All Kinda Classics

15 Minute Classics started out as more or less a New Years resolution to do the 15MAD  challenge. This year, I kind of flailed around (I didn't officially set a resolution until mid January). With two days left in the year, I figured I'd take a minute to talk about how they went, what I think makes a good resolution, and set some up for next year. This year's resolutions:      Get my Chess ELO up to 1500- That was completely insane. No way it was going up that much. I wound up playing on a ton of different platforms, so I don't even know what my "real" rating is at this point. Lesson: Make part of your goal something you can do every day (or x times a week) instead of a single big milestone.      "Get back to an exercise routine"- Too vague, but I did do at least some kind of stretching/light aerobics just about every day this year. Lesson: Be specific!      I did keep the blog every day, which wasn't an official goal, but cool.  ...

 Is what I say to my wife when I want to watch Call The Midwife.  We're only a couple episodes in, but I'm enjoying it. I haven't watched a lot of foreign TV lately, and it's always interesting to get a peak at other cultures, learn different places' slang (shank's pony=legs), etc.

  Maybe not worth playing, but definitely watching. Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain is a terrible game. There's no two ways about it. It controls poorly, has questionable hit detection, is never actually challenging (but occasionally frustrating), and has puzzles that would've been dated a full generation of games before it was released. BUT, for all that, it's probably worth playing exactly once. Certainly worth at least watching the cutscenes. You can keep your Metal Gear Solids and your Baldur's Gates. This is the greatest video game story ever told. Legacy of Kain  is the  vampire text for a certain generation. A decade before Twilight  brought us sparkly bois, some ugly ass vampires walked around making soliloquys about free will, coins, and time travel. Blood Omen  is the first game in the series, introducing the world of Nosgoth (gothic horror Germany), Kain, most of the key characters, items, locations, and mechanics, and the broad themes of the plot. Short v...

  I thought I made a come out to the coast joke, but I can't find it now. My wife and I are on our way to our (apparently yearly, since this is at least the second in a row in a theater, and I think fourth or fifth overall) Christmas Die Hard  screening.  I'm trying to remember if I read the book. I know I read the first one, but not sure if I did the second, which is what the move is based on.  Anyway, time for me to take on the time tested internet topic and say that Die Hard  is definitely a Christmas movie: 1. The heart warming holiday theme of a man reconciling with his family. Which apparently does not succeed off screen. Oh well. We can just pretend the rest of the movies didn't happen, none of them are as good anyway. 2. A Christmas-tastic sound track including: Christmas In Hollis, Let It Snow, and Ode To Joy (definitely a Christmas song. Also in the Kamfper  Christmas episode) 3. Christmas is relevant to the plot. Both the Christmas party and the...

I'm sick today, so trying to make my way through a dialogue or something feels like a big ask. Something I've talked about (mostly on the Star Wars blog) is going back and looking at media that I liked as a kid. Part of it is trying to see if I still think it's any good. Part of it is looking at what influences me and my writing today. I chugged through Gundam Wing last month, but finally got around to Endless Waltz while I was sitting on the couch today.  Gundam Wing is not a good show. The plot doesn't really make sense, it has too many characters (which means they can't really use them effectively), plot armor levels are all over the place, the literal teenagers act less hormonal than the adults... But it's an entertaining  show, because it is fucking insane. The birthday invitation of death only caps off the first episode that includes suicide attempts, space suit kung fu, maniacal laughter, mid air mech ejections... And it doesn't really get any less...