Archive for March, 2008

Posted on March 7, 2008 - by deCadmus

Off To His Next Great Adventure

As a certified geek — a pedigreed geek even — I would be remiss if I should fail to note the passing of E. Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, and the undisputed father of the role playing game.

I was not your typical gamer. The first time I rolled for initiative was a good seven or eight years after I’d first kissed a girl, rather than before. I didn’t game in high school. That may have had something to do with the fact that the high school I attended was a Catholic seminary, which is an environment that doesn’t lend itself toward games that feature fantastical gods and demons; that would have been superfluous, indeed. (The irony of this is not lost on me.) It could be noted that a Catholic seminary is also an environment that doesn’t naturally lend itself toward kissing girls, but that didn’t prove an especially great impediment.

When I first gamed I was a twenty-something kid who had his first real job and a car payment and a girlfriend. I’d already had a few hard lessons on the differences between Intelligence and Wisdom. Still, I was captivated. Enthralled by a world built out of the collective imagination of our brilliant, conniving Dungeon Master (hello, Brian!) and the odd assortment of my fellow nerds, those weekend gaming sessions were a gratifying and indispensable diversion from an increasingly “grown-up” world. Dungeons & Dragons offered explicit permission to play let’s pretend, long after my school days were over, and even as the workaday world threatened to stamp out my sense of wonder and extrude my imagination into a maze of twisty little org charts, all alike.

Thanks, Gary. In a good many ways you helped armor me for the real world.

Posted on March 5, 2008 - by deCadmus

Could a Coffee Maker Be Worth $11,000?

Clover’s sitting pretty. They’ve picked up positive ink in the New York Times, Economist, The Atlantic (warning: PDF). And just yesterday evening while you were loosing sleep over the presidential primaries (you were, weren’t you… admit it!) Paul Adams posted a refreshingly cogent piece — How the Clover is Changing the Way We Think About Coffee — on Slate.

He covers a bit of ground — gets in a good plug for Cafe Grumpy, takes a swipe at the “soy-foamers at Starbucks” — and eventually buries his lede on page two:

I’m becoming a Clover addict, just as I feared. It’s not the tasty coffee itself that’s drawing me in—although that caffeine euphoria certainly colors my mood. It’s the joy of tinkering, really delving into the possibilities of a coffee bean in a way I’ve never considered before. After several more cups, each with their own quirks, it’s time to go: The baristas have finished sweeping up around our feet and are clearly eager to leave. But there’s one more cup I want to try: I dial in the same settings that produced cup No. 2, the greatest success so far. Forty-four seconds later, there it is, the exact same delicate, floral-scented brew I remember. That’s the consistency you pay for.

Quoth Jerry Espenson: “Bingo!”

Posted on March 4, 2008 - by deCadmus

Happy VOTR Day!

Today is VOTR day. To those of you who haven’t been paying attention to United States presidential politics — whether because you’re a non US citizen or because you have your head buried in the sand — today is a remarkable day, and for a number of reasons.

Today the states of Vermont, Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island cast their votes in the presidential primaries (hence, VOTR, and yes; I’m inordinately chuffed that Vermont is listed first, if only for the purpose of a syncopic acronym.) In most presidential election years, this wouldn’t mean much; the race is usually decided long before Vermont’s very few delegates come into play.

But this isn’t any old race. It’s an historic event.

It’s quite likely that the outcome of this race will decide whether the oval office is inhabited by somebody — anybody — other than still another graying, white man. Unless, of course, something terribly unlikely occurs and John McCain is elected, presumably for the sole purpose of perpetuating the graying-white-man winning streak, as it seems he has little else to offer.

Even in that unlikely event, the outcome of this year’s presidential election is certain to have one result progressive-thinking folk can all get behind: the election of an individual whom the neoconservatives despise; an individual who may single-handedly cause the denizens of the hate-radio right to silence themselves, if only to keep from drowning in their collective froth and spume.

It truly is the dawning of a new day in America.