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Repo! The Genetic Opera
Oct. 28th, 2008 09:58 pmSo, I just saw Repo! The Genetic Opera with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quix and autumnbriars. It was pretty awesome! It's got an... odd appeal to it. It's pretty gory (the premise is organ repossession) and some of it can get a little suggestive (only suggestive, though), and it's an opera (not just a musical; I think maybe 3 lines near the end weren't sung). The music is, in my opinion, pretty cool. It's a Rock Opera type deal; it brought to mind the likes of Savatage and (less so) Dream Theater. Especially the stuff that the Graverobber sang. He was cool. And I liked a lot of the father-daughter duets.
So, yes. A very cool show, which I would recommend you all give a chance if you can, but it may have narrow appeal. It's a limited run, too, so it may be hard to find; I saw it at the local college, though. I would think that Leslie and Carl, Josh, maybe Erin, possibly Laurel, and maybe Amber would have the most interest in it. But, you know, there's no accounting for taste.
quix and autumnbriars. It was pretty awesome! It's got an... odd appeal to it. It's pretty gory (the premise is organ repossession) and some of it can get a little suggestive (only suggestive, though), and it's an opera (not just a musical; I think maybe 3 lines near the end weren't sung). The music is, in my opinion, pretty cool. It's a Rock Opera type deal; it brought to mind the likes of Savatage and (less so) Dream Theater. Especially the stuff that the Graverobber sang. He was cool. And I liked a lot of the father-daughter duets.So, yes. A very cool show, which I would recommend you all give a chance if you can, but it may have narrow appeal. It's a limited run, too, so it may be hard to find; I saw it at the local college, though. I would think that Leslie and Carl, Josh, maybe Erin, possibly Laurel, and maybe Amber would have the most interest in it. But, you know, there's no accounting for taste.
Amazon's giving us The Slip.
Oct. 22nd, 2008 12:57 pmOK, now This
is fun. That's a link to where Amazon.com is selling the digital version
(all mp3 downloads) of NIN's "The Slip." It's going for $8.99. This is
amusing because NIN gave The Slip away for free, and released it under a
creative commons-type liscence. And encouraged people to share it via p2p.
So you can get The Slip for free (even if NIN took their site down, I'm sure
it's still beeing seeded), or you can pay $9 to Amazon and get the same
product. I wonder how much of that goes to NIN...
is fun. That's a link to where Amazon.com is selling the digital version
(all mp3 downloads) of NIN's "The Slip." It's going for $8.99. This is
amusing because NIN gave The Slip away for free, and released it under a
creative commons-type liscence. And encouraged people to share it via p2p.
So you can get The Slip for free (even if NIN took their site down, I'm sure
it's still beeing seeded), or you can pay $9 to Amazon and get the same
product. I wonder how much of that goes to NIN...
Never heard about the timesleader.com, but does anyone know more about this?
I saw the news story about cries of "terrorist," and "kill him" (in
reference to Obama) at a republican rally a while back. (People make the
connection to Palin, who attended, but the cries came while Chris Hackett --
who's a congressional candidate -- was speaking.) According to the article,
the Secret Service says the cry of "kill him" never happened (I can imagine
such a cry would be taken VERY seriously by the Secret Service), though they
don't say anything about the other remarks.
I saw the news story about cries of "terrorist," and "kill him" (in
reference to Obama) at a republican rally a while back. (People make the
connection to Palin, who attended, but the cries came while Chris Hackett --
who's a congressional candidate -- was speaking.) According to the article,
the Secret Service says the cry of "kill him" never happened (I can imagine
such a cry would be taken VERY seriously by the Secret Service), though they
don't say anything about the other remarks.
Jigga-what?
Oct. 21st, 2008 02:11 pmA Pennsylvania congressman is quoted
as saying that his constituents aren't racist, they just have a problem
voting for a candidate who's black. Riiiight...
as saying that his constituents aren't racist, they just have a problem
voting for a candidate who's black. Riiiight...
Death and Taxes
Oct. 16th, 2008 12:00 pmSo, right now, I have two main concerns with the Presidential race:
healthcare and taxes. I imagine those are pretty big points for most
people. I'm not terribly well-informed and I'm just tossing my opinion out
there; with any luck someone wiser than I can stop by and add something of
substance.
( Death )
( Taxes )
healthcare and taxes. I imagine those are pretty big points for most
people. I'm not terribly well-informed and I'm just tossing my opinion out
there; with any luck someone wiser than I can stop by and add something of
substance.
( Death )
( Taxes )
Black Vote?
Oct. 15th, 2008 07:36 amThis
bothers me. "Is Obama doing enough to get out the Black vote?" "The McCain
campaign is cedeing the Black vote in Florida to Obama." My question is:
what the hell is a Black vote? No, I'm not being stupid or
intentionally obtuse, but how can we as a society complain about
inequalities and racism when we all seem to take every opportunity to
underscore the fact that we're different? And we are different, we
shouldn't pretend like we aren't and there's something to be said for the
need of a political candidate to address socio-political issues that concern
one demographic or another, but... It just seems to me that we're never
going to be able to say that race doesn't matter until we start
acting like Race doesn't matter.
bothers me. "Is Obama doing enough to get out the Black vote?" "The McCain
campaign is cedeing the Black vote in Florida to Obama." My question is:
what the hell is a Black vote? No, I'm not being stupid or
intentionally obtuse, but how can we as a society complain about
inequalities and racism when we all seem to take every opportunity to
underscore the fact that we're different? And we are different, we
shouldn't pretend like we aren't and there's something to be said for the
need of a political candidate to address socio-political issues that concern
one demographic or another, but... It just seems to me that we're never
going to be able to say that race doesn't matter until we start
acting like Race doesn't matter.
This
article, about a financial analyst in California who just killed his family
and himself this week, makes me think: why is it that there never seem to be
any signs? There have been lots of murders and suicides and shootings in
the last decade, and every time it seems like the line is, "there were
troubles, yeah, but nothing that would point to this. This was pretty much
completely unexpected."
Also, yet another comparrison between the current crisis and the 1929 crash
that lead to the Great Depression. To me it seems a bit far to stretch,
but... do you guys get the feeling it's an accurate, or at least reasonable,
comparrison? Are we about to fall that far?
article, about a financial analyst in California who just killed his family
and himself this week, makes me think: why is it that there never seem to be
any signs? There have been lots of murders and suicides and shootings in
the last decade, and every time it seems like the line is, "there were
troubles, yeah, but nothing that would point to this. This was pretty much
completely unexpected."
Also, yet another comparrison between the current crisis and the 1929 crash
that lead to the Great Depression. To me it seems a bit far to stretch,
but... do you guys get the feeling it's an accurate, or at least reasonable,
comparrison? Are we about to fall that far?
(no subject)
Oct. 9th, 2008 11:51 amI just saw headlines for "the first photo-taking GPS bike." I'm trying
really hard to understand why anyone cares. Google Bikepath View?
Yeah, it's a slow day at work. Why do you ask?
really hard to understand why anyone cares. Google Bikepath View?
Yeah, it's a slow day at work. Why do you ask?
Sarah Connor Chronicles on the decline?
Oct. 9th, 2008 10:51 amHuh. News seems to be that The Sarah Connor Chronicles is dying;
bleeding viewers every episode in Season Two and unlikely to return for
Season Three. I'll say that I'm actually quite surprised: I can't believe
it made it to a second season.
bleeding viewers every episode in Season Two and unlikely to return for
Season Three. I'll say that I'm actually quite surprised: I can't believe
it made it to a second season.
LJ-Genie: Twitter
Oct. 9th, 2008 08:38 amSo, can anyone out there give me a Twitter tutorial? I've been meaning to
try it out, it seems interesting, but I don't really 'get' it. How do you
send tweets? Via the web, or sms messages, or what? Where do they go, or
where can they go, and how do you get them there? How can you read
other peoples' tweets? Do you have to be at the website?
try it out, it seems interesting, but I don't really 'get' it. How do you
send tweets? Via the web, or sms messages, or what? Where do they go, or
where can they go, and how do you get them there? How can you read
other peoples' tweets? Do you have to be at the website?
Son of an Innkeeper
Oct. 8th, 2008 10:10 amSo I kind of want to vent a little bit.
First, I think I owe Dungeons and Dragons an apology. Much like my
relationship with Miranda, I let a few bad experiences color my whole
opinion. I played in Daniel's Eberon game (at least until I had to move to
California), and that was good, if a bit choppy (herding cats comes to
mind). And recently I played in a mindless 4E dungeon crawl which, though
it ended in an effective party wipe, we pretty cool. So I'll say it: I like
DnD. It's right up there with any other gaming system/setting, and it can
be done well just as much as it can be done wrong. I've also just signed up
for a DnD 3.5 PBeM, though I still have reservations about how well PBeM can
work. (I'm also cynical and don't trust most of the other players to either
play their characters well, play the game well, or keep up with their email,
but...)
As a quick aside, I recently mentioned that, from the looks of it, I think I
really like DnD 4E, and my buddy Hal asked me why. At the time I wasn't
sure, but since then I've come to the conclusion that it just seems
cleaner. Don't get me wrong, DnD 4E is almost a completely
different game from DnD 3.5. They're very similar in theme and setting,
but mechanical changes are fairly significant, and they've changed some
assumptions. 4E seems a lot more combat-oriented (though take that with a
grain of salt, my only experience has been a mindless dungeon crawl), and
the classes have changed roles a little bit. Fighters used to deal damage,
and Rogues were skill-ful, and Wizards, uhm, also dealty damage. 4E takes a
page from MMOs and splits characters into 'roles' of Tanker, Striker,
Controller, etc. A 3.5 Wizard works a lot differently than a 4E Wizard in a
lot of ways. But I'm getting away from my point, which is that the sets of
abilities and clearly defined roles makes 4E a cleaner game, without
a lot of fuzziness that you get in, well, just about any other game. It's
easier to build a party when you have standard, well-defined building
blocks.
Which actually gets me to my first complaint. This PBeM that I'm getting
into is just about to start, and we have characters pretty much sorted out,
but... It seems like there's a lot of stepping on of feet. We have 2
Fighters, 1.5 Rogues, 1.5 Druids, and a Wizard. Not a bad mix, except maybe
that we're missing a cleric. But I don't really know what the other
characters are built to *do*. I mean, the fighters will probably handle
melee, and I imagine the Wizard will be flinging blasts and bolts (maybe a
few soft control spells), but I think the rogue(s) will basically be
skill/sociasl based, and I really have no idea what it is Druids are
supposed to do. Are they like Fighter-clerics? I thought that was more a
Paladin's bit.
To muddy the waters further, our DM isn't imposing XP penalties based on
Multi-classing, and she's letting us multi-class right out of the gate (I
have no real problem with that), so she's effectively strongly encouraged
people to multi-class, which I think is problematic; I think people are
going to be even more unfocussed and unsure of their part to play (which
isn't helped by the fact that, in part because it's a PBeM, we haven't had
any kind of internal dialog about who's playing what or why). So we really
have 2 Fighters, 1 Rogue, 2 Rogue/Druids, and a Wizard. The races are
something like 2 humans, 1 elf, 2 half elves, and a halfling, or
something...
The bit that really gets me, though? And this is completely personal
preferance, and I recognize that, and I'll concede that there are notable
differences, but... Why aren't people just satissfied with the regular
classes and races? I mean, we don't really have any duplicated
classes. We really have 1 Fighter, 1 Samurai, 1 Rogue, 1
Rogue/Druid, 1 Scout/Shaman, and 1 Wizard. And I'll concede that a Shaman
is like a cross-breed Druid/Warlock and they get interesting spell
mechanics, but... Why not just re-skin what's already there? I guess that
doesn't really work for everything, and I'd prolly suggest something like
"roll a Warlock but get the DM's approval to use Nature magic instead of
Arcane and call yourself a Shaman," but then it starts to make less sense
than just taking what TSR has already written for us...
Me? I'm the Human Rogue. I almost ALWAYS play a human (in any game or
setting), usually with some mundane son-of-an-innkeeper background. I'm a
simple guy. So part of it is just my very strong preference for the simple
and average being offended by all these weird cross-breeds and
admixtures... Probably because I'm afraid of my 'normal' hero getting lost
in the shuffle of all the bells and whistles.
Of course, since it looks like we're missing a Cleric, I may reroll as one
of those... The son of a repentant blacksmith or something...
First, I think I owe Dungeons and Dragons an apology. Much like my
relationship with Miranda, I let a few bad experiences color my whole
opinion. I played in Daniel's Eberon game (at least until I had to move to
California), and that was good, if a bit choppy (herding cats comes to
mind). And recently I played in a mindless 4E dungeon crawl which, though
it ended in an effective party wipe, we pretty cool. So I'll say it: I like
DnD. It's right up there with any other gaming system/setting, and it can
be done well just as much as it can be done wrong. I've also just signed up
for a DnD 3.5 PBeM, though I still have reservations about how well PBeM can
work. (I'm also cynical and don't trust most of the other players to either
play their characters well, play the game well, or keep up with their email,
but...)
As a quick aside, I recently mentioned that, from the looks of it, I think I
really like DnD 4E, and my buddy Hal asked me why. At the time I wasn't
sure, but since then I've come to the conclusion that it just seems
cleaner. Don't get me wrong, DnD 4E is almost a completely
different game from DnD 3.5. They're very similar in theme and setting,
but mechanical changes are fairly significant, and they've changed some
assumptions. 4E seems a lot more combat-oriented (though take that with a
grain of salt, my only experience has been a mindless dungeon crawl), and
the classes have changed roles a little bit. Fighters used to deal damage,
and Rogues were skill-ful, and Wizards, uhm, also dealty damage. 4E takes a
page from MMOs and splits characters into 'roles' of Tanker, Striker,
Controller, etc. A 3.5 Wizard works a lot differently than a 4E Wizard in a
lot of ways. But I'm getting away from my point, which is that the sets of
abilities and clearly defined roles makes 4E a cleaner game, without
a lot of fuzziness that you get in, well, just about any other game. It's
easier to build a party when you have standard, well-defined building
blocks.
Which actually gets me to my first complaint. This PBeM that I'm getting
into is just about to start, and we have characters pretty much sorted out,
but... It seems like there's a lot of stepping on of feet. We have 2
Fighters, 1.5 Rogues, 1.5 Druids, and a Wizard. Not a bad mix, except maybe
that we're missing a cleric. But I don't really know what the other
characters are built to *do*. I mean, the fighters will probably handle
melee, and I imagine the Wizard will be flinging blasts and bolts (maybe a
few soft control spells), but I think the rogue(s) will basically be
skill/sociasl based, and I really have no idea what it is Druids are
supposed to do. Are they like Fighter-clerics? I thought that was more a
Paladin's bit.
To muddy the waters further, our DM isn't imposing XP penalties based on
Multi-classing, and she's letting us multi-class right out of the gate (I
have no real problem with that), so she's effectively strongly encouraged
people to multi-class, which I think is problematic; I think people are
going to be even more unfocussed and unsure of their part to play (which
isn't helped by the fact that, in part because it's a PBeM, we haven't had
any kind of internal dialog about who's playing what or why). So we really
have 2 Fighters, 1 Rogue, 2 Rogue/Druids, and a Wizard. The races are
something like 2 humans, 1 elf, 2 half elves, and a halfling, or
something...
The bit that really gets me, though? And this is completely personal
preferance, and I recognize that, and I'll concede that there are notable
differences, but... Why aren't people just satissfied with the regular
classes and races? I mean, we don't really have any duplicated
classes. We really have 1 Fighter, 1 Samurai, 1 Rogue, 1
Rogue/Druid, 1 Scout/Shaman, and 1 Wizard. And I'll concede that a Shaman
is like a cross-breed Druid/Warlock and they get interesting spell
mechanics, but... Why not just re-skin what's already there? I guess that
doesn't really work for everything, and I'd prolly suggest something like
"roll a Warlock but get the DM's approval to use Nature magic instead of
Arcane and call yourself a Shaman," but then it starts to make less sense
than just taking what TSR has already written for us...
Me? I'm the Human Rogue. I almost ALWAYS play a human (in any game or
setting), usually with some mundane son-of-an-innkeeper background. I'm a
simple guy. So part of it is just my very strong preference for the simple
and average being offended by all these weird cross-breeds and
admixtures... Probably because I'm afraid of my 'normal' hero getting lost
in the shuffle of all the bells and whistles.
Of course, since it looks like we're missing a Cleric, I may reroll as one
of those... The son of a repentant blacksmith or something...
Bookmark'd for me.
Sep. 29th, 2008 09:36 amThis
is an interview of Jonathan Coulton by Ars Technica. I can't *not* read it,
but I haven't time at work today.
You may like it, too, if you're a fan of his unique geek-folk-rock music.
is an interview of Jonathan Coulton by Ars Technica. I can't *not* read it,
but I haven't time at work today.
You may like it, too, if you're a fan of his unique geek-folk-rock music.
