Pi Anyone?

Merry Christmas, Everybody!

This year I got a Raspberry Pi, which happens to be exactly what I wanted...

For those of you who aren't in the know, the Raspberry Pi is a low cost single board linux computer, and it is very popular in hobby electronics circles.

I haven't figured out exactly what I wanna do with it, but for the time being, I'm gonna load upo Raspbian onto an SD card and hook it up to my television.

Tales From Overguilds, Part 12

Alright... where were we?

21st Opal, Midwinter, 1053

My miners are still carving out bedrooms and removing a few surface ramps. I'll take the time to start beautifying the fortress. And as admiring a tastefully arranged statue goes along way towards improving a dwarf's mood, I have asked my manager to have twenty rock statues constructed. Later these will be place in various high traffic areas. 

Now, which of my idlers should I set to engraving duty?

I set two unemployed hunters to engraving duty and designate a section of the bedroom wing to smooth. Soon one of the two loafers show up and gets to work, but to my surprise, so does my broker. And he smooths FAST. Investigating, it turns out that he is a legendary engraver. Nice.

Ghosts are cool.

I look around to see what else is going on... It seems on the surface I've gotten a chunk of the ramps dug out (finally) and a series of walls underway (again, finally). And I spot... a ghost!

My sprawling catacombs.

Who am gonna call? Nobody at the moment. But if it does become a problem, I'll just call my engraver and have a memorial slab carved.  But that does remind me, what ever happened to that plan of mine to put in some catacombs?

 There's my catacombs, and they need some work. But, that'll have to wait until my miner finished digging out the bedrooms. Otherwise, I'll never get anything done.

I let things run for a while- I make sure my workshops are still operating. I set one of my jeweler's workshop back to encrusting furniture, my engravers continue smoothing things, and my farmers complain about being out of plump helmet spawn again. Then I get the following notification:

It seems a bunch of troglodytes have arrived, too. Anyone wanna bet it's a troglodyte werelizard?

The Werelizard Akul Icgasom has come! Who the heck is the Werelizard Akul Icgasom? It'll find out next time (I promise, it'll be less than a month till the next update). Seeing as it's almost Christmas, I figure I'll upload a copy of my save game for any readers who wanna pull Akul's tail off to see if it'll grow back...

Quit yer yappin', I wanna torture me a Werelizard! (Dwarf Fortress File Depot download link)

More Tales from Overguilds

Frankenstein's Army (2013)

Near the end of World War 2, a team of Russian soldiers find themselves battling an army of reanimate corpses turned into horrific killing machines built by the deranged descendant of Victor Frankenstein.

Actually, the plot is simpler than that, it's basically a slasher film where the killers hack their way through soldiers rather than fornicating teenagers. With the added bonus of a mad scientist ranting towards the end. Plus, the monsters are actors in costumes, which unfortunately feels like a novelty these days.

If you love all things horror, then this movie is pure fun with a side order of imaginatively scary monsters. If you like plot and story however, it's a bit thin in those departments. Even worse is the film's use of  shaky cam. It doesn't make the movie feel any more real, as if it was footage released from old Soviet archives. No, it just gives me flashbacks of playing Wolfenstein 3D as a teenager. Filmmakers who may be reading this please take note: skaky cam is a perfectly fine filmmaking technique that should never be used again. EVER.

What's that? You say "But I have a legitimate reason to use shaky cam..."

No. No you don't. No Shaky Cam.

Despite these shortcomings, I enjoyed this movie. It's the perfect type of movie to watch late at night with a bunch of friends with the lights out. Or if you can't decide between watching Enemy at the Gates or Hellraiser.

Official Site
Imdb