Monthly Archive: July 2015

Well summer is winding down. Yes, we said it. Summer is coming to a close. Yes, yes, yes, we at Blogwyrm are quite aware that the end of summer coincides with the autumnal equinox in late September. But whenever you have to contemplate heading back to school, summer is starting to be over. Whenever pre-season football is starting up and reminders to renew your fantasy league are being sent, summer is winding down. Whenever new fall fashions in both clothes and TV schedules are being tossed at you left and right in advertising, summer is calling it quits.

Despite that somber note, Blog Wyrm will continue to offer fun columns to fill out what remains of this all-too-short season.

About Comics takes a look at the story construction process of Alan Moore. Known for his work on Swamp Thing, the Watchmen, and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Moore is certainly creative. How does he frame his stories? Read and find out.

The most well known American bike racer is now just another athlete to use drugs. So how did we get here? We take a look back to the rise and fall of one of America’s favorite athletes in this issue of Ballgame>/a>.

Yes, Scott Lang, it is too late to change the name, because Ant-Man currently has a well-deserved place in the public eye. This week’s Greenscreen takes a brief look at what makes Ant-Man and Marvel so successful.

If you’re trying to close the distance in a match in a fighting game, odds are you’ll have to deal with projectiles whose sole purpose are to keep you away. If it’s the other way around, you’ll have to learn how to use projectiles of your own to keep them away as best as you can. This week’s Pretzel Motion examines both perspectives and gives a brief primer on different varieties of projectiles.

Enjoy.

Well the Blog Wyrm staff is on its annual visit to Otakon. For those who don’t know, Otakon is one of the largest anime conventions in the United States. As a gathering of people with similar interests, Otakon is quite impressive. Its sheer size and pageantry is amazing. But what strikes us at Blog Wyrm is the diversity in people. Different races, nationalities, economic status, genders, and types of people participate by the thousands. Generally, everyone gets along quite politely and respectfully and the biggest ‘conflicts’ occur over matters of taste and aesthetic.

This week, Blog Wyrm continues with its contribution to respectful sharing of views and opinions.

Part four of the ongoing About Comics series examines The Wicked + The Divine. This modern comic stand somewhat in contrast to the earlier approaches examined in that there is a greater emphasis placed on the style of the page rather than the substance of the story.

Love the outdoors? Out looking for a new hobby? Try your hand at geocaching. Don’t know what that is? Take a look at this week’s Ballgame and found out about this growing hobby.

Shaken, not stirred. James Bond defined a film genre back in the day, but that day has long since passed. Or has it? Mosey on over to Greenscreen and read about Kingsman, a fresh and exciting take on the gentleman spy. It’s got it all: action, comedy, romance, Samuel L. Jackson, and, of course, martinis.

The post-grad life is hard. Dead-end minimum wage jobs, career applications up to here, and few prospects on the horizon. Tidbits narrates the process (humorously, we hope) with some of Jack’s personal experiences and observations.

Enjoy!

We at Blog Wyrm are deeply saddened by the violent incidents that have happened in South Carolina and in Tennessee. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the family and friends involved, who are grieving and in pain. Our thoughts are also constantly with those families who are effect by violence but who are not noticed on the public stage. These are the victims of the ‘slow and steady’ pace of violence rather than those involved in the ‘big events’. It saddens us that many residents in the poorer sections of the large cities live with these type of events on a day-to-day basis without even the comfort that the rest of the country is aware of their plight. That’s the bad part. The good part is that we can change this. To paraphrase Shakespeare, the fault lies not in our media outlets but in us. If we consumed the media in a much more reasonable way and demanded substantive coverage rather than shocking fluff, real change might actually be affected.

Anyway, this week Blog Wyrm continues to bring informative and columns without the big media hype.

Part three of the ongoing About Comics series examines how Neil Gaiman built his award-winning Sandman comics. In contrast to the EC-method, Gaiman’s approach is much more writer-centric.

In a fighting game, your attacks take up real space in the game. Often times, people get wrapped up in the longer range attacks without considered whether or not it’s safe to use those moves. This week’s Pretzel Motion is a primer on spacing, the footsies-related concept of where to position yourself on the ground and when to use your best attacks.

Enjoy!

As summer deepens and the temperatures climb, the Blog Wyrm staff begins to long for some lazy days outside, around the pool, goofing off, and wasting time. As a result, we will be switching to a more laid-back schedule until early September. During our summer hiatus, only a few of our columns will be posting weekly (About Comics and Pretzel Motion). Others are taking the summer completely off (Aristotle to Digital and Common Cents) and others will be on a irregular schedule (Ball Game, Green Screen, Tidbits, and Under the Hood).

About Comics takes a long hard look at the creative method of the famous EC publication line. The process they used back in the 1950s centered around the creative output of one man – Al Feldstein. Read all about his method.

Is mandatory drug testing a good idea? Using Bayes Theorem, Aristotle to Digital shows that even in the best of circumstances, the probability of a innocent person coming under an unwarranted cloud of suspicion is pretty high.

What do cooking, rocks, Broadway plays, and Marxism all have in common? They are essential ingredients in Common Cents‘s light-hearted exploration of just how the value of a good or service should be determined.

Fighting game fans are in luck, as Pretzel Motion is posting 2 articles this week! The first provides a video example of the concept of rushdown, as demonstrated by Eddie, the infamous top-tier fighter that has reigned supreme over the Guilty Gear series since the early 2000s. The second article introduces aerial combat and explains why it’s such a huge risk compared to staying on the ground while fighting. If you’ve ever wondered why fighting game veterans tell new players not to jump, this is the article for you.

Under the Hood closes out its analysis of Lie series with a numerical analysis of the convergence of the expansion applied to the pendulum to the exact answer.

Enjoy!

Well it is that time of year again when we celebrate what makes the United States such an amazing country in which to live. Yes the Fourth of July does commemorate the Declaration of Independence – the launching of a fledgling experiment in self-governance in the face of tyranny and of uncertainty. This aspect alone should be worth remembering at this time of year. But there is also another aspect of the Declaration of Independence that is worth noting. The founders and framers added the line ‘… that all men are created equal.’

In a world that rewards a constant keeping-up-with-the-Jones attitude and which asks constantly “what have you done for me lately”, it is easy to think that all of us aren’t created equal. Certainly some of us are stronger than others, or smarter, or richer. Only a moron could fail to see that we aren’t equal – if the definition of equal is limited to the idea that we should be equal in outcomes or accidents of birth. But what the founders meant is that we are all equal in fundamental dignity, in deserving respect, and in being entitled to certain inalienable rights. We at Blog Wyrm are grateful for their wisdom and their courage and for giving all us such a wonderful place to live.

Blog Wyrm could not exist without the structure that these men risked all they had to make a reality. So this patriotic edition of Blog Wyrm is dedicated to them.

There are a lot of books out there purporting to help you make your own comic and to give the secrets that the pros use. Are they really saying the same thing? About Comics begins a comprehensive review of these works.

This week’s Aristotle to Digital discusses the real power of Bayes theorem; the ability to link cause and effect in a meaningful way.

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are the current cause celeb but does it make good economic sense to shun these man-made organics? Common Cents presents some evidence that suggests that you should think twice before joining the witch hunt.

As you may know, the goal of any fighting game is to defeat your opponent, and the most effective way of doing that is by getting on the offensive. Building on the previously-explored concept of taking advantage of an opening in an opponent’s strategy, Pretzel Motion introduces the concept of rushdown, or limiting the opponent’s options and trying to bait their unsafe reversals while still staying safe yourself.

This week’s Under the Hood applies the Lie series to the problem of the pendulum. An exact solution exists in terms of elliptical integrals. How close does the Lie series come? Read and find out.

Enjoy!