Category Archives: Journal

This is me rambling about me, mostly. Current stuff: home, family, my head’s on fire… that kind of thing. This also includes everything imported from LiveJournal.

Me, Tolkien, and G.R.R.M.

A couple of weeks ago someone told me I was being quoted in Civilization VI, but I couldn’t spot the reference. This morning someone again pointed me at the play-through video, right to the the 8:20 mark, and it’s true, I was quoted in Civ VI.

I talked about it a bit on Twitter.

civ6quoteshowardtayler-cropHere’s a crop from the graphic that accompanies the moment where Sean Bean totally reads some dialog I wrote.

Funny thing: I didn’t remember having written that line. I had to Google it, and fortunately it appears in the comic during the years where transcripts are searchable.

schlock20050105-blog

I didn’t ask for this placement, and I wasn’t paid for it¹. It’s what we call “fair use,” and “awesome.” Something I wrote eleven years ago resonated with the developers of Civilization VI, and so they quoted it² in their game.

“Me, Tolkien, and G.R.R. Martin… we’ve all written dialog for Sean Bean.” —Me


¹If the fine folks at Firaxis would like to comp me a copy of Civilization VI, I will happily accept. It’s on my Christmas list…

²The way in which they used that quote gives it a different emotional impact than the three panel strip for which I originally wrote it. And this is why fair use is so important for the growth, development, and evolution of human culture.

 

Live-Tweeting an Unwatchable Movie

Technically Raiders of the Lost Shark isn’t actually unwatchable. K.B. Spangler and I did watch it, after all.

We shouldn’t have. It’s not “so bad it’s funny” or “so bad it’s good.” It’s “so bad I can’t imagine how it happened.”

Anyway, we live-tweeted our viewing, and then K.B. posted a Storify of the session.

Enjoy!¹

 


¹Enjoy the Storify. Stay away from the movie.

“Welcome to Jupiter”

NASA did it again. This time around they threw a space-robot at Jupiter, and after five years they stuck it into orbit.

The Jupiter Orbit Insertion methodology was pretty simple, really: Go fast, wear armor, then stand on a rocket and spin. Simple in principle, but meticulously calculated, engineered, and finally (and spectacularly) executed.

Good job, NASA. We’ll wait here while you get your science on.