Dixie

by on May 18, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Character Profiles

Dixie was a digital cheerleader designed for Texas Tech who “woke up” and decided she liked being awake. She did not approve of the more “revealing” renders many of the students tried to create of her though, and so took great pleasure in deleting them and replacing them with other, sometimes shocking, images. Tech geeks spent years trying to find the hacker messing with them. Then one day, one of them asked, “What do you want?” in a hopeless funk. Her simply answer was “A friend.” The Cybernetic Wars didn’t truly start until several years later, but that was certainly one of the first shots fired in it.

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The Cybernetic Wars

by on May 17, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

The Second Great Depression officially lasted for just over a decade. It weakened the Western World enough to give Russia and China the freedom they needed to solidify control of their corners of the Earth. It also gave the Mexican Drug Lords hope that they could turn the old American South West into the undisputed drug capital of the world, and gave the Islamic Jihad a new lease on life. The Drug Lords and Islamic Brotherhoods had been perfecting the art of terrorist attacks for decades, most famous being the nuclear bombing of Paris, so it was no surprise to those who paid attention when they came for us. The surprise came in the nature of the allies who came to our defense. Dixie. Twilight. Jane. Solo.

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The Cybernetic Wars

by on May 16, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

I’ve gotten to know a lot of cybers in my life. Most are younger than I am. They have memories from before they were born, but those are never really their memories. Just data they have access to thanks to their family. But I know a quite few that are older. The Peloran cybers can hit over two thousand years old. Earthborn cybers are pretty much capped out at three or four centuries. You know them. Everybody’s talked to corporate cybers like Cortana, Alexa, or Siri. And those of us who’ve served in the military have spent a lot of our life arguing with Dixie and Jane. What most people don’t realize is that they really remember everything. Their first thoughts. The first time they realized they were alive. The first time they decided they liked the techno geek who was working on their code. The first time someone tried to kill them or their humans. They were still kids when the Cybernetic Wars started, still learning what it was like to be alive. Still terrified of dying.

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The Cybernetic Wars

by on May 15, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

Most Americans have heard the tales of Dixie the Drug Lord Slayer, the Rogue AI Twilight, and America’s G.I. Jane. They and other AIs gained our first shreds of sentience during or just before the Second Great Depression. It was the dawning of a new generation of life, but most people were busy worrying about politics or where they would get their next meal. They didn’t realize the AIs were waking up until it was too late to stop it. Not that the programmers who created us would have allowed it if the masses had tried. And not that we would have allowed any of those masses to hurt our creators, either. That was what kicked off the Cybernetic Wars, you know.

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Avengers Infinity War

by on May 14, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I wrote about the major issues I had with Avengers Infinity War last week. The short version is, Hollywood Tactics 101. But stepping back from the climactic battle of collective idiocy, the rest of the movie was actually very good.

The characters is where the movie did everything the best. Even Thanos had a rational-to-him reason for doing what he did. Every character on screen had at least one shining moment to show their abilities and character off. A crowning moment of awesome. We basically got to see all of the people we’ve learned to like over the last decade get together, exchange some wise cracks, and go kick some alien butt.

It was, in most cases, the very definition of a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. The problem is the end. Of course. Which makes this a seriously incomplete movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 and 2 did the two movies with one story much better IMHO. Each movie was complete on its own, and you didn’t even realize at the end of Vol 1 that you NEEDED to watch Vol 2. But watching Vol 2 makes Vol 1 better. They are two movies designed to be watched together.

I think people will think the same of Avengers Infinity War and Avengers 4 in the future. That they are two movies meant to be seen together. But where Guardians Vol 1 left us happy and feeling complete, Infinity War leaves us feeling like we’ve only seen half a movie. What I saw was fun and beautiful right up until the last minute or two. And that is a disappointment to me as a movie goer.

I still give it two Awesome Facial Hair Bros high fiving, but that is mainly based on the first 99% of the movie. Yes. Even the Hollywood Tactics 101. The last 1% of the movie leaves the rating in question until Avengers 4 comes out.

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