Random Thoughts: Brave Ollie Possum and Cooking

I cannot recommend Ethan Nicolle’s new kids book, Brave Ollie Possum, enough. It’s kind of like IT, but for kids and not adult weirdo creeps. I had so much fun reading it out loud to my kids. You can buy a premium edition straight from Ethan.
When I was reading it to my daughter, she had been coming into our bed every night. The book actually helped convince her to try being brave and stay in her own bed, and she stopped coming into our bed soon after.
Anyway, Brave Ollie Possum is a great chapter book filled with illustrations and I think aimed at early readers (like 8 and up). If you have kids, definitely get a copy. It’s just the right amount of spooky to keep them hooked to the story.

“It wasn’t until I heard of a group called the ninja turtles that I began to question and assert and recognize my inherent value as a human being—which is a very separate thing from a mutant turtle.” -Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

backing minivan out of driveway at night
“Everyone ready?”
4yo: “I’m Not Buckled.”
wife turns ceiling light on in a panic and see my daughter is strapped in just fine
4yo: “‘Not Buckled’ is my name.”
She did a reverse “Nice to meet you, hungry” on us!

I had a great discussion with Jazz Shaw. He had an interesting question on which Democratic presidential candidate would be the best for satire, and I think I picked the right one.

$52 trillion? No one can wrap their brains around that. You might as well just say it costs a gajillion dollars.

The best way to reduce costs is capitalism. Going with some other method is like trying to win a race by picking a tricycle over a Ferrari.

If Netflix gets that 2x feature, The Irishman will be only an hour and 45 minutes long. I prefer a lean, 90 minute movie, but maybe I’ll check it out.

I dunno. Just seems like there could be some problems from turning over more of health care to the dumbest, most dishonest people on the planet.

When an irresponsible sociopath says she wants $52 trillion in spending power, I’m always a little hesitant.

Death Stranding seems pretty divisive. I’ve seen some perfect reviews for it and some bad reviews (IGN gave it a 6.8). Game reviews don’t tend to vary as much as movie reviews, especially for AAA games.
I remember one lone review for Breath of the Wild that gave it a 6. I would not listen to that person’s opinion on any other game ever. Or anything else.

Democrats argue about health care like Obama’s greatest political victory never happened.

Back when I was a kid, we had to read comic books ourselves since we didn’t have movie producers to do it for us.

Maybe they’ve matured with age and it will be Rage Against Cancel Culture.
“By the way, we’ve analyzed the data and capitalism is — by far — the greatest force against poverty that has ever existed. So if you don’t like capitalism, just leave this concert right now. No refunds.”

This morning, the kids were playing Monopoly at the table and the wife was feeding the baby in his high chair while I was cooking pancakes and bacon in the kitchen, and for a moment that place I’ve been searching for my whole life, I was there.

We catch but glimpses of the other world in this one, but it’s a powerful thing.

I don’t cook much, because I have a wife. And before I had a wife, all I usually ate for dinner was Campbell’s chunky soup.
Still, there’s a couple things I cook. One is “daddy breakfast” which is pancakes, bacon, and fried eggs (like my dad used to do on Saturdays). The other is rib-eyes, as my wife made it pretty clear she would think less of me as a man if didn’t insist on cooking the steaks.
Now, my dad did teach my how to cook steaks before he passed away, but it amounted to five minutes on each side when on a grill. I want something more exact than that to get more like a good steak at a restaurant. So I looked into skillet recipes.
First one I tried sounded neat because it like butter and fresh garlic, but it relied on a meat thermometer to get it right, and I found out mine was no good. Man, was it disheartening when I cut into it and it was well done. I couldn’t meet my wife’s eyes after that.
Found this recipe, though, from Alton Brown which is nice and simple and gives you the times to go by. Worked out perfectly. Nice, seared, medium-rare steak. I earned my wife’s respect (though she eats hers medium, which I don’t respect).
Trying again tonight. We’ll see how consistently it works for me. Anyway, the point is, my wife bought more steaks. Yum!

I want to thank again everyone who bought and enjoyed Hellbender. I love writing stories and funny things, and it’s a real blessing to have an audience to share it with.
I am writing a sequel to Hellbender as I have a ton more idea for that world and characters. First though, I’ll be putting out some long overdue sequels to Superego.
If you like my writing, make sure to sign up for my newsletter at http://frankjfleming.com… though you probably won’t miss things if you just follow me on Twitter.

I eat gluten free along with my wife and daughter, so I don’t have any opinion on Chick-fil-A versus Popeye’s fried chicken. I like Chick-fil-A’s grilled chicken, though.
I remember first trying a Chick-fil-A fried chicken sandwich a long time ago, though. I was like “This doesn’t have much breading. It doesn’t look very good.” I was wrong. It was good.

The polling doesn’t look great for Warren, but if the Democrats really want to get an unlikable woman president, their best bet is against Trump.

I’ve been working from home for nearly three years, and now that we’ve rearranged the kids’ bedrooms, I just finally got my own office (I had been working at a desk in the corner of our master bedroom). It’s sweet!
Things have been going so well for me lately it’s starting to feel like the first act to some horror movie or thriller where I have to go rescue my family.

As people argue which are worse, the Boomers or the Millennials, it’s important to remember that GenX are blameless and have done nothing wrong and are but victims of both of them.

Remember when PCs were going on this rant about “Bad command or file name” and Radiohead was all like “OK Computer.”

Yay! Red Dead Redemption loaded and ready to play on two different gaming PCs!
Now I just need to find that fabled time to play. Maybe sometime around Christmas… as long as I’m where I want to be on all my projects.

10 Comments

  1. Good luck getting Red Dead 2 to run. I was one of the multitude who got a launcher crash on startup. There was a patch released today but from what I heard it doesn’t do much to fix the issue. Let me know if you can get it to run.

    • I got it to run as soon as I updated my graphics card drivers.

      I’ve run the benchmark though I haven’t started it yet. I know to do that ahead of playing because last thing I want is to finally get some game time and then spend the whole time getting it started.

  2. “This morning, the kids were playing Monopoly at the table and the wife was feeding the baby in his high chair while I was cooking pancakes and bacon in the kitchen, and for a moment that place I’ve been searching for my whole life, I was there.”

    damn near brought a tear to my eye, man.

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