I've been looking for a domain name to buy, but wasn't really having much luck. You know how it goes: sudden flash of inspiration, check the registry, and it's taken already. Frustrating, isn't it?
LifeHacker recently reported on a new domain registry service, Bust-A-Name. You give it a list of words and it combines them, returning a list of available domain names which you can then purchase through one of their affiliates. I went with 1&1 because it's the cheapest and I've heard good things about them.
I'm now the owner of arcanotech.com. Now to get the site up and running...
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
How to find your future
I've been doing some introspecting lately. I'm at that point in my life where I'm starting to wonder if I'm on the right track. I'm a creative writing major at the moment, but it's not something I want to make a living out of.
So what to do when you don't know where to take your life?
There are a couple of things I've found that can help you find some direction.
Seek Counsel
The first thing I did was make an appointment with my university's Career Services office. Career Services departments usually have counselors on hand for just such an occupational identity crisis, and having someone to discuss things with can really help clarify the situation as well.
Another thing Career Services is good for is the Strong Interest Inventory, which measures not only your interests, but your personality and learning styles as well. It's helpful to go over the results with a counselor because A) they know what resources are available; and B) they can advise you on how to best utilize them according to your results.
If you're not enrolled in a university, most state Department of Labor offices will offer similar services.
Look Within
Steve Pavlina has a pretty good article about finding your purpose on his blog. In my experience, his method works very well. Just expect to be surprised at what you find out about yourself.
Once armed with this knowledge, you'll be better prepared when meeting with that Career Services counselor, and you'll likely find that you have more energy when you're working towards your purpose.
So what to do when you don't know where to take your life?
There are a couple of things I've found that can help you find some direction.
Seek Counsel
The first thing I did was make an appointment with my university's Career Services office. Career Services departments usually have counselors on hand for just such an occupational identity crisis, and having someone to discuss things with can really help clarify the situation as well.
Another thing Career Services is good for is the Strong Interest Inventory, which measures not only your interests, but your personality and learning styles as well. It's helpful to go over the results with a counselor because A) they know what resources are available; and B) they can advise you on how to best utilize them according to your results.
If you're not enrolled in a university, most state Department of Labor offices will offer similar services.
Look Within
Steve Pavlina has a pretty good article about finding your purpose on his blog. In my experience, his method works very well. Just expect to be surprised at what you find out about yourself.
Once armed with this knowledge, you'll be better prepared when meeting with that Career Services counselor, and you'll likely find that you have more energy when you're working towards your purpose.
Monday, July 2, 2007
How to Never Feel Tired Again
Lifehack.org links to an interesting article from WebMD about keeping your energy levels from taking a swan dive off the Empire State Building. (Or even just stumbling over the dog.) Worth a look.
Friday, June 29, 2007
When Crazy Fundies Attack
This is an outrage! Stupid fundies think they can ignore the First Amendment. A candidate's religion is her own business, and should be irrelevant to the political arena.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Game Review: InSpectres
My gaming group has some dead time coming up, as our current campaign draws to a close and the next GM in line is out of town. That leaves us with 2 or 3 empty weeks - plenty of time for a game of InSpectres.
My first experience running InSpectres was a little over a year ago. I'd never GMed before, and none of us were familiar with the rules. Thankfully, InSpectres is really easy to pick up, and even easier to GM.
The game's premise is essentially Ghostbusters. The party is a group of paranormal investigators for hire. The starter rules are only 3 pages, covering character creation, game flow, and the core check mechanic.
Each character has 4 base stats: Academics, Athletics, Technology, and Contact. In addition, each character also has a Talent, a special ability that grants them a bonus on checks under certain circumstances. This can be pretty much anything - subject to the GM's approval, of course. For example, my character had the Occultist talent, which granted an extra die to my check rolls having to do with the Occult: this included casting spells and identifying entities (say that three times fast).
In stressful situations, the GM can call for a Stress check. If you fail, you take penalties to your stats. These can be repaired by spending Franchise dice at the end of each job, on a one-to-one basis.
Franchise dice are the currency of InSpectres, and are used to upgrade the party's equipment. Each job has a dice rating, and the job isn't over until the party earns that many Franchise dice during the job. Players earn Franchise dice by rolling 5 or 6 on check rolls - except Stress checks. A 6 there lets you repair stat penalties from earlier Stress checks, or gives you a Cool point, which is essentially a point of immunity from stat penalties. Cool points can be used for other things, much like Action Points in D20 Modern or Eberron.
One last thing: the Confessional. Once per scene, a player may "step into the Confessional" to narrate something about the scene. For example, say the party is sneaking up on a ghost they've never seen before, and one player decides to use the Confessional: "What we didn't realize at the time was that this particular ghost had humongous ears. We must've sounded like a herd of elephants to it." The mechanism is a fun way to add twists to the scene, or add detail to a character, or just about anything else. "It turns out that we weren't chasing a ghost, but a baby albino elephant the zoo had lost in transit that morning."
The system is simple to get the hang of, and doesn't need much preparation time. The Ghostbusters genre is zany and random, so if you play with a group like mine, it'll probably almost run itself.
My first experience running InSpectres was a little over a year ago. I'd never GMed before, and none of us were familiar with the rules. Thankfully, InSpectres is really easy to pick up, and even easier to GM.
The game's premise is essentially Ghostbusters. The party is a group of paranormal investigators for hire. The starter rules are only 3 pages, covering character creation, game flow, and the core check mechanic.
Each character has 4 base stats: Academics, Athletics, Technology, and Contact. In addition, each character also has a Talent, a special ability that grants them a bonus on checks under certain circumstances. This can be pretty much anything - subject to the GM's approval, of course. For example, my character had the Occultist talent, which granted an extra die to my check rolls having to do with the Occult: this included casting spells and identifying entities (say that three times fast).
In stressful situations, the GM can call for a Stress check. If you fail, you take penalties to your stats. These can be repaired by spending Franchise dice at the end of each job, on a one-to-one basis.
Franchise dice are the currency of InSpectres, and are used to upgrade the party's equipment. Each job has a dice rating, and the job isn't over until the party earns that many Franchise dice during the job. Players earn Franchise dice by rolling 5 or 6 on check rolls - except Stress checks. A 6 there lets you repair stat penalties from earlier Stress checks, or gives you a Cool point, which is essentially a point of immunity from stat penalties. Cool points can be used for other things, much like Action Points in D20 Modern or Eberron.
One last thing: the Confessional. Once per scene, a player may "step into the Confessional" to narrate something about the scene. For example, say the party is sneaking up on a ghost they've never seen before, and one player decides to use the Confessional: "What we didn't realize at the time was that this particular ghost had humongous ears. We must've sounded like a herd of elephants to it." The mechanism is a fun way to add twists to the scene, or add detail to a character, or just about anything else. "It turns out that we weren't chasing a ghost, but a baby albino elephant the zoo had lost in transit that morning."
The system is simple to get the hang of, and doesn't need much preparation time. The Ghostbusters genre is zany and random, so if you play with a group like mine, it'll probably almost run itself.
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