Found: One Troll

Speakers arrived today. I’m setting them up now, then I’m going to watch Independence Day. Party tomorrow, review Sunday.

Well, this is the first time I’ve been able to say, “Get out of my head, Randall!” I just finished reading through the Marvel Civil War series, which features Spider-man and his catchphrase rather heavily. Ohm’s law and its various permutations are among the things which I will never be able to forget thanks to a series of very interesting electronics and EE professors.

Sorry about the no-bloggy. I took a two and a half week vacation from work, starting with PAX, and I really wasn’t feeling the muse. Some post-vacation updates:

• During my time off I helped my parents clean out some of their junk-filled rooms and we found a bunch of my late paternal grandfather’s stuff, including a pair of framed certificates declaring him an honorary Sergeant-at-Arms of the Tennessee State Senate and an honorary citizen of the State of Tennessee. We have no idea what the stories behind those items are. My Dadu^[1] never applied for American citizenship, choosing instead to retain his dual British and Indian citizenships even after he retired to the US to be with his son.  There were also a large number of my grandmother’s silk saris and other dresses packed away.
• We also found a large number of college textbooks dating to my father’s time at university (late 60s) and a bunch of electronics branded “Digital” from his time as an executive of the now-defunct Digital Equipment Corporation. My father is a serious pack rat.
• It’s late September, summer is technically over, and we might see days where the temperature stays under 100 degrees soon. The winter is much better for shooting around these parts.
• I decided that as a reward to myself for earning my CCIE I will skip the AR-15 and instead get a surround sound system. I want a new rifle but I am in greater need of a new sound system. I’ve had my HDTV for two years and it’s time to unshackle myself from the TV speakers. After much research, I decided on an Onkyo receiver and Aperion speakers. The receiver has arrived and the speakers should be here by the end of this week. I hope to have an initial review of it up next weekend, after a proper party to put it through its paces and help break in the speakers.
• This Wednesday, September 30th, the new gun laws that Governor Brewer signed will go into effect. I have yet to see any restaurants with “no guns” signs up, including, to my surprise, the Four Peaks Brewery where I ate last night. I had figured that most of the bars down in Tempe would have signs up. Out here in the West Valley neither Red Robin nor Buffalo Wild Wings have signs up (the only places I’ve eaten recently). The restaurants must have the sign posted near their liquor license, and one is legally permitted to enter a restaurant while armed to determine if firearms are permitted. If you want to know whether you can carry, just ask to see the restaurant’s liquor license. In order to carry in a restaurant that serves alcohol under the new law one must have a CCW permit and must be carrying concealed. AZCDL will be working to remove these restrictions in future legislative sessions.
• Speaking of AZCDL, the Arizona Citizens Defense League annual meeting is next weekend in Tucson. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend, but next year it’s in Phoenix, so I should be at that one.
• AZCDL has also setup the AZCDLPAC to help influence elections next year and in the future.
• I’ll be at the NANOG/ARIN conferences in Detroit late next month. I have no idea if there will be worthy blogfodder there.
• Here’s some season-appropriate music: Summer’s Over by Jonathan Coulton

1. Bengali for “paternal grandfather.” [↩]

I’ve noticed a few posts about evolution around the ‘sphere lately. The only reason I mention it is that they reminded me of this piece by the esteemed MC Frontalot:

This might be the most amusing line I’ve ever read in a video game review: “Weapons are hard to aim, with obscuring sights attached to most of them. . .”

The game is Darkest of Days by 8monkey Labs and Destructoid gave it a 1/10. Now, I played Darkest of Days at PAX, was impressed, and purchased the game on Tuesday. I also beat it on Tuesday, but I was laid out with H1Nerd1, what else was I going to do? Regardless, the weapons in the game are not difficult to aim if you understand what sights are for.

I can understand Destructoid’s confusion;  in lots of games the iron sights on weapons are for show and you’ve got a magic crosshair to tell you where to point your shootin’ stick. In Darkest of Days, if you want to hit anything with regularity you need to put your front sight on target and press. The sights obscure your target when they’re doing their job you hacks.

Some of Destructoid’s beefs with Darkest of Days are legitimate, but overall I thought it was a pretty fun game. It was worth the $35 I paid for it. I was prepared to suspend disbelief for a game about a time-traveling 19th century US cavalryman.

Of course, they played the X360 version. If you play an FPS on a console, you deserve what you get.

Alright, it’s time to write about a pet peeve that I see all the time on forums where “smart” people hang out.

Two equal signs (==) are a test, not a statement. When you write ‘$VAR1==$VAR2′ you are saying, in short, “Compare the values of $VAR1 and $VAR2. If they are equal then return a value of true, else return a value of false.” You are NOT saying “The value of $VAR1 is equal to the value of $VAR2.” Surprisingly enough, we already have a symbol for that. Meet the single equal sign: =. Hi there! That’s the symbol you want if you just want to declare two things to be equal to each other. Double equal signs do not make your statement double true.

I’ve been a bad blogger. I went to a three-day convention and didn’t write a single word this weekend. At least, not here. You can find all my coverage of PAX over here. I had a great time. There’s some good eating in downtown Seattle and the weather was perfect pretty much the entire time. I didn’t see any games on the main show floor that made me think, “meh.” It was a different story in the indie developer and budget MMO area, but overall I was really impressed with the software each developer brought to the expo.

The rest of the expo was great as well, from the console free play lounge, where one could check out console titles to play for a while, to the tabletop LFG/free play, which was much the same thing for board games and tabletop roleplaying, to the handheld lounges on each floor, which were basically vast expanses of beanbag chairs in which to chill out with some DS or PSP for a while. There were several areas where impromptu bands could walk up and rock out with Rock Band; fake bands thrilling real crowds with amusing antics on stage. There was also, of course, the Omegathon, where randomly chosen attendees (who are notified before the show) compete for the title of Alpha Omeganaut in several single elimination rounds. This year’s Omegathon rounds included, in order, Mario Kart Double Dash, Bookworm Adventures, Halo3: ODST, Rock Band: Beatles, Connect Four, and Skee-Ball. You’ve got to be a pretty well-rounded gamer to succeed in that tournament. PAX attendees also set a new world record for most Nintendo DS systems at use in one place at one time: 910 was the final count at the record-setting event on Friday evening before that night’s concert.

The concerts were pretty fantastic. I’m not a big fan of the electronica bands Freezepop and Anamanaguchi, but everyone else who played (Metroid Metal, MC Frontalot, Paul and Storm, and Jonathan Coulton) delivered epic performances. I was personally pretty stoked to finally see JoCo live, and he has a great stage presence.

Unfortunately I didn’t get around to any of the panels this year. If I return next year I’ll definitely spend less time on the floor and more time at panels. I brought home plenty of swag, shirts, comic books, beta passes, et cetera. And also Swine Flu, so that’s nice. I spent Sunday and Monday laid out and nearly immobile. I’m starting to feel better today; my fever is down, I have an appetite again, and I can walk 20 feet without collapsing which is a huge improvement. Oh well, if you mingle with 75,000 people that sort of thing is bound to happen once in a while. All-in-all PAX was a great experience. I hope I can make it next year.

Zombie co-workers are only slightly less of a concern than werewolf managers.

This song is by the nerd-tastic Jonathan Coulton, who I am looking forward to seeing live next month at PAX. I’ll be writing some of the PAX coverage for GamingTrend.com, which is run by my good friend Ron Burke.

So, if I pass the CCIE practical exam next week my employer will reimburse me the $1400 it costs to take the test. If I get the money back, I’ve decided to celebrate by spending it on a new gun. I think I’ll put it toward an AR-pattern rifle; I don’t have one of those yet.

I missed the boat for Monster Hunter International when author Larry Correia (who has a blog right here) self-published it, but at the time it quickly gained a cult following in the gunniesphere. A little while ago a major sci-fi/fantasy publisher took notice and offered to publish Correia’s first book (and, I believe, his future books). The e-book edition of MHI was released on Friday and the print edition will be available on July 28th. I purchased the e-book Friday afternoon, threw it on my Kindle DX, and finished it today. For me, that level of immersion usually only occurs with books by Terry Pratchet or Karen Traviss.

First, the bad. For the first few chapters, the writing feels a little bit disjointed. The effect could be deliberate, as the opening scene is extremely fast-paced and stressful for the main character and the book is written in the first person perspective. As I continued reading, however, I couldn’t help but feel that the first few chapters were not of the same high quality as the rest of the book. Correia brings it together very quickly and the last 96% of the book is amazing, while the opening is merely “good.” My only other complaint is that sometimes the overall plot of the story is a bit more predictable than you would get from a seasoned writer, but the heavy use of foreshadowing throughout the novel indicates that this is, again, mostly intentional. Correia also knows how to throw plenty of curveballs at the reader, so while the direction of the story remains clear throughout the book, the path is never in focus long enough to leave you thinking “I’ve seen this movie before.”

Other than that, the book is great. The action (and there is plenty of action) is fast-paced and the exposition feels natural rather than feeling like a lecture. The characters are believable and multi-dimensional, and character-building revelations are not forced into conversation willy-nilly. These folks have secrets, and they’ll tell them when they’re good and ready, if at all. Too, the characters are not immortal. Not everyone who dies is an “Ensign Ricky” red shirt. Making it impossible for your characters to die is a trap that too many writers fall into (I’m looking at you, Michael Stackpole^[1] ). The monsters are also wonderful, and encompass a great deal of horror fiction, as well as some unique and terrible threats. The monsters are familiar without being cliché, and Correia puts some great twists on old tales.

Of course, one of the reasons the book has gained such a large fan base in the online gun culture is that Correia really, really knows his stuff. This book is chock-full of gun porn. Automatic weapons? All kinds. Specialty ammunition? You got it. Russian aircraft? Oh, hell yes. Correia delivers a level of detail and fidelity that gun nuts seldom find in any media.

Bottom line: If you love action and monsters, you’ll love this book. If you love guns, you’ll love this book. If you like fantasy, and especially horror fantasy, you’ll love this book. I can’t wait to see what Correia comes up with next.

1. I love Stackpole’s books, but seriously, would you let someone go every once in a while? [↩]