williampall

[williampall]

Brainstorming Sci-Fi

In my last post I mentioned that I was going try my hand at working on my own version of the WarHammer 40,000 universe. There will be differences, and I'm at the step right now where I'm trying to decide what to do with it. What differences there will be. These are my thoughts: In the history of mankind, there was no dark age. As 40k is now, mankind has technology, but it is mysterious and dangerous. No one understands it, they pray to machine spirits for criminy sake. In my version, there will be an understanding of the sciences. I would equate the scientific understanding being closer to that of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I mention that not in a matter of actual tech level, but rather in the attitude toward technology. The second biggest adjustment to the setting in my mind is that xenophobia will not be anywhere near as rampant. The Space Marines and Eldar (or whoever it is that will evolve from the Eldar inspiration) will be allies, not enemies. As humanity goes out to explore and expand in space, the diplomats go first, not the soldiers . . . Due to those to changes alone, the setting I envision is not nearly as dark and gritty. There is not nearly as much war. There will be war, don't get me wrong. But will these changes be enough to keep GW off my back? Of course, there will be inspiration from other sources. Not sure what I'll do with it, but I'm sure Star Wars will have some influence. Like I said, I don't plan on trying to publish anything from this project, so it could be a null point. there are smaller things I probably haven't formulated into words that are other differences. . . . but who knows. So, fair reader, care to contribute? Want to tell me other suggestions for the setting? What are your thoughts?

[williampall]

Re-entering Tumblr

So, it's been a while since I pulled up tumblr and wrote a little bit. got distracted by other things, for reasons. Anywho. in an effort to get my brain percolating on things other than what's been enveloping (or is it inveloping? Consuming? Yes, that's it) consuming my time. I come here to throw the metaphorical wet paint up against the pristine white wall. A few days ago, I mentioned on twitter that my next big writing project will be something that at best would be considered fanfic with the serial numbers filed off, and at worst will have a legal team slapping me with a lawsuit. This is in reference to my decision to a science fiction tale next. The initial seed of inspiration for my project is to write a story in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 setting. But, not in the actual setting, my version of the setting. What gets me worried about this is I have no idea how much, once it's said and done, it will be based on GW's property and how much it will be inspired by it. Now, as I said I would not be taking it direct. There are vast changes I would make. My 40k knowledge is not comprehensive in the least. Due to that I anticipate differences based on my ignorance alone. Furtheremore there are things about the 40k setting I personally don't care for. If that'll be enough difference, I don't know. It's kind of unusual to be looking at the idea of writing a something that I have no plan on EVER trying to publish. I refer to my three prior NaNoWriMo manuscripts, with enough editing they could be thrown up on the eBook stores... So what differences will there be? I'll put that in my next post... coming soon.

[williampall]

“How do I deal with the fact that I just sent to prison the son I never got a chance to raise. He grew up to be a serial killer, with his first victim being the father that died the day of his birth..”

Character in the book I'm currently writing. due to learning of her past lives, she is both the serial killers father, and his first victim.

[williampall]

Camp NaNoWriMo musings.

So, I'm a participant in National Novel Writing Month every November. I don't consider myself a writer. More of a hobbyist. I do plan on trying to publish what I've written at some point. but it needs lots of work. Why do I mention this now? Well, they have a summer program going to be able to write in August instead of November. I promised my wife that if she wanted to do "Camp NaNo" that I would join her. I'm doing a few things differently. I'm shooting for 80k words instead of 50k. If I don't hit my mark by months end I'll just keep going. I also have a good sized outline of what I want to have done in the plot instead of just winging it. will it be worth it, I don't know. We are only two days in. I've done no writing yes for the day due to having the day filled with my regular job. I got 5k of the over all goal done yesterday, but here the thing. I'm not sure if I'm characterizing a character correctly. Some would say, "It's your story, it can't be wrong." In past NaNos I've had different types of characters . . . male, female, straight, gay . . . hasn't been an issue. But with my current book, there's a character, while I'm writing them part of my brain says "they are of X particular ethnicity". Now, part of me wonders why my brain is telling me this. Why is it important for this character to have that ethnicity? Another part says "Well, if you make them that ethnicity [which is not my own], can I do it justice? I doubt I would be able to write the character from the appropriate perspective, not having any experience with that perspective myself. Is the fact that I'm mentally assigning this character an ethnicity some type of racist action? I don't think any actions the character has made or I plan to write them doing would be considered negative. It's not stereotyping as far as I'm aware . . Am I just over-thinking this?

[williampall]

Political Survey Call

So the wife and I just had a heated discussion about a phone call I received. We received a call asking for me specifically. It was someone calling about a political survey. This person started off the call stating several times that they weren't trying to sell anything and I think it was four times in quick succession "I apologize for the inconvenience." Their accent indicated that they were not a native English speaker. At one point they kept asking me to hold . . . really? You call me, and then ask me to hold? Really? They then proceeded to ask about my boating preference for the upcoming political election. I asked why it is they needed to know about my boating preference. I asked for them to give me to someone who could actually speak English . . . they ignored my request. So after I figured out that they were asking about voting, and not boating, they started "apologizing for the inconvenience" again . . . seriously . . . if you're going say your sorry for something like that on the phone, just say your sorry . . . there's no need to indicate "for the inconvenience". I tell this person so, and let them know if they apologize like that I'll hang up. And of course, what's the next thing they say? "I'm sorry for that inconvenience." But oh no. The story gets worse. After I've hung up . . . a few seconds goes by and the phone rings again and it's the same number. I assume it's this person's supervisor calling to apologize for how incompetent their sub-ordinate is. Nope, it's the same idiot wanting to apologize (for the inconvenience) some more. It's at this point I explain to this idiot that I want to be removed from the company's calling list (something I thought I'd made clear a few moments earlier), and if they call again, I would figure out where this person lives, track them down and beat the crap out of them. Yes, this was an intimidation tactic. Yes I was extremely upset. but this idiot should know better to call me back. If I hang up the phone, that means the telephone conversation is done. Now, I understand, I have the capability of not being the most pleasant person on the phone. My wife can't understand how I can be such a jerk when I'm on the receiving end of a call considering that I work in a call center for living and talk to people all day long. That think that could be part of it. Since I'm on the phone so much at work, I don't want to be bothered by such stupidity on the phone when I'm at home. I'm sure it's not all of it. Another part of it is the belief (and I know this will not make me very popular) that if you are going to be doing business in a particular area, make sure you speak the local language. I live in the United States of America where people have spoken English since the founding of the country. Not German, not French, not Spanish, and definitely not whatever third world language this idiot caller spoke as a native tongue. Yes, I freely admit that if I were to move to a different country, a country where English was not the predominate language, I would be obligated to learn whatever language is . . . if in the call center I worked in I was expected to call a country in which another language is spoken, I would learn that language. I only ask for the same from those wanting to do business in this country. Many jobs have been going over-sea's because there's cheaper labor. Well, you know what large corporations? The quality of service you get is equal to what you pay for. These people in over-sea's call centers do not understand English. Yes, they may be able to speak English, but they don't understand it. If the call centers are to remain over there (which I don't think they should) someone should not be put on the phone to call the United States until they understand the language. Yes, I'm a bastard. But if someone doesn't have the common decency to speak the proper language, They don't deserve any respect from me.

[williampall]

The Just Us League

So last night was another session of the DC Adventures game I'm running. I honestly didn't want to run it, I felt that one of the players was a bit whiny and insistent to make sure we all got together. One of the player's was gone, the player whose house we usually game at. He would be gone for a few sessions. I've also found out that when he comes back he wanted to use a different character. So yay, his prior one is now a GM NPC that I can use to do stuff off camera . . . I'm not sure how much this will make sense. I'm just going off my shoddy memory. I might forget key items in plot and such. oh well. Anyway. The last session left off with our heroes of the DC universe finding out that there is no justice league nor has there ever been one. the Heroes that comprised it never became heroes. They were on the Watchtower, and with the one (Yellow) Lantern PC we have trying to contact other lanterns, they made contact with one of the two GL's for the sector of space that Earth is in, Triton, originally from atlantis. While conversing with Truiton, they find out that Sinestro is a Green Lantern, and that the second GL assigned to the sector that earth is in is Gorilla Grodd. Trition leaves, stating he has other duties to attend to and the Watch tower alerts the team that there is something going on at a research lab of Wayne Industries in Gotham. They get teleported down and find that Miss Amazing's twin brother is wrecking the place. on instruction from Lex Luther . . . and the Gotham police beleive Calibre is still a super villian. There's m ore to the session, and I will tell more, but I need to go off to another gming session. will return with the result of the fight.

[williampall]

Reincarnation in fiction

I've had an idea bounce around in my head recently that I might use for my next NaNoWriMo project. I'm not going to go into all the details, at least not now, but one aspect of it details with the concept of past lives, re-incarnation, and . . . not sure of the right word for it . . . 'soul recycling'? The main character of the story finds out information about a past life (or lives . . . ) as a part of the plot. That got me thinking. The current world population is . . . close to, if not over 7 billion people right now? that's the largest the global pop has been ever. Not only that, but there's been a dramatic inflation in the population over the (relatively) recent years. According to Wikipedia, the world pop in the early 1800's was only at 1 billion. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to disparage anyone's actual beliefs, I'm only talking about my theoretical story . . . I expect my ignorance on how re-incarnation is believed to work is potentially why I'm writing this to begin with. But, if from a metaphysical standpoint there were a finite number of souls available to be used on earth at any one time, and the reason people have past lives is due to their 'soul' being re-inserted into a new body after death. the population explosion would cause major problems. The demand would out-weigh the supply, and I'm just talking about the last two centuries. I have a few idea's about how could handle this. another reason to type this out is to process the details through my brain to help me remember it. more idea's are coming to mind as I type. 1) There are still only a set number of souls available to be recycled. The cap was hit a while ago (not sure when), and the simple fact is that some people are born without souls. Only those who actually have souls (such as my protagonist) would be able to have past lives. 2) Souls, upon physical death, are broken up into pieces and each new birth gets fraction of a soul. the number of pieces is dependent on current demand. 3) There really is an infinite supply of souls. But in this situation the question becomes a matter of why someone who is born was given a soul with a history as opposed to a new, fresh soul. 4) Maybe the soul limit is much higher due to a soul being interchangeable between humans, animals, and insects. Someone remembering a past live as a worker drone in a bee hive would definitely be an unusual experience. But, anyway, much like anything I post here, I'm spitballing and always looking for feedback. Please, share your thoughts?

[williampall]

While it was recently revealed that Stephanie Brown, the Bat-verse character who has been known as Spoiler, Robin and Batgirl, would be joining the digital series Smallville Season 11, that’s still not enough according to a group of fans.

Calling themselves “Waffles for Stephanie” the group...

[williampall]

Captain Marvel art with Chuck Yeager quotes. Can’t tell you how this book needs to get here! AND I WILL ALWAYS LOVE MY HELMET FOR HER! MOHAWK HELMET!

[williampall]

Damn it! I just added one more reason to love Gail Simone to the list. How does one person contain so much AWESOME in them?

STRATEGY!

Anyone who has played an online game with me knows I am the one who rushes in with no planning whatsoever and gets everyone killed, which I LOVE.

Here’s me talking about gaming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GimC2AtamCE

[williampall]

Apocalypse World, session one.

So, last night I took part in my first ever internet game. It was through Google Hangout. It was a spur of the moment pick up game that I hope becomes a regular thing. The game we played was Apocalypse World by Vincent Baker. The setting for the game is post apocalyptic . . . something akin to Fallout or Mad Max. there are various type of character archetypes that are able to be selected for play. Through various means of selection, The Brainer is what I was graced with. Think of your typical psychic guy: Your Ork Brainboyz, but human . . . So, for S&G's . . . cause you know it's important to have them, my character became Pinky the Brainer. A tall, lanky, bald man with HUUUUGE ears. He is a puzzle, wrapped in chocolate, covered in bacon, concealed in a conundrum. He is dressed in only a loin cloth. Also in the session was Ant (or was it Aunt, I'm not sure.) the Hardholder, and Dune the Skinner. A lot of the session was used as set up, which was fantastic. Having never played the game before, I got to say you get a lot of the feel of the game from the set up. As far as what happened in the session, after the set up, we begin in the middle of Hatchet City. The psychic Mealstrom more chaotic and unusual than usual. A neighboring Hardholder Ambergrease has been trying to take out Ant for quite some time. Ant, the leader of the hedonistic hyena's that inhabit Hatchet City, has just been stabbed by one of her gang, Michi. In retaliation, Pinky interrogated Michi and determined that there were several spies within the confines of the Hardhold, and has worked one gathering them up. Ant wakes up in the Angel's infirmary, with Dune standing by. Ant is furious that she's been stabbed by Michi and insists to know where he/she is (can't remember Michi's gender). Dune told her that Pinky had them They headed over to Pinky's place. They find a group of "implicated" spies, including Michi, crowded together and wrapped in saran wrap (it's what Pinky had on hand). Ant tries questioning Michi, who admits that they were not under their own power when they stabbed her. she begins providing perforations into Michi with a knife provided by Dune. When Michi indicates that a Brainer more powerful than Pinky forced their hand, Pinky took offense to that, and pulled out the violation gloves and gives Michi a scalp massage. The quality time was interrupted by Dustwich showing up and insisting that Pinky release his friend Swiss Miss. Now, during set up, it was determined that Swiss Miss was an NPC that Pinky clearly wants to kill. Dune moves to the door to bitchslaps Dustwitch and orders him to stand down and hand over his gun. Pinky, decides to take his chance while others are distracted, moves over to Swiss Miss and attempts to stab the little asian man, right in the eye. Emphasis on TRY, because he fails spectacularly. Swiss Miss manages to dodge out of the way at the last moment, but due to being saran wrapped to everyone else, the entire mass of people loose their center of gravity and collapse right on top of Pinky. Once Dustwich is placated (with awesome Skinner powers from Dune), Ant and Dune pull Pinky out of the dogpile, they decide to transport the implicated spies to the Pit. A holding cell for prisoners. The Pit is a cratered out high rise. The guard is sneezing and hocking up his lungs. Ant orders him to the Angel. During the back and forth, two of those being escorted trying to break away. When they do so, both Ant and Dune pull guns and start firing. Pinky, freaked out that guns are being pulled left and right starts running around in circles screaming, and then drops to the ground covering his head. Not sure what happened next, cause it was getting late and I was tired. But, the Master of Ceremonies stated that the session was ending. as a finish to the session, he indicates that Michi has fallen into the Pit and been stabbed through by a piece of rebar. Pinky, crawls over to the edge of the Pit, sees Michi and points out to them, "Oh, that's a bad impaling. You really should of tried for the fun kind."

[williampall]

[This is a copy/paste from her FB, I couldn't find one already on Tumbler] I play. I've played since I was a little kid. Since I begged my dad to buy me a Nintendo LCD Donkey Kong, Jr. Since I blew through three weeks' allowance playing Defender at the laundromat. Since you were a twinge in the left side of your daddy's underoos. I've been a gamer since I made friends with a girl in the 5th grade just to get at her Atari. Since I missed the bus playing Galaga after school. Since I missed the start of Return of the Jedi playing Tempest in the theater lobby. You think you know. You don't know. I've been a gamer since before you could read. Since I aced midterms after staying up all night playing Evil Tetris. Since I became dorm champ at Leisure Suit Larry. Since I double-wielded on Time Crisis 3 at Fuddrucker's. I was a voice in not one, but two major video game titles. I hosted the Reach Beta tutorial. I was a Gears of War superfan panelist at ComicCon. I hosted the Ubisoft presser at E3 2012. I didn't do any of it for the money. For most I got paid next to nothing, and for some, less than that. I did it because I love video games. Because I've dreamt since I was a kid of being in one of the games I love. How many games have you done voices for? How many cons have you repped at? Your buddy's Unreal Tournament garage deathmatch doesn't count. I go to E3 each year because I love video games. Because new titles still get me high. Because I still love getting swag. Love wearing my gamer pride on my sleeve. People ask me what console I play. Motherfucker, ALL of them. I get invited to E3 because real gamers know I'm a gamer. I don't do it for the money. I have plenty of money. I don't do it for the fame. Fuck fame. I do it because I love video games. I don't give out my gamertag because I don't want a mess of noob jackholes lining up to assassinate me on XBL. I don't give a shit what you think about my gamerscore. I don't play to prove a point. I don't play to be the best. I play because I love it. I play. I've been playing my whole life. I'm not ashamed of it. I don't apologize for it. It's who I am. To the core. I'm a gamer. So to all the haters out there who claim I don't play; To the GAF dicks, Gamespot trolls, To every illiterate racist douchebag on Youtube: Flame away. Go nuts. Post every jackass comment your heart desires. I'll still be playing when your mom's kicked you out of her basement and you have to sell your old-ass console and get a real job. For now, I say to you respectfully, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, GFYS.

[williampall]

Men, we've failed as a gender. The fact that items like this need to exist sickens me.

Rape has become endemic in South Africa, so a medical technician named Sonette Ehlers developed a product that immediately gathered national attention there. Ehlers had never forgotten a rape victim telling her forlornly, “If only I had teeth down there.”

Some time afterward, a man came into the hospital where Ehlers works in excruciating pain because his penis was stuck in his pants zipper.

Ehlers merged those images and came up with a product she called Rapex. It resembles a tube, with barbs inside. The woman inserts it like a tampon, with an applicator, and any man who tries to rape the woman impales himself on the barbs and must go to an emergency room to have the Rapex removed.

When critics complained that it was a medieval punishment, Ehlers replied tersely, “A medieval device for a medieval deed.” 

- Half the Sky, Nicholas Kristof 

[williampall]

My Super Speed Power

So I have an idea for a super-power and I've never really shared it due to the thought that other people would probably think it's dumb. But, this is the internet, where even awesome idea's are called dumb, so I realize I've got nothing to loose in sharing it. To the outside observer the power would look like super speed, such as Flash, Quicksilver, Velocity and what not. While in truth, it would be more speed or time manipulation. The character would be able to change their relative speed in the world, making it so they could experience a longer or short period of time than those around them. They are able to experience, for example two seconds for every one second everyone else experiences, or one minute for everyone else's second . . . or an hour . . . well, you get the idea. The kicker, in regard to the power, is that for however long they are "sped up" and moving faster than anyone else . . . the power forces them to be "slowed" for an equivalent period of time. So that one second earlier where they got an hours worth of stuff done? Now they experience a second where everyone around them gets that full hour. Now, it doesn't need to be immediate . . . but the pendulum will eventually want to swing back the other way. the character might have ways of putting off re-establishing the balance, but the longer they wait, the harder it would be to not slow down. While "slowed" the character would be anything from just slow to being completely immobile. The way I would expect this to work for purposes of story is that if say the character is a member of a super hero team, they'd function on missions and such as a typical speedster. But, once the mission is over and the character has a "time debt" to be paid, they will make sure they are in a safe secure location for that slowed time when they would be most vulnerable. At least, if the writer of the story wants a boring story. we all know that complications drive stories and having a "slow down" at inopportune times, or be on a mission with team mates that don't know the details of how the speed power works would be able to really drive the plot along. As the character grows and learns more about the power that they have, they get greater control over it. For example, if they are at double speed for a half hour, they would learn to be at either half speed for a half hour or three quarters speed for an hour. And/Or they learn to adjust someone else's speed . . . and applying the time debt to either that same target, themselves, or a third party. Of course that type of control would probably be years and years into their experience with the power. I haven't really given much thought has to where the power would come from. Whether from some sort of technology, an innate mutant/metahuman ability, divine intervention . . . I got the inspiration for the power, at least as much as I can remember, from the X-Force comic from the 90's and the character Tempo. She had time manipulation abilities and I thought of this power as a tweak to how her power could be better . . . Edit: if any actual comic book writers/creators want to take this idea and run with it . . please by all means, do so . . . I doubt I'd ever be able to break into the superhero biz . .

[williampall]

[williampall]

DC Adventures Planning: "Justice League Lost" part 2.

I just finished a character creation session with my players for a DC Adventures game. Now, while I do have an idea of what I want to do with the game, I see no reason not to use every resource at my disposal. Therefore, I come to the internets. Any feedback, or suggestions that people think of to make my game better would be appreciated. The basic premise of the campaign, what I've told the players, is that the version of the DC universe that will be used is similar to the animated universe from Justice League Unlimited from several years ago. The players would be creating characters that are Justice League B-Lister. All the characters will have already met each other at the very least, if not already worked together. I've told them that at some point during the campaign they'll have to step up to the level of the JL A-List. Characters in the campaign are as follows: Miss Amazing, the lovechild of Thor and Aphrodite. Though she was born several centuries ago, due to her divine nature, she still looks like a teenager. Also, because she was raised on Themyscira, she is still as immature and naïve as a teenager. Miss Amazing, lives in Coast City and is enrolled in college as a freshman in her secret identity of Alethia Reynolds. She also has a twin brother who had been raised in Asgard. The second PC is another resident of Coast City. Dr. P is a scientist at STAR Labs. He works in the bio-sciences department studying the healing and regenerative processes of various animals and specifically insects and trying to find ways of applying those to humans. He still works for STAR Labs, but no one knows he's become a hero, not even his family. During one of his experiments, here was an explosion cause by a supers from outside (a brother and sister of Norse/Greek descent) caused an accident which imbued Dr. P with super powers himself. Then we move of to Sheperd. A member of the Sinestro Corps that has been sent to earth to convince the planet that the Sinestro Corp is not evil, they are just dedicated to Order and weeding out Chaos throughout the universe. Sheperd is followed by a Manhunter robot which holds his Power Battery. The robot goes by the name Garrus. The Garrus player has decided that he'll need to pull Sovereign quotes from the Mass Effect series and play up the fact that the character is essentially an indentured servant to Shepard. The robot sees itself as a loyal subject of Sinestro, and feels that if Shepard gets out of line, it will report back to the leader of the Sinestro Corps. It also has self-destructed at least once and is obsessed with trying to improve the technology within itself. Garrus's player is one who, given his past gaming track record, may or may not show up to games. I think that he chose for himself a character that is easily removed if need be works out well. The last PC is the only one not specifically in Coast City. Named the “Gadget Guy” (subject to change), he is a reformed villain trying to turn a new leaf. The player tells me that he hasn't decided if he's truly reformed, or still a bad guy and just “pretending” to reform. The Gadget Guy is also son to the Calculator and therefore also brother to Batgirl (Steph Brown). Well, that's my group of characters. I'm sure others will think of ways I can mess with my players better than I can. As for the game itself . . . what I currently have planned is to let them have a session where they are working together with and for the Justice League, being sent on missions, resolving global hot spots and such, being teleported up to and back down from the WatchTower, spend a little time on their secret identities (those that have them). Then at the end of the session. As a cliffhanger I explain that one morning, they wake up and the Justice League is gone. Not only is the League gone, but no one remembers the League at all. It's as if the founding members of the League never became heroes. There's a Metropolis without Superman, a Gotham that never got a Batman, a Coast City . . . without Green Lanterns. Now of course, all the villains in the world are all still there. All causing the havok they normally would. That's the crux of the campaign. There are a few possible paths. 1) The PC's set themselves up as a new Justice League. 2) The PC's investigate why they remember the Justice League and no one else does. 3) The PC's track down the people who should've become heroes and try to find out why they didn't. 4) The PC's do something completely out of the scope of what I can think of. As far as what HAS happened . . . I haven't decided. There are two possibilities I'm considering. 1) Someone hit the world with a major mental control blast that forced everyone, including the founding seven members, to forget that those seven ever became heroes. Or 2) The PC's are shunted into an parallel dimension where the seven truly did never become heroes. The original concept of the campaign came from what Max Lord did during Brightest Day. But just because it was the genesis of the idea doesn't mean I have to stay with it. Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions on improvements?