BALANCING ACT BOOKS

This is my third episode where I talk about the exciting Valiant comic book universe. Why are you sitting over their, pining for news about Avengers Movies and what the Snyder Cut of Justice League will actually look like? There is a whole universe of super powered characters out there, that reflects our own, troubled world. This world has a group of super powered beings known as Psiots, whose mental powers give them all kinds of crazy abilities. In Harbinger, we witness the struggle between Toyo Harada, the most powerful Psiot and his minions versus his former pupil, Peter Stancheck, and his Renegades. CHECK OUT MY VIDEO REVIEW OF HARBINGER VOL 5 - DEATH OF A RENEGADE : In Trade #5, one of the Renegades makes the ultimate sacrifice. Which one is it, though? I am not telling. I would rather tell you my points on why I thought this book was great. What did I rank it on my Clemmie Scale? You will just have to watch and see. In this video I featured artwork from the Harbing...

The World is a crazy place right now. I am sorry I didn't write up the review for this one. When I recorded it, I just sat in front of the camera and spewed out my review. I did cut out most of the rambling. You will have to tell me what you think of the review. Does this make you interested in Harbinger? In Valiant books? What would your Psiot Power be?

(Artwork by Dave McKean) Please enjoy the YouTube video version of this review: Before we dive into this review, I need to tell you about my list. I have been reading to my daughter, Pepper, every night since she was an infant. Once me moved on to chapter books and novels, I started ranking them. I did not include the Harry Potter series in this ranking, even though we read through the whole series. The experience of reading those books was wholly unique for the two of us, and I feel that puts those books in a separate category from the rest of the books on my list. Whenever I finish a book with Pepper, who is nine years old, at this point, I decide where it will fit within the ranking. The current ranking going from my favorite to my least favorite is as follows:  The Best Christmas Pageant Ever School for Good and Evil The Dollhouse Murders School for Good and Evil: A World Without Princes Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Bu...

About four days ago, I posted a video on Youtube, this video: Entitled "Warriors (Of Our Roleplaying games)" The video is filled with footage of over a dozen video games, movies and TV shows. It also features the song "Warriors" by Imagine Dragons, in its entirety. I am still learning about the copyright restrictions on YouTube, as far as I know, if your video gets flagged, it cannot be monetized. I don't care if my video makes one penny, which I am sure it will not. It is up to 44 views, as of the time of this post. I just want people to see it, because I think it is cool, and it represents the years' worth of Roleplaying adventures that I have had with my friends. Strangely enough, when I shared the video with them, I didn't get as much feedback as I would when I would post a typical "No Beard Plaguecast" episode. I am just proud of this video, and I want other people to see it. None of the images, or music are my own creati...

Here is the entire review in Video Form, that I created for my YouTube Show "Anchor Points" please feel free to like and Subscribe: In the early days of the Shelter in Place, I had a significant shift in the type of content I was consuming. I had run out of the comic book trades, rented from the library, to read before I would fall asleep. Also, I no longer needed to drive far to get to work, five days a week, so I stopped listening to podcasts.     I re-activated my Audible account, and my first audiobook choice was Inspection, Josh Malerman’s book from 2019 that was nominated for best novel at the recent Bram Stoker awards.  I had watched a Zoom book reading with my favorite author, Joe Hill, and Malerman, who I had never heard of previously, and found Malerman to be quite charming. Some of his points he made about writing stuck with me, and I thought I would give one of his books a chance.  I didn’t want to read Bird Box be...

I cover this entire review in the most recent episode of my show, The No Beard Plaguecast. Check out that video, here: I don’t have a lot of experience with reading novels that are sensational just for the sake of being sensational. I have read a few Horror novels, by Brian Keene, filled with over the top gore and disturbing imagery, but I expect that from a book in the Horror genre. When I think of fiction books that are constantly disturbing for the sake of being disturbing, I think about the Chuck Palahniuk books that I read and thoroughly enjoyed. The Palahniuk books I read always felt like they were a commentary on a specific aspect of modern culture.   Don’t get me wrong. I am not a prude. A lot of my favorite films are movies that your typical moviegoer would blanche at. The kind of movie, that if you watched it with Mary and Steve Suburbia, in their living room after their kids went to sleep, there would be a long, awkward pause once the...

If you don’t want to read about a Middle aged White man and his first world problems, then blog entry is probably not for you Who actually wants to read this? It is an Ouroboros. (VIDEO OF RANT) If this Blog was read within the echo chamber that I enter into multiple times a day, every single day, the people whose tweets I read and whose videos I watch would make fun of it.  They would roll their eyes at what I have to say. The irony is that many of the people whose works shape my echo chamber are Middle aged White men who (maybe secretly) believe everyone should pay attention to them, and that think they know the best form of everything. Yes, there are a few Women whose works shape my echo chamber, too, as well as a few people of color. Don’t get me wrong. I know that my problems are insignificant. There is so much horror in our world, shoved right in our faces, now, that the absolute last thing that you need to spend your time on is a...