Category: Nerdiness

I’ve been watching a lot of Enterprise lately, and introducing Marlo to series via the good episodes from the first season. Holy smokes does the third season seem like crap compared to episodes like “Silent Enemy” and “Dear Doctor.” It’s been especially fun to MST3K Captain Archer.

The good news is that the story arc from season 3 is over and done with and they can get back to exploring space. I’ve been reading about a 3-part story with Brent Spiner as an ancestor of Data’s creator, Dr. Soong, and it involves more leftovers from the eugenics war and klingons. I’m optimistic.

I just spent the entire weekend running a gaming con. It was fun but I’m very drained. I’ll have stories to tell, but later. Thanks Stewie for buying me Chinese food for dinner to put that spring back in my step.

There’s an interesting and amusing radio article on the 30th anniversary of D&D here: http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3858560
Just click on the link to hear it in Realplayer or Mediaplayer – with real battle sounds!

I have a friend who doesn’t allow cross-gender roleplaying in the groups he runs. I’m not sure why.

But, here’s an interesting article on the subject: http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/play18aug04.html

I personally have played a few different female characters. In one D&D campaign I used to play Ursula Umbragia–a mother who sold her soul to a demon to save her son, and in another I played a barbarian who I modelled after Bjork and whose name was Mjath. I made up a couple of superheroines that I never actually got to play – a black cop, mother of two, who moonlighted as The Black Lantern, and a pair of shopaholic yuppie teenage twins who were also cyborgs. I’ve never played a female in Call of Cthulhu, but I have known guys who have, and gals who have played male characters. I don’t have much experience outside of those genres/systems, so that’s that. I quite enjoyed playing Umbragia because she was on this tortured quest to find some way to break the deal with Anarazel and get her soul back, as her son had since grown to maturity and abandoned her because of the demonic stigma (ingrate!). The others I didn’t invest much time or energy in, but I think I would have had a lot of fun with, like, the twins, totally.

Anghold brought up an interesting point tonight that I hadn’t given too much thought to. When you get an email, and you’re just one of many who got the email, do you hit REPLY or do you hit REPLY ALL? In this case let’s assume that the original email is an invitation to a party. What are your reasons for how you reply?

Well today I playtested the Spaceship Zero scenario I’m runnin at HPL’s Birthday Party convention next weekend. Norm played his SpaceCorp executive, Nathan played a space pirate, David Bradley played his robot, James played his gladiator “Brock!”, and Ken played the mechanic. It was a madhouse, Jerry, a madhouse. They completely circumvented the major plot point, but it was still a hoot and a half, and now I am more prepared for next Saturday. Not a single ray gun was fired, although somebody was stabbed in the leg. I’d say more but I know that Marlo will be reading this, and she’s scheduled to play at the nerdcon. How come you don’t make up your own character, Marlo?

The terrible terrible secret is this: I’m running Spaceship Zero tomorrow at 5pm for James, Norm, etc etc, and I still have no idea what the hell I’m going to do. I’ve come up with two really good ideas that I want to fit together, but which will not fit together, and either one on their own is only a beginning, and I have no idea how it would play out…or should play out. I could go into details but I think those details would be lost on anyone who won’t be playing the game tomorrow (or at the con next weekend), and those who will be playing aren’t allowed to know said details.

There are drunken idiots on the street outside yelling “HELLOOOOOOOO” and other, more retarded things.

The New York Jets (which I guess is a football team) were unable to book a hotel in Indianapolis for their game this weekend because GenCon (a gaming convention, for you non-nerds) has every room in town booked.

The thing about the Thai House on West 7th is that the food is good, but the service is mediocre, as is the atmosphere. Even taking into account the fact that we asked for a table for 6 and there were only 5 of us, I felt like I had to lean in constantly to be part of the conversation. What’s an antonym for intimate?

The thing about Amazon Women on the Moon is that it’s funny. My favourite parts are Don “No Soul” Simmons and Video Pirates. The pirate captain is the same guy who played the AI expert in Star Trek TOS and did the voice for the Master of Shadows in the Real Ghostbusters episode “Slimer, Is That You?” which is one of my favourites.

I wonder if anyone would be interested in attending this anime convention which I just discovered. I’m particularly interested in seeing the panels with voice actors and voice directors, but that’s just a small part of the con. There’s also gaming happening, though there seems to be zero structure to it at this point. The bad news is it’s $35 to get in. I am trying to contact the organizers to ask some questions – maybe I can get a deal if I run some Spaceship Zero. It’s August 20-22 which is a little poopy.