firehose

Read 23 remaining paragraphs | Comments

In 2013, Fritz initially voted against Hales' budget, giving a lengthy speech that picked apart spending decisions. She has privately complained that the mayor often cancels scheduled meetings. And earlier this year, Fritz said she was "disgusted" by downtown planning efforts championed, in part, by Hales.

For her part, Fritz has proved an unreliable swing vote on one of the city's most controversial topics – a proposed street fee. Hales and Commissioner Steve Novick spent months trying to win over Fritz, but she ultimately wouldn't vote in favor.

Problems on the City Council reached seemingly unprecedented levels this year, when Hales and the four commissioners met with a mediator to sort out differences in private.
(Permalink)

	Courtney shared this story from The Babe Brigade:
	Wait people don't actually get physically ill from stress and anxiety? What's this "faking"?

---

clockwork-cturtle:

amazphil:

tattooac:

high-energy-introvert:

•go to the bathroom to escape

•feel very uncomfortable without a phone or some other crutch

•dwell on a small awkward moment for much longer than necessary

•never go to any social event without a person that makes you feel comfortable

•follow said person way too much

•worry about the person beginning to find you obnoxious

•faking an illness to get out of a social event

Oh

Oh dear

cartozia:

Announcing our guest stars for Cartozia Tales #8:

In each issue, we divide the map of our world into nine sectors and assign a new one (at random) to each of our seven core contributors. To shake things up and keep us doing our best work, we also invite two guest stars to cover the open sectors.

I posted last month about our previous awesome guest stars, and I hope you’ll read (and reblog) that post. It’s really an impressive roster.

Issue 8 will make the roster all the more impressive. Witness:

Maris Wicks ( mariswicks), fresh from her wonderful book Primates and having finished her new Human Body Theater, will cover sector 6, where recently Gret and Hubert and Ilondra have found major clues about the Miasma in the heart of the Shambling Tower.

Kelly Sue Deconnick ( kellysue), the writer of the hit superhero book Captain Marvel and the phenomenal Bitch Planet, will team with the uncanny Ming Doyle ( mingdoyle) — of Mara, Contantine the Hellblazer, and more —for a story set in sector 8, where Minnaig the ottergirl has found herself in trouble in the dungeons of the Venerary.

We’re planning to have issue 8 ready to debut at spx in September. If you subscribe now, of course, you’ll be ready for it when it hits your mailbox.

(I’ll be back to posting on Monday, and I hope to have more news then.)

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

---

New York Post

SAG-AFTRA Seeking Protection for News Crews After San Francisco Attacks Variety SAG-AFTRA is seeking additional security measures for the protection of reporting teams in the aftermath of attacks on TV news teams covering a shooting death in San Francisco. Three attackers stole equipment from KNTV and camera operator Alan Waples ... In the NationPhilly.com US news crews attacked and robbed during live broadcast9news.com.au TV crew robbed during live report about bizarre San Francisco crimeAtlanta Journal Constitution Albuquerque Journal all 155 news articles »

2 killed, 1 wounded in Northern California shooting Daily Mail COTTONWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say a man with a rifle killed two people outside a Northern California store and a stray bullet wounded a customer. Tehama County sheriff's deputies arrested 32-year-old John Noonkester on Thursday. He remains ... and more »

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

---

Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Politico

Axelrod to Clinton: Don't 'overreact' to Sanders surge Politico Former top Obama adviser David Axelrod thinks Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton should not “overreact” to recent momentum behind challenger Bernie Sanders. “You know, I would be careful not to overreact,” Axelrod said, speaking from Chicago ... and more »

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Dave Young lives in Denver with a baby, a wife, and a dog called Penny. Penny’s a good dog (good dog, Penny!) – she’s a softie around the baby, walks to heel, and doesn’t destroy things. All that good dog stuff.

But Penny has one weak spot. Dave says:

Her only issue is that she goes BONKERS for food. My wife and I have done a great job training it out of her when we’re around so we no longer have to worry about a cheese board sitting on the low coffee table, but I know she gets on the counters any time we are away. Sounds like a job for a machine!

How’s it work? There’s a laser tripwire, which triggers audio of Dave saying “Hey!” in a COMMANDING MANNER. The setup also takes a picture of Penny’s infraction using the Raspberry Pi camera board.

Full instructions are available over at Element14 so you can make your own. I’m already thinking about ways you could expand this project: Mooncake, the Raspberry Pi cat, doesn’t respond well to voice commands, but we think a Pi-powered water pistol could be just the ticket on those days we want to defrost prawns. Ideas for your own feature-creep in the comments please!

The post Laser Dog Monitor appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

This week, an op-ed has made the rounds arguing that we should rob Thomas Jefferson's grave and put it in our guacamole. Enough is enough, argues Jon Bois. You should NOT do that.

Most important reason: It's profoundly disrespectful

Supposing Thomas Jefferson were some ordinary person, this moves beyond the realm of poor taste. It's a gesture of absolute disrespect, and even one of contempt.

As humanity whittles itself, slow as the whittling may be, into what we will one day become, many of the things we once held sacred are -- sometimes for ill but often for good -- shaved away. The sanctity of a burial space, however, is as un-compromised as it has always been. Its vandalism is an act of malice below even animalism, as creatures such as the elephant are known to create and respect resting places for their dead.

Is Thomas Jefferson's life intrinsically and objectively more "important" than yours or mine? Well, I won't hold court on that. I would also like to make it clear that criticisms of Thomas Jefferson's character, however essential to take into consideration any time we take his life and legacy into account, are beyond the scope of this particular article about guacamole.

Please feel free to register your discontent with the man, but if you ask me, reducing his personal effects to guacamole ingredient is less a gesture of protest, and more the immature doings of a no-count felon. Which carries us to our next point.

Second-most important reason: It's against the law

I am not your lawyer, nor am I your secretary. I will not do myself the indignity of researching Virginia's grave-robbery laws on your behalf. Nonetheless, I am supremely confident that municipal and/or state courts have been afforded more than enough legislature to send you to prison.

Third-most important reason: Whatever's in there is surely inedible, and perhaps very dangerous to eat

I do not pretend to know the entire contents of Thomas Jefferson's grave, but we're probably dealing with inedibles from top to bottom: bones, coat buttons, books, and Lord knows what else. This isn't a mere issue of nutritional value: eating such items could be highly dangerous. Consider how much of it might be traced with lead!

Fourth-most important reason: It would taste disgusting

You have finally shocked me. It does not surprise me that there are individuals who would do something as heartless and foul as to rob Thomas Jefferson's grave site -- if there is one lesson taught by our shared existence, it is that the human is a broken animal.

But while I do understand what absence of ethics allowed you here, I do not at all understand the motive that led you to this point. More than likely, the odor will be unpleasant, the texture will be hostile to your tongue, and it will taste like dirt. That you would expect anything different is entirely a mystery to me.

Fifth-most important reason: It isn't a sustainable practice, because there is a finite amount of stuff in Thomas Jefferson's grave

Thanks to a number of government initiatives, we're slowly making progress toward sustainable, responsible practices when it comes to our food. But if you think tuna is in short supply, you should see the contents of Thomas Jefferson's grave.

It's probably, what, eight feet long by three feet wide? Sure, there are probably enough remains and personal effects for you to make your guacamole. Oh, but now your friend wants some. So she takes some stuff from the graves. And then she tells her friends. And so on and so forth, until suddenly, the gravesite is cleaned out entirely.

You can't just grow a new dead Thomas Jefferson. It's a finite, exhaustible resource.

Sixth-most important reason: Guacamole is not your playground. There are rules.

I also insist upon this when I see people add goat cheese, or bacon, or even mayonnaise -- mayonnaise! -- to their guacamole.

Avocado, salt, pepper, lime juice, cilantro. Maybe some onion. At its essence, guacamole is both simple and elegant. It's perfectly balanced. I don't think there is a food on Earth so delicious that is so difficult to screw up. It's a gift. Some of you are incapable of accepting a gift, and so you defeat and humiliate yourself by trying to turn guacamole into your own stupid-assed funhouse.

If you want goat cheese, mayonnaise, bacon, olives, Thomas Jefferson's petrified gall stones, or sour cream in your guacamole, I say to you that you do not understand guacamole. You lack even the slightest appreciation of grace or subtlety. You are doing the dishes with a hammer. Stop it.

Seventh-most important reason: Acquiring the contents of Thomas Jefferson's grave would be a real pain in the butt

At this point we are forced to suppose that you are entirely determined to make guacamole with the contents of Thomas Jefferson's grave. Fine. I hope you're ready for weeks of planning and hours of hard labor.

Firstly, Jefferson is buried in Monticello, a highly-trafficked attraction that is protected by 24-hour security. Secondly ... well, do yourself a favor and run an image search for his gravesite. It isn't the marker-and-headstone deal you were hoping for. It's a giant stone slab with a large obelisk on top.

It can be moved, but you will need friends, and your work will not be silent. How one could successfully vandalize Jefferson's grave without paying off the guards is beyond me, and I doubt they're cheap. And now, after hours of back-breaking labor and thousands of dollars spent, you're left with a bowl of guacamole that not only tastes terrible, but is entirely unfaithful to the tradition of guacamole. You are a jackwagon. Enjoy.

Eighth-most important reason: You could break a tooth

There is so much stuff in that coffin that could send you straight to the dentist. If you insist on procuring Presidential effects for your guacamole, at least go with Grant's grave. There's probably way less stuff in there to break your teeth on, because he died poor as shit.

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Sometimes you just gotta fix your crotch in the middle of baseball game:

Not only did the Cubs' Chris Coghlan need his crotch adjusted, the back of his pants needed it too:

Might want to get this changed Chris Coghlan! #Cubs @Cubs @TotalCubsMove pic.twitter.com/D7pbNJPp4g

— Rick Strom (@RickStrom) July 2, 2015

(h/t @david_j_roth)

Thomas Sanladerer shares:

Could Printrbot’s new Play be the greatest 3D printer ever made?

watch more on Thomas channel

---

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

Just before everyone left for the Fourth of July weekend, the White House announced a plan for a major undertaking: A review of the laws regulating genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

In a memorandum to the heads of the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Agriculture, the Obama administration said the initiative would modernize federal regulation of GMO crops, animals and microbes, but does not apply to biotech products in medicine.

US regulations for GMOs have not kept pace with advances in technology, the White House reasoned, and haven’t been updated since 1992. A major thrust of the memo is the call for more transparency, as well as inter-agency coordination to ensure the environment and public health are protected. It also states that the regulatory framework should allow for continuing innovation by industry, as well as public confidence in the safety of its products.

Today’s memo included three specific goals with a one-year timeline: (1) developing regulations that would clearly delegate responsibilities among the agencies; (2) creating a “long-term strategy” to increase transparency in the regulatory process and protect public health and the environment; and (3) commissioning an independent analysis of the future of the biotech industry.

Several organizations were quick to applaud the announcement. “Reform of the badly outdated system for reviewing GMO crops and other products is long overdue,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group, which has been a staunch supporter of mandatory GMO labeling for food products.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, which often urges the government for more oversight of food products but has not taken a specifically anti-GMO stance, also issued an encouraging response. “CSPI hopes the end result of the process that is starting today will be better regulation that addresses the real potential risks of [genetically engineered] products and assures the public that the approved products are safe.”

If you’re a comic book publisher or video game developer, you’re likely aware of the role cosplay plays in the fan community. You only have to attend a single convention to witness the work and enthusiasm people pour into bringing their favorite characters to life. Marvel Comics is recognizing some of that effort by releasing variant covers featuring cosplayers for various titles in September. Judith Stephens will photograph the series and it will feature She-Hulk, Groot, Thor, and Medusa among others. Yaya Han’s Medusa costume is pictured above.

Medusa photo by Brian Boling, panel photo via Jay Justice

via Bleeding Cool

Wall Street Journal

Aetna Said to Be Near Deal to Buy Humana for $34 Billion New York Times Aetna is near an agreement to buy its smaller rival Humana for about $34 billion, people briefed on the matter said on Thursday, in what could be the first in a series of mergers among the country's big health insurers. Under the contemplated terms ... Aetna Said to Near $34 Billion Cash, Stock Deal for HumanaBloomberg Aetna Nears Deal to Buy HumanaWall Street Journal Aetna nears deal to buy Humana at $230 a share - sourcesTODAYonline Seeking Alpha -StreetInsider.com all 18 news articles »

The Knicks couldn't get their primary targets but still signed a quality big man.

Free agent center Robin Lopez and the New York Knicks are finalizing a deal that will pay the former Trail Blazers center $54 million over four years, reports Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski. The Knicks were holding out for a chance to sign DeAndre Jordan, but when it became clear that wasn't going to happen, they focused their efforts on securing Lopez .

Lopez was originally expected to stay in Portland, saying after the season, "I would love to come back. I'm very open to coming back." However, after LaMarcus Aldridge made it clear he was leaving, the plan changed and the Trail Blazers decided to let Lopez go, too, in order to chase a younger replacement.

Heading into his eighth year, Lopez has developed into a great defensive big man. He's not at the talent level of his twin brother, Brook, but Lopez is a very serviceable body down low, who can alter a game defensively while hitting the close-range shots that he's expected to.

The 7-footer had a solid 2014-15 season, averaging 9.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 27.8 minutes per game while providing a steady defensive presence. Sadly for the Trail Blazers, Lopez had to miss 23 games with a fractured wrist. He wasn't as effective after the injury, which coincided with Portland's slide during the final stretch of the season and in its first-round playoff loss to the Grizzlies.

Lopez was not the Knicks' first choice in free agency after missing out on Greg Monroe, but he could prove to be a great fit. New York needs all the help it can get on defense and Lopez is a very capable anchor on that end, blocking shots at a nice rate while also more than holding his own in the low block.

On offense he lacks the post game Phil Jackson was looking for in a big man, but Lopez's offensive rebounding and ability to finish inside without demanding touches will make him a good complement to Carmelo Anthony. As far as backup plans go, the Knicks could have done much worse than Lopez.

Anita Sarkeesian’s name came up, and he dismissed her as a “totalitarian,” said her research was poor and that she was making demands. When the game developer Zoe Quinn’s name came up—recall she’s the developer whose ex-boyfriend wrote a post shredding her reputation that somehow kicked a lot of this GamerGate stuff off, and, yes, Quinn briefly dated one of our reporters—he snarked about how her game Depression Quest was just a web page and got attention because it was about depression. I sort of get his issues with Sarkeesian, though I feel her influence is exaggerated. Quinn seemed like a weird fixation, a vestige of Twitter fuming that seemed less relevant when said out loud. The pattern, though, was that people might be paying attention to them and their ideas.

Time and again, I sensed, he was annoyed about who was listening to whom, about who got attention, about whose voices were heard, about who was making an impact on games and games culture. That was the pattern.
(Permalink)

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

---

srmxy:

Ellen Page’s early filmography looks like it was Photoshopped for an Arrested Development gag.

Photographer Phoo Chan has captured some incredible images of a crow riding on the back of a bald eagle mid-flight. Chan explains that crows are territorial birds who will attack and harass much larger birds who invade their space. In this case, the attack included a slight pause as the crow perched itself on the eagle’s back for a brief mid-air ride.

More of Chan’s wonderful wildlife and bird photography can be seen on his Flickr page.

photos via Bored Panda

via Bored Panda

You might use GURPS to play a fantasy campaign, then try a cyberpunk campaign, then switch to superheroes next. Or you might just have a wizard with a machine gun alongside a psi-mutant cyborg on a Sherman tank. That’s the power of GURPS.

Read more...

We were originally happy to see that Fire Emblem Fates would embrace relationships and marriages between characters of the same sex (much like our Supreme Court!), but that was in the before-time. In the long long ago. Now we’ve learned some more details about ways you can interact with a non-heterosexual character in the game, and it involves drugging her drink to trick her into loving a dude. Those optimistic days suddenly seem so far away.

It should be mentioned that this scenario comes from the Japanese version of the game, and versions of Fire Emblem titles have had content censored in the past during localization for other regions, so it’s possible—maybe even likely—that it’ll be removed before its 2016 release in North America and Europe. However, it should also be mentioned that there isn’t a region on Earth you could release a game in where drugging women to coerce them into doing something is not awful—let alone the “gay conversion therapy angle.”

See, Soleil (pictured above being a f***ing boss) doesn’t like men. Some people have been asserting that she’s actually bisexual, but with translated lines like, “[W]hile the magic powder [that makes her see men as women] is still in effect, I think I’ll go take a peek at the other male soldiers in the army! Alright! I wonder what kinds of cute girls that ugly lot will become!”

And with the male main character (Kamui by default in Japan) telling her, “Thank you for accepting my proposal. I’ll definitely make you happy. On that note… you can’t flirt with other guys, okay? Though I don’t think I have to worry about that with you,” it seems like she’s pretty much only interested in girls. But her sexuality doesn’t even matter—that’s nobody’s business but hers. A game’s main character just shouldn’t be running around drugging people to make them more receptive to his advances when they were obviously otherwise not interested.

Actually, the awfulness in question only crops up due to her tendency to get weak in the knees around “good-looking” girls, as Kamui initially drugs her with the potion that makes her see men as women so she can practice withstanding his clearly undeniable beauty (nice ego, dude) and achieve her goal of being “smooth.” Of course, this eventually leads her to fall in love with Kamui as a man, because drugging women because you, as a man, know what’s good for them just isn’t enough horrible for one game.

The full translation of the characters’ “romantic” (read: creepy) interactions comes with even more condescension, like,

Kamui: Why… because before marriage, I can’t thoughtlessly touch a woman’s body. I understand your feelings… but please treasure yourself more.
Soleil: Okay… I get it.
Kamui: Good girl.

When we still live with the harsh reality of non-polygonal LGBTQ+ people being made to feel like they should try to be something they’re not at the cost of their own happiness—and the horrible, tragic actions such pressures can lead to—we can only hope that this will all be lost in translation when the game finally makes it overseas. Still, it’d be better if it hadn’t happened at all, and maybe in the future, Nintendo won’t undercut its own progress by taking one tiny step forward and then a Mario-sized leap back.

[We’ve reached out to Nintendo for comment on the scenario described above and whether or not it’ll make it through the North American localization process. We’ll update with their response.]

(Social Justice Viv via tip)

—Please make note of The Mary Sue’s general comment policy.—

Do you follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?

Campers and counselors arrive at Camp Firewood in the full trailer for Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, the Netflix prequel series to the 2001 cult comedy classic Wet Hot American Summer. The original cast of the film return with new additions like Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, and Michael Cera.

An earlier trailer for the series was modeled as a VHS promotional video for the camp itself.

All episodes of the series are scheduled to premiere on July 31, 2015.

image via Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp

The time has come, to talk of many things.

It is with indescribable sorrow I make my official goodbye post on the site I have come to love as if it were an extension of my body. In August of 2011 Susana Polo, founder of The Mary Sue, took a shot in the dark to reach out to “The Nerdy Bird” on Twitter when she expressed interest in a full time writing gig. The Nerdy Bird was (is) me. She said “Hmm, you have piqued my interest! Going to DM you!” And life was never the same again.

You guys, the crew of @The_MarySue are super cool. You should follow them.

— Jill Pantozzi (@JillPantozzi) September 16, 2011

That remains true to this day.

Where do I even start? This bittersweet type of post has become too familiar as of late. I once sat in the Manhattan offices of Abrams Media (our one and only owner since the site’s inception) thinking I hit the jackpot. “You want me to write about Harry Potter? And you’ll pay me for it? What is life???” I was hired not just for my writing talent and knowledge of all things geek but my name recognition and the following I had built for myself. I went to work telling everyone I knew they needed to start reading The Mary Sue immediately if they weren’t already. I still have notes I took during my first week, jotting down our Twitter follower count — 3,873 — and thinking, “Oh no, we can do much better than that.” And we did.

With Susana and the lovely lady who knows funny, Jamie Frevele, we started the uphill climb to where we are today. Jamie eventually bid us adieu and The Pun-inator Rebecca Pahle hopped on board the train and had to listen to Susana and I discuss the Batfamily on a daily basis. It was the best of times.

And as content with that as I was, I also realized I’d never be the one running the site because Susana started it, Susana was awesome, and our mutual love of Batman and his ethics code stopped me from bumping her off. I knew I’d eventually have to move on if I wanted to go bigger. But life never does quite what you expect and a short while before our merger with fellow Abrams nerd site Geekosystem one year ago (it has without a doubt, felt like five years), I found myself in charge.

To put it bluntly, being Editor in Chief was overwhelming (and never stopped being overwhelming). I was managing eight staffers, the merger (something we’d been super nervous but very excited about) didn’t go over well with our readers, San Diego Comic-Con was right around the corner (I was also attending it that year), and then we had a tragic loss in my family. It was a challenging time to be sure, but I’d never once shied away from a challenge in my life and I wasn’t about to now. I continued the tenure-long process of helping the site grow and it made me supremely happy to see new fans finding us each and every day. Of course with bigger fame and exposure also comes bigger hate and well, you’ve all been here to see how that goes. But we’ve had an amazing ride from meetups, to our own merch, Geek Girl Headquarters, surprise superhero dildo deliveries, photoshop madness, and internal company GIF wars.

Above all, getting to talk about the media I love, getting to do so honestly, and opening the eyes of others is not something I’d trade for anything in the world. That’s The Mary Sue. That’s always been The Mary Sue.

Now it’s time to thank everyone.

Thank you to Abrams Media for giving a home to geek content when it wasn’t as fashionable as it is today, and for the entire company staff who didn’t vocalize their annoyance when we started talking nerdy out loud at the office (on those rare occasions we looked up from our computers).

To Susana… my badass Lady Bane, my partner in superheroics, and the best Chipotle savior in town – thank you. None of us would be here without you. Jamie, my love! We were never funnier than when we had you. Rebecca… Totes McGoats! Your puns and Rock GIFs will live on in infamy.

To Max of the old Geekosystem guard, thank you for your honesty in all matters and continued support. Rollin, thank you for being the coolest dude around and organizing the first full Dungeons & Dragons campaign I got to play. Ian, thank you for laughing through most of it.

Thank you to Sam Maggs for showing me the energy and positivity I’d forgotten in myself. You kicked so much ass for us. Victoria McNally, my redhead nemesis but Neopet friend, I can’t believe we didn’t make YA dystopian fiction about dresses your beat from the get-go but thank you for entertaining us all with your Sailor Moon action figure dramas. Glen Tickle, thank you for joining us for the wild ride, your bow ties will never be forgotten. Carolyn Cox, you are a delight. Your wit and snark are unparalleled. Dan Van Winkle, your talent is much larger than you think, reach for the stars. Also, you’re fired.

Thank you so much for our thankless Weekend Warriors: Becky Chambers, Alanna Bennett, and Janelle Asselin, your current successes make my heart swell. And to our newest fighters: Jessica Lachenal, Teresa Jusino, Sam Riedel, and Alec Bernal, stay strong. I’m sorry I didn’t get more time to work with you all. To the contributors who helped make TMS one of the most diverse outlets online, I salute you. Thank you for bringing perspectives we might not have had otherwise. You helped make TMS a better place.

Now to you, dear readers, nerds, comrades in moderating. Our best days are your best days because when all is said and done, the writers at The Mary Sue are nerds just like you. Besides my staff, you are the reason I stayed here as long as I did. You made me push farther, try harder, and devote more time than I probably should have for my well being in order to make The Mary Sue a place you were proud to spend your time on and tell others about. Commenting on and sharing our posts every day, sharing in our hopes and excitements as well as our defeats and disappointments. This community is a magical place filled with the most wonderful human beings imaginable. I will not name anyone specifically for fear of leaving someone out by accident but the core group of TMS’ers (you know who you are) are a wonderful extended family to me and I’m so sorry to be leaving you. Behave. :)

To my fans specifically (there may be some overlap with our general readership, I hope), those who have followed me on the interwebs for years, I thank you for coming on this wacky journey with me. It’s been a roller coaster, and some of you fell off along the way, but know I appreciate each and every one of you.

So what now? A personal fan campaign to get a set visit with The Rock on Shazam? Probably. Definitely a lot of time off. Absolutely catching up on the comics, TV, video games, and movies I haven’t been able to consume because TMS consumed my every waking hour (and some of my sleeping hours as well).

“No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time.”

—Please make note of The Mary Sue’s general comment policy.—

Do you follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?