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| Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 |
eugenecommunity
[ garetth ]
|
1:27p |
Tailoring?
I'm looking for a good tailor to modify a jacket. Anyone have recommendations for someone that's fast and fairly priced? |
pipu
|
10:31a |
1.4.10
 I love this shot. They look like a percent sign. I love that you can see blue & white underwear and diaper peeking out on both boys. Current Mood:  amused |
eugenecommunity
[ wnworth ]
|
9:25a |
Things to do when you are bored in Eugene
Hi! So, some of you might remember the Bored in Eugene blog I run. It has pictures and commentary on all sorts of things to do in Eugene that are cheap and potentially fun. Well I just moved it to wordpress (Blogger is a PITA to work with now) added comments for all pictures and the details for each post have been standardized. I also dumped all ads! Check it out again for the very first time! http://ineugene.wordpress.com/ |
robin_d_laws
|
9:20a |
Courage Is Smart-Assery Under Pressure
 This blog’s first Hero Of Freedom Award goes to whoever first coined the term crotch-bomber to describe Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, along with all of those who have wisely promulgated its use. Ridicule is an important and all-too-underused weapon in the battle against global terrorism. It may not directly deter the depressed and anomic young loner types or the outsourcing psychokillers who recruit them. However, by refusing to act as if we are terrified, we can remove the alleged geopolitical benefit of bombing attempts. With it goes the psychological thrills these guys are chasing, and which keep their rolls called and their coffers filled.
At the same time I humbly submit that the alternate terms underwear bomber and especially pantie-bomber are overdoing it. They smack a mite of schoolyard desperation, where crotch-bomber somehow strikes the right note of dismissive contempt. Let’s, as Ron Burgundy would have us do, stay classy, people.
My hope is that the ridiculously restrictive new TSA regulations handed down after the failed attempt will trigger an overdue attitude adjustment. In the name of warding off a statistically unlikely catastrophe, air travelers have demonstrated a willingness to be ritually inconvenienced for about twenty minutes in the scanner line-up. Not being able to hold anything in your hands or open your carry-on luggage for the last hour of flight crosses a line that might get voters thinking about the costs of ill-targeted fearfulness. Until now, the career incentives for politicians and officials have pushed them in the direction of ever more restrictive measures. Call me a crazy dreamer, but I’d love to see some countervailing pressure that rewards them for playing it cool and not overreacting. Make the intelligence effort smarter, by all means. But airport precautions that don’t change the odds give the attackers much of what they want even when the bombs remain undetonated.
Granted, it’s easier to adopt a stiff upper lip in the event of a near miss. When a plane full of people dies as the result of human malice, odds calculation goes out the window. We are horrified and angered in a way that we wouldn’t be by an equivalent number of fatal road accidents or deaths from lack of preventative medical care.
But even if something spectacularly horrible happens, we North Americans need to toughen up. We’d muster defiance in the face of an actual war. Let’s try some in this ongoing low intensity conflict. |
eugenecommunity
[ fourgotten ]
|
2:17a |
Microscope accessories?
Anyone know anywhere in town where a person (or two) could buy accessories for a microscope? I mean things like dyes, slides, coverslips, concave slides, mounting medium, etc. I know that Eugene Toy and Hobby has a couple of microscopes and does sell slides, but they don't have much else that I need to start making slide mounts... and I don't have ANY clue where all the cool stuff that I had as a kid went... though, as I remember, that microscope sucked anyhoo... |
| Monday, January 4th, 2010 |
biomekanic
|
6:10p |
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outoftheboxipr
|
11:06p |
Not Just Another Bug Hunt
http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/outofthebox/2010/01/04/not-just-another-bug-hunt/ http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/outofthebox/?p=106 What can I say about Gregor Hutton’s space-war masterpiece 3:16 : Carnage Among the Stars (96-page black-and-white softcover, 8.5″ x 5.5″, $20) that hasn’t already been said by its adoring fan community? Robin Laws, for example, says it “out-Verhoevens Verhoeven,” which is if anything an understatement, given that 3:16 is actually fun and playable, as compared to Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers clanker. What Hutton’s game does do is present a superb piece of battle-ready game design, a brilliant evocation of genre, as much satire as you want to chew on, and a fine lesson in minimalism, all at once.
Character creation is simplicity itself: you have two stats (Fighting Ability and Non-Fighting Ability), which drive your Rank, which sets your basic loadout. Given that 3:16 is a game of interplanetary amphibious infantry warfare (there’s that Starship Troopers reference), the speed of chargen comes in handy when you have to build replacements. Because it’s brutal, tactical, and not a little bit cynical all at once (there’s that genre evocation), your characters may die through no fault of their own, through their own stupid fault, or thanks to their officers’ incompetence. You feel it when they do, though; each character has Strengths and Weaknesses revealed in flashbacks, aimed to reduce the GM’s threat pool for each planetary invasion. (Note how all of this is tying together.) That’s right; as in Agon, the GM has a “pain budget,” and if the troopers of the 3:16th can dish out more pain than they absorb, they win!
A clever, old-school style planet generation system helps the GM build worlds, vicious aliens, and missions in a hurry, varying the rules just enough to keep everything tactically interesting, but never slowing down the game or hampering the players. The characters are plenty hampered, but if they can just rack up more kills than the next squaddie, they’ll get promoted … just in time for the next mission. The rules hit a perfect sweet spot, where there are just enough tactical options to keep everyone guessing and surprised (happily or not), but not enough to drown players in options or soak up game time. (And lots and lots of play examples cut the learning curve down still farther.) Extended play can aim toward satire, as the 3:16th uses ever more comically vast weaponry on their missions of pre-emptive genocide, or simply provide a soap-operatic extension of adrenaline and exploding aliens.
This simplicity and speed make 3:16 an ideal “not everyone can show up tonight” game, while the themes and mechanics allow a surprising amount of meat and depth to come off the bone. It can be as dark, or as simple, as you’d like to make it — and if you want to play out Starship Troopers (either version), you can do it as fast and fatal as the M.I. themselves.
 Out of the Box is made possible by Indie Press Revolution. Please show your support for Out of the Box by shopping at IPR.
©2010 Hite for Out of the Box with Ken Hite |
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pipu
|
11:14a |
1.3.10
 Eating beet pickles. That's step 4. ( steps 1-3 ) Current Mood: amused |
pipu
|
10:55a |
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wickedthought
|
9:26a |
Japanese Spies and Spy Masters
I'm looking for two words to replace "spy" and "spy master" for Blood and Honor. So, what exactly would a daimyo call his spy master and his minions. (I'm tempted to use shinobi, but that's incorrect. And please don't tell me "ninja." I'll have to kill you.) (Also, I'm considering onmitsu -- just to let you know.) |
robin_d_laws
|
9:20a |
Dance Dance Resolution
Although I am not a life coach (unlike my friend Rebecca, who was best man at my wedding) I had the kind of thought a life coach would have on Friday, when the friends list filled up with various and sundry New Year’s resolutions. On the grounds that writing and game design qualify one for everything, I hereby present this advice for your edification.
Given that the exercise of willpower is given over to the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that is overworked and underpaid, the traditional resolution is a poor mechanism for impulse control. It is better at generating guilty feelings than at breaking habits we want to rid ourselves of.
Instead, use resolutions to promise yourself a few new adventures in the year to come. Depending on your resources and wherewithal, they might be big, like taking up a new sport or language. More likely you want to pick easily achievable micro-adventures.
For example, my resolutions for the year are:
* achieve mastery over fennel, annexing it into the vegetable rotation
* investigate pozole, with an eye to making some
These, you have noted, are modest and easily achieved. (Well, maybe not the pozole; I haven’t looked into it yet.) If carried out, they will result in pleasure. And, since I couched them as resolutions, the agreeable sense of an action item ticked off the to-do list. If not achieved, I will go over to Mexitaco and have their delicious pozole—a more than acceptable alternate outcome.
Needless guilt bad. Giving a gift to yourself, good.
Thus endeth the life lesson. Happy 2010, everybody. |
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xkcd_rss
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5:00a |
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| Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 |
princeofcairo
|
4:19p |
Carnacki and Me (and HPL)
It being a new year, I'm luxuriating for the nonce in the illusion of open frontiers and free time. And I'm also reading Gaslight Grimoire (one of my presents from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mollpeartree), a (pretty decent) collection of supernatural-themed Sherlock Holmes pastiches. One of them, "The Adventure of the Grantchester Grimoire," by Chico Kidd and Rick Kennett, pairs Holmes with a young Thomas Carnacki, William Hope Hodgson's "Ghost-Finder". And as always, whenever I read a Carnacki story, I have an overwhelming urge to write a Carnacki RPG. While I'm fairly confident that Atomic Overmind will publish whatever I should produce in that line, there remains the question of demand and purpose. (There also remains the question of creating or tweaking a game system such that an hours-long vigil with only one failure-point actually results in suspenseful, dramatic, or interesting roleplaying, but that's secondary.) Does the world even need another Carnacki RPG, given that it already has ffutures' excellent Edwardian Forgotten Futures IV: The Carnacki Cylinders? I snuck the Electric Pentacle (and a few Ab-humans) into GURPS All-Star Jam 2004, so GURPS is covered, too. One imagines that building them for The Kerberos Club wouldn't be much harder. And then there's the standard Indiana Jones-James Bond problem of modeling solo heroes in group games. Maybe, since much of the fun comes not from Carnacki's fairly inert personality, but from Hodgson's wild metaphysics, a putative "Carnacki" game should be one of team ghost-breaking and psychic investigation instead: an Edwardian mod for Trail of Cthulhu complete with Ab-Human stats and a "build your own Saiitii" sub-system? (I think GUMSHOE is the right way to go for the investigative half, but then again, I would.) A Savage Worlds game, likely set in the modern British covert warfare milieu a la Warren Ellis' Gravel or Gordon Rennie's Caballistics Inc., with a special squad of the SAS based in an abandoned Underground station beneath Cheyne Walk? I'd have to come up with some sort of artificial stat to encourage investigation, maybe building a Guts pool for the vigils. Or something. Or maybe not, or maybe I'm missing something obvious. Feel free to chime in on your ideal Carnacki game in comments; maybe I'll write it. * * * Also in comments, feel free to chime in on my interview on Tor.com, conducted by the mighty mighty bruceb. It's part of the crescendo to Tor.com's Cthulhu December; in it, I discuss Lovecraftian studies, Lovecraftian gaming, and the Mythos As She Is Properly Understood. |
wickedthought
|
12:25p |
Fox News Tells Tiger Woods: "Ditch Buddha, Get Christ."
"The extent to which he can recover seems to me depends on his faith," Hume said. "He is said to be a Buddhist. I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. My message to Tiger would, 'Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world." |
| Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 |
eugenecommunity
[ laiadapila ]
|
9:25p |
Ghost House, "Goth par-tay", January 6th! Wednesday!
Greetings all, I was asked to post a reminder so here it is: Ghost House is indeed spinning dark '80's, Goth, and Industrial down at Oak Street Speakeasy this Wednesday night, January 6th, starting at 8:30 PM. We have some goodies for you this time as well: Cece Borrego of Club Pynk will be a guest DJ and there will be a fashion thing, which may or may not include giveaways of really great stuff, by Slash N Burn. No cover! 21+! Oak & Broadway! Post requests here! See you there!!! -- DJ Thete for Ghost House Current Mood: Happy today!Current Music: The Damned |
eugenecommunity
[ leld ]
|
12:40p |
Looking for an artist
At the Holiday Market I saw an artist whose work I loved, but I've forgotten their name. The one painting that stands out in my memory is that of a beet and a crow, and some writing that said something about a queen seeing a beet. Along with paintings there were also pendants, earrings, and hairclips. Does anyone know what I'm talking about, and where I might find their work in town? Thank you! Current Mood:  curious |
pjack
|
9:59a |
Netless
Phone service doesn't switch over until Monday morning; internet doesn't switch over until Monday afternoon ("before 5 pm" they say). If you need to reach karjack or myself in that time, try the cell phone. (And we'll try to remember to keep it turned on!) Current Mood: excitausted |
| Friday, January 1st, 2010 |
pipu
|
7:08p |
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pipu
|
3:00p |
1.1.10
 Happy New Year! 2010 is the year of the square. ( +1 ) Current Mood:  calm |
karjack
|
12:32p |
Thanks, brain.
Last night I dreamed that seanan_mcguire and I collaborated on a new series called Murder Beach. The carnivorous ocean was her idea. The TV pilot starred Daniel Radcliffe as a plucky young marine biologist named Tom who could telepathically communicate with echinoderms. Once he discovers the ocean's terrible secret, he knows it's only a matter of time before he's next on the menu. His friends and family beg him to stay away from the water, but when starfish start washing up dead, he can't just walk away. He has to face his greatest nemesis, his truest love, the hungriest ocean of them all. This summer, the Pacific has developed a taste for blood, and its hunger is as deep as the Marianas Trench. DUN DUN DUN! Yeah, I'm not drinking that kind of beer before bed again. Happy New Year, folks! Current Mood:  groggy |
karjack
|
12:03a |
2010!
There was a guy
His name was Lang
And he had a great big sign
And Mr. Lang was very old
So they called it
Old Lang's sign Current Mood:  wooo! |
| Thursday, December 31st, 2009 |
pipu
|
10:08p |
12.31.09
 The last picture of the year... brothers ensorcelled by a movie on New Year's Eve. Current Mood: content |
| Friday, January 1st, 2010 | |
xkcd_rss
|
5:00a |
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| Thursday, December 31st, 2009 |
eugenecommunity
[ fourgotten ]
|
8:39p |
Truffles, anyone?
I have found myself with a rather large supply of Oregon White Truffles ( Tuber oregonense). If anyone's interested in some of these tasty treats (and no, they aren't made of chocolate), let me know. I'm selling them for $10/oz. or 4 oz. for $35. I can deliver to people in town. |
pipu
|
11:49a |
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