Monday, March 29th, 2004

Time	Event
3:36p	Geek Territory ahead / \n p0wnz j00.... It seems somehow cosmically unjust that the largest source of my code crashes recently are due to that #$%@ newline character at the end of ASCII files. Yes, I am aware that this is the technological equivalent of complaining that I don't like the little plastic things at the ends of my shoelaces, but it cost me 5 fucking hours of CPU time today alone. ARGH! I have been bitten again, by the desire to create another Call of Cthulu oneshot adventure. Possibly this has something to do with the fact that the last one got such good reviews that a different subset of my group of gaming friends now want to play through the one I already ran, since they heard it was neat. Which is good I suppose, from a whole utility point of view...it takes longer to prepare for a single session game than it does for any individual session of an ongoing one. At the same time, I hope I can GM it as well the second time. I guess we'll see. At any rate, I think I want to do a different deal than the last one. The last one was basically a bunch of unprepared spec ops military personnel being tossed in over their heads and having to try to save a bunch of civilians from they know not what. The new one I think I'd like to take some college age characters, and have them visit home to find things quite different. This time, they have to save themselves, and figure out if the town CAN be saved. Should be much darker, certainly more room for the individual players to go with different themes. Horror aspect without the means to combat it, real vunerability issues. I may have mentioned it here before, but Rice apparently has already lined up my replacement for when I go off their payroll. No pressure now. (Comment on this)
4:21p	Less Geekery, more Moral Indignation... The American Physical Society occasionally brings things to my attention. I've been a member (if I count, I am after all MERELY a graduate student), for two or three years now, and a lot of what they send my way is fairly useless (conferences on things I'm not involved in, in places I can't afford to go to, discounts on journals that I either don't read, or can't afford to buy etc.). Some are interesting however, and as an interested party in the 'Forum on Physics and Society', I get pointed to their publication, which I believe is quarterly. I therefore direct you to the PDF file from this month: http://www.aps.org/units/fps/newsletters/2004/april/index.cfm which you may or may not be interested in. However, one little tidbit from the 'FYI: From the American Institute of Physics', did indeed get the old vitriol pumping... From FYI, this month Dec 2003: An OSTP (Office of Science and Technology Policy) official reported that the Bush Administration was strongly supportive of fusion energy. The same official warned that calling for balance in the federal research budget [presumably between physical and biological/medical sciences] is "divisive" and is "...just not going to help." Hm. Lets just break that down. Support but not pay for. Equality breeds divisiveness. Yep, definitely from the Bush Administration. Now I don't mean to IMPLY that the old men in charge of the country want to put more money into trying to extend their lifespans than in investing in our country's technological future. I mean to say it OUTRIGHT. To imply that it is divisive to attempt to equalize in some way the amount of money spent on the physical sciences with the biological sciences? Does this make sense to anyone out there? (2 Comments | Comment on this)

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