4e was like WoW in that classes were balanced and everyone had a specific well-defined role. The wizard had crowd-control abilities, the ranger did damage, the fighter had crowd-control and tanking abilities, and the cleric had buff/debuff and healing abilities

My thoughts exactly. Remember though, that D&D has its roots in wargaming, and roleplaying has always been secondary to its mission of being a paper-based orc-slaughter simulator.

is it pronounced "Bek-dal" or "Besh-dal?"

This brings me back to high school. We'd watch movies like this endlessly. Duel to the Death is a favorite that looks high-budget compared to this.

I burned through three-quarters of Out of Sight, by Elmore Leonard, on advice from the Gateways to Geekery for Leonard. His writing style is totally efficient and transparent; nothing gets in the way of the action. It's a fun ride so far.

I'm reading very slowly through a book called A Carrion Death, which is interesting in that it is a detective murder-mystery thing set in Botswana, and for not very many other reasons.

I'm burning through tallboy after tallboy of Tallgrass's 8-Bit Pale Ale. It's really bitter for a pale ale, which turned me off of it the first time I tried it a few years ago. But for whatever reason my taste recently has swung to stupidly hoppy and bitter beers, so I'm just loving 8-Bit.

It is good, but too sugary for me.

When don't want to watch anything, I can always watch No Reservations.

If you're into ruined architecture and creepy places, the movie is worth it just to see the Danvers State Hospital (which no longer exists).
It's also a really good horror movie in that it executes its slow-burn horror in a very chilling, internal way.

Right? Money comes out of my credit card automatically, and the tubes are always full of internet.

I also don't get the cable hate. Some friends act like the local cable company is Hell incarnate, specifically fill our lives with pain. But my cable company doesn't have any bandwidth caps, has never sent a cease-and-desist, and has reliable internet much faster than I need. Sometimes they're annoying to talk to on…

The Magnum P.I. / Murder She Wrote crossover blew my mind.

agreed, the trailers made me think "preachy message movie", but now that I know Soderbergh is involved, hopefully there's something more to the movie