Prognostication 'Neath the Waxing Crescent

Since both the New Moon and Super Tuesday have recently passed, I feel the time is ripe to cast my personal augury for the 2008 presidential election.

Do I eviscerate a chicken? Read tea leaves? Draw up astrological charts?

None of the above. I name my Nethack characters after the candidates. A difference in score of more than one order of magnitude portends a sure victory, where a narrower margin demands further scrutiny - comparisons of maximum level reached, number of artifacts collected, pet survival, and so on.

Unfortunately, I haven't kept track of the Nethack augury's accuracy over the years, but I have found it useful. Sometimes, when there doesn't seem to be any clear choice, I tell myself that I must vote for the winner of the Nethack augury. Then, when I consider the results, I am forced to have a really honest deliberation with myself about just how reprehensible I find that particular candidate.

Stay tuned for results.

Monster Mash

The best flash dungeoncrawler you'll play today has to be Monsters' Den. Sure, the title's a little pat but you won't find more hack and slash per minute this side of Progress Quest.

If that isn't your style, you may enjoy this CCG-style game I keep going back to. Wolf will love it if he can get past playing with a random deck each time. (*correction: The game does allow you to build a custom deck. Sorry for the mistake*)

Of course, the best ASCII dungeoncrawler you'll play today is still nethack.

You are lucky! Full moon tonight.

www.nethack.org