GOOD DEED OF THE DAY

The Epilepsy Foundation is hosting a Walk to End Epilepsy with the Houston Zoo. It's Saturday April 13^th at 7am with registration at the front gate of the Houston Zoo. They're promising 95% of proceeds will be donated and this whole event will be held at zero cost to the community, that's awesome. Just go, just get out there and help them out.

WHAT ABOUT ME

So this weekend I currently have plans to watch some Overwatch matches, as the Houston Outlaws play their first and second match of Stage Two this weekend and I've got a poker night planned. I haven't played poker in forever, I used to be pretty good at it but again, it's been awhile. I wasn't one of those guys who knows the odds from every hand, as someone who came to adulthood during the "everyman" run of World Series of Poker where ESPN was airing these massive tournaments where amateurs were winning the main event every year there was a whole movement of people who basically learned poker that way, that and the movie Rounders. As interesting as it was and as much fun as I had playing growing up, I never really wanted to pursue it much past that because honestly, you never know if you're just the better player out of your group of friends or actually any good, and I never wanted to find out which size fish in which size pond I was. But this weekend is all about fun and I am excited.

MEANWHILE ON THE RACKS

So while you're running your errands this week, don't forget there's a comic shop somewhere near you and they're looking to help you get your geek on. This week there's all kinds of cool stuff out, worth mentioning from DC comics is Titans #36, which is listed as the series finale. The Titans are essentially a team of the original sidekicks of all the superheroes the first Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, etc. and they've been a group in the DC universe since their inception in 1980. There's usually been some version of this team around in the DC Universe forever, but comics can be complicated and now the guys who started this team are adults themselves, so are they still sidekicks if everyone moved on or are they the B-Team? Journey Into Mystery #1 from Marvel comics is a really cool looking book, it ties into War of the Realms which is a big event going on at Marvel where the other realms from the Thor movie are invading Earth and Asgard, essentially it's a very large war and in Journey into Mystery an eclectic mix of young heroes have been gathered to protect someone who may or may not be, Thor's little sister. Say what? Faithless #1 from Boom Studios is interesting, because it's listed as an erotica comic which means it's going to have some sex in it, graphic sex, but it's about a girl who is bored with her normal life and tampering with black arts in a way that she doesn't really grasp the scope of, so it's an interesting premise, it's got a big time comic writer on and it's a smaller publisher and usually the big time comic writers don't go into this category of book and the smaller publishers don't deviate from their usual style of books so this is a huge deviation for all involved and I'm intrigued as much by that.

THE RETURN OF GAME OF THRONES

So this weekend the thing everyone is probably holding their breath for is obviously the return of Game of Thrones. This is an amazing television series and full props go to HBO and their guys for creating an amazing product that has just been fascinating to watch. Perhaps just as fascinating though is the story of the little book that could, George R.R. Martin when he first pitched this book to publishers was convinced it was a trilogy, and the publisher loved it but thought they would do 5,000 copies of the hardcover and maybe 50,000 copies of the paperback over time. Think about that; they didn't think this thing was the monster it would become. It actually even debuted worse than that though and wasn't even on pace for those numbers and there's even a story of people leaving a book signing when he showed up for it, so it wasn't a great start for this series, but word of mouth spread and eventually the first book caught some heat and fast forward a little over 15 years and a television show debuts on HBO, now here we are on the verge of finding out who will sit on the Iron Throne, and we're all holding our breath and after 70 million copies in 40 languages, the world wants to know how it will end.

GETS YOU RIGHT IN THE FEELS

All right so we're going to focus on something really cool today, a kickstarter called Critical Core. The reason this one is interesting is because it's table top roleplaying game designed to help kids on the Autism Spectrum. Tabletop gaming is a social event, building friendships and having a great night usually a couple of hours playing a game and enjoying yourself and having a whole night of it. Social norms are on of the things that people with Autism sometimes struggle with obviously, being able to do whatever one else does in a social setting isn't usually in the wheelhouse of someone diagnosed with Autism which is what makes this game so cool. This is also designed to be built integrated into a dungeons and dragons game as well, so once someone has gotten used to it and can navigate it, then they have an opportunity to work and play with other people and get those chances at normal behaviors that sometimes has eluded them. I think that's a cause worth supporting, don't you?

NOT THAT ANYBODY ASKED

This week we're celebrating a milestone in the House of Cory. I sold my first fiction piece to a private party. Writing has long been something I've pursued and it's gotten me here in a freelance capacity and it continues to open many doors for me and it will continue to do so. Being on the radio for Nerd Thug Radio is so much fun getting to work with my cousin and my little brother and we are essentially a band in how we operate our show, but there's nothing like achieving something that for 35 years you've wanted to do but were never sure you'd get the opportunity to do. So anyway I just wanted to have this moment to victory lap, so to speak, thank you for reading my blog and I'll continue kicking butt for you guys!