The hodge and the...something. It'll come to me.

1. Despite the fact that I'm 90% sure I have a remarkably favorable work-life balance, I have felt a bit burned out the last couple of weeks. I don't have a commute, my family is remarkably low-maintenance, and I live as drama-free as I can; but I still feel the press of time lately, like I can't get all of the nothing I want to do in the course of a day. I think part of that is I've recently bought tons of stuff, that I've barely had any time to appreciate. Or I get a pile of books, and maybe don't want to blog them at that very second, so I logjam myself. I have piles of toys or comics or movies or books I could dive into, yet sometimes after work I'm so fried I end up watching an X-Files rerun and playing solitaire and flipping through Twitter. Productivity has tanked a bit; I wish I was a basketball fan and could blame it on March Madness... 

2. I specifically am not a basketball fan; I was hoping Comet was going to keep their "March Monster Madness" Godzilla marathon going. My family are fans, though: pretty sure my little sister has Final Four tickets this year. And a couple years ago, my dad fell off a cliff while hiking: had to be airlifted out of a national park, wrecked both his wrists, yet it might've been an elaborate plan to watch as much basketball as humanly possible. I tease, because he didn't even tell me he was in the hospital until he'd been in there for like a week, because he figured I didn't need to be worrying about it. That's...I guess that's thoughtful, right?  

3. I don't like posting this after thinking about my folks, but I just bought the new Depeche Mode, even though I haven't had time to listen to it all yet. (Partly because I listen to random a lot; so it might take a bit to get through.) They recently lost Andy Fletcher, and I can't imagine how difficult it must be to go out and do the filming and recording and touring, any of it, without their friend. I don't know if the whole album is going to be "our friend is dead, and it's making us think about our own deaths, a lot" but I'm not sure how it couldn't be. Well, except that they're Depeche Mode, and they've probably had some practice at the whole process, I suppose. 

4. Among the piles of stuff to come in the last week or so: the last Black Panther wave, with the Attuma Build-a-Figure, from Best Buy via a tip from Preternia on Twitter. Half-off, so kinda felt like I had to, right? Although, talking to Dale the other day, I thought the Everett Ross figure should've come with a Henry Gyrich head: it'd be a little something for the comic fans, since most of the rest of the wave was strictly movie-based. I'm still a little taken aback that the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy volume 3 Legends are also movie-only: I really thought there'd be a Martinex comic-based figure or something. I probably mentioned before, I recently pre-ordered two ML waves largely again because I wanted the Build-a-Figure, and I need to put in for the Hyperion/Doctor Spectrum set...even though unlike most, I had the old Hyperion! Do I need a domino-masked head...? Sure, why not. Kind of prefer some version of Power Princess, but we'll figure that out. 

5. Even though I have a ton of other stuff to get through, now I want to re-read Captain America: the Great Gold Steal, because I'm thinking, how much gold can you carry in a duffle bag before it rips? For that matter, how much cash? In either case, I'm fairly sure you could load the bag to the point that it's not reasonably moveable, but that hasn't stopped Mezco from soliciting their "Bricks and Bread" accessory pack! Which I was eying, because I'm probably in for their upcoming Shadow figure, which has been teased but maybe isn't up for preorder yet.

6. Just for good measure, I thought I was hacked recently, when a charge I didn't recognize showed up. Turns out it might've been the aforementioned Depeche Mode album on iTunes; but it really looked like a fraud when it showed up! Oopsie. I, uh, kinda got some purchases credited back to my account; but I'll probably have to update my card number with preorders, Kickstarter, everything else. In my defense, they cleared at a weird time and probably could've been labeled better; but I suppose some people don't want whatever they bought showing up in their bank history maybe...

7. Another thing I should probably get around to, since I've had it forever: I have a third-party Death's Head...head, that I need to paint and then maybe find an appropriate body for. I've held off for a long time, and have a Chow Yun-Fat head as well that could probably go on that Everett Ross body, couldn't it? But that kind of painting is new for me and I'm afraid of it not turning out; or how functional the finished product might be.   

8. I haven't been to the movies since...the new Ant-Man movie? Which was pretty good. I saw Shin Ultraman a bit ago and it wasn't bad; but Shin Kamen Rider looks like where it's at. (If I recall correctly, the "Shin" is for new; they also had Shin Godzilla recently.) But the next thing I see in theaters will probably either be Evil Dead Rise or that Dungeons & Dragons movie, which looks really fun, and I'm glad Hasbro will be getting monsters on the racks later. I might be all-in there.

9. Hoping bike weather returns shortly...