Redwolf's Journal (continued)

For whatever reason, I've had a bit of an itch to get back into working on a cosplay project. Since my Mandalorian outfit was sort of rushed at the end, I've turned my attention back to it. There are certainly some things I want to improve - proper gauntlets and the like. I've started purchasing a few things there and there to work with, though haven't hunkered down to do the work as yet. And this got me thinking again about a weapon. And from there, I've a bunch of little thoughts... When I started on this last year, I picked up a Nerf Alphastrike because I really liked the basic look, feel, and size of it. The more I looked at it, though, the less I felt it viable for Star Wars. As much as I like the shape, it's really more suitable to Mass Effect or some other "sleeker" sci-fi setting. Star Wars has an older "future" aesthetic and a lot of the canon weapons are pieced together out of WWII firearms and the like. So I ended up backing off

Alas, I got caught off-guard today. Whilst doing some cleaning and collecting trash, I had my front door open, proving no barrier against the Jehovah's Witnesses making the rounds. But as I was politely listening to a short bit about how the Bible holds answers for uncertain times, I considered some things I've read and thought about recently and decided to take it as an opportunity. I accepted their Watchtower newsletter and resolved to look through it and a chance to see the perspective presented. We start with three pages about how people try to see what the future will bring, the first in a general sense and the second two talking briefly about astrology and fortune-telling. The text argues flaws in these methods, pointing out many predictions are so general as to be applicable to anyone. The even point out these things are not "scientific." It finishes out with a quote: "There should not be found in you anyone . . . who employs divination, anyone practicin

Solid movie with good action. We've got a few enemies for the protagonists, including one that's safe to consider scum and one that's fairly sympathetic. There's a sense of fun throughout. The first end credits scene answers possible questions of where the movie fits in with the larger MCU. The second is... redundant in that sense and I guess potentially cute, but no big wow factor there. I suppose my only issue with the movie is how it plays so fast and loose with physics. Mass and momentum seem to be retained through size changes only when convenient. Shrunken objects seem beholden to toon/toy physics more than anything, able to be tossed around without consequence. But y'know, none of that bothered me -during- the movie enough to break suspension of disbelief, and that makes it all excusable.

... on panels from conventions I totally didn't go to. I watched two different convention panels on Saturday, thanks to the wonders of the internet. The first was the Fate: Grand Order panel from AnimeExpo, celebrating the one-year anniversary of the US release of the game. It started half an hour or so late - which probably speaks more to the difficulties in coordinating a fairly large anime convention than anything (as we're talking an expo in LA with somewhere around 100,000 attendees). It was... lackluster in general, though had a certain charm. You had your guy running the show who came across as more a hype man than a developer for the game, regularly trying to get bigger reactions from the crowd. Then they brought out two voice actors and a translator. The VA's talked a bit about coming to the con - for one of them, it's their first time at the con (possibly in the US at all, though I don't recall). They showed off a few photos from their visit. They wer

I recently got State of Decay 2 , which was... a bit of a trial. Steam has, perhaps, spoiled me. Buying a game from the Windows store is a much more opaque and awkward process - almost enough to stop me along the way. It might have been better if that had happened. Mind you, SoD2 is not a terrible game. I would say there are some marginal improvements over the original, though without delving into the multiplayer aspects, it isn't hugely different. There's still a gameplay look of gathering resources to build up a base before moving on to another one, killing zombies along the way. Vehicle fuel seems to go quicker. There are more options to things along the way, more survivor skills, and the addition of the plague zombies that can incapacitate characters if you're not careful. Nights are much darker - bordering on unplayably so. But while I played through to the "end" of the story in the first one, I reached a point of "meh" much sooner here. Switchi