David Ayer tweets photo of Black Mask

Sorry, that's "David Ayer, director of Academy Award(tm)-winning Suicide Squad.

Anyway the frame in question is from Under the Red Hood. Oh. Joy.

Bill Paxton dead at 61

Paxton was John Garrett in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Fred Haise in Apollo 13, and Pvt. Hudson in Aliens, among many other roles. (He's also the "f*ck you, asshole!" punk at the beginning of The Terminator.)

D'ja ever notice - and this is not to diminish the man's skills as an actor or anything - that Hudson and Haise are pretty similar characters? They're both cocky aces who eventually lose their shit, get in a petty argument during a crisis situation, and spend the last third of the film huddled in a ball in the corner (of course, the difference is, Hudson turns out to be a coward whereas Haise... well, let's just say the poor guy misinterpreted an order and got a really nasty health problem as a result. The movie's courteous enough not to go into detail). Since Aliens and Apollo 13 are the two films he's in I've seen the most, that connection has always really jumped out at me.

How to get to New Vegas quickly

Basically, go from Goodsprings to Sloan to Neil's Shack. Then very carefully sneak around the outskirts of Black Mountain. In order to do this, head north from the Shack, keeping the winding path on your right. Don't go down off the ledge until you run into a mountain wall. Then carefully drop down onto the winding path, but at the switchback (where the path curves back towards the south) go off-road, past the NCR corpse and the bear traps. Dodge the falling rocks. From there it's a straight shot to Repconn Headquarters, and you're in the clear.

Then comes the part where you actually have to get into New Vegas. You have numerous options.

1. Have 2000 caps. The most straightforward way. Go all the way around Vegas and enter from the north, through Freeside. Present 2000 caps to the Securitron guarding the gate to the Strip. Note that the Securitron does not actually take your caps; it just makes sure that you have 2000 caps.
2. Have 80 Science. Talk to the Securitron guard and override it. You're in.
3. Kill all the Securitrons. Not recommended.
4. Obtain a pass by going to the King's School in Freeside (2nd segment) and doing the Kings' first quest, G.I. Blues. (Note that this is likely to negatively affect your NCR reputation.) You can pick from several different rewards. Choose access to the Strip.
5. Obtain a pass by going to Mick & Ralph's in Freeside (1st segment, near the East Gate). Pass a 50 Speech check to make the pass available. From there you can pass a 50 Barter check to get a discount, or have a high NCR reputation to get the pass for free (you still need the 50 Speech, though).
6. Sneak into the Strip via Camp McCarran. Instead of heading north from the Repconn building and passing around the east side of Vegas, head west until Vegas is directly north of you, then head north. You'll run into Camp McCarran. In order to access the monorail, you'll need one of the following: 
1. a high NCR reputation (there are quests you can do there) 
2. an NCR uniform
3. the patience to wait until the shift at the monorail terminal changes.

A Blog of Thrones (Chapter 63) Catelyn X: Men on the Chessboard

This is where a local map would come in handy.

Apparently Riverrun is situated so that the army besieging it has to split up into three separate camps. A competent commander, therefore, would be concerned about having his forces attacked one-by-one and defeated in detail, but Jaime Lannister is kind of a tool.

And an impatient tool, too. Jamie has ridden out to chase off raiders in order to stave off the boredom of a siege. Robb decides to take advantage of the fact that Jaime is actually deeply stupid. I'm coming to the conclusion that Robb's not a strategic genius so much as everyone else in this setting (save certain Lannisters) is deeply stupid. 

But we don't get any of the good stuff, dear reader, because George apparently doesn't want to let us get inside the heads of any of the Five Kings. Nor are we allowed to have Jaime as a POV character yet - mostly because his characterization in this book could be summed up as "stupid incestuous asshole," and it's a bit too late in this book to start doing some character development. So instead we have to let Catelyn Stark stand on the sidelines and fret while someone else fights her battles for her.

Again.

This is unfair, I know, because Catelyn is a) old for the setting and b) a woman in a sometimes-"hard" fantasy setting. But you know what? I don't care. Catelyn Stark is not and will never be my favorite character, and frankly it's a chore to get through her stuff while the action is happening off-page. 

George was a TV writer for a while, so I wonder if this was his way of skimping on the budget. Frankly unnecessary because, hey, it's a book. So we have to hear about the battle secondhand once it's over. Jaime tried to kill Robb when he saw he'd lost the battle, and Torrhen and Eddard Karstark gave their lives to save Robb's. Now their father Rickard wants vengeance for their deaths. Hmm, maybe the whole "father to his men" trope is overrated, Robb? I mean it's great that your followers will die for you, but that kinda seems like it's more trouble than it's worth.

Theon Greyjoy also wants to just kill Jaime and be done with it, but at least Robb understands the value of a hostage. (And, um, remember: Theon is a hostage. He's with the Starks because the deal is they'll kill him if his father gets uppity. Robb might want to remember this...)

Okay, so they captured Jaime, but the Lannister host is still besieging Riverrun. Still, that's bound to upset the balance of power, no?

I love how all the stuff I got used to when I started reading "modern comic books" is no longer canon

Barbara Gordon's stuck in a wheelchair - nope
Tim Drake is the current Robin - nope
Cassandra Cain is the current Batgirl - nope 
Jason Todd is dead and not coming back - nope

Dick Grayson is still Nightwing, though. Because some things never ever ever change.

Stop remaking good movies and remake the Star Wars Prequels

Child "actors" who can't act, Jar Jar Binks, trade route politics, mind-numbing over-choreographed lightsaber battles... yeah, these aren't the biggest problems with the trilogy.

One problem that I'd like to discuss is the pacing. Specifically, Palpatine's story happens too quickly, whereas Anakin's takes too long.

To put it another way, Palpatine should not have become Chancellor until the second film, and Anakin should already have been a Jedi-in-training in the first.

In fact... Anakin, not Obi-Wan, should have been Qui-Gon's apprentice, and Qui-Gon should have died halfway through The Phantom Menace rather than at the end. Anakin killing Maul for it, instead of bringing him in alive, could have been a wedge between the two of them in the second film.

I'm just spitballing here.

Also, as much as everybody mocks the "space politics" parts, my opinion is that we actually needed more of Palpatine, because he's the best thing in the prequels.

'sbeen a while

Working on a new blog, more on that later.

Enjoying The Man in the High Castle so far.