Stone of Remembrance

A song that started life as a single from Tears For Fears, and was redone in a much simpler, ballad-like style by Gary Jules. A friend on Facebook recently posted a link to this video. More info on the song here.

It’s a beautiful song and a compelling video.

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, Worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere, Going nowhere
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, No expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrows
No tomorrow, No tomorrow

And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
These dreams in which i’m dying, Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take
When people run in circles its a very very
Mad World, Mad World

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
And they feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, Sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, No one knew me
Hello teacher tell me whats my lesson
Look right through me, Look right through me

And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which i’m dying, Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it’s a very very
Mad World, Mad World

Enlarging your world, Mad World

Thanks Eric T.

I read web-based comics. I admit it; it’s not the worst habit, and it gives me something to look forward to when I open up the computer in the morning. I thought it would be fun to give some links to the ones I read regularly. Here are five that I really like.

Order of the Stick

One of the longest-running comics, Rich Burlew’s extended parody of D&D is a riot for anyone who has played any sort of roleplaying game. It began as a series of shticks and four-panel jokes, but it has built up a tremendous plot line with real character development. And if you understand the game references, it’s really, really funny.

Schlock Mercenary

I have come late to the Schlock party. I met Howard Tayler at Denver Worldcon in 2008, and spent a few hours talking writing with him and Lawrence Schoen. Since then I’ve become a fan of his work. It comes every day, and like OOTS, has developed from a series of themed jokes to a story. It’s entertaining and clever and well thought out.

Girl Genius

Not much I can say about the comic that hasn’t already been said. A big winner, a fun story, clever and complex and a meme-generator.

Darths & Droids

This is not quite a comic – it’s a series of scenes from the Star Wars movies, with new text written around them based on the conceit that this is a role-playing game for people who know nothing of the movies. The pioneer in this field is DM of the Rings, which did for (or to) the LOTR movies what is being done for (or to) Star Wars. Both turn up the foibles of players and GMs, and show some of the silliness in the movies themselves. Well worth reading.

XKCD

I noted a few days ago that this comic is one that people either get and love or don’t get at all. However, as noted, there is a blog that beats the hell out of it daily, which amuses me but which I don’t read. This is funny for geeks.

I’ve added these, as well as several others, to the blogroll.

We have recently left our old ISP. For a price that was increasingly less competitive, they gave us a hard limit of 300 MB; functionality gradually broke down (haven’t gotten a newsletter from me recently? I’ve sent out 4. I couldn’t send email to myself. My blog was fundamentally broken and had been hacked badly at least once), and their customer service was in India – incomprehensible, non-helpful, and time shifted 10 hours or so.

So we’ve gone with a new ISP. The blog works; the mailing lists work; we have no real limit on size, and the price is outstanding. We’ve decided to use a CMS which makes the design more slick; most of the existing content is up and available and I’ll be adding more. I can have polls and news; I have a link to my facebook page, and quick Amazon links to what I’m reading.

I hope you’ll add a link to my site and visit often. There’ll be a newsletter out soon, but in the meanwhile I’m trying to get all content online.

This is the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. On a beautiful fall morning, four airplanes were flown into three buildings and a fourth was brought down en route by the heroic actions of a few people.

Some people continue to circulate rumors of a terrible conspiracy. Some would like to discount the threat to the greatest country in the world. Some would like to forget that this ever happened.

It happened, and the threat still exists. And I have not forgotten. I will never forget.

Read this, too, and this and on a less somber note, this.