I know this is usually when I post my weekly edition of Sexy Sunday Thoughts. For those who enjoy this weekly dose of sexiness, I apologize. I am unable to provide said dose today.
I do have a good reason, though. Yesterday was exhausting to say the least. The wedding I referenced was dramatic in ways I did not expect. I prefer not to go into details. Again, there’s a good reason for that. Just know that I am still recovering and so is everyone involved.
In lieu of some Sunday Thoughts, please enjoy this video from the YouTube channel, Storytime With Reddit. It involves strippers and real stories about them. That should provide just enough sexiness until next Sunday. Enjoy!
Today is a very exciting day. This year may have been awful in so many ways for so many people, but that only makes days like this even more precious.
Today, I’m set to attend a wedding for one of my siblings. Out of respect for their privacy, I won’t offer much in terms of details. I’ll just say that I’m very excited for them. They found a wonderful person to spend the rest of their life with and, being the romance lover I am, I’m going to cheer them on.
While a wedding in 2020 has plenty of complications, we’re still going to make this work. That does mean some attendees will have to observe these precious moments via Zoom or FaceTime. It’s not the same as being there, but they can still be part of this.
We’re keeping this wedding simple and sincere. You don’t need a palace, an oversized cake, or hundreds of people throwing rice. You just need friends, family, and two people who love each other enough to get married.
To all those who have braved the horrors of 2020 to share in this moment, I commend you. Love is a beautiful and powerful force. No pandemic can stop it, even in a year like this.
It’s a beautiful thing. I’m excited to be part of it. As one of the lucky few who will be there in person, I intend to make this day as special and as awesome as I can for my family.
Wish me luck, energy, and awesome as I cherish this day with my family!
The following is a video for my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. It’s a bit of a shift from my previous videos. In this, I try to dissect certain TV tropes from some of my favorite shows. For this video, I’m breaking down how capitalism manifests in two distinct characters, namely Montgomery Burns from “The Simpsons” and Bob Belcher from “Bob’s Burgers.”
I’m very curious to see what kind of response I get here. If you like what you see with this video and want to see more like it, please let me know. Thanks and enjoy!
Say what you want about Elon Musk. He’s an eccentric billionaire. There’s a lot to say and not all of it is good. Whatever you think of him, though, you can’t deny he has some big, bold ideas. You don’t become a billionaire tech icon without plenty of those.
I’ve talked about some of his bolder ideas before, namely the potential impact of Neuralink and brain/machine interfaces. I still contend those ideas are still as bold as ever. It’s just a lot harder to explore and contemplate them when we’re in the middle of a global pandemic.
Despite the grim circumstances clouding our world now, Musk still finds a way to drop a new idea into the mix. This one is actually related to Neuralink and the world of brain augmentations. While this effort is still ongoing and very early, he did imply that the neural implants that this company would offer might have another feature that hasn’t been highlighted. Specifically, it’ll allow you to stream music directly into your brain.
It wasn’t treated as groundbreaking. In fact, this topic came about during a Twitter conversation between Musk and an engineer of all things. Usually, Twitter conversations are about as productive as arguing with a creationist, but on rare occasions, something beautiful emerges. I say this is one of them.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s brain interface company, Neuralink, wants to let you stream music directly into your brain.
Musk recently said that Neuralink’s brain chip technology would allow people to stream music into their brains effortlessly. Musk confirmed the feature on July 19 over an exchange with a Twitter user who asked: “If we implement Neuralink – can we listen to music directly from our chips? Great feature.” Musk replied with a simple, “yes.”
Now, regardless of what you think of Musk’s claim or the technical feasibility of actually streaming music into the brain, I want to make one thing clear. I hope to leave no amgibuity.
I want to try this.
I really want to experience this at some point.
I love music as much as the next person, but my cumulative experience with headphones, stereo systems, and ear buds has been mixed at best. The idea of bypassing that entirely and streaming my favorite songs directly into my brain just has so much appeal and not just from a practical aspect.
Music can a powerful influence. That’s not just an opinion. There’s real science behind it. I’ve certainly experienced that. There are songs on my playlist that can affect my mood, my focus, and my emotional state. Those effects can be pretty diverse. That should be a given. You’re not going to react to a Metallica song the same way you react to a Taylor Swift song.
It’s a testament to how impactful music can be. Now, there might be a way to stream it directly into our brains? Sign me up!
It’s not an incredibly radical idea, when you break it down. In a sense, the music and all its powerful influences goes to your brain already. It’s just indirect. First, it has to go through your ear and then your ear has to process the sound and then the interpretations of those sounds has to go to various parts of your brain. Neuralink is just offering a more direct path.
Imagine hearing something that makes no sound.
Imagine experiencing the emotions and excitement of music in a unique and intimate way.
It may not be the most groundbreaking use of neural implants, but I still want to try it. If being stuck in lockdown has taught us anything these past few months, it’s that we need a diverse range of experiences. There’s only so much we can get from binge-watching Netflix, playing video games, and Zoom chatting family members.
We need those experiences to enrich our lives. We have no idea what kind of state the world will be in by the time this technology is refined. Who knows what kinds of experiences we’ll pursue? Hopefully, I’m around to stream my favorite playlist directly into my brain. It might not be the most profound use of this technology, but it will definitely rock.
This is usually the time of year when comic fans like me are gearing up for the New York Comic Con. Around this time last year, I was making my final preparations. I got my costume ready, picked out the comics I wanted to get signed, and mapped out my plan to maximize my NYCC experience. It was a wonderful trip, to say the least.
Now, that seems so long ago. It might as well be another lifetime.
This week just feels so weird, not having New York Comic Con to look forward to. I know it was cancelled months ago, but it still hurts. It still just feels so wrong to be in the first week of October and not planning my trip to New York.
I don’t doubt that New York Comic Con will be back to its former glory at some point. It probably won’t be next year, but eventually, I will return in full costume, ready to enjoy the wonders that is NYCC. Right now, it just feels so distant. It sucks in ways I cannot put into words.
I’m sorry if it feels like I’m being negative on New Comic Book Day of all days, but I just had to get that off my chest. I’m glad to have a (digital) stack of new comics to enjoy. It does help take the sting out of not being able to go to New York this year. It just feels so bittersweet, remembering how excited I was at this time last year and how much fun I had.
I’ll try to be more upbeat next week. For now, here is my pull list and pick. To all those as upset as I am that there’s no New York Comic Con to go to this year, I feel your pain. Let’s lessen that burden as best we can and new comics is a damn good way to start.
It’s been a weird year for sports and for horrific reasons. Let’s not overlook that. This year has been horrific in general for reasons I hope I don’t have to belabor. However, it is possible for good things to come out of awful circumstances. That doesn’t make the circumstances any less awful, but a good thing is still a good thing.
For me, a lifelong football fan who builds his Sunday afternoons and Monday nights around watching football, it’s been plenty weird. Watching NFL games in front of empty stadiums has taken some getting used to. All that fake crowd noise isn’t the least bit convincing.
I think I speak for many of my fellow football fans when I say I loved this. I loved it in ways I cannot put into words without the aid of alcohol or spiked coffee.
Yes, I’m tired this morning from staying up so late.
Yes, it’s something that emerged from a bad situation.
Yes, it’s still awesome.
Two Monday Night Football games? A double-header that makes Monday’s less awful and Monday night’s more eventful? Yes, please! This is an objectively wonderful thing and I say let’s have more of it.
Sundays are great and because of NFL RedZone, football fans can plug themselves into every game for hours at a time. It’s wonderful and has made football such an engaging, day-long experience.
However, there are times in the season when there are as many as 9 or 10 games going at once at 1:00 p.m. in my time zone. Even with RedZone, it’s hard to keep up with. Some of those games deserve to be prime time games. Some of those teams would benefit from a little prime time exposure. I say this is the perfect way to do it.
Monday Night Football is already a ratings bonanza for everyone involved, regardless of how awful this year has been. Adding another game to that mix can only help add to the boon. I hope last night was a proving ground of sorts. There is room for two games on Monday night.
To the NFL, please use this as a sign. Turn this objectively terrible situation into something awesome. Football fans will thank you for years to come.
I know I don’t talk about baseball that much. Please don’t misconstrue that as me saying I don’t care for it. I love baseball as much as any guy who grew up playing catch with his dad in the back yard. Some of my fondest memories are of watching ball games with my dad and eating peanuts.
While I tend to get more excited about football, I still enjoy a beer and a ball game. However, there are some other reasons why I don’t get as excited about baseball as I do with football.
Some of that has to do with the duration of the season and how often it seems certain teams clinch their playoff spots weeks ahead of time. Most of it has to do with the playoff format, itself. That’s the one part of Major League Baseball that I’ve always had a problem with.
Compared to other sports, baseball has always been much more limited in terms of which teams make the playoffs and how those games are structured. For me, the playoffs never got exciting until the ALCS and the NLCS. That’s usually when the drama happens. The divisional rounds before it are just too forgettable.
This is what it looked like, just after the wild card rounds wrapped up.
Now, I know baseball is famous for having staunch traditionalists, but after following the wild card rounds, I have to say this.
The MLB should totally keep this format or, at the very least, keep most of it.
I love this new format. It really made the MLB playoffs feel exciting again. For once, I didn’t have to wait until the championship rounds to see some drama. As bad as 2020 has been for sports, this new tournament format might be the best thing that came out of it.
This new setup gives struggling teams a reason to keep playing in the regular season, even when they get into a skid. With this expanded format, there are more spots to fight for. The dominant teams will still get their spot, but now there are new opportunities for teams to sneak in and make an impact.
In baseball, that’s a big deal. I’ve been watching baseball long enough to know that any team can get hot at just the right time. Last year was a perfect example of it. The 2019 Washington Nationals are a perfect example of this. They had to get into the playoffs as a wild card team and go through heavyweights like the Dodgers en route to their first World Series title.
It can happen in baseball. Great teams can just have a bad day at the park or several. A wild card team can get hot and take that momentum to a championship. The Nationals sent a message to every team in the wild card round this year that it can happen to them, too.
Beyond the opportunity, it’s just more exciting. I know last year had a single-game elimination wild card, but I found that to be somewhat underwhelming. Like I said, any team can have a bad day at the ball park. Sometimes, quality teams just falter on a particular day. That sometimes means the lucky team wins instead of the better team.
I think a three-game playoff series fits perfectly. It helps ensure a team can win or lose on a single fluke. It also gives a team that falters in one game to make up for it the next. It’s a better way of determining who’s the better team in the long run.
Like the NCAA basketball tournament, more teams means more opportunities for a team to go on a historic run or land a historic upset. In a league that is legendary for having top-heavy teams who try to buy their way into a World Series, this can only help the sport.
Now, I know 2020 is a crazy year that has done lasting damage to the sports world. I don’t doubt that professional leagues are eager to go back to the way things were before the pandemic ruined so much.
However, I sincerely hope that Major League Baseball retains this new format for the postseason. I think it’ll do a lot of good for baseball and the sports world, in general. I know there are some logistical issues and I’m sure the players union will want to get their say. I believe there’s a way to do it and ensure everyone benefits.
I know talking about the weather is so mundane, but in a year as awful as 2020, I think it’s oddly refreshing. Now, I’m not going to just wax poetic about how nice it is to go out on a sunny day, spend some time with friends, and have some fun with your lover, if you’re lucky enough to have one. That’s all well and good. For me, however, I’ve always found rainy days more relaxing.
I think it runs in my family. One of my father’s favorite things to do in the spring and summer was just sit out on the porch, drink a cold beer, and watch the rain fall. He said it relaxed him. I must have inherited that sentiment because it relaxes me too. In fact, I’ve come to appreciate the relaxing calm of a rainy morning. It just makes everything feel more peaceful.
When I had a girlfriend, it often inspired me to get a little more affectionate and playful. When you’re relaxed and content, you’re bound to let your sexy side show. That means when it’s rainy and dreary on any given morning, you can expect me to get extra romantic. On the off chance my future wife is reading this somewhere, I hope that gives her something to look forward to.
Now that the weather is getting colder and the days are getting shorter, a rainy day is bound to take on a different context. So long as that context involves cuddling up in a bed to stay warm, I’m all for it. Whether you find the weather sexy or not, here are some Sexy Sunday Thoughts to get the right currents flowing inside you. Enjoy!
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but an orgasm a day keeps divorce lawyers unpaid.”
“Being honest in a relationship often means being blunt during sex.”
“To some extent, sexting depends on some people being susceptible to pop-up ads.”
“Being in love means not caring where your lover’s fingers and tongue have been.”
“Slut shaming is just an indirect form of orgasm envy.”
“Friends don’t let friends with benefits neglect said benefits.”
“Relationship drama often boils down to disagreeing on how to share your genitals.”
In a year so full of objectively awful news, a tiny bit of good news goes a long way. When that news involves superhero comics and upcoming TV shows, it goes even further with me. On that front, such news has been few and far between. This year has been fraught with major delays and cancelled conventions. Fans like me need some good, exciting news for once. We’re due.
Then, this past week, we got it. It’s been in the works for a while now, but now it’s getting real. One of the big Marvel Studios Disney Plus shows that has been in development, “Ms. Marvel,” officially found their Kamala Khan in Iman Vellani. As an unapologetic Ms. Marvel fan who has sung her praises before, this is just the news I needed.
Deadline reported it. Many others in Hollywood circles praised it. Fans like me were just elated that Kamala Khan is set to enter the MCU.
After a long and hard search, Marvel has found its Ms. Marvel. The studio is tapping newcomer Iman Vellani to star in its Disney Plus series based on the comic-book character. Marvel and the streamer recently named Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Meera Menon as directors on the project.
Now, there’s a lot I want to say about this news, this casting, and the prospects for this show. I’ve already touched on some of that before and I have every intention of highlighting even more as the show develops. Ms. Marvel is very near and dear to me as a character. I’ll be among those cheering the loudest for her and for Ms. Vellani to succeed.
Before I get to any of that, though, I want to offer a special message to Ms. Vellani. I doubt she’ll ever read it. I’m sure she’ll hear from plenty of other voices far more prominent and insightful than mine. I still want to put this message out there because I think it’s worth saying.
Dear Ms. Vellani,
First off, congratulations! You just earned yourself the role of a lifetime with an incredible character. On behalf of many other Ms. Marvel fans, I wish you the best. We’ll all be cheering you on as you bring Kamala Khan to life in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
It will be challenging. Anything worth doing is. I believe you’re up for it. I also don’t doubt that you’ll face obstacles, some of which have nothing to do with your acting abilities or your love for the character.
The world of superhero media is an amazing place. Both on and off the screen, there a lot to take in. Chances are, it will be overwhelming at time, but once the fans embrace you, they’ll be your greatest ally. It’s what helped Ms. Marvel become such a prominent, beloved character. That’ll help you achieve success on a level that will do justice to her legacy.
Now, there are parts of that world that are less pleasant. As in any genre, there are critics and trolls who will try to tear you down. They’ll attack you, just as they’ve done to the likes of Brie Larson, Daisy Ridley, and Kelly Marie Tran. Do not let them get you down. Do not let them stop you from being the best Ms. Marvel you can possibly be.
Also know that Kamala herself has attracted plenty of trolls. Some of the ugliest elements of superhero fandom have been denigrating Ms. Marvel since the day she debuted. Some go so far as to attack her creators. These people are no different than the villains Ms. Marvel fights. They do not deserve an ounce of your attention.
The love people have for this character is many times greater than those who go out of their way to hate her. That love is what makes Ms. Marvel special. We hope you feel that love as you don that now-iconic costume. May it carry you through the challenges that await and may it enrich your world, just as Ms. Marvel has enriched ours.
The following is a video for my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. It’s an effort on my part to argue that “Terminator Genysis” was a better movie than people remember. I know many may not agree. I’m willing to take that chance. Enjoy!
Jack Fisher's Official Publishing Blog 