Kittens and Moonbeam [chat]

It's all just kittens and moonbeams.

Two Words

Following a link from the latest @Hanover publication, I was reading "Hanover Memories" and came across this romanticized, somewhat banal, yet mildly compelling recollection, which is particularly of note -- those of you in a position to know why will know why:

"Thank you for the e-mail news and views (of the past). Here is one of my favorite memories, which I believe is as valid now as it was when I was a student at Hanover. That is the memory of walking on the snow-covered campus at night, with a full moon beaming down on the campus and illuminating the Ohio River and the hills of Kentucky across the way. The lights on campus provided just enough glow to create a magical scene, and the golden river gave a sensation of what a bit of heaven might be like. Of course, we did not really walk; rather, we moseyed, stopping often to taste the snow, make a snowball, or just take in the magnificent view. Those, to me, were truly magical moments, thanks to Mother Nature! Keep up the good work!
Dr. Robert E. Wolverton '48

Tonight's FNM deck

Just posting this here so the couple people who might be intersted can see it.

I really DO want to take this into a further Blue-Black deck.. but just not going to happen by tonight.

deck below-
18 Swamp, snowy
4 Terramporphic Expanse, fetchy

4 Chilling Shade - 2B, flying, Snowmana pump
4 Hypnotic Specter - Classic Hyppie
4 Phyrexian Ironfoot - 3, art. 3/4, 1(snow): untap
4 Urborg Syphon-Mage - 2b, 2b: Spellshape a two-point drain on an opponent.

3 Pooling Venom - 1b, Pyschic Venom, plus 3B: explode the land
4 Contaminated Bond - 1b, enchanted creature attacks/blocks, and controller loses 3
3 Vampiric Link - B, Sprit Link
3 Rime Transfusion - 1b, Unholy Strength, plus (snow):creature can only be blocked by snow creatures
3 Rite of Consumption - sorcery, 1b, Fling as a Drain Life.
4 Dash Hope - BB, Counter Target Spell, Opponent may lose 5 five to counter Dash Hope
2 Tendrils of Corruption - Instant, 3b, deals X damage to creature/player, and you gain X life, X= # of Swamps

Side-
1 Vamp Link
1 Rime Tansfusion
1 Rite of Consumption
4 Island, Snow
4 Rimewind Taskmage, 1u, 1: tap or untap target permenant. Only playable if you have 4+ snow permanents.
4 Circle of Affliction, 1B, choose a color. Whenever source of color X hits you, you can pay 1. If you do, drain 1 from opponent.

Reset Generation: Fun, Infuriatingly

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/08/06/hands-off-my-bird-reset-generation/#more-2258

I toyed around with playing Reset Generation Weds. Night. and.. well..
Basically the above link says what I'd try and say about the game, plus more.

Certainly it will sell you on it better than I will.

Go. Read. Then play.

THEN return and tell me I'm fullait. But only in that order.

Diablo 3 Art Director Quits

Brian Morrisroe, the art director for Diablo 3, has quit:

Regarding Brian, he recently resigned to form a startup company "outside the game industry", which is why we posted about the open position. That change won't impact the game...we're really pleased with the look and feel that Brian helped create for Diablo III, and the new person we bring aboard will work with other artists on the team to maintain the art style moving forward.

Apparently "resigned to form a startup" is the new code for "was driven crazy by fanboys". Because fuck if an art director leaves a job at Blizzard halfway through a game's development to form a fucking startup company. Unless he's one of those art directors who just hates money and work.

Zero Punctuation: Ninja Gaiden 2

Warhammer Online: September 18th

Warhammer Online has a Launch Date.

MEH

Mikey's Annual Pacifist Lapse

Serious question here. Your once a year free-pass, where you get to channel all the stored violence for the year?

Is it anything like this? And if not.. Can you learn to do this as well? Because it's awesome.

comic courtesy of Wondermark, obviously.

The Path of Idiosyncratic Normalcy

You know that Road Not Taken poem by Robert Frost which exists forever entwined with graduation speeches to the same degree as Good Riddance? Well, I hate that poem. Or, rather, I do not hate the poem so much as I hate the assholes who like that poem for roughly the same reason that I hate assholes who like and play Good Riddance at graduation parties: They missed its fucking point.

Since I'm headed to Grad School I've been the lucky recipient of life advice from various parties. People who run drill presses for a living have shared with me their life philosophies in an effort to aid my growth and development. Which is sweet, except when we remember that I study philosophy. So someone sharing with me their life philosophy is, really, tantamount to sharing with an oncology student one's thoughts on colorectal cancer. There are acknowledged authorities on cancer; there are acknowledged authorities on philosophy. Generally speaking the drill press operator is neither.

What I've noticed from these stories and bits of advice, though, is that everyone seems to think that they are on the path less traveled; everyone thinks they are an example of a divergence from the norm. The drill press operator attributes his current predicament to running a drill at company A rather than company B, which has made all the difference. The middle manager at Stuckey's is thrilled that he passed on that middle manager's job at Wack-n-Gulp, which has made all the difference. Everyone has this neat little example of how they are different; this interesting tale of how they took the path less traveled.

The problem is that we're all on the same damned path.

When I went out to eat with my grandparents they told me that I need to keep my faith; faith is all that will sustain me through these "troubled times". The problem is that faith's ability to sustain an individual is found in that individual's focus upon something other than what is. We place faith in god so that our concern is not for this reality but rather the reality to come. It's misdirection. It's a change in focus. Which is exactly what happens when one nihilistically just stops giving a shit. Religion and Nihilism are the same path to the same goal. We're just very confused about what "same" means.

That's one of the interesting components of life. We're all fixated on our particular paths, our particular choices and decisions and predicaments. But, really, it's as the second and third stanzas of The Road Not Taken say:

Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay

It's the same fucking path. It's the same fucking life philosophy. It's the same fucking life. Replicated and replicated and replicated endlessly yet interpreted as unique and meaningful because, well, that's what we've convinced ourselves that we want.

WOTLK Talent Calculator

WOTLK Talent Calculator

Better than the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree?

Linus' Blanket

The Tree is a purer concept, immediately communicating the idea on sight.

The blanket? Has actual use, and.. can be clutched.

Transformers Classic: Cellphones and Strat RPGs, Demo

This one's for Kyle.

Aw, hell.. who am I kidding.

This one all for King Grimlock!