Category: Miscellaneous

I finally have a working accordian-style posts archive in the sidebar, and it is 100% HTML.

This was given to me by the owner of the small business that was my first salary job:

I have been collecting articles and blogposts from other TTRPG websites for over a decade. My archive now numbers over 1500 URLs. I have been sharing them here via my Web Excerpts category, but those are focused excerpts just like I make with books.

I have decided to share them, as hyperlinks, via my (current) Mastodon social media account. My plan is to post a list of the link-sharing toots of the past week.

Since 2021 I have been retweeting posts by Archaeology & Art, and others, of beautiful historical artifacts. I add hashtags for the various roleplaying game “communities,” and the simple description “This. Is. Treasure.”, taken from the 1999 film The Mummy.

I have begun taking screenshots and tooting them on the Mastodon server dice.camp.

And now here, going forward.

The sidebar now has a blogroll of my own creation. I am still curating the list of blogs and how many to show (currently 10).

I finally put the time and effort into finding and collating the events of the “Xenoverse” into a definitive timeline. It spans almost 90 in-character years and almost 40 real ones.

The link is also in the sidebar under “Latest Pages” and thus available from every page for the foreseeable future.

Enjoy!

Finally! It was sorely needed as this website already has almost 500 URLs.

The search form is in the sidebar and thus available from every page.

“You’ll get a second Medal of Honor for this, John.” — Colonel Troutman, Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

Being an Army Brat, that statement made me curious as to whether that is possible. So I started researching. It turns out the answer was “not anymore.” In fact, there have been nineteen double winners of the Medal of Honor.

The Medal of Honor was created in 1862 during the U.S. Civil War. It was the only military decoration for valor until 1918 when the “Pyramid of Valor” was established by an Act of Congress. It created the Distinguished Service Cross (Army), Navy Cross, and other lesser awards. Henceforth the Medal of Honor could only be awarded once to an individual.

A recent Act of Congress has since removed this restriction. Regardless, it is highly unlikely anyone will ever again be awarded a second medal. There has been an unwritten rule since the end of World War II that no awardee is to die on active duty. Thus one will never again be allowed in a combat zone.

Of those nineteen men, two were considered for a third award.

For those wishing to learn more about these men, I recommend the book Double Winners of the Medal of Honor by Raymond J. Tassin. Dr. Tassin gives each man a chapter that starts with childhood and pre-service life, provides context to the conflicts participated in, fleshes out the cited actions (not all of which were combat!) via storytelling, and concludes with post-service life and death.

Daniel Daly, USMC

Lastly, I give you the nineteen (in chronological order):

1. Thomas Custer (Army)
2. John Cooper (Navy)
3. Patrick Mullen (Navy)
4. Frank Baldwin (Army)
5. Patrick Leonard (Army)
6. William Wilson (Army)
7. Albert Weisbogel (Navy)
8. Henry Hogan (Army)
9. Robert Sweeney (Navy)
10. Louis Williams (Navy)
11. Daniel Daly (Marine Corps)
12. John McCloy (Navy)
13. Smedley Butler (Marine Corps)
14. John King (Navy)
15. Ernst Janson (Marine Corps)
16. Matej Kocak (Marine Corps)
17. Louis Cukela (Marine Corps)
18. John Pruitt (Marine Corps)
19. John Kelly (Marine Corps)

For some time now, I have wanted to post here about roleplaying and roleplaying games. My own words, not just others’ via book excerpts.

I will mostly be writing to and for myself—as a tool for helping me think through incomplete ideas. Yet also sharing these ideas for whatever benefit to the RPG community.

While not a game developer, I am a software engineer. I have written much code as tools and toys in private, personal service of roleplaying games. Maintaining a second website for potential technical posts would be crazy. So I do not rule out such posts here.

On October 10, 2004, I got married at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Our celebrant, Bill, went above and beyond the call of duty. He wrote the words, played the hammer dulcimer, and drew the Fermat’s spiral in chalk upon the ground. He also drove 16 hours in 34 so as to not neglect his parishioners.

Thank you, Bill. You made our special day absolutely unforgettable.