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PhilCon “Why Horror is Not Dead”

November 22, 2008 Leave a comment

D.E. Christman, Jennifer Williams, Dina Leacock, Sara M. Harvey

Is Horror a Genre unto itself?
Horror is a genre, but it has changed.  Now we have Dark Romance and others. King is shelved under regular ficiton.
If its a dark subject it tends to get tagged under horror.
Genre is very subjective, but ten you have genre bending that make it even more difficult.  Best a publisher can do is to label stuff for what the audiance will pick.
In the 90′s, Horror wasn’t dead, it was called different names.
Movies has a constant appitite for horor.  Subject matter changes (Aliens vs Twilight vs Sliver).
Horror also does better when things are bad economically rather then when thing are good.

Does Horror make children bad/desensatize kids?
No.  Parents need to be parents and TV is not a substitute for parenting, but people are by nature morbidly curious.  Grim’s Tales was horrorific and its been around for a long time.

What are the essential elements of Horror?
A Building Sense of Dread, Terror, Being Afraid for the Character (watching a car accident happen), Feeling Helpless (Watcher in the Woods)

All the classic monsters are making a comeback:
vampires, werewolves, mummies, zombies, etc.  They’re just not showing up in horror movies. 
Even the killer tomato is making a comeback. *rolls eyes*

Categories: Uncategorized

PhilCon Panel “Ninja, Pirate, Mad Scientist, Supervillian!”

November 22, 2008 1 comment
They're smiling.  I wonder what they're up to.

They're smiling. I wonder what they're up to.

Ruth Lampi – Ninja (N)
Phil  (missed last name) – Super Villian (SV)
Sally-Rouge Pax and Jo Blu Pax - Mad Scientist (MS)
Missed Name - Pirate (P)

MS – More wardrobe choices then “black, black and black” and they take baths
SV – “I am the Bad Seed”
P – Taking stuff, hitting on women, taking stuff, hitting women, taking care since they’re out of women
N – Its not the ninjas you can see that’s the problem. Did you see us at the battle of waterloo, battle new orleans, the grassy knoll.

Time to bash others

N – Pirates “What will you do the with the oil tanker?”
P – missed
SV - ninjas are uncreative hunchmen, Pirates have no class, Mad scientist work for the super villian
MS – SV is useless without us, TMNT are useless without the goo created by MS, and the SV has just given up his secret identity.
SV - ”I will have my REVENGE!”

Caper – Steal the Hope Diamond, how do you handle it
MS – There will be a lot of dominos, a bowlingball, (and they just got a soundtrack as the SV started singing), and a puppy.
SV – I was to busy laughing to type
P – dig a channel to the smithsonian and fire upon the guards, swing from the ropes, and nab the diamond and sail off into the sunset
Moderator – “Where is the ninja?”
Ninja returns
N – “Done!”

Plan to take over World
SV starts laughing.
MS – Could go mass mind control “everything you do is playing into our plan.” “What you don’t realize is that we already rule the world.”
SV – “You know I can’t tell you until there is just enough time for you to thwart me.” These ‘perterbed scientists’ need 2 to do the job of 1 SV.
Mod – “I’m just loving the trash talking.” and the MS spewed.
N sprinkles something in MS water, MS passed it to the SV. Pirate drinks the water.
P – How many SV’s actually succeeded? SV’s  henchmen said “George Bush.”
P – While MS are busy polishing their test tubes we’re sailing into all your ports and taking your wenches.  “Superior Wenching Action.”  A great wench makes you feel like King of the World.
N – I can jump from roof to roof.

Mod – I’m out of ideas.
You have your archnemesis in your clutches, what do you do?
SV - …
N – Blow to the head.
MS – Ohhh we’ve done everything, fire ants, space time distortion, maming … We’d just wing it.
SV – “So you don’t have a plan?!?”
P – There’s only one way to handle any problem, “Sink it.” Why walk the plank when you’ve got submachine guns “Oh by the way, thank you MS for the guns.”

Questions
MS – It is essential to put a fatal flaw in it to make sure it cannot overtake the MS.

P – Disco’s Back Baby.

Do pirates and ninjas really hate each other so much?  MS and SV hug

P – We’ll take over the inland regions with global warming.

Final Words
MS – Superior in every way, why? “I don’t think you comprehend.”
SV – “Fools! If it grows, I will ungrow it. It comes within 50 ft I will show it my restraining order.”
P – Goes to wipe board. writes “R.”
N – Compromising photos of MS and SV will be available online in 2 minutes.

MAD SCIENTIST WINS!!!

PhilCon Notes “Weapons of the Future”

November 22, 2008 Leave a comment

Friday evening

Speakers: Eric Katani (Yoji Kondo), Dr. Charles E. Gannon, Tom Purdom (mod), Alexis Gilliland, and Jay While (sp?)

What does each feel is the critical weapons of the future:

Jay – Sound Wave Weaponry (since air is a hinderance for most other weapons, air is a help with sound weapons)
Gannon – ROV (Remote Operated Vehicles, since this does not endanger a soldier) and Penetration (both personal armor and base fortifications).
Kotani – Rebuildable Launch Vehicles (as opposed to reuseable launch vehicles) (since each ICBM is like having a 747 scrapped after each use.  A reusable costs more since most or all has to come back and there’s a higher fuel cost. A rebuildable is a mix of the two, lowers the cost of a reusable and while lowering the cost of each construction.
Purdom – increased accuracy, ROVs and Armor.

Random points
Jay – Energy weapons are unusable as an offensive weapon for quite some time but they can be a defensive weapon.  It requires much less energy to alter the trojectory then it does to destroy something.
Gannon – Nanite tech can do quite a bit for sensors.  Spread some nanites and they can detect if something is in the air. 
Purdom- Non Violent Weaons
Gannon – Military wants less violent weapon since it takes 4 men to carry a wounded man off the battlefield, soldiers want a higher powered weapons since they want to go home alive and see their kids. 

I asked about EMP Weaponry
Katani and Gannon – It can be a weapon, but its going to be large, cumbersome and devistating to the local infrastructure. 

Jay – Sat defene could involve nano beads to deflect incoming attack.

Once its fully developed and implemented on a ship, it can launch warheads, mines, drones, do a “soft drop” of a payload.

Categories: Conventions Tags: ,

Going to PhilCon

November 19, 2008 Leave a comment

PhilCon is this weekend.  I’m going!!! My first SF Convention, ever.  Finally a time when timing works out for me that I get to go.  I’ll try to take notes on the panels I’ll be attending and post them afterwards.  Let me know if you are going too.

Categories: Conventions Tags: , ,

What Does Traveller Need?

November 6, 2008 Leave a comment

As a Traveller referee, I have a decent idea as to what would make my job easier.  But I am not a player so I do not know what kinds of products a player would desire.  Any suggestions?

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