Breakout Kings Session 3

Holy shit, it’s another D&D recap! Two in one week.  What the hell is going on?  Well, unlikely as you may be to read this, I am still going to explain.  It seems that Travizzt is going out of town for mother’s day (say d’awwwwwwwwwww and get it out of your system) and he decided to roll out the game earlier much to the pleasure of me, as you know I only have to read and roleplay I HAVE NO LIFE…well I do, it…you know what never mind onto the recap! After the Jump

Syzran's Profile

Syzran Do’zynge

Background

A ranged hunter he was drafted into a war of magi on the side of his kindred dark elves as they were trying to snuff them out; during heated battle he had bent down to take a drinking of the water not realizing that a mage had poisoned the water to snare any drow to her side; under the mages control he killed many of his kin on the battle field and then returning home killed his son and wife Amal’diira and Kelgah.  After which he spent many days searching out the magus to kill them;  during many days he is haunted by visions of his families mutilated bodies and his kin slain on the field he nurses a hip flask most of the day and gets shaky if a person comes in his line of sight

Characteristics (Internal)

Paranoid, mistrusting of anybody with psyschic abilities, a soilder that will handle orders as they come, finds loose women irritating, yet admires them for their cunning in flirtatious nature, still loyal to his dead wife

Manuerisms

Constant wiping of the mouth, often lost in thought, will check for traps even if there aren’t any.  Never likes staying with his back to the door

Physical depiction

Syzran stands about five foot four with 155lbs and  the black skin of his race, his is long and brown it comes just past the shoulder and yet is held out of his eyes by a braid, his eyes are pinched tight and a keen forest green eyes.  He has a very battle worn face with several cuts across it, he is nowhere near a classic beauty his armor is covered in brown patches almost standing in for camouflage 

D&D Breakout Kings Session 1 & 2

Let me preface this by saying Breakout Kings is the "Unofficial" title; that I came up with having been informed of the back story of the main party; it is quiet literally the title of an A&E original series that has some similarities to the characters back story.

So, sometime last month, I joined a Dungeons and Dragons game; ran by fellow book reviewer Travizzt, and featuring the talents of Yeoden, PeteyGunn (yes the infamous one who is on the admins of Clan of The Fanboys, also well known from LordKat’s community), TrappedKitten (from youtube see end of article for all links), Lazarus Maxwell (A fellow space monkey),  Hans (No last name given), and Dartanian Richards (501^st Member and friend of those in the game).  Why haven’t I posted about it? Well between my crazy life, and then the storms from Alabama….yeah that’s enough craziness read after the jump

Author Spotlight Robert A Heinlein Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land

Y U No Work?

So, unlike my normal blog posts;,we will start with something personal. I haven’t posted in over three months, almost going on four. It wasn’t for lack of wanting, oh no, I wanted to it’s just I hit a personal low; and actually LOST internet so I couldn’t do reviews. So what did I do? I read for the whole freaking month that I happened not to have internet. But you’re asking yourself: Darth Thought why haven’t you posted in three if you got your net back in one? Simply put, just because I got internet back didn’t mean that my personal life was any calmer, I won’t go into dirty disgusting details but let’s just say that I’ve come back a little more harried and ready to try and get back in the swing of things. As it is, my video series has to be put on the back burner for another month; this I am sad about. But I will say this: I’m going to come out swinging. My video series will not be Why the Fuck is this Being Published no, that doesn’t fit my video personality. The video series will be named Lost in Transition and it will be hosted on the site that these text bits appear on, thanks to the patience of the group and my patience with myself.

Anyway, into the trenches and ready to bounce we start off with:

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Review

5 out of 5 stars

-          Superbly written

-          Entertaining

-          Hard to put down

-          Strong Female protagonist

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is one of many international bestsellers that I over looked a first; I thought it was something different.  I don’t mean different in a good way, I mean that because of the title I judged it to be a pseudo-romance novel at first; I was wrong. Not only is this book worthy of the acclaim it has garnered but it has gone on my recommendation list for anyone looking for a good read

Huckleberry Finn Controversy

Hello dear readers

I am close to finishing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and am in the process of watching Let Me in; you would be surprised at the fact that I am having trouble with that one.  We’ll get to that when I get to my review of it.  No, I’m not here to talk about books that I have reviewed or will be reviewing I’m here to talk about a book that is considered a classic by many.  Not all but many; the removal of the N-word from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  In the original version it is mentioned 219 times; and why? Because during that time it was accepted as the word for black person.

This day and age have seen many politically correct movements. Movements to ban the n-word, the word retard, or any racially derogatory word from our vocabulary.  I can’t say I agree with it, because really the only people who give a word power are people who pay attention to it; and yes I realize by writing what I write in this entry I will be giving the word power. However, at the same time I feel it needs to be said, or at least reiterated as over the past few days it has been trending on twitter, and within my own circle of personal friends on facebook I have gotten ten or eleven replies when I linked the article which I will give you at the end of this article.  Why I feel the need to speak about this is because of my love of history and the need for understanding.

First off, I get why this is happening; let’s face it the N-word is offensive but it is only offensive to those who let it be offensive, and by banishing the word itself you won’t get what you want. As a matter of fact you will give it more power:the power of fear.  Which is what the racists who use it want. I also understand the professor’s need to keep the classic relevant but mark twain himself was quoted as saying “A classic is a book that everyone praises but nobody reads. “ So by trying to keep it relevant you are going against the author’s wishes.  Now this isn’t the first time this has happened; but when it usually happens it’s just in the way that we as a literary public see the work.  Take for example Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 which the educated public think is a tirade on censorship, but in the author’s eyes it was actually the new invention of the Television overtaking reading; looking at the literacy rates in this country alone, it speaks volumes to Bradbury’s purpose more than censorship.

Truth be told, I’m surprised they haven’t tried this before. I’m not one for political correctness, I think being politically correct is giving more power to those who are actively seeking to harm us but that’s my view and I’m in the minority; but, this action alone is not political correctness, it is outright censorship.  The thing is like I said the N-word was not the word it is today, nor is the south.  I speak from living in the south myself.  We aren't the backward people you think we are; hell in Huntsville, Alabama my birth town we have more rocket scientists than rednecks.  But back when Twain published this book(1884) it was accepted. As a matter of fact, it was published as a satire of society then; I’m not trying to say that the word isn’t powerful because let’s face it, it is.  What I’m saying is by taking the word out; your giving it even more power.  Twain meant it to be a dark mirror for us in the south to look at; it was meant to be a way to look at the past and our actions and simply be appalled at it.  If it was offending you well he did his job.  Of course with this it opens a whole slew of possibilities up all of which make me rather freaking scared.

With this does this mean that no  book on the public domain is safe? Can I go back and make a pro-socialist 1984?  What about taking Dante’s Divine Comedy and making it more in line with scripture? Or as one of my closest friends that is a girl put it: “Does this mean I can go back and make the bible more pro-women? You want to make a friendlier version of Huck Finn? Fine take Mark Twain’s name off of it; hell one of the “Quirk” classics that I talked about a while back is named “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the Zombie Jim” and you know how much I railed on those! This right here makes me afraid. It makes me look at us and wonder are we really heading down the right path? To those who will say; “well it’s not going to catch on they won’t use it in school” that’s one of this man’s goals! He doesn’t want the classic forgotten, which hey I can applaud that but doing this is just sullying the name of Samuel “Mark Twain” Clemons.  That my friend is what pisses me off.

Upcoming NewSouth "Huck Finn" Eliminates N-Word

Let The Right One In Part II Movie

4 out of 5 Stars

Pros                          

-          Excellent acting and directing

-          Written by the author

-          Visually pleasing

Cons

-          Some areas are rushed through or glossed over

Oskar a 12 year-old bullied boy finds comfort in the arms of Eli a child vampire.