I don't know how everybody else is faring now that Obama has chosen Joe Biden for his running mate...You've no doubt heard about Biden's Pro-RIAA, pro-FBI voting record. Still, we can hope that all this talk about the "little guy" will somehow pertain to people besides Jack Valenti, who is surely not all that downtrodden (really). Being disgruntled (and wondering if anyone has ever been just gruntled?), I checked out some of the fringe action and found some interesting stuff.

Just read that some 100 odd college and university presidents are calling for a reduction of the drinking age to 18. They seem to think that'll cut back on drinking, since there will no longer be a need to binge when the coast is clear. However, MADD is, uh, not happy about it, and has accused these presidents of not doing their homework.

PC Magazine has published a list of 12 Tools for students who want to stay organized this semester. The list includes the usual suspects (RateMyProfessors, Facebook), but there are some here that I hadn't heard of before, such as MyPunchBowl, Mint, and TheDailyPlate. There are also some citation and bib tools here, though I think Word's new built-in bib tools pretty much render them superfluous.

I was browsing the template library of Office 2007 today when I came across an interesting "academic" letter template: "Complaint about Teacher." The letter is probably what you could expect from a parent whose kiddo isn't making the A's she rightfully deserves. Here's a few snippets from it:

Do you love words? Of course you do, you're an English teacher! :) Well, anyway, I found Wordie today, a social network all about words:

Wordie lets you make lists of words and phrases. Words you love, words you hate, words on a given topic, whatever. Lists are visible to everyone but can be added to by just you, a group of friends, or anyone, as you wish.

Then, if you're feeling social, join the discussion. Wordies are friendly! Add citations and comments to words and lists. See who else has listed the same words.

In imitation of some dude I saw on a YouTube of an SNL skit, I have decided to take the headlines from Google News and offer my own commentary.

San Francisco Shortens Torch Relay
Mr. San Francisco just doesn't get the Olympics. I mean, first shorten the torch relay, next do away with the human sacrifice. Where's a laurel wreath? Isn't this just a case of the monk wagging Zedong?

General challenged to justify Iraq deployment

Is it just me, or has Facebook suddenly got more popular than subway? I'm noticing that many of my RL friends and colleagues are now finally getting on the facebook, and I'm wondering what made them finally do it.

One thing may be that they've added some kind of "do you know these peeps" tool. I'm guessing it's based on the six degrees concept; if three of the people in your network have this other person in their network, there's a good chance you know them, too. At any rate, I think I've about quintupled my friend list in the past week or so (91, but who's counting?)

Well, finally back from 4C's and all that jazz (literally). I have to admit, I think this is probably my favorite experience at 4C's. New Orleans is an awesome place, and I'm sad that I didn't visit it more when I was actually living in Louisiana. Guess I know now what all the fuss was about.

I'm not sure if many people here are aware of this, so I thought I'd go ahead and post it at the risk of looking like a shameless self-publicist: Dungeons and Desktops is now available from Amazon (and directly from AK Peters). This is my first single-authored book, and hopefully it won't be my last. :)

Here's the blurb from the publisher:
Computer role-playing games (CRPGs) are a special genre of computer games that bring the tabletop role-playing experience of games such as Dungeons & Dragons to the computer screen. This genre includes classics such as Ultima and The Bard's Tale as well as more modern games such as World of Warcraft and Guild Wars.

Written in an engaging style for both the computer game enthusiast and the more casual computer game player, this book explores the history of the genre by telling the stories of the developers, games, and gamers who created it.

I'm part of the gaming sig that's meeting on Tuesday night (not the "serious games" one meeting the night after). I've been talking to my colleagues, Scott Reed and Wendi Jewell about the possibilities. I'm in favor of trying to get some actual games up for people to play; Scott has volunteered his Wii for the SIG, and I think that'll be lots of fun. Of course, you've probably heard that internet access will probably be lacking at the C's this year, so I'm not sure if it'll be possible to show WOW or Second Life except as boring PowerPoint slides.