Wandery Wednesday: "Obligatory Post Before More Fallout 4"

Fallout 4 came out. Which means my routine will become "Work. Game. Sleep" for the foreseeable future. That is all.

Poem: "Unfulfilled Cycle"

In the summer of my discontent

You stood against the sun,

Casting a shadow darker than a midnight doorway,

And I fell inside.

In the autumn of my yearning

You walked among the spectral trees,

Like the wake of the Medusa,

And our hands entwined.

In the winter of my hope

You lay in the snow

As stars melted the night

And kept us warm.

In the spring of my quietude

You murmured of blue-grey shores

Where cherry blossoms fell eternally

And I lost you. 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Initial phrase shamelessly stolen and inverted from Richard III. The rest is my own. 

Music Roundup Monday: "I'm On Everything Because I Run With the Wolves Away From the Carnage at MariKKKopa, But I'm Running On Empty"

Monday's over and I'm not dead. I'm not sure if I should be excited or depressed. On the one hand, I made it through another Monday; on the other hand, that means I have to face Monday next week as well. Suck on that one, Hamlet. Let's hear some music!

Bad Meets Evil - "I'm On Everything"

Across Tundras - "Run With the Wolves"

Desaparecidos - "MariKKKopa"

The White Buffalo - "Carnage"

Senyawa - "Gaib"

Adrian Orange and Her Band - "You're My Home"

Jackson Browne - "Running On Empty"

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Beowulf Does the Uptown Funk"

Ohhaithere! I just woke up from a pleasant and incredibly cozy sleep. Now I've opened my windows, donned a jacket, and am sitting in a cool breeze. Why? Because I like the fresh (freezing) air. Also I am an idiot. Anyway. Let's talk about cool stuff from the internet. 

These Star Wars: The Force Awakens character posters. 

Do you want to print your own D&D 5e spellbook? This site is for you. 

100 movies dancing to "Uptown Funk." 

I disagree 99% with this article about the PMRC and "extreme" music but it's still interesting. 

The Daily Bestiary has invented adventures based around EVERY monster in the D&D 3.5/Pathfinder Monster Manuals. 

This Pip-Boy 3000 is hype as hype can be. The 10th can't come too soon!

Beowulf is available to read online! (The medieval manuscript, that is!)

Noel Gallagher is a very angry person. And also very funny. 

You're doing familiars in games wrong, sez this article. 

The making of Fallout 4 is pretty dang cool. 

There's a new Mass Effect: Andromeda teaser as of N7 Day yesterday. Goosebumps.

On a 16-speed turntable, the Chipmunks actually sound pretty cool. 

Backlog Blitz: SNES, Week Ten, "I Should Start Playing Old Games Again..."

Ugh. I'm freaking tired as freak. Stayed up until 2AM playing D&D with some dudes. It was pretty dang fun. Investigated a serious of mysterious deaths, accidentally killed a mayor, spent four hours frantically covering it up and not investigating the deaths, botched the actual investigation and unleashed an all-consuming demon, and then nearly screwed up banishing the bloody thing. It was great. Anyway, old games. 

Media of the Month: October 2015, "Sometimes I Forget to Finish the Titles of My Blogs Until I Publish Them"

Well this was a pretty varied month. And by "pretty varied" I mean schizophrenic in the extreme. Anyway. I don't really care about any of this because Fallout 4 releases in like four days so EEEEEEEEEE. 

Short Story: "The Holms"

“That is, they engaged in single combat; the spot for such encounters being called a holm, consisting of a circular space marked out by stones.”

Once, there had been twenty stones around the holm. Twenty stones, almost too large for a man to carry comfortably in one hand. Nine of those stones remained. Skulls had replaced the other eleven stones—skulls of men who would be king, each fleshless bone scoured clean by ice and wind.

Regin Radsvid knew each skull by name. Lugal Redtooth, first to die at the holm, and his slayer, Hlaeving Holm-Crowned. Skogul of the Longships, distant relative to Regin, who had led the raiding fleets under Hlaeving’s rule. Larger than the other skulls was Atrid Man-Mountain’s, for Atrid had been a giant of a man. He had fought honorably only to be slain by a poisoned blade. On it went. Each skull once had entered the holm to contest their right to rule.

Wandery Wednesday: "The Last Skateboard of Autumn"

Before dinner, I headed out to the abandoned parking lot nearby. The weather's warmish today, but autumn is here, and the chill is coming. So I dragged out the skateboard and had myself the last skate session of the year. Probably. Barring an Indian summer. 

That kind of kicked up my melancholy, though. Last time skateboarding for the year... I love autumn. It's probably my favorite season--very Gothic, very moody and atmospheric. But all the same, my depression seems to flare up a bit when this time of year rolls 'round. I think it's because autumn is a time of endings, of drawing to a close. I start to think about friendships that have slipped away, about missed opportunities, about paths less traveled by. And so on. I'm not bitter. I'm rarely bitter. I'm just...a bit sad. As a wise person once said, "Well yeah, and I'm sad, but at the same time I'm really happy that something could make me feel that sad. It's like, it makes me feel alive, you know? It makes me feel human. And the only way I could feel this sad now is if I felt somethin' really good before. So I have to take the bad with the good, so I guess what I'm feelin' is like a, beautiful sadness..."

Poem: "She"

She shakes the stars out of her skirt,

Unseen by all but the moon;

The black-haired goddess

Guides ghosts home

Across a gossamer web

Woven by spiders in the void,

Suspended from ten thousand points of light.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

There was an inspiration behind this poem, but I forgot it. 

Music Roundup Monday: "Folk Yer Halloween"

I just got home from work. Because I am an stupid, I volunteered to be responsible for swapping out a network switch. The swap...didn't go smoothly. Not because of any fault of my own, but just usual bad luck. Anyway. Music. And happy stuff. Yay.

Micah P. Hinson - "Diggin' a Grave"

Solander - "Huckleberry Finn"

Guy Clark - "Soldier's Joy"

"Weird" Al Yankovic - "Virus Alert"

The Misfits - "Dig Up Her Bones"

Rob Zombie - "The Devil's Rejects"

Nine Inch Nails - "The Good Soldier"

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Spooky Scary Steve Lichman..."

Some really scary stuff this week. I mean, it is Halloween weekend. So that's to be expected. But this first one? Oh lordy. Scared the pantsu right off of me.

Jar-Jar Binks is a Sith Lord.

The full Fallout 4 skill tree.

A history of rock and roll in 100 riffs.

The Ryckoning.

Slipknot's not-really-that-new but new-to-me music video for "The Devil In I."

The West Marches is a really cool RPG setting/world/idea.

A brief history of haunted houses in literature.

Steve Lichman looks hilarious.

Micro-reviews of some lesser-known RPGs.

Backlog Blitz: SNES, Week Nine, "Finally, It's Time to Fight the FlashBacks in F-Zero Gravity!"

This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but something came up at the last minute. I wish I could say it was a hot date. It wasn't. Alas. Oh well. Sadness. Despair. Etc. Etc. Etc. Anyways, all I have to say is F yous all.