Posted a correction to my recipe entry, regarding the Kitchen Sink.

Djinn is only a participant, not the creatrix. My bad, my very bad.

Movie Review

Star Trek: Nemesis

Starring: Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, Tom Hardy, Ron Perlman, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden

Directed by:Stuart Baird

And here we are at the tenth movie in the Star Trek Franchise. From Star Trek the Motion Picture to Insurrection, I have seen them all, albeit that the first one I saw in a theater was Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. I've seen all of the series, although Voyager started to flag in my interest in its last couple of seasons, but I do watch the new series Enterprise. I've been to a Star Trek Convention, in the Ambassador Hotel in NYC. George Takei and Marina Sirtis were the Guests of Honor, and I nearly ran into the former by accident in the stairwell.

So you might say that I am a fan. Like Star Trek Fans, though, I can be critical, very critical. I am well aware of the Odd-numbered Movie rule and for the most part agree--the odd number Star Trek Movies are on the balance not as well done as the even number ones. After the rather lackluster Insurrection, number nine, I was hopeful that Nemesis, even number ten, would be better.

The result is a mixed bag. As Star Trek: Nemesis opens, Riker and Troi have been finally married, and we pick up at their reception on Earth. What's more, they are soon on their way to Betazed for another marriage ceremony, in the true Betazed custom. On their way, Picard and his crew are diverted to the Neutral Zone, to discuss the Romulans' insistence that they would like to negotiate peace with the Federation, as well as the discovery of an apparent earlier version of Data. What our heroes uncover instead is the fruit of an abandoned years-long plan to infiltrate the Federation--a clone of Picard himself. Challenges, deceit, distrust, and violence ensue.

The space battles are entertaining but the last act of the movie is frankly derivative of Wrath of Khan, on several levels. When the Enterprise and the fearsome Scimitar reach a Nebula, you will start to get flashbacks, and there is a sacrifice of a major member of the crew in a Spockian fashion, complete with an obvious loophole. On the other hand, many of the crew are given disappointingly little to do. Cameos by Traveller Jr. (Wesley Crusher) and (Admiral!) Janeway were welcome, although I wondered with Troi and Riker getting married where Deanna's mother was in all of this. I think the villain's achilles heel is too potent, and although his ship was fearsome, it was implied that he had much more at his disposal. I also wondered, with all the Romulan scheming, where the Tal'Shiar was in all of the machinations. I can't believe, from a series continuity point, that they wouldn't have their fingers in pies as large as Shinzon's coup d'etat and his plans against the Federation.

In all, it was a disappointment. I don't regret seeing it, but I wouldn't see it again (in movie theaters anyway). I can sense that on some levels that they tried, but a large hole involving Data's subplot just irks me, and I don't really want to discuss it just yet because of that bugbear, spoilers. It should be obvious, though, to long-time fans of the Next Generation.

Rating: 2 and a half popcorn kernels out of five.

Recipe for Chili, Jvstin Style

I was kind of inspired by the Kitchen Sink blog to put up, here, a recipe of my own. Now, mind you, I've only started cooking in the last few years, and cooking by myself seriously since moving to California (when I lived with TGKFAB, Bonnie, her mother and I rotated the cooking duties). Now, here in my apartment, I just get to cook for myself. No pretty girls to invite over for dinner, alas.

Anyway, chili is one of the first things I learned to cook from my Mom since I highly enjoy it. Ever since coming to Anaheim, though, I've experimented with, and modified the recipe, its a continual work in progress. The addition of a slow cooker (thanks to the generosity of the Olsons) has only improved it, in my opinion.

This version of the recipe makes (for me anyway) about 6-8 servings.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds Ground beef (usually 1 pound of it sirloin)
  
• 1 can (28 oz.)diced tomatoes
  
• 1 can (10.75 oz.) Tomato soup
  
• 2 cans (15 oz.) Beans: I usually use 2 cans of kidney beans but other kinds are good too.
  
• 1 can Green Giant Mexicorn (its a corn and peppers blend)
  
• 8 oz. Salsa or Picante sauce
  

Brown the beef, with spices, in a large saucepan, drain.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a large bowl, with desired spices

If you have a crockpot, combine the beef and the bowl ingredients into the slow cooker stoneware and set to cook on low 6-8 hours.

If you do not, add the contents of the bowl to the beef in the saucepan, and simmer 30 minutes.

Serve hot over Rice (which can be cooked with the chili in the slow cooker). Another option that out here I have found is particularly delicious is to serve the chili onto a tostada.

Writers on America

Hubble watches Galaxies engage in Dance of Destruction

Fear and Loathing in the NFL(?)

Evil Name Generator

Different categories and stuff, too. Generator Page

Via Arref

Litigation Mania

Perhaps, just as the 60 Minutes piece suggested (which I saw and thought was quite insightful), Jefferson County, Mississippi is really the mecca of lawsuits in the US...since a couple of former jurors are suing 60 Minutes for libel in airing the story. Maybe I would be more sympathetic to the plantiffs if they didn't have the gall to sue CBS for 6 Billion (that's B folks) dollars. Read all about it.

Via Reason magazine's new Hit and Run Blog.

Great stuff over on Arref's Blog today. All sorts of interesting items. Then again, you've probably come from there or will go there anyway. This Blog is pretty insular that way.

It's a (quasi) wonderful life

Jvstin, you are my friend.

Not only this, but my mother sent me a christmas tree, it arrived yesterday. Granted its a small 24 inch artificial tree..but now I do have one, with decorations to boot. Yes, I do realize that people care and I am grateful, but there is another emotion I feel in times like this that I have never been able to express properly. I am going to try it here and now, and hope you will all understand, give you some insight into my personal micropsychology (no I have no idea if that is a real word but it sounds good).

When someone does something nice for me like this, it provokes guilt and shame within me. Let's face it, if I was hunky-dory and fine, Arref would not have even thought of going to that flash site and putting my name into it. He likely would have never considered the effort at all. To a lesser extent I feel the same way about presents, too, no matter what mood I am in.

So...while I appreciate the effort that he put into it, I wish that circumstances were different and there was no reason for him to put that effort in at all. Time (and money in the case of gifts) are precious and there are better and more pressing things to spend them on than me and my problems. In a perfect world, this sort of thing would never happen. I wouldn't feel down and bad, and friends wouldn't expend their time on such a thing, when there is so much more and other things they might do.

Maybe its a feeling of unworthiness. I hope this all has made some sense.

Game Wish

Game Wish #24: Retcons

Do you think that retroactive continuity is a good or bad thing in games? Is it a valuable GM/player tool or a cheat? Are there appropriate places for using it? Inappropriate places? How have you successfully used it or seen it used in a game? How about unsuccessfully?

The question of retcons comes back to an idea of mine. The idea that, if a player does not witness or gain direct knowledge of an event in the game, that makes it a little less real, a little more malleable, a little more open to revision on my part. Consequently, I prefer to have PCs be involved in big events, to influence them, to put their imprimatur upon them, even if it is indirectly, by design of second-order actions. It makes the game more real for me. If I wanted a bunch of events that the players didn't influence, I'd be writing a novel.

So I do retcon, carefully but willingly, especially when it won't crimp another player's story. I absolutely refuse to invalidate what the players have done by retroactively changing what happened. I'm not talking about an immediate change, in say, a face to face game where heated tempers can lead to actions that are immediately "taken back". That's more GM adjundication than retconing.

Let me give you an example of how I retconned in Strange Bedfellows. When Jayson met the NPC Cyllene in Strange Bedfellows, I got one of those feelings as soon as they met. I think the GMs know what i mean when I had the sudden inspiration...the sudden realization that these characters have and must have met before. So, I decided that they had and developed a backstory in order to establish just where and when Jayson and Cyllene had met. The upshot was that the PC suddenly had a new link to a NPC, and aspects of other NPCs--mainly Jayson's mother Sand and her brother Delwin, came into focus, as I thought about and decided just how they had reacted to the first meeting. So I managed to enrich the game universe by a judicious change in the past of a NPC.

I admit, though, that I had been taking a page from retconning that a GM did to me. Marcus, back when he was in Rob Bergeron's Shadow War, wound up getting mixed up in a plot thanks to the GM retconning a short story I had written explaining how he had gotten his shapeshifting weapon. He did it with my approval, saying that Marcus had really had a relationship with a woman who later turned out (in the present) to be a Chaosian and a would-be pawn of Oberon. I didn't mind the retconning of Marcus' history, since it wound up making an even richer present, in effect.

I've continued my reading apace, as you might note from the list of books.
Dreamside turned out to be a dud, in the end. A promising start, promising ideas, all sound and fury devolving into ordinariness. Too bad.

Mysterium, by Robert Charles Wilson, on the other hand was a much better read, although just as short and quick. It had the almost signature "parallel world" theme of most of his novels (except BIOS, which I have not read yet). Basically the plot revolves around a town in Michigan transported from our world to an alternate historical timeline where an ecletic and syncretic, but repressive Gnostic Christianity won out as the dominant strain instead of the brand we know. The reasons why the town was transported to this world in particular is part of the engine of the plot. It shows some of the unpolished nature of his early work, but on the other hand it is thoughful and intelligent, and I reinforced and learned more about Gnostic ideas. Now, when people on the AML talk about Dworkin as a demiurge, I have a better grasp of the concept. It's out of print, but I recommend looking for it.

The other major thing I did this weekend was register for ACUS 2003. I've been debating it on and off for a while now, but finally decided to pull the trigger. One of the forces and inhibitions, though, was an aspect of that Dark Voice again--nagging me that there wouldn't be any point to registering for the con because I would somehow "not make it" to March. So, in a weird way, you might say that my purposeful registration for the Con is a life-affirming act.

Right now, as I think I have mentioned before, my plan is to run two games--the sequel to Ad Amber Per Astra, and a new game whose working title right now is "Ghosts of the Past". I'll only run the former if I get a quorum of interested players from last year--I know Bridgette is raring to revisit that universe. I will have to find and dig out the emails of everyone else.

Ghosts of the Past--I have a prologue of sorts in my head that needs to come out, to offer to prospective players. I'm hoping, once again, for a cross section of friends and good players interested in my tale. I admit it, I like to game for my friends, and make new friends in that context. I am not sure I could GM a game entirely composed of strangers.

It's Back to Work Monday again...

I had to do christmas cards and other things this weekend, and so I still owe the Game WISH on Retcons. I am not sure if I will do it here at work, I'm being taught some new tricks, so my disposable time is at a minimum, plus the holiday rush is upon us. Even more exciting though is the fact that DBSis moving. Its not far in terms of physical distance and it won't make it harder for me to get to work, but it is to a larger facility. Space is good.