Five years ago today, Gary Gygax—the co-father of Dungeons and Dragons—passed away at the age of 69.

Mr. Gygax and Mr. Arneson developed the original version of D&D in 1974 based on their love of miniatures wargmaing and the fantasy novels¹ they had read. Over the course of his career, Gygax remained very active in the gaming community and encouraged fans to do the same. He loved what he created; inspiring countless others to develop, design and start their own games and gaming companies.

Although I did not discover roleplaying games until the late 80s, I owe a considerable amount of debt to Mr. Gygax and Mr. Arneson for their contribution to the world.

Back in 2009, just a year after Gygax’s death, blogger Jeff Rients recommended several things one can do to keep Gary’s memory alive on this day. I highly recommend any or all of them.

One of my favorite music bloggers over at Perfect Midnight World recently shared the top ten songs he’d bring along in the unlikely event of being stranded on a desert island. I decided to play along.

In no particular order…

• “Forty-six and Two” by Tool - I tend to prefer entire Tool albums over single songs, but this is perhaps my favorite in terms of music and lyrics.
• “La Cienega Just Smiled” by Ryan Adams - I could easily make entire top ten’s picked from the musical eras of DRA’s career. La Cienega represents the period of my life at the turn of the millennium when I discovered his work and began a sweeping internal transformation that redefined my taste in music.
• “Growing Old is Getting Old” by The Silversun Pickups - I fear getting old and dying,
  which makes me a gerascophobe of sorts. This is the prettiest, most realistic take on the subject I’ve ever heard. It gives me hope.
• “Rearviewmirror” by Pearl Jam - This band will always have a special place in my heart. I alternate between hot and cold on a lot of their catalog, but the first three albums represent the music that defined my stake of generational territory. Currently I’m feeling this track the most.
• “Dreamer” by Tiny Vipers - Jesy Fortino’s style isn’t always accessible. However, this song kills me every time I hear it. The subtle chord change and jarring conclusion always wear me down like I’ve just spent the day watching PTA’s Magnolia over and over, but in the best way possible.
• “Puncture in the Radak Permutation” by Stereolab - Another song that opened new musical doors for me. When I got my first decent NAD amp and floor speakers—which I still use today—I would blast this as loud as my neighbors would tolerate and get lost in the magic that happens two minutes and twenty seconds in.
• “Pompeii” by Sleater-Kinney - I’m a sucker for powerful female vocal performances and Corin Tucker destroys it here. I listened to this album a lot while onboard the USS Alabama, but I still get fired up every time I hear this.
• “To the Lighthouse” by Patrick Wolf - A hauntingly beautiful song. Absolutely perfect in every way.
• “Maybe Sparrow” by Neko Case - This always reminds me of autumn and the reasons why it’s my favorite season. There’s a lyric in Young Galaxy’s “Youth is Wasted on the Young” that goes, “I wouldn’t mind dying at all if it weren’t for the songs I’d miss”. The is one of those songs.
• “Drunkship of Lanterns” by The Mars Volta - I don’t even know what to say about this other than it encapsulates everything I love about…well, just about everything. Quite possibly my favorite song of all time.

Snagged two of my favorite Elric covers for less than the price of a gallon of gas in 2006.

One of my favorite finds ever.

In a letter written around November, 1851, Herman Melville excitedly muses to his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne about acquiring a personal paper-mill so he could “write a thousand—a million—billion thoughts, all under the form of a letter to you”.

The sentiment says a lot regarding Melville’s insatiable thirst for intellectual stimulation being limited by the technology of the day. It was only seven years earlier—in 1844—when Charles Fenerty revolutionized paper manufacturing with his wood pulping experiments. By the time Melville wrote his letters, newspapers around the world were just beginning to adopt Fenerty’s cheaper and easier process. It would still be many years before acquiring a personal stash of paper was conceivable even for the likes of a mildly famous author.

It makes me wonder if the modern Melvilles and Flauberts channel their predecessors now that they have access to email; an invention that outpaces even the contemporary accessibility of reams of paper at the local office-supply box store. Maintaining a significantly long correspondence of meaningful letters has always been my ideal use case for the ubiquity of email. When compared to the realities of 1850’s letter writing, one would imagine less time being spent on the ephemeral communiques of social network posts and limitations of 140-character tweets. Instead, an endless scrolling wall of impulsive thoughts, quips and advertisements has replaced the monolithic block of text that constitutes an actual well-thought out letter. It may be wishful thinking, but I would love to be the Melville to someone’s Hawthorne.

I’m not a typical longtime Apple fanboy. The first Apple product I owned was a black, 5th Generation iPod video bought in November of 2005. As a Windows user, I inevitably installed iTunes and fell in love with it’s all-in-one approach—a welcome change from managing thousands of music files and folders to accommodate WinAmp. It was also aesthetically pleasing even with the unavoidable Windows chrome. In fact, for months I had been fiddling with numerous “skinning” applications to avoid XP’s hideous UI and implement very Mac-like features such as a dock and top-aligned menubar. So when the first 20-inch Intel Core Duo iMacs were announced in Janurary of 2006, I ordered one immediately. It was the first life-changing moment courtesy of Apple. My love for computers and technology in general was validated the minute I booted into OS X Tiger for the first time. Here was a tool—wonderfully designed and insanely functional—which happened to be the antithesis of everything I despised about using a Windows PC.

In the time since, I’ve owned another iMac, a MacBook, a MacBook Pro, every version of the iPhone besides the 3GS, four iPods, an iPad, a 24-inch LED Cinema Display, a Time Capsule, two Airport Expresses, two Airport Extremes, an AppleTV and various peripheral devices. Every one of them has been the best device I’ve ever used. They work, they’re beautiful and I never felt like I was being sold things that should meet my needs; I knew they would.

By the beginning of 2010 I had figured out that the career I had just wasn’t what I wanted for a number of reasons. Steve Jobs taught me the importance of loving what you do and since hearing those words it was obvious I definitely needed to make some changes. Apple products and the wonderful applications developed for them had become such a huge component of my everyday life in a way that made me realize Steve’s genius: making technology work for the user and not the other way around. I loved this concept and felt it complemented my skills and goals perfectly. But up until then, writing code and programming had been a hobby I wished I could devote more time to. So I resigned from my job and concentrated on finishing my degree all while moving towards becoming proficient with the tools Apple has given us to make great pieces of software: Objective-C and Cocoa.

It sounds hokey, but I couldn’t have made such a monumental decision without hearing that commencement speech and truly believing in the man that delivered it.

Thanks, Steve.

I’ve recently discovered the blog of Justin Alexander— roleplaying game designer, author, actor and all-around geek.

His is the kind of bloggery I only wish I was producing. Although most of the articles deal with all aspects of gaming, Mr. Alexander also branches out into comics, movies and books. Really great stuff (and I’m not even past the 2011 posts…).

Some of my favorites at this point:

1. The Eagles of Lord of the Rings - An analysis of the infamous plot-hole involving the employ of the Great Eagles to air-drop The One Ring into Mount Doom.
2. The Many Types of Balance - An excellent essay about the hotly debated topic of balance in roleplaying games. Being a multi-faceted problem, the best solution ends up being a dynamic balance between the different types of balance itself—concept, naturalistic and spotlight. Trust me, it’s a wonderful read.
3. D&D: Calibrating Your Expectations - Some real world examples of why the 3rd Edition D&D core mechanics do such a great job of reflecting realism with just some simple math on the player’s part. I wasn’t sure about devoting my energies towards running a 3.5/Pathfinder game until I stumbled upon this gem.
4. This Is Why Nobody Reads Mainstream Superhero Comics Anymore - He nails it. I gave up trying to follow either Marvel or DC after Secret Invasion for this very reason.