Old Man

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread Freshly washed car.

Re: The cranky thread Well, I got my first ever speeding ticket today. Ruined a perfect record. Bah.

Re: A Game Of Questions What's the best happy meal toy you've ever gotten?

Re: The cranky thread I've had plantar fasciitis now for... five years? But the cures are either a boot or surgery, neither of which I have time for.

Re: Musings on Random Musings Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Re: What's *your* superpower? Time Mismanagement: 6d6 HKA, Damage Shield, Persistent, Always On, Only vs. Time Involuntary Therapist: 12d6 Mind Control, Damage Shield, Persistent, Always On, Only to cause target to b*tch and moan and complain and vent and tell me all kinds of things I'd rather not have known about them Combat Driving 16-. I must have this because I'm still alive. Mechanic 14-. This is bought in such a way that I can usually jury-rig a fix for most broken things, but none of my fixes last longer than a week. That latter restriction also somehow applies to people who I pay to fix things for me. Oh, and LS: Partial Immunity to Anesthetics. Oral surgery is such a treat with this.

Re: "Neat" Pictures Ninjas don't wear ski masks. Also,

Re: A Game Of Questions Because like everyone else here in the asylum, you're nutty? Crazy? Loony? Cuckoo?

Re: A Game Of Questions What do you mean, 'again'?

Re: A Thread for Random Musings I don't like SUVs, but I might make an exception for this one.

Re: How to convince a hero group that they should be registered and work for governme What? For every S.H.I.E.L.D. there are thirty rogue CIA agents, a dozen government experiments gone wrong, and seven shadow government conspiracies. Each with their own brigade of supernatural enemies and black-clad gun-toting soldiers. That's before we even get to things like mutant suppression and mandatory registration. Even in the Hero universe UNTIL is a running joke.

Re: A Game Of Questions Lennon was into sheep? Isn't that a Scottish thing?

Re: Ctrl+V Interaction is already a bottleneck. It will get much worse as graphics, environment, and history experience their expected breakthroughs. To me, the implication is clear—the principles of information software and context-sensitive information graphics will become critical as technology improves. The future will be context-sensitive. The future will not be interactive. Are we preparing for this future? I look around, and see a generation of bright, inventive designers wasting their lives shoehorning obsolete interaction models onto crippled, impotent platforms. I see a generation of engineers wasting their lives mastering the carelessly-designed nuances of these dead-end platforms, and carelessly adding more. I see a generation of users wasting their lives pointing, clicking, dragging, typing, as gigahertz processors spin idly and gigabyte memories remember nothing.

Re: The cranky thread

Re: How to convince a hero group that they should be registered and work for governme You could have the government swoop in and save their bacon at a critical juncture. That might get them to sign on temporarily to return the favor. I kind of like this idea. If your players are anything like mine, they would never trust a government organization in game. So you play the government as an entirely benevolent, if secretive, entity, and watch the players thrash around trying not to drown while they ignore the rope that is obviously being thrown to them. When was the last time you saw the government portrayed as a good guy?

Re: The cranky thread Ooh! Ow! *wince*

Re: A Game Of Questions Is that a problem?

Re: The cranky thread This is in the cranky thread because why?

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. "Maybe you got stung by a jellyfish while you were sleeping."

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. I kind of figured children wouldn't have had time to develop an adult case of the stupids. But that also means they aren't exactly limited by reality. Which reminds me, I was reading a Fake Dr. Seuss book about the North and South Pole to the newer kid this morning: "Daddy, can we go there?" "Where? The North Pole?" "Yeah." "Sure, maybe. When you're a little bigger." "But I don't know where that is." "I'm sure we can find it on a map." "Is it behind the toy store?" "I'm afraid it's a lot further away than that." "Oh. We'd better take a snack."

Re: A Game Of Questions Herpes?

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. I think my answer was "Uh, by the ocean?" I was prepared for the ask-lots-of-questions phase, but I have to admit I was kind of expecting the questions to make sense.

Re: The cranky thread Yeah, to me it seems like the asthma, apnea, and whatever else are all kind of feeding each other such that it's preventing any of it from getting better. There has to be some way to break the cycle, though it might take something relatively drastic at this point.

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. "Daddy, where does the beach live?"

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson, last book of the Mistborn trilogy. Vin and Elend attempt to figure out the lost secrets of their dying world in time to save it from an omniscient god bent on the destruction of everything. I am going to have to heartily recommend this series. The development of the setting and magic system, and the mysteries they create, are so thorough that they take center stage even in a series with really good character development. I initially thought that the second and third books of this trilogy were kind of tacked on to the first book, which seemed to be standalone, but the way this last book ties into the previous books, I no longer think that's the case. I can't actually think of anything that is wrong with this series--the pacing keeps the plot moving at a pretty brisk pace without being rushed, there aren't any plot holes or deus ex machinas or ridiculous character actions, the numerous riddles aren't too easy for the reader to solve ahead of time. The whole trilogy is just really solid.