The bright side of a Moon
Is it just me, or does it give me a tiny sliver of hope that this Saturday Night Live skit is based in the idea that Americans who watch SNL will recognize who the current White House Chief of Staff is, and his reputation?
Or did the writers of the skit just figure that people would laugh because of all the cursing?
(I fall into the first category, myself.)
Yesterday, while a significant number of people were watching the American football championship game lovingly called the Super Bowl, I spent the day listening, instead, to a different form of passive entertainment: I listened to a group of geeks play Dungeons & Dragons in a podcast from Wizards of the Coast, makers of Dungeons & Dragons.
The geeks are Jerry “Tycho” Holkins and Mike “Gabe” Krahulik of the webcomic Penny Arcade, Scott Kurtz of the webcomic PvP, and Wil “Just a geek” Wheaton.
Last year, they, along with Chris Perkins from Wizards of the Coast as Dungeon Master, played several sessions of 4th Edition D&D and recorded it for posterity.
This is only interesting to those who like D&D enough to be entertained by others playing, but for my own part, I was vastly entertained. Mr. Perkins is a lively and animated Dungeon Master, and the rest of the players are all creative, quick-witted and share an amazing camaraderie. Wil Wheaton, of course, has skills as both a D&D player and an actor and writer. I spent the afternoon with my iPhone playing the podcasts while I cleaned the house, and went shopping, and generally goofed off. And I spent much of the time smiling or even laughing aloud at their antics. It was vastly entertaining.
The one quibble I have, listening to the game mechanics for 4th Edition D&D, is that it doesn’t really feel like D&D to me. All classes have a seemingly vast array of special powers and magical-seeming abilities, and everyone gets “healing surges” and ways to shake off damage and keep fighting. It feels more like a comic book; the characters feel more like superheroes or video game characters than the gritty ordinary folks I remember from old pulp fiction and my early days of D&D.
The other downside is that Wizards of the Coast has not made it easy to get all the episodes of Series 2 and 3, at least that I could find with my Google-fu. And they don’t seem to be in iTunes anymore, either. For my friends’ sake, I have compiled the various links below. I’m not trying to infringe anyones’ copyright or intellectual property; these links go to the official versions of the files. If anyone from Wizards of the Coast asks, I will remove these links. Until that happens, feel free to click on these links and choose the option that saves the linked file, and then enjoy them.
When I get around to finding Series 4, I will update this page. Yes, I’m aware of what happens in Series 4 even though I haven’t listened to it yet; don’t post a comment here and spoil it for anyone else still unspoiled. As Mr. Wheaton says, “Don’t be a dick.”
Note: All episodes of Series 1 can be found on the page for Series 2, Episode 1.
One of my favorite places in Portland: the window seats at Maya’s Taqueria at SW 10th and Morrison.
The Central Library is a block away, the MAX train stop across the street, Powell’s City of Books just down the street. For years and years, I’ve sat in this window, enjoying a tasty Mexican meal (their verde chicken is tops) and watched people go by.
I remember the very first time I was here. I was an employee at Powell’s, back in the early 90s, and Clyde and Peggy asked me if I wanted Mexican for lunch. We walked in, and I was a bit intimidated by the long counter, blocked off with plexiglass, and the giant menuboard of choices. Red sauces or green sauces? I couldn’t decide. “I assume the red one is the spicy one?” I asked.
Clyde laughed, “That’s not always the case. You gotta ask.”
Turns out the green sauces is the spicy one at Maya’s. That was also the first time I ever ate a burrito with a fork.
I love this spot. Day or night, dry or rain, workday or weekend, so many people.
I’m still trying to find my writing mojo.
But these guys have totally got Wes Anderson’s number. Presenting Spider-Man, as directed by Wes Anderson.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5KfHEoZDKI&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&hd=1]
While I try to think of something interesting to talk about, please enjoy this musical video of a song that’s stuck in my head in much the same way the video’s fashions are stuck in the 1980s.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_50-gOeBilc&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]
You’re welcome!
Imagine having to live this day, today, over and over again, Phil Connors-style, as a fan of LOST.1
Getting to see the opening episode of the final season, but never getting any more answers to the questions of the show…
Yeah. That’d suck.
A quote from the last episode of the penultimate season, I think, sets up what we’re going to see as the series concludes. When li’l Sawyer was shown, in flashback, first writing the letter to “Mr. Sawyer” that he would carry with him all his life, an older man (an uncle?) said to him:
“I know you’re angry at the man that did this to your mommy and daddy, and, Hell, you got every right to be. But you’ve got to move on. Ain’t nothin’ you can do to change that.
“What’s done, is done.”
Is that true? Or does Sawyer (and the others that were touched by Jacob) get a do-over?
1 Thanks to Ken for planting that idea in my head.
Me, yesterday, talking to a friend1 about President Obama’s debate with the Republican House Caucus at the Republican’s retreat on Friday: “Here’s how you can tell President Obama was doing well – Fox ‘News’ cut away from his debate, cut him off in mid-sentence, even, so they could then ‘analyze’ what was going on, live! MSNBC and CNN carried the whole thing, uninterrupted.”
Terry gave me an odd look. I know my friend isn’t into politics as I am, but my sense is that he’s generally an Obama supporter, so I worried if I had offended him somehow. “So… wow… what you’re saying, then, is that… Fox is a Republican network?”
My turn to be surprised. I thought this was common knowledge. Apparently not. “Yes. Oh, my, yes. I could give you lots and lots of evidence of that! Fox News is a partisan network and only gives the Republican side of things, consistently.”
Terry said, “So that’s why you watch MSNBC or CNN; they’re not as conservative?”
“Well,” I said, “all corporations are conservative and pro-business. You’ll remember that I don’t get broadcast or cable TV; that’s not where I get my news. But I’m pretty informed.” I smiled.
“Yes you are!” Terry agreed.
I do not judge Terry for not knowing this. He’s got other things to thing about; his family, his job, his friends and entertainments.
But it’s important for me to remember that not everyone knows the things I take for granted. Republicans can obstruct laws with a minority as small as 40 Senators, for example. The Supreme Court is narrowly conservative and has been issuing many 5-4 decisions that may be disastrous for our democracy. And, of course, Fox ‘News’ is anything but fair and balanced.
How much louder do the Democratic leadership need to shout the message until folks like Terry get the message: Fox ‘News’ is not a news outlet one can trust?
And if Terry is reading this, here’s the video of President Obama at the Republican retreat:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1-jasxb7NY&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]
1 Hi, Terry!
Apple’s iPad, announced last week, appears to be the perfect device for consuming different kinds of media: video, the internet, text, games.
Which is why I won’t likely be getting one.1
Mike Melanson, at Read Write Web, noted, for instance, the lack of a camera in iPad and suggested it was a huge problem. I, myself, in private conversation, have said that the lack of a camera is one of the reasons I’m not that interested.
But where would a camera go? Facing towards the user, it would make a great camera for video chat, but that’s less than ideal if you’re going to be taking picture (or video) of someone else.
That being said, as I laid down last night, I was startled by a random thought: what if one could use their iPhone, tethered to the iPad via WiFi or Bluetooth, as a wireless camera?
Wouldn’t that be awesome? Stream the video to the iPad, which then saves the video or streams it off somewhere else? You can point it towards yourself, or the scene around you, where you like.
I thought that, since Apple is now allowing Bluetooth keyboards on iPad, that they would loosen up the restrictions on Bluetooth on the iPhone, too; for the moment, only Bluetooth headsets are allowed on non-jailbroken iPhones.
However, Mike Bissell looked into it and, apparently, all one can do is access files via Bluetooth, or so he said to me on Twitter.
That said, the tools to do almost this may already be available: right now, using the Ustream Broadcaster app, one can stream video from iPhone to a website, which one could watch on their iPad. Not quite the same thing, but close.
And I’m sure there will be more solutions available as the iPad starts to appear in the world.
1 Note that I’m not saying iPad isn’t going to be a hit, or that it’s broken somehow or stupidly designed. It’s simply not for me. I’m not that interested, as long as I have my iPhone for mobile consumption and my MacBook Pro for mobile creation.
I am glad that Measure 66, the initiative to raise the top rate for individuals making over $125,000 and families making over $250,000, and Measure 67, the initiative to increase the minimum corporate tax from $10 to $150, appears to have passed. At least, when I went to bed last night, the local newspaper, The Oregonian, was predicting they would both pass.
Which has to gall the editors at the Oregonian, considering the apparent lies they were telling in regards to the ballot measures in the last few weeks.
Be that as it may, I am hopeful that the measures passed due to some good ol’ fashioned populism. In my view, the rich have been getting theirs for quite some time, and meanwhile our basic, shared, infrastructure has been falling apart. Gee, cutting taxes doesn’t create jobs and help everyone out; who knew? Our streets are broken, our schools aren’t teaching, our sick aren’t getting healthy.
Passing these two ballot measures will help fill the giant budget gap that has been the result of the conservative movements anti-tax experiment. Conservative darling Grover Norquist’s desire to “drown government in the bathtub” is repudiated. Or so I hope.
Someone has to make the argument that government, as an institution, can make our lives better, not worse. Someone has to say, repeatedly and forcefully and sincerely, that government is the only institution we have that can face down amoral corporatism and redress the balance of power.
Of course, government that isn’t made up of the efforts of citizens is nothing more than another wing of corporate power. Which is pretty much what we have right now on a Federal level.
But the progressive movement is growing and that includes more involvement in government by regular folks.
Score one for us progressives today with the passage of Measure 66 & 67.
I can’t play D&D the way I used to.
I mean, I could. But I have so many more tools and options available to me now.
25 years ago, I didn’t have a computer that can access vast stores of knowledge and stories, for example. Just being able to call up a Wikipedia article on the geography of North America has had a profound influence on my campaign, especially because I’m basing my map on real-world geography. In order to get this info back in the early days, I would have had to spend the afternoon at the library (not that that would have been a bad thing).
And that’s just general knowledge; it doesn’t even take into account the amount of game-specific sites out there! If I need random Elven names, or a list of possible encounters for a coastal wilderness, those are just a Google away.
Or take maps, for another example. In the old days, I would have had to draw the maps out by hand, on graph or hexagon paper. Making a larger campaign map, while fun and creative, meant a lot of effort and expense.
But I realized recently that I can use a good free image editor to do all the hard work, and only print it out once I have all the details filled in. And if I need a poster-sized print, FedEx-Kinkos is in my neighborhood. I can keep the version I see, with all the details not meant for players’ eyes in a layer I can turn off before printing.
Back when I was a kid, I had to make or purchase a DM’s screen with handy tables on it, to aid me in running the game and hide my notes from inquisitive eyes. These days, my laptop screen does both jobs much better. Every table I need to use is just a click away!
Need to generate player characters, and calculate the weight of all those weapons, armor, and gold they carry? There’s an app for that.
Here’s an idea I’ve had but haven’t actually used yet: if I need to share a picture with the players during a game, instead of printing it out, I can email or text it to one of the players who has an iPhone, which they can pass around the table to share! Easy peasy!