Time for a little spring cleaning! I straightened out the office this weekend and it’s looking sharp. It might even stay that way for a day or two! But I’ve also decided to clean out the attic a bit, and that means…eBay!

Yes, originally to finance come computer upgrades that I’ve decided not to bother with, I’m unloading some stuff on eBay. On the chopping block are some game books, some trade paperbacks, some games, and plenty toys.

My stuff is listed here but I’m going to be adding stuff in gradually. So far I just entered the things I don’t have to take photos of to sell. Also, it’s been too damn hot to spend too much time in the attic, so I’m bringing stuff down in waves.

I hate eBaying, actually. It’s a huge pain in the butt. To help alleviate it I finally gave in and got a PayPal account, which I hope I won’t regret. But do like simultaneously getting cash and getting rid of stuff, so there you go.

Anyway, if you’re a fan of auctions and think I might have stuff you want, keep checking the listing. And wish me luck!

Quit responding to the Swift Boat crap. Any thinking person with half a brain knows that they’re just a bunch of liars, funded by another group of liars. You’re demeaning yourself and the campaign by playing this stupid game with them. Anyone who is honestly being convinced by them has already made up their mind, so don’t waste time on them.

They’re trying to distract you, make you sit there and talk about foolishness instead of current, important issues. The reason is obvious: because Bush has a big fat ZERO when it comes to those issues. Bush is coming up empty on the economy, jobs, the war on terror, North Korea, the environment, nothing. He’s got no plan for the future. He’s been steeped in lies, corruption, and cronyism since practically day one of his campaign.

This is turning into 2000 all over again, Senator. The tragedy in 2000 wasn’t the disaster that took place in Florida, it was that Gore gave away enough of the campaign to allow Florida to even make a difference.

Do not let the losers in the Bush campaign make you waste valuable time talking about events that are three decades in the past. Right now, every time you open your mouth, you need to be talking about the issues that Bush is too scared to talk about. Put him on the defensive. Talk about his disastrous economic plan. Wonder aloud how frequent vague terror alerts are showing that he’s succeeding in that arena. Ask him point blank what he plans to do about North Korea or Iran and their interest in nuclear weapons. Let people realize that they have heard nothing out of Bush’s mouth about what he plans to do with four more years.

I am depending on you to help us avoid another four years of this arrogant bastard. Do NOT let me down.

It seems as though I’ve got six, count ‘em, six GMail invites in my hand. Now, I’ve been using Gmail for about two months now, and I can’t say I’m overly crazy about it. At best it’s comparable to Yahoo, and at worst it’s annoying in a sort of “Don’t use your email the way you want to, use it the way we’ve decided you want to!” way.

Ne’ertheless, I’ve got these invites, and I know some people out there are hot to get one. If you’re one of those people, let me know. Otherwise I’m donating them to GMail4Troops.

I created a flyer for the RPG I’m planning to run, to be posted at my game/comic store, Modern Myths.

Progressives everywhere should read this interview with linguistics professor George Lakoff. If you don’t know why progressives need to listen to a linguistics professor, you need to read the interview twice.

You’ve said that progressives should never use the phrase “war on terror” — why?

There are two reasons for that. Let’s start with “terror.” Terror is a general state, and it’s internal to a person. Terror is not the person we’re fighting, the “terrorist.” The word terror activates your fear, and fear activates the strict father model, which is what conservatives want. The “war on terror” is not about stopping you from being afraid, it’s about making you afraid.

Next, “war.” How many terrorists are there — hundreds? Sure. Thousands? Maybe. Tens of thousands? Probably not. The point is, terrorists are actual people, and relatively small numbers of individuals, considering the size of our country and other countries. It’s not a nation-state problem. War is a nation-state problem.

What about the “war on drugs” or the “war on poverty”?

Those are metaphorical. Real wars are wars against countries, and in the “war on terror,” we are attacking countries. But those countries are not the same as the terrorists. We’re acting at the wrong level. Meanwhile, by using this frame, we get a commander in chief, as the Republicans keep referring to Bush — a “war president” with “war powers,” which imply that ordinary protections don’t have to be observed. A “war president” has extraordinary powers. And the “war on terror,” of course, never ends. There’s no peace treaty with terror. It’s a prescription for keeping conservatives in power indefinitely. In three words — “war on terror” — they’ve enacted vast political changes.

Here is the whole article.

But you’re gonna hear other people say it too.

Scott Pilgrim has officially rocked my world.

YOU GO BUY NOW

“Out on the road today, I saw a Hal Jordan sticker on a Cadillac”
– Don Henley

The word echoes throughout the halls of geekdom. Sometimes in hushed whispers, sometimes in shouted accusations. It’s always aimed at someone else, unless it’s employed in hip, ironic, self-depreciation. The word, of course, is “fanboy”.

But what is a fanboy? What does it mean to call someone (or, more often, a group of people) “fanboys”? I’ve noticed that it usually is used to denigrate a group of fans as being far more geeky than you are. For example, although you buy the new Gigaman Ultra comic book and post about it on a weblog, only the fanboys are concerned that there are some continuity problems in it. It often seems to come into play when trying to show how the kettle is actually slightly blacker than you, the pot, are.

But that’s not completely true. It’s certainly not all of the story. Obviously it’s an insult, or at least used as one, but that doesn’t really say what it means. People use the word “fan” all the time in a non-ironic manner. A fan is simply someone who appreciates someone or something, simple as that. Obviously it’s the “boy” part that provides the twist. A “fanboy,” given this context then, obviously is someone who’s crossed some line. Someone who’s left the world of the mere “fan” and become something darker. But what?

There’s nothing new about geek-on-geek violence. Long before I was chided for being a Magic player by someone holding two armloads of Warhammer miniatures, “Trekkers” were desperately trying to distance themselves from “Trekkies,” a distinction nobody except them seemed to be able to make. Which underscores the irony of it: as far as most people are concerned, you’re both a couple of freaks. Fighting over who’s freakier is like trying to decide which of these two pygmies is taller.

But I’m not here to condone or condemn use of the word. I don’t much care, to be honest. I’ve used it in both senses (the accusatory and self-depreciating mood), seen it used by others, had it used against me. I’m just curious as to what it means.

Obviously it must mean different things to different people. It has to. If person A calls person B a fanboy because B crosses that line, and B calls C a fanboy, then is there some transitive property of geekdom that means A automatically finds C to be a fanboy? Or is there some rock-paper-scissors subtlety at work that might result in the opposite being true? Since there are different flavors of geek, could I be wearing a long scarf and an “Eldrad Must Live” t-shirt and still make fun of you for buying a comic book “swimsuit special”?

I’m curious just because of how often I see the term bandied about. Obviously it’s an insult. Obviously its users assume that their targets understand it’s an insult. But having given and received it, I find myself unsure of exactly what it means. Wikipedia has this definition of the term:

Fanboy is a derogatory term used to describe someone who is utterly devoted to a hobby or a subject, to the point where it becomes an obsession. Fanboys are often experts on minor details regarding their hobbies, and they take these details extremely seriously. The stereotypical image often associated with Star Trek fans (or Trekkies) can be used to describe a fanboy: a person (usually white) with little or no social life outside the circle of fans he or she associates with.

Okay, but that’s still a relative term. What’s an ‘obsession’ by your standards isn’t necessarily the same by mine. And again, we both might be considered ‘obsessed’ by a third party.

So, if you have used the term “fanboy” or seen it used, please let me know what it means to you. What in your mind is the line that it denotes a person having crossed?

Had a nice weekend after a pretty busy workweek (hence the lack of updates). It was my birthday, which I generally don’t make much of a big deal out of, but I got some nice cards, presents, and well-wishes from friends and family.

Some congratulations are in order. There’s George, with his new job. Michael and Erika with a new baby on the way. Lawrence with his excellent medical news. Glover got his orange belt. Karen got a new job. TJ and Mary had an anniversary. There were various and sundry other birthdays as well.

The Great Stench Crisis appears to be at an end. The steam-cleaning of the mattress didn’t accomplish much, but the guy who did it began the appointment by saying, when I answered the door, “I don’t know what the problem is with your mattress, but I smell skunk out here.” This was in the front yard, where the problem hadn’t been. So we’re back to the skunk theory, bolstered by the fact that when I warned two dog-walking neighbors that there may be a skunk in the area, one claimed she’d seen a skunk. We’re now being extra careful when letting Beebo out.

As for the smell itself, it’s nearly out of the dog, but we had to stop giving him baths for a bit because it was starting to really irritate his skin. The mattress has been treated with this stuff (a whole bottle’s worth) and that seems to have done the trick. We actually slept on it last night, with no ill effects!

Becky signed up for a trial of Netflix and one of the first things she grabbed was DVDs of the 60’s British sci-spy series, The Prisoner. Having run in geek circles all my life, I’d heard plenty about this show, usually in the form of catchphrases and iconic images, but I’d never actually seen it. Watching it now is really peculiar, not just because the show itself is really peculiar, but because it’s almost like the show was built around those catchphrases and images. It’s like when I saw Casablanca for the first time and realizing I’d already heard just about every line of dialog before, just not in order or at the same time. We’re enjoying the show and looking forward to getting more of it.

In gaming news, I now have a new Eberron character to replace the late, lamented, Lithos. His name is Grep, and you can read about him here. I came up with a new adventure idea for the Digby’s Daredevils game, and while at Modern Myths this weekend, I overheard a conversation involving a post-apocalyptic d20 Modern game, and gave my name and email to the guy planning to run it. So all of that is pretty cool!

Speaking of post-apocalyptic RPGs and such, that reminds me of another thing that “happened” last week. Or didn’t happen. Because I was so busy at work, I didn’t get much of a chance to keep up with all the blogs I read, many of which are comics related. What I discovered was that I didn’t miss most of them. So I dumped a lot of them off my list of regularly read blogs. As I used to do with various forums I frequented, I discovered how easy it was to let these things suck away my free time. I’d sit there reading the same things over and over again, and meanwhile my to-do list of personal projects never got any shorter. So I’m trying to do something about that. I started reading comics blogs just to get a heads-up on new books to check out and got roped into to all kinds of discussions that, ultimately, I don’t really care about. So I’m getting back to basics there. I plan to do my part soon by doing some quickie reviews of comics I’ve been reading lately.

As part of my something-of-a-tradition of getting big Lego sets for my birthday and Christmas, I grabbed set 4504, the Millennium Falcon. It is some kinda sweet. I missed out on the original Falcon set years ago and regretted it. I decided not to take a chance this time, and I’m glad I did. It’s a great model full of really nice features. I’ll be doing a detailed review of it soon.

Okay, back to work. If you’re lucky, I might have some political junk to talk about later!