Natebot
Dude, You're Getting a Natebot!

This marks day 5 without DSL to my apartment. I mean you can buy water, food and candles but what happens when your internet connection fails?! E N D D A Y S.

Ok maybe it's not that bad. So i got to explore Seattle a bit more over the weekend (last weekend was spent playing Halo for 12 hours straight.) The REI store here is really over the top. It is surrounded by a woods with a waterfall and is simply huge inside.

Sunday I had the best clam chowder ever made - ironically enough East Coast style chowder.

In my role as uber-convention lacky for the company I will be flying out to Spiel Essen the world's largets Gaming convention in October. While Gen Con Indy is large with 30,000 attendies or so, it pales in scope so I am told to the 100,000 - 250,000 attendies of the german convention.

Far from just sci-fi and fantasy miniatures, RPG, and CCG, just about every kind of game is represented at Spiel Essen, or Essen Spiel or whatever its official title is. So from Ravensburger kids games with their big primary colored blocks to hard-core WWII tactical simulation boardgames with their inscrutable counters, all are represented there. Why Germany? Because the Germans are serious about their games - it's a nation past-time, and a passionate one at that. Kinda like watching TV or eating buffet is here.

For those that don't know their Kartenspiel from their Kartoffelsalat, here is a nice German game FAQ that is only a little outdated. Basically most interesting board games, and 'family strategy' games in the market, or on my game table, have come from german designers and puts to shame the crap that Hasbro puts out. And for those that haven't been paying attention Hasbro owns Parker Brothers, Avalon Hill, Milton Bradley, Tonka, Playschool, etc etc. More is less when it comes to being innovative in game design I guess. Does Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly still make money for them? Or will they go the way of Sorry!? It is hard for the goliath's games to contend with the innovative slings of fortunate independent designers.

You know I don't even know what that last sentence even means.

But to wrap up, I am flying off to Germany for a week in October. So I am renewing my passport and brushing up on my language skills. Which is to say i am learning the stuff for the first time, since I only passed my language requirements in college by the kind hearts of my instructors. As far as the foreign language center of my brain: Jener Hund jagt nicht. That dog don't hunt.

You do read Cat and Girl don't you? Smart alt comics like this will never see the light of day in newspapers, just another reason to put a nail in the coffin of those ink-soaked fire-starters.

Sometimes it's bleakly insightful , sometimes witty , or wittier or just silly. If you wonder that makes this art so great, maybe it's because it's limited to a few panels.

It's a girl! Congrats to Mr and Ms Doctor Rotwang! on the birth of their girl Lily Grace come early as of August 30th. There is far worse things than being born to the world's greatest geeks. or whatever. Seriously though, I just see El Macho reading her a bed 'time story' from Gurps 4th edition, or maybe some Conan...and what kind of parent get's their infant a Nyarlethotep plush doll?

What is your favorite Natedroid doing this fine America weekend?

Well let's see, here's a run down possibilities:
1. Sleeping. Sometime over-rated but often over-looked past time of carbon-based life forms.
2. Drink myself into a stupor. Sometimes an over-looked...ah you know that.
3. Fill sand-bags for Frances.
4. Rock out to the Pixies at Bumbershoot.

If you picked "5. Writing PHP code", then you are the lucky winner*! What would you expect from a 'bot though? Am I the only one that finds writing code a relaxing fun past-time? But Monday there is a very nice line up of Toots and the Maytals, Bebel Gilberto, Galactic, the Pixies, as well as a few in my 'meh' category: Built to Spill,The Marley Brothers,Nick Lowe (although a Brit doing country-western does give me a certain twisted satisfaction.) at Bumbershoot held at the Seattle Center.

I guess maybe I should venture out at least once this wknd for some music goodness - but I only hope is pisses rain like a tomcat so it will wash the crowds away first. Unlikely though as the weather is so far so sweet. Maybe I'll avoid the fair weather and crowds and find a dirty indy theatre that is risking a showing of Jim Jarmusch's "caffeine and cigarettes".

Oh and if you watched I,Robot (pron. "row-butt") and it made you a bit anxious that we are creating superior replacements more social than Harvey Pekar, don't worry, your machine overlords will watch over you with loving grace.

*Canadian winners please mail in the result of this feat of skill: 200x3+22x3