Dougman's Blog of Wonder

I'm not sure LJ comes with a continues counter, but if did I'm pretty sure it'd have been game over for me a long time ago. But the point was more that I'm no longer sick and, thus, can shuffle some spare time from the "convalescence" category back over to "miscellaneous".

The biggest news is that NaNoWriMo just ended, recently. Both Crystal and I finished, this year, which was awesome. It was good to get back into a habit of writing and, by the end of the month, I think I'd started to make progress on recovering some of what style I once had. So while the writing quality may have started out at "Stephanie Meyer" I think it's improved at least up to "poo." I'm excited about that. I'm still holding to my goal of trying to submit something for publication within a year, and my sister's gift of a publication strategy book is looking like it should be a big help. The next biggest step is figuring out what I want to write. The story I just finished has some potential-- buried deep, still-- but I don't think it's necessarily closer to publishable than some of my other, past writing. I've no doubt that it's going to be an arduous process getting through not only the full writing process (I hit 50,000 words in November, but didn't finish the book at all) but also draft revisions, and, well, there are simply stories I've felt more passionate about in the past.

Laying awake in bed thinking about some potential plot developments the other day I was struck by two thoughts:
1. It's okay if things happen
2. It's okay if things don't happen

One of the biggest hurdles I've struggled with in the past was trying too often to let characters' emotions develop through lots of subtle, mundane encounters, at times even seeming to have a distaste for extraordinary events. I think that was misguided. It's okay if things happen. On the other hand, it's not a mistake to try to keep things believable: not every symbologist gets in daily fights with terrorists, after all.

Other than that, I've mostly been playing lots of Dragon Age: Origins. It's a fun game and all, but the ability to really develop a tone for your character has been the most impressive part so far: instead of having one choice that's helpful and one that's murdering the person you're talking to they really give you a fair amount of options that not only develop you as good or evil but serious and duty-bound or snarky and opportunist. It now ranks, too, as the first game where I've succumbed to peer pressure from supporting characters. The back and forth of you talking with and learning about your supporting characters is just really phenomenal, and they've done a great job of making this its own reward (even if there are some mechanical advantages to making them like you more, too).

It was a good weekend-- lots of relaxing and lazing about Friday and Saturday and then yesterday we got a ton of cleaning done. We made a point of getting around to a lot of the obscure little projects that so often linger--I'm overjoyed at having all the consoles and TV stuff dusted and cleaned and Crystal's thrilled to have gotten the blinds and ceiling fans wiped down. While we were working on the office we finally hung my new poster (a framed Lost in Translation movie poster), too, which is great. This broke up a long, desolate white wall and the effect has been much greater than I would have anticipated. I haven't gone quite as far as to break out the Feng Shui books to better optimize the rest of the apartment, but we've definitely taken note of the big effect even some small changes have had on our moods.

Later in the day, the apartment cleaned, we decided to go out to Barnes and Noble to reward ourselves with some coffee and books. Crystal picked up The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable-- which, talking about the impact of rare, unlikely events (the emergence of Google, the events of 9/11, and stock market ups and downs being a few of the listed examples, sounded quite interesting-- and I picked up Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, expanding my Murakami collection. I sat down with it this morning and was, once again, amazed at his skill.

Murakami's been compared to so many writers ("a cross between Kafka and Philip K. Dick" was the one that I thought rang truest), but his works have always had a remarkably unique feel, to me. Even if you might find one or two chapters that you might be able to mistake for another writer (there are some decidedly Gaiman-esque sections to this latest I'm reading), a solid percentage of the time you could take a single chapter and be able to declare with some conviction that it's a Murakami work. With DMing a recurring effort, now, and with NaNo being right around the corner on my mind, I'm starting to notice and to pay more attention to some of the craftsmanship of his worlds, and, rather than it being in any way distracting, his work so far seems even better and more interesting for it.

While fantastic settings are hardly new and can always be used for a variety of reasons, I've started to look at Murakami's settings less as backgrounds-- which, even if they aren't described, a reader will generally assume some sort of-- and more as emotional and situational amplifiers. Murakami's settings are always detailed and well-crafted, whether they are in the fantastic or magically realistic worlds of many of his novels to the transformed night-time urban world of After Dark-- but that's just the tip of the iceberg. As I was reading this morning I was struck not only by the quality of the settings but also their use: so many of these settings perfectly and logically (in the context of the story) isolate the characters to where each emotional pin-drop falls in the silence like a thunder clap, every emotion and interaction turned up. Whether fantastic-- an underground laboratory hidden behind a waterfall-- or mundane-- the tunnel-vision keeping you from paying much mind to the next booth over after too little sleep and too much coffee at a 24x7 diner-- Murakami deftly shapes every nook and cranny to best amplify the encounter.

So often we-- or at least I-- can overlook settings as the mundane background to "what's going on." Yet the setting has a profound effect on the transpiring of events. Whether it's Feng Shui talking about sharp corners sending "poison arrows" and spoiling the energy in a room or home designers working to provide maximum passing room in the kitchen, where the largest number of household fights begin, the importance of taming the environment seemingly cannot be understated. This is clearly something I'll have to continue to pay more attention to, in life and fiction alike.

It was a good weekend. Would have been phenomenal if Michigan had pulled out the comeback, but it was still a lot of fun. On Friday, after both of us had long days/weeks at work, we mixed some drinks and watched Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (Anime Encyclopedia). Maybe not the best anime I've ever seen, but it was loads of fun. An episodic plot where our hapless heroes are deposited into a new (hyper-cliche) "world" and have to figure out the rules each time? Brilliant. The male protagonist gets resurrected from all kinds of fantasy afflictions in one world, re-evolves back into the sci-fi world, and avoids death in their "Chinese" episode by first undergoing a Bruce Lee-type training montage. Silly, but well-done and lots of fun. We made a drinking game (the main character being abused or fanservice moments) and drank a _lot_ over the course of those five episodes. It was a lovely recovery from the week.

Saturday was pretty laid back. We sat around, played video games-- picked up Demon's Souls, more on that later-- and then watched the Michigan game. Ugh, five turnovers. Hard to win like that, yet we still came within 2. Should have had it. I liked RichRod's decision to bench Forcier-- his choices were getting just more and more desperate-- but I wished that Robinson had had more time to warm up through the earlier game. While I agree with the apparent decision that Forcier is the real starting QB, I don't see why Michigan can't play Robinson a bit more for two or three-down sets as so many other teams are doing with their "Wildcat" quarterbacks. I think Forcier was doing better mentally earlier in the season when he was getting a series or two series break every so often and had that time to clear his head. But we'll see. Delaware State this weekend should rebuild everyone's confidence, get the defense (and the secondary in particular) more actual game experience and help get us ready for Penn State, and then Illinois (wow, how far they've fallen, this year) and Purdue will have us ready for the season-ending scraps at Wisconsin and vs. Ohio State.

Sunday was a lot of relaxing (yay for naps) and more anime and Demon's Souls. We tried to watch Battlestar Galatctica, but Netflix sent us a broken DVD (you couldn't tell from the front, but on the back there was one branching crack that got 80% of the way to the edge). So we started Black Cat, which seems like it'll be something we like for seriocomic anime-- we weren't ready for another heavy series so soon after Gankutsuou, which I'll have to review soon-- and then later finally started getting the hang of Demon's Souls ( A lengthier review of the game )

So yeah. Good times. It's rough after a few busy weekends of running around to fully decompress in just two days, but we made a good try at it, for sure.

So I've updated the theme for my journal, here. The old style I think was getting a bit too wide, but I'm not sure if this takes it the other way, staying a bit too thin and going long. Let me know what you think! I'm also hoping to have last week's campaign summary up later today (if anyone reads those).

. . aaaand that's what I have. Oh yeah, we finished Gankutsuou, last night. Pure awesome.

It's been good to be DMing. I've been posting the summaries (last week's is coming, I swear!) and those hopefully show how much fun it's been, but above and beyond that it's really gotten the creative juices flowing again. A lot of my day's work, naturally, is fairly linear problem solving. For any given problem that gets handed off to me there are a handful of different things that may be the cause or contributing causes. I knock out those that aren't the issue, make sure I've identified all (or as many as possible) of the contributing factors, and then fix them. It comes pretty easily to me, and I'm good at it, but it's just one way of thinking-- and one that is ill-suited to a lot of more creative endeavors.

Before I'd started DMing again (it was something I'd done and enjoyed in the past but never on a very consistent basis), I'd been working on writing more in my novel. It's been re-shelved for a bit-- again-- but even while I was working on it I'd been noticing a disturbing linearity to it. Not just that things were moving forward chronologically in a straightforward fashion-- which is a style choice and one I don't have any inherent objection to-- but that almost everything was coming into light at the precise moment it first became relevant. There were a few exceptions, but in general the introduction of matter that might inspire questions in the reader's mind was usually followed (far too) closely by the answer to those questions.

( Examples and Illustration )

I'd been planning on using NaNo month to continue working on one of the novels I've been building and rebuilding for years, but I think the new plan is to again do a brand-new, start-to-finish new story. This will give me the most freedom to keep building on skills rather than restricting myself with plots and guidelines I'd set out months or even years ago. I'm looking forward to it.

Goodness me but fall came fast. After a week of rain and chill, yesterday was gorgeous. And now it's 62 degrees at 3:30, and I'm wearing a sweater inside. The good news is that the fall weather makes me want to start reading more-- I don't know if college football, brisk afternoons, and leaves on the ground will ever stop making me think of the start of the fall semester and stirring some urge to consume literature. Hungry for the written word I did pick up Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol last week and got a bit of a fix-- devoured it. It was quite enjoyable and enthralling as always, though the old critique of Dan Brown as an excellent crafter of thrillers but a heavy-handed writer remains accurate. I don't know if it was more obvious in this one or if I just noticed it more, but there were a few groan-worthy moments, to be sure. That was just a start, though.

My resolution for this fall/winter is going to be finishing things-- there are just too many books, TV or anime series, and video games that I have lying around partway finished. This should be a lot easier than last year, but there are always new things I'm discovering or want to re-enjoy, and not finishing them has been an unfortunate constant, recently. In the last year I think I've only finished three books (The Lost Symbol, Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates, and Murakami's excellent What I Talk About When I Talk About Running), beaten a couple of video games (Persona 4 and the Penny Arcade Adventures games), and finished one series of anime (Last Exile). But I've started and gotten partway through half a dozen or a dozen more of all of these.

So I wanted to put together a fall/winter "reading list" of things I want to read, watch,play, finish, re-consume, etc.
( My Lists )

So it's a good bit of stuff, but I really want to sit down and finish as many of these as I can. If it's fewer items than are on this list that I finish that's fine, but I want to finish them: with quality goods like this you really aren't getting the full experience with just a sample. When I was growing up I always seemed to love long books and long video games, and I remember thinking it was stupid when "grown-ups'" attention spans couldn't handle anything longer than a movie. Being in a different place in life I now see attention span is only part of it, that there are also a lot more things demanding your time and energy, but I want to be done with that excuse, now. Time to finish things-- starting with another cup of tea.

Things have been going well. I've been keeping more active, playing lots of tennis, meeting new people (though those fun, calorie-laden "meeting new people" nights have helped the diet rather less than the tennis), and I've pretty completely stopped playing WoW. I haven't been able to 100% convert that to productive time, yet, but stepping away from a never-ending crack supply towards useful/healthy activities or at least new and exciting media is still some kind of progress-- with all that new spare time we've started True Blood, Gankutsuou, and Firefly all in the last month. These are mostly on hold at the moment, though, as television has fallen to the wayside while we've been out playing lots and lots (and lots) of tennis.

Tennis has been great. Since July we've been playing a ton and have pretty much advanced from level 1.5-2 up to 3-3.5. Most of that was getting back into shape and practice, but it still feels great to be playing better and longer. Ultimately I think we're both playing better than we did ever last summer, so it's satisfying that we made up for the late start. It definitely sucks that tennis weather is starting its way out, but we're committed to sucking up the bill ($18/hour-- oof) and heading out to Champaign to hit up the Atkins Center to play indoors once or twice a month through the winter. It won't be the same, but at the very least it should mean that we start next summer still keeping the ball in play rather than having the usual fun couple days of whiffing completely every few shots.

Even when I'm not out and active I'm finding my leisure time better-spent, too. Instead of running some dailies as I might otherwise have, this morning I added a bunch of categories and calculations to my weight loss spreadsheet, setting longer-term goals (due to both getting out less in winter and diminishing losses, etc.) and tracking adherence to loss rate goals being the biggest. This was quite useful and helped smack me upside the head with how much the few "off" nights with booze and pizza really are setting me back (continuing to lag as far behind my "ideal" rates would add three months or more to how long this will take). Nothing to write home about, but that additional insight and motivation is definitely worth more than Argent Tourney rep.

That Excel work actually prompted a question I wanted to pose to you lovely, intelligent, Office-literate readers. I'm currently maintaining a sort of list-- day-by-day weight, body fat, etc. I'm currently inserting the new day's row at the top, between the column headers and the previous top row of data. This breaks all my graphs and stuff, though: the data set changes from A3:B51 or something to A3, A5:B1 or somesuch. I can manually edit the data selection, but that's a pain to keep doing every day or every couple days. I'm sure there's some way to insert a new row and then have data selections, graphs, etc. all update to automatically include the new row-- but how do I do it? I have a whole sheet that's all data, so it's pretty easy to play around with reorganizing the data and thus any methods that will make it work (as long as it still graphs correctly) would be awesome.

Being able to see all the data definitely is handy, though. That one bug in the graphs aside I'm quite pleased with its presentation of ever-increasing amounts of useful data-- the recently added calculations for how much I'll weigh on a given date at either my ideal rate or my current slacker (okay, acceptable) rate in particular managed to drive a point home.

Oh, and the final calculations for when I'll finish hitting my target weight at my adjusted, long-term rates? April Fools' Day :P Or, as I'm preferring to think of it, just in time for next summer's tennis season. . .

p.s. College football kicks off TONIGHT, baby, yeah!

Things continue to go well. Eating healthy, little WoW, working on writing.

We watched Watchmen: The Director's Cut, last night. Absolutely phenomenal. Things were definitely clearer and there were a lot of subtleties that came out on this second viewing, and the Blu-Ray has pristine video and sound that assaults you. A phenomenal movie, though, and I was able to better appreciate the attention to structure and detail without having to search each conversation for clues as to what was happening next.

The latest work on the novel has been that I've finally starting to outline more. I've always thought of outlining as something that would be useful to do more of-- but actually felt about outlining that it wasn't actually getting a lot done. This was largely because I only outlined the parts of the story I'd already decided on the sequence for, but that.

Now, though, I think I've finally found a way to outline that I think will be useful. Poking more at my Scrivener app I realized that I can keep separate chapters on separate "cards." So instead of having one file that's an outline and then writing in a separate file, it's more like I can make an outline of notecards, write each chapter on a notecard, and then move them around as necessary. So my focus has been on 1) putting together a cohesive outline 2) moving the applicable text from previous drafts into these chapters 3) marking as "To-Do" the parts I haven't written yet. Hopefully this will let me finally get a complete picture of where I want the story to go and still maximize what I'd actually written in previous drafts.

I'm really feeling this approach, right now, putting together a skeleton and then having a clearer understand of where each chapter needs to go. I like the idea of being able to write from point A to point B without having to worry as much about the surrounding scenes to make sure everything fits. I think this improved segmentation is going to allow me to make the most of my available time, too, and help me get back to making real progress.

It also suggests a way that, come November, I may be able to finally finish NaNo again without pulling another last-minute 20k word sprint. :P

So I was reading some HuffPo and came across an article that asks about why there's so much Palin-bashing-- it made me pause and reflect. Certainly part of it is that a lot of people are convinced that (nearly) everything she says is wrong. The fact that she's convinced that she's right and that knows what she's talking about at those times we might be looking at her like she's a crazy person is another part of it. But there are others who fit that mold-- Michelle Bachmann comes to mind-- who don't get nearly the same amount of attention. So why Palin in particular?

This of course all started when she was given a national platform from which to shout her babble. But the fascination has lingered, months and months after the election completed. There's still a national platform for her on the news, but why to such a degree? The more I think about it, the more I think the answer is simple: fear. Sarah Palin isn't just some crazy we laugh at and ridicule to convince ourselves of our own superiority-- not to the extent to which so many people are indulging it. She's the crazy person who doesn't know the rules of the game-- and pridefully calls that foregoing politics as usual, being unconventional-- but is just popular and charismatic enough that we still worry that she could still find her way even farther up the political chain.

To use her sports analogy, she seems like an "unconventional" point guard who might like the idea of passing into tight coverage to get away from "basketball as usual." Unconventional has obviously worked for her to this point, but now that she's aiming for a starring role at the highest levels those risky moves could have disastrous consequences. But a lot of people like her. She's good-looking, charismatic, and can appeal to particularly the farthest-right conservatives in a very broad way. So people fear she just might be popular enough to get picked for the team anyway. I think its her opponents' terror that makes them feel compelled to continually nip and scratch (and blog and twit) and to keep watching to make sure the danger gets stamped out. Many, I think, may be extra-sensitive because they never thought Dubya would get elected-- yet alone twice. Palin may look even less intelligent and capable, but she's still as or more popular. So we're compelled to watch.

Realistically, if she somehow got elected Palin would have a very difficult time promoting much of her ideology from the White House. Many of her views are just too far right for most people-- or most politicians' constituencies, in terms that matter. But people are convinced that any accomplishments she might make would all be counter to their interests, and all their logic can't convince them that she's entirely unelectable. So they feel compelled to watch, to look for mistakes, to amass further evidence of her craziness, and then to put arguments or derision out there, hoping to cut away at her support base. But her supporters love her and are convinced the media is just out to get her-- and round and round it goes.

2012? 2016? 2036? It's hard to say when we might hear-- or read-- the last of Sarah Palin.

It's now time for a helpful entry from the Techspeak Phrasebook, designed to help you better communicate with your tech support personnel.

I'll need you to E-mail that in
1 : Your problem is petty/ridiculous/not covered by us/your fault/not our fault (pick at least 1) and I want you to stop telling me about it, so I'll pretend that we'll investigate further once it's documented.
2 : You're doing such a poor job of describing what your actual problem is that I want to get your description in writing so that I can translate it to and from different languages in babelfish in a modern-day attempt at divining what is actually stumbling through your brain. (Often used in conjunction with "And please send us a screenshot")
3 : This is a change that you might get upset/sue over if we were to carry it out unnecessarily, and so we require that we have an E-mail so that we can read back to you what you asked for if/when you call us irately about this change.

In any of these cases, the recommended course of action is to, well, E-mail it in-- AND to stop talking about the issue. Immediately. Except in rare cases most IT workers will only use this line when it is definitively proven that further conversation on the topic will be utterly fruitless (read: headdesk, facepalm, etc.).

Busy little bee, that's been me. Last week was a nice 60+ hours of work and then this week looks to be busy all day every day-- if not for as many hours, hopefully.

Things are good, though. Despite having to check in on a bunch of programs running over the course of the weekend we got out for more tennis on Saturday and then went out to the Illinois Shakespeare Festival Sunday to see A Midsummer Night's Dream Sunday night. A nice escape for me and a little thank-you for my ever-patient darling. But more to the point: Wow. Quite possibly the best night of Shakespeare I've seen; it was positively vibrant and absolutely hilarious-- can't remember ever laughing that hard in a theatre before. Can't recommend it highly enough for those of you in the Central Illinois area.

A lot of fun was had in, last night, too. After I was again working a bit late we settled in on the couch, playing some Penny Arcade Adventures (OTRSPOD 2-- redoing it on insane mode. Much fun-- and difficulty), and then watching Thirteenth Floor. Both were kind of inspiring, enjoyment of the dialog and absurdity of the former (and the well-crafted Lovecraftian world), and some of the probing questions and introductions of possibilities in the latter. Made me wish it weren't so late and that I could sit, basking in the glow of my LCD, sip my coffee, that red pill into my nighttime imagination, and just hack out some ideas. Should that irresponsible urge come back nearer the end of some (preferably less arduous) week it may well be obeyed.

I have been trying to get back to writing, you see, but it's a real struggle. Having only infinitesimal snatches of time here and there is a bad start, but plot and setting never quite seem to align, lately. Sometimes ideas will come to me where a setting and characters sort of all land at once, tensions, motivations, and vague gestures at conflict all showing up for roll call. When that happens, though, those first strings needed to pull the plot together, that bread crumb trail to lead through the forest of overwhelming possibility-- impossible to find. The other occasion is that ideas for sweeping stories will strike me, but then these great arcs in the sky tumble when I have problems grounding them, setting pillars in the ground to support their skyward strivings. Non-pulp scenes are aimless and meandering, character development and interaction tending towards the mundane, and interesting scenes end up as flotsam in a sea of tediousness.

Not to imply that I'm thinking of giving up. Just that there's work to be done.

The story is vitally important. Naturally. But in the end I think (at least for me) it's as or more important to convey some idea or inspire some question. Isn't that what we read for, some insight or enjoyment or cathartic empathy? Even if what stories I might try to piece together are having troubles cohering, those ideas or questions that would be interesting to explore haven't stopped popping into my head. So it's not a lack of core ideas to write about that I'm suffering, just the time and ability to craft. So we'll see-- maybe the long weekend will provide rest and time enough. Whether this week or the next, there's definitely work to be done.

What a week! For having as much stuff packed in it I think today should, by all merits, definitely be Friday. Too bad by chronology it's not. Why can't it be as easy as in books or movies to skip the boring parts? They often also skip the naughty bits, too, though, so there's one point (okay, lots) for chronology. I guess it ends up winning.

It's been a good and eventful few days. Things started off well on Saturday, as the better half and I got out for some tennis. Pretty rusty at first but after around an hour of very warm-up like play (which it was, for the season) we loosened up and were hitting some good shots. Of course after about 90 minutes we were both exhausted, so the sweet spot was sadly brief. Exhausted and starving, we got a stuffed crust pizza afterwards that was like a slice (or four) of heaven. Definitely felt good to get out and moving, though, and the week would have been even longer without it-- that good exercise rush and some better sleep on the weekend definitely granted a much-needed energy buffer going in.

Still a bit sore from tennis, Sunday was a day of rest (okay, video games). Monday we went bowling (no sweet spot to be found, there), and then, after we'd had enough, went to karaoke-- my first time ever, and to say that I wasn't a bit nervous would be a lie. It's a very different feeling going up there to present (and I think looking at it as such was a big part of the issue) a song I'd maybe sung along to as compared to when I was in choir and striding confidently forward to deliver a polished piece of work. But I picked a couple good ones in "Fly Me to the Moon" and "Sway", and wasn't displeased with the results. ( more thoughts ) I definitely want to try it again, though, and it's gotten me thinking about getting back into singing as a more serious pursuit, too-- even if it only ever means having a better instrument to play when we inevitably go back for more.

As a note less strictly tied to this week, I've been ( cutting back on WoW ). It's good to have (finally) found a balance.

P.S. got my copy of Ghostbusters on Blu-Ray-- can't wait to watch it tonight or tomorrow. Talk about a trip down memory lane-- in Ecto 1, woo!

I've been thinking more about this blog thing, and I've come to the conclusion that if nothing else-- even if no one ever reads this-- it's a style of communicating I otherwise wouldn't be exercising. So fresh returned from a long absence I expect that for a while some of these entries may continue to be as beautiful as a jog on a spring morning-- those mornings where you get all dressed and worked up then jog an inspiring block or two before finding yourself gasping like a beached whale, having apparently outrun all of the air you were expecting to breathe. Hopefully my mental and verbal abilities have stayed better shape than my physical, though, having been at least somewhat stretched in normal discourse during my long winter away, and there won't be too many. . . metaphors as terribly strained as this one.

Part of my absence was, of course, blog-guilt:
Blog-guilt
noun
1 : the perfectly reasonable shame of people with ordinary, respectable lives at the idea of putting them out there as if they were something noteworthy or extraordinary that other people should want to read about.

I am doing my best to overcome, though, and have been conditioning myself for shamelessly dressing-up the details of my boring, albeit enjoyable life. That's right-- get ready for Pimp My Friday Night When I Stayed In Because I Was Tired.

I think a lot of people with blog-guilt feel that this often-egomaniacal activity should be reserved for people who lead interesting lives or have interesting stories to tell. But it wasn't anything like that that that got me thinking about it, today-- it was reading Wil Wheaton's blog. While he's obviously a big deal as a blogger, now, he's still just a geeky guy writing about geeky stuff. I mean, look at his book. It doesn't get much more straightforward than that.

It occurred out of the blogs I read, the ones I'm most interested in are the ones that I can relate to-- particularly those that also might stretch my thoughts on a topic. At Penny-Arcade, for example, Tycho's rants are undistilled Truth. To what I might myself think of a game Tycho adds 1) a greater context, having been gaming longer and, it'd seem, more vigilantly over the years and 2) a radically effusive emotional response: evidently reviewing each game's Single-Edition Arcane-Infused Version of Wonder, the mundane quests or objectives we might experience are transformed to play out against a backdrop of Lear's storm-swept heath or Dante's hellacious malebolge. The ensuing response is then engaging not only of its own accord but also in inspiring new or stretching our existing ways of thinking about games or gaming.

While it would be fun to sit as royalty high upon a digitized throne, scrying in a gilded bowl the effects of my far-reaching influence, I'll never be Tycho. But I, you know, do things and then, er, reflect on them. Thus by at least one twisted logic I can justify my presence here. So there.

So. . . I said I wouldn't say it-- but I'm back.

Starting these things with a promise to write more is always a lie, so instead. . . I intend to try to write more. That's a promise you can believe in.

So I was talking with a friend yesterday about politics and post-election politics fatigue. I couldn't explain it, really, why I'd been so utterly captivated by the election, only to have my interest in following fall off so precipitously thereafter. Reading the letters in my local paper, today, I think I finally put a finger on it: the use and abuse of small facts.

Small facts, or a collection of them, are generally what most of us can aspire to when it comes to knowledge of current events. We generally do not have the time to read through or consider the implications of the bills under debate, or whose proposals or counter-proposals may be more sage or responsible on a given matter, or whether a candidate's history and curriculum vitae mark them as a good pick for their post. Look at the confirmation trial of Sotomayor-- she's written literally thousands of judgments yet is best known across the country for a dozen-word snippet from a speech a quarter-century ago. Yet despite that small fact consisting of probably 5-10 seconds of speech out of thousands upon thousands of hours of (what many are saying is mostly) excellent legal work, she's judged on that.

But ripping people down with small facts is old news, of course. What I'm just as frustrated by, with "my" candidate having won, is the idea of defending with small facts. If I collect 100 small facts pointing to the idea that, say, the stimulus is working, what have I accomplished? In any given batch it might be 30 are limited-scope facts presenting probably an overly optimistic estimate, 30 are limited-impact facts that people are trying to over-extrapolate, 25 that are reasonable indicators that could be countered with as many from the opposite side, and then the last 15 that people might cling to as golden-- matched up against 15 items from the other side they just as adamantly insist make their side indubitably correct.

During the elections, small facts had greater meaning. What small facts were put out there by the candidates were obviously consciously meant (except VP Biden, of course ;) ) to be generally good indications of their positions. Both then and now these facts are just the tips of icebergs, but in the election we at least could generally believe-- particularly after averaging a few speeches-- that what was being presented to us was a good indicator of an average of their opinions.

Now that these droplet-sized doses of fact that are conveyed to us are snatched by biased parties from wide oceans of impact or experience, we get only the most-impressive sounding tidbits meant to inspire love or hate, which we generally then cherry-pick for favorites that will average out to our "gut feeling" about how things are going. I don't have time or inclination to continue wading through on a daily basis, so until it returns I don't have arguments, I just have inclinations.

I'm inclined to think Barack is doing what he said he would and is generally doing a good job. I'm inclined to think Sarah Palin is still ridiculous.

And, perhaps most of all, I'm inclined to think that having Jay Cutler's going to help Da Bears immensely.

I don't know how many of you out there have GameFly, but there are some definite problems with them, particularly once you're used to the generally supreme excellence of Netflix. I decided to write their support after the third time in a week I received or was shipped a disc listed outside of my top six or seven picks.

( Dear GameFly, I want to like you, but. . . )

Geez. :P It's not as if it's the end of the world, but there are enough things that I would like to be able to play-- without having to check the local store day after day-- that it's a bother. I just wish they configured their service in a such a way that did not require meta-logic when configuring my queue-- making sure to space out similar genres if I'm getting two games at once or putting items boldly claiming to be among the miniscule number of actually available games at certain spots in my queue to ensure that I don't get a game I don't want to play right now. Moreover, I would imagine that, given their shipping speeds, they, too, would benefit from sending people games they actually want. I would weight the first, say, five picks to where the system would accept a slight delay in order to ship one of those items and then, if they weren't available within a day or two-- GameFly works with USPS to have incoming items scanned so they can send out the next picks-- offer the user an option of getting something farther down the queue. People would get what they want, Gamefly would waste less on shipping, and they would also have more games in stock since less-desired picks wouldn't spend as much time in the mail.

Or am I seeing it wrong? Is there a better way, with GameFly or elsewhere?

If you hadn't heard, there's a multi-month gauntlet of gaming goodness going on. It's like three months of Christmas-- and/or three months of final exams. Between October 14th and December 9th I will have bought at least six new games. That's a pretty good amount. But there are also another five (at the MOST conservative estimate) that I feel really bad about not buying and/or will be begging for for my b-day/Christmas. October 14 - December 9 is 9 weeks. It's like a movie season where at least one movie you REALLY want to see is coming out every week-- except each is 30-50 hours long. But this situation is something that I think anyone who games is pretty well aware of. Another thing that I was marveling at, though, was the breadth of variety amongst these games.

( An overview of the aforementioned eleven: )

In addition to just being overwhelmed with the number of great games coming out, though, I also continue to be impressed with the progress of video games. When I started playing Atari and Nintendo in my youth, games were fun diversions. Some of the best games qua games ever made were made back then, no doubt. But now companies are starting to realize the higher possibilities.

We're no longer seeing Soldier 1 or Fighter 2 as our characters, on a quest to save the country or kingdom as the plot. Not by a longshot.

I've been playing more GTA IV, lately, and Crystal and I sat discussing which friends our antihero Niko Bellic wanted to keep, based on those characters' actions, morals, and questionable mental stability. *Ahem* We decided which friends to keep in a game in part based on what we thought of the evidence provided that character might kill himself or us or just go insane. Sure, some people are still going to play the game just to kill hookers, but GTA IV is a perfect example of the increasing number of games that are giving you the option to sink deeper and enjoy a much more rewarding experience.

And that's good, since I'm really going to need something to fill my time after the 24-hour election news drops off after Obama wins ;)

There are only some 102 days left until Obama's inauguration.

That is no longer what I hope will happen-- it is what I believe will happen.

I believe that choosing how to vote in this election is simple. Barack Obama has shown he can rise above politics as usual and win by inspiring people and speaking to the people of America about how he hopes to restore and improve her. John McCain-- whom no one wanted to see fail like this, casting a dishonorable pall over his lifetime of service-- has shown that he can sink ever lower, is willing to resort to ever greater levels of dishonesty and fearmongering, and that he now is just making an amoral attempt at a power-grab, not hesitating to leave America divided by hatred or equipped with the least-qualified VP candidate in recent history despite his age and repeated bouts with cancer.

America has seen these campaigns for what they are, though, and once this is all carried out to its logical conclusion, Barack Obama will be elected our 44th President of the United States. Between the election, inauguration, and 8 years from then when our 45th President is sworn in, I hope. . .

1. . . . that McCain/Palin, their advisors, and hatemonger politicians across the country realize-- before any horrible incident forces them to realize-- that their politics of hate have gone too far, and I hope that the American people make it clear this is no longer the way to win. That these politicians see that their actions will only cause harm to themselves, their supporters, and the American people. While their attempts to seize the election through fear and confusion are despicable, their failure to curb the agitation of the most extreme of their supporters is beyond words. Already this election we have started making arrests. A seventy-five year-old man threatened to "come down. . . and unload his shotgun" after he was told he could not yet cast his vote to "keep that n*gger out of office." That McCain and Palin can be aware of these kinds of events and say nothing when their supporters shout about Obama being a terrorist, that they should "kill him" or have "off with his head!" is a condemnation that pierces to the core of them not only as politicians but as human beings. They cannot but realize that they are not only failing to curb the hatred behind these shouts but also the chances that one of those crazies will attempt assassination. I hope they change in time.

2. . . . that we see a decrease in the ridiculous amounts of negative campaigning. There's little doubt this will remain a part of politics. The enemy of your enemy may well get your vote. But Obama has won this election with this as not a primary or even secondary method of gaining votes-- yes, there have been negative Obama ads and moments. Calling your opponent on a lie or highlighting his/her record on an issue-- even when done honestly-- is more about denigrating him or her than improving the view of your own candidate or positions. Yet what I have seen from Obama I believe has almost entirely been legitimate. America deserves a clear and comprehensive view of our candidates. On the opposite end of the spectrum, though, has been McCain, running the most dishonest and negative campaign in recent history-- drawing rebukes from even Karl Rove. I hope that Barack Obama will be an inspiration to future candidates in how they can present themselves as the better candidates-- not just an alternative to their despicable foes.

3. . . . that we see a restoration of the American people's faith in our elected leaders. Obama in the debates has shown himself to be honest and mature-- words that too rarely find their way into discussion of our elected officials. He has been unafraid to point agree with McCain, or even point out some of McCain's political contributions. These seemingly small act instill the hope that Obama could be the start-- the head of-- a change from politics as usual. His explanation of some of his votes that would seem controversial show us both honesty and accountability. I hope that this will be an example both for future politicians and people.

It is not only admiring our next President but also believing in America-- and being proud of her honesty and intelligence in piercing through all the distractors to choose the superior candidate-- that I dare to hope these things. It is telling of Obama's already significant impact that we now dare to dream not only of triumphs on political issues, but triumphs in politics. Obama isn't ready to lead America-- he is already doing so. Because he has already shown us that politicians can rise above historical standards, we dare hope that more will aspire to. Because he inspires us personally to become greater than we were, his leadership already transcends politics. If he remains as impressive in office as he has been on the campaign his legacy of inspiration will prove an even greater force for bettering America than his acts as President. And that is change we can believe in.

I think the rules are going to have to be a living document, of course, but to start with I'm thinking these:

1. When either candidate talks about how he is the candidate of change, take a sip.
2. When Obama manages to get under McCain's skin enough to make him snap, take two sips.
3. When John McCain talks about being a POW, take two sips.
4. If John McCain claims to have been useful in the bailout debates, finish your beer.

I think these are a good starting point, with the rules to be adjusted as appropriate and then finalized halfway through.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Oh yeah-- one last thing. I was playing video poker in my video game, and I came across three rare poker phenomena. While none are going to match up to when I scored two straight flushes in a real life Texas Hold 'Em, game, some of them struck me.

- Drawing a 4-card flush. Holding a King of Clubs to try to pair it up I drew four clubs instead. Didn't see that coming.

- Drawing 4 of a kind. Even better, that it was on the draw, holding one card. Holding a jack or something and getting dealt four sevens? Whoa.

- Perhaps the craziest started when I was dealt two pair. No big deal, but that from there, I failed to notice one of the two pairs until after I'd selected my hold and draw cards. So keeping one pair and discarding the other, I draw another pair and trip up my initial pair. Two pairs, discarding one, to a full house. Given the significant whoops factor (even working at a good clip through simple video poker you don't miss a pair all that often), that occurred to me as possibly the rarest of the three.

So nothing too exciting, really-- no real money at stake, which obviously takes a lot of the interest out-- but getting all three of those things over the course of having played the in-game video poker for maybe 1-2 hours seemed pretty nuts.

It's not as if there hadn't been any other signs of "growing up," but sometimes they still strike me. Getting up and choosing to work for 3-4 hours instead of playing video games or watching Netflix? Strikes me as one of those signs :P