TechgnosisWeb Prime

On a cheerier, post-trauma note, here’s something that is so insanely cool that it makes the whole world better: Otherworld Excursions, which offers guided tours run by famous role-playing game designers who take you hiking through rural and urban treks, immersing you in the role-playing elements of the natural environment:

See the occult architecture of Chicago as only Kenneth Hite can show it to you–then use this knowledge to survive (or, at least, be the last one to lose their mind) in an original roleplaying adventure of eldritch horror!

The Windy City is the birthplace of urban horror. Riding on the L with a faceless mass of drones being herded back to their soul-crushing jobs, Fritz Leiber looked out across the sooty rooftops and envisioned the kinds of ghosts that the metropolis demanded. In his classic novel Our Lady of Darkness, Leiber invented the arcane science of megapolisomancy, the magic of cities. Or so the story goes.

Is it possible that Leiber didn’t create a fictional concept, but instead revealed a hidden truth? Were the street plans for the great American cities laid out like circuit boards to channel psychic energies, with steel-girdled skyscrapers designed as capacitors to store up these forces until they were needed for some cosmic ritual? (The Ghostbusters script could well be calculated misinformation, or a nod to fellow initiates).

If anyone knows what’s really going on, it is Kenneth Hite. Guided by his uncanny mastery of Things Man Was Not Meant to Know, you’ll spend a Saturday afternoon inspecting the architectural evidence. Then head downtown to the Hotel Intercontinental–which was constructed as an athletic club for the Medinah Shriners, but may serve another purpose for their secret masters. Here, you’ll experience an unparalleled evening of roleplaying led by Kenneth, and learn first-hand why he wrote the definitive chapter on “The Joy of Research” for Gamemastering Secrets. It’ll be a day trip you’ll never forget, which could be problematic if you still have to go into the city after dark.

.. thanks BoingBoing!

… I’ve been apologizing a lot lately. Doesn’t look like I’ll get to stop anytime soon. No, I’m not okay. Sorry, that’s all I feel like saying right now. More later. Maybe. Sorry.

Crisis averted. My apologies for the drama. Carry on.

O. M. G.

Holy CRAP.

Jesus H. Christ on a Yugoslavian Water Buffalo.

I just finished watching Final Fantasy: Advent Children. Yes, I know that it’s not out in the States yet. Shut up. I’m trying to tell you something: this movie will blow your fucking mind.

It’s like a love letter from Square/Enix straight to my heart. After watching this movie, I now know that Squeenix loves me, me, personally, and will forever keep me safe.

As Tycho from Penny Arcade puts it:

Fanboy Warning

This film contains scenes that may be totally fucking awesome. Your favorite characters may be rendered in extreme detail as they take part in mind-blowing battles set in familiar locales. Futuristic scabbard/motorcycles might be depicted in a way that makes them appear sweet.

Once this thing hits stateside, I’m buying it when it’s released on Nov. 29 even if I have to go hungry for a fucking week to afford it. Say what you will about torrents, fansubs, downloads… Squeenix has earned my fucking cash. Word.

Well, folks, I know you’re waiting for the next update on MM, and the good news is that I do have it written. The bad news is that it needs some serious editing before I can post it up, and I haven’t really gotten around to doing that. Why? Two words: Metroid Fusion. If any of you out there have played it, I think you can understand why I’d rather spend my time kicking ass with Samus rather than trying to hammer my substandard prose into some semblance of shape. Don’t worry, too much, though.. Metroid Fusion’s pretty short.

So, I’m here at our main office all day today, alone for the most part. This is cool, it means that in between coding and trying to wrangle wayward SQL statements back into shape, I can take plenty of little breaks to do things like blog, check websites, and make sure that the gaggle of ROMs that I managed to cram into my GBA Flash cartridge (namely: Pokemon: Emerald, Mega Man Battle Network 4, Advance Wars 2, Metroid: Fusion, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, and last, but most certainly not least, Golden Sun 2) were all working correctly.

However, despite the near idyllic working conditions, I found myself filled with a growing, nameless dread. It took me a while to figure out what was causing it, until I looked up and at the closed door leading out of the office, and saw none other than ol’ Squidface himself glaring balefully right back at me! That’s right! Screw your namby pamby Virgin Mary sightings, I’ve just gotten a visitiation from the Great Old One himself, Cthulhu!

Now, I know some of you may not believe me, so I have included the following picture showing Cthulhu glaring balefully out of the wood on my door:

Now, that picture was taken with the Katsuphone, so the quality might not be the best. To help you better see He Who Lies Dead and Dreaming in the Sunken City of R’lyeh, here’s another version of the picture where I’ve highlighted the pertinent features:

There you have it! Indisputable proof that I am being visited by the malevolent spirit of the Ancient Old One known as Cthulhu.

… yeah, it’s been a slow work day, the boss has been out in meetings most of the day and didn’t really leave me much to do.. although I do have to go see a client in a short bit.. anyway:

Welcome yet another member to the growing TechgnosisWeb Blog Empire! Not too long ago, a good friend of ours, Jose, embarked on a grand adventure: he shipped off to Japan as part of the JET program, teaching English as a Second Language to Japanese kids and adults. It’s a great experience and adventure, not just for the chance to travel, but for his own personal growth. He asked me for some blog space before he left, so he could keep us all updated on his adventures, and I gladly gave him a spot of his own. It’s taken him a few weeks to get settled in and start blogging, but he’s finally up and at it, and his first entry is some fine, fine blogging. His blog joins the other fine TechgnosisWeb family blogs, such as A Glint in the Void, and A Hatred of Beautiful Things. Go check it out, and say hi!

SpiffyJapan - Traveling outside one’s comfort zone

Just a quick note and a shoutout to one of my oldest.. in fact, *the* oldest friend I have on this here ball o’ rock, Juan Antonio. Hope life’s treating you well enough up there in NYC, and that your birthday leaves no ass unkicked. I’ll try and send you a call tonight, my man. Congrats!

Ahhh.. weekend all done, and it’s time for back to work. Boss is MIA, which kinda sucks, ’cause we have a meeting in an hour with some clients and I kinda need him to be there, mostly ’cause I have no clue what the meeting is about, anyway.

So, instead, I update you, my adoring public, about my weekend shenanigans. And there were many shenanigans, of the wacky kind! Whoo!

…

… Actually, it rained a lot, and my internet and cable connection was gone for a good chunk of the weekend. Here’s a quick equation for you: Katsu - Internet = Trouble. I could have tried to surf using the KatsuPhone’s EDGE connection and Glitch, and I did, actually, at least to check my mail every hour or so, but I didn’t feel like trying to navigate the web for any real stretch of time on Glitch’s little screen. So, instead, I spent a good chunk of the weekend with my GBA Flash Cartridge and Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun and Advance Wars 2, not to mention a nice long stretch of Tales of Symphonia on the ol’ GameCube.

I gotta tell ya, the SuxBox360 and the PlayStation 3 may be getting all the buzz, and the world may be moving on to the sexy little PSP and the wacky NDS (which I will be acquiring before X-mas, this I swear!), but most of my time this weekend was spent quite enjoyably with the GameCube and GBA SP. And when I look at the games I want to play right now.. They’re all on the Big N’s platform. I’m not becoming a Nintendo fanboy, but…

Anyway, in between all the console gaming, I got a serious sushi craving again. So I headed out in the pouring rain to the local sushi place, but it was closed for remodeling. Despondent, I went to the local supermarket, Amigo. Supermarket sushi may be nothing to write home about, but when you’ve got a serious sushi jones, it’s far better than nothing. So when I get there, the guy who actually makes the sushi was there, and, in an uncharacteristic move for a misanthrope like myself, I struck the guy up in conversation. He mentioned that they sold all the ingredients for sushi there, the rice, and the vinegar and wasabi and nori. Only thing they didn’t have was the fish. So I ask him about the fish, and I tell him that all I’ve got is some frozen salmon from Costco. And here’s the shocker: he tells me that that fish is fine! Sure, I can hear the sushi snobs out there gnashing their teeth at this blasphemy, but the way the guy tells it, if the fish was frozen as fresh as possible, it’ll be fine. And for the germophobes out there who refuse to eat sushi because “Oh, ewww, it’s raw fish“, apparently the freezing process kills any germs or parasites the fish may have had, so it’s perfectly safe (once the Net came back on, I got online and verified it: it’s true!). So, I look at all the ingredients they sell there, and I can get everything for less than $10!

I think you can guess the rest of this story now. For my first time making sushi, it actually came out pretty well, IMHO. It took me a while to figure out how to slice the fish properly (I can see why real sushi chefs train for years to do it right), and I definitely need a sharper knife for cutting it, but after a couple of false starts, I was slicing some passable bits of sashimi. My home-mixed wasabi looked weird, but tasted appropriately spicy. The big surprise was the rice: people who know about sushi will tell you that the word ’sushi’ doesn’t mean ‘raw fish’, it actually stands for the rice. And now I know why. The rice is really what makes sushi.. Well.. Sushi!

It’s a special short-grain rice that you prepare so it’s extra sticky, and then you season with sushi vinegar, which is not the same thing as regular vinegar: it’s sweeter than regular vinegar, and a bit saltier as well. You mix the rice and vinegar and fan the whole thing while mixing so the rice cools down to room temperature, and it ends up being a little shiny and very sticky. It’s tricky to get it right, but when you do, it’s *delicious*! Although you learn real quick, when preparing the little rice beds for the sushi, that you had better wet your fingers with water before shaping the rice beds, unless you really want the rice to just stick to your fingers for ever and ever.

Finally, at the end of the night, I had managed to prepare quite a few bits of passable homemade sushi, and in between eating those and all the spare bits of rice I’d licked off my fingers and the mangled bits of sashimi from when I was trying to figure out how to slice the salmon right, I was *stuffed*. And seeing as it’s now the day after, and I’m still alive and not locked in the bathroom with serious gastrointestinal distress, I’d say the experiment was a success.. Just don’t bring up how I clogged the kitchen sink with ultra-sticky rice and had to go buy like 3 bottles of Liquid Plumr to unclog it…

And, hey, I had a lot of the rice left over.. (Note for the future: when preparing sushi for myself, do not prepare 4 CUPS of rice).. I can just eat that stuff up by itself. Sushi rice = t3h r0xx0rz. So, now I know how to make sushi, at least in the most basic sense. Next time I’ll try my hand at making some rolls.. Ought to be fun.

Derek, along with Swoopy, is the host of the incredibly popular podcast, Skepticality, which I’ve been listening to since it started, and which I love. It is easily one of the best, smartest, and most entertaining programs out there, and Derek is one of my personal heroes.

Last night, Derek suffered a VMA, a brain-aneurysm-type event which has landed him in the hospital, under heavy sedation, pretty much comatose, and on a respirator. He was lucky: if he had not been among friends and family when he first started to feel weak and headachy, he may well have died in his sleep. He is currently in the hospital, in critical condition, and the doctors say he is likely to remain so for weeks. It is still too early to know what will happen. Here’s what Swoopy posted up over on their forums:

Per the short podcast I posted a moment ago,

Derek is in intensive care suffering from a bleed to his brain (or a AVM), and is expected to be there for the next several weeks. We don’t know when he’ll be conscious. He is at this time on a ventilator and heavily sedated. His condition is critical.

Thank you for supporting us, we’re certainly not giving up. But until we know more his wife, his parents, and I are spending this time with him.

It’s very late, and this was very sudden. I’ll check back when I can.

- Swoopy
_________________
Derek Colanduno
host - skepticality
I somewhat run this place, when Swoopy isn’t here…

Listen to Swoopy’s anouncement here, too.

To Derek, his wife, Susan, his co-host Swoopy, and their friends and family, I just want you all know that Derek is in my thoughts and that I am cheering for him to recover, continue his life, continue the show, and continue to be an inspiration to so many of us out there. As I said before, this man is one of my personal heroes, and I want only the best for him. You’ve got at least one guy down here in Puerto Rico rooting for you, and I know that many, many more of us out there are sending you our best hopes. I look forward eagerly to you being able to read these words yourself as well. Continue being strong, we’re all here for you.

GBA SP and the X-ROM 512 Flash Cartridge

Originally uploaded by Katsushiro.

Well, the X-Rom 512 Flash Cartridge arrived last night and I spent a couple of hours setting it up, transferring some ROMs over, and playing around with it. Good stuff. It took a bit of finagling on my part, but the computer took the drivers, accepted the Flash Linker, and then I put the Cartridge into the GBA, plugged in the Flash Linker, and hoped for the best.

It works surprisingly well once the initial config is done, with ROM insertion being simple drag-and-drop. The program even auto-patches games if they need it so they can write their Saves to the cartridge.

Check out the entire photo set on my Flickr page here.

This is what it looks like…

Originally uploaded by Katsushiro.

When a Linux box dies…

Hey there folks… Sorry about the lack of postings, again. I know you all live only for the next random bit of blather from me.
I guess the whole Katrina thing has kind of quenched my blogging spirit for a while now, but I’m starting to feel better. The long Labor Day weekend gave me a good chance to rest up, recharge my batteries, and get ready to get back in gear. Spent a good chunk of the weekend just hanging out with my girl, playing video games, and just chillin’. Among the things I got for myself for my birthday were a couple of console RPG’s: Tales of Symphonia for the GameCube, and Shadow Hearts 2: Covenant for the PS2. I haven’t started the latter yet, but I’ve been hitting ToS pretty hard over the past couple of weeks, and thoroughly enjoying it. I love RPG’s with stories. If I have any complaints, it’s that it’s too easy to keep moving forward with the story without your characters being of the appropriate level to face the challenges that will be thrown at you. And leveling can be painfully slow when you realize that you’re level 37 and you should be level 42 for the next big boss battle. Despite that, I’m enjoying it thoroughly. I needed a fix of story-centric RPG.. I think that’s a big part of why I’ve practically stopped playing World of Warcraft: at first, when it was possible to solo most quests, there seemed to be some sort of story line going on. Each quest tended to reveal clues about bigger goings-on in the world, and promised changes and earth-shattering revelations. Somewhere around level 40, however, the game turns into nothing more than doing the same instances over and over to get more items, money, and power. Not only that, but there are practically no quests anymore that you could conceivably do alone, or in a small 2-4 person group. Instead, the game is all about the huge raid groups and massive clans and Battlefield PvP. And it bores me. Maybe if I was in a guild with a large active player base, where I could count on folk being around and helping me with quests and me being able to help them in return.. But no such luck. Ah well. We’ll see if the bug hits me again later.

I’ve had the same problem with me recent mu* sessions: while normally, mu*ing is *all* about the story, lately I’ve just been logging in and sitting there, and none of the players that I need to play with in order to advance my story are logged in at the same time as me, or are simply busy. And after sitting idle for 5 hours with not a single scene to make up for it, it gets old. With my console RPG’s, the quest and the characters are always there, waiting for me as soon as I pick up the controller. So, for the moment, I’m a console RPG man. And once my GBA Flash cartridge arrives, I’ve got a fine selection of excellent RPG’s and adventure/action games that I’ll be able to take with me. Good times ahead, my friends… Good times ahead.

Sorry, for the slow posting schedule lately.. I keep wanting to post, but everything I might post about just seems.. well, childish, when put into the context of the recent disaster in New Orleans, Lousiana, and other parts of the south. While normally I tend to say ‘Fuck the South’, this is a massive disaster and huge loss of life, home, and hope for so many. I keep wanting to write something about it, but I don’t know what I could say that wouldn’t seem trite and self-serving in the face of something like this, so I won’t. I will just point you to this guy:

The Interdictor: Survival of New Orleans blog

This guy works at an ISP or Colo pacility of some sort in New Orleans, and he and his crew have managed to keep their electricty and net connection going throughout the whole mess thanks to a big diesel-powered generator. He’s had some military training, and they’ve been keeping their building safe from the roving gang of sub-human assholes that are going around attacking and shooting people in the streets, and setting fire to buildings. He’s right there, blogging it as it happens and taking pictures and video of the actual events, providing a real human voice of this disaster that cuts through the political rhetoric and the pathetically inadequate coverage that the major media organizations are providing. Go and read. It wasn’t until I started reading that blog that the events of the past few days became real to me.

Also, if you can give, give. People out there need help, now more than ever. If you’re worried about the rising gas prices, then be thankful that that’s all you have to worry about. The people in the Gulf Coast no longer even have cars to gas up, or a home to drive back to at the end of their day. The American Humanist Association, a non-religious, progressive group, has set up the following secure page for accepting donations to help out the victims of Katrina:

https://www.americanhumanist.org/secure/humanistcharities.php

The AHA is a secular, non-religious and non-profit group dedicated to promoting progressive, dynamic values and to helping better America’s understanding of Humanism: A progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity. Unlike other charities, such as the religious ‘Operation Blessing’, led by Pat “Assasinate Hugo Chavez” Robertson, they render aid from a purely humanitarian standpoint. I fully support them and their efforts to aid Katrina’s victims, and I hope you do as well.

You may also donate directly to the Red Cross here:

http://arc.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main

In closing, I just want to reprint Ned Sublette’s words about how badly the rescue efforts have been mismanaged by our current chief. I know it can seem childish to take potshots at the president I hate so much during such a tragedy, but it seems to me that it’s just as childish for President Monkey-Boy to do his best Nero act and play guitar while New Orleans drowns. So here we go:

as new orleans, now exclusively populated by a starving, parched skeleton crew of the abandoned descendants of slaves, comes apart at the seams:

the right has gotten their wish. they successfully made government ineffective. this is what happens when you take away the power of government. the point of effective government is to keep this from happening to society. and there is no better poster boy for the ineffectivity of government than the sitting president.

the literal meaning of homeland security is that you secure the land you live on, no? by now the absolute vacuum of leadership is becoming apparent even to TV viewers.

in his eerie disconnectedness to what’s going on around him, isn’t it starting to seem like bush is heavily medicated? he’s *zonked*, right?

do they have him take these long vacations so they can change his meds? what’s going on here?

he’s got to go. he’s got to go *now*.