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.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
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.
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.
Friday, August 10, 2007
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)
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
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.
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.
Saturday, August 04, 2007
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.
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.
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