Job-wise, a couple of opportunities have come that look very good. One of those would entail staying in the "industry" which is something I'd like to do, but we'll see. There are some opportunities out of state, which I'll take if the money is good. One of those places would be in Seattle, a city I lived in when I was 5 or so. My grandmother still lives there, along with an uncle and an aunt, plus
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
domesticslave's brother lives in the area with his wife and kids. If moving is in the cards, then Seattle is where we'd like to go..
Admittedly, I was a little excited about some of the attendees. MC Gainey (who plays Mr. Friendly on Lost) was a neat guy who I wouldn't have minded seeing, and I'd like to see Mick Foley before the brain damage renders him insensate.
Of course, Foley won't be there Sunday (good thing I never ordered that picture) and Gainey just canceled. Feh. At this point, I would not go except Cynra needs a driver, and I'll probably spend the entire time we're there browsing Titan games store of "stuff no one loves anymore". I wish i'd bought a supplementary copy of Solid! from them a couple years ago, as I think it would have been worth $2.
But, hey, Joey Pants is gonna be there. Maybe I can get him to sign a bowling ball bag for me.
And was that a really crappily written Wikipedia entry or what?
- Mood:
geeky
I suppose this means we won't need McCain's 100 year war plan, at least.
Bush envisions a democratic Middle East free of oppression
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
President Bush feted Israel on Thursday in honor of the 60th anniversary of its founding and predicted that its 120th birthday would find it alongside a Palestinian state and in an all-democratic neighborhood free of today's oppression, restrictions on freedom and extremist Muslim movements.
Delivering this rosy forecast for the Middle East in 2068 during a speech to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, Bush limited his mention of Palestinians to just one sentence.
Full Story...
Good Luck with that...
I'm competing for bragging rights in EN World's Short Story Smackdown, a competition with 16 participants and three judges. Each round you're matched with someone. The judges give both of you 4-5 unrelated pictures, and you have 72 hours to write and post a short story that uses those photos as if they were illustrations in your tale.
I love this thing; it makes my brain hurt. In round one I'm going up against my friend Lori, who's very good in areas where I'm not. The photos for our first round can be found here. My story How My Brother Stopped Listening to Rock and Roll, good old-fashioned pulp horror which I'm darned happy with, can be found here.
Let me know what you think.
- Mood:creative
- Music:Howlin' Wolf - blues
First up is Erick Wujcik.
Erick is most notable in my mind for taking one of the first great leaps away from the traditional RPG model. He pioneered diceless roleplaying with his work on the appropriately named Amber Diceless Roleplaying. I do not claim that diceless roleplaying is inherently superior or more sophisticated than using dice, but I recognize that Amber is a great game in its own right which also presented a whole new and different way in which to conduct an RPG. While Amber has had difficulty staying in pring, it has a loyal fanbase that persists despite the rise and fall of a number of other diceless games that have come out since.
Erick is also one of the great designers behind the success of Palladium Books, having penned some of what I believe to be their most masterfully wrought titles including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness and Ninjas and Superspies Revised among many others.
Tragically Erick has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that has spread to his liver. You can keep up on the latest developments in his health here, or post your sentiments and comments for Erick to read here.
Originally published at Eventually Clever. Please leave any comments there.
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Cosmic Family for Wii The only Wii games I’ve finished are the games my kids enjoy. Cosmic Family is a kids’ game with simple pattern-matching and counting games, and Ben and Naomi love it. The art and sound direction are hilarious, and the slapstick animations hidden throughout each level reward exploration. Well-done family fun. |
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Ratchet & Clank for PS2 The original game was so much fun the first time around that I remembered almost all the tricks and treats after a four-year gap. The firepower is low compared to the sequels, but the sense of peril is greater thanks to the limited health points, and the script is funnier. |
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Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters for PS2 The platform is the game: This PS2 port is fun to play, but highlights some of the deficiencies of the PSP original. The principal flaw is the lack of an arena area where players can quickly improve their weapons. I replayed the final four levels six times before finally winning. |
amusedThe pen that writes is grasped in hand.
The hand that grasps turns round the wrist.
The wrist that turns is moved by mus'le.
The mus'le is moved by my command.
Demand of mine commands the pen
to write, to turn, to move and draw.
The pen will follow my command
and write the verse that I demand.
- Mood:Sore.
- Music:DJ Shadow - Blood on the Motorway
- 11:23 @ephealy Let me know if you find something... that would be really useful. #
- 11:25 Enter the GenCon art show or just work the Talisman booth... hmmm. #
Most interesting thing: Deadlands Territory Guide #01: Newfoundland. I strongly suspect it's the first RPG supplement about Newfoundland available in three different game systems.
I'm tempted to get it, if only for the adventure set on an iceberg.
Anyway, Otherworld Creations is having a sale. Their PDFs are on sale for $1.99. There's a few good ones on here, including Kaiju. There is also Solid!, which is horrible.
- Mood:lathed
Well, as things are wont to do as November comes nearer, things are getting nastier.
Wolf thought I was a bit nuts a few months ago to ask people not to get so worked up against Obama or Clinton. Now he thinks I was prescient. I'd say that I've just seen democrats shoot themselves in both feet too often not to have predicted this outcome if the race went on too long.
NARAL and endorsement
Just wanted to point out that the local NARAL chapter has remained neutral between Obama and Clinton, though the national went for Obama. Story here: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/seatt
Why is the local chapter neutral? Because BOTH candidates are good on women's issues. Just as they are both good on environmental issues and a host of other issues that most sensible people care about.
MY VIEW REDUX
Saying that there's no way you'd vote for one or the other democrat could easily lead to McCain getting into office--the shooting themselves in both feet part. McCain doesn't have a great record on these issues in comparison, though in comparison to Bush he does look good. Which is why NARAL would never endorse him.
Need another good reason not to vote for McCain? To actually go out and vote for whichever democrat wins the nomination? McCain willl not remove most of the incompetents infesting the top levels of the federal governement, like either Obama and Clinton will do, because McCain will need the support of his own party. Removing these people will undermine that support for McCain.
STILL FOR OBAMA!
For the record, I am still for Obama, though once again I will point out that BOTH he and Hillary have very, very good overall records and I will vote for whoever gets the nomination. I acknowledge that they have different votes on some issues, particularly the Iraq War (in Hillary's defense, Obama wasn't around to vote on this, so we can't definitely know how he would have voted at the time), but overall they are both quite, quite good.
I believe Obama will win the nomination, but it is annoying to me that people have hardened themselves to the opposing candidate than the one they prefer. I believe this is more a factor of psychological reasons in response to how the campaigning is unfolding rather than looking at the issues, which will make more of a difference when they are in office.
noizangel will get a kick out of it. The Onion's AV Club reviews Joe Eszterhas' Die, Hollywood, Die!.The review is amusing, detailing as it does Eszterhas roman candle like exit from the Hollywood scene.
I watched Showgirls for about 10 minutes on Saturday night. I was really interested in it for a while, but then I wasn't interested anymore. A little later, I became interested in it again, but then I wasn't interested again.
Does anyone have a link to the "no duh" piece where they discussed how Indiana Jones destroying an ancient temple to recover a gold figure is bad archeology?
- Mood:
amused
lucybrant ’s barbarian, named Bar Bar A, who is blond, Amazonian and wears a chainmail bikini. The evening was devoid of any combat, and indeed, much in the way of common sense from the PCs.First off we went to talk to Li Kao the sage. Unfortunately the “slight flaw in his character” is that he talks in riddles and sometimes lies. Anyway, he answered our questions about the goblins and the Yen halflings. Turns out we all want to travel to the island of Kaidan (for different reasons) apart from Iago who is keen to travel to a different, much smaller island he saw in a dream in which he was an eagle. The river I’m looking for is on the west coast of the island but there are a lot of rivers there so it could prove tricky finding the right one. He also told me that I’d like to meet Jo Yang, a weaponmaster who I later found out is a litorian. Serl droned on for hours at Li Kao and tried to get him to pay us for giving us information but eventually we dragged him away and went to see the Yen halflings who bought all of our goblin weapons, earning us 96 gp each. Iago, being an oddball who has sworn a Vow of Poverty asked me to carry his share around for him in my pouch as well as the wand we took from the goblins. He apologised to me too for calling me a vicious killer last session which was much appreciated.
The Yen halflings told us about an Alban priest who is stirring up trouble for the nonhuman races in town. We might have to go to and listen to his sermon tomorrow to find out what he’s up to.
By this time it was getting late so we decided to head to the Golden Eel (home of the infamous Ben) and get some rooms. Iago, being an oddball, sat with us while we ate dinner and then went off to sleep in an alleyway. Very strange. Later on, Ben returned with his bodyguard and his girlfriend. I climbed up on to the balcony outside his room to see what he was up to but my Spot rolls of 5 (three times) and Listen rolls of 4 (twice) meant I was none the wiser. Serl and Bar came up with their own “plan” involving having a very loud row outside Ben’s room in which Serl called Bar a “strumpet of ill repute”. They got told off by the inn staff for being too noisy so Serl’s next tactic was taking out the bodyguard with a sleep spell. They didn’t know what to do next so they managed to wake everyone else in the inn again.
The following morning, half elf Watch Investigator Chang climbed up on to the balcony outside my room and told me we were all attracting too much attention. I think he could be right. After he’d gone, I found a little origami white flower he’d left behind. I wasn’t sure what to make of this. Surely it meant more than just a film reference by
ninthcouncil?- Mood:
amused - Music:Scarlet Johannson - Falling Down
You can see the OWC catalog exclusively at RPGNow.com here:
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Profile
- open_design
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- the Free City
Page Summary
- savageplanet : One Week Later [+4]
- thebitterguy : Disappointments accumulate [+0]
- bobmungovan : GWB's 60 year plan for the Middle East [+0]
- the_never : (no subject) [+4]
- viking_cat : Oh yeah, writing! [+3]
- the_never : (no subject) [+1]
- dragonspawnlair : Underappreciated Game Designers: Erick Wujcik [+0]
- avidreader514 : Game Playing as Family Entertainment [+0]
- the_never : (no subject) [+6]
- siobharek : Copenhagen is Green [+0]
- elmofromok : Wall-E in LA [+0]
- sadrx : From my Afternoon Class: [+1]
- aaronace : Tweets for Today [+2]
- thebitterguy : A-Browsing through DriveThruRPG.com [+2]
- varianor : Making Tables [+1]
- thebitterguy : This was Brand's idea. [+25]
- shellyinseattle : Politics [+2]
- thebitterguy : That's German for "The, Hollywood, The" [+9]
- richgreen01 : The Kaidan Campaign - Session #2 [+2]
- savageplanet : The Mid-May $1.99 Sale! [+1]