Happy Earth Day

Pioneer Valley History

Dates represent the time these towns were settled by Europeans. Only the year of settlement is considered, not month or day, so it is possible some towns settled in the same year are actually listed out of order chronologically.
(Dates taken from: https://www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cisctlist/ctlistalph.htm )

The four Quabbin towns of Dana, Enfield, Prescott, and Greenwich are missing until I can find better data about when they were settled. (Dana was actually Worcester county anyway.)

Agawam - 1635
Springfield - 1636
Longmeadow - 1644
Chicopee - 1652
Northampton - 1654
Hadley - 1659
South Hadley - 1659
West Springfield - 1660
Westfield - 1660
Hatfield - 1661
Easthampton - 1664
Whately - 1672
Deerfield - 1673
Northfield - 1673
Sunderland - 1673
Greenfield - 1686
Amherst - 1703
Brimfield - 1706
Monson - 1715
Ware - 1717
Holland - 1725
Wales- 1726
Granby - 1727
Palmer - 1727
Leverett - 1730
Wilbraham - 1730
Belchertown - 1731
Southampton - 1732
Colrain - 1735
Williamsburg - 1735
Shutesbury -1735
Blandford - 1735
Granville - 1736
New Salem - 1737
Bernardston- 1738
Leyden - 1738
Pelham - 1738
Warwick - 1739
East Longmeadow - 1740
Hampden - 1741
Charlemont - 1742
Ashfield - 1743
Holyoke - 1745
Orange - 1746
Montague - 1750
Tolland -1750
Ludlow - 1751
Wendell- 1754
Shelburne- 1756
Hawley - 1760
Chesterfield - 1760
Chester - 1760
Goshen - 1761
Conway - 1762
Westhampton - 1762
Rowe - 1762
Cummington- 1762
Worthington - 1764
Heath - 1765
Montgomery - 1767
Huntington - 1769
Plainfield - 1770
Southwick - 1770
Gill - 1776
Buckland -1779
Middlefield - 1780
Russell - 1782
Monroe - 1800
Erving - 1801

Nearby Cities:
Albany - 1614*
New York - 1624* 
Boston - 1625
Hartford -1636*
Worcester - 1673 
Brattleboro - 1723*
Pittsfield - 1752

*Dates taken from Wikipedia

Reference Series 01: Platonic Solids

Lodestar Issue 01: Introduction

There is a space in the Universe

called the Storywarp.

If the Storywarp were like outerspace (which it's not)

then the stories would be like galaxies (which they're not)

at its center, a core,

the source of the Storywarp.

at its edges is the Great Echo.

each story has a mass, 

the measure of which changes based on how you lodestars shine your light there.

some stories have enough mass to physically orbit the core.

you, a lodestar, come from the core.

you are free to travel the Storywarp, 

gathering adventures, mysteries, suspense and romance, 

the way a sun would gather planets.

and if you dare, you may begin to tell a story of you own.

you should know, not all stories get along

and throughout the Storywarp is a great villain,

a story, of course.

a story of greed and strife

a story of arrogance and ignorance

a story of us and them.

This story has gripped the core almost entirely,

and the lodestars are dimming.

..but not you.

Easthampton Zinefest! 2017

     If you're just stopping by the site because you saw us at the Zinefest, thanks so much for coming out! We had a lot of fun and got plenty of new ideas.

     This blog has been my personal blog for a while and is also kind of a mash up of a few other blogs I used to post on. In other words, it's pretty random right now, but of course the general theme is "playing."

     Stay tuned for more content, including some Dungeons and Dragons campaign stories, and of course, the fabled origins of Wizard Kitty and Punko Turt!

Power Rangers (2017) Overview (Spoilers)

     So this reboot among reboots made me real skeptical at first, but when the trailers came out I got excited enough to have some hope. After seeing it I'd have to say the first act was all pretty successful. I thought the acting was good enough and the characterizations of the teens felt appropriate. It was a pretty slow build up that could have been cut down a bit, but I was enjoying it. The problem is when it was finally MORPHIN' TIME everything felt pretty boring and contrived. I didn't get that big hero rush that usually happens when the heroes finally start kicking ass. The original series was famous for this because as soon as they morphed their heavy metal theme song would lend additional power to the battle and it just made you want to jump off your couch and do karate moves along with them. Scenes like this can go a long way to redeeming a lackluster movie in my eyes, for example when Wonder Woman shows up to the fight in Batman vs Superman or when The Beastie Boys' Sabotage is used to kill aliens in Star Trek Beyond. Power Rangers 2017 didn't have one of these big hero moments, so as a viewer it made all that build up feel wasted with no payoff. Having them just morph in their base and walk out in slow motion (albeit to an awesome song) was really disappointing.

Time for the ole list-of-thing-I-wish-had-been-changed:

-I didn't really like their armor, but I was willing to let it slide. I would have rather had them wear suits more like their original movie suits which were just slightly bulked up versions of the TV costumes. These ones looked a little too bulky and curvy at the same time or something. I'm not sure exactly, but I don't like them.
-However the new suits weren't as bad at the new Zords. In their animal forms they were pretty good (except the mastodon's design was too complicated. If I didn't know it was supposed to be a mastodon I probably wouldn't have been able to figure it out.) Mainly I didn't like the Megazord itself. It was too skinny, I prefer a nice heavy, clunky, robot. I also don't recall them ever actually mentioning the names of their Zords even though they're on their helmets and are supposed to be a part of their power. The way they finally formed the Megazord was kind of stupid too. We all know damn well they're going to do it, why bother acting like their going to die in a pit of unnecessary drama? Just have them form up and win! Another missed opportunity for a big hero moment. I will say I really appreciated that they spent some time fighting as individual Zords before combining though; this was something I always felt was missing from the original series.
-The Putties looked pretty cool as giant stone golems, but I wish only a few were huge like that. Being so much bigger than a human meant normal martial arts wouldn't really work on them and there goes your chance to put in some classic fighting stunt work. Even though the rangers had super powers without their armor they were still basically worthless against the enemies until they were able to morph.
-Lastly, Rita and Goldar were pretty boring but I can let that slide.

     It seems pretty obvious that Rita will return (probably along with Lord Zedd) and use her green coin to make Tommy an evil green ranger. I'll probably go and see that one too. And it will probably also be lackluster. I don't really fault Hollywood for all these reboots because a lot of these franchises really deserve a proper blockbuster treatment (especially Power Rangers) and I really felt like this one was so close to nailing it, but they just couldn't pull it together well enough for me to be satisfied in the end.

Tarot - King of Pentacles

The King of Pentacles.

Meaning according to Arthur Edward Waite- Valour, realizing intelligence, business and normal intellectual aptitude, sometimes mathematical gifts and attainments of this kind; success in these paths. Reverse: Vice, weakness, ugliness, perversity, corruption, peril.

Notes: Seems like success around logic and intelligence.

Rider

Radiant

Animal Totem

Circle of Life

Deviant Moon

Druid Craft

Fantastical Creatures

Green Witch

Happy

Justice League

Labyrinth

Linestrider

Mystic Faerie

Paulina

Sacred Sites

Shadowscapes

Universal Fantasy

Universal Goddess

Wildwood

Zerner/Farber