It's where I talk to myself. Gaming, politics, and links I don't want to forget about.
There appears to be a small uprising in Northern Iran. A little more information can be found here. The first link is to a site on the right side of the ideological spectrum, by the by, so you have to discount the people who are under the impression that this will immediately turn into a vast popular uprising supported by US troops.
(Via Tacitus, whose commenters suffer in part from the same optimism. Ah well.)
Mark Schmitt makes an excellent catch over at The Decembrist. Bush is using photos from the FY 2005 Federal Budget in his campaign material.
This may or may not be illegal; it seems to me like it might be, but Schmitt knows better than I and he doesn’t think it is. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t think government documents are protected under copyright, so Bush has the right to remix those photos however he likes. Kinda shady of him to get the government to pay for the photos if he intended to use them later, though. And if he had his own private photographer pay for them and give them to the government, well, why is the government publishing campaign photos? No matter what happened, though, it’s definitely a slight erosion of the barriers between the campaign and the government. Not a scandal, but definitely an indication of character.
[That was odd. Sorry about that.]
I rarely have many objections to Mamet, or for that matter to Val Kilmer. Keep that in mind. Still and all, Spartan measured up. Twice I saw the wires on which the god was lowered from the machine, but the tense taut moments more than carried me through. And who knew Mamet could direct an action movie? It is an action movie. It’s also a spy movie.
Hollywood doesn’t make that many spy movies. It should, if they’re going to be this good.
I just read the last issue of Cerebus. That’s it; ain’t any more.
For an insane guy, Dave Sim sure draws a pretty comic. It never stopped being gorgeous. I wish I could say kinder things about it; I am staggered by the weight of it. Thousands upon thousands of pages. There have been few such extended achievements.
When both he and Gerhard are dead, Cerebus will enter the public domain. He has arranged for the negatives to remain with trustworthy custodians, and they will be available to those who wish to reprint any portion of it. The attentive will notice that those two statements are not entirely congruent. Who knows?
I’m going to spoil the end now.
So while my mother was in the hospital, I got her a NetFlix account. Since she’s not always into the technogeeky thing, and because I wanted to make her life as easy as possible while recovering, I manage the queue. It’s worked out really well — she gets the fun of opening a surprise in the mail every few days. And I have a pretty solid idea of her tastes.
But I’m feeling whimsical, so now I want recommendations from y’all. What would you rent her? The list of movies rented to date is in the extended entry — she claims to have enjoyed everything so far.
President Roh of Korea was just impeached. He’d been tagged "the world’s first Internet president", mostly because his victory was driven by Internet activism.
Don Park has another take on the impeachment. He’s a smart guy and I trust his insights on the situation. KoreaTimes talks about what happens next.
Aside from the obvious “old school tears down the Internet generation” angle, I’m a bit concerned about the “tumult right next to North Korea” angle. Dunno how worried I should be, though. It’s not as if the opposition politicians hadn’t managed to handle the North Korean situation for quite some time before Roh came along. It’s mostly the uncertainty of not knowing who runs the country right now that bugs me.
There’s also something to be said about media coverage of South Korea versus media coverage of Spain, but I don’t know how to say it without sounding heartless. I think both the Madrid bombing and the impeachment are exceedingly important, and it bothers me that the Madrid bombing is front page news while the impeachment drifts to one side.
(How original! I’ve just discovered that media is tragedy-driven!)
This week’s Wednesday Weird isn’t about just any old hedge Wizard, but the classic wize old wizard that is a staple of the fantasy genre. Although Merlin is a heck of a lot older than Gandalf, I’m not sure if he started wearing the pointy hat before Tolkein’s wizard. However, since D&D and most fantasy fiction has (for better or worse) been heavily derived from Tolkein’s work ever since, we’ve seen a lot of wizards in the Gandalf/Merlin mold. They’ve been dispensing sage advice and assisting heroes for ages. Sometimes they have the hat. Sometimes they don’t.
My wizard has the hat. Here’s why.
The PCs establish the traditional relationship with the wizard — advice, counsel, “fool of a Took!” He identifies magic items for ‘em. All that fun stuff.
Somewhere along the line, someone asks the PCs why they’re spending so much time hanging out with the guy everyone else knows as a simple farmer. “Look, he’s a nice guy, Toby, but… he’s just a farmer. Or anyway, he was before he moved into that old tower at the edge of the forest. We’ve been wondering what he’s up to now, because he’s not too bright and we’re kind of worried about him.”
It’s the hat. Toby found it; it’s a very powerful magic item which bestows both the ability to use magic and the skills to use it wisely. Anyone could benefit from it. The party wizard could benefit from it quite a bit. Just, Toby’s the guy who found it.
Celestial Pictures is restoring and rereleasing 75% of the Shaw Brothers library on DVD. Alas, they’re all region 3 DVDs. If only I’d just purchased a region-free DVD player…
Oh, wait. I did.
Who doesn’t need more books? Lorem Ipsum, the hot new used bookstore in Inman Square, is throwing a grand opening party this Friday at 7 PM. My brother made their bookshelves. They have a blog. They’re cool. See you there.
Jack Dandy, Gentleman About Town!
Sadly, I don’t know very much about him. Yes, it’s true: he’s just a set of powers and a vague appearance looking for a background. Perhaps I should go all Ripper and make him the Prince of Wales in a disguise. No? Well…
Right; he’s the Honorable Austin Alexander, second son of the Right Honorable Lord Islington. He does wear a mask, because his elder brother — who he adores — thinks that he’ll bring shame on the family name, blah blah blah. His father is senile and could care less. He mostly cares about having superpowered larks, and feels the mask adds to his air of mystery.
His armor is a glowing force field in a thrilling shade of hunter green. His quantum bolts are, um, quantum bolts. I was very entranced by the thought of flying whilst wearing a tailcoat, but the more I examine it the less thrilled I feel.
I am having deep trouble working up backgrounds lately. My wuxia Charnel Gods character, who doesn’t even have a name yet, is in even worse shape.