How to celebrate it:
…okay, fine, by wishing me a happy birthday. And thank you. But after that:
I’d feel bad about being so commercial about this, except that it’s my birthday, so I won’t.
]]>Hungry Like The Wolf, Duran Duran
#commissionearned
]]>Got to really buckle down for this one.
I was very worried that I might have to beat Victor senseless, or worse, with my cane. I didn’t want to, and wouldn’t have liked to; but when you’re following a man who murdered a man with his nails and teeth, then dined on rabbits and squirrels for dessert, the decision is not always yours to make. If Victor was rational by now, I was sure we could get him somewhere for a nice rest cure; if he wasn’t, well, it wasn’t like he was a major heir. I could get away with some rough handling. What I hadn’t expected was to discover Victor simply… placid. Although from the way his mouth and lower face was black in the moonlight, I suppose ‘sated’ would be a better term.
He was lolling on a park bench as we approached, head up and looking calmly at the moon. He did not turn to look at us; instead he sniffed, deeply. “Oh, hullo, Eddie,” he rumbled. “I’m so sorry; I left you behind! And, hah, the girl too. I never did get to grips with her.” His head snapped forward, and I could see his white grin in the gloom. “Maybe I’ll go back tomorrow night. Who’s your friend?”
“He’s, ah, you know. Mister W[*],” Edgar stammered, in a way that I found oddly gratifying. “I’m sure you know that name, Vic! I sent for him when you had your, ah, trouble.”
“Trouble? I haven’t had any trouble.” Victor guffawed, and I blinked. That didn’t sound like a dandy’s laugh at all. My hackles didn’t like it, either, and I wasn’t even sure that I possessed any. “Everyone else had the troubles this evening.”
]]>NOBODY WANTS TO DIE looks interesting, at least. Although I can’t wait to hear what nonsense they came up with to justify having magic in the game instead of just paying for the rights to do a Shadowrun game. Seriously, the licensing can’t be that much.
#commissionearned
]]>This GOOD TIMES animated reboot trailer is so incredibly racist, I refuse to put it on my nice, clean website*. It is so incredibly racist, it would make a white supremacist blink and ask, Can you really put that on television these days? It is so incredibly racist, I would not be surprised that this was Norman Lear’s announcing to the world that he had secretly been a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan all his life; and only revealing it now because he’s dead, and thus beyond the realm of human scorn and disapproval. Every human being involved with this production now defaults to Horrible Mode, and should be ashamed of themselves. Or possibly just make plans to retire to a monastery/nunnery, where they may contemplate their sins.
The animation is also shit, but you knew that going in.
Moe Lane
*h ttps://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/1628344-good-times-trailer-previews-netflixs-animated-sequel-to-1974-sitcom. If you absolutely must see it.
]]>At least for right now: FROZEN DREAMS is on sale for $8.51, TALES FROM THE FERMI RESOLUTION VOL 1 for $5.29, and MORGAN BAROD for $7.28. I’m not sure why those specific prices. Amazon sets them, not me. I still get paid the full amount I’m owed, so that’s cool, however they want to move books, they’re the subject matter expert and I am not.
#commissionearned
]]>I liked this. THE SPIDER WITHIN: A SPIDER-VERSE STORY isn’t epic superheroing, but it does go into what it feels like to be a teenager. I also like the underlying message of how teenagers should try and get a handle on the problem. Check it out.
Night Moves, Bob Seger
#commissionearned
]]>This has been a hard week to stay focused.
I flipped back the sheet, to the shudders of the madam and Edgar both. I tsk-tsked them both. “The dead don’t care if you’re rude.” I looked down, at the one eye left behind to stare at me. “Besides, this poor bastard’s past caring about anything.”
Which was all for the best. Besides the eye, the face was battered, with gouges ripped through cheeks, and chunks of scalp missing. I suspected that if I bothered to open the mouth, I’d find it full of broken teeth, but why bother? The man was dead. More importantly, I’d never seen him before. I flicked my eyes down, assessing his clothes. “I take it this was not your companion, then.”
Edgar looked over, gulped, and turned his head. “No, Ha– sir. He was gone by the time I was called for.”
The madam spoke up. “The two gentlemen arrived together, sir.” She wasn’t gulping, I noted. Well, it probably wasn’t her first corpse, either. “When the commotion started, I naturally sent for him, so that he could restrain his friend.”
“Restrain him from what? …Right,” I sighed. “Why don’t we start from the beginning?”
]]>We were nowhere near the Francis Scott Key Bridge last night. Everyone in the house is fine. And yes, that is going to be one Hell of a mess to clean up.
]]>#commissionearned
]]>Got snared on a little project, had to push myself to get some of this done.
The business I was upon was the sort that needed no gossipy cabbie to see, so I was half-soaked by the time I reached the disreputable house that was my destination. And there in front of me was young Edgar W[*], shivering and sniveling under the spluttering gaslight. His finery was soggy and his expression woebegone, neither of which were normal for him. But then; if the boy had been quite himself, he would never have needed to send for me.
These night-time enterprises typically go the same way, so I raised a hand to forestall him. “I do not care what you did or did not mean to do, my boy.” My tone at these little moments is much sterner than is my usual wont. It saves time. “That is not important. What is important is, who witnessed it, and who has been told already?”
“No! No!” he exclaimed, as if on cue. “It’s not like that, Harry!”
“On the contrary: it is always like that,” I told him, severely. “And no names. Names cost extra to wash away in the rain.”
]]>THE IRON MAIDEN is the HPL Historical Society’s latest Dark Adventure Radio Theater (DART). It’s not based on a Lovecraft story, because they’re out of those; but the good folks of the HPLHS have their little ways to bring something into the Mythos, yes, they do. I’m listening to it right now; the props will come in a few weeks. As always: check it out.
]]>Short version: GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE is absolutely pandering to me, and I am here for it.
Slightly longer version: I deserve this. I get to have nice things. I get to have a very amiable Ghostbusters movie where they bring back almost everybody they can and have them do spooky things with Mad Science and arcanobabble and callbacks and all the rest of it. The critics don’t get it, but then: they never freaking do. Don’t go in expecting ARRIVAL and you’ll be fine.
#commissionearned
]]>WHY?
Via @EsotericCD.
]]>Got turned onto this one this morning.
Starfish & Coffee, Prince
#commissionearned
]]>I almost stopped watching the trailer for MONKEY MAN when they start going off on rich people, blah blah, yadda yadda, I’m sorry but Hollywood is not really well-suited for making me believe that they give a flying rip for the underdog. But… there’s a lot of violence in this trailer. A lot of violence, and a lot of blood. This looks more like a monster movie from the point of view of the monster. It might make up for having to sit through a bunch of nonsense about applied economic theory.
The first one simply wasn’t gelling right. I’m going back to this one, instead.
“One wonders how much better a personal meeting might go,” I suggested, curious as to how it would be received this time. It was agreed that you had to know the right sort to get an introduction to the man, which I thought was rather clever of him. What surprised me was how difficult it was proving for me to know the right sort. I was almost starting to wonder if I had lost my touch.
“Oh, I have yet to meet him myself!” she cried, with a simper that made her somehow seem ten years younger. “I am assured by those who would know that it is no reflection on me. The poor man is so beset with would-be hanger-ons and creatures, it falls upon his true friends to ensure that only those advanced enough to understand his work are given the privilege of conferring with him directly.” The simper turned into a real smile, with just the hint of white. “I was most put out when I was first told this, of course. But now that I have studied his Method some, I quite understand their reasoning. I would have simply wasted his time before.”
“I find that impossible to believe,” I murmured more or less automatically. “At any rate, clearly I must attend one of the good doctor’s lectures, without delay. There is one this Friday, is there not?”
“Every Monday and Friday,” she told me immediately: I nodded, to cover the odd flicker of apprehension I felt from seeing her flashing eyes. “Seven PM sharp, at the Gibbons Building. The Doctor suggests that we refrain from eating for an hour before attending a lecture, and to drink nothing but broth. ‘A Clear stomach makes a Clear mind,” he always says.”
]]>…Which is to say, dumping your undesirables into another timeline, naked, is not really humane at all*. I can’t imagine that the people living on the other side of “It’s Sort of Humane” enjoy being that first timeline’s dumping grounds, either. Well, that’s what they get for not inventing dimensional travel.
Moe Lane
*Honestly, this is a very grim piece. It’s just that all of the assumptions about what kind of worlds are involved are in my head, mostly because I didn’t want to inflict that particular bit of worldbuilding on the rest of you.
]]>Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, Tom Lehrer
#commissionearned
]]>Dowsing!
In theory, finding the safe’s new location would be simplicity itself. I had the dowsing rods recalibrated to the vibratory frequency of the safe where it had touched the floor. That made it separate from the frequencies of the safe and the floor, so all I had to do was dowse until I had a nibble. That would give me a direction to start with. Then I would go to a second location, dowse again, and get the direction from there. After that, it would be a simple matter of using a map and some math.
Ah, yes. ‘Simple.’
The primary problem was that the range on my dowsing rods was constrained by the very specificity I needed. Getting the frequency of just the bank safe had been accomplished by finding one that was from the same manufacturer, and made at the same time. That was trivial, given how regimented the Third Werk had been — and I was able to triangulate from halfway across the town, in the privacy of mine and Francesco’s rented rooms.
That wouldn’t be an option here. I’d need to be considerably closer to my target before I got a meaningful hit, and unfortunately that would mean having to take readings in public. People notice dowsers. They especially notice dowsers who hang about government offices and military garrisons. Being a foreigner might not even matter; they’d already be assuming I was a spy.
]]>I have a pile of books in my Kindle that I need to get around to reading, and it’s been a hectic week, sorry. So go ahead: you tell me what we should be reading. Because I honestly don’t have a clue.
Moe Lane
PS: Feel free to hype your own book.
]]>KUNG FU PANDA has no business being this good a movie. Seriously, everybody thought it was going to suck: it had all the warning signs. I think I watched this on my flight back from Hawaii, and I was mesmerized at how easily it all worked. Just goes to show, huh?
#commissionearned
]]>Had to: my wife’s job is shifting a little on the telework thing, and… yeah, well. I got a kid who is… ah, hah, going to be of an age soon where driving lessons will need to be a thing. Believe me, I don’t know where the time went, either.
Anyway, feel free to celebrate the steady advance of time with me by buying my books! Although I may go take a nap, instead. Dunno why I’m so tired, though. All I did today was sit at a desk for four hours and sign a crap-ton of paperwork.
]]>#commissionearned
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