Second Looks: Fist of the First Men

Posted: October 27, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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Happy Halloween! (Well, we’re close to Halloween, it’s due to arrive at some point, like a shambling undead horde…)

This post will be talking about HBO’s Game of Thrones, specifically events that took place during the fifth season episode Hardhome and how it relates to previous seasons. Hardhome was an amazing episode, possibly the best of the series, and if you’re not caught up I’d hate to spoil you on that experience.

WhiteWalkersAndWights

TRICK OR TREAT! Just no spoilers please! Or healthy snacks.

Still with me? Cool.

Hardhome featured a battle involving the undead army controlled by the mysterious and mystical Others. The legendary White Walkers directed their wights to attack the fortified Free Folk fishing village of Hardhome, and corpses did so en masse, tearing through the Wildling and Night’s Watch defenders. To make matters worse, the human casualties were resurrected to join Team White Walker. Spoooooky!

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Gabba Gabba Hey! Gabba Gabba Hey That’s a Lot of Punks Coming Across the Barricades!

Posted: October 20, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Arts, Diary, Music, Writing
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Back in my college days, my days of misspent youth where I could have studied more and partied more and thus enriched my life, I almost saw the Ramones play.

Ramones_Logo_Greyscales

I kind of heard them play. I was definitely in the auditorium where they were performing. I was probably no further than 20 feet from them for about an hour. But I can’t say that I saw them play.

Let me explain.

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Daenerys Targaryen: Breaker of Chains (and Wheels)

Posted: October 13, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This post will be talking about Daenerys Stormborn, Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains, Lover of Long Ass Titles. She’s the Khaleesi on HBO’s Game of Thrones, okay? If you’re not up on the show, then expect spoilers to be contained within.

daenerys-and-drogon-official-hbo

Drogon Hates Spoilers! Drogon BURNINATES Spoilers!

The last time I wrote about Daenerys specifically, she had just overtaken Yunkai, the second city along Slaver’s Bay, with her army of Unsullied, her mercenaries, and her two Westerosi knights.

Seasons 4 and 5 have had her ruling the largest city on the bay, Meereen, where her emancipation proclamations were met with resistance from the Meereenese culture, and her dragons have transitioned from wartime assets to peacetime liabilities.

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Haque – Retrostyle Roguelike Game. I’m All In.

Posted: October 9, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Gaming
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haque-overview

This post is going to be about a videogame called Haque (pronounced “Hack”) that I have never played. It’s not even out yet.

Despite the game not being released yet, and of course unplayed by me, I am proud to call myself a fan.

Let me explain.

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International Batman Day (Really, it should be International Batman Night…)

Posted: October 4, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Comics, Opinion
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Last week was International Batman Day! If I’d been on top of things, I’d have had this post written last week, for the actual day.

The-Dark-Knight-Returns

The Dark Knight does not respect my tardiness.

I don’t know who chooses these dates, but I’m grateful to whomever arranged for a day to celebrate one of my favorite mythological heroes (even if I was unprepared.)

Mythological heroes?

I apologize to any classical Greek and Roman humanities scholars for equating Batman alongside Achilles and Hercules, but I wouldn’t be surprised if colleges in the future have courses on 20th century heroic archetypes like the guardian of Gotham City.

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September 2015 #MicroStory Collection

Posted: October 1, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Flash Fiction, Writing
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It’s October (someone wake up that guy from Green Day), so I went through my social media feeds and grabbed all the MicroStories I’d tweeted during the month of September.

October2015Micro

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. September 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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Second Looks: Stannis Baratheon

Posted: September 29, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This post will be talking about Stannis Baratheon, one of the many, many characters in HBO’s Game of Thrones. Therefore, if you’re not caught up with the show there’s a chance of being exposed to spoilers.

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Melisandre used to tell Stannis spoilers. See how well that worked out for him?

Just under two years ago, I published a post examining Stannis Baratheon, the crabbier and less embraceable of Robert Baratheon’s two younger brothers. At the time, I presented my case that Stannis might not be that bad of a king, if he could just cut loose of the influence of his magical advisor, Melisandre.

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Basement Archaeology: Thieves’ World

Posted: September 20, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Gaming
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ThievesWorldAndMap2

Recently, I was digging around in the basement of my house (I have my reasons…) and I came across a bunch of old boxes that probably haven’t been opened since before I moved in to my house in Ye Olde Twentieth Centuree.

They were filled with tons of old boardgames, and some old and quaint role-playing games.

This is the benefit of Basement Archaeology, when the strata of storage and forgotten things are dug into, often some ancient treasure (ancient being a relative term) gets uncovered. This time, I uncovered my adventure pack for Thieves’ World.

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Once Upon a Mattress. Twenty Mattresses, Actually.

Posted: September 20, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Arts, Music, Opinion
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FRED

This weekend, I took the family to see Once Upon a Mattress, being performed at the Bowie Playhouse.

Bowie Playhouse? Fine. Here’s the address.

16500 White Marsh Park Drive
Bowie, MD 20715

You should go see it. IT’S ONLY BEING PERFORMED THROUGH SEPTEMBER 26TH!!! (This might make it difficult for the international community who reads my blog to get tickets and make travel arrangements in time. That’s my bad for not seeing the musical earlier.)

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Road Warrior’ing on the Fury Road.

Posted: September 15, 2015 by patricksponaugle in Movie Review, Opinion
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RoadWarriorCool

Recently, my wife and I managed to see Mad Max: Fury Road in the theaters. I saw it during its summer release, and by the time I’d talked my wife into wanting to give it a try, it was no longer being shown.

But once it became available through digitial release, it inexplicably reappeared at a high-end theater near us. Date Night! But this is all unnecessary detail.

If you’ve wandered here looking for a review of this latest installment of the Mad Max franchise, I am going to recap it below (after some rambly preamble.)

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