And for something less depressing.

For all of you RPG geeks and or Bronies out there. Erin's been working on a homebrew table top system. Well here's a playtest report on some new dice mechanics.

I like how the conflict system and success roll count simplified out. Striking the right balance of complexity on the roles versus play-ability ease / quick pace can be hard. So, it's nice to see a dice system I swagged up manage to work with a few simplifications.

And that's another good point. It doesn't matter how clever you think your model is and how many times you've run the numbers. The real question is actual field testing. What's cool hear is that there was two degrees of separation between myself and the DM and three degrees of separation between myself and the players.

Contagion

Weerd went to a convention and as normally happens, he picked up something when he was there.

It's always fascinating to see these contagions spread.

And in spreading the infection Erin got to carve another notch in her barn door.

Why yes, I am being deliberately obtuse and suggestive.

Yes, not only is My Little Pony a fun show but you can talk about it like some type of pandemic.

A'yup, that's all I've got for today.

Elegant solutions in Robotics

Now this is just impressive.



And it works, bringing an polymorphic way to grab onto an object and hold it into place.

I wonder how long it'll last cyclically, but making the "skin" out of the right material should keep the grabber arm working for a good time.

And the part I found the most funny? Where I found the video.

It's a funny old world.

The most interesting part...

Of this trailer is that it's not selectively edited. Yeah... the big two parter season openers and finales of the new My Little Pony series really are like that.

MLP is less "just for girls", vampires are for girls (okay that's insulting to women, Twilight is... just creepy), and 2nd String Marvel characters get their own interlocking movie series building up to a massive team-up film.

And yet another "permanent" Senator got primaried. Right now, I'm betting Dick Lugar's kicking himself for not leasing a studio apartment in Indianapolis or plopping a double-wide on his family's land. But I suppose he felt he was too important to bother with minor details like residency.


Also my Acer netbook came in. It's intersting what technology can bring. As even at being a much smaller size, this machine is better in all metrics than the previous laptops I've been using. It even has a better keyboard. The only thing is that it's got an 11 inch screen, but I think that will be sufficient for my needs. Especially as a supplemental machine.

And just yesterday I was linking to Steven Green

Well... Trifecta is a mite behind the times, just figuring out about this whole Brony thing.

The good parts:

They do point out the original Big Hollywood article was needlessly insulting and over generalized.

Bill Whittle has excellent points on the increasing trend of escapism and Peter-Pan syndrome. And that My Little Pony is no different from Starwars obsession and mentions his own past Star Trek cosplay. Kinda wish Bill put up a photo of him wearing Spok ears.

Referencing Obama's base via rainbow-farting-unicorns.

The bad parts:

No footage at all from the show itself. That shows a pretty thin setup on exactly why someone might actually like it. And betrays a deep ignorance of the show itself (like how the main characters are actually adults with careers and responsibilities and the like).

Misuse of the term "Brony" which means any adult fan instead being used to talk about people dangerously obsessed with the show.

A lack of realization that the series creator Lauren Faust intended the show to have broad appeal.

All together it comes off like saying all Star Trek fans are basement dwelling loners. Or all anime fans are emotionally stunted perverts. Or that D&D players are all garage-living Satan worshipers.

I got a real Mazes and Monsters vibe of people who have no idea what they're talking about recoiling at folks having fun with something they find really strange.

Which is a shame as Whittle has a really good point.

One problem I see with us Bronies is being too aggressive getting people to watch and defensive with critics. The latter is self-explanatory, but the former is interesting. Very few Bronies started out as fans of My Little Pony, and most can't stand to watch the previous generations of the show. They are much worse with insipid characters and hideous animation.

So for the vast majority of the fans there was a conversion from hating MLP and not wanting to watch, to being apprehensive to watching, to watching, to being a fan. Thus many Bronies see any non-fan as a potential fan.

Which is not true, and can be a bit annoying to non-Bronies.

Quote of the Day: EQD

On the followup commentary of the FiM Season 2 Finale here:

This is the semi-automatic version of Twilight's magic laser cannon. We get to see the Gatling version later, but it requires a Pinkie Pie to operate.

Okay, that made me laugh. Especially as the terminology is correct. Heck the sound effects people in the episode even added a racking noise when Pinkie Pie "chambered a round" as it were.

Here, have something cute.

Excited Derpy.

Those of you that know what it is, good.... very good.
Those if you that don't... hehe it's a deep rabbit hole.

A Kalashnikov with simply magical furniture

Here.

Bonus if you get the reference.

I got nothin....

So let's do a tab clearing.

Have some interesting deconstructions on animation.
Here, Here, and Here.
A lot of interesting stuff goes into something that looks so simple, but timing and motion can have a huge impact.


And on the more "Oh god it's going to explode" side of things a chemist talks about "Things I won't work with"

Did I mention that this prep was performed on less than one millimole? Spirited stuff, that tetra-azide. The experimental section of the paper enjoins the reader to wear a face shield, leather suit, and ear plugs, to work behind all sorts of blast shields, and to use Teflon and stainless steel apparatus so as to minimize shrapnel. Hmm. Ranking my equipment in terms of its shrapneliferousness is not something that's ever occurred to me, I have to say. It's safe to assume that any procedure which involves considering which parts of the apparatus I'd prefer to have flying past me will not get much business in my lab, no matter how dashing I might look in a leather suit.

And that's one of the nicer chemicals on the list.

Oh and Weer'd has found some...thing.