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Bringing back blogging like it's 2008

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This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, JEB!

Essays, Not Rants! 189: This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, JEB!   I don’t really talk about politics on this blog…ever. Well, aside from, y’know, the historical or entries on diversity or women in fiction. But every now and then something shows up that’s nonpartisan enough but still related enough to what I usually write about for a good discussion.   An interview with Jeb Bush (Or JEB) has been making the rounds lately, wherein he’s asked who his favorite superhero is. This alone is worth n

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Menu-Assisted Narrative

Essays, Not Rants! 378: Menu-Assisted Narrative   Mega Man Zero ends with Zero facing down a hoard of Pantheons, his saber ready and his will resolved to fight every last enemy that crosses his path. The music swells and he charges off into battle.   The sequel picks up a year later and the opening stage is you, as Zero, still fighting the fight. The implication is clear: Zero’s been at it for the entire year since the first installment. It offers a neat sense of continuity between the two games

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Frickin' Damsels

Essays, Not Rants! 360: Frickin’ Damsels   The original Kingdom Hearts follows a pretty typical story structure. Boy is childhood friends with Girl and Rival. Home gets destroyed, everyone gets separated. Boy sets out to find Girl and Rival. Girl is captured by bad guys, Rival turns to dark side. Boy rescues Girl, helps redeem Rival.   In the third game, Kingdom Hearts II (don’t ask about the numbering), the Girl, Kairi, winds up being captured by the bad guys again and the Boy, Sora, sets out t

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Expository Conflict

Essays, Not Rants! 181: Expository Conflict   Othello really hits the ground running. The first time we see the titular character in Shakespeare’s play he’s on trial in a war room. Now, it’s important to note that this is his introduction, this is when we learn who he is.   The easiest way to clue the audience in would be to just give us an infodump. Have people go “This is Othello, the Moor, who’s a general, and married to Desdemona, a senator’s daughter” in some fashion. No, it’s certainly not

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Let The Past Die

Essays, Not Rants! 300: Let The Past Die   Part of why I like The Force Awakens is that its characters are, in many ways, Star Wars fans themselves. Rey and Kylo Ren both grew up on stories about the Rebellion and the Empire (though with different takeaways) and so want to live out their version of the stories. Kylo fashions himself into an ersatz Darth Vader, Rey sees the chance to join up with the legendary Han Solo and maybe become a Jedi like Luke Skywalker. The Last Jedi, on the other hand,

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Hurricane Sandy: Damaged Park

My ragtag band of survivors and I headed to the Kimmel building for food an laptop/phone charging. On the way we passed Washington Square Park.'   Well. Wow.     On our way back we found an open pizza store and feasted like kings. Tonight will involve poker and sacrificing someone's laptop battery for a movie.   Tomorrow the ragtag band of survivors will head out into the wild.

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Letting Different People Be Different

Essays, Not Rants! 236: Letting People Be Different   One of the many (many, many) things I love about Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is that the hunky guy Rebecca is pining for is an Asian guy (named Josh, but that parts not important right now). It’s incredibly refreshing — when was the last time you saw an Asian male as a romantic lead, let alone an object of sexual desire by a white woman in fiction? But that leads me to another one of the things I love about the show: it’s not a big deal. No one cares

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Gaming Morality

Essays, Not Rants! 252: Gaming Morality   So here's the basic concept of Dishonored 2: the empress has been deposed. You play as either said deposed empress (Emily) or her royal protector (Corvo) and carve a path of revenge against the usurper and her cabal of those who dishonored you (hence the title). Along the way you meet the Outsider who gives you a bunch of magical powers, ranging from teleporting and stopping time to linking enemies together (so if you kill one you kill 'em all!) to strai

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Rebels

So the girlfriend and I recently started watching Star Wars Rebels.   And holy cyprinidae it is so good.   We're only five-or-so episodes into Season Two (she's studying for Major Graduate Physics Exams), but dang. I'm surprised by how much I unapologetically enjoy this show.   Also: Chopper is wonderful.

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that creative life

Three rejections in three days by three different groups for three different projects.   Woo.   EDIT: Four hours after this was posted, I got another rejection letter!

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Top Nine Movies of 2013

Essays, Not Rants! 104: Top Ten Movies of 2013   I have weird taste. I love pulp, but I love heart, and I love a movie well done. In light of that, here are my top nine movies of 2013. Some movies didn’t make the cut. I really liked 12 Years a Slave for what it managed to do, that is create a story about slavery was genuinely moving yet not a white guilt tract. And I thought Her was fantastic as I did Star Trek Into Darkness, but all those aren’t on this list. 
So what movies are? These are the

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With Regards To Capes

Essays Not Rants! 066: With Regards to Capes   In Man Of Steel Superman has lost his usual red underwear. Well, more he never has it in the first place in this adaption. It's no wonder why, no one, not even Batman, wears their underwear outside anymore.   That said, Superman still has his cape, something that's seemingly as much an artifact as the underwear thing. Yes, Thor and Loki both have capes, but they're demigods. Batman's cape is explained away as serving not only the effect he creates b

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Juggling an AK

Essays, Not Rants! 204: Juggling An AK   I’ve had some brushes with virtual reality before, through prototype Oculi and Google Cardboard — working at a game center has its perks. It’s really cool to be able to see a world around you and look around it; one game in particular had a PS3 controller hooked up so you could move too. All very neat stuff, a little gimicky, sure, but it’s exciting to see that level of immersion.   Then I had the chance to play Epic’s “ ” tech demo today.   And wow.   L

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Stepping Away

Essays, Not Rants! 286: Stepping Away   Ed Skrein – the dude who played Ajax in Deadpool — made headlines recently. Not for taking a role but rather for stepping down from one. See, he was tapped to be in the reboot adaption of Heckboy. But the character he was slated to play, Major Ben Daimio, is Japanese-American in the comics, and Ed Skrein is decidedly, er, white. Upon finding out that his casting would be whitewashing, Skrein stepped down from the role in order to not be part of that machin

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Space Car

Essays, Not Rants! 307: Space Car   There is a car in space right now.   Like an actual road-safe, driven on earth on an actual road, not-originally-intended-for-space car in space. And it was playing David Bowie until it ran out of juice.   So, a while ago, Tesla/SpaceX/Boring Company founder/potential supervillain Elon Musk tweeted that the Falcon Heavy’s test payload would be his own Tesla Roadster. The Falcon Heavy is the latest rocket to come out of Musk’s SpaceX. Which sounds pretty cool b

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Hurricane Sandy: Uncommon Kindness

Day 3. Still no water or power on our floor. My ragtag band of survivors and I intend to head out in search of food and/or epic adventure. If we had power our movie marathon would be The Day After Tomorrow, I Am Legend, and Cloverfield in keeping with the spirit. Currently no sign of zombies. Or roommate.     Slept good last night. In bed early, woke up late. Quite wonderful.   Raymond and I headed down to Weinstein for lunch: the food was hot and wonderful. Washed up and sat around and charge

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Anberlin in NYC

There was a concert across the street from my dorm tonight.     As in literally across the street. Friggin'. Awesome.

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Rest of Spain and Three Days in Morocco

My apologies for not updating this more regularly. You really think I would given the whole being in Spain and Morocco thing.   But anyway. We spent a day in Cordoba, two nights in Grenada (the Spanish city, not the Carribean island [yes, I have to make this distinction]), then drove to Tarifa and took a ferry to Tangiers where we've been since. I suppose it's time for another list? Have I mentioned how awesome it is to have your school pay for your wine and beer? I may or may not have been p

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Two More Hours

Essays, Not Rants! 085: Two More Hours   The book Ender's Game is near to my heart. I listed it as my favorite book on my college apps years ago (in lieu of The Lord of the Rings — too cliché). I've read it at three different stages of my life: in high school, in the army (during basic training and later as a corporal), and for class during my freshman year of university. What I'm saying is I love the book. Not just because it's about kid-soldiers saving the world, but because it explores questi

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Worlds Need Rules

Essays, Not Rants! 017: Worlds Need Rules   I like writing. No, not just my weekly essay (which is certainly not a rant), but fiction. Sometimes I write stuff grounded firmly in this world, but I really enjoy building worlds of fantasy or science fiction. I’ve got a science fiction side project I like to fiddle with here and there and I run a fantasy RPG with some friends. For both of these I’ve made intricate worlds with some semblance of a history and culture. But just as important as the sett

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Top Nine Movies of 2018

Essays, Not Rants! 362: Top Nine Movies of 2018   Captain Marvel came out this weekend but I have other engagements and so cannot nerd out intelligently. Instead, please enjoy a curated selection of movies from the past year that I consider exceptional in one way or another.   As always, there are nine because there’s always space for one more.   9. Bumblebee Look, I’m as surprised as you are. As much as I am a sucker for giant robots, the Transformers movies have hitherto all been cheap thrills

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