Categories
Reviews Tabletop Games

EYECON 2009

It’s been a while since I did a con report. Admittedly, I was an organiser for SYDCON 08, but I still could have written something. Anyway, other than providing the IT services, I was largely left to play games at this year’s EYECON. For the first time in ages, I played only freeforms (oh, and a LARP — you can’t have everything). I’ll review them in a second.

I want to acknowledge the hard work of all the game designers (whether or not I played your game), and my colleagues in the SRGA. As a secondary organiser, much of my work was done weeks before people started registering for games. Props go to everybody who did all the running around, lost hours of sleep, and nearly went insane due to everyone else’s “special” requests. You guys know who you are, so give yourselves a pat on the back and get some sleep.

Before reading further, be warned that I may not be able to avoid spoiling these games. In the event that you may want to play them in the future, you may not want to read my review.

Continue reading “EYECON 2009”
Categories
Photography

Star shots

It’s been raining the last couple weeks, so I haven’t had much of a chance to do night time photography. I’ve been hankering to do some astronomical shots, but only just got around to doing them tonight.

All of those were taken on my Nikon D60 at f/8, ISO 100 with a 30 second exposure. I’ve touched them up a little bit, but was very happy with the low level of noise and clarity of the picture.

Unfortunately, 30 seconds is the longest exposure the D60 will do without a remote, which is a shame because I really wanted to try my hand at star trails. Other than driving sales of peripherals, I’m not sure why Nikon decided not to let users set an exposure time in the menu system.

I think I may have to investigate the price of that remote, as well as an AC adaptor.

Categories
Tech

Microsoft makes an announcement about spam

Today, Microsoft unveiled a new Department of the Bleeding Obvious in its public relations division. To mark this occasion, they released a report that told us what we already knew:

… 97 per cent of all emails sent in the world are unwanted spam.

Now, maybe you did you didn’t know the exact number, but surely you had an inkling that it was a big problem?

Next up, sightings of rain falling from clouds.

Source: ABC News.

Categories
Movies and TV

Wither Smallville?

With the completion of BSG, I’ve found it hard to find something to write about. I’ve been following Smallville for years, but the quality of the writing is so all over the shop that I’m just not as invested as I used to be.

Maybe it’s the shift of focus to Metropolis (though that was inevitable), but the show feels stagnant. Although we’ve finally ditched Lana (kinda — she’s still alive), the metaplot is slowly circling this inevitable showdown between Doomsday and Clark, but that’s nowhere near as exciting as Oliver forming the Justice League, or Clark taking on General Zod, or even just having Kara around.

I guess that there aren’t enough of the good characters for Clark to play off. Right now it’s lots of Chloe, some Lois, some Tess, and a little Davis. Gone are the days of the whole Kent family, and both the Luthors.

Actually, that’s probably it. Without Lex and Lionel, the show has no real heavyweight manipulators (or actors for that matter), so the plot feels either contrived or simplistic.

Categories
Tabletop Games

If they sold games based on the way we played them…

Through liberal use of StumbleUpon, I found the “When we play the game, it has this cover” thread on Story Games. The basic idea is for the participants to produce covers for the RPG books they use as though they advertise the way their group plays.

I was particularly amused by Graham’s entries for the Esoterrorists and Trail of Cthulhu.

If I were to do one, it would probably be for Dragonlance. A human cleric argues with a half-elven woman. A number of other people stand around looking bored, obviously waiting for the two to resolve their differences. Over it all, a dragon breathes fire that is about to engulf the group.

Via: Highmoon’s Ponderings