George Lucas talks about the Upcoming Star Wars TV Show. Apparently it will be set in the time after Revenge of the Sith and before Star Wars.
Also check out the Serenity Trailer. Firefly on the Big Screen!
Oh and I finished Radiation Treatment yesterday, so all of that is FINALLY done!
The Tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo
by Richard Aronson
In the early seventies, Ed Whitchurch ran "his game", and one of the participants was Eric Sorenson. Eric plays something like a computer. When he games, he methodically considers each possibility before choosing his preferred option. If given time, he will invariably pick the optimal solution. It has been known to take weeks. He is otherwise, in all respects, a superior gamer.
Eric was playing a Neutral Paladin in Ed's game. He was on some lord's lands when the following exchange occurred:
ED: You see a well groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you see a gazebo.
ERIC: A gazebo? What color is it?
ED: [pause] It's white, Eric.
ERIC: How far away is it?
ED: About 50 yards.
ERIC: How big is it?
ED: [pause] It's about 30 ft across, 15 ft high, with a pointed top.
ERIC: I use my sword to detect good on it.
ED: It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo.
ERIC: [pause] I call out to it.
ED: It won't answer. It's a gazebo.
ERIC: [pause] I sheathe my sword and draw my bow and arrows. Does it respond in any way?
ED: No, Eric, it's a gazebo!
ERIC: I shoot it with my bow. [roll to hit] What happened?
ED: There is now a gazebo with an arrow sticking out of it.
ERIC: [pause] Wasn't it wounded?
ED: OF COURSE NOT, ERIC! IT'S A GAZEBO!
ERIC: [whimper] But that was a +3 arrow!
ED: It's a gazebo, Eric, a GAZEBO! If you really want to try to destroy it, you could try to chop it with an axe, I suppose, or you could try to burn it, but I don't know why anybody would even try. It's a @#$%!! gazebo!
ERIC: [long pause. He has no axe or fire spells.] I run away.
ED: [thoroughly frustrated] It's too late. You've awakened the gazebo. It catches you and eats you.
ERIC: [reaching for his dice] Maybe I'll roll up a fire-using mage so I can avenge my Paladin.
You may or may not know, depending on how much you pay attention to the world of online games, that people routinely pay REAL money in exchange for virtual in-game money in games like World of Warcraft and Everquest. I personally know people who have paid anywhere from $35 to $200 for in-game money. These transactions are done between players of the game. I paypal you some money and then you meet me in-game and give me the game money. I'm sure you don't need my help in seeing the potential problems here. Now Sony Online Entertainment, the owners of Everquest, have decided that they will facilitate these transactions. It sounds like a good idea, but here's the problem I see. Currently, all the money and items that get traded come from "in" the game. If you go buy some gold from someone, that person had to acquire it by playing the game. Sony, however, doesn't have to. They develop the game. They can make as much virtual gold as they want. I'm not saying they shouldn't do it. I just think it sets an interesting precedent. Ultima Online did this same thing when it was in its death throes, and from what have heard Everquest and Everquest 2 are headed that same way. Truthfully, I'm surprised it took this long.
I guess I should do a new entry. It's been almost a week now. The radiation treatment continues. A week from today will be my last day!
I'll be glad. Right now I feel like I'm chained to the clinic here in Dallas. My throat is feeling better. At least I can eat somewhat normal now.
I've mostly been working on the house. Rearranging since Ninsi and Phlome are no longer here. I'm nearly done moving everything back in the office and cleaing out the storeroom. That just leaves the game room, living room, kitchen, and hall bath that something needs to be done too. Sheesh...
One of the side effects of the Radiation treatment is that it irritates your throat. I hadn't had any problems with my throat until last Saturday. My throat hurt so bad I coudl barely eat. I thought it would come on slowly, but I guess not. Friday no pain, Saturday excrutiating. On Monday, when I went in for treatment, I asked to see the Doctor. Before I saw the Doctor, I talked to a nurse. She gave me 2 prescriptions that I can garlge with to reduce the pain. The conversation went something like this:
Nurse: "If you use these mouthwashes you should be able to eat enough to maintain your nutrition."
Me: "What should I eat?"
Nurse: "Any soft foods you can manage."
Me: "It doesn't seem to matter, drinking water hurts."
Nurse: " Well have you tried Smoothie King? They have meal replacement shakes."
Me: "Are you saying I should go on a liquid diet?"
Nurse: "Yes, Didn't they tell you that when you started treament?"
Well no they didn't but I guess it doens't really matter. So for at least the next few weeks, I'm the Smoothie King.
So in Sau Paulo Brazil they have so much traffic that do get anything delivered in a resonalble amount of time you have to employ a Motoboy. Crazy guys who zip though (and over) the traffic jams on motorcyles. It's very dangerous, it is estimated that 2 motoboys die everyday. Back in the day, I would have called this very cyberpunk, but that now means "computer hacker" instead of "weirdly futuristic." Gibson has bike messengers in Virtual Light that are the Motoboys, as are Neal Stephenson's Skateboarders in Snow Crash.
To understand that title I have to tell you about my fishtank. I got a fishtank back in December. I have live plants in the tank. Whenever, you add live plant to your tank you get snails as a kind of bonus. At first I didn't mind cause they ate the algae, but they qucikly got out of control. They were eating the plants as well. They all seemed to congregae in one part of the tank so I took to scooping them out whenever I could. That was a losing battle. I gave up and got a Clown Loach. A Clown Loach eats snails. They also look pretty cool. Well the Loach quickly took care of all the snails. Then about three weeks ago, I couldn't find him anywhere in the tank. Sometimes, fish will "disappear" from the tank. This is because they die and then get quickly eaten by the bottom feeders. I figured this is what happened to the loach. Though I was a little concerend because loaches are very hard to kill. Earlier this week I noticed that the snails were starting to come back. Not having a loach stalking them made them more bold I guess. Lo and behold this morning I see the Loach! Happily eating all the new snails. I think he's sneaky and hid so the snails would come back. I have no idea where he was hiding though.
Well Phlome and Ninsi finally got moved into to thier new house yesterday. They were planning on moving on Saturday, but that did go as planned. I'll leave that Story for Phlome as well. Now I need to find some free time and rearrange the house. Step One is new carpet in all the bedrooms. Which will hopefully get done early next week.
As I was planing on helping move them this weekend, when that fell through I didn't have many plans. I did go see Sin City Friday night with the crew. It's a very cool very True adapatation of the comic. Which is really it's only problem. I saw the first story and thought WOW! This is cool! By the time the third story wrapped up I thought to myself "Oh look someone else died messily." It's very very violent. Moreso than any of the Tarentino films, though it is slightly "comic-bookish."
I also went out to a Bar on Saturday to Celebrate a friend of a friends Birthday. One my friends there deicded she needed to give out "treats." I ended up with
1 condom
1 scented body lotion
2 strings of beads
2 packages of jelly beans
1 really old piece of easter candy that could have been used as a bullet
1 pair of of ladies underwear imprinted ith the words "Format my Hardrive."
1 Pimp Hat (I had to give that back, it itched anyway.)
