No longer am I 'Barely Legal'.

I'm 19 - or, will be, in about three hours.

Yeehaw.

Yeah, I'm not too psyched. But I figured I should note it, since I hadn't posted anything else today. *shrug*

What Comes After Prime?

Second Life.

Remember, back in 1995, how we all though the Internet would be a place to tool around in 3D and do basically anything? Or, if you've put those pipe dreams away, you remember the Metaverse in Neil Stephenson's Snowcrash?

Yeah, this is the same thing. But it works.

You need a higher-end computer and a good internet connection, but if you've already got a suitable machine, it only costs ten bucks to join. Not ten bucks a month. Just ten bucks, period. Which is really nice.

So you get to customize your avatar, and you get to wander around a virtual world with nary a care - no quests, no death, no EXP, and you don't even have to walk - flight is always possible, and you can buy a vehicle to tool around in style.

But you get to build things. Lots of things.

From beachballs to lightcycles to stadiums (if you plop down the cash for a parcel of land, the sky's the limit), you can make it, and make it do stuff - I saw a whale-airship thing fly past the JetBall stadium last night.

So yeah. I've found my main distraction for the moment, and I encourage you to try it. The first seven days are free, after which you just pay the said 10 bucks to stay in for pretty much ever.

And make sure to say AXIS Epsilon sent you. >.>

Whoopsie.

Missed a day.

For those who care, my Terranotos session two nights ago went very nicely. Of course, now there're a few complications (the party went and split up, of course), but those are always fun, eh?

Second, I understand the Buckeyes pounded their opponents into the ground, about 3,000 to -12. This means I get to listen to more Championship hopes than I care to; this is why I don't watch the local news much...

Third, school is really heating up. There's actually homework to do (which, you'll notice, I'm currently not doing), and duedates for it to be done by. Just an FYI.

Fourth, there is no fourth. So there! Ha! I win!

Mastering The Game

Tonight I run a session of Terranotos - my mIRC-based FFRPG campaign of a year-plus. For those who don't know about running a session of an RPG (that is, "GMing"), lemme say it's hard work, at the least. At best, it's a harrowing experience that has huge rewards... Kinda like writing a novel while having sex on a runaway rollercoaster that's heading for the Shrapnel, Inc factory.

So yeah. I'v ebeen out of the saddle in online, realtime GMing for quite a while (travel and bad timing, go summer!), and tonight I'm eally gonna try to get back in it.

PBeM games are a lot easier, if more of a constant nagging feeling than a session's "OMGWTF AAAAAH- okay, it's over" type thing.

/rambling

More Link Goodness

Some things I found this morning, both a tiny bit old and rather interesting.

First, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.09/stewart.html has an interview with Jon Stewart about the changing role of television.

Second, to get into today's main tirade, http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3141144 has a debate between both sides of the videogame/violence issue.

Third, to show which side I support (and 'duh' if you don't already know), http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3143349 discusses how the major media outlets (read: The Big Three networks and their little spinoffs) react towards video games in general.

And, finally, http://d-fens.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=5179966&publicUserId=5629740 is an entry into one Brooks Brown's 'blog concerning Columbine and DOOM.

You ay have noticed that three of those four links -and al lthree that deal with videogame violence as an issue - are from 1Up.com. That's not a coincidence; 1Up is one of the better videogame review/news/discussion/social sites that I've found out there. So go take a look at it.

All I'm missing now is a berret, a Che Guevara poster, and a Captain N beltbuckle...

Castro Aids US, Kicks Reaganites In Nuts

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/03/katrina.castro/

Castro is offering medical aid in response to all the stuff that's hit N'awlens. It's like the entire cold war was just a lead-up for this - after fifty years of sanctions and poverty, the US gets hit (and hit hard), and Castro can sit back, have a good laugh and a good cigar, and offer to help us out.

Basically, he's got the high ground - technically (Cuba's fine), economically (N'awlens is gonna be under a lot of stress for the rest of the decade, I'll bet) and morally (After all the stuf we've put him through, he's offering a helping hand; quote: "This is not the time to kick an adversary - when he's down").

Personally, I love the irony.

The Other White Meat

It's Saturday, it's noon, and even on the edge of town I can hear the cheer of a thousand thousand Buckeye fans as the ball flies through the air. My little brother (a huge sports fan of any sort, as long as it's based in Columbus) is arguing with my little sister (who cares only slightly more than I do) as to whether or not OSU has a new coach.That's what's always entertained me - the fans, and how the rest of us get to laugh at them.

Of course, this means that all college football - not just the big-name stuff - has begun, and Capital's team is at Wittenburg today. Thankfully, the season's suprisingly sparse - ten games, five at home and five 'abroad' (read: the rest of Ohio, mostly The Boonies). Not that Cap's student body needs an excuse to get drunk and pee on my door,* but I'm sure they'll hone their beer-bonging skills to perfection when not going to Homecoming (Oct. 8th) and Parent's Day (Nov. 12th).

Good luck and godspeed, you drinkers of the cheapass beer. You'll do your liver proud.

* This is a true story, though it's really short and has nothing to do with football. If you're all good boys and girls, maybe I'll tell you about it sometime.

Commie-Proof Lunch Meat Substance

I checked back a day after my last post, thinking of what I should post now. When I got here, someone had commented on not one, but two of my posts.

"OMGWTF?!", I say to myself. "I r teh amazings!"

So I check out both comments. After reading them both, I was shocked. I'd been spammed!

Then I remembered that this was, in fact, the Internet, and not the lunchroom (where, thankfully, spam is far less common), and was merely suprised by the fact that one spammer had not onlytyped her spam correctly, but had actually set up a blog with her account. It didn't have much content on it (says the kettle to the pot), but the sheer effort impressed me.

For those of you unfamiliar with the 'net, good typing and grammar are about as rare as catching Carmen Sandiego shoplifting a polka-dot fedora.

So... I'm actually going to leave that comment up. The other, badly-typed one, I will test the Garbage Can option on. Darwin, somewhere, is dancing a sociological jig. And Lyn, be you 'bot or buisnessman, I will actually listen to the entirety of whatever sales pitch you throw at me.

But I still won't buy anything from you.

I suppose I should explain the title.

Yeah, about that.

First, I should explain that I plan to get into video game design (if the links to the left hadn't tipped you off yet, consider yourself tipped), thus my dual English Literature / Computer Science majors - and my expansive experience with video games. I've saved... Off the top of my head, at least twenty worlds, many of them several times over. It's fun and all (and I love it), but after a while, having the weight of the world on one's shoulders gets tiring.

In essence, for me, saving the world isn't just a job. It isn't even an occupational hazard. It's friggin' par for the course - a sand trap that tends to eat the green.

But when I'm typing in this here 'blog, I don't have to worry about doing any world-saving. I just have to worry about tpyos.

With all the rain, it's a good season for links. Ay-yep...

So, I figured out how to add links over there on the left.

"Blogger's built for the masses!" they say. "The GUI's designed for the most obtuse of users!"

My arse it is. I'm just glad I already know HTML, is all I'm sayin'...

Anyhow. The links to the left may require some more explanation than their pithy titles, so allow yours truly to provide.

Better Blogs than Mine just holds whatever 'blogs I read somewhat often, and are actually worth reading. So far, I've only got Wil Wheaton's and Robert Lawsons' 'blogs up. There may be more to come, but it's doubtful.

Game Design has, well, links related to game design. GameDev.net and Sloperama's 'Advice' page, in particular, are good reads. But as I'm not yet a professional, take that with a grain of salt.

Final Fantasy doesn't have links relating to the actual series of video games. If your mind is blown, don't worry - they relate to the Pen & Paper game that has been spun-off from said video games. Though the system itself isn't officially Squeenix, they tolerate it as long as no one sees a dime over it - and the system works, too. Give it a look-through if you like either the video games or PnP games in general. I've been told my campaigns make for good reading, too, but they're probably too large and archive-heavy for just casual reading...

TV & Music should be obvious. The Digital Archive Project saves good shows that went off the air ages ago, allowing you to download them both legally and free (but barely so). OCR hosts (very good) remixed video game music, ranging from orchestral and rock to slow jazz and hillbilly, and I highly suggest downloading a bunch of it if you've the time. Radio Free Colorado and Mostly Classical are my two favorite online radio stations, they do classic rock and classical, respectively, and you can listen to them over your favorite media player - again, for free. Yes, you are seeing a pattern.

Comics I Read is the largest section so far, and, more likely than not, always will be. They're all comics that are exclusively online (except for when they're published in book collections), and they all rock in some form or another. There're plenty other comics I check every so often that aren't on that list, so don't get fanboyish on me, thanks.

Maybe I'll actually mess with a custom template next... Maybe. *shrug*

First Post!

Sure, it's passe'. But it's my first post, so I get to say it. Hah!

Anyhow, I'm gonna add things here, maybe mess with the view. I'd suggest tuning out for a bit and checking back in a bit.