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| Sunday, January 29th, 2012 | | 10:05 pm |
ReadMe
I've been doing some more reading, as part of what I'm calling Project RTFM (getting round to reading my unread books). This week I've actually read a book I just bought: "Ready Player One", a novel by Ernest Cline. I've been reading quite a few novels lately, but this is by far the most entertaining. It's a sci-fi story set in the mid-21st century where almost everyone spends most of their time in OASIS, a virtual reality world that's like Second Life, Facebook, and World of Warcraft all put together. The creator of OASIS died an eccentric recluse with no friends or family, and his public will left his fortune to the first user to find the Easter Egg he hid inside OASIS. The catch: the Egg is hidden behind layers of crazy-hard obscure puzzles, the only clues buried in the trivia of his lifelong obsessions: classic videogames and the pop culture from his teenage years, the 1980s. A subculture of egg hunters ("gunters") immerse themselves in the lore of these subjects hoping to find the jackpot, but several years on, none have made any progress at all. The story's about a teenage gunter who figures out the first puzzle, becomes the first name on the online scoreboard, and finds out that with so much at stake it's not just a game anymore. The novel is as much a homage to the 80s and geek culture (including D&D) as it is a virtual-world treasure hunt, and has a feel like the action-adventure movies of the era that it references (and the references are many - Ghostbusters gets quoted just a few paragraphs in and it keeps going from there). To any gamer old enough to remember the 80s - i.e. probably everyone reading this - I can't recommend this book highly enough. Current Mood:  recumbent | | Sunday, January 8th, 2012 | | 12:12 pm |
Reading List: Birthright
Yesterday I started getting some reading done of RPG books. Inspired by a thread I've been reading on rpg.net about the "lost endgame" of D&D – becoming a ruler after Name Level, which modern editions dropped – I decided to read Birthright for AD&D. Or, to be more precise, the rulebook from the Birthright core box set (not the setting books, which I'm not interested in), for the domain management systems. I already vaguely knew some of it, partly from playing the old PC game spin-off years ago: "Birthright: The Gorgon's Alliance" (a very underrated empire-building/RPG hybrid). I've also flicked through the rules a few times before; I couldn't remember why, but I never managed to do more than skim before putting the box away, which is odd because since my longest-running campaign featured PC rulership it's a subject I'm interested in. ( Musings )( Long Musings ) Current Mood: calm | | Friday, January 6th, 2012 | | 5:25 pm |
Is it 2012 already?
I suppose it's about time for a bit of a New Year post. I didn't have a resolution for last year, which at least means I didn't fail at any resolutions! I lost 33 pounds in the year, which is satisfying (though it was never a primary goal). I have only one resolution for 2012: to complete a marathon before my 40th birthday. I was tempted to try a "50 books in 2012" challenge after seeing a community for it spotlighted, but I'm really only an occasional reader and would either fail totally or have to force myself through books. I'm going to have a shot at 1 book a month though. Partly because I've a pile of RPG books I've spent a pile of money on, which have been only flicked through (or never even opened in some cases). Current Mood:  hot | | Wednesday, December 14th, 2011 | | 5:23 pm |
Skyrimming?
I suppose it's time for a quick de-lurk and update. I'm still keeping up with running, but only just - lately I've managed about 1 run a week on average. It's hard to keep up motivation when it's cold, wet, windy, and on weekdays it's also dark at the only times I have available. My next race is almost half a year away, so at least I don't have a pressing need yet to improve. I've been using the exercise bike, which should help a bit. It's been enough to keep my weight loss slow but steady, which has recently dropped my BMI to 25 so I'm no longer officially overweight. I want to lose at least 10 more pounds, but it's a good milestone to hit anyway. I've been spending a lot of time playing Skyrim on XBox since I got it about a month ago. A LOT of time. Almost 200 hours worth - I was off work for two weeks of this time, so no, I haven't been going without sleep or anything. :) I highly recommend it, despite the bugs (but it an Elder Scrolls game wouldn't feel complete without lots of bugs at launch, heh). TLDR review: it's like Fallout 3 but with Heavy Metal Vikings instead of post-apocalyptic survivors. Current Mood: cold | | Thursday, October 20th, 2011 | | 5:29 pm |
My Irregular Update...
Nothing much new to report. I've signed up for a half-marathon in Edinburgh for April 2012. I considered going someplace further afield (I looked into some US events), but decided not to add travel stress on top of training stress leading up to the event. I haven't started training seriously for it, just casually keeping up running and trying to lower my weight a bit. I managed 8 miles on Sunday's long run, so that part's coming along well. Weight is going slowly; as of last weekend I weigh 12 stone 5 (i.e. 173 pounds total), and my current goal is 11 stone 10 (164 pounds total), which is the point where my BMI will drop below 25 and out of the overweight range. Considering I was 14 stone 5 (201 pounds) earlier this year, it's not bad going so far. I've been reading a lot lately, mostly on the Kindle. Last night I finished Singularity Sky by Charles Stross, which is good but demands a bit of physics knowledge to follow (the only reason I knew what a "light cone" was came from reading a Brief History of Time, and Stross uses the term but never explains it; and I gave up on understanding a part of the plot involving time-space travel). I've read quite a few of Stross' novels lately, including Rule 34, a real head-screw of a book (and not just from the broad Edinburgh dialect). The last physical book I read was Cheers Gary, a collection of forum posts by Gary Gygax on an open Q&A thread a few years before his death, published by the Gygax Memorial Fund. It made for an interesting read about the early days of D&D and TSR - I never knew that there were negotiations to merge TSR with the then-small Games Workshop in the early 80s, which might've made gaming very different today. Current Mood: busy | | Sunday, September 4th, 2011 | | 5:18 pm |
Race Report: Great Scottish Run 10k
(crossposted to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif?v=92.1) runners) I should start this with a bit of context. This is a race I ran once before, in 2009, the first time I took up running. That time I made some mistakes (especially starting at the very very back and getting held up by groups of walkers) and got a finish time about 1:05 – tantalisingly close to the 1-hour mark. Afterwards, for various reasons, I dropped out of running and only took it up again this year (which, of course, meant starting from scratch). So I signed up for this year's event, with a plan to at least match my previous time, or better yet break the 1-hour milestone. All was going to plan until an accident a couple of months ago where I broke my hand and went 4 weeks without training. I had to adjust my expectations after that to just completing the race instead of hitting my target time, though when I started back at training I didn't do as badly as I'd thought. I managed to struggle back up to a 10 minute/mile average pace since then, but a cold a little over a week ago didn't help. So, I stayed overnight in Glasgow and got up this morning to dry and clear weather. The assembly area was packed, and I took my place in the third group out of four for the staggered starts. That meant a long wait packed in the crowd of runners before we got to the start line, and the nervous energy was nagging away at me. Finally I got to go, and the first challenge was not running too fast from all that built-up tension. Luckily the other runners around me were mostly going at about 10:00ish pace, so I went along with that for the time being. Very soon after the start there was an uphill that I can only describe as “murderous” – a lot of Glasgow is very hilly, an important little detail I'd forgotten – and I kept my pace up it. By the crest I was feeling really wheezy and wondering if I was going too fast too soon, and checked my watch and saw I was going about 9:40. The next bit was a downhill matching the uphill, so I kept the same speed anyway and coasted down it. After that the course was more level, and I was able to keep a 10:00 or faster pace consistently. It was a hard work and I kept fretting I was going to run out of strength before the end, but the race excitement and some cheering onlookers kept my energy going. I had a shoelace come undone partway through and “pulled over” to the far left to tie it – not thinking properly I stopped too suddenly and some other runners had to swerve to avoid me. Embarrassing, and getting back up to speed felt harder after stopping. In the last couple of miles, I was having real trouble holding the 9-minute-something pace, but I could see a PB possibility and I was damn sure I wasn't going to slow down now! The last stretch had me desperately hoping for the finish line to appear soon, and when I got to the entrance of Glasgow Green I knew it was close. I summoned up my reserves for a late burst of speed, mouthing my running mantra over and over. Then I had a sinking feeling when I realised the finish line was deeper into the park and further away than I realised, and my sprint was draining me too fast. I slowed down into a wobbly-legged shuffling run that got me to the end. I stopped my watch at the finish line and checked it: 58 minutes 55 seconds! I was exhausted but finished with a smile. :) I've checked my official chip time online: 58:50. Position 3002 out of 7448 finishers. 9:24 average pace according to my Garmin. I'm very pleased with that. :D Current Mood: exhausted | | Thursday, August 18th, 2011 | | 5:25 pm |
Thinking too much ThursDAILIES!
On a recent run, my mind was wandering and drifted onto the maths of the minute/mile measurements we use for running. It was only then that I realised that it isn't a linear measurement of speed (this may be old news to more experienced runners). For instance, a 12 minute/mile is 5 miles per hour in "absolute" speed. 10 minute/mile - 2 min/mile faster - is 6 miles per hour (1 mph faster). Another 2 min/mile (8 min/mile) is actually 7.5 miles per hour. So going 1 mph faster gains 2 min/mile in the first case, but you need another 1.5 mph to get another 2 min/mile. The faster you go, the more "absolute" speed each lower min/mile means. Again, many of you probably have already heard or read this, but I only just realised it. So my Question of the Day: what odd thoughts or epiphanies have you had while on a run? Oh, and my daily update: Just a little active recovery tonight on the exercise bike, plus some physiotherapy exercises on my hand to help it back to working order. Current Mood: calm | | Friday, July 16th, 2010 | | 5:27 pm |
Writer's Block: Capital offense
I'm against it. Firstly, because I don't think it serves as a genuinely effective deterrent. Two and a half millenia ago, Thucydides observed in his histories that there's no punishment severe enough to deter someone from doing wrong if they think that they'll get away with it. People can always convince themselves that they WILL get away with it, that getting caught is something that happens to other people. Basic human nature. And then there's heat-of-the-moment crimes, where "deterrent" doesn't even enter the person's mind till it's too late. Secondly, because of wrongful convictions. Here in the UK there have been a number of very public miscarriages of justice. Modern technology like DNA analysis doesn't change this - it's only as good as the people who use it. You can free someone wrongfully imprisoned, but it's a bit difficult to reverse an execution... Current Mood: awake | | Monday, May 17th, 2010 | | 5:21 pm |
Writer's Block: I'm off to see the wizard
Not movies, but TV: the original Battlestar Galactica, and the Buck Rogers series from the same era. I watched the first couple of episodes of both when they got reruns sometime in the last decade, and oh man - they are absolutely terrible! Current Mood:  crazy | | Saturday, May 8th, 2010 | | 11:41 am |
| | Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 | | 7:06 pm |
Writer's Block: Are you incentivized?
Being called "pal" or "mate" by someone I've just met. I'M NOT YOUR FRIEND, ARSEWIPE. That fake bonhomie really gets on my nerves. Current Mood:  rushed | | Friday, April 23rd, 2010 | | 5:17 pm |
Writer's Block: Sunday in the park with ____?
Number Six from the Prisoner (original version). Partly just to ask WTF it was all about, and partly because he'd have no shortage of strong opinions to talk about. Current Mood: busy | | Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 | | 5:13 pm |
Playing With It
I've got my third assessment mark back for my maths course. I got 100% again. I wonder how long I can keep up the perfect score? Current Mood: calm | | Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 | | 5:19 pm |
Writer's Block: Too scary!!
Darkness. Actually, I haven't even thought about that in years, I only just remembered it when reading through other people's answers to the question. These days, I hate light at bedtime so much that the little bit of glass over my bedroom door is covered up with black tape and cardboard to keep out any light from the landing. So in a way, I'm the exact opposite of back then. I still have phobias of heights and having my arms pinned, though. Current Mood: geeky | | Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 | | 5:19 pm |
Writer's Block: Film therapy
The Life of Brian. The nonsense of it amuses me, and there's a cheerful nihilism about "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" at the finale that I find quite comforting. Current Mood: cold | | Sunday, March 21st, 2010 | | 7:51 pm |
In Addition
Hmm, it's been a while since my last update. The main thing to add is that I'm now studying maths. This course started a month or two ago. I've found to my surprise that some of the skills I learned in philosophy (mainly logic) translate quite well to this. Tutorials, though, are very different - there's little discussion (which I miss), instead it's mostly problem-solving practice. Working with numbers at work, and in a lot of my leisure (by way of RPGs) has given me an advantage, at least with the basics: I've scored 100% in both the assignments I've had marked so far. Current Mood:  blank | | Sunday, January 17th, 2010 | | 11:16 am |
Dragging my Carcass
Yesterday the snow and ice had finally thawed (after more than a month) so I managed to get back out for a run. Wow, I was rubbish. I'm going to have to work hard at it to even get back to the level I was at, never mind improve. Maybe I can make that the late New Year's Resolution that I forgot to do. Current Mood: thirsty | | 11:07 am |
| | Thursday, December 31st, 2009 | | 6:38 pm |
My Videogamer Type
Your BrainHex Class is Seeker. Your BrainHex Sub-Class is Seeker-Achiever. You like finding strange and wonderful things or finding familiar things as well as collecting anything you can collect or doing everything you possibly can. Each BrainHex Class also has an Exception, which describes what you dislike about playing games. Your Exceptions are: » No Punishment: You dislike struggling to overcome seemingly impossible challenges, and repeating the same task over and over again. » No Mercy: You rarely if ever care about hurting other players' feelings - mercy is for the weak! Learn more about your classes and exceptions at BrainHex.com. Your scores for each of the classes in this test were as follows: Seeker: 19 Achiever: 14 Survivor: 12 Daredevil: 8 Mastermind: 4 Conqueror: 0 Socialiser: -5 ---------------------------------------- -------------- From here: http://blog.brainhex.com/Part of it is spot-on. I don't have a high tolerance for frustratingly-high difficulty in videogames. In my defence, I was a videogamer in the '80s, so I've played my share of crazy-hard games already. :) The "No Mercy" bit's totally wrong, though; I'm a total carebear in MMOs. The super-low Socialiser score is probably because it doesn't differentiate between grouping-type interaction and social-type interaction. I loved all the stuff in SWG to do with player interaction like commerce and entertainment, but I hate teamwork (i.e. grouping) with a passion. I've come to the conclusion in the times I've been on the forums at MMORPG.com that the distinction is lost on most nearly all MMO players. Current Mood: cold | | Saturday, December 26th, 2009 | | 3:45 pm |
Not Quite Forgotten
(Cross-posted to my gaming blog.) Owing to an extended idea-drought, I've stopped working on my homebrew setting for Labyrinth Lord. I'm going to use the new version of the Forgotten Realms that was released for 4th Edition (though I'm definitely not using the 4e rules – I'm sticking with LL). I mostly like what they've done with FR. It's a big change: there's not only been a “Realms-Shaking Event” justifying the rules changes, but also a hundred-year gap. That's obviously put off (to say the least) a lot of the long-time fans of FR. I'm a long-time fan myself, but while I liked the setting as it was, I was finished with it. I felt that FR was suffocating under the sheer volume of accumulated lore and metaplot, and that was one of the main things that made me decide several years back to part ways with the FR setting; but FR4e has changed so much that most of that old info is obsolete. I suspect that was a specific goal in FR4e's redesign, a sort of “clearing the decks”. There's not going to be any quick return to the setting-clutter either, since FR4e is only getting a single Campaign Guide and Player's Guide and an adventure trilogy, and no more RPG material (though the novels are going to continue). Although I like the setting, I'm not as impressed with the Campaign Guide (FRCG) itself. In a lot of ways it's like a return to the original 1e grey box set, filling in the world in broad strokes with atmospheric writing (some of which is really inspiring). Unfortunely, the level of detailing is highly inconsistent, and a lot of the vagueness in the FRCG looks more like bad editing than artistic intent. A prime example is the off-hand mention that the Harpers were disbanded decades ago, with no further explanation. Um, what? The Harpers were a major part of FR since even before the 1e box set, when the setting appeared in series of articles in the pages of Dragon – surely that event merits some kind of description. The book continually describes locations that aren't on the map, and vice versa (i.e. places on the map get no description). To give the benefit of the doubt, some of this might be a deliberate design choice – DM's get a free hand to place the described adventure sites where they wish, or to take the names of places from the map and fill them out themselves – but there's just too much of that in the book. I can't help but think that the designers have tried to cram too much into too few pages, and the required editing to make it fit has cut bits out haphazardly. Oh, and the index? Useless. Despite the FRCG's shortcomings in presentation, I still like the setting itself. It's got just the right balance of old and new for what I'm looking for. Also, it's luckily a perfect fit for LL in one way: the Spellplague (the “Realms-Shaking Event”) has left behind ruined wastelands and magical mutation, which would make a good reason to use material from Mutant Future, LL's post-apocalyptic (and LL-compatible) sister game. Current Mood: bored |
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