Tuesday Video: Armor

Houma Movie Club: Phase 7 and the future

If you hadn't noticed, I haven't put up a Houma Movie Club since Hook. Google started phone authentication for Hangouts On-Air and since I try to reasonably limit the personal information I give to capricious slapped-together, social media platforms, we're done with using Google Hangouts.

We're just doing some regular chats right now, but if we can all get Skype together I'll probably start recording them and putting them up either as podcasts or as videos with some still photos over them. Open to input.

So it's time for Phase 7. As we do, there is no theme aside from a minor, voluntary "spooky" theme because it's October. Standard rules apply: on Netflix, released in the past five years, 90 minutes, and no more than one of us can have seen it already.

Voting is open. Two votes per person. The voting results are also going to be hedged a bit. Last phase Josh worked on the weekend we did his movie and that's weak so in the future if someone who chose a movie can't make it, we'll try to swap movies or skip a week.

Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010, 89 minutes)

The premise of Tucker and Dale vs Evil is that the real monsters are photogenic college kids with mediocre acting skills spending a weekend in the woods. And if think about it, that kinda shakes out.

Shadow Puppets

Fallout: New Vegas easter egg

Houma Movie Club: Hook

Rules of Life #12

Rule #12: A prophet can't lose predicting disaster.

Speaks for itself. You might note that horoscopes neatly sidestep this by telling folks what they can or should do. No fatalistic predictions, just you failing to be exceptional enough so it's all your fault when the stars give you a once over.

obligatory

So, a good corollary might be, “If everyone gets angry at your disastrous predictions, predict it is their responsibility to prevent disaster.”

Of course, all of this assumes “prophets” can't really see the future.

If you are a prophet who can see the future, this is still helpful info because even the truth needs a good angle if you want people to believe it.

Edere Vir: MtG Implementation

So a few weeks ago I started talking about a monster type I made called the Edere Vir. Originally envisioned as a part of the World of Darkness, they were humans that preyed on other humans for power and advantage within society. I'm still turning the idea over, specifically for Magic.

For Magic, it's a bit tougher. They feed on the dead (mostly), improve themselves, sabotage others, and manipulate technology. They also have the preys-on-like theme. You could put them into a tribal set as a tribal hoser. Watch a single Edere Vir elf decimate an elf deck, might be a fun concept, but I don't think it does them, elf decks, or Magic any favors. 

Diet Racism

Houma Movie Club: The Survivors & Gamergate stuff

Survivors is a 1983 comedy starring Walter Matthau, Robin Williams, and Jerry Reed. I think I spend most of this chat convincing everyone that it's a bit deeper than it seems at first glance.

The first hour is the movie and the second hour is Derek and I bitching in the presence of others about the gamergate stuff I've been bitching about for the last week.

Rules of Life #11

Rule #11: To limit oneself with codes and honor is counter to achievement of anything but adherence to codes and honor.
Corollary: This includes The Rules of Life

My favorite long one. It's not a condemnation, The Rules of Life aren't meant to provide judgments (as if their milquetoast phrasing wasn't enough of a clue). Rule Eleven is more about giving a choice; getting shit done efficiently or guarding one's own morality. The two options are not always exclusive, but when they are, it happens quickly and time ensures that most of the thoughts we devote to the decision come after it is already made.

Edere Vir: WoD Implementation

So a few weeks ago I started talking about a monster type I made called the Edere Vir. Originally envisioned as a part of the World of Darkness, they were humans that preyed on other humans for power and advantage within society. I'm still turning the idea over.

As a WoD monster, there'd be a point value assigned to each body part which they could use to power their abilities. Eyes would cost something like one, legs would cost four, etc. An Edere Vir would only be able to store 10 or so points as a starting character unless they got a meta power.

Louie Gohmert: The 5 Most Impish but Professional Adventures of the Representative from Texas' First District Part 2

Previous

Fighting for Rational, Mature Discourse on Capitol Hill
Whenever Michele Bachmann took aim at Hilary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, Gohmert hopped on board and demonstrated that rational, mature discourse on Capitol Hill is not dead. In a series of letters to the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the State Department, Bachmann, Gohmert, and three others linked Abedin to a conspiracy that placed Islamic Brotherhood sleeper agents in the highest levels of government with the goal to enact Shiara law across The United States.

It might be true that those letters were based on evidence gathered by Frank Gaffney, a man who has seen Islamic conspiracies including conservatives like John Bolton (the US Ambassador to the UN under George W. Bush and FOX News regular) and Grover Norquist (who opposes all taxes forever). Even though many of Gaffney's claims had already been investigated and dismissed by the FBI as baseless, and even though he's been condemned by the American Conservative Union for his assertions, Gohmert has stood by him in an act of integrity and commitment that surpassed common rational thought. 

Now, spamming the national security apparatus doesn't smack of "rational discourse," but the response to the letters accused Gohmert and others of McCarthyism. Even conservatives, like Senator John McCain of Arizona came out against him.

Nature of the Beast

Maybe the last thing on this gaming shit for the time being. I know it's getting old. I know the theft and spread of Jennifer Lawrence's nude photos is the hotter story right now (no pun intended).

Folks are talking about models of behavior. Devin Farici has been pretty compassionate in his depiction of gamers as mislead teenagers. I think that's fair to remember, but I doubt that most of the hate here is coming from socially put-upon nerds. 

@devincf gigantic wall of garbage text that literally says nothing. what PR company paid you for that lip service?
— Georgy Zhukov (@Georgy_K_Zhukov) September 1, 2014

This bit was in response to Farici empathizing with these guys.
But check out that twitter. He has 22 replies. All of them are replies to other people, 20 of them have been made in the last week, and a half dozen are just him tweeting the same video to Zoe Quinn over and over again like a completely sane adult.

Jimquisition: Social Justice Warriors

The Spectrum of Views on Gamer Identity

I didn't think up the idea that the identity of The Gamer is dead (I probably wasn't even the first one to come up with that title). I just seized on it when other folks brought it up because it stuck a chord of truth.

Dan Golding wrote "The End of Gamers." In it, he briefly describes the origins and definitions of Gamers before explaining why that definition is disintegrating as video games progress. Video games in the future—the near future—are universal and cannot be owned by any one group, no matter how filled with hate, fear, and bile.

Louie Gohmert: The 5 Most Impish but Professional Adventures of the Representative from Texas' First District

So Louie Gohmert has been making some headlines lately because he's been cheekily photobombing other people around Capitol Hill. The representative from Texas' first district is such a fun, whimsical character.

As it just so happens, he's from the district my grandparents vote in. I know Louie Gohmert. I've seen his fliers. Some cynical, stuffed-shirt politicians might claim that these kinds of childish behaviors are not fit for a member of the US House of Representatives. 

I differ. Not only with the assumption that there is any standard of behavior for members of The House, but that these behaviors are in any way unbecoming or inconsistent with representing the United States of America as a professional lawmaker.

So here are five other completely professional, if whimsical, actions of Representative Louie Gohmert.