Category: Uncategorized

Something I got for the Holidays

I asked my family for a Flip Mino for the Holidays not quite knowing what I wanted to do with it.  The idea of having a video recorder available at any time though was appealing.  It’s been two months now though and I’ve yet to use the thing.  It isn’t as if I’m intimidated by the thing it is easier to use than a point and shoot camera.  There is only a big record button on the back that also stops it.  Simple.  I’ve just not thought about recording anything.  I spent last weekend in Mendocino, a perfect spot for filming little bits of my life, but forgot to throw the thing into my pocket.  I’ve also thought of carrying in my car to record random things I see around me.  I don’t know how useful this is unless I come across a case of police misconduct or a crime in action.  So far though I’ve been lucky enough to not experience these things.

So I’ll just throw out the question:  If you had a compact recording device what would you record with it?  How would you use it effectively?

Long Time No Post, Election Thoughts

I’m  still alive, it just so happened that I was very busy running the campaign of Mark Johannessen, who was running for mayor of West Sacramento, we lost.  When I took the job I really had no idea what all was involved with running a ground campaign.  Working on one as a volunteer does little to prepare you for all the stuff that goes on in one of these things.  I’d have been even more overwhelmed if the campaign hadn’t of had the services of a very good consulting firm (from what I hear, what do I know about political consulting?).

So, that explains my long absence, While I was busy trying to get my candidate elected the rest of the nation got Barack Hussien Obama elected!  I’m optimistic that perhaps some positive changes will occur in the United States, though expectations for our President-Elect are through the roof, and the crises he’ll be facing on day one are enough to bury the greatest of Presidents.  If I had a wish list of the things I’d like to see happen in the next four years it’d look like this:

  1. End the War on Terror, roll back all the laws passed because of it that have infringed on civil liberties
  2. End the War of Drugs and the militarization of our peace keeping forces (the police/firefighters/EMTs)
  3. Insure the Internet remains free and unregulated
  4. Re-examine the Fairness Doctrine and the consolidation of media, or free the airwaves!
  5. Stop growing the military-industrial complex
  6. Start providing policy that helps the majority of Americans as opposed to the privileged few
  7. Look into re-regulating of banks and credit markets,  a balance between the complete unregulation of the early ’20s and contemporary times and the over regulation of the late ’70’s

The only one of these I see happening soon is a scale back of the War on Terror, as to an end of it… Doubtful.  So, as a Democratic Progressive where do I go from here and what do I put my time and money into?  I’m thinking about applying for the grand jury here in Yolo County and trying to use it as it was originally intended:  protecting citizens from the government and trying to take it away from prosecuters and judges who see it merely as a rubber stamp for their actions… Speaking of activism, the greatest disappoint for me was the passing of Proposition 8 (and similiar bills in other states) and the loss of civil libertiess to homosexuals.  This bill is bigotry, dress it up however you like, and homosexuals and progressives are going to sit down as rights are denied to them.  I’m sick of hearing about tradition as well.  “Tradition” generally means backwards, patriarchal, and based on nothing more than silly old stories.  As a nation we’ve overcome traditional ownership (slavery), traditional suffrage (male property owners), traditional government (monarchy, oligarchy), and I look forward to overcoming traditional marraige.

It’ll be interesting to see where we go from here, as to moving away if things don’t work out just how I’d like, where would I (or you) go?  I’m an American, this is where I live, this is where my forefathers lived, It’s my duty to them and my progeny to make here a better place.

Next post won’t be so heavy, promise!

Analog Gaming – Warhammer and Warcraft

Dark Eld Dreadlord

If you read this blog you already know I’m a gamer. I play video games, I review video games, I even write up news items about video games (saunter on over to Gamestooge and take a look). What you probably don’t know is that I enjoy more than video games, I enjoy games, period. You don’t hear much about other types of games though. When it comes to the mainstream media, they only have enough time to mis-cover and misrepresent the most ostentatious and conspicuous form of gaming, video games. This means that while even if you’ve never played a video game before you know who Mario is or what Grand Theft Auto games are about. You’ve probably never heard of Warhammer, Ticket to Ride, or GURP before, though these games and others like them have had a tremendous amount of influence on their younger sibling, the video game.

So, in an effort to educate as well as entertain I’m introducing, what I’m sure will become a sporadically updated series, Analog Gaming. In AG I’ll showcase various board, card, and table-top games (some you’ll know and others you won’t) highlighting how you play the game, its history, how long it takes, game mechanics, and then diving in to how it and variations on it have influenced more popular electronic games.

I don’t know if it’ll be successful but it sounds like fun abd it’s what I know.Grimgor Ironhide

First up, Warhammer By Games Workhops. Name sounds familiar doesn’t it? It should, it’s the primary influence for Blizzard’s popular, record shattering, series WarCraft. Warhammer is what is called in the industry a table-top fantasy war game. The basic idea is to build a customizable army using the books and rules that Games Workshop provides to write up a fantasy army, then you purchase, assemble, and paint small metal (or plastic) models, these models represent the forces of your Army. After you’ve designed and constructed your own army the next step is to wage war with it. Luckily, there are places to play all around the United States (and across the globe) though it is more fun to play against friends.  Once you have an opponent you set up your playing area (a dining table works great, for starters). You set up your armies and begin moving them around the board, each unit has it’s own characteristics and moves (remember those books I mentioned, all this information is found in them). You can’t win a war without fighting and the heart and soul of Warhammer is the rule-set that controls how units within an army interact with other friendly and unfriendly units.  These encounters are resolved by look at the two fighting units stats and then rolling across dice to see the outcome and comparing the dice to some charts to see who lives and who dies…

I know this sounds boring, and it can be, at times. Referring to books, army list sheets, and quick-reference charts doesn’t sound fun. But this is only a small part of the game and the charts are easily memorized, Games Workshop has tried very hard to make the rules as non-intrusive as possible. Leaving most of your time to beating the hell out of your friend, which is a great deal of fun. The actual game is only 1/3 of the Warhammer experience, the other 2/3 is designing and customizing your army, and then putting it together and painting it. It’s incredibly rewarding to see models you’ve put together and painted spread across a table in the middle of a game your winning.

Warcraft 2“Blah, Blah, Blah” you’re saying, “What does all this have to do with Blizzard and Warcraft?” I’m getting there just one more thing before we get to the good parts! If you are a video gamer what I described should sound really familair to you, because I’m describing the analog non-digital version of a Real-Time Strategy Game (RTS). RTSs were the direct offspring of turn-based strategy games, which were the offspring of table-top war games. The historic base war games are very complicated and very long, and their descendants on computers haven’t changed much… In 1983 Games Workshop released Warhammer moving the game into a fantasy setting and cutting out a bunch of complications, to make the game more fun, faster, and less of a headache.  In the early and mid 90’s Games Workshop was approached by a small American development team called Blizzard, the folks at Blizzard were fans of GW’s products and they wanted to make a game based on the Warhammer setting… Negotiations went back and forth and Blizzard began eal development. Then GW backed out. Blizzard though still wanted to make the game, so they tweaked it and changed it a little and released it as Warcraft: Orcs and Humans…  The rest is history, Warcraft was the first successful RTS game (alongside Command and Conquer).  If you look through early Warcraft material and that in Warhammer books you’ll see several similarities: art direction, magic spells, griffin riders, wolf riders, tech gnomes and goblins, all are in Warhammer and the models of these figures look a lot like those found in the Warcraft games.

As the Warcraft brand matured, especially with the WCIII and World of Warcraft, Blizzard has moved away from the Warhammer roots, they’ve injected a great deal of humor, and cartoonish joy into the WC which is absent from the bleak setting of Warhammer.

If you’re interested in playing Warhammer the best place to start is with the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set, which includes two small armies, and everything you and someone you know to start playing with them (they are unassembled and unpainted, part of the game is doing that too).

Resurrection…

isn’t just for Jesus! Since my internship at the Capitol started I haven’t been able to give this site the attention it deserves. While I was working at Borders I had plenty of time as I was never scheduled for more than 36 hours a week, often less than that. At the Chief Clerk’s Office I work 9am to 5pm every weekday, knock off an hour for travel there and back… Well, I don’t have as much downtime as I used to especially with a girlfriend I want to keep and an active social life (this means whatever you think it means).

I don’t want to make excuses, but I do want to explain and put some things into perspective… I love writing and at some point I hope to make a go at getting some of it published. I don’t know yet if this site is going to help. I started DMS in the hopes that having a forum would help and encourage me to write regularly and it did, when I had more free time. Right now my focus is on doing good at this internship and getting a good job at of it, starting a career…. Yes, in politics. You might think that there’s no point in trying but I’m not that cynical, I think a difference can still be made in this world by anyone, up to and including me!  Once I have that and things settle somewhat, then I can look around and see what needs getting done in my life and doing it.

So what am I to do with DMS (and half a dozen other projects) in the mean time? Mostly slow down. I will be posting here but not everyday, probably not every other day. I’m going to start small and commit to updating twice a week. I can’t say which two days yet, but probably Monday and Saturday or Sunday and Wednesday. I promise that these posts wont be just filler but will content actual content, most of which I hope you’ll enjoy reading. If you find that you absolutely have to read something written by me point your browser to Gamestooge, I’m posting there regularly now, chances are very good you’ll find several posts there by me.

First up here is something I’ve decide to call “Beating the Backlog”, where I show you all the books, magazines, articles, and games I’ve got lined up for “processing” and then how quickly I can get through them. This  is definitely more than just a list of what I’m reading and playing though. I’ll be writing on the thoughts, ideas, and criticism these things raise, This should be really interesting, to give you a taste of it I’m finishing up The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt , just starting Dragon Quest VIII and the Prince of the Marshes and am in the middle of Cryptonomicon, also you’ll see the scraps and bits that become poems ans short stories, or (in most cases) never go anywhere.

In other news my Xbox 360 broke. Microsoft though has been nice enough to fix it for free and pay for the shipping both ways (I suspect this is because they actually broke it before I ever bought the thing).

See you next time!

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