(no subject)

I found my filofax this morning. It's been missing since May, and I was somewhat miffed about this, cos I paid Good Money for it. But I found it in a bag I haven't used since (coincidentally) May or so. So that was a good start to the morning. I need to get the 2003 diary pages for it now.

The weekend was good. We got in a Yule Tree, decorated it, put up some fake greenery and lights on the stairs (rather pleased with that), make gingerbread biscuits (damn good, we'll need to make another batch before Saturday), and I played a lot of NWN (now up to Chapter 3).

Do Nothing Friday was exactly what I needed. Between that and the other days off, I'll be in good form indeed by the start of the holidays.

(no subject)

In the interest of doing away with all the baggage caused by the term "friends list", it has been decided that hereafter we will to refer to all the people who have someone on their friends list as "stalkers", and the people on one's friends list as "stalkees". The list itself will be called a "stalking list".

Kudos to mr_wombat.

(no subject)

My friend Brannon has himself a new site: The Enkwell

Apparently, he's also getting something published in February's Dragon.

Letters Unsent

In the style of puritybrown:

Dear People Who Are Supposed To Answer The Phone in the Savoy and UGC Cinemas,

Why won't you do your jobs? Savoy people, I could understand the constant engaged tone I was getting last week, but I now suspect you of leaving the phone off the hook. UGC people, I'm not certain that you have ever picked up the phone. It's probably white or beige, maybe black, and if you pick it up, you can listen to the people who want to book tickets. You probably know it as "that thing that never stops making noise, even when I hit it with a hammer."

While I'm writing to you, can I book tickets for The Two Towers on the 18th? Booking is where I give you money in advance, and you give me tickets either in advance or on the night. The Two Towers is a film (mov-ing pic-ture) that is coming out soon.

Thank you,
Drew.

(no subject)

Hm. Wizards of the Coast are putting out revised core rulebooks for D&D in 2003. Read about it here. It's apparently definitely not a fourth edition, but they're revising classes for balance, adjusting spell lists, changing some of the pricing rules around magical items, and doing some other minor stuff.

And while D&D is my all-time favourite game, there comes a time when I decide that I've given Wizards enough money. I think instead of buying the new PHB, I'm going to buy Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed. And instead of the new DMG, I'll be getting, say, d20 Traveller. I'll be spending the same amount of money - it's just not going to Wizards.

I can't help but wonder what they're aiming at here. If they want to improve the game, then they should release a web expansion, like they've done for the various splatbooks. If they want to make more money, they should release new material, not revised versions of old material. This seems to fall between the two, and I don't think people are going to go out and replace their books, only two years after they bought them. If I'm buying books for someone else, sure, I'll buy the new ones - indeed, I won't have much option - but I'd buy the old ones too, were they still in print. No extra sales, y'know?

(no subject)

Looks like Dublin Bus got spanked for raising their fares more than 9%. They've issued new fares effective from today. But unless I miss my calculations, 1.20 is still over 9% higher than 1.05...

(no subject)

I like to change my desktop backgrounds fairly frequently, and I try to aim for something faintly seasonal. When it rolls around to a new season, I punch in "[season] wallpaper" to google, surf through eight or ten pages of kitsch, and find some decent stuff. "Hallowe'en wallpaper" got some fantastic stuff - hard to choose from.

But can I find some decent Yule / Christmas / Winter Solstice backgrounds? The hell I can. I don't want Santa, and I don't want Rudolph. Neither do nativity scenes grab me. But there seems to be sod all else out there... I may have to make one, at this rate.