The school year here starts on September 1, which is also a holiday. This means that the kids all go to the school, meet or re-meet their teacher and classmates, have a little bit of a motivational ceremony, and then they’re free to go, with actual instruction starting on the 2nd*.

July 2 – Day 5 One of the other places we wanted to visit was Balos Beach. This is the location of the pale green, almost crystal waters you’ve seen in all the adverts. It was also someplace Rasa’s friend had been to last year when she visited Crete. The only problem seemed to be it was down another long slope from a high mountain parking area. Since we’d just done this, we wondered if maybe there was another way.

June 30 – Day Three We were to meet the car rental representative in the hotel lobby at 9:00 a.m., so we arrived bright and early at 8:55. He showed up promptly, and there was no problem signing all the paperwork. Honestly, one of the easiest car rentals I’ve ever done. The only issue came when we had to pay for it, and he couldn’t take cards. Of course, they never told us this. If they had, we could have gotten the money while we were out the day before (or even brought it with us).

June 28 – Day 1 There were a number of options for our annual summer break this year. So many, in fact, that it took us a while to finally settle on going back to Crete for a second year in a row. Remember, we also went last year, with my folks, right after Monki’s birthday. This year, we’d booked another all-inclusive for the week before her birthday, at a different resort in a different part of the island (Crete is the 88th largest island in the world). We also decided to rent a car this time, to get out and explore a bit more.

For about 20 years now, I’ve been writing regularly for magazines dealing with the topic of magic. Most of those pieces were for specialty magazines on the topic. I’ve edited magic manuscripts and consulted on live performances. I love the art form (I’ve even written a piece explaining why it is an art form). I’ve covered some of the biggest names in the world as well as written the first articles on a number of up and comers. I think, with the exception of failing to get my friend…

Going into it, I knew this year’s ComicCon was going to be different. Paulius, the guy who had brought me into the fold, wasn’t around anymore. To be fair, he now had two small kids and was working on a PhD, so the months of work which goes into creating a momentous weekend can be a bit overwhelming. Without him, though, I had no point person, so I wasn’t sure what, if anything, I’d be doing at con this year. This manifested by me putting in TBAs in all my syllabi in case I needed to be gone during the final week of the semester.

YouTube video by Spinal Tap

YouTube video by lstash

This story starts long ago. Back in the late 70s, when I was in grade school, we had this thing called the Scholastic Book Club. I have no idea if it’s still going on and if it is, what resemblance it has to what I had experienced, but for me, in 4thand 5th grade, it was glorious. 

Amazon.com: Noir: A Novel eBook : Moore, Christopher: Kindle Store

YouTube video by Marvel Entertainment

Tuesday January 14 Today was the day I’d been waiting for! Today was Pompeii. Weirdly, today was also a late day. We wouldn’t be docking until around 13:00 (1pm) so when I went down for breakfast it turned out, they were actually serving brunch. Wild. Although it wasn’t really since the more traditionally afternoon tidbits weren’t actually going to be served until after 11:00. Anyway, before eating, I made a stop at the excursions desk. See, the way I figured it, after Genoa, I decided I’d rather have a guided tour than strike off on my own.

Pre-Trip My January trips are something I look forward to every year. The past few years I’ve headed off to London to see theatre and hang out with friends, which is amazing. Then last year, at the very last moment, I had to cancel my trip because the girls had Covid and while I felt fine and was testing negative, I couldn’t in good conscience leave them.* So no trip for me in 2024. Then, with January of 2025 rapidly approaching, I knew I should start planning my trip. At first I thought about returning to London, but some things there had changed and while there were still shows and friends to see, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go.

In 1971, Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson set out with tongue-in-cheek to make “the mother of all concept albums”. With Thick As A Brick, he ended up fulfilling his ambition – and then some

Lithuania's NATO membership and the establishing of the permanent Panzer Brigade help to secure the country against Russian invasion, but Lithuanians are not content to leave their defense to others.

As is my wont, I love when things coincide, especially when they involve superheroes! In the past, I've noted that Mark Anderson, over at Andertoons, has posted a number of pieces of superhero art from the 70s, especially his calendars which, being cyclical in nature, keep coming round again. I mention this because my friend, the amazing poet Gregory Crosby, recently posted yet another Marvel calendar - the 1975 edition - which corresponds to this year, 2025! This time it's from the geek blog 'TAIN'T THE MEAT… IT'S THE HUMANITY!