Insurgent, Combustion, Orphan Black and More

Its official, spring has sprung! Which means the weather is still up in the air. We’ve been having some cold days, and snow on a regular basis, but nothing like the folks on the East Coast of Canada… Poor buggers.

I’ve been (big shocker) really busy at work. We’re down folks and as such I have to really pick up the slack and do what I can to help. The result is I’m more tired than usual when I get home from work.

So, other than working on ‘Buck Who?’ My RPG design has been absolutely nothing.

Sorry about that.

Will I get to work on it this week? Probably not. The only positive news in this regard is I’ve been able to continue to write my SF novel.

As usual, Buck Who Chapter 9 went up on Friday night. I sort of, kind of went overboard on this chapter last week and it turned out to be about 50% longer than the previous chapters.

Oops.

Chapter ten is done, and I’ve begun work on chapter 11.

Because it’s been so damn long since I posted a monster or weapon conversion on the main page, I’ve decided to force myself to contribute a new creature every week. I posted the first one last Monday, called ‘Animating Slime’.

I have three more ready to go, including one that was mentioned in my online novel. I will continue to write new monsters up this way and post them every Monday. What have I called this? Why, New Mutant Mondays, of course!

And unlike my conversions, I will be putting up an index as well, so it is easy to keep track of the critters.

SO, that means I’m now contributing four times a week to the webpage… at least for now. New Mutant Mondays, Top Five Wednesdays, Buck Who? Fridays, and my Blog on Sundays.

I did not buy any new RPG’s this week, although I nearly did so when I saw Mutant: Year Zero at the Sentry Box. If it wasn’t for the upcoming Expo in just under a month, I would have picked it up. The damn book is $75!!

Maybe after I waste a few hundred bucks at the expo, I’ll see if I have anything left to purchase this book with.

Speaking of, here is this week’s top five list. As I mentioned in my last couple of blogs, I have been concentrating on the whole Post-Apocalyptic theme. This week I covered my favorite top five post-apocalyptic RPG’s.

I did finish one novel though, and to be honest, I will probably never read another book by this particular author again.

The novel was called ‘Combustion’ by Steve Worland. This book had a neat premise behind it… A man whose mission is to save the planet hires a scientist to create a nanotech swarm that causes fuel to explode in a combustion engine. It is released in LA to devastating results.

Okay, I grew up watching 80’s action movies. This was an 80’s action movie done as a novel. Very cheesy lines, nearly impossible to believe situations, and so on. So, I could forgive the dialog, and even some of the situations the characters found themselves in.

What I can’t forgive are the following… Use either metric or imperial, DON’T USE BOTH!  Secondly, a SAM missile will travel far faster than a helicopter, even if it is being piloted by a madman and the best pilot in the world. The characters in the helicopter will not have lots of time to discuss matters and try to come up with plans. Finally, and this is the real kicker… a man CANNOT physically move a helicopter by a rope, by himself! Even if it is 10 centimeters.

Honest to god, avoid this book and probably anything else the writer produces. Maybe his third book will be better, but seriously, I doubt I will ever pick it up and read or listen to it.

Onto other subjects.

My wife and I finished season one of ‘Orphan Black’.  I found it exceedingly difficult to get into this series. The lead actress is quite talented, that I have no doubt, and has a really cute ass too. It took about half the first season for me to start to get even remotely interested, as the mystery behind the clones and who created them was finally brought to light.

And the image I used for this blog? It's from Alfonso Maesa. He's a fan of Orphan Black, and one of the reasons I decided to watch it.

I have season two, but I don’t see getting to it anytime soon. I will eventually watch it, but that’s going to be several months down the road for sure.

And oddly enough, the series really felt ‘Canadian’. There are plenty of great shows produced here in Canada, in fact many of the SF channel shows are. Don’t believe me? Think of ‘Stargate’. Most of these other shows don’t have such a feel to them, but this one really did. Is it a bad thing? Hell no! It just felt like home, strangely enough.

Last but not least, my wife and I watched ‘Insurgent’ last night. This is the second movie based upon the ‘Divergent’ novels.

It picked up right where the first movie left off and it did hold my interest. Just don’t bother with 3D, as it is a waste of money. The history and mythology behind the setting were fleshed out a little more in this movie, and more is discovered about the main characters. All I can say without really giving away too much is it revolves around a strange device found in the ruins of one of the character’s former home.

I certainly didn’t mind it, and I will be looking forward to seeing the third and final chapter of this series of movies probably this time next year.

And that’s all she wrote folks. As always, please like my personal author Facebook page and follow me on Twitter!

Until next week, Peace!