The Gods of Geekdom have heard my prayers. Or at least Hallmark has. After years of giving us dud ornaments (the Scorpion from Star Trek: Nemesis) and more so-so ones (how many variant Enterprises do we need?) they have finally released the Star Trek ornament I've wanted most:

The Reliant.

My gaming group is contemplating running a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic campaign, and that's led me to start searching for Star Wars RPG sites (which in turn will likely lead to a Knights of the Dinner Table column).

I'm primarily interested in sites that deal with Saga Edition (the latest version of the Star Wars rules) and Knights of the Old Republic but I'll check out sites for any edition of the game (including West End games, if its well maintained). Here are three sites that I already have book marked:

• Star Wars: Saga Edition Home Page: http://www.wizards.com/starwars/
• Star Wars RPG Network: http://www.swrpgnetwork.com
• Saga Edition Conversions: http://saga-edition.com
• Star Wars: The Lost Tales: http://www.swtft.com
• Let the Wookie Win Star Wars blog: http://www.letthewookieewin.com
• Delusions of Grandeur: http://blogs.starwars.com/silverforce/
• Order 66 Podcast: http://www.d20radio.com/content/

Wizards of the Coast's launched a new podcast dedicated to its Star Wars Role-Playing Game, providing more evidence that WotC's getting more serious about supporting the RPG side of its Star Wars offerings. The first episode features designer Rodney Thompson talking about the Saga Edition rules and running SW campaigns.

Check out the show by visiting the Star Wars game home page or download the file directly.

Wizards has also been featuring more and more RPG content on the site, including articles about Behind the Threat: The Sith and Star Wars: The Musical Experience, Part 1. A glance at the news archive also reveals the new "Message to Spaces" and "Bounty Offerings" columns. It's all good stuff, and it's all making the game feel less like a contractual obligation and more like a full-blown, fully-supported game.

So I find myself in the position of needing to buy and help build up a Second Life island for the day job. I'm excited in about it insomuch as it's a new project, and something I've never done before. Plus, hey, it's almost virtual reality. Granted, it would have been far, far cooler if the college had gone ga-ga for World of Warcraft instead, but hey, I'll take my virtual worlds where I can find them.

In the meantime though, I find myself having to work through questions I don't really know the answers to. Specifically:

1. Preferred Grid Location: I know we want our island to be on the public grid, but where on the public grid? Is it better to be off by yourself? Should you be next to another college? Or the New Media Consortium? Or does it not really matter, because people will be 'porting in, not wandering the wilds of SL looking for college islands to explore?
2. What island shape do we want? Is one type of island better to build on than another? For example, we're thinking of either the "donut" shape, which is an oval island with a lake in the middle, or a mountainous shape, which sticks an mountain on one side of the island. Which is easier to build on?

Here's my summer reading list, as discussed in Radio Active #69, broken out for easy reference (by me). Got a summer reading list? Don't have one? Wish you had the time for one? Nuketown wants to know: vote in our poll!

Print Novels

• The Last Colony by John Scalzi - A novel of intergalactic intrigue featuring the main characters from Scalzi's Old Man's War and Ghost Brigades
• Quicksilver by Neil Stephenson - adventures in science during the Age of Enlightenment
• The Golden Globe by John Varley - Humans get kicked off Earth by aliens and are forced to live at the edge of the solar system.
• The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin - A man's dreams can reshape reality.

I'm back from the island. No, not the Island but rather, an island on Lake Champlaign on which our family friends own a cabin. We headed up there last week for a five days of sun, water and mosquitos, and while I can't say it was particularly relaxing, it was a lot of fun.

First, the setup: the island is only reachable by boat (as in, one of those aluminum boat deals with the outboard motor, which seats 4 comfortably, 4 and their camping gear less so). There is no electricity, no air conditioning, and ahem, no indoor toilet. There is, however, a cabin.

It may not seem like much of a geek retreat, and hell, most people who know me did a double taken when I told them I was going to spend a week without Internet access.

A geek ... on an island?

Nuketown's passed 500 comments. At least a hundred of those came from this spring alone, which goes to show just how much better my new "open" approach to commenting is (in which anyone can comment without an account, but messages are screened by the Askimet anti-spam software before being posted).

The community's coming together nicely, and I have no doubt that the count would be even higher if I, ahem, got Radio Active out on the consistent, weekly schedule I always hope for.

It's an excellent milestone, and I'm hoping we'll reach the next one -- 750 comments -- by the end of the summer. Which means I better stop patting myself on the back, and start writing more blog posts...

As I write this, I'm in a Holiday Inn in New Hampshire. I don't have a laptop with me, but I've got a stack of Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition books next to me, and a review due Sunday night. A few years ago, I'd have been doomed, but now I've got access to the net via the hotel's lackluster Windows XP machine. The machine itself doesn't have Microsoft Word installed, but again, no problem: the net has what I need, or more specifically, Google does.

Sitting in Google Docs is a copy of my review, and with a few clicks, I've got the document up in front of me, cursor eagerly awaiting my input. I won't finish the review tonight (especially if I keep breaking away to Nuketown to write spontaneous blog posts) but that's ok. One quick save, and my Google Doc's updated, and ready for me to pick it up again once I reach my sister's house.

Laptop? Who needs a freaking laptop?

I'm back in the real world, having left Balticon in my rear view mirror far sooner than I would have wished. Here are somme random thoughts I jotted down about the con, which easily ranks up there with GenCon in terms of overall coolness. Expect much geeking out about it in the next Radio Active.

3 p.m.: How the internet helps small presses publish books / Derby / Scott Edelman(M), Mike Walsh, Elaine Corvidae, M.T. Reiten

Scott Edelman: Is it helpful? It's actually damaged one aspect of small press magazine publishing because it's replaced the zine niche.

Mike Walsh: A book that was refused by the big sale chains; SCIFI did nice review, but it was BoingBoing that really drove a sales spike. Also, while not being in a big chain used to be a horrible thing, Amazon now offsets that.

Elaine Corvidae: Growing up in small town, if a book wasn't on a shelf, you really couldn't get it (or not know about it). The benefit of the internet is that sites get exposure. Points that she's publishing her books for free on her site, which fuels sales of print edition.

M.T. Reiten: Internet helps with reach, but challenging aspect is marketing.

Scott Edelman: Seeing authors give away review copies of book or magazine to see if it leads to a buzz.

Scott Edelman: Locus is our New York Times. Everyone wants a review there. Joe Hadleman's always going to get a review there; how do you get one as a small press.

Should you distribute your first book online?