September's Trailers

It was a stretch to find 10 trailers this month. I guess September is really about the television (I've got TV stuff at the bottom).

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. (September 2nd)

I like that we don't even know what scandal it is they're recovering from, but from Sterling K. Brown's character, it could be anything. It looks like he does a high energy, barely-on-the-leash character who nonetheless knows how to use that. 

He's carrying all the protagonist weight, so Regina Hall gets to do character stuff in his world. I know almost nothing about the story but I'm intrigued. Watch it while doing dishes and get pulled in out of ten. 

Dale Gribble fires Gladstone

Star Trek: Sisko

What if Patrick Stewart was unavailable and CBS All-Access made a show about Benjamin Sisko instead?

Scene I

A woman named Dahj is with her boyfriend when mooks beam in and attack her. Her boyfriend is killed because he’s a witness even though the attackers were literally in charge of Earth’s security and could have attacked her at any time and not left a Xahean family asking questions about their missing son or even beamed her into an unmarked panel van in low Earth orbit.

Dahj kills the mooks who were unprepared for the corner-case of Dahj resisting. She has a vision of Benjamin Sisko.

Scene II

Dahj finds Benjamin Sisko on vacation at Sisko’s in New Orleans. Even though Starfleet has framed her for her boyfriend’s murder and she’s a wanted woman, all Ben Sisko sees is scared a young woman with no family. While she’s not his daughter, she’s someone’s daughter and Sisko isn’t about to let a kid be alone and scared in this world.

Cyanide and Happiness - Free Shirts!

Such a weird, good series.

Battlemech Equipment Survey: Round 3

It's weird I've stuck with this for so long. The Battlemech Equipment Survey is an ongoing, swiss-style tournament which pits equipment for BattleMechs against one another. 

I like brackets and tournaments and I don't know a lot of the new BattleTech equipment so it's a great opportunity to get familiar with a lot of it.

Surveys below. The listed matchups aren't the only ones in the survey; just the best ones. I've also included the 'mechs I've made which use the included technologies.

Surveys close Friday evening.

Round 3, Survey 1 - Thunderbolt Launchers versus Light Gauss Rifle, feat the Armstalker, an absolutely mad FrankenMech.

Round 3, Survey 2 - Targeting Computers versus Superchargers, feat Cobra IIC 3 and some stuff about how Jade Falcons are mysteriously upgrading salvaged Cobras.

Round 3, Survey 3 - Chain Whip versus Flail, feat Bear Mace, a refit of an Ebony designed as part of Republic of Sphere psyops. as part of ongoing fanon 'mech design company, Vard Modeling

Round 3, Survey 4 - Land-Air Mechs versus Composite Structure, feat Plug, which, looking back, makes me realize I should occasionally bite the bullet and just make a 'mech 100 tons instead of hitting 95 and telling myself I'm exercising restraint. A FrankenMech pressed into service by Vard Modeling.

Round 3, Survey 5 - Direct Neural Interfaces versus Re-Engineered Lasers, feat Manicouagan, hardened-armored, quad, assault-class vaporware presented in my best approximation of monorail salesman Lyle Lanley to the citizens of the Inner Sphere in the wake of The Republic's collapse.

Round 3, Survey 6 -AP Gauss [Clan] versus Rocket Launchers, feat Fearful Intarsia, which is what would happen if an alcoholic Clan commander gets tired of an insurgency and rings a tech up at 11PM to fix it.

Rick and Morty Season 6 Trailer

I really enjoy Rick and Morty because I expect nothing from it aside from a few good jokes, engaging setpiece fights, and an occasionally stupid thing that's hilarious.

I don't get the concern over canon, personally. So Evil Morty did whatever with the thingamajig. I don't really care about that or whatever Rick's emotional journey is. He keeps learning valuable life lessons and also continues to be a dick. Is it even 'our' Rick? Does it matter? 

Rick's entire nihilistic outlook is that that are dozens, thousands, millions? of Ricks and Mortys havin' cool adventures all the time and that's all I'm here for.

That and Summer doing a Die Hard.

How to Make a Pimento Cheese Sandwich

What's that phrase, "Yaaas bitch. Give me nothing!" 

I don't even watch Better Call Saul, but I'm gonna miss it.

The BattleMech Engineer's Handbook

It's no surprise I like reverse-engineering Battletech equipment. I like the smooth numbers and limited weapons array of Battletech. That's part of its appeal for me. But I also like the granularity.

In the past few weeks, I've been ramming some numbers into a composition book. 'Mech structure tonnages, cargo carrying rules, gyro concepts. At its core, Battletech works on engineering and science created by a layperson of the 1980's to make a game about giant stompy robots. The abstractions in the system protect it.

But you can get less abstract. You can change some of the simplistic assumptions. You can ask some questions.

Why is the gryo for a 30 ton 'mech with 7 WMP the same as for a 30 ton 'mech with 10 WMP?

What happens if your engine is bigger than necessary?

If a 50-ton 'mech can carry 50 tons of cargo, why can't it just be a 100-ton 'mech? If a 50-ton mech with active TSM can carry 100 tons...what?

Jump jets are fucked up, right?

If I upgrade my myomers with MASC to make me run faster, I can break my legs. If I upgrade my engine with a Supercharger to run faster, I can break my engine. Why isn't that the other way around? If my speed is limited by my myomers and engine, then why don't better myomers tax my engine and a better engine tax my myomers?

Why does an Atlas freeze into a warehouse shelf the minute you add 5 tons to it? Not as cargo--because it can carry 100 tons of cargo just fine--but as a part of the battlemech?

I've got most of the rules written down. The rest of the BEH is just testing, rules, in-universe fluff, and writer's notes. Maybe some sketches.

Delays

 Ugh. More life changes. More podcasts. Have a few things planned.