wasting time

Randomness for 3/30

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1) Canadian politics made fun by nitpicking about monsters. Via James Nicoll.

2) Shit my students write.

3) Jon Stewart on class warfare, without ever mentioning class. Video.

4) This is genuinely awesome. It’s better than GARFIELD MINUS GARFIELD.

5) This writer’s evening is nothing at all like mine. How to be a social writer. via James Enge

6) Are these the best D&D adventures ever?

7) Sixty completely unusable stock photos. This is hilarious wtf-ery, but it will take a while to load. Open it up in a tab and do something else for a while, then come back to it. Seriously, people, I can’t pick the worst one (okay, I can: it’s the blackface one).

Question for the hive mind

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What’s the modern version of The ClueFinders?

Randomness for 3/9

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1) Cognitive Scientist records 90K hours of his own child’s language development, then graphs it. Soon to come to a TED Talk near you.

2) Andrew Wheeler’s syllabus for his non-existent sf course. I think it would be better served to address some of what happened in the 19th century, even if it was just an overview in the first week.

3) The Muppet Alignment Chart.

4) I wish every review of a reality TV show was this good.

5) Organizing a bookshelf: Video. There are so many simple ideas that work magic as stop-motion. Thank you, computer revolution.

6) A nearly-incomprehensible map of science fiction.

7) The internet is full of wonderful things: Carl Sagan’s Old Spice commercial as an animated gif.

Bonus 8th thing! Soylent Green isn’t the only thing made of people! Now “castles” are, too! Video.

Randomness for 2/19

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1) Become a Jedi in 10 easy steps.

2) The Magic of a Good Manuscript Title.

3) The Great Gatsby, as an NES video game.

4) Stonehenge directions via IKEA.

5) Some of you guys like Firefly, right?

6) “Bread Goes In, Toast Comes Out” The Bill O’Reilly meme.

7) This is an important one: Is your favorite Borders closing? Check this list for a nearby indie alternative. via Genreville.

“He couldn’t take the PRESSURE!”

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So! Chad Underkoffler read my books, liked them and contacted me through Twitter to ask if I wanted a free copy of an rpg he designed: Truth & Justice.

Now, while I am usually too uncomfortable to accept free things from people, this is a superhero game we were talking about, so I bucked up, said “Yes,” and dl’ed my copy.

I should mention that I used to game all the time. Back in Philly and when I lived in L.A., I gamed pretty much once a week, like any self-respecting gamer. Personally, I like horror and superhero games, but maybe you already guessed that about me.

In Seattle, not so much. My wife is not interested in gaming at all and I just didn’t have the time to find/make friends to create a new group. (I still don’t, really). But that’s why we have kids.

My son, looking over my shoulder as I downloaded the files, started to become a tad excited. We had tried gaming once before: When he was about…6? 7? and really into Scooby Doo, I designed a kid-friendly Chill adventure for him. It was basically a haunted house without a lot of actual danger.

He loved it. His favorite part was at the end, where I showed him the drawn-out house with the key numbers written inside, and the second page with the description of each room. He looked up at me with eyes as big as golf balls, and he said the 11 words I’d been dreading: “Dad, now I’m going to make up an adventure for YOU!”

What followed was two and a half hours of the most random, incomprehensible adventure I’ve ever played. Continue reading

Randomness for 2/7

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1) The Facebook comment decision flowchart.

2) Passive-aggressive notes to your readers are probably not a good idea.

3) Cthonians!

4) Want to read the series bible for the modern BSG?

5) The web sit alignment chart.

6) Backyard fight gets out of hand. Video. Dude should have left his light saber at home.

7) Photos of criminals in Sydney during the 1920s. Amazing photos. Just amazing. Taken from this book.

Randomness for 2/4

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1) Detroit, a city in decay. Apparently, the crapsack future will be unevenly distributed. Great source material for art directors planning the next post-apocalyptic novel.

2) Planetary bodies, if they orbited the Earth at the distance of the moon. Video.

3) With these skills, this actor is sure to be a star.

4) Are you ready for marriage? Advice for young women, circa 1971, in comic form.

5) Predator’s teenage son. Video.

6) This is more like Call of Duty than Call of Duty is! Video. This made me laugh and feel pathetic at the same time.

7) Better Book Titles. via James Macdonald on Absolute Write

The TV remake game

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I’m copying this game from lwe’s newsgroup.

Let us suppose a network decided that you, yes YOU, are a marketing
genius, and they hired you, at extravagant rates, to create three
series for them.

The first is to be a continuation of an existing series that was
cancelled too soon — tell them which series should have been kept
alive, and what direction it would take to prevent a second
cancellation.

The second is to be a remake/re-imagining of a canceled series, and
you have all of TV’s history to play with, from the 1940s to last
week.

And finally, give them a spin-off — doesn’t matter whether the
original series is still thriving or long dead.

Here are mine.

Revival: “Thundarr the Barbarian” (I’d change it to have one or two long-term enemies for him to face over a season)

Remake: “CBS Mystery Movies” (Lifetime tried to revive this idea–a weekly two-hour tv movie mystery with a rotating cast of regulars–but they weren’t fun and didn’t have the budget.

Spin-off: “Mace!” Pre-trade rebellion exploits of Jedi Knight Mace Windu as he patrols the mean streets of Coruscant, the city planet.

It was pretty damn tempting to call for The Dresden Files to be revived or remade, but in the end I went with these instead. And yeah, that’s two cartoons. I used to watch a lot of cartoons.

What about you?

Survivor’s log, days 332-365

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Day 332- Was struck by an arrow again last night. The cursed skeletons come out of the sea after sunset every day now, more and more of them it seems. Where they come from I do not know, but I have found evidence that make my previous ideas seem like a child’s daydream.

While exploring a nearby island, I discovered a cavern at the shoreline. Upon descending, carefully, out of the daylight, I came upon a strange cage set into the beach sand. Within burned a fire without fuel and a small, spinning spider-totem. I loitered past sunset to confirm my suspicions and yes, spiders appeared fully-formed in the vicinity of the cage as though they had been transported from some other dimension.

Are spiders the only creatures summoned thus? Perhaps the zombies and skeletons are not, as I suspected, created from the corpses of my previous “deaths” and also the deaths of others who might have lived here previously. Perhaps they are summoned here by other cages, and perhaps, most horrible of all, there is a cage buried in the sand where I am continually reborn. Perhaps if I dig a certain distance, I will discover an unquenchable fire and a tiny, spinning figure of myself.

In a sudden, blind rage, I nearly smashed the spider’s cage, but fear stayed my hand. Continue reading

Oh, shit. A TV.

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So I’m stuck in Chicago because delays made me miss my train. It’s 6:25 my time. I’m going to go downstairs and get some pizza, but while I’m gone I’m going to ask you: What should I watch on TV tonight?

I have no idea what’s on anymore since I don’t have a TV at home and have no time for Hulu.

Have a favorite show airing tonight? Let me know and I’ll try to watch it.

Note, don’t bother posting to this after about 10pm CST on Tuesday night because by then it will be too late.

Update: Thanks for the suggestions, but I think I’m going to go to bed instead.