Death Knights: Not to be taken seriously.

The Warden — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:09:14 +0000

Pros of being a DK: Plate armor Cons of being a DK: Everything [...]

Radio Silence

Mr. Repose — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:57:12 +0000

Monolithic Horizon started a long time ago, when I was around the age of twenty. Sure other stories have come along and I've worked on shorts and played with a few chapters here and there for the hell of it, for a break, for whatever. But the end result is that the book was never finished, I just sat on it. I've been delaying finishing it since I started writing it because, I'm dreadfully afraid of failure. It seems as though my preference has been been simply to not try. When you don't try and you fail, at least it's easier. When you work hard for something, when you... for whatever reason, actually care about something and it slips through your fingers or falls apart then it's a lot harder to deal with. At least in my [...]

Fate

Mr. Repose — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:09:03 +0000

Last night my little brother was telling me that he had to attend a seminar about how it's important to preserve the oceans, about how it's important to save the whales and such. I found myself laughing. I said that the sun will become too hot to support life on the surface of the planet after a billion years. After two the oceans are going to be boiled and eventually dry up. After the sun turns into a red giant in another few billion years then world will be utterly destroyed, as it sinks into the enlarged sun. Pretty much our entire solar system will be annihilated when that happens. [...]

The Scorpion and The Frog

Mr. Repose — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:00:18 +0000

Our whole plutonomy thesis is based on the idea that the rich will keep getting richer. This thesis is not without its risks. For example, a policy error leading to asset deflation, would likely damage plutonomy. Furthermore, the rising wealth gap between the rich and poor will probably at some point lead to a political backlash. Whilst the rich are getting a greater share of the wealth, and the poor a lesser share, political enfrachisement remains as was – one person, one vote (in the plutonomies). At some point it is likely that labor will fight back against the rising profit share of the rich and there will be a political backlash against the rising wealth of the rich. This could be felt through higher taxation (on the rich or indirectly though higher corporate taxes/regulation) or through trying to protect indigenous laborers, in a push-back on globalization – either anti-immigration, or protectionism. We don’t see this happening yet, though there are signs of rising political tensions. However we are keeping a close eye on [...]

Monolithic Horizon; Act 1: Heathen – Chapter 6: Dead Man Walking

Mr. Repose — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:23:32 +0000

The old government became massively in debt due largely to hubris. They felt that they were the best, the greatest place in the world, so great in fact that they could teach others how to be great like them, and if they didn't listen they'd simply bomb them into submission. By being provoked into wars based not upon necessity but politics and trying to project an appearance of power they actually did nothing but damage their infrastructure so thoroughly that they ignored the corporations becoming increasingly ingrained in the various governmental bodies. The government needed corporate sponsorship to fund the wars, they'd bid out obscene amounts of money to various weapons manufacturers, rather than producing the tech themselves, which racked up the costs and led to corporations being able to get closer on the inside of national politics. The wars ended up becoming increasingly costly, both in lives and income, and they needed to keep finding new enemies to fight to keep the public distracted and in fear so that they didn't question the wholesale buyout of government by corporate interests. The wars were failures, mostly because there was little justification for invasion in most cases, and no real plan, except to make those in power look competent and in-charge of the world. Politicians were making military decisions in some sort of inept attempt at trying to improve their public image and re-election chances. In the end they simply ran out of money, so the corporations offered to start sending merc forces to 'help' the army maintain it's occupation of various countries, as the line began to blur between this new corporate 'army' and the dwindling government army, they now had the country in their debt and had the military mostly under their control. When the various defense and media companies, who for years had been supporting the wars, came in and decided to collect on the bill, the government had no choice but to hand over the control to corporate panels who slowly wrested power from them by keeping them in the dark of the war's progress and events. They just moved in and took over. Then the wars ended, as they were no longer profitable, and most of the invaded regions collapsed into infighting, which is not much of a difference from what they were doing before. The government could do nothing but capitulate further and further to the demands of the corporations, whom without, no one could get elected, and no government services could run because they were so far in debt to them. They needed the corporations more then they needed them. So the next step was obvious, and this is the result. That was the real Dream that they were chasing, total economic domination. Whoever controls the wealth, controls the power. They treated the government like a competitor, indulged their excess and even encouraged it, till it ran them into the ground. Then they took the scraps and chopped it up and sold it wholesale to whoever was buying. It was the biggest and most impressive hostile takeover in [...]

Convos From the Dark Side: Mister Repose’s Final Form

Mr. Repose — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:16:29 +0000

Notice the dignity he brings to my protruding forehead, my squinted eyes, my flared nostrils, my horse-teeth biting into my lower lip, the way I scrunch my neck up giving me the illusion of having double-chin. They should just take the Mona Lisa down, burn it in the town square, and replace it with this majestic masterpiece. I dub this work of art 'Le Repose In A State of Coital [...]

Seth MacFarlane, you’re not funny. Give it up.

The Warden — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:04:55 +0000

Hey, you know what Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show all have in common? Assuming you’ve even heard of the Cleveland Show by now and have also NOT committed suicide knowing it exists, I’ll tell you: all three are the projects of a guy named Seth MacFarlane. Seth, after an attempt in the [...]

Right Wing, Left Wing Parasites.

Mr. Repose — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:15:54 +0000

It's just humorous to me to see what these people do exactly. For example, just now I was watching this guy from Texas, one, John Carter, go on a speech in the House. This man, who looks like my grandfather, went on about the forefathers, and how they founded a 'republic' for blah blah blah morals blah blah blah. This went on for about three minutes. First, I don't think the House needs a damn history lesson that serves as little more than an attempt to assert your party is right by simple virtue of the fact the forefathers founded a republic so republic-ans must be the chosen [...]

Hey, why do webcomics suck so much?

The Warden — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:33:51 +0000

It’s a fair question, isn’t it? While it’s true that many of these “authors” are not being paid for their work, and even the ones who are become uncannily lazy in the alluring bask of fame, that’s just no excuse to publish shitty content to your audience simply because you know they have no better [...]

Light at the End

Mr. Repose — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:23:20 +0000

During my time on these tubes I have encountered an unusual amount of desperate, lonely, and in some cases, eccentric people. This is because, due to my nature, I tend to avoid websites and such that are extremely large and/or popular. In the more obscure corners these kinds of people thrive. One of the deciding factors for my leaving Open Diary ten years ago stemmed from the fact that the place was outgrowing it's users. Now, this experience in dealing with these types of people, is that you find out something which I feel is extremely important in life... that your situation is not special or unique. Odds are, someone else has been where you're going or has just crawled out of where you've been. I forget where this quote is from that summarizes that sentiment, but I think it was a video game. I want to say Max Payne, but I'm not sure. Anyway it goes something like this. "There are no apocalypses, just personal ones; and nothing is a cliche when it's happening to [...]