The Associated Press is reporting that a Louisiana justice of the peace has denied a marriage license to an interracial couple for the sake of any children born from the union. Apparently, though he'll perform marriages for white couples, and black couples, he won't for a mixed couple. Awesome.

My favorite line from the article:

I was in a pretty crappy mood the past couple of weeks. Behind on a project, feeling fairly ill, desperately lacking sleep and feeling like I was never going to get caught up.

It's amazing what seeing the last show I'm ever going to see from Nine Inch Nails (who are hanging up the roadies)--including a guest appearance from upside-down Peter Murphy to sing lead on Beautiful Lair.

For some reason, having 1500+ people crammed into a club that should probably only hold a thousand, sweating like a pig for four hours, and nearly having to clock a guy to keep him from stepping on Jen made me feel better.

Now all I need is a time machine.

I don't know how far back the Amazon.com sales figures look to determine sales rank (my guess is somewhere between 3 and 6 months), but out of curiosity, I browsed and found these numbers:

Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide (4th Edition)
Sales Rank: 19,165 in books
About 11 months after its release

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (3rd Edition)
Sales Rank: 18,737 in books
8 years after its initial release

D&D Player's Handbook (4th Edition)
Sales Rank: 3,114
1 year (actually 13 months) after release

D&D Gift Set (4th Edition): PH/DMG/MM
Sales Rank: 2,137

D&D Player's Handbook (3.5)
Sales Rank: 2,578
6 years after release

I don't know for sure what the numbers mean for the core rules--though it's got to be troubling to WotC that the 3.5 book is doing so well vs. raw sales of the lone PH (which is how you get people into the game, by some kid saying 'this is cool' and grabbing the Player's Handbook), but they cannot be happy that the FRCS is beating FRCG after all this time.  It's a clear indication that the one book (and its design philosophy) is more popular than the other.

Food for thought...

Okay, so apparently Bioware and Mythic are being merged by EA to make one big RPG/MMO powerhouse studio.  Bioware is currently working on (among other things ) Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Mythic is the company that makes Warhammer Online, and employs JD Wiker.

Now, first off: I hope to Heaven that this doesn't mean any layoffs.  I hate layoffs at game studios.  Especially studios that feed distant friends by giving them, yanno, work.

Presuming the primary hope is fulfilled, this creates the possibility, however small, that JD would be tapped to do some work on SWtOR.  Which would be teh awsum.

That is all.

... for reminding me why I am not one of you.

Fucktard.

So, after a fairly uneventful birthday, and quite a good stretch of writing, Jen and her parents chipped in for Rock Band 2 as my birthday present (whee!).  We got some important shopping done, took Mom to see "Hair" (which was her Mother's Day present) on Sunday, saw Star Trek on Monday, used Tuesday to get some sleep (and clear out New York on RB2).

And then, to cap it off, last night we saw Unwigged and Unplugged.

Holy awesome.

Unwigged was the guys from Spinal Tap doing a bunch of their Spinal Tap, Folksmen, and other songs, kinda-sorta unplugged.

(If you don't know who Spinal Tap are, first of all: shame on you.)

Harry Shearer (multiple voices on The Simpsons, Handsome Dan from Wayne's World 2), Michael McKean (SNL, Gordon Seedling in The Coneheads), and Christopher Guest (5th Baron Haden-Guest of Great Britain; Count Tyrone Rügen in The Princess Bride) are all brilliant comedians, legitimately talented musicians, and dead-on performers.  They were great, although hearing them speak about their own characters as though they were real people was a bit like hearing Peter Parker talk about Spider-Man.

There were some fun guests, too.  A couple of "who's that?" musicians, McKean's wife and sometimes-writing partner Annette O'Toole (with whom he co-wrote their Oscar-nominated "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow") from A Mighty Wind joined for a couple of songs, and Elvis freakin' Costello guested to sing the lead on "Gimme Some Money".

So, yeah.  Fun week.  Back to writing and wrangling that project I'm working on, now. 

Current Mood: energetic

What did the blind psychiatrist say to the naked man?

I see: you're nuts!


Yay, puns.

Okay, enough is enough.

I've gotten pretty much every 4E product since release, with the exception of the adventures.  And I've been more than a little annoyed at the repeats of artwork in those books.

Wizards has posted the art gallery from Arcane Power, and once again, there's a ton of artwork in there that's reprinted from previous sources.  As in 3 of the first 4; at least 6 of the first 8; of the first 12 images, I can identify (with some reasearch) a 3.x source for at least 7 of them.

7 images, at least, out of a total 66.

That's greater than 10% of the artwork in the whole book.

As much money as we're being charged for these full-color books, it'd be nice if at least 95% of the artwork was new.

New art, please.

Thanks.

They gained the Embarrassing and Ham-Fisted Achievement.

Unhappy year! that holds the hand of Death
And robs us all of friends whom we hold dear,
I pray the Spring should give you quickened breath
And wash away this mist of somber fear.

I know no words to slow the march of time.
No plea can stay the seasons or the knife.
I know too well the feebleness of rhyme
In capturing the beauty of a life.

And yet I speak, for silence will not bide
The loss of Great Men, whom we miss so well.
From loss, no living man can truly hide
And so we choose these stories still to tell:

Our friends we lose, but mem'ries will we hold
Far warmer than a fire against the cold.