Long break between game sessions

Definitely bored, but I need the time to get back to reality. Hopefully when I get back to the game it will be even more fun.

A World View

I had hoped to avoid political posts, but I felt like this was necessary.

The more I hear about the history of the Republican party and their goals, the more I am disheartened. The distinction between Democrats and Republicans used to be about policy. It used to be about political means to achieve the same ends.

Sadly, that is not the case anymore. What I increasingly see in the Republican party is a need to paint themselves as the beset upon minority, crying for attention and justice when no injustice has occurred. Much of this might have to do with the cultural shift in this country that has taken place over the last 40 years. In that time...

• The issue of abortion was decided in Roe v. Wade.
• The Vietnam War left a lasting scar on the American psyche about extended wars overseas and the meaning of American Empire.
• It's been a period of larger than usual ups and downs in the American Economy coupled with regulation and then deregulation of various industries.
• There's been a rise in the vocal wants of Christian religious groups in response to (what they see as) the deterioration of American morality.

What's really going on is that America is changing in a way that hasn't been seen since the turn to the 20th century. The values of new immigrants and the changing values from the religiously disaffected make certain groups feel like their way of life is waning and that a new, less-moral, less WASP way of life is taking its place.

You know what? They're right. But the goal should not be to defeat this change. Their goal should not be to say that X is responsible for all our problems and all the affronts I feel from society. Change is scary to people. For many, it represents an unknown quantity forcing it's way into their comfortable equations about life, family, society, and the world. Change is not always necessary, but in this case it is unavoidable.

So what do you do? Scream louder? Lay the blame at more feet? Take the other guy to task for ruining your life just because of his existence?

It's not his fault, but at the same time it's not their fault. Certainly some in American society can be blamed for continuing old traditions while not adapting to a world that changes around them, but the change is not always their doing.

America can not make the world change to the way it wants it to be, so everyone better learn to find that part of a peaceful life amongst the world community that they need in order to progress.

I feel like it's God's version of tough love. "O Mankind, We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other. Verily the most honored of you in the sight of God is he who is the most righteous of you" (Quran 49:13)

People better start learning to love thy neighbor, or we won't have any neighbors left.

Here comes trouble

The kid has learned to laugh at me. Hopefully only when I do something intentionally funny.

Odd combinations

I remember a day in college when I rented two movies from the local eclectic video store and the clerk remarked: "We may have a winner for oddest double feature of the day."

The two movies were:
Aparajito (1956, Satyajit Ray, 2nd part of the Apu trilogy)
Super Fly (1972 Blaxploitation film)

Today I find myself with an odd CD-swap in the PC...
I took out: The Dark Crystal Soundtrack
And put it in: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan "Live at the Royal Albert Hall"

Old and busted...

Old and busted... Dungeons & Dragons.

New hotness... Pathfinder!

Just had our first game session of Rise of the Runelords. Good times had by all!

Golarion

For many, many years I was a devoted Forgotten Realms guy. It wasn't the stories that came from the novels, it wasn't the writing of Ed Greenwood (who is a scary fantasy geek by the way), and it wasn't the computer games.

What I saw in the Forgotten Realms was a complete world opening up to me as a DM like no other world has ever been. It was a veritable playground of adventure and I loved just thinking about the possibilities the Realms promised.

Well, that all has changed. I still like the Forgotten Realms, but with 4th Edition, it's changed. It's not the same anymore, much like many things in D&D. So I guess you could say I've left the Realms.

I found Paizo picking up the mantle where Wizards of the Coast has dropped it. Golarion is everything I first saw in the Realms. There are some things I would have done differently, but on the whole, it is an amazing world filled with all the wonder I've longed for in a campaign setting.

We're playing our first session tonight of a Pathfinder Beta Rise of the Runelords campaign. It's gonna be great.

Everything looks better in Chrome

Google has a new browser. Do we really need ANOTHER browser? It's not bad, but we're getting back to the height of the browser wars already. Isn't this supposed to be something like Beta vs VHS? HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray?

Google Chrome