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Sunday, July 5th, 2009
9:12 pm - Reviews - Many
Again, more catching up.

The IT Crowd, Season 1 and 2, a comedy about the IT Department of a large corporation. It is a small depeartment, two people, classic computer geeks, and their supervisor, who knows almost nothing about computers. Very amusing, lots of geeks dealing with real world sort of humor as well as the insanity of corporation work. My Grade: B

Supernatural, Season 1, sibling monster hunters travelling across the US saving people from all sorts of occult dangers. Very amusing, would have benefitted from letting some stories last more than one episode as sometimes the conclusion is rushed. The filming and special effects are quite excellent and the plots are decent, if, as mentioned, occasionally rushed. A good resource for modern monster hunting games. My Grade: C+/B-

Mirrors, a Keifer Sutherland supernatural suspence movie. Interesting in that there was never any doubt that the weirdness Sutherland's character is supernatual in nature, never "of he is a recovering drunk and seeing things". Not bad, the major set (a fire damaged and abandoned department store) is very impressive. The ending is surprisingly good. My Grade: C/C+

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Friday, July 3rd, 2009
2:55 pm - Friday Findings (3 July, 2009 Edition)
Spectacular papercrafting from Wataru Itou, really quite amazing.

The British Library has partly opened its archive of 19th C newspapers to the public. Sadly, much of it requires a fee to access but still very cool.

Mostly been working on the Sea of Stars RPG Project, have several new posts up at the Design Journal and trying to get people to come by the Forums (hint hint).

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Monday, June 29th, 2009
1:51 pm - Read the Bill!
How can I not like this idea? It is transparency and an attempt to inject some measure of appreciation of the real world into the Congress. They are trying to get HR 554 passed which would require that legislation be posted in a public forum for at least 72-hour before being voted on. Can we have your support too?

Read the Bill Website

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Saturday, June 27th, 2009
12:13 pm - Saturday Surfings (27 Jun 2009)
Been a fairly quiet week but very hot, no day in the last week has failed to reach the 90s (30s for my centigrade using friends) and with high humidity too. Thank goodness for air conditioning.

The University of Edinburgh has recreated the Lituus, a horn last used in the 18th C.. Technology is doing such fun things with history these days. A video presentation where you can hear the lituus in action.

Crazy flesh eating robots! OK, not as exciting as that sounds, very primitive robots that are powered by capturing pests and digesting them for energy. Still, rather interesting.

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Thursday, June 25th, 2009
11:08 am - The STATE on DVD
At long, bloody last. MTV's sketch comedy show The State: The Complete Series finally gets a DVD release, of all their material, after having been repeatedly jerk about by MTV and it parent company. Like all sketch comedy, the State is hit and miss, but the hits are really good and the misses are fairly few.

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Monday, June 22nd, 2009
4:29 pm - Never Split the Party!
But you can rejoin at GenCon . . . Wizards of the Coast is having an amazingly awesome contest, the Never Split the Party Contest in fact: Describe your gaming group that has since broken up and you could win a trip for all the group (up to six) to GenCon!

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Sunday, June 21st, 2009
10:16 am - Happy Anniversary! Happy Father's Day! Happy Solstice!
Since putting them in alphabetical order seemed easiest.

To my dear Laura, thank you for sixteen wonderful years of marriage and all of our time together before then as well. I look forward to many more years together with you.

To my father, Neal, thank you for your unflagging support and willingness to let me choose my own path in life.

To all, enjoy the Solstice!

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Friday, June 19th, 2009
10:47 pm - More Sea of Stars
More updates on the Sea of Stars page and at the Wordpress Journal. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

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9:04 am - Athens is Burning!
The historic Georgia Theatre in downtown Athens has been gutted by fire this morning. Power was out in most of downtown when I was there 20 minutes ago.

There is ash scattered all across North Campus of UGA and you can smell the smoke even from Tyche's (a good three quarters of a mile away).

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Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
1:34 pm - Wednesdays Wanderings around the Web (16 Jun 2009 Edition)
Been a bit lax about these of late. But there you go.

First off, a WordPress Blog for my Sea of Stars RPG Project. Since, I am told, a little self promotion never hurts.

The biggest hole in the world! The Mirny Diamond Mine these shots give a better impression of the scale. The Udachnaya Pipe is similar and Wikipedia Commons has some beautiful shots from inside.

Comrade Couture: Revisiting Communist Germany's Fashion Scene, a look at the underground fashion scene in East Germany.

Graffiti from Pompeii, people are people it seems.

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Friday, June 12th, 2009
8:28 pm - Review: The Wire - Seasons 4 & 5
Finished the last of The Wire, Seasons 4 and 5. Still excellent, if not quite as good as the first three seasons. The primary focus is always with the police, but the secondary focus moves from the criminals to the politicians and schools (season 4) and politicians and newspapers (season 5). While changing focus is needed, the move from the yin/yang of cops and hoods loses that perfect balance. The reasoning is sound, the failure of politics and school leads to the criminals and the media ties everything together. But still, not quite as solid or compelling as the first three season, while still being just about the best television ever. Fair warning, it is rather depressing at times. My Grade: A-

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3:09 pm - More Sea of Stars
Have links to the wiki and the forum up on the Sea of Stars RPG Project webpage.

Now I need some people to poke around and let me know what they want to see next. Any volunteers?

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10:10 am - GenCon
Lots of bits of news today, I will try and get it all up in manageable pieces.

First off, I will be at GenCon Indy this year! Slaving away at the AEG booth as usual but my nights will be free. So, if you are going to be there let me know so that we can catch up!

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Saturday, June 6th, 2009
10:49 pm - My new project
Sea of Stars RPG, I am in the process of organizing this into a proper resource site and community. Right now, it is just a holding page but I will let people know as it evolves.

Thoughts, comments and suggestions welcome.

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Thursday, June 4th, 2009
12:37 pm - Who is Adrianna Huffington?
Find out, perhaps, in the interesting review of her new book from the New Republic.

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Saturday, May 30th, 2009
3:53 pm - Ah, the Onion
Obama Revises Campaign Promise Of 'Change' To 'Relatively Minor Readjustments In Certain Favorable Policy Areas'

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Friday, May 29th, 2009
2:18 pm - Friday Findings (29 May, 2009 Edition)
From around the web!

PLAN B!, a tale of love, revenge and supervillany (warning: lots of cursing in the dialog).

Hypercities, a project by the MacArthur foundation that allows you to layer historical maps to see how cities developed. (Which I learned about from this article which show some of the thing you can do with it and discusses other similar projects.)

And in a similar theme, find out what lurks beneath the waters of NYC's harbor, quite fascinating.

Short but interesting Spiegel interview with Michael Palin (the former member of Monty Python). Best line: "Generally speaking, comedy thrives in times of despair."

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8:55 am - PSA - Take Your Stuff
Laura did a short PSA (public service announcement) for her class:

Take Your Stuff

Enjoy.

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Thursday, May 28th, 2009
3:36 pm - Matriarchy in China
Or at least a surviving matrilineal society, the Musuo of China. Who I found out about through this interview with an Argentine who spend two month with them.

I keep forgetting that China has all of these fascinating small surviving cultures hidden within it.

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Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
11:00 am - Name, American
Article on the popularity of names in the US, interesting stuff. Though I certainly do not agree with Twenge that "We know the desire for uniqueness is going up, and we know narcissism is going up. That doesn't mean we can say it's definitely a cause, but the two are clearly related." Are they? The Puritans had some pretty unique names for their children, where they narcissists?

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