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Won over by Pratchett
A few months ago, I was cajoled into reading [tag]Soul Music[/tag], by [tag]Terry Pratchett[/tag]. Couldn’t stand it. I got at least half way through, and found it to be boring and the humor contrived. A couple of weeks ago, though, I picked up [tag]Going Postal[/tag], and proceeded to laugh my way through 400 pages of wonderful stuff. I immediately read [tag]Monstrous Regiment[/tag] (WO’s only other Pratchett book here), and although I chuckled less, I appreciated the increased sense of suspense as much as I appreciated Going Postal‘s humor. If WO has more Pratchett books here, I’d be tearing through ’em. As it is, I’ve started Palahniuk’s Survivor, which proves, as…
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Games Torment me
This summer has been an enlightening one for me in terms of my career as a gamer. (1337 gamer that I am.) For this summer, I started playing Planescape – Torment. Now I have trouble playing just about any other game. I blame it on WO’s quasi-experiment to determine what kind of gamer I am. [tag]Wizardry 8[/tag], which I’d been playing since last fall (dear god, that’s a long game!), seemed boring and annoying after Torment. Turn-based combat doesn’t appeal to me, and never has, although I endured that annoyance for the sake of the character development (and decent plot) of Wizardry 8. [tag]Diablo II[/tag]… well, honestly. WO and I…
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On podcasts
Ah, podcasts. These things have saved my sanity throughout the summer. Some of these are worthy of linkage and sharing. Not all–luckily, since I listen to entirely too many–but some. First, the [tag]Performance Poetry[/tag] podcast I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Amazing stuff. Another favorite of mine is Next Big Hit. The announcer kills me and the music played probably won’t be the next big hit. That doesn’t make it bad, though, really. It tends to be pop [tag]music[/tag] (and there’s plenty of that new rock stuff I can’t stand), but has recently increased the number of R & B and rap artists played. A fun trick is to…
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A software pet peeve
Why is there still [tag]software[/tag] that doesn’t save the user’s settings until the application closes? Why does software bother to have a “Save” button in their Customization dialog if the damn thing doesn’t actually save the settings until the program closes? I’ve worked on a (real-life) project where the software did that, and I’m currently playing chess in a program called [tag]Pawn 2[/tag] that does the same damn thing. It doesn’t help that I have to forceably close Pawn 2 after I hibernate or if my screensaver cuts on, so my settings are almost never saved. (It’s got some kind of video bug.) This ain’t the 80s, and I/O just…
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Racism: how much of a bitch should I be?
I’m never sure how vicious to be when I encounter racism and have the ability to put a stop to it. For instance, last night, during a game at my apartment, Tookie suggested someone break a bottle and use it as a weapon. The excited response from Gimpy Phil was, “Nigger knife!” Um, what? This shit ain’t happening in my damn house. The moment passed just quickly enough that I wasn’t sure I should go back and harp on it. I was on edge for the rest of the evening, though, ready to jump in and tell some folks to take that shit elsewhere if they said anything else like…