Displaying comments 1 to 50 of 1205
Ask post:
How can I keep my D&D game organized?
While using a computer to track a campaign is OK, please avoid bringing the machine to the table. I've tried using both a PC and a laptop as a "DM helper" and found them distracting and distancing from the players. Paper, pencil and other hands-on aids have always worked better for me and encourage spontaneity.
One program that I do take to the table is Mach Dice for my iPhone. It beats chasing a rogue die across the carpeting.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by SPrintF
at 2:13 PM on September 6, 2008
MeFi post:
The Words They Used
I'd rather lose an election and win a war
I, also, would prefer that McCain lose the election and that our various wars be won. Finally, something we can all agree on!
posted to MetaFilter by SPrintF
at 12:23 PM on September 5, 2008
Ask post:
The art of showing, not telling?
The Incredible Shrinking Man is one of the best films of the 50s era. Not just of SF films, but of films in general. Richard Matheson (also the author of I Am Legend) wrote both the novel and the screenplay, so the adaptation is very faithful.
Oddly, Asimov's novelization of Fantastic Voyage is better than the film, because Dr. A took the opportunity to correct many of the plot and scientific errors of the movie.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by SPrintF
at 9:37 AM on August 31, 2008
MeFi post:
"708ers. What do you expect?"
MetaFilter: never wear pants again.
A sobering aspect of this story is the author's implicit assumption of his own invulnerability. Walking around where no driver would reasonable expect a pedestrian, covered with snow and hence near invisible, in below zero temperatures, and no one aware of his location or situation. His story might well have ended on a less happy note.
We have become so armored by our technology that we often forget that the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SPrintF
at 12:37 PM on August 18, 2008
MeFi post:
Tuesday night [his] gradfather died. He invented rewinding.
Eggbert Praetorius would have been a great name for a Spider-Man villain.
"I have you now, Dr. Praetorius!"
"You haven't won yet, wall-crawler! Feel the sting of my Cosmic Rewinder! Bwah hah hahh!"
BZZZZAP!
"What's this? I'm 60 minutes in the past! Dr. P has escaped me again!"
posted to MetaFilter by SPrintF
at 12:23 PM on August 14, 2008
Ask post:
Your favorite routines from elementary school?
I liked Spelling. In particular, I liked the creative writing portion of the spelling test in which you were challenged to use a test word in a sentence. This gave rise to gems like, "Look here, Watson! This man was killed with an ENCYCLOPEDIA!"
posted to Ask Metafilter by SPrintF
at 1:02 PM on August 12, 2008
Ask post:
Apple Store vs ATT Store
In my area, at least, the Apple store is open (for iPhone sales) much earlier on Sundays than the other stores in the mall. Makes getting in, getting the 'phone and getting out much easier.
posted to Ask Metafilter by SPrintF
at 12:58 PM on August 12, 2008
Ask post:
Humane Society?
In my years as a volunteer at the local Humane Society, we have never been judgmental when a pet owner elects to have an animal put down. We recognize that the decision to put a beloved pet to sleep is not an easy one or one that is made lightly. I don't recall an instance when we ever challenged a pet owner's decision, or were ever anything less than sympathetic.
On a purely practical level, it would be a very poor idea for the Humane Society to make it difficult for a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by SPrintF
at 12:24 PM on August 6, 2008
Ask post:
Working your way through college
On-campus job: glassware maintenance technician. (I cleaned test tubes and glass slides and ran the autoclave. It was like being Pasteur's handyman.)
In my senior year I held a position as a teaching assistant. I conducted labs and graded homework.
posted to Ask Metafilter by SPrintF
at 9:52 PM on August 3, 2008
MeFi post:
cuil kids?
I Cuiled* my local school district. Got one page, six hits, all from from an employment agency. The district's actual home page is absent, of course.
*Awkward neologism.
posted to MetaFilter by SPrintF
at 12:59 PM on July 28, 2008
MeFi post:
Cat Free
"We've seen this before!" Tom riposted.
posted to MetaFilter by SPrintF
at 6:39 AM on July 26, 2008
Ask post:
Beyond the Brain Eaters
Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean vs Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides.
The first time I saw Pirates, I was reminded of Tales of the Black Freighter portion of Moore's Watchmen. Among other things, the undersea "walk of the damned" at the end the Black Freighter seemed to prefigure Barbossa's attack on the Dauntless.
posted to Ask Metafilter by SPrintF
at 1:05 PM on July 25, 2008
MeFi post:
Fungi are weird
Which can't help but evoke images of mold covered continents post nuclear exchange. Yikes.
I've seen this movie.
posted to MetaFilter by SPrintF
at 12:37 PM on July 25, 2008
Ask post:
On your bumper and accelerating
Part of the aggression might be due to peer interaction. People see aggressive drivers and instinctively they "join the hunt." I only see tailgating in cities; between cities, drivers seem a lot more careful and courteous.
posted to Ask Metafilter by SPrintF
at 12:46 PM on July 23, 2008
Ask post:
Stories about WWI/WWII home fronts
Japan at War describes all aspects of Japan's experience in the Great Pacific War, including the heartbreaking struggles of the population to support a military machine that is dragging them to hell.
posted to Ask Metafilter by SPrintF
at 12:56 PM on July 21, 2008
MeFi post:
"It was beautiful, kind of like abstract art"
Entropy is in the eye of the beholder, though. The message:
gggggggggggggggggggggggg
might be entirely meaningful, once you understood that it is not a cipher, but a code: g24, that the codebook says is "WE ATTACK AT DAWN".
Similarly, although entropy analysis of the Voynich Manuscript suggests that it is too structured to be a cipher, there are other ways that it could be hiding information. For example, a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SPrintF
at 12:41 PM on July 16, 2008
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Sci-Fi novels on unusual planets
Jack Vance's Big Planet - a world much larger than Earth, but metal poor, so that the surface gravity is near Earth-normal. A very large planet with many cultures that have adapted, in their own peculiar ways, to a poverty of metal.
Iain Banks' The Algebraist is set primarily on / in a Jovian-sized planet. The human narrator, who flits around in an environmental craft, chums around with the Dwellers, an extremely long-lived race. By the end of the novel, Dweller society... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by SPrintF
at 1:50 PM on July 12, 2008
Ask post:
Is Principled-Centered Living all it's cracked up to be?
Covey denigrates "family-centeredness" and "job-centeredness" because these centers can fail. Family members can die or move away. Jobs can end. He promotes "principle-centeredness" because a dedication to "eternal, unchanging principles" can never fail.
What I've found, though, is that many of the principles that I was taught and held fast in my youth are invalid. (I am no longer a racist, a jew-hater or a homophobe, though I was... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by SPrintF
at 1:27 PM on July 12, 2008
Ask post:
Star Wars did a pretty good job at this too...
I thought that Sauron in "Lord of the Rings" was a terrible villain
I disagree. Although Sauron is offstage throughout the story, his presence is everywhere. His will, his spite, his ambition is the engine that drives the entire story.
Sauron is a terrific villain precisely because he is as terrible and malicious as the reader's imagination.
posted to Ask Metafilter by SPrintF
at 11:15 AM on July 5, 2008
Ask post:
Why is my multi-vitamin making me vomit?
Echoing iron. I've found that different formulations of iron can make me ill. I suggest checking the label on your multis and looking for a brand with a different form of iron.
posted to Ask Metafilter by SPrintF
at 12:57 PM on June 30, 2008
