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| Saturday, July 11th, 2009 | | 6:30 pm |
Results of the fossil hunting expedition
Five shark teeth (likely one porbeagle shark and four crow shark) Two vertebrae (one small bony fish and one shark or ray vertebrae) Two small and very fragile fossil bivalves (apparently Choristothyris) A large number of fossil squid pens (most are probably Belemnitella americana) A rock with a shell impression (likely Choristothyris again) A rock with a pebbled impression, possibly from something's skin. A piece of petrified wood. A roughly cylindrical rock with a suspiciously regular concentric hole which I think might be a piece of fossil bone. A few roughly conical objects with clearly defined surface layers - possibly parts of fossilized teeth? A few other unusually shaped rocks that might be bone fragments, or just funny-looking rocks. A few funny-looking rocks. | | Friday, June 26th, 2009 | | 2:16 pm |
Fossil hunting, and a strange revelation.
I have been invited on a fossil hunting hike a few weeks from now, a day trip to a local park to explore some of New Jersey's rich marine fossil deposits. The trip promises to be an entertaining afternoon division. The discussion about the trip with my wife beforehand may have been more revealing than anything I'll find on the trip. My wife will not be going on the trip. Lack of interest in paleontology and expectation of mosquitoes and other insects are her entirely understandable stated reasons, but more than that I think she simply does not share my desire for exploration and learning. Her comment on my desire to go on the expedition, as well as many other things I've wanted to do, is that I wouldn't want to if I'd explored and experienced more while I was in college. I didn't think about it much when she said it, but on it seems she and I have very different views on life. I don't believe that there is a point in life where you should stop exploring, experiencing, and learning. To me the point of life is to learn and experience all that you can during the short time you have to live, and to encourage and enrich the lives of others while you do so. To me reaching a point where I no longer want to learn or experience new things and am simply satisfied to sit back and be comfortable with stasis is essentially equivalent to being dead. I simply don't agree with the notion that once you reach a certain age you should lose interest in new experiences and adventures. This doesn't mean that I advise being childish and irresponsible with life, or that I don't appreciate the work my wife has put into planning for our retirement. But when my wife states that I only want to go on this trip because I didn't explore enough in college, it makes me think that she really doesn't understand me. Seeking new experiences and exploring the world isn't some phase I'm going to grow out of. It's who I am and how I choose to spend my life. | | Thursday, June 11th, 2009 | | 9:10 pm |
It lives.
I have tamed the bees of the ether and taught the funnel to do as I command. It livesStill, there are many tricks it must be taught, and much detailing and dressing to do. I may teach myself leatherworking soon. | | Thursday, May 28th, 2009 | | 10:48 am |
| | Monday, November 24th, 2008 | | 11:54 am |
A piece of death, a piece of power.
A week after Halloween, I attended a Samhain rit with a local grove. The theme of the rit was on dreams and death, and at the end everyone was given a reminder of the theme. In this case the reminder was a small uranium-glass marble, described by the hosts as "a piece of death". ( Read more... ) | | Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 | | 2:15 pm |
Recycled Meme
First five people to respond get a nifty hand-made thingie. It could be any kind of thingie. Feel free to post this in your own journal, or not. | | Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 | | 7:52 pm |
Robots....
After watching WALL-E for the dozenth or so time, my wife asks me, "You can't build EVE, can you?". Sorry. Even other than the artificial intelligence and death ray arm cannon, she floats on magical force fields. And the parts of her body aren't actually connected. Maybe if I had room-temperature superconductors to work with. "How about WALL-E?" Well, WALL-E is at least mechanically plausible. All his parts fit together physically, and you could conceivably build an unpowered, poseable WALL-E model matching the movie. He does have an awful lot of moving parts for a mobile trash compactor, but I guess when you've got the near-magic technology and massive resources of Buy-N-Large, and a culture of pointless over-consumption, you design trash compactors with dozens of degrees of freedom. The main problem with building WALL-E (other than the artificial intelligence and implausibly effective solar panels) is the complete lack of any space to put functional parts, motors and batteries and such. His inside is hollow - filled with his arms, head, and tracks when he's folded up, and used as a trash compactor when he's working. Even the wonderfully jointed arms and hands and clever tracks don't have any provision for motors or actuators or such. There are some functional WALL-E models out there as toys or promotional media, but they haven't a fraction of the function of the one in the movie. I could build MO. Not too many moving parts, lots of interior space for batteries and motors and such, and spherical wheel balance drive isn't hard to do with modern processors and solid-state accelerometers. I could probably even add a functional floor-cleaning mop function. But nobody cares about poor MO. | | Monday, November 10th, 2008 | | 9:03 am |
Chocolate and Samhain: My weekend
I had a busy, tiring, yet deeply enjoyable weekend. Saturday - got up at 6 AM, an hour earlier than I usually get up for work. Grabbed breakfast and coffee on the road, and headed over to aiskon and yduras's place. We took the early train into the city (got to ride on one of those new double-deckers!), then the subway to a station closer to Pier 94. We walked down to Pier 94, arrived before the show started, and then got into the already fairly long line. There was some confusion - there were two different events going on at the place, and both people with tickets and those who needed to buy them were put in a single line, split into two groups, and then made to stand around until the organizers figured out who needed to go where. There was grumbling and complaining. Eventually we made it to the proper line, and discovered that they were only taking cash and checks, not credit cards. Fortunately yduras's was able to cover for me until I could get to a suitable ATM. The chocolate show itself. Pretty damn cool, at least if you like chocolate. Chocolate bars, chocolate ganache, truffles, toffees, hot chocolate and chocolate teas. Chocolate-themed vacations, chocolate skin cream. Also bulk chocolate, chocolate processing machines, and molds for candy makers. There was even the chocolate fashion show - not terribly practical clothing apparently partly or wholly made from chocolate. I sampled, I gathered pamphlets and catalogs for later holiday gift selection. I pocketed wrapped samples, and purchased half a dozen different exotic chocolate bars, and some chocolate skin lotion for my wife. yduras's and I were tired out early, so we waited on comfy white cushions while aiskon shopped and chatted. By the time we were all ready to go, it was pouring outside. Rather than walk we took a taxi to Grand Central Station. New york traffic being what it was, it would have almost been faster to walk - but at least we were dry. We had lunch and visited the Grand Central marketplace, then took a subway back to the path station, then a train back to Rahway. After returning home and appeasing my wife with an offering of hot soup and exotic chocolates, it was time to head off to the GOG Samhain rit. I briefly panicked when on reviewing my emails I realized that I never actually got directions to the rit. I'd been there before and knew where it was, roughly, but I didn't have the address or directions. A call to coyotegrrrl cleared that up, and I was off. Samhain was satisfying. I'm still not sure just what exactly it is I'm really getting out of the rits. As an atheist and a skeptic, I can't actually believe in the literal truth of any of the spiritual or supernatural aspects of it. On the other hand, I can enjoy the process and the feeling of community, enjoy hanging out with strange and interesting people, and even appreciate the gods and beliefs in terms of archetypes and ideas. While a few years ago I would have scoffed at the idea that I'd ever be enjoying attending pagan rituals, I'm actually enjoying myself and glad I joined. | | Sunday, November 9th, 2008 | | 9:53 pm |
Wow.
"We are no longer a Christian nation ... we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of non-believers" Obama on secularismWow. A president who realizes that those who are not Christian are also a valued part of this country. One who acknowledges atheists as equal to the religious. How cool is that? I'm still trying to come to grips with our new president-elect. We seem to have somehow managed to elect someone who is both a decent human being and competent at the job, and who publicly acknowledges that our laws and our country aren't actually based on the Bible after all. (Oh, and he's also black.) I'm not even excited or overjoyed so much as baffled - part of my brain is simply rejecting this situation as being totally contrary to the political process I've come to expect. It's as if I got up in the morning to learn that PZ Meyers had been chosen as the next Pope, or that someone had discovered an easily reproducible and completely safe form of fusion power, or something equally wonderful yet utterly improbable. And after the last few decades of American politics, seeing a politician who doesn't immediately assume that all laws and morality are Christian in basis and that Atheists should even be considered actual people, let alone good citizens, is that amazing and unexpected. I'm used to politicians being universally corrupt and evil. (Living in NJ may have something to do with that). My best hopes for a president is to do as little as possible, as most decisive acts I've seen by presidents have only made things worse in the long run. So I'm still describing my opinion on Obama as cautiously optimistic, and resisting the urge to get excited and hopeful. Yet I have to admit this is the coolest election result I've seen in my whole life, and the best I've felt about the future of our country. I'm going to have to get used to this strange, alien feeling of actually liking the President. | | Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 | | 12:11 pm |
A new day
For the first time I can remember, I actually feel pretty good about the results of an election. Instead of feeling I've voted for the least unpleasant of two options, I'm actually somewhat optimistic about Obama. I also feel physically better, seem to have shaken off some of the malaise of the last few weeks. I started taking some of Laurie's magnesium pills this week, which might be helping there. | | Monday, October 27th, 2008 | | 11:08 am |
Upcoming weekend plans
Halloween: Nothing planned. Laurie bought candy, so I'll probably be needed for door-answering duty, even though we get few if any tick-or-treaters at the condo. Most likely we'll be left with a pile of candy that I really shouldn't eat. This weekend is the Sugarloaf Crafts Festival. We'll probably be doing that Saturday afternoon. Laurie has coupons. Our favorite toffee vendor should be there again. Sunday we may be going up to see her father, so I can fix his lamp. Next weekend we will be traveling into NY for the 11th Annual Chocolate Show. We're planning on taking the train in from the New Brunswick train station. Anyone else going want to coordinate on this? That evening I've been invited to the Grove of the Other Gods Samhain ritual, although I'm not sure I'll be back in time to attend it. | | Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 | | 8:25 am |
Stupidest doomsday plot ever: A petty rant.
Normally I wouldn't complain about the plausibility of an episode of Sarah Jane Adventures. It's a cute kids show, and a spin-off of Doctor Who, which never bothered to even try to make scientific sense. But the doomsday plot of the villain of the second season opener The Last Sontaran was so deeply implausible in half a dozen different ways, it broke my suspension of disbelief beyond repair and took me completely out of the episode. ( Cut for spoilers ) | | Monday, October 20th, 2008 | | 6:56 pm |
Ascend a Tourist next, she said...
So I did. Truth is there's not so much difference in the classes. Tourists start out with crap equipment, but that only matters for the early game. Once you manage to find a few pieces of armor and a decent weapon you'll barely know you're playing one of the weaker classes. And the Tourist makes up for it your quest artifact: the Platinum Yendorian Express Card. Which, when invoked by a Tourist, can act as a blessed Charging spell, and never runs out. Having essentially unlimited uses of Wands of Death and Teleportation makes the endgame much easier. | | Monday, September 8th, 2008 | | 1:48 pm |
Ways Spore could have been a better game:
Make a single good game instead of a bunch of mediocre games tied together.Spore is essentially a series of minigames, where how you chose to complete each game somewhat influences your starting abilities in the next. The problem is, none of the minigames is very good or deep. Most of them are similar to games already out on the market (the Tribes section, for example, is pretty much a standard RTS) but years behind the curve when directly compared to them. The Creature game is probably the most novel and interesting, and even that is fairly shallow in content. A sandbox should not be linear.For a game presented as an evolutionary sandbox, Spore is annoyingly linear. There's a limited amount of content in each segment, and the game moves you from segment to segment quickly and relentlessly. Although you can ignore the game's prompts to move on and remain in a stage, there's very little point in doing so. Once you've completed a stage to the game's satisfaction, there's no interesting content left - there are essentially no side missions to explore other than the main, linear path. The only part of the game that's really open-ended is the interstellar empire endgame. I haven't played that section much, but from what I've heard it's actually annoying and requires far too much micromanaging. Don't unnecessary limit player creativity.One of the big appeals of Spore was the ability to make your creature look like whatever you wanted. Everyone loved the Creature Creator tool and the amazing versatility it gave you. Unfortunately the actual game isn't as versatile. While you can technically do in the game everything you could in the creature creator, the severely limited in-game resources and requirement to build your creature's stats in order to advance force you to choose between looks and useful game stats. Having four legs costs twice as much as having two and doesn't add anything to your capabilities. Likewise more than two arms, or more than one head or mouth, is a complete waste. Any successful creature is going to be simple - forget building that centipede or spider-like monster you wanted and still being able to get anywhere in the game. And if you want the top stats, you have to choose the right body parts to get them, even if you liked the look of some of the lesser-stated ones more. Creature capabilities based on the actual design, rather than equipped loot.Apparently, early on in the development of Spore your creature's physical abilities would be determined mechanically from how you designed it. Speed and dexterity from body shape and leg placement, reach by arm length, health by size, that sort of thing. Somewhere between then and the release version all that was dropped for a simple equipment-based model. If you stick feet with +5 movement stats on your creature, you will have +5 running, no matter what the shape or design of your creature. The form of your creature is completely cosmetic, having no effect on its abilities or survival. The same is also true of the vehicle and building designer tools later in the game. Now I love the vehicle designer, and could spend hours playing with it. But in the end it doesn't matter if I've designed a low-slung, armored tank, or a ludicrous top-heavy unicycle - they'll perform the same. Likewise I could make sleek jet fighters, or blimps powered by flapping wings. It doesn't make much difference to the final performance of the vehicle. Evolutionary progression.In Spore, you develop new abilities by loot farming. Creatures sometimes drop parts when you defeat or befriend them. You can also find new parts in glittering skeletal fragments scattered around the landscape. Once you've unlocked those parts you can add them to the next generation of your creature. Those parts don't need to have any relation to your creature's current form or lifestyle, and it's possible to completely redesign your creature from scratch at any generation. This is, of course, nothing whatsoever like real evolution. Had they actually wanted to model a real evolutionary sequence, new body parts would become available gradually over time based on your current creature's design. With each generation you'd naturally see a range of available parts, each of which was a slightly modified version of a part already on your creature. That would have allowed players to guide their creature's evolution while still being more similar to some sort of actual natural progression. As it is now the gameplay feels disappointingly similar to the same kind of "Kill things, take their stuff, get better gear" gameplay you see in MMORPGs these days. Actually have an ecology.The first time I played Spore, I built a mean predator. While wandering the world, I came across a nest of harmless little bunny-things. "A source of food!" I thought, "But I had better be careful not to kill them all lest I drive them extinct!". Silly me. Driving other species extinct is the goal in Spore when playing as a carnivore. Never mind that carnivores that successfully drive their prey extinct, go extinct themselves. In Spore, each different species spawns in precisely one spot on the map. They will spawn there forever, regardless of whether there are any of them actually left. They only stop spawning if you kill off a certain number of them, at which point every remaining member of that species magically vanishes. Yes, you actually get assigned missions like "Kill 3 Fnordlings to drive them extinct!" as a carnivore. Pacifists can instead of killing befriend other species by singing and dancing at them, but it's still the same mission-based gameplay. It's really quite disappointing. I was hoping for a life simulator sandbox with real evolution and ecology. Instead I get a RPG with shallow gameplay. No rootkit-based security.This is the big one. Spore uses the SecureRom rootkit for copy protection. It installs itself permanently in your computer, interferes with various pieces of software that might be suspicious, and regularly calls the game server to make sure it's still allowed to run. You can install your game precisely three times before it won't work anymore, so better not have to reinstall it more times than that. Of course, before the game was even available in stores cracked versions of it were floating around the web, with quite a few people choosing to download them rather than deal with SecureRom. It's again a case of a security system inconveniencing the honest users while doing nothing to stop the pirates. | | Sunday, August 24th, 2008 | | 5:57 pm |
A modest proposal...
So here I sit, trying to nurse my dying laptop along until my new one arrives and working on the Mad Science campaign that popular demand demands that I run. It's going to be a challenging campaign, for both the players and for me. Not much combat, for one thing. Not much use of powers. Mostly roleplaying, skill rolls, and puzzles. I know this is going to bore some players. I'm going to have to make the plots and NPCs interesting, I know, and encourage roleplaying. Which is something that I feel has been lacking in some of the games I've been in lately. I'm wondering if laptops might be partially to blame. I don't mean to sound like the grumpy old man talking about how the kids these days don't do anything right, but back years ago when I started roleplaying we paid a lot more attention to the games. We didn't have laptops, PDAs, cell phones, Playstation Portables, or other electronic distractions at the table, and pretty much had to pay attention to what the GM and other players were doing. (And we had to walk uphill both ways in the snow to game, with pages falling our of our 4th edition books...) And it did seem to me that the RP was a lot more involved and intense. Granted our GM at the time was hyperactive and obsessive about detailing his world. But it still seems to me, from my own experience and observation at the games I'm in now, that people are a lot more inclined to be interested in the game when they don't have a laptop screen in between them and the rest of the table. I've pondered having a "No laptops at the gaming table" rule at games I run. I can hear the screaming and visualize the torches and pitchforks already, but I really do think it would help everyone focus on the game itself. The few things that laptops are used for directly relating to the game - character sheets, rolling dice, and passing notes - can be pretty well done without. And maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I still prefer rolling physical dice to getting numbers off a computer screen. | | Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 | | 11:19 am |
It's a strange module....
with ninjas and ghosts and robot monkey pirates, and a shaggy bull at the end. But it's coming along well, and should be fun to run. | | Sunday, August 10th, 2008 | | 6:54 pm |
Perfect timing.
The backlight on my laptop chose today to fail. Two days before I leave for the con. At least it gave me enough warning for me to save all the notes for the game I'll be running onto a thumb drive. | | Thursday, August 7th, 2008 | | 10:28 pm |
Therapy session
Laurie and I had our first session at IPG tonight. Not a therapist that our insurance covers, but one that came well recommended for the issues we are having. Have a list of things to work on and think about. I need to work on assertiveness, honesty, and standing up to confrontation. And make an appointment with a urologist. Laurie isn't anywhere near as controlling and abusive as I've sometimes made her out to be, but does have some abandonment issues. On the plus side, the magnesium supplements are doing more good for her than I ever dreamed. We're even talking about her getting a part-time job soon. | | Saturday, July 19th, 2008 | | 3:24 pm |
Reflections
I've had a taste the last few weeks of what those of you who have chronic illnesses must go through. Just a taste, my illness is nearly gone and I expect to be back to normal health and activities this week. It's not the pain and physical incapacitation that's the worst part of it. That's bad, but what's struck me as being worst is the loss of ability to do the normal things of life - going to work, going out to do shopping and errands, being stuck at home without the mobility or energy to even get anything useful done around the condo. I understand now more what my wife, and those of you who read this blog who are in a similar situation, have been going through. I'm sorry. And to those of you reading this who are fortunate enough to still have your health, don't take it for granted. The ability to live an independent life can be taken away from you at any random and unpredictable moment. Even if you take the best care of yourself physically, random illness or accident can change your life at any moment. Don't have squandered your living and health while you have it. But just because taking proper care of yourself is no guarantee of long life or health doesn't mean you shouldn't take care of yourself. My wife has often asked me what the point was of her eating right, exercising, and otherwise doing everything she should, if she was just going to be struck down with CFS anyway. I could answer that it's a matter of odds, that you're more likely to live a long and healthy life if you take care of your health, but that's never been the answer that motivated me. For me it's more a matter of quality of life, making sure that what time I have is the best I can make it. I'm happier when healthy and in good shape, so I try to maintain that state. Of course I'm also happy with an ice cream sundae, so there are always tradeoffs. It's part of a philosophy of life I've been developing: Don't worry so much about planning for the long-term future. Concentrate on doing what is right to do at the moment - but define what is right to include actions (such as exercising or saving money) that tend to make things better in the long term. Speaking of actions which tend to make things better... I was talking to my sister-in-law on the phone the other day. She was concerned as to whether her children could ever suffer from shingles. In their case, happily, the answer is no. She had them vaccinated, so they have protective antibodies without ever having been exposed to the chickenpox virus. Even today, some parents think it's better to let their children acquire chickenpox antibodies 'naturally' by suffering through the disease rather than taking the vaccine. They reason that since the effect is the same and the disease isn't so bad for children, there's no reason not to let them catch it, sometimes even organizing "chickenpox parties" to deliberately infect their kids. What's the difference? The difference is that the Varicella zoster virus which causes chickenpox and shingles is permanent and incurable. Once you've been infected, it remains in your nervous system forever, even after the acute infection is over. In most people it will stay dormant. When it doesn't, the results can be pretty awful. I was lucky. I am young and healthy, with a strong immune system, and we caught it early enough for antiviral medication to do some good. Even so, I had to suffer through a week of incredible agony, and pretty much ruined my vacation. In less fortunate people shingles can cause permanent nerve damage, blindness, hearing loss, and chronic pain. If I'd been vaccinated rather than having chickenpox as a child this all could have been avoided. Of course, the chickenpox vaccine wasn't around when I was a child, but it's readily available now. | | Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 | | 5:13 pm |
Diagnosis confirmation
According to our local doctor, not only is what I have a textbook case of Shingles, it's so much so that they brought in a student and the doctor in charge of teaching to look at it. "See, this is what you look for". Also, Laurie has the power to make doctors crack up. I will be working from home all work. I have a doctor's note and everything. |
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