The evils of Advanced Dungens and Dragons

What better day than Halloween to talk about the evils of Dungeons and Dragons?  I’m going to do something a bit different today.  I interviewed two people who I would consider to be experts on this subject and am including their answers in the posts to follow.  Kriska is a librarian and level 20 wife who not only first learned how to play AD&D in a library, but now teaches teenagers the game on the weekend with her husband.  Kent is a father, husband, and author who has actually written a book about this very subject that you can find here.  Both of them have been playing AD&D and other roleplaying games for around thirty years and offer their perspectives on how the game has changed over the years from something that was once considered evil to something that has been embraced by the mainstream.  Because of the length of these interviews, I’ve made separate posts for each of them.  Kriska’s responses can be found here.  Kent’s responses can be found here.  Enjoy the read, enjoy Halloween, and enjoy natural 20s all year long.

Kent on the evils of AD&D

Q: What year did you first start playing AD&D?  Can you provide us with a brief synopsis of your playing history?

A: I started hearing about Dungeons & Dragons in early 1980 at the age of 9, and was introduced to play through Dungeon Module B2 (The Keep on the Borderlands).  I was forbidden from playing by my parents unless I bought my own materials.  They probably thought that was the end of the matter.

Kriska on the evils of AD&D

Q: What year did you first start playing AD&D?  Can you provide us with a brief synopsis of your playing history?

 A: I first remember playing D&D when I was in the 4th grade. A kid I knew had gotten the game and wanted to try it out so he invited a bunch of kids over. His mom was a librarian, so she let us use the meeting room at the public library. I was hooked,

A Gen X remembrance of Lou Reed

Lou Reed certainly had some influence on some of our generation. Here’s one person’s memories of that influence.

SimonFirth.com

I remember exactly the first time I heard Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground. I was fifteen and at a party to which I had been invited by a girl. That fact alone was remarkable. What’s more, she was the host and somehow had heard about me from a friend at her all-girls’ school some twenty miles from my all-boys’ school and had sent me a hand-written card asking me to attend. She was, I seem to recall, called Jane.

A warm early Autumn night in a verdant back garden on England’s South Coast. Apple trees, candles, wine, and a new crowd, and, for the first time in my experience, kids smoking cigarettes that were sweet and aromatic. My guess is that I was invited because I was the putative singer in a new wave rock band. We were called the Idle Frets and had recently played the first of…

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More Pearl Jam…

I’m not done talking about Pearl Jam, but today I just wanted to share some links.  Videos, actually.

Not exactly the balcony of the Showbox, but not too shabby for someone who will be fifty before the next presidential election: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uULu0eUohws

So speaking of Pearl Jam and Red Sox being two of my favorite things, check this one out.  Any Red Sox fan will know exactly what he’s talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOvX-BLcCfo

Or maybe they’re really Pittsburgh fans?  Whatever the case, maybe they should have given this guy a cowbell or something: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAT1yq2dthU

OK, enough silliness.  I’m sharing this one because, which generation’s rock gods talks about their kid’s soccer game during a concert?  Our generation’s rock gods, that’s who: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhqjdpAQVOQ

And finally, a song that any generation should enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWPMHHCsliI

Numbers, they matter

Most of the articles I’ve linked to about Generation X have been wrong.  Obviously there must have been something about the article that I felt was worth talking about, but for whatever reason they get one of the most important things wrong: the number.  There are about twice as many of us as the internet would have you believe. 

Pearl Jam and baseball

So the World Series starts Wednesday, and it involves two things that have been on my all-time favorites list at some point in my life: Pearl Jam and the Boston Red Sox.  You’d think I’d be really excited about that, but I don’t think I’ve actually watched a baseball game since the last time the Red Sox won the World Series, and besides our only TV is in a closet somewhere.  But just for fun, I thought it would be interesting to decide which Pearl Jam songs would be appropriate for various parts of the Baseball Game.

Alive: when one team is in the midst of a rally against the other team’s closer.

Porch: whenever they show those old guys in the dugout spitting.

Deep: whenever there’s a particularly long home run.

Stupid Mop: when the cleanup hitter is batting.

Go: when someone steals a base.

Why Go: when someone gets caught stealing.

Off he Goes: when David Ortiz tries to steal a base.

Release: whenever the announcers are take a long time to analyze a particular pitch.

Glorified G: whenever the bases are loaded.

Better Man: every time there’s a pinch hitter.

Corduroy: whenever there’s a rain delay.

Rearviewmirror: whenever there’s an instant replay that doesn’t really count.

Whipping: when the Red Sox hit five or more home runs and beat the Cardinals by 11.

Last Exit: when they show that talking head in front of the stadium at the end of the game.

Push me, pull me: when there’s a bench clearing brawl.

Leash: when one player holds another player back trying to prevent a bench clearing brawl.

Mind your manners: whenever an umpire tries to prevent a bench clearing brawl.

Given to Fly: when an inning ends with a pop up.

Faithfull: maybe if they’d made this deal before the last time these two teams met in the World Series it would have made sense, now they’ll have to wait until the Cubs win it all.

Wishlist: seven days after the last game when Scott Boras starts working.

Feel free to add your own in the comments.  And if anyone watches the World Series, let me know how many of my predictions come true.

Gen X and careers: some links

So while I’ve been busy talking about Pearl Jam, the rest of the internet kept on going, and had a few things to say about Generation X.  I don’t have time to talk about either of these right now, but I found them interesting, and might come back to them later.

This is an interesting little video showing how various generations are perceived in the workplace.  Seems like we should be getting raises or something.

This is a bit older, but I just stumbled upon it now via the gen-X reddit site.  It is also work related and talks about how we’ve essentially redefined careers as a balancing act instead of a marathon.

Interestingly enough, I’d been mulling over two separate career related posts this week.  Whenever I do have time to write those, I’m sure I’ll be referring back to these links…

By God it’s been so long, never dreamed you’d return.

I probably have no right to be saying anything about Pearl Jam on the internet, as I’ve only ever owned their first five albums.  But I think their music is an important part of what this blog is about, and my interest in those first five albums has recently been rekindled.

I still remember how I felt that fall day of 1991 when I got in my car parked in the Nordstrom’s parking lot at the Tacoma Mall, opened Ten, put it in my CD player, and listened to it while reading through the lyrics scrawled in the liner notes.  It was the first time I’d listened to music and felt like it was speaking to me.  I wanted to take all the poetry that I’d written and never shown to anyone and send it to whoever this Eddie Vedder guy was, because I thought he might get what I was trying to say.

Stadiums and Memories and Fingerprints

Pearl Jam is coming out with a new album Tuesday, so I’m sure nobody who knows me is surprised that I’m going to say something about that even though I haven’t bought a Pearl Jam album in probably a decade.  I’ll say more on Tuesday, but in my stroll down memory lane, I came across this article that might only make sense to people who lived in Seattle during the 1990s.  The reason that I’m sharing it is because as I was reading it, the author described an occasion when the newly formed band attended an exhibition game between the Supersonics and the Chicago Bulls in October of 1990. 

I was at that game.