Nuadha's Tale

Ignorance can be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it. -Thomas Jefferson

Wednesday, April 30, 2003

Miniatures

I looked upon the rotting sea,
And drew my eyes away ;
I looked upon the rotting deck,
And there the dead men lay.
I looked to heaven, and tried to pray ;
But or ever a prayer had gusht,
A wicked whisper came, and made
My heart as dry as dust.

I closed my lids, and kept them close,
And the balls like pulses beat ;
For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky
Lay like a load on my weary eye,
And the dead were at my feet.

-"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Coleridge

I haven't been painting miniatures or playing any minature games besides Heroclix lately. It's just such a hassle to pull out all the paints and what-not and start painting. Still, I've had a miniature diorama in my head for a while and I may have to put it together sometime. I want to make a diorama of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." I can picture how I could convert a miniature for the character and I should be able to find a bird to hang an albatross around his neck. I can use plastic zombies from the Warhammer Fantasy line for the dead crewmen and mix their parts with miniatured that look somewhat sailor-like (like the plastic Mordheim mercenaries). The big thing that's going to be a challenge is making the deck of the ship. I'm picturing that I'd make it look like he's on the deck of the ship, surrounded by his dead crew. Maybe I could convert a ship's deck out of balsa wood, but I haven't the first idea how to start.

I've got the pose that in mind that I would convert the mariner in: on his knees, looking up to the sky, looking for god.

...and of course, even if I do this, where am I going to put it? It's not the type of diorama you decorate the living room with. I can picture Carla showing someone around our new house: "Oh that? It's a diorama of rotting corpses James made." Plus, with my track record on miniatures, it will end up being half-painted and waiting to be finished.

It also occurs to me that the Ancient Mariner could make a neat character for a game like John's Enigma Society.

Game Ideas
One idea that has been stuck in my head lately was inspired by hearing about the plot to .hack. The anime and video game is about characters who are unravelling a mystery about this online roleplaying game and spend part of the time in the real world and part of it in the game. I keep thinking it would be neat to do this in a con game, where players are playing characters who are players in this online world and they have to deal with things inside and outside of the game to unravel a mystery. (perhaps the game company is an evil company using it to program the minds of its players or maybe the game ends up being a testing ground for an alien organization looking for warriors as in The Last Starfighter) Whatever the truth is, the characters would have to unravel with clues inside the game's server and in the outside world.

Another game idea came to me on the way to work:

We should have seen it coming. All the signs were there. When the governments had everyone implant I.D. chips in thie palms, we should have known. When people started mysteriously disappearing across the earth, we should have known. Now, the end days are upon us and we never saw it coming. There was no rapture for us. Nor was there eternal damnation. We are the meek.


Yeah, I'm thinking of running a game based on the biblical apocalypse. I ran one years ago for some friends and it was some dark, scary s----. Call of Cthulu, eat your heart out.

Back in the day, I used to run a lot of one-shots for friends. We'd get together and someone would ask, "so what are we going to do tonight?" So, I'd throw together a game. A lot of these turned out diceless, because we didn't want to take time making up stats for our characters.

The best one-shot I remember running in those days was a zombie-horror game. It was a lot like I am Legend with a few survivors fighting to survive in a world overrun by the undead. I think we used the Masterbok system and I had three players.

Lucky Ducky
Tom the Dancing Bug offers the world the newest underdog hero, Lucky Ducky. "He's poor....so he always wins!"

Hey all
Sorry I've been so quiet. Work and school have been keeping me busy.

Something almost every GM has wished for at some time...
This is such a great idea. It's a hard plastic GM screen with clear slots for the GM to put in whatever charts or artwork he wants. It's a tad on the expensive side but cheap compared to buying a screen for every game you play. I think Amber is the only game I've ever GMed where I haven't said at soem point, I wish I had a GM screen. I even made my own nifty Paranoia GM screen years ago with an image of the The Computer on the outside and photocopies of charts on the inside.

(Edit- Apparently, you can only order the screen at another company's website, here.

Friday, April 25, 2003

Diablo Quiz
via Patrick

  • My #1 result for the SelectSmart.com selector, Which Diablo II Character are you?, is Sorceress




    Take the Diablo II Character Test.


  • Thursday, April 24, 2003

    Tom Tomorrow
    I love this week's strip, because I was thinking the exact same thing. They're going to make sure the Iraqis get universal health care, but we can't get it ourselves!?

    Monday, April 21, 2003

    Chango!!!!!
    Storn e-mailed me an illustration he did of my character Chango over the weekend. Thanks to Storn, I now have an illustration of every one of my Champions characters. Here is my new Champions Gallery.

    Book Meme
    (Courtesy of The Ferret)

    Bibliomancers Unite!: The Birth Of A Quiz



    What books are your comfort reading - the ones you slink back to in times of stress?
    Do Superman comics count? If not, then I would say the Elric series.


    What was your favorite book as a child, and why?
    I couldn't choose just one, but I loved the whole Oz series. They were so magical.

    What was your favorite book as an adolescent, and why?
    The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. It's still my favorite book.

    What is the most-unread category of books gathering dust on your bookshelf - the books you've bought but just never got around to reading?
    Fantasy. It's taken me a while and several unread books to realize that I'm actually not a fan of the genre. I'm a fan of Michael Moorcock and have enjoyed a few other fantasy novels, but most of the Fantasy novels I've bought have gone unread.

    What kind of books would you like to say you read, but never do?
    Fantasy. Same as above.

    What's the oddest book you ever read?
    The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, a really dry book published by Government Scientists in the fifties. The pictures drew me in but the plot hooked me.

    What's the book you were never able to get through, despite the recommendations of people you respect?
    The Two Towers by JRR Tolkein. I tried. I really did. At least I made it halfway through the trilogy.

    What's the book it took you a couple of tries to get into, but was as good as people promised once you finally made it?
    Eye of the World by Robert Jordan.

    What's your favorite short story... Or do you even have one?
    It would probably be an Asimov or Bradbury story, but I can't thin ko one. Perhaps, "Dark They Were and Golden Eyed" by Bradbury.

    The desert island. Three books (and collected works don't count; if you want Lord of the Rings, it'll cost you all three slots). Go.
    Stormbringer by Michael Moorcock
    The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
    ...and believe it or not....
    The Bible by various authors.

    Friday, April 18, 2003

    Updated Links
    Updated my links to the right. The Artists section now includes some artists that I don't know personally but am fans of their art. I'll be adding more over time.

    Casting Call
    I'm very excited that they are making a John Constantine movie, but according to Superherohype.com, a website that gathers rumours and news about upcoming superhero movies shows that they've cast Keanu Reeves. I'm praying they cast him as "the snob," and not John or this could really suck.

    In other news, they're already writing the script for the second new Superman movie, even though they haven't finished casting the first. One of the guys in the lead for the part is the guy from Count of Monte Cristo. The second script will have Supes returning to Krypton. I hope they get to make it.

    Halle Berry is close to signing on as Catwoman. Am I the only one who sees this as a good thing?

    David Boreanaz has been rumoured to be the next Batman. I like him and he can certainly pull off dark and brooding, but I'm still having problems with this one.

    ..and in another crappy casting job by Hollywood, Leonardo DiCaprio is being looked at for Iron Man.

    Thursday, April 17, 2003

    Buffy
    I posted this on a mailing list, but thought I'd share my feelings about last Tuesday's episode with everyone here.

    {SPOILERS AHEAD}
    Carla and I missed the last couple of episodes and I got home Tuesday night half of the way in to the latest episode. The first thing that struck me was how easily it was to follow everything. Usually, if you miss afew episodes on a show like this, when they are doing such big things as what they are trying to do now, it would take a little time to get caught up. However, having missed the first half hour of the episode, I walked into see the only change being that Faith was there. Everyone was still doing the same things they've been doing most of this season.

    I heard they were going back to the first season's feel with this episode. I guess I'm missing that. This season has been even darker and more depressing than last, even with Buffy's "uplifting" speeches.

    She did the speech again last night! I thought after spoofing it in the Andrew episode that they realized how bad it was getting, but Buffy was still there last night doing the speech thing....and Xander even got into the act!

    Going in, I knew there would be slayerettes dying. It just seems to fit this season. The whole theme of this season seems to be Buffy acts as the grown-up, only to get beat down. She makes a risky decision in Tuesday night's episode and we get all sorts of speeches about it, while Giles worries that she's sending them into a slaughter (and she is).

    ...and what's up with Giles!? Where did his backbone go!? He meekly tells Buffy he doesn't approve of the plan and when she says she's going ahead with it he backs down. I know he isn't her Watcher anymore, but she still (somewhat) respects him. He should have pulled her aside and given her hell.

    I don't know what to say, but the ending left me feeling sick. I don't mind a dark ending, but usually when there is a dark ending on a show like this, there is some feeling as why the storyteller decided it was needed and often you're left with some feeling hope, but this episode leaves me with no feeling of hope that this show is going anywhere I want to see it go. Sure, I know that the season will end with the world being saved, but I have a feeling I'll have to suffer more scenes like the last couple from the last episode.

    Maybe, it's the war in real-life affecting the writers. Maybe they feel the need to show that the good guys are going to lose some while saving the world to make Joe America feel better about the guys and girls dying in Iraq. Maybe a gritty world where images of terrorist attacks have filled the public's imagination have turned the writers of Buffy to make the show more horrific.

    I really liked the first couple of episodes this season, but as it got further in, I've liked it less than the last season.

    Tuesday, April 15, 2003

    Angel
    Angel is in the lead in the Save One Show Poll.

    Monday, April 14, 2003

    Dixie Chick Apology
    An Apology from Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, for stating she was ashamed to be from George Bush's home state of Texas. I'm not sure if it's authentic, but it's a good read.


    As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful. I now realize that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect.

    I hope everyone understands, I'm just a young girl who grew up in Texas. As far back as I can remember, I heard people say they were ashamed of President Clinton. I saw bumper stickers calling him everything from a pothead to a murderer. I heard people on the radio and TV like Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott bad mouthing the President and ridiculing his wife and daughter at every opportunity.

    I heard LOTS of people disrespecting the President. So I guess I just assumed it was acceptable behavior. But now, thanks to the thousands of angry people who want radio stations to boycott our music because criticizing the President
    is unpatriotic, I realize it's wrong to have a liberal opinion if you're a country music artist. I guess I should have thought about that before deciding to play music that attracts hypocritical red necks.

    I also realize now that I'm supposed to just sing and look cute so our fans won't have anything to upset them while they're cheating on their wives or getting in drunken bar fights or driving around in their pickup trucks shooting highway signs and small animals.

    And most important of all, I realize that it's wrong for a celebrity to voice a political opinion, unless they're Charlie Daniels, Clint Black, Merle Haggard, Barbara Mandrell, Loretta Lynn, Ricky Skaggs, Travis Tritt, Hank Williams Jr, Amy Grant, Larry Gatlin, Crystal Gayle, Reba McEntire, Lee Greenwood,
    Lorrie Morgan, Anita Bryant, Mike Oldfield, Ted Nugent, Wayne Newton, Dick Clark, Jay Leno, Drew Carey, Dixie Carter, Victoria Jackson, Charleton Heston, Fred Thompson, Ben Stein, Bruce Willis, Kevin Costner, Arnold Schwartzenegger, Bo Derek, Rick Schroeder, George Will, Pat Buchanan, Bill O'Reilly, Joe Rogan, Delta Burke, Robert Conrad or Jesse Ventura.

    God Bless America,
    Natalie

    (update- It's apparently a hoax)

    Sunday, April 13, 2003

    This sucks.
    Thayrone, one of the WEMU hosts got fired and reading the reasons why, I like him even more. He still has another show in the area, but hisshow on WEMU was the only one I normally caught.

    Friday, April 11, 2003

    .

    Thursday, April 10, 2003

    Myths and Roleplaying
    From this site (link via Arref):


    Recreational roleplaying draws much of its content from the world of myth. There are some very practical reasons for this. People share a lot of myths in common, and many psychologists and sociologists have argued that our identities are founded in myths. Myths are powerful, symbolic, instantly accessable, and embody much of the language of our creative selves. They're easy to talk about, easy to understand, and don't need complex pictures or explanations.

    By drawing on common myth, roleplaying games let us find and explore those things that are important to us -- the heroes and monsters of our social and personal subconsciousses. Many stories told by roleplaying games are so deeply rooted in myth that they're instantly recognisable to a stranger entering in the middle of a game. The symbols are clear, and the issues are common to us all.

    Roleplaying games are very eclectic in the myths they draw on. The stories of knights, princesses, dragons and dwarves are familiar fare. So too are the myths of modern adventure heroes, wild west heroes and comic book heroes. As well as drawing on the heroes and villains of Christian and pre-Christian myth, myths are drawn from the rich legacies of all kinds of other cultures. Many roleplayers have become skilled tale-weavers in the myths of cultures far different to their own.

    The myths of our culture develop constantly, and nowadays, each development is reflected in roleplaying. As the dystopian vision of Cyberpunk developed in the eighties, with the novels of Gibson and others, the roleplaying reflections of these books came not after. As vampires came to the book and screen in the early nineties, they came too to roleplaying games. Born of our current interests, roleplaying offers its players a way of expressing and reflecting those social changes that move about them, in the language of myth.

    Blogger
    I mentioned the X-Men a few posts ago, so now there are links on my blog's ad to buy X-Men comics.

    On this day...
    some highlights from this article:

    1919: Mexican anarchist revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata, age 29, ambushed and assassinated by Mexican troops, Chinameca, Mexico. One of the main participants in the peasant uprisings against the central government's authority from 1910 until his death.

    1945: U.S. medical staff at an Oak Ridge, Tennessee hospital inject plutonium into the survivor of a car accident. Thus begins an enormous (and until the 1990s, top-secret) U.S. government program, which did not end until the mid-1970s, to investigate the effects of radioactive materials when injected into live humans.

    1947: Jackie Robinson appears in first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African-American to play major league baseball after 78 years of segregation. The game, until a franchise moved to Atlanta in the mid-'60s, was played entirely in northern cities.

    1981: United Nations approves world treaty assuring no civilians should be attacked with "napalm, mines, or booby-traps." Defeated by U.S. veto.

    Vice City
    I've been playing GTA:VC again lately. It's still an evil, evil game that has no place being so damned fun. One of the things that keeps it so entertaining is the radio stations. With the variety of 1980's music and commercial parodies, I'm always hearing things I haven't heard before. I was looking online for some FAQs for some of the missions and I found one that just has scripts of the commercials. Here's my personal favorite, an infomercial on how to protect your children from Communists:


    Mom: What's this I found under your bed? The only Engels you're going to read is Laura Ingalls Wilder.

    Speaker: If you think your child might be a Red, here are some warning signs.
    They read compicated literature and have concern for their fellow man.
    They even like to share. Tell your kids, if someone approachs them
    with pamphlets about recycling, an invitation to a Labour rally, or
    showing any doubts about the fariness of our system. Then they should
    find a teacher or a policeman immediately.

    More Definition

    terrorism: "...the systematic use of terror or unpredictable violence against governments, publics, or individuals to attain a political objective. Terrorism has been used by political organizations with both rightist and leftist objectives, by nationalistic and ethnic groups, by revolutionaries, and by the armies and secret police of governments themselves."

    Terrorism is defined in the U.S. by the Code of Federal Regulations as: "..the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives." (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85)"

    -From this site


    and from this BBC article, I found this:
    Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva convention defines war crimes as: "Wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including . . . wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person, compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile power, or wilfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial, . . . taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly."




    Hiroshima
    In one of my school papers, I described the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings as the only terrorist attacks that were worse than 9/11. My teacher wrote on the paper that they weren't terrorist attacks because it was "a legitimate act of war." Using the FBI's definition of terrorism as a "criminal act done to affect the policies of a government" (a wording done so that people practicing non-violent civil disobedience could be declared terrorists), I would say these were terrorist attacks as they were done by the US to intimidate other governments and as attacks on civilian populaces instead of military targets the bombings were war-crimes. Since I know that the FBI's definition was left vaque and is not a very good definition, I just looked up Terrorism in the Mirriam Webster and it referred to acts of terror and defined acts of terror as: "violence (as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands " The US bombing was done to intimidate Japan into giving up the war and to intimidate Russia so it would not try spreading Communism. So, once again I stand by my words. The US commited the greatest terrorist attacks in history.-

    Tuesday, April 08, 2003

    Diablo 2
    When I got home last night, Carla was playing Diablo 2. I worked on a school paper last night and then when I was finished, I logged on and played for a while. I started a "melee-mancer." (Thanks to PF for giving me a name for this character-type other than "the Necromance who runs up and hits things.") I ended up staying up well-past midnight playing the game.

    I figured it out.
    The reason my wrists have been aching so much has had less to do with how I've been positioning my hands on the keyboard but how hard I was hitting the keys. Today, I've been more mindful about hitting the keys softly and my muscles aren't hurting as much. Besides helping reduce my wrist pain, it's been a good Buddhist exercise as I keep wanting to slip back into my old typing habits of slamming the keys and if I don't stay mindful, I'll be hurting again.

    Blogger
    I noticed a while back that blogger assigns blogspot ads according to the blog and what the blog seems to be about. It seems to search for random words and do its best. My blog usually has ads for political books and websites or RPG books. Angel Mills usually has ads about Romance Novels and Audiobooks. I've seen gardening supply ads on Double N's blog. Well, I mentioned the Nuremberg trials a few posts ago and got an add for "Nuremberg Trials VHS: Great Classic from your past; Relive your Childhood. " Yeah, when I think about my childhood, I think of Nazi war-criminals.

    Monday, April 07, 2003

    Lilly's Song
    Patrick's not the only one still trying to think of songs for his characters. I finally thought of Lilly's:


    The Revolution Will Not Be Televized
    by Gil Scott-Heron, 1972

    You will not be able to stay home, brother.
    You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
    You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
    Skip out for beer during commercials,
    Because the revolution will not be televised.

    The revolution will not be televised.
    The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
    In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
    The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
    blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
    Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
    hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.

    The revolution will not be televised.

    More lyrics here


    It's a great song. It's about black/white relations in the Seventies, but its just as applicable to Lilly's mutant-rights activism and captures the spirit of her character. If she were in the X-Men comics, she'd probably work with Magneto. She has seen the worst of how man treats his fellow man, just because he's different...a mutant. She leads up a resistance movement that regularly breaks mutants out of government detention (it's that bad in Neil's Champions Universe) and helps them escape to Canada.

    Battlestar Galactica script
    OK. I read this review of the script for the remake and I'm not looking forward to it as much. It sounds like the only connection it will have to the original is the look of the spaceships and a few names. I'll still watch it, but with a bit of dread.

    What!?
    I'm a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica, so I'm really looking forward to the Sci-Fi channel remake that's supposed to come out later this year. I still wish they were doing a continuation of the original series with teh original actors instead, but it's been over 20 years. I'll take what I can get. Reading about the Morituri series they're planning made me decide to see if I could find any news on the BG miniseries. Well, I found that they're talking about casting Edward James Olmos as Adama (the part originally played by Lorne Greene). It's a hard fit, but EJO is a good actor, so I'm willing to give it a try. This however, this is a bit more of a jump. Dirk Benedict's character, a gambling, womanizing, cigar-chomping, fighter pilot named Starbuck who spends most of the series two-timing Cassopeia and Athena, will be played by a blonde woman named Katee Sackoff. I guess I'm willing to be a little flexible on my views of the show but I still want to see some womanizing from her. Hmmmm....on the second thought, maybe this isn't all bad.

    Cool!
    According to Movie Poop-shoot, Sci-Fi channel is making a series based off of Strikeforce Morituri, a really neat comic that Marvel put out in the 1980's about a world where people could sign up for a project and get superpowers, but they only live about 1000 days before their body breaks down, hence the title Sci-Fi plans to use for the series: One Thousand Days. It should be neat, but talk about using an obscure title....

    Saturday, April 05, 2003

    Goering Quote Update

    So many quotes go around email and the internet and are falsely attributed. A week or so ago, I quoted something supposedly said by Hermann Goering at his war-crimes trial. Well, it bothered me quoting it because I wasn't sure if it was real or just another Myth. Well, according to Snopes, its the real deal. Here's the complete quote:

    Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.

    -- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

    Love Conquers All
    I watched some Tenchi Muyo! this morning. It's one of my favorite anime series, second only to Record of Lodoss War. One of the things it got me thinking about is the whole love-conquers-all-theme that is omnipresent in Japanese Anime. If any anime series runs long enough, it will have an episode where a character's love will save the day or at the very least give the hero the strength to save the day. For crying out loud! In Robotech/Macross, an anime generally aimed at guys, Lynn Minmei saves the earth and defeats an entirely alien armada with the power of a love song. Some series, like Tenchi and Ranma, come back to this theme constantly and have it built into the premise. Other series like Lodoss, may be harder to catch but the romance between Ashram and Pirotesse is an extremely important part of Lodoss War that many people overlook and it's a love that allows them both to cheat death a few times and makes Ashram become a better man. You know what? I'm a sucker for this. It's one of the reasons I like anime. In fact, in one of the games I ran over the weekend, Carla used this to her advantage in one of the games I ran (Dreaming City), resurrecting a dead character with a kiss. It may sound cheesy, but in a magical city run by this GM, it can work. There was even a part of me that cheered in The Matrix when Trinity, in the midst of all the chaos, helps Neo with her kiss. I eat that shit up. I don't know if that's so unusual for guys. We're able to love to and anyone who has ever truly loved, believes it. Love really can conquer all.




    It never occured to me until recently how much Japanese Anime and American Romance Fiction had in common. My comp teacher handed out an article recently for us to look at it and discuss. It argued in it that romance novels appeal to women because it is a "woman's myth." Look at most classic faerie tales and there is a theme. The men and boys in faerie tales go off on a quests and are proactive. They teach young boys that they must seek what they want in this world and let nothing hold them back. Men who are not always trying to climb that beanstalk, don't become heroes in stories. Meanwhile, classic faerie tale heroines wait to be swept up by prince charming. Snow White gets everything she ever wants because she looks good while she's sleeping. Sleeping Beauty gets everything because she looks good while she's sleeping. Cinderella gets what she wants because she has a small foot. What did they all want? Prince Charming to come and sweep them away.

    This article went on to argue that romance fiction sells so well because it gives women what they want, proactive women that win for themselves the love that they want and through their love the hero and heroine makes it through whatever challenges them.

    So, why do the Japanese have this subplot in almost all of their anime? Why is this plot missing from so much of American entertaiment?

    Many American movies and stories seem to say that you succeed through violence and that through fighting your way through countless faceless minions you'll win the heart of the girl you desire How many "non-girly" movies have the hero open up his heart to the woman? How many non-romance Hollywood movies end with the heroine speaking of her love to the master-villian and so moving his heart that he changes his way and let's Prince Charming go?

    Do women want to know why guys have such a hard time talking about our feelings or exressing our love? It all goes back to the stories, the myths we grow up on. The guy's hero never gets anywhere talking about his feelings. In fact, most guy's heroes don't even stick with the same girl from movie to movie. The girl is just the prize, not the story and Prince Charming still has to fight his way through a forest of monsters to get to the Sleeping Beauty.

    I'm sure someone's done a poll at sometime. I wonder if Japanese guys are more in touch with their emotions. I mean, even though it's usually the girl doing all the loving in these animes, the love plot is there in every almost every anime, wether its for guys or girls, and it says it's OK to love. Someday, your love may save the world.

    ((Note- I just thought of Akira, my favorite anime movie. It's an extremely violent movie and even though there isn't much of a love story, Kaneda helps his friend Tetsuo move on to the next stage in the end by talking to him and being his friend. Sure, like a hollywood movie, Akira ends with explosions and Neo-Toyo being turned to rubble but it also reminds us the power of another kind of love: friendship.))

    Friday, April 04, 2003

    Quote of the Day
    (Via Tom Tomorrow)

    Nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes.
    --Tom DeLay

    Propoganda and the Faces of War
    During wartime even more than peacetime, the news channels become a propoganda-machine for whoever they support. News coverage becomes even more slanted than before and it becomes difficult to discern the truth. So, just as CNN and american news channels are telling us how wonderful America is and showing images of our brave soldiers, the Arabic news channels are going to show images that will paint us bad. Still, these pictures from Al Jazeera give us the face of war that American news channels will try to avoid. This is collateral damage. This is suffering. This is why I am against war.

    There is something I've been meaning to mention for a while. A friend stated a while back that, while she was against this war, she wouldn't protest because she wasn't for "Peace for peace's sake" and that at times war is justified. I've been to a few protests over the last year and I want to say that most of these people would not argue that war is always wrong. "Those people" have always been out there protesting every war. The reason there are so many more people out there protesting these days is because the people protesting oppose this war for many reasons and most of them are out there because this war is so completely wrong and immoral, no matter how Bush paints it.

    However, I do believe that war is always wrong. That is something I believe in my heart. It is part of my morality. Logically, I know that there could be times that I would end up supporting a war and putting aside my "high horse," but my own personal, religious and moral beliefs are that anything done to cause suffering is wrong and that the only way to bring about a world who no longer uses war as a way to end conflicts is by making that change within myself. If I ever raise a fist or gun in anger, I will have failed my own beliefs, no matter what the events are that caused me to do so.

    More Anoki
    Can you tell it's a bit quiet at work this morning? Here's another PBEM between Anoki and Armand (played by A. North).

    More Amber Stuff
    I'm just going through some stuff stashed in my Geocities account this morning and looking for stuff that I may link to when I create a website for all my RPG stuff. Here is some email play between Alexander and Simone (played by Angel Mills). This seen takes place shortly after Alexander stabbed his half-brother Sebastian, using his dagger to pull out Sebastian's soul and contain it within himself. Simultaneously, as this conversation was taking place, I was email playing a conversation with Sebastian in his mind (played by the GM) and realizing that Sebastian's sould was more intact than he thought it would be. Veronica, who is mentioned was another half-sibling and Sebastian's lover played by Carla.

    Eddie Vedder speaks out
    about the war

    Amber
    It's a little rough to read as it's just as it was emailed, but if anyone is interested, here is the email play between Anoki and Cambria (played by J. Crice) for MK's Mercy & Forgiveness. Anoki is the grandson of Corwin and son of another character of mine, Alexander. He has been raised amongst the Anishinabeg, a group in a world Brand created in the abyss that are a lot like Earth's Native Americans. (The Anishinabeg are an actual tribe in Canada.) Anoki is a shaman, storyteller and sometimes-warrior. This play starts shortly after young Cambria asked to come live with the Anishinabeg and and Anoki to learn their ways and the art of shapeshifting. In this play, Anoki tells Cambria the history of Amber as told to him and helps her understand why so many people dislike her father, Brand.

    Benedict Arnold
    I caught the end of A&E's Benedict Arnold miniseries this morning. It seemed to be pretty good and I really liked Kelsey Grammer as Washington, but it did one thing that bothered me. At the end a British officer is telling Arnold that his betrayal has united the colonies in a way that noone else could, more than Washington or the Congress. Where did that come from? I've read many books on the period and while Benedict Arnold was a very important General and his turning sides was major news, my impression was that it hurt morale if anything. It certainly didn't unite the colonies from what I read. My only guess is that the biographer that wrote whatever this movie was based on was trying to make the story seem so much more important than it was.

    Thursday, April 03, 2003

    News
    What did I say? Oregon law would jail protesters as terrorists.

    There ought to be limits to freedom.
    -George W. Bush, 1999

    Wednesday, April 02, 2003

    Funnies: Boondocks
    Sometimes I feel like this

    Quiz
    HASH(0x84ab410)
    Which Silver Screen Siren are you?

    brought to you by Quizilla

    I've never seen Breakfast at Tiffany's. Now you know.

    ACUS 2004
    Looking ahead, once again I have more games that I would like to run next year than I could possibly do.

    Games I will run:
    Morpheus ???????: Continuing the series. (with one or two co-GMs)
    Dreaming City: of course.

    Games I might run (some that I talked to people about over the weekend):
    The Forever People: another game based on Kirby's Fourth World saga, perhaps using the Marvel Diceless system
    Diablo: with a co-GM who came up with the idea, it's a good plot idea
    LARP: I don't know if Kris has someone doing the costume ball for next year, but after this year's success, I'm open to it.
    The other LARP: a friend mentioned the possibility of co-GMing a LARP. This one would be more serious and may not be suitable costume ball material.

    add these to all the other ideas that linger in my mind....