SAGAN

I have been a fan of Carl Sagan since I was in high school.  This is an utterly perfect example of why.

200th post!

So this is the big 2 0 0 and I am afraid I don't have much to post... but felt its been too long between real posts so obligation has dictated this meager attempt.  Work has been very busy the past month or so, and combine that with an incredibly awesome glut of good videogames recently...  not much free time.  I am way behind on getting models painted, and I have a very big adventure to write for later this month so the busy time will continue in and out of work.

Today is the two year anniversary of Gary Gygax's death.... hope everyone did something D&D-ish in his honor.

In case you haven't heard... A Game of Thrones... confirmed for a 10 episode run on HBO.  Should be on TV around this time next year.  Amazing news indeed.

I shall fill the rest of this post up with some lists..

Currently Reading:
Odd and the Frost Giants - by Neil Gaiman
Warmachine Prime MkII  - by Privateer Press


Recently Finished:
sadly...not much.

On Deck:
Princess of Landover - by Terry Brooks
D&D 4th Edition: Player's Handbook 3 - by WotC
Star Wars: Legacy - Dark Horse Comics

Currently Watching:
Legend of the Seeker: Season 2 - via Netflix on 360
Caprica -  via iTunes 
Robin Hood: Season 3 (BBC) - via DVD
Clone Wars: Season 2 - via iTunes
Spartacus - via Netflix on 360
Robot Chicken D&D vid-casts - via YouTube & WotC

Recently Finished:
Dollhouse: Season 2 - via iTunes

On Deck:
 Dr. Who: Season 5 - via ?

Currently Playing:
Dragon Age: Origins - 360
Street Fighter 4 - 360


Recently Finished:
Mass Effect 2 - 360
Bioshock 2 - 360

On Deck:
Final Fantasy 1 - iPod
Final Fantasy 2 - iPod
Final Fantasy 13 - 360
Bayonetta - 360 (Gamefly rental)

Currently Painting:
Pirates.. lots of em' - Warmachine
Shadowhorn Satyr - Hordes
Tharn Bloodweavers - Hordes

Recently finished:
.... nothing.  gah! nothing!

On Deck:
LOTS...Winterguard... more pirates... Retribution...

Currently Listening:
Inland Territory - Vienna Teng
This is the New Year - Ian Axel
Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 OSTs - various
Against the Night - Jason Webley

On Deck:
Evelyn Evelyn - Evelyn Evelyn

well...  thats it for post 200...

life recap - 2010

Well, lets see. The holiday's were the usual hectic mess they are apt to be. Had a good time going home to see my family. I got a GPS for my car, so no more getting lost for me... and this past Thursday I took a little bit of xmas money and my Christmas bonus from work and bought a nifty new TV. I picked up a 37" Vizio LCD 1080p HDTV. It is glorious. All my 360 games look so much better... and even Netflix has some streaming in HD and the Zune marketplace on Xbox Liove has HD video for download. I don't have cable, but its still so worth it. I got it for a really great price too. New Years was kind of boring.. it always puts me into a funk... but hopefully this TV will shake me out of it.

I have been greatly enjoying the swan song that is Dollhouse. There are only a few episodes left, and they are really going out with a bang! Its a great story of technology bringing about the apocalypse. (and it has two very beautiful actresses... Eliza Dushku and Dichen Lachman) Clone Wars took a holiday break, but new episodes of Season 2 are coming out now, and it continues to be a really enjoyable and well written show. Seriously, some of the best Star Wars in years is found in Clone Wars. Dollhouse will end just in time for Caprica to begin... a fair trade I think... though I still miss Battlestar Galactica. Other than that, my TV time is made up of Mythbusters and Legend of the Seeker. Doctor Who, which has become one of the best shows ever... just began its big change. The fabulous David Tennant ended his run at playing the Doctor... and this spring Season 5 starts with the new Doctor. David Tennant was so great in the role, I will miss him. But change is part of the show, and has been since the old days. I will give this new guy a fair chance. :)



I watch all of these shows on my computer, on DVD, or on my Xbox. Who needs cable when you have the internet?

The games of 2010 are about to hit... (well, actually most were delayed). I stopped playing Dragon Age a few weeks ago when I decided to buy this TV. Now that I have it, I'm about to jump back in. My goal is to finish it up before Mass Effect 2 hits later this month. I also just completed the Ghostbusters game.. which was fantastic! It stars all the original actors and it was written by them too. Very fun and really funny. Well worth the $20 I paid for it. (horray for GameFly!) Halo:ODST is also really great (now that I have a 360 capable of playing it) and is the best of the series by far. Afte Mass Effect.. the wait for Bioshock 2, Final Fantasy 13 and Super Street Fighter 4 begins... They announced some new info about Street Fighter.. there are new ultra combos for all the charatcers.. the big news? Chun Li's giant Kikosho (fireball) is back!



Coming up this weekend we have our first Pathfinder game of 2010. My cleric begins his levels of Rogue form here on out. Its a multi-class combo I have never played, so I am looking forward to see how it goes. The following weekend is our first 4th Ed game of the year. I still have some work to do on the adventure... they will be rooting out the last of the Kenku from their roost... I have been slowly expanding on my campaign world through Obsidian Portal (great site!). We will be playing this campaign (Earthynn) bi-monthly from here on out, though with less players than usual. It was becoming too difficult to get everyone together... so now we schedule the game with four of us who can reliably make it, and the other players can either show up, or not.


Work has been a bit hectic lately.. my boss purchased a new store, so has divided his time between the two... and one of our regular long time employees has left. So that leaves... me. (and the new guy) But it has not been as bad as I anticipated... and things are starting to settle into place. I guess its good for things to get shaken up once in a while.

lets see...

... whats new these days. Not too much actually.

Had an enjoyable Thanksgiving vacation (despite the 12 + hours of driving it entailed). Stayed with my sister and her family this time. Arrived late Wednesday night. The rest of the family came over for Turkey Day and we had a nice visit. My nieces are 100% teenage girls, but they are so much fun. Friday was a lazy day of relaxing. Just watched movies and played Wii with my niece all day (and ate lots of leftovers). Saturday I drove to Central PA to visit some family there. Got to see my grandmother, which was nice, I see her very rarely and she is the only grandparent I have left. Then that night some of my other friends that were in town (I was staying with Dave, my cousin and life-long friend and gaming buddy) so we got together for some war-gaming. The Hordes MkII rules were just released last week and we were anxious to try them out. Had some good games, and just a great time hanging out.

Despite having my Xbox back and working after the R.R.O.D. (actually they sent me a replacement xbox) I still haven't gotten back into Dragon Age. It just requires a large time investment and the time has been escaping me. I did get to play a little ODST (it actually works on the replacement xbox, yay!) and its easily the best of the Halo series. I borrowed it, and am looking forward to finishing it up.

I went to see Amanda Palmer in concert the week before the holiday. It was in a little club called the TLA (Theatre of Living Arts) on South Street. Went down to meet my friend Jason, then we took the subway over to South Street. neither of us had seen Amanda Palmer live before, and neither of us have ever been to this venue. It was quite small. The was maybe 300 people there, not crowded at all. The opening act was a band called Nervous Cabaret, and they actually came back on later and served as Amanda's back-up band. They were pretty good by themselves, and were really good as her band. Amanda was awesome, she really puts ona good show. She even did a "Ask Amanda" segment where she took questions from the crowd. She also gave away 20+ tickets to followers of her Twitter account. She was a great live performer, she even showed up in the balcony for her encore, playing the ukulele and singing right there with the audience. The below picture was taken with her and the band right after the show in Philly. If you have a chance to see her perform, don't pass it up.

There are also lots of YouTube videos of the concert... here's a couple good ones (including an awesome cover of the Ting Tings):

musings on a few things...

Life barrels on, as Mr. Folds says, "like a runaway train".. though my train seems to always travel to the same destination and only ever have one passenger.  But, I'm OK with that I guess.. things are going well.  Work has been pretty slow these last few months.. my boss actually laid off one of our employees.. (so we went from 4 to 3).  Hopefully things will pick up.  I am not worried about my job, its secure.. but its rough to see the business slowing.  This week brings about the end of two of my TV shows.. Battlestar Galactica airs its final episode this Friday.  I am expecting it to go out with a bang.  It has me saddened and excited.

Also, Friday is the season finale of Clone Wars. So that'll be over with until next fall I assume.  The last episode features a new character, a bounty hunter named Cad Bane.  He has a pseudo wild west style to him, and he is a Duro, one of my favorite Star Wars races... I am looking forward to seeing what he's like.   And it appears, that one of his lackeys is Aura Sing (a bounty hunter only glimpsed at in Episode I) so it should be a fun episode... this is one of the features of Clone Wars that I like... seeing some of these new or unknown characters get fleshed out some.

Dollhouse keeps getting more interesting... it could turn out to be a pretty good show.. but these first few episodes have struggled to really "find their place"... but the future looks bright.   Legend of the Seeker is still pretty good, the syndication schedule is kinda slow at times, with a couple weeks between episodes lately.. but it was confirmed that they picked it up for a second season.. so that's at least 13 more episodes once this season ends.  

Recently announced: Tori Amos has a new album due out in May.  So far one song has been heard "Welcome to England.  You can listen to it here.. for now... it may disappear.  Sounds reminiscent of Choirgirl Hotel and Scarlet's Walk... both good things.

And here s a better look at the album artwork.  Entitled "Abnormally Attracted to Sin"  I enjoyed both The Beekeeper and American Doll Posse, but neither really captivated me on an entire album level, each had their moments though.. hopefully this record will be more fully realized.

Getting caught up... (long post.. get a snack)

Lots of things have happened since I was away from the internet... Xbox Live got grown up, babies were born, quasits were encountered, games were played, holidays went by, and holidays approach... lets get caught up!

Basically things haven't really changed all that much.  Still living in one half of a partially remodelled house.  It took forever to get an internet connection, I was on the phone with ComCast many times.. but eventually just gave up.   So no cable TV, but I got a DSL line from the phone company, and so far its a pretty fast connection (I have only ever used cable modems before and wasn't sure if this was equal to it or not, seems to be though).  It was also really easy to setup.  I think I can even get an upgrade to the speed as well...

Was finally able to upgrade my Xbox to the New Xbox Experience (NXE) and I have to say I am impressed.  They really cleaned up the interface.  The avatars are kinda silly, but cool.  I was actually able to get mine to look like me, as did some of my friends... though Chaosturtle looks like a Mexican...   Some other features I really like are the "Install to Hard Drive" feature which lets you load a game onto the HD of the 360 instead of running it from the disc.  I speeds up load times, and keeps the 360 from making so much noise when it spins the disc.  A really nice feature.  And one of the best features is Netflix.  Being able to watch TV and movies from the Netflix library, streamed instantly to the 360 is awesome.  between the 360/Netflix and iTunes/Hulu.com on my computer.. I really have no need to cable TV.  Instead of paying money for a crapton of channels that I never watch, I can pay (or stream for free at times) only the shows I want to watch.   I have been playing a couple new XBLA games as well, mainly Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (long title) and its pretty awesome.. but I have to say.. Akuma is a fraking bitch.  I cannot fraking beat him... I spent (literally) an hour trying to defeat him today (mainly to get the achievement) and could not do it.. and this is on the EASY difficulty people.   I salute those of you who may be able to do it.  I also went online to play a few ranked matches... it plays soo much nicer online that the other Street Fighter did over Xbox Live... this one played buttery smooth.  Though I did not exactly play quite as smoothly... I went 4-4 for the day.. and I think I am ranked somewhere in the 28,000s... but there were some great matches.  I had an awesome match with Chun-li vs. Ken (in which I came back from a two round disadvantage, the ranked matches are all best of five rounds), and a real tough fight against M. Bison using E. Honda... good fun.  This should tide me over until Street Fighter 4 comes out.  Speaking of which... the special collector's edition of the game was announced...  I gave up buying these limited editions of games because after a while I realized that most of the stuff in the box/tin I never use.  That being said... Street Fighter 4 is all together different... and I already pre-ordered the Collector's edition. :)  (it comes with anime and action figures!)

 

I also bought Castle Crashers... which is a ton of fun.  Basically a re-done gauntlet.. hack-n-slasher... its very funny and has some awesome music.  Can't wait to try it co-op sometime...  I am still playing Fable 2 , which is simply fantastic.  I beat the game with my good aligned character, and have started again as an evil character.. though after you beat the game it doesn't stop, it just keeps going, there are still loads of things to do in the world... so I am playing both my characters at the moment... and I also bought one of the most original games I have played in a long time.. a game called Mirror's Edge.  Its hard to describe... its like an FPS, but without the guns.  And it is awesome.

Beyond getting caught up on my gaming.. I have been watching the Clone Wars episodes I was behind on... and man, there were some awesome episodes in there... one in particular called Cloak of Darkness, was just awesome.  It featured one of my favorite characters, Assaj Ventress, as well as, Luminara Unduli, a pretty cool jedi who had been featured (albeit very briefly) in Episode 2 (and in the original Clone Wars cartoon).  This exploration of only glimpsed at charcters (maoinly jedi) was one of the things I was most looking forward to.. hopefully more jedi are on the horizon.  I am still hoping Shaak Ti will make an appearance sometime in the series.  She was in the original Clone Wars cartoon, and is one of my favorite jedi.  I have always liked the design of her character.  

She was killed in one of the deleted scenes from Episode 3, but since it was a deleted scene it is not considered canon.  And then she turns up in The Force Unleashed videogame (which is canon) and she dies in there too... you actually kill her when you play, she is one of the bosses...  but these all happen after the Clone Wars.. so she can still show up in the cartoon... I hope. :)  (in an interesting aside.. Shaak Ti's name comes from the Hindu word shakti which means "sacred force or empowerment, is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that move through the entire universe. Shakti is the concept, or personification, of divine feminine creative power, sometimes referred to as The Great Divine Mother" --  from wikipedia).  Back on topic, the Clone Wars cartoon is good, very enjoyable, especially if you are an un-jaded Star Wars fan.  

The other show I have been downloading and watching is Legend of the Seeker.  Which really surprised me... because it is really good.  Very rarely do these fantasy 1-hour dramas ever turn out good on TV... but this one, so far, is excellent.  They, of course, mess with the plot from the book quite a bit... but once you get over that fact, you realize that the characters are very true to the way they were in the books.  I was very pleased with the actress playing Kahlan.. besides being gorgeous, she fits the role very well.  I was; however, not pleased with the gar.  Gars are one of the signature creatures of the Sword of Truth series... but man, it looked crappy in the show...  There are of course some staple issues that turn up in all these fanatsy shows that you just have to get used to... there always seems to be a snarky/goofy character that shows up in a bit part every once in a while, and there are alot of flat character actors filling in the villains... oh, and all the women in this world have perfect breasts (and all of their dresses are cut low in the front) unless they are playing an old woman.

On top of those two shows.. the only other things I watch with any regularit/importance are Mythbusters and BSG.  Holy frak BSG!!!  The final episodes of the show start next month... there are webisodes playing now at SciFi's website, prepping for the final epiodes... man I can't wait... easily the best show I have ever seen, I just love it.  The sci fi show to end them all.  (if the upcoming Star Wars live action show is even half as good as this... I will be happy)  SciFi Channel also just announced that they finally gave the green light to the BSG prequel series, called Caprica, which woll be cool.  I am not expecting it to be as good, but interesting none the less.  Who is the final cylon???  Starbuck? Roslin? Seelix? Gaeta? Who knows... I gave up trying to figure it out....

 You Will Know The Truth 

And if things go well.. the future holds some amazing TV... HBO has bought the rights and is making a pilot episode of A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin.  One of the best series of books I have ever read, one of my top favorites.. and a perfect show to be on HBO.. its gritty, dark, sexy, and at times quite brutal.  You couldn't do it on any other network...  seen Rome? seen Band of Brothers?  HBO makes damn good TV.  This is good news indeed.

Lets see... what else is going on...  played another game of DnD a few weeks ago.  We ended up stopping in the middle of a big fight (we were losing too), folks needed to go home, and we were already running late.  So our next session will pick up in the middle of that battle... we were fighting a particularly nasty quasit...   I am starting to get the hang of this cleric thing... kind of...  Coming up early next month my core gaming group will finally be able to get together to continue our Iron Kingdoms 4e campaign.. its been a while since we played it.. but I am looking forward to continuing the story.. of course that means I need to finish writing the adventure...  Did a bit of miniature gaming as well...  played some more Infinity and Warmachine (had a great first battle with my pirate army!).  And Infinity, I am finding, is awesome... a really intricate and stylized game... and amazing models (I can't wait to start painting mine, if only my painting list wasn't so gosh darn long!)...  couple of the guys in our group are building a space ship board for us to play on... it will be sweet.  And check out the Akira inspired bikes! (and they belong to my army!  yay!)

I will be going home for christmas , but only for a few days.  I went home for a almost a week over Thanksgiving, and it was simply too long.  I love my family dearly...  but I can only take them in short bursts...it would be nice if I could see them more often, but with a 6 hour drive home.. its just not possible.  I am glad I have close friends who live near by...  gives me someone to hang out with every once in a while...  (though when all my friends have families and I don't, it can , at times be difficult)  instead of just hiding away in my room...  it seems so much of the contact I have with other people is digital... don't get me wrong.. I am grateful for it.. communication has never been easier than it is in our age...  but I miss having lots of friend and interesting people around (college), and I miss regular gaming with friends (Columbus), and having family nearby (when I lived with my sis)... this is certainly the most stable my life has been since I left college... but its also the most solitary.  What does that say about me?

Lets see... musically I haven't done much.  I just bought the new album from I Am Robot and Proud.  An amazing peice of work... beuatiful music.  That guy does awesome stuff... one of my new favorites...  and I am in no way a "fan" of techno... I am a fan however, of good music.  If you heed anyones musical advice this year or next year.. HEED MINE.  Go and listen to I Am Robot and Proud!   Beyond that... I haven't gotten much music... Amanda Palmer's new album was great.  And I'd like to hear the new Ben Folds album, but haven't gotten it yet...

Chrsitmas also means my Chrsitmas bonus at work!  :)  I already have plans for it... lets just say I am tired of playing games in standard definiton... and 32 inches of HD gaming are on the horizon...  my pal Mike is searching the interwebs for me to find the best deals (he's the audio/video guru of our group)...

whew... I think that gets me caught up for now.... I can now return to regular sporadic posts, and short posts with trailers or YouTube videos in them...  :)

The Juice is Flowing!

So after several months with unreliable and slow internet, and a month or so of NO internet... I finally have a dedicated line to this archaic house and the cave of darkness I was dwelling in can be blasted away by the power of the interwebs...  I got a lot of stuff to get caught up on, and many blog posts should happen this weekend... I have lots of things on my computer to watch and listen to now at least, 4-5 episodes of Clone Wars, 6 episodes of Legend of the Seeker, and no less than 29 podcasts (anything from G4 videos, to radio shows -Car Talk and Wait Wait, The D6 Generation and D&D podcast, and my favorite 1up.com podcasts) and 4 credits to spend at audible.com on some audiobooks... sheesh...my computer will be downloading for days!  :)

Lots of posts (or maybe just one big one) to come shortly... but for now I leave you with these... after all, thats what the internet is for.. sharing weird and funny videos!

Real Life Update

So... not too much has happened that I would classify as "exciting" lately... 

Work has stayed consistently busy.. not overly so, but enough that my days are always occupied.  Had my three year review this past week and got a decent raise. (yay for monies!)  My boss is the best boss to work for.  He is very respectful and considerate toward his employees, and he takes care of them.  (afterall, he did buy me an Xbox 360 a couple years ago for my Christmas bonus...)  We extended our hours on Saturday which means my schedule got tweaked slightly.. Saturdays are still "short" days (done at 2 PM) but now I have to get up early to open at 8AM... mornings and me don't really get along.

My friend Jason has been working as a Press Ganger for awhile now... running tournaments and events for Warmachine/Hordes.  He runs that at a store over in New Jersey (he lives in Philly) and has been trying to get me to go over there for one of the tournaments (there was one today but I stayed home).  I'd love to get to play Warmachine more often, but I am not really keen on playing with folks whom I don't know and I also don't care to play it competitively... I play more for the cool models, the story, and the game itself...  and for me its all about playing with my friends... and yes, Jason would be there, but I also dislike driving into strange places.  This would be about 1.5 hour drive (one way) and it'd be through the city.  (and whats stranger than New Jersey?)  I have a hard time motivating myself for such a trip.  I am hoping my other local friend (Mike) would be able to go as well, so we'd could drive up together... that I could more easily get behind...  I feel bad missing Jason's events though.  Too bad he can't Press Gang for a store that is more local...

I spent today playing some Fable 2.  This game is really great.  The world (called Albion) is equal parts Harry Potter, Charles Dickens, and Legend of Zelda... sprinkle in some dry British wit... and you have yerself a grand world to explore.  The overall story is classic.. a young boy(or girl if you choose) with a troubled past who must rise up and become a hero and save the land... but the interesting part is how you do it.  I have spent hours not doing anything related to the main quest...(but the main quest is very cool) there are just so many things to occupy your time.  You can buy a shop and run a business, buy property and rent it out, or live in it and get married, have a kid.. you can work as a blacksmith, wood cutter, bounty hunter, archaeologist, and others... you can have bard sing tales of your adventures to raiser you renown... make the ladies in town swoon over you (and sometimes the men) and basically.. live the life of an adventurer in a beautiful fairy tale land.  You can be good and help the people, or be selfish, or despicably evil... Right now I am playing a good character... (I always start on the good side).. everything you do effects your character and how people in the game view you.. eat a lot of meat and pies?  You get fat... fall in combat often?  you get scars... do evil deeds?  the people hear about it and their opinion of you changes...  You also have a dog who follows you throughout the game.. and he is awesome. (I named mine Chewbacca)  he finds treasures for you, helps you fight in combat, and warns you of danger...you really grow attached to him after a while.  Overall the game is a great experience all around... the controls are solid and easy to use.. and its just plain fun.  I give it a 333 on the Karl scale. (that's a high score btw).  I think when I finish with this I will try to play through as an evil character, and will probably try the female character.. (i always seem to play the female characters as evil... wonder what that says about me...?  I did the same thing in KOTOR and Mass Effect)  With the huge deluge of games coming out this fall, choosing has been difficult... many will have to wait...  But I am glad I got Fable..  One of my favorite people on the internet, Miyuki Jane Pinckard, wrote a great post about her own Fable 2 experience... from a woman's perspective... its worth reading.

So for the rest of the day I will listen to some audio.. maybe a book, maybe a podcast or something.. and start packing up my stuff... I will moving into the other side of the house later this week.  I mentioned this house situation here and here... but now it will get more inconvenient... at least I will be in the permanent address.. and can hopefully get ComCast over here to hook up the cable/Internet... apparently the mailing address we have is not the address they have in their database.. but we think we figured out the proper address, so when I get moved over there I will call them again.  Cripes.. I am sick of moving.  (even if this time it's only next door)  If the house was going to be finished.. I'd be more excited,  however; pretty much the upstairs is all that will be done... so the downstairs will be a work zone for a few months.   By the end of this coming summer I am hoping to have enough money saved up to move into my own place...

Great episode of Clone Wars this past Friday (I'll put my review up later in the week, need to watch the episode again).... If I was still 10 years old there would nothing greater in this world than that show.  Even at 32 I find it highly enjoyable.  If you are a Star Wars fan, you should be watching.

Reconnecting with old friends is a great thing.  I recommend it.

Stuff and some junk...and some trailers...

So it has been overall.. a pretty crappy week. have not been in a real good mood of late and haven't been in a blogging mood. Sunday I went down to Philly with my pal Mike to visit our friends Jason and Josh. Stayed most of the day... went out to eat some Indian food, played a couple fun games of Warmachine/Hordes (won one and lost one) and when we went to leave we found that Mike's car had been broken into... window smashed, his GPS unit stolen.. it sucked. A crappy end to a good day. And the rest of this week has just been.. blah. I am still planning on writing up my reviews on the Clone Wars episodes.. I will end up being a week behind, since I have to wait for episodes to appear online from now on. (the show is good, I will say that much right now.. it also had the biggest ratings for any Cartoon Network show ever, so its target audience -kids - also really liked it).. anyways... the Tokyo Game Show is currently underway.. and lots of info is spilling forth on lots of upcoming games.. these two trailers made very very happy... the Street Fighter one is just a really cool trailer.. not really any new footage.. and the second.. well its a a new foray into a universe I love to play videogames in... Hurrah for Video Games! They make real life bearable! I am going to be putting together my character for our upcoming D&D game tonight/tomorrow.. so expect a post on that soon as well.

Street Fighter 4 'TGS 2008' trailer HD

Halo 3: Recon 'Debut' trailer HD

Labor Day

well... I am smack dab in the middle of Labor Day weekend, and so far, it has been pretty shitty. I had thought maybe I'd be able to go home and see my family... but I had to work Saturday, and driving home for only 2 days, when most of those would be driving back and forth, and the cost of gas.. have kept me here. All of my friends are away doing things with family, other friends have left the country, and I feel kinda lonely, kinda bored, and just in a bad mood. The fact that it is a long weekend.. just makes it worse.. I almost wish I could go to work just to get my mind occupied on something. Additionally, this weekend comes at the end of a general crappy week. Work has been tedious and slow... plenty of work to do, however; the work is composed of long boring projects that just make me tired... and this house I live in continues to be inconvenient and annoying. I still, after living here for 2 months, do not have reliable internet access or cable.. and soon I shall start complaining in earnest until it gets hooked up. I shall become the angry tenant. Add that to this boring weekend... and you end up with a lame holiday. (not that Labor Day is much of a holiday anyways..) I thought of going to the movies, and seeing Clone Wars again.. but that would mean going by myself, a thought I am not interested in. I am going to try and get some painting done.. I still have alot of miniatures to finish.. and maybe listen to some new audio books while I'm at it. That should take up most of one day... I'd like to play some new games on my Xbox 360.. lots of cool Arcade games have come out recently (GeoWars 2, Braid, Bionic Commando, Castle Crashers) but without reliable internet, downloading/buying them may not be possible. I can't even chat online with anyone...or catch up on my online comics because the internet will more than likely not stay connected...
________

You know.. sometimes you need a dose of reality.. something to get your mind clear and focused.. well, I got one. And it was kind of painful.. it did clear my mind.. And now I must spend the rest of weekend mulling it over. I guess I should be less of a dreamer and more of a realist... but I don't like the sound of that...
________

I am going away this coming weekend to State College (central PA), to spend some time with some of my friends... do some gaming... and hopefully get my mind off of all of this... but that's not gonna be until Friday... so its gonna be a long week...
____

This was written earlier in the weekend (a little Saturday night and a little Sunday morning) but crappy internet keeps it from being posted until now... stupid Comcast...

XKCD

one of my favorite webcomics... I love just going there and hitting random and seeing which one i get.. this was the last one I got.. and it made me laugh so much. (on a day when I really needed a good laugh too...)

http://xkcd.com/27/

Meat Cereals

GEN CON 2008

Well, GenCon 2008 has come and gone. A good time was had by all. Went there with our usual group plus 2 guests. Dave (Dork), Jason (Jerk), Mike (Moron), Rob (Reject), Karl (Karl), and Andres and Josh (two friends of Jason's, Andres is from Chile):)
Here's my day by day wrap-up...

__Wednesday__
Wednesday was travel day... we left central Pennsylvania late morning, and drove allll day. Made a stop in Columbus Ohio (my old stomping ground) for some yummy Hound Dogs Pizza (Pizza for the People!)... we also stopped there to visit our friend Jason's sister.. but you know.. the pizza is good. Then we set back off to Indy! Got there around 11:30PM.. walked around a bit after checking into the hotel, and hit the sack.

__Thursday__
Day one of the Con! We got up and headed over to the convention center and got in line for the exhibit hall to open. then, as is normal for us, we went right to the Privateer Press booth and got in line for the release of Warmachine:Legends! The line was... well... long. Don't believe me? Check out this from Table Top Gaming News:
(You can even see ME standing there in line, just as the camera begins to spin around. Stop it at 0:06)



Its a great expansion to the game.. and their booth was packed to capacity all weekend. Its great to see the company getting so much success since I got in on the ground floor. I had ordered the Khador started pack online before they even released their first book. It was a great game then, and is a fantastic game now. The usual GenCon cosplay was in effect, and these two lovely ladies made for quite the sight, dressed as two members of the Witch Coven of Garlghast (Cryx warcasters)
They also were running demos of their new CMG (collectible miniatures game) Monsterpocalypse. I'm not really into CMG's... but it looked cool. And they were running their painting competition as normal, and had on display an amazing diorama.. again, thanks to Table Top Gaming News for the footage:



After that we had a game scheduled. It was clled Conquest of the Star Lords.. a strategic board game. I have wanted to find a good space battle board game for awhile now, but haven't really found one I liked. This one was OK, but not great. It was still fun to play though. After that we had some dinner, and then headed over to the mini's hall for some Warmachine/Hordes of our own. I had a really epic battle against Dave's Trollblood army using my Morvahna the Autumnblade led Circle Orboros army in which I barely irked out a victory. (a complex web of spells and one lone Tharn Wolf Rider managed to get me the win...) We played until the un-told hour of 4 AM... and then arose for Day 2...

__Friday__
Day 2 was our busy day...we played a new minis game called AE-WWII. Its basically a alternate reality World War 2 game.. where occult ideas are taken to the extreme.. there were psychic troopers, monkey men, and robots fighting alongside or against some American GI's and para-troopers.... it had some cool minis.. and some interesting mechanics.. but overall it didn't excite me too much. I'm not much of a historical mini's guy.. even if it is alt-history...I played on the Allied side, and we managed to win the primary objective, but failed our secondary one. Was a good time none the less. A solid game, just not my cup of tea.

Later we played another new miniatures game called Pulp City.. a game of super heroes.. this one also had a cool game mechanic and nice miniatures, but the demo we played in had way too many people (16) who were all crowded around a small gaming table. The game, and several of the characters were pretty cool, but the demo soured my opinion of it. I played a superhero called Androida, who was a cyborg with super speed. Some of the miniatures were neat, others were just OK. The coolest thing about it was the rules allowed you to do just about anything.. throw cars, scale tall buildings.. that sort of thing. The super heroes they had for the game didn't impress me, its too bad the game doesn't have a create-your-own-hero feature...but I supposed that's not possible to do with a miniatures game (they would then need a sculpt your own miniature feature I guess)...


After that we rushed over to the movie theater to watch Star Wars:The Clone Wars! I had pre-bought our tickets on-line, but it wasn't very crowded. And I have to say, I really enjoyed it! It was action packed from start to finish, it had some cool characters (including Assaj Ventress (one of my favorite Star Wars characters) and some parts that were very funny. :) A very good film if you just want to go and have fun. And a great addition to the Star Wars mythos if you are a Star Wars fan like myself. And I loved the animation... a really cool style, and great execution... It really has me looking forward to the animated series starting this October...

After the movie it was getting late.. but this is GenCon! So we went back to the mini's hall and played some more Warmachine/Hordes until 3 Am...

__Saturday__
Saturday we had no games planned, so this was our day to scour the exhibit hall and spend some money. This was also the day the wore our t-shirt as is our GenCon tradition. s (Dork, Jerk, Moron, Reject, Karl) We received lots of great compliments on the shirts, and even had several people ask to take our picture. I had already spent a chink of money getting my Privateer Press stuff, the new Legends book, and some new models that just came out or were on pre-release. So there wasn't alot of stuff I was looking for.. however; as always, I grabbed a few things...

Went to Paizo's booth and grabbed our copy of the sequel to The Gamers, called The Gamers:Dorkness Rising. We had all been waiting for the sequel to come out for years.. and its quite funny, and has much higher production values than the first, lol. :) Here is the trailer... I also picked up a sweet t-shirt at some other random booth (it makes me smile even thinking about it..)

And then, un-planned, I bought into a brand new miniatures game. I wasn't intending to start this game at GenCon, but Jason had been talking to me about it for a while.. its called Infinity (their site is cool, check it out). Its a sci-fi game.. best described as the creators describe it...

Infinity is a game with 28mm high metal miniatures that simulates combat and special operations in a science fiction environment with Manga aesthetics. Infinity miniatures are characterized by the high quality and detail of their modeling, the dynamism of their postures, and their futuristic aesthetic.

The miniatures are really nice looking, and the gameplay is fast and intricate.. and the model count for each army is quite low (10 for a large army) so the cost is kept down.. I choose the Yu Jing army (see the minis here), the "asian" faction... I am planning on painting them in a cool anime-style, bright colors, pink hair, etc.. I am looking forward to the painting and the playing, since it will give me a very different style to paint (apart from steam-punk fantasy style I paint for Warmachine/Hordes). I have been wanting a real "hardcore" sci-fi miniatures game for some time now, and I have found it. :)

One of the more exiciting moments of this day was meeting Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew)! He was ther signing autographs all throughout the convention. A really nice guy, and he's HUGE, in the picture he is sitting down and he is almost as tall as me :)

And of course, Saturday evening we squeezed in some more Warmachine/Hordes playing... though we went back to the hotel earlier than before... Dave, Mike and I didn't want to go to bed, since going to sleep would bring the end of GenCon 2008 that much sooner... so we just went down to the hotel lobby to hang out and talk. Thats the best part of GenCon: spending time with my friends.

__Sunday__
Day 4 dawned.. and we had our only role-playing game of the Con to go to. It was a sesssion of Mutants and Masterminds. This is a super hero rpg using a modified D20 system. Its really a stand out porduct all around, if you want a sgood super heor game, this is it. Our game went OK, it was fun. the DM that ran it was not the best, the story wasn't superb, but we still had fun playing. I was playing a charatcer with Time Control abilites, whilst others had such powers similar to Sabertooth, some shadow walking abilites, a very Captain American type characters, ad some others... the heroes in general were not well put togetehr, I'd rather just make my own.. but it was nice to try out the system.

Then we headied back into the exhibit hall to pick up a few more things, take in some more of the atmosphere... and then we packed up and headed home. We stopped in Central, PA for the night (where Rob and Dave live) and Dave and I decided to stay up and watch the Gamers DVD. I didn't get all the way through it, got too tired.. and a loose bat flying around Dave's house got kind of distracting, and we had to cower in fear as it flew past us.. eventually we got the door open and it mae its way outside.. those a freaky little animals... but the next morning I we resumed out trek and got home around Noon monday....

All in all... a very good vacation, a very good Con, a very good time with my friends, and I look forward to it next year. :)

Someone may actually end up reading this thing... I better keep it up to date.

I currently have very complicated and inconvenient living arrangements... I live in one half of a duplex house here in Bechtelsville.. but the house is still under construction. For the first few weeks I actually had to walk outside and enter the other half of the duplex in order to use the shower.. thank goodness that is done. (That was damn annoying) But the dining room and kitchen of this side are still unfinished... so I have to spend my days walking around the cans of paint and piles of scrap and tools laying everywhere... I have no oven, just a microwave - and my refrigerator is in the dining room... and after several weeks, I still do not have reliable internet or cable, still have a ton of stuff unpacked and in boxes... and to top it all off... this is not even my final destination. The other half of the duplex (which is even more unfinished than this one) is where I am supposed to be living.. so when that side is finished (who knows how many months that will be) I will have to move again.. *sigh*.. I'd really like to be in a situation where I can finally feel "settled" and feel like I am finally "home"... I don't see that happening soon though..

Random Life Update!

Well.. life continues onward.. not stopping to ever let someone catch up and make some blog posts.. but here I am valiantly trying to keep up and catalog the happening of my life in digital text form.. probably unlikely to succeed, but I will have fun trying... I think...

So.. to get you all caught up.. over the summer I went home for about a month... I was living here in eastern PA with my sister, who then suddenly decided to move back home.. leaving me
kinda stuck. So I went home, got my learner's permit, learned to drive, bought a car, got my License, and (the same day I passed my drivers test) drove across the state of PA (well, kinda from the midway point) (did all that in about 4 weeks) - and now returned here to Eastern PA.. where I like it very much. I share a house with two other gents.. one and Accountant, the other a Park Ranger. They are nice guys, and one is very into video games like me (the accountant).. and we have a Two-360 household for it.

Work goes along fine.. we have been very busy... which is good for us... and we have the big store remodeling project in the next two weeks.. and it will be sooo nice to have the added room and work-flow problems fixed. And the additional computer for getting design work done... I am nearing my 2 year anniversary... which is crazy... seems like it wasn't that long ago I ws in Ohio playing DnD and working at a shitty Kinkos job... things have had their rocky spots out here (still trying to get my finances straightened out) but overall... it was the right move to make.

Have been playing alot more 360 and alot less WoW of late... I still enjoy WoW, but as of late the 360 has had the superior experiences.. Bioshock was amazing... and Halo 3 is a blast. (not to mention "the game" which comes out next month, hoorah!) Also looking forward to some awesome fighting action in Virtua Fighter 5, later this month...

We have a gaming weekend coming up, so I will have to buckle down and finish up my adventure for our IK group.. we play so little, and the gaps between our sessions makes it hard to keep a good focus on the characters.. but we still have a blast when we play. (which is whats really important...)

I am anxiously awaiting the TV return of BSG.. and November is the month (partly) There is a two-hour "movie" airing then called Razor (which will be frakkin awesome).. and then after that the looong wait until 2008 begins again for the final season (Season 4).. best damn show on TV...
I don't watch much else.. other than some Enterprise re-runs on sci-fi, Pain Killer Jane wasn't bad either... and Ninja Warrior on G4 is hilarious! I also watch Attack of the Show from time to time.. but only because I think Olivia Mun is great eye candy...(especially when wearing a Star Wars costume)

I do want to start blogging in my Star Wars blog again.. but thinking up a good post..is difficult... but I do miss that community.... some really smart and very cool people dwell there... and unlike here, people will actually read the blog, lol.

Quick Update

Well.. I am still kind of in a turmoil here. I am gonna try my hardest to remain here in my current location. I have seen a couple ads for apartments which I am gonna call this week. Also I am gonna start the annoying process of getting my transportaion situation straightened out. Gonna schedule the physical this week.. and then see where that leads... I am still stressed, but more hopeful than I was. So we'll see how things turn out.

Good Weekend, Bad News

So, I had a very great weekend. Got together with some good friends, stayed up way late viewing the wonders of my friend Mike's new Home Theatre. It was truly a wondrous site... he spent the past 3 years of his life building it, and it was awe-inspiring. It was better than viewing a movie in a theatre.. way better. Also played some Warmachine/Hordes Friday night and Sunday. Very cool battles, I got to try out several of the new models I had been wanting to use, and as always, it was a blast. But more importantly, we started our iron Kingdoms campaign finally! The adventure went very well, the players got really into their characters, and the story ran for, oh, about 10 hours. =D Haven't had that much fun in a long time.

Then I get home... and my sister springs some new on me that literally left me shaken.. she says they are moving back home to western PA... as of June 15th.. which leaves me with nowhere to live, no transportation... and no where near enough money to get an apartment.. literally, it leaves me nowhere. She had automatically assumed that I would quit my job, and move back with them.. which isn't gonna happen. I finally have a job that I really like, working for some great people, I love the area, it's near a good friend... and I do not want to start over... again. So, I have no idea what the hell I am gonna do... probably get an apartment, hopefully within a reasonable walking distance to work, and be right back where I was before I left Ohio... so a great weekend turned into a massive amount of stress... of course the family here is all happy, and excited to be moving back to their house and home...and now I am a complete wreck...

returning from the nether...

Hello everybody! (not that anyone actually reads this thing...but if you do, let me know)

So... I completely failed at keeping up with my New Year's post (see below) and have not updated anything! But, I am still here, and I do plan on keeping up with this more. I just need to find the right rhythm... and find some things to talk about. (which is always the problem with me... I guess I find my life too boring to talk about most of the time - not alot exciting happens to me here in Bally, ya' know?)

Things are going well. Work is as it has always been. We seem to be busier than we usually are, which makes the days go by faster. (and is , of course, good for the company...) I am still no where near where I need to be financially to get my own place.. but I am committed to moving in somewhere in the Fall. So that means not alot of spending... and alot of bill paying and saving. (neither of which I am good at) I will have to cut back on the Star Wars collectibles, I have some stuff pre-ordered... (stuff from SideShow and Gentle Giant) but I am gonna cut myself off after those. I will be grabbing up some more Hordes models, but I am almost finished with my army until the new expansion releases. So the rest of the cash will go to Mr. Credit Card and Mr. Bank Account and hopefully I will have enough by summer's end to make the move and purchase a vehicle.

GenCon throws another wrench... it costs money and comes at the end of the summer. But the trip is already partially paid-for; and I wouldn't miss GenCon for anything. This year's trip was a bit "up in the air" for a while. My dear friend Jason is currently living in Santiago, Chile. (The blog of his South American adventures can be found here) We were unsure if he would be able to make the trip, and much to our excitement, he will. Its also a blessing to us for without his organizational skills our trip would be a disaster =D And it will be good to see him again. We also have a 5th person joining us, a GenCon virgin, our pal Rob. (and my good WoW companion, Lokron).. not sure how that will impact the trip.. 2 cars? squeezing another into the hotel room?.. tricky things to plan out when you are trying to conserve money. But regardless, it will be a blast! (GenCon always is) The games, the atmosphere, the new stuff, and of course, the companionship, which is where the real fun of GenCon is found.

In local gaming news.. we will have our first Iron Kingdoms game next month.. I am very much looking forward to getting things rolling. This will be my first real time helming a 3rd Edition DnD game.. so here's hoping I don't let my players down, =/ I think it will be fun. I haven't been able to flex my role-playing muscles in a while, so I am ecstatic to get to play Dungeons and Dragons once again, even if it is infrequently. The story should be pretty cool. We have an interesting bunch of characters and hopefully my ideas will hold up and everyone will have fun. This campaign will feature the exploits of a Trollkin Fellcaller, a Nyss Scout, a Rynnish GunMage, and a Gobber Bodger (party roster subject to change at any time with out notice)

In WoW news.. Pondrepof the Orc Shaman has finally hit level 70! Yay! I have really enjoyed the new content in Outland, and the new spells are great.. the Earth/Fire Elemental Totems are very cool, and Bloodlust is the Bee's Knees. Now I am working on saving up the cash to get my flying mount, and then.. well... who knows. But 2 years later.. I am still having lots of fun with this game with no end in sight.

I also enjoy the wonders of the XBox 360 and the XBox Live Arcade. I love trying demos of the games, and have bought several.. including the fantastic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, widely regarded as the best in the series. It is a blast, and a total recall to the 2D adventure days.. a great buy at only $10 (or 800 Microsoft Points) And I am still addicted to Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved... my pitiful high score of about 130,000 mocks me everyday... and adding to my saving money woes... we have a ton of top tier games on the horizon... Mass Effect, Shadowrun, Bioshock, Halo 3, Virtua Fighter 5,... and I know there are a few more...

So, life continues ever onward.. I find myself, even though I live with family, often feeling lonely. Maybe it's the lack of like-minded friends being readily available, and combine that with the lack of romantic companionship, can make one feel lonely even in a crowd. Well, it makes me feel lonely anyways.. that whole bit may have not even made sense.. did it? I find myself making concertive efforts to check the finger of attractive women who come into our store, since 99% of the most attractive of them are married. Actually most of the time they come in with little children clinging to them, so checking their fingers for rings isn't required. But its all for naught.. even if I did find a pretty girl without a ring, what the hell am I gonna say while I am working? (and work is only time I really have any interaction with people outside my family) I guess I could wait until they leave, look up their number in our database and call them later...
"Hi , you don't know me, but you came into our store today and I thought you were cute and seemed like a nice person, and thought maybe we could get together some time.. eh? We have your name, address, and phone number saved in our computer here at the store, so I just looked it up after you left earlier today.. wasn't that pro-active of me?" and at that point I would hear the *click*... LOL, talk about borderline stalker... yeah, that's not a good idea. I have at times, thought about joining one of those online dating sites, you know, the high profile ones like eHarmony.com or Match.com.. but crap, they cost like $100 for membership.. geezus... I'm not that desperate... am I?

Si, I spend my time dabbling in WoW, playing 360, doing some reading (currently reading Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman), painting miniatures, trying vainly to organize my Star Wars collection (I have a Google Spreadsheet underway that will eventually catalog my whole collection), and working on the IK adventures... so pretty much entirely geek stuff. In other words, just being myself. I also listen to a surprising amount of podcasts... everything from videogames (look no further than 1Up Yours and The 1Up Show), to anime, to Star Wars (SWAN), and back again... thoroughly enjoyable and great for when you are painting miniatures. :) And I have been watching a couple TV shows, the wonderful epic Rome on HBO, and what could very well be one of my favorite TV shows ever, BSG. However, this week is the season finale of BSG and there won't be any new episodes till 2008! G'ah! What a horrible long wait!... thankfully iTunes has Firefly on tap, which will be my next show... as well as anime! (yes, anime on iTunes!) They have several new anime shows which look pretty cool (Gunslinger Girl, Speed Grapher) , so I will be checking those out as well.

Well.. that's a good long post to get me going again... I still plan on trying to put some stuff up on my 1Up page and get back to the Star Wars blog too... I will keep ya posted.

Obligatory New Years Post..

Haven't been around the ol' blog much. Sorry about that. But figured I start the new year off with the (everyone does one) New Year's Resolution Post! Woot! And in keeping with the intranets thing... number one is:

• More blogging. More blogging on my various blogs, Star Wars, IGN, here of course, and the resurrection of my ol' 1-Up Blog. I will of course cross-link the various posts here. I think I made this resolution last year... so maybe this year my blogging will increase to an actual steady level..instead of the sporadic mess it is now :P Maybe one post here on Blogger per week, and one post in each of the others on a monthly basis.. that seems do-able...
• Read More. There is a bunch of stuff I want to read and re-read. So I am going to try and set aside more time for just sitting and reading... I wanna read some stuff by Lisa Hearn, Naomi Novik, Robert Jordan, and re-read the Word/Void series by Terry Brooks and re-read The Sandman graphic novels...as well as keep up on my cu rent Terry Brooks and Neil Gaiman novels and stories... and let us hope George R.R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons will finally be released this year!
• Paint. This is in both the artistic and geeky sense (though the two are not mutually exclusive...). I want to do a lot more miniature painting and try and get caught up on painting my armies. I have two currently and really want to start a new one (Legion of Everblight) but if I start a new army before I finish the others... I'm never gonna have fully painted armies like I want. I am also lacking a good number of units still... so I need to invest in that. -- and I would like to start doing some *real* painting as well. It has been a long time since I set up an easel and put some color on a surface. I think I may need to start back with the basics and do some drawing, start filling up a sketchbook or two...
• Get Financial Matters in Order. Yeah, that's a boring one, but prolly the most important. Gonna get the debts paid off and start saving some cashola!
• Get other stuff. Just gonna lump all these together... but I suppose they all (in addition to the one above) could be lumped under the heading "Get Life In Order" title... they involve procuring transportation, a significant other, a home.. and such.
• Star Wars. Well, it doesn't seem like I am gonna make it to Celebration 4 in Los Angeles :( but I do plan on keeping up with the basic action figures.. but not go crazy.. spent a ton of money on Star Wars collecting last year.. need to tone it down a tad this year. I have some stuff pre-ordered but other than that.. I am sticking to basic action figures.
• Play WoW. Seems like a no brainer. I said it before and I will say it again. The best testament to this game's quality is the simple fact that I have been playing it for 2 years. That's 2 years of playing the same game... there has never been a game like that before. The only ones that come close are Phantasy Star Online, which was extended mainly due to the game being continually re-released on new systems, and Street Fighter 2/Alpha3, which even in its new forms, are essentially the same game. (but that could be debated) The upcoming Burning Crusade Expansion will just add fuel to the fire... I can't wait. For The Horde!!

Well, I think that about does it. I'll keep you updated on my progress.. :P

Just a few more days..

So all of my plans for buying an XBox 360 have been crushed... but in a good way! I had been about it to my boss at work, mentioning how I was gonna buy one and so on.. and just this past Wednesday he comes up to me and says "Hey Karl, in lieu of giving you a Christmas Bonus this year... how about I just buy you your XBox 360?" And I wasn't sure what to say, it was so unexpected.. but then of course I just said.. "Yeah! That'd be great!" So my boss ordered it up on Best Buy.com and I should be receiving it early this week! Hoorah! Now I can spend some of the money I was saving for the purchase to get a few games, and all the accessories I need, and the rest can go towards Christmas presents! (and starting my second Hordes faction :P) Talk about having one of the best employers...

You guys go enjoy your PS3's and Wii's... I'm gonna play on 360!

Happy Thanksgiving All!