Book: Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling

Fair warning: this is going to be less a book review than a confessional.

I typically try to keep a very open mind when reading books, especially when I'm reading a post-apocalyptic adventure novel - my favorite SF genre. So I grabbed Dies the Fire from an online recommendaton with a bevy of other books using a birthday gift certificate, because it was post-apocalyptic and sounded like an interesting premise: some sort of electrical disturbance basically puts everyone back a few hundred years, before electricity and steam. Breakdown of society, people coming together, evil enemy army, and so forth. Sure, sounds like a decent read.

The plot breaks into two arcs: rugged bush pilot flying wealthy family to remote Idaho, and Wiccan acoustic guitar playing single mother in small Oregon college town.

The pilot plot was OK I guess. But boy howdy, the other character's plotline was awful.

Maybe it's just because I've spent so much time around those folks, but in the first twenty pages the Wiccan was casting spells, remarking about how her friend who fought in the SCA and made fine weapons for Ren Faires would always stand by her side, and just generally reminded me of the worst parts of some GenCon attention whore, I put the book aside.

OK, I didn't. I skipped around. I read the end (a habit most people would cruicify me for if offered the chance, but fuck 'em, the journey is more important than the destination for me.) And the samples I found were an annoying and shitty as the first twenty pages. So this one landed on the pile that's going to Half Price the next time I'm taking a load down there.

Does that make me a bigot? Maybe. I tried to think how I would respond if the character were, say, a Muslim or a Christian. Would I be equally as annoyed by a Christian character making signs of the cross and quoting scripture? As much as I wish I could say "yes, that would equally annoy me," I know the answer is "no, not really." I have some personal feelings about Wicca and some - not all, but some - people who choose to practice that faith that color my personal judgement in this regard. But even that is a counterfeit argument - I have feelings about Christians as well, and not all of them very positive. But why my personal negative - and somewhat irrational - response to this character?

I guess the answer is, "I don't know." Maybe it is a little bit of bigotry, because it seems based largely on my personal disdain for some practitioners of the faith rather than the religion itself (as far as I'm concerned, religions are pretty much equal, with the exception of Scientology.) It's hard to explain. And maybe I don't have to.

I wish I could have kept reading, because Stirling penned some really tight prose. The pilot's plotline especially just rocked and rolled along, and I wanted to read more, just to see what happened next - not a bad thing. Seth mentioned that Stirling wrote some historical fiction, so I might try to track down a copy of that, just to give the author another shot.

If you really want to read Dies the Fire, there's a link to Amazon.com. I can't really recommend it though.

Pulp Fiction

If a news story about African gold pirates operating deep underground isn't rife with pulpy plot possibilities, I don't know what is.

Conservative Terrorism

Via SA, some Internet Detectives did some digging and discovered that the man arrested for mailing white powder to Jon Stewart, Keith Olbermann, and others, was an avid poster on conservative forum Free Republic. In fact, more than one set of Detectives has been on the case.

Unsurprising? Hardly. When you spend all day circlejerking about what you hate, eventually that hatred consumes you and becomes you.

Fifteen Days Late...

Pictures of Halloween pumpking carving, 2006, including Shub-Pumpkinroth, the Black Pumpkin of the Woods.

Joe Comes Back

I half-expected Joe "Mortal Kombat should be Banned" Lieberman to switch his party affiliation to the Republicans after he had to run as an independent in the Connecticut Senate race. He says he's still a Democrat.

Now maybe he'll start acting like one.

Maria and Me

My life has been all about politics lately: check my Flickr photostream for pics of Maria Cantwell's visit to my office today.

I Wake Up in a Changed America

Democrats have majority control of the House. We're on track to taking the Senate (as long as Joe "Mortal Kombat is destroying our children" Lieberman votes with the Dems, not something I'm optimistic about), and Donald "Waterboarding isn't Torture" Rumsfeld has resigned.

It is a changed America.

Do I think that we're going to be pulling out of Iraq, raising the minimum wage and issuing socialized health care in the next few weeks? No. But what this does, is offer what could very well be the best part of our American system of government: checks and balances. Our government works best when one party controls the legislature and another controls the White House (Reagan and the Dems in the 80s, Clinton and the Repubs in the 90s), only because it tends to keep the kinds of shenanigans that come with a representative electoral process to a minimum. They know that they can't act without reprisal, because the balance of power is delicate. When the balance tips, we have problems.

I do expect some progress to be made. Depending on how well the Democrats do, it's conceivable that a Dem could win the White House in 2008 - but what would that do for the balance of power? Depends on the Dem, I suppose. Hopefully it's Not Hillary. Then I won't be able to enjoy Grand Theft Auto 5. But things will probably change, albeit at the typical glacial pace of democratic politics. More importantly, America's image as a democracy stands a chance of being restored in the international community - something that's far more important.

WA Initiatives

Looks like the moronic initiatives in Washington State are failing.

Is the other shoe going to drop tonight?

Huh. We're... Winning?

MSNBC is declaring that the Democrats will win the House. Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough are talking about possible impeachments charges and investigations into the Bush administration's energy and Iraq policies.

Are we moving into Bizarroworld??

Santorum OUT!

Not of the closet, but out of office. Stay the course, chumps! Keep on staying that course!!

Did You Vote?

Hope so. Big election today. Of course, not bigger than Britney Spears filing for divorce.

Grand Theft Mario

This is making the rounds, but worth watching: a Robot Chicken bit where Mario and Luigi end up in Vice City.

Lone Woof

A good deal of the wasted developmental part of my youth was spent immersed in the Lone Wolf series of RPG-book-game-adventures by Joe Dever. Did you know that you can re-live the awesomeness of these books online? Now if only I didn't have that pesky "work" thing.

Halloween at Work

The best part about days like this is that my office brings in the booze around 2 in the afternoon.

*hic*

Here Comes Halloween! Also Zombie Awards

It's one of the two holidays I celebrate every year - Halloween! This year we carved pumpkins (pictures coming, I promise) and I dressed up twice! Woohoo! Today I'm half-a-zombie (again, pictures coming) and I get to wear my Fangoria "Zombie Exterminating Service" t-shirt.

Let's kick the day off with the Golden Brain Awards, recognizing accomplishment in the field of zombiism. More fun shenanigans to come, no doubt.

Have I Become a Heartless Bastard?

Maybe. Or maybe I'm letting this get to me more than I should.

Context: there's a good number of homeless people who work the streets downtown where I work. They're kind of part of the background of working here; I never give them money, but there's one guy who I've given food to on several occasions, and he always appreciates it.

Specific context: Sunday, we drove into the UD for haircuts at Rudy's and lunch with Angela. After lunch, we decide some coffee is in order. Anglea suggests a coffee joint just down the street (University Way, often called "The Ave") from us. We start our journey at about the 4900 section of University and end at the 4600 section. By New York standards (which don't apply here), that's a journey of 3/10 of a mile. In actuality, it was probably closer to 400 feet, just a little longer than a football field. That's a guess based on what I remember of football fields from high school marching band.

We we walk out of the restaurant and turn right, heading towards our destination. There's a bus stop to our left. Under the awning are two homeless people. One of them says "I need fifty cents for my bus fare." Sure you do, pal. I keep walking and don't say anything - the old "ignore 'em" tack that typically works. This guy yells after me, "you probably have twenty bucks in your wallet" and says something incoherant. For the record, I had about four bucks in ones, largely because I don't have a need for cash here unless I'm getting coffee at Monorail. But that's a different story.

Next, maybe ten steps down the road, a guy comes down the stairs and gets in front of me and asks for money. I say "no" because I've made eye contact and keeps walking. He then starts following me, continuing to ask for money. Liz and Angela are walking behind me and Crabby, and I have to turn to make sure he doesn't go for purses or anything. He eventually stops following us, just as we come to...

Two homeless people positioned on either side of the sidewalk. As one unit, they ask for money. They're holding signs. I say, fairly loudly (as I'm still a little torqued from the guy following me and tired of being asked for my hard-earned money), "it's like a gauntlet down here today," which considering the circumstances is fairly appropriate. Well, one of the last two people overheard me and started yelling about how God would bless me and make me loving and blah blah blah.

Fuck this shit, I mean really. I worked at DHS, I know what my tax dollars already pay for. I know what charities do. There's no fucking excuse to ask me for money when you could get in a shelter, start looking for a goddamned job, get off the juice, unless you didn't want to. Maybe that's not entirely true, but there is a LOT out there and social workers will try to help. I know, I was one for two years.

But I also don't hand out money to people. Period. If I'm going to give someone money, they will give me something in return. Street musicians are the only people to whom I will give change for this very reason. I used to give money to bums in London all the time until I kept seeing the same bums in the same place, day after day, asking for handouts. What was my money going for exactly? Now food I'll give, but not money.

So I submit to you, dear readers: am I a heartless bastard? I've been going over and over this incident in my head. I don't think so, but I open it to the court of public opinion.

It's Dangerous!

Some smartie-folks released the list of most dangerous cities today - well, the list of the cities who responded, ranked least-to-most dangerous. I was a little worried when Seattle, WA weighed in at #262 on the list, pretty far down there - but then I saw Tulsa, OK at #335 (out of 371 total cities) and felt better.

22 Years Behind the Times

This weekend I embarked on a cinematic voyage into unexplored (for me) territory, by renting one of the finest films I've ever seen. By "renting," I mean "got from Netflix," and by "finest films I've ever seen," I mean "This is Spinal Tap." Yes, it's true, Spinal Tap is in that era of movies where stuff came out that was Rated R and I didn't see it at the time because I had parents who actually gave a shit what their kid was up to (a good thing, mind you), and haven't gotten back to since.

All I can say is, that movie goes up to eleven. It's pretty unusual that I finish watching a movie and think, "yeah, that's pretty much one of the best movies I've ever seen," but that's certainly what happened this weekend.

So what did you do with your extra Daylight Savings Time hour?

Digging Underwater, Pirates Edition

Ahoy mateys! What's more cool than underwater archaeology? How about underwater archaeology excavating Blackbead's ship?

Vote Ye Washingtonians!

My absentee ballot arrived in the mail last week, and I used my extra hour this morning wisely and filled it out. As usual, Jeff is doing a bang-up job blogging local politics, especially the various state initiatives. So here's a brief breakdown of what's going down in Washington Legislative District 45:

I 920. Should we repeal an estate tax that effects 250 of the richest dead people in Washington each year? Let's see. No.

I 933. Should taxpayers have to pay people who want to turn their land into subdivisions but can't because of environmental or other regulation? An easy no.

I 937. Encourages environmental solutions for power companies with 25,000 or more customers. As Jeff explained, this is a wind power initiative. Sure, why not.

King County Prop 5. Should we raise sales and use of land tax by one tenth of one percent to fund King County Transit? I love taking the bus. My stress level has gone way down since I stopped driving here so much (big surprise). I'll pay a little more in property taxes to extend that benefit to others.

US Senate. Maria Cantwell (Democrat) or Mike McGavick (Republican)? I'm not a Cantwell fan, but McGavick is the former CEO of Safeco and his entire campaign reeks of personal greed, power tripping and the same kind of NeoCon nonsense that has landed the country in this spot in the first place. Perhaps if he was closer to Barry Goldwater than Rush Limbaugh, I'd consider it. So congrats Maria, you got my vote.

WA Legislative District 45. Senator: Eric Oemig (D) or Toby Nixon (R). Getting over the "Nixon" part, Eric Oemig's groundpounders came by the house last weekend for a Get out the Vote campaign. The best I've neard from Nixon was some vague attack ads I got in the mail. Bam.

Representatives: I'm not going to go through every candidate, but I do want to point out that Tim Lee, the Republican candidate who wants to represent District 45 on the Eastside, appeared at a convention with his company's staff in "Redmond Sux" t-shirts. I don't know much about local politics, but I know that someone who wants to represent the Eastside shouldn't be parading around in a shirt that tells the world "Redmond Sux."

Of course, in the spirit of full disclosure, I should mention that I'm taking that information from an attack ad that his Democratic opponent, incumbent Larry Springer, sent me in the mail. So who says dirty politics aren't effective sometimes?

Signs of Getting Old

Here's a converstion with myself that indicates I'm getting older.

Me1: Man, those pants I wore yesterday kind of smell bad. Oh well, I've only got two pairs of jeans, I guess I have to wear them anyway.

Me2: Why do you only own two pairs of jeans? You know, you're not in college anymore.

Me1: Pants are expensive! They're like 25 bucks a pop at Old Navy.

Me2: Are you honestly sitting there and telling me that you can't afford to buy yourself more pants that fit so you don't have to run around in something funky that makes your legs itch because it's got your own dried sweat in it?

Me1: ...

Me2: Yeah, I didn't think so.

So now I have one pair of pants - that fit me, without any holes in them - for each day of the week!

Six-Word Stories

I can't really give credit here because I've seen this all over the Internet, but the editors of Wired put out a call to SF writers to create stories in six words. The results vary from "meh" to "awesomely awesome," but it's worth reading.

Tales from a Sport Cthutility Vehicle

Last night, I was driving from my office to our weekly D&D game. I'm stopped at a light, waiting to turn left, and I notice the person in the car behind me is having a very animated discussion with her passenger. It looks like a mother and a young daughter. Never one to pass up a chance to people-watch, I keep an eye on them in my rearview mirror. The mom looks like she's trying to explain something, as she keeps using her hands.

Then, she points at the back-left corner of my truck. Talks some more, and makes a gesture like she's showing her daughter something really big. It clicks immediately what they're talking about: the back-left corner of my truck is adorned with my Cthulhu for President bumper sticker.

Now I'm watching them outright, and the mother notices me looking in the rearview. She gives me two big thumbs up. Grinning like a Cheshire cat, I turn around and give them a thumbs-up too. They laugh. I laugh.

Later, she passes me and I wave.

Nothing like the Great Old Ones to liven up your day and remind you how cool people can be.

Birthday from Hell (Kinda)

My birthday this year was probably my second-worst birthday ever. It's going to take a lot to top my teacher slapping me with detention for not writing my spelling words ten times as homework (as happened in the fifth grade on my birthday), but this one came pretty close.

Long story short is I spent about 12 hours at my office working, and then spent another hour at home working. Luckily, the day after my birthday - when all that hard work paid off - turned out to be pretty decent.

The birthday wasn't a total wash - I got to talk to my parents, my brother (whom I almost never talk to), and my grandparents, so that was cool. Plus I am the proud owner of a new 80 GB video iPretentiousPod, and a pretty bitching iHome iPod iDock with an iClock built in, that replaced the old (non-i)CD player on my nightstand.

Also: I got pizzaid for my wizzork on the d20 Modern Fallout game, an amount that turned out to be about ten times what I got paid for my previous contract. Oddly enough, I already have a future work prospect buzzing around as well. Too bad I can't do this freelance thing full-time - yet.

Home Improvement Hilarity

Via SA, via Boing Boing, comes home improvement nightmares. I don't feel so bad about our house now.

It's Borat!

He's all over the place right now running a brilliant PR campaign for his upcoming movie. The BBC looks at how Sacha Baron Cohen hoaxed America as Borat.

Book: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Amazon.com offered me 5% more off my order if I ordered Cormac McCarthy's The Road with World War Z, so I said "why the hell not" and added it to the cart. It's a good book. It's a very fast read. And it's one of those simple-but-difficult books, just because of the subject matter.

The book follows an unnamed protagonist and his son as they trek south towards some unknown and esoteric goal. The goal, whatever it is, acts as a MacGuffin to provide the two with a need to move. They push an old shopping cart that contains their worldly possessions, and avoid human contact whenever possible - in no small part because many of the the other humans in the ash-covered, burned-out wasteland have resorted to cannibalism to survive.

The book is heavy. It's barely 200 pages, but it's heavy all the same, because while it has the normal survivialist masturbatory fantasies post-apocalyptic books they play second fiddle to the relationship between the father and son. The father's goal is to basically survive long enough to teach his kid how to survive, and as the story progresses he becomes more and more desperate in his drive to do this. It is clear at some points that the father isn't willing to take the kinds of risks that might actually provide a better life for his son, and his descent into paranoia is equally heartbreaking for its utter lack of hope as it is for it inevitable conclusion.

I recommend The Road, but don't expect something lighthearted. Sleep will not be an easy time coming after you finish this book.

Time Waster: Treehouse of Terror Edition

Via my non-connected buddy Jimmy, make your own Treehouse of Terror episode.

And kiss your afternoon goodbye!

Dodging Bullets

Jon isn't the only one who can dodge bullets. My roommate noticed a "dripping" sound coming from the ceiling of the computer room this morning. After some scouting around the attic (and finding a cache of old junk - a story for another time), we found the source: a leak in the roof. We quickly consulted our "big book o' crap you get when you buy a house;" our warranty expired last year. Doh.

And yet.

We called the roofing company - they said the roof was still under warranty. And they would send someone out "right away." "Right away" turned out to be about an hour from when we called (and keep in mind, this is a Sunday.) The guy showed up, took a look, said the roof was probably installed incorrectly, and took some pictures and said he'd get back to us.

A couple hours later, he rolls up with some building materials and goes to town. The roof is temporarily fixed, and tomorrow it will be all of the way fixed. No more leak.

Again - this is a Sunday. When this is all said and done, I will pass along the roofing company's name and recommend them wholeheartedly. In the meantime, I'm having an extra glass of wine tonight and considering this a bullet dodged.

Charity Poker

Lots of games industry types will likely be at the Comic Stop's charity poker tournament on October 21. I'll probably be there. The creators of Penny Arcade and PVP will be there. Will you?

Songs in the Key of Springfield

Here's a great way to waste time at work: every episode of The Simpsons online.

Edit: Brandon's right and this is probably illegal. Link removed.

Quote of the Day

"Everyone judged her except for God. Only He knew the whole story."

- Found in a comic book at Zanadu today

Book: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

World War Z: The Oral History of the Zombie War is Max Brooks' successor to his pseudo-comedy book The Zombie Survivial Guide, although Z is very much a serious piece of literature that not only curb-stomps the brains out of anything else in the genre I've read, it blows it into a pulp with a shotgun blast. Yeah, it's good.

Z is a series of vignettes, each an "interview" with someone associated with a worldwide outbreak known as the "zombie war," or "World War Z." It has taken the world twelve years to push the zombie threat back to managable levels, and not without great loss; it's an apocalyptic scenario, but not a total one, as there are still millions of people as well as some infrastructure left.

What's fascinating about Brooks' Z is the same spirit that encapsulates all post-apocalyptic literature - the posed question "how would people react in this, the most extreme of circumstances?" Brooks' answer is certainly more hopeful than most, and reminds me in no small part of David Brin's take on civilization - that despite its shortcomings, it's something worth fighting for. Brooks also manages to work in some good social commentary as well without resorting to cliches or jaded and tired criticism; his details of Israel's response and the reactions in the Middle East are especially telling.

I cannot recommend World War Z enough, as the top of the zombie novel genre, a great piece of post-apoc. fiction, and just a great read.

Video of the Day

I've been listening to videos for the Guitar Hero 2 songs all day through the YouTube links in my other post, and I decided to search for some of my favorite music videos from when MTV actually played music. Here's possibly the best video made during the 1980s, "Take on Me" for A-Ha.

My Next Custom Playlist

Ladies and Gentlement, now that the entire Guitar Hero 2 tracklist has been released, I can start assembling the next custom playlist for my iPod.

Almost forgot: my old iPod has finally withered and died. It gave me a three-year run. Not too shabby for something I probably used 30 hours a week.

Majority Report

There's a poll running on CNN.com right now related to the recent shenanigans occuring on the Korean peninsula: "Is a preemptive strike to destroy a nation's nuclear weapons capability ever justified?" (can't link because it's a javascript poll.) As of 2:45 PT on October 9 2006, 58% (40161 votes) say "yes."

There are a lot of reasons why I would say "no," but instead I offer the Minority Report question: Is arresting a person for a crime they have not yet committed ever justified?

Weekend Watch: BSG

This weekend was Battlestar Galactica-a-riffic. Which is to say I finally got caught up on the series (thank you TV shows on DVD!) and watched the DVRed Season 3 premiere from last Friday night.

I admit that I avoided BSG due in no small part to the number of people who recommended it to me. Typically I will listen to a small number of friends who know me really well and share my tastes, who tell me "hey, you should check this out." When people I don't necessarily like or I know have poor taste tell me "hey, you should check this out," it's kind of like a Jason Repellant - it's a great way to keep me away from something.

But BSG turned out to be pretty damn good. Liz thought so too, which surprised me. And like I said, we are all caught up and ready for the new season.

The show's ambiguity is its best feature (it's pacing, however, it its worst: just a little too slow.) Are the humans supposed to represent America, or the Arab world, or Europe during World War II? What are the Cylons supposed to represent? Or are they supposed to represent anything at all, and instead just provide a scenario to explore what makes us human - or our relationships with the other members of our race?

It's one part Frankenstein (in that the Cylons are struggling to overcome the context in which they were created), one part Starship Troopers (how do you wage a war against an overwhelming enemy, and what do you sacrifice to win that war?), and one part Mad Max. And many other influences all coming together to create something worthwhile.

I'm optimistic about the direction the show will take this season, in a way I haven't been about a TV show for quite some time - especially a show that's not on HBO.

Maybe He's Just Ronery

In recent news, a power-hungry and militaristically agressive cowboy leader who disregards the health concerns of his own citizens and stays in power through fear has rattled his sabre something terrible. I speak of course about Kim "So Verwy Ronery" Jong Il, whose country joined the nuclear ranks this evening (or tomorrow, depending on what time zone you're in.)

Footage of the event has already been posted on YouTube:

Iraq < Foley < North Korea

As any comedian can tell you, timing is everything. Only I'm just not sure where - or what - the punchline to this joke is.

Nearly two weeks ago, ABC News broke the story that Republican Mark Foley of Florida had lewd conversations with a young congressional page. Foley resigned, the exchange was printed, and hilarity ensued. Startlingly, no one seems much to care that Foley is gay - the issue here is that Foley was sending lewd IMs to underaged pages. It's interesting to note that the age of consent in Washington D.C. is 16, but since Foley was using the Internet he was subject to prosecution under a law that he in fact helped pass.

But the timing was almost immediately an issue. Despite the fact that it was a Republican aide that broke the story, Republicans called foul and claimed the Democrats timed the story to hit before the election - despite another fact that news sources - including Fox News - have had details of the story for months, and that Congressional pages were warned as early as 1995 to stay away from Foley, and that many House Republicans have known about Foley's indescretions.

Following Foley's resignation, the spin machine started - with Foley himself. He claimed he was an alcoholic and checked into rehab, following the Conservative pattern behavior of not taking personal responsibility and accountability for your actions, but blaming them on something else: parents, alcohol, Lib'ruls, Saddam, Islamofascists, the Lib'rul Media, the Feminists, Satanists, violent video games, rock and roll music, whoever. Hardly surprising. Fox News contrbuted to the effort with graphics reporting that Foley was a Democrat and stories whose language tried to disassociate him from the Republican party. Bill O'Reilly, himself known (at least among those who care) for his lewd advances to underlings, joined the party (YouTube link) too.

The word that comes to mind here is clusterfuck. And it's just getting warmed up.

But the timing is interesting here. I noted yesterday to Seth that North Korea's announcement of a nuke test seemed oddly timed to return some Good 'Ol Fear to the American consciousness right before an election (again.) Fear means vote for safety, and we all know that safety is keeping Republicans in office, right?

Seth brought up a much more compelling point, especially considering that the Foley sex scandal seems just as useless and stupid as any other sex scandal from Lewinski to Caligula - the Foley story broke a couple of days after a the intelligence report that indicated the war in Iraq has actually strengthened terrorism - a report that has now completely dropped from the headlines. In fact, ask yourself honestly whether you've thought about that report in the last three or four days, and then ask yourself how much you thought about a Florida Scientologist sending lewd emails to underaged boys.

I now wonder if the timing of everything isn't even a more elaborate machine designed not only to have us remain scared before an election, but to intentionally make us ignore a factual report that may very well have a deep and meaningful impact on who we choose when we vote in a month.

But at this point, the web is so twisted, I'm just not sure anymore.

Joke of the... Whenever

A Democrat, Conservative and a Republican were on the Titanic. When it hit the iceberg the Democrat screamed, "My God, we must save the children!"

The Conservative screamed, "Fuck the children!"

The Republican inquired, "Do we have time?"

Via the SA forums.

Book: Autumn by David Moody

Autumn came in a batch of Amazon.com recommendations while I was checking out World War Z from The Zombie Survival Guide scribe Max Brooks. Autumn is another example of zombie fiction, which seems to have taken off in the last five years seemingly on its own, and like Monster Island, Autumn was published online first and then self-published into the physical world. Its rawness shows; I counted a few editing mistakes and Moody's writing just flowed like something you'd read online, when the author is more concerned about getting thoughts down than in the structure of what he writes, and hasn't gone back to look it over.

Autumn is really a setup to the rest of Moody's novels, which are not avialable for free online; it's character introduction and development leading to a climax that is anti-climactic in the greater scheme of the world. It's Night of the Living Dead when you know there several more movies coming - which isn't to say it isn't a satisfying read. Moody could have stood to edit out his characters' bickering a little bit, not because it was unrealistic but simply because it got repetitive. But Autumn certainly accomplishes its goal of making you want to know what's happening next in the series. Next order I make from Amazon, I'll have to drop another of Moody's books in there.

AI vs. Graphics

Ars Technica has an interesting post speculating that certain versions of upcoming games may make sacrifices in graphical quality in favor of improved enemy AI and game interaction. While this is all speculative at this point, it certainly raises an interesting question: with all that supercomputer processing power in modern gaming consoles, is it better to use it for "more immersive" (read: high definition) graphics, or for a more interesting game experience? I'd certainly favor the later, although not to the point where you sacrificed quality and playability for it. In other words, I don't want a game so fuzzy I can't see or tell what I'm doing - GTA: Libery City Stories, I'm looking in your direction!

Gentlemen, Start the Cloning Machines!

I was considering getting a dog for home security purposes, but now I think I might hold off. In a few years, following the recent discovery of soft tissue in a T-rex skeleton, I may have other options for home security animals.

Via SA forums.

New Template Up and Running

Alrighty then, it looks like the new template is working and I've migrated the important stuff over. The last thing on the old to-do list is an interactive thingy where you can see what I've been playing, reading, and watching. We'll see how that works out.

Pardon the Mess

Please pardon the mess while I revamp the design a tad, thanks to Blogger Beta.

A Visual Horror Movie Puzzle Game

This awesome game reminds me of the holiday covers of GAMES magazine my mom and I used to do when I was younger: a dark, renaissance-style painting that doubles as a visual puzzle where you try to guess the titles of 50 dark/horror movies.

So why don't you drop what you're doing and play? I'm up to 20 already.

Edit: Finished in 47 minutes and some change game time. I had to look up hints on the last 3, so I'm counting myself at 47/50. Not too shabby.

Keith Olbermann is My Hero

I am honored to say that when I worked at WizKids, Keith Olbermann and I exchanged emails related to the Babe Ruth Masterpiece figure we produced.

I have posted YouTube of Olbermann before, but MSN has posted Keith's rebuttal to the right-wing spin put on Clinton's recent FauxNews interview. Watch it. Now. Olbermann cuts through right-wing sophistry like a knife through butter. A knife that uses logic and fact, two things utterly foreign to the right (if you don't believe me, watch.) Via MeFi.

T-Shirt Marketing: Go To Hell(boy)

This weekend at Costco I noticed a pair of geeky-looking chaps walking in while I was walking out. Their geeky looking T-Shirts had a certain red comic book character on them, but it was the back that interested me: a website hawking an upcoming Animated Series - gotohellboy.com. A quick look through the site confirms that it's not an animated series per se, but it's going to be a series of animated film releases not unlike the Ultimate Avengers films Marvel put out this year. Feature-length, direct-to-DVD, and featuring the voice talent from the Hellboy motion picture including Ron Perlman and Selma Blair.

Some quick Google-fu yielded the production diary of the movie's producers, which hints at a pre-release or sneak preview at the upcoming HP Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland. The festival is also showing some good horror fare, including Dead Birds, a great little creepfest that's worth paying to see.

Wonder how my work schedule looks that weekend.

The Stars Are Right

This morning, we had a contractor out to give us an estimate on what it would cost to replace most of the insulation in our house. On his way out, he remarked that recognized my Ash bobblehead, and we agreed that Evil Dead is one of the best movies of all time. He then said "yeah, I saw your truck on the way in, and I thought the bumper sticker was great! Most people wouldn't even know what that was."

My bumper sticker? Cthulhu for President.

Local Politics

I neglected to post before Tuesday's primary, mostly because I have been completely swamped getting ready for the currently-running Tokyo Game Show, but it was on my mind. I got my ballot in the mailbox with minutes to spare (in Washington, we can vote absentee whenever we want, which is good because it creates a paper trail that can't be hacked.) Jeff has been doing a fantastic job of covering local politics on his blog, even summarizing the results nicely this week. But I did want to mention that I voted against Maria Cantwell in the Senate primary - and she did end up with 90% of the vote. So maybe I haven't completely lost my finicky, anti-establishmentism. I didn't vote for Mike the Mover or that guy who wanted Israel wiped off the map (but 8000 fellow Washingtonians did, according to a Seattle PI story I read a couple of weeks ago.) I did cast my vote for Hong Tran though; her progressive stance on health care and the Iraq war appealed to me more than Cantwell's "we need to pull out sometime maybe." I'm oversimplifying, true. But I have a general feeling of discontent that we need to have us a nice, old-fashioned shakeup in Congress.

I wonder if the Democratic party is looking for good PR people?

When in Doubt, Use the Bombs!

While not exactly threatening to blow a country "back to the Stone Age," a la the Bush administration, I'm still quite excited to get my hands on DEFCON, Introversion Software's version of Global Thermonuclear War from that one awesome 80s movie.

But don't take my word for it - check out this gameplay video:

It's Late, It's Late...

And I'm online! Why you ask? Job stuff. The last couple of weeks I've shifted into hyperdrive at work; we've got upcoming back-to-back trade shows (starting tomorrow) and I've been running point on the prep work for both. I've been getting pretty frazzled (and trying - and failing - not to take it out on the ones I care about), but I'm hoping this will be the end of it for a while, and I can return you to the Puppet Show's regularly-scheduled absurdity and zombie posts.

Re: The Brains

Via Seth comes a music video for a zombie song. Warning: gory scenes may not be work safe.

Michael and Me

As promised during last night's Alliterates meeting, the photo of me with Michael Moore is up on my Flickr stream, rescued from a (thankfully cached) version of my old website using the Wayback Machine.

See Me!

I added a Flickr stream to the right nav-bar, so you can go take a gander at the goofy stuff I've been capturing with my camera.

Free Short Story!

Want to read a free, awesome short story? Of course you do. "What's expected of us" by Ted Chiang is a sci-fi short-short about free will and determinism. Sent to me by a friend.

Interactive Mall Map

This has been sailing around the Internet, but I have to give credit to one of my pals at work for linking me: the Dead Rising Interactive Mall Map. Like the computerized map in Crossroads mall, except it shows Psychos too.

New Tech

I'm slowly joining the digital revolution. I signed up for Blogger Beta, so expect to see some cosmetic changes around here (and, hopefully, I'll finally be able to migrate this thing to my personal website.) And, I got a Flickr account, so you and the rest of the world can see the cool things I take pictures of - and often post here anyway.

Steve Irwin RIP

He may have been crazy, he may have been ADD, but his energy, enthusiasm and knowledge were undeniable. There is little doubt that the Crocodile Hunter's antics turned a whole batch of kids on to animals, and that's never a bad thing.

RIP Steve. The world just got a little sadder.

Video Blogging - A Test

I've wanted to try dinking around with embedded video in my blog, so this is my first attempt. This is a six-minute segement from Keith Olbermann's Countdown on MSNBC, and possibly one of the most reasoned and rational responses to the Bush administration's emotional jingoism I've ever heard. Even conservatives should listen to the whole thing, because Olbermann makes some excellent points about the references the administration has been making lately to the appeasement of Hitler (argumentum ad Hitlerium, anyone?) and their overall charge of "fighting fascism." Enjoy.



Via the SA forums.

From the God Helps Those Who Help Themselves Department

A priest in Africa drowned after trying to walk on water.

Evangelist preacher Franck Kabele, 35, told his congregation he could repeat the biblical miracle.

One eyewitness said: "He told churchgoers he'd had a revelation that if he had enough faith, he could walk on water like Jesus.

"He took his congregation to the beach saying he would walk across the Komo estuary, which takes 20 minutes by boat.

"He walked into the water, which soon passed over his head and he never came back."

And the religious right wonders why anyone with an IQ greater than an eggplant thinks they are dumb.

Via the SA forums.

Dead Rising Revisited

Looks like Clive Thompson at Wired News agrees with my conclusions about Dead Rising and its save system. Money quote:

"Save mechanisms are key to the emotional stakes in a game. Personally, I tend to prefer titles like Half-Life, where you can save anywhere you want, instantly -- and save as many different copies of your life as you want. (A sentence of utterly Philip K. Dickian weirdness, if you think about it.)

For me, constant saving makes me feel more free: I can take more chances, go down risky alleyways, and explore the game more boldly -- because death holds no sting. I get whacked? No problem; I just restore to a moment a few seconds before my death...

In contrast, a rare-saving game like Dead Rising forces me to be ultra cautious. I don't dillydally, explore needlessly, or take any big chances. When I creep across the mall's open lawn at midnight, when the zombies are more aggressive, my heart is in my throat -- not just because the scenario is inherently scary, but because if I die I'm gonna lose another half hour of the most nonrenewable resource in existence: my time...

Yet here's the thing: One could just as easily argue that infrequent saving is a much more intense and authentic experience. It forces you to put some skin in the game. That's why people seek out life-threatening sports like sheer-face mountain climbing and skydiving. In situations of genuine danger, your senses snap open and you experience things more fully -- or, as any extreme athlete would boast, you live more fully.

It's certainly true that in Dead Rising I was focused with cheetah's intensity on my enemies. I pretty quickly learned to give a wide berth to even a seemingly slow-moving, harmless zombie -- because if one grabs you, it'll hold you still long enough for the others to stagger over and pile on. I can't say I ever studied the enemies so closely in an easy-saving game like Doom III."

He articulated that point far better than I did in my short(er) review of the game. In fact, the "no save" system that I grew up with on the NES forced the same kind of emotional response, even on games like The Legend of Zelda, where you could only save when you died. I remember trying to tell my parents why I couldn't come to dinner right now, on the count of three because I had to actually get to a point where my pixelly little in-game avatar met his demise. In retrospect, it seems pretty absurd, but it certainly heightened the overall emotional investment in the game and Zelda still stands as one of my favorite console experiences because of it.

Of course, you could save any time you wanted on (most) PC games - Bard's Tale being a notable exception - and aside from doing dunder-headed things on games where part of the design was a Skinnerbox-like trial-and-error system - Sierra's graphic adventures, for example - it was never an issue. You expected to die, and die a lot. You could always restore to the last screen. But Mario wasn't like that. You had exactly three chances (plus any green mushrooms you might find) to take a lava bath before you started over at the very beginning.

I'm unconvinced it was more satisfying overall in that context, but I will argue that it is in Dead Rising. But it certainly heighened the emotional involvement in the game. It was more of an investment, in emotion and time.

Wired article via Joystiq.

Adventure Game Studio

I was very excited about today's release of XNA, the (free) utility that lets little garagehacks write games that can be played immediately on a PC and eventually on the Xbox 360. Of course, the game I want to write is an homage to the games I grew up with - the old Sierra and LucasArts games like King's Quest and Monkey Island. Someone on the XNA forums instead recommended Adventure Game Studio, an equally-free (but not Xbox 360 compatible) utility that will allow me to create my own adventure game. It also doesn't require knowledge of C# (which XNA does), and handles everything from scripting. Considering I aced PASCAL and C in high school, I should be able to figure out the scripts.

I'm going to give it a spin shortly after I publish this post.

Mash-Up: Simpsons and Shakespeare

Does a one-man stage act where the actor does Macbeth in voices of 50 Simpsons characters sound good to you? Then you might want to catch a show of Machomer!

Warning: Emo Post

Why do people have to be mean?

I mean, intentionally and calculatingly mean. What's the deal? Does it really serve a purpose? Does it make us stronger if it doesn't kill us? Or is it just a way to keep things interetsing?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: mean people suck.

Work and More Work

When you've had a crummy day at work, what's the best solution?

Come home and do more work!

The good news is: more fiction writing came my way on Friday. It's small, but significant. It's not really paying, but it's a credit. It's fucking fun and I get to insert surreptitious references to my friends and family. And thus is the life of a writer.

Full disclosure: I had to look up the spelling of surreptitious. I won't forget it.

A Sandy Surprise

Working downtown, I see some pretty crazy shit. Most of it involves people with political agendas (cough LaRouche supporters cough) or trying to save me from hell, or homless folk coming up with interesting ways to seperate me from my money. Yesterday, on the way to the bus, I came across this awesome scene in Westlake Center:

There were crews - artists, really - converting vast amounts of sand into sand castles (and sculptures.) This one reminded me of City of Lost Children, some kind of crazed, unnecessarily complex network of enormous pipes that eventually became a building.

Pretty damn cool!

What Did You Do This Weekend?

I climbed a mountain. That's right, a goddamned mountain. Mt Sunshine is along the Johnson Ridge Trail, about 55 miles from our house along Route 2 towards Leavenworth. We camped by the Skyhomish river, and drove up to the trail early Saturday morning. By ten o'clock, we were climbing. By noon, we were standing on the peak, looking at a panoramic view of the Cascades. The hike included an 800-foot change in elevation (and my legs feel it!) and was about 5 miles round trip.

I slept great Saturday night, and last night, and now I'm back at work. Frankly, I'd rather be going up another mountain.

Game: Dead Rising

So you like zombie games, kid?

Actually, I don't typically like zombie games. The genre isn't exactly bursting at the seams, though - we've got Resident Evil, the big old franchise that coined the term "survival horror" and features zombies as an afterthought. There was a zombie marketing tie-in first-person shooter that released with Land of the Dead. And the old SNES game Zombies Ate My Neighbors. But as far as a game that accurately mimics the feel of a zombie movie like Dawn of the Dead. Negative. That was, until Dead Rising.

Dead Rising is as much a love letter to Romero's zombie movies as it is an incredible stand-alone game. You play Frank West, a photojournalist on a hot scoop: something's going down in the Colorado town of Willamette. Frank gets dropped on the roof of the mall, and has 72 hours to uncover what's going on - and survive the hordes of zombies that have taken over!

Gameplay is open-ended. There are two types of missions: Cases (which advance the plot) and Scoops (which don't, but will level you up quickly and basically act as "extra credit.") You can do as much or a little of either as you want - but if you stop doing the Cases, you lose your chance to solve the mystery for that playthrough. But fear not - when you restart the game, you keep your experience and skills from the last game (basically, your XP and character level.) You can pick up pretty much any item, whether it's the rack of toys at the toy store, the wine bottle in the restaurant, all kinds of guns and knives, or trash cans and cardboard boxes. You can play dress-up with all kinds of outfits, hair dyes, and so forth. And you can kick a lot of zombie ass, or not kill a single one (although I imagine that might be a very difficult proposition.)

As with any good zombie story, the really dangerous parts aren't the zombies themselves but the other humans. The "bosses" are various types of psychopaths - escaped convicts, Vietnam vets who snapped, killer clowns with chainsaws, and "normal" people whose reaction to the apocalyse has become so extreme that they're a danger to others and themselves.

The save system takes a little getting used to; you can only save in certain locations (on couches and in bathrooms.) Because of the time limit and the vast numbers of zombies, this means you have to very carefully plan your saves, just as you carefully plan how long to ration out your ammo and food so you can replenish your supplies of those as well. At first, I found it annoying, but now I can't imagine the game without it - it adds greatly to the "survival" flavor. Just wandering around and screwing off is very likely to get you killed, not unlike a real apocalyptic scenario. Careful planning and strategic use of resources is the #1 key to survival.

Zombie fans, start your chainsaws. Dead Rising is our game.

Welcome to Insomnialand, Population: Me

My old pal insomnia is back for a stay.

I've gotten probably five hours of sleep in the last two nights. Today, I cut out all coffee except a small soy latte this morning because I thought I was actually going to fall asleep at my desk if I didn't have one.

The funny thing is, I'm tired now, but I fear that come tonight I'll be sitting there thinking and moving and absolutely unable to go to sleep once again.

I can't even be productive when I'm like this, and I'm going to be a ragged mess by this weekend.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Free Software!

Now here's a way to land a job: program a quick Flash game that transforms Google Earth into a flight sim.

In a Minute I'll Be Just Another Zombie!

Dead Rising came out on Wednesday and it's everything I hoped it would be. The game is tense, and you never feel safe, even in the so-called "safe" areas. I must look pretty goofy playing it, since I tend to violently shake the controller around when I'm trying to get out of a zombie's grasp. It might not help, but it sure makes me feel better. Now that's immersive!

I took time from killing zombies to do some long-needed cleanup this morning, and took time off this week for a little personal R&R (which was really me working on the Fallout d20 stuff and playing Dead Rising.)

And that's my exciting life update.

Yeah, But I Didn't Like Lieberman Before it Was Cool Not To Like Him

The news that Senator Joe Lieberman lost the Connecticut primary tonight warms me right down to my little cockles. Let's be clear here: I'm a Democrat, and I feel very strongly that political extremism is what's gotten us into this mess, and that moderates displaying reason and reaching out to the other side will be what ultimately delivers us from it. But Joe Lieberman and I have a history.

Way back when I was in middle school, Joe Lieberman led a crusade in the Senate against violent video games. Ol' Joe has used this issue on and off ever since, and seems to have turned fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton on to the possibilities of exploiting it for political ends. In fact, it was Lieberman's support of banning violent video games that led to my support of Ralph Nader in 2000.

So, Joe, sorry to see you go. Don't the door hit your censorship-supporting ass on its way out, and if you've still got a piece of the First Amendment stuck in there from using the Bill of Rights to wipe yourself, please return it to the people of America at your earliest convenience. Thanks

Defend Dicistan!

Seth turned me on to Dice Wars, a really awesome (and simple) Flash strategy game. Give it a go, it's surprisingly addictive.

So It's Not a Quote or a Movie or a Video Game

Life's been interesting lately. Work has moved from super-busy to boring back to busy, and my work on Fallout d20 has certainly rekindled a bit of the creative juices, but my lack of time prevents me from taking too much advantage of it. I'm at a strange point in my life; I feel like something's missing, and it's something I need to find myself. One of my coworkers recently quit to travel to South America for nine months; I envy him. I don't want to leave, I just want to do something more personally significant and meaningful. It's a hard thing to describe, and it's something I'm not sure is possible given my current position.

Nor do I think there is a decent answer. My overall feeling is one of satisfaction; I've got a great house, a good group of friends I can spend time with, and a lot of things I should be thankful for (kind of in the Protestant sense, I suppose.) But I just don't really feel like anything I'm doing is of any lasting significance. If there were 48 hours in a day (and I still only had to work 8 and commute 2), I would have to time to do what I want to do. I suppose that this is some kind of karmic balance; in high school and college, I would put off anything "important" and "for school" until the last possible minute, choosing to goof off the rest of the time, whether it was through video games, writing, working on something, or just hanging out with my friends. Perhaps this is life's way of saying I didn't apprecaite what I had when I had it? But I don't believe that, because the very reasons I acted the way I did was to take advantage of the time and the opportunities afforded me.

I don't want to turn this into some kind of emo, poor-me whinefest, because that's not how I feel. I guess I'm stream of consciousnessing things I'll be able to come back later and read myself (and until that time, will stand as an Internet-permanent testimony to me working through what's eating me.) And hell, I use a (lot) (of) (parenthesis!)

Quote of the Day

"Now Tom said 'Mom, wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me Mom I'll be there
Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand
Or decent job or a helpin' hand
Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free
Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me.'"

- Bruce Springsteen, The Ghost of Tom Joad

Movie: The Exorcism of Emily Rose

"And I've seen The Exorcist one hundred and sixty-seven times, and it keeps getting funnier every time I see it! Now, do you think I'm qualified?"

Then, on The Exorcism of Emily Rose:

"Meh." Skip it.

Snakes on the Phone!

Here's an awesome marketing technique: use the Internet to call your friends with Samuel L. Jackson advertising Snakes on a Plane.

Quote of the Day

"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."

- Philippians 2:12

Movie: Clerks 2

I'm a sucker for Kevin Smith.

I've always thought his movies, for the most part, are little more than overhyped stoner humor. Until recently, he was not a very good editor (more on this in a minute.) His movies had long, painful-to-watch segements with little humor and horrible pacing. His first, Clerks, is the worst example of this and, believe it or not, the much-maligned Mallrats is probably the best movie (before C2) in this regard, mostly because the studio made him cut so much out.

His jokes are of the gross-out variety, or the repetitive variety, or both. And he (over)used the incredibly unfunny Will Farrell in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back in one of those really long, jokeless scenes that should have hit the cutting room floor. The best, and only, joke in that scene was one made by a cameo character (and it wasn't John Stewert using the term "C.L.I.T." repeatedly. That wasn't funny.) In fact, the best parts of some of his movies are listening to the ensemble commentaries on the DVDs.

But somehow, in the face of all this rational dislike, I am a sucker for Kevin Smith. I laugh at his repeated jokes and his toilet humor. I think Chasing Amy is a great love story. There are many who will disagree with me on that count, but it hits me in my cold, dead heart in ways many other so-called romance movies don't.

So, to beat the heat and satisfy my need for guilty pleasures, I checked out Clerks 2.

The first thing that I noticed is that this is Smith's tightest film to date in terms of editing. There's no long, malingering scenes that wear out their welcome and start to stink. He's figured out how editing works, and that was one of his biggest problems. One of the problems facing most artists is knowing which bits to cut out, and when you don't have the benefit of a studio-appointed editor going "no, that sucks, take it out" (Mr. Lucas, I'm looking in your direction), it's a hard lesson to learn on your own, especially when you didn't start out with those kinds of artistic requirements or limitations.

Of course, there's a good helping of dick-and-fart jokes, bestiality, and offensive language. Par for the course. But the two main characters, now in their early 30s and working as a pair of slackers at a burger joint, seem like they don't belong there anymore - and Smith intentionally sets this up. For all its debauchery and simplistic surface meaning, Clerks 2 may be the most complex of Smith's films. He's showing that he's grown up with the audience, and of the people who laughed at Clerks, he's challenging them to grow up with this movie, too. Just as the audience is sitting there laughing at Dante and Randall for working in a burger joint, Smith in turn asks the audience why they're still sitting in a theater laughing at such stupid humor.

Reading online reviews, people in their mid-20s and older - those of us who were teens when Clerks came out - love this movie. The current crop of teens don't. The reason for that is clear: we're old enough to "get" what Smith is doing both for us and to us, and while we're laughing at it, we're also looking inside and trying to sort out our own lives. Are we really just flipping burgers and cracking the same jokes, even in a methaphorical sense? I suspect the answer to that from a large majority of my peers would be "yes."

Whatta Weekend!

Wow. I'm tired.

Why?

Last night, Liz and I went to our first big concert together: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at nearby White River Ampitheater.

What a fantastic show. Tom played for two hours, covered all the major songs, hit a couple of Yardbirds covers and a Travelling Willburys' cover.

But wait, that's not all.

Halfway through the show, Stevie Nicks came out for a few duets. That's when the energy really started to take off.

Then Stevie took a rest, and Tom said "we did this song back in 1981, and lots of people have covered it - but no one has covered it better than Eddie Vedder." And then, Eddie Vedder came out and sang.

The finale ended with Tom, Eddie, and Stevie all singing "American Girl."

The show was amazing. Liz loved it. I loved it. And I need some more coffee.

Things I'm Drooling Over

Even though I work with video games day in and day out, I don't really talk much about them here. However, it's worth noting that there are currently four games slated for release in the near-future that have kicked my saliva response into overdrive.

Dead Rising
Zombie games have been done before, but rarely have they looked this promising. A sandbox game (of sorts, since it takes place in a mall), Dead Rising places the player in the shoes of a photojournalist who can live out the end of the world as he sees fit. The game takes place over a 72-hour period (each hour gametime corresponds to about five minutes real time), and you're supposed to be able to replay it several times to get all the pieces of the plot. I'm looking forward to the zombie action, and the OCD-friendly collectable bits.

Just Cause
Just Cause looks like a GTA clone at first glance, but it's got a lot of interesting stuff going for it. Plot: you're a CIA operative in a South American country trying to overthrow a dictator. Sandbox: 250,000 acres of environment to explore (almost ten times what San Andreas had.) Hundreds of vehicles, a grapple and parachute combination, over 300 missions. If executed well, this could be a real gem, and it'll tide me over until GTA4.

Star Trek: Legacy
Command starships from the Enterprise-era to the Voyager-era. Squad-based strategy of sorts, but with starships. Customizable ships. OK, it might not be great, but it's the most promising Trek game in a long time. We'll see how the reviews pan out.

BioShock
Everyone was in awe after E3 when this game did so well. Me: it's by the same crew that did System Shock 2. No shit it's gonna do well! BioShock actually looks like what might happen if SS2 and Fallout went out behind the woodshed, loved each other, and gave birth to some kind of awesome bastard child. It's got the pulpy, 50s feel of Fallout and the plotline looks like all kinds of stuff-gone-wrong a la SS2. This one can't come soon enough.

Motivational Posters, RPG Style

A gallery of motivational posters for gamers.

Court Rules Against Gays, for Breeders

The Washington State Supreme Court says that two people who love each other can't marry, because the 1998 ban on gay marriage "encourages procreation."

What the fucking fuck?

"Encourages procreation."

Like the goddamned world needs more people in it.

Conservativism: the philosophy where logic and facts don't matter.

Gays?? In SEATTLE??!!

Today the Washington state Supreme Court will vote on whether to overturn the gay marriage ban. If they do, Washington will be the second state after Taxachusetts to allow gay marriage.

Fingers crossed for an overturning!

Awesomely Awesome of the Day

Here's your awesomely awesome for the day, and possibly one of the coolest tools since Wikipedia: Wikimapia. Using Google Earth, Wikimapia works like Wikipedia, except instead of encyclopedia entries, you're identifying points of interest on a map.

Thankfully, my house has not yet been identified as the Beer Nest.

Tulsans: someone has labelled 71st Street from Memorial to 169 "the seventh circle of hell." Sounds about right.

Movie: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

I'm about a week behind on this blog, but today is a Writing Day for Fallout d20 so I reckon I'll be able to do some catch-up.

Last weekend we took in Pirates 2, starring Johnny Depp, that elf from Lord of the Rings, and the future-ex-Mrs. Mical, Kiera Knightly. The movie had been getting mixed reviews: fans seemed to dig it, but critics not so much. They thought the same of the first one, too, so I wasn't too concerned.

I liked it. A lot. And I like it even more now that I've had a week to mull it over.

Pirates 2 is very much an Empire Strikes Back or Back to the Future II film. The original was done as a stand-alone in case the series didn't take off. Then the producers decided to make it a trilogy (because all good film stories are told in trilogies), so the second and third films will have to relate to each other quite a bit, all the while referencing the first. Pirates 2 pulled it off. They kept the swashbucking, pulpy fun but turned the gloom up just a tad, and the dialogue tended to turn towards the serious rather than the funny. Which isn't to say I thought it was the bee's knees; there were certainly a few things I'd do differently, but considering what else is out there this year, Pirates 2 is what we've got as far as fantasy-action-adventure-fun, and it serves its role well.

I'll be there for Pirates 3.

Quote of the Day

A president ought to know enough not use an expletive in a fairly open meeting and almost any male alive today knows that you don't offer uninvited massages to any female, much less the Chancellor of Germany.

- Larry Sabato, professor of politics at the University of Virginia, quoted on CNN.com.

Because frankly, you wouldn't like the Germans when they're angry.

Seattleite, Okie Relations Sour Following Kidnapping of Sonics

Bothell DMZ, SPS News. Relations between Seattleites and Okies reached their worst level in twenty years yesterday as violence erupted between the two factions over the kidnapping of Seattle's NBA and WNBA teams by a group of Oklahoma City-based investors. A series of airstrikes rocked the Will Rogers International Airport outside of Oklahoma City, while Seattle tanks rolled into the South Tulsa strip, supposedly aimed at rooting out Okie guerillas in the ORU area.

"The kidnapping of our sports teams is a grave concern to all Seattleites," said Seattle Prime Minister Bill Gates. "We have the right to defend ourselves, and we plan to exercise that right." Seattle's Chief Army Commander Kurt Cobain added that the Okies are "on the run," and even as cross-border violence escalated, he was optimistic about Seattle's chances for victory. "We are fully aware that Texas and Arkansas are funneling money to the Okies, and ultimately their cooperation will help us put an end to this bloodshed."

Meanwhile Okie rockets tore through sections of downtown Seattle, reportedly spilling lattes and killing a civilian Schnoodle puppy. Okies also unleased a violent EMP pulse, disrupting Bluetooth and wireless communications for almost an hour on Tuesday, causing Seattle's economic productivity to nosedive and its drivers to suddenly pay attention on the highways.

"The Seattleite attacks are tearing my country apart" Okie President Garth Brooks told SPS News. "I have repeatedly asked these investors to return the Sonics and the Storm to Seattle, but [Mr.] Gates seems intent on destroying our entire way of life, and thousands of civillians have been displaced because of it."

US President Bush declined comment and noted that it was "too early to tell if a ceasefire would have any effect."

Added Bush: "Oranges are delicious."

More on this story as it develops.

I'm Fourteen Again

I recently picked up The X-Files Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD on the cheap, and we've been slowly watching the first season an episode or two at a time on weekends. I'd forgotten how good those shows were - and the series didn't even get really good until the third or forth seasons. And then yesterday, a whole day early, what's waiting in my mailbox but the complete Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. on DVD!

Brisco and The X-Files came out at the same time (as I recall, I think they even debuted in back-to-back timeslots) during my freshman year of high school. As much as I cited graphical adventure games as an influence in my development as a writer, I'd be completely remiss if I didn't give these two series at least the same amount of credit. Brisco's mix of futuristic pulp, good-guy (but not too-good) heroics, and classic storytelling played as much of a role in how I see stories as X-Files creature-feature and vast-conspiracy plotlines do (and, as anyone who has read anything I've written that's over 1000 words in length can attest, I milk both of those things shamelessly.)

What began as a tribute to pulp has in turn influenced a new generation of writers. And so the circle turns.

Poetry Spam!

Gmail does an amazing job of blocking out spam email, but every now and then something gets through its defenses. This morning, I received an email with the subject line "appliance," containing a bunch of seemingly random words followed by an attachment imploring me to buy some stupid penny stock. The stock is not important to our story; the random words, on the other hand, are like some kind of microwave popcorn version of Jack Kerouac. Dig this, cats:

impenetrable collaborate piranha a the teeter insensitive windchill factor suicide this! German measles at ebullient commercialize egregiously to naughtily, frostbitten doormat the outgrew underside beloved replica the! inhabit to contraceptive ESP recreational combative cocky as stairs kite no-no. by as noble muted.

I should print some of this out and go read it at a poetry slam. Maybe I could be the Next Big Thing in the literary world?

Homeward Bound

There's nothing like going home to see old friends.

This 4th of July, we skipped the neighborhood re-enactment of Fallujah by heading back to the Tulsa/Springfield area. Liz spent a week with her family, and I came back for a couple of days to hang out with my parents before we both drove up to Drury to hang out in their alumni B&B for a couple of days and laze around town. Arch was there, Roger, Crabby and Angela came in, Bob and Heather dropped by, and even Karissa and Michelle made appearances. A good time was had by all. Sitting down at Milles on the first night was about as close to old times as we've gotten, and it was like we just picked up the conversation from where we left off in 2001. We're a little older, some of us (like me) are a little thinner, but it's the same bunch and that felt good.

I also had a great time with my parents; it was really low key (we saw "Inconvenient Truth" together, and I set up Guitar Hero for them to try), which was exactly what I needed. Who needs to go to Hawaii for a vacation when you can go home with no agendas?

Now, what did I do with that MP3 of "Yakity Sax"?

Interview With The Best

Of all the things that have influenced my life and career as a person and a writer, I can honestly say that the graphic adventure games from Sierra On-Line were among the most important. They certainly had a very strong impact on how I view story, fantasy elements, and what games can be.

Roberta Williams was one of the pioneers of that genre, and possibly the most successful (and one of the first) female game designers of all time. Check out an interview with Roberta Williams to see where she's landed eight years after Sierra finally closed its doors (as an adventure game studio, anyway.)

Scammed!

I have been duped. Bamboozled. Taken for a ride. Hoodwinked. Conned. And I would like to share my experience with you, dear readers, in case you encounter something similar.

While I was gone to Springfield, a couple issues of Maxim magazine arrived for me in the mail. Addressed to me, with my name spelled correctly. I'm not a big fan of Maxim (airbrushed girls do nothing for me), and it was a mystery why the magazine would have been delivered to me.

A couple days later an issue of Men's Journal arrives. Curiouser and curiouser, my wife and I think. So she calls the magazine's subscription information and discover that we have been signed up for the subscription by a company called National Publishers Exchange. OK. So wife calls that number, and they inform us that we have been signed up by United Family Circulation, a company that my wife and I had never heard of.

But pumping United Family Circulation (linked to help the process) into Google produces a litany of company aliases and BBB complaints. It also provided some phone numbers, and after a few calls we finally discover what has happened.

In April, a kid came by our house claiming to be raising funds so his high school baseball team can go to some championship. He's selling magazines and books. The books are kind of expensive, but whatever, I remember having to debase myself hawking shitty Tom-Wat for Cub Scouts, so I feel bad for the kid. He's good. He says that they'll just donate the books to a children's hospital (awww) and all will be good. Sure, whatever. At the time, it seemed pretty inocuous, which is, it turns out, how all good scams work.

The kid basically took our money and ran. There were no books or children's hospital. Some asswipe probably made him go door to door selling that stuff. And the only way I knew is that a magazine subscription showed up.

In retrospect, warning bells should have been going off all over the place. This is why I fear I might become a good poker player, but never a great one: because I tend to take things at face value more than I should. I will say this, though - I can learn from my mistakes. Unfortuntely, I won't be buying things from door to door kid salespeople anymore. Or any door to door salespeople for that matter. Which really sucks for the kids out there hawking the Tom-Wat for their Scout Troops - but I was scared shitless that these little bastards had my account number, routing number, and address from my check.

Luckily, Bank of America were good sports about the whole thing and I have total account protection in case there was something bad, but I still feel like a dipshit.

I hope this helps some other Puppeteer avoid my fate.

MetaTulsa

Seth directed me to a MeFi post about a car buried for 50 years in a time capsule in Tulsa. Interesting reading - I'd love to see what it looks like after they dig it out.

Book: The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Phil Malmont

So what do Walter Gibson (author of The Shadow and Lester Dent (author of Doc Savage) have in common with HP Lovecraft and Joe Kavalier - other than the fact that they're all pulp writers (except the last one, who's a fictional pulp writer?) They all converge in The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril. A love letter to the genre of hardboiled detectives, superpowered heroes before they splashed into four-color, dames and damsels in distress, great escapes, and "lies," Chinatown Death Cloud Peril pairs Dent and Gibson - assisted by a rather undead HP Lovecraft - in a mystery-thriller where the stakes are none other than saving the world.

Malmont really did his research, and it shows. What could have ended up as a genre parody instead turns into an appropriate homage, and worth reading for the sheer pleasure and fun of it, just like the pulps themselves. It's rare that a writer sets out to accomplish something like this within a genre he or she so clearly loves, and Malmont delivers from the first page to the last. I normally don't rave about books without a little criticism, but there is very little to be had here. Check it out. Also, if you'll be in San Diego, it looks like Malmont is going to be on a panel called "The DaVinci Clones." Might want to drop in and say "hi" if you pick up the book and read it on the plane down (hint hint).

Work Explained

So I've got a writing contract! A bona-fide RPG writing contract, that promises some nice pay. And as I mentioned before, it is a subject very near and dear to my heart.

Glutton Creeper Games is doing an official, licensed d20 Modern translation of Fallout. I am one of four developers working on the project. I am unbelievably stoked, because (little known fact) I already did a Fallout PnP project back in college. Now, I know better than to write 180,000 words I know I'll never be paid for - but at the time, it was great fun and an excellent way to hone my RPG writing skills (which sadly, still do not pay the bills.)

So it's going to be consuming some of my free time moving forward, but I'm hoping to have my name on a hardcover gaming book by Christmas. Heck yeah!

Things Were Simpler Then

Via Boing Boing, photos in the LA library showing an early morning atomic blast on April 18, 1953. Pix are numbered 1-6 at the bottom of the article, before the update.

Five that Fell

Gaming site Next Gen posted an excellent article about five now-defunt game studios titled Five that Fell. It covers three of my favorite game studios: Sierra, Black Isle, and Looking Glass. Definately worth a read for the trip down memory lane.

Towards and Understanding of the Socioeconomic Distribution of Kobold Wealth in a Dungeon-Infested Pre-Empire

Via The Monkey King comes a link to The Dungeonomicon, geek humor that is so well done it circles around from being a spoof and becomes interesting for its own sake.

The gamery comments below it can be skipped.