RIP Dave Arneson (another *sniff* sad farewell)

The other Co-creator of the wildly popular Dungeons & Dragons role playing game passed away on 07 April, 2009 at the age of 61.

While not as famous as his Co-creator, the late Gary Gygax, who died just over a year ago, Arneson is credited for changing the world of gaming.  He converted the wargaming standard from one player controlling an entire Army to controlling a single character at a time.

A touching tribute to Arneson can be found here, in the Order of the Stick, and another one by John Kovalic (Illustrator of Munchkin).

Gaming will never be the same b/c of Gygax and Arneson, nor will it be the same without them.

Rest in Peace, Dave.  And thanks so much for everything.

The Passing of a Great One

George Carlin, 71, died yesterday of heart failure.

What an incredibly great loss.

George Carlin was on my short list of people I would like to meet before I die, with Spalding Grey, the Dalai Lama and Alice Cooper. I have reasons for my desire to meet each one, and I have noticed the list of possibilities is growing shorter.

When I was younger and more naive I was appalled at the things that Carlin used to say in his shows. There was a time when I thought he was offensive. As I grew up in body and spirit and mind the things he would say in comedy began to poke at me and would actually make me think about the things I believed. To this day, I try to practice his wise words from one of my favorite stupid 80s movies of all time, “Be excellent to each other”.

His “Seven Words” act is one of the things he is most well known for among people who didn’t follow him that closely, and even got him a footnote in the legal history when the Supreme Court ruled that playing his act on a radio broadcast during hours when children could be listening was not OK.

I personally loved his pokes at religion. I have my reasons. I loved him in Dogma for a lot of the same reasons.

I will leave w/ this clip, that I have posted before, b/c aside from being amazingly hilarious, he also had a way w/ words that I found profound.

We will miss you, George. And I am sorry I never got the chance to finish my list.

farewell my friend…

h/t to Brave Sir Robin for bringing this to my attention for this week’s thursday blogwhoring…

ahh…rent