Election Update: Democracy in Westeros

Posted: November 8, 2016 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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Yes, this post is coming on the US election day, but no, it’s not about the US elections. It’ll be political, but I’ll be talking about politics in Westeros, the continent of the Seven Kingdoms (often with a varying number of kings) in HBO’s excellent television series, Game of Thrones.

kinginthenorth

Time for the usual disclaimers: I’m not a political scholar, but if the current US election is any example, anyone can pretend to be a political expert. (Uh oh, I did say I wasn’t going to talk US politics… time to pivot hard…)

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Westworld’s Bad Hombre: the Man in Black

Posted: November 6, 2016 by patricksponaugle in Opinion, TV, Westworld
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This post will be discussing Ed Harris’ character on HBO’s Westworld. If you’re not caught up with the show, this post will be spoiling details from the first five episodes. Fair warning.

edharris

Fair warning. That’s cute.

The Man With No Name

I mentioned in a previous post about Westworld, comparing it to LOST (like I am sure everyone has done) that before the season began, I’d assumed that Ed Harris would be stepping into the boots once filled by Yul Brynner. That Harris would be the analog for Brynner’s black-hatted robot gunslinger who would become the face of danger in the park, as the robotic denizens turned on the vacationing human guests.

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Silicon Dating: the When of Westworld

Posted: November 3, 2016 by patricksponaugle in Opinion, TV, Westworld
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This post will be talking about HBO’s science fiction drama Westworld, and will be talking about some spoilery speculations. If you’re not into theorizing about the show, I guarantee this will either be spoilery (if correct) or just irritating to you (if wrong.)

westworld-va-tout-dechirer

At the time of this post’s publishing, we’re halfway through the first season of Westworld, which has presented a plethora of mysteries to chew on. And chew on them people have, with intriguing observations and theories.

Seriously, if you’re not into possibly spoilery speculation, hop out of this post now.

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October 2016 Comics Weirdness

Posted: November 3, 2016 by patricksponaugle in Comics, Opinion
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bongosimpsons-1

Hey, I sometimes talk about comic books or movies/television based on comic books here on my blog, because I enjoy reading comics (or graphic novels if my saying comic books makes you roll your eyes. )

Yes, I’m a grown-ass man, but there seems in general to be less of a stigma for people to talk about enjoying stories presented in a serialized, visual format. Or at least, I thought so. But October had some weird news relating to comics, and I thought I’d kick some of that around.

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Results: October 2016 MicroStory Challenge

Posted: November 1, 2016 by patricksponaugle in Flash Fiction, Writing
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In October, under gentle pressure from my blogging peers, I hosted a month-long MicroStory contest, inviting people to leave in the comments a story of a length short enough to be tweeted with the hashtag #MicroStory.

october2016results

Although there were no conditions on the content of the stories (other than the condition of length being tweetable) I suggested an optional theme of spookiness to the stories, because of October’s association with Halloween. Spoooooky…

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October 2016 #MicroStory Collection

Posted: November 1, 2016 by patricksponaugle in Flash Fiction, Writing
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It’s November, so I went through my social media feeds and grabbed all of the MicroStories I’d tweeted during the month of October.

2016-10-microstory-crop

Boo! Pumpkin Micro Faces!

As a reminder, these represent story-essences composed using no more than 129 characters (so I could tweet them with the hashtag #MicroStory.)

Usually, I only tweet Science Fiction and Fantasy #MicroStories. October was pretty much no exception.

For really great #MicroStory action, please follow @MicroSFF, the Twitter account that inspired me to participate in this minimalist writing exercise. That feed puts out great science fiction and fantasy MicroStories all the time.

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Silent Bob (AKA Gregor Clegane)

Posted: October 25, 2016 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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Less than a week from Halloween! Now’s a good time to talk about a rather spooooooky character from Game of Thrones.

RobertStrong

This post’s topic will be Ser Gregor Clegane. If you’re not up on the latest season of Game of Thrones, then you’re way behind. Get caught up! We’ll wait.

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Getting LOST in Westworld

Posted: October 19, 2016 by patricksponaugle in Lost, Opinion, TV, Westworld
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This post will be talking about HBO’s new drama Westworld, but I’ll also be talking about ABC’s LOST. (And possibly Mutant Enemy Productions’ excellent film Cabin in the Woods.)

If you’re not up to date on these properties then this post might not be for you. (Unless you don’t care about spoilers. I don’t judge.)

westworldeye

Last chance to eject, because I’ll not be shying away from talking about plot details of all of the properties I mentioned above.

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The Return of the Hound: Breaking the Broken Man

Posted: October 11, 2016 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This post will talk about Game of Thrones, HBO’s excellent adaptation of the unfinished A Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin. I’ll focus on the sixth season of the show and in particular, the character of Sandor “the Hound” Clegane.

If you’re not caught up, do so! Forget I mentioned the Hound! And, uh, he probably died in Season Four!

Clegane

The Hound: You know I”m a wanted man, right? Must you be telling everyone I’m still alive?
Me: YOU ARE? SPOILER!!!
The Hound: GRRRRRR…

Okay, now that I’ve misled everyone not-in-the-know, cleverly and indisputably, let’s begin.

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October 2016 #MicroStory Challenge

Posted: October 2, 2016 by patricksponaugle in Flash Fiction, Writing
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Hey! Every month I post all the MicroStories I’d tweeted during the previous month, but this post isn’t about that so much. Some of my blogging friends suggested that I host a MicroStory contest, asking people to submit their own flash fiction entries. To be judged! (But not by me.)

2016-10-challenge

This is entirely based on one of the suggester’s own weekly contest: Nicola Auckland hosts six word story contests over on her blog, Sometimes Stellar Storyteller. She has regular contests where people submit a six word story, based on a theme she provides. I won’t be that restrictive in word count (but, knock yourself out if you want to harness your inner Hemingway.)

Here are the rules:

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