All Bound For Mu Mu Land
The Brainfart Chronicles
Updates & Random Thoughts
- American Artifacts 3 has been out for a couple of weeks now. If you haven't bought it yet, you should.
- On the game blog, I'm reviewing D&D Fifth Edition. The first installment is about the cover art. The second covers character creation basics.
- The weird west mini-game that I'm working on for my Patreon followers is SO CLOSE to being done. I'd really hoped to finish it this weekend, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen.
- Last week I read through I Psi, Ian's game about 1950s spies with psychic powers. My main concern going in was that it would be too similar to Sex, Lies and Ultraspies, but that's not a problem. I Psi is similar enough to fit into the same world as Sex, Lies, and Ultraspies, but the focus and tone are different enough that it doesn't feel like the same game.
- I haven't been actively working on Cinemechanix for the last couple of months, but I think the time away has been helpful. I've got several ideas that I think will fix what's broken about the organization of the book. I'll be jumping back into it soon.
- A little over a month ago, I got tired of eating so much crap. By crap I'm not talking so much about unhealthy food that brings me no joy but I eat because it's convenient and easy. Since I hate going to the store and don't know how to cook, I decided to try one of those meal delivery services. After reading some reviews, I settled on Home Chef. It's worked out pretty well for me, but keep in mind I live in a place where going to most restaurants requires a 30 minute drive each way and Chinese take-out is the most exotic genre of food available. My biggest concern going in was that the "2 portions" I was ordering would turn out to be one meal. So far that hasn't been a problem. With the exception of one day when I skipped lunch, I've always had enough left over for a second meal. And I think I'm kind of learning to cook. I made lamb chops last week. If you're tempted to try it for yourself, use this link. You'll get $30 off your first order and I'll get a credit on my next one.
- Last week I watched Hap & Leonard, the ongoing tale of a pair of Texas pals who keep finding shit in the river (seriously, both seasons and the only Hap & Leonard book I've read have all featured shit in the river). It's a short season (just 6 episodes), but that's really all they needed to tell the story. This season has some overtly supernatural stuff in the form of ghosts, but none of the characters actually interact with them, so it's possible to argue that they're just framing devices that don't literally exist in the world. If you can get past James Purefoy's accent, it's well worth watching.
- I enjoyed Ready Player One, but that might be because my expectations were so low. It's a lot closer to the book than the trailers imply. The main difference is that a lot of the real-world stuff from the book is downplayed (they tell us that the future sucks, but don't do a lot to show us) or cut (except for the very end, most of the running from the bad guys happens in the virtual world. My biggest complaint is that it's way too long, especially the big battle outside of the castle at the end. The last hour of the movie could have been cut in half without losing anything.
- Isle of Dogs is a Wes Anderson movie, so it will probably make you feel the same way all other Wes Anderson movies make you feel. In my case, I always really enjoy Wes Anderson's movies because they're so charmingly quirky, but have a sneaking suspicion that there's more pretension than actual substance behind the charming quirkiness.
- I'm currently watching Into the Badlands. It's pure trash, but the fight scenes are great, Stephen Lang seems to be enjoying the hell out of himself, and the second season has Nick Frost.
- Currently reading The Cornbread Mafia, a book about the largest domestic marijuana operation in U.S. history, which was based in Marion County, Kentucky.
- I've also been watching a lot of Lindsey Ellis's Youtube channel recently. If you're a movie nerd, I highly recommend it.
Word of the Week
Brainfart Press will eventually release a dictionary of words nobody particularly needs to know, tentatively titled (with apologies to Ambrose Bierce) "The Dumbass Dictionary." Here's one of those words:
Elvismancy:
A magical tradition whose practitioners seek to attain perfect peace and harmony through Elvisness.
©2024, Steve Johnson
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