Drama at home and abroad has invaded my shell-shocked attention span. I was working on my take on Joker. I’m still going to do it, but I need a little more time.

I promise, I am not going to abandon this blog again. Even if I have to put up memes to entertain you all.

I have accomplished two goals: I’ve had the “Impossible Whopper” and saw Joker in the theater.

I am going to do a deeper dive in Joker a little later, because I don’t want to spoil anything. A week should be long enough to wait, right? Don’t worry, I’ll put up a spoiler warning in case you’re reading the blog and haven’t gotten to a theater yet. But first…

It’s impossible that Whopper was made from plants or plant material. It has the same taste and texture as their regular Whoppers – even the charred parts have the same feeling on the tongue. It’s a little but pricier than the regular Whopper, but at least you’re getting something that’s worthwhile to eat. Granted, this is the second time that I had vegetarian burgers (that I know of, see previous post), so sample pool is very limited.

I’m going to buy some vegetarian burgers late on in the week. I still have some good old-fashioned meat burgers in the freezer that I need to use first. After that, it’s going to be plant burgers for a couple of weeks just to see. Whether or not I feel anything different is up for debate. If anyone reading this has had experience with vegetarian burgers, or vegetarian eating in general and wants to chime in on what to expect or what changes occurred please do so through this blog. I’ll respond as soon as I can.

Note to all the cow farmers: I’m not eliminating red meat, just trying new things. Relax. All is well.

On to Joker.

This is a movie that makes you think – as all good movies should. This is Joachim Phoenix’s next Oscar film and it should give the comic book movie genre much more gravitas. I want to say more about it, but I also don’t want to give anything away (until next week).

This is part of new DC comic movie franchise called DC Black, which is (if this movie is any sort of hint) going to be not a part of the regular DC continuity. It’s going to be a series of smaller, but more serious and darker films. More character study than big name team-ups. If Joker is going to be their typical fare, then this production line is the worthy opponent to the MCU.

There have been some to say that this movie is too violent, or that this will add fuel to the fire that is the incel movement. Honestly – there is no more violence in this movie than the typical action film. In fact, there are only three scenes that stand out in my mind that are violent, and only one of those three is rather graphic. If you can sit through any of the squickier scenes in one of the Saw films, you can handle Joker. As far as this film being the siren song for the incels…well, if you make of someone and belittle them and poke them long enough, they’re going to poke back. If this film isn’t the catalyst, and at the time of writing this there are zero Joker related incidents reported, then something else will or won’t be. If you’re worried that a movie is going to trigger a riot among the lower castes of society, that says more about you than what you fear.

Well, I think that’s all for now. Feel free to drop a line about veggie patties, or your views on the movie. I’ll answer back as quick as I can.

Have a good day.

I’m going to try a new tack as far as keeping this blog going. When I started it, it was going to be me talking mostly about writing – a how the sausage is made sort of thing. It was after a few attempts I realized that this was not going to work for one simple reason.

I am lazy and easily distracted. Regular readers know this intimately. So, I am going to borrow a page from one of my favorite webshows: #everythingiscontent

I am going to write about whatever is happening or strikes my fancy. I could talk about writing; I could talk about a movie and get into the ins and outs of the story. I could talk about a remark that someone made about something. I could talk about how Amazon has screwed up my order again (not bitter – just really, really tired of it). Whatever gets my fancy will get my attention.

Well, I want to talk about Joker, but at the time of this writing, it’s still not released. So, I’m going to talk about the first time I’ve had a vegan sub.

Over here in the States, Burger King has rolled out what they’re calling “The Impossible Whopper”. The patty is made of plant material and it’s branded as tasting just like the real thing. I haven’t had it yet, but Subway has marketed something similar: “The Meatless Meatball Marinara”. Since there is a Subway right down the road from where I work, I thought I would give it a shot.

Now, I have never had anything marketed as ‘meatless’. I have no comparison to make, and to be honest when I went in to get the sub, I don’t think the lady understood everything. I think she caught ‘meatball’. I’m going to give her the benefit of a doubt. I might do this again in a less crowded and quieter place.

After I received my order and scurried back to the office, I tried it. It was just the meatball, marinara sauce and cheese. A simple sandwich for a simple person.

I am surprised that it tasted more like meat than a regular meatball sub. With this being the case, two things can be drawn from this:

1) Plant based meat can work with no loss of taste or texture

2) Subway’s meat is apparently more filler than anything else – this notion dismays me more than anything.

Now, I am going to continue with this experiment. I am still going to get the Whopper Friday, and I might even go as far as try to find some vegan patties on my own and really try to get a bead on all of this and just try it for a while. I even thing that these vegan patties have more protein than standard tore-from-a-cow patties. I’ll report back after a while. I have a friend who is a vegan (she used to edit a bowhunting magazine. I think that is the very definition of irony), so I might get some more tips and directions. Who knows? This might be the start of something new. Is this the slippery slope of veganism? Am I going to wake up surrounded by wilted lettuce with random girlfriend yelling at me that I’ve changed and that I’m not the person I once was? Am I going to walk down streets, restlessly scratching my arms and asking if anyone can hook me up with some tofurkey?

Nah, but it is going to be a fun experiment.