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General Chaos / Online Nintendo Emulator
« on: January 08, 2010, 11:18:46 PM »
It's like any other flash game site except it has Nintendo games, lots of them: http://nintendo8.com/all/
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62
General Chaos / Duke Nukem Speaks
« on: January 05, 2010, 08:25:15 PM »
Interview with Scott Miller, creator of Duke Nukem, as Duke Nukem himself: http://trueslant.com/stephenwebster/2010/01/05/the-final-words-of-duke-nukem/
Also, Clive Thompson's recent Wired article on the Duke Nukem series: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_duke_nukem/
Also, Clive Thompson's recent Wired article on the Duke Nukem series: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_duke_nukem/
63
General Chaos / Tweets are the new Aphorisms
« on: January 05, 2010, 05:59:15 PM »
There is speculation that when Nietzsche started using a typewriter his writing style changed to the short, telegraphic speech reminiscent of Daybreak. I've started to notice the same thing about Twitter and I'm beginning to think that tweets may be the new aphorisms. I've always been one to jot down questions and aphorisms in my note books, but now I find I'm just tweeting them. The 140 character limit does make things interesting though. Here are a few of the tweets that have appeared on my account in the process of reading and studying for my preliminary examinations this fall:
---
And for the hell of it, I'll post the quotes from writing journals that I typed up several years ago. I've never gone back through and looked at other journals and continued the list, so these are things I had written my freshman and sophomore years of college, so when I was 18, 19, and 20. Some of these quotes were actually things I had said to other people and then wrote down later.
Quote
Does commodity exchange require individuals to implicitly acknowledge that under liberal capitalism the individual is reduced to bare life?
Considering the use of violence in the name of the state (God) by those not granted the use of violence by the state (God).
Considering the intersections of international trade (globalism) and nationalistic (xenophobic) isolationism in the American idiom.
Anyone know if the term "imagined capitalisms", playing on the idea of Anderson's definition "imagine communities", has been coined?
Considering how Arendt's discussion of "work" and "labor" informs post-industrial, post-national society.
I'm tired of reading utopian fictions where people are vegetarians. I'm going to write one where the only thing people eat is meat.
This week's reading question: what are the connection of Kant's categorical imperative and nationalism?
Considering Melville's metaphor for America as "the Paul Jones of nations" in _Israel Potter_.
Contemplating the intersections between nationalist thinking and sovereign/state violence.
I wonder if it's fair to call the US Constitution an attempt to codify the Enlightenment?
How many states of exception do you live in?
Every time I try to seriously consider the role of homo economicus, I am blindsided by the bonuses of "bailed-out" banks.
Wondering how to interpret the phrase "good citizen" in the beginning of Crevecoeur's "What is an American" letter.
Wondering if "nationalisms" arise in the late-18C as a reaction to the homogenizing and emptying effect of capital. Who has argued this?
Short story idea: An advanced Ai civilization attempting to eradicate the memory of humans from its databanks.
I'm hoping to hear something ridiculous from one of my fellow grad students in my Monday night class. Last week someone asked if Ronald Reagan was a neoliberal... (originally two tweets)
---
And for the hell of it, I'll post the quotes from writing journals that I typed up several years ago. I've never gone back through and looked at other journals and continued the list, so these are things I had written my freshman and sophomore years of college, so when I was 18, 19, and 20. Some of these quotes were actually things I had said to other people and then wrote down later.
Quote
Blue Journal
“It’s like bungee jumping with a length of dog chain.”
“I think she was just jealous, the pious Jew manager, when she called me cynical and condescending.”
Brown Journal
“I fathomed infinity once and it took 3 weeks to repair the damage.”
“Sometimes I feel I’m screaming at deaf men, using sign-language on blind men, and wondering why no one is listening.”
“I’m certain I could write for hours and never once say anything important.”
“Sometimes I think my computer through all its wires and transistors is my gateway to reality.”
“This morning I didn’t want to wake up, I was lost in the best dreams of sex and reality.”
“God lives in the elevator.”
“How can I say ‘I love you’, without saying it?”
“I’ll have a heart-attack and a side of fries.”
“I confess to the sins of not knowing if there is a god.”
“Should I blame insanity on poetry, or poetry on insanity?”
“And to all the cynics of the world I say, ‘Fuck off’.”
“Everyone is a critic who watched the movie backwards and in slow-mo.”
“It’s easier to make a diamond from a hunk of coal than force yourself to write poetry.”
“Why question your own sexuality when you can get others to do it for you?”
“What name appears on God’s bathrobe?”
“Perfection is flawed.”
“Of the people you’ll pass today and never know a name, I am just one.”
“Heaven takes American Express.”
Black “Confidential” Journal
“I sacrificed my sanity for a 4.0, where is your lust for knowledge.”
“And I’ve drank too much liquor, and masturbated too many times, and had sex once too often, to be considered a saint by someone who hasn’t lived at all.”
“Ah fuck it, sometimes there aren’t enough things to write about.”
“No one understands the art of shaving, its Zen. Zen and the art of shaving.”
“I never wanted to be The Duke, and have a snarl that both attracted women and scared people away.”
“It didn’t hurt so much leaving, as it hurt falling in love.”
“That fake leather jacket matches your personality.”
“The voices in my head won’t stop screaming obscenities at 2 am like I’m a fucking lunatic—let me sleep.”
“My apathy binds me to who I am. Take away everything in my life, and I will not leave dishearten.”
Hemp Journal
“I’ve seen only 20 sides of America and I’m not afraid to keep looking.”
“I’ve never seen a math book leer quite like this one leers, waiting for me to pick it up and read it.”
“And I was just like God before he rested his feet by the fire and went to sleep.”
“What face do you wear when you look to the sky?”
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Play by Post / OLD SCHOOL DUNGEON CRAWL 2 (GAME)
« on: December 28, 2009, 10:42:39 PM »
The dungeon is devoid of adventurers and the monsters are lonely.
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Play by Post / OLD SCHOOL DUNGEON CRAWL 2 (CHARACTERS)
« on: December 28, 2009, 10:41:48 PM »
You know the drill. Roll your stats. Refer to OSRIC for classes, spells, and such. I'll be running most things on the DM end off of Core Rules, so if you have a copy use that too.
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Play by Post / OLD SCHOOL DUNGEON CRAWL 2 (COMING SOON)
« on: December 21, 2009, 08:53:56 PM »
My prelims are over, which means I'm ABD (in academics that is a real title I've heard though it is essentially meaningless). But this also means, I'll have time to run an Old School dungeon crawl. It's going to be 2nd Ed. rules and I'll run the whole thing off of the Core Rules CD and post the results. Looking forward to maiming you all real soon.
67
General Chaos / The Duelling Handbook
« on: November 14, 2009, 10:50:39 PM »
So at Half Price Books tonight I found a Dover paperback edition of a book called The Duelling Handbook in the nineteenth century American history section. The edition of the book is a 2007 reprinting of an 1829 duelling manual titled The Only Approved Guide Through all the Stages of a Quarrel, which was first printed in London (so the book at Half Price Books was obviously not shelved correctly). The original 1829 edition is available on Google Books for free: http://books.google.com/books?id=Ojj4949GSlQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Only+Approved+Guide+through+all+the+stages+of+a+quarrel%22#v=onepage&q=&f=false
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Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Question about Future New World Supplements
« on: November 12, 2009, 09:45:08 PM »
Ross and I have been kicking around ideas about what kinds of future New World supplements we would want to write as soon as my PhD preliminary exams are over. So far we've been discussing doing a Revolution/War for Independence supplement. I've also suggested maybe doing a Utopian supplement (those of you readers out there might realize that More's eponymous text was inspired by exploration of North and South America) and maybe a Post-Revolution/War for Independence supplement that focused on bards and nationalism.
But I wanted to hear from what you guys would like to see. What kind of supplement would be of interest? What would you use in your own campaigns?
But I wanted to hear from what you guys would like to see. What kind of supplement would be of interest? What would you use in your own campaigns?
69
General Chaos / How Academics REALLY Think
« on: October 02, 2009, 10:31:26 PM »
So, tonight I had an email exchange with my PhD advisor (I refuse to spell this word with an "e" and spell check always underlines it to my chagrin) that exemplifies how academics really think when they aren't bloviating in front of students.
ME:
I read The Journal of Julius Rodman, but I'm struggling to make anything out of it (which could just be exhaustion on my part after conferences). On one hand, I like the idea of Poe telling a fake travel narrative set in a counterfactual history that precedes Lewis and Clark's "accepted" narrative of western exploration. But, on the other hand, I'm struggling to try and make sense of how exactly Poe was wanting to challenge that narrative. The incompleteness of the work may also be impeding my thoughts on it...sigh.
HIM:
Clue 1 for Poe: much of it is deliberate Non-Sense.
ME:
So the medium is the message. Just writing the counterfactual history is enough for Poe. Making people believe it is an added bonus.
Poe was a dick.
ME:
I read The Journal of Julius Rodman, but I'm struggling to make anything out of it (which could just be exhaustion on my part after conferences). On one hand, I like the idea of Poe telling a fake travel narrative set in a counterfactual history that precedes Lewis and Clark's "accepted" narrative of western exploration. But, on the other hand, I'm struggling to try and make sense of how exactly Poe was wanting to challenge that narrative. The incompleteness of the work may also be impeding my thoughts on it...sigh.
HIM:
Clue 1 for Poe: much of it is deliberate Non-Sense.
ME:
So the medium is the message. Just writing the counterfactual history is enough for Poe. Making people believe it is an added bonus.
Poe was a dick.
70
General Chaos / CFP Speculative Fiction from Moon City Review
« on: October 02, 2009, 07:02:17 PM »
The publication that the English Department that Ross and I graduated from has gone national and is looking for submissions for speculative fiction: http://english.missouristate.edu/Moon_City_Review.htm
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Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Old School PbP Comic Idea
« on: September 27, 2009, 04:11:58 PM »
Any of you guys know an aspiring RPG-inspire comic artist that would want to take scenes/episodes out of the ridiculous Old School PbP game that is going on right now and draw them up as a RPPR comic? Something that could maybe go up on the main page?
72
General Chaos / WRITING PROMPT #2
« on: September 20, 2009, 06:45:46 PM »
I know Writing Prompt #1 is still bringing in entries. But I wanted to post Writing Prompt #2 while I had a few spare minutes.
The rules for prompt #2 is to simply write a story that uses THIS ITEM as a prop.
I have to thank one of my colleagues for keying me into this item.
The rules for prompt #2 is to simply write a story that uses THIS ITEM as a prop.
I have to thank one of my colleagues for keying me into this item.
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General Chaos / WRITING PROMPT #1
« on: September 13, 2009, 08:12:36 PM »
I've been meaning to talk to Ross about putting up another board on the forums that would be strictly about fiction writing because as RPG nerds I know many of us are also creative writers (as well as artists, etc). Since I've been too lazy to do this, I've decided just to make a Writing Prompt thread and boy do I have a good writing prompt for everyone here:
There is a woman that lives in my building, I believe on the floor below mine, that has the nastiest hacking cough I've ever heard. She started her hacking cough earlier this year. I'm not really sure when, but it became noticeable as soon as it was warm enough to open up our windows (we don't have central AC). The prompt, if you choose to accept it, would be to tell a story about his woman and her hacking cough. Does she have really bad emphysema? Is she some sort of alien/mutant/multidimensional horror from beyond all time and space that can't breathe the Earth's atmosphere properly? You decide in 500-1000 words.
I'll try to convince Ross to read these on future RPPR episodes or use them for the basis of a one-shot scenario.
There is a woman that lives in my building, I believe on the floor below mine, that has the nastiest hacking cough I've ever heard. She started her hacking cough earlier this year. I'm not really sure when, but it became noticeable as soon as it was warm enough to open up our windows (we don't have central AC). The prompt, if you choose to accept it, would be to tell a story about his woman and her hacking cough. Does she have really bad emphysema? Is she some sort of alien/mutant/multidimensional horror from beyond all time and space that can't breathe the Earth's atmosphere properly? You decide in 500-1000 words.
I'll try to convince Ross to read these on future RPPR episodes or use them for the basis of a one-shot scenario.
74
General Chaos / Tom Trolling
« on: August 23, 2009, 04:13:50 PM »
Today I spotted the elusive Tom Church trolling the message boards. 
75
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Teaser: Pregens for the GenCon DG Games
« on: August 22, 2009, 04:16:15 PM »
Most of the board member know that Ross ran two sessions of the DG game "Night Mall" at GenCon this year. I created the pregenerated characters for the game and am sharing the Byakhee character generator files with the board. (I'll have to double post so I can post all six.)
Some notes on character creation:
My logic in creating these pregens was to make typical combat monkeys, but to give each one an odd or, at least, interesting skill/skill set that the players would then have to try to figure out a use for. For instance, the machine gunner - whose random name generator name MARTIN POWER is amazing - has a 51 in Astronomy, 75 in Occult, and 21 in Zoology.
Hope you enjoy.
Some notes on character creation:
My logic in creating these pregens was to make typical combat monkeys, but to give each one an odd or, at least, interesting skill/skill set that the players would then have to try to figure out a use for. For instance, the machine gunner - whose random name generator name MARTIN POWER is amazing - has a 51 in Astronomy, 75 in Occult, and 21 in Zoology.
Hope you enjoy.