Man, I’m rusty. Doing nonpolitical longform stuff used to be a lot easier; of course, I used to have a bunch of different sources and links to draw from. Trying to figure out where everything went, or turned into, or got replaced with, over the last few years is a bit slower than I expected.
Oh, well, we must endeavor to persevere. Maybe I’ll write some poems… heh. I can pretty much do anything at this point, huh?
How nice of LEGO to let me know exactly what kind of digital crack my children will be obsessing over this summer. The only real question: does Amazon shut up and take my money, or does Steam?
I got reminded of The Crash of Empire (Imperial Stars, Book 3) via comments in another post: the book (edited by Jerry Pournelle and John Carr) is a collection of short stories and essays about, unsurprisingly, wars and empires. There’s some pretty good stories from the 1950s Campbell era in here, so check it out.
And so, adieu to Hallow Mass.
I enjoyed the choice of music for this particular Kickstarter video. For those who don’t know Shaenon Garrity and Jeffrey Wells’ Skin Horse, it’s about… one of the more interesting federal agencies in the American shadow government. Put it this way: I liked this particular strip so much I bought the original art for my wife’s wall. And this one for my wall. So check it out.
I think that it actually looks pretty sweet, considering that it was done on paint.net:
I know, I know: it’s not an evil giraffe. It all has to do with my new account name, which is based on an old gaming NPC for In Nomine that I wrote up once (and then horrifically mutated for a dark, dark, dark shared-world project, but never mind that right now). I flatter myself that it flows well.
The new account, by the way, is https://twitter.com/Ogiel23.
If you’re into crowdfunding and using places like Kickstarter to fund your favorite geekstuff, you’ll want to read this mildly gruesome tale about how Chaosium almost imploded over a successful Kickstart of their Seventh Edition rule set for Call of Cthulhu. Short version: take underestimated international shipping costs and mix it with bad management, flavor to taste with extravagant promises, and then serve it up with a poor choice of corporate HQ (seriously, San Francisco is too expensive to HQ your gaming company). The company only survived because the new management loved Chaosium enough to spend the money needed to save it; great for Chaosium (seriously), but you can’t count on it for your smaller shops.
Via @jefftidball, who sardonically notes that this is why Atlas Games is charging so much for shipping Unknown Armies. Which is what you have to do, these days. Especially if you’re shipping overseas. There’s a reason why the British gaming companies try to maintain a publishing presence over here, and vice versa.
Always.
Some day they’ll sell me a clean copy of the film that has this scene in it. Some day…
I distinctly remember doing this one before. Weird.
After I browned the meat and mixed it in with the cut-up apples, I added a can of pork and beans (the sweet bourbon kind). Between that and the obligatory cheese topping, this pie held to its consistency a heck of a lot better than the last one did. And, let me be honest: the last one had all the consistency of a sack of mud. My wife pretty much called it a ‘meat salad’ – while, mind you, taking seconds.
And I think that this one came out pretty OK, although the next time I do it I’m going to need to find a better cheese for pork than Colby Jack. I’m having difficulty coming up with a good cheese for pork, though. The best I can think of is American cheese, and that’s not going to crust up the way I want it to, right? Ach, well, that’s why they call it ‘research.’
Under the circumstances, I feel that it is probably best to switch out to the new Twitter account tonight. I am not yet formally ending all political commentary, but you can see the end of it from here. I assume that this site will be transformed into a general gaming/geekery site; I hope to do more creative work. Indeed, I largely have to, because my annual income took a rather severe hit tonight. Which is a shame and a tooth-grinding frustration, but I will not serve that man.
