Blackmoor Vituperative

I am not a terribly interesting person. At best I am “a character”, but I haven’t actually done much worth talking about. However, I have the good fortune to know some genuinely interesting people. For example, Tee Morris.

I know Tee through RavenCon, a science fiction convention in Virginia which he and I had a part in founding in 2006 (my part in that being a bit smaller than his). He is also the author of a number of books, the most well-known of which is probably MOREVI. He also happens to be one of the authors of Podcasting for Dummies. In this case, I am the eponymous dummy.

Here’s the deal: I wanted to record our Friday night superhero game, because I think it’s going really well. I tried using a PC microphone I have had rattling around in a drawer since 1995. The results were not satisfactory. I went to H. H. Gregg and Best Buy and looked for an omnidirectional microphone, but they didn’t have them. I searched online for “omnidirectional microphone”, and all I really found was a Blue Snowball. Was this microphone good? Bad? Indifferent? Hell if I knew. So I called Tee and asked for advice, and now I am passing that advice on to you.

First off, he said the best choice for microphones for what I was doing is the Rode Podcaster. The Rode Podcaster is $230, though, which is way more than I wanted to spend.

A decent second choice, according to Tee, is the Samson CO1U. It’s $100, which, while more than I would like to spend, is not out of the question. So that was a strong contender.

However, Tee asked if I ever planned on recording on the go — recording a panel at a convention (MystiCon, for example, where I am appearing as a guest). It really hadn’t occurred to me, but you know, that might actually be pretty cool. His suggestion, in that case, was the Zoom H2 portable stereo recorder. Tee himself has the Zoom H4, which he loves, but he said that the H2 was much easier to use, that it has great sound fidelity, and that it also doubles as a USB microphone.

I read up on all three of Tee’s suggestions, reading reviews online on various web sites. I dithered a bit, but eventually went with the Zoom H2. It should arrive in a couple of days, and I plan to take it with me to MystiCon.

Thanks, Tee! I hope I haven’t grievously misrepresented you.

A week or so after I mention that Adrianne Palicki is my new favorite, I hear that she is pegged to play Wonder Woman in the new TV reboot of the classic Linda Carter series.

Based on looks alone, I think Megan Fox would make a better Wonder Woman, but based on her comments about the character, I am glad that she wasn’t cast in the part.

I wish Ms. Palicki the best of luck. I hope her show does better than the Bionic Woman reboot (which I liked, but which suffered from producer interference that ultimately killed the show).

Something I overheard in a chat room recently:

Harrigan: Hmmm… I need to find out how to go through airport security these days. The last time I flew, I got stopped and was asked what was in the small pouch on my belt. The security guard waved me on when I said it was a Swiss army knife and told me he just wanted to make sure it wasn’t Mace. I think things have changed since then.
Berrianna: Yeah, knives are right out.
Berrianna: As are liquids and gels over five ounces, firearms, jackhammers, hacksaws, dental implants, transplanted kidneys, a sense of personal privacy, any bag over 10 pounds, jackets, underwear with natural fibers, broken glass, scarves, dental floss, dignity, the first and fourth Amendments, and dogs over fifteen pounds.

Heh. Heh heh.

Life is too short to obsess over pennies.
Life is too short to hold grudges.
Life is too short to pay to store things that you don’t use.
Life is too short to anguish over things you can’t change.
Life is too short to demand repayment for ancient debts.

Life is too short to spend it focused on that which is not important.

P.S. While looking for an image of an hourglass, I found this…

Caretake this Moment

Caretake this moment.
Immerse yourself in its particulars.
Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed.

Quit the evasions.
Stop giving yourself needless trouble.
It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.
You are not some disinterested bystander.
Exert yourself.

Respect your partnership with providence.
Ask yourself often, How may I perform this particular deed
such that it would be consistent with and acceptable to the divine will?
Heed the answer and get to work.

When your doors are shut and your room is dark you are not alone.
The will of nature is within you as your natural genius is within.
Listen to its importunings.
Follow its directives.

As concerns the art of living, the material is your own life.
No great thing is created suddenly.
There must be time.

Give your best and always be kind.

~ Epictetus

When I heard about the newest X-Men movie, my expectations were really low. Roger Corman low. However, although there are a few things I don’t like (I still think giving Emma Frost the ability to turn into diamond, which was done in 2003, is stupid and unnecessary), over all, the trailer looks pretty good. You can definitely see the influence of Watchmen on it.

Okay. So I am staying up late and working on my local game group’s web site, drinking martinis and watching movies. I went through two of them (movies, not martinis — I am currently on my fourth martini) before I found one I could tolerate just to have running in the background.

I started with Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights. I could stand that for about ten minutes before I had to stop it and find something else. Ye gods. Simply dreadful. No wonder they waited until February to show what is ostensibly a Christmas movie (Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever).

The second movie was an old Dana Carvey movie called Opportunity Knocks (not to be confused with Career Opportunities, which features a young Frank Whaley, and a Jennifer Connelly so young she still has baby fat). I actually like Dana Carvey, and I think it’s too bad that he hasn’t achieved Adam Sandler’s level of post-Saturday Night Live success. As for the movie, it started out okay, but about fifteen minutes into it I decided to brush my teeth, and when I came back, I realized I really did not care enough to rewind and see what I missed. It was just that boring. So it goes.

The third movie was the charm: Women In Trouble, with Carla Gugino (whom I have always liked), and Adrianne Palicki (who I think might be my new favorite). This is a touching film, with humor and pathos and women in their underwear. Seriously: it’s a good movie, well-written and well-acted, and despite the outlandish situations, I really felt for the characters. For example, in the words of a porn star played by Carla Gugino, upon hearing of the death of someone important to her,

“If we don’t tell people how we feel, what are we doing here? … There is no good time, there is no right time, there is only now.”

It made me cry. Screw you if you think less of me for it. Women In Trouble. Look for it.

Oh, and if you do see Women In Trouble, watch the credits all the way to the end. It’s worth it.

This article is worth reading. Most people have no clue about what “security” really means, including most of the people vilifying — or praising — WikiLeaks.

As becomes increasingly obvious with the passage of time, and with the advancement of digital communication (and thus copying) technologies, privacy is security, and secrecy is not.

[…]

Perhaps the most amazing thing about all this noise over the matter is that WikiLeaks is such a vulnerable, unreliable avenue for distributing such leaks. The US government’s campaign targeting WikiLeaks in an attempt to shut it down does not only betray the culture of secrecy in government to the public at large, undermining any claims to value transparency; it also showcases the simple fact that government officials just do not get it. WikiLeaks is not the cause of the “problem” for secretive government officials. It is merely a superficial indicator of much deeper problems — of a deeply flawed security model.

(from The difference between secrecy and privacy as security concepts, TechRepublic)