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About This Author
I am SoCalScribe. This is my InkSpot.
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Blogocentric Formulations
Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).
Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:
Thanks for stopping by! 
January 5, 2026 at 6:15pm January 5, 2026 at 6:15pm
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I'm a little late posting this, but it's time for my annual accounting of all the reading and listening I've done over the course of 2025. Here's how this past year broke down in terms of titles and numbers:
 = favorite
 = also really enjoyed
TOTALS
Books: 51
Podcasts: 1,153
Comics: 444
Scripts: 12
According to Goodreads, my stats were: 14,605 pages read (down 4,003 words from last year), 292 average pages per book (down 40 pages from last year), the shortest book I read was 38 pages (up 8 pages from last year), and the longest book I read was 560 pages (down 285 pages from last year)
BOOKS
Fiction
3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years by John Scalzi
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
Bad Date by Ellery Lloyd
City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky
A Court of Thorn and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Daggerheart Core Rulebook by Darrington Press
D&D Monster Manual (2024) by Wizards of the Coast
Eberron: Rising from the Last War by Wizards of the Coast
Eerie Basin by Ivy Pochoda
A Farewell to Arms by John Steinbeck
Fog & Fury by Rachel Howzell Hall
Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King
Gemini Blue by Kara Cavalli
Heir to Atlantis by Chris Fox
Hero of Metalhaven by G J Ogden
I'll Follow You by Charlene Wang
The Kidnapping of Alice Ingold by Cate Holahan
The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
The Magitech Chronicles Roleplaying Game by Chris Fox
Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes
One by One by Ruth Ware
Only Way Out by Tod Goldberg
The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne
Something Under the Bed is Drooling by Bill Watterson
The Starless Crown by James Rollins
Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide by Wizards of the Coast
Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn by Matthew Mercer
Voice Like a Hyacinth by Mallory Pearson
What Happened to Lucy Vale by Lauren Oliver
While the Dark Remains by Joanna Ruth Meyer
Without Fail by Lee Child
Nonfiction
The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication by Robert C. Maxwell
Abundance by Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
American Black Widow by Gregg Olsen
The Artful Edit by Susan Bell
Atlas Obscura by Joshua Foer, et al
Everybody Has a Podcast (Except You) by The McElroys
Finding Your Voice as a Writer by C.A. Mason
For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming & James Bond by Ben Macintyre
The Game Master's Book of Astonishing Random Tables by Ben Egloff
The Game Master's Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying by Jonah Fishel
How to Be a Rockstar Screenwriter by David Silverman & Rogena Schuyler
How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
How to Sell 1,000 Books a Month by Susan U. Neal
How to Write a Screenplay That Doesn't Suck & Will Actually Sell by Michael Rogan
Open by Andre Agassi
Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
Steering the Craft by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide (Expanded Genres Edition) by James D'Amato
The Ultimate RPG Game Master's Guide by James D'Amato
The Ultimate RPG Game Master's Worldbuilding Guide by James D'Amato
PODCASTS
Adventuring Academy — 22 episodes
Ask NT Wright Anything — 53 episodes
Dead Pilots Society — 13 episodes
The Economics of Everyday Things — 48 episodes
Explain It To Me — 48 episodes
The Ezra Klein Show — 71 episodes
Freakonomics — 49 episodes
The Gray Area — 30 episodes
How Did This Get Made? — 9 episodes
How I Built This — 3 episodes
Imaginary Worlds — 21 episodes
Interesting Times (f.k.a. Matter of Opinion) — 37 episodes
Not Another D&D Podcast — 11 episodes
Offline with Jon Favreau — 50 episodes
Pod Save America — 138 episodes
Pod Save the World — 54 episodes
Politix — 51 episodes
Q&A — 17 episodes
The Rewatchables — 25 episodes
Runaway Country — 10 episodes
Scriptnotes — 24 episodes
The Slate Political Gabfest — 60 episodes
Slow Burn — 14 episodes
Strict Scrutiny — 15 episodes
TED Radio Hour — 17 episodes
Untitled Female Driven Podcast — 5 episodes
What A Day — 224 episodes
Worlds Beyond Number — 14 episodes
Write On — 12 episodes
Writer's Panel — 8 episodes
COMICS
Alien Paradiso — 4 issues
Alien Romulus — 1 issue
Aliens vs. Avengers — 1 issue
All-New Venom — 4 issues
Alligator Loki — 1 issue
Amazing Spider-Man — 18 issues
Avengers — 7 issues
Avengers Assemble — 4 issues
Blade — 4 issues
Bloodhunters — 3 issues
Cable: Love & Chrome — 3 issues
Captain America — 5 issues
Chasm: Curse of Kaine — 3 issues
Conquest 2099 — 5 issues
Crypt of Shadows — 1 issue
Dazzler — 3 issues
Daredevil — 7 issues
Daredevil: Unleash Hell — 3 issues
Daredevil: Woman Without Fear — 2 issues
Deadpool — 9 issues
Deadpool & Wolverine — 3 issues
Eddie Brock: Carnage — 2 issues
Exceptional X-Men — 6 issues
Fantastic Four — 7 issues
Fantastic Four: The Dinosaur Fantastic Four — 1 issue
Get Fury — 1 issue
Giant-Sized X-Men — 1 issue
Hellhunters — 4 issues
Hellverine — 4 issues
Holiday Tales to Astonish — 1 issue
Hulk — 1 issue
Immortal Thor — 6 issues
Incredible Hulk — 5 issues
Insurgent Iron Man — 1 issues
Infinity Watch — 2 issues
Iron Man — 5 issues
Kahhori — 1 issue
Kid Venom — 2 issues
Kidpool & Spider-Boy — 1 issue
Laura Kinney: Wolverine — 3 issues
Magik — 3 issues
Marvel Must-Haves — 1 issue
Marvel Mutts — 1 issue
Marvel Zombies: Dawn of Decay — 3 issues
Miles Morales: Spider-Man — 7 issues
Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu — 6 issues
Mystique — 5 issues
Namor — 6 issues
Negasonic Teenage Warhead — 1 issue
New Champions — 3 issues
Nick Fury vs. Fin Fang Foom — 1 issue
Nyx — 7 issues
One World Under Doom — 11 issues
Petpool: Pool Party — 1 issue
Phases of the Moon Knight — 3 issues
Phoenix — 7 issues
Power Man: Timeless — 2 issues
Predator vs. Black Panther — 3 issues
Psylocke — 5 issues
Robbie Reyes: Ghost Rider — 1 issues
Rogue: Savage Land — 2 issues
Sabretooth: The Dead Don't Talk — 4 issues
Sam Wilson: Captain America — 3 issues
Scarlet Witch — 6 issues
Secret Wars — 2 issues
Sentinels — 5 issues
Spectacular Spider-Men — 6 issues
Spider-Boy — 6 issues
Spider-Gwen — 7 issues
Spider-Man — 6 issues
Spider Society — 2 issues
Spidey and his Amazing Friends — 2 issues
Spirits of Vengeance — 5 issues
Star Wars — 30 issues
Storm — 6 issues
Timeslide — 1 issue
TVA — 4 issues
Ultimate Black Panther — 6 issues
Ultimate Spider-Man — 6 issues
Ultimate Wolverine — 2 issues
Ultimate Universe — 1 issue
Ultimate X-Men — 5 issues
The Ultimates — 6 issues
Ultraman x Avengers — 3 issues
Uncanny X-Men — 13 issues
Venom — 2 issues
Venom War — 20 issues
Web of Spider-Verse — 2 issues
Werewolf by Night — 7 issues
West Coast Avengers — 5 issues
What If...? — 7 issues
Wolverine — 13 issues
Women of Marvel: She-Devils — 1 issue
X-Factor — 4 issues
X-Force — 7 issues
X-Men — 10 issues
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man — 3 issues
SCRIPTS
THE 14TH FLOOR by Amy Reed & Brennan Scannell
RICH DAN POOR DAN by John Enbom
BUFFALO TENS (Episode 1 and 2) by Riki Lindhome & Natasha Leggero
CAMP FRIENDS by Lauren Herstik
LETTERS TO BEYONCE by Austen Earl
HOW TO GET OVER BRYAN BYERS by Ilana Pena & Anne Sundell
BLESSED AND HIGHLY FAVORED by Chris Marcil & Sam Johnson
HERE SHE LIES by Gracie Glassmeyer
CHEAP SEATS by David S. Rosenthal
HUMANS OF THE AMERICAS by Jim Brandon & Brian Singleton
DREAM by Lisa Muse Bryant
GUY TEXT by Aaron Brownstein & Simon Ganz |
January 2, 2026 at 6:41pm January 2, 2026 at 6:41pm
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To qualify for my Watch List every month, the following has to be something that I've watched that's new to me. It doesn't necessarily have to be a current show, but it can't be reruns or rewatches of something I've already seen. So if I'm including it in this list, it means this month is the first time I've watched it. I'll put "DNF" (Did Not Finish) next to anything that I stopped watching and have no immediate plans to finish.
Movies
 Anaconda (2025)
Avatar: Fire and Ash
The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday
The Boss Baby: Christmas Bonus
Eternity
Hamnet
The Housemaid
Marty Supreme
The Night Before
Wake up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Wicked: For Good
The movies that I didn't think were that great and I don't have much more to say about were Boss Baby: Christmas Bonus and The Night Before.
The movies that I thought were just okay or pretty good and I don't have much more to say about were Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday, Wicked: For Good, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Marty Supreme, and Hamnet.
Going down the list of others, Anaconda was a surprisingly good spoof/remake of the franchise. Jack Black, Paul Rudd, and Steve Zahn are all hilarious, and there are just enough twists and references to the old franchise to keep it fun and interesting. It was probably my favorite movie of December from a pure enjoyment perspective; everyone in the theater was cracking up as we watched it.
Avatar: Fire and Ash was much better than the last installment, IMO, even if it felt repetitive from a storytelling perspective (oh no, the humans are converging all of their watercraft into one place where they'll have a climactic air and sea battle!). But Varang and her fire tribe were great antagonists, and the pacing of this one was much better.
Eternity was a great premise for a romantic movie (which I don't want to spoil), which felt a little slow to start, but got much better as it went on and the tension ratcheted up.
The Housemaid was a decent adaptation of the bestselling book. I thought Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried played really well off each other, and the film did a good job preserving the twists in the book. It was an entertaining domestic thriller.
Television
Black Rabbit
The Franchise (Season 1)
Industry (Season 2)
Law & Order (Season 25)
Law & Order SVU (Season 27)
Only Murders in the Building (Season 4)
Owning Manhattan (Season 2)
St. Denis Medical (Season 1)
I don't have much to say about Law & Order and Law & Order SVU, and the second season of Industry was pretty dull expect for a few episodes toward the end. Same with the third season of Only Murders in the Building, which feels like it's getting further and further away from the magic of the first season.
The Franchise was pretty terrible, with the sole exception of Richard E. Grant's performance... I definitely understand why it was canceled after one season.
The second season of the reality series Owning Manhattan was pretty good; I like the fact that this season focused more on the challenges of growing his business rather than the drama of fame-hungry real estate agents. Ryan Serhant is an interesting guy and it's definitely entertaining reality television to watch him try to build his own brokerage into one that competes with the giants in the space.
The two shows that I really enjoyed this month were Black Rabbit and St. Denis Medical. The first is a Netflix limited series starring Jude Law and Jason Bateman as brothers who own a restaurant and get in over their head with debts that they owe, and the latter is a broadcast sitcom from the guy who created Superstore, which could probably best be described as "Superstore, but this time at a regional hospital." But the formula works and they got a great cast, so who am I to complain?
TOP PICK:
Anaconda
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December 28, 2025 at 11:59am December 28, 2025 at 11:59am
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I was reading "Six Things About Me"  from Šuŋgmánitu Tȟáŋka  and decided that I'd do the same. The following are six fun facts and bits of random trivia about me:
1. Although I've received dozens of screen credits on big budget studio movies for my work as a Marvel employee, the screen credit I'm proudest of is for a low-budget made-for-TV movie romantic comedy few people have seen, where I was credited as a co-writer.
2. Some of my more memorable celebrity encounters include helping Meg Ryan figure out how to use a microwave, firing an intern who fan-girled a little too hard over David Duchovny during an elevator ride we all shared, and personally delivering contraband merchandise to Quentin Tarantino at his house.
3. I am technically a third-degree brown belt in mixed martial arts (back in the day when it was truly a mix of disciplines like karate, tae kwon do, kung fu, etc. instead of just mostly Brazilian jujitsu and cage fighting). I quit just a few weeks short of my black belt test during my senior year in high school because a childhood friend of mine died of bacterial meningitis suddenly, and I had to write her obituary and interview her family for the school paper, which messed me up pretty bad at the time.
4. I once spent the night on Alcatraz, in solitary confinement. I should probably clarify this was during its National Park era and not it's "active federal prison" era. 
5. Based on some amateur genealogy on the part of my uncle, it is believed that our family is distantly related to one of the early U.S Presidents. Unfortunately, it's John Tyler and not one of the cool ones.
6. When my wife and I were planning our wedding (a small-ish beach wedding with about 100 guests), my wife's parents were in the middle of an ugly divorce and we briefly had to consider hiring private security because certain family members were seriously threatening to show up uninvited to physically jump/beat up my wife's father.
It might be kind of interesting to make this an ongoing community activity, so I'm going to nominate three other people to do the same, and hope that they participate and nominate folks of their own. You know, just like one of those old school email chain letters, except without the threat of years of misfortune if you don't do it. 
I nominate:
Jayne 
Jeremy 
Annette  |
December 26, 2025 at 12:55am December 26, 2025 at 12:55am
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WDC 48-Hour Challenge: Media Prompt | Prompt ▶︎
This Kelly Clarkson holiday song was one that I featured in a prior "Invalid Item" playlist back in 2022 (see: "Underneath the Tree" ). We didn't make tamales this year so the reference to playing it while family is around wasn't quite the same, but it did come up constantly on the holiday playlists we've had in the car at playing in the living room all season long.
Christmas this year was a pretty low-key affair. We went to a Christmas service at a church with friends, then spent Christmas Eve and Christmas together with just our family. We had dinner last night, opened presents this morning, and mostly just spent the past two days as a family. It was a modest haul of presents, we made cookies, and we called relatives and texted friends to wish them a Merry Christmas.
Next year, we'll probably do it up a little bigger, but every once in a while it's nice to have an easy, laid back holiday. |
December 24, 2025 at 12:27pm December 24, 2025 at 12:27pm December 24, 2025 at 12:20pm December 24, 2025 at 12:20pm December 24, 2025 at 12:10pm December 24, 2025 at 12:10pm December 24, 2025 at 12:06pm December 24, 2025 at 12:06pm
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"Merry Christmas, Please Don't Call"
by Bleachers
On the Ninth Day of Christmas, I picked something from Bleachers, which is one of my favorite bands in recent years. Jack Antonoff is an incredibly talented music producer, and an unexpectedly good musical artist. Like yesterday's song, I like the alternative sound of this song and, while I wouldn't necessarily listen to this song on repeat over and over again like I would some other holiday classics, it does a great job of adding some texture and depth to a Christmas playlist that's also filled with more traditional Christmas songs. |
December 24, 2025 at 12:01pm December 24, 2025 at 12:01pm
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"Christmas in the Sand"
by Colbie Callait
On the Eighth Day of Christmas, I wanted to pick a nontraditional Christmas song and I've always liked Colbie Callait's voice and musical style, so I thought this was the perfect song to feature this year. It's fun, lighthearted, and makes for a good palate cleanser between the more formal, traditional, and familiar songs on a Christmas playlist. It's always fun when this one comes up on a playlist at a party. |
December 24, 2025 at 11:55am December 24, 2025 at 11:55am
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"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"
by Lauren Daigle
On the Seventh Day of Christmas, I wanted to pick "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" and was tempted to do a more popular version like the one from Michael Buble or Sam Smith, but went with Lauren Daigle - a popular contemporary Christian artist - because I like the instrumentals on this version. It's got a classic, acoustic sound that I really like and think fits the intent of the song perfectly. |
© Copyright 2026 Jeff (UN: jeff at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Jeff has granted InkSpot.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.
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Maybe it's just me.
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