Mischa Gelman's Home Page:

Another old pasttime of mine (back in college days primarily) was the Roguelike computer game Angband. I conducted a survey of rec.games.roguelike.angband, probably of interest only to those who play said game. And a newer survey is here, done in 12/97, about 2 years after the original. The third survey I did was the longest and got the most replies. This one, conducted in 12/98, is found here. This last file is around 135K, quite a bit larger than the first two.

I ama bibliophile and love a catchy phrase or comment, so I've gathered quite a few quotes over the years. They are grouped into categories - Political quotes, more politics, quotes about society and culture, more social issues quotes, nice quotes I've seen in other people's .sig files, Transformer and sports quotes (an odd combo, I know) and miscellaneous quotes. Hope you enjoy them - these are just things that caught my fancy and may not appeal to everyone.

Another writing project I undertook a few years back was to expand the Hollow World setting designed by TSR. I designed The Kogolor Dwarf Gazzetter and Hollow World Reference part 1 and part 2 with Thorfinn Tait.

The Malpheggi Lizard Man Hollow World Reference part 1 and Part 2, a project done by some members of the Mystara mailing list

And yet another Hollow World Reference I worked on, this one for the Krugel Orcs My fourth Hollow World Reference (which I got nice help on, from Cecil Cosman) is about The Jennite Horsemen. The second file for the Jennite HWR is here. The fifth and latest Hollow World Reference (done with Harri Maki) was on the Tanagoro Plainsmen - it is available in several sections - part one deals with general issues, part two with domestic life, part three with magic (including new classes of spellcaster), part four with miscellaneous items not covered earlier and part five focuses on sample Tanagoro NPCs.

When I first put this page together in 1995 I was a freshman in college and the internet was not well-developed. Search engines were rather limited and it was hard to find things as simple as major league baseball statistics. As a result, I designed this page mostly to help people find things I (and hopefully they) enjoyed. That's how most websites were set up back then - now, of course, there is no longer a real need. As a result the page has changed in content primarily to reflect things of my design. I still am including a list of my favorite links to try to get people to check out points of view they might not otherwise see or to point them to some interesting sites out there. These links are included below and were last updated in summer 2004 (the first time in 4 years I had done so).

Some people complained previously of the lack of autobiographical information on the page so here's a pretty short summary of who I am

Media

Sports Stuff

• Doug Steele's basketball page, with final stats for each of the past 7 or 8 seasons for every player and every team. Very nice collection of info and pretty up-to-date as well
• Glenn Gearhard's Pirates Page
• The Official Roberto Clemente Page is located here, paying tribute to a great baseball player and humanitarian.
• Some of my Superstar Baseball league's stats are here SSBB was a tabletop dice game put out by Avalon Hill, not a very realistic simulator but easy to play and fun.

Other Stuff

• The Carter Center has nearly eradicated guinea worm disease, a formerly major problem in the Third World. Under the leadership of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, the Center has also helped with peace negotiations, mental health and numerous other missions throughout the country and the world. No wonder Jimmy's America's most famous (and favorite) former President.
• The Alliance for Democracy has a page here, explaining what a true modern populism (not the "Populism" of David Duke) means an how to support it.
• A bunch of Net Surveys
• The homepage of The National Labor Committee can be found here. A wonderful source of info on sweatshops and corporate greed.
• One of the best cartoons I've ever seen is This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow. Here you can look at past cartoons as well as general information about both the author and his work.
• The Childrens' Defense Fund provides a voice for our future at this location. Another advocate for children is Children Now.
• Kids Can Make A Difference
• McSpotlight points out the flaws in one of those lovely MNCs, McDonalds.
• A local organization working to make the world a better place is Just Harvest
• The Urban Ecologist, a magazine designed to improve daily life in the city.
• Don Henwood's economics and business journal is located here.
• The National Center for Institutions and Alternatives offers plenty of information on legal and justice issues.
• The National Labor Committee is an excellent source of information regarding sweatshops issues.
• Here is a nice web site from a group entitled Reclaim Democracy that seeks to return us to the good ol' days.
• Jim Hightower, author of "There's Nothing In the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos", offers commentaries every weekday on his site in which he shows evidence of his contrarian nature. Jim also has links to many good information sources.
• 20/20 Vision.
• Ballot Access provides lots of news for those interested in a more representative Congress, for those who think John Adams was right when he said, "[Legislatures] should be an exact portrait, in miniature, of the people at large." Another source of info on the topic of proportional representation is the Center for Voting and Democracy
• First Things, a conservative journal of religion and public life, can be found on the web now as well.
• Parenting expert John Rosemond has a web page as well, in which he dispenses common sense and not psychobabble.
• Why is an excellent anti-poverty organization.
• The non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics is a very good source of information for those who want politics to respond more to the will of people and less to the will of corporations and machine bosses.
• Vote Smart!
• Many physicians feel we have a need fora national health care system. Here they explain why.
• MAZON, a Jewish response to hunger, has its page here. They have information about hunger in America and why we should care.
• Another page about Jewish charity (Tzedakah) is the Ziv Tzedakah Fund.
• Want some dirt on what's going on in D.C.? The Center for Public Integrity is a government watchdog group that tells it like it is.
• Quick - what do the following have in common? Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, Mohandas Gandhi, Desmond Tutu, Jane Addams, Daniel Berrigan and Albert Einstein. The answer - they were all great 20th Century pacifists who accomplished quite a bit. If you want to know about the modern peace movement, check out The Nonviolence Web.
• Nabisco, in 1998, shut down one of their most productive plants in the country, due to simple greed. For information about the boycott Pittsburghers have organised in return, check out this page about the Nabisco Boycott.
• The media has been shown to have no politically liberal bias. For the proof, check out this essay (though they are socially liberal, making them 0 for 2). If you do want to see a media outpost with actual leftist views (of varying degrees), check out NewsCenter.
• Yes! A Journal of Positive Futures is mostly environmentalist in outlook. It is located at futurenet.
• Common Cause wants to end special interest involvement in politics.
• The alternative media is often a good source of ideas outside the mainstream - many aren't functional or good but they're usually worth a look at least to see other views. One nice site is Alternet, a collection of alternative news sources.
• Want news in general? Lots and lots of it, from many viewpoints. Try this wonderful news site out.
• John Stauber and Sheldon Rampart run The Center for Media and Democracy, a non-profit public interest group that serves as a nice media watchdog.
• Randall Robinson's TransAfrica has been instrumental in fighting for human rights and freedom in Africa and the Carribean.
• Nice Campaign Finance Reform information is accessible at this location.
• Citizens for Tax Justice has lots of nice statistics and information on both local and federal taxes, their problems and how to go about fixing them.
• An independent and well-managed Washington, D.C. paper that doesn't play favorites is Roll Call.
• The Electronic Policy Network is a nice left-leaning source of information.
• Campaign for Our Future now has a web page. Well, who doesn't these days? Some interesting information on several issues here.
• Amnesty International.
• Envirolink is a nice source of information about the environment.
• Information regarding corporate welfare and other corporation crimes can be found at Corporate Watch.
• Everybody's least favorite abusive corporation, Microsoft, has committed numerous offenses and lies in the past and shows no signs of changing this approach. For more information, visit the Boycott Microsoft page. Numerous citations of nice articles, books and web sources are included if you're interested in tracking the information to its initial location.
• The Progressive Review, edited by the open-minded Sam Smith, who also happens to be a wonderful writer. I recommend both of his recent books on politics.
• The archives of rec.humor.funny are a good place to look if you're in the mood for a laugh.
• Christians may well enjoy the online bible in numerous versions and languages. A good search index helps people track down specific verses they may be looking for.
• The Institute for Public Accuracy offers a nicely scathing review of "think" tanks. Considering that their purpose has always been to defend one ideology, one wonders how much free thought is truly allowed. This group seems left-leaning, so only critiques the conservative think tanks, but the analysis is hard-hitting, statistically-based and logically sound.
• Catholic Social Justice Teachings can be found here. Many nice book recommendations and other bits of information are located here as well.
• Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities is a site worth checking out, even if it is a tad lacking in content.
• Looking for health information? Here's the Center for Science in the Public Interest's web page.
• For anyone who hangs out on certain usenet groups, some pieces of anti-Semitic propoganda are really common. David Maddison's page helps expose some of the most frequent lies.
• Here is a link for the Rainforest Action Network.
• One interesting idea that seems to be spreading is that of newspapers by and about the homeless. One such paper is Seattle's Real Change News
• The National Parks and Conservation Association
• For conscientious shoppers, Abundant Earth has plenty of environmentally friendly gifts.
• Earth Action Network allows you to help lobby for the good of mankind.
• Free Burma
• The Houston Catholic Worker has a wonderful newspaper that focusses on a biblically sound message.