A new webcomic to peruse

Hi,

So if Order of the Stick is too crudely drawn for you (which is a shame because *man* has the story gotten good lately -- Belkar and Miko are about to have their first date!), and you're in the mood for a more...morally-ambiguous comic, you might like Looking for Group. It also has a serious WoW tinge to it, but hey, it's not terrible.

later
Tom

A new webcomic to peruse

Hi,

So if Order of the Stick is too crudely drawn for you (which is a shame because *man* has the story gotten good lately -- Belkar and Miko are about to have their first date!), and you're in the mood for a more...morally-ambiguous comic, you might like Looking for Group. It also has a serious WoW tinge to it, but hey, it's not terrible.

later
Tom

Number one in the 'hood, G

I can only hope there will be an Aqua-Teen Hunger Force episode about yesterday's "bomb scare" in the very near future. Before South Park gets to it first.

Tom

Number one in the 'hood, G

I can only hope there will be an Aqua-Teen Hunger Force episode about yesterday's "bomb scare" in the very near future. Before South Park gets to it first.

Tom

For SCIENCE!

Hi,

So I finished up The Big Chunk of Ice: The Last Known Adventure of the Mad Scientists Club by Bertrand R. Brinley. Apparently, this story had been floating around in his papers for quite some time, but only now has his son gotten everything together and gotten it published.

Unfortunately...it's not very good.

Here's the quick rundown: The Mad Scientists Club gets signed up for a trip to Austria to study a glacier. There's a mystery involving ghosts, haunted castles, stolen diamonds, and the like. Oh, there's also a blimp involved which automatically makes the story better. In the end, they catch a bunch of crooks and solve a mystery. Y'know, like always.

But when compared to the other stories in the series...ugh. For one thing, it strays far afield from the fairly hard-science previously established in the series. Some of it was a little far-fetched for a group of young teens (would you really let them pilot their own helium balloon?), but the principles were always sound. Here, things just get a bit wacky. The boys are also less active in this story and much more reactive. It just doesn't fit together well.

Also, the secondary characters around the MSC are being played up for laughs. True, Mayor Scragg and Zeke Bonniface aren't exactly deep characters, but Austria is just an excuse to break out the funny accents.

Oh, and there are girls. Two college-aged girls who talk like flaky hippies and aren't a whole lot more mature than the boys. To their credit, they do some actual scientific work, but it's mostly "off-screen" and they come off as pretty weak. Should I expect a whole lot different from an author who was born in the early part of this century? Well...maybe, it was just sad that's all.

So, definitely the weakest of the books. I'm glad it got published and I got a chance to read it, but it certainly isn't a satisfying "Last Adventure".

later
Tom

For SCIENCE!

Hi,

So I finished up The Big Chunk of Ice: The Last Known Adventure of the Mad Scientists Club by Bertrand R. Brinley. Apparently, this story had been floating around in his papers for quite some time, but only now has his son gotten everything together and gotten it published.

Unfortunately...it's not very good.

Here's the quick rundown: The Mad Scientists Club gets signed up for a trip to Austria to study a glacier. There's a mystery involving ghosts, haunted castles, stolen diamonds, and the like. Oh, there's also a blimp involved which automatically makes the story better. In the end, they catch a bunch of crooks and solve a mystery. Y'know, like always.

But when compared to the other stories in the series...ugh. For one thing, it strays far afield from the fairly hard-science previously established in the series. Some of it was a little far-fetched for a group of young teens (would you really let them pilot their own helium balloon?), but the principles were always sound. Here, things just get a bit wacky. The boys are also less active in this story and much more reactive. It just doesn't fit together well.

Also, the secondary characters around the MSC are being played up for laughs. True, Mayor Scragg and Zeke Bonniface aren't exactly deep characters, but Austria is just an excuse to break out the funny accents.

Oh, and there are girls. Two college-aged girls who talk like flaky hippies and aren't a whole lot more mature than the boys. To their credit, they do some actual scientific work, but it's mostly "off-screen" and they come off as pretty weak. Should I expect a whole lot different from an author who was born in the early part of this century? Well...maybe, it was just sad that's all.

So, definitely the weakest of the books. I'm glad it got published and I got a chance to read it, but it certainly isn't a satisfying "Last Adventure".

later
Tom