Now released: The July 2009 issue of Eternal Sunshine, issue #30.  Included in this issue:

* Diplomacy results
* By Popular Demand
* Movie Reviews
* Deviant Diplomacy II
* Bourse
* New Game Openings
* Subzines by Jack McHugh, Andy York, David Hood, and Paul Milewski
* Prison Stories
* and more!

You can find Eternal Sunshine #30 in pdf format in the ES Yahoo group at:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/eternal_sunshine_diplomacy/

or in both pdf and HTML format in the Diplomacy section of my personal website at:

http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/DW/

Check it out and let me know what you think!

PS - Diplomacy World #106 is about to go into final proofing...watch for it sometime after July 4th ...<< MORE >>

Given the right film, Michael Caine has always had the ability to carry himself as one of the great actors of the last 40 years, from Zulu to Alfie to The Italian Job and on through the ages.  Occasionally a bit loose with his choices, in recent years he his presence has been a welcome, shining attraction in a number of very satisfying movies; his part in Children of Men, in particular, I found terribly moving.  Now we are presented with Is Anybody There?, which despite its rather simple setting and what could have been twisted into a trite plot, ...<< MORE >>

Eternal Sunshine #29, the June 2009 Issue, is now posted.  It includes all of the usual foolishness, such as:

Halfway Home at the Halfway House Part 5
Hypothetical Question of the Month
Movie Reviews
Book Reviews
Columns by W. Andrew York and Jack McHugh
Music that Doesn't Get Old
Diplomacy results for Wouldn't It Be Nice and Dulcinea
Bourse
Deviant Dip II Results
Final Results for the Eternal Sunshine 7x7 Gunboat Tournament
Two new games transferred from Strange Meeting
and more!

You can get the pdf file in the Yahoo group at:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/eternal_sunshine_diplomacy/

Or in either odf or html from the Diplomacy section of my website at:

http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/DW/

Check ...<< MORE >>

A lot of life at the halfway house was much more relaxed than in prison.  Counts weren’t a timed activity; a staff member simply walked around with a clipboard, marking down everybody he or she saw until they’d gotten everybody on the list of who was supposed to be on-site at the time.  Meals were at scheduled times (and breakfast quite early), but dinner was served three times a night.  As long as you had a reason for not being able to make the earliest dinner, they allowed you to eat at the second.  The third dinner was reserved for ...<< MORE >>

We were watching TV tonight and this ad came on.  It's good stupid fun.

...<< MORE >>

While the remainder of my bus trip was tedious, exhausting, and seemed to be eternal, it was actually rather uneventful.  I grabbed a sandwich in Little Rock, and managed to get a few hours sleep between there and Dallas.  We arrived in Dallas about two hours later than scheduled, and I’d had it drilled into my brain that any late arrival would be considered a serious violation of the travel policy.  So I canned the number I had for the halfway house, but the woman who answered didn’t seem to care one way or the other.  “Just get here as ...<< MORE >>

As it turns out, when a woman asks if you're happy with your life together, the response of "Yes my love, I am so much happier since I got home from prison" is not the full-hearted expression of bliss she's probably looking for from you. ...<< MORE >>

Eternal Sunshine #28, the May 2009 issue, has now been released!

Inside you will find:

Gamestart for Deviant Dip II, the craziest Diplomacy variant ever
Columns by Jack McHugh and Andy York
Results for the 2nd Eternal Sunshine Movie Quote Quiz
Part Four of Halfway Home at the Halfway House
Diplomacy
Bourse
Letters
Foolishness
And much more!

You can find the latest issue in pdf format in the Eternal Sunshine Yahoo group at:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/eternal_sunshine_diplomacy/

Or in both pdf ...<< MORE >>

The Spring 2009 issue of Diplomacy World, #105, has been released!  Inside you’ll find some terrific articles, including highlights such as:

• An Interview with Diplomacy World Variant Editor Jack McHugh
• Multiple reports in WACCon 2009, from the liked of Jim
        O’Kelley and Siobhan Granvold
• Benjamin Hester on the Austrian Endgame
• Chris Babcock on Diplomacy and Cryptography
• The latest chapter of The Adventures of Fatman and Frottage
        by Rod Walker
• Two-time Australian Diplomacy Championship winner Andrew Goff
        on Taking Your Game to the Next Level
• The 1909 and 1910 seasons of the Diplomacy World Demo Game
• Tom Anthony’s “Ghost” Rating System
• And so much more!

You can find ...<< MORE >>

The latest issue of Eternal Sunshine, #27 (the April 2009 issue) has all kinds of fun stuff, like:

 

Columns from Jack McHugh and Andy York
Diplomacy
Hypothetical Question
Another Movie Quote Contest
Bourse
Game Openings
Letters
Movie Reviews
Book Reviews
Prison Stories
and more!

 

Check it out in pdf format in the Yahoo group :

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/eternal_sunshine_diplomacy/

 

or in html and pdf format at:

http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/DW/

 

Enjoy!

...<< MORE >>

I suppose it might be a bit of a surprise to base a drama/comedy film on the idea that cleaning up blood and brain matter from crime scenes could make a profitable business, but then again almost every television show these days involved some sort of Crime Scene Investigation unit.  So why not the cleaning people who come in when it’s all over?

That’s the new business direction of Rose (Amy Adams), who is a single parent trying to support her seven-year-old son.  Making a living as a maid for a cleaning service, while still having romantic trysts with her ...<< MORE >>

When you’re in prison, time passes slowly whenever you bother to think about it.  But when you simply use it as a schedule - breakfast at six, work at eight, count at four – instead of a measure of hours, you can find the hours have turned into days and the days into weeks faster than you’d imagine.  A regular schedule helps with that, especially if it is one which keeps you busy enough.

On the other hand, when you travel by bus time passes slower than when you’re in “the hole” sleeping on a paper-thin mattress on a cold ...<< MORE >>

I generally avoid remakes whenever possible (the poster I just saw for the remake of The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 starring John Travolta and Denzel Washington still has me feeling ill).  But since Heather had never seen the Wes Craven version, and considering how low-budget it was, I agreed to give this new version a try.  All things considered, it was a decent suspense film, a level above most of the thriller crap they dish out these days.

The story itself is rather simple, a mix of unfortunate coincidences.  Vacationing at their remote lake house, a couple (Tony Goldwyn and ...<< MORE >>

If you follow movies at all, it is inevitable that you’ve heard quite a bit about The Wrestler, and about how though the film Mickey Rourke has resurrected a career which has been deceased for some time.  For a short while Rourke’s portrayal of Randy “The Ram” Robinson was the favorite to win Best Actor at the Academy Awards.  He didn’t win in the end, and having now finally gotten around to seeing the film I believe the Academy made a wise decision giving it to Sean Penn for Milk instead.  For while Rourke gives a fine performance, it isn’t ...<< MORE >>

Eternal Sunshine #26, the March 2009 issue, has now been released.  It's filled with the usual foolishness: Diplomacy, word games, contests, letters, columns from Jack McHugh and Andy York, personal writing (including part 2 of "Halfway Home at the Halfway House"), and even a revealing column from Heather.  You can see it in pdf format in the Eternal Sunshine Yahoo group at:

 http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/eternal_sunshine_diplomacy/

 or in both html and pdf format on the Diplomacy section of my website at:

 http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/DW/

 Check it out, enjoy, and think about sending some feedback!!!

 

...<< MORE >>

I’ve heard it said that Wendy and Lucy is a film which, although filmed over a year ago, brings to light the struggles of those caught in the current economic downturn.  While I suppose in some ways that could be true, I don’t think the move is one of such heightened measure and importance.  Rather, it is a slow and quiet character study of a woman who is struggling to build a life with no outside assistance, but who also isn’t experienced enough to have a Plan B.

Michelle Williams stars as Wendy, who is traveling by car from Indiana ...<< MORE >>

In today’s world of CNN, microwaves, instant messaging, and the post-“USA Today”-ing of the nation, news has been reduced to 30-second sound bites.  If the public can’t learn about it in less time than it takes to brush your teeth, they don’t want to bother.  So to many people, the concept of six hours of one-on-one interviews between a reporter and an ex-President sounds about as interesting as watching paint dry, and about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.  But in 1977, the David Frost interviews with Richard Nixon (broadcast in four 90-minute installments) were the most ...<< MORE >>

Directed by John Patrick Shaney, and based on his award-winning play, Doubt was the first in this season’s long list of Oscar-hopeful films to arrive.  It was only a combination of factors that made it take us so long to go see it.  Built around a very strong cast (Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman star), Doubt, when broken down to its essence, looks at how we decide what is true and what is false.  How much of our judgments are based on fact, how much on intuition, and how much on falsehoods which we have convinced ourselves are true?

...<< MORE >>

For many Federal inmates, the tail end of your incarceration does not take place in prison.  Instead, in an effort to reintroduce you to society (and to keep overflowing population levels down), you are often directed to spend the last one month to the last six months of your sentence in a Federally-designated Halfway House; some of the rules have changed since I came home, but back then you were only permitted to spend 10% of your sentence in the halfway house (up to a maximum of six months), so if you had been sentenced to 36 months you could ...<< MORE >>

Just released: the new February 2009 issue of Eternal Sunshine, my Diplomacy subzine, filled with all manner of foolishness.  Included in this issue:

Jack McHugh patting himself on the back for his Super Bowl prediction
Andy York wondering why I intercept all his letters
Diplomacy results
The first turn of our Bourse game
By Popular Demand
Letters
Book and Movie Reviews
Heather’s Latest Mis-Step
Part One of Halfway Home to the Halfway House
And other crap.

You can check it out in pdf and html format on my personal Diplomacy page at:

http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/DW/

or in the Eternal Sunshine Yahoo group at

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/eternal_sunshine_diplomacy/

Happy stabbing!

...<< MORE >>

If you have enjoyed the book The Reader by Bernhard Schlink, this film review is not all that important.  Suffice to say that, with the normal limitations you might expect, Stephen Daldry’s direction and a strong cast do justice to a difficult subject.  The differences between the book and the film are not so jarring that they pull you away.

However, if you haven’t read the book, I hope this excellent film will give you the incentive to do so.  The Reader tells the story of Michael Berg (played during his adult years by Ralph Fiennes).  Jumping back and forth ...<< MORE >>

Diplomacy World #104 is out!  Among the 86 pages you'll find:

• The Austrian Hedgehog by Joshua Danker-Dake


• Spotting a Stab by Alfred Nicol


• Going Where No Dot Had Gone Before by Larry Peery


• In Memorial: Tom Tweedy 1948 – 2008 by Stephen AgarThe French NDC:


• These Bags Under My Eyes Are Heavy by Toby Harris


• The Adventures of Fatman and Frottage by Rod Walker


• Dots of the Dead: A Zombie Apocalypse Variant by Chris ShamThe


• Development of Known World 901 by David E. Cohen


• Tournament Tales: In Search of Common Ground at the Corner Bar by Jim ...<< MORE >>

The new January 2009 issue of Eternal Sunshine, Issue #24,  has now been released.  You can see it in both html and pdf format at:

http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/DW/

Included in this issue are:

• Letters


• Humor


• Book Reviews


• Movie Reviews


• A Movie Quote Quiz, With Prizes!


• Hypothetical Question of the Month


• New Game Openings


• By Popular Demand


• Diplomacy


• Diplomacy Bourse


• Andy York's Out of the WAY


• Jack McHugh's Brain Farts


• Heather's Tricks and Treats


• and much more!

Enjoy!

...<< MORE >>

If you go to the theater to see Milk, the new Gus Van Sant film starring Sean Penn, it is not necessary for you to know anything about the real Harvey Milk.  If you are educated about the first openly gay man to hold a major political office in the United States, you’ll still find the movie powerful.  After all, it was only three decades ago that Harvey Milk was assassinated.  Yet the days of such outright and accepted hatred and bigotry against the homosexual community seem further removed than they really are.  Van Sant helps to paint that focus ...<< MORE >>

I am pleased to announce that the latest issue of Eternal Sunshine has now been posted to the Eternal Sunshine Yahoo Group and the Diplomacy section of my website. You can get it in pdf format from the Yahoo group at:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/eternal_sunshine_diplomacy/

or in either pdf or html format at:

http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/DW/

Included in this issue are:

• Wouldn't it Be Nice Spring 1904 Results (with our first NMR)


• The final round of the By Popular Demand game, with a new one starting


• Book and Movie Reviews


• Christmas in Prison


• Issue #2 of Andy ...<< MORE >>

Prison is a very lonely place in general, as you might imagine.   Those inmates who are lucky enough to get visits every week or so seem to handle it a little bit better, but the trade-off is they also psychologically feel as if they should have more input and control into the lives of their family.  The rest of us are so cut off from those we care about, it is easier to accept that we have absolutely zero control over anything in the outside world.  So you lose either way, although most would prefer the visits I imagine.

For ...<< MORE >>

The Charlie Kaufman film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is currently my favorite, moving ahead of Albert Brooks' Defending Your Life.  His film Adaptation is also on my favorites list.  I have been a fan of Charlie Kaufman ever since I laughed my way through Being John Malkovich.  So when I first heard about this film moving into production, I was immediately interested.  My only trepidation was caused when I learned that Spike Jonze, who directed Adaptation, was not going to be associated with this film after all because he had signed on to direct Where the Wild Things ...<< MORE >>

October 31, 2008 was our first wedding anniversary (plus it was Halloween, Hather's favorite holiday)!  Aside from some books and stuff, Heather's favorite gift was pretty obvious.  In her honor, our cats Toby and Sanka decided to sponsor Olivia, a blind cat who lives at the Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary in North Carolina.  This is a rescue group (and non-profit organization) which gives love, life, and a home to blind cats.  Some of the cats were blinded by disease, or born that way.  But when you see the videos you are amazed at how well they get along.  If ...<< MORE >>

The November 2008 issue of Eternal Sunshine has now been released.  It contains the usual foolishness, games, contests, photos, letters, stories, updates...and the new subsubzine Out of the WAY by Andy York.  So check it out!  Openings in Diplomacy, Woolworth II-B, and Facts in Five, with a new game of By Popular Demand about to start too.

You can find it in pdf format in the Eternal Sunshine Yahoo group:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/eternal_sunshine_diplomacy/

or in both html and pdf format in the Diplomacy section of my personal website at:

http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/DW/

Enjoy...if you dare!

 

...<< MORE >>

I don’t want to give the impression that it snowed every single day during the winter.  In fact, it probably only snowed about one out of every four days in total.  The problem would ne when we’d get hit with these long, heavy “lake-effect” snowstorms.  Those would dump as many as four inches of snow an hour during their most powerful periods, and could alternate between that and a few flakes, back and forth, until the storm finally ended.  Sometimes that would mean three days or more in a row! 

During those periods, the routine was the same.  I’d ...<< MORE >>

1st Marriage: The woman thinks she needs to fart.  She goes to the bathroom, closes the door, runs the tap to disguise the sound, wads up some toilet paper, and uses the paper to muffle any additional noise.  Then she sprays air freshener in the event of any odor, and leaves ther bathroom with nobody the wiser.

2nd Marriage: She gets up, goes to the bathroom, leaves the door wide open, and says "Excuse me" in response to the sound of a tugboat making its way through your apartment.

In the 3rd marriage, I'm guessing she doesn't bother getting up at all...and ...<< MORE >>

The Fall 2008 issue of Diplomacy World, #103, has been released!  104 pages of articles, photos, news, variants,

convention reports...but that's just the beginning.  The theme this issue was Science Fiction and Fantasy in

Diplomacy, so you will find plenty of articles relating to that — but much more too!

You can download the new issue (in pdf format) from the official Diplomacy World website at:

http://www.diplomacyworld.net/

or from the Dipllomacy World Yahoo group at:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/diplomacyworld/

Incidentally, there is now a NEW DW Yahoo group intended for open discussion among the readers of any Diplomacy

...<< MORE >>

I've just uploaded the new issue of Eternal Sunshine to my website in
both pdf and html format. You can see them at:

http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/ DW/

This issue contains the usual foolishness, book and movie reviews,
hypothetical questions, classic Diplomacy press, By Popular Demand,
letters, and another chapter of Grab a Shovel. It also has game
openings in Diplomacy and in Woolworth II-D.

You can also find the pdf version in the Eternal Sunshine Yahoo group at:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/eternal_sunshine_diplomacy/

Enjoy!
...<< MORE >>

I am generally ignorant of the writing of Christopher Isherwood, author of such works as “A Single Man,” “Christopher and His Kind” and “I Am a Camera.” Certainly I know the musical “Cabaret,” which was based on his books, but that’s all I know.  And I was even more ignorant of the drawings of Don Bachardy.  But neither ignorance lessened my enjoyment of Don and Chris, because as the title states, this is more a story of love, and of building a successful long-term relationship despite the odds.

Isherwood, having moved to California from his native England, meets Bachardy on ...

<< MORE >>

Even though I had volunteered for Landscaping, Burger kept me on a short leash initially.  I did have two inmates who vouched for me, which meant Burger was willing to generally give me the benefit of the doubt: there was Smiling Sal, the New Jersey con man and thief who had some ties to organized crime, and Chuckie, a very funny and loud little guy who was in prison for white collar securities fraud of some sort.  Chuckie lived across the aisle from me in our building, and he was the inmate who gave me the nickname “Lucky.”  Unfortunately for ...

<< MORE >>

Writer and Director Darryl Roberts opens his documentary on the American fascination with beauty, and how it is defined, by admitting that he had been dating a wonderful woman, but had never asked her to marry him because he always felt he could find a woman who was just as wonderful, but more beautiful.  With his former love now happily married to another man, he looks back and wonders what made him weigh about the superficial aspect of the relationship so heavily.  Who decides what is beautiful, and who is making money off of that definition?

With this lofty question, ...<< MORE >>

I’ve never been to Los Angeles.  While I do hope to successfully get a screenplay produced someday, it isn’t something I hold out real promise for.  Maybe if my life had gone differently, if I’d been free to give that a shot in youth, I could have been a character in this low-budget but insightful and inspired film.

Alex Holdridge wrote and directed this black-and-white look at the fringe show business element; the actors and screenwriters who came out to the west coast with their eyes open, realizing they could easily fail, but still hoping to somehow succeed against the ...<< MORE >>

I've uploaded the latest issue of my newsletter Eternal Sunshine to the Diplomacy section of my website, at http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/DW/ .  This is #20, the September 2008 issue, full of Diplomacy, movie and boook reviews, personal writing, classic press, and all the usual follishness.  It is available in both pdf and html format.  Check it out!
...<< MORE >>

Before we went to see this film, I started to read a favorable review of it.  In its first paragraph, the review stated that in order to properly experience Boy A, you really need to only have the slightest notion of what it is about.  Any description of the plot, any knowledge of the things which may or may not happen, will cause you to spend too much time trying to figure out what WILL happen, instead of just experiencing the moment.

This happens to be a major problem for me with many movies.  If I’ve seen a trailer, I ...<< MORE >>

Where does somebody learn the concept of forgiveness and how to use it?  Is it something we learn in childhood, or is it a genetic or chemical reaction?  Something to do with the way our brain is wired?  I wish I knew, because I have a very flawed sense of forgiveness.  I seem to have very little trouble forgiving anyone else for things that they do, if they are sorry and express remorse…and often even when they don’t.  If I am slighted, forgiveness is rather simple, since I put myself on such a low level anyway.  Those who offend my ...<< MORE >>

In the Federal prison system, at least at the security levels where I was, you had to work.  Everybody had a job.  Those with medical problems were given tasks like wrapping tableware in napkins, but everybody else had a true job.  At Allenwood I started on the painting crew, and soon was moved to the plumbing detail (the CO in charge ran both details).  When I transferred to McKean, I took a job on the orderly detail, where I stayed until I got tired of all the rackets being run there (see “The Sunglasses” and other stories in a prior ...<< MORE >>

Luke Wilson films can be hit or miss.  Some of his broad comedy falls flat, but when he plays the decent, human character he can be terribly effective.  In “Henry Poole is Here,” the new film written by Albert Torres and directed by Mark Pellington, we’re fortunate that Wilson has found some middle ground.  It isn’t a monumental film, but a sweet one. 

Wilson plays Henry Poole, who is buying a house in a quiet California neighborhood.  He doesn’t want to haggle over the price, have any repairs done, or anything else.  He simply wants to buy the house, ...<< MORE >>

When I first saw the poster for American Teen, I immediately lost all interest.  It looked like some sort of updated parody of The Breakfast Club.  After seeing the trailer, however, I felt quite the opposite.  This documentary by Nanette Burstein gives us an insider’s view of Middle America, and life in High School.  Instead of trying to draw any judgments or conclusions about the teenagers featured, American Teen simply lets their actions speak for themselves.  The good, the bad, and the ugly; we see it all.

Major players in the film, set in Warsaw, Indiana, are Jake (the geeky ...<< MORE >>

Happy Birthday Heather!

Here are a few photos, one of her cake, and one of a ceramic cat witch mug I got her, with a big goofy grin.

...<< MORE >>