random bits

[cellio]

Now there's an odd failure mode. Tonight I opened a book I bought recently (new) and found that it begins on page 41. Nothing was torn out; it appears to be a binding error. I guess I should have checked sooner (I bought it a couple months ago), but it's a torah commentary on Exodus, which we start this week, so I didn't need it before now. Fortunately, Amazon has an extended return period for books bought late in the year, so they'll exchange it and I don't even have to pay to ship it back. Yay.

Dani has decided to tackle the vast collection of Magic: The Gathering cards (most of which are his, but the older cards are mine). We haven't played in years; I would consider playing again in a simplified world, but they lost me when not only were there 6000 different cards, but they decided that many of the commons needed four different types of art. When I can't easily track what my opponent has in play, I lose interest. I understand that it's worse now; Dani says they are still publishing expansions and making money at it. After 12 or 13 years of this, I wonder how many cards there are now. (For comparison, the basic game, the one I played in the beta edition, had 300 cards. The first, and best, expansion set added, I think, about 75. Things went downhill from there.)

A few links:

These "new rules" might be incorrectly attributed (the reason they're on Snopes), but they sure are funny.

Advice from hindsight (from unspace).

This biscotti recipe sounds easy enough to try (from cookingengineer).

The origins of the great war of 2007 (link from rjlippincott).

Aieee. As tsjafo comments, I wouldn't trust the government with a pill that can alter memories. Granted, they're a long way from erasure, but I still don't trust that sort of technology in the hands of anyone with the power to compel -- in which category I would also place health providers, 'cause they're mostly owned by the insurance companies.

Comments

[loosecanon.livejournal.com]

just so you know, if you ever encounter a misprinted book of that nature, the publisher normally buys them back if the vendor wont.
It happens more often than you might think =(

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Wow, Guy still exists! I remember being very amused when he landed what was essentially the first "Professional Fanboy!" job ever.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

PS: 6000 MtG cards is not that far off. Best estimate I can find is 7943, based on searching the card database (http://gatherer.wizards.com/) for 'a' and 'e' and stuff like that.

I gave up when they invented the Shadow power, which was defined as:
Shadow: All cards in this expansion automatically beat anyone without this expansion. You must now buy all of this expansion.*
It was a bit too obvious. I occasionally consider selling my old cards; I'd probably get somewhere in the $100-500 range if I spent the time to do it right, but....eh.

(* I might have the wording wrong.)

M:TG

[rectangularcat]

I used to have a complete set set of white and blue cards...

Yeah I got into it when it was beta.. and one year I sold most of my cards to pay for my tuition. Good move on my part. I still have my beta Black Lotus which apparently is the most valuable card of all...

I have no idea how it plays anymore - there were too many cards to think about. And I was bored of it.

I know someone who works in their art department - he designed a few of their newer cards.

[dogofjustice.livejournal.com]

Actually, 5-6 years ago the game went back uphill to some extent. Wizards figured out how to keep new expansions at roughly the same power level as the preceding ones. (Also, they stopped the "four different types of art" thing a long long time ago.)

The most commonly played formats only permit ~300-1500 of the most recently printed cards. It isn't difficult to jump back into the game. Of course, the bad news is that most of the cards you can acquire now will be nearly unusuable 2 years from now since they won't be legal in any commonly sanctioned format except "Extended".

[moose]

re: Drugs that can alter memories --
If you haven't, I highly recommend reading Jonathan Lethem's first (published) novel, "Gun, With Occasional Music."

It's a surreal murder mystery with "film noir" style setting along with science fiction elements. It's got scientifically-evolved animals, babies that aren't really babies, and drugs that mess with your mind.

I can't explain more, not just because it'd give away the specialness of the book but because... it just has to be read.

Anyway. That's what popped into my head when you mentioned that drug.