I recently finished reading "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" and saw the movie "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". My lovely wife read "Deathly Hallows" while I was at DexCon and pressed me to read it right away so she could talk to me about it. Then, since she was already in Potter mode, she wanted to go to see the movie.
Regarding "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", a number of reviews I'd read said that the critic was impressed by how J. K. Rowling had neatly tied up a number of long term threads in the last book. I wasn't as impressed, frankly. I felt that there were some elements that turned up in the last book for which the groundwork hadn't truly been established. The peculiarities of wands certainly weren't developed very much in the earlier books, then became of critical importance in this one. There were a few emotional reactions from some of the characters (primarily Harry's sudden and over-the-top anger with Lupin in one scene) that made little sense to me, and the ending included doing something with a powerful magical item that strikes me as flat out stupid and obviously dangerous.
Don't misunderstand me; I didn't hate the book. I just didn't like it as much as several of the previous books and felt that it was logically weak in spots. On the plus side, it did tie up some of the loose ends in very cool ways, including some elements I'd almost entirely forgotten. I really enjoyed the reappearance of characters from the very beginning. The final fate of virtually every character worked well for me, and I'm sure will more than satisfy the age group for which the series was written. My wife had come up with a far darker ending that I preferred to the one in the book, but I believe that ending would've been too much for the audience that's grown up with Harry. I can't see how they can possibly fit all of this into a cohesive movie, but of course they're going to have to try.
As for "Order of the Phoenix", they did a good job of condensing this one down to movie size. I really missed the deeper characterizations of the individual members of the Order, but that's the sort of thing that naturally had to give in to the time constraint. In fact, I'd say that the movie version was better in that Harry doesn't come off as being as whiny as he did in the book, which became annoying to me after a while. Big points to Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge. I hated the character in the book, but there was exactly enough of her in the movie, and the actress nailed the part. It would've been very easy for her to go too far or not far enough with this character, and she did neither. Gamers may find it amusing to note that I read somewhere that she'd make a great voice for the Computer in a Paranoia game. I have to agree.
The ending of the movie makes sense if you've read the book (though the look of it differs significantly from the book in some respects), but I suspect that someone unfamiliar with the books and only trying to follow the story from the content of the films would be confused about what was going on in the end. I don't think someone only watching the films will have a clue about what Harry and his friends are actually doing in the Ministry of Magic toward the end (though I love the look the director gave those scenes). I found myself reminded of a night I spent watching David Lynch's movie version of "Dune" with two friends, explaining everything as we watched so they'd understand what was going on. Normally I'd consider it rude for someone to talk through an entire film we were watching as a group, but they kept asking questions and I kept answering them, and finally just gave running commentary. Afterwards, they both said that without my ongoing commentary, they'd have had no idea of what was happening and would've just given up and turned it off.
I've thoroughly enjoyed the Harry Potter books, and might even re-read them one of these days. Time will tell if they're actually the classics some say they are. And I'll definitely go the theater to see the remaining movies, if only to see how they adapt the books. The movies have been well executed, on the whole. I'll predict that these stories get re-made about 10-15 years after the last movie is released, probably in the form of a TV series or miniseries rather than movies. The actors playing the kids in the current movies will do at least cameo appearances in adult roles.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
DexCon 2007, Part Two
After my second GURPS session, I tried to find out where the poker tournament was being held and whether or not there was room for me to play. I eventually tracked it down, and in fact there was room for me, so I signed up, barely getting in. While I've played a lot of poker against automated opponents, this was only the fourth time I've played against human beings.
I did well enough overall, finishing in about the middle of the pack. Not bad for a newbie. As it turns out, I was at a particularly dangerous table to start. We were down from nine players to four relatively quickly, since most of the other tables had only eliminated one or two players in the same time frame. Our surviving four players were merged with the three remaining from the other especially dangerous table. All three of those players had a fair sized chip stack, which I wasn't happy to see since my own pile was relatively low by that point. I eventually went out on a bad beat, going all in with the Ace and Jack of clubs, while my opponent had Ace/Three, off suit. The flop came up King, Three, Three, and I was done, barring a miracle that never came.
Most of the table was playing far more loosely than I ever would, which threw me for a loop initially. I only actually played about a dozen hands, winning three or four of them, and my only bluff was successful. I suspect that if I'm going to improve my results, I'm going to have to play more hands and take calculated risks more often. It was a good start, and I'm more than willing to try it again next year. Steve Edelman threatened to tie me to a chair and force me to join the poker game at the next MEPACon I attend. I don't think that'll actually be necessary, since I now know I can play poker publicly without completely embarrassing myself.
And so ended Saturday. I'd hoped to get up early to play in Mike Miller's Sunday morning game, but that clearly wasn't going to happen with me getting to bed at about 3 AM. I did manage some dealers' room time before having lunch with Michele Mishko, and located a copy of a game called Family Business. My friend John Lach had introduced this one at the local game night before he moved, and it had gone over big, but I hadn't been able to find a copy for myself until now. For the most part, I wasn't especially impressed with the dealers' room, but in all fairness to the dealers, I wasn't much in the market for anything right now, since I'm picky about bringing more stuff into the house at this time.
My Sunday In Nomine session didn't happen. Lowell was signed up, and asked if it'd be okay if he played it again. I would've been okay with that if his playing would've made the difference as to whether or not the event happened, but there was really only one other player contemplating joining us, and that was that.
So I joined Andrew Morris' Unistat session. I'd heard Andrew's prior Unistat sessions getting noisy at previous cons, which is always a good sign that the players are having a good time, and I'd had him as a player in my own sessions before, so I knew he could be entertaining at the table. I didn't know the other players (apart from Lowell, who'd also joined this game), though I think I'd seen at least two of them around at conventions before. For this particular session, there was no advance preparation whatsoever. The game started with the players deciding what would be fun to play and creating appropriate characters for it. We ultimately ended up with three rival mad scientists (including myself) competing for status and trying to fight off an invasion of pterodactyl people with ray guns and a zeppelin as a launching platform in 1960's London. The other two player characters were the robot I'd built (which, unknown to me, had just achieved sentience) called PS3 and the innocent niece of one of the others. Some of the more prominent NPCs were Kip, a genetically modified four-armed and four-legged monkey that worked for one of the others as a lab assistant, and Shepp, a large ape clone of the body the other mad scientist had put his own brain into (Shepp himself wasn't very bright). In the end, the three mad scientists reluctantly cooperated to save the day (though we continued to jockey for credit), the niece ended up transformed into a dragon/human hybrid in order to save her life, and the robot was destroyed, though not before he convinced me to recognize the fact of his sentience, and that that sentience was a valuable thing worth trying to replicate.
The system itself is dirt simple. Everybody except the GM starts out with the same number of sides of dice, and chooses which dice they're going to use. The GM starts with as many dice as everybody else combined. In a conflict, each party to it decides how many dice they're going to put in until all agree on exactly what is at stake in the conflict and how many dice they're willing to put into it, at which point the dice are rolled. The player with the highest number wins the conflict and decides what exactly happened, while the player putting in the largest number of dice earns the right to narrate the result as to how it happened. Sometimes this is the same player, and sometimes it isn't. The players then trade dice, meaning that the player who put the most dice into winning the conflict is effectively giving away a disproportionate amount of narrative power to the other player, which tends to keep control of the game relatively balanced among the players. What is the Unistat? It's one characteristic that makes your character distinct from the others, and you get an extra die from the GM to use in a conflict when your special characteristic comes up.
Unistat is similar conceptually to Fluid, but simpler. I'm going to have to think about this. Fluid may be unnecessary. One main difference is that Fluid characters are more fully fleshed out, which is probably better in a long term game. Unistat gives the players more input as to how important a conflict is to them, which is good, and the fact that the dice get passed around distributes narrative control. One of the other players questioned how viable a long term Unistat game would be, and I really don't know the answer to that. If I continue developing Fluid, it's likely to be influenced by Unistat in some way. I might get the effect I'm looking for by allowing players to add one permanent characteristic to their character each session (if they choose to do so) to flesh them out over time, and just use Unistat rules for the flow of play.
Overall, I had a good time at DexCon this year. Two of my three events went off and ran well. I got to spend some time with various friends. I played in a live poker tournament and did reasonably well in it. I found a game of interest in the dealers' room, and played a very enjoyable session of a system that may already do what I've been trying to achieve with Fluid. I plan to go back again next year, as I have the last several years.
I did well enough overall, finishing in about the middle of the pack. Not bad for a newbie. As it turns out, I was at a particularly dangerous table to start. We were down from nine players to four relatively quickly, since most of the other tables had only eliminated one or two players in the same time frame. Our surviving four players were merged with the three remaining from the other especially dangerous table. All three of those players had a fair sized chip stack, which I wasn't happy to see since my own pile was relatively low by that point. I eventually went out on a bad beat, going all in with the Ace and Jack of clubs, while my opponent had Ace/Three, off suit. The flop came up King, Three, Three, and I was done, barring a miracle that never came.
Most of the table was playing far more loosely than I ever would, which threw me for a loop initially. I only actually played about a dozen hands, winning three or four of them, and my only bluff was successful. I suspect that if I'm going to improve my results, I'm going to have to play more hands and take calculated risks more often. It was a good start, and I'm more than willing to try it again next year. Steve Edelman threatened to tie me to a chair and force me to join the poker game at the next MEPACon I attend. I don't think that'll actually be necessary, since I now know I can play poker publicly without completely embarrassing myself.
And so ended Saturday. I'd hoped to get up early to play in Mike Miller's Sunday morning game, but that clearly wasn't going to happen with me getting to bed at about 3 AM. I did manage some dealers' room time before having lunch with Michele Mishko, and located a copy of a game called Family Business. My friend John Lach had introduced this one at the local game night before he moved, and it had gone over big, but I hadn't been able to find a copy for myself until now. For the most part, I wasn't especially impressed with the dealers' room, but in all fairness to the dealers, I wasn't much in the market for anything right now, since I'm picky about bringing more stuff into the house at this time.
My Sunday In Nomine session didn't happen. Lowell was signed up, and asked if it'd be okay if he played it again. I would've been okay with that if his playing would've made the difference as to whether or not the event happened, but there was really only one other player contemplating joining us, and that was that.
So I joined Andrew Morris' Unistat session. I'd heard Andrew's prior Unistat sessions getting noisy at previous cons, which is always a good sign that the players are having a good time, and I'd had him as a player in my own sessions before, so I knew he could be entertaining at the table. I didn't know the other players (apart from Lowell, who'd also joined this game), though I think I'd seen at least two of them around at conventions before. For this particular session, there was no advance preparation whatsoever. The game started with the players deciding what would be fun to play and creating appropriate characters for it. We ultimately ended up with three rival mad scientists (including myself) competing for status and trying to fight off an invasion of pterodactyl people with ray guns and a zeppelin as a launching platform in 1960's London. The other two player characters were the robot I'd built (which, unknown to me, had just achieved sentience) called PS3 and the innocent niece of one of the others. Some of the more prominent NPCs were Kip, a genetically modified four-armed and four-legged monkey that worked for one of the others as a lab assistant, and Shepp, a large ape clone of the body the other mad scientist had put his own brain into (Shepp himself wasn't very bright). In the end, the three mad scientists reluctantly cooperated to save the day (though we continued to jockey for credit), the niece ended up transformed into a dragon/human hybrid in order to save her life, and the robot was destroyed, though not before he convinced me to recognize the fact of his sentience, and that that sentience was a valuable thing worth trying to replicate.
The system itself is dirt simple. Everybody except the GM starts out with the same number of sides of dice, and chooses which dice they're going to use. The GM starts with as many dice as everybody else combined. In a conflict, each party to it decides how many dice they're going to put in until all agree on exactly what is at stake in the conflict and how many dice they're willing to put into it, at which point the dice are rolled. The player with the highest number wins the conflict and decides what exactly happened, while the player putting in the largest number of dice earns the right to narrate the result as to how it happened. Sometimes this is the same player, and sometimes it isn't. The players then trade dice, meaning that the player who put the most dice into winning the conflict is effectively giving away a disproportionate amount of narrative power to the other player, which tends to keep control of the game relatively balanced among the players. What is the Unistat? It's one characteristic that makes your character distinct from the others, and you get an extra die from the GM to use in a conflict when your special characteristic comes up.
Unistat is similar conceptually to Fluid, but simpler. I'm going to have to think about this. Fluid may be unnecessary. One main difference is that Fluid characters are more fully fleshed out, which is probably better in a long term game. Unistat gives the players more input as to how important a conflict is to them, which is good, and the fact that the dice get passed around distributes narrative control. One of the other players questioned how viable a long term Unistat game would be, and I really don't know the answer to that. If I continue developing Fluid, it's likely to be influenced by Unistat in some way. I might get the effect I'm looking for by allowing players to add one permanent characteristic to their character each session (if they choose to do so) to flesh them out over time, and just use Unistat rules for the flow of play.
Overall, I had a good time at DexCon this year. Two of my three events went off and ran well. I got to spend some time with various friends. I played in a live poker tournament and did reasonably well in it. I found a game of interest in the dealers' room, and played a very enjoyable session of a system that may already do what I've been trying to achieve with Fluid. I plan to go back again next year, as I have the last several years.
DexCon 2007, Part One
I had smooth sailing for the actual trip to the con, hotel check-in, and registration. I'm not always that lucky. I reconnected with a couple of friends that I rarely see outside of conventions, then checked the Big Board to see how many people I had signed up for my games and who they were. Things weren't looking good. One person had pre-registered for all three of my games, including the one he'd played before, and someone else had signed up for the first of the three. That was it. Cursing the possibility that nothing I'd offered would actually run, I perused the rest of the Board and came up with a backup plan. I hadn't needed to worry that much, as it turned out.
Kevin Meares (fellow GM and a regular face in my games) showed up first, shortly followed by my friend Michele Mishko and Lou, a friend of hers with a lot of experience in RPGs at home, but not much convention experience. I now had enough people that the event would definitely run, and was happy with the combination of two familar faces and a new one. We were then joined by Jason, another familiar face from some of my previous events, but new to my GURPS Cabal series, and Lowell Carson, the guy who'd signed up for all of my events. The Cabal series in general has been very popular (which is why it became a series), but for some reason this particular installment, "Controlling Interest", hadn't drawn well. I don't think I've burned out the series, and think it's more likely that I just haven't written a sufficiently appealing event description for it. This particular session went very well, with the players puzzled by how the main Bad Guys worked, as they're supposed to be. Kevin Meares gets credit for figuring out most of it, but the players were still sufficiently in the dark that I think I can use those particular villains again in the future. And as usual, there were at least two situations generated by the players that I'll be able to use to generate future scenarios. I don't know why this works so consistently for the Cabal series, but it does, and I plan to keep using it as long as there's enough interest in it.
One quick dinner, courtesy of the Indies Games Explosion contingent, and some conversation with friends associated with said contingent, and I was back at my table for the next session, which was a GURPS Banestorm scenario called "A Slice of Blackwoods". I'll confess that I'd run out of time and opportunity and did not playtest this one as I usually do, so I was worried about unexpected plot holes or other difficulties that might turn up. Fortunately, there were no problems of that nature. Again, I just had one player originally signed up, and ended up with five by the time everybody trickled in. Kevin, Lowell, and Michele all turned up again, along with Duke (another new face for me) and Glen, who knows a lot of the same people I do and has turned up in a few of my games before, though I don't remember which ones. The way the scenario actually played out surprised the heck out of me in that I'd been worried about it running short because there wasn't enough going on, but the complications I'd written into the characters did in fact make the problems of the story challenging enough to fill the time slot almost exactly. Michele's performance as the shady goblin with an eclectic skill set won first place, as her character literally stole the show. I only had two player characters survive the scenario, so this one might be more dangerous than I'd realized.
This entry is getting long, so I'll continue it tomorrow.
Kevin Meares (fellow GM and a regular face in my games) showed up first, shortly followed by my friend Michele Mishko and Lou, a friend of hers with a lot of experience in RPGs at home, but not much convention experience. I now had enough people that the event would definitely run, and was happy with the combination of two familar faces and a new one. We were then joined by Jason, another familiar face from some of my previous events, but new to my GURPS Cabal series, and Lowell Carson, the guy who'd signed up for all of my events. The Cabal series in general has been very popular (which is why it became a series), but for some reason this particular installment, "Controlling Interest", hadn't drawn well. I don't think I've burned out the series, and think it's more likely that I just haven't written a sufficiently appealing event description for it. This particular session went very well, with the players puzzled by how the main Bad Guys worked, as they're supposed to be. Kevin Meares gets credit for figuring out most of it, but the players were still sufficiently in the dark that I think I can use those particular villains again in the future. And as usual, there were at least two situations generated by the players that I'll be able to use to generate future scenarios. I don't know why this works so consistently for the Cabal series, but it does, and I plan to keep using it as long as there's enough interest in it.
One quick dinner, courtesy of the Indies Games Explosion contingent, and some conversation with friends associated with said contingent, and I was back at my table for the next session, which was a GURPS Banestorm scenario called "A Slice of Blackwoods". I'll confess that I'd run out of time and opportunity and did not playtest this one as I usually do, so I was worried about unexpected plot holes or other difficulties that might turn up. Fortunately, there were no problems of that nature. Again, I just had one player originally signed up, and ended up with five by the time everybody trickled in. Kevin, Lowell, and Michele all turned up again, along with Duke (another new face for me) and Glen, who knows a lot of the same people I do and has turned up in a few of my games before, though I don't remember which ones. The way the scenario actually played out surprised the heck out of me in that I'd been worried about it running short because there wasn't enough going on, but the complications I'd written into the characters did in fact make the problems of the story challenging enough to fill the time slot almost exactly. Michele's performance as the shady goblin with an eclectic skill set won first place, as her character literally stole the show. I only had two player characters survive the scenario, so this one might be more dangerous than I'd realized.
This entry is getting long, so I'll continue it tomorrow.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Going to DexCon in my Crocs
I've got all my stuff organized, reviewed my scenarios, and got my directions. It's DexCon time!
In all honesty, I'm not as excited as usual. I was unable to get Friday off from work, so it's just a Saturday/Sunday con for me, which for some reason takes some of the zip out of it. At least I've got Monday and Tuesday off from work afterward.
I'll be wearing my Crocs for the first time at a convention. You've probably heard about them somewhere along the way recently, since they're taking off as a fad. They're sort of sandal-like, and extremely comfortable. Because of a heating/cooling system glitch at work for the last two weeks, the dress code was relaxed and I've been wearing them to work every day of it. I've read that podiatrists have said one shouldn't assume that because they're comfortable, they're good for your feet. I have to admit that my feet started hurting here and there the last two days, but hey, it took two friggin' weeks before that happened! I'll keep my feet Croc-free tonight and tomorrow to see if that makes any difference, or if it's something else and my feet would've hurt anyway. Maybe it's just wearing them all of the time that's the problem.
I've gotten some work done on the new In Nomine scenario (which I'll simply call "Fear" as a working title) here and there this week, which is a Good Thing. I doubt that I'll get much more done before DexCon, but it's a decent start. I've been meaning to do a sequel to "Angels on the Edge" and to do a scenario involving people having nightmares for some time, and this one covers both bases. It looks like "Fear" for In Nomine and "A Dance of Pairs" for Sorcerer will be my new scenarios for 2008, and I might do another installment of my GURPS Cabal series if I'm still in the mood when I finish "Fear", and use that in 2008 as well if I finish it in time. I don't feel the need to run something in nearly every time slot at conventions anymore, since the financial reasons for that no longer exist, and I'd rather do good work, run less, and get to play a bit more than I have in the past. Looks as though I'm fully back in horror writing mode, though I'd like to shake that up before it feels too much like a rut. I see a comedy scenario somewhere in my near future, just before or just after the next Cabal story.
I'm sure I'll have a DexCon report after the con. More about that later.
In all honesty, I'm not as excited as usual. I was unable to get Friday off from work, so it's just a Saturday/Sunday con for me, which for some reason takes some of the zip out of it. At least I've got Monday and Tuesday off from work afterward.
I'll be wearing my Crocs for the first time at a convention. You've probably heard about them somewhere along the way recently, since they're taking off as a fad. They're sort of sandal-like, and extremely comfortable. Because of a heating/cooling system glitch at work for the last two weeks, the dress code was relaxed and I've been wearing them to work every day of it. I've read that podiatrists have said one shouldn't assume that because they're comfortable, they're good for your feet. I have to admit that my feet started hurting here and there the last two days, but hey, it took two friggin' weeks before that happened! I'll keep my feet Croc-free tonight and tomorrow to see if that makes any difference, or if it's something else and my feet would've hurt anyway. Maybe it's just wearing them all of the time that's the problem.
I've gotten some work done on the new In Nomine scenario (which I'll simply call "Fear" as a working title) here and there this week, which is a Good Thing. I doubt that I'll get much more done before DexCon, but it's a decent start. I've been meaning to do a sequel to "Angels on the Edge" and to do a scenario involving people having nightmares for some time, and this one covers both bases. It looks like "Fear" for In Nomine and "A Dance of Pairs" for Sorcerer will be my new scenarios for 2008, and I might do another installment of my GURPS Cabal series if I'm still in the mood when I finish "Fear", and use that in 2008 as well if I finish it in time. I don't feel the need to run something in nearly every time slot at conventions anymore, since the financial reasons for that no longer exist, and I'd rather do good work, run less, and get to play a bit more than I have in the past. Looks as though I'm fully back in horror writing mode, though I'd like to shake that up before it feels too much like a rut. I see a comedy scenario somewhere in my near future, just before or just after the next Cabal story.
I'm sure I'll have a DexCon report after the con. More about that later.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
I Will Show You Fear in a Handful of Dice
I'd love to use this as a title or description for a roleplaying convention event, but it strongly implies a Sandman connection, and I just don't have that story right now. Maybe something will come to mind later. My experimental Fluid system or Mortal Coil would probably work well for a Sandman scenario, but neither of them use dice, making the title inappropriate.
It does, however, make a cool title for something I'm thinking about at the moment. I've been reviewing my RPG scenarios for DexCon and GenCon, and it's getting me back into RPG mode.
I'd hoped that my next convention scenario would be for In Nomine, but was having trouble finding an idea that was appealing enough to follow through and wasn't something I'd done before. I've done a number of angels vs. demons scenarios, which are a great deal of fun, but I was getting the sense from players that they felt we'd done this before, and hadn't drawn as many players with the last one, though I'd felt it was truly different in several respects, being steeped in Amish culture and using some character types I hadn't used previously. I hoped to find something for a new scenario that had a metaphor that would resonate somehow with my real concerns, so I could stay connected to what I was doing, and I think I've found it. The subject is fear and ignorance, and how the two are often connected. I'll have to get some ideas down before I forget them. This could be good.
It does, however, make a cool title for something I'm thinking about at the moment. I've been reviewing my RPG scenarios for DexCon and GenCon, and it's getting me back into RPG mode.
I'd hoped that my next convention scenario would be for In Nomine, but was having trouble finding an idea that was appealing enough to follow through and wasn't something I'd done before. I've done a number of angels vs. demons scenarios, which are a great deal of fun, but I was getting the sense from players that they felt we'd done this before, and hadn't drawn as many players with the last one, though I'd felt it was truly different in several respects, being steeped in Amish culture and using some character types I hadn't used previously. I hoped to find something for a new scenario that had a metaphor that would resonate somehow with my real concerns, so I could stay connected to what I was doing, and I think I've found it. The subject is fear and ignorance, and how the two are often connected. I'll have to get some ideas down before I forget them. This could be good.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Torchwood
Wow! I just finished watching the first season of Torchwood on DVD. Overall, good stuff.
Torchwood is a spin off of the updated Doctor Who series. The flavor is essentially The X-Files as executed by the people who currently produce Doctor Who, with five main characters. It sometimes reminds me of Farscape in that the main characters work together all of the time, and still end up pulling guns on each other from time to time due to the circumstances in which they find themselves. If you don't care for Doctor Who, you still might want to check it out because the tone is far more adult than Doctor Who. In fact, I'm curious as to how well some of the episodes will survive editing for an American audience because of some of the sexual content.
Now that I really have your attention, the best part of the show is actually the way the writers handle the toll taken on the characters' personal lives as a result of their jobs. By the end of the season, they've all paid a mighty price somewhere along the way and are emotionally wrung out. The last two episodes of the season should really be watched in one sitting, in my opinion.
If you do watch Doctor Who, there are a number of references to events crossing over with Doctor Who, some subtle and some not so subtle, and it's worth paying attention to catch them. Two of the five characters have actually met the Doctor (Captain Jack extensively, and Toshiko just in passing).
Yes, the monsters are still a bit cheesy (the Weevils in particular), and Captain Jack has a few decidedly unnatural secrets (and I'm not talking about his sexual orientation) that might bother people who'd prefer more realistic characters, but it was still well worth watching. If same sex romantic relationships bother you (or clearly depicted opposite sex sexual activity), there's no point in watching, as sexual elements turn up often enough to be an issue if it's something you don't want to see.
I know they're making a second season, and I hope to see where they go from here at some point. It'd make a great roleplaying campaign. It may be the closest we'll ever see to a Delta Green TV series, except that Torchwood chases aliens and alien artifacts rather than creatures and items from the Cthulhu mythos.
Torchwood is a spin off of the updated Doctor Who series. The flavor is essentially The X-Files as executed by the people who currently produce Doctor Who, with five main characters. It sometimes reminds me of Farscape in that the main characters work together all of the time, and still end up pulling guns on each other from time to time due to the circumstances in which they find themselves. If you don't care for Doctor Who, you still might want to check it out because the tone is far more adult than Doctor Who. In fact, I'm curious as to how well some of the episodes will survive editing for an American audience because of some of the sexual content.
Now that I really have your attention, the best part of the show is actually the way the writers handle the toll taken on the characters' personal lives as a result of their jobs. By the end of the season, they've all paid a mighty price somewhere along the way and are emotionally wrung out. The last two episodes of the season should really be watched in one sitting, in my opinion.
If you do watch Doctor Who, there are a number of references to events crossing over with Doctor Who, some subtle and some not so subtle, and it's worth paying attention to catch them. Two of the five characters have actually met the Doctor (Captain Jack extensively, and Toshiko just in passing).
Yes, the monsters are still a bit cheesy (the Weevils in particular), and Captain Jack has a few decidedly unnatural secrets (and I'm not talking about his sexual orientation) that might bother people who'd prefer more realistic characters, but it was still well worth watching. If same sex romantic relationships bother you (or clearly depicted opposite sex sexual activity), there's no point in watching, as sexual elements turn up often enough to be an issue if it's something you don't want to see.
I know they're making a second season, and I hope to see where they go from here at some point. It'd make a great roleplaying campaign. It may be the closest we'll ever see to a Delta Green TV series, except that Torchwood chases aliens and alien artifacts rather than creatures and items from the Cthulhu mythos.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Hello, Dalai!
I hadn't realized it at the time, but my interest in Buddhism goes back a bit further than I'd realized. I was on a company trip to New York last year that included a trip to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. In a room full of figures of world leaders, past and present, there was one that stood out for me. While most of the figures were tallish men in suits, he was a small man in loose robes. And in a room full of faces ranging from serious expressions to pleasant smiles, the small man positively exuded happiness. It was a wax figure of the current Dalai Lama.
I went back to look at him several times, enjoying his smile and trying to puzzle out how a wax figure could radiate happiness. Obviously Madame Tussaud's did a wonderful job of capturing the essence of the man. I told my wife about it, commenting that I could certainly use some of that bliss. She could only say "Me, too".
I recently read "The Art of Happiness at Work", which is credited to the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, M. D. The title says it all. The book is essentially the Dalai Lama and an American psychiatrist discussing how to be happy at work. I can't say that I learned much about Buddhism from it, but they do a great job in showing how to usefully apply Buddhist ideas to the western workplace. You get a real sense of who the Dalai Lama is as a human being, and that it's truly possible to be happier at work if you have the right perspective. I might have to pick up the first book, "The Art of Happiness".
I'm currently reading "How to See Yourself as You Really Are", which was written by the Dalai Lama himself, and finding it enlightening and useful. It's not surprising that Buddhism is practical, as they've had quite a long time to apply it to the Real World. The thing that continues to amaze me about Buddhist thought is the practicality of it all at the same time that it goes to some very metaphysical places. At the end of the day, it's all essentially about your personal mind set, which is what I think makes that possible.
Lest anyone thinks I've entirely fallen down a Buddhist rabbit hole, at the same time that I purchased "How to See Yourself as You Really Are", I bought a collection of Richard Matheson short stories and was considering "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon". I loved one revealing quote in the book, which was something to the effect that he got to be Jim Morrison a lot longer than Jim Morrison did. I wouldn't want to live that life myself (though I did for a while, once upon a time), but I enjoyed the man's creative work.
The rest of the first season of Torchwood was waiting for me at my Friendly Local Comics Store, courtesy of the same friend who lent me the first eight episodes. I think I'll finish the season before blogging about it.
Work on the house continues, and for what I think is the third straight weekend, my wife and I barely left the house. The living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom all look fairly good now, though there are odds and ends yet to be done even in those rooms. Our spare room, the basement, and the outside of the house still need some attention, and the spare room is next on the agenda. We've packed up a lot of stuff, and by the time we actually move, there won't be that much that needs to go. Uncluttering the house feels like uncluttering our lives, and contributes to my recent feeling that things are, if busy and imperfect, at least trending in the right direction.
I went back to look at him several times, enjoying his smile and trying to puzzle out how a wax figure could radiate happiness. Obviously Madame Tussaud's did a wonderful job of capturing the essence of the man. I told my wife about it, commenting that I could certainly use some of that bliss. She could only say "Me, too".
I recently read "The Art of Happiness at Work", which is credited to the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, M. D. The title says it all. The book is essentially the Dalai Lama and an American psychiatrist discussing how to be happy at work. I can't say that I learned much about Buddhism from it, but they do a great job in showing how to usefully apply Buddhist ideas to the western workplace. You get a real sense of who the Dalai Lama is as a human being, and that it's truly possible to be happier at work if you have the right perspective. I might have to pick up the first book, "The Art of Happiness".
I'm currently reading "How to See Yourself as You Really Are", which was written by the Dalai Lama himself, and finding it enlightening and useful. It's not surprising that Buddhism is practical, as they've had quite a long time to apply it to the Real World. The thing that continues to amaze me about Buddhist thought is the practicality of it all at the same time that it goes to some very metaphysical places. At the end of the day, it's all essentially about your personal mind set, which is what I think makes that possible.
Lest anyone thinks I've entirely fallen down a Buddhist rabbit hole, at the same time that I purchased "How to See Yourself as You Really Are", I bought a collection of Richard Matheson short stories and was considering "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon". I loved one revealing quote in the book, which was something to the effect that he got to be Jim Morrison a lot longer than Jim Morrison did. I wouldn't want to live that life myself (though I did for a while, once upon a time), but I enjoyed the man's creative work.
The rest of the first season of Torchwood was waiting for me at my Friendly Local Comics Store, courtesy of the same friend who lent me the first eight episodes. I think I'll finish the season before blogging about it.
Work on the house continues, and for what I think is the third straight weekend, my wife and I barely left the house. The living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom all look fairly good now, though there are odds and ends yet to be done even in those rooms. Our spare room, the basement, and the outside of the house still need some attention, and the spare room is next on the agenda. We've packed up a lot of stuff, and by the time we actually move, there won't be that much that needs to go. Uncluttering the house feels like uncluttering our lives, and contributes to my recent feeling that things are, if busy and imperfect, at least trending in the right direction.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Happy July!
Geez, half the year gone already! I'm still very busy with the house. For the second weekend in a row, my wife and I have barely left the house, focusing on what we need to do here, except for mowing my father-in-law's lawn. Progress is apparent, and yet there's still so much to be done that it's discouraging. I keep trying to focus on what we've accomplished and the good I feel from that accomplishment.
I've started writing RPG material for the home Firefly campaign again, which is good. I've got to get back into the groove before DexCon and GenCon. I dug out the scenarios I plan to run for those conventions and will be reviewing them in the coming weeks to make sure I have everything I need.
I've finished the professional education course I'd mentioned last month, which means that I've successfully read and understood over 5,000 pages of insurance/legal material. Now I can use the letters SCLA after my name. I'm not taking the trip to Las Vegas, though. I'll be cashing out and applying the money to the GenCon trip. So I do get a trip; it's just not the one they'd planned for me.
I've finished reading "Demons" by John Shirley. My feelings are mixed about this one. It has some wonderful ideas in it, but the human characters didn't feel at all realistic to me. They seemed more like plot devices than people. There were also some very well done descriptive passages of astral locations that made me feel as though I was really in the impossible place described. There was some very heavy handed political allegory that came off as more preachy than the author likely intended. And then there were powerful passages, such as the part where a sorceress summons and attempts to control a demon, only to find out the process doesn't go quite according to plan. I'd give it maybe a six out of ten, cautioning the reader that it varies wildly from a nine to a two at any given point along the way.
I'm currently reading "Viriconium" by M. John Harrison. I've finished the first section, The Pastel City, which was very well written fantasy, even if the vocabulary was a bit excessively obscure for the average reader. This book is the sort of thing Tolkien might've aspired to do and couldn't pull off. Where Tolkien is simply wordy, spending three pages telling you about the color of a doorknob and the history of said doorknob (even though that history has absolutely no bearing on the story), Harrison will spend two densely worded sentences telling you about the doorknob, but will leave you with a sense of dread and wonder about what might be behind that door in the process. I usually prefer more compact prose, but learned to enjoy this one for what it is, and I look forward to the next section.
I finished watching the first eight episodes of the Torchwood TV series this weekend. I'll have more on that another time, I think. For now, I'll just say that I enjoyed it and that it gives me a rockin' idea for a roleplaying campaign.
I've started writing RPG material for the home Firefly campaign again, which is good. I've got to get back into the groove before DexCon and GenCon. I dug out the scenarios I plan to run for those conventions and will be reviewing them in the coming weeks to make sure I have everything I need.
I've finished the professional education course I'd mentioned last month, which means that I've successfully read and understood over 5,000 pages of insurance/legal material. Now I can use the letters SCLA after my name. I'm not taking the trip to Las Vegas, though. I'll be cashing out and applying the money to the GenCon trip. So I do get a trip; it's just not the one they'd planned for me.
I've finished reading "Demons" by John Shirley. My feelings are mixed about this one. It has some wonderful ideas in it, but the human characters didn't feel at all realistic to me. They seemed more like plot devices than people. There were also some very well done descriptive passages of astral locations that made me feel as though I was really in the impossible place described. There was some very heavy handed political allegory that came off as more preachy than the author likely intended. And then there were powerful passages, such as the part where a sorceress summons and attempts to control a demon, only to find out the process doesn't go quite according to plan. I'd give it maybe a six out of ten, cautioning the reader that it varies wildly from a nine to a two at any given point along the way.
I'm currently reading "Viriconium" by M. John Harrison. I've finished the first section, The Pastel City, which was very well written fantasy, even if the vocabulary was a bit excessively obscure for the average reader. This book is the sort of thing Tolkien might've aspired to do and couldn't pull off. Where Tolkien is simply wordy, spending three pages telling you about the color of a doorknob and the history of said doorknob (even though that history has absolutely no bearing on the story), Harrison will spend two densely worded sentences telling you about the doorknob, but will leave you with a sense of dread and wonder about what might be behind that door in the process. I usually prefer more compact prose, but learned to enjoy this one for what it is, and I look forward to the next section.
I finished watching the first eight episodes of the Torchwood TV series this weekend. I'll have more on that another time, I think. For now, I'll just say that I enjoyed it and that it gives me a rockin' idea for a roleplaying campaign.
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