Mirror Mirror Vs. Brave

* = So the other day, right before the yahoos on both sides of the isle 'saved' us from falling over that mystical 'Fiscal Cliff' a guy I had known since I was a kid just demolished 'Teh Fazebook(z)' with crazy hard core Conservative blasts at the President and anyone who disagrees with his perspective.  I 'un-friended' him.  See I don't see Obama like he's portrayed in the pic I posted, and yes it is 'titsy'.  He's just a guy who has one of the hardest jobs in the world trying his best to do 'right'.  There are way too many key board political warriors, on both sides mind you, who would do better to just take a F'Ning deep breath and get some perspective outside their little bubble, and stop doing the ignorant bidding of pundits and rabble rousers who make money off their rage and fear.  I felt bad cutting dude off, but I just don't need that shit in my life.  I got enough stress worrying about real problems, like Dave's love life...Yeesh...

Anywho, yesterday went entirely too fast. Just WAY too fast. So we’re back in the swing of things and I have to say this is one of the rare times that I would prefer to wake up tomorrow and never, ever have to work another day in my entire life. I think it is just a matter of a serious case of ‘Holiday Fatigue’. I’m working on trying to get my sleep schedule back on track, organize my ideas, and actually try and get some ‘work’ done. Operative word is ‘try’.

In the meantime let me tell you about a little book I just read, Patrick Rothfuss’ ‘The Name Of The Wind’ (***** out of 5).

DAMN, this is a great book, however it would have been even better if it wasn’t the first of a series. A co-worker told me about this one and I was a bit skeptical to give it a go, and for that I should be summarily slapped in the mush. It starts slow, those first 150 pages or so are a bit of a slog, but once it gets rolling it is a joy. The premise is your hearing the life story of the world’s greatest hero, or villain depending on your perspective, as it is being told to a Chronicler. Kvothe, the main character, is more or less in hiding or retirement or whatever you want to call it and is only telling his tale in order to keep it from being bastardized by others. The thing that I loved is that Kvothe is a lovable character who is deeply flawed, completely self-aware, and yet a slave to his passions. On top of that you are hearing him tell this tale from the position of a somewhat broken man. He’s given up on who he was, and in a way given up on the world at large. It feels like you are sitting around a fire hearing Hercules tell you of his adventures; of all the monsters he’s slain, the places he’s been, and all the horrible tragedies he has visited upon himself and others. That’s what drew me in so tight was the tragedy just below the surface of Kvothe’s life and what has led him to where he is. It’s never explicitly stated, well not in this book at least, what they all were, but you can see them bubbling right below the surface. My complaints are few really; it is long, it is the first of a series, and I didn’t really care about the stuff going on in the ‘present’ beyond the telling of the tale. I was irritated as the book came to a close knowing that I was going to have to seek out the sequel.  But then one of the secondary characters let’s slip his motivation and just why he’s brought Kvothe & The Chronicler together, and it is BRILLIANT! That in itself has roped me back in for at least book two. So if you enjoy a good fantasy read that does a decent job capturing the vibe of Tolkien and the early life feel of Harry Potter then go track this one down it is a damn fine read.

Yesterday my lovely wife and I celebrated our 8th Wedding Anniversary by laying around in PJ’s and watching the 7th Season of the new Doctor Who (Infinite *’s out of 5).

I will admit this right off the bat, I cried. We both cried actually. If you aren’t caught up, this means you David, than you might want to skip this as it is SPOILER heavy. You have been warned. I thought about going through episode by episode, but really the way this was constructed it works just hitting it all as a season. Steven Moffat is crafting something truly special here as The Doctor is back at ‘ground zero’ at the beginning of the Christmas Episode. See we’d become attached to Rory & Amy as the Companions. They were the perfect couple, ‘The Boy & Girl Who Waited’, and fit this incarnation of The Doctor like a glove. And now, now they are gone. They are forever ripped away from The Doctor and their families by the Weeping Angels to only live on in memories and dreams. I knew they were leaving the show and that we’d be getting a new Companion, but damn did Moffat bring the pain in the way he did it. The Angels have now ascended into Dalek territory as Who villains. It was a shocker of a moment followed by the gut punch of one spouse deciding to leave EVERYTHING behind in order to sacrifice themselves in order to be together. In the preceding episodes Moffat did a wonderful job both building up both the loving relationship the Ponds had with The Doctor as well as just how damn dangerous it is to be a Companion. In the end even River Song doesn’t stay with The Doctor, but she does re-iterate the words of her mother, Amy for those that don’t know, ‘The Doctor should NOT travel alone’. That is where the Christmas Episode kicks off with The Doctor an inconsolable mess hiding in the Victorian Age of England like a modern day Scrooge. His only proper ‘Friends’ being the Silurian detective Madame Vastra, her wife Jenny Flint (sort of a lesbian inter-species married Holmes & Watson), and the displaced ‘Man Servant’ the Sontaran Strax, and even they can’t drag him out of his funk. I just want to let you know now Strax steals every scene he’s in, he’s a riot, and I had truly hoped that he’d leave the erstwhile detectives behind and become The Doctor’s new companion. Their banter was sublime. We are re-introduced to Clara Oswin Oswald, YES THAT CLARA, in this time period and that’s where things start to take off. See this one has a lot going for it; The Great Intelligence (from the 2nd Doctor & voiced by Ian McKellen) makes its 1st (?) appearance, we get killer Snowmen, The Doctor living in the clouds at the end of a giant invisible spiral staircase, a new version of the inside of the TARDIS , and a new Companion. If you watched Season 7 you’ll remember Clara from ‘The Asylum Of The Daleks’, where she DIES! Well she dies here as well. She is the ‘Twice Dead Girl’, and rather than just being annoying, it instead is fascinating and maddening! We’re left waiting for the next season and The Doctor, who has been going around and erasing his existence both Pre-Ponds and Post-Ponds, searching through time and space for this mysterious girl whom he was unable to save TWICE! Who is she, where did she come from, how come she can't DIE!?  We, as viewers have the smae questions The Doctor has, and that is so brilliant.  And we know we’ll get to see her, because she shows up at the end of the episode visiting her own grave. As for who and what she is, we have no idea, I will say I love the character so far. She’s a match for The Doctor in the intelligence department, she’s witty, vivacious, and WANTS to travel with him. She’s sort of Rose 2.0. Oh Mr. Moffat you are amazing. So as sad, and honesty slightly despondent, over the loss of The Ponds I am beyond intrigued with the fetching Clara. It’s as if they are sort of ‘soft’ re-booting Who here; The Doctor is an unknown quantity in the universe again, he’s distanced from River currently, his circle of ‘Friends’ is small, and he has a Companion who seems both ‘interested’ in him, but FAR more interested in EVERYTHING. Next season can’t get here fast enough. It’s a great time to love Doctor Who.

It was another week, and this time the good folks at Paizo dropped a CRAP TON of Shattered Star previews on us, let’s take a gander shall we…

First up is the Pallid Path Cultist, which I believe is a Common. I have to give HUGE ‘ups’ to Wizkids for making this one sort of a hazy translucent color. You can’t tell from this picture but this thing looks almost like a shade. In fact it’ll make a great stand in for folks who use Skulks in their games. I for one will be attempting to get a smattering of these for use as Shadow Assassins looking to end the pursuit of power that one of my PC’s is currently involved in. I’m not overly fond of the glaringly white eyes, but I think it would be hard to alter that and keep that phased translucent look. I’m looking at this like I did the Shinning Child in the last set; it looks ok in a picture and fantastic in hand. At least that’s what I hope, either way it’s a MUST BUY.

Next up is the Ravenous Ooze, which I also believe is a Common. I don’t have a lot of use for Oozes overall as they just never really seem to work their way into my Campaigns, however I’m thinking of changing that soon as the 2nd Campaign gets ready to kick off. I think I could find a place for a few of these, like three. The mini itself isn’t overly impressive, but c’mon it’s an Ooze, what do you expect. I hope the color is a sickly off-white, slight yellow though and not a pearl color. I think just for the mere fact we don’t have many mini options for Oozes this one becomes a MUST BUY as well.

Third for the week is Shadow Hound, I believe it also might be a Common. We have a Shadow Mastiff, that is fantastic from the old DDM, and I believe we got one in the Drow pack from Dungeon Command as well. This one doesn’t look to be made out of the same translucent plastic, and I’m ok with it. It has a far more monstrous and otherworldly look to it, and it’s a dog I ALWAYS need more dogs in my miniature drawers. Because of its solid coloring I’ll have to get a better ‘in hand’ look at it before I can declare my overall opinion, but thus far it looks damn intriguing, intriguing enough to be a MUST BUY for this guy.

Last but not least is the Common Hellhound! This is one of my favorite Pre-painted minis I’ve seen in some time. It just looks amazing. The paint and shadow of the shading looks outstanding, the pose is canine and yet screams HOUND OF HELL, and it is a monster that NEEDED a good and proper representation in the world of miniatures. If this is a Common then I expect to try and wrangle at least five of them. I mean c’mon it looks incredible, and who doesn’t need some Hellhounds? It is a MUST BUY for me. Overall this set of previews blew me away with the sheer amount of good looking, well thought out, cost effective, and USEFUL stuff. If Paizo and Wizkids continue to knock it out of the park like this then I’ll be shocked to see WotC push out any new pre-paints in 2013. It’s sort of strange to say it, but it is almost as if Paizo has become a more fiscally sound version of the old TSR while WotC is just sort of floundering.

I think it’s time to wrap this bad boy up with some…

RANDOM CRAP!

- I guess we’re Podcasting tomorrow night. Dave is single again, and although we’ll touch upon it, we are NOT going to dwell on it. He’s a lean, mean, girl meeting, music talkin’ machine right now. I want to concentrate on that.
- I’m thinking that an Emergency Movie-A-Thon might be necessary here shortly.
- The Xbox has been doing some serious ‘Freezing’ here lately so I haven’t been able to play that much and haven’t been able to put all that music I uploaded into folks’ entrances. I hoping that by moving it up high, away from all other electronics, and giving it room to breathe that it’ll stop being so infuriating. I do have to say that with the new Hard Drive I get these rad ‘Match Highlights’ now and they are FANTASTIC! So at least I got that going for me. I seriously NEED to get back to My Universe as I have the ECW World Title to defend!
- Vikings Vs. Packers in the playoffs Saturday night!
- Speaking of Saturday, Diamond Dave Wheeler and I are co-hosting an evening of Miniature Painting and CHIKARA! I’m hoping for a decent turnout, like 2 more people, and to get some painting done. There is SO much to paint. We have Duergar to finish eyes on, I’ve got my massive Ape to get done, and I’d really like to knock out all those Pirate Orcs, regular Orcs, Goblins, and Kobolds I have sitting around. And that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of all the stuff sitting around. Perhaps I can even rope Cassandra and ‘Original Recipe’ Dave into painting a bit. A man can dream. Either way I’ll have fun hanging out with ‘Extra Crispy’ Dave.
- New Year’s Eve was hard this year. It was made easier by watching my wife get tanked with her best Friend Mary, her awesome wife Christina, and their friends Derrick and Stacy. M&C are some of the most gracious people I know and they throw a heck of a shindig. Although I was a bit detached, I still had a great time. Oh and the food was insane!
- Could Andy Reid be the next Chiefs head coach? YES PLEASE!
- It was decided New Year’s Eve that on Wed. we would post at least one HUGE lie on Facebook all year. I’ve already got mine in today; it was Doctor Who-centric, I’m curious to see who gets onboard and what they post.
- My wife is the best. That is all.
- D&D is in a few weeks. I need to start hammering out the details of the evening, and in the process just how I’m going to close the Heroic Tier in a satisfying way. I have ideas, and I might even use the Podcast tomorrow night to get some of Dave’s feedback on it. I’ve found that I need someone to rope me in on my ideas, to give it some focus, and to not over plan. I’m hoping that by using these ‘mantras’ I can make the next session the best yet.
- I love tea, I really do.

You know that’s all I can squeeze out of my tiny brain today…

“I've only walked out on one single movie
It was an action adventure
It was a blood-sucking summer.
And the posters in the lobby of the theater called it "Predator."
I called it weak and unwatchable
Carl Weathers and two future Governors
You know, that's really unacceptable.
We gotta stop falling for these double speakers from the double features
We gotta keep `em in the theaters.

So put your head up to the speakers
This is what it's like to stop talking and finally hear me
"It's not concern you're itchin' to burn, I know you're dying to know, homie I'm dying to listen and learn"
So put your head up to the headphones
This is what it's like to drown out the psychos
"I'm concerned you're itchin' to burn, I know you're dying to do it, but homie you gotta see how it's done."
So put your gun in the shoebox
Put the box in the back of your closet and close the door.
"Between the kegs and the "Maiden" CD, I think this party's got about as much heavy metal as it's gonna need."
So put your head up to the speakers
This is what it's like to stop talking and finally hear me
"We ain't got time to bleed, we hit the highways and skating on thin ice Mercedes in the street."

You ever feel like you're being tricked, tricked-out, dipped, dicked around with, or flat out lied to?
Welcome to Hollywood D.C, where Reagan youth grew up cowboys off Ronnie's westerns
That shoot em up, and steal the bucks
Tell em what's live and giddy-up, yeah off into the sunset
Years later we watched the Running Man and 2 of em ran and
1, too star-struck to stick with the plan, huh
I shoulda switched to Marlboro's
Them cowboy killers
Cause Cowboys are killing Camel Lights.
Some mustached punk that evil's Jafar,
But for a middle eastern guy, I think Aladdin looked kinda white
We open wide and catch a bite of villain image
We swallow it, and feed it to the kids if the song's alright.
It's just the way it be, eyes wide shut up
And sit down, put your hands up for your turn to speak

So put your head up to the speakers
This is what it's like to stop talking and finally hear me
"It's not concern you're itchin' to burn, I know you're dying to know, homie I'm dying to listen and learn"
So put your head up to the headphones
This is what it's like to drown out the Psychoes
"I'm concerned you're itchin' to burn, I know you're dying to do it, but homie you gotta see how it's done."
So put your gun in the shoebox
Put the box in the back of your closet and close the door.
"Between the kegs and the "Maiden" CD, I think this party's got about as much heavy metal as it's gonna need."
So put your head up to the speakers
This is what it's like to stop talking and hear me
"We ain't got time to bleed, we hit the highways and skating on thin ice Mercedes in the street."

I got my Nikon
Let's get our Knife on
And get a couple snapshots of a bad move

Can you turn the light on
Cause I forgot the flash
Want these proofs to prove what not to do”

* = THIS is why I dig CM Punk so much.  I ran into this picture online of him at a Punk show, ironic I know, in the middle of the 'Fury and Fray' just happy to be alive.  Dude is livin' his dream.