Sidney Blaylock Jr.'s Blog, page 39

Word Count (What I’m Writing); Updated Daily (mostly)

Project Paradise Word Count: 357

Project Skye Word Count: 1617
Project Independence Word Count: 3041
Project Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel Page Count: 12

0. Zero. Nada. Zilch. That’s my level of production since Tuesday of next week. What happened? Bad day on Wednesday and a realization that I’m still not focusing on enough on characters when I sit down to “plot” out my stories. To be fair, school and reading for school interrupted as well as I should write after class (about 4:15), but usually end up spending the time in the sun outside watching YouTube videos instead.

Currently Reading (What I’m Reading); Updated Daily (mostly)

For Fun:

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy Novel, Stormlight Archive Book 3)
For School:

Rhetoric in the European Tradition by Thomas Conley (A Book on the History of Rhetoric)

Rereading the Sophists: Another book on the history of Rhetoric
For Research/Personal Development:

Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)

I wanted to read Oathbringer over the summer break before classes started again, but BS said that it might be helpful to read a Novella entitled, Edgedancer, before starting on Oathbringer. I finally found a copy at MTSU’s library and I’m reading it now. X gives a history of Rhetoric. Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.

Game Mode On (What I’m Playing); Updated Weekly (Mondays)

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands (Ubisoft Multi-platform): Open World, Third Person Tactical Shooter–About ¾th of the way through. Special Ops/Military combat in a fictional Bolivia taken over by a Mexican drug cartel. Difficulty is auto-leveling to its hardest difficulty (Tier One status) and it is slowing down my progress in the game as enemies take more hits to die, but you take far fewer hits to die. Difficulty is currently set to ADVANCED–the game’s doing, not mine. Very irksome when all you want to do is finish the game.
Until Dawn (Sony PS4 Exclusive): Third Person, Horror– branching storyline game that features a variety of choices that affect the outcome of the story using a system call the “Butterfly Effect.” As I’m writing this, I haven’t put any time into this game as of this weekend because of E3.

I’m So Excited, I Just Can’t Hide It

A few readers will know that late last year I started Season 1 of Babylon 5 even though I knew the ending series. Like I said in that post, I only got to see the first season and the latter part of the last season. I didn’t really get a chance to see how the characters and story got where they were at the end of the show. As a poor student, I didn’t have a chance to get the second season (although I was planning on doing so in the fairly near future). However, after logging into Amazon Prime last night, I discovered that ALL five seasons of Babylon 5 are on the streaming service! Yes! I watched Season 2, Episode 1 last night, and would watch Episode 2 tonight if not for E3 coverage of Bethesda’s Press Conference tonight. Unfortunately, school is back in session next week, so no binging the show for me, but I will try to check out 1-2 episodes every weekend and post a Season Review at the end of each season that I see.

What Amazon Gives, It also Takes Away

So, just like any streaming service, as new titles come on the service, old titles go away. I have quite a few shows that I had on my Watchlist that are no longer free (including another “starship show” Firefly. I’m going to have to purchase that series it looks like, but as it is only one season and the episodes appear to be .99 at iTunes, it should be okay. I just wish that when series are scheduled to go away (on all services), that a little countdown timer would start in the bottom right hand corner with the months/days/minutes until the series were going away. I would prioritize my viewing to those series that I really wanted to watch before they “disappeared.” I often experience “Media Overload” where I can’t decide what I want to watch because there are so many choices, so I end up watching nothing (or only pieces of a show because it isn’t what I really want to watch). A timer on shows that are ending at the end of the month (or maybe as far out as up to 3 months would help me in those cases.

But I’ll Take It

Still, I’m grateful as it saves me approximately $80 (19.99 for 4 seasons). Having already paid approximately $110 for Amazon Prime when it renewed in March (for me), I wondered if it was a sound investment considering my status as a “poor” college student these days, I find that it has almost earned back the value that I spent on it with this one series alone. If they get another good sci-fi series to go along with this one later in the year, I will feel comfortable about the value of the service and will endeavor to “re-up” next year.

Well, that’s it for today! Have a great one!

Sidney

Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec

Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.

Amazon Associate Disclaimer:

I earn a small commission on the purchase of these items.

View more on Sidney Blaylock Jr.'s website »

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Published on June 13, 2018 04:30

EA Play 2018 Conference Review

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EA Play 2018 (Fifa 19, Anthem, Unravel Two Game images). Image Source: Coming Soon.Net

Word Count (What I’m Writing)

Project Paradise Word Count: 357

Project Skye Word Count: 1617
Project Independence Word Count: 3041
Project Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel Page Count: 12

0. Zero. Nada. Zilch. That’s my level of production since Tuesday of next week. What happened? Bad day on Wednesday and a realization that I’m still not focusing on enough on characters when I sit down to “plot” out my stories. To be fair, school and reading for school interrupted as well as I should write after class (about 4:15pm), but usually end up spending the time in the sun outside watching YouTube videos instead.

Currently Reading (What I’m Reading)

For Fun:

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy Novel, Stormlight Archive Book 3)
For School:

Rhetoric in the European Tradition by Thomas Conley (A Book on the History of Rhetoric)

Rereading the Sophists: Another book on the history of Rhetoric
For Research/Personal Development:

Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)

I wanted to read Oathbringer over the summer break before classes started again, but BS said that it might be helpful to read a Novella entitled, Edgedancer, before starting on Oathbringer. I finally found a copy at MTSU’s library and I’m reading it now. X gives a history of Rhetoric. Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.

Game Mode On (What I’m Playing)

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands (Ubisoft Multi-platform): Open World, Third Person Tactical Shooter–About ¾th of the way through. Special Ops/Military combat in a fictional Bolivia taken over by a Mexican drug cartel. Difficulty is auto-leveling to its hardest difficulty (Tier One status) and it is slowing down my progress in the game as enemies take more hits to die, but you take far fewer hits to die. Difficulty is currently set to ADVANCED–the game’s doing, not mine. Very irksome when all you want to do is finish the game.

Until Dawn (Sony PS4 Exclusive): Third Person, Horror– branching storyline game that features a variety of choices that affect the outcome of the story using a system call the “Butterfly Effect.” As I’m writing this, I haven’t put any time into this game as of this weekend because of E3.

Beginning of E3

So, while “technically,” E3 doesn’t begin until Tuesday (June 12), Saturday marked the beginning of the various E3 Press Conferences from the major game publishers to showcase their new products for the upcoming year(s). As I type this, Electronic Arts (EA) is the only one to have shown their press conference as of yet (although, by the day this goes live, all of the major platform holders will have presented their shows). I will wait until next week (June 18th) to start reviewing their shows, but since EA started a day early, I can talk about their 2018 show.

Battlefield V, Indies, Sports Games, and Anthem

While EA debuted and talked about many more than what is in the header above, their show basically broke down into these 4 main sections, with these four areas serving as the main topics of discussion for gamers. Battlefield V seems interesting, but not nearly as revolutionary as 1) Battlefield One, their WWI game, or 2) as the designers seem to think that it is. While being a part of the Norwegian Resistance is a novel concept, it doesn’t seem as if they are really invested in “doubling down” on that story to tell a truly “gritty” WWII drama (although it remains to be seen). There were two notable indies talked about during the press conference, Unravel Two and Sea of Solitude. While I didn’t play more than a demo of the original Unravel, I didn’t mind it. It was okay . . . but I’ve played many games like it, so I decided to wait until it was on sale at a very low price (or hope that it would come to the “free” PS Plus games program). U2 will probably go the same way. Sea of Solitude (SoS) looks interesting, but as a poor college student, I’ll probably end up passing on it as well. The sports games all look fine, but EA has pushed me out of the sports game market. I used to be a heavy sports game enthusiast, but with the inclusion of “franchise” modes, “story” modes, and “ultimate team” modes (virtual trading cards purchased with real currency), I find that I simply can’t play the game like I want to–take my favorite team, play 1 “season,” and see if I can win the championship, and rinse wash and repeat each year, so I stopped buying them.

Anthem

Closing the show was a “deep dive” on the game Anthem. I’m actually going to save the discussion of Anthem for later as I plan to do individual posts for the most impressive game reveals/game trailers of E3 like I did for E3 2017. Basically, I’ve heard some position Anthem as a Destiny/Monster Hunter World “clone.” Long-time readers of the blog know that I’m a hardcore Destiny fan. However, after the crap EA pulled with Mass Effect Andromeda, while I do plan to “preorder” the game, I will be waiting on reviews before I actually “purchase” it and will switch my money to another game should the reviews be anything less than stellar; I prefer to wait for a significant price drop in the summer and/or as a holiday game rather than pay full price for a game that is less than stellar these days. Fool me once, EA. I’ll be waiting on the reviews on this one.

Overall Grade: C-

So, I went back and forth on this one as I really think that this Conference was an improvement to last year’s EA Conference (mostly due to the host Andrea Rene) and it was an example of a “old school” type of conference that was fine in the PS2/PS3 era of gaming. The problem is that it could have been so much more. As the unofficial start of E3, everyone always hopes that EA will do better than it does, but EA refuses to actually do what the gamers want–less developers and more gameplay (and more diverse games). You have the Star Wars license, please show us Star Wars games. EA has the licenses for the Army of Two series, Battlefield series, Burnout series, Command & Conquer series, Crysis series, Dead Space series, Dragon Age series, Mass Effect series, Medal of Honor series, Need for Speed series, Plants vs. Zombies series, Rock Band series, SimCity series, The Simpsons series, The Sims series, Skate series, SSX series, Star Wars series, Titanfall series (list pulled from front page of Wikipedia).

They only talked about Battlefield (newest game), Command and Conquer (mobile game–wrong venue as E3‘s audience isn’t really comprised of mobile gamers), The Sims (in pre-show), and Star Wars (and they couldn’t even release a logo/trailer/etc from the newest Star Wars game which isn’t even releasing until holiday 2019). That’s it. All those licenses listed above and that’s all the EA showed, knowing full well that gamers want gameplay. Hopefully, Bethesda, Square Enix, Ubisoft, and Sony will be much more exciting and will feature the games/gameplay that gamers crave.

Here is a super-salty, but condensed version of the press conference that is only 5 minutes long (clean, but very dismissive–probably more than I would I have been, but the summary is on-point):

Well, that’s all I have for now. Have a great day!

Sidney

Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec

Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.

Amazon Associate Disclaimer:

I earn a small commission on the purchase of these items.

View more on Sidney Blaylock Jr.'s website »

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Published on June 12, 2018 04:30

Finished EdgeDancer (Novella) by Brandon Sanderson: Mini-Review (Non-Spoilers)

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EdgeDancer Cover From the Stormlight Archive. Image Source: Amazon

Word Count (What I’m Writing)

Project Paradise Word Count: 357

Project Skye Word Count: 1617
Project Independence Word Count: 3041
Project Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel Page Count: 12

0. Zero. Nada. Zilch. That’s my level of production since Tuesday of next week. What happened? Bad day on Wednesday and a realization that I’m still not focusing on enough on characters when I sit down to “plot” out my stories. To be fair, school and reading for school interrupted as well as I should write after class (about 4:15), but usually end up spending the time in the sun outside watching YouTube videos instead.

Currently Reading (What I’m Reading)

For Fun:

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy Novel, Stormlight Archive Book 3)
For School:

Rhetoric in the European Tradition by Thomas Conley (A Book on the History of Rhetoric)

Rereading the Sophists: Another book on the history of Rhetoric
For Research/Personal Development:

Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)

I wanted to read Oathbringer over the summer break before classes started again, but BS said that it might be helpful to read a Novella entitled, Edgedancer, before starting on Oathbringer. I finally found a copy at MTSU’s library and I’m reading it now. X gives a history of Rhetoric. Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.

Game Mode On (What I’m Playing)

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands (Ubisoft Multi-platform): Open World, Third Person Tactical Shooter–About ¾th of the way through. Special Ops/Military combat in a fictional Bolivia taken over by a Mexican drug cartel. Difficulty is auto-leveling to its hardest difficulty (Tier One status) and it is slowing down my progress in the game as enemies take more hits to die, but you take far fewer hits to die. Difficulty is currently set to ADVANCED–the game’s doing, not mine. Very irksome when all you want to do is finish the game.
Until Dawn (Sony PS4 Exclusive): Third Person, Horror– branching storyline game that features a variety of choices that affect the outcome of the story using a system call the “Butterfly Effect.” As I’m writing this, I haven’t put any time into this game as of this weekend because of E3.

A Bite-Sized Interlude

So, last week I finished EdgeDancer by Brandon Sanderson after a bad day of classes (I won’t go into the particulars, but it was one of those “Bear Eats You” days). In a nutshell, I thought it was a good story. It is one that I wish that I’d known about before buying/starting Oathbringer by Sanderson as it is a prequel of sorts and it delayed my beginning Oathbringer until I finished reading it. It is part of the new trend of authors releasing “side” stories in-between entries in the mainline series. Tad Williams has done it–in fact, I still haven’t had a chance to buy the actual new”mainline” novel in his Osten Ard series because I only just bought his novella and finished it earlier this spring. To my knowledge Elizabeth Moon hasn’t done that with her Vatta series, but Diane Duane has done it with her Young Wizards series (and for this one, I bought the mainline entry, not realizing that their were two side stories available that I’m going to have to go back and get at some point). In the mid-80’s, EdgeDancer might have been a full novel as it clocked in at about 200 pages. However, as Oathbringer is approximately 1,000 pages in length (and is in the general range of Sanderson’s normal length), this book is only about 20% of what the author is capable of writing.

A New Character and a New Power

EdgeDancer focuses on a new character, Lift and her new abilities. I’m actually not sure if we’ve seen Lift before–I somewhat feel that we might have seen her (or maybe it was the characters she interacts with) in an Interlude to the main story, so if she isn’t completely new, please forgive my memory (I haven’t read Bks 1 & 2 recently). I found the story to be pretty good. The main character’s characterization was excellent and the setting was well done. I felt the ending seemed to veer slightly as it has a misdirection that I’m not sure completely works (no spoilers), but the resolution of the story was strong enough that I immediately jumped into Oathbringer. I love Lift’s powers and can’t wait to see if they will be worked into the mainline story. The antagonist of the story was well done, if off the stage for most of the story and I have to say that even with the ending lurching wildly, I did still enjoy the final confrontation scene.

Overall Grade: B (Above Average): This story is a good set up for Oathbringer. Is it necessary? No, but it is fun and if you enjoy the world of the Stormlight Archive series then it gives you a new character with new powers in a setting we haven’t seen much of in the series. It is available in either a standalone volume or in a large volume, Arcanum Unbound with novellas from his other fantasy series.

Sidney

Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec

Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.

Amazon Associate Disclaimer:

I earn a small commission on the purchase of these items.

View more on Sidney Blaylock Jr.'s website »

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Published on June 11, 2018 04:30

What’s On My Bookshelf: Numenera Role-Playing Game By Monte Cook

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Numenera Book Cover (Futuristic humans and aliens on the cover)

Word Count (What I’m Writing)

Project Paradise Word Count: 357

Project Skye Word Count: 1617
Project Independence Word Count: 3041
Project Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel Page Count: 12

I didn’t manage any new words on any of my major projects–I didn’t even manage a blog post. I realize this is where I’m sabotaging my writing, so I’m redoubling my efforts to write at least 250-500 words each day on at least one of these projects.

Currently Reading (What I’m Reading)

For Fun: Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy Novella)
For School: Rhetoric in the European Tradition by Thomas Conley (A Book on the History of Rhetoric)
For Research/Personal Development: Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)

I wanted to read Oathbringer over the summer break before classes started again, but BS said that it might be helpful to read a Novella entitled, Edgedancer, before starting on Oathbringer. I finally found a copy at MTSU’s library and I’m reading it now. X gives a history of Rhetoric. Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.

Game Mode On (What I’m Playing)

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands (Ubisoft Multi-platform): Open World, Third Person Tactical Shooter–About ¾th of the way through. Special Ops/Military combat in a fictional Bolivia taken over by a Mexican drug cartel.
Until Dawn (Sony PS4 Exclusive): Third Person, Horror– branching storyline game that features a variety of choices that affect the outcome of the story using a system call the “Butterfly Effect.” My latest choice may have just gotten one of the characters killed.

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Published on June 08, 2018 04:30

E3 Upcoming

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E3 2018 Logo (June 12-14 | Los Angeles). Image Source: Slashgear.com (click for more info)

Word Count (What I’m Writing)

Project Paradise Word Count: 357

Project Skye Word Count: 1617
Project Independence Word Count: 3041
Project Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel Page Count: 12

I didn’t manage any new words on any of my major projects–I didn’t even manage a blog post. I realize this is where I’m sabotaging my writing, so I’m redoubling my efforts to write at least 250-500 words each day on at least one of these projects.

Currently Reading (What I’m Reading)

For Fun: Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy Novella)
For School: Rhetoric in the European Tradition by Thomas Conley (A Book on the History of Rhetoric)
For Research/Personal Development: Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)

I wanted to read Oathbringer over the summer break before classes started again, but BS said that it might be helpful to read a Novella entitled, Edgedancer, before starting on Oathbringer. I finally found a copy at MTSU’s library and I’m reading it now. X gives a history of Rhetoric. Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.

Game Mode On (What I’m Playing)

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands (Ubisoft Multi-platform): Open World, Third Person Tactical Shooter–About ¾th of the way through. Special Ops/Military combat in a fictional Bolivia taken over by a Mexican drug cartel.
Until Dawn (Sony PS4 Exclusive): Third Person, Horror– branching storyline game that features a variety of choices that affect the outcome of the story using a system call the “Butterfly Effect.” My latest choice may have just gotten one of the characters killed.

View more on Sidney Blaylock Jr.'s website »

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Published on June 07, 2018 04:30

Decisions, Decisions–Chromebooks, Apple MacBooks, or Windows Laptops

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Word Count

Project Paradise Word Count: 357

Project Skye Word Count: 1617
Project Independence Word Count: 3041
Project Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel Page Count: 12

So, yesterday I had the best of intentions–I wanted to write, but I didn’t. I only managed to “think” about writing. I intend to do better today. I’m going to at least “outline” page 13 of the Ship of Shadows project. Based on the high view rates for Monday’s post–“finishing” projects is what I really need to be working towards.

Currently Reading

For Fun: Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy Novella)
For School: (A Book on the History of Rhetoric)
For Research/Personal Development: Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)

I wanted to read Oathbringer over the summer break before classes started again, but BS said that it might be helpful to read a Novella entitled, Edgedancer, before starting on Oathbringer. I finally found a copy at MTSU’s library and I’m reading it now. X gives a history of Rhetoric. Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.

Need a New (Wi-Fi) Laptop for the Summer

So, I have summer classes this year as well as a summer “assignment” to work on during my time at the Writing Center. While there are computers in the Library that I have been using (including Laptops available for check-out), this still leaves me without a Wi-Fi connected computer while I’m in class, which is a major disadvantage because I can’t look up/refer to PDF documents online, or bring up other websites that might be germain to the discussion. I love my MacBook Pro (even as old as it is), but the lack of Wi-Fi is a major detriment and deterrent to my being able to write (creatively or otherwise) in “spare” moments.

Chromebook

Right now, I’m leaning towards a Chromebook. I’ve used them before when I was at East Lake Academy and I understand their limitations. Basically, Chrome OS is just an upgraded browser with some other features added on to it. As I really only envision using it as I did at East Lake Academy, for accessing Web Apps, the Web, and viewing/showing video, I’m thinking that a Chromebook should fit the bill. The only downside to a Chromebook is that it has both limited presentation capabilities and its printing service is terrible. As I have this computer (& the ones at MTSU’s library), I’m not so concerned with this particular limitation, but Google’s Cloud Printing service just doesn’t work for me. Of course, neither of my printers are “Cloud Printing” compatible, coming out before this was a thing, but I usually have to connect directly to the printer or “sneaker”-net the file to my printer (or DropBox it, or use a similar solution) in order to be able to get it to print. As someone who is often writing the document right up to the very last minute, that can make for some very stressful deadlines.

Apple MacBook/Pro

So, all things being equal, this is what I would be buying. My computer is a 2008 MacBook Pro. However, I’m in money-saving mode at the moment, and Apple’s products, while great from a usability and aesthetic standpoint, are NOT generally good for the cost conscious. My plan is to get something that will get me through the summer and then upgrade this laptop to a newer model in the fall (hopefully from the WWDC announcement that should have aired by the time this blog post is published–if there is no Macbook/Pro announcement, then I may look into purchasing a *refurbished* 2015 Macbook Pro model as I can’t justify paying the cost of a 3 year old computer at the exorbitant “new” prices that Apple charges). I love Apple’s products and their software platform (Independent Developers) create software that I like to use, but I simply can’t justify the expense at the moment. I have too many other things that need to taken care of first and as a student, money is ALWAYS an issue.

Windows Laptops

So, I understand Windows 10 is doing much better than Wiudows 8 and, by all accounts, is a rock solid operating system. I just do not like Microsoft as a company and so try to give them as little money as possible until they change their corporate ways (during my first draft of this post, I went into a long diatribe about Halo and the acquisition of companies/technologies, to the detriment of all but Microsoft, but suffice to say, I just don’t want to support MS as a company). Having said that, if I could find a Windows 10 computer with full functionality, but at a price rivaling a Chromebook, I might look into the it, but the feature set would have to be extremely compelling, and it still wouldn’t be my main “driver” as I still would be looking for a MacBook/Pro in the Fall (either new or old, depending on June 4th’s WWDC announcement).

Anyway, I thought I’d detail some of my thoughts on trying to find a new Wi-Fi “laptop” as I head into the summer. I’ll keep you posted on what I ultimately decide in a future post.

Sidney

Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec

Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.

Amazon Associate Disclaimer:

I earn a small commission on the purchase of these items.

View more on Sidney Blaylock Jr.'s website »

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Published on June 06, 2018 04:30

The Crew 2: Beta Impressions

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The Crew 2 Cover Art (Racer with car, boat, and motorcycles with U.S. landscapes in the background). Image Source: Steamcommunity.com

Word Count

Project Paradise Word Count: 357

Project Skye Word Count: 1617
Project Independence Word Count: 3041 (+613)
Project Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel Page Count: 12

So I managed a whopping 613 (!) words today. I wrote for longer than I planned (about 20 mins longer than I planned), but I got into a real groove once I got the ship names down. This is a first draft, but right now, I really like the way it is coming together. Now, I need to stop and read for school.

Currently Reading

For Fun: Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy Novella)
For School: Rhetoric in the European Tradition by Thomas Conley (A Book on the History of Rhetoric)
For Research/Personal Development: Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)

I wanted to read Oathbringer over the summer break before classes started again, but BS said that it might be helpful to read a Novella entitled, Edgedancer, before starting on Oathbringer . I finally found a copy at MTSU’s library and I’m reading it now. X gives a history of Rhetoric. It’s a book that I have to read for my History of Rhetoric class. Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye , I intend to do just that.

First Impressions

After getting into and playing The Crew 2 Beta this weekend, I thought I’d give some general, overall impressions–nothing major as it is still a Beta after all and things could conceivably change (not likely, as the game is due to release in under a month and it still has to be “locked down” to be manufactured on the disc). Still, as longtime readers will know that The Crew 2 is one of the games that I was most looking forward to at last year’s E3. I really liked the original game even though it only got mediocre reviews (mostly due to the average “revenge” story and not necessarily next-gen graphics) and I find myself “tooling” around the “open world” of the U.S. map on a regular basis.

The Crew, Upgraded

Long story short, I liked the Beta. Basically, this seems like a really upgraded version of the original game. Strange to hear it described this way, perhaps, as it is a sequel, but the game plays much more like the first game, but with the added disciplines of air racing and boat racing. The air racing sections means that you can fly over the entire map of the highly condensed map of the U.S. and they’ve taken creative liberties with the American waterway system so that you can essentially boat the length of the U.S. just as you can drive it, so essentially you can drive, fly, or boat in their sandbox. It effectively triples the “sandbox” in which you play the game–instead of just driving, now you can drive, boat, or fly around the map.

Not Perfect, However

So, I was planning on buying this one as a “reward” for myself for getting through my June classes as it releases on June 29th and my classes end on July 6. I may still get it, but after playing the Beta it isn’t a slam dunk as it was before for this reason: The Map is EXACTLY the same! After playing the original game for so long, I have the majority of the map memorized, so I can tell that they’ve not changed their original road structure significantly based on my time with the beta. Now, to be honest, they revealed this when they revealed the game, but it seemed like they were upgrading the map (roads) for the additional modes, so I thought they’d change the road system and add new cities, but that’s not what they’ve done. They did upgrade the graphics and added in a more robust river system (& it looks like the events are greatly expanded), but the road system & cities are exactly the same as the first game. I was hoping to visit new cities and drive on new roads–for instance, a greatly truncated Nashville, Tennessee and Chattanooga Tennessee are in the game, but not Atlanta, Georgia. Now, I’m all about my home city (Chattanooga) being in the game, but realistically, Atlanta is a major metropolitan area that rivals New York, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Dallas as a major component in the country. It is essentially the “New York” of the South and deserves to be in the game. However, The Crew 2 still does enough new things that I’m excited to see the new interpretations of the places that I’ve already seen a ton of times in the original game. I’m just not sure if it is worth full price based on the fact that the road system is pretty much the same–still, I will be getting this game, but I have to decide if it is worth an immediate summer purchase, or if it would be better as a “Christmas” game.

Sidney

Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec

Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.

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I earn a small commission on the purchase of these items.

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Published on June 05, 2018 04:30

Finished Rereading Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time #13) by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

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Tower of Midnight (Wheel of Time #13) Book Cover. Image Source: GoodReads

Word Count

Project Paradise Word Count: 357

Project Skye Word Count: 1617
Project Independence Word Count: 2428
Project Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel Page Count: 12

I didn’t manage any new words on any of my major projects–I didn’t even manage a blog post. I realize this is where I’m sabotaging my writing, so I’m redoubling my efforts to write at least 250-500 words each day on at least one of these projects.

Currently Reading

For Fun: Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy Novella)
For School: Rhetoric in the European Tradition by Thomas Conley (A Book on the History of Rhetoric)
For Research/Personal Development: Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)

I wanted to read Oathbringer over the summer break before classes started again, but BS said that it might be helpful to read a Novella entitled, Edgedancer, before starting on Oathbringer. I finally found a copy at MTSU’s library and I’m reading it now. X gives a history of Rhetoric. Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.

Finally Finished

So, this past week, I finally finished rereading Towers of Midnight, the 13th book in The Wheel of Time Fantasy series. This series was started by Robert Jordan in the early 1990s, but he sadly passed away. Brandon Sanderson was asked to complete the series based on the notes left behind by RJ after his death. I can’t remember if I’ve done a formal review of the books based on fact that I’ve already read them, but I won’t do a full one here, just a shorter one that tells why I like the book.

Secondary Characters

If the previous book’s focus is mostly on Rand (the main protagonist of the series), then this book focuses more on the two side characters who also act as protagonists, Perrin and Matt. RJ & BS do the time-honored tradition of splitting up the characters and having them go their separate ways. This book checks in on the pair and offer resolution to their separate storylines so that they might be unencumbered by dangling plot-lines for the final epic battle that RJ & BS are setting up for in Book 14 (the final volume). In this case, the book works, although even though we spend quite a bit of time in both characters’ heads, it still feel like this one is more about Perrin than Matt. I think that it may be because the author may identify more with Perrin than Matt, but whatever the case, this is what makes it feel slightly unbalanced to me.

Not Sure at First

When Brandon Sanderson first took over the reins of the series, I was hesitant to read the final books because I wasn’t sure how they would turn out. I actually delayed reading them until all three were out because 1) I hadn’t read anything by BS yet, so I didn’t know what his writing style was like and 2) because of the mixed reviews on Amazon. Some praised his characterization and said it matched the “spirit” of RJ’s original books, while some were disappointed in the way the books were characterized. For me, The Wheel of Time was always more about the characters than the world (at least, in the later WoT books). Jordan had a dense style, and while that was sometimes helpful to “world-building”, it was also sometimes off-putting and (dare I say it, a little dry and boring). It was his characters and traits that really stood out, from one character’s tagging on her braid when she was angry to one character also being an absolute flirt while claiming he knew nothing of the opposite sex, Jordan’s ability to create characters was amazing. After I read Sanderson’s A Way of Kings, Book 1 of his Stormlight Archives series, I had enough confidence that he would treat Jordan’s characters right and so I dived in and I’m glad I did.

Sidney

Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec

Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.

Amazon Associate Disclaimer:

I earn a small commission on the purchase of these items.

View more on Sidney Blaylock Jr.'s website »

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Published on June 04, 2018 04:30

So, I, Robot is a “bad” movie? What Gives?

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Picture of Will Smith from I, Robot with handwritten words: THE hat. (So wait, you’re telling this is bad movie ’cause you don’t like the main character’s HAT? Really?–Sidney). Image Source: popbabble

Project Paradise Word Count: 357

Project Skye Word Count: 1617
Project Independence Word Count: 2428 (+71)
Project Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel Page Count: 12

I managed to add 71 words yesterday, well below my 250 word goal. In my defense, I only had about 40 minutes in-between assignments, but I probably could have gotten it done, but I had to eat dinner, and eating ribs and typing on a computer keyboard is a recipe for disaster. I also had time on my breaks, but chose not to work on it. Instead I skimmed YouTube for most of break time. Today, I’m going to make a concerted effort to use my break times for writing and save YouTube for the weekend. We’ll see tomorrow if I make it happen.

I, Robot = “bad”?

So, towards the end of the day at the Writing Center, a discussion emerged about the concept of Artificial Intelligence in video games and movies, and I brought up I, Robot as an example. Now, I know I, Robot isn’t regarded fondly in the Sci-Fi community, but I was surprised to hear a MA (Master’s level) student pull a “Freshman Fiat.” This is my term for when a freshman (or any other beginning level student) pronounces that something is “fact” and then provides no evidence for this pronouncement. He categorically stated that I, Robot was a “bad” movie, but without giving any shred of evidence (such as characterization, plotting, setting, tone, etc) to back up his statement and I was supposed to just agree because that is the general consensus.

But I don’t agree.

Not only do I not agree, but as a student learning more and more about Afrofuturism, I would argue that the general consensus has less to do with the movie’s quality in terms of story construction than it does with the appearance of the hero and the formation of the hero’s identity.

But Looper = “good”?

As a counterpoint to the I, Robot narrative, I would offer the (as evidence, which the other participant in the debate never gave, I must repeatedly emphasize), the movie Looper. Looper is a time travel story, one which (minor spoilers–skip down if you want to know nothing about the plot) sets the protagonist against an older version of himself.

Looper was hailed as a “great” movie and was critically acclaimed. It also made its director Rian Johnson a powerhouse in the Sci-Fi movie community (which ultimately lead to The Last Jedi and the splintering of the Star Wars fandom). However, I found Looper (and The Last Jedi to a lesser degree) to be one of the least inventive, least original, and a movie so lacking in character motivation that it made the main character seem flat and uninteresting. And yet, this movie is hailed as what we should aspire to in Science Fiction filmmaking, while I, Robot, which tries to explore the idea what a soul is and where does it reside, and can it reside in a machine created by man (i.e, first explored by “high” literature such as Frankenstein, and explored in many different movies, including the highly successful Terminator films).

What Makes It So?

I would challenge viewers to watch (or rewatch) each film and focus on the protagonists–the main characters. I would also encourage viewers to take a moment to look at the way each character is defined and acts within the context of his respective movie. Although one is a darker shade in terms of skin tone and borrows from his cultural heritage, I would argue that it is Looper’s protagonist who acts in a more stereotypical way. The protagonist in Looper doesn’t emote (characteristic of the “strong, silent” type), his actor has the classic “Hollywood” face (“square-jawed”), and the character acts out of a misplaced sense of “love” (the character himself isn’t faced with any overriding conviction), whereas the protagonist of I, Robot hates the robots in his world as a way of displacing his own “self-hate” at the way his circumstances turned out.

I would argue that I, Robot challenges the stereotypical narrative far more than Looper does, but that the casting of the protagonist in Looper conforms more to the expectations of the viewers and thus, allows Looper benefit from a story that is far less engaging and far less revolutionary than the story that I, Robot tells.

If you happen to disagree, that’s perfectly valid. I just wanted to take a moment to highlight a few of the reasons why I think that I, Robot gets a bad “rap.” At least, there’s no “Freshman Fiat” to deal with here–you have points that you can refute if you disagree.

And that was ultimately the point of today’s post: a little more reason and a little less fiat. Thanks for reading!

Sidney