The Stochastic Game
Ramblings of General Geekery

I’m continuing my first watch of all things Star Trek, now about 2/3rds into TNG’s first season. I love it! It’s in line with TOS, but with more 3-dimensional characters, expanded lore, and hints toward some story arcs. Why were fans ever upset about this?

Crusher, Troi, and Picard standing somewhere in the Enterprise. Of all the TNG characters, I think Troi is the only one I find "meh" so far.
Riker is looking super sexy when Beata, leader of the planet Angel One, summons him to her bedroom for, ahem, diplomatic reasons. This whole episode was ridiculously cheesy fun.
Data and evil-Data are chatting in a corridor in the Enterprise.
A whole bunch of people from the Enterprise crew are ready to beam out.

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Who’s fluffy, hates crows, and is racist against German Shepherds? THIS GUY

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The pre-show hike yesterday was nice! I saw some rabbits, and also possibly Emmanuelle Vaugier (sorry for staring like a weirdo when I’m trying to figure out why someone looks familiar 😅)

A view of the forest from a hiking trail in the Langley Bog
A little rabbit on the side of a hiking trail in the Langley Bog
A view of the Fraser River, with the north shore mountains in the background, from the Fort-to-Fort trail in Langley BC
Another view of the Langley Bog from the hiking trail

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Sound check done, ready for another gig! This one is gonna be long, with 3 sets… I might go hiking a bit before the show

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The 50th anniversary edition of Call of Cthulhu is releasing soon but those who pre-ordered it should have received it this week! Here it is in all its Swedish beauty! I don’t know how many limited editions of CoC there are but I have a couple 😅

The new 50th anniversary slipcase set. Apple for scale.
A close up on the Cthulhu Rising cover illustration by Ola Larsson
The new 50th anniversary edition with all the contents taken out: the Keeper Rulebook, Investigator Handbook, and the impossible-to-put-back-properly Keepr Screen Pack.
My Call of Cthulhu limited editions: - 20th anniversary, yellow limited signed version - 40th anniversary edition - 50th anniversary edition I think I missed the 25th and 30th anniversaries? Are there any other? I probably have enough anyway, especially when you consider I also have a few French editions! (no I don't have a problem YOU have a problem)

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“Conclave” would have benefited from more clever, intricate, and less predictable plot and dialogue, but what it lacks there it makes up in interesting points about religious faith, great acting, and gorgeous set design.

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The Wailing makes rural South Korea look both beautiful and horrifying. It expertly goes through, like, 5 different film genres, comments on East-Asian folklore versus Catholic faith, all while being scary. I’m not a fan of the end twists but it’s still a great movie.

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The Ugly Stepsister is a brilliant retelling of the Cinderella story, refocused on the titular stepsister and changed into a beautifully shot body-horror black comedy about living up to beauty standards in a patriarchal society. Loved it.

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I finally saw Black Hawk Down and, apart from the obvious few problems everyone knows about, it’s still an amazing war movie, and a technical tour-de-force. Impressive.

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Well that aged well 😒 From Mission: Impossible S01E10, the crew are undercover in a Russian (I think?) training program for sleeper agents in the US. They are “tested” by being fake-arrested by the police, and reprimanded for not resisting arrest, which is “the American Way”!

Rollin Hand (Martin Landau), Roger Lee (guest star George Takei), and Barney Collier (Greg Morris) are undercover in a training camp for sleeper agents in the US. They were just fake-arrested by Russians posing as US police, and only Rollin had the sense of protesting arrest, screaming about warrants and civic rights until the police backed off. Yanosh Passik (Arthur Hill), the mastermind and "US culture specialist" behind this training program, shows up and reprimands Roger and Barney: "You were much too quick to be bullied by authority"
Yanosh Passik continues: "That is not the American way. Americans are not afraid of their police"

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