As a follow up to my post involving hilariously random unicorn videos and the submission of my graduate school application, I bring you these updates:

• I received a letter yesterday with this information: "Greetings from the Information School! I'm pleased to inform you that the MLIS Admissions Committee has decided to recommend you for admission to the distance Master of Library and Information Science program for autumn 2007."
• Apparently, unicorns can go on other types of magical adventures with not-so-sugary goodness. Is it also land of sweets and joy and joyness? Watch the video below (but be warned of the prevalence of the f-bomb and themes not suitable for naive and/or innocent children).

Unicorn Fantasy

(Via StumbleVideo on the Nintendo Wii.)

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Dragon Coffee Table

In dOrange, we're nearing the end of my third homebrew tabletop roleplaying campaign and it's gotten me to thinking about what sorts of things I've learned throughout the process. Looking back over the course of two years, I've definitely level-busted as a game master (and to a lesser degree as a player, since I've had less opportunity for that).

Certainly, there's a lot of things I've learned that I could riff on, but if I had to pick only a single concept, it would be this:

A big part of this is communicating the expectations of everyone who participates in the game (whether player or GM). If one player wanted a game with lots of crunchy, complicated combats but they end up with a game of political intrigue and conversation, it's up to that player to be honest with the rest of the group about their unsatisfied expectations. Otherwise, how else are the rest of the players and the game master supposed to know? (Ruling out things like telepathy, as per the spell.)

Communication also dovetails nicely into one of my game mastering pet peeves: honestly communicating the ability to commit to any particular campaign. Unless a player says otherwise, I believe most good game masters will assume everyone is as committed to a campaign as they are. They probably will spend a great deal of time and creative effort trying to find ways to excite and engage each player (at least insofar as they understand each player's expectations). Therefore, they are at least a little put out when it turns out that all this work for a player is for naught because either:

• the player ignores the efforts of the GM on their behalf, or
• doesn't show up at all (with little or no advance notice to the GM).

I've waxed on long enough for now, but this is certainly a topic worth revisiting. With all the gaming seriousness done, how about a little gaming silliness? A D&D Fan Film finalist awaits!

D&D Fan Film Contest: Finalist A

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Yet another hilarious clip by those clever JibJab folks, this time satirizing "what we call the news". This one is near and dear to my heart, since I have a soft spot for anything that pokes fun of what passes for journalism in this day and age. (If you're new to JibJab, make sure you've checked out their "Big Box Mart" clip as well their other originals.)

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Eragon

The troops were gathered last night (the Pants, Ernie, Anthony, L and myself) to march on the local $2 theater to see an abysmal movie adapted from an even more abysmal book, or in short, Eragon.

Not that we have anything against dragons or dragon movies. (Quite the contrary, actually. Just ask the Pants for her opinion of Reign of Fire, if you don't believe me.) No, what we took issue with was a teenage boy becoming a bestselling sensation by blatantly cribbing The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars and then turning that trash into multi-million dollar movie. I can only fathom that the books and movie have done as well as they have because they are purely the product of a pubescent boy's wet dream of having power and respect without having to earn it. Either that, or a Faustian bargain with El Diablo himself.

The movie was predictably bad and not even a particularly memorable mashup of LotR and SW. Saphira (a terribly original name for a blue dragon, I must admit) was very striking on screen (and darn cute as a baby), but it was sad to see her play the part of a whiny teenage boy's bitch. (Speaking of adolescence, what was up with her rapid growth spurt? I guess there was no time in the film to spend making us actually want to care for these characters.) I also enjoyed Emo Kid, as he was the one interesting human character, which must've been the reason they decided not to do much with his character?

I am hoping beyond hope that a movie adaptation of Temeraire will redeem the dragon film genre, as I love those series of novels. If there is any justice left in the world, Peter Jackson will do for that series what he did for Lord of the Rings. In the meantime, there's not much to do but continue pissing on the sad, sad pile of Eragon until it fades into obscurity (where it should have remained in the first place).

(Please note, the title of this post is not intended to be offensive to those of a homosexual orientation. It merely is intended to capture the homo-erotic undercurrents that seemed to suffuse the entire film.)

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Charlie The Unicorn

Come with us, Charlie. We're going on an adventure, Charlie. It's a land of sweets and joy and joyness.

(Via "Are libraries "Mainstream"? by John Blyberg.)

In other news, I just submitted my application for the distance Master's of Library and Information Science through the Information School at the University of Washington. Will it turn out to be a magical adventure of sugary goodness? Only time will tell.

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Snack Culture

What are your three favorite snacks?
Submitted by Sunscreem.

Here are my three of my favorite snacks, of the non-edible variety. (Even though we all know that Everything is Edible.)

• WarioWare: Twisted! for the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS. Topsy-turvy fun on my handheld system doesn't get any more crazy delicious than this.
• StumbleVideo for the Opera Internet Browser on the Nintendo Wii. Who needs cable television when L and I can "surf" the best of YouTube and Google Video from our couch?
  
• Lazy Sunday on Saturday Night Live. It's an old favorite clip that I recently revisited. I don't take 15-minute "breaks" at work anymore, instead I take 15-minute "snack attacks, mother fucker!"

As a bonus, I really enjoyed Wired's cover feature this month: Snack Attack!

Movies, TV, songs, games. Pop culture now comes packaged like cookies or chips, in bite-size bits for high-speed munching. It's instant entertainment - and boy, is it tasty.

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They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard

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What We Are

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Blood and Chocolate

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Harry Potter and the Chamberpot of Azerbaijan

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