Day in the Life of an Idiot

With the digital camera back in working order, I present to you my Medusa/Empress Marvel Tarot (tm) card. As usual, if you'd like to read all my various and bizarre reasoning for the symbols and whatnot that I included (or didn't.) Please read the longish description at my Tate website: Medusa as Empress



As I admit over at my other site, I actually don't really know a lot about the Inhumans, though I own a couple issues from the late 70s. When my cousin Laun and I used to play superheroes as kids, (and when we weren't being Avengers or the X-Men) I wanted to be Black Bolt. He was hard character to "play," however, since he can't talk. Anyway, I go on at great lengths about my various (mis)conceptions about the Inhumans and Medusa and Black Bolt's sex life over there. (I always figured they had hot sex. I don't know why. Maybe I always figured that a guy who couldn't talk would have other, creative ways of expressing himself. eh-hem!)

In other news, my parents, who are snow birding in Texas right now, would probably be extremely gratified to know that the temperatures are, once again, in the why-do-you-idiots-live-here range. I believe the windchill this morning was -36 F. The actual outside temp was something in the range of -15. The only really nifty thing about weather like this is the ice rainbow halo around the sun. The moisture and pollution particles in the air actually freeze, and are, thus, apparently, wonderful little prisms. So driving Mason to school this morning, I could see a perfect rainbow halo around the hazy sun. It was kind of cool, but from peronal experience, I also know that when you can see an ice halo/rainbow around the sun the roads are insanely unsafe. Think about it: if air freezes, so does exhaust. Black ice is everywhere. I heard about at least three roll overs on the highway this morning. Even the side streets were super-slippery.

Today is also, unfortunately, errand day. Recycling comes so I had to drag that out to the curb this morning; I had about a million packages to mail (so if you're expecting a book from me, it's coming!); library books were due, and groceries still need fetching. I suspect my word count isn't going to be SUPER-awesome today, although I impressed myself by being able to whack out over a 1,000 words that day I had company. Yesterday, I nearly made 2,000 (1,880 acutal), and, even though I have to take a break or two for shopping and whatnot, I'm thinking it won't be too bad (knocking on wood/keyboard.)

Okay, that's all I know. Stay warm, kids!

So... tired... can barely type....

Seriously, working out again after taking a two week break is really, uh, well, exhausting. And sweaty. Not fun. (Not that I'd ever classify it "fun," but there you go.)

So for all you people out there who have railed and railed and railed at me to read HARRY POTTER, the series, I'm finally going to do it. Yeah. It's pretty shocking, but naomikritzer talked me into it. Plus, I tell myself Mason will be ready for Harry soon, despite (or perhaps because of) his recent reaction to the Star Wars novels Santa put in his stocking. Mason read about four chapters and then decided the whole thing was FAR too scary for him. He felt kind of ashamed for being scared, I think, but we talked to him about it (of course, it was right at bed time on Saturday night.) I reminded him that the very best thing about novels is that you don't HAVE to read them. You can stop at any time. You can quit. It's all for fun and you're in control. That seemed to comfort him a great deal, and I also told him that if wanted to do something to feel in control of his reading, he could write down the author's name and write a big X over it. To emphasize that we won't be buying any more books by that person.

Sorry, Kevin J. Anderson, but you've been Xed.

Meanwhile, after lunch, my plan is to finally catch up on my writing now that Mason is back at school. My New Year's resolution is to write something on my novel projects every day. Ideally, something in the range of 1,000 words (but better more.)

I also came up with a person for my Emperess card: Medusa, Queen of the Inhumans and, I think, mother of Crystal (right?) Anyway, I drew the card over the weekend, but it's not up on-line yet because my digital camera has decided to go on the fritz. It may be a while before I can post more art.... grrr. Although that might help with this whole resolution thing.

Okay, got to go!

Once again, if you're interested in my full thinking on the whys of this image, go to my Tate page for the long, involved mystical ramblings: http://tatehallaway.blogspot.com/2008/12/iron-man-as-emperor.html



I have to confess that I stole the pose from one of the covers IRON MAN: CIVIL WAR, so if you recognize it, that's the deal. I'm not very good at doing the action stuff without some reference, so while the image itself is original, the pose was imagined by someone else.

I'm still waffling about who best suits the Empress. I still considering Sue Richards/Invisible Woman, but I'm wondering if she's sexy enough.

So our pumbler/handyman came right away, mostly on-time day-before-yesterday and not only fixed the broken pipe, but also installed the new faucets. Hooray! I am now repeating the mantra, "Never try to fix plumbing yourself... always call a professional... never try to fix plumbing yourself...."

In other news, Mason had an early release day yesterday and so, right after school, we "hit the slopes" at Como Park. It was a bit nippy (as we say here in Minnesota), and I'm proud to say Mason was ready to quit before I was. All that working out seems to be paying off in terms of stamina, at any rate. After our twenty minutes of screaming sledding on the orange saucer from heck, we hit the library for some good books and home to snuggle under blankets with hot chocolate. Tell me that doesn't sounds like the perfect day.

In support of A Day without Gay, I didn't write. Yeah, I can tell you're really feeling the pain I inflicted by my work stoppage. Hmmm, I think I see a small flaw in this protest as I seem to have only hurt myself. No one even noticed my lack of writing, I'll bet. And, given that yesterday was my very last day of my Loft class, I elected to actually go to work, rather than "call in gay," 'cuz, uh, I want to keep getting hired at the Loft and if I hadn't shown no one would have turned in evaluations.

So... Up the (*cough*) strike! Uh, or something.

I'm also trying my hand at the second tarot card (Magician) in my Marvel deck. I have to say I'm not terribly pleased with it, if only because I pretty much suck at drawing "gizmos" and Mr. Fantastic's lab should be full of them. However, I *did* have the clever plan to draw an image of the Negative Zone's portal in the background behind Mr. Fantastic, so that when the card might be reversed it would loom large in the foreground, reminding me, at least, of the Civil War's prison, etc., and other mis-uses, IMHO, of Mr. Fantastic's magic/genius.

Even though I'm not all the happy with it, I'll finish it and post it tomorrow.

So on Friday, I had this awesome thought: I need to draw myself a Marvel Tarot deck. (Yeah, in my COPIOUS spare time.) I guess Vertigo has a whole 78-card set (with an intro by Rachel Pollack, no less!) It surprises me, however, they have John Constantine as the Fool. I'd be tempted to make him the Magician. (Because he understands magic, even if he has not yet integrated it into his emotional/heart.)

Anyway, Shawn and I were thinking about who we'd have in each of the Major Arcana spots, and so far it would go like this:





0 - Spider-Man. He's such an everyman with a light heart and sense of adventure I think he'd be perfect as the Fool. I started sketching this one and I've drawn him ready to leap from his Manhattan apartment building window. One foot is still inside the saftey of home. On the ledge is a potted plant (a white rose, 'natch) and Mary Jane (taking the place of the dog... hmmm, that could be taken the wrong way,) but waving him off to his grand adventure becoming a hero. With that image in mind, he's dressed in costume, except he's in the act of pulling on his mask (as the Fool has not yet become a true HERO.) My plan for the city scape was to make a bit of Hudson bay visible through the buildings (the waters of the unconscious) and the sun rising over the city.

1 - Mr. Fantastic. Why him and not Dr. Strange? Well, because my reading of the Magician is that he has before him the tools of magic, but he's is fully mental and not yet integrated with his feminine/inutitive side. Mr. Fantastic would be holding a gizmo (instead of a wand, upraised in one hand) and pointing to the earth with the other. He'd be in his lab, but I thought I'd come up with some more traditonal arcana images to be laid before him/

2 - Storm. She's an elemental Goddess, after all, and not a bad choice for the High Priestess. It would be tempting to go with the mohawk Storm from the 80s, because at that point in her career she was very emotion/intuition centered.


3 - Not sure about the Empress. It's tempting to go with the Invisible Woman if only because she *is* a mother and could easily stand in for the Mother archtype.

4 - Iron Man as Tony Stark. He is a man of action, but also great wealth. He has also set himself up as the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. which is very much the enforcer of right and wrong and societies rules. His whole role in the Civil War is very much in the feel of the Emperor's card, IMHO.

5 - Professor X as the Heirophant. Why him? Because he's the one who teaches and inducts so many of the young heros. I think an image of two new mutants kneeling before him, requesting entrance to the School of Gifted Students would do nicely the image of the Heirophant judging his applicants.

6 - Scott and Jean (?) as the Lovers, they are the quintessential pair, though I was considering Jean in her Pheonix form for that of Judgement.

7 - Not sure. The Chariot, I saw on another blog, could also fit for Iron Man/Tony Stark, but he's not self-assured or in control enough (thanks to his battle with alcohol.) Anyone out there have any ideas? Someone successful, proud, confident, so in control he doesn't even need to put his hands on the reins of the Chariot.

8 - Due to Strength's nature of taming the beast, I'm considering Wolverine in this spot. Traditionally, however, the Strength card is a woman who holds the beast at bay with kindess. Jean with Wolverine? Kitty Pryde with Wolverine? That last one might make the right archtypical image.

9 - Here's where I might put Dr. Strange, if only because he's very much (usually) a loner, and clearly is adept enough in magic to represent the Hermit.

10 - Wheel of Fortune? Not sure here.

11 - Captain America as Justice (of course!) I thought, too, he might not wear his mask, as the Tarot Justice is not blind.

12 - The Hanged Man... not sure here, either. I'm tempted by Daredevil, but I can't say WHY.

13 - Death... well, those are somewhat difficult shoes to fill, I'd need someone who doesn't just cause death but who comes through to the otherside -- someone with the power to transform.

14 - Temperance is a card I understand the least, so I'd need help here too.

15 - Magneto as the Devil, believe it or not. Because he represents the ease and seduction of evil. One of my favorite issues is one in which Magneto decides he's had enough of this being good bull and, in the Savage Land, decides to forge his costume from the blood of the mutates.

16 - Dr. Doom as one of the figures falling from the Tower, because his extreme pride continually leads to his ruin.

17 - The Dazzler as the Star? Hmmmm, maybe not.

18- Spider-Woman as the Moon because she's kept a LOT of secrets over the years.

19 - Johnny Storm as the Sun -- well, he CAN go supernova, after all, and he has a lot of joi d'vivre. You could even say his spirit is very child-like

20 - The Pheonix as Judgement, since she's literally been raised from the dead more than once.

21 - I don't know who is self-actualized enough in the Marvel Universe to be the World card.

Anyway, when I finish the first image I'll post it somewhere (probably over at Tate's site since blogspot is nicer to uploaded images, IMHO.)