Yarr!

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!  Avast me harties!  and shoven offen the mizmast!  Ahoy! or.. something.. yarr...

Yeah, thats enough of that...

But keepng in theme...  This company makes awesome miniatures.. Freebooter Miniatures.

I am going to be buying a bunch of their models to use in a new Warmachne army I am assembling.. (yes, its a pirate army) Using Fiona the Black as the warcaster from the Pirates of the Broken Coast expansion.  I am using different brands of models (some form Freebooter, Black Scorpion, and maybe some Reaper and Dark Sword minis) because its going to be an all female army.. with lots of interesting charatcers... and there are not enough females in Privateer's own mini line.  It will be a fun project... one I am looking forward to painting.   If I can procure a digital camera, I plan on documentig the assembly and painting progress of the whole army right here on this blog... maybe I can just borrow a camera every other weekend or so from someone.  Anyways, I have the army list planned out, its just a matter of procuring all the models (and shelling out the cash for them is the hard part), but it should be a really slick looking (and hopefully fun to play) army when its all said and done...an all female, evil, estrogen-laden, army of pirates! Put that in yer Crow's Nest and smoke it!  Me matey! Yarr! Walk the plizen plank! YoHo!

awww.. aren't they cute?

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&amp;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:af0e0dcd-5cff-43a2-bd32-4841fe6a89d1&amp;showPlaylist=true&amp;from=shared" target="_new" title="Avatars in the new Xbox experience">Video: Avatars in the new Xbox experience</a>

some music...

Haven't put a music post up in a while... so here goes.

Lately my music tatses have been pretty geeky and somewhat "retro" sounding... I have been really into music that reflects my gaming roots...  that being said I would suggest checking out the following bands.

Dealership.  I love this band... and Jane is a really great blogger and also has been a guest on one of my favorite podcasts (1up Yours) (I think I have a serious internet crush on her)   

Here are two videos of their songs.  Forest is an homage to Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.  The other song, All the Kids,  is just cool.

Forest

All the Kids

Jonathan Coulton.  His stuff is great... some times really funny, other times, sad.  He wrote a great some about the dog the Russians sent up into space long ago (the dog died btw), and a great song about Ikea.  He also wrote the Portal Song (Still Alive). There are a bunch of free songs available on his website.  His song Big Bad World One is my personal theme song.

Other recent discoveries..  

Man Factory:  They have an awesome album entirely about Street Fighter II!   Its awesome. And you can listen/download the entire thing for free off their MySpace page...

have i seen that man before

he's got the body of a matador

he reminds me of someone i once met in spain

Vega my conquistador

i am afraid, i'm afraid

why did you have to move all the way to spain?

i am afraid, i'm afraid

i'm all alone, all alone

i need you here at home

well i was waiting patiently

waiting just outside

when i heard a scream

coming from inside

daddy said "chun li, goodbye"

bison got away on a boat t'ward thailand

the captain of the boat had a scar and an eyepatch

yeah bison got away now his old life's erased

he never had to pay for murdering my dad

start the engine right away

pack my bags get on a plane

look out bison here i come

on a seven-fourty-seven 'til your day is done

And theres The Protomen.  An odd group that performs rock operas about Mega Man.. very high concept stuff.. their website is pretty awesome.

Other non-geeky relatd stuff.. I am currently listening to alot of Hem, I am Robot and Proud, The Ditty Bops, and Hera.   All good stuff, check them out.

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Unrealted to music...

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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. :)

Star Wars : The Clone Wars

Some people are excited about this, and some are not. I fall into the category of "excited".. I being a Star Wars fan of course.. am a little biased... This is an old post of mine on my old Star Wars Blog.. but it still holds true for my feelings regarding Star Wars.

This piece, taken from io9.com, will maybe help you others who are "on the fence" also fall into the "excited" category:

Of course you're nervous about the new Star Wars: Clone Wars movie, and the 100-episode Clone Wars TV series that will begin airing on Cartoon Network this fall. Maybe you feel a little burned by episodes I-III, or the idea of an animated series gives you burning visions of Jar Jar. But have no fear, young Padawans. We've carefully weighed all the evidence, watched all the clips, and studied the Clone Wars back story carefully by combing through the comic books and "expanded universe" novels. And we bring good news. Clone Wars is going to be awesome — here are ten reasons why.

1. Dooku vs. Palpatine
In the movies, the Sithy Separatist leader Count Dooku is in league with Palpatine (Darth Sidious), and there are very few hints that he's much more than a very competent henchman. But in fact, he has his own agenda and has a whole future planned for the Separatists, a group that includes most of the galaxy's free traders and techie types. Clone Wars will focus on how Dooku's Separatists push for their agenda against Palpatine's power-grabbing imperialists. I like the idea of free traders vs. fascists. It's an interesting clash, with our Jedi heroes right in the middle.

2. Female ninjas
No offense to Leia and Padme, but on the scale of princess to ninja they were pretty far to the princess end of things. In Clone Wars, we're going to get some seriously kickass female ninjas mixing it up with the Jedi Knights. Anakin's padawan Ahsoka is fearless and strong, and Obi Wan Kenobi will meet his nemesis, the powerful assassin Asajj Ventress.

3. Clone rights
At the heart of this series will be a biology vs. technology theme, with the Jedi-led clone army fighting the Separatist-led droid armies. Will biotech soldiers prove better than techtech ones? More important, though, is that we'll watch as the clones begin to overcome their programming and become individuals. Will there be clone rights? Clone romance? These are the kinds of weird questions that make me excited about this series.

4. Clone Wars is new-school YA fiction
Perhaps influenced by a new generation of YA fiction with more adult themes, Clone Wars will be aimed at young people but will shed the kiddie comic relief of the Star Wars movies. Instead of identifying with Jar Jar or C3P0, kids watching Clone Wars can put themselves in the boots of the brave, wisecracking Ahsoka.

5. The Jedi come in shades of grey
We've seen a few Jedi in the movies, and we know they can be either good Knights or evil Sith. But we haven't seen the full range of Jedi powers (many Jedi have unique powers that go beyond telekinesis), nor have we seen them when they stop being polite and start going badass on the battlefield. I'm excited to find out about Luminara's powers, and what Kit Fisto can do with all those tentacles. The point is, it's not just Sith vs. Jedi — it's the many shades of Jedi.

6. War dramas are instant win
While every episode of the Star Wars movies has dealt with a decisive battle or coup, none of the movies could be classified as a "war film" proper. They are epics, character studies, political melodramas, and space operas — but none has focused on the lives of soldiers and officers waging a several-year campaign. It's about time we learned about the lives of grunts in the army of the Republic, and got some good soldier banter going.

7. More droids
The Separatist forces are packed with trade associations and tech guilds, so they have the latest droids with all the most up-to-date service packs installed. Expect serious coolness in the droid department: Those rolling shielded guys from Attack of the Clones are just the beginning. The fact that the series is animated will only add to the awesomeness of these droids, who look best in a stylized, CGI environment anyway.

8. Dooku backstory
He was once a Jedi, and he semi-trained his assassin Ventress in the ways of the Dark Side even though she was never Jedi material. What other weirdness lurks in Dooku's past? Why did he turn to the Dark Side? Why did he start the Separatist rebellion in the first place? We've got 100 episodes to find out.

9. Anakin as ironic hero
Knowing what we do about how Anakin turns out, it's a strange and intriguing irony that he's going to be our hero in this series. Even as we see him being a good mentor to a sympathetic young woman (Ahsoka), we know he has a dark side — and we know that he's lying to the Jedi every day since his secret marriage to Padme. Anakin has acquired a lot of creepy depth during the Star Wars series, and the Clone Wars were probably the time in his life when he could have turned it all around and told the Dark Side to stick it. And yet we know he won't: That each act of kindness and bravery is going to go sour one day soon. That makes for a pretty dark war tale, and I'm down with it.

10. Second-generation Star Wars sensibility
Filoni and Winder have both been associated with contemporary game-changing animated series: Filoni with Avatar and Winder with Powerpuff Girls. If they can successfully infuse the sweep of the Star Wars universe with a contemporary burst of anime sensibility and good humor, Star Wars will reach a new generation. And reawaken the first generation's love for a franchise that once felt like the most amazing new thing any of us had ever seen.

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..