When I was a kid I had two artillery games: Tank Wars and QBasic Gorillas. Left: Tank Wars. Right: QBasic Gorillas Both games share the same basic concept. You and your opponent sit on opposite ends of a battlefield and take turns lobbing projectiles at one another in parabolic arcs, adjusting the angle and power of each shot to try to land a hit.
Tank Wars, created by Kenneth Morse, allows you to customize a myriad of game options, from windspeed to the color of the sky. You can play hotseat multiplayer, or if you have a keyboard and a mouse (fancy!) you and a friend can huddle around the computer together and split the controls. If your friends are unavailable there are CPU opponents of various levels of skill, from "Mr. Stupid" to "Wind Master". As you rack up points you can buy bombs with different blast radii, and when you win the terrain blows up in a satisfying crater and rains back down on the field in an elaborate shower of pixels.
QBasic Gorillas came with MS-DOS 5.0 and was created by Microsoft as a demonstration of the capabilities of the QBasic programming language. You and your opponent are gorillas who throw exploding bananas, and when you win, you do the Monkey.
Tank Wars is, I suppose, the "better" of the two games, in the sense of having more sophisticated graphics and gameplay. But does it have dancing gorillas? Does it have exploding bananas? Does it have a cartoon sun that makes a face like 😮 if you manage to hit it? I ask you. I did play both games a lot, but I know which one was more appealing to my sensibilities as a child of 8-9 years of age.
1) I wrote last year about the movie The Big Year, which was about birders trying to break a record in seeing the most birds that year. When I told my partner I was trying to pass 1000 wins at Solo on BGA he said, "So this is your Big Year." ( Read more... )
2) I confess I don't really follow the Oscars race or even nominees since I only see movies once in a while and usually well after they've been released, but I thought this was an interesting summation. I was particularly struck by the discussion of costs, and how chasing Oscar prestige outranks movie ticket sales, since so many potential contenders crowd into the end of year period. This almost guarantees many people will miss a number of them.
What was interesting about this survey is the data on how people have changed their opinions of last year's Oscar nominees. "Americans are much more likely now than they were last year to say they love "A Complete Unknown" (51%, up from 39%). They’re less likely to say they love "Dune: Part 2" (43%, down from 53%)."
RE: the 1A episode, here's a quote: "So, you know, theoretically, you could make a decision that was the wrong decision, but if it doesn't have a bad outcome, you're not even judging it as a mistake half the time. And that that's actually potentially the difference between a little mistake and a big mistake...we talk about this three act structure, what happened before the mistake, the mistake itself, and then how we deal with the mistake thereafter...It's not the crime. It's the cover up. Right? And that's an act three problem. But because people haven't gone through the process of saying, okay, what actually happened in act one, act two, and and now how am I gonna deal with it in act three? They make an even bigger one."
The fear of error is also talked about here: "what I see in the therapy room is sometimes it can take folks a while to really come around to admit to themselves actually that a mistake even happened because there's so much shame. It gets kind of locked up because as we've been discussing, as a culture, we do a terrible job of admitting to ourselves and to others that mistakes actually are how you learn. And so we get have so much shame that's wrapped up in it. And from that end, when there's shame, depression, anxiety, trauma, you know, are not far behind. So talking through mistakes, processing mistakes, learning not to avoid coming around to kind of, unpacking the Russian doll, if we stick with that metaphor, that's a huge piece of therapy." I can really recommend reading the episode transcript (you can also listen to the show).
4) What these incidents made me think of was fear on the Internet. "One of the phrases we like is curious, not furious. And so whether you're thinking about yourself, oh, I'm so angry at myself. Why did I do this? Or you see someone else make a mistake and you're kind of angry that they did it. The more that you can use curiosity as opposed to anger, I think we would all get along a little better. And then to your point, it's so helpful to talk with someone else. We believe you have to talk your mistakes to death. And it's helpful to write about them, sure, if you really don't have anyone with whom you can speak."( Read more... )
5) And speaking of mistakes, it's nice to have unexpected support even when you make them. ( Read more... )
I don't know if I ever posted about the ongoing issues with my camper van... to sum up, what happened was that last fall I had decided to try to sell my van and buy a small, lightweight trailer I could pull with my truck. Got my van all emptied out and cleaned up, fixed a few small issues, picked out a trailer and put a down payment on it, and then, on the day I was scheduled to go pick up the trailer, I went out to move the van around to the back of the house so it would be out of the way when I brought the trailer home, so I wouldn't risk clipping it with the trailer as I tried to park it, because one of the big reasons I sold my previous trailer was that I am terrible at backing up, and wanted plenty of room to maneuver.
However, the grass was overgrown on the little road that goes up behind my house, and the ground was wet and uneven and the van was slipping and sliding and running into tree roots in the back yard and I panicked and tried to back out and there were branches hanging down over the road from the big hemlock tree at the side of the yard that blocked my view and I couldn't tell where I was going and ended up backing into the tree and denting the back corner of the van.
At which point, I was too stressed out to think about going to pick up a trailer, so I texted the trailer place that I'd been in an accident and couldn't come, and from there, I ended up canceling the sale and concentrating on trying to get the van fixed.
That was back in the middle of October. Since then, it's been a major pain trying to find a place to get the dent in the van fixed. Because it's a camper van with furniture built in, and things mounted on the roof that make it extra tall, your average body shop will not work on it. RV repair shops don't do body work. I took it around to three different places, called several others, called RV places for advice, got my insurance adjuster to try to find a place, then finally got one body shop in Binghamton to agree to at least give it a try and got an appointment for December 15.
They had it in the shop for a couple of days, then called me and said, sorry, they just couldn't fit it into their shop no matter how they maneuvered it around. So I took it home. They called around and finally found a place up in Amsterdam (near Albany, around 120 miles from here) that specializes in RV body repair. I sent them the estimate, they said, yes we can fix it! Yay!
Then began the process of how and when to get it up there. The weather was turning bad by that point and the snow was piling up and I started to doubt I'd even be able to get the van out of the driveway, so I finally gave up on getting it in the shop before my brother and his wife left on their winter travels (so they could at least give me a ride from Binghamton, if I could get there by bus or rental car on my return from dropping off the van), and decided to just wait until the weather got better. My next camping trip isn't planned until May, anyway, so there's plenty of time to get the van fixed before then.
So, this past week, the weather finally warmed up and the snow/ice started to melt off and it looked like a good opportunity to get the van into the shop before the next storms came in. I ended up scheduling it for Thursday, which was supposed to be 61 F and mostly clear. I made reservations on Greyhound for a bus back from Amsterdam to Binghamton at 11:30 AM, planning to leave home with the van around 7:30 so I could get to the body shop around 10 AM and have plenty of time to do all the paperwork and get the van checked in and get a ride to the bus station. I'd get back to Binghamton around 3:15 PM and then try to get a cab or a Lyft or something home.
Things went pretty much as planned. Unfortunately, I barely got any sleep the night before (I didn't really expect to, I knew I'd be stressed about whether everything would go all right -- especially whether I'd be able to get a ride home from Binghamton -- my attempts to research taxis turned up a lot of no-name taxi services with wildly varying reviews that were mostly several years old, so it seemed pretty random whether it would go well or not) and was awake from around 4 AM -- not the best condition for a 2-1/2 hour drive, followed by a four-hour bus ride, followed by an unknowable attempt to get a ride home. Also, the cold front that was expected to arrive this weekend decided to sneak in a few days early and the temperature was low 30s and windy, rather than 60s as forecast. But I set out at 7:30-ish as planned.
I'd gone out the day before to check on the van and get it ready to go after sitting in the cold all winter. I'd had a battery tender on it to keep the battery charged and it started right up. I also put air in the tires and topped up the coolant, which tends to evaporate over the winter. So I got on the road with no issues and the drive went well. I arrived at the body shop around 10 AM and got the van checked in, paid the estimate (which I'd already received a check from the insurance company for back in November, and was long spent, oh well), and got a ride to the bus, which turned out to be a bus stop, rather than an actual bus station. Things had gone smoothly and quickly at the body shop so I had nearly an hour before my bus was scheduled to arrive at 11:30. And it was still 30-ish degrees and windy and only an open bus shelter to wait in. I walked around a bit, trying to stay non-frozen (staying warm was a pipe dream), finally went into the business mall next to the bus stop -- with large signs saying PRIVATE! Business customers only! on the doors, but I thought, forget it, I'm going to pretend I belong here and stay until they kick me out or my bus comes. It was a former retail mall, so lots of benches and space and empty storefronts, and nobody seemed inclined to kick me out, so I sat on a bench until 11:20, then went out to find my bus at the stop and already boarding.
The bus ride was actually pretty pleasant. Nice, clean buses, plenty of room, comfy seats. The buses were less than half full, so everyone got one side to themselves. I was tired enough to doze off a bit. We transferred in Syracuse, with a 20-minute stop, so I walked around in the transit center a bit before getting on my next bus to Binghamton.
Got to Binghamton around 3:15, as scheduled, and was walking toward the transit center building when I saw a taxi parked in corner of the parking lot, so I went over and asked if he was available and could he take me to Windsor and he said yes, get in, gave me a set fare which was about what I was expecting, then handed me off to his wife, who was also a taxi driver, and she drove me home. So that went well! And it was a huge relief to have the most iffy part of my day go so smoothly. I got their card so I can call them to take me into Binghamton when I have to go pick up the van.
So glad to have that done! A very long and tiring day, left home at 7:30 and got home around 4 PM, all to drop my van off at the shop. I don't know how long it will take them to get the van fixed -- the guy gave me a rough estimate of a month, but a lot will depend on how soon they can work the van into their schedule and how much work it will actually require. I'm not in any hurry to get it back, though. I'm already dreading having to figure out a way to get back up there to pick up the van. I checked the bus schedules and there's only one bus per day making the Binghamton to Amsterdam trip and it leaves Binghamton at 4:50 AM. Urgh. Only other option is to rent a car to pick up in Binghamton and drop off in Amsterdam. Which would make a shorter day, but a lot more driving. Unless I can get, like, an Uber or Lyft or cab to just drive me the whole way to Amsterdam. Wonder if that would be doable? Probably cost around $300. Maybe more if gas goes skyhigh by then. Oh well, that's a problem for future me. Today me is just glad to finally have the van in the shop and getting fixed.
Marty Supreme (2025). A sleezy little punk in the 50s exploits everyone he knows or can finagle a meeting with in order to pursue his dream of becoming the world's best ping pong player.
I reeeeeally went back and forth on whether I wanted to see this, because everyone was like "Did you like Uncut Gems, the two-hour anxiety attack? It's like Uncut Gems." In general, I would not describe entertainment that makes me anxious to be a big draw! (I'm not talking about horror, that's TOTALLY DIFFERENT lol.) This is why I will never watch The Bear or The Pitt! But I finally got myself to go to a pre-Oscar showing of this because I enjoy Timothee Chalamet a lot, and I had a good time.
This movie is a RIDE. I have a pretty severe embarassment squick, but weirdly this rarely hit it. I only had to hide under my blanket in the theater maybe twice. Marty is just the worst but in a trainwreck way, so there's this sense that it doesn't really matter what he does or what happens to him, because it'll be engaging, not least because Chalamet is phenomenal. One of the low-key funniest lines is mid-movie when his uncle who owns a shoe story tells him that he's a fantastic shoe salesman. No shit, of course he is! It also helps that this is more of a black comedy than a ~drama, and while sometimes plot developments are the natural consequences of Marty's actions, other times they're utterly batshit that no reasonable person could have predicted.
CW for an ongoing stressful situation with a dog, but as far as I understand its last appearance, the dog is fine, unlike pretty much everyone else Marty so much as speaks to in this entire movie.
In conclusion, this is very much not a movie for everyone, but I had fun.
I have worked. Uh. A lot. Over the past three weeks. o_o But now it's the weekend, and I don't currently have a rewrite to work on, and March Break lies ahead; the spring crunch isn't finished, but it's on hiatus for the week, and a normal workweek is a breath of fresh air at this point. (Also I'm taking a couple of days off during it.)
Yesterday work wrapped up early enough that I had an actual evening, so I was finally able to start Butterfly Effects, the fifteenth (!) InCryptid book. ("Finally" is a bit of a stretch, I guess, since it's still the release week, but this is a Sarah-narrated book. Mostly. SARAH.)
So my hopes for the weekend are pretty much: avoid napping (I don't find naps restorative and feel groggier after than before I started); finish reading Butterfly Effects; watch this week's The Pitt and hopefully the temporarily-streaming production of The Importance of Being Earnest with scruloose; get scruloose to redo my undercut; and (also with scruloose) do a second round of advance-prepping ten or so bags of the dry ingredients for my breakfast banana bread while also baking up a new batch of loaves. I think that last will also require decanting cinnamons from bags into jars, so maybe we'll manage a bit of other spice decanting/sorting while we're at it.
I watched it this week and enjoyed it as much as the first season if not more, since I remembered fewer of the plot specifics, and this season introduces some more of the characters I really like. It's still absolutely bonkers. If you've seen season one, you know what to expect.
I hadn't been on the ice since last Saturday (Huskies and Women's Blues practices were all Varsity squads only, and Kodiaks practice got cancelled by the rink) but I made it to and through Warbirds practice tonight. It was so worth it. I also got my Varsity notebook from Women's Blues: every team member gets a notebook, and everyone writes a note in every teammate's notebook, and we read them before Varsity to inspire us. Mine was very sweet and I love the team very much for making me welcome.
I need to leave the house in 7.5 hours to get back to the rink for Varsity. I'm playing in alumni game 1, getting cleaned up during alumni game 2, and spending the rest of the day in the scorekeepers box with a rotating cast of some of my favourite people. The three non-alumni games will be livestreamed
14:00 Mixed 2nds (Huskies v Vikings B)
17:00 Women's Blues
20:00 Men's Blues
I also had a little art session this evening before going to the rink, making signs for my Huskies teammates. The sign in Irish may well only be understood by the teammate who got me back into learning Irish this year - our class covered "how to cheer on your sports team" a couple weeks ago and I made careful notes - or maybe it will cause any lurking Gaeilgeoirí in the rink to make themselves known.
Continuing my list of fifty Canadian songs I love from the past fifty years, 1979's is one that's probably popped into my head at least one morning a week since I was five:
I rewatched Mujhse Doste Karoge recently and this time when I hit the Medley in the final act I felt more curious about the original songs that were being referenced. I recognize the Bobby songs, Kuch Kuch and DDLJ of course, but not much else, and thought I could give it a shot? I thought I could find a list online but if it exists, it'll take more a deep dive than I can bothered with, so I searched for the originals based on the medley's lyrics. There are a lot of songs! And I'm recording them here just in case.
Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai // Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai (2000) // youtube
Ajib Dastan Hai Yeh // Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai (1960) // youtube
Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana // Andaz (1971) // youtube
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai // Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) // youtube
Mehndi Laga Ke Rakhna // Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) // youtube
Looking at the ages of some of these songs, the 80s got mostly skipped over and IMO Kaho na Pyaar Hai stands out like a sore thumb. I figure it's there because of the Hrithik connection, but is it really on the same level as Kuch2, among the songs from the 90s/2000s? Not in this neck of the woods, anyway.
I have missed you all, so I've eased myself back into DW by starting to comment on everyone's journals again, and now I thought I'd try my hand at posting again.
1. I've been reading Hobbit fanfic ever since we watched the movies with Fi for the first time over Thanksgiving break, and I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. I can't tell what's fanon and what's canon, though (or from whence it comes if canon). Like, Thorin's sister must be named Dis because everybody calls her that, even though I don't remember that information being in The Hobbit or the trilogy. But I see a variety of names for her husband, which tells me that information isn't included anywhere. Also, there's such a broad swathe of what is probably fanon that seems to appear in every story: that the Ri brothers all have different dads, that Dori is extraordinarily fussy and into tea and etiquette, and etc. I wonder who was the originator of a lot of these ideas.
2. Have some Hobbit recs:
Mr. and Mrs. Baggins by LullabyKnell Turns out Bilbo and Lobelia have more in common than they thought. They get married about it.
Of Risks and Rewards by Bgtea Kili/Fili After BOTFA, Fíli can sense the growing separation between him and Kíli, but he is at a loss as to how he could even begin to rebuild the close relationship they once had. It is just his bad luck that fate is about to throw several more wrenches into his life in the form of suitors.
A Mixture of Madness series by Salvia_G In which sexual mores are quite different for dwarves. Here be lots of super hot dwarf sex.
3. I have pretty much quit reading Stranger Things fic, but have the last few recs I have in open tabs:
and it all comes down to you by skoosiepants SGA/ST fusion The one where Eddie and Steve are soulmates in space!!
A Kiss with a Fist by Sablesea Steve/Dustin In the immediate aftermath of the final battle.
Tempus Fugit by Fuuma Eddie/Dustin Post-season 4 where Eddie lives.
On his second day, Shadow wandered into our bedroom and leapt up on the bed. I made my creaky crane eh-eh sound which is the closest I get to saying "no" to a dog and he hopped right off. (Clearly, he's had some training.)
This morning we were resting in bed and he stood in our bedroom doorway. I said "Shadow come!" and he stepped inside! And wagged his tail! and then immediately turned around and went back to his crate.
It is the dozenth birthday of Hestia Hermia Linsky-Noyes, lhude sing meaw! We sang to her after midnight. She ate eagerly of her festive ham. She has spent the afternoon in the pursuit of Bird Theater. I remember her brother under that same light. Bast smiled when our cats were born.
Title: From All The Spaces Between Times Chapter: Chapter 75 — From My Screaming Your Name, This Place Will Not Console Us Author: elrhiarhodan / elrhiarhodan / elrhiarhodan Fandom: Star Wars, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars — Obi Wan Kenobi (TV), Star Wars — Jedi Apprentice Books Characters Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Shmi Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, The Force as a Sentient Character, Watto, Quinlan Vos, Padmé Amidala, Sabé, Darth Maul, Yoda, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, Quinlan Vos, Professor Huyang, The Force, Plo Koon, Vokara Che, Siri Tachi, Aayla Secura, Bant Eerin, Bruck Chun, Xanatos du Crion, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Hego Damask II | Darth Plagueis, Komari Vosa, Bail Prestor Organa, Breha Organa, Bail Antilles Prestor, Rael Averross, Nim Piana, Ahsoka Tano, Sifo-Dyas, Reva Sevander, Lene Kostana (mentioned), Savage Opress, Pong Krell, The Traitor, Original Characters, Other Characters To Be Added Pairings: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Shmi Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Qui-Gon Jinn, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon Jinn (yes, we’re arrived). Bail Prestor Organa/Breha Organa Word Count: ~ 5000 this chapter Spoilers: None Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: Canon-Typical Violence
Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi has never known it, but he has always been the Force’s Champion, destined to suffer infinite sadness in defense of the Light. On his last turn on the wheel, responsibility for The Chosen One, the false child of prophecy, had been thrust upon him with no warning, and Darkness held the upper hand.
But this time, the Force has marshaled its power and will protect its Champion until the time is right, no matter how long Obi-Wan has to wait and how much he has to suffer.
Or,
Obi-Wan is reborn as a twelve-year old.
He wakes up on a slavers’ ship, with all of his prior life’s memories intact, and he’s bound for Tatooine with a Force-inhibitor collar around his neck, a bomb implanted in his spine, and no way of knowing what state of the Galaxy is in.
Just another day in the life of the Force’s Champion.
Chapter Summary: Obi-Wan has returned to the Temple, laden with information firmly tying Damask to Palpatine. Or rather Plagueis to Sidious. But a not-so-random encounter interrupts the delivery of that information to the High Council.
A French children's book in translation from 1961, in which five children are trapped in a cottage by a landslide.
14-year-old Laurent's family is concerned that he spends all his time reading and doing chemistry experiments, and isn't engaging with other people. So they dispatch him to stay with his younger brother and sister in a cottage only occupied by a 14-year-old girl and her younger brother, who are alone because her mother is having surgery. The idea is that Laurent will have to take care of the other kids, and this will make him come out of his shell more. His parents do leave him the out of being able to pack up his siblings and return to Paris if he really hates it.
I am honestly not sure if it was even vaguely normal in 60s France for five kids ages 14-5 to stay alone in a remote mountain cottage for ten days, or if this was just a literary convention. Anyway, Laurent unsurprisingly hates it and packs up his siblings to leave. But while they're on the train platform with the other kids, he has a change of heart and they all head back to the cottage. But they stop in the cottage of a family friend, who is out at the time.
It gets buried in a landslide! They're all trapped in pitch darkness! In an only vaguely familiar house! They can't use the stove because it already nearly suffocated them with carbon monoxide! Their only air is from a narrow shaft leading to a giant canyon! There's very little food! No one knows they're in trouble because one of the kids wrote ten postcards dated for every day of the vacation, then arranged with the post office to send one per day!
The kids having to do everything in total darkness for most of the book is a really cool twist on this sort of "trapped in a space" book. (One of my favorite moments is when enough dirt slides away that some light gets in, and they see that they've been half-starved in pitch darkness with two huge hams and a lantern hanging from the ceiling.) It has some cozy elements - they're trapped with goats, which they can milk but which also get into everything and poop everywhere, and one goat gives birth to twin kids - but gets desperate quickly when Laurent gets an infected cut and the main milking goat drowns in a flooded cellar. But it all ends up okay when they first signal with Morse code in a mirror (in a nice touch of realism, it takes a long time for anyone to figure out the message as the kids get some of the letters wrong, including signaling OSO instead of SOS) and then make and set off gunpowder!
Not an enduring classic, but an entertaining read.
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pauraque) wrote2026-03-14 02:39 pm
