10017

That's the post number—289₁₀. Random thoughts!

• In my continuing campaign to explain to people that the distinctions between guns are non-trivial, for a writer, I think I'll have the girl in my wurrwilf book trade in her M1911A1 for a Delta Elite, in the second book. Why? Same gun, but in 10 mm. Two extra shots, and actually more power—10 mm Auto is roughly comparable to .41 Magnum (yes there's a .41 magnum).
  
  You don't want to be Stephen King, not knowing that a Colt .45 revolver doesn't have a swing-out cylinder (and that a cylinder isn't a barrel), or James Patterson, not knowing:
  • Glocks don't have safeties.
  • Revolvers don't have magazines.
  • The HK PSG-1 sniper rifle is chambered in 7.62 NATO (.308) not .40 caliber.
  • There is no such thing as a 30-gauge.
  Or Robert Ludlum, apparently, just in general.


• Which, huh, I wonder, would you be able to tell that a pulled-out-of-a-corpse Makarov round was a Makarov? 'Cause Makarov is real close to .380 Browning/9 mm Kurz, the only difference being it's slightly thicker (the bullet's diameter is 9.22 mm vs 9.0 mm). But it might be hard to tell when it's mushed up inside a cadaver.
  Left: .380 Browning. Right: 9×18 mm Makarov.
  
  Then again, the Makarov rounds in question are silver, so they probably won't deform as much.


• I re-read Immortal Rain recently, and uh, why does it have to be so similar to my damn werewolf book? Seriously, my hero? Remarkably like Rain (except a shorthaired albino of average height, and not such a dolt). Plus, his girlfriend starts out trying to kill him for the sake of a parental figure, just like Machika.
  
  Hey, does the genre Rain's in have a name? Trigun, Berserk, Übel Blatt, Immortal Rain, HandxRed—GunXSword, come to think of it—they're all basically the same story. Gungrave is basically the same thing told in a different order. And hey: Vash, Guts, Rain, Van, Jim, all monosyllables (Brandon and Koinzel/Ascherlit are odd ones out, here).
  
  Also, Meteor Methuselah is a much better name than Immortal Rain, I don't know why they changed it. Well, 'cept there's no meteors.


• I don't recall the particulars, but my sister related to me a while back how her co-worker was saying we'd need to terraform and colonize Mars, and my sister explained how no, if you could terraform Mars, you could solve whatever problem was making you leave Earth (please O sister, feel free to correct me if I have mistaken some detail).
  
  But I realize, why did nobody, not even me, notice that flaw about Firefly? Did nobody say, "Hey Joss, why don't they just re-terraform the Earth?" Blind-spots are weird and somewhat disturbing, because I didn't notice it either, and I'm me.
  
  Which reminds me, though there is a colony on Mars in my SF book, it's not very old—it only dates to the invention of artificial gravity. It's under a dome, built over the Tuscaloosa Crater (which is right on Mars' equator, oh yes, I looked it up)—the crater's flooded, and there's an orbit elevator at one end.
  
  Here is a Groucho Marx joke of the 24th century: Why do they farm-raise walruses and elephants for ivory, in that colony?


• Huh, it's interesting, there's definitely a stylistic school in manga art that, I think, goes back to Evangelion—at least that's as far back as I care to trace it at the moment. It's noticeable in the way eyes and hands look (because apparently Anno was schizophrenic). It's present in Narue no Sekai, Soul Gadget Radiant, and to a lesser degree, Immortal Rain (which also, almost certainly, has a Studio Ghibli influence).


• Do you know anyone who's considering voting third-party? Well are you angry at them? You should be. Voting third party in a two-party system is tantamount to voting for whichever of the major parties you support less. Because your vote is one less vote for the guy you support more.
  
  And if they dispute that, sit them down and explain, very slowly, about Perot '92 and Nader '00.


• For further proof of the idea that moe anthropomorphisms are related to "animist" concepts like tsukkumogami, go read Kandachime (Kami-ta-chi-me, i.e. "divine longsword woman"). Notice anything? Yeah, it's simply taken for granted that making a sword wholeheartedly, or using one for unimaginable slaughter, will have it become a spirit. A Western work would have to have them be made of some special metal, or come from some school actually founded by a wizard, or something: because we don't consider "swords have souls" to be an unremarkable, if debatable, statement.


• Christian Toto was saying how rebooting Spider-man is the same phenomenon as Glee and American Idol, and how even kids' movies don't have original songs, but only Top 40 hits. It's true, although (playing Team Fortress will reveal) the new My Little Pony is chock full of original songs.
  
  I don't know why Team Fortress players are "bronies" either. It is a great mystery of our age.
  
  But also, Toto seemed to react with horror to the proposition of rebooting Batman yet again. While allowing a third reboot does set a dangerous precedent, maybe this time it'll be made by somebody who likes Batman.


• On the other hand, they shouldn't have let reboot fever convince them to greenlight the new Conan movie. Not when Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are right there, just waiting to be made into a sword-and-sorcery buddy picture.
  
  Also, Sheelba of the Eyeless face had something to say that, I think, is relevant to this trouble with reboots. Namely:
  Never and forever are neither for men
  You'll be returning again and again.


• Finally, go read Magico, the manga where the mage-kid marries the girl with the curse. Shonen manga. Seriously. This story is for boys (though admittedly Jump does have a huge female audience).
  
  And if it doesn't bring a tear to your eye, it's because you have neither blood nor tears.