Unfortunately I won't be making it to the rally, I have a prior engagement to view an ultrasound for my recently discovered unborn child. It would be fun though, I saw Colbert live at the Olympics and had a blast.

To address a few things that have been said so far though, I think it's less the tea party ideals that are being made fun of and more some specific things that have happened over the past few years that come off as less than the tea party ideals. Consider that one of the signs Jon Stewart suggested be made for the rally is "I disagree with you but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler" and I think you have the heart of the mater here. To be honest I find the extremely one dimensional scale of Liberal vs Conservative an entirely inadequate and often flat out incorrect tool for measuring peoples views. And for the record I'm a registered independent.

...and Michael's going to move to Miskatonic Streets...going to fight this Deep One Hybrid. My Will is 3, plus 2 for Gruesome Talisman, minus 1...4 dice >roll<...passed. My Fight is 4, plus 6 for Tommy Gun, plus 0...10 dice >roll<...BOOM. Vaporized that sucker. Taking trophy...

...I'm sorry, what?

Veet said:

Not so sure I got it, but... are you becoming dad, Veet? Congrats! ;-)

jgt7771 said:

::Laughter::

And congrats Veet! And good luck...

On a related note did anyone see Guillermo del Toro on The Colbert Report last night? I was hoping to see a plug of Mountains of Madness but he was apparently plugging his new vampire book and and making fun of Twilight.

Veet said:

Heh... I saw it... And wouldn't get my hopes up for the Mountains of Madness movie (assuming it's made and is good), because there's another possibility to worry about, del Toro dying of heart failure :'/ You might think I'm just being unnecessarily alarmist, but I called Robert Jordan's death prior to series completion nearly a decade before he died (after seeing him at a book signing). So... Hopefully it doesn't take del Toro a decade to get to work :')

I dunno, currently del Toro is pushing hard to get ATMOM off the ground, he's been working on casting and preproduction and has said he's aiming for June to start shooting.

Veet said:

Alright. Fingers crossed :'/ I will compulsively shake my dice now (hope for some fives and sixes so he isn't devoured).

@Avi- Yeah, we gave up on the scenarios. I actually forgot about them. We've been playing so many different games lately, and when Lurker came out that was all we played for Arkham for about a month. And I think in the last month we've played Arkham twice (though my wife and I are planning on attending Arkham Nights, provided I can find someone to cover the store for a Sunday).

Also, calling someone dying 10 years before it happens, doesn't count as prognostication in my book. The Wheel of Time never had to be as long as it is/was either. And I though Jordan has some sort of terminal illness, though I could be wrong.

As for ATMOM, I'm willing to be that this does get made, and hopefully we bill as awesome as it should be. The big question is whether GDT will go with the original suspsense of the story, regardless of how dated, or make it a full out monster fest like he did with Hellboy II.

Solan said:

I'm going to be a bit less tactful than some of the posters, because you started this. I'll be attending the rally- Glenn Beck and the entire Fox news channel represent 80% of the "nastiness" going on in this country right now. I am neither a republican nor a democrat, but I am progressive. The goals you listed are bipartisan issues at this point, and blame lies on the shoulders of both parties for allowing it to get out of control (Republicans have always overspent on the defense budget, for one; while Dems overspend on social programs that are in bad need of renovation).

The bigger crises facing this country are issues touted by the far right (like FOXnews) such as:

-the unconstitutional assimilation of Christianity and government, which, if it continues, will lead to horrific disaster for everyone.

-censorship of free thought and in extreme cases individual expression (I'm looking at you, Gretchen Carlson, who openly wants unconstitutional recognition of her beliefs while actively fighting to deny a voice to others')

-discrimination of various minorities - first blacks and now gays. What will it be next?

-protection of multi-billionaires while the working class makes below subsistence wages and has to be supplemented by government aid programs while their employers are lining their pockets with gold on the backs of cheap labor. This is the single largest reason why our economy is caving in on itself - the working class has virtually no spending power, while large companies are greedily over expanding their markets.

Being from rural Texas, I used to be conservative, both socially and economically, until I became a sociology/anthropology major in college and actually learned about the interrelationships between resources, religion, psychology, and culture - at this point everyone that I know that is conservative just comes across as extremely ignorant. The happiest countries in the world are Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, and Norway - incidentally they all have more liberal social and economic policies than we do, and they're far, far less religious. We've fallen to #13 on the human development index, with a fairly high level of misery as well as religiosity, and it's only getting worse as people like Sarah Palin, one of the most inept people to ever grace American politics, and Glenn Beck, who is as crazy as Palin is stupid, gain power.

JerusalemJones said:

Jordan's illness wasn't publicly disclosed until 2006, I thought he looked rather unhealthy when I saw him at a book signing a few years before. I'm a bit obsessed with these sorts of things— for instance, one thing I always like to check up on when reading about an author is birth and death dates, I always like to know how long people lived. I'm not saying that I'm expecting del Toro to die before making the movie (I wouldn't place a bet on it even if the odds were very much in my favor)... I'm just a bit nervous about it at this point... I look at him and seem a health problem just waiting to happen (hopefully a non-fatal one) :'/

Presuming he survives, hopefully he'll stay true to the story instead of trying to make it into something it isn't... It's not an action movie, and it'd be *really* nice to see one gorgeously done piece of Lovecraft. That's what I'm hoping for anyway.

Have fun at Arkham Nights! I hope the monster bag is great ;.( (I want one so badly). I wonder why FFG calls it a monster cup instead of a monster bag, I suspect that the vast majority of Arkham players use bags of some sort and not cups, I mean, where would you find a cup large enough to fit all the monsters? Maybe a big gulp...

Avi_dreader said:

Oh Robert Jordan.....

I lost sleep over that. That series defines my teenage years.

Avi_dreader said:

I would love nothing better than to see a fully accurate depiction of ATMOM on screen. I'd be willing to settle for something that plays up the action sequences for sensationalism, as long as the overall story is basically the same. And frankly, I think it'll be fun to see some elder things tearing **** up in full CGI glory, no matter how well the movie as a whole comes out.

Steve-O said:

Heh... Well... Honestly, I expect him to overplay action sequences, and I'm fine with that, up to a point (provided he doesn't cut essential non-action sequences out in return, or add in action sequences that don't make any sense like Peter Jackson did on several occasions)... Heh... I must not anticipate for fear of disappointment (but I do)!

I look at movies like Pans Labyrinth and The Orphanage and think that if anyone can do it del Toro can. Then I look at Hellboy 2 and know that he could possibly fall prey to the curse that haunts every movie maker that attempts to adapt Lovecraft.