Via Unqualified Offerings, it’s the first song off Zevon’s next album. In MP3 format, no less. And the whole album “available as a stream” on August 19th, which is tomorrow.

Since my Typepad beta account will vanish sooner or later, I moved my Gen Con photos to a local gallery. If you saw them then, you’ve seen them now — nothing new there.

The first flash mob with purpose probably won’t be political after all. Rather, it’ll be hordes of people handing out free comics (original). At the least, it’ll be a noble attempt, although I have an image in my mind of a bunch of people giving comics to each other rather than to random strangers. Also, the organizer is doing a piss-poor job of keeping it secret, which will minimize impact. Helpful hint to flash mob organizers: the minute you write anything about your mob on a public forum, the media probably knows.

Pyeongchang (original), not Pyongyang (original). Doh!

For all its flaws, we must admire Google for knowing the length of a smoot. Alas, it does not know the value of a quatloo, but then again, neither do I. On the other hand, while searching for quatloo valuations, I did find a proposal for an XML standard for Shadowrun (original). But I digress. Smoots (original) are real.

Pleasingly, Columbia just released the Once Upon A Time In China series on a two-DVD set for a mere twenty-five bucks or so. Each movie is on one side of a DVD, so there’s no quality compromise. Alas, they left out the commentary from their previous edition of Once Upon A Time In China I, but one can’t have everything and it was just a commentary from a Hong Kong film expert rather than anyone connected with the production. ...

I’m linking to this fairly amusing article on the Texas Democrat walkout not because I am shocked and horrified by the thought that the Republicans may try to delay elections, since I’m not. I could care less if the Republicans want to delay primaries; I see no real reason why primaries should be part of the legal framework of American elections. If the real elections happen without the Republicans selecting a candidate, well, that has its own rewards. ...

The Ultimate California Gubernatorial Recall Candidate List is a nice overview of who’s who, with annotations. “This candidate failed the Turing test in 1999.” Heh. And I didn’t know Bill Walton’s son was running. Although I think he was too kind to Gallagher and Gary Coleman. They belong in the publicity seeker category.

I said something flippant early this week about West Wing setting unreasonable expectations for a Presidency. Stephen Kaye (nice new blog location and layout) noted that some people do ask why President Bartlett couldn’t be president, which actually doesn’t surprise me. All this in preamble to today’s California recall news: Schwarzenegger asked Rob Lowe to join his campaign. Lowe is in fact a Democrat, and of course was a regular on West Wing. George Schultz and Warren Buffett are already on board the campaign. ...

WISH 60 (original) asks: How do you use different frames of reference or mindsets in your games? In what ways do your characters or NPCs in games you GM think differently from the people around you? What sorts of things make them different (societal, mental, physical, etc.)? Do you feel that you’re successful in incorporating and showing the differences? I was actually kind of taken aback by this question for a moment. Shifting mindsets is a really basic, low-level component of my gaming. I am, to borrow the r.g.frp.advocacy jargon, an immersive player. I don’t forget who I am — that path is not deeply healthy for me — but I like the experience of mentally filtering reactions through a different mindset. ...