Blackmoor Vituperative

I can’t watch a subtitled movie while eating sushi. I can’t eat sushi without looking at it.

I am (or was) watching The Ghost Of Mae Nak, a Thai horror movie. I haven’t seen many Thai movies. This one is not terrible, but I really do not like the sound of the Thai language. To my American ears, they sound like Martians. “Ack ack ack ack ack. Ack ack ack. Ack ack!” It does not help that the two main characters are named Nak and Mak. I am not kidding.

Well over a decade ago, I started working on a rules-light game system. It was called Heroin (it seemed a good idea at the time). After a few years and a number of revisions, I changed the name to Jazz, and decided to break up the project into “modules”: a small core set of rules, and even smaller sets of optional rules for supporting specific settings and genres.

The project has changed a lot over the years. The current version bears no resemblance at all to Heroin, that original idea. I am still not entirely happy with how character generation is described, but overall, I am pretty happy with the basic rules.

What I am not happy with is the lack of progress I have made on the genre modules. Which brings me to my point. Recently, I set up a wiki, with the hope that this would make it easier for me and others to collaborate on the game system. I have entered all of my current work on Jazz, and it’s ready for the rest of the game system to finally be fleshed out.

I would like help with Jazz. If you have an idea for making the core rules clearer, great. If you have ideas for one or more of the genre modules, even better. If you have an idea that I have not even considered, well that would be just fantastic.

Jazz is licensed under a Creative Commons license, and you will receive full credit for what you contribute.

Drop me an email if this interests you, and I will set up an account for you on the Jazz wiki.

I have a lead on a 2-year contract gig at $__ dollars per hour (a bit more than I typically get). Yes, it’s another contract gig, which I desperately want to get away from, but it’s slated to run for at least two years, so that’s not too shabby.

I can feel a mountain rain
That’ll wash away
And shine again
Empty my pockets
That were weighing me down
Sift through my soul
To see what’s lost and found
Gonna walk away from trouble
With my head held high
Then look closely you’ll see
Luck in my eyes

I can hear a howling wind
That sweeps away
The pain that’s been
Take all my sorrow
And i’ll cast away
The worries tomorrow
That i had today
Gonna walk away from trouble
With my head held high
Then look closely you’ll see
Luck in my eyes

K.D. Lang is awesome.

I am wrapping up my current web project, Perfect Pets. It’s not the most complex or difficult project I have ever worked on, but I think it may be the prettiest. I like this kind of project: Perfect Pets is a small, family owned store, and in my own modest way, I am helping them stay relevant in an era of heartless corporate monoliths and brutal international competition. I wish I could work on projects like this one more often.

Apparently I was not clear in my previous blog post, so I am explaining it. It’s a pretty funny story. Or perhaps an educational one. Yes: a cautionary tale! Do not let this happen to you! 🙂

The background package to which I referred was supposed to be given to Henrico County for the Animal Protection job. The programming job offer was from a different company, to do web development. That job offer was rescinded because I told them I had a very small chance at the Animal Protection job. However, at the time I told them that, I had already been excluded from the Animal Protection job, because I had turned in the background paperwork late (although I did not know it yet).

They (the company that had offered and then rescinded the programming job) countered with a “temp” job offer, which I took as an insult (to put it mildly). I asked for my typical rate for that kind of work, knowing that they would not be willing to pay it. So they declined that, as well, as I knew they would.

The long story short is that I was offered a great job at a great company, and because of at least three stupid mistakes I made, I lost out on that.

I have since tried to contact them, to see if the situation can be salvaged. They haven’t responded, and I do not expect them to. They are probably sorry they ever heard of me, and I do not blame them.

But life goes on. The horizon is broad, the future beckons, and all things are possible!

A few moments ago, I learned that I made a mistake when writing down the deadline to submit my personal background packet to Henrico County. The deadline was April 24. I had already been disqualified when I was offered that great programing job on April 26.

The gods laugh at me, and I can’t help but laugh with them. Life goes on: other great opportunities will present themselves. I hope I am wise enough to recognize them when they do.

“The best we can do is size up the chances, calculate the risks involved, estimate our ability to deal with them, and then make our plans with confidence.” — Henry Ford

Speaking of laughing, check this out. We watched Planet Of The Apes and Saturday Night Fever at the Goochland Drive In on Saturday. It was great. I never realized that I had never seen the first thirty minutes of Planet Of The Apes. It is a pretty dark movie.

It’s 21:00. My cat is asleep on the couch, and my sweetheart is asleep in the bedroom. I would be in there, but I am working on a web project for a pet store. Still, there are much worse ways to spend a Sunday evening.

We saw the movie Kick-Ass today. It was not a perfect movie, but I enjoyed it. I prefer to think it takes place in a universe much closer to the one where Peter Parker lives than the one where I live. It would be a little too sad to think it takes place in my world. I mean, either Hit Girl is a sociopath or she’s been so mentally traumatized by her father that she may as well be. Think Dexter, but a whole lot more enthusiastically blood-thirsty (and acrobatic).

Kick-Ass reminded me of another semi-realistic superhero movie we saw recently. We didn’t see this one at a movie theatre: I bought it for two dollars at the thrift store. I’d never heard of it, and it piqued my interest. The movie is called Special. Check it out. Put it in your Netflix queue. It’s a low budget indie movie, but it’s worth watching. Be warned: the DVD cover slobber makes it sound like a comedy. The phrase “laugh out loud funny” is used prominently. This is not a comedy. There are no jokes. I would go so far as to say that not a single “laugh out loud funny” thing happens in the entire movie. It is not a comedy, and in my opinion, it was not intended to be.

Taking inventory of my situation, here. Three times so far this year, I have been offered (or nearly offered) a full time job that I thought that I would enjoy and do well. In each case, I did or said something that resulted in the offer being rescinded.

1. I refused to submit to a humiliating medical test.
2. I questioned the current development process (or lack thereof).
3. I mentioned that I have a very, very small chance of getting a job with Henrico County in August.

This most recent instance was really discouraging. I had high hopes for that position. Having it yanked away at the last minute really put a dent in my normally sunny disposition. However, a few deep breaths and a couple of miles on the treadmill, and I am feeling a bit better. If someone hires me, or doesn’t, I am still who I am. I am a human being with the value and dignity that entails. I am not my job.

I wish that I could say that I have learned something, but in each case, I believe that I did the right thing. I do think that I should be a little more reticent. Telling the truth when asked is not the same thing as volunteering information that people do not want to hear. I should just plain listen more, and talk less. That’s a shortcoming of mine that I have been working on for a very long time.

P.S. I did make a mistake in the third, most recent time. When the job offer was rescinded, they offered to bring me on as a contractor. I should have just declined that, rather than haggling over price and resenting that they backed out of the job offer. Or, hell, just accepted the rate they offered and been grateful for the work. What am I, stupid? It was work! And who knows, it might have led to a full time position down the road. Ah, well. Live and learn.

The author of Hexographer, Joe, has revised the “lifetime” license of Hexographer so that it no longer self-destructs after one year. The flaws in the “free” and “one year” versions remain, however, so those should be avoided. However, if you like the software and feel it is worth paying for (and it certainly does seem worth paying for), the “lifetime license” now appears to be what it says it is: a lifetime license. I have updated my original Hexographer article to reflect the revised license terms.

I also bought the software.

I don’t want to get bitter
I don’t want to turn cruel
I don’t want to get old before I have to

I have been feeling sorry for myself the last couple of days. This song helps.

The song starts roughly at 1:45.

In case the YouTube video disappears, here is the original music video. I do not particularly like the video.