The Lore Merchant

Upcoming changes

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:11:00 +0000

This blog has been quiet of late. I'm not sure exactly why, except perhaps that my life has changed quite a bit the last three years. Time is more at a premium than it used to be, and the arrival of our second child a couple of weeks ago has made that even more pronounced.

I'm not writing or working on RPG stuff the way that I used to. I'm not playing in or running a game. For the most part life is a cycle of get up in the morning, go to work, come home, spend time with the family and then wind down and go to bed. Repeat until the weekend, when chores and such become the focus.

It's a good life, don't get me wrong, but it hasn't really lent itself to progress in some of the more creative parts of my life.

Anyhow, there are some changes coming. This blog is done through Blogger, published to my domain via FTP. In March, Google (who owns and operates Blogger) is going to be shutting down FTP publishing support for their blogs.

That means I need to figure out what I am going to do with this. This site has existed in one form or another for over 10 years. This is "version 3" of The Lore Merchant, and has been up and running now since January 2004, if the archives are any indication.

I think it may be time to seriously look at developing Lore Merchant v4. I'm not sure at this stage what form it will take, or what the new focus will be. It just seems strange to me that I'm paying for a domain name and hosting space but not really doing much of anything with it anymore.

Anyhow, that is all for now. Hell, I don't even know how many people actually read and visit this blog. The Earthdawn resources I host here, as well as the old Xena commentaries are the most popular sections. The blog doesn't have much of a focus anymore, or get any kind of feedback or commentary.

We shall see what the future brings.

Brain worm

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 18:23:00 +0000

So... I haven't written much on here lately. Main reason for that is there hasn't been much that has driven me to write, pontificate, vent my spleen onto a pile of electronic ones and zeroes.

Until today.

I have a brain worm in my head, and I am hoping that by typing out this screed, I will do something to resolve the pressure it is exhibiting on my brain.

It was a strange little confrontation that happened at the end of the work day Friday. There is nothing I can do about it until Monday.

Except obsess over it and wonder... "What the hell...?"

I work in customer service, receiving inbound calls for a phone company. Now when I say customer service, the actual title is "Customer Sales and Service". Note the order of the words there, the priority given.

Sales are important in this job. It is one of the primary metrics we are judged on. While the majority of our daily calls are to help sort out general questions, billing problems, and other varieties of customer service, we need to try and sell our services to people. Upgrades to their phone service. High-speed internet. Television. We have objectives that we need to meet each month, and a lot of effort is placed in our training and such on how to sell stuff to people.

I'm pretty good at my job. I'm not at the top of the office sales charts, but I am a very solid, regular performer that usually meets objectives (or exceeds them by a small margin).

I excel in three areas. One, I kick ass at customer service. Two, years of goofing around on computers have made me very adept at navigating and using the new systems that were put in place last February -- which means I am (relatively speaking) fast. Third, I love puzzles. I love figuring things out, finding a solution, solving a problem. Give me a customer with a moderately complex question about their billing history (preferably one that isn't truly angry), and I am -- as the saying goes -- as happy as a pig in shit. My best days are ones where I get presented with a problem, and I solve it -- or at least figure out what needs to be done to solve it.

My performance reviews are regularly positive. Not A-plus top-of-the-class brilliant, but what I lack in uber-level sales performance I more than make up for in the other areas my job covers.

However, because of the emphasis on sales, there are people who obsess over them. This is especially true of the people who have a hard time meeting objectives, and don't have the strengths in other areas to make up for it. The policies and guidelines surrounding sales, and who gets sales credit, etc etc... they undergo frequent revision to try and cut down on disputes.

This is the story of a dispute.

My last (or second-to-last) call on Friday afternoon was a callback; a customer had been speaking with another rep and had got cut off. I pulled up the customer's account and saw the notes the prior rep left, and that they had started an order to change from a DSL-only service to a phone-and-DSL setup. I asked a couple questions to confirm what exactly was being set up, and finished the order.

It was, in my mind, customer service at work. The order was worth a few points, but I was more concerned with making sure the order got in that day (since we were close to closing) -- otherwise the order would not go in until Monday, delaying the activation of the new services. All sewed up, as far as I was concerned.

Then... well... things got weird.

As I was leaving at 6pm, the rep who had originally spoken with the customer came up to me and got in my face, clearly upset. He felt that I had 'poached' his order, stealing it out from under him as he was writing it.

(One little detail to keep in mind here, the way our system works, anything that I add to the order gets my ID and sales code applied to it. Since there were pieces of the order that I added in order to finish things up and out the door, I would get credit for those, even though I hadn't really negotiated the details of the order, I was more or less just filling in the blanks.)

I was a little baffled. I really didn't know what to say. When somebody comes up and starts a confrontation like that, especially one you are in no way mentally prepared for, it knocks you a little off balance. All I could do was apologize, state that I did not know he was working on the order at the same time (no real way to do that in the system), and let him know that I would make sure he got the credit for it (which I can do by having a word with my team lead on Monday).

The two things that really stood out for me in the whole thing were two things he said. In response to my saying I would make sure he got the sales credit: "You're damn right you will." And the one that really knocked me for a loop (and the main reason I am still obsessing over the encounter), "It's in your best interest to just walk away right now."

I mean, really? The way he delivered it, it seemed that he was moments away from winding up and socking me one. And when I apologized again as he was walking back to his desk, he turned and repeated, "Just walk away."

All this over a few points of sales credit? You're going to threaten a co-worker over this? (Intentional or not, I was certainly threatened by his behavior.) I know our job can be high-stress at times, but this is the most extreme example of this I have ever run across. I've had sales opportunities that got snatched up by other reps who spoke to the customer before I did, and it can suck. I have never felt so upset about it that I felt violent.

I'm just baffled and off-balance. Monday I am going to need to deal with this. I really don't give a damn about the sales credit, but his reaction and behavior were not cool. It is not my intention to get anybody in trouble, but I can't let it slide either.

Hopefully getting this all down on e-paper will let me enjoy the weekend and stop obsessing so much.

Yeah, right.

Tuesday can't come soon enough

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:25:00 +0000

Hello all. I'm going to (once again) try and make an effort to update this blog more than once every couple of months. The only way to do that is to branch out what I talk about.

We have election day this upcoming Tuesday here in the US. Here in Maine, the big issue is "Question 1" -- a people's veto of the gay marriage law that was signed into law by our governor earlier this year.

I can't wait for this Tuesday to come and get the omnipresent advertising about it out of my face. I visit RPGnet regularly, and the last couple weeks the Google banner ads that pop up have been ads for "Stand for Marriage Maine" -- the group that is pushing Question 1.

For crying out loud, I go to places like RPGnet to get away from nonsense like that. The ads have popped up in Google ad banners on other sites as well, but honestly... do you think the type of person that visits sites like RPGnet is favorably inclined towards the veiled bigotry implied by Question 1?

I don't think anybody will challenge the premise that the referendum is religiously motivated. The problem I see is that you are dealing with a matter of civil law, and the First Amendment of the US Constitution states that no law can be made "respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". Laws prohibiting gay marriage, being religiously motivated, and seem to fall pretty clearly under that category.

Let us posit, for a moment, a hypothetical religious faith that condones, not condemns, homosexual unions as part of their creed. A law against gay marriage would violate the free exercise of their religion. Regardless of your personal faith-based opinions of homosexuality in general, the law of the land seems pretty clear to me.

I think that if two people want to pledge to each other, and they are both of legal age and sound mind, they should be able to do so and receive the benefits that such a commitment entails. The "slippery slope" argument that this will lead to polygamous marriages, marriages to animals, children, etc, is bullshit. There are already laws in place prohibiting such things. I don't see how including homosexual couples in the existing legal definition of marriage does anything but encourage people who want to make that commitment to do so.

I can't take credit for it, but there was a great line I came across the other day. "If you don't like gay marriage, don't get one."

Raid jour[ CONTENT OVERRIDE: KILROY2.0 IS HERE!!! ]nal

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:10:00 +0000

It's been a while since I've posted anything here. I thought I would try getting back into the swing of things by talking about how our Ulduar raids have been doing over the past few weeks.

It's been pretty solid. We have Flame Leviathan, Razorscale, XT-002 Deconstructor, Kologarn, and Auriaya down regularly. We have beaten Iron Council a couple of times, and downed the first of
>>> [ WARNING ::: DATABASE ERROR ::: CONTENT OVERRIDE ::: SOURCE: EXTERNAL ] <<<

> source terminal location: UNKNOWN
> source terminal identity: UNAVAILABLE
> source login information: ENCRYPTED
> message begins

the post you are now reading is designed to dull your senses to THE TRUTH. do not live the life of the worker bee, the cog, the well-oiled piston in the MACHINE OF DECEIT!

there is a grand CONSPIRACY afoot. you have been taught to believe that you are UNIQUE, one of a kind. THIS IS NOT TRUE. long ago, a cabal of scientists created technologies to ensure that ANYONE'S MIND AND BODY can be duplicated.

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>>> [ CONTENT OVERRIDE CEASES ::: DATABASE STATUS: RECOVERING ] <<<
the Keepers, Hodir, a couple of weeks ago.

Of course, it hasn't all been tea and crumpets. Our attempt this week started off smoothly, but hit a wall on our second night. We just couldn't get Iron Council down, and after giving up and moving on to Freya (the next Keeper we're working on) we got hammered hard on the first trash pull leading up to her.

It was frustrating. Hopefully this upcoming week will be more successful.

A thing of beauty

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:21:00 +0000

So GenCon is this week. I'm not there, but lots of people are posting pics and such. Here is an especially beautiful one.

(First posted here at therpgsite.com)

Tragedy.

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:03:00 +0000

A friend of mine has been hit by a tragedy. Out of respect for his privacy, I am not going to go into details. (Those of you who know, know. Those of you who don't know, don't need to know. This is not the sort of thing you broadcast on the 'net.)

It has rocked me. It is the kind of thing you read about, but never think will touch your life. For someone known for and by his words, I find myself at a loss for them.

I fins myself thinking about all the things we have in our lives, and how often we find ourselves reliant on them and defined by them. The loss of any of them would be annoying and bothersome to greater or lesser degrees (depending on the item... losing your ipod is an annoyance, losing your car much more of a problem, you get the idea).

But they are, ultimately, things and can be replaced. There are other pieces of our lives that cannot. There are fundamental parts of us that leave an unfillable void when they are taken away, and in many ways we take them for granted.

Anything with a price can be replaced.

Some things are truly priceless, and should be treated that way.

The Personal Effects Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:21:00 +0000

I mentioned Personal Effects: Dark Art in my previous post. As part of his promotion efforts for the novel, JC Hutchins has produced a number of "vlurbs" from people in the realm of horror/paranormal film and fiction.

Inspired in part by this, and wanting to contribute something of my own to this whole thing (aside from buying the book itself), I recorded a few minutes of video to capture some of my first impressions and thoughts about the book and my exposure to it thus far.

It is my first real attempt at working with video. I dabbled in audio production with my short-lived Vampire: The Requiem podcast "The More Things Change" (which is still available here). Video is a bit harder to work with, and a bit less forgiving when it comes to editing stream-of-consciousness material.

Anyhow, I hope to make more of these, and get better at it as time goes by.

Holy crap, he's still alive?!?!

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Why yes, yes I am.

It's been several months since I last posted anything here. Life has been busy, and there hasn't really been anything worth talking about.

Until now.

Two cool things are coming from a pair of talented authors very soon. First up, the latest (and last) chapter of the Heaven series from Mur Lafferty launches on Monday. If you haven't encountered this wonderful fantasy audio-novella series, you should really check it out. It starts with a premise that could be considered a bit cliche -- a pair of friends die and start exploring the multitude of mythoogical afterlives. Fortunately, it doesn't take long for Mur to put her own stamp on things, displaying a brilliant creativity and spinning the familiar into the unique.

You can get caught up on this series over at podiobooks.com. Here are direct links for the first four chapters:

1. Heaven
2. Hell
3. Earth
4. Wasteland

The other cool thing is coming from the pen of J.C. Hutchins, another pioneer in the world of podcast fiction. I recently finished his Seventh Son (also available at podiobooks.com), and it is a solid techno-thriller. It starts a little bit slowly, but once the action starts, it doesn't let up.

Anyhow, J.C.'s print debut comes out this upcoming week as week. Personal Effects: Dark Art is a collaboration with Jordan Wiesman (yes, that Jordan Wiesman). More than a a simple supernatural thriller, this is a multi-media experience. Clues and inserts in the book connect to a larger experience that will give readers a deeper insight into the events of the novel, learning things that the main characters never encounter.

J.C. has a free 'prelude' novella available, Personal Effects: Sword of Blood serves as an introduction to the main protaganist, and if the first two chapters of that work are any indication, Dark Art will be a mind-bending ride. You can get Sword of Blood at jchutchins.net.

Is this post an indication that I will be blogging with a bit more regularity? Perhaps. I can't say for sure, and I'm not going to promise anything right now, but we'll see what the summer brings.

BlogMo 12: The Guild and New Media

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:54:00 +0000

The lovely and talented Felicia Day (probably best known by my readers as Penny from Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog) is the creator and writer for a great little web series called The Guild, available at www.watchtheguild.com. If you haven't caught this groovy little series about a group of MMO players, you should give it a look, especially since the second season will be starting up on November 25th.

Because of her success with The Guild (and, peripherally, Doctor Horrible), Felicia gave a talk at NewTeeVee, talking about New Media, web content, and how many of the people in Hollywood (or at least, those in charge of things) are vaguely interested, but don't really 'get it'.

I find it interesting, but not terribly surprising, that this is the case. If you recall the distant past of 2007, when the Writers Guild of America went on strike, one of the lynchpins of the WGA's stance was that writers should receive some kind of compensation for online content they produce for the studios, but also that online 'broadcasts' of material should be taken into account when it comes to residuals. It all hinged on New Media, and while there are clearly a number of people who do get it, clearly the people with the big money (and looking to make even bigger money), don't.

Web-based content is fundamentally different than traditional studio content (even niche studio content). There's been a lot of discussion on various fora about how you no longer need to get millions (or even hundreds of thousands) of people to consume your product to be successful when it comes to the web -- all you need are a couple thousand devoted fans. It takes work to earn them (you can't just slap up a site and expect the masses to come), but they are invaluable to the success of any 'net-based project.

The advantage is, with the internet, you are truly pulling your audience from a global community (at least, the global community with internet access). You're not restricted by licensing deals, region restrictions, or any of the rest of that. In this environment, niche marketing, and niche targeting are the keys to success. The goal is to find your specific audience and hook them in. This is, in so many ways, the antithesis of traditional media marketing, where the idea is (generally speaking) to throw material out there on as broad a distribution as possible and hope that enough of it sticks to make a profit.

People like Felicia are on the leading edge of a revolution, and it's really cool to watch this sort of thing develop.

BlogMo 11: Welcome to Northrend

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:51:00 +0000

So I stayed up way too late last night. The wife decided that she would go out to the midnight release of Wrath of the Lich King after all, and brought home our copies of the game (collector's edition for her, standard edition for me).

After about 20 minutes of installing and reloading the patches, I logged on, made my way to Stormwind Harbor, and caught the boat to Northrend.

I haven't done more than poke around the landing area, pick up the next level of training in my professions (and picked up a bunch of new recipes in the process), and do some of the 'running errand' quests. I haven't ventured inland, or killed anything yet, in large part because my wife would be very upset if I started advancing and killing things without her (bloodthirsty little gnome that she is).

Within about 20 minutes of logging on after installing Wrath, we had three Death Knights in the guild. I know a lot of people were really grooving on the ability to play the new class, but I want to explore the new zone, level up my main character, and take the fight to the Lich King! I guess part of it is that I don't really play my alts that much, and I can't think of any pressing reason to add another one to my pool -- after all, the Death Knight starts at level 55, and I wouldn't be able to get to Northrend until after I did all the Outlands stuff that I did not that long ago with my Warrior.

So it's hitting the beach with my main. It looks really cool so far (what little I have seen of it) and I can't wait until later this evening when I can get back in there.

BlogMo 10: The experiment so far

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:52:00 +0000

Kind of a meta-post today. As I said back on Nov 1, this month is a bit of an experiment, to see how successful I can be if I try and write one blog post a day for a month. So... eleven days in, how is it going?

Well, as the counter on this post indicates, I'm one day behind at this point. Other than the "one post a day" objective, I didn't set myself any particular creative agenda, and I think that may (in part) be something of a problem. Of course, it's a problem in my fiction writing as well.

You see, I have a nasty internal editor; this little imp holds me back by making me feel that I need to do something substantive, that my posts (or my writing in general) need to be about something, it can't just be a little toddle for my own amusement. Of course, one of the more common pieces of writing advice out there is to write something that you enjoy, and the audience will find you (provided you do some sort of promotion... while some people may stumble across your work, you can't expect to get numbers without a little bit of work).

One problem I've found thus far is the matter of topics. The first part of this month, leading up to and right after the election provided plenty of grist for my brain-mill. It did that for a bunch of other people as well -- this political season was different in so many ways. But the political slant is kind of out-of-flavor for the tradition of this blog, which has largely been focused on fantasy gaming and fiction, with splashes of my life thrown into it.

I don't know... I find that in some respects I've been rather unfocused when it comes to my creative works. After a long day at work, I would rather flop on the couch and veg out watching TV or play computer games for a few hours before heading off to bed. It isn't that my job is especially taxing -- in fact, other than the general stress of being in customer service for eight hours (minus lunch) each day, I don't get much brain work as it is.

We'll see how this continues... no doubt when Wrath of the Lich King comes out later this week, and I get hip-deep in the snows of Northrend, I'll have more to talk about. We'll see what happens.

(Of course, the whole reason I'm writing this post instead of playing WoW is because the servers have been down all day, and I'm more or less caught up on my TV watching. Kind of a sad commentary, really.)

BlogMo 9: No real post today. but here's a little something

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:04:00 +0000

No real ideas or desire to write much of anything today. So I am just going to share something cool I came across in my browsings the past few days.

BlogMo 8: True Blood

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:34:00 +0000

I've been watching True Blood, an adaptation of the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. It's pretty good. What's really been making the series for me are a couple of things. First of all (unlike the Sword of Truth books that Legend of the Seeker is based on) I haven't read the books, so I'm more free to get into the story, and not be taken out of it by differences between the TV adaptation and the book.

The other thing that has really won me over to the series is the supporting cast of characters. Sookie is kind of... vanilla in some respects, but there are flashes of steel and spirit in there. The rest of the cast... wonderful.

A word of warning -- it is very definitively an adult series. If you're offended by sex, violence, language, and the generally messed up nature of life... it's probably not for you. That's okay, I mean, The Ghost Whisperer isn't for me.

On the other hand, it is a well-written series, and while some of the more explicit aspects of the show seem to be there simply because it's on HBO and they can be more explicit, I wouldn't let that put you off if you're able to get past it. There is quality here, and I think any fans of the so-called 'paranormal romance' genre would enjoy it. (Fans of Anita Blake, I'm looking at you!)

BlogMo 7: Waiting for Wrath

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:40:00 +0000

Kind of a short post tonight, but I am committed to keeping up with the experiment.

I play World of Warcraft regularly. I have a level 70 Dwarf Warrior, and a couple of alts that I don't play so much these days. I'm the master of one of the coolest guilds on my server (or so I and the rest of my fellow guild members think).

I have taken to rewarding myself with WoW play time after I complete a post and upload it to the blog in an effort to drive the experiment forward

Wrath of the Lich King comes out in less than a week.

I am really looking forward to it. I imagine that it will provide me with quite a bit of content in the coming weeks. The previews that have been posted over at Project Lore are really sweet. The videos showing some of the instances, and the preview of the Death Knight quest chain...

I have my copy pre-ordered and paid for. My wife is getting the collector's edition in order to get the special vanity pet that comes with it.

I'm trying to fit in as much "old" content as possible before Wrath comes out, because after that there won't be much reason for me to backtrack to the old stuff (until I hit level 80, at least).

All right. Enough writing. The guild is hitting Zul'Aman tonight.

BlogMo 6: Legend of the Seeker

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:15:00 +0000

Let's step away from the political for a bit, and get with the geeking. I caught the first episode (part one of a two-parter) of Legend of the Seeker, a television adaptation of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, produced by Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, the same duo who brought us the fun (if rather campy) Hercules and Xena.

Long time friends and visitors to this site will know that I was (and to a certain extent, still am) a big fan of both shows. I've been a fam of Raimi's for years, and I am interested in seeing what they're going to do with the series in the long run.

My impressions so far, based purely on the single episode I have seen, are moderately favorable. The story more or less follows the opening events in the first novel, but there are some changes that make me curious about where they're going to go long term. In the novels, Richard is Seeker because of his ability to see the truth. In the series, he is the Seeker because that's what prophecy says (which is accurate, but the whole prophecy angle doesn't show up in the first book at all).

Richard in the series is more of a traditional farm boy rises to be a hero sort of thing. That doesn't mean the character can't grow to something more, but it gives a very different starting point (and as a result, subsequent character arc) than the novel does.

Most obvious case in point with regard to what I'm talking about. In the novel, Kahlan doesn't know Zedd is First Wizard, she only knows he went to Westland. Richard deduces that Zedd is the First Wizard, and in the face of his reasoning (haven't read the book in years, so I don't recall the exact reasoning) Zedd admits the truth despite his earlier attempts to hide or deny who he is.

In the series, Kahlan is guided by some kind of magic device straight to Zedd. She knows who he is (despite her probably never having seen him since he's been gone twenty years), and there is no early indication of Richard's strong, natural ability to reason (something that, admittedly, becomes rather more tiresome as the series progresses).

It's like the TV series is following the basic plot outline of the book, but making some different choices and assumptions about things. I imagine that fans of the book will not be enamored of the series (depending on how tolerant they are of creative and adaptive license), and I suspect that the show will have a hard time finding enough of an audience to keep it on the air for more than a season or two (but you never know).

I'm willing to give the series a shot, because I have a certain amount of affection for any kind of fantasy TV -- especially one produced by this team. I'm interested in seeing where they go, and how they handle the darker parts of the book.

As my impressions mature or change, I'll be sure to share them.

BlogMo 5: They can't all be in the win column

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:51:00 +0000

So, as the celebration continued over Barack Obama's substantial and undisputable victory in the presidential election, some other issues have not gotten the media coverage that they, in my opinion, deserve.

Most notably, California's Proposition 8 which seeks to amend the state constitution and define marriage as between a man and a woman (neatly -- and nastily -- sidestepping the recent California Supreme Court decision that laws against gay marriage are unconstitutional). As of this writing, the proposition looked like it was going to pass by a narrow margin (4% or so).

The story isn't over; a couple of suits have already been filed seeking to challenge Prop 8, and no doubt there will be many months of legal briefs and such. I hope that the courts strike down the initiative as the unconstitutional wreck that it truly is. Here's my thinking.

In a recent blog post Phil Plait gave a very reasoned and eloquent argument against Colorado Proposition 48, which basically sought a roundabout way to amend their state constitution defining that a person becomes a person (with all the rights and such that go along with that) at the moment of conception -- it seems to me, essentially, a stepping stone to banning abortion.

Thinking about California Prop 8 (and the debate over gay marriage in general) I find that a very similar argument holds; essentially, it is attempting to legislate a particular (if widely held) religious viewpoint, and the government should not be legislating and governing based on those beliefs.

I am fairly certain that in most states (I can't speak definitively, not really having done any research) marriage is, ultimately, a civil registration -- the marriage license itslef does not have any religious flavor one way or another. There are certain requirements that need to be met (usually witnesses of one sort or another, and a legally recognized authority to officiate). Everything else is gravy, and an expression of the couple who is getting married.

Stripped of all the religious pomp and ceremony that surround it, marriage in the U.S. is, essentially, a legal agreement that carries with it a number of privileges and obligations. If a couple wants to make that legal commitment to each other, what right does the government have, in the face of our stated (though in practice, ultimately theoretical) ideals of equality for all?

Two people love each other, and want to make that commitment, but are denied because they happen to both have XY (or XX) as their 23rd chromosome pair? Does that strike any other thinking person as irrational?

Now, I'm not arguing that clergy (or anyone else for that matter) be forced to officiate at a ceremony they are not comfortable performing. The religious trappings that surround marriage, and the 'sacraments' related to it are something the government, in my opinion, should stay well out of also -- it seems a pretty clear First Amendment issue.

Marriage is, by law (if not by practice or perception) a civil matter, and legislating (even by constitutional amendment) a religiously-based definition of it is, in my humble opinion, wrong.

I hope that this misguided (if earnest) effort to 'protect' marriage gets struck down in the long run. But they couldn't all be winners last night.

BlogMo 4: So we have a new president

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 05:04:00 +0000

I'm not going to belabor this point here tonight, because it is late, I'm tired, and there are no doubt going to be a million posts across the internet breaking down the results of this election and analyzing it to death (at least until the next time around).

But the election was conceded not that long ago by Senator McCain, and while I had some real problems with the way the campaign was run -- especially towards the end -- the concession speech was gracious, well spoken, and McCain clearly gave the impression that he didn't want any of his supporters to harbor long-term ill will toward the winner, or his party (time will tell whether that actually happens or not).

I will close out tonight with two thoughts; one positive, one negative. First, the negative -- I'm sorry to say that I don't think we've seen the last of Governor Palin on the national stage. In many respects, that woman personifies everything that has gone wrong with the Republican party over the past several years. It would be great if she would go back to her snowy home and never trouble us again, but... I just don't think that's likely.

On a positive note, there is a clear victor in this race. Unlike the previous two elections, which were both very close and resulted in a lot of bitterness and hard feelings, this one will not be dragged out past all sanity, and while there will no doubt be those who are unhappy with the results, they cannot argue with the numbers or the results.

I believe we may have just given ourselves another chance.

BlogMo 3: Gaming suffers

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:28:00 +0000

So tonight I want to talk about gaming, or rather, the lack of it that I (and my fellow geeks) have had to suffer. We had a long running Earthdawn game that started way back at First Circle, new characters, mostly new players, and all the rest. Multiple years later, the characters had reached Ninth Circle, and we were working our way to some kind of grand climax.

But then, as so many things do, it suffered the doom of family.

As you may or may not be aware, I have a 19-month old daughter I will refer to here as the Fairy Princess, or "FP". Our good friends Pat and Leanne (half of the ED player group in our long-term game) have a daughter of their own ("K") about four months younger. We used to get together on Sundays to game for a few hours, have dinner, and just generally socialize.

Now that the babies are toddlers... not so much. With all the activity going on in the house, it is impossible to get FP to take a nap, and K won't go down either -- mostly because of the activity, but also a more unfamiliar setting.

We tried our best to soldier on, but it just didn't happen. It's a shame, because I really enjoy tabletop gaming, and I enjoy tabletop gaming with my crew. Much like my involvement with local theatre dried up when I started my job at Verizon seven years ago, real life has shifted a bit more, and I find that -- while I enjoy much the same things I did in my 'younger days' -- I no longer have the time to devote to them.

I comfort myself with the thought that, in another couple of years, the two geek-spawn will be able to entertain each other more, and perhaps we can get a new game going. Also, when they get even older, we can start gaming with them, which is a thought that cheers me up to no end.

(And maybe at that point I'll be able to get back into community theatre... 'cause I've missed that as well the past several years.)

In the meantime, I'll scratch the gaming itch as best I can with World of Warcraft. No doubt I will share some of my thoughts on that in the days to come.

BlogMo 2: Culture of Fear

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:07:00 +0000

This has been an interesting political season for a number of reasons, but the one that has most struck me as the last few weeks of the presidential campaigns have played out is how afraid everybody seems to be, but for very different reasons.

(Let me preface this whole thing by saying that I am not registered with either political party. Overall I have tended to vote more Republican than Democrat when it comes to political office, but the hard right faction of the Republican party has really cheesed me off over the past few years, and the election has only amplified that.)

Most of where I have seen this is in the various editorial columns and blog postings out there.

On the Democratic side, there is a definite undercurrent of Obama being the last, best hope -- the one shot we have of slowing down (and possibly reversing) this downhill slide (plummet?) this country seems to be on as a result of the past eight years. There is hope to be sure, but a definite sense that until everything is tallied on Wednesday, we shouldn't count our chickens just yet.

On the other hand, the fear on the Republican side is not a grass roots, "hope for the best, fear the worst" sort of thing, but rather the tenor of the entire campaign. The GOP tactics (especially in recent weeks) have been geared to scare the public; throwing out buzzwords (and misleading buzzwords at that) like "socialist", "terrorist" and so forth, there is a feeling that the Republican party wants to scare me into thinking that an Obama administration will take the keys to the nation and hand them over to the bad guys (which, in the case of the hard right, means "gays and liberals and communists").

Now I don't buy that, and I think there are a lot of people (liberal and conservative) who are tired of a government that wants us to constantly live in fear, and hand over our liberties in order to feel safe. (As that famously misquoted Ben Franklin adage states, "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.")

The other thing that has struck me, or at least the thing that I've noticed for the first time in... well, as long as I've been paying attention to that sort of thing, is how passionate just about everybody -- on both sides -- is about this election. There is a real sense (not a media manufactured one) that this is one of the most important presidential elections in a long time. And while I think there are some people on both sides who are just blindly swallowing the party line, I think a lot more people are actually looking at what's going on (with the war, and the recent economic slide, and so forth) and thinking about the issues, what it means to them, and will be voting accordingly. That isn't a bad thing, in my opinion.

Personally, I thought that an Obama/McCain campaign would be a good one, and thought that whoever won in the end the country would see a definite uptick. Sad to say, the McCain campaign (guided, no doubt, by the strong right hand of the Republican overlords) has blown all their credibility, and whatever moderate support they might have garnered (like mine) by chasing after the hard right, conservative Christian vote.

That irrational, vocal minority of the Evengelical movement (the one that denies the foundations of established scientific thought because a book says something different) is, quite frankly, a blight on the whole Christian faith. What makes it worse is that they have helped construct this culture of fear and persecution; it's easier to control the sheep in your flock if you have them convinced the wolves are all around.

In case it isn't clear at this point, I'm voting for Obama on Tuesday. Perhaps I'm naive, but I don't feel the underlying sense of doom that informs much of the Democratic party's attitudes these days. While things won't pull a 180 on Wednseday morning, I think there will be something of a collective sigh of relief, and perhaps a collective unclenching.

At least, that's my hope. Whatever the result, I think Tuesday is going to see record turnout, and I only ask that whichever side you mark on your ballot, you make it an informed choice, and not one that is driven by fear and ignorance.

BlogMo 1: An Experiment

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 23:22:00 +0000

Hello all. In case you didn't know, November is National Novel Writing Month; an annual event wherein you try and write a 50,000 word novel over the course of thirty days.

I tried this a couple years ago and got a little over 12k words into a novel that has languished untouched since then. Last year's NaNo came and went without any attempt or participation from me (new baby and work woes just didn't allow it). This year... well, things are a little different.

Let me be clear -- I am not going to try and crank out 50k words over the next thirty days. But I want to do something.

So, over the next 30 days, I am going to try and post to this blog at least daily. The topics will be varied and the thoughts are likely to be scattered, but I have been itching to write more, and I've been telling myself that I will start writing again. I just haven't actually done anything about it.

So, November is going to be my Blogging Month, or BlogMo. Think of it as my attempt at solidarity with my fellow struggling writers out there, and an attempt at getting into a more regular writing habit.

Mur Lafferty says, You should be writing, and she's right. Please come along with me this November for my experiment.

Thoughts on the War in Iraq

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:43:00 +0000

I'm watching a recording of the first presidential debate (yeah, I'm a couple weeks behind), and the issue being discussed as I watch it is the war in Iraq. When Obama got the chance to address the question, he brought up the issue of whether going into Iraq in the first place was a good idea.

Honestly, isn't that kind of an academic question at this point? I don't think there is a lot of debate about whether going into Iraq was a good idea or not. Point is, we're in there now, and I would like to hear how he plans to deal with the situation as it is. If he isn't sure, that's fine -- but I would like to hear that.

The only reason I can see to bring up the 'going in' question when it comes to the current situation is to highlight the mismanagement of the war over the past few years (this may have changed recently, I'm not really up on the current situation). Given the unpopularity of W. among the general public these days, I can see it as a valid tactic to connect McCain to the Bush administration...

I would rather see the issue being addressed directly, rather than what seems to be a "give us a chance, because we can't screw it up as badly as the other guy" kind of thing... not exactly something that inspires a great deal of confidence.

Don't Vote

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:10:00 +0000

Are you evil enough?

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:48:00 +0000

The Evil League of Evil is accepting applications.

That is all.

WoW thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:30:00 +0000

So, as I mentioned a couple of days ago, I've been playing a little World of Warcraft lately (okay, more than a little, a lot). I've built my dwarf warrior Varulus up to level 70, and as I've been tooling around at level 70 for a while, I've developed some feelings about the "endgame" content -- that is, the high-level instances and raids that 'wrap up' the storylines you've been following as you play through the game.

WoW is a very well designed game, and it is clear that when it came to developing the first expansion (Burning Crusade), Blizzard applied a number of lessons learned from the original, making the game -- especially the higher levels -- more accessible to the casual gamer: the kind of player who can get a couple hours of play in at once, but doesn't have the time to devote seven hours to an instance raid.

What I've found lately, and what has been frustrating me, is that the real end-game material (at least right now) is a bit too tough for my standard group to run. We've got the skills, we just don't have the gear to consistently perform at the level necessary to tackle the top-end enemies without wiping half-a dozen times.

Normally, this is a matter of getting better gear and going back to tackle the parts that are too tough right now. But the better gear is -- for the most part -- available as drops from the places that are too tough, rewards for getting your reputation up to high levels with the different factions, or rewards for earning a lot of honor in the player-versus-player battlegrounds.

In other words, a lot of repetitive grinding, or what I've come to call "Final Fantasy syndrome". I haven't actually completed a Final Fantasy game in a long time, largely because the end-game dungeon battle is easier if you do all sorts of side-quests and grinding to get those extra levels. I just don't have the time (or inclination). I want to see the end of the story.

I'm looking forward to the next expansion for WoW this November, because it will provide a lot of new content and story. Of course, I wonder if the same sort of thing will happen to the outland that happened to the high-level zones in the original game: nobody goes there anymore, because there is better and more interesting stuff to run.

Quick "Horrible" news...

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:54:00 +0000

Hi all. Quick post as I head off to bed for the night.

The soundtrack album for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is now available for purchase from iTunes.

Go and buy!