Updates

I have three entirely unrelated updates. On the tooth front, Erik has now had a clean checkup. We still have no explanation for the 14 caret anomaly. I figure it's his overly saccharine personality.


On the D and D front, classic Dungeons and Dragons rocks. I haven't had so much fun as a GM in years. Like never before, I am firmly sold on simple rules and complex play. Of course, it is very much about the group, and so far I have a very enthusiastic, fab group.


On the MMORPG front, Auto Assault still roxors. I'm really starting to get the hang of my class. I'm not sure when the trial ends, but boy am I going to go into withdrawal.

I'll be there.

Well, in an ironic twist, I've worked out all the details for my trip to Fargo to see Bill. To bad Bill isn't going to be there. I'm not sure what the scoop is exactly, but the rumor I have is that he had some issue which meant he could only be there for 1 day of the convention, so the organizing committee asked him to come next year instead. And now I have to go next year.

I'm still going to go. Claudia Christian will be in attendance. And remember, "I will listen to Ivanova. Ivanova is god." Further, one of my all time favorite bit characters, the Lone Gunman Dean Haglund will also be there, apparently, which is cool. Dean actually hails from Oak Bank, so there.

Ah well, at least I have a passport.

Big People Stuff

I took a big step towards being a "big person" today. I applied for a Canadian Passport. With the upcoming closed border policy, and the apparent increase in security for re-entry, I decided it was time.

Admittedly a big step for someone who rarely travels. But now I can apply for visa's and go to exotic places. Assuming my wife and kids don't want to go with me that is, as none of them have passports.

I have to add, to their credit, the passport office is a very tidy operation. If you have your stuff together, it is possible to be in and out in 10 minutes. If you don't have your stuff together, well that hardly should be thought on. Good job, Passport Canada.

Arr...

I have been informed, mate, that today is yer talk like a pirate day. I should hasten to add, for you sea lawyers out there, that is not act like a pirate day.

Good luck mate, may Davey Jones pass you by.

And lay off the wenches...

Super (manky) Erik

Introducing Super Erik. A hero of immense power. And somewhat manky as he has not yet been potty trained...

Mad Max

This is now getting my vote as one of the most underrated games currently in play.
Auto Assault has been developed by the same house which brought you City of Heroes/City of Villains.

1UP is sponsoring a 14 day trial right now, so check it out. Warning though, you need gobs of time and hard drive space to download the client. I assure you that the play is worth the effort. Give it a go.

Now if only I had an extra 15 bucks a month. Well, WoW has to end eventually, doesn't it?

Pink Shirts

I had a "you know your old when" moment yesterday. On the way home from the bus, I passed by a murder of smart-alec teenagers (smart-alec teenagers being just like crows, as it were). I overhead one of them pass comment on my pink dress shirt.

Now at the time I had my most natural reaction, which of course was "If I was a smart-alec teenager I'm not sure I would pass comment out loud about an old guy's shirt. Especially of the old guy was twice my size. At least until he was out of ear shot. Probably."

And then it occurred to me, as I walked the remaining block or so to my abode, that much like most young people, he didn't really mean anything by it because he couldn't see past the pinkness of the shirt (which was obviously clashing with his vision of adult guy-ness). It occurred to me that it was very likely that the young fellow had not yet been in a serious relationship. He had most likely not had someone else, out of affection, buy him a pink shirt.

He would not then have worn his pink shirt, realizing that he had just become the target of every murder of smart-alec teenagers he walks past, to reciprocate that affection. And I smiled with satisfaction realizing that most likely someday, someone important to him would buy him a pink shirt. And then, it will not matter to him either.

Assuming he could keep his smart-alec remarks to himself long enough to get a date that is.

Blogging is dead?

Blogging is dead. That's what one of my online friends said in a newsletter of his recently. This was in conjunction to a rant of his about a blog he read. The deal is that the blog post, maintained by another local merchant, was nothing more than a wordy whinge about the local political economy (taxes and such).

Now first I want to spend some time defining my approach to this (this hearkens back to me ole DSUM days). By dead did he mean deceased? As in no longer extant, in this case, because of course blogging not technically having a life force was never alive in the literal sense. As in "Blogging is dead, long live the blog."

If that is what he means, I beg to differ. Blogging is on the up rise. More and more people have access to the tools, and time apparently, to jot down their thoughts and publish them for all the www to see. That being said, I don't think that's quite what he was driving at.

He may have meant "blogging is dead." I.E. "I'm gonna get you blogging." As amusing as that sounds, I find it difficult to believe that he is about to launch a one man campaign to end the evil that is blogging. Much as I would like to see the number of bloggers thinned or pruned, I really did not have something so permanent in mind.

Neither I think. I think what he meant was that, as the number of people blogging increases, the quality of blogs decreases, probably in some directly related proportion. So did news papers.

In the long term, the thing to watch for, I hope, is whether blogging goes the route of paper journalism or the route of TV. Paper journalism has over time evolved into several bands of quality, both measuring presentation and content. The consumer is forced to be shrewd with his choices on which kind of information to consume, but information dressed for all desires is generally available, and selectable. Television on the other hand, seems to continue to devolve, continually seeking a new, lower level.

This is what I think he was really driving at: as the quantity of blogging increases the quality of blogging decreases. The task becomes more and more like work to decide what to read and what not to read. After all, his parting comment on the subject is 100% true. There are no editors-in-chief for bloggers.

I should get me one of those...

Sidetracked

Ack. Well, it was shaping up. I have a small stack of the Star Wars mini's, and I acquired a few more. I want to build a skirmish level game around 35mm scale SciFi. I'll get back to it again. Maybe a solo game? I dunno yet.

I spent most of my design time this week chasing a World of Warcraft role playing game. Now to be ranked among my most disappointing purchases of the year. Maybe even longer. The World of Warcraft RPG is barely more than D&D 3.5 with pictures from WoW. Most disappointing for a project that could have been so much more. There is such a whole huge bin of really cool world there, and they totally wasted it.

I'll just build my own. Except that that's a MAJOR chore, for very little return.

See it's a solo game, based on the Space Hulk map tiles. You put pictures of the tiles on playing cards and shuffle a deck. Then you deal out a map. Your squad or hero has to get from one end to the other. Add a random timer and a flow chart for baddies and -boom- your rockin'.

Yes, I deliberately mashed those two thoughts together. That's just how I think sometimes.