Saw Marvel's The Avengers in theaters this past weekend.  And it was awesome.  I find I am unable to say adequately what I found so great about the movie, everything was just so well done.  Instead, I direct you to this Comics in Context article by Scott Tipton. 

An interesting thought occured to me the other day.  Many people are dismayed and frustrated that no one in the financial world has been brought to trial, why none of them has been imprisoned yet.  They were at the epicenter of the housing bouble's collapse, and the subsequent recession.  So why haven't they been punished for their clear malfeanse.  Well, I have a theory about that.

There is ample evidence that it was goverment policies that led to Great Recession.  So if the government attempted to try any of the leaders in the financial world, then those government policies would be the forefront of the defendants' defense.  It would finally be on the record that government caused the recession and that would destroy Obama's and the Democrat's vision for American governance.  That is why no financial leader will ever be arrested and tryed. 

Now tell me you will vote for a second Obama term come November. 

There's one thing I find real interesting with the whole obesity crisis the country is confronting.  The thing is, I remember 10 or 15 years ago when the concern was with eating disorders such as Bulimia and anorexia.  I remember that the Barbie doll and all those superthin models and actresses were singled out as the destroyers of young girls, because they were examples of unattainable and unhealthy weight goals.  But now obesity is the real destroyer of young people.

What happened?  Where are all these superthin models and actors that we were supposed to emulate in order to become unhealtily thin.  Now we're all fat.  What happened?

A new myth about Ubernorden is up.  This time about the End of the World as far as the Ferrahom/Geiospotamians believe about it.  Read it and others here, and enjoy!

As you may know, I have been reading the critically aclaimed series The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.  I am only on the fifth book, The Fires of Heaven, but so far it is a great series.  I look forward to continuing on with the series and see where all the characters end up in their war against the Shadow.  That said, I do have some issues with the series.  Don't let what I am about to say influence you to not read The Wheel of Time.  It is an excellent series and I recommend it to anyone who askes if they should read it.  But there are just some things that really bug me. 

The biggest thing that bugs me is the portrayal of women in the series.  Now, these days everybody gets upset if women are portrayed as the least bit meek and helpless, needing men to rescue them.  I am not one of those.  Not that I prefer women to be depicted like that, but I find it better than the alternative, which is how Jordan portrays them.  These women are bullies and too full of themselves.  At no point do they coerce the men they meet to do what they want.  They bully them.  They bully them by nagging them, threatening them with violence, or with the weird effects of the One Power.  The character Moiraine almost constantly threatens those who refuse to do what she wants with the One Power. 

At one point the three primary female characters are imprisoned and cannot escape on their own.  At which point Matt, one of the three primary male characters, rescues them all by himself.  How do they repay him?  They immediatly use the Power to bind him while they yell at him for being there!  No thank you.  No pleasant greetings.  Nothing but abuse.  This is not a depiction of strong women, this is a depiction of horrible people.  If a male character did all of this crap, he would be reviled, and the people reviling him would be right.  So female characters shouldn't be given a pass, they just shouldn't.

This leads me to the other thing that bugs me, how meek the men are depicted in the series.  As part of the above, the men never defend themselve from a woman who is attacking them verbally.  They do try blunt the woman's attacks, but they never defend themselves; they never fight back. 

And it's just not against women, it's also against anyone with authority over them.  Rand, the primary character, has by now become the emperor of world.  And his word is law.  Absolutly none of the nobles who serve him question seriously try to restrain his authority, which is something real-world nobles have tried to do to monarchs for centuries.  (Absolute Monarchy is historically an outlier, not the norm.)  All Rand has to do is demand that they do something, and they do it.  Not one person acutally says 'no' to him, no one, not even the women.  There is deferential societies, and then there is sensless obedience.  Jordan states that it is out of abject fear that they are so deferential, but surely there would be someone who could and would stand up to him.  And it's not just him.  The queen of Andor starts to whip her best supporters, and no one questions it (she was under the influence of evil).

And finally there is Daes Dae'mar, the Game of Houses.  There is always political infighting in any society.  But the pure homicidal nature of it all is just beyond belief.  The people involved are just incapable and unwilling to work together.  It is just so, improbable.  And at one point Jordan says that the Borderlands, who are under constant threat of invasion from the forces of darkness, have never had a problem with Daes Dae'mar because being under constant threat has negated the ambitions of the nobles.  No!  No!  No!  Nations under threat are actually more likely to suffer from political infighting than nations at peace.  Just look at recent American history.  In the 1990's America was at peace.  Despite some political shenanigans, the tone of American politics was civil enough.  Then 9/11 happened.  That was when the political discourse became almost unbearable.  What changed was that America was at war, and that cause some strain on American politicians and their policy. 

But despite those issues, I am really enjoying this series and would recommend it to anyone who wants to start a new fantasy series. 

I know it seems quite anal to make yet another minute change to one of my stories, Blood Feud this time, but that's just me.  I'm a perfectionist.  It's in my nature.  Furthurmore, the change is about the price of Garfios's ransom.  At the time I didn't quite realize how much a state like Cetland (in the era I imagine it in) might be able to afford.  That's changed now.

Apologies for all who have already downloaded the original copy of Blood Feud, but a new version is now available. 

Today, I made a couple of minute changes to the story "The Treasure of Golodo."  While small, they were important (try to guess what the changes were).  The reason for the changes was because of the Geographical changes I made to Ubernorden.  As you might recall, I altered the entire geography of Ubernorden in the middle of writing "The Treasure of Golodo."  So I was stuck between the old geography and the new.  In the old geography, I had a certain country that was on the banks of the Adune River.  In the new geography, that country is not on the Adune sea.  So since the characters of the story went to the country, but were on the Adune, it didn't work.  So the need for the change.

I also changed the eBook so that it matches the website.  I apologize to anyone who may have downloaded the older copy already.  As always, enjoy the Tales of Ubernorden. 

Edit:  Well, I did it again.  In my haste to make sure that the geography of Ubernorden was adhered to, I forgot how far Makakos and Cetland were.  The the refugees at the end would never be able to travel so far in such ragged conditions, so a closer refuge would be needed.  Ceventes will still be in the Places Databook, but a new port of call is being used. 

This will be the last change, I promise.

After a while of seeing it in the news for so long, I have decided to weigh in on the controversy.  As many of you may know, Rush Limbaugh is in hot water over over comments he made about Sandra Fluke.  Now I have never listened to Rush in my life and I don't plan too, but what is being done to him should outrage all who make a living, or simply spread their ideas, through mass communication.  He made a poor choice of words.  It happens.  It happens to all of us at some point in time.  And he apologized for it (which is more than can be said for other people) so lets all just move on.  

But we haven't, and that is why I'm writing now.  In fact I am responding to what Bill Maher recently said.   He said that what he said about Sarah Palin is fine because she is a public figure, but what Rush said abut Sandra Fluke is bad because she is a private cititzen.  That is bullshit!  The minute Fluke testified before Congress she became a public figure, her private citizen status evaporated, and she became fair game for all professional (and amateur) commentators.  Claiming Fluke is a private citizen is just a cover not only for their own foul language, but to hide essence of her testimony, which was that a religious educational institution must be forced to buy constrceptives for their student regardless of stated religious doctrine. 

And that's the rub.  This whole controversy is noting more than a smokescreen designed to distract us from the mandate forcing religious institutions to go against their beliefs.  That is the real issue, and that is what people should be focusing on.  Not Rush's misogymy.  Not even other people's misogymy.  While is shoud be addressed, rampant misogymy in communications should take a backseat while the religious mandate is solved.

As for Rush's comment.  He called her a slut.  So what?  I have hear plenty of women call each other slut and laugh!  I remember Kim Kardashian call her sisters sluts and all three women were laughing at it.  Lots of women in Sitcoms and in real life call each other sluts, and are proud of being sluts let alone being called a slut.  There was a freaking SlutWalk not too long ago (April 3, 2011 (hey almost the anniversary, wonder if they'll have a second one on that date with the controversy so fresh)) where women were told to be proud of being called sluts.  So is 'slut' such a bad word anymore?  And if anyone says that only women may now call each other sluts, that it is their word, you may go to Hell!  I hate that belief, it needs to end!  And soon.

And done.  That's my two cents.

Last week I let everyone know that I was working on updating the Databook for all of the new information related to the new story.  Since then, nothing has been updated.  And that is totally my fault.  But it isn't my fault.  My life has been super busy in life, so I have not been able to do much on the site.  I promise that I been thinking of it, and will get it done within a reasonable timeframe.

In other news, the new story has hit a bit of a speed bump.  A bit of writer's block, mixed with the aforementioned life business, and I have not managed to do much with it.  But I am about 1/4 of the way through, so it is going at a steady pace.  Of course, if I have some fans that made a comment every now and then, I would make more of an effort to get the story done.  Not that I'm bitter or anything. 

Happy Leten Season, everyone.  Good bye and good luck. 

To all of my imaginary fans (and especially those that are real), I wish you a happy Valentine's Day.  Interestingly, Valentine's Day originally had no romance to it.  According to the Wikipedia article (yes, I am aware that Wikipedia must be taken with a grain of salt) it was originally a day to celebrate Christian who were martyred during Roman persecution.  It only became a day for romance after Chaucer wrote about lovers during St. Valentine's day.  But enough about history.

In other news, work on the next story continues apace.  I have no self-imposed deadline as of yet, but know that you haughty and arrogant storyteller will give it to you in good time.  Also, I will be updating the Databook in the meantime, so that you may know all the new word that have