interesting things

Randomness for 9/3

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1) An easy way to separate eggs. Video.

2) The Hobo Convention via @sblackmoore

3) Nine Crazy Things People Find Inside Walls.

4) Yet another dumbass concept bike.

5) Yet another dude making awful threats against female comics pros. One instance where reading the comments section is a good thing.

6) Seven deadly weapons you should never make out of common household items. aka: the prop list for the next season of Burn Notice.

7) Film school in comic form! Part one: Writing the screenplay. via @RodRamsey

Bonus 7A thing) Read “comics” on an iCabinet (powered by a hand-crank). There’s no app for this.

Randomness for 8/26

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1) Barkour! Video (not a typo)

2) Organizing a game session through a flow chart.

3) Godzilla vs. Kinkade.

4) A working hoverbike you don’t need a pilot’s license to drive.

5) The World’s 19 Weirdest Hangover Remedies.

6) 27 Ways to Rethink Your Bed.

7) Mark Waid’s four panels that never work.

Randomness for 8/14

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1) Some Advice For How To Cope In These Tough Times.

2) 17 Images You Won’t Believe Are Photoshopped, (part 10)

3) A labyrinth created from a quarter-million books.

4) The self-described “Hardest Game In The World.” h/t to my son

5) The Tragedy Series.

6) A $2 Million Dollar “Batcave” Movie Theater.

7) Brilliant or Gross? 20 recipes. None of these sound good to me, and I’m not a particularly conservative eater.

People love when I review stuff.

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Except when they don’t.

Yesterday I posted about my disappointment with the Pathfinder Beginner Box and it prompted quite a bit of conversation online.

First was over on my LiveJournal account. (Because of their spam filters, I’m happy to leave comments open there.)

Second was on Twitter. Game designer Rob Donoghue kicked off a discussion about bringing new people into gaming. I tried to use Storify (for the first time) to preserve that conversation here, but that looked like a pain in the ass so here’s a couple of screen caps. Of course they’re behind the cut. Continue reading

Randomness for 7/25

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1) The secret menu at In N Out.

2) How to light a fire with your pee.

3) 20 Unusual (to me) ice cream flavors. I’d try any of these except the cigar and condom ice creams. Even the hay.

4) Rejected Star Wars toy proposals.

5) The 11 Most Unintentionally Hilarious Religious Paintings. Sorta Jesus-centric, but yeah, those are pretty awful.

6) Household tips that will get you through everyday life.

7) The howtomba profile of Wayne Enterprises.

Randomness for 7/13

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1) The Avengers in 15 minutes. <-- FUNNY 2) The best Google search term ever.

3) To celebrate their 50th anniversary, Lego has created a life-size forest. via bedii

4) Superhero Economics: The Batman v Spider-man

5) Non-Euclidean Legos! Very cool.

6) Are you a booksnob? In convenient flowchart form.

7) I was a A-list writer of B-list productions.

Randomness for 6/27

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1) If you’ve played Minecraft, this will crack you up. Assuming you have a soul. Non-Minecraft players might also be amused. Video.

2) A picture book you hope you’ll never have to give to a little kid in your life.

3) Nessie is real, the KKK were good guys, apartheid was neutral, and other lessons taught in tax-payer funded “Christian” schoolbooks.

4) What filesharing studies really say.

5) R-rated movies re-imagined as children’s books.

6) I’ve never worn a hoodie, but I’d be tempted by this, no matter how stupid I’d look.

7) Investors sue movie producers for fraud over “One of the Greatest Box Office Flops of All Time”

Lloyd Alexander

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I was in the second grade when I discovered epic fantasy, and I discovered it through Lloyd Alexander. Our school teacher had a shelf of books we could borrow, and being a fan of Dr. Shock’s Mad Theater and Horror Theater (old-fashioned host-in-makeup monster movie shows back in the Philly area–yes, I’m old) I really wanted to read The Black Cauldron.

But it was part of a series, which we were required to read in order, so I picked up The Book of Three first. It was my first exposure to epic fantasy and I loved it. I’ve never looked back.

That’s why I backed this Kickstarter project: It’s a documentary on the author’s life, and I’d really like to see it funded. If his books meant something to you, too, take a look. It might be something you’d like to support as well.

Randomness for 6/20

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1) 25 Ways to Tie a Scarf in 4.5 Minutes. Whether you care about scarves or not, it’s an entertaining video.

2) The Stephen King story universe flow chart.

3) Creepy married actor hits on model during flight. She tweets about it, bringing him more fame than he might have wanted.

4) I guess if you’ve already spent the money on the photos, you might as well do this. Er, #35 is “special.”

5) Starbucks name fail.

6) Political attack ads in Westeros.

7) The ten most ridiculous rules in first ed. D&D. I see that no one will acknowledge the elephant in the room: armor class. via Mike Cole

I don’t need to see more characters taking a piss

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Lev Grossman has a fun list of 20 things he wants to see characters in fantasy novels do more often. Someday I’ll do a list of all the reasons the internet is about lists, but this one is pretty fun.

However, I don’t much need to see characters peeing, unless it’s important to the story. Are they trapped somewhere for a long time? Are they showing their contempt for someone? Go for it. Otherwise, leave it implied.

Also, number 1, forgetting things, wouldn’t fit the sort of stories I like to read or write. For most of us, the expectation is that characters will perform to the best of their abilities. If the troll army is marching through a forest, the elven ranger might be able to successfully elude them while the city tax collector could not, but we expect both to do their best. This is why we invented the term “idiot plot.”

Frankly, fiction is artificial enough without adding complications from obstacles like “I swear I packed our weapons!” It seems too much like author manipulation.

As for number 19, I figure worlds on the other sides of portals would be pretty much like ours, in the most basic way. I mean, if I’m not taking up arms against the Dark Lards in our world, why would I believe myself capable of doing it in another?