Could someone please tell me when the term “deadline”, as used in the publishing industry, came to mean “The time at which we’d like to have your final approved materials if you don’t mind; but if you do mind it’s okay, later will be fine, or tomorrow, or even after we’ve put the papers out on the racks – it’ll be no problem to pull all 30,000 of them and fix the phone number you couldn’t bother to double-check…”

All of our advertisers and salespeople seem to have been told about this change, but none of the production staff. Weird, huh?

From the Desk of a Bonehead

In the midst of praising Rain for the incredible job she did last night, I inadvertently insulted her by suggesting that she may not have been able to handle her opponent in Sudden Death. As has been pointed out, her opponent had the advantage, but that doesn’t in any way mean that she couldn’t have won.

Sweetie, I apologize.

The Sorceress of Speed and Time

I am very proud of my sweetie! She played the third scenario of a short Mechwarrior: Dark Age campaign last night, and she had done her homework; she’d gone over the scenario description, fine-tuned the force she was going to use, and even used me as a guinea pig for her strategy. (She ran roughshod over me, but did at least tell me that she hadn’t even expected the minimal resistance I provided, so I guess that’s a compliment *smirk*)

Last night she beat both her opponents in less than half the permitted time, and walked away with a valuable “Atlas” collectible game piece. (I told a non-gamer that it was a little like winning permission to replace your bishops with an extra queen in a chess game.) She also impressed the judge to the extent that he is going to sponsor her as a judge, which will be good for local cons and get her some nice perks as well.

Hooray for Rain!

Kallisti!

Hail Eris!

The What Planet Are You From? quiz says that I’m a…

“Child of Mercury… Your soul is thoughtful and in constant motion. Children of Mercury are driven to communicate. Equipped with charm and intellect, they are ready to face a situation with a view that sees all sides. — Being so occupied with the mind tends to cause you to distance yourself from others. As a member of the race who makes everything definable, remember to create deep relationships with others. Keep aware for your dark and light side, they are exactly that – in extreme. — Learning to use the mind as a tool and not your master is your key in this life. You can make anything happen if you really want it to. Remember, your beauty as a being goes beyond your mind. You are a beautiful expression of balance.”

Musings on a game of Mechwarrior: Dark Age

The simple fact of the matter is, as much as I enjoy all kinds of games, I am a rotten loser. It’s just something built into my personality, and I’ve never been able to overcome it. I honestly don’t know how to be casual and cheerful about losing a game; I envy those who have mastered that. I sympathized greatly with Jim Kirk in The Wrath of Khan when he stated flatly, “I don’t like to lose.”

Still, I want to be a good sport. Win or lose, I’ll want to play again, and throwing a fit can make it hard to find repeat opponents. So, when the burning feelings of anger and embarrassment hit, all I know how to do is to try to keep them hidden inside, let them sear through me quickly, and be calm and normal by the time I’m asked if I’d like to play again.

Well, I have to face facts… that’s not working very well any more. Shutting down my feelings fails completely around friends who know me and can see right through my mask. Besides, I can tell that my spirit is beginning to rebel against the decades of attempted stoicism; the mask is getting thinner and more transparent with every use.

I just have to figure out how not to let it bother me when I lose. Or give up all forms of competitive gaming; but that’s not exactly the answer I’m looking for.

Today is the fourth anniversary of my marriage to the wonderful, beautiful, raininva. I love you forever and a day, sweetie!

They just played Madonna’s “Vogue” on the radio, and I had a flashback to a VTSFFC party where we all tried to Vogue, but we just couldn’t manage it, so we fell back on something we were familiar with. We all started summoning Zords instead.

“Power Ranger Vogueing,” while odd-looking, doesn’t look any odder than actual Vogueing.

Wonder if my old SE is eligible?

Talk about long-lived hardware… here’s a link to a honest picture of a 1989 Macintosh SE/30 (16MHz, 1 Meg RAM) running Apple’s 21st century OS X operating system on a 9-inch black & white screen!

“Overclocked” antique Mac

… okay, so it’s actually an iMac motherboard jammed into an old SE/30 case and hooked to its monitor by some crazy Japanese person. Still kinda cool… like when we were going to hook an LCD screen and battery pack to Ed Philibin’s otherwise self-contained Amiga and make a bulky Amiga “laptop”.

Technology marches on

Thanks to Jaguar, QuickTime 6, and DivX for Mac 5.0 Alpha 3, I can finally watch DivX .avi files now. Time to catch up on those “Chobits” episodes I was loaned!

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