Statistically speaking

Well 2007 is about to roll to a close. Whilst I am prepping to go see Lars married and in between Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii (oh so addicting) and an Exalted one shot that went surprisingly well (yay!) I took a look at Google Analytics. I really don't like the new set up but that's all they've got now so here we go.
Numbers are down about a 1/3rd of 2006. It's a little depressing but considering I posted about a 1/3rd as much it fits. My high was 22 visits this year, in '06 nearly 100! That's a lot for one day although I don't know how much of that was me. In fact I don't know in general how much of it was me but I suspect somewhere between 1/3rd and 2/3rds of all visits are from me passing through.

Will 2008 be a better year for posting? Who knows! I must admit I doubt it although I am not abandoning this blog yet. I simply need to figure out if I can find a proper niche of interests to write about. Or maybe re-dedicate myself to posting on a more regular basis.

All that said and done happy new year! 2007 was a year of huge changes (full time job and a house) but 2008 looks to be the year I start to settle in. Who knows though what it will bring. As they say: "I regret nothing, I lived as few dared to dream!"

Merry Christmas

It needs to be said. Hope everyone had a good one. I'll be celebrating back in Point by digging out of the foot of snow there (after doing this in La Crosse).

The reason why Mike Huckabee is the next President of the USA

Watch. Now that the election has been decided thankfully we don't have to weather any more campaign stuff.

On a side note Mike Huckabee does look like a wonderful candidate, as in I think I've found the guy I'd vote for!

Two posts in one night

Yea that's my title. TimeSplitters4 goodness here. Enjoy.

Dolphin Days

Well somehow Miami pulled off a victory snapping a 13 game streak of dismal losses and hapless quarterbacks. Don't get me wrong they really weren't that good (*sigh*) but somehow they got a win. That means even if the Patriots go 16-0 at least the Dolphins won't have gone 0-16. There is even a minute (something like the same chance of me being declared the Pope next week) chance that they could upset that Pats at home and go on a 2 game winning streak!

Anyhow, that's the sports new. Not much else goin' on. Work is kinda tough right now I wonder if it's related to it being almost Christmas. Or I am distracted by other things. Who knows.

That is all!

Progress

So had a moment of brilliance (or anti-brilliance) this evening I managed to get my little digital weather sensor working. Somehow when I was trying to set it up several months back I flipped the battery and no signal ever since then. Finally realized that and flipped it back the otherway. Power on! Well least it's running.

I also hung up two of the new pictures today so now only one thing left to hang in the living room. I feel rather productive tonight. Off to read a little more Patriot Games and then sleep!

Lights 2

Lights 2, originally uploaded by mirv120.

Lights 1

Lights 1, originally uploaded by mirv120.

First Snow

First Snow, originally uploaded by mirv120.

The next morning. Somehow I got myself on a corner where they plow both streets fairly quick!

First Snow

First Snow, originally uploaded by mirv120.

Ok pictures from our first snowfall. This was before I went to bed Saturday night.

White December

Well it really came down! It's still snowing and I'd say we got 6-8 inches so far. I'm glad I got the snowblower. I used it once and it's got even more to do tomorrow. I'll get a picture up tomorrow.

Good news: I got the outside lights up with the help of Carl!

End November

Another month rolls to a close. I've been a homeowner 6 months now. The Christmas tree is up and weather willing the lights outside will go up tomorrow. I picked up a cold from work it looks like. In an attempt to limit the sickness rolling through I am getting the flu shot so here's hoping for a healthy 2008. It doesn't help that I have been re-reading A Civil Campaign and that has kept me up an hour or more later every night this week. I've probably read that things twice over this week!

Artistically challenged?

Well I got some more prints for the house finally. We'll see what people think I guess. In the meantime yea for new decoration!

So while I support the writer's guild strike I am sad because Heroes will be cut short. Rather a shame. Better not end the show forever though. That would make me rather sad. Can never tell with industry execs tho. Speaking of though...

Driscoll on Corinthians

If you have iTunes go search the Podcasts for Mark Driscoll. Snag some of his sermons on 1st Corinthians they're quite good!

Quote that?

Overheard from Joe's game the past couple sessions:

"I'm the light at the end of the tunnel, I'm the cleric of death, the beacon life." -Zach

"I pull out my lawn chair and wait for the crazy to be done..." -Zach

"I'm a gnome. I tunnel." -me

"Gnome hooked hammer and crowbar baby- I'm the most lethal thing on this island!" -me

"So we have yes bushes and no bushes...I like it." -Isaac

Sort of gaming related.

More nWoD campaign ideas.

Talk about a long running thread. This thread has finally passed on. Quite a run though. Luckily it lives on!

Ok link overload there but it's an impressive thread lifespan!

Work Work

Wow a long day. Not a bad day though so I should be thankful. So anyhow some more attempts to try and get the place decorated:

Bathroom
Stairwell
Living room?
Office? Bedroom? Living room? I like this picture but it's kinda gray/dark
Bedroom? It's a little small but I love it. Yes, I'm a military nerd...

I also like this one but don't know where to put it.


Hmm that's all I got

Home

Back in La Crosse for the weekend. It's the longest I think I've ever been away from this "home" although since I have a home in Point I guess the issue is more confused. It's strange to be back. The basement flooded in August so there's no carpet down here.

Randomly for those who asked: Emy Js has pumpkin ice cream. I don't know for how long tho!

Dog days

So did a little blog updating that was probably long overdue. Spurred on by Tyler's newest attempt to blog. He's gearing up for NaNoWriMo so have to see if he can pull of 50k in November.

Work was long today. Filteau and I got sushi afterwords so that helped some. It's almost November which means I'll have been working for 10 months. Wow. Time flies.

One thing I noticed when I updated links. Hardly anyone I know is actively blogging anymore. Heck even I am barely putting in decent effort. October which pretty much a dry spell til right at the end. I dunno why it is but I find it harder to write in here. Maybe I just need to prioritize.

That's it for now...

Trick or Treating Recap

So I bought about twice as much candy as I needed so now I have a ton left over. Anyone want some candy? Looks like I got about 75 trick or treaters.

Also pumpkin ice cream is great. Really. Awesome.

Additionally: random gamingness.

October Rolls Down

Well Halloween is tomorrow. Yes I'm aware that's tomorrow is not Oct 31st however the city of Stevens Point does not seem to be aware of this item. Well actually I'm pretty sure they are aware of this as well. It's that whole safety thing although just doesn't feel like Halloween to be doing it during daylight hours 3 days early! Did you know that they pushed daylight savings time a week back so it'd be light out longer for trick or treating. But anyhow I picked up a ton of candy (3 large bags) and hopefully that'll be enough. Either I'll have way too much or way to little candy I guess.

The yardwork is slowly wrapping up. The trees have lost all their leaves (only took 2.5 full passes on the yards and 9 or so 55 gallon bags of leaves). Now I just gotta clean the gutters and wash the windows and I'm already for the winter I guess.

Not sure what else is new. Probably report how trick or treating went tomorrow.

SimCitizen

So massively addicted to SimCity 4. I'll use that as my excuse why I haven't blogged recently. Oh and lots of leaves to be raked. Plus a side trip to the Cities. Yea, busy...

A little Serenity

Is it funny that I had a good night when I looped the best track from Transformers: The Score (Arrival on Earth is the track name btw) lit some candles up and curled up with Nobilis and read for an hour that it was a very peaceful night? Alas that is now coming to an end and I must go to bed to work tomorrow.

Protest

Its interesting to watch governments rise and fall and noticably in the past couple years relatively peaceful revolutions. Now a similiar event seem to be unfolding again in Myanmar (Burma) although it remains to be seen if it will survive government crackdowns. My prayers go out to these monks and those marching with (and supporting) them.

September Rolls Down

Wow, time is flying it feels like. Another month has rolled past. I've been in the house for over 4 months. It seems so long ago that I came in here on a cold rainy May evening and entered this place, empty and deserted. Now it's home in almost every sense of the word (home in La Crosse still retains its homeness as well). Still need to work on decorating the walls a little bit methinks. And sort/file papers. Fall is coming and soon winter will be rolling around. I'm excited. Even if it means snow removal at 6 AM before work.

Dogs, Gutters, and Heroes

So I have concluded that I really dislike dogs primarily on the grounds that their owners seem to think that they don't need to climb up the waste their pets leave on my yard. Bah, I am a bigger supporter of civic virtues of late.
On a side note, my gutters seems to collect a lot of leaves. A lot. At least I know where all the leaves of my front tree are going for the winter!

And finally: Heroes is beginning again, yayayay!

Yea, Soundtracks

Yay, Transformers: The Score is coming out Oct. 9th. I really enjoyed the score so I can't wait.

Realmslore

Well got a bunch of the Forgotten Realms books today. Champion of Ruin, Champions of Valor, Power of Faerun, Mysteries of the Moonsea, Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave, and Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land. Carl would say I need to run a Forgotten Realms game now and he's probably right considering I own most of the books. Really need to read them and take into the account the time shift. The books advance the timeline very slowly but I've gotten them out of order so some events that are "current" in one book aren't anymore. It looks like that the last book for Forgotten Realms Anauroch: The Sundering of the World will set up the transition to 4th Ed.

Anyhow I am book geeking out (is that a real term?) so that's it for now.

Fall Comes

So I got the first season of Heroes on Thursday and have been plugging away at it. Maybe not quite as good the second time around cause I know most of the secrets but I do enjoy watching to catch things alluded too.

Also snagging up the rest of the Forgotten Realms corebooks. More on that as they roll in.

Hmm, that's all I got right now. Sorry, it's kinda short, I don't feel extremely chatty :/

Enter September

Well the place finally has rain gutters around it, the efforts of the Labor Day weekend. Of course now I need it to rain which hasn't quite happened yet.
Filteau is here for a week so it's a little strange as I have a roommate for the first time here at the place. Different actually having someone around but not bad. It's to have someone to chat with.

Anyhow, that's it for now.

Rappan Athuk Outside & Lvl 1

Is up here for your reading pleasure?

Off to clean the place now for the folks.

Return to DMing

Well kicked off Rappan Athuk tonight. Not sure how well it went but hopefully I'll improve. I'll do a write up here eventually on the gaming blog.

Known Space

We Made It! is a phenomenally awesome name for a planet. Yes indeed. Why yes I am reading another Man-Kzin Wars why do you ask?

Picked up BESM: 3rd Ed for $22 over at JadeCo today. Yay for 40% off sales. Last week I snagged a cribbage board and a Dragon and a Dungeon magazine (Yak folk were featured in the Dungeon so I had to get it, ask Carl why).

That's it for now. Very close to picking out art work to finish decorating my walls.

Fantasy mirrors reality

So this was an odd story to read on the Beeb. It seems that a disease afflicted by one of the bosses in WoW called "corrupted blood" spread out of control like a real serious fast spreading disease. In some cases according to the Wikipedia article over half the population of some servers were being wiped out. The story on MSNBC as well. I guess World of Warcraft gets a little more press just in an odd way.

It's raining again but at least my basement isn't flooding or worse like those from back home. On the bright side I might get some grass to grow as I put down seed. Anyhow, back to work.

Think of the Neglect

So fooling around Google Analytics and was looking at my other blogs. Now this blog suffers from a sort of mild neglect of late but the others are doing quite a bit worse. Pillars at least has been updated within the past couple of months but Autumnhold hasn't been worked on in awhile. I wonder if I can pick them up again. Try and post at least once a month. Give myself some goals here outside of work.

I wonder. Well time to get back to sorting. It feels like fall although that's a long ways off I guess. I like this feeling, gray and cool. Just wish the trees were changing color (yes I know that'd negate the gray factor a bit).

4th Edition

Ironically when typing the title I typed $th Edition which in some ways certainly applies. For those of you who you A) Care and B) somehow haven't heard the 4th Edition of D&D was announced at GenCon on Thursday (although it was reported by Enworld on Wednesday. As more info has percolated out it actually sounds pretty cool. A lot of people were wary but this sounds like a competent re-design of D&D. WotC appears to have paid attention to how people play and done their best to support that game style. Granted we'll have to see come winter and more importantly next spring when the previews and actually books come out respectively. I'm curious and I have to admit I will probably get the core books. I know a lot of D&Ders around here are skeptical but since I'm half-collector and half-player I'll take a look. Besides which I can see why starting over after 8 years is a good thing. Better then how quick Exalted turned over and I eventually got sucked back into that too.

In non gaming news I guess there isn't a whole lot. It finally rained a bunch. Heck it rained all day yesterday and is misty all day today. My grass will be green again! It did throw my plans off yesterday a bit tho but I didn't inside stuff: lots of laundry, etc. Today I am procrastinating on starting to sort through the billions of papers that I need to tackle but after this I'll do that. Saturday evening Allison and I spent part of the night trying to hunt down a random old movie I want to see called The Car. No luck so eventually settled on The Covenant which came out last year. It was ok, not fantastic but did have some interesting points. Very pop culturish. Saw Titan AE this week as well and although it's obviously somewhat more oriented towards younger audience I was very impressed with the graphics and the soundtrack wasn't half bad either.

Well I suppose I should get to it. Enjoy the rain!

Brought to you by the Coalition States

Hmm, penny for anyone who can reference what the Coalition States are. Or maybe not, Google and Wikipedia know right off the bat...

Finally finished Second Foundation which means I am now done with the Foundation series. Or at least the original. Now the question is do I attempt to finish Velvet Elvis or pick up another book. I won't make very good pace for another month or two but it looks like my lunch buddies will be leaving in the next couple months for better offers in other places so by the end of the year it may be just me reading at lunch again. Oddly I don't mind. I kinda liked plowing through books. Granting I like being social too. It's a weird balance of life I guess.

I should read more when I am home but half the time I can't get focused in until I should be sleeping. Maybe it's cause I page randomly through RPG books. Right now I am bouncing between Damnation City, Vampire: the Reqiuem and Werewolf: the Forsaken. Damnation City and WoD: Chicago really inspired me to get the two core books because otherwise I don't know what the heck some of the terms are. The nWoD games are very political and having the cores helps to make sense of the situations. Too bad there are supplements to better support Chicago for Prometheans or Changelings as it'd be interesting to see how all the different types of WoD "races" interacted in a city. I'd bet it'd be very strange. Not that werewolves, vampires, and mages aren't strange enough (plus ghosts and spirits cause ya know they're mainstays).

In retrospect I really should finish Velvet Elvis but it just hasn't grabbed me. It started out good but not so much. Maybe I just don't quite agree with Rob Bell's views and it silently grates on me. Or if it does it's just not as well written as Mark Driscoll's book whose name I can't remember now and am too lazy to get up and look in the library two rooms over or search this blog. Driscoll tossed a lot of humor into his books which made them amusing even if I disagreed on some of his points.

Still haven't narrowed down the prints choices yet. Sort of putting it off. I have so many other things I need to do I guess that it may wait. This week will be busy. This weekend sure has. Helped Jeff get his deck in order. Mostly I just held things in place so he could screw/saw/mark up them. I might actually be able to put a deck together on my own tho now. It probably wouldn't be as good as if someone whose worked more with wood would be but I am learning I guess. This week I think I have stuff going on every night. Hanging with Carl Monday, getting my hair cut and then over to Ellen's to hang on her porch Tuesday. Movie night Wednesday? More porch time Thursday (although that's tentative). And last movies in the park Friday and it's Star Wars so should pull a big crowd. Oh and cleaning the apartment Monday for sure maybe more later in the week if I don't get done! At least I will be done with the apartment after that.

Think that's all for now. This was a long rambling post.

Updates

Al relocated his blog so I updated that and Rachel has moved her blog to Myspace an area that I tread much less so that link is removed.

Also, see the links for images now as actual links below...

The Tides of August

Hmm, bought more books. Mostly RPGS: Monster Manual V, Shining South (a Forgotten Realms supplement, one of the old location books), and Damnation City a Vampire/nWoD book. The most interesting book at the moment is probably Damnation City which details how to build a viable city in the World of Darkness although it's rather Vampire centric (hence the name). However it's interesting city building rules. I also got the reprints of the Dark Empire graphic novels for Star Wars.

Not much else new. Lars is in town this weekend so that's pretty exciting. Hopefully get to actually hang with him a little bit. That's all for now. Have a good weekend.

Deviation

I'm plugging away at attempting finishing the decorating my walls. Here are some links to peruse and give me feedback. Be warned it's apparently a laaaaaaaarge list:
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Anyhow, no news on the reading front, still stuck in Second Foundation although also perusing WoD: Chicago.

Nerdom?

So is it bad that I am listening to the Robot Chicken Star Wars skit "Palpatine Phone Call" and I recognize the voice of Seth Macfarlane (for those of you drawing blank looks he's the creator and half the voices on "Family Guy") by one phrase he uses in the skit. He's the Emp btw. Truly I am a nerd. :D

Harry Potter Transforms?

Read HP7. Not too bad. Didn't quite beat the spread but I was betting on Voldemort too :D

If you haven't seen Transformers drop what yer doing and go see it. It's quality! Yea, isn't that deep wisdom? Maybe not.

Nothing else of real substance at the moment alas.

War and Politics II

Another fun one related to the war: when did the withdrawal become a "re-deployment"? I mean are we keeping them on active duty when they are returned to the United States? Are we beaten so badly that Congress thinks the Iraqis will be landing troops on the East Coast? Meh, the whole debate leaves a bitter taste in my mouth as its all about politics and the only people who matter are the polls.

That's all for now...

News?

Hmm, my blog feels like its slowly dying of neglect. Let's see what's new? Work is busy but generally straight forward so that's good. The house is pretty much set up, basically just some interior decorating is left but that's not on a set schedule. I still need to sort through that stack of papers but think that may get neglected a little longer. Not good I'll admit.

I'm finishing up Second Foundation. I should really tackle Velvet Elvis after this but I got Night Watch and am debating reading that. Floating around in RPG land I also have Oadenal's Codex for Exalted and Magic Item Compendium for D&D for new perusal.

To celebrate that I won't be paying dual rent next month I am going on a book buying spree I think. Probably pick up a bunch of RPGs. Have to see tho. Harry Potter 7 comes out next weekend but that will be a weekend blitz. Poof and done.

Sadly beyond that there isn't much news. More later?

War and Politics

It makes me very sad now that the only thing politicians talk about these days (especially nearly all of them running for office) is bringing the troops home. None of them talk about actually solving the problem. See they act like when all our soldiers are back in the United States the problem will be solved. And ironically from a pollsters perspective it will because the the 26.7 million Iraqis don't vote in US elections (and therefore aren't people, sorry folks unless you're an American politicians here don't consider your opinion worth much unless you are agreeing with what they are doing).

So what's this mean at as far as I see it? Well, eventually the Democrats will succeed in getting the troops home. It's inevitable since as I mentioned above pollsters rule Washington and the war is obviously unpopular. Have to blame Bush on that one, he certainly bungled the war effort going in. He probably should have emphasized the fact that we'd be in Iraq for decades. (Also it might have been nice if they had planned a little better for the postwar period.) We still have military forces in Germany 60+ years after that war ended. But Americans are lousy at history anyways aren't we? Iraq may of course actually pull things together without direct military support, to say it's impossible downplays the abilities of their people but I see it as unlikely. More likely is a brutal civil war and a country (or countries?) feeling betrayed by the Americans who came in kicked everything over and then left.

Politicians may see themselves elected to office on bringing the troops home but in 20 years politicians may be having to tell those troops to go back into Iraq to deal with a country (or countries) that hate America and are as active against us as Saddam or the Taleban ever was. Didn't this kind of short-sightedness lead to the problem in Afghanistan in the first place back in the 80s?

Maybe it's true that we just will never learn.

Guests

I love having people over. :D

Rut

I'm in a rut lately and I am unsure how to get myself out. Hmm...

Books

So plugging away at an accelerated rate at Foundation and Empire as my usual lunch cohort is on vacation this week. I've got a lot of reading waiting for me. It's all in one place due to the house (well actually I have a couple of Dad's books I want to read too but oh well). 24 books that are unopened sit on the shelf plus Velvet Elvis which is next up on my docket.

The house is mostly set up, you can take a look on Facebook if you like. At some point now I am going to probably throw a house warming party although that depends greatly on my motivation. I started the battle to retake my lawn this evening and I will be interested to see if the weed spray does anything or if I applied it to lightly. I also need to get around to washing the CRV sometime. And securing the ethernet cable in the basement and a million other miscelaneous projects.

Looks like I might be running a mortals nWoD game for Carl & friends. Should be interesting if it does run. Hope I can pull it off, that kind of story is all about the storytelling not so much the system! Anyhow I need to throw some laundry in here quick before I head out to the LTG.

It heats up

Well my house survived the day of super cells last week thankfully. In general things are coming along pretty well. What I really need to do is unpack the rest of my junk. After that I am essentially home free. I am pretty close as it is. Then I just have projects to do and those will be ongoing. Note: When you buy a house the list of things to do never goes away it just changes in size.

What's new? Well I ordered a print for the living room. Will have to find a frame whence it arrive. We'll see how it looks, maybe I'll get more but they're expensive too! Decorating is a lower priority, it will perhaps be higher in the fall/winter.

I've got the itch to buy RPGs again but I am holding off. A couple new Exalted books will come out over the summer and those I will get. Probably Scions: Demigod & God as well. Really digging some of the stuff with Gear Krieg as well. Ah, who knows. It's inevitable that once my apartment lease is done that my "luxury" items will be mostly RPG books. Then again I don't really want much else. Maybe a Gamecube game or two but those are cheap and prolly getting cheaper!

There is a part of me toying with wrapping up this blog. I'm not yet so don't worry if you are one of the few people who actually reads/checks this on a semi-regular basis. It's just that I think in a sense I may be running out of stuff to talk about. I don't talk about work on here and that's what I do 40 hours (sometimes more) a week. It cuts out a lot of the time I had to do random maybe interesting to the random reader stuff!

Cleaning Up and Out

Well everything but a wastebasket and some cleaning supplies is moved out of the old apartment. I even lugged up the hideous old lamp and stand that came with it and had been tucked away in storage for over a year. Tomorrow I'll go and clean the place, finish it off. Then I guess I'll have to hope someone takes it. Otherwise it'll collect dust. The place looks a little forlorn.

In the meantime my house feels quasi-filled with stuff that needs to be sorted and put away. I have a lot of junk, an amazing amount for a single bedroom apartment. (BTW the old apartment is so small I can plug in the vacuum in the hall and it can vacuum literall the entire place. Crazy stuff.

Well time to go read Legacy of Heorot and then crash.

Settling In

Well I am mostly moved in now. What remains is a lot of organizing of things. Major furniture arrives tomorrow, that will be pretty exciting, I'll finally have a real bed all of my own. Also a couch. w00t!

Granting the basement still needs the futon assembled, that tv set up, and even more stuff put away. I should also prolly get that ethernet cable that snakes from upstairs through downstairs out of the way. That'll be fun...

Anyhow, the real home is getting closer!

Home

I own it and am moving in. Guess I'm staying put for awhile. Well come and visit me :D

Starcraft 2, Shrek 3, and 4 Toast

Which one is not like the other eh?

So if you haven't heard Starcraft 2 has been officially announced. I'm pumped for it, first game in awhile that's got me excited. Not even sure the computers I have will run it but ah well.

Saw Shrek 3. It's not as good as previous two. Not bad mind you just didn't quite get me like the others. Think it was the lack of a good soundtrack that might have hurt it the most. Music matters.

Been busy reading, I should fill you in but time for bed now.

23

"Your father fought. Honor him." -The Red Star

Summer slips in

So finals appears to be rolling by. It's a bit strange not caring much other then watching friends depart on the winds from Point. This year my summer vacation is a week long and I'll be moving into the house during that. I feel like I need a vacation and a week doesn't feel long enough. Ah well, that's work. Take things as best I can.

Not much new. Watching the temps vacillate is interesting. At least it's not like in winter where you get a ton of snow that turns to slush. Be funny if we got some snow tho, kinda sad too as everything is finally beautifully greeeen. That's all for now.

Old Times

So hanging out with Carl and Julie over at Carl's place and he had bought a bunch of old wooden trains. Man are those fun or what? We went and managed to build a functioning line with multiple loops and bridges and everything with it. It was awesome! Julie totally did not understand the guy need to build things there.

Yea, that's all I got. Go to bed now ;)

Analytics, Reading, and the Local Housing Market

Or How I Learned to Love My Job...

Which really doesn't have much to do with the above three. Google made a massive change to Analytics. I honestly don't like it. The displays seem much clunkier and provide information in a harder to quickly digest form. This might also be because I am vastly more familiar with the old system. Guess I have something to do.

Reading wise I plugged through Jerry Pournelle's Exiles to Glory and then thanks to Dani's boyfriend Sean who is going to Japan for at least a year I got several Frank Herbert books as well as Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy so I am digging into Foundation which I half read in 8th grade. At some point I'm going to get back to Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis I just need some less serious reads. I am seriously excited that soon I will have my entire library at my disposal. I was craving Louis MacMaster Bujold's A Civil Campaign earlier this week and alas it is far away. :(

In two weeks I'll be a homeowner! It's so close yet so far away. It's funny because I want to be in the place so bad but that'll be my home most likely for several years ranking it quickly as the second longest residence i've lived in.

Well that's all I've got. It's strange, May is almost halfway done. The weeks just roll by.

Work and Life Intersecting

So I am reading on the ol' Facebook blog about work they are doing relating to PHP open source. They have a link relating to a change they made and behold! they use CVS! I know CVS! Yea, anyhow, bedtime.

Ptolus 6

Possibly the last Ptolus report is in here.

Spring hath Sprung

So I just noticed today that everything has started turning green. How about that?

Anyone want to rent my apartment for the summer?

April Winds Down

Well this week was not fun at work and next may be rather un-fun as well. In good news I'll have my house in less then a month and that's worth a cheer. Not much else to speak of.

Got Scion: Hero and am working my way through that. Also re-reading Ptolus for the parts on Jabel Shammar Sunday's finale of Ptolus. I put down Velvet Elvis as I don't want serious reading at the moment. Debating what to read in its stead.

Started watching a Showtime show called: The Tudors about Henry VIII during the early part of his reign. It's rather over-dramatized but that's tv for you. Not a fantastic show but ah well. Happily Heroes is into new episodes.

Adulthood

I've apparently become and adult, much to the amusement of my peers, and I did not even realize it. Granted I'm working full time in a job that I went to college for so that makes sense and I'll be a home owner in a month or so. But it still sits strange with me.

Guess it's finally dawning on me all the changes. Not sure I'm ready but too late for that. Have to keep going forward.

In reading news I finished The Silmarillion and Impossible Country a week or two ago. I am now attempting to get into Velvet Elvis but without much luck. I don't want a serious read at the moment and it very much is.

It's almost May.

Trivial

The city I live and work in hosts the world's largest trivia contest. A further testament to the nuttiness of north central Wisconsin. Google actually spikes because of this event. Amazing.

Winter in April

I almost wrote Aprill... it's snowing. Kinda amazing, wish it'd warm up but it is kind of pretty. I'll admit I'm a sucker for snow. Be nice if it was in the 70s again though. Samurai 7 is pretty impressive, two of the DVDs have blemishes but otherwise I'm highly enjoying it. This week has been rather strange in so many ways. That's all for now, highly thinking about crashing soon.

Restarting...

Oy, can't say this weekend was the greatest. There are times I just wanted to shout this (or some slightly more targeted variation). However a new week dawns so I'll try and get to bed early and hope things turn out better in the end.

In other news, I picked up some Gear Krieg books whens I got Rappan Athuk: Reloaded last week and they are interesting. They kinda make me want to to do war gaming stuff. Not so much minis stuff but the tactical scenarios and such. When I was home I got out my dad's old Avalon Hill Battle for Midway and figured out the rules (really simple it turns out, at least for a college grad :D ). Dad and I even played out the simple version of the game, no surface combat allowed. I played the US because the Japanese technically have an advantage, especially cause Dad knows the American forces are afoot. I still managed to win, our carriers struck at the same time and the Enterprise survived on my side but none of the Japanese ones made it. Just like the real battle it was all over in one major airstrike, the rest was just anti-climatic.

I picked up the 3rd Season of Futurama and the complete set of Samurai 7 (anime remake of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, pretty good thus far). I now have all of Futurama until the new stuff comes out this year. Have to admit both of these were impulse buys to help me feel better after the lousy news on Saturday. Wish I had a better way of cheering myself up.

Hope everyone had a good Easter weekend, I know I haven't posted much granting I'm not sure many people even read this either way but I will try and post a little more often. Things have just been...busy

*sigh*

Guess I'll keep looking, so close :/

Pre-April Fool's Warning

Yes tomorrow is April 1, take announcements warily. In the meantime I have seen the Battlestar Galactica finale and been blown away. Dang they do good finales! Wow,wow and wow.

BTW: "If you can relax on a bus in Israel you can relax anywhere."

In other news the house search continues after sump pump and a depressing foundation forces lookers farther afield. Ah well.

Fun news, I found Rappan Athuk: Reloaded right here in Point! I was looking for some Gear Krieg books and found it there. Nice take for RPG books :)

Anyhow it's late so I am gonna crash.

Warm

So it's funny because the past couple days it's been very warm, some might even say hot! (Certainly the lamb vs the lion at the start of March.) I was looking at temps vs London and it occurred to me the bad thing about a temperate climate like London. You never really get warm spurts, the temps moderate slowly and don't abruptly change. In Wisconsin one week it'll be warm the next week cool we're just that crazy. That's all I got :D

Wraith and Cleaning

I am really wishing for whatever reason that I had bought Wraith: The Great War when I was at Uncle Hugo's. Doubt that'll be there next Christmas. I am actually being relatively productive today, I've cleaned and throw out/recycled a bunch of stuff. Plus there are ninjas.

I have officially run out of room on my bookshelf, at least for RPG books. I had to re-arrange today and the placements were not satisfactory. I can squeeze a few books in (those books would in theory by 2nd copy of 1st Ed Dragon-Blooded, 2nd Ed Lunars, and Scion: Hero) but really we've topped out. So I guess a secondary bookshelf will go onto the furniture requirements list at my new place. The less used (and admittedly less loved) books will end up there first. This certainly is the year of White Wolf tho.

Other news, I've got a cold again despite getting lots of sleep and eating decent last week. How does the world work I wonder? Anyhow, I should get back to being productive, hope everyone enjoyed this lovely weather! Just wish my bike was in shape for it but alas it's not and I am not motivated to get it so just yet.

Ptolus 5

A much belated report from the fifth session of Ptolus is here.

In other game news in support of maybe running Exalted someday again I've ordered another copy of 1st Ed Dragon-Blooded. I continue to acquire 2nd Ed books but am unsure if I will ever run it.

Right now I am hedging between running a new World of Darkness Mortals game or trying to give Exalted another shot.

Dune

So I re-watched Dune (or most of it I might go to bed before this last portion is finished). Today was a pretty good day. Work was busy but not overwhelming so I came home not entirely beat. Happily even though it's spring break on campus the Cardio center still kept their working hours so I even got to work out. Campus is deserted. It's always strange. Actually this year is stranger then most because I'm here this spring break. Poof everyone is gone and the place is a ghost town.

Strange Friday

Ok so this is being written on Saturday morning sue me. Today (Friday) was strange. Woke up bright and early this morning to scoot off to work by 7:30 or so. Instead my stomach decided to be very very queasy and I spend an hour debating calling in sick and then how long should I call in sick. I'm really decisive when it comes to my PTO. Eventually do call in sick and it proves a good call after my system manages to settle down I slumber uneasily til about 11 when I get up and feel good enough to put in a half day of work. Of course my schedule feels weird and ironically because I'm doing a half day I can leave almost as early as if I came in early. So I come home still half sick with an entire evening left to me. Everything just seems unbalanced when my schedule changes and I have nothing planned.

What was the point of this post, I dunno. I'm tired but I can't sleep. I want to read but I don't. I've gotten into Impossible Country which is good but a strange read. Yugoslavia is shooting up in my mind as a strange, strange country. It also strikes me as a major sign to come as an obstacle for a theoretical European federation.

My bookshelf is almost entirely full now. My grapic novels have displaced the board games and they don't even fit properly due to their generally larger then normal book size.

Anyone want to play in an Everquest pen and paper RPG game? I've got a pile of those books. I won them at PointCon, still debating how useful they are. Pretty complete collection tho.

I am thinking that this year is really the year of White Wolf RPG wise. All I am really doing is buying White Wolf: Exalted 2E, Scion (whence it comes out) and new World of Darkness (granted I'm up in the air about the new mortals books: Spirits and Urban Legends as there isn't much been said about them).

I'm also peering into Exalted 2E: Dragon-Blooded. It's strange here as they take a lot of what we know about the Exalted world from 1E and compress it into the core books. I suspect the first couple years will be doing that. They rather distill it all down into key points so at times it's a little sad but I suppose that just means new stuff sooner. One of the upcoming books is going to be on the First Age and that should be very interesting. Maybe a sort of off-shoot line like Dark Ages was to old World of Darkness? Doubt it but who knows.

Well this has doubtless gotten long and rambly so I'll call it quits for now.

Things of Late

Have been both busy and stressful. PointCon was this weekend and it was ok. I won a bunch of stuff and it's alright. I now have a bunch of Everquest books. Cover art is meh but haven't really had time to dig into them. The part of me that is the collector doesn't care much either way but I always enjoy it when I really want to play the game.

I am highly looking forward to Exalted 2E Dragonblooded and Celestial Directions #2 (The Wyld) to come. I am also setting about ordering Lunars, Scion:Hero, and probably nWoD: Chicago. Chicago is semi-impulse buy after reading through Chicago Workings. I never did run that this weekend and part of me was sad but I was underprepared so it may be all for the better.

I am finally almost done with Major Ingredients! It's taken awhile but only two stories left one is very short and the other is my first Eric Frank Russell tale ever: The Waitabits. Next up I think I will tackle: Impossible Country which is about Yugoslavia right before it broke up.

I found the music from Time Spitters online and I am really digging it. Especially the Scotland the Brave track. Which also houses the Castle Tank Battle music which Tyler loves so much. Additionally there is music to disco by and the ever famous Cortez Can't Jump (too true).

Took a walk today and it was nice. Man what a way to relax after work by going for a long walk without needing a coat! But might need a boat as the park was pretty much a giant lake with ducks and all! Got some cool news too, one of my friends in back in Wisconsin for awhile! Hopefully I can get a chance to get away from work and hang out with her.

Anyhow, time for bed. Too much to do at work tomorrow...

NCAA Time

So for those of you who do ESPN.com's NCAA tournament's go join the private group: Pointless Pointers The password is: toast Maybe this year the 16th seeds will pull it off :D

Sunday Night

Wow, long weekend and now what could be a long week. Throw a pray in for me that it isn't? Shooting to give a more quality post tomorrow.

Neglect

Oops I'm neglecting this a little bit. I've been sort of busy with work and life. Also I shall admit that I bought Lego Star Wars (Ep 1-3) and it's ridicuously fun to play. It's not snowing anymore here but alas as soon as it stopped snowing it got cold.

I broke down and bought the 32" x 48" vinvyl map of Ptolus. It's amazingly huge and pretty cool.

Randomly: Aprill shaved her head to help raise support for kids who have cancer. How brave and/or awesome is that?

And that's all I got for now...

So when I said it snowed last post

I really meant it's still snowing bucket loads. Wow. In other news I've been a mix of very busy and very slackerish this week. IE when I do get a little free time I enjoy it loads and get none of my not-quite-pressing chores done. :o I know, not good. I will try and write more this weekend, for now though I am gone burn a cd and read.

So it snowed

snow, originally uploaded by mirv120.

When you ask God to make it snow you'd better be ready for the consequences!

Snow

Hey, it's white out there again. Guess it's about a foot whiter back at home. And more possibly tonight. Interesting stuff!

Body of a Journalist

So the title of this post is the actual title of the newest DMZ graphic novel not Death of a... as previously stated in the last post. In other news apparently the way large amounts of data are stored is about to change unless you're Google because you seemed to have figured that out already. No links, you should just hit up Slashdot on this date or do a Google search along the lines of "Google File System".

As an odd addendum to this I am re-watching some random episodes from early in Babylon 5's 4th Season. The episode after the end of the Shadow War starts off with Sheridan recording into his log: "The Shadow war is over. We won!" I have to admit it's not the most moving line in initial aspect but the way it is spoken conveys such a sense of surprise that while it doesn't sound dramatic it really is. This is someone writing (possibly for the 2nd time in his life having survived the Earth-Minbari war) that amazingly despite the odds he and those he cares about are alive. And he is amazed by it all.

President's Day

Alas that there is no mail today otherwise I'd have gotten Death of a Journalist today. Oh well, there is always tomorrow. It's sad that it is so nice and warm out and I am inside. Spring will be a little sadder now although weekends will be much more enjoyable. That's all I got now. Real short entry :o

Ptolus 4

Wow, how's that for quick pace? The 4th session of the Ptolus campaign is up. Very much a role-playing session as Carl could not make it. Alas Ptolus will wrap by May as Dani has gotten into grad school far away from us losers in Point. (So congrats even if we're sad to have you go far away Dani!)

Ptolus 3

Ptolus continues finally. Another probably short session tomorrow as Carl cannot make it. Will try and post it sooner!

Review

So I'm listening to the debate about the Iraq war and I hear Nancy Pelosi promise that the fighting will end in the next year (presumably if she has anything to say about it). Now I'm wondering, does she mean that she has a plan so the Iraqi civil war is ended or just that the American troops are brought home so the Democrats look good here and to hell with those ignorant religious nutbags in Iraq? Just like Europe wants to abandon an eager and willing Turkey the anti-war camp is ready to dump Iraq (which admittedly is somewhat less eager and/or willing then Turkey) off to itself. They ignore the fact that to pull American troops out essentially takes a low level civil war where at least the vague vestiges of government exist and drop it into full blown-quaqmire that is sure to kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and displace millions more. I thought the people who were opposed to the war were the ones we generally see as the more humanitarian ones? But the funny thing is they are just as self-centered as any other American political institution. They want to negoiate from a safe distance with full knowledge that at this point negoiations alone won't help. If our troops leave now Iraq as we know it is finished. We might as well call it Somalia and that only took a decade to maybe sort itself out (and an invasion from Ethiopia which could drive things downhill again).

Meh, politicians don't care about honor or sacrifice anymore. They just care about getting re-elected. Well that's my rant, incoherent or otherwise. Now onto the litery sections of the blog:

The Halo graphic novel and the The Black & White Treatises (for Exalted 2E) arrived today. The graphic novel did not really blow me away and that was dissapointing. However they had a gallery in the back and one fanastic picture of the master chief sitting out with all his(/her?) weapons in the style of the air show military aircraft. Very cool look, shame that the way the pages are set that it's hard to see it all well. B&WT is the sorcery/necromancy book for 2E. I've only skimmed it because the majority of the spells are re-hashes of 1E stuff but not too shabby thus far.

Well I need to prep for Ptolus tomorrow and do a write up from 2 weeks ago. Work was tough this week and I'm very glad to be done. Happy weekend I guess.

Snow

Beekman, NY got 5 inches and they were on the low end in the East. Huh, wonder why we never get that much although granted now I'd have to take a day off...

Handsome Executives

Actually one specific executive named Harry and his swivel chair exploits. Now that I have joined the hallowed ranks of office jockey I find his antics much more amusing. Then again who wouldn't enjoy fighting robots, ghosts, and mail room employees with a staple guns and plastic plants whilst on the job?

I am really enjoying the Solid State Society soundtrack. Yoko Kanno has to be one of my top artists. All of the Ghost in the Shell soundtracks I've enjoyed as well as Cowboy Bebop (my first intro to her), plus Wolf's Rain and Macross Plus. I've read that in anime you know you've got a top notch show if she is attached. It's good work music though because it's energetic but semi-repetitve so it can just keep going and going.

Not much else new, just trying to post a little more of late. Course it's probably on too random and self interested topics to be terribly exciting. Ah well. That's all.

Solid State

The GITS SAC: Solid State Society OST (ie soundtrack) came today. It's not bad, it has a couple songs from previous shows alas with one that temptingly close to my favorite dramatic music from 2nd Gig. The Chief's theme is darned impressive. Good boost your morale music and such. I did a ton of paperwork tonight, keeping up with bills, etc, etc.

I am a little dissapointed, Death of a Journalist, the latest DMZ graphic novel (so no links today) is being delayed by Amazon. The good news is that the latest Exalted supplement is shipping early and the Halo graphic novel is coming as well. The Halo reviews are mixed but I am curious. I've seen the front cover and it's rather pretty.

And I just had a 40 min. phone convo with the sister, lost my train of thought and need to go to bed. So night!

Shadows and Phantoms

This weekend felt very lonely except for a few points. What am I doing wrong?

Spirits Within

"This was the phantom cleansing mission, it was supposed to end the war. My father's in here somewhere." - Sgt. Whitaker

So some book news although it's also RPG related. Found out why Rappan Athuk: Reloaded is so hard to get. There were only 1000 copies printed. It's been probably a year since it's came out so go figure. Kinda doubt Amazon will be able to get it for me in the end so now I am left with the problem of what to get in its stead. Part of me is tempted to go with World's Largest Dungeon but reviews are mixed and playability is limited. To do the whole thing could take 2+ years! It's longer lengthwise then Ptolus. I'll put the question out to the folks over on RPG.net and see if they have any suggestions about an alternative dungeon crawl.

In less geeky news I looked at houses today. Granted only from the outside for the most part. One house happened to have an open house so I got to go through it. It was lower on my list which probably was good cause I wasn't terribly impressed by it. My top choice thus far remains on top. Doesn't look like it much has of a yard but that might be more of a plus for me (less yardwork). Anyhow things are still early in the game so no big worries.

Well time to make sandwhiches. Hope part of this was less confusing Jamie (Side note to all: you can now get to Jamie's blog from here, see sidebar) but at least I provided links! :D

Weekends

Well lesse, my garage door won't open, my one of my shoes is half busted and Friday was a long day. Not sure what the weekend has in store for me at this rate.

I'm rewatching parts of Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex. I've found its one of the few shows I can pick up (either season in fact) and just watch through most of it in a burst. Kinda odd in a way I suppose.

Not a lot new at the moment. The house search is beginning albeit slowly. Tomorrow I will probably go drive by some of the initial candidates. Also need to go shopping for news shoes. I need to get more professional shoes anyways so this pair will prolly become work out/beater shoes.

Reading continues apace, could be awhile til I finish either book. I've been waiting on Rappan Athuk: Reloaded for awhile from Amazon but I don't think it'll show. Debating buying it direct from White Wolf. It's more expensive but the book is hard to find.

That's all for now. Looks like I'll be home most of Saturday so might even get Ptolus report up.

World of Darkness

So I am running a new World of Darkness game for PointCon on that Sunday (it's early much I can't remember the date) if you any of the -2 readers care. Right now it'll either by the White-Wolf adventure "Chicago Workings" or "Nelson Hall by Night" which would be my own adventure in our lovely Nelson hall. Reader input is allowed on what I do. w00t?

Not much else to say except Scion is getting previewed on White Wolf front page. It comes out early Aprill, I'm pretty excited.

Alas yes this is a gamer oriented post. Sorry. Ptolus will be forthcoming sometime I hope.

-25

I love the warm Wisconsin winters! Anyhow, this'll probably end up a lot shorter then I'd want but tonight feels rushed for whatever reason. Some bits of news: I've finished Man-Kzin Wars IV and moved onto The Silmarillion. Going is a bit slow cause I've had to go home for lunch the past few days to sort out things with the realtor. Also Silmarillion tends to be a slow read. I've only finished the intro letter and gotten into the first part. I am 4/7ths of the way through Major Ingredients but reading has stalled some there too cause I've been crashing at night.

Might get post for Ptolus up tonight so stay tuned?

Poor Bears

But at least they made it the Superbowl!

Life and Things

(Alternate title Things and Life)
So I've been on the job a month and survived. Whee. Funniest moment: Co-worker sends his latest build report. Report: 1 error, 0 warnings. Error: Maximum Number of Errors.

Hilarious. You probably had to be there or see the screenshot. Twas great.

That's all for now. I post tomorrow maybe.

Technology

What is it of late with me and technology? I'm losing on almost all fronts and then winning on one. The iPod seems to work all of a sudden. But the receiver seems to be slowly flaking out and the previous wireless router, oft suspected of being a bit slow/timing outish, now may look golden to the 3 times as expensive on that can't push a signal out to my living room! I need to talk to Al, maybe somehow it got set up wrong or something is interfering. It worked great before so what the heck is stopping it now? Bloody technology. At least I only deal with the code end. *sigh* Anyhow going to go play some Street to calm myself down and then look at houses/make lunches for the rest of the week.

Changes

I have to admit one of the most conscientous changes I've found that reminds me I've graduated is all the shifting of e-mails from my UWSP account to my other accounts. No longer can I have notifications go to my UWSP account as that doesn't have long to live. It's a little sad. It'd be nice if the UWSP account could live on but that'd get expensive for the UW system to manage.

My wi-fi router has issues. I think in fact it's always had issues because it was a $20 refurb and I should have just gone and spent $50 on a brand new top line model. I'll probably do that now. Not sure what I'll do with the refurb. It may still function I am just not sure I care. My setup now confirms it times out semi-regularily hence the slower performance I've had with it. Not sure why it quit working last night but oh well.

I'm sick. Blah. This weekend has been rather blah. Hopefully things will look better this week, it all seems a bit grim right now.

Project Progress

So remember how sometime in the early-mid summer I started copying out D & D monsters from the books into a spreadsheet for ease of use? Well I finally finished the first mosnter manual. At this rate I suspect I'll finish by 2010 if I ever finish at all :D

File Under "Ooh"

So now the little personalized Google homepage is set up so that you can expand RSS links and read brief parts of the articles. I can read Slashdot off my Google homepage. Very cool.

The two bad things about working out in January are the double rushes: one right after the new year when all the people who resolved to be in better shape work out and thus fill up the place for a month or two and secondly the wave of college students who are essentially doing the same. By March the place is half empty. Crazy.

Possible Redecorations

Yea I know, little short burts all night. What can I say? Anyhow here is part of my efforts to unwhiten my walls. I've found my old movies posters are looking bent, folded, and sorely old (my favorite for Black Hawk Down got folded real badly so it's almost an eyesore now :/ ).

So here's some stuff off DeviantArt that's available in prints. Kinda listed them in a vague order of favorite to least...

(1) World on Fire
(2) Fishing
(3) Autumn Days (same artist as World on Fire)
(4) Road to New Atlantis
(5) The Lonely Tree
(6) Countenance

There you go. Give me your top 3. The sad thing is I was really going for my vertical then horizontal prints but I didn't find many :/

Primatech Paper

Can you get past the jobs code on this page?

Ptolus 2

The 2nd round of Ptolus is up.

School Starts Again

But not for me for the first time, well, ever. That's really odd. Looking forward to being able to spend time with people who are back though! In other news I'll have a Ptolus update hopefully tomorrow night, the PCs got a nice pile of loot so they should be happy happy. Rather surprising turnout for today's championship games today it was fun to watch: Bears vs. Colts who woulda thought? Can't call it right now!

Final note, I borrowed my unused smaller tv to Jo for the semester and now my bedroom looks really barren so thinking of getting some prints off of DeviantArt. May post the final candidates for comments from the readership(?) if anyone cares to comments. All probably tomorrow.

PS New Heroes tomorrow and a new Battlestar that was tonight (may copy it from Al & Steph).

Blog Neglect

Yup, that's what I have been doing. Ok here's my excuse: I've been busy. I come home and I have stuff I want to do even if it's just kicking back and relaxing although half the time I have legit stuff to do so it's kind of a weird mix. This weekend will probably be crazy too cause I am running Ptolus again so that'll be most of Saturday. Sunday everyone is coming back so probably (hopefully?) gonna be hanging out with them and catching up.

So what's new here? Well it finally snowed and then proceeded to get cold. Finished Assignment in Eternity and just moved into Man-Kzin Wars IV. It's been awhile since I've read one of the series so having to remember things about Niven's Known Universe. More short stories though! This is the third book in a row that is short stories. It was getting bad with Heinlein and Russell's books because some of them have very similar themes. Luckily Man-Kzin Wars are much newer (1991 compared to 40s and 50s for the other short stories) and all are set in a very specific if hugely broad setting-a huge amount of Niven's material takes place in the Known Universe which is a full universe.

The Star Trek cards came and I am geeking out on them. I'm such a nerd. But it's fun to relive the old days a little bit and I did pretty good for actually cards pulled. I won't bore you with the details (or scare any of you left who still thought there might be hope :D ). Somewhere in me there must be a strange gene that loves to organize and sort. Mom would be kind of proud I think.

Well time to read and get to bed. One day of work left this week and then (yay!) the weekend!

Nostaglia is all in the cards

Had one of those moments of nostalgia where I am remembered the old card collecting/gaming days of Star Trek and Star Wars CCG. I haven't played Star Trek since high school and we're talking freshman or sophomore years at the latest. A lot of the guys who I knew who played quit playing and thus the games dried up. I still have tons of cards and would love to play, I was unstoppable for awhile in that game, but don't know if there are any players anymore. There might not even be many players for the 2nd edition of the game. I found online that entire boxes that use to sell for $60-$80 now sell for $6-$15. (I bought some, I don't know why, for old times sake?)

Star Wars still lives on despite having no new cards or official support - Decipher has practically gone under itself. I do wish Seth and Brent were back so I could try out some decks I'm making. Probably will get crushed. Seth is a good player and has good strategies/decks (plus nice set of cards) and Brent is a good player too. But they are both far away, maybe in a couple years? (Next year in Coruscant?)

I feel like I should write something

However I haven't a clue what to write aboute. The soundtrack to 'X' came today and it's quite cool. I pretty much love the main theme which they occassionally (er a lot occassionally) beat to death in the show -ask Twism- but they also have a couple of the other pieces of music that I have discovered I enjoyed without realizing it at the time. On the "Be Human" soundtrack for GITS 1 & 2 focusing on the Tachikomas I discovered a couple pretty cool songs. Possibly the most amusing moment (in looking back retrospect) was the point where I was having a somewhat serious chat with a friend and the X Soundtrack hits the very serious moody theme. One of those odd timing things ya know?

Well that's all I got. I am plugging away through both my books. At this rate I could actually maybe run out eventually although I think once I get to The Silmarillion my pace in that area will slow and Entities or whatever I pick up next for at home will probably not roll along as fast the short stories. I really am highly entertained by Russell's ability to throw strange twists into stories. Rarely do you see what's coming at all!

Good Omens on the Street

I love making up weird titles based off what I am gonna talk about. And the major ingredients of this post are books and NFL Street so go figure!

So I finished Good Omens and it was quite funny. The end was somewhat anti-climatic but in a way that might be part of the joke. Anyhow I have moved on to Major Ingredients. It looks like I've read more of it then I remembered probably the first 3-4 stories at least maybe 1-2 more then that. It's ok the, I'm enjoying re-reading them. Russell is a very fun author to read. His stories generally have odd twists, apparently a lot odder if you read them originally in the 40-50s. I'm also starting Heinlein's Assignment in Eternity which looking at it now appears to be compilation of a couple of his shorter stories in his Future History. It's been forever since I've read The Past Through Tomorrow/The Green Hills of Earth(which is the shorter version of Past Through) so remembering that setting may be a challenge even though really the only constant is Earth in the setting.

On a random less bookish note I'm really getting into NFL Street 2 and actually improving a bit being able to pull off style moves somewhat regularily as well as crush the opponents regularily. Nice way to relax after work. Not nearly as fun as my favorite way: sleeping. :D

Well gonna read a little then crash. PS: Hi Aprill Joy (maybe I can send some readers your way!)

Wii-porting

So I got to play the Nintendo Wii last night. Pretty dang fun. Really tempted to get one although probably not this year considering my other intended purchases plus I have to fix the iPod. Talk about a game system designed to reach out to non-gamers. Evie was borrowing her boyfriend's system while he was gone for a week and she and Amber were having more fun then me. Def. works you up into a sweat in competitive games (ie Wii sports Tennis and Boxing). Madden was something of a challenge mostly because a lot of common moves are now done by motion rather then button. Practice, practice, practice I guess. Anyhow if you get a chance go and play one, you'll enjoy it.

In other news: if I haven't said so before fantasy football turned out alright. In my 3 leagues I got a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finish so I did quite well. The Bears struggling at the end hurt me a lot. Also the Rams doing awesome the last two weeks knocked me out of one championship battle. Here's to next year!

Blink

Yea, some house cleaning happening here. Namely I switched to a new template (hopefully I managed to switch my Analytics stuff too) and cleaned up the links. You'll probably notice a ton of them are gone. You'll also probably notice that you weren't really reading (or likely evening checking) nearly all of those that dissapeared. I'm trying to reign the numbers back down a little bit and weeding out blogs that have been silent for a year or more. It's sad but the pruning needed to be done. Welcome to 2007!

Random Stats

In 2006 roughly 6400 visits and 10,000 pageviews occurred on this blog. Busiest month was February with roughly a 1/10 of visits and pageviews. December was the slowest. In fact the trend was pretty downwards all year. Guess I neglected my shameless advertising.

Down to the River to Pray

Let's see. News. Aside from work. Reading Good Omens it's pretty funny. I'd highly suggest it. Next up is Major Ingredients but might be a little bit depending on my schedule. I'll be getting to bed earlier with any luck (prolly 10ish most nights) so that cuts into my reading time. I am getting Rappan Athuk: Reloaded as a late Christmas present (ie using Christmas money). It's a big old box set of a dungeon crawl. It was either that or World's Largest Dungeon which was bigger but less highly quality and reviews. I am thinking that I may keep the focus of this thing more on books as it's maybe the most interesting thing I talk about and I do it regularily anyways.

I'm eagerly awaiting the return of college friends who are gone. It's just too quiet and lonely here otherwise.

:/

First days are always some of the hardest.

One Shot: Bastion of Broken Souls

It can be read about here. Time to sleep since work begins in less then 8 hours. Wish me luck!

2007

...has arrived. Happy and safe new year everyone.