Weep for humanity

OK, I'm a sports nut. I live for my Giants and Niners. I will watch golf if nothing else is on. I can quote obscure stats from sports I don't even like. But even I recognize some limits.

Couple names child ESPN.

OK, this is just stupid. Never mind the fact that this kid is going to be tortured by classmates, what happens if he isn't a jock? What if he ends up a bookworm, with no interest in sports whatsoever? Do parents not think of things like this? English has several hundred male names.. chose one of them. But ESPN? Good network, lousy personal name. Hell, if you have to name him after something sports-related; use the name of a particular sports hero. That wouldn't work for me, because Barry Douglas Berry is just as bad...

Ah, the songs of my youth..

WinAmp is giving me a tour of my musical youth (right now Led Zep - The Song Remains the Same")

It's interesting the effect that the songs we like as teenagers have on us. My musical tastes have changed since I was 13 (I've gotten into the Dead, filk, more metal, The Who, BNL, etc..) but hearing something like Led Zep, or old Journey, or even select disco tunes brings an involuntary smile to my face. I imagine isomeme gets the same thing from old Genesis and the like.

This isn't to say that I'm frozen in the late 70s and early 80s musically (one of my favorite songs right now is by Good Charlotte, fer Pete's sake!) but I think that there is something about that age, the early and mid-teenage years, that is particularly open to music. We make it ours, since our parents don't tend to get it. So the songs become our anthems, our themes.

Must headbang to KISS now. Which my parents so didn't get...

Speaking of sports geekery..

Today, at 1300..

On one channel, I have the rubber match between the Giants and A's.

On another, I have ArenaBowl XVIII.. my hometown SaberCats vs. the Arizona Rattlers.

It's good to be a sports geek. :)

Sigh.

Reading about today's San Francisco Pride Parade on the Gate, and I finally see the theme for this year..

"Out 4 Justice"

People, would it kill the printing budget to include a three-letter word instead of the text-messaging horror that English is rapidly sinking into? Can we please accept that "4" is the number between "3" and "5". and that "for" is a word in English? I can almost understand the substitution of such shortcuts if you are using a device that is difficult to use, or when speed is necessary, but here we are discussing an event that attracts millions and has a budget to match!

Save English! Or at least the American version of the language!

The lament of the frustrated writer..

I'm trying to get started again on the oft-delayed Lunion subsector project. I've got tons of neat ideas.. that all vanish when I actually sit down to write.

And the places I get them! On my bike in traffic, at work in the middle of helping customers, in the shower.. I swear to Ghu, I'm probably going to write half the damn book at the Giants game Friday! I do take notes, but they tend to be cryptic and once the moment of creation passes, it's hard for me to recover that thread in my heart.

Now that's I've pounded my head a little..

Once this is done, I'm planning on putting on my website as a "shareware PDF." There will be a link to my PayPal account, along with a note that if the reader liked this, and wants to see more, they should feel free to drop me a few bucks. I'm not looking to retire, but a few dollars into the kitty would help me save up for trips to see <;j user="eleri"> among other things.

So, it's poll time!

[Poll #313516]

High! Deep!

Out of here!

Bonds hits #677!! That ball was gone at the crack of the bat, no doubt about it!

He's closing in...

Ruth: 37 to tie
Aaron: 78 to tie.

Bad history.

I've been watching the History Channel, and am seeing two of the most biased shows I've seen in a while.

Both are part of the "Days That Changed History" series, and both concern nuclear issues.

The first was about Chernobyl, and did everything it could to make it seem that every nuclear reactor in the world is of the same shoddy design and run by the same idiots. The ending "there is no such thing as a safe atom" was total bullshit, since there's no such thing as a safe coal-fired plant either.

The second was about the Enola Gay and Hiroshima. If anything, this goes even farther! Americans are always shown either in jerky footage, clad in dark glasses and goggles, or never looking into the camera. Japanese (more often than not women and children) are always shown in conjunction with soft, simple music and pastoral scenes. They constantly look into the camera, making connection with the audience.

Nothing is given in context. No mention is made of Pearl Harbor, except when directly quoting Truman. No mention is made of the Japanese war crimes, or of the estimated casualties involved in the invasion of the home islands. The entire thing was made to show Americans as mechanistic, inhuman murderers, and the Japanese as innocent victims of horrid aggressions.

That's not how it happened. Any discussion of history has to look at the whole story. Someday, there will be documentaries about 9/11. I hope that they look not only at the atrocities of the day, but the political climate that led up to them!

Quick question:

Better John Williams film score:

Raiders of the Lost Ark

or

Jurassic Park?

Game fodder!

USA is advertising a TV movie called The 4400.

Basically, 4,400 people who have vanished over the last 60 years (since the dawn of the UFO era) suddenly, publicly reappear. None have aged a day, and most seem to have picked up an odd ability. I'm going to watch (not expecting much) but already I'm thinking game:

Conspiracy: The players are some of the 4,400, drawn together by a feeling of attraction they can't explain. They feel compelled to do.. something. When the 4,400 breakout of quarantine, they are pursed by the government, and a mysterious group. This would be a good episodic campaign, like all those "hero on the road" shows like The Fugitive or The Incredible Hulk.

Superheroes: The 4,400 comeback, and they are powerful! The aliens took selected humans to prepare them to serve as defenders against a looming alien or extra-dimensional menace. Alas, some of the 4,400 see the chance to use their abilities for personal gain. And since some of the grabbed folk were from WWII.. super-nazis! A few of the 4400 would be given the ability to create amazing devices. This would be a fun setting since Earth has never had superheroes before. No UNTIL, no Viper.. just a world getting used to the powerful in their midst.

Fantasy: These people weren't grabbed by aliens, but by the Seelie. They are sent back to fight magical threats. This is a sort of dark urban fantasy, a low-powered combination of the first two. Along with trying to reintegrate to the world of 2004, they also have to learn to deal with magic, the unSeelie, their Seelie masters.. Think of the Friday the 13th TV series.

Science Fiction The 4,400 weren't released, they escaped.. somebody "left the door unlocked." They were supposed to be used to conquer the Earth, now they are the key to its defense. Using their knowledge, Earth quickly builds up a high-tech fighting force. and learns to use psionic powers. The game starts when the aliens come to do by force what they failed to do by stealth. For real fun, set this in the 1950s! Fewer abducted, but more flag-waving! Colonel Chuck Yeager leading the First Orbital Interceptor Squadron, with Major Ted Williams by his side. Scientists with pipes and lab coats!