Veritropism

Apparently, there's a big to-do about autograph/photo fees right now, because Patrick Stewart has decided to charge $200 for signed photos at Dragon*Con.

My usual spending at cons breaks down to:

$20-100 con membership (much more than this and I'll go elsewhere)
$100-300/night hotel
$20-80/day food
$everything-else-in-the-bank-account-plus-maybe-the-credit-limit in the dealer's room, buying books and tshirts and other cool things that I have actual use for in my life.

If I want a Patrick Stewart picture, I'll print one out from online. If I want a signature of someone I don't even know... Hell, why? resale 30 years from now? 5 seconds of witty banter while all they're really thinking about is how much their hand is cramping and how far back in the line they can be heard clearly, so that they know how soon they can reuse the same banter?

I'd rather by the guy a drink and shoot darts with him after hours than buy anything from him, or have him sign anything. And frankly, if doing those things with me aren't his cup of tea, earl grey, hot, then I'm very glad to let him go off and do the things he does want to do while I find someone else to play darts with.

I think the only autographed things I have at all are a couple of limited edition books that I got because they were reprints of hard-to-find stuff, and one Orson Scott Card book because the autograph was free and I wanted to ask what he thought about a parody of Ender's Game that had come out the previous year. My interactions with other authors have been very far from typical fanboi and over e-mail, and with non-author famous people even more minimal. (Erick Avari was lost and asked me which level of the convention center we were on. Good times.)

I've been meaning to post about this weekend's fireworks show and the politics-related thoughts they inspired. Don't worry, the politics are under the cut.

The town fireworks were entertaining. There was a huge crowd of families and teenagers sitting out on the sports fields by the community center; the funnel cake line took almost an hour; the pre-fireworks live band was an amusing group of people who lived on a sailboat offshore from Virginia Beach and performed all original songs instead of the cover tunes customary at such an event (Think country Jimmy Buffett. The negative reactions I was hearing from the kids in the funnel cake line were hilarious.)

They had the fireworks linked to music, so it was a medley of patriotic and "all-american" rock songs. The screaming crowd of teenage girls behind us were, well, screaming and cheering instead of the usual oohs and ahhs.

There were two points in the music show that stood out though. First, when dealing out clean-cut, all-american family fun, Beach Boys songs about shacking up and which region's ladies are the most fun in bed may be out of place. Although REALLY heavily cheered at by the teenage girls.

( Cut for politics )

Juggler of Worlds, by Larry Niven and Edward Lerner:

Sci-fi that continues the revisit of Niven's "Known Space" series begun in Fleet of Worlds. The main character is a paranoid schizophrenic from the 1960's short stories who ties the newer and older tales of Known Space together nicely. Creative retcons of many of the original stories fill in details of behind-the-scenes manipulations.

(If that review didn't make sense to you, either read the older Niven stuff first, or try to muddle through without a full understanding - there's a dozen books that built Known Space prior to this one. I'm cheating on the three-sentence thing with this note, and by using the Mood icon to convey my overall opinion of the book.)

You know, sometimes it doesn't pay to have faith in basic human decency.

( Rant on bikes vs. cars and selfcenteredness )

Peter Hamilton. The Naked God, part three of the Night's Dawn trilogy:
Does a reasonably good job of wrapping up a sprawling space opera. There were some echoes of the Rama books in the solution to the main plot. The ending did seem rushed, only because of a literal deus ex machina.

We went to the Arlington Drafthouse on Saturday, and saw "I Love You, Man." We missed the first 20 minutes, which seemed to be nothing but setup anyway - real estate agent dude gets engaged and realizes he has absolutely zero male friends, and goes on "man-dates" to try to find some, then gives up on that approach. This is where we came in. Finds a good friend, ends up spending so much time with him it threatens the marriage and then that threatens the friendship, but the inevitable happy ending happens. Much hilarity all round. But the part that had me laughing the most was...

I host Rock Band night most Thursdays, and one co-worker shows up every week he can. He's a huge Rush fan, and we've been bonding more over the Rock Band stuff than we had in 9 years of working together.

I need to make him watch this movie, because one of the things that brings the two main characters together is jam sessions of songs by their favorite band ever, Rush. I think my friend would appreciate the irony that we started doing the Rock Band thing after this movie came out and neither of us knew we were emulating it!

Unless you're into Rush, male bonding, real estate agent stuff (Which was hilarious to those of us who deal with it in reality), or Lou Ferrigno, this movie would be good for some laughs but nothing you couldn't miss.

I've been ill all weekend.

( details for the epidemic control people )

The chances that this is the Dreaded Swine Flu(c) are pretty good, I guess - our airports mix so many people from so many sources that several people near me were probably traveling from an infected area.

I like the Fark label for this strain better, though - Man-Bird-Pig death flu (sometimes Man-Bird-Pig zombie apocalypse.) I want there to be a massive outbreak of Alpaca Flu sometime; the strain names just keep getting sillier.

So, sitting in an office in Sunny, beautiful Vermont this afternoon has been somewhat boring. I'm waiting until I can actually start the work I'm here to do...

So I took a personality test uniquely suited to my recent weekend hobby.

I Am A: True Neutral Human Wizard/Sorcerer (3rd/2nd Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-13

Dexterity-12

Constitution-11

Intelligence-16

Wisdom-12

Charisma-12


Alignment:
True Neutral A true neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. He doesn't feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most true neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil after all, he would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, he's not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way. Some true neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run. True neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you act naturally, without prejudice or compulsion. However, true neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it represents apathy, indifference, and a lack of conviction.


Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.


Primary Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.


Secondary Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

I had a bit of fun yesterday, in DC for a conference on data centers. I really enjoy walking in most cities from public transit to destination - it's the 30-45 minutes that public transit adds over driving at times that has me driving in instead.

The conference itself would only be interesting for people who work in the industry, except for the fact that the Broadband stimulus package has everyone trying to figure out how to get a slice of the pie.

( The boring bits )

Ye flipping Gods, who ordered their April with an extra side of winter? 44 degrees? Come. On. Already.

I've been ensconced in my warm and relatively windowless office since an admittedly chilly morning commute, but expected it to be warmer as I get ready to leave; I was actually thinking that I could ride my bike in later this week. A post by akilika made me stop and actually look up the current & future weather.

IT IS TIME FOR IT TO BE WARM NOW. That is all.

... D&D would be going really well.

I'm having fun running the game, including the obligatory giggling every time the party starts to get separated. It's been interesting with the group - I think we're at the right balance between the extremes of over-roleplaying as in "We just spent 6 hours talking in a tavern. No, really, we just sat around and talked for 6 hours in reality, about talking in a tavern." and under-roleplaying "okay, I roll another die. Hey, wow, I got a number. AGAIN. Add my bonuses. It's 12. Now what do you want me to roll next?"

The interplay between the characters (and players) is what makes this the most fun for me. I'm providing a world for them to interact with, but they're the ones making it a fun world to work within. Starting this week, we've agreed to stop quoting of "I cast... MAGIC MISSILE!" or similar. In spite of that, our party is still a silly place. Players really shouldn't have to leave the room to catch their breath from laughing, only for the next comment to cause them to literally start rolling around on the floor. It's undignified. Good thing she wasn't wearing a skirt.

This session was a bit less combat-heavy than the last two, which was good because I had a busy week and wasn't really prepared for anything new. Now that they have a course of action in mind (there's this town, see, off in the mountains, with sick miners - what these yahoos are supposed to do about sick miners is anyone's guess) I'll be able to prep for it, and some alternative fun stuff if they get sidetracked, later this week. They decided to pass up hiring aboard a ship as guards, and also decided Crazy Wizard can find his own damned ring-he-saw-in-a-dream for now, thankyouverymuch.

This is such a cheery outlook - and hey, it's happened once recently, although in a very different culture. I'm still hopeful that our society will manage to stabilize short of this level of collapse, but if not, having read this and understood the core message of value changes will probably be a very good thing. "Hope for the best, plan for the worst."

( Doom and gloom )

Last night's Jonathan Coulton/Paul and Storm concert was a blast, although Mr. Coulton seemed a little off his game vocally. Paul and Storm were entirely too silly as usual - I need to be able to breathe occasionally, guys, if you want the laughter to continue!

There were some new songs from both of them which I really liked (especially Coulton's) and the banter between the three of them made the show.

My D&D campaign will hopefully get under way this Wednesday night. Anyone looking to have some totally nerdy fun is welcome to join in - drop me a line in the comments.

6:48 PM John: "an approximate 60-minute discussion on angels, confused energy and how to know the difference. "
I'm tempted to go
I mean ... how often have I confused confused energy for an angel?
how can I know?

me: "confused energy?" It sounds like a new alternative fuel.

6:49 PM John: just think... good educators could be ruining our future fuel sources!
everything was going fine until he showed up and ruined all the confusion =(

6:50 PM me: Oh no, I was thinking, if it's hard to tell the difference, maybe we can enslave angels to run our cars.

John: ahhhh
that strikes me as possibly "wrong"

me: sounds promising. Kinda Stardust-y though.

John: the old "tiger in your tank" ad campaign with the tiger tail you could attach to your gas cap could totally be replaced with angel wings
6:51 PM they could flutter as you drive
...weakly

me: heh. and a little halo for your antenna. and the barely audible screaming from the new fuel pump.

6:52 PM John: so painful... so efficient!

me: (exactly where do you suck on an angel to drain the energy, anyway?)
perhaps not... pain. ;) I'm a very sick man.

My wife and I talked this weekend about kids. The verdict: Not Yet, but it was a close thing. My "not yet" was much more immediate than my wife's and may have been a factor shaping her thinking, I don't know. I just know I don't feel ready - maturity-wise, financially, or anything - just yet. I don't think I'll ever feel mentally/emotionally able to be a good dad; I feel too unreliable and changable.

( Changes in Latitudes (and, perhaps, Rambling Man?) )

I saw this while hiking and had to snap a pic, even with the crappy phone-camera I had available.




Rose left by the trail
for hikers to discover
frozen on the stone

Here is a 4-year-old book review and essay. Amazing how many of the "how to avoid collapse" bits from past societies match the new administration's (stated) policies. The book certainly sounds like good background info to have, for anyone living in a troubled society. I may have to make this book my next non-fiction purchase.

I'm going to start reviewing the two or three new books I read a month. Brevity is a cherished way to save time for both livejournal readers and yours truly, so they'll be short reviews. I will guarantee that this three-sentence introduction is going to be longer than any of the reviews I write.

Most recent fiction: The Last Colony, by John Scalzi. 2008.
Well written and well-developed characters. Third book in a 4-book series beginning with Old Man's War. Military sci-fi in a far-future setting.

Current non-fiction: 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God, by Guy P. Harrison. 2008.
Personal anecdotes and references show logic flaws in reasons for accepting the existence of god(s). If you're on the fence between atheism and religion, it would be a good thing to read to clarify your thinking - one way or the other. Otherwise, there are better books out there.

Previous non-fiction: Dreams from my Father, by Barack Obama. 1995.
Personal story from childhood through decision to return to school (Harvard). Written and published after he became president of the Harvard Law Review, showing a much younger man's view on the world than the current President. Slow and trite in places, but revealing of his character.

(That last one may have been a couple letters too long for the rule...)

I was sitting watching TV this evening for the first time in forever, waiting for my wife to come down to the new "TV/game room" to watch a movie. I stumbled upon the original Star Wars.

When I was a kid, we lived with my grandparents until I was about 4. They had a film projector and probably a collection of film reels, but there's only one that I remember for certain. Reel 2 of Star Wars. From when Luke first goes to Obi-Wan's house, to right after the escape from the Death Star. I must have seen it dozens of times when I was a kid.

I tuned in right before that reel would have started and watched until just after he's making excuses about not going off with Ben.

Every time I watch that section, I can smell the projector running (I guess technically the smell of heated cellophane.) Odd how sight and sound and smell got linked in memory like that.

Yes, seize the Dungeon Master. It's the only way to win!

( really long post about a really long weekend. )

Here is an interesting presentation of a lifetime. I'll have to do some thinking and see where my memorable moments fall. Perhaps I'll post my version later.

40 years ago today, the first human beings went into orbit around the moon. The Apollo 8 astronauts were snapping pictures of the lunar surface from a low orbit, and were not expecting to photograph much else.

As they circled around the orbit, Frank Borman was turning the ship to aim an antenna at Earth when he saw a sight that made them scramble for the cameras and snap a picture that everyone should see:



Merry Christmas to all of you, here on our shared home.