Suicide Squad

I've had a few things to talk about since I just finished my book, Foreworld Saga: Dragon Hand which should be up in the next few days, but since all the critics are giving Suicide Squad bad reviews, I thought I'd put that on the top of my to do list.

Suicide Squad is a good movie, but it helps if you know who's in it and where they fit in the DC universe. The thing is these are all villains that made their first appearances causing trouble for all the  superheros, but they were so cool, we, the fans got a soft spot for them and want to see them redeemed. DC decided that the way to redeem these bad boys and girls was to put them together on the Suicide Squad, a group run by government agent Amanda Waller, who is frankly the worst one of all. She is cold as ice, but she gets the job done. As for the others, the first character we are introduced to is Deadshot, the most accurate marksman in the world who works as a hitman. He goes to prison for a $2 million job, but he's sympathetic because he has a daughter and he does it all for her. Then, on the other end of the spectrum, we have El Diablo, a pyrokinetic who became a powerful criminal who lost his temper and killed his family one night, then gave himself up tot he authorities, because what's the point of having all the power in the world if it cost you the only thing that matters? El Diablo is really the best part of the story, he exemplifies what it's all about, a bad guy trying to be good. WHat sets him apart from everyone is he has already sought the path of redemption, the others have to be forced to do the right thing, he actually wants to do the right thing. Then there's Killer Croc who is familiar to fans from the 90's when he was on the animated series alot, he's an unfortunate situation, he was born with atavistic hyperkeratosis, so he's actually part crocodile for no reason other than a random genetic defect, and he became a monster inside to match what people treated him like on the outside, but his story is downplayed to the point that the only time that he's important is when he swims through a flooded subway. Then there's Captain Boomerang and Slipknot who are pretty worthless, especially Slipknot, who is introduced last and only lasts long enough to die trying to get away proving the nano bombs in ther necks are for real. This group is held together by Colonel Rick Flagg and Katana who are not bad guys but get stuck working with them anyway. Katana is another obscure character, she takes her name from the Soul Stealer, a sword that killed her husband and trapped his soul and then she used it to avenge him by killing the guy who ordered his death in the first place, and now she still uses it to fight and kill whoever Flagg orders her to. Rick is not so much a superhero as the model soldier that Captain America could have been if he had just been a good soldier instead of a scienc experiment. Rick's problem is that Waller had him bring in the last member of the Suicide Squad, her special pet, The Enchantress, and he fell in love with her. The Enchantress is most definitely the most powerful one in the group, so much that she becomes the antagonist of the movie. The Enchantress is actually two people, archaeologist Dr. June Moon(because her parents hate her, apparently) and an extradimensional goddess who possesses her, but has a weakness, a heart that is seperated from her body that allows Waller to control her. What Waller doesn't count on is Enchantress releasing her brother who helps set her free and they terrorize Midway City. Relly she want to take over the world, she picks this city for one reason only, because it's where Waller is and she can start by taking revenge on her and reclaiming her heart so she can be free.

No, I did not forget about Harley Quinn, it's just that she deserves her own section. Harely is the Joker's girlfriend, introduced in the 90's animated series. Usually when comics get adapted, anything new added in for the adaptation is not recognized by the original creator and it's ignored, but Harley was unique. The Joker had a plan to pop out of a cake to ambush some police officers, but the showrunners wanted to have a girl pop out of the cake and gave him a minion tailor made just for this. That gilr was Harley Quinn and took on a life of her own, developing a bizzarre backstory in which she was actually a doctor treating the Joker at Arkham Asylum, but fell in love with him and became the Bonnie to his Clyde. She got put in the comics and has a rabid following, leading to the true purpose of Suicide Squad, redeeming Harley Quinn. This is her first time on the big screen and this is a critical point in Harley's development, because when Harley joins the Suicide Squad, we see she has potential for good, which creates a very special situation in which she gets to play hero with the good guys, the very same good guys that she used to try to kill and put her in prison in the first place. This movie doesn't show that future very well, but fans know that now that she has been introduced, she's in play for any future films. The truth is Harley is actually a very sweet character, the example of "loyal to a fault" her fault being that her loyalty was to a bad man who taught her to do bad things. She, like many of the squad, does the wrong thing for the right reasons. Throughout the movie she shows she has a good heart and loves the people in her life, but the Joker corrupted her, and while she still is motivated to do right by those she cares about, she has lost her moral compass beyond that sense of loyalty, so if you get on her bad side, you are so screwed. She spends a lot of the fight scenes using just a baseball bat, infrequently using a revolver that has a barrel with alernating "LOVE" and "HATE" engravings. She can be a badass, but you have to respect the purity of her motivation. Margot Robbie does a great job playing her, portraying her personality, and her unique accent, which has not been shown well in promotions, do not believe the previews, when she says "Puddin" and "Mr. J." she has the accent down pat.

Ultimately this movie is about showing the best in the worst of us, and sometimes the worst in the best of us. Don't trust the critics, go see the movie and judge for yourself, you'll be glad you did.

Camp WriMo: Dragon Hand Week 5 and Sharknado

Camp Wrimo is almost over and I will not meet my 50,000 word goal, but I did make a lot of progress on my book Dragon Hand and it will probably be up on Amazon soon. The basic idea is that this is Final Fantasy set in real world history with the magic toned down to something that is actually plausible given what we understand is scientifically possible. The main charcter is a dragoon assisted by a spoony bard and an alchemist named Cid who protect a princess who learns some healing techniques and connects to Carbuncle, Fenrir, Alexander, Shiva, Bahamut, and Siren. Together they fight Siegfried, Gilgamesh and the Four Holy Beasts, the latter in the form of Mongol Generals. So far I'd say it has turned out well, so look it up when it comes out in the next few weeks.

The othe rbig news is Sharknado the 4th Awakens! It is so awesome, next week's post will probably be a review, for now all I can say is tune in to SyFy Sunday July 31 at 8PM to find out if April lived or died and what the hell they are going to do now. I know this much, Robert Herjavec and his fiancee Kym Johnson will be playing astrophysicists, stretching the movie's credibility. They are only a few of the cameos, plus, the Hoff is back! Oh, it's gonna be good!

Camp WriMo: Dragon Hand Week 4

So I'v been tryign to get back on track with writing but it hasn't been easy. I finished a chapter following Claude, Cidolfas, and Gilbert with the Cumans and started on a chapter with Catherina and Raidne. I think I'm doing good with this chapter, explaining the Binders as best I possibly can and puttign in some interesting twists, but I really need to get back to it and finish the chapter and switch back to Claude. Soon the foursome should get back together. I really am on a time crunch, so I'm afraid that's all for this week.

Pokemon Go and Tracfone

So you were probably expecting an update for Dragon Hand...yeah, right, like that was happening this week or that you'd care if it was. No,this was the week of Pokemon Go, and sadly, my story of distraction form my true goal of writing is not even of Pokemon hunting itself, but of getting a phone that actually worked for this app.

You see, I have Tracfone. It all started one Christmas when I opened a gift and found a cell phone I was sure I'd never use, and except for emergencies, I didn't use it for years. I have upgraded it a few times, but I realy never felt the need to use a real phone until now. Yes, Pokemon Go is the app that encouraged me to get a real smartphone. For those of you who don't know, Tracfone is a pay as you go cell phone, better known as a burner phone. It is shit. They produce cell phones that are one generation behind the networks and even when they have apps, they are cheap knockoffs of real apps. I swear I had Pizza Ninja instead of Fruit Ninja, same mechanics only you chop pizza ingredients instead of fruit, and it's slowerso it's easier. Like I said it's crap, and it doesn't run Pokemon Go. In about a year it might have Digimon. But at one point I worked for Verizon and saw what contracts look like and I sure as hell wasn't getting in on that. The one upside is that they have a bring your own plan now so that you can make any phone a Tracfone so you can get a phone that actually gets real apps and does shit. The downside of this is that to make this happen you need to buy a special sim card. Well, here's how it went down for me:

I first bought a new Tracfone believing it might work, it did not. I went to Best Buy to get a new phone (Motorola) but I was in a bind because I had already switched the number to the new Tracfone and was unable to switch it back, which meant I had three phones and needed to switch the number to the newest before I could get rid of the one I didn't want. The Best Buy I went to told me that they while they had the phone I needed, they did not have the sim card I needed, I would have to go to another Best Buy. I went there and they said it would take time to switch my number so I was stuck waiting until that could happen. Well, there was some miscommunication and the person who ended up helping me screwed up the transfer and my new phone didn't work and I temporarily lost my number. This means I had to go back and try again, and it took an hour and a half for the lost number to be restored. So, after four days, I finally got a phone that works.

I am Hidariude on Pokemon Go, my starter was a Squirtle. It was worth the trouble, but should anythign go wrong with this phone, God forbid, I am going to break down and get a contract because Tracfone SUCKS! The sim card kit is bull shit to get more money from people who don't buy their shit phones from this shit company. If anyone form Tracfone is reading this, don't take it out on me, fix your shitty company and take responsibility for your crap system.

Now, back to writing and Pokemon hunting.

Camp WriMo: Dragon Hand Week 2

So this week I didn't really make a lot of progress, I got in part of a chapter with Claude and his companions hunting a boar and meeting the Cumans. To make up for my failure in writing I thought I'd give you some character profiles, and yes this is wishful thinking for a video game adpatation. In case I forgot to mention, this is supposed to be a historically accurate Final Fantasy.

Claude Dragonhand - Born with atavistic hyperkeratosis that made his left arm scaly and his fingernails hard and claw like, earning him the surname Dragonhand. abandoned by his birth family and raised by the Shield Brethren, specifically Cidolfas Da Vinci the alchemist. He has trained to use spears and swords, some times at the same time. Special skills include:

Jump - aerial combat, vaulting himself using his spear and sing the momentum to complete a devastating attack.

Throw - throwing his spear or a knife or dagger

Cidolfas Da Vinci - An alchemist, a young man in association with the Shield Brethren when he found Claude as a baby, now older and wiser, making or a fine mentor for his young charge. He has advanced knowledge of chemistry and can use alchemy to perform almost supernatural feats by the standards of those around him. His weapon of choice is his quarterstaff. Special skills include:

Mix - combining chemical components to create new more complex chemical weapons or aids as the situation calls for it.

Black Magic - in his youth he dabbled in the forbidden arts, eventually reforming to focus on alchemy occasionally he can still call upon old knowledge when desperate times call for desperate measures.

Gilbert "The Spoony" MacMuirich - A Scottish bard, recording this story for prosperity, a lifelong friend of Claude and Cidolfas. He has a tendency to break into songs that may or may not be helpful. His weapon of choice is a knife, also instruments. Special skills include:

Song - he has use of four specific songs tied to the instruments he uses, Lullaby with his harp to put enemies to sleep, Warcry with his horn to bolster allies increasing speed and strength, Serenade with his lute to charm his foes, and his signature "Spoony Diddy" to muddle his foes with his spoons.

Mug - steal from his foes as he fights them, making use of their weapons agianst them in combat

Catherina of Hungary - Princess of Hungary, seperated from her family, she becomes associated with the Binders and becomes an ally of the Shiled Brethen. Cidolfas teaches her to use a quarterstaff. SHe also gets a hold of Medical Materia and learns skills that make her an asset. Special skills include:

Medic - using apothecary skills to help Claude primarily, and also to a lesser extent her other allies as well.

Summon - she becomes bound to the souls of certain individuals and calls upon their power i time of need. Primarily she calls upon Alexander the Apothecary she inherited the Medical Materia from, Raidne the Siren who passed on the bound lore to her, Shiva the Shield Maiden who later mentors her as a warrior, Carbuncle the stray cat she adopts on her journey, Fenrir the wolf she meets with the Cumans, and Bahamut the dragon hatchling she meets toward the end of her journey.

Camp WriMo: Dragon Hand Week 1

I have mentioned this before, I am working on a fanfiction for the Foreworld Saga, and now that Camp WriMo is upon us, I will be using this to get my rear in gear and get this book done. So far I managed to bang out about five chapters. I have introduced Claude Dragonhand, a Shield Brethren knight with atavistic hyperkeratosis that gives him his surname with a scaly hand who is proficient with sword and spear, I have also introduced his mentor Cid, Gilbert the Spoony Bard, Gilgamesh the Persian Herald of the Mongols, Siegfried the Livonian, Raidne the Binder, and of course Princess Catherina of Hungary.

The story begins with Claude, Cid, and Gilbert saving Princess Catherina from Mongols while escaping the Battle of Mohi where the Mongoliad begins. Soon after they fight the first of four Mongol generals who is accompanied by Gilgamesh. They defeat the general but Gilgamesh gets away. They reunite Catherina with her family but now they meet Siegfired who is from a rival order and wants to take down Claude. Before that matter can be settled, Gilgamesh returns with the second of the four generals and another battle ensues. Following the battle, Catherina meets Raidne and they end u continue on the journey Catherina thought was over. That's where I left off at the time of this writing, so now I need to get back to work and I'll get back to you with another update next week.

Capitalism is lie

I have seen some friends posting about capitalism and socialism and I feel compelled to explain what I understand about capitalism, first off that it is a lie, or at least that we tend to buy into it because of a lie, the lie being that everyone can succeed and be rich.This is not true, at least, not the way many people believe. It is true that capitalism is a system that give the everyone the chance to succeed and be rich, but it is not true that everybody will be able to achieve it at the same time. Capitalism is dependent on the same structure as every other system in the world, for the top 1% to have everything at the expense of the other 99%. This is because wealth is a relative measure, in order to have rich, there must be poor, in order for anyone to succeed in this structure they must do it at the expense of others, this is an unavoidable truth. The only exception is socialism, but we are generally afraid of socialism because the prime example of socialism we have to measure the system by is communism which in pratice has been communist dictatorships which are ultimately capitalism skewed to an extreme. Communism fails because it is not pure socialism as it was menat to be but an extreme monarchy in which on person gets everything and everyone else gets to share what is left equally, and that's not much, and they excuse it because they claim they desrerve it for the responsibility of taking care of everybody else. This stems from an innate, natural problem with any social strucure, but more on that later, first let me explain socialism.

Socialism is actually the idea that resources are allocated equally among everyone. This is a good idea, it takes care of everybody, if it's done right. The reason it doesn't seem to work, the reason we're all afraid of this is, if we do the right thing and take care of everybody, there will be no more rich. This is bad news for rich people and anyone who aspires to be rich. In socialism, we need to be responsible enough to make sure that our resources first go to important things like healthcare and food and housing for anyone and everyone who may need it, including those who may not be able to afford it under capitalist circumstances. This would mean using tax money to benefit the poor, and that money will probably come from the rich. The rich hate this because they work hard for their money and they don't want it taken by free loaders. They explain this to the rest of us and make us feel like it's not in our best interests because there is no point in working hard if your money is going to people who don't work. There are a few flaws with this argument that many do not think about, they just take the "I work hard for my money and I don't want it going to free loaders" argument at face value. The truth is, socialism generally seeks to make sure everyone does their fair share, run properly it does not support freeloaders, it provides for people who can not provide for themselves for legitimate reasons and makes sure the rest of us work for the greater good. Capitalism on the other hand rewards entrepreneurs. This sounds good because any of us can be entrepreneurs, that is the lie we are told. The tuth they do not tell us is that entrepreneurs need money, so if you don't have it to begin with, you're probably screwed.

Also, many of the rich in our country don't actually work hard, they rely on the labor of middle class citizens who are currently paying taxes because the rich have loopholes and the poor have no money to pay at all. Many rich live off of investments, meaning the stock market. The stock market is basically high stakes gambling. To understand the stock market, you need to understand that there are three types of companies, private, partnership and corporations. What makes corporations different is that the other two types are owned and operated by the same people, but corporations sell out shares to other people so they are at least partly owned by people other than those who actually run the business. This is not a bad thing in and of itself, it happens when a private or partnership business gets large enough that they need more money to grow and they get it by selling the company, and by selling it in small parts, none of the other owners have enough ownership to actually claim the company with any control, but they do put money in and they get paid back in dividends. The problem is that the stock market manipulates this by creating artificial value by having people trade their shares. This is the part that sucks for the rest of us, because when these stocks are being traded the money is not going back to the company, the shares no longer have anything to do with their namesake companies, they still have dividend yields to whoever is holding the hot potato when that time comes and those who hold enough shares have some degree of control over the company, but mostly the market is relying on people buying low and selling high. Stock brokers make their money by selling stocks at higher prices than they buy them for, and often do this within days, or even minutes, too little time to actually have anything to do with the company. This means that the vast majority of people who make their money in the stock market are not doing any actual work that benefits anybody, they are simply gambling and the stocks are no different than race horses, dice, cards, or numbers on a roulette wheel or lottery ball. The only difference is that the idea that somebody might actually do something productive makes the system legal. For example, I managed to acquire one share of stock in Hershey's, and as along as I hold onto this, I have a vote that I could use a stock holder's meetings at Hershey's, a vote which will be overshadowed by people who own many more shares than I do, but still, I do hold a share of the company in exchange for paying the company or at least reimbursing someone who did, and for that I get paid about $2 a year. Assuming I just sit on this stock, I am effectively a part of the Hershey's company and I am in some small way helping them, I have covered the cost of wrapping some Almond Joys. Hwever, I could decide to sell this stock and get some money back in my pocket right now, and if it was more than I bought it for, I just made profit. This is legal because I have purchased a share in good faith that I believe in the company and support them as a part owner. Someone else who also owns shares in the same way can do all of this on a much larger scale, and there is no legal way to discern between good faith ownership and high stakes gambling with the same resource, Since it is all based on something legal that affects major companies there is no way to challenge the legality of this practice without destorying the American economy. I'm not saying we should challenge it, I'm saying we need to recognize that many of the people who claim they work hard for their money are getting their money this way and leading us to believe that they deserve to keep their millions more than we deserve to be paid for actually working for those companies and doing what actually gives them value in the first place. Just think about that the next time the 1% argue about how we all deserve to keep our hard earned money instead of giving hand outs to lazy unemployed poor people.

Now for a quick history lesson: For most of human history we have relied on monarchies or in a few cases theocracies. If you don't know the difference the difference is that a monarchy is ruled by a monarch (king, queen, emperor) whereas a theocracy is ruled by God. Now, you may think, how does a god rule? None of us have ever actually seen a god, so how exactly does that work? Simple, the law of God is related to us through his priests and prophets who can communicate with God. In a theocracy, the basic principle is that everyone believes in God and questioning whether priests and prophets can talk to God is questioning God himself, so ask God if those priests and prophets are lying. God didn't answer? That's because you aren't a prophet, God only speaks to the priests, so now you have disobeyed God and questioned his chosen, which is invariably a crime under theocratic law. Convenient how that works? So yeah, theocracy is basically monarchy with a creaive twist that makes it less questionable to all of those within it. Relative to these systems, democracy is very new. Ancient Greece invented democracy, and it was practiced again to a cerain extent in the Roman Empire, but thn was largely ignored until it was reinovated in America when it was discovered that the six tribes of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy had figured it out on their own and it seemed better than listening to the king who lived across the sea. The problem is that the founding fathers of America decided to make our democracy more familiar and igestibel by basically making it a monarchy with a replacable maonarch we call a president. Someone once asked me "What is the difference between our president and a king?" He was tryign to make a point about government corruption by proving there wasn't a difference, but I replied without hesitation "Once every four to eight years we can replace our president without a bloody coup." Basically this is what we managed to accomplish, which is kind of a big deal. With monarchies, the only way to change leadership is to replace the monarch which gernerally require the death of the current monarch. With theocracies, the only way to change leadership is to change religions. With democracies, we change leadership by votign in a system that we all agree is open to any citizen to try. We claim the system is broken, but the ugly truth is that it's not really democracy, it's the constituents.

So now we are ready to go back and discuss the inherent natural flaw in social structures I mentioned earlier. In nature there are two types of animals, solitary and social. Innately we are all actually selfish solitary creatures, but circumstances sometimes lead us to find benefits in social situations. The primary situation would be mating, as animals that reproduce sexually, we need to get along with at least one other individual at some point in our lives in order for our species to survive. For some of us, sharing parental duties long term is beneficial, one can accquire food while the other protects offspring, and after offspring have grown up and left, it's easier to mate again with the same mate. From here we go to the family unit so the larger group takes care of everybody. This continues to grow to clan structure, then town, then city, then nation, then empire. At every stage, we need a leader, because everybody wants to do their own thing and we pretty much argue until someone lays down the law. At the family level, this is the elder, usually the father, sometimes the mother, at the clan level it's the chief, at the town or city level it's the mayor, at the nation level it's the monarch, president or dictator, and at the empire level it's the emperor. We naturally gravitate toward a leader, there must be a leader, otherwise we have anarchy which is a whole bunch of solitary people who are likely to act selfishly and the large population invariably collapses. Communism, or socialism on paper demands equality, which means having no leader, or at least a leader who recognizes he is equal while also mainting authority. But that doesn't really happen, because humans are selfish, and if we are in charge, we expect to get somethign for it.

This leads to the problem with capitalism and American democracy. Until the institution of American democracy, most companies just belonged to the govenrment, but in free cpaitalist America, the companies are free to do what they want. In believing in this freedom, we have created a blindspot that we are missing how companies are becoming empires. We use the term in a joking manner, but the reality is that companies are relying on the same social structure as government and they restrict us in the same ways, and by allowing them freedom we allow them to take over and oppress us the same as every other govenrment does. and they do it because of the lie that capitalism is for all of us.