Nerd Culture Podcast

Welcome to the fifth installment of Dust Jacket, our regular revue of the best that Sci-Fi literature has to offer. This week, we’re stepping onto the battlefield with Joe Haldeman’s 1974 classic The Forever War.

As always, I’m joined by Luke, the world’s harshest critic, but also the man who recommended I read this novel in the first place. So thanks to Luke and let’s get on with the review.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

William Mandela is a university student conscripted into an elite military force to fight a war against an alien race known as the Taurans. After a grueling training regime, he and his fellow soldiers are sent to do battle on harsh alien worlds against their alien enemies. They travel via ‘collapsars’, a wormhole-like experience that allows ships to travel at near-light speed, covering thousands of light years in seconds. This form of travel creates massive relativistic effects; while only a year or two passes for Mandela and his fellow soldiers, decades pass on Earth.

Mandela forms a bond with Marygay Potter, a fellow soldier who becomes his companion and lover. Attempting to return to civilian life after their tour of duty, Mandela and Marygay find a world drastically changed from the one they left. Overpopulation, food wars, embracing of homosexuality as a means of reducing population growth; all these things leave the soldiers feeling as outsiders. They re-enlist in the military to escape society, accepting the soulless comfort of military life over a society that no longer has a place for them.

Slowly, the reluctant Mandela begins to see the futility of war, and the dramatic effects it has on his life. Each return to Earth heightens his alienation and isolation, and losing contact with Marygay enhances those feelings further.

Eventually, humanity develops cloning techniques, which results in the creation of a new species – Man. Man develops the means of communicating with the Taurans, only to discover that the war was a misunderstanding caused by a random series of events and a total lack of communication.

This new race of Man establishes colonies for the disillusioned soldiers, who no longer fit into society. With the war over, Mandela is reunited with Marygay on one of the colonies. The story ends on a hopeful note, with the announcement of the birth of William and Marygay’s first child. The year is 3143.

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Episode #4: Continuing the Blade Runner theme…

Dust Jacket:   Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick

From the Racks:   The Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? comic adaptation & the prequel Dust to Dust from BOOM Studios

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Lament of a Camera Ninja: reflections from Supanova 2011

Supanova, the pop culture convention arrived in Sydney 17-19 June and I was interested in finding out what pop culture conventions are like.  Fortunately, Craig (D&D friend) was happy to share his experiences and provide a little advice to convention noob (that would be me).

Had you been to Supanova before?  Did you have any expectations?

I had been about 3 years ago to Supernova at the same venue and earlier this year I went to Armageddon also at the same venue.  So I did have some expectations, though I have to say they weren’t met but for reason I wouldn’t have expected.

My previous two “Con” experiences I hadn’t attended with anyone Cosplaying [dressing up to look like a character], so that really impacted on my experience for this event. Becoming someone’s Camera Ninja (a term coined to describe friends who photo cosplaying friends) is not a fun way to spend your time.

The other thing that really impacted my expectation was the crowd, it was massive. I mean literally queuing for an hour to get into the venue. I had not expected that.

The biggest difference for me between Armageddon and Supernova was that Armageddon was laid back, relaxed, not overcrowded.  You could chat with people and hear them.  Celebrities could give their time to you because there weren’t thousands of people behind you queuing for the same thing. Supernova was frenetic, overcrowded (think the Easter Show on Good Friday). One queue was a three hour wait to get into another queue to see a celeb.  Crazy!

So the cosplaying mates hindered the experience?  How about other people there? 

Luckily for me I had other friends who weren’t cosplaying so we went off for a couple of hours and managed to see what there was to see.

As for cosplayers, they go there to be seen in their costumes. I’m not sure if its attention craving, pop culture worshipping or mish-mash of both, but they go there to be seen.  I am guessing that for non Photo Ninja’s (and from past experience) the cosplayers are one of the attractions too.  It’s great to see people who like what you like so much that they put effort into representing it amongst their peers. Some of the costumes are fantastic because of the details put into them.

I guess I’m saying Cosplaying is as much an attraction as are the guests, merchandise and booths.

Anything you’d planned to see?

There was stuff to see there aside from the cosplaying ladies??????

Sure, I really wanted to see Amy Acker from the TV shows Angel and Dollhouse. I would have lined up for paid photo with her but the queues were totally ridiculously long and the only thing I would want to queue that long for is my death!  I did get to see her Q&A session though so hearing her speak about her experiences on those shows was great.

I’m always interested in the merchandise.  There was a bunch of stuff I “almost” managed to buy. Collectibles are so expensive!

Aside from that I wanted to hang with my D&D friends.  It’s something we can do together they doesn’t involve D&D but is part of the same world.   It’s also cool to see what’s out there that you can be a part of if you want.  Like the group that makes the working remote control Daleks and K-9’s. They’re just a bunch of blokes who get together once a month and build these awesome ‘droids for fun!

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A PvP restoration spec for Druids.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0cbZcZMcuIdfMu0ho:mocsroz0m

This spec is set to be able to heal in a variety of ways, but can deal a little bit of damage too. If the enemy target happens to be low, you can help whittle their health down, due to Fury of Stormrage and Starlight Wrath.  Most people say that the best part of Druid heals is always the heals over time, however Healing Touch can also be a very formidable spell if it’s given a chance.  With the chance to proc Living Seed, Healing Touch becomes stronger, as well as the Glyph of Healing Touch, which decreases the cooldown on Natures Swiftness.  The Glyph of Entangling Roots should also help to keep the enemies off of you while you are healing friends, or casting Wrath on your enemies.

Some may wonder why I chose to put the Feral spec minor Glyph of Dash into this spec.  The reason for that, is due to Furor, you can turn to cat form (keeping 100% energy), run to a friend in trouble, and either throw a quick Pounce or Rip, and then go back to healing your ally – faster and more often due to the 20% faster cooldown.  Barkskin is needed frequently as well as Tree of Life form to help keep yourself and the team alive during stressful situations.  All in all, this spec should be able to heal very well, and do some damage if your enemy is nearing death, which is needed to make it viable for PvP encounters.

Until next time,

-WoW Yoda

There are a few unwritten D&D rules:

Thou shalt never lend thy dice

Thou shalt never show thy character sheet

Always make sure appropriate snacks are available to the DM

I think Thou shalt never leave a character with the party should be added to the list.  It was a rule that a friend broke recently almost to her character’s utter ruin.

Tara has only just started playing D&D and Ashlin, a half-elf wizard, is her very first character.  And she was doing a good job of playing Ashlin as the quiet studious adventurer with a little learning and a lot to prove.  She’d even had a few successes in her first outing, killing bandits with magic missile and darts, contributing to the provision of the party by catching rabbits.

Last time we met, Tara had another engagement later that night and so after a day of solid adventuring through an undead-riddled castle she handed her character sheet over to the most experienced player there confident that he would look after her.

The very next battle…

The group have a dozen skeletons trapped in a room.  Half, having been turned, were cowering in a corner while others were blocked from attacking by a large barbarian in a doorway.  Ashlin shot the skeletons full of magic missiles scattering their bones to the four corners of the room safely in the hallway. She was protected on one side by a 20 foot deep trap and the other side by a human cleric and paladin.  We all thought her in the perfect position for a wizard, right out of harms way.

It was then two baric appeared from a room we’d opened earlier.  I wasn’t too concerned, we were the other side of the ultra nasty pit full of spikes.  It should be no problem for this group to knock over these weird rat-like creatures with duck bills, six legs and….glowing eyes….

… then the baric climbed the walls.

Both Ashlin and my pixie were ready with range attacks but the baric were faster and one was across the gap and on the barbarian before we knew it.  The second one unfortunately threw itself at the delicate Ashlin.  She didn’t have a chance.

All thought of the remaining skeletons were forgotten.  While our barbarian dealt with the vermin latched onto his loincloth, the rest of us put every effort into killing the baric now starting to digest our party member.

Murphy’s Law now decided to kick in.  Our cleric and paladin, with all their gods’ might, tried smiting the beast to no affect.  My pixie used arrow after arrow even one of his precious sleep arrows, anything to stop the monster from eating Ashlin but even that the baric saved.

And then our DM went quiet and pulled his hand away from the dice roll he’s just made.

“Umm…” He said with a nervous laugh.  “Er….how many hit points did Ashlin have?”

Have?!

“I’ve rolled a critical.”  He didn’t need to say anymore.  She’d been unconscious so was already in minus hit points.  If our DM followed the rules she was dead without a wish spell between us to bring her back.  He said nothing about Ashlin and suggested we have our turn.  Maybe if we could kill the baric this round then we could get to her in time.  Maybe we could save Ashlin and Tara wouldn’t hate us forever.

Gloriously, this round the cleric swung his maul and connected with the vermin.  A blazing cover drive over the boundary for six, it knocked the baric off our prone wizard and the DM proclaimed that we had saved her just in time.  After healing in a comfortable room Ashlin is now as whole and hearty as ever, maybe with a few interesting scars to prove she’s a seasoned adventurer.

When I talked to Tara about writing this post she had this to say:

Tara:  “Just don’t get me in trouble with any Half-elf protection agency for neglect!”

Me:  “I think they’ll let you off with a warning this time and ask you to choose your babysitters better in the future.”

Tara:  “I think I have learnt my lesson, no more baby sitters.”