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So as was fairly noticeable, we had a hard drive crash here at Innocence Central a couple of weeks ago. Recovery is in progress, nothing was lost, etc. So not very traumatic. On the other hand, it did get me thinking about what I wanted to do with my blog, my LiveJournal, and so forth. After a bunch of said thinking, I decided to shut down this blog. It’s been around for five years or so, which is probably about enough time. Somewhere back there I got distracted from writing about culture and into politics, which was fun for a few years, but yeah. I’ve lost my zest for that. ...

This isn’t a real post; this is a way to spread what paltry Googlejuice I have. Hey! Cameron Rogers (original)! Stephanie Durrell (original)!

Getting Things Done. Anyone tried it? Does it work for you? Tips and/or tricks? Do I have to drink the koolaid? (Regardless of the answers to these questions, my next PC will use GTD as an organizing scheme. Possibly this promise excludes Jess’s Exalted game, but I’m not sure.)

So I wander into my break room at work today and I see this: “Golden French Toast.” On one of those little cups you stick in the coffee machine and it makes coffee. We have a bunch of various types. This is new to me. I figured it was a joke. “The comforting flavors of warm, buttered French Toast with a touch of cinnamon, drizzled with sweet maple syrup.” ...

Disney’s still really in fine form. Not perfect, but in fine form. You get these wistful references to the glory days, which are kind what happens when people don’t recognize that their enjoyment of Carousel of Progress is due to nostalgia rather than due to any quality of the ride experience. It’s pretty bogus. The best work ever done at Walt Disney World was during the late 80s and 90s, when Disney-MGM and Animal Kingdom opened. The worst park, from a sheer quality perspective, is Epcot. On the other hand, it’s the worst park at WDW, which means I enjoy the heck out of it every time. ...

So here’s what I’d like, please: I’d like an recording of Sondheim’s Assassins as sung by a quality a cappella group. See if we can’t make this happen, okay? Thanks.

Unduly influenced by Passion, for better or worse, this week’s Monday Mashup is going to be the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You can do it straight, as an evocation of faith; you can do it cynically, if you’re that kind of person; or you can say “Geeze, that’s too close to the line, I’m not gonna do this one.” I figure if it’s OK to express one’s faith by making a movie, though, it ought to be OK to do it in an RPG. (Also, I didn’t answer WISH 75 (original), so this will have to do.)

This is a holiday gift for Brant, who is long-suffering. “You can’t trust the Ordo when it comes to the occult,” she said. “That’s not a proverb, but it should be. Here’s another one: ‘You’re smarter than the Ordo thinks you are.’ Put the two of those together and you have the sort of scenario that leads, inexorably, to something like the current state of Walt Disney World.” She paused, looking up at her audience. “Sabado would tell it differently. Of course. But if you’re worth his investment, you’ll know that already. ...

Secrets work like this, right now. This is subject to change. Possession of a Secret grants arcane power. The more people who hold a Secret, the less power it grants. If we were playing a D20 game, then you could have up to +20 in your Secret skill if you were the only one who knew a Secret. If two people knew the Secret, the maximum would be +15. Ten people? +10. And so on. ...

Conversely, the PC software for the Sony Reader absolutely sucks. It looks remarkably like someone was hired to clone iTunes, and did so without ever understanding the ways in which iTunes is good and bad. You can’t drag content directly onto the Reader; you have to copy it into the Library, then copy it from there to the Reader. The interface is custom and non-standard — the menus don’t look like Windows menus, and the dialog boxes aren’t Windows dialog boxes. The Preferences dialog box has one option: “Check for updates automatically”. If you sort a list of books by author, it’s sorted by first name rather than last name. The Status window doesn’t tell you the titles of the books which are being converted/added. You can’t create new collections (playlists) directly on the Reader; you have to create them in the Library and move them over. ...