Month: February 2022

Winter Vantasy/Fantasy 2022 Was Bittersweet @WinterFantasy @baldmangames @Erik_Nowak @heridfel @SicedOne @MetalfanVasey @Eric_Menge @brassrailfw @DelveRPG @alphastream @two2jimbo @beholderpie @shawnmerwin @FWEmbassy #DnD #RPG

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Settle in, kiddies, for a tale of wonder, natural disaster, danger, tragedy, friendship, and redemption. It sounds much better than it will actually be.

Well, another Winter Vantasy/Fantasy is in the books, and this year was bittersweet. As I’m sure you can appreciate, when I take long-distance vacation for a week or so, I’m ready to come home no matter how much fun I had. After this trip. I wasn’t ready to come home.

I don’t go to Winter Fantasy to play games; I come to hang out with friends. However, the pandemic is still having its effect. This year, many of my friends couldn’t make it, so I have yet to hang out with them. Hence, my reluctance to leave Ft. Wayne.

Some Touristy Things

There was a slight bit of tourism to do of which I wasn’t previously aware. I had the perfect room in my hotel. When I opened the door to my room, I was staring at the entrance to the indoor walkway to the convention center. Very convenient. The walkway took me through the Embassy Theater, which has more history than I realized. The first thing I saw when I entered the theater was a neat model of it.

Next up, I saw some the history.

I thought about seeing a show there. An orchestra was playing the music of the Beatles on Saturday night, and I like when songs are reimagined in other styles or with differing instrumentation. However, I chose not to and wisely so, as you will see. If it were the music of Iron Maiden, then maybe I would have. In any case, a seed was planted for the future.

As I continued through the walkway, I took a picture.

This may seem like an ordinary picture — it is — but it represents no small point. The week didn’t start well. The first two days each received 3-5 inches of snow, shutting down almost every restaurant in the area. I would have thought that Indiana was better at dealing with the snow, but everything was closed. I was fine because I brought food with me so I could maintain some semblance of my diet, and those with cars could drive out of the area to grocery stores, but many were forced to rely on a single pizza-by-the-slice restaurant for the first two days. I don’t know how they survived.

And then here’s a stupid photo of an icicle I pulled off an awning on my walk back to my hotel. I was ready for action.

I could take your eye out, kid.

The Hotel and O’Reilly’s

It’s about to get better, but there are two more things that annoyed me. I was in the hotel for 6 days and 5 nights, and they never once cleaned my room. I didn’t have this issue in Vegas, but James travels quite a bit and told me that this was normal during the pandemic. I guess I can’t hold that against the hotel. The other thing that bugged me was O’Reilly’s. This has been our preferred watering hole for years, but it was a major disappointment this year. Every year, the staff changed a little bit, but we appreciated the large degree of consistency from year to year. The pandemic caused a complete change of staff; Cassie and Stephanie are gone. Their replacements were few in number, and as a result their hours went from closing at 3 am to closing at midnight. This doesn’t work well for gamers leaving the convention as late as 11:45 pm. None of that is the fault of the bar — the pandemic is to blame — but some of the staff were, let’s just say, less than enthusiastic. I couldn’t get my drink refilled, and the reason was stated plainly: “No way are we staying late. I’m leaving as soon as I can.” It wasn’t the same.

The Trip Is Saved!!!

Everything that annoyed me was redeemed by a new discovery, the Brass Rail, and some new friends. On Friday night, four of us braved the arctic air and walked three blocks to the Brass Rail. Almost immediately upon entering the bar, we connected with a group of people less than half our ages, but we all clicked with each other. Arianna, Jameson (named after a whiskey?), Jack (named after masturbation?), and a few others whose names escape me. We drank and bullshitted (bullshat?) all night and knew we had found our new watering hole. Oh, and did I mention the live music?!?!

As great as Friday night was, Saturday night was even better. I was walking over there with three guys that weren’t there the night before. They were complaining about the weather and the walk. Like Richard Attenborough in Jurassic Park, I told them, “In five minutes, I’ll be accepting your apology.” Five minutes later, they were apologizing to me for complaining. The Brass Rail is worth every step of those extra three blocks. It was karaoke night, and some of us went nuts. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to capture video of the two best performances of the night, but I’ve got quick videos of two others.

I accepted Josh and Chris’s apologies that evening.
Our New Friend

It’s amazing to me how familiar Arianna was with music from my generation. It wasn’t just this song. We had a brief discussion in which she was belting out references I didn’t expect. Sadly, she refused to sing any Rush. Nobody’s perfect. 🙂

The Brass Rail salvaged this trip for me. Everything I wrote above shouldn’t be taken as “Winter Fantasy sucks now.” It’s simply evolved into something just as good, if not better, and some of what we lost will probably be coming back next year or the year after. Overall, the trip was a success.

Going Home

The pandemic also affected our customary lunch stop for both our trip out and back, but fortunately, Black Bear Burritos still has one of their locations open, so we got to eat there. One the way back, I took two photos.

May be an image of indoor
May be an image of outdoors and text that says 'SNORKELER'
This, ladies and gentlemen, is Morgantown, West Virginia

Safe and Sound

So, one last note. When I got home, I received a package. Actually, it arrived the afternoon I was on the road to Indiana. I was happy to see that it didn’t get stolen or damaged by the elements during my trip. Here’s a quick unpacking. Sorry in advance that I was out of breath.

I should have never sold this book.

Winter Fantasy is going to be even better next year. I look forward to seeing all my friends.

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Dungeons & Dragons is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast, LLC, who neither contributed to, nor endorsed, the contents of this post. (Okay, jackasses?)

Hybrid Creatures @WinterFantasy @mike_amer #MythologyMonday #MythologyMonandæg #folklore #WinterFantasy

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I was at Winter Vantasy/Fantasy these past few days. As I’ve mentioned, I go there to hang out with friends, not to game. I wound up playing two games. One was run by Mike.

That owlbear ass got me thinking about hybrid creatures, which led me to this video. It’s not … the best narrated video — it’s a bit annoying that one of the first things said contradicts the title of the video — but it’ll do.

I was going to post a video about Baalshamin, but the only ones I could find were depressing.

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Just Like the Prequels . . . #StarWars #PottyHumor

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Sundays now are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, it’s both. Just like in the prequels, we’re constantly learning about the extent of R2-D2’s utility.

I swear I like Star Wars, but . . .

Star Trek >> Star Wars.

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“Manhood”? @gregkellyusa #Caturday

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Show me a man who trades the unconditional love of a dog for a cat that makes you earn their respect, and even then has the ego not to give it away without you continuously earning it, and I’ll show you a man who’s suddenly secure in his manhood.

If you’re going to define manhood by the animal company you keep, then you’re going to lose this battle, Greg.

Cats >> podcasters.

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A Familiar (Hidden?) Trope in Horde of the Dragon Queen @DoubleDM @slyflourish #5e #DnD #RPG

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A Twitter conversation last week led me down a rabbit hole.

In case DoubleDM’s tweet is deleted, it asks, “So have you had more Dungeons or Dragons in your #DnD Games?” I responded, “Dragons by far.” Another person’s reply brought up the adventure, Horde of the Dragon Queen, for 5th Edition D&D (“5e“). This had me remembering Balasar Kimbatuul, one of my favorite D&D characters, known for invoking honor duels in Sly Flourish’s home game. For those who haven’t played it, the party faces a blue dragonborn, Lennithon, at the end of the first act. One PC has to face him, and there’s no chance the PC will win, even rolling all crits. It’s just impossible. At some point in the next act, the PCs meet Lennithon again, but are far better suited for the challenge. Despite Balasar insisting on an honor duel, he’s able to defeat Lennithon on his own, with his fellow PCs picking off Lennithon’s allies.

So, why bring this up? Because this segment of Horde of the Dragon Queen is essentially the plot of Popeye the Sailor Man cartoons.

Celebrating Popeye the Sailor Man With Spinach Festival in Crystal City, TX - LetterPile
Imagine these two with scaly skin. Or not.

In many of the cartoons, and in the live-action motion picture with Robin Williams, Popeye has two fights with Bluto/Brutus. The first one, he loses, and after some story and/or character development, Popeye exacts his revenge. While Popeye relies on spinach for that final push, PCs in Horde of the Dragon Queen rely on hit point and ability increases and the acquisition of better equipment that comes with leveling up.

Of course, this is a trope, so it’s not unique to Popeye. A scene in Only the Strong immediately popped into my head in which the protagonist claims that this time he isn’t playing around. This eventually gave the viewers (all three of us, I presume) the same result in the final, cheesy battle for supreme control over high school kids.

Winning a fight always comes down to what music is playing, right? Right?

There are other, better-known examples. Nevertheless, this is the first time I drew the connection, in part because I don’t recall ever seeing that before in a TTRPG story, and in other part because of the distance between those two scenes with Lennithon. With respect to the former, I’ve had characters meet a BBEG before their final fight, and sometimes on not-so-friendly terms, but I’ve never had a direct fight with one. I find it interesting that this isn’t a more common trope in D&D. It reinforces my belief that players are far too averse to losing a fight, and adventure writers write their adventures accordingly.

It’s not railroading; it’s drama.

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Dungeons & Dragons is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast, LLC, who neither contributed to nor endorsed the contents of this post. (Okay, jackasses?)


Classic Movies: Movies That Scar(r)ed Me as a Kid @bernieh #movie #ClassicMovie #GoodWatch

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A couple of days ago, I pointed out two, unassuming songs that filled me with dread for some unknown reason. Today, I’m going to try to remember the movies for which the trauma they caused to me endured the longest.

The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972)

This is the earliest movie I remember generating a long-lived fear. We saw it in the theater upon its release. For the life of me, I don’t remember a single frame from this movie. I could watch it in its entirety on YouTube, but I doubt it’s worth two hours of my time. I still haven’t watched Archive 81 or the final season of Ozark. I have higher priorities. Here’s the entire movie.

I feel like I just challenged myself to watch it.

The Fly (1958)

This was the one movie that traumatized me the most and for the longest period of time. I was fine throughout the entire movie, but this final scene is what wreaked havoc on my elementary school psyche.

I became a huge fan of Jeff Goldblum because of the 1986 remake.

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

This movie is perhaps not as bad, but it road on the coattails of The Fly. This scene was the kicker.

I’ve had an irrational hatred for bugs ever since. All of them. Not just spiders.

Alligator (1980)

Do you know how you handle a monster like this? Shoot it in the head. Problem solved. But nope, “once it escaped, there was no way to stop it.” This has to be the dumbest one on this list, but I was 13. I sincerely thought that there was no way to stop it. I remember trying to calm my nerves and fall asleep after watching it, but I heard breathing from under my bed. (There was nothing under there but dirty laundry.) Here’s the trailer. Try not to laugh at it or me.

On second thought, laughter seems appropriate for both.

Exorcist III (1990)

At this point, I was too old to be afraid of movies, but I’ll be damned if this scene didn’t freak me out. Go to 0:40.

Seriously, the only scene that made me uncomfortable was an elderly lady crawling atop the roof unnoticed. I guess that it’s because I’ll never feel safe knowing that elderly ladies are capable of kicking my ass.

I also remember seeing a TV documentary on astronauts and suddenly being afraid that gravity would stop working. I didn’t want to float off into space. And while the Alien franchise didn’t particularly scare me even as a 9 year old watching it for the first time at the Uptown Theater in Washington, DC, one of my few recurring dreams are nightmares of the Xenomorphs chasing me. Some things just stick with you.

Alien Loves Predator #14: Speed Dating
C/O Bernie Hou

I wish I know what made each of these movies scary for me. At some point before I was 9 years old — I remember I was still living in Silver Spring, MD — being the rational intellectual I always was, I realized my fear was irrational. I said to myself, “Even if such a creature exists, how would it know to come to my house to kill me only after I saw a movie about it? Why didn’t it show up last week? In the case of a phenomenon, why would it not manifest until I was made aware of its existence? That makes no sense. So, be afraid. Eventually you’ll fall asleep, and when morning arrives, you’ll wake up alive and well, showing you how stupid it is to be afraid of such things.” I was between 5 and 9 years old when I thought about this, and it kept me from being afraid of the dark for most of my childhood. But these movies still rattled me. There’s got to be a pattern, and it’s clearly not as simple as bugs (or even animals generally). It probably involves immediate circumstances of the time lost to my memory.

But it’s okay. Unlike the songs, these movies no longer have any effect on me. In fact, I find them (and all horror movies) silly considering the relatively primitive movie-making technology they use (not to mention the premise and execution of horror movies generally), but there you go. That’s what made me uncomfortable.

Again, I should see a shrink. if for no other reason than to satisfy my curiosity.

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A Weird Music Thingy @billyjoel @SpandauBallet #music

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Music has a way of evoking emotion, and I’m certainly no exception to that. I’m writing this after a trip to the gym. Like most people, I listen to music while I work out, and a particular song came up on my random music mix, inspiring this post.

Dread GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY

There are two songs that oddly fill me with dread when I hear them, and one of the artists is one of my favorites.

I love Billy Joel’s work as much as anyone’s.

And then there’s this one.

Horrifying, right? These two songs make me very uncomfortable, and I don’t know why. It’s certainly not the lyrics. Just the opening of the song starts the dread. I did find this fascinating though.

I should see a shrink.

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Wordle and Social Media Vigilantism @jasonmflow #Facebook #SocialMedia #Wordle #DontBeADick

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Warning: Serious post.

The Facebook police are often on the wrong side of the “law,” but their attitude is no worse than Facebook users who themselves try to police the environment. I wrote about this before. TL;DR, me announcing that I’m leaving a Facebook group is no worse than you telling me where you’re going on vacation next month. At least in my case, I may be helping other people, whether administrators of the group or new members who are trying to figure out whether this group is for them. Your post is just a self-aggrandizing brag.

But that’s okay. Announcing to the world where you’re going on vacation next month is what social media has always been for, so type away. If I don’t care, I’ll either ignore your post or unfriend/block you. (I’m an adult, so of course I’ll probably just ignore your post.)

So, why am I bringing this up? Because of Wordle. The new cool thing to do is to shit on anyone that posts their Wordle results to their social media stream. I get it. You don’t give a fuck about Wordle.

Something’s not right here.

Do you know what I don’t give a fuck about? I don’t give a fuck that you don’t give a fuck about Wordle.

Fixed it.

Do you see how that works?

Actually, I wouldn’t be writing this post if I didn’t care about what you care about.

The fact that I’m not quite dead inside allows me to take joy in silly things. It’s a shame you’ve lost that, but that’s fine. I don’t fault you for it. I fault you for expecting everyone else to follow you to your grave. If you don’t like Wordle, too bad. We’re all going to keep posting our scores, and there’s nothing wrong with that, BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA HAS ALWAYS BEEN FOR!!!

Your mentality is that of an edition warrior. Embarrassing, isn’t it?

Something Else?

I think there’s something else going on here.

I find it fitting that the vigilantes are portrayed by the least favorite regular Star Trek character in franchise history.

This guy gets it.

There were go. Portraying the “victim” as Homer Simpson is self-deprecating, self-aware, and fun in and of itself. Many of you aren’t confident enough in yourselves to play, but unlike this guy, you can’t handle being reminded of it. Telling the rest of the world that they can’t have fun simply because you have issues seems to be in chic right now, but when you do it, you out yourselves for what you are.

While it’d be easy to ignore this as just bitching about a game, it’s a symptom of a larger societal issue in play, which is more easily addressed by dealing with trivial matters like a game. You can’t engage in a logical fallacy and say, “Oh, you want to post about Wordle? So I guess you want to murder babies, huh?” There’s no connection to those two things, so you have to address the point head on without logically fallacious distractions. Hence, this post.

You admit you’d probably be like this window.

Some of you that aren’t so insecure are still behaving in the same way. Much like the confusion some have over the definition of free speech, you see to misunderstand the purpose of social media. You think it should be a free landscape to do as you choose, and for others also to do as you choose. As soon as someone says something you disagree with, has fun in a way you don’t think is fun, etc., suddenly they’re abusers, bullies, criminals, social media vandals or whatever applies. Sorry, not sorry, but what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If you insist on announcing whether you think storms are scary or fun, then we’ll post our stupid shit too. Again, you can just ignore us or you can throw a temper tantrum and block 75% of your friends list. We won’t miss you.

Well . . . .

Actually, we will miss you, because Wordle (or whatever the trend of the day is) is a small part of everyone’s total online presence, and we wouldn’t all be connections with one another if there weren’t more to like than to hate in each other’s streams. Most people have at least something to offer me, so I wouldn’t want that to disappear. This is why I suggest you eschew the temper tantrum and just ignore the things that don’t interest you (blocking keywords where possible, such as on Twitter). Even better, join in the fun. If you continue to complain about it, well, that’s what social media has always been for too. I couldn’t stop you if I wanted to. But be honest with yourself: If you’re not being insecure, you’re just being a selfish asshole. It has to be one of those two things, because there’s no other reason to complain about other people having fun and announcing it from their own account. Keep it up, and we’ll start posting our Lewdle and Sweardle scores as well.

Seriously, they aren’t going to stop. It’d be easier not to resist.

But you haters may be in luck. The game may soon be ruined.

Fucking corporations and their … corporatizing and … corporative … corporationy … corporations.

For those of you that are not haters but are gamers, here’s a related puzzle that turns out to be a perverse version of a mimic.

This is sure to inflame all players.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must finish packing for Winter Vantasy tomorrow so I can go play my favorite nerd game from childhood.

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