Redwolf's Journal (continued)

It's been many years since I've been to a Snowdown Follies show - a local yearly production of comedy/entertainment skits. This year's Snowdown theme was "Back to the 80's" so there was a lot of familiar music and such. And while I may say I'm not an audiophile, there is music that moves me and that decade had some solid hits that do just that. Of all the nostalgic skits and digs at current politics and local news, the one skit that stood out most involved turning off all the lights hand having five people in suits with strands of colored lights dancing on stage to Mr. Roboto with the lights flickering on and off at times as they would strike poses or move to different positions. I think that sort of setup would actually hide sloppy dancing, but the routine was very striking. Also, I must say it's been a long time since I've heard the word "fuck" used so much. ;) Edit: Finally found an article with at least a photo of one of those

I think of movies like Die Hard and Raiders of the Lost Arc , classics in action/adventure, and when I look at the heroes I think "y'know, here is a character that did no use Con as a dump stat." Perhaps because those examples are so deeply ingrained in my mind, I might have failed to consciously notice how that isn't necessarily the case these days . And when I get down to it, at least for myself, it isn't about the brutality or violence so much as a feeling of jeopardy. John McClane, Indiana Jones, and others manage to establish a feeling that they might fail better than recent outings of Batman or the Avengers. Oh, it's pretty much a given that they'll succeed at the end of the movie, and that's what the audience wants, but "heroes are at a low point and must rally to win" story beat often isn't as convincing or meaningful these days...

So, a friend sent me a free HelloFresh subscription, and I paid for one "week" as well beyond that. The basic arrangement is three meals, each designed for two people, for I believe it was $69 - a bit under $12 per serving to have food delivered to your home with instructions on preparation. A few basics are not included (oil, salt, pepper, and I believe butter were all I've seen), but otherwise all the meat, herbs, spices, vegetables, and whatever else are included. That's not cheap , but it doesn't seem terrible either. On the down side, it's a lot of food for one person to handle. I didn't have anything go bad on me, but the one steak meal I had really wasn't at all appealing after being split as leftovers for the next day (though the portion eaten freshly-cooked was fine). Also, both weeks I found the red meat had leaked in the box, though everything else seemed okay in the packaging. I think the biggest up side was that it got me working with

Undertale... It's pretty hard to talk about in depth while avoiding spoilers, since so much of the experience is tied up in the story. As a game: The graphics are old-school, but functional. The maps are pretty linear. Some shortcuts open up later, but it can still take a while to walk anywhere. The sound is pleasant for 8-bit-ish music and it's all text with no voice. The battle mechanics make use of "bullet hell" (ie. use the arrows to avoid all the things coming at your icon) for defense and menu selections for offense. "Hate" might be a strong word for my feelings on reflex-heavy dodging of chaos on-screen, but I'm a long way from liking it. That said, I have to grant this is the most creative, sometimes subversive, use of those mechanics I've ever seen. That makes it slightly above average, perhaps, in this regard, but nothing really great. As a story: There's a lot of emotion packed into the story of a human child fallen into a real

Been trying to hold onto this one, though it was from early in the morning... I was going to a Blizzcon with friends, but it was held in virtual space. It wasn't so unusual that I was there as "my character," which seemed to be more of a normal fantasy elf (pointed ears, but not huge) version of Sashayla. I remember going to a theme-parky place to eat. It was modeled after a dwarven tavern, with low ceiling and chairs, yet served really good individual pizzas! Then there was the main attraction - a massive competition that only included a select few. It felt sort of MOBA style, with players actually on the map. There were power-ups that allowed you to become certain special characters temporarily, with better abilities and such, some of which were fantasy or sci-fi - from various different games. Enemies and events popped up in different places while players and teams did their best to accomplish them in time to get credit. I did really well, but missed a kill, and a f

Heh. I'm amused by what I find to be a core of truth to come up in the Nightly Show's panel discussion last night. It started off in response to studies showing more "intelligent" people tend to have sex later. What really got me, though, is when one panel member went off on the "super power" of gay people when it comes to sex. Alas, I can't find a handy clip of just that segment yet. He puts forth that what makes gay people (talking from the perspective of a gay man) better at sex than straight couples is that they have to communicate in a way that straight people can opt out of. A straight couple can get to the point of consent and pretty much stop talking. There's a "default" of vaginal intercourse. Two guys reach the point of saying "yes" and are faced with the question of "okay, what now?" He says something like "they have a slot and a tab and it's pretty straightforward, we have two slots and two tabs a

Being sick sucks. I'd almost forgotten, as I don't get sick all that often. But in this case, I missed out on a trip to Albuquerque Comic Con (which I think was still the correct choice) and I'm still trying to shake the last vestiges of illness almost two weeks later. I'm still not sure if I should chalk it up to cold or flu, but either way the symptoms have ranged from sore throat and feeling feverish to runny nose and nausea. Whee. I've also sort of stopped taking my antidepressants during this period of illness. That's something I'll have to monitor and keep in mind. If I can get by without, fine. If I find myself in an emotional spiral, that's not so fine. A few dreams of late, though I can't claim to remember much of them. One stood out at the time that involved a group of scifi thief-types breaking into a facility only to have things go wrong and damage the space-time continuum. This leads to them going their separate ways until one of the

Alas, I often suffer from post-story depression. Oh, it's not crushing, but getting to the end of a series or novel or game is punctuated by a feeling of emptiness and "what now?" But what can you do? So, Ashes of the Tyrant is the... fifth Brimstone Angels novel? Somehow, it doesn't feel like that many, but I guess that's right. I still love this series for its characters. I'll admit some of the situations feel a little forced to sustain drama, and the series has perhaps suffered from being so tied in with the Forgotten Realms (thus forced to keep up with game changes). I was pondering that point, and it seems to me the series started under 3.XE, with the Realms damaged by the Spell Plague and such. Since then, it's had to deal with changed pushed onto the setting for 4E and 5E. That seems like it would be maddening from the perspective of author, but Erin Evans seems to have done alright by painting the setting changes around the core of the character

Yeah, I missed it in theaters. It seemed to get the right hype, but just didn't tip over into feeling like something I needed to see. What I'd read about it led me to envision a story that was pretty boring, cliche, and predictable to me. I wasn't entirely wrong. The first half or two-thirds of the movie felt precisely like what I expected, to be honest. Pilot suffers tragedy, but is awesome enough to be called back for the final push to save mankind from the beasties. He's paired with an rookie partner who is very good but dangerous to have around. Etc., etc. And I had trouble getting over the involved physics, having to repeat to myself that for giant robot-vs-monster fights to even be a thing, you have to simply accept a lot. But, as the movie worked toward the end, I found things clicking better, actually. Some of the characters, while comically overdone, proved rather entertaining - Ron Perlman's black market dealer, the Marshal, and the wacky scientists. I

I recently finished my play of Assassin's Creed: Syndicate and its Jack the Ripper DLC. AC games sort of have to play well (at least the ones I've seen), and that remains true in this case. The free running is always a little finicky, but overall things more and flow in a way that's fun to play. The grappling hook is a little more Batman than AC, but even so it was fun to use. The story is reasonably sound. There are bits of the "present" as the Templars seek to resurrect one of the ancients, but the play is all in old alternate-history London. The way things come together at the end feels a little rushed to me, the sibling reconciliation not quite earned. Jacob and Evie Frye work pretty well as protagonists, even if I prefer the latter. They play very similarly, with the same skill trees save for a few skills that can only be unlocked by one or the other. Really, the only one that stands out is Evie's top-tier ability that makes her invisible in certain c

Steins;Gate is an anime series I had heard of. After finally getting around to watching it, it proved not what I expected. I knew it was some sort of time travel tale, but expected more action. Some of what I had read implied some sort of struggle between factions of time travelers. Instead, while there are, at times, more than one faction in control of time travel devices/methods, the story really only follows one group. It's much more psychological than action-packed. The first half of the series is slow, establishing relationships between the characters and "rules" to what they can do with their time travel machinery. For that, it's pretty good. Not all my questions are answered by the end, but it does a reasonable job of consistency between the various screwing up and attempted repair of timelines. One could argue that the story really only follows the main character as he bounces between parallel worlds (or "world lines," as the series puts it), thoug