 |
I was fascinated by this article on How
to Persuade Your Neighbors to Quiet their Barking Dogs. The
author, Craig Mixon, has spent a lot of time dealing with this
issue, and has concluded that over 45% of the people with noisy
dogs are either malicious or recalcitrant and thus are just impossible
to deal with: "When you encounter an intractably obstinate
person keeping a chronically barking dog, you are dealing with
a diagnosable personality disorder, (usually a Borderline, or
a Narcissistic, or a Paranoid, or an anti-social Personality
Disorder) who is incapable of participating in mutually respectful
relationships." |
 |
This week we finally finished up the revisions
for Are You a Werewolf?
3rd Edition. The changes are mostly very minor and are driven
by efficiency issues... instead of including a separate rules
insert, the instructions will now appear on a series of 4 extra
cards. The game itself is not changing, but the new edition will
include some added recommendations, like playing only with odd
numbers, limiting villages to 15 people, and using options like
Timed-Days and No First-Night Kills. Also included is a section
called Types of Hunters, describing the differences between Detectives
and Avengers, to help players understand their preferred hunting-styles.
AYAW? 3rd Edition should be available in a month or so, and the
price will still be just $4. |
|
|
I love how YouTube has become a venue for releasing
and promoting short films that otherwise would have trouble finding
an audience. For example, this week I got emails pointing me
to a pair of excellent short films just released by a couple
of the best Drug
Peace organizations at work today, the Drug
Policy Alliance and Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition. Please go watch both of
these films, then point them out to people you know! (On a lighter
note, I also really enjoyed these
two
comedy bits by Patton Oswalt.) |
 |
"Consumers might warm to the idea that anytime
viewing brings with it a tradeoff in the form of unavoidable
commercial viewing." -- Mike Shaw, ABC President
of Advertising Sales, seen quoted in an article on ABC's
efforts to disable the fast-forward button on DVRs |
|
|
I feel sorry for Yogi Bear. Last
week at King's Dominion, I was struck by the fact that the
classic attraction I recall as "Yogi's Cave" had been
lamely rethemed as a generic "Treasure Cave." Why?
Everywhere around me I saw examples of booths and rides with
some sort of character or brand grafted onto the front, up to
and including the park itself, which now is officially known
by the awkward moniker of Paramount's King's Dominion. So why
was poor old Yogi kicked out of his cave? It can't be that they
lost the license... Boo Boo still has his ride right next door.
And it's not like some other newer more important character had
taken over, as has happened elsewhere in the park. No, the cave
was simply de-Yogized. The re-themeing was so clumsy as to leave
intact subtle gags that don't make much sense now, like the sign
that says "Bear Left." But then again, I guess that's
the point: instead of encouraging us to imagine that Yogi Bear
was around the left corner, the sign now tells us that the bear
has left the cave. But why? Where did Yogi go? |
 |
I'm fondly remembering our family's favorite
ice cream parlor, long gone now: Weile's Creations. They had
brightly-colored whipped creams and amazing sundaes so big you
needed a team to eat them, with fun names like the Drip, the
Empire State, the Tin Roof, and the Brown Beauty. They'd top
their desserts not just with cherries but with small toys and
such... I remember saving the little flags that came sticking
out of the top of a Washington Monument. No Wikipedia page yet,
but Joe H described
Weile's as "the greatest, most spectacular ice cream
parlor of all" (in the DC area, anyway), remembering that
they offered a sundae called the Lincoln Memorial, which cost
$30 at the time and was meant for a party of 50 people. I was
reminded of Weile's last weekend, when Dad told me a funny memory
he'd just heard from my sister Kathi... she described a time
when she was 3 or 4 years old (which means I was around 8) and
Dad used a spit-moistened hanky to clean the residue of one of
Weile's Creation's off of her face. When she complained about
it to me, I reportedly said "Well, you should learn to use
your napkin!" |
|
|
A comparison of the amount of caffeine in various popular
products (derived
from an article of National Geographic from Jan '05):
- 25 mg: Hershey's milk chocolate almond bar, 6 oz
- 40 mg: Espresso, 1-oz shot
- 57 mg: Coca-Cola, 20-oz bottle
- 75 mg: Brewed tea, 12-oz cup
- 92 mg: Mountain Dew, 20-oz bottle
- 130 mg: Excedrin pain reliever, 2 tablets
- 200 mg: Brewed coffee, 12-oz cup
|
|
"I know we tend to think of games as childhood
pastimes, but there are many, many adults-only games out there
which can provide good fun without the family. Games are
really the ideal group activity. Everyone has a good time (unless
you're one of those scary ultra competitive people who can't
have a good time unless they're winning, in which case, go away),
and people actually talk while playing. While I enjoy a good
movie night as much as the next guy (probably moreso), talking
during a movie can be rude. Talking during a game is expected. Think
of all those televised celebrity poker matches you see on the
TV: the people are beautiful, laughing, always having a
good time, and exchanging witty banter (or at least trying to).
Yes, you too can be a celebrity. Just bring back the games
night." -- Lev AC Rosen, "Your
Boy Friday: Games" |
 |
On March 1st, Wikipedia
hit the million-article mark (with an entry on Jordanhill,
a railway station in suburban Glasgow). By comparison, the Encyclopædia
Britannica (the gold standard for reference works for the previous
two centuries) only has a hundred and twenty thousand entries
in its most comprehensive edition. (Learned from
a New Yorker article called Know
It All.) |
|
"We face a future where almost anything
could happen. Will we be crippled by global warming, weapons
proliferation and species depletion, or liberated by space travel,
world government and molecule-sized computers? We don't even
want to start thinking about it. This is our peculiar form of
selfishness, a studied disregard of the future. Our astonishing
success as a technical civilisation has led us to complacency
-- to expect that things will probably just keep getting better.
But there is no reason to believe this. We might be living in
the last gilded bubble of a great civilisation about to collapse
into a new Dark Age, which, given our hugely amplified and widespread
destructive powers, could be very dark indeed. If we want to
contribute to some sort of tenable future, we have to reach a
frame of mind where it comes to seem unacceptable - gauche, uncivilised
- to act in disregard of our descendants."
-- Brian Eno, "The
Big Here and Long Now" |
|
"There are 2 things you
have to do to be a Looney: Read and Play Games." --
my 9-year old nephew James |
|
"I grew up in the age before microwave
ovens, when vcrs where expensive and spoke only in military time.
It was the golden age of arcade games, when every mall had an
arcade, and every kid who could scrape up 25 cents could be a
hero. I used to go to arcades like 'Time Out', and spend hours
in the local People's drug, which had an aisle of arcade games
and a coin changer. Back then, we listened to bands like Van
Halen and Led Zeppelin, ate burgers at Roy Rogers, read Heavy
Metal magazine and took buses all over town to get to 'newer'
video games." -- Skipernicus, writing
at his LiveJournal about a youthtime much like my own |
|
"Twenty-two of the 36 volunteers reported
having a 'complete' mystical experience, compared to four of
those getting methylphenidate. That experience included such
things as a sense of pure awareness and a merging with ultimate
reality, a transcendence of time and space, a feeling of sacredness
or awe, and deeply felt positive mood like joy, peace and love.
People say 'they can't possibly put it into words,' Griffiths
said. Two months later, 24 of the participants filled out a questionnaire.
Two-thirds called their reaction to psilocybin one of the five
top most meaningful experiences of their lives. On another measure,
one-third called it the most spiritually significant experience
of their lives, with another 40% ranking it in the top five."
-- Malcolm Ritter, "Mushroom
Drug Produces Mystical Experience" |
|
|
Our goal of getting rabbits
to multiply appears to be extending its influence into the natural
world surrounding our house. We've been living here for almost
2 decades, and for the first time I'm seeing feral bunnies running
around in our front yard! |
|
"Social isolation has many well-documented
side effects. Kids fail to thrive. Crime rises. Politics coarsens.
Generosity shrivels. Death comes sooner (social isolation is
as big a risk factor for premature death as smoking). Well-connected
people live longer, happier lives, even if they have to forgo
a new Lexus to spend time with friends."
-- Robert Putnam, "You
Gotta Have Friends: A study finds that Americans are getting
lonelier" |
|
A couple of random memorable quotes overhead by Robin
at Origins:
- "There's 3 of us?!?" --
a werewolf's last words,
after someone in the village asserted [incorrectly] that there
were 3 werewolves hiding among them
- "It's like meeting Willy Wonka!!!"
-- words of fan after getting an autographed Andy
Looney Keeper card
|
|
"Before the 29th, I had read about this
and I knew many, many things about eclipses. And yet it turned
out that I was completely unprepared... Words cannot describe
the force of this stare. I had planned to spend totality roaming
the helipad, observing the reactions of the other eclipse watchers,
but the instant this stare was upon me I was powerless to move.
I was powerless to think. I seemed to be standing
waist-deep in honey, holding my brain in a jar."
-- Jake Silverstein, describing the experience of seeing a Total
Solar Eclipse in the company of the "Eclipse Addicts,"
hardcore enthusiasts who try to be wherever they need to be every
18 months, so that they never to miss a TSE (a event which most
people never experience) in an article in the
current issue of Seed
magazine |
|
|
This week I finally got around to trying out
the computerized adaptations of several of our games which Zarf
& Jmac
& the others at Volity.com
have been implementing... and they rock! Nice job, guys! Zarf
mentioned at Origins that he's thinking about doing a version
of Homeworlds soon...
wow, I'd sure love to see that! Particularly if they can create
a "Starship Captain" Bot to play against! |
|
"So, say 'yes.' In fact, say 'yes'
as often as you can. When I was starting out in Chicago, doing
improvisational theatre with Second City and other places, there
was really only one rule I was taught about improv. That was,
'yes-and.' In this case, 'yes-and' is a verb. To 'yes-and.' I
yes-and, you yes-and, he, she or it yes-ands. And yes-anding
means that when you go onstage to improvise a scene with no script,
you have no idea what's going to happen, maybe with someone you've
never met before. To build a scene, you have to accept. To build
anything onstage, you have to accept what the other improviser
initiates on stage. They say you're doctors -- you're doctors.
And then, you add to that: We're doctors and we're trapped in
an ice cave. That's the '-and.' And then hopefully they 'yes-and'
you back. You have to keep your eyes open when you do this. You
have to be aware of what the other performer is offering you,
so that you can agree and add to it. And through these agreements,
you can improvise a scene or a one-act play. And because, by
following each other's lead, neither of you are really in control.
It's more of a mutual discovery than a solo adventure. What happens
in a scene is often as much a surprise to you as it is to the
audience. Well, you are about to start the greatest improvisation
of all. With no script. No idea what's going to happen, often
with people and places you have never seen before. And you are
not in control. So say 'yes.' And if you're lucky, you'll find
people who will say 'yes' back." -- Stephen
Colbert, Knox College
2006 Commencement Address, June 3, 2006 |
|
|
I've been learning all sorts of fascinating things today from
the aptly-named DamnInteresting
website, including:
- Nuclear reactions have occurred naturally!
(At least once, in Africa, long ago, when radioactive half-lives
were longer)
- An early atomic bomb "putter-togetherer"
died in 1947 because they were testing chunks of radioactive
material at near-critical levels by holding them apart with a
screwdriver, and he slipped
- There's a movement to demolish the Georgia
Guidestones, a strange, anonymously constructed monument
built on public land in 1980
- The Russians spent decades trying to drill
a hole so deep they'd break through the crust and into the
mantle (but they never quite made it)
- In India, most people who report Near
Death Experiences say they were returned to Earth because
of a bureaucratic mistake, such as having the same name as the
person whom Yamraj (the Hindu God of Death) was actually expecting
|
|
"Americans still live in one of the few
countries that kill people to make clear what a terrible thing
killing people is. Hardly any other civilized place does this
anymore. In the past three decades, the number of nations that
have abolished the death penalty has risen from 16 to 86. Last
year four countries accounted for nearly all executions worldwide:
China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States. As my Irish
grandmother used to say, you're known by the company you keep." -- Anna Quindlen, "The
Failed Experiment" |
|
"I have friends who are
alive today because of medical marijuana. These are people who
suffered unbearable nausea from chemotherapy or retroviral drugs
- nausea that only marijuana was able to bring under control.
The bottom line [on the recent FDA rejection of medical marijuana]
is that this is another sign that science at the FDA has given
way to politics. They just pretend research evidence for the
medical value of marijuana doesn't exist. But in fact quite a
bit does - - even though the federal government has done everything
it can to keep this research from being conducted. They're terribly
afraid of such research, because any serious scientific study
of the subject is going to reveal how little basis there is for
their claims. Continuing to demonize marijuana is the key to
the drug war, and the drug war pays the salaries of a lot of
people." -- Bruce Mirken (of the Marijuana Policy
Project) as quoted in an article by Paul Campos (a professor
of law at the University of Colorado) entitled "Follow
the Drug War Money" |
|
|
According to a new
Zogby poll, 39% of those surveyed said they think the Election
of 2004 was stolen, with only 54% thinking it was legitimate.
What's particularly interesting about this poll is that they
also asked about the news channel those surveyed favored: 70%
of CNN viewers believe there was voter fraud, while an amazing
99% of Fox News viewers thought the election was legitimate. |
|
|
We're finally getting into Toys R Us! It's just
a test program at first -- 50 of their top game-selling stores
will soon be carrying Family
Fluxx -- but if it does well it could lead to a lot more.
Woo-hoo! |
|
"Please, try to understand the way we work
at Neen: we consider all visual/audio material as everybody's
property. It's more cool like that." --
amazing view of intellectual property law found
quoted on Eric.Stamen.com |
|
|
My sample copy of the
encrypted version of Icebreaker 2 has finally arrived! And
it's works! They did it! They successfully encrypted my final
work-in-progress test disc, and now it can be played on any standard
3DO instead of the extremely rare developer's testing stations.
I actually own 2 of these, but I'd become reluctant about using
them very much, since I've always figured they'd be the only
way for me to ever be able to play this extended version of my
only videogame, and therefore haven't wanted to risk wearing
them out. But soon, OlderGames
will publish it and anyone with a 3DO will be able to play it!
And it's great! Now that we can finally play Icebreaker 2 in
our primary videogaming lounge, we've been getting addicted to
it all over again. And the new
features are SO cool! And while the level grid is incomplete
and uneven, there are some excellent levels in there. Now I need
to write some liner notes and such so that the OlderGames guys
can move forward on publishing it... |
|
"The issue of what happened in 2004 is
not an academic one. For the second election in a row, the president
of the United States was selected not by the uncontested will
of the people but under a cloud of dirty tricks. Given the scope
of the GOP machinations, we simply cannot be certain that the
right man now occupies the Oval Office -- which means, in effect,
that we have been deprived of our faith in democracy itself.
American history is littered with vote fraud -- but rather than
learning from our shameful past and cleaning up the system, we
have allowed the problem to grow even worse. If the last two
elections have taught us anything, it is this: The single greatest
threat to our democracy is the insecurity of our voting system.
If people lose faith that their votes are accurately and faithfully
recorded, they will abandon the ballot box. Nothing less is at
stake here than the entire idea of a government by the people."
-- Robert F. Kennedy Jr., "Was
the 2004 Election Stolen?" |
|
|
We're finally getting close to printing the Holy
Fluxx expansions, and with final decision time at hand, I've
finally decided to use my sister-in-law's suggestion (thanks
Ruth!) to specify on the Bible Verses card that the player should
say "Jesus wept" if they can't think of any other Bible
Verse to quote. I'd basically already decided on this, since
(as Ruth pointed out) it's famously the shortest actual verse
in the Bible and because it's funny to imagine that Jesus might
be weeping because you couldn't think of any other Bible Verses
to quote. But now I have a third reason: I've just learned from
Wikipedia that in some places, "the phrase 'Jesus
wept' is a common expletive, curse or minced oath spoken
when something goes wrong or to express mild incredulity."
Well, that just makes it perfect! |
|
"The cure for 1984 is 1776."
-- comment posted by Mentifex on a Mother
Jones article (entitled "Uppity Cleveland
woman carted to psych hospital by police and ordered to a psych
unit by judge") |
|
|
I have dim yet vivid memories of the original
McDonaldland TV ads from 1971, which were pretty far-out
and trippy when compared to modern McDonald's marketing. Gosh
I'd like to see those again! Now I've learned from Wikipedia
(I sure love Wikipedia) why it all changed just a few months
later... they were sued! By the H.R. Pufnstuf guys! For intellectual
property violations! And McDonald's paid a $50K settlement, and
had to totally change their whole campaign! |
|
|
"People who smoke marijuana may be at less
risk of developing lung cancer than tobacco smokers, according
to a study presented yesterday. The study of 2,200 people in
Los Angeles found that even heavy marijuana smokers were no more
likely to develop lung, head, or neck cancer than nonusers, in
contrast with tobacco users, whose risk increases the more they
smoke." -- Heather Burke, "Marijuana
Cancer Risk Played Down," Boston Globe, May 24, 2006 |
|
"'The same procedure as
last year, Madam?'
'The same procedure as *every* year, James.'" --
a question repeatedly asked and answered in an obscure 11-minute
British film from 1963 called Dinner for One, which has
become Germany's most popular New Year's tradition [and
which I'd like to get a copy of for myself, so as to join in
the traditional yearly viewings...] |
|
|
"It's easier to rig an electronic voting
machine than a Las Vegas slot machine, says University of Pennsylvania
visiting professor Steve Freeman. That's because Vegas slots
are better monitored and regulated than America's voting machines,
Freeman writes in a book out in July that argues, among other
things, that President Bush may owe his 2004 win to an unfair
vote count. We'll wait to read his book before making a judgment
about that. But Freeman has assembled comparisons that suggest
Americans protect their vices more than they guard their rights,
according to data he presented at an October meeting of the American
Statistical Association in Philadelphia."
-- "How
To Steal an Election," The Washington Post, May 16,
2006 |
|
Yay for the Hippies! BJ & Tyler, nicknamed
the Hippies, narrowly beat the Frat Boys to become the winners
of a million bucks on this season's finale of the Amazing Race!
It was a particularly thrilling race for Hippie-watchers, because
not once but twice they came in last but weren't eliminated from
the race because it was a non-elimination round. Well done Hippies!
Congrats! (And if you feel like investing some of your winnings
in a Hippie Game Company, give us a call.) |
|
|
"If cannabis were unknown, and bioprospectors
were suddenly to find it in some remote mountain crevice, its
discovery would no doubt be hailed as a medical breakthrough.
Scientists would praise its potential for treating everything
from pain to cancer, and marvel at its rich pharmacopoeia-many
of whose chemicals mimic vital molecules in the human body. In
reality, cannabis has been with humanity for thousands of years
and is considered by many governments (notably America's) to
be a dangerous drug without utility. Any suggestion that the
plant might be medically useful is politically controversial,
whatever the science says. It is in this context that, on April
20th, America's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a statement
saying that smoked marijuana has no accepted medical use in treatment
in the United States. The statement is curious in a number of
ways." -- The Economist, "Reefer
Madness: Marijuana is medically useful, whether politicians
like it or not" |
|
"A collapsing economy is especially hard
on those who are accustomed to prompt, courteous service. In
the Soviet Union, most official service was rude and slow, and
involved standing in long lines. Many of the products that were
in short supply could not be obtained even in this manner, and
required something called blat: special, unofficial access
or favor. The exchange of personal favors was far more important
to the actual functioning of the economy than the exchange of
money. To Russians, blat is almost a sacred thing: a vital part
of culture that holds society together. It is also the only part
of the economy that is collapse-proof, and, as such, a valuable
cultural adaptation." -- Dmitry Orlov, seen
quoted in a Speech by Michael C. Ruppert called "The
Paradigm Is The Enemy: The State of the Peak Oil Movement
at the Cusp of Collapse" |
|
|
It's the little differences (as Vincent
Vega said)
that make international travel so much fun. Here are a couple
of little differences I noticed this
time in Canada: 1.) Milk Chocolate with Hazelnuts (a particular
favorite of mine) is much more readily available in Canada than
in the US. 2.) Those Lipton noodle dinner packets are still available
in a flavor called Cheddar and Sour Cream, which I beleive is
same recipe as the long discontinued
American flavor, Noodles Romanoff. 3.) The new US ten dollar
bill is a yucky shade of yellow, whereas the Canadian ten is
my favorite color: Purple! |
|
"I am vegephobic. I hate
vegetables. They are foul-smelling, foul-tasting, and posessed
of a texture that seems scientifically engineered to make me
cringe. I recoil at the very thought of having to eat vegetables.
In short, vegetables are evil. And I suspect that many of you
reading this page feel the same way. Here we are, in the supposedly
enlightened 21st Century, where we can buy any number of wondrous
artifacts to make our lives easier and more pleasant, and can
sue somebody just for looking at us funny. Yet, despite all these
advances, we are still bombarded from every direction with the
message that we have to eat our vegetables, as though
it's some moral duty we must all endure. Well, I'm here to tell
you: You don't have to eat vegetables! You can
get all the macronutrients you need from grain products, meat
products, and dairy products. You can get all the micronutrients
you need from vitamin pills. The alleged health benefits of having
vegetables in your diet have been grossly exaggerated. The instincive
revulsion to eating those icky plants, which most of us have
felt from early childhood, is there for a reason." -- Roger M. Wilcox, "Vegetable-Free
Living" |
|
|
"Food items solve crimes."
-- capsule description of the Cartoon Network series "Aqua
Teen Hunger Force," as provided by our cable box (which
for some reason we found hilarious) |
|
"Salad isn't food. Salad
is what food eats." -- message on a button I was
given at Penguicon this year by Colleen (aka Nazgul Bunny) |
|
|
"Just a note to say thank you for your
post re: migraines and pot. I started getting them about
three years ago and have been miserable ever since. All the triptans
(Imitrex, Zomig) gave a horrible reaction, and the Topamax made
me dumber than a post. I, like you, smoked in college but haven't
really smoked much since (I'm 37) other than hot springs and
skiing (I live in Oregon). My doc had me on Vicodin which made
me feel kind of queasy and it took me about 7 pills to mask the
pain. I finally got some pot purely as an experiment and, guess
what, it worked like a charm... I had a migraine tonight, smoked
a bunch, then filled a balloon and let the pup bounce it off
his nose for a while. Within 15 minutes I went from dark room,
pressing on my temples to having fun and feeling good. It struck
me that someone must have had the same therapeutic effect from
the stuff, so I got online. Upon a Google for 'migraine marijuana'
your site came up first. You rock. Take care, and if you are
ever in Oregon I'll buy you a beer." --
email we got this week from someone in Oregon named Peter |
|
"The rain was hitting the windows and occasionally
I would hear the loudest parts of the harp notes appearing like
the tips of icebergs in this sonic ocean. And from that I really
developed the whole Ambient idea - which was more an approach
to listening than to composing. It was saying: 'let's treat music
like painting'. If you have a painting on your wall you don't
sit in front of it staring at it as you would a television. It's
there and you sometimes look at it and sometimes look away from
it. Sometimes it will hold your attention for a while and sometimes
it's just a glance. It doesn't make paintings any less important
just because they don't engage your attention fulltime - it just
means it's a different kind of attention."
-- Brain Eno, describing the
Birth of Ambient Music |
|
|
"The hotel wanted us to do the panel somewhere
else, but where they wanted us to do the panel was already being
used by people playing games, eating lunch, and by a 'stuffed
animal tea party,' at which, you guessed it, a bunch of stuffed
animals were having a delightful afternoon repast. So there was
nowhere for us to have our panel. Writer Dave Klecha suggested
that maybe we should change the panel to 'Tea parties in Science
Fiction' instead. So we did." -- John Scalzi's Whatever
blog, "Penguicon
Notes" entry |
|
"Everybody asks for personnel changes.
So the White House has personnel changes. Then you write, 'Oh,
they're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.' First
of all, that is a terrible metaphor. This administration is not
sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are
rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg!"
-- Stephen Colbert,
mocking the president and the people who report on them, to their
faces, at
the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 29,
2006 |
 |
Consider Galaxy Quest. It was just like Star
Trek, except for the numerous minor ways in which it was deliberately
different. Now consider Star Trek itself. In the history books
of the characters who live in the Star Trek Universe, no TV show
called "Star Trek" can actually exist as such, since
the events depicted are supposed to be real events, not the fictional
plots of a TV show. So here's what I'd like to see: a Star Trek
episode that makes reference to (and even features a clip from)
an influential TV sci-fi show from the 20th century, which would
turn out to be Galaxy Quest. |
|
The sessions at Penguicon 4.0 provided a striking
example of why we officially discourage playing Are
You a Werewolf? with an oversized village. (As Josh
put it in his internally-emailed report, it was "an unmitigated
disaster.") Instead of creating 2 or 3 Villages, and starting
a new one each time you had enough dead people hanging around
(like we do at Origins),
this group insisted on playing as one gigantic village. And instead
of starting something so fun it would continue literally all
night, the game fell apart after just one hunt. It really isn't
as much fun when you get past about 15 people. Just because you
CAN play it with 30 or more doesn't mean you should. Don't make
the mistake of thinking the game will be even more fun with even
more people: the test results have proven otherwise. |
|
|
"Hi Andy, just wanted to thank you again
for the car, and to let you know that it is running great again
(I replaced a few vacuum lines and a solenoid on the carb, and
the smell you said it had was fixed with a valve cover gasket).
When we got home, Rhoda washed and waxed it, she loves it! It
is being tagged tomorrow and she will be driving it every day
so thanks again for a great little car. It will get a second
life like you hoped. Thank you" -- Grumpy,
the guy who bought my
old purple car |
|
"By this time, the suitcase was getting
very heavy, so, I rested on a grassy knoll, and took a peek inside.
As I opened it, out burst a fountain of many-colored butterflies,
rainbow game counters, chess pieces, laughing cutlery, tiny chairs
and tables, and flying plates covered with exotic fruit." -- one of several surreal spoken word bits which
appear between songs on an album by the band XTC (performing
under the name The Dukes of Stratosphear) called "Chips
From The Chocolate Fireball" [Another of these bits goes
like this: "I took the strangely-glowing ticket from the
giant crane-fly, and turned to get onto the train. 'Hurry,' he
hissed, and then before my eyes, changed into a splendid cream
bun."] |
|
|
I'm pleased to report that my
old purple car will be getting a good home! The auction was
won by a man folks call Grumpy, and he's just the sort of guy
I was hoping would buy it - he likes tinkering with old cars
(he's even owned this kind before), his wife loves the color
(and the cool gear shift knob), and he's planning to fix it up
and keep it running! Since he's from West Virginia he won't be
concerned with the Maryland Emissions Testing issue that prompted
me to go ahead and sell the car, and he thinks he knows how to
fix the cause of the smells that makes me worried it wouldn't
pass the Emissions Test. In short, Grumpy is my dream buyer!
And I'm getting $150 for it! Yay! |
|
I recently posted a
long article with an update on our plans for moving to Canada,
and why it's taking so long. One thing I didn't mention was the
change in their political climate. Two years ago, Canada's liberal
government was on the verge of decriminalizing cannabis, but
now, their Conservative Prime Minister is attempting to reverse
all that, not just scrapping the decrim plan but pledging to
increase penalties and worse. We have many reasons for wanting
to go north, but as anti-prohibition
activists, one of the biggest was their recent proximity
to marijuana freedom. Suddenly, I'm in less of a hurry... moving
to Stephen Harper's Canada just isn't as appealing. |
|
|
We've been really enjoying the new PS2 videogame
Shadow of the Colossus. The giant monsters you do battle
with are amazing! But in some ways the horse-riding simulator
game (which you play in between the fight scenes) is even cooler. |
|
If you've been following the debate over which
name we should use for one of our new Holy
Fluxx expansions, you'll be interested to know that we've
finally decided to change it from Bible Fluxx to Christian Fluxx.
Although there were many votes for the name Bible Fluxx, it just
doesn't sound right alongside Jewish Fluxx. |
|
|
"ABSTRACT: This experiment measured the
effects of tactical decision making on the likelihood of victory
in the card game Fluxx, and gauged the amount of first player
advantage. Two hundred test games were conducted in which players
alternated the roles of first player and of playing randomly.
It was found that the tactical player won 86% of the games, while
the random player won 14%. The starting player won 54% of all
games. This concludes that Fluxx players greatly benefit from
tactical decision making, but that first player advantage is
negligible." -- Ryan Hackel, "On
the Effects of Tactical Decision Making on the Card Game Fluxx" |
|
"Participants who used cannabis seven days
a week demonstrated no difference from non-cannabis users on
indices of motivation. These findings refute hypothesized associations
between heavy cannabis use and low motivation ... Daily users
reported slightly lower median subjective well-being scores (
2 points less on a 28-point scale ) ... Post-hoc tests find that
some portion of the differences in subjective wellbeing arose
from medical users, whose illnesses may contribute to low subjective
wellbeing more than their cannabis use."
-- results of a study debunking
"amotivational syndrome," conducted by Sara Smucker
Barnwell, a graduate student in the psychology department at
the University of Southern California, who analyzed responses
from some 1,300 people to questions on an "Apathy Evaluation
Scale" and a "Satisfaction with Life Scale" |
|
|
"You confused the issue with the Monday
story headlined 'Double slaying probably drug-related, police
say.' Remember the famous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in
1929 when Al Capone's men gunned down men from the competing
Bugs Moran gang? Would you say that was 'alcohol-related'? Hardly.
Those thugs didn't kill each other because they were drunk; they
killed each other over money, and the gang wars stopped when
the prohibition on alcohol was repealed. The Keller slayings,
like the 1920s Chicago slayings, were prohibition-related, not
drug-related. Let's put the blame where it belongs." -- Carl Veley, Letter
to the Editor of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, March 19, 2006 |
|
I've been catching up on a few movies lately.
I finally saw Donnie Darko and I'm surprised to say I
didn't really like it much. (It had many interesting elements,
but overall it just didn't work for me.) On the other hand, I
loved The Call of Cthulhu, a B&W silent movie made
last year, an adaptation of the Lovecraft story from 1926 (filmed
in the style of movies from that era). In the middle was Harold
and Kumar go to White Castle, which mostly just got me excited
about the obvious sequel (which is apparently now in production):
Harold and Kumar go to Amsterdam. |
|
|
We finally got a couple of big heavy objects
removed from the house: the long-dead soda
machine is on its way to the dump at last, and our heavy-duty
paper cutter has been moved out of our basement and into the
production facility of Tuxedo
Graphics. (That's our friend Landru's printing company.)
Thanks to everyone who helped us move heavy objects last weekend! |
|
"Senator, when you took your oath of office,
you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution.
You didn't place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold
the Bible." -- Jamie
Raskin, professor of law at American University, testifying
on the proposed Maryland Constitutional Amendment to prohibit
gay marriage, March 8th, 2006 |
|
|
If you're playing Treehouse
with only 2 people, you can use the 2 leftover colors for score-keeping!
Each time someone wins, they get a point in the overall match;
the first to get 6 points (i.e. the complete tree) is the match
winner! |
|
"Unattended Children will
be given an Espresso and a Free Puppy" -- text on
a sign seen in a photograph at Nick Scipio's Picture
Of The Day site |
|
|
Flying
Buffalo's classic card game Nuclear
War now includes a nicely updated version of the Anti-Missile
Capabilities Chart I created
(which we printed ourselves on a promo
card a few years ago). It's pretty cool for me, as someone
who's been a fan of this game since High School (and who was
inspired to become a game designer
partly by this game) seeing something I created actually get
incorporated into their newest edition. Wow! |
|
"Bad week for: Straight-laced jihadists,
after Dutch authorities started requiring all would-be immigrants
to watch footage of a topless woman bathing and two men kissing
as a test of their social tolerance." --
The Week magazine, March 24th, 2006 [I
love the Dutch!] |
|
|
"Why Canada: National health insurance,
legal gay marriage, no death penalty, full abortion rights, less
crime, less poverty. Canada didn't support the invasion of Iraq,
and they don't keep a huge military with which to bully the rest
of the world. Religious fanatics do not control the government.
It's not a socialist utopia, but it all adds up to a very different
attitude about government, society and a nation's place in the
world. In short, it's a country with values more similar to my
own. The US has moved so far to the right. It's not just the
W Regime, even though they've made it so much worse. It's been
going this way for almost 25 years. Relative to the norm in this
country, I used to be a liberal. Now I'm a radical leftist -
and I haven't changed at all!" -- Laura
K's blog, WeMoveToCanada |
|
"No one has ever gone to jail for selling
seeds in Canada and only two people in 35 years have even been
charged. The most recent person fined for selling seeds in the
year 2000 received a $200 fine. I am blessed by what the DEA
has done. I'd rather see marijuana legalized than me being saved
from a U.S. jail. The language I like to use is one of a person,
a leader, who's confident and prepared to accept the punishment
that noble purpose will bring about." --
Marc Emery (Canada's "Prince of Pot," whom the DEA
is seeking to extradite and imprison for life as a "drug
kingpin"), as
quoted on CBS's "60 Minutes" |
|
|
Marlene
has decided to embark on a bold career change: she's gone back
to school to become a Massage Therapist! She's already reduced
her hours with us, and will be phasing out her assignments over
the next few months. We all wish Mar the best of luck in her
new adventures! |
|
"It's interesting that you've found it a
source of tension to be paired with an extrovert. I've read that
introvert-extrovert pairings work well because the person who
doesn't like to make small talk can just let the other person
do it for them." -- Interviewer's question
from "Introverts
of the World, Unite! A conversation with Jonathan Rauch" |
|
|
Keith
knows somone who was color blind for his entire life until one
day when suddenly he could see colors! Wow! Nothing seems to
have triggered the change, his eyes just started seeing differently!
Doctors are baffled! |
|
"Ask Me About My Vow Of
Silence" -- funniest t-shirt slogan I saw while
in Colorado |
|
|
I really like Peter
Oliver's suggestions for a 5th row for the Chrononauts timeline,
ranging from the year 2000 to 2019. Great ideas, Peter!
I've long been pondering a complete new timeline that would include
a whole century of future events, but I'm really intrigued by
the idea of making a single-row expansion. Maybe someday we'll
make a Lost
Identities-style product built around this concept... |
|
"A marijuana grower can land in prison
for life without parole while a murderer might be in for eight
years. No rational person can defend this; it is a Dostoevskian
nightmare and it exists only because politicians fled in the
face of danger. That includes Bill Clinton, under whose administration
the prosecution of Americans for marijuana went up hugely, so
that now there are more folks in prison for marijuana than for
violent crimes. More than for manslaughter or rape. This only
makes sense in the fantasy world of Washington, where perception
counts for more than reality." -- Garrison
Keillor, "A
Foul Tragedy: Democrats Fled in the Face of Danger" |
|
|
People have been wondering why we're apparently
turning our backs on our old way of selling Icehouse
Pyramids (in tubes of one color) in favor of the
new way (as mixed color stashes called Treehouse
sets). Shouldn't we just keep pyramids available in both formats?
But this kind of thinking is what's keeping the $1 coin from
catching on. If you really want people to switch, you have to
take away the old system. So just as I believe the US Treasury
should abolish the $1 bill, I believe the best way to promote
the new way to Icehouse is to reduce availability of the old
style packing. (That said, we plan to keep selling solid colored
stashes, through our Short
Run Depot, for a long time to come, if not forever. Right
now, we're only taking them out of primary distribution.) |
|
"I'm not saying that you were *trying*
to make Treehouse dice the de facto currency of the Rabbit
underground, Kristin. I'm merely saying, you just did. Henceforth,
Rabbits (and maybe even some non-Rabbits) won't see a superfluous
die in each additional Treehouse
set, but instead a cubical carrot coin. People will buy, sell,
and trade these dice. If J. Random Rabbit has (or wants) several
dice, she'll find it's worth the effort to seek someone to trade
with; besides, her trading partner will probably want to play
the same games she likes, too, so why don't we meet at the coffeeshop
and bring your pyramids too, okay? I'll bet you three dice I
can beat you at Binary Homeworlds." -- Tom
Phoenix, responding to Kristin's announcment on the Icehouse
mailing list about our plan to award one Rabbit point for every
Treehouse die someone returns to us for re-use |
|
|
"When the President does
it, that means it is not illegal." -- Then-President
Richard Nixon, heard quoted in the new MoveOn.org TV ad, which
assert that "George
W. Bush is Breaking the Law" |
|
"But everything that was great about the
first [Star Wars] trilogy -- reasonably decent acting, an engaging
storyline and cool model-based special effects -- is gone, replaced
by detestably unsympathetic characters reciting torturously bad
dialogue in a manner so wooden that coaching from Keanu Reeves
would have helped, and CGI effects that, while painstakingly
crafted down to the nanopixel, somehow looked less real than
plastic spaceships and Muppets." -- The
Beast's 2005 List of the
50 Most Loathsome People in America, #44: George Lucas (don't
miss the top 5) |
|
|
"2006-01-27 at 03:37pm (kristin) spoke
with Bill about assembling Treehouse.
He doesn't even want to bid on the job, there is no way we can
afford for him to do it... after factoring in good salaries and
vacation and health insurance - he charges $35 per hour for his
assembly folks time - and counting out these pyramids and putting
on these little stickers would take LOTS of time. He told me
point blank that the right business decision for me would be
to just get the product made in China. Wow."
-- internal call notes which have triggered a re-evaluation of
our
commitment to domestic pyramid production (we're still refusing
to go to China,
but we're now seriously considering Canada or Mexico...) |
|
When I designed Chrononauts
back in 2000, I thought the Crown of Thorns was an artifact a
time traveler could swipe without rippling any timelines. Obviously,
no one had saved it, right? Well, I recently learned (from the
History Channel -- gosh I love the History Channel!) that a relic
purporting to be the real Crown of Thorns is at the cathedral
of Notre Dame in Paris! Apparently it was a prize passed along
from one King to the another, ever since it first turned up,
in 570 AD. It was even used as collateral, in 1238, and the thorns
were all removed and incorporated into other cherished relics!
Oh well, it's one more thing to see when I eventually visit Paris... |
|
|
"It's a very slim mandate, and the party
that is holding power is holding it by a thread. If you have
a party system divided into four, one party can take power with
a proportion of the vote in the 30's percent range. That doesn't
mean the country is moving right." -- Pierre
Martin, a political scientist at the University of Montreal,
seen quoted in "Canada's
Shift: To the Right, Gently" |
|
"So my mind sort of drifts, and I start
thinking about how indefinably cool these little colored pyramids
are, and about how infinitely more colorful and artistic they
are than a boring old chess set, and how *right* the design is,
of three sizes and five of each size and everything, and I start
thinking about the mind-bogglingly huge number of imaginable
games that could be invented with these pieces, and dammit, isn't
it about time *I* invented one?" -- Kory Heath, from an
email to us, August 14, 1999 |
 |
Needless to say, as wild-eyed liberals
slowly making plans to move to Canada, the results of this week's
elections up there were a big disappointment for us. The reigning
liberals kept dragging their feet on the marijuana decrim bill
they once pledged to pass, and now they've lost their chance.
Instead, the new guy has pledged to get tough on drugs, and to
challenge Canada's gay marriage laws, support US military adventures,
etc. Ugh! Fortunately, the Canadian version of Conservative is
less extreme than ours, and they're going to have to share more
power than do our current Republicans. And anyway, being a big
anti-incumbency guy, I understand the need to throw the bums
out when they've proven themselves corrupt, even if they are
on your "team," and regardless of what you might think
of the alternative. In fact, I wish more people here understood
that! |
|
|
A
few weeks ago, I whined about broken-down VCRs and asked
for recommendations on getting one fixed. My conclusions from
the responses I got to that: forget about repairs, its not cost-effective,
instead just look for a hand-me-down replacement. Between TIVO
and DVDs, the VCR is rapidly becoming a device which people no
longer need at all and are willing to give away (or sell for
much less than the cost of repairing a VCR). |
|
"There is a strange parallel between the
relationships Canada-US and Holland-Germany: the smaller brother
looks at the bigger one and finds fault with much of what he
sees, he then desperately tries to do everything better, succeeds
remarkably well, but tragically, his efforts are completely ignored
by his brother and the rest of the world - he is simply too small
and unimportant." -- Axel Boldt, "A
Subjective Comparison of Germany and the United States" |
|
|
While growing up, Jeff and I were both very
fond of the American Heritage series of war-themed board games,
Battle Cry (about the Civil War) being our hands-down favorite.
This weekend we got to play our first game of Skirmish,
a 5th title in the series, published in 1975, but unknown to
us until recently, which he finally got a copy of via eBay. It's
about the Revolutionary War, and we both really liked it! Both
the history and the game play are solid. I'm looking forward
to playing it again! |
|
TSI-TelSys has finally gone completely under.
The technology company Kristin helped found in 1996 (under the
leadership of our mutual boss from our days together at NASA,
Jim Chesney) has been struggling to stay afloat for years, and
finally ceased all operations last month. Naturally, this is
a bummer for us... when Kristin left TSI to start Looney Labs,
she retained a lot of hope for TSI (not to mention founder's
stock, which is now officially worthless) and since Marlene and
I also worked at TSI-TelSys for a time (and various friends and
relatives of ours actually invested in the company) this was
sad news for many of us here at Looney Labs. |
|
|
Kids at birthday parties now routinely sing (or
rather, shout) "cha-cha-cha" in-between the verses
of the traditional birthday song. Perhaps it's a regional thing,
but if you haven't encountered it yet, just wait... it's a powerful
meme. In the distant future, no one will sing it any other way. |
|
"Organization is the key
to success in all endeavors." -- Dave Bondi, during
his recent visit, quoting something I first said 10 years ago,
when we were working together at Magnet Interactive Studios |
|
|
My favorite "Suggested
Alternatives" to 33 commonly-stated reasons people give
for having children:
- "We can't experience everything. Far better to regret
not breeding than to regret breeding."
- "Do great things with your genes, rather than expecting
the next cultured batch to do it."
- "Save money and prepare for retirement. Be nice to people
so they will visit you in the home."
- "Accept mortality. Spread memes not genes. Socrates'
heirs are not apparent, but his ideas linger strong."
- "Choosing to breed precludes most other things you'll
just want to do."
|
|
|
"I'm the President and the Commander-in-Chief.
Do it my way. Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It's
just a goddamned piece of paper!" -- George
W. Bush, in a closed meeting with Republican Congressional leaders
in late 2005, as
reported by Doug Thompson, who says he confirmed this quote
with 3 people who were present at the meeting |
 |
2005 was a great year for us in many
ways, but it was a bad year for my collection of video equipment.
I used to have several VCRs in active use, and they all broke
down last year. (My primary unit started freezing up on New Year's
Eve.) So now the question is: Does anyone know a good VCR repair
place in the DC area? (Or is this a sign that it's time for me
to finally upgrade to TIVO?) |
|
|
During National
Play Week, I caught up a little on my movie-watching. I really
enjoyed 3 hits from last summer: Fantastic Four (I think it was
the best superhero movie I've ever seen, though what I'm really
looking forward to is the sequel I have to assume they're planning:
The Coming of Galactus),
March of the Penguins (which made us all really glad we're not
penguins), and The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (which I liked
best of the bunch). I also really enjoyed a Disney classic I
somehow had never seen before: The Parent Trap. |
|
"An alien invasion is coming
to town,
So fire up your blasters and sit yourself down.
Or play paddle-tennis with a cubical ball,
Shoot very slow weapons and hide behind walls.
Oh what can console us now that this has been packed?
The new ones are fancy, but just don't take us back." -- clue from a Boxing Day scavenger hunt, written
by Alison, leading to the spot in our video-gaming area where
we used to have our Atari 2600 set up |
"Is
Time Real?" -- cryptic question posed by a sign seen
on an overpass last week in Morgantown West Virginia
