Rinsland's Corner

Changing Traditions

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 14:10:55 -0500

This is from a facebook post I made, and posting here for posterity.

A couple of you have probably seen this coming for a little while, but last night I did something I never actually thought I’d do. I had a lengthy one to one, face to face meeting first with the Pastor and then the Associate Pastor of my church, to let them know I was leaving the Baptist Tradition, in favor of the Anglican Tradition.

A Fishkeeping Saga Part 1: Beginnings

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 20:43:20 -0500

Since the beginning of this year I discovered and was smitten by Aquascaping. I stumbled across some videos by people like MD Fish Tanks and was absolutely blown away by what they could do. To me, whenever I thought of fish aquariums, it was always the basic clear box with a top and a bright light shining in on glass rocks, treasure chest that emits bubbles, and some tacky decorations and fake plants, with a betta or some goldfish in there. Pretty much whatever you see in a big pet store chain. And while I’ve always loved fish and the water, it just didn’t appeal to me because the aquariums felt like a lot of work for something that looked pretty tacky overall. However, when I saw these beautiful ecosystems, with their myriad of plants, substrates, and natural set pieces, it felt like I was looking at a piece of living breathing art. And I had to try my hand at it.

Quote of the Day 2024/06/05

Mon, 06 May 2024 09:30:11 -0500

“The capitalist engine is first and last an engine of mass production which unavoidably also means production for the masses … It is the cheap cloth, the cheap cotton and rayon fabric, boots, motorcars and so on that are the typical achievements of capitalist production, and not as a rule improvements that would mean much to the rich man. Queen Elizabeth owned silk stockings. The capitalist achievement does not typically consist in providing more silk stockings for queens but in bringing them within reach of factory girls.” ~Joseph Schumpeter, a famous economist who served as Austrian minister of finance in 1919.

Good Friday

Fri, 29 Mar 2024 10:46:56 -0500

Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum

᾽Ιησοῦς ὁ Ναζωραῖος ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν ᾽Ιουδαίων

יֵשׁוּעַ הַנָּצְרִי מֶלֶךְ הַיְּהוּדִים Or ܝܼܫܘܿܥ ܢܵܨܪܵܝܵܐ ܡܲܠܟܵܐ ܕܝܼܗܘܼܕܵܝܵܐ

Hebrew or Aramaic, depending on how you interpret the word the Greek word “Hebraisti (Ἑβραϊστί )” in John 19:20. Aramaic was a common language (along with Greek) of the area at the time, and a likely choice. However, Pilate was highly displeased with the Jewish Sanhedrin, and may have had it written in Hebrew, their ecclesiastical language (and is explicitly a Jewish language), as a dig at them specifically. Which considering their response, may have hit the mark. There is, I think, significant evidence to believe it is written in Hebrew.

Quote of the Day 2024/24/3

Sun, 24 Mar 2024 17:02:34 -0500

Man, Sub-creator, the refracted light through whom is splintered from a single White to many hues, and endlessly combined in living shapes that move from mind to mind. Though all the crannies of the world we filled with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build Gods and their houses out of dark and light, and sowed the seed of dragons, ’twas our right (used or misused). The right has not decayed. We make still by the law in which we’re made. -JRR Tolkien

The One Piece Manga

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 10:40:05 -0600

Shōnen: One of the four demographic categories of manga, targeting boys 9-18.

I did it. I’m all caught up on the One Piece manga.

One Piece isn’t just a shōnen manga. It is the shōnen manga. There are many who came before, and many that came after, but this behemoth of a series created by Eiichiro Oda is the granddaddy of them all. It has been published in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump since July of 1997 and has as of the time of writing this, 1108 chapters collected in 108 volumes.

AI Art Is A Defined Form Of Art

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 08:26:37 -0600

AI Art Generation is a form of Conceptual or Post-Conceptual Art.

Allow me to explain. Here is a definition of Conceptual Art: Art in which the idea or concept presented by the artist is considered equal to or more important than its appearance or execution.

How it fits: If an artist has an idea of what they want to see but aren’t too worried about the outcome, so they create a prompt and regenerate over and over again until they get something they like, that would be Post-Conceptual Art. See John Baldessari’s post-conceptual piece “Throwing Four Balls In The Air To Get A Square (Best of 36 Tries)” from 1973 as a non-AI related example of this.

Meet Baja

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 10:58:10 -0600

We bought at Mexican Black Kingsnake yesterday, her name is Baja. We’ve been planning for her for a couple months, and have been spent the last couple weeks setting up her enclosure, and she loves it.

Baja exploring her new environment

Information about her:

Scientific Name: Lampropeltis californiae nigrita
Family: Colubridae (commonly known as Colubrids)
Age: 6 months, and Mexican Black Kingsnakes can live up to 30 years.
Weight: 22grams, and will weigh up to 3lbs when she reaches maturity.
Length: a little over a foot. An adult female can reach up to 6′, but will usually average around 4′.
Diet: other snakes, mice, eggs, lizards, and birds. In captivity, she will be fed mostly frozen mice, with the occasional quail or egg for enrichment.
Primary Range: Sonoran Desert, Northwestern Sinaloa, Mexico, and occasionally Arizona
Natural Habitat: Rocky areas and places lush with vegetation
Ideal Temperatures: Her basking spot is 85-90 degrees, with a cool side of 75 degrees, though these snakes can tolerate a wide range of temperatures so long as they can effectively self regulate.
Fun Facts: Mexican Black Kingsnakes are resistant to the venom of snakes found in its primary range, and juveniles often have white or yellow speckles underneath that will disappear as they age.

I Bought A House

Tue, 07 Nov 2023 16:15:00 -0600

Finally, after many years, I have managed to get into a good enough financial situation to become a homeowner. I had originally intended to start looking for one near the time that my rental lease for our townhome was ending, however a few things happened that made us bump that up a lot. Namely, our laundry machine broke, and it took well over a week for someone to even come out and determine it was broken, and then it was another couple of weeks before it was replaced. Which meant we had to use the local laundromat. AND THEN, we had decided to get a snake. The pet policy said we only had to get permission from the office before purchasing a pet, and we thought they’d wave it right through being as snakes are, well, not as likely to destroy things as say, our cats or the dogs our neighbors had. But nope, flatly refused, and no explanation as to why. Funnily enough, that wound up being the proverbial last straw and we started looking around to see what kind of rates we could get and what the market looked like.

The Updating is Finished

Tue, 17 Oct 2023 12:28:28 -0500

We now have a new look, updated and streamlined content, and a faster, more responsive blog now that all the old bloat is gone. I deleted a lot of stuff. Copied most of the data over to the other site and ditched a few outdated things. Like the attempt at a wiki, files from the D&D campaigns that are now meaningless. Found a lot of empty pages lurking around as well that I got rid of. Lots of housecleaning for sure. But hey, new theme, new name, new look. All my personal content and posts should still be here. All the posts related to D&D, worldbuilding, and my campaigns, should be over at Solethania now.

Thoughts on a Conservative Viewpoint Regarding Ukraine

Mon, 15 May 2023 08:23:02 -0500

I don’t agree with certain Conservative Policies but I usually understand them. Except for their stance on Ukraine. “We shouldn’t be supporting the war, we should be focusing on trying to broker a peace deal.”

Bullshit.

Like what does an actual peace look like to them? Just giving Russia a significant chunk of Ukraine? Yeah, that’ll go over well with Ukrainians. Russia giving back all the land they’ve taken in the war? Yeah, that’ll go over well with the Russians. And there’s no middle ground for the same reason, someone in this war is going to get the short stick, either Ukraine is going to permanently lose land to a conquering Russia, or Russia is going to have sacrificed tens of thousands of people for a fraction of what they wanted.

NieR: Automata

Thu, 04 May 2023 10:53:02 -0500

So I finally got around to playing NieR: Automata. And then I beat it. And then I fully completed it.

NieR: Automata was published by Square Enix back in 2017, and developed by Platinum Games led by eccentric director and creative genius Yoko Taro. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has fled to the moon after an invasion by alien machines. The story revolves around combat androids, 2B and 9S, as they fight to reclaim Earth from the machines and uncover the truth behind the conflict.

Quote of the Day, 2023/5/4

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 09:59:13 -0500

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. When I found I could not change the world, I tried to change my nation. When I found I could not change the nation, I tried to change my town. When I found I could not change the town, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself. And suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation. And I could indeed have changed the world. ~unknown

Types of Artist

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 12:48:12 -0500

I saw a post somewhere about there being four different types of artists.

Those who do it for the money
Those who are in it for the attention
Those who do it because they like the process,
Those who do it for for the results. There’s definitely a venn diagram for these, but the differences go a long way to explaining why some artists have an issue with AI Art while others don’t.

If you’re in it for the attention, you probably have a massive issue with the average person being able to create things they spent years learning how to do, nevermind the time spent and carving out their own niche in the community, and it’s in your own best interest to gatekeep the art community to avoid losing your supposed power and influence.

A Quick Thought on Hi-Fi Rush

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 12:28:08 -0600

Playing Hi-Fi Rush has made me realize just how absurdly good and criminally underrated the Ratchet & Clank level design over the years were. For pretty much every gen, though some argument could be made that Rift Apart leaned too heavily into the open world sandbox at times.

That’s not to say Hi-Fi Rush is bad, it’s just that they could have taken a lot of pointers from R&C’s level designs through the years to create a world that feels busy and expansive, while still being mostly linear guided levels that more often than not felt like they weren’t. Hi-Fi Rush is extremely guided, and I don’t even know why they have the constant literal glowing arrows pointing where to go that are everywhere, you can’t exactly backtrack through the level most (all?) of the time. It feels claustrophobic, but the rest of the design says they want the level to appear expansive and lived in.

2023 Scuba Trip to Roatan

Sun, 29 Jan 2023 22:15:43 -0600

After getting scuba certified last year we had a goal of getting out to the ocean to experience the wonders of coral reefs. We did some digging around and found that Roatan Honduras was not only a premier location for diving, but also beginner friendly, and absurdly cheap -especially booking through a scuba specific travel agency like padi travel.

Ajin: Demi Human

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 12:14:12 -0600

Ajin is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Gamon Sakurai. And it is really, really good. It is nothing more than a straight up action-horror manga with smart writing and cinematic art. It is built onan interesting premise, that certain people are starting to appear globally that simply regenerate back to life when they die, and supernatural creatures are involved.

A Response to JoJoes Art

Tue, 27 Dec 2022 08:19:26 -0600

I am responding to a post he made on his facebook page here, his words are in italics.

Is this the future we want for art? AI art tools like Lensa App, Midjourney or Stable Diffusion have recently taken the world by storm. It’s impressive what these applications are capable of but most people aren’t aware of the very worrisome implications this trend has for the future of art:

That time in the 1904 Olympics

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 09:12:05 -0600

I ran across this on reddit somewhere a while ago, posted it on FB, and am now posting it here because it needs to be seen.

There’s bizarre history, and then there’s the Marathon at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis History.

The first place finisher did most of the race in a car. He had intended to drop out, and got a car back to the stadium to get his change of clothes, and just kind of started jogging when he heard the fanfare.
The second place finisher was carried across the finish line, legs technically twitching, by his trainers. They had been refusing him water, and giving him a mixture of Brandy and Rat Poison for the entire race. Doping wasn’t illegal yet (and this was a terrible attempt at it), so he got the gold when the First guy was revealed.
Third finisher was unremarkable, somehow.
Fourth finisher was a Cuban Mailman, who had raised the funds to attend the Olympics by running non-stop around his entire country. He landed in New Orleans, and promptly lost all of the travelling money on a riverboat casino. He ran the race in dress shoes and long trousers (cut off at the knee by a fellow competitor with a knife). He probably would have come in first (well, second, behind the car) had it not been for the hour nap he took on the side of the track after eating rotten apples he found on the side of the race.
9th and 12th finishers were from South Africa, and ran barefoot. South Africa didn’t actually send a delegation – these were students who just happened to be in town and thought it sounded fun. 9th was chased a mile off course by angry dogs. Note: These are the first Africans to compete in any modern Olympic event.
Half the participants had never raced competitively before. Some died.
St. Louis only had one water stop on the entire run. This, coupled with the dusty road, and exacerbated by the cars kicking up dust, lead to the above fatalities. And yet, somehow, Rat Poison guy survived to get the Gold. The one water stop was an intentional design choice and not simply lack of oversight. The director wanted to test his theory on “purposeful dehydration” -during a marathon, on unpaved roads, while it was over 90F outside…
The Russian delegation arrived a week late, because they were still using the Julian calendar. In 1904.

Political Ads

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 11:32:10 -0500

It should be a law that political ads for candidates to be positive ads only. You can hype up anyone you want, but you are not allowed to attack any particular candidate via paid ad.

If you want to differentiate yourself from your opponent, then I suggest having a platform worth voting for.

The only thing attack ads do is make me want to vote for the person you’re attacking, and it directly contributes to the destruction of political discourse.

2022 All Quiet On the Western Front Review

Sat, 29 Oct 2022 10:24:13 -0500

The new All Quiet on the Western Front movie is a fantastic WWI movie. It really, really is.

But it bears a resemblance to the book in name and character names only, which is massively disappointing. It did its own thing, and while it definitely showed the brutality of trench warfare, it missed everything else about what made the original story so powerful. The entire point of the book’s ending and how it relates to the title is gone.

Actually I am… (Review)

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 11:53:18 -0500

cover for Jitsu wa Watashi wa vol. 1

Jitsu wa Watashi wa (Translated as Actually I Am), is a Manga series written and illustrated by Eiji Masuda. It was published by Akita Shoten in Weekly Shōnen Champion and ran from January 2013 – February 2017. It has been collected into 22 volumes, with Seven Seas Entertainment translating and publishing it under the name My Monster Secret in North America starting in 2016. It has also been adapted into an anime, but I’m going to stick with the manga here.

SCUBA Certified

Mon, 22 Aug 2022 15:19:09 -0500

Finally getting around to updating the blog with the important news: My wife and I got officially certified as Advanced Open Water SCUBA divers right at the end of July. We haven’t been able to go visit anything other than the local lake, but it truly is a whole new world and experience, and I am quite enamored with it. The amount of stuff I had to learn was daunting, and I hadn’t had that much study since college. But it was one of those things where I really wanted to make sure I got it, because not understanding something could mean literal injury and/or death. There were written tests, then pool swims, and then finally the dives out at the local lake to get our Open Water Certification, and then additional study and dives to get our Advanced Open Water certification. Our “local lake” was Beaver Lake, Arkansas. We are certified for conditions “equal to, or better” than what we did. Which means I can dive in pretty much any visibility, because, especially on our first dive, visibility was awful. However, we had a ton of fun, and when not doing things directly involving training, we saw a bunch of fish, mostly sunfish, perch, and a bass. There was a platform, boat, car, and many other things intentionally sunk in the area to be a ‘dive park’ for scuba divers.

The 2nd Amendment is not about Firearms.

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 07:26:05 -0500

Erik Ramsay posted this on a Facebook group I’m in and gave permission to share it far and wide.

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states:

“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

When this was written it was considered to be in plain language, but language can drift over time; meanings change, words fall in and out of common usage, and so the meaning of a phrase can be obscured over time. Take a look at that same concept, but applied to books:

Omaha Beach

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 19:51:19 -0500

June 6, 1944

May, 2022

A Fun Fact For The Day

Sun, 08 May 2022 09:23:17 -0500

I found this years ago on reddit and saved it. So now I’m posting it here.

Barack Obama became President of the United States because People Magazine thought actor Garret Wang was attractive.

Here’s how it went down:

At the end of Voyager series 3, the writers wanted to introduce a new character, but because the budget only allowed for a certain number of main actors, they had to let one of them go. Originally this was going to be Harry Kim, played by Garrett Wang, who had been very vocal in his hate for the show. (This is why there’s a weird cliffhanger with him about to die that gets almost immediately overturned in series 4). People Magazine then ran a list of the Hottest 50 Men which included Wang. Seeing he was popular, they decided to get rid of the character Kes, played by Jennifer Lien, whose character they thought they’d messed up a bit and run out of ideas. Since Kes leaving left them with only two major female characters, they decided to make their new character female as well, leading to them making Seven of Nine, played by Jeri Ryan. For filming, she had to move to California, which put strain on her already damaged relationship with Jack Ryan and led to their divorce. In 2004, the messy details of their divorce came out, forcing Jack Ryan to stand down from running for the position of Senator of Illinois, allowing a relatively new Barack Obama to win. Four years later, Obama became President of the US.

What WoW’s Dragonflight Trailer Lacks

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 09:22:34 -0500

Every World of Warcraft trailer has always been extremely hyped, leaving you with a sense of wonder and excitement, and a knowledge of what the game or expansion is bringing to the table. The Vanilla trailer showed off the the main conflict (”The tenuous pact between the Horde and the Alliance has all but evaporated, the drums of war, thunder once again”), the inhabitants, and was an invitation to explore and experience this world and its conflicts. Burning Crusade’s cinematic showed off the two new races as well as Outland areas, but it had a major high point with all Illidan (”You are not prepared!”) that really set up thematically the entire series and got people hyped for it. Oh my god we’re going to go through this Dark Portal and fight this demon looking dude and it looks epic!

Quote of the Day, 4-5-2022

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 07:10:26 -0500

“The hatred that men bear to privilege increases in proportion as privileges become fewer and less considerable, so that democratic passions would seem to burn most fiercely just when they have least fuel. I have already given the reason for this phenomenon. When all conditions are unequal, no inequality is so great as to offend the eye, whereas the slightest dissimilarity is odious in the midst of general uniformity; the more complete this uniformity is, the more insupportable the sight of such a difference becomes. Hence it is natural that the love of equality should constantly increase together with equality itself, and that it should grow by what it feeds on.” ~ Alexis de Tocqueville, 1840

The Book of Boba Fett Season 1

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 13:34:02 -0600

After watching the season, I found the show was best when… Boba Fett wasn’t actually in it. The Mando is what Boba should have been. Even Cad Bane was who Boba should have been.

Instead we got a dude who wanted to be a Crime Lord… who didn’t do any actual crime, and actively fought against actual criminals. If he wanted that, he should have just ran for mayor. The story would have made more sense if Boba had just ‘retired’ after his survival from the pit, claiming he was too old for his old life, and then got pulled back into things because

The Best Anime I watched in 2021

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 10:34:40 -0600

Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice) [Anime and Manga] The manga is a deeply emotional experience, and it has a single panel with Shouko, one of the major characters, laying on a bed that I consider one of the most heart wrenching moments in a manga I’ve ever experienced. It’s a story about bullying, redemption, friendship, and hardship. It’s very heavy, as it revolves around a deaf girl who spend a part of her youth being bullied. But told from the perspective of her bully. The movie will make people cry, but it’s just a cliffs’ notes version of the manga. Definitely one of the most impactful things I’ve read and seen in a very long time.

Manga Current Reads January 2022 Edition

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 11:14:38 -0600

DanDaDan DanDaDan is weird. Really, really weird. In a WTF is going on I need more kind of way. I don’t really know where it’s going but I am really enjoying the characters. Momo Ayase believes in ghosts and supernatural, due to her grandmother (who is hilarious) being an exorcist. She does not believe in the existence aliens/ufos/etc. Ken Takakura is the exact opposite, he believes in aliens/ufos/etc, and does not believe in the existence of the supernatural. They challenge each other to visit a specific place that is ‘well known’ to (in Ken’s case) be a supernatural hotspot or (in Momo’s case) be an alien sighting spot. Turns out aliens exist, and the supernatural is real, and they wind up fighting for their lives. This manga goes from 0 to 100 really quick, with a fast pace, horror elements, and comedy wrapped into a coming-of-age adolescence story. I am really enjoying this one.

I Bought My Dream Gun

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 08:49:39 -0600

I bought a Whitney Wolverine. It’s a .22LR pistol, and the first gun I’ve ever purchased for no other reason than ‘I want it’. They have one of the most unique and beautiful designs I’ve ever seen in a pistol and I was over the moon about finally being able to get my hands on one. This particular one is in near perfect shape, even though I am pretty sure the original owner’s idea of cleaning it was to dump a little more oil into it. Not that I can really blame them, because these little dudes are not exactly easy to take apart and put back together, and they’ve got a bunch of tiny parts to them.

Superhero Comics Require Gun Control

Thu, 23 Dec 2021 08:17:27 -0600

Superhero comics take place in a world post-gun control. The only people with guns are law enforcement, common criminals, or the occasional antiheroes (the Punisher, for example). It’s clearly not because guns are ineffective at fighting various powered-people related crime, after all a gun is far more capable than an arrow, and archery is effective enough for multiple major superheroes to build an identity around it.

Quote of the Day, 10-21-2021

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 07:29:34 -0500

“But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.” ~John Stuart Mill

An Old Friend

Mon, 04 Oct 2021 07:36:26 -0500

Let me tell you about James.

James is probably the oldest close childhood friend I had, and probably one of the most influential. I’m pretty sure the first good friend I had that wasn’t a family friend (that is, my parents weren’t first friends of their parents). He introduced me to one of the greatest JRPGs ever made: Golden Sun. I bought a Gameboy advance just to finish the game, and I only ever owned three games on it: Golden Sun, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, and LotR the Two Towers. And yet I still consider that little handheld console to be one of my favorite purchases. It even it still works…barely.

2021 Road Trip: Grand Tetons

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 16:34:09 -0500

The final part of our trip was driving to Jackson, WY and having morning rafting experience down the Snake River, followed by a hike into the Cascade Canyon Trail. The drive down was beautiful, the Grand Tetons are absolutely grand, and they dominate the landscape. Every picture I took of them seemed like something out of a painting.

2021 Roadtrip: Cody, WY

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 11:55:53 -0500

We didn’t spend any significant amount of time in Cody, we drove from Island Park, Idaho to Cody through Yellowstone, stayed the night and then drove to Jackson, Wyoming the next morning. Our entire purpose of visiting was to go to the Cody Firearms Museum. And it, like everything else we did on our vacation, was absolutely worth it. The library of guns is absolutely life goals.

2021 Roadtrip: Yellowstone

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 09:57:06 -0500

We stayed a couple nights in Island Park, Idaho during the time we explored Yellowstone proper. We arrived in Island Park with enough daylight left to do the Box Canyon Campground to Rosie’s Waterfall hike, which was very pleasant and refreshing after a long day of driving.

We started the next morning at Running Bear Pancake House in West Yellowstone, and then proceeded to have one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had with the outdoors. Yellowstone National Park is one of the most incredible places on earth. The weather was perfect in the high 60s, low 70s, and crystal clear skies. We did the big Upper Geyser Basin and Old Faithful trail first, followed by the Mystic Falls, Fairy Creek, and Little Firehole loop, and finally Fountain Paint Pot Trail. I think people can spend their entire career trying to capture the feeling of this place, and consider it a success to be able to pass along just a sliver of the emotion and wonder this place generates. It’s one of the top five most popular national parks in the world, and every reason was on full, glorious display. We saw six geysers go off: Old Faithful, Grand, Lion, Sawmill, Solitary, and Grotto. Of these, the Grand Geyser was, well, the most grand. We waited an hour and a half into its expected eruption time window, and it was absolutely worth every second. I did get a fantastic picture of Solitary though, that is in the images below. During the walk along this trail (I hesitate to call it a hike because it’s mostly paved or wood paths) we unexpectedly got very close to a wild bison. Bison were everywhere in the park, we also saw a few elk, a bear, and a wolf. It was surprising just how much wildlife we saw considering how busy the park is.

2021 Roadtrip: South Dakota

Wed, 22 Sep 2021 22:31:27 -0500

My wife and I had originally planned on going to Europe this year (well, for the last two years), but Covid craziness had other plans. So we decided to turn the time we had originally set aside for it into a road trip to Yellowstone instead, and it was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. Along the way, we decided to take a brief stop for a day in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and then overnight there again on the way back. Initially, the main attraction was Mount Rushmore, but we discovered so many other cool things to see there, that we felt it is definitely worth its own trip.

Welcome to the New Age

Tue, 07 Sep 2021 13:07:09 -0500

I got these pictures from this twitter thread, and am posting them here so they won’t be forgotten. They are truly powerful images that show just how messed up and truly dystopian things are now.

Welcome to the new world. Things have changed greatly in the last few years, and it hasn’t been for the better.

QotD September 1st, 2021

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 15:56:19 -0500

“The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.” ~ Thomas Jefferson, letter to to John Cartwright, 5 June 1824

A Problem With Alt Social Media Sites

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 09:52:44 -0500

I love looking around at new, more privacy oriented and/or distributed social media sites. MeWe, Parler, Gab, Mastodon, Diaspora, Minds, Bastyon, Ruqqus, Odysee, etc. etc.

However, all these sites have a problem (well, Odysee seems to have gotten past it), and that problem is people don’t really go to these sites to socialize and share. They go to these places to vent. Usually about censorship and politics and to say/share things that would (or did) get them banned from the major social media sites. Users post all kinds of fringe news, conspiracy theories, and/or highly vitriolic memes.

Control Ultimate Edition Review

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 11:42:32 -0500

I have no idea how this game slipped by me. I only just noticed it when it was on a Steam sale and picked it up on a whim (SCP feel, interesting combat system, and high production values? sounds like a good time to me).

I was absolutely blown away. It has everything I wanted from it. They manage to pull off that difficult always unsettling atmosphere, dropped in the straight up SCP style weirdness (seriously, it’s SCP in all but name), added in a massive dose of non-Cthulhu lovecraftian style horror and this thing made a straight up winner.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 08:49:33 -0500

I’ve been playing the Ratchet & Clank series since the first one came bundled in the PS2 my family bought in the early 2000s. It is one of those random constants in my life, because I’m not usually much of a fan of the genre, but I have played and completed every mainline R&C game that has come out, and have collected physical copies of most of them, and do thoroughly enjoy them all. Even the 2016 game-based-on-movie-based-on-game remake/reboot. There’s a certain charm to them, and while the biting humor of the original PS2 series has gone away, it still has a whimsical fun to it the series where you’re a small furry creature ripping the galaxy a new one with a massive variety of absurd (and absurdly fun) weaponry.

4th of July, QotD

Sun, 04 Jul 2021 09:04:18 -0500

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

Science, Abortion, and a Pro-Life stance

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 10:08:33 -0500

Snagged from a social media site.

“Scientifically speaking, a distinct human life exists from conception onward. Life, because it meets the biological criteria for life; human, because it contains the human genome and is at the beginning of a human lifecycle; distinct, because its genome is different from the mother’s and (barring accidents, disease, or malice) it will continue to exist even after its mother’s death.

Personal Update 4-18-2021

Sun, 18 Apr 2021 11:31:57 -0500

I sprained my back last Sunday, and had to visit the doctor to make sure it wasn’t anything more serious like a spinal issue or something. Got sent to get an x-ray, was given some strong meds, and told to stay flat in bed for a couple days. I’m feeling much better now, aside from some slight soreness, and I’ll probably begin some limited exercise next week. Unfortunately I had planned on moving a bunch of stuff around the house and reorganizing things, and all that is going to have to wait.

Hiking the Colorado National Monument, Day 2

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 12:37:17 -0500

This is the second day of my visit to Grand Junction, Colorado, and my hike through the Colorado National Monument. Today, I had crepes at the Dream Cafe. They were light, but filling. Perfect way to start the day on a long hike.

Very strawberry. Very filling.

I chose to do the full route of the Monument Canyon Trail, which is 6 miles one way. I started on the east side and hiked in, but did not do the steep climb up to the road at the very end because I am woefully out of shape as it is and that probably would have done me in in terms of actually making it all the way back in any reasonable amount of time.

Hiking the Colorado National Monument, Day 1

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 12:47:23 -0600

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Grand Junction, Colorado and then hiking around the Colorado National Monument for a couple days while my wife got a tattoo done.

I hiked the No-Throughfare trail, and the Devil’s Kitchen trail the first day, and then the entirety of the Monument Trail and back the next. I started the day at the Dream Cafe, with the largest pancakes I’ve ever seen. They were absolutely phenomenal, and the perfect thing for a long day hiking.

A Thought on Government Run Systems

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 13:31:02 -0600

I ran across a couple of posts on reddit I felt needed to be combined and shared. The post was discussing what constitutes ‘success’ in a socialized system like healthcare, and the article was this one.

“Success is determined by the existence of the system. Some post hoc measure can be found later as a justification. If it wasn’t access, they would find something else. Cost or satisfaction (in that one poll twenty years ago) or jobs provided or… it doesn’t really matter.

So You’re Suddenly Interested in Online Security and Censorship

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 12:08:42 -0600

Join the club. It’s surprisingly easy and here are some steps to take if you want to dip your toes into the water but don’t want to get too deep into it.

1.) Ditch Twitter. Ditch Facebook after you’ve managed to convince everyone you care about to also ditch it. But if you really cared about not being disappeared from the internet: Mewe, Gab, Mastodon, and Diaspora are really better options. Mewe just has that friendly, easy to use interface that I really like. I am very suspicious about Parler.

FFXIV Milestone

Sat, 19 Dec 2020 10:18:23 -0600

I got all my crafting jobs to 80. It was a long and arduous process that I really enjoyed. I’ve not met a crafting system quite like this one.

Quote of the Day, Oct 21

Wed, 21 Oct 2020 15:08:33 -0500

Trying out Foundry VTT

Tue, 28 Jul 2020 12:27:29 -0500

I stumbled across FoundryVTT while browsing the interwebs and really liked the idea of having my own instanced VTT server, and it promises to be more responsive than Roll20. The one downside so far is they don’t have licensing for any game systems yet, so I’ve been having to copy/paste from my rulebooks into the library. I figured I’d try another go at Savage Worlds, and have been putting those rules into it. Once the rules are in there, everything works surprisingly well.

Gun Violence and Statistics

Sun, 19 Jul 2020 15:13:57 -0500

I ran across this on the internet today and felt it really needed to be saved somewhere public.

There are about 30,000 gun related deaths per year by firearms, this number is not disputed. (1) U.S. population 328 million as of January 2018. (2) Do the math: 0.00915% of the population dies from gun related actions each year. Statistically speaking, this is insignificant. It’s not even a rounding error. What is not insignificant, however, is a breakdown of those 30,000 deaths:

Life Update

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 13:53:06 -0500

So amidst all the craziness of 2020, I finally got in to get braces installed yesterday. If all goes well, I’ll have to wear them for 28 months. I get two upper teeth extracted on the 7th, followed by another visit to the orthodontist to finish up on the 14th.

As of two weeks ago I started learning Latin, with the goal of eventually being able to read The Aeneid by Virgil in its original language. I started now because I realized Duolingo offered it as a course. I’m doing a combination of Duolingo and Memrise to help me learn faster, with the idea that these two apps are fairly complementary.

Final Fantasy XIV

Fri, 08 May 2020 22:59:14 -0500

That’s it. That’s the literal last minute of FFXIV: Shadowbringers. That clip may be my all time favorite moment in an MMO, and I regard it as one of the greatest endings to a story in an MMO, and possibly any RPG, of all time. Because when you get to it, you’ve probably played hundreds of hours, you’ve experienced a wild, wild ride of a story, and the player character’s interaction with the child is the perfect reminder of where your character has been, who your character is, and what you’re capable of in less than a minute as the credits roll, giving time for reflection as you watch names scroll across the screen. It’s perfect.

A Thought on Lord of the Rings

Thu, 16 Apr 2020 07:46:53 -0600

A very interesting observation regarding the end of the Lord of the Rings from reddit. I wish I could find the original author or thread, alas.

“While Tolkien has been accused of basing the Lord of the Rings on the Second World War, the First World War was a much, much greater influence. You can see something of the Somme in the Dead Marshes and No Man’s Land in Mordor. But for me, the most important mirroring is in the soldiers returning home and the Hobbits returning home. In a very real sense, I feel like the point of the Lord of the Rings wasn’t the destruction of the Ring and the defeat of Sauron, but the return of soldiers to their homes. I feel like Tolkien wrote everything before the destruction of the Ring so he could write about what happened afterwards.

Willful Ignorance

Fri, 07 Feb 2020 07:29:50 -0600

I will never understand the willful and loud ignorance of athletic sports, usually by people immersed in ‘modern geek culture’. If sports aren’t your thing, that’s ok. But to revel in and be proud of it by telling anyone who will listen (especially on Social Media) is straight up stupid, you look like an idiot, and most importantly: nobody cares.

Notes from the Chiefs vs Texans Game

Mon, 13 Jan 2020 08:41:21 -0600

Both teams set a NFL Playoff record with 52 points in the 1st half.
The Chiefs scored 41 unanswered points, first team to do so in the playoffs since the 2002 Jets, and outscored the Texans 28-3 in the second quarter.
Travis Kelce become the first player in NFL history with 3 receiving TDs in a quarter. Damien Williams also ended the game with 3 TDs.
Pat Mahomes threw 4 touchdown passes in a span of 9 minutes. He ended the game with 5 TD passes, 300+ pass yards and 50+ rushing yards (a NFL first).
The Chiefs first 10 offensive possessions went PUNT-PUNT-PUNT-TD-TD-TD-TD-TD-TD-TD.
The Chiefs are the first team to tie or lead at half-time after trailing by 24+ points.
The Chiefs are the first team since the 2010 Packers to score TDs in 6 consecutive drives. They set a new record with 7.
The Chiefs set a franchise record for most points scored in a playoff game. They also scored the most points in a playoff game since the 2009 Cardinals.
The Texans allowed 51 points today, the most ever in franchise history. That was after scoring the most points in the first quarter in team history.
Both teams had 20+ points leads during this game.
Andy Reid is now the only coach in NFL history to be on both sides of a 20+ point playoff comeback.
Arrowhead stadium ran out of fireworks due to the Chiefs offense scoring so much.
With this win, The Chiefs will host the Tennessee Titans next week in the AFC championship game. They are currently on a 4 game losing streak against the Titans.

credit to /u/Palifaith on reddit for compiling the list.

Monster Energy Drinks are Evil?

Thu, 19 Dec 2019 08:58:48 -0600

I pulled this from a post I made on Facebook a year or so ago because I think I’m going to pull all my noteworthy posts from there as part of my efforts to eventually drop the site entirely.

I’ve been around ultra conservative Christians all my life and this is a new one. Apparently Monster Energy’s logo is the Mark of the Beast. Someone, somewhere made the claim that the scratch marks are actually the Hebrew Vav (the number 6). Which, if you squint a little bit, yeah maybe?

Christopher Columbus and Presentism

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 16:53:45 -0600

Presentism: uncritical adherence to present-day attitudes, especially the tendency to interpret past events in terms of modern values and concepts.

Probably something people should remember when looking back at past historical figures. Certainly when viewed from our current moral system Christopher Columbus was a pretty damn terrible person. But could he have really been anything else in order to begin the European settlement of the new world? The answer is really, no he couldn’t have been. Islam was at its peak and culturally had no issue with slavery, piracy, and looting and the Christian Mediterranean nations responded in kind. The galleys the Ottomans used to control the Med for centuries were powered by slave oars. At the battle of Lepanto in 1571, 12,000 Christian Galley slaves were freed from the Ottoman Turks for example. France and Spain used galley slaves up into the early 1720s. The Reconquista of Spain had been underway for a long time. 1492 was notable because that’s when the Moors were driven from Grenada. The Spanish Inquisition was started in 1481. Prior to his voyage Columbus spent his time between the Portuguese exploited Africas and Inquisition/Reconquista Era Spain. Spain was his fourth choice, Portugal was his first when looking for backers, and if you think what he did in the New World was terrible, check out what happened to West Africa.

Some Clocks Were Cleaned NFL Week 1

Mon, 09 Sep 2019 11:00:01 -0600

Here are my thoughts as of the end of Sunday, September 9, in regards to the NFL.

Lamar Jackson and the Ravens put on an absolute beat down of the Miami Dolphins, to the point some Dolphins players reportedly contacting their agents and asking to get them out of there. Final score: 59-10.

Patrick Mahomes had an injury scare as he limped around a bit with a potentially sprained ankle, Tyreek Hill got injured, and Sammy Watkins had the game of his career as the KC Chiefs looked really good form against the Jaguars. Who lost Nick Foles to injury, and was replaced by the surprisingly solid rookie Gardner Minshew. Final Score: 40-26

Personal Update August 2019

Mon, 19 Aug 2019 12:00:51 -0600

I had my wisdom teeth pulled last Thursday. After surviving a week beforehand hearing every nightmare scenario everyone else had about the procedure, mine went exceptionally well. The only pain I had was when the pain medication wore off on Friday, and as of Monday morning, everything is back to normal aside from still only eating soft foods (which I’ll do until this Friday, just to be safe).

A Rant. Mostly About Game of Thrones

Sun, 19 May 2019 09:44:11 -0600

Having now caught up on Game of Thrones in preparation for it ending tonight, let me just state that if I were in charge of the forces at Winterfell fighting off the undead hordes, I could have done so for as long as the food held out. No cavalry, no siege weapons required. With those + dragons I could probably outright win, given the rules of the world.

Europa Universalis IV

Thu, 09 May 2019 11:18:48 -0600

I’m back in Europa Universalis IV. I can’t stay away from grand strategy forever, it always manages to suck me back in and cause sleepless nights. I am, however about $104 worth of DLC behind, because Paradox is crazy good about continually updating their games.

However, because it’s such a complex game, and there were a bunch of changes since I last played, my first game ended in catastrophe. The second went a little better, and then I hopped in to multiplayer with a very experienced friend as England, and was able to get fully into the swing of things again, crushing Scotland and the various Irish provinces, converting to Anglican (which was a new thing for me) and beginning colonial expansion. We spent a couple days on that game, and was able to appreciate some of the new nuances. For example, I really like the more autonomous nature of colonies now thanks to the addition of colonial nations, the new mission system, and government reforms.

Wonderdraft is Wonderful

Sun, 14 Oct 2018 18:41:05 -0600

I converted my Solethania World Map into this beautiful thing using Wonderdraft and I couldn’t be happier.

I mean, just look at this thing. The current campaign, Tales of the Past is taking place in Marcinia. Click on the image to get the full size.

A Religion of Science

Mon, 23 Apr 2018 11:15:50 -0600

From an old facebook post I figured that it would be good to preserve here.

Science tells us what the world is doing and why (to the best of our knowledge, and it may be proven totally wrong later). It does not tell us how to fix a problem, or even that there is a problem – just that a doing thing A leads to B by current understanding.

Pawns and Pints

Sun, 22 Apr 2018 22:04:51 -0600

We went down to Pawns and Pints today to see what it was all about, and to try to hop into an Adventurer’s League D&D game. Unfortunately all the seats for the D&D game were full. However, my wife and I had some great drinks, and cracked open few random board games. Like Star Wars Stratego and the old classic Battleship. We decided we really need to make this a regular thing, because it was a ton of fun all around. Maybe we’ll actually even schedule ourselves into one of the D&D days.

Fortnite Battle Royale

Wed, 04 Apr 2018 15:35:52 -0600

I got sucked into Fortnite BR. I kept seeing how insanely popular it has become and had to check it out for myself. I’m not usually the kind of person who likes BR/Survival games in general, but the art style, and unique gameplay got me hooked. I will say however, I am terrible at building forts fast, and my method of gameplay can be considered ‘active conflict avoidance‘. Whenever I die, I am always left with the feeling that I could have done better, and the drive to be better next time. This is rare in a game genre that’s pretty much defined by getting killed from across the map with no chance to have done anything better other than just not be there at that specific moment.

Philosophical Approach to Gun Control

Wed, 28 Mar 2018 20:06:41 -0600

This post on reddit is one of the better and definitely unique reasons to be against gun control in the United States. Not written by me, but merely reposted here for posterity:

“I won’t give the expected answers of self defense or resisting tyranny, those are too trite and overblown. No, I answer with something far more basic yet fundamentally bigger.

Sea of Thieves Final Beta

Sun, 11 Mar 2018 09:36:27 -0600

I had an absolute blast playing the final open beta of Sea of Thieves. I’m really thinking I’ll buy this when it comes out. It’s all about being the pirate you always wanted to be. No real progression, other than cosmetics and earning reputation to get better ventures. I haven’t had this much fun on the seas since Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag. Which, I feel I may as well load up again while I wait for release of this game.

Photos from WWII

Sun, 11 Feb 2018 21:32:32 +0000

When I was with family this last week we went through a ton of old family photos. Of special interest to me were these images involving Harold Bergstrom), nobody was sure the relation but they were fantastic. I didn’t realize until I got back home that there’s a google app that will actually scan images in better quality than just taking a picture of them.

Vikings vs Saints

Mon, 15 Jan 2018 01:22:03 +0000

This game may have just been one of the greatest games of football I’ve ever seen. I seriously thought the Saints would pull through in the end, but Minnesota managed to pull of a literal last minute miracle. The entire second half was just incredible. Kudos to both teams for showing off just how insanely good they were.

Initial Thor: Ragnarok reaction

Fri, 03 Nov 2017 03:04:29 +0000

Thor: Ragnarok was the Thor movie to end all Thor movies. It had pretty much everything, from scenes that would fit perfectly on album covers for power metal bands, the 80s norse retro future synthwave feel, some serious surprises, and by far the most hilarious comedy in the entire MCU. An extra special feat considering the subject matter (the literal apocalypse in Asguard) that really pulled it off.

Destiny vs Warframe

Mon, 30 Oct 2017 22:29:58 +0000

So, having completed Destiny 2’s story campaign and started on the post-story/max level stuff I feel good enough to state that the only real similarity between Destiny and Warframe is that they’re both Sci-Fi games based around a loot grind. But even how they go about doing the loot grind is different. The best analogy I found is Destiny 2 is a Movie and Warframe is a TV show. Destiny is gorgeous, it oozes AAA quality in every aspect from art, to music to VAs (Nathon Fillion as Cayde-6 is absolutely amazing), and you know it had the budget to match when making the game. This is your big budget blockbuster superhero movie. Warframe on the other hand is the TV Show that started out kinda rough (ok really rough) with next to no budget and through sheer charm managed to not only hit syndication, but continually grow their following every season. Due to its long history and low budget past, it has had its share of highs and lows, and it definitely has its share of odd quirks and unresolved loose ends, but where it’s at now is not only good, it’s being compared very favorably against these big budget blockbuster cinematic experiences.

Sensible Ideas Involving Guns

Tue, 03 Oct 2017 22:00:28 +0000

I found this on reddit. Original thread here by /u/honeybunchesofpwn. This is something that I feel should be read.

“Well it depends on what it is you’re trying to solve. If you’re trying to solve highly unique events like what happened in Las Vegas, it’s gonna be difficult.

However, if you want to tackle the broader issue of gun violence, there are some substantial changes we can make that will have a positive impact.

Now this is Dogfighting

Sat, 30 Sep 2017 01:59:28 +0000

EVE: Valkyrie released this week. It is pretty much everything I’d ever want out of a space combat game. Lots of ships, lots of lasers/beams/guns/missiles/etc. Your ship feels tiny (in the EVE universe, you’re the fighters in the Carrier you can pilot on the MMO side of things) and your weapons feel great. I wish I had a VR system and a hotas joystick and I’d be in combat heaven. But nonetheless the Stix is my ship of choice, and I’m still trying to figure out whether I like the keyboard or gamepad more. I may just have to drop the money on a joystick if I can’t figure it out soon…

Roll the Dice

Wed, 20 Sep 2017 02:45:10 +0000

I’m on a big D&D kick right now, having just finished The Adventure Zone, and now moving onto Acquisitions Incorporated. It inspired me to make a permanent page for my kobold campaign idea, just in case I wind up DMing at some point.

D&D Beyond is going to be the resource of the future. So much good stuff there, and the page is so beautifully mobile friendly. And speaking of tools, this one looks to be shaping up pretty well to make maps and such. I’ll probably pick it up here in the nearish future.

A Love Letter Really

Sun, 10 Sep 2017 21:36:29 +0000

This is probably the best cover to Toto’s Africa ever.

Latest Games

Wed, 06 Sep 2017 02:11:35 +0000

I’m addicted to this newish mobile game called Creature Quest. It’s adorable, there isn’t really any pay to win (or at least the premium currency drops exceptionally often, so casual players never feel left out). And they just introduced a little kingdom building element today. Silly mobile games, I love you.

Speaking of love, I absolutely loved the Destiny 2 PC open beta, and am actually really excited about playing it. Unfortunately PC release is late October. Bleh…

That’s A Top 10 Regret

Mon, 21 Aug 2017 01:42:26 +0000

I should have run some bitcoin mining while I was in college. We all knew about it, and talked about it, but never did it because we didn’t really think it would go anywhere. However, if we had put in even $10 when we heard about it (which if we’d been mining, we would have been way more than that), I’d be worth $4.8 Million today.

Monuments

Thu, 17 Aug 2017 03:07:50 +0000

I’m starting to see a very worrying trend emerging in the US Political landscape. The far left is, probably unintentionally, trying to whitewash US history. Things in our past are ‘problematic’ and anything reminding them of that ‘problematic’ issue must be removed and eliminated. Antifa and BLM vandalized a statue in Atlanta called Peace, it was an angel holding an olive branch over a confederate soldier putting down his rifle. At the outset of the war some of the Atlanta City Gate Guard, a local militia, were among the first to take up arms against the North. After the war, a group of survivors went to the North on a peace tour and would go meet Union troops to help reunification and promote unity. The statue was created to honor them.

Enter the Void

Thu, 20 Jul 2017 14:17:42 +0000

And the Void is hungry, as far as a two month old kitten can be.

Valerian: City of a Thousand Planets Opening Scene

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 03:07:38 +0000

I went to see Spider-Man: Homecoming again today and they showed the opening scene of Valerian: City of a Thousand Planets. It blew me away.

It could have been its own short film, and it told the tale of humanity’s expansion and diplomatic missions via a space station in orbit around earth that began in the 1970s with each mission adding its own little bit to the station. As the years go by each mission adds its own bit to the station. Finally an alien race shows up, and it’s a peaceful first contact, and then another and another throughout many more years, and the station just gets bigger and bigger, until it was too big to be in Earth’s orbit anymore and they sent it off on a journey to continue its diplomatic legacy. It was such a heartwarming and positive thing and stands in such stark contrast to the generally expected first contact situations in the sci-fi genre. It was made even more beautiful because it was all set to Bowie’s Space Oddity.

Injustice 2

Mon, 05 Jun 2017 01:51:52 +0000

I’m usually really bad with fighting games, to the point I rarely go out of my way to play them anymore. That said… I’m still really bad at Injustice 2. I did make it through the entire story line with all the different paths on Medium difficulty though, so I’ve got that going for me.

Wonder Woman Has Got This

Fri, 02 Jun 2017 21:16:23 +0000

Wonder Woman has the definite potential to be DC’s Iron Man movie. That is, the movie that finally gets their superhero line off the ground. I will find it absolutely hilarious if Wonder Woman and Aquaman of all people wind up being the standout DC Movie characters.

I absolutely loved Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. She is pretty much the living embodiment of the character on screen. Chris Pine did a fantastic Job as Steve Trevor, and the chemistry the two of them had on screen was phenomenal.

Superhero Season Spring 2017

Thu, 25 May 2017 02:16:58 +0000

I really love my superhero shows. I can’t keep track of them all though, and some I’ve dropped because they weren’t terribly interesting to me (Gotham), or got horrible (I dropped Arrow last season, and haven’t followed it since). But since the TV seasons are over, I’ve decided to rank what I saw.

1.Legion This show is good. Really, really good, and transcends the genre. I believe it is probably one of the best shows on TV period this year. Everything from the writing, gorgeous cinematography you’d never expect to see outside theaters, soundtrack, unbelievably clever editing, and fantastic acting (Aubrey Plaza and Dan Stevens absolutely killed it, but everyone was great). So much stuff in this show is super subtle. Like how they play with aspect ratios, in a way that means something. I’ll be recommending this season to anyone and everyone for pretty much ever.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

Mon, 15 May 2017 03:07:42 +0000

Is probably the most Guy Ritchiest movie. I mean that in a “if you love his style, you’ll probably love this movie” kind of way. I did really enjoy it, but I’m fully aware that I’ll be in the minority here. The magic was siiiiick, and fantastic to look at. The dialogue was everything you’d expect from him. The action sequences were… interesting. I enjoyed them, but there were some parts that calling it ‘choppy and/or blurred’ is putting it nicely. This movie is definitely going on my guilty pleasures list.

Poem of a Fractured Mind

Sat, 13 May 2017 18:14:03 +0000

Here’s a poem I wrote from a darker time in my past.

It’s makeup. A mask that covers the broken soul, *A shivering beauty looking out through cracks and fissures hidden in unsubtle coverings.*Attempts to conform or portray, show a measure. To distract through pearlescent hues the emotions of a being hardly held together. The voice crying for attention, duplicitous in its dealings, becomes the audible mask. Coy and soft to world outside, screaming pain and insecurity the being hidden cries.

My favorite podcast right now

Wed, 10 May 2017 12:48:56 +0000

http://www.maximumfun.org/shows/adventure-zone

The sheer shenanigans this group gets up to leaves me in stitches. It’s a little slow the first couple episodes until they find their groove, but when they do… The voices, the actions, the really clever campaigns just turn this into something next level. And now I really want to play D&D again.

This fox is adorable

Tue, 02 May 2017 12:07:33 +0000

Fox steals dog’s toy.