View From the Bushes

When I need to relax a little bit, I often boot up a video game. Why I do this is a mystery, because video games are rarely relaxing. Mostly they're addicting, time-consuming, stressful and ultimately, valueless. This seems especially true recently. It's been quite a while since I started playing a game which really grabbed me. One game, though, which I have come back to over and over again through the years is NetHack. In fact, my community supporter handle at ENWorld says NetHack Addict.

Just recently, I picked it up again. The last few times I've played it, I've focused on making modifications to the source and then compiling my own version. Of course, it's been long enough since I did it the last time that I've forgotten most of what I know. However I did finally get it to compile on my Slackware box. And I upped the keenness values on spells from 20000 to 9999999. There's nothing I hate more than going to cast a spell in NetHack and instead getting a replay of that scene where Bugs Bunny runs out of super carrots. I'm guessing that there are quite a few people who've had this same experience.

That particular Bugs Bunny cartoon was made during the war, which leads right into this great quote from Churchill which seems somewhat germane as I consider where DireKobold.com is these days:

This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

-Sir Winston Churchill, November 10, 1942 in a speech given at the Lord Mayor's Luncheon

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero,
Ross