Letters concerning the 'Game of Thrones' series

Dear HBO,

Fuck you.  Seriously.  Fuck you for not allowing Game of Thrones to be streamed ANYWHERE.  Don’t you realize this only limits your audience?  It is moves like this which will allow awesome networks like Showtime outpace you in the race to full-streaming TV (Which is the real future). 

I don’t have cable, and will not get it for only one or two shows.  What I WILL do is on some series I will actually pay a buck or two on Zune or iTunes to download episodes (Case in point – The Walking Dead).   

On principle I am now considering acquiring pirated copies of Game of Thrones instead of forking over ~$60 for a DVD series like I am prone to do as a foaming-at-the mouth nerd impulse buyer.  Have fun not having my money.

Sincerely,

Questionable-Methods

Dear George R.R. Martin,

I am sorry for the above letter.  I am sorry HBO is being a dick.  I have been listening to a Song of Ice & Fire on Audiobook and it is THE SHIT (which means its awesome in the slang of my generation).  I bought the ACTUAL book last year, but I have NOT been churning through my reading list like I used to. 

Sincerely,

Questionable-Methods

Ding dong! Bin Laden’s dead! [Soap Box]

There are a lot of reasons the death of this extremist leader should be celebrated.  There’s the fact that he has been responsible for the deaths of thousands and thousands of people (Across all faiths and ethnicities).  You can point to the fact that he is the leader of one of the most aggressive Jihadist organizations in the world right now.  Maybe you prefer to think of this in terms of revenge and that he needs to be put down for what he orchestrated almost a decade ago. 

Many will also, I’m sure, make the argument that NO ONE should have to die, but I can’t disagree more in these circumstances, and am almost certain their voices will be drowned out by the cheers.

I think one of the biggest triumph the US receives after this news is in what it says to the world.  It is a statement that when we set our goals, we WILL follow through with them.  It may take a decade, it may take far more effort than anyone at the time could realize: but if it CAN be done it WILL be done.  I think this is important because it seems in the last decades of the 20^th century a reputation in the international community seemed to emerge that we are flaky.  The US will go into a situation guns blazing and when it proves difficult they will lose their balls and go home. 

The other statement is what it says to the communities of criminals, extremists, pirates, and other nefarious characters (Note none of these terms are mutually exclusive).  This is the same kind of statement

A responsibility to your sub-culture [Soap box]

I am starting to think of it like nationalism, but without the war bonds and the without the AWESOME production benefits when you research it in ‘civilization’. 

Social groups seem to almost always be defined by their extremes.  It is not because these nut-jobs are reflective of the true nature of the culture or make up a significant majority, they are just the easiest for parody and ridicule.  Because their behavior is the most ‘out there’ it sticks out in people’s minds as aberrant, and starts to form a mental image in the mind of an outsider of this person typifying everyone in that group.  We are all guilty of it, seeing a stranger and pigeon-holing them in a cultural stereotype.  It is an involuntary response.

This can never be changed.  People will always come into a social situation with a pre-conceived notion of who this person is based on how they present themselves and the person’s past experiences with similar individuals.  I think it’s an evolutionary response.  If that orange, stripy cat thing mauled me last time I tried to pet it, I am going to assume that all stripy orange cat things don’t like belly rubs.

What people need to do to change this is not scold people for having assumptions, but keep people from acting on those prejudices and helping change them from a positive example.  To use an example I relate to, when I hear about people referring to all nerds as basement dwelling mouth breathers with no social life, I feel a responsibility to my nerd-kin to step up and correct this.  Hopefully, by showing people an example of someone who DOESN’T fit the negative stereotype, that is one more mind changed about it. 

An actually (potentially) INTERESTING D&D comic book [NERDAGE]

Normally I am almost 100% against D&D or other RP related comics.  I haven't read any that are particularly exciting and go beyond making a comic about a specific RPG for the sake of making a comic about that RPG.  It's the same with video-game tie ins to movies (accept American History X, the game: the curb-stomp mechanics were sublime). 

 

This however I think I can get behind

 

This frame alone sells me:

 

 

They aren't just orphans - they are orphans with DISEASES...a common foe in more adventures then I would care to admit (None of which I'm proud of, LOL). 

I will probably be going to the comic store this week/weekend and when I do I will be looking for this title. 

 

That is all...move along, people, nothing to see here.

Gaze into the eyes of true fanatics...[SOAP BOX]

So I stumbled upon this yesterday, and it is one of the most depressing and frightening things I have ever seen.  It's a four-part BBC series where they go and interview members of the Westboro Baptist Church.  It can also be seen here.



Seeing such blind fanatiscm is frightening, it is beyond my comprehension how someone can so totally abandon reason.  Intellectually I understand how it occurs, how people who are desperate and afraid can turn to something so truly evil and not be aware of its nature.  To see it though is a completely different case.

Now to (hopefully) lighten the mood after that...I give you this final lesson (brought to you by memebase.com):

Forcibly shaken from apathy [GENERAL]

In this case by Milady Geek. She called me out for my laziness and dragging my feet on putting up anything.

'So what have I been up to?' you ask? All three readers out there? Weeeellll...

I haven't worked on this blog as I currently consider it a complete failure. There are times when I want to geek out; times I want to get maudlin & philosophic; and times I want to get up on my soap box about politics and world events. I don't think these themes work well as a broad-scope blog. The most successful blogs I've seen have one real 'thang' and stick to it.

I think I want to use Chainsaws & Hand Grenades as a vehicle for two or three sub-blogs. One can be gaming shit, another can be writing/philosophy type stuff, and the third can be me ranting about Libya or breaking down historic events in my own unique way. I am, however, blog-illiterate, and don't have the tools to really do that. If anyone out there DOES and would like to suggest something, I am ALL ears. For now I'm just going to use this as an excues not to post often.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...

In Nerdy news: Codex Grey Knights for Warhammer 40k will be coming out in a few days. My frothing-at-the-mouth nerd frenzy had me all set to violently consume all that was the newly renewed Daemon-felling champions of the Imperium...until someone threw a shiny object in my path. My cat-like ADHD kicked in and for the last week and a half or so I've been fascinated by the game Infinity.

In case you have NO CLUE what I'm talking about (which is very likely the case): Infinity is a sci-fi miniatures game at the 28mm scale (same as 40k minis). It is more skirmish-based then the frantic free-for all battles of the grim darkness of the far future. Its d20-based rules are relatively simple belying great tactical complexity, and has a fast brutal pace that can be very unforgiving. I won't go too much into the fluff - which is covered pretty well at Beasts of War and Infinity's website.

Some things I really like about it are...

1) The scale of models & points: Most games are only about a 150 points (~10 models), and the models are all on the same scale as the tackle-box full of 40k bits sitting in my apartment.

2) The accessibility: Bellis Corvi (the makers) are most definitely NOT following GW's business model. Instead of slowly giving the rules and armies a little at a time like a drug dealer, BC just opens the doors and lets you OD for free. All the rules and army lists are posted on their site, and are free to peruse and download. They do sell a rule book, but it isn't entirely necessary (unless you are borderline autistic like me and need to be physically holding a copy.

3) Van Zant. How many other Sci Fi games out there have made a reference to such a great under-rated movie and the closest Matthew Mcconaughey EVER came to portraying an interesting bad ass character?



It's like they aren't even being subtle about it...