January 2012

So I want it to be easy for people to find what they want, which is what the various indexes are for, but I've been thinking that there's no quick way to see what was posted recently.  You can pick a tag and look at the  most recent things published with that tag, but if you're wondering, "Was anything that interests me posted in the last month?" in general you'd have to go through page by page.  That doesn't seem right, so I give you what was posted in the last month, grouped by topic to some degree or other, and with short descriptions.

General Stories:
Epic Book Blowing Up - Someone said Roark from Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead was an architect because "you can't blow up a book in an epic 'you don't appreciate me!' flounce" this is a quick attempt to do just that.
A Simple Zombie Story Idea - Loosely thought out idea of how someone stays sane when all alone after the zompocalypse.
Random Discussion of Monsters - It's what happens after that moment when you realize that if one supernatural thing is real, maybe others are too.

Left Behind based:
Post Rapture, No News Today - A more human Cameron Williams responding to the lack of any new information on the stories that matter.

Twilight based:
Snarky Twilight: At the Nurse's Office - Bella and Edward discuss Edward's track record, his thoughts of violence, and his refusal to take responsibility.
Team [Someone] - Slogans for various Twilight teams, I picture them on t-shirts.  You can actually buy a Team Leah one if you want, and if any of the others seriously interest you (which I doubt they will) say so and I'll put those in the shop.  The only one I'd hesitate with is Team Jacob.

Non-Story one off posts:
What I hear from Hungary - Exactly what it sounds like.  What I hear is not good.
To My Body - About how it shouldn't feel the need to prove me right when I say negative things.
Interlude, Snow, and Driveways - Spent a day shoveling, thought about possible ways that that might be avoided, and solar pannels, and mentioned that I was thinking of doing series on .hack//Sign and Deus Ex.
Occupy the ... wait, where's our stuff? Do I smell gas? - On the absurd and disturbing way the police responded to crimes against the local Occupy group.
To Windows - About how if pressed I'll bring the older generation out of retirement to give it a talking to.  Set off by Window's tendency to restart without permission in the name of updating.

A series of posts on the Mayan Calendar:
Part 1: Our Calendar and the Long Count - They're both largely linear, if you can understand ours then the Long Count should be pretty simple to get a hold on.
Part 2: Hypothetical Calendars - Different ways one could go about making calendars.
Part 3: Modular Arithmetic and the Tzolk'in - The first cyclical calendar I approached.
Part 4: The Haab' and the Calendar Round - About a year similar to our own, the claim that the Mayan calendar was more accurate, a bigger cyclical calendar, and that's more or less it.
Part 5: Prophecy and the Short Count - What I know about the idea behind Mayan prophecy, the Short Count, the k'atun cycle, and how to make your own prophecies.

The start of a series of posts on the video game Deus Ex:
An Introduction of sorts - An introduction to the game, followed by me trying to correct an incorrect theory on the date of the game.
Backstory - The story of the world and the player character leading up to the game.
On Newer Better Graphics and Original Text - Impressive graphics enhancements mods exist.  I will not be using them for this series of posts, and here I explain why.
Training 1: No Exits - A training mission, by its very nature, requires doing things that make no sense in any kind of real world, but the Deus Ex training mission also can give us insight into the game and setting.  So I started playing and I let the snark begin.  I touched on the visual style of Deus Ex and an unrealistic part of the level design.
Training 2: Infolinks, Lockpicks, and a lack of female characters - We meet some of the elements of the setting, and I notice that there seem to be fewer women than men.
Training 3: Books and Coworkers - How the impression of a world beyond what you see is created, and the first of your coworkers you meet in person.
Training 4: What the hell is wrong with these people? - The snark takes over as the things done for training become even more absurd.
Training 5: What isn't - Since we've arrived at the first part of the game where we know revisions were made, I talk about what ended up on the cutting room floor.
Training 6: What is - Having discussed what isn't in the game, I return my attention to what is.  Starting with Gunther Hermann, the first example of a mechanically augmented person you meet.  Then I talk about how aiming and shooting works in the game.

The start of a series of posts on the anime .hack//Sign:
Before we get started - An introduction to the setting.
Before the first word is spoken - A very close reading of the first minute or so of the show, and thoughts on why I like it.
Welcome to The World - In the first half of the first episode I note that Tsukasa seems to be afraid of people, speculate on the role of destiny in choosing the people he meets, talk about the Crimson Knights, and different character's paradigms for dealing with people online.

And there was some blog business:
About the About Page - There's an About Page now.
Blog Policies - Ok, so so far there's only one.

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