August 2007
125 posts
Hell yeah.
This post is a lame excuse to show off my new userpic, courtesy of Chris. But eff it, its the icon I’ll use for AP type stuff. Game Events: The orcs’ plans against the dragon is coming to a head as the Dwarven hosts surround the mountain. Should be a brutal session next week. The Sunday group has concocted a super-hero campaign that we’re gearing up to play. The game is about...
The Money Supermarket.
I think the man in the Money Supermarket advert might be the man of my dreams…but it’s difficult to tell. In order to keep me from my true love the camera tantalisingly fails to settle on his face at anything approaching a useful angle. The hair looks right (ish - slightly bouffant, but I’m guessing that’s for the telly) and the glasses are good. He’s working the geek...
Friday
Reading: Getting to the end of Soon I Will Be Invincible. So far, its cute but not great. Wearing: Button down shirt that just came out of the dry cleaners and some jeans. Planning: This weekend, its off to Albany. Yay! Writing: I’ve got a story brewing this week but with school starting up, we’ll see if I get to finishing it. You? (via The Book of Judd)
Scarystuff: I, for one, welcome our eight-legged...
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably got a lengthy list of things that you’re planning to get around to doing someday. My own list consists of everything from “get in shape” and “write a novel” to “learn to play the guitar”, “teach my young apprentice how to whistle” and “watch The Sound of Music with Laura”.
...
The Monkey Bard Brings Tidings of the Monkey King
I’ve just discovered a very intriguing announcement from Fred Hicks - Evil Hat and Chad Underkoffler are partnering up to release future projects! Read all about it in Fred’s LiveJournal (and you can go read Chad’s take, too.)
This has all kinds of cool implications, I think. To be honest, I REALLY wanted to nab a […] (via Musings of a Misfit Monkey)
Another Check Off My List of Things to Experience...
I am extremely proud to share some character sketches drawn by Storn Cook during the Vegas After Midnight playtest we played at GenCon on Saturday night.
Thank you, Storn. For playing, for sketching, and for showing us what dancing with Madness can truly entail.
(via Musings of a Misfit Monkey)
Things what are done
I’m feeling pretty damn good today. I think Jen and I are freaks, or just damn lucky, because organising stuff for the wedding seems to be bloody easy! We’re booking the flights for the honeymoon this weekend. Two weeks in New York! This is going to kick ass. Not to mention the fact the hotel we’re booking is actually on Broadway and we’re saving €400 by booking...
Does Underkoffler Mean Under an Evil Hat?
So, chadu and I have been kicking around an idea for a while now, but never quite got the chance to talk it through until tonight. And now that we’ve had the “official” conversation, that means I can start talking about it! Starting with Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies, Chad Underkoffler’s new gaming projects will be published… by Evil Hat Productions. I am very...
Dictionary of Delight and Despair: the Massive...
I voted for Dictionary of Mu for the Best Writing Ennie last month, and I’m proud to have done so. But I’ll admit, my vote was based on a few minutes of perusing the text last year at GenCon ‘06 and the preview that is featured on the Mu site. Well, and because I wanted […] (via Musings of a Misfit Monkey)
Who Would Live in a Country Like This?
Today a man called the shop to ask if we can post music to the Philipines. We can. We asked what music he would like posted and for the address of its destination.
It transpired that he had just decided to move from Edinburgh to the Philipines because he is fed up of the rubbish weather here…and “why would you want to live in a country where 11 year old boys get shot in the head on...
Software = Dumb. Fred = Also Dumb. But smart!
So, it’s an awful thing to discover that the shopping cart software you’re working with is, in fact, idiotic enough to actually delete products that are members of a product category you’re getting rid of, making it impossible to remove a category without first taking all member products out of the category. It’s a good thing to make sure you do a backup before deleting a...
Sunbathing
It’s that time of year when the dahlias are in full bloom. This shot was taken at the Swan Island Dahlia Farm near Canby, Oregon last Saturday. The place was huge! We only managed to get a fraction of the way through the farm before getting hot and thirsty. The entire place was in bloom too. Quite a sight to see. Technical Details Aperture Value: f/8 Focal Length: 55 mm Exposure...
Gencon....*whew*
I got sick after Gencon. As per usual. I’m still recovering, but definitely on the mend. It was exhausting, got no sleep. Worked pretty hard, didn’t play overly hard, just had insomnia the whole damn thing. Made a small profit again this year. Had another great review with Jeremy Jarvis of Magic. Definitely have a better idea of what I need to do with my painting, in fact, I...
Sisyphus and the Firehose, part 2
Part 2: Dealing with Email Email is a particular problem. It’s probably the worst of all the offending mediums of communication as far as sheer emotional baggage. For me, it hits with two distinct emotions: The first time you load it after an extended period, there’s the dread of learning just how much is waiting there for you.
Throughout the day, it sits and nags at you like a small child,...
Podcast: Volcanicast for week ending 25 August...
If you’re curious about what people have been searching for on the Google, you should visit Google’s hot trends website. If you want to hear three guys talking about what people have been searching for, you should listen to Volcanicast. It’s just that simple. This week: (Donkey) Kong, the 8,328th Wonder of the World; yes, we call this archaeology; Lifetime, Television for Women;...
a long day that is now over...
I tried something new last night. I started a short story, wrote a paragraph or two and then before I ran out of material, went to sleep. So, basically, I dreamed about Zeppelin City all night and then woke up at four in the morning, hours before my alarm and got some writing done. I haven’t looked at it yet but will do so tomorrow morning. Working days is different, a whole lot more cooks...
Part 2 of me at ... Origins?
merb101 has finally emerged victorious from his tussle with his audio software and posted up the second part of his interview with me at Origins. Here’s the link: http://merb101.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=249978 That said, that link features a GIANT CHILD HEAD for reasons I am unclear on, so if you’re looking to skip that and go straight to the MP3:...
OPML + Randomization + Grazr
So…we’ve been messing around with the new OPML feeds on Mahalo and we were looking at ways people might use them. I put together a script that will give you a random OPML feed from Mahalo which you can then display using Grazr.
Click on the folders or arrows to navigate, or reload a few times and see what you get. it’s pulling from the full 10000+ subject corpus within Mahalo.
To grab the...
Heart of the Hunter Sketch
For those of you that aren’t familiar with Heart of the Hunter, it’s a serialized audio novel written and performed by Sam Chupp. Story Synopsis (excerpt from The Bear’s Grove Bardic Circle): When the Hoskins Irregulars announce they are recruiting for a trip north from the city of Blacpool, the job attracts freebooters, wanderers, and ne’er-do-wells: Peter Goldpond, a veteran...
Dan Repperger’s Podcasting Speech at Ennies ‘07
OboeCop got a nice Youtube vid of Dan’s big speech that everyone in the rpg Podcasting community has been talking about. Here it is, in case you missed it elsewhere:
(via Musings of a Misfit Monkey)
Raygun Commercial
(via The Book of Judd)
Paul Tevis Day
We shall erect a statue in Indianapolis of Paul Tevis in bronze with his gold ENnie around his neck, laughing hysterically at our roasting of his ass at Gen Con. Get all of your Paul Tevis listening: On the Sons of Kryos On Theory from the Closet and of course, on ENnie Award Winning, Have Games, Will Travel, where his roast was recorded for his 100th episode. It was an honor to be nominated....
Zing!
I got to be a part of Paul Tevis’s Roast, aka Have Games Will Travel Episode #100. A little over a year ago I would have thought that was a pretty crazy idea. Today… I’m just grinning ear to ear. (Especially because of my taunt-oriented participation. Big fun!) http://www.havegameswilltravel.net/index.php?post_id=249715 (via In the big car of life…)
Sisyphus and the Firehose, part 1
Part 1: Clearing the Workspace
It’s Sunday evening, around 6pm. I walk upstairs to put the laundry away and pull out a few things to get ready for the week. I switch on the light in my bedroom and there, across the room, is my desk, and on this desk, this very laptop. It sits there, the screen dark, but I can see that it is on. I can feel the heaviness growing…a feeling like I’ve just been...
All is well
We had a few people over on Saturday night for a bit of a late birthday get together. We watched some DVDs and chilled. Dark Place isn’t too bad, so long as you can appreciate the fact it’s a complete satire and piss-take. Season 2 of Green Wing is just as disturbing and surreal as Season 1. On so many levels… Also, friends are great. Dave, Suzy, and MacD got me DC and...
Attention Tony and Michael:
An excerpt from the novel, Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman: “Wearing a cape doesn’t do much for your social life. There’s a standing, unspoken, and utterly unreliable truce among enhanced criminals, the robot-army, hood-and-mask, good-evening-Mister-Bond set. My peer group is largely a collection of psychotics, aliens and would-be emperors. The result is I meet...
Holes and Life
I’m so close to my weekend beginning that I can reach out and touch it, dammit. In other news: There might be life on Mars. & There is a holy in the galaxy. (via The Book of Judd)
Friday Night Nap
I left work four and a half hours earlier than my old shift permitted me to. That was pleasant. Came home, devoured a rice crust pizza with gluten free sausage, a glass and a half of limeade and then unbuttoned the top two buttons of my jeans, read a few comic books and fell into a really satisfying nap on a porch chair. The storm picked up and the pines around the porch were brushing up against...
A MIchael Ball Moment...
What better way to start the weekend than with pictures of Michael dressed as a woman?
(via Rae’s Blog)
Sisyphus and the Firehose
Introduction I have a love/hate relationship with my computer. I truly enjoy working on it…my Macbook is a wonderful piece of technology, and doing anything from writing code to developing fiction on it is a dream. In this way, it’s a fantastic, comfortable tool. On the other hand, it’s also my ball and chain, or my accurately , my boulder and firehose. From the moment I log in, I’m rolling the...
Antimatter Matters [GenCon ‘07 Post 3]
Today, my GenCon recap post focuses on the long-prophesied first mingling of the Rolemonkeys with their so-called antimatter-universe counterparts, the Game Master Show crew. (Although you could argue about which group is matter and which is antimatter - it all depends on who you ask)
The first hurdle was the hotel situation. Clay Karwan the Rolemonkey […] (via Musings of a Misfit Monkey)
The Friday After
The good news is that this is the first day I feel rested since Gen Con. The bad news is that I slept wrong and have to move my neck as if I was wearing a stiff Batman costume. Ick. Reading: I’m reading Shock: Social Science Fiction 1.1 and Black God’s Kiss, both acquired at Gen Con. After that, its all school, though I’ll try to sneak in Burning Wheel’s newest setting...
More scenes from the ennies
(These are all from http://www.flickr.com/photos/8365266@N05/page42/ in case external links don’t work.) (via In the big car of life…)
Lunchtime Monster Sketches
Here is a small pile of lunch time sketches for your viewing pleasure. I seem to have been on a monster kick lately. Beetle Knight Versus The Snorkark My bet is on the snorkark. Slugzilla…and stick people. I think one of them is holding a camera. Foolish stick dude… Be Wary Of Moths That Wear Boots You can always tell if a insect is up to no good if it is wearing boots. On a side note,...
Daily Show At its Best
The Raw Story | Daily Show: ‘America to the Rescue’ in the Middle EastJon Stewart offered a Daily Show-style history of American arms policy in the Middle East on Wednesday’s program. “Obviously, the Iraq War is very complicated,” he began. “It’s another reason why Barack Obama’s foreign policy inexperience is going to be an important issue in this campaign. You can’t have a newbie overthrowing...
Zorcerer of Zo: YouTube Review!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOUPvXCVEw8 (via In the big car of life…)
Writing: Untitled Turf War Story
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Aw, crap, I think. I don’t need this right now.
There are three of them, all dressed alike. Gang colors. I’m on the edge of Deuce territory.
“Maybe you didn’t hear me,” the leader says.
“Look,” I say, my voice firm but non-threatening. I don’t want this to escalate; the last thing we need is a...
Fast Festival
I did the whole Festival today, so you don’t have to. It’s now too late to still be awake. so here is a speedy summary of what I saw. I’ll expand (slag off/drool over/rapture on) over the weekend, however these are the headlines; The Early Edition: Marcus Brigstocke is another in a long line of geeky men that I’m a little bit in love with. Nobody should pay £2000 to have a...
What do you get the guy who has everything
Why, a birthday card with a unique perspective, of course! Click on the card to find out how to get yours! (via In the big car of life…)
Stressblossom!
I can’t deal right now (it’s no personal issue, it’s nothing you did, it’s me being oversubscribed and drowning in the catching-up). So, if you want to talk to me about something, if it can wait until September, then please wait until September. October might be preferable. ;) (via In the big car of life…)
Coffeestuff: Sweet and Creamy
I ordered two coffees from Dunkin Donuts this morning: a large and an extra-large, both with double cream and double sugar. I watched the girl behind the counter pour a quarter-cup of half-and-half into both cups, then put eight heaping teaspoons of sugar into the large. Wow, I thought. That’s a lot of sugar. Then she put ten heaping teaspoons of sugar into the extra-large cup. The...
All Hail the Wookie Messiah
Mick Bradley thinks about the PTA game we played on Friday night at Gen Con and raises some interesting points. Read the Wookie Gospel! (via The Book of Judd)
Happy Earthling Day!
Recently, the folks at LuLu TV made the call for user submitted scripts for their daily vlog, This Day in Alternative History (a.k.a. TDAH for the acronym happy crowd). I thought, what that heck, it would be fun to write a small script. So off I went to find an event that I could have my way with. A week ago I was informed that my script was chosen for August 21st, 2007. Those of you keeping track...
What to Name a Wookiee [GenCon ‘07 Post 2]
My first game at GenCon ‘07 was a smal, intimate little gathering made up of Paul Tevis, Daniel Perez, Rich Rogers, and myself, with Judd Karlman moderating the festivities.
We played a game of Judd’s imagining called Star Wars Episode LV: Revenge of the Jedi. You can read about the genesis of the idea on Judd’s […] (via Musings of a Misfit Monkey)
Gen Con: Jeff Speaks
Over at his livejournal, Jeff talks about Gen Con. EDIT: And when I say he speaks, I mean that he recorded his voice and talked about his experience at the con. (via The Book of Judd)
Passport Excerpts from the Forge Gen-Con...
So, the Indie Games Passport event that I helped to produce was a big hit. We got a few hundred entries, I think, and even more consumption of the passport beyond that — many of the passports I grabbed out of the box for the drawing also at least 9 or 10 of the 11 “full load” stamps, if not the full load. Anyway, I’m reading through the GenCon Post-Mortem thread on the...
Mahalo API & Development Community
Yes, yes…I know. It’s the week of Mahalo posts. Sorry if it’s getting tedious for you, but we’ve got some cool stuff happening, and I wanted to get the word out. We’re looking to build a development community. We’re going to be adding API features over the next month or so, and we really want to get feedback on how we can make those as useful possible. To that end, we’ve created a Google Group for...
And that's all I can afford to read
If you posted after I left for GenCon, but before 1pm on August 20th, the likelihood I’ll see what you said on your LJ is extra small. So it goes. :) As a sort of wrap-up, I give you gobi’s Pictures and Jason Morningstar’s really wonderful video. (via In the big car of life…)
Tuesday Miscellany...
While putting out stock this afternoon my colleague and I were musing on what makes metal bands choose such confrontational images for their album covers. A one eyed Christ with arms that stop just below the elbows, floating over disembodied heads is not that user friendly. And yet we sell loads of Slayer books. We thought that maybe other artists are missing a trick.
How about Aled Jones,...
The Indie RPG Awards
When Luke Crane got his Origins Award he wasn’t there to accept it because he was gaming, running Burning Wheel. When Mu got its Indie RPG Award for Best Supplement, I was in my hotel room, eating chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs, adding a touch of horseradish sauce to make up for how dry they were. Thursday someone had told me that the awards were Saturday. Shit, I even wrote it down...