Moe Lane's Blog, page 795
February 2, 2021
02/02/21 Snippet, GHOSTS ON AN ALIEN WIND.
Gotta get back into the headspace.
Patreon!“Great. They’re a bunch of well-adjusted fanatics who don’t want to harvest our pineal glands.” I scowled. “But why are they here? There’s nothing on this planet except us, and the usual abandoned ruins.”
“Anything good in them?” asked Nur. “I mean, we’re here for the contragrav, sure. But they’d just buy in to get a piece of that, right?” He looked at me. “So, is there something going on under the table, Pam?”
“Geez, Nur.” I shook my head. “If we were running anything under the table — “ Besides all that stuff we’re gonna forget to get import stamps for, I thought “ — you’d be the one managing it, right? So you tell me: anything I should know about?”
Nur snorted. “Yeah, that’s fair. Nah, I got nothing going on the side.” Again, aside from the smuggling; which he was involved in. Maybe they really are interested in that? I thought to myself. But what was the point? If we got caught, they’d just make us pay the import fees, plus three percent. That wasn’t worth sending a ship here.
A ship… I snapped my fingers. “I am an idiot,” I said.
“Heh. You only say that when you’ve worked something out tricky,” Nur said. “What’s it this time?”
“Just that if the crew of the Redacted won’t talk to us,” I said as I stood up, “we’ll just talk with the ship itself.”
Now playing: the Penny Arcade e-racing Sea Shanty!
Link here. Singing and vocal arrangement by Nonnie Reed: a PDF to the shanty itself is below, with text after the fold. Also, this is very cool and I enjoyed it greatly. I hope you will, too.
(PS: this is my new book: Tales From the Fermi Resolution. Free on Kindle Unlimited!)
PA-Shanty-Google-DocsDownloadThe Flying Koala Commemorative Unofficial Penny Arcade Racing League Sea Shanty
Riding the wall, boys,
We’re riding the wall:
WHAM! BAM! Another car’s done!
Don’t go to the left, boys,
You’ll splutter and stall:
Don’t you change lanes
Until you have won.
The racing is heavy,
The cars are all fast:
WHAM! BAM! Another car’s done!
They roar and pass quickly
To put us in last:
Don’t you change lanes
Until you have won.
Riding the wall, boys,
We’re riding the wall:
WHAM! BAM! Another car’s done!
Don’t bother with pit stops
E’en for nature’s call!
Don’t you change lanes
Until you have won.
The track is degrading,
It’s mar-zee-ah-pan:
WHAM! BAM! Another car’s done!
When racers start spinning
It’s part of our plan:
Don’t you change lanes
Until you have won.
Riding the wall, boys,
We’re riding the wall:
WHAM! BAM! Another car’s done!
The black flag is waving
While more race cars fall:
Don’t you change lanes
Until you have won.
As the wreckage and tires
Rain down from the sky
WHAM! BAM! Another car’s done!
Win this race we will
Since there is no ‘try’:
Don’t you change lanes
Until you have won.
Riding the wall, boys,
We’re riding the wall
WHAM! BAM! Another car’s done!
As tragic misfortune
The others befall:
Don’t you change lanes
Until you have won.
The checkered flag beckons
To end this fierce clash.
WHAM! BAM! Another car’s done!
This strategy’s working,
The last lap we ….CRASH.
See the crowd cheer
As we e-clipse the sun.
Tumble and fall, boys,
We tumble and fall:
WHAM! BAM! And now our car’s done!
As things stop their spinning
My crew chief did call:
“Why did-n’t you change lanes?
You might’ve then won!”
Tweet of the Day, This Is Why You Test edition.
My wife has gently explained to me that this was not a successful test.
One of the engines never lit and there wasn't enough thrust to stop in time: pic.twitter.com/BvkPHGIy5l
— Scott Manley (@DJSnM) February 2, 2021
Still: at least they now know they’ve got a problem with the engines not lighting off properly when trying to land the rocketship. Maybe not the exact same problem, but SN8 and SN9 definitely had the same sort of problem. I mostly expect SN10 to do the exact same thing, and that will continue until suddenly somebody figures out what happened and then the rocketships don’t blow up on landing anymore.
The MYTHIC Subscription Drive Kickstarter.
On the principle that every little bit helps.
Movie of the #̷̧̧̨̨̰̭̝̘͓̰͍̠̲͇́͐͊́̈͊̂̓͂͘͠#̸̨̗̙̟̯͍̩̝͉̬̘̖͇̥̯͘#̶͖͍̥̬̺̘̰̜̻͇͈̹͛͑̏̈́̈́̀͊̌̇̎͒̀#̵̢̠̟͇͖̯̳̞̗̰̘̩̤̦̘͝: Groundhog Day.
GROUNDHOG DAY will probably be remembered for as long as we remember what movies are, and what languages we watched them in. I’m being perfectly serious, too. It’s one of the best movies of my lifetime.
February 1, 2021
Spent the evening doing spreadsheets…
…and assessing the publishing schedule in light of it. I just don’t know how I can avoid doing TINSEL RAIN without a Kickstarter, dagnabbit. MORGAN BAROD is achievable on its own, but then the kitty’s empty and it’ll take time to refill. And if I want another chapbook done this year, that’s gonna cost some cash, too.
All in all, I imagine that this is a lot easier to do when all you need to do is sell manuscripts to publishers. Not a complaint, or at least not trying to be a complaint. I’m lucky, compared to most people trying to self-publish. …And ain’t that a cheery thought.
Moe Lane
PS: My books!
The “The Circle is Complete” PACIFIC RIM: THE BLACK trailer.
From anime was the franchise inspired, and to anime it returns. PACIFIC RIM: THE BLACK has come home. As foretold by the prophecy, no doubt.
We stay, and fight. #PacificRimTheBlack streams March 4th. pic.twitter.com/Ghy4AlvUzs
— NX (@NXOnNetflix) February 1, 2021
The “Sigh. No, there is no Illuminati” DARK WEB: CICADA 3301 trailer.
I don’t really blame people for wanting there to be an Illuminati. It would be convenient for there to be an omnipotent secret conspiracy out there, even if it was malevolent*. But there’s nothing like DARK WEB: CICADA 3301 out there. We’re on our own.
Also: I think that GeekTyrant is right, and the movie will likely blow chunks. But it’s STILL a good candidate for Oscar bait this year! Chew on that for a while.
Moe Lane
*I forget who pointed it out first (Hell, it might have even been me), but one of the things that you notice about GURPS WAREHOUSE 23 (a TTRPG collection of stuff suppressed by the Secret Masters) is that, well, there were damn good reasons to lock all that stuff up. You could run a fun game around a concept of an essentially benevolent Illuminati — no wait, it’s basically THE ESOTERRORISTS.
