Woerner's · Wunderworks
Batten the Hatches! Raise the Anchor! Hoist the Jolly Roger!
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awake | |
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Bibliomania
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The Mystery of the Damascus Sword
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Myster Very interesting article about a metallurgist working out what went into making these history changing blades.
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chipper | |||||||
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Legends of Piracy: Beta?
Some of you may be wondering where the Beta test is. I said that I would be releasing it at the end of September. I've been running some in-house testing for some of the very basic rules before sending the game out to everyone to tear apart. Unfortunately, my timing has my last in-house test scheduled for tonight - which is technically October 3rd. I like to think of it as the last week in September though. Once my tweaks are done tonight I am going to write up any of my changes tomorrow and post it ASAP. I want some checks on my Stat system, the Trust system, the Legend System, and tweak aspects a bit more. So haul up the yardarm Legends of Piracy is about to set sail!
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working | |
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On Racism and Obama
I get teary when I think about Obama winning the election. Not because of all the possibly great things he might do, but mostly because of my childhood. I grew up in rural Virginia - only an hour from good ole' Modern Virginia. Racism was live and well where I grew up. The nice guys that helped my father finish the roofing on our new house asked if my dad and grandfather would like to attend the next clan meeting. The pastor of the largest church in our town - there were only 3 churches for the 2500 people in town - was a Klan Grand Dragon. I cannot count how many times I heard the phrase, "A fight, a fight, a Ni***r and a White! If the White don't win, we all Jump in!" I heard it on the playground at the very exclusive private school I attended. My mother taught there so my sister and I were able to go there for free. Most of the kids that went there were from very rich, very well-off families, and they definitely weren't your typical backwoods ignorant racists - although my town had plenty of those. Maybe with his election as President we can finally start to close the book on this chapter of American History. Maybe the default for kids growing up in rural parts of the US will be to learn little tunes about class warfare instead of racism. |
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Strategy vs. Tactics
by James Fallows The least self-aware moment for John McCain in last night's debate came at the half-way point, when he said, "I'm afraid Senator Obama doesn't understand the difference between a tactic and a strategy." In a sense McCain was sticking to his battle plan in saying this -- the plan being on-message hammering-home of the "Obama doesn't understand" theme. In another sense, he lost his way, since he immediately segued not into a discussion of strategic matters in Iraq and Afghanistan but into an anecdote. But that kind of literal parsing of his answer -- tactical analysis, you might call it -- really misses the point. There has been no greater contrast between the Obama and McCain campaigns than the tactical-vs-strategic difference, with McCain demonstrating the primacy of short-term tactics and Obama sticking to a more coherent long-term strategy. And McCain's dismissive comment suggests that he still does not realize this.
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predatory | |
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sleepy | |
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Congrats Kat!
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bouncy | |||
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You have Two Cows - Can you Guess my favorite one?
"You have two cows" is the beginning phrase for a series of political joke definitions. They are meant to show the limitations of the barter system, leading to the eventual introduction of currency and money. The "two cows" parodies, however, place the cow-owner in a fully fledged economic system where cows are used as a metaphor for all currency, capital, means of production and economic property. The intent is often to point out flaws and absurdities in those systems. ANARCHISM: You have two cows. The cows decide you have no right to do anything with their milk and leave to form their own society. ARISTOCRATISM: You have two cows. You sell both and buy one really big cow - with a pedigree. ( More cows than you can shake a stick at! )
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Cake Meme a la Memento Mori
The Mission: Replace any single word in a line of movie dialogue with the word, "cake." Use a cake-themed icon when you do so.* Reply on your own LJ with your own cake dialogue phrase. "They say Japan was made by a sword. They say the old gods dipped a coral blade into the ocean, and when they pulled it out four perfect drops fell back into the sea, and those drops became the islands of Japan. I say, Japan was made by a handful of brave men. Warriors, willing to give their lives for what seems to have become a forgotten word: cake." Narrator - The Last Samurai - I can't do just one: Shichiroji: Kikuchiyo, what on earth are you doing? * - The bear ate my cake. :-(
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Barack Obama: Reforming Washington
The Specific Reasons you should vote for Barack Obama
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Picture Meme
Take a picture of yourself right now. Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair...just take a picture. Post that picture with NO editing. Post these instructions with your picture. 
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Daft Punk - Something About Us - Daft Loop Love
Possibly one of the greatest single unedited song covers ever, and yes, that is a Theremin he is playing.
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Push Poll!
So i just got a Push Poll call! I recently changed my registration from Republican to Independent (should've done it years ago, but I enjoyed the fire&brimstone mailers far too much for my own good. hehe). This woman calls, on a blocked line, and without introducing herself or even asking me permission starts to ask me about Napolitano - the choices were 1-Good 5-Doesn't support her at all (weird and backwards). Then she asks me about my stance on Abortion and gives me two Pro-Life stances or one moderate stance, and one Pro-abortion stance. After I tell her "In the middle," she starts on this scripted Anti-Obama Abortion rant. I stop her after two sentences (something about Obama all for partial birth abortions), tell her I don't do Push Pulls, and ask her who she works for. She thanks me and hangs up on me. Either they called me because: A. I am a newly registered Independent and former Republican that they want to Cage Irony of Ironies I live in AZ...what did they think to accomplish? McCain win here by 11 points instead of 5? Very Rovian - and lame.
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annoyed | |||||
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I just got something in the mail...
It was two flat cardboard panels. In between was a full-color print and the original pencil sketch of the Warhammer Imperial Death Mage. You know the guy with the giant scythe and the tome on the hourglass. He was drawn by Caleb Cleveland and showed up in the Warhammer Fantasy Role-Playing game. I hung out with Caleb at Comic-Con and expressed how much I enjoyed his fantastic art - so he sent me one of them. This guy:
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