I recently finished the first season of Dark Matter on Netflix, and I found that I had a few things that I wanted to write about. My goal is to make this as spoiler-free as possible, but there is one spoiler that really turned around the show for me, and will be the focus for this post. My spoiler-free review is that I really enjoyed the first season, and gets a solid recommendation from me. For some minor spoilers, read on, but if you want to go into this show blind, stop now. Continue reading Dark Matter
All posts by The Plaid Mentat
A Lone Fire Warrior
A few weeks ago, one of my friends from the Rogue’s Roost gave each of the regulars at the shop one of his Tau Fire Warrior models to paint. The idea, as I interpreted it, was that when he got them all back, he would have a truly unique Fire Warrior squad (as each model would be painted differently) and have a bit of a memento from all of us. Continue reading A Lone Fire Warrior
Some Real Vehicle Metrics
I posted a while back that my car provided me monthly metrics, but that they weren’t quite enough for what I really wanted out of car metrics. To try to get at what I was really interested in, I picked up an OBD-II scanner and grabbed the Torque app for my phone. With this combination, I was able to get very detailed csv exports of all kinds of cool information. With that I decided to put together my own metrics of my driving habits over the last couple of months.
Chart goodness after the jump. Continue reading Some Real Vehicle Metrics
Thanksgiving Apocalypse 2016
Yet again this year, as has become tradition, the Warhammer 40k players of the family descended on The Upholstery Shop in Austin for the annual Apocalypse game. This year, I brought my Space Wolves reinforced by as many walkers as I had in my collection. I brought 13 in total: Bjorn the Fell-handed, Murderfang, 3 Imperial Knights, 3 Venerable Dreadnoughts, an Ironclad Dreadnought, and 4 standard Dreadnoughts. I supplemented this with only a couple of troops, a bunch of Terminators, a few fast attacks, and a bunch of characters including Leeman Russ and his Wulfen. Continue reading Thanksgiving Apocalypse 2016
Ready Player One
I recently finished reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline as part of my normal reading routine. I heard about this first on the Machine Readable podcast some time ago, and Jessa even bought a copy, but it never made it to the top of my reading list until recently. Generally speaking, it was a worthwhile read, and I’m glad it finally made it to the top of my list. More specifically though, there were a couple of things that nagged at me throughout. Continue reading Ready Player One
Mad Max: Fury Road
I recently watched Mad Max: Fury Road with Jessa. I hadn’t seen it, but it was finally out on DVD in the bargain bin, and all of my friends said it was great and that I should watch it. I liked the old Mad Max movies, especially for a peek at a post-apocalyptic Australia… …A land-locked desert, not so unlike where I grew up.
But, this blog entry isn’t really going to be about Mad Max: Fury Road, though I will use it to epitomize my point. After watching it, Jessa turned to me and asked, “So, what did you think?”.
“Eh, It was alright”, I replied.
Jessa quipped right back, “Another glowing recommendation.” Continue reading Mad Max: Fury Road
Empires of EVE
While I missed the kickstarter, I picked up a hardbound copy of Empires of EVE: A History of the Great War of EVE Online via preorder as soon as I saw it come across, then eagerly waited for my copy to arrive. By the time I had ordered it, I had already heard/seen Andrew Groen talk about his research a couple of times, and I was excited by the prospect of a book written by someone who wanted to research and document this history of EVE with appropriate rigor (and then did it!) Continue reading Empires of EVE
Dream: Giant Parking Structures
I had a dream where I was in charge of helping some colleagues find their way around Grand Junction. There was some event going on in town (an unspecific place), and they were all intent on exploring afterward. We all caravanned up to Island Acres park, as they all wanted to see the river and not the desert. Continue reading Dream: Giant Parking Structures
Stranger Things
Based on a tip I got from Gamerstable, Jessa and I decided to watch Stranger Things over our evening meal. Like Boogiepop Phantom, I was looking for something with a bit of mystery but also elements of the fantastical, so as to turn that mystery into horror.
For me, I think Stranger Things misses horror, but really nails dark fantasy. This may seem like an odd quibble, but for me horror is about struggling against evil… …and failing or living with the despair that you will fail. Stranger Things is about horrible things… …and the heroes that rise and overcome them. This is not a criticism of the show, I actually find that I enjoy dark fantasy a bit more than horror most of the time, as it is typically better done. Continue reading Stranger Things
Guild Wars 2 Map Completion
I recently completed the Guild Wars 2 achievement of completely exploring the entirety of the core Tyrian map with my main character. This is something that I have been working on somewhat in the background since I started playing, and have recently kicked into high gear to get through the last few things on the map. Continue reading Guild Wars 2 Map Completion