I have brilliant ideas.

So, we (my roommate, my girl and I) went to see A Chorus Line at the theatre yesterday (it was a cute little show - very meta). On our way out afterwards (my roommate drove), the lines leading out of the parking lot were loooong and sloooow, with people trying to force their way into the line so they could get out faster (resulting in no one moving). At one point we watched two cars nearly collide because they were trying to back into the line from opposite sides of the car in front of us, so they couldn't really see each other. (My roommate honked to get their attention.)

Anyway, we're bitching and you can tell that other drivers are bitching at the whole thing. The radio music was boring, so we pop on the soundtrack to Rent.

Then I declared that the most appropriate thing to do in this frustrating situation is to roll down the windows, crank up the volume, and sing at the top of our lungs while dancing wildly in our seats.

So we did.

It was awesome.

1. I'm a TA for a course with four professors. The professors are new to teaching this course and some have little teaching experience. I have TA'd this course once before, and I took it during undergrad, which makes me the veteran. I have no doubt you can imagine your own horrors. While I will note that everything's under control and moving smoothly for the most part, there are times when I want to tear my hair out. (The students have just written their second midterm, some of which I have to mark. I've just read through the midterm. I... am annoyed.)

2. Started playing Dragon Age: Origins as a dwarven noble fighter. So far, the game is pretty neat. I'll have to get used to the play setup as I realized that most of the RPGs I play are Japanese style RPGs (Final Fantasy and the like), so the format is different. Seems to be fairly straightforward though - for simplicity, I've put all my points into Combat Training so I whack with the best of them. :P Also, I have the strategy guide, mostly for making sure I can find all the side quests and also for party relationship stuff. I am amused that there is a (somewhat tricky) way to get a foursome together. I may attempt that on another playthrough. For now, I've decided to chase Leliana whenever she shows up. Romancing a jealous assassin/bard seems like a dandy idea, don't you think?

3. My latest blog post on Genetics Made Complicated ate my brain. Mostly because I had to figure out what all the math means - and then get it down to the essentials so that the reader doesn't have to figure out what all the math means. I probably didn't have to go through all the effort, but I get lost in detail sometimes.

4. LARP tomorrow! I play a eunuch! Whee!

Over at Genetics Made Complicated, I've started a series of posts called "Is Race Genetic?" Part I is here and the index post for the series is here

A new post at Genetics Made Complicated:

Genomes Go Public

That should be the last of the spam for this week. :P

I'm trying to keep a decent update schedule, and this one is a mite time sensitive, so here's the latest post on Genetics Made Complicated:

"Gay Genes" Aren't Enough

I've launched a new blog called Genetics Made Complicated, in which I talk about genetics, biology, and its intersection with society and philosophy.

Come tell me why I'm wrong! :D

I'm experimenting with a free program called Mendeley. It's intended for academics and is essentially a digital library where you load up your pdfs and it'll scan for authors, journals, blah blah blah and generate citations. You can also open up the PDFs, highlight stuff, make annotations, create tags, search through ALL your papers/tags, sort papers into collections etc. There's also an online component where you can share your collection like a reading list or make a shared collection with a limited number of participants so you can see each others' annotations/notes.

Then it occurred to me that I can upload my RPG PDFs into it.

I'm not sure how useful this will be. It means that I can take notes on my PDFs and highlight text, and when you consider that many of the PDFs I have are meant for research rather than play (unless they're short enough that I can print 'em and not feel like I may as well have bought the book), that's pretty good. If I want to, I can export the PDF with my notations and send if off to someone else. Maybe I want to give feedback about the text? It does help me organize my RPGs into a handy interface and tags are always nice. Currently the program is in beta, so some functionality isn't there - advanced search might be nice. I'd like to be able to sort the notes that I make. (They appear in a side bar, so you can jump straight to the page with the note by clicking the note. I like this.)

I've got it open now, mucking about with scientific papers, but my RPG folder is lookin' at me....

This appeals to my science-geeky side.

There was recently a paper published in Nature Physics about a new revolution in the way we think about Darwinian evolution which has received some criticism. Apparently, physicists talking about the next revolution in evolutionary thought occurs often enough that some people wrote a paper on it (free PDF).

Sometimes, I love my field.

Gaming again gets me thinking about Haunting. Here's the newest economy setup.

Note: I'm using placeholder names for resource stuff. They are mostly historical terms (ie: terms I've used in the past) and are also, in their new form, really wrong. I'll change 'em later.

The two resources are Chains and Memories. Chains + Memories can never be more than 10. (Or some other arbitrary number.)

You walk into game with 10 Chains. Chains are effectively XP for other players. You can attach a Chain to another player's Goad (Thingum Which Represents Something) by making something up about the Goad and if they accept it. These Chains do not count towards their Chains + Memory = 10 thing. That's XP for later.

Memories are Power Points. You get Memories by escalating relationships. You use Memories to use your powers (whatever the hell they are). Powers always work but they also always cost. You pay the cost of the power to the victim of the power - that means they get Memory when a power is used on them.

If a person's Chains + Memories = 10 and they get more Memory due to having a power used on them or if they escalate a relationship, then the excess Memory converts Memory into Chain. Like so:

Bob has 7 Chain and 3 Memory. I hit him with Power X, which costs me 2 Memory. I hand him 2 Memory... but he can't accept Memory because he's got 10 Stuff. There is an excess of 2, so he converts 2 Memory to Chain, giving him 9 Chain and 1 Memory.

(One advantage to leveling up Goads is to adjust things like the Chain:Memory balance you start with when you walk into game and that sort of thing.)

Scene tags still exist and right now muck about with the number of Memory/Chain you can get, can give, that sort of thing. In essence, call 'em in, get more resource to throw to someone else.

So, this system encourages:
- adding to other people's fiction (need to get rid of Chain to make room for Memory)
- accepting when other people add to your fiction (XP!)
- using your powers on other people (use up Memory so that it doesn't get converted to Chain)
- incorporating scene tags (free resources)

That said, this feels clever. I need someone to help me kick the shit out of it. Oh, and powers. I need powers. *headdesk*

Went to the Hunter game last night. It had some cool scenes, which I shall now share because ( I like talking about my character. )

1. Most important announcement thus far: I haz the Mouse Guard RPG. \o/

2. Got talked into acting in a LARP last night. My girl and I are playing emissaries sent to the group to see if they are, as we have been told, willing to submit to our lord's rule in order to destroy the infestation of demons and the demon-tainted mortals that are plaguing the world. We feel out the characters and at the end ask for a show of hands - it's mixed. We're on our way out, ("Now we know. Thank you for your time.") when the following happens:

Theophilus (PC): Wait! How do we know you're who you say you are?
Me (thinking "It's a little late now, isn't it?"): *laugh* Come with us! We'll go meet Divus (our lord) together.
[My girl poses with arm outstretched, beckoning to Theophilus (we couldn't have planned that better!)]
Theophilus: *backs up nervously* I... don't know if I would be walking into a trap.
Me: *laughs again and leaves*
My girl: Either you have faith, or you have none.

(Her parting words have much more impact in the context of the night and the themes of the game.)

It was cool.

3. I'm not prepped for my demo game today! Why am I on LJ?!

Pure Spec is on tomorrow and Sunday. Tomorrow, I'm running short demos of Cog Wars, Don't Rest Your Head, Spirit of the Century and Dogs in the Vineyard. Because my printer ink has crapped out, I'm not sure if I have enough char sheets. Then again, I don't know what kind of traffic I'll see. If I were in the lobby, I think I'd be more worried - but I'm in the Main Hall and I suspect that people coming in may taper off after a while since games aren't especially staggered.

Sunday, I run a game of Cog Wars.

I really need to read through the rules again. And get more ink.

Even though I'm running fewer sessions, this may kill me like last year.

I'm sick. Again. This is bloody infuriating. Why is my immune system so screwed up?!

Well, this weekend was a cock-up. That might be why. (There was familial drama and hospitalization - separate incidents and wasn't me in the hospital, fyi. And no, I don't want to get into it.)

Guh. I don't have time for this nonsense.

Back from conferencing.

Best conference EVAR. I talked with people. Like, important, dean of the faculty of law type people. They were nice. And smart.

Too tired to really give details but my brain is now full of cool.

I don't usually do this, but Norman Borlaug, the guy who could be called the Father of the Green Revolution, died a few days ago.

If it wasn't for him and his work, we wouldn't be having as many debates as we are about ethical ways to grow food, monocultures, biotech in agriculture, etc. We'd be talking about starvation.

This made me snorfle.

Conferencing in a few days.

To-do list:

- Get new notebook for taking notes and stuff
- Recheck business card design (I'm there to network and if I have business cards, I might actually do it) and print out some cards.
- Go snack shopping for the rides there and back

Bloody hell, I'm terrified. This is ridiculous.

1. Got to play a paragon level encounter last night in D&D 4e. The Warhammer game fell through due to lack of players so we went on a quest for adventure to the mall, picked up Dungeon Delve, threw together characters (the character builder is sweeeeet) and whapped some undead. There was a Goliath Warden, a Halfling Barbarian (me! and I loves it so) and a Half-Elf Bard. I screwed up the monsters a bit (we didn't have a GM and sort of passed the book around though I played the monsters, mostly) but given that we'd forgotten to scale back the encounter to account for less than 5 players, it worked out. Worked out quite well, in fact. The halfling barbarian worked like a charm (starting off with a bang by launching herself off the shoulders of the goliath to land on the other side of a flaming zombie and flank) and the howling and yelling and raging were great fun. The goliath warden soaked up piles of damage, and the bard was throwing around all sorts of temp hit points and other random goodies. Wacky fun.

Of course, now I really want to play in an Eberron campaign with a halfling barbarian and a raptor mount. *sigh*

2. Hey, Levi. Remember that game I couldn't remember the name of? It's called Agora and it's being worked on by Josh Roby.

This is why I bought a PS3.

Had a meeting with my supervisor. I came off as a gibbering idiot, but she poked me with a sharp stick until I was coherent again.

Data that I have looks good. Signs point to having a reference genes which will be usable (thank god) soonish. I have hope again (and am quietly waiting for it to be dashed).

Will likely be going to a 5th International DNA Sampling Conference called the Age of Personalized Genomics, which focuses on "the ethical, legal and social controversies that characterize the rapidly developing field of personalized genomics." This sounds like the coolest conference EVAR. Check out the titles of the talks in the concurrent session I want to go to (damn concurrent sessions - I wants more talks!):

- Race, Risk and Odds Ratios: the Relevance of Personal Genomics for the Non-European - Sandra Soo-Jin Lee
- The Persistence of Race in Biotech Patenting and Drug Development - Jonathan Kahn
- Human gene patents and genetic testing in the UK: results of an empirical study - Naomi Hawkins
-Promoting and Subverting Control: The Double-edged Effect of Personalized Genomics - Robin Pierce

Squee! Here's hoping I can get organized enough to get down there.