Nooooooooo...

My brother + ice = severely injured Celica. I'm in mourning....

Why, internet, why?

http://xkcd.com/355/

This is the very reason I no longer put relationship info up on facebook.

Well, finals starts officially tomorrow. I have my Methods quiz tomorrow, which I have been studying for this evening. Then, a little downtime, and some sweet Cyberpunk action Tuesday night. I start studying Heat Transfer some on Tuesday, but in reality not til Wednesday and Thursday. Then I have Sunday and Monday to study for dynamics. Throw a presentation in for Energy and the Environment on Thursday, and there you have it, my finals schedule.
I'll either have way more or way less free time these next weeks...I have no idea which.

FINALS.

WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH...

Yeah, I've been busy.

For those who haven't kept up, I'm going to Israel over the winter break.
I'll probably post a few times after finals start, after all of this psychotic work cools down.

I'm really busy, but junior year rocks hard. I'm getting so excited about all of this stuff.

The Way Things Work: Memory

I wrote a very long and bitchy post, and I really didn't need to. So I deleted it.

I guess what I figured out through all that ranting is that you have to accept that no matter how much time has past, no matter who you're with now, and no matter the previous circumstances, some people you will always care about. There will always be circumstances where you'll hear about their travails, and your first instinct will be to want to teleport over state lines and give them a big hug.

I feel very weird about this, mostly because of my current relationship. That being said, empathy is not cheating, and I should feel good about maintaining these friendships with people from home.

On a note that's much more honest to myself: (Damn hormones. Fucking sex drive. Grrrr. Fucking thinking with the lower brain...damn can't keep a single fucking thought in my head clean anymore)

Italics make everything better, seriously.

INFANTRY

Back towards the end of middle school, I found this cool online game called Infantry. It was free to play, involved a lot of shooting people, tons of weapons and persistent character buildup as well. When I got back to it in high school, it was sadly switched to a pay model. Well, I found out that Sony, the owners of Infantry, have made it free to play once again. I installed the game, logged on, and was overjoyed to find a CTF server with over 100 people on it. So cool, I recommend you all play it. It's free, not bandwidth intensive (I played it in 7th grade on 56k), and really damn fun.

Post 300!

This is madness!
Madness? THIS...IS...BLOGSPOT!!!

Yeah, 300 posts. Woo.

So, I still have been having major RP ADD with regards to settings. I've had a bunch of ideas, but am still rapidly flitting from one idea to another with little regard for compatibility or continuity. After seeing the previews for GURPS High-Tech, I'm quite aware that a lot of fodder exists for a modern setting. I kind of want to do a modern setting with some fantasy or horror elements, but overall something pretty gritty. I've been able to narrow a bit onto my next bit of GMing, which will be an espionage PbP. That being said, I've been having a lot of ideas that I want to work into something new. I think for my next game, depending on what I want to do, I may limit it to four or five players, just choosing the first four/five that submit to me a character with the right depth of field that fits into the concept. Hopefully, no one will take it personally if I tell them a concept doesn't fit...and that wouldn't preclude them from participating, necessarily. Anyways, I'll probably get another journal and use it exclusively for fiction and RPG stuff. They sell quadrille journals, so that may be awesome. I can also use it to write down ideas during other games. Dan's game will start soon, and though my character concept isn't completely tacked down, I think the game will be pretty cool. Anyway, I'm going to go get that journal now, since I thought about it.

IT'S ALIVE!

Yes, my computer is up and running again, now with a 120GB hard drive and a lot less crap on it. I'm in the process of running a data recovery on my old HD (using a nifty USB-t0-pATA converter), and should get back all of my important files. This ordeal has taught me much on the value of backups. Though, for better or worse, all of my files that were actually important (resume, school files, etc.) were already backed up on school or email servers. Now, I can back up all of my unimportant files too. Woo!

The Unthinkable

Today, the unthinkable happened. Yeah, my computer died. It sucks. I ordered a new hard drive from Newegg, as well as a nifty adapter thingy to get all the data off of my old drive. Hopefully, I'll be up and running by the middle of next week. Until then, I'm confined to the clusters. In the meanwhile, I can practice living without a computer. It'll probably be pretty eye-opening, considering how much of a hermit I can be at times.

What rhymes with procrastinate?

Yeah, I have work to do...later.
In the meanwhile, I'll update this thing for the sake of not doing said work.
Wednesday is the point in the week where everything compresses. Either, I get wicked stressed and all my homework piles up, or it all winds out as I've done all my work and don't have enough assignments left to fill in my free time.
Everything's been going slowly so far.
And I'm a little afraid I'm backpedaling, which is stupid.
I guess the more time you have to think about things, the further you get away from your rational core.
I need time to write for the campaign. I'm not feeling this one yet, which kind of sucks. Maybe it'll get better...I just built it up way too much. Maybe I need a break, or just something that gets my juices flowing. I don't know why this isn't.

"It's Complicated"

I blame Facebook for giving me any incentive to care about others' relationship drama.

In other news, this roleplaying forum has given me a new place to vomit all of my cool ideas on. I want to see how this wiki thing works, though I'm a bit scared about what will happen. In all honesty, the fun of it is seeing where it goes. It's not going to be as totally off the wall as Ghyll, but since we don't have as many people, it wouldn't be efficient to start from random points. If I ever knew 100 interested people, though...
I'm probably going to make the process a little different, now that I've had some time to think about it. For one, there will most likely be an upper bound on the number of pages one can write in a round, to prevent any one person from being more prolific than anyone else. Also, there may be a stage called 'gameplay' instead of or after the last round, where aspects of the wiki are updated and changed as things happen ingame, or to account for possible additions to the world dynamic in the form of backstory or revealed history.
All in all though, I think my set of rules will work well. Seeing how everything emerges, we can decide exactly how kooky and/or cool this will be.

NERD! NERD!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/4521/DD-v3-5-Character-Sheet-All-Class-Compatible-Color-Coded

Click on "Listen to a recording of this document".
Pure Gold.

Triple Shot of Oy

Long relationships ended in the house within the past month: 3

Jeez, I hope it isn't contagious.

I figured out what my favorite type of music is

My favorite type of music is live music.
I mean, I'll listen to anything, but a good concert is almost always more enjoyable.
Live jazz? Sweet. Live Hip-hop? Saw Atmosphere, that was pretty sick. Live Reggae? Matisyahu. And so on...
Saw these bands tonight, Marking Twain and We The Living. Both on the indie side, only moderately within my typical circle of interests, but live, they both had great stage presence, and put on a good show, so the type of music wasn't a big deal.

Tomorrow, we finally meet to start the space campaign. I am so fucking stoked.

I could have sworn I was going to say something useful

Actually, this is probably going to be really random.

Reread a bit from someone's livejournal. Instead of going into detail, I'll summarize.
Emooooooooooo...

This week has been Orientation. I've met some awesome freshmen (and hey, we even bid a couple), and I've been up all night every night ruining my sleep schedule. Lindsey has been away with her family, so it's been all AEPi, all the time.
Orie and I finished rearranging the furniture, so the room is now semi-livable. And hopefully we'll get all the crap out soon enough also.

I've been psychotically excited about this GURPS campaign, so it will be very good that actual class is happening next week. I'll get a nice prelude of how hard I'm going to be driven into the ground, and then the semester will start up in earnest.

I don't know why I felt like writing this, but lo and behold.

Cars I saw today

Chevy Impala SS:



Toyota X-Runner:



Pretty Sweet.

But enough of all that...

Well, I went to a rave on Saturday. It was pretty sweet, but I should have eaten more beforehand.
Also, I've been plugging away at filling in the setting for my space campaign. I found an awesome little piece of software called TerraJ, which has been helping me tremendously in creating the surfaces of my planets. It's on sourceforge, so if you feel like doing some worldbuilding, I highly recommend it.

Dan has also started a little mini-campaign, where Mark, Mike, Lindsey and I are special agents in the 'NSA Deniable Assets Division', meaning we get to be above the law and get all sorts of sweet gadgets, like a four-person stealth helicopter. We've had one session so far, and Dan is going to be trying to run sessions all week this week also. All in all, I've been doing a lot of gaming, and it's been sweet.

A Friday nonevent

I decided that I wanted this blog to be devoid of personal commentary when I deleted my livejournal. Admittedly, I have failed miserably in that respect. Just search for the tag 'emo bullshit' (which this entry will likely be tagged with as well).
I deleted my livejournal at the end of January last year, immediately at least in response to a inane (new favorite word, see last entry) and aggravating attempt by friends of my then recently ex-girlfriend to spam me into contrition. Being the stubborn bastard I am, I instead cut off their communication channel.
It was, in all honesty, a long time coming, and something I should have done in high school.
The first entry in this blog was made on July 3rd, 2005. July was a time that I had gotten over my jubilation of having finally escaped high school, but not yet entered college. It was created, not as a public vent for my own brand of whine (I still had the livejournal), but for a place to me to write about my experiences with roleplaying, my favorite hobby, and possibly receive commentary from the outside world. This was always limited to my friends, but it didn't matter, because I rarely write anything of value for people who don't know me, save a few stories or particularly eccentric gaming ideas.
The reason I suddenly had a need to blather gaming ideas all over webspace was because, at that time, I had no one to game with. And this goes back to the very particular timing of starting the blog in July.
In early June, I graduated from high school. The month following that I spent working, driving, and having sex, the last one being notable only because it was in that month of June I had lost my virginity to my then girlfriend. This may seem an unimportant self-congratulatory detail, but due to the events of April and May, it is worth noting.
In late-ish April, I went on a trip to Prague, Vienna and Salzburg with my high school chorus group. I hooked up with a girl on the trip, who I began dating as we returned. Me, having never had a successful relationship before this and having only hooked up with a girl once before, turned about three quarters of the trip into gratuitous public displays of affection. And I mean gratuitous. There was a slight snag, though, and that is that I had hooked up with a girl who was dating not only another guy, but one in my gaming group. Duhn duhn duhn...
As a result of both the excessive PDA and the choice made during the trip by my then girlfriend to attempt to break up with him in a letter, all hell broke loose upon our return. I, maintaining a slight degree of the arrogance that had highlighted my elementary school years, did not really care, beyond what it meant for the potential threat to my physical safety, a blatant progression down to step 2 morals (in essence: only wrong if it harms me). My opinion of the guy at the time was not that high, both because he was a braggart, and he was downplayed verbally by the girl he was dating when he wasn't around. The combination made me think that a) he didn't care about the relationship beyond the physical and trophy aspects, which I didn't respect, and b) she didn't care about the relationship, because she all but said that to me and two others in a Prague hotel lobby. Therefore, not thinking about the emotional implications of any relationship (ironic, considering the bullshit I had gone through merely three months earlier surrounding the same concept), I immediately assumed I was better for the position, and when she initiated, I gladly stepped up.
We now come to the concept of "Man Law". It boils down to the idea that, regardless of what's going on, you aren't allowed to meddle with your friends' relationships. Fine, I can see that. However, my believe system is feminist enough to include the concept that women can make decisions on their own and face even-keeled consequences for it. That's basically a long-winded way of me saying that it wasn't my fault. Nevertheless, I was lambasted by my friends in my gaming group, who took the extremely partisan position that I was completely at fault and that I didn't deserve their friendship. I was even told that such iniquity would lose me any ability to have a circle of friends in the future. Wow. Other than the four guys in my gaming group, no one else that I cared about, or even really anyone else at all, had such an extreme reaction. Most of my girlfriend's friends hated the guy, so I was welcomed until I broke up with her 10 months later.
So, the four guys in my gaming group had a big freakout over what I consider a nonissue. To this day I have since spoken with all of them, and even played in a PbP game with one. At the time I contributed their reaction to a particularly naive worldview, and since I haven't exactly tried very hard to keep in touch, I may never know if the three I haven't spoken with recently have or will grow out of that. Some are just inclined to believe in an untenable definition of justice.
So, this blog was indirectly created by my choice in girlfriend, which created a schism between me and my friends in high school who gamed. My livejournal was deleted and essentially replaced by this blog after my choice to break up with my high school girlfriend caused a schism between me and what was the last link I had to high school. It's actually kind of fitting that the removal of what was little more than a rant blog was the thing I equate with severing my ties with high school. In all reality, I should have deleted the livejournal after my falling out in May. There was a decently messy bit of flaming there, and it would have been a perfectly reasonable time to cut ties and move on.
This was all rather interesting, but it does have some connection to reality and the present, somehow. A friend of mine deleted her livejournal recently. I don't know exactly when, but within the past week or so. It served as a reminder of my blog behavior. When I care about someone more than I feel comfortable letting on, I read their blog. And in this case, I feel like my one attempt to show this person that I cared about their well-being was gaffed by, well, me. And it's a little bit complicated, though for the first time in my life, that has absolutely nothing to do with me. And because this URL is on facebook, there's a nonzero chance this person will read this entry. And to that, I say: I envy you. I envy your comfort with your self, both physically and spiritually. I really do hope we become close friends.

That was loopy and probably very roundabout. For your own personal sanity, read my review below. It contains intellectual value! (gasp)

The Hacker Crackdown

Today, I read Bruce Sterling's The Hacker Crackdown in its entirety.
The book is, unlike most of what Sterling writes in book form, nonfiction, detailing events in 1990 around Operation Sundevil, an operation by part of the US Secret Service to take out "underground" BBSes used by hackers. Sundevil has been of passing interest to me, because SJ Games was raided by the Secret Service in connection to the publication of GURPS Cyberpunk.
I will first say that the mentions of hacking in the book are, now, obsolete, and to me, a CMU student, fairly inane. The mere concept that it would be possible to actually use a ten digit code to access someone's long distance account in 2007 is ridiculous. Credit Card fraud is about the only thing mentioned that is still the same, though in this day and age, almost impossible to get away with. On the other side of the coin, anyone who has seen a bittorrent hub knows that obtaining gigabytes of illegally pirated software is dependent only on your bandwidth and patience, requiring nothing illegal to be done in preparation.
I'll also say that the value of the book lies in both how it addresses the hacker subculture (though that in itself has a fair amount of obsolescence attached to it) and also how computer crime is viewed. Although you may laugh at the idea of a 3.2 GB hard drive being cutting edge, you must still concede that the same issues regarding privacy and ethics surrounding computer intrusion still exist.
Regardless of one's opinion of how dated the book is, it provides interesting and eye-opening history to the first real ballooning of the internet, which now has an ubiquity (at least in Western society) that is unmatched by almost anything else. Between this blog, my first website, and my Carnegie Mellon sites, I have access to more hard drive space on other people's computers than any of the players in the book had on their own computers in 1990. That alone gives you an idea of how much things have changed. However, with the arms race expanding between PGP, zero-day software vulnerabilities, and a further array of different software hacks and tricks, a lot of the basic conflict remains the same. On an ethics side, I would not want to see a computer science major graduate without reading this book. Even if it doesn't change opinions, it at least makes you go 'huh'.

The book is available here. If you want it in PDF, email me and I'll send it to you. It was released for free by Sterling in 1994, so this is completely legal.

An idea I just had

Here's my idea:
A random GURPS one-shot.

Everyone is given two index cards. The person "running" the game writes out a number of index cards equal to the number of people there. All say 'player' except for one that says 'GM'. Anyone who is not interested in being GM is asked to raise their hand, and they are dealt player cards. The rest of the cards are dealt randomly.
Meanwhile, each person writes on one of their cards a short idea for a setting, and on the other card, a fairly major advantage or disadvantage. The organizer checks these for repeats, and then shuffles them and deals them.
First, each person turns over their role card. The person who got the 'GM' card turns over his setting card. All of the players turn over the card with the advantage/disadvantage. The players must create characters that incorporate that advantage/disadvantage, and the GM has until the players finish character creation to come up with a basic adventure.

This could be a challenging creative endeavour. Assumably, the players will share their results (as they should), so the GM will know if he has to create a setting that is "Pirates of the South China Sea in 1780" and still incorporate the player who got the "cyborg arm" card. I'd be very tempted to run this as a one-shot at some point. Especially with the random GM bit.
I'd also imagine that this might be fun enough to lead into a longer series of sessions, if not a full campaign.

Strange

From William Gibson's blog:

The Hokey Pokey (as written by W. Shakespeare)

O proud left foot, that ventures quick within
Then soon upon a backward journey lithe.
Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:
Command sinistral pedestal to writhe.

Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke,
A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.
To spin! A wilde release from Heavens yoke.
Blessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.

The Hoke, the poke -- banish now thy doubt
Verily, I say, 'tis what it's all about.

Recent Stuff

So, I finished Harry Potter. I enjoyed it, suffice it to say. No spoilers here, I'm not going to be a dick. I won't write a full review (I'm sure you can find plenty), but I'll say it follows the path of the previous books, including the darker mood and the increased density of crazy history.

I finished my first revision of my AQ space setting, and have sent it out to my players. My second revision will be a more detailed look at certain areas and events. My third and hopefully final revision will have the entire setting written out in full. I wouldn't be surprised if the third revision is either not finished, or only finished after a long period of time. I'm writing the setting with a strange combination of bottom-up and top-down methods, and I'm now stuck in the middle, knowing both the small area in which the players will start, and the large overall picture. My plan is to bulk up the middle and bottom with parts my players add. All in all, it will be very, very interesting.

WHY???

http://boston.craigslist.org/nwb/car/377268225.html

No hoist, no stand, no tow vehicle. But it's free...aagh...

...WTF???

This is a picture of Lindsey and I at Frankie's on Saturday. Thanks in part to Technorati (I was searching for other pictures of the concert), i found this picture on the Livejournal of someone I don't know.
I know who took the picture...as in, some random person took a picture of us. But still, weird...

Tub Ring, or, I drove four hours to Toledo and all I got was my face rocked off

So, using a scheme of logic I am still uncertain of, Lindsey and I borrowed a car yesterday to drive a car out to Toledo, Ohio to see Tub Ring. This was an odd endeavour, and having only heard anything by the band some two weeks ago, I was unsure of what to expect.

It was psychotic.
The first band was a couple of Toledo guys who, frankly, sucked. They just played loud and had a drunk entourage making fools of themselves in the front of the club.
Notable quote: "Play some Barry Manilow, you pussy!"
- Drunk Asshole

After that, it got better, though.


Foxy Shazam was weird. They were a good type of weird though, and rocked pretty hard. That is, when the lead singer wasn't strutting around being a pompous frontman. The bassist looked a lot like Buzz Osborne. The keyboardist had the most terrifying sideburns I have ever witnessed on a human being. They finished a pretty sick set, and then Tub Ring took the stage.



Oh man. They were sick.



Playing some songs I knew, some I didn't, the whole time everyone was jumping around, being crazy. Also, it was a small club, so there were probably no more than 100 people there. All in all, very cool.
After the show, I got a chance to talk to Kevin Gibson, the lead singer, who is a cool guy, and was a little surprised that we came out from Pittsburgh for the show. Well, after hearing that, Let's hope that maybe they consider swinging by the Burgh on their next tour...
After I get The Great Filter, which may take a few weeks (I accidentally had it shipped back home to MA), I am definitely going to look into getting their other two albums.

Bandwidth

Wired:


Wireless:


Nifty little website. Now I know how sweet this network really is.

Evil Plan Redux, Redux

So, yeah. Forget VTT. I'm running this fucker in person.
I'm going to send out the basic info in a few days. We'll probably start playing some time after the 11th of June, because by then we'll have 4 people back here in Pittsburgh. The campaign starts very small, but I have some interesting things planned. Should be fun.

And I have an idea. I've tried to write summaries of sessions, transcribe sessions, and all that, with minimal success. Thanks to Audacity and a few gigs of hard drive space, I'm going to try and record the sessions. This should work fairly well here, as this will not be a campaign involving a lot of side conversations with the GM. The recordings will probably be very random, knowing how gaming goes down, but I think it's worth a shot, especially if we plan on playing more sessions this summer. Not sure what it will gain me, but I want to try it.

I'm getting jumpy...waiting for things makes me jumpy...

Hey You

Yeah, you. Thanks for fucking disappearing. Hear once about rehab, and poof. Where the fuck did you go? You know what, I knew I shouldn't continue to care. All you did was drag me around by fragile strings. But you know what? I don't care about that. Call me an idiot, but I still care about you.

I guess on that note, theres at least one person I need to apologize to about disappearing. Congratulations, by the way. You survived high school (two of them, even), and you're going to kick ass in college. Yeah, I mean you.


And it does remind me. Even if I don't act it, I am so glad my parents refuse to disappear. It's that extra bit of solid ground.

Evil Plan Redux

Well, my plan is being updated. I still plan on running a VTT game, but my format is going to be different. Currently, the plan is Skype + Gametable. Gametable is very simple, Java (so it should be compatible for everyone), and just enough to do dice rolls and basic map arrangement. The main thing should not be in the interface, it should be via voice. I am curious to know if anyone has done this before, and how it worked.
Also, my campaign choice is not as clear-cut as before. I still have my AQ sci-fi campaign, but with my recent and unexpected acquisition of GURPS Magic, I have considered doing a slightly different campaign, using some material I wrote in high school, which would be adjusted for GURPS and for my setting. Both have potential to be really cool campaigns, but the more fantasy-oriented one, the players would have more of an opportunity to make cool characters. Also, my AQ campaign would work decently well with a large group (the summer group will be smaller), so I'm tempted to keep it until the school year. I don't yet know what we'll do next year...if we finish the current Cyberpunk campaign, then I'll be tempted to hold over the AQ campaign. Otherwise, it's a toss-up.
Well, I'll figure it out. Luther and I are running Cyberpunk tomorrow, so I'll test the waters for my summer ideas.

Haircut

Before.

After.

Word.

Holy Shit, I'm 20

Not a teenager anymore. Ever.

"You rotten kids! Get off my lawn!"

Almost Carnival

I just finished my last assignment for the week. After that is Carnival, and then the final wrapup of classes.
I will be staying in Pittsburgh for the summer, and working various clerical jobs to make money. It should be fun.
At the very least, I will be given many chances to chill out, and I most likely won't bring any work home with me. Ah, relaxation.
Yes...my definition of relaxation is a 40 hour work week. Woo.

Drivin' Lamborghinis and Sippin' on Martinis

How You Feelin' - Peeping Tom

Won't you come in and let's get started
This angel's fallen, so heed my calling
The wheels are rolling, the tension's growing
So join our reverend, walk into heaven

We're driving Lamborghinis and we're sipping on martinis
We're slurping our linguinis but we're spying on bikinis
We're sowing what we're reaping and we're here to set you free and
Apocalypse is nearing, won't you tell me how you're feeling?


We're driving Lamborghinis and we're sipping on martinis
With caviar and bling-is but we're spying on bikinis
And if that isn't good enough, we're here to set you free
Apocalypse is nearing won't you tell me how your feeling?

Apocalypse is nearing
So tell me how you feeling?
Yeah, I can hear you screaming
Oh, tell me how you feeling?
Apocalypse is nearing
So tell me how you feeling?
You're kicking and screaming
Oh, tell me how you feeling?

Kicking the cloud ... and the rain is pouring
And I don't know what's worse
Sitting here or at the back of the hearse
Upon accused
... pigeons summon
The gods are killing the...
...number twos and one
I wasn't chosen for this...
And my condolences, son
This isn't fun for anyone
Please ignore the pain and say amen

This song is stuck in my head right now. It is really catchy. Blingy rap by a righteous white dude.

+1 Random Point

Yeah, being random is what makes life fun sometimes.

Also, I'm planning on seeing Front Line Assembly at Mr. Small's on the 6th of May. If you're interested (you random internet people), let me know. I'm probably going to try and buy tickets this weekend.

My evil plan

All right, here it is, the one you've all been waiting for:

I am now declaring, officially, that I will run a VTT RPG this summer, using the GURPS ruleset and the OpenRPG software package.

The game will use a setting of my own devising, that is being fleshed out into a big ole' galaxy o' chaos as we speak.

The setting is sci-fi, and involves a nice mix of realism (star systems modeled after actual accretion disk models! My attempt to give scientific justification to everything!), and not so much (every solar system has inhabitable planets in it! Vague promises of psychic aliens! Faster-than-light travel!). I don't want just space fantasy, but I want it to be fun, too. I have a campaign set up, it's a combination of low-impact and moderate power that should make for a very interesting introduction to the setting. If things go well, the setting may be used to run another game in the next school year. For now, the plan is to test it out, tweak stuff, and play a game that I have not ever played: one that combines the exploration and adventuring of D&D with the realism and character focus of other systems.
As far as players go, nothing is set in stone, but I will extend invitations in terms of gaming familiarity. First, the members of Pony!, my current group, and one that has had me as a GM recently. Then, I'll see if anyone else I know is interested. From past experience, I don't think that many people I've gamed with before college will be interested.

Well, if anyone wants to get a leg up, I'll put out the links now:
openrpg.digitalxero.net: A wiki with OpenRPG info. Has links for the development version of OpenRPG, OpenRPG+. I prefer OpenRPG+ because it has a GURPS dice roller written for it.
openrpg.wrathof.com: A site with OpenRPG character sheets for many different systems (hint: click on GURPS).
openrpg.com: The main site, with links, and an installation guide.
mayhemgaming.net: This site has great tutorials for using OpenRPG and creating content for it.

April

So, last night we had a hilarious April Fool's prank played on us. Can't say what it was or who did it, but it was hilarious.
Things are back on track now, and the end of the semester is coming up quickly. I think everything should end up pretty good.

In other news, I'm writing up my GURPS setting. The concept is done, and I'm getting into rules-oriented stuff now. My plan is to run a VTT (virtual tabletop) game over the summer, a mini-campaign called "Escape from the Prison Planet". VTT will work better than Play-by-Post, but still allow the flexibility in times that would be necessary with everyone going home. As soon as I know what software I intend to use, I'll post it, and start making more detailed plans.

Since the last post

I'm back in Pittsburgh. School is as usual, because CMU is hard.
I made it through Greek Sing. It came together, and we put on a good show. Despite the crazy stress and all the problems that happened, I'm so glad I chaired a show.
Once.
Have work to get through. Had to pull an all-nighter last night to finish the Stress Analysis project in time for the design review. Exam tomorrow, and another Thursday.


Woo.
Cyberpunk again! And who knows, might think harder about a GURPS campaign in the distant future.

Just in case someone didn't realize this already

I'm currently home in MA. I will be until Sunday.
So far, it's been pretty productive. I did my taxes and all my B4E work for a while. Tomorrow, I plan on both doing a solid chunk of my proposal project for my writing class, and going shopping. All the while, the Celica is up and running, and I'm having a jolly old time. I've also managed to squeeze in over 15 hours of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Damn good game. And the Wii is great. My brother never fails to get nifty gadgets in my absence.

Elliott Smith - Say Yes

I'm in love with the world through the eyes of a girl
Who's still around the morning after
We broke up a month ago and I grew up I didn't know
I'd be around the morning after
It's always been wait and see
A happy day and then you pay
And feel like shit the morning after
But now I feel changed around and instead of falling down
I'm standing up the morning after
Situations get fucked up and turned around sooner or later
And I could be another fool or an exception to the rule
You tell me the morning after
Crooked spin can't come to rest
I'm damaged bad at best
She'll decide what she wants
I'll probably be the last to know
No one says until it shows and you see how it is
They want you or they don't
Say yes
I'm in love with the world through the eyes of a girl
Who's still around the morning after


Sometimes these songs are too perfect.

More gadgety nonsense

To your left, you'll see something useless.
But really cool. Thanks Last.fm.
In other news...things have been insane this week. MechE design review, exam, conclave, and me being myself: persistent. I couldn't possibly leave things be. Not after everything that's happened.

I don't know how this sounds, but I can't stop thinking about you.

Oh God Oh Hell No

I just installed the Facebook Toolbar.
And thus starts my downward spiral into social networking purgatory.

And just in time for Valentine's.

My total ska-metal theme song

Dog Fashion Disco - Siddhis

Beyond myself I perceive my own ability
And through these wormholes
I’ve searched inside and out of me
I’m not exactly what I’d like to be
So I suffocate my siddhis
Gain momentum once again
Tell myself don’t ever let them drag you down

I come to realize that flesh and bone is meaningless
When all your feeling inside is constant emptiness
I’m not exactly what I’d like to be
So I suffocate my siddhis
Gain momentum once again
Tell myself don’t ever let them drag you down

I’ll take the pain and wish you all away
I’ll take the blame and wish you all away

I don't know why this is such a good theme song for me at this point in my life, but it truly, truly is.

Karma

I have at least some belief in the notion of karma.
But I highly doubt it works in such an ordered way as we'd believe.
I work hard and tax my sanity, and it's hard to push through when I'm so early in the semester.
But I do work hard and honest to get through it.
The best karma can seem to do is remind me that there's always someone else who's worse off.
The world has a sick sense of humor.

Caffeine

So, last night was our Jazz Cafe here at AEPi. I get kind of tired at this event every semester, so I caved and had a cup of strong espresso. This, after three weeks of no caffeine, and the month before that drinking only tea occasionally. After the event, I crawled into bed. My head was so wired I could not possibly fall asleep, but my body was so exhausted that I could barely roll over.
It was an experience.
I'm going back to abstaining from all caffeine, and this time I mean it. Things get way too messed up in my head when I'm under the influence of caffeine.

In other news, I'm going to be writing again! After a character of mine died a gory death in our current campaign yesterday, I'm now going to be sidelining it to write a new Cyberpunk campaign that takes place in the old reliable, Night City. In my opinion, it should be really interesting.

Speaking of interesting, I started reading Transmetropolitan this morning. So far, it's really good.

Lyrically, the best song ever

Dead Kennedys - Too Drunk To Fuck

Went to a party
I danced all night
I drank 16 beers
And I started up a fight

But now I am jaded
You're out of luck
I'm rolling down the stairs
Too drunk to fuck

Too drunk to fuck
Too drunk to fuck
Too drunk, to fuck
I'm too drunk, too drunk, too drunk
To fuck

I like your stories
I love your gun
Shooting out truck tires
Sounds like loads and loads of fun

But in my room
Wish you were dead
You ball like the baby
In Eraserhead

Too drunk to fuck
Too drunk to fuck
Too drunk, to fuck
It's all I need right now
Too drunk to fuck

Too drunk to fuck
Too drunk to fuck
Too drunk, to fuck
I'm sick soft gooey and cold
Too drunk to fuck

I'm about to drop
My head's a mess
The only salvation is
I'll never see you again

You give me head
It makes it worse
Take out your fuckin' retainer
Put it in your purse

I'm too drunk to fuck
You're to drunk to fuck
Too drunk to fuck
It's all I need right now Oh baby
I'm melting like an ice cream bar
Oh baby

And now I got diarrhea
Too drunk to fuck

Me and my brother used to speed through Concord in the Celica, windows down, blasting this song and singing along. The one time we blitzed the center, I could have sworn we were going to get pulled over, from the looks we got. Oh MAN.

I have to say it

Rolls-Royce is a publicly traded company. Their stock symbol is RYCEY.

Am I the only one who finds this hilarious?

Mike Patton has my brain in a jar in San Jose

Mr. Bungle - My Ass is On Fire

Impotence
Boomerang
I'll stab you

Clumps of hair
In the sink
Who's hiding
Things from me?

You knew all along, goddammit
But you wouldn't tell me
Well, look at you now

It's not funny, my ass is on fire
Paraplegic, inhuman liar

Carve a smile
On your face
Everything's great
Suffocate

It's beyond my control...I'm coming!

Boo
Redundant...
Boring

The Atomic Bitchwax

I have discovered a new band. They are called The Atomic Bitchwax. They are off the hook.
Their self-titled album made it onto Jalopnik's Top Ten Driving Albums, and with a name like that, I had to check it out. They are, describably, psychedelic blues metal. Song structure is similar to many psychedelic rock outfits, with rock song elements punctuated by meandering solos and some aural elements generally associated with "stoner" music. But, above all this, they kick ass, and they kick it hard.
I'd have to say listen to it. If you're more interested in jam bands and that kind of stuff, this may be what gets you into harder stuff. I'd also heartily recommend it to fans of Clutch. The overall sound on the first album reminded me of Blast Tyrant, in a good way.

The best thing ever

This quote is from the textbook Technical Communication, and is attributed to the British Navy:

It is necessary for technical reasons that these warheads be stored upside-down, that is, with the top at the bottom and the bottom at the top. In order that there may be no doubt as to which is the top and which is the bottom, for storage purposes, it will be seen that the bottom of each warhead has been labeled with the word TOP.

This is so FUCKING COOL

I am now playing mp3s ON MY CELL PHONE! DUDE!

I mean, despite my total techiness, some of this stuff still has a lot of novelty.

Children of Men

Went out to see the movie tonight. It is really, really good. Like, really good. It's the perfect mix of dystopian nightmare sci-fi with...I dunno. Believable characters? It doesn't beat you over the head with the allegory, but it's there (the easiest way to see this is the prison camp scene. Choosing the phrase Homeland Security was no mistake either). I can't even describe it, other than very upsettingly real. And that's what made it so good.

It got me thinking on my story idea. I've changed it around a bit, but am still juggling it in my head. I'll write something down soon.

Sideways

I did something today that I have not done in a while. That is, I read a book cover to cover in one day. Today, the book was Sideways, by Rex Pickett. Now, this book was made into a movie, one I had seen quite some time ago when it first came out. Normally, I have a fairly rigid rule against reading the book after seeing the movie, because, while the book is indeed always better, the movie usually ruins your unique ability to see the reality written within a book.
Here, though I had the usual problem as seeing the protagonist as Paul Giamatti, there was no doubt that the book affected me in a way the movie couldn't. In the movie, you were given insight into the essential angst of the protagonist's existence. While reading the book, there were passages where it tugged at your stomach as if you were taking the Xanax.
Maybe this is incredibly angsty of me, but there was something very primal in the empathy I felt. I guess it's the feeling of not knowing your next turn, especially with your love life. But in retrospect, feeling that in college has a degree of normalcy, whereas in middle age, it can be devastatingly depressing. But the empathy does indeed make the book that much more alive to me. Personally, I believe those sorts of feelings of confusion and forked roads are fairly universal. Therefore, the ability to relate to and enjoy this book should be similarly universal.

They know me so well

existentialism is love
brought to you by the isLove Generator

Oy, this is my high school

A little bit of context for everybody

Neither of those guys were my teachers, but I did have Mr. "Ebony in the Birchwood" Zellner and Mr. "Commie Smack" Joseph.

Oh, the memories.

Back from Utah

I returned from Utah yesterday.
Let me say the skiing was, from my perspective, great, though apparently the snow conditions were crappy for there.
Powder skiing is tough, but also a lot of fun.
Now, I have two weeks at home, and I doubt I'll do much.

If you're in Massachusetts, give me a call! I'm bored already.