Harris Pizza #5 of Bettendorf, IA

You might consider Harris Pizza the origin of the quad-cities style, and it's not much different from Saint Guiseppe's. It has a ratio of 2cr/2ce/2ch. Since the style of sausage (crumbled, under the cheese, spicy, with fennel seed) is such a landmark for this style of pizza, I decided to give it a shot, even though sausage isn't good for leaving overnight while you camp in your car. The 12" pie was $12 whether I got a topping or not, so it seemed like a good idea.

Their crust is crusty, and I realized it's more like sourdough, really, than pizza dough. It was all right. I'll give it a 3 out of 5. Their sauce is thinner than Saint Giuseppe's, but there's definitely more in the flavor department. It did soak through a particularly weak section of the dough. I'll give their sauce a 3 out of 5.

For style, I guess Harris gets a 4. There were a lot of cool things on the menu, like burgers, fried pickles (and other fried things), and taco pizza. I really would have liked some unlimited diet pepsis in their dining room, but it was closed. I wish I'd known before I passed-up Harris Pizza #4. I thought I'd read while waiting for my pizza, but one of the two people in the back was trying really hard to be funny while also expressing his crankiness. It's funny how people have a special kitchen personality. He made a few remarks about how my pizza looked like shit, to which his coworker insisted it was a good pizza, looking good. Even I had to inspect the pie before taking it with me, and it looked good.

So for overall quality, Harris Pizza gets a 4 out of 5. The cheese could have been melted more, but oh well. With a 70%, Harris measures right up to my other quad-cities style pizza. Though I'd give this an extra 1% because everything about it was slightly better than what I got at Saint Giuseppe's.

Unnamed PJ Comic #3

Willy's Wonderland (feat. Nicolas Cage)

Made by Saturn Films during the big pandemic, we got a weird, scary movie called Willy's Wonderland. I don't think the film was meant to actually scare anyone. It's more of a fun slasher, and weird for the sake of weirdness. Cage plays the Janitor, a character with no lines, who rigidly adheres to an hourly dose of a drink called Punch Pop.

Due to a spike trap on the road, Janitor gets stranded in a nowhere town, and the only way to get his car fixed is to trade labor, by cleaning Willy's Wonderland, a closed-down party place, like a Chuck E. Cheese, only the animatronic animals kill people.

The animatronics don't look real, but that's fine. Willy's Wonderland isn't supposed to reflect our own realities in any capacity. By the time you hear the (awesome) titular theme song, you should realize this movie is just fun, violent fun. No substance? No problem. Check it out.

1. Raising Arizona
2. Leaving Las Vegas
3. Red Rock West
4. Adaptation
5. Pig
6. Birdy
7. Wild at Heart
8. Joe
9. National Treasure
10. Guarding Tess
11. Snake Eyes
12. Dog Eat Dog
13. Color Out of Space
14. Mom and Dad
15. World Trade Center
16. Peggy Sue Got Married
17. Zandalee
18. Prisoners of the Ghostland
19. City of Angels

20. Willy's Wonderland

21. Bangkok Dangerous
22. Drive Angry
23. Army of One
24. Lord of War
25. Gone in 60 Seconds
26. Matchstick Men
27. Vampire's Kiss
28. Con Air
29. Face/Off
30. The Boy in Blue
31. Honeymoon in Vegas
32. Amos and Andrew
33. Moonstruck
34. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
35. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
36. Bringing Out the Dead
37. The Family Man
38. Knowing
39. The Frozen Ground
40. It Could Happen to You
41. 8mm
42. Looking Glass
43. Arsenal
44. Between Worlds
45. Left Behind
46. Ghost Rider
47. The Humanity Bureau
48. Next
49. The Weather Man
50. 211
51. The Croods

Fenrir Lunaris's Vikings of Midgard

This is the pack-in game for the Official Hamster Republic RPG Construction Engine, originally developed for DOS, by James Paige. This is the engine I use for my little game design projects. Originally designed for people to easily make games similar to Final Fantasy IV, OHRRPGCE has been consistently development and can now be used (with a good deal of programming), to construct any kind of 2-D game.

Of course for amateur game designers, new engine options are popping up all the time. OHRRPGCE isn't even on the radar for noobs. But I know what I know, and there's still a lot I want to do with OHR. And the smallness of its community has its benefits.

But anyway! Vikings of Midgard showcases a near perfect execution all of the basic things you can do with OHRRPGCE, featuring developers as characters, among characters from the community's other games. Altogether, it's a wonderfully inspiring introduction to the engine and its community.

More about the game. Starting in Valhalla, Odin sends you on a quest to rescue the missing Freya. Meta intended, the game sends you on a quest for four stones to complete the Brising Necklace, which will open the gate to Helheim, where the *Dark One* has kept Freya kidnapped. This quest sends you to places of Norse mythology like Alfheim, Nifelheim, and Thule. Like most RPGs, you first go to the forest zone, then the fire zone, then the ice zone. But at least I wasn't forced to use the black mage. It's not that I hate black mages, I just think that for how many random battles you often have to fight in JRPGs, I'd rather not spend half those battles rifling through menus and picking the right elemental attack.

So the Gameplay here is pretty well-balanced. You can turn off random encounters to avoid constantly running into low-powered/low-reward enemies, but your invaluable thief character can usually steal something worthy. Aside from a thief, you get a variety of party members, like a black mage, white page, samurai, berzerker, valkyrie, fighter, bard, and ranger. This gives you options regarding how much you want to grind verses how much you want to strategize.

Some mini bosses will switch around your party, so the character they pertain to gets used, which can be a bit annoying if you really rely on your white mage. But these optional mini bosses are well worth fighting, because they usually reward you with a new skill. New mini bosses often appear in areas you've already explored as your story progresses, making it feel less like you're running errands just to progress the story.

I've always thought the graphical presentation for the OHR's built-in battle system was a bit wonky, which is why most advanced users of the engine make their own battle system. Fenrir-Lunaris compensates for this with laboriously crafted, beautiful enemy sprites. It's this kind of love-labor that makes this game stand out from titles made for profit or brand-building. Still, not all graphics were created with the same passion. Many of the human portrait graphics are downright ugly compared to the furry characters.

That being said, I got twelve hours into the game, and could not figure out what to do. So I talked to the developer on Discord, often asking what to do next. Fenrir is a furry, and talks like a college professor. A real nice guy. I made a quick video of myself using debug tools to get to the next area of the game, revealing that I'd been playing an old, probably incomplete version. So Fenrir insisted I start over, after I'd already invested twelve hours.

So I did, and it was worth it. Vikings of Midgard was a fun game with a great, very complete story, and it was an experience I'll never forget.

Style: 3/5 - Substance: 5/5 - Music: 3/5 - Fun: 3/5

Saint Giuseppe's Heavenly Pizza of Moline, IL

For some time I've wanted to fully discover, for myself, the true meaning of quad-cities style pizza. By quad-cities, I mean the area where I was born, the area where Moline, Davenport, Bettendorf, and Rock Island come together. Founded in 1997, Saint Giuseppe's isn't the original quad-cities pizza chain, but it had good ratings. Per usual, I got a regular cheese pizza with a side of red sauce. The ratio for the pie was 2cr/2ce/3ch.

I'll rate their crust a 3 out of 5. It's crispy, puffy, and chewy, tasting and feeling more like homemade bread than pizza crust, which is more than I can say about the cardboard you often find in new, mysterious joints. Their sauce also gets a 3 out of 5. It's pretty spicy for a pizza sauce, which I heard is characteristic of quad-cities pizza. There were no discernable flavors beyond red pepper and tomato in this otherwise good, thick sauce.

For style, Giuseppe's gets a 4 of 5. I like when a pie is cut into strips. It makes it easier to dip. And despite the crust being bready and the sauce being spicy, this pizza doesn't really stand-out when you don't look at it closely. The joint itself looked like it was once a cozy family joint, left in a state of disarray for pandemic-style seating. Each way I turned my head, I felt like I was facing yet another light bulb. Nice-looking guitars were hung on the wall, going to waste as decorations.

They get a 4 out of 5 for quality. There was nothing wrong with my pizza, and nothing amazing. It was good. If it were cheaper and in my town, I'd get it when I want to mix things up. Overall, Saint Giuseppe's Heavenly Pizza gets a 70%.

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

This was more of a guidebook on how to become unblocked, as a "blocked" artist. So I was supposed to read a chapter a week, and do homework. It took me a while to get into the habit of following the directives, so it took me a while to get through the book. I never considered myself blocked, though I could always create more art. Sure. Mostly, I was looking for tips on gaining the confidence necessary to put more words on pages.

Cameron insists on invoking the great Creator, from whom our work flows. They are in charge of the quality of our work, and we are in charge of getting it done. If we accept that our creativity is a gift from God, any fault in our work can be directed to Him. And there are a lot of things like that in this book, much like a twelve step program.

And while I've made a few changes to my habits and my thinking about art, it's yet to be determined whether this book has had a profound, positive impact on my artistic path. That being said, I haven't done all of my homework, and I haven't gotten much better at nurturing my inner artist. Maybe, by the time I've finished all of the homework, I'll no longer feel so bitter about how some things have turned out for me, and I'll have more courage about the work I share.

But The Artist's Way did help me to find a sense of direction, better aligned with my values. And for anyone out there who is a blocked artist, and would like to get back into the habit of doing creative things, I do recommend this book. I think it would help a lot, at least to get the ball rolling.

Mother Bear's Pizza Campus of Bloomington, IN

Here's a local staple I've been trying to get around to. Out of three crust options: Deep, Pan, and Thin, we chose the Pan. It has a ratio of 4cr/3ce/4ch. A very decadent pie, it looks a lot like a classic Pizza Hut pan, but made with more love.

Their crust gets a 3 out of 5 for me. It's both soft and chewy, but somewhat dry for a pan pizza. I expected the bottom to be greasier, melting into a sauce/soaked goo. And there wasn't much flavor to it. Maybe the sauce has something to do with the dryness. It's a thick, hearty sauce, which I'll rank a 4 out of 5. It could use a little more zing, but it's sweet, floral, and totally delicious.

Not all will agree with me on this, but I give Mother Bears a 3 out of 5 for style. I know they let people write on the booths, and I know they serve cheese sauce with their otherwise disappointing braedsticks. I know their mascot has huge furry appeal, and their menu is somewhat expansive. Their pizza doesn't really stand out to me, and none of the bells and whistles do much for me. That's right, I don't care that they'll let me get tapenade as my pizza sauce.

For overall quality, I will give their pizza a 5 out of 5. I could tell it was made with love, by people who know what they're doing. And I appreciate a pizza-master who can take a Pizza Hut pie and think, "You know what? I'm gonna make it great." So Mother Bear's gets an overall score of 75%. Love it.

Prisoners of the Ghostland (feat. Nicolas Cage)

Set in Samurai Town, this film is a bizarre combination of western drama and kung fu fantasy. The plot is ridiculous by american standards, which makes it somewhat hard to grasp. Hero, our hero, played by Cage, is a prisoner who's sent on a quest to save the warlord's grandaughter who I think is cursed. Hero is sent on the quest in a suit set to explode in three days, and if he succeeds, he wins back his freedom.

But on this quest, Hero has to confront demons other than the demons of his past. Yes, it sounds bizarre, but doesn't it also sound exciting and fantastical? While there isn't much kung-fu fighting in this film, it gives us a visual feast of magical weirdness. From the team that brought us Mandy, Color Out of Space, and Mom and Dad, this movie is definitely one to catch.

1. Raising Arizona
2. Leaving Las Vegas
3. Red Rock West
4. Adaptation
5. Pig
6. Birdy
7. Wild at Heart
8. Joe
9. National Treasure
10. Guarding Tess
11. Snake Eyes
12. Dog Eat Dog
13. Color Out of Space
14. Mom and Dad
15. World Trade Center
16. Peggy Sue Got Married
17. Zandalee

18. Prisoners of the Ghostland

19. City of Angels
20. Bangkok Dangerous
21. Drive Angry
22. Army of One
23. Lord of War
24. Gone in 60 Seconds
25. Matchstick Men
26. Vampire's Kiss
27. Con Air
28. Face/Off
29. The Boy in Blue
30. Honeymoon in Vegas
31. Amos and Andrew
32. Moonstruck
33. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
34. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
35. Bringing Out the Dead
36. The Family Man
37. Knowing
38. The Frozen Ground
39. It Could Happen to You
40. 8mm
41. Looking Glass
42. Arsenal
43. Between Worlds
44. Left Behind
45. Ghost Rider
46. The Humanity Bureau
47. Next
48. The Weather Man
49. 211
50. The Croods