Category Archives: General

Let’s Tea-Bag, Baby!

He voted for Bush's massive expansion of the government twice.

He voted for Bush's massive expansion of the government twice.

Urban Dictionary defines Tea-Bagging as:

To dunk ones scrotum into the open mouth of another person
Usage: “Man, Brenda was all passed out with her mouth open and Billy tea-bagged her”
Tea-Bagging is also what the fake grass roots movement of the Far Right is calling their protest this tax day over President Obama’s administration. The protests scheduled around the country have been hyped by Fox News – which claims they aren’t promoting them – and they are expecting a massive turnout. The first pictures from these events are making their way onto the internet, and now we can all laugh at people wearing stupid hats like this douche while we’re stuck at work. I’m not going to cherry pick a bunch of photos for you all to look at, I’m too lazy. I’m sure you can find your own photos that’ll make you laugh your ass off.
The Tea-Baggers seem to have forgotten that they were Bush’s hardcore base who never stopped supporting him as he weakened an already crippled financial regulatory system and oversaw the largest government spending increase since dinosaurs roamed the earth.

I don't think she means "George W. Bush."

I don't think she means "George W. Bush."

The Tea-Baggers also don’t seem to realize that the adjustments to the tax code will LOWER taxes for the majority of the country while only raising them for a fraction of the population. And that 1% who will have their taxes raise will still be paying less than they have since the Regan administration. Another thing to remember: These nuts are protesting Bush’s taxes. The adjustments that President Obama has proposed won’t go into effect until next year.

Update to Social Networking Bullshit

I remembered the analogy I wanted to make about MySpace.

MySpace is this generation’s version of Geocities. Just set the font color to red and background to black, slap a midi file of “Video Killed The Radio Star” up there, and let the mid-90s websites roll over you like waves of angst filled teenage memories.

On definitions.

It’s hard to say whether or not a geek has come out of the basement, as one must define “the basement” before this statement has any purpose or meaning. It seems there are essentially two interpretations:

  1. The basement is literal, as in the cubby hole in which the geek seeks comfort, outfitted with the tools of their particular geeky flavor.
  2. The basement is figurative, an expression encompassing the comfort zone surrounding someone and their geeky hobbies that encompasses not necessarily a place but also the people who serve as companions and/or confidants.

As an architecture and gaming (video, board, and RP) geek, the first interpretation interests me as physical space. Everything from the kitchen table to a home theater falls within this category. Some geeks only engage in their chosen hobby in a particular locale, either out of necessity (a video game console is generally required to play video games) or preference (the kitchen table has the memories of countless campaigns etched into its scarred surface). “Coming out,” in this case, generally means removing oneself from this ensconced location (or a similar venue) and going somewhere where the activity in question may be observed by those who do not participate. Perhaps this means a coffee shop for a pen-and-paper roleplaying group, or a gaming room at a convention (such as what Austin had during SXSW).

Other people will pursue their interests wherever and whenever they can. To them, space matters not, for the pursuit of the activity is tantamount. They still insulate themselves from the outside world, however, through their environs and/or companions. Gaming in the living room or the local hobby store is no different to the guy with his trusty dice bag and clip board of character sheets in his backpack. The second interpretation applies more to this type, as coming out of the basement means removing themselves from the protective bubble shielding them from what they interpret as the “outside.” An example for our dice-toter may be teaching his RPG-neophyte friends how to play D&D at home.

Naturally, these two interpretations are not mutually exclusive, and may depend on the hobby in question. As I mentioned earlier, some require special conditions or equipment, or they may require multiple people. Technology has a hand in blurring these lines, however. Thanks to portable game systems like the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, a video gaming geek can “come out of the basement” in a park or on public transportation. Laptops, PDFs, and dice rolling programs allow RPG geeks to throw dice almost anywhere. Coming out of the basement, therefore, is getting easier to do. The preponderance of technology in our lives makes the executive sitting on the commuter train, staring and poking away at a little box cradled in his hands barely worth noting. Maybe he’s reviewing today’s meeting schedule on his Blackberry, but perhaps – just maybe – he’s finally tracked down that elusive, rare Pokemon.

Social Networking Sites Are Bullshit

There. I said it.

Oh, they were alright back when Tribes was good for getting laid and you could be emo before emo was a word on LiveJournal, but these days? Not so much. Sure, there are some out there that serve an actual purpose like LinkedIn, but for the most part? Bullshit.

But here’s the thing, social networking sites are one of the biggest things out there that promotes the mainstreaming of Geekitude. So here I am, a geek, looking for broader acceptance of my geekery, basicly biting the hand that feeds me. Why? Because you should all be ashamed of MySpace.

Here’s a look at the current big three in social networking:

MySpace. This is what hell would look like if the devil was a 14 year old with an obession with My Chemical Romance and taking pictures of themselves. Speaking of taking pictures of themselves… It’s MySpace’s fault that I now know who Miley Cyrus is. Do you think that idiot knew that it was just a matter of time before her self-pics that verge on child pornography ended up in the public domain? Who cares. I now have this crap in my brain and it’s all MySpace’s fault. MySpace is great if you want to make people look at animated gifs and listen to music that’s so overplayed, even pop radio stations won’t touch it any more. My little brother used to use MySpace to share music he created with the masses. Talking about that now embarrasses him horribly. I had a great analogy about MySpace being this generation’s {Blank}, but it completely slipped my mind. Sorry.

FaceBook. Remember that guy in highschool? The one who fucked with you all through your algebra class freshman year? Well, he’s 15 years older and the rosey glow of nostalgia makes him want to be your bestest friend ever and tell you all about his job as a sales associate at the local Ford dealership. Facebook might have started out as a way for real social groups to keep in contact online, but these days? Not so much. It’s now the Nostalgia Machine where all the people you made an effort to avoid after graduation can find you and tell you about their children. And here’s a dirty little secret you probably aren’t even telling yourself: If you had wanted to keep in touch with any of the hundreds of people on FaceBook desperate to make a connection with someone who also went to BFE High 17 years ago, you fucking would have done it. You wouldn’t have lost touch with those people in the first place. You would have made the effort to call them every couple of months, or send them an email. you wouldn’t need to have them remind you who they are and how you should know them. My girlfriend recently got a FaceBook account and she’s been telling me about all the asshats from high school who want to be friends with her now that everyone’s hormones have settled and the pecking order that seemed set in concrete back then as ben revealed as meaningless.

Twitter. 140 character microblog site. You can update as you go about your day, and check updates on other twitter account with your phone or whatever. The site’s ease of use promotes constant updating, and a lot of the accounts I’ve followed have at one point or another forgotten that there is no privacy on Twitter. Once you make your account public, everyone can see every post you’ve ever made. Sometimes that’s funny, but other times it’s just sad. Like the congressional Republicans bitch-tweeting during President Obama’s first speech before congress. Then there’s the TMI tweeting: “Just saw A Lot of Penis…” (This precious update was from earlier in the week on an account that’s being followed by someone else I follow.) Honestly, Twitter is the social networking site I have the least problem with. It’s only as “social” as you want it to be and you just need to remember that everyone can see the crap you choose to post about.

Confession time: I have a twitter account. And yeah, it occasionally brings me shame. I resisted getting an account on Twitter longer than your grandma did. Fear my herculian powers of resisting peer pressure. I got it for a journalism class last year and I kept it once I found I could use it to get all the reporting updates on local politics in one place. I’m too lazy to use RSS feeds, I suppose.

Pirates Still Cooler Than Zombies?

Creative Commons Photo by Marcus Metropolis

Creative Commons Photo by Marcus Metropolis

So, I’ve heard increasing chatter that pirates might be losing their geek cache due to certain real world events (yeah, I’m looking at you Somalia).

@omarg even wondered earlier today if Talk Like a Pirate Day would ever be the same again. So, have pirates been downgraded in coolness by their recent rise on the world stage? It’s important because pirates completely pervade geekdom. Consider:

If pirates become a “real” again, does homeland security start freezing the assets of Texas Tech coach Mike Leach? (and Mike a pirate can beat a soldier, just not a Navy SEAL–but no worry, the Aggies will never be that competent)

Should we rename electronic piracy to distance theft from “real” piracy? WotC would you like to weigh in on this? Is Adobe Acrobat the AK-47 of the 21st century?

Finally, when discussing if zombies, vikings, or pirates are more cool, must we now include Navy SEALs?   CNN cleaned up this article, when I first read it they used headshot at least four times. 

On the last question, I think the SEALs win. I mean even a zombie pirate dies from a headshot. However, a Valhalla-risen zombie viking may not be stopped by a headshot. Frankly, I’m not sure what stops one and hope never to find out. Unless some SEALs are around.

Continuing the Zombie Theme…

I just got home from running a table top role playing game where a group of people have to survive a zombie outbreak.

Currently, they’ve foolishly chosen to help others who were trapped in their homes when the zombies attacked, and now they have a group of 70 survivors they can’t feed or protect.

Bad things are gonna happen. And it’s gonna be great.

(But yeah. despite this post, if this turns into a role playing only discussion site, I’m going to have to set you all on fire.)

#amazonfail Update

Looks like Amazon has elaborated a bit on the glitch. Also, Seattle PI has some theories from an ex-employee of Amazon about how this happened. Basically, that it was a coding area that propogated from version of Amazon throughout the system recatorgizing tens of thousands of books.

Still, it’s an important lesson about the power of search, ranking, and rating technology.

#amazonfail?

Just to show this won’t all be about RPGs, I have to admit that the #amazonfail fiasco fascinates me. The company’s failed response. The maelstrom of twitter and blog activity–I had all but forgotten that LiveJournal still existed. The possible mainstreaming of bantown as a concept and term. And a beautifully reductive shattering of our trust in search engines due to limitations, controls, and susceptibilities we too often forget.

For those unaware, Amazon delisted a load of gay-themed books this weekend (and possibly before) from their sales rankings, effectively making these books non-existent to many buyers and reviewers. Maybe it was a glitch and maybe it was a hack and maybe it was a policy of distilled epic fail? The speculation is as deafening as Amazon’s silence.

Just a completely wild scene, but I’m glad it brought my attention to the idea of hackers using flag technology to incite active, marginalized groups against corporations for the hell of it. Nice to know about that.

Just to Make Certain the Idea Man is Last

I’m still trying to figure out what our wellspring meant by geekery going mainstream. I know that in the court case that CJ discussed Wizards suggested that 6 million people play D&D. You can either view that as .1% of the global population–or dream of some Chicago-sized Xanadu filled with DMs, GMs, and the sound of rolling dice echoing through the streets like police sirens in New York City. So Sam’s right–there really are a lot of viewpoints to float around here.

Now, I have a confession. I haven’t played a tabletop game in many months. I think I’ve played 4E about four times. Mostly this has nothing to do with the game itself (my mainstream life has been insanely busy), but I have my biases.

Back in 2000, the first column I ever wrote for Dragon became one of the first to be translated into Third Edition. At that time, I likely would have been a slow convert to 3E if not for a circle of early adopter friends and a personal desire to keep getting published. Turns out that while 3E tightened the reins on some of my more ludicrous 2E free-wheeling, it also created a system of content generation that tapped into the very essence of rising Internet fandom. 3E embraced fanfic and spawned some current hotshots in game design because of it (Mearls is the clear example of this). This fan-driven design scheme is an idea that other companies like Bioware (with NWN and Dragon Age) and Maxis (Spore) have embraced. Get your fans excited about the design process and let their creativity drive your product’s shelf-life. 3E was an open API half a decade before Facebook or the iPhone.

The OGL was highly entertaining for me as a player and as a (very sporadic) game writer. I met a ton of fun and talented people due to OGL. Monte Cook via AU/E, Justin Jacobson at Blue Devil Games, Bill Collins from both of the above, Mike McArtor at Paizo, and a host of others that defined the community power of an open system for me. I have to admit that when WotC closed OGL in 4E, my interest moved closer toward those electronic game designers who kept the spirit alive–well, that and other joint writing spaces like wikis, but that’s neither here nor there.

So, yeah, I’m a little prone to discussing the system and culture of gaming. But I’m sure I’ll find plenty of other geekery to go on about. Moreover, I’m also the resident sports geek. I’m awful at paying attention to fantasy leagues, but I’m totally jazzed that the Cavs might tie the ’84-’85 Celtics home wins record for a season. To clear up my biases on the sports front: I grew up in Dallas and I attended the University of Texas. I maintain all expected and implied affiliations from those occurrences without apology. Disclaimer done.

Hope we can keep this entertaining.

Geekery of different stripes.

Hey, I’m Sam. Something to be aware of about this site:

Of the people who have ability to post updates to the site, none of us have exactly the same interests; though many of them do overlap. This is common with any group of people and  you should be aware that we won’t all share the same opinions on various topics.

For example, I hate D&D. I loves me some good role playing, but over the last 10 years, that hasn’t been something I could get from Wizards of the Coast. I do love other things, though. I’m all about cheesy horror movies, picking on people for poor grammar, comic books that don’t involve douche bags flying around in their underwear, and politics.

Politics, you ask? Yes. I’m a political junkie. I’ve turned the full power of my geeky obsessiveness onto politics. Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle; it won’t hurt much.

The point of this post is to illustrate that geeks don’t just sit in in their own filth in dank, musty rooms, whistling through their retainers, and rolling dice. Some of us even get laid. We don’t always think the same thing about given topics, and you’ll probably get several posts that conflict one another. Don’t worry, that’s normal. We’re out of the basement and acting like real people with complex interests, desires, and  dislikes.

Of course, there are geeks like that out there, and they should be avoided until you have proof that they have bathed in the last week and are capable of carrying on a conversation that doesn’t involve establishing the role playing stats for the female cast of the Star Trek franchise.