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You did it AGAIN Slothman!
Feb. 2nd, 2009 12:22 pmHAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Feb. 2nd, 2009
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Friday is a Million Miles Away
Feb. 2nd, 2009 01:33 pmSo, Identify that song!
Trick question actually, AFAIK there is no song with those lyrics(Though I'm waiting for one of my friends to dredge one up).
I am exhausted. This weekend I went to a party, watched Shakespeare, drank too much port, couldn't sleep, and woke up with a headache. More or less in that order, and repeated. So today I am dragging along, too tired even to take a nap during lunch.
On the plus side, my resume now reads that I've worked at this job for a year, though according to the earliest message I have in Outlook, I actually started on the 6th of last February. I am dimly amazed that I've lasted so long; I fully expected multiple times to be fired or quit, or for the business to go out of business, or be raided by the IRS, or...but we're still here. I feel kind of a perverse sense of accomplishment at being here as long as I have, kind of in a samurai "It's more honorable to serve a bad master loyally than a good one". Not that I'm inclined to serve all that well any more. And I may be here as much for my resume and a "better the crappy job you know than the unemployment line" attitude than anything resembling loyalty.
Still, I have this thing to cling to; I have survived here a year. I choose to feel good about that. And I have more UTGM posts coming out Real Soon Now. That makes me feel much better. Live for my hobbies, say I.
Trick question actually, AFAIK there is no song with those lyrics(Though I'm waiting for one of my friends to dredge one up).
I am exhausted. This weekend I went to a party, watched Shakespeare, drank too much port, couldn't sleep, and woke up with a headache. More or less in that order, and repeated. So today I am dragging along, too tired even to take a nap during lunch.
On the plus side, my resume now reads that I've worked at this job for a year, though according to the earliest message I have in Outlook, I actually started on the 6th of last February. I am dimly amazed that I've lasted so long; I fully expected multiple times to be fired or quit, or for the business to go out of business, or be raided by the IRS, or...but we're still here. I feel kind of a perverse sense of accomplishment at being here as long as I have, kind of in a samurai "It's more honorable to serve a bad master loyally than a good one". Not that I'm inclined to serve all that well any more. And I may be here as much for my resume and a "better the crappy job you know than the unemployment line" attitude than anything resembling loyalty.
Still, I have this thing to cling to; I have survived here a year. I choose to feel good about that. And I have more UTGM posts coming out Real Soon Now. That makes me feel much better. Live for my hobbies, say I.
UTGM: notes on necessary coolness.
Feb. 2nd, 2009 05:09 pm
I'm taking a break from procrastinating on writing up the "breeds" in UTGM, to think about the cool things I need to have in this project. BEcause while I like the term "hard fantasy" for it, there just has to be outre things in it to excite the interest of the audience, whether game players, or readers. In some situations, coolness has to outweigh reasonability.
So, cool things:
Uplifted Animals: reasonably, it may be easier to genegeneer humans then give animals human intelligence. But intelligent animals are an inherently cool idea, even leaving out the "Ninja Catgirl" factor.
Living Blimps: there's all kinds of problems I'm going to handwave away in dealing with giant, hydrogen-filled flying animals. But handwave I must, because they have to be in there.
Magic-powered Airships: they are probably stretching the Renaissance-level technology I"m thinking of, and I can only justify it with magic and materials left over from past civilizations (admittedly most likely tree-grown). But airships are inherently cool.
Spring-wound Dart Guns. Technically crossbows wound by springs, but I quibble. I've been enchanted by the idea ever since I saw coiled spring clocks in the Leonardo exhibit. I can only justify them by saying there's a lot of durable metal strips left over from the past, just waiting to be bent into springs. Why? So I can have those dart guns like they had in the Witch World series.
Ceramic or Glassteel or Neodiamond Chitin Swords: Because swords are cool, and swords made of rare materials are cooler. And it emphasizes that with some materials being hard to refine, substitutes will be found.
Ancient Powerful Technological Artifacts: reasonably, nothing other than simple stone or wood construction should last thousands or tens of thousands of years. And I'm going to do an end-run for most cases by saying most old artifacts are biologically based, or come from organic "factory" trees. But there has to be the occasional crystal tower with a doomsday weapon, or ancient self-powered computer, or warbeast in stasis, or other items to get people engaging in dungeon crawls, nations scrambling for ownership, and to illustrate that messing with past knowledge can be dangerous.
And that's it for now. Any suggestions?
So, cool things:
Uplifted Animals: reasonably, it may be easier to genegeneer humans then give animals human intelligence. But intelligent animals are an inherently cool idea, even leaving out the "Ninja Catgirl" factor.
Living Blimps: there's all kinds of problems I'm going to handwave away in dealing with giant, hydrogen-filled flying animals. But handwave I must, because they have to be in there.
Magic-powered Airships: they are probably stretching the Renaissance-level technology I"m thinking of, and I can only justify it with magic and materials left over from past civilizations (admittedly most likely tree-grown). But airships are inherently cool.
Spring-wound Dart Guns. Technically crossbows wound by springs, but I quibble. I've been enchanted by the idea ever since I saw coiled spring clocks in the Leonardo exhibit. I can only justify them by saying there's a lot of durable metal strips left over from the past, just waiting to be bent into springs. Why? So I can have those dart guns like they had in the Witch World series.
Ceramic or Glassteel or Neodiamond Chitin Swords: Because swords are cool, and swords made of rare materials are cooler. And it emphasizes that with some materials being hard to refine, substitutes will be found.
Ancient Powerful Technological Artifacts: reasonably, nothing other than simple stone or wood construction should last thousands or tens of thousands of years. And I'm going to do an end-run for most cases by saying most old artifacts are biologically based, or come from organic "factory" trees. But there has to be the occasional crystal tower with a doomsday weapon, or ancient self-powered computer, or warbeast in stasis, or other items to get people engaging in dungeon crawls, nations scrambling for ownership, and to illustrate that messing with past knowledge can be dangerous.
And that's it for now. Any suggestions?