03/17/2024 Snippet, PICKMAN’S MODELS.

Airlocks!

The first team was made up of three grenadiers and two Squad members, and when the door opened again, they had the exact same number of people. “There’s power and air, sir, but no people manning the gate,” the Squaddie told Tobias. “No communications network up on the other side, either. My suit couldn’t even find anything to handshake with.”

Reithner had been listening to one of the grenadiers, presumably telling her the same thing. “Nothing from our suits, either. The atmosphere is breathable, but the temperature is at thirty seven degrees.”

“Well, at least there’s no ice — no, wait.” Tobias frowned. “I forgot: your people still use Celsius. You’re saying it’s hot in there?”

“Yes. Blood temperature, in fact.” She sounded incredulous, which was fair, because so was Tobias. Most of Heinlein Base had been shut down and sealed off in order to conserve heat; the other human-occupied outposts had the exact same problem. If this place was that well heated, they probably had power, and to spare. Yet one more reason to investigate, he thought. Not to mention, handle gently.

Microsoft bends its neck on subscription-free Office.

Well, well, [expletive deleted] well: “Microsoft has announced that the next subscription-free version of its Office suite will launch later this year. A commercial preview of Office LTSC 2024 will be available from next month, with a full launch scheduled for later in the year.” It’ll be on a five-year support plan, and Microsoft fairly clearly does not want to offer it. However, as somebody in comments over there notes: Microsoft wants even less to keep losing customers to free word processing programs*.

Continue reading Microsoft bends its neck on subscription-free Office.

Monthly SCA meeting!

Had to prep for it, too. List of things that needed be gone over, paperwork to resolve, discussions on storage and staffing for the event I’m running – I like to pretend sometimes that I miss the old days, when we just did events. I don’t really, though. In the old days, none of us had any money and events were always one step away from a total disaster. Why, for the longest time we didn’t even really have spreadsheets. I’m trying to imagine running anything without spreadsheets, and failing.

Anyway: busy night.

Patreon Microfiction: ‘Fine Terran Craftmanship.’

Perhaps ‘Fine Terran Craftmanship’ is simply pro-Browning propaganda. But perhaps we should be unsurprised if, once we are out and about the stars, alien collectors flock to our planet to acquire M1911A1s and Avtomat Kalashnikovas in the same way that we will go to theirs to find guaranteed authentic Altarian needle-pistols and flame-spears. Some aesthetics might be universal.

Why the premise of BREATHE is getting under my skin.

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Short version: BREATHE is a post-apocalyptic movie where the world is out of oxygen, or something, but there’s a MacGuffin that can turn the air back on, only everybody left alive is apparently suffering from hypoxia and can’t think straight for ten minutes straight about, you know, starting out by getting the MacGuffin to work. But that’s not the thing that’s bugging me, really. That’s just lazy writing.

You know what’s really bothering me? You say all the oxygen’s gone, friend? Well, unless there’s been a giant scoop or something, all of that oxygen must have reacted with something. Like, say, carbon dioxide. Is that a safe assumption? You think it is?

Great. Then where are all the [expletive deleted] trees? Trees, plants, grass, moss, [expletive deleted] pond scum? They’re not breathing oxygen! Shoot, even if the trees died, bacteria are tough! They’ll be having a field day! The entire outside should be covered in green, and slimy to the touch!

:sigh: I’m getting old. This sort of thing never used to bother me.

A remake of Little Shop of Horrors?

I am worried about this: “Iconic genre filmmakers Joe Dante and Roger Corman are teaming with producer Brad Krevoy, on a new film project titled Little Shop of Halloween Horrors, which is a reboot of Corman’s classic 1960 horror comedy, Little Shop of Horrors.” The only reason I am not more alarmed is because ‘Joe Dante’ and ‘Roger Corman.’ I mean, Corman made the original. The ORIGINAL-original.

Continue reading A remake of Little Shop of Horrors?

Book of the Week: Lovecraft’s Iraq.

I saw David Rose’s Lovecraft’s Iraq and I thought I’d give it a whirl. I’m about halfway through it now, and it’s not half bad. The author is a war veteran from the time period that the book’s set in, and he’s obviously intimately familiar with what military life in Iraq was at that point. This gives the book a certain built-in authenticity when it suggests how the military would react to the Mythos.

Warning: it’s kind of bleak. Even by modern “Thomas Ligotti is my dark guru” cosmic horror standards.

#commissionearned