I like books. They are possibly one of my favorite things. I probably got this from Dad (not that Mom is a non-reader she just checks book out rather then purchasing them) although I've rather tread my own path to an extent since high school. Originally I pretty much did straight up science fiction but of course now I get a lot of RPGs too.
Anyhow I love going home cause I can buy more books :D So I picked up Waterdeep: City of Splendours and Modern Military Ships at B & N. Waterdeep was a bit depressing, right next to it was Mage. Now Mage is twice Waterdeep's size, just as pretty, and barely $5 more. The catch being it's nWoD and I don't buy nWoD. Ah well. The Modern Military Ships was nice, oddly organized, but lots of up to date info so a fun read.
A River City Hobbies, La Crosse's FLGS, I found a new game called Fireborn which quite peaked my interest. Set in modern day London it deals with people who have dragon-blood or some such thing in them. I just like the modern concept I guess plus it's in a city I know!
Ok, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow, flash essay up the butt :/
Think my one chance is a flub, back to square one yet again ya know?
30 October 2005
27 October 2005
Exalted Rnd. 4
Well somehow got through another session of Exalted.
"So you go and pretend to be a thief." -Brady (talking about our thief)
"Kitten's alignment is chaotic fluffy."
Anyhow: Circle is still in Paris at the start of the session with some basic information that the situation is pretty crappy but not a lot of data on Wabash. Our diplomat goes out to try and remedy that by talking with the military leaders and then the city hall. Basically she blows the entire bueacratic set up away not once but twice and calls the Marshall of the French Army a "cheese eating surrender monkey" (admittedly I set that one up). She does get a fair amount of information about the current situation and returns to the inn to report. While she is out our ninja disguises herself and gets accepted by the local Thieves Guild as one of their old members (by sheer luck) called Yani. The rest of the Circle does some shopping.
With information in hand the ninja is sent to set up a meeting with the local rebels who seem to know more then anyone else in town. However because the Circle is unwilling to admit they are Solars (or some other sort of powerful beings) the rebels think they're more crazy then powerful and just give some limited advice. It was amusing to keep mentioning how they'd need a legion to clear the Shadowlands when the unkillable human shield is camped outside the door standing gaurd.
At this point our diplomat limit breaks and then shortly thereafter our meat shield also breaks. The diplomat goes on an overindulgence binge and cleans out Hello, Meat and eventually is boarded up there by the meat shield after he is unable to persuade her to leave. The rest of the party then proceeds to go and investigate the old Wabash occupation camp outside of town. This involves getting out of the city at night. The limit broke meat shield simply opens the main gate and walks out, in full orichalcum armor. The French military gaurds flee in terror or attempt to surrender. As soon as they are out and have shut the gate the Circle determines it might be better to go get the diplomat and turns around and walks straight in through the front gate. Noticeably the city watch has fled. The French Army in their defense lost most of their best troops in the war.
When the Circle finally does get to the camp they find it deserted and several dead bodies on pikes. They def. look like they were killed in a way to create hungry ghosts and keep the bodies usable for zombies. The ninja manages to find documentation pointing towards a failed coup and then finds a tiny shard of soulsteel.
The party is now returning to Paris to wait out the limits and also to get some downtime to train up new skills, Charms, etc.
"So you go and pretend to be a thief." -Brady (talking about our thief)
"Kitten's alignment is chaotic fluffy."
Anyhow: Circle is still in Paris at the start of the session with some basic information that the situation is pretty crappy but not a lot of data on Wabash. Our diplomat goes out to try and remedy that by talking with the military leaders and then the city hall. Basically she blows the entire bueacratic set up away not once but twice and calls the Marshall of the French Army a "cheese eating surrender monkey" (admittedly I set that one up). She does get a fair amount of information about the current situation and returns to the inn to report. While she is out our ninja disguises herself and gets accepted by the local Thieves Guild as one of their old members (by sheer luck) called Yani. The rest of the Circle does some shopping.
With information in hand the ninja is sent to set up a meeting with the local rebels who seem to know more then anyone else in town. However because the Circle is unwilling to admit they are Solars (or some other sort of powerful beings) the rebels think they're more crazy then powerful and just give some limited advice. It was amusing to keep mentioning how they'd need a legion to clear the Shadowlands when the unkillable human shield is camped outside the door standing gaurd.
At this point our diplomat limit breaks and then shortly thereafter our meat shield also breaks. The diplomat goes on an overindulgence binge and cleans out Hello, Meat and eventually is boarded up there by the meat shield after he is unable to persuade her to leave. The rest of the party then proceeds to go and investigate the old Wabash occupation camp outside of town. This involves getting out of the city at night. The limit broke meat shield simply opens the main gate and walks out, in full orichalcum armor. The French military gaurds flee in terror or attempt to surrender. As soon as they are out and have shut the gate the Circle determines it might be better to go get the diplomat and turns around and walks straight in through the front gate. Noticeably the city watch has fled. The French Army in their defense lost most of their best troops in the war.
When the Circle finally does get to the camp they find it deserted and several dead bodies on pikes. They def. look like they were killed in a way to create hungry ghosts and keep the bodies usable for zombies. The ninja manages to find documentation pointing towards a failed coup and then finds a tiny shard of soulsteel.
The party is now returning to Paris to wait out the limits and also to get some downtime to train up new skills, Charms, etc.
25 October 2005
Pause between moments
Well this week is rather busy. It doesn't help that I procrastinate a lot. Or that I stupidly caught a cold cause I didn't get much sleep last week. Get to go home this weekend tho so that will be nice even with have WDMD to do.
To kill time lately I've been sketching out another world although this time I've been using the convertible to organize it. MS OneNote is pretty nice for organizing all the contents together so I've enjoyed do it and I can access various things that I have organized away. This keeps my focus and makes it easier to put concurrent thoughts with their initial ideas. Will it ever come to anything? Doubtful. I have fun doing it though.
My biggest distractor is def. C & C Generals. Not a surprise really. I've also been paging through various Forgotten Realms books. FR probably is what got me to writing a new world. I always am trying to integrate fantasy and sci-fi and never get very far.
That's it for news. ASP test on Friday and Exalted on Wednesday. Still a busy week.
To kill time lately I've been sketching out another world although this time I've been using the convertible to organize it. MS OneNote is pretty nice for organizing all the contents together so I've enjoyed do it and I can access various things that I have organized away. This keeps my focus and makes it easier to put concurrent thoughts with their initial ideas. Will it ever come to anything? Doubtful. I have fun doing it though.
My biggest distractor is def. C & C Generals. Not a surprise really. I've also been paging through various Forgotten Realms books. FR probably is what got me to writing a new world. I always am trying to integrate fantasy and sci-fi and never get very far.
That's it for news. ASP test on Friday and Exalted on Wednesday. Still a busy week.
18 October 2005
American Empire: Wal-mart
So we got onto the subject of Wal-mart today in History. This subject always amuses me. Wal-mart has to be one of the most hated corporations in the world (Microsoft being the other major competitor). Yet when I think about all these people ripping into it I fall back to what I always think of when the Wal-mart debate rages: they did what all Americans dream of. Think about it, capitalism basically is a pull yourself up into the realm of the wealthy and stay there (the whole the rich get richer and the poor get poorer thing). Wal-mart is all about that. Sure they trample on the little guys but that's how America's economy works.
Incidentally the probably more hilarious thing is while middle/upper class people tend to rail on how Wal-mart keeps the poor poor and exploits its workers and all that I've yet to actually see them motivate the lower classes. The arguement that you should pay more for your food works great if you actually can afford to not shop for the lowest price but I've yet to see an argument that deals with the fact that Wal-mart does well because it's so cheap. It's funny really that the only solution we have is to basically burden the lower classes with higher prices somewhere else to punish Wal-mart. Middle/upper classes won't suffer much (maybe some but it just might mean we buy a little less I doubt anyone will starve) while some lower class folks probably take full advantage of the prices that Wal-mart can force out of their vendors. Now is it a good thing what Sam Walton's Empire is doing? Can't really say that I think so but the company has put itself in a good place. They have enough power to influence government, they control a huge amount of the market, and they serve a niche which would find it probably harder to live without them. I'm not quite sure when they pulled this all off but let's face it, they make more money in a year then most national governments! Last numbers I saw put their GDP in the Top 20 of the world! Any changing or affecting them is going to have to be far more comprehensive then somewhat embittered liberal (or otherwise) idealism.
Incidentally the probably more hilarious thing is while middle/upper class people tend to rail on how Wal-mart keeps the poor poor and exploits its workers and all that I've yet to actually see them motivate the lower classes. The arguement that you should pay more for your food works great if you actually can afford to not shop for the lowest price but I've yet to see an argument that deals with the fact that Wal-mart does well because it's so cheap. It's funny really that the only solution we have is to basically burden the lower classes with higher prices somewhere else to punish Wal-mart. Middle/upper classes won't suffer much (maybe some but it just might mean we buy a little less I doubt anyone will starve) while some lower class folks probably take full advantage of the prices that Wal-mart can force out of their vendors. Now is it a good thing what Sam Walton's Empire is doing? Can't really say that I think so but the company has put itself in a good place. They have enough power to influence government, they control a huge amount of the market, and they serve a niche which would find it probably harder to live without them. I'm not quite sure when they pulled this all off but let's face it, they make more money in a year then most national governments! Last numbers I saw put their GDP in the Top 20 of the world! Any changing or affecting them is going to have to be far more comprehensive then somewhat embittered liberal (or otherwise) idealism.
14 October 2005
13 October 2005
Even more ramblings
Yes I am a busy poster this office hour.
Ok so if you missed it the Russians have a minor war going on in one of their cities right now. I can't really imagine how it'd be like to be in a city like that. Most of the cities I've been in are quite a bit smaller (say 1/6th or 1/8th the population) but still how disconcerting would it be to be at the airport and suddenly have a battle just break out there? Or driving by a police station? It's just very strange to me.
I'm done now cause I need to go research the IRA in the ol' library.
Ok so if you missed it the Russians have a minor war going on in one of their cities right now. I can't really imagine how it'd be like to be in a city like that. Most of the cities I've been in are quite a bit smaller (say 1/6th or 1/8th the population) but still how disconcerting would it be to be at the airport and suddenly have a battle just break out there? Or driving by a police station? It's just very strange to me.
I'm done now cause I need to go research the IRA in the ol' library.
Deep Pondering
So I was just thinking from random spiels people have made in Environmental Politics that what if democracies that function and last can only come from strife and lots of mistakes and oppression? Arguably all the Western democracies certainly have very colored pasts. In fact I'm not sure there are any democracies that have a nice cheerful happy history. Perhaps we can only seriously pull up and give ourselves democracy with much pain, death, and many many mistakes?
I'm dead postive this is not new ground in people's debates on democracy but it was a new idea for me.
I'm dead postive this is not new ground in people's debates on democracy but it was a new idea for me.
Random Thoughts
So if you put in the 6 digit zip code in the UK it takes you to a fairly close area to where you are (at least in London). I just find that pretty awesome that the zip alone can get you within a maybe 10 blocks of your address. No, I'm not missing London terribly, why do you ask?
Rolling to another tangent have you ever noticed that some people have names that are just more fun to say both first and last as if they were designed to be always said as a whole? This is almost certainly just a thing I do but it greatly amuses me.
Now finally some substantial stuff: Apple finally released a video iPod. While certainly inevitable I have to admit I am surprised it happened so soon. I really figured they'd hold off. I also must admit I am slightly grumpy as my 5 month old iPod is now hopelessly out of date. For the same price today I could now get a 30 GB, color screen, able to play video iPod. Grr. Of course that was nearly half a year ago so there wasn't any positive inkling that any kind of video iPod would come out at all. Heck the iPod Nano caught a lot of people off-gaurd and made iPod Minis artifacts and that sure was a surprise (my roommate got a Mini only a few weeks before the Nano arrived, there's a good time to be grumpy). Apple is certainly pushing the bounds though. Guess I am curious to see how video iPod does but the Nano is doing well and I thought it'd be much more of a niche (if the Mini was around possibly true).
That's all for now...I am gonna go back to looking at pictures of Hyperion (gosh it's creepy looking moon in that picture).
Rolling to another tangent have you ever noticed that some people have names that are just more fun to say both first and last as if they were designed to be always said as a whole? This is almost certainly just a thing I do but it greatly amuses me.
Now finally some substantial stuff: Apple finally released a video iPod. While certainly inevitable I have to admit I am surprised it happened so soon. I really figured they'd hold off. I also must admit I am slightly grumpy as my 5 month old iPod is now hopelessly out of date. For the same price today I could now get a 30 GB, color screen, able to play video iPod. Grr. Of course that was nearly half a year ago so there wasn't any positive inkling that any kind of video iPod would come out at all. Heck the iPod Nano caught a lot of people off-gaurd and made iPod Minis artifacts and that sure was a surprise (my roommate got a Mini only a few weeks before the Nano arrived, there's a good time to be grumpy). Apple is certainly pushing the bounds though. Guess I am curious to see how video iPod does but the Nano is doing well and I thought it'd be much more of a niche (if the Mini was around possibly true).
That's all for now...I am gonna go back to looking at pictures of Hyperion (gosh it's creepy looking moon in that picture).
12 October 2005
Exalted Rnd. 3
First some quotes:
"Do you want describe it as you vaporize him?"
"This is not the cat you're looking for."
"It's like binary!" (Dani on her init rolls: either a 1 or a 0)
This week was combat central. I wanted to try out some Exalted v. Exalted combat so I sent some of the Wyld Hunt in. Now they had all the reasons in the world to be investigating the area but my very cunning Solars nearly talked them out of it. I gotta admit Brady did an impressive job in talking his way out of things part of the reason why noone was attacked accept for Isaac. However I did want to have some Exalted combat partially so I would get the feel of things so I sort of forced the issue (I probably should have had them let them pass but on a ST's note they were very suspicious that they were there even if they didn't realize it). Combat was impressive if somewhat one sided. I nearly brought Isaac down first off due to some very well designed Dragon Blooded but just fell short so he axed DB #1. DB #2 managed to off Isaac and nearly half his own troops (I had not thought about using an area affect Charm when surrounded by allies, oops!). At this point I was unsure how things would go, the rest of the Circle was cowering or hiding so the Wyld Hunt didn't see them as a threat. Mostly they saw them as mortals duped or enthralled by a Solar. I wasn't quite sure how I'd do that but Isaac solved the problem by reviving and hammering DB #2 with his Grand Daiklave of Way Too Big Dice Pools. The remaining mortals proceeded to get ganked by most of the Circle. After removing the valuables of the Wyld Hunt the Circle proceeded to sneak across the very weakly gaurded border of France and then headed to Paris (yes the joke gets bigger and better or something like that). Here they began to peace together the situation along with some info looted off the dead DB's bodies. Next time looks like Brady's moment to shine, the combat is over for awhile. Of course that means I have to work out more story! That's all for now. Lots of stuff in the news I should talk about but not tonight.
"Do you want describe it as you vaporize him?"
"This is not the cat you're looking for."
"It's like binary!" (Dani on her init rolls: either a 1 or a 0)
This week was combat central. I wanted to try out some Exalted v. Exalted combat so I sent some of the Wyld Hunt in. Now they had all the reasons in the world to be investigating the area but my very cunning Solars nearly talked them out of it. I gotta admit Brady did an impressive job in talking his way out of things part of the reason why noone was attacked accept for Isaac. However I did want to have some Exalted combat partially so I would get the feel of things so I sort of forced the issue (I probably should have had them let them pass but on a ST's note they were very suspicious that they were there even if they didn't realize it). Combat was impressive if somewhat one sided. I nearly brought Isaac down first off due to some very well designed Dragon Blooded but just fell short so he axed DB #1. DB #2 managed to off Isaac and nearly half his own troops (I had not thought about using an area affect Charm when surrounded by allies, oops!). At this point I was unsure how things would go, the rest of the Circle was cowering or hiding so the Wyld Hunt didn't see them as a threat. Mostly they saw them as mortals duped or enthralled by a Solar. I wasn't quite sure how I'd do that but Isaac solved the problem by reviving and hammering DB #2 with his Grand Daiklave of Way Too Big Dice Pools. The remaining mortals proceeded to get ganked by most of the Circle. After removing the valuables of the Wyld Hunt the Circle proceeded to sneak across the very weakly gaurded border of France and then headed to Paris (yes the joke gets bigger and better or something like that). Here they began to peace together the situation along with some info looted off the dead DB's bodies. Next time looks like Brady's moment to shine, the combat is over for awhile. Of course that means I have to work out more story! That's all for now. Lots of stuff in the news I should talk about but not tonight.
07 October 2005
Oy
Hmm, seems like I need to go through and move some blogs off the quiet list eventually. It's getting long, I have to admit I know longer check many (if any) very regularily unless I think someone might have posted. Another weekend project...
06 October 2005
It's Fall
I love this season. Ok so maybe it feels a bit on the chilly side today with that wind but there's just that crisp, cool, fresh feeling that I can't really describe that hangs in the air. I can't soak up enough of it. Today is going to be one of those strange, weird days that's both fulfilling and also unfulfilling. Kind of the almost perfect day that could have one thing more and then my mind would be clear. Oh and if the Java test weren't tomorrow. Boo to that.
Met a couple of our SGA representatives today both very nice folks. Up to this point I just knew Crawford, Squirrel (aka Sara), and Ms. Amy Clark. Now after knowing Crawford one can only imagine what my state of mind towards SGA is. Primarily: how did anything get done? Ok, I'm kidding there he was a decent President I guess, didn't pay much attention to the state of things. Now I am also slightly off track (but that's not news with this blog). Anyhow just like to say they seem to be all honest decent folk so if you have a problem actually have issues go chat with them not that my word makes a huge bit of difference.
Anyhow Java calls and then I need to sneak over and seize Lena's three-hole punch. Whee.
Met a couple of our SGA representatives today both very nice folks. Up to this point I just knew Crawford, Squirrel (aka Sara), and Ms. Amy Clark. Now after knowing Crawford one can only imagine what my state of mind towards SGA is. Primarily: how did anything get done? Ok, I'm kidding there he was a decent President I guess, didn't pay much attention to the state of things. Now I am also slightly off track (but that's not news with this blog). Anyhow just like to say they seem to be all honest decent folk so if you have a problem actually have issues go chat with them not that my word makes a huge bit of difference.
Anyhow Java calls and then I need to sneak over and seize Lena's three-hole punch. Whee.
04 October 2005
Indecision
I'm in one of those moments again where I am stuck. Do I act or do I keep the status quo? Both have risks and thus far I have kept to the status quo (and it hasn't hurt anything). I dunno.
I would like the temp and humidity to drop soon though. This is misery and it's October! This feels like August! Blah.
I would like the temp and humidity to drop soon though. This is misery and it's October! This feels like August! Blah.
03 October 2005
The Last Battle
Well I finally finished the Chronicles of Narnia, only took me since the end of June to read all seven books. They're pretty good but really strike me much more as children's novels then anything else. It was a little hard at times for me to take them as seriously as I did Lord of the Rings or the last couple Harry Potters. Serious in this case of course being how believable in a sense the world seems to me, perhaps its an odd tendency but I enjoy books better if I can fully immerse myself into them, hence my fondness for RPGs. On a side note the movie: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe looks to be quite good and I will have to sally out to see that this December. Got to see the trailer on the big screen before Serenity and def. blew me away!
Well time to go work finish my stuff for Flash. Where's a comfy, comfy couch when I need one? (Hehe, hope Amanda doesn't think I'm too nuts for overusing that phrase today, not that I'm not probably slightly crazy but ya know.)
Anyhow, that's all for now.
Well time to go work finish my stuff for Flash. Where's a comfy, comfy couch when I need one? (Hehe, hope Amanda doesn't think I'm too nuts for overusing that phrase today, not that I'm not probably slightly crazy but ya know.)
Anyhow, that's all for now.
01 October 2005
Serenity
Well it wasn't the best movie I've seen but it was very, very well written. Ok first off, Reavers scare the crap out of me. They make the Borg look like friendly loving people. I have to say they are probably the best done villain group I have encountered in a sci-fi show. Creepy, creepy, creepy but still well done. Anyhow several major twists which threw and the plot didn't manage to keep me wondering til the end. This felt more like a thriller/suspense movie rather then sci-fi western. So now this review wasn't all that useful I'd imagine but that's ok. I can't say a lot without spoiling it but I think this is worth your $27.50 to go see (or in matinee $27.49).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
