So, as I mentioned earlier, I hijacked a friend's GURPS MultiVerse game and we are only 2 sessions into it.

 

Already there are problems - one of the players has accused me of screwing him on some items his PC chose to bring to a very dangerous world. He thinks we're bargaining about these issues (we're not) but he had plenty of warning (which he chose to ignore).

 

I'll post some more on this.

 

I have talked some friends into resuming a GURPS Campaign that had some problems, mainly with the GM, which contributed to another friend's decision to stop gaming because of the arguments that it engendered.

 

But, see, the strange thing is I wasn't the GM - I was a player in this campaign. The GM was another guy, K. Good guy, like him a lot, has some power-gamer issues which were the big problem. Instead of trying to run a fun game (and not to say that the game was un-fun), I felt he wanted to dominate the players with powerful allies and enemies. I've encountered that somewhat and have been guilty of that myself at times, but I think that he can grow into a better GM. Unfortunately, K cannot be a part of the game because of distance and scheduling conflicts.

 

The friend who stopped gaming because of the arguments is G. I convinced him to show up. We'll see if I can avoid the problems that plagued us before.

 

So, I'm going to GM this setting, someone else's game world, and I'm pretty excited about it. Not much to do, just have a firm grasp of what the NPCs are going to do, and we'll see what the PCs have in store.

 

Should be interesting, nonetheless. First time that I've hijacked someone else's campaign!

 

/M

 

 

By CHRIS NEWMARKER

 

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Walt Whitman is considered one of America's greatest men of letters, but he had some surprising advice for two aspiring scribes: Don't become a poet.

The advice is one of the tidbits Whitman left for posterity in an 1888 interview with the student newspaper at The New Jersey State Normal School, now called The College of New Jersey.

The interview was recently discovered by Nicole Kukawski, 21, a junior who sifted through old copies of The Signal while working on a literature paper about Whitman's thoughts on education reform.

``It was really painstaking,'' Kukawski said, ``but it also turned out to be worth it.''

According to the article in the February 1888 edition of the paper, two young men visit Whitman at his Mickle Street house in Camden, where the elderly writer discusses the education of a writer.

He tells them to practice their craft and to break conventional models instead of writing traditional ``poetry.''

``First, don't write poetry; second ditto; third ditto,'' Whitman says. ``You may be surprised to hear me say so, but there is no particular need of poetic expression. We are utilitarian, and the current cannot be stopped.''

Whitman advised them to carry a pencil and piece of paper to jot down daily events. He even suggested they get their hands dirty in the mechanics of printing.

``Whack away at everything pertaining to literary life - mechanical part as well as the rest. Learn to set type, learn to work at the `case,' learn to be a practical printer, and whatever you do learn condensation,'' Whitman said.

Kukawski said she combed through the newspapers' dusty pages to try to learn about what students at the time thought about education and the famous writer, but she didn't expect to find actual words from Whitman there. Then she saw the interview.

The discovery astounded her teacher, David Blake, an associate professor of English.

``From the perspective of Whitman studies, it's a small discovery, versus an undiscovered poem or book,'' Blake said. ``But thinking this is a junior at the college who found this in her research, this is really exciting.''

The ensuing paper Kukawski wrote about the interview will be part of a symposium the college is holding this fall to mark the 150th anniversary of both Whitman's famous ``Leaves of Grass'' and the college itself.

The New Jersey State Normal School has had several name changes since the 19th century, including an incarnation as the New Jersey State Teachers College at Trenton in 1937 and Trenton State College in 1958. It became The College of New Jersey in 1996.

New interviews with Whitman are unearthed about once a year, said Ed Folsom, an English professor at the University of Iowa and editor of the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review.

He said there are about 100 known newspaper interviews with the poet.

``They turn up with remarkable regularity, not just the interviews with Whitman, but unpublished letters and other notes of his,'' he said.

Folsom was not surprised that The Signal interview includes the advice to avoid poetry, saying Whitman equated accepted poetry with conventional form and style. But he said the call to learn printing was especially interesting.

``If you're going to write some unconventional stuff that's going to challenge people's thinking, you may damn well need to publish the things yourself,'' he said.

On the Net:

The College of New Jersey: http://www.tcnj.edu/

 

 

 

Here's the Cover for the New Harry Potter Book:

 

 

An article on the artist: http://channels.aimtoday.com/celebrity/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-1404&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20050308%2F0855644296.htm&sc=1404

 

 

Watched "Uncle Buck" last night, for a laugh.

 

And I must say, John Candy was at his best in that role.

 

No other movie of his matches this one, IMNSHO.

 

"Ditch me today, and tomorrow, I'll drive you to school in my pajamas and robe, and walk you to your first class."

 

The Giant Pancake scene.

 

"Hee hee hee. Ever hear of a ritual killing?"

 

The Powerdrill scene.

 

"What did you do to Bug?" scene that gets snipped everytime it is on TV.

 

Happy Birthday John!

Happy Birthday to you!

 

Happy Birthday to you!

 

Happy Birthday, dear John!

 

Happy Birthday to you!

 

Happy 37th Birthday! Many Happy Returns!

 

:)

 

 

P.S. For me, happily, I will always be 4 days younger than you! What a great Birthday Present! ;)

 

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

My birthday is arriving shortly

I'm not sure what I want to do about it.

 

Being on a Work Night, as well as a traditionally Bad Day (at least for Ceasar), I don't know what I'll be doing.