Russellmania.com

Crap

09.08.2006

Don't you hate it when you do something stupid and overwrite something that was deeply profound and meaningful?

Hack Recovery

09.07.2006

Over this past weekend, the server on which my little website here is hosted was hacked. Luckily, it was nothing to do with the site itself, just some flaw that was available in the server software/BIOS/doohickey. My luck was also in gear since I had recently backed everything up and saved a local copy. Thus, nothing was lost!

Well, it makes me happy that nothing was lost.

Along the way I also cleaned up some old blog entries that had gotten duplicated over the various site changes and upgrades over the years.

Permalink

The Gary Gygax Effect

08.30.2006

While reading Jim's blog entry yesterday about all the different universes he's created (well, not exactly, but if that doesn't make you want to go see what he's talking about you're not nearly curious enough!) I started to recollect about my theory of the universe, or multiple universes. It may be my sci-fi upbringing, but I've often thought of key points in my life and "what would have happened" if something very specific hadn't happened.

My favorite example is Gary Gygax, famed/generally-recognized creator of Dungeons and Dragons. Without old Gary I wouldn't be where I am today. Travel with me along my little timeline:

1984-ish. Mom is dating a guy that lives in Nashville. He has a son who is 2 years younger than I am who enjoys role-playing games and attempts to get me interested in Dungeons and Dragons (enter The Gary Gygax Effect). We never play a "real" game, he just walks me through the steps of how to create a character and walks me through a scenario of Expedition To The Barrier Peaks.
During a trip to Nashville with Mom, I pick up a copy of Dragon magazine, hoping to learn a little more about D&D.
The following Monday, sitting at my desk waiting for 1st period Health class to start, I'm flipping through said Dragon magazine. A tall, skinny 15 year old nerd sitting in front of me turns around and sees what I'm reading. "Is that a Dragon magazine?" he asks. "Yeah, you wanna look at it?" I ask back. "Sure" he says as I hand him the magazine. 22 years later he still hasn't gotten away from me.

But there's more to how my life was influenced by The Gary Gygax Effect and my meeting Jerry.

Upon graduation from high school, I start going to Birmingham-Southern since that's where Jer is going.
Once at BSC, I take it upon myself to become a social butterfly. With that I become responsible for Jerry meeting Chris, whereupon they begin dating.
I take my leave of college after the Freshman year, while Jerry continues on to get his degree in Computer Science. After his graduation, I decide "I can do that", so I then re-assert myself and get my degree in Computer Science 5 years later.
Jerry gets a new car. I get a new car soon afterward.
Jerry buys a house. I buy a house soon afterward.
- Jerry's tangent: Even though he had broken up with Chris years earlier, Chris' mother sets him up on a date at a garage sale with Elaine, who would eventually become Jerry's wife.
Jerry gets married. I mock him incessantly and flaunt my single lifestyle from that point on.
Thanks to Elaine, Jerry ends up working at Research Genetics.
Thanks to Jerry, I end up working at Research Genetics.
Thanks to Invitrogen, Jerry and I both (eventually) get laid off from Research Genetics.
Thanks to Elaine and her theater connections, Jerry starts working for Spiritus.
Thanks to Jerry, I end up working at Spiritus.

Everything for the past 22 years can be traced back to that Dragon magazine. I've always given Gary Gygax the credit. Granted, he had nothing to do with the actual magazine, it was just reference material for a game he developed (along with a bunch of other TSR games back in the day). But if I hadn't gotten that Dragon magazine, what would have happened? Would I have met Jerry anyway? Would I have kept in my little ROTC world that I was stuck in during most of high school? Would I have taken advantage of the scholarship that I was offered from UAH? Would Jerry have met Chris, and then after that met Elaine?

The funny part about all of this spawning from a D&D magazine is that until my senior year of college, I never actually played the game.

Whenever something bad happens (such as the lay-off from ResGen), Jerry I look at each other and say "Damn you Gary Gygax!", since odds are without that Dragon magazine meeting so long ago we wouldn't be in whatever predicament we're in. Overall, I think it's been a good 22 years, so I'm holding off any serious damning of Gary for a while yet.

Permalink boardgames rambling random

Cousin Dugal

08.28.2006

Now that school has started back for all the young'uns, I've found myself drifting back to my scholastic years and noticing that even though I'm a pretty odd fellow now, I used to be a lot weirder.

Harken back with me to 1996. It was around my senior year in college, finally. I've found myself thinking back to being in the Athens State student center studying for an Abstract Algebra final (which I was pretty sure I was going to make a D in the class) while also playing Highlander Pool with Rob. Any story about Abstract Algebra is going to be boring, so let me tell you about Highlander Pool.

Highlander Pool was borne from watching the Highlander series of movies and tv shows. The pool table in the student center was unusually small, or at least it felt small. Rob and I were the big and beefy guys that all the men wanted to be and the women wanted to be with (it's my story, so allow me a little artistic license!). Taking that into account, along with the table not belonging to either one of us, we would often try some stupid/trick shot where more often than not one or more pool balls would become airborne. Said airborne balls would occasionally make a roll for freedom by bouncing off the table and rolling around the room. Or down the hall. Maybe even down a flight of stairs or two one time. As most people who either lack a certain degree of sophistication, or have watched The Color of Money more than should be admitted to, Rob and I would twirl our respective pool cues while awaiting our next turn to shoot, often would a sword-styled flourish.

I forget which of us was shooting and which was twirling, but a shot was made and a ball left the table. Suddenly the twirling cue stopped it's twirling and came about in a [soft] slashing motion landing on the back of the shooters neck along with the exclamation "There can be only one!". At that point, both of us started jiggling as we felt the power of the quickening that accompanies the death of an immortal in the movies/tv show. It wasn't planned, it just happened. From that point on, whenever a ball left the table, you would hear the cry of "There can be only one!". The only recourse would be for the shooter to bring his cue up to block the attacking cue (thus preventing the quickening).

I don't think I've played pool since my Athens State days. I pulled a B on my Abstract Algebra final, but still got a D in the class. Last I heard Rob was off working in the Virginia/D.C. area. I hope he's careful if he finds himself in a pool hall.

Permalink rambling random

08.22.2006

My super cool TV remote that I got for myself back on my birthday brings me much joy. It's the first universal remote that I've actually used as a universal remote. In the past I've only gotten other remotes to replace a non-functioning component remote, and I've generally used said replacement remote for that component only. This time, it was a little different because my goal was to get a universal remote that I would actually use as such, thus getting rid of the 3 or 4 remotes that I found I kept on the end table. Plus, I had grown to despise the TV remote. Scroll wheels for channel surfing and volume control aren't as nifty as I originally thought.

My favorite feature of the Logitech remote I got is that it's programmed through the PC. You hook it up through a USB connection, connect to the Logitech website, and then go through a wizard where you select your components which in turn programs all the appropriate buttons. Easy as cake. Afterward, you go through a wizard which sets up 1-button macros. For instance, there's a button for "Watch DVD", which goes through the process of turning the TV on, setting the TV to the appropriate channel and aspect ratio, turns on the DVD player, and automatically presses play. As much as I use my TV for watching DVDs (just finished watching my 100th episode of Star Trek Voyager last night!), I thought that would be a pretty handy button.

But it's an annoying button.

Somewhere along the way pressing the "Watch DVD" button cycles the TV to the next language in the language list. It's not that important. The only hting I usually see n the TV are the channel number and volume level. But the thing that bothers me is how hard it is to change the language back to English. Once the language has been changed to French, German, Spanish, Klingon, whatever, I have to remember that the language menu is a sub-menu under another option - an option that is not readily apparent when presented in a foreign language. I've gotten to where I remember "next to last menu option, then select the last option for languages".

The odd thing I've noticed is that the language selections are in the language that is currently selected. If I'm in Spanish mode, I have to remember that Spanish for English is InglÃ©s. Shouldn't the language selections be listed in the native language? I would have to hate to have to pick English if I was stuck in Manadarin. The Logitech site lets you properly select your language. I've been scarred to change the language of my remote to see if it has reasonable language changing syntax for fear I can't get back.

Maybe I just need a smarter TV. Can you upgrade the RAM in one of those things?