Robert Sheckley: R.I.P.

From John Shirley's website:

"My old friend Robert Sheckley has died, of complications following an operation for a brain aneurism. His widow is the writer Gail Dana. Sheckley and I knew each other for some years, and I read him as a boy. I used to hang out with him in Paris, in the late 1980s, when we both lived there. Bob was a great guy, and fine company, never letting his deep-seated stammer stop him from conversation. An old-time Bohemian, Sheckley had periods of partying and wandering, though never ceasing to write. (We had that and other connections in common.) Most importantly, Robert Sheckley was a very, very distinct voice as a writer and a great influence on many people, Douglas Adams and Harlan Ellison amongst others.

"Sheckley was fiction editor of Omni Magazine for two years and recipient of various awards. His fiction inspired works by such avant rockers as Frank Zappa and Brian Eno. Sheckley was a Visiting Scholar at the Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT in Boston in 1983. In 1991 he received the Raymond Z. Gallun award for contributions to the genre of science-fiction.

"A master of the short story, Sheckley was never short on ideas, and his whimsical, insightful, hipster's take on the human condition, always skillfully expressed, lightened the existential load while somehow acknowledging life's absurdities."

From the New York Times' website:

"December 10, 2005

"Robert Sheckley, 77, Writer of Satirical Science Fiction, Is Dead

"By GERALD JONAS

"Robert Sheckley, a writer of science fiction whose disarmingly playful stories pack a nihilistic subtext, died yesterday in Poughkeepsie. He was 77 and lived in Red Hook, N.Y.

"'The cause was complications of a brain aneurysm,' said his former wife, Ziva Kwitney. Mr. Sheckley wrote more than 15 novels and around 400 short stories; the actual total is uncertain since he was so prolific in his heyday, the 1950's and 60's, that magazine editors insisted he publish some stories under pseudonyms to avoid having his byline appear more than once in an issue.

"Four of his stories were made into films; the best known, 'The Tenth Victim' (1965), starred Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress.

"Born in Brooklyn and raised in Maplewood, N.J., Robert Sheckley joined the Army in 1946 after graduating from high school, and served in Korea. In 1951 he received an undergraduate degree from New York University and sold his first short story.

"Over the next two decades, he was a major force in the development of modern science fiction. His first collection of stories, published in 1954, was hailed as one of the finest debut volumes in the field. In the 1960's he found a wider market for his science fiction in magazines like Playboy.

"Many of his novels were well received, among them 'Journey Beyond Tomorrow'(1962) and 'Dimension of Miracles' (1968), but Mr. Sheckley was best known for his short stories. At a time when science fiction was just starting to grapple with the social implications of technology - from atomic bombs to missile-carrying rockets - Mr. Sheckley turned a satirist's eye on the genre and its concerns.

"Like Ray Bradbury, he was interested in the scientific apparatus of science fiction - space travel, time travel, extrapolated futures - only so far as it served his purpose. While Mr. Bradbury poetically mourns the failure to live up to our dreams of the future, Mr. Sheckley mocked the self-delusions that lead to dreams in the first place.

"He reveled in the freedom the genre afforded him to dramatize the fears and anxieties of everyday life. When he wrote about the war between the sexes, he conjured a future in which disappointed lovers had the legal option of using real bullets to express their anger. When he wrote about alienation as a state of mind, he sealed the reader in an endless loop of disaffection that reduced the outside world to a hallucination wrapped in an illusion.

"Because he leavened his darkest visions with wit and absurdist plotting, he is considered one of science fiction's seminal humorists, and a precursor to Douglas Adams, whose 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' (1979) seems to take place in a Sheckleyan universe. But Mr. Sheckley's work is darker than Mr. Adams's; the smiles he evokes leave a bitter taste on the lips. A better comparison might be to Kafka, a fabulist who could never understood why his friends didn't laugh when he read his stories to them.

"Mr. Sheckley's fiction has been translated into German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Finnish and Lithuanian. His work is especially popular in Russia and Eastern Europe.

"Mr. Sheckley's marriages to his first four wives, Barbara Scadron, Ms. Kwitney, Abby Schulman and Jay Rothbell, ended in divorce. At the time of his death he was separated from his fifth wife, Gail Dana. Other survivors include a son, Jason, from his first marriage, a daughter, Alisa Kwitney, from his second marriage; a daughter, Anya, and a son, Jed, from his third marriage; his sister Joan Klein of New York; and three grandchildren."

Play Infocom Adventures Online

This site requires Java to use it, but once again you too can play those incredibly frustrating Infocom text-based adventure games from the 80s. It only took me a minute to remember why I hated the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy game. These are for online only use, so no downloads (unfortunately). See the bottom of the post for stuff you can download!

Play Infocom Adventures Online

Zork I: The Great Underground Empire
Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz
Zork III: The Dungeon Master
Zork: The Undiscovered Underground
Enchanter
Seastalker
Sorcerer
Spellbreaker
Wishbringer
Starcross
Suspended
Planetfall
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Stationfall
Deadline
The Witness
Leather Goddesses of Phobos
The Lurking Horror

Here, on this Infocom fan site you can find the downloads for various versions of the Zork game.

Enjoy.

Comedian Richard Pryor dead at 65

This is a great loss to comedy, regardless of how long it has been since he performed. This is a great loss indeed.

Comedian Richard Pryor dead at 65

"Groundbreaking US comedian Richard Pryor has died at the age of 65 after a long illness.

"He died of a heart attack at his home in California's San Fernando Valley, according to his ex-wife, Flyn Pryor.

"He had been ill for years with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.

"A series of hit comedies in the 1970s and 1980s - including Stir Crazy and Silver Streak - helped make him one of Hollywood's highest-paid stars."

Class Alternatives: Challenger

I'm a fan of the d20 Modern system, however I have never really been a fan of the classes that are in the book. The generic classes just never lit a fire under me enough to make me be able to really get into the system.

To that end, I am working on a line called Class Alternatives for Battlefield Press, Inc. that will be able to be used in place of the classes that are standard to the d20 Modern system. These are not new Advanced Classes, or Prestige Classes, or anything like that. These are fully functioning 20-level classes designed specifically for use in modern campaigns. Most of these classes will be designed around Pulp, "Neo-Pulp," or other adventure fiction archetypes. Each class will be completely self-contained, all that will be needed to bring that character into play in your d20 Modern campaigns will be the core rules and a copy of the class that is wished to be used by players.

As these are still in development, page counts are not exact but each Class Alternative will have all of the information on the class, any new or altered Skills and Feats and appropriate Occupations for that character class. Each Class Alternative will be fully compatible with your d20 Modern campaign, but not necessarily with characters created using the standard d20 Modern rules. Right now, classes in development are the Challenger and the Empowered.

A part of Battlefield Press, Inc.'s Modern Options line, the Class Alternatives bring new concepts, options and ideas to your d20 Modern campaigns.

Working at Penguin

People always seem to wonder, but never quite know, what particular jobs at a publisher actually do. Not very in-depth, but interesting tolook through.

Working at Penguin

Trading bibles for porn in San Antonio

"A group of atheists at the University of Texas in San Antonio is trying to tempt college kids into trading their Bibles for pornography.

"It's part of a program called Smut for Smut sponsored by the student organization called Atheist Agenda."

Trading bibles for porn in San Antonio

Thanks, Jonny!

Lego Dice Roller

"Introducing GameByEmail's Dice-O-Matic. Made from Legos, a USB camera, and a bit of software, it's a home-grown, dice-rolling monster. Don't let it's rickety looks deceive you; this puppy can easily crank out the 20,000 rolls a day consumed by GamesByEmail. In fact, at full speed it averages almost one roll a second, well over 80,000 a day!"

Lego Dice Roller [via Boing Boing]

Green Ronin Online Store: Mutants & Masterminds, Second Edition (PDF)

Green Ronin publishers is now offering a PDF version of their 2nd edition Mutants and Masterminds game, for sale direct from their online store. No associate code here, but I figured it was worth passing along to the masses.

Green Ronin Online Store: Mutants & Masterminds, Second Edition (PDF)

Q-Unit - Greatest Hits

Who knows how long this will be up (it seems like a couple of the sites have already been taken down, but this is a pretty brilliant Mash-Up of 50 Cent and Queen's Greatest Hits. Check them out while you still can.

Q-Unit - Greatest Hits

Note: This is a different link than the one on Boing Boing, that one appears to already be dead. Google is a great thing.

USPS - 2006 Commemorative Stamps

From part-way down the page:

USPS - 2006 Commemorative Stamps

"DC Comics Super Heroes Ten comic book heroes will be saluted on the 'DC Comics Super Heroes' stamps next summer. Half of the pane of 20 will be portraits of the characters; the other half will show individual comic book covers devoted to their exploits. The characters include Aquaman, Batman, The Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Plastic Man, Supergirl, Superman and Wonder Woman."

Here is a link to a jpeg of the stamps.

MAKE: DIY GPS tracking

MAKE: DIY GPS tracking

"DIY GPS tracking with 'disposable' phones - Mod a GPS enabled Nextel and fauxjack yourself...or your car, or your kid, or a big dog, or an elephant. We really, really want to track an elephant. Mologogo is a free service that will track a 'friends' GPS enabled cell phone from another phone(gps not required) or on the web. It currently works on pretty much any Nextel phone with Java and GPS - even a $60 no-contract Boost Mobile phone."

Stills from the upcoming Aeon Flux movie (opening in theaters 12-2-05...this upcoming Friday). Playing at a theater near you.
Aeon Flux Gallery

Stills from the upcoming Aeon Flux movie (opening in theaters 12-2-05...this upcoming Friday). Playing at a theater near you.
Aeon Flux Gallery

Stills from the upcoming Aeon Flux movie (opening in theaters 12-2-05...this upcoming Friday). Playing at a theater near you.
Aeon Flux Gallery

Stills from the upcoming Aeon Flux movie (opening in theaters 12-2-05...this upcoming Friday). Playing at a theater near you.
Aeon Flux Gallery

Stills from the upcoming Aeon Flux movie (opening in theaters 12-2-05...this upcoming Friday). Playing at a theater near you.
Aeon Flux Gallery

Aeon Flux Still Gallery

Below are some stills from the upcoming Aeon Flux movie (opening this upcoming Friday). Be sure to also check out the official movie web site.

Bosnia unveils Bruce Lee bronze

Bosnia unveils Bruce Lee bronze

"A bronze of martial arts legend Bruce Lee has been erected in the Bosnian city of Mostar - a day before a second statue of him is unveiled in Hong Kong.

"The life-size 1.68 metre statue depicts the Chinese-American actor in a typical defensive fighting position.

"Hong Kong unveils its own statue of the kung-fu star on Sunday, at a ceremony to be attended by Lee's widow Linda.

"The Mostar unveiling was attended by the ambassadors of China and Germany, both of whom assisted the project.

"The city witnessed fierce fighting between rival ethnic factions in the 1992-95 war.

"Symbol

"It remains split with Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs still deeply divided.

"Lee was chosen by organisers as a symbol of the fight against ethnic divisions.

"'We will always be Muslims, Serbs or Croats,' said Veselin Gatalo of the youth group Urban Movement Mostar.

"'But one thing we all have in common is Bruce Lee.'

"Lee, who died in 1973 at the age of 32, was born in the US but moved to Hong Kong as a child.

"The statue there will be unveiled on what would have been the Enter the Dragon star's 65th birthday."

Risus In Print

S. John Ross' rules very light RPG, Risus, is now available as a POD product through Lulu.com. A very interesting system, and S. John is a designer full of interesting ideas. It is ironic, though, that a six page RPG now comes in a 200 page edition.

If you haven't check it out yet, you should. The Risus homepage can be found here.

Google Blog Search

Never one to leave any stone (ever) unturned, Google now has a Blog Search in Beta. I'm sure this this old news to some, but not to me. Enjoy.

Google Blog Search

GURPS Powers

This is something that I want to plug for a couple of reasons. First, it is going to be a kick-ass book. Finally, with Fourth Edition, GURPS is able to handle super-powered characters. Second, I get my first GURPS Playtest credit in this (check the Table of Contents preview) which is pretty darn cool for me.

My first "professional" attempt at becoming a game designer was back in 1986. After seeing a "want list" for proposals (back in Roleplayer, the zine for GURPS that SJG originally published) for the first edition of GURPS Supers, I sent in a proposal. It was awful and, rightly so, I received a rejection letter about it. It was a personal rejection from Steve Jackson though, which I actually thought was pretty cool.

If you haven't yet, you really need to check out GURPS 4e, it is the best version of the system to date.

GURPS Powers

"Save the World . . . or Destroy It!

"GURPS Powers is the ultimate book for the ultimate characters in the new Fourth Edition of GURPS! Here's everything you need to create every kind of amazing, off-the-chart superhero you can imagine . . . as well as amazing wizards, wuxia fighters, shamans who command spirits . . . even gods!

"Written by GURPS Line Editor and Fourth Edition co-author Sean Punch, GURPS Powers introduces some new rules, but it is mostly about using the rules that are already in the GURPS Basic Set to cover superpowered characters, megawizards, and earth-shattering psionics. GURPS Powers also include guidelines for 'special effects' and several different ways to vary a power on the fly -- two crucial concepts for comic-book superheroics.

"GURPS Powers is a Fourth Edition GURPS book that completely replaces the Third Edition books GURPS Supers and GURPS Psionics. Like our other Fourth Edition supplements, it's a gorgeous 240-page, full-color hardback.

"If you've got a high-powered campaign . or high-powered players . you want GURPS Powers!"

Get Killed By Stephen King!

Here's a cool one for geeks...win an ebay Celebrity auction and become a character in a book by one of your favorite authors.

Writers' Plot Thickens Into Auction for Free Speech

"Now's your chance to die in a Stephen King novel or be portrayed 'in a good light' in the next thriller from John Grisham -- while championing the cause of free speech.

"That's the idea behind a charity auction on eBay that starts Sept. 1 and features 16 authors selling character names to the highest bidders. All proceeds go to the First Amendment Project, a nonprofit legal group dedicated to free speech."

Gamers Seeing Glitches in New Xbox

I'm not really a computer gamer, but I figured that this was worth passing along, since I am sure that there are video game playing dorks out there.

Gamers Seeing Glitches in New Xbox

"Microsoft's Xbox 360, the much-anticipated video game system that made its debut earlier this week, is apparently experiencing some technical glitches -- screens freezing only minutes into a game, for example -- and that has left some users pretty upset.

"At gamer-oriented Web sites, Xbox 360 owners have reported system crashes in games such as the space-marines-vs.-aliens title Quake 4." [Washington Post site does pop-ups]

William S. Burroughs: A Thanksgiving Day Prayer

The link is a direct link to a .mov file of William Burroughs' Thanksgiving Prayer. Not your traditional prayer, but then Burroughs wasn't a very traditional person. I do, however, think that it is still pretty relevant in America today. It is well worth checking out, particularly if you aren't familiar with Burroughs' work. Just keep in mind that the link isn't very work-friendly.

Enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving.

William S. Burroughs' Thanksgiving Prayer

Sustainable Housing for Refugees via Mass Production

While this may, or may not, take off here in the real world, this is something that could be of great use conceptually in Cyberpunk or other "dark future" types of role-playing games. Reading this reminded me of some of the imagery from Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash. Pile enough of these onto a decommisioned naval battleship and you have the Raft. Of course in a cyberpunk world, this type of thing would most likely end up being used for permanent housing.

Vestal Design

"The SHRIMP (Sustainable Housing for Refugees via Mass Production) is an attempt to bring housing and other relief to large displaced or homeless populations, especially those who have suffered in a natural disaster. Providing shelter to a family of four, it folds up into 1/4 of a shipping container for efficient deployment."

By the way, for those who haven't heard yet, R. Talsorian Games has announced that Cyberpunk v3 is finally done, and about to go to the printer. Will this actually happen in our lifetime? Who knows.