September 2007
93 posts
Tasty
Paul - a scoop of fun - a heaping teaspoon of beauty - 1 1/2 cups of flirting Season and serve.‘What is your personality recipe?’ at QuizGalaxy.com (via Word Factory)
Fate and Fudge Overlap But Do Not Contain Each...
I find the forum software at phoenyx.net to be completely unintuitive, so I can’t resubscribe to the Fudge mailing list with anything like ease, and it’s really quite frustrating. It also means that I get to resort to posting an open letter here, in response to something over there. Apologies, gentle readers. :) Anyway, this is a response to this thread:...
Spoke too soon
We found Doc dead last night. It was upsetting, but it looks like we’d been over-feeding the fish. Marty survived, which was a relief. We know now for the future how much we’re meant to feed them. We got two new fish and an ornamental castle for the bowl. We got a black and gold fish and a grey fish, both fairly crazy and hyper-active. Marty had been worrying us because he’d...
Tvstuff: The Wonder Pets
One of my many responsibilities as a parent is ensuring that the television programs my young apprentice watches are educational, wholesome, enriching and appropriate for his age (currently 20 months). As a public service, I present the first in a series of informative reviews of television programs geared toward preschoolers. The Wonder Pets is one of Kyle’s favorite programs, and...
Podcast: Volcanicast presents Tangentcast #1
I’ve heard rumors that a bonus episode of Volcanicast has found its way onto these very Internets. The episode is comprised entirely of tangents, rare conversational digressions that we explored while discussing the most popular Google search terms of the past week.
During post-production, our stalwart editor opted to omit these nuggets of off-topic banter in order to trim the show from its...
Friday Friday
Reading: Market Forces, which is like Wall Street meets Mad Max. I’m digging it but it isn’t as good as Altered Carbon. Wearing: A touch ragged button down maroon shirt and clean jeans. Planning: A visit from my dad this weekend…learning to drive a stick shift and gaming with him. Writing: Man, I didn’t do shit this week. Suck. And you? (via The Book of Judd)
Faux Wild
I have come to the conclusion that lorikeets are the best subject to photograph. Well, the ones at the Oregon Zoo are, at least. At any rate… look at the cute little lories! Aren’t they so cute! ;) This convenient flowering bush in their enclosure was doing a handsome job captivating the birdies. This made for a much better photo backdrop than the typical hand holding juice cup....
6 days on
And the fish are still alive and happy. Dumb as hell, but alive and happy. We did have a plastic fern thing as decoration for their bowl, but Doc kept on getting caught in it*, daft sod, so we got rid of it. Might get them a nice little castle or something. *Jen named the fish Doc (the black one) and Marty (the silver and orange one) In other news, I sent off my completed Gaelcon scenario...
e23 Skiddoo
Continuing the program of diversifying our PDF presence, Evil Hat is now selling its PDFs on the e23 store as well. Viva la diversidad! (via In the big car of life…)
Sitestuff: WordPress 2.3, CSS woes and Amazon in...
One of the most memorable quotes from Tim Burton’s Batman is Jack Nicholson as the Joker declaring “This town needs an enema!” Though the Clown Prince of Crime certainly had sinister designs on Gotham, he had a point: the city was a mess and needed a thorough cleansing. His choice of words may not have appealed to those of a delicate and genteel nature (who would likely have...
Blackwater
This is some scary, scary shit. Follow some links around and read up. It makes perfect sense that a firm like this would come to exist and its interesting and a bit chilling to see the economic hoo-doo that led to its creation. (via The Book of Judd)
The Little Things
This morning I woke up at 6 o’clock, had breakfast and a shower before going to meet Storn and Jeff for the new Sons of Kryos show before work. I didn’t get home after work until 8:30. Last night while bringing a plastic crate of books into the house, a spider drifted down in front of my face. The bastard probably wasn’t any bigger than my thumbnail but as close as he was,...
RPG.Net Horror Week is Coming
RPG.Net Horror Review Week is coming, and Evil Hat is offering prize support again: http://forum.rpg.net/showpost.php?p=7862585&postcount=50 I’ve managed to get a number of folks to commit to reviewing Don’t Rest Your Head for this, so I’m pretty jazzed — I’ll be super pleased if I see a whole storm of DRYH reviews. The game’s a perfect fit for the...
Catching Up
So it’s been a while. Here are the things that have been occupying my brain recently; >:-[ The snack machine at the Bus Station in Edinburgh has Roast Ox flavoured crisps in it. This has precipitated a mental riff on other Biblical crisp flavours. Lowly Donkey flavour, Firstborn Son flavour, Locust flavour and Pestilence and Vinegar were my particular favourites. One of my colleagues may...
Podcast: Volcanicast for the week ending 22...
Volcanicast is the show where hosts Wesley, Bob and yours truly discuss the most popular Google search terms of the past week. The Internets were very curious about a lot of stuff over the past week, resulting in our longest show to date.
This week: the environment, the economy, lawyers who shouldn’t sue us, elaborate suicide methods (successful and otherwise), bad Irish accents, and the...
Driving Blind on TV: Cage Match: The First Two...
Our Lawyers Make Me Give You This Disclaimer No spoilers in this post, but I can’t guarantee the comments will be the same. Pre-Match Entertainments Most entertaining show of the Summer: Burn Notice. I could not get enough of this show. The lead’s compelling, and it’s chock full of Bruce Campbell. Catch it on DVD or in reruns. Runners-Up: Damages on FX has been entertainingly...
Evil Hat gets a facelift
I’ve been tinkering a bit with WordPress of late, and I’m pretty happy with the configurability it offers and how well it can deliver a “whole site” engine wrapped around a blog. With that in mind, I spent today shifting EvilHat.Com over to a Wordpress presentation — including a blog that aggregates this livejournal, chadu’s Evil Hat work, rob_donoghue’s...
TVstuff: Reaper is not Journeyman
While writing yesterday’s post about scheduling conflicts between SciFi’s Eureka, FOX’s House and NBC’s Journeyman I overlooked one minor (yet arguably important) detail: there is no such conflict. House and Eureka are both on Tuesday night, but Journeyman is (as I discovered yesterday) on Monday night.
The CW’s Reaper, on the other hand, is on Tuesday night and its...
The Lonely Robot
A sketch of a lonely robot from about a month ago. I had recently purchased a used robot drawing book at Powell’s and was messing around with drawing their cuddly metal bodies. Not sure why the owl is sitting on top of this one. He just appeared and I wasn’t about to shoo him away. Besides, the robot looks like he could use a friend. (via The Fuzzy Slug)
1st...First Quest
Shit. Time to think of a new name. (via The Book of Judd)
More Gen Con Interviews
Jeff posted up our latest batch of Gen Con Interviews. Today we’ve got Paul Czege & Matt Snyder, Gregor Hutton, and Keith Senkowski. Check it out. Here’s the thread on the Sons of Kryos forum. (via The Book of Judd)
TVstuff: No Journeyman for me?
I finally got around to setting up the new Season Passes on the TiVo last night and it appears that I won’t be watching Journeyman after all. Seems some bonehead decided to schedule it at the same time as two shows we’re already recording: House and Eureka. I could cancel the Season Pass for House…if I want to spend autumn sleeping under the deck; it’s one of Laura’s shows...
Seventeen Days and Fine Writing
Has it REALLY been 17 days since I last posted here?
Crap. I should write something soon.
Okay, but you want to read some really good writing in the mean time?
Check out this from my man Judd, assuming you haven’t already. No, wait. even if you HAVE already, read it again.
(via Musings of a Misfit Monkey)
Weekend
Last night was one of the best nights out I’ve had in a while. 3:10 To Yuma was very cool, and suitably hardcore. Christian Bale as the honest worker trying to do right by his family, and Russel Crowe as the reckless hedonist who just takes what he wants, when he wants it. There’s a great contrast, physically, mentally and emotionally, between the two characters. Pints were...
Side Project, Day Two
So the PDQ-based side project I mentioned the other day had a fruitful second day. This has really gone to show me that I work well when I can strap on some isolation devices (headphones with music) and have a pre-established outline to work from (which I do not do nearly as often as I should; I tend to write from the gut, and of late that’s proven to be a quick recipe for stagnation)....
Did I mention Chris Pramas from Green Ronin plays...
Did I mention Chris Pramas from Green Ronin plays Spirit of the Century? Well, I should have. He gives us a brief plug on the latest Green Ronin podcast, ‘round about the 1 hour 6 minute mark. Thanks a bunch, Chris! (via In the big car of life…)
Gamestuff: No One Lives Forever 2
Now that my office is 80% clean (pictures to follow soonish) and I actually feel comfortable spending time in it, I’ve been playing No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way1. Last night, I wrapped up the final two “chapters” of the game.
No One Lives Forever 2 and its predecessor (both developed by Monolith Productions) are first-person shooters that take place in...
Show #16: Conversion
There are endless tales out there about folks who have converted to Christianity from some other religion, but you rarely hear about someone converting away from Christianity, unless it’s to atheism. In this episode of Unquiet Desperation, we meet Bill Carter, and old friend who has, after much thought and soul searching, converted from Christianity to Judaism. He tells us about his thought...
Ah, So That's What It Is
I knew after chadu came on board it’d only be a matter of time before I figured out what it was that I wanted to do as my own first project with using (and abusing the heck out of) PDQ as a game engine. Well, I’ve figured it out. Spent last week noodling around the idea. Wrote an outline. Then I wrote 5500 words for it. Today. Stay tuned. (via In the big car of life…)
Gamestuff: The Lost Gentleman
The 18th of August slipped quietly by over a month ago and I failed to mention that I lost my gentleman’s bet with Miscellaneous G™. Longtime readers will no doubt recall that Miscellaneous G™ felt I would be unable to complete two PC games in twelve months’ time; his feelings were strong enough to warrant a wager on the matter. “You are such a gadabout, sir” proclaimed...
Skype Orcs
I never thought this game over skype would be this much fun but its been a blast. Here’s a write up of tonight’s game. (via The Book of Judd)
What Do You Have To Say? - Arts & Crafts: My...
Where do you get inspiration for your arts and crafts? View other answers
I have done sculpey in the past and that’s pretty much my biggest art and/or craft. Where I get my inspiration is by playing with the various moulds I have, just seeing what kind of looks I can get from that. I do that until inspiration strikes and then I begin building the figurine. I find that I am frequently drawn...
Happiness Is…
Blogged with Flock Tags: zork, infocom, grue
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(via Unquiet Desperation)
Meme: Kinda Dorky Nerd God
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(via Unquiet Desperation)
Home Sweet Home
So my Mum has gathered up her bits and pieces…washed the rest of my clothes, folded them and laid them out to be put away, washed every dish in the house, hoovered, cut the grass, built a fence, solved a puddle problem on the path, laid 5 tons of gravel and left some winter flowering panses in a pot at my front door, and gone home. When she made it to her house there were no builders,...
TweetArt #1: Robo Swarm
This is a new idea I thought I would try. Every so often I have found that comments made on Twitter have brought forth some interesting images. This is actually the second tweet inspired piece (the first being Space Kittens), but I’m just going to call it #1 anyway. So, here’s my idea. I will do a tweet inspired piece every few weeks. Granted this isn’t exactly an original idea...
New Game
I’ve come to a decision regarding Scion. As much as I’m enjoying running it, trying to run with only 2 players is difficult and finding new players to take Janto’s place when he leaves hasn’t panned out. So I’m going to change games. If anyone is interested in a weekly Saturday game, let me know. I’m mulling over some ideas in my head but I’m not...
Check, Please Parts I, II and III
Bret’s always writing neat anecdotes in his blog and Janaki once commented that I don’t write enough stories in my blog anymore. Check, please, Part I of III or so I was a month out of a relationship that had a fairly thermonuclear break-up. I got a nice apartment in the middle of a cornfield in the middle of nowhere. Got asked out by a girl with pretty hair and a nice chin in a class...
Blogging: Abandoned Posts
There are times when I start a blog entry and then something shiny comes along to distract me and the thing never gets finished. I had, until recently, nearly two dozen such posts in WordPress, just waiting for me to come along and finish them; everything from movie reviews (The Station Agent, Alien Nation, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, 300, The Prestige, Pan’s Labyrinth)...
Home sweet home
You Belong in Dublin Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions. You’re the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl… or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.What European City Do You Belong In? (via Word Factory)
Weekend Wrap-up: 15-16 September 2007
I haven’t done one of these in a while. Here’s what went on in and around the International House of Johnson this past weekend:
I started cleaning my office on Saturday. Unlike previous efforts, I did take a “before” photo, which I will post along with the “after” photo when I eventually finish.
After messing around with Firefox in Kubuntu for several hours, I...
How the Dragon Affected me
I’ve heard a lot of people rag on Robert Jordan for how long-winded he is, etc. But today, since we lost him last night, I am telling all those people that I don’t particularly care to talk about it right now. Ultimately, yeah, he wrote very long, sweeping, epic stories. I loved those stories. When I first read them, I was going through Hell, literally. His words kept me together, kept...
Aerial Assault!
Well, not quite. But 5 Irish military helicopters did just fly overhead in V-formation. That was pretty cool. (via Word Factory)
Master Plan: Lenny Speaks
Leonard Balsera, the “third author” of Spirit of the Century, got interviewed on the Master Plan recently. It is chock full of insight into one of the most fundamental principles in the Fate system design — the one we always go back to when we’re stuck with an implementation challenge. If you’re at all curious about the innards of how the game works, you’ve...
Fast Book Review: Altered Carbon by Richard K....
Harsh violence, graphic sex, a gripping science fiction world with quasi-immortals called Meths (short for Methusalah), memories downloaded into bodies called sleeves and a gritty vision of future earth. If Dashiell Hammet and William Gibson got into a fight in a dark alley, with only one knife between them while it rained, the winner would get up, do drugs and write a book like this just before...
An idle question.
So, one of the trends that emerged when I surveyed my local gamer friends was that in terms of what people wanted out of play they wanted long campaigns over short campaigns, and short campaigns over one-shots. I dig this and in years past have supplied such games — as has rob_donoghue — at least while I was living in California, and before. But I’m wondering if there...
Walter Gold
Walter Gold stepped off the boats onto Normandy Beach, but the first step he took forward was into Faerie. He left his wife back in the States and his men on the beach without a commander. The Boy made him into a soldier of wood and put him into the Game against the Enemy. He fought for hundreds of turns on that Board, and eventually made his way up to be General of the Boy’s Toy Army. ...
Show #15: Autumn
A bit of news, status on projects, an essay on autumn, and some excellent music. Enjoy! Music Credits: Intro: Cruisin’ Around Second Life (MoShang/Brad Reason) from the Asian Variation album
Under the Essay: Lord May’s Set by Shira Kammen from the Wild Wood album (Magnatune)
Remember the Name (MoShang/Fort Minor) from the Asian Variations album
Shetland Set by Shira Kammen from the...
Top 18 Career Choices from that dingus that is...
1. Elementary School Teacher 2. High School Teacher 3. Physical Education Teacher 4. Special Education Teacher 5. Teacher Assistant 6. Sports Instructor 7. Early Childhood Educator 8. Professor 9. Coach 10. Anthropologist 11. ESL Teacher 12. Foreign Language Instructor 13. Music Teacher / Instructor 14. Historian 15. Website Designer 16. Tour Guide 17. Librarian 18. Desktop Publisher (via The...
Friday
There’s some nice autumnal gusting winds out there today. I’m looking forward to the walk to my car. Reading: Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. It is like someone took Dashiell Hammett and everything cool about cyberpunk, mixed it with a Shock: game we played last year called Trash in the Hopper and gave it a serious ass-kicking in a back alley. I’m digging it. The book...