I know that their are many worse things in my life, life in general & the world at large, but I'm still going to mourn the loss of the pirate coffee table that got away.
- Mood:
disappointed
The whole time – from Sunday, June 28 to Saturday, July 4 – the place was wet. Some days, we merely had the occasional spell of drizzle; other days, we had out-and-out rain. We had fog the whole time. That's just the way the weather goes in Nova Scotia. I'd have liked to have seen some sun, but I didn't really expect that to happen.
As the whole point of the trip was to see Mum and Dad, not to be a tourist, I didn't plan to travel around much. I mean, I lived in Halifax for ages . . . what would I need to see? Of course, places change, so a lot of things caught my eye.
For instance, on Monday, I spotted a Games Workshop retail shop while we were running errands. That surprised me! Halifax isn't large; the CMA population is about 350,000, and that's spread out over the Halifax Regional Municipality, which encompasses numerous villages and towns. During the 80s, it was rather difficult to get gaming materials. Times certainly have changed.
On Tuesday, Dad and I drove out to Herring Cove and swung back through an area that recently had a serious forest fire. I was struck by two things: First, the extensive fire damage – yikes. Second, all the houses that were endangered by the fire. Those didn't exist when I lived in Halifax. All that land used to be woods . . . and now it's mini-mansions. Bleah.
And on Thursday, we spent some time in the city proper, including a ferry ride across Halifax Harbour and back, just to say that we had done it. The city certainly has changed. The core has undergone gentrification; condos and boutique shops have cropped up everywhere. Meanwhile, the outskirts have expanded dramatically. I don't even pretend to understand the economics of this.
Since the entire purpose of the trip was to touch base with my parents, we also kept the social events to a minimum. However, Mum and Dad did have a cocktail party on Monday night so that I could meet the neighbors. There were plenty of familiar faces there, as well as some new ones. As is my habit at such soirées, I introduced people to a new drink: the caipirinha. This may be the national cocktail of Brazil, but it isn't well-known in Halifax just yet.
Tuesday night, my parents hosted a dinner party and invited some friends of the family. That was really great. Mum served prosciutto e melon, garlic soup, a salade composée dressed with lime and cumin, a vegetarian lasagna, and her latest dessert invention: a kind of tiramisù ice cream cake. It was a wonderful meal!
I did have some time alone, of course. I tried to keep up with my cardio by running . . . but that didn't go well at all. I'm used to no-impact work on an elliptical machine, and my parents don't own one. While the lake was beautiful even in the rain, hilly asphalt proved to be a recipe for impact; I had to throw in the towel. Add in the food above and I should've gained a ton of weight. Strangely, I didn't. Chalk one up to a hyperactive metabolism.
I also had some quiet moments for reading. This is rare. I read and write for 8-12 hours a day for a living, so I prefer to avoid squinting at text during my downtime. But with a whole week away from work, I squeezed in some book time. At long last, I made my way through most of Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition – a work that I always planned to read but never found time for. Interesting stuff!
Throughout all this, I had hours and hours of conversation with Mum and Dad, which was why I took the trip in the first place. It was great to catch up, and I was sorry to leave on Saturday evening. I just hope to get down there again before another eight years pass. Here's hoping that Steve gives us a paid week off next June!
- Mood:
catching up - Music:"Nite Life," Adult.
I am particularly proud of this article and the gaming ideas therein - including a four-way struggle for supremacy between the human survivors of the government collapse and subsequent earthquake, rat kings spreading their filth throughout the state, a super ant hive mind controlling the coastal areas, and mysterious fire creatures emerging from the ground!
I might not quite have reached the level of Ken Hite's Suppressed Transmissions columns, but I'm trying to get there. ;)
Our July 7, 2009 gang was Bonnie ("Xiang Wen," a.k.a. "Wu Xie Zhi"), Marc ("Anabel Windsor," a.k.a. "Abigail Wilson"), Martin ("Zhu Zhang," a.k.a. "Harold Lee"), and Mike ("Vincenzo Calliente," of many aliases). Stéphane ("Jean-Baptiste Dieudonné," a.k.a. "Jimmy Matthieu") was absent, as he's taking a break for the summer.
- Mood:geeky
- Music:"Jet Age," Ladytron
Unclean! Unclean! It looks like ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
chilledchimp and I will be dressing like this for the next few days. We're all Tamiflu'd up and in quarantine until symptoms subside. So for me that means no last Creative Writing class and drinks, no gaming, no treasure hunt and possibly no Treadwells. Blah!
Oh, my beloved Tomas!
Can you ever, possibly, in a thousand years forgive me? I had not meant to fall apart as I did the day you faced Lady Shara. I swore to myself a dozen times over that I would be strong for you, as you were being brave for me. A solemn pledge that no matter what happened, I would not leave your side. Even if you should fall, I would take you in my arms, my hands in yours, and stay with you until the very end.
And yet, at the critical moment, my heart failed me...
(Read more at the HotB Design Blog!)
"Beyond the state's dysfunctional system, the short answer is the rise of the hard-right GOP. Pushed far to the right by ideologues like Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, Grover Norquist and their ilk, California Republican lawmakers have staked out an absolutist line against taxes that makes governance nearly impossible. Lawmakers who believe and act on Reagan's famous line that "government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem," are walking oxymorons. Why expect anti-government Republican legislators to resolve a budget crisis when that crisis will result in their goal: the destruction of government? The floundering Governator may not be an extremist, but he remains in thrall to the members of his party who are."
It distresses me extremely to say this, but you know what this reminds me of? The Weimar Republic.
The Weimar Republic might or might not have survived under better conditions - perhaps if the Great Depression hadn't happened, it might have struggled on and reformed somehow.
But there were also several large parties in the Reichstag which wanted to take down the whole system of the government, and which in the end were able to block any legislature to resolve this mess. In the final years, the only way to get anything done was via presidential emergency degrees, but even that was not enough to save the Weimar Republic.
So i need a little help doing some research on this matter. Are there any cameras you would recommend? I'm not looking for excellent quality but i do notice some decent picture qualities that you folks share. What kind of cameras do you use or do you recommend for such small projects?
- Mood:curious
There was no report last Friday, so "What's moving and shaking for GURPS?" is a more pressing question than usual. Without further ado, then, here's the answer:
• We released Transhuman Space: Personnel Files 3 – Wild Justice, by Phil Masters. It pits an amateur investigator, a dog, and a couple of AIs against a shady criminal conspiracy. Which is to say, it has its finger on the pulse of Transhuman Space.
• GURPS Gun Fu is out of playtest, and S.A. Fisher, Hans-Christian Vortisch, and I are hard at work on the final draft. I've already turned in the majority of my revisions, including notes on gun cults and crossbow fu. The results should be interesting!
• Steven Marsh (waitingforgo) turned around comments on my latest work, GURPS Action 3: Furious Fists, and I made some revisions. How could I have overlooked the old chemical warehouse ploy?
• We're pretty much geared up for the playtest of GURPS Horror, by Ken Hite (princeofcairo). Playtester list finalized? Check. Files ready for download? Check. Mailing list created? Check. Next week, the horror begins . . .
• Those were the big ones, but we also made useful progress on some (non-GURPS Low-Tech) projects by Matt Riggsby (wombattery) and Bill Stoddard (whswhs), and on another shooting-related item by Hans-Christian Vortisch. More on those as contracts are signed.
- Mood:working
- Music:"Butcher Boy," Warren Suicide
- Mood:
drained
I got a subscription to Kobold Quarterly at last year's GenCon. I had never heard of the magazine before the night before when Wolfgang Baur won the Diana Jones Award. I loved the idea behind Open Content and put my money where I thought it deserved to be. Later, when I got home, I read through a few of the columns. I'm not the biggest fan of d20, but the choices of articles reminded me of working at Shadis. They were diverse, well-selected and really fun. I contacted Wolfgang and asked him if he'd be interested in a series of articles--much in the vein of Play Dirty--something to stir up the pot, so to speak. He said he was interested, but wanted to know what I would be writing about.
"Not GM advice," I told him. "I've already done that."
"Well, what then?"
I thought about it. Thought about it some more. Then, I said, "Let me get back to you."
ONE YEAR LATER...
"Hey Wolf, remember me?"
"Yeah," he said. "What's up?"
"I've got an idea. See, I always loved those 'Ecology of..." articles in Dragon. Remember those?"
"Of course I do!"
"Well, I'd like to do something like that. Except, I want to do them 'John Wick Style.'"
"What does that mean?"
"I want to do the 'Wicked Version' of the traditional D&D races. Elves, dwarves, halflings."
"Hm..." he said. "That could be very interesting."
"It'd be a completely different take on them. Using the cliches we all know and love, but doing something really different."
"Okay. Why don't you send me the first one and we'll go from there."
So, I sat down and thought about what race I'd want to tackle first. But before I got that far, I decided I'd need some help. Not being the biggest d20 fan in the world, I needed someone who had a mind for d20 like no other. Someone who could look at a rule set and manipulate it beyond the original designer's dreams. Someone creative, brilliant and absolutely original.
I had no choice. I had to contact Jess Heinig.
I showed him what I was working on and said, "I want the first race to do this."
Jess took one look at what I suggested and said, "No, you don't." He said, "You want them to do this."
And I smiled and nodded. That's exactly why I picked Jess.
Our first effort will be appearing in Kobold Quarterly #10 in just a few days. Subsequent efforts will be appearing in both the magazine and the website. Go over to Kobold Quarterly and get your subscription now.
You won't believe what Jess and I have done.
I want you all to bookmark this video showing what really happened, as I know, I just know that this image will be used for "swiftboating" attempts against Obama until the end of the next American presidential elections at the very least.
The Legend is already forming...
Cubicle 7 Entertainment and John Wick are pleased to announce they have signed a publishing agreement. This partnership will see Cubicle 7 bring award-winning author and game designer John Wick’s games to a wider audience through distribution and retail stores.
“I’ve enjoyed John’s games ever since he designed 7th Sea and Legend of the Five Rings for Alderac Entertainment,” said Angus Abranson of Cubicle 7 “I carried on following him when he left the mainstream industry, set up his own company – Wicked Dead Brewing Company – and produced some fantastic games such as Cat and Thirty. It’s an honour to now be able to work alongside John and help bring some of his newer, and future, games to the wider audience they deserve.”
HOUSES OF THE BLOODED is the first book to be published through Cubicle 7: a game of Ambition, Lust and Revenge. Thousands of years ago, the ven ruled the world. They were a passionate people, obsessed with Romance and Revenge, opera and theater, and all the forbidden delights their decadent culture provided. In the end, that which made them beautiful was also the key to their own destruction. Houses of the Blooded is a game about tragic obsession. Set in the fantastic world of ven myth and legend, players take the roles of powerful characters bent on conquering their world, destroying their enemies and possessing all they desire.
“I'm very excited,” said John Wick. "My end goal has always been to get as many people playing my games as possible. My partnership with Cubicle 7 will help make that happen."
About Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd
Founded in 2006 Cubicle 7 Entertainment was set up by Angus Abranson and Dominic McDowall-Thomas, two gaming entrepreneurs who wanted to create a games publisher fostering some truly iconic brands. Since then the company has published role playing games from a growing list of properties including Victoriana, SLA Industries, Starblazer Adventures (based on DC Thomson’s 80’s Starblazer comic series), 7th Circle’s Chinese fantasy Qin and is releasing Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space, under licensed from the BBC, in October . In June 2009 Cubicle 7 announced it had joined the Rebellion Group. You can find out more at www.cubicle7.co.uk
About John Wick
John Wick is the co-creator of Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea, both of which have won Origins Awards for both Best Roleplaying Game and Best Collectible Card Game. He founded the Wicked Dead Brewing Company with Jared Sorensen and recently started John Wick Presents! as a company devoted to creating games for adults, children and families. You can find out more about John and his games at www.johnwickpresents.com.
socmot will continue, probably quite sensibly, to advise joining a political party, well, Labour, but I'm not sure I'm there. Whether that's me not being there yet or not ever being there I don't know.Anyway...
( Because I'm kind and vulgar, this is going under a cut... )
And apparently, LiveJournal is not so hot any more. Searches for it have declined by more than half since its peak in January 2005. This suggests that the community of LiveJournal users isn't really growing (with the possible exception of Russian Spambots), and that interest is slowly waning.
Blogging itself seems fairly stable at the moment, so there must be other trends filling up the void caused by the reduction of LiveJournal.Twitter, possibly - but what else is out there?
I'm somewhat new to GURPS in general and had a question about one specific rule. It says that you can only block one attack per round. It seems a little strange to me. If I have a shield on my left arm and 3 archers fire at me from my left side, raising my shield should (possibly) block them. I wouldn't block one and then have to dodge the other two. I understand that the shield defense bonus raises all defenses, but that doesn't seem adequate.
I am reluctant to create house-rules for that type of situation since I am inexperienced with 4th edition gurps. Has anyone here made a rule for this situation?
I was considering a clarification that said you pick one general arc, either front or shield-side, and you can try to block attacks from that arc. either that or you can raise your shield and it acts as cover would, forcing opponents to target exposed areas with the normal hit-location penalties.
thanks for your time.
- Mood:
grateful
Act V, Scene 2b: A) To a doubtful Horatio, Hamlet defends his decision to send Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths.
As noted last time, Horatio is the character who doesn’t push back against Hamlet. So it’s significant that he now privileges his role as audience stand-in over his position as Hamlet’s supporter and confidant. Like us, he protests the harshness of R & G’s fate. Stung, Hamlet simultaneously concedes the point and shifts the blame to Claudius. If he hadn’t killed Hamlet’s father and married his mother, he wouldn’t have set Hamlet on this corrupt path, letting “this canker of our nature come in further evil.”
This beat ends in dramatic defeat for Horatio, who, failing to get the assurance he seeks, shifts to the more comfortable pragmatic issue of how quickly Claudius will get news from England. If only by default, that makes it a victory for Hamlet. So we score this with one up and one down dramatic arrow for our two remaining PCs.
B) Another oleaginous courtier, the buffoonish Osric, shows up to issue an invitation. Hamlet befuddles him with a stream of contemptuous verbiage.
Once again, an apparent intrusion of comic relief introduces a darker note. Just as Claudius has corrupted Hamlet, he’s turning the court into a haven for clowns like Osric. Osric has no choice but to cheerily deflect Hamlet’s scorn, giving him a (somewhat cheap) emotional victory. But since Osric is a ridiculous lackey figure, we feel he deserves it.
C) Osric lays out the terms of the wager and duel with Laertes.
A pure procedural beat, this exposition sets up the final confrontation. We know that Claudis and Laertes are scheming to secretly kill Hamlet, so his acceptance of the duel increases our fear for him and thus counts as a procedural down moment.
Full map here.
Cubicle 7 – John Wick Announce Partnership
Cubicle 7 Entertainment and John Wick are pleased to announce they have signed a publishing agreement. This partnership will see Cubicle 7 bring award-winning author and game designer John Wick’s games to a wider audience through distribution and retail stores.
“I’ve enjoyed John’s games ever since he designed 7th Sea and Legend of the Five Rings for Alderac Entertainment,” said Angus Abranson of Cubicle 7 “I carried on following him when he left the mainstream industry, set up his own company – Wicked Dead Brewing Company – and produced some fantastic games such as Cat and Thirty. It’s an honour to now be able to work alongside John and help bring some of his newer, and future, games to the wider audience they deserve.”
HOUSES OF THE BLOODED is the first book to be published through Cubicle 7: a game of Ambition, Lust and Revenge. Thousands of years ago, the ven ruled the world. They were a passionate people, obsessed with Romance and Revenge, opera and theater, and all the forbidden delights their decadent culture provided. In the end, that which made them beautiful was also the key to their own destruction. Houses of the Blooded is a game about tragic obsession. Set in the fantastic world of ven myth and legend, players take the roles of powerful characters bent on conquering their world, destroying their enemies and possessing all they desire.
“I'm very excited,” said John Wick. "My end goal has always been to get as many people playing my games as possible. My partnership with Cubicle 7 will help make that happen."
About Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd
Founded in 2006 Cubicle 7 Entertainment was set up by Angus Abranson and Dominic McDowall-Thomas, two gaming entrepreneurs who wanted to create a games publisher fostering some truly iconic brands. Since then the company has published role playing games from a growing list of properties including Victoriana, SLA Industries, Starblazer Adventures (based on DC Thomson’s 80’s Starblazer comic series), 7th Circle’s Chinese fantasy Qin and is releasing Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space, under licensed from the BBC, in October . In June 2009 Cubicle 7 announced it had joined the Rebellion Group. You can find out more at www.cubicle7.co.uk
About John Wick
John Wick is the co-creator of Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea, both of which have won Origins Awards for both Best Roleplaying Game and Best Collectible Card Game. He founded the Wicked Dead Brewing Company with Jared Sorensen and recently started John Wick Presents! as a company devoted to creating games for adults, children and families. You can find out more about John and his games at www.johnwickpresents.com.
I now have a new blog, and I'm twittering.
So this is the situation.
IF YOU ARE A LIVEJOURNAL USER
To read my blog you should add
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif){kind=small}
jonnynexusfeed to your friends page. I will check out the comments on the LJ feed, so feel free to comment there using your LJ account rather than on the blog proper.If you want to read my tweets, then follow me on http://twitter.com/jonnynexus.
IF YOU ARE A NON-LIVEJOURNAL USER
It's basically similar to the above:
Blog: http://jonnynexus.com/blog/ (RSS feed at http://jonnynexus.com/feed/).
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jonnynexus
Hope that all makes sense. Look forward to seeing you over at the new blog.
Jonny
Did anyone pick up a pair of glasses at Trout last night at the end of the evening? I appear to have lost mine. They would have been in a silver Optical Express, oval shaped, hard case.
The glasses were blue rimed, fairly square lenses with a white Optical Express cleaning cloth in the case.
If nobody replies, I will go to the pub at lunchtime and ask the bar staff.
Simon
Poll #1427704 Green TDs
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All
If there was an Irish General Election tomorrow, would you vote for a sitting Green TD?
Yes, 1st preference
8 (17.0%)
Yes, middling preference 13 (27.7%)
Yes, but only cos I give everyone a preference 4 (8.5%)
No 22 (46.8%)
Sofas! More on this later.
Cake! More on this later.
Finally pinned down Mikey plus girlfriend for dinner on Sunday. He has demanded rigatoni alla norcina. I am so upset about having to make that again.
- Mood:
bouncy
mizkit's books are, so in an effort to vary things, I thought, today, I'd talk about how damn good sarahtales' book, The Demon's Lexicon is. It's only fair like.I picked the book up in that wonderful shop that is Chapters, along with
mizkit's Pretender's Crown and figured I'd read TDL first. What a very pleasurable experience it was. The genre is YA urban fantasy, but like a lot of well written YA stuff these days, it's, well, well written. :) Very well written in fact.The story, without spoilers, follows two brothers, Alan & Nick on a very well paced story that nicely introduces the reader to
sarahtales' universe. It's a fairly quick read, helped by the nature and pace of the story and the characters are very easy to get to know and like. I also love the mythology she's created, especially as it seems it's got a fair few layers beneath it.I suspect, if I were a younger man, then the story may have been a bit more emotionally involving, but that's my issue, not the book's.
Anyway, I heartily recommend the piece and suggest there should be no delay between now and the acquisition of a copy for your own library!
“There are certain religious cultures in the world today that do not oblige men and women to live in communion but rather cut them off from one other in a search for individual well-being, limited to the gratification of psychological desires. Furthermore, a certain proliferation of different religious “paths”, attracting small groups or even single individuals, together with religious syncretism, can give rise to separation and disengagement. One possible negative effect of the process of globalization is the tendency to favour this kind of syncretism by encouraging forms of “religion” that, instead of bringing people together, alienate them from one another and distance them from reality. At the same time, some religious and cultural traditions persist which ossify society in rigid social groupings, in magical beliefs that fail to respect the dignity of the person, and in attitudes of subjugation to occult powers. In these contexts, love and truth have difficulty asserting themselves, and authentic development is impeded. For this reason, while it may be true that development needs the religions and cultures of different peoples, it is equally true that adequate discernment is needed. Religious freedom does not mean religious indifferentism, nor does it imply that all religions are equal.”
Now, I can't give a direct translation of most of that into what he's really saying, because I'd have to invert every single statement so it matches reality. The short version would be that everything he accuses “smaller” religions of – the rigidity, magical beliefs, failure to respect the dignity of individuals – is exactly how a large number of people view Catholicism. But let's compare in more detail for a moment:
Neopaganism involves far less 'subjugation to occult powers', in my opinion. In fact, the idea that we as humans are not worthy and should unhesitatingly give thanks and praise to a perfect deity is deliberately avoided - rather most paths encourage working with the concept of deity in an experiential way. "Discernment" is critical, unlike some branches of Catholicism which instead extol faithful obedience to pre-written rules.
In fact, unquestioningly trusting 'faith' in that way is very much about "gratification of psychological desires", while neopaganism deliberately encourages you to be aware, ask questions, challenge yourself psychologically, and rely on your own experience rather than the words of others.
Most paths of neopaganism have no figure at the top who is infallible and the head of a hierarchy. There may be teachers and leaders of small groups, but they usually earn their place by knowing a lot and having experience, as well as giving up their time to teach others. Individual freedom and consent are paramount (no wonder the Pope hates it).
“In these contexts, love and truth have difficulty asserting themselves, and authentic development is impeded.”
Funnily enough, “love and truth” are concepts very much focused on in many paths of neopaganism, with a specific view towards personal development. Knowing yourself more fully, exploring yourself and multiple ideas about the universe.
I am not aware of how the Pope would like us all to ‘develop’, unless it is entirely according to the rules of his Church. Having more faith in God, and only asking questions so as to lead to a greater understanding …of the Roman Catholic God, seems to be the way of it.
Now, I know that some branches of Christianity are more relaxed, and that others do encourage you to question. But for every Alpha Course there’s an Opus Dei, and this is the Pope we’re talking about. Hearing him lecture liberal new religions on rigidity and hierarchy is just high comedy.
- Mood:contemplative
Erin's on a student visa. The general rule with a student visa, certainly as I know it and as everyone seems to agree, is that you can work full-time during holiday periods and half time (18.5 hrs) during term.
If you're in a period where you should be writing a thesis, then you're technically still in session and can only work half time. The guidance that Erin had had, however, suggested that if your supervisor/HOD approved a break, you would technically be back on holiday time, and would then be able to work full-time again.
The Uni's International Office disagrees, stating that she just can't work more than a 20 hour week regardless.
And not to say that that doesn't make sense, but given that this is Edinburgh Uni and they've already royally screwed E over at least twice so far, financially speaking (such as by taking all her remaining fees out of her second last loan installment, leaving her with nothing for the summer that she's apparently not allowed to work in and of course unable to claim another fee loan installment as the fees have been paid already out of her living costs installment), I thought I'd check.
This comes the day after I discover that my new job (which is, appropriately, with the university) is, unexpectedly, paid monthly, and I will see nothing until the end of August. So as you can imagine I'm feeling just peachy today, tyvm.
My mom reads my blog, but she only likes the entries where I talk about how things are going in my life. Usually, I don't use this blog to write about things unless I think they're of interest to most of you, but you know, moms are important.
We just got a window air conditioner unit for our upstairs because our central air conditioner just can't handle the top floor. We have a tall house with three floors, so our top floor is like an attic in terms of temperature. In other words, hot in the summertime. Of course, other than a short stretch a few weeks ago, this is a bizarrely cold summer. We all had to wear long pants and jackets on July 4th for the fireworks, which is really strange.
July 4th, however, was a lot of fun. After a cookout with friends, we went to park along Lake Michigan to get a good spot for fireworks. A few of us played Who Would Win? while we waited for it to get dark. The fireworks were amazing, and we had very close, very good "seats" on our blankets on the grass. Who Would Win? is from Gorilla Games and is amazingly fun. Highly recommended.
Milwaukee is a great place to be in the summer. It's as though they try to cram a year's worth of fun into about three months. There's not just a cool music or ethnic festival every weekend, there's multiple such fests. I was walking around the city today and in one direction I saw them setting up for Bastille Days (a French festival) and in the other I saw them setting up tents for the Circus Parade Festival (apparently, it's like a traditional circus but x10). And it's not just on the weekends. Free concerts, shows, street faires, and big events go on every evening. You couldn't do half of it all if you tried.
Although sometimes, you just have to stay home and relax. I had intended on spending this evening immersed in computer files and whatnot. See, yesterday I got a great deal on a new desktop PC and snapped it up. It's funny how buying a new computer has become an event of such joy and such hassle all mixed together. It's exciting to have a new, better computer, but it's also a pain to set it all up.
For the last three years I've used a laptop (with a docking station and a proper keyboard, mouse, and monitor when at my desk), but this was, as I said, a great deal and I was in need of an upgrade, although the laptop will still serve me well as, well, a laptop. However, I just assumed that it would have a wireless adapter. You know what happens when you assume. You make an ass out of you and Dell. Honestly, wireless connections and networks are so common, I'm surprised they even sell non-wireless computers. Upon further examination, however, it turns out, not only do they, but they still sell a lot of them. So now I wait until the wireless adapter I just ordered with a big black box sitting on my desk. Honestly, there's really no use in even turning the darn thing on until I can get it hooked up to our local network and the Internet.
Tomorrow we're going to the Comedy Sportz championship tournament, which is a gathering of improv comedy troupes from all over the country. I'm expecting hilarity. Friday, I think I'm going to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Ghostbusters with a viewing. Saturday, another cookout and then off to see Fountains of Wayne in concert. Sunday, maybe one of the two festivals I mentioned, or maybe just relaxing at home.
Lastly, I leave you with this. It's a video of a musician wronged by United Airlines getting the only revenge he can. Apparently, when this started making the rounds on Monday, United suddenly decided to help him out. Imagine that. I think the best part about it is that it's actually a catchy little tune. Creativity and talent wins the day.
- Music:Stars: In Our Bedroom After the War
This game went quite a lot better.
i still lost... but i put up a much better fight than last time, and at least gave the guy a run for his money.
( brief game synopsis for the sake of points at the end of the month follows )
An advantage of playing 40k is that when the inevitable zombie apocalypse finally arrives and all the WOW kids are lamenting the loss of the internet, us miniature wargamers will still be able to indulge our hobby.
40k... It's zombieproof.
* As a side dish, then, I offer you The Cimmerian's meaty and richly sauced review of The Day After Ragnarok. For those not familiar with the pre-eminent home of Robert E. Howard discussion on the Web, I offer you The Cimmerian.
plucky_lass!! This makes me very happy as I really didn't want to have to undo all the little stars to see what utterly incomprehensible things people said about me (one said "You don't prevaricate" and I had to look that up because I really wasn't sure. Having got the definition though, I have to say it's more that I'm completely incapable of tact or subtlety ;) :D), partly because they're fiddly, but mainly because they are so utterly, incredibly brilliant, and I really, really like having a pint glass full of compliments :DAnd I'm also happy and small-worldness, as described in
syleth's recent post, and it occurs to me that megglesmcgoo and the no-longer-GC are honeymooning in Cornwall atm, and plucky_lass and alan_wells are also due to be in Cornwall and it would be so deadly if they were staying in the same place! Although since I'm not even sure they're in the county at the same time it's very unlikely. But still, imagine! :D- Mood:
giggly
reynardine: "Professional musician Dave Carroll, of the Sons of Maxwell band, had his $3,500 guitar broken by United Airlines, who refused to take responsibility for it and cover his loss. So he vowed to write three songs about the experience and share them on the Internet. The whole story is here at his site."
First vid is here. It had me laughing by the end:
The definition of blasphemy being used in the new Libel Bill is:
“Blasphemous matter” is defined as matter “that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion; and he or she intends, by the publication of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage.”
Put here so I can link others to it. :)
ETA: Actual text from the bill, only amendment I'm aware of is a drop in the fine from €100,000 to €25,000
36.—(1) A person who publishes or utters blasphemous matter
shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable upon conviction on
indictment to a fine not exceeding €100,000.
(2) For the purposes of this section, a person publishes or utters
blasphemous matter if—
(a) he or she publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive
or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any
religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial
number of the adherents of that religion, and
(b) he or she intends, by the publication or utterance of the 10
matter concerned, to cause such outrage.
(3) It shall be a defence to proceedings for an offence under this
section for the defendant to prove that a reasonable person would
find genuine literary, artistic, political, scientific, or academic value
in the matter to which the offence relates.
While at Origins, I chatted with Dan and Sara from Myriad Games. They've presented it as an episode of their podcast, Game Gab. We chat about Dungeonaday.com, game design, the game industry in general, my upcoming book about conspiracies, and more! Maybe you'll give it a listen?
- Music:Regina Spektor: Begin to Hope
Two-thirds of Republicans want Palin, the party's vice presidential nominee in 2008, to be "a major national political figure" in the future.
________
Republicans: The Party of Stupid.
Profile
- scimon
- Simon Proctor
- More stuff about Scimon
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