I still do read the Amber list, and a reference to an online work by one Ron Edward sent me to read his piece on role playing theory.

The piece is a dense piece of work, but with a clearly defined agenda. What's more, I pity the man, for the following quoted paragraph
in the pieces summation. It shows his basic unhappiness with a lot of role players. He seems to think that the majority of role players are closed minded, defensive turtles and such players, according to him:
"I have not, in over twenty years of role-playing, ever seen such a person have a good time role-playing. I have seen a lot of groups founder due to the presence of one such participant. Yet they really want to play. They prepare characters or settings, organize groups, and are bitterly disappointed with each fizzled attempt. They spend a lot of money on RPGs with lots of supplements and full-page ads in gaming magazines." (Ron Edwards, GNS AND OTHER MATTERS OF ROLE-PLAYING THEORY)
To read the entire piece (be warned, its jargon heavy, to say the least):
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/gns/gns_introduction.html

Quenya Baby Book

http://www.inf.upol.cz/~mullerr/theresa/names.html

It's a listing of names and their Quenya equivalents. Quenya is the language of the elves in Tolkien's Middle Earth. What's more, my love of fonts has long since given me a set of Dan Smith's excellent Tolkien fonts...so I can render the names properly with the aid of The Tengwar Scribe.

Hello, my name is Paul, and I am a junkie for good role playing games. :grin:

As readers of this space have noted, I am excited by the prospect of the second edition of Nobilis. I should have provided this link
much earlier, but R. Sean Borgstrom, the creatrix of the game, has a series of columns
on RPG net taking the lid off of the re-launch and design process.
http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/collists/wind.html

In other news, I decided to start putting up some of my books on half.com for sale. If you want to take a look at what I have
available so far, take a look. PrinceJvstin's books on half.com

Oh, speaking of the little things in life, thanks, Meera, for the nice comment on the alt tag you put on the link to my Blog.

I do appreciate it.

Experimented with Blogskins, but I didn't like the results.

I suppose that I will work with hand-coding instead. It will be good practice for when I do decide to use something like Moveable Type--which would be predicated on me getting a *real* website...but that might just happen after all.

In other news, Ambercon comes nearer and nearer, and I need to work on characters and such. I do wish all of the GMs would get in touch with the players, so that hammering out issues can be done before the game. This year, with AAPA, I essentially am giving 25 extra points to players who give me players before game day. Not to penalize those who come in cold, mind, but it makes it so much easier to resolve sticky issues, and have an idea of what the PCs are like beforehand. "Okay, so she's a warrior daughter of Benedict...I think I will involve her like *this*."

As an addendum to the Which Classic Book Are You?,if you want to read a different book
on Machiavelli than translations of the Prince, and learn what connection he had with, of all people, Leonardo Da Vinci,
pick up Fortune is a River.

I highly recommend it.

Of course, given the results of this test, I guess you wouldn't believe me if I told you that I wasn't "trying" to get The Prince
as an answer at all! I think it might have surprised me as much as it did Arref.

Ted Koppel, we love you

Ted Koppel is showing far more class than his bosses do at Disney, or deserve to be shown. In their admission that they are chasing the services of David Letterman like a whore, or, a lawyer chasing an ambulance, they have admitted that they are looking to replace Nightline, and Politically Incorrect. While Bill Maher's show is getting relatively low ratings, and his outspoken, controversial statements have angered many, Ted Koppel is a different fish altogether.

For example, did you know Nightline gets more viewers, each night, than Letterman?

The thing is, though, that Letterman brings in much more advertising dollars...more than twice that of Nightline. It's the worship of Mammon that motivates the Mouse to court Letterman, not ratings. The machivellian machinations on the part of Disney, though, are foolish and ill-serving. Ted Koppel could have opened up a vial of vitriol on them, justifiably so, but his editorial is remarkably restrained.

His point, though is clear. Even in an era of 24 hour cable news--there is ALWAYS a place for thoughful, provocative discussion and digestion of the issues--and Nightline provides that.
And, not everyone has cable or satellite TV, anyway.