From the monthly archives:

February 2009

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by Kevin Pettway on February 27, 2009

As we approach the end of another story arc, the time for a new book approaches as well. Thinking in that direction I have decided what book three’s “extra feature” will be. (It was an extra short comic story in book one, and a ‘Playorc’ interview with Enkidu in the second.) This go-round I have decided to [...]

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by Kevin Pettway on February 26, 2009

  Judson King of Lawrence, Kansas has fought City Hall… and won. King, now age eleven, has been fighting the man since he was eight to win the legalization of hedgehogs in his home town. (He’s a big Sonic fan.) Maybe next young Judson should start working on legalizing pot.

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by Kevin Pettway on February 25, 2009

  I listened to about fifteen seconds of right-wing radio this morning, and out of the hundred or so crazy statements made, there were a few that really jumped out at me. I thought I’d bring ‘em up here, in my own vain attempt to achieve parity with the truth. 1. Acorn is under federal [...]

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by Kevin Pettway on February 24, 2009

Two years ago I began what I had decided would be a grand tradition concerning the Oscars. That is, Tivo the whole thing and watch it the next day. The Academy Awards show is the very reason god invented Tivo after all. In three and a half hours of pomp there’s between twenty and forty [...]

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by Kevin Pettway on February 23, 2009

So I’ve watched two episodes of the new Joss Whedon show, the Dollhouse. While I love Whedon, I was kind of on the fence about this one. The premise sounded limiting, and while Eliza Dushku is da bomb, I wasn’t sure if she was up a role that required her to be an entirely new person [...]

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by Kevin Pettway on February 20, 2009

New research has determined that bees can count to the number four. Many people are incredibly impressed with this, after all, even the counting horses have been debunked as taking largely invisible cues from their handlers. But I don’t think it’s all that great. I got a D in my college algebra class, and even [...]

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by Kevin Pettway on February 19, 2009

(By the way everyone, Byron over at 1977, the Webcomic allowed me to create a guest comic for him today, so go check it out here!) Apparently this is in the owner’s manual, but in case you haven’t read it, I’m going to save you about a thousand bucks. Your car’s fuel pump is located [...]

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by Kevin Pettway on February 18, 2009

  Tomorrow I have to go to the dentist. I am mostly over my debilitating fear and girlish dread at the prospect, but that’s not the same as being exactly happy about the notion. Every time I go they give me pronouncements of doom at the state of my teeth and gums… teeth and gums [...]

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by Kevin Pettway on February 17, 2009

So I’m alternating weeks DMing my group now with my old DM, who is running his own campaign. I’m really happy about it, because while I like to run games I also like to play… and normally it’s strictly one or the other. The only problem is his stupid job. He is the manager at [...]

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by Kevin Pettway on February 16, 2009

  This is what I look like chasing achievements in World of Warcraft. And people think that videogames don’t teach valuable life skills!

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by Kevin Pettway on February 13, 2009

Happy Valentines to my best girl, Lena! You are the best thing to happen to me, every day of my life, and I would be completely lost without you.  Bunches o’ love, Kevin _______ NOTE FROM LENA: Bunches of you have been asking about how to get a customized avatar. I wrote a quickie article [...]

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by Kevin Pettway on February 12, 2009

Okay, since we’ve been talking about it, I have a question for those of you out there who think that the whole “economic stimulus” issue is too complicated to understand, or that only real experts are qualified to have an opinion.  Let’s say you are a huge bank* with tens of thousands of employees worldwide [...]

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by Kevin Pettway on February 11, 2009

Moody’s Investor Services, a non-partisan economic analysis and ratings firm, made a study of the various forms of financial stimulus being proposed for the nation’s failing economy. Here are some of their results: Food Stamps: $1.00 in food stamps produces $1.73 of stimulative spending. Infrastructure: $1.00 of infrastructure spending produces $1.59 of stimulative spending. General Tax Cuts: $1.00 of general tax [...]

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by Kevin Pettway on February 10, 2009

It is a commonly accepted truism that D&D players generally care about the backstory in your game slightly less than they care whether Mr. Rogers kept D. Scholl’s or Odoreaters in his sneakers on the set. But I’m here to tell you that this is not true… and furthermore, if you’re spending all you time [...]

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by Kevin Pettway on February 9, 2009

  The following is an advertisement, and it’s also kinda naughty. That said, I thought it was funny. If you decide to watch it, I just want you knowing ahead of time. Good? Good.

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by Kevin Pettway on February 6, 2009

So I tried running a D&D game using a bastardization of the Amber diceless roleplaying system last week. I love playing Amber, but I learned that there is a big difference between playing a game designed to be diceless, and trying to cudgel a system designed around a d20 into playability without dice of any kind. [...]

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by Kevin Pettway on February 5, 2009

  (This is a hopelessly inside joke for those of you who enjoyed Shamus Young and Shawn Gaston’s webcomic, Chainmail Bikini, which is sadly no longer available. To everyone else, I apologize.) Tom Daschle removed himself from consideration for appointment to President Obama’s cabinet this week, owing, I am certain we can all agree, to [...]

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by Kevin Pettway on February 4, 2009

Comcast describes the brief interruption in southern Arizona of the Superbowl by a man receiving the gift of oral pleasure as a “malicious act,” and has offered numerous and repeated apologies for the incident. Kudos to Comcast for their collective mea culpa to all affected viewers who did not get to see this. Good for [...]

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by Kevin Pettway on February 3, 2009

Hey, good news everyone! Now that Tom Daschle has joined Tim Geithner as the latest presidential cabinet pick not to pay his taxes, we are only one more tax cheat away from activating the secret appointment tax clause in the United States Constitution… which reads thusly: In the event that any newly elected president shall appoint [...]

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by Kevin Pettway on February 2, 2009

Hooray for the new Superbowl champions! That team who won sure played a better game, wouldn’t you say? I particularly loved it when that guy threw the ball and then those other guys scored some points… Okay, okay. I haven’t seen it yet. I wrote this last week. But here’s my official prediction… people will [...]

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