Tag Archives: geekery

Brainfood

Ahhhh! We’re Sending Out Spam

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In true UE form, the following is what the UE Staff learned when we realized that one of our email accounts was sending out spam.

As we continue to learn the ins-and-outs of managing a community-run volunteer website, we’ve come across another fascinating aspect of being an online entity: becoming the victims of a joe job / spoofing attack.

A couple months ago, our Twitter account tweeted out a spam link. We changed all our passwords and double-checked all our other accounts: everything was fine. Then, a few days later, we found an email in the spam folder of one of our accounts from ourselves with a spam link! WTF? That was accompanied by several “mail delivery messages” (also in our spam folder) that our email had labeled with a warning, “This is a fake ‘bounce’ reply to a message you didn’t actually send.”

Okay, but if we didn’t send any messages, then why did some people in our contacts—including us—receive an email?!

Sure, we’ve all seen some form of these spam emails from friends, family members, coworkers, etc. Most likely, you assume they accidentally clicked on a bad link that compromised their account, you make sure not to click the link, delete, move on, and be happy it was not your account. But what if it was your account…?  Well, then, you promptly freak out.

After updating everyone with access to this email and changing all our passwords again, we started our Sherlocking.

First question: Were we hacked? Nope. We were not hacked. At the time, the majority of the members of our staff had access to this particular account so, of course, we were worried someone had been sloppy with the password. But, thankfully, most email clients (like Gmail) actually track every IP address that accesses your email (and the location, web browser, and computer type being used by said IP address.) We were able to verify every single log-in to the infected account in the last month. Not to mention we also checked all of its email history: not a single unidentifiable email was sent from the account. Just to be safe, we still changed the password (again) and deleted all its contacts. We are not ones to mess around with security!

So, if we weren’t sending it, where the frak was it coming from? According to those receiving our emails, the spam emails were being flagged in their inboxes (or were being automatically moved to their spam boxes), because the emails were not actually coming from our servers. That’s also why all record of any of this happening was in our spam box. When we investigated the headers of the spam message, we discovered that they were actually coming from an IP address originating in Kyrgystan. Awesome.

Then, we learned that a joe job is when a spamming company uses your email as a front to send out a bunch of gross links.  One great analogy we ran across explained it like this: spoofing is comparable to someone sending a letter via snail mail, but they wrote your residence as the “return address” in the top left corner instead of their own. This makes the spammy email look like it’s coming from us, when we actually had nothing to do with it.

What do we think caused this? Either someone on the staff was logged into the infected email and accidentally clicked on something, or they were using a computer compromised with spyware, malware, or a virus. We had everyone who had access to the account run scans, and we did find some spyware on one staffer’s computer—we think it was probably the culprit. Either way, the spammers were able to commandeer our address book and thus send out the spam.

So what happened? Unfortunately, there is not much you can do to stave off a joe job except wait for the spammers to move on to a new victim. Fortunately, most email clients either rejected the emails outright, warned that they were not from us, or moved the emails immediately into everyone’s spam folders so they didn’t even notice. We apologized, we ignored, and we hoped it would go away soon. Thankfully, it did. In the end, the whole ordeal lasted less than a week and, from what we could tell, most of the emails were bounced back before they were delivered. We decided not to send out a mass email about the whole thing, for fear of potentially adding to the number of emails, so we wrote this article instead.  The most important thing to know should this happen to you is to remind everyone not to click on the links. If no one clicks, you aren’t profitable to the spammers, and they will move on.

The silver lining?  We’re a little bit more enlightened this week, and we hope we’ve enlightened you a bit on the wonderful world of spoofing. Also, if could be worse: AOL literally sent out zombie spam that same week…

Extra credit: Why is it called a joe job? Well, this is a terrifying account of what happens when someone purposefully uses your domain to sabotage your business and email as a spammer. This did not happen to us. Not that that’s going to help us sleep tonight.

Have a wonderful, spam-less week!

Photo by Gali Levi-McClure

Photo by Gali Levi-McClure

Brainfood

Camera Tech

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As the media is apt to tell us, we are living in a digital age where information is reduced to tiny pixels to be uploaded to a computer or social media site. That might be an overly detached way to put it, as the digital sharing we do every day truly can connect us to people we would never expect. We take pictures and video with our phones, and since technology has gotten so advanced, these are usually perfectly adequate for our social media needs. But for those who want to take their digital sharing to the next step (filming or taking high-quality photos and videos), there are a multitude of options available.

The Casual Photo Journalist

Smartphones these days take quality photos and can be a good replacement for a digital camera, but pictures take up a lot of memory—if you want to take a lot of pictures as well as short videos, investing in a point-and-shoot camera is the way to go. A point-and-shoot camera is exactly what its name implies: a camera where you can point it at something and take a decent photo with no adjustments needed. This kind of camera is perfect for those who don’t know or don’t care about the anatomy of a picture and just want to capture memories. These cameras can store up to 500 pictures at a time—sometimes more—and can record videos as long as 20 minutes. They are also getting smaller with better battery life and more memory space, making them the perfect travel companions. They are also great for kids who are just starting to use more sophisticated technology.

Some of the more highly rated point-and-shoot cameras out there include:

  • Canon PowerShot A-Series – This is a series of point-and-shoot cameras that range in price and power but provide an easy experience.
  • Nikon Coolpix Series – This series has a number of cameras under $100 with a variety of zoom ranges and different settings for taking pictures.

What you’ll find with a lot of these smaller cameras is that they are super easy to use. They have a lot of options for how to take your pictures or video without sacrificing too much quality, but the camera will always control how much light or focus the picture has. If you want to get more creative, you might want to invest in some of these bad boys below!

The Not-So-Amateur Photographer

For those who really want to dig into photography and experiment with light, zoom, focus, and a whole bunch of other variables, then investing in a DSLR is the way to go. A Digital Single-Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera is a fancy way of saying a powerful digital camera. These cameras pack a lot of punch.

First, their memory storage is phenomenal. Most of these cameras can have memory cards that hold at least 1500 pictures. You also get to control the operating parts of the camera, such as the shutter (which controls how much light goes in) and the shutter speed (which controls how long the shutter stays open to let light in). You can do some fun things with the focus of your pictures, as well as with the light. Now, if none of this makes sense to you but you want to use these more advanced cameras, doing some research or taking a short photography course (from an online learning site like Lynda.com or at a local community center) will definitely help you get the most out of your equipment.

There is some rivalry between the Canon and Nikon camps, but honestly, they are both super good at making cameras and it’s really a personal preference. This author is partial to Nikon, but that was after months of research and examination of my personal needs (as I write this, my Canon-adoring editor overlords are plotting their revenge!).

  • Nikon D Series – Nikon’s DSLR cameras range from the monster D4s, which have the ability to use 16 million pixels in one picture, to the modest D3000, a model that is perfect if you are just starting out using a DSLR.
  • Canon EOS series – These cameras, much like the Nikons mentioned above, have a wide range between each camera. The Canon 1D X has 18.1 megapixels and have a few less advanced models that is good for those who don’t need such a powerful camera.

With each DSLR, you need a few lenses to get the best quality photos. Unless you want to get crazy, a standard zoom and a telephoto lens work just fine. There are a few others that specialize in zoom or have a fish-eye, but those have a very specific purpose and may not worth the money unless you are seriously making a career out of taking pictures or you want to take those kinds of photos all the time.

The power of these cameras is unreal. In fact, they are so powerful that some people in Hollywood are using DSLR cameras to film small budget films and music videos—that’s the kind of quality we are talking about. So if you want to make photography a serious priority or hobby, I would look into DSLRs. I got my Nikon D5000 for my high school graduation and have used it on multiple trips, including my year abroad in Europe, and it was a fantastic experience. That said, my friends with regular point-and-shoot cameras also got some quality photos.

Overall, I would assess your needs, consider the amount of upkeep and effort you want to exert, do some research, and ask questions! Cameras are a great investment and can help preserve some of the best times. So make sure you’re using quality technology!

Photo by Rob Adams

Photo by Rob Adams

Geekery

Buffy Summers is my Spirit Animal

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Spoiler Alert! (But honestly this show ended over eleven years ago and I don’t know what you’ve been doing with your life since then.)

One time, a really long time ago—I must have been in high school—I was flipping through the channels when there she was, like she’d just stepped out of Bloomingdale’s, backflipping through a cemetery with a wooden stake. “Something quippy about heartburn,” she said, and jabbed the stake through a monstery-looking monster’s chest before he burst into a cloud of dust.

And I was like, (eyeroll) anyways… and changed the channel.

This memory was called to mind when years (oh my god, over ten of them) later a close friend suggested—nay—insisted that I watch the series. She said it would be life changing. Mind blowing. Wildly entertaining. But I could only think, “Something quippy about heartburn.” I promised I’d give it a chance anyway and agreed that if I made it past a certain point and wasn’t absolutely invested, we would move on and never mention this again.

So in I went, with a little bit of Daria on my face, not quite sure what I was in for. And though I wasn’t completely sold on season one’s monster-of-the-week arc, I was drawn in immediately by the glorious oozing 90’s nostalgia. What were those outfits. And those shoes. Yes, all the details harkened back to the days when slap bracelets and Clinton were both very in, when I was ten and life was swell. Am I saying that the butterfly clips, MC Hammer pants and the perfectly symmetrical face of David Boreanaz carried the first season? Maybe, yes, I am saying that. That, and the promise that it gets better.

And oh does it get better.

So there I was, week two, season two and Buffy Summers is all a-lust over Angel, her perfectly attractive, emotional vampire boyfriend made of equal parts brooding and brawn, who is also, in case this hasn’t come up, just very good looking with a nice face. Body, too. Anyways. Together, they were all the things that Ross and Rachel, Luke and Lorelai, Corey and Topanga would never be. She’s a complicated woman with a dirty job that no one wants and that bleeds into her personal life. He’s a reformed villain seeking redemption for his rotten ways. But, as The Slayer, she is his sworn enemy and, as a vampire, he is her next target. Romanciers, eat your hearts out ‘cause it gets worse. As passions of the heart became passions of the flesh, we learn that the spell that gave Angel his “soul”—the thing that keeps away his villainous ways—would break if he experienced one moment of  true happiness. What would cause said moment? Think about it… think about… yeah, worst one night stand ever. Angel reverts to his old evil ways, and Buffy discovers that, shocker, the love of her life might not be who she thought he was.

And just like that Joss Whedon had me. He had me at Hellmouth. The classic “my boyfriend said he loved me until I slept with him and he dropped me like a hot potato” metaphor was alive and well in season two of Buffy. What could I say: this show not only had heart, it was a lot of pun. See what I did there?

Whedon let our little slayer slay on for five more seasons. And I fell straight down the demonic portal rabbit hole. He took every challenge life has to offer and put the face of a monster on it—school bullies, mom’s weird boyfriend, addiction, depression, and death—and then he sent Buffy and her gang of Scoobies in to duke it out with whatever happened to be handy. Thus, the joy of Buffy, I think, comes from the power that so many works of fiction wield: they provide a world parallel to the viewers’ own where many of the same struggles exist and the same feelings are felt. It does not condescend or trivialize but validates the experience when all the while a tiny blonde woman beats the hell out of really, really big dudes for just the right touch of empowering escapism.

Which leads me into next portion of my ode to Buffy. Buffy and her best bestie, Willow, are wicked badass. They don’t even fall into the common strong-female-lead-trap of being wholly one-dimensional, emotionally unavailable warriors of the cause who martyr-on in the wake of everyone else’s incompetence. That’s how badass they are. Sure, Buffy has her martyr season, but if you jumped through a demonic portal to save the world, you might find yourself a tad resentful, as well—just a guess. They have feelings about what’s going on and sometimes those feelings are less than positive. Buffy often resented her responsibility, lamented her works’ impact on her love life, made poor decisions, felt overwhelmed, insecure, weak. And she still managed to save the world. A lot.

So much more can be said on this topic. Whole canons of text have been scribed on the subtext of feminism, sexuality, religious implications, and the social and cultural influences of Whedon’s series.

But I’m not here to break down the semiotic significance of “Hush”, the only Emmy-nominated episode (wherein a spell befalls Sunnydale that causes everyone to fall silent).

I’m not going dissect the power dichotomy in the scene where Spike tries to rape Buffy or examine the paternal role of Giles, the Watcher.

I will say this, though: Buffy The Vampire Slayer is a true coming-of-age story that makes no false pretenses or even offers any answers on what it’s like to grow up or on what being grown up looks like. There’s no neat package. No bows. There is, however, the promise that life is messy, unpredictable, complicated and full of as much beauty as there is ugliness.  That these experiences are universal and also survivable is probably Whedon’s most important message of all. Because with the right friends by your side and a well-timed zinger, there’s no challenge that can’t be overcome. Even the apocalypse.

Photo by Sara Slattery

Photo by Sara Slattery

Geekery

Why Everyone Should Be a Radio Nerd

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I am a self-professed and proud radio nerd. As I start this article, I am waiting for a podcast to finish because I don’t want to stop listening.

I’m one of those people who listens to the end of the credits for NPR shows so that I can say out loud “This is NPR” with the host. When I drove up to Portland to see Radiolab Live and missed the first 5 minutes because of a ticketing fiasco, I exclaimed “Do they know how big of a fan I am!?” because clearly they did not understand how much this meant to me. And maybe you also don’t understand why someone would be so obsessed with radio.

Well, let me tell you why and hopefully convince you to join me.

1) You will learn more than you ever thought possible

Over just the past few weeks, I have learned how big companies like Hulu or Netflix come up with their brand names from 99% Invisible, how to carry a Trapper Keeper so that I look cool from How to Do Everything, the story of a photographer who takes incredible pictures of people who die from loneliness in the supposedly happy state of Denmark from Benjamin Walker’s Theory of Everything, what a re-branding of marijuana would look like for the new age of legalization from Studio 360, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Every time I put on my headphones, I expect to hear something new and interesting, and probably something I never would have learned on my own.

I am not one of those people who spend hours scrolling though Wikipedia articles absorbing facts, but I do love to learn and I find that I do that best through stories. If I read a textbook about one of the scientific concepts presented by Radiolab or an economic theory described on Planet Money, chances are I would neither understand them nor remember them. But if I listen to Radiolab explain how water can have difficulty forming ice through a story about a fleet of horses flash freezing in a pond, I will never forget it. To me, listening to radio is like the best possible education: lectures full of vivid, engrossing stories that expand my knowledge without having to do any homework.

2) You will have so many stories to tell

One big perk of listening to radio is that you will always have something to talk about. I often start many of my conversations with “So I was listening to this radio show, and I heard this great story….”

While I understand the concern that this might come off as annoying, believe me when I say these stories spark intense conversations. Many radio shows specialize in the stories you don’t hear on mainstream media. Radio producers often spend years doing intensive investigative journalism to present stories that don’t get covered by broadcast news or made into movies. Take, for example, This American Life’s award winning two hour Harper High School series, which covers gang culture and violence in Chicago like you will never hear anywhere else.

If you walk away from listening to that story without wanting to talk to someone about it, I would be shocked.

3) You can listen wherever you go for FREE!

People often ask me “When would I listen to radio?” and I respond “When do you listen to music?” Anytime you want to listen to something while doing a mindless task is a perfect time for radio.

Obviously, driving is the best option and, believe me, nothing keeps you safe and awake while driving a 15-hour road trip by yourself than listening to podcasts. I also like to listen while walking to school, or cleaning, or exercising. I heard, probably from some radio show, that you actually shouldn’t listen to fast-paced music while exercising because it heightens the stress. I say: what could be a better solution than listening to conversational stories that distract you from (if you’re anything like me) how much you hate running?

And if you have a smartphone or MP3 player, it’s really easy to download podcasts for free. You can subscribe to shows using a mobile app, iTunes, or podcast feed program, and they will automatically download to your device, giving you tons of continual entertainment. Lots of podcasts even have their full archives available, so you could become obsessed with say Stuff You Miss in History Class and spend a whole year listening to it.

If you don’t have an iPhone or iTunes, there are many other ways to listen to free podcasts, so you have no excuses!

4) There is a radio show for everyone

I am not exaggerating when I say that there is a radio show for everyone! There are literally millions of podcasts just waiting for you to download them. I guarantee you will find one that is tailored to your interests, because Rule 43 is true: You can find anything on the Internet if you are willing to look for it long enough. Podcasts are so easy to make that anyone with a niche interest has already found a way to talk about it (though, admittedly, not all of them are fantastic quality).

Let me give you some suggestions to start you off:

There is so much great radio to explore. I challenge you to start listening and not become a radio nerd.

Photo by Gali Levi-McClure

Photo by Gali Levi-McClure

Geekery

Finding my Fandom

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I like to think of myself as a professional Internet user. Though I’ve never seen a dime for all the hours I’ve put in online, I reap the riches of the content I read, watch, and listen to. By seeking out cool new things on the internet, I not only get to appreciate the creative content, but also a community of fans all over the world—which, I would argue, is half the experience.

Most people have a “thing” that they find joy in participating in and talking about, such as exercising, movies, gardening, bagpipe-playing or One Direction. There are some who believe that if fewer people know about their “thing,” whether it’s a show, a band, or a super new and awesome gardening technique, the “thing” is inevitably cooler. We all know these people: “Do you have their concert shirt from their 1998 secret show in Chicago? ‘Cause if not, we can’t be friends.”

Though I do agree that a smaller number of super devoted fans is better than a larger number of casual fans, in general, if more people know about the “thing,” more knowledge, and art, and community can be shared across the internet. And more people who are interested in the “thing” will be able to find one another.

My “thing” is Doctor Who. I was just finishing up middle school when Russell T. Davies rebooted the classic British sci-fi dramedy, and it wasn’t until much later that I discovered the show and immersed myself in its fandom. I had heard about Doctor Who from a number of the Internet personalities I followed, and in my first year of college, I began actively seeking out the show, its surrounding culture, and its fandom. Back then, these episodes weren’t easy to find for free but I had a lot of gift card money to spend, so I splurged and guaranteed myself a high-def experience by buying all the seasons on iTunes.

I zipped through those episodes—meaning I watched five seasons of television in about two months. Doctor Who was, and is, a show about how big the universe is and yet, despite its vastness, there are shared experiences to which we can all relate. The big giant blockbuster storylines usually have smaller messages about what love and hope can do, and the supernatural aspects of the show help to highlight real-world experiences. As Ben Wyatt from Parks and Rec would say, “They’re telling human stories in a fantasy world!”

I became obsessed, very fast. But no one I knew watched Doctor Who and I am not one to seek out other people to talk to online, simply because a lot of my experiences with books or TV shows become very personal and I find it hard to express my feelings to other people. I started following blogs and found the website Tumblr, which helped me find other projects the actors and creators were working on. I found people online who loved it just as much as I did and they introduced me to other awesome things like fan art and fanfics, neither of which I had ever really encountered in such massive quantities before. I had, of course, encountered both of these things with Harry Potter, but I thought that was the only fandom where people were as passionate about something as I was.

By discovering that other fandoms also expressed their love for a show or a book through art and writing, I discovered a whole new world (Aladdin reference for you, there). It is a world where enthusiastic people come together to express their love for their passion, and a place where I can openly indulge in my enthusiasm as well. I was a much quieter, much more timid person before I found my tribe, but afterwards I found the confidence to become much more dynamic, both on the Internet and in real life.

Getting into Doctor Who started a chain reaction that eventually led me to the nerd life that I embrace today. I encouraged many of my friends to watch Doctor Who and I found other shows like Merlin, Supernatural, and others—all of which have been fantastic new experiences and new fandoms. The small network of Who fans (known as “Whovians”) whom I followed eventually expanded and led me to binge-watching a whole host of other shows, as well as discovering all sorts of new bands, books, and podcasts.

I became immersed for the first time in something solely because of the recommendations of Internet personalities, not because I had found it and loved it first. It was a whole new and wonderful experience that spoke to the power of online sharing. It might be nice to be an “original” or early fan of something, but I’m so glad other people spread the word about Doctor Who and recommended it to me. If they hadn’t, I may never have experienced it or the various other new works that it introduced me to. Doctor Who opened up an entirely new network to me that I had only really experienced once before, and because of that it will always hold a special place in my heart.

My favorite quote is when the Doctor tells Amy Pond about why companions come with him on the TARDIS. He says, “You make all of time and space your backyard, and what do you have? A backyard! But you, you can see it. And when you see it, I see it.” By showing your passion for something, it can make other people see that same passion and appreciate it all the more.

Photo by Rob Adams

Photo by Rob Adams

Geekery

We Don’t Know: What is Internet Property?

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Remember SOPA? In a few days, it will be the one year anniversary of the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” when legislators of the U.S. government sought to draft a bill that would “promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes.”

SOPA’s intentions were theoretically “good,” because ripping a DVD without the content owner’s permission and downloading it should be punished, right? Well… yes and no. It depends on what we consider a DVD. Is it property like a car? Sort of, it was a physical thing, but when it’s downloaded and shared, you’re not actually taking the DVD away from its original owner, you’re just distributing more copies. Is this theft and, if so, should we deal with it in the same way that we deal with physical theft?

No one can really agree at the moment, but the issue remains even though SOPA was indefinitely postponed, we don’t know what making and owning internet property means. If we can’t rip and share a DVD that somebody else made, can we remix it and share it? Can we profit off that remix?

Let’s just say it’s a mess, but precedent is being set.

http://youtu.be/rFMl0stqai0

Photo by Michelle White

Geekery

Nerd Knows No Age

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Full disclosure: I am a full-blown adult nerd.

Nerd is a pretty broad term—sometimes it’s science nerds, or book nerds, or fandom nerds. But really it just means that you’re extremely passionate about something and you like to show it. You exhibit your emotions and feelings about what you love and that’s okay.

For me, being an adult nerd has been a great way to relieve stress and have fun. I’m a pretty enormous Harry Potter nerd, as well as a social media nerd (do I have fellow Tumblr friends out there?), a young adult novel nerd, not to mention the dozens of other fandoms (fan communities) I dabble in. I love getting into passionate discussions with my friends about the intricacies of the house system at Hogwarts or the latest Vlogbrothers video on YouTube. It’s a hobby that’s not only fun for me, but also engaging and empowering.

When I was 22, I jumped head first into the world of fandoms. Through a few chance encounters, my need to have something to do outside of work, a roommate with a common love of Harry Potter, and a desire to not hide my own nerdy obsessions any longer, I quickly found myself knee-deep in fandom. I started volunteering for The Harry Potter Alliance, an organization that engages youth and fandom communities in social justice through parallels from the Harry Potter books and other novels, TV shows, and movies. What I found within that organization was not only a cause I could believe in and enjoy simultaneously, but also a group of friends and colleagues who helped me realize how indulging in our passions improves our daily lives. This encouragement has pushed me to find my other passions, and more than three years later I am heavily involved in many communities.

Through things such as The Harry Potter Alliance, Nerdfighteria, Tumblr communities, LeakyCon, and so much more, I have come to find networks of friends that I would have never been exposed to otherwise. They are friends I would have never been exposed to just through college and work—friends who make YouTube videos for a living, who work for entirely online non-profits, who go to conventions all over the country and get paid to do it. We live all over the world and yet we are able to form true, close friendships based entirely off of our shared enthusiasm. I never thought I’d meet some of my best friends online but it only makes sense now considering how much we have in common.

As an adult, however, I can often see the more difficult sides of nerd communities. Sexism, ableism, and racism are not uncommon, especially in communities heavily dominated by a specific group—cosplayers constantly face discrimination based on body type, gamers are often pegged as mysognyistic for how they treat women who try to join the traditionally all male community, and comic fans are defensive of anyone who claims to be a true fan but doesn’t know every single detail of a story. Every community has them, even the most inclusive and welcoming of them. Assimilating into the cultures we love can take a lot of conviction, especially when we don’t always fit the mold. Not to mention that the social aspect of these communities can be difficult to break into, especially if you don’t know what to expect. But the more atypical members who join these communities, the more changes will permeate them.

To me, being an adult nerd is about not allowing ourselves to hide from who we are. For those who have been nerds all our lives: our passions as teenagers are still part of our passions as adults and it’s okay to keep those interests alive even as we age. At twenty-five I’m more enthusiastic than ever about my nerdy passions and I don’t see that going away anytime soon. I look forward to the day I get to pass those passions on to my own children and share in them as they too learn the world of fandom, stories, and nerdy obsessions. For those who are just now discovering geekdom, don’t be pressured away from finding new interests and new ways to express yourself—it only goes up from here!

Photo by Meaghan Morrison

Photo by Meaghan Morrison

Geekery

Let’s Ask: A D&D Dungeon Master

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Two nerds walk into a Starbucks with a couple mutual friends, and soon discovered a mutual interest in D&D. Meggyn, ever-recruiting managing editor of the UNDERenlightened, roped Steve into sitting down with her to share some experiences and answer some questions about organizing and running a D&D game as a Dungeon Master.

Meggyn: How did you get into D&D?

Steve: I’m not really sure what drew my eye to it, but in 6th grade I was in a hobby shop and saw the player’s handbook for version 3.0. I researched some stuff online, and read some stories of fun adventures and became a lot more interested. After that, I talked to a couple of friends about trying the game out, so we went out and bought the stuff we needed to get a start. Because none of us had any clue what we were doing, one of the group members bought a D&D starter kit, which came with a few prefabricated adventures, which were just enough to get a practical handle on the mechanics of the game. From there, we continued to play and create our own adventures.

Meggyn: That’s awesome that you all learned the mechanics of the game together. When I first started, I joined a new campaign with mostly all experienced players; to this day I’m still a total newbie, so I still rely a lot on my friends for advice on leveling my character and how to figure out adventures. Have you always played with friends, or have you ever started a campaign with complete strangers?

Steve: I’ve never played an in-person campaign with complete strangers, but I have joined groups of people online that I didn’t know, as well as online groups of friends I met in an MMO. When I joined the former group, the one full of total strangers, I met them through a “looking for group” forum on the RPTools website. There are a ton of places online to find groups over the internet.

Meggyn: Dungeons & Dragons has been around for decades, so there are a few different versions of the rulebooks.

Steve: Yep. For those who don’t know, each revision is a major overhaul of the rules, where they are essentially rewritten (not dissimilar to new versions of video games, when the entire engine is recreated). From there, minor updates come in the form of supplemental or expansion books, which can include anything from new classes to new game mechanics (kind of like expansion packs).

Meggyn: When I played my first D&D campaign, we used a more recent version that included the well-known table grid, for moving miniatures around.  However, my current campaign has reverted all the way back to the first edition: it works well for us because we can simply play through ongoing storytelling (perfect for a group of mostly English majors), and we rely on our Dungeon Master’s common sense rather than burdening our play with overly technical details, like counting out the exact amount of squares we can move.  What’s your favorite version for organizing as the Dungeon Master?

Steve: There are some cool features to every version that I have played, really. But my favorite version of Dungeons & Dragons is a variant of the version 3.5 rule set called Pathfinder, because the power adjustment of specific classes is better as they level and the mechanics remain almost unaltered. This gives a stronger incentive for players to specialize in just one class and makes it easier as a DM to keep track of the characters abilities, which is very important for planning adventures. This coupled with my familiarity with the version 3.5/Pathfinder mechanics, and the huge number of supplemental materials available to draw upon, allow for much smoother game play and planning.

Meggyn: So it sounds like you started from the very beginning as the Dungeon Master for your in-person games with your friends.  How do you prepare for a session, and what are some pitfalls you consciously avoid?

Steve: Well, back when my first group started, we actually traded off hosting the prefabricated adventures since running prefabricated campaigns takes a lot less preparation. I DMed for the first time without a prefabricated campaign back in high school: I was terrible, and it has been a process of getting better this whole time. A great deal of time spent preparing is time spent trying to avoid some of the mistakes I made on my first pass as the DM. One common thing I avoid is creating an adventure where the players are bound to just one path, but also to where I don’t need to create the limitless possibilities of a completely open world. That is probably the hardest part of being a DM. Another thing is how to ensure the encounters are challenging but possible for the players, which requires a lot of thought into each character’s abilities. The rest of the prep time as a DM is used to draw maps, organize my system of keeping track of turns, and further familiarize myself with what monsters I am presenting in the encounters.

Meggyn: Sometimes the complication of a crazy open world can simply be impossible to avoid, though.  In my current campaign, one of our players decided from the get-go that he wanted to buy a chicken.  Since then, he has goaded our ranger into training it (as much as you can train a chicken), and is constantly coming up with absolutely insane, totally creative, and utterly hilarious ways to harass our long-suffering DM—like his current search for chicken-sized armor.  Any similarly great stories from your past campaigns?

Steve: The problem is that most D&D anecdotes draw on previous stories or adventures, and are most fun from experiencing them, kind of like an inside joke. To me at least, the most fun from the game comes from the people incorporating their own personalities into the events of the game.

Meggyn: It really is an awesome pastime.  So, for the readers whom we’ve inspired, what are some good resources for getting started with D&D?

Steve: A great tool to use for running a D&D game, online or otherwise, is Maptool, a completely free product of RPTools that is great for creating encounter maps and running games. Another great resource for version 3.5 is the d20srd, which is a free online searchable rules resource. If you navigate around, you can find some cool tools and setups that other people have used in their gaming, like the group who projected their game mat onto a table using map tools. Of course, you can always search your app store and see if there are some nifty tools there.

Steven Cary is an aspiring IT professional who enjoys backpacking, archery, cars, and science fiction/fantasy.

Meggyn Watkins is the Managing Editor of the UNDERenlightened. Fiction reader, local art prowler, concert-goer, BBC watcher, world traveler, and San Jose Sharks lover! @meggawat

Photo by Meggyn Watkins

Photo by Meggyn Watkins

Geekery, Sports

Girl, What’s Your Fan-ta-ta-sy? An Introduction to Fantasy Football

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In November, the refresh button on my iPhone never sees more action than it does on Sundays, which can only mean one thing: I have a fantasy football team, and it’s almost playoff time, bitches.

I grew up watching (and enjoying) football in a Giants-loyal family. Even when I was living abroad, I would stay up until 2:30 am to watch the Sunday afternoon games—although I drew the line at the 8 pm games. In college, I agreed to join a friend’s fantasy football team, but I mostly forgot about it, and by mid-season, I had conceded the bottom position for my team, the New York Sandwiches.

Let’s briefly pause and try and define the complex she-beast of a hobby that is Fantasy Football. And by that I mean let’s all visit its Wikipedia page, which concisely defines FF as “an interactive competition in which users compete against each other as general managers of virtual teams built from real [NFL] players.” Essentially, in a private league of usually 10-14ish people, each participant, or “owner,” builds a team of NFL players, whose real-life performances on a given Football Sunday (or Thursday night, or Monday night) are converted using a standardized scoring system into Fantasy points for the Fantasy Team that that player inhabits. Players from your FF “team” can be from any real NFL team—say, a wide receiver from the Buffalo Bills, another from the New England Patriots, a tight end from the New York Jets, and the quarterback of the Oakland Raiders. Each league’s draft takes place right before the NFL’s regular season commences, and the season goes until Week 16 of the NFL season. Every weekend, the scores of all the football players in a FF team add up to that owner’s total for the week. These made-up Fantasy teams exist only in their designated league, which could be comprised of friends, coworkers, acquaintances who were looking for extra members, or complete randos. More explanation below—please stick with me on this; I swear it’s fun.

After that losing Fantasy season in college, I kind of gave it up on the grounds that it was too time-consuming and that I would never remember to set my team every week. But earlier this fall, my cousin emailed me to ask if I would be interested in joining her friend’s league. The buy-in was $10, she said, and the draft was that night. After some deliberation, mostly about what clever team name I would choose, I agreed; the buy-in was low, and it would give me something to do while my boyfriend was meticulously honing his own Fantasy team. If you’ve had the good fortune of never sitting through a Fantasy draft, I’ll explain: like the NFL draft (minus the zillions of dollars, minus the suits and yammering commentators, plus a congealing Lean Cuisine on your kitchen table), each participant (AKA owner) takes turns selecting a football player for sixteen rounds, eventually filling each teams’ sixteen slots.

Offensive players are the only ones who count individually in most Fantasy Football leagues (sorry, Clay Matthews). Running backs (who run the ball down the field), wide receivers (who catch the ball, often in spectacular fashion), tight ends (who double as blocker/smashers and ball catchers), quarterbacks (who throw the ball) and kickers (the white guys) earn Fantasy points by either gaining yards or scoring points. Additionally, each NFL team’s entire defense fills one slot, losing Fantasy points for touchdowns scored by the other team and gaining them for scoring points in plays like a “pick-six,” which is that thing you do when you’re really hungry and a full tray of hors d’oeuvres passes by.

Every week, you play one quarterback, three wide receivers (WR), two running backs (RB), one tight end (TE), one kicker, one defense, and one “flex” slot, which you can fill with either a WR, RB, or a TE. Before that week’s football starts, you shift around those slots with your sixteen players depending on who’s hot, who has a bye-week, who’s injured, who’s on a sucking streak, etc. Then you go head-to-head with another owner and their team. To be clear, unless some of your players happen to be playing some of the other team’s players that weekend, your teams will have no direct interaction with each other, à la some kind of Mortal Kombat-esque duel arena. In real life, these football players do not care about your Fantasy team. Another factor to consider is whom each player is going up against; for example, if you have a WR like Antonio Brown who typically puts up high numbers but this Sunday is going up against formidable dreamboat Joe Haden of the Cleveland Browns, you can expect that his numbers will probably be lower than average, and you might swap him out for a less reliable receiver—say, Alshon Jeffrey, who plays for the Chicago Bears and, omg, was born in the nineties. Throughout the season, you can also trade players with other teams and “sign” unsigned players by dropping one of your own. After a season’s worth of matches, you stand to win whatever pot has been determined by the league, usually ranging from a hundred dollars to a few thousand.

Here’s how a typical Sunday goes for an active Fantasy Football participant: around noon, you do one last check of your players on your FF app or on the league’s host site (typically ESPN, CBS Sports or Yahoo!), making sure the injury statuses haven’t changed, taking into account that some of your players may have played on Thursday and their positions (either benched or active to score Fantasy points) are unchangeable. Then before you can say “pass the nachos,” the 1 o’clock games begin, then the 4 o’clocks, then the 8 o’clocks, and suddenly it’s nighttime and you wonder what kind of contribution you could have made to society if football Sunday didn’t exist.

How frequently you check your Fantasy scores depends weekly on the company you keep. Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for the universe, I generally watch football with other Fantasy-ers, so we all spend the day continually shifting our gaze between the wall-mounted TV screens and the live-updating Fantasy phone apps in our hands until our necks are sore and our thumbs are bleeding.

For the record, my team name is Nerds (I gave up on the clever thing), I stand to win about $100, and at the time this article is being written, I am in second place, having been recently knocked out of the top spot by a Wes Welker ankle injury and an unforeseen 30+point performance by the normally ‘meh’ Tayvon Austin. My quarterback Robert Griffin III (RG3) is prone to injury, but his numbers have been mostly good. While pretending not to care about competitive hobbies like these is generally my M.O., secretly I really, really want to win.

FANTASY FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS UPDATE:

When my team entered the three-week Fantasy playoffs, I won the first two rounds handily, thanks to a well-timed pickup of hotshot Eagles quarterback Nick Foles. But, sadly, I was just barely beaten in Week 16, AKA Fantasy Super Bowl Week, by one stupid running back in the very last football game of the weekend. And for those of you who still don’t think that Fantasy Football can be thrilling, consider that I was one (dropped) Josh Gordon touchdown pass away from taking the whole damn thing. My second-place winnings were $20, which makes a total condolence profit of $10. Alas.

Nevertheless, I am hooked. Despite way too many hours squandered on stat-crunching, this new convert will see you next year, Fantasy Football. And if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go buy a book.

P.S. If you’re reading this in late-summer 2014, you’re just in time to sign up for a league! (Also: Did American Hustle win the Best Picture Oscar? Are Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong Un still friends? Who’s the President?) Here are some links for creating a FF league or joining an existing one:

ESPN Fantasy Football
CBS Sports Fantasy Football
Yahoo! Fantasy Football

See you on the field!! And by that I mean the Internet.

Photo by Alyssa Kurtzman

Photo by Alyssa Kurtzman