Batflash: a 90's Shared Universe?

 Unpopular opinion time.... 

I actually kind of like The Flash movie. Don't get me wrong, it is a bit of a mess, but it's nowhere near the mess that is the original Suicide Squad. As the DC movies go, I do feel it's one of the stronger entries. It took some legitimately creative risks. Whether or not those risks paid off is up to you. For my money, it hit more than it missed, but there is something about it that's been bugging me for some time. 

Why exactly is Batman the one to explain the time travel problem Flash created? 

Backing up, if you haven't seen the film, here's the fastest rundown/summary you will ever need. Flash (real name Barry Allen, portrayed by Ezra Miller) uses his speed to go back in time to undo a personal tragedy to make a better future for himself, his friends, and his family. However, instead of merely changing the future, he changes the past as well. This is known as retrocausality. 

While the movie's explanation of this phenomenon is adequate, I prefer the explanation offered in the animated film Flashpoint Paradox (itself based on a similarly named crossover event in the comics). The briefest rundown of that is as follows: When a speedster uses their power to travel in time, they're essentially outrunning time itself. Going faster than time creates the temporal equivalent of a sonic boom. 

In the film, what Barry creates in his time travel endeavor is a kind of mash-up universe, bits and pieces of alternate timelines playing mix and match into some sort of cohesive whole. In this case, it's comprised primarily of the Batman from the 1989 Tim Burton film and a minor variation of the plot from Man of Steel, namely General Zod's invasion of earth. Other details include Eric Stoltz playing Marty McFly in Back to the Future instead of Michael J. Fox. However, it's what ISN'T spelled out that makes this crossover interesting. After all, Back to the Future is never mentioned in Batman, so who's to say Eric Stoltz isn't the lead in that film and Michael J. Fox is known only as that kid from Teen Wolf? There's also no mention of Superman (Batman & Robin's throwaway line doesn't count as that was a different actor and director, we're focusing on Batman & Batman Returns). While there's also no mention of the Flash, Bruce Wayne (as portrayed by Michael Keaton) doesn't seem all that surprised by his arrival. Sure, there's a little scuffle between them, but it settles down relatively quickly and, as we've said, Bruce is the one who explains the situation rather than Barry. It's almost as if he expected this. Speaking of the past... 

We haven't forgotten this version of the Flash, have we?

This was a series that ran for one season in 1990, 22 1-hour episodes featuring John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen. Production began in 1988, but picked up speed (ha) after the success of Tim Burton's Batman the year earlier. My memory of the series is overall positive, if a tad faded with the passage of time. It was a very well-made show, with exceptional production values despite being spread a little thin over 22 episodes. Of particular note is the costume itself, which ran a pretty penny for the time. It was decided that audiences wouldn't accept a spandex bodysuit, even in a modest television outing of a well-regarded superhero. In fact, it was because of Batman that the sculpted rubber suit was accepted as a justifiable expense. After all, it's in every episode. That makes it an investment. 

My point is that, in terms of overall aesthetics, who's to say these two different properties aren't sharing a setting? Who's to say Shipp's Flash and Keaton's Batman haven't met in the time following Batman Returns? Maybe this Flash isn't around anymore because of his own time travel shenanigans. Maybe he's the one who explained retrocausality to Bruce. 

I'm not pretending this is a perfect solution to what may not even be a problem. In fact, it might even create more problems by bringing another Flash into a film with 3 different Batmen. It could simply be a matter of plot convenience. Perhaps Bruce spent his post-Batman days reading up on Quantum physics. After all, in Flashpoint, it's Flash's nemesis who explains the problems with causality, and since he's not in this new movie, someone else had to take on the role of exposition dump. Like I said, despite some problems with the scene, I think it's one of the best, and Michael Keaton is clearly having fun with every last minute of it. He's still got it. 

Stockpile: I Won't Stand For It

My Mac mini was a housewarming gift to myself back in 2020. I'd always wanted one, but the timing never quite worked out. I set it up in a room that was going to be my home office, on an old kitchen table with a monitor stand I made from some old desk parts, some scrap aluminum, and 3d printed joinery I designed. I set about designing a whole new desk only to give up on the process when I found this "music station" desk from Monoprice on clearance. It's a little wobbly, but it's a good height for me and has a very small overall footprint that works well with the mini. 

At first I was using an old dining room chair that came with the table. I still have those chairs as they became a favorite bed spot for the cats, especially our late Holst. They weren't the best chair option, but I was content with making the most of what I had until something better came along. Some time later, I decided to spring for a Hag Capisco chair. This was a big investment; technically, it cost more than the Mac. I got it through a company called Fully and after waiting for a different height cylinder to work with my desk, I was up and running... until I realized this chair wasn't going to work on the carpet in the front office. This was especially the case when my rollerblade style casters arrived. I moved the whole operation into my dining room where there's a wood floor. It's a better space in the grand scheme of things, right next to my bedroom and within earshot of the upstairs, provided I'm not wearing headphones. 

I found out yesterday that Fully is no longer in business. Their site instead directs you to two other websites, neither of which offers Hag chairs. There's still a company called Flokk that distributes them, and they don't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. In any case, should the need arise, I don't know if I'd go with another Capisco chair or go for something else. 

The ergonomics are good, with the notable exception of the posterior area. At the risk of TMI, this is a problem with all chairs I've owned for I am an assless chap. My chair at work has a cushion and I've considered upgrading that to something from the mattress company Purple. Sadly, cushions aren't going to be a possibility with my Capisco because of the height of the chair and the saddle styling of the seat. As I said, this is a problem with all chairs for me, and what I told myself when I got the chair was this was all part of the plan. I wanted the chair to be comfortable, but not so comfortable that I could spend several hours in it at once like so many gaming chairs seem to be moving towards. I wanted to sit down, do my work, and then get up every now and again to take necessary breaks. If I'm sitting down to watch YouTube or whatever, I'm doing so on the couch. I've got YouTube open right now, but only in another tab for music while I work. 

Speaking of breaks, one of the best pieces of writing advice I ever heard was from the one and only Sir Alec Guinness. When he was writing his memoir, he had a rule: don't get up or stop unless you know exactly what you're going to put down when you get back. That's not to say don't get up or do something different if you get stuck or something, but try to make it a rule to have something to come back to. It helps it stay in your memory while also giving you an incentive to get back to work sooner rather than later. 

Stockpile

I've been on something of a typing spree today. Not only have I written two entries for this blog today (one very short, mind), but I've written an entry over on my WordPress site. It's been some time since I sat down at my Mac and belted out a few paragraphs on my Logitech G413 Carbon. It's still one of the best mechanical keyboards I've ever used. After dealing with replacing a keyboard for my roommate's PC, I debated getting a backup just in case anything happened to this one, but it's temporarily sold out at Logitech's website. I've even put my name in to be notified once it comes back. 

It's not even Logitech's most premium keyboard. Rather, it's probably the cheapest mechanical keyboard you can get that's worth a damn. There's plenty of others, but they're either double the price of the G413, or they're from small brands of, shall we say, a suspicious nature. There also seems to be this move away from having the number pad, which I like having for when I use SketchUp. 

I could probably do a lot better. In fact, if and when the time comes, I've got a few alternatives picked out should the Carbon not come back in time. One of them is from 8BitDo, who make lovely game controllers for the Nintendo Switch and other platforms. Likewise, its color scheme is based on the original NES console (both the US and Japanese versions). The switches for its keys are notably different than those in the Carbon. They're far less clicky, but just as responsive. 

With a typical membrane keyboard that most of you are probably used to, you have to push the keys all the way down before the letters appear on the page. With a mechanical keyboard, you don't have to do that. It's difficult to explain the sensation. The way I like to think of it is that the keyboard better reflects your mood. I can go fairly quiet on this keyboard, but if things start getting intense and I get into a fast groove, it can fill the whole house with a satisfying cacophony of clicks. I say "quiet" but the G413 Carbon is one of the louder mechanical keyboards out there even at my most delicate. I suppose it's still quieter than an electric typewriter of old, but that's a low bar to clear.

My mouse situation is a little more well-prepped. I have a Steelseries Sensei 310, one of the best truly ambidextrous mice I've ever used. In fact, it's so good that Steelseries discontinued it and its closest cousin is currently sold out. On the little shelf below my keyboard is a Corsair M55 which is something of a backup, though I'm more likely to bring my Razer Viper home from work. There, it's a backup to my Razer Naga (left-handed version). Then again, I'm more likely to just get another one of those in a few weeks in case they get discontinued out of nowhere for a second time. There's really no comparing all the keypad shortcuts on a Naga with only two buttons on my other mice, at least when it comes to my workflow in SketchUp. My vector art doesn't rely on so many keyboard shortcuts, not to where I'd like them mapped to my left thumb, anyway.

In the documentary Dreams with Sharp Teeth, writer Harlan Ellison shared his stockpile of Olympia manual typewriters with his friend, Robin Williams. Williams laughed at the sheer number of them while Ellison explained he also had a refrigerator full of ink ribbons. 

Conservative writer and intellectual William F. Buckley, Jr. was such an avid fan of the 1978 word processing program WordStar that he used it up until his death in 2008, working through the hurdles of getting it to run on newer platforms. He said of his dedication, "I'm told there are better programs, but I'm also told there are better alphabets."

These are things I think about when I sit down at my Mac mini and write away a few hours on occasion. 

Gex Got Going

In August of 2022, I wrote about the short-lived Gex franchise and how it tried to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Mario and Sonic, only to fall into obscurity. 

Well, Limited Run Games dropped this trailer, and I couldn't be happier:

There's no release date as of this writing, but it almost doesn't matter. I'm just happy that Gex has a home with Square-Enix rather than getting sold off to a crypto scheme. 

Inktober2023: Proactive Procrastination

 OR:

Pick It Up and Phone It In

I've been dealing with some motivation problems of late, evidenced in part by my absence from this blog. I participated in a drawing challenge early last year and I really liked how it went... until I didn't. Inktober of that year was rather anemic. I was only doing a few drawings, mostly leftovers from other projects or miscellaneous challenges that were only Inktober-adjacent. Overall, though, my motivation was shot. I just about got through the winter in terms of making my annual holiday card, but I felt totally spent after that. 

It's not because of the onset of AI-based art programs like MidJourney and Stable Diffusion, though it certainly doesn't help. DeviantART has become a bit of a minefield. I'll think I've discovered a new artist and fervently peruse their catalog only to find they're using AI on basically their entire portfolio. That can be very disheartening. 

Fast forward to the first of September when the Inktober 2023 official prompt list drops. Leading up to the day, I was thinking about how I would explain to everyone that I wasn't going to participate in the event this year, that I really needed some time away to think about things. Seeing the list at first didn't inspire anything in me. Actually, that's a lie. It inspired despair. My motivation issues got put on full blast when I saw that list and felt absolutely no drive of any sort to make anything of it. I'd been making some vector pieces off and on in the months before, mostly text-based pieces, puns and turns of phrase, things like that. About 2 weeks later, I took a look at the list again and focused on a single word from the dead center of the list, halfway through the month. 

I got an idea. 

It was the word "demon." I was looking at the shape of the letters and got an idea to write out the word but with a pitchfork taking the place of the "m." I'd been watching some tutorials for Inkscape and all the various text-based effects one can do with a little pre-planning and some basic tools. So, on a lunch break from work, I opened Inkscape, and made my little bit of word art, Demon with both the "m" and the "n" being replaced by barbed pitchforks. 

3 days later, I had all 31 prompts done. 

Actually, it was more like 4 because I took a break after the second day. Some were straightforward, some were a little more elaborate, but all 31 were effectively in the can. I had even thought of going back a few days later and sprucing up a few, but I decided against it. I was pretty damn impressed with myself though I do say so my... self. There was no pre-planning, no juggling of work and play throughout the month of October. My only real responsibility would be posting the illustrations on a schedule. 

In years past, my rule was that I could come up with ideas and sketches the moment the prompt list dropped. I could start actual work on the illustration as soon as the weekend before the 1st, so I'd have something to post that morning at the very least. This year, I threw that workflow completely out the window and more or less by complete accident. I even thought to take it a step further and try to automate the posting process. 

Instagram has an option available to all its users to toggle between a personal account and a professional account. There's no cost or anything, and you can cancel at any time. One of the biggest perks is the ability to schedule posts up to 75 days in advance, descriptions and tags and all. I thought I had it all figured out... until I didn't. When I post to Instagram, I'll also have it post to Facebook, where most of my family spends their social media time. Many of my relatives look forward to my Inktober posts, so I was more than a little disappointed when I found that scheduling an Instagram post did not include the option to mirror the post on Facebook. 

So, I'm still posting the images on the day, though some may end up getting scheduled anyway depending on how busy I may get on a given day, if I have a rushed morning or something like that. Like I said, it's disappointing, but hardly the worst thing in the world. The first full week of Inktober is done as I write this, and the response has been so-so compared to years past. I'm not bothered by this. I expected it in a way; word art doesn't exactly set the world on fire. It may get a good chuckle here and there, but it's just visual metaphors through text, like concrete poetry. 

And that is how I told myself no, and got the job done anyway and with time to spare.