Drinking Game for Groundhog Day

After watching the groundhog day movie for the 100th time I thought that it would probably make a pretty good drinking game.

As such I thought up some rules that would both be fun and lively.  Drink every time Phil (bill murray)

• either dies or starts a new day
•  learns a new skill that he didn't know the previous day
• recognizes someone by name that he didn't know upon entering the town.

Hanging with the Chinich Family

So my folks are coming to visit and to finally meet Romina's Parents.  Should be both epic and hilarious.

Picking them up tomorrow and then celebrating a Jewish Christmas (chinese food and a movie).  Afterwards, touristy boring stuff, dinner parties, and hangouts with the friendz.

My mom and romina's mom will go shopping together at the market in Santee.  I can picture them looking at silly hats and random small toys that make sounds.

I think this will be "Look Whose Coming to Dinner meets a Christmas Story meets the Hebrew Hammer."

More updates to come!

Nerdz

I cant wait for my home brewed beer to be done.  I even designed some custom made labels for it.  If only I could do that for a living, while playing some epic metal in the background, I would probably die happy.  Though perhaps I would end up in Valhalla where that is essentially the case anyway.

Having a blog that few people read is pretty fun because its more like Deep thoughts with Jack Handy than something where I need to care what people think.

OMG high school.

Starting to like Los Angeles

Back in a previous post, I stated that I was still up in the air about liking LA.  However, I have recently met a whole bunch of interesting people (many of whom actually just moved here).  I am far from being a socialite, but at least I have some people who I could call friends independent of my girlfriend.


On the food front, while I still have yet to find any decent pizza, the search goes on!

fantasy movies or movies with pretend characters

The difference between godzilla on one hand and the muppets is that godzilla is a puppet but everyone pretends is actually a giant monster.  Muppets exist simultaneously to humanity but everyone seems to think its just a natural societal situation.

So then take different movies like Muppet treasure island and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  The former is so unbelievable that they dont have any explanation for the differences in characters or the laws that guide them.  In contrast, Roger rabbit and the other cartoons are cartoons and have physical laws guided by the cartoons of old.  They also can be killed by slime or by laughing to death.  It is unclear what kills muppets as they can be blown up and burnt, but somehow get scared with guns.  Muppets are so fantastical that they even make jokes in the movies about the script writers of the film they are in.

When muppets are done right, they call them puppets and they are in movies like Dark Crystal and shows like Farscape.  They go by the same laws as other creatures or they define specific laws for them.

I know this seems like nitpicking.... because it is.

The Attack on Titan Porn Looks Absolutely Mental

As a fan of the series, this article looks absurd as hell... creepy and surreal (much like the series)

From: http://kotaku.com/the-attack-on-titan-porn-looks-absolutely-mental-1481024135,

"You know the rule: If it exists, there's porn of it. And typically, adult video adaptions of games or anime look rather whatever. Who cares! This Attack on Titan porno, however, looks totally bonkers."

I would say, horror stories in general are probably not good for pornography and the combination of the two  is likely to be even more disconcerting.  If you are curious about the weirdness factor and already know the series, check out the weird photos on the website

Reading Things, Schmeding Things

I have been doing a bunch of reading for my dissertation this week.  I feel a little bit behind on everything and decided that I need to step it up.  So far my recent list of readings can be found here: books!

Finally, a Difficult Strategy Game!

I started playing Crusader Kings 2 yesterday...on a whim.  Its a game where you play as a dynasty and start as some duke, count, or other official and work your way up through war and intrigue to being head of your own kingdom, then expanding etc.  This game is fun because its quite difficult and complex and also because it lets you really humanize your family in the game.

Anyway, this is the tragedy of Harold's family of  the kingdom of the Danes:

I started out by playing as Prince Harold, the bastard son of the king of the Danes.  Starting with 2 different duchy's (provinces and about 5 towns) I slowly began to develop and expand my economic and military capacity.  A few years later I started an intrigue of fake claim to this independent principality and when the prince balked, I mobilized my army and forced him to cede his territory.  Horrah! I thought... Im getting the hang of this game quick.   (this is where things start to go downhill)

I became slightly pissed off that my younger brother in the game who only sat at court was all of a sudden chosen to be heir in the line of succession.  Here I was expanding the territory and resources of the kingdom and being the oldest son (even as a bastard)..... but some 20 year old court intriguer gets it.  So as a result of my declining fortune, I decide to start pushing things.  I declared war again Pomerania.  The church was stoked, cause they were considered a bunch of heathens so they gave me the green light.  Two years later, I am still embroiled in this costly conflict that has only resulted in my vassals being pissed off at me for mobilizing all of their population for years.  So I cut my losses and sued for peace.  My kingdom was a mess so I spent a while just getting back to where I was.

Soon after, the king dies, and my stupid ass brother becomes king.  Many of the nobles weren't happy cause this guy had no laurels at all and was young to boot (with no heir).  What I should have done was instantly declare myself... but instead I waited to grow my army and capacity for a war.  This was a huge error in judgement.. as the nobles were bought off within 2 or 3 years and by the time I declared war, only one other noble supported me.  We were CRUSHED.  My character was imprisoned in the tower and repeated calls of mercy by his wife were ignored.  His 5 year old son becomes heir (only had a son and daughter at this time.) and within a year the father is dead of some disease (or torture) resulting from his prison.

The 6 year old son then takes over and is groomed from his mother to take revenge and to take his rightful place as king of Denmark.  I bided my time and tried to learn lessons from the last error.  The king went off to war with England (under control of the Normans) over some territories in Norway and their long disasterous war took 5 or 6 years.  Meanwhile several of the nobles rebelled and an invading English protectorate actually invaded the kingdom.  Here is my opening I thought.  I mustered all my levies and then mobilized 2 mercenary companies to allow me to compete.  One of the nobles (the same family as the last one who supported me) also rose up with me.  We beat another claimant to the throne and then set siege to the capital city.  I thought that victory was within my grasp.  Then I noticed that the war with England had ended and the Danes sued for peace.  Their returning army showed up and fought me in a pitched battle.  I retreated and then while re-organizing my troops the mercenaries switched sides... and my whole army was slaughtered.  I quit before I saw what happened to my ruling family... but I guarantee you it would be rough.

anyway, despite being really hard... this game is really fun and you should try it.

Cyborgs are Among us

According to an article, the United Kingdom has recognized the first cyborg on their passport.  I have always wanted to be a cyborg ever since watching Ghost in the Shell, but its weird to see it actually occuring in people.  As google glass and other body optimizing technological products come onto the market, it will be interesting to see the effects this has on the species.

However, I still think that I will never have a flying car, see a hoverboard in 2015 (back to the future), or own a light saber.  Though, who knows.

Best Science Fiction Series of All Time

This is mostly just a thought exercise and maybe comments on here can give advice as to ones I have missed.


In no certain order:

• Firefly
• Farscape
• Attack on Titan
• Last Exile
• Battlestar Galactica [new series] (though Im not crazy about the ending or portions of the series in general)
• Star Trek (original series and next generation)
• Red Dwarf (YES I WENT THERE!)
• Deep Space 9 and Babylon 5 - they are in the same category for me.
• Iria: Zeirum the animation
• Dr Who

Dont waste your time on other stuff

Ian Chinich on social media or how I learned to stop worrying and love Los Angeles

I have come to a strange crossroads, where I am in a city that feels much more connected to working class culture and communities than any other place I have lived.  In spite of this, I am still so new to the place that I have yet to accumulate a strong group of friends 

So instead of diving right in and making friends I have been relying on virtual friend networks that I have already made.

Having multiple social networking sites is weird because the platforms are all different.  For example, Ian Chinich on Facebook is a site used to largely read news and see peoples pictures of cats.  It seems to have developed its own logarithm which has only created a small bubble of people who post similar content to me.  When looking at Ian Chinich on Google Plus, i just dont have the urge to actually use it for networking.  I mostly just occasionally see what people are posting that is different from what I already have.  Lastly, there is the rather dull Ian Chinich and dwarves in the myspace realm, which, lacks the news of Facebook and rather than cats, I have found thrills in posting epic fantasy stuff on it.  Probably the only redeeming one is good reads as it seems to have an actual purpose that is cumulative and functional.

All of this leaves me feeling that I am just not happy with social networking as I used to be.  In contrast, my friend Ali gave me A People's Guide to Los Angeles, which is going to be my exploration guide for the next few months (or shorter if he makes me return it.)  In addition, LA has cumbia dance events, music, a ridiculous amount of theaters, and much better food than Boston.  My partner Romina is also going to be done with her school quarter soon, so I hope to become much more acquainted with the city than I have been previously.

Lastly my folks are coming around Christmas time so if anyone wants to meet them/hear Romina's mother sing some old Chilean songs, go to Casa Ian and Romina or hit me up.

stuff like this!

Taking things seriously

I think that historical memory is very different in the US, due to a lack of connection to struggles.  Leftists in Greece and Spain for example, were sent to death camps like Mauthausen:

 Maria Farantouri sings about the camp.

When organizing becomes more than an activity and a way of making friends it takes on serious dynamics and involves life and death consequences.  As a result, militants involved need to think more strategically about winning, because losing is unthinkable.

Seems Everyone Has a Blog These Days

I decided I would start increasing my social medial presence in this blog both as a way of increasing the amount of pictures of orks, trolls and dwarves that exist on the internet but also in giving a medium outside facebook for just venting and being strange.

To see another example of boredom meets epic: Dwarves!

Prepare for anything random I think is cool, metal videos, protests, and political comentary