Chotebor!

On Saturday, I am leaving for Chotebor (with my girlfirend and both dogs). In fact, it's written "Chotěboř" and you probably cannot pronounce it if you are not Czech (approximately "Khotyeborz"). Why? Because of Fantasy Festival convention. I'll show some trailers, talk about movies and dubbing, but most of all I'll unwind, play boardgames and Zelda Four Swords with other geeks and maybe post some photos of people in weird costumes.

Mapping the movies

I am still amazed about Google Maps and still patiently waiting for them to fully support Europe (currently, just a part of Prague is visible in hi-res, including my house. Meanwhile, I am trying to find various interesting locations on the U.S. map. For example, after I saw WAR OF THE WORLDS, I found out that Tom Cruise's character probably lives here amd the ferry incident happened right here (unfortunately, no detailed satellite shot is available). I also tried to find Stonehenge and the crater from STARMAN but it seems detailed maps are also missing for those areas.

Highway mystery from beyond the grave

Car crash near Tokyo. 28-year old mother, 32-year old father and 3-year old son. The car crashed and son got thrown out. The father got out and incoming car killed them both. So far nothing extraordinary. However, according to the police, the mother, found on the back seat, was already dead at least a day before the accident! (Reported at CNN.com). Scary!

Stuff like this happens all the time in Japan. That's why they make such great movies.

Harry Potter vs. the terrorists (in the tropics)

From this BBC story about Guantanamo: "They watched the interrogation of three suspects, including one in which a detainee was read a Harry Potter book aloud for hours until he turned his back and put his hands over his ears."

I always said Harry Potter books and movies are evil (except for the girl who plays Hermione).

There's party up at Schindler's and I'm on his A-list

It's one thing to make "funny" jokes, pictures, animations, songs etc. about Hitler. That's no longer shocking for anyone who "Lives on teh intarnet" (well, maybe, sometimes it still is). But it's quite another thing to make Hitler song that is actually funny! (From www.whitestkids.com)

The people have spoken. Now what?

U.S. Always said that Iran is evil because it has no democracy. Now, during the undisputedly democratic elections, the Iranian people have democratically chosen the ultraconservative presidential candidate who is - according to the U.S. - opposed to democracy. I suppose this is not democratic and they'll have to be bombed after all...

Hello, my name is...

I thought there is nothing worse when trying to communicate with English-speaking people than having the last name "Fuka". But this guy probably has it even tougher! My sympathies...

BTW, the word "fuka" supposedly has lots of different meanings in Japanese (including "shark", "improper" nad "cuddly").

Important public service announcement for all PS2 owners

Buy! God of War!! Now!!! Thank you for your attention.

Risus - putting the fun back into RPGs

I discovered the RPG games (the pen & paper kind) at the end of 1980s. At that time, it was usually defined as "the game those kids in E.T. The Extraterrestrial play". The people I knew have photocopied (very badly) basic Dungeons & Dragons books and played according to the D&D Monster Manual. I wrote "played according to the Monster Manual" because they didn't know English very well, had only a basic grasp of the basic rules and basically only played the game as a series of monster encounters, using the numeric stats from the Monster Manual (not really understanding the text below the stats).

It's only logical that, after this experience, pen & paper RPGs seemed to me like very poor imitations of computer RPGs (which vere already rather well established at that time) and I lost interest in them.

Several years later I had another look at RPG. My friend played Vampire The Masquarade live action games in Prague and although I didn't participate, I got an idea that this could actually be very cool activity but it greatly depends on the Dungeon Master. Concurrently, it occured to me that almost all the RPG rules are superficial and DM only needs good storytelling skills, good improvisation capabilities, flexibility and cool ideas. And RPG sessions can be enjoyed by mature people without having to consult lots of weird tables.

After several more years, I bought the three basic D&D books and read them just for the fun of it. Although I already knew English very well at the time, I didn't quite understand the relationships between all the tables and it sure as hell didn't look like fun. I found out that there are several simple "universal" RPG systems that you can get from the Internet for free! One of them was Risus from Cumberland Games & Diversions. Have a look at it, there is even a Czech version.

Some of the things on Cumberland pages are not free. However, there was so much excellent quality free stuff over there that I bought "The Risus Companion" - again - just for the fun of it. (I also used it as an opportunity to try out PayPal, which can now be used by Czechs at last - at least for sending money.) And I was not disappointed. For $10 ($10, think about it!) you get 64-page PDF file with lots of examples (and answers to questions I thought about after reading the basic rules). And charming illustrations. And lots and lots of cool ideas for ANY KIND of RPG setting and system. Plus, it's written exceptionally well. I actually had so much fun reading it I'd recommend it to anyone remotely interested in the RPG phenomenon. You'll learn more by reading this than by wading throuch hundreds of pages of "Dungeons & Dragons Dugeon Master Manual Handbook Reference Core Rules v3.599" or whatever. And you'll get an idea why RPGs with good GM can be FUN. It really whet my appetite.

Now, where can I get several almost normal mature people to play with? :)

CNN: "Terror suspects have no right to be funny!"

This CNN story about cleared "suspected terrorist" was originally accompanied by this great photo:



What do you think? Could someone so cheerful and good-natured be able to harm a fly (or some skyscrapers)? His warm smile brings happiness to my heart.

However, about 30 minutes later, the photo was replaced by this one:



Shame on you, CNN!

BTW, what's with all the "suspected terrorist" crap (with "suspected" occasionally being dropped)? What happened to "innocent until proven guilty"? Is it OK to call George W. Bush "suspected dog rapist" because I suspect him of this?