Robert Louis Stevenson
In the other gardens
And all up in the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!
Pleasant summer over,
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The grey smoke towers.
Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!
All the oranges and reds in the picture really made me think of fire, hence this poem.
One of the rules in Magic is that if you can't draw a card from your deck, because there are no more cards, you lose the game. So there is a strategy where you force your opponent to discard cards from their deck and so they lose that way. The strategy is called "Milling" and takes its name from this particular card. It is a viable strategy but is hard to make work. You basically leave yourself open to your opponent's attack and pray your milling strategy works faster than them. It's also rather boring, so you have to want to win more than play a fun game.
Of course, if you don't like your opponent and want to make them suffer, this would be a good way to do that. Grind down their soul while you grind down their deck, mwahahaha...
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review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained
therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to
copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions.
Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted
Permission
Title:
Jane Austen: The Adventures of Mr Harley
Series:
----------
Author: Jane Austen
Rating:
4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Satire
Pages:
1
Words: 155
Publish: 1787
I just laughed when I read this tiny little story. I love the skewering that isn’t mean spirited. It is just funny. We need more of that.
This was the only cover I could find, as I didn’t want to use the generic Austen cover I’ve used for some of her other juvenilia. Not so much a fan of that “and other stories” but I guess sacrifices must be made. I just don’t like making them myself.
★★★★☆
The Story in Full
THE ADVENTURES OF MR. HARLEY
A short, but interesting Tale, is with all imaginable Respect inscribed to Mr Francis William Austen Midshipman on board his Majesty’s Ship the Perseverance by his Obedient Servant
THE AUTHOR.
Mr Harley was one of many Children. Destined by his father for the Church & by his Mother for the Sea, desirous of pleasing both, he prevailed on Sir John to obtain for him a Chaplaincy on board a Man of War. He accordingly, cut his Hair & sailed.
In half a year he returned & set-off in the Stage Coach for Hogsworth Creen, the seat of Emma. His fellow travellers were, A man without a Hat, Another with two, An old maid & a young Wife.
This last appeared about 17 with fine dark Eyes & an elegant Shape; in short Mr Harley soon found out, that she was his Emma & recollected he had married her a few weeks before he left England.
Movie Details
Series – Monsters Inc #1
Director – Pete Docter et al
Release – 2001
Rating – PG
Time – 1hr 32min
My Thoughts:
I bought this 2 disc dvd back in 2002. I loved the movie and it was (along with Toystory) what cemented my love of Pixar. But I don't watch movies very often at all and Mrs B watches them even less, so I think I watched this once more after buying and watching it initially? My best guess is that it has been 20 years since I last watched it.
Sadly, this was a lot more childish than I remembered. That wouldn't be a bad thing if I was expecting it, as I like the Despicable Me franchise and the Shrek movies too and those are both very childish. But I had it in my head that was a more adult movie that could still be for kids. The reality is that it is a kids movie that an adult can watch, if they so desire.
I had forgotten how quickly everything moved. It was less than 48hrs in-world and scene jumped to scene jumped to scene as quickly as a 5 year old's attention span. It wasn't necessarily bad, it just wasn't aimed at me and I had forgotten/neverrealized that. It was kind of a rude awakening. The positive of that is that I am not in the least tempted to go watch the sequel, Monsters University, which came out 20 years after Monsters Inc.
My sony bluray player upscaled the dvd just fine for watching on my 50in tv and it wasn't grainy like an old vhs tape. One of the reasons for re-watching this now was to see if I wanted to upgrade it to bluray to hold on to. That won't be happening and at some point I'll be getting rid of the dvd's. There's a whole disc of extras but I couldn't be bothered to put in another disc to just look at extras about a movie that I didn't care that much for now.
In the end, I don't regret re-watching this, but I will be getting rid of my dvd and I will not be rebuying it on bluray.
Synopsis from Wikipedia:
In a world inhabited entirely by monsters, the city of Monstropolis harnesses the screams of human children for energy. At the Monsters Incorporated factory, skilled monsters employed as "scarers" enter the human world through special doors that become portals to children's bedroom closets. They then frighten the children to harvest their screams; as human children are rumored to be toxic enough to kill a monster through physical contact, this work is considered dangerous. Furthermore, children are becoming harder to scare, causing a decline in production and subsequent energy crisis that worries Monsters, Inc. CEO Henry J. Waternoose III.
One evening after work, top scarer James P. "Sulley" Sullivan discovers that an active door has been left in the station of his rival, Randall Boggs. He inspects the door and accidentally lets a toddler girl into the factory. Frightened, Sulley unsuccessfully tries to return the girl, who escapes into Monstropolis, interrupting Sulley's best friend and assistant Mike Wazowski on a date at a sushi restaurant. Chaos erupts when other monsters see the girl; Sulley and Mike escape with her as the Child Detection Agency (CDA) arrives and quarantines the restaurant. Forced to keep the girl hidden in their apartment for the night, Sulley and Mike realize she is not toxic and her laughter generates more energy than screams.
The next day, Sulley and Mike disguise the girl as a monster and attempt to send her home. While Mike seeks out her door, Sulley grows attached to her and nicknames her "Boo". Randall, waiting in ambush for the girl, kidnaps Mike by accident and reveals his plan to kidnap children and cruelly force screams from them using a machine called a scream extractor. Sulley rescues Mike, and they go to the simulator room to alert Waternoose of Randall's plot. There, Waternoose makes Sulley give a scare demonstration to some recruits, and Boo becomes frightened. Sulley now realizes how children truly feel when scared. Boo inadvertently reveals herself to Waternoose, who turns out to be in league with Randall. Waternoose abducts Boo and banishes Mike and Sulley to the Himalayas in the human world.
Mike and Sulley are found by the Abominable Snowman, who takes them to his lair. He reveals a nearby village; Sulley hopes to use its closets to return to Monstropolis, but Mike, feeling betrayed, refuses to go with him. Sulley returns to the factory and rescues Boo from the scream extractor. Mike returns to reconcile with Sulley, and Randall chases them through the enormous door vault as the trio searches for Boo's door. Randall eventually grabs Boo, but she overcomes her fear of him and attacks him. Mike and Sulley banish Randall to the human world and destroy his corresponding door.
Mike and Sulley locate Boo's door, but Waternoose calls it down to the scare floor, intending to have the CDA arrest them. Mike distracts the CDA while Sulley and Boo lure Waternoose into the simulator room. Sulley tricks Waternoose into revealing his conspiracy to kidnap thousands of children to solve the energy crisis. Mike records the conversation and replays it to the CDA, who arrest him. Scare floor administrator Roz reveals herself as an undercover CDA agent, and allows Sulley to send Boo home, but orders her door shredded.
Sulley retools the factory to harvest children's laughter rather than screams, since laughter is ten times more powerful. With the energy crisis solved, Mike becomes the company's top comedian, and Sulley becomes the new CEO. Mike then reveals to Sulley that he has painstakingly rebuilt Boo's door, allowing Sulley to reunite with Boo.
This review is written with
a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede
all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing
without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at
WordPress & Blogspot, by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Island of Felicidad
Series:
Groo the Wanderer
#55
Author:
Sergio Aragones
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Comics
Pages: 24
Words:
2K
Publish: 1989
Most of the time Aragones makes his point with some grace, some tact, a little humor and a very gentle touch. Here, well, it might as well have been 2021 in the midst of the Mask Nazi Time. Aragones simply hammers his readers with his anti-war message. The funny thing is that the Iron Curtain was about to fall in just a few short months and the Cold War as he knew it was about to be over.
This was the first Groo comic that I was truly disappointed with.
★★☆☆☆
This
review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained
therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to
copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions.
Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted
Permission
Title:
Those Without Mercy
Series: Warhammer 40K:
Astra Militarum
Author: Callum Davis
Rating:
2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages:
20
Words: 6K
Publish: 2025
In
the Empire of Man, the “army” is made up of different kinds of
units. Some of those units are the tyrants, the dominators of
mankind, ie, the eunuchs, the Space Marines. Monstrous beings almost
as evil as the evil they are fighting. Then you have the Mechanized
divisions, which meld man and machine until it’s hard to tell which
is which. Then you have the regular old humans who are the fodder.
But even within the human only part of things, the divisions are as
great as the variety of planets from which they come. One faction
(which I guess you can play in the miniatures game) are the Chem
Dogs. They are prisoners condemned to die but instead of being
executed, are given over to a force that take on suicide missions.
They are given drugs which make them go out of their gourds and they
will do almost whatever they are told while on said drugs.
All of that is pretty much introduced in this short story. I’ve never heard of the Chem Dog faction before and to be honest, I’ll be ok if I never read another story about them. Part of that is because this short story was very obviously just an introduction and a chapter to a full novel. You have the setup happen for a suicide mission and that is where this story ends. I dinged off half a star because of Black Library being such a jerk for doing this.
However,
I am including a full sized cover for this. Man, is it cool and
macabre looking!
★★✬☆☆
From the Publisher:
A commissar investigates the death of a colleague at the hands of the Savlar Chem-Dogs, and finds more than he bargained for.
READ
IT BECAUSE
The Savlar Chem-Dogs are a fascinating example of a
penal legion. This story explores their unsavoury reputation, but
also what makes them such effective soldiers.
THE
STORY
The Savlar Chem-Dogs penal legion are embroiled in a
brutal conflict against the orks. When the ruthless Commissar Hasp
witnesses a squad murdering a fellow commissar, he is determined to
bring them to justice – but is there more to the situation than
meets the eye?
This was a good card for its time. A flyer for cheap meant you could block some of the bigger flying creatures and while Mesa Pegasus was sure to die, it prevented all the damage to you, which is the point of a creatures' existence in the game. This was a staple in the White Weenie deck archetype. The WW was a deck consisting of a lot of small creatures that would over run your opponent, with an occasional card to help boost them. Your goal was to overwhelm and overrun your opponent before they could respond in time.
Autumn Fires Robert Louis Stevenson In the other gardens And all up in the vale, From the autumn bonfires See the smoke...
