bruceb

An excellent essay on why Captain America/Iron Man slash fiction has to ignore the fundamental differences between the characters to work: http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/460219.html

I have spent several hours today finally playing Diablo III.

I wish to say that it is awesome.

(All right. Perhaps there's nothing very new since Diablo II. But I loved Diablo II and I am currently loving Diablo III.)

And the dialogue bits are hilarious.

And my Templar meatshield minion is cute.

(For the record, I'm playing a wizard. Standing back and blasting things is definitely a good way to go.)

OK, so. ( Last night. )

Actually, looking at the character sheets now, I don't actually have to do anything for the Mementos that folks have, so I'll just rejigger Sarah's power sheet and call it a day.

Oh, also cooked last night:

Beef brisket, artichokes, plums, pigeon peas, goat cheddar.

( What would you do? )

• Finish cleaning kids' rooms.
  
• Do write-up from last night's Geist game, and if I get really ambitious, last week's curse the darkness game.
  
• Finish mowing the lawn.
  
• Work on Hunters Hunted 2 redlines. (Not done, but worked on 'em.)
  
• Shoot video for curse the darkness.
  
• Assemble stuff for Origins' games.
  
• Play some L.A. Noire.
  
• Make a character.
  
• Figure out stats/mechanics for mementos for Geist characters, which I forgot to do after the last game.
  
• Watch Dead Man with Michelle.
  

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I'm so productive today, you'd think I had a hundred hands!

Seriously. I woke up at 7AM. I have no idea why. I didn't want to go back to sleep, so I went upstairs and moved my son's bed back into his room (he's been sleeping in Teagan's room while we painted in his, and then we got busy/lazy and hadn't moved his bed back). I came back downstairs, did dishes, cleaned the kitchen, cleared stuff off the table, fed the dogs, and then Michelle woke up and I made breakfast.

Other things I need to (or would like to) do today:

• Finish cleaning kids' rooms.
  
• Do write-up from last night's Geist game, and if I get really ambitious, last week's curse the darkness game.
  
• Finish mowing the lawn.
  
• Work on Hunters Hunted 2 redlines.
  
• Shoot video for curse the darkness.
  
• Assemble stuff for Origins' games.
  
• Play some L.A. Noire.
  
• Make a character.
  
• Figure out stats/mechanics for mementos for Geist characters, which I forgot to do after the last game.
  
• Watch Dead Man with Michelle.
  

Shit, that's a lot to do, yeah? Better get started!

Just so we're not totally devoid of content here, my puppy has a pet. There are little brown hop-toads living under my porch steps, and Si found one yesterday, sniffed it, and then bowed like he wanted to play. Now when he goes outside, he scampers over and sniffs where he last saw the toad.

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So much... there's so much to post about, and I don't manage to get any of it up anymore. Sigh. But I can cover some of the things I've been watching/reading.

First, though: Home again. So glad to be home. Seeing the boys and Phil and Lika & Bruce was wonderful, but nothing beats my own bed and a husband to snuggle with.

Okay.

Read the Hunger Games trilogy. I enjoyed it a great deal. I really think the third book might be my favorite. Collins' writing style really improves over the three novels. If you haven't read them, I recommend that you do. Very pleased to see that the additions to the movie were really aspects of things that become more clear in the later books. I thought it might be the case, but I'm glad to see that borne out--and yet, none of them are spoilers. Did I mention that I thought the movie was amazing? Because I did.

Saw MiB III yesterday. It was surprisingly good. It's actually my favorite of the three. Go see it. Emma Thompson is really great, Josh Brolin is astounding, and it handles the cast and the property well.

Saw Pirates last weekend. I enjoyed it, although it's not the best of Aardman's work. You need to have a working understanding of 19th-century British history and culture to get the most out of it. It's worth seeing if you do, though. Very cute.

Currently reading The Bloody White Baron, by James Palmer, aka JamesCat from RPGnet. I'm really enjoying it. I have a soft spot for biographies that are well written and well researched. Good work, James. Next up on the reading list: Captain Alatriste.

Monday will have me doing a session of SIFRP, starting with showing everyone the first episode of the show and then doing chargen. Need to review a bit before that happens, just to make sure I've got the process down. Already watched the pilot myself, but am nowhere near caught up with the show. That's okay, I've got a summer.

Watched an episode of the Borgias. And Downton Abbey. Amazing. Damn. See, now I've got Rome, the Tudors, AND the Borgias to watch. And Boardwalk Empire. And Sherlock. And Downton Abbey. Sigh. Thank god I'm not a Doctor Who fan.

I will continue to update as media presents itself. :)

http://www.cartoonlabs.com/comics/index.php?date=2012-05-27&show=sinfest

Sinfest
Tatsuya Ishida

This is a blog post copied from John's Website - please feel free to join him there and post comments. He has set up openid, so you can post there with your livejournal account using your openid, which is the same as your journal url minus the http://. You can find this entry at http://www.jcfiala.net/blog/2012/05/26/rolling-freight-and-pathfinder.

Boy, having a kid changes how you do stuff.

Way back a year ago, before I had had to stop freelancing to get insurance, I was a fairly early user of http://www.kickstarter.com/, enjoying searching the site and finding things to put money down on. This was way before the explosion of board game kickstarters, and so when the kickstarter for Rolling Freight showed up I was all in on a copy. For one, my wife runs the train gaming at GenghisCon and is a major train gamer, and I thought she'd probably find having a copy of this useful. For another, I had a lot of disposable income when I was freelancing. I figured it would have been a great Christmas present for Tammy last year, but production of the game dragged on, and amusingly enough I got the package only a few days shy of the first anniversary of when the kickstarter finished.

( Read more... )

Words: 2264
Total words: 5764
Files: 3
Tea: White Orchard
Music: Three Double Concertos, arguably the best music of all time ever.
RSI: Forgot that line, didn't I? Well, reminded of it now.
Reason for stopping: end of chapter.

I'm two chapters in, and these people are five courses through a twelve course lunch? Seriously? Oh well, we've also had a lot of backstory. It'll work out.

Anybody know anything about ballet that they didn't get from Noel Streatfeild and Rumer Godden? Any recommendations for ballet blogs?

I cannot say that I am particularly surprised. Our entry was melodic, but it was also dull, and we were the very first to perform, meaning that the listeners had 25 other songs to forget us in -- songs which, to be fair, were frequently more interesting than ours. So the UK was second from bottom in the final scoring. I will be grateful for Humperdinck's sake (if not for the UK's) that we were not the very bottom.

Perhaps next year we might actually have a decent song that is worth listening to and a little more memorable?

Weather continues stunningly good. My cold is improving, and I am now mostly able to breathe again, and coughing/sniffing less. This makes the world a much better place.

---

Alistair Blunt said: "I've killed three people. So presumably I ought to be hanged. But you've heard my defence."
"Which is - exactly?"
"That I believe, with all my heart and soul, that I am necessary to the continued peace and well-being of this country."
Hercule Poirot allowed: "That may be - yes."
"You agree, don't you?"
"I agree, yes. You stand for all the things that to my mind are important. For sanity and balance and stability and honest dealing."
[...]
He went on: "It's in your hands, Poirot. It's up to you. But I tell you this - and it's not just self-preservation - I'm needed in the world. And do you know why? Because I'm an honest man. And because I've got common sense - and no particular axe of my own to grind."
Poirot nodded. Strangely enough, he believed all that. He said: "Yes, that is one side. You are the right man in the right place. You have sanity, judgement, balance. But there is the other side. Three human beings who are dead."
"Yes, but think of them! Mabelle Sainsbury Seale - you said it yourself - a woman with the brains of a hen! Amberiotis - a crook and a blackmailer!"
"And Morley?"
"I've told you before. I'm sorry about Morley. But after all - he was a decent fellow and a good dentist - but there are other dentists."
"Yes," said Poirot, "there are other dentists. And Frank Carter? You would have let him die, too, without regret?"
Blunt said: "I don't waste any pity on him. He's no good. An utter rotter."
Poirot said: "But a human being . . ."
"Oh well, we're all human beings . . ."
"Yes, we are all human beings. That is what you have not remembered. You have said that Mabelle Sainsbury Seale was a foolish human being and Amberiotis an evil one, and Frank Carter a wastrel - and Morley - Morley was only a dentist and there are other dentists. That is where you and I, M. Blunt, do not see alike. For to me the lives of those four people are just as important as your life."
"You're wrong."
"No, I am not wrong. You are a man of great natural honesty and rectitude. You took one step aside - and outwardly it has not affected you. Publicly you have continued the same, upright, trustworthy, honest. But within you the love of power grew to overwhelming heights. So you sacrificed four human lives and thought them of no account."
"Don't you realise, Poirot, that the safety and happiness of the whole nation depends on me?"
"I am not concerned with nations, Monsieur. I am concerned with the lives of private individuals who have the right not to have their lives taken from them."

-- One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, Agatha Christie