February 11, 2018

If Worms Had Daggers, Birds Wouldn't Fuck With Them

The Brainfart Chronicles

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Updates & Random Thoughts

• This week's game blog is the last set of Alphabetical Madmen. Personal favorites are Yankee Doodle Fuck You (I'm a long-time fan) and Uncle Uranium. 
• Just posted a poll for my Patreon backers to choose the first Patron Exclusive Mini-Game! For the first one, I decided to go with things I've already written some stuff for or at least have solid ideas about. The options are: Ampersand & Ampersand (a paranormal detective agency in Hollywood), Bad Luck Streak at Wizard School (kid wizards), The Lucky Seven (modern-day cowboy monster hunters), Monkey Town (the talking monkey neighborhood of Paradigm City in the All-Stars universe), Outlaws of Sherwood Trailer Park (Redneck Robin Hood), The Six Gun Seven (Weird West), and The Strange Times (Tabloid reporters). The February monthly Patron Exclusive also went up this week. If you're curious about it, give me money. 
• I do dumb shit on the internet, sometimes just to a amuse myself and maybe a handful of other people. I'm the owner of the domain names www.sirsirmixalot.com (in case Sir Mix-A-Lot is ever knighted) and www.mcskatkat.com (he's due a comeback). About a year ago, I created  www.idonthaveanypantspleasesomeonehelpmewithgettingsomepants.com based on a dumb video a guy posted on Facebook. My latest dumbass internet thing is the You Know You're From Paducah KY When You're On a Comedy Page About Paducah Facebook group. It's probably of limited appeal to people who aren't from the armpit of the Midwest, but check it out if you want. 
• Watched the second season of The Shannara Chronicles. I've never read the books, but the show comes across as a combination of YA fantasy with just a hint of teen soap opera. The characters mostly just get dragged around from plot point to plot point by destiny. Every single character is a secret king or Chosen One or evil vessel or Last Something, and half of them are more than one of these things. It's basically empty entertainment calories with the occasional good swordfight. The main thing it's got going for it's really pretty. With all the "grittiness" in most modern science fiction and fantasy these days, it's nice to see a bunch of attractive people wandering through a brightly-colored, well-lit post-apocalyptic fantasy world for a change. 
• Currently watching Jericho. I've seen it before, but figured it might give me some ideas for Dinerpunk. I remember really enjoying it and so far it's holding up. Lots of  "that guy from that thing" actors, Lennie James as the wild card who knows things you don't, and Gerald McRaney just fucking killing it as the good guy a few years before he killed it as the bad guy in Deadwood & House of Cards. Thematically it's almost the opposite aesthetic I'm picturing for Dinerpunk, but I still think it'll be useful for some of the nuts and bolts stuff. 
• I had to work half a day yesterday and that pretty much threw off any chance of getting anything done this weekend. Four hours at work plus an hour commute doesn't seem like a huge chunk of a whole weekend, but somehow it always turns Saturday into a bust and Sunday usually doesn't get better. I'll get something useful done next 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:

Ballyhoo
Spoken pitch used to attract customers to a carnival attraction. A proper ballyhoo follows a precise structure intended to attract potential customers and keep them there until the show begins, often by corralling the crowd in such a way that makes it difficult for them to move anywhere but closer to the entrance. Sometimes shortened to simply “bally.”

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©2024, Steve Johnson