I've been waiting for this. Hooray!
Monday, May 20, 2013
Past tenses and such
Kevin Drum has a post on the IRS scandal, which doesn't interest me all that much (this whole 'scandal' strikes me as everybody chasing the wrong bouncing ball). What does interest me is this sentence at the very end:
Here's my thing: Isn't FUBAR already past-tense? Can something really be FUBARed, when the -ed suffix has already been used in the F part of the FUBAR acronym? Seems to me that FUBAR covers all bases, in terms of tense:
"That's gonna be so FUBAR!"
"Wow, that is really FUBAR."
"That whole thing was just so FUBAR."
Anyway....
They are among the first in what is quickly becoming a whole new subgenre: the story about how the Cincinnati office of the IRS is completely and totally FUBARed.
Here's my thing: Isn't FUBAR already past-tense? Can something really be FUBARed, when the -ed suffix has already been used in the F part of the FUBAR acronym? Seems to me that FUBAR covers all bases, in terms of tense:
"That's gonna be so FUBAR!"
"Wow, that is really FUBAR."
"That whole thing was just so FUBAR."
Anyway....
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Making Fun of Benedict Cumberbatch
I'm stealing this from Tumblr.
No, there is no point to this. Yes, I'm going back into my writing cave.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy
Heckuva lot going on this weekend, folks. I'll barely be able to scratch out time to write, much less post anything here. Keep faith! Content will one day appear here again, THIS I SWEAR BY THE BLOOD OF -- well, that's too weird. Back to the mine shafts!
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Something for Thursday
I heard this on the way to work, and hey, you never know when the occasion might strike for a good old pompous British march. So here is Crown Imperial by Sir William Walton. Stiff upper lip and all that, lads!
Cheerio, chaps!
Cheerio, chaps!
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter
Does it bug you when song lyrics make no sense? And when they don't, do you try to figure out a meaning for them?
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Return to Earth
Astronauts returning from the ISS looks like this:
Well done!
(Sorry for the lack of a whole lot of content this week...there's a lot going on at Casa Jaquandor this week, so my focus is on keeping the pedal to the metal on Princesses II: A Clash of Princesses.)
Well done!
(Sorry for the lack of a whole lot of content this week...there's a lot going on at Casa Jaquandor this week, so my focus is on keeping the pedal to the metal on Princesses II: A Clash of Princesses.)
Monday, May 13, 2013
Sentential Links!
It's time! For Links! And overuse of Exclamation Points!!!!!
:: Ending a campaign is a difficult process. One of my games is coming to a close within a month or so, and I'm actually extremely nervous. This current campaign is the final one of three that have taken three years to come to fruition, and now that the end is nigh, I have to worry about making it truly epic and worth the investment my players have put into it.
Part of the trepidation comes from the inevitability of The Big Reveal, in which a secret that I've hidden clues to throughout the campaign is unleashed, leaving the players hopefully with minds blown. Pretty much the entire game has been leading to this moment from level one all the way to level twenty. How does one reveal a game changing secret without making the players feel betrayed or cheated, and how does one end a campaign three years in the making? (One question I've considered over the course of the "video games as art" debate is: what about non video games? The story beats of a really well-run and well-designed game can become a HUGE part of one's story DNA.)
:: Yankee Candle is overrated. (Ayup. But then, I pretty much like candles more for light than for scent.)
:: Sidebar #1: Did you see where Melissa Joan Hart is trying to get a project funded on Kickstarter? And here’s her big incentive: She’ll follow you on Twitter for a year. Oh, be still my heart! You and Melissa will be BFF’s! Every day she’ll go on Twitter to see how you’re coming on that dress you’re making for the prom. OR… she agrees to follow 20,000 people and never once looks at her Twitter page. Which do you think is more likely? (Huh? Of what possible use to me would be having Melissa Joan Hart as a Twitter follower? But then, I'm incredibly ill-attuned to things like who follows me on Twitter or on the blog. When people unfollow me, it often takes me months to realize it, if I ever do. So as an incentive, I...simply do not get this, at all.)
:: When some guy loses his life savings playing a carnival game, you just say, “Hunh?” When a government ministry lays down millions to buy pixie dust, you have to say “Wow!”
:: Well, one of the things I listed on the update was to go Somewhere Else and write a book. I’ve thought about this so often–whenever I’m in a new city for more than a few days. Writing books is the great activity of my life. Some people look at place and imagine the club scene–I imagine what it would be like to write a book there. For me, the process of writing is such an otherspace–out of my own everyday and into the unknown and odd and untethered to such things as like, a normal workday clock or regular meals.
:: I was asked to write the following quiz up by my boss, to distribute to the new hires. (Note to self: do this quiz.)
:: Back in the Spring of 1980, when I was 16 years-old, my family took a vacation trip to Washington D.C. with a side trip to the Amish country of Pennsylvania. I was particularly excited to visit the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum because I knew that the original U.S.S. Enterprise model, used in the filming of Star Trek, was on display there. Everything else about that trip was pretty much of secondary importance to me. What really mattered was getting to see that iconic starship with my own eyes.
:: I absolutely adore this, and can't wait to hang it up. Anne may not be Dale Arden, and god knows I'm a long way from anything resembling Flash Gordon... but she awakens many of the same yearnings this painting always has. I'm thankful she's still standing with me in this strange future land in which we've found ourselves... (Wow! I want one!)
:: I do know enough about myself and this farm to know this is a phase. And all this fear and frustration and deadlines and bill calls will ebb and flow away. Right now I need to focus on the work, and working a little harder to make ends meet, but it'll all be fine. Whenever I feel panic wash over me I just sit outside on my porch and take a deep breath or seven with my eyes closed. I tell myself when I open them I will be surrounded by a farm I built by hand, through nothing but scrappy willm hard work, and the kindness and devotion of a readership all over the world. And when I open my eyes the proof is all around me. It's in the waddling ducklings parading to the well. It's in the sounds of Joeseph the sheep on the hillside. It's in the flickering ears of Merlin, the toss of his mane. It's in a dog with a sore paw, and a house with apple blossoms crowning a rack of antlers, and in the heart of the girl breathing slow on a porch.
Good things are on the way, and the only way out is through. (I love that: The only way out is through. I'll need to remember that.)
More next week!
:: Ending a campaign is a difficult process. One of my games is coming to a close within a month or so, and I'm actually extremely nervous. This current campaign is the final one of three that have taken three years to come to fruition, and now that the end is nigh, I have to worry about making it truly epic and worth the investment my players have put into it.
Part of the trepidation comes from the inevitability of The Big Reveal, in which a secret that I've hidden clues to throughout the campaign is unleashed, leaving the players hopefully with minds blown. Pretty much the entire game has been leading to this moment from level one all the way to level twenty. How does one reveal a game changing secret without making the players feel betrayed or cheated, and how does one end a campaign three years in the making? (One question I've considered over the course of the "video games as art" debate is: what about non video games? The story beats of a really well-run and well-designed game can become a HUGE part of one's story DNA.)
:: Yankee Candle is overrated. (Ayup. But then, I pretty much like candles more for light than for scent.)
:: Sidebar #1: Did you see where Melissa Joan Hart is trying to get a project funded on Kickstarter? And here’s her big incentive: She’ll follow you on Twitter for a year. Oh, be still my heart! You and Melissa will be BFF’s! Every day she’ll go on Twitter to see how you’re coming on that dress you’re making for the prom. OR… she agrees to follow 20,000 people and never once looks at her Twitter page. Which do you think is more likely? (Huh? Of what possible use to me would be having Melissa Joan Hart as a Twitter follower? But then, I'm incredibly ill-attuned to things like who follows me on Twitter or on the blog. When people unfollow me, it often takes me months to realize it, if I ever do. So as an incentive, I...simply do not get this, at all.)
:: When some guy loses his life savings playing a carnival game, you just say, “Hunh?” When a government ministry lays down millions to buy pixie dust, you have to say “Wow!”
:: Well, one of the things I listed on the update was to go Somewhere Else and write a book. I’ve thought about this so often–whenever I’m in a new city for more than a few days. Writing books is the great activity of my life. Some people look at place and imagine the club scene–I imagine what it would be like to write a book there. For me, the process of writing is such an otherspace–out of my own everyday and into the unknown and odd and untethered to such things as like, a normal workday clock or regular meals.
:: I was asked to write the following quiz up by my boss, to distribute to the new hires. (Note to self: do this quiz.)
:: Back in the Spring of 1980, when I was 16 years-old, my family took a vacation trip to Washington D.C. with a side trip to the Amish country of Pennsylvania. I was particularly excited to visit the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum because I knew that the original U.S.S. Enterprise model, used in the filming of Star Trek, was on display there. Everything else about that trip was pretty much of secondary importance to me. What really mattered was getting to see that iconic starship with my own eyes.
:: I absolutely adore this, and can't wait to hang it up. Anne may not be Dale Arden, and god knows I'm a long way from anything resembling Flash Gordon... but she awakens many of the same yearnings this painting always has. I'm thankful she's still standing with me in this strange future land in which we've found ourselves... (Wow! I want one!)
:: I do know enough about myself and this farm to know this is a phase. And all this fear and frustration and deadlines and bill calls will ebb and flow away. Right now I need to focus on the work, and working a little harder to make ends meet, but it'll all be fine. Whenever I feel panic wash over me I just sit outside on my porch and take a deep breath or seven with my eyes closed. I tell myself when I open them I will be surrounded by a farm I built by hand, through nothing but scrappy willm hard work, and the kindness and devotion of a readership all over the world. And when I open my eyes the proof is all around me. It's in the waddling ducklings parading to the well. It's in the sounds of Joeseph the sheep on the hillside. It's in the flickering ears of Merlin, the toss of his mane. It's in a dog with a sore paw, and a house with apple blossoms crowning a rack of antlers, and in the heart of the girl breathing slow on a porch.
Good things are on the way, and the only way out is through. (I love that: The only way out is through. I'll need to remember that.)
More next week!
Sunday, May 12, 2013
This man can NOT be allowed to return to Earth.
I just don't have the mental capacity to process the awesomeness of this.
Sunday Burst of Weird and Awesome
Oddities and Awesome abound!
:: The video may be funny, but believe me, kids -- there's nothing funny about Bitchy Resting Face. I am a sufferer of the male equivalent, "Angry Resting Face", in that my facial features seem to default to an expression that society has decided is equivalent to SMOLDERING RAGE. I wish I had a nickel for every time somebody walked by when I was just standing there and said, "Wow, you look like you're ready to rip someone's head off!", when what I'm actually thinking is, "Do I want turkey or roast beef on my sub today?"
There's a very odd societal thing we have going on right now where any facial expression that's not a grin is interpreted to indicate a negative emotional state. It would be mildly annoying, but that gonzo assumption can have some unfortunate effects in the professional world.
:: I always wonder just what we'll do in Buffalo if we ever get the waterfront developed, because that will eliminate one of the three major topics of discussion around here, leaving us stuck with the Bills (ugh) and the Sabres (double-ugh). But, over the last couple years, things are really starting to happen down there, which is nice. And in addition to the actual development that's underway, we have also seen a very welcome reduction in the amount of gonzo ideas being tossed about for the waterfront. I, for one, am thrilled to see the Era Of Goofy Buffalo Waterfront Proposals come to an end!
Only...not everybody got that memo, because someone cooked up a really detailed idea for cable cars on the waterfront. And not San Francisco-style cable cars, either -- we're talking about the little ones that hang from an overhead cable. Like this:
What's more, this isn't envisioned as a tourist attraction or 'something to do on the waterfront'. This person actually wants this cable car system to be part of Buffalo's commuter infrastructure. People who work downtown would drive to the cable car station and ride the cable car to their downtown job, or to a Metro Rail station so they might then get to their job. Cable car systems of this type -- or 'aerial trams' -- aren't the fastest moving of transportation systems, so how they'd be embraced by commuters is hard to imagine.
The article concludes with this: "Even our long-held hopes of rapid transit to Niagara Falls and the Airport might one day be possible for far less money than expanding MetroRail!" Did I read that right? An aerial tram from Buffalo to Niagara Falls, which is 25 miles away? Aerial trams don't tend to go much over 30 mph, so are we really expecting people to sit in an aerial tram for an hour to get to a place they could drive to in less than half that?
Now, I like cable cars/aerial trams. I like riding the ones at amusement parks. And I'm sure I'll have a thrilling time riding one if I ever vacation in Switzerland. But as a major part of a city's transportation infrastructure? A flat city like Buffalo that already has tons of roads, surface parking never more than a block away downtown, and declining population?
Oy.
Oh well. More next week!
:: The video may be funny, but believe me, kids -- there's nothing funny about Bitchy Resting Face. I am a sufferer of the male equivalent, "Angry Resting Face", in that my facial features seem to default to an expression that society has decided is equivalent to SMOLDERING RAGE. I wish I had a nickel for every time somebody walked by when I was just standing there and said, "Wow, you look like you're ready to rip someone's head off!", when what I'm actually thinking is, "Do I want turkey or roast beef on my sub today?"
There's a very odd societal thing we have going on right now where any facial expression that's not a grin is interpreted to indicate a negative emotional state. It would be mildly annoying, but that gonzo assumption can have some unfortunate effects in the professional world.
:: I always wonder just what we'll do in Buffalo if we ever get the waterfront developed, because that will eliminate one of the three major topics of discussion around here, leaving us stuck with the Bills (ugh) and the Sabres (double-ugh). But, over the last couple years, things are really starting to happen down there, which is nice. And in addition to the actual development that's underway, we have also seen a very welcome reduction in the amount of gonzo ideas being tossed about for the waterfront. I, for one, am thrilled to see the Era Of Goofy Buffalo Waterfront Proposals come to an end!
Only...not everybody got that memo, because someone cooked up a really detailed idea for cable cars on the waterfront. And not San Francisco-style cable cars, either -- we're talking about the little ones that hang from an overhead cable. Like this:
What's more, this isn't envisioned as a tourist attraction or 'something to do on the waterfront'. This person actually wants this cable car system to be part of Buffalo's commuter infrastructure. People who work downtown would drive to the cable car station and ride the cable car to their downtown job, or to a Metro Rail station so they might then get to their job. Cable car systems of this type -- or 'aerial trams' -- aren't the fastest moving of transportation systems, so how they'd be embraced by commuters is hard to imagine.
The article concludes with this: "Even our long-held hopes of rapid transit to Niagara Falls and the Airport might one day be possible for far less money than expanding MetroRail!" Did I read that right? An aerial tram from Buffalo to Niagara Falls, which is 25 miles away? Aerial trams don't tend to go much over 30 mph, so are we really expecting people to sit in an aerial tram for an hour to get to a place they could drive to in less than half that?
Now, I like cable cars/aerial trams. I like riding the ones at amusement parks. And I'm sure I'll have a thrilling time riding one if I ever vacation in Switzerland. But as a major part of a city's transportation infrastructure? A flat city like Buffalo that already has tons of roads, surface parking never more than a block away downtown, and declining population?
Oy.
Oh well. More next week!
It's all her fault.
If my mother hadn't instilled in me a freakish love of books, Casa Jaquandor wouldn't look like this.
(Well, that's not entirely accurate...it's not her fault that my filing system is based on the age-old concept of the "Teetering Stack of Doom". That's all me. But believe me, the first thing I'm gonna buy with the money from the inevitable movie deal for Princesses In SPACE!!! (not the actual title)? Shelves!)
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