kadrin: (Default)
2023-06-01 01:26 pm

trans people are in danger. that's the title.

It's Pride Month! Yay! So now we have to talk about fascism. Keep talking about fascism. Still. I'm sorry, it would be nice to have a nice Pride Month where everyone is happy, but that's not the Pride Month we've got. If we ever want to see sweet water again, we've got to wade through a whole lot of bitter. The short, TLDR version of this is that post you've seen going around from clairewillett on Twitter saying "for pride month this year can straight people focus less on "love is love" and more on "queer and trans people are in danger"". The long version is now.

it's an unedited draft, but I mean it )
kadrin: (elan: en garde!)
2023-04-21 09:02 pm

there's only one everything

Voting is OVER. The contenders for the First Inaugural Tournament To See Who Is Best And Who Is Not Best have been CHOSEN. AND THEY ARE...

With 3 voteshare - the Children of the Sylvan Dynasty!
With 6 voteshare - the Forest's Will!
With 6 voteshare - the Hillbilly Stillguard!
With 6 voteshare - the Forces of the Deep!
With 7 voteshare - the Order of St Amelle!
With 7 voteshare - the Bone Dance!
With 8 voteshare - the Brotherhood of the Left and Right Hand!
And with 12 voteshare - the Defenders of Earth-Primary!

Congratulations to all our winners, and we hope they will have great joy of their success until the actual combat, in which dozens of them will be killed.

Being able to tell which way the wind is blowing, the Brotherhood have already assembled their forces for the fray. Witness their massed glory! This force contains one unit of eight samurai and a samurai champion, one unit of five ninja, and who's that blurry but elegant figure in the background, with her shamisen and pink kimono? Surely it is impossible to tell.

A group of paper miniatures, including samurai, ninja, and a kunoichi, arranged around a cardboard shrine gate.

Anyway, they're currently irrelevant, the first match will be between the Order of St Amelle and the Hillbilly Stillguard, and it will be happening whenever I have all the stuff together and the time to do so! That's a DEAD-ON SCHEDULE. YOU WON'T WANT TO MISS IT, SPORTS FANS.
kadrin: (belkar: now fireball!)
2023-04-18 08:37 pm
Entry tags:

war. war changes in specific quite often, but its generalities remain largely the same.

I now have twelve army lists and twelve 500 point rosters from those army lists worked up in Warsurge. Sadly, due to my arbitrary cruelty and a desire for more audience participation whenever possible, only eight of these armies can go into the First Inaugural Tournament To See Who Is Best And Who Is Not Best, in which all of them will probably be played by me. Some might say that the other four are the lucky ones, because they don't have to go to war with one another. But that's no fun.

Please vote for three of these armies in order. If you do not determine an order I will assign them the order you first wrote them down in, because again, aribtrariness. The first will receive three points, the second two, the third one. The eight armies with the most points will then go into a single elimination tournament and the winner will be crowned Currently Best Army.

Here's a short description! There will be a longer description under a cut.

Bone Dance - army of skeletons led by armoured reapers
Brotherhood of the Left and Right Hand - samurai and ninja mercenaries
Caerul Space Empire - blue-skinned egotistical fake-Roman space imperialists
Children of the Sylvan Dynasty - wood elves and high elves attempting to get the band back together
Defenders of Earth-Primary - a loose group of heroes from the various timelines of Earth aiming to have amazing adventures that could be retold in a pulp magazine
FANIR Corporation Asset Protection Division - corporate space marines in a dystopian future
Forces of the Deep - fishmen furthering the will of octopoid overlords
Guardians of the Pyramids - ancient Egyptians, mummies, you know the drill
Hell of Incursions - demons. just demons. can't have a DOOM game without demons.
Hillbilly Stillguard - it is their land, and it is your job to get off it
Order of St Amelle - Church Militant knights out to protect some very, very vulnerable villagers
The Forest's Will - mostly trees, but a few dryads as well. the dryads have a very, very nasty trick up their nonexistent sleeve.

A Longer Description Under A Cut )

Remember, if you don't contribute to this terrible and vicious battle, it'll still happen but it'll be less fun and I probably won't post pictures.
kadrin: (Default)
2023-02-17 10:30 am

This Could Have Been Planned Better

I love Pokemon games. Really. Almost all of them. Even that one. Even with all their flaws. So when I got a bunch of them for Christmas and my birthday, I was over the moon. LIKE LUNALA, ONE OF THE LEGENDARY POKEMON OF THE ALOLA REGION! Ha ha ha. Anyway, I'm really enjoying Legends: Arceus, for a lot of different reasons, but there's one quest from it that I thought had some Serious Problems.

Do I remember how to do spoiler cuts? No, I looked it up. This is about the quest The Search for Bitter Leaves )
kadrin: (Default)
2022-11-21 06:32 pm

subjectification!

I still exist. I'm not a porn bot.

I'm working on some paper miniatures and I'm going to post stuff about them here.
kadrin: (Default)
2015-03-24 04:16 pm

video killed the video star

Siobhan still wants to do a YouTube channel, and so do I, so I've been messing around with video editing.

Three notes.

1) obviously gotta do something about that aliasing on the font, I think just exporting at a higher quality should do it. (I'll be using different fonts for actual finished product anyway.)
2) hang on to the end for the sweet sweet sound of Kadrinvoice.
3) IF SOUSA MARCHES ARE GOOD ENOUGH FOR MONTY GODDAMN PYTHON THEY'RE GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME.
kadrin: (Default)
2014-10-27 02:39 pm

dead not dreaming

Vox Day, who I already had no respect for, has said on Twitter (which I saw when John Kovalic of Dork Tower retweeted it to point and laugh with a little pity involved) that if you don't support #imacrazymisogynistwhodoesntactuallylikegamesasmuchasilikehatingwomen (shortened to #gamergate for the sake of Twitter's character limit), you're not a gamer, because you've rejected gamer culture, even if you do play games.

I'd like to put my response here, as well as my entire response to the entire foetid movement the hashtag represents: picture me blowing a raspberry for twenty four uninterrupted minutes.

(Seriously, if you actually care about ethics in game journalism, jump ship and get another hashtag. This one has all the wrong targets.)
kadrin: (Default)
2014-07-04 10:30 am

in his neverending quest to sort out the injustice of the internet

Hello Dreamwidth!

I have not been posting in a while not because of death or depression (mostly not depression) but just because I rarely think I have something to say that people would be interested in. I mean, I could go on for a very long time about the X-Wing miniatures game and my beautiful Lambda-Class Shuttle miniature, but I can only indulge in my own stereotype for so long before I implode into a nerd singularity. Siobhan is more and more interested in me doing YouTube stuff, probably at least partly because this will allow her to do some YouTube stuff before she turns 13 and is legally allowed to have her own channel; I'm amenable, but I'm not sure how this "not wanting to bother other people with my unimportant blatherings" will contribute to having a public video presence.

But this is not an unimportant blathering. This is a very important blathering. This is where I advertise brilliant entertainment and then ask you to give people money. Given Kickstarter and all, I am given to understand that this is now the purpose of the Internet. Far be it from me not to join in.

Are you fond of creepypasta? I mean in the ideal, not in the too-often actual "and then Slenderman popped up and the blood was hyperrealistic".
If not, are you fond of short horror fiction?
If not, are you fond of really clever short fiction, where the end typically recontextualises whatever you thought you knew before?
If not, that's a really strange thing not to be fond of, and also, are you fond of short fiction at all?

Because it's my personal opinion that Slimebeast is among the best creators of any of that stuff currently basically working for free on the Internet. You should go and look at some of his stories. Personal favourites include the following:

funnymouth
Watch for Willy
One More Time
Class Creeps
Retractions
Whatever
Stranger Danger

(For the less horror fannish, the mostly harmless ones are One More Time and Whatever.)

But that's just a selection, and there are some that it hurt my heart to cut out of that list. (Out of context: "it hurt my heart to cut out"; put that in a story some time.) If you're fond of any or all of those, and why shouldn't you be, they're great, look around the site and find others. I insist upon it.

Now about the asking for money bit; the gentleman in question has a Patreon account which is currently shockingly underfunded, and it seems he's going through some difficult times cash-wise. While I understand that we can't help everyone suffering from economic terribleness (even though I wanna, you guys, come on), I'm of the opinion that the really high-quality work he's provided so far is worth at least a few bucks. (And yes, I'm represented on the backers list there.) And from a purely selfish perspective, the more he gets paid, the less likely he is to die and as a result stop making quality fiction for me. STOP MAKING PEOPLE DIE AND NOT WRITE ME QUALITY FICTION. YOU MONSTERS.

(EDIT: Also you can look for connections between the stories because sometimes there are! I bring this up because I am INORDINATELY proud of discovering that "LeetHax" and "25 Cents" have an obvious shared monster I hadn't noticed before! It might be a funnymouth. I don't think so.)

Uh, speaking of quality fiction (the quality in question, in this case, being 'low'), I might very well be doing something based on one of Riona's awful horrible ideas, instead of what usually happens, which is Riona making something fantastic and well-written based on one of her awful horrible ideas. It'll be not nearly as good. You might like it.
kadrin: (Default)
2014-05-10 06:55 pm

(no subject)

Today the Game Chef theme and ingredients dropped, and I looked at them in fear and doubt, my stomach falling. "That theme is super hard," I thought to myself. "I'm trying to do this for the first time since 2011, in a slightly difficult situation, and that shit is not at all easy. I'm not going to be able to do it. Woe and misery!"

About an hour later I was looking at the following in Google Drive.


(Working title.)

My ideas may not be sensible, but god damn it, they sure are ideas.
kadrin: (Default)
2014-04-13 10:38 pm

(no subject)

Just cried for half an hour - full on crazy howling word-fragments crying - and I don't feel purged and renewed, I feel depressed and just as sad about all the same things, and still very volatile, but like I might be done crying. Might. Temporarily. Stupid New Agey poetic types. Your vague aphorisms incorrectly described my personal experience.

Also, while I know they're the first two posts in months, don't link this one to the last one; the Lego Movie is made of brilliant antitears and does not cause fits of absolute despair. Post hoc sed non proctor hoc.

(EDIT: Propter. I WAS SAD AND SLEEPY.)
kadrin: (Default)
2014-04-12 04:49 pm

(no subject)

Everything everybody else has already said about how great the Lego Movie is goes here.

I'm pretty sure Morgan Freeman was doing a Morgan Freeman impression throughout.
kadrin: (Default)
2014-01-12 05:53 pm

(no subject)

I am 30 and still not dead.

So far 30 is a lot like 29 was, except that if I don't pick up antidepressants tomorrow morning I might just die of withdrawls.

We went out to a Moroccan restaurant as celebration! There was so much couscous.
kadrin: (Default)
2013-11-03 12:41 am

apolo... no, you're WELCOME, william blake

Ode To At Least Ten, Twenty Minutes
of Lost "Mario And Luigi: Dream Team Bros" Playtime
Including One Boss
and a Rather Long Cutscene

POWER button, fatal press,
Snakebite's treacherous caress
What perverted, blackened heart
Placèd thee right next to START?

~fin~

Though admittedly mostly I'm playing Pokémon these days. If you're playing X or Y, give me a call and/or Friend Code.

(using e with a grave and one with an acute in the same post is a true pro strategy)
kadrin: (Default)
2013-09-18 01:25 pm

packin'


Quantity's a tough tattle. Yesterday, my intentions boiled down to "make fudge, bring fudge to gaming night". I didn't intend to end up at "make all the fudge, fudge forever". And yet, here we are.
kadrin: (Default)
2013-09-08 11:09 am

(no subject)

so sick.

incapacitating pain and nausea.

tony abbott is prime minister.

world can just go on and bite me.
kadrin: (Default)
2013-09-01 10:02 am

an open letter to australia's daily telegraph

Dear Sir/Madam,

Your recent "Australia Needs Tony" front page put a perfect capper on a list of very classy comparisons of Kevin Rudd to cartoon characters, but it does make me wonder, why be shy? Any half-decent graphics designer could make a wonderful banner out of "The Unofficial Propaganda Arm Of The Coalition" or "Speaking Exclusively For Juggernaut-Style Corporations". Now there are some mottos! Either would certainly clear up any cognitive dissonance people suffer, when trying to reconcile any Daily Telegraph issue with the ideal of the press as an unbiased yardstick by which the public can separate reality from the advertisements and lies of interests far from their own.

After all, Australia as represented by her workers surely does not need Tony, in the same way that a fruiting tree does not need a hefty application of chainsaw. Australia as represented by her women certainly does not need Tony! Australia as represented by her gays and lesbians needs to be as far from Tony as possible. Australia as represented by her migrants needs to be PROTECTED from Tony. Australia as represented by her poor and her indigenous and her sick and her underprivileged and by everyone whose treatment marks the moral and proper judgement of a country is antithetical to ANY of Tony Abbott's beliefs or programs.

But as long as it's made clear that the official position of the Telegraph is that Australia is best represented by NewsCorp and no one else... well, then, cheers on an excellent series of covers. Cheers.

Much love,
- Patrick Phelan
kadrin: (Default)
2013-07-28 01:27 am

also, from the diaphragm

Tonight I watched All Dogs Go To Heaven with sister. I have three points of advice.

* Always check your technology before you use it, otherwise you'll spend half an hour swearing at your PS3, and then have to watch the movie on a computer on uncomfortable chairs, and then watchc the last part on YouTube.
* Do watch All Dogs Go To Heaven again. It is delightful and held up well. The plot structure is very odd and the pacing doesn't follow formula, and Charlie does evolve believably from a genuine jerk to a loveable character. Warnings for racism.
* Do not look up the people who did the voice acting for All Dogs Go To Heaven, because the girl who played the sweet and innocent friend to all living things had an incredibly tragic life and it will murder your heart. I SPEAK FROM EXPERIENCE*

* See, now the subject line makes sense.
kadrin: (Default)
2013-07-13 05:42 pm

contagion in the modern world

A chunk of the Google history on my phone, sorted oldest-to-newest.

* mario lopez
* need to vomit sleepy
* berocca
* upset stomach
* time to microwave a heating pack
* diarrhoea and vomiting
* plain yoghurt
* food poisoning
* psy gentleman lyrics english

Behold the terrible secrets of modern illness.
kadrin: (Default)
2013-06-06 02:49 am

my birthday present to my sister

Siobhan is 9.

I didn't have any money, so I made her a poem.

* * *

It just came to me one day. )
kadrin: (roy: facepalm)
2013-06-04 02:58 pm

the clownest of clown shoes

Apparently Trump is pondering a 2016 Presidential run.

Now, normally I'd say "anyone who claims to be 'pondering a 2016 Presidential run' in 2013, especially anyone who 'ponders' it in the national press, is completely unserious and just begging for attention," but come now - how could one say that about such a noble, above-it-all, deeply serious figure as Donald "Terrible At Business Which Is The Thing He Claims To Be Good At" Trump?

(For the record, I thought that hating this man so much was a left-wing thing; you'll notice that I posted a link to an unapologetically left-wing site up there. I actually had to dig past several really rabid right-wing sites because I didn't want to link to them. So it's nice, really. We're agreed on this. I don't want him stinking up American politics, and while he's been courting the right, they don't want to vote for him. Bipartisanship!)