Dave Thomas of The Pragmatic Programmers on Writing

Dave Thomas, one of the guys behind The Pragmatic Programmers has a series of blog posts on Writing a Book. Given that he's a techie (like me) who has written a book or two himself (like I want to), and the books these guys publish are without a doubt some of the best in their class - so it seems to make sense to check these out.

The perfect bacon sandwich

Apparently British scientists from Leeds University have found the formula for the perfect bacon sandwich:

The formula is: N = C + (fb (cm) . fb (tc))+ fb (Ts) + fc . ta, where N=force in Newtons required to break the cooked bacon, fb=function of the bacon type, fc=function of the condiment/filling effect, Ts=serving temperature, tc=cooking time, ta=time or duration of application of condiment/filling, cm=cooking method, C=Newtons required to break uncooked bacon.

It's funny what some people do for a living. I guess these university researches will be in high demand with fast food giants.

NCIS: Homage to Gibbs

I missed my favourite TV show this week (hint: NCIS) but found this fun homage to Gibbs at YouTube:

300: The Movie

I discovered a great action movie coming out this year, based upon the Frank Miller comic of the same name, which is a mythic re-telling of the actions of Leonidas king of Sparta and his 300 strong bodyguard at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC.

Gerard Butler, who stars as King Leonidas, states, “It’s almost like somebody who was there and witnessed the battle went to sleep and dreamed the whole thing again because a lot of it is very representational … a lot of it exists in the imagination, so it allows us to take it so much further. It’s an incredible story, which has been an inspiration to so many people throughout history, but it’s not a documentary. It is a fantastic story full of passion and politics and brutality and so many more things, existing in this hyper-real, beautiful, emotional world.”

It does seem to have lots of gore and a bit of sex, but reports so far seem to indicate that the highly stylised nature of the action scenes makes it acceptable. It always stood out as one of the more interesting moments in history when I was at school - it was the first example I saw of men defining heroism by what they tried to do, rather than what they actually achieved.

Watch the trailer for yourself:

Seeing the style of the art for the movie reminded me of another great poster which Chris Achilleos created for another take on the Battle of Thermopylae:

“Madness? This is Sparta!”

Michael Crichton - State of Fear

Michael Crichton's latest book deals with the hype of global warming and mines it for an interesting storyline. Care of HarperCollins, here is a preview of the novel:

Tomb of Horrors: Revisited

The Tomb of Horrors is a venerable old lady of adventure modules, the grande dame of horror-themed 'no one gets out alive' adventures, as Wikipedia puts it:

The Tomb of Horrors is infamous among players of the game as a "killer dungeon," filled with all manner of extremely deadly traps and monsters that are capable of easily wiping out high-level parties of player characters. Indeed, some players consider Tomb of Horrors to be "unfair"; many of the traps within largely ignore game mechanics and story logic in their operation.

I got to delve into this pit of dead PCs with my gaming buddies this weekend. We were playing good old 'Advanced" Dungeons and Dragons, the ruleset that was for so long king of the castle, until it was toppled by the (now) ever-present d20 System that lies behind D&D 3rd Edition (or '3e' for short).


Personally the weird mix of Egyptian-themed tomb that should not be opened and typical AD&D dungeon crawl makes this a deliciously scary adventure to play. Getting to do it with my suitably paranoid gaming group made it all the more fun - especially as two of us had read the module at some point (>2 years ago).


It helped that we had player characters that were at the upper end of the recommended level range (14) and in fact far beyond the 'typical' strength of such characters (too many late nights playing find-the-artifact or other examples of extreme-adventuring. We've survived the first level through judicious use of Limited Wish, some well applied thieving skills and disposable gargoyles (thanks to a Ring of Gargoyles). Now I'm really looking forward to getting back into it and cleaning up the next level!

Roleplaying Groups/Cons in Sydney

To clear up my browser tabs here is a brief list of some of the roleplaying conventions and groups in Sydney, Australia:

SydCon
Only con I ever roleplayed at, won an award ...

MacquarieCon
Good con, great location, had fun wargaming ...

UNSW Gameplayers
I used to belong to these guys when I was at uni ...



RPGA Asia-Pacific
The 'official' roleplayers group - IMO does not carry much weight compared to local groups ...

GenCon Oz
Not due to happen until 2008 - but if it is as big as the North American one, then it will be HUGE!!!

Necronomicon
I've only ever played CCGs at this event, was good fun though ...