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Except for Eberron, the last time I bought a D&D book was back in 2003, when the 3.5 updates to the three core rulebooks came out. That's maybe $120 in books, including the Eberron book I bought last summer. If I'd been playing WoW during the time since it came out (unlikely, because I run Linux), I'd have spent $495 in subscription fees.

Instead, I've been enjoying plain ol' D&D, blogging about it, writing stories about my characters, and even writing my own utility software.

Maybe that makes me an addict. But I haven't spent loads of money on it.

they're called 'folders'. you put 'paper' in them.
they can be 'boxed' or put in 'filing cabinets'.

Regarding your "blog:"

It's called a 'diary.' You get a 'pen,' you write in 'ink' in it. It can be secured with a tiny metal 'key,' or shared with your 'friends.' You can even clutch it to your 'breast' after you write your deepest, most personal 'thoughts' in it.

I was going to run a quasi-RTS D&D game. The idea was, you're the leader of an organization (or a god, but that position was reserved to a specific few). I'm the DM. To interact with your minions, you interact with me.

And every weekend, I'd play out all the results from all the opposing minions.

Didn't work out, though. I didn't have the spare time required. But I did put together a bunch of pages describing how it'd work, if anyone's interested.

Every now and then, someone around here makes a prick of themselves caricaturing people with Asperger's. I try to give them a taste of a successful individual with it.

I may not have had friends up to high school, but there were people I could get along with there. My condition was finally diagnosed in high school, giving social workers a decent therapy angle. And I turned out OK. I've learned to recognize body language and social nuance. I'm not perfect at it, but most of it is second-nature by now.

At Grand Rapids Community College, where I work and study, I've made dozens of friends. My teachers like me, my boss likes me, my coworkers like me, most of my classmates like me, and I'm Vice President of the Computer Club.

Together with a friend, I organized an end-of-semester bowling party that took place this past Friday. All my coworkers and their friends and family were invited. We had 15 people show up, including people who would refuse to bowl under any circumstances. (One way I got people to show up was by promising them they couldn't do any worse on the lanes than I did. And I was almost right...one person tied my score.)

For a Computer Club event, I've taken the lead in organizing a LAN Party to take place July 14. I'm going to meet with one of managers in IT in order to address security concerns and see about using campus machines for people who don't want to bring their own. (Slashdotters welcome...there will be non-student parking.)

And I'm hoping to transfer to Michigan Tech next fall.

In summary: I may be a geek, but I'm a popular geek. With a lot of work and support, some people with Asperger's can be successful on the conventional route. We don't all have to drop out and make our millions by coming up with the Next Big Thing.

I think the whole reason brand-name PCs have become so cheap is because each PC has become a revenue stream for the OEM. I wrote about it in one my journals...

It's a freaking security nightmare.
Once you get on the defacement lists, expect to get hit with every new 'sploit as soon as they're out. Francisco Burzi may be a nice guy, but he doesn't know shit about coding secure PHP. If you're going to run it, you'll at least need one of the secure releases or better yet...

Use drupal. Very solid, safe, secure and easily configurable. The toughest bit is figuring out taxonomy or categories that the various entries (blogs, forum topics, stories, etc.) adhere to. These things are all 'nodes', btw. But once you have your categories down, you're done.

You can even search for a script to do the conversion from phpNuke to drupal, and no drupal doesn't require any special directories. Give it a whirl.

And if folks are whoring sites, then I'll whore mine.
Brew-Masters
I have the throttle hooked up, so hopefully it won't get slashdotted, but then it doesn't look like this thread is getting a lot of comments.

I'm on a 750MHz Duron...that may be a limiting factor. My biggest problems are with the fist single-player encounter with the German village. As soon as I exit the bar, it slows way down. Same thing if I'm on the mounted machine gun.

I completely agree...which is why I'm still running a 750MHz Duron Presarios from 2000.

I've been writing a column about role playing games. (See my sig.) It's been running for about four months, even if it only exists in my blog. :)

I'm also looking for people interested in trying an idea I had for an email-based D&D game. Check out the FAQ for it.

Since we're doing ads, I have a forum that's dying for participation:

Brew-Masters.com

Thanks, slashdot. Next time, I'll post my free ad request as 'news' since the news I submit never gets posted.

Since we're doing ads, I have a forum that's dying for participation:

Brew-Masters.com

Thanks, slashdot. Next time, I'll post my free ad request as 'news' since the news I submit never gets posted.