Confederation of Dixie

by on July 25, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

When the rioters burned down Mobile, it caused a refugee crisis that America had not seen in years. Many citizens visited family in the country, or otherwise found places to run to, but most had no recourse when their homes, neighborhoods, and jobs burned down around them. That left hundreds of thousands of new homeless, with no Federal emergency services left to swoop in and help. It was a humanitarian crisis writ large. The Port of Mobile donated entire shipments of tents and garden sheds, along with tens of thousands of empty international shipping containers to act as temporary housing for the relief effort. The shipping containers in particular would become the standard housing unit in the Mobile area for years to come. Everyone who lived through the Second Great Depression in Mobile spent time in a container house, and that forever changed the nature of housing in the area.

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Confederation of Dixie

by on July 24, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Mobile, Alabama was largely burned down during the riots of the Second Great Depression. Some of the major industrial facilities and the Port of Mobile survived thanks to their corporate security teams, and they provided temporary housing for their workers. Most of that housing was composed of international shipping containers, which the Port of Mobile had in numbers far greater than their needs. Individual containers could be turned into barracks-style housing for single men and women, or family-style housing. The port had recently received a shipment of one-piece sinks and toilets for one of the local prisons, and it was easy to install them in the shipping containers to give their workers all the necessities of home. Not necessarily the comforts thereof, but in times of death and danger, a good roof, a clean bed, and a working sink and toilet are sufficient unto the day.

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Tomorrow War

by on July 23, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Tomorrow War’s third act is the weakest for a science fiction story. Is it a fun monster hunt? Yes. Did I enjoy watching it? Absolutely. Is it filled with more stupid than I can shake a VHS of Independence Day at? Oh yeah. Did Independence Day become a cult classic despite mind-numbing amounts of technical stupid? Yes it did. It is in fact one of my favorite movies of all time. I do not know where Tomorrow War will rate on my final metric. The pure and simple fact to me is that it is NOT a science fiction story. It is a monster hunting adventure movie with very light science fiction elements attached to it. It’s a fun movie. I enjoyed it. And the cast did an enjoyable job showing off their characters. The enjoyment I got out of it is worth the time I spent watching, and the time I’ve spent writing about it since.

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Tomorrow War

by on July 22, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Tomorrow War is a movie about an alien invasion in the future that asks for help from the past. And one of the most stupid parts in it that people do complain about is the main rifle they use. It basically fires colorful confetti at the aliens that has no penetrating power at all. It fires a small round, out of a short barrel, has a long stock, a dim spotlight, and basically does everything it can to look cool while being utterly useless. I could say that it is the perfect Hollywood gun, but that would be mean. The only worldbuilding reason I can see for why they use it, is it is all the future have left after the real weapons were destroyed in battle. I cannot see why the past would send people forward using that piece of crap. Now I’m used to Hollywood movies getting firearms totally wrong, so I don’t tend to rate movies by them. But it is disappointing to see it here.

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Tomorrow War

by on July 21, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Tomorrow War is a movie about a war in the future that has been lost. It is still being fought, but both the future and the past who are supporting them have long since realized there is no winning it. That continued fighting is just delaying the inevitable. But there is one hope. The future has been working on something that can kill the aliens. A poison. They have plenty of aliens to experiment on up there, and the future has been doing their experiments in what is probably one of the last major surviving cities on the planet. Miami Beach. Which is fallen when the main char arrives. His team is sent to retrieve the scientists and their research, and that data is the last hope the future has. They seek to finalize the research, send the data back to the past with the main char, and have the past mass produce the poison. For a last gasp Hail Mary plan, it’s not a bad one.

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