Corrections & Commentary on the CP Article

08:14 pm February 26th, 2004




			I Have Powers - Corrections & Commentary on the CP Article I am the Monkey King!

chadu


	Corrections & Commentary on the CP Article
	I'm in the midst of finding out if the Washington City paper article about Dead Inside will be posted online; failing that, I'll try to get it put up on the Atomic Sock Monkey Press website. It's on the first page of the CP Arts section, with a picture of Yours Truly (argh). The headline is "The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth" and has a subheadline of "In the world created by role-playing gamer Chad Underkoffler, nice guys finish first." Until then, you all will have to scour the Metro DC area for a copy (vol. 24, no. 8; February 27, 2004). First off, I want to say that Huan Hsu did a hell of a job taking my babblings and making them coherent for people to read an understand. It's a pretty good article all around, and he really was interested in the game. I really appreciate the time we spent talking about DI, writing, and other such stuff. Nice guy. However, I have some corrections for minor errors that slipped into the article, as well as a few areas I'd like to expand upon. This is mostly for my own (editorial) satisfaction; as I say above, it's a pretty good article... Though I wish -- uncharacteristically -- that more of the focus was on the game rather than me. So, hey-ho: let's go! Page 29 col 1, para 1: "...black high tops" = "black commando boots." col 1, para 1: "pontificate on... Lovecraftian notion of 'things man was not meant to know'" = Said pontification being my distaste for such things. :) col 1, para 4: [Scientist example] = I mentioned at the time that this was a pretty "Tucker-meets-Darkman" sort of set-up. col 1, para 6: "zombies" = NB: In DI, it's spelled "Zombi" and "Zombis." col 2, para 1: "...while wargames can be OK, they're not fulfilling" = Add "...to me." col 2, para 4: "RPG-inspired short story" = The story was not RPG-inspired in the slightest. col 2, para 4: "...hoped it would redeem him..." = I'm not fond of this phrasing at all, though it's in the ballpark. So long as my writing was good, I could handle or ignore my lackluster performance in other classes. photo: My hair's not that floofy. It was windy. The caption's a hoot, though. col 3, para 1: "...tore it apart in a way I've rarely seen..." = God, this makes me sound whiny. And maybe I am, a bit. I've written a little before about this: see this journal entry. FOlk may also be interested to know that a classmate from that workshop saw the CP article and is also on LJ -- check out what she has to say here. col 4, para 1: "...I knew it wasn't a perfect story..." = See this journal entry. col 4, para 1: "...moved back to Pittsburgh..." = Insert "after graduation" in here, please! col 4, para 2: "Gamma Wars" = "Gamma World" (the latest edition; I have a chapter in the upcoming GM's Guide). Page 30 col 1, para 3: Bruce Baugh's in the hizz-ouse, boy! col 2, para 2: "50 copies... plenty for an independent RPG publisher..." = Replace "plenty" with "average." col 2, paras 3 & 4: I love these quotes from RG and ER. Thanks, guys! col 3, para 2: "Explosions are fine, but I want a motivated explosion." = Italicize "motivated" and I think we have what I want written on my gravestone. Seriously, somebody should follow me around with a tape recorder to catch stuff like this... col 4, para 1: "fractal interface" = ...and this. Dear God, did I actually say "fractal interface"? What the hell was I thinking? What did I mean? (I actually think I said "interference pattern between.") col 4, para 2: "recreational gamer... he" = Actually, I'm not sure that this person is a he; could be a she... the email came with a gender-neutral handle. Odds are it's a guy, but who knows? Pedantry over! Current Mood: amused Current Music: burbling of beez's chicken dish cooling

21 comments or Leave a comment


	Comments

	From: multiplexer	Date: February 26th, 2004 05:57 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Oh hey, the Washington City Paper. Are you here in DC?

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	From: chadu	Date: February 26th, 2004 06:02 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Yupper-doodle!

You too?

CU

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	From: multiplexer	Date: February 26th, 2004 06:03 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I'm currently sitting in my living room in Germantown off Father Hurley (Route 27) just south of Damascus up the hard, painful suffering of 270.

Why have we not gotten together yet?!? What is wrong with this sad universe?

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	From: drivingblind	Date: February 26th, 2004 07:44 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I propose a gathering!

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	From: chadu	Date: February 26th, 2004 08:07 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Y'know, last year, Sandy Antunes was holding monthly gaming freelancer get togethers... and I know Elissa Carey lives in DE, but gets down to the area fairly often...

Let me ponder; then I'll post something to my LJ and some other places. Maybe we need a Metro DC gamer maillist...

CU

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	From: drivingblind	Date: February 26th, 2004 08:10 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I'm all for it (after this weekend - I'm heading down to SheVaCon) ... if you need someone to toss together a mailing list stat, I've got a mailman installation over on iago.net, no real problem for me to set up another list on it.

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	From: chadu	Date: February 26th, 2004 08:16 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Sounds like a possibility; right now, I'm limited to yahoogroups.

CU

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	From: drivingblind	Date: February 26th, 2004 08:30 pm (UTC)		(Link)

They're useful, and offer extra features I can't. Ball's in your court either way. ;)

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	From: multiplexer	Date: February 27th, 2004 05:49 am (UTC)		(Link)

I can make mailing lists, if you need mailing lists. Just let me know, and it will be done.

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	From: chadu	Date: February 26th, 2004 08:03 pm (UTC)		(Link)

They fear our power, the fools!

CU

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	From: adamdray	Date: February 26th, 2004 07:48 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	DC area

I'm in Baltimore and would love to meet y'all. I recommend Mongolian Barbecue in Bethesda. =)

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	From: aylinn	Date: February 26th, 2004 10:53 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	If you're proposing

a general gathering of people who are writer/publisher types,
I'll chime in for Kory and I.

and enter my vote for Sushi Chalet in Gaitherburg, MD off 270.
All you can eat Sushi, Mongolian Barbeque & chinese food. 16.95/person for dinner. we've managed to feed ALL sorts of people there. PLUS the owner (who we've nicknamed Mama-San 'cause we don't know her name) is a very cool person. AND for a food reference - How's doing the catering for the Japanese Embassy grab you? <G>

If it's a private Penn-State alum gathering, I'll shut up now. <G> but I'd still recommend Sushi Chalet.

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	From: multiplexer	Date: February 27th, 2004 05:50 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: If you're proposing

I had a bad piece of sushi at sushi chalet and now have trouble eating there, alas. Something on their lunch buffet.

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	From: aylinn	Date: February 27th, 2004 09:15 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: If you're proposing

Hunh! really? wow.

I find that hard to believe. Not that it happened - bad things can and do happen at any time to anyone - but that Mama-san didn't do something to fix it. Immediately. We're talking about a woman who has gone above and beyond the call of duty.

For Example: We've brought in kids who weren't sure about sushi and she bent over backwards to them - making up bowls of soup w/rice in 'em ("what the little children in Japan eat") and personally bringing over the beginner's chopsticks. She loves little kids coming in.

One day when it was snowing real bad and we couldn't make the drive back to fredneck, we stopped in for lunch. she was in the process of getting ready to close her lunch up and had decided she probably wouldn't open up for dinner. she came out, counted the # of people in the room (about 6 at that point) and firmly told us all that we were NOT allowed to leave yet. She wanted us to have something warm for the way home. about 10 minutes later some red bean soup w/mochi appeared _for everybody_. FREE.

That last sort of thing has happened repeatedly to us. Kory's learned - If Mama-san sends something over - eat your no-thank-you helping. <GGG> She likes challenging folks.

And their Birthday desserts are exquisite carved concoctions of chilled fruit.

May I humbly suggest you give them another try? I can understand and respect it if you say no - bad experiences do that, especially if tummy troubles are involved - but from my POV & IMHO, Mama-san is seriously cool people and if something like that happened, she would want to do something about it. Please give her the chance to "redeem face."

<bowing most respectfully>

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	From: chadu	Date: February 27th, 2004 06:21 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: If you're proposing

I think we're still in Metro DC area game-folk list assembly-mode.

:)

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	From: aylinn	Date: February 27th, 2004 09:16 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: If you're proposing

ok!

then *chime* said the party-crasher.

<G>

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	From: chadu	Date: February 27th, 2004 09:17 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: If you're proposing

Dudette, you & Kory count as DC Metro area.

Duh!

:)

CU

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	From: aylinn	Date: February 27th, 2004 09:28 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: If you're proposing

*a-hem*

That's _Frodette_ according to Kory. as in "Bite me, Frodette" instead of "Bite me, Frodo".

Hey, I only _translate_ him - Determining Contextual Sense out of him is still the listener/reader's problem.

<EMG>

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	From: fenriss	Date: February 27th, 2004 06:10 am (UTC)		(Link)

"I love these quotes from RG and ER. Thanks, guys!"

Hey, you're welcome! Not completely thrilled with the way he put my quote together. I'm sure I sounded more intelligent than that! But my hunny's quote about the dentist mirror was pretty cool, wasn't it?

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	From: chadu	Date: February 27th, 2004 06:32 am (UTC)		(Link)

I'm sure I sounded more intelligent than that!

Feelin' your pain, darlin'. :)

But my hunny's quote about the dentist mirror was pretty cool, wasn't it?

Damn straight.

CU

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From: (Anonymous)	Date: August 20th, 2009 11:57 pm (UTC)		(Link)
A fractal interface?

Well I thought it was an astute reference of the impossibility of separating human emotions, a fractal boundary is nice analogy because it is divided at the level of infinite detail, and so the emotions remain distinct but you can never cut them away from each other.

I suspect it's an accidental complement on the part of the interviewer, who had been reading chaos theory stuff recently and thought that was what you had meant.

On the other hand, perhaps it's a bit overblown! The interference pattern analogy at least allows you to find spots of cancellation, where the response is healthy, aware and self assured. Better if you just have to watch where you step than embark on a task of infinite complexity!

On the game, sounds quality! I love the idea of focusing on "why" as the creative challenge. Not for me though, I'm trying to make my own positive game, one that moves from "killy" stuff to building and ruling, like reign with more planescape. I hope that the mix and transition will allow me to bring more people along, as your game is beautifully focused on those people it will really make a difference for.

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