Dearest internet: I am sick. Take this poll, help me figure out what minimal activity to do:

Clone Wars: Season 2, episode 13: Voyager of the Damned.

Clone Wars: Season 2, episode 13: Voyager of the Damned.

Spoiler alert

At the climax, a terrorist is threatening to blow up a ship full of civilians. Obi-won Kenobi has him at lightsaber point, and a pacifist duchess has him at blaster point. She got the blaster from the terrorist.

As said terrorist points out: She can shoot him and prove she's no pacifist, or Kenobi can light saber him and prove he doesn't care about her wishes.

At that point, Anakin Skywalker shows up and lightsabers the guy through the heart.

That is: Anakin Skywalker removes the need to make hard moral decisions from his master (and best friend) and the appointed leader of millions of people by being rash.

And if that's not the moral the prequels tried to get across, I don't know what is.

Your Gaming Style : Calm, Analytical, Relaxed, Independent, Deeply Immersed, and Creative

Your Gaming Style : Calm, Analytical, Relaxed, Independent, Deeply Immersed, and Creative

In my video games: I don't like people. I do like challenges of mind. I don't like twitch games. I want to figure things out.

Like, Master of Orion and Rebuild. I play the games I like, hooray.

Hey -- do you like movies where the only interesting character is killed 20 minutes in and replaced with a robot?

Hey -- do you like movies where the only interesting character is killed 20 minutes in and replaced with a robot?

How about movies where there's more robot women than real women? Where every character is one note? How about where violence solves violence?

Then you'd love The Machine.

Otherwise, maybe give it a pass.

wave; reader; G+?

wave; reader; G+?

Do i only really like the unpopular new google things?

Fronts. What fantastic RPG technology.

Fronts. What fantastic RPG technology.

While eating pizza during lunch, I can sit and think about what problems will arise in my game if the players don't act. And what positive things may come back if they are awesome, too.

Wheels in motion. Wheels in fucking motion.

Will the PCs resolve the problems I can forsee, destroy existing power structure, save their friends, and generally be awesome?

Or, will the world become a darker and worse place due to their failure or lack of attention?

Time will tell. They stand between the dark and the light. They determine if the world changes for the better or the worse.

Its gorgeous.

Yes, I attempt to only believe statements that are:

Yes, I attempt to only believe statements that are:
a. Verified by empirical evidence (science facts)
b. Logical tautologies (logic facts)
c. True in general (statistical generalities)
d. Propositions that make my life easier. (convenient beliefs)
E. Essential to my happiness. (happy lies)
F. Push me to be a better person (eudaimonia beliefs)

When I find a belief -- or take an action  that necessitates a belief -- that is out of line with these, I try to fix it.

During my twenties,I had pretty good reasons for most of my beliefs. As of now, I have largely forgotten the reason for a lot of those. Yet, I believe that I had good reason before and could figure it out in the future.

#vaguepost

Last night on The Catalysts -- a quieter, more emotional game.

Last night on The Catalysts -- a quieter, more emotional game. Deja Vu tells Adam the truth; Ectype has an unsettling discussion with his estranged wife. The gang learns about a church.

Davey Cruz couldn't make it, so Sinon sequestered himself to work on his Science Project. 

Cast in this episode:
Deja Vu, who edits memories.
Ectype, who copies objects by touch.

Adam M. Prometheus, the made man and general manager for the heroes at their gym.
Rebecca, Ectype's estranged wife. She's a lawyer, and now dating a Comcast corporate lawyer.

Deja Vu took Adam to the hospital and explained that he was copied from a John Doe; Adam reacted as best as could be hoped for. Especially given he knows Ectype can erase his existence with a thought.

Meanwhile, Ectype went to the food pantry, where he makes sure they never run out of food. Not. Ever. The food pantry is run by the local UU church. Ectype learns demand is up, while Sunday services are down. Apparently, many church goers have found a new sunday event at the church of the Redeemed Redeemer.

Adam and Deja Vu have a discussion on the source of powers. Adam expresses interest in his own, and says he's started going to a church. The Church of the redeemed redeemer, to which he has been tithing. Maybe more than tithing.

Meanwhile, Ectype had a discussion with his wife and the ethics and legality of cloning dying people to save them, while discarding the original. He asks her to be the corporate lawyer and counselor. She's not sure.

Ectype learns Deja Vu gave valuable information to Adam, and summons him back after his shift. The guys explain to Adam that a church that requests all of your money to make you feel good isn't a good thing; Deja Vu suspects a pill popper may be involved.

Will the gang go to church with Adam? Is the Church of the Redeemed Redeemer centered around a person with powers, or just a charismatic? Will Rebecca become the gang's lawyer? Will she ditch her corporate lawyer boyfriend? What is Sinon making in his lab?

Found out in two weeks on ... THE CATALYSTS.

Davey Cruz , Jonathan Davis , George Austin , Em Winfield
Participated in last thread: David Hawkins

I am amused immensely by the Ashley Madison hack.

I am amused immensely by the Ashley Madison hack.

Not because I'm against cheating. Not for any moral reason at all, really. I'm not judging the people on the site, and this probably results in a worse world.

But, what amuses me is the folks there amalgamated blackmail material and thought it'd be fine. That is, the site basically collects blackmail material on its users -- that's the whole model.

And who'd sign up for that? That's why I am amused -- the ridiculous lack of awareness that must go in to giving a stranger blackmail material.

Schadenfreude. I've been laughing about it for days.

Excel: Best Microsoft program, or only program keeping the company afloat?

Excel: Best Microsoft program, or only program keeping the company afloat?

The ridiculously wide range of functionality makes this thing super useful. There's everything from using it as a grid with color-coding, data reporting, and even insert into SQL tables.

Outlook is awful. MS Word makes me furious. I guess SQL Server, but there are alternatives to the MS version. Just about everything else can be replaced with free version, cloud services, or *nix instances.

But not excel. Not quite. Because Google Sheets is intolerably slow, and can't do what Excel can do. 

Love to hear other view points. What am i missing?

After action report from the 2nd squad, 1st platoon, "Baker Company", of the 508th airborne division.

After action report from the 2nd squad, 1st platoon, "Baker Company", of the 508th airborne division. I always wanted a tank.

(We played The Region, an apolcapse world hack.)

I'm Private Presley. Before the war, I played guitar in Arkansas. My brothers in arms included a criminal from alcatraz, a lawyer turned doctor, my piano playing good friend, and Sarge. The crook managed to bring 10 ounces of dope. For those listening, that's two grunts, a sniper, a doctor, and our Sarge. I had a guitar, and a bazooka.

We were trained, and are ultimate badasses. But, this is our first real live combat dropped. And I just got dear john'd.

Sarge gave us our orders: harass the enemy, find targets of opportunity. Primary target is two bridges. Rules of engagement do not include taking prisoners. I hoped we could steal a tank. Those things are great.

Our plane was hit by AA fire, and we jumped -- DIABLO! -- way off course. We were somewhere in France, and no idea if there were even any nazis here to harass. We found them soon enough -- signal flares after we were a bit loud in searching for additional soldiers.

Luckily, most of the 2nd squad was able to stay together. We even found a few troopers from other Companies. Sarge had a full roster of us grunts.

We were taking fire, so high tailed it to a barn. Our sniper was able to setup a position, and buy us some time. In the barn, we found two trucks, and were able to mount heavy guns to the rear. Us grunts went out and attacked the enemy head on while the snip took 'em from the read. They didn't know what hit 'em -- and I got a bullet.

Luckily, our medic was able to patch me right up.I was in and out for a few minutes, but by then we'd cleaned up.

Once we got our bearings, we were we were up shit creek. 20 miles from the drop site, with no armor and no mobility. The same AA gun that took down our plane was operational in less than a mile away. Sarge gave the order, and we headed to take it out.

Just as we were massing, the germans sent a counter attack. A half-track, loaded with soldiers. And a heavy machine gun, mounted. We were fucked -- or woudl have been, if not for the quick action of our medic. He tossed his anti-tank mine, and the damn thing blew! 

There was one german with enough gumption left to fire off a shot, and it was a lucky one. Took our medics head clean off. That man saved my life, and he deserved better.

We found a phone stations and the headquarters, and took both out. That C-2 is good stuff. 

We kept at it, and managed to take out the few guards around the AA tower. And -- sad to say -- a tank. I blew up a tank with the bazooka.

There was another couple of tanks left, so we managed to add those to our supply. Now we just got to figure out how to drive 'em. And they are french tanks, not the good panzer ones.

It was a terrible night. I lost a good friend in the ole' doc. We've harried the enemy but good, I just don't know if it'll matter to the war. We're so far from any operational concerns.

George Austin , Jeffrey Hosmer Paul Edson Marc Forbes and Charles King played in this band of brothers. They were all fantastic.

I was so bored with Anathem, I can't even skim its wikipedia page.

I was so bored with Anathem, I can't even skim its wikipedia page.

If there's anything there not covered in, say, a 3000-level metaphysics class of interest, please let me know.

tl;dr - Does distance affect bandwidth?

tl;dr - Does distance affect bandwidth?


Read this article: http://gizmodo.com/why-itll-take-new-horizons-16-months-to-send-us-this-we-1717769317

... which reads as if the literal distance is part of why it'll take so long to get New Horizon's data. That doesn't seem right.

I get there's latency -- but, in this case, that should just mean it takes forever for New Horizons to get started. Once the stream is started, the distance shouldn't matter. That is, I don't see how the distance affects the bandwidth.

Am i missing something? Does distance affect bandwidth?
http://gizmodo.com/why-itll-take-new-horizons-16-months-to-send-us-this-we-1717769317

On my spend-xp-for-everything-DW-hack here you start off with a single move "Do something uncommon", perhaps...

On my spend-xp-for-everything-DW-hack here you start off with a single move "Do something uncommon", perhaps...

-- As you can use xp to either succeed right now, or to gain a bonus later (ie, you can use xp to increase Strength for all strength rolls, or to increase a result right now), two characters who have faces similar problems may be very different after the dungeon -- one now with Str+3, Con+3, the other with stats of zero.

This is the thing i like most. You decide if your experiences make you a badass, or get you out of a situation right now.

Last night, I ran the second issue of Worlds in Peril with Davey Cruz , Jonathan Davis , and George Austin.

Last night, I ran the second issue of Worlds in Peril with Davey Cruz  , Jonathan Davis  , and George Austin.

Short version: This system is fantastic. And my players are the best.

Longer version:

I'm a lucky GM to have these guys as players: they think narratively, know the PbtA system better than I do, and enjoy playing to fail. While in this game we want them to succeed, these guys can get behind a hard move.

What're the characters like? What're the powers like? What's the world like?

They call themselves The Catalysts, looking to change the world.

We're doing a single power source for powers; pills chosen by the characters that grant super powers. We have:
Deja vu, with the power to edit memories.
Sinon, with the power to control devices.
Ectype, with the power to make perfect copies by touch.

My players don't want to status quo, and neither do their characters. They've decided to pursue different projects, alternating for each player. Last night, they pursuit stopping crime.

Turns out, stopping guys with guns is no fun even if you have super powers. Especially if they work for a super villain who took the "fire pill", and is constantly covered in heat and fire and whose skin is firey coals.  Burning Man, they called him.

Sinon used gangsters as a weapon through misinformation passed into their phones, but was badly wounded. Deja Vu "adjusted" the villanious Burning Man, letting BM come to terms with loss, while Ectype ... saved the life of a mortally wounded bystander by stretching his powers and making an altered copy.

After a few fitting in moves, they decided stopping crime isn't quite for them. Instead, Sinon is going to change the world through SCIENCE, planning to make a teleporter. Ectype will copy it -- and food and medicine -- and Deja Vu will make sure everyone is cool with it.

Or so goes the theory.
Next time: Will the gang complete the science plans? Will they lose their humanity in a sea of erased memories? Will they remember their assistant -- and made man -- Adam M. Prometheus exists and is confused?

Pandora is playing on my chromecast. That's normal.

Pandora is playing on my chromecast. That's normal. 

There is no computer or phone sending pandora to the chromecast. There is a cast with no caster. A movement with no mover. A design with no designer. (pardon that last, i was on a role).

I've accomplished this two times today. I think, to do it, I've got to close pandora while it is in an ad.

Oh -- and yes, the chromecast continues going from one song to another.

Ghosts, man. Ghosts.

Immigration and Jobs

Originally shared by Barry Deutsch

Immigration and Jobs

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https://www.patreon.com/posts/2882904

Just did a very little bit of wiki research on Blenheim.

Just did a very little bit of wiki research on Blenheim. I knew it was from the Carolinas, turns out it is South Carolina. And has nothing to do with the American Civil War. Just ... the American Revolutionary War.

Hooray for things I like not being so problematic as needing to avoid giving them money!

... And this is the post where I talk about Mad Max as an RPG.

... And this is the post where I talk about Mad Max as an RPG.

The obvious choice for Mad Max is Apocalypse World. There's been a lot said about this already, so I'll just point to the authors patreon campaign: https://www.patreon.com/lumpley (which I just backed on the grounds that I spent what, $20 to see a 2 hour movie? And that's like 6 installments of the the patreon, and I'll probably get SO MUCH MORE than 2 hours of enjoyment ... )

There's a few traits that, for me, make a movie seem like it'd make a good RPG. Those are character agency, threats that the main characters are uniquely suited to deal with, and -- this is the hard one -- a world where other characters could be dropped in and be awesome.

Star Wars, much as I have a certain fondness for it, fails on the last one -- its all about the Skywalkers. Star Trek fails on the second one -- one redshirt is as good as another (this is fuzzy, and I'm thinking of rewriting how i word this, as Sisko isn't just any captain -- but then, maybe that's why DS9 seems like the closest to an RPG). And Bond often fails on the first one -- it is too often quest driven. And some other regressive nonesense.

But, who are the PCs in mad max? a driver who rebels against the warlord, a wandered who joins her, a soldier who finds humanity, and -- yes --- the wives.

There's nothing truly special about them -- and I mean this in the best way imaginable. They aren't the scions of a fallen empire, nor chosen by a mysical energy field to wield supernatural powers. They aren't even trained and backed by a quasi-military organization that spreads root beer.

Just people, picked up from the void and given the reigns. People who are empowed to change the world not through badassery (which they have!), but through willful decision to exist outside of the civilization.

And that's what makes a player character.

There's a hell of a lot more I could say on this, but I'm still getting these thoughts together.  I'm curious if this sounds right, or like crazy talk.

This is the post where I gush about Mad Max.

This is the post where I gush about Mad Max.

George Austin

Mad Max. What's it about? The notion that people are people, and not objects. And that to treat them as such may create immense power structures and FLAMING GUITARS, but is ultimately self-defeating.

How's it tell this? With 2 hours of awesome, so that the message can be totally under the radar and still infect you.

For me to really be into a movie it needs to be about something. Car chases don't interest me (I have never seen a Transporter movie, and think the opening Bond chase scenes are the worst parts of the movies) -- and what I adore in my movies is ideas to be taken seriously and taken to their logical conclusions.

We get that in spades in Mad Max. Every moment -- from Max being branded as property, to Furiosa despair in the salt, to max leaving the utopia he just helped create, never saying but implying that he'd fuck it up -- speaks truth into the void.

I don't watch many movies in the theatre. Maybe 1 or 2 a year. Usually, they seem like expensive time sucks, and I'll wait for the local drafthouse or Netflix.

But not Mad Max. This was everything I'd hoped for and more.

Comments are open. Spoilers are acceptable, as is polite dissent. And I get to define polite, and will delete comments that threaten to bring down my mood.

On Liberty: I have a cousin who has made some mistakes.

On Liberty: I have a cousin who has made some mistakes. The state has removed his liberty -- or, maybe has granted him liberty.

I am accustomed to the philosophical notion of liberty, which is free will as contrasted to determinism. This sort of liberty cannot be taken away -- if it exists at all.

The liberty that the state has removed is the social and political freedoms enjoyed by citizens. The right to go where you want, when you want. The right to pay rent. And the right to starve.

There is another notion of liberty, one I use less often. This is the freedom from the bondage of sin, as used in theology.

In this sense, the state is granting him liberty. He cannot commit the crimes that put him where he is, and does not have access to the substances that impact his liberty.

(And yes, I realize this isn't factually true. It should be theoretically true. Right now, I'm not ready to think about the crimes that may be committed against him -- or by him -- in prison. Please respect that boundary for this conversation.)

And, in many uses, I have that liberty by default. I don't commit crimes, I don't have any particularly harmful addictions.Instead, I live a life that I view as meaningful: connected to a real group of people I care about and who care about me,  I get to play board games to wile away the time, and RPGs to punch myself in the gut.  And yes, to engage in philosophy on the internet on the nature of liberty.

Effectively, by having the liberty from sin, the state continues to grant me the liberty of person.

Having those freedoms removed may do him some good -- being given structure might let him become the man he wants to be.

So -- can having your liberty of person removed possibly grant you the liberty from sin? Does that even make sense?

BAM!

BAM! 

Originally shared by Victor Garrison

Right-fucking-on, Fuller!

Another thread is discussing the problems of getting to Alpha Centauri.

Another thread is discussing the problems of getting to Alpha Centauri. This was really close to some disordered thoughts I was having from Netflix's Ascension. Namely, what acceleration do you need to maintain to get to alpha centauri in 100 years?

Turns out, something like 0.004 m /(s^2). One G is 10 m/(s^2), so that's almost nothing.

Somebody tell me if I got my math wrong. Can an acceleration of 0.004 meters per second per second, with a turn around at the mid point, get you to Alpha Centauri (call it 4 light years) in 100 years?

I've had an idea for a dungeon world hack dinging around in my head.

I've had an idea for a dungeon world hack dinging around in my head.

In this hack, the only currency is xp. It costs xp to get a weapon, a magic weapon, lodging, food, dungeon gear, horses, spells, etc.

You start with access to just a DD move, and need to buy access to other moves through XP.

Is this too much just a funnel? Would anyone be interested in such a thing?