Author Archives: Burrowowl

Pride, Honor, and Half-Priced Food

Twelve episodes sounds like a short run, but Ben-to manages to wrap things up rather nicely in that time frame. Should the producers choose to run off on some endless perpetual status-quo like Dragonball or One Piece or Bleach did, Ben-to has positioned itself nicely, while still providing folks like me with a satisfactory ending. The overall story arc is a simple one, of a young man finding his place in a strange situation. Over the first few episodes we are gradually introduced to a cast of recurring characters, some endearing, some obnoxious, some a little of both. Throughout the process we are steeped in a fictional warrior culture of pride, vengeance, honor, and hunger. We are shown paragons of the way things ought to be, outliers struggling with the norms of discount-food wolves, and several antagonists that epitomize corruptions of the path our protagonist has found himself on.

While the conclusion was satisfactory, I was somewhat disappointed that there was a full-on denouement at all. The outcome of the battle for the grilled eel special wasn’t what mattered. If Ben-to has taught us anything, it is the fight itself that is the most important, of individuals striving in earnest to beat the shit out of each other over supermarket food. Whoever wins it deserves it and will enjoy it; this doesn’t need to be shown.

Not an instant classic, but well worth taking a look.

Rewarding Behavior

This past week I had the pleasure of spending two days at the lovely Northstar at Tahoe ski resort. This is a place I have fond memories of, and given recent family events a nostalgic run or two down Logger’s Loop seemed appropriate. Skiing is best done for the intrinsic pleasures of the activity; the beauty of the environment, the bite of the wind on your cheeks, the roll of the hill under your feet, the chats with strangers on a lift. It’s all good. Expensive, but good.

Normally when you go to the mountain, you purchase a lift ticket in the form of a sticker or cardboard print-out that you hang from your jacket or pants. The lift operators know you paid and let you right on by. This year, the first time I’ve been to Northstar in a while, they handed me a RFID card with my name and a numeric code printed on it. “Just put it in your pocket and we’ll scan it for you,” I was assured. Indeed, there were dedicated staff posted at the gondola with scanner guns of some sort, ready to process the guests like we were in some winter wonderland of the Cyberpunk dark future. OK, fine, that makes sense. Then there were more at the first proper lifts at mid-mountain. OK, just making sure I wasn’t sneaking a ski day when all I might have paid for was a Gondola ride. Then there were more scanners at the Comstock lift (up the hill from the mid-mountain lodge), and again at both of the backside lifts. What the heck?

When I got back home, I checked out the website referenced on the RFID card and discovered that lo, I was participating in an alpine Foursquare of sorts. Each time I rode a lift, my card was scanned and they knew how many vertical feet I’d ski by the time I hit another lift and was scanned again. They even had pins, just like XBox Live and Steam achievements. I was surprised to learn that in one morning I’d traveled the equivalent of the Golden Gate Bridge in vertical feet, that midway through my second day I’d traveled over five miles in vertical feet, and midway through my last run I had descended the equivalent of the full height of Mt. Everest. I’d also earned a Festivus pin and a “brown bagging” pin for having skiied on December 23rd and during lunch hour respectively. What an odd way to encourage people to do things they already wanted to do.

This system is available at several resorts scattered about, some of them in Tahoe, others elsewhere, and allows folks to share all their little victories via outside social networks and set up ladder competitions. I suppose in an age where people habitually post hog many miles they jog each day, this was inevitable.

Bullies & Enabling Behavior

Recently a lot of fuss has been made about the behavior of the police in various areas in response to protesters, particularly an incident at UC Davis. The focus in these discussions is almost always some contrast between the legality and appropriateness of the protesters’ behavior and that of the police officers. I’d like to instead take a look at the people standing by with their cameras. The onlookers. The enablers.

To quote from StopBullying.gov:

What to Do When Someone is Being Bullied

  • Take a stand and do not join in. Make it clear that you do not support what is going on.
  • Do not watch someone being bullied. If you feel safe, tell the person to stop. If you do not feel safe saying something, walk away and get others to do the same. If you walk away and do not join in, you have taken their audience and power away.
  • Support the person being bullied. Tell them that you are there to help. Offer to either go with them to report the bullying or report it for them.
  • Talk to an adult you trust. Talking to someone could help you figure out the best ways to deal with the problem. Reach out to a parent, teacher or another adult that you trust to discuss the problem, especially if you feel like the person may be at risk of serious harm to themselves or others.

This is advice meant for teenagers witnessing other teenagers being horrible to each other, but I think it applies here as well. In the above photograph of Lt. Pike dousing students with pepper spray, there are no less than a dozen bystanders with cameras, not counting the photographer who took the picture itself. They represent for the police officer a dozen votes of confidence that his behavior is not outrageous, not outside the norms of society, not aberrant, that what he’s doing is OK.

Don’t be an enabler. Behave like you’d hope a teenager might.

Drink Local

There was a push by local credit unions to get a bunch of folks to switch over from big national and multi-national banks over to more Sonoma County-minded establishments *. Kudos to them. It apparently went quite well. I’ve never used a big bank, so I kinda missed the boat there. Rather than switching my deposits to a local bank, I’ve been sending my beer money to local brewers. A couple of notables:

  • Bear Republic in Healdsburg makes one of my personal favorites, Racer 5. My local supermarket can barely keep this stuff stocked.
  • Lagunitas, straight out of Petaluma. Their IPA is available at just about every store in Santa Rosa.
  • Lost Coast Brewery is up in Eureka. That stretched “local” pretty badly, but their Downtown Brown is worth a shot.
  • Mendocino Brewing Company in Ukiah makes Red Tail Ale. I make a habit of picking up a six-pack whenever they’re on sale.
  • Moonlight Brewing Company in Santa Rosa makes a variety of somewhat severe brews. A mainstay at my work’s company events, but tread with caution.
  • Russian River Brewing Company is renown for its limited-run Pliny the Younger, though Pliny the Elder will set you up just fine. Located in Santa Rosa.
  • Sierra Nevada is way up in Chico, but is very much treated as a local beer down here in Santa Rosa. I was pleasantly surprised to find it available at restaurants in Washington, D.C. a couple years back. I abstain from their Celebration Ale for purely nostalgic reasons.

The specific brews mentioned above are just representative of what comes immediately to mind when thinking of these folks; there’s a lot of variety to be found from wheat beers to ales to stouts and reds and what-have-you. I’ve found the Lagunitas and Sierra Nevada beers to be a mixed bag, having partaken of them since my ne’er-do-well high school days. It’s good to know that your beer-buying money is heading right back into the local economy, where it’s brewed by the very people you honk at in traffic and silently judge while they take too long at the ATM.

Don’t confuse this with a call to political action. I’m just suggesting you put down your Guinness for a moment and give Death & Taxes a try.

* Move your Money Project

Ben-to

Faced with the need to obtain lunch and dinner on a modest budget, a brave young man seeks out the discount-priced box lunches at the local market. He is ill-prepared for the brutal combat that follows. Can Satou make his way through a gauntlet of bloodthirsty bargain-seekers and claim as his prize a meal he won’t be embarrassed by tomorrow at noon?

Episode two aired recently, but I haven’t had the chance to settle down with it just yet. It appears this series revolves around a school club whose members literally battle for bargain bento boxes. The protagonist is likeable, though using his direct point of view leads to an awful lot of petty fanservice. If I spent that much time in high school staring at girls’ thighs and chests I do believe I would have been slapped. I’m cautiously optimistic about Ben-to.

A sad passing we all saw coming

Today I caught word of an old steadfast friend’s demise. Well, an old friend metaphorically speaking, not a person I actually know. No, not that guy; the Sonic.net Usenet server. My boss fired of a note today announcing that news.sonic.net, long quietly understood to be terminally ill and in need of a number of costly, intricate, and risky transplants and upgrades, is being shifted over to palliative care. The deluge of warez and donkey porn and flamewars and spam have just been too much to justify as a value-added no-charge service. Dane explains:

Our Usenet infrastructure is dying. Due to this, I would like to encourage you join our new web-based discussion forums at http://forums.sonic.net/

Five years ago we spent a huge amount to build a massive cluster. Since then Usenet volume has grown at least four-fold. The systems are old, drives are failing, and the infrastructure cannot keep up with the total volume. As a result, we’re missing some percentage of headers, so while downloading of messages by message ID (for example by using an NZB index) generally works, relying on our headers results in many “missing posts”.

As less than 1% of our customers use the Usenet, we have no plans to reinvest in Usenet at this stage, and it’s only a matter of time before these old systems reach such a state that they can no longer be patched up. At that time, we plan to stop proving NNTP to customers, and will encourage folks to subscribe to one of the many services such as Giganews, EasyNews, Astraweb, etc.

The local discussions in the sonic.* groups have been a great opportunity for customers to interact with each other and with Sonic.net staff. Today there is a very similar growing community in the forums, so please check them out!

Sincerely,

Dane Jasper

I’ve long thought of Usenet as the last vestige of the old untamed frontier that the Internet used to represent. It is very informally organized, with each server administrator bearing sovereign authority for peering configuration, message retention, and propagation policies. Once something gets out on Usenet, there’s no telling how far it will reach, and no way of taking it back once it’s out. I’m not quite nostalgic enough to pay money out-of-pocket for access, but it will be sad to see this window to inter-networked anarchy finally put down.

In Soviet California…

Brick wall hits you.

Last night the Sharks played the Canucks, and today we get to see what is becoming a standby of Bay Area hockey: the opposing coach complaining about his playing comically bouncing off of Sharks defenseman Douglas Murray. The hit in question this time.

Here at 11:59 remaining in the period, Canucks forward Maxim Lapierre has posession of the puck and is in the process of passing it to a teammate as they gain entry into the Sharks’ defensive zone. Look out, little man! There’s a giant viking right there in front of you!

Here at 11:58 remaining in the period, Lapierre has passed the puck and strode forward into a massive wall of crush-you-like-a-bug. Note that Murray barely moved at all here. This is like watching a bluebird smack itself into a window. No penalty was called, nobody was injured, and a retaliatory scuffle immediately followed resulting in several good players cooling off in the penalty box.

Vancouver’s couch Alain Vigneault complained about it afterwards, adding to a chorus of condemnation from opposing teams’ head coaches that Douglas Murray fans everywhere should recognize as the praise that it truly is. Vigneault would give his left nut to have a guy that could hit like Murray and still provide reasonable defense.

Remember?

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When Anonymous was fun? Protesting at train stations just doesn’t strike me as very lulzy.

Does this look too complicated?

The Riddle of Steeel, a fantasy roleplaying game published by the apparently-defunct Driftwood Studios, has a highly interesting combat system. Unlike many other systems, all attacks are called shots (you’re not just trying to stab somebody, you’re trying to stab him in the face or arm or somewhere), there are no hit points to speak of, attacks are actively defended against (you have no static defensive values, but you can try to block, parry, etc.)

After perusing some examples of play and looking through the rulebook, it seems to me that this system suffers from looking more convoluted on paper than it is in actual play. The following is the basic flow of how a fight goes between two parties:

a. Check for Surprise & Hesitation

Check Reflex (TN see below), failure indicates that no action can be taken until next round – proceed to step 1. Succeed and defend as normal – proceed to step b.

  • TN 5: Purposely standing with no stance, inviting attack
  • TN 7: Aware of opponent, but victim of a cheap shot; or hesitation
  • TN 10: Unsuspecting or inattentive
  • TN 13: Blindsided!

b. Declare Stance

At start of bout, or after a pause, declare stance out loud.

  • Aggressive Stance: +2 CP when attacking; -2 CP when defending
  • Defensive Stance: +2 CP when defending; -2 CP when attacking
  • Neutral Stance: offers flexibility and no modifiers

c. Initiative – Establish Aggressor and Defender

Take a red and white die into your hands. The GM calls “throw,” and each combatant drops one of the dice on the table.

  • Red: indicates aggression
  • White: indicates defense
  • Red/Red: a tie-breaker is required
    • Both parties roll Reflex against their own ATN, apply Weapon Length penalties as normal.
    • In the case of a tie, compare actual Reflex scores. Thrusts provide a +1 Reflex modifier over swings and bashes.
    • If this is still a tie then the blows are simultaneous!
  • White/White: The combatants circle each other, repeat the initiative process, return to start of step a.

1. Start of the Combat Round – Blood Loss Check

Successfully roll EN/BL or lose one point of HT.

  • HT 1: all dice pools are halved
  • HT 0: character unconscious and dying

2. Call out the Number of the Round – Fatigue

  • -1 CP per 2xEN rounds of fighting. This number is further reduced by the total CP penalty for armor, shield, and encumbrance.

3. Dice Pool Refresh

  • All dice pools fills or refreshes, remember to deduct spillover Shock, unless Pain is greater. Pain is deducted from all dice pools.

4. First Half of the Exchange of Blows

  • Aggressor declares attack: state maneuver, CP spent, and target zone; 1-7 for swings, 8-14 for thrusts. Remember Stance (1st blow only) and Reach modifiers.
  • Defender declares defense or attack: state maneuver, including CP.
  • Weapon Reach: -1 CP per step to attack an opponent with longer reach, until the shorter weapon makes a damaging strike. When the longer weapon is in too close, the penalty applies to both defense and offense, until a damaging blow is scored.

5. Resolve Damage and/or Determine New Attitude

  • (MOS + DR) – (Opponent’s TO + AV) = Wound Level
  • If the attacker’s MOS >=0 he stays the aggressor, keeping initiative
  • If the defender’s MOS 1+ he becomes the aggressor
  • Shock is immediately subtracted from all dice pools, active first then reserve, any spillover applies in step 3.

6. Second Half of the Exchange of Blows

See step 4. The roles may have reversed since the first exchange

7. Resolve Damage and/or Determine New Attitude

See step 5.

8. Repeat Until a Winner is Determined

Repeat steps 1 through 7 until the combat is over – one way or another.

*whew*. Take a quick look at the target zones and damage tables (separate for slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing) and this all looks like a bit of a brain-full. But a duel between two characters in this system will frequently be resolved after only two or three rounds, with a total of maybe six throws of the dice. By the end of the first round or halfway through the second, it is often abundantly clear who has the upper hand, and one or two more exchanges seals the deal.

*summary lifted from erdtman.com/story-games/
**some excellent examples of folks muddling through a few matches can be found archived at suptg

Stop being helpful

No, WordPress Dashboard, it isn’t. See?

And screw you for checking. Apparently the latest version of WordPress, in addition to phoning home to make sure you have the latest version of their CMS, is also trying to keep tabs on your web browser version. The behavior repeats in Firefox, which I don’t bother to keep up-to-date, and presumably in Internet Explorer as well. Obnoxious.