I was walking down the street, and two cars with the Google logo were driving past with giant camera arrays on top of them.

I smiled and waved.

If you have any good stories to tell from your gaming nights - memorable quotes, spectacular deaths, inspired plots - then I have a place for you where you can tell us all about them:

The War Stories Wiki

So far, three different tales by three different people have been uploaded:

The Trouble With Gankorou
The Marriage of Frisco Flagons
Captain John McCleod

I hope to see your stories there as well!

I've just posted a lengthy essay on how to deal with sociopathic player characters over at ENWorld. You might find it interesting.

From here:

As I hope my recent Arcana Wiki for Otherkin proves.

Here is a summary of movie reviews of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed".

Read through the comments... for as long as you can stomach them...

Warning - not safe for work!

Is anyone surprised by this?

Anyone?

Hidden College Costs: Rising Fees

I think I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I'm damn glad that I didn't have to get my degree in the United States.

My first interview was published.

I'm famous! :D

The Arcana Wiki has become the Illuminated Site of the Week!

Oh. My. God.

I'm so staying away from this game. I don't have the money, and above all I don't have the time to get involved with this!

The Arcana Wiki has been growing nicely since its inception less than two months ago, and it now features more than five hundred entries. By all rights, I should be satisfied.

And yet, it could grow faster still. The overwhelming majority of the entries were written by me, and while gradually new contributors are joining up, it's still not fast enough for my tastes.

With that in mind, does anyone here have any good ideas for finding new contributors? Where could I advertise the existence of the wiki so that I can attract a larger audience?

After I posted a blog entry on ENWorld, I triggered a debate in which D&D 3.5 fan basically accuse D&D 4E of being "unrealistic".

...

No, really.

...yet I can't stop laughing.

LOLTHULHU

Palisades Rathouse: Unchallenged by Health Officials, Elderly Twins Fed Local Vermin Population

Warning: Do not read if you want to eat anything within the next few hours, if you are going to sleep soon, or if you are in any way phobic of rats.

Still, it makes for good gaming...

I haven't been very active here in the last two months, and the reason for that was that my day job was absolutely grueling. But things are looking up - yesterday, my three-week vacation started (one of the perks of living and working in Germany is that we tend to get 5-6 weeks of paid vacations per year...), and since I don't really have the funds for any major trips (except for visiting my parents for one week, which hardly counts as "major"), I will do little but relax, goof around, and explore Aachen and environs.

But only know, as all the tension is ebbing away, do I realize how exhausted I was. I went swimming yesterday (solely needed - because of work and because the local public swimming hall had closed down for the past few weeks, I hadn't gone swimming for more than a month and my joints were starting to complain - one of the occupational hazards of a desk job), and afterward went to the laundromat to wash the huge amount of dirty laundry that had piled up.

And after that, I just folded up. I slept late (which for me meant 7.30 AM - I am normally physiologically incapable of sleeping that long. My biorythm hates me.), and even later during the day I just spent time in my bed as often as not, and did not leave my apartment at all.

Now, I remember times when I was just as exhausted - during Basic Infantry Training, for example. But during that time, the tension never really went away, and the weekends were too short to really relax. This is different - I really can relax now. I will see when I have recovered enough to start some new major ventures during my vacation...

The Chinese government continues to mess up on the PR front in the run-up to the Olympics.

By denying the visa for Joey Cheek, they have (a) increased global attention to the troubles in Darfur and (b) made themselves open to claims that they want to sabotage the chances of the American team of winning medals (especially since John Creek won silver and gold medals at the last winter Olympics). Apparently, the Chinese government really does not care about how they present themselves to the rest of the world, as long as they can look good in front of their own citizens.

On a related note, I fully approve of making Lopez Lomong the American flag carrier. This kind of "up yours!" gesture is the only one the Chinese government deserves at the moment. Of course, a bigger gesture would be Bush not showing up for the Olympics after all...

Pickens, Gore Sidestep Differences in Alternative-Energy Quest

I've said before that I expect that it will take about 10 years for the United States to recover from their economic problems. But once those ten years are over, I am fairly convinced that the US economy will come back with a vengeance and again lead the world in technological and social developments - and this time, in environmental technologies as well.

Because when sufficient numbers of Americans see the need for a certain policy to affect policy makers and economic leaders, that country is capable of grander things than any other. And while currently most Americans are merely focused on "just making the last eight years go away", soon they will see the need to go much, much further than that - and the country will adopt.

Which is more than I expect from Germany, frankly. Sure, we are fortunate to have quite a head start when it comes to environmental technologies. But most of the population seems to be too preoccupied with pining for the past instead of planning for the future.

Bangladesh is set to disappear under the waves by the end of the century

Someone should make a disaster movie out of this.

And I'm not trying to be callous here by suggesting to profit from other people's misery. Instead, if such a movie is done right and is scientifically accurate, it could serve as a powerful reminder that yes, Global Warming is something that affects real people.