Thursday, February 28, 2013

Slime People Vs. 12 To The Moon


I am not sure why I’m blogging today. I wrote like three pages earlier about my foul mood, but deleted them, ain’t nobody got time for that. Instead I’m just going to take this one where it takes me and give you a heaping dose of…




RANDOM CRAP!

- So last night I finished ‘Winter Witch’ by Elaine Cunningham with the indomitable David Gross (***** out of 5).
I adored it. The story has a twistiness to it that doesn’t feel contrived, but brings about some serious repercussions. I loved the setting of the lands of the Linnorm Kings and Irrisen home of the spawn of the Baba Yaga. It’s a harsh, unflinching land full of danger, oaths, and bloodshed. The underlying theme of family, your devotion to it, how far you’ll go to protect it, and what it’ll cost you are so universal and perfectly played that they’ll stay with me for some time. This all says very little of what was one of the best parts of the book; the characters. The two main protagonists Ellasif and Declan are fantastic. Ellasif is NOT your clichéd female barbarian. She’s mean, not the prettiest, short, angry, and plays dirty. She’s also intensely loyal, extremely inventive, and follows her heart. She isn’t what she appears to be on the surface and neither are her intricate plots and plans. Declan is not a wizard. He doesn’t want to be. He wants to court Silvanna, make maps, learn astronomy, take care of his extended family, and live a quiet life. At the same time he can’t help but let the magic come out of him, he can’t help but see adventure and go for it, and he has a malleable personal code but a moral code nonetheless. He is also not near as smart as he thinks he is. Their intersected paths drive the tale and really draw a ton of so many other rich secondary characters into their wake. I won’t spoil the novel any further as Cassandra is getting ready to start it. I will say though that the worst part about the book is that it ends.
- We are one day out of March. March will be better. March is filled with BONES!
- I asked my D&D players, in the 1st Group, to write up their last year in game prior to the Paragon Tier.
I basically gave their characters a year to do whatever they wanted before going back to the Monastery of Order and taking that step through ‘The Stairway To The Stars’ to close it from the other side. My request was 3 minor events per month (12 months) and 3 major events over that year. They’ve had three weeks plus to flesh this out and I have yet to see anyone’s completed work. In fact Cassandra is rushing to finish, hopefully tonight. I had such high hopes for this exercise, but I think it has simply proven to not be practical. Live and learn I guess.
- I am excited that the theme of Season 12 of CHIKARA is Watchmen. I am so pumped.
- They killed off Damian Wayne. Grant Morrison did what I thought might have been impossible; he made me like that little homicidal brat. I liked him so much that knowing that he’s gone sucks. Granted if you follow Dave Logic, he’ll be back. And as much as I’d love to disagree with him, I can’t. Damian will be back, BUT the Damian I knew won’t be. Grant Morrison’s Damian is gone.
That tale is done. Batman’s journey through true fatherhood has ended, and ended like some of his pseudo-attempts at being a father figure have; with death. I love Batman, I truly do, but at some point I would love for Bruce to just hang it up. That is the Batman story I am now waiting for. I don’t even mean the potentially happy ending either, just him deciding he’s had enough and handing the reigns over to Dick. I loved Dick as Batman and Damian as Robin (see the above panel which is GLORIOUS!). The angst is earned, but has gotten a bit tired for me as a reader, and now with his son’s death I can only expect it to increase. So kudos to you Grant Morrison for crafting what is to me the greatest run on Batman ever. Kudos for creating, building, and getting me to care about Damian Wayne beyond his existence as a plot device. And kudos to you for having the clout to kill him off as you originally intended. One can hope that DC leaves him dead and in that makes his death actually mean something. But as Dave Logic tells us, they won’t.
- I sometimes wish we could see through the eyes of others so we could see how we appear in their mind’s eye.
- Listening to Paul Allen rip the Chiefs and their trade for Alex Smith is like listening to a bible beating cretins tell me about the space program. It seems like Paul has such a SHORT memory of how the Vikings have had a terrible history of bringing in their own first round pick quarterbacks, and the verdict is still out on Ponder.
The Chiefs had NO options regarding drafting a QB in this draft. They need to trade out of that spot as quickly as possible, accumulate some additional picks, and then restock that secondary and offensive line. The Chiefs are a team that has a LOT of weapons, but have been victims of underachieving players, shady general manager work, and incompetent coaching. I like Andy Reid and his mighty ‘stache. I think he is a great offensive mind. He needs to find his next Jim Johnson to run that defense, and he needs to have the football brass in the war room have an outstanding draft, because the previous three have looked good on paper and bad on the field. All that being said to have to listen to the front running idiocy of Paul Allen makes me long for the Common Man show, and that is not a compliment. Oh and as an update, I’m listening to the Common Man and it is terrible.
- The only thing worse than listening to these two blowhards is that my headache has returned.
- The Sequester makes me want to puke. Rarely ever can I remember a time when so few held so many hostage.
The Congress, both houses, should be ashamed, but you know they aren’t. They truly do not care about each and every one of us. They only care about the agenda that have been put forward by their corporate paymasters, pundits, and fringe groups that would sacrifice us all on the alter of zealotry. I’ve been wracking my brain on what I can do, but the reality is I can do nothing, but do what I already am, voting. I just have to hope that other like-minded people do the same and we can get folks in office who work BY the people FOR the people, and not the corporate interests that our Supreme Court has made into ‘legal people’. I’d say ‘shame on you’, but I know that these folks have none left.
- I would like to eat Beer Cheese Soup, and then fall asleep.
- Today I connected two wildly creative people to one another.  I feel very excited by the prospect that they could come up with something amazing.

That is all I can stand(s) today…

“Oh lord I must be crazy, Settled down and I find nothing new..

Older days, they used to matter but I don't care
Cause I got nothin' to lose

And if I stare too long, I might not see you right
Over time, the heart goes out of sight
And if I stare too long, I might not see you right
Close the door. Where the heart is out of sight

Many a dreams across the river
But it's too strong for a boy like me, yeah....

Now you're gone but I still remember
Better days as they wash into the sea
And if I stare too long, I might not see you right
Over time, the heart goes out of sight
And if I stare too long, I might not see you right
Close the door. Where the heart is out of sight

I've got the time but I got no reason
I'm broken down, waiting patiently
Now the sun don't shine for me and that's a different season
but she comes around one more time for me...

And if I stare too long, I think I might go blind
Over time the heart goes out of sight
And if I live too long, I might not treat you right
Close the door....Now you're shining way too bright...
Shine on...... “

* = If language classes were taught this way I'd be multi-lingual...

4 comments:

  1. Here is my terrible no good excuse for why you're getting my year write up for Uwain/Siegfried (mostly Uwain), today. Instead of jumping on the year write up right away, or even just outlining it out, I just figured, yeah, of course I can knock that motherfucker out in an Afternoon, and instead focused on writing a bunch of character creation examples for the other D&D, prepping for the two RPGs that I run myself and et cetera, figuring that I could just bang it out quickly. Yep, not so much. When I sat down to start this last Sunday, in between bouts of cleaning, chilling with the girlfriend and prepping my Reign game, I started and then realized as I outlined out what I needed to write that it was basically forty events, 36 minor and 3 major, and I had no idea how to fill those 40 events, and the amount I had to create, wholecloth, became a little daunting, even for me, a crazy man who runs two RPGs and regularly does extra write ups and such for the two D&D games he plays in.

    So, if I had Grover Cleaveland's Presidential Time Machine, I'd go back and tell you that you should as for 10 events, or maybe even 12 events and just say that of those maybe dozen events, two or three should be "major" and require four or five sentences. Or maybe say 10 events and then have 5 events the PCs could choose to react to, like the Erathis Monastery electing a new leader, or Shadowspire having a plague or a dragon the PCs could go off to fight.

    But hindsight, of course, is 20/20. So apologies, Sir, but you'll be getting mine late today after I work my 10 or 11 hour workday (after they told us last week that OT was not going to be available for the foreseeable future, oh how long that lasted) and it will be a year for Uwain with Siegfried as a supporting character, but on the plus side, it'll end up being over 2000 words, which way back in my college days, would have been a 6-8 page paper.

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    1. As long as I get it before session tomorrow I'm happy. I should have made it simplier and given better examples. NO WORRIES thought. I'm excited to read everyone's stuff, I just wish it would have been a 'fun' endeavor and not a burden. I also liked your idea of me coming up with the Major Events and then just giving you guys the leeway to react how you would choose. It was just asking a LOT of the PC's. Lesson learned.

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  2. Ha ha ha, I love how you use your blog to try and subliminal message me into making certain foods. We will have to make beer chese soup this week or weekend. Do you want the traditional kind or do you want to try the new recipe which might be more loaded potato over beer cheese?

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    1. See I look at less like subliminal messages and more of me making food DEMANDS! I'm good with either one. Actually, scratch that, let's try the new loaded potato one.

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