2008: A fantastic year

Most years of this decade, I've come to a grim December and thought, "Man, that was a hard year. Hope the next one's got something better."

2008 broke my streak. 2008 has been a fantastic year. A lot of it is thanks to Meredith, who helps ground me by listening and taking me seriously. Highlights:

• Worked at the same place all year, at a job I basically like, without a long under-employed break -- an extra bump considering how lousy the year was for everyone's business.
• Started a hobby from scratch, and made some walking around money in the process.
• Restarted writing RPG material, and it was fun instead of nerve-wracking.
• Depression came, but did not stay this year.
• I'm energized rather than intimidated by the need to learn and stretch.

It is a fine time to be Jeff Quick. Thanks for reading, y'all.

Grognardia: Implicit Christianity in D&D

James Maliszewski writes Grognardia, a blog of ruminations on old school D&D in our new school times. The audience for this blog is focused like a laser, and those who find it interesting find it riveting.

I don't have that much love for original D&D. I never played it. I don't even like AD&D much. It's sprawling and occasionally contradictory, and the famed Gygaxian prose is nothing I've ever found quaintly endearing. There is something exhilarating about the spirit of the thing though, in the game's pulp origins and its seminal pastiche. Modern RPGs echo that spirit, but have meandered far from it.

This is what James attempts to articulate, in a smarter, more engaging, and kinder attempt than anyone else I've seen. Even if you disagree, it's clear that James is trying to communicate something, rather than rant.

Here's a fantastic recent entry on the implicit Christianity of early D&D, demonstrating yet again that anyone who thinks D&D interferes with Jesus is just not paying attention:

...I am now more firmly convinced than ever that early gaming, far from being "pagan," was in fact shot through with Christian belief, practice, and lore. It was always a kind of "fairytale Christianity" broadly consonant with American generic Protestantism rather than anything more muscular,...

As James alludes, early D&D -- really, any version of D&D -- has no interest in presenting Christ accurately. But the basic Christian-esque assumptions of early D&D are embarrassingly plain. How could anyone with a genuine interest in Jesus dwell on the lurid demon pictures and miss the Christian imagery? This is not a rhetorical question.

Note, that the Christ himself is not represented. He's too hi-res to appear accurately in the 9-bit morality of D&D. But he is there, as every other good and true idea the game addresses. And of course he's present among the players, where the real action is.

Where's a free market when you need one?

My credit card company recently informed me that they were raising the APR on my card to 30%, and raising a bunch of other nuisance fees, and if I didn't like it, I could kindly close my account.

This wasn't a surprise; I'd heard about this on Marketplace a day or two earlier. Also, I pay off my balance in full every month, so changes in "pay up bitch" charges are background noise to me most of the time.

I'm noticing this now because this is quite clearly evil. I don't mean like people who don't use their turn signals are evil. I mean soul-blackening evil. Like lotteries, these are tools that unrepentantly greedy people use to pull money out of those with poor judgment. For people who are already deeply in debt, the best thing to do is deepen that hole for them, right?

Under most circumstances, my solution would be the nuclear option: No credit cards. Problem solved. However, while I wouldn't call credit cards in American society necessary, they are handy. They let you do things, especially online, that you couldn't get done other ways. So this needs a more tactical solution.

This morning in the shower (where the water is more innovative) I decided that we need a credit card company that isn't in business to gouge. I'm not saying you lose money. I'm just saying, somebody needs to start a credit card that isn't wildly usurous.

From a cursory examination, there's no one out there in credit cards competing on price. Right now, if I had a credit card that only charged, say, 9% interest, people would flock to use it. They would transfer balances to my dinky 9% credit card. I would still make truckloads of money, and I might not even fall that far behind the big boys.

This isn't just capitaltruism, this is smart business, catering to an unserved share of the market.

President Bush in his briar patch

President Bush neatly dodged a couple of shoes at a press function yesterday (video link).

You can see in the video that Bushie is smiling as he lame ducks the first shoe. Though meant as an insult, that exchange was probably the most fun Bush had on the trip. I suspect only 8 years of President Finishing School prevented the man from hunkering behind the podium and lobbing his own kicks back.

Wardrobe malefactors, I will give you good odds -- you do not want Bush to step down as badly as Bush does. Being president is a real drag when you just want to goof off and take long naps every day.

Advent 2008

Advent for us is more involved this year than last year, when the observance sputtered and died just out of the driveway.

This year, M and I are getting up a little earlier in the morning to read and contemplate scripture for the Advent season. No lightning bolts this year either, but I'm glad we're doing it.

This year, Circle is focusing more on Christ coming to the city (Philadelphia if you're local), rather than coming to Earth or humanity or you in particular.

The picture is from a Flickr set. Our friend, Ben, took pictures of lil' Mary and Joseph in various photogenic locales around the city. (Note that "photogenic" does not necessarily equal "pretty".)

In our small group this week, we talked about how celebrating Advent, especially for a bunch of American Protestants, isn't in our traditional bag of tricks. Some of us are wrestling with making it feel/seem meaningful.

Especially after last year's experience, the best comment I have about the whole thing so far -- God is not your monkey. He wants to give you good things, and he cares very much, but he doesn't flip when you clap. Sometimes you show up and you pray and ask and cry and flail, and God does not seem to do anything.

That doesn't mean he's not doing anything -- which can be frustrating and suspicious. Those feelings, they are also part of the waiting.

I suspect we'll be plenty happy when Jesus does come back. Even if you're not a Christ follower, when the living embodiment of mercy and just plain give-a-damn shows up and says, "Okay, that's a wrap, everybody!", that's going to be a good day. Until then, it's not time yet. I don't know why. I wish I did. Oh God, I wish I did. I want to know why more than I want to know when.

Instead, I get to wait with everybody else. There's no musical number at the end of Advent telling you it's winding up. We might blow right on through Christmas and New Year's and next Arbor Day, and still not get a sense of doneness. Advent is the time we make a point to remember that we're waiting, not a signal to stop waiting.

A message from the Big Three

Hahahahahahahaha!

Not that I'm bitter.

Courtesy of The Beast.

New phone, same as the old phone

Almost a month ago, my phone went on walkabout. Haven't seen it since, haven't missed it much. If you've tried to call me lately and didn't get an answer, that's why.

I missed it enough that I got another one though. Same make & model, a RAZR. Because it was free. This also means I probably don't have your number handy any more, so it might take me a while to call you.

Today at lunch, curious about the time, I realized that the clock was the thing I missed most. I almost wanted a watch,* despite the fact that every piece of electronics in my life already contains one.


*Does anyone still need a watch? People mention the burden of carrying an mp3 player and a phone, and a PDA, but no one ever mentions that all three of those items contain clocks, and yet they still strap watches to their wrists every morning. What's up with those people?

BlogaDay 2008 wrapup

My second (what appears to be) annual BlogaDay sprint is over with a resounding "eh." I skipped a day just like last year, which is sort of interesting. But otherwise, I hit my marks, delivered original content when I had it, and commentary when I didn't.

The Look
Readership was up this year by a 6.5% smidge (click for bigger)...


...but commentership was way, way down: 8 this year vs. 19 last year.

The Feel
This year was not nearly as much of a what-the-hell-will-I-do-today? thrilllride. (3 Ls for extra thrilll.) Flexible dating in blogger combined with greater mental preparedness led to a more predictable, stately proceeding.

I'm still trying to decide whether I've got a problem with that. On one hand, it's good. Competence, confidence, preparation -- these are all good, and it should be no surprise or disappointment that a second (third, if you count May's abortive attempt) run through goes more smoothly than the first.

But on the other hand, where's the wahoo in a well-ordered proceeding? There's still discovery in the process, but it's all so much more... staid. I'm trying to wriggle out of self-restraints here, and that didn't happen to my satisfaction.

I also don't have the momentum I had after last year. Then, if I hadn't chosen to stop, I would have stayed in the groove. I might have BlogaDayed throughout the year! Today, I'm a little glad it's over, so I don't have to keep up with it for a while.

The Conclusion
Hell if I know. Thanks for reading, though!

November Linkdump

Here's the roundup of things I ran across this month, but didn't come up with a real post for:

Flying car drives to Africa
Here's a guy just doing a thing and making it happen. I mean, he's got a team. He's not a solo operation. But it's a great example of doing something small, but amazing... something like I'd like to do. I don't want to do big amazing things. I want to do small amazing things.

(Relatively) Simple explanations
Procon is a Web site that presents the two major sides of an current controversial issue, in a theoretically unbiased manner. If you've ever felt confused about some large public policy issue, look here to help clarify your own opinions on a topic.

The Journal of Cartoon Over-analyzations
Sometimes dumb, sometimes sublime. Occasionally worth a look.

Road map
A map of the contiguous United States consisting only of roads.

Dean Kamen is pretty great

I find Dean Kamen more and more impressive all the time. It seems like he's on the verge of another big breakthrough to public awareness.

You've heard his name before in association with the hilarious, doomed Segway. But other things he is heavily associated with include:

• FIRST -- a robotics competition for high school kids
• IBOT -- a wheelchair that walks up stairs and allows disabled people to "stand" at eye level
• an electric car that's got as good a chance as anybody's to be the next big thing
• Heavy-duty water purifiers and generators that run on anything that you can haul into Nowherezistan on an oxcart

Only catastrophe will prevent this guy from creating things that change the world. He's basically already done it, and I'm not talking about two-wheel dorkmobiles.

Here's his wikipedia entry.
Read a recent U.K. Telegraph article about him.
Here's DEKA, his inventors-for-hire company.

Bulette in plush, in process

Here's a bulette I started on a couple of nights ago. I copied the body pattern from a triceratops plush toy -- disassembled it and started reverse engineering a bulette from there.


I'm impressed by my copying! Like tracing comics when you're a kid, this is the beginning of how you learn to put these things together for yourself.

Next time, I'll try to figure out a way to get the tail up a little more. However, the triceratops provides no guidance on a bulette head, so piecing that together is much more trial and error.


Art Shop is next weekend, so I'll probably spend more time on monsters that use less experimental methods until then. Besides, this works like most of my projects do, I'm due to put it down and not touch it again until late December.

Otyugh in plush

Been working on non-cute, D&D-esque monsters lately too. Here's my first one.


I finished this otyugh a while back, but it took me a long time to get pictures and transfer them to where I could post them. It's a prototype, but full of valuable lessons for the next round. I hope to post these at otyugh.com in the near future.





Lessons learned:

• Long, skinny tentacles/eyestalks/what-have-you with a big bulbous thing on the end are an absolute bitch to invert. Make limbs shorter, wider.
• I needed to insert an armature to make the eyestalk stand up, and the limbs less floppy. This guy's eyestalk doesn't stand up without external support.
  
• I didn't take pix of it (the above was taken before I closed it), but the back of this thing is an ugly mess of visible stitches. I meant to close it on the bottom, but the legs took up all the bottom space. Then all I had left to close was the back. I think the lesson here is to change the proportions next time; make the body bigger, and space the legs farther apart.
• The mouth turned out great! Pretty happy with the mouth. More consistent stitching will improve the look up close. Maybe using the machine will improve that.

One gamer I played Living Forgotten Realms with a few weeks ago told me sight unseen that he would buy a handmade plush otyugh. I hope there's more like him.


Tomorrow: A bulette in process.

Buy Nothing Day 2008

It's the magical time of year again! The time when you're tempted to spend too much money on things that people don't need! That's right, it's almost Black Friday!

Which coincides with the annual Adbusters Buy Nothing Day. In their tiresomely earnest way, they (and I) encourage all good boys and girls to buy nothing on November 28, 2008.

Maybe you'll learn something. Maybe you'll retain personal wealth for one day longer than you otherwise would have. Maybe, just maybe, you will contribute to the righteous cause of having less stupid crap in the world. It is a magical time of year, after all.

Bailout Solution Update

In the shower a couple of days ago, I realized the missing element of my bailout solution (which should pump $375 billion back into the U.S. economy, while loosening the shackles on America's best educated, most responsible citizens).

This is probably why Mr. Paulson has not yet contacted me, but now he's pretty much got no choice but to pass my blog address onto Tim Geithner.

Here's the New New Deal:

Instead of pure loan forgiveness, the U.S. treasury offers compensatory service hours. Essentially, you freelance for debt reduction. If you're willing to make this your full-time pursuit, then you get a decent stipend, and work off your debt much faster.

If you are something particularly useful, like a civil engineer, you get an above-market hourly "wage" in debt reduction for time spent on redesigning our road infrastructure.

If you're less skilled, then you get a lower hourly return in debt reduction, but still a better "wage" than you could make at your run-of-the-mill fresh-out-of-college job.

This complicates the matter, and will require some fine tuning to make it an attractive option, but it needs to be generous so that the best and most indebted people will choose it.

So, let's review. Money is pumped into the economic system, not at the top, where we hope it will create solvency through a Rube Goldberg spit-and-hope trickle-down process, but at the bottom where it will directly affect the piston of the economic engine, i.e. the workers.

In exchange for this money, U.S. education and infrastructure get competent boosts from educated, hungry professionals. And then a bunch of dumb shit pork doesn't have to get funded.

Yuh huh, we can.

My behatted doppelganger

Stan! points me to a picture of a guy who looks so much like me, I thought he WAS me for a second.

Other pictures of him bear less resemblance, but if I ever want to commit crime in Milwaukee, this sentence-diagramming "Boone Dryden" character is taking the heat for me while I escape to Canada.

Try it out

Here's another repost from Real Live Preacher: So You Think You Want to Try Christianity?

Christians who have spent time in the wilderness often display more wisdom than those who haven't. It seems strange to me that a God who calls his followers to obedience seems to richly reward those who wander off and come back.

I know a number of lifelong Xians who are petulant and misguided and occasionally strident about it (yrs trly incl.). It's the ones who haven't thought of Jesus as their birthright who excel at humility, kindness, patience, and half a dozen other fruits of the Spirit.

Come to think of it, they can be crazy in their own ways too. I just find that craziness more acceptable.

Roger's Wish

Roger found a magic lamp. The genie inside told him he could have three wishes -- whatever he wanted.

There were lots of things Roger wanted. A better position in work, better relationships, better quality stuff in his life. But wishes are very valuable, and it would be foolish to waste one asking for a luxury car or a promotion.

Besides, Roger reasoned, better cars and promotions are fully achievable without magical assistance. So while Roger considered how to best use his wishes, he began working on getting things he wouldn't waste a wish on.

Years passed. Roger got many things he might have wished for, though not all. Nevertheless, he found a loving wife and had many fulfilling relationships; through patience and work, he achieved recognition for his efforts; and his family never lacked for food or clothing or shelter. All in all, an excellent life, well lived.

On his deathbed he rubbed the lamp. He croaked out, "Genie, I wish for more time."

And so the genie made him Lord of All Time and Space. Roger soon discovered that this was what he should have wished for all along.

THE END

Depression for a new century

Everybody with a title and a media outlet is real careful to say that there's not an economic depression coming up. But those people also didn't want to say that a recession was coming.

Warren Buffett, a man who I listen to closely, has said that we're in for a long, deep recession. But he hasn't said "depression" either. But that doesn't mean he can't be wrong.

So here's an interesting article from the Boston Globe: Depression 2009: What would it look like?

The recap? It won't look that startling. There probably wouldn't be long lines into the street and families packing all their worldly goods into trucks and people selling apples on the corners. Suburbs will empty, and cities will fill.

TV is one big difference. Once you have a TV, entertainment is essentially free, and you don't even have to leave the house to get it. So people won't. In 1930, it was much harder to hole up. Now, it will be hard not to.

People packed together, ignoring each other.

What the article doesn't go on to say is that an economic depression would lead to massive, crippling emotional depression. People will be separated, and in that separation, people will get lost. Suicide rates among adults could be ugly.

Our church, Circle of Hope, talks a lot about community. But we're only so-so on activating it... it's a very DIY church -- punk without the bad attitude. But if you don't know how to be DIY, you can feel left out.

I've been thinking loosely in the last couple weeks about how we can show Christ, love our neighbors, and help people in the coming recession. I've got a list of ideas, some more workable than other. One I'm adding today is becoming aggressively friendly to strangers, inviting them to do stuff with us, to get them out of their houses, and into some company. Ideally the company of a loving God, in addition to our own. The need for Jesus is about to get stronger in the Philadelphia region... people will need friends in a life-or-death way.

Social networking sites: current thinking

Here in 2008, becoming Internet famous -- particularly the version where you don't have to work -- requires you to be active in social networking. I'm already a member of LinkedIn and Goodreads, but I'm not very active on those, and also those basically don't count.

The ones that count are Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter. You might argue that that last 3 are not social networking sites, but I'm afraid you'd be wrong. MySpace is currently decreasing in importance, but still worth the effort if you're planning on becoming Internet famous.

I've never thought that social networking was a waste of anyone's time. I think it's neat! But the upside of social networking has always been outweighed by the downside for me:

1. There are people who want to harm you, and I'm told some of them have Internet access. I prefer to avoid their attention. One way to do that is to not post personal information in a broad forum.
2. I like to look before I leap. Social networking is a brave new world of mistakes to be made, and I would like someone else to make most of them, please.
3. I try to resist being, or being treated as a consumer. Social networking exposes me to a lot of new advertisers -- people who see me as a wallet with eyeballs, not a person to be loved. Quixotic as the attempt is, I still try to limit my exposure to these people.
   

However, if I intend to become Internet famous and stop having to work, these thick doors of behavioral assessment must have chunks removed, to become something more like portcullises.


Here's an article I read recently on how to protect your privacy on Facebook.

They have one fascinatingly ugly hole in their thinking: that you should never put your home address in a publicly visible place.

Of course I agree! But if you are an adult, and your first and last name, and city of residence are available, so is your address. Even if your address is unlisted in the phone book, if you own property, City Hall will tell anyone who asks.

Don't make it easy for identity thieves. But don't think you're hiding anything. Name and city are all a clever person needs to find an unnerving amount of information about you.

Notes on a new sewing machine

Got a new sewing machine this weekend, a Pfaff Hobby 1142. Woo! Rockin' the cotton!

It's the top end of the low end machines, but I'm told the line is good, and won't explode like the cheap-o machine I've been using and misusing for most of the year.

I'm almost entirely self-taught when it comes to sewing, and it shows. When running through the basics of this new machine, I learned three things I had been doing wrong that probably created my troubles with my previous machine. So this Pfaff will probably run better, just by virtue of understanding how to operate the machine.

In researching, I asked my friend, Tracey, what she uses (Bernina). To my surprise, her husband, Paul, had strong opinions about the superiority of Pfaff machines. As an engineer, Paul is hilariously thorough in all aspects of his life, including sewing machine preference, despite the fact that he does not sew.

I also looked at the Consumer Reports Web site, where hundreds of commenters grabbed virtual torches and pitchforks because CR hasn't reviewed sewing machines in a decade. Many signed up for CR online specifically to get sewing machine advice, and wanted their DAMN MONEY BACK. It seems strange that people who wanted to research a purchase didn't research the research-purchase.

So far, the Pfaff runs better, and I have been promised a "warhorse" machine, which is exactly what I want. I don't want fancy, I want indestructible. Also, this machine has blue imprinting instead of the girly pink of my previous one, so that's better.

Book Review: Anathem

Usually, I start a book and then drop it for months and months before I finish it. Social pressure was the trick to get me to finish Neal Stephenson's Anathem sooner. My b-i-l Jon and I started the book together on opening weekend, and then he finished it way, way ahead of me. So while he was on vacation, I read the other 900 pages.

Which is better, right? That's better?

The Short Version: On an alternate Earth, mathematicians cloister themselves so they can get more math done. Then the very concept of cloistering is called into question.

My Take: As I write this, I find myself reviewing the author more than the book. I liked Anathem. I'd recommend it. But it's middle-of-the-pack Stephenson.

He seems to have good story reasons to avoid starting the plot for 200 pages. But I would have liked to visit the cosmos where he didn't take so long.

I didn't experience the white-knuckle effect of Cryptonomicon here, but once I invested myself in the project, it was easy to keep reading. For such a cerebral writer, Stephenson knows how to move a story along.

I understand that people have commented on an anti-religion bias in the book, but these are people with agendas. I have not found another non-religious science-fiction writer who is as clear thinking and composed when writing religion into his or her stories.

The science and mathematical-style thinking are interesting and fun, but not required to follow the tale. However, if you don't enjoy brainy reading, it's probably not worth it just for the story.

ecards for the holidays

When you care enough, but not all that much.

Wrongcards




Some Ecards

Three ideas for professional blogging

Here are three semi-decent ideas I've had for starting blogs and developing an online niche and persona. Any opinions anyone?

Gumption Train: Less a productivity blog, and more a coming of age story. I'm not very good at getting stuff done. But I'd like to be. This idea would combine sort of a productivity blog and a personal journal, with frequent invites and group activities for readers to take part.

Freyq: A monsters blog. News, notes, jokes, and whatnot about monsters and monster-related issues. More of the fun kind of monster than the scary kind, but we'd do scary too. This also ties in to selling my own handmade monsters, and resides at what I think is a rich intersection between crafters and geeks.

Games: I don't have a good hook for this, I just really like games, and would like to be professionally involved in them again, even peripherally. I don't have a voice or a good niche audience in mind for this. Maybe an aspirational thing for people trying to get into games as pros?

1,000 True Fans

Kevin Kelley, who is more than Internet famous in his own right, developed the idea of 1,000 true fans. The idea is practically a toss-off from the bigger concept he helps propagate, the long tail.

In brief, the 1kTF idea is that if 1,000 devoted fans of an artists will pay $100 a year for that artist's output, then that artist can make a decent living, cut out a lot of middlemen, and cater very specifically to those 1,000 fans.

People have criticized the idea for reasons fair and unfair. What I haven't seen in the whole discussion are more realistic permutations of the idea.

The idea I'm more interested in investigating is something like 5,000 fair weather fans willing to pay $20 a year. It's actually a lot of effort to cultivate 1,000 people. But it's less difficult to attract the magpie interests of 5,000 people.

What you'd really want is a mix of say, three different tiers which I will call, off the top of my head: true fans ($100+ a year), casual fans ($50 a year), and fair weather fans ($20 a year). For monetization purposes, I might even add a fourth tier of rat's ass fans, who don't give a rat's ass about the artist or the work, but will spend $5 for a clever little doodad on impulse. Which might well bring us back around to a micro-long tail within a single artist's realm.

Cultivating fans at these three different tiers is probably the more doable way to pull this scheme off.

Becoming Internet famous

I've been considering trying to become Internet famous lately. Mainly because I don't want to have to work.*

Internet famous seems to mean different things depending on who's writing the article, but this is not about attention. The goal is to have my output and persona known in a large, but shallow pool of watchers. And to make a decent living off it.

This will be hard, because I am reclusive by training, and occasionally by nature. But the Internet provides a decent curtain to pull when I want time off. At heart, this is about marketing, which I am bad at, yet intrigued by.

Here is what I think I need to become Internet famous and stop having to work. These may change:

1. A differentiator. Something clever and unusual, but not off-putting that will draw people to pay attention. It doesn't have to be MEMEME!!! It can be an artistic product such as a comic or just a clear viewpoint, well presented.

2. Consistent public appearances. Keep a blog or a Flickr page or a message board or a social networking site, and put in appearances/updates every day or more. Ideally, do all of these things, because more exposure leads to more fame.

3. At least 5 years. This is not a short-term project. One set of Tron costume pictures is a jolt in the right direction, but not the whole race.

4. Something to sell. This is how I stop working. I have further thoughts on this which I will discuss tomorrow.




Links:

Here is a simple how-to for becoming Internet famous.

There is an Internet famous class at Parsons New School for Design in New York. I doubt I'll be attending, but I can study the syllabus at their Web site.

Excerpt from a Time article about the class:

For all the tricks and shortcuts his students have learned — about how to use headlines, keywords and tags to attract the attention of search engines, and how to use social networks to seek out the audience that will be most receptive to what you have to say — Wilkinson said the key to attaining "legitimate famo" is the same as it's always been: quality, tenacity and persistence.

*"Work" does not equal "effort" in this scenario.

Dread borne from editing

How does one "loosen up"? I hear you humans use this phrase, but I do not understand it. I am tight. Not like a virgin, like a spinster.

I think one time a long time ago I made things up and wrote them down and people told me I was a "good" writer, but circumstance and happenstance have led me to this place where I am a better critic than creator, and that must have its charms, but I'm missing them right this second.

The search for discipline, for control, has led me to this place where I know grammar, but don't have anything to put in it. This is not writer's block, this is "Oh my fuck, I've spent my life becoming an editor, not a writer, I didn't mean to do that, FUCK."

But the viscera of that horror doesn't shock long enough to drive me to change. And by now, halfway through life, should I even bother trying to shore up weakness any more? Do I just accept what I've got and play to strength?

Oh BlogaDay. You lead me to despair. I hope it's redemptive.

Arts & Crafts & D & D

D&D is funner when you make things.

I run late to my D&D game most of the time. I get home from work late, and rarely have my crap together ahead of time.

But I still try to make time to put together index cards with stats on them, and collect miniatures to represent monsters, and schlep it all to the game. I've even started trying to paint miniatures, although I don't think of that as fun, so much as achieving a finished product. One of my players has offered to make terrain, and I'm trying to figure out how to turn him loose on that without giving stuff away, because that sounds like a blast.

In the past couple of months, I've gotten on the cardstock modeling bandwagon (it's a very small bandwagon). I've been assembling paper trees and cliffs and bridges. I don't even have a plan for it yet, I'm just doing it because... it's fun? Is this a previously unrecognized form of fun?

One night, as I was applying glue stick to an index card, I once again paused to reflect how faintly ridiculous the whole thing is. But what hobby isn't faintly ridiculous?

Book Review: Butchery

A couple of friends and a few random mentions sent me to hunt down Storm Front: Book One of the Dresden Files a couple months ago. Then finally, with a luxurious day all to myself, I read the whole thing.

The Short Version: Harry Dresden is a wizard and a detective in Chicago. Together, he solves crimes.

My Take: Mark Twain said, "When you catch an adjective, kill it." Butcher seems to be no fan of Twain's.

Jim Butcher bolts together a decent tale, and his writing clunks like something bolted together. I'm told the books get better. I've actually started reading book 2... something about werewolves... but but with my goldfish attention span, I don't see myself finishing it. It's not gotten good enough for me to want to wait through it when I could be reading better, more enjoyable books.

Einstein's religion

This is a follow-on to last Saturday's post. It's not exactly part 2, but a continuation of the thought process.

In May, the Telegraph printed a short article concerning a letter written by Einstein about a year before he died, detailing his thoughts about God and religion. From the article:

In the letter, dated January 3 1954, he wrote: "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.

"No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this."

The New York Times reported that it sold for $404,000 at auction, 25 times its estimated auction price.


Einstein is the icon of the Smart Guy, and you gotta listen to what a smart guy says, right?

Riffing off the 20th century concept of scientist as modern prophet, religious types have tentatively employed the big E's many mystical statements as subtle, science-approved backing of their religious beliefs for a while now. Because if Einstein believes in some bigger presence beyond the sky, then who are you, Mr. Fancy-Pants Hitchens?

I can spot at least two things wrong with that scenario, and I'm pretty sure there are more.

My time in Ballard

Last week, the New York Times travel section did a bit on Ballard and Fremont, two wonderful neighborhoods in my former home, Seattle. I've often said I'd only need half a reason to move back to Seattle. Living in Ballard could easily be half of that half a reason.

I lived in Ballard for about six months back in my Seattle days, and although my housemates were troublesome, the house and neighborhood were fantastic.

Ballard is quiet, affable, and liveable. There are rows and rows of neat houses, owned by neat homeowners. It's walkable, and there are things you might want to walk to -- a marked difference from Germantown. There was even a game store a couple blocks from where I lived.

The Chittendon Locks are a fantastic place to spend an afternoon in summer or fall. You take a picnic and watch the boats rise and fall, chatting with the yacht owners stuck on their decks slowly, slowly coming up to meet you. The salmon churn themselves up the fish ladder, their soulless fish eyes sometimes appear suddenly, startlingly, out of the murk and froth.

As evening arrives, and the sky fails to darken since you are living on the 47th parallel, you head over to Golden Gardens Park, where there are sandy beaches and volleyball nets, and windsurfers packing up their flimsy-looking gear after spending a day dodging seals in Puget Sound. There will be parties there before too much longer. You will have, of course, brought a grill and some burgers and a frisbee.

When I lived there, I worked in Bellevue, which meant a daily commute over the 520 bridge, which is partially a pontoon bridge -- a floating parking lot twice a day, and subject to occasional flooding.

Though I lived in and loved Ballard, none of my other friends did. They still dwelt in Renton, an uglier, more modern suburb south of Seattle, home to the now-dwindling Boeing megaplex. It was a 45-minute drive to see anyone I knew, which sucked pretty hard.

One night I was taking one of my quiet long walks around Ballard. I was thinking about whether to move back south. My roommate situation was terribly stressful, and I had no local emotional support. As I sauntered up a back street behind a grocery store, a couple of shaggy looking bums were sitting together on the sidewalk. "Leave Ballard!" one of them shouted to me.

I don't usually take my cues from drunk, homeless people. But this one was telling me something I needed to hear. I moved soon after.

My friend, Erik, lives in Ballard now, and he also commutes to Bellevue every day. I pity his commute, but I envy his arrival at home.

How I title blog posts these days

For years, I've attempted to cleverly title my posts here. Puns mainly, but under inspiration, I've slipped in a triple entendre or two and subtle allusions that I doubt anyone else gets or cares to get.

But I've changed my thinking recently, because I find, as I browse the archives, that I have no idea what some titles refer to. I'm not getting my own in-jokes anymore.

I'm reminded of blog advice I've seen at various places. Most of those articles are tiresome. I don't care about making this blog optimized for search engines; I'm not interested in selling ads here. But I do want to optimize for human reading. Some of the same principles apply:

• Keep it short.
• Pull the reader into the first paragraph.
• Make it sensible so that if a reader is picking it out of an RSS feed, he or she can get a sense of it.
• Provoke.

These principles are also good to keep in mind because although I don't want to make money here, I am slowly, slowly gathering momentum to try to make some money off blogging. That ship has sailed several times by now, but there's room for more ships to come in. So while I wait, I'm learning to craft better post titles.

Why I don't talk much about politics

I rarely have much to say about politics. I rarely have enough information to make useful concrete statements.

When I've tried to pay close attention to political speaking and writing, I get confused quickly. Advocates for a candidate or cause seldom also advocate for honesty or fair-mindedness. To some extent, that's what advocacy is for. It's understandable, though unhelpful.

Finding true things takes time and effort, and is hard work even when professionals aren't working full-time to counter clarity. And that's just the cynical view. Partisans can be genuine (I'm told), and opposing viewpoints can equally claim legitimacy.

But I'm not of the mind that truth is malleable. If I find legitimate, meaningful, opposing viewpoints, then I haven't found truth yet. I've just found a hard place.

Elections so often come down to voting against someone, or "sending a message." I loathe playing those games. I want to be in favor of things, people, ideas.

The small solace I've found in presidential elections is that there's usually someone out there running with an agenda that I can get behind. That candidate has no chance to win. But if more people voted for someone they wanted to vote for, rather than Brand X or Y, politics might mean something again. That's my maverick hope.

Commentary after election night

Philadelphia has had an exuberant week. Winning the World Series last week caused us throw a 2-million person parade on Friday that shut down the city. Today won't see a parade, but the party mood carries on thanks to Obama's victory.

I talked to our furnace repairman last night, who told me he couldn't fix our furnace today because he was taking today off. He would be celebrating if Obama won, or mourning if he lost. Either way, far too busy for work.

For Philadelphia, Obama's victory reminds me of Nutter's mayoral victory last year. They're both effective, disciplined African-American men who mean to get something done. And Philadelphians want to follow them. We yearn to follow these leaders. We will even cut them slack, something we have not wanted to do with our executive-level leaders for a while.

Philadelphia could theoretically find a more beloved presidential candidate than Obama to support, if Will Smith got some political experience.


McCain's face had become noticeably grim and gray in the late stages of the campaign; his smiles looked like rictuses. But during his concession speech last night, he looked rejuvenated and relaxed. The speech seemed honest and frankly, relieved. Several of us watching CNN remarked that we would have liked to have seen that one running for president these last few months, rather than the tight, angry warhorse lumbering from podium to podium, conjuring increasingly strained vituperatives.

He seemed more like the long-lost McCain of 2000/2004, emerged from under a wicked spell, now magically broken with his defeat. I wonder how wrong that simile is... the Republican party has become strangely witch-like in the last decade or so. Anyone subjected to their ministrations might well suffer a similar fate.

Even though he won't be president, it's nice to have McCain back.


Time was, we needed a couple months between an election and an inauguration. It took that long to get the word out, for the new guy to collect all his brass tacks so he could get down to them. In these modern times, when you can call the election exactly one second after the west coast polls close, these 77 days seem like a vestigial appendage. Bush is still president in case anyone asks, but Obama has basically already started the job.


I'm uncomfortable with a Democratic majority in Congress. As useful as a president is, it's the legislative branch that gets shit done, according to our beloved Constitution. Our current messes would be less messy if we'd had a Democratic congressional majority eight years ago, because the Republican machine would not have had its way every time it glanced toward Capitol Hill. Mind you, the Democratic machine is no more benign or trustworthy. However, the electorate is more wary... and punchy. That might be balance enough. It better be, since that's all we've got now.

Fjurthermore at 260

I know people have been clamoring to hear more about Fjurthermore in the last few weeks, stopping me on the streets, calling me after 10 p.m., especially with the collapse of Iceland.

Well, geographically-challenged onlookers, don't fret. Thanks to Norway's rich resources and enormous capital reserves, Fjurthermore has continued to grow even in these Tough Economic Times. The pace has slowed, but new residents and industry still arrive nearly every day.

The city has grown large enough that investments are sometimes required into the transportation network. Try it out! Adding transport won't add to the size of the city, but it'll fill those Scandinavian coffers for future growth.

And of course, you can visit anytime to the city proper.

Monster making

Since last year, I've alluded to my continuing hobby of plush monster making, but haven't said much.

The link in the sidebar, Monsters for the Home, leads to my sparsely stocked Etsy store, for which I have more stock, but not more gumption to list the stock. With Art Shop coming up in a month, I'm more inclined to save my stuff for direct sales anyway.

Monster making uses an all-different part of my brain, one I don't use much. I'm an abstract thinker; I like fiddling with ideas and symbols, and have little facility with stuff.

But making monsters is all about assembling stuff. For some reason, it's not strange and boggling when I sew, it's just strange.

I have a few patterns, but I get bored with the same thing after one try. So I launch into new things all the time, which takes thought. I used to doodle geometric shapes in work meetings where I didn't have much involvement (all of them). Now, I draw crude 3D models of whatever cotton problem I'm trying to work out. I imagine this is what it's like to be an artist.

Saturday I made my favorite monster yet: Cycloptopus. It's not actually that tricky, but it does embody the sudden, unexpected confluence of a lot of things I've learned about plush, and I'm proud of it.

Very little of my output is unusable -- it's hard to screw up something that's meant to look monstrous. But I see more blemish than finish in most of my production. This guy is different. I might not sell him yet. Might keep him around as a trophy.

Double dog daring

We have another dog, Autumn. She's a 5-month old something-or-other, from the shelter again, but this time, young enough that she hasn't been near-ruined by a previous owner's neglect.

She has seen trouble though. Roughly a month ago, a cop found her in an alley in north Philly, her left eye huge and distended. She's still kind of bug-eyed on the port side, but heavy doses of antibiotics have reduced the swelling from gross to merely unsightly.

She'll probably always be blind in her left eye. Nobody knows what happened, but the consensus seems to be "trauma", i.e. someone poked her in the eye. When we took her to have the shelter vet check her out last week, some thick dude with armloads of tattoos saw her and said, "I think I recognize that dog. I think she used to be near where I live. I'm glad you've got her." Words dense with meaning.

Dylan is less afraid of Autumn than he was Merit. She's more his size, and shows him respect -- especially since he's nipped her a couple of times to get her to back off. Merit drew blood from Dylan (and from me). We don't expect those problems again.

Autumn is spazzy and mouths things and pees indoors like you'd expect from a puppy. But she seems to be learning and fitting in. I think we've got a keeper.

Science vs. religion: why religion loses

I recently hit on the reason why the concept of evolution is so divisive. Theists who accept God as creator of the universe get all pissed when you tell them their God didn't do it.

Which is not what evolution says. But it is what many evolution proponents want to say out of their personal theology, and so they try to use their scientific theorem to say it for them.

The theists pick up on this understated intent handily, and want to fight this clear, unspoken challenge to their God's sovereignty.

The problem rears when theists respond with the same tactics. Using legal and intellectual rhetoric, they try to refute the implied meaning (a challenge to God's existence) by winning the surface argument (evolution's factuality). So theists fight the shadow war on their opponents' ground. That's the roadmap to Losertowne.

Look, using scientific principles to determine God's involvement in nature has so far been unprovable. (Other principles render God more apparent, but dogged materialists demur the evidence of unmeasured experience.) Therefore, suggesting that a set of observations obviates God is in fact, empirically unknowable. And to a serious rational atheist, it's intellectually dishonest. So, end of argument. Whatever else an aggressive unbeliever brings to the table after that is bear baiting.

Theists: Don't be bears.
This is what theists need to bring to the table: bread. Break it with the unbelievers and relax.

For my branch of theists, hearken: Jesus is revealed more eloquently in what you do than in the best-rendered arguments. We are here to win hearts, not fights.

BlogaDay Dos

BlogaDay 2007 was a success in the sense that it encouraged consistent readership, and also, consistent writership.

Unflummoxed success is rare enough that I like to build on it when I find it. So for 2008, I present an all-new BlogaDay. Visit Quickthinking every day in November to see what thing I think.

Posts will not be mere one-liner links to something on the Internet that someone else went to the trouble of creating, but will contain original thoughts and opinions, developed into short paragraphs. Similar to real writing!

Also new for 2008: Blogger supports scheduled posts! Via the miracle of science, expect updates each new day, even if I am too drunk to press buttons.

Furthermore, if any of you reading this are also bloggers, feel free to join the BlogaDay movement by writing a new, original post every day in November. We will be doing it together, only very far apart! Leave me a comment with your blog address if you're in.

It all starts tomorrow! November 1! Here is a brief excerpt from tomorrow's post:

"the"

Art Shop 2008, Dec. 5 & 6

This is happening soon, so you'll want to make plans to attend.

ALSO NEWS FLASH: I, Jeff Quick, will be showing and selling plush monsters at this event. Come and be entranced.



In these frightening economic times, you'll want to support local artists for your Xmas shopping. And if you are not local, then you'll want to support ME.

Furthermore, the underappreciated capitaltruism of Unda Water will be on sale both days.

COMMENCE EXULTATION.

Late bloomers

I would like to be writing new things, about the one-eyed puppy we picked up, about monster-making, about a resurgence in Unda Water, about lessons learned in the world of advertising, about further half-formed theology, about the children I pass driving to work, waiting for the bus, pulling on the air, a mimed plea for passing cars to honk.

But writing well takes time, and if I'm going to write, I at least want to try to write well. And of course, it's not that I don't have time, it's just that I don't want to spend it on blog writing these days.

Instead, I'll post again by pointing you to an article by the always-pleasing Malcolm Gladwell on Late Bloomers, comforting reading for a mid/late-30s still-wannabe.

Left-handed scissors

I bought a pair of left-handed scissors weeks ago, and just got around to using them a couple nights back.

Verdict: I don't know how to use left-handed scissors.

I'm so used to right-handed scissors, that I don't know how to cut with the blades reversed. When right-handed people cut with scissors (I assume), they look on the left side of the blades to see what they're doing -- closer to the middle of the cutter's body.

As a lefty, I also look on the left side of the blades, but that side is away from the center of the body when held in one's left hand. Which is slightly awkward, but you adapt, and things work out. (Except that statistically, left-handers die 9 years sooner than right-handers, probably for these sorts of reasons. Not that I'm bitter.*)

Left-handed scissors are designed so that you look on the right side of the blades -- a mirror image of right-handed cutting. But I'm still in the habit of looking on the left side of the blade, and so I've made some pretty awful cuts because I can't see what I'm doing. That's the opposite effect of what I wanted... perhaps to be expected from an opposite implement.


*Although I would like to point out that if any other group made up 10% of the population and had a physical distinction of biological origin that could potentially impair job function, they'd damn well get federal funding and "protected class" status.

Bailout, part 2

I am generally pro-avoidance of suffering. But here's the deal, "Main Street": your hands are dirty too. You bought shit you didn't need and charged it. I am usually in favor of soaking the rich. But nearly every middle class-and-up citizen made our current mess, and many of the poor ones too.

Seriously, HDTV? Was that invented for any reason other than to suck money out of pockets? Was mortal television insufficient?

There's a long list of ridiculous money holes at places like engadget.com. And people willingly, joyously, threw their cash down it.

The "bailout" that would save us would be national sackcloth and ashes. It would be healthy and sane for us to suffer some, to understand the consequences of our behavior.

But we won't do that. We're too silly, too fat and spoiled. What's happening now is a flailing after the last ditch. This will not solve anything. If we're fortunate, it might prolong it for a generation. It is not a solution.

People: Americans: Stop spending money on things you don't need. Save money instead. This is the only way out of our current problems. The economy is what we do. Do wise things.

Quote Marks

"Money can't buy you love, but love can bring you money."
-- Daniel James, CEO Three Rings
from an essay at Penny Arcade

Bailout solution

I figured out how to solve this credit liquidity thing. The treasury doesn't bail out investment banks directly. They bail out the debtors, putting money into the system from the bottom up.

First, the U.S. government pays off all student loans. That's about $45.6 billion, as derived from figures found here.

Next, we selectively pay people's credit card debt. Everybody with a credit score over, say, 700? Your debt is effectively gone.

I have no legal way to know how much money that is, but somewhere I read that $2.2 trillion in the U.S. was charged to credit cards in 2007. Using WAG figures, I'll say that only 75% of that was carried as a balance, and of that number, perhaps 20% is held by people with credit scores 700 or above. That's $330 billion.

Here's why this is great:

• Banks that made bad decisions face consequences for their bad decisions. No bailout.
• However, there IS liquidity now in the hands of lenders. Not the same lenders that were in action before, but please see point 1.
  
• Some of these student loan lenders can now get competitive commercial interest rates for their money rather than the federally mandated lower student interest rates.
  
• About 3 million young, bright, educated people, the people who were willing to take on debt so they could do better in the future, the kind of people you want to give flexibility -- basically, the top 3 million of the next generation -- suddenly have more options.
• The most responsible citizens (as measured by credit rating) are given similar boosts. Thus, people who are wiser with money are given more money to be wise with.
  

With these two groups relieved of significant debt, there's roughly $375 billion back in the system, in the hands of existing credit agencies, who already made the choice to loan money to reputable borrowers, and now have the ability to make further judicious loans to commercial concerns.

This also frees up millions of Americans to spend new money that would have been going to debt repayment. Some will go back into debt. Many, I think, will invest the newfound flexibility.

There are problems with this system. Mainly, it absolves the least risky debt in America, when the problem is with super-risky debt. The super-risky debt is still in the system, and will continue to drag. But maybe that's okay.

As always, Mr. Paulson, my email address is in the right sidebar, and my consulting fees are quite reasonable.

Mr. McCain, please proceed to Mississippi to attend tonight's debate.

Neologism: Capitaltruism

Remember last year when I tried to come up with a snappy portmanteau about putting good deeds and money-making together? Last night, just before bed, I checked that one off the list.

Capitaltruism (kap' - i - tal' - troo - izum) n. selfless concern for others offered within the structure of an economic system based on the private ownership of industry

Start using that in your conversations and New York Times articles, everybody. It's on me!

Mirror mugging

Ethan Ham is an artist in New York City. Apparently, you can make a living at that sort of thing.

While avoiding onerous work today, I found his Web site, and browsed through some pictures of his installations. Mirror is basically a monitor and a camera. However, instead of taking your picture and showing it to you, it takes your picture and shows you the picture in its memory that most closely matches the picture it took of you.

So this is all very interesting, etc.

What I want to show you is his Flickr page of all the pictures taken at one showing. It's a fascinating cross-section of people who, all differences aside, uniformly try to screw with the process, mugging for the camera in fun, silly ways.


* This picture is used entirely without permission, so if you're sad about that and are Ethan Ham , email me and I'll take it down.

Huey Lewis

I got pulled over for speeding today, and as I rooted in my glove compartment for my registration, I saw a cassette tape.

Tonight, driving to the grocery store, I pulled it out and put it in my car’s tape player. (My car was built when they still put cassette players in cars.) I thought it was a mixtape, but incorrectly cataloged within was Huey Lewis and The News, Fore (1986).

The audio quality of a 22-year-old tape in my car’s decade-old deck was predictably lacking. But I think I prefer it that way. Altered, muted, discernable, but distorted.

I’m trying to plumb what it is about Huey Lewis that appealed to me. I started listening because a girl I had a crush on liked the band. But my fandom has outlived my infatuation by a good 19 years to date.

Huey Lewis’s songs bear little resemblance to my history or inclination. In high school, I genuinely did not know that “Whole Lotta Lovin’” was about sex. I was slightly afraid of drugs and drinking alcohol. It is possible for me to be less rock ‘n’ roll, but to do so would require me to actively identify as something else—country or folk or classical or something. I’m as far from rock ‘n’ roll as ignorance and benign indifference can take me.

Even though Huey and I are pretty far apart, I don’t think I would have continued to like say, Duran Duran or Madonna if I had decided to listen to them because of a crush. I can't yet identify why that is. The music didn’t speak to any experience I had. I can’t even say the music is qualitatively “good,” although a few songs are hella catchy. It’s just that it’s mine.

Huey and the News still tour. They’re still a working band. According to Wikipedia, they have/had a plan to record a new album this year, and seemingly out of nowhere he did the theme song for Pineapple Express. Huey is well into his 50s—closer to 60, really—and the guy is still working.

Twenty years is an unprecedented amount of time for me to have artifacts. The idea that I have memories and feelings associated with an item 20 years old seems... singular. I have few intermittent moments with Huey between high school and now. It’s like it traveled through time.

Play through, Huey.

The taste for magic

Read this moderately involved essay about Christianity and fantasy and magic.

Why do we hanker for magic? That is a question that the large-C Catholic fantasy writer must squarely face, and the small-c catholic reader ought at any rate to find interesting. The practice of magic as such, whether effective or not, is explicitly forbidden by scripture and canon law, and even too strong a theoretical interest is rather frowned upon.

...the same problem faces every fantasy writer in a more or less Christian or post-Christian society, regardless of denomination; it is only that Catholic writers, if they take either their writing or their religion seriously, have less room to shirk the issue.

Just making sure

We went to the MoMA in New York this past weekend. The numbers on the signs around the building vary, but they're posted with artful regimentation. I wasn't sure if we were reaching the limit, but a quick headcount couldn't hurt.

Con-flicted

It burrs my historical loyalties to think it, but PAX sure does look like more fun than Gen Con.

There's definitely more money floating around PAX, but from here it also seems as though it has a sense of mystery and unexpectedness and, dare I say, fun, that GC lacks.

Maybe I'll go some day and compare.