The Gaming Den

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 4:24 am**

So it turns out, his sister is my Technical Writing class professor in college.
He might even come visit us.
My face was like this when she announced it mid-sentence: ○_○;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.A._Salvatore

As I suspected, there was more than one writer in the family; their father is (was?) a constant reader. Also, as she said, probably part genetic.

Anyone else have fairly odd connections to oddly famous odd people?

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:10 am**

He's a hack and a pro-censorship crybaby, and my NDA is ancient history, so:

Session Start (AIM - Wiz0Pony:WotCMel): Fri Jan 23 17:02:14 2004 [17:42]
WotCMel: yeah, it has been a big pile of shit for me this week, but it is Friday and I am going to make it
....
[17:43] Wiz0 Pony: well, it's attitude that counts
[17:43] Wiz0 Pony: about that pile though....what's the reasoning behind closing the novels boards?
[17:44] Wiz0 Pony: Or is that top-secret?
[17:50] WotCMel: It is top secret
[17:51] WotCMel: however, it is becuase RA Salvatore cried to the books dept every time he had a negative post on our boards. Boards couldnt manage him so they shut the boards down to make the problem go away
[17:51] Wiz0 Pony: Ugh.
[17:52] Wiz0 Pony: I know it's part of our job to make the boards more welcoming for designers and authors
[17:52] Wiz0 Pony: but there's a point where you just have to go "who cares about those crackheads on the 'net, my stuff is still selling well"
[17:55] Wiz0 Pony: Here I was thinking that it was because Hasbro had wanted to spin-off the books line (ala Pazio and Dragon)
[17:56] WotCMel: nope, much more petty than that
[17:56] WotCMel: And becuase he makes the books dept reasonable amounts of money he gets his way
[17:56] Wiz0 Pony: understandable
[17:56] WotCMel: not htat he demanded them to be down--he just wanted no negative reviews of him up whatsoever
[17:57] WotCMel: which i said would be impossible as long as the boards existed--so they killed it
[17:57] Wiz0 Pony: "If such feedback disturbs you, I suggest you use our ignore feature"...sigh
[17:58] WotCMel: indeed
[17:58] WotCMel: unless you are a diva author and then you get your way
[17:58] Wiz0 Pony: I definitely have to read some of his stuff
[17:59] Wiz0 Pony: Most of the writers whose work I really like were/are complete jerks in their lives
[18:01] WotCMel: he is just a big baby who can't NOT read the criticism on the net that makes him so unhappy
[18:01] Wiz0 Pony: exactly, and that leads me to think I might enjoy his work
[18:02] WotCMel: he apparently had Amazon.com remove a negative review
[18:02] WotCMel: interesting eh?
[18:02] Wiz0 Pony: whoa..Amazon will do that?
[18:03] WotCMel: one wouldnt think so, eh?
[18:03] Wiz0 Pony: I remember them cracking down on the totally bogus reviews a few years back..where apparently "The Family Circus" was being lauded as a new triumph in horror novels., but this is different
[18:03] WotCMel: it kinds ruins the point of unbiased reviews . . .
[18:04] WotCMel: heh
[18:05] Wiz0 Pony: Not only does it ruin unbiased reviews, but as he is not employed by or somehow involved in managing Amazon, it's perilously close to censorship
[18:06] Wiz0 Pony: I mean, can a book author walk into a Barnes and Noble and demand that they change the display for his book?
[18:07] Wiz0 Pony: Well, I suppose he could demand that...but I'd like to think that bookshops would not feel compelled to comply
[18:08] WotCMel: sorry, be with ya in a sec
[18:11] WotCMel: well, it isnt exactly the same--becuase you cant go post a "this book suxs" not in B&N
[18:11] WotCMel: however Amazon makes that out to be a big feature of its site--unbiased reviews. But if you cull out the negative stuff it makes it useless
[18:11] Wiz0 Pony: You obviously haven't seen the men's room in the local B&N
[18:12] WotCMel: point it, Bob Salvatore needs to grow up
[18:12] WotCMel: LOL
[18:12] WotCMel: um, no
[18:15] Wiz0 Pony: Well, so do a whole lot of people
[18:15] Wiz0 Pony: especially among gamers and the online community

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:24 am**

Unsurprisingly, I have no ties to really famous folks, but I have gamd with: Aaron Forsythe ; Raindog and Dave Jose

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:42 am**

sigma wrote:Anyone else have fairly odd connections to oddly famous odd people?

If by "oddly famous," you mean "known to a relatively small, geeky fanbase," I've got one. My uncle was a year behind Robert Pollard in high school and actually hung out with him occasionally. In fact, this actually led to him briefly playing drums with Guided By Voices for a brief period in the late 80s, before GBV became the darlings of Rolling Stone and developed an international cult following.

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:19 am**

Wha? Ba! Pff WHAT is wrong with you guys.

That's plenty famous!

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:23 am**

Let's see...one of my cousins was married to one of Michael Jackson's cousins (or something like that).

I'm pretty good friends with the former General Counsel for the CIA.

I used to game pretty regularly with Scott Johns (the editor of mtg.com, or used to be) and Brian Weissman (announcer for the mtg championships on ESPN2 back in the day). Though I'd say that Frank is marginally better known than either of them.

I was a bit of a local celebrity when I was younger (I was the star of a feature on the local fencing club. It was replayed literally thousands of times on the local news channel).

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 7:51 am**

My spouse once dated and took care of someone who later became a game designer; and she was lent money by Mercedes Lackey when moving back out to California from a year spent at her parents' home. Although, she didn't know who was a famous author at the time: They don't use their pen name in regular life.

-Crissa

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:16 am**

Well, let's see...

A great-uncle (or something like that) on my mother's side was Gen. Joseph Wheeler, of Civil War and Spanish-American War fame. Being from Alabama, he fought on the Confederacy and took the loss with good grace. Well, mostly. He's on record in the Spanish-American War as leading a charge with, "Come on, boys, let's wipe those Yankees off the map!"

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:37 am**

My stark raving insane uncle is somewhat of a folk hero in the tiny island nation of malta.

But why wouldn't he be? He carries a bag of gold and an unlicensed fire arm everywhere he goes and still gets into gun fights over his shady business dealings with his vast wealth.

Those who know him fear him, those who don't think he's a some kind of national treasure, and as my sister discovered those who eat his hard boiled eggs throw up for days on end.

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 10:10 am**

My friend's mom went to high school with Dr. Phil. She says he was a total asshole jock type. Like, above-average in douchebaggery for his clique.

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:23 pm**

My oddest connection has to be my great-grandma Jimbo, who is chiefly responsible for the design of the high school uniforms prevalent in Japan.

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 4:59 pm**

Optimator wrote:My friend's mom went to high school with Dr. Phil. She says he was a total asshole jock type. Like, above-average in douchebaggery for his clique.

That reminds me. My mom dated Bill Buckner (who famously had a ball go through his legs in the World Series, costing the Red Sox the title) in college.

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:27 pm**

One of the people i answer to at work is Marc Okrand. He invented Klingon, Vulcan and the Atlantian language for the movie Atlantis.

Another person at the company has the last name "Buscema" and that is relevant because his father and his uncle (or grandfather) were artists/writers at Marvel Comics.

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:41 pm**

I forgot this one, because it's so obvious, but...

My last name is McLeod.

I've heard entirely too many Highlander jokes.

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 7:05 pm**

Maxus wrote:I forgot this one, because it's so obvious, but...

My last name is McLeod.

I've heard entirely too many Highlander jokes.

there can only be ONE highlander joke!

Posted: **Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:04 pm**

A_Cynic wrote:
Maxus wrote:I forgot this one, because it's so obvious, but...

My last name is McLeod.

I've heard entirely too many Highlander jokes.
there can only be ONE highlander joke!

There's only one Highlander joke, and I've heard it too often.

Posted: **Fri Sep 05, 2008 2:09 am**

angelfromanotherpin wrote:My oddest connection has to be my great-grandma Jimbo, who is chiefly responsible for the design of the high school uniforms prevalent in Japan.

I have my levels of doubt, but if that does happen to be true, your great-grandma teruly is great - a wonderful person who brought much happiness to this world.

Now if only we could get a law passed that banned school uniforms for actual students, making them adult-only attire...

Posted: **Fri Sep 05, 2008 3:20 am**

Koumei wrote:
angelfromanotherpin wrote:My oddest connection has to be my great-grandma Jimbo, who is chiefly responsible for the design of the high school uniforms prevalent in Japan.
I have my levels of doubt, but if that does happen to be true, your great-grandma teruly is great - a wonderful person who brought much happiness to this world.

Seconded. I was about to write nearly an exact-same praise but then saw you beat me to it.

Posted: **Fri Sep 05, 2008 4:24 am**

Koumei wrote:Now if only we could get a law passed that banned school uniforms for actual students, making them adult-only attire...

Doesn't that kinda defeat the purpose of wearing a schoolgirl's uniform?

Posted: **Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:26 am**

Not if you consider the purpose to be "the wearer already has an automatic turn-on factor applied to them". It looks good, ties into various forms of fetish that people might have, and also works as a "This person is legal" sign!

As it is, by letting schoolgirls wear schoolgirl uniforms (the very idea!), they're encouraging people to find teenagers attractive.

Of course, this could very well be a chicken-egg thing, where people consider it a turn-on either because it's a uniform (and thus, if you don't tell people "You have to wear this! Do as you're told, minion!" they lose interest) or because teenage girls wear them (which goes into problematic territory). But that wouldn't matter any more, because it's already become firmly entrenched as a sexy uniform commonly worn in strip clubs and the like.

Posted: **Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:58 am**

I don't like japanese schoolgirl uniforms. Or japanese schoolgirls. I tolerate girls in general, as in I try not to run amok with a meat cleaver.

Posted: **Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:22 am**

Count_Arioch_the_28th wrote:I don't like japanese schoolgirl uniforms. Or japanese schoolgirls. I tolerate girls in general, as in I try not to run amok with a meat cleaver.

I dislike actual children/teenagers and try to avoid them. But the uniforms, regardless of nationality, I like.

On topic: I cannot for the life of me think of any famous person I know in any personal way. I met The Barbarian once, and got his autograph, but that was it.

Posted: **Fri Sep 05, 2008 1:50 pm**

Koumei wrote:I have my levels of doubt, but if that does happen to be true, your great-grandma teruly is great - a wonderful person who brought much happiness to this world.

Hey, I didn't believe it at first. Grandma brought it up in passing, and I had to stop her and make her clarify what she meant. Then I researched it, and while no source mentioned great-grandma by name, the timing and secondary details all fit the story. So, I don't know that it's true, but I have no reason to disbelieve.

On a related note, Grandpa's job in postwar Japan was unionizing the geisha. I'm not even kidding.

Posted: **Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:43 pm**

Japanese schoolgirl uniforms are actually American uniforms, as afop says.

-Crissa

Posted: **Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:56 pm**

Crissa wrote:Japanese schoolgirl uniforms are actually American uniforms, as afop says.

-Crissa

Um, I didn't actually say that. Great-grandma is Japanese, after all. The gakuran are based on Prussian cadet uniforms, and the fuku are based on Royal Navy uniforms.

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