It's where I talk to myself. Gaming, politics, and links I don't want to forget about.
Yeah, it’s quick-link morning. But Kodi’s investigation of the relative evil of Arnold Schwarzenegger versus the villains he’s fought in his movies is really good.
Arius might have been in favor of some limited separation of powers in the government of lovely Latin American Country, perhaps a parliament he could dissolve at will or something, but nothing on the order of the limitations applied to the office of Governor of California.
The table is worth the price of admission.
Well, it’s not as good as the Walken original, but if you’re going to remix Fatboy Slim songs with stick figures, this is the way to go. I can no longer believe that Flash is evil.
After a lot of futzing around caused by my own lack of coordination, the server that brings you this very blog is up to a hefty 1 GB of memory. With any luck, this’ll cut down on mysql crashes. Can’t hurt, anyhow.
Total cost: under $100. I love the future.
(Damn. That post seemed faster… too subjective to know if I’m really getting improvements, though.)
CNN ran a nice story on Warren Zevon the other day. The new CD comes out Tuesday; there’s a VH1 special airing 10 PM on Sunday, Eastern time. Set your TiVos.
If you’re interested in CafePress Publishing, you ought to check out this report from someone who’s tried it. He’s pretty positive, on the whole, but he provides enough information so that you can easily decide for yourself.
They still aren’t doing perfect bound books, and they still plan to put CafePress advertising in each book, though, so my interest level is pretty low at the moment.
Poland’s decided to adjust its military committment in Iraq. There aren’t any fewer Polish troops over there, but they’re not quite as interested in administering the area near Baghdad as they once were.
You know, we’re gonna wind up turning this mess over to the UN sooner or later, whether or not that’s a good thing.
As a rule, I really like Bruce R’s blog Flit. However, I am starting to wonder about his choice of blog partners. T. M. Lutas is not the sharpest crayon in the shed.
This in the way of introduction to this exciting new theory of American’s Iraq reconstruction plan. Salam Pax said:
I guess you’ve been hearing news about Mosul? Well it’s worse. The security situation isn’t too bad (they don’t rely on Americans in these parts- if they did it wouldn’t be any better than Baghdad). Electricity is more or less sorted out (although we do have problems)- and no, it wasn’t the Amreeeekan who got things running, thank you very much.
Lutas enthusiastically responded:
These are not the words of somebody who is going to feel permanently humiliated at their dependence on america. That’s all to the good and may there be many more such independent people.
Yep. We’re failing to provide electricity in Iraq so that the people of Iraq can feel self-reliant. Perhaps it’ll distract them from the fact that we haven’t yet let them try their own war criminals. I mean, yeah, as a tactic it’d work — but it kind of ignores the resentment it’d engender.
To my vast amusement, the Koppel-Argamon Gender Predictor believes Reese is female. Seriously! There’s some sort of gender-determining algorithm which looks way too simplistic from where I’m standing which is meant to determine whether the author is male or female. The latest Dear Brother tests as feminine.
Link thanks to Kip, who I don’t know at all so why am I using his first name?
Absolutely awesome campaign concept, plus a bonus first session writeup. Man, I am beginning to yearn for some good pulp. Here’s the most brilliant gem out of all the brilliant gems:
The characters were all previous associates who had been in Paris just before the bombs were dropped. They don’t talk about what happened there, but as a result of it they all swore an oath — an oath which takes preference over loyalties, family and faith. Each of them can call on the others to help them with any situation once and once only. For the first time, one of them has invoked the oath.
This turned out to be a nice way of getting people together, and ensuring that they’d stay that way. We didn’t go into detail about what happened in Paris, just saying that they never talk about it, but the players could, and did, allude to it in play. I’m hoping that after a number of sessions there will have been enough hints that I can run a flashback scenario set there tying all the allusions together.
One of my favourite moments in the game came when someone said something like “It could be worse – we could be back in Paris.” and everyone nodded sagely and shuddered. “What happened in Paris?” asked one of the NPCs.
“WE DON’T TALK ABOUT PARIS!” chorussed the entire player group.
Elegant.
A special two-session Dear Brother, in which our heros undergo torture and brainwashing. Not for the faint of heart.