Idiot of the Week

By Shamus Posted Friday Jun 29, 2007

Filed under: Rants 75 comments

Remember my Rollercoaster video from last year? This week I got a message from another YouTube user: [Link redacted: Please see the followup.]

Hey, im the original maker of the Bowling Plus Rollercoaster = fun!, I posted that video on www.thatvideosite.com on October 10, 2006 and then last posted it on youtube. Please remove the video now or state that i am the maker. Thank You

Astounding.

This is like walking up to a random stranger on the street and saying, “Excuse me sir, but you seem to be eating my ice cream cone.” You are lying to the one person in the world who is least likely to believe your lie. I didn’t bother asking him why, if he made the movie, he put my real name in the credits. He doesn’t seem to be a forward-thinker.

I can understand that there are idiots and freaks all over the internet, and I’m aware that YouTube tends to draw the wost ones, but it still amazes me when I run into these people and I get to see them do their thing. I’m captivated by this sort of behavior: What are these people like in real life? Could they possibly be this dumb and this dishonest and still survive?

Amazing.

 


 

DM of the Rings CXIX:
Oops.

By Shamus Posted Friday Jun 29, 2007

Filed under: DM of the Rings 94 comments

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “DM of the Rings CXIX:
Oops.”

 


 

Rewarding Negative Behavior

By Shamus Posted Friday Jun 29, 2007

Filed under: Personal 31 comments

This week I posted almost nothing, aside from the comics. I realize that for a majority of my current readers this site is “The Comic, plus some other stuff”, but I still think of it as “my blog, plus this comic I’m doing.” For me, this week was hopelessly lame, because I didn’t get any of my writing done. I still have about a dozen half-written posts waiting to be finished. (I’m finished with Prey, I’m playing D&D again, and I’m working my way through a new anime series, all of which I intend to write about. Eventually.)

And now that I’ve utterly failed in my blogging duties, I see that many, many new people are visiting site and clicking the everlovin’ crap out of the ads in the sidebar. (BTW: Thanks. Seriously. Profusely. You people are great. I hope you found something good.) I can’t explain this upsurge in traffic this month (more than double last month) during the time in the year when I usually see a lull in traffic. Visits usually slow down in summer, but instead traffic is going way up. To all of you who are new to the site, thanks for coming. Have a look around the archives, if you like, maybe read some of my “best of” posts. Maybe visit some of my friends over there in my blogroll. Or just wait for the next comic, if that’s more your style. That’s cool too. You know. Whatever.

I will say this: If I were to do another comic – and I’m not saying one way or another what I plan to do, since I don’t really know yet – it would not appear on this blog. It would get a domain or a blog of its own, because this arrangement is oddly lopsided.

 


 

Microsoft Surface

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Jun 27, 2007

Filed under: Movies 30 comments

Via email from a friend:

Apparently this is a real ad, or a concept ad of some sort, to which some smart alec has added his own voiceover.

 


 

DM of the Rings CXVIII:
Descriptive Text is Sometimes Important

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Jun 27, 2007

Filed under: DM of the Rings 98 comments

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “DM of the Rings CXVIII:
Descriptive Text is Sometimes Important”

 


 

How to find a gaming group

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Jun 27, 2007

Filed under: Tabletop Games 31 comments

Occasionally I get emails from people expressing interest in playing D&D. I’m pretty flattered that they would come to me for advice. Being well-connected to the hobby and being able to make fun of the hobby are two different things, and I have much more of the latter. I feel bad that I can’t help people more, particularly since many of them decided to try out roleplaying based on what they read here at the site.

The Fear the Boot podcast tackles this very subject this week. They are talking about gamers who have lost their existing group, but their advice works just as well for newcomers. I also stand by advice I gave a long time ago: Buy the two core D&D rulebooks – the Dungeon Master’s Guide and the Player’s Handbook. Give them a read, and have a friend roll up a character “just to help you practice”. The dice are very appealing and the process of making up a character is a lot of fun. They are very likely to become hooked right then.

 


 

Browser Comparisons

By Shamus Posted Monday Jun 25, 2007

Filed under: Pictures 34 comments

As a follow-up to this morning’s post about Safari on Windows, here is what I’m seeing in various browsers:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Browser Comparisons”