Why Do I Drive A Lincoln? Because The Gnomes Tell Me To
The Brainfart Chronicles
Updates & Random Thoughts
- Sorry for missing the last couple of weeks. It was mostly because nothing much has been happening. I did taxes and stuff. I also bought a new (for a very specific definition of "new") car about a month ago and the mechanic got it running last week. It had been sitting under a very sappy tree for a year, so I spent most of last weekend getting it cleaned up and searching for a cup holder that would hold the Coffee Mug of Doom (I think the second attempt is going to work. If anyone needs some very large hanging cup holders, let me know). It's a 2001 Lincoln Town Car, so the stereo was AM/FM/Cassette. After a week and a half of hearing roughly 500% of my recommended daily allowance of Def Leppard and AC/DC (and running out of crazy McConaughey things to mumble to myself), I had to get something that would take a USB drive. I got to the stereo place around 11am yesterday, but they couldn't do the install until 3, so that kind of turned into an all-day thing, which means the stuff I was going to do yesterday afternoon will have to be done today. One of those things was moving everything out of my truck and cleaning it up so I can sell it, but it's raining here today so there's an outside chance I'll get to start the American Artifacts 3 layout today after all.
- The Weird West setting was the big winner in my Patreon poll, so I've started working on the Six-Gun Seven mini-game for patrons. I used a chunk of it (about character classes) as this week's blog post.
- Cinemechanix editing is coming along in spurts. I think we've gotten closer to nailing down the problems with the new section, but are still trying to figure out how to fix them.
- DriveThruRPG is having its big GM's Day 33% off sale this week. Most Hex products are included in the sale, which ends in about 20 hours (so if you want something cheap, get it right now).
- Just finished Gnomon by Nick Harkaway. The basic set-up is that in some indistinctly futuristic Britain, privacy no longer exists. Everything about you is pretty much available to anyone who wants to look, and if Big Brother notices you're not acting as expected they pull you in for an interrogation, make a few adjustments, and send you back out happy and healthy. When a woman named Diana Hunter dies during the process, Inspector Mielikki Neith is assigned to investigate the death, which involves downloading Hunters mental imprints into her own brain. Instead of just Hunter, she finds herself experiencing the lives of a Greek banker, an alchemist from Carthage, and an Ethiopian Painter. These appear to be an attempt by Hunter to subvert the interrogation process. Hunter's mind also contains Gnomon, who's something else entirely. As the stories unfold they start intersecting with one another in ways that bring the nature of the novel's reality into question.
- Currently reading a collection called Spirits of Place. I'm about 3/4 of the way through and the essays are pretty inconsistent, quality-wise. Some are pretentious, some are navel-gazing, and some are just straightforward history lessons. So far the Warren Ellis one is (unsurprisingly) my favorite, but I haven't gotten to the Alan Moore one yet.
- I gave in and signed up for Prime a few weeks ago and watched the first season of The Tick. I liked the Patrick Warburton version better. The new one doesn't embrace the absurd as much as it should, in my opinion.
- I also watched the first episode of Man in the High Castle, but it didn't really grab me. It's going to be on the "maybe try again later" list at least until I finish the second seasons of Jessica Jones and Hap & Leonard (season 3 is Two-Bear Mambo, so I'm at least in for 3 seasons on that one).
I-Psi
I think I've previously mentioned that Ian's been working on a game called I-Psi, which is about psychic spies in the 50s. James Hornsby sent us the cover art this wee, and it's one of my favorite things he's done for us.
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:
Canon Cannon
A theoretical device that weaponizes nerd rage to force a creator to alter a work so that it will better reflect fan expectations, politics, and delusions.
©2024, Steve Johnson
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