Moe Lane's Blog, page 789
February 14, 2021
In the Mail: Widdershin’s WITCH HUNT.
Kickstarter reward received!
The latest installment in my favorite alt-Victorian fantasy webcomic. Yes, it’s a genre: Widdershins is easily the best I’ve read. Easily good enough that I won’t even mind linking to the store, despite the distinct lack of affiliate income…
Patreon Microfiction: ‘Long Term Plans.’
No, in fact: it did not ask first. Is that a problem? Was that wrong?
Patreon!The #snydercut JUSTICE LEAGUE trailer.
Not the countdown to the trailer, or the countdown to the countdown, or the countdown with four Ms and a silent Q. Just the JUSTICE LEAGUE trailer itself. In all of its ‘thumb in the eye of whoever you like’ glory.
Happy 214 #ZackSnydersJusticeLeague #SnyderCut #UsUnited #AFSP pic.twitter.com/c7bAjM31QS
— Zack Snyder (@ZackSnyder) February 14, 2021
February 13, 2021
Book of the Week: Redwall.
Just got Redwall today: haven’t cracked it, yet. Today was the day my SCA kingdom had its online University, so I instead spent it learning about Welsh verse forms and other bardic-related material. Which was fun, actually. Anyway, the plan here is to read it myself, then decide whether to start the kids on it…
02/13/21 Snippet, GHOSTS ON ALIEN WIND.
I have Monday blocked out as some primo writing time. I need it.
Patreon!Explaining this all to Mika and Greg (I had brought a recorder with me; Rubicon had come with a jammer. Guess which device won?) afterward was fun. I had decided to tell them something, on the principle that if either was secretly a mad techno-death cultist of some sort I’d never figure it out in time anyway. Rubicon was right, dammit: you can be too paranoid.
But I didn’t go into full details, because Rubicon was also right about how the two weren’t entirely in the clear. Mika had been one of the survivors of the Richelieu Incident, and Greg had only been on-planet for the last eight months. Obviously neither would have been present for the most recent attacks, but I didn’t think this was all the fault of some kind of solitary madman. And even if they were trustworthy: were their assistants? Hell, their spouses?
But I needed somebody to help out. I had increased access to personnel records, sure, and even an idea what to look for: people with links to at least two or more of the destroyed colonies. What I didn’t have was the technical wizardry to sort out the most likely suspects in less than, I dunno, three months or something. Which would be fine, if we had three months. I wasn’t quite comfortable assuming that.
SCA news: I/the baronial newsletter I put together won a Blackfox award!
Specifically, the Master William Blackfox Award for Best Special Issue. Master Blackfox is a legendary and beloved artist in the SCA, well-known for his sketches of SCAdians in their fursonas*. They do a memorial award every year honoring the various newsletters put out by the kingdoms and baronies, and this year my barony’s Drekkar got one for the special Pennsic issue I put out.
It was collaborative, mind you. I had gotten a bunch of people to write newcomer-friendly articles about how to navigate Pennsic (which is a two week-long camping experience with its own rules and circumstances), wrote some stuff of my own, and slapped it all together with the phrase “VIDETE NE TURBEMINI” on the front**. I was tolerably proud with how it all came out; I’m pleased that others seemed to agree.
This is a fairly complicated thing to brag about properly, because I got it as much (or even a bit more) for my editing and collecting other people’s stuff as I did for writing my own, but it’s still pretty darn cool.
Moe Lane
*No mockery, please, even if gently-meant: I still have up on my wall a copy of the sketch he did featuring me and my then-girlfriend (and two others). You know why the name of the publishing company is Flying Koala? It’s because that’s how he drew my wife.
**Google assured me that it means “DON’T PANIC.” Under the circumstances, one hopes I didn’t get that wrong.
February 12, 2021
Not feeling so hot today.
Not COVID, and not exactly food poisoning. But my food choices yesterday were apparently suboptimal. I’m taking it easy and puttering around the house.
February 11, 2021
Yeah, this is a bye day.
I got the last race of the current sponsorship coming up soon, and I have been promised that the cars will fall like rain (it’s an oval race, apparently). I’m gonna get me some scotch and some Girl Scout Thin Mints and I’m gonna watch it and generally chill out. I think I can indulge myself with a quiet night.
Race will be here.
02/11/21 Snippet, GHOSTS ON AN ALIEN WIND.
Having a little trouble getting anything done today. Some days the creative juices don’t really flow, I guess.
Patreon!“Right,” I said as I leaned forward. “Tomb World colonies are dying, we’re next on the list, you’re here to stop it. Why didn’t you say so? And why are you saying it to me? This is a conversation to have with the project head, or the corp manager, not the chief pilot. I mean, sure, I’m real important and everything. I’m in the leadership. But I’m not in charge.”
“The answers are all related,” said Rubicon. “Simply put: you are the highest-ranking individual with no prior links to the other sites. We looked at public information; you have been on-planet for the last two years. No vacations, no offplanet assignments. You might still be involved, but there is an upper useful limit to paranoia. Besides, we cannot investigate further unless we have some access to private records.”
“Ha! And you’ve discovered by now that Jefferson-based corps won’t back-door personal information files, I bet.” I took his silence as consent. “Especially when it’s somebody from the Great Powers trying to get in. There’s a lotta people back home with long memories about how their grandmas ended up in the colony, you know.”
“I do not set Earth’s involuntary transportation policy, Pilot Officer Tanaka,” Rubicon said, evenly enough that I wondered if he might even disagree with it, a little. “But I will admit that it is currently making my task more difficult. And my task is to stop the scouring of this planetary site.”
