Random Things, 2/19/15

Various things I’m doing in between watching Figure 17 for my ten best anime series.

Playing: Jeanne D’Arc, PSP.

It’s a surprisingly good strategy RPG for the PlayStation Portable. In a fantastic Europe, Jeanne D’Arc wields a magical amulet and fights the demon-influenced English to liberate France. The graphics in particular are amazing: bright and colorful 3-D polygons that make the Disgaea games look bad. There’s a staggering amount of full-voiced anime cutscenes too, some lasting five minutes long. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the game so far, and it’s a lot of fun.

It’s also interesting because it doesn’t shy away from religious themes. Jeanne believes that God is speaking to her through the amulet, and generally the people believe she is the Pucelle, sent by Him to save France. I’m not sure it will keep on like this, but it’s a rare game so far that isn’t bashing the Church. It’s also not particularly rare or expensive; my used copy set me back eight bucks, and it’s one heck of a bargain at that. You can also find a digital version on the PlayStation Store, on PS Vita.

Watching: British Wrestling.

..of the 1970s.

It’s quite different from American wrestling. For one things, it uses a round structure, and victory is decided by two pinfalls or submissions, or one ten-count outside of the ring. A pinfall or submission will end the current round, and interesting you can also lose by receiving too many public warnings. The referee can warn you twice publicly for bad behavior, then the third time costs you the match. In practice, the warnings are there to get the heel of the match some comeuppance. You’re also not allowed to attack your man while he is on the mat, and he gets a ten count to get on his feet or risk disqualification.

There’s some difference in terminology. An arm bar is an arm lever, a side headlock a side head chancery, and the mat is the deck. Matches tend to be slower and more deliberate, with few high-flying moves and no fancy (or dangerous) slams. Surprisingly, it’s a lot of fun. The slower pace enables more of a story to be told in the match, while the lower-impact moves keeps them safer in the ring.

One of the wrestlers I can’t get enough of us Les Kellett. He’s a comedic wrestler, and probably one of the world’s best. His story/angle is that of a naughty schoolboy almost, and he has some of the most creative and colorful spots (tricks) I’ve seen. This match below is him with Polish wrestler Jonny Czeslaw, and both of them absolutely sparkle with style and comedy.

Comparing: Fifty Shades of Grey and The Sheik.

Did you know that we not only had a movie identical to FSOG over 70 years ago, it became so famous as to make its male star a household name and possibly Hollywoods first male sex symbol? gave the world the famous Latin lover Rudolph Valentino in 1921, with its tale about a powerful sheik and his white female captive. But there’s a tremendous parallel to the modern FSOG, even granting the different levels of explicitness.

Both were based on best-selling salacious books
Both were about men who emotionally and physically abuse the women they take a fancy for.
Both were adored by women watchers, to the befuddlement of men.
Both were about female adoration of the “bad boy,” in spades.

However, The Sheik was arguably worse. Unlike FSOG, its heavily implied he rapes the female lead, which was something explicit in the book. FSOG is getting a lot of heat, but The Sheik never did, and became a minor cultural force. The original book was racist, with screeds against racial miscegenation, and even without that in the movie the whole “Arab sultan abducts white traveler” is pretty skeevy, too.

Yet Valentino is a legend, while FSOG will probably be forgotten in six months. There’s a tendency to romanticize the good old days in life, and this is a small reminder that no, people don’t often change that much.

Writing: Yes, I still do it.

I’m currently starting the fourth chapter book in my first new series. It’s not as impressive as it sounds, because each book is roughly 10k words. By the end of Feburary I will have it done. 40k words in 2 months.

After that, I have a second series I need to write, then a third. The goal is to get them ready for 2016, so I can release them independently. After the first series is finished, I might take a brief month break to hardcore write a Christian speculative fiction novel. I’m not really keen on pushing that side of my writing though, because that genre needs publishers and people with money more than more writers. But I’ll need to shift gears some for a break, and that might do well.

I’ll keep you posted as 2016 comes closer.

Snowing: It Sucks.

If you’ve been hearing about the tons of snow dumped on Boston and Southeast New England, yeah, it’s happening where I live. We’ve probably gotten a good three feet of snow cumulatively. Thankfully, it could have been far worse. I haven’t lost power once, nor have any pipes burst this time. Even the internet has stayed up, with no downtime.

However, the snow has been accompanied by some bitter cold, even for NE standards. I’m someone who enjoys cold weather, but even I have been huddling inside waiting for the cold snap to pass.

So what is going on in all of your lives?