Whee

Today was a pretty good day even if it showed that I've got a lot of growing still to do. And lots of Ptolus work...

Yay

The hardcover copies of The Red Star Battle of Kar Dathra's Gate and Nokgorka came today. Very elegent simple covers and the bindings seem better. Ironically they are too tall to fit on my bookshelf. Said bookshelf was built to hold RPG books primarily so it is surprising that it wasn't tall enough. This one is getting pretty full now too (won't moving be fun?) so might have to ask for a second one for my birthday. I must be some sort of crazy to ask for bookshelves for my birthday eh?

Bombing Mars

Life has been a little hectic of late but mostly in a good way. School work is picking up as naturally the semester winds to a close. December is traditionally a time in the collegiate's life where they are bombarded by homework. Mostly I think because professor's realize they have a ton of stuff they need to get through and suddenly about 3 weeks to do it. Hilarity ensues. (Begin Jack Benny music?)

I am now employed once I graduate and that's very exciting. It means I get to stay in the area and I am pretty thrilled by that too. Having start over somewhere else does not thrill me. I suppose I am oddly enough setting myself up to be here for a long time but that doesn't bother me at all. Perhaps i'm like the one guy in American Grafitti who decides to stay for a little bit and ends up being their my entire life? Who knows.

I got a new cell phone over break. So far it's a toss up on whether I like it better then the old. Don't get me wrong it has better battery life and seems to get better signal reception both things I bemoaned my old phone. However its interface feels less efficient and it has 3,735 more features then I need; there is a major trend within phone manufacturers to produce some really cheap but fairly crappy phones and the rest are expensive and have a bunch of features that a bunch of trendy teenagers would like but not much practical value. Basically what the last sentence means is that I'm a phone luddite. I go for practicality over features. Function over form?

Also when I was home I found a big gamut of Rifts books at my local FLGS. The whole lot was for sale very cheap (less then $6 for a book and consider even Rifts books are usually about $18) and a couple are ones I'd debated getting. It was a nice haul. My bookshelf is almost full. It was pretty empty a year and a half ago. Pretty sure my guilty pleasure in life is buying RPG books. However at least I am buying something that stimulates my mind!

Gray

Today is one of those quiet days where everything seems to mimic the weather.

Star Wars & Firefly

So it appears that I have a month or so to make sure Kat has seen all of Firefly and episodes 5 & 6 of Star Wars. Better get crackin' :D

What's Wrong Me?

Yea I know, I haven't written in a couple days. Whenever I feel like I want to write once I get there the feeling is gone. Actually of late things have felt a little off-balance. I think Thanksgiving will do me good getting me away from here and taking my mind off all the stuff that I tend to worry about when I am in Point.

What have I been up to? Well helped Carl to celebrate his birthday and that involved a lot of food and board games. I am really loving the board games. I only have a couple (primarily Junta although I'd count Munchkin/Ninja Burger in the board game category) and really don't get to play a lot but they tend to be fun to do. The challenge is initially you need enough people and then generally have to explain the rules. I'm so-so at rules explanation so for somewhat complex games like Junta I am daunted by teaching new players even though I really want to play. So Aprill if you read this invite me next time! (Ok she prolly never will but I can dream eh?)

After looking at the Top 50 Sci-Fi/Fantasy books I went on Wikipedia and looked up Hugo Awards. It's amazing how many of the winners/nominees I have read. Def. due to my Dad's influence although considering a couple writers basically get major repeat noms or wins if you prefer a certain author or three you end up reading a lot.

I picked up A Bridge Too Far again. It's been awhile since I've played this (much long since I played the original Close Combat) so it is a fun re-hash. Plus unlike RTS I do decently at this because the game isn't about speed but about tactics. Trust me speed just causes casualties, I'm reminded that from time to time when I attempt to bum rush the Germans. I am still sad that CC III-V came out only on Windows and are so old that none of them run on XP (will something designed for 95/98/ME run on XP by any chance?) Oh well. That's life isn't it?

Anyhow, it's 2AM and I have to get up around 8AM although I won't fall asleep anytime soon. I'm wide awake. This means morning will hurt a lot but not much I can do make myself more tired.

Randomly: Traci's on facebook! Pretty cool considering I haven't heard from her in ages (my fault that).

Russian Fronts

So I am reading The Battle for Moscow right now. I know I said I'd pick up Wild at Heart whence I finished Ptolus but Moscow got picked up for when I work out and now I am hooked. So far it's pretty interesting. It's a little different take then Road to Stalingrad primarily because it focuses more on the Germans (Stalingrad and its "sequal" Road to Berlin are almost entirely from the Russian POV) then the Russians about 60-40 spread in fact. Its analysis focus on leadership decisions and the level the decision is made on. All the way from squad level (tactical) to divisional/corps (operational) to overall theatres and the war as a whole (strategic). So far it has been stressing how a given leader excells at a certain type. For instance Hitler is pretty good at operational command but struggles much above that.

This definitely focuses on the entirety of Barbarossa being one gigantic strategic blunder. One that could have been remedied had the Germans had a better focus. It's a fairly easy read so I am shooting through it. One thing that I found impressive was it describing the Russian terrain on the steppes. Flat flat land that when it rains because a giant puddle all the way to the horizon a foot deep. Man, that's crappy terrain to have to fight over let me tell you.

That's my reading for now. I am also dabbling in various D & D books as I prep for my Ptolus campaign.

Thoughts on the vote

Democracy has to be government by the compromise that makes everyone the least happiest. It frustrates me when everyone gets really angry when every vote on every issue/candidate/toast doesn't go their way. Makes me think that in general Americans have gotten so righteous that everyone else who disagrees with them in an uncultured heathen. So I guess that makes us all righteous uncultured heathens...

Think that's my profound thought for November.

In obscure analytical news in the past year 6676 visits were recorded on this page. Rough estimates conclude that probably 6677 of those were by me :D

Less profound but interesting. A meme of sorts I took off of BHM's journal:

This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club. Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien*
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett*
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein*
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

Java Based Ptolus

Was thinking of using a lot of computer support so to speak for when I run Ptolus. Mainly to have most of the PDFs available if I need them but also to take advantage to my listing of nearly all the MM creatures (just have animals and vermin left to enter- try to ignore that I started this in July). Additionally I was thinking I could make a fairly simple Java programmed that'd calculate XP automatically. Be a good way to get readjusted to programming again since in theory I will be doing that starting in January even if I am not programming Java. Good project to keep me busy!

Lesse, not much else new. The snow is half gone. I never did find anyone to go out for a walk with me in it. Granted there'll be lots of more snow at this rate and that's darn exciting all on its own.

That's all for now. I should really be tryin' to get some sleep!

Reflecting on the Day

Ever have days where despite being relatively productive it doesn't feel like you've gotten anything done? That was today for me. I cleaned the apartment did my history homework (discussion and a quiz) and it still feels like I did nothing. I dunno. Now I am kinda bored but am not sure what I want to do. Maybe I'll go for a walk although walkin' by my lonesome isn't much fun.

White Wolf Online

World of Darkness coming to a computer near you? In other news: yay my hardcovers of The Red Star ship Monday :)

Snow

Wow, lookit all the snow! It sure came down considering at 11 nothing was even falling from the sky. Driving's kinda crazy though but can't complain cause everything is white and pretty. Hard to believe last night I was biking around!

Snow!

w00t! We're gonna get snow tomorrow! Yaaaaaaaaaaay!

Election Results

Well I think the Onion sums up the election quite well so I will just say read their article on it.

Special article for Folky he'll get why I think he'll be amused by it ;)

This just in...

Tallahassee, FL (AP) Early polling results from Florida appear to give Fidel Castro victory in the gubernatorial race by an overwhelming majority. Initial reactions were mixed but reportedly Castro was just as surprised as the average Floridian at his victory.

In other news Congress has officially banned Florida from voting until 2072 on the account on "those idiots being unable to vote correctly no matter what we to help them out".

GOTV?

So apparently there is an election or some such thing tomorrow. I'd recommend staying in a doorway or taking cover under the nearest...oh wait that's for earthquakes. Hmm, I suppose you could always go vote. If you are from Chicago I think you get to go at least twice.

Oh yes and because we are all told how to vote I'll tell you too: on the referendums vote "Maybe" because what else will we have for controversy if you vote with one of those more definitive words?

"What about the floating pig out there?"

"That's a government pig."

Pause

This feels a little unbalanced kind of like the calm before the storm. Today wasn't bad but something felt off. Well here's hoping I'm wrong.

Movies, Ptolus, Corinthians, and Old Times

This week has felt rather nostalgic. When doing my brief hours in the Chi Alpha office some Cru reps came in one of them was an old acquaintance from back freshman year when Ole, Twism, Brad, myself, and a bunch of others would go and take advantage of free soup/salad time at Debot. An amazing amount of that core are all married now. It's odd more so because of all of them the only one I keep in touch with is Twism. How times changes.
Then I managed to hang out with Amber and Evie and there's more memories of years past with Lena and them being silly and generally acting somewhat below our age. The good old days of going to watch CSI: Miami and mocking Horatio and his sunglasses.
Today when I went to get some nessecities at Wal-mart I made the mistake of going past the $10 movie section and picked up four movies: Shrek 2, Snatch, Super Troopers, and Kingdom of Heaven. Tell me if that isn't the weirdest combination of movies?
In the meantime I have been re-reading 1st Corinthians and will be moving onto 2nd Corinthians if I can keep this pace up. I am also trying to plug through the last 100 pages of Ptolus so I can get a game running.
And in the background I have a track from DDR 3 playing that I found after seeing it on a YouTube clip for Invader Zim (which I am really looking at buying but it's expensive on Amazon, makes me sad).

In the end I realize the God is way smarter then we can imagine and covers all of his bases need be. Mr. Wonderful indeed!

Mr. Wonderful

Finally finished with locations Ptolus. Only about 100 pages left to go. Wonder if I even will be able to get a game going prior to break not that break should stop me from running a game most of my potential players live here now. Not sure my player's potential characters will live very long in some of these places though, the dungeony parts of the city seem rather anti-playercharacteral.

Anyone ever seen Invader Zim? I was watching some clips on YouTube and it looks pretty funny, well at least GIR :D

Oddly Humorous

So after having lunch with a couple friends I was driving through campus and got stuck on 4th when all the students were crossing between classes. I wasn't in any hurry so I was fine with just watching the continual flow of students go by. The funny thing was that I had tuned in on the local NPR affiliate who also play classical music and ironically the students crossing the street matched to the music. It amused me some :D