Recap for February 17 to March 10 2019

This was the week of movies for me. I don't go to the movies that often, so three in one week is pretty unusual. I saw How To Train Your Dragon 3, The Wandering Earth, and Captain Marvel. I'll try to do a separate post with my thoughts.

Also getting a separate post, but I wanted to mention it here. the summer travel plans that I keep being vague about have finally been booked, now that the Kiddo got his new passport and we got some financial things settled.

We will be off on a major adventure in June. First stop is Taipei, Taiwan for a three-day whirlwind tour, and from there, two weeks in Koror, Republic of Palau! I'll post more on travel plans as we get closer!

In the meantime, I've been doing pretty well on the comic and book reading fronts.

Comic Reviews on Comic A Day

Static Shock #6 by Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens of DC Comics.

Bored Angel by Aya Rothwell.

Tall Tails: Tears of the Mother #2 by Jose Calderon and Daphne Lage of Dreamweaver Press.

Space: 1999 #7 by Mike Pellowski and Pat Boyette of Charlton Comics.

Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman by Dav Pilkey.

Farlight Saga Ethos #2 by Jared Koon and Sarah Hebblethwaite of Nemonet Studios.

Bongo Comics Free-For-All 2008 from Bongo Comics.

Sonic the Hedgehog: Free Comic Book Day Edition 2007 by Ian Flynn, Tracey Yardley, and Jim Amash of Archie Comics/Sega.

Tall Tails: Tears of the Mother #3 by Jose Calderon and Daphne Lage of Dreamweaver Press.

Astonishing X-Men #1 by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday of Marvel Comics.

The Realm #2 by Brent Truax, Donald Marquez, Brian Michael Bendis, and Patrick Zircher of Caliber Comics.

Star Wars: Jedi Academy: The Phantom Bully by Jeffrey Brown.

Daredevil Saga by Ed Brubaker, Anthony Flamini, and Michael Lark of Marvel Comics.

Astonishing X-Men #2 by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday of Marvel Comics.

Book Reviews on Goodreads

Seven Spells To Sunday by Andre Norton and Phyllis Miller.

Seaworthy: A Swordboat Captain Returns to the Sea by Linda Greenlaw.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.

Upcoming

WWE Fastlane airs tomorrow here, then it's on to the road to Wrestlemania. I'm also following NXT's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic with interest.

No specific plans, but I'm hoping to get in some Magic: The Gathering and/or D&D with some of the local players in the coming weeks.

After seeing three movies in a week, I'm expecting Avengers: Endgame and Godzilla: King of the Monsters will be my next two trips to the cinema.

Our local mall just installed a big Ultraman exhibit, which should be fun to check out. Hoping to head there with the camera on a non-busy day this week.

Things will be very busy at my day job, with grades due next week and parent conferences this week. I am also getting more hours at my weekend side gig lately. Our next school break is the first week of April, and we'll be staying here in Shanghai for that. There is a possibility that I may be going on a school trip to Xi'An in May, which should be fun if it happens.

And, of course, as mentioned above, huge travel plans for June/July as we head to Taiwan and Palau!

Connect/Follow

@dandelionstudio on Twitter
@dandelionstudios on Instagram and @dailycomicreview on Instagram
rsilva on Boardgamegeek
rsilva on Facebook
ricksilvawriting on Dreamwidth and Blogger.
Rick Silva on Goodreads

Long Term Goals

One thing I have wanted to do for a while is take some time to think about long-term goals. I've generally had fairly good success in the past with long-term goal setting. Gynn and I talked through plans to buy a house, to adopt a child, and to move overseas, and those things came to fruition generally within the timeframes we had imagined.

So during the Chinese New Year break, I set aside some time to think about things that I would like to make happen in the next five years or so. Some of these are personal, some are for the whole family. I wrote these down in my paper journal, and the versions there are more specific in terms of timeframe and money. I'm also leaving a few items out of this post because they are personal/health related. And finally there are some things that I am working on long-term that are hard to quantify at this point (example: I would like to improve at speaking/reading Chinese, but I don't yet have a good enough sense of the pace of my progress to set really measurable goals at that).

So here is what I have to share.

Before the end of 2019 I will:

Have zero credit card debt.
Have written a complete second draft of my current work-in-progress novel, The Lady of Three Faces.
Have some additional money in savings.
Have some sort of writing-based online income stream.

Before the end of 2020 I will:

Have a novel ready for submission to agents/publishers.
Have done the necessary research for agent submission.
Have a self-published book or serial available for purchase or on an income-generating site.
Continue to have manageable credit card debt/savings.

Before the end of 2021 I will:

Have a novel accepted for publication or self-published.
Have been to my top choices for travel destinations in China, and some of my other top "bucket-list" destinations.
Have plans underway for employment in the 2021/2022 school year.
Continue to have manageable credit card debt/savings.

By the summer of 2024 I will:

Be living in the USA or have a job secured for in the USA for the 2024/2025 school year, unless we have decided to remain overseas through the Kiddo's high school graduation.
Have plans/finances in place to buy a house within two years.

I have never been too into self-help guru writing/advice, but I do think of a meaningful, if a bit silly example of such. During a WWE Hall of Fame induction speech, Diamond Dallas Page once talked about a moment when his career was stagnant, and he wrote down the words "I will be world champion within five years." He was. His advice, in the best possible self-help silliness: "Don't think it. Ink it." So I've done that this time, and now I've shared it.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Shanghai Winters

We've been back in Shanghai for about 45 days and it's been overcast with rain and drizzle for what must have been at least 40 of them. Spring and Fall in Shanghai are quite nice, summers are hot, but the winters are just nonstop chill-your-bones dampness. And the lack of central heating in many buildings does not help matters.

What does help matters: biang-biang noodles, spicy beef noodles, dumplings, and chicken soup, along with the occasional bowl of homemade chili.

Looking forward to being done with February, though.

Recap For January 28 - February 16, 2019

School is back in session after a low-ley New Years break. We visited the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum and saw the New Years lantern display at Yuyuan Garden. I got to play some Magic and some D&D (nonbinary dwarf ranger with a sage background!!!). Other than that, it was mostly relaxing and reorganizing.

The Kiddo's passport is up for renewal. We've got a consulate appointment next week to get the ball rolling on that. Once we've got that taken care of, we can start making our summer travel plans.

One other thing I did during the break was to write down a set of long-range personal goals in my paper journal. I may share some of those here at some point.

In the meantime, I have been making progress on reading and reviewing.

Comic Reviews on Comic A Day

Star Wars: Han Solo: Imperial Cadet #1 by Robbie Thompson, Leonard Kirk, and Marvel Comics.

Rival Angels: Damsels of Destruction: Wrestling Maneuvers And Techniques Volume 2 by Alan Evans and Justin Riley.

Tall Tails: Tears of the Mother #1 by Jose Calderon and Daphne Lage.

Knights of the Dinner Table Illustrated #31 by Mark Plemmons, Brendon Fraim, Brian Fraim, and Kenzer & Company.

Hot Tea, Cold Water #2, edited by Leann Leake.

Swamp Thing #68 by Rick Veitch, Alfredo Alcala, and DC Comics.

Batman #700 by Grant Morrison and DC Comics.

Alethia Chapter 1 by Kristina Stipetic.

Sleepless #7 by Sarah Vaughn, Leila Del Duca, and Image Comics.

We Won't Be Erased by Sophie LaBelle.

Spectra #6 by Rebecca Thompson, Kerry G. Johnson and the American Physical Society.

The Amazing Cynicalman #23 by Matt Feazell.

Book Reviews on Goodreads

The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill.

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck.

I've been making a lot of progress on the Random Stack of Unread Comics. My new Comic A Day Instagram has been a good source of motivation.

Supporting

Austin Cushing's fundraiser seeking support for medical and financial difficulties.

Jennifer Dugan's Kickstarter for the final issue of her comic, Circadia.

Upcoming

We're getting into another busy time at the day job as we approach the end of the third quarter. We had a short week this week, and we've now got six solid weeks of school until our Spring Break week at the beginning of April. March will hopefully bring an end to the cold and wet Shanghai winter weather, and we have the Kiddo's birthday toward the end of March. We're also into Wrestlemania season, and I'm following the rise of AEW with interest.

No trips planned for Spring Break at this point. We have some major travel plans for the summer, but those are still in the vague planning stages for the next few weeks.

Connect/Follow

@dandelionstudio on Twitter
@dandelionstudios on Instagram and @dailycomicreview on Instagram
rsilva on Boardgamegeek
rsilva on Facebook
ricksilvawriting on Dreamwidth and Blogger.
Rick Silva on Goodreads

新年快乐!

Xīn Nián Kuài Lè! Happy New Year!

We went in town with a friend on New Years Eve, but the lanterns at Yuyuan Gardens were closed. We did see some of the decorations around Yu Bazaar, and had some delicious beef noodles and lamb skewers.

We didn't do much on New Years Day. Just did a long walk in our neighborhood and lunch at Family Mart. This morning we had a special New Year's breakfast at home, and took down the Christmas Tree (which was half Chinese New Year decorations).

Wishing everyone a happy Year of the Pig!

CNY

It has begun.

I had planned to take the Kiddo out to our local pedestrian food street for dinner only to find almost all the restaurants closed for New Year. The actual date of Lunar New Years Day is next Tuesday, February 5, but a lot of businesses, especially small businesses will be closed for up to two weeks around that date.

Chinese schools are mostly on break right now. My school has a week and a half off starting after this Friday. Like most international schools, we do a shorter New Years break because we also do a break around Christmas.

New Year decorations are up all over town. Here are some I photographed at Laowaijie (literally "Foreigner Street"; a pedestrian street of mostly Western restaurants).





















We have no travel plans for the break. I'm hoping we get to do some more sightseeing in Shanghai including this year's lanterns at Yuyuan Gardens, and maybe some new parts of the city we haven't had the chance to explore yet.

Recap: Catching Up From December 9 2018 To January 27 2019

I haven't done a recap of review since early December, so I'm going to mostly stick to just reviews in this post.

We had an amazing trip to the USA over the holidays, and we've had a busy month back in China. One week to go until we get another break over the Chinese New Year holiday. That one will be a staycation for us (as will out Spring break, but we are working on some big travel plans for the summer). We're looking forward to exploring more of Shanghai over the New Year break.

I've been doing a lot of comic reviews. I got some more unread comics out of storage to add to the Random Stack of Unread Comics, along with some new purchases. I've also got a new Instagram account specifically for my comics reviews. Check out @dailycomicreview.

This is part of a general overhaul of my social media accounts that I'm in the midst of. More on that in a future post.

On the prose reading front, I'm off to a good start on my 2019 reading goals.

Here are my reviews since my last update.

Comic Reviews on Comic A Day

The Blokes of Ball Point by Suzanne Baumann.

Dawn's Dictionary Drama #1 by John Bintz.

Knights of the Dinner Table Illustrated #30 by Kenzer and Company.

Ex Machina Volume 1: The First Hundred Days by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, Tom Feister, J.D. Mettler, and DC/Wildstorm Comics.

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang.

Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova.

Shuri #1 by Nnedi Okorafor, Leonardo Romero, and Marvel Comics.

Doom Patrol #44 by Grant Morrison, Richard Case, Mark McKenna, and DC Comics.

Circadia #1 by Jennifer Dugan, Keezy Young, MJ Erickson, and 36 Plums.

Everest / Love Fights #1 FCBD 2004 by Andi Watson, Greg Rucka, Scott Morse, and Oni Press.

Circadia #2 by Jennifer Dugan, MJ Erickson, and 36 Plums.

Swamp Thing Halloween Horror Giant #1 by DC Comics.

Red Sonja #15 by Gail Simone, Walter Geovani, and Dynamite Entertainment.

Star Wars Forces of Destiny: Rose & Paige by Delilah S. Dawson, Nicoletta Baldari, and IDW.

Star Wars: Jedi Academy: Return of the Padawan by Jeffrey Brown.

Hot Tea, Cold Water #1 edited by Leann Leake.

Circadia #3 by Jennifer Dugan, Jey Pawlik, and 36 Plums.

The Walking Dead #175 by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Stefano Gaudiano, and Image Comics.

Hermann Shepherd in "Gitmo Goofs" by Ian Harker, Randy Sinsel, John Carr, Ron Hoffman, and High Treason Comics.

Circadia #4 by Jennifer Dugan, Sarah Simes, and 36 Plums.

Steven Universe #14 by Grace Craft, Rii Abrego, Whitney Cogar, and Missy Pena.

Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild by Dav Pilkey.

Ultimate Spider-Man #42 by Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley, Art Thibert, and Marvel Comics.

Book Reviews on Goodreads

Walking by Henry David Thoreau.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Who Was Betsy Ross? by James Buckley Jr.

Zero History by William Gibson.

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jeminsin.

Junie B. Jones is a Beauty Shop Guy by Barbara Park.

Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce.

That catches me up on reviews! Hope to be back to these update posts on a weekly basis from here on. I've also got a last few 2018-in-review type posts on the way.

Connect/Follow

ricksilvawriting on Google+
@dandelionstudio on Twitter
@dandelionstudios on Instagram
Rsilva444 on Flickr
rsilva on Boardgamegeek
rsilva on Facebook
ricksilvawriting on Dreamwidth and Blogger.
Rick Silva on Goodreads