Posts

Yep, I saw it. Chances are most people reading this will have seen it or will intend to see it (and for the rest, read on for a special offer). So instead of reviewing, I’ll ramble. It’s a Michael Moore movie. From some comments I read previously, I expected it to be less of a polemic, and perhaps more objective. Nope — he’s narrating the thing and even if he doesn’t come out in front of the camera much, it’s still got a heaping helping of Moore sarcasm and innuendo. I think I could have done without mocking members of the Iraq War coalition; even if I don’t think Costa Rica made a significant contribution to the war, I still believe the country deserves the same respect as any other sovereign nation. And I noticed that Moore left out England and Spain when listing coalition members. ...

Doc has taken over the Game WISH, renaming it the Game Dream. Cool! Question 1: When Role Playing Games are discussed, the subject of first-person versus third-person character narratives sometimes surfaces. When you play a character, do you assume first-person, using your voice as his or hers, or do you use third person, simply describing what he or she is doing? Do you switch between first and third person, or try to adhere to one? When other players are in character, does the use of first or third person affect your immersion in the game? ...

The Nation provides a hypothetical article (original) on the Bush/career civil servant battles. I say hypothetical because Greider is just guessing, no matter how good the guesses might sound to my conspiratorial nature. It’s a fun hypothesis, though.

The Got Milk? typeface is Phenix American. Looks like it needs a little kerning before it looks right, but that’s OK. Agfa will sell it to you for twenty-two bucks. I know I wanted this information for some reason, so I’ll just tuck it away here until I can remember why I wanted it. Late edit: no, I will not send you the font. Someone spent a great deal of time creating the font, and if you want to use it you ought to pay for it.

Let me get this straight. Nicholas Cage is playing Benjamin Franklin Gates, scion of the family Gates, which has been sworn for generations to find and protect a legendary treasure. The Founding Fathers of the United States left clues to the location of the treasure in the symbols of America, in particular the eye in the pyramid. Now he’s racing against a British rival to reach the treasure before it’s too late? ...

So I figured I might as well go to an Amber convention because I like new things and I have friends who said “You should come!” And if I’m going to go do something new, I’m of course going to write about it. Thusly. The Black Road has something like 36 people attending, which makes it the smallest con I’ve ever been to. The small size means it’s relatively easy to get all the GMs and all their players talking before the game. I had two PCs in hand weeks before the convention, which boosted my anticipation considerably. It’s tempting to think this could work for bigger cons, but that way lies madness. At least for the convention organizers. ...

Bush’s new campaign video (original), “Kerry’s Coalition of the Wild-eyed,” will certainly inspire his base. It’s a miscalculation nonetheless. The video opens with Gore asking how we can possibly drag the good name of America through Saddam’s torture prison. This keeps the Abu Ghraib scandal prominent. That’s not so good for Bush; it doesn’t poll well at all. Then you get the cheesy Nazi images which won’t hurt Bush, although their use here implies that Abu Ghraib wasn’t so bad — which, again, people will disagree with. ...

“If you’re not excited by a movie that features giant robots, hand-held death rays, flying fortresses, mysterious ninja hotties, underwater dogfights, last-second cliffhangers, and guest-starring cameos from dead guys, then maybe this movie wasn’t made for you.” ( Scroll down. But the Wes Anderson flick sounds great too.)

Oh, yeah, did I mention my new thing (original)? I did not. Now I have. It is a support site for a very cool roleplaying game plus it is also a technology demonstration. Next time I feel like doing a site that takes user submissions it’s going to be a lot quicker, I can tell you that. I used this script but modified a lot and more secure, yes yes.

Kerry grandstands a little and visits the Senate to vote on an amendment which provides more veteran benefits. The Republicans use various procedural tactics to make sure he can’t vote on the bill, delaying it until the next day. Kerry heads back to keep on campaigning. The Republicans vote the bill down. Of course Kerry was playing political games and manuvering to make himself look good. But it worked. Maybe Bush doesn’t want the military vote (original).