Music Roundup Monday: "Be Easy, I Never Knew That He Was Your Thing"

A bunch of cheerful songs this week. Actually, most of them aren't too gloomy. I dunno. I just like to talk and stuff. I was sick last week, so my workout resolution didn't even make it a week before being broken. Hopefully I can get a streak going this week and actually start getting back into shape. And such.

He Is Legend - "Be Easy"

Friends of Dean Martinez - "All the Pretty Little Horses"

Sublime - "DJs"

The Offspring - "Something To Believe In"

The Fuzztones - "I Never Knew"

Babes in Toyland - "He's My Thing"

Drive-By Truckers - "Lookout Mountain"

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Movie Posters, Fat Hamlets, and... A Weird Dark Souls Video?"

It's Sunday! Do you know what that means? Do you REALLY? I mean, besides that I'm unwashed, unshaven, and unslept, and that I'm shouting words at you via internet text medium thing. No, I don't mean that I'm going to have delicious bacon and maybe eggs if I'm not too lazy. No, I don't mean that tomorrow's Monday. I mean that it's time for COOL STUFF SUNDAY! WOO!

First up, apparently Hamlet might have been fat? I don't know that I believe this, since "fat" could also mean "out of shape" but not "corpulent to the point of morbid obesity." But that's up to you to decide.

Slipcovers for every animated Disney movie. They're pretty cool.

A bunch of hi-res movie posters without the text. Also pretty cool.

A glimpse behind the curtain of movie-making.

This YouTube video about Ornstein and Smough from Dark Souls... I don't even.

German messers aren't technically swords, but they're totally swords.

This blog here analyzes depictions of dinosaurs for lord knows what reason, and it's pretty cool.

Oh, hey. This dude does Lego stop motion of stuff like Fallout, and it's cool.

Backlog Blitz: SNES, Week Four, "There's a Pun to Be Made About This Bad Captain America Game"

But I just can't quite get it to work... Anyway, let's talk about video games. That's always fun. And by fun, I mean it wildly swings between fun and painful. Often painful. Usually painful. 

I should probably have gone to my college's homecoming--my first one as an alum!--but I'm lazy and didn't feel like leaving my apartment. Also it's like an hour and a half drive each way and I'm going down there next week. So yeah. I don't know why I'm telling you this, all eight of you faithful readers. 

Saturday Morning Oneshot (On Wednesday!): My Horse Is Amazing

This was a one-shot between "serious" games. It was my first time running a game and...yeah. Before this there was a VERY SHORT game of Hunter: The Vigil. We aborted it, since…well… Let's just say that the session ended with Nick practically having an aneurysm, and my character snorting vampire blood in order to "track" the vampire. Yeah. Unfortunately, all the specifics of that were on voice chat, so there is no textual record beyond a mention of the shenanigans later in this week's logs.

With a "skeleton crew" of only myself, Zac, JJ, and Jackson, we decided to run a one-shot game. Which meant that I scrambled to bash several premade games into one 1-2 hour session. Surprisingly, it only took me about ten minutes.

Poem: Dog Days

Heat-thick air and the scent of mown grass
As an old man trims golf-course lines into his lawn.
A lone heron over the dry-grass slough,
One circling black dot just above the vivid divide
Between cool treeline and empty sky.
Dust-motes hang in the becalmed air,
Drifting among heatlines rising
Off the neighbor's tin roof.
Save for the insects, nature is still and silent.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Summer is over and the sun is setting out my window, meaning it's a perfect time to start missing summer. Yeah. I wrote this at the height of a heat wave in July. That is all. 

Music Roundup Monday: "Hands of Doom"

I'm rubbish at titles. I feel we've established that pretty soundly by now. Anyway. I've started working out again. Let's see how long that lasts for. I give it two weeks. Care to take bets?

Son Volt - "Flow"

Kanye West - "New Slaves"

Finntroll - "Galgasang"

Violent Femmes - "Forbidden"

Black Sabbath - "Hand of Doom"

Brown Sabbath - "Hand of Doom"

Cool Stuff Sunday: "DeathWarDoom"

A lot of death and war in this week's content roundup. It's mostly death and war that I'm EXCITED about and is really cool, but still. Let's get to it--*record scratch*--t-t-t-t-to it!

A medieval skellington was found entwined in the roots of a fallen tree. Doot doot doot!

Bloodborne: The Old Hunters has a release date and looks awesome!

The last Discworld book is a fitting end to Sir Terry's career. I'll miss him.

Oh hey, speaking of Bloodborne, doesn't this new Dark Souls III character look familiar?

Odds are good no one will ever see this cutscene in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain legitimately.

An Egyptian Book of the Dead has been reconstructed. No way that's going to end badly.

Check it out! British infantry drill from the late Victorian period!

Backlog Blitz: SNES, Week Three, "BADman and other Games."

Oh, hello again. Yes, I still play old video games and whine about them for your amusement. Monsters. Let's get on with it, shall we?

(Oh, yes. First week of work at my new job is over. I think it went quite well. Got introduced to the company and my immediate coworkers, they seem like cool people to work with. The duties are somewhere between what I was doing, and what I'd like to be doing in 5 years, which is great. Some added responsibility, but still interaction with people. I know just enough from previous tech stuff that I can figure things out, but also learn a ton. And overall, I'm excited! And also again: If you're in the Minneapolis area or passing through, holler at me. I'm probably not doing anything.)

OverAnalyzed: The Other in "Ender's Game"

The Other—foreign, shunned, incomprehensible, scapegoated. This concept of the Other is explored by many science fiction novels with one of two results for the Other: Assimilation or destruction. In Ender’s Game, however, Ender both loves and hates the Othered Buggers and thus both destroys and assimilates the Buggers simultaneously. He is able to perform this dual destruction and assimilation due to a combination of his nature and harsh military conditioning. In addition, through his actions, Ender exhibits the intertwined state of destruction and assimilation and reaches a third resolution to the Other, understanding.

Story: Eight Bells For Jonah

Was the Manx-man what gave the order, but we all done the deed. I was a foremast hand on a clipper out o' Baltimore, bound for the opium routes. She'd been built the same year, special, for Jonas Hart, son o' the magnate Thomas Hart. His first command. A maiden captain for a maiden ship. We the crew more'n balanced that out. Mate Thurston was nearing forty, overdue and overlooked for his own command, and none o' us common swabs had under five voyages to boast. Myself, I shipped first when I was fifteen—I'm twenty-two now an' getting hungry for land-life again. Been saving pay for a farm an' a wife.

The ship herself was fine enough, trim an' well-provisioned an' spankin' new. Couldn't say the same for her name. Never did fancy bringing no albatross into things without cause. Not that I'm superstitious. Just believe in caution, is all. But Captain Jonas, he named her, so we were the Albatross's crew.

Poem: Troopersång

Well, it's four in the morning:
I can't get to sleep.
I wish I was dead, lord,
Or drunk somewhere cheap.
But I’m stuck on a troopship
Out in the cold deep
It's four in the morning:
I can't get to sleep.

The captain's an idjit,
The sergeant's a creep.
If our mothers could see us
They surely would weep
For all of us troopers,
Just lost frightened sheep.

Music Roundup Monday: "Weird Droney Black Metal Stuff"

Aren't I good at titles? Not a full roster of songs this week. Between finishing up my time at my former job--IT work at the college I went to--and moving into my new apartment, I missed some songs of the day. Anyway. Here's what we got.

Agalloch - "Birch Black" 

Sunnata - "Stalagmites"

Flogging Molly - "A Prayer For Me In Silence"

Ed Sheeran - "The Parting Glass"

A Forest of Stars - "Hive Mindless"

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Praise the Sun(Day)"

You got it--this week's focus is on Dark Souls III. And some other stuff. But mostly Dark Souls III. Because Dark Souls III. 

Seriously, though. Dark. Souls. III.

Infinity Blade III is available for free, as are a ton of Unity assets for it. 

Microsoft is still being scummy about Windows 10. Now it's downloading the Windows 10 update to your computer. "Just in case."

The first of the Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. videos has released!

Let's make fun of art trends, such as that of men wearing ONLY military helmets in old paintings!

Physical copies of every game in the Legend of Zelda series, mounted on a wall in pretty cases!

The newest Pokemon game uses virtual reality!

Please don't spend seven months killing everything in Fallout 4. That's a sign of a sick mind. 

Creative ways companies have dealt with cheaters in MMOs. 

Hey Cisco, your router design is bad and you should feel bad. 

World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. is very, very, very carefully-crafted. 

Saturday Morning Warfare (On Wednesdays!): Week Four, "Brain Glockin'!"

In 2012, I took my first steps into the world of pen and paper role-playing-games. Which wasn't really pen and paper, but rather, Skype and a PDF. But whatever. This is the story of those games. Some of the character names have been lost to time and Skype kerfuffle, so I've done my best to replace them. I've also tried to make the Skype format into a more readable experience. As with previous weeks, I removed some extraneous ("Is it my turn?" kind of chatter, while trying to leave the more "unique" and/or in-character remarks.)

This was the wrap-up of our ever-shifting group's first role-playing experience together. Things came to their inevitable insane conclusion, and we decided it was time to move on to the next story, the next mess of madness. Oh. And "You have no pants!" will become a recurring theme for my characters. I don't know why.

Poem: "The Recruiting Ranger's Ballad"

To walk the purple heather
Under our enemies’ gaze;
To deal death in all weather
And punish their sinful ways;
That is work for a ranger,
A hunter all of his days:
Killing the Orkish stranger
Whose reeking breath is a haze
Of pestilence and anger,
Who only knows joy when he slays.

Music Roundup Monday: "Mostly Metal Monday"

It's Labor Day in the United States, and I'm...laboring. At work. Helping new students get their computer stuff set up. They are children. CHILDREN. TINY HELPLESS CHILDREN. Who have short hair and wear short shorts. It is unsettling. Anyway. Music.

Andrew Jackson Jihad - Distance

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Witchers and Devils and Werewolves, Oh My."

Oh hi there! Another week, another content "aggregation" blog that I can't introduce smoothly because hahahaha what is a degree in English? 

This portrait of Fenrir Greyback is terrifying. 

The Witcher 3 developers talk about dealing with racial issues while making the game. 

Cracked.com analyzes Donald Trump. 

Backlog Blitz: SNES, Week Two, "Good Games Are Alien to This Franchise."

Another weekend, another bunch of old games to talk about. It's been a busy week, what with all the students moving back onto campus, and professors scrambling to fix issues that they should have gotten fixed months ago (at least they're nice about it), and parents trying to get access to information that we legally can't give them, and all that jazz. So I'm falling a bit behind on writing. That and the fact that I'm moving into my apartment next weekend. 

Saturday Morning Warfare (On Wednesdays!): Week Three, "Daemon Sockin'!"

In 2012, I took my first steps into the world of pen and paper role-playing-games. Which wasn't really pen and paper, but rather, Skype and a PDF. But whatever. This is the story of those games. Some of the character names have been lost to time and Skype kerfuffle, so I've done my best to replace them. I've also tried to make the Skype format into a more readable experience.  As with previous weeks, I removed some extraneous ("Is it my turn?" kind of chatter, while trying to leave the more "unique" and/or in-character remarks.)

Here is where the madness emerged in full. Things were never quite the same after this session, and the tone of all future games with this group was set. I'm…Look. I'm sorry in advance, okay? We were (and are) That Group. This session also includes my proudest moment in role-playing games, the chainsword-toss. Proudest. Moment. 

Poem: "Captain Holmes' Nightmare"

Into the grip

Of the shrieking storm,

I steer my limping ship.

Better to die

With head held high,

Rather than safe and warm.

Lashed to the wheel

Which rules my fate,

I bring the ship to heel.

Sirens keen my Christian name,

Demand dresses and china plate;

My only dream is fame.

No albatross hangs round my neck;

I fear not Davy Jones;

Yet as I sway with the tear-slick deck,

I hear the sepulchral tones

Of wedding bells

Crying “Mrs. and Captain Holmes!”

*   *   *   *   *   *

Captain Holmes' nightmare is more or less the opposite of mine. I'm terrified of dying alone and unloved. I mean, logically I know that everyone dies alone, more or less. But that doesn't make the night terrors of "no one will ever love me I'm a terrible person I can't understand other people everyone hates me" any easier to deal with. So yeah. Also, the rhyme scheme in this is brutal, and not in a good way. I still have no clue how I came up with the pattern. It's this weird interlocking deal and makes no sense to me when I look at it now. Which is how most of my poetry and writing works in the long run. 

Media of the Month: August 2015

Haven't done one of these in quite a while. A quick end-of-the-month wrap up of what I've been spending my free time on. Quick impressions, nothing much. A recommend/neutral/avoid judgement based on the experience. Anyway. Let's begin. Some movies, a couple games, and a book!