Author Archives: Andy

California, here we come

Vacation time! It’s frightfully early (by Andy standards, at least), and we’re scurrying around finishing up the packing and preparation for our big plane flight out to San Diego. Michele is busy worrying about how many clothes to pack and how the cats will receive nourishment while we are away. I’d help her out, but my mind is preoccupied with vastly more important matters:

  • …should I pack my bag o’ gaming dice in my carry-on backpack, or in a suitcase to be checked in? What if I need my dice mid-flight?
  • …will my Gamecube Carrying Case set off the Super Nerd Alert at the airport check-in?
  • …what is the minimum number of RPG books I can fit in one duffel bag, and still be able to cover the maximum number of game genres, settings, and styles?

I’m never good at making these sorts of tough, last-minute decisions.
To my California friends and family–see you soon!

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Incredible!

Oh yeah–I knew there was something I wanted to mention earlier, but it slipped my mind. Here it is: you should go watch The Incredibles. It’s one of the most genuinely fun movies I’ve seen in the last year or so. Unless you don’t like things that are good, you will enjoy it.

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I have failed you for the last time

In looking back over the ol’ blog, I realize that I failed to deliver my promised discussion of scary computer games. That’s what happens when you violate Blogging Rule #37 (“Never Make Rash Promises About Future Posts”). Ah well–it’s a topic that interests me, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I discuss it at some point in the near future. But I’m not promising, mind you.

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Catching up

I’m getting caught up on my blog reading. Here are a few noteworthy items I’ve come across lately, for your perusal:

  • Bill has written an excellent essay on prayer and miracles.
  • Fun article on how D&D changed the world. (Side note: have you seen the new 30th anniversary coffee table book? It looks pretty neat-o.)
  • As many of you know, Firefox 1.0 was officially released recently. If you are currently using Internet Explorer and don’t know what all the Firefox fuss is about, give it a try–it’s free and easy to download/install. And don’t forget its hot, email-reading cousin Thunderbird. Wait, that didn’t sound quite right…
  • I’ve been really enjoying the Game Matters blog, by one of the Duke Nukem developers. Lots of good discussion about games, from marketing to gameplay to what-have-you.

Enjoy.

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Quiet, please

You know, this seems like an absolutely spectacular idea:

“Ssssshhhhhhhh.”
Wonderful sound.
And good advice for our country, isn’t it? After all the Sturm und Drang of the past few weeks our country would benefit from an absence of sound. Next week we mark Thanksgiving. Today, in anticipation, and after our fractious election, we could declare National Settle Down Week. National Be Still Week. Or National Give It a Rest Week.
The Great American Ssssshhhhhhhh-Out.

I can’t even articulate how appealing this sounds. You know what? All those problems, worries, injustices, scandals, evil Republicans, evil Democrats, lies, damned lies, and statistics will be there to deal with after Thanksgiving. But maybe just for a week, we could all calm down and find something else to talk about?
I don’t really see our nation’s pundits, talking heads, or bloggers taking this advice. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if the din subsided just enough that we could hear our own prayers of thanksgiving this week?

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House of horror

Got a few minutes to spare? This online tale is absolutely brilliant, both in concept and execution. It’s the sort of idea I really wish I’d thought of first. Read through the emails, then be sure to go through the “updates” page, following the links and reading everything.
Kudos to the writer(s) behind this project. It reminds me on several different levels of Mark Danielewski’s amazing novel House of Leaves, which also features both a creepy house and a wonderfully Nabakovian playfulness with regards to narrative and medium. (That last sentence sounded kinda pretentious. My apologies.)

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The rising of the machines

I know you’re all just waiting with baited breath for me to post my thoughts on this whole election business, but you’ll have to wait a bit longer, because I’m in the mood to talk about the Terminator at the moment.
I am one of those people who sits in front of the TV and/or computer for the entirety of Election Night, flipping channels and refreshing my browser to keep apace with the latest meaningless exit polls and watching nervously as the electoral scores slowly rise towards the magical number 270. Realizing that spending my entire evening doing this would just serve to work me into an electoral frenzy, I convinced Michele to rent a movie for us to watch instead of leaving me stare vacantly at the unfolding election results. Michele unearthed a Coupon which could be exchanged at a local Blockbuster for one of their Moving Pictures, so we headed out.
We have gotten so accustomed to the convenience of Netflix that we could only stand, paralyzed and bewildered, inside the local Blockbuster. I experienced a moment of terror when I saw that the Blockbuster had a TV switched on to election coverage, and I feared that I would be sucked in, but we prevailed. After the usual 30 minutes of aimless wandering through aisles filled with movies that I can’t believe anybody actually rents, I somehow succeeded in convincing Michele to let me rent Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Michele did a fairly convincing job of feigning enthusiasm, insisting that no, Terminator 3 sounds really really good, she really wants to watch it!, so we rented it, went back home, and broke out the popcorn.
As it turns out, I have no idea where I’m going with this post. As it further turns out, T3 was an excellent movie–pure, old-school action. There is a car chase scene which easily surpasses in Sheer Awesomeness the much-celebrated Matrix Reloaded highway chase. I mean, it’s a car chase where they’re driving gigantic cranes and fire trucks. How cool is that?
Pretty cool, I’d say. And that, my friend, is how I spent my Election Night. Of course, after the movie I immediately glued myself in front of the computer watching election results until the wee hours of the morning. But for two glorious hours, I managed to forget all about that whole election thing.
Although I did reflect once or twice during the movie that Arnold has just got to be the coolest state governor ever to walk the Earth.
“Awl be baack!”

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