Wednesday Morning Ramblings

Today's Dork Tower is up...

Click here, there or anywhere to see it. (The basic idea came about when I was skimming through Miss Sara's MySpace blog last night.

I wasn't happy with the drawing I did for Dork Tower, last Friday. So I redid it:

If you're not gonna get paid for a cartoon ONCE, you might as well not get paid for a cartoon twice. And if you're gonna do the stupidest joke of your career, you might as well like the damn drawing.

Here...

...is a link to the original.

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To those of you lucky enough to be going to the Origins Game Fair this weekend: damn, I wish I was there.

Instead, here's a drawing I did for the annual Kobolds Ate My Baby Midnight Massacre event.

Wanna guess what the theme is?

The Midnight Massacre, run by those insane geniuses at 9th Level Games, is a hoot. Try and make it there, if you can. (I forget whether it runs Friday or Saturday, but I believe it's Friday.)

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I've read three books so far this year on gaming. All have been just terrific.

I've already talked about "Achtung, Schweinhund." I'll be posting on the thoroughly enjoyable "The Elfish Gene" soon.

The third book was kindly sent to me by

jonnynexus, its author: "Game Night."

I read it over the last weekend I was in England, although it was actually sent to me last winter. I wish I hadn't waited so long. I also wish I'd brought it with me to Warpcon, where the inimitable author was, to get it signed.

Well, if you're in the Reading area this weekend (of England - hush, you Pennsylvanians), you can do one better than me and pick up a copy and have J.N. sign it for you! Just pop by Eclectic Games, which I hear is a rather excellent shop that's moving to a new, larger site adjacent to their current location. The opening day is this Saturday, 28th June, when the author will start signing away from about 10 am onwards.

So if you're near Reading, it would behoove you to hit Eclectic Games, grab a copy of this Pratchett-esque debut novel of gods, roleplaying, and game-night kerfuffles. Plus, Jonny's a hoopy frood who really knows where his towel is.

Eclectic Games is located just opposite the railway station (hopefully, this link opens to a map).

Eclectic Games
Thames Tower
38-45 Station Road
Reading
RG1 1LX

So, yeah - buy "Game Night." Get it signed. It's a fun, fresh, irreverent read that'll ring true to any gamer even if, unlike the protagonists, you happen not to be a god.

Chapter one is available as a free preview download. With luck, clicking on that there link should procure it for you.

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I always seemed to enjoy the idea of The New Pornographers more than the actual New Pornographers themselves, but I must admit, the new album, "Challengers," is getting steady rotation on my iTunes, along with REM's "Accelerate" and Aimee Mann's "@#%&*! Smilers."

Just picked up The Apples in Stereo's "New Magnetic Wonder," which is good, but hasn't blown me away yet.

The Apples in Stereo fans: which albums are their Must-hears?

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Holy cow...ANOTHER "You Can't Say That Up Here, Mr. Carlin" gag...