Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Thanks Amazon!

So Amazon S3 crapped out earlier today. Hosed all sorts of things. Looks like the issues are persisting.

I can't help but laugh a little. So many people talk up the benefits of "the cloud". Oh sure, there are many benefits, but as the Amazon outage shows, it's kind of a house of cards as well...

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Game over, man!

Rest in peace, Bill Paxton.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Shaking my head

My table-top gaming group lost a player today.

When we're not having our monthly sit-down session at someone's place, I try to fill the gaps with an email session. It helps me get tiresome exposition out of the way while practicing my creative writing skills. Some of our email sessions are quite entertaining reading. One day I hope to edit them into a proper story.

I'm not sure how I'll handle the current one.

When I look back at what happened, I can't say I'm sure what went wrong. It was an argument, but I'm still fuzzy on how it got out of control so quickly. It was role-playing. One player has a gruff sort who is the leader. Another is playing an opposite gender character from a very different culture. The dispute started over something fairly small. The leader character was insisting on a promised (indeed, a vow) of silence over a plot twist. Everyone agreed. The outlier player character seemed to have agreed, but the player for the leader character pressed for a specific promise. The player for the outlier character got offended. There were some tense exchanges, seeming to be in-character, then everything sort of settled down.

In all honesty, it wasn't all that unusual of an exchange. In role-playing games, often players get a little "lost" in their characters. Terse and tense exchanges happen. Sometimes there's some seriously hard feelings. I've been on both ends of those kinds of exchanges and this particular situation didn't even seem to merit honorable mention when compared to those.

Clearly I mis-judged.

The player for the outlier character was still quite offended. Part of it was the player's interpretation of the character's view. Part of it was seeming to be a very personal offense taken from what the other player said. I've re-read everything multiple times and I honestly can't see the cause for complaint. But I'm not the one who is offended.

There was another exchange over the long weekend. It concluded today.

And I lost a player.

I'm not sure I could have done anything to fix this. I'm honestly not sure I wanted to. Now I have a very, very small gaming group and I'm wondering if it's got a sustainable future.

Perfect start to a fucking Tuesday.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Thanks...?

Said to me today: "So I have you to thank for Disco Vampire Family."

I can, in all honesty, say:
  • I never expected to be told that. Ever.
  • I never really expected to see the words "Disco", "Vampire", and "Family" in any kind of sequential order. Ever. In retrospect, that was a bit silly of me.

Monday, February 13, 2017

Overdue Commentary

To celebrate the growler of tasty beer in my 'fridge, I feel an urge to post to my neglected blog!

REJOICE!

Why am I drinking on a Monday night? Well besides the obvious answer of "why not?" there's always the celebration that we're about a month-and-a-half into the Trumpocalypse and the nukes haven't sailed just yet. I'm cautiously-optimistic that we might make it through March before all hell breaks loose.

It's a game among people I know: to start the day asking "What godawfully fucked-up and stupid thing has Trump and his Legion of Evil done today?"

I try not to speculate. It just irritates me. I'm also afraid word might get back to Der Gropenfuhrer and he'll get inspired.

In other news, I'm working on a new slew of fantasy and sci-fi novels grabbed from Amazon. I'm currently working my way through "The Crimson Queen" by Alec Hutson. It had a slow start, but I have to say I'm quite enjoying it now. I'm about halfway through and things are getting horribly fucked up in a delightful way. I'm not entirely-clear I know what's going on and that's just fine with me.

Thanks to a friend's generosity, I'm able to see season two of "The Expanse" (currently airing on SyFy). It's surpassing my expectations and making me quite giddy. The introduction of Bobbie Draper is all I'd hoped for. Oh glory day! Please Tweety McTangerine! Don't nuke us before season two ends!

At the recommendation of a friend, I've started to make modifications to my wardrobe. I'm now getting tailored shirts made. Shirts with buttons! That should really be ironed!

It's a far cry from my shitty t-shirts and frayed hoodies. I'm still sticking with my jeans for the time being, but I may pony up for some chinos at some point and maybe even (gasp!) another suit.

Crazy times.

Speaking of crazy times, it's been raining like Biblical endtimes in parts of California this year. I feel for folks near Oroville Dam. That shit is just nuts. I can't believe how fast we went from drought to floods.

Wait. Trumpy-poo is prez. Yes. Yes I can believe that. I can believe that and more.