The Great Hunt (Book 2) – Chapter 31: “On the Scent”

The Wheel of Time - Book 2 - The Great Hunt

Mat’s looking like shit these days, daggerless and everything. He wants to know how the hell Rand’s group was able to get to Cairhien weeks ahead of them. Rand is like “I ‘unno”, but he’s glad that they were able to find him. They had the dagger, Mat, they HAD THE DAGGER, but then the chest that contained it and… ahem… and the Horn… was stolen. But don’t worry! Mat assures them that, between Hurin the Sniffer and Perrin the “Sniffer”, they will find the Horn again in no time! That Horn smells pretty bad, too. A sniffer will sniff that sonofabitch out in two shakes of a Rand’s tail.

Throughout all the talking, Perrin is amazed at how Lordly Rand has become. He is even heard to say “Shadowkiller”, possibly confirming what the wolves know. After Verin heals Hurin of all his inn-on-fire wounds, they set off to find another inn called the Great Tree in order to regroup and discuss and share and sing Kumbaya and all other manner of happy horseshit.

Later, when alone, Rand is suspicious of Verin’s presence and wonders if Moiraine’s trying to pull some strings again. Ain’t gonna happen! Nothing doing! He finds both of Selene’s notes in he breast pocket of his ornate red coat and decides to burn them up. Moving forward only from now on.

Verin had set up a private area for them all to talk. Ingtar isn’t taking too kindly to Rand’s confidence about taking command, not like it’s Rand’s fault. He’s been used to it for the last couple of weeks. Verin demands to know, just like Mat, how the three of them arrived at Cairhien so quickly. Rand spills the beans about literally everything: portal stones, Selene, the Horn, his limp, leaky penis. Everything. Hurin returns to report that Darkfriends have entered the manor of Lord Barthanes, which Verin doesn’t seem too surprised about. They all plan to infiltrate somehow, and this is the part where Rand reveals his invitations and decides about Barthanes’ instead of Galldrian’s. Sorry for spoiling that earlier! Not that anybody it reading this at all!

More discussion of little consequence happen. Rand remembers the statue with the large crystal ball and asks Verin of it, who responds that it’s one of a pair of sa’angreals intended for use by a man. The other one, far away in some other land, is an identical sa’angreal intended for use by a woman. Together, they have enough power to Break the World all over again!

Speaking of Breaking the World, I’m a gonna go break a sweat. By running to my bed. To take a nap.

The Second Session Photos

Is it November 4th already! Well dang it all to heck, sir, I must be in the middle of my third tattoo session right now! Getting all cut, ripped up, and sore by a very friendly artist who talks to me very seldom and that’s the way I like it!

While I’m off doing that, here are a couple of photos of my healed tattoo after Session #2. Some of the lower area near the elbow has been cleaned and crisped up, but there’s still a lot to be done with the rest. Enjoy my flabby arm. Catch you next time unless I die on the operating table!

Chronicles of the Tattoo - Session 1

Chronicles of the Tattoo - Session 1

Star Wars (Vol. 2), Issue #9 – “Book II: Showdown on the Smugglers’ Moon (Part 2)”

* Part 2 of 5 of the Book II: Showdown on the Smugglers’ Moon storyline *

Welcome to Ghostliness & Nerfherders Presents: Star Wars (Vol. 2), Issue #9 – “Book II: Showdown on the Smugglers’ Moon (Part 2)”! In the previous installment, Han faces off with his so-called wife, Sana, as she attempts to retrieve Leia and turn her over to the Empire. Luke travels to Nar Shaddaa (the Smuggler’s Moon) where he smuggles and moons everyone in the seediest bar in town while trying to find someone to take him to Coruscant. While showing off his lightsaber moves, some shady character steals it and runs off with it.

Here’s my prediction: Han fucks his wife as a distraction to keep Leia safe. Leia becomes more jealous as the storyline progresses. Luke gets fatally wounded by a flying hockey puck during a Red Wings game.


Star Wars (Vol. 2), Issue #9 [November, 2015]
Written by: Jason Aaron
“Book II: Showdown on the Smugglers’ Moon (Part 2)”

Star Wars (Vol. 2), Issue #9

Nar Shaddaa proves to be a very bad place to have something stolen from you. The urban metropolis is bustling with activity. Impossible to chase anyone down, but god-fucking-damnit, Luke Skywalker is gonna try! “Artoo! Where are you?!” Luke screams into his Fitbit. “We can’t let him get away! That lightsaber is all I have!” Awww, don’t be so hard on yourself, kiddo. You also have your intelligence (*snort*) and your charm (*snort*).

The thief hitches a ride on a flying penis-shaped car and snickers to himself. “Nice try, off-worlder! Too bad you roof-run like a farmer! Welcome to the Smuggler’s Moon! Ha!”

This guy is immediately put in his place when Luke zips by on his own craft, leaps from the edge, and grabs onto the guy’s leg. “Gotcha!” The magnetic hand that the thief is using to hang onto the bottom of the flying car starts to slip. “You’ll kill us both! Get off before the…”

And then “the…” happens. Both start falling to their impending deaths! Luke spends the duration of his descent trying to grab onto the falling lightsaber. They both crash-land on the ground and survive without a scratch. I’m not sure why. Seems dumb, but what do I know? I don’t write comic books.

“Shorted out… my magna-glove. You… how did you jump so… you’re insane.”

“No. I’m a Skywalker.”

Star Wars (Vol. 2), Issue #9

You and your lazy eyeballs don’t intimidate me, Lucas.

Now that we’ve established that Luke is a Skywalker, we can pick up our lost lightsabers and move on with our day. He notices that the others from the bar have stopped chasing them down, and it’s because, as a nearby Hutt puts it, they’re in “Hutta Town” now. “Which means you and your pretty little saber of yours… belong to Grakkus the Hutt!”

Grakkus the Hutt looks like someone squatted and took a big, mushy green shit. And then put abs on it, as the case is here. Luke isn’t scared though, and for the fifth time in twenty minutes he makes a dumb face and flicks on that trusty lightsaber of his.

Meanwhile, back on Marital Dispute Planet, The TIE fighters have their targets in sight! Apprehend at all costs! Don’t let them get away, for the love of God, or Darth Vader will spank our butts! Now move!

Han finally spills the beans to his hunny-bunny that Leia’s not the only rebel standing before her. “I’m on the Empire most wanted list!” he cries at her, asking for his gun back. Leia is shooting advancing troops with her tiny laser pointer. She’s doing a much better job alone than 45 trained men. Then Han gets his gun back and joins the fray. Sana is beside herself with frustration.

Star Wars (Vol. 2), Issue #9

Oh boo hoo. You’re the one who married this asshole. Grief it up, baby.

Once the troops have been temporarily neutralized, they all get onto Sana’s ship and book it from the planet.

Luke is spending his pleasant afternoon trying to cut down robots now. Battle droids? Grakkus the Hutt’s army of Tinker Toys? These guys are wielding cattle prods, and Luke gets a neckful of electricity. “Hnnrgh!” he is heard to utter.

“How do you like my magnaguards?” Grakkus jubilates ejaculatively. “They’re relics of the Clone War. Designed to battle Jedi Knights. Of which you are clearly not one.” He then asks where Luke, ahem, stole that lightsaber.

I want to know why Grakkus is speaking English right now. He doesn’t even have those <> symbols next to his words. Aren’t these Hutts supposed to be like HOOBA JERBA GLOOBA SNERBA? Is this an error?

Grakkus is informed by his informant that he was informed that Luke is trying to hike it over to Coruscant. Grakkus is like “NO! WELCOME TO THE SMUGGLER’S MOON, BEE-OTCH!” and knocks Luke out cold. He wakes up later in a dark room where Grakkus holds up a glowing 20-sided Dungeons and Dragons die. “Do you know what this is?”

Apparently, it’s an artifact of the Jedi. You see, Grakkus likes to collect Jedi artifacts. He enjoys that the Jedi are all dead and gone, and his hobby is reminding himself that the Jedi are all dead and gone by collecting trinkets and antiques like some midwestern grandmother. “That’s why your agent stole my lightsaber,” Luke guesses correctly. Bravo, smarty.

Star Wars (Vol. 2), Issue #9

Or else I roll this thing and deal +8 weapon damage on your Gloobus Glaive.

Luke doesn’t know what it is, obviously, because he doesn’t know what anything is, obviously. He tries to use the Force while Grakkus counts to five, but the Force isn’t showing him anything because the Force isn’t a YouTube channel. Then he flails for Ben Kenobi to show him the way. And suddenly, a roomful of these dodecahedrons start lighting up and floating. Each reveals a hologram of a long-dead Jedi Knights. They each, in turn, spout of trite Jedi-isms like “Anger leads to hate” and “Trust only in the Force” and “Kirk was better than Picard”.

Luke goes cross-eyed while one tells him not to let their deaths be in vain. “Don’t let this be the end of the Jedi.”

“Well, what do you know?” Grakkus looks down his squishy Hutt eyes at Luke. “It appears you will make a fine addition to my collection after all. What you are, dear boy, is the Last Jedi.”

“And now you belong to me.”

Luke gets to go to the arena where he’ll fight! Stay tuned for a lot of this in Issue #10!

Sana flies away like fuck from the advancing TIE fighters. “They’re jamming our transmission! I can’t call for help!” Sana then decides to just try losing them in the thick, red atmosphere. Han wants to play pilot, please, but Sana tells him to go screw.

Elsewhere, that Mon Mothma lady is chatting with an old dude and Admiral “It’s a trap!” Ackbar. There’s a distress call from Luke Skywalker’s astromech droid. You know. R2-something. On Nar Shaddaa. The Smuggler’s Moon. He’s been kidnapped by a dang ol’ Hutt. The old guy is like, what the fucking fuck is Luke Skywalker doing on some shithole like Nar Shaddaa? Ackbar doesn’t care about such piffle, he just wants to know how they’re going to get him out of there.

Mothma claims they can’t. Hutts are untouchable, man. Have you seen… uh… it’s coming to me… Jabba? He makes women wear skimpy metal bikinis. They can’t compete with that!

So Luke’s on his own.

Except that Chewbacca is there to volunteer to rescue him.

Here’s his proposition:

“RRRRRRRRRRRRWWWWWHHH”

Final Thoughts

Why does anyone give a flying fuck-flip about Luke Skywalker? I’ve seen NO evidence in all my travels that this little pee-pants is worth even a millisecond of anyone’s time.

Obi-Wan Kenobi died for this kid. He’s the biggest idiot of them all.

State of the Blog Address – November, 2023

State of the Blog

Bill Clinton famously delivered his first State of the Blog Address in between free jazz sessions that rivaled John Coltrane’s prowess even at his most heroin-addicted.

Welcome once again to your irregularly-updated State of the Blog Address. It’s been one year since I bored you all to tears about the behind-the-scenes goings-on of my humble little pile of poop in the landfill that is the World Wide Web Dot Com Amen. My daily web traffic is QUADRUPLED from 0 this time last year, to 0 as of a few days ago! As a celebration, let me continue to give you the inside scoop on how things are going, how things are expected to go in the future, and where my pants are currently located (on my legs).

In general, while new content has slowed down a tad, be assured that I’m still writing like crazy. I’m backlogged on comic book and movie content, for instance. I’m indulging in so many of my introverted hobbies on a regular basis, the kind where I won’t voluntarily see the sun until 2041, that I’m constantly keeping updated on my mission to write about everything I do. This has been achieved by ignoring my wife and children completely and mainlining amphetamines that allow me to stay up until 5:30am on weekdays before I have to get up for work at 6:15.

Why am I jabberjawin’? Let’s get down to brass tacks.

Comic Stuff

State of the Blog

Chester A. Arthur gave his third State of the Blog Address on the toilet! He was having sex with his wife at the time, of course.

Loneliness & Cheeseburgers and Ghostliness & Nerfherders are still going strong thanks to my weird new obsession with Batman’s tights and Captain America’s floppy dead penis. Earlier this year, my brand new interest in Star Wars — yes, literally brand new — has allowed me to dip into the Marvel Star Wars and Darth Vader comics. I finished up Paper Girls and am well on my way to finishing up East of West. Right now I’m averaging about 3 – 4 comic book writeups a week and I’m backlogged by about 15 weeks. If I had more free time in my day I’d ideally like to double that and put out a write-up every single day, but that means quitting my shitty job and magically turning my kids 18 years old so they can move out of the house and stop asking me to microwave their mac & cheese! Just kidding! I love my kids! When they’re asleep! LOL!

I’m happy to announce a brand new feature called Stripcreatin’, wherein I use stripcreator.com to create some real low art and release it to my blog in batches. Don’t sleep on that one, it’ll be joyous and satisfying for years to come! Sucky Funnies Sunday has dwindled, but has not at all been abandoned. Crusin’ Thru Calvin & Hobbes has dwindled as well. Not abandoned, but I often forget about it. I promise to keep that one up as well as I can, because someday I’d like to kick off similar run-throughs of Peanuts and Foxtrot. Again, more free time would help this tremendously.

Manga Cum Loudly is very slow go. While I hate manga, I often forget how fun it is to write about how much I hate manga, so I only actually keep reading manga for about two days every few months. I’d love for this feature to be updated more regularly, because it’s honestly a real blast to talk shit about the worst artform known to mankind.

Music Stuff

State of the Blog

Dwight D. Eisenhower’s second State of the Blog Address was cut short when he left in a hurry after his Bitcoin mining farm in Iowa exploded.

Haha, yeah right. If you can believe it, almost everything about music, my primary inspiration for starting this blog in the first place, is dead in the water right now. I’m particularly disappointed in my inability to keep up with new music this year and do regular Newer Release Roundup updates. I’ve been listening to pretty much nothing but metal, Anthony Braxton, and lo-fi Zappa concerts. I can’t write about that shit!

Although I did start a feature called The Phish Philes, wherein I listen through Phish shows and break them down in a song-by-song basis. It’s entirely tongue-in-cheek, easy to write, and Phish is perfect background music for doing internet stuff including, but not limited to, non-writing blog-related work. You should be proud of me; being completely sober and liking Phish is a very embarrassing character flaw of mine, and it’s beyond brave to be projecting this online for all 0 of you to see.

Other than that, I plan on continuing my yearly write-ups of the Pitchfork and Quietus year-end lists, writing up my annual own year-end list, and my traditional one-sentence review write-up of every album I listened to this year that I didn’t spotlight in some capacity. That way I can at least feel like I’m writing about the primary topic that this blog was intended to be about in the first place. Oh well.

Other Stuff

State of the Blog

George Washington was deemed too fucking ugly by the public to deliver his State of the Blog Address in person. Sorry, George.

Brand new stuff! Check out the Nugatory Newsroom for my takes on weird current events. Look up the word “nugatory”, it’s a real word! Stripcreatin’ will be a new regular feature where I dump a batch of shitty comic strips I made using stripcreator.com; it will surely be funnier than anything you’ll see in the fucking newspaper. And, as I mentioned in a section above, I’ve discovered an interest in Star Wars that I guess can happen out of nowhere at age 35. How sad is that? I also discovered that Star Wars books ain’t half bad, so my infrequently updated Star Wars Storytime shall continue for a while. One out of every four or five books I read is a Star Wars book, so unless my appetite for droids and exploding planets and whiny lightsaber-wielding children increases dramatically, I wouldn’t expect this to be updated too frequently.

An uptick in my interest in movies has resulted in a pretty frequently updated Flicked Off!, and returning to my love of books after a few years has resulted in a semi-frequently updated Book Bonfire. My continued love for TV means a continually updated Through the Idiot Glass. I’d expect these features to continue indefinitely until I either find outdoor hobbies (unlikely) or fall into a volcano (slightly more likely).

It’s incredibly fun to write X-Files and Buffy episode write-ups for the Fantasy/Sci-Fi Diaries, but until I get more TV-viewing free time I’d rather, for now, watch shows I haven’t seen before. I’d love to make this a very regular habit, because I have lofty ambitions to do this same thing for each episodic Star Trek series, each Stargate series, Angel, Babylon 5, and Farscape. Yeah. I know. First I’ll have to win the lottery.

Future Stuff

Man, I’d love to write more general shit for Dear Journal on a regular basis, but I lack the creativity to come up with some off-the-cuff ideas lately! Oh well.

I’m going to roll out a feature soon where I shitpost about the video games I’m playing. It will surely make any visitor to my website cringe and throw pots, pans, and various other kitchenware into the wall in the fit of rage. Also, an idea I’ve had for years now is running through Earthbound and posting about it from Ness’ point of view. It’s quite an undertaking, though, and I don’t think I’m ready to handle it right now. I also want to do similar run-throughs for Pokémon Red/Blue and Skyrim, but I’m going to need to win about three lotteries total to be able to do any of this shit on the regular without giving up after three weeks!


That just about covers it! I look forward to continuing to write in this blog for years to come, unless of course I forget to pay the extravagant web hosting fees. Peace out, homie bros.

The Great Hunt (Book 2) – Chapter 30: “Daes Dae’mar”

The Wheel of Time - Book 2 - The Great Hunt

Rand and Co. are hanging out at the hotel swimming in the pool and taking advantage of the ice machine when the innkeeper arrives with two, count ’em TWO, more invitations from High Houses. Rand is disgruntled. He’s as far from gruntled as you could be.

Hurin points out that the invitations are from a Lord Barthanes the High and Holy and Flatulent, and King Galldrian himself! Rand intends to throw these bitches in the fire with the rest of them, but Hurin goes into detail about how this could really put him in the Great Game. Snubs could pinpoint loyalties and make him a target from others. In fact, there’s nothing he could do at this point that wouldn’t put a target on his head. Rand sighs and groans and rolls his eyes and decides to accept the invitation from Lord Barthanes of House Stark and/or Lannister. I haven’t decided yet.

Oh wait, that doesn’t happen yet. Rand makes a big show of opening the invitations in the common room so that everyone can see his chess move in the Great Game. That’ll hold ’em off for a couple days while he deliberates upon whose invitation to accept (spoiler alert it’s barthanes).

Rand and Loial saunter through Cairhien to the guardhouse where he inquires about Ingtar and Selene. The guard pretends not to know what he’s talking about. Rand is pissed, and he and Loial return to the inn where they find it on fire. They run up to the smoke-filled room where they discover their Horn/Dagger chest is missing. Also, Hurin is hella unconscious. Loial sacrifices his precious books in order to help Hurin out of the building. Rand has time to save his Dragon banner and Thom Merrilin’s flute case before the roof collapses.

Outside, just after it was discovered that the chest was missing, Ingtar, Mat, Perrin approach happily. All Rand can do is laugh. Like this: “hee hee hee ha ha ho ho ho”