'tis the season for traveling

The plans are made and the car is almost packed. Or it will be after the Holiday Party tonight. Eunice and I are almost off (some might say way off) on our way home to visit family and friends.

EA gets exclusive NFL contract

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/12/13/news_6114977.html

As someone I work with said, "Hope you liked Madden 2005 because that’s all you’re getting!"

On one hand this doesn't affect me directly. I don't play most sports games. The closest I get is SSX 3, which I broke out again recently. If I were a player, my concern would be for the quality of the game. I mean, competition fosters better products, or at least that's the theory.

The Holiday Spirit

So there I was at the mall. I went into my local EBX to sell back a game I wasn't going to play any more and get Eunice a gift. As I expected, the store was packed. They did, however, have 3 people working registers and one or two more on the floor, which is a lot of the tiny space they have.

Having 3 people on the register seemed to be working, because there wasn't a line. I walked up and asked what I could get for my copy of Fable, and if they had any copies of The Sims 2 left (she already knows she's getting the Sims 2, so it's no big secret).

The guy I had helping me was wound up pretty tight. I don't' know what his problem was. Maybe he'd been working too long. Maybe his shoes were too tight. Or maybe he was just having a bad day. Whatever the reason, it was almost like watching John Cleese do Basil Faulty, only not funny.

Adventures in Driving part 2

I know I've ranted about how bad people drive around here, but I have to add one or two more things.

After Eunice and I left the Saturn dealership, we went to the mall.

Yeah, a trip to the mall two weeks before Christmas. It wasn't the brightest of ideas, but Eunice needed to do some shopping, and I had promised to take her.

On our way there I was sitting in a left turn lane, about halfway into the intersection at a green light, waiting to turn. I moved far enough into the intersection to let the guy behind me in as well, so he would also be able to turn on that signal. Apparently I was taking too long. Rather than lay on the horn, he gunned his engine and made the turn before I did.

Driving here terrifies me. I joke with Eunice about how at least 75% of the other drivers must be drunk, and how I can't blame them. Driving here makes me want to take up drinking.

The mall itself was less crowded than I thought it would be. Parking wasn't a big deal. We did have to wait about 20 minutes to have lunch at 1:30, but that was about the worst of it. Well, that and the line for Santa that happened to be where Eunice and I agreed to meet after shopping.

We headed back out to the car after we both picked up a few gifts. Traffic was heavy enough that I decided to go the long way around the mall, rather than attempt the left turn of doom(tm).

Just driving around the mall towards our nearest reasonable exit, we had one crazy woman turn right from the left hand lane, one crazy man turn in front of us without signaling (or waving), and we nearly came to a 4 way standstill because people need to try and cross several lanes of traffic when there obviously isn't room for them to do so.

It's not enough that the roads around here look like they were laid out by drunken apes. The apes apparently also teach people how to drive.

Vehicular Fortitude Part 2

We just got back from getting the car fixed (and a little holiday shopping, but that's a tale for a different entry).

It wasn't as bad as it could have been.

I went in expecting to pay over $1000 to fix the windows, including parts and labor. They offered us an experiment. The correct way to fix the car was to fork over $1k and have them install 2 new window motor assemblies. The motors themselves were fine. It was the plastic guides that broke, but for the model of car I drive, Saturn doesn't make just the plastic guide.

It turns out that the plastic guide for my car is sufficiently similar to the plastic guide for a different model, which can be ordered. So, for about $450 they installed 2 new plastic guides. So far the windows work fine. Of course, the motors may die tomorrow, but that's the risk we were willing to take.

So, Saturn gets a big thumbs up this time around for going the extra mile.

There was also one small problem.

When we got our car back, we noticed several new scratches on both doors. So, I grabbed the guy we'd been talking to and complained. Not a lot of complaints mind you, because he had saved me $500, but still, I don't expect the car to be damaged when I get it back from being repaired.

Anyway, I'm taking the car back in this week and the guy we talked to promised to get someone to try and do something about the new scratches.

All in all, it was a good experience. I wish the car hadn't been scratched up, but really, I can't complain too much.

The tinkering has started

In celebration of my early rise this morning I fiddled with the template for the blog. I successfully figured out how to put up a links section.

ph34r m3

Of course, any minute now this blog will come crashing down around my ears. The servers will actually be on fire, no doubt.

Up and at 'em!

For the past month I've been tired. I've overslept my alarm more than once, fortunately never by much. Last week when we had to take the car in at oh-dark-early I asked Eunice to make sure she set her alarm, just in case I overslept on mine. I'll ask her to do that tomorrow too.

But this morning?

This morning I was up and wide awake at 5:15. No sleeping in to a luxurious 7 a.m. here, no sir!

Oh well. I'm sure I'll pay for this early morning burst of energy later today.

Vehicular Fortitude

I like my Saturn. It's fun to drive.

Lately, my Saturn hasn't liked me.

First, there was the 60000 mile checkup. That one was expensive. During the checkup they found a problem with the rear brakes. I could either fix the problem then or wait. Waiting could cost exponentially more money. So, I bit the bullet and fixed the car, to the tune of $850 for the checkup and brake work.

The next week, on the way to see Ellie the Service Engine light came on.

I waited for Thanksgiving to pass. Ellie visited. That was nice.

While she was visiting the passenger side window got off the track. We managed to get it back on track and haven't moved it since.

So, last weekend I took the car in at oh-dark-early to get the service engine light and the passenger side window both fixed. I had to replace a sensor on the tail pipe. $250. The window requires a new part. Once the clip goes, you have to replace the motor.

$450 for the part. That doesn't include labor.

So off we went for breakfast. After breakfast the service engine light came back on. Less than an hour after we left the dealership. So, back to the dealership we went.

They looked at the car for 2 hours. They couldn't get the light to come back on.

Sigh.

So, Monday morning bright and early I go to take Eunice to school. Eunice decided she wanted some tasty McDonald's goodness for breakfast, so we hit the drive through. I rolled the drivers side window down, and it collapsed.

The drivers side window clip broke.

We managed to get the window back in place, but I have to have both window parts replaced this weekend.

$2000 in repairs in 4 weeks.

Sigh.

Whoah

Whoah

Rumor Mill

I don't know if this memo is real or not.

I do know that it wouldn't stop me from looking for a new job if I was working the kind of hours that have been discussed in various forums.

I also know that software management doesn't necessarily need to be a black art.

There are books on the subject. Books written by smart, experienced people. There are those in the software business that "get it." At least one is even in the gaming industry.

Adventures in Driving

This place terrifies me on a daily basis.

People here can't drive. Actually, they just don't drive well. Ok, they're maniacs.

Coming from the west, traffic through Pennsylvania is sane, even nice. People are courteous, for the most part. Then you hit Maryland and everyone turns crazy. The craziness continues down into Virginia. I can only imagine what DC is like. In my mind's eye I see blind clowns driving unicycle into monkeys, who then get mad and throw poo everywhere.

Maybe I need to have my mind's eye checked.

Some of the worst drivers have the largest vehicles. It's like having an SUV or ginormous pickup truck gives you the right to drive anywhere at any time.

Just this weekend I had someone in a through lane stop and try to backup to the end of the turning lane to try and turn. People run stop lights and stop signs all the time. I had one coworker advise me to just change lanes when necessary --don't signal, otherwise the other drivers will never let you in.

And did I mention the hysteria that happens when it snows? The entire area shuts down. Three inches of snow and the sky must be falling.

What really amazes me is the police presence. Every day I drive Eunice to school I see at least one police car or motorcycle, usually more. I'm not terribly good at spotting the unmarked cars --I'm sure there are several of those. Yet with all this police presence, the driving is still awful.

I'm reminded of our old Doberman, Spock. Spock was huge, even for a dobie. He eventually discovered that he could vault over our 4 foot tall fence without any real trouble.

We tried to break him of this habit in a number of ways. We actually got a special collar that would give him a little shock whenever we pressed a button. The idea being that we would shock Spock when he did something bad, like stand on or jump over the fence. The downfall of this plan was that it required constant supervision.

Naturally, all this collar taught Spock was that he shouldn't stand on or jump over the fence while we were watching.

It's practically December!

Another Turkey Day has come and gone, which means it's practically December. A new month brings a new set of plans and resolutions. We have Christmas shopping to do, a holiday visit to plan, holiday cards to write, and all manner of other holiday craziness.

Thanksgiving itself was great. My sister came down from the frigid north (the wilds of Massachusetts) to visit, and brought her little black dog with her. My buddy Steve made an awesome turkey. Eunice went all out with the side dishes. Me? I got to do the dishes :). Believe me, there were a lot of dishes.

My personal goals for the month of December include finishing my review of Peopleware, reading through Mystic Secrets, planning for an Arcana Unearthed / Arcana Evolved campaign, and, budget willing, buy and read through The Book of Iron Might.

Oh yeah, I should also read through The Complete Book of Eldritch Might again. Looking at it, this seems like a lot of reading, especially with the holidays coming up, and a Eunice to entertain. I probably won't get it all done. The important thing to do is finish Mystic Secrets and work on a new AU game.

I'd really like to start running a game again in either January or February. I'm going to either set up a blog or a wiki for the campaign --preferably a wiki, but I have to figure out how to get one installed and working. Of course, there's the minor problem of finding people to game with too. I'm hoping I can get the last group of people I had back together, but the last time I tried, they were all either busy or out of town indefinitely. I may be hunting for players again soon.

Anyway, the list of things to definitely get done:
1. Everything Holiday related.
2. Finish the review of Peopleware
3. Finish reading Mystic Secrets
4. Plan for a new AU game

This month is going to be packed.

Back to news about bad business

The New York Times ran a story (online at least) about how bad working in the game industry is. You can find it here.

EA isn't saying much due to the impending lawsuit. What they do say amounts to "Everybody does it" and, "Hey, writing games is hard!" They also mention that they'd like to increase the percentage of new hires directly out of college from the 10% it is at now to 75%. They also say that overall voluntary turnover is at 10%, which leads me to believe that not all EA studios are so painful.

I will point out that there are multiple books on Software Management and Software Engineering that all point out why Death Marches are bad and how you can avoid them, or just how you can make yourself more productive and write less bugs in the first place. This is one thing that really gets to me. People write books about software development. Good books. It's not like some game development company is facing problems that have not yet been seen by mortal eyes.

This isn't rocket science, it's game development.

Another thing about the play

It had a soundtrack. It's an interesting idea. They have a composer who does original music for some of the plays. He did music for Galileo, and I think it really added to the performance. There were one or two flubs where the music was too loud, but I think that was just someone missing sound cues. Overall I think the soundtrack added a lot to the performance without getting in the way.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the next play they're doing.

Weekend Adventure

Eunice and I went to see my sister this weekend up in Massachusetts (well, the part of Massachusetts that is actually Connecticut).

The drive up was... Exciting. Sort of. Exciting in the way that only a 7 hour drive stretched into 12 hours can be. Where did the extra 5 hours and 100 miles come in you ask? Well, it's like this...

I wanted to avoid the George Washington Bridge. Desperately. I have this healthy fear of driving in New York. I went in by bus once. The sheer amount of traffic was terrifying, just as a passenger. So, I wanted very much to avoid the George Washington Bridge and anything relating to Downtown Manhattan.

In my first attempt to avoid the GWB, I took 287, and was going to follow that around. About 15 miles into it we realized that the branch of 287 we were on was going to take us through the middle of New York State, and we were probably on it far earlier than my sister had recommended. We decided this with about an hour and a half of discussion at a McDonald's. So, we turned around and went back to the Jersey Turnpike.

I don't like New Jersey. Really, who does? Driving through it on the turnpike in mid November is not a good way to see it. The weather was grey. The trees were hibernating and looked dead. New Jersey itself as some unpleasant smells that waft into the car as you zoom through it. My opinion of New Jersey has not changed.

So we were off to the Jersey Turnpike, looking for the New York Throughway. We stopped at the last rest stop on the pike to once again try and figure out how we were going to avoid the GWB. Eunice and I must have looked pathetic staring at the map in the rest stop, because 3 different people stopped to try and help us out. One recommended we turn around and go back to the New Jersey Parkway (which I'm sure is the wrong name) and go up to the Tappan Zee bridge. Another told us we didn't have to turn around, but if we were going to the Tappan Zee we'd be better off just going to the GWB, because at that hour both were exceptionally busy.

The second kind helper offered us a different route. We could go north, up 87/287, to 84 and go east from there. He assured us that though it was a longer route it would be faster, as I-95 (and the Tappan Zee) were going to have crazy amounts of traffic, all the way up through Hartford. The third kind helper was a trucker, and he confirmed the second person's story. So, off to 87/287 we went.

Did I mention that it was 6 p.m.? Dead center, rush hour, New York City.

Actually, the trip went remarkably well after we got off the New Jersey Turnpike. We later figured out that the trip north and east added about 60 miles and about an hour and a half of drive time to our journey, because there was some construction.

The extra time and mileage came from trying to figure out where we were going, and making some wrong turns. We arrived about 11:30, safe, sound, and tired.

The trip back wasn't nearly as painful. It only took us 8 hours to get home, using our newly-learned "shortcut" to bypass New York. We stopped once for lunch in the Hated New Jersey. New Jersey Turnpike food sucks more than food you get from rest areas anywhere else I've been. Yet another strike against Jersey. We stopped a couple more times to stretch, but never for very long. So we managed to keep the return trip to about 8 hours.

Traffic wasn't too bad until we hit Baltimore, at which point it turned insane and stayed that way until we got home. We think there was a Ravens game, and we hit the return traffic.

All the driving pain was worth it, though.

We got to see my sister and the play she worked on. She is a professor, teaching at a college in southern Massachusetts. She runs the costume and prop shop, with the help of some students. They put on one big play per semester. The students involved in the play enroll in a few different courses in order to get academic credit for working on it. Some enroll in the acting class, while others enroll in the prop/scene class. It's a pretty nice deal, though it is a lot of work.

They did Bertolt Brecht's Life of Galileo (though I don't remember which translation they used). It was excellent. I thought all the actors did a great job. The costumes and set were, of course, wonderful. I know I'm biased, but I think that my sister does excellent work.

I think the play has an interesting application to our time as well. In it, Galileo uses a telescope for observing the stars. He finds that the Earth revolves around the sun, and that the sun is at the center of the universe. Further, the planets and other stars are not set into big crystal spheres, which was the accepted view at the time. In announcing his discovery he is condemned as a heretic by the church, and ultimately recants late in life. After that he is placed under house arrest and not allowed to do any more research.

My favorite scene is one where Galileo is trying to convince other scholars that there are 4 stars that orbit Jupiter. They refuse to believe it. He asks them to simply look through the telescope. They quote Aristotle. It goes back and forth like this until they leave. They never do look.

I found myself watching the play and thinking about the presidential election and recent events. It seems to me we have the old guard who wants us to believe what they say, but not what we see. And by the popular vote, there seem to be a lot of people who refuse to look with their own eyes and see what's out there.

Anyway, I'll stop before I go ranting.

Sadly, I never did get to see the goats my sister told me about. Apparently someone near her has goats in their back yard. I was naturally terrified by this news.

Visiting with my sister was great. The play was very good. The drive was not so good. Overall this weekend get 5 stars for visiting and 2.5 stars for adventurous travel.

Another EA story

A former EA-Maxis employee speaks out here.

ea_spouse

I found this article on the web today. It's important enough that I want to link to it here now. I'll comment on it later.

It's all about how working for that particular EA studio pretty much sucks. You put in insane hours. You sign your life over to them. And if you don't like it, there are 10000 people standing in line to take your place.

Anyway, it's a good article and you should read it.

City of Heroes sued?

Eunice and I play the online game City of Heroes quite a bit. It's a lot of fun to play together. For one thing, you always know you'll be in a good group.

Anyway, City of Heroes lets players design their own superheroes from the ground up using Archetypes. As with any MMOG, some segment of the population will think it's kewl to play some known character. You end up with a lot of creative spellings of known names. Of course now that I've written that I can't remember any, other than the T1ck.

CoH has a fantastic costume creator. It allows players to build a character with a very unique look. In my opinion this is one of the things that CoH did right.

So what do you get with a bunch of gamers and an amazing costume creator? There are some very creative people out there, and not all of them use their talents for good. As I said above, there is also a segment of the population that just wants to play as their favorite superhero. Marvel has a sued over an online game, it's the first time I know of that another major company is involved.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, or even if it will go to court.

New Hair!

Eunice posted pictures of my new look here. The look has faded somewhat since then. I get compliments almost every day. It's been fun, and I'll probably do it again, though next time I'll probably go with a different color.

The Incredibles!

I just got back from seeing The Incredibles. I'm not going to post any spoilers, but I will say the movie is awesome. I think it's even worth seeing at full price. So what are you waiting for? Go see it!

Ah, the bad old days

This strip reminds me of when I played Magic The Gathering. It pretty well sums up what tournaments are like.

Interesting voting tidbits

It's no big surprise that technology isn't as foolproof as we want to believe it is. I mean, I write software for a living --I know how hard this stuff is to do.

Also, it's good to know that we're not the only ones who are saddened by the election results.

Sadness

I'm sure everyone knows by now Kerry ceded the election to Bush.

I swear, Canada just keeps looking better and better.

My Civic Duty

Well, I voted.

I had to stand in line for 2.5 hours, but I voted. That's the longest time I've ever had to wait. I have to wonder if it's the area, or if the presidential election just brings out everybody. I shudder to think what the wait is going to be like this evening. I imagine a lot of people will wait until they get off work to go.

I also started reading Peopleware. It looks like it'll be a pretty fast read. I'm only on the 4th chapter, but once I'm finished I'll post a review, as well as the reasons why I shouldn't be reading books on software project management.

EDIT: The new look didn't generate too much fuss at the polling place. Maybe it was because all the poll workers were so overwhelmed. It did almost get me a closer spot in line.

Time to vote

My new look did generate some comments at work and elsewhere. Most were surprised. Some didn't notice. I got a little bit of teasing, but I expected that. Eunice and I took pictures, and we'll get those posted soon.

I have to wonder how the new look will go down at the voting booth. Will I be asked for my voters registration card (for the first time --ever)? We'll see soon.

Wildebeasts!

Last Tuesday morning was a little crazy.

First Eunice and I tried to find Lincare in order to get some parts for my CPAP machine. It was an adventure. We first ended up in a civil engineering firm. When we finally got there, the tech we were supposed to speak with was still with another client. In the end I came out with a lot of new machine parts, including a mask (expensive!) and a rental machine. The old machine is being worked on. I was concerned because without the CPAP machine I can't really sleep. I mean, stopping breathing 63 times in an hour is about as fun and restful as it sounds.

And Heroic Snoring really isn't that heroic. It won't save you in case of fire, for example. It will wake up the neighbors though. Maybe they could save you from the fire. Or more likely start it because they can't sleep. Heroic snoring, for those who are confused, is sort of like having a herd of Wildebeasts running through your house. Noisy ones.

After the adventures at Lincare we went to drop off Eunice's transcripts at George Mason University. I figured this was going to be awful. I imagined a nightmare of impossible parking and archaic regulations. It was surprisingly easy. We found a parking place immediately, found the office we needed, and turned in the transcripts without a hitch. We were in and out in about half an hour.

I was shocked. Where was the academic red tape? Where were the snipers in those ivory towers? Why didn't we need 74 signatures on 11-teen different pieces of paper from a variety of departments, some of which don't exist? Now that I've had a chance to think about it, I think it's a plot. They're suckering us in. I mean, Eunice hasn't been admitted yet. She's not in their system yet, and that affords her some freedom.

Or maybe they're different.

Only time will tell.

Changes on the horizon

I'm in the middle of writing a big update for last week, but something is happening that I have to at least hint at.

Changes are coming.

I just wish I had a "before" shot.

ALL HAIL THE RAT BRAIN!

I for one welcome the rat brain as a glorious and no doubt wise and caring leader. I will be the first to carry it's young in my teeth.


Edit: For the curious, I found an article that covers the rat brain in more detail.

...Tomorrow The World!

Eunice and I went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival last weekend. We had a good time. The weather was very nice and for the most part the acts were good. We got to see a group of crazy Canadians called Men in Tights perform what we think was an improvised play, called Denis The Menace Of Venice. I've decided that Canadians are Crazy. And I think I might want to be one when I grow up.

We also got to see Hack and Slash's Ale Extravaganza (or something like that --it involved a lot of drinking). They were pretty funny, though the stage combat needed some work. Of course, it was the last show of the day and they might have been a bit tipsy by then, so actively trying not to kill each other was probably a good thing.

We also ate some good stuff. My two favorites were the Steak on a Steak and Deep Fried cheese's. If you know me, you know my theory about food. That is, anything on a stick is better. Also, deep frying makes everything better. Cheesecake is food of the Gods --ambrosia. So, if you take cheesecake, deep fry it, and put it on a stick, that must naturally be the best thing on the planet. Best. Food. Ever.

There was also the terrifying Macaroni and Cheese on a Stick. But I'll let Eunice talk about that one. The drawing made it look... unappetising.

We also went and had our runes cast (I'm not sure if that's the right phrase). We went to a fortune teller and she had us pick Norse runes out of a bag in order to divine our future. According to the runes, Eunice and I have a lot of positives around us. We should work together on something that involves lots of people.

I'm thinking we should start our own cult.

Jon Stewart Rocks

Right now I'm watching a RealOne version of Jon Stewart's interview on Crossfire. It's pretty obvious that the crossfire guys just don't get what Jon's trying to say.

I think I'm going to have to start watching the Daily Show now.

Edit: here's the clip.

World Wide D&D Game Day --the results

Well, Eunice and I played "The Lair of the Mad Alchemist" at our FLGS for game day. Overall we had a good time.

First, we were late getting out the door and to the store. We were running about 15 minutes behind schedule. When we finally got to the store, the woman working there told us that Wizards of the Coast had originally told them that the adventure we were in was for 6 people. Instead it was for 4. But, if we wanted to wait for about an hour we could still play.

So, we browsed for a bit. We bought a copy of the card game Kung Fu Samurai on Giant Robot Island and played a hand of that while we waited. It was pretty fun. It's a game where you use your cards to make a b-movie. There are several sets, including Grave Robbers From Outer Space and Cannibal Pygmies In The Jungle of Doom, and they're all compatible with each other. Eunice's movie had a host of characters, including an honorable samurai in transformable power armor, an anime school girl and a concubine (among others --she really had a horde), while mine had an ancient master, a perverted teenager with powerful innate ability, and his Uzi-toting kung fu mother. Wackiness insued.

We finally got to play D&D, and had to rope some 13 year old girl into playing with us so we had 3 players. She regaled us with tales of her Ninja Tielfling and other role playing stories (I'm sure all us gamers went through that phase).

Anyway, the GM was better than the one we had for the RPGA event, and frankly I think the adventure was better too. We were still on rails, but I expected that, given that it was really intended for folks who'd never played the game before. Overall both Eunice and I had fun, and it made me realize how much I miss good gaming.

I really gotta get an AU game going again.

Tomorrow Eunice and I are off to the Maryland Ren Faire. It should be fun.

The RPGA

So tomorrow is Worldwide D&D Game Day. As I said previously, I signed Eunice and myself up for a session at our Friendly Local Gaming Store (FLGS). I hope the experience will be better than when we played at an RPGA event at that same store.

Don't get me wrong, the store itself is pretty cool. And I'm sure there are a lot of people who dearly love the RPGA. From my experience, it was like a bad convention game. There were no real choices to be made throughout the adventure.

Our problems started early, before the adventure began. When we got there we found out that some of the GMs had canceled, including ours, and more people had showed up unexpectedly. Event organizers were scrambling to get everyone into a game, and I commend them for that. Eunice, myself, and my friend Steve got put into a game with at least 10 people. The GM they got hadn't yet read the adventure when we started playing. And did I mention that the adventure was for 5th level characters? Not the first level guys we played.

So it starts out with the party in a city in the desert. The city is under attack by swarms of giant insects. I'm not talking 3 or 4 --I'm talking several thousand. And the insects sort of disintegrate people. So, we're standing around trying to figure out how not to die when we conveniently notice that the only place not being swarmed is the Evil Temple.

Our options:
1. Stay and die
2. Flee to the Evil Temple

Oddly enough, we went with option 1. I have to say at this point I wanted to charge the bugs. I could see the plot train and I was pretty sure I didn't want to get on it. So off we flee to the Evil Temple.

At the Evil Temple we confront the Evil Priest (EP). EP says he knows a way out, and he can come with us if we agree to escort and protect him and his Miserable Slave Peon (MSP).

Our options:
1. Beat up the EP
2. Agree to his demands
3. Take our chances with the swarm.

I was all for option 1. We went with option 2. The party spent the night hanging out with the MSP and watching the bug swarm eat people and buildings, and anything that wasn't part of the Evil Temple.

The next day we flee mightily with the EP and the MSP. I forget what happened on the trip, but I want to say it mostly consisted of, "Take 16 damage, roll a reflex save for half." I lived, barely.

So we get the EP and MSP where they want to go, which naturally is a some kind of underground structure guarded by animated statues. Hilarity ensues, yet we manage to beat up the guardians. I spend most of my time cowering in corner trying to become one with the wall, yet not paste.

Then, as we explore the underground structure we get the big plot twist. The MSP is really the EP, and the EP is really the MSP! And the real EP now has a necklace of fireballs. Which he uses to blast the party. I make my save but die anyway. W00T!!!!one1!!!

I don't remember much about the fight with the REP (Real Evil Priest), but it came down to the REP threatening with another missile (which would kill the rest of the party if he used it), and one player being conflicted about whether or not he should let the REP put us all out of our misery or try and save everyone's life by killing the REP. I thought it would end in a real fist fight.

In the end the DM fudged things and didn't kill off the whole party. He then went and let the survivors go on to the bonus encounter.

All in all I would rather have had surgery.

To be fair, the DM did fill in at the last minute, and was trying to deal with an adventure he hadn't read yet.

The end result was still not fun.

The whole thing left me with a bad impression of the RPGA. In protest I started an Arcana Unearthed game. Everyone involved had a good time.

Anyway, I'm thinking that after our experience tomorrow I will be more motivated to start the AU game up again. Sadly, it'll have to be with some different folks because half the players are unavailable. At some point I do intend to get my own story hour summary of the campaign up on my page.

Anyway, world wide D&D game day. At the very least I hope to get cool 30th anniversary D&D swag.

I'm sure that given the right people it can be a lot of fun. I often say the same thing about gaming. Given the right people any game can be fun.

Another birthday shout-out

Not only is it my buddy Aaron's birthday, it's also my buddy Chris'.

As I said in my last post, Aaron is an awesome guy who I don't see or talk to nearly enough (which is mostly my fault --I'm bad about keeping in touch, thus the whole blog thing).

Chris is also great. He's one of my best friends here. Oddly enough, I don't spend nearly enough time hanging out with him either... Perhaps there's a pattern here.

Mixed Feelings

So a buddy of mine sent me this link:
http://www.liquidgeneration.com/quiz/moviehero_quiz.asp
Apparantly I'm neo.

While one on hand I think it's cool, on the other I'm disappointed. I really liked the first matrix movie. It had that whole "belief turns into reality" theme, which I like. Not to mention the over-the-top action, and stuff blowing up.

On the other hand it's Keanu Reeves. Bleh.

The first time I saw the Matrix I was working for Tiburon, trying to get Madden Football 2000 out the door. We had just finished a milestone. Like most milestones, it was bad. It was filled with late nights and disturbing realizations, like the reason traffic isn't so bad is that you're driving home at 3 in the morning. Our producer, Scott, decided we needed a break after we hit our milestone. So, he arranged an "offsite meeting." I don't think we even told management.

So, one friday Scott had us leave the office for our offsite meeting. We were going to see some movie called "The Matrix," which I hadn't even seen any previews for. The title rolled and pretty soon I was watching Trinity, Neo, Morpheus and the rest of the team warp reality and generally whup up on bad guys. It was a level of awesome I had only glimpsed at in Hong Kong action movies. And the best part was that it was on work time.

In other news, I'm considering starting a second blog, focused on the more technical side of my life --programming, game development, that sort of thing.

Finally, I'd like to wish my buddy Aaron a happy birthday. He and his wife Jen and their baby Adara are all wonderful people, and I don't get to see them nearly enough. Heck, I have yet to see little Adara in person.

Rome: Total War!

So this afternoon I rekindled my interest in strategy games. Now, I love a good turn based strategy game. Sadly, it's been a while since I played a good one (Master of Orion 3 certainly wasn't it). After talking a bit with another friend of mine, I'm right now trying to download Rome: Total War.

My goal is of course to use the fabled Incendiary Pigs on everything.

Yes, that's a real unit. It's how you counter elephants. I don't know about you, but if I were a soldier and some other side sent pigs after me --pigs that were ON FIRE, I'd be... concerned. Or hungry for ham. Either way my mind wouldn't be on the battle.

My only concern with this is that if I get involved in yet another game my grand plans for gaming and self improvement will be postponed yet again.

I think there's only one way out of this. I need to start using Macs at home. Macs have almost no games. Thus, no temptation. Win!

World Wide D&D Game Day!

So it turns out that next Saturday is World Wide D&D Game Day. My FLGS is holding 2 events. I just signed Eunice and I up for the beginning one. Hopefully this will go over better than the time we went to an RPGA event. If nothing else it will serve as further motivation for me to start up my campaign again.

I really have to get some kind of good gaming going.

Time to go live

Well, Eunice announced the web site to her friends and family, so I suppose it's time to announce it to my friends too. I'd best be updating this regularly or there will be... trouble :).

Eunice and I caught part of the presidential debate on TV last night. I have to say first that we're both very biased. We're voting for Kerry, no question about it. Actually, we were going to vote for Dean, based solely on the "Dean Scream." I mean, we want somebody with that kind of enthusiasm representing us. Sadly, most of America didn't agree.

So anyway, we're voting for Kerry. We both thought Kerry won the debate last night hands down. It looked like Kerry was in his element. He was relaxed. He had done his research. It looked like he faltered once, trying to think of various medical conditions that could be cured by stem cell research. I thought he even gave the right answer on abortion. He's against it personally, but he doesn't think he should legislate his own religious beliefs.

Bush on the other hand looked like he was mad. All the time. The angrier he got the more he blinked. It was pretty funny. A few times he didn't wait for the moderator to tell him to go. Once he didn't let the moderator ask him a question, he just charged ahead with his rebuttal. Bush didn't come off looking good.

The one thing I really wanted was someone to ask a question about same sex marriage. Sadly, it didn't happen. Perhaps in the next debate.

Slayers!

Last night Eunice and I finished watching the first Slayers series. I love it because it lampoons high fantasy and, well, stuff blows up a lot. In fact, if Lina doesn't let something have it with the mega-spell Dragon Slave at least every other episode, I'm disappointed. So far I haven't been.

The first Slayers series chronicles the adventures of Sorcery Genius Lina Inverse and her dumb-as-a-brick companion Gourry. The wackiness ensues pretty quickly. The animation quaulity is only so-so, and the english voice actors are terrible. This is definately one to watch with subtitles. Overall the characters are likeable, the plot is entertaining, and stuff blows up a lot. You really can't ask for more than that.

Now we get to start on the next set, appropriately named Slayers: Next.

Planet Houston, are you receiving?

Well, I've decided to join some of my friends and stride boldy forward into the late 90's and start my own blog. We'll see how this little venture turns out.

For my inaugural post, I feel I have to mention Shaun of the Dead. Eunice and I got to see it Saturday. It rocked. Gotta love those wacky brits.