Who are the good guys in Star Wars?

So I keep seeing adverts for "Star Wars: Rebels" and it harkens me back to the the myriad plot points that bug me:

• Yoda: Super-powerful Jedi master. What does he do with his power and skills? Hides on a freakin' jungle planet out in the middle of nowhere, lies to Luke about being the last Jedi, and won't tell Luke the truth of his parentage.
  
  Conclusion: he's a lying, impotent little manipulator. Instead of trying to constructively counter the rising fascist Empire after his failed assassination attempt on Palpatine, he hides like a coward then manipulates the son of the very man he alienated and opposed joining the Jedi to shape into a weapon as a proxy.
  
  Further, he's a bit of a sexist, keeping Leia as the "backup" to Luke and never training her at all in Jedi powers.
• Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi: Pretty much the same thing, but he's a stalker on a desert planet taking a more active, manipulative role in turning Luke into a weapon against Palpatine and Vader/Anakin. He doesn't own up to lying until he's called on it after he's a Force ghost. He's as much of a coward and manipulator as Yoda, only more pathetic for letting Yoda set that policy from another part of the freakin' galaxy.
• Luke Skywalker: Seriously. He kept the surname of "Skywalker", the very name of the guy who leads the betrayal of the Jedi, slaughters kids, and all that. If you're loyal to the Jedi, you'd think that name would attract negative attention. If you're an Imperial agent, you'd think that name would come up and make its way to the Emperor's desk. WTF was the Empire doing on Tatooine, anyway?
• Stormtroopers: What exactly is the good of that armor if arrows and rocks can kill people wearing it?
• Yavin IV Base: Seriously. As soon as the Death Star popped in, WHY DIDN'T THE REBELS EVACUATE?
• The Sith: If there can only be two, why are there so many "Dark Jedi" being used by Palpatine and Vader in so many side-stories?
• Jedi: Okay, seriously, what's up with the impractical robes? Why was Luke in his black-outfit (which looked very Sith-ish) the only practically-garbed Jedi? Oh and the weird emotional-suppression creed Yoda preached: what the hell is up with that? You're a star-spanning civilization. You don't understand what that kind of emotional suppression can do to a human mind? Seriously? WTF?
• Chewbacca: Meets Yoda in Episode III. Forgets about it or never brings it up when Obi-Wan and Luke come on the Millennium Falcon for the first time. Um...?
• Actually, the entire Luke vs the Emperor and Vader thing: Unnecessary. A combination of Han and Leia's commando team on Endor, coupled with the space assault led by Lando and Wedge are what actually blow up the Death Star and kill everyone on board. The Force wasn't going to save Palpatine and Vader from an explosion of that size. Luke's entire duel on the Death Star II was irrelevant and pointless. One could argue the character stops being relevant right after A New Hope.

So, yeah. Star Wars. Left me with some issues. There you have it.

Review: The Rhesus Chart

Finished it last night.

The latest in the Laundry Files stories by Charles Stross, The Rhesus Chart tells the next story of Bob Howard, Darkside Hacker extraordinaire and apprentice Eater of Souls who works for the Laundry, the UK's occult intelligence service.

Without spoiling the story too much, the occult menace in this story is vampires (which, of course, don't exist), but as with any of the Laundry stories, that doesn't begin to touch on the actual situation.

I personally have mixed feelings about the book. As someone now-trained in Agile software development and on multiple Scrum teams, I found the Scrum (an actual group of characters in the story) to be disturbingly-familiar. Especially the character who leads the Scrum and speaks in buzzwords.

I'm starting to look at certain people in my company in a new light.

But I digress... there were cool things. I always enjoy Bob's true nemesis: corporate b.s. and matrix management, but otherwise I felt the story seemed to drag a lot. It meandered aimlessly for a while then the conclusion felt rushed and abrupt, if deeply, deeply fucked up.

I enjoyed it, but it felt a bit hollow next to the previous offerings. I'm hoping the next one is a bit meatier.

Wednesday Interwebz

• Hard not to agree.
• 
• A new take on shipping.
• That's no moon.

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In other news, I needed to use up some ingredients in the kitchen last night so I made a batch of brownies. Then I realized the only sugar I had in the place was some bags of cane sugar I'd gotten from FSM-knows-where.

An hour later, I was four brownies into the batch before I managed the Herculean effort of self-control and stopped gobbling them down.

Not as powerfully-sweet, nor as fluffy, but tasty all the same.

I may have to try this again one day. Y'know, for SCIENCE!

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My continuing education in learning JavaScript is a constant and painful reminder as to how I am woefully unsuited to coding.

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I'm about 95% done reading The Rhesus Chart by Charles Stross. The latest Laundry novel is okay. It's not really grabbing me like some of the others and feels a bit like a slog, but there's some clever stuff in there (as always).

In parallel, I'm reading The City of Light by Will Wight. The third novel in his Traveler's Gate trilogy is also okay. It's got some good stuff, but I'm still having trouble feeling a lot of sympathy for any characters. I do like his concept of "Incarnation" (a magic user uses too much magic and becomes the embodiment of the user's source of magic). Still worth my reading time.

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Guardians of the Galaxy on Friday. Woo-hoo!

Review: Space Pirate Captain Harlock

Earlier today, I watched Space Pirate Captain Harlock.

Released in Japan in 2013, Space Pirate Captain Harlock is a computer-animated film about the notorious space pirate, Captain Harlock (yes, I know it was hard to divine that from the title) as he fights against the corrupt Gaia Coalition that controls the Earth, the last resource for humanity.

So... yeah. The plot makes little to no sense, but I mostly manage to ignore that in favor of the visual effects, which are frankly outstanding. This was a gorgeous movie. Apparently it took over 1400 shots using 806 machines to render over five years. Something in the area of 250 terabytes of data in the rendering. Crazy shit.

If you have the time and you're looking for some brain-candy space opera, see if you can watch a copy of this. It's cheese-tacular and batshit crazy.

huh

This morning I've seen lightning flashes across the sky and now I'm watching it rain for the first time in... wow... months. And it's freakin' July. Odd.

Comic stuff

• So, Thor is now a woman. No matter how I look at this, it just seems like pandering to me. Marvel is just trying to say: "Oooh! Look at us! We're about diversity and being edgy! Ladies, buy our comics! And boys, we'll aim for some cheesecake shots so you keep buying!"
• I guess the Falcon is now Captain America? Cool? I honestly haven't been keeping track of Marvel comics in years, so I have no reaction to offer.
• I'm of two minds on the whole re-imagining thing that comics keep doing. On the one hand, it's nice they're trying to freshen up some brands, but on the other hand, it's kind of lazy. Instead of aiming for a new, cool character, writers just slap a socially-relevant label on an existing character as a sort of nod to being "diverse", such as a Middle-Eastern-American Green Lantern or a female Thor or whatever. Then again, it's just comics. I should give 'em props for trying to keep comics relevant to modern-day.
• I re-watched Captain America: The First Avenger yesterday (coincidentally). I'm still impressed by how well-done the film was. It really was the supporting characters that helped make it awesome. Agent Carter and the Howling Commandos were really solid and the Red Skull was just perfect.

Truth

All anyone asks, really.

Today's Saying

From a conversation in the office:

Co-worker: "You are filled with the milk of human kindness."

Me: "And I'm lactose intolerant."

More reflections

I'm spending a few days wrapping up my thirteen-year game in email. Crafting epilogs and the like.

Meanwhile, one player has his own thoughts on the campaign..

So what next?

Well, I have other campaigns in-progress. One modern-day-ish campaign of super-powered hunted characters. You know the trope. Scanners meets "The Tomorrow People" meets "X-Men". It's stalled from the loss of certain key players, but I hope to revisit it one day.

Got a few other fantasy games going in the same world as the uber-campaign, though I'm only running one of those.

I plan to focus on "real life" endeavors a bit more and polish up some job skills. Maybe shed a few pounds, too. Yeah right...

Bumps in the Monday road

The bike gods demand - DEMAND - I spend more money on my bike. Specifically to sate its hunger for inner tubes.

At least it waited until I was 2/3rds of the way home before delivering unto me yet another flat tire.

*(&($*#%ing bike...

End of an Era

In February of 2001, four friends and I started recording a home-grown role-playing campaign we'd created from scratch using the rules from Steve Jackson Games' GURPS.

Before the year ended, our numbers were around seven or eight players (it varied as schedules allowed).

For the next thirteen years, we'd game at least once a month (with the occasional skipped month due to schedule problems). Some of our number would marry. Some of our number would jaunt off across the globe, only to return later. Some of our number would leave, answering the call of real life. Some of our number would be asked to leave, as personalities conflicted.

Last night was the conclusion of thirteen years and five months of fairly-frequent gaming in the classic fantasy vein: lowly would-be heroes rise up to save the world, etc.

Sure, it was loaded with tropes. So. Many. Tropes. It wasn't particularly original, though I found our spin on things to be pretty clever (in all humility).

However one looks at it, it was thirteen years of sitting around a table with good friends, some dice, some paper (and later, laptops, 'cause... 21st Century and all that). It was thirteen years of pizza, Chinese food, sushi, beer, candy, pretzels, chips, and FSM-knows-what-else. Later it was home-cooked meals, sometimes by one of our number, sometimes by an incredibly-understanding spouse of one of our number.

That was a damn good thirteen years.

We're not done as a group. We've got other campaigns - most of which are set in the same made-up world - but the campaign that served as the foundation to all of it is now over.

It's a bittersweet feeling for me. Both a relief and something I'll miss terribly. Now I need to figure out how I'll redirect my OCD elsewhere.

Heh.

To those I game (or gamed) with, if you're reading this, thank you for your time, your patience, your participation, and your special brand of crazy. I expect to be rolling the dice at the retirement home with you lads.

Some cool things

• How to approach every day like an explorer
• Spy stuff
• Tool pen!!!
• Want to buy a tank?
• Friday.

Sensei Who

(via Nerdist.

This needs to be an incarnation of the Doctor for real.

and things

In an effort to combat my lazy, gluttonous nature, I'm embarking on an ambitious plan of exercising a lot and cutting back on the bad stuff.

I'm not cutting out sweets and booze, just cutting back. I know I don't have the willpower to cut it out entirely.

This week I've made some traction on that plan. Bike riding some days, running on others (actually running at points, not sort-of-trotting). I've been good and had no more than one alcoholic beverage, often forgoing that if I have dessert or sugary snacks at any point.

Now that I've had a few days to contemplate this, I gotta say this sucks. Still, sacrifices must be made.

Also (slowly) teaching myself JavaScript. I used to have a basic working knowledge of PERL, so certain underlying concepts are pretty easy to pick up but the book I'm using has very strict formatting requirements in its online tests, so I'm finding myself occasionally cursing.

Still, it's a good brain exercise. Managed to slam out a few chapters/tests yesterday after running and all that.

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Finished "Rogues", the compilation of stories edited by George R.R. Martin (and someone else whose name escapes me at the moment). Has a lot of really good short stories in it, including a great Scott Lynch story, an utterly brilliant Neil Gaiman story (about the Marquis de Carabas, no less), and a truly awesome Patrick Rothfuss story. By comparison, Martin's offering is kind of weak tea, actually. A bit disappointing, but whatever works.

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Day two of my makeshift bicycle repairs. I've found my inner-tube issues manifest after about a week of bike use, so I've a ways to go before I'm even somewhat-confident I fixed the problem.

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This weekend starts the end of a role-playing campaign I've been running/co-running for over fifteen years. It's been keeping me up at nights trying to figure out how to finish this off properly. It's exhausting to run and part of me wants to finish it as soon as possible, while part of me wants to slow down and do it right. The years have taken their toll on players and what was once a group of eight is now down to four, so the pressure is kind of on.

I'm thinking of trying my hand at converting the campaign into actual stories (maybe novels?) at some point. Guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

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Because of this:



I can no longer hear the Game of Thrones theme without hearing Peter Dinklage's name on the edge of my hearing.

This is not really a bad thing.

Review: "Tower Lord" by Anthony Ryan

The sequel to "Blood Song", "Tower Lord" continues the adventures of Vaelin Al Sorna, the swordsman who has the magical gift called the Blood Song.

The story starts off shortly after the events in the first book. Well, the latest events in the book. "Blood Song" had a tendency to jump about in time, making the narrative less-than-linear.

"Tower Lord" doesn't generally have that problem.

It's a bit hard to review this book without spoiling it, and I'm loathe to do so, but it's a solid sequel. It's a vicious story, making "Blood Song" seem like a fluffy romp through daffodils and rainbows in parts.

Unlike "Blood Song" that really only had two point-of-view protagonists (Vaelin and Verniers), "Tower Lord" splits off into what is really five distinct POV characters: Vaelin, Verniers (poor schmuck), Princess Lyrna, Frentis, and a new character.

The story is deeply fucked-up but interesting and engaging. Anthony Ryan is brilliant in his tales of victory snatched from the ashes and victories turning into ash. His villains are explored in greater detail with newer, more despicable, ones added for good measure.

Ryan's heroes are horribly-scarred people, both internally and externally, but likeable for all their flaws.

"Tower Lord" ends on some interesting notes, leaving me wondering where the next book is going. I can't wait to read it.

stuff-n-things

I'm having one of those weeks in which everything I touch seems to want to turn into a hydra of complicated mess or just turn into crap.

I still don't know why my main DVD player died. Power supply? And the second one is... fussy.

On the plus side, I got my copy of Tower Lord by Anthony Ryan yesterday. So... goooood.....

And now that it's the Third of July:



Compelling argument.