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Author: Bryant

Oh, snap

October 21, 2003
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This post is pretty much for Patrick. Others may be amused as well.

Chapter 11 of Dan Simmons’ new book, Hard Freeze, starts like this:

“How’s the book?” asked Kurtz. He squinted at the title. “Isn’t that the same guy you were reading twelve years ago, before I got sent away?”

“Yeah. His detective fought in the Korean War, which makes the old fart in his late sixties at least, but he still kicks ass. A new book comes out every year, if not sooner.”

“Good, huh?”

“Not anymore,” said Arlene. “The P.I.’s got a girlfriend who’s a real bitch. An arrogant piece of work. And she’s got a dog.”

“So?”

“A dog who eats on the table and sleeps in their bed. And the P.I. loves them both to bits.”

“Then why do you keep reading them?”

“I keep hoping the P.I. will wake up and cap both the girlfriend and that ratty dog,” said Arlene.

Monday Mashup #14: Red Sox

October 20, 2003
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The fourteenth Monday Mashup revolves around the Boston Red Sox. (Yeah, you can take a week off if you’re staring at your screen in horror.) They’re generally a talented team of players but are always struck down before they reach the peak of their profession by a dire curse — which always leaves them strong enough to come back and make another try next year. In my book, professional sports is a popular form of entertainment, so let’s mash those Dirt Dogs up.

Continue ReadingMonday Mashup #14: Red Sox

Trading places

October 20, 2003
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That’s kind of surreal. The Celtics just traded Walker and Delk to the Mavericks for Rafe LaFrentz, Jiri Welsch, and Chris Mills. Plus a first round pick.

It’s hard to make sense of this one for either team. LaFrentz has a $69 million contract which doesn’t expire till 2008 or so. He also doesn’t represent a huge upgrade at center from Tony Battie, although he’s a much better shot blocker. Chris Mills is just kind of there, and his contract expires soon. Jiri Welsch might actually be something; he’s a 6’7” point guard who played well overseas. But giving up Walker for a handful of potential seems very odd.

From Dallas’ point of view, you lose your starting center in exchange for yet another tweener. Are they going to have Antoine play center? It almost seems like they’d have to be planning something like that.

More trades coming, maybe. Hard to figure out any other explanation.

Skipping farms

October 20, 2003
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Lieberman and Clark are skipping Iowa, or at least the Iowa caucuses. Makes sense for Lieberman, who was polling very poorly in Iowa. A little surprising for Clark, but he couldn’t make a dent in the Gephardt/Dean race, so it’s probably his best option.

However, this puts both of them in the position of battling for third place in New Hampshire, which is not entirely auspicious. Even worse, if Kerry wins or comes in second in Iowa, they run the risk of being just part of the pack.

South Carolina is looking increasingly important. No wonder Edwards hasn’t dropped out yet.

Lickety split

October 20, 2003
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That was easy enough. Admire my brand-new title-based individual entry URLs, which will permit me to migrate hosts, databases, and even blog software without losing my permalinks should I ever feel the need.

Redirection

October 20, 2003
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The redirection solution I’ll use when I get around to fixing my archive permalinks comes from Elizabeth Lawley. (Shelley has some notes as well.) Clever stuff. MTEntryID needs padding, though, and Shelley’s quotes got smartened. Word to the wise.

Mark Pilgrim has tips on archive names, which are pretty good even if I don’t mind having .php on the tail of each URL. Which I don’t. But the keywords trick will be very useful, since my post titles tend to be cryptic.

Syrian fog

October 19, 2003
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Christopher Allbritton dug around and came up with some fresh indications that the United States might be planning to attack Syria. I gotta agree that HR 1828 is pretty indicative, although it’s also the kind of rhetoric Congressmen use to take a tough stance on terrorism in election years. I also think that Israel’s nuclear revelations are aimed at Iran, which has much more of a nuclear program than Syria.

Then again, Syria is a somewhat easier target than Iran given geographical considerations. I don’t think you’d want to use Iraq as a military base of operations right now. So for the purposes of a quick poll pickup, sure, Syria might look like a good choice.

WISH 69: Board?

October 18, 2003
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WISH 69: Non-RPG Games for Gamers asks about the other side of the gaming world:

Recommend three non-RPG games for RPGers. Why do you recommend these three?

Well, blackjack is lots of fun — no? Oh, got it.

Diplomacy, first off. It takes a while to play, and some RPG groups are used to those six to eight hour sessions. Plus you can roleplay the countries. Plus it’s a sneaky introduction to the idea of diceless gaming.

Shadowfist, second. Eeek, a collectible card game! But it’s a ton of fun, it has a goofy exciting setting, and a lot of roleplayers I know enjoy it.

Finally, Cosmic Encounter. It’s a classic board game for a reason. There’s a good measure of skill and a good measure of randomness and every game is different, to borrow the marketing slogan.

In the end

October 17, 2003
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Batting cleanup, this fall morning:

“It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoon and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, you rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then, just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.”

Full credit is due, by the by, to Mike Mussina and Mariano Rivera. They both pitched very well. If I were a Yankees fan, I would be overwhelmed with Rivera’s three innings of relief. They didn’t pitch well enough to overcome Clemens’ outing, but they deserve credit for taking advantage of Grady’s Folly.

As for 2004? I still believe.