Author Archives: Derek

I think you may be missing the point here….

There’s a story in the local paper. It’s a few paragraphs long, but it can be summarized as thus:

Wolf populations are on the rise in WI. Wolves are eating deer. Hunters shot less deer.

The logical conclusion?

Wolf hunts.

………………

I….

It’s….you see….deer….wolves….hunters are….

I can’t even really begin to address this. But it’s made my head hurt so very very very very very much today.

I actually found that story while looking in to this one: http://www.jsonline.com/business/90405254.html

Not in that paper, but that’s the online version that had the story I was looking for.  The comments in that story frighten me tremendously.  From comment 1, it’s intensely political, completely lacking in context, and vitrolic rhetoric.  It’s not until the “Hey, I work there, here’s the facts” that it settles down.

People just worry me, all over.

A quick little rant

If you don’t know how to use the words, don’t use them. People are not impressed when you use words with 3 syllables simply to use big words. This is doubly true when you use it *wrong.* Don’t use query when you mean question. It just calls out that you want to sound smart. And learn the difference between similar words – constrained <> constricted, for instance. And awkward sentence construction doesn’t sound educated – it sounds like you don’t know how to construct a sentence.

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Bah. Humbug.

One of my guildies recently posed a question that boiled down to “Is it weird for a 42 year old guy to play DnD with 20 year olds?”  He wanted to get back in to gaming, didn’t have a group, signed up for the friendly local Comic Book Store’s open gaming.  Group was young, his coworkers are hassling him, he’s confused. 

This annoys me.  It’s reflective of the nature of this site, sure, but come on.  If he’d gone to a gym and gotten in to a pick up game of basketball with a group of 20 year olds, it’s not a thing, as long as he can keep up.  If he’d gone to a bar to watch a sporting event of note, and there were 20 year olds there celebrating, and they started high fiving, it’s not a thing.  If he’d joined a community theater group and been Claudius to a 20 year’s Hamlet, and they hung out, it’s not odd.  But if he games, it’s weird?

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Comics are dumb

I know, we’re geeks, we like comics.

But man, reading about them just makes me feel bad.  I ended up on Wikipedia today, looking for Mr. Mxyzptlk information, and ended up reading the summary.  And it’s awful.  So much bizarreness.  My favorite lines follow:

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Ada Lovelace day

Today is Ada Lovelace day.  Presumably it’s her birthday, which is why it’s her day.  I’m too lazy to google it.

Ada Lovelace was, arguably, the first programmer.  She wrote the algorithms that Babbage’s difference engine ran on.

The day is being used to promote/celebrate women in technology and such.  Which is good.  But it sort of served to remind me that I’m *way* out of that sphere.

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Gadget Lust

Okay, I finally get it.

Until now, I’ve never really had gadget lust. I’ve liked some stuff, but there’s never been anything I’ve wanted to hug and pet.

I like my 360 and my laptop, but that’s really because I play games on them.

Now I have a Droid. Perhaps iPhone users feel this way, but it’s because they don’t have a Droid.

The phone just works for me. I’m interested in Twitter, because my phone makes it easy. I’m using my personal calendar, because it’s easy. I feel happy times when I get it out.

Don’t tell Michelle.

MMockery 3: The last easy post

And here’s part 3, which is the last of the parts.  It’s even more specifically related to MxO.  And also the last of my gimmie posts.  If I’m gonna hit my “3 posts a week” metric, I’m gonna have to start being original now.  Bugger.

This one was written 2 months after the others.  In that two month window, they changed about 80% of the game (to their credit, it was much better in a lot of ways, unlike, say, Star Wars Galaxies).  Prior to that, the game had gotten really buggy.  I was unable to play without it eating my PC alive, so I gave up….

But I still want a pudding faucet (you’ll understand if you read – that’s what we in “the business” call a hook.  Or a teaser.  Or …. I dunno.  Look, just read it).
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Mmockery: MxO: The coloning

As threatened, part 2.  Reading Part 1 is recommended but not required.  This one was written a week later.  It’s far more directly related to MxO.

When last we left Firbolg, he was standing over a body, rummaging its pockets for stuff.

Things haven’t changed a lot in a week. More bodies, more rummaging, and more interesting stuff, to be sure. But you know, that’s what it’s all about, in the end.

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Stealing ideas (aka MMockery, a play on MMO and Mockery)

So, I’m attempting to make this more exciting as a blog.

To that end, I’m going to try to, you know, blog more. 

First up, I’m stealing an idea from Shamus Young (http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/) who is sort of a geeky superstarish.  And also from myself, about 3 years ago.  Technically, I did it before I saw Shamus do it, but he did it much better.  I’m doing a sort of in-characterish send up of an MMO, or another game, or what have you.  It’s not strictly in character – it’s more me editorializing about it, and imagining things about the character in game.

I’m being inspired by Shamus’ MO of “go for old games, not the newest and greatest.”  But I’m doing him one better – this is for a game that ISN’T EVEN IN EXISTENCE ANY MORE.  Matrix Online.  It’s unlikely anyone reading this has ever even played the game.  So bonus points there.  And even if someone wanted to compare it to the game itself, or got inspired to play, they’re screwed.  So, yeah.

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I think we may all be dead

Cause we sure as hell aren’t posting. ;)

I have a follow up building to paying for games, based around the fact that there are a fair chunk of good, free MMOs out there. But yeah….