IP Masochism: Games Workshop C&D craziness promises customer blowback

I caught on Slashdot this morning that Games Workshop, the publisher of Warhammer 40,000 (which I have gotten into this past year) has sent a very harsh cease & desist to BoardGameGeek, a website devoted to all things pertaining to tabletop gaming. The C&D from Games Workshop has ordered BoardGameGeek to "remove all fan-made players' aids. This includes scenarios, rules summaries, inventory manifests, scans to help replace worn pieces -- many of these created for long out of print, well-loved games. GW did this shortly after building a lot of good will by re-releasing their out of print game 'Space Hulk' to much hoopla."

What the hell is Games Workshop thinking?

Ya know, I'm no stranger to the crazy world of alleged "copyright infringement". And even though my situation was in the purview of the American legal system and Games Workshop is a company based in the United Kingdom, some things are common sense no matter where the jurisdiction is. I didn't mind it that my TV commercial was picked up and broadcast without my permission: I was too honored that so many (like E!'s The Soup and Jay Leno) found it interesting, thought-provoking and funny enough to share with others than to get angry at them for it.

So it should be with Games Workshop. Especially in these days of downturned global economy. Fans of Warhammer 40,000 and other Games Workshop products are doing the company a huge favor by demonstrating their love and loyalty to the game and its fictional universe. It's free advertising that Games Workshop doesn't have to spend a single pound or dollar on. The company had already come to rely on word of mouth to maintain and generate interest in Warhammer 40,000. Well, that's all it is that these fans are doing. There is no intent to violate intellectual property on their part, and every intention to support the game.

But it looks like Games Workshop has no intention of likewise supporting the players, and is even choosing to punish them for their enthusiasm.

This will come back to haunt Games Workshop in the end. Maybe not in the short term but in the long range of vision this is going to drive away many of even the most loyal customers that they currently enjoy. What Games Workshop is doing is not good marketing at all. The company needs to reconsider its position and like yesterday, if it wants Warhammer 40,000 to continue with anything like robust growth.

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National Novel Writing Month 2009 is now over...

...so, did I finish mine?

Unfortunately, I have to report that I did not.

It was back in late July that I first mentioned that I was taking part in this year's National Novel Writing Month. About how each participant had to churn out a 175-page novel between November 1st and the night of November 30th. When all was said and done I missed the mark by about 60 pages: not enough to qualify as having been successful.

But that's okay. In spite of a month of unforeseen circumstance I produced a lot of material for my novel. And it will be finished soon.

And then, Lord willing, I will be able to share the tale of W------ F--- with y'all :-)

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War Machine has his back: Teaser poster for IRON MAN 2

The new poster for Iron Man 2 was released yesterday and unless you saw the footage that was shown at this year's Comic-Con (which I didn't see, 'cuz I've never visited California, and I'd like to someday :-) then this is our first glimpse of War Machine. Looks great! I especially love how they included the shoulder-mounted cannon. And throwing Don Cheadle into the armor only makes it better!

Iron Man 2 flies onto screens on May 7th, 2010.

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Darth Vader rings the bell for the Salvation Army

Woe be the person who doesn't have some spare change for the Dark Lord of the Sith...

Don't worry. It's just the fine folks of the 501st Legion doing what they do best: using their love of the Star Wars saga to do good in the community. In this case it's volunteering to ring the bell for those Salvation Army red kettles in Jefferson City, Missouri.

Click here for the story and more photos.

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If the Earth had rings...

...it would possibly look like what Roy Prol has cooked up in this 3D animation. Prol took into account the Roche limit for Earth's mass to calculate the size and distance of the rings from the surface, and also how the rings would look from various latitudes on Earth.

Check it out!

Thanks to Shane Thacker for this thought-provoking and beautiful find.

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Thought that came to mind while driving around Greensboro today

He who establishes his identity not in what he is but what he is not is worse than the most foolish of men.

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GEARS OF WAR: ANVIL GATE coming in March 2010

While we're waiting for word on Gears of War 3 (which is being whispered will be released sometime late next year), the story of Marcus Fenix and the rest of Delta Squad will continue in the meantime with Karen Traviss' upcoming novel Gears of War: Anvil Gate, scheduled for publication on March 30, 2010.

Here's the book's description on Amazon's UK site...

With the Locust Horde apparently destroyed, Jacinto's survivors have begun to rebuild human society on their island stronghold. Raiding pirate gangs take a toll - but it's nothing that Marcus Fenix and the Gears can't handle. Then the terrifying life-forms they thought they'd left behind - the Lambent, creatures even the Locust feared - begin to advance across the planet. Gears and gangs must fight side by side to stop their deadliest enemy yet, falling back on the savage tactics of another bloody siege: Anvil Gate.

So it's gonna be a direct sequel to Traviss' Gears of War: Jacinto's Remnant, which itself was a superb follow-up to the events of Gears of War 2 (and if you're anything at all a fan of all things C.O.G., Jacinto's Remnant should be obligatory reading).

And Marcus, Dom, Cole, Baird, Anya, and the rest are going to have to now fight the Lambent, while in the process we learn what went down at the Battle of Anvil Gate. Oughtta be a great thrill!

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Climate data was DUMPED, East Anglia scientists admit

"Climategate" is a little over a week old but already is gaining steam faster than most scandals. Curiously most of the "mainstream press" has yet to pick up on it. Out of embarrassment, perhaps?

Well, this next item of news related to last week's leaking of confidential material from the Climate Research Unit outta raise ire even more: scientists at University East Anglia are now confessing to disposing of ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS worth of climate data! There is now no raw data to analyze and determine if there has been any real global warming... or global cooling for that matter.

What the hell kind of researchers throws away a century and a half of raw data upon which their studies are based? That's like a courtroom prosecutor chucking out all the evidence in the hopes that a jury will simply take him at his word that the defendant on trial is a serial murderer.

(Methinks that while we're using legal metaphor, that there is becoming a growing body of proof that "scientists" worldwide have been engaging in a gross act of scheming to defraud in the first degree.)

Seriously: how much storage is required to contain all that data? A regular 500 gigabyte hard drive like the kind probably in your computer? Likely not even that much. So they can't excuse this away by claiming that there "wasn't enough room" to keep the raw data. The CRU eggheads have a lotta 'splainin' to do...

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Where is THE ROAD?!? Help me find it!

A few days ago The Road, the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's bestselling novel, premiered. I've been looking forward to this movie ever since reading the book over the summer. But Alas! I am scanning the local horizon like crazy and The Road is nowhere to be found within a 100 mile radius of here.

So I'm gonna turn to this blog's loyal readers (all two of them and maybe others?) to help me out, 'cuz I am bound and determined to see The Road as soon as I can. If you know of any theater in North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, heck maybe even Georgia and eastern Tennessee, that is currently running The Road, e-mail me at theknightshift@gmail.com and please lemme know where it can be located at. I'm seriously looking forward to watching this film (and writin' a review of it 'course :-)!

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How'd them fried turkeys come out? Behold the pics and video!

Last year it was the outrageously jacked-up price of peanut oil that kept fried turkey from being economically feasible.  This year I thought the price had gone down when I went to buy it, but turns out I was using cottonseed oil instead!  Which turned out to be a pleasant surprise.  I'd been wanting to try cottonseed oil for awhile now but couldn't find it anywhere.  Same great taste when all was done though!

Here's the first bird that I did (for a customer), after about 30 hours of marinading and rubbing-in seasoning, as it awaits the 350 degree Fahrenheit hot oil...

Yours Truly carefully lowering the turkey in...

Frying at 3 and a half minutes per pound, this 9-pounder took 35 minutes to cook...

A little over half an hour later (a heckuva lot shorter time than basting it in an oven) this turkey is done!

Beautiful, ain't it? :-)

Now this next one is the turkey that I fried for my own family's Thanksgiving dinner. And lemme tell ya: I've never done one this big before. It weighed in at more than TWENTY AND A HALF POUNDS! I nicknamed it "The Beast", it was so monstrously large. Think the previous biggest one was about 13 pounds and I darn nearly had cardiac infarction when Dad told me how big a bird he had purchased. But, I'm always up for a challenge.

Here's "The Beast" before frying...

A turkey this big deserves something better than just still pics, don't ya think? So how about a video clip of me lowering it into the oil...

"The Beast" took 75 minutes to thoroughly fry...

And an hour and fifteen minutes later...

That is going to be my personal standard by which all future fried turkeys will be judged. If all the rest to come can be as big and juicy and delicious as The Beast, I will be happy :-)

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What I am thankful for this year

I admit: it is not a habit that I have kept up very well. A number of years ago my friend Chad Austin made a post on his own blog for Thanksgiving about the things that he was thankful for. And I resolved then that I would do the same and stick to it.

Well, I missed it last year (because of some circumstance that a few of you are now aware of). But it's a funny thing: now, two years since the last time I said I was thankful, I feel more thankful than ever before... and thankful for things that maybe I didn't appreciate as fully as I should have been.

Thanksgiving remains a uniquely American holiday. No other place in the world, so far as I know, has a holiday devoted to reflection upon the blessings in our lives. Yes, I know: our Jewish brethren and many other religious groups do have festivals of thanks to God. But Thanksgiving enjoys the curious place of being perhaps the one holiday with anything like a spiritual basis that is endorsed by an understandably secular government. That doesn't mean that I think Thanksgiving is a strictly "Christian" affair.. but you've gotta admit: we would all be the better for it if we spent more time thankful for what we do have, and not lamenting that which we don't.

So without further ado, here is what I am thankful for as we wind down 2009...

I am thankful, more than I can possibly express, for the very many wonderful friends that I have been blessed with throughout my life.

I am thankful that for those friendships which may have fallen by the wayside, that there is hope for the reconciliation that I fervently pray for each day.

I am thankful for my Mom and Dad, who have always been there for me... even when I have been at my lowest.

I am thankful for my sister, who is far more an inspiration than she will ever know.

I am thankful for all of my family, now spread out throughout the world...

...and thanks to Facebook we are keeping in touch with each other more than ever before!

I am thankful for the very many opportunities that God has opened up for me in recent months, and I look forward to seeing where they might take me.

I am thankful to be an alumnus of Elon University, not only because I love the school but because the Phoenix have become the team to watch in football and basketball.

I am thankful for the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County and everything - and everyone - that comes with being involved with it!

I am thankful for this blog, which in however small a way I want to believe might be an encouragement for anyone who might find their way here to take a stand and contribute their own unique voice and perspective to the world.

I am thankful for discovering the joy of Warhammer 40,000 and Monsterpocalypse this past year, and the numerous friendships that have come about from meeting to play those games.

I am thankful for YouTube, which is always there to show me how to tie a necktie whenever I need the instruction.

I am thankful to live in the country, where I can take my telescope out on any clear dark night and use it as I please without getting honked-off at light pollution.

I am thankful for getting to see my life-long best friend Chad Austin get married this past summer.

I am thankful that I get to be creative and productive, and can now get away with it after some previous stunts finally garnered me some hard-earned street cred (especially among my family ;-).

I am thankful for Fallout 3, which has to date consumed 130 hours of my life (and still counting...).

I am thankful that I am getting to learn more of the fine art of knifemaking from Dad.

But, most of all...

...I am thankful that I serve an awesome God, Who has been faithful to me even when I have not been as faithful to Him. I am thankful that His grace is sufficient to cover the unbelievable amount of shortcomings that are in my life. I am thankful that even though I do fall and make many mistakes, that He is ever there to pick me up, dust me off, and be beside me closer than a friend as I continue on the difficult, strange and at times all-out wacky journey that is life.

If am am thankful for nothing else, then I am thankful that I have Christ in my life. And I am thankful for being able to see, thirteen years later, that He is a presence in my life... and one that I want to grow all the more, for as long as I am in this world.

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How much do I hate Christmas songs before Thanksgiving?

So earlier today on Facebook I made the following status update...

Chris Knight says that it's TOO EARLY for Christmas music!! Can't we wait until Friday?! If I hear ONE MORE #&@% Christmas song I will brutally murder a kitten. In the name of all that's good and holy, THINK OF THE KITTENS!!

My good friend Lee Shelton (who is celebrating his first Thanksgiving as a father this year, congrats Lee!) read that, and decided that I was not nearly vehement enough about that sentiment.

And so, Lee made the following visual reinforcement...

Lee, next year I'm going to go around all month of November wearing a t-shirt with that graphic on it :-P

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Stephen King working on a sequel to THE SHINING

This could be very promising: Stephen King has announced that he is planning a sequel to The Shining, his 1977 novel that was later made into two movies (including the 1980 original directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Jack Nicholson).

The planned title for the sequel is Doctor Sleep. And so far as what it would be about, King plans to revisit the story of Danny Torrance, now forty years old "...and living in upstate New York, where he works as the equivalent of an orderly at a hospice for the terminally ill. Danny’s real job is to visit with patients who are just about to pass on to the other side, and to help them make that journey with the aid of his mysterious powers. Danny also has a sideline in betting on the horses, a trick he learned from his buddy Dick Hallorann."

I'm cool with that. And a revisit to the Dark Tower series as well (which King has recently said he's working on too). Just as long as there's no follow-up to The Stand: whatever happens after that story needs to stay in our imagination.

But more tales of Danny Torrance? Sounds intriguing...

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The Muppets perform BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY!

Somewhere, Jim Henson and Freddie Mercury are smiling and laughing their heads off...

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This DESERVES to be a real Thanksgiving TV special...

It's not the first time that I've blogged about this. But a short film this good easily merits sharing more than once. And who knows, there might be some who have never had the pleasure of seeing it before.

Here is that brilliant, spot-on and hilarious spoof of Ron Howard's Apollo 13 that Gene Kranz himself has taken to watching with his family as a holiday tradition.

Behold: Thanksgiving With The Kranzes...

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Thanksgiving 2009: And so it begins...

The twenty-pound turkey (what the heck was Dad thinking?!?) that will be our own family's main course tomorrow. Since this is the biggest bird of the batch, I used this one to do the "water trick" with to measure out how much peanut oil to pour into the pot tomorrow morning. That means you put the turkey in, and start pouring cold water into the pot until it meets the top of the turkey. Then take it out and make a mark (I use a piece of tape) at the water line minus the displacement. That way you don't have to rough guess and risk flames and destruction when peanut oil comes flowing over the top of the pot...

So all the birds are now marinaded and well-rubbed in with Cajun seasoning. There'll be several more treatments throughout the day but for now "the chef" is going to take a break and do something I've hardly had time to do at all the past few months: finally get into seriously playing Batman: Arkham Asylum :-)

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Random thought/proverb/wisdom/whatever

There is one letter's difference between "fame" and "fake"... and often not even that much.

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