I’m off to Gen Con (original) soon; specifically, I’m leaving Thursday. Blogging may be sporadic during that time, or it may be frequent — it all depends on what kind of wireless access I can find in the convention center. I’ll have my laptop and — hey, why not? — my camera. In fact, I’ll set up a Typepad photo blog for those so they don’t clog things up over here. If you happen to be planning to attend Gen Con, I will be playing a metric ton load of Shadowfist and will likely be at the Z-Man Games booth off and on. I might also be at the Vivendi Games booth. Or drop me an email. ...

I’m not a Democrat; nor am I a Republican. I fall somewhere more or less on the left side of the spectrum, if you insist on a single axis. I prefer a minimalistic government, but I believe that enlightened self-interest calls for more voluntary intervention than your average libertarian advocates. I’m a capitalist. I think the optimal size of self-governed political units is fairly small. So how do you get my vote in 2004? Easy. Come out in favor of approval voting. ...

Not enough gaming today? I have more! See now the UPC Bar Code Character Generator (original), which informs me that the Johnny Cash album sitting next to my computer is a female elf with Str 14 and no other notable stats. Star Wars Galaxies is a fairly wise, cute halfling with special military training. Via One Hit At A Time. So much gaming talk. It must be Gencon coming on.

In Dear Brother #5, Mister Beulay goes to Washington. Not an epic session, but after raising Huey Long it’s nice to take a break.

In installment four, our heros speak with the Kingfish. See? I said there were politics in it.

Dear Brother #6 is written to Alan Greenspan, because Reese’s brother made an appearance in the episode.

I went to the 2003 Reebok Pro Summer League (original) today. Well, mostly; in the middle of it all I snuck away to Fenway Park to help a friend buy Red Sox gear and eat good Indian food. But mostly I went to the basketball. And then I wrote about it. But I like you, so I will not put everything I wrote on the front page.

The words chilling effect (original) come to mind, somehow. (Via regis.) This is an isolated incident — perhaps. It’s a story told by a liberal — certainly. I don’t care. This shouldn’t happen. If I call the FBI and report that someone was reading something suspicious, that’s not an incident. That’s someone reading. A few months ago, I got one of those scam emails from someone pretending to be Paypal. I called the Boston FBI office to report it. I literally couldn’t get someone to take my report. “Did you lose over $5,000?” “Well, no.” “Sorry, we don’t deal with cases in which nobody lost $5,000.” ...

Someone needs to let the Raptors know that it’s quality, not quantity. Doing PR work to discuss signing Jason Kidd is one thing. PR work to hype the signing of a guy — Mengke Bateer — who averaged less than 1 point a game last season is another thing. And they haven’t even signed the guy yet. They’re hoping to sign him. There can’t possibly be any serious competition for him. How pathetic is it to say “well, we’re hoping to sign the second best Chinese-born player in the NBA”? Pretty damned pathetic. ...

Last Sunday, I sauntered on down to the Boston Common movie theater, conveniently located on beautiful Boston Common, to see a movie. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see Terminator 3, Pirates of the Caribbean, or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (that last being an outside chance of a choice), but I was in the mood for phat action. As the kids say. So as I walk into the theater, some woman is trying to give away a Pirates ticket for the show that starts in ten minutes. I say that’s an omen, accept it with good grace, and head up to the theater. On my way out after the show, I note that I can easily catch the next showing of T3 if I’m willing to wait 45 minutes or so, and I had my Game Boy with me, so that was that. ...