Some More Animated Gifs

Making GIFs is fun and easy with Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. Some more propaganda by yours truly:



Another banner.


Communist party elections.


McStalin!

Improvised Weapon Master

Improvised Weapon Master

The improvised weapon master doesn't trust normal weapons. What happens if they break, or snap? You're likely to end up as dragon feed. He instead concentrates on making his own weapons wherever he goes.

Requirements:
To become an improvised weapon master, you must fulfill these requirements

Feats: Improvised Weapon Proficieny

Base Attack Bonus: +3
Special: Must have defeated a worthy opponent using improvised weapons only.

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Weapon Mimic
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0	Improvised Weapon Trick
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1	Improvised Weapon Trick, Improved Weapon Mimic

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The improvised weapon master gains no new proficiencies.

Weapon Mimic: At 1st level, the improvised weapon master learns to use his weapons in strange fashions. If an object is approximately the right size and shape, the improvised weapon master may mimic any simple weapon. For instance, a broom could be used to mimic a quarterstaff, or a broken bottle could mimic a dagger. The object takes on the properties of that weapon and may be used in conjunction with any feats using that item. It takes a standard action to activate this ability.

Improvised Weapon Trick: The improvised weapon master may choose a trick from this list at 2nd and 3rd levels.

Improvised Weapon Focus: The improvised weapon master gains a +1 bonus to all melee attack rolls while wielding an improvised weapon.

Unusual Parry: If the improvised weapon master uses Combat Expertise while wielding an improvised weapon, he gains an additional +1 bonus to AC per 2 points of BAB used with Combat Expertise.

Shatter Weapon: The improvised weapon master must declare he is using this feat before making an melee attack with an improvised weapon. If the attack is successful, he deals double damage with the weapon but the weapon is destroyed. If the attack fails, it is destroyed anyway.

Improvise Shield: The improvised weapon master may use any object with a similar surface area to mimic a shield. A bar stool or similar item counts as a light wooden shield, a chair with a back or similar sized item counts as a heavy wooden shield, and a table counts as a tower shield.

Table Lifter: The improvised weapon master gains the benefits of the Monkey Grip feat, but only when wielding an improvised weapon.

Improvised Weapon Specialization: The improvised weapon master deals +2 damage when wielding an improvised weapon.

Two-Weapon Improvisation: The improvised weapon master gains the benefits of the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, but only when wielding improvised weapons.

Trip Over: The improvised weapon master gains the benefits of the Improved Trip feat when wielding an improvised weapon. If he already has the feat, he gains a +2 bonus to trip attempts made with an improvised weapon.

Sunder: The improvised weapon master gains the benefits of the Improved Sunder feat when wielding an improvised weapon. If he already has the feat, he gains a +2 bonus to sunder attempts made with an improvised weapon.

Disarm: The improvised weapon master gains the benefits of the Improved Disarm feat when wielding an improvised weapon. If he already has the feat, he gains a +2 bonus to disarm attempts made with an improvised weapon.

Unusual Feint: The improvised weapon master gains a +4 bonus to feinting when wielding an improvised weapon.

Rapid Improvisation: The improvised weapon master may mimic a weapon as a free action rather than a standard action.

Improved Weapon Mimic: The improvised weapon master may mimic any martial melee weapon with Weapon Mimic, instead of just simple weapons.

-------

Improvise Weapon Proficiency [General]

You have learnt to use improvised weapons with the same skill as normal weapons.

Requirements: Simple Weapon Proficiency, BAB +1, Int 11+

You take no nonproficiency penalty when wielding improvised weapons.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | God on the Brain

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | God on the Brain

Interesting.

My Lil Sisters Blog

My little sister has a blog. She's plagiarised my blog extensively, but I don't mind.







note to sarah: code for this is <(REMOVE)a href="http://pony_horse.blogspot.com"><(REMOVE)img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/55/1108/640/sarahs-blog.jpg'><(REMOVE)/a>

Banner for Linkage

When linking to this site, you can use this code:

(div align=center)(a href="http://peanutcomments.blogspot.com")(img border='0' style='border:1px solid #000000; margin:1px' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/55/1108/640/peanutbanner.1.jpg')(/a)(/div)

by replacing all brackets with < or >.

Or you can use this banner.


with this code:

(div align=center)(a href="http://peanutcomments.blogspot.com")(img border='0' style='border:1px solid #000000; margin:1px' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/55/1108/640/peanut-communists2.jpg')(/a)(/div)

Howard Finally Calls The Election

Well, he's finally going to call the election. At least there's not going to be any more waiting. We all know he's only calling the election to avoid an inquiry in the Senate about the Children Overboard affair, but it's a bit of a relief.

The parlimentary system is okay, but I really, really, hate the fact that the Government gets to choose when the election is held. It means they just choose when they think it will be the best for them to win.

Like I've said before, politics should not be a game.

Opals lose to Team USA

In the womens basketball today, it was USA all the way for victory. The American team played their best, and were rewarded for the effort. The Australian team just didn't seem to be in their best form: missing baskets and foul shots on several occasions, and not penetrating the American defense the way they did against Brazil. The refereeing was also quite suss: an American throw-in when it was obviously an American touch-out, and several wierd fouls that almost eliminated two of the top Aussie players, sending them to the bench. It seemed that luck just didn't come the Aussie's way this time.

Of course, the bad calls didn't help, and I think that this has been a problem at this year's Olympics.

Going to Melbourne

I'm going to Melbourne this weekend so I won't be able to respond to any comments for the next two days.

Random Rant: The Trouble with Corporations

The problem with corporations is that they have no ethics. This is because they only have one responsibility: to make the maximum amount of profit for their shareholders. Individuals associate with the corporation-stockholders, boardmembers, employees, all will probably have a moral and ethical standard, but none of them will really have enough power to force that on the company, and their morals and ethics eventually end up averaging to nothing. Look at Enron: the perfect example of a corporation gone wrong. You may blame the boardmembers(and that's entirely correct: you blame the thief for the theft), but everybody involved has partial responsibility for the disaster: all they were looking for was the bottom line.

Corporations may look and/or act ethically, but this is only because their bottom line is enhanced by looking and/or acting ethically, not because they have an ethical standard.

The alternate option, of course, is single-owner business. One person can keep a business to an ethical standardWhile this works well at a low-level, major global businesses will not work as well because it is harder for one person to gain the capital than for six, or six hundred. There are obviously exceptions, of course.

What is the solution to this problem? I'm not sure. I'm thinking of maybe a system where the business is owned by the employees, but that just ends up with the business hiring the shareholders. Maybe ownership by the customers? Like co-ops? That sounds like a good idea, but I don't have a degree in economics, so I don't think I have the solution.

Further reading:

Ethical Corporation Magazine

Acquistion: Complete Warrior

On Tuesday I received Complete Warrior from Amazon. Complete Warrior is a D&D book that focuses on combat, rather than spellcasting(arcane or divine) or mad rogue skillz. I haven't used the book in a game so I won't post a full review, but my overall impression of the book is favourable.

The production quality is superb, as you'd expect, and the artwork is generally excellent, with one exception: the Dark Hunter. I just didn't like the look of it.

The new classes are fun, especially the curse-based Hexblade, though I would prefer a more flexible Samurai class. The prestige classes are generally good, but some are only average. I particularly enjoyed the Master of the Unseen Hand, a class focused on telekininesis.

All of the feats were excellent, and I really liked the new tactical and style feats, which add a lot of style to a character. Tactical feats are three microfeats added up to one, and style feats allow characters with particular weapon styles to execute interesting manuevers. My favorite feat was probably Divine Shield, which allows a paladin or cleric to give up a turning attempting and shield the group from energy damage.

One thing I would have liked to have seen is more Hexblade spells, but you can't have everything. Four new domains are presented, especially suited to warrior clerics.

The final chapter is the one I found the most useful. It starts with a discussion of warfare and how it could be affected by magic. The discussion focuses on two possible paradigms of fantasy warfare: a historical, epic style and a gritty, modern style. Both present mechanics to go with the excellent fluff. It then discusses the role of Player Characters in the army, and what kind of missions they could be expected to undergo. I am using this information heavily in my new campaign, which focuses on a war in the Glaadholds of Camberweld.

The chapter then moves on to Sporting Combat: jousting, archery competitions, gladiatiorial battles, etc. It covers each section in detail, giving mechanics and information equal balance. The mechanics are solid and well-built on the foundations of existing rules, and the discussion shows research and knowledge of its topic.

Then the book goes on to the role of religon in warfare, and discusses the role of the Greyhawk deities in the life of warriors. It then has a pantheon of deities designed for a war-oriented campaign, which I will add to the almost 10,000 gods so far discovered by research theologists in Camberweld.

The book ends with several epic feats and exotic weapons, mostly reprints but at least one new weapon: the boomerang.

I'd reccomend this book to any player who likes running a fighter character in D&D.

Conservative Homeschooling

Strangely Normal: Unrepentantly Retro

A look at the other side of the fence.

Why No American Olympic Baseballers?

I was just watching the olympics yesterday, and saw the Aussies crush the Japs (gold medal favourites) and take the silver medal. Why doesn't America, home of baseball, have an olympic baseball team? Is it because the major league is still going and doesn't want to give up its players?

Parties welcome new election advertising rules - National - www.theage.com.au

Parties welcome new election advertising rules-www.theage.com.au

Well, this is certainly a turn for the books. "No accuracy required" for political advertising? What are they thinking?

The Skeptic's Annotated Bible

The Skeptic's Annotated Bible

Also covers the book of Mormon and the Koran. This pretty much sums up why people are atheists, and why I don't take the Bible as an automatic truth.


I promise, this is the last time I argue religon on this blog. It's pointless and only hurts people's feelings, but I think this link might be of interest to other atheists.

Jasikevicius Makes His Point to U.S. washingtonpost.com

Boomers lose to the Dream Team

Last night I watched the Australian basketballers take on the Dream Team. They did an excellent job, and lead the game by between 4-10 points all the way up to the 4th Quarter. The Americans, while definitely taller, lacked cohesiveness and communication, while the Aussies uses teamplay and skills to keep a strong defense and offense.

Unfortunately, the Americans made a few substitutions and got a talking-to from the coach, pulled themselves together, and managed to use their height and speed to pull themselves to a 10 point lead. However, the Aussies didn't make it easy. The end result looked deceptively good for the Americans in this case. Good on yer, Boomers!

Commenting Fixed

I've fixed up the problem with commenting. You can now comment by clicking "Start Ranting" on the comments page.

The Brick Testament

The Brick Testament

The Bible(tm): Now in convenient brick form.

Perhaps one should not follow the bible alone. Most "good Christians" don't. If they eat pork, they aren't following the bible.

There's good stuff in there, but the bible isn't all good.

Blogbar

Been using the blogbar to randomly go through blogs. Quite interesting.

What suprised me was the amount of blogs with absolutely unreadable typing.
jus lik ths. i + mny otrs thnk ts a bd thng.

Please, people, don't type like that. It's unreadable and not a good reflection on yourself.

Irregular Webcomic

Irregular Webcomic

Very funny webcomic. Worthy of linkage.

Zombie Plague, Part 1

Bob stopped climbing the cable for a second and looked down. A group of five human figures was slowly crawling up the sides of the elevator shaft. Fear shot through him, but he looked up again, and gritted his teeth. He reached up, pulled, and pushed with his legs, moving further up the shaft, towards the opening on the 27th floor.

Beeping noises from below suddenly startled him. He recognized the beeping. A mobile phone was ringing. Retching in the back of his throat, he remember that the zombies had until recently been living people. Normal people with normal lives, normal families, normal jobs. He choked, held back the vomit, and kept moving upwards, moving his tired muscles again and again.

After what seemed like an eternity, the door loomed within a metre or so. The zombies were far behind. But as he pulled himself up to the door, he felt his hands tap. The doors were glass, and they were closed. Standing and barely balancing on the tiny ledge, he quickly thought.

With no time to catch his breath, he leapt, grabbed the cable, and swung to the other side of the elevator. He pushed, hard, and swung back, slamming into the plate glass and smashing it open. Shards tearing at his skin, He fell through the glass. Blood dripped onto the carpet as he pulled himself up. He found himself in an room filled with cubicles, but saw no zombies among the short partitions.

His wounds were painful, but nothing critical, and he looked for some way to stop the zombies. No solution presented itself, until he noticed the button on the elevator door. It was still green and glowing. He hit it. A rumble shuddered through the building, and a few seconds later, an elevator passed down through the shaft.

From one of the corridors, he heard a stomping noise, like several feet slowly walking in step. Bob quickly ducked into a cubicle. The computer in the cubicle showed bouncing squares. A low moaning filled the room, same as the other zombies in the shopfloor had made. There seemed to be no escape other than to sit tight in the cubicle and hope the zombies avoided it.

-to be continued

Howard told overboard claim wrong - National - www.theage.com.au

Howard told overboard claim wrong - National - www.theage.com.au

More reasons why John Howard is a slimy bugger who has devasted Australian politics and must, absolutely must, be thrown out of office this year.

Review: "Bloom" by Wil McCarthy

"Bloom" by Wil McCarthy is a well-written hard SF story about the dangers of self-replicating techonology. In the book, a man-made microorganism called mycora eats the earth and the inner solar system(which becomes known as the Mycosystem), leaving only two societies surviving: the Jovian Immunity and the asteroid belt Gladholders. The story, told by a "blogger"-type journalist(good stuff there) from the Immunity, chronicles the travels of an Immunity ship into the Mycosystem.
The technology in the book was thouroughly believable, though advanced. I liked the imagination and research that McCarthy obviously put into this work.The societies were believable, and imaginative, portraying two totally different ways of living on the edge of disaster.
McCarthy has also done an excellent job on the characters: they are deep and you can understand them. The main character is really brought to life by McCarthy's writing.
Overall, this book was almost perfect. The only thing that I disliked was the ending: it felt far too mystical and transcendental as compared to the excellent Hard SF that preceded it. I won't give away details, but I do think that a more plausible ending could have been concocted.
Rating: 9/10

Athens 2004

Aussies have been doing well this year: congrats to all our winners.

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE! OI OI OI!

John Howard: P.M.

John Howard: P.M.

What John Howard really thinks.

Review: "Cradle of Saturn" by James Hogan

I recently read "Cradle of Saturn" by James P. Hogan, a book that on the surface seems to be very traditional science fiction. But one thing seperates it from normal SF: Hogan's continual theme that travels through all his books that everything humanity knows is wrong. His books almost always have a story that involves, as a central plot, proving that all science is wrong. But something just doesn't ring true about his books: the examples that he uses to prove science wrong seem to me like they would be exceptions to the rule or the kind of thing that a scientist would be able to disprove. I think that he comes across these facts, but isn't seeing the big picture that a specialist in that fact's field would see. In one specific instance, he talks about dinosaurs being impossibly large for earth's gravity, and then uses a "fact" to prove it: pterandons weighed hundreds of pounds, and would. This is infact untrue: scientists have worked out that they weighed between 30-35 kilos: around the same as those big albatrosses, but a bit larger.

Also, his "perfect society" in the book rings untrue as well: a society without money or any sort of gain for working, and people still work as hard as they can. Call me a pessimist, but I just don't believe that kind of society would work.

His character is also a pretty sterotypical "engineer-hero", common to traditional SF. Overall, the characters have little depth, and the science is very weak. The writing is adequate, but doesn't strive to be better, which is the way I would describe the whole book: adequate, but only adequate.
Rating: 4/10

Racism: Why?

I just heard on the television a reference to George Bush speaking at an "African-American church". That sentence pretty much shows you what is wrong with a lot of America. The problem isn't that the church's attendees are primarily African-American: it's that that is the defining adjective for that church. Americans need to stop dividing everything along racial lines. It's not healthy. Just look at any statistic in America and you'll probably see a breakdown along racial lines. What the hell is going on here? If you have to break it down, break it down along economic lines. Race will only cease to be an issue when people stop making it into one.

Albino Blacksheep / Flash / Irrational Exuberance (Yatta)

Albino Blacksheep / Flash / Irrational Exuberance (Yatta)

Just Watch It!
Hilarious.

For those confused, it's a song by a Japanese band who obviously don't understand what the hell they are singing, with animation added.

Bravenet GuestMap - Bravenet.com

Sign my guestmap, please? Pretty please with sugar on top?

Consider Others

Just a quick thought: please consider the feelings of other people in any action. If we all did this, the world would be a much happier place.

Trump Fires Bush on the Apprentice: See Donald Trump fire George Bush.

Trump Fires Bush on the Apprentice: See Donald Trump fire George Bush.

Funny.

CNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Today, me and my friends Luis and William have been working on a satirical news video called CNNNNNNNNNNNNN. It's quite funny, but needs work and will take a few more days to finish. We already have completed 2 episodes, though, and may upload them at some time in the future.

John Howard Lies

This just shows you about how much John Howard cares about honesty.

John Howard Lies