Warcraft and Seahawks

It's been almost two months since I posted last. I'm trying to work on that. I experimented with emailing posts directly, but the formatting got all messed up, and I'm very lazy with these things.

The Seahawks are primed and ready for their playoff run. In many ways, this team is better than their Super Bowl team of 2005. In one very big way, however, it's inferior. Last week's game against Baltimore notwithstanding, they simply cannot sustain a running game. The Ravens haven't really been showing up since they lost against the Patriots, so our success their is not much to talk about.

Coach Holmgren was wise to switch to a pass first offense, and it may be enough to take us deep into the playoffs. Hasselbeck is playing his best football ever, the receiving corps is performing at a very high level, and the defense has shown an ability to truly dominate opposing offenses.

Nora and I have been quietly continuing with our Warcraft addic... hobby. We've joined a giant and very pleasant guild, and that really adds to our enjoyment. The game culture is very different with these folks, and on this server, compared to our time on Frostwolf, the pvp server. It's much easier to get a hand with an instance or with gear. In some ways, it can be a little TOO easy, if you let it.

Formatting problems

For some reason when I email posts to this blog, the formatting gets all screwed up.

I hate this and have little patience for it. I have no knowledge of Html, and my attempts at correction don't seem to be helping.

My apologies for the formatting problems. I'll try to fix it more later.

Meta WoW: What kind of person ARE you?

What sort of person would do the things that our World of Warcraft characters do?

This varies depending on which quests and professions we choose, but some things are shared by all. To progress at all, every character is something of a hunter of beasts and enemies. The earliest quests involve killing a number of creatures and collecting trophies of some sort or other. Before long, the killing of creatures turns into the assassination of sentients. It can be argued that many of these assassination requests can be justified in the mind of a certain sort of person. This has a secret agent, “007 meets high fantasy” tone. Sometimes, our characters are asked to do things that are more difficult to justify. One quest in particular, suggested by a member of the Undead faction, is to murder a farmer and his family. Another of the Undead asks for components of a biological weapon to use against the humans. I keep expecting a ‘murder women and children in the Tusken Raider village’ quest. Thankfully, none have gone to that extreme.

It’s all shades of gray. There is a warm-to-cold war going on between the Alliance and the Horde, and in times of war, values and norms often shift. Every playable character must have, at best, a Conan the Barbarian code of ethics: enemies are to be killed, friends aided, life is short and brutal, death is cheap, and the strong flourish. I find it interesting that in Conan’s world, he was an extremely rare, if not unique individual. The World of Warcraft is filled with people like this.

More Warcraft: Proper Behavior in a Player Versus Player Environment

A character’s life on a player versus player server is filled with uncertainty.  In many of the game’s areas, combat between opposing factions is allowed and may erupt at any moment.  While this risk is consented to at the point of character generation, there are some behaviors that are downright uncalled for.

Don’t attack fishermen.  Fishing is a quiet, non conflict oriented activity.  Ganking someone who is armed only with her fishing pole is low and unfun.

Only jerks attack characters who are of significantly lower level.  When the level differential reaches a certain point, there is literally nothing to be gained from this battle.  There’s no challenge, and no honor points are rewarded.  All it does is frustrate the lower level character’s player.

It’s not okay to ‘camp’ at a corpse with the intent to re-kill the character upon resurrection.  In fact, repeatedly killing a character is also poor form, in general.

World of Warcraft does some things well.

Nora and I have been playing World of Warcraft (WoW) for a few months now, and it's clear there are some things the game and the community built around it do very well, and some things they don't do so well.

The greatest strength is the variety of play. It's easy to go on quests and adventure through the world by yourself, and this is very rewarding in itself. It's also very simple to find and adventure with folks that you already know. Nora and I spend quite a bit of time collaborating in our two person group. When we're up for a challenge, we choose quests that are at or a little above our characters' levels. If we want some quick accomplishments, we go after the stuff we're a little too powerful for. The spectrum is broad here. This is one of WoW's greatest strengths. If we want easy, there's easy, if we want difficult, there's difficult. If we don't want to kill stuff, we can go fishing, or spend time on any of the game's other professions. These professions all have rewards for excellence, and each has its own tone, style and feel.

Blizzard, the company behind the game, has also developed a deep player versus player environment. Again, the power generally belongs to the players. There are specific areas to go if one wants to join a large battle. In these areas the rules are clearly defined (think Capture the Flag and King of the Hill), and one can drop out at any time. The more wins a character accumulates, the greater the rewards. There is also the option to play in a more general player versus player environment. This decision must be made at character creation. If you accept this challenge, you are forevermore allowed into conflict with members of the opposing faction. However, even here there are some rules in place. For example, you cannot be attacked within your own capital city or starting low level starting area, unless you initiate the combat. In neutral areas, however, all bets, and rules are off. Some of us adhere to some general rules of honor, but many do not.

There are some things missing from the WoW experience: I haven't seen any puzzle or musical quests, for example. There's a lot of harvesting, killing bad guys are vicious animals, fetching artifacts usually guarded by bad guys or animals. Aside from those fundamentals, there isn't much variety. The types of adversaries, and the environments in which they live varies, but the activities surrounding them generally don't.

Now that I wrote that, I remembered some a counter examples. During the Halloween season, there IS a special event, and as part of that event, characters must use buckets of water to put out fires caused by the WoW version of the Headless Horseman. In the WoW "Brewfest" there was a quest to ride a ram throughout the city to advertise the beer garden outside the city gates.

Maybe later I'll write my own personal code of honor for player versus player battling.

New York Times Error Correction

I noticed today that the New York Times web site doesn't include contact
information for its reporters, and its editors are only interested in
learning about errors that "call for correction."

http://nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/infoservdirectory.html#c

This came about when I noticed an error in an article about The
Darjeeling Limited. This article mentioned that Natalie Portman 'did
not appear' in the film. In fact, she did appear in a cameo near the
end of the movie.

I don't know, does that 'call for correction?'

From the Edward Tufte Forum

http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0000yO&topic_id=1

In my line of work (designing games) I have to give referees a mind set and tool set for describing relationships between antagonist characters, their motivations, and the motivations of the characters played by other players.

I use causal diagrams, based somewhat off of Tufte, and a few books on writing romance novels(!).

There are three basic ties that matter for writing fiction, and for running roleplaying games: Ties of blood, ties of sexual tension, and ties of obligation. These all form bonds between characters that can be used to coerce them into acting.

So I give the following advice:

"Start with a blank sheet of paper - the bigger the better. 11x17 is ideal. In the center of the paper, write the name of your chief antagonist. Under that character's name, write down what they want, and if different, what they think they want, preferably in two different colors of ink, or one in block printing, the other in cursive.

Next, write down the names, wants and believed wants of people related to your antagonist. "Related" in this context means one of the following relatioships: Ties of blood and kinship, ties of sex or sexual tension, and ties of obligation and duty.

Now, write down the names and the motivations of all the player characters who will be playing in this scenario.

Draw thick black lines between the names of characters that are related to each other by blood.

Draw medium weight black lines between characters that are related by sex or sexual tension.

Draw lightweight black lines between the names of characters related by duty and obligation.

If there's a power disparity, have an arrowhead on the end of the line of the person at the lower end of the power continuum. If the power level is roughly equal, use a circle to indicate this. If you havn't decided on the power level, don't adorn the ends of the line - do that during the game.

This is the "sinew" layer of your conflict and relationship map. The next layer up are the nerves.

Take two highlighters (we recommend blue and pink, but any two colors will work), and draw arrows between characters - a blue arrow means that the character the arrow originates from likes the character the arrow points to. A pink arrow means the target is disliked by the originating character. If the tenor of the relationship is mutual, draw two arrows, going in opposite directions. If you need to, you can specify a particularly intense relationship with a thicker highlighter line, but we recommend against it.

This map is an easily grasped graphic of all the relationships that give velocity to your story. In particular, note that we've minimized the words put on the map to motivations and wants; this is deliberate. You may not even know, until the game is running, why there's a pink line indicating dislike between two characters...and something will pop into your head when you're setting up the scene. Jot a quick note down for future reference, and run with it - this is giving you a frame work for improvisational storytelling, and should be fluid, rather than rigid.

Because this is a graphical display of narration, any scene that doesn't alter a relationship on the map, or alter the perception of any relationship on the map, is unimportant and should be minimized or skipped. Similarly, when assigning motivations (the only words on the maps), you're assigning motivations that will be interesting for your players, not motivations that are interesting to the characters in question.

-- Ken Burnside (email), March 24, 2007

More from gapminder

http://tools.google.com/gapminder/

The Recently Discovered

http://armsandinfluence.typepad.com/armsandinfluence/

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/92

Seattle Climate Action

Seattle leadership IS trying to do the right thing regarding climate change.

www.seattlecan.org

World of Darkness / Mage Updage

It looks like my Mage group is working the chronicle toward a conclusion. Plans are afoot to put together an amalgam of White Wolf rules for our next storyline, which will most likely contain new characters.

We still have several weeks of play before this story concludes. That gives us time to really prepare.

I think we're going to use the new World of Darkness stat system, and something based on the Dark Ages: Mage magic system. As far as I can tell, this means that each character has his own magic spheres, based on his understanding of magic. This ties paradigm directly to the rule set.

I've been hunting around for the appropriate books, and it isn't easy; most of them are either out of print (and difficult to find) or terribly expensive.

Podcast Summary

My podcast playlist has evolved. Here's a snapshot that includes most of what I'm listening to now:

Dungeons & Dragons Podcast - I don't even play D&D, but I like to know what they're up to. It's very professional if not terribly regular.

ESPN: Fantasy Focus Football - comes out almost daily this time of year, and is relatively short.

ESPN: Football Today - more professional in tone than its Fantasy Football counterpart.

The Game Master Show - I listen to several indie role palying gamer related podcasts, and this is my favorite.

Guilty Pleasures Blogs - One of several 'adult' podcasts. This one covers the gambit from porn star and director interviews, to watching porn Mystery Theater Style, to reading erotica.

iFanboy.com Comic Book Podcast - my one comics podcast. It's okay.

Polyamory Weekly - primarily one woman 'cast about all angles of polyamory. Kink friendly, but also has topics directly related to non-poly folks, such as managing relationships between extroverts and introverts.

Savage Love Podcast - sex advice 'cast from Seattle's own Dan Savage

Taverncast: A World of Warcraft Podcast - my favorite World of Warcraft podcast.

1Up.com - 1 UP Yours - the main video game podcast. It's done by an ensemble and is above average in quality and entertainment value.

Obesity linked to Zip Code in Seattle

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/331292_obesezip12.html

An excerpt:

University of Washington researchers recently found wide disparities in obesity rates among King County ZIP codes. The rates range from less than 10 percent in parts of central Seattle and Bellevue to more than 25 percent in some south county neighborhoods.

The strongest predictor of obesity rates wasn't income or education but property values, the study found. Each additional $100,000 in median home value for a ZIP code corresponded with a drop in obesity of 2 percentage points.

It's further evidence, experts say, that weight isn't solely about individual behavior and that the environment you live in matters.

"If you have this mind-set that obesity has to do with the individual alone, then ZIP codes or areas really should not come into this. But they do, big-time," said Adam Drewnowski, director of the UW Center for Obesity Research.

********

Let’s not forget that class is the biggest divider in our country today. Race is secondary.

Columbia City Cabaret September 21 2007!

Nora and I have been to the Columbia City Cabaret a couple of times, and it's absolutely fabulous. You can bring food in, or eat in one of the neighborhood's many fabulous eateries. They serve cocktails right to your table, and the show is delightfully R rated in a sexy, athletic, lots of skin showing-burlesque sort of way.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nancy Kennedy <trapezelady@hotmail.com>
Date: Sep 7, 2007 3:58 AM
Subject: Columbia City Cabaret September 21 2007!
To: trapezelady@hotmail.com

Press Release
For Immediate Release September 7th, 2007
Contact: Tamara 206-605-9920 www.TRAPEZELADY.COM

COLUMBIA CITY CABARET
At Columbia City Theater, 4916 Rainier Avenue South, Seattle 98118
Hosted by Tamara "The Trapeze Lady"
Tickets Available for 8 P.M. Show Only!

Purchase advance tickets on-line to Columbia City Cabaret shows!
http://www.brownpapertickets.com
(Just search for Columbia City Cabaret)
Tickets are available on-line until 3 P.M. Day of Show – Always $20.00
Then they are available - Cash Only $25. - At the door. 21+

Reservation Line: 206-605-9920
Reserve the Balcony for your celebration of 15 or more revelers!

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 21st "Uncontrollably Messy" 8 P.M.

What a Mess! Literally AND figuratively speaking!
PAOOLA THE SWEDISH HOUSEWIFE is finally back to play with us at the Cabaret!
She's getting all shiny and smooth just for us, and does this woman "Clean
Up" Good!! Seattle's Sapphic Sweetheart MISS INDIGO BLUE'S brand of
optimism will have everyone convinced the Glass is Half Full…of Lemonade!
Pure Circus Rope Aerialist MR. BEAU never fails to leave the stage all
cluttered up with Charm! Tap Dancing Superstar JOSH SCRIVNER is our new
initiate and we anticipate Hot Rhythms Flying at Dangerous Velocity! We're
not sure how Elegant Chanteuse ADE will address our Messy Theme, but where
she treads Fascination Follows!

Your Host TAMARA THE TRAPEZE LADY will exhibit her piece entitled
"Gratuitous Sex Thinly Disguised As Art" as well as proving without a doubt
that she is a very "Old Fashioned" Girl!

This show is so dirty even Stage Mistress NECO SUAVE needs a little help so
we're bringing on the Springtime Fresh Tidying Talents of MISS DAFODIL! We
can't wait to once again hear the heartwarming cries of: "Pick it up! Pick
it AAALL up!"


October 5th, 2007 we return to Weekly Cabaret Shows, every Friday Night at
8:00 P.M.
Don't forget the Columbia City Cabaret returns to every Friday starting
October 5th, and we're bursting with myriad new performers and favorites we
haven't seen in way too long!

Come to the Cabaret!

Check out a glimpse of past shows at YouTube! There is a link at
www.trapezelady.com

Flexcar Tax

According to current King County tax code, Flexcar useage is the same as car rental and will be taxed accordingly.

While I can't debate the interpretation of the current law, it seems obvious that Flexcar should be excluded because of its local user focus and its impact on car useage and ownership.

Here is the link to the article: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/330673_flexcartax07.html

Quick Update, including World of Warcraft

Just a few months ago I thought I’d turned a new leaf. I had grand plans to update this blog a few times a week, and really hardwire a habit of writing for people to read. That hasn’t happened yet, but today is a new day!

This is the first direct to email post. Assuming this works, it should help my productivity. It’s much easier to write and post if I don’t have to go to the trouble of logging in first. I’m having a slow spell at work, but it’s still poor form to be too obvious about blogging from the office.

I started playing World of Warcraft around a month ago. My nephews play, and it’s a way to stay connected with them. At first, it worked pretty well, but there were difficulties. For one thing, they were playing on different servers. While Warcraft is a shared world, dozens of versions of the same environment exist independently. Players on one server (or version of the world) cannot interact with players on another server. It is possible to switch characters from one server to another, but Blizzard charges for this service. One way to manage this is to create one character per server. This allows for some variety of play, since different character types offer different play experiences. For a relatively new and casual gamer like myself, it slows down my character’s development and my own exploration of the game’s depths. I’m more of a pick one and stick with it player than a browse around player.

Then the nephews had complications with their accounts, and I’m not sure what server they’re on or what they’re up to. Meanwhile, my non-gaming wife has caught the WoW bug, and has progressed nicely with her character on our original server. This further complicates things, since I now have three people to coordinate with. Hopefully the nephews will settle on a new server somewhere and I can start an alt (‘alternate character’) there, while continuing to play my other character with my wife.

I will very likely blog more about in-game experiences in the future. This meta-game stuff isn’t very interesting.

Harvey Campbell

We had a great gaming session today. Now I want to document the high moments in my character, Harvey Campbell's role-playing existence:

Was given a peak into the spirit realm by the Akashic Master in northern California

Punched in the face by a Ghoul. Ghouls are strong. It hurt. This happened because Harvey didn't lock his car door.

Single handedly defeated three Men in Black (this is factually inaccurate because Harvey's compatriot Greg Davies used mind powers to nudge the last, wounded adversary into flight). Two out of three were killed.

Shot in the neck with a nanobot/robot dart. He fled the battle, magically converted the nanobots into water and returned to the battle.

Met and negotiated with 'Neb,' the ugly Nosferatu vampire. Twice.

Met and allied with the Garou. Is friends with 'Cleave' and 'Carla.' They healed him.

Sprayed a ghoul dog with acid. Then shot him with an aggravated bullet.

Paradox Backlash I: received shock during the catastrophe outside the vampire club. That was a poorly planned venture.

Paradox Backlash II: All Foci turned invisible, Harvey lost his own vision. This faded over a matter of days. This probably wouldn't have happened if he'd burned off or avoided some of that Paradox earlier.

Harvey's research led directly to discovery of Garou.

Feels partially responsible for the murder of defeated and captured ghouls. His cabal has no way of handling prisoners.

Also, feels some guilt about the death of MIB's during combat.

Got shot in the neck by an MIB while concealed as an Asian woman and suffering from Paradox Backlash II's affects.

Michael Moorcock and Andrea Dworkin

I ran across this article in which Moorcock interviews Dworkin, and Dworkin clarifies (and partially disavows) the 'intercourse equals rape' assertion that's been tied to her:

Michael Moorcock: After "Right-Wing Women" and "Ice and Fire" you wrote "Intercourse". Another book which helped me clarify confusions about my own sexual relationships. You argue that attitudes to conventional sexual intercourse enshrine and perpetuate sexual inequality. Several reviewers accused you of saying that all intercourse was rape. I haven't found a hint of that anywhere in the book. Is that what you are saying?

Andrea Dworkin: No, I wasn't saying that and I didn't say that, then or ever. There is a long section in Right-Wing Women on intercourse in marriage. My point was that as long as the law allows statutory exemption for a husband from rape charges, no married woman has legal protection from rape. I also argued, based on a reading of our laws, that marriage mandated intercourse--it was compulsory, part of the marriage contract. Under the circumstances, I said, it was impossible to view sexual intercourse in marriage as the free act of a free woman. I said that when we look at sexual liberation and the law, we need to look not only at which sexual acts are forbidden, but which are compelled.

The whole issue of intercourse as this culture's penultimate expression of male dominance became more and more interesting to me. In Intercourse I decided to approach the subject as a social practice, material reality. This may be my history, but I think the social explanation of the "all sex is rape" slander is different and probably simple. Most men and a good number of women experience sexual pleasure in inequality. Since the paradigm for sex has been one of conquest, possession, and violation, I think many men believe they need an unfair advantage, which at its extreme would be called rape. I don't think they need it. I think both intercourse and sexual pleasure can and will survive equality.

It's important to say, too, that the pornographers, especially Playboy, have published the "all sex is rape" slander repeatedly over the years, and it's been taken up by others like Time who, when challenged, cannot cite a source in my work.

While I'm still on the Playboy and pro-porn side of this fence, this puts a different spin on what I'd been led to believe.

This interview happened in 1995. At the very least, Andrea needs a new publicist. As long as 'intercourse equals rape' is associated with her, her credibility among otherwise like minded pro-feminists is completely undermined.

I Love the Internet: Pirates of Silicon Valley; Michael Moorcock; Stumble

Last week I found The Pirates of Silicon Valley on Youtube. It's there in 10 minute chunks, so you can watch as you want.

If this is new to you, Pirates is a made for cable (TNT, I think) biography telling the origin of Bill Gates/Microsoft and Steve Jobs/Apple. There is surely dramatic license taken, and both Bill and Steve are portrayed as broken people, I found it both informative and entertaining. Apparently Xerox is responsible for the modern look of computing. Their corporate office didn't know the power of what their west coast team had developed, and allowed Apple to steal it away. Then Gates and his crew snuck in and stole it from Apple. That's how MacIntosh and Windows were born.

Just today I found two articles by Michael Moorcock which describe his opinions on Tolkien, Heinlein and many other science fiction writers of his day.

The first is "Starship Troopers," the second I've lost in the Ether of the internet, but it has something to do with Tolkien and Winnie the Pooh. Michael Moorcock is something of an anarchist, so he takes issue with the authoritarian themes in these popular writers; he also takes issue with the quality of the actual writing. While I haven't been persuaded to toss out my Tolkien, he makes some valid points worth considering.

I've also been using the Stumble add-on to my Firefox browser entirely too much. The damned thing is as addictive as hell. It turns out you can set your profile to 'adult' if you want to see the naughty stuff....

Mage: The Ascension

This week I created a list of devices used by my Mage character. Some are purely stolen ideas, others are fairly original.

Harvey Campbell’s Gadgets
6/5/07

Short-range rocket-glider
Forces 2

Two compressed gas tanks, upside down with a simple, mundane igniter. A pair of small, retractable glider wings is mounted beneath. The wings are useable without the rocket propellant for pure descent or when particularly useful updrafts are present.

In game terms, I expect these to be paradox free for short distances (reflecting current jet pack technology). The longer the distance, the greater the chance for paradox. Forces magic is used to reverse and adjust gravity’s affect on Harvey. The rocket pack is relatively noisy (like the 60’s batmobile), but the glider function is silent.

Lab


Dr. Obrastoff’s Ether Blanket
Forces 2

This converted electric blanket changes its color, to duplicate the surrounding environment. When functioning at its highest level, this blanket can actually make its user seem to disappear. This is likely to cause an imbalance in the Ether if not handled properly.

Lab


Hansen’s Ether Electric Key Maker
Correspondence 1, Matter 2, Prime 2

With a quick push of a button, this small device scans a nearby lock and manufactures the perfect key. The button pops back up to its previous position when the key is ready.

This device can be plugged into Harvey’s Ether glasses to scan locks that are far away.

Hooks to belt








Epistemological Ether Evoker
Correspondence 2

This pink, spherical sphere is baseball sized, and has two buttons, one on either side. The first is triangular, the second is oval. Pressing both buttons activates the ward. The buttons are notoriously sensitive to pressure, which require very precise handling for maximum affect.

Bag




Emerald Incisor
Correspondence 2, Forces 2

This device has one cable leading to his watch, and the other to Harvey’s earpiece. By pressing the buttons on the face and side of the device, Harvey can create a direct telephonic connection to any other phone in the world.

Hooks to belt


Grand Matter Mega Nullifier
Matter 2

This device closely resembles this raygun http://www.wetanz.com/updates/rayguns/images/Goliathon1_500w.jpg



It fires liquid, gas and blue laser light. It also uses compressed Ether with the laser’s radiation to convert the liquids and gases to other types, as desired. The gun also fires irradiated Ether which can convert any substance into any other similar substance.

Holster on right hip
EFGA (Ether Fueled Gravity Adjuster)
Forces 2

This skeletal exoskeleton allows its user to lift extremely large objects. When not in use, it folds nicely into a small briefcase.

Lab


Etherdriver
Matter 3

This screwdriveresque device moves, adjusts and reshapes objects as desired.

Bag or pocket


Hand Powered Mega Manipulator
Prime 2 & 3

Part hand held barcode scanner, part hand drill, this device absorbs, adjusts and exhausts Ether.

Bag


1st, 2nd and 3rd Eyeglasses

Correspondence 1, Forces 1, Matter 1, Life 1, Prime 1 / Correspondence 2

These glasses have three small devices connected, plus a Bluetooth like earpiece. Each subdevice can be disconnected and used separately, though the scanning quality is much greater when used with the main structure.

The other use for these glasses is to find the small rifts in the ether, then through careful manipulation of the dials and small switches on the glasses’ frame, look through the realm of Ether in such a way that Harvey sometimes forgets that the locations are not adjacent.

Pocket or worn

My Year with Oom Yung Doe Martial Arts, Part I

On April 6th, 2000 I set out in search of a martial arts studio. I did a little research (very little), looked up some addresses and set out across the city. I believe I drove by three places. Of those, only one was open. By that quirk of fate, I was drawn into an intense year of amazing physical conditioning, financial hardship and persistent coercion and factual omission.

Instructor Tom impressed me immediately. He showed me a smooth and powerful wrist lock, explained the introductory membership package, and I was sold. Instructor Tom (all the school's instructors were always referred to using their titles) was (and presumably still is) the real deal. He was obviously strong, dexterous, talented, and exhibited no overt macho or violent tendencies.

During those first several weeks, my training was quite simple. The moves were repetitive, but led to a good work out, and I was essentially satisfied. Occasionally Instructor Tom or one of the other instructors affiliated with the school would show me something challenging or put me in a position my body wouldn't go. Life was good, and I was satisfied. I believe the price was $400 for three months of training in their 'basic' program, including uniform.

After a few weeks, I was invited into the office with Assistant Regional Head Instructor Kevin. Even ridiculous titles like that, were always used. This is my blog, and I haven't been affiliated with the school for several years, so hereafter Kevin's title will be omitted. Kevin was (and presumably still is) a fatherly, vaguely Santa Claus sort. He didn't have the massive physical skills as most of his cohorts, but he made you want to like and trust him. In retrospect, there is no doubt: he was working me. Before too long, I was convinced. I switched from the basic program to the Two Year Black Belt track. Black Belt programs came in 2-4 year varieties, and they charged by the knowledge. The 4 year bundle (recommended only for people with physical limitations) was less expensive by the year than the 2 year kind (designed for athletic types with some aptitude and time to dedicate). I was charged approximately $4000 - $5000 for that year of training. I used a credit card cash advance check to pay the annual fee, all in advance. You see, if you paid monthly installments, they would have to portion out the training, so you wouldn't get ahead of what you'd paid for. If you paid in advance, they could teach you whatever portion of the first year's curriculum that you could handle.

Autopsy

So, um, today. At work. I saw an autopsy.

It was a very strange experience that I'm still kind of processing. It wasn't anyone I knew; I was there to observe the process (it should take 30 days to get all the finalized reports out after an autopsy, including lab results and whatnot; it takes us around 90 days. We're in the early assessment for how to put together a workshop to reduce that time).

At first it was very intense, and I couldn't watch any of the actual... goings on. Then I saw an log of autopsies performed this year and saw that a patient I knew back when I worked in the Pulmonary clinic nearly 3 years ago had been there; that was at least as intense as what was going on a few feet away.

I think maybe I'll have a drink now.

Ultima III - Geekalicious!

Yay! Thanks to DosBox I was able to make my copy of Utima III playable. This game has been in my life for over 20 years, and finally it is complete. I played the heck out of Ultima IV when it came out, and finished it a few times. I also played a lot of Ultima V, but couldn't find British at the end. Ultima III really started the love, and I'm finally able to say I killed that darned Exodus!

8666737370

These bastards keep calling my cell phone. Cursory research through Google indicates it's Trendwest.

I'm on a pay by the minute plan, so I won't be answering that call. Ever.

Studies in Leadership, as Shown in Science Fiction, Part I: Paul Muad'dib Atreides

While Paul Muad'dib Atreides's leadership rests heavily on its fantastic elements, at its core is a real world lesson of how a group's energy dictates its actions, even over the decisions of the group's beloved leader. In the first novel of Frank Herbert's Dune series Paul becomes recognized as the messiah of the Fremen. He manages to unite the powerful desert people into the most powerful military force in the known universe.

What happens after his ascension to the imperial throne is especially notable: Paul realizes that he can't stop the Fremen jihad, and his vision of the future is filled with terrible alternatives. This illustrates a reality faced by leaders every day: those being led are often beyond control. Consider for a moment the humorous t-shirt or coffee cup, "Have you seen them? Which way did they go? I must find them because I am their LEADER!!" While this shows the extreme, it also illustrates that no leader can direct a group somewhere they don't want to go. Along the same vein, a leader also cannot prevent a group from doing something they are determined to do.

This does assume that the group has great potential energy with a pre-determined direction. In the Fremen example, this civilization had evolved for generations into a homogeneous group of survivors. Prior to Paul's appearance, they lacked the cohesion to express their energies beyond their cultural survival based taboos. Once united, these energies exploded upon the universe in the form of jihad.

Tolstoy illustrates similar concepts throughout his great novel, War and Peace. When the Russian Army stops Napoleon's invading force, no power on the planet could have stopped that desperate retreat. No Russian leader could have stopped the Russians from driving out the invaders, and no French leader could have reformed the French forces.

Spotbus

For people who use the bus in King County, I highly recommend spotbus.com for trip planning. The url is easy to remember, and the interface is awesomely simple. It uses the King County Trip Planner for its brains, but it's easier to find and use than the Trip Planner itself (which is a great tool too).

Podcasts

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Kutuzovland

Kutuzovland is right about where I want it. I prefer the title 'dictatorship,' and my tax rate is a little high, but all in all, it's probably down hill from here:

UN Category: Father Knows Best State
Civil Rights: Excellent
Economy: Good
Political Freedoms: Outlawed
Location: Your Moms Basement

Regional Influence: Dominator
Kutuzovland is a UN Member

The Empire of Kutuzovland is a huge, environmentally stunning nation, notable for its punitive income tax rates. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 488 million are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defence, and Healthcare. The average income tax rate is 56%. A healthy private sector is dominated by the Automobile Manufacturing industry.

Citizens are permitted to carry concealed handguns, motorists must pay to enter inner-cities during peak hours, euthanasia is legal, and small businesses are gobbled up almost daily by corporate giants. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force. Kutuzovland's national animal is the earthworm, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the tetris.

Kutuzovland is ranked 1st in the region and 57,541st in the world for Largest Trout Fishing Sector.

Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider is a pretty good movie. It captures comic book action/horror even better than comics usually do.

How many can you name?

You have 10 minutes to name as many states as you can. Click and go.

I missed three relatively easy ones. Scroll down to see which:
























Colorado, Illinois and Arkansas

I knew there was another square one. At one point I was using NFL teams to try and think of states, and I still missed CO and IL. It's not surprising that I missed Arkansas, but given the Clinton association, I probably should have remembered it too.

The Case Against Meat

Structure of Romantic and Sexual Relations

Dogs

My mother recently got a 10 month old yorkshire terrier. Abby (the dog) isn't a minitature, mind you. This dog is 10 pounds small, not the ridiculously fragile 2 - 3 pound kinds that kinda creeps me out.

I've always been fond of terriers, probably because my childhood dog was a mongrel terrier thing; there's something about that active minds, reasonable size and general attentiveness to the world that draws me in. Although Yorkies are technically toys (accoring to Wikipedia), they behave very much as terriers.

Abby definitely still behaves like a puppy, but doesn't have any of the yappiness commonly found in small dogs, she's small enough to be easily picked up when needed, but active enough to take care of herself. All in all, it's a good combination that I think would work well in the city.

Anyway, it makes me want one. With two cats, a small house and no yard, the time isn't right, but maybe in a few years.

Spam has evolved

The Nigerian prince spam is so frequent, it, and its derivatives no longer deserve mention. Today, however, I discovered something new and interesting in my gmail account's spam box:

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In fact, a lot of what they say will actually diminish your powers.

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DUNE

I'm very fascinated by Frank Herbert's Dune books these days. I had to upgrade my old tattered bindingfree copy and upgrade to a shiny trade paperback.

One thing I noticed was the lack of humor in the series. Most of the greatest novelests find ways to infuse some humor into their stories about the human condition.

I mean this only as an observation and not as a criticism; the quality of the series speaks for itself.

I read the entire series about ten years ago and was hopelessly lost for most of it. I'm doing much better this time (All that reading I did in college HAS improved my comprehension!).

Leader Test

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Which Fucked Up Genius Composer are You?

Which fucked-up genius composer are you?

Tom Waits... charismatic story-teller with a penchant for freaky people and unusual settings. You thrive on the concept of the underdog coming out on top.
Take this quiz!








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TerraPass

I think I heard about this on NPR a few months ago, but it was recently linked to from The Bus Chick's blog.

It's an interesting idea. The idea of exchanging carbon pollution with environmentally friendly donations may be the wave of the future.

Since getting rid of my car earlier this year, I've been feeling very good about my impact on the atmosphere, but we have a long airplane ride tentatively scheduled for later in the year. This provides some balance, even though the emissions can't be directly removed, of course.

Which Science Fiction Writer Are You?

I am: Isaac Asimov One of the most prolific writers in history, on any imaginable subject. Cared little for art but created lasting and memorable tales.

Which science fiction writer are you?

Stuff Gone!

Nora and I took two loads of stuff to Goodwill today. Hooray for us! Hooray for Flexcar! Hooray for Goodwill! We may be having some windows replaced over the next couple of weeks, so we can't quite reorganize permanently. That day will come soon though, and that's great for two recovering pack rats.

Dylan vs Warhol

We saw a trailer for "Factory Girl," which appears to feature Hayden Christensen as a young Bob Dylan. I'm a huge Dylan fan, and a bit of an Andy Warhol fan, so to see the story of one versus the other is too delicious to pass. Yes, of course I'm concerned that Anakin will stink it up. However, I do believe that George Lucas is a terrible director of actual actors. That may explain Hayden's terrible performance as Anakin Skywalker. He may do alright under different circumstances.

Riding Metro

Nora and I were on the 48 this evening, coming home after spending the better part of the afternoon watching David Lynch's Inland Empire. We stopped at Mcclelan st and Rainier when the driver announced that we had to pause for a minute. With both doors open, we sat. And sat. We were only two stops from our own, and very much in walking distance, but I kept thinking we'd start any moment. We were probably there for five full minutes, which is a long time to stop a bus for no apparent reason.

Then, the number 7 passed us, and stopped. A police car parked in the turn lane in ahead and to our left (naturally).

A young black man in the back began making somewhat crazy sounds, "oh mamma, oh mamma...." and no fewer than three police officers boarded our bus. And they took the young black man into custody. He didn't resist, and they didn't use excessive force. They seemed to know him by name. They mentioned that he'd dropped 'dice' during the minor scuffle; Nora and I assumed that was a rock form of drug. Crack or Meth, or possibly heroin.

A few moments later, we continued on our way. As we thanked the driver, she mentioned how happy she was that her evening was almost over. I thought it was a fascinating adventure, but it's probably the sort of thing a driver can do without.

Mr. Deity

Go. Watch.

I'm not the only gamer

Mistress Matisse had her first RPGing experience recently. Yay! I believe the game she played is a World of Darkness game, like Mage: The Ascension.

Another addictive (but annoying quiz)

Orpheus 33% Extroversion, 100% Intuition, 72% Emotiveness, 71% Perceptiveness

You are an artist, an aesthete, a sensitive, and someone who has never really let go of that childlike innocence. To you, all of life has a sense of wonder in it, and the story of Orpheus was written about someone just like you. When the Argo passed the island of the Sirens, Orpheus played a song more beautiful than the Sirens to prevent the crew from becoming enticed. When his wife died, he ventured into the underworld to charm Hades but, in his naivete, he looked back becoming trapped there. You can capture your unique world view and relate it to others with the skill of a master storyteller. Your sensitivity and creativity make you a treasure to the human race, but your thin-skinned nature and innocence can cause you a lot of disenchantment and pain. What's doubly unfortunate is that, if you try to lose those traits, you never will, and everyone will be able to tell that you're putting up an artificial shell to prevent yourself from being hurt. Famous people like you: Hemingway, Shakespeare, Mr. Rogers, Melville, Nick Tosches Stay clear of: Icarus, Hermes, Atlas

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 19% on Extroversion You scored higher than 83% on Intuition You scored higher than 61% on Emotiveness You scored higher than 50% on Perceptiveness

Link: The Greek Mythology Personality Test written by Aleph_Nine on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Gaming update

The guy who's been running the Mage: Ascension game I've been playing in is moving to Poland in March. Sigh. I was finally getting the hang of the system, and I've become very attached to my character ("Harvey Campbell"). He just improved one of his magic spheres, which is kinda difficult in this game.

Some of the other guys think they'll be able to find someone else to run the game, but finding a location is the other challenge. I could probably host once a month or so, but no more than that.

And so, our games now have a 'there's no tomorrow' feel. We're trying to wring every drip out of the remaining time, and our sessions are running longer. It's amazing to me how quickly 5 or 8 hours pass when a person is gaming.

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Holy crap, this is the coolest thing I've seen all day. Maybe yesterday too!

2006

In summary:

March - At work we moved into a new building. This was an intense time in my professional life. The magnitude was very impressive, even though I'm still not pleased with the way the project came off.

May - I learned to ride a motorcycle on my 33rd birthday. I got my endorsement a couple days later.

June - I bought a motorcycle.

July - Nothing much happened during this month NOT - first one of my groomsmen threw the best bachelor party ever for me. There were two strippers. There was a poker tournament. There was streaking. There may or may not have been some ingestion of an illegal substance. Then, the next day, I puked in the restroom of a restaurant. Ahhhh, it doesn't get much better than that.

Nora and I threw the best wedding ever... then went on a fabulous honeymoon to Maui, then Kona.

August - at the tail end of my honeymoon, we attended my 15 year high school reunion. That too was amazing. A week after returning, I started a new job with the CPI department at Children's.

September - my Ford Escort died, and I decided to go carless for awhile. At least a year is my goal. It's a challenge, but it's going pretty well.

November - we had Indian food and beers at the Blue Moon Tavern for Thanksgiving.

December - we shared Christmas with my mother, her husband and her husband's family. I like those folks quite a lot.