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Ok, up and ... [Dec. 5th, 2009|09:08 am]

sirriamnis
Out of here.

Running to credit union, then back here to clean some stuff out of garage, dump run, deliver couch and futon, back here for more packing.

So freaking busy.
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SD3 - Curves [Dec. 5th, 2009|10:16 am]

meguey
[Tags|, ]

For our third Study&Design session, we focused on piecing curves, something I've been wanting to nail for a long time, but it's apparently one of the things I really can't learn from a book. Here are my Very First Ever pieced curves, in two different techniques. I'm pretty darn pleased, I tell you.

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(no subject) [Dec. 5th, 2009|08:04 am]

get_medieval
03/08/06 - COMMENTARY )
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I have a Desktop? [Dec. 5th, 2009|12:14 am]

summercomfort
I used to use the Desktop a lot. I'd always press the key so that I can access files on my Desktop. Then somehow I stopped using it. I just realized recently that the only time I see my Desktop wallpaper is when I'm restarting the computer, which is once every few months. So... what happened?

1) Spotlight. Nowadays when I want to access something, 70% of the time I'd just type it into Spotlight. The rest of the time I use Finder. And I'm someone who doesn't use a Spotlight hotkey (well, Spotlight comes as Cmd-Space, which I use for switching input languages, so I made Spotlight Opt-Space, but I still like to click on the icon*)
2) Finder sorted by "Last Modified" -- so much easier to find stuff, because I'm generally either looking for something I edited in the last week or so, or something from a year ago when I last taught this.
3) Stickies. I started using Stickies as just generic text files, and now I find myself accessing stickies way more often than the Desktop. If I hide all my other programs, what I see are the stickies, which are generally more information-dense than the desktop files.
4) Download Statusbar. I used to go to the Desktop to open something that I just downloaded. Nowadays, I just double-click it on the Download Statusbar.

So now I don't really use my desktop for anything, because everything is accessible by the Dock or by Spotlight. Instead, nowadays it serves a "Temp" folder for downloads and stuff that I don't really want to bother filing.... And I access it by using Finder. ^^;;

On the other hand, I still use the Desktop on my PC laptop, because it doesn't have Spotlight and Stickies.


* My most often used Mac hotkey remains Cmd-H
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RED CLIFF [Dec. 5th, 2009|12:00 am]

summercomfort
OMG SO AWESOME!!

Jono now understands Chinese tactical formations.
squeeing with spoilers )
In general, great movie. Lots of fun. If you liked LotR (especially Two Towers), I would definitely recommend it. Lots of armies and fighting and strategery. If you've read the book, just be prepared for them cutting out about 80% of the plotting and strategery to streamline the movie. Warning: there's lots of fighting between a bajillion Chinese people, where it's hard to keep people straight. Tip: keep track of facial hair and helmet style.
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Too Fat to be a Rockstar: Idol 11 [Dec. 5th, 2009|02:50 am]

lesingesavant
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Oo! Let’s Make a Game! Episode 9: Secret Powerz! [Dec. 5th, 2009|12:53 am]

nikotesla
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Originally published at xenoglyph: the alien writings of designer joshua a.c. newman. Please leave any comments there.

ooh-lets-300

57:39 long & 52.8 MB big

In this episode, Robert Bohl (designer of Misspent Youth) and Joshua A. C. Newman (designer of shock: social science fiction) discuss the abilities of the hunter-fog-cloud thing, talk a bit more about the tech web, then get into brainstorming some of the possible powers that the different characters in the game have.

Notes taken by Joshua and I before and during the episode, with lots of detail on what we came up with.

- Joshua tells a story about badasses and kukris
- Listener feedback from Renato Raimonda, Dave Michalak, and Noah Trammell (02:54 – 10:00)
- Archetype / Dramatic role as a class / race combination
- Vincent Baker’s Apocalypse World
- Ibrahim Dahlstrom-Hakki’s (aka “Slash”) board game, Salah Ad-Din: Rise of a Leader
- We tried to use Google Wave, and there’s a public Wave to look at from our planning session (you need a Wave account)
- The James Herbert novel The Fog, which Joshua conflates with the Stephen King novella, The Mist
- The German boardgame Keep Cool (you may be able to buy this if you speak German), and Vincent Baker’s Mechaton
- The Steven Spielberg sci-fi film Minority Report
- The limbic system (for those of you perplexed by Joshua’s “limbically”)
- The unlinkable but cool Chris Moore game, Psi Run (it was an Ashcan Front game
- Return of singularitarianism
- Return of the tech web!
- Brennan Taylor’s Mortal Coil
- DARPANET

Listener homeworks (2 of them):

1) Give us a name for the cloudkill
2) Give us a name for the little quanta of information the cloudkill gets on you

You can subscribe to the show by plugging the RSS feed URL into your preferred podcatcher. You can also use the one-click iTunes button thingie:

The intro music is “Gotta Whizz” by Boris the Sprinkler, from the album Mega Anal. The outgoing music is “Games Without Frontiers” by Peter Gabriel.

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(no subject) [Dec. 4th, 2009|06:22 pm]

noradannan
[Tags|]

Good Things:
New doctor, who is awesome and listens to me (knock on wood)
It's Friday!
Crafting plans
Pretty new yarn
Wonderful book
Lunch with a friend
Cheesecake


Things I did well:
Got my medical records from my old doctor. I am DONE with them! Yay!
Healthy snacking
Am working late to make up for weird schedule
Handled my weird schedule today, and made it to everything on time!
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LARPery [Dec. 4th, 2009|02:39 pm]

the_tall_man
Edmonton Locals:

For almost two months now, I've been passing notes with [info]ladylakira in preparation for a local LARP in Edmonton. The preparation has reached the point, now, where I'm going back to the previously sketched-out character creation stuff and filling in the blanks.

February? March? It looks like somewhere in that vicinty, the game will be ready to roll hard.

The game is Ruritania, and is "a gaslight phantastique" - you're a magician. The rules and such are engineered specifically for this LARP. They are not being "tested" towards publication in a wider sense; this game is what they're for. The game has a fair bit of ongoing plot structure already, and I feel as if we've just started building stuff to explore, change, and get caught up in. It's insane.

However, the game isn't, and won't, be complete until there are characters in and for the setting; much of the stuff of story should be molded around characters, rather than as something that stands alone.

So, be on notice: I'll be coming to drag characters out of you in the not-too-distant future. Or Lakira might be, if she gets motivated to do that.
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[Do] EPIC MEDDLE [Dec. 4th, 2009|02:19 pm]

gobi
[Tags|]

It took almost 100,000 words, but I finally stumbled across the perfectly succinct and zany description of what protagonists do in this game. And it's a pun, of course, which in itself gives you a hint of the sense of humor in the book.

Epic: There's quite a lot of text in the book right now discussing what that word means, how it works in play, and so forth. All wrapped up in the catch-all art and science of Gonzometry. The protagonists travel to many worlds, may possess supernatural powers and face consequences that affect large swaths of space, time and humanity. Key Reference: Green Lantern Corps.

Meddle: That's pretty much how everything starts in this game. You and your friends get a letter from a world out in the sky asking for help with a problem. You go to that world and start getting up in people's business, poking around where you don't need to be poking around, and generally making a well-intentioned nuisance of yourself. Key reference: Scooby Doo.

So that is what you get when you combine Green Lantern Corps + Scooby Doo.

EPIC MEDDLE.

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Ok, mostly just a list for me. [Dec. 4th, 2009|10:02 am]

sirriamnis
Tonight: Load up both cars, go to new place.
Come home
Post stuff on Freecycle
Go to bed early.

Saturday: Get up early, go to Credit Union
Meet Elmos_friend at house for dump run, maybe clean out garage a bit
Give away guitar
Deliver couch and futon to Benlehman.
Pack
Go to hockey game with family
Come home
Pack

Sunday:
Deliver exercise bike and rowing machine to Spitphyre if she sends me her address
Pack
Loads to new place
Bed early
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Sore. [Dec. 4th, 2009|08:10 am]

sirriamnis
I didn't even do the heavy lifting last night.

Simone, about those behavioral modification tips for the Enemy of Sleep, I think I'm ready.

Mmmmm, coffee.

So not awake. Bleah.
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Science and Art [Dec. 4th, 2009|10:31 am]

russiandude
[Tags|]
[mood | amused]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/04/smallest_snowman/
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2009-12-04: TAKE IT TO YOUR BLOG, BAKER [Dec. 4th, 2009|12:00 am]
anyway_rss
Quoth J.

Three quick #rpgtweory assertions, transplanted from their 140-character native soil:

1. Naked rpg theory makes poor rpg design. You have to better dress it up in beauty and illusion, trick & seduce your audience.

2. As a designer, be a magician. Don't say "and now, using only this cabinet with a hidden mirrored panel, I will make her disappear!"

(Was "many indie rpgs are poor magicians: 'and now, using only this cabinet with a hidden mirrored panel, I will make her disappear!'")

3. "RPG rules coordinate social interaction, that's all" is the position from which you begin to design, not the end sum of design.
By Vincent Baker in anyway. Filed under rpgdesign rpglink. 2009-12-04
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Expositionsplosion! [Dec. 4th, 2009|04:57 am]
questionablerss

This is why you don't see more anecdotes in comics. It leads to walls of text.

See you Monday!

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(no subject) [Dec. 4th, 2009|08:04 am]

get_medieval
02/08/06 - COMMENTARY )
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Too Fat to be a Rockstar: Idol 10 [Dec. 4th, 2009|02:46 am]

lesingesavant
[Tags|, , , ]

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(no subject) [Dec. 4th, 2009|12:52 am]

noradannan
[Tags|]

Good Things:
The smell of woodsmoke
The fact it's technically friday
Lunch out with friends
New book recommendations
Potential forge time


Things I did well:
Worked
Handled scheduling things
Bought tickets to see Christmas Carol this year.
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Yeah, but I'm WAY more violent than he is... [Dec. 3rd, 2009|09:53 pm]

cucumberseed
[Tags|, ]

Your result for Which fantasy writer are you?...

Philip Pullman (b.1946)

14 High-Brow, -21 Violent, 9 Experimental and 14 Cynical!

Congratulations! You are High-Brow, Peaceful, Experimental and Cynical! These concepts are defined below.

Philip Pullman was already a prominent author of children's books when he published his most praised work to date, the trilogy known as His Dark Materials (1995-2000). In this work, set both in parallel worlds and our own, Pullman made a courageous attempt to write a book for young readers which incorporated a whole vision of the universe, as well as a discussion of ethical issues. He managed to combine this with a burst of thought-provoking and entertaining imagination, bringing to life a Europe where the church is still in control, "souls" that have been externalised as animal presences, intelligent, sentient polar bears and much more. The series have been described as a sort of "anti-Narnia", as Pullman's attempt to write an updated variant of the kind of books C S Lewis, whom Pullman has criticized for having racist, misogynic and preaching tendencies, wanted to write. His Dark Materials has also spawned some controversy among Christians, who see the the work as an attack against Christianity, Pullman being one of Britain's most outspoken atheists. Other Christians have, however, claimed to have found spirituality in the books.

Either way, Pullman's combination of renewal and expansion of the genre, his profound messages on the value of life and his refusal to under-estimate his young readers' ability to see life as it is makes Pullman one of the most interesting and important writers of modern fantasy.

You are also a lot like Tove Jansson.

If you want something some action, try Gene Wolfe.

If you'd like a challenge, try your exact opposite, J R R Tolkien.

Your score

This is how to interpret your score: Your attitudes have been measured on four different scales, called 1) High-Brow vs. Low-Brow, 2) Violent vs. Peaceful, 3) Experimental vs. Traditional and 4) Cynical vs. Romantic. Imagine that when you were born, you were in a state of innocence, a tabula rasa who would have scored zero on each scale. Since then, a number of circumstances (including genetical, cultural and environmental factors) have pushed you towards either end of these scales. If you're at 45 or -45 you would be almost entirely cynical, low-brow or whatever. The closer to zero you are, the less extreme your attitude. However, you should always be more of either (eg more romantic than cynical). Please note that even though High-Brow, Violent, Experimental and Cynical have positive numbers (1 through 45) and their opposites negative numbers (-1 through -45), this doesn't mean that either quality is better. All attitudes have their positive and negative sides, as explained below.

High-Brow vs Low-Brow

You received 14 points, making you more High-Brow than Low-Brow. Being high-browed in this context refers to being more fascinated with the sort of art that critics and scholars tend to favour, rather than the best-selling kind. At their best, high-brows are cultured, able to appreciate the finer nuances of literature and not content with simplifications. At their worst they are, well, snobs.

Violent vs. Peaceful


You received -21 points, making you more Peaceful than Violent. This scale is a measurement of a) if you are tolerant to violence in fiction and b) whether you see violence as a means that can be used to achieve a good end. If you aren't, and you don't, then you are peaceful as defined here. At their best, peaceful people are the ones who encourage dialogue and understanding as a means of solving conflicts. At their worst, they are standing passively by as they or third parties are hurt by less scrupulous individuals.

Experimental vs. Traditional

You received 9 points, making you more Experimental than Traditional. Your position on this scale indicates if you're more likely to seek out the new and unexpected or if you are more comfortable with the familiar, especially in regards to culture. Note that traditional as defined here does not equal conservative, in the political sense. At their best, experimental people are the ones who show humanity the way forward. At their worst, they provoke for the sake of provocation only.

Cynical vs Romantic

You received 14 points, making you more Cynical than Romantic. Your position on this scale indicates if you are more likely to be wary, suspicious and skeptical to people around you and the world at large, or if you are more likely to believe in grand schemes, happy endings and the basic goodness of humankind. It is by far the most vaguely defined scale, which is why you'll find the sentence "you are also a lot like x" above. If you feel that your position on this scale is wrong, then you are probably more like author x. At their best, cynical people are able to see through lies and spot crucial flaws in plans and schemes. At their worst, they are overly negative, bringing everybody else down.
Take Which fantasy writer are you? at HelloQuizzy
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strip for December / 03 / 2009: What Is It Good For [Dec. 3rd, 2009|12:00 am]
overcomp
strip for December / 03 / 2009
What Is It Good For
I got some opinions about war! I think that the "Bludgeoning the Shit out of Everything" method to diplomacy can be effective in except cases where accidentally killing little kids is a routine side-effect of your bludgeoning. In my mind it's really hard to declare anything a "victory" when you've accidentally killed a bunch of little kids in the process.

For example, let's jump forward three years. General: "The United States is officially declaring victory in Afghanistan." Reporter: "Uh, what about all those little kids you accidentally killed?" General, quietly belligerent: "Victory."

I guess it's a good thing for the restaurant manager to listen closely to what the cooks are saying but at the end of the day the cooks don't decide how much the fried chickens need to cost in order for the chicken lady to get paid.

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