Monday, May 10, 2010

Bridge Over The River Kwai Vs. Hamburger Hill


* I love this f'n picture!
Last week I finished Death Of A Darklord (** ½ out of 5),one of the Ravenloft anthology series. Little did I realize that it was written by Laurell K. Hamilton; writer of the abomination that is Anita Blake. I must say though, the book wasn’t that bad, in fact up until the prerequisite “bad guys WIN” ending it was an entertaining fantasy adventure, with zombies. These sorts of books are like candy to me, I love it for a while then it gets to be to much for my teeth and it gives me a headache. Right now I’m about 2/3rds through Ed Greenwood’s Eliminster In Hell, and yes it is both as bizarre as it sounds and as goofy as J.B. had led me to believe. I’m really hoping that after finishing these I’ll get back on track and back to A Rendezvous In Averoigne, which is sitting half completed on the stereo cabinet.

Saturday was D&D, and although we had a real hard time staying focused. There was a big hub bub over Marvel comics and it’s directions and I may have made, let’s be frank I DID make an inflammatory statement. I basically said people who unconditionally love Marvel are slack jawed morons who will just take whatever sloppy gruel Marvel shovels into their maws. What’s sad is I too occasionally fall into that category. Marvel is all the promise of a 13 year old boy staying up late to watch Cinemax to watch a movie called The Best Little Whore House In Texas ONLY to find out it is a musical with no nudity starring Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds. They suck you in with brilliant premise and shatter your hopes and dreams with mediocrity, if you’re lucky. Now there are always exceptions. Ed Brubaker, Christos Gage, Jeff Parker, Jonathan Hickman, Dan Slott, Matt Fraction, Jason Aarron, Greg Pak, Dan Abbnett, & Andy Lanning ALL bring me back on a monthly basis by giving me action in the Mighty Marvel Tradition. Wow, got a little off track there. Suffice to say I insulted Mighty Mike by tossing him in with the Marvel Zombies, and for that I am truly sorry. Oh that and I confronted him about killing the Dark Dave Writing Circle. By doing that I hit my monthly limit on being a ‘cock’, by the time I went to bed I hated myself. Anywho, besides the side table talk, the hatin’ on Mighty Mike, and the stealing of food off my paper plate it was a HELL of a D&D night. The party made their way through the entire bottom floor (3rd Sub-basement floor) of the Temple Of Bane. They ran into a massive fight in a library with two Snake Tongue Warriors, some Snake Tongue Cultists, and a Yuan-Ti Malison. The two warriors significantly slowed the fight with their massive amounts of hit points, giving the Masilon the time to get upstairs to the second floor’s temple room and prepare those forces for the party. I had forgotten how Dan’s Half-Orc Barbarian, Klue’s, at-will “deafening shout” power was devastating to groups of minions, which significantly effected the encounter. The group came out on top and made it’s way upstairs into the Secondary Temple Room only to find a Yuan-Ti Half-breed Witch in the midst’s of a sacrificial summoning. There more Cultists, the same surviving Malison, and a large Yuan-Ti Abomination confronted them. Again an area of effect attack, this time by Dave’s character Ulver’s giant wolf, Odin’s, “bark at the moon” power. I am learning that minions just aren’t going to be as effective against the group anymore, at least not when they have made a concerted effort to deal with those that I would simply use as front-line cannon fodder. Surprisingly enough the group made short work of the Abomination, mainly due to Mike & Cassandra pounding away mercilessly, and eventually put the whup down on the Malison as well. They were able to delay the Half-breed Witch enough so she couldn’t finish her summoning spell and finished her off. So at the end of the night they had saved a Minotaur soldier who is now joining them as a companion and are holed up in the Secondary Temple Room of the Temple Of Bane. I look forward to seeing what happens next month.

BUT before that happens we have the Gaming Weekend in two weeks and that group of adventurer’s sojourn into the dreaded Chaos Scar. I’m hoping that Cassandra gets her part of the Cave Works done prior to that so I can use it. In addition I did get some positive feedback and excitement about playing some more board game like sessions taking place in the past of our D&D setting. Oh and we’re having an Emergency Movie-A-Thon on Friday 5/28/10, I have no idea what we’re watching, and frankly Scarlet I don’t give a damn.

By the by it’s that time of the year again where the elected people of our state have to make some tough decisions. Well last year those tough decisions landed squarely on T-Paw and he made them. By ‘made them’ I mean he guarded his rich constituents in his bid for the Presidency. He protected those that make over $200,000 dollars a year and cut the services and money of the aged, kids, and people with disabilities, classic conservatism, hoping and praying that the debunked theory of “trickle down” economics will finally work. It won’t. It hasn’t. So here we are again on the precipice of financial changes in the state and the Human Services part of our government finds itself being led quietly, again, to the slaughter to protect one man’s aspirations and the political ideology of a group who have no ideas or direction. I implore each of you, like 8 of you, who read this to contact your state and federal reps standing up for those who can’t stand up for themselves. Here is my letter that I sent, feel free to just cut and paste it if you want, but we need someone to say something and SAY IT LOUD, so this year they won’t be the one’s praying for something to ‘trickle down’;

Good Morning,

I'm writing as an individual who has worked diligently with people with disabilities for going on 12 years now. I'm finding myself increasingly distressed and concerned about the legislatures willingness to cut essential funds to pertinent programs. This is a population that doesn't have the strongest lobby group, doesn't have a unified voice, doesn't directly affect the outcome of elections, and donate funds. It is a minimized and largely marginalized group within our community. They are however an integral part of our community. In these twelve years I've learned as much from these individuals and the community I've served. It's made me a better person just to be a part of their lives. These are people who bring value to the lives of all who have the privilege of walking in their world.

In summation I'm writing to ask you to urge members of the Health and Human Services Conference Committee and the leaders in the House and Senate to continue to protect supports for people with disabilities. These are viable and important programs for if we do not continue to assist those of us in the most need what does that say about us?

Thank you for your time,

Benjamin Maier


After all that how about we rap this sucka’ up with some

RANDOM CRAP!

- It’s finally happen the right wing crazies have taken over EVERYTHING; http://bullyscomics.blogspot.com/ . I subscribe to this blog, mainly for his 365 Days Of Hank McCoy stuff, but because of his use, politically, of an old Batman panel where Batman tells us to not be racist some Conservative nut keeps commenting negatively on ALL his posts. I didn’t know that these assholes had THAT much free time, you’d think they’d use it to maybe offer some solutions to the world and our nation’s ills, OH WAIT they had 8 years to do that and all they did was muck it up. Thanks for proving stereotypes right ya douche.
- I’m officially freaking out about buying the Castle Ravenloft board game, so you know it’ll only disappoint me, just like Marvel comics. I kid, I kid, or do I?
- The Sport’s Abyss is KILLING me…
- I’m starting the Rifftrax of Twilight New Moon and thus far HI-larious.
- I took some time this weekend while I wasn’t sleeping to watch The Whole Wide World (*** ½ out of 5), which I had on my computer, after being reminded of it by a great review on GROGNARDIA’s blog. The movie is taken from Novalyne Price’s novel about her relationship with Robert E. Howard. It stars Renee Zellweger and Vincent D’Onofrio. It’s a very decent little movie that is told from Price’s perspective on her life and the twists and turns she had in her relationship with Howard. For those that don’t know Howard, while being a brilliant writer, suffered from mental illness and eventually killed himself after the steady terminal decline of his greatest advocate, his mother. It’s a sad tale, because it’s one of shining brilliance in a sea of mundane. It’s a good little movie not many have heard of that I recommend.
- Kimbo Slice needs a job, at least he proved in the UFC that he’s willing to work, I’m actually hoping he turns it around. As for the dude that sucker punched Josh Koscheck after the loss you HAVE to know better this isn’t EliteXC or Strikeforce SON, this is the big league. Not only did you blow a shot at fighting GSP for the title now you don’t have a gig with the only promotion that matters. I’m also really happy that someone got their hands on Machida and showed that if you press him he will fold with his suspect chin. This gives me hope that eventually Anderson Silva will get what’s coming to him.
- I’m re-addicted to Torchlight on the ‘puter. GAWDS that game is FUN!
- I really hope I get some Banana Bread soon…
- I have got to get off my kiester and start painting minis again. Maybe Wed. if I get off work like I hope.

And with that I have nothing of any importance left to even utter…

“This is an evil generation
I see with my eyes
I seen’em walking around in their suits
And honey I seen the ties

Evil girls biting good girls
Turning good girls into evil girls
Evil boys eating evil hamburgers
Evil boys eating evil fries

This is an evil generation
Rock and Roll Evacuation
As far as the eye can see
Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey
Tune Into this radio station
Rock and Roll Evacuation
In a fit of emergency

We are just hungry little creatures
Feeding upon lies
I seen’em lining us up on the wall
And trading us for pies

Seen a man on the television telling me to listen to the radio
Hear the man on the radio, telling me no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

This is a bad, bad situation
Rock and Roll Evacuation
It’s not looking too good to me
Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey
Evil Spreads across the nation
Rock and Roll Evacuation
Apocalyptic insurgency

You kill the body child, but the head is still gonna live
You can give all your money now, until there’s nothing left to give
You can play your electric guitar but it ain’t gonna change the world
You can get all emotional on me, cry like a little girl
Cry

We are disposable creations, they’re throwing us away
Ignoring everything that we do and everything that we say
Mr. President make a little money, sending people you don’t know to iraq
Mr. President I don’t like you, you don’t know how to rock

This is an evil generation
Rock and Roll Evacuation
As far as the eye can see
Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey
Tune Into this radio station
Rock and Roll Evacuation
In a fit of emergency”

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