hairylarry's blog

Since I started Gamer+ I have been running the Oxwall social network software. Unfortunately the most recent version of Oxwall was written in 2016 which in internet years means it's an antique.

Not only that it's not working well and I barely got some of the pages working at all after the new sql server update.

So ...

I am going to archive the existing Gamer+ site. All posts, photos, etc. will be available to read but there will be no new members or new posts on the Oxwall vesrion of Gamer+.

I am going to install a new Gamer+ social network site using the federated software, friendica. If you are already on mastodon, peertube, funkwhale, or other federated services you will be able to follow and share with Gamer+ users.

And/or you can start an account at the new Gamer+ and continue posting to Gamer+ just ike you have in the past.

Change is hard but change is good. And this sounds right to me. I'm looking forward to it.

Saturday March 11 at 11:00 AM Central join us for Inspired Unreality open game chat. The topic will be Fantasy and Science Fiction including some Science Fiction coming to life, AI Art.

Inspired Unreality is held on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord.

Here's more info and a link.

https://gamerplus.org/index

At the last Inspired Unreality we had a nice AI Art show and tell. Alan posted these pictures he generated for his Chronicles Of Ember RPG.

https://gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/144

Here's a link to Alan's page.

https://gamerplus.org/user/Alan

TabletopBellhop says, Check out The 199.5 Bonus Episode.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5060

Vivian and I had a big old time last weekend. We took a short trip to Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, to visit Eclectic Geekery and play a set at Beatle's Park.

https://gamerplus.org/user/EclecticGeekery

Here's a link to my Youtube video edited from my livestream.

https://youtu.be/73vDatM6DSs

Hairy Larry playing Chill Jazz Piano at Beatles Park.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/1011

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Saturday, February 25, join us for Inspired Unreality Open Game Chat. Starting topic will be AI Art. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic.

Inspired Unreality is held at 11:00 AM Central on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more info and a link go here.

https://gamerplus.org/index

You can't really follow the controversy without some skin in the game so I've been doing some AI Art generation while I continue to read about issues. I even discussed AI music composition at my last lesson and have more to cover next week.

About that controversy.

Generative AI is a legal minefield
https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5046

U.S. Copyright Office Rules A.I. Art Can’t Be Copyrighted
https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5029

Art-istic or Art-ificial?
https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5028

And I've been generating elves.

Two Elves Walked Into A Magic Forest
https://gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/142

Midjourney Dark Elves
https://gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/141

Do you play Diablo? Check out Crucial Tips For A Diablo 2 Ladder Season Start from mmowts's blog.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/1001

Please forward this email to your AI friends and share this link.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/1007

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

What have you been reading? What have you been watching? What have you been playing? That's the topic for Inspired Unreality open game chat at 11:00 AM on Saturday, February 11. Second Saturday = Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. There's more info and a link, here.

https://gamerplus.org/index

I wrote a book.

"Lost In The Woods", a readaloud fantasy book by Larry Heyl using AI artwork.

Soon to be a Zine and a Minizine.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5023

And, speaking of AI Artwork, ain't it interesting how intellectual property rights are being shunted aside by highly mobile fandoms.

Paizo’s Jim Butler discusses ORC, OGL 1.1, and more
https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5024

This artist is dominating AI-generated art. And he’s not happy about it.
https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5017

I will say this about AI Art. It certainly is addictive.

Please forward this email to your AI friends and share this link.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/1000

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Inspired Unreality open game chat will resume tomorrow, Saturday, January 28, at 11:00 AM Central. Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. Here's a link for more information about Inspired Unreality.

https://gamerplus.org/index

Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic. We want to know what interests you.

Caper finished the Harshnag song in our family game, so for an opening topic I will unveil that.

In two weeks the topic will be Fantasy and Science Fiction. We've moved to the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of each month to give us more flexibility on our trips to Eclectic Geekery in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. Beatles Park here I come. (As soon as it warms up.)

I invented the supernatural 20.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5004

Did you ever want a really remote monastery on one of your quests?

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5002

I wrote "Mouse Plural", A Jupiter's Ghost Super Short.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/998

Jupiter's Ghost is a collaborative effort to create a Science Fiction setting that can be used by anyone.

https://intergalactic.computer/

The Jupiter's Ghost creations are licensed CC BY-SA.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Please forward this email to your geeky friends and share this link.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/999

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Mouse Plural

If we have houses
Why not mouses
If we have mice
Why not hice

I have done extensive research using an ancient computer program called the Wayback Machine.

The truth is there is no such thing as mouse singular. There is never one mouse, they come in families.

If a group is a nest
What about the rest?
The rest are in another nest.

What we have on the ship is what used to be referred to as a house mouse. Ship mouse doesn't rhyme but it will have to do.

The problem I foresee is their breeding. Mice begin breeding when they are 30 days old. Then they have litters. And then back to breeding. In thirty days all the mice in the litter are breeding.

Computer scientists call this an exponential explosion. Look at the graph of an expoential explosion. It's frightening.

If mice go unchecked on the ship, exponentially exploding and eating and eating, we will soon leave post scarcity behind and we'll all be eating mice.

The Wayback Machine mentioned an ancient predator called cats that were used to keep the mice population under control.

I'm not sure what a cat is but apparently humans like cats more than mice. Cats also have litters of kittens so it's competing exponential explosions.

A clowder of cats
makes kindles of kittens
and they're so cute!

I saw pictures on the Wayback Machine and mice are really cute too.

For some reason there are thousands of pictures of cats for every picture of a mouse.

So maybe they won?

We better find out where we can get cats sometime in the next 30 days.

---

Licensed CC BY-SA

Jupiter's Ghost is free culture collaborative science fiction.

https://intergalactic.computer/

Schedule shift for the New Year.

Inspired Unreality open game chat will be held on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month at 11:00 AM to Noon, Central Time.

The Holidays may be over for you but we've got one more Holiday to go. We have a birthday party on January 14, so Inspired Unreality will resume starting on January 28.

If You Play You Win actual play will be held on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays at 1:00 in the afternoon at Eclectic Geekery and on the internet. Some days we will be Cozy Adventuring In Tobbins Shire. Some days we'll have a one off with guest DMs. Some days I'll be livestreaming chill jazz piano in Beatles Park. On those days we will skip the actual play.

We hope to resume If You Play You Win in February depending on the weather and the Covid stats. If You Play You Win is also subject to Eclectic Geekery availability so, as always, we will send a Gamer+ News announcing our events.

In my other newsletter I discuss Bebop Beatniks new album, "Church".

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4998

I also talk about it some on my podcast, From The Archives Of Something Blue.

https://sbblues.com/2022/12/31/dj-hairy-larry-presents-bebop-beatniks-playing-gotta-lotta/

I got a nice Christmas present from my granddaughter, DM Lizard.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4997
https://gamerplus.org/user/SearchingForGyphons

Did you ever want to run an adventure in colorful mountains? Here's a photo gallery of free culture and creative commons photos taken right here on Earth.

https://gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/138

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/997

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

We are celebrating the New Year with a Bebop Beatniks retrospective album, all originals performed live, from 2016 through 2019.

Here's the link to free download and streaming at archive.org.

https://archive.org/details/bebop-beatniks-church

Or if your prefer Youtube Music.

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mf1d0SMAHV60JyGIA-a-i5L0GsFUWfM-Y

I talk about the new album and my song, "Gotta Lotta" on From The Archives Of Something Blue. Here's a link to the podcast on the Something Blue website.

https://sbblues.com/2022/12/31/dj-hairy-larry-presents-bebop-beatniks-playing-gotta-lotta/

Don't miss Something Blue this Saturday, January 7, to hear some more jazz released in 2022 by Joshua Redman, Mary Halvorson, and Wadada Leo Smith.

Something Blue is broadcast on KASU, 91.9 FM and streaming on the internet at kasu.org, every Saturday at 10:00 PM Central.

It got cold in November. And then it got cold again in December. As far as Vivian and I are concerned we've had enough of that for one winter.

We had a great Christmas with most of our family here on Christmas Eve and then a big family Christmas with all of our kids and grandkids on New Years Day.

It don't get no better than that.

Stay in touch. Let me know about your projects and your news.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

The last Inspired Unreality of the year is on Saturday, December 3, at 11:00 AM Central. We will be discussing Fantasy and Science Fiction. We've got opinions and we hope you do too. I just finished "Harrow The Ninth" by Tamsyn Muir and now I'm in the middle of "This Is How You Lose the Time War" by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. We are making viewing arrangements for the new "Willow" series. We're all big "Willow" fans, here.

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. There's more info and a link here.

https://gamerplus.org/index

FollowMeAndDie posted a video and a blog.

"In my latest blog post I discuss the Saint Mark Turnip Festival invented by my players."

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4962

"My Latest YouTube Video: Mastodon For New Users - Twitter Refugees is live on YouTube."

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4961

I post my Mastodon link at the bottom of every Gamer+ news.

My daughter Megan has been giving me advice on new Fantasy and Science Fiction novels. She says, "Readers are the best people because they see the world through many sets of eyes. They know both that their experiences are not unique and that no one sees the world in quite the same way as them."

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4965

And I posted the video of Hairy Larry and The Flying Hungarians live at Blues Fest, 2022.

https://youtu.be/YO-_K4y9WIY

Enjoy!

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/995

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Join us for Inspired Unreality open game chat on Saturday, November 19, at 11:00 AM Central. All gaming is on topic and the opening topic will be Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. There's more info and a link here.

https://gamerplus.org/index

Follow Me And Die posted about his twitch stream called How To Mastodon For Twitter Users - Keep in Touch with fellow TTRPG folks with the possible demise of Twitter.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4945

You may have noted my Mastodon link in the signoff of these emails. I've been communicating in the fediverse for years. Mastodon is open source software run all over the world by businesses and hobbyists. I think it's about to achieve critical mass whether Twitter survives or not.

The fediverse is decentralized so you kind of have to shift gears in your head. Other apps besides Mastodon can communicate with Mastodon users, for example you can share your Peertube videos to Mastodon accounts and the replies somehow end up on your Peertube account.

Very interesting.

I posted 15 brilliant color fantasy illustrations from "The Russian Story Book" drawn by Frank C. Pape. Published in 1916 the illustrations are public domain.

https://gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/136

Here's a joke I posted in the Newsfeed.

---

A priest, a pastor and a rabbit entered a clinic to donate blood. The nurse asked the rabbit: “what’s your blood type?”

“I’m probably a type O”, said the rabbit.

---

I get plenty of those.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/994

Thanks,
Hairy Larry

https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com