Significant Influences

These are some of the thinkers who have most notably helped shape the way I see the world:

Friedrich Nietzsche – the noble man defines his own values.
The Buddha, especially The Eightfold Path, but also the Four Noble Truths
Jesus Christ – especially the Lord’s Prayer and his overall message of compassion along with many more details that I won’t go into right now.
Robert E Howard, specifically through Conan the Barbarian
Lao-Tsu – The Tao Te Ch’ing
Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Brothers Karamazov
John Shelby Spong – Christian Atheism makes sense and best describes me.
Dan Savage – yes, the sex advice columnist.

Lessons from the First Adventure

The group didn’t quite get what I was trying to do with the round robin, ‘what is the first story of your character,’ but that’s okay. They wound up creating a single shared ‘how they met’ story for themselves, which is still superior to making me engineer a ‘how the group met’ adventure.

I launched quickly into a skill challenge; I knew this would be tricky since it’s a new mechanic to pretty much everyone at the table. I wanted to introduce the concept because I think it has great potential if we can get better at it. DM’s need to design and execute them well, and players need to problem solve using their characters skills. All in all, I was pleased with the outcome. They missed an opportunity to interact with NPC’s which then made the rest of the challenge kinda boring. I realize now I need to be a little more clear about making their options visible.

I should have read up on the monsters a bit more, and thought their tactics out a little in advance. It worked out fine, but would have been smoother and quicker, with less book flipping if I had done that. I think I will continue using the cards for all quick reference information; at least this keeps everything in one place. It does create flipping through the cards, but my hypothesis is that this is outweighed by the certainty of all info in one place.

I must admit that it’s delicious to frustrate the players a little by making the mobs sneaky and by zapping the player characters with hindering affects. It’s also fun to bloody the PC’s and to knock them down sometimes.

I’m Still in Love with President Obama

Content: So far, President Obama is running the perfect presidency. He made genuine, good faith efforts to involve the Republican party in the stimulus package, he has initiated plans to close Guantanamo and immediately put a halt to the prosecutions happening there , he is allowing us to see where our billions will go through unheard of transparency . There have been a few missteps, notably with some of his cabinet choices, but what manager hasn’t made a bad hire or two in his time? He has even put a stop to the traditional sketchy accounting practices that have made the deficient appear smaller.

I even like that he holds (so far) regular cocktail gatherings at the White House. This is my president.

I’m still worried, mind you. Unemployment continues to grow, Washington State has a large budget deficit, transit is threatened, Afghanistan is still in deep trouble (and if the fragile situation in Iraq regresses… but let’s hope the positive trends there continue) and North Korea has plans to test rockets. I know it’s only been a month, but I sure hope we get some real, solid wins

Audible

A few weeks ago I started a trial subscription with Audible.com. I’ve been an avid podcast listener for two years, and felt the need for something more substantial. There are many more interesting books out there than I have time to read; if I can lever my running and commuting time to digging through some of them, that would be groovy.

I majored in English and am a bit of a failed novelist, so I appreciate reading. Reading and listening are different activities; on the other hand, isn’t it better to listen to some content than to never experience it at all?

The first book I downloaded was John Shelby Spong’s Jesus for the Non-Religious. I’ve been a fan of Spong for over ten years, but hadn’t kept up on his recent work. I wanted to avoid fiction for my first audio-book experience. I strikes me as more important to see the printed word when it comes to fiction. Non-fiction tends to be the transmission of facts, which seems to lend it more toward the audio format.

On a whole, it’s worked well. The content is generally interesting, and it doesn’t matter much if I miss a paragraph or two. His style is that of most essayists. He tells me what he’s going to tell me, he tells me, then he tells me what he told me. Additionally, there are summaries of what he told me in previous chapters and intends to tell me in later ones. There have been a few dry bits that barely held my attention, and that can be a problem. Sometimes I like to flip through chapters initially, to see what’s coming (remember Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review or SQRRR?), and that’s impossible with audio-books. Instead, you’re locked in the fairly interminable march forward, through the work, at the pace of the reader. Yes, you could loop backward or forward if you wanted; iPod technology certainly allows for that.

On a whole, it’s been a good experience. Next, I’ll probably choose a biography or some low intensity science fiction. Maybe a Star Wars expanded universe novel, or a biography about Tom Petty… I also would bet that smut, er… ‘erotica’ would be entertaining in this format.

Reflections on Stranger in a Strange Land

I first encountered this book at the tail end of my Heinlein phase, in 1994. This was also the beginning of my first stab at becoming a science fiction novelist, and, I realize now, that terrible book that I wrote was more than a little influenced by this work. I also realize that Heinlein uses some tricky narrative styles that probably confused me. For example, he switches tenses and person a time or two. It works for him, but as a very new, not very good writer, it was not something I should have been fooling with.

As science fiction, it holds up in many ways; in other ways, less so. The hard science is not very interesting. There’s nothing terribly innovative about the one world government, the flying, automated cars, or the video and audio tapes that appear occasionally. On the other hand, Mars and its inhabitants are fairly interesting. Good thing too, since the relationship between human and Martian drives the entire novel.

What I found to be most interesting and most disappointing was the social commentary. The book makes it clear that Heinlein enjoys and has great affection for women. It also strongly suggests a line of deep sexism in his thinking. Even the more central women are cast as purely supporting characters. They are intelligent, attractive and varied; yet all the really important actions and decisions are left to the male characters.

I deeply appreciate the concept of Water Brother as portrayed here. Of course, it reflects an idealized circle of friends. Since I don’t live in an idealized world, it breaks down when applied to my reality. For example, in this novel’s concept, the circle of water brothers is ever inclusive, and water brothers are always trusted to be wise in their inclusion of new members. In my life, I surely have close friends analogous to Michael Smith (The Man from Mars)’s water brothers; yet, these friends occasionally have close friends who I would not choose to associate with, let along ‘share water’ with.

Heinlein’s view of human sexuality is also compelling. These characters are polyamorous (though the word hadn’t been invented yet), have multiple partners, and yet, they are not at all licentious. All of their sex is a means for ‘growing closer.’ In some ways this makes it simultaneously more and less casual than sex is commonly experienced in our culture.

There’s also a nice bit about good kissing. The best kisses are those in which those involved are focused on the experience itself, and are not concerned about the before and after.

Susie Bright

You have to love Susie Bright. While I have some of her books around, I'd never seen her speak before.

Root Causes of Disharmony

Lately I’ve been blending my interest in ‘harmony’ with my professional focus of root cause analyses. In my life right now, I know disharmony when I see it. I especially know it within myself. If something is stuck in my craw, it can take some contemplative digging to determine what I’m cranked about. Usually whatever I’m cranked about isn’t the root cause.

This has brought to light at least one emotional dilemma that I must navigate: I despise and get very stressed when I’m stuck in a bad plan – disharmony! – so I tend to at least review plans as their devised. As a result, I wind up making a lot of plans; normally I don’t mind, and I generally find it satisfying. It is, however, an additional responsibility, which brings its own stress - and… disharmony!

Identifying this bind is already a great start: it’s obvious that in any given situation, I have to either embrace the planning and coordination, or enjoy the relative lack of responsibility. I do appreciate when a strong, knowledgeable and coordinated leader steps up and makes a plan that I can, at least, live with.

Long Weekend

I’ve posted some pictures to Facebook, and lots more to Flickr. If I know you, and you want to see them, let me know.

Travel:

I got a speeding ticket just outside of Ritzville. The officer was very polite; I didn’t try to explain anything. I knew I was guilty, I knew he’d caught me. On a whole, the experience was pleasant enough, aside from the bill at the end.

It snowed while we were at the birthday / Super Bowl party, which added some adventure for the five mile drive back to Colville. I got to practice my snow skills, and realized that my motorcycle experience has helped develop my sense of angles and friction. I had to double back at one point, because I slide through the intersection I was supposed to turn at. Overall, it wasn’t a sweat though.

The lingering snow kept me cautious from Colville to Spokane, but didn’t hinder much. It probably did contribute, however, to a hole in my rental car’s tire. The car had a little light that warned me of low tire pressure, and I heard the hissing when I stopped for supplies.

As we’ve all probably noticed, pay phones are becoming rare; what’s even rarer are phone books. It was easy to get instructions with a phone call or two, but 411 left me on hold for quite awhile, and I was very much at their mercy. Then I had to call the tire place for directions. All while the air continued to hiss out of the tire. I did kind of wish I had a more advanced cel phone. Google Maps sure would have been handy.

Gaming:

We played a very odd and super fun game of BSG. Humans won, and the player with Tom Zarek was President, Admiral and the only human not in the brig at the game’s end. If the Cylon player had been more familiar with the game, the outcome may have changed. I am sure, however, that my strategy of early jumps, with dice adjusting cards, and Helo’s re-roll ability is the key to success. The game took nearly four hours; I think it could take less time with all experienced players. It always takes four hours with newbies though.

The next night we played a hand of Space Munchkin. This game took about an hour and was also lots of fun.

Alcohol:

We went out for beers and dinner the first night, but then pretty much quit drinking. Even though we were up late, no one suffered from a hangover, and no one was really ‘drunk.’ We didn’t have any alcohol at the Super Bowl / Birthday Party. While I can hardly imagine not drinking for my birthday, our fun was not at all impinged. After all, there was a puppy... and football. How we’ve changed…

Duration:
Two nights and two days seem just about right. I would have liked a few more hours on that first day, but I had to get my long run in, and the travel (see above) takes several hours.