Or let it melt, actually. Bloody snow.
Hasn’t snowed here in like, 4 years or something to that effect. A little bit last year, but other than that…
Trying to figure out at what point I became hostile to snow, too. I mean, it’s snow. You frolic in it and play and throw it at people. Fun times, right?
Well, at some point, D&D became much more important. Don’t ask me how, maybe I grew up (wince) or something, but there it is. As snow prevented me from going to the weekly D&D game yesterday, I am…displeased. I’ll be even more displeased if it prevents me from going out tomorrow, too. *grumble*
I might not be going anywhere besides that, actually. After in theory getting better finally, I felt pretty horrible yesterday, and today not only was my throat dry, I got this rather intense feeling, as if Godzilla had kicked my in the crotch, then put his foot on my stomach and stomped really hard. Ugh.
On a more positive note, the whole 9 hour Shogun miniseries rocks. We haven’t finished it yet, but that’s ok. It’s still sweet. It excises some things, changes others (reminded of LotR yet?), but overall it’s a pretty viable rendition of the book. I’d prefer if they put in some subtitles for the rather copious Japanese, instead of the occasional English voiceover, but that’s ok. I’ll watch it subtitled next time. The way they’ve done it this time pretty well puts you in Blackthorne’s shoes – you don’t understand anything, but after a while, you begin picking up the language right along with him. That’s cool and well done, I think. Plus it’s made me rethink some of the scenes in the book in a way I haven’t done for a long, long time. That’s cool.
Urgh. I might blog some history next time. I sort of want to talk about Shogun in that context, as well as toss out a quote from a book I’m reading. We’ll see. I need to go off and ache some more now.
[edit]
So I spent half the day reading a bunch of Penny Arcade. Because, well, people like Cole and Brian are always telling me how badass it is, and I’m looking at it and never quite get it, and it’s just not working.
Well, I get it now. It’s in the news posts. Of course if I was a hardcore vid gamer with no life, I’d get all the jokes anyway, but oh well. There’s a strip with a killer rabbit on it. Killer rabbits are garunteed good times, I tell ya.
But I think I’ll stick with
And on the same note, I got the rabbit email, Regina. I was appropriately amused. One of these days, I will live somewhere that will allow pets. Yes. But then I’ll get a cat, because I’m, well, odd like that.
“Purrrrrrr… Pathetic mortal human. Do my bidding. Get me cat food.”
“Yes master.”
Anyway. I think bed is in my immediate future. Just thought you all should know all this, being how it is vital to national security, the discovery of life on Mars, and whatever it is Whir wants on ICQ now. Hi Whir.
[/edit]
[/more edit] Movable Type, do my bidding. I have a stick. [/me]
Last night was quite something.
For one, Kyle came back from the Army on leave, so we dragged him over and played some D&D and such, just like old times. He had some good stories to tell about the whole thing. That was cool.
So we played some D&D. It went badly, as it happens, but that had a lot to do with Jason sort of not realizing what day it was, what day we were having the session, or any of it, and having to totally fake something off top of his head.
“Doctor, I’m having the strangest sense of deja vu. I’m level 8, and my mission is to investigate a strange portal that spawns dog-headed evil creatures.”
“Very interesting. Tell me more…”
First, the party:
Me: Usagi, the Rabbit Hengeyokai fighter who dual wields war fans.
Cole: Smaug Baggins, the half-dragon/halfling sorc.
Brian: An unnamed Yakman (!) ranger.
Kyle: An unnamed hobgoblin evoker.
And Newt Gingrich tagged along for the ride.
So, our mission was to investigate strange happenings near, get this, Kay’s Circle. Something strange is afoot at the Circle K, see.
When the session begins with a Bill and Ted joke, you should get the general drift of where the whole thing’s going to go.
So in short order, we go through the portal and get captured. Cole and I and our elf bladesinger flunky get locked in this huge pit with a bunch of slaves, some dead. This doesn’t sit well, so we have Cole fly up, break the lock on the trapdoor, whereupon I leap up out of the pit using my rabbit skillz, and begin taking on guards with sharpened jawbones. Cole and the elf join in, and we’re doing ok before we get taken down.
So the whole group wakes up, and gets taken to the gladiatorial arena, where the Emperess, who’s got blue hair for some reason, is watching us fight people.
After a pit stop in the jail cells to explain the basics of economic theory to the main evil general, of course.
“Look, dude. Slavery’s pretty inefficient. You see, you could have just hired some dwarves or something to build those huge pyramids you’re building. And if you do it right, you can set up some export trade, and get your money back. And you can lower your military spending, because you don’t need to keep the slaves in line. So everybody wins.”
Cole’s first, and takes on randafool and wins.
Me, Kyle, and Brian are next, versus a pair of stone giants. Midway through the fight, the elf joins in, and we win handily. Whereupon the guards shove us back, and the Emperess leaps down to go take on the elf. Well, we break free, and start fighting the Emperess…
Brian: “I grapple with the Emperess.”
Jason: “Uh, ok.”
Brian: “Well, I grappled her.”
Me: “Ok. I rip off that weird magic necklace she has on, and stab her a bunch.”
Jason: “She turns into a huge blue dragon.”
Us: “Crap.”
So I turn into a rabbit, the elf picks me up, and we get the hell out of Dodge. Brian ineffectually beats on the dragon for a bit until Kyle gets up, turns him into a huge gold dragon because it’s late and Jason doesn’t really care, and they, uh, fight.
Brian: “I really don’t want to fight this out. What say we fight it out in a best of 3 Godzilla game instead?”
Jason: “Sure.”
So they do. And Brian wins.
First, for the avid Civ readers in the audience, I’ve put up a Hall of Fame page with a whole bunch of little game reports and such, including a bunch I never talked about here.
Second, we’ll be playing a bunch of D&D later today. Jason’s session, level 8, Forgotten Realms. European theme and all that. So we need characters for this.
Erring on the side of normality, Cole and I start with a pair of Kensai from the Oriental Adventures book. Mine’s human, his is a lizardman. They, yknow, kill stuff with swords. A lot.
But then we got a little crazy. So I come up with the aptly-named Rabbit Boy character concept. A character, a rabbit hengeyokai (shapechanger), who with Boots of Springing and Striding, moves 80′ per round (3.0, for you 3.5ers in the audience), and dual wields a pair of…wait for it…war fans. So he runs up to you, carves you up with war fans, and runs off. This is good.
Cole, meanwhile, comes up with Smaug Baggins, the half-dragon/halfling sorcerer. You are all invited to figure out exactly how that one is supposed to work.
This leads to slightly interesting scenes. You know, like we get in a fight, and the bad guys are sitting there, and this little 3′ dragon comes in the door, followed by this 6′ tall…rabbit.
“Hey Bob. You didn’t spike the ale again, did you?”
“Uh, no. I thought you did.”
Yeah.
But that wasn’t good enough. So we came up with Weenog.
And you have to understand how Weenog works.
First, he’s a goblin. But he’s not just any goblin, see. You see, he’s a goblin paladin. But he’s not just ANY goblin paladin. He rides a warg, see. But he’s not just ANY warg-riding goblin paladin. He’s a swashbuckler, too. With a rapier. Three Musketeers style.
Weenog, we figure, has style.
But Weenog needed company. So we came up with the firenewt cleric. Who worships, appropriately enough, Kossuth, the fire elemental god. We thought about naming him Newt Gingrich, but we decided that would be maybe a bit too cruel.
Elves, you say? Dwarves? We have transcended such foolishness.
Just like the ones I used to know.
Actually, feeling a lot better. I can (mostly) breathe, my throat merely twinges instead of re-enacting the great battles of World War II, and, well, it’s Christmas.
That having been said, Merry Christmas, O Blog Readers. It’s good to have ya all.
A few specific ponderances before I go join in the revelry:
Raine sent me a card all the way from Singapore. Very cool. In fact, the vastly-greater-than-normal amount of Christmas cheer flowing my way this year is very gratifying. Apologies if I’ve been a bit lax in my own giving this year.
Dad got the entire Shogun miniseries on DVD for Xmas. I am profoundly jealous. So profoundly jealous, in fact, I believe I’ll go purchase my own copy when next I see it.
I’ll spare the details of my own gifts, but let’s just say it’s all cool, and all stuff I really really wanted. Nifty.
Once again, Happy Christmas, y’all. Hope it’s a good one.
Lack of updates, you say? Let’s just say it’s been busy.
So after the family didn’t get to see RotK Thursday (not Friday like I said, oops), I went with a whole bunch of people Sunday after playing some D&D with the gang, and…er, no, I didn’t. All of that stuff occured, mind you, but I wasn’t there.
So where was I?
About the time D&D was going on, I think I was napping, or trying to. Or maybe that’s when I was throwing up. Can’t remember. I slept through most of RotK though. Or at least I slept as much as you can when you can’t really breathe.
Being sick sucks, let me tell you.
The worst of it, from my standpoint, isn’t the fact I can’t breathe. I can eat again, so that’s cool. But it’s reduced me from being energetic to the point where I’m exhausted simply getting a glass of water from the kitchen. Aeeyah.
Looks like it’s going to go on for a couple more days, too. Looking like an influenza Christmas at this rate.
Still, I shouldn’t be complaining too hard. A hundred years ago or so, and even more recently, they had outbreaks of the same sort of stuff I’ve got, and it killed thousands of people. This here’s the good life, comparatively.
Anyway. As Toast so kindly pointed out over on the tagboard, Epic 37 is up on the Civ page. Go forth, read. I’d link it for you, but energy’s fading again.
People who make really freaking strange computers rule. Really. I love things like that.
How long have I been hyping this book, totally unread by me, now? 6 months or something, anyway. Well, I got ahold of the Corvallis library’s copy of it the other day.
It didn’t last longer than a day.
350 pages, read essentially straight through. Damn fine writing. Tells the story of William Adams, a sailor upon whose life John Blackthorne of Shogun is modeled. The truth, it seems, is just as interesting as the fiction. Less involved in epic warfare than you might think, Adams was infact an advisor to Tokugawa Ieyasu, and participated in lots and lots of interesting trade stuff. In fact, after reading it, I’m inspired to go out and find a history of the East India Company somewhere. Much less a good biography of Ieyasu, who was most certainly The Man, whatever else his offspring might have been. Too, I’m inspired to find a good biography of Elizabeth of England, who just so happened to be The Woman, so far as I can tell.
History’s good times, I say. Good times.
Especially, I should note, when well-written. And if there’s one thing I want to throttle the collective membership of my profession for, it’s writing books that nobody in their right minds would choose to read for being boring as hell. On that note, remind me to post a copy of my review of a certain biography of Simon de Montfort sometime. As a profession, historians are capable of some seriously dull writing, which is slightly odd when you consider that we’re all well enough trained in writing, have the passion for the subject, you’d think we’d be able to inject some flair into the damn books, but no. The number of history books I can read in a single sitting can likely be counted on my fingers. Samurai William is one.
Which isn’t to say there aren’t flaws. I felt like it lacked for depth in a lot of places, though a lot of this has to do with working with fragmentary primary sources and the scope of the work. Too, it lacks for a lot of footnotes, which calls it into question somewhat, but the bibliography seems to me to be top-notch.
Go forth, O ye readers, and read this book. Anybody who’s read Clavell’s Shogun will like it, and there are worse introductory books to the period, certainly.
Rich country, strong army, even. Or maybe sonno joi (Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians). Take your pick.
But I get ahead of myself.
Finally more or less recovered from being sick. My parents aren’t, but I’m better. That’s excellent.
Too, I apparently did well for myself this last term. Worked half to death, but I managed three Bs and an A-, which may well mean I go to England this spring. That’s great.
Lot of movie watching these days. Watched Pirates of the Carribean Tuesday with Tali and Laurent, and there was much rejoicing. It was, as I said after the movie, “a suitably rediculous movie.” Fun, didn’t take itself seriously, good times. Not necessarily more than 3/5 aliens on my ranking list, but good.
Watched The Last Samurai on Wednesday with Cole before going and playing a LOT of Mechwarrior at the shop, which was a lot of fun and resulted in me doing quite well for having been away for a month, but I’ll refrain from going into details for the non-playing readership.
My review, such as it is, of The Last Samurai, is at Tonto. I’m not entirely sure if I conveyed how much I like the movie. Go see it. It’s worth the investment.
That having been said, I’m about to proceed to do some deconstruction work on the movie’s little worldview, so be warned. If you’re not into historical reasoning, now would be an appropriate time to exit the aircraft. Please form a single-file line towards the exit. Thank you. Too, there’s likely to be a minor spoiler or two in here somewhere.
Anyway. The main premise behind The Last Samurai is that the old Japan, the Japan of Bushido and samurai and whatnot, is in fact a good thing. It’s unclear to me as to if this is supposed to be a universal thing or just for Algren, the main character, but it skirts the unversality line pretty close.
This is, for all sorts of reasons, dangerous. Not in the least because to glorify that sort of thing means you’re glorifying a highly socially stratified, formalized, dare I say violent culture which treated its lower classes like shit. Now, the closet agrarianist in all of us rather likes that sort of thing, but the raging democratic capitalists in most of us might well object, when you consider that whatever else it might have done, the Meiji period brought Japanese as a whole increased prosperity, social mobility, and all of the good of the Industrial Revolution.
Which isn’t to say the Meiji period was entirely good. Democratization, of course, went right out the window, and living conditions went to hell for a lot of people, among other assorted bad things.
Nevertheless, the movie takes its stand with the samurai. More romantic, to be sure, and there’s a certain value to movies that go radically against our prevailing culture (we are, of course, far closer to the Meiji industrialists than the rebels). And that works, as far as it goes.
A few ponderances, though.
The industrialist Japanese are pretty faceless, actually. Algren, for example, is driven towards the samurai because of his experiences in the American West and the massacres of…Cheyenne, I think. The movie wants you to draw parallels between them and the samurai, and between the Japanese industrialists and the American version. This mostly works. There are some random cultural differences in the experiences, but ok. Omura’s still faceless, though, hard to hate, easy to feel sorry for. That may be what they wanted me to think. I dunno.
In any case, I got ahold of a copy of Samurai William and I’m reading it. More on that later.
For the plus side of today, we have:
The capture of Saddam Hussein. While it may or may not translate into a real reduction in the number of guerillas in Iraq, the symbolic victory is enormous. This is good.
My playing of Epic 37, which is one of the coolest games I’ve ever played. You will hear more about this when the game ends on the 22nd and I can actually talk about it.
My birthday, which was muchly fun, and good times, even if I do suck really bad at Godzilla.
My acquisition of Civ 3: Conquests. Yay.
On the downside of today, we have:
The lack of a patch for C3C means there are still game-crippling bugs.
My very sore throat means I’m sick. Dad’s sick too, so at least we’re all sick together. And based on how I’m not gushing or anything, probably viral, which means no help to be had other than drinking lots of fluids. Bother. I really wish it didn’t hurt to swallow, though.