May the Fourth Be With You: a reflection

I love Star Wars. I have ever since my grandma took me to see Star Wars in the theater in Yorkville, Illinois, in 1977. Who knew my life would be shaped in such a way on that unassuming trip to the movies.

I don’t know. I guess I accept it as a day for me, a fan of Star Wars. I appreciate when someone says to me, May the Fourth Be With You or Happy Star Wars Day. It makes me feel good. I enjoy my fandom. So how do I spend the day?

To start, I don’t take the day off from work. I am fortunate to work in an environment where I can wear a Star Wars shirt. So I get to show off my newest or most favorite Star Wars threads. This year, I wore my new Mandalorian and Grogu film t-shirt. I listened to my Star Wars playlist on Spotify as I got ready in the morning. I collected the limited May the Fourth cards on Star Wars Card Trader. It is always fun to see what card designs they come up with. This year, the cards were pretty much focused on the Mandalorian and Grogu. That is fine with me!

When I came home from work, I immediately fired up Disney+ and watched the final two episodes of Season One of Maul: Shadow Lord. I gasped, sat on the edge of my seat, said “Oh No!” many times, pondered, cheered, pondered some more, then it ended, and I was in disbelief. It is an amazing show and was a great way to celebrate Star Wars Day.

I wasn’t done. I knew I wanted to do more to celebrate my fandom in my own little way. My family left me alone (although I always do wish they would join me), and I decided to watch Solo: A Star Wars Story. I love this film and was always disappointed that it didn’t do better at the box office. I still can’t figure out why people didn’t care for it. I think it gets better the more it ages. It was hard for some to accept that someone other than Harrison Ford could play Han Solo, but I feel that Alden Ehrenreich did an exceptional job.

Anyway, I have to share a moment that just turned out perfect. When Solo and crew enter the malestrom on the way to Kessel, a thunderstorm heavy with lightning started to roll in outside. I had the window open so I could hear the thunder off in the distance. As the Kessel scene started to pick up with action in the mines, the storm hit outside and lasted all the way to the takeoff, and Kessel run in 12 parsecs. It was a dramatic play in the movie and a dramatic storm outside. It was great!

I didn’t want the night to end even though it was getting late on a work night. I let Rogue One roll anyway. I got about an hour in before I called it a night.

It was a great day and pretty par for the course over the last several May the 4ths. I love celebrating “Star Wars Day.” I know it isn’t for everyone. It isn’t their fandom, and I am totally cool with that. I mean, I don’t celebrate Die Hard at Christmas, which isn’t really parallel to this at all, but it was the best I could come up with. Well, May the Fourth Be With You…Always.  

Fantasy Basketball: Rough Season for the Flat Soda Bombers

It wasn’t a complete disaster for the Flat Soda Bombers, but we could say that the Bombers did just that; they bombed.

Full disclosure, the team manager hasn’t ever managed a fantasy basketball team, and he hasn’t followed the National Basketball League since the Michael Jordan days.

The Kids took 6th place in the league while their star, first-round pick Giannis Antetokounmpo spent most of the season on the injured list. Not to make excuses for the Bombers, but some may argue there weren’t any other NBA stars on the team. It was a team of really good middle-grade players. You can be the judge.

Here is the final roster for the Flat Soda Bombers:

Starting Line-up:

PG: CJ McCollum, Atlanta Hawks

SG: Kevin Porter Jr. Milwaukee Bucks

G: De’Aaron Fox, San Antonio Spurs

SF: Zion Williamson New Orleans Pelicans

PF: Bobby Portis, Milwaukee Bucks

F: Kel’el Ware, Miami Heat

C: Jaylin Williams, Oklahoma City Thunder

C: Kristaps Porzingis, Golden State Warriors

Util: Saddiq Bey, New Orleans Pelicans

Util: Coby White, Charlotte Hornets

Bench:

SG/SF: Devin Vassell, San Antonio Spurs

PF/C: Onyeka Okongwu, Atlanta Hawks

SG/SF/PF: Ausar Thompson, Detroit Pistons

IL: PF/C Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks

IL: C Nikola Vucevic, Boston Celtics

Reading/Viewing Stats 1st Quarter 2026

It is time for the first quarter of 2026 report, where I share how much I have been watching, reading, and listening to content. I have been kind of disappointed in my overall reading stats, but I have to remind myself that I do a lot of reading in tabletop role-playing game manuals. That reading doesn’t get recorded because I am not finishing any books, but reading and getting information piece by piece. Anyway, here are the reading, viewing, and listening stats for the first quarter of 2026.

Movies Watched: 3

Rewatch: 2

First Time: 1

In Theater:

T.V. shows streamed: 37

First time: 37

Rewatch:

Books Read: 6

Fiction: 5

Nonfiction: 1

Pages Read: 1002

Audiobooks:

Fiction:

Nonfiction:

Hours Listened:

Books Abandoned:

Fiction:

Nonfiction:

Pages Read;

Short Stories Read:

Fiction:

Nonfiction:

Pages Read:

Comic Books Read: 42

Print: 18

Digital: 24

Book Titles:

Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Duke Volume 1 by Joshua Williamson (Graphic Novel)

Transformers Volume 1 by Daniel Warren Johnson (Graphic Novel)

The Fallbacks: Bound for Ruin by Jaleigh Johnson

All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison (Graphic Novel)

Movies Watched:

KPop Demon Hunters

Mario Brothers

T.V. Series Watched:

Wonder Man

Vox Machina Season 2

Vox Machina Season 3

Percey Jackson and the Olympians Season 2

Podcasts: 3

The Colbycast (2)

The Rebel Basecard Podcast (1)

MLB Team’s Games listened: (min 5 innings)

Total: 29

San Francisco Giants (Spring training 2)

Chicago Cubs (Spring Training 3)

Chicago White Sox (Spring Training 1)

World Baseball Classic (4)

Chicago Cubs (7)

Detroit Tigers (5)

New York Yankees

San Francisco Giants

Anaheim Angels

Washington Nationals

Tampa Bay Rays

Atlanta Braves

Miami Marlins

Stats Gathered January 1 - April 12, 2026

Fantasy Baseball: Introducing the 2026 Coca-Cola Kids B-Team (updated 4/26/26)

We are two weeks into the baseball season, and the Coca-Cola Kids B-Team is deep in it! The Kids B-Team plays in the UPCBaseball League, which is a high-maintenance league as the roster may be changed daily. That is a lot of days of changing rosters in a baseball season. I am excited for the Kids this year as they had a nice draft and feel good about the season for these players.

In ten weeks, the first week of June, I will create a new post to give my thoughts on the team as we enter the summer months. Until then, I will update this post with weekly match-up results and any roster changes that I make.

Week 1: Coca-Cola Kids vs. Anyone but the Cubs 9-5 “Kids Off to a Nice Start in 2026” (4th in League)

Week 2: Coca-Cola Kids (9-5-4) vs. Acuna Matada (7-7-4) 12-5 “Kids Pitching is Dominant in Win” (2nd in League)

Week 3: Coca-Cola Kids (21-10-5) vs. Bregging Rights (16-14-6) Match-up of the Week 10-4 “Kids Deliver a Balanced Attack Against Bregging Rights” (1st in League)

Week 4: Coca-Cola Kids (31-14-9) vs. Release the Kimbrel (33-16-5) Match-up of the Week 8-6 “Kids Bring a Balanced Attack to Sneak by Kimbrel”

Week 5: Coca-Cola Kids (39-20-13) vs. Gourmet by Gorman (28-31-13) Match-up of the Week

Week 6: Coca-Cola Kids vs. Splendid Splinters

2026 Coca-Cola Kids B-Team (updated 4/26/26)

C: Hunter Goodman, Colorado Rockies

1B: Munetaka Murakami, Chicago White Sox

2B: Jose Altuve, Houston Astros

3B: Kevin McGonigle, Detroit Tigers

SS: Zach Neto, Los Angeles Angels

OF: Kyle Tucker, Los Angeles Dodgers

OF: Ronald Acuna Jr. Atlanta Braves

OF: Seiya Suzuki, Chicago Cubs

Util: Michael Harris II, Atlanta Braves

Bench:

1B: Rafael Devers, San Francisco Giants

SS: Dansby Swanson, Chicago Cubs

C: Dillon Dingler, Detroit Tigers

Pitchers:

SP: Cam Schlittler, New York Yankees

SP: Freddie Peralta, New York Mets

SP: Brandon Woodruff, Milwaukee Brewers

RP: Dennis Santana, Pittsburgh Pirates

RP: Robert Suarez, Atlanta Braves

P: Paul Sewald, Arizona Diamondbacks

P: Sandy Alcantara, Miami Marlins

P: Erik Sabrowski, Cleveland Guardians

Bench:

SP: Shane Baz, Baltimore Orioles

SP: Kris Bubic, Kansas City Royals

IL: Carlos Estevez, Kansas City Royals

IL: Hunter Brown, Houston Astros

Fantasy Baseball is Back: Introducing the 2026 Coca-Cola Kids A-Team (Updated 4/26/26)

I always look forward to the baseball season to watch my Chicago Cubs and Detroit Tigers make a run for the World Series. I’ve been a fan of the Cubs since I was a tiny little child, and I have been a fan of the Tigers since 1984.

In 1988, I found a new reason to love the game, Fantasy Baseball. I have played on

some iteration of fantasy baseball every year since the paper and pencil years, checking statistics in the USA Today every Tuesday to score, to my first online baseball league on Sandbox? or something like that. Now I play in two leagues, hence the A-team and B-team, and this is the 25th year I have had the Coca-Cola Kids A-Team in the League of the Gorgeous Rogues. In ten weeks, the first week of June, I will create a new post to give my thoughts on the team as we enter the summer months. Until then, I will update this post with weekly match-up results and any roster changes that I make.

Week 1: Coca-Cola Kids vs. Brutes FBC 2-15 “Kids off to a Bad Start…Horrible, Actually” (4th Division, 9th League)

Week 2: Coca-Cola Kids (2-15-3) vs. BrownTown (3-15-2) 5-11 “Things Couldn’t Be Much Worse for the Kids: Looking for a Turnaround” (5th Division, 10th League)

Week 3: Coca-Cola Kids (7-26-7) vs. Pacaya Chiltepes (17-17-6) 5-9 “Chiltepes Offense Too Much for the Kids” (5th Division, 10th League)

Week 4: Coca-Cola Kids (12-35-13) vs. Affianced Buddhas (30-24-6) 3-12 “Kids Offense Anemic as it Fails to Score”

Week 5: Coca-Cola Kids (15-47-18) vs. Fried Chicken Bucket (37-36-7)

Week 6: Coca-Cola Kids vs. Fried Chicken Bucket

Hope springs eternal at this point of the season, so here are the members of the Coca-Cola Kids A-Team (updated 4/26/26).

Position Players:

C: Dillon Dingler, Detroit Tigers

1B: Kazuma Okamoto, Toronto Blue Jays

2B: Ketel Marte, Arizona Diamondbacks (Keeper)

3B: Eugenio Suarez, Cincinnati Reds

SS: Andres Gimenez, Toronto Blue Jays

OF: Julio Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners (Keeper)

OF: Kyle Schwarber, Philadelphia Phillies

OF: Randy Arozarena, Seattle Mariners

Utility: Taylor Ward, Baltimore Orioles

Bench:

OF: Rafael Devers, San Francisco Giants

C: Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners (Keeper)

SS: Xander Bogaerts, San Diego Padres

1B/2B: Kody Clemens, Minnesota Twins

Pitchers:

SP: Logan Webb, San Francisco Giants

SP: Freddie Peralta, New York Mets

SP: Jesus Luzardo, Philadelphia Phillies

SP: Robbie Ray, San Francisco Giants

RP: Robert Suarez, Atlanta Braves

RP: Mason Montgomery, Pittsburgh Pirates

P: Caleb Thielbar, Chicago Cubs

P: Ranger Suarez, Boston Red Sox

Bench:

RP: Pete Fairbanks, Miami Marlins

RP: Seranthony Dominguez, Chicago White Sox

IL: Carlos Estevez, Kansas City Royals

Free Comic Book Day is Coming: Four Books I'm Looking forward to Picking Up and Reading

Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) is just ahead on May 2, 2026. This annual event, which takes place the
first Saturday of May is a gateway of sorts. First, it feels like the first “holiday” of summer for me. It always seems to be a warm day, brimming with hope and fun. Second, FCBD is a gateway to what’s ahead from the minds of the industry’s best authors and artists.

Before I get to four books that I am looking forward to this FCBD, let’s remember that FCBD is more than just free comics. Be sure to support those who supply these books and who open their doors not just on May 2, but all year long. Grab your free comics and get the preview of the upcoming year, but also take a look around your local comic shop. Find something special to buy yourself to support your local comic shop. These men and women who own these stores are a part of your community; support them!

Now on to the fun!

Conan the Barbarian: Tides of the Tyrant King #0 by Jim Zub Art by Jesus Merino Cover art by Rob De La Torre Titan Comics

I am excited for this title every May. Conan is a staple, and his stories, gory as they may be, he is a barbarian, are always filled with action, some barbarian romance, and some really bad dudes. My friend and author Jim Zub has a way to take this deep lore and make it accessible to new audiences and old. If you are in for great battles, adventure, and magical artifacts, you really should check out this book in 2026.

Inanna: The Name She Lost by Tim Seeley with Inanna Sarkis art by Ademir Leal Vault Comics

This beautiful cover just caught my eye. The gold base with the stark blue coming through in the border, title, and costume of a princess warrior standing in the ancient ruins of…San Francisco? You know the song, “One of these things isn’t like the others…” Like I said, this cover caught my eye as much as the story summary. From the Free Comic Day website:

Once the home of the love and peace movement, San Francisco is now a city at war with itself. Mayor and presidential hopeful Tim Teller promises to fix the problems, but he has a new issue. On a brisk September evening, Inanna emerges from the Bay, wearing nothing but a lapis necklace. She remembers little save her name…and that she’s pissed. Possessed of immense strength and unwavering charisma, Inanna becomes a champion of the people. But her immortal life as a goddess of love and war is coming back to haunt her. Ancient enemies and modern monsters collide as love and war clash in a battle for the soul of humanity—and Inanna herself.

This isn't a FCBD issue we want to miss.

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman Art by Tevagah and Actus Laurel Pursuit Studios

Dungeon Crawler Carl novels are the rage. This graphic novel is a must-read if you love silly, if not a little, Teen+ content and crazy content. How about this two-sentence summary offered by the FCBD website, “You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Getting stuck on a sadistic alien game show with her cat.”

Energon Universe FCBD 2026 Special Image Comics

I didn’t rank this list, but I did save this one for last because I am pumped on Image Comics stories. I have truly enjoyed the cross-title world-building that Image has done over the past several years. The Unnamed universe ties together the Titles Geiger, Junkyard Joe, Ghost Machine, and Red Coat in a time-altering, dystopian story. The Energon Universe brings some titles that you may already know, like The Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Void Rivals.

This FCBD Image special Energon Universe book introduces four all-new stories from G.I. Joe, Transformers, Void Rivals, and more.

When you flip that April calendar to May, you know it is time for Free Comic Book Day. Go support your local comic shop, and check out these four titles along with many, many more free books for some early summer reading!  

Writer's Block, So Here Is What I'm Reading

The writer’s block is heavy these days. I don’t know if it is work or a sports lull. Maybe it’s the anticipation of warmer weather. Who knows? I don’t have anything to focus on, so I will share what I’m reading. I don’t plan to go too deep; I’m just going to share what I like or don’t like.

The Fallbacks: Bound for Ruin by Jaleigh Johnson

Yeah, this is pure brain candy fun. It is part of the new Dungeons and Dragons novels that I have completely enjoyed. I really like the adventuring crew that Johnson has created for us. Like most D&D games, it is a collection of eclectic characters trying to make their way along the Sword Coast. They visit Baldur’s Gate, Candlekeep, and Waterdeep, where they go to the Yawning Portal to dive deep into the Undermountain. Oh, all the while being chased by a lich. This has been a complete indulgence of the mind.

Duke Volume 1 and The Transformers Volume 1 in The Energon Universe

Yep, that is Duke of G.I. Joe, and yep, that is the Transformers, as in the robots that turn into cars, trucks, jets, etc. These two volumes are collections of the first six issues of these story runs by Image Comics. Wondering why I mention them together? These stories tie in together as part of the Energon Universe, which also includes the title Void Rivals. This series is a ton of fun!

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

The characters are a range of interesting to compelling, the story is good with some nice twists, but the world-building is amazing! The story primarily takes place in one area of the world, but the characters are from all over the world, and those areas and backgrounds are well-developed. This world is fleshed out in the series Shadow and Bone and continues in the duology Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom. I have to lean on my students' recommendations, as they say the duology is the best, and Shadow and Bone is not quite as good as Six of Crows. This is actually a non-Star Wars and non-Forgotten Realms series which I may actually read.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Really brief here, but I have been enjoying this story where Peter Parker is swept (or punched as it may be) into intergalactic adventures to learn how to defeat Hellscape. Norman Osborne takes on the Spider-Man mantle while he rediscovers who he is. The Spider-Team (Miles, Gwen, Spider-Boy, Silk, and others) try to hold down the fort in New York City.