December 2011
3 posts
6 tags
Cello Wars - Lightsaber Duel
November 2011
34 posts
4 tags
CKY - Escape from Hellview
Escape From Hellview by CKY on Grooveshark
I’ve liked this song ever since I heard it. No idea why.
It’s unrepentant.
2 tags
“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”
– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
3 tags
“When you have insomnia, you’re never really asleep… and you’re...”
– Fight Club (movie)
Climate change episode of Frozen Planet won't be... →
emergentfutures:
Paul Higgins: If that is true how ridiculous is that - not showing something because some poeple disagree with it????? I have been watching the frozen planet series here in Australia and it is just fantastic.
csmonitor:
An episode of the BBC’s Frozen Planet documentary series that looks at climate change has been scrapped in the U.S., where many are hostile to the idea of...
2 tags
4 tags
Interpol - PDA
We have two hundred couches where you can sleep tight…
3 tags
Actual play: Eminent Domain
The Good: Elegant deck-building mechanics that allow lots of permutations from a mere five cards. Without technology cards, there’s practically no learning curve.
The Bad: There are a lot of technology cards to keep track of. And if you play with technology included and ignore research, you’re likely to lose.
Verdict: A fast-paced mix of Dominion and a simpler Race for the Galaxy,...
Artificial intelligence: Difference Engine:... →
futuramb:
In his analysis, Mr Ford noted how technology and innovation improve productivity exponentially, while human consumption increases in a more linear fashion. In his view, Luddism was, indeed, a fallacy when productivity improvements were still on the relatively flat, or slowly rising, part of the exponential curve. But after two centuries of technological improvements, productivity has...
“Don’t blame banks, and don’t blame the marketplace for the mess we’re in right...”
– Rep. Joe Walsh, an Illinois Republican, getting upset at a constituent who asked him about the power of the bank lobby in Washington at a recent meeting.
3 tags
Eminent Domain: initial review
Dominion and Race for the Galaxy’s love child is fast-paced and layers enough complication on top of very simple mechanics to create a game that, at first blush, appears to outperform both its parents.
Verdict: Two thumbs up, pending actual play.
Details:
Eminent Domain combines the role-choosing mechanic of Race for the Galaxy with the deck-building element of Dominion. It also keeps...
“Sarkozy: I cannot stand him. He is a liar. Obama: You’re fed up with him but I...”
– An exchange between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and President Barack Obama about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The conversation was overheard by reporters at the G20 summit last week. The White House has declined to comment on the exchange. (h/t Mother Jones)
TiresiasBC: More Microscope actual play →
hel-dc:
tiresiasbc:
Had a go with different people more suited to narrative RPG play and it went splendidly. We covered the time between the human colonization of Mars and the development of faster-than-light travel.
Lots of scenes, lots of twists -terrorists accidentally invented an antimatter drive! The scenes had good drama, too, though when two people seemed to box each other in, I...
1 tag
Disturbing to note
The one post of mine that’s been reblogged and liked the most was my quotation from Fight Club about self-destruction. I don’t like that what says about us.
Not that this isn’t mostly me talking to myself, but I hope none of the people who liked and reblogged it are taking it at face value. I think Fight Club should be read more as a cautionary tale about aggressive nihilism...
4 tags
The Replacements - Alex Chilton
———
Invisible man who sings with a visible voice
4 tags
What's fair hourly pay for a bookseller, bank...
I don’t really have the luxury of holding out for full-time jobs, so I’m trying to do the math and see if I can afford to stay by getting a full-time hourly job or, more likely, cobbling together several part-time jobs.
My gut feeling is that it would be hard but possible. To be sure, I need to know if the numbers add up, and I can’t remember my pay from a bookstore years and...
3 tags
“Maybe self-improvement isn’t the answer, maybe self-destruction is the...”
– The central thesis of and a quotation from Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
4 tags
5 Rules of Project Mayhem
sexy-punjabi:
You do not ask questions
You do not ask questions
No excuses
No lies
Always trust Tyler
I enjoyed Fight Club despite this bit of anarcho-fascism.
Or maybe because of it? I’m a big fan of dystopia movies, and the utopia Tyler wants looks dystopian to me.
A lot of good philosophy in that book and movie, but taken in a completely self-destructive direction....
i think on monday i’m just gonna take a week long...
inglouriously:
i think on monday i’m just gonna take a week long break from tumblr because i am just so sick of people’s shit rn. in the past couple weeks, i’ve just been growing more and more annoyed with the things i see on here. first it was the 99% vs. 1% constant arguments, next it was the whole ~my culture is not a halloween costume~ bull, then ballerinas whining about how many people...
3 tags
“When you have insomnia, you’re never really asleep, and you’re never really...”
– Fight Club (movie)
3 tags
Decoder & The Fool: Why "Bank Transfer Day" will...
dcdecoder:
Editor’s Note: This is the third in a weekly series of talks between Decoder and The Motley Fool columnist Morgan Housel. You can find all of Housel’s Fool columns, including his most recent, “How succesfull will Bank Transfer Day be?,” here. Read last week’s talk the potential for labor to have its day in the sun here.
1. Perhaps thousands of Americans will transfer their...
3 tags
Akira Yamaoka & Mary Elizabeth McGlynn - Room of...
This is by far the creepiest song I have ever liked. It’s from Silent Hill 4, which explains the creepiness.
I don’t even know why I have it. I never played any of the Silent Hill games. I don’t enjoy horror, survival- or otherwise.
Here’s a lullaby to close your eyes: It was always you that I despised…
3 tags
Johnny Cash - One (U2 Cover)
I like Johnny Cash’s version more than the original. That’s probably heresy to someone.
4 tags
Guadalcanal Diary (covering The Beatles) - And...
I was going to post the original Beatles version of the song, as it is the one stuck in my head, but Grooveshark appears not to have any songs as performed by the Beatles.
I like what I know of Guadalcanal Diary, so here they are instead.
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Today may be my last day of Internet job-applications for a while. It’s time to start hitting the pavement - bars, banks,...
Daniel Kahneman: How cognitive illusions blind us... →
Why do investors, both amateur and professional, stubbornly believe that they can do better than the market, contrary to an economic theory that most of them accept, and contrary to what they could learn from a dispassionate evaluation of their personal experience? The most potent psychological cause of the illusion is certainly that the people who pick stocks are exercising high-level skills....
7 tags
The Faunts - "M4 (Part II)" and the power of...
I will forever associate this song with the awesomeness of the final scenes and decisions of Bioware’s epic Mass Effect. In a way, it’s a shame that Mass Effect 2 was such an exponential improvement over the original. The sequel still looks great, with a cover mechanic as awesome and intuitive as Gears of War’s. The original, not so much. Yet the original has a...
3 tags
Soundgarden - Spoonman
“Spoonman” always makes me want to play Rock Band 2. Perhaps this weekend…
1 tag
October 2011
5 posts
3 tags
More Microscope actual play
Had a go with different people more suited to narrative RPG play and it went splendidly. We covered the time between the human colonization of Mars and the development of faster-than-light travel.
Lots of scenes, lots of twists - terrorists accidentally invented an antimatter drive! The scenes had good drama, too, though when two people seemed to box each other in, I sometimes missed a Burning...
4 tags
Microscope: actual play
In one sentence: It’s two-thirds brainstorming, one-third roleplaying, and 100% improvisional history jazz.
The Good: The game is ridiculously easy to learn and play. Also the mechanics do make history full of unexpected twists.
The Bad: If you aren’t interested in roleplaying that actually involves playing a role, this game is not for you.
It didn’t go as well as I expected,...
Hormones And Metabolism Conspire Against Dieters :... →
npr:
Willpower will only take you so far, in case you haven’t run that experiment yourself. Turns out our bodies have a fuel gauge, not entirely unlike the gas gauge in our cars, that tell us when it’s time to tank up on food. Dieting can make the gauge go haywire. (via Shots)
Pertinent, given my plans to start eating better.
4 tags
Microscope: a game where you make history
I can’t think of a better $10 I’ve spent.
First off, Microscope is not complex. It seems like it should be, but it’s not. It doesn’t even need a GM.
You start with a general concept of your history, no more than a sentence. You move on to discussing what elements you want to see and don’t want to see - each person can add or ban a few elements. Then you decide...
