Yup, Illinois has gone and legalized weed. I love my adopted state.
Hurrah!
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Monthly Archives: June 2019
Fleeced
Mary had a little lamb
A little lamb
A little lamb
When Mary’s parents posted pics of their kid cuddling with, uh, another kid, they got traction like you wouldn’t believe. Clicks! Likes! Shares! In the front seat, her parents talked in quiet voices about exposure, and leverage, and monetization schemes.
Mary had a little lamb
Mary wasn’t her real name, and her excitement about encounters with domestic feed animals was quickly dispelled. She continued to pose and giggle as instructed. At first because she soaked in her parents’ attention. Later, fear made her smile, and clutch whatever smelly, wriggling animal her parents ordered her to hug. No one threatened Mary with physical harm. No touched her inappropriately. But as her parents tried, without success, to recapture the charm of that first, viral image, Mary worried the only value she brought to her family was as a prop. Mary’s father circled his child, phone obscuring his face. “Relax,” he ordered Mary. “Hug the nice lambie and smile for Daddy, okay?”
Her fleece was white as snow.
Zuckerberg is bored?
I read the news that Facebook is launching its own cryptocurrency and couldn’t help but laugh. Dear reader, don’t fall for the scam. Cryptocurrency is fiat currency, just like good old US dollars, but unlike with US dollars there’s no central bank to guarantee that sudden dips in value don’t become downward spirals of doom. The only unique value proposition I see in cryptocurrency is the ability to anonymously purchase goods from online drug marketplaces like the original Silk Road. I don’t currently own any coins (or shares in coins) of any cryptocurrency, and I can’t imagine any circumstances in which that would change.
Boys and their toys, amiright?
Wolf Pact
Mark’s remarks left her speechless and less sure of herself, but more certain than ever that lecherous men, when confronted, will always speak well of each other.
This Old Guy reviews: Frostpunk
This Old Guy’s first video game console was a Magnavox Odyssey and his first computer an Apple IIe. Last five games purchased: Frostpunk (PC), Mortal Kombat 11 (PS4), Anthem (PC), Civ VI DLC Rising Storm (PC), Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4).
Do you like a challenge?
Frostpunk asks players to manage a city in bitterly cold conditions that only seem to get worse. You’ll need to gather scarce resources, research tech advances and make interesting decisions about how your new city will operate. How many hunters do you send into the cold? Will children be part of your workforce? Will your medics be quick to amputate limbs to save lives? Will you start a cult of personality to guarantee your continued rule?
The city building experience is aided and improved (after you’ve researched the proper tech and built a dedicated facility) by scouts who roam the frozen wasteland. Scouts will return rare resources but pose moral and practical dilemmas of their own. Do you escort refugees back to the city, costing the scouts chances to explore, or let the strangers fend for themselves?
Interesting choices, all with consequences, make for solid gameplay. But I’ve always been fond of lush graphics, too, and Frostpunk delivers on that front. In a game that demands constant monitoring of resource inputs and consumption, I found myself upgrading all instances of a particular building because the new look was too adorable to resist. The visuals when temperatures rise and fall are also fun without being obtrusive.
No quibbles with the user interface design, with the caveat that I’ve played vaguely similar games in the past, including Sim City, Age of Empires and Caesar III, all of which rely upon roughly similar mental models for city building.
Old guy topline takeaway? Frostpunk delivers a challenging experience, framed by an apocalyptic storyline rich in detail and full of surprises. I’ve finished the main scenario (after three tries) and the Refugees scenario (on my second try.) I can’t wait to see what the Fall of Winterhome scenario has waiting for me.
Dubious: Dark Phoenix
I’m not excited by the new X-men film (me, the guy with Magneto tattooed on his back, and Wolverine, Colossus and Psylocke inked on my legs.) Why not? Well, I admire Sophie Turner’s acting skills, and Michael Fassbender’s Magneto is inspired, but the creators have either forgotten or never knew why the fundamental reason the Jean Gray/Phoenix storyline was special.
Comic book readers knew Jean Gray before the Phoenix saga, you see, for years and years. Jean arrived at the mansion back at the very beginning; she was Marvel Girl, and a source of adolescent jockeying between Cyclops, Ice Man and all the dudes (only dudes, of course!) present. She was a constant, a member of this alternative family who didn’t get great lines and who wasn’t well defined, but she was still a foundational element.
Her transformation into Phoenix (and her eventual fate) was shocking and fascinating and revolutionary, but that shock and fascination depended upon the familiarity the fan base had with Jean Grey. She wasn’t just some character trotted out for the purpose of a comic book (or a single movie), she was an intimate part of the X-men family (and Marvel universe.)
SPOILERS AHEAD
Turn back now if you’re not familiar with the Dark Phoenix saga, and how the threat is ultimately resolved.
When the first Dark Phoenix comics came out, it was not unusual for characters to die and then return. Professor X faked his own death at least once (sorry, adopted children, but it’s for your own good) but always came back. (Ha ha! I was in the basement all along!)
Having a foundational character die a permanent death, though? That was unheard-of, a total shock. The clear-eyed refusal on the part of Marvel’s editorial department to resurrect Jean Grey for decades elevated her demise into something more than just a parable about trying to control immense power. Jean Grey’s death was a genuine, human tragedy, and a sign at the time that comic book makers were ready to stop making excuses for the medium of comic book art and start trying to take full advantage of the form.
No matter how well-written the script, how talented the actors, or how clever the director, I’m skeptical that there’s time in a single movie to establish the bond between the audience and the Jean Grey character that the original comics leveraged. The easy point of comparison is the recent Avengers: Endgame film; the bonds between audience and characters were built and reaffirmed over more than twenty films. Jean Grey’s final fate should hit us as square as any of the deaths in Avengers: Endgame, but I’m dubious.
(And it doesn’t help that they’ve already tried to make a movie out of the Dark Phoenix saga, and X-men: the Last Stand was so terrible.)
As cocky as…
A tow truck sitting in front of a ‘No Parking’ sign.