Introduction: Captain Satellite

Imagine a world where a skinny nerd is the world's greatest hero (sorta) and his girlfriend is his bodyguard (seriously). Imagine a world filled with giant monsters, alien invaders, rampaging robots, and dastardly villains of every stripe. With us so far?

Captain Satellite by Christopher Elam is your guide to just such a world and the colorful characters that inhabit it. So grab your ticket and fasten your seatbelt! It's time to take a trip to the Owariverse!

REGARDING MY ART: Yes, I know.

(Image originally posted October 6, 2014)

Reinventing Your Self

I had no intention of ever returning to this blog.

I am proud of what I did on this blog over the years, but I had moved on from what it was. There was no reason to continue. When I signed off, it really was meant to be for good.

That was before Tumblr decided to change their policies and did so in the most ham-fisted way possible. I no longer have any confidence in Tumblr's long-term survival. I don't want to be an active part of their platform regardless.

So, I am back.

This isn't going to be a return to the old style of blogging. Mostly, this is to find a home for my content that will hopefully not be disrupted by capricious changes or incompetent management. Maybe that will inspire me in ways I cannot imagine at present.

The look of this blog will probably be revamped in the coming weeks. I plan to deprecate the old content, but none of it will be removed. This is about a new beginning, not erasing the past.

2019 will be the 10th anniversary of this particular blog. It was originally created as a back-up for my LiveJournal. Now, I am returning to it after a long detour onto Tumblr.

Funny how that worked out.

This is "OWARI"

...And this is "the end."

I know, I know - I said I was probably done for 2017. That was my intent. But I've been thinking about it, and really, all I would be doing is delaying the inevitable.

This blog is broken. It has been for some time. I won't say there hasn't been good content over the last few years, because there absolutely has. But my commitment has declined, and that has led to the frustrations I have voiced here in the recent past. Looking over my pattern of posting since 2014, it's pretty clear I made this decision a long time ago.

This is an imperfect and inelegant conclusion to what, quite unexpectedly, turned out to be one of my better projects. It began as a simple emergency back-up to my LiveJournal and grew to become a place where I was able to hone my writing craft in ways I never had before. I will always have fond memories of this blog, and I will keep it online with no regrets. It's just that it's time to move on.

I haven't quite given up on blogging just yet. I've got some blogs I intend to continue, and I'll be getting to them before I sign off here. I've also got something in mind that I am considering exploring which might involve a blog. For practical and aesthetic reasons, however, that blog won't be this one.

My current whereabouts:

• Captain Satellite will continue telling tales of the Owariverse. It's been on an extended hiatus until relatively recently, but rest assured, it's not going anywhere. I'll also be putting up more content on OWARI 2.0 if you absolutely need the "OWARI" brand in your life. Since it's my main account on Tumblr, I should use it on occasion.

• My Twitter @celamowari shows no signs of going away, unless Twitter itself finally does.

• You can also feel free to look me up on any of the other links in the sidebar. No promises about those though.

If you are reading this, or if you ever read this blog, or have just supported me in some fashion, thank you. I have been doing this for almost nine years here, and it has been a rewarding experience. I think I've been putting this off because of how much I used to love it. But I'm ready now to let this one go.

おわり

So Anyway...

I've closed this blog at least once, and waffled on the idea several other times. I'm loath to do so yet again. It just feels wishy-washy. Probably a good way to describe my approach to blogging anymore.

Problem is, I have no motivation and no inspiration for this right now. After 14 years (!) of blogging dating back to LiveJournal, I feel like I've hit a wall. The daily grind for minimal reward has caught up with me. I can still put together a good piece when called upon (I have a review of THE MANSTER submitted for the upcoming issue of XENORAMA), but that doesn't extend to OWARI of late.

If it makes followers of this blog feel any better (it probably won't), this malaise has happened pretty much across the board on all my projects. My Tumblrs have been on hiatus since January, and let's not even talk about DeviantArt. I'm still doing things and reading things and watching things - I just don't feel like writing about them.

Unless something changes, this will probably be it for 2017. I'll re-evaluate later. For what it's worth, I'm sorry this blog has mostly degenerated into navel-gazing over whether I should continue doing it.

If anyone is interested, I do still post semi-regularly on Twitter.

Briefly Noted

I've been a bit stuck, and see no reason to force out something halfhearted just for the sake of content. However, I did add some things to the tags list in anticipation of future posts that may or may not happen. First is "vinegar syndrome" for the highly interesting Vinegar Syndrome cult film company. The next is "x" for more adult-oriented films and related posts. The latter is not going to be retroactive, so it only begins with entries in 2017. Prior to that, you're on your own.

I'll be back when I'm back. Take care.

It Sounds Nothing Like "Surfing with the Alien"

LITTLE KNOWN FACT: On one of his journeys in the Time Bubble from the 30th century to the 20th century to aid his pal Superboy, Legion of Super-Heroes member Chameleon Boy made a detour into the mid-70s to score the movie SURFER GIRLS. And then they misspelled his name!

Where My Head Is

The first thing you need to know is that I junked a scheduled post which was going to put this blog on indefinite hiatus again. To be clear, we're NOT going on hiatus. At least, that's no longer the plan. But, I should probably go into the reasons for almost making such a decision so soon after quietly reviving OWARI.

Basically, I've reached the point in my life where my "fandom" has simmered down and is no longer much of a priority to me. This has been building for some time (literally years), but has finally gotten to where I can no longer ignore it or just switch gears for awhile. While I still have affection for the things that brought me to where I am (comic books, Japanese monster movies, etc.), my passion for them has just sort of left me.

I don't think I quite realized how much of my own identity was wrapped up in outside forces. As I have slowly subtracted pursuits that no longer did anything for me, I came to understand "fandom" was sometimes a substitute for other things in my life. And the crazy thing is, I've never been nearly as wholly invested as a lot of folks. If you were to take away, say, video games from some people, how much of that individual would be left?

I'm trying to answer that question for me. I characterized it as a "mid-life crisis" on Twitter not long ago, and I was only half-kidding. I've been going back and forth with depression lately as I try to figure out Who I Am Now. The weird thing is, things are pretty good otherwise. I want to be closer to figuring this out before life inevitably decides it won't be "pretty good" for awhile.

Perhaps you have deduced that my decision to focus more on my own original characters and stories a few years ago was related to this. Good catch if so. The only trouble is, inspiration waxes and wanes when you're playing with your own imagination with no real incentive other than to create. Let's be honest, only a handful of people actually care about what I'm doing with that stuff. So combine my current state of mind with some...other stuff (which I won't be getting into) related to my work and, well, the old mind well has been a bit dry recently.

My "comeback" here was a reaction to the above. I was trying to find my happy place again in the old hobbies, and figured writing about them would be extra motivation. Turns out, no, it mostly wasn't. It was a last gasp of sorts and now...here we are.

I HAVE been doing things, and I DO have things I want to write. I'm worried this might not be the proper place for those writings. I've been considering starting a NEW blog to put some of that out there. But let me tell you what - I don't think I have the stomach in 2017 to customize another blog to my liking. Maybe that will change, but right now, it sound suspiciously like work. And it's work I don't want to do. So we'll see what happens.

This is the State of OWARI and, by extension, me as we go forward. I'm not sure what's next. I'm not sure if it even matters if there IS a "next" here. But if you bother to read this blog, you deserve to know where things stand now. Thanks.