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.

Break Update

Hokay, I should write something here before people assume I died in the snowstorm in Point. Alas I missed it completely by less then an hour. So not a white Christmas for us in La Crosse. Ah well, hopefully the snow will still be there in Point!

Anyhow Christmas wasn't too bad. Funniest gift: a measuring glass that also works as a shot glass. Talk about great for someone like me who isn't a good cook. After I botch the cooking I'll have a shot glass handy!

Other fun things: I got a big Foreman grill. Pretty exciting but I need more counter space to be able to use it. Maybe when I get a house?

Major haul comes from books. Dad and I went to Uncle Hugo's today. Yay for books (I'm a book nerd as alllllways). Got both of the Eric Frank Russell anthologies (Major Ingredients & Entities). Tolkien's: Silmarillion and the Tolkien Reader. Harvard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings-my Dad loves this book and it is pretty funny. The "boggies" (aka hobbits) immigirating to the Sty (er Shire er wait) under the guise of a band of iterent grave-robbers won me over. Gaiman & Pratchett's Good Omens finally returns to paperback so I got that as well. I also picked up a book copy of Chaositech for my Ptolus campaign and decided to check out Secrets of Zir'an which flopped cause it had some semi-illegible pages.

In addition I picked up a couple of Alternity books for Carl and the Werewolf core book for Dani (hopefully the right edition). That's all for now. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a good new year (I almost wrote "had a condition once", wonder what that meant.)

Home

Yay for home! Merry Christmas everyone!

And then there weren't many

The University is rather sad and lonely with everyone leaving...

Last Call

(Alternate title Beeks and the Deathly Hallows)

So I'm working my last work shift which is my last act as a student at University Wisconsin - Stevens Point. There's nothin' left after this. It's bit a strange. Doesn't help that the last couple days have been kinda gray and grim and internally I've been the same. Just some things left hanging that I've felt maybe I kinda screwed with my irrepressible timing ability.

Tomorrow barring bad weather ala Denver heading for home and Christmas. Still got wrap my presents (oops!). Home may be relatively busy visiting family and just running errands that need to be done there. Then back here for London reunion and work.

I'm done. It's strange. And good. And sad too. No more late nights :/

I forgot

So after I graduate I still gotta take finals. Hahahahaha...awe, I just made myself sad.

Ok it's not actually all that bad, I'm done tonight so it's not like things drag out the whole week. Then I've got a couple days to hang out with folks before everyone goes home. January is kinda a lonely quiet month (even more so since I am sans roommate) although work will probably fill things up more then I realize.

Speaking of, I'm not sure I can quite get my mind around that in a couple weeks I'll be working full time. Academically I understand what's goin' on but still kinda boggles the mind since in a lot of ways it's a totally new expierence (with the internship you knew that eventually you'd get a break, etc, etc).

Good luck on finals to everyone who still has them!

News

I graduated, now what?

Picking the below

Opening Credits: Cells (instrumental) - The Servant
Waking Up: Living Water - Ryan Farish
First Day At School: Cats in the Cradle - Bon Jovi
Falling In Love: Wounded Feet - Telecast
Breaking Up: Life is like a Boat - Rei Fu
1st date: Save Tonight - Eagle Eye Cherry
Prom: What Planet Is This? - The Seatbelts
Life's OK: Da Da Da - Trio *
Driving: The Courier - Randy Edelman (The Last of the Mohicans OST)
Flashback: Wind - Akeboshi
Getting Back Together: Golden Brown - The Stranglers
Wedding: Conquering Fools - OAR *
Birth of Child: Can't Take it In - Imogen Heap
Final Battle: The White Tree - Howard Shore (Return of the King OST)
Death Scene: Someone Said Goodbye - Enya
Funeral Song: Hurt - Johnny Cash
End Credits: Targetron - Nathan Lamont

Well there's my picks, not totally sure about all of them but think it'd be an interesting track. Got Twism to do it too!

Random Meme

So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question, type the song that's playing.
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button.
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool.

Here's Mine/Also done with top 500 songs

Opening Credits: Murron's Burial - Braveheart / Amnesia - Chumbawumba
Waking Up: Conquering Fools - OAR / Drops of Jupitor - Train
First Day At School: The Stone Table - Chronicles of Narnia OST / Cats in the Cradle - Bon Jovi
Falling In Love: Final Duel/Into the Death Star - Star Wars: Return of the Jedi OST / Strangers - Wolf's Rain OST
Breaking Up: O Tannebuam - Vince Garibaldi Trio / Like WOW! - Leslie Carter (Shrek OST)
1st date: Collide- SF Game Center - Seatbelts / Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) - Offspring
Prom: Christmas is Coming - Vince Garibaldi Trio / Clocks - Coldplay
Life's OK: Judas' Death - Jesus Christ Superstar / Wassail, Wassail -Mannheim Steamroller
Driving: A Fistful of Dollars - Futurama episode commentary / Rhythym Emotion - Gundam Wing OST
Flashback: Home with Me - Chumbawumba / Big Yellow Taxi - Counting Crows
Getting Back Together: Into the Blue - Moby / The Holly and the Ivy - Mannheim Steamroller
Wedding: Pain - StereoMud / Stumblin' - Powderfinger
Birth of Child: Hell or High Water - Tinsely Ellis / Circle of Life - The Lion King OST
Final Battle: Invoke 4 - Gundam SEED OST / The Throne Room/End Titles - Star Wars: A New Hope OST
Death Scene: Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby - O Brother Where Art Thou OST / Princes of the Universe - Queen
Funeral Song: Postcards from Italy - Beirut / No Other Way - Jack Johnson
End Credits: Alien: End Title - Jerry Goldsmith / Pinch Me - Barenaked Ladies

Conclusion: iTunes is not a good judge / Somewhat better judge when limited to songs I listen too (I have a day's worth of music I have never played even once)

Next up: what'd I'd play if I could pick (prolly sadder then letting iTunes randomly pick but I need something to do I am kinda nervous/bored)

"We have done the impossible and that makes us mighty." -Sqt. Mal Reynolds

That makes me smile.

Books rehash

Yay, they came! Now of course which one do I read? The various Exalted 2E books I'll prolly attack in little bits and pieces. Scroll of the Monk I may read mostly for the new martial art forms. Have to see what the differences are but I might convert them to 1E if I ever run that again. Probably tackle Driscoll's book once I finish purusing the Exalted books. Then onto The Impossible Country by Brian Hall. This actually is a precursor to the Yugoslav civil war so should be interesting. I had a hard time on Amazon finding any decently rated books on that war which somewhat surprised me. Maybe I am searching by the wrong keywords. *shrug*

Anywho, that is all.

Worldview

Interesting food for thought. Watching "X" and the opening credits show Earth from orbit. It's centered over Japan. It's easy to forget that our worldview naturally has the United States at the center or relatively close due to where we grew up. Still it's kinda odd thinking of South Africa being the center of the globe. Of course it's a globe so there is no real "center" persay.

Old Connections

Yay, reconnected with an old friend! Also beat Sketchfighter (and then proceeded to start playing in Hard mode). It looks like WDMD may turn out ok, I should pass at least. Still need to do put some time into it but might get this figured out. Yay. I graduate in a week and it's kinda strange. Suddenly I'll be done and then everything starts over again.

I don't actually much else to say at the moment. Yea, I'm deep I know...

The Obligatory 0214 Post

Well not much that actually obligates me to do this. Thought I would anyway.

So let's see, what have I been reading of late? Not much. I am in transition between books since I finished Battle for Moscow. I haven't really felt like picking up Wild at Heart although I intend to eventually. Not really feeling the deep, insightful read. So I am waiting for Amazon to deliver Mark Driscoll's Confessions of a Reformist Pastor which Al introduced me to and is hilarious. Seriously the guy is a ball of laughs and it was a pretty funny Chi Alpha where Al was quoting him although most of Al's messages usually have a laugh or two in them so good figure. Book seems fun and imfortative so that will probably get first dibs and be my Christmas break read. Next up because it'll come in the same package with be the book on the Yugoslav civil war. Can't remember the name. I got interested in the area after seeing about 1/3 or 1/2 of Harrison's Flowers (random side track, IMDB switched the website a bit and it's really weird!).

Hoping when I am at Uncle Hugo's that I can find the pair of Eric Frank Russell Anthologies that Dad has (entitled Major Ingredients and Entities Amazon tells/reminds me). They've been out a couple years so I suppose it is touch and go but I remember I really enjoying his works but never getting a chance to really read them because by the time they came out I was in college. Also the reason why I never finished the Pacific half (nor even started the Atlantic) of History of the United States Naval Operations in World War Two by Samuel Eliot Morison. Who did such a good job, by the way, chronicling the Navy in the Second World War that he got a ship named after him.

There you go. Tons of my reading thoughts. Honestly buying books (moreso RPGs) is my guilty pleasure. Next year I am gonna have to set a spending cap because this year I initially said I wouldn't buy anything past January (when Exalted finished up) and well I've spent a lot. Gotta save for the house :D

Final thoughts: Yeah Toast!

Interesting

Well surprise surprise, I can suddenly use Blogger Beta. They finally got around to porting the old gaurd in. Here's hoping to a smooth run.

I meant to post this yesterday since it was December 7th. Anyone remember?

As for me, yesterday was pretty good except for that I found myself rather overwhelmed by WDMD as he fully intends us to code the stuff in PHP and I have no clue. Thought others were in the same boat but doesn't look like it. I will have to sit down and work my butt off.

Got to chat with a couple friends that I normally don't get to talk much too (of course always hope that I can improve on that) and also plugged away at Sketchfighter, which will have to stop now til PHP is complete!

That's it for now.

That's Sketchy

Oh dear I've discovered a distraction! Probably not good for trying to focus on the confusing class that is WDMD. In the meantime I think i've made a misstep but I'm not sure.

Winter

Well winter may not officially be here yet but it certainly feels it all cold, blustery, and snowy. It looks like we're gonna get an inch or two of flurries that will take about 5 days to arrive. Guess I can't complain, everything is white. I'll try and toss up some photos for the 1 of you who doesn't live in the state of Wisconsin and is therefore seeing this first hand.

This week feels really busy but I think in perspective it's not really that bad at all. As long as I keep cracking at it I can stay on top of things and really with this history paper I am and these couple quizzes after this week the only class with assignments still will be WDMD.

Ptolus 1

For those who are interested results from first session of Ptolus are here.

And here the Word of the Lord...

Today was pretty busy. Ran Ptolus and it went pretty well. Geez, it can take a long time to get people up a level at the normal rate! I've got lots to learn about DMing. Then went and saw Scott's documentary. It was pretty good, can't see why it got banned! It was a little shorter then I thought but that was ok. I got a chance to go out and see the candlelight hike in Schmeekle. Have to admit I didn't expect much but dang that was pretty cool to do the trail by candlelight. Really creepy actually too, just a trail of torches in the dark. Cool!

Almost Over

Wow, I graduate in 16 days. I start work in little over a month. What happened to the time? In a sense life won't change a whole lot. I'll still be in Stevens Point and my friends will still all be here for the most part (except for those lucky people named Seth and Kat who are going overseas!) so the only radical shift is that I'll be working the 8-5 5 days a week. Maybe a tough shift initially doing the early morning thing but after that I'll prolly just adjust to a more normal life schedule. Isn't that a scary thought?

Anyhow I should get back to working on Ptolus stuff so that goes well Saturday. Things are getting busy leading up to finals so it's good I am just doing a starting shot and then waiting til after finals!

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