Mr. Rogers had an 18 CHA.

Rogers vs. US Senate

Bullshit JC.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/34168

Dragon punch.

I guess if we are lucky wars will start to look like a Street Fighter match.

I've got to think it shouldn't take much to stop a remote-controlled soldier. If you've got a broad-ranged transmitter, you should be able to screw up any remote bot.

Then there are stairs, ditches, water, walls, etc. -I'm not worried just yet.

1st level Cyberwarrior

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/TopTenStories2007_print.html

Blah blah hegemony, but read what the number 1 story is. We're in that future, I guess.

...

Speaking of, the new campaign is great. My guy kicks some ass.

Happy Solstice y'all.

Noooo!!! Too funny.

...And one word keeps coming back in conversations around Delver’s Square.

“Utterdark”.



Now, that's pretty fucking dark.

Good god. I think 'gaming' actually describes some very different things. Perhaps 90% or so is about the 'Utterdark' and its kind. Maybe 10% is about something else.

Or, as gaming is a somewhat creative endeavor, maybe it just reflects what we already know about the population at large. The 90% thing is why I don't even bother to look for a gaming group. I might tell someone I game, but I don't think it normally conveys to that person what I am talking about. -It's has to do with the difference between the Matrix and Blade Runner. Subtle at times, but real. My biggest problem with the gaming world is that it seems to have whole-heartedly embraced the Utterdark.

Not to say that Utterdark isn't utterly fantastic...

Oh, and BTW, I think that thing has us pegged. As much as we hate to admit it.

Me: Lawful Good Half-Orc Rogue.
Rob: Chaotic Neutral Half-Elf Cleric.
Paul: Lawful Good Dwarf Paladin.

Peeker?!

Wow. Just wow.

Peeker? Hype?



Peeker brings hype?


Wow.

Peeker arises hype

Dude, that website is RETARDED. An excerpt:

Another example would be Peeker - the uber-blinking displacer beast that can blink at will as a free action. No one can stand a chance against such a beast so all the village folks are terrorized and constantly talking about the darn displacer beast. Hype arises.

http://www.dungeonmastering.com/tools-resources/dd-posses-and-monstrous-hype

And:
Chaotic Neutral Half-Elf Cleric? You gotta be kidding me. LG human mage here, sonz.

...

Don't miss his hot new campaign:
http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/demon-delver

lawful good dwarf paladin

hrm,I guess it must be true.

Get your dork on.

I'm a Lawful Good Half-Orc Rogue.

Back on the charts

Well so much for books and movies. For music, last few days I've been into The Cure. Sophomore Cure- Faith, Japanese Whispers, Pornography- is damn good. It could come out today and sound fresh... check out The Upstairs Room.

Is any of their post-Disintegration stuff good? At all? I don't think so, but if you guys know of good tracks, DO WANT PLZ K?

Apparently Peter Hook is playing on New Year's Eve where I'm gonna be. And apparently he plays records- not mixing em like a DJ, just plays em in the old manner. Yes.

I'm also still listening to Detroit jit booty music, because it's the law in these parts.

Off the charts.

Rob

Eh, I read the book (Golden Compass) but didn't get into it. Haven't seen the movie. Reading the book felt like listening to an old British man reading out loud a very important story that he'd writing for a long time because he thought that Narnia was okay but wasn't quite right, ducks.

It was boring.

Still, I like the resurgence of fantasy movies. Unfortunately, that means there's a lot of crap, and there'll be a reaction against it in the next decade. Kinda like the battle between reality TV and good TV. There is some damn good TV comin round though.

Watched Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica, got into it, then suddenly stopped watching. Haven't gotten back into it. Instead, I'm watching all the X-files. Great stuff.

O, my brothers.

Gao Qi and I have been watching Battlestar Galactica. It's good.

We saw The Golden Compass on Saturday. It wasn't good. Maybe if we'd read the book it might make some sense. To us, it was just a poorly explained magical fantasy tour. Look, a talking bear! Look, a cowboy! Look, a witch! Look, Pirates! Look, a neat blimp! -That was it.

No Country for Old Men is dirty good.

Still working on the system. Ed, Matt and I have been doing some testing and editing. I'm working on making it presentable now. I've gained much respect for Gygax in this process. I still have no name.

Reading up on the 4E D&D spoilers, it sounds awful. Two examples: 1) There is a race called dragonborn. 2) Half elves get a bonus to their diplomacy checks.

Science has been difficult. But that's what it's about. I'm in grind mode.

Happy Holidays to you and yours.

Sometimes I want to cut my silver cord.

Read good

Yeah, Don Quixote is great. I love the scene where Panza shits his pants, and tries to be cool about it.

It's a hard thing to be cool about.

Book II is not quite as good as Book I though.

Reading Moby Dick on my flight to Europe.
...

Start of a new table-top campaign in one week, people. FUCK YEH.

FIle under WTF.

I'm not necessarily a Ron Paulite, but I might vote for the guy just because of these sorts of things.

Reads.

I read Clockwork Orange. -It's fantastic. The nadsat language is a bit difficult at first, but before long it gets almost poetic.

I'm halfway through Don Quixote. It's alright. Funny premise, but it's pedantic and kind of like a 17th century Dumb and Dumber. -At one point Don Quixote ralphs in Sancho's face, causing Sancho to counter-ralph. Sancho also gets diarrhea on his mule. Lot's of that stuff with a wandering plot.

Nothing gay...

Via Reddit.

A glimpse of another world.

NSFW.

$65

I go to a hair salon every month. $45 plus $20 tip. The woman who cuts my hair is fantastic... never had a 'bad hair day' since I've been going to her, and she changed my hair gel for the better.

Plus she's great to talk to and pretends to like me and be really interested in what I say and do.

Plus it's a refreshing change from the school barber here, who used to piss me off by ranting about the Bush administration for 30 minutes every time I went to get my hair cut. What do you say to shit like that? "Uh huh. Yeah. Well, I guess. Sure. I dunno. Maybe. Well, really? Uh..." Retarded.

Plus she's cute.

$65. It's a bargain.

...

Starting up a new campaign here. No, not HERE here, on the blog. Here in the part of the real world in which I live. Thankfully, I'm not running it- Jon is, and it's D&D but set in the year 4000. The intro is fantastic, can't wait. I'm gonna play Frank Burton, 1st level barbarian, who by 3rd edition doesn't know how to read. That's cool, it's in his background, he went in to get a slug removed from his gut, and got a 'Mississippi haircut' in addition. Goddamn army.

Platinum orb haircut.

I remember our characters talking about spending an orb on a haircut.

I just cut my own. I had a 'professional' haircut a couple of years ago. -It was ok.

I think the law of diminishing returns kicks in pretty fast with haircuts. Edwards should know better. Or at least someone should tell him. It doesn't look like he spent $400 dollars.

I'm not sure a haircut can look like it cost $400 dollars.

hrm.

I don't think I have had a hair cut that has been paid for since maybe 1991. I should go get an 80 dollar cut and see if they can bring out my inner beauty.

So Edwards got in trouble for the cost of his hair cut, do you guys buy your hair cuts, and how much do you pay for them?

I've never really understood peoples obsession with hair. It usually looks just fine.

To hell with AIDS

Ya, nice. God, the late 80s were a dark age. Check out the hair. The short waiter-esque jacket. I found some old photos from Detroit-area 80s BBS parties. Long hair, flannels tied around the waist, ripped jeans.

Ripped jeans and 'pegged' pant legs haven't yet come back. If *I* could be god tonight, I'd just fuckin keep it that way.

So Dave shaved his head. I realize that I've had the same haircut since 1995.

?!?!

Wow. Just wow.

That was great.

Christ, what happened to music videos? they used to be so good.

Back at ya.

A bit less artful. And much more minimal than I remember.

Look what we used to listen to

You can take away our freedom, but you can't take our youtube videos.

http://www.post-punk.com/ppvideos.html

And in particular:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovH46-o0rLw

Look what the house just passed:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-1955

YUR INTERWEB CAUSES TERROR. IT MUST B CONTROLD.

thanks though.

I think you guys would all buy me a drink, I'm just not sure that's really the best idea. Things are weird and I'm not sure plying me with drink is the way to clear things up. I'm working on that. I do own a house now, it's just with my ex Yve and my friend Roz. It wasn't a bad break up it just was inopportunely mature, or something like it. Eh well, my cat ran away and came back, I broke up with my girlfriend of almost 9 years and bought a house all in one month. I got a raise too, so it's not all difficult to categorize. I bought a new computer to be a patriot and have a little shopping therapy. I like my tablet pc. Hope all is well. My house is alright.....It's mine, well and Roz's and Yve's and the banks, but some of it is mine. I have to go now so I don't type something questionable on my new computer. I am going to submit some questions to the debates.

If you want to watch any of the debates you can watch them all at
researchris.blogspot.com they are pretty cool. I would provide you with a link but I said I was leaving so

uh, thanks but not thanks

Screw that gin shit I would like some Beerenburg. Good old fashioned dutch medicine. I think I learned the difference between further and farther today, so that's good.

Daily news report

From the news:

"For over three years, officials from two northern counties have discussed the implications of having a gigantic elk straddling their border from its vantage point on top of Vithatten mountain."

http://www.thelocal.se/9219/20071126/
http://www.storalgen.se/eng/index.php

Rob

Paul:

Fuck man.

Let's drink some gin.

Perhaps the best page on the net.

Here.

To you and yours.

All quiet on the Blogger front.

Yeah, we read.

We are quiet folk, but we read.

That sucks to hear about Yvette. -Wish I could buy a drink.


Ack.

BTW, I hear these lizards are all over the place. Amongst other things.

anyone read this shit anymore? I do.

So, I bought a house, broke up with Yvette, and some other shit.

This site is awesome.

teaminfinity.com/~ralph/irs

I found it by looking at this murals web site.

www.geocities.com/Baja/5692/murals.html
Nice murals?

www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Denver_Airport.html#

ok, time to go. Only read the above if you are drunk, or weird.

I had no Idea Kris Kristofferson was an alien lizard man.

All of the Ribbons

Here's a little pick-me-up for the day.

HEMH

Just thought of this today for some reason. Still funny to me.

We don't stop

http://www.jamphat.com/rap/

I only wish John Romeo had expressed his ability to pwn u in a PowerPoint presentation with Excel graphs.

Black Knight (mony python) Star wars remix & more!!!

pretty funny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leEsz9ci5XE


the "camelot" song in LEGO!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIXByCAIzos

Coming on strong.

I am your new friend
I really like your blazer
Oh damn I want you

Dave Barry. Or should I say Dave Barely!?

The end of the 9th paragraph makes the whole thing worthwhile.

SmileGod

You can roll a Panda. See photos.

...

I'm angry at atheists. Atheists seem mainly to blog, or give lectures to other atheists.

I played this game, Final Fantasy #something. And you know how it ends? The PCs kill god. That's right, they just march right on up through the final dungeon and kill god. God usually has like 999,999 hp and special moves.

So atheists, come on now. STFU, train with your sword by killing random wildlife, and then go to the dungeon and just kill the douchebag.

...

Actually in every Final Fantasy there's like one cheesy move, totally worthless in the rest of the game, that's almost a sure god-killing victory. In Final Fantasy XII, if you throw money at god, he dies. Yeah, just throw enough coins at him and god dies.

In Final Fantasy X, you gotta turn god into a zombie. In Final Fantasy VII, you gotta play a slot machine game at the casino until you win your special move. And in Final Fantasy VI- well, it's hard to explain.

...

At the drycleaner I go to, there's this funny sign. It says:

SmileGod
LovesYou

There's something just sort of wrong about 'SmileGod'.

Hey there.

So...

Can I roll a barbarian or what

Why atheists are anrgy.

This rings true for me.

It's long, but worth a read.

In case you had any doubts about the Commader in Chief.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5xT1DGJMoQ

FTW

Fuck the What?

Yeah, I was using last.fm for awhile. I forget why I stopped. -It's not bad.

FTW

Yeah, Faygo FTW.

My gal uses 'FTW' all the time. I kept thinking she was meaning 'Fuck The World', and I thought that was great.

...

Anyone use last.fm? I seriously have a deep-seated hate of all social networking sites (Myspace, AOL, blogs), but I'm a music sicko and all the time I'm finding shit that seems like I could listen to, if I was on last.fm.

If discogs had a listening service, I'd be in bliss. My new habit is beatport.com, up to $3/song, which sucks, but the shit is magic.

Century of Flavuh

Rock N Rye

Peach

Cream Soda

I love faygo

Taxonomy

Ah, yes.

Munch
Puppet Master
Master Blaster
Blowjob

You can pretty much classify anyone you don't like with this system.

I used dimensionality reduction to reduce you to a(n): munch

Yeah well, like I said, the chakra thing is my own thing. Everyone's got tons of different motivations and is a beautiful unique snowflake in their own heads, but for computational reasons, other people are all simplified down to a few descriptors in everyone's brain.

You and Ed had your own version of this, if I recall: munch, puppet master, master blaster, and something else I can never remember. Douche, maybe. More cynical outlook, but the same sort of neural compression algorithm.

The tarp couldn't stop the News.

That poor big guy.

No, that's just Mark, no Twain. -Thanks, though.

I think that lady was afraid of looking dumb. -Rightfully so.

I guess these are the Tantric Chakras:

1. Muladhara (Sanskrit: Mūlādhāra) tip of the tailbone, spiritual potential
2. Swadhisthana (Sanskrit: Svādhiṣṭhāna) tailbone, unconscious emotion or desire
3. Manipura (Sanskrit: Maṇipūra) navel, dynamism
4. Anahata (Sanskrit: Anāhata) heart, love based decisions
5. Vishuddha (Sanskrit: Viśuddha) neck, discrimination and wisdom
6. Ajna (Sanskrit: Ājñā) eyebrow, mind
7. Bindu (Sanskrit: Bindu) a dot at the back of the head, prayer and Aum
8. Sahasrara (Sanskrit: Sahasrāra) top of head, higher consciousness

I can't say it works for me. I think my chakras change from time to time.

Lazy

The woman on the view is lazy and afraid. Too Lazy to think about the universe, and too frightened to give an honest answer. She wanted to say something else but didn't. You could see it in her eyes. She is afraid of what people think of her.

On another note... another michigan superstar made the headlines by following his stomach chakra:

Michigan Pride

how many fathoms longhorn? 6?

Unlearning kind of supposes that whole learning part. Without the journey in between, -you're just plain stupid.

that's almost a twainism, to coin a term. Maybe someone has already invented it.

Is that of your own design, or is it stolen?

Short and well put thank you.

Chakra Khan

I don't normally discuss this with others, but I tend to see different people in the world in terms of 'chakras', a Hindu concept. In this view, basically there's a hierarchy of desire and motivation, starting in your groin and moving up to right above your head. I think of people as being driven by one principle chakra. There are like seven or eight, but most people around here are driven by stomach, heart, and brain. The need to feed, love, fuck, think, and/or buy things.

No, really, this is how I see things. Maybe a more interesting metaphor would be 'which Deadly Sin predominantly drives someone'?

Oh right, what's the relevance here? The statement this woman makes that she hasn't thought about science and stuff, because she needs to feed her children. Can't get to the head chakra and think about shit if you're busy trying to satisfy stomach chakra and just fuckin' survive.

Somehow I doubt that someone on TV really needs to worry about feeding though. More likely it's just laziness.

No shortcuts, Grasshopper.

Agreed. Yet, I don't think the whole "sailing West to reach East" works for Enlightenment. (What an apt metaphor!)

Unlearning kind of supposes that whole learning part. Without the journey in between, -you're just plain stupid.

I think we witnessed one who has not walked very far.

But don't belittle false notions. -They are all we've got.

wow.

I wish more people were willing to stand up and fight the false notion of 3 dimensional space more eloquently than that poor bitch. I hope she doesn't end up teaching her child such brave ways of thinking without informing the child of it's need to be more intelligently presented.

or something.

Perhaps even more worrisome.

The View.

In case you missed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bVa6jn4rpE

I'd like to think I'd do something. However, I wouldn't be sure those professionals wouldn't feel threatened and shoot.

I guess that's how it feels to be black.

Tasers WTF?

Dude, that guy who got tasered at U of Florida?

Total bullshit man. -edited-

RIP Alex

Alex the gray parrot died several days ago, age 31. Damn.

In case you didn't know, birds- especially corvids and parrots- are darn smart and live for decades.

Here's an excerpt from the New York Times obit. (Yeah, a parrot got an obituary in the NY Times. Well-deserved, in my view.)

...

Dr. Pepperberg [Alex's trainer] told of an effort to teach the parrot about phonemes using colored tokens marked with letter combinations like sh and ch.

“What sound is green?”

“Ssshh,” Alex answered correctly, and then demanded a nut. Instead he got another question.

“What sound is orange?”

“Ch.”

“Good bird!”

“Want a nut!” Alex demanded. The interview was over. “Want a nut!” he repeated. “Nnn ... uh ... tuh.”

Dr. Pepperberg was flabbergasted. “Not only could you imagine him thinking, ‘Hey, stupid, do I have to spell it for you?’ ” she said. “This was in a sense his way of saying to us, ‘I know where you’re headed! Let’s get on with it.’ ”

She is quick to concede the impossibility of proving that the bird was actually verbalizing its internal deliberations. Only Alex knew for sure.

Next to infinity, one of the hardest concepts to grasp is zero. Toward the end of his life Alex may have been coming close.

In a carnival shell game, an experimenter would put a nut under one of three cups and then shuffle them around. Alex would pick up the cup where the prize was supposed to be. If it wasn’t there he’d go a little berserk — a small step, maybe, toward understanding nothingness.

A bigger leap came in an experiment about numbers, in which the parrot was shown groups of two, three and six objects. The objects within each set were colored identically, and Alex was asked, “What color three?”

“Five,” he replied perversely (he was having a bad attitude day), repeating the answer until the experimenter finally asked, “O.K., Alex, tell me, ‘What color five?’ ”

“None,” the parrot said.

Bingo. There was no group of five on the tray.

$100 bill is always a testament to your success

Oh, and:

LitB first aired on April 23 and ran for 234 episodes. "Eddie Haskell" was John Holmes' porn name in a number of movies, suggesting dichotic mind control via TV waves (Haskell involvement in canonical examples of Good America and Bad America). Note 'Sade' and 'Hell' placement in the name. Hell as in Hellfire Club- Franklin involvement in such, devoted to satanic orgies and more dichotic mind control. (Despite 23 placement, probably does not reflect Masonic involvement and could be red herring.)

Franklin did the first Philadelphia Experiment, it's where the name came from- using a key rather than ship (Eldrige/Eldritch) as resonator. (Tesla did same thing with more success, although $100 bill is testament to Franklin's own success.) Why? Rather ask, why hasn't experiment been performed- because TV mind control found to be far more effective- operant rather than Pavlovian conditioning- the people want it for themselves. They want to be Eddie Haskell, both with June Cleaver and John Holmes.

Little Sampo

Awesome. This must be the reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampo

Never heard of it before. Good. Ya, I was just sayin'. Maybe we should let this stew for just a bit, let DiD die off propa before starting up something anew.

Leave it to beaver, the Philadelphia experiment, Benjamin Franklin

Try those.

I'd totally be up for it. However, it would take some serious energy to keep it going. I've learned something in my time on the interweb: Blogs naturally roll downhill.

I'd do my part. -Maybe Mr. Wolf would be a good one to tap.

UPDATE: got a blog. I think we'd need me to send invites to new hotmail or gmail accounts to create alter egos.

Bigfoot is the Mormon Jesus

Star Blasters or Blazers or whatever would be good, but I thought a great idea was what I thought you were trying with 'Corpus Dord'. Basically an Alternate Reality Game but with no centralization- no GM, no existing story, no programmers or top-down control. Just a conspiracy theory game/story we would create as we went. Everyone has a character, initially unrelated, and we post random stuff from the internet or the news and work towards a sinister tale of, well, whatever. Bigfoot or reptoids or MK-ULTRA satellites or hopefully all of the above.

Kristin and I played this game where we would take three random things and try to connect them. Easter Island, Jesus, and Bigfoot for example. Or Chupacabras, Nazi polar base hollow-earth exploration, and the sailing stones of Death Valley. (That one's pretty easy actually, with the stones tracking EM transmissions from SS-controlled Agarttha; the chupacabras, being EM-sensitive, were driven mad and forced out of the deserts to suck the blood of helpless livestock in their berserk rage.)

(Bigfoot being the Mormon NA Jesus, whose offspring sailed to Easter Island. Guess that's even easier.)

Just thinking.

U R TEH BEST DROW

http://www.larpies.com/LARPY_Finalists_2006.htm

A refreshing break from all the long posts and gamer talk. 1000% AWSOME

Don't forget to look at this:
http://www.larpies.com/Submissions/Adventures_Unlimited_Funniest_03.JPG

Campains

To me it feels like storming the Covenant's Tower took longer than three sessions. Huh. That campaign was like a video game.

Hmm... maybe. Certainly, everyone was sick of it and each other by the last session. I had to plead with you guys to hang on and just finish the last fight, after school one day around ye olde dining room table.


What world was the slums campaign in?

That was its own world. Don't recall the name... there was a big country map, but you'll remember that the game fell apart when you guys left town. Great tight little construction, that, that worked well for Shadowrun too. Dave ripped it off wholesale for one or two of his games I believe.


Was Harold Reilly in Sarpagal?

Yeah, that was the beginning of the second Sarpagal game, with Sam and Harold Riley. I've got the entire Sarpagal Chronology. Shit, actually there were five Sarpagal games. I forgot about the short third campaign over summer 1999. But yeah, Harold was S2.


Was Linus Planck in Narbohring 9K?

I believe that was your guy in the third Avorgoine campaign... or no, wait, this was the first Sarpagal game. You played a mage in S1. He was a wannabe necromancer, broke into a house and stuff. This was in Boston: Jon P was definitely there, hating it the whole time.


In which campaign did we have the Big Boat Battle? -I recall playing Elliot Bosche then. Someone was in the water with a birdcage...

That was Narbohring 9000. You were working for the Archaeologists; one of their members was covertly trying to discover the secrets of viral magic. There was an invisible key hidden in the birdcage, if I recall. I forget the details- this all used to be written down somewhere- but two boats attacked your ship, just off the Skullgate harbor. Biggest body count of any single fight, excluding combats where massive spell effects killed lots of people (usually for storyline purposes, e.g., destruction of Barrowsreich by the Blackstaff).

Sort of an unwritten rule of my games: there's always a bad mage, working by himself, to uncover ancient secrets. He's almost always under-cover at some knowledge-based institution too. It's a deep psychological thing, why science/magic is ultimately bad and must be destroyed by brute force. God, how many movies, games, and stories have this as part of the plot?

N1: Baalphegor Pheng
N2: Garrison Bones
N9K: some dude

S1: Glasser
S2: Glasser, Amanda
S3: Thrave Nil
S4: one of the PCs (Doug's druid), Lady Jacqueline,
S5: one of the PCs (Jessica's bard), plus two NPCs: Rupert Smalls and Edrac Reeves

Sarpagal campaigns also always had a priest of Typhon as the PCs friend, the guy who would help move the plot along. Played sort of the same role, but in a more complex manner: the bad mage was actually the party healer, who was a nice guy and had magic item-filled adventures for the PCs to go on. Meanwhile, he was working on furthering the apocalypse, usually through whatever the PCs were doing. It was the most singularly successful plot mechanic I ever hit on.

Game masters, here ya go: 1) discourage PCs from playing clerics; 2) add a healer NPC to the party who's a nice guy and knows some ancient history; and 3) he's an awful villain. The key, the key damn it, is that his villainy isn't a surprise. The PCs know the guy's a demon worshipper. It's just that he's so damn friendly- not suave, just friendly- he's a middle aged fat Friar Tuck.

Needs more pfhor in sector 12

On a different note:
http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/15-09/ff_halo

The psychological testing lab for Halo. Fascinating stuff, that.

...

The same system works across fields. For science, it's an essential component. The scientific analogue is the conference. I talk endlessly about all aspects of my work, and try to be in touch with what people think is hot, important, flawed, or lame. Those are all independent axes.

A vampire named Bolar.

Mr. Bolar. I forgot all about Mr. Bolar. He was awesome. I remember that town square fight.

To me it feels like storming the Covenant's Tower took longer than three sessions. Huh. That campaign was like a video game.

I feel like I have all of these misplaced gaming memories. Such as:

What world was the slums campaign in?
Was Harold Reilly in Sarpagal?
Was Linus Planck in Narbohring 9K?
Which campaign was the Iron Labyrinth in? Oh wait, that was Narbohring two. I think Morgan picked up Mr. Beasley soon after. He got Beasley from some kid in the Greco-Roman-like plane. Mr. Beasley was great.
In which campaign did we have the Big Boat Battle? -I recall playing Elliot Bosche then. Someone was in the water with a birdcage...

Wow. Good times. -Really makes me want to game.

Narbohring

Mark and I have been talking about the old Narbohring games over on DiD Factory. It really belongs here though, so in case that sidebar is just too far away, go check out:

http://didfactory.blogspot.com/

$th edition

4th edition interview at gamespy:
http://www.gamespy.com/articles/819/819068p2.html

Sounds like they've got something along the lines of DiD planned: a way to game online around a 'virtual dinner table'.

...

And this has been posted before, but whatever. Stephen Colbert's D&D experiences. Page 2 is gold:
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/dungeons-dragons-online/537989p1.html

LOLPUGS

Pug bowling is awesome.

Hyperlink, eh.

The 1 YouTube link you need

Ok I lied, the 2 links you need....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rog7-A2Saws

This is Why I'm Hot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcKOQrz19Yg

Pug Bowling

I can't talk to goth girls

Our rhymes were good. Hella good, e'en.

But MC Frontalot basically skools us, because blogger don't let us post beatz.

Here's Front's home page. Or rather, the all-important free mp3 download page.

...

No shit, really- despite what you think of the lyrics, wow are the beats and samples fucking hot. Actually a lot of the songs and lyrics are a bit too self-conscious and in-the-genre, but holy christ on a cross those backbeats on the singles are swell. I'd love to de-acapella some of the tracks like Charity Case and just cruise to the music.

...

Anyway, this is completely different but even more awesome.

...

Wow, it's like someone planted some beans in the internets garden and now theyre growing.

Because this is sort of what I think DiD would be like if it was an animated movie. Yes, that's meant in seriousness. Make sure you get to the last one, by the gods, the last one.

It actually tells kind of a story. I thought of Steve's guy as the knight on the cliff, and Paul's first guy in the karate scene.

You might want more. I give you Doctor Legua.

y

awesome that's

again

!one this like are sentences where ,Land Backwards in place takes story This

Here's mine

I sing of the cinnamon bear. LOL.


...

EDIT: Turns out you can have up to 30 words and multiple sentences. Remember- this should be the first sentence of a great novel, not just any old sentence.

I was inspired to submit:

Jeff moved his Civic for the last time, -if ‘moved’ is what you’d call it.

GET ALL MEGA BEASTS

Sure DiD is dead, but that doesn't mean the style's done rocking. Basically, it's all inspired by Zork and other text adventures, which periodically I get back into.

The best text adventure of all time is Andrew Plotkin's "Spider and Web". Adam Cadre writes fantastic stuff too... "9:05" is horribly, awfully brilliant. The genius here comes from use- or abuse- of devices that only work in text adventures. A novel, comic, play, or movie format just wouldn't do it.

Anyway, I bring this up because Adam Cadre has a competition for the worst beginning line of a novel (under 25 words). Hilarity ensues.

Here ya go.

...

But if you're too lazy to click the link, here's some champions:

Get ready to take a virtual tour of sydney australia through the backyards of a kangaroo who will punch you in the head fifty times!

"Man, you won't believe what happened to me tonight," Dave declared, bursting into our dorm room, "but first I gotta go beat off!"


"I raped your sister," cruelly he sneered, "and now she is no problem," and my friends that is the day my heart tore a sunder.


The mega beasts were united by only one thing: their size.

The evil Intergalactic Emperor surveyed the destruction he wrought. "Booyah!" he cried with glee. "I'm in ur base! I'm killing all ur mans!"

MacGyver had grown old.


I know who the murderer is, Kevin blogged.


“Crime,” declared the police captain, “is everywhere, crime, crime!”


This is the story of your mom's life.

Holy Bujesush.

I am sooo unoriginal.

This blows my mind.

Google imaged "Star Blasters": Result

Clicked on "Star Blaster": Result

Well, I guess I don't need to do any designing. You guys are going to be a troop of galaxy rangers.

That was easy. The mega-Vacuum Tubes are going to be sweet.

Dave also has a cool card-game suggestion: Ultimate Chaos.

Tread lightly about the Setting Generator. It's pat. pend., SRSLY.

Life was without meaning before the internet.

How to Dance:

Star Blazers

Yeah, you're right- that's sweet.

...

Of course, this is what I was talking about:






















...

Or maybe this:





















...

This is pretty good too, if you can make it out. Look at the dude's crotch-pointing arrow uniform. If I was hanging out with space babes on a space ship, a down-pointing arrow unitard would definitely be in the rotation.














...

This is certainly NOT what I was talking about:

That's what I am talking about.

Video killed the blogger.

Video is going to be sweet!

Rob, it's Star Blasters, not Star Blazers. C'mon, Star Blazers doesn't make any sense. Geez, don't be a laser brain.

Yeah, it will be some time. -I've got too much going on at the moment.


/-\ --- /-\ |--| |-\ | /-\ /-\ --- --- |--| /-\
| | | | | / | | | | | | | | | / |
--- | --- |-- |-/ | --- --- | -- |-- ---
| | | | | | | \ | | | | | | | | |
\-/ | | | | | |--/ --| | \-/ | --- | | \-/


Ok, that took too long.

Fuck, Blogger killed my ASCII.

Dude we can add videos to Blogger now

Ya, Chris was just in town with his lovely new bride Sarah. They drove down here to see family after Dave married them sometime last week. Hell yeah!

...

Star Blazers would be awesome. I can't run it. Start it up in a few months yo.

...

iTunes Shuffle can't be random. I select a song A. It plays. Next song B cues up. Then songs C through F are played. Then I want to hear A again. After it's done, I hear B through F in the same exact order. Select A again. Hear B through F. So it goes.

Not positive it happens every time. But it happens many times.

Nuptuals?

Is it true that one of our fine friends here was married recently by another one of our fine friends? Out of nowhere Ed caught me on GoogleTalk and spilled some beans. What's up?

Gaming Outlet

Yeah, an outlet feels good.

Maybe we'll drift back after some time. -I'll keep table-talking.

I had an inclination to start a "Star Blasters" blog at some point, but now isn't the time. Everything was going to be green screen, with ASCII graphics.

I will miss the retarded humor of DiD. That first campaign was so rich, it was hard to follow.

I'll keep the URL warm.

I think you might be right, Rob. 4ED sounds like a poop pie cooked up in the boardroom.

BTW, where did you hear Itunes isn't random. Those mother fuckers. We suspected the same.

Don't be a stranger

Well ya know, this thing has been a horse-with-broken-leg for a while now.

Momentum is the key to success in all things living. DiD had a history of losing but then regaining momentum, but not this time... we limped along for too long. Lessons learned.

Thanks everyone for your time and effort throughout the two.five years we kept it going. I'm still gonna use DiD Table Talk as my soapbox for bitching about things in life like ex/change ladies, and for telling the world what my favorite song is today. Today it's actually the Vission vs Aude remix of Kelly Clarkston's "Stranger" with the dirty electro bass.

Now I gotta find a new avenue for gaming. I really hope that in six months time, you don't hear my voice on a podcast talking about how awesome it was to change my dwarf from a left-hander to a right-hander, give him an eyepatch, pick up Advanced Brewing feats, or change his sex to 'hers' in 4E.



"You're not the blog that I once knew...
Are you scared to blog here too...
If they could only blog like I do...
Then they would see a strange blog too..."

adieu

I shall miss DiD.

a lot.

damn it... that's the last time I take a week vacation. DiD ends, the sewer line in my new house collapses and my clutch goes out.

It's been a hell of a ride. Keep me posted if you do something new.

Myspace hater

Uh oh, yeah, I had no idea what 4E was going to be like. I didn't listen to much of the 'podcast', but what I did hear scared me. Sounds like someone was trying to brainstorm in the boardroom... 4E is going to be Myspace/D&D? Well that's crap.

I don't want to play a game, then log onto some website and get some 'reward'.

Have I mentioned I utterly, completely, utterly despise 'Myspace'?

Subscriptions

After listening to the radio thing, I'm a bit skeptical. Sounds like a lot of energy went into creating a subscription-based online component. -You can make an avatar and change his handedness!

I just hope they spent some serious energy on mechanics. They did say more character customization, however.

To be realistic, it would be hard to be tweaking game mechanics until the end when you have programmers trying to make an online version that's compatible at the same time. -It makes me think there won't be any big mechanic overhauls in the books.

Some hints at EnWorld.

Huh.

Maybe we can make use of the online thing.

From the article, it sounds like they are making it more like Magic the Gathering. Fast and fun, with less prep time. -Lowering the barrier for entry could be good or bad.

I still can't believe you really like 3.0, Rob. I think rolling a d20 with a +20 is just retarded math. Still, some of the skill additions were a move in the right direction, making for more character possibilities. Some of 3.0 just seemed to assume that you were playing Forgotten Realms, however.

I'm interested. However, I hope Gleemax isn't an indicator of this new direction. BTW, here's a gamer radio thing about 4Ed.

I shed a tear for the loss of DiD.

New Edition

http://digital50.com/news/items/BW/2001/07/14/20070816005037/dungeons-dragonsr-flashes-4-ward-at-gen-con.html

Fuck Candy Girl, it's 4th Ed D&D. Personally I love 3 and 3.5, and I'm interested in seeing what all is changed, as there were huge changes from 2nd to 3rd that made the game and character building a lot more fun.

...

And with that, I bid you good night. Yup, GAME OVER, just like it says. Thanks for playing y'all, but it's time we put this one to bed.

Unknown futures

I guess back in like 1956 or 1962, this was our science-fiction future:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IldCRO553SQ&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdilate%2Echoonz%2Ecom%2Findex%2Ephp%3Fpage%3D4

...

R.I.P. silver suits, moustaches, fucking great teeth

How does it feel?

My big new pop culture find is 'Doom Patrol', a fucking great comic from the late 80s. Yeah sure, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Sandman, that's all great. And yeah, Doom Patrol is basically super-heroes saving the world, and a lot of the writing is pretentious. But my GOD, the ideas. The weirdness. Unmatched.

...

I think music is just getting better and better. Did I mention I went through iTunes' collections of singles for each year from like the late 70s until now? And the late-80s, mid-90s was a desert, a fucking desert. Listen to fucking New Kids on the Block, late hair metal, and nu-metal to see what a wasteland of music we've escaped from. No really, listen to the music and composition of 'Hanging Tough'. Christ almighty is that seriously bad music, and Christ knows I love pop songs.

A while back, I wondered what the greatest dance song was. I posited New Order's Blue Monday, 'cause I've heard it about a billion times in every kind of club I've ever been to, goth, industrial, techno, electro, 80s, pop, mashup. Turns out there's some data supporting my claim- it's the biggest selling 12" single of all time:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,660693,00.html

...

Like a dork, I missed Peter Hook when we was here a couple weeks ago.

...

R.I.P. Tony Watson:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/6941392.stm

The remix is also:

amazing

hats

amazing.

SPNKR

Dave, apparently Bungie are re-releasing Marathon for Xbox 360:

http://projects.metafilter.com/1032/If-I-Had-a-Rocket-Launcher-Id-Make-Somebody-Pay

A quote from the QnA:

"Dual Shotguns, quite possibly the best weapon ever created."

...

Oh, and: http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/13536

HELL YEAH

Yes

Hell yeah, that's... like a ninja star. Of Safety!

...

In Japan, one of the guys there was a ninja. No shit. Not one of the Japanese guys, the ninja guy was from Tel Aviv. He taught some people some ninjitsu.

I wondered though, why a professor would need to have ninja skills. Like, seriously, in real life, why the fuck are you a ninja?

I leave you with this.

Rabbit Bay

east a pastie for me... we shall miss Mr. Koeppel whilst he is away.

Hiatus

Not that things have been too active around here, but I am gone to the UP for a week.

Back on the 5th.

IM CUTE AN I GOT UR GRANNYS SOUL LOL!!!!

www.reuters.com

Savin your life

You could learn a thing or two about being a HERO

You guys think you're heroes, but you're not. Not compared to COASTIE the Coast Guard safety dog.

Look at those expressive eyebrows and miles of blank space.



























Seat belts save lives?


"Whew, I'm glad I was wearing my SEAT BELT when the plane crashed! Might not be walkin' away from that one!" Maybe some air bags would be helpful for plane crashes too.

Random Haiku

You seem pretty smart
Perched high on a hilltop rock
Hand me that pistol

No More Science

My Scientist friends may appreciate
this.

Fallout 3.

I wish I could, but it would be bad.

Tell me how good it is. Tell me about the cool parts.

On a similar topic, from xkcd:










My living room floor is currently covered in LEGOs.

head held high

I am proud of the fact that when you google "Radiant Leopard" with the quotes, the first three results are all DiD. Feel the fame! Love it!

Fallout? Fallout 3? What is this Fallout of which you speak?

DO WANT

I guess either you guys aren't reading the blog, or you didn't hear me the first time. In case it wasn't crystal clear:

FALLOUT
FUCKING
THREE


http://media.ps3.gamespy.com/media/901/901269/img_4717805.html


Gaze upon these works, ye worthies, and REJOICE.

Obviously

Wikipedia is pure comedy. Some people actually posted some stuff on the 'Discussion' page for the zither entry.

It's a mother fucking zither.

I wonder, DiD: what's the most retarded wikipedia page? Weighted by length of course... Richard Simmons and Teddy Ruxpin are about the same, retard-wise, but Richard Simmons wins because his page is a lot longer. In-fighting in the discussion page is bonus gold. Examine, if you will, the ongoing scholarly debate: Is Richard Simmons gay? Containing, for example, this gem:

"Obviously we can never know his (or anyone else's) real inner nature."

What's going on here

Hi DiD. What's going on?

In case you're wondering, the last movie I saw was the Harry Potter movie. I have this thing with my girlfriend where if Harry Potter dies in the last book, I have to read all the books back to back. Actually there was a hot chick in the movie. It's weird to admit, but I'm kind of interested in reading the books, honestly. Those two things don't really go together, I was just saying.

The last book I read was Ulysses. Long plane trip to Japan and all that. It's good, but I had to read some notes to figure out WTF was going on.

The song of the day is the Hot Chip remix of Cansei De Ser Sexy's "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above". It's got like this awesome zither solo or something, I never heard anything quite like it.

Finally.

Keith Olbermann lays into Bush in a special commentary last night on MSNBC.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19859124/#storyContinued

Finally someone on the air has some balls. -Watch the video.

Grappler

Eh, no biggie. People die in Korea all the time, is what I hear.

Actually, there is a D&D online game now, and I'm sure it's sweet.

Here it is: www.ddo.com I think.

If I had lots of free time and a bit of cash, I'd say sign on up, and I'd make a monk named Bronson who'd kick your fucking ass. It's all about 3.5E Grappling.

...

At least they didn't die playing like Harvest Moon online or something.

Fantastic PR for gamers

I'm not sure that the reporters have their story straight because they keep refering to Dungeons & Dragons, but they also talk about computer games... perhaps they are mixing WoW and D&D or something...

anyhow, read the nonsense.

O HAI IM BACK

And this one's for Dave, but anyone can share the love. It's the context that takes it beyond just mildly funny:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sigsegv/40492213/

It's true

http://ps3.gamespy.com/playstation-3/fallout-3/805024p1.html

VADR LOL

I love internet.

...

Back home. Gimme a couple days to get my head screwed back on, then we're back to our more or less daily scheduled DiDing.

Think hard about it.

Must see TV

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/56446/

Don't miss this one.

Sick.

Saw Sicko yesterday. I just happened to be sick, too.

It's a must see. -However, it just confirmed what I already strongly suspected. 'For profit' medicine is bad as a entire system approach. -I agree that the wealthy should have the choice to buy better care. However, the other 97% or so need a better system.

I am a fucking hospital employee and last time I was sick and tried to schedule an appointment, they suggested I come in in 4 weeks. -I said I would either be better or dead by then. Three days later I waited 3 hours past my appointment time to see a doctor.

Gao Qi had a lot of dental work done last year. -Cost us 2k after insurance. Fuck anyone that says nationalized health care will raise taxes. 2k is a fucking big tax hike in my opinion. Also, I have to choose within a network. -No real freedom. Our health care system is a ridiculous tax. My Grandma pays $500 a month after insurance. 6k a year is a fucking big tax.

Gao Qi's brother owns a pharmaceutical distribution business. We visited my grandma last week. My grandma's prescription eyedrops cost her $50. The insurance company paid $150 beyond that. Goa Qi's brother laughed. He can get it for $1 in China. -Same manufacturer. Same exact product. -That's not subsidized either. That's the actual fucking value of a very standard hormone eyedrop. My grandma's $200 antibiotics? $0.50 in China. Free market value. No government subsidy. -You see, hospitals in China are allowed to price negotiate with pharmaceutical companies when they buy their drugs. We looked at about 10 more drugs and found the same disparity.

We are being fucking ripped off. Ripped off really, really badly.

Do you know how many cheap effective proven drugs are no longer used because they aren't profitable? It's insane. We are being given less-tested, more expensive drugs in their place just because of patents.

If my father wants to buy a latex catheter tube (about 5 cents of rubber), it costs him $20 for one.

Fuck our healthcare system. Fuck it in the bum.

It only wants my cash. And I have no options.

I am sick of feeling like everyone wants my fucking money. I am sick of having to fight just to get treated well. -Can't even choose my goddamn internet provider. Fuck this false capitalism. Free market my ass.

to post or to wait? that is the question

I thought we were in a holding pattern while the DM was overseas... but then >poof< there's a stardevil...

I imagine the other posters are waiting to hear anything official from the other side of the pacific. or maybe they have just ditched us for their girlfriends... can't really blame them.

mappy

Microsoft Virtual Earth and Google Earth side-by-side.

MVE has some zooms GE doesn't.

iDiD

I watch in amazment as people line up for an iPhone. I like the way it looks. I like the ideas. I like the direction it's going. But c'mon... it's a phone. It'll be there next week... it'll be there next month. Hell, next year, they'll even revise it and fix all the bugs from the first go'round.

If Rob was here... and if he were going to buy an iPhone... the lady in front of him would pay in cash. Two $50's, a $20 and the rest in wadded up $5's and $1's. She would meticulously uncrinkle each of them... only to follow up with the change purse for the 87 cents.

Status update

Yeah Steve, glad to hear things are working out. Have fun in Chicago guys.

...

Just a reminder that in a few days (Sunday June 24), I go off-line for about three weeks. Japan travel. Feel free to post stuff in the meantime, but you might want to get some posts in by the weekend. DiD will, of course, resume as usual in mid-July.

Yeah give me a call mark

i would definitely like you see you guys. you can meet my new girlfriend too, this one has potential to be really serious. kinda like cure srs wooonds, only MORE srs.

Like a hurricane.

That's awesome news, Steve. -Can't keep a good man down.

Are you free Saturday night? Gao Qi has a test in Chicago Saturday. We are staying at our friends Elana's and David's, but want to meet.

DTD is featured in the Wall Street Journal.

Drinks All Around!

Let me be the first to raise my glass (even if it is just coke) to the King Tut. A man rising like a phoenix from the ashes. That is all great news. More money, fewer hours, and good environment.

Cheers!

Here and back again

Hi everyone, we had a little hiatus when I went home for a visit. Got four days now to play, then we'll be on a three week break...

Update from Ancient Egypt...

You hear static crackle over the radio.

Your ears perk up.

You adjust the knob (on the radio, dickhead).

You hear a voice come over the radio waves. It's thin and haunting, yet somehow strong, deep, and powerful, as if it were liquid lavender oil wrapped in molten steel that had cooled so that it was no longer molten, but steel, while at the same time echoing wtih an odd dissonance, as if it were being relayed from thousands of miles away.

You listen to the words.

So, I know I have been laying low for awhile. Frankly, I was depressed with the job situation. But, I just learned that I got a job. It's a great one too. Corporate tax, 15% raise from my previous job (plus less hours! 40 per week!), the building is beautiful, and it's perfect. So, all is well back in the land of Egypt.

This has been percolating for a little while, but I kept it on the down low because I didn't want to bring good news only to have it fall through.

So, have a drink for ol' KT, because he's happy again.

My quest

At first I feared the flying spaghetti monster...

I now also fear the giant bird that shits fire and gives birth to the flying spaghetti monster...



I'll never sleep again.

the horror.... the horror...........

A miracle.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster does exist!!!!

Cold.

Pocketfull of gold
The dead are soon forgotten
And now I must leave

True Love

So funny.

Most of them are pretty good.

Detroit's Real Estate Boom

The only thing better than buying a luxury condo in Detroit...

Is getting a free Land Rover when you do!

Tote bag

So I'm in line at the cafeteria again yesterday. The lady ahead of me has a big ass tote bag. The cashier rings her up while she just stands there, and her bill comes to like $3.79 or something.

Then she begins rummaging around in her tote bag, looking for... guess what? Her goddamn change purse. Like she was suddenly surprised she had to pay for her damn food? I don't know why she didn't start looking for it while her food was rung up. (No, I do know why- it's cause ladies are, as a lot, passively rude and thoughtless... see post below for further analysis.)

So she digs through her tote bag for a while. I would've thought it'd be easy to find a change purse, like at the bottom of the bag, but I dunno. It took a while.

She finds it. Then, of course, she starts rummaging around her fucking cute little change purse to pay with exact change. I knew it, I just knew it, and I start smirking. She's starting to become aware of how annoying she is, and sees me smirking. I don't really mean to be a dick, you know, so I look away to hide my grin and basic contempt.

She can't seem to figure it out, so she ends up dumping all her change on the counter. She then counts it all, and of course, it turns out she doesn't have enough to pay with exact change.

She then whips four bucks out of her pocket like she's got fucking Quick Strike and pays for her food.

The irony of the situation is that, in paying with $4.00, she got some more change, two dimes and a penny, just encouraging her to try again to pay with even more exact change the next time.

...

This wasn't like some crazy cat lady or anything, just a normal chick, maybe one of the nurses or doctors. Probably a nice person, intelligent and professional and stuff.

But Jesus H Mother of Fucking Christ. It's always the same. Why do chicks do this shit? She had the four goddamn dollars super-handy in her pocket, it's some sort of brain thing, I know it.

Fun.

Cat Golf rocks.

I guess the DTD guy quit his day job. New stuff should be on its way.

Updaters

Heh heh... nice games.

...

Will make a little Microsoft Paint map of the GMI and post it to mop up the confusion. That happens in the night time. Stay tuned for more exciting DiD updates!

And today was the first- no, second- time I'd looked at kottke.org. Huh. I think his blog would be more exciting if every now and then, not too frequent, maybe a couple times a week? Anyway, it'd be more interesting if every now and then a random person would log on and blog about the damage they've done to a bugbear or what treasure they want or something.

Several Ways to Waste Time

Let's see here...

there's Contra

or Orbit

or Mercedes Drifting

or my current favorite Cat Golf

But if you want some fun in the real world... you could always walk into a Russian McDonalds and hurl a cat behind the counter:

Per the Pepper.

Holy shit.

Holy fucking shit.

Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too?

Dr. Pepper's Wild Ride

(Courtesy of Metafilter. More Michigan weirdness...)

Antipopes and NPC slaughter

Inspired by the 300, here's a little known fact about my campaigns.

In every game (meaning, every campaign), I'd try to ratchet up the body count. One, because I was always interested in PC morality or lack thereof, and two, because it's fun to mow down a bunch of dudes.

Tony Tanona's half-orc "Mr. Bolar" had the record for a while, taking out 50 villagers by himself in the first Narbohring game.

In my last game, Sarpagal IV, the PCs took out a whole fortress full of guys, numbering probably around 200, including a great fight against twelve 5th level mages. Of course, most of the body count there was from an explosion, so maybe it doesn't count.

In terms of raw dice rolling, though, Narbohring 9K was the champ of PC murder: four ships of sailors. Something like 75 individual NPCs, butchered.

They all had names too.

...

EDIT: Did you know that, right now, there are four antipopes? Honest to god, Catholic Antipopes. Four of 'em. I love wikipedia.

??!??!?

on that note

the funny thing is that I swear I read that book a long time ago, well 5 or 6 years.
I don't really remember what it was about. huh.

for those of you who read picture books, I think Y the Last Man is a pretty good series.

and fell is one of the prettiest comics ever done, even if it was mostly rendered on a computer.

the fountain was a movie really surprised me. but, it is my kind of thing. It seemed to have all of the things Rob wishes for in stories.

I'm not playing thak btw, I think you (Rob) and I have different ideas about gaming. that works ok on table top, but not here. Here it just makes me mad. Huh, the right side shift button doesn't work on this computer. that's why that isn't capitalized, while St. Peters cathedral ends up weird. Is it strange to use my left pinky to capitalize S's?

Bye.

It's in the cue.

Got me interested.

My book report

I read a lot of books these days. That means by definition, I read a lot of horrible books. Maybe someday I'll make a little blog post about the awful books I've read, but not today.

Instead, I'm 'blogging' to say that I just finished one of the best books I've ever read: "An Instance of the Fingerpost" by Iain Pears.

I won't describe it much, except to say that it's similar to "Name of the Rose", but much more readable and more interesting. Check it out on amazon.com or whatever if you want. Although I'll say that the amazon.com reviewers seem mostly to have missed what makes this book so special.

Reviews here if you're bored.

But I want to say that I think that books and stories are, or should aspire to be, five things:

1) fairy tales
2) mysteries
3) love stories
4) grand epics
5) the pilgrim's progress

I don't mean that some books should be one and some the other. That's true, alas, but sucks and is terribly myopic, and is partially responsible for my having read a ton of bad books.

What I mean that every story should be all of those five things. That goes for D&D campaigns too, even DiD.

I don't care much for plot and characters, as they're all sort of the same, averaged over stories. I'm more interested in structural elements and the way in which those five qualities above relate to each other. "Instance of the Fingerpost" is masterfully crafted, and basically perfect in each of those five ways. One of those rare books that was a joy to read and appreciate.

Basically, it's four different versions of the same story, a murder mystery set in 17th century Oxford, told in first person, although the main character is neither of those four characters. Sounds like a yawn, although it's a fucking great read as it is.

But I don't care about 'murder mysteries'. It's just a device. It's the structure, which, my god, is genius. The evolution of the main character throughout the novel occurs not chronologically, but in the repeated telling of the story. Brilliantly, the title makes sense only 90% of the way through the book, is the solution to the murder, and is itself a double entendre, who's second meaning I think is what the book is truly about. Although the solution to the crime then leaves about 50 pages of text, two other puzzles are satisfactorily answered- the final one, in the last three pages, gaining significance only in terms of the very first sentence of the novel (which, at first read, is completely innocuous- more or less "Hi, this is me, I'm going to tell you a story.").

...

Not bad for a guy whose other claim to fame is writing a series of books unfortunately named 'Art History Mysteries'. Although I might actually read those dimestore-lookin' books given that Instance of the Fingerpost is essentially literary perfection, on the order of Foucault's Pendulum and Pale Fire. In a way, it's sort of a cross between Eco and Nabokov, which is exactly what I read tons of awful books trying to find.

I Love Negative Ten

I suppose this is as good a time as any to show my ignorance [again] on the rules.

-Thanks for the update on the -10 thing. I like playing Dag.
-Spells: I didn't realize clerics had to pre-memorize spells each day. If this is the case, I will begin letting you know what spells I choose to memorize.

411

I broke my one-post-a-day rule just to provide some meat to the new module, and allow you guys to start doing stuff.

And if you want Paul, go ahead and take over Thaka 3. Otherwise, she's NPC'd.

Doom Lounge is the best.

I am inspired. My next character is going to be named Hindu Schemer.

-10

This is 1E, death is at -10. Anyone at any time is welcome to die and/or roll up a new dude.

You ain't dead yo, anyway almost all of that damage was illusionary, and thus subdual.

...

Enjoy the start of a new module cycle on the main page...

...

EDIT. I guess we're sort of like this:
http://www.doomlounge.org/pc_christian.html

I mean, Doom Lounge in general. I don't think I could name an NPC 'Christian Sinner' for Christ's sake. Of course, linking this here has nothing to do with the title of this blog entry.

Rollin

Let me know when to roll... Unless Odin smiles down on me, I'm ready to draft up a new character... maybe Paul will join back in with me.

God speed Paris Hilton

To thee, I raise my pint glass.

(Oh, and dude- you fuckin' NPC-suicided. Not much I could do about that. Hell, I even brought you back.)

ok.

Huh, maybe you shouldn't have killed me Rob.

Ok, Dell is out. I'm glad you like yours, and they have gotten better, but they still aren't where it's at. That's why I said they were on the out list.

I think it's funny that people think that there are multi-media computers, and that there are gaming computers, and school computers. A good computer should do it all. I personally want to buy a Tablet PC with Tablet 2005 on it with an onboard optical drive, and 12 inch widescreen, but I have to buy a house first.

all laptops bought today that cost over a grand should have dedicated video memory. 256 megs please. They should have wireless N networking, they should have bluetooth. IF they have a TV tuner card it should do digital in addition to the analog abilities, especially if you pay another 150 bucks, because it will be WORTHLESS in 2 years. All this shit should be on the inside of the laptop, not a card, a usb thing, blah. I don't believe how hard it is to even get an s-video out. It's a lot better than it was a year ago, but come on. And for fucks sake, how hard is it to get an HDMI port and HD capabilities. I understand the format fight and the reluctance to pick a disc, but people will buy it. xps dell for $2300 sucks. It doesn't have very good Processors, video, it doesn't come in a 15 inch wide screen. You pay extra for XP instead of Vista crap.

So anyway, that's how I feel about computers, well some of how I feel. Sure low end laptops are great. It's amazing what you can get for 400 bucks now, new. It's real revolution. The problem is if you spend another 1000, you don't usually get much at all for it, unless you do some serious research. I'm reminded of Cars, most people buy for color, or power as an accesory, a statement about themselves. Mac's dont even come with a word program, WTF?

Directors cut all the way. Sean Young was actually very young. if I remember right.

Well that's all I can say quickly.

I hope dell enjoys the hate mail they will get if they put Ubuntu on their computers, it's not ready for most home users. I won't get any Linux machine for a while.

my computer is a 600 mhz IBM running Linux. It works fine for me most of the time, but realplayer, java, flash all that shit is a bitch to install. Open office rocks though, but I don't use it.

ok really good night and good luck.

Blade Runner

Usually I'd think that the Director's Cut is the better version, especially as I have deep respect for Ridley Scott and David Peoples.

However, I prefer the original release of Blade Runner, as I find it more ambiguous. Even the 'happy ending' is somewhat ambiguous, as Rachael might not necessarily get to live longer despite what Deckard was told, and I like the stock footage they use as they escape from the city... it's a great contrast to the opening footage that basically defines all of cyberpunk. Removing the voice-over from the ending though wouldn't be bad and leave Rachael's demise an open issue. In the Director's Cut, them simply leaving the apartment feels like a non-ending, rather than a nice ambiguous open ending. Important difference to me.

I like the voice-over in the beginning, as it has this 'hard-boiled' film noir 'dame walks into my office' thing that I think helps a lot in setting the tone of the movie.

But, the unicorn dream thing is retarded. Scott never should have come out and said that Deckard is a replicant (as he did in interviews). It's a lame idea- it's okay if vaguely alluded to, but the Director's Cut heavy-handed approach leaves me cold. It also means that Gaff's origami isn't just a personality quirk but an Important Plot Device. Not everything in movies has to mean stuff, folks.

I don't remember, but I think that part of the unicorn dream (maybe sans origami?) was in the original version too... my reading of that was Deckard's view of Rachael as a lovely Thing That Shouldn't Be or Thing That Will Never Be Again.

It's still a fucking great movie in any case. Perfect meld of film noir and sci-fi.

...

I just learned that 'Soldier', a Kurt Russell movie, is sort of a sequel to Blade Runner. Huh, no shit.

Blade Runner

I just watched the "Director's Cut" of Blade Runner for the first time in like 8-10 years... It is even better than I remembered it being. I'm not sure I even remember the studio version. Anyone care to weigh in on which they think is better?

What you say?!

Laptops and bitching- a post in two parts

Depends what the laptop is for. Business or fun? I've got a Dell (Latitude D800), and it's been great. Going on four years now.

My understanding was that Alienware designed gaming rigs. If gaming and entertainment is a priority, you'll want a big-ass screen. Mine is 17" because I do a lot of graphic design (and have gamed) with it. Haven't suffered due to the size, if anything I could go just a tad larger.

If it's for fun, buy the biggest and best possible- money saved in the long run, as fun (i.e., video games) tend to ride the cutting edge of software and hardware tech. Meaning that the worse your PC is, the sooner it'll be obsolete, meaning the sooner you have to cough up another $1000 (+/-) for a brand new system.

If it's mainly for school and word processing, might as well go small and cheap.

...

Dude, our traffic problem won't be solved with more eagle pictures. It'll be solved with more action in the game. I try not to bitch about lack of posting, so I'll take this opportunity to do so. Post, damn it. I fail to believe that all y'all use the damn internet only once or twice a week. Don't tell me you all get the newspaper, read books, and still write letters, and only grudgingly fire up the ol' Vic 20 every now and then.

Dude, I got a Dell.

I like my Dell. I got a 300 rebate if I spent 1000 or more. Thus, I got a $700 laptop, and upgraded it w/ $300 worth of stuff. -Got the $300 back.

Look for deals and order online. Lots of deals can save Chris 100's or get more for his money.

public cry for help

anyone got any advice on laptops for Chris to buy?

he seems to be thinking alienware or lenovo. compaq and hp are out, as I believe dell is. maybe an acer? or one of them foriegn things..

he seems likely to buy one today and has enlisted my help... I back up lenovo and alienware, but it seems alienware gets some bad press from owners at times.

he wants a pc. Sony? Toshiba? anyone hear anything post quick...I don't think he can wait.

time to do some research. I'm pushing for a dedicated 256 video, hdmi out, tv tuner with digital and analog capabilities, bluetooth, what do you think of HDDVD? 17 inch would prolly be a bit big.

Multi-touch

Whether you look at the iPhone, Jeff Han or even Microsoft, the future looks cool.

We need another gnome illusionist thief.

Welcome new blood. We need another powerhouse like Koppel.

New blood

Steve (KT), good luck with the interviews, brotha. And new blood is good... 'Chris'? Tell him to take a look, and if he likes what he sees, he can make a dude and join the blog.

By the way, is he moving to the San Francisco area? If so maybe we can meet up.

Sorry i was incognito for a bit

I had a lot of interviews and I was feeling a little down too.

I'll get back in touch in soon. In the meantime, someone I met in Chicago may want to join in.

Chris plays a lot of D&D and video games, and he is headed out to California to start photography school....that's all fine and dandy, but can he handle spiderbots, Teddy Ruxpin, Eagles, and an Owlbearaconda--not to mention multiple Ambassador Beakers and juiced royalty? Only time will tell.

Huh.

My browser said it just blocked a pop-up. I'll check it out.

Update: I think I fixed it. It was either Technorati or the web log exchange. Both are lame, so I cut em.

Pop Ups?

Has anyone else been getting popup ads like netflix or "free smileys" when you pull up the main page?

67? oh... I thought you said 16

Rob, in light of your recent rant...

I'm at the store, lady in front of me rings up her 8 lbs. of Jelly Bellies (I kid you not - all the same flavor - pink grapefruit) and she can't stop talking about how delicious they are, and how we should all try them. The kid behind the register says "That will be $56.67" so she digs through her laundry bag of a purse and shells out three twenties. She then digs around for her change purse. She has half of her body inside the bag looking for it. When she finally comes out, hair dishevelled, red cheeked, she proudly counts out sixteen cents and triumphantly hands it to the kid. he looks at his hand, then looks at her, then back at his hand...

"uh [pause] yeah... $56.67"

almost offended, the lady starts digging around in her change purse again, can't come up with the extra fifty one cents, and in disgust, takes her sixteen cents back and reluctantly takes the change from the kid. All the while, she is muttering on and on about how sure she was that she had the change. She was a talker. And the more she looked for that change, the more she talked.

I was 8 feet away from the kid and I heard the correct amount. She is thirty inches across the counter and she missed it.

Neva mind

Oh, you can always press the orange Publish Post button. Autosaving is actually good. Disregard my bitching. I suck at internets sometimes.

Complaints re: ladies' rudeness still extant.

Exact revenge

Eh, I actually listened to Joy Division today ("Heart and Soul", their best song). Plus She Wants Revenge, which is sort of like Joy Division. I totally forgot it was today. Honestly I sort of forgot what day today was in general. My days are all sort of similar. Some days it rains. Some days I get a drink after work. Some days things go, some days things don't go. Etc.

Cheers to Joy Division and New Order. Everyone loves New Order. I don't know anyone who doesn't like New Order. I have a confession to make... I've been listening to The Smiths lately. I don't know what's wrong with me, I used to hate them. Even when I was an angsty sad goth kid I hated the fucking Smiths. But they have a few good songs I guess. I'm not like emo about it, the songs I like, I like for their pop licks.

I'm also listening to Freezepop and Severed Heads, which are good stuff. Mark, I think you'd dig Freezepop if you don't already know them.

...

Dude, Blogger's gay Save Drafts Automatically thing is pissing me off... it's disabling the Save Now button when it farts along and autosaves.

Honestly: Blogger people: stop fucking around. The website is great as is. Don't take away more of our features. Fuck, they disabled the button again! Guess I gotta keep typing.

You know what else bugs the hell out of me? Exact change. Ladies, you know I love you. But I don't care how cute your new thrift shop or hand-knit coin purse is. I'm a busy fucking guy. The guys behind me are busy too. Just give the goddamn clerk a twenty and save your change for the fucking bus. It just takes FOREVER. It's always ladies too. So in protest, whenever there's a woman behind me in line, who looks like she an exact changer, you know what I do? That's right. I pay with exact change. Ha ha, fuck you! Yeah it's awkward and takes long and I feel like a total ass, because all the change is tucked in the corner of my wallet and I got to dig it out with my finger, and it's never quite right, so I have to take longer and feel all lame for using exact change.

But maybe, just maybe, my voice of protest will be heard and I'll change one life. Change one heart. Change one mind. To put away your goddamn change.

Also, ladies don't hold doors open. Guys do, even for other guys, it's not like a chivalry thing or a sex thing, it's just polite.

2 + 2 = Volcano?

I guess I never put it together that JD day and Mount St. Helens erupted on the same day.

Just a dash...

Happiness is here
Only I can show you it
Put some salt on it

18 May

Anyone have any good JD Day plans?

Employment

Steve... that does suck, but I agree wholeheartedly with the other boys, you will come out on top of this. The work you have done at school and in the workplace will pay off.

Damn

Yeah, sorry Steve... that sucks. Hopefully something good can come out of this- keep us posted.

canna get a amen. cannah?

Christopher Hitchens and Al Sharpton have a debate available on line if you are bored.

http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/pep/pepdesc.cfm?id=2677

Oof.

That sucks, Steve. -But I guess you don't need my expert opinion.

If you didn't enjoy the job, it can't be all bad. However, limbo can be rough.

I don't doubt you'll come out for the better. Yet, I don't envy the process that lies ahead of you.

That Bar shit is ridiculous. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. When do you go in July? Gao Qi and I might be taking her brother's family to Chicago in early July.

Poor KT

Well, I lost my job at the accounting firm. I think it was because the Florida Bar Association called the managing partner and 2 of my supervisors, I think the firm just figured that I was going to work there for a little bit and move to Florida. Which is exactly what I was going to do, I just needed about 1 more year's experience before I could go. So, now I'm just kicking it in Chicago, looking for work.

I thought having 2 graduate degrees would be nice, but with only about 6 months experience, it turns out I'm pretty much overqualified for entry level work and not experienced enough for senior level work. I have to fly down to Florida in July for an administrative hearing with the Bar to explain my alcohol-related tickets from years ago. Hopefully that will go well and I'll eventually get admitted.

Anyways, I'm not in the best of moods these days. I get all intro- (and retro-) spective when things go bad, like I second-guess my decision to get the degrees, how hard I worked in school, etc. I see a lot of missed opportunities and laziness. Don't think I'm all doom and gloom though, I'm still keeping the chin up.

I haven't told anyone besides my parents and you guys.

Anyways, back to the regularly scheduled randomness of Teddy Ruxpin, eagles, and castles or whatever.

The Mormons

the PBS doc really wasn't so bad... it caught a few people off guard, but hey, any time you dig through history, you're bound to find some good old fashioned controversy - especially in religion - especially in one as crazy as mine. I think the doc was pretty fair. I mean, for a program affiliated with Frontline, it was S-O-F-T. Frontline usually doesn't pull any punches. I think if I had one complaint about the show, it would be lack of representation. I didn't have a pen and paper out to keep track, but it sure seemed like they had more people who are NOT members of the LDS church than those that were. But all in all, I think it was a fair, flat, unbiased study. I liked it.