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December 26th, 2037
09:27 am
So this should stay the header for my live journal for a bit.
Welcome to here. There are things with words below. If you wish to friend me, feel free. If I didn't want people reading the things with words below, a public website was probably a very poor choice of publishing venues. Come say hi if you do though. I like hearing about how people found this little nook.
There aren't really enough of you for me to need rules yet, but just in case:
Rule 1: Be civil to each other.
Rule 2: If you are a spam bot, be relevant and interesting. Otherwise I really don't want your kind here.
I'll probably be adding to this post over time.
I promised to do this last night, and this is the first time I've been at an internet connection since yesterday.
For those of you who asked for my url last night, here's the current links to my campaign posts:
My initial thoughts before I went down to help at the campaign office for the first time:
http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/278505.html
Sunday November 2nd: My first trip to the campaign, serendipity writ large:
http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/279415.html
Monday November 3rd: my return to the office. This is the meat of this subject. This is where to start if you don't want to read everything:
http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/279922.html
Tuesday November 4th: First thoughts, my first return to the campaign of the day:
http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/280437.html
Tuesday November 4th during returns:
http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/281535.html
The completed narrative:
http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/282081.html
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October 24th, 2009
11:13 pm - limited by the 500 character limit of my phone's text messages.
Young moon half grown/lonely listens lamp-borne lights.
Distant watcher, warrior's red/patient pacing pale-star's path.
Walker leaves lamp-lit ways/luminous lords obscured no more.
Few remain astride fire-washed skies/hunter bear hound and beast.
Years away by shine's swift stride/wandering watchers of ancient ages of man and monsters.
Fire forges future flames/richer worlds from fusion's failure.
When young grow old, lamps cold/repeat icefiremonsterman.
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October 1st, 2009
08:01 pm - inspired by an apathetic acquantience.
I've never understood those who just go along to get along, the ones who never hold any opinion of note and who are upset by those who do, those who can accept the purveyors of injustice just because they present a plesant face and a charming ma...nner. The black hats love these folks, the ones who close their eyes in order to keep from seeing.
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September 29th, 2009
05:48 pm - Pantree Owl mark something or another
Oh frak. I managed to kill my window and lose the post.I was almost late, but I was saved by the fact that there was a young lady opening for them. Half the band was gone (the whole string section) but I've mentioned before that they do very well with a partial group. This time they did a short set, Owls and Ostriches, Horse Song, and one with a name I missed. It took a moment to get the balance right for playing outside, but they started right after the previous musician, and the whole presentation was awesome. Two in a row means I won't be mentioning that part again unless something goes either absolutely wrong or stunningly right. (I am going to run out of things to talk about though if my posts end up being "well they were totally professional and I adored the music. I guess now I have to actually figure out how one goes about reviewing music. Oh well, it couldn't last forever.) I will say, for the larger venue of outside, they do need the whole band, but then to sound their absolute best they need the whole band anyway. This makes up for missing their show during Gencon. (Sorry, but it was my first Gencon in almost a decade. Couldn't miss it.) Pretty awesome.Pantree Owl
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August 30th, 2009
06:45 pm
Shilo Walker full of BS on the subject of Book Piracy: http://shilohwalker.com/piracy.htm
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06:44 pm
bumping something down my friends list so my screen goes back to normal
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August 29th, 2009
11:01 pm
I am trying to identify this song: http://mikeineberron.livejournal.com/4579.html
Sorry about the terrible sound quality and such.
*edit*
Never Mind. It is Die Another Day
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July 27th, 2009
11:46 pm - Julia's Children (Part 3) *edited for Typo*
Julia, along with such notables as Kerr and Smith lead a constant holding action against the rapid expansion of processed foods in the American and world diets. While less successful than their opponents, they did help to hold the line, and by broadening American palates and increasing our standards, they made it harder for the cultists to finish their sinister plans. It is, after all, difficult enough to conceal the twisted byproducts of insane alchemy and dark magics within a meatloaf or a box of macaroni and cheese, but when the public starts demanding flavorful, quick, and varied foods, new delivery methods have to be developed for each dish in rapid succession. There were notable failures, like the "brownies" in frozen dinners, which if consumed by more than 2/5ths of the population, would have brought the thousand young howling and gibbering into this realm. Happily, those "brownies" were neither eaten nor edible.
Though Julia has long since succumbed to the attacks of her opponents, she left behind a legacy of foodies and accessible cookery that may yet stave off the apocalypse. Forth from her shadow spring Yan, with his populist puns and easy stir fries, Alton and the ATK, both bringing geekery to cooking and thus geeks, one of the demographics hardest targeted by the processed food cults, Rachel with her quick meals, tight pants and her bottle of EVOO, the Food Network, Emeril and his earthy showmanship, and literal scores of others. To these brave souls we owe our thanks for continuing to fight against the awakening of the Great Old Ones from their nearly eternal slumbers.
Mrs. Julia Carolyn McWilliams Child, we salute you.
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July 26th, 2009
08:35 am - Julia's Children (Part 2)
While the various Axis factions shared a desire to see the world overthrown, gifted to the Sleeping Gods, each faction had its own favorites. The massive wave of conglomeration that you can follow through the food industry in the second half of the twentieth century marks the victories of assorted factions over each other. The green revolution has served two goals at the hand of the world agrobusinesses. First it has increased the numbers of the herds that they can offer up to their dead masters when they finally ascend. Secondly, it has acted as a vehicle for the distribution of their subtle alchemies, the introduction of almost all of the teeming hordes of humanity to those substances, mystical and alchemical, that will make them all part of the final summoning rituals that will help break the bindings that keep the Great Old Ones asleep when the time is finally right. In the early years of their movement, it was all they could do to increase the food supply and bring a few additives to bear in their massive processing stations across the globe. But with 60 years of refinement, they have managed to create "processed" foods that the whole of the world can eat without ever noticing that they are playing a part in their own damnation. Compare the TV dinners of the late 70s and early 80s with those of today. Their original forms were clearly and obviously corrupted by fell magics and dark rituals, but in this age, the sophistication of their creation has reached such a level that they appear to be wholly made of food.
The governments of the world have been willfully blind to this new insidious threat. If it doesn't involve greater circles and the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of people, they are constitutionally unable to see it. Furthermore, they have come to believe that their victory in 1945 was complete. Whenever a voice was raised up against this belief, they were ridiculed, denied promotions, and often branded a traitor.
That brings us to the closing years of the war, to the SEAC on Ceylon. A young confidential clerk in the OSS by the name of McWilliams with access to much of the classified material that passed through the station began to catch wind of the preparations that certain individuals in the Axis powers were making even as early as 1944. She managed to get herself assigned to mainland China, and by the end of the war she had convinced herself that both the Allies were not going to get all of the central cultists and that she would never be believed. Her work brought her into contact with Indian agents who were already fighting the takeover of their agricultural system. In a remarkably short time, and from minimal evidence, she pieced together the outlines of the second plot to bring about the rise of the Great Old Ones.
After the war, she moved to Washington DC where she tried desperately to make someone see the growing threat in the very shadows of victory. It was in DC that she encountered Paul Cushing Child, a cartographer she had first met while they were both stationed in Asia. In September of 1946, they were married. She spent three years trying to get someone in Washington to see the rising danger as the first stages of the global takeover began. She eventually annoyed enough of the powers that be that her husband was assigned to Paris in 1949.
While the delay almost doomed the world, being exiled to Paris gave her the inspiration that would shape the rest of her life. It was in Paris that she decided to combat the horrors of processed foods by teaching the world to cook.
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01:37 am - Julia's Children (Part 1)
The world is a darker place than many of us imagine. Those who have seen behind the veil know that the Great Wars of the early decades of the 20th century were not about freedom, but about stopping the plots of madmen, madmen who came within hours of plunging the world into endless eons of terror by awakening things that have slept since before our first fuzzy ancestors scuttled beneath the dinosaurs's feet. What most of them don't know is that the final victories at the end of the 3rd world war, the storming of Berlin and the destruction of the vast gate complexes at Nagasaki and Hiroshima (as well as the Russian Army's "cleanup" of the ritual grounds in Manchuria) did not mark the end of the evil that had spread across the globe, just a shifting in focus and methods. While the Allies were busy rebuilding the ravaged lands in Europe and Asia, the surviving followers of the Sleeping Gods began to invest the remnants of their fortunes in the industries that would soon run the world. They especially focused on agribusiness. By the late 50s, almost every major food company had some ties with the cults of the Great Old Ones, and several of the largest were being run wholly by the survivers of the Russian and Allied purges. *edited for clarity*
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July 17th, 2009
July 16th, 2009
08:30 pm - Pantree Owl Concert 4
This has its primary home over on my new entertainment blog, blueberrycolada.wordpress.com, but since I started this series here, I'm a posting here too.
There were several other bands at this one, though unless one of them just blows me away, I'm a gonna stick to writing about Pantree Owl. Concert's a benefit for the Indiana Forest Alliance, hosted by Rachel's, and it started right about 8:00, the first band's sound check may have run a smidge over, but it was pretty close. Not really my thing, and a little loud at times. Good, but not spectacular.
I am very tired and I hope that Pantree Owl is the 2nd band not the 4th.
Oh yay! Ms. Papania is playing a piano and singing... signs look good for operation "get michael home so he can sleep before work!"
Whole band is here today. This should be good. Shortest sound check so far. They haven't started their first song, and already they are showing much improvement on the "running a good show" aspect of being performing artists.
Sounds like they are about to begin. Time to close my book (Polgara the Sorceress if you were curious.)
The Strings are spectacular. I wish that every band I randomly went out and saw was half as awesome as Pantree Owl.
Oh you know what the internet is for?
No, not that. but that isn't at all a played out joke. I mean no one has ever quoted avenue Q at me.
No the internet is for letting me direct you to things I am talking about.
Oh one of the songs where they do their sampleing in the middle of the song!
Hum... I think they should have kept the audience request for beer bottles instead of bringing their own (well bring emergency bottles in case, but do the request thing, Possibly seed the the audience with bottles just in case.) (see below)
Oh yeah, talking about...
http://www.myspace.com/pantreeowl especially Horse Song, (I haven't listened to the version there, but it is listed as a rehearsal. Horse Song is one of their environmental sampling pieces.)
I do eventually want a cd, but I would need a lot more sound system to get any part of the experience of their performance.
Owls and Ostriches:
<3 I have an almost unbounded love for gentle strings in my music. Pantree Owl delivers. Ms. Papania's voice is, as well, most excellent, especially in pieces such as this. (V., B., and really anyone else, we must go to one of their concerts after you get back to school.)
Oh, I was wrong about the song previously. The beer bottle song is coming up. Nevermind. Horse Song! Yays.
This is why I need to be wealthy enough to do things like sponsor artists.
By the way, when I say "environmental sampling, I mean sampling from items in the concert's immediate environment. They also have a lot of sampling from other sources. Everything or almost everything that they play has sampling or sound effects from environmental sources. (Babydoll reminded me of this.)
Their stage craft has finally caught up with Pantree Owl's musical skill. This is a most excellent occurrence, and I am glad that I didn't decide that I was just too damned tired to go to a concert tonight. Now I must post and depart. The sleep monsters are going to eat me.
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June 28th, 2009
01:13 pm
in other words, to keep track what I'm doing and writing and such, facebook is really the go to place.
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12:37 pm
Dear Livejournal,
You and me, we've had some good times these last few years, but I think that you will agree that we've been growing apart. I think it would be best if we started seeing other people. That's not to say that I won't stop by from time to time to see what is happening in your life or that I will never make posts here again. But it is time to expand my horizons, and well, I've met this social networking site, and she's cute and nimble, though occasionally she makes drastic changes in her appearance and lifestyle without cause and with minimal warning, but that is okay. You've been talking to her whenever I make a post anyway, and I don't think that you'll be too surprised to know that most of my daily life type posts have migrated directly to her webspace. I'm often avaliable at facebook as roninkakuhito (or roninkakuhito@gmail.com)
I've also been writing more focused blogs over with wordpress. I'm making regular posts about food and cocktail crafting at blueberrycolada.wordpress.com and I'm doing my gaming blogging now at worldmakers.wordpress.com. Again, I think we should still see eachother, just not as often and not exclusively.
As alwasy,
Michael
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June 20th, 2009
10:03 pm
There are days when I think that a Pax Americana would be a good idea. At least then they'd be shooting at us instead of innocent bystanders.
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June 18th, 2009
07:15 pm
"Kipling made it sound as though Americans were going to be sent to the Philippines to be dutiful servants, cooks, and shoeshine boys to the Filipinos. It was the other way around, as Kipling well knew.
Ad for the Filipinos, they were horrified that their insurrection had merely served to switch their masters from Spaniards to Americans. They did not want to be a burden to the white man; they wanted to run their own country. The Filipinos consequently began a guerrilla war against the Americans that cost the United States a great deal more than the Spanish-American war had."
I love Asimov's writing.
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May 31st, 2009
06:04 pm - Blueberry Colada
Well, my new food and drink blog has launched. I'll be posting a recipe on Mondays, a cocktail on Wednesdays, and a restaurant review on Fridays. In between, I'll have any posts on other (usually supporting) subjects. It is at http://blueberrycolada.wordpress.com/ .
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May 27th, 2009
09:03 pm - New Blog
Well, in the tradition of spreading my resources thinner, I'm a starting a new blog. (This would be the one I mentioned a while back) there were two yeas and one nay, and really, unless the nay sayers are unanimous, it is probably best to just ignore them. More on this when I've made my first post over there.
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May 20th, 2009
04:05 pm - A new blog possibly?
Those of you who have friended me on facebook may know that I've been posting assorted drink recipes there. I've been playing with the idea of doing writer's reviews of various restaurants around bloomington as well.(As in, how good of a place are they to go and write.
I'm trying to decide if I should fold all of that into this blog or to start a focused blog for assorted food based subjects.
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May 16th, 2009
10:28 pm
I bought <strike> The da Vinci Code </strike> Foucault's Pendulum and Kill Dr. Lucky today!
Been playing with mixing drinks again, here's the best of the current set.
1 part 4X Berry Blast Koolaid mix (1 packet of mix in 2 cups of water.
2 parts simple syrup
2 parts pulpy orange juice
2 parts coconut rum.
Ice
Put the Ice in a class.
Add rum
Pour Orange juice over the ice (or a spoon) so it floats on the rum.
Mix the koolaid and the simple syrup and pour that over the ice cubes or a spoon.
Swirl to taste.
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May 15th, 2009
09:29 pm - Pantree Owl concert 3
Pantree Owl only started 2/3rds an hour late this time. An improvement... (I'm writing this after the concert. I transcribed from my notes my post about the one a couple of weeks ago during the concert. Setup started 20 minutes late again, though they were quite early this time, at least compared to the revised starting time. Of course I rushed across town to get here for the original time, so I was even more quite early. (I'll probably post my second review later tonight, some time after I finish my third review. (so when I twit them about lateness, grain of salt, though I don't announce the times of my reviews, nor do I, as a reviewer, actually have an audience. This would be the Eric Burns difference between a hobby and something more. Keep in mind, regardless of this one major flaw, they kick ass.) Okay, 2 members are gone at the moment, the two strings players, so it is just drums, keyboard, and Papania's voice. I still want to hire them to play my front room in my mansion some day. (Plus strings would be better, but not necessary.) Started very late again. (A friend of mine defended them because of how young they are, but really, no. My little brother's band was made up of kids in highschool, and was always there on time at the very least.) That said. Almost as awesome as last time. Still worth my while to have rushed across town to wait extra long for them to play. There is this piece where they record some sounds created with items they collect in the venue (a pair of beer bottles and some other stuff) that is beautiful. (i'll find a name for it eventually.) I absolutely love the piece where they record a big portion of the
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09:07 pm - Pantree Owl Concert 2 (several weeks late.)
Pantree Owl Take 2
Last time I wrote about them, the band was unencumbered by such accutriements as a name. Some day I want to hear them in a (mostly) accoustic setting, but then, that is one of my particular oddities. Their sound was just right last time in Rhinos (where I was in the very back as far from the speakers as it was possible to be)
That said, their <u>music</u> was awesome. There were some electronic effects included that are why I don't want an entirely accoustic...
Oh my gods, Star Trek Trailer on o e of the TVs...
er sorry.
first one I've seen...
show from them.
So the music was incredible. I want a CD...
The professionalism...
problematic...
Start time was 9:00
The Band? Didn't show until 9:20.
Setup and sound check? About 30 minutes, a little more.
First, and least concequential, they need to trim at least 20 minutes from their setup and their soundcheck or have a member engage the audience during that portion of the "show".
On a related matter, since you have to know how long the setup portion takes, you should always take that into account when planning a gig. If it takes 30 minutes to start playing, you need to show up a little more than thirty minutes early.
Now to the important part.
Always.
Show up.
On Time.
Even if only memeber of a band can do so, get someone there when the band is supposed to be there. It is much more likely to convince a venue's owner to risk a second show by you in the future. It also keeps your fans and almost fans from becoming disgruntled were fans and were almost fans.
Given what I said about setup time, you really want your band to be at least 5-10 minutes early (not early to your play time, early to how much setup time you need to make your start time.) Not everyone needs to be there 10 minutes before hand, but your manager and or your sound tech? Definately should be there early.
So.
Music?
A+.
Band overall? C or so.
Just to be clear. They played a 45 minute set that started at least 50 minutes late. It is their second show, so hopefully they will take the lessons learned from this one to heart. They shoule be providing an event experience that does their incredible music justice. Technical proficiency and aesthetic excellence are important or even essential. But. For an artist to ever be any better than okay, they must be reliable. The flighty unreliable artist myth is jsut that, a way to ensure that you never have to be more than second string. (Both of my parents are to one degree or another, professional artists. I have little patience for artists who don't produce. It is hwy I make no claims to art.)
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April 27th, 2009
08:45 pm
So, I bought a lawn mower. And mowed the lawn. I also got my compost heap transfered from the bucket of doom to an actual outdoor pile. It smells pretty bad (thanks bucket of doom...) but hopefully a couple of days in the outdoors not made half of organic matter and half of water will take care of that. I do need to get some sort of metal fencing to surround it and keep it constrained. Also did laundry. Matt was doing his, so I tagged along and ran everything that I own that needed any cleaning.
We have a hose. Need another. I'm trying to decide on how much I am willing to pay for a grill. Also need some lawn furniture and indoor shelving.
I'm going to read Mouse Guard soonish. I want to recommend it (or not) as a comic and or game for a friend who needs such things. As it stands currently it looks like the Redwall books but less morally objectionable and stupid. (The game is supposed to be an incredible introduction to role playing and such for littleish kids.)
I'm obsessing over a gazebo. I have the cash for it, but then I wouldn't be able to do anything else. It would be awesome to have some summer gazebo parties, but I can buy lawn furnature or a gazebo, not both. And probably I shouldn't buy either.
I read Dresden 11 the day it came out. Now I want Dresden 12... I have some mutters about this book, but none that aren't spoilers and none that matter. Mostly things I wanted to have happen not things that he did wrong. Morgan and Molly are incredible together. Harry might be getting over one of his cases of the stupids. Thomas!
As much as this is false, I want another Mab book. (I don't want a mab book, but I want a mab book.
Work still sucks. I want to work where I can wear decent clothing. I need something that pays enough that I don't have to anguish over the gazebo.
FMLA is going smashingly. But without any actual smashing.
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April 16th, 2009
08:15 am - PSA
Remember. If someone invites you to a teabagging party, there are two groups of people who will be there. Tea baggers and tea baggees. If you go to one of Glen Beck's parties, check your income statements. If you made more than 250,000 dollars, you are a tea bagger, if you made less than that, then you are a tea baggee. While neither position really appeals to me, keep that in mind before you put yoursellf in a situation where tea bagging is an expected activity.
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April 13th, 2009
06:48 am - open letter
Dear Amazon,
Automation good.
Close oversight of automated systems, better.
Did you learn nothing from Terminator 1-3?
Needless to say I'll be waiting for you to decensor your catalog of LGBTQ and Feminist books, or at least censor everything else before I return to using your service, even though I have little to no doubt that you are the victim of a group of exploiters taking advantage of your poorly designed algorithm. (And note for future reference, you need to fix the actual flaw since now that the existence of a hole has been made broadly public, it won't be long until someone with a rotating ip redirector starts using it to target best sellers in order to embarrass you.)
In short if your coders can't make this feature of your site work right (and I doubt that they can on short notice) then you need to disable it until they've had time to hash out a more robust system.
Hopefully yours again soon,
Michael Phillips
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April 12th, 2009
07:54 am
Happy Zombie Jesus Day, wherein Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried, and on the third day, he arose again in fulfillment of the scriptures, to overshadow local rites, pass out chocolate bunnies, and eat your tasty tasty brains. Gir Arrgh An acquaintance of mine was complaining about the zjd jokes, how those who perpetuate ZJD wouldn't ever do that sort of thing to other locally smaller faiths. I'm not horribly fond of being painted with the liberal touchy feely wuss brush. Right here, right now, I'll tell you, did I know enough to draw similar parallells about key figures and stories in faiths that aren't the overwhelming majority in my country, I'd do it in an instant. Actually, in the name of holy irreverence, let's do that (for if there is anything holy in this world, it is not taking things too seriously) Post a key event or person from the religion of your choice along with a more modern cliche/concept that they match up with.
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April 7th, 2009
April 5th, 2009
08:30 am
So, I've got a new blog. It is focused on game/campaign/adventure design, and it is kicking off with the creation of a megadungeon campaign. Come check it out at <a href="worldmakers.wordpress.com">worldmakers.wordpress.com</a>.
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April 3rd, 2009
02:46 am
Hi, my name's Michael and I'm a feminist. Yes, that is a y chromosome there on my sleeve. No, I don't mean ally. Ally is a term for someone who supports a group but can't be a member of the group. Nope. Not that either. Yes, I'm straight, genderwise I'm cis, and no, I'm not here to get laid. I'm not sure that I'm the newest member to write one of these things, but if I'm not then it is just by a matter of weeks. To be honest, I started coming here as something social to do on a regular basis right after take back the night, and in large part because the meeting time worked with my work schedule while WSA's meetings were completely unworkable for me. That's probably pretty good, since I doubt I would have attended a third WSA meeting. I'm much more comfortable with the informal collaborative atmosphere we tend to have hereabouts. I don't deal nearly as well with highly structured meeting styles where one person (or small group of persons) absolutely drives the agenda and the tone. Well, honestly with our recent meeting sizes, maybe I'm comfortable with the small group of persons thing when I'm part of the group. Who knows? The FMLA, as I see it, and we have had some spirited disagreements on this matter, works best as a support structure for individual members' personal activism. We get together, we discuss what the FMLA is going to be doing, but at the same time we talk about the particular issues and events on the horizon that particularly interest us. A personal example. I came here a little before Christmas break and sort of went off on a tangent about needing to call our assorted congress critters in support of the Freedom of Choice Act because I had some friends who were already beginning to mobilize in opposition to it. I figured that everyone present would possibly call their congress folk and thus act as a force multiplier. So you know, one voice becomes five. A couple of weeks later we had a huge stack of post cards for assorted congress folks (and I'm sorry, I can't remember who organized that feat. I know it wasn't me.) So instead of getting a few new voices, the FMLA increased my voice by an order of magnitude, possibly two. As I see it, our basic mission here is memetic or informational. We talk. We talk to and thus provide support for each other, which is pretty important if you want to be an activist who doesn't either lose track of how other people thing or burn out early. We also talk to other people. We help organize awareness marches, we help host the Vagina Monologues, we create a newsletter, we support other groups and people who are also talking. We make people aware of feminisim as a matter of justice and way of life instead of a caricature of shrill, sexless/slutty, and angry women and downtrodden men that the movement has allowed its opposition to create in the minds of society as a whole. Feminism is, as I see it, essentially an issue of cultural memes, and if we want a feminist society, then we need to talk. We need to speak with not one voice, but with five, with ten, with thousands. Hum this isn't really a paragraph so much as it has paragraphs... I fail once again at brevity. So in brief, welcome to the FMLA. My name is Michael Phillips, I'm your webmonkey until you find someone better. Enjoy the pie. As always Michael Phillips roninkakuhito@gmail.com thebellfeminist.wordpress.com roninkakuhito.wordpress.com
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April 2nd, 2009
09:12 am
I am looking for a word. I am not sure what it means. I think it means a pause in conflict, but I could have it exactly backwards. It is spelled something like but not exactly "dente."
Unfortunately both google and my online dictionaries correct dente to al dente without suggesting the word I want.
detente thanks <lj user="greybeta">
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March 28th, 2009
10:39 am
So I listened to all of the PA/PvP/WW/D&D podcasts that are up yesterday.
A. It would be awesome to game with any combination of those people.
B. The first adventure was run sort of lacklusterly. I wasn't sure if it was Perkins and Wyatt being just okay dms, the adventure being just an ok adventure or what, but it lacked a lot of the cool that 4th edition is supposed to have. The active battle fields and such. But, and this is important, even with an average performance by the DM (and I've played for 20 years. Neither of them were bad in the first episode, I've played with DMs who would make them look like paragons of the art.) the game was incredibly awesome. Part of that was the guys around the table (In this case, Tycho, Gabe, Scott, and Chris or James) being the sort of people who, when you are in a room with them, you are having a great time, but part of it was the strongest part of a relatively rules light tactical rpg. It is a social game, not a world simulator, so you dn't need an awesome DM to make for a great game.
C. Episode 2, the third adventure brought back Tycho, Gabe, Scott, and Chris, and introduced us to Wil Wheaton. Wil had done his homework, had learned a fair amount about the system and was that treasure amongst players, the rules guy who isn't an ass about it and who likes to role play. He is also one of those fun to be near people. If that had been all, it would have been a good game. But. Chris Perkins brought his A game to the table and ran as well as i've seen a person run a game. Wil helped out by being an actor who has spent serious amount of time learning about presenting things via non-static media. 4.0 is a minis heavy game, very visual and tactile, and the presentation was helped immensely by his table descriptions.
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08:27 am - my tabs
gmail, facebook, d&d podcasts, ok cupid, live journal, wikipedia on ephiphytes
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March 26th, 2009
09:57 pm
Well I had a good day.
Actually the first 10 hours were pretty meh.
I woke up, too tired, went to work, too few employees too many customers. Did get to polish my "I am Homo sapiens sapiens, descendant of..." speech so that was ok.
But.
(oh I forgot, almost all of my crocuses, crocusai? croci? are up and blooming! That was a cool part of my morning.)
After work I stopped at the good will to see if there were any vintage electronics (read "Atari 2600 or Intellivision or any of a few dozen games I'm looking for) or old board games in. There weren't. But I was checking out the tee shirts. I almost never do that. I found a don't panic shirt in my size (with the little green guy on it) Now, I am less of a HHGTtG fan than almost every other HHGTtG fan on the planet, being less than enthralled by a lot of the supposedly clever bits, but I do still like it and it is, overall, rather funny in that "please for the love of god stop quoting the same 10 dammed lines" sort of way that a lot of Monty Python is funny. Well for all of that, I am still a fan, and the little green guy was on the cover of one of the games that I played as I learned to read and type (Specifically the Infocom Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Fucking Brits and their analgesics instead of pain killers or asprin) so way cool.
Then as I was riding down town I forgot that I can't ride my bike without my hands on the handle bars and wham I was peddling along and I took my hands off the handle bars and I so didn't crash or anything. And I'm not talking about riding down a hill without your hands on the handlebars, I'm talking about pumping the peddles handsless. Okay okay I know, but brain damage as a wee one and crappy small motor skills and every victory is a victory. So yeah, good day. And no work tomorrow, so sleeping or the equivalent will be caught up with by YT.
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07:59 am
My crocuses are blooming and my Ash is about to undergo bud burst.
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March 24th, 2009
08:29 am
I'm looking for a good Dinosaur book, something with pretty pictures that is a decent snapshot of the state of modern paleontology via dinosaurs. I had a few of those as a child, but they were getting dated before I shifted interests to other fields.
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March 23rd, 2009
09:32 am - D&D
So, I've been looking at the 4.0 rules, and they make for a neat minis game, but I don't see myself running them for more than a one off. That said, D&D 4.0 does have some neat pieces and parts and 3.5 has some blind spots. I'm going to start posting some of my possible changes to a 3.5 game to make it play a little better.
The first thing that I will be touching on is a 3.5 issue that wasn't made better in 4.0 (Different, but definitely not better.) It is an area that I'll probably touch on over and over and over again, since I think the whole topic needs a lot of fiddiling.
Skills
All skills, class or cross class cost one point per rank, and you may take up to level+3 ranks of any skill.
A skill check with a cross class skill is 1d20+rank+modifiers (feats, racial, magical, ability, and etc)
A skill check with a class skill is 1d20+rank+3+1/3*level (round down)+modifiers.
The base difficulty of skill checks is raised by 3 points across the board. While this doesn't map to 3.5 at higher levels, remember that by 20th level a specialist in a given skill can compete on not quite even footing with a god of that skill. By 5th level, you have skill checks that are on par with the best real worlds human performance. This does narrow the gap between characters on skill checks though. In the original system a 20th level character could have a +23 base bonus on a class skill and a +11 base bonus on a cross class skill. This is very similar to the saving throw issue where at high levels if it is your class's good save, you make it and if it isn't you fail.
With the new system, it is +29 for a class skill and +23 for a cross class skill. While the character with a given skill as a class skill still has a large advantage, it isn't overwhelming.
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March 15th, 2009
06:31 pm - me blogging? never!
So, I've got three new blogs up and around.
The first, The Bell Feminist Bi-Monthly is not actually my writing. It is, instead, the online branch of the IUB FMLA's newsletter. My only content on it so far is the pathfinding posts. I'm potentially interested in running a similar blog in the not too distant future that isn't tied into an outside organization.
The second .roiretni eht ot doar worran eht morf snoitcelfer is another mirror of Reflections From the Narrow Road to the Interior. Same content, slightly different interface.
The third is my roninlabs.org blog which has not, at this time, been particularly active. I'm working on it.
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March 14th, 2009
03:45 pm - 2009 new reads so far
1. The Stepsister Scheme Jim C. Hines The first of Hines's fairy tale kingdom books. Action, espionage, and fairytale princesses. Here's hoping that the next two are as good.
2. Strength and Honor R.M. Meluch. Rome is on the offensive after the fall of the hive with the mad Emperor planning to take Earth once again. Farragut and the last emperor's patterner stand between him and victory. The ending gives me hope that there will be at least one more book in the series.
3. Storm From The Shadows David Weber A mostly non Honor book set in the Honorverse. The first shots in the Solarian War that has been seeming more and more inevitable have been fired. Hopefully the next Honor Book will allow for peace with Haven, especially since the confrontation between Elizabeth and Honor happened in this book and it didn't end with a break between them.
4. The Queen of Stone Keith Baker I've yet to dislike one of Baker's Eberron books. This one introduces us to the politics of Droaam via a Brelish Dark Lantern. Since the King's Citadel in general and the Dark Lanterns in particular are among my favorite parts of the setting, I'm predisposed toward this one.
Anyone read anything cool yet this year?
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