Remi's Bloglet - Monday 16 July 2001

This may be the only typographical article ever to include the word 'antichrist'. _
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04:12:04 PM, Monday 16 July 2001

Jurassic Park III: Those raptors have seen the second half of Full Metal Jacket! _
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03:49:54 PM, Monday 16 July 2001

I want to do graphic design, but I don't want to design web pages. I'm going to be a dinosaur in 20 years. But darn it, web design is so...so...ugly. The difference between bad web design and good web design is a much smaller gulf, aesthetically, than I like. _
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10:01:56 PM, Sunday 15 July 2001

Jurassic Park III: It's better than the second movie, and it gets points for having Ankylosaurs, my favorite dinosaurs, as well as the most dynamic action sequence this summer (T. Rex vs. Smilodon for those who were wondering). Points are removed however, by ending in what felt like the middle and not killing off 'Billy'. _
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08:59:52 PM, Sunday 15 July 2001

Even though it's a stupid television show it has it's fans. Now those fans can play the card game. _
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05:12:45 PM, Sunday 15 July 2001

Even though it's a stupid television show it has it's fans. Those fans _
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05:10:44 PM, Sunday 15 July 2001

I just saw moss reply to a post on metafilter. Then i saw moss get quoted by someone later in the reply section. It's like he's a celebrity or something! _
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01:47:20 PM, Sunday 15 July 2001

Sigur Ros is an amazing band. Yes, yes, they're indie darlings, but their beautiful, glacial music has a pulse and soul that Enya could only hope for. Where listening to the Great Queen of Sailing Away is, to paraphrase South Park, like waiting for death, listening to Sigur Ros is like watching the sun rise in the arctic after six months of darkness. Don't believe me? Download something off of this excellent fansite. My recommendation would be the 10+ minute 'svefn-g-englar' but it's all good. Oh, they're icelandic (but in the good way, like Bjork) and they made up their own lyrical language called 'Hopelandic' which, while it is kind of a hokey name, strangely works.

Sigur Ros are one of the only bands I've heard that make moody music that isn't simply rage and angst or just treacle. _
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02:36:28 PM, Saturday 14 July 2001

The Final Fantasy Movie: Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should. _
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03:03:58 PM, Friday 13 July 2001

And yet more travel. Weddings are definitely easier to go to. _
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12:09:26 AM, Monday 9 July 2001

I like your bloglet Kerne, but white type on that sort of lavender makes it very hard to read. The color scheme is nice, but black letters on a light background, especially for text-intensive things like a bloglet, will save many people hours of squinting. Other than that, congrats on the new digs! _
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05:34:37 PM, Sunday 8 July 2001

Well, Hayes Barton is still a wonderful place to eat. I can't believe I put away that entire meatloaf . . . uuuuuuuh. _
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07:58:47 PM, Friday 6 July 2001

Sj Games just laid off 13 people today. I have the sneaking suspicion that I might have been number 14. I feel like Keaneau Reeves in The Matrix, dodging poorly animated slow-motion bullets. _
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05:46:11 PM, Friday 6 July 2001

Happy Birthday, Moss. _
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08:13:40 PM, Tuesday 3 July 2001

This is just too good a time and place not to write a bloglet entry. I have just been to an absolutely wonderful wedding (Andrew and Lizzie Sarazin, now) that was an excellent mix of the traditional (the trappings and physicality) and the, for lack of a better word, Johnny (the actual wedding and the way it was a cozy affair set on a stunning vista overlooking what must be one of the most beautiful places on earth, Maine). They read poetry to each other and made up vows which had things like, "Be honest" in them. It was wonderful and I got to be reminded just how much I missed being around a mass of Johnnies with nothing to do but chat and wonder what we were going to do.

Now, I am sitting in Manchester Airport, waiting for 5:45 am to roll around so I can get on a flight to get home. Our flight was cancelled, rescheduled, cancelled again, and finally, hopefully definitively, rescheduled. US Air is evil. Southwest just held up their flights, because the bad weather was all up and down the eastern seaboard.

I watched Mortimer Adler on television before the wedding, it was 1990. _
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01:29:58 AM, Monday 2 July 2001

Four days and two books to get out the door. I'm doomed. _
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10:27:50 PM, Sunday 24 June 2001

Woohoo! Thanks Mirbai! New story! Woo! _
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04:03:08 PM, Monday 18 June 2001

what a useless weekend _
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03:42:50 AM, Monday 18 June 2001

Wow...Moulin Rouge was...wow. _
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12:59:11 AM, Saturday 16 June 2001

Yay! Philip Pullman rules. Anyone who hasn't go read the His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass is the first). _
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10:58:24 PM, Thursday 14 June 2001

I get to see Guided By Voices! Yay! Glad I picked up that City Paper thing. Also, Moulin Rouge! It's going to be a weekend of fun! _
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10:53:18 PM, Thursday 14 June 2001

This is Moss, attempting to reproduce a technical difficulty. _
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07:45:56 PM, Wednesday 13 June 2001

Yay! _
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08:39:12 AM, Wednesday 13 June 2001

TWO FUCKING BEERS!?!? I'm totally smashed after drinking a GUINESS and a Hard FUCKING CIDER!?!? Sure, I've had 4 hours of sleep in the last 32 hours, THAT'S NOT A FUCKING EXCUSE!?!?! I turn into a babbling idiot. Fuck. I love that word. _
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08:24:34 PM, Tuesday 12 June 2001

Is foreign policy forecasting supposed to read like Suck?
(This link will be dead after today) _
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07:03:26 AM, Tuesday 12 June 2001

No breakthroughs are expected on any of the big issues.

Gotta Love the Beeb. _
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06:54:45 AM, Tuesday 12 June 2001

May I just say, that in the Baron there are three important things. In decending order:

1. Telling a good story: This is the heart of the game, but not it's soul. It's possible to tell a good story without the aid of The Baron (the game, that is, published by Hogshead press, seven dollars, wonderfully illustrated, and a great value all around). Thus, the actual telling of the story is the least important of the three important things.

2. Making a good objection: This is the main mechanic of the game, and what makes it (a little) different than simply making shit up off the top of your head. You have to incorporate other people's shit. I have to admit, the multi-pronged objections that have come up in the The online version of The Baron have been a little more difficult for me to adapt to, as they are occasionally labyrnthine in logic, but adjust I will.

A good objection should lead either to a good joke, or an interesting plot twist. Objections should only rarely be self serving, and should usually be made to see how a person will get out of a difficult situation you've made for them than to actually steer the story. I have never once made an objection with the intention of steering the story that has been accepted. Well, once, but he was accepting ALL objections.

3. This is the most important, Asking for a good story. I am of the school that prefabricated story kernels (such as those found in the book) are for the weak. They offer a good starting point in terms of style and sharpness of vision, but simply by being there means that someone else has told those stories. You want to be an original don't you?

Of course you do. So asking a good story (what a strange sentence construction) is the pivotal point in the game. It's the eye of the needle, small, but you have to put your thread through it in order to make anything. A good story seed should suggest an end, but no beginning or middle. A good story seed should be concise. A good story seed should suggest a conflict and it's resolution(which ties in with having an end but no beginning or middle).

I am writing this because I am particularly happy with the story seed I came up with here and because I am up extremely late. _
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06:38:28 AM, Tuesday 12 June 2001

The Clint Eastwood video is also, happily, on the Clint Eastwood single. Doesn't make me feel so bad for having bought it. _
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07:49:30 PM, Sunday 10 June 2001

Check out the Clint Eastwood video at the _
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05:16:48 PM, Sunday 10 June 2001

Huzzah! Mirabai enters the game! _
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04:09:31 PM, Saturday 9 June 2001

What's a funnier name for a Battle Armored Bovine?

Cow Tse Tongue
or
Cowabunga

? _
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07:01:03 PM, Friday 8 June 2001

Fah! Am I the only one who's going to play with Moss's wonderful new Toy? _
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05:56:36 PM, Friday 8 June 2001

It's amazing that I have nothing to write. It's just that ever since I announced I was resigning (June 28 for those keeping score) it's just felt like, for the first time in a long time, the right thing to do. It's not just boyish excitement at a new thing, it's relief at returning to something that promises to be both comfortable and new. I know that packing is going to be a bitch, but I think I'll survive. I look forward to the future with love in my heart and knowledge in my head. _
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01:53:07 AM, Friday 8 June 2001

Well, I did it. I'm out the door on June 28th. I...I...I have absolutely no idea what to say. _
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03:58:32 AM, Wednesday 6 June 2001

I'm so freaking anxious. _
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07:03:47 PM, Monday 4 June 2001

I am giving notice at Steve Jackson Games tomorrow. _
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02:07:00 AM, Monday 4 June 2001

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