D20: It’s How We Roll

I cought the first two episodes of the next season of Doctor Who on Sci-Fi last night. I was impressed.

I’d heard some rumblings about how the Doctor’s new companion Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman). I guess people thought she was just thrown into the role, taking up where Rose left off without much of a personality of her own. I didn’t really feel that was a problem. I thought they presented her well, gave a brief back story, and showed that she’s intelligent and not afraid of taking logical risks. I thought she was just fine I think I’ll be quite happy with her.

I’m also impressed with David Tennent’s method of playing The Doctor this time around. He did great in his first season, and he’s been great again already. He was a fair amount darker in the first couple of episodes, though, which really worked for me. He’s still the goofy, playful old Doctor, but you can see a bit of a killer deep inside him. They showed that quite well in “The Runaway Bride”. I’m not going to say much for those of you who may not have seen it yet, but there’s a scene towards the end where he really comes off as a bit of a cold hearted killer. As if he’s completely given himself to the word of the law, and there’s little else left. I gotta say, Mr. Tennent is gaining ground on Tom Baker in my list.

So there’s a couple of fantastic episodes lounging about on my DVR for me. I’ve been coming to expect some pretty high quality from the BBC lately, and they’ve not let me down. On a side note, I think my favorite scene last night was the quick couple of seconds they took to zoom in and show the Doctor locking the door by hand. He didn’t slow down and think about it or anything, it was all very normal, but they took the time to quickly highlight that he was locking this door the old fashioned way. That’s the kind of attention to detail that really makes these shows so great.

First off, what’s wrong with Halo players and who told them about IRC?

–> GameMstr (…) has joined #shinythings
<GameMstr> …
–> Chuck (…) has joined #shinythings
<GameMstr> J0. ‘Sup chuck?
<Chuck> Hey man! Long time no etc.!
<GameMstr> When are we gaming again?
<Chuck> I dunno. I’m super busy with this audit.
<GameMstr> Friggin’ SOX.
<Chuck> Say what you will about the effectiveness of Sarbanes-Oxley. It’s done wonders for the accounting field.
<Chuck> I feel like a COBOL programmer in 1999.
<GameMstr> Umm. Gratz? I guess?
–> VTennis (…) has joined #shinythings
<VTennis> DUDES. DID YOU SEE THE PIC OF MASTER CHIEF?!? SO F’N AWESOME!
<GameMstr> The Halo channel is down the hall.
<VTennis> HUH?
<Chuck> You’re in the wrong place. We don’t play halo.
<VTennis> HALO IS TEH R0X0RZ.
<GameMstr> Yeah, if you’re a 14 year old boy.
<Chuck> Or a 20 year old frat rat.
<VTennis> WHATEVR. UR GAY.
–> GameMstr has kicked VTennis from #shinythings
<Chuck> That was weird.

Second, I am clearly in need of a dictionary. See below.

<GameMstr> Are you bringing a new player?
<Chuck> Yeah, I think so. Are you bringing Amy Koharski?
<GameMstr> You know, she did change her name. You don’t have to call her Amy Koharski anymore.
<Chuck> I know, but she changed her name to match your Shadowrun character.
<GameMstr> So? What’s wrong with that?
<Chuck> …
<Chuck> I don’t even know where to begin.
<GameMstr> She absconced my character name, just like she absconced my heart.
<Chuck> She did what?
<GameMstr> Absconced my heart. You know. Stole it.
<Chuck> I do not think that word means what you think it means.
<GameMstr> What do you mean? Absconce is a perfectly legitimate word, and it’s not used often enough.
<Chuck> Yes. It’s perfectly cromulent.
<GameMstr> ??
<Chuck> I’m pretty sure you mean absconded.
<GameMstr> I think I know what I’m talking about. I went to school, you know.
<Chuck> Dude. Absconce is an obscure term for a LANTERN.
<Chuck> You mean abscond. No really.
<GameMstr> Can you site that source?
<Chuck> …
<Chuck> I’ll see you Saturday.
<GameMstr> Fine. Meet you at the coffee shop?
<Chuck> It has a name you know.
<GameMstr> Yeah, but I can’t pronounce it without listening to My Chemical Romance first.
<Chuck> …
<Chuck> I say again… I’ll see you Saturday.
<GameMstr> Excellent.

Ok, you were right.
absconce
abscond

Ah… The fifth of July. That unofficial American holiday where you wonder blindly around desperately trying to see past the halos burnt into your cornea by the previous night’s questionably legal fireworks display. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to see just well enough to notice your neighbor is a few digits short of a power of 10.

Currently, billions of geeks throughout America are furiously blogging and talking about giant robots. You know what I’m talking about. Yet again Hollywood has abandoned creative pursuits in order to farm the seeds planted by Hasbro when we were small and impressionable. Personally, I’m sick of it. These are all ideas and images I’ve seen already. Nothing’s really new here, there is no change, no progress. It’s just Hollywood’s way of raiding the piggy-banks of our peers.

 No, I haven’t seen it yet.

Unfortunately, I will see it eventually, driven by the same madness as everyone else. Mmm. A movie filled with GIANT FRIGGIN’ ROBOTS. FIGHTING.

So the cycle goes on. I bitch about hollywood’s lack of creativity, and then I pay them for it. I’m beginning to suspect I may be a few digits short myself.

Stealy D’Shinythings says: Oh, look at that squirrel! I love
                           the detail they put into these
                           games. It really makes them
                           seem real.
Flower McHippypants says: Yeah, they even make sounds, and you
                           can interact with them!
*Flower McHippypants casts Starfire*
*FWOOOOM*
Sqirrel says: Eee!
*Squirrel dies*
Stealy D’Shinythings says: …
Flower McHippypants says: What? It could have been rabid!

I was running around Darkshore the other day working on leveling up my gnome thief. The amount of time spent killing animals in forests in RPGs is tremendous. If we took the amount of time people spend each year laying waste to the fauna of the various fantasy regions and added it up, there would probably be plenty of time to devise a theory that would unlock the Navier-Stokes equations and still have time left over for a season or two of Star Trek.

How many woeful teens have sent their characters to wander blindly in the forest on those cold, dark, boring nights their parents forced them to go on cub scout camping trips, only to find that the forest is full to the brim with bears? Bears minding their own business, who simply want to get home safely before some bored cub scout can roll up an elven fighter-magic user to send on a quest to lighten the bear’s deep pockets of their vast treasure. Oh the humanity.