Link-o-link

Today's Escapist has an interview with Steve Jackson. He talks about their new MMORPG (!), UltraCorps, his history as a designer, and sheds some insight on the game industry. Regardless of what you think of the guy, his company is in the top five RPG imprints, and his enthusiasm for the hobby shows.

Kenzoid points out that the Royal Society now has some of their old old journals available online for free until the end of the year. This is primo history, from primary sources. Some of this dates back to the 17th century, and it's particularly notable to read Ben Franklin, publisher, discuss electricity in his own words- as a PDF.

Social Contracts and Board Games

I stumbled across a GeekList posing questions about handling potentially uncomfortable social situations at the game table. An interesting thought exercise, plus I like seeing what others think.

Splashes across the net

A reporter reflects on Pearl Harbor and 9-11.

Mr. Spock sings "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" in a 1960s video.

The inimitable Yehuda reports on religion in gaming causing offense.

Chris Rose shares his personal response to the Saints' win at the Superdome.

Pepper Island Films posts their casting call.

Introversion releases DEFCON today.

The incomprable Vance Kelly showcases his new "Bride of Frankenstein" silk screen poster. (Probably NSFW.)

Dome sweet dome

Mark your calendars, I'm blogging about football. The Saints played their first game today in the newly opened Superdome, and won.

Cha-ching!

The NOLA.com newswire reports a score of 23-3 over the other guys. This win is a shot in the arm to the city, and the season is already sold out; a record-breakingly early time to be sold out, I'm told.

For you non-natives, the T-P has some more about the shaky history of the losingest team in the league, and I direct you the Wikipedia for a bio of their owner, Tom Benson. There's a good photo on the Wikipedia, and some more details worth noting. It'll help set the tone. My official position? Texas does not need another football team, much less the New Orleans Saints in San Antonio.

I caught a glimpse of CNN mentioning the game over a roast beef hoagie/submarine sandwich (emphatically not a po boy) for lunch. Despite my regular passion for games, or perhaps because of it, I don't typically like spectator sports. Regardless, the news moves me in a way I can't describe.

Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints!

New Orleans is Everywhere

One of the levels in the latest Hitman game takes place during "Mardi Gras." Of course, it's a weird interpretation of the event- in October. The level bears no real resemblance to the Quarter, though they clearly wish they did. Every character has an obnoxious deep southern drawl that sounds like it comes from Tennessee or Georgia or the land of bad television and movies. Unusually, they have two small details right: the cops and the police barriers are dead ringers for real live NOPD uniforms and metal barriers they use. They're eerily accurate and shockingly familiar amidst the over-the-top incredulity of the psuedo-rave scene of the level. It doesn't look like Mardi Gras, it just looks like spring break with glowsticks and purple, green, and gold.

Now that it's late November September, summer is over in Austin. The weather's been cooler and I've seen something like three or four days of rain in the last two weeks. Seeing rain again still prompts me to go out on my balcony and just look at the weather, feeling it, all but jumping in puddles. Look, it may seem like a little thing, but if I read this data correctly, I'm empirically used to seeing about twice the rainfall back home.

When Christian left, I sent him back with a few care packages for the gang back home- Cyberpunk for Germaine, 7th Sea for Bennett, and Mike's broken laptop. I spoke to B & G today, just catching up on things and shooting the breeze.

Over a cup of tea this morning, I told one of my coworkers the story of Cat and I getting ready to buy a house just before Katrina.

What I feel is nothing compared to so many others, but it's how I feel nonetheless.

Tooth update

All this last week, I've had images of Dean Stockwell as Dr. Yueh from Dune calling out "Remember the tooth! The TOOTH!"

In about twenty-four hours, I'm getting a root canal and a crown, I think. I'm not really nervous for my first major dental procedure, but I'm ready for this whole dental nonsense to be over. The pain is mostly gone, so I don't need to take pain pills. I'm still running through the course of antibiotics.

Rumor control has it that some humans grow three sets of teeth, not just two. Handy, no?

It be Talk Like A Pirate Day

Avast! Stop what ye be doin'! It be that time o' year again. You heard me, - it be International Talk Like A Pirate Day. So what be you goin' t' do about it, ye useless bilge rat?

Shameless Shilling

My brother's production company, Pepper Island Films, is seeking donations for their upcoming film project. If you're in the Austin area, they're holding a garage sale to raise money- feel free to donate items (they'll arrange for a pick up) or mark your calendars and buy something.

Saturday & Sunday
Oct 7-8, 8am-2pm
5210 Martin Ave 78751

Alternatively, if you have a few spare bucks and PayPal, do me a favor and drop something in their tin cup.


Also, Ellen Simonetti, the flight attendant fired for blogging, has her new book available over at QueenBook.com. Heck, she's the only person I personally know with a Wikipedia article, a mention on Slashdot, and a New York Times byline. (Where's my copy, Ellen?!)

Cyborgs among us

Cat and I had company over the weekend. Our friend Christian came to visit us from New Orleans. Christian's a diabetic, and recently got into a car accident. I don't have the full story, as he had blacked out due to low blood sugar. The important thing is that he managed to total his car and doesn't know how. The first thing he remembers is being stopped by the cops, who pointed out that he was missing most of the passenger side of his car and driving on a rim instead of a tire. After that episode, he became a cyborg.

His new insulin pump is about the size of a late-90s cell phone (or a fat Blackberry) and connects to him via flexible tubing and a catheter; it is a semi-permanent port into his body through which a machine dispenses hormones. It's a small adhesive patch, sort of like the EEG electrodes you see on hospital drama shows or low/mid-budget scifi flicks. I didn't snap any photos, but Google Images will come to the rescue for the curious. Not quite the chainsaw-wielding menace you expect from a cyborg, but I'll take my cyberpunk where I can get it.

The practical upshot is that we're one step closer to mechanically replacing another failed organ, which is a good thing. We should be able to just grow what we need. Write your congressthing, will you?

Coincidentally, Judson and I were talking about other kinds of mechanical self improvement. He's gung ho to get some implanted headphones. Bone-conduction hearing aids are already a reality, and this non-hearing-impaired fellow from Hawaii is a bit more serious about it, as of last year. A gadget site picked up the story, so you might want to check out their cross-section illustration. For complete coverage, don't forget to take a peek at the Wikipedia article on the device itself, the Baha.

Be advised: These next links contain some graphic pictures of outpatient surgery. So if you don't like seeing blood, don't clicky.

If simply augmenting your existing senses aren't good enough, some body modification enthusiasts had implanted small rare earth magnets under their fingertips to extend their sensory perception. Then another person got magnets in their fingertips. Ultimately, this procedure is not without its problems and they needed to be removed.

I like the notion of becoming superhuman, but I'll wait for the over-the-counter version.

Games in the mail

As you know, I love Netflix. Now I have a new online service I plan to enjoy.

Thanks to the Long Tail, Netflix has many more titles than the corner monopolistic store. Since they have a distribution center in town, I have a pretty quick turnover for my DVDs. Thanks to lean-back, I don't have to do anything differently in my daily life to take advantage. There's a bit of mental overhead needed to add a movie to my queue, or to occasionally reshuffle a movie sooner or later, or to rate one, etc- but this isn't that different from what I'd do normally, albeit in an undirected and unfocused way.

I recently discovered that someone has applied the Netflix model to console games- this is GameFly, and I've just signed up. It's the same schtick as Netflix with a few twists: games cost more than movies, so the price is a bit higher; and you have the option to buy the game and keep it. All in all, I'm looking forward to playing more games. I typically have been behind the curve when it comes to console games, as many of them don't really appeal to me beyond the eye candy.

The first two games I got are Gun (a western revenge tale) and Beyond Good and Evil (a dystopic scifi adventure). I have a PlayStation 2- any suggestions for what I should play?

PS- if you sign up for GameFly using this link, I get rewarded.

(You may have suspected that someone has applied the Netflix model to pornography; Google can prove to you that it has happened. I leave that as an exercise for the reader.)