• On Life and Love

    Weekly linkage

    This week’s internet cruising: APW Book Club: Elizabeth Gilbert’s Committed, Round II « A Practical Wedding – Not all choices are empowering. "Because here is the thing: the more we talk about marriage here, the more I worry. I worry that we’re being given the illusion of lots of options, and the reality of really sh*tty options. I worry that the sh*ttiest of options (over-work, under-appreciation, enormous sacrifice) are being sold to us under the guise of 'independent womanhood,' instead of under the guise of 'life is hard sometimes, and you can make it through, but you should fight for things to be easier.' I worry when I hear about…

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    Uplink: Soothing Routine, or Monotonous Punch in the Face?

    I picked up Steam’s Indie Future Pack this weekend–great buy, by the by–which includes Uplink, a game about hacking. And more hacking. …And getting caught. The premise and mechanics are pretty simple: you’re an agent of Uplink with a handle, a plaintext password, and a bank account. You connect to the web through your gateway (think: managed, dedicated server), and hack companies and government databases to earn money, increased rating through Uplink, and status amongst your fellow hackers. There’s also some sort of “hack the planet” or “save the cheerleader” plot in there, but we’ll get to that. Or not, actually. I played this game a few years ago and…

  • On Life and Love

    Weekly linkage

    This week’s internet cruising, in which I was evidently trying to make up for lost time. A Vegan No More | Voracious – This woman went through a struggle to find her health as a vegan… and found that she needed to go back to eating meat. Her journey is well-documented and heart-breaking, although I found her dogmatism rather creepy. She believed very strongly in veganism, and now believes very strongly in omnivorism. Vegan Defector Talks Back | Voracious – Part 2 of the no-longer vegan story. To Teach Your Kids Money Management, Start Your Own Bank – A cute take on teaching kids how to save. I'm still divided…

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    D & D: Well, That Was a Slaughter

    The level 1 to 30 D & D 4e campaign Greg and I started last week has proved… difficult. Our intrepid adventurers handily took on the set of Fell Taints (tee hee) they first set out for, despite the whirlwinds and strangely difficult terrain in the big room. On the second excursion, though, the four grumpy adventurers found themselves up against their most difficult encounter: a young black dragon. …In a small room. …With a pit in the middle. Major advantage to the dragon’s breath and fear weapons. They fought valiantly, but ended up as tasty dragon snacks. Turns out they were mere appetizers for the main course. The dragon…