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<p class="lead blog-description">Random musings on books, code, and tabletop games.</p>
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<article class="blog-post h-entry post-text"><header><h2 class="p-name entry-title blog-post-title"><a href="posts/2004/09/29/2004-09-29/" class="u-url">Recent Reading</a></h2>
<div class="metadata blog-post-meta">
<p class="byline author vcard"><span class="byline-name fn">T. Kurt Bond</span></p>
<p class="dateline"><a href="posts/2004/09/29/2004-09-29/" rel="bookmark"><time class="published dt-published" datetime="2004-09-29T00:00:00-05:00" title="2004-09-29 00:00">2004-09-29 00:00</time></a></p>
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<li><p><em>The Godwulf Manuscript</em>, by Robert B. Parker; read by Michael
Prichard; Books on Tape, 1998. This is the first time I've read (or
heard read) any of Parker's Spenser novels, I think. Entertaining, in
a light manner. Prichard's reading was quite appropriate.</p></li>
<li><p><em>Voyager</em>, by Diana Gabaldon; Dell, November 1994. This is the third
of Gabaldon's series about Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser. Enjoyable,
if the timetravelling aspect doesn't make you cringe.</p></li>
<li><p><em>The Magic Engineer</em>, by L.E. Modesitt, Jr, copyright 1994; July,
1995. This is the third in published order of Modesit's <em>Magic of
Recluce</em> series.</p></li>
<li><p><em>Resurrection Men</em>, by Ian Rankin; copyright 2002 by John Rebus
Limited; Little, Brown, and Company.</p></li>
<li><p><em>1633</em>, by David Weber and Eric Flint; Baen, August 2002. It's
interesting to see how recent “Americans in the Past” books tend
to have the timelost Americans make their greatest impact on the past
via their imported political systems and their technology only
secondarily. In any case, this book is fun.</p></li>
<li><p><em>The Sorcerer's Soul</em>, by Ron Edwards; Adept Press, 2001. This is the
second supplement for Ron Edwards's <em>Sorcerer</em> roleplaying game. Where
<em>Sorcerer and Sword</em> adapted the original game to a new genre, this
supplement is more of an elaboration of ideas from the original game,
additional examples of what you can do with the game and how you can
use it in different settings (though in the same genre). I found the
relationship map method of scenario preparation particularly
interesting. Well worth reading.</p></li>
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</article><article class="blog-post h-entry post-text"><header><h2 class="p-name entry-title blog-post-title"><a href="posts/2004/09/18/2004-09-18/" class="u-url">Recent Reading</a></h2>
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<p class="byline author vcard"><span class="byline-name fn">T. Kurt Bond</span></p>
<p class="dateline"><a href="posts/2004/09/18/2004-09-18/" rel="bookmark"><time class="published dt-published" datetime="2004-09-18T00:00:00-05:00" title="2004-09-18 00:00">2004-09-18 00:00</time></a></p>
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<li><p><em>The Yellow Admiral</em>, by Patrick O'Brian; W.W. Norton & Company,
Inc, 1996. This is another diffcult volume in the saga for me to read,
with Aubrey's worries about his career prospects, the estrangement of
his wife, and more money problems, and Bonden's injury all
contributing to the tribulations of Aubrey and Maturin.</p></li>
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</article><article class="blog-post h-entry post-text"><header><h2 class="p-name entry-title blog-post-title"><a href="posts/2004/09/16/2004-09-16/" class="u-url">Recent Reading</a></h2>
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<p class="byline author vcard"><span class="byline-name fn">T. Kurt Bond</span></p>
<p class="dateline"><a href="posts/2004/09/16/2004-09-16/" rel="bookmark"><time class="published dt-published" datetime="2004-09-16T00:00:00-05:00" title="2004-09-16 00:00">2004-09-16 00:00</time></a></p>
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<li><p><em>The Commodore</em>, by Patrick O'Brian, copyright 1994; W.W. Norton &
Company, Inc, 1994. I find the latter books in the Aubrey/Maturin saga
more difficult to read, not because they are of lessor quality or more
difficult in and of themselves, but rather because the protagonists'
lives are more emotionally strained than in the earier books. In this
book Maturin is harrowed by the condition of his young daughter, who
he meets for the first time after years away at sea, and the
estrangment from his wife that has resulted. But there is hope for
both problems. And there is at least one very important first meeting
in this book that will have many influences in the rest of the series.</p></li>
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</article><article class="blog-post h-entry post-text"><header><h2 class="p-name entry-title blog-post-title"><a href="posts/2004/09/15/2004-09-15/" class="u-url">The Commodore</a></h2>
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<p class="byline author vcard"><span class="byline-name fn">T. Kurt Bond</span></p>
<p class="dateline"><a href="posts/2004/09/15/2004-09-15/" rel="bookmark"><time class="published dt-published" datetime="2004-09-15T00:00:00-05:00" title="2004-09-15 00:00">2004-09-15 00:00</time></a></p>
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<p>I was reading Patrick O'Brian's <em>The Commodore</em> (W.W. Norton & Co,
Inc, New York, 1995) and was struck by these two quotes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Sickness has innumerable squalors, many of which you know far too
well, my dear,” he said when Jack and he were sitting together in the
great cabin, “and among them, in some ways the nastiest, is the
sufferer's total selfishness. Admittedly, a body doing all it can to
survive will naturally turn in upon itself; but the mind inhabiting
that body is so inclined to feast on the indulgence, carrying on and
on long after the necessity is gone.” — Stephen, on p. 231</p>
<p>“... there is no heart to change: no person left: only a set of
pompous attitutes.” — Jack, on p. 234</p>
</blockquote>
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</article><article class="blog-post h-entry post-text"><header><h2 class="p-name entry-title blog-post-title"><a href="posts/2004/09/14/2004-09-14/" class="u-url">Web Browsing: Elinks; Recent Reading</a></h2>
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<p class="byline author vcard"><span class="byline-name fn">T. Kurt Bond</span></p>
<p class="dateline"><a href="posts/2004/09/14/2004-09-14/" rel="bookmark"><time class="published dt-published" datetime="2004-09-14T00:00:00-05:00" title="2004-09-14 00:00">2004-09-14 00:00</time></a></p>
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<section id="web-browsing-elinks"><h2>Web Browsing: Elinks</h2>
<p>I do a fair amount of text-only browsing of the web, and elinks is the
best text-mode web browser I've found so far. It works well for my
style of browing — open lots of tabs in the background as I'm
reading and then work through reading them all. For this I need a
browser that has easy keyboard navigation and good support for tabs
and background loading. Once I found out that pressing shift while
selecting text would actually allow the text to be selected I made
elinks my standard text-mode browser.</p>
</section><section id="recent-reading"><h2>Recent Reading</h2>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p><em>One Corpse Too Many</em>, by Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter), copyright
1979; narrated by Patrick Tull; Recorded Books, Inc, 1991.</p></li>
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</article><article class="blog-post h-entry post-text"><header><h2 class="p-name entry-title blog-post-title"><a href="posts/2004/09/12/2004-09-12/" class="u-url">RPGs: Detail vs. Simplicity</a></h2>
<div class="metadata blog-post-meta">
<p class="byline author vcard"><span class="byline-name fn">T. Kurt Bond</span></p>
<p class="dateline"><a href="posts/2004/09/12/2004-09-12/" rel="bookmark"><time class="published dt-published" datetime="2004-09-12T00:00:00-05:00" title="2004-09-12 00:00">2004-09-12 00:00</time></a></p>
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<p>A conflict: on the one hand I'm attracted to the detail and broad
applicability of games like GURPS, CORPS, and Hero (especially the
effects-based powes frameworks of the latter two), but on the other
hand I'm oppressed by the work involved in creating anything using
them. BESM seems to be the best balance in this area that I've found
so far, and while so I'm looking forward to the 3rd edition, I'm quite
happy with the 2nd edition, revised.</p>
<p>And on the gripping there is the opposite extreme, with games like
Over the Edge, Risus, Story Engine, and Fudge, which have (or can
have) minimal details and very simple rules.</p>
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</article><article class="blog-post h-entry post-text"><header><h2 class="p-name entry-title blog-post-title"><a href="posts/2004/09/11/2004-09-11/" class="u-url">Recent Reading</a></h2>
<div class="metadata blog-post-meta">
<p class="byline author vcard"><span class="byline-name fn">T. Kurt Bond</span></p>
<p class="dateline"><a href="posts/2004/09/11/2004-09-11/" rel="bookmark"><time class="published dt-published" datetime="2004-09-11T00:00:00-05:00" title="2004-09-11 00:00">2004-09-11 00:00</time></a></p>
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<li><p><em>The Wine-Dark Sea</em>, by Patrick O'Brian; W.W. Norton & Company,
Inc, 1993.</p></li>
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</article><article class="blog-post h-entry post-text"><header><h2 class="p-name entry-title blog-post-title"><a href="posts/2004/09/09/2004-09-09/" class="u-url">Recent Reading</a></h2>
<div class="metadata blog-post-meta">
<p class="byline author vcard"><span class="byline-name fn">T. Kurt Bond</span></p>
<p class="dateline"><a href="posts/2004/09/09/2004-09-09/" rel="bookmark"><time class="published dt-published" datetime="2004-09-09T00:00:00-05:00" title="2004-09-09 00:00">2004-09-09 00:00</time></a></p>
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<li><p><em>The Reverse of the Medal</em>, by Patrick O'Brian; William Collins & Co
Ltd, 1986; W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1992. I've always found this
one of the most difficult books in the series to read, finding Jack
Aubrey's difficulties in this volume most unpleasant to bear. On the
other hand, the ultimate scene with Maturin and Duhamel is very
satisfying.</p></li>
<li><p><em>The Letter of Marque</em>, by Patrick O'Brian; William Collins & Co
Ltd, 1988; W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1992. This book contains one of
my favorite long passges in the series, Stephen Maturin's journey to
be see his estranged wife.</p></li>
<li><p><em>The Thirteen Gun Salute</em>, by Patrick O'Brian; William Collins & Co
Ltd, 1989; ; W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1992.</p></li>
<li><p><em>The Nutmeg of Consolation</em>, by Patrick O'Brian, copyright 1991; W.
W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1993.</p></li>
<li><p><em>The Truelove</em>, by Patrick O'Brian, copyright 1992; W.W. Norton &
Company, Inc, 1993.</p></li>
</ul>
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</article><article class="blog-post h-entry post-text"><header><h2 class="p-name entry-title blog-post-title"><a href="posts/2004/09/05/2004-09-05/" class="u-url">Recent Reading</a></h2>
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<p class="byline author vcard"><span class="byline-name fn">T. Kurt Bond</span></p>
<p class="dateline"><a href="posts/2004/09/05/2004-09-05/" rel="bookmark"><time class="published dt-published" datetime="2004-09-05T00:00:00-05:00" title="2004-09-05 00:00">2004-09-05 00:00</time></a></p>
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<li><p><em>Outlander</em>, by Diana Gabaldon; Delacorte Press, 1991. There's
something about time-travel books written outside the science-fiction
realm that I find offputting, and I definitely prefer my historical
fiction unadulterated by such things, but this series is reasonably
good despite that.</p></li>
<li><p><em>Dragonfly in Amber</em>, by Diana Gabaldon; Delacorte Press, 1992.</p></li>
<li><p><em>The Wizard of Karres</em>, by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and Dave
Freer; Baen, 2004. James H. Schmitz wrote a number of enjoyable tales,
including that delightful romp <em>The Witches of Karres</em>. <em>The Wizard of
Karres</em> is a reasonably good sequel. I'll have to re-read the original
sometime soon.</p></li>
</ul>
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</article><article class="blog-post h-entry post-text"><header><h2 class="p-name entry-title blog-post-title"><a href="posts/2004/09/03/2004-09-03/" class="u-url">Recent Listening</a></h2>
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<p class="dateline"><a href="posts/2004/09/03/2004-09-03/" rel="bookmark"><time class="published dt-published" datetime="2004-09-03T00:00:00-05:00" title="2004-09-03 00:00">2004-09-03 00:00</time></a></p>
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<li><p><em>The Hundred Days</em>, by Patrick O'Brian; read by David Case; Books on
Tape, 1999. Well read by David Case, this penultimate volume in the
Aubrey/Maturin saga is a delight for the ears.</p></li>
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<h4>About</h4>
<p>Lacking Natural Simplicity is one, not particularly flattering,
definition of sophisticated.
This blog chronicles my journey through our at times too complicated
and sophisticated world. </p>
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<p>This site uses no cookies directly, but I expect the <a href="https://disqus.com/">Disqus</a> comments use cookies at disqus.com.</p>
<h4>Links</h4>
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<li><a href="pages/about-the-blog/index.html">About the Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="pages/colophon/index.html">Colophon</a></li>
<li><a href="pages/typographical-conventions/index.html">Typographical Conventions</a></li>
<li><a href="pages/static-pages-index/index.html">Pages</a></li>
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<a href="http://tkb.tx0.org/">My tx0.org web page</a>
<br> Mostly empty
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<li>
<a href="http://consp.org/">consp.org</a>
<br> Rises from the dead!
<br> <a href="http://consp.org/blog/blog.html">microblog</a>
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