I just got my first receipt for iPad software that I bought since buying my iPad:

For a long time, I had no interest in an iPad, especially for $500. Mostly I wanted a big screen for reading the newspaper, PDFs, and comic books. To solve this problem, over time, I ended up with two different devices: a Kindle DX and an HP TouchPad.

Wednesday, the 11th day of the Red Moon, 937

The original AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide is often considered one of the best role playing game books ever published. It isn’t that the rules presented are perfect, but that Gary Gygax presents his reasoning and ideas, and he encourages the reader to build his own world and rules the same way. It’s a good book, and I was very happy to be reminded of this about a year ago when I got a new copy of it and started to flip through it again.

I’ve been a big fan of the Perl QA Hackathon since the first one in Oslo in

1. I always walk away from them feeling like I’ve finished a lot of work that I would otherwise have let go unfinished, and with refreshed interest in the general work of Making CPAN Stuff Go. This year, I was sent to the hackathon by a grant from the Perl Foundation, and I promised to write up what I got done. That works out just fine, since I’m pretty pleased with how it all went, and I’m looking forward to writing my report.

Monday, the 9th day of the Red Moon, 937

Year 28 of the 7th Imperator, 8th of Declarations

Saturday, the 7th day of the Red Moon, 937

Today, in the back yard, Martha told me…

So, in old-school D&D – prior to AD&D Second Edition – every class had a different title at each level until “name level,” which was always 9th level. Some of these made more sense than others. If the priesthood controls your access to your priestly powers, maybe there really are well-known titles for different ranks. Others are sillier: when a thief reaches 7th level, he’s still just “pilfering?”