Whistling in the Dark

The Twits.

Thu, 08 May 2008 04:07:50 GMT

These are the twits I twitted.

15:48 Hm. At what point of sickness do you decide a cat needs the Vet vs. needing rest and care? #
21:18 Cat is better! #
21:18 City of Villains, where Delusion of Reference is just an excuse for a mission string! #
22:52 And now, this just in from City of Villains -- *FIFTY!* HAH! So... um. Hm. I guess that's it, then. #

The Twits.

Wed, 07 May 2008 04:05:18 GMT

These are the twits I twitted.

09:26 I am awake. I am ambulatory. All else is optional. #

The Twits.

Fri, 02 May 2008 04:02:49 GMT

These are the twits I twitted.

10:24 Major flooding reported in my hometown... and *Wednesday's* hometown. Coincidence? #
10:29 ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hUSAqRniLQgPSda1TEcBYrFJbKpwD90CM27O0 for the story of Floodgate 2008 #
10:47 They have also evacuated UMFK and sent the students to UMPI. Um... UMFK's on a *hill.* Like, out of Flood Plain level hill. #
19:07 I am full of delicious Korean food! Meat is good! And it was free! Who knew? #

The Twits.

Thu, 01 May 2008 04:11:19 GMT

These are the twits I twitted.

00:23 Mmmm... plans coming together.... #
15:16 My new GPS apparently claims to know the difference between Korean food and Chinese food. And Thai and Vietnamese for that matter. We'll see #

The Twits.

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:16:07 GMT

These are the twits I twitted.

12:00 That was about the weirdest dream I've had in years. And it involved Crown Royal. Which I am now craving. I've never even had it! #
15:41 My new indy rock band will be named "End Buffing Fae." Thanks, City of Heroes! #

Fuckers.

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:51:49 GMT

So, I'd recently gotten into The Next Food Network Star. I hadn't seen season 3, and they'd started rebroadcasting it on Fine Living Network. (Fine Living Network -- what Food Network looks down on.) So, cool. I set my season pass, and each week another "new to me" hour of cooking and pathos showed up.

Well. I watched last night's episode... and it was a terrible episode. Everything was breakneck speed, nothing was being developed, things were just being sprung left and right. And then they moved to elimination... nineteen minutes in.

Clearly, the rebroadcasts aren't doing well, so they'd decided to edit them to half an hour and get them over with.

And so, it went from one of the best reality type shows on television to one of the worst half hours on television period.

I went to iTunes. It's not available for sale.

I went to Amazon Unbox. It's not available for sale.

I looked for DVDs. They're not available for sale.

I checked the website. No episodes available for watching.

This right here? This is why people fucking pirate television, idiots. It's not that we're evil. It's not that we're cheap. It's that we actually want to watch your shows and you either don't make them available, or you fuck them up when you do, and you don't give us options to spend money on the legitimate outlets for them. I don't know if I'll bother actually trying to find a torrent of them or anything (I'd need to actually get torrenting software first, and I'm not sure I can be bothered), but I promise you that I'm way lazy enough to spend money on them if you'd fucking let me.

Or, you know, you could actually show the full episodes the way you started to do, idiots. Then I'd watch them on your fucking network in the first place.

(Do I seem disproportionately angry? That's because I hate fucking stupidity. And I'm a dork.)

The Twits.

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:12:07 GMT

These are the twits I twitted.

09:49 I open with coffee for $200, Art. Otherwise, it's all a matter of getting my brain to work. Hopefully via writing. #
16:16 ....City of Heroes... Gamemaster... instincts... risssiiiing... #

The Twits.

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 04:05:37 GMT

These are the twits I twitted.

01:33 Luna di Luna Merlot/Cabernet is way better than any wine I bought sheerly because I thought the bottle was cool has any right to be. #
19:49 Who else wants to see Les "Survivorman" Stroud beat Bear "Man V. Wild" Grylls unconscious with a weapon made from driftwood and a otter? #

The Twits.

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 04:08:58 GMT

These are the twits I twitted.

01:36 Heading for bed, my neck muscles locking with weird tension. Time for Canadian Aspirin. I will miss Canadian Aspirin. #
14:55 Holy crap -- there was a Sad Sack webcomic? sadsack.org/SSwebcomic.htm #
22:41 No context conversation quote: "Dude -- everyone giggles at 'titmouse.' It's one of the gifts the British gave us." #

The Twits.

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 04:07:03 GMT

These are the twits I twitted.

01:01 Mrph. How can I be this tired and incapable of sleep? #
10:21 Okay, that's officially a headache. Sigh. #
16:53 It never fails to surprise me how hardwired we all are to equate "I disagree with your opinion" to mean "you are BAD!" Myself included. #
18:39 Every meal is an exciting adventure. Will I succeed at my "safely consume food" roll, or blow it. This time? Bad roll, marginal failure. #
22:40 Green tea, dragonwell extra special ( tinyurl.com/6y69l5 ) -- a perfect evening ritual tea. #

Yet more on the Twitter thing

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:58:54 GMT

I've now had a couple people say that it's annoying to have to click through to read the twits on the Loudtwitter post, when they just want to glance and see them. At this point, I'm going to go back to that.

Sometimes, you just can't get rid of a bomb!

The Twits.

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:05:30 GMT

These are the twits I twitted.

11:29 Our database programmer here at the work is an all powerful God. Respect and devote yourself, lest he wreak vengence #
12:24 Gemaaaa. #
12:46 It occasionally occurs to me that I drink too much coffee. For a platoon. That's addicted to caffeine. #
18:30 Time to sit and sort of eat. Ah, thursday. #
22:20 Unpleasant realizations to have... well, ever, really. "Wow. My presence is pointless here. Not bad, not negative. Just... pointless." #
22:27 I should have tea. Tea is always a good thing. And it tastes like tea, which is a bonus. #

The Twits.

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:11:39 GMT

These are the twits I twitted.

09:56 Sleep is not my friend, it seems. Sigh. Not this again. I blame Charles Guiteau. #
11:53 Awww yeah. 320 gigs. Double the hard drive means at least moderate amounts of space. For now. #
11:59 Man, that last twitting sounded pathetic. And very,very white. #
12:30 Ah, the realization, when the headache you've had all day is suddenly associated with the coughing you didn't notice you were doing. Joy. #
14:44 Conference call meeting. Why does it always have to be a conference call meeting? And why do so many use speakerphones for them? #
17:21 I would like the government to please stop interfering with my and Wednesday's lives now. Right now. Today. Now. Riiiight... *now.* Thanks. #

The irony? Even reposting this is an example of peer pressure. Ah, society.

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:30:37 GMT

I've had several people ping me to get my reaction on The Ferrett's current fracas. Which, to be honest, seems strange to me, as I actually weighed in several times on the discussion before comments got frozen, most notably here. I think I laid out my opinions pretty clearly.

But, as comments over there are closed off now and because, as I said, there's been several pings lobbed my way, I am going to reprint my 'top level' comment here. (That is to say, the specific response I had to the Ferrett's essay, as opposed to the reactions I had to other comments. Those, you should read in their context.)

As plenty of people reading this are already sick of the subject, I will place said repost behind an LJ-Cut. If you read that thread, don't want to see any more on this, never wanted to see anything on it, or otherwise don't want to revisit... well, don't click.

And, I'll confess I'm looking forward to this one burning out. I like Ferrett quite a bit, and while I had and have criticisms about this experiment, they were civil and not personal. I'm hoping things will settle down and quiet down soon, for his sake, his friends' and loved ones' sake (some pathetic subhumans were downright brutal to his wife, who is also a friend of mine, who is a sweet person, and who didn't deserve any of what she got, and she was not alone in this). I'm also hoping that those who were truly, profoundly disturbed by Ferrett's essay and experiment get some measure of peace (and the people who were nasty to them fall into the same 'pathetic subhuman' category. Honestly, folks, we can have even passionate disagreements without becoming monsters.)

Without further ado, here 'tis.

I've kind of hinted around the things that make this disturbing for me, [in the original post's comments], but it seems like I should [post it as a single essay], for dissection, discussion, and diffusion.

Diffusion does not really work there, mind, but I had a good rhetorical device going.

As an isolated experiment conducted by a group of friends, self-selected to keep the less savory sorts out, the above seems fine, and like it was fun for those involved. There was the potential for Issue, but it seems there wasn't actually Issue, and that's good enough. Some folks had a good time doing things and fun was had by all.

Also, from a purely personal standpoint, I'm entirely okay with a group of like minded, intelligent adults deciding that they're okay with touching each other and being touched by each other. I can't say whether or not I'd have participated -- I suspect it would be the kind of thing I'd discuss with my fiancée and we'd elect to do so or not jointly.

From a purely heterosexual male perspective, I would also like to state that I like breasts.

That said: I think this experiment should remain just that -- an experiment that took place in the past. I don't think it should be replicated, and I don't think it should become a part of Con Life In General.

Briefly:

1. Liability for the Project is not limited to the Project: If a convention condones the activities listed herein, and someone finds them offensive, believes they've been harassed as a result, feels their children have been subjected to inappropriate activity or lots of other potential (bad) situations, the convention can be held accountable and liable for it. (Zoethe, as an extremely good lawyer, may correct me on legal points). It's not impossible the hotel might be as well. An all-ages convention on Open Source Software or Science Fiction may well attract congoers who would be bothered by people fondling each other in public places, and the legal defense "hey, it's at a Con" is not likely to stand in court. Since the project becomes something very very different if it only takes place at closed room parties, there isn't a good way to ensure that only the participants are liable.

2. The Name "Open Source Boobs Project" Would Have To Go: Boob is a funny sounding word. I can see why it's the word that got bandied about in the project. However, goofy word or not, its inclusion in the project means that at least when first describing the project to others, the project is not "the body-image positive exploration of the breaking down of societal barriers and the acknowledgment of the aesthetic appeal of the secondary sexual characteristics of the human species while attempting to remove the baggage that surrounds sexuality in our culture while acknowledging the beauty of the human form." The initial reaction one gets from the name is "Tits out for the lads! Only we're embarrassed by the word 'tits,' so we'll call them the name we teach our five year olds to use." Is that what's meant? Almost certainly not, but it sure as heck comes across nonetheless. I believe the people who were present who affirm the openness of the experiment as it was held, but despite the fact that I know Ferrett, when I read his original post I thought "man, those men sure are tit-happy, aren't they?" This is not a productive way to build a railroad.

3. Liability completely aside, what do you do with underaged congoers? Can you 100% identify people under the age of consent on sight? Of both sexes? What happens when a 14 year old who looks 19 (I know many at the school I teach at) gets a green button and her father comes across her being felt up by a bunch of thirty year old guys? Or what happens when a 13 year old boy who looks 18 (I know some of them too) gets caught hand-on-breast. Or an underaged girl is caught feeling a guy's butt or junk? In some places, this will get you placed on a Sexual Predator's list for the rest of your life, not to mention jail time.

4. No One Can Wear A Red Button Without Knowing What A Red Button Is: I've mentioned this above several times -- in order to put on a red button and state 'I do not want to be asked,' you must first be introduced to the subject. Now, this can happen because you ask what people are doing, or ask about the buttons, but it's more likely to happen when a participant introduces the subject to you, and suggests you go and get a button. Which is a dicier response than "this is entirely Opt-In." Especially when you remember that someone who declines to participate has no means of being identified, which means they might be solicited by several different well meaning people.

So, they Opt Out by selecting a red button. Only that then becomes an implicit condoning of the behavior, and itself becomes an invitation to discuss their decision. If someone is publicly wearing a red 'No' button, after all, the natural reaction is to ask 'why?' And some of the people wearing red would in fact be supportive of the project and would cheerfully talk about their personal choices. Ultimately, more buttons or differentiators would need to be established covering the range of "I don't want to talk about it please just leave me alone," which hardly seems in the spirit of the original experiment.

5. The Potential for Bad Feelings is Astronomical: I mentioned Charles Guiteau [in other comments]. This rather colorful fellow was a member of the sex-positive Oneida community in the 19th century -- this was a Utopic society that believed that Christ had already returned, that Heaven was on Earth, and that sex was a natural and beautiful part of life that should have no odd hangups or special attachments accrued to it. People should have sex whenever they feel like it, they felt, though of course the people involved should always have the right to say 'no.'

Sound familiar?

Anyway, Charles Guiteau was nicknamed "Charles Gitout" by these Utopists. In a free love commune, he was the guy who couldn't get laid. He was, to use Ferrett's term, a lout and everyone knew it.

We know all this because, feeling rejected, he went on to abandon Utopia and kill the President of the United States.

While it's unlikely a gross, unhygenic congoer will go on to kill someone in public office, you know full well there will be some unfortunates who will jump into this with both feet -- and no one but no one will want to be touched by them, leading to a wonderful feeling of being crushed having had admittedly unreasonable expectations raised.

And, what is worse, some folks will put on a green button... and no one will want to fondle them. They'll be the kid at the junior high prom standing near the wall. "Jesus," they'll think at the end of the night. "I can't even give it away."

This isn't potentially everything, but it's enough. I think Ferrett and the others had a great time and a good experience, and good on them. But this is a bad scene waiting to happen, and I think people should think way more than twice before trying it.

ADDENDUM ADDED ON THE REPOST: One thing that had been covered often in Ferrett's post's comments, which bears repeating here, are the number of people (of both sexes) who had bad triggers associated with Ferrett's essay. One point that needs to be repeating, and which Ferrett himself acknowledged very firmly, is that what can be interesting and cool among a group of self-selected friends who know and trust each other can be an emotional minefield among strangers. I have taken something of a clinical approach above, but for many this is not a clinical subject, and the depth of their feeling must be acknowledged and should be a red flag for those considering such an experiment. No one has their barriers lowered and a sense of empowerment from an incident that produces a panic attack in them, and knowing that this has that potential should be reason enough to just not do it

Thanks, all.

The Twits.

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:02:16 GMT

These are the twits I twitted.

10:23 Ahhh... new hard drive goodness. 320 gigs of internal laptop power means... well, knowing me about three weeks of space. #
17:13 I just put in an LJ-cut on Loudtwitter, as there was some unhappiness with the respost. We will see tonight if it actually works. #
17:17 Okay. Clearly I am not meant to take out the hard drive in this computer. To the hardware guy with it! #
20:41 For the record? Charles Guiteau ( tinyurl.com/58mv59 ) was the funniest man to ever shoot and kill a President. #

The Twits.

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:07:42 GMT

These are the twits I twitted.

01:04 Bleh. woke up with bad headache. Clearly, I need an air purifier in here, stat. Got the windows open and the A/C on as a stopgap. #
09:26 Mmm. After A/C and pseudoephedrine, I slept well. I dread the day they take pseudoephedrine away from us. #
09:32 I dreamed of being in a prison yard last night, though it wasn't so bad. Mostly it was about scrounging for basic foodstuffs for our cook. #
11:58 Hee! tinyurl.com/3r6sfh -- it's not that Blizzard dissed Uwe Boll, it's that Uwe Boll *announced* that Blizzard dissed him. #
14:02 Websnark post on the Interview: tinyurl.com/3g7n3c #
14:43 Off to the store, in hopes of getting an air purifier. Damnable spring. #
15:44 I now own an air purifier. I feel so grown up. #
16:38 Sugar free dried meringue cookies are one of the joys of a low glycemic life. #
22:08 Well, 'yay.' tinyurl.com/6xdva4 -- Wizards is (apparently) going for the jugular. #
23:23 You know... when Weds lives here, if we go to 'necessities and only rare perks' level and sock money away... we can live pretty cheaply. #

The Twits.

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:36:14 GMT

These are the twits I twitted.

10:01 Awake before Weds, which is somewhat unusual. Having coffee and net and considering the trip back -- the last without her. Looking forward. #
10:14 (Forward, that is, to bringing her with me next time. Not forward to leaving. Leaving sucks.) #
10:24 And, set stuff up to send twitter things to LJ once a day. Convergence and junk. #
11:40 @fadeaccompli At least you have an excuse. I woke up at 9 am for no reason. #
11:54 Gema. #
12:42 @etherjammer We prefer 'socioneurotically challenged.' #
13:33 Wedding registries are hard to get one's mind around. #
22:26 I am home! And someone left champagne on my dishwasher. The good stuff, no less! I mean, *dude.* #
01:04 Bleh. woke up with bad headache. Clearly, I need an air purifier in here, stat. Got the windows open and the A/C on as a stopgap. #

The Twits.

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:54:35 GMT

These are the twits I twitted.

14:57 Okay. I have a twitter account. Also -- the government is letting me get married! To a *girl!* #
01:46 We have found... the best of Kalbi in Ottawa. THE BEST OF KALBI! #
10:01 Awake before Weds, which is somewhat unusual. Having coffee and net and considering the trip back -- the last without her. Looking forward. #
10:14 (Forward, that is, to bringing her with me next time. Not forward to leaving. Leaving sucks.) #

VICTORY!

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:19:15 GMT

The interviewer opened the interview with "I'm feeling jaunty today."

We considered this a good sign.

We were right.

And now, Denny's. But first, action friend fiveslashfour sums it all up better than I could, given A) my exhaustion, B) my exhilaration and C) my desire to go have Denny's with THE WOMAN I AM NOW ALLOWED TO BRING ACROSS THE BORDER TO LIVE WITH AND MARRY ME, GOD DAMN IT!

So, enjoy the KJT.

Blast! Acquirente Di Mente has returned! Summon Uomo Del Blocco at once!

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:59:59 GMT

According to the BBC... the Italian police are on the lookout for a criminal with eerie mind control powers!

Italian supervillains. Man. That can't possibly go well.

Oh, thank Christ

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:52:59 GMT

This spoils an April Fool's joke involving Youtube. If you don't care, already know it, or whatever, then click the cut and enjoy.

Thank Christ.

No, I don't think that Youtube linking all their Featured Videos to the Rick Roll video of Never Gonna Give You Up is particularly clever. At the same time, I think it's clever enough for an April Fool's day gag.

However, by doing this, Rick Rolling officially becomes passe. Dad has now done it. It is ineffably uncool now. Those who enjoy the art of pranking will move on to new ground.

It will not die overnight, but this is the death knell, mark my words. All Rick's Base are now Belong To Them. This one's number now gets retired.

And thank Christ for that. It stopped being even vaguely amusing like a month ago. Or more.

City of Heroes prediction

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:48:16 GMT

Apropos of little:

I am now scheduled to drive to Ottawa on the 16th. I will be driving back on the 20th.

I hereby predict that either Closed Beta for Issue 12 of City of Heroes will launch on the 16th or 17th, or if Closed Beta drops later this week (Hah!) Open Beta will launch then.

Assuming all goes well at the Consulate (likely, though not certain), we will be moving Weds almost certainly in May. Ergo, I predict Issue 12 will drop in May, that weekend.

I have no idea how City of Heroes will release special events and new issues moving forward, since I won't be travelling to spend time with my fiancee any more. I mean, once she's living in the same apartment, she'll understand if I spend a night in City of Heroes because it's Double XP weekend or we just got Powered Armor costume packs or something. I don't do nearly enough business travel for that to inform their release schedule.

APRIL 18!!!!!!

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:05:40 GMT

The United States Consulate General in Montreal, Canada has requested my (Eric's) presence and the presence of my Canadian Fiancee (Wednesday) on April 18 to perform final Visa process approval, allowing her to officially, legally enter the country and for she and I to be bound together into the legally binding contract that is Matrimony.

On April 18.

APRIL 18, GOD DAMN IT! ALL SHALL MAKE MERRY!

We get through that, and then everything is on our schedule. We plan the move, we plan the actual quick "we get married now so we has no problems KTHX," and then we start planning the wedding. Or reception. Or whatever.

April. 18.

Dude.

For the record?

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:13:59 GMT

Eric Millikan has a damn good looking Project Wonderful skyscraper ad.

It's a detail of this.

And, I mean, damn.

I take lunesta and go to coma now.

A question for those in the know, involving the word OSRIC

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:11:50 GMT

Hey gang -- a quick question to the RPG developers in the crowd. And you know who you are.

Does anyone know if OSRIC's been juried or otherwise 'acknowledged' to be legitimate? I know they believe that they're in the clear, but their contention that the underlying algorithms of First Edition AD&D are reverse-engineerable without trouble sounds... I dunno. I'm not sure about it, and I don't want to get too far in the project I'm working on without knowing more.

Thanks!