MAKE: Spy vs. Spy

As if you guys didnt already know I was leg humpingly in love with all things Spy vs Spy, here's more proof. This month's MAKE magazine is all spy tech. And what's on the cover?! My beloved spies!

What if the Presidential Campaign Was D'n'D Night

Adventuring Party Politics: The Campaign is Getting Ugly

Seriously, one of the funniest things I've read in YEARS. A sample:

HILARY: WTF you guys. Why am I playing the cleric?

MCCAIN: Hilary, we've been over this.

HILARY: No, dude. I am so sick of being the girlfriend healer. Seriously, I can't even use a sword. Fuck this noise.

KUCINICH: IM A BARD

OBAMA: That's nice.

KUCINICH: MY FAMILIAR IS A PURPLE SNOW LEOPARD

MCCAIN: Oh, Jesus. Here we go.

KUCINICH: DID I MENTION MY WIFE IS A TOTALLY BANGIN DRYAD WITH 20 CHARISMA

HILARY: C'mon you guys, I've been playing this shit since Gygax was in eighth grade. Why can't I be the party leader with the magic sword for once?

MCCAIN: Because no one wants to see you in a bronze bra.

OBAMA: Oh dude, BURRRRRNNNN.

Now if only they were playing Warhammer....

*SSSPHHHSH*

I usually don't talk politics on this blog, preferring to talk about the economy, stupid policy, and other more important things, but I thought I should point something out.

The Chicago Tribune has endorsed Obama.

Now, that probably doesn't mean anything to most of you, unless you know a bit about the Tribune. This is the first Democratic candidate they have ever supported - in 161 years. One of their founders, Joseph Medill, was one of the founders of the Republican Party.

When I saw this on my news feed, I literally did a spit take. It was like reading that the Lincoln Memorial came to life and was chasing Bush through the streets of DC. Except not that funny of a mental image.

Anyway, to detract from the seriousness and all the politicallyness, here's what is still my favorite YouTube Video ever.



Giant spider tries to eat STS-122. Not really.

Broken Koans

This page has had me in uproarious giggles on a day that hasn't been that great. The best part is I recognize several of their sources, and know the Koans which are being parodied for many of them.

Example

A monk asked Joshu: "Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?" Joshu answered: "Moo."

And this one has me laughing just because of what a horrible CIS geek I am

A student attempted to write an app to interpret the I Ching, but the app did not work. Approaching the master, the student asked, "Does the PolyLine object have Buddha Nature?" And the master spoke with wisdom of RoundRects and filled regions. The student said: "Now I understand Bresenham's Algorithm."

At this, the master unplugged the student's computer.

And this, simply because its great commentary

One afternoon a student said "Roshi, I don't really understand what's going on. I mean, we sit in zazen and we gassho to each other and everything, and Felicia got enlightened when the bottom fell out of her water-bucket, and Todd got enlightened when you popped him one with your staff, and people work on koans and get enlightened, but I've been doing this for two years now, and the koans don't make any sense, and I don't feel enlightened at all! Can you just tell me what's going on?"

"Well you see," Roshi replied, "for most people, and especially for most educated people like you and I, what we perceive and experience is heavily mediated, through language and concepts that are deeply ingrained in our ways of thinking and feeling. Our objective here is to induce in ourselves and in each other a psychological state that involves the unmediated experience of the world, because we believe that that state has certain desirable properties. It's impossible in general to reach that state through any particular form or method, since forms and methods are themselves examples of the mediators that we are trying to avoid. So we employ a variety of ad hoc means, some linguistic like koans and some non-linguistic like zazen, in hopes that for any given student one or more of our methods will, in whatever way, engender the condition of non-mediated experience that is our goal. And since even thinking in terms of mediators and goals tends to reinforce our undesirable dependency on concepts, we actively discourage exactly this kind of analytical discourse."

And the student was enlightened.

Some days, a cigar is only a cigar. Some days, its a koan in the making.

Karma

Your actions turn conquest to dust.
In portents of fate, you foolishly place trust.
Sense fear in your broken breathing.
Resort to shadows till your body expires.
All creation has the promise of heaven,
and still you travel the road to hell.
I'm saying nothing for the good of myself,
but I'm still talking and you're not listening.

-VnV Nation "Chrome"

I stopped talking a long time ago. And the things I said would happen, are.

LOLSpy

Red Power!

Stress - I love You

So, an update. Midterms are past. 200 students is a HUGE number. Grading that many exams in 10 days is a nightmare. Grading that many papers is going to be crazy.

I LOVE IT. I love getting up every morning, even Fridays! I love it! This is what I want to do the rest of my life!

In other news, grad school applications continue to happen. Taking the GRE in a few weeks (old scores finally expired this year). Bleh. I suck at such exams.

Warhammer Online is eating my life. Final Fantasy is still eating my life.

And I'm thinking about a new podcast.