The True Meaning of Brotherhood

As most of you know, I’m a native and current resident of the great state of New Jersey.  As such, I was among those affected by Hurricane Sandy, to the point where our residence was rendered unlivable.  We’re all fine and now have a new place to live (thanks to my wife annoying the heck out of the real estate agent who was assigned to work with us), so there’s no reason to go into that.

What I would like to talk about, however, is the 3 weeks that we were without a home of our own.  My wife, 4 year-old daughter and I (the dog was being boarded) descended upon the Philadelphia apartment of my good friend and Fraternity Brother, Kurt.  For three weeks he not only put up with us invading his single life, but cooked us dinner and helped with the clean-up/recovery at our old place.  There aren’t many people in this world that are anywhere near as generous or patient as Kurt, who treated us like family.

Many people accuse those that join fraternities as trying to buy friends, or the like.  But when you have someone that offers you a place of stability in an extremely chaotic situation, you see just what kind of people you have joined up with.  Kurt and I took an oath (at different times, mind you) to treat all members of Triangle as brothers.  As a Heathen, I take oaths very seriously and I have to say, Kurt has upheld his in spades.

So I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank him and salute him for being a pillar of brotherhood and a man of unimpeachable character.  Wassail, Kurt!

Want Some Geeky Stuff?

I wanted to let all those out there in cyberspace that I will be selling off some, if not all, of my comic book collection over on e-bay in the coming weeks. The reasons for this are numerous, the most obvious being the money wouldn't hurt. ;) Actually, since I'm primarily reading comics on my tablet, having the physical copies taking up space doesn't do me much good. Also, many of the older comics I read are in trade paperback form, so individual issues just don't have a place for me right now. I'm more into the stories than the intrinsic value of the comics themselves, which means those of you that want some comics at bargain basement prices could be lucking out soon. More on the auctions when they happen.

Kinda, Sorta Back to Blogging

After five months at my new job, I think I’m settling in to the new routine, so I’m going to reactivate both The Hammer Strikes and Hold Your Hammer High.  However, I will not be trying to keep to any kind of schedule like I was last time around.  I’ll be posting things as they come to me, but I’ll still try to update THS on Thor’s Day and HYHH on Tyr’s Day (Thursday and Tuesday in modern parlance) when there’s is an article in the cue.  Posts like this one, affecting both, will be posted on Wednesday (Woden’s Day in the old way of thinking).  I’m working on something for each blog at the moment, so watch this space.

I would also like to thank those of you that kept checking in, even if it was just to use the links to other blogs for your reading list.  Your loyalty is much appreciated.

Now it can be told

Now that things are settling down (in a relative sense, of course) I can let you, dear readers, in on what has been going on in my life.  As on this past Friday (April 20th) I no longer work at my old company.  Don't get too upset, the reason for this is I got another job that fits me better.  However, due to the new schedule and the distance of this job from home, my on-line time will be severely curtailed.  We are planning on moving closer to the new job, but not for several months yet.  Therefore, until I determine how everything will be affected, I'll be leaving both blogs on hiatus until further notice.

The Times They Are a Changin

Yeah, I know I haven't posted anything in awhile, which is highly disappointing to me as I had a self imposed schedule I was keeping to.  In any case, as the title of this post states, things are changing around in my life right now, so I am putting both my blogs on a hiatus for the time being.  I'll post more when things settle down, but let me just reassure you that these are good changes, so no worries.

Supplimentary Materials

Recently I purchased "The Book of Battle" and "The Book of Armies" for my Pendragon library.  I like them, as a read, and plan to implement them soon.  These are no where near a necessity for the average GM, but I like the flavor they add to the game.  I'm not sure how in depth I'll be going with the current game, but I'm definately going to use them the next time around for the Uther, Anarchy and Boy King battles.

Now I'm Ready

I recently saw Captain America: The First Avenger, so I’m now ready for The Avengers.  I have to say, I thought it was another great movie and what they changed from the origin in the comics just made the story stronger.  Beware, there be spoilers ahead (although, since the movie’s a year old, I’m probably the only one they would have been spoilers for).

One of the best changes that they made, IMHO, was to have Steve Rogers be friends with James “Bucky” Barnes before anything happens with Project Rebirth.  It allows for the audience to feel that there is a real connection there rather than have them thrown together later.  It also made more sense to me, being a product of the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries, that Cap’s best friend would be another soldier that he grew up with rather than a teenage “mascot” that happened to be hanging around an army base.  The role reversal is a nice touch as well, with Bucky going from protector to protected. 

I also was impressed with the way they got Cap into a costume.  If you think of the other movies that were a prelude to The Avengers, not one really wears a costume.  Iron Man has his armor, but that’s how he gets his powers.  Thor is in an Asgardian outfit, but that’s just how they dress.  The Hulk … do I really need to go into this?  But Cap needed a costume, which has nothing to do with his powers.  Well, most people in the 1940’s who just had the one and only super soldier created wouldn’t have said “let’s put him in a bright blue costume and send him out to get shot at.”  Nope, they would have done just what they did in the movie, tried to send him to a protected lab for study and, failing that, used him to sell war bonds.  And what sells war bonds better than a hero in a flag-inspired costume with a patriotic name?

Something else that impressed me no end was the casting.  Tommy Lee Jones chews just as much scenery as Anthony Hopkins did in Thor, and he gets all the best one liners in the film.

And what is a hero without a good villain?  Hugo Weaving as The Red Skull was wonderful.  Not over the top, but you could tell he had more than a few screws loose.  The use of "O, Fortuna" during the one scene was a brilliant use of music for those that know the translation.  (Hint: It's not a song about sunshine and rainbows.)

I guess the best way to sum it up was that it took me until about two thirds of the way through the movie to realize that there was no title sequence.  That's how engrossing the film was.