Submet Industries – Page 16 – A complicated pop culture construct made from podcasts, words and gnomes, based in Edmonton, AB.

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Doctor Whooch // Episode 083 // I Thought It Was Utah

February 25, 2016 / Brandon Schatz

In which Mark Sheppard is a handsome car hobo.

On this week’s show, Danica and Brandon revisit the timeline of River Song with “The Impossible Astronaut”, which features several different version of her, and should absolutely NOT get too confusing for our drunk-as-hell podcast. Spoiler alert: Mark Shepard is on it and he is DEFINITELY AMERICAN. Also, Jim the Fish is a thing. And tunnels? And Silence. And guns. And fun. Yes. Fun. FUNNN.

Outro music is SPECIFICALLY Nicki Minaj’s part of “Monster”
Podcast picture is by GIRL NAMED SHIRL PHOTOGRAPHY.

Subscribe to Doctor Whooch on iTunes

Brandon Schatz // Twitter // Facebook
Danica LeBlanc // Twitter

Doctor Whooch // Episode 082 // Courage and Bullshit

February 18, 2016 / Brandon Schatz

In which Brandon watches the last episode of the Tenth Doctor episodes that he hasn’t seen. Probably.

It’s the Olympics! Or rather, it’s “Fear Her”, the 11th episode of series 2. There’s a creepy child who draws a dad-satan and has a space flower in her tim-tum! And that’s bad. Danica and Brandon are also really, REALLY drunk and say a bunch of things they may or may not regret. Oh well.

Podcast picture is by GIRL NAMED SHIRL PHOTOGRAPHY.

Subscribe to Doctor Whooch on iTunes

Brandon Schatz // Twitter // Facebook
Danica LeBlanc // Twitter

My Shopping Ban: Galentine’s Day

February 17, 2016 / Danica LeBlanc

After my lapse into spending immediately after starting my ban, I’ve been pretty good.

Brandon and I have been making more attempts to view the movies we own, and we’ve turned a shelf into its own little “To Read” pile, so we know where to focus our efforts. We even took three boxes of books to trade at Wee Book Inn on Saturday. I’m still pushing him to go through his clothes, but that may take some time. As for my own closet, I have two cloth bags on the floor in there and am slowly filling them up. I’m planning to host another clothing swap at the store in April, so am using the time to really figure out what I don’t wear anymore.

Saturday was a fun day filled with friends and great conversation. I was working, but happy to see everyone come to the store. My friend Leah came by near the end of my shift and I invited her over for tea. She was game to go with Brandon and I to Wee Book Inn, and then back to our place where we watched old Sex and the City episodes(a Galentine’s Day fave!). Wee Book was a success – Brandon and I both acquired 3 new books, some store credit, and also a movie and television series. And now I have one less box of books in the apartment! Progress!

I’ve been cleaning and tidying often, trying to get things out or at least pick things to go in the swap. Two months isn’t so far away, so after April, the apartment will feel more open and spacious.

As for my student loan? I’ve put $100 from the side income I made last week in and my normal withdrawal of $200 will go out at the end of the this month. That will put the amount owed under $1000!!!

Elsewhere // The Retailer’s View: Rebirthing Problems

February 15, 2016 / Brandon Schatz

If you’ve hit the comic book news sites lately, you’ve probably heard rumblings about something called Rebirth. A quick explanation: DC will be supposedly relaunching their line-up in June with brand new first issues. Over at The Comics Beat, I elaborate on the potential shape of things to come, and what DC should do if they are aiming for a relaunch.

An except:

I’m more than a little afraid that DC’s big Rebirth announcement will be born more from a place of panic than laying the foundations down for a better tomorrow. The confirmation of twice-monthly shipping is a bit of a tip off for that. While I can’t argue with the financial boon having Batman shipping twice a month would provide, I can argue that doing so does more long-term harm than it provides short-term gain. All one has to do is take a look at Marvel’s current publishing line to see the effects of this publishing practice. While having your flagship Avengers title ship twice a month ensures a certain sales level that books like, say Vision won’t ever hope to hit in a million years, it also softens the highs that a book like Avengers can have. People are often more shy about taking a chance on a book that will cost them $8 a month (or $11.20 Canadian) to keep up with, which shaves down the audience. In addition to that, retailers are a little more gun-shy about ordering above and beyond for books that routinely circumvent the Final Order Cut-Off process. Currently, if a book ships monthly, you’ll usually have at least 4-11 days worth of sales data before you have to finalize your numbers for the next issue. Shipping twice a month means that orders for issue #3 will be due around the time numbers for issue #1 are finally rolling in – and armed with zero sales information for issue #2, most retailers will play it safe and keep things tight on the shelf. So yes, sales would be fairly stable, but there would be no chance to grab new readers, which is what DC so desperately needs to do at this point.

There’s quite a bit more where that came from, and you can head off to the full article for more, including a tidbit or two about how the Canadian dollar is affecting things as well.

Draggin’

February 15, 2016 / Brandon Schatz

Stop draggin

For a little context, here’s a uh… perplexing panel from CyberRad #3:

Puss draggin

The Douglas Adams Project

February 12, 2016 / Brandon Schatz

I wrote something about this a little while back, but then completely neglected to share it when I dove down into a deep dark feelings pit. Things often get forgotten in the feelings pit, like the shape of a smile or the sound of genuine laughter. I feel like I’m already getting off track.

Last year, I read a staggeringly small amount of actual prose books. I think the number topped out at around… three and a half, which is terrible. In that time, I know I bought more than three and a half prose books, which becomes problematic when you’re trying to live a fairly minimalistic life.

So, at the start of the year, I came up with several goals, some of which apply here. One was to read more books. Another was to buy less. A third was to look at our already populate shelves when the mood to read prose strikes, which would in turn help with that second goal. These goals ended up colliding with the feelings pit, and a very specific project came about: The Douglas Adams Project.

The idea is simple: over the course of 2016, I’ll be working my way through the works of Douglas Adams, starting with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, and rolling straight into Dirk Gently. If some time remains on the clock after those seven, I’m going to extend the exercise into the sixth Hitchhiker’s book, The Salmon of Doubt, and the novelization of Adams’ unproduced Doctor Who script Shana. I will likely read these books regardless of whether or not I get to them in 2016, but I enjoy the idea of having stretch goals for this challenge. But anyway.

I chose Douglas Adams because when I was starting to fall into the feelings pit at the beginning of the year, my brain started pumping out fond memories of reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide, and that coupled with the thought that I had owned the complete set for ages, but had never gotten around to reading the rest. Reading them all would serve several purposes, and hopefully pull myself out of the doldrums.

At this point in the project, I’ve just wrapped Hitchhiker’s once more, and the experience was as pleasurable as I remember it being the first time around. There’s a small chance that I got a bit more out of it now that I’m a bit older and wiser and can pull out more wonderful story structure things from it, but that’s a post for another day. (Next week, in fact.)

So yes. There it is. A task for 2016, already on its way to completion. I suspect there will be several road blocks to come, including breaks to read other things that tickle my fancy, combined with the general fact that I rarely see projects like this through to the end. Which is actually another goal for 2016: try and actually get things done. I’ll let you know how that goes as well.

Doctor Whooch // Episode 081 // Space Babies

February 11, 2016 / Brandon Schatz

In which we fawn over the Last Centurion. That dude is dreamy. As. FUCK.

On this week’s episode, Danica and Brandon are starting a project that will take them twisting all the way through 2016: The River Song Timeline Re-Watch. Or whatever it was we said when we were drunk. If we even said anything. It all starts with “A Good Man Goes To War” (Series 6, Episode 7) and then goes straight into other things on television. Or rather, it stumbles there. We were preeeeetttty drunk, you guys.

Outro music is “Formation” by Beyoncé.
Podcast picture is by GIRL NAMED SHIRL PHOTOGRAPHY.

Subscribe to Doctor Whooch on iTunes

Brandon Schatz // Twitter // Facebook
Danica LeBlanc // Twitter

My Shopping Ban: Surprise Expenses

February 11, 2016 / Danica LeBlanc

When I wrote my shopping ban post last week, Beyoncè hadn’t released her new song yet. She hadn’t announced her world tour. Edmonton wasn’t one of only two Canadian tour dates, and I hadn’t worked myself up into a tizzy about going to what will be an amazing experience in May.

welp

BUT NO REGRETS

So I skip the haircut and dye I was hoping to book until after the ban is up. Cool. I’m trying to grow my hair longer anyway. And I now realize it looks cute in a bun, so I can put it back any time I think I look like a shaggy dog.
My standard withdrawal of $200 went out of my bank account last week, so this doesn’t affect February, it may affect the tail end of paying off the loan. I’ve been earning a bit of side money this week(around $250), but will wait to figure out by the end of the month whether to throw it at the loan or use it for my main expenses.

Elsewhere // 124th Street Dining

February 10, 2016 / Brandon Schatz

When we were looking to open Variant Edition, we had a very short list of areas we wanted to open in – and one of them (which seemed a little out of our reach) was the 124th Street Area. As luck would have it, we found a great location nestled in behind 124th (and still in the business district) and we couldn’t be happier. The area is filled with great local businesses and restaurants, and being able to work and live this close to all that awesomeness is pretty great.

Fun fact: a few weeks ago, Danica was asked to be a part of a video showcasing a lot of the great food 124th Street has to offer. You can see the video starring Brittney Le Blanc above, as well as Danica and Robyn Wilson.

Brittney has a companion piece to the video on her blog right here.

Finding My Way Back

February 9, 2016 / Brandon Schatz

These words come after some hard fought weeks and months. They’re not pretty or polished, but at least they convey something and I think at the very least, I need to get the shape of something out there.

I’ve always… I’ve always felt happy, more or less. That sounds like a weird thing to say. It is a weird thing to say, or definitely a privileged thing to say. When I look back at my life, through all the various bits of heartache and pain that have come my way, I feel as though I was always afforded the luxury of knowing things were going to be okay. Some of that comes from my general disposition and body chemistry. A lot of it came from the unending support from my friends and family. I’ve been very lucky. I am very lucky.

But.

Lately, I’ve been battling with something I don’t think I can face. A slow creeping thing that’s tugging at the edges of my heart. A feeling that glues me to the couch, and wills me to live there forever as the day seems to stretch endlessly before me. A potent cocktail of stress and fear are conspiring to render me immobile, and it’s… strange. As shitty and privileged as I’m sure this sounds, I’m… I’m not used to this. I’m not used to feeling an overriding sense of fear or dread. My default is always a big, stupid smile, so much so that I know I’ve pissed off more than a few people with how up I seem to be about things, no matter how hard they might be getting. I think something has caught up to me. I’m not quite sure what to do about it.

To hopefully put a few minds at ease, please know this: I know I will be okay. I have a wonderful wife who has been helping me deal with my things and who thankfully isn’t afraid to call me on my bullshit. We make each other better in so many different ways, and the fact that she’s in my life is what I think is saving me from the worst of it. Even as we stumble inside our own heads, we have a hand to hold on to, and that’s… that’s everything.

I know most of this just lives inside my own head, stress caused from both real and perceived sources. I know that I’m doing better than most. I’ve got a wife, two cats, a stable job and business and some great friends and family. People seem to like what we’re doing at Variant Edition, and that has made the store financially viable.

And yet.

What I’ve decided I need to do, is to start focusing a bit more inwards. So much of my thoughts tend to be external, about trying to control things that I have no ability to control. What I need to do is focus on what is within my own reach, and what I can actually affect. From there, I’m going to extend my fingertips, and see what else I can achieve beyond that. I’m also going to start taking some time to relax a bit more, which is… easier said than done. I’ve been so inside my head that the time that I have to relax has been eaten up with a constant churn of worry, and I need to learn that not thinking about things for a few seconds is actually helpful – that I’m not a bad person because my every waking moment wasn’t used to figure out a problem I’m not even meant to solve.

My hope is that with this new mindset, I’ll be able to pop in here more often and actually accomplish something outside of the store. That’s what I want from this. That’s my goal. But if I can’t do that, I hope that I at least get to a stage where I can be happy with doing nothing at all for a little while, and being okay with that.

Here’s hoping.

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