each breakfast-for-supper event an extra hearty meal — extra scrambled eggs, extra bacon, just extra, extra, extra. She’s stellar that way.

If you don’t get the magic of the whole “breakfast for dinner” concept, there’s not much I could do to persuade you. Either your eyes sparkle when it happens or they don’t. All I can tell you is it’s the kind of meal that puts a song in a man’s heart.

In fact, I think I feel a song coming on right now…

Midlife Crisis Crossover #0: the One-Man Dramatis Personae

June 12, 2014 By in Meta Tags: , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Welcome! Turn Back!

Welcome! Turn back! Welcome back! Hie thee hence! Join us! Shoo! Whichever!

Welcome to entry #733 here at Midlife Crisis Crossover! If this were a mainstream comic book, I would’ve already stopped and relaunched a new site with a new #1 at least thirty-seven times by now. Fortunately, I have no marketing department giving me marching orders. Unfortunately, I have no marketing department spreading word of me to the four corners of the planet. The compromise is so aggravating.

If you’re just joining us or recently discovered the site, you may be a bit disoriented, even after reading the “About” page I wrote two years ago and have amended a few times since then. That version contains the “in-story” reasoning behind the site name without confessing that it was contrived using the Wheel of Fortune “Before and After” method. I’m sure it sounds like rubbish if you’re not a comics fan who knows what a “Crisis Crossover” was. The bottom-line truth is I needed a name that no other writer, blogger, or sensible creative type would want. That’s one objective met, then.

In the days of yore, comics writers followed a helpful rule of thumb: “Every issue is someone’s first.” New readers appreciate accessibility. Most sites use the “About” Page to catch visitors up to speed and don’t look back. (I offered baseline advice on this one time.) While mine does its job to a certain extent, it doesn’t summarize every version of me that readers have seen in these pages. Sometimes each me can act as though they exist on a different Earth apart from my other selves. Sometimes those worlds drift apart. Sometimes the me of two worlds vibrates in harmony as one. Sometimes worlds collide.

Right this way for the Unofficial Handbook of the Midlife Crisis Crossover Universe!…

Thoughts That Never Occurred to Me During My Lonely “Nice Guy” Years

May 28, 2014 By in Mundane Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 9 Comments
Yearbook signature, Class of Long Ago.

Sample message from a classmate written in one of my old yearbooks. Somehow I read platonic well-wishing like this and did not convince myself they were subliminally asking me to ravish them.

I’ve never understood normal men, let alone the broken ones. Let’s get that out of the way up front.

Maybe it’s because I read the right books and lucked into the right role models. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have a sufficiently damaged home life. Maybe I’m lucky that my father wasn’t an active part of my life. Maybe it’s a good thing I never kept too many macho friends for long, or belonged to any particularly masculine cliques. Maybe it’s because I figured out a way for logic and empathy to share harmonic coexistence in my brain. I’m funny that way, maybe.

My first date wasn’t till age 19. My age at the time of you-know-what was years beyond that. In junior high and high school, I never bothered asking any girls out. I knew my odds were slim for a variety of reasons, some but not all of them related to appearance. I wasn’t happy with it. I had my bouts of depression and crushed self-esteem. Eighth grade in particular remains a mental and emotional nadir in my life. I couldn’t figure a way out of it on my own, other than to hope that “This, too, shall pass” would apply to my situation someday before I died.

And yet…for all my dissatisfaction with my lot in life back then, for all my innocuous interactions with the ladies in my young-stupid-male years, none of the following sentences ever popped into my head:

* “That girl was nice to me. I expect sex from her now.”
* “The world owes me a chick.”
* “I know I’m perfect, so it’s clearly not my fault.”
* “Top-40 songs about love and sex are most wise.”
* “Maybe if I insult all women a lot, one will step forward and claim me.”
* “The world owes me a hot chick.”
* “Without sex I’m nothing.”
* “Women love a guy who’s bitter and snarling.”
* “Killing will solve anything.”

…and I’m grateful to the Lord every day that I never adopted anything from this list as my personal catchphrase.

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2013 Road Trip Photos #21: Salem, Part 2 of 2: All the Quote-Unquote “Witches”

December 11, 2013 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Day Six…we drove northeast through a maze of highways and disorganized side streets to world-famous Salem, listed in our American history books as a site known for famous trials of considerable controversy. The town’s official tourism literature swears there’s more to Salem than just witches. During our research I got the impression that certain local parties were sick and tired of the whole “witch” debacle and wanted to put it behind them forever.

And yet, certain other residents don’t shy away from witchery tourism. A few revel in it. It’s kind of everywhere. The most expensive example is this $75,000.00 tribute to Samantha Stevens, the heroine from TV’s Bewitched. It was a gift from the folks at TV Land, the same basic-cable channel that’s responsible for several other TV-based statues nationwide. (Our family has also seen Mary Tyler Moore in downtown Minneapolis, Ralph Kramden at Manhattan’s Port Authority, and Bob Newhart at Chicago’s Navy Pier.)

Samantha Stevens, Bewitched statue, Salem, Massachusetts

Which way for witches? This way!

A Very Special MCC Thanksgiving Haiku-tacular

November 28, 2013 By in Mundane Tags: , , , , , , , 9 Comments
Thanksgiving dinner leftovers

Thanksgiving success / is measured by the lack of / pretty leftovers. [Source: file photo from / our two thousand eleven / meal to end all meals.]

Just because I can
Write a Thanksgiving haiku
Clearly means I should

Does it get worse? Let’s find out!

Five Tracks That Got Me Through Young Stupid Adulthood

November 8, 2013 By in Misc. Media Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 12 Comments

alternative rock audiocassettes

Yep. Those are cassettes. This is how old I am.

If I learned anything after the fact from Buffy‘s depressing sixth season, it’s that our early 20s is when we humans are prone to committing our worst mistakes, making our stupidest decisions, missing our best opportunities, undergoing our darkest times, and discovering all the best reasons to fear and loathe ourselves. For many people those were also hallmarks of their teenage years, but I was a late starter on the journey to self-flagellation.

A childhood in which I was raised to “find my own path” (read: wander blindly through life’s shadowy forests without a tour guide or even a working flashlight) left me with very few tools for suffering the worst trials and shouldering the heaviest burdens, too many of which I brought on myself. By age thirty a series of improbable coincidences and extensive rethinking sessions had led me at long last to an illuminated trail that’s taken me toward much more reliable means and sources of support and encouragement than I ever had during my extended, two-time college-dropout phase.

Before I walked that way, all I had was music.

Of all the hundreds of songs that have caught my attention throughout my life, five in particular stand out as rare instances in which I was moved by music, moments of lyrical lucidity and emotional truth that resonated deep down in that mushy core whose existence the common guy denies, moments I returned to again and again for comfort, advice, consolation, deep thoughts, and/or a boost of spirit. These were five solid shots struck at the foundation of the oddly designed structure that passes for my life.

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