Month: February 2023

Some New Music for Me #music #RedHotChiliPipers @chillipipers

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One last post before I take a break from blogging.

This past week in Ft. Wayne, I discovered a new band care of a request made on O’Reilly’s TouchTunes juke box: the Red Hot Chili Pipers. That’s “Pipers,” not “Peppers.” They’re a band that covers other bands’ music, but they do so with a healthy dose of bagpipes, which I love because I love my Scottish roots. Besides the instrumentation, they also mix things up a little bit with the arrangements.

Here’s one example.

Here’s another.

Unfortunately, their only show in the DC area this year is on a Wednesday night and over 45 miles away. That’s 45 DC-area miles, which with traffic will take too long time to get there and get back. I’m too old for that, and it’s not like I go to concerts often. Here’s their current tour schedule in case you’re interested.

There’s always YouTube.

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Follow the Red Hot Chili Pipers @chillipipers

My Wind down from Winter Fantasy #DnD #TTRPG #RPG @BryanCPSteele

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Winter Fantasy is over, and today is still a day off from work for me. I need this day to wind down a bit, but I’ll be very happy to get back into my routine.

I tried to run three slots of 1st Edition Dungeons & Dragons (S2: White Plume Mountain), but none of the tables went off. I sold only a single ticket for one slot. Nevertheless, I go my fix. I ran it for most of the van ride home (Winter Vantasy). This meant that the days could be spent the way I wanted to spend them.

Much of my time was spent completing my 1st Edition character builder. The game exposed some bugs in the character sheet (already fixed), and there’s one more thing (non-weapon and weapon proficiencies) that I have to finish (will be finished this week), but after that, everything that remains is monster species data entry. I’ve gotten through lizard king in the Fiend Folio, then have to deal with Monster Manual II and Oriental Adventures, but that’s it. Nothing hard; just tedious. I can then upload it to GitHub where someone else can do a much better job with the front-end if they’re so inclined. I’ll try to shore up my own front end first, but there’s only so much you can do with MS Access.

My “man cave” now has an addition to the wall of badges.

So, what now? Well, I always come away from vacations feeling like I’ve had enough. Like everyone else, I complain when I get up in the morning, I’m annoyed by tough cases, etc. However, in the end, I need a purpose. I need a job for more than just paying the bills, and relatively speaking, I have a really good job. I don’t need another vacation for a while, and after speaking with Bryan CP Steele at Winter Fantasy, I’m seriously considering replacing my Vegas trip with Gamehole Con this year. If I do so, I’ll still take off a week from work, but I’ll be home for most of those days relaxing. I don’t think I need anything as intense as Vegas.

Time to return to the grind, and I’m 100% cool with that.

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The Manticore and Kelpie #MythologyMonday #MythologyMonandæg #folklore #WotC #RPG #TTRPG #DnD @mythsexplained

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Today, I’m riding home from Winter Fantasy in a van running 1st Edition Dungeons & Dragons. The adventure is S2: White Plume Mountain, and one of the iconic monsters from that mod is the manticore. Here’s a short video on the manticore care of Mythology & Fiction Explained.

Another iconic monster from White Plume Mountain is the kelpie, which was created for the adventure. Here’s a significantly longer video on the kelpie.

It’s a brilliant adventure mod.

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Dungeons & Dragons is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast, LLC, who neither contributed to nor endorsed the contents of this post. (Okay, jackasses?)


Chicago Wins Either Way @ChicagoManual #food #language

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Sundays now are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, I’m finishing up my annual 6 day, 5-night trip to the Midwest (Ft. Wayne, IN) with dinner at Portillo’s, and that makes me miss Chicago even more. However, there’s always good reason to miss Chicago. They produce the best pizza and give the best linguistic advice.

Oh, and my friends. Yeah, they’re pretty good too.

Deal with it, haters.

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Follow the Chicago Manual of Style @ChicagoManual

I’m at Winter Fantasy #Caturday #DnD #TTRPG #RPG

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I’m at Winter Fantasy in arctic Ft. Wayne, IN, so here are some stupid Caturday images that seem appropriate.

That’s a lot of dice. That little guy must be playing a rogue.

I love that this DC (Dungeon Cat. Get it?) is preparing to pull out an old white dragon on this party. I’m not sure if that thing will fit in that room.

I was scheduled to run three sessions of 1st Edition Dungeons & Dragons. Each session would be a different leg of White Plume Mountain. Not a single table went off. I sold only one ticket for the third session, and needless to say, that guy decided to find his way onto another table. I’ll be running the adventure in the van on the way home, however, so I’ll get my fix.

Cats >> RPGs.

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There’s More of Them! #tech #AI #ArtificialIntelligence

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For a guy that said he was taking a break from blogging three days ago, I sure have had a lot to say. This is a follow up to yesterday’s threat to have my blog generated by artificial intelligence. A while back, I (and many others) shared through social media an AI rendition of Family Guy. Well, the inevitable has happened. There are tons more of them. You can find them here, but I’ve linked directly to my favorites below.

Why does Leela have two eyes? Was this trailer from the Cyber House Rules? If so, where’s Adlai?

We see too much of Kenny’s face here, and Wendy seems too old for Stan. Also, while AI seems to be learning how to handle hands, it still hasn’t mastered the fine art of tear ducts. Cartman is as confusing as an umber hulk, coincidentally with the same shape to his head.

Yes, these are my favorites because I never grew up.

Homer has too much hair.

They got Butthead’s braces right, and I’m glad to see Daria get a mention.

A lot of characters in the video look like they’re being played by the same actor, and as I said above, tear ducts (among other things) still aren’t handled correctly. Then there’s Nothing, Forever, an AI-generated episode of Seinfeld that’s been running since December. It’s 8-bit graphics, so the real “magic” is in the dialogue, but that often falls apart too.

I don’t think we have to worry about an AI takeover anytime soon.

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My Blog is Going High-Tech! (Not Really) #blog #tech #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #journalism @buzzfeed

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All this blogging has been exhausting, but thanks to Buzzkill . . . Buzzfeed, I feel comfortable having all my posts generated by artificial intelligence! https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ai-generated-80s-family-sitcoms

Because Buzzfeed and I are the same level of journalism.

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Monster Names Under Creative Commons CC-BY-4.0 #OGL #TTRPG #RPG #DnD #WotC @MikeMyler2 @ChristianLindke

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Here’s something kind of funny. As you know, Wizards of the Coast (“WotC”) has continuously laid claim to copyright over monster names (which is impossible; let me repeat: impossible) or has leveraged their legitimate copyrights to restrict their use (which is copyright misuse). However lacking in legal force as either position is, that’s been their position. Now WotC has released the SRD 5.1 using the Creative Commons licensed, CC-BY-4.0. As Mike Myler pointed out to me, in doing so, many of these names are now expressly licensed even from WotC’s warped perspective. They’re telling you that you may once again state that beauty is in the eye of the beholder because they’re now licensing you the right to use “beholder.”

Seriously. Do you not see how stupid this sounds?

All of this can be found on page 254 of the SRD 5.1. Both pages 97 and 254 include use of “mind flayer,” so that’s now eligible for use. Or is it? Christian Lindke pointed me to a United States federal trademark registration for “Mind Flayer.”

So, by WotC’s arguments that continuously blur copyright and trademark, they can’t even use mind flayer in a sentence. It belongs to a Chinese dude(tte).

Seriously. Do you not see how stupid this sounds?

WotC legal is stupid, or they think you are. Probably both.

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Dungeons & Dragons is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast, LLC, who neither contributed to nor endorsed the contents of this post. (Okay, jackasses?)