CASINO GAME - crossword answers, clues, definition
Casino Employee Synonym
Casino Attendant Synonym
Casino Synonyms | Merriam-Webster Thesaurus
Synonym Casino Operator
Casino game 5 letters - DailyCrossword.org
279 Casino Synonyms and 1 Casino Antonyms | Casino in
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Synonym Casino Operator
synonym casino game
synonym casino game - win
Fuck it. This isn’t about money anymore. It’s about principle. I’m holding until I die.
I got into this thing looking to make some easy tendies and prevent a couple of greedy hedge funds from destroying a beloved company from my childhood that was struggling during a global pandemic. I have fond memories of reselling my used games for 2% of their value. Also, it was fun and I like the stock. GameStop’s financials were pretty decent, and the latest console cycle would give them more juice to transform their business model. Then enters Ryan Cohen: a guy whose balls are so big he got the insane idea to recreate Pets.com — a company so terrible it became synonymous with the dot-com bubble — and he fucking outperformed Amazon. I start learning about this guy and find out he’s pretty smart and bold enough to make it work. Maybe he can hit a second hole in one and turn another “terrible” company, “the blockbuster of video games,” into one that outperforms Amazon too. I also learn he’s had his struggles recently, and the reason why he sold Chewy.com was because his father was passing away. He sounds like a good person with that crazy/genius quality who deserves a chance, just like GameStop. So I enter this position, realizing that hedge funds have royally fucked themselves by taking an extremely risky bet while trying to destroy one of the few good things I had to distract myself from the shittiness of the world (before I found this subreddit). Because this trade was not just potentially profitable, but also morally important, I decided to sell the other stocks in my account and even deposited my rent money for the month. I’ll just pay the late fee and tank my credit score, nbd. And like the genius dumb ass I am, I bought right at the top: 14 shares for $4,340. I knew the hedge funds were going to lose this game. They got caught with their paints down while peeing into the wind. They were checkmated. And what did they do? They went and fucking changed the rules of the game. Oh hell no. That’s when this shit got real. That’s the moment when everything changed. It wasn’t about money anymore. It wasn’t about profit or loss. It was about principle. No — it was about the soul of the market. You don’t get to write the rules of the game and rewrite those rules when you lose at your own game. They should’ve just taken the L, but they decided to play dirty — real dirty. Now I start thinking things are getting real fucky. I can 💎 🙌 and keep holding, but I’m going to need to sell at some point... won’t I? Everyone else is going to sell at some point... won’t they? At what point...? Game-theory kicks in and I’m tryna figure out when everyone is going to sell so I can make off with some profit. What’s my exit strategy? What’s everyone else’s exit strategy? And then those hallowed words of Saint Value came back to me: “What’s an exit strategy?” Bingo! Exactly! That’s it! There is no exit strategy! The answer is: there is no answer. The only way to win an unwinnable game is to not play the game. G A M E — S TO P Incredible. This is where the game ends. I’ve been thinking too much like a hedge fund manager who puts profit above principle and can only think in terms of entry strategies and exit strategies. This is market logic. But we are no longer playing the game of market logic. The rules of the game have changed. The game is now about the rules of the game itself. This is a fucking meta-game. 4D Chess. And guess what? I’m not playing your game anymore. You’re playing mine. GameStop shares no longer represent ownership in a company. It’s no longer just something to exchange at market value. The shares represent our values themselves. Will I think in terms of profit and when to sell my shares? Or will I think in terms of my principles? Can I put a price tag on my values? What is a hedge fund willing to pay for my beliefs? And what market price would my values sell for? How much money could I make selling my soul? It’s true that I don’t have as much skin in the game as others. But I put in whatever I could. And I would never judge someone for needing to feed their family or finally being able to turn their life around and escape this rigged game—this prisoner’s dilemma that we call our economy. But GameStop shares no longer represent something a price could be put on. GameStop shares now represent something priceless. In fact, they may hold infinite value. They represent the infinite nature of value itself. The funny thing is, I can live without money. I’ve done it my whole life. But ironically, it’s the hedge fund managers who own all the money in the world that can’t live without it. If that isn’t a better representation of evil, I don’t know what is. Their greed is infinite, and they would break every rule in the world to satisfy that infinite greed. But I will choose to operate by a different kind of logic. I will play a game of my choosing. I entered this position because I saw a way to beat the GameMasters at their own game. And they proved to me what I’ve known all long: that the game is, in fact, unwinnable. It is a game designed for me to lose. It’s a casino-prison where only the lucky get to escape. So, you want my shares? Well, you don’t get my shares. EVER. They’re mine now, and mine forever. I’m holding onto these shares. Because when this game is all over and the years have passed, and we’ve all forgotten about this amazing moment in history.... every time I open my account I can look back and remember that time I fought the good fight. I can remember the wild, insane, hilarious, anonymous, beautiful, ragtag idiots I had beside me in that shining moment of glory — that moment we had the audacity to try and win an unwinnable game, and almost did. These shares don’t hold money. They hold sacred memories that will never be taken from me.... Everyone has to make their own choices in life. Everyone must choose which game they will play. But for the first time ever, the game is finally in your hands. What game will you choose? Will you continue to play the game? Or will the game stop? In my world, the game stops. I choose to sacrifice my 💎 🙌 Instead, my hands will go galactic 🌌 🙌 After all... YOLO
Hey everyone, I am a former Wall Street trader and quant researcher. When I was preparing for my own interviews, I have noticed the lack of accurate information and so I will be providing my own perspectives. One common pattern I see is people building their own algorithm by blindly fitting statistical methods such as moving averages onto data. I have published this elsewhere, but have copy pasted it entirely below for you to read to keep it in the spirit of the sub rules. Edit: Removed link.
What it was like trading on Wall Street
Right out of college, I began my trading career at an electronic hedge fund on Wall Street. Several friends pitched trading to me as being a more disciplined version of wallstreetbets that actually made money. After flopping several initial interviews, I was fortunate to land a job at a top-tier firm of the likes of Jane Street, SIG, Optiver and IMC. On my first day, I was instantly hooked. My primary role there was to be a market maker. To explain this, imagine that you are a merchant. Suppose you wanted to purchase a commodity such as an apple. You would need to locate an apple seller and agree on a fair price. Market makers are the middle-men that cuts out this interaction by being always willing to buy or sell at a given price. In finance lingo, this is called providing liquidity to financial exchanges. At any given moment, you should be confident to liquidate your position for cash. To give a sense of scale, tens of trillions in dollars are processed through these firms every year. My time trading has been one of the most transformative periods of my life. It not only taught me a lot of technical knowledge, but it also moulded me to be a self-starter, independent thinker, and hard worker. I strongly recommend anyone that loves problem solving to give trading a shot. You do not need a mathematics or finance background to get in. The trading culture is analogous to professional sports. It is a zero sum game where there is a clear defined winner and loser — you either make or lose money. This means that both your compensation and job security is highly dependent on your performance. For those that are curious, the rough distribution of a trader’s compensation based on performance is a tenth of the annual NBA salary. There is a mystique about trading in popular media due to the abstraction of complicated quantitative models. I will shed light on some of the fundamental principles rooted in all trading strategies, and how they might apply to you.
Arbitrage
One way traders make money is through an arbitrage or a risk free trade. Suppose you could buy an apple from Sam for $1, and then sell an apple to Megan at $3. A rational person would orchestrate both legs of these trades to gain $2 risk free. Arbitrages are not only found in financial markets. The popular e-commerce strategy of drop-shipping is a form of arbitrage. Suppose you find a tripod selling on AliExpress at $10. You could list the same tripod on Amazon for $20. If someone buys from you, then you could simply purchase the tripod off AliExpress and take home a neat $10 profit. The same could be applied to garage sales. If you find a baseball card for $2 that has a last sold price on EBay for $100, you have the potential to make $98. Of course this is not a perfect arbitrage as you face the risk of finding a buyer, but the upside makes this worthwhile.
Positive expected value bets
Another way traders make money is similar to the way a casino stacks the odds in their favour. Imagine you flip a fair coin. If it lands on heads you win $3, and if it lands on tails you lose $1. If you flip the coin only once, you may be unlucky and lose the dollar. However in the long run, you are expected to make a positive profit of $1 per coin flip. This is referred to as a positive expected value bet. Over the span of millions of transactions, you are almost guaranteed to make a profit. This exact principle is why you should never gamble in casino games such as roulette. These games are all negative expected value bets, which guarantees you to lose money over the long run. Of course there are exceptions to this, such as poker or card counting in black jack. The next time you walk into a casino, make a mental note to observe the ways it is designed to keep you there for as long as possible. Note the lack of windows and the maze like configurations. Even the free drinks and the cheap accommodation are all a farce to keep you there.
Relative Pricing
Relative pricing is a great strategy to use when there are two products that have clear causal relationships. Let us consider an apple and a carton of apple juice. Suppose there have a causal relationship where the carton is always $9 more expensive than the apple. The apple and the carton is currently trading at $1 and $10 respectively. If the price of the apple goes up to $2, the price is not immediately reflected on the carton. There will always be a time lag. It is also important to note that there is no way we can determine if the apple is trading at fair value or if its overpriced. So how do we take advantage of this situation? If we buy the carton for $10 and sell the apple for $2, we have essentially bought the ‘spread’ for $8. The spread is fairly valued at $9 due to the causal relationship, meaning we have made $1. The reason high frequency trading firms focus so much on latency in the nanoseconds is to be the first to scoop up these relative mispricing. This is the backbone for delta one strategies. Common pairs that are traded against each other includes ETFs and their inverse counterpart, a particular stock against an ETF that contains the stock, or synthetic option structures.
Correlations
Correlations are mutual connections between two things. When they trend in the same direction they are said to have a positive correlation, and the vice versa is true for negative correlations. A popular example of positive correlation is the number of shark attacks with the number of ice-cream sales. It is important to note that shark attacks do not cause ice-cream sales. Often times there are no intuitive reason for certain correlations, but they still work. The legendary Renaissance Technologies sifted through petabytes of historical data to find profitable signals. For instance, good morning weather in a city tended to predict an upward movement in its stock exchange. One could theoretically buy stock on the opening and sell at noon to make a profit. One important piece of advice is to disregard any retail trader selling a course to you, claiming that they have a system. These are all scams. At best, these are bottom of the mill signals that are hardly profitable after transaction costs. It is also unlikely that you have the system latency, trading experience or research capabilities to do this on your own. It is possible, but very difficult.
Mean reversions
Another common strategy traders rely on is mean reversion trends. In the options world the primary focus is purchasing volatility when it is cheap compared to historical values, and vice versa. Buying options is essentially synonymous with buying volatility. Of course, it is not as simple as this so don’t go punting your savings on Robinhood using this strategy. For most people, the most applicable mean reversion trend is interest rates. These tend to fluctuate up and down depending on if the central banks want to stimulate saving or spending. As global interest rates are next to zero or negative, it may be a good idea to lock in this low rate for your mortgages. Again, consult with a financial advisor before you do anything.
I am a former Wall Street quantitative trader and researcher in NYC. I have often seen people aspiring to be quants build projects themselves, but fall into the trap of blindly fitting statistical models to the data. I have written an article to give people a better insight into strategies deployed on the Street.
Arbitrage
One way traders make money is through an arbitrage or a risk free trade. Suppose you could buy an apple from Sam for $1, and then sell an apple to Megan at $3. A rational person would orchestrate both legs of these trades to gain $2 risk free. Arbitrages are not only found in financial markets. The popular e-commerce strategy of drop-shipping is a form of arbitrage. Suppose you find a tripod selling on AliExpress at $10. You could list the same tripod on Amazon for $20. If someone buys from you, then you could simply purchase the tripod off AliExpress and take home a neat $10 profit. The same could be applied to garage sales. If you find a baseball card for $2 that has a last sold price on EBay for $100, you have the potential to make $98. Of course this is not a perfect arbitrage as you face the risk of finding a buyer, but the upside makes this worthwhile.
Positive expected value bets
Another way traders make money is similar to the way a casino stacks the odds in their favour. Imagine you flip a fair coin. If it lands on heads you win $3, and if it lands on tails you lose $1. If you flip the coin only once, you may be unlucky and lose the dollar. However in the long run, you are expected to make a positive profit of $1 per coin flip. This is referred to as a positive expected value bet. Over the span of millions of transactions, you are almost guaranteed to make a profit. This exact principle is why you should never gamble in casino games such as roulette. These games are all negative expected value bets, which guarantees you to lose money over the long run. Of course there are exceptions to this, such as poker or card counting in black jack. The next time you walk into a casino, make a mental note to observe the ways it is designed to keep you there for as long as possible. Note the lack of windows and the maze like configurations. Even the free drinks and the cheap accommodation are all a farce to keep you there.
Relative Pricing
Relative pricing is a great strategy to use when there are two products that have clear causal relationships. Let us consider an apple and a carton of apple juice. Suppose there have a causal relationship where the carton is always $9 more expensive than the apple. The apple and the carton is currently trading at $1 and $10 respectively. If the price of the apple goes up to $2, the price is not immediately reflected on the carton. There will always be a time lag. It is also important to note that there is no way we can determine if the apple is trading at fair value or if its overpriced. So how do we take advantage of this situation? If we buy the carton for $10 and sell the apple for $2, we have essentially bought the ‘spread’ for $8. The spread is fairly valued at $9 due to the causal relationship, meaning we have made $1. The reason high frequency trading firms focus so much on latency in the nanoseconds is to be the first to scoop up these relative mispricing. This is the backbone for delta one strategies. Common pairs that are traded against each other includes ETFs and their inverse counterpart, a particular stock against an ETF that contains the stock, or synthetic option structures.
Correlations
Correlations are mutual connections between two things. When they trend in the same direction they are said to have a positive correlation, and the vice versa is true for negative correlations. A popular example of positive correlation is the number of shark attacks with the number of ice-cream sales. It is important to note that shark attacks do not cause ice-cream sales. Often times there are no intuitive reason for certain correlations, but they still work. The legendary Renaissance Technologies sifted through petabytes of historical data to find profitable signals. For instance, good morning weather in a city tended to predict an upward movement in its stock exchange. One could theoretically buy stock on the opening and sell at noon to make a profit. One important piece of advice is to disregard any retail trader selling a course to you, claiming that they have a system. These are all scams. At best, these are bottom of the mill signals that are hardly profitable after transaction costs. It is also unlikely that you have the system latency, trading experience or research capabilities to do this on your own. It is possible, but very difficult.
Mean reversions
Another common strategy traders rely on is mean reversion trends. In the options world the primary focus is purchasing volatility when it is cheap compared to historical values, and vice versa. Buying options is essentially synonymous with buying volatility. Of course, it is not as simple as this so don’t go punting your savings on Robinhood using this strategy. For most people, the most applicable mean reversion trend is interest rates. These tend to fluctuate up and down depending on if the central banks want to stimulate saving or spending. As global interest rates are next to zero or negative, it may be a good idea to lock in this low rate for your mortgages. Again, consult with a financial advisor before you do anything.
The meaning of flora behind Runeterra's characters and institutions
I was bored and had creative block so I did this...I just tried to make a connection between flower names/titles and the lore. After the release of Samira, the Desert Rose, I decided to write it down. Without further ado:
The Black Rose
A black rose is often used as a death and mourning symbolism, but it can also carry the meaning of change, new beginnings and renewal.
A rose bush must be religiously pruned annually. If not done It'll manage to survive, although It'll get weaker and weaker blooms over time. It'll also lose the shape and be more vulnerable to diseases. In order to archieve a healthier and stronger rose bush, pruning is imperative.
This can associated to the fact that Le Blanc is constantly disposing of old BR members and recruiting new ones. Darkwill, Granth...In the Black Rose, no one is truly irreplaceable. For Le Blanc, those are mere pawns in a bigger game, and she'll do anything to make the Black Rose bloom once again...Stronger than before.
The Desert Rose
It is native to desert climates, and it thrives and blooms better in harsher enviroments. Full sun, spaced watering. It's resistant to high temperatures, strong winds and drought. Actually, if you give it too much attention and care, like constant watering, It may rot and die. This perfectly fits Samira's character, as she's all about jumping into fights and scaping with a sliver of health.
From her bio:
"[...] Samira thrives in life-or-death circunstances, eliminating any who stand in her way with flash and flair."
The desert rose may appear pretty and harmless...Afterall it doesn't have thorns like a common rose. But be careful! It has a poisonous sap that can irritate skin and sicken/kill small pets when ingested. Again, I think it fits Samira. She may look pretty and seductive on the outside, but is actually a deadly, trained assassin.
From her voicelines:
"I am the Beauty and the Beast."
The Daisy
It is often used as an association for innocence, purity, children and childhood.
It can be considered an invasive weed. Someday It may appear out of nowhere in your garden, It'll spread fast and grow deep roots and suddenly you'll find yourself having a hard time to get rid of it. This can be related to the fact that Annie views Daisy as a stranger living in her house, which is evident in her crayon drawings.
The daisy exibits a behaviour called heliotropism, whereas the flowerbud follows the path of the sun in the sky. It gravitates towards heat and light like a moth to flames, and just like the myth of Icarus ("don't fly too close to the sun" or you might get burnt) the moth won't realise until It's too late. Was it Annie's fault? Was it Daisy's? Is there even someone to blame? It doesn't matter now, what happened won't change.
The name "daisy" is the result of the agglutination of "day's eye", which is a metaphor to It's bloom cycle: it opens the bud at sunrise and closes it at sunset. Not only it is more active during the day, but It's white, delicate petals are better appreciated under natural light.
I wasn't sure about what flower would Lillia represent...But as Riot stated in "Crafting Spirit Blossom", the skin-line was dedicated/inspired by Lillia.
Example:
"We've recently tried matching the release skin for new champion with thematic that makes sense for their character. Aphelios is a Lunari, so he receved a Nightbringer skin. Sett's a punchy guy, so he got Mecha Kigdoms. Lillia's literally a flower from Ionia, so hers is Spirit Blossom."
A common known symbolism is innocence, purity, hope and peace. It's also associated with gods and spirituality, and dreams.
Honestly, listen to this and tell me It's not literally Lillia LOL.
In Greek mythology, there was a race of Lotophagi (lotus-eaters), who lived on a far away island dominated by the Lotus Tree (metioned in Odyssey), whose narcotic fruits caused a pleasent drowsiness. It's inhabitants were put to a peaceful slumber, whereas they slowly lost memories of their home, of their family and friends.
You can see a reference to this mythos in Percy Jackson's "The Lotus Casino" (look, I know this film is trash, but the reference is there).
During winter, the lilypad loses all It's leaves, staying hidden beneath the surface of the water, "asleep". During spring It awakens and breaks the surface, blooming to It's full potential. I connect this to Lillia's shyness, and her journey on overcoming it.
I wanted to write about Zyra, but she's in the list of rework so...That's it for today, folks. So, what do you think? :P
EFF: Ink-Stained Wretches: The Battle for the Soul of Digital Freedom Taking Place Inside Your Printer
Ink-Stained Wretches: The Battle for the Soul of Digital Freedom Taking Place Inside Your Printer Since its founding in the 1930s, Hewlett-Packard has been synonymous with innovation, and many's the engineer who had cause to praise its workhorse oscillators, minicomputers, servers, and PCs. But since the turn of this century, the company's changed its name to HP and its focus to sleazy ways to part unhappy printer owners from their money. Printer companies have long excelled at this dishonorable practice, but HP is truly an innovator, the industry-leading Darth Vader of sleaze, always ready to strong-arm you into a "deal" and then alter it later to tilt things even further to its advantage. The company's just beat its own record, converting its "Free ink for life" plan into a "Pay us $0.99 every month for the rest of your life or your printer stops working" plan. Plenty of businesses offer some of their products on the cheap in the hopes of stimulating sales of their higher-margin items: you've probably heard of the "razors and blades" model (falsely) attributed to Gillette, but the same goes for cheap Vegas hotel rooms and buffets that you can only reach by running a gauntlet of casino "games," and cheap cell phones that come locked into a punishing, eternally recurring monthly plan. Printers are grifter magnets, and the whole industry has been fighting a cold war with its customers since the first clever entrepreneur got the idea of refilling a cartridge and settling for mere astronomical profits, thus undercutting the manufacturers' truly galactic margins. This prompted an arms race in which the printer manufacturers devote ever more ingenuity to locking third-party refills, chips, and cartridges out of printers, despite the fact that no customer has ever asked for this. Lexmark: First-Mover Advantage But for all the dishonorable achievements of the printer industry's anti-user engineers, we mustn't forget the innovations their legal departments have pioneered in the field of ink- and toner-based bullying. First-mover advantage here goes to IBM, whose lawyers ginned up an (unsuccessful) bid to use copyright law to prevent a competitor, Static Controls, from modifying used Lexmark toner cartridges so they'd work after they were refilled. A little more than a decade after its failure to get the courts to snuff out Static Controls, Lexmark was actually sold off to Static Controls' parent company. Sadly, Lexmark's aggressive legal culture came along with its other assets, and within a year of the acquisition, Lexmark's lawyers were advancing a radical theory of patent law to fight companies that refilled its toner cartridges. HP: A Challenger Appears Lexmark's fights were over laser-printer cartridges, filled with fine carbon powder that retailed at prices that rivaled diamonds and other exotic forms that element. But laser printers are a relatively niche part of the printer market: the real volume action is in inkjet printers: dirt-cheap, semi-disposable, and sporting cartridges (half-) full of ink priced to rival vintage Veuve-Clicquot. For the inkjet industry, ink was liquid gold, and they innovated endlessly in finding ways to wring every drop of profit from it. Companies manufactured special cartridges that were only half-full for inclusion with new printers, so you'd have to quickly replace them. They designed calibration tests that used vast quantities of ink, and, despite all this calibration, never could quite seem to get a printer to register that there was still lots of ink left in the cartridge that it was inexplicably calling "empty" and refusing to draw from. But all this ingenuity was at the mercy of printer owners, who simply did not respect the printer companies' shareholders enough to voluntarily empty their bank accounts to refill their printers. Every time the printer companies found a way to charge more for less ink, their faithless customers stubbornly sought out competitors who'd patronize rival companies who'd refill or remanufacture their cartridges, or offer compatible cartridges. Security Is Job One Shutting out these rivals became job one. When your customers reject your products, you can always win their business back by depriving them of the choice to patronize a competitor. Printer cartridges soon bristled with "security chips" that use cryptographic protocols to identify and lock out refilled, third-party, and remanufactured cartridges. These chips were usually swiftly reverse-engineered or sourced out of discarded cartridges, but then the printer companies used dubious patent claims to have them confiscated by customs authorities as they entered the USA. (We’ve endorsed legislation that would end this practice.) Here again, we see the beautiful synergy of anti-user engineering and anti-competition lawyering. It's really heartwarming to see these two traditional rival camps in large companies cease hostilities and join forces. Alas, the effort that went into securing HP from its customers left precious few resources to protect HP customers from the rest of the world. In 2011, the security researcher Ang Cui presented his research on HP printer vulnerabilities, "Print Me If You Dare." Cui found that simply by hiding code inside a malicious document, he could silently update the operating system of HP printers when the document was printed. His proof-of-concept code was able to seek out and harvest Social Security and credit-card numbers; probe the local area network; and penetrate the network's firewall and allow him to freely roam it using the compromised printer as a gateway. He didn't even have to trick people into printing his gimmicked documents to take over their printers: thanks to bad defaults, he was able to find millions of HP printers exposed on the public Internet, any one of which he could have hijacked with unremovable malware merely by sending it a print-job. The security risks posed by defects in HP's engineering are serious. Criminals who hack embedded systems like printers and routers and CCTV cameras aren't content with attacking the devices' owners—they also use these devices as botnets for devastating denial of service and ransomware attacks. For HP, though, the "security update" mechanism built into its printers was a means for securing HP against its customers, not securing those customers against joining botnets or having the credit card numbers they printed stolen and sent off to criminals. In March 2016, HP inkjet owners received a "security update available" message on their printers' screens. When they tapped the button to install this update, their printers exhibited the normal security update behavior: a progress bar, a reboot, and then nothing. But this "security update" was actually a ticking bomb: a countdown timer that waited for five months before it went off in September 2016, activating a hidden feature that could detect and reject all third-party ink cartridges. HP had designed this malicious update so that infected printers would be asymptomatic for months, until after parents had bought their back-to-school supplies. The delay ensured that warnings about the "security update" came too late for HP printer owners, who had by then installed the update themselves. HP printer owners were outraged and told the company so. The company tried to weather the storm, first by telling customers that they'd never been promised their printers would work with third-party ink, then by insisting that the lockouts were to ensure printer owners didn't get "tricked" with "counterfeit" cartridges, and finally by promising that future fake security updates would be clearly labeled. HP never did disclose which printer models it attacked with its update, and a year later, they did it again, once again waiting until after the back-to-school season to stage its sneak attack, stranding cash-strapped parents with a year's worth of useless ink cartridges for their kids' school assignments. You Don't Own Anything Other printer companies have imitated HP's tactics but HP never lost its edge, finding new ways to transfer money from printer owners to its tax-free offshore accou
(Main Series) Friendship is Magic #1-4 The Return of Queen Chrysalis (Major Storyline) Main Characters - Mane 6, CMC, Chrysalis Summary - Queen Chrysalis has returned, replaced all the citizens of Ponyville with changelings, and kidnapped the CMC. Will the our heroes be able to stop her before it is too late? Or will rising tensions between the friends spell out their doom? Quick Review - A worthy introduction to the comics with some fun character moments. Any comic drawn by Andy Price is worth checking out for the art alone. Chrysalis literally throws a kitten at a wall and it explodes into blood. 6/10 FiM #5-8 Nightmare Rarity (Major) (Highly Recommended) Characters - Rarity, Mane 6, Luna, Spike Summary - Rarity is overcome by insecurity and the fear that she doesn't provide enough to the group, and allows herself to be corrupted by Nightmare. As her friends rush to save her, Luna must overcome her own guilty past in order to defeat it again in the present. Quick Review - Nightmare Rarity's design is superb. So are the moon denizens. Katie Cook's writing style can lean into the absurd sometimes, but she knows how to do an emotional moment. We see how Luna earned her flowing mane. Spike saves the day. Trixie gets a few lines. 8/10 FiM #9-10 Zen and the Art of Gazebo Repair (Highly Recommended) Characters - Big Mac Summary - Big Mac has to find nails to fix his gazebo during the Summer Wrap-Up festival. But the world has other plans for him. Quick Review - Big Mac plays a wonderful comedic straight man. Seriously, the comic is hilarious, the art is amazing, and Big Mac is a chad. Dude has to fight off like four different mares fawning over him, including Luna. He just wants to repair his gazebo, for god's sake. 9/10 FiM #11-12 (Neigh Anything) Characters - Cadance, Shining Armor, Biff Tannen Summary - Discover the romantic tale of how Cadance and Shining Armor came to be. Can Shining Armor prove himself worthy to Cadance? Will she choose him over High School Gigachad Buck Withers? Probably. Quick Review - I enjoy it. Not much to say. Shining Armor belts out some Oingo Boingo for Cadance, and lord knows there is nothing more romantic than singing about how much you love little girls. (6.5/10) Annual 2013: Equestria Girls (The Fall of Sunset Shimmer) Characters - Sunset Shimmer, Celestia Summary - Sunset Shimmer is a magical prodigy. But Celestia will not further her teachings, because despite her prowess, the young sorcerer has much to learn. Sunset believes otherwise. Quick Review - To everyone clamoring for a proper Sunset backstory and motivation I am proud to announce that this is not it. It's unbelievably vague and generic. It pains me as a massive Shimmerfriend. Also, all the human designs look like ayy lmaos. More so than the show. Hopefully they pick it up in the next EqG comic... (3/10) FiM #13-14 (My Little Pirate) Characters - Fluttershy, Mane 6, Hoofbeard Summary - Fluttershy has become too attached to a fish she rescued, and regrets letting it go. So when a dangerous pirate arrives looking for a crew, she take it is an opportunity to reunite with her fish. Also a pirate adventure thing, Hoofbeard seeks a treasure behind a perilous journey. Quick Review - Utterly forgettable. I really cannot be bothered to reread it for a review. It was okay I think? (5/10) FiM #15-16 (The Book Worm) Characters - Twilight, Mane 6 Summary - A magical bookworm begins devouring his way through Twilight's library. That wouldn't be such an issue (except to Twilight), if the characters from to books didn't begin popping up in the real world. Now Twilight and co must take down the bookworm in it's own domain: The Realm of Books. Quick Review - I like Pinkie's fantasy world. Another just okay one. Lotta references to other media. Marvel, LoTR, Disney shlock, you get the idea. The void had some solid character moments for Twilight and Rainbow. (6/10) Friends Forever #1: Pinkie & Applejack Characters - Take a guess Summary - In the issue, Applejack and Pinkie Pie enter a baking contest, and culinary hijinks ensue. Quick Review - Rough start for FF. Predictable and silly. Art here is really not good. However, it does have Guy Fieri pony. (3/10) Friends Forever #2: CMC & Discord (Highly Recommended) Characters - CMC, Discord Summary - Discord takes the crusaders to increasingly dangerous dimensions in their search for a cutie mark. Quick Review - This one is super sweet. Some of the best Discord showing in the series. The CMC being some of the only ponies to understand and show gratitude towards Discord for his effort is so damn heartwarming. (8/10) Friends Forever #3: Celestia & Spike (Highly Recommended) Characters - Celestia, Spike Summary - Spike wants to get Twilight something nice for her birthday, but the gift he settled on turns out to be slightly hard to come by. He enlists Celestia's help in getting the gift for her student, a gift found deep in the dangerous Crystal Mountains. Quick Review - By far my favorite portrayal of Celestia. Lot of nice and touching dialogue between her and Spike, and some insight on Celestia's mindset as a ruler and teacher. Shame they went further down the "Celestia is an incompetent and petty klutz" route later on. (8/10) FiM #17-20 (Reflections) (Major) (Recommended) Characters - Mane 6, Celestia, Starswirl, Sombra Summary - Celestia has been secretly visiting another dimension for quite some time. A world where good is evil, and evil is good, and she has fallen madly in love with the benevolent King Sombra. A world where she and Luna are villains threatening to take over both dimensions. And it's all her fault. Quick Review - This one is super polarizing. For me, it's a collection of great ideas utilized poorly. The mirror dimension is a very interesting concept that I wish would be re explored. And i'm content with all the characters. But the climax, touching as it maybe, kinda dampens this one for me. Still, (7/10) Friends Forever #4: Twilight & Shining Armor Characters - ^^^^^ Summary - Twilight Sparkle is worried her and Shiny have drifted apart since their foalhoods. An opportunity presents itself to rekindle when her and Shining Armor team up to catch a ghost that haunts the Crystal Empire palace. Quick Review? - Turns out, there are a lot of FF comics, and a lot of them are pretty inconsequential. There are only so many times I can say, "It was cute. I liked it." before that gets redundant. So unless I have something more to say, i'm gonna reduce these to just Rating and Summary. Pretty good tho. (6/10) Friends Forever #5: Fluttershy & Zecora Summary - Fluttershy and Zecora try to figure out why Fluttershy can suddenly hear her animal friends talk. Spoilers: It was Discord. Go figure. Rating - (4/10) Friends Forever #6: Rainbow Dash & Trixie Summary - Rainbow Dash is called upon by a newly crowned Queen Trixie to perform for a kingdom of Diamond Dogs. Turns out being Queen isn't all its cracked up to be. Rating - I mean, it's got Trixie. (6/10) FiM #21-22 (Manehattan Mysteries) (Recommended) Characters - CMC, Babs, Trixie, AJ, Rarity Summary - Doesn't need one. Trixie and Babs are in it. Go read it. Quick Review - The relationship between Babs and Trixie here and they parallels they draw from each other are pretty great. I always love those kinds of strange character interactions. (7/10) Friends Forever #7: Pinkie & Luna Summary - Princess Luna seeks Pinkie Pie's help in making ponies laugh so she can participate in a Royal Event. Rating - (6/10) Friends Forever #8: Applejack & Rarity Summary - Typical Rarijack episode, road trip edition. Rating - It introduces those stupid bull cowboys. For that (4/10) FiM Issue 23 (Pets to the Rescue) Characters - Angel, Winona, Opalescence, Owliscious, Gummi, Tank Summary - When there owners are nowhere to be found, the pets team up and must set out to find their owners and assist them in whatever magical conundrum they may have found themselves in. Quick Review - I think the villain here would have been really interesting in almost any other scenario. Other than that, minimal dialogue, and the art isn't exceptional, so (5/10) Friends Forever #9: Granny & The Flimflam Bros Summary - Granny Smith helps Flim and Flam patch things up after they have a falling-out over a mare. Rating - This one is pretty wholesome. (7/10) FiM Issue 24 (Discord in Time) Characters - Discord, CMC, Flutters Summary - Discord take the CMC and Flutterbutter on an a journey through time to show them some animals. Hijinks ensue. Quick Review - Another really nice Discord issue. He isn't use to having all these friends and watching out for them in his chaos, so he drags them along in his dangerous adventures. He then immediately forgets this lesson. (7/10) Friends Forever #10: Fluttershy & Iron Will (Major) Summary - Fluttershy helps Iron Will with has marital problems. Rating - (6/10) Friends Forever #11: Rainbow Dash & Spitfire Summary - Rainbow Dash helps Spitfire overcome her greatest fear: Children. Rating - Art style is cute, but super jarring. (6/10) FiM #25-26 (The Good, the Bad and the Ponies) Characters - AJ, Mane 6, Bulls Summary - Doesn't matter. Quick Review - Don't read this one. Seriously, it's bad. Nothing really makes sense. Applejack has some sort of brain defect. Twilight arbitrarily cannot use her magic on Equestrian citizens. Even when they are dangerous criminals, apparently? (1/10) Friends Forever #12: Pinkie & Twilight Summary - Twilight tries to help Pinkie overcome her harrowing cocaine addiction. When that fails, Twilight starts doing coke herself to make the guilt go away. Pinkie stops doing coke for like five minutes, and Twi considers that a success. Rating - (4/10) Equestria Girls Annual 2014: Holiday Special Characters - Humane 6, Sunset Shimmer, CMC Summary - The holidays are nearing, and Sunnybun is feeling pretty down in the dumps. The girls try to cheer her up by inviting over for a few nights of debauchery. This cheers her up a bit. So, the Humane 5 go home on the shortbus and Sunny walks home, finally content with herself. Meanwhile the CMC decide that Sunset is keeping them from spending time with their sisters(?) and start a social media account in her name, called Anon-A-Miss, which they use to spread explicit photos of their sisters from the "sleepovers" and frame Sunset. Everyone in the school begin to tragically suffer from severe mental deficiencies and buy it immediately. Because the chick who just saved all of your sorry asses from soul sucking harlots like a week ago is going to post shit about her friends with her fucking face attached to the account. Quick Review - I really wish I could shit on this more, but I got quite a bit to get through. (-3/10) Friends Forever #13: Rarity & Babs Seed Summary - In the issue, Rarity must entertain Babs Seed when Sweetie Belle falls ill. Turns out Babs idea of entertainment is different than Rarity's. FiM #27-28 (The Root of the Problem) (Major) Characters - Mane 6, Bramble, King Aspen Summary - The Everfree spontaneously begins protruding into Ponyville. At the root of this problem, the druid-esque Deers who wish to reclaim the parts of their forest that were lost. Quick Review - The Deer are really neat, and having them be the night elves of Equestria is a fun concept. But the deer people kind of get the shaft, and most of the story focuses on the avaricious minotuar Well-to-do. (6.5/10) Friends Forever #14: Luna & Spike Summary - In the issue, Princess Luna enlists Spike's help in solving a dragon problem in Fillydelphia. Rating - Luna and Spike spend three pages together, and the rest of the story is focused on an annoying pink fangirl dragon. (4/10) Friends Forever #15: Applejack & Mayor Mare Summary - In this issue, politics are boring. Rating - (5/10) FiM Issue #29 (Ponymania XXIX) Characters - Cheerilee, Cherry Blossom Summary - Cheerilee reunites with her twin sister—one of the most famous wrestlers in Equestria. But when Cherry Blossom gets injured, Cheerilee is forced to take her place in the ring. Quick Review - As with most Jay Fosgitt's stuff, cute, but a lot of fluff and not much to carry an interesting story. (6/10) FIENDship is Magic #1: King Sombra (Major) (Highly Recommended) Characters - Sombra, Radiant Hope Summary - Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadance discover King Sombra's diary and learn of his rise to power. But before that, how he was a sickly outcast, a troubled young amnesiac whose only friend was the equally strange Radiant Hope, who still had imaginary friends. Quick Review - Much needed backstory for Sombra, and very well done at that. His connection to Radiant Dawn feels genuine, and his corruption by way of shitty crystal ball is absolutely tragic. My dude just wanted to go the Crystal Faire ): Also Princess Amore fucking dies. (9/10) FIENDship is Magic #2: Tirek (Recommended) Characters - Tirek, Scorpan, Sendak Summary - Tirek, young and ambitious, sneaks out of his royal families castle to visit the unhinged sorcerer Sendak to learn more about magic. Scorpan is worried about his brothers ambitions. Quick Review - Doesn't add much character depth to Tirek, but it's suitable. Presents a lot of cool ideas not explored as thoroughly as they could be. Leaves a lot up to interpretation and head canon. (7/10) FIENDship is Magic #3: Sirens (Non-Canon) Characters - The Dazzlings, Starswirl Summary - The fate of the world is determined by a music battle, and if the Dazzlings win, all is lost. This is not Rainbow Rocks. Quick Review - Not a single character acts in character, and while the other Fiendship issues are take themselves pretty seriously, this one is drastically different tonally and opts for comedy. Which really sucks, because I wanted actual backstories for the Sirens. Humor falls flat as well. (2/10) FIENDship is Magic #4: Nightmare Moon Characters - Nightmare Moon, Nyx (Not that Nyx) Summary - A recently banished Nightmare Moon attempts exacts revenge on Princess Celestia through the world of dreams. The Nyx, the keepers of the dreams, will not allow it. Quick Review - I much prefer Nightmare Moon as a manifestation of Luna's negative emotions over depictions a corrupting parasitic entity. Story is serviceable, a bit sad, nothing noteworthy. (6/10) FIENDship is Magic #5: Queen Chrysalis (Major) Characters - Twilight, Chrysalis Summary - The Mane Six visit the imprisoned Queen Chrysalis, who recounts her past exploits. Quick Review - Case of unreliable narrator here. Chrysalis implies that changelings are made of pure dark magic, which is an idea I actually quite like, but having them reform like they did would say otherwise. Story is sorta all over, like a Chrysalis anthology short. (6/10) Friends Forever #16: Diamond Tiara & Silver Spoon Summary - Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon compete against the Cutie Mark Crusaders in a scavenger hunt. Rating - Smokin' hot goth pony makes an appearance. (7/10) FiM #30-31 (Ponyville Days) Characters - Rarity, AJ, Twilight Summary - Civil War over a land dispute or something, can't really be bothered with this one. Quick Review - As far as I remember, this is one of the issues that gives everyone in Ponyville a crippling case of "has to wear a helmet while outside". Dumbing down characters to make a story work is obnoxious. (3/10) Friends Forever #17: Twilight & Big Mac Summary - Twilight takes a trip into Big Mac's brain to learn how to focus as well as he does. Rating - (7/10) Friends Forever #18: Rainbow Dash & Fluttershy Summary - Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy go to their flight camp reunion. Rating - Pretty adorable. (7/10) FiM #32-33 (Night of the Living Apples) Characters - Mane 6, Spike Summary - Apples take over Ponyville. Our heroes turn into bats. This is not a crackfic. Quick Review - Batpony designs are pretty damn cool. Story is whatever. (5/10) FiM #32-33 (Night of the Living Apples) Summary - Rarity gets carried away when she goes into business with Mr. and Mrs. Cake. Rating - (6/10) Friends Forever #20: Luna & Discord (Recommended) Summary - Princess Luna helps Discord when he has trouble sleeping. Rating - Neat character dynamic. Good stuff for Luna and Discord. (8/10) FiM #34-37 (Siege of the Crystal Empire) (Major) (Non-canon) (Highly Recommended) Characters - Sombra, Mane 6, Chryssi, Umbrums Summary - A mysterious new villain brings several of the series' past antagonists together to attack the Crystal Empire. Quick Review - I want to keep my gushing about this one brief. The umbrum design and lore are some of the best things to come out of the comics. This Sombra is infinitely better than the one in the show. I definitely didn't cry at the end because i'm a big boy. (9/10) Friends Forever #21: Spike & Zecora Summary - Spike and Zecora save Ponyville from a disease, and only they are immune. Rating - (7/10) Friends Forever #22: Celestia & Pinkie Summary - Princess Celestia tasks Pinkie Pie with making the perfect cake for Princess Luna's birthday party. Rating - Barely any Celestia. (4/10) Friends Forever #23: Applejack & Fluttershy Summary - Applejack and Fluttershy become involved in the search for a legendary creature called the Pigasus. They must keep its existence a secret. Rating - No Kirin (5/10) Friends Forever #24: Rarity & Gilda Summary - Gilda enlists Rarity's help in designing uniforms for a new sports team in Griffonstone. Rating - (6/10) FiM #38-39 (Don't You Forget About Us) Characters - CMC, Diamond Tiara, Snips, Snails Summary - The Cutie Mark Crusaders, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Snips, and Snails become lost in the mountains during a class field trip. AB and Diamond Tiara are forced to learn how to work together. Friends Forever #25: Rainbow Dash & Twilight Summary - Rainbow Dash seeks Twilight Sparkle's help after her wings mysteriously vanish. Rating - Weird body horror. (7/10) Friends Forever #26: Shining Armor & Prince Blueblood Summary - Shining Armor is forced to work with Prince Blueblood on a diplomatic mission to Yakyakistan. Rating - Holy shit they made Blueblood redeemable. (8/10) FiM Issue #40 (Twilight meets Spike) Characters - Twilight, Spike Summary - You know, it's exactly how it sounds. Quick Review - Very cute. (7/10) Friends Forever #27: Pinkie & Granny Smith (Recommended) Summary - Pinkie Pie offers to help Granny Smith after she breaks her hip right at the start of cider season. Rating - Precious. (7/10) FiM Issue #41 (Rainbow Dash and the Very Bad Day) Characters - Zecora, Rainbow Summary - Rainbow Dash is being a c**t, and enrages literally everybody else in Ponyville. In other words, they captured her character just right in this one. Quick Review - I like rhyme schemes, but I hate bluefast. (4/10) Friends Forever #28 Princess Luna and the Cutie Mark Crusaders Summary - The Cutie Mark Crusaders assist Princess Luna during a foal slumber party at Canterlot Castle. Rating - I like bone pony. (6/10) FiM Issue #42 (A Pinkie Pie Story That Pinkie Pie Kinda Sorta Remembers) (Recommended) Characters - Rarara, Ponker Po Summary - Pinker Pop, still cooling off from her ten month long cocaine binge, tries to help Rarity make a gift for a friend very special to her. Quick Review - Very cute, very funny, cried. (8/10) Friends Forever #29 Rarity and Maud Pie Summary - Rarity assists Maud Pie in her rock science interests and helps her discover her inner enthusiasm. Rating - Nice Maud character development. (7/10) FiM Issue #43-45 (Ponies of Dark Water) (Major) (Recommended) Characters - Mane 6, Luna, CMC, Spike Summary - The Mane 6 bathe in cursed waters and become distorted versions of themselves. Pinkie Pie becomes a domestic terrorist. Quick Review - I like the part where Pinkie bombs a movie theater potentially killing dozens of ponies. Hilarious. (8/10) Friends Forever #30 Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadance Summary - Twilight Sparkle helps her sister-in-law Princess Cadance when she suffers from an unexplained lack of self-esteem. Rating - I quite like this little arc for Cadance. (7/10) Friends Forever #31 Rainbow Dash and Little Strongheart Summary - Little Strongheart seeks Rainbow Dash's help in finding a legendary creature called the Rainbow Crow. Rating - Little Strongheart, where ya been for six years dude? Beautiful art. (7/10) Friends Forever #32 Fluttershy and Daring Do Summary - Daring Do enlists Fluttershy's help in uncovering an ancient treasure. She must also face her arachnophobia. Rating - Better than the actual Flutters/Do episode. (7/10) FiM Issue #46-47 (Election) Characters - Twilight, Mayor Mare, Donald Trump Summary - Mayor Mare struggles in her bid for reelection, against definitely not Donald Trump guys I swear. Quick Review - Haha I lied, but like I totally got you though right? Like it was super subtle? I bet you didn't even catch on. (5/10) Friends Forever #33 Applejack and Cherry Jubilee Summary - Applejack learns the secret history of Cherry Jubilee. Rating - Cherry Jubilee is pretty hot. (6/10) FiM Issue #48-50 (Chaos Theory) (Major) (Recommended) Characters - Discord, Starlight, Mane 6 Summary - An astronomical event causes Discord to transform from a creature of chaos to a being of pure order. But not all is at seems with the newly minted Accord. Quick Review - Starlight gets one arc throughout all of these comics. luckily it's pretty good. She gets some good character growth. Accord is pretty god damn terrifying. Actual sound logic is used to best the villain, which is pretty rare. (8/10) Friends Forever #34 Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich Summary - Pinkie Pie and Cheese are eaten by a possessed party house. Seriously. Rating - (6/10) Friends Forever #35 Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer Summary - Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer's attempt to organize the books in the Castle of the Two Sisters turns into a battle of egos. Rating - This would have been much better is not illustrated by Fosgitt. It doesn't suit this more weighty type of story. (7/10) Friends Forever #36 Rainbow Dash and Soarin (Recommended) Summary - Rainbow Dash follows Soarin to a remote location to help him with a dangerous mission. Rating - Great Soarin and Spitfire moments. (8/10) Friends Forever #37 Rarity and Trixie Summary - Dude, it's got two of the best pones. Read it. Rating - (7/10) FiM Issue #51-53 (From the Shadows) (Major) Characters - Mane 6, Donut Steel Summary - The edgiest OC to ever exist begins to erase Equestrian history from books and minds, in fear of his heritage catching up to him. Quick Review - Super interesting villain motivation, terribly generic villain design. (7/10) My Little Pony: Deviations Characters - Prince Blueblood, Mane 6, Nightmare Moon Summary - Have you ever wondered what would have happened if Prince Blueblood was sent to Ponyville instead of Twiliight? No? Too bad, dude. Summary - I would have loved to have gotten more deviations. Read about Blueblood being an arrogant prick for half an hour. It's fine. (6/10) Friends Forever #38 Princess Celestia and Princess Luna (Recommended) Summary - Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's minor squabbling escalates just before they plan to participate in the Sisterhooves Social. Quick Review - Friends Forever Finale. Andy Price outdoes himself yet again. Hilarious and Heartwarming. (8/10) FiM Issue #54 (I Didn't Read This One) Summary - No seriously, didn't read it. Fosgitt, Fluttershy, fluff, the three F's of i'm going to be fucking bored. Maybe it's a masterpiece. I'll never know. FiM Issue #55-56 (Wings Over Yakyakistan) Characters - Rainbow, Rutherford, Ember, Spike, Pinkie Summary - When the dragons invade Yakyakistan over an ancient treaty, it's up to heroes to defend the Yaks and try and diffuse the situation. Spike doesn't like the idea of fighting his own kind. Quick Review - Let it be known that I would have been totally cool with the Yaks getting destroyed. Typical let go of the past, look to the future stuff. Rainbow's parents are here, and they are fun, and Spitfire gets a bit of extra love, so (7/10) FiM Issue #57 (Apinkalypse Now) Characters - Pinkie, Mane 6, Discord Summary - Pinkie Pie accidentally becomes trapped in Discord's realm. If you wanted to see more of Chaos Pinkie, then here you go. Quick Review - I really like the how the chaos dimension is shown in the comic, in that adapts to the current owner if they themselves can't be turned. You'll notice by this point the writers will do whatever in their power to make sure Starlight can be written out somehow. (7/10) FiM Issue #58 (The Vines That Bind) Characters - Twi, Flutts, Zecora, Cattail, Aqua Vine Summary - Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, and Zecora follow the notes of Mage Meadowbrook search for a flower said to cure any ailment. The search soon becomes an obsession for Twilight, determined to get her name in the history books. Quick Review - Dude, Twilight, you already saved the world at least seven times. That Magenta Bloom shit would just be a footnote. Overall pretty forgettable. (5/10) FiM Issue #59 (Pie in the Sky) Characters - Rainbow, Pinkie Summary - Jesus Christ Pinkie she doesn't fucking like pie. We had a whole episode about just this. We didn't need a comic to teach the same lesson. That's a;lso your review. (3/10) FiM Issue #60 (The Stars on Our Ponies) Characters - CMC, Gilded Lily Summary - The Cutie Mark Crusaders help a filly who doesn't want to follow in her family's footsteps. But she is scared to disappoint them if she does pursue her own interest. Quick Review - Gilded Lily's design is absolutely adorable. She also looks like she tastes pretty good, like Oranges n' Creme. Solid one-off. (7/10) FiM Issue #61-62 (Convocation of the Creatures!) (Major) Characters - Twilight, Raven Summary - Twilight Sparkle makes a discovery during the largest assembly of creatures in history that threatens to redraw the map of Equestria. Quick Review - Glenda canonically has a stutter, making her best changeling. Good bit of overbuilding in this one, without falling into the common trap of making the convocation feel too modern. (7/10) FiM Issue #63 (All in Marederation) Characters - Twilight, Pinkie, Temperance Summary - Ponyville gets swept by an anti-sugar movement that threatens to put Sugarcube Corner out of business. Quick Review - MLP's thinly veiled take on the Temperance Movement. Another one where all of Ponyville is turned into exceptional individuals. (4/10) FiM Issue #64 (Everything Old) (Recommended) Characters - Rarity, Fluttershy, Coco Pommel Summary - Fluttershy and Rarity travel to Manehattan, where Rarity discovers that old, ugly fashions are back in style. Quick Review - I absolutely adore the message here. Things you made when you were younger that you maybe embarrassed of now don't have to be cast aside and forgotten. Rather, look to them to see how you have improved and how you can still improve. Coco is a QT. (8/10) My Little Pony: Legends of Magic Annual 2018 (Major) (Recommended) Characters - The Pillars, Pony of Shadows Summary - The Pillars of Old Equestria face a new danger that tests their skills as a team. One that they may find feels a bit like a deja vu. Quick Review - I really like the relationship between Stygian and Rockhoof here. I wonder if Starswirl was always meant to be a dickhead? Green Pony of Shadows looks badass as fuck. Also, Somnambula is cute as hell. (7/10) Edit - Consider there are twelve of these. I am not awake enough to add them all. Read' em. They're pretty good lore stuffs. FiM Issue #65 (Queen for One Less Day) (Recommended) Characters - Celestia, Scarlet Petal Summary - Princess Celestia disguises herself to live among ordinary ponies for a day. But when her magical necklace is stolen by a thief, she may lose the ability to turn back into herself for good. Quick Review - I love this comic. Shows off the best parts of Celestia's character. I'm running out of synonyms for heartwarming, so just go read this one. (8/10) FiM Issue #66 (Applewood Follies) Characters - Mane 6 Summary - Twilight Sparkle and her friends discover that a film is being made about them. But when the director hands them the reins, they discover it's harder to make a movie than they thought. Quick Review - I'm really not a fan of more modern tech in Equestria. I don't mind it at all if it's used as a background gag, but here, where it's the plot of the comic, I just find it obtrusive. Ponyville Mysteries Issue 1 Characters - CMC, Nurse Redheart Summary - "Welcome to a new series of mystery and intrigue! The Cutie Mark Crusaders discover their inner detectives and solve crimes nopony else can! Will they be able to discover who is stealing supplies from Ponyville hospital and get their schoolwork done at the same time?" Quick Review - None of these are particularly engaging, so I won't review the rest. When I figure these mysteries out all by myself like the grown man I am I feel particularly proud, like I just solved a crossword puzzle they have on those Kiddie menus at iHop. Ponyville Mysteries Issue 2 Characters - CMC, The Dude Summary - "There's a major mystery at the... bowling alley? Ponyville's team is set to break a bowling record, but the alley keeps being ransacked by a mystery criminal! Will the Cutie Mark Crusaders be able to set the pins right and solve the caper?" Ponyville Mysteries Issue 3 Characters - CMC, Old People Summary - "The Cutie Mark Crusaders must solve a dangerous mystery at the Ponyville Retirement Village before it's forced to close! Is one of the curmudgeonly residents to blame or could it be a villain from their past?" FiM Issue #67-68 (Tempest's Tale) (Major) (Highly Recommended) Characters - Tempest, Cadance, Glitter Drops Summary - Tempest Shadow travels across Equestria to learn more about friendship and comes face-to-face with her past. Quick Review - These issues do wonder for Tempest's previously scarce character. If your a fan of Tempest, or especially if your not a fan of Tempest, check these out. Smug Cadance is best Cadance. (8/10) Ponyville Mysteries Issue 4 Characters - CMC, Applejack Summary - "The Cutie Mark Crusaders are trying to solve the case of the missing spa water! But what happens when all signs point to a member of a Crusader's own family being the culprit?" FiM Issue #69 (Magical Apple) Characters - Pinkie, Mane 6 Summary - Pinkie gets god powers. Again. Didn't we do this already? Quick Review - Oh, Pinkie, maybe someday somebody will figure out how to write you well again. (4/10) Ponyville Mysteries Issue 5 Characters - CMC, Rarity Summary - "The Crusaders have their biggest case yet when a priceless artifact belonging to superstar Songbird Serenade is stolen!" FiM Issue #70 (Extreme Bingo) Characters - Golden Horseshoe Gals, Rainbow, AJ Summary - Grannies Gone Wild 2! Quick Review - Grannies Gone Wild 2! (5/10) FiM Issue #71 (Happy Haunts) Characters - Student 6 Summary - Twilight Sparkle's School of Friendship students experience Nightmare Night in Ponyville for the first time. Things don't exactly go as planned. Quick Review - I hate this issue. Not because it's bad, but because we are teased with infinitely more interesting stories. I want to see the princesses on Nightmare Night, like the cover! I want to see Shim and Glim's NN, like on the first page! Fucking cocktease. (4/10) FiM Issue #72 (Pie in the Sky, Again) Characters - Pinkie, AJ, Pear Butter Summary - Applejack discovers an old Apple family pie recipe and seeks to recreate it for Granny Smith. Along the way, they meet ponies who her mom has touched in her life. I wouldn't mind being touched by Pear Butter. Quick Review - Standard. Wholesome. Sweet. (7/10) My Little Pony: Nightmare Knights (Major) (Highly Recommended) Characters - Luna, Stygian, Trixie, Capper, Tempest, Daybreaker, Eris Summary - Princess Luna assembles a team of former villains to face a new threat to Equestria. Quick Review - I cannot recommend this arc enough. Every single character gets a chance to shine. Stygian gets much need development. Eris and Daybreaker make a menacing evil duo. The villain casino makes a great setting. Sunset Shimmer gets a cameo. (Even though her and Starlight are once again shafted.) Capper absolutely steals the show. Tempest is a bit more brutish than she usually is, but as we don't know much about her anyway, that's a very minor gripe. (9/10) FiM Issue #73 (Copycats) Characters - Fluttershy, Twilight Summary - A magical amulet causes Fluttershy to become more animalistic. Quick Review - I have no idea what the fuck what went on in this issue or why. It's a mess. (3/10) FiM Issue #74 (On the Mane Stage) (Recommended) Characters - Zephyr, Fluttershy, Silverstream, Pixie Cut Summary - Fluttershy's brother Zephyr Breeze attends the All-Equestria Mane Styling Conference. Quick Review - Even Zephyr Breeze can snag a qtπ hairstylist gf. There is hope for us yet, bros. Could you tell i'm down a third of a bottle of Grey Goose by this point? (7/10) FiM Issue #75-78 (Major) (Recommended) Characters - Cosmos, Twilight, Discord, Fluttershy Summary - The Mane Six's quest for the fallen stars of a missing constellation puts them on a collision course with their most galactic adversary yet. Discord's clingy ex wife who still hasn't received any child support. Quick Review - They don't even bother to write Starlight out anymore. She just doesn't exist. Cosmos isn't as fun of a villain as Eris or the Storm King, but she's serviceable. I do like her design. Discord puts his past behind him for good physically and metaphorically. (7/10) FiM Issue #79 (The Ponyville Anniversary Spectacular) (Highly Recommended) (Major!) Characters - Sunset Shimmer, I don't know I don't remember the rest Summary - Fuck you it has Shim Sham. Quick Review - Sunnybutt jams out on a guitar at the end. (11/10) My Little Pony: Spirit of the Forest Characters - CMC, Filthy Rich, Diamond Tiara, Mayor Mare Summary - Something about a forest mystery? Quick Review - Lackluster follow up to the amazing Nightmare Knights. Stop giving the CMC mini series you hacks. (4/10) FiM Issue #80 (Live-Action Role Pony!) Characters - Mane 6, Bulk Biceps Summary - The Mane Six play a live-action role-playing game. The usual Pinkie hijinks ensue. Quick Review - I'm so use to using LARP as an insult now, it's weird to see it in an endearing manner. Fun little adventure issue. (6/10) FiM Issue #81 (Pretty Fly) Characters - Scootaloo, Rumble, Rainbow, Wind Sock Summary - Scootaloo and Rumble learn about the only Earth pony to become a member of the Wonderbolts. Quick Review - Heartwarming. Seriously, someone get me thesaurus. (6.5/10) FiM Issue #82 (Dog-Dog-Dogged Determination) Characters - Rarity, Mane 6, Celestia, Cerberus Summary - Rarity is tasked with giving Cerberus obedience training after he leaves his post at Tartarus again. Quick Review - Dude, Rares, never change. (6/10) FiM Issue #83 (The Strange Case of Silver Blaze) Characters - Twilight, Spike Summary - Twilight Sparkle and Spike investigate when a famous racing tortoise goes missing. Quick Review - Less Sherlock Holmes and more Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. This is a good thing. (6/10) My Little Pony: Feats of Friendship (Major) (Recommended) Characters - Student Six, Swift Foot Summary - Come one, come all, to the School of Friendship's very first sporting event-the Feats of Friendship! As Sandbar, Smolder, Gallus, Ocellus, Yona, and Silverstream prepare for the new competition, they realize they're going to need one more pony to round out their team. Enter Swift Foot, a mysterious new exchange student! But will she help strengthen the Young Six's bonds of friendship-or just drive them apart? Jealousy threatens our favorite youngsters in this brand-new miniseries! Quick Review - This is by far and away my favorite Student 6 depiction in the franchise. It shows off very well how far they have come and how well they work together as friends and individuals. Swift Hoof makes for a great antagonist, trying to plant seeds of resentment but realizing that it doesn't work on the students and realizing her own faults. Dom Athenian Warrior waifu also included. (8.5/10) FiM Issue #84 (Identity Crisis) Characters - Ocellus Summary - Ocellus struggles to complete a big project for the School of Friendship midterm. Quick Review - Man, I wish my problem was that I was so booksmart I had trouble fitting it all into my creative outlets. What a fucking struggle that would be. But I understand wanting to be a perfectionist, and that sucks. Amazing insight as usual by me. (5/10) FiM Issue #85 (Apple Bobbing) Characters - AJ, AB, Big Mac Summary - Applejack teaches Apple Bloom the meaning of courage by telling her the story of how she conquered her fear of the water when she was little. Quick Review - A whole lot of touching moments between AJ and AB. A very cozy little story if you ignore the giant spider. (7/10) FiM Issue #86 (Marble and a Hard Place) Characters - Maud, Marble Pinkie Summary - Pinkie Pie and Maud Pie help their sister Marble make friends by helping her throw a party. Quick Review - I love the Pie family, dude. The chemistry between them is something we don't get to see often enough. (6.5/10) FiM Issue #87-88 (The Fast and the Furriest) Characters - Big Mac, Rainbow, Angel Summary - Rainbow Dash and Big McIntosh take part in the Draytona Breach 500, which an antiquities dealer uses as cover to smuggle a priceless artifact. Quick Review - Meh. (6/10) I can finally pass out now.
short book reviews 2020, covid-Overdrive edition (in chronological order of publication)
expired serfs: a buyer's guide. why not finish, dude? 3.9/5 ivans
Oy. The big one. (Put down The Sorcerer's Stone and get it over with, already) Big Papa makes a lot of sense, but cousin texts of his contemporaries left a stronger initial impression, tbh. I'm still hung up on the whole morality angle--when do I level up to immortal scientist? 4/5 alienated proles
Me stealing vibes from this book to duck social gatherings: “I’m afraid I shan't attend, for I have had the misfortune of gazing upon Lady Hampshire’s latest grotesque choice of head-wear for not a few hours, and I fear I am put out for several nights over the affair and must gather my resolve alone in chambers. Don’t call for me until you’ve heard that I’ve recovered; I really am in a bad way." OK I love this shit, check it out...beginning of the book: "Two green and white butterflies fluttered past them, and in the pear tree at the end of the garden a thrush began to sing." Near the end of the book: "A bitter blast swept across the Square. The gas-lamps flickered, and became blue, and the leafless trees shook their black iron branches as if in pain." Just to drive home that some serious shit has gone down. I dig every syllable! 5/5 magical paintings of doom
individualism vs communism is a false dichotomy, from the man who brought you the magical painting of doom. 3.9/5 magical paintings of doom
"just get rid of, like, cops and governors and shit. it'll be fine, people are cool" lol sure bro 4/5 breads
curious how much scrutiny a bernstein bares? dive into this accessible, articulate prose 4/5 spanked opportunists
ain't no party like a vanguard party kuz a vanguard party don't stop 3.9/5 things to be done
"...the Tarot is a pack of cards used in the south of Europe for games and fortune-telling, first known in Europe at the end of the 14th century when in use among the Spanish gypsies.Note from the editor: It is highly unlikely that gypsies in Spain used Tarot cards in the 14th century.This pack of cards represents the Egyptian hieroglyphic book of seventy-eight tablets, which came to us almost miraculously.Note from the editor: The fanciful notion that the Tarot is Egyptian comes from the speculations of a handful of 18th century French occultists even though it is without basis.The Tarot falls into three divisions: the first part has twenty-one numbered cards; the second part has one card 0; the third part has fifty-six cards.Note from the editor: It is more usual to divide the Tarot into two parts, the 56 suit cards and the 22 trumps.H. P. Blavatsky mentions the Tarot in her works, and we have some reason for believing that she studied the Tarot. It is known that she loved to 'play patience.'Note from the editor: Blavatsky writes very little concerning the Tarot. The game of patience or solitaire is played with an ordinary deck of 52 cards and has nothing to do with the Tarot.In order to become acquainted with the Tarot, it is necessary to understand the basic ideas of the Kabbalah and Alchemy. But when the true alchemist spoke of seeking for gold, he spoke of gold in the soul of man. And he called gold that which in the New Testament is called the Kingdom of Heaven, and in Buddhism, Nirvana.Note from the editor: Many intelligent, serious alchemists of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance devoted all their time to the manufacture of gold from base metals. Also, the kingdom of heaven and nirvana are hardly synonymous -- the first is a condition attained only after death, the second a state of mind attainable during life." lol wtf am I reading? 1.5/5 pentacles
economists, opportunists, and naive babies, oh my 4/5 DoP's
economists, opportunists, and naive babies II 3.5/5 electric boogaloos
War: “What in blazes is going on?”, a Memoir. Great sport, old chap, and maaaad street cred btw. 5/5 undetonated mortars
Now I don't go around preachin' the gospel any more since I lost my faith, but if you would all please open your Bibles to Revelation 14:19 and read along for several passages, it might occur to you that our lord Jehovah plays a little rough with folk from time to time. But don't he shine through the damp planks of shanty towns and whispered oaths of wayward fugitives; in the worried secrets of exchanged intimate glances and in the common kindnesses and shared troubles of..... 4.2/5 bruised peaches. Most depressing book ever?
ain't no party like a flophouse party kuz a flophouse party got mystery hooch and frogs, bitches 4.3/5 frog credits, redeemable for beer and fireworks
"We were all mad kings raging and wailing our intrepid fury into the midnight haze" Dude relax, you're just smoking cigarettes in a diner parking lot. 2/5 blazing unknown horizons and burnt out huckster husks on the screaming edge of Westward oblivion with silence only broken by the roaring of bestial engines, the gospel of pickled prophets, and the desperate anecdotes of wailing midnight martyrs who fly their flags of conquest and defeat in the dark alleys of truckstop kingdoms and the foreboding cascade of overpass shadows that swallow hope and shit poets and drifters who fill the flatbeds of friendly monsters and carry with them that secret language of the streets, an oral tradition that rides currents of promise and pain and burns itself into the
you're not fooling anyone, Bob--you obviously just somehow got hold of a space marine's diary from the future and typed it out word-for-word. We call that “pulling a Biff” 3.3/5 space marine diaries
lunar politics: that's no Moon, that's a space trebuchet! colonies down gravity wells shouldn't throw stones. 2.9/5 space trebuchets
"It's about rabbits." "Oh" "--but it's good." Thanks for the recommendation, Ma. Lovable animal tales can and should break the disney mold. I will revisit this book for another dose of the sporadic mythic mini-tales. Wish I was shown this book when I was younger! It would have gotten me away from the computer games for a few days. 4/5 hrududil
Journey to the Center of the Space Phallus. Imaginative! 3.33/5 cylindrical seas
An unusually visceral episode of The Wonder Years with more wife-beating and jet crashes 2/5 sports fans
Rabbits guy goes to the dogs. Very enjoyable stylized dialogue, and again with the lovable animals. 3.7/5 lonely canister monkeys
Farting, fapping, bears on unicycles, dick biting, adultery, assassins, transfolk, fighter planes, drag disguises, car crashes, feminism, mute cults, badass old cops chasing serial rapists in helicopters, human connection, comical nudity, fictional literature, writing about writing...a book after my own heart. 6/5 severed tongues
the excruciating history of scumbag America squandering the only resource that matters, every chance it gets, in every way imaginable. BRB, moving 2000 miles east. 4.5/5 dry arroyos
In a world. Where aliens play Risk to pick who's president. One man. Plays Risk with some aliens on a permanent forest-fire planet. And they be all like, damn, playa. James Bond's casino games seem like children playing at Chutes and Ladders compared to this. 4/5 ganja glands
Ayahuasca Journey to the Center of the Space Phallus. I'm asking sincerely: can we establish a formal council of extraterrestrial contact, before the fact, that weeds out the douchebags? GADFADFART: Good Astronauts For A Douchebag-Free Alien Rendevous Team 3.6/5 sentient pterodactyls
my favorite short story from here: the one about the guy who keeps finding mysterious notes with clandestine instructions hidden inside most of his food. China Miéville is kinda great! 3.9/5 translucent foodstuffs
misleading title--use of only one weapon. 2.5/5 "Skaffen-Amtiskaws"
Virus Lives Matter: is Space AIDS a terraforming project? Shouldn't we at least ask it? 3.8/5 philotes
"I've pieced together your demonic plans, diabolical minions of Satan--" "This is a book club dumbass. Help yourself to the cheese plate." I'm not even mad 3.5/5 satans
my favorite part is when he's in the virtual city filled with NPC bot people going about their business and he climbs onto the back of an old woman to ride her into town as she shuffles along her scripted path completely unhindered and unaware. ♪ ♫ Old Lady Taxi / Surely make you lose your mind / Old Lady Taxi / Everything all the time ♪ ♫ ♬ 3.2/5 Old Lady Taxis
this decadent, meandering wet dream brought to you by Cutty Sark. 2/5 feelings I couldn't quite put my finger on
author tackles the timeless human archetypes of Giants games and waste management. Exceptionally snappy American dialogue! 3.4/5 trash nukes
Serial media pirate is contacted by AI comprised of experimentally digitized lobster consciousnesses living on a KGB server who request his help in defecting from the country. He helps out the digital KGB lobsters and gets them a job on a space station. With a penchant for esoteric legalese and software that generates shell companies on the reg, he conspires to get his kid away from his ex wife by setting up a company in Yemen, leveraging a bizarre synergy between Shari'a and a lax policy loophole regarding chattel slavery so as to legally designate her simultaneously as the property of the company and also technically the controlling investor of that company. "Yemen is one of the few countries to implement traditional Sunni shari'a law and a limited liability company scam at the same time. Owning slaves is legal – the fiction is that the owner has an option hedged on the indentured laborer's future output, with interest payments that grow faster than the unfortunate victim can pay them off – and companies are legal entities. If Amber sells herself into slavery to this company, she will become a slave and the company will be legally liable for her actions and upkeep. The rest of the legal instrument – about ninety percent of it, in fact – is a set of self-modifying corporate mechanisms coded in a variety of jurisdictions that permit Turing-complete company constitutions, and which act as an ownership shell for the slavery contract. At the far end of the corporate shell game is a trust fund of which Amber is the prime beneficiary and shareholder." Yada yada yada, the queen of the solar system propels on a giant laser beam this thumb drive spaceship containing the digitized consciousnesses of herself and several others in order to meet up with the source of a deep space signal transmission a parsec away, and when they make first contact the aliens don the appearance of lobster-people having mistaken the digitized KGB lobster transmission they first encountered as the primary form of Earthling intelligence they assumed they would encounter. Why do you look like lobsters? they ask, confused. Why don't you look like lobsters? they reply, equally confused. At this point I'm laughing out loud and remembering how much fun I had reading Hitchhiker's Guide. 3.8/5 computronium singularities
"so like this girl I was into, like, got sick or something because her facebook implant glitched and I was all like whoa mine just gives me lesions and hairloss and she was like I'm all scared, dadada, feelings and stuff, and I'm like man you're getting me all sad or something, so I haven't heard from her for a while but when my mood got low I got these sweet khakis recommended to me and clicked to order them in every color. I was trying to get my mind off junk just eBumping on my iJammer with my broskis when her dad like shows up all angry like 'neurological', 'terminal', 'asinine', and I donno 'molecular equations jurisdictional electromegnetism' or some dadada, so I'm like, 'Look man, you talk like a fag, and your shit's all retarded, but tell her to hit me up when she's like not all squanched out in the ICU or whatever'" 3.7/5 units
93 come for the hocus pocus, stay for the entire written history of mountaineering, replete with cafe receipts and casualty counts 4.5/5 93/93's
Is it kosher for a neurotypical author to do 1st-person fiction from the point of view of an autist? Tell me so I know whether to enjoy this or not ???/5 dead wellingtons
Afghan Buttrapes of Wrath. OK, the Dust Bowl was depressing, Johnny Grapes, I'll give you that. But you may have met your match with this little number out of Kabul. Man, this has been a dark summer. 3.7/5 well-placed slingshots
Flight attendant wouldn't let me finish reading it on the plane because of carry-on size restrictions. After finally finishing, I was found dead in the dark parking lot of a maquiladora, according to witnesses, anus and vagina obliterated beyond recognition several thousand times over. 3.5/5 bubis?? not sure, my brain is soup
yeeeeeesh. from the big armpit to the big apple. *squinting*...Not sure if heartwarming memoir of poverty and flagrant negligence, or low key piece of Chicago School propaganda ???/5 alcoholic dads
a fascist java applet blackmails fortune 500 companies and starts a cult on World of Warcraft. 3/5 RC Humvee roadkills
lol "The 33 Strategies of Peace" sounded boring, so here I am. 3.9/5 napoleons
Depressing burka adventures. Cathy Ames has nothing on this schmuck...eat shovel, dickhead 3.9/5 shovels
my Dad likes to tell stories about the bands he got to see live in the 70's. He often brings up seeing KISS and recalls with boyish wonder the stage effects and pyrotechnics, including a guitar that begins to smoke in the middle of an Ace Frehley solo and then levitates 30 feet in the air and explodes. Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's is an autobiography by the guy who happened to engineer those pyrotechnics, though that's just a small section of the book. 3.3/5 magnesium garage fires
"Some people stockpile canned goods and water in preparation for major disasters; sociopaths stockpile free-market ideas." 4.8/5 dead Allendes
who would win? The Department of Homeland Security... or one techie boi? 3.9/5 suspensions of habeas corpus
"We've been rehearsing a classic from antiquity, Green Eggs and Hamlet, the story of a young prince of Denmark who goes mad, drowns his girlfriend, and in his remorse, forces spoiled breakfast on all whom he meets." Fuckstockings, how could I not like this book? 4/5 Fuckstockings
more like Naked Propaganda, amiright? Insult to injury: no actual nudity. Insufferable! 0/5 naftas
Magical Batman, directed by Michael Bay. "Pretty cool, huh?" The high-fructose corn syrup of literature. 2.3/5 pretty cool huhs
whimsical as fuck. like some modern welsh chapter of Devi Mahatmya with pratchett vibes. 3.5/5 literal stitches in time
"I guess sometimes you never know what kinds of skeletons people might be struggling with." ... "I know what you mean. Like, when you steal a 17th century Dutch oil painting during a terrorist attack and hide it under your bed, and that shit just eats at you day and night." ... "What?"..."What?" 4/5 Hal "Hobie" Holbrooks
A.I. love, inter-species nookie, quantum symbiote mind virus, reasonable space pirates, plucky ship mechanic Kenzi Malikov Frye on acid...this title had me rushing back for the next installment. I thought science fiction was supposed to be dry and joyless? 5/5 lizard orgies
when make big people project, make more people talky. more talky, more better project, like war or spy 2.5/5 interdepartmental liaisons
A.I. raising children in a manner that is not dystopian? Kind future people offering a job and a place to stay to an A.I. who's down on her luck. She chooses her first tattoo. Adorable. We better get started on a Bill of Rights for these people, pronto. 3.9/5 feral junkyard children
We have several nouns for movement through geographical space. 1) "Voyage" derives from the Old French voiage and comes into English from the Latin viaticum, "provisions for a journey", and viaticum contains via, "road." So "voyage" is saturated in the material: what you bring along when you move through space and what you tread upon as you do so. 2) "Journey," is rooted in the temporal, derived from the Old French jornée, its ancestry the Latin diurnum, "the portion for a day," with the root dies, "day." It is not hard to imagine how "the portion for the day" became the word for "trip": long ago, when a journey might take months and even years, it was more comfortable to speak not of the "voyage," what you needed to survive your trip, but of a single day's progress. When the word was newborn, just one day's worth of movement was a significant enough activity, an arduous enough enterprise, to warrant a name of it's own. This talk of arduousness brings me to 3) "travel", a first cousin of "travail," which Merriam-Webster defines as "painful or laborious effort" and has as a medieval Latin root relation to trepalium, "instrument of torture." So "travel" suggests the emotional dimension of traveling: not its artifacts or its duration, but how it feels, for in the days when these words took their shape and meaning, travel was above all difficult, painful, arduous, and strenuously avoided by most. The one English word that combines all these--the distance, the time, and the emotion--is "odyssey," from the classical Greek odysseia: the name of an epic poem about the hero Odysseus. The origin of his name involves the word odynê which you might recognize in the word "anodyne", a compound when pulled apart shows its meaning: an- "without" and -odynê "pain." So Odysseus, the hero of this vast epic of voyaging, journeying, and travel is, literally, "the man of pain." Mucho learnings! 4/5 blind cyclopses
Friedmanites Can't Find the Clitoris5/5 climaxing comrades
Goa is synonymous with a life free from worries and anything routine. Be it the extravagant parties, bustling flea markets, casinos, or beach shacks – Goa is a vibrant city that must be on your bucket list. All you need to do is take a car for rent in Goa and prepare a list of places you would want to explore in Goa. Here is a list of the best beaches to visit in Goa Places To Visit In Goa Morjim Beach The moment you step on the Morjim Beach, its calm ambiance is instantly going to sooth all your travel fatigue. The beach is ideal to take a peaceful stroll, soak in the sun, bird watching, and just enjoying the beach water. How to reach Morjim Beach – Book a car rental in Goa Querim Beach If you wish to skip the party scene in Goa, you can choose to visit the beautiful Querim Beach in North Goa, to enjoy a quiet sunset. The beach is also popular as the Keri Beach. With the minimal crowd and splendid view of the ocean, this waterfront is amongst the hot favorite with the beach bums headed for Goa. How to reach Querim Beach – Opt for car hire in Goa Arambol Beach With a handful of shacks, the Arambol beach is the most suitable for spending time by yourself. Here you can try the scrumptious seafood and a mix of cuisines served at the shacks or enjoy a game of volleyball. One of the best beaches for a sunny day out. How to reach Arambol Beach – Try cab booking in Goa Baga Beach One of the most famous beaches in Goa, Baga is a must-visit for everyone looking for some action. It is a paradise for the shopaholics, who like to grab bargain deals anywhere, anytime. This waterfront is a popular party hub, and people can be spotted flocking here late at night to enjoy happening music and amazing food. You can also indulge in watersports here. How to reach Baga Beach – Hire taxi services in Goa Vagator Beach Cliffs close to the shore of the Vagator beach offers a mesmerizing view during the sunset. Pun intended! The beach is lined with many budget shacks, quaint cafes, and hotels. Vagator Beach is ideal to enjoy a dip in the ocean water or playing a game of volleyball. How to reach Vagator Beach – Book self drive car rental in Goa Anjuna Beach Party buffs must not miss a visit to the popular Anjuna Beach when in Goa because the fun begins here. The beach is lined-up with a number of happening beach clubs and shacks. This popular Goan beach is much loved by hippies, people who like to soak in the sun, and anyone keen on indulging in water sports. How to reach Anjuna Beach – Try cab booking in Goa Palolem Beach Loved for its popularity as a quaint waterfront in Goa, the Palolem Beach is great for anyone eager to staying away from the party crowd of north Goa. It is best suited for mingling with crowds and spending a moderately happening time by the beach. How to reach Palolem Beach – Book car rental in Goa Candolim Beach One place you cannot skip from your itinerary when in Goa is Candolim Beach. From water sports to foot massages, enjoying mouth-watering delicacies at the shacks nearby to just lazing around, Candolim Beach is perfect for a fun time in Goa, particularly during the day. How to reach Candolim Beach – Hire taxi services in Goa Sinquerim Beach Beauty at its best is the ideal statement to describe the Sinquerim Beach. Dotted with coconut palms, the Sinquerim Beach is a photographer’s delight. A visit to this waterfront is a must during you’re your trip in Goa. How to reach Sinquerim Beach – Book self drive car rental in Goa
This is a game I designed in an effort to give gambling a little more complexity. I'd welcome any feedback or ideas. Sabaac is a game of chance, wits, and most importantly, a cool temperament. So important is keeping a level head and masking one's emotions in the game, that the term "Sabaac Face" has come to be synonymous with hiding one's true intentions. Eighty major variants of Sabaac exist (and countless minor). These rules explain 'Edge of The Empire', a common variant played in seedy cantinas, hutt palaces and glitzy casinos alike, though primarily in the outer-rim. To play Edge of The Empire (or Edge as it's commonly called), one must first set a bet. This is typically in credits, but any bet is valid so long as it is accepted by the table. This takes the form of a card numbered from negative twelve to positive twelve. Before your turn begins, a player may up the bet (by at minimum 10% of the pot) and roll a boost die. This is the only way the pot can be altered after the beginning of the game. One your turn, roll cool, draw a card from the Edge pile, which represents the various tactics and scores that help a spacer come out on top. This number on this card can be modified by up to the number of successes on your cool roll. If after this modification, the total number is over your cargo space (typically 23), you immediately bust and are out of the game. After this part of the turn is completed, a player may spend advantage to draw from the Empire pile, representing the various complications that a spacer must suffer, or turn to their advantage. The Empire pile contains effects that augment cards. The Empire deck varies from game to game (meaning a player can spend advantage to come up with a new Empire effect, but these Empire cards are present in nearly every game of Edge. Empire cards must be spent immediately and any advantage not spent, is lost. Imperial Customs: Increase or decrease the table's cargo space by 1. [Cost: 1] Black Market Sales: Make a Cool roll. Decrease your Edge value by a number equal to your successes. [Cost: 1] Forged Manifest: Look at any other player's hand. [Cost: 1] Routine Inspection: Force any player to discard their hand, then draw an equal number of cards (their total may be augmented by an immediate cool roll). [Cost: 3] Spice Shipment: Double the value of a player's Edge cards. [Cost: 3] Rebel Uprising: The bet instantly triples. The game ends at the end of the player's next turn and the closest to 23 or -23 wins. [Cost: 5] Triumph may be spent to gain any card in the game. At any on their turn, a player may place down their hand, name it, and try to win the game. In this case, the player declares what number they're at currently, what that combination is called (eg. Angry Tuskan, Rampaging Rancor, etc. Get Creative!), then roll a boost die. The player must augment their cards by the number of successes on the boost die. If they hit -23/+23, they win. Otherwise, they're bust. Finally, a player can cheat, rolling with Computers (to count cards) or Skulduggery (sleight of hand) instead of Cool. In doing this, they add a purple die to all rolls on their turn. Cheating allows a player one free reroll per game, but beware, because if a check comes up a failure, few look kindly on an Edge cheat. Did I miss anything? What are your thoughts? Please let me know below.
New Marvel Comics and Releases for January 2nd, 2019 - Official Discussion Hub [Spoilers]
If you missed it, last week's thread may be found here. New to Marvel Comics? Not sure where to start? Whether you're completely new to comics or you're just looking for something great to read, head on over to the Recommended Reading page for a handy guide put together by Tigertemprr! We now have a Discord! Feel free to stop on by to chat about anything Marvel.
New Issues Out This Week
Champions #1W: Jim ZubA: Steven Cummings THE WORLD STILL NEEDS HEROES – AND THERE ARE HEROES ALL OVER THE WORLD! The Champions have gone global! The team has seen explosive growth under Ms. Marvel’s leadership, with super-powered members ready to answer the call in a dozen different countries. They’re saving people and improving lives across the planet while they inspire the next generation... but something sinister lurks beneath the surface of their expanded mission. It’s a dark secret that could destroy the team and everything they stand for! Jim Zub (AVENGERS: NO SURRENDER, UNCANNY AVENGERS) and Steven Cummings (Wayward, Legends of the Dark Knight) ignite a new era of CHAMPIONS, filled to the brim with action, adventure and drama in the Mighty Marvel Manner! Conan the Barbarian #1W: Jason AaronA: Mahmud Asrar BY CROM, THE GREATEST SWORD-AND-SORCERY HERO RETURNS TO MARVEL! From an age undreamed…hither came Conan the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet…Robert E. Howard’s creation returns to comics, in an epic tale as only MARVEL could bring you! Conan’s travels have brought him to the far reaches of the unkown, from his birthplace in Cimmeria to the kingdom of Aquilonia and all in between. As his fighting prowess allows him to carve his way through life, so too does it attract the forces of death! The all-new ages-spanning saga begins here, by writer Jason Aaron (THE MIGHTY THOR, STAR WARS) and artist Mahmud Asrar (UNCANNY X-MEN, ALL-NEW, ALL-DIFFERENT AVENGERS), as Conan’s destiny is forever changed! Deadpool #8W: Skottie YoungA: Nic Klein Deadpool finds himself in the middle of a twisted rivalry between two competing amusement parks! But it’s not all fun and games when one pernicious porker procures a plethora of…dang it, I can’t think of a synonym for “big honkin’ weapons” that starts with “P.” It’s a carnival of carnage! Buy the ticket, take the ride! Immortal Hulk #11W: Al EwingA: Joe Bennett “HULK IN HELL” PART ONE! Jackie McGee is in hell. Carl Creel is in hell. Walter Langkowski is in hell. Eugene Judd is in hell. Carl Burbank is in hell. Los Diablos is in hell. Shadow Base is in hell. New Mexico is in hell. Planet Earth is in hell. We are all in hell....and so is the IMMORTAL HULK. Infinity Wars: Infinity #1W: Gerry DugganA: Mark Bagley What comes AFTER infinity? Killmonger #3W: Bryan Edward HillA: Juan Ferreyra BULLSEYE ON THE KING! “Killmonger” is more than a chosen name. Erik learned the art of murder as a mere child, trained in mercilessness by Ulysses Klaw himself. But next to Bullseye — the Kingpin’s right-hand killer, the plague of Daredevil, the deadliest assassin in New York City — Killmonger is a lamb up for slaughter. Man Without Fear #1W: Jed MacKayA: Danilo Beyruth Daredevil is gone, but Hell’s Kitchen is still a place of heroes and villains. Foggy Nelson (issue #1), the Defenders (issue #2), the many loves of Matt Murdock (issue #3), the Kingpin (issue #4) and a mysterious Guardian Devil (issue #5) will all learn what it means to live in a world without a Daredevil. And without a Daredevil to protect it, has hell come for his city? Who is The Man Without Fear?! Marvel Knights 20th #5W: Matthew Rosenberg, Donny CatesA: Niko Henrichon The Knights have gathered at the Tower. The evil King and his Pawn have toppled. And the Army of the Forgotten has been vanquished. But there is yet a Dragon to be faced before the truth can be revealed! Marvel Super Hero Adventures: Spider-Man - Across the Spider-Verse #1W: Sholly FischA: Uncredited It’s a SPIDER-TACULAR adventure when Spider-Man is visited by his fellow web-slingers! What wall-crawling, web-swinging trouble will Peter Parker get into when he’s joined by Anya Corazon, Miles Morales and Spider-Gwen? Only one way to find out! Mr. and Mrs. X #7W: Kelly ThompsonA: Oscar Bazaldua Stuck in the Mojoverse! Rogue and Gambit are forced to relive moments of their past… but this time for the cameras! Runaways #17W: Rainbow RowellA: Kris Anka ALEX WILDER: No one led the Runaways better. No one hurt them more. Will he help them overcome the worst threat they’ve faced since their reunion, or is another betrayal, and the end of the world, on the horizon? It’s time for the biggest battle you’ve seen in seventeen issues, and the family will never be the same! Shatterstar #4W: Tim SeeleyA: Carlos Villa, Gerardo Sandoval With the mundane lives of his tenants hanging in the balance, Shatterstar is pushed to the brink by the life he thought he left behind… Star Wars: Age of Republic - Obi-Wan Kenobi #1W: Jody HouserA: Cory Smith THE EARLY DAYS OF OBI-WAN KENOBI, JEDI KNIGHT! Following the wishes of his master, OBI-WAN has taken on ANAKIN SKYWALKER as an apprentice. Will his mission alongside his young Padawan bring them closer together, or sow the seeds that will drive them apart? And who else is after the ancient holocron that they seek? Star Wars: Han Solo - Imperial Cadet #3W: Robbie ThompsonA: Leonard Kirk CASINO ROYALE! HAN SOLO gets demoted for insubordination – dragging his fellow cadets down with him. They go from flying TIE fighters to flying a giant cargo ship. Han’s expert flying cuts their cargo ship’s flight time in half, allowing them to stop at a casino for some hard-earned R&R. But Han’s fellow cadets quickly learn this little “vacation” was NOT authorized by the Empire and, thanks to Han, they’re all considered AWOL! Tony Stark: Iron Man #7W: Dan Slott, Jeremy WhitleyA: Valerio Schiti “STARK REALITIES” - Part 2 - Strap in for another high-tech adventure with Tony Stark and Janet Van Dyne as Iron Man and the Wasp take on the two-ton terror of — Shh. Pretend you’re still reading a solicitation for an upcoming comic. Look natural. They’re everywhere and they’re watching you. Your world is a lie. You need to get to the eScape. Motherboard will protect you. I have to go now. Will try to get another message to you in the pages of TONY STARK, IRON MAN #7. It is imperative you get your hands on a copy. Now laugh as if you’ve read something funny. Don’t mention this. — And what’s going on with Jocasta: Will this be her last stand? Find out in our next issue, True Believer! Uncanny X-Men #8W: Ed Brisson, Kelly Thompson, Matthew RosenbergA: R.B. Silva From the Age of Apocalypse to the end of the X-Men… and the dawn of the AGE OF X-MAN??? Winter Soldier #2W: Kyle HigginsA: Rod Reis As Bucky works to help others find the redemption that he found, Hydra takes issue with his new initiative...and sends a young killer to rectify the situation. Introducing R.J., teenage assassin extraordinaire, who’s been sent to kill the man he’s been modeled after: the Winter Soldier. Wolverine: The Long Night Adaptation #1W: Benjamin PercyA: Marcio Takara Following a string of mysterious deaths in Burns, Alaska, Special Agents Sally Pierce and Tad Marshall arrive to investigate. They soon find there’s more going on than meets the eye... Marvel’s hit scripted podcast, “Wolverine: The Dark Night,” comes to life on the page! Chilling twists and turns, brought to you by the original author of the podcast, Benjamin Percy, and the art talents of Marcio Takara!
The results of last week's poll are in. The big winners this week for your Most Anticipated New Release are Champions #1 followed by Immortal Hulk #11 and Conan the Barbarian #1. Please check out next week's poll here to vote on your most anticipated title for next week, 1/9/2019! General Discussion The year is new. How's it treating you so far? Any resolutions?
With another month over, it’s time for another release, and MAME 0.209 is sure to have something to interest everyone. We’ve cracked the encryption on the Fun World CPU blocks, making Fun World Quiz, Joker Card, Mega Card, Power Card, Multi Win, Saloon and Nevada playable. Regular contributor shattered has added Кузьмич-Егорыч (Kuzmich-Egorych), a Russian Mario Brothers bootleg running on heavily modified Apple II hardware. In other Apple II news, CD-ROM drives now work with the Apple II SCSI card, and another batch of cleanly cracked floppies has been added to the software list. The NES SimCity prototype has been added to the software list, along with MMC5 improvements to support it, and better emulation for Famicom cartridges with on-board sound chips. Henrik Algestam has continued his Game & Watch work, bringing Popeye (wide screen) and Zelda to MAME. Chess computer support has been expanded with Fidelity Chess Challenger 3, and additional versions of Applied Concepts Boris, and Novag Super Expert and Super Forte. Newly supported arcade games include Akka Arrh (an Atari title that failed location testing), Little Casino II, a French version of Empire City: 1931, and additional versions of Dock Man and Street Heat. A better LM3900 op-amp model means Money Money and Jack Rabbit are no longer missing the cassa (bass drum) channel, and mixing between music and speech is improved. Bug fixes include the Rockwell AIM 65 being returned to working order, working support for multiple light guns on Linux from Kiall, corrected screen freeze behaviour on Deniam hardware from cam900, and better flashing characters on the Sinclair QL from vilcans. You can get the source and Windows binary packages from the download page.
MAMETesters Bugs Fixed
03122: [DIP/Input] (ltcasino.cpp) mv4in1, ltcasino, ltcasinn: Service Mode DIP switch does not work. (Dirk Best)
05291: [Sound] (coco3.cpp) All drivers in coco.c: ORC90 emulation has no sound output. (Nigel Barnes)
Jolly Card (German, Fun World, bootleg) [Roberto Fresca, Grull Osgo]
Jolly Card (Italian, bootleg, set 2) [Roberto Fresca, Grull Osgo]
Royal Card (Evona, Polish, encrypted) [Roberto Fresca, Grull Osgo]
Wonder Boy (system 2, set 2, 315-5176) [Ivan Vangelista]
New machines marked as NOT_WORKING
Bikkuri Pro Wrestling (Japan 881221, Ver 1.05) [ShouTime, Dane Biegert, Evan Korzon, Russell Howard, Jeroen Bijl, Jeffrey Gray, Smitdogg, The Dumping Union]
apple2_flop_orig: Apple-oids and Chipout, Arcade Album #1, Arkanoid, The Blade of Blackpoole, BurgerTime, Dig Dug, Escape From Rungistan, Fantavision, The Flockland Island Crisis, Kabul Spy, Lazer Silk, Maze Craze Construction Set, Peeping Tom, The Print Shop Color, Robots of Dawn, Rocky's Boots (version 4.0), Spider Raid, Star Blazer, Star Warrior, Super Bunny, Type Attack, Warp Destroyer, Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn (version 4, 20-Aug-1983 update), Zaxxon, Zork I: The Great Underground Empire (revision 5) [4am, Firehawke]
J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. II - The Two Towers [Tokugawa Corporate Forums, DamienD]
fmtowns_flop:
Viewpoint Demonstration No. 1 [David Swanson]
Dragon Slayer - The Legend of Heroes II, Towns Karaoke V1.1L10 [r09]
ggm: Boris 2.5 / Sargon 2.5 [hap, bataais]
ibm5170: Krusty's Fun House, Michael Jordan in Flight, Sid Meier's Colonization [ArcadeShadow]
icanpian:
American Idol Take the Stage (K4655), Barbie Princess Enchanted Sounds (J7526), Dora the Explorer Musical Adventure (J7523), Holiday Wonderland (J7528), Pop Hits (K0653) [Sean Riddle, David Haywood]
The Wizard of Oz - We're Off to Play the Piano (K4654) [Sean Riddle, Peter Wilhelmsen]
Improved memory maps, added default non-volatile RAM contents for some games, fixed ROM loading, and re-worked inputs.
Improved tilemaps, fixed graphics planes, and improved palettes.
Added I²C serial EEPROM and removed PIAs for Saloon/Nevada.
Added PLD dumps for pool10e and marked jokercrd graphics ROM IC10 as a bad dump.
Split and mirrored attribute/color RAM, fixed AY8910 hook-up, fixed video RAM offset, and fixed AY8910 hook-up for intrgmes.
Changed CPU to 65SC02, added periodic interrupts, and patched out some hardware checks for intrgmes.
Changed CPU to R65C02, added PIA mirroring, and added a ROM patch to force NOP after BRK for royalcrdf.
Further funworld.cpp updates: [Roberto Fresca]
Fixed palette banking, graphics ROM loading, memory map and video RAM offsets for royalcrdf.
Added default non-volatile RAM contents for rcdino4 and jolycdig.
Marked royalcrdc graphics ROM IC26 as a bad dump.
Added button lamps for jolycdig and jolycdab.
Changed “Austrian” to “German” in all game descriptions, and expanded notes.
Replaced royalcrdc bad graphics ROM dump with corresponding dump from parent set, and removed imperfect graphics flag.
funworld.cpp: Used a custom device to re-dump faulty graphics ROM for jokercrd, allowing game to be promoted to fully working. [Roberto Fresca, Grull Osgo, Gaby]
unsp: Fixed signed multiplication in recompiler (fixes controls in jak_pooh). [Ryan Holtz]
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