• Member Since 24th Apr, 2012
  • offline last seen Yesterday

Wise Cracker


Just some guy.

More Blog Posts299

  • 13 weeks
    Early New Year's resolutions, and Old Year's conclusions

    Well, another year's come and gone. How did the resolutions go? Half and half in my case. Managed to partially accomplish what I set out to do, moving from wondering how to do things to figuring out what to do. I believe I've successfully identified the habits that are hampering or even harmful to me, so that's progress.

    Resolutions for the new year?

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    3 comments · 53 views
  • 37 weeks
    Summer update 2: What's Sticking to the Wall?

    Quick update on future plans.

    Still working on the original stuff, I think I'm down to the last rewrite of what I wanted to do, only question is what to change in terms of details. Art's had some progress, but work responsibilities and sweet, sweet sleeping problems have caused disruptions.

    Read More

    0 comments · 83 views
  • 43 weeks
    Summer update: what next?

    Honestly? Not sure. I never publish anything that's not complete, so I'm not breaking any promises there. Thing is, I haven't started on anything new yet, and hadn't lined anything up before the previous one.

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    2 comments · 102 views
  • 51 weeks
    Spring update: Changeling Beauty Contest, and other stuff.

    Been a while since I did one of these. Story stuff first.

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    1 comments · 147 views
  • 67 weeks
    Preview and update: Shining Armour's Checklist.

    Hey, all. Just popping in to say I'll be trying to stick to some better habits in the future. I'm cutting down on all the sites that are distracting or otherwise leading to bad and unhealthy behaviour on my end. As such, I'll only be logging in when I have something to publish from now on. I'll also keep communication while I'm logged in to a minimum, just to avoid any unpleasantness. Hopefully

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    0 comments · 144 views
Jul
8th
2015

A sad goodbye and a doctor's visit. · 6:07pm Jul 8th, 2015

For those who want the update of the month and a look at my thought processes in slightly less than optimal moments, see here.

For the rest of you:

Checked YouTube, tried to be my usual 'helpful' self on the Hearthstone forums, pondered things. Did an Arena run, noticed that, hey, I'd farmed up to 1200 Dust now, maybe I should get a little something for my collection.

Wrote down some numbers to see what was possible, got called for lunch. Lunch was sort of special: fries and meatballs in tomato sauce, with cucumber slices in vinaigrette, it's a childhood favorite. The wine was not something out of my childhood, but hey, times change and all.

A little more maths, and I found myself facing a hard decision.

For the longest time now, I've had a Gruul in my Hearthstone collection. It's, I think, the very first Legendary I opened. And it was total crap, I soon learned. Aside from one very, very amusing Priest vs Paladin match where Gruul got his Attack reduced to 1 about three times, he's never done much for me. So, rather than hang on to it for sentimental value... I got rid of my first Legendary.

I'd been saving up Dust for a while now, to craft my next must-have Legendary. I've gotten quite lucky with my Legendaries, when I do open them. The only times I've been disappointed with one was Gromm Hellscream, because I already had him at that point, and Nozdormu, which in hindsight I do regret DE-ing right away. It could have been so much fun against Patron decks... but who did I craft, then? Well, I'd already saved up and crafted towards a Ragnaros, a Sylvanas, and the four Giants of your average Handlock. So what else was there?

Part of me likes to think of it as an upgrade to Gruul, honestly. Like an evolution, or... wait, no, not quite so drastic. What's another way to say 'developed'? Like, more streamlined, better equipped to deal with life?

Educated.

Yeah, my Gruul is now educated.

He's got a doctorate now.

So... yeah, today's been pretty nice in terms of gaming. I also got rid of a few other cards I wasn't using to craft me a guilty pleasure Epic.

I already opened one after an Arena run, but I couldn't wait any longer to get the second one. This card is just so much damn fun. It lets you play aggro and still feel clever. It lets you play Handlock and still get a good early game (look up Kolento's Hobgoblin Giants).

What about ponies, you ask? Oddly, I haven't felt the need to watch any, even the ones I've got on disk. I wasn't home alone today, for once, so maybe the embarrassment factor stopped me somewhat. I did catch a very entertaining episode of Gravity Falls; one where Mabel gets caught up in a mini-golf game with her rival, but also in a feud between Liliputians. Fun to watch, and nice to see a 'villain' character get some background.

As for the pondering, well... while I don't do as much meditating as I used to (or want to, for that matter), I do occasionally get flashes of inspiration or other subtle reminders of the divine or whatever you want to call it. I don't believe in deities steering your way through life, but I do believe in the concept of a True Will: that there's a point where free will, intuition, and destiny meet, and that at that point everything seems to fall into place, no matter what you choose. It's a complicated topic, probably something for its own blog sometime, but...

Right now I'm wondering what to do with life, now that I've spent way too much time in college and I need to get out in the world. I only just now found out that TotalBiscuit, one of the people I look up to, is only three years older than I am, and shares my birthday. Weird thing to consider. But what really helped me relax was a look at the TV guide for tonight. What movie would they air on my birthday?

"The Librarian: Quest for the Spear."

A movie about a guy who spent way too long in college and ends up right where he belongs on an adventure.

Certainly not expecting any floating swords to approach me anytime but... it's nice to think that no matter how doubtful I might be, I'm on a good path, and the Universe likes to remind me of it.

Here's to many more years of good fortune. Let's hope that I reach my goals, that you can all enjoy the results or get a good chuckle out of the failures.

Peace,

Cracker.

Comments ( 7 )

Sounds like a perfectly fine day. Happy 28th Birthday, Wise Cracker!

Sounds like a great movie, I love those simile moments. The Universe can be pretty awesome that way. Slow and steady, you'll get where you want in time.

And I totally feel ya on the ponies this season. It's very "play it safe" for me to see it as anything but total casual IDW level writing and execution. But the latest episode is probably the only one I'd recommend. Not crazy overthe design of Moondancer, but she had some great moments. Other than that you aren't missing anything critical.

I'll chime in with my own birthday wishes. Happy Birthday!

I've enjoyed a few of the episodes so far, but I'll join in with 3219970 in recommending Amending Fences as the best of season five so far. If you decide to watch one episode of season five, watch this one. It really should have been the 100th episode. It calls back to the first episode, and boils down, in its way, to Twilight having a friendship problem. The episode reminds me of why I watch the show...

--arcum42

Hey, your birthday sounds way better than my coming 34th one: I'll have a good celebratory meal and may go to the movies, but the biggest highlight of it will be that I'll be waiting for a USD$300 check to complete my savings for a small vacation shortly after. My first vacation in several years.
The current economy sucks.

3219970 3221983

Gonna make an exception to the 'no spoilers and no replies' thing and say... well, dang. And here I've been using Moondancer for months in my Flight Camp sequel, based on her IDW appearance. If she's got a canon appearance, I'm gonna have to see it and edit the whole thing before publishing. As long as she doesn't deviate too much, it should be kay, suppose.

Not missing anything critical? Perfect. And here I was worried my works in progress would require a rewrite or addendum. Guess I'll know in August, then.

3222028
Heheh. If you haven't seen it yet, might I recommend Jurrassic World? The acting in it is phenomenal: very good deliveries, lots of emotions, very believable performance. The humans aren't bad in it, either. It does kind of rip off a few other recent films, though.

And hey, bad economy? Tomorrow I'm applying for a job at the Finances department of our federal government. Things can only get better from there, right?

Thanks to all three of you. I'll keep y'all posted when anything new pops up. Telaros, I might send some 'Apple Bloom vs Ponyville Rape Culture' draft your way sometime, if you're okay with just a quick read. Not for grammar or anything, just concept-wise.

Oh, and speaking of popping up, have you seen this yet? Looks pretty cool.

3222105 Not these, no. But wow did they go all out it seems. I have to say this is my favorite of the ones shown so far: https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_3J3ZX5LIV4/VZrv75njb4I/AAAAAAAABWM/e-1uhd98kKk/s1600/89cbd827e4f3a4eb63453c374698eb76.jpg
1.bp.blogspot.com/-_3J3ZX5LIV4/VZrv75njb4I/AAAAAAAABWM/e-1uhd98kKk/s1600/89cbd827e4f3a4eb63453c374698eb76.jpg

Also, no problem. Shoot me up tomorrow night or early morning and I'll check it out. Well, I mean to say whenever it's ready.

3222105

Hmm... something tells me you'll have to do a fair amount of revising, then. It was great, but Moondancer wasn't much like the IDC version.

They to look pretty interesting. I'm still watching to see what comes of that.

Incidentally, remember how much you hated Magical Mystery Cure? You'd probably be very interested to see what MA Larson has to say about the episode. The original version sounds a lot better.

[youtube=bk8BmQW1X1g]

--arcum42

3224774
As long as she looks the same, it's all good. She's basically a ninja master there, the official successor to the Ashen Blizzard, who is also Rainbow Dash' dad.

Meh, I don't remember how much I hated that episode, actually. I'm kind of past it now. One episode I can't stand out of that many, it still makes a good show. Besides, my criteria are different than those of most. Other people enjoyed it, no sense in ruining that with any bile of mine, not anymore. Too much grump to go around as is.

As to the original concept... meh? The original concept for Doldrum Whimper was an adult asthmatic who spent all of Hearts and Hooves Day trying to catch up to Scootaloo to give his card to her. The original concept of Scootaloo's Second Skin had no Moonfire in it. I'm told the original Ron Weasley swore like a sailor. And now apparently there were at one point plans to make Zack the alicorn Star Filly a main character. Things get edited. The end result is what counts.

So... yeah, appreciate it, but I'll put that video in my 'watch later' bin, maybe when I'm editing rewriting the ole' novel to see what editing should be done and when to avoid it.

Edit: I do see the importance of recording the original concepts, though, if only to not lose them. I'm sure I've got a few good ingots stashed in older blogs. It's not as relevant for a TV show, though, least of all one that's made in collaboration. I'm sure JawJoe would have some choice words to say about it, though...

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