“Too old for free candy? Never!”

The pony of the pink coat and mane speaks great wisdom. Not that I get free candy all that often as an adult, but the highly discounted post-Halloween candy is nearly as good. Plus my office at work sits near the break room where the other adults dump their excess candy. I will eat well, far too well, after Halloween. All the tasty candy will only sabotage my attempts to lose weight for a few weeks.

I dislike the lack of dark chocolate in Halloween candy though. Even as a kid, I loved the stuff over all other forms of candy. Christmas and especially Valentine candy is superior in that respect. Given my usual preference for sugary sweetness, I suppose it is a bit odd I like my chocolate bitter as can be. Not that I’ve ever claimed to be anything other than odd. York Peppermint Patties and Mounds/Almond Joy remain the only sources of dark chocolate commonly found in the Halloween variety packs, and that fact saddens me. Even Hershey’s Special Dark minis would be a welcome improvement.

A collection of my favorite horriffic entertainment

I should probably post something vaguely related to Halloween before the fact, I guess. A quick rundown of some favorite books/comics/movies/games today, and some candy chat on Sunday.

Movies

The Resurrected (called Shatterbrain in some places) – When I lived in apartments with their minimal trick-or-treater traffic, I made a habit of using Halloween to scour Netflix for terrible horror movies or good ones that slipped under my radar. The Resurrected is one of the rare gems I discovered in the process. By far the most faithful and well-executed adaptation of a Lovecraft story (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward) I’ve ever seen. The script, pacing, and performances were all remarkably solid, especially for a film that ended up as a straight-to-video release.

Re-Animator – Not a particularly faithful adaptation of Lovecraft, but entertaining nonetheless. And the sequels get so ridiculous and over-the-top with the premise, I can’t help but enjoy them as well. Jeffrey Combs will always be Herbert West to me.

Jason X – The progression of the Friday the 13th franchise mirrors that of most slasher series. The filmmakers start out serious and get increasingly ridiculous with each successive movie. By The New Blood and Jason Takes Manhattan, the series was already completely off the rails, but Jason X somehow managed to take the series further off of them. Into space (with a cast full of people who would go on to be part of the TV show Andromeda), complete with nanotech upgrades for Jason Voorhies. Freddy vs. Jason was Shakespeare in comparison, but Jason X will always hold a special place in my heart.

Books

Anything by Lovecraft – If you can get past the casual racism that goes beyond being merely a product of his time, many of his stories are worth a read. The man had a great deal of influence over the evolution of the horror genre, so people should at least read enough of his work to understand and appreciate his impact.

Locke & Key – Written by the son of Stephen King. The Locke children lose their father (and their mother in a sense, even though she’s alive throughout the series) and move into the family estate currently held by his younger brother. The youngest child discovers a series of hidden keys with eerie powers along with a malevolent entity that wants nothing more than freedom from the house and control over the power of the keys. Joe Hill is a better writer than his father, if only because he can end story arcs in ways that make sense. I like King’s work, but I find the endings to most of his books lacking. If only IDW published in a more expeditious manner. The hardcovers come out quickly enough, but IDW drags their feet on the paperback releases.

Games

Dead Space – While more action than horror, I don’t think the series gets enough credit for the long, tense stretches during which no Necromorphs are jumping out at you. The sound design is excellent, and I particularly love the lack of sound when you take Isaac into vacuum. The music enhances whatever happens on-screen without being a distraction.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent – Full disclosure: I have yet to actually play Amnesia myself. I am more or less a baby when it comes to horror games, so I prefer action-oriented titles like Dead Space. A game in which you have no defense from the horrors around you? Forget about it. Various Let’s Plays of the game have provided me with endless hours of entertainment though. I especially recommend the Let’s Plays by Helloween4545 and Mangaminx. It’s only coincidence that both of them are very English, I swear. I prefer to let Mr. Flappy Jaw scare others for my amusement.

Doubt I’ll ever eat chain fast food chicken again

Kickin’ Chicken in Stockbridge, GA sits on the end of a gas station strip at the corner of two of the major roads near my house. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but the place hasn’t lasted nearly twenty years in that location for no good reason.

The inside contains no tables and only a few chairs for people waiting on food; the place only handles drive-through and carry-out business. Even at their busiest, I don’t think I’ve ever waited more than 8 minutes for my food, and only that long when I have to wait on a new batch of chicken or fries from the fryer. Drive-through orders get priority, but that tends to be the case at most places. The food itself is of the same quality as the service. The people who work the fryers and griddle in the back know their craft and know it well. Particularly one college-aged kid who usually works around lunchtime on Mondays. The fried items always come out cooked to perfection and not at all greasy, and the grilled food is consistently good in both taste and texture. The wings and tenders and the various sauce choices for both are Kickin’ Chicken’s signatures (the hot-garlic sauce rules the rest), but I’ve recently started delving into the sandwiches. The sandwiches have become my favorite items on the menu quickly, particularly one called the Hot ‘n’ Sloppy. It consists of chicken, onion, pepper, and mushrooms grilled together, then topped with blue cheese crumbles and slathered with the hot wing/tender sauce and ranch (heavier on the hot sauce and relatively light on the ranch, for anyone watching calories). Eating one is a most unclean undertaking, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Even before getting a house just down the street from Kickin’ Chicken, my apartment of the four previous years wasn’t exactly far from the place. I feel more than a little silly having waited so long to try it out.

Craft chat

My recent computer problem created a temporary impediment to my resumption of drawing, but it gave me some free time to research another creative activity I’ve been contemplating since a workshop at Gen Con. I speak, of course, of chainmailing (maille is the fancy term for the art form). I’ve spent a great deal of time studying various commonly used materials, their pros and cons, and some sources for rings or wire to make my own rings. I’m mainly interested in making jewelry items, such as chains and bracelets. I also discovered this handy website, which contains massive amounts of free information for beginners and experts alike. Weaves, tool recommendations, and any other tidbits I might need to get started.

From the Gen Con workshop, I have a set of pliers. If I buy pre-cut rings, the pliers are the only tools I’ll need for the vast majority of the items I might make. Whether I buy wire to make rings or just rings, The Ring Lord comes highly recommended on a lot of maille sites/communities I’ve used for my research. On the material side of things, each possibility has its own set of issues. The workshop gave us anodized aluminum rings, but I’m leaning niobium for any finished pieces I make from here on out. Niobium looks nice, is hard but not so hard as to make it difficult to work with, is corrosion/tarnish-resistant, and it can take an anodized coating for more color options. I might buy a cheaper material at first for practice though. Niobium isn’t precious metal expensive, but it costs a fair bit more than most of the other options.

I’m posting this in an effort to give myself a push. I have a habit of contemplating projects for so long I lose interest before I even start. Hopefully, typing out some words about my plans will helps overcome the inertia against starting this new activity.

A helm chain bracelet is high on the list of items I'd like to make, though I have a modification or two in mind.

Government is the true monster

At least, that statement appears to represent the message of Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International. Not just the message, but the only coherent idea to be gleaned from the text regarding anything at all. Entertaining story? Interesting characters? Those elements would just get in the way of the point Mr. Correia wanted to make. Oh, and the gun porn. The man clearly felt the world lacking in serious gun pornography while writing this book. I’m normally not one to put down a book or stop a movie before I finish, but I felt I’d suffered enough by chapter 6 or 7.

Monster Hunter International is billed as urban fantasy, and true to the genre the book has monsters, some mysticism, and is set in modern times. All of which fades into the background while the narrative dwells on the terribleness of government and government employes while verbally fellating the private company doing the same work. The people who work for MHI are all smarter and more skilled in every way than their government counterparts, and main character Owen Pitt is about as blatant a self-insert character as I’ve ever encountered. Among the clever and the skilled, Owen stands out, and Owen stands out despite being an overweight, flat-footed accountant (at least two of those three characteristics are shared by Mr. Correia himself). He also trusts government even less than everyone else, and every third line brings said mistrust up somehow. Did I mention that MHI operates out of a compound in middle-of-nowhere, Alabama, and many of the hunters are all good ol’ Southern boys? The man guarding the entrance to the compound even listens to talk radio heavy on conspiracy theory. I’d consider the book great unintentional comedy, but even with that mindset the premise wears thin incredibly quickly.

The gun porn aspect is more harmless, but the book spends pages at a time describing guns, ammo, and modifications to both made by various monster hunters. I have not been so thoroughly bored since reading the long passages about handwriting and what it indicates about a writer in Pride and Prejudice. Jim Butcher handles guns with a considerably more skilled touch in The Dresden Files. He goes into enough detail to give gun enthusiasts a thrill, but not so much he runs the risk of boring everyone else. The action sequences in general act as yet another Achilles’ heel. The fights all read like someone’s ridiculously over-the-top revenge fantasy, and the battlefields randomly change in ways that conflict with previous descriptions just to assist whatever cool move Owen or one of the other hunters will make next.

Every writer brings his politics and interests into whatever he writes; it can’t be avoided. In fiction writing, however, there is the possibility of crossing a line and losing the story and characters in those aspects. Larry Correia took a flying leap over that line, and some poor word choice, odd sentence construction, and massive overuse of cliches do not help matters any. Having a message or point you wish to convey isn’t a bad thing, but the message can be conveyed without bludgeoning your reader with it. I think the book could have been entertaining with the help of an editor reworking some bits and excising others where Mr. Correia got off track. As it is, I consider the money spent on the book wasted, which I rarely say about any book. I bought Monster Hunter International, and all I got out of it was this blog entry.

The snack of kings

Well, snack of kings if someone made me a king. I must admit, I thought the idea of deep fried peanuts sounded terrible the first time I laid eyes on them in a Tennessee gas station, and I was incredibly leery of eating peanut shells, no matter how much the label assured me it was okay. I’m glad I got past all that and gave them a try.

Uncle Bud’s Deep Fried Peanuts are crunchy and delicious. On the first bite, you mostly get the crunch of the shell and the flavor of whatever seasoning they added after frying. Continued chewing adds the peanut-y goodness within the shell to the mix. The shell is basically all fiber and indigestibles, so these peanuts will fill you up fast for not too many calories. They must drain the peanuts well, because the final product seem dry and thoroughly not-greasy. You can remove the shell before eating, but after trying them whole, I fail to understand why anyone would want to do so. You have to take it easy on the shells though, no matter how completely you chew them up. Too many at once and the fragments tend to, um, cluster. Inside. You know, once they settle in the stomach and points beyond. Leads to potential extreme unpleasantness later. Though the thought of future pain does not always stop me from eating too many. I don’t give suffering as much weight as I should when contemplating the pursuit of deliciousness.

Did I say snack of kings? I meant snack of the gods.

Scheduling note: I had to pull another entry from the old blogs (this one), but I managed to not miss an entry. My computer is back up and running fine, though I failed to make time for the Intuos. I guess I’ll have to start on that next weekend.

Current media consumption: October edition

I know it’s a little soon for another one of these posts, but I want to keep them at or near mid-month from here on out.

Watching

Breaking Bad – More like Breaking Awesome, am I right? Anyway, I know I’m way late to the party on Breaking Bad, but I watched a single episode after it appeared on Netflix Instant Watch and got thoroughly hooked. At the rate I’m working through episodes, I should be done with the first three seasons in another week. I’m amazed at Cranston’s range, and sometimes it boggles my mind that the actor playing Walter White is the same man who played Hal on Malcom in the Middle. Not that the other actors aren’t great; everyone on this show does their job extremely well.

The Beast – The last thing Patrick Swayze starred in before he died. The show itself is fairly mediocre with a lot of questionable performances by relatively unknown actors, and the premise feels old at this point (rookie agent partnered with a veteran known to use questionable or downright illegal methods to take down criminals). I consider it worth watching for Swayze alone though. The man went out on a high note with what may just be the performance of his career.

Playing

Darksiders – While the man’s work ethic has always been questionable, I like Joe Madureira’s art style, and the game is genuinely fun despite being blatantly derivative of several other titles. I can’t wait for the sequel.

League of Legends – I’ve been avoiding it due some unpleasantness I’ve witnessed from the community surrounding the game, and I have yet to play a game with live people (the hard drive death happened before I got around to it). That said, I enjoyed the tutorial battles and a few games with bots played after the tutorials. I understand the appeal now and plan to explore the game more after the restoration of my home computer.

Reading

I’m not reading anything new at the moment. Other an G.I. Joe: Hearts & Minds, which already got its own entry.

 

Brooks has certainly won my heart and mind

Most people know Max Brooks as the son of Mel Brooks and the writer behind The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. I missed both works the first time around, although I did recently listen to the World War Z audiobook (which is amazing, by the way). I didn’t realize he had branched out into comics until I found G.I. Joe: Hearts & Minds on a Borders shelf during the big going-out-of-business sale. I’ve never read any of IDW’s G.I. Joe comics, so I decided to give Hearts & Minds a shot.

Hearts & Minds consists of a series of paired character profiles; one Joe and one Cobra for 5 issues/10 profiles total. Most segments give you some insight into why the character does what he/she does. Sometimes the spotlight focuses on why they joined their particular organization, or why they perform a certain function within it, or even why they prefer a specific weapon. Brooks gives a more well-rounded view of the characters than I’ve ever seen before. Except for maybe Dr. Mindbender, a person could sympathize with most Cobra members covered, and the Joes aren’t all exemplars of justice and light. The art of Howard Chaykin and Antonio Fuso pairs perfectly with the writing of Brooks to get the message across.

One of the more interesting segments covers four different Cobra recruits. You have everything from downtrodden citizens of poor nations up to an affluent white boy looking for a thrill. On the Joe side, Spirit caught my attention. While Spirit is both tracker and Native American, the two have nothing to do with each other. He laments people automatically connecting the two in light of the real reason he works as the Joe tracker.

All in all, I enjoyed Hearts & Minds and consider it one of my favorite comics of the last couple of years. It has also made me very interested in reading more of IDW’s take on the franchise.

Possible schedule disruption note: The hard drive in my home computer failed spectacularly sometime yesterday. While I’ll try to avoid such an outcome, I may miss the Sunday and/or Tuesday updates while I deal with the situation. It will also postpone the new attempt to start working with my Intuos tablet more. New hard drive is on the way, so hopefully I’ll be able to get everything up and running again soon and minimize any delays or missed updates.

Well isn’t that just prime.

Hasbro/The Hub has been on a roll lately. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic aside (yes, I’m a fan; likely a subject of a future entry), Transformers: Prime does the Transformers legacy proud.

Much like Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Trasnformers: Prime juggles and integrates the best elements of many past Transformers series. Most notably, I detect  elements of Beast Wars, Transformers Animated, Transformers: War for Cybertron, and the Dreamwave comics, which I view as the high points of the franchise. While the return of Cullen and Welker as the voices of the two faction leaders pleases me, I now realize Beast Wars Optimus and Megatron have become the definitive versions of the characters for me. Not a knock against the show by any means. The character designs share some elements with Michael Bay’s film incarnation of the franchise, but I can usually ignore that in light of the various positive qualities of the series. The two key creators behind Prime worked on the movie, so some bleed-over is to be expected.

Short version: quality writing, voice acting, and visuals make Transformers: Prime a treat for fans of all walks of Transformers fan. The series stands well enough alone for folks new to the franchise, but respects the past enough to please fans of past iterations. Except for maybe the fools who place G1 on a pedestal and spend their lives badmouthing Beast Wars. I hate those guys.

Art chat

Late last year, I swore I’d start drawing again. I loved to draw when I was younger, but I fell out of the habit during college. I haven’t exactly re-established said habit despite the desire to do so. I intend to change that and make a concentrated push against my not-drawing inertia very soon. The advantage of working four 10-hour days is 3-day weekends every weekend. I plan to set aside at least a few hours every week to toy with my Intuos tablet. I believe I said at the beginning of the new blog that I would post images here, but a lot of the early stuff will be rough at best (an optimistic assessment, I know). I created a Tumblr to act as companion to Clockwork Colossus. I’ll post my terrible doodles and such there, share/reblog images or artists I currently like, and I’ll also use it as a replacement for the Formspring I haven’t checked in ages. I like Tumblr’s Q&A setup better than Formspring’s anyway. I may even try to answer with drawings as extra practice.

I doubt I’ll get anything of my own up this weekend, but I hope to start by next weekend at the latest. My demo period for Paint Tool Sai has expired, so timeframe partially depends on getting the license situation sorted.