Monday, March 31, 2014

Houma Movie Club: Stand Up Guys



So Houma Movie Club happened this weekend. Stand Up Guys was really good. My final estimation for this round is:
1) Cabin in The Woods
2) Stand Up Guys
3) Europa Report
4) Stephen Seagal is the Force of Execution

Anyway, our viewing order for the next round:
1) Hellraiser
2) The Prophecy
3) License to Drive
4) Planet of the Apes
5) C.H.U.D.

Friday, March 28, 2014

Battletech 3087, The New Year: Dragoons Pact

So a while back I wanted to run a Battletech Strategic Game. I set it in the "distant future" of 3087. The Battletech timeline has since moved on 31...something? I'm not in a blogging mood recently, but I did find some of my old fiction for it. Each piece covers a different faction. This one is a news clip giving an overview of The Dragoons Pact, a mercenary nation-state that sits around Terra.

Harlech, Outreach, Dragoons Pact
            While other parts of the Inner Sphere and Terra have already celebrated the New Year, on Outreach, the party is just beginning. However, the proud parade of battlemechs and the procession of war heroes, government leaders, and celebrities are not the most remarkable New Year’s events here.
            On Outreach, every holiday sees Harlech’s main boulevard, Outreach Avenue, shut down, and the bustling traffic replaced with peaceful, but passionate protestors.
            The city’s 3072 redesign, one of the first public acts of the Dragoons Pact, saw government buildings with no discrete side or rear entrances, no private garages, and no rooftop helicopter pads, all fixtures of modern government architecture--even reported Clan designs built on a central structure of classical stonework. On days like this, constabularies form the only barrier between protestors and government officials making their way to and from their offices.
            Protestors in the capitol city, and across the Dragoons Pact, speak out against a variety of causes: the mercenary work performed by the Pact, the prominence of the war industry, official policies on the prohibition of technology exports, the blockade of Terra, and both excessive and anemic expenditures on public assistance programs, depending on who you ask. Others still lobby for aggressive action against what they see as totalitarian or chaotic states; the Mercenaries Alliance, the Jade Falcons, the Federated Hellfire Territories, or the Capellan Confederation, though it is hard to find a nation that isn’t the target of at least one protestor.
            While other states and pundits scoff at security issues, citing the 3073 assassination attempt against New Earth proxy Chase Fe, rigorous security measures, friendly and omnipresent constabularies, growing national pride, and above all else, trust between the citizens of the Dragoons Pact and their government, have kept major incidents of violence from erupting.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Minecraft Linkstorm 8 & 1/2


I haven't finished Minecraft Linkstorm #8 proper yet. I have not really been in a writing mood lately. 

I'm probably leaving San Antonio soon. Things haven't really worked out for me here. It's frustrating; apparently Texas is doing well and SA itself is facing some rock-bottom unemployment rates. Over the past two years, it feels like I've tried everything to find a career. All I've gotten are a few interviews, some motherfuckers trying to shake me down for free labor, some motherfuckers trying to shake me down to pay for more school, and a few jobs that ask me to rip other people off in exchange for not enough money to live on. Or worst of all, a resounding silence.

I'm just really tired and I'm really angry and I'd like to set everything I own on fire because it seems like it'd be a real time-saver.

Luckily, I'm selling lots of it on eBay, starting with my comics. 

My Battletech books and Magic cards are up next.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

LGBT Characters in Action Films

So the other day I was talking with friends online. One o' them mentioned that there are a lot of homosexuals in comedies, but not so much in action films. I did one of those "comments so long people have every right to remind you to get a blog" thing and figured, why not put them on my blog?

Just like in the rest of society, it's easy to get people to focus on the relationship side of homosexuality. Accepting that non-heterosexuals are real people that do more than have sex and relationships with people of the same sex is a bit more difficult for some. It's hard for people to see that we are just as capable of headlining an action movie as anyone else, technically speaking.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Houma Movie Club: Steven Seagal is the Force of Execution


I really enjoyed Force of Execution. Just when you think it's going to be shit, it jukes and it's just crap. One of my favorite quotes is when Mr. Alexander talks about sending hit squads back "dead in a box," when you either send people back dead or send people back in a box (and safely presumed dead). It's like Steven Seagal is playing someone with a particular level of inarticulateness.

Next week is Europa Report.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Sorry for the lack of blogs lately

Been working with scripting stuff and Minecraft stuff and job stuff and Houma Movie Club stuff. Wanted to do some screen capture tonight on the new-ish laptop, but Evolve quit recording because...?

And then Minecraft crashed so I have to find another way to do things entirely, rendering a lot of my work moot.

Hope you all are doing well with your weeks.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Houma Movie Club: The Cabin in the Woods


This week we watched The Cabin in the Woods this week and it was really, really good. It's a clever movie that, for me anyway, is the final word on horror movies.

I think we're getting better at these things, I think I need to pull the intensity back a bit. For the guy who said, "let's not quibble" a few weeks ago, I think I carried more than my fair share of quibbling this week.

PS: Team Excalibong

Friday, March 07, 2014

Thursday, March 06, 2014

"Playing Magic Is Too Expensive" or "The Shitbirds"

A few weeks back, I covered how counterfeit Magic cards were surfacing. I then went on to conjecture about how folks would justify using those cards and what consequences might follow. Inevitably, some folks are going to justify buying high quality, fake Magic cards because it's so expensive to play.

Most of these folks are talking—well they're flapping their lipholes and flailing on their keyboards in an approximation of English. Those decipherable signals claim that it's necessary to buy counterfeits to play Magic.

Let met speak directly to you, you festering piles of animate filth. I need you to take your hand, the one with the single opposable thumb you use to manipulate the Magic cards we fucking humans use, and stick it your pie hole. You don't realize you're talking, but you are and as with every moment, from your conception until you die, it's a bad idea and you have to put your thumb into your mouth to stop it because your brain cannot be trusted to control itself.

Wednesday, March 05, 2014

Deep Space Nine: Always Relevant


"Once my troops are in place, I think you'll find it very difficult to get them to leave" indeed, Gul Dukat.


Monday, March 03, 2014

Houma Movie Club: Grabbers


This week we talked about Grabbers, which was one of our better picks. Josh couldn't make it and Richard joined up. We talk special effects, the role of romance in horror movies, behavior/biology of space aliens, and poitín.

Our movie next week is Evil Dead (2013). After that, we'll be watching Steven Segal is the Force of Execution, Europa Report, and Stand Up Guys.