Raithe

Grunts by Mary Gentle.. It's an outstanding read if you enjoy twisted humerous looks at everything from the Bad Guys Footsoldier version of the whole fantasy light versus dark battles.. Orcs who commit war crimes.. Hobbits with s&m tendencies.. Good guys who really aren't as wholesome as they should be.. Its dark, it's humerous, it's twisted. Not for the squeamish, but when the Orc's get twisted by a dragons curse into becoming ...Vietnam era style Marines.... it really takes on a whole new light. If you don't recognise the standard fantasy/tolkienesque tropes you might not get all of the humour, but its still worth a read. In ways, it's almost as if someone took Lord of the Rings, dosed it down with a mixture of Starship Troopers and Rambo. Inverted it all, and then slathered it with black comedy. Quote for the day. "Pass me another elf, this one has split"

One of those days where for no apparent reason I am in a really foul mood. Trying to stir the christmas spirit and not snap at everybody. On a side-note, got a powerball for wrist/forarm exercise. Supposed to be good for battling off any effects of repetitive strain syndrome and the like. Gyroscopic wonders for making your forearm muscles feel as if they're wrapped in fuzzy wool.

Yes, but my meaning was while it's one level of cruddyness to copy a cd.. to lend out a present you got for your son just takes it to something way more twisted.

What amused me was that in some Shadowrun supplement published post DX1, they slipped in a few offhand comments about UNATCO and Liberty Island.. I'm trying to remember exactly where it was.. but it was some throwaway paragraph...

And for something that has me a little flabbergasted.. my sister just dropped by to ask if I wanted to watch a dvd she's got for a few days.. The bit that has me flabbergasted is that its a dvd one of her friends picked up for their son as a christmas present..but they've been lending to their friends before they get around to wrapping it up. Now I've heard of people picking up cd's as presents but making a copy for themselves, but that just seems to reach a different level of twistedness.

Well had one of those great nights of total insomnia.. ended up reading through a few old JT Edson westerns in between bouts of attempting to sleep... Started off a slow sunday, the snow and ice seems to be melting so the streets are no longer as dangerous.. made an attempt at some work but had a fun headache kick in. So I've kind of spent the day popping aspirin and worked my way through the last half a dozen shows of Remington Steele for light entertainment..

It's kind of hard to do anything cyberpunk without referring to either Bladerunner or GiTS in the current age... Pop culture is pretty much cemented by those sorts of referential icons of the style. That and there's only so many ways you can make slick cybernetics look.. Personally I was getting flashes for some of the art to the various Shadowrun Augmentation-type books... but then taking a general look and making it look "weird" just to differentiate it from all others in that style can be pointless... You can get away with sticking spikes, and all sorts of ornamental crap on armor or vehicles to make them look funky..and still keep a certain level of belief in their functionality. But it's a little bit harder to do sp with limbs and body parts..

Ah, so you can start being "that creepy old guy" at the gaming stores?

http://www.sarifindustries.com/ Let the viral marketing begin...

Noir soundtrack - more of Yuki Kajiura's work..

I find myself getting a touch curious about Homefront...

I have to admit, while the pre-order bonuses tend to leave me generally blah.. Things like art books with concept art and the reasons why the art changed.. and certain game soundtracks just beg for that slight bit of extra change spent on the collector's editions.

Well the Baen one is stictly fantasy and sci-fi.. Gutenberg is more the generic old books.. It's been interesting to see how Baen have pushed the electronic format over the years, especially the idea of allowing people free access to copies to inspire them to get interested in the authors. Of course, while I will read ebooks on both the pc and kindle... I doubt I'll ever lose the taste for having dead trees in my hand. The texture and smell of worn and aging pages.. it just adds character to a good book..

The Baen Free Library is always worth a look if you're looking for a read.. http://www.baen.com/library/

"Doctor Horrible - The RPG!"

Heh, Amazon Prime's "free next day" is worth it just for the christmas season. Books, games, and such the rest of the year make it just gravy.

Ah, did you miss all of the advertising that the last Civ game used with the whole "Civilization Anonymous" groups? There was a batch of pseudo-jokey Gamer-Addicts and how their lives were ruined because of the amazing gameplay and addiction levels of playing it.. Mixed in stereotypes of the geek gamer, the gamer girl, the soccer mom, the business dad, all of whom had been driven to distraction due to extreme addiction levels to a single computer game.. So they actually took the fact that the Civ games are well known for a certain level of "addictiveness" and made that a key point to the marketing campaign.. And positing that since there's Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, that there should be some form of "Gamers Anonymous" for group support..

Yup, I just switched my pre-order with Amazon.co.uk to the Augmented Edition whilst I was poking around for some of the christmas shopping..

As in what constitutes addiction? If you replaced the term "game" with some popular sport (ie: soccer, hockey, etc) would it still be classed as addiction if someone spent as many hours worshipping at it's altar? Examples of what brought the idea of game addiction to the masses? the world of warcraft phenomena? Extremes, japanese otaku and the ones who've died after gaming binges with no sleep and waaay too much caffeine? How civilisation used the idea of game addiction as a part of its marketing? All areas you could easily poke at and bring into the conversation...

I am now taking a break from "ze grande housecleaning" that has to get done before the christmas decorations go up. I know things have been accomplished. Even if looking at it it doesn't seem to have accomplished much. And taking out a few things to stash under the carport .. having feet sink under snow to above my ankles.. It's that crisp, fresh, powdery stuff... Haven't seen it like this in years. It actually made me smile like some manic 5 year old at the sheer fantasy level of snow at christmas.

Mike Shepherds "Kris Longknife" series is fairly entertaining for a touch of military oriented sci-fi with elements of space opera to keep it from being too serious. If you want something that's a touch heavy and tries to do the philosophy/thinking questions behind the sci-fi and fantasy, then most of LE Modesitt Jr's work is worthwhile.. both the fantasy and the sci-fi he does quite well. The Price of the Stars by Debra Doyle and James D Macdonald pushed the space opera more, but is great for that investigation / revenge / political conspiracy set against an interesting backdrop. Plus some very memorable characters and moments. The Liaden Universe - once described as Star Wars meets Pride & Prejudice.. If you like dry humour and snappy dialogue between running gunfights, conspiracies, romance and giant turtles..

Currently have about 8 inches of snow outside. And it's still falling. Woke from some dreams of what-ifs and seasonal moments with the ex. So that's a little My nets been having the odd flicker on and off as well which is always fun. And the cat whilst being playful managed to dig a claw into my finger right behind the nail ..which is.. irritatingly painful. Now I just have to drink a hot cup of tea and drag my headspace into some general matter of coherence. Try to organise things to have space so the tree and christmas decorations up, ponder on some final month christmas shopping and then...

As I've realised it's been about 3 or so weeks since I actually played a computer game.. I might actually try a bit of classic Deus Ex tonight for that nostalgia kick..

Since it's now rolled into December.. I thought I'd push the correct seasonal mood and put on "A Very Scary Solstice" album by the HP Lovecraft Historical Society on in the background... Including the classic seasonal tunes : "Have Yourself a Scary Little Solstice" "Freddy the Red Brained Mi-Go" "Great Old Ones Are Coming to Town" "Awake Ye Scary Great Old Ones" and many others..

I know we have the whole.. "global economy" and ripple effects.. but it still strikes me as odd to have a government tell the public that they're in trouble , that there have to be budget cuts, that all sorts of things have to get slashed to "make do".. and then the next day they cheerfully announce they happen to be giving x billions to another country to help bail them out of similar troubles. Along with the theory "if their economy tanks, they'll have massive unemployment, they'll all come over here and steal your jobs, and you'll be unemployed. So we give them money to keep their economy working so they won't come over here." From a limited understanding it just seems so counter-intuitive. Or is it just turning into a giant shell-game where they keep passing the money from country to country so every government can slash public spending? Paranoia must know!