From the Guardian. Link from tehuti.

51:04 long & 49 MB big

In this episode, Robert Bohl (designer of Misspent Youth) and Joshua A. C. Newman (designer of shock: social science fiction) discuss major changes to the game, spend a lot of time with feedback, and discuss how Jewish someone has to be in England.

We took some during-the-show notes. If you have Google Wave you might be able to take a look at the Wave we created while recording. For those of you without, you can check out the Google Docs transcription

- The Weird Jews Livejournal group that Joshua joined
- The Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution
- The Alas, A Blog entry about the New York Times piece on England and Jewishness
- Kat & Michael Miller's Serial Homicide Unit
- The Starship Troopers and Robocop films
- Feedback from Doc Holaday, Luke Crane (sorta), Vincent Baker, Jj
- cat and man!
- We know who the game will always be about now!
- Larry Ellison
- Rutgers and Yale Universities
- Blackwater Worldwide
- Postmodernism
- On Mighty Thews, by Simon Carryer
- Frank Frazetta
- The Draconis Montreal convention

You can subscribe to the show by plugging the RSS feed URL into your preferred podcatcher. You can also use the one-click iTunes button thingie:



The intro music is "Gotta Whizz" by Boris the Sprinkler, from the album Mega Anal. The outgoing music is "Taffy Lewis' Night Club" by Vangelis.

...have a very clear far-right slant. I just saw (and clicked on) a banner which said, "Do you want to have to wait 100 days to see a physician?"

(I'm not saying there are no reasons to dislike the healthcare bill - I'm saying that it's frustrating to see lying scare tactics from any side.)

On an unrelated note, you should head over to wickedfaire and check out my latest entry.

So I often tell people that I pretty much don't play any games which aren't at least 10 (now, it's about 15) years old - because, to be honest, being an insane workaholic is not really compatible to experiencing really immersive gaming. When I'm really curious about a more modern game, I force the_sea_lingers to play it.

All this being said, I do have a game I've been playing for 22 years. It's not exactly immersive in the modern sense, being all text and characters - and now that it's a much, much quieter place, I'm seldom drawn into chatting. Plus, I'm intentionally a member of a guild which needs long periods of rest between what are, conveniently, usually very brief kills. It's a really perfect way for me to both remind myself to take brief breaks once in a while--and then remind myself to get back to work.

It's Igormud. And just a few minutes ago, I passed a point which is meaningless to almost everyone who's reading this - but it means a lot to me:

Level: 50 Dexterity: 47 Hit points: 498 (498)
Score: 1,001,353,956 Charisma: 5 Spell points: 435 (544)
Experience: 6,057,727 Constitution: 57 (44)
Gold: 236,671 Intelligence: 51
Explored: 8.66% Strength: 21
Guild level: X Wisdom: 49
Tradeskills: Sword*: Average (75.3%)
Herbalism: 80
Combat spell: octo.

One. Billion. Experience points.

That took a reallllly long time.

I could almost cry.


....okay! Enough sentimentality! Time for me to pimp the Wicked Faire promotion post! Time for me to update the Wicked site! Time for me to go make World's Fair plans!


....a billion experience points. Good Gods. I started that when I was twelve. Wow.

Dear Friend,

If you're receiving this letter, then you either are or have been a gifted student, a parent of a gifted student, or know or have known a gifted student at some point. No matter which of these categories you fall into, you probably know very well some of the trials and tribulations gifted students face, even in the best of schools. Many of you also probably know some of the extracurricular programs developed for gifted students within the schools, as well as some of the summer programs. Unfortunately, in this economy, many of these programs are drastically underfunded, many of the summer programs find themselves needing to cut corners wherever possible, and overall, the quality of education is not as high as we all might like it to be. While we cannot fix everything at once, we would urge you to consider making a tax-deductible donation to SPARC, the Summer Project for Academic Reach and Creativity. As a 501(c)3 organization, SPARC is aiming to create a summer enrichment program to serve gifted students not only academically, but also socially and emotionally. Our goal is to use charitable contributions to help us attain the best faculty and staff, as well as campus rental, all without having to be so expensive that it becomes difficult for most families that currently have gifted children, i.e, the ones who need it most, to afford it. Any and all contributions to add up, and will have the effect of improving not only the academics of the students, but helping to enrich the lives of all involved.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Rebecca Robare, President

Gil Cnaan, Vice President

SPARC INC 501 (C)3
111 N. 9th St #300
Philadelphia, PA 19107
http://www.SPARCSummer.org
becky@sparcsummer.org
gil@sparcsummer.org

From this.

( Cut for people who don't want to read about someone praising Obama )

The Wicked Faire and Steampunk World's Fair teams will gather tonight to present Halloween in December: a benefit for Isaac Bonewits...and snow be damned! Tell your friends!

7 p.m., IHOP of Somerset, 900 Easton Avenue, Somerset, NJ, five dollars to get in, wear a costume if you'd like, bring candy for trick-or-treating if you want, but just come on out!! Pass it on!

(Let me go xpost this to wickedfaire..)

Okay. When I said I wanted to receive offers via email? I was thinking, say, a few times a month, possibly once a week. Not every other good-griefin' day.

Unsubscribe.

...probably the least-biggest-fan out of all Amanda Palmer fans.

But seriously, the new ukulele video? Props, Amanda. For that, you get props.

...some reliable, reliable volunteer assistance for Wicked that will last all the way up 'til late February. Anyone out there want to help and not overwhelmed with other things?