The trouble with the floor is .. it’s not a table.
A neighbouring house wrapped and ready for fumigation.
I am forced to conclude that America is quite a patriotic country.
Yesterday was ANZAC day in New Zealand and Australia (as well as The Cook Islands, Niue, Pitcairn and Tonga).
Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, originally commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all those who served and died in military operations for their countries.
[wikipedia]
Of course if you’re from NZ or Australia (or Martha Stewart) you know about ANZAC biscuits. They’re main ingredients (apart from flour) are oats, coconut and golden syrup.
It was a huge surprise to see these in a small local US supermarket:
They are chocolate chip cookies called ANZAC Spirit Cookies sold in association with the “Veterans of Foreign Wars Foundation”. Here’s the blurb on the back:
The VFW Foundation and UNIBIC proudly being you The ANZAC Spirit Cookies. Originating in Australia and New Zealand during WW1, the delicious ANZAC cookie has long served allied soldiers, raising morale on the front line, an generating much needed charitable funds for military and veteran causes. By purchasing this pack of ANZAC SPIRIT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES, you can “Return the Favor” and directly help the VFW Foundation assist those who deserve it most.
UNIBIC donates 4% of its sales of this cookie to the VFW Foundation
It seems UNIBIC are an Australian company with a subsidiary in India. The above cookies are a product of Australia. UNIBIC seem to have a range of “ANZAC Spirit” branded biscuits available in Australia. They seem to get into donating a small amount of their sales to veteran causes.
Notice that they are not called ANZAC Biscuits (or Cookies) but instead are branded ANZAC Spirit. They are indeed chocolate chip biscuits – and they’re really pretty good. Here’s some interesting legal stuff about ANZAC biscuits from wikipedia.
The term Anzac is protected under Australian law and therefore the word should not be used without permission from the Minister for Veteran’ Affairs; misuse can be legally enforced particularly for commercial purposes. Likewise similar restrictions on naming are enshrined in New Zealand law where the Governor General can elect to enforce naming legislation. There is a general exemption granted for Anzac biscuits, as long as these biscuits remain basically true to the original recipe and are both referred to and sold as Anzac biscuits and never as cookies.
This restriction resulted in the Subway chain of restaurants dropping the biscuit from their menu in September, 2008. After being ordered by the Department of Veteran’ Affairs to bake the biscuits according to the original recipe, Subway decided not to continue to offer the biscuit, as they found that their supplier was unable to develop a cost-effective means of duplicating the recipe.
(I’m assuming that Subway was selling ANZAC biscuits in their Australian shops).
The monthly US version of the Japanese manga anthology Weekly Shonen Jump has become digital and, of more interest to me, a weekly under the new name Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha. The change to a weekly is great and certainly “the way the industry is going” – or at least how I’d like to see it go.
Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha features a six story lineup with each story about 18-20 pages; around 110-120 story pages each week. An annual subscription costs us$25.99. That’s us$0.50 an issue or half a cent a page! You can also buy individual issues for $0.99 but I believe these are only readable for four week periods.
It’s a shame I’m not interested in any of the stories because pretty much everything else here, I like:
- Low subscription cost
- Weekly release
- Six ongoing stories
- Stories will eventually be released in print form for any stories I really like.
- It’s digital (so sourcing back copies wont be a problem).
- It’s digital (no having to store lots of old magazines)
- It’s digital (instant delivery)
The comic is black and white but I have no problem with that – I’m used to 2000AD – black and white can be fantastic.
For a colour comic anthology I’d be OK with 5-10 pages each story – I’d even be OK with 20 pages of black and white which would later be collected in a coloured print edition.
I’m reading the first issues of the four Green Lantern themed comics from DC Comic’s latest relaunch. But I’m reading them in roughly 6 page chunks each week. I want to see how they read as a 2000AD-style weekly anthology comic.
Week 2: Personal drama in the first 2 titles with continued carnage in the other 2.
20 pages in total. The first two titles have slowed right down to focus on their main characters – Green Lantern taking 7 pages to do so. The last two titles still manage to balance action with story development.
Breakdown:
Green Lantern (7 pages): On Earth, Hal Jordan has a hard time paying his rent and not acting like a superhero – now that he’s no longer a green lantern.
Green Lantern Corp (4 pages): On Earth, Guy Gardner tries to get a job as a sports coach but doesn’t convince the interviewer he can juggle that job with being a Green Lantern.
Green Lantern – New Guardians (3 pages): On Earth, Ganthet takes Kyle Rayner on his first flight (1 page). In space, a Yellow Lantern attacking members of the Khund Empire, looses it’s ring mysteriously and is killed (2 pages).
Red Lanterns (6 pages): On a spaceship, Atrocitus the Red Lantern, rescues his Cat from the blue lizard-creatures (1 page). On Earth an old man is attacked by a thug with a brick (1 page). On Ysmault, Atrocitus meets the rest of the Red Lantern’s, wonders why he seems to have lost his rage and if this will affect his leadership (2 pages).
I’ve been developing an Actions System for a roleplaying game.
My aim has been to integrate all the possible actions a character can take into one simple system, be they, abilities, skills, feats, attacks, defenses or whatever. As is usual, I’ve divided the main character traits into six Attributes but from there, skills develop into what I’ve nominated as the four main gameplay areas of Exploring, Socialising, Attacking and Defending. Character’s develop their Skills within Skill Families and so overall character development is a process of increasing points in Attributes, Skill Families and in specific Skills.
As you can see, this table integrates what in D&D would be the separate areas of abilities, physical and magic combat, all defenses and all skills into one system. I’ve done this by making the simple assumption that all these things involve the character carrying out an Action and that when you boil it all down, actions like sword fighting, shield work or projecting a magical fireball are all, as far as the game mechanics are concerned, just skills.
Of course this isn’t an exhaustive skill list – and I expect players to be able to invent their own skills as the game progresses.
(click to embiggen)
For clarity, the skills involved in combat are: Unarmed: Finesse style (eg, karate/judo) & Force style (eg, boxing), Close: Blade style (eg, dagger, sword, spear) & Blunt style (eg, mace, staff), Thrown: Blade style (eg, dagger, javelin) & Blunt style (eg, rock, sling) and Projectile: Bow (eg, short and long bow) & Crossbow (eg, crossbow, arbalest); while the Skill Families involving magic are: Elemental: (the material world of fire, water, air and earth), Primal: (the living world of plants and animals) and Psychic: (mind power).
I’m reading the first issues of the four Green Lantern themed comics from DC Comic’s latest relaunch. But I’m reading them in roughly 6 page chunks each week. I want to see how they read as a 2000AD-style weekly anthology comic.
Week 1: An exciting start to four new stories.
So far all four stories are great. As can be seen in the breakdowns below, I read 5, 4 and two 6 page chunks making a “first issue” of 21 pages in total. All of them got right into the story quickly, were engaging and all ended in a cliffhanger or some kind of surprise. So far so great.
Breakdown:
Green Lantern (5 pages): On Oa, Sinestro is reinvested as a Green Lantern by the Guardians. Ganthet is attacked by the rest of the Guardians. (4 panels to a page + a splash page on the second page).
Green Lantern Corp (4 pages): In the GL Sector House while dealing with an unruly prisoner, two Green Lanterns are killed by an invisible attacker. (4 panels to a page + a splash page on the last page).
Green Lantern – New Guardians (6 pages): On Oa, Ganthet, surrounded by bodies of Guardians and Green Lanterns, creates the last power ring (2 pages). On Earth Kyle Rayner, a poor artist, is in a bar with friends (2 pages). Stepping into an alley to take a leak, he is met by Ganthet who gives him the power ring and welcomes him to the Green Lantern Corp. (4-5 panels to a page + a splash page on the first and last pages).
Red Lanterns (6 pages): On a spaceship, a group of blue skinned lizards are torturing a prisoner when a Red Lantern cat attacks them. The lizards fight the cat off and subdue it another Red Lantern breaks into the ship and challenges them. (4-6 panels to a page + a splash page on the last page and a double page spread on the second-third pages).
