True Detective

As you may surmise from the title, today I want to talk about the show TrueDetective.

I became vaguely aware of the show through the internet, but I started watching after being encouraged to do so by a good friend.

I was hesitant going in, mainly due to the main cast namely MatthewMcConaughey and Woody Harrelson, but also because I'm a bit bored with police procedurals and serial killer shows.

Now, I like Mr. Harrelson well enough, but his roles tend towards either hippie weirdos or macho uber-men. Mr. McConaughey on the other hand is very well known for his many romantic comedies, which I really can't watch. His role in U-571 was pretty non standard for him at the time, but my friend urged me to put Mr. McConaugheys romcoms in the past and give True Detective a shot.

Boy am I glad I did. There is no romance or indeed any comedy anywhere to be seen.

Mild Spoilers Ahead

At it's most basic, True Detective is about two police detectives in Louisiana hunting an occult serial killer. The story is told in two time frames, 1995 and 2012. The main characters Rust Cohle (McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Harrelson) are being interviewed by other detectives in 2012 concerning their work hunting the killer back in '95. This is an unusual (at least for me) technique but it works very well, in a sense allowing the same characters to speak with two voices. Both Rust and Marty change considerably during the show, and this juxtaposition showcases the changes without resorting to info-dumping or leaving the viewer behind.

Another thing I should point out is that we have a strong case of Unreliable Narrator here. Both characters tell things from their perspectives and this can confuse things, particularly when they lie.

Now, you can watch True Detective just like any other cop show, but that would be foolish. This is not a show that should be watched casually. There are clues and foreshadowing aplenty throughout the season, and the more you notice the scarier it gets. I wouldn't go so far as to call this a horror show, but it's damn close.

You see, the occult part of the show concerns the Yellow King and Carcosa. If you've never read Robert W. Chambers book The King in Yellow and/or read the expanded Cthulhu Mythos started by H.P. Lovecraft, these names will mean nothing to you, but if you have, this show quickly gets really unnerving.

I'm not going to explain it all here, but the creator Nic Pizzolatto has created a show that works both as a regular TV show, but also as a “Cthulhu Investigation” familiar to fans of Lovecraft and Call of Cthulhu in all it's forms and shapes.

True Detective runs on two levels. One one hand it's about deranged people in a cult “just” molesting children and committing horrible murders, but on the other hand the whole cult part is real. They really are sacrificing people to otherworldly entities. Basically it's up to you what is true and what's not.

This reality blur is mainly expressed through Detective Cohle who sees things due to a damaged nervous system from his days deep under cover as a narcotics cop. In order to keep his cover intact he had to take copious amounts of drugs, which has either damaged his brain enough to make him hallucinate, or the drugs have enhanced his mind enough to see hidden things like ancient shamans. Again it's your call which reality is true.

This is a show that I'm going to have to re-watch just to see what I missed. Even a cursory search on this show will net you several pages of analyses and Easter eggs that are easily over looked.

As an example I completely failed to grasp the possible meaning behind Marty’s oldest daughter and the drastic changes she goes through, even though they are pretty text-book.

The over all feel of the show is oppressive, gloomy and spellbinding. The score is at times truly haunting and at no time did I get the feeling that I'd rather be doing something else. That said, this is a very heavy show, and not one to be taken lightly.

So, if this sounds appealing, go watch True Detective. Hell, even if you think I've just written seven-hundred plus words of complete drivel, go watch it anyway. Just keep kids away. This is Adult Country and not just for the nudity.

Until next year, take it easy!

Some holiday entertainment

Greetings and salutations! Today we're going back in time to look at two movies from the nineties. Both are pretty damn good and well worth your time.

First up is Suicide Kings (1997).

The story of a group of collage age, well to do guys who kidnap a “retired” mafia boss, played by the unique Christopher Walken.

Walken spends nearly the entire film duct taped to a chair and yet he still manages to completely dominate the whole thing. Despite his mostly calm demeanor he's scarier than his main henchman Lono (Denis Leary), a man who shoots people with the same emotional response as someone scratching his nose.

The story unfolds beautifully and with great pacing so you never get bored, but it's not an action piece in any way. Nor is it a typical mobster movie. Suicide Kings stands on its own with no need for any excuses.

Great acting tops it off from all involved parties. Top notch movie in my opinion.

Our second entry for today is The Ref (1994).

What we have here is actually a Christmas movie, but one with a twist. Denis Leary (yup, him again) is Gus, a cat burglar forced to spend x-mas eve with a family he kidnaps in order to evade the police.

Although The Ref also stars Kevin Spacey, it's Leary's enraged and frustrated rantings that makes this film so funny. If you're a fan of the mans stand-up, it's a must-see.

It's not in any way a “Great Film” but none the less a surprisingly warm holiday movie with out any of the typical cliches that saturates the x-man market.

Other highlights include a wildly inaccurate “Scandinavian Christmas Dinner” and I do mean inaccurate, and possibly the nastiest woman found anywhere in film outside of serial killer and holocaust movies. This hag is truly vile.

If you're in the mood for some holiday fun, and it is Christmas this week after all, do check it out.

That's it for this week, happy watching and have a great Holiday you all, where ever you may be!

Peace out.

Blacker than Black

Tonight here on Eccentric Spheres we're going to talk about SCIENCE!

OK, maybe not talk so much as look at this awesome documentary I found. A documentary about black holes, in fact.

I've always found them fascinating but I had no idea how crazy they are until I watched this.

One of the things that makes black holes so cool is that we, as in humanity, don't yet understand how they work. Because they shouldn't.

The best and brightest minds we have can not explain how they function. You see, Einstein's Law of Relativity explains how physics works just fine, until you get to the black holes. Then the laws of physics break down, we get things like infinite gravity that stops time itself and light traveling faster than itself. How can that not be interesting.

As a bonus, you don't have to feel uneducated or dumb since these scientific geniuses are just as stumped as you and me. In fact, they haven't even seen a black hole. No one has, but we do know they exist, and without them, you and I probably wouldn't.

So without further ado, I present The Ultimate guide to Black Holes, enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3U0vjSUhOA (<- direkt link)

Until next week, take it easy!

Blood and Bone

When you find a movie called Blood and Bone, the content should be pretty obvious. And in this action film from 2009 starring Michael Jai White, Julian Sands and Eamonn Walker, the title is pretty well spot on.

I discovered it one evening whilst feeling bored and in the need of some brainless entertainment. I was completely satisfied 93 minutes later.

But that's not to say that it's a bad movie. Quite the contrary, in fact.

What we have here is a film about illegal underground fights. That's the core of the story and that's what we get. There's more, sure. A basic revenge plot that thankfully does not get in the way of what you came to see. And to top it off, no real romance subplot! I was very pleasantly surprised about that.

These films tend to have a sexy female character who's job it is to get into trouble, get rescued and get the bad-ass hero into bed. Not in Blood and Bone. No sirree!

Now before you get any funny ideas, I should point out that this is not a “good movie”. It's raw entertainment, nothing more. The dialog is stilted at best and both Julian Sands and Eamonn Walker are pretty much wasted here.

The real star here is Michael Jai White and his incredible martial arts skills. It's a pleasure to watch that man move. And kick copious amounts of ass!

That said, at no point did I feel like I was actually wasting my time. If you on the other hand are in a hurry, you can find a compilation of just the fight scenes. You won't need to know the plot to enjoy yourselves. But be warned, some fights are pretty rough if you're feeling sensitive.

Bottom line, if you like martial arts movies and you're bored with Steven Seagal, check out Michael Jai White, and Blood and Bone is as good a place to start as any.

That's all he wrote this time. Until next time, take it easy.

Gentlemen Bastards!

Today we're going to talk about literature. Fantasy literature to be exact. Today's post is all about The Gentlemen Bastard Sequence by Scott Lynch.

To date there are three books on the series; The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies and The Republic of Thieves.

I finished the third book last night, and I've read the two other books twice, so I feel qualified to talk about them.

Together with A Song of Ice and Fire (George R.R. Martin) this is my favorite fantasy series, hands down. It does have magic and some fabulous beasts, but otherwise no classic fantasy tropes like elves, dwarfs, dragons and giant burning eyes perched on dark towers. No, The Gentlemen Bastards are thieves, con-men and criminals extraordinaire. But in a world with mostly gray on gray morality they come out as pretty nice people. Mostly because their targets are rich jerks and a lot of people are much worse then the Bastards.

I'm sitting here struggling to explain to you why these books are so good without either spoiling anything or going into a long rant about everything, but the most important point has to be the way Mr. Lynch writes. He paints vivid scenes filled with great characters you can actually sympathize with. The entire world comes alive and is tremendously believable. Not a mean feat considering it's fantasy after all.

Also, Mr. Lynch does not shy away from unpleasant themes. Violence is nasty, child thieves are hung and tons of bad things happen, but without any scene descending into a needless gore-fest.

The main characters are criminals yes, but the books don't moralize. Sometimes things go well, other times they really don't, but the causes and consequences speak for themselves without you getting preached at. Neither are the characters ever really let of the hook just because they happen to be the main characters. A tricky balance Mr. Lynch handles terrible well.

The Lies of Locke Lamora had me hooked completely after only the prologue, and I would not hesitate to give it five out of five stars anywhere.

Red Seas and The Republic are easy four star novels, with the only reason they weren't as good being, well, hard to explain. Perhaps they're lacking some of the joy you feel leaping at you from the pages. Otherwise they are magnificent.

If you like your fantasy, or indeed any genre, liberally coated with intrigue, mystery, charm, wit, adventure, romance and suspense you absolutely can't go wrong with these books.

Start reading The Gentlemen Bastard Sequence as soon as you can!

That's all he wrote, dear readers. Take it easy, gather some energy in this dark December and keep on trucking!

80's Action!

Hi guys,

Today I did something highly unusual: I got up at 3.50 am. Don't ask...

So it might not come as a shock that my brain is complete mush after a long day at work.
Therefore I can't summon the required wit to amuse you like you deserve. Instead I'll let the comedy geniouses Key & Peele do it instead with what could be called a homage (and a spoof) of 80's action.

Please enjoy, and I'll see you next week when, hopefully, my brain won't be trying to escape through my ears. Have a great week!

Final Beyond Earth

OK, it's time. The fact that I haven't written about Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth has bugged me for some time now.

I wanted to play some more before before critiquing it, but other things have come up. And that's a tell. Although I really like Beyond Earth, I haven't had the urge, no, the need to play it like I've played Civ 5.

The reason for this isn't just real life getting in the way, or other games being more alluring. No, it's that Beyond Earth is missing something. I have no idea what it's missing though. When I started playing Civ 5 it was bundled with the Gods & Kings DLC, so I've never played vanilla Civ 5. My version of Civ 5 is now complete with all DLCs, but I get what others have told me about the base game being good but incomplete. This is how I feel about Beyond Earth.

Maybe it's the AI, I'm not sure. I do think the diplomacy system is weak, including the trade. Usually when an AI faction wants to trade, they offer one favor (generic payment) for X resources for thirty turns, but they refuse to return the favor, even if they like you.

I haven't as yet had a war with the AI, so no comments about that, but one thing that bugs me is that all factions start whining if you start killing aliens. Even the factions that don't like aliens, i.e. Purity factions. Seems they should be on your side, after all. (Purity = Humanity is best, screw the rest).

Also, since you can research everything you want, the choices of which paradigm you want to go for becomes somehow lessened. There's just not much of a sacrifice to make.

Otherwise this is a really fun game to play. The overall feel is great, and I love the fact that the first time you build something, you have to make a choice. So when you build, say a laboratory you get to choose if all your labs produce more health for your people or more energy. This allows you to fine tune your needs as you go.

The tech system is also good, and I like the units and the graphics, the music etc. All in all Beyond Earth is a very robust game, that can in time turn into a real classic.

And speaking of classics, I never played Alpha Centauri. The game that was lauded as civilization in space. It always bothered me that I missed such a classic. But now, I see lots of people online complaining that Beyond Earth isn't more like Alpha Centauri, and I think that's a shame. It is after all NOT Alpha Centauri, and it was never meant to be. I of course can't even make such a comparison, and I'm grateful for that.

Actually, come to think of it, one of the somethings that bothers me, is that the factions, led by their distinct leaders lack the personalities that their Civ 5 counterparts have. Sure, this makes them less hemmed in and predictable, but it also means that I can't get a grip on them as easily. I can't really relate to them, I suppose.

Final verdict time. If you like sci-fi and building civ's this is a game for you. To be honest I hope they release a DLC for it soon, but I'm not going to stop playing it either way. And it's actually refreshing to play a sci-fi builder that's not set to an empire scale, and “just” build a large thriving colony.

So, there we are. Job done. Come back next week, and we'll see what I can cook up. Have a great week!

Howling on Wall Street

Last Friday I finally got around to watching The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese's three hour long movie about Jordan Belfort, starring the ever great Leonardo DiCaprio in the main role.

It's worth noting that this film is based on true events, though some things have been altered as well as some characters that have been melded into one, etc. As an example, the scene where Jordan is so stoned he can't even stand, let alone walk (yet he desperately needs to drive home) was pretty much improvised by DiCaprio.

The fact that this is a real story about real people, is one reason why it's so good. If this had been the pure fantasies of some screen writer, it would have seemed pretty fake.

In case you don't know what this movie is about, by the way, here's a link to the summary on IMDB.

So is this a good movie? Yes. Yes, it really is. My biggest, well only complaint is the length. Three hours is too long, and I don't think it would have suffered by cutting it down by, say half an hour. That said, I enjoyed it thoroughly, even though I would have hated sitting through it in a theater.

One thing that struck me as I was watching, and it's something others have noticed as well, is how similar Wolf is to one of Scorsese's other crime dramas, namely Goodfellas. One of my all time favorite movies BTW. If the first line in Wolf had been “Ever since I could remember, I've always wanted to be a stockbroker” I would not have been the least bit surprised. If you made two lists, one with Jordan's name at the top, and one with Henry Hill's name, and started listing their actions, you would end up with two pretty similar lists. Without spoiling anything major, I'll just say that doing copious amounts of drugs, committing crimes daily and cheating on your wife will have fairly obvious consequences whether you're a stockbroker or a gangster.

I could rant on and on about the gorgeous visuals, the soundtrack, the sterling acting etc etc, but I really think you should just watch The Wolf of Wall Street yourself. Fair warning though, this movie is dripping with sex, naked women and graphic drug use, so be careful who you watch this with. It may not be the ideal film to enjoy with your grandmother. Unless she's cool...

Also, fans of Absolutely Fabulous should watch out for Joanna Lumley's role, since it could well be Patsy Stone if she ever grew up.

Final summary: great movie!

Until next week, stay safe!

Broken Arrows

Last week I planned on doing a proper review of Civilization: Beyond Earth this week, but as it happens, the flu that struck me down did it's job properly. As a result, I've not had the energy to play. Thus I'm postponing the review until a later date.

Instead we're going to take a look at Broken Arrow. No, not the 1996 action movie in which John Travolta plays a villain with a passion for Volvo’s and Christian Slater fumbles around as an unlikely hero. Instead we're going to take a look at the real life phenomenon of Broken Arrow, in which the United States have managed to accidentally drop actual nuclear weapons. Today's post will only concern U.S. nukes, partially because it's their terminology but also because other nations with nuclear armaments seem to be better at keeping it a secret when they loose them. If they lose them. They probably do.

All in all, you would think that one would take a certain amount of care with any device that can level most of a city in one godlike eruption of primal energy, but the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) freely admits that they've had thirty-two Broken Arrow incidents. Sure, a couple of them have been Bent Spear incidents, meaning that the weapons weren't actually dropped or lost, they've just been temporarily misplaced or transported without any of the care with which you really aught to take. But 32 times is pretty irresponsible. Like mothers the world over have said: “if you can't play properly, you can't have any nukes at all”.

One day in 1958, March 11th to be precise, a Boeing B-47E-LM Stratojet flew over the sleepy farming community of Mars Bluff, South Carolina on it's way to an exercise in England. The Captain was doing some routine check-ups when he accidentally managed to drop his payload. Said payload was a Mark VI nuke that landed right on Walter Gregg's house. Now luckily the bomb was not armed for it's nuclear role, but it still contained thousands of pounds of regular explosives (required to set off the nuclear chain-reaction). No one was hurt amazingly enough, and Mr. Gregg got to sue the Air Force for $54.000. ($500.000 in today's money)

The bombing may have been an accident, but since the mission was an accuracy test, it can perhaps be seen as a success?

Also in 1958, a B-47 bomber collided with an F-86 fighter over Georgia. Damaged, the crew had to dump the bomb in order to land safely. But when they went out to find their 3500 kg nuke, they couldn't find it. In fact, no one has ever found it. It rests somewhere in the Georgia swamps just waiting for someone to snag it with a fishing line. It was thiiiiiis big...

In San Antonio, Texas you can find the Medina Base, a lovely little place where they used to disarm obsolete nukes. Can't just leave them laying about, right?

Anyway, in 1963, the stockpile blew up, all 56.000 kg of it. Not as it happens the nukey bits, as they were kept elsewhere, but all the conventional materials. The kicker? Three men were hurt a little bit, and that's it! All that bang and no injuries worth talking about.

In 1966 a B-52G bomber was attempting to refuel in midair. Midair above Spain as it happened, when the two planes collided and were annihilated. This caused the B-52's four H-bombs to, you know, fall out of the sky. Two were fine, they recovered them with no problem. What of the other other two? They went kaboom, but not as actual mushroom clouds. The bombs did irradiated a 2.5 square kilometer area near Palomares, but no one was killed or even hurt. Again!

One of the bombs that were intact fell into the Mediterranean Sea and was found by a local fisherman, Francisco Simo Ortis. This was a lucky day for Mr. Ortis, since maritime law states that the finder of salvage is entitled to 1% of the total value of the find. An MK28 bomb was worth $2 billion back in '66 so he asked for a cool $20 million. He settled for an unknown sum. Not a bad catch either way.

There have been many other Broken Arrows, including one on Greenland of all places, but I think these are enough for today.

Until next time, have a kick-ass week!

Beyond Earth

OK, so I had this whole thing planned out concerning today's post.

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth came out last Friday, and this was going to be a grand review of this game. An intelligent and sophisticated analysis.

But, last night I started getting a fever, and with perhaps four tormented hours of sleep, I crawled out of bed with even more fever.

So, no grand magnum opus today.

However, I will write a good review of SMC: Beyond Earth, probably next week.

Until then, you must content yourself with this:

Beyond Earth is a fantastic game! Built on the Civ V engine, you colonize a planet in outer space. You have lots of options, many grand strategies and on top of that, the game looks frikkin' sweet!

And since you came all this way, and you might want to know more, I'll direct your attention to this Let's Play by my favorite LP'er Quill18. 

Until next week, take it easy.

Lost at sea

Hello friends, and welcome to another thrilling installment of Eccentric Spheres!

Today we'll be talking about one of the most legendary places on earth: The Bermuda Triangle.

One could if one was so inclined, spend the rest of ones life talking about the triangle, which I won't. So I'll skip all conspiracies and stick to what's known.

First off, it's been proven that compasses act erratically in the triangle, which makes navigation difficult. Now, a compass can act strangely anywhere on earth, but it does genuinely seem to occur more frequently there.

Secondly, a part of the Gulf Stream flows through the area. As you may know, the Gulf Stream is an underwater river that is immensely powerful. Ships and planes that have crashed here and are caught in the Stream are pushed, slowly but surely hundreds of miles from the site of the accident. This explains in no small part the difficulty in finding wrecks and contributes greatly to the mystery. In fact, a crew who went searching for the USS Cyclops, who went down in the triangle, found by accident another ship that sank no where close to their location. This was the first clue to the disappearances.

Finally, the area is famous for the sudden appearance of lousy weather. And not just brutal tropical storms either. Fog banks can catch you in minutes, just when you were enjoying sunny and clear weather. Suddenly it doesn't seem quite so strange that ships and planes go down, does it?

Now, there are lots of other (plausible) explanations, from giant methane pockets destroying the waters buoyancy to simple human error that we don't really need Atlantis or Aliens, but there have been many odd occurrences that aren't that easy to explain away.

But without these mysteries life would be much duller, don't you agree?

Here's a Wikipedia list of the most famous disappearances if you're curious.

Until next week, stay safe!

When you've had a long day

One of the great things about boardgames is the ability to have fun with family and friends even if you're really tired.
Like I am today. Thus I'm keeping today's post short.
Last week I wrote about Letters from Whitechapel, but before I bought it, I researched it thoroughly online.

If you're looking for a new game you really are spoiled for choice. There are so many games out there in so many categories. But which game to choose? You can (and probably should) go to boardgamegeek.com and look around, but the sheer mass of games is hard to sift through.

A long time ago, I mentioned Beer and Boardgames on Youtube, but they don't always give the best impressions of a game, however entertaining their antics are.
But Wil Wheaton's webseries Tabletop really does a great job of demonstrating how a game works. It's pretty funny as well.
So without further ado, here are a couple of sample episodes for your enjoyment.

Until next week, take it easy.

Letters from Whitechapel

Last week I sauntered over to my local board game shop and purchased their last copy of Letters from Whitechapel.

LfW is a hidden movement game a la Scotland Yard and Fury of Dracula. The idea here is that Jack the Ripper moves in secret through the streets of Whitechapel, murdering his victims, and the other players as the police do their best to figure out where he is and arrest him. There's more to it than this, but that's the gist of it.

I've played it twice now, both times as Jack, and boy oh boy is it ever good. First game out, I was arrested on the third night (out of four), and in the second game, I barely scraped through and won.

This game is a complete nail-biter as you watch the police (i.e. the other players) walk around right next to you, and they don't even know it!

It's a roller coaster of emotion ranging from smug glee to spine-chilling terror and finally elation as you watch the police hunt you down.

The mechanics are super simple, with minimal set up time, but the game can run pretty long.

The board is an accurate map of Whitechapel in 1888, which is in itself a treasure if you're as crazy about the Victorian era as I am. The pieces are wood instead of plastic, which is nice, and the rule book is really simple to understand.

My copy is the English 2^nd edition, which is printed by Fantasy Flight Games. If you're familiar with their products, you know how fine the quality is.

I'm looking immensely forward to playing as one of the Inspectors, as well as taking Jack out for a spin with a full set up of cops. It's worth pointing out that whether you play against one opponent or five, all police are deployed. But the though process is very different from one person to five. I can't wait!

If you're curious to see more, I'm linking a video I found on Youtube below.

Until next time, have an exciting week!

Cards Against Humanity

This Saturday last, I finally got to try Cards Against Humanity.

This game falls squarely under the category “Beer and Pretzel Games”, i.e. games that go well with a few drinks and some snacks.

Cards Against Humanity definitely requires a few drinks to work. You see, it runs on blind luck and bad taste. The rules are also so simple that even if you've had quite a few drinks, you quickly get the hang of it.

The idea is this: there's a white deck and a black deck. Each player has seven white cards in their hand. Then one player draws a black card and reads it out loud. It can be a question or a statement with one or more words missing, and then every other player chooses a card from their hand to complete the sentence (or answer the question). Without knowing who chose what, the reader of the black card then chooses the best (in his opinion) white card. The player who played it wins the black card. At the end of the game, the player with the most black cards wins.

The genius of CaH comes in the form of bizarre and usually tasteless humor. Hence the need for a couple of drinks first. Also, I wouldn't use CaH as an icebreaker at parties, unless you are sure everyone is cool with it. This game can be racist, politically incorrect, sexist and very dark in one round! On the other hand, I have not laughed so hard in months. We all had a roaring good time.

A couple of examples that I won rounds with:

Black card: The TSA now bans _______ on all flights.

My white card: Chunks of dead prostitutes.

Black card: For my next trick, I will pull _____ from my _____.

My white cards: An oversized lollipop, my soul.

If you don't think this is all that funny, wait until your tipsy in the right crowd of friends...

My only real complaint is that I can't get the whole game in Finland. We played the free & and legal) down-loadable basic version, but there are so many cards. I want them! Aarrgh!

If the makers of this gloriously wicked game should read this: Make Cards Against Humanity available!

Until next time, have a hilarious week!

It's a kinda magic

Hello and welcome to another installment of Eccentric Spheres!

As promised last week, we're talking about magic today. No, not Gandalf, Merlin and Potter, but rather Houdini, Copperfield and Blaine.

I've always loved magic. The showmanship, the skill and the “how the F**k did he do that”.

But as much as I love to watch it, it also frustrates me. A mystery is great but satisfying my curiosity is better.

That's why I was so pleased to find Magic's Biggest Secrets Revealed on Youtube.

The concept is simple. The Masked Magician performs a trick and then reveals how it's done. And I've learned so much. Of course, if you want to remain in blissful ignorance then do not watch this show!

The tricks range from some of of the greatest illusions made famous by magicians like Harry Houdini, David Copperfield, David Blaine and Chris Angel, but you also get to see how small up-close illusions work.

I've watched eleven episodes so far, and my only criticism is the narrator. He is vitally important since the Masked Magician does not speak and neither does his beautiful assistants. The narrator however never stops drooling over the girls. Yes they are very pretty, but after a few episodes, you kinda wish the guy could get over it.

I'm linking the first episode below, but if you want to see more, I'm sure you can figure out how. So until next week, on with the show!

Utopia

Back in July I happily blogged that Utopia was getting a new season. In case you don't remember what Utopia is, since my original post about the first season was back in 2013, it's a British TV show about a fictitious group called the Network, and their plans for the world.

Anyway, I just finished the 2^nd season last Friday, and wow, mind absolutely blown!

Be warned: SPOILERS AHEAD! (at least small ones)

Basically, every other show (hyperbole, I know) out there should take heed from Utopia on how to do a new season. The first one ended perfectly. Sure there were questions unanswered, but that's OK. Not everything needs to be spelled out. All the major points were covered. But the second season just adds so much more, though without anything feeling padded or overblown. At no point did I feel that the creators had gone too far (in a show that actually showcases the murder of children) or jumped the proverbial shark.

The visuals were even better than before, and the recurring characters, which is pretty much everyone that didn't die in season one have been “updated” somehow, and not necessarily for he better. The one line-up change is that the actor playing Donaldson has changed, but that's of no real consequence.

The very first episode in season two is a flashback to how it came about that Janus was created, and it may actually be my favorite episode if them all, but only because you know who the principal characters are and what they will do in the future.

I could go on. And on and on.... but not without spoiling it for those of you who haven't had the chance to enjoy Utopia. Yet.

I strongly urge everyone to watch this great show, but beware: the going get's very tough at times. And by that I don't mean it's hard to follow the plot. The subject matter and how it's handled can be pretty gruesome, and the tone of the show is at times pretty damn depressing.

That's all I gave to say really, if you're not convinced, there's nothing else I can do.

Until next week, when we'll be talking about magic, have a great week!

What's up Doc?

Monday is upon us yet again, and that means more Eccentric Spheres.

We're keeping it short today though, since I have tons to do right now and like a putrid cherry on top, I'm coming down with the flu.

So today, we're going to be enjoying the Duke of Disaster, the Count of Chaos, the last rabbit you ever want to mess with; Bugs Bunny.

I've been a fan for as long as I remember, but to be fair I only like the stuff that was produced up to just after WWII. After that, ol' Bugs lost his edge. And the animation started to go downhill.

So sit back and enjoy two of my favorite Bugs Bunny clips; 

Buccaneer Bunny 

and 

Racketeer Rabbit.

See you next week!

It's dangerous at the top

Striving upwards is a common part of many peoples lives. They work hard in their chosen fields in order to make something of themselves. They earn money, respect and power. They're able to look themselves in the mirror and say “I'm a somebody”. But in the dark hours of the night they must sometimes be plagued by the fact that someone else is more successful, richer and just simply more powerful.

Unless they're kings that is. No one is higher on the totem pole than the king. At least that used to be the case, back when kings ruled, both actually as well as figuratively.

However things weren't always so rosy. With great power comes great responsibility and all that. But ultimately even the mightiest king is still only human. And humans die. Sometimes in pretty funny ways. This is what we're discussing today: some of the oddest ways monarchs have perished.

We open our Royal Gathering of Death with King James II of Scotland. Over all, he was pretty well liked as he was a just king who ruled fairly.

The biggest criticism against James was that he ordered the murder of the Earl of Douglas at what became known as the Black Dinner in 1440. Incidentally this was George R.R. Martin's inspiration for the Red Wedding. But apart from this slight case of murdering, James was liked.

What James himself liked, was cannons. He had imported several from Flanders and was most keen to see them in action at the siege of Roxburgh Castle. In fact he was standing right next to one when it decided to blow up and scatter little bits of king all over the vicinity. That's right, James II was killed by his own artillery.

Up next is Charles VIII of France.

Charles wasn't very well liked, mostly because he never did very much. He was popular abroad since he made several concessions to his neighbors, but the French preferred to ignore him.

One day though, he decided to enjoy a game of tennis. Not to play mind you, just watch. When the game was over, the king left, but failed to notice how low the lintel was. He smacked his most royal head and fell into a coma from which he never woke up. Talk about walking to your death...

Let us now turn to Frederick I, King of Germany, as well as King of Italy and to top it off Holy Roman Emperor! With out a doubt the most powerful man in Europe back in 1155.

He had it pretty good, until he wanted to do the fashionable thing and go crusading. Now if you've detected the tone of today's post, you can probably guess that Freddy didn't meet his demise in battle against the heathen horde.

Nope, he wanted to cross the Goksu River in Turkey, but the bridge was out. His staff argued for finding another bridge (you know, the sensible solution) but Freddy being king twice over as well as Emperor! figured it was up to him to show everyone how it was done.

He rode his horse into the water and was promptly swept away. Sadly the horse drowned too.

Finally we conclude tonight's sombre cavalcade with Charles II of Navarre. He was known as Charles the Bad, mostly because he kept switching sides during the Hundred Year's War in order to get the best deal every time.

One day the Bad Boy fell ill, and the doctors figured that the best cure was to wrap him in several layers of linen soaked in brandy and sew the whole thing together. I guess they thought marinating kings in brandy was good for them.

An unnamed maid was tasked with the sewing, a task she took to with great care. A bit too much care as it turned out. She didn't want to risk cutting the king with her scissors in the dark, so she burned off the final thread with her candle. In a flashy instant Charles went from being the Bad to being the Crispy. Divine Retribution or an exciting new recipe? You decide.

That's all folks! See you next week.

Watch the Mojo

Hello Dear Readers and welcome to another installment of Eccentric Spheres.

OK, now that the formality is out of the way, we can relax.

Truth be told, I've had a day that's been as exhausting as it has been long. So today you get a very short post. In return, the subject matter can keep you entertained for hours.

I'm talking about WatchMojo.com's Youtube channel.

I have spent way too much time watching their Top 10 lists, partially because I really like Top 10 lists, but also due to the fact that they're so much fun. With subject matters such as music, games movies etc, I have on more than one occasion thought to myself “I'll just watch this one list”, followed by “Ooh, that one sounds cool” and finally “Bedtime already?”.

With just a quick look on Youtube we find:

Top 10Trailer better than the movie

Top 10Visually striking CGI films

Top 10 Mobmovie characters

Top 10Most hated songs

So jump head first into the vast ocean of great Top 10 lists. Just don't blame me when you loose three hours in a blink of an eye.

Have a great week, and I'll see you next week!

Don't take lessons from the Coyote

Last week we looked at criminals who were less than successful, mostly due to their own incompetence. Today, following the theme, we're looking at terrorists who didn't do any better.

Towards the end of the 19^th century, a young french anarchist (old timey terrorist) wanted to do something radical. Namely blow up the Greenwich Observatory in London. To that end he created a package full of explosives and took the bus to the observatory. So far so good. But you see, this was in February, and as the hapless anarchist crossed the park, he slipped and obliterated himself, some grass, and nothing else. Le this be a lesson about using overtly sensitive explosives. Insert your own pun about slippery slopes here.

As you are about to learn, terrorism is not for amateurs. In this case we have a group of beginners in England, who wanted to spark a race war by bombing a right wing rally and blaming some dark skinned people.

If this is your plan, you might want to make sure you turn up in time, which these six dorks didn't. They showed up just as the rally was over. They must have figured that killing the few people who were still there wasn't enough, so they drove back home. On their way home, a policeman happened to notice that their car didn't have an insurance sticker, so he stopped them, and found a carload of items the wanna-bes just couldn't explain away. Go straight to jail, do not pass go.

In the Philippine capital Manila stands the Thomas Jefferson Cultural Center. In 1991 a couple of terrorists with more dedication than know-how decided to blow the place up. You know, to show America something. I'm not sure what.

They carefully crafted their bomb at home and approached the center under the cover of darkness. One of them stood watch while the other took the bomb to the outer wall. Then he proceeded to arm the bomb in the glow of a cigarette lighter! Yes, he lit an open flame next to a bomb. But stupid as that is, that was not his undoing. You see, when he activated the bomb, the display cheerfully said h then E followed by 5. It was probably at this point the moron realized the bomb was upside down. One second later the lookout was showered in little bits of terrorist. Shell shocked and drenched in blood, the second bomber was taken to the hospital by a passing taxi driver, where it took the police no time at all to piece the story together. I doubt they managed to piece the first bomber back together again. In the end the center was largely undamaged, though rather dirty.

Finally we're traveling to Scotland. To the Glasgow International Airport to be exact. Now an airport is a valid target if you're the sort of bastard who wants to sow chaos. In this case there were two such bastards. Luckily they were as clumsy and inattentive as their colleagues above.

The plan was to load a car up with explosives, an then ram it through the airport front doors and detonate. Major chaos all around.

Well, the best laid plans and all that, because they managed to get their first car bomb towed...

Spurred by this setback they got a new car and loaded it with a bunch of propane tanks. They then gunned the engine to 30 mph (48kph) and promptly crashed. Had they actually bothered to visit the airport, they would have known that the entrance is surrounded by steel posts a.k.a. security bollards. They posts weren't even hard to see as they are wrapped in bright yellow plastic.

As the car crashed, the propane tanks did explode but nowhere near as dramatically as the duo had hoped. One of them jumped out and tried to punch the police (predictable results ensued) while the other one, now on fire got kicked in the nuts by a bystander so hard the guy broke his foot!

That's it folks, have a safe week!

It just doesn't pay

If you've spent any length of time on the internet, you might have run into the story of McArthur Wheeler, even if you don't recognize his name. He's the guy who covered his face with lemon juice, thinking it would render his face invisible to cameras. Then he robbed a bank. You can guess the rest...

That's the subject of today's post. Dumb, er, reality challenged criminals.

We start with the nineteen criminals who got arrested thinking they had won free beer. The police in Derbyshire sent out “winning tickets” from a false company and promptly arrested the wanted men when they happily marched through the door looking for their prize beverages.

Next up is young Ruben Zarate who tried to think creatively. He wanted to rob a muffler shop in Chicago, but the safe was locked and only the manager, who was away at the time, could open it. So what did Mr. Zarate do? He gave the cashier his phone number so that they could call him when the manager was available, and he would be able to proceed with the robbery. As you probably deduced by now, Rubens criminal career was cut very short, very quickly.

If you're in need of a getaway vehicle, you might want to consider several aspects. Speed, notability and reliability being, perhaps, the most important. A Colombian crime crew considered none of these when they stole a donkey as their vehicle of choice.

They successfully robbed a convenience store, but the getaway donkey decided not only to remain stubbornly immobile, but it made such a racket, the robbers fled on foot leaving their ill-gotten gains behind.

We continue our cavalcade of clumsy criminals with Albert Bailey and his unnamed friend. The duo wanted to be as effective as they possibly could. These geniuses called the bank ahead of time, so that the employees could gather up the 100.000 dollars they wanted in advance. When they arrived they only got $100, but decided to be happy with what they got. Then they walked into the welcoming arms of the police.

Having trust in your fellow man is fine, but you can't expect people to be honest with your crime.

Sticking with the theme of bank robbery, we have the man (name unknown) who accidentally gave the teller his gun instead of his bag when he had demanded £700.000. He did get away and even managed to steal a bike on the way. This makes him the most successful criminal on today's list.

But how about the deaf German bank robber who couldn't hear the alarm? Well, unsurprisingly he was arrested, but he then tried to sue the bank for exploiting his handicap. That's right, never give up.

We're ending our batch of bad guys (why am I so alliterative today?) with Darren Kimpton. He had already tried to burgle a house, but he cut himself on some glass, and decided to try his luck at a second location. Unfortunately for Mr. Kimpton, the house in question had already been burgled that night by someone more qualified. Of course dear Darren couldn't have known that, but he really shouldn't have burgled a house with the police still in it! He was sent down for both burglaries.

That's what I have for you today. See you next week, and stay legal.

KKK

It's a safe bet that you've all heard of the KKK, or the Ku Klux Klan. The name conjures up images of intolerant men in white sheets, and pointed hoods lighting crosses on fire.

But there are strange and curious facts hidden in the Klan's history, and today we're going to peek under the sheet at some of them.

The Klan was originally founded just before the end of the American Civil War, but it almost died out after just a few years. It then popped back up in 1915 with the film The Birth of a Nation, when it had between two and six million members. And it wasn't just black people they hated. They also tried to get rid of Jews, Catholics and alcohol for some reason.

By the 1930's membership had again petered out into almost nothing until the civil rights movement started.

Today it's difficult to estimate how many Klansmen there are, since it's not one organization, but rather a loose coalition of Klans spread across America. In 2012 it was estimated that they were between 5000 and 8000 members strong. Membership is risky though since they are officially a hate group, and as such are under permanent FBI scrutiny.

In 1958, the Klan started a campaign of terror in Robeson County, North Carolina.

The reason? Well it's the home of the Native American tribe of Lumbee. And one of them dared to date a white woman. Another family had moved into a white neighborhood. So the Klan rolled in and did the whole burning cross thing. Then, later the same month they held a rally with about a hundred dedicated Klansmen.

The problem? A large crowd of angry Lumbee men that outnumbered them considerably. After a short and rather brutal fight, Grand Dragon James “Catfish” Cole fled in terror, taking his his “brave white knights” with him. I guess the Catfish didn't want to become a Custer...

Since that January day in 1958, the Klan has been suspiciously absent from Robeson County.

In 1965, the Klan suffered an intense (and hilarious) humiliation, due to the Grand Wizard of New York, Dan Burros.

Mr. Burros was thrown out from the Army in 1955 after three suicide attempts, one of which was accompanied by a suicide note praising Hitler. After his discharge he joined the American Nazi Party (bet you didn't know they had one of those), and later the Klan. However, in 1965, John McCandlish Philips Jr, a journalist for the New York Times, proved that Dan Burros was in fact Jewish. Ouch. He was tossed out right quickly.

During the 1980's the Klan had a very dangerous member, Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. Glenn had two decades worth of military experience, out of which 13 was as a Green Beret. He organized and planned assassinations (which were never carried out), but in 1987 he was arrested in the back seat of his car with a male black prostitute in drag. Yeah, so much for idealism.

In 1994, the Klan wanted to adopt a stretch of highway in Missouri. In case you're not familiar with the concept, it means the adopting group is responsible for maintaining the stretch in question, and in return they get some publicity.

Anyway, the state officials told the Klan to get lost, and they in turn went to court over the matter. A District Judge decided that the Klan had a constitutional right to adopt said piece of highway, and the Klan celebrated. Until the state officials named the road The Rosa Parks Highway, that is.

The Klan never picked up a single piece of litter, and later claimed they didn't have to, since the guy who signed the official document was no longer a member.

Finally I had a good laugh when I read that the KKK has officially condemned the Westboro Baptist Church for being a hate group. Yeah, if the most go-to example of a hate group in the Western Hemisphere thinks you are being too hateful, maybe you ought to rethink your agenda a little bit.

Hope you have a great week, and I'll see you next Monday!

Now that's huge

Hello and welcome to a somewhat molten edition of Eccentric Spheres.
The temperature in Helsinki insists on sticking around 30C, and the nights aren't much better. I sleep badly, and certain places at my job are intolerably hot.

So this week I'm simply presenting you with a fascinating documentary series called Nazi Megastructures. It deals with the most ambitious builds the Nazis took on. From the Atlantic Wall to their Super Tanks to Fortress Berlin, this show gives you an interesting look into these incredible projects.

So if you're too warm to do anything useful, sit back and learn some history!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcmMPu7MX_I

Hope you have a great continuation of your summer! 

Promises promises

A couple if days ago I grabbed the opportunity to watch Eastern Promises. I became aware of this film mainly due to it's infamous naked sauna knife fight. Maybe you've seen it on Youtube, maybe not. Anyway, another reason why I wanted to watch it was that I haven't seen Viggo Mortensen (male lead) since his awesome portrayal of Aragorn son of Arathorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This prompted me to watch this film.

I knew fairly early on that I wanted to review it here, but I really can't. You see, apart from the knife fight, it's not a very violent movie, it's much more of a drama with a midwife and the Russian Mafia in London. But I can't really tell you what it's about without explaining a couple of things, which would in turn spoil the whole shebang.

But it is a good movie. It really is. Not great, but definitely watchable. Naomi Watts does a good job as the female lead, and Viggo is awesome as the cool-as-a-cucumber Russian gangster. I certainly recommend it.

Of course I can't leave you with merely an anti-review, you deserve more. So, I'm delighted to be able to tell you all that one of my favorite British TV series has gotten a second season: Utopia! I reviewed it very early on here on Eccentric Spheres. The first season was brilliant and it seems the second is a prequel. I don't know yet if it's any good, since I'm re-watching the first season to remind me of all the goings on. I'll give you my opinion as soon as I can.

Our third installment for today is a Youtube series with the apt name HotPepper Gaming. It's mainly video game reviews but the reviewers eat hot peppers before they begin. Not only is it hilarious to watch them desperately try to remain focused while their mouths (and ears) are on fire, but I think it makes the reviews more honest. Sure they're working from notes, but you can't be manipulative and gimmicky when you're crying and doing your damnedest not to scream in pain. Some fail...

That's it my friends, cya next week.

Interesting travel locations

As I'm sure all of you know that space is really big. Apart from the fact that we and other complex life forms exist, our little corner of it all, is pretty unremarkable.

In fact, there are planets out there that almost defy imagination. Today we're going to take a look at a couple of these weird places. I'll stick to planets we know about, and not speculative planets, like carbon planets, that we only theorize about. Not that carbon planets wouldn't be cool. Imagine a world with seas made from crude oil and tar. A planet where it rains gasoline. And instead of boring old dirt, you have coal and diamonds. But we have no solid evidence of them. Yet.

So. first up on our cavalcade is Bellerophon.

He was the guy in Greek mythology who nabbed himself the Pegasus BTW. Anyway, Bellerophon the planet, is a gas giant about 150 times more massive than the Earth, but that's not the cool part. There are after all lots of big planets in space. No, the cool part, is that it's close proximity to it's sun means that it's average temperature is 1000 C (1800 F) and it's massive winds rage at 1000 kph. Keep in mind that a human body is cremated at about 700 C, and the fastest Earth wind on record is 407 kph. Maybe Bellerophon isn't so cool after all. Makes a great incinerator though.

From Bellerophon we travel to COROT-exo-3b.

This lovely little tourist attraction is the same size as Jupiter, but unlike the gas giant, COROT is solid, which makes it 20 times as massive as Jupiter. Before you say “that's nothing” it means that we would way 50 times what we weigh on Earth. I weigh roughly 72 kg, which would mean my COROT weight is 3600 kg. If I were to set foot on this planet, my skeleton would be crushed instantly. I think I'll stay home.

Third and last of our friendly interstellar neighborhoods is WASP-12b.

If Bellerophon is to chilly for you, go to WASP-12b. It's the planet closest to its sun anywhere, at least as far as we know. Where as we are 149,600,000 km from our sun, WASP is only 3.4 million kilometer from its star. This means that the surface temperature is a scorching 2200 C (4000 F). More than twice that of Bellerophon. To put that into perspective, aluminum melts at 660 C, steel melts at about 1500 C, and platinum at 1770 C. The surface is twice as hot as lava, and to really make you dizzy, WASP-12b orbits its sun once every 24 Earth hours.

That's all for this week, so go out and enjoy ol' mother Earth. I think she deserves it. See you next week.

Funny Facts

Today we'll be looking at some interesting and perhaps surprising facts. As far as I know, these are all true, but I can't be bothered to link the sources. You'll have to trust me and the internet or just do your own research. Enjoy!

• The loudest animal on earth is also the largest. The blue whale has been recorded at 188 decibels.
• Dracula author Bram Stoker was a conspiracy theorist. He believed that Queen Elizabeth had died suddenly and to keep Henry VIII from knowing she was replaced by the only person they could find - a boy.
• The worlds longest accurate shot on record – 230 yards – was made by an armless man.
• The oldest concept of a zombie apocalypse is from Mesopotamia. The Epic of Gilgamesh, in fact. It's about 4000 years old.
• When Lord Byron went to college, he was ordered to get rid of his dog since they were against college rules. However there was no rule against pet bears, so he got one.
• The Catholic Church views superstition as a sin...
• The Fi in WiFi doesn't really mean anything. The creator just liked that it rhymed with HiFi.
• Mark Twain not only invented the self adhesive scrapbook, he also invented the bra strap.
• Etorphine is a drug similar to heroin and morphine, except it's so strong 1/100^th of a gram can knock out a grown elephant. This is in fact the only use for it, since it's impossible for humans to use without overdosing yourself.
• The (most likely) fastest man made object was a 2 ton manhole cover that was sent flying during an underground nuclear detonation test. It traveled in to the sky at 41miles per second. That's 237539 kilometers per hour! It was never recovered.

That's all for this time. I hope you have an interesting week!

The End of the summer (sale)

The end of my summer vacation coincides almost perfectly with the end of the Steam Summer Sale. These incidents coupled with the rather lousy weather we've had today has me in an almost autumnal mood.

I figure the best cure is a pizza followed by some sweet gaming. After all I had a fairly successful sale this year. The final haul looks like this; Banished, E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy, Hitman: Absolution (with Hitman: Sniper Challenge included), Starpoint Gemini 2, Stronghold HD and Tomb Raider (2013).

So six games total. Not that much I know. A friend confessed to buying about 30 games this sale, and I have to wonder how he found so many to buy. In past sales I've bought more, but that's due to my library being smaller. It's only natural that as my collection grows, there will be fewer games I want to buy. Even if money wasn't an issue, I'd be hard pressed to find 30 games I'd want. Oh well, at least I got a couple I've really wanted for a while, and a couple I've been considering a bit.

In an effort to not buy what I don't play, I decided to go back to Dishonored (I also bought the final DLC my library was lacking) and finished the whole thing, including both story based DLCs The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches. I can honestly say I'm blown away. This is sucha good game, and both the story and the world are absolutely wonderful. If you like stealth games or steampunk get this game. It's well worth it. Particularly since you get different endings depending on whether you play with High Chaos (kill everything) which is easier or Low Chaos (kill as little as possible) which is harder but almost more satisfying. I look forward to ghosting as many levels as possible.

That's it for me. I'm pretty exhausted from being back to work so I'm going to assassinate my pizza. Cya next week!

Summer Sale 2014

Another week is upon us, and the Steam Summer Sale is in full swing.

Apart from the obvious pleasure of getting games I've had my eye on for some time really cheaply, the whole event is pretty interesting.

Take the voting system as an example. Every eight hours new Flash Sales pop up. That's four games with a discount of about -75%, and at the same time, you get to choose between two set of games that will be on sale next. The set with the most votes goes on sale.

Now, I'm a very selective gamer. There are several categories that do not interest me at all, like sport and racing games.

Even within categories that I do like such as shooters, strategy and RPG's I'm very choosy. In part due to financial reasons but also because of time restraints. So what to do when neither set of games is of any personal interest?

Well, I could simply not vote, but that seems petty to me. Rather I either look for the biggest price reductions or games that I've played and know are good. Simple guidelines, but sometimes I really have to sit and think.

There are a couple of new features this year though. The most obvious is the Summer Adventure. When you get your first virtual collectible sale card, you're randomly added to one of five teams; Red, Green, Pink, Blue and Purple. Much like Steve Buscemi in Reservoir Dogs, I was dismayed to become Pink. But that's not important. Ostensibly, the teams earn points every day based on some stuff I'm not entirely clear on. I think it's a combination of sales and badges.

Anyway, having observed the process for four days now, I'm pretty sure it's a sham.

You see every day, 30 of the winning teams members get three games from their wish-list for free. And so far each day, one team has been in the lead with a huge difference. All the other teams are clumped together in a pretty similar mass.

If this event was in fact totally up to the customers, it couldn't possibly look like it does. I of course have no evidence, and if I did I wouldn't care, since some people get free games. It's all good, if pretty weird.

What's not so good, is that I can't get any more cards from voting until my Steam Account gets to level 8! You can use the cards to craft a badge that will give you some small in-game cosmetic changes in a couple of games I don't even play.

So it's not like I really care, it's just pretty rude to have this system of card rewards for votes and then say “If you want more cards, you have to spend A LOT more money”. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Over all though, I'm pretty happy with my Thus-far-haul. My major score was getting Banished, but I've also picked up Hitman: Absolution, E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy (for 98 cents), Stronghold HD and Assassin's Creed III.

I'm still hoping to pick up Thief, Starpoint Gemini 2 and Murdered before the sale is over.

Well that's it today. Have a great week!