Cliffhanger
Those three words flash across a TV screen:
TO BE CONTINUED
And I’m taken back to a couple of moments in my life.
Memorial Day, 1980: The Northpoint theatre in San Francisco, to see the second ever Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back.
Like my Mom had said later, it was like seeing old friends again, on the big screen. I was enjoying the movie, and then had a weird feeling: the movie had run for close to a couple of hours, and then Boba Fett flew off with Han Solo in carbonite. I wasn’t sure they had enough time to rescue him by the end of the movie.
And then the wild ending, from the lightsaber duel, the escape from Cloud City and the jump to hyperspace.
I fully expected the next scene to by Luke, Lando, Leia and Chewie rescuing Han from Boba Fett.
Instead, Luke got a new hand, Lando and Chewie flew off in the Falcon, and then…
THE CREDITS STARTED.
What?
What’s happening?
WHAT ABOUT HAN?!?!?!
3 years later, the cliffhanger was resolved.
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June 18, 1990: Star Trek: The Next Generation season finale.
“The Best of Both Worlds”, in which the Borg invade Federation space, the Enterprise intercepts, and Picard is taken and turned into Locutus of Borg.
I still remember how chilling it was when Picard first spoke as Locutus.
I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life, as it has been, is over. From this time forward, you will service… us.
Then three words were spoken by Riker:
Mr. Worf, fire.
Those three words mentioned above appear on screen.
3 months later, the cliffhanger was resolved.
—
I’m glad this latest cliffhanger will be resolved next week. Or so I hope.
Blender Update
- Rice milk: okay, but probably will not make again. Too ‘goopy’.
- Almond milk: best of the milk attempts.
- Oat milk: literally tasted like drinking bread.
- Milkshakes: of the 3 I’ve made, only 1 was decent enough to be called a milkshake; the others were basically chocolate milk.
- Smoothies: probably the best thing that I’ve made with this thing.
- Soup: very good soup (tomato).
Still need to attempt making ice cream.
Ace Blender
I ordered this thing last Thursday, and according to Walmart and FedEx, it would be delivered on Saturday.
Saturday arrived, and I stayed home and tracked it all day. Still on schedule for delivery by end of the day.
But at 3:00pm, the status changed to ‘Pending delivery’ with no date given.
Arrgh.
Soon
Ramblings
I finally watched Crazy Rich Asians. Good movie.
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Clean up continues around the house. More trips to Goodwill are planned in the future.
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The 1967 San Francisco Giants replay is finally finished. I’m moving on to the 1939 New York Giants replay and continuing the 1917 MLB replay.
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February is right around the corner, meaning my birthday is coming up. This year it falls on a Saturday, and will be our monthly Games Night.
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TNT has started showing Rogue One almost every other day.
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I’ve been feeling crappy over the last few days, so much so that I’ve skipped my daily elliptical for a couple of days.
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I forgot to get a haircut this past weekend.
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I really do fear commitment.
Session #19
Okay, we’re not actually playing a Cowboy Bebop RPG, we’re playing Traveller.
But this gaming session actually felt… right.
The first couple of times we played Traveller, it felt off. I even told the group that the premade adventure felt more like I was railroading the party, more than I usually see in these types of adventures.
There was also a noticeable lack of conflict. Specifically, no combat.
The adventure kept calling for skill rolls as they got their salvaged spaceship up and running out of an active volcano.
Once it was over, not a single initiative roll was made. No to hit rolls, no damage rolls.
This would have made for an interesting pilot episode of some sci-fi series, I suppose.
I read through yesterday’s adventure well over a month ago, and then skimmed over it this past week.
That’s when I remembered one of the lessons I learned (and seemed to forget) when running a role-playing game: as GM/DM/referee/overseer/etc. your job is not to play the adventure vs. the player characters, your job is to help facilitate the shared story using the adventure.
So I pretty much used the adventure as set up while winging it, inserting plot elements were necessary.
And there was combat. With wolves. Or wolf-like predators.
After this session ended, I felt much better with the Traveller system, no longer feeling ‘off’.
Heck, if these characters ever find themselves chasing bounties…
Meh
I’m definitely distracted.
Maybe because today was a ‘second Monday’ due to the holiday. Except I was off on ‘real’ Monday.
—
2 days into the new year, and today I misplaced (lost) my parking garage ticket, so I had to pay the 50% additional penalty to get my car.
I think it fell out of my pocket on my way to the office. One block away from the garage.
The rest of the work day seemed to go fine.
—
At home I fell into a rabbit hole about bullet journaling on YouTube, and ultimately decided that it wasn’t for me.
—
Sharks won.
I Don’t Get It
When the reimaged Hawaii Five-O premiered, I watched it for a couple seasons. I got bored of it and stopped.
I’ve stopped watching the DC shows on CW, because I got bored of them.
I’ve drastically cut down on the number of comics I read on a monthly basis.
I don’t watch Star Trek Discovery.
I’m didn’t watch a full NFL football game once this season.
In all cases, they went on without me.
I see lots of people bemoaning Disney and their upcoming Star Wars projects, or people upset with Doctor Who because of the way the show is now.
So why can’t they simply walk away?
The whole ‘childhood ruined’ excuse is stupid for a myriad of reasons.
Hell, any excuse is stupid. Walk away.
Being a consumer doesn’t mean that you HAVE to consume everything.
And shouting at the wind won’t make any of these corporations change their minds.
