30. October 2008 by admin.

People have been telling me to go as the PBN for Halloween, and in the midst of explaining why I won’t it struck me that in real life the PBN & co. would run into situations like this a lot.  The old lady and her dog I just thought were funny.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

30. October 2008 by admin.

Domestic oil proponents like to talk about how we send $700,000,000,000 a year to countries that “don’t like us very much.”  And then we read in the news how Venezuela is funding the FARK, Iran is training and equipping “Liberation Armies” in the Middle East and Russia is rebuilding and modernizing its military.

And then how the price of oil tumbled.

Petrodollars fueld all these counties’ nefarious deeds.  Which is all well and good, and totally expected in a Realpolitic sort of way.  Those countries felt they had strategic imperatives that needed to be met, and flush with money made heavy investments and commitments to accomplish their goals.  The gloating about the ‘weakness’ of the United States and its dependence on oil imports I thought was silly.

And now the socialist utopias built on the capitalist gas consumption are reaping what they’ve sown.  As the price of crude plummets the ability of the petroregimes to fulfill their promises to their people and proxies  is pinched, resulting in unrest and alliteration.  It’s fun to watch.

Am I gloating?  Yes.  Is it silly?  You Betcha ;).  Payback’s a bitch.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

30. October 2008 by admin.

Always Time To Do It Over was short today.  I spent a chunk of my writing time finishing a Mad Scientist meerschaum hookah and making a corncob pipe.  I’ll get pictures up sometime after Halloween.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

27. October 2008 by admin.

I need a scanner.

Halloween would seem to be a great time to launch my Guys in Robes comic strip.  The quasi-pagan origins and popular mythology tying the holiday to Satanism would make it easy to compose the first few strips, and then the onslaught of of the mid-winter holidays would allow me to maintain momentum.  Alas, the economic downturn has affected even the web comic industry, forcing hard choices.  Given how much the kids squawk if they don’t get fed the scanner may have to wait for the after holiday discounts.

Maybe it’s the mists of memory, but Halloween seemed to be a bigger deal when I was a child, o lo those many decades ago.  I remember packs of becostumed munchkins roaming far and wide, filling pillowcases with tooth-rotting goodness and generally running wild.  Now we’re lucky to have a couple of dozen trick or treaters come to our suburban neighborhood.  With All Hallows on a Friday I’m hoping for a better turnout this year; it looks like the weather may cooperate.

The transformation of the Halloween party into a “Fall Party” or “Harvest Party” in schools is just amusing to me.  For 364 days a year the Conservative Christian movement howls about allowing religion to be taught in schools, and arguing that we should “teach the controversy” about creationism (intelligent design’s true face) vs. evolution. Yet when a school wants to permit a social activity only notionally connected to another belief system, suddenly ‘religion has no place in school’ and it is ‘harmful for the children.’  Remember this commotion in eight weeks when these same voices start complaining how Christmas break morphed into winter break.

Posted in Geek, Religion, Politics | No Comments »

24. October 2008 by admin.

Some people have disputed the veracity of Thursday’s PBN.  I originally got it off Yahoo! News, but they don’t keep their links active forever, so here is a link to the AP story through the St. Louis Post Dispatch’s website.

I admit I’m not big on MMOs.  I tried EverQuest many years ago but some PK would always geek me within 10 minutes.  Turn a corner and BAM! another me bites the dust.  If I come in 2nd in an even fight, then I’ll accept the loss and work to make sure it doesn’t happen again.  But it wasn’t worth $10/month to get the beatdown before I could make any headway.  And before someone points out the obvious: this was before non-PvP servers.

I’ve tried WoW a couple of times off friends’ accounts.  The graphics rendering was pretty good, and the players much more civilized.  The couple of times someone went PvP on me, we were both roughly the same level so it was a fair fight.  (I didn’t say I disliked PvP, I just think the players should keep it even so it stays fun.)  And there were some instances of spontaneous generosity: a high level rogue from Rico’s Roughnecks gave me some magical items because I’d read Starship Troopers and knew the lingo (Everybody Drops!  Everybody Fights!).  I also received several invitations to Guild so I wasn’t wandering the Big Bad World alone.   I could see why my friends built such a camraderie with their online associates and would drive hundreds of miles to guild gatherings to be together in the meat world and all game online.

My problem is I’m trapped by the programmers’ creativity and laziness.  If I can come up with clever tactic the designers didn’t think of, then I’m out of luck.  Trip lines hidden in high grass to disrupt the enemy’s infantry charge?  Sorry, out o’ luck boyo.  (If anyone out there LARPs, try this at your next battle.  Just be sure to have archers and wizards there to take advantage of the ensuing chaos.  And if at all possible, please please please video tape it and put it on YouTube!)

It’s these kind of artificial restrictions that keep me a tabletop gamer.  Freed from the straightjacket of corporate accessibility (”What do you mean I can’t keep the Cave of Wonders?  I killed the damn genie, let the next adventuring group try to take it from me!!”) I find gaming to be more challenging and vibrant.  Plus it’s fun to throw my players (I usually GM) for a loop and make them work for their victories.

Plus WoW makes gnomes look ridiculous.

Posted in Geek | No Comments »

21. October 2008 by admin.

PBN: This is a real conversation I had with my oldest daughter.  She didn’t get the movie channels.

I’ve been trying to think of a decision McCain has made since gaining the nomination that I agree with.  Or even that seemed to make sense.

His choice of Palin for veep is excretable.   Coming on the heels of his attempt to paint Obama as inexperienced it seemed either painfully hypocritical or woefully ignorant.  I understand his need to shore up his conservative base, and his desire to add a woman to the ticket to try to woo disgruntled Hillary supporters, but a small town mayor and first term governor under investigation for abuse of power was the best he could find?  Was Elizabeth Dole giving Bob’s Viagra a run for its money when he called?

I wish I could have been in the Straight Talk Express when the stock market tanked the day McCain made his fundamentals and strong statement.   That had to be the day team McCain realized the universe hated them.  The bewildering decision for McCain to “suspend” his campaign to inject himself into the well developed Congressional/Administration negotiations only added additional chaos and implied that McCain was making decisions by the seat of his pants instead of after careful deliberation.  That’s a stupid but understandable trait in a fighter pilot.  It’s potentially disasterous for a man leading the most powerful country in the world.  I still suspect that his attempt to postpone the original debate was an attempt to co-opt the VP debate and avoid the chance that Palin would embarrass herself more than she already had before a national audience.  Nothing I saw or read indicated that McCain’s presence positively influenced the eventual outcome, and the rebellion of the House Republicans underscored his inability to forge consensus and lead his own party.

Drop Bill Ayers already.  No one who doesn’t already support McCain cares.  Today “Weather Underground” is a spelunking report, not a feared terrorist organization.  Ayers doesn’t even have the street cred of having done time for his crimes, prosecutorial misconduct notwithstanding.  If a passing association with a member of a discredited organization espousing a discredited dogma is the best the anti-vetting department of McCain’s campaign could come up with against Obama, then the best argument against voting for Obama is he is too damn boring to be president.

I still don’t like Obama much.  His message of Hope and Change comes across as hypocricy and catering.  His famed charisma must be hiding behind his elite intellectual snobbishness.  But I’m still going to vote for him, because at this point I can’t find a reason not too.

Posted in Politics | No Comments »

17. October 2008 by admin.

A plus about the credit crisis: I’m not getting inundated with credit card offers anymore.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

16. October 2008 by admin.

Who did the McCain campaign hire to teach John how to act on camera, William Shatner?

The bifurcated screen for last night’s debate was very unfortunate for the GOP nominee.  McCain spent most of the time looking wooden, and the rest angry.  He also came across as rude, continually interrupting and talking over Obama.  His carriage, demeanor and body language painted the picture of an unhappy man lashing out in anger.  Given the way world events have worked against his presidential run I can understand why John would be frustrated, but wearing his heart on his sleeve like he did last night just strengthened the arguments of his critics’ claims that he doesn’t have the temperament to be president.

Not that Obama did much better.  His sly smiles and aloof demeanor reinforced his image of being a snobbish elitist.

Side Note:  A lot has been written today about the amount of time McCain dedicated to William Ayers, the liberal peace loving terrorist of the 60’s.  I haven’t seen anything about McCain’s lack of support for ethanol subsidies.  This isn’t new news, but when a national candidate disses an issue this important to the Midwest (we may be fly-over states, but we still have electoral college votes) I would have expected to see someone mention it.

PBN: I just thought the seating arrangement last night was funny when juxtaposed on their presumed political leanings.

Posted in Politics | No Comments »

15. October 2008 by admin.

So where are Wall Street’s legendary balls?

The Government has opened the credit window wide open, is injecting craploads of cash directly into the banks, has guaranteed interbank loans, and has done everything execept enter the commercial paper market itself (instead we’re just handing the banks money directly, but that’s a different story).  Given all that, why can’t the stock market build momentum for a rally?  I mean, 900+ points is pretty decent, but only for a day?  C’mon folks, would a second day of enthusiasm hurt you?  What happened to the image of the steely eyed trader taking a risk for the big rewards?  Is the market capitalist dead, buried under the piles of cash the government is dumping over Manhatten?

Maybe we have become a nation of whiners.  Investing is designed to be risky, with the greatest risks offering the greatest rewards.  But now we seem unwilling to accept the concept of loss, and are willing to only take a chance when we know the government will rush in to bail us out if we guess wrong.

America was born of speculation and the promise of reward for risk.  It’s sad to see how far we’ve fallen.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

13. October 2008 by admin.

My friend Khris is letting me use space on his server for a lot less than my current provider, so I’m starting the process of migrating everything over.  He installed CMS Made Easy because my HTML skills are still abysmal, and while I like they’re interface, I would really like to copy the Girl Genius format where the comic/whatever is on the left and I can stack other info on the right.  Does anyone know of a template I can plug in for this style?

PBN is my belief that Chris Columbus had the ultimate “right place/right time” experience.  He was wrong on just about everything when he planned and executed his voyage, but he is built up to grade schoolers to almost a cult status.  The historical reality is much different, but by the time people start learning it (if they ever do) they’ve stopped caring.  Worked out well for Chris though.

Posted in Geek | No Comments »