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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 8:46:00 PM
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BODY:
Looks like the market can only support one major online RPG PDF distributor.
(IndiePressRevolution, while super cool, isn't yet "major", I think. Or at least that seems to be one of their goals.)
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 8:21:00 PM
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BODY:
Top Five Ways for Kory J. Heath to make money now that online gambling is illegal according to the US Senate:
5. Take job offer from Blizzard, change World of Warcraft to include less fighting and more Buddha Nature.
4. High Class Escort for Pirate Wenches
3. High Class Escort for Pirate Captains
2. Sell condition that causes him to not gain weight to highest bidder with an eating disorder, is then cured of condition and has money to buy food.
1. Design wargames and monopoly variants for Hasbro.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 7:49:00 PM
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BODY:
NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO
(my comics e-tailer is in that distribution zone)
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 6:46:00 PM
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BODY:
Today should be XTC Day.
"25 of Oct, that's when you're going to be mine..."
(Post #901!)
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 11:10:37 AM
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BODY:
Woah, a REAL reason for me to want to go to Essen:
"- A giant, working game of Loopin’ Louie."
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 10:35:00 PM
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BODY:
John Hodgman was very funny. David Rees opened and had the audience travel backwards in time via pill. Then John Hodgman came on stage, accompanied by his writerly theme song, which all writers get (or so he says.) He also talked a lot about Hobos. Then followed the Q&A, where he answered questions via walkie-talkie (leading to many dropped "OVER" laughs.) The first question complimented him on being in the Mac ads, then got him to talk about Scientology. Next question was mine, "Did you do anything to prepare for your part playing a Deranged Millionaire, like acquiring a lot of money?" He said, basically, no, he just managed being a Deranged Thousandaire, and that for all his spots he really just plays himself, and he looks forward to further chances to play himself.
Anyway, hilarious stuff, and I bought his book, got him to sign it, and got him to sign my Venue Songs. He noted that a Dan was missing from the signatures on it, and asked what was going on. I said "I dunno, you probably talk to them more often than I do!" And he implied that he doesn't really talk to them, which is a shame. But overall, a great time. Worth not finishing my midterm and having to do it late tonight (my professor who gave the take home midterm was there too!)
Does this mean, by default, I'm a Mac?
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 1:30:00 AM
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BODY:
For whatever reason, this was barely advertised:
MFA Reading Series: John Hodgman & Friends
October 23, 2006
Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Student Center 5th Floor Multipurpose Room
A reading and performance by three brilliantly funny and talented
artists--John Hodgman, resident expert on The Daily Show, contributor
to The New York Times Magazine, and author of the best selling The
Areas of My Expertise; Jonathan Coulton, musical director of the
Little Gray Books Series; and David Rees, creator of the comic strip,
Get Your War On, and author of My New Fighting Technique is
Unstoppable.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 1:10:00 AM
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BODY:
Your Mom: Rated "E" for Everyone
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 7:52:00 PM
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BODY:
In the Second Scroll of Wen the Eternally Surprised a story is written concerning one day when the apprentice Clodpool, in a rebellious mood, approached Wen and spake thusly:
'Master, what is the difference between a humanistic, monastic system of belief in which wisdom is sought by means of an apparently nonsensical system of questions and answers, and a lot of mystic gibberish made up on the spur of the moment?'
Wen considered this for some time, and at last said: 'A fish!'
And Clodpool went away, satisfied.
--Terry Pratchett, "The Thief of Time"
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 1:49:00 PM
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BODY:
Last night, when coming home from work on Route 1 away from the University of Maryland towards I-95, I was behind a school bus. It was the back of a caravan of school buses, and the bus in the back (bus 203) was filled with college students. In the back, stacked over seat-height, was cases of cheap beer.
The only explanation I can think of is that the students were going somewhere and UMD has a very lax alcohol policy. No other scenario makes sense to me...
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 7:11:40 PM
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BODY:
A reporter attends Hardcore Day, but isn't hardcore
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 5:54:00 PM
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BODY:
Things to write when I have the time:
Tetris: The Movie. A construction worker must use a crane to drop odd shaped boxes into place to compete for the champsionship or risk never getting to see his kids again.
Snakes on a Plane in the Future: Like Airplane 2 to Airplane 1. Opening a window might not work this time! "I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking starship!"
Chalker & Twigg's THUNDERBOLTS (for Marvel Comics): Galactus, Loki, Apocalypse, Zombie Captain America, and Thanos. They'd mainly fight Wolverine (and sometimes Spiderman.)
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 7:10:00 PM
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BODY:
You are a four-sided die, a d4. Otherwise known as a tetrahedron, a "Caltrop", or (to a lesser degree) "Ol' Pointy". This crap bores you, so I'll get to the point. Others tend to see you as petty, conniving, manipulative, argumentative, defensive, greedy, and needlessly antagonistic. You see yourself as focused, effective, efficient, influencing, shrewd, tactical, and direct. Both points of view are in fact correct. You always know the best way to get things done, a fact that never wins sympathy with others. Whenever you manage to gain control of a situation, your solutions are swift and brutal. Unfortunately everyone else is convinced that granting you such power is, "a bad thing" and often conspire to keep it out of your hands. Such short-sighted fools!
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 6:16:00 PM
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BODY:
| Your Ultimate Roleplaying Purity Score | ||
| Category | Your Score | Average |
| Hacklust | 34.91% Has conversations in between massacres | 53.5% |
| Sensitive Roleplaying | 32.91% All the game's your stage | 54.7% |
| GM Experience | 29.71% Closer to a novel than to a campaign | 69.5% |
| Systems Knowledge | 77.82% Local rules guru | 90.4% |
| Livin' La Vida Dorka | 21.84% Carries dice in pocket 'just in case' | 63.4% |
| You are 42.64% pure Average Score: 68.9% | ||
You say I'm okay for a guy But I can tell that you are lying And we've almost figured out how we'll get along And given time we'll find it strange to be alone and You just forgot your one pet name for me And all those promises you said you'd keep And it's a lucky thing Because that sentimental stuff doesn't You just forgot your one pet name for me And all those promises you said you'd keep And it's a lucky thing Because that sentimental stuff Doesn't suit you At all-------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:17:00 PM ----- BODY: Hello Radio is out. I bought it on iTunes because I couldn't wait for it to be shipped to me, but I will eventually buy the hard copy too. It Must Be Mine! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:22:00 AM ----- BODY: Holy crap, do they ever sleep? They Might Be Giants are doing the music for a Neil Gaiman movie. While perusing YouTube, I found a clip from the concert I had to miss because of Danny's wedding/Origins that said that they were working on their next album with the Dust Brothers. Then I found This Might Be a Wiki.Then from there, I found out a tribute album to TMBG was coming out... with bands I've heard of and like! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:37:00 PM ----- BODY: BLITZMASTER Hit Die: d8. Requirements To qualify to become a Blitzmaster, a character must fulfill all the following criteria. Base Attack Bonus: +6. Skills: 9 Ranks of Concentration Special: Must possess Flurry of Blows and Wholeness of Body class abilities. Class Skills The Blitzmaster’s skill list is the same as the Monk’s. Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier. Table: The Blitzmaster Level BaseAttackBonus FortSave RefSave WillSave Special 1st +0 +2 +2 +2 Pummel, Monk Abilities, Blitzes 2nd +1 +3 +3 +3 Aura Bolt 3rd +2 +3 +3 +3 Suplex 4th +3 +4 +4 +4 Fire Dance 5th +3 +4 +4 +4 Mantra 6th +4 +5 +5 +5 Air Blade 7th +5 +5 +5 +5 Spiraler 8th +6 +6 +6 +6 Bum Rush 9th +6 +6 +6 +6 Tiger Break 10th +7 +7 +7 +7 Duncan’s Meditation Class Features All of the following are Class Features of the Blitzmaster prestige class. Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Blitzmaster gains Armor Proficiency (Muscle Shirt) Blitzes (Su): Blitzmasters possesses a number of special attacks gained by focusing Ki known as “Blitzes.” In order to perform a Blitz, the Blitzmaster makes a Concentration check versus the DC listed. If the check succeeds, the Blitz performs as described in the class ability. If it fails, the Blitzmaster wastes that action, and can take no further actions that round. Blitzes cannot be performed outside of combat. Monk Abilities: Blitzmaster levels stack with Monk levels for purposes of AC bonus, movement, and unarmed damage. A Monk may freely multiclass with a Blitzmaster. Pummel (Ex): When making a Flurry of Blows attack, the Blitzmaster may make a Blitz check DC 15. The Blitzmaster halves the penalty for Flurry of Blows (from -2 to -1 per attack.) Aura Bolt (Sp): By making a DC 20 Concentration check, the Blitzmaster may cast the Lightning Bolt spell as if a caster of his Blitzmaster level. Suplex (Ex): When making a grapple check, the Blitzmaster may make a Blitz check DC 20. The Blitzmaster is treated as two sizes larger for the purposes of the grapple check. Fire Dance (Sp): By making a Blitz check DC 25, you cast the Fire Storm spell as if you were a caster of ½ your Blitzmaster level. Mantra (Su): When using the Wholeness of Body ability, the Blitzmaster may make a DC 25 Blitz check. Instead of healing the Blitzmaster, it heals all allies within 30 feet. Air Blade (Sp): By making a DC 30 Blitz check, the Blitzmaster casts the Cyclonic Blast spell with the Metamagic feat Sculpt Spell (Cone) as if he were a caster equal to his Blitzmaster level. Spiraler (Sp): By making a DC 30 Blitz check, the Blitzmaster casts the Mass Heal spell as if cast by a caster of one half the Blitzmaster’s character level. (The Blitzmaster may not target himself in the spell.) The Blitzmaster then drops to -1 hit points and cannot be heal by any means short of a Wish spell until the end of the encounter. Bum Rush (Ex): When making a Flurry of Blows attack, the Blitzmaster may make a DC 35 Blitz check to Bum Rus instead. A Bum Rush is identical to a Flurry of Blows except it is an attack action instead of a full-round action, and makes two additional attacks (at the normal penalty) instead of just one. Tiger Break (Ex): Whenever the Blitzmaster makes a melee attack, and is at 1/20 of his maximum hit points, he makes a Blitz check DC 40. All melee attacks he makes are treated as critical threats (if applicable.) Duncan’s Meditation (Su): Starting at 10th level, the Blitzmaster can no longer die of old age. If he does not have another special ability preventing it, he still accrues aging penalties. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:47:00 PM ----- BODY: Anyone else think it's really stupid of Digg to now require logging in? If they wanted to be the next Slashdot they just blew it. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:34:00 PM ----- BODY: me: I killed your old D&D character off this Saturday. Kelvey's too Toby: YOU COCKSUCKER -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:57:00 AM ----- BODY: Futurama Trailer for An Inconvenient Truth Funny trailer, and pretty good movie, unfortunately the comments leave a really sour taste in my mouth as the internet often does... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:54:00 AM ----- BODY: You know you've really got a song stuck in your head when... You not only have a dream with the song in it, it also contains the music video. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:12:00 AM ----- BODY: On the plus side... Futurama is coming back as a full series, not just a series of direct to DVD movies (according to Katey Sagal) And the Postal Service is working on a new album. And I've won two Thursday night poker tournaments in a row! Good news for me since I think I usually suck at tournaments. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:08:00 AM ----- BODY: I haven't blogged for nearly two weeks because: 1.) Been helping to move my mom to our new home (which has been a complete disasterous ordeal, which I can go into later) 2.) I've been getting ready for my own move to the new home (to happen sometime before the end of July) 3.) I've been interviewing for a new position, and training my replacement at work 4.) I've been preparing needed paperwork for my triumphant return to college in the fall 5.) I've been planning a bachelor party for Andrew, as it is my duty as best man 6.) Even though I am not a best man or even a groomsmen, I've been given the duty of planning something fairly time-consuming for Danny's bachelor party 7.) I joined a new D&D game 8.) It's summer, and lots of stuff happens in the summer. 9.) I'm going to Origins for two days next week That's the gist of it. Details later. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:50:00 PM ----- BODY: Another RPG idea that I could never get anyone to play... Use D&D, but instead of the standard races, use the anthromorphic animal rules so that everyone is an animal on a quest in the small world. Not like a furry D&D game, but like the excellent comic Mouse Guard, or cartoons such as Rescuers or Chip N' Dale's Rescue Rangers. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:35:00 AM ----- BODY: CBR has a spoiler-free review of Superman Returns. It makes me happy to read, because CBR is usually inline about my feeling about comic book movies, so it sounds like Superman Returns will be the awesome movie it should be. Unlike X3, which I was surprised how many people I just had to argue with about its quality... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:17:00 PM ----- BODY: I'm a regular reader of boingboing, and one of the more alarming trends has been that the blog (which extremely educational, especially about things such as computing rights) seems to be increasingly banned by "safe site" companies. Many of these companies service entire countries with strict "moral policies" like Iran. I didn't think it could happen to me... but it did! "You have attempted to access a site that is prohibited or has been blocked pursuant to Kinko's policy. BlueCoat Site Review " I'm mad, but I know as soon as I go home, I'll be able to look up ways around it, but I shouldn't have to. If it's blocked on my end, it also means it is blocked on the computers for rent. So if you are a fan of boingboing, don't try renting a computer from Fedex Kinko's... there's something dangerous that they can't let you see. Oh, and as an aside... I did used to work with coworkers who looked at porn on the company computers during their shift. I was shown how it is done, and it's remarkably easy, and unless they decide to block google, it'll always work. So "BlueCoat Site Review" is totally worthless. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:05:00 AM ----- BODY: I will be moving in the next month to Elkridge, Maryland, to a rental house that I will be sharing with my mom and brother. This puts me roughly equidistant to work and school. As always, we will be looking for help both moving my mom's stuff from Owings Mills to Elkridge, and to moving my stuff from College Park to Elkridge. I've registered for 5 classes, with a 6th on the way, which will put me at school from 2 PM-11 PM every Tuesday and Wens. My new promotion will let me work around those two days, and I will be cutting back my hours. I still anticipate being very busy, but I'm looking into getting a laptop to facilitate doing schoolwork anywhere. Oh, and I've been informed that my school curse has continued. I will elaborate: Uniontown Elementary: Shut down shortly after I left, students disperesed to different schools. New Windsor Middle School: Shut down shortly after I left, moved to a new facility. Building was used briefly as a middle school, then shut down completely. Francis Scott Key High School: Totally remodeled as I was leaving (in fact, I set up the computer network for the new students, but never got to use them myself) UMBC: Completely revamped all the student areas, including the student union building. Facilities I had access to were definitely inadequate during the transition. Miami University: Was already in the process of remodeling when I was there, but that's sort of a cop-out. Instead, they've just decided to destroy my major completely. Even though an important person behind the interdisciplinary academic movement is a professor there, they seem to be dismantling the Western major completely. Maybe it's forced, maybe it's just how education works and it's constantly progressing, but it sucks for my education! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:54:00 PM ----- BODY: Wow, haven't updated in a while. It's been busy, to say the least. Balticon has come and gone. Not too much to say about it, since it's mostly work for me. I did get to see Mr. Gaiman once while introducing Mirrormask. It was very funny. The tidbit that I've been repeating: "We have four computers working on rendering. We called them John, Paul, Ringo, and George. Eventually we were able to squeeze out enough money to afford a fifth computer, and we called it Yoko. Then the other four stopped talking to each other. True story." I also read on his blog afterwards this awesome piece of info: "Coraline the film's being written and directed by Henry Selick, with some very talented people (music by They Might Be Giants, design work by many talented people including Vera Brosgol)..." We also gave away a bunch of Critical-Hits.com oversized bookmarks, which, as far as I can tell, hasn't resulted in a single new person reading the site, which doesn't bode well. It definitely hasn't resulted in anyone new registering or commenting. Other life stuff to come in upcoming posts. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 6:10:00 PM ----- BODY: "I like luck in games I'm bad at and skill in games I'm good at." -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:43:06 PM ----- BODY:
This is a test message from my phone. If it works I might use it to log games.
-------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 8:02:00 PM ----- BODY: For my own book keeping (gotta figure out a way to make this info readily accessible on the go), here's some info about my comics: Currently Subscribed to: 52 All-Star Superman Green Arrow Nextwave Checkmate Outsiders Planetary Secret Six Trade Paperbacks that I'm missing and plan on buying: Starman Book 3: A Wicked Inclination Starman Books 7-10 Y: The Last Man (all of them) Doom Patrol (all of Grant Morrison's run) Planetary Vol. 3 Global Frequency Vol 2 Missing Specific Back Issues: Green Arrow 60,61 Superman: Metropolis 5, 12 Fort: Prophet of the Unknown #4 Smax 4,5 -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 6:30:00 PM ----- BODY: Another club that I want to join. Posted on Boingboing: "There’s been some ink spilled lately denigrating so called ‘angry liberals,’ that is, people who have allegedly lost their right to be taken seriously because they are ‘angry.’ And they are ‘liberal.’Well, I hereby declare myself a charter member in the ALC (Angry Liberal Club).
Sure, at first I felt guilty -- what right do I have as a patriotic American to be angry? Or liberal? Oh, I tried to repress the ‘angry thing,’ I tried -- if I was asked, I claimed I was a ‘peeved moderate.’ Or a ‘mildly upset centrist.’ But after much work through ‘BIT’ (Blog Immersion Therapy), I stopped feeling the shame. I’m coming out of the closet to announce I am an Angry Liberal Guy. And I am pissed.
You might be saying “Man, what are you so angry about, Angry Liberal Guy?”
I’ve compiled a short (and by no means complete) list just so I could see it all in one place:
I’m angry about the shredding of the constitution…illegal wiretaps…falsified intelligence…secret prisons… use of torture as an accepted means of interrogation…Terry Schiavo…the war on science…denial of Global Warming…the fascistic secrecy of our elected officials… presidential signings that declare the President above the law…the breakdown of the wall between church and state…the outing of a clandestine CIA agent for purely partisan political gain…the corrupting influence of K Street… the total sell-out of the legislative process to corporate interests… appointments of unqualified cronies at every level of government…Harriet Miers…Brownie…Abu Ghraib… Scooter …the complete mismanagement of the war in Iraq…the lies about the complete mismanagement of the war in Iraq…the grotesque budget deficits… the pathetic response to Katrina… a civil rights division dedicated to undermining civil rights…an environmental protection agency that refuses to protect the environment… (Take a breath, Angry Liberal Guy.)
And I’m angry about a smug, simple-minded, incompetent, unqualified President, and a press that denies the obvious fact that we have a smug, simple-minded, incompetent unqualified President.
If these things don’t make you angry, I have to ask -- what the hell is the matter with you?
And what would it take to make you angry? -- C.B. Shapiro"
-------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:32:00 PM ----- BODY:How to run a Free Comic Book Day:
First, make sure you’re actually participating. If I walk into your store expecting free comics, and you give me a long winded excuse why you’re not participating, I am unlikely to view your store as having good customer service, and will not patronize your store as much.
Second, do not restrict how many free comic books I can take, especially if I am about to hand you a subcription form for 15 comics that I will be buying from you monthly. Restricting it means that the Indy comics don’t get into the hands of as many people. If you want to make sure you have plenty, make the “Gold” sponsors a limit 1 (which is all the big companies) and give me a chance to experiment with all the little guy comics that I would not look at otherwise.
Third, make sure I know where the comics are. Don’t just have a big box with a closed lid sitting on your counter. At the very least print out a small sign.
I try not to be one of those consumers that has a sense of entitlement to a lot of things I shouldn’t. However, if your marketing makes me all excited about getting into a comic shop and trying new comics and seeing if there’s a new series I want to pick up, and I walk into your store and get a different experience, I end up being a dissatisfied consumer. Don’t make promises you can’t keep, and don’t get me excited about an event then pull the rug out from under me.
-------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:37:00 PM ----- BODY: Favorites and Not So Favorites from The Gathering, just a little bit late: Favorite Game: Has to be Loopin' Louie. It's always funny to see a group of serious gamers, some of whom I played some tough poker against, concentrating so hard on a kid's game, and fighting each other in line to go next. Least Favorite Game: Any number of prototypes that just made me want to pull my teeth out or go to sleep. Heck, there were even one or two prototypes that I thought were publishable that I really didn't enjoy playing. Favorite New (Published) Game: Tough call, but I'd probably have to say Ticket to Ride: Marklin. It has a lot going for it, I thought, and invigorated the TTR franchise for me. Thurn Und Taxis is probably up there too, but even though I enjoyed it, I probably won't pick it up. I'd also say Himalaya impressed me with a unique implementation of a programming game, with other odd elements thrown in. Least Favorite New (Published) Game: Another tough call. I'd probably have to go with Hacienda, just because it was hyped up, and fell totally flat for me. No new interesting mechanics, not terribly interesting choices, just nothing there. I heard part of the problem was the map we were playing on (the "dog bone") but we bailed early on the game after it was clear we couldn't stop the leader, and I don't have any urge to try it again. Um Krone Und Kragen (Yahtzee the Gathering) is probably the other pick, but at least the game play is very new and unique. I just wish that rolling dice in it mattered, and that the downtime wasn't so darn long between individual people's turns. Favorite Moment: Probably when Anthony Gallela, head of GAMA, told me he wanted to have my man-babies. Though I had met him briefly before, we didn't get to hang out. During the Gathering, hanging out with him was really awesome, and I got to pick his brain about being involved in a new game company. I was also really happy that he ended up getting his top choice from the prize table. Now I want to try the Tales of Arabian Nights game! Least Favorite Moment: Hitting a nerve in a game of "What were you thinking" while trying to be funny. I often forget that when you're not "in" with a group of people, they are far more likely to not take your jokes as actual jokes, despite what they're doing themselves. Best Poker Moment: Probably staking Kory a third of his buy-in in exchange for a third of his winnings, then ending up being against him in the final round. (I even called his All-in with a better hand, but he stayed alive, then turned it around.) A very close second is the heads-up match I played against Stephen Glenn, where he spent the first couple hands telling me what his hands where. I haven't laughed that much during a poker match, well, ever. Worst Poker Moment: I'm tempted to say when my Royal Flush draw didn't come in as either a straight or a flush and was beaten by four of a kind Kings, but I don't consider that a bad moment because no one made a mistake. I'd say more likely was all the times where I got to experience one of my most hated feelings in tournament poker: where I get a decent hand, have to go all-in because I'm short stacked, and get called by a dominating or super-dominating (pair vs. pair) hand. Nobody made a mistake, I was just stuck. That happened in a couple tournaments. Game that I most regret not getting to play: The full published version of Ca$h 'N' Gun$. Might be a while before the English edition comes out too. Game that I don't regret missing: Maybe Cleopatra and the Society of Architects. I hear that for all the pretty bits, and the High Society elimination mechanic, it wasn't all that thrilling. Of course, mostly, I played my friend's prototypes, which took up most of my game playing time. I'm totally biased, but I feel like people I know are consistently doing new stuff, whereas a lot of the new German stuff feels like it's been done before. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:24:00 PM ----- BODY: Because no one demanded it, and I even got made fun of for it, the games I played in April! Here's everything, not counting The Gathering: Alchemist x3 Chum(s) x3 Prototype Uptown x4 Uptown TP prototype Royal Intrigue (prototype) Loopin' Louie x4 Poker x3 Wits & Wagers x2 Through the Desert* Shadows over Camelot* Ticket to Ride: Marklin Covert Action Prototype Why did the Chicken...? Through the Desert and Shadows over Camelot were both new playings for me. I enjoyed them both. I don't know if Shadows is worth buying, as I don't see it lasting as long as Lord of the Rings. Even LotR is difficult to get people together for. Through the Desert is simple, with lots of stuff to do, but it's like a lot of games where I don't know how often I'd actually have an urge to play it. Time will tell, I suppose. Oh, and that's just the number of Loopin' Louie sessions that I played in. The actual number is much, much higher: I'm very glad I got my copy. Total games played in April: 115, with multiple games in a tournament counting as 1 game, and each Loopin' Louie session counting as 1. Did I mention I've been playing a lot of Loopin' Louie? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:38:00 PM ----- BODY: I hold in my hands my Miami University transcripts. I arranged with the collection agency to pay off the last part of my specific Miami University related debt. The day after, I sent a transcript request. And here it is. The irony here is that they still haven't taken the money out. If I wanted to committ something akin to fraud, I could cancel the payment and go back to paying them monthly, or pull out enough money so the charge bounces. I and my potential college both have the transcripts now, which is all I wanted. For years. It may be the most expensive piece of paper I've ever purchased- in a weird way more expensive than what my final degree will cost me- but I'm super excited. College here I come (again) ! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:34:00 PM ----- BODY:1. Six ounces of plain yogurt 2. One tablespoon raw, unprocessed bran 3. One teaspoon sesame seeds 4. Six stewed or raw prunes
Mix together and take each morning
That was the majority of my prescription from the doctor. He also doesn't think Mysterious Stomach Ailment is anything serious, but gotta try this for a few weeks and see what happens from there. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:59:00 PM ----- BODY: "Dating a girl with glasses is the best. When they take off the glasses, not only do they get more attractive, but YOU get more attractive." --Ray Romano -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:01:00 PM ----- BODY: My godfather Somtow (aka S.P. Somtow aka Uncle Sommy) was featured in the New York Times. Neat! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:59:00 PM ----- BODY: I'm looking for a copy of Upwords to, well, destroy. If you have one you wouldn't mind getting taken off your hands in exchange for a coke or something, or if you see one cheap at a thrift store, let me know. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:49:00 AM ----- BODY: There's another one of the real me. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:33:00 PM ----- BODY: Here's a big list of everything I played at the Gathering, in the order I played it. *'s Indicate new games for me as of that playing., and p is a prototype. Alchemist for Hire x2 (p) Chum(s) x2 (p) Beowulf* Hey! That's my Fish* Poison Geschenkt Caylus* Covert Action (p) Chum(s) x2 (p) Himalayas* Chum(s) (p) Glory to Rome* Leapfrog Chum(s) (p) Covert Action x4 Thurn und Taxis* The Bucket King* Caylus Jambo* Skyline of the World* Parthenon Uptown (p) Chum(s) Midnight Party* Texas Hold 'Em two table tournament Uptown x2 (p) Ticket to Ride: Marklin* Tutankhamen High Seas (?- p)* Hacienda* Giza * (p) Loopin' Louie xMany Diamant Single table Poker Tournament Covert Action x3 (p) Chum(s) (p) Covert Action (p) Stocks & Bombs (p) Ticket to Ride: Marklin Covert Action x2 (p) Chum(s) (p) Friedeman Frische's Prototype (p)* What were you thinking* Himmselstumer/Great Balloon Race* Uptown x2 (p) Greg Daigle Prototype (p)* Alchemist for Hire (p) Chum(s) (p) Official Gathering Hold 'Em Tournament (money game) Out of your mind (p) Um Krone Und Kragen* Uptown (p) Chum(s) (p) Jumpin' Monkeys x2* Why did the chicken...? Taboo Covert Action (p) Chum(s) (p) Why did the chicken...? Zendo x2 Covert Action (p) Flyin' High (p) Dungeons and Dragons (electronic game)* Official Gathering Poker Tournament Can't Stop Bunte Runde* Kreta* Nottingham* Flyin' High (p) Uptown (p) James Kyle's Prototype *(p) By the way, Chum(s) = Shark Game (a title I'm now regretting), Covert Action = Sniper, and Uptown = Uptown. As you can see, I played my own game alot, and helped pimped my friends' prototypes. I played 20 new, already published games. This may look like a long list, but considering I was there for 10 days, I actually feel like I didn't play enough! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:41:00 PM ----- BODY: Gathering Photoset is up at Flickr. Later, my best of and worst of The Gathering 2006. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:55:00 AM ----- BODY: From: Danny Subject: Important: Dave is an imposter! Greetings all, I'm e-mailing you this very important message. Dave isn't our friend. He's actually a fake person, now I'm not positive as to the details of this, but I have evidence. It could be the government, with a stock-house full of dave-like beings which they swap out as they see fit. We've all noticed it. Sometimes he acts completely different from how we're used to. Oh and there's that whole alcohol-allergy thing that disappeared at the age of 21. WEIRD. So yes, i'm suggesting something ala Evangelion...Dave is a clone. Always has been, and when cruel fate befalls one Dave another is always there to replace him. This might also explain his rampant and absurd dating habits throughout the years. Now I will get on with the evidence, these are several photos from the recent Gathering of friends that I took upon myself to investigate.
Image 1: Now you may look back there and think it's Dave, you're wrong. It's an imposter!
Image 2: In this image you will see that it is clearly not the Dave we know.
Image 3: Now, like me, you probably think: That has to be Dave! Just look at the un-kempt grooming, looks like solid enough evidence for me? Well, is the dave we know married?! I don't think so....
Image 4: Wait...who's that in the audience? OMFG, that's WHM! Sweet!
Image 5: This one's just scary.
Image 6: Finally, proof that the Dave we know and love was actually at the gathering. This is the -only- image of him on boardgamenews.com, out of many. Just look at that reach! The ambition, the power, such lack of grace!
Now that you've seen my evidence, it's pretty clear. There's an imposter Dave out there. Maybe one of them escaped from the secret lab and is living a life of secrecy while he tries to subvert the current clone's lifestyle, or perhaps he just wants to live a happy, solitary life. I don't know. All I know is that Oaffish grip has to be the DWC we know.
Damn you Gendo Ikari, you've screwed up everyone's lives!!!!
-Danny
Herr Heath,
I hope you don't think I'm 'Loco', but your party has put me in quite a 'Quandry.' I've been invited to another gathering of 'High Society'on 'Royal Turf' that only comes along once in a 'Blue Moon.' I havebeen invited to an opening of a 'Modern Art' museum, and my wife is'Digging' in her heels to go. And though it would be 'Exxtra' specialfor me to attend, it would hardly be 'Ingenious' of me to pass up thisopportunity, I must 'Run.' Though I don't know 'Quo Vadis?', whereverit is I'm sure you'll still be 'Lord of the Rings.'
'Ra' you later,
Reiner Knizia
"If I may say so, life is a game with so much to do and so few turns." --Me"You haven't been working... no, I mean you haven't been working out.You're fat." --Also me
-------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:39:21 AM ----- BODY: Jim Carrey set to play me in high school
23 years old for 6 more hours. Though this last day has been very enjoyable, good riddance 23. (picture of guy w/ xmas stick at boston chocolate shop)
-------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:33:33 AM ----- BODY:"If superheroes were real, people would read pirate comics instead."
This year's big hit at the Essen game fair was a game called "Calylus" that has quite a lot of Boardgame buzz behind it. I've never played, or even seen the game in person. However, this thread is hilarious none the less.
Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked
I've studied some of Henry Jenkins work before, most notably on my cover art, feminism, and games essay that I've seen removed due to copyright issues. Good to see some real studies and science up go up against "common wisdom."
Schwarzenegger didn't believe Williams had Reformed
I joked this weekend that when Schwarzenegger denied the clemency, he'd try to lighten the mood with a number of movie references: "Though no one has TOTAL RECALL about the crimes, Williams is definitely a PREDATOR and a TERMINATOR." But I didn't know that he would deny clemency. I mean, the guy has been an outspoken critic of gang violence, written children's books to try to stop gangs, and any number of other efforts for atonement. And it's not like he would have been released, if I understand it correctly, he'd still be in jail forever. There's a possibility the case would be reopened, but he wouldn't be going anywhere.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-death penalty, but for cases such as this, we need to show that reforming is possible for prisions to work. Executing the founder of the Crips isn't going to be a deterrant for murderers, in fact, not only could he continue his work and try to stop gangs, but who knows what kind of backlash will have tomorrow? At the same time there are people in prision who are being shown that no matter what you do, there's no redemption, so what's the point?
The directory of wonderful things continues to amaze me, especially with this article about "generating news" that summarizes a lot of how I feel about the mainstream media these days. It's neither liberal nor conservative, it's greedy and lazy.
As always, Warren Ellis guides the way for me, despite working from the obvious handicap of being English.
The Mobius Corpse I participated in is located here. My initial fragment ended up being the title of the piece.
Here's yet another example of gamers taking over Broadway. (Not playing on my birthday, unfortunatly)
Ladies and gentlemen, I think we may have found a +90 website:
I wrote a guest article for The Clockwork Waffle and a rather long review of Twilight Imperium for Critical-Hits. I am, however, already very behind in my novel and only got half the comics catalogued I was supposed to today.
Will we receive message from outer space by 2050? Will music CDs compatible with current CD players still be sold regularly in 2015? I don't know, but people are betting on them.
Reverse Comics: Inspired by the Reverse Cartoon Chicken Engine, doing a whole comic where someone does all the art first and then a writer fills in the dialogue.
A truly competetive RPG where the players are fighting each other and the GM, and the player's stats are hidden from the GM. Both sides can raise the stakes, bluff, and fold in competetions.
Another good music video, from the Presidents of the United States of America. It was shot entirely on cell phones. (Quicktime Required). And Mike Doughty released a video, my first downloaded from iTunes, to one of my favorite new tracks from Haughty Melodic.
Neither one compares to OKGO dancing in the Backyard though...
If you get an email from ams@davechalker.com, no, that's not me. I've had to deal with 350+ bounced email because some spammer harvested my domain, and all mail sent to anything @ davechalker.com goes to me.
In other news, there is a sinister force keeping me from going to concerts. I had hoped, since I would be closer both to Towson and DC I would be able to catch more concerts, especially since WOXY has so broadened my musical tastes. But no, the concert I wanted to go to (but forgot about until my PDA reminded me) was sold out and about a month after I moved I had found a concert I really wanted to go to, only to find that it had started an hour ago. I'm going to try to go to one next Sunday, but I'm dubious...
(excuse the pun) So I signed up for Nanowrimo, which means I will be trying to write 55,000 words in the next month in an attempt to make a novel in a month. I figure even if I fail maybe I'll pick up some good habits.
This, by the way, is on top of a card game with a fast approaching deadline, a collection of small board and card games, an RPG book (and accompanying playtest campaign), and an assorted number of comic books. Oh, and a new concept website that requires a certain amount of wrangling and advertising.
And I have a real job, and am preparing to go back to college. Occasionally I watch movies and play games too.
"And what great purpose do the Jedi have in mind for Anakin's high midichlorian count? He is turned into a fighting machine for the status quo, just as Wolverine of the X-Men is made into a weapon even though his gift is for healing."
Ryan You think there'll be ANY democratic advantage because of all this republican craziness going on lately?
Dave: The repugs have pretty low approvals ratings across the board at the moment, but I tend to think that the american people have very short term memories. All this stuff is coming too early for our side to really get a boost from it
Ryan: true. They'll just play the gay and abortion cards at next election, and, you know.. .all will be conservative again
Dave: Always powerful cards to play
Dave They can also invoke terrorist too
Ryan: "Gay terrorists will come in and abort all the would-be mothers!"
Dave: And then force their kids to play video games with sex in them!
Ryan: NOOOO!!!
Holy crap, it's the best thing ever... All Your Base with Bohemian Rhapsody
“Quantum theory states, loosely, that anything is possible. Completely improbable events still have a quantum possibility, even if the possibility of it coming up is so remote that the universe is much more likely to end than for it to happen first.
However, whenever we deal in probabilities, there’s always a shot, no matter how improbable, that it will occur. Even multiple times.
In many video games, a player can input a ‘cheat code’ that allows them to alter the game in some way. They were written into the game to allow testers to have some sort of extra control over the game; however, they are not something that arises throughout the normal flow of the game. Cheat codes are designed to be almost impossible to discover by random chance, often consisting of a series of specific characters entered in to a non-accessible prompt. You would never discover one of these cheat codes by simply playing the game as intended. One can go out of their way to look for cheat codes, but most people do not have the technical know-how to actually look through the code of a computer game to find where the cheat codes are.
What if reality had cheat codes?
It is possible, though highly unlikely , that there are certain undiscovered ‘breaks’ in reality. A certain sequence of events could come together to cause some kind of unexpected effect. Only by doing things outside the normal flow of ones life could these breaks ever be discovered, or if one somehow had knowledge into the ‘code’ of the universe.
If one of theses breaks in reality were discovered, we would call it magic. Who is to say that changing a person into a frog by waving a wand and speaking a few words couldn’t happen? That sequence would have to be extremely specific, and so it is unlikely that it has ever occurred (and indeed, will ever occur before the universe ends.) And even if it had occurred, who is to say that someone would write an event like that down, and be able to repeat it to the smallest detail?
The possible existence of magic is not the only implication, however. This could be any series of random events, with infinite permutations. Some of them would even have a warped kind of sense to them that follows from the events that created them. Some would have a very localized, but permanent, effect. Let’s assume for a second that an insect of some sort, or let’s say an arachnid, was exposed to a specialized kind of radiation. First of all, this would not happen very often. Nuclear experiments are heavily regulated and contained so as to not allow outside things like spiders to come into contact with them. So that, in and of itself, is very improbable. And let’s further say it has to be a very specific kind of radiation. Most types of radiation cause cancer, defects, mutations, and all manner of other nasty stuff. Even the byproducts of the experiment would kill our poor theoretical experiment. But, again, we take a very specific set of circumstances that the radiation does not kill or damage the spider. And let us further postulate that somehow that spider escapes, since it is still healthy. Now let us say that spider avoids all manner of other natural disasters that can befall a spider (predators, waterspouts, what have you.) And we finish, of course, with it landing on a Homo Sapien. And instead of just being brushed aside, or whatever, it manages to land on this human being and bite him in a very specific spot. (We are also assuming that this hapless spider happens to be the right species of spider, not only to make everything else possible that it also bites and does not have a deadly poison.) And let’s say that person’s genetic makeup is uniquely suited to being able to take irradiated spider poison and metabolize it. Who is to say, after improbable random event after improbable random event, that if all those things together happened, that the end result would not be someone with strange abilities?
Reality is not as defined as you might think. You must always keep an open mind that all things are possible, even the most ridiculous of notions that you have been told your whole life is fiction. Welcome to the infinte.”
--Dr. Everett Tremaine, chair of the Philosophy Department, in his speech to the incoming freshman class at Cuyahoga University.
"Homecoming Part 1"
When Beast Boy's former team The Doom Patrol is in trouble, the Titans must embark on a daring mission to save them. Beast Boy explains that this can only mean one thing: the Doom Patrol's greatest foes are back. The Brotherhood of Evil has returned.
"Homecoming Part 2"
The Doom Patrol has been saved, but the sinister Brotherhood of Evil is still on the loose. It's just like old times for Beast Boy when he finds himself back on the team for one last mission - to stop the Brotherhood once and for all... no matter what the cost.
Just when you thought the JLU is covering every DC fanboy's animation dreams... the Doom Patrol finally make the small screen. And to prove it, Comics Continuum has a glimpse of TT Robotman.
-------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:09:17 PM ----- BODY: Yes, it's about that time for Devo to be covered by 5th graders. (quicktime required) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:06:08 PM ----- BODY: Why Did the Geek...? - Games List (I think you need a Boardgamegeek account to play) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:50:32 PM ----- BODY: Nintendo's patent on the NES has run out, so now companies like this are making knockoffs. I've unearthed my old NES games, but unfortunatly my old skool NES no longer works... so I'm considering it, even though my palm pilot can also play NES games. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:40:08 PM ----- BODY: 51GH.... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:46:00 AM ----- BODY: Samurai & Psionics Recap: Episode 1: Dark Omens at Mountain's Pass 5 strangers met at the small town of Mountain's Pass, and became embroiled in dire omens. Reiki and Joju, two residents of Mountain's Pass freshly back from their training at a nearby monastery, spotted an advance party of orcs. They recruited Nobunga and Bulrog, two caravan guards, to help defend the town, along with the enigmatic Thri-Kreen Kaza. Thanks to a traveling merchant, the band was able to take away the Orc's main advantage: the horses. They fought a bitter battle in the small town, but were eventually victorious. Their day was not over yet, as the presence of Orcs meant that they had gotten through the Great Wall somehow. After talking to the new mayor Takahashi, the group ventured North to see what had happened to the wall. What they found was shocking: demons and various other creatures were spilling out of holes in the sky and doing battle, with the Great Wall stuck in the middle. Kaza experienced some of the new horrors firsthand upon encountering a Guardian of the Wall who had lost it. Reiki, Joju, and Kaza decided to help spread the word about the Great Wall and start heading to the Imperial Capital. Episode 2: Eulogy for Takahashi Upon arriving at the first major city on the way to the Imperial Capital, the group finds that Mayor Takahasi is actually a wanted criminal in the Empire, and his wife has been living in the town hoping to hear from him again. The party was joined by two mysterious figures claiming to be officers of the government, looking to track down Takahashi. The party decided to head back up to Mountain's Pass to see if they could find Takahasi, but upon returning, found that there had been another conflict, apparently between Orcs and Demons. Joju encountered a badly wounded Orc who begged for death, but Joju would not let him die and worked his best to treat the Orc's injuries. The town was infested by demons who appeared to be searching for something... and had found a monastery student and were delighting in torturing him. The group set up a defensive stance near the edge of town, and fought hard against the demons, eventually overcoming them thanks to the intervention of the two strangers who initially were reluctant to help. The student, having been rescued, informed the party that the townspeople including Takahashi had gathered at the monastery for protection. The group trucked off to the monastery, and met with Reiki and Joju's old Sensei, Master Qi-Lo-Ni. After a short regrouping session, information was exchanged, and the two strangers assaulted Takahashi, revealing themselves to not be imperial workers but in fact the infamous assassins The Rice Brothers. Rather than be taken by them, Takahashi threw himself off the edge of the cliff the monastery was built on. Episode 3: A Fistful of GP Kaza explored the bottom of the mountain where Takahashi fell and found no remains, but instead a mysterious Terracotta warrior. Other than the area was forbidden, nothing further was found about the strange cave that contain the statue. While the party was resting and recovering, two travellers came to beseach Master Qi-Lo-Ni to intervene in a dispute in the town of East Woods. One a beauracrat, the other a mysterious mystic, each with his own reasons for caring about the town, were introduced to the party by the Sensei to try to take care of the problem. And so the five set off... and on the way, saved a Samurai from angered Earth Spirits. The Samurai was also headed to East Woods, and so travelled the rest of the way with the party. And while the party has gotten involved in the city's affairs, a few things have gone wrong, but all is not revealed yet... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 8:16:33 AM ----- BODY: OKGO: Dancing in the backyard. (Quicktime required) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:06:34 AM ----- BODY: Poker Terminology I Feel I Could Get Away With Saying If I Ever Played a Tournament. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:57:13 PM ----- BODY: [RPG] Theory 101: The Impossible Thing Before Breakfast -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:05:00 PM ----- BODY: I haven't actually watched the movie yet, but "Lipstick & Dynamite, Piss & Vinegar" came in today from Netflix. I skipped ahead to the credits, and there I am! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 8:23:00 PM ----- BODY: Well, it took forever, but I finally got my RSS feed working. http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Dave/atom.xml for the main site, and http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Dave/honorofthesalesman.xml for HoTS. You can even add these to Google's nifty new homepage thingy. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:52:49 PM ----- BODY: Micheal Swanwick's Periodic Table of Science Fiction Short Stories -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 6:05:00 PM ----- BODY: God Outdoes Terrorists Yet Again (The Onion) My favorite snippet: "Government handouts are not the answer," Bush said. "I believe in smaller government, which is why I have drastically cut welfare and levee upkeep. I encourage you poor folks to fill yourself up on your own bootstraps. Buckle down, and tear at them like a starving animal." Responding to reports that many Katrina survivors have lost everything in the disaster, Bush said, "Only when you work hard and chew desperately on your own footwear can you live the American dream." -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 8:42:30 AM ----- BODY: "Wow. That's the greatest example of the "Lawful Evil" alignmnet I've ever witnessed." -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:35:00 PM ----- BODY: From Marian Rosenberg, who did a favor for us upon returning to China..."Halfway across the Qiongzhou Straits on the Shuangtai San. The lights of the Chinese Mainland had completely vanished but we couldn't yet see Hainan Island. It was time: Midnight on the Sea of Dreams. Closer to 3am really. I hadn't figured on the bus from Guangzhou spending an hour stuck in traffic. Or the dinner stop at around 8pm. Or how long it would take to load the ferry. So it wasn't really midnight. Not in the precise 12:01 AM sense of the word. But, in all of the ways that really mattered, it was close enough to midnight. I left the bright lights, instant noodle soup smells, and Hong Kong cop flicks of the main cabin for the dark silence of the deck and I promised myself that one of these days I'd take the ferry during the daytime. But this time I had a different sort of promise to keep. The envelope I threw overboard skipped twice before sinking. Jack had been in the hospital for over a month when I heard that he was sick. It was a sidenote at the end of a long email from my mother which included, among other things, local politics, what they'd eaten for dinner recently and amusing stories of stupid things the cat had done. The important things that take center stage are so obvious and so important that she doesn't realize no-one has told me about them. I didn't hear about his death for a few days. But that was because remote mountain monasteries on holy Buddhist mountains in Sichuan don't have internet connections. Or indoor plumbing. Or central heating. However, as Jack was one of the first people I knew to have a dish he'd have been pleased to know the did have nearly 150 channels of satellite tv. I don't remember when I first met Jack Chalker. Probably because I wasn't speaking yet and had only recently learned to focus on and even control those waving blobs which I would later discover to be my arms and legs. I always knew he was an author but it wasn't until after I'd gotten out of the Piers Anthony phase of every young fan's life that I actually read a book he'd written.. He was Davy's father. Eva's husband. The guy with the neat tv. The hot tub. The swimming pool. That blue light thing that zzzaaaaped icky bugs. For my bat-mitzvah when other friends of the family gave me money or clothing or jewelry or other things that young girls are supposed to like, Eva gave me books and Jack signed them. My first 'real' job was reading galley proofs for him. I think the books were "Horrors of the Dancing Gods" and "The Cybernetic Walrus". Eva would know. I was paid with a chocolate cake from Ms.Desserts. There may have also been money involved but the cake was the important part. I would do that as occasional work until my studies at university interfered. I've got one more envelope to deliver. From the deck of the Kowloon-Hong Kong Blue Star Ferry. In memory of one of the people who fostered my love for books. And whose hate for icky raw fish things meant going out for sushi with Eva and my Dad. -M"-------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:57:14 PM ----- BODY: The New Yorker: The bad idea behind our failed health-care system -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:04:11 PM ----- BODY: TerpCon Fall 2005 (MD/DC/NOVA Gameday) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:40:31 PM ----- BODY: President Bush: Sell the Ranch -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:57:00 AM ----- BODY: Oh yes, and in case you don't already know, I'm holding a Labor Day party on Labor Day, to celebrate Labor Day (and my getting a pretty decent raise at my Labor Place, and, well, to celebrate being alive) Starts at 3 PM, please bring booze and food, though some will be provided by me. Hope to see you all! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:55:00 AM ----- BODY:
Date: Sep 3, 2005 5:12 PM Subject: [SMOFS] Fwd: Help for fans displaced by Katrina To: SMOFS@sflovers.org Information:
-------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:02:09 PM ----- BODY: style.org > Estimating the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 8:19:00 PM ----- BODY: In case you need excuses to donate... Several RPG companies are donating proceeds to Hurricane victims. Adamant Entertainment Wicked Dead Heart Quest White Wolf And Boardgamegeek is doing tons of stuff, from people donating their personal collections (in some cases, of super rare games) with the proceeds going to the victims. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:55:35 AM ----- BODY: No, seriously dudes, donate to Hurricane Katrina Relief -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:15:18 PM ----- BODY: Wired 13.09: On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Bot -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:21:28 PM ----- BODY: One of my forgotten influences for Conspiracy University -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:00:00 AM ----- BODY: Ixi has been found. Apparently all it took was a rousing game of poker to draw her out of hiding. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:37:05 AM ----- BODY: Flickr: The Zombiewalk Vancouver Pool -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:58:00 PM ----- BODY: Let's see... I won my first Monday night Poker, gaining me $15*. I also received a bill today for $25,425.82. And my iguana has been missing for a few days. So doing the numbers, I am down $25,410.82 and one beloved pet. *: This is not counting the $5 I had to pay to play Poker. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:39:18 PM ----- BODY: Come from the Korean creativity - a photoset on Flickr. Bizarre art of food. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:08:07 PM ----- BODY: Wow, the original Super Mario Bros. Super Show, in all its... gloryr -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:04:10 PM ----- BODY: Busted Tees : Jokes you can wear! Hilarious T-Shirts! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:30:21 PM ----- BODY: Just in case you forgot... dogs playing poker is funny. That pug is totally me. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:10:54 PM ----- BODY: "You play an angry Rocker fighting against the oppression of the State with violence both musical and physical" -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:45:09 AM ----- BODY: Scientist trading cards! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:49:48 PM ----- BODY: So, work kind of blew today. Ended up spending around 11 hours working total, about 6 of which was spent opening Illustrator CS files as home and saving them as PDFs. Oh, and my copy of Illustrator CS keeps causing my computer to completely crash, blue screen of death and all. But before I found out that's how I would be spending my evening, I downloaded some superhero logos in EPS from Brands of the World and started to lay out vinyl graphics to print at work to cover my Ipod. The colors got a little messed up in the export, so the previews aren't terribly accurate, but here's what I came up with: Ipod Mini covers -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:22:49 PM ----- BODY: IFILM - Music Videos: The Avalanches: Frontier Psychiatrist -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:09:18 PM ----- BODY: Boing Boing: Gay Batman gallery show gets DC nastygram -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:05:23 PM ----- BODY: Boing Boing's $250,000 Intelligent Design challenge (UPDATED: $1 million) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:34:01 AM ----- BODY: Another one of my banners Have to keep an eye on this one Asmodee, who is the company that hasn't rejected my game yet. (And I should be receiving a copy of that Dungeon Twister game) OK, I have to say this is a gamer craze that has gone too far. THE COLONEL! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:59:00 PM ----- BODY: There's one of my banners There's Chris Welsh sitting in front of one of my banners -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 6:41:14 PM ----- BODY: Beware the Jerk-O-Meter -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:37:56 AM ----- BODY: >David, > > > I have received your request for transcripts to be sent now. I have > created the orders, however due to a Bursar Hold on your record, these > transcripts will not print, and cannot be mailed. Please contact the > Office of the Bursar, (513)529-8700, or check on line at > www.muohio.edu/bursar. Once the hold has been cleared, your transcripts > will automatically print and then be mailed. If the hold has not cleared > within 30 days, the orders will be deleted and a new request will have to > be submitted. Thank you for your attention to this matter. > > > Thank You, > > Vanessa Gordon > > > > > *************************************** > Vanessa Gordon > Service Center Specialist > 102 Campus Avenue Building > Miami University > > phone 513-529-8701 > fax 513-529-8755 > > > email gordonvd@muohio.edu -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:53:00 AM ----- BODY: Well, after some hesitation, not only have I applied to college but I put in my requests for transcripts to UMBC and Miami U. As I faxed the MU request over, I thought to myself "Well, this could be it" because it could be where they say "No, you owe us too much money, no transcript for you" and it could also be where they say "Aha! Is there where you've been hiding. Our lawyers are on the way to extract the money you owe us." Shortly after I faxed it, I got a call on my cell phone from a MU number. I thought, "Oh well, this is it" and let voicemail pick it up. I listened to the message and... I had forgotten to sign the request. "Just fax us over another one with your signature and we'll send them right out!" she cheerfully said. My guess is that it just came over the fax machine, and they didn't check my file at all. But I faxed over another, signed, form, and didn't hear anything back... so we'll see. I think UB starts in less than two weeks (!!!) so maybe it's too late already for this semester. It'll still be a really big step if I find out I can get my transcripts from MU. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:20:07 AM ----- BODY: NBC.com >Celebrity... secrets -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:48:52 PM ----- BODY: A cover album of the Super Mario World soundtrack -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:30:01 AM ----- BODY: Walken for President -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:59:10 PM ----- BODY: "I'm not really interested in meeting new people." "That should go up on your webpage somewhere." -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:52:00 PM ----- BODY: Hilarious Nutri-grain ad -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:42:18 PM ----- BODY: Here's the article about the documentary about the guy who's trying to visit every Starbucks,, and the guy's website, and, Miami U's Starbucks -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:37:00 PM ----- BODY: Mel: "The sentence 'Every generation thinks they invented the blow job.' Can be a great opening sentence for any body of work." --said by someone in the office today -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:41:59 AM ----- BODY: OK, I'm just reposting links from Ginohn's blog, but man is this cool -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:39:32 AM ----- BODY: The Editing Room - Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith: The Abridged Script -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:31:00 AM ----- BODY: WW2 as RTS -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:25:05 PM ----- BODY: NPR : RSS Feeds -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:14:56 PM ----- BODY: NPR : 'Once Upon A Time in Italy': The Films of Sergio Leone -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 6:30:32 PM ----- BODY: Cities vie to honor Scotty, no one has stepped up to claim Welshy yet -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:03:00 PM ----- BODY: "Maybe someday you'll have a house on the Moon!" --Fortune cookie from Saturday -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:06:00 AM ----- BODY: Three new sets up at Flickr: "Why They Call It Texas Hold 'Em"- Poker pictures I've taken. "Dangerous Hobby"- pictures I've taken while also driving, often of amusing license plates. Some turn out, many don't. "Protest" - currently only pictures I took with my really crappy camera at the Bush Inaguration Protest (and the one I tried to take when John McCain walked through the protestors didn't come out at all) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:23:26 PM ----- BODY: Pratchett anger at Rowling's rise -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:24:31 PM ----- BODY: Old Time Radio - Free Radio Show Downloads (MP3, Real Audio) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:33:37 PM ----- BODY: Urban Dead - A Massively Multi-Player Web-Based Zombie Apocalypse -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:05:00 PM ----- BODY: Damn you Charlie Kaufman. Damn you for your scripts being far too easy to relate to. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:15:00 AM ----- BODY: 2 AM: After a succesful night of poker at game night, Dave goes to bed, content that he will be able to get 8 hours of sleep before work tomorrow, in contrast to the previous two nights where he has gotten little sleep due to circumstances. 8 AM: Bored Iguana makes enough scratching noises to wake Dave up out of a sound sleep. Dave, still mostly asleep, throws a blanket over iguana's cage to try to trick her into thinking its dark and going to sleep. Blanket is actually an afghan with many holes, so iguana is undisturbed and goes about her scratching. 9 AM: Convinced that the iguana will not shut up, Dave goes out into the living room to crash on the couch before he has to wake up in an hour to go to work, 9:30 AM: Knocking on the door repeatedly by the DHL guy dropping off a package to send his broken iPod in wakes up Dave. Dave cranky and tired. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:06:05 AM ----- BODY: New Scientist Breaking News - Matrix-style ‘bullet-time’ in multiplayer gaming -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:24:34 AM ----- BODY: So Asian Hold'Em is just longer than Texas Hold 'Em -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:54:00 AM ----- BODY: In the course of one day, I had to wake up really early for a meeting (which meant very little sleep), got awarded Employee of the Month and received a $25 Best Buy gift certificate while I was text messenging throughout the entire meeting, got a lot of attention thanks to the iPod I got and the iPod I won to be raffled off for the other employees, then discovered that my iPod was broken. (I'm pretty sure it's broken. Apple's support site, while somewhat extensive, has the problem that a lot of support sites do where they give a single solution, and don't give any alternatives if that solution doesn't work. And you can't reach a real live human being, even in a chat room, unless you pay money or buy the cheaper iPod shuffle. Yeah, makes sense to me) I also saw Comic Book: The Movie thanks to Netflix, which while not great, did feature Mark Hamil and a lot of great voice actors actually acting. (The real surprise was the cameos by Jonathan Winters and Sid Caesar.) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:45:00 PM ----- BODY: Soundtrack for my D&D Campaign complete: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon OST Hero OST House of Flying Daggers OST Jade Empire Soundtrack "Tao Zu's most famous pupil was Sun's Blade, who was the first to adapt Tao Zu's teachings to the military arts. When Sun's Blade's famous 'Art & War' was released from a monestary that Tao Zu had placed Sun Blade in charge of, the legendary scholar was furious. Tao Zu was a pacifist who had added the first Sun Emperor's rise to power to stop violence. Sun Blade, a member of the original Red Army, adapted his teachings to use in warfare and personal martial prowess. The concepts of balance and harmony with all things were easy to adapt to fighting. It is said that the two never spoke again, but arranged a number of contests through their students against the opposing school to prove their way of thinking. 'Balances' is primarily read by mystics and priests, whereas 'Art & War' is almost required reading among generals." -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:17:00 AM ----- BODY: Adam: i was thinking of playing a gunslinger in dennis's game Adam: so i did a google search for 'd20 modern gunslinger' Adam: and your blog was like the 8th hit Adam: an authority on 'd20 modern gunslinger' -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:31:38 AM ----- BODY: They have this but not Texas Hold 'Em... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:16:00 PM ----- BODY: Ggggggaaaaaaahhhhhhh -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:50:04 PM ----- BODY: Play Again Games : La Strada!! (which was penned by me) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:14:00 PM ----- BODY: The Sun has set in the West. Now it is time for the East, in the Empire of the Rising Sun, to make its mark upon the world. For thousands of years, the imperial line has ensured stability and a prosperous kingdom. Tracing their heritage back to the first Emperor, it is said the Emperor's primary job is to ensure the Sun comes up each day. Before the Emperor, the lands of the Rising Sun fought amongst themselves, and there was no end to bloodshed and savagery. With the aid of his lieutenants, The Seven Elemental Samurai, his advisor Tao Zu, his magnificent Red Army, and the Blessing of Heaven, the First Sun Emperor united the Empire and brought safety to his kingdom. It was under his reign that the Wall was built in order to keep out the primitive Orcs of the Northern Steppes. The lands were divided up among his Seven Samurai to form the Great Clans that reign even now: The Clan of Invincible Stone, The Clan of Raging Flame, The Clan of Rushing Waters, and The Clan of Flowing Winds. (The other three Samurai, of Yin, Yang, and the Void, declined any land, instead devoting their lives to serving the Empire in other ways.) It was also then when Tao Zu wrote his famous "Balances" and formed schools all across the land devoted to developing the minds and bodies and chi of whoever would care to learn, and spiritual enlightenment became the goal of many from the teachings. Many years have passed since then, and the Empire faces a new threat. The Orcish horselords have begun another push southward in record numbers, and many are unsure that even the Great Wall will hold against it. You are in the small town of Mountain's Pass, a small farming town a few days travel from the wall and the lands of the Clan of Invincible Stone. Many of you have lived there your whole life, and some of you have come to town recently for your own reasons. You have been assembled by Fate to perform a task that will decide whether this glorious Empire falls or thrives. Will you perform your task with Honor? "Samurais and Psionics" is a D&D game I will be running Saturday afternoons. Standard rolling system (4d6, drop lowest). Characters will start at 3rd level with 1st level gold. The following classes are available: Samurai (from Complete Warrior) Swashbuckler (Complete Warrior) Fighter (PHB) Rogue (PHB) Psion (Psionics Handbook) Psychic Warrior (Psionics Handbook) Wilder (Psionics Handbook) Soulknife (Psionics Handbook) Ninja (Complete Adventurer) Barbarian (PHB) Marhsall (Miniature's Handbook) Monk (PHB) Scout (Complete Adventurer) Races Available: Human (PHB) Aasimar (FR Handbook, favored class Psychic Warrior) Tiefling (FR Handbook) Fire Genasi (FR Handbook) Water Genasi (FR Handbook) Air Genasi (FR Handbook) Earth Genasi (FR Handbook) Elan (Psionics Handbook) Thri-Kreen (Psionics Handbook, favored class Soulknife) Half-Giant (Psionics Handbook) Half-Orc (PHB) Prestige Classes will be available at my discretion, and most will have to be altered to fit the setting. (No Arcane or Divine magic, however) If you want to play, drop me an email with your character concept. Let me know if you have any questions or need a copy of any of the rules for things listed above. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:23:23 AM ----- BODY: Warren Ellis has posted a bunch of San Diego Comic Con (Or Nerd Prom as he calls it) photos from the floor -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:59:00 PM ----- BODY: Last weekend was Pow Wow, which was enjoyable but markedly different than last years... it seems like the only people who brought prototypes were people I lived near. I thankfully avoided some of the stuff that people had brought that looked way too complex and way too long for my tastes. It was also amusing that in the course of one convention weekend G and I came up with a version we really liked, then proceeded to tear it apart upon inflicting it for the first time on anyone else. We have a couple things to try, which of course is the important part of game design. The Nonamed Shark Game (C.H.O.M.P. is sort of taken) was pretty popular, and published game designers said that both that and Alchemist for Hire are publishable designs that they liked.... ...Then when I got home, I found a rejection letter from Ravensburger. The cool thing about getting rejected from these German companies is that they'll often give very helpful critiques from their playtesters. Again, I have something to try with Alchemist, but I'm also looking at shopping the design around to other companies. Mr. Alan "Spiel De Jahres for Ticket to Ride" Moon gave some great suggestions as to what companies to look into and what they're like. It might be a little bit, but hopefully some of this game design stuff (and all the time and money I've sunk into it) will provide some small amount of side income... someday. Speaking of income, I need to stop making impulse buys. My cable service blows (and is tempting me towards upgrading for even more money), and during these slow summer days I spend a lot of time online at work, so by the time I get home I don't have much to do. (Never mind all the work I should be doing.) So I signed up for a Netflix account, and got my first shipment two days later- a great Time Travel movie called Primer and Disc 1 of Simpsons season 5. After watching the Simpsons through (twice, once regular and once with commentary) I decided that I had put it off long enough and ordered the first 5 seasons for $100. So, now drunk with power, I watched my first two discs that evening and placed them back in my mailbox. That's how normal mailboxes work, you place outgoing mail in them, and they get taken, especially in the absence of something like an outgoing mail chute. But no, apparently that's not how it works in my apartment building since they were still sitting there with the new mail. Hopefully on the second day, they'll take the hint. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:39:00 PM ----- BODY: So the only way, without knowing way more web coding than I do, was to change my template to fix the spacing thing. Oh well, we'll try this for a bit until I get bored again. Speaking of blogs, Abby has, despite my urging otherwise, gotten a livejournal. Like all lj's, read at your own risk. If Abby wasn't so cool I wouldn't be posting this. Also speaking of blogs, John posted my Haiku Movie Reviews for Batman Begins. It's at the bottom. And not speaking of blogs, Charles Darwin has a Posse. In other news, Cthulhu 500, one of the worst games I have ever played (and that's saying alot), won the Origins Award for Best Traditional Card Game both by the Academy and Gamer's Choice. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:35:00 PM ----- BODY: After watching so much Twilight Zone, we kept pointing out when things were a twist. The twist from yesterday? Because it took me so long to find the Staten Island Ferry, we were late to The Pillowman, which started at 2. We got off the subway a couple minutes before 2 and had to make our way through the busy Times Square streets to the Booth Theatre. In our way was the Total Request Live studio with people gathered outdoors who we had to push through to get to the theatre, which made us even more late. I get home, and what do I find in my email? CATCH TENACIOUS D ON TRL TODAY! See Tenacious D on the set of their upcoming movie on MTV's TRL today, Wednesday July 6, at 2PM! What a twist! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:23:00 AM ----- BODY: Argh, for some reason, my top blogger post is giving a ton of lead space that I can't figure out. Maybe my template is messed up, have to tweak it a bit today. Things have been crazier than normal in the land of Dave. After spending a long stretch of days cleaning out the old Casa de Chalker, the packing party happened on Sunday. A lot of people who said they were coming didn't show so we didn't end up getting everything done, and we also had a lot of stuff left over that we wanted people to take but didn't. (As far as I know, it's still on the front lawn, but probably slightly waterlogged, which doesn't make a difference with the furniture but does make a difference with the books. Oh well.) However, we did kick some major ass thanks to Gavin, Griff, Melinda, Britt, Cat, Justin, and Karl. (Some of whom had only met me the day before!) We also had some BSFSers and my mom's sisters helping out greatly. The movers have since came and went (with much difficult, apparently) and so all that should be left is to hire someone to toss the remnants of what's in the house and clean. And, the big ass scary garage, but there's less of a time crunch on that. That evening I treated people who had helped to War of the Worlds. Most of the movie was good, and was shot really well by making it look like a war movie. The ending however... the way the aliens are dealt with is the same as the book, which I liked, but the actual ending itself was crap. Plus it reminded me alot of the Shawshank Redemption, as when the Morgan Freeman narration came on at the end I expected Tim Robbin's character to climb out of the whole he had dug and Freeman to say something about a man's shoes. July the 4th was a party at Gavin & Griff's house, filled with much drinking and The Twilight Zone and delicious foods. We played some Werewolf outside late at night in the dark, and I always love playing Werewolf against Gavin because he's such a bastard. He knows I can read him really well given enough time, so it's a race against the clock to see if he can form a coalition that listens to him fast enough to kill me off (because he knows that I'm much better to keep around and lynch) before I read him. The first game that I got to play, I got him (and the villagers won) and the second time he got me (and he and the werewolves won.) I had a lot of fun, but despite many drinks, I did not get drunk. Apparently I have to drink faster. Next day was more laid back. Since I had missed Origins, I did a couple things over the week that remind me of Origins- we played Why Did the Chicken...? (Cartoon Chicken version) and watched The Gamers, in addition to a few rounds of Squint (I was good at the game until I started playing with art students...), Double Safe, and Alchemist for Hire. Then yesterday... Best... NYC trip... ever :) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:21:00 AM ----- BODY: Bruno Faidutti's games of the year have a bunch that I want to buy (and have bought) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:00:47 PM ----- BODY: Poker & Gambling Songs -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:39:32 AM ----- BODY: Million Robot March attended by exactly 1,000,000 robots -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:19:27 PM ----- BODY: Boffins create zombie dogs | The Other Side | Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.com.au (27-06-2005) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:29:32 PM ----- BODY: EDISON HATE FUTURE -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:16:00 PM ----- BODY: More fun from Dave Barry in Cyberspace: Emoticon Usage (Emoticons) can add real oomph to an otherwise ho-hum sentence. Consider: Without emoticon: Over 7,000 men died in Gettysburg. With emoticon: Over 7,000 men died in Gettysburg. :( Emoticons in Literature: Call me Ishmael :) Alas poor Yorick, I knew him well :( It was the best of times :) It was the worst of times :( -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:06:00 PM ----- BODY: SOME USEFUL INTERNET EMOTICONS AND ACRONYMS (from Dave Barry's "Dave Barry in Cyberspace") EMOTICON MEANING :) Happy person :( Sad person :-) Happy person with a nose :-( Sad person with a nose :-----( Person who is sad because he or she has a large nose :-D Person laughing :-D* Person laughing so hard that he or she does not notice that a 5-legged spider us hanging from his or her lip :-| Person unsure of which long-distance company to choose >8-O-(&) Person just realizing that he or she has a tapeworm ACRONYMSLarry Dixon and Mercedes Lackey are organizing efforts to assist fans and gamers displaced by Katrina. You can read more about it at http://www.gryphonking.com. If you know a fan or gamer in need of assistance, they can call 918-343-9462 or email gryphonking@gmail.com to find out how to get a roof over their heads thanks to Larry and Mercedes. Spread the word so fans in need are taken care of.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 8:02:15 PM
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Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith - 133t trailer
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 12:06:00 PM
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Some GAMA Trade Show highlights (for me):
AT-AT Walker "Miniature"
Just when you thought Dooku couldn't look more... ahem...
Grellllllllll
Wish I could run my epic game with a pile of these puppies
How much you want to bet there's a page of rules just about Hitler
Both Cluzze and Trivia Casino are games by a guy I met at Protospiel, who's a MD native. It's great that his designs are getting picked up, but it does remind me how much it helps to have connections (he's personal friends with Alanis Morrisette, for instance)
Uhhh... yeah...
Eagerly awaiting the sequel
The components look lame, but this might be what I'm looking for in a dungeon-delving game with german game sensibilities (aside from the one I'm inventing, of course)
I've had my fill of dicefest zombie games, but Mall of Horror sure looks purdy (gruesome)
I got to play a playtest version of this months ago, and it's definitely an improvement over the original
Now this game I'm really looking forward to. "Shadows Over Camelot is a cooperative game (for the most part) where players play knights of the round table battling the dark forces. In the game, players send their knights out on quests... There is one wrench that is thrown into the knight's plans. It is possible that one player is a traitor - one that is allied with the dark forces. This is decided in secret at the beginning of the game and it is actually possible that there will not be a traitor at all."
Wow, Out of the Box's productions are much wackier than the german originals
Redemption 3rd edition??? The game about preventing your opponent from saving lost souls?
Anime card game? Hmm, intriguing, but haven't heard anything about it
Probably the most pure "Take-that game out there"... Hex Hex! ::hands up::
Why are there so many, games about pirates...
"Every spooky graphic design cliche of the last ten years in one convenient bookmark."
Yay, Can't Stop is being reprinted!
Summary of FFG's stuff
Apparently when FFG says "No abstract games" they actually mean "No abstract games unless your name is Reiner Knizia..."
Lotta hope for this one as far as dungeon crawls go too, but apparently it's a lot like their Doom boardgame
When they say Ultimate do they mean within Ultimate continuity? :)
I shouldn't be surprised, but somehow, I was... WoW board game
Lastly, for all you Cataan freaks out there
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 10:29:13 AM
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 11:21:21 PM
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 12:59:00 PM
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This is Ixitachi Chalker. She's about 5 years old now. She just got back from the vet hospital, and her prognosis isn't good. The vet says that all these products and things to do that I was told by the pet store who sold her to me and by the vet in Ohio were wrong, so really, we were screwed from the beginning. She is probably going to die soon from sepsis (infection) and kidney disease.
Compare, of course, to my father who recently died from sepsis and kidney failure.
Fucking irony.
They couldn't give me a good prognosis on how long she has to live, and said that some of the conditions she have are not curable. I've got medications to force feed her, and some recommendations, but they weren't very optimistic, so really what I'm going to do now is keep her comfortable and wait to see what happens.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 8:08:47 PM
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BATMAN: NEW TIMES
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 12:17:00 AM
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"Can we make photocopies of The Necronomicon?"
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 11:29:00 PM
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"I stand there and think about Crete." -Certainly the first time I've seen someone do that action in an rpg.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 7:10:58 PM
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Modern Drunkard Magazine Online
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 3:35:23 PM
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Among other interesting things: "ITEM! Beat Spy "Roger" attended a They Might be Giants concert and the wacky duo mentioned that they may be doing the songs for Henry Selick's film of CORALINE." Coraline being a Neil Gaiman book, for those who don't know.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 2:31:10 AM
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pwned!
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 10:55:55 PM
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The Japanese strike again...
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 10:47:58 PM
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I must repeat again... prangstgrup is great. Check out the sequel to the Library Musical, the Lecture Musical
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 1:16:49 AM
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Sigh, and The Four Eyes (check out the hit song, and good advice, Do the Dave)
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 1:06:44 AM
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Found No Kill I: Deep Space Nine and Stovokor, the Klingon metal band.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 1:03:43 AM
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Again, a new height of nerdity. After watching Trekkies 2 (recommended, very different than the first that's also recommended), I've begun downloading songs from punk star trek tribute bands Warp 11, No Kill I, and
No Kill I: TNG. (No Kill I: DS9 is on the Trekkies 2 soundtrack, which is a good buy on itunes 35 tracks for $10)
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 11:22:24 PM
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Took me forever to find it, but Shannon Applecine (who I mainly know from his rpg.net stuff) has a ton of juicy game designer stuff here.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 12:23:00 PM
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Tonight on Celebrity 911, we examine the calls from actor James Khan....
KHAAAN!
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 6:33:00 PM
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I really am growing to hate public restrooms more and more. Not because of any flithiness factor that most people have (I'm more tolerant towards it, but not happy about it), but because of people's habits. Most notably making nose and talking to themself, and making disgusting bathroom noises. Just had a guy come in to the bathroom while I was on the toilet, knock over the trashcan on his way in, squeeze out a few drops into the urinal while grunting, not flush, turn on the faucet BUT NOT ACTUALLY WASH HIS HANDS, say something to himself, then leave without picking up the trashcan he knocked over.
Ugh, it's been a bad day. I had a rough night, and upon finally coming to full conciousness this morning, spend a few hours trying to shake it off, then realizing that I had to go to work, and work would make me feel worse. And, well, it hasn't dissapointed. I especially love when I leave having wrapped everything up and coming to an understanding with my boss and coworkers, and finding that by the time I get back in after my weekend everything's ruined. Then having to deal with all the regular irritations of my job, especially on a Sunday night. Sunday nights have never been appropriately staffed, and it's been made worse by various shifts in who is working. As much as this job has many benefits, I might have to start making some noise again to stop this nonsense from occuring over and over again, and see what my options are. At the same time, two guys that I work with part time each offered me job opportunities today, so I'm obviously convinced some people that I have some skills.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 12:46:58 AM
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Through a process that takes a really long time, I can record any tv show on TiVo, transfer it to my computer, reencode it, and put it on my palm pilot.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 10:24:32 PM
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Welcome to the world of Deflexion, the game that combines lasers with classic strategy for an experience enjoyed by players of all ages.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 7:15:02 PM
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Hard Decisions
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 8:36:41 PM
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This is how I remember the book being. Pirates!
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 1:33:49 PM
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Excellent, another thing to make at work...
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 12:53:02 PM
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Got my RSS feeds working, which means I've started reading slashdot again. And lo and behold,
Intelligent MIDI Sequencing with Hamster Control
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 2:07:31 PM
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Play and create board games over the internet... if only I could program...
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 12:27:30 PM
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Ryon, a friend I work with who will soon be heading to England to be with a girl (don't worry, she's not English herself), has his page of great photography and other art here.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 12:59:23 PM
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Stephen Glenn, my "close personal friend" (ask to see my Balloon Cup box sometime) is finally having another game actually be released... and it sounds great.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 12:58:54 PM
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Stephen Glenn, my "close personal friend" (ask to see my Balloon Cup box sometime) is finally having another game actually be released... and it sounds great.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 6:59:33 PM
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BODY:
Pretty durn handy, even for those of us with PDA phones, Google SMS
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 10:15:00 AM
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BODY:
BODY: Hey Dave
ME: Yes, Body?
BODY: I bet you're feeling pretty bad right now.
ME: Yeah...
BODY: So I've taken this opportunity to let the flu in, since you usually don't get sick.
ME: What, I...
BODY: SHYRUKEN!
This post brought to you by Fever of 101 Hallucinations.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 10:32:00 PM
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BODY:
I have plenty to say about the past few days, but in my flu-induced stupor, I thought I'd just upload some pictures.
And THAT is why they call it Texas Hold 'Em. (Pocket 5's are a good hand, but not when someone else has pocket 5's!)
It's a bit blurry, but this Harley Quinn was spot on (taken at Katsucon)
Icecassonius... a pretty looking game I'm developing.
More to come
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 3:21:00 PM
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BODY:
It's giving me a laugh when I need it... McSweeney lists
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 5:03:00 PM
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BODY:
"I'm the world's greatest detective... yet I can't find any evidence to save Lois from the DEATH HOUSE"
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 12:27:00 PM
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BODY:
It's very Britith, but yet I think it's the most accurate and insightful obit for dad I've read.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 3:30:00 AM
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BODY:
SciFi Wire picked up the story. (They didn't mention that my dad had been on the Scifi channel a few times, and was also mentioned by Harlan Ellison on the Scifi Channel a few times.)
Apparently the AP picked up the Baltimore Sun story, and it's been published in a bunch of newspapers around the country. The only annoying thing is that in both that article and the above one there are a bunch of simple to fix innacuracies.
See dad? You were definitely famous.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 4:10:00 PM
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BODY:
"Dave's dad is one of the best kind of people, the kind who will lead many people to strange new worlds long after he's left this one. Thanks for your stories, Mr. Chalker."
I couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks, Ginohn.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 1:29:00 AM
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BODY:
After hunting around for photos of dad to display, I found my old baby book, and had a birth chart done on me.
Normally I don't believe much in this stuff, but it does say in TWO places that I like games, so there's gotta be something to it...
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 10:43:00 PM
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BODY:
"It's a motherfucker
Being here without you
Thinking 'bout the good times
Thinking 'bout the bad
And I won't ever be the same
It's a motherfucker
Getting through a Sunday
Talking to the walls
Just me again
But I won't ever be the same
I won't ever be the same
It's a motherfucker
How much I understand
The feeling that you need someone
To take you by the hand
And you won't ever be the same
You won't ever be the same"
--"It's a Motherfucker", The Eels
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 12:12:00 AM
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BODY:
Oh yeah, that movie where I'm going to be in the credits comes out next month.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 11:46:00 PM
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BODY:
Pretty funny stuff....
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 1:57:00 AM
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BODY:
Can this Ragarok Box see into the future?
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 11:20:00 AM
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BODY:
From the people who brought you the "excrutiating game", another somewhat inaccurate piece from the Baltimore Sun.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 3:23:00 AM
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BODY:
Too weird...
I went to bed not two hours ago and I was just awoken by a knock against my door facing the outside. I was slow to wake up, but then thought I heard a sound of dashing upstairs. Looking out there the door to the outside, which is usually only used by me and had stuff propped against it when I left was openend.
I took a look around upstairs and in dad's office, but couldn't see anything. Boomer wasn't barking though...
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 9:52:00 AM
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BODY:
Attempting to blog on the road via phone, we'll see how well this works...
Unfortunately, the greiving process became familiar to me at an early age, and I'm so self-analytical that I can often catch myself doing some of stages in my head. But I guess here, two days later, I find myself a bit guilty.
Thanks to my amazing friends, I had a great time yesterday, and I'm thinking about doing more fun stuff today. In some ways I feel like I don't have the right to have fun or laugh, but in other ways I feel like I have more of a right than most people.
I kept joking with people yesterday that because I wasin mourning, I was not obligated by any social mores. (A more succint corallary of that rule would be how my mom put it in the grocery store yesterday: "I'm in mourning. I need pop-tarts.")
It's a fine line for me, especially on days where I'm scheduled to work. But I DEFINITELY couldn't handle working.
(Hmm, I should tell my boss that I'm not obligated by social contracts right now and so won't work.)
Regardless, I have the best friends anyone could have. And I hope that I never have to do for them what they are doing for me, but I will do so in a heartbeat.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 10:45:00 AM
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BODY:
Nope, just saw some pictures, there went the numbness...
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 10:40:00 AM
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BODY:
It's going to be exactly 24 hours since it happened soon...
I just woke up so I'm still kind of numb.
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AUTHOR: Dave The Game
DATE: 10:34:00 AM
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BODY:
It is with great sorrow that the family of Jack L. Chalker announces his death at 11:12 am on Friday, February 11, 2005. A Memorial Service will be held on Monday, February 21 from 7-9 PM at The Marzullo Funeral Chapel, 6009 Harford Road, Baltimore, MD 21214. For details or directions, pleaze contact the Chapel at 410-254-5201. A special room rate has been arranged under "Chalker Funeral" with the Best Western Hotel and Conference Center at the Baltimore Travel Plaza, 5625 O Donnell Street, Baltimore, MD 21224. They can be contacted for reservations at (410)633-9500 or 800-633-9511. Following the Service on Monday evening, there will be a reception at the Hotel. On Tuesday morning, there will be a continental breakfast provided. In addition to the Best Western Hotel, the Travel Plaza houses the Greyhound, Peter Pan, and Trailways Bus Terminals. Condolences can be sent to The Mirage Press Ltd., P.O. Box 1689, Westminter, MD 21158 or posted online at http://www2.caringbridge.org/md/jacklchalker/. In lieu of flowers, donations are being accepted at the Sierra Club, Save the Bay/Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Baltimore Science Fiction Society and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Emergency Medical Fund.-------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:27:00 AM ----- BODY: I sent an email to Gary Gygax last night, telling him how one of my most cherished memories was spending time with him and my dad last year at a convention in Indianapolis, and thanking him for making a game that will undoubtably help me through this. He wrote me back a very nice email today: "Hello David!
The Germanic society is full of engineers. In English, you ask your friend, "What have you done today?" (Was hast du heute getan?). No one ever says that in Germany; they say, "What have you made today?" (Was hast du heute gemacht?). They don't view game creation in the context of an engineering project or scientific research, rather as an artistic endeavor like chiseling a sculpture, painting a landscape, composing an opera or writing a play. Germans refer to 'game authors', as if the creator was writing a novel. Here the analogous mechanisms of voice, narrative, mood, etc. are employed but none of these mechanisms themselves can be ground breaking. Games are discussed in the context of how much pleasure they bring the player: pleasing, grating, boring, exciting, surprising, predictable. Properly employed fresh, new mechanisms will substantially increase the player's enjoyment. --From Tom Vasel's interview of John Bohrer-------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 6:55:04 PM ----- BODY: My dad took a pretty serious turn for the worse today. He's been moved to a fourth hospital, this one Bon Secours, and it doesn't look good. I'll try to keep some of you posted, but I may be out of contact for a little while -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:53:29 PM ----- BODY: Well, Enterprise is cancelled. You know it's bad when even Trekkies won't watch it. That is all. (Paramount... call me!) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:51:38 PM ----- BODY: My good buddy Josh has taken the plunge and started blogging, and I am already highly entertained at the results. Check it out. I have the feeling Conspiracy University will continue to get more input... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:00:27 AM ----- BODY: OMG teh ROFLCOPTER111111 -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:47:26 PM ----- BODY: "I feel like we're in a sinking ship, and you and I are desperately bailing out water." --My mom, tonight. Steve was checked into the hospital today. I won't go into the reasons, but he should be back in a few days. Message me if you want anymore details. And my glasses broke. And my phone/pda is still broken. Lots of bad stuff. But I'm using company time to work on my game, and attending gaming sessions when I can, which is helping me deal. Thank you, gaming. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:41:05 PM ----- BODY: G: if you were to make an anime equivelant to the JLA, what characters would you use? G: limitted by only being able to use anime shows that have appeared on US TV Goku (DBZ): Super powerful character who has to be written around every issue Roger Smith (Big O): Obvious Batman ripoff anyway Edward Elric (Full Metal Alchemist) For Magical Might and not bad in a fight Radical Edward (Cowboy Bebop) For computer hacking, of course Kenshin (Ruroni Kenshin) Samurai/Stealth? Might be too overshadowed Plus a gadget guy of some sort, but no good ones spring to mind for US TV. Oh yeah, and Hamtaro as mascot. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:12:37 PM ----- BODY: John summarized the protest nicely for me, so I'll just link to his site instead of repeating everything. Oddly, John and I never saw each other there even though we weren't very far away. (I think I did see the protest sign that one of the people he went with had) which means I didn't go to the really good chinese place he went to. I did go to a coffee shop that one of the Washington newspapers said had the best brownies, and I had coffee and a brownie. It was pretty good, but not fantastic. My pictures of the whole thing didn't turn out very well, mostly due to the fact that my digital camera (and I use the term loosely) is cruddy. But I'll see if I can upload them later. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:04:29 PM ----- BODY: "One does not simply walk into Mortor..." -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:10:57 PM ----- BODY: FELLOWSHIP! The Musical -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:48:45 PM ----- BODY: Oh yeah, so I'm protesting the inaguration tomorrow. I've debated with plenty of people about politics, especially lately, as some people certainly surprised me. I'm not judging people by who they voted for, nor am I going to argue endlessly about it, but lemme fire off one more big reason, and it's very personal, and why I feel right protesting tomorrow. Though it apparently doesn't matter, John Kerry was judged to have won all the debates. And during one of those debates, and I remember it well because it was right before my dad started to have his downward slide. I was helping him clean up his office while listening to the debate. The issue of health insurance came up. Kerry's plan involved getting health care for everybody, especially children and seniors. He stressed that it was an opt-in plan that you would not be forced to take and was the same one Senators get. Bush ridiculed his plan, but offered no alternative himself, having stated several times that private health insurance is the way to go. Well, that's well and good if you have money, but right now my father is being denied some of the care he needs because my parents health insurance doesn't cover it. Where does the health insurance come from? My mom's job at Lockheed-Martin, one of the biggest government contractors. (!!!) We can't afford to pay out of pocket. It's a fine system if you have plenty of money to supplement your health insurance and also be well off enough to take loads of time off work to visit a hospital every day, but that's not us. I can't say things would be better for us right now had the election turned out different, but at least Kerry acknowledged the problem and had a plan. And Edwards speechs about the haves and the have nots were right on target. It's hard to imagine what it's like to have your world collapse around you if you've had plenty of money your whole life. It's easier to say that Bush is a better President because you've gotten some tax cuts that put money back into your pocket. It's easier to say that what we really have to worry about are terrorist attacks, because that is something that could make anyone's world collapse around them no matter their income bracket. But there are people out there struggling to survive who shouldn't be denied medical care and should have an economy where they can get a job for honest work. People made it into a choice: "you pick Kerry and the terrorists will attack" but we could have had a canidate who cared both about keeping domestic affairs running and protecting from threats abroad. Instead, we got a President who made a lot of mistakes already, won't admit that they're mistakes, and certainly doesn't have better health care for all as a priority. Though I certainly had other reasons to vote the way I did... I did vote for Kerry before my dad went into the hospital and before we had alot of the current troubles... you'll see why I feel the way I do., and how I find it harder to understand why Bush was elected. And that is why I'll be protesting tomorrow. Not just for me, not even just for my dad, but for the people who aren't lucky enough to have health insurance at all. Oh, and if that's not enough to convince you, They Might be Giants, Tenacious D, REM, OKGO, and many other great bands all stumped for Kerry. (Specifically, they all raised money for MoveOn, being specifically anti-Bush) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:29:11 PM ----- BODY: Rule of Science Fiction #317: Whenever there is a conspiracy/alien menace/mind control going on, and someone discovers the first clue and invariably tries to report it to a superior, the superior seemingly acknowledges the threat but is definitely involved himself. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:41:58 PM ----- BODY: Pretty cool thing out of all of this... Neil Gaiman mentioned dad on his blog. (It's about halfway down, under the suicidegirls link oddly enough) He mentions some of the terrible deaths that have befallen our industries lately... Kelly Freas, a local artist who was a fixture at Balticon, and comic legend Will Eisner. My heart goes out to their families, especially now, and hope that they're well taken care of. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:22:47 PM ----- BODY: Normally I do my shopping at Fair Play Games, but if you're looking to pick up some good board game (esp. german stuff) Funagain is having a special on Jan. 12 where all the profits will go to Tsunami disaster relief. Even though I just did a big order of games, I'll definitely be picking some more stuff up. If you can't see yourself donating just money, here's a way to help everybody. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 6:11:48 PM ----- BODY: OK, does anyone else think that they should really stop making Land Before Time movies? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:10:05 PM ----- BODY: Another gem from Towne Mall's movie marquee: "Lemony Snicket's Spanglish Fat Albert" -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:47:10 PM ----- BODY: And just in time for the holidays, childrens' letters to Christopher Walken. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:55:43 PM ----- BODY: First, the news... he's doing much better. And talking. And he said we did the right thing, and he missed us. A great christmas present. He's still pretty tired and working his way towards breathing on his own, but he's definitely made great progress. He's not quite up to having a lot of company yet, but we're getting there. Secondly... well, I was in the paper. The Baltimore Sun came to game night two Thursdays ago and interviewed us about the game market and game designing. She was even interested in watching my newest prototype being played. Well, the upshot is that the photograph cuts me out except for my arm, and the article is totally dissing my game. The only quote of mine makes my game sound like it's as fun as taking a math test. I encourage everyone to read the whole article since it talks to other friends of mine about gaming stuff, but here's the relevant part bashing me: "Last week, at a design session in a College Park house known to Maryland designers as Wunderland, people were playing Glotz. Again. Glotz is the Wunderland designers' generic word for any nameless game. This version was excruciating. "If you have the green three and the green four in your hands, and you have five green cards, you can only score the four," said the inventor, Dave Chalker of Westminster, presiding over the chaos of a recycled Uno deck. The players - most of them other inventors - sighed. But even as a rousing round of Are You A Werewolf? was going on one table over, they resolved to stick with Glotz, to tease out the raw concept and develop a more elegant set of rules. They stayed until the wee hours of Friday morning, but it will take months or even years of Thursday sessions to sculpt this particular Glotz into a marketable game, if it ever gets that far." Still, I've been in the paper as a game inventor. That's something, right? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:46:48 PM ----- BODY: I wish I had some more news. For a while, we were getting some good news, but now... well, the next 24-48 hours are going to be critical. I will say this: even though he smoked a day in over 11 years, he's still paying for all those cigarettes. His lungs would be much better equipped to handle this if he hadn't smoked. My cousin Russell died a few months ago from lung cancer, and he wasn't a cigarette smoker, but he sure smoked plenty of something. Just think about that the next time you inhale anything that's not air into your lungs, as a personal favor to me. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:27:45 PM ----- BODY: First, thanks to everyone who has left kind words and offers of help. It's always appreciated. Dad went into surgery today, and has since come out, but I haven't heard an update since then. This is a good sign, since if something had gone wrong they would have told us. The surgery was pretty "low risk" as far as surgeries go. The additional good news is that, while it might take him a while to recover, the procedure is only a temporary measure, and once he gets better won't have any lasting damage (except for a small scar.) We're looking optimistic. After a week like this, good news goes a long way. We're still deciding whether to stop by PhilCon or not. I think my mom could really use something fun. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:14:19 PM ----- BODY: Went in to see him today. He has a ventilator tube in, and is heavily sedated because he really hates it. (I don't blame him, I wouldn't want a tube down my throat either, but it's certainly worse than the alternative) The messages from the doctors and nurse are somewhat confusing, but it really doesn't look good. We're still pulling though. It's rough on all of us, but thankfully, our support network has been mobilized, and we know a lot of nice and useful people. Steve hacked dad's website and put up messages here and created a board to post get well soon messages here. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:27:46 AM ----- BODY: Shit. Just got a call saying dad has taken a turn for the worse. He's only 9 days away from turning 60... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:15:06 PM ----- BODY: FUNNY LINKS TO DEFLECT FROM SERIOUS STUFF!!!!! Not for the easily offended, here's a really funny GI Joe video that Dennis is pimping. And just in time for the holidays, here's some killer robots and such. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:00:51 PM ----- BODY: Yesterday morning, I got a call on my cell phone not more than a minute after I had woken up. The call was coming from my mom, telling me to wake up dad and get him ready to go to the hospital. She had called his doctor's office and explained the symptoms that had gotten worse in the past couple days- spaciness, hip pain, some minor memory loss, and an increased paralyzation in his legs. (Saturday night had been a fun night of trying to lift dad into bed after he had fallen, and we eventually had to call 911 to get some paramedics to help. One of the paramedics was a guy I knew in high school. And did I mention I was tipsy at the time too?) So I woke my father up, who was very confused about why he had to go to the hospital, but he woke up. I called work to say that I would definitely be late, but would try to get in. Mom gets home, Steve returns from school, we all do random things for a while until we decide we're going to need an ambulance to transport him. I stay to watch Steve, mom heads over to the hospital to stay with dad. Well, I call out of work, and hours pass without real word. The situation turns out that the hospital definitely wants to admit him- their biggest concern being his extremely low blood oxygen level. But he ends up sitting on an uncomfortable stretcher in the emergency room for hours while they find him a bed. I went in to see him today, and he was hooked up to some kind of mask to help him breathe that obviously was driving him crazy. He has a whole host of problems, but the oxygen was their main concern. The last word we got from the doctor today was that his condition was upgraded from critical to fair, which is good, but they're keeping him there due to irregular heart activity. They don't know what's causing it yet, but that's most likely the cause of the oxygen problems. They'll also do something about some of his blood sugar problems, fluid buildup, and all sorts of other fun stuff, but I doubt they'll make him dramatically bettter. Still, he's out of the real serious danger, which is good. I might be a bit elusive for the next few days. Not sure what I'm going to do about various plans this week, but I'll try to let everyone know if there's any cancellations. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:57:35 PM ----- BODY: Dennis and I discuss episode 3 Dave: Lucas can't decide whether all storm troopers are clones or not Dennis: that's comforting Dave: Kinda ruins some of the magic, huh? Dennis: i had thought the canon says clones go crazy Dennis: so that the 'later' models start getting replace by thugs Dave: That may have been a book thing Dennis: i kinda perversely hope he ruins the books shit Dennis: and makes countless novels pointless and masturbatory Dennis: despite the fact i enjoy them Dave: Yeah. I agree Dave: He already has to an extent, and he might as well just put the coup de grace and make the books seems really different Dennis: the fact Bobba Fett is alive is the biggest thing Dennis: he appears and saves Han at some point during NJO Dennis: well, i mean a person assumed to be him Dave: Right Dave: And then he gets his own serieses and such Dennis: sigh Dennis: yes Dennis: if he wants to be daring Dennis: give an outline for ep 7-9 Dennis: and give it Peter Jackson and some awesome screenwriter Dennis: money and quality makes itself Dave: Episode 3 is when it's revealed that after Jango Fett's death, Boba develops technology that if he's attacked by lightsabers he'll be protected from all monsters and it'll just appear like he's dead Dave: Just in case that happens at some point in the future Dennis: heheh Dennis: its kind of crazy that you dont' see a full Jedi in action (really) until Return of the Jedi Dennis: maybe that's just me Dave: It was building Dave: ...but I think you're right Dave: Moreso Dennis: its not a criticism Dennis: if anything its such a compliment Dave: Episode 3 would be great if it were a mindless action flick with lightsaber fights and space battles Dennis: which it will be? Dennis: oh and Padame dying Dave: No, he's going to pretend like there's a plot, which isn't necessary Dennis: the plot should be Dave: Just have Yoda fight the Emperor for like half an hour Dennis: Anakin goes bad Dennis: Clones go crazy Dennis: *start movie* Dennis: just have that in the roll by scene Dave: Yeah Dennis: and have it ALL vader Dennis: and James Earl Jones Dave: EPISODE 3: Revenge of the Sith Dave: A dark time has fallen over the Republic Dave: Anakin has gone bad, and the Clones have gone crazy Dennis: Anakin Skywalker is fighting Obi Wan on a volcano planet Dennis: MOVIE START Dave: Elaborate lightsaber fight in a volcano, then they both stop to fight ninjas and pirates Dave: Then Yoda is in space flying his custom xwing versus the Death Star 0 Dennis: that foolishly try to interfere Dennis: and Jar Jar Binks being tortured ruthlessly Dennis: by the Emperor Dave: Oh yeah Dave: "Doosa you expecta me to talk?" Dennis: GOD Dave: "No, I expect you to die" Force lightning Dennis: Mesa so dead Dave: Quick montage of Luke and Leia being born, the final line is "Well, I guess these twins will be a NEW HOPE to the galaxy" Dave: Roll credits -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:52:45 PM ----- BODY: :-( -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:41:37 PM ----- BODY: Jodie Foster held two pair, Bach had three of a kind. Gandhi said with my full house, I will blow your mind. Au Contraire, Mahatma... Jodie Foster: 9D 9H Bach: 2C 8D Gandhi: 8H 7D Narrator: 6S 5S Flop: 8C 8S 7S 4th Street: JC 5th Street: 4S -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:27:41 PM ----- BODY: THE TRANSFER Dan Lucius Charlie is a fairly ordinary college student. He's part of a radical theatre troupe, and he has a crush on one of it's other members that he's known since high school. At the end of freshman year, he finds out that most of the troupe is transferring to another school, and he decides to follow suit. But when he gets there, he finds nothing that he expected. For reasons unknown to Dan, the campus is in near anarchy. Rival gangs fight over the campus as crime runs rampant. Quickly he finds himself pushed too far. During lunch he runs into an old friend of his from school, who inadvertantly draws the ire of one of the gang leaders. When Dan sticks up for his friend, he finds himself on the receiving end of a pistol. The gang leader begins to humiliate Dan at gunpoint, and begins shooting at him with a paintball gun. Finally Dan snaps and takes the paintball gun away from him, and begins to shoot him repeatedly point blank with the gun until he passes out. This draws the attention of the other gangs, including the drug crazed gang with giant methodone needles and the classic italian mafia who get to know Dan's family. And from there, his life gets complicated... (Another comic book idea, this one pretty much played itself out in my dream last night, but has a lot of potential) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:26:48 PM ----- BODY: My mom's favorite place for desktop backgrounds... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:15:41 PM ----- BODY: Went to Atlantic City last night. Lost money. Most games are totally lame. I made the mistake of playing No-Limit because the format was misleading. Even though I was immediatly short stacked by far I managed to hold on for a while, then lose all my money on a hand that the odds where I was going to triple up. Still, I made the right move, and I know for next time that: A. I should play limit where it doesn't matter how much other people have, or a tournament where everyone has equal footing or B. Do what Justin did and bet all your money on one almost 50-50 shot, then stop there. (Though the dealer screwed him by $10 and then he got tempted to play some more and ended up losing most of his winnings) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:00:05 AM ----- BODY: For those of you interested, here's the campaign book for the Star Trek d20 Future game I'm going to be running. It's still a work in progress, but most of everything is there. It includes racial modifiers, advanced class suggestions, and my own tweeks to the starship system. http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Dave/games/strpg.pdf Enjoy, and feel free to drop me a line with any comments. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:51:12 PM ----- BODY: Finally getting new Justice League Unlimited Episodes... The one I just watched was a real geekout for DC comics fans. Maxwell Lord running a team of, yes, Super Friends knockoffs, with the fake Apache Chief even joining up at the end. Amanda Waller, mentions of the Suicide Squad and the Cadmus Project, all there. The series keeps surprising me. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:17:31 PM ----- BODY: OK, I reached an all time new level of nerdiness. I typed "star trek font" into my google toolbar in FireFox in order to create a handout for my star trek roleplaying game that I'm running. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:05:20 AM ----- BODY: What? You mean there actually were some voting irregularities after all? I'm shocked! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:26:03 AM ----- BODY: Also useful -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:36:14 PM ----- BODY: Remember this? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:35:48 PM ----- BODY: My (sardonic) original message: "Let a whole new era of Homophobia sweep across the land! It gives us something in common with the A-rabs! And while we're at it, let's let the states repeal those pesky interracial marraiges!" Dallas's great response: "And while we're at it, do black people really need to vote? I mean, come on, they generally don't vote Republican. That means they're unpatriotic! I don't think no goddamn commies should vote! While we're at it, women shouldn't vote either. Just 'cause we said so." -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 6:24:22 AM ----- BODY: October 2000: Andrew: "See, when I select who I'm going to vote for for the Presidency, I look at the two canidates and think to myself, 'Who would make a better wizard, assuming they were D&D characters?' Really, all the prime requisites of a wizard apply to the presidency as well. That's why I'm going to vote for Gore." October 2004: Dave: "I really liked your wizard theory of elections. I've been telling people about it for this election." Andrew: "I have a wizard theory?" -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:09:55 AM ----- BODY: Just in time for past Halloween... Iron Chef R'yleh! Plus, if you haven't checked them out before, Invisible City has got tons of good free games. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:07:25 AM ----- BODY: Here's what I have for rules so far for d20 Future Star Trek: Remember: All alien races receive one less feat at first level, one less skill point each level, and four less skill points at first level. Vulcans +2 Int, -2 Cha Great Fortitude. The Vulcan immune system is highly developed and enables them to resist most known forms of infection or illness, and additional traits like their inner eyelid give them a high degree of protection. Planetary Adaptation (High-G World) +2 to Listen Checks. Vulcan ears are incredibly sensitive. Access to Vulcan feats. Must take Allegiance to Surak's Principles. Level Adjustment: +1 Romulans +2 Int, -2 Wis Planetary Adaptation (High-G World) Gain either Deceptive or Archaic Weapons Proficiency as a bonus feat +2 to Listen Checks. Romulan ears are incredibly sensitive. Level Adjustment: +1 Klingons +4 Str, +2 Con, -2 Wis Iron Will Weapon Familiarity: Bat'leth Level Adjustment: +1 Ferengi -2 Str, +2 Dex +4 racial bonus on saving throws against all telepathic abilities. +4 to Listen checks. +2 racial bonus to Diplomacy and Gather Information checks. Bajorans +2 Wis Cardassians Planetary Adaptation (Hot World) Suggested Advanced Classes: Ambassador (d20 Future) Obviously suited to Ambassadors from other worlds, attaches have been known to serve on starships as part of the ship's crew. Dogfighter (d20 Future) While most larger starships eschew "hotshot" pilots, more risky starships manuvers have become more popular since the Dominion War, especially aboard ships the size of Defiants. Dreadnought (d20 Future) Starfleet Security occasionally trains units such as the Dreadnought, though they are more common in the Starfleet Marine Corps. Engineer (d20 Future) One of the more important roles aboard a starship, this advanced class is only one way to represent a member of a starship's engineering team. Explorer (d20 Future) Generally a member of the ship's away teams, the explorer can be a specialist or someone from an alien culture. Field Officer (d20 Future) A commander with a more heavy combat background, like a security forces leader, Starfleet Marine Corps NCO, or even a starship captain with a hardedged background could take this advanced class. Space Monkey (d20 Future) The backbone of a good engineering team, the Space Monkeys perform the day to day operations of a starship. Swindler (d20 Future) Of course, no self respecting member of Starfleet would be called a swindler. However, there are many with these talents, especially among the Ferengi. Technosavant (d20 Future) Whether part of the engineering team, or the science department, or R&D, technosavants fill a very specific niche. While cybernetic enhancements and robotics are not very well developed in the Federation, there is still often call for the Technosavant's talents. Soldier (d20 Modern) The backbone of any security force. Gunslinger (d20 Modern) Skilled phaser users are always in demand. Daredevil (d20 Modern) The more thrill-seeking Starfleet officers, regardless of their positions, have been known to follow this path. A surprising number of Executive Officers and Captains take this class. Field Scientist (d20 Modern) The cheif science officers often follow this path, representing a more generalized field of study then the many specialists that inhabit the science department of most vessels. Techie (d20 Modern) The techie tends to be the one on the away team while the chief engineer remains on the ship fixing the warp core. Field Medic (d20 Modern) A must for the medical officer. Negotiator (d20 Modern) Counsolers, advisors, and even Captains often take this class. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:50:16 PM ----- BODY: So what's the deal with oven instructions on frozen burritos that take an hour to cook? Let's see, I could cook it in the microwave in three minutes, or spend an hour in the oven. If I'm spending an hour cooking something in the oven, I could have something delicious like lasagne instead of a single serve burrito. Or maybe that's it- maybe they're directions if you want to make a bunch of burritos at once. Need to cater for your next party? Grab a bunch of microwave burritos and cook 'em for an hour! I can't get behind an oven burrito. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:05:17 PM ----- BODY: This is an update for Danny. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:18:53 PM ----- BODY: The next big thing from ID should be the pinnacle of first person shooters (you can use Doom 3's graphics engine, but the gameplay has to be ramped up) that is one monumental storyline going from fighting Nazis in Castle Wolfenstein to fighting Demons on Mars to a futurisitic Death Sport, with one (not too hard to create when you think about it) storyline that runs through all of them. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:24:25 PM ----- BODY: So I had a crazy idea for an online game... Take something like Noteworthy and combine it with De Profundis To create a game of Lovecraftian Horror from journal entries that could span the globe... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:29:51 PM ----- BODY: My review of Betrayal at House on the Hill is finally up at ogrecave. It includes a, well, unexpected introduction from Mike Sugarbaker on the main page. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 6:06:47 PM ----- BODY: Ah, Identity Crisis revealed at last... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:33:29 AM ----- BODY: Here's another idea for you bitches to steal and not give me credit for: my idea for a Superman arc. The Savage Sword of Superman Superman must deal with a centuries old plot by the immortal Vandal Savage who laid the groundwork in the middle ages. Transported back, Superman must contend with a world where magic is abundant and while he retains his powers, he is vunerable to the weapons of the age. Can he stop the Spear of Destiny from resurfacing, and can he trust an old ally, an amateur magician who has just been entrusted by Merlin to keep a great evil? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:31:23 AM ----- BODY: AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:35:51 PM ----- BODY: Town feels 'Wrath of Con' -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:16:52 AM ----- BODY: Ah crap! (hour 17: still quiet, definitely feeling the worst of exhaustion, realizing that the people I called last night to come in early won't be here early. Thankfully the store is still empty, but that could explode at any minute. Stupid churches.) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 6:21:11 AM ----- BODY: I'm working on a new personal record. I'm on hour 16 of working, and probably won't stop until hour 17-18. I thought the 12 hour shift was bad. I was wrong. If I'm feeling more coherent, I'll explain all the complicated details later. I did, however, get a start on my new game project, work a little on the rpg, and write up a review for Betrayal at the House on the Hill (which may see light at ogrecave.) So it's been semi-useful. I'd still rather sleep. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:43:31 PM ----- BODY: "The rules to this game are not entirely clear." --G -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:34:57 AM ----- BODY: Why not run for President in this first boardgame from Mongoose Publishing? Remember, though, you have to be a Republican! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:41:08 PM ----- BODY: eJ'Doh qapla! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:56:40 PM ----- BODY: To the Bat-protest, Robin! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:31:55 AM ----- BODY: So here's my Noreascon/Boston Worldcon wrapup, one week later. The ride up involved me driving most of the time, and having to help my pretty well handicapped father in and out of the car by forcing his legs into the footwell. I finally found out what that damn song was talking about- the Mass Pike is the Massachusettes Turnpike! (And here, I thought it sounded like an orbital bombardment weapon) Another mystery of life solved at last. Check in brought a pleasant surprise- we had been upgraded to a suite, complete with mini-fridge and couch to sleep on (no floor for me!) The next morning, I was the last to wake up, still being on my wonderful 2nd shift schedule. I was informed that in order to get to the convention, I needed to go through a skywalk mall thingy. It turned out that the Mariott was actually surrounded by mall, so that there were two skywalk mall directions, and of course I chose the wrong one. I found myself outside before too long, wandering the streets of Boston. In the same 3 block area, I found: two Kinko's (the ones that my boss threatened to make me work at while on vacation), two Dunkin Donuts, and FOUR Starbucks. Eventually found my way around (but not before buying some coffee- it seemed like someone was trying to tell me something) and into the part of the mall that connected with the convention. I wandered around the con for a while, looking for the back corner that they had hid gaming in. Turns out, that some wonderful convention planner had decided to spread gaming events out over no less than FOUR different rooms. Two of which were major gaming rooms, none of them were near each other. Any of the rooms could have easily accomodated all the gaming going on. Way to go guys. As you might expect, gaming blew. Upon this discovery I decided that I wouldn't be able to hang out and rely upon gaming to entertain me for the whole weekend like I usually like at cons. Instead I ventured into the unknown (some would say, "grown-up") territory of panels, signings, and other regular con things. The rest of thursday consisted of me going to dinner with my parents in the food court (mall indian place- yum!), watching Return of the King, and seeing Eric Zuckerman. I asked him what other Mad Lab Rabbits were going to be there, and he said he wasn't sure, though he listed off a few names who would not be there. Then he paused and said, "Your ex-girlfriend won't be here, if that was the context of the question." I responded that it wasn't, but that it was valuable information anyway. That didn't stop me from occassionally freaking out at catching glances of people that vaguely looked like her (more common at a con.) For some reason my social anxiety was up a couple notches the whole weekend. The next two days consisted of various comic book and gaming panels. All of them were satisfying to an extent, but I missed a few that I really wanted to go to. (Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett on a panel about Death as a character and about dying... sorry I missed that one) I did however get to meet Mr. Sandman himself at a signing, where I got my copy of Endless Nights signed and got a copy of a Death story signed for a coworker. I noticed I was the only one in line with comics, and when I got up there I said to him "Man, I wasn't sure if I was going to be allowed to bring comics up here, everyone else has novels." and he said, "Well, if that was the case, I'd have to have a few words with someone. We LIKE comics." And that was that. I'll say it again: I MET NEIL GAIMAN AND HE MADE A JOKE FOR ME. You may now worship me. I also did some shopping for groceries and Steve's birthday present (as per my suggestion, we bought him a prepaid cell phone) and did some shopping in the dealer's room, picking up a copy of Paranoia XP and the Star Wars collectible minis game. Ended up using my evenings to play games. One night was with Hal and his box of GCOM german games- Democrazy, San Juan, Cartegena (his edition actually has wooden pirates unlike mine which has lame generic pawns), and Ticket to Ride. The next night was a game of Paranoia XP, which I enjoyed more than I thought I would initially despite the GM's attempts to be weird/outputting during setup. I was also boyfriend bombed twice. On the way out from the very good writing for comics panel I ran into some guys from Western, and made an ass out of myself while trying to rebalance the universe. (Long story.) I decided to not go to the "how to design a game" panel, since I hadn't heard of anyone on the panel, it was full up when I got there, and I was pretty damn sure that they wouldn't be able to teach me anything new. I did go to a panel about making the transition from RPG to novel, whereupon I learned why gamers don't go to many panels: most of them just won't shut up. Many of them go to panels not to listen to the speakers talk but to make other people listen to them. Sunday I spent hanging with Gavin. We went to Brighton and Staples store #0001. And let me tell you, for anyone familiar with Back to Brighton... it's a sham! The service there was subpar at best! It's like any other store! We also went by Harvard, who didn't give me a degree either like every other college I've been to. They did have a lot of street performers, homeless people, and cool bookstores. We then snuck back into the con and playtested some of G's games, then Zuckerman stopped by for a few various quick card games. I opted to not go to any parties any night. Monday was filled with confusion, packing, and missing things I'd wanted to go to. But the trip home was relatively uneventful, deciding to take 95 down and go by White Plains/Purchase, which was strange for me. When we got home, I discovered that Ixi had decided not to eat ANY of the fruit that she was given, and instead let it become infested with flies. She also decided it would be a good idea to knock over all her water onto the cage. I cleaned out as much as I could, but she's now living with a colony of flies. I added RI to the list of states I've been in, but still need to make another trip up there to finish off New England and go to the giant native american casinos in Connecticuit. Man, that would be great... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:25:21 AM ----- BODY: Ah, 3:30 AM at Kinko's, and the last customer just left. I'm currently, for some reason, working at 8 PM to 8 AM shift. I agreed to it partly to go to the Baltimore Comicon (I didn't have enough money or sleep to really enjoy it) and partly to avoid a certain assistant manager (he apologized for everything when I came in tonight.) I've just had a run-in with the apparently thriving gay african-american subculture of Owings Mills, and lemme tell ya, they were really angry at me for them being computer illiterate. I also found it interesting that they were scanning the DC vs. Marvel trade paperback and altering it to put some names in. I can only guess what they were identifying with in it, though I did notice that they had scanned the page where Wonder Woman and Storm fight, as Wonder Woman relinquishes the power of Thor. I saw Josh for the first time in a long time last night, and it was great. So great that I stayed out until 3 AM then proceeded, for whatever possibly coffee related reason, to wake up at 7 AM. Then off to comicon it was, then back for a nap, and then here I am. I'm keeping it together so far, but I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep it together. I also just discovered that my fake chick'n nuggets had been thrown away to defrost the fridge, so it looks like I'll be subsisting on microwave popcorn for the rest of the evening. I've gotten through the first 7.5 hours of my shift, aka a normal shift, so at least it's mostly over. Now comes the hard parts. At least I get this chance to sit for a bit and type some things out. I mean, it's not like I have work I should be doing ha ha ha. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:38:59 PM ----- BODY: Way to go, SETI -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:51:01 PM ----- BODY: "Good writers borrow. Great writers steal." Seems to be a common theme on panels. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:50:01 PM ----- BODY: "Remember, the two ages of roleplayers are 13 to driver's license and college age to get a life." -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:02:55 AM ----- BODY: ARTBOMB! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:57:47 AM ----- BODY: Richie: Just how much better than old comp is this one? Dave: 1500 Athlon --> 2.0 Pentium 4 384 --> 512 RAM (though I could have done that all along, apparantly, who knew there was so much DDR ram in my house) External DVD burner that I had to borrow from my dad --> Built in Dave: All the USB ports on this one work, unlike my old one Dave: Oh yeah, and the big one Dave: This computer in no way reminds me of my ex-girlfriend Richie: best upgrade ever My computer fried over the weekend, but thanks to Richie's greatness, I have a computer that's better in every way than my old one, and all my files are intact (though I keep having to reauthorize iTunes tracks) Now just one day before I leave for Boston, and that same day is my deadline for the book I'm going to get published in. Oh yeah, and I have a ton of work at fake job tomorrow and may have to go in early. This'll be great! Oh yeah, and Neil Gaiman will be at Worldcon, and so will I. I've been bragging to people about how I'm going to meet him. Take that, suckers. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:27:53 AM ----- BODY: Lots of stuff going on. Boston Worldcon plans in flux. An ill dad. Friends leaving for higher education A promotion and a raise... followed by being called a "whiny bitch" by an assistant manager. These weeks have been crazy. And, some of my posts seem to have been lost. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:43:08 AM ----- BODY: I guess old Miami U is back in session... the first year sans Dave. Not sure if my friends are just too busy, or don't have internet access, or something darker. Regardless, I miss my friends in Ohio, and I miss being in Oxford. Maybe I just need to play more D&D. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:59:51 AM ----- BODY: "Irony, thy name is laundry" -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:19:46 PM ----- BODY: I'm all in. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:17:07 PM ----- BODY: I don't know what's scarier: the fact that people choregraphed this, or Voldo himself. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:43:17 AM ----- BODY: A movie so good it could never be made. Seriously, they've got a bit of everything in this fake teaser trailer. World's Finest and Batman: Dead End are also worth checking out, but of all of them, Grayson looks like the best concept (and has a whole Dark Knight Returns thing going for it.) Also, caught the first episode of Justice League Unlimited. For a Green Arrow fanatic like myself, it was fantastic. (And the way they draw her, you can see why he's crazy for Black Canary... she's super hot in it, and I generally don't get worked up over cartoons.) He even uses the boxing glove arrow! I've got high hopes for the series... the episode itself was uneven, between great fluid animation and wonky-looking space fakeo computer animation, good characterization versus crappy dialogue, and a plot the had some holes but didn't beat you over the head. (I was really expecting them to do something like, "Green Arrow, it looks like you'll have to make an arrow out of these! You're our only hope!" but they used it as a plot device without resorting to stupidity. Good job.) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:21:16 AM ----- BODY: Damn, that's a good lineup -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:42:21 AM ----- BODY: Finally! A use for my sustained fire dice! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:34:11 PM ----- BODY: http://216.239.39.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.winning-moves.de/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcartagena%2Bwinning%2Bmoves%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DG "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The fishing rod OF Darkness Lara Croft for touching The most famous computer Heroine of the world gets its own board play. The act ion play "The fishing rod OF Darkness" developed by Identity Games is based on the sixth and newest version of the computer mega+ Sellers "Lara Croft Tomb Raider". In Germany "The will sell fishing rod OF Darkness" from Winning move Germany. For the first time there is the popular Tomb Raider topic as board play. ( 07.07.2003 )" Lara Croft for touching indeed. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:00:24 AM ----- BODY: Just got back from Pow Wow. Lots to talk about and recap later. But on the heels of a series of conventions comes another series of conventions in succession! First we have Otakon whos webpage BOTHERS THE CRAP OUT OF ME. Don't tell me that the anime music video contest is popular, I know it's popular and a lot of people will be coming in to see just that (like me.) TELL ME WHEN THE DAMN THING IS! And looking for what anime is actually going to be shown? Not until you get to the convention. AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH. We'll see if I go or not. Then the week after is the World Boardgaming Championships which is located in nearby Hunt Valley. Not sure how much time I'll have to go, or how much money, but I'll definitely show up for some of the time. Definitely people I'd like to meet with there. Again, Pow Wow report coming, possibly on Ogrecave. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:33:49 PM ----- BODY: Yes, there are a lot of Brazillians on Orkut.Speakers Speaking of which, I just discovered a whole bunch of people that I know from Origins are on Orkut. This is both positive and negative. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:27:09 AM ----- BODY: Exactly 2020 songs in my iTunes library. Need to figure out a way to integrateAudioscrobbler with something on my blog's page that shows what I'm listening to. Because obviously, you should be listening to what I listen to. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:13:41 AM ----- BODY: "Hi... uhh, I'm Dave. I once dressed up as you for Halloween." I just got back from meeting Weird Al. It was GREAT. He was pretty exhausted after the concert- which was a completely fabulous concert. Screens that dropped down showed all the real videos while he sang the Angry White Boy Polka (including The Vines video made of legoes. It was also weird looking at Fred Durst and the guys from System of a Down mouthing to Al's lyrics) They also showed clips from his VH1 special, and montages of his various media appearances. Plus some UHF and Weird Al Show clips to distract us while he changed into another costume. (They even showed my favorite clip from the Weird Al Show where he does a parody of Prodigy singing about his stupid haircut.) The coup de grace, of course, was changing into a fat suit and singing "Fat." Then I got to go backstage with Gina's group and meet the man himself. I got my ticket signed, though I completely forgot to bring anything else to get him to sign or a camera to take a picture with him. (I was on video with him though, so I can prove that I met him.) I asked how the fat suit works, and asked what he was listening to nowadays. (Got a funny but non-answer to the second question.) He also gave me more reasons to hate Eminem more than I already do. Yes, that guy is a big jerk, and everybody should stop supporting him. I also found out that Al's cuisine is pretty similar to mine- flavored tofu and junk food. Mmm mmm. Anyway, in short, it was great. I'm really really glad Gina invited me. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:46:04 AM ----- BODY: I was all out of luck like a duck that died I was all out of juice like a moose denied --"Stalk of Wheat" They Might Be Giants -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:01:54 AM ----- BODY: YEAH -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:40:08 PM ----- BODY: Ahhh, so good to have it back. And, as Richie found out for me, if you use iTunes to MP3 stream it, it'll tell you what song is currently playing. No more having to wait for a DJ! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:35:46 PM ----- BODY: Two... more... days.... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:52:16 AM ----- BODY: Of course, I'm more than excited about John & John for President. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:51:39 AM ----- BODY: I can't make light of this. All I have to say is that here's hoping Stem Cell Research makes break-throughs and stops getting held back. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:01:25 PM ----- BODY: First post on Ogre Cave! Whoo hoo! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:40:17 AM ----- BODY: OK, now that that is out of the way, there were some highlights that I must share... First and foremost, Zendo won the Origins Award for Best Abstract Board Game. I feel totally great for Kory, and hope it means more of his works see publication because of it. It also gives hope to all us freelance game designers that we can get recognized too. While I didn't win the Icetowers tournament, I had several people (whom I consider some of the best Icetowers players in the world) come up to me at the start of the tournament and ask, "Are you playing, Dave?" to which I'd respond that I was, and then they'd snap their fingers and say "Damn!" This happened at least twice. I also had the top score going into the final round for the third year running. Made some nice pulls with D&D minis, the first being the Huge Red Dragon. I traded it to Mike who needed it to complete his set, and I got a pretty favorable trade for various things I wanted, and Mike's always hooked me up with D&D Minis stuff. Bought a few board games that I've been looking to buy for a while, and saw more stuff I'd like to pick up at some point. Eberron is definitely on my must buy soon list too. Got to see Reiner Knizia looking lonely but still posing outside the empty registration desks. Didn't ask him to sign Quo Vadis! Played in a really good Matrix LARP that restored my faith in LARPs since the last few I had been in got bogged down by crappy rules. And finally, might start writing for a certain unplugged gaming news site featuring the domecile of certain monsters... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:27:59 AM ----- BODY: There was a lot of talk of sides, and I'll admit I did flip out when probably unnecessary. But I don't think my position is unfair. I had reached a low point of my life. Both my parents had been in the hospital for serious health reasons and both almost died. My little brother almost went into the foster home system for bogus reasons. I was having great difficulty making ends meet as the last inheritance dried up, and I almost got sued. And the most heartbreaking thing for me was that my dear little Pekeinese who had beaten cancer and was into her 15th year had died one of two possible horrible deaths: either she died cold and alone in the rainstorms that she feared so much, or she was torn apart by foxes, too old to defend herself like the old days when she used to chase off rottweilers. This is the dog who had beaten the odds, who I had known and loved since before my brother was born, left me while I was away. So in my hour of need I looked to the person who I had been there for to help me. I had saved her life, saved her from damaging herself, been there for her any number of times for any number of things. I had forgiven her for cheating on me in the very next room from where I was trying to sleep. I had come back to Ohio for her. I didn't think it that unreasonable to try to get some support at my hour of most need. But instead, I received nothing. No real support. Computer complaints. So I decided that was it- I couldn't be there for her when I really needed someone for me. So I ended it, for exactly the reasons I stated. There was no one else I was going to, no ulterior motive. I just had hit my low point, and I figured for someone who claimed to love me, that would be understandable. Maybe I wanted it to end, or maybe I was just lashing out and wanted to be reached out to, or maybe I was depressed and just trying to make changes to get my life back on track. Regardless, I had hoped things would get better. Instead, she almost immediatly started to sleep around. The last time I saw her, she got her condoms back, which was the most important thing to her. My well-being be damned despite her claims of loving me up until the end. She was going to sleep around, and the news sure as hell got back to me quick enough. And after that, I couldn't even stand to see her. Even the prospect of seeing her turned me away from hanging out with my friends. Several brutal months passed. While many of the problems that had plagued me cleared up, I was still recovering from being punched while on the ground. One uninsured car accident later, I pulled up anchor and came back home after years away. Things have gotten better since, but I despise having a damper put over my favorite event of the year because of some clique that I inadvertantly created by being altruistic and trying to share my happiness with as many people as possible. Am I not entitled to my happiness and my bitterness? Is my "side" more clear? Am I wrong to think that I have been mistreated, that perhaps I was a victim? Was it too much to ask that I have one good weekend of playing games without it being tainted by outside forces? Maybe it's because I feel this way and flipped out at the wrong time at the wrong person that I was so snubbed at Origins. Maybe I just resent the fact that they took time specifically to have dinner with her because they read each other's postings (and not mine, most likely) and did not make an effort the same with me, despite a longer running friendship. Well, whether you want to hear it or not, that's my side, and I don't think I'm wrong. That's the side you won't read on a livejournal. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:19:11 AM ----- BODY: I've been invited to play in a game of this, and I had never heard of it, but it looks great. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:19:51 AM ----- BODY: Today's fortune: Answer just what your heart prompts you. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:36:58 PM ----- BODY: God I hate livejournal. Mostly having fun at the con. Will decide on how the con is based on what happens tomorrow. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:36:51 PM ----- BODY: God I hate livejournal. Mostly having fun at the con. Will decide on how the con is based on what happens tomorrow. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:52:07 AM ----- BODY: Dave: I actually get to do some networking for a job myself this weekend, though I don't think anything will come from it Mike R: the key is to show some cleavage Mike R: works every time Ah, Mike, how we missed ye -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:42:35 AM ----- BODY: Oh, and I will be checking my gmail account while on the road, but I'll leave my pop3 account to get scarily backed up until Sunday. As a reminder, I'm davetgame at gmail and it's a dot com. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:40:13 AM ----- BODY: Off to Origins. I can think of no better way to put this: "This could lead to excellence, or serious injury." I've had a couple good omens the past day though, and no matter what, it IS a break from micro-manging Douchey McTool. And come on, a d12 fell out of the back of my car while cleaning it and I rolled an 11. This CAN'T be all bad. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:30:19 PM ----- BODY: When Wonderboy and Nastyman join forces they form a band the likes of which has never been seen... that's right, me, and KG are now... playing for John Kerry... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:26:30 AM ----- BODY: What D&D Character Are You?/What D&D Stats Do You Have? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:21:54 AM ----- BODY: Holy Crap! Can it be true? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:18:08 PM ----- BODY: Silly White Wolf, Power beats Finesse every time. System flawed. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:11:55 AM ----- BODY: Just so everyone knows, I've decided to pattern my life after Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow. The facial hair is almost there, but I need to become a master archer and hunter. But soon, I'll be a ladies man who hunts the streets. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:17:59 PM ----- BODY: spokesmanreview.com -- Eye on Boise "He added, 'The part that surprised me was when I read the First Amendment instructions. I was surprised to learn that people could say whatever they want ... providing it would not cause imminent action.' " -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:24:36 PM ----- BODY: "If I may say so, life is a game, and there's so much to do and so few turns." Reiner Knizia -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 8:31:09 PM ----- BODY: OK, it's vitally important that you vote for Zendo in the first category. Nothing else is as important, anywhere. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:26:22 AM ----- BODY: Wow, I just realized that I'm writing RPG ideas in a Lord of the Rings journal that I bought from a science fiction convention. NNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDD -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:13:43 AM ----- BODY: I am DaveTheGame at blogger, orkut, and audioscrobbler . -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:27:12 AM ----- BODY: And thus ends the Balticon of Hate. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:15:09 PM ----- BODY: I've had some problems with the past few Balticons. They've been scandalous, they've seen the departure of good friends, they've had some people being completely inconsiderate, and I've had some things on my mind that have kept me from enjoying. I think this year is going to be good. I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to rock. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:58:56 AM ----- BODY: Cafe Con Pan? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:49:27 AM ----- BODY: Strange And Beautiful by Aqualung! THAT is the song I've been thinking of! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:33:32 AM ----- BODY: Writing stuff for this Murder Mystery I'm running at Balticon, and I almost wrote "Looking for an opportunity to do [my character]" instead of "Looking for an opportunity to do IN..." -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:40:28 AM ----- BODY: Super busy with Balticon 38. I've semi-abused my Kinko's privelages for it. Not as bad as I could be, but still a fair amount. And I constructed a really big battlemat today. And I really need to plan for my experimental murder mystery this weekend, and get it ready so I can print it tomorrow at work. Might not post until after Balticon, and for some of you, see you there! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:01:12 PM ----- BODY: Eat it, other departments! I mean, the Balticon 38 gaming schedule is up on the web. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:40:22 PM ----- BODY: Indiana First With Computerized Grading -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:14:03 AM ----- BODY: Believe it or not, I found this while doing research -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:57:35 AM ----- BODY: OK, funny story (to me) about the Barmitzvah I went to this past Saturday for my littlest cousin Adam. They had hired a DJ, Mr. Bergman (gotta love the Jewish DJ's) and he was doing games and stuff for the kids. When the kids would win a game, he'd give them fake money to spend on prizes and such later. All I could think to myself was, "Should he really be changing money in the temple?" -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:04:24 PM ----- BODY: 99 One warrior must fight through 99 levels full of enemies to reach his goal. An action-packed comic. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:45:47 AM ----- BODY: The Soundtrack of Our Lives... well, it was... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:16:36 AM ----- BODY: Well, it's over. It may seem silly to be as upset as I am over a radio station closing, especially one in Ohio that I can tune into my car. But there's many, many people out there who know why it's so important. I don't know where I'm going to find non-corporate new music now. So many good discoveries came from 97X, and now it's gone. It's more then just the music, though, and it's more than the kind of anti-conformist independant sound and culture that is so rare to find these days and so important to me. It's been a part of my life ever since I started to make some pretty major decisions in my life. Matt Sledge, one of the DJs, seems to be tied to each of my ex-girlfriends somehow, oddly enough. And now that I've left Ohio for good and given up my long held dreams, having to listen to people doing their own thing and living out their dream job have to give it up is really hurting right now. It's hokey, it's me being overly dramatic, but whatever... now that 97X is dead, a part of me has died with it. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:07:59 AM ----- BODY: Oh god, it's so true! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:41:35 PM ----- BODY: So two things... Instead of going to a bar with a guy who's graduating college this weekend and who I've known (and been friends with continuously) since I was four and who's finally moving away from Carroll County in a few months, I'm here at work. I'm taking my oft-delayed Fedex training, the deadline of which keeps getting pushed forward, and now it has to be done before Friday, which means finishing or getting most of the way there tonight or come in on my day off. Secondly, there's almost exactly 24 hours left in WOXY's lifespan. If you've never listened to it before, it's the greatest radio station in all of creation, and in exactly one day's time it will be dead. Future of Rock and Roll my ass. They're going out with a bang, playing songs from A to Z (well, they call it to X, but I have the feeling they'll go all the way.) The advantage is that all those songs that I can never remember the title to, or kept hearing but they got lost in my conciousness before I got a chance to download them (legally, of course, heh heh heh) are here. I might go through the entire week's time and get every song I have ever liked from 97X. Hopefully they'll put up the entire list at the end. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:42:59 AM ----- BODY: Yep, it's official, it's the best game. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 6:57:32 PM ----- BODY: Understanding RPGs via Understanding Comics with some James Kochalka thrown in -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:41:22 PM ----- BODY: Incognito: When a mathematics researcher finally uncovers the equation that governs all human interaction, he gets more than he bargained for. He finds he has the ability to be completely undetectable, but the use of the Incognito Sum leads to a number of consequences, as he finds that he cannot help but be in the right place at the right time. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:24:45 AM ----- BODY: A new superhero introduction, where several people could be the superhero's secret identity, but it's a mystery and the audience doesn't know until the end. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:40:49 AM ----- BODY: Friends of Dave make bacteria mutants, infect millions -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:32:59 AM ----- BODY: I'll sink Pac-Manhattan... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:02:12 PM ----- BODY: Stupid Life. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:01:55 PM ----- BODY: "Hi everybody-Flansburgh here. I had the idea to create a MoveOn.Org benefit album, and through the help of Barsuk in Seattle, it's all coming together. Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze joined in to our steering committee and the lineup is pretty amazing (and will be announced shortly). The release date is July 6 and should be available on all formats then. We're contributing a minor-key version of the song "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too,"a campaign song from 1840 (and quite a catchy number I should add)." MoveOn.Org, of course, is an anti-bush organization. You go, TMBG. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:43:52 PM ----- BODY: Gah, since when did our dryer take three hours to run? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:33:04 AM ----- BODY: Audioscrobbler :: Home -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:27:52 AM ----- BODY: Pretty much had to hit the ground running upon my return from Ohio. Balticon is approaching quickly, and apparantly I haven't signed up for enough stuff at Origins. Some highlights from the trip, other than it was great to see everybody: -Leo Samson, while unable to sucessfully use his smite evil ability, did die a noble death at the giant sword of the evil King. (He also took a double maximized Scorching Ray hit, and stayed up thanks to DIEHARD) However, death is merely an inconvience in D&D, so I just got to sit the rest of the fight out. I'd like to think I made a difference in saving the lives of NPC villagers. -There was a really cool chaos battle where random members of the party fought a random monster round by round. The weird part? Abby's character and mine (the two lawful characters in the party) sat out for nearly all of it. -My favorite line of the night, that didn't get nearly enough appreciation, was thus: Hargo the Mighty, a fiendish orc aptly played by Eric, had been struck by an Inevitable and failed his saving throws, becoming deaf and blind. Hargo, being an orc, wasn't the brightest but continued on fighting dispite massive disability. I started to laugh: "Man, that deaf, dumb, and blind Orc sure plays a mean hardball!" -Bought a frisbee golf set and played with Ryan and Don. I lost horribly and was really tired by the end, but man was it fun. I'm going to force people here to play so I get use out of the special frisbees I bought. I hear there's a course in college park... -The group that originally inspired Quo Vadis! approved of it. I'm not so sure, because I seem to lose every time. That last time, I was totally win-blocked by Abby. Curse you, Workman! -Took Austin and Craig to see Kill Bill 2, mostly so I could continue making "Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique" references. Minor spoiler, so if you haven't seen it, don't read this next line: We rewatched Vol 1 beforehand, and after some IMDB research, was given this tidbit: If you look at the plane tickets in Vol 1, the main character's real name is revealed. Kinda neat. -Kona is delicious. Anybody know of a cafe around here with tons of delicious smoothies? -Ran into a bunch of random Westerners while eating at Mac & Joes. Then ran into (almost literally) Jason Zeh in the middle of the street, who I shouted at. He said "Holy Crap!" and jumped in the car, and we talked as I drove him to Wal-Mart. Sadly we didn't get to hang out the rest of the weekend, but it was good to touch base with him a last time, and under approrpriate circumstances. -Mike Z: "Well, I'll see you guys every year for the rest of my life." He goes to Origins, and so do I, so I guess he's right. Overall, a blast, if a bit sad on a number of levels. It didn't occur to me until I got there that, hey, this would have been my graduating class... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:01:48 AM ----- BODY: And so begins the Last Ride of Leonardo "Leo" Samson, Paladin and Cleric of Good, accompanied by his warhouse Shock. (I'll be in Ohio until late Sunday. Call me on my cell if you need me.) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:18:30 AM ----- BODY: iTunes is STILL screwing me. I upgraded to the new software, and was able to burn my songs to CD. Unfortunatly, the songs I legally purchased from them were not converted to MP3 format (even after selecting MP3 CD and not Data CD) so I can't listen to them in my car. However, my ill gotten tracks* burn fine, and I can listen to them in the car for my long trip ahead. So I tried, but it looks like I'll have to be more illicit if I actually want to use the tracks I've purchased legally. However, I did plug my dad's new external DVD burner into my computer. It works as well as expected, and comes with a whole host of software. The slideshow program didn't work all that well, and it seems that my parent's DVD player can't play VCDs anyway. It did come with a ridiculous piece of software. Basically, you take a video on your computer, and a track of music, and it creates a music video for you. The choice of video formats is a bit select, but I made a few samples, and man is that cool. Now, to get some more anime episodes, and have this software created anime music videos for me. *I don't have any illegal things on my computer. Really. And anyway, this post was made by Jake Sanches. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:13:23 AM ----- BODY: Titles to be constructed from my new license plate (yes, no more MD SMOF): Mystery Machine 200 MAME 200 Mime 200 (or, 200 Mimes) Meme x200 M-Mobile 200 Mme! 200 -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:11:20 AM ----- BODY: Here's the plan... Pack while drinking. It may make packing more inaccurate, but I'll get to sleep faster. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:09:53 AM ----- BODY: Billie Jean is NOT my lover. She's just a girl who thinks that _I_ am the one. But... The kid is not my son. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:15:18 PM ----- BODY: So first, my outrage: iTunes can't find my CD burner. So I can't burn the music I purchased last night from them onto a CD. (I may borrow my dad's fancy new external DVD-RW and give that a whirl to see if it'll recognize it, otherwise, I'm pissed and going to somewhere else) However, iTunes did show my two music videoes that have to be seen. First, The Darkness- I believe in a thing called love. Never before have I seen a more perfect synthesis of science fiction and gay. Second, Junior Senior- move your feet. It's a hilarious flash animation style video, made to a good song. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:35:39 AM ----- BODY: I bit the bullet today in two ways- First, after getting two free songs from a coworker, I signed up and downloaded iTunes. I'm still experimenting with it, but I'm blown away how much the audiobook tracks cost. It's like, 3-4 times the cost of the book in some cases! (Getting the free songs was the best part of today at work. God I hate my job sometimes.) Second, I signed up for Gmail after hearing a story on NPR's Talk of the Nation on Google. I did need a web email account to replace my constantly spammed yahoo account for when I'm on the road. It looks pretty sweet, though I was warned that Google's software reads my email then gives me ads based on what I say. Could get irritating. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:38:05 PM ----- BODY: "When you guys get together, it's like you get stoned without smoking anything" --Becky, referring to Danny and I -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:33:49 AM ----- BODY: If I had a better PDA, I could... Read comics on it Watch full movies on it Listen to music on it Put hilarious clips on it -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:20:43 AM ----- BODY: "Jodie Foster held two pair Bach had three of a kind Gandhi said, 'With my full house, I will blow your mind' Au contraire, Mahatma" --They Might Be Giants -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:19:24 AM ----- BODY: The death march ends (sorta), and I get to sleep... Now the question becomes, should I go to a party tomorrow? Do something else? Do something else and party? And do I have enough money to be doing all this and still go to Ohio next weekend? I did spend some money today... on much needed food, and Indestructible Object, which made me genuinely happy. It is a REALLY good ep. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:29:51 PM ----- BODY: Oh, on the way from game night to Kinko's, I had a brilliant idea for a LARP, which if I could ever get my act together for Balticon, I'll run there. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:29:12 PM ----- BODY: Phew, quite a day yesterday, mostly of failures. It was apparantly bring your son/daughter to work day, so I went out to lunch with my mom and a couple of her friends from work (she hangs out with older GAMERS!) and then took a quick tour of her office for the big government contractor. Then I zipped over to Eldersburg to buy the new Psionic's Handbook (sold out) and some D&D minis (sold out.) So I headed down south to College Park, hoping I'd be able to hook up with someone who knew of some game stores (or at least book stores with gaming stuff) but they were either busy with various work or sleeping. So I wandered about College Park for a bit- stopping by a book store (didn't have anything interesting), a big cd store (didn't have what I wanted), and a store that said they sold games (just video games). Eventually I decided I didn't want to wait for anyone, so I went to the comic shop. They DID have the new release I wanted, Superman: Secret Identity 4. Also they were having a sale on back issues, so I picked up some Green Arrow back issues, including Kevin Smith's entire run. But when I got up to the counter, I found out that it didn't mean all back issues, just the ones in boxes, so I didn't get the sale price on Lone. So then went to hang out with Danny in architecture studio for a bit, which was cool looking, but ultimately a bust because he had too much work to do. So hung out with Kory a bit, and the two of us along with John and Gina went to one of the many vegetarian cafes in the area. The menu looked great... but I ended up being the "designated Dave" as always and got my food way later than everyone else. And it was wrong. And I didn't get my side dish. And I had to ask several times to get my lemonade. Which I wanted sweet, which wasn't sweet, and all the sugar sank to the bottom. To put it lightly, the service blew bigtime. We headed over to game night kinda late because of sucky service. We played a prototype, which I'm liking more and more. We played High Society, attempting to fix it, and pretty much failing. Damn that game- it's easily one of the most frustratingly fun games I've ever played. Then there was some Mama Mia!, which I actually tied for first on, a new record for me in that game. (I hear that playing open information in that game is still fun, but according to my rules, wouldn't that make it Mama Mia?) Played some Limits/Double Safe, and then another Prototype. But my day didn't end there! Then I had to go to work. Yep, Kinko's needed a server reset, so the tech guy had to come in at 3 AM. The process took twice as long as the papers said it wouldn, and getting a cup of coffee at 4 in the morning proved overly difficult. I got home at about 5:15, then was woken up not too long after that, and have to go to work soon again. Then I run my D&D game. Then I can sleep... ah, delicious sleep... so far away... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:46:44 PM ----- BODY: "Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation." --Surprisingly good fortune I got in a fortune cookie tonight. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:10:21 AM ----- BODY: Ryan: Did you ever play parappa for playstation? See, if you did, you'd know the only way to a girls heart is having to repeat rap lyrics right after someone says it... Dave: Well, video games could teach me many lessons about girls For instance, my love life could be summed up with this tidbit of wisdom: "The princess is in another castle" -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:53:12 PM ----- BODY: Ryan: You know, there's an untapped market in fake meat. See "fantasy meat". Wanna eat a unicorn? We can give you unicor'n . Wanna eat "neptunian slug" ? We got ya covered. We can even give you hum'n ! (i'm such a genius) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:23:54 AM ----- BODY: "A cow just... ate them both..." "All right! Bovine intervention!" --The Tick -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:39:48 AM ----- BODY: I wonder what "brilliant" executive decided to open The Punisher, a comic book based revenge fantasy with lots of shooting with heavy weaponry, most likely devoid of artistry, against Kill Bill Vol. 2, a movie that could be considered the synthesis of all revenge fantasies from westerns and hong kong action movies, with tons of small wonderful artistic touches? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:49:31 PM ----- BODY: The Accidental Video Game Porn Archive -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:23:37 AM ----- BODY: Tons o' good free legal music -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:13:53 AM ----- BODY: Batmobile Pointy! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:40:13 AM ----- BODY: Vegetarian Online Food StoreVegan Seafood sampler... oh dear god yes! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:12:35 PM ----- BODY: So, I met this Kinko's "creepiest" customer. A rather over-jubilant fellow. He looks EXACTLY like an older Brandon. Freaky. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:52:48 PM ----- BODY: Chicks dig the new car. ::ahem:: Sorry. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:52:21 PM ----- BODY: Just filed my taxes online... while listening to "Duel of the Fates" -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:41:09 PM ----- BODY: I'm working on a Contractor Game. :) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:45:58 PM ----- BODY: Dave: Keep up the good work of the Pac-man Liberation Organization Ryan: Will do. They can invade the west bank, but we'll make sure to keep the high score at the machine in the pizza hut there -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:51:20 PM ----- BODY: Cross blogage from GinohnNews: "Dave Chalker had bought a new car that day, a Scion xB, and we checked it out as we were leaving. It was pretty cool, but I think it's funny looking, so ugly it's almost "cute". " Danny's reaction was similar, but he kept making noises to indicate all the things a cube-shaped car could do. It's really impossible to replicate in blog form. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:48:43 PM ----- BODY: And of course, the Game Night report: We played games by our favorite designers that, of course, we improved upon. When I came in, people were playing a modified High Society. Then I played a different modified High Society. Neither one fixed the problem satisfactorily. I think I've come up with the best variant to fix it: You can't play the game if you have a good memory. (I lost) Next was Mama Mia! which was unchanged from the original rules, even though we discussed that playing the game open was OK. There's a lot more strategy to that little game than I remembered, it's really neat. (I lost) It became really confusing when we inspired people to order pizza, then our calling out of ingredients confused the pizza orderers. Then there was Limits (aka Double Safe), modified to great result by the Wunderland crew. (I lost) Then we finally played five player Quo Vadis! which worked out just as I hoped. The scores were all within a few points of each other, and there was enough overlap in the range to convince me that it fixes the problem. Hooray! I invented a variant. As usual, we ended with Schaufenster, using the house variants. (I lost... darnit, I should have played Why Did the Chicken... I can retire undefeated in that game right now) I also have a few game ideas up my sleeve that I may develop tonight pre-D&D... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:33:20 PM ----- BODY: Alright, so I went a bit overboard with my paycheck yesterday... and I also had one heckuva day. First, woke up (late) and was told that I had to take Steve to his nutritionist. That put me under a time crunch. So hurredly ate breakfast, then went to H&R Block to get my taxes done. The old man who did them didn't really help get me any extra money. In fact, he informed me, I would not be receiving a tax refund at all from the US government, in fact, I would owe them $10. Not only that, but the W-2 I gave him showed that I would owe nearly $500 in Maryland taxes! Apparantly that one didn't show that I was working in Ohio. I have since gotten a second W-2 that is the Ohio funds, and since I didn't make any income in MD, hopefully I won't have to pay that absurd fee, and that the Ohio stuff was enough. But still, to find out my first time filing taxes I won't get ANY federal tax refund, even after all these tax cuts that cost me the ability to finish school? Now I'm even madder at the government! But back on track, after deciding to hold off on the tax stuff until the states were settled (I'll probably just file on my own now), I raced back home, picked up mom and Steve, drove to Giant to drop off prescriptions and pick up my Oxford pictures. A large number of them didn't turn out because of the crappy flash, but most of the important ones came out. I'll try posting some later. So raced to Reisterstown, did the whole nutrionist thing with Steve, then raced back to Giant, then back home, then off to College Park. Went to a Closet of Comics, which is a really well-stocked comic store. Bought Superman: Secret Identity 1-3 (can't wait for 4, though I fear it'll end with Clark Kent getting old and dying, which'll be pretty sad.) Y: The Last Man 20-21, the Planetary/Batman crossover, and the three newest Green Arrow issues (featuring The Riddler. There's a great match-up.) Then there was dinner at IHOP, then Game Night, where I bought my own copy of Why Did the Chicken... for full MSRP because I believe in supporting small game companies, especially ones run by friends. (Though I did try to wriggle out of paying, I mean, that's what I do, and I could have always bought it from here) Film, gas, comics, game, plus cheapo games yesterday... yeah, a little too much spent. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:09:43 AM ----- BODY: ICv2 News - Tarantino's Animated Prequel to Kill Bill -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:57:56 PM ----- BODY: So if anyone wants their own copy of Star Wars: Epic Duels (aka swizizizogudhauodhguoa) for real cheap, let me know. Toy Works is closing out, and has tons of copies for like $3.50 each. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:29:02 PM ----- BODY: Quo Vadis! (to be posted on website upon access to Dreamweaver) Quo Vadis? is a one of my favorite negotiation games, designed by Reiner Knizia. However, the game has what us game design types call "Hidden Trackable" information, in that there is no real hidden information. If you have a piece of paper and a pen, or a really good memory, you know what everyone has score-wise at all times. The rules say the score is hidden, and that indeterminate score at the end is a really interesting part of the game. An interesting part, unfortunatly, that is ruined by the hidden trackable problem. If you were to play with open scores, the game would not be good. So I've created a variant for the game. I modified the pieces in my set, however, if you're really gung-ho you could create your own new tiles for it. Take the scoring tiles and divide them up into four piles: IV and V tiles, II and III tiles, II caesar head tiles, and the I tiles. Mark the seperate piles different colors. I used shiny stick-on stars from Staples. The IV and V got gold stars on the back, II and III tiles got silver stars, the II caesar head got red stars, and the I's were left blank. Shuffle the non I tiles together like normal, but make them into a stack with the star side up instead of putting them into a bag. Fill the board as per the normal game, but declare a preset way you're going to fill the board, since you'll be able to see the next tile coming at all times. Play the game as normal, except that whenever a tile is placed, it is placed facedown from the top of the stack. The person who takes the tile may look at it, but no one else may until the game is over. Whenever a red tile is taken, the caesar head is moved like normal. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 6:22:13 PM ----- BODY: Tilez for D&D Minis: http://www.davegh.com/blade/davegh.htm http://www.3rdedition.org/merricb/miniresources.htm -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 6:40:16 PM ----- BODY: Eldritch: Our protagonist, given immense powers by a mysterious book. Mr. Peanut: The main villian. A strange shapeshifting creature. Spends most of his time as either a light bluish pustule-like creature of large size with random tentacle protrusions. Also spends time as a thin man in a black suit and top hat. Lana Craft: The love interest. Incredibly intelligent book collector, well traveled despite being in her mid-twenties. The League of Campus Defenders: A superhero group whose efforts are focused on the local college town. They include: The Screaming Vegan, The Feminist Avenger, and the Secultarian. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:25:47 AM ----- BODY: Feminist/Gay theory and comics? Sold! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:41:31 AM ----- BODY: IT MUST BE MINE! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:19:49 AM ----- BODY: Scroll down to May 29th, aka the Saturday of Balticon. Does that freakin' rock or what? That's more of a reason to come to Balticon... even though gaming will be abandoned of staff for Saturday night! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:38:18 PM ----- BODY: This list is +5 to amuse Gamers. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:44:07 PM ----- BODY: Went to Jake's for Cayuga Con '04. Here's what I played: -Mysterious Kory game that I will tell interested parties personally. -High Society. Lots of it. I'm convinced that 3 players is the best way to play. I also came up with what I think is a pretty good idea on how to fix the Hidden Trackable problem with it. (I seem to be doing that a lot with Knizia's games lately...) -Expedition. German game that seems to combine the chain reaction plays of Volcano with that animation in movies of red dotted lines moving around the globe to indicate travelling. -Cluzze. Dominic's game of Clay shaping. Jake seemed good at guessing my puzzles in the first round while no one else did. -Werewolf. I had another one of my weird intuitive bursts right at the beginning of the game where one person just stuck out in my mind as a Werewolf immediatly, but couldn't convince enough people (or myself.) I keep relearning this lesson, but it's a hard one: stick to your intuition. Rich played a great game and ended up winning, despite me saying at the round before my lynching "remember EVERYTHING I've said because once you find out I'm a villager you'll need it." It was a fantastic game. Also played show people my new car, drive new car home at 5 AM in the pouring rain, receive $20 for a good but complicated reason, and curse my forgetfulness of daylight savings because it cost me an hour of sleep. On the plus side, on my return, I found Batman to be done. Now to start on the even large Detective Comics... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:29:57 PM ----- BODY: I've discovered that the oversize color printer here has a roll of printable vinyl. Giant D&D battlemats, anyone? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:29:22 PM ----- BODY: Speaking of Psions, it looks like Wizards is going to finally have them right. A lot of the previews look very good (including doing the obvious of collapsing all those sensory switch powers into one power called Synathese... something I did with my own Psionic system years ago.) I think they'll be borrowing from a lot of the good supplementary material that has come out from 3rd parties since 3rd ed came out. Oh, and I'm sure the true Nerds will be happy with the Soulknife base class. Though it made more sense as a prestige class, there's plenty out there who want to play a Jedi in D&D, and this is a good way to do it. Of course, you can't forget the idea coming from the X-(wo)man Psylocke. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:25:49 PM ----- BODY: I bought car. After Honda financing was unwilling to deal with me, I took my car over to Koon's. First I visited the used car lot and wasn't all that impressed. Not only that, but it was one of my versions of hell: my used car salesman was a guy who picked on me in high school. So I got my revenge by making him get the keys to a bunch of different cars, having to walk back and forth in the rain while doing so. I also made him sit out in the rain while I sat in various cars. (For reference, the only two cars I fit in there was a Pontiac Sunfire and a Toyata Echo. I'll post later a guide to what I feel has a comfortable driver's seat for tall people.) I liked the fit of the Echo- and it was a small car to boot. Unfortunatly, it didn't have power steering, which was REALLY obnoxious and for me undriveable especially for the amount of money they wanted. So I went to the actual Toyota dealer next door where upon setting foot in I spotted the Scion. Talked to the guy, and about 5 hours later, I was the proud owner of a Scion XB. I was going to call the Honda Element the Elemental, but with this I can call the Scion the Psion. Payments are a bit more than what I wanted to pay per month, but they were immediatly willing to work with me despite my credit problems. And they gave me the same deal on the Taurus that Honda was going to give me. The '96 Davemobile is officially gone. Hopefully it'll be reconditioned and still have a nice life ahead of it. The Psion is a pretty strange looking box-car, but I'm all about strange looking, and there's tons and tons of room inside. Gas mileage is good too- I've been to Bethesda and back in additon to work and still have 3/4 of the tank left. (We'll see how big the tank is... might be a shock on the first fillup) I would have liked to have gotten a Hybrid, especially from what I've heard from a friend that she fills her Civic Hybrid up about once a month. (However, I don't fit in a Civic driver's seat.) Maybe in 3 years, when my warranty runs out on the Psion, after I've been making payments on time, I'll trade it in for a Hybrid of some sort with lower payments. But the Psion totally rocks. The stereo that comes standard is really good, though it makes me paranoid that my car will get broken into and the stereo stolen. It's a CD player with MP3 CD playback capability, just like my old walkman that I hooked up to the tape deck. It also has some really nice features like a Mute button. Overall, I'm overjoyed. And seriously this time, my job at Kinko's is getting better. Getting a first paycheck always makes any job that much more bearable. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:42:26 PM ----- BODY: No new Honda for me... got turned down. It wouldn't have been so bad had the dealer and the credit guy been convinced (or at least convinced me) that it wasn't going to be a problem, I would just have to stretch on the payments. So much for that! So tomorrow, I make at least one more voyage in the Davemobile, to another car dealer who will sell me one. One of them that deals with poor people alot. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:02:15 AM ----- BODY: No new car yet. Probably going to have a Honda Element tomorrow. I did, however, get a free copy of High Society by Reiner Knizia, a wonderful game. So I guess that works out? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:21:44 AM ----- BODY: EDIT: APRIL FOOL'S! Big news! I just got an email today from Green Robin publishing. I talked to them a GenCon, and told them about my d20 modern supplement, the Conspiracy Campus. Well, they've decided after these months that they have a whole in their schedule, and that they'd like to publish it if I finish the manuscript! I don't have all the details of course, but they're talking a pretty decent advance, which means that car shopping later is going to be oh so sweet. Plus it means I'll be apartment shopping might be in the future. I'll definitely keep the Kinko's job though... it's getting better the more I work there, and could find myself enjoying working there 40 hours a week. Shouldn't be that hard to finish my manuscript in my spare time and work there. So grate news for me! EDIT: Anyone catch Witch Hunter Robin last night? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:41:52 PM ----- BODY: Here's the car I'd like to get tomorrow. But it'll depend on a lot of things going my way. And as you all should know, I don't have the greatest luck... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:23:08 AM ----- BODY: How a hologram, a blimp, and a massively multiplayer game could bring peace to the Holy Land. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:10:42 PM ----- BODY: Alex Ross Art: Home -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:32:35 PM ----- BODY: "Ever notice when walking in oxford just how much porn you can catch being shown on people's tv's? I counted at least 4 yesterday..." -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:31:18 PM ----- BODY: I had this dream last night about a game. And the game sounded really good, but it doesn't really exist. But there were enough details in the dream that it could actually be made. It was like a live action roleplaying game real-time strategy game. There were several "team captains" who started out with a certain amount of gold pieces. The baseline rules were based on AD&D 2e, but in the dream, the organizers of the LARP were trying to update it to 3e. I was one of the team captains (playing some sort of pirate.) Each captain gets a large amount of gold pieces (in the dream, 200,000 to be exact) with which to hire the other players of the LARP and equip them. Each other player in the LARP had their own character designed of various levels and abilities (and classes.) They had freedom to go to whatever captain they wanted, whether it fit with their character or one was offering the best stuff. Each person had an objective, but the team captains had a bunch of overall objectives. They also had to establish bases, which cost money and manpower of other players. Looking back at it now, it would make sense that the more powerful you were, the more objectives you had and the harder they were. Apparantly in my dream universe, this was a real rulekook put out by TSR during the days of AD&D. It even had a name: Amhurst. I woke up from the dream before the game had really played out very far and so lacked a conclusion. But when I did wake up, I thought, damn, that is a really good idea for a game! So I believe that shall be one of my upcoming projects. I managed to crawl over to my computer right after waking up to type out all the rules that I remembered which were surprisingly well made in the dream and translated well into real life. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:12:25 PM ----- BODY: Factoid: Most car dealerships aren't open on Sundays. Who knew? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:08:10 PM ----- BODY: So here's the scoop... I start on my real shift at Kinko's tomorrow. By the end of the week, the majority of people I worked at the start with will be gone. I'm unsure who I'll be working with, or what really I'll be doing. Friday I got to spend the day working on various computers and other machines, and also wasted time eating lunch with my mom at the sushi place nearby. On the way home on Friday, I slam on my brakes to avoid hitting a suddenly stopped car in traffic. I brake in time, but my brakes begin making a horrible creaking noise whenever used and respond much more poorly. I decided that this is probably the death knell (cleric 2) for my car, as I don't feel like spending $200 on my car just to trade it in in a few weeks. Which leads to the fun! I don't get my first (one week) pay check until Friday, and I don't get paid for another two weeks after that. My car is almost undriveable. I work this week and apparantly can't borrow a car "in case" my dad wants to go to a doctor's appointment at some point during the week. While my mom and dad were discussing this without me last night, they got into a huge screaming argument in front of my brother in the car. The whole thing comes out that he's mad at me because I didn't help pay for my car at all (not true) and that I should start paying rent because he paid rent and he didn't even have a car until he was 25. Never mind the fact that due to my dad's inability to actually take a paying job and his total mismangement of our finances, compounded with the fact that I've had more than $20,000 of inheritance taken from me in order to pay his bills (when my car was like $6k), added to the fact that he didn't contribute one lick to my education, in fact, was unwilling even to provide forms or make phone calls so that I wouldn't be in the situation I am now with loans being canceled and debt being levied, well, you have one gigantic run-on sentence of utter crap. Apparantly I don't do enough around the house either. Oh, and have I mentioned that I moved from my posh apartment and steady income to take care of his over-eating obese diabetic heart-bypassed ass? And now he wants to charge me rent for giving up my life to take care of him? Yeah, that's totally fair. Meanwhile I've got debt collectors bugging me again, I owe various people money to have gotten this job (in near record time) and my old debts still not being dealt with at all. Things are great. That's the update. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:02:39 PM ----- BODY: A little hokey, but worth it. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:58:45 PM ----- BODY: It was my fourth day at Kinko's. It was also the first day that I actually sat a copy down on the platen glass of a copier to make copies. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:38:19 PM ----- BODY: The author of this was just on TechTV... apparantly she says that a lot more people are getting grad degrees in Game Design and Theory. Sigh... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:37:52 PM ----- BODY: I started work at Kinko's. It's starting to get depressing. I'll have to elaborate later since I have to wake up at 6:30 tomorrow for it. Thankfully (so I'm told) this morning stuff is only this week to train with the guy I'm replacing. But, I do have good news. My best friend just got engaged, and asked me to be his best man! Which means I have two years to afford a nice suit. Ha! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:57:16 PM ----- BODY: How Do You Get Your Ideas? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:49:21 PM ----- BODY: Which reminds me... Why are there so many, games about pirates? Someday we'll find the pirate connection, somedays arrr dreams will come true. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:48:29 PM ----- BODY: Good interview... I can't believe that the president of Cheapass did the beforementioned American Idol CCG! And Treasure Island has got to rock with those designers at the helm. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:20:31 PM ----- BODY: A great name for a boardgame website would be "The Lone Meeple" -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:39:42 PM ----- BODY: Buy this game from this website. No questions- just do it. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:02:59 PM ----- BODY: Here's my living through a major news source's report because I couldn't be there GAMA report (i.e. a couple of comments on Gamingreport.com's pictures) That's Kory's game (and Jake's company) I suppose it was only a matter of time, but man is this stupid. Who really wants to play an Americal Idol game if you can't sing anyway? Unless, of course, the game has very little to do with the property it is based on and it is some sort of slapped on (and probably bad) game play. Hey, WEG is back, and now, they don't have ANY licenses! No Looneys shot, though, which is a shame. I forgot until recently that my name is in the Icetowers book, so go Icetowers! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:07:19 PM ----- BODY: So you know who got the job at Kinko's at max starting pay? This guy! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:06:35 PM ----- BODY: The question was answered by the always knowledgable Richie: Barry Allen died fighting the Anti-Monitor, but just on one universe ('cause that's all that ever existed according to post-crisis). Seems clean enough. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:18:30 PM ----- BODY: I'd do it, but someone else would have to do all the important bits! (drawing and so forth) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:15:37 AM ----- BODY: "Why... it's an alien space capsule! That's what caused the explosion!" "Of course-- and the radiation glow must have affected me in some way, giving me the characteristics of any animals in my general vicinity!" "There's something touching about the blind faith with which they greet the impossible." "It's always been the same on this stratum: radiation, chemical accidents, magic rings. The physical laws under which these people operate are all but incomprehensible!" --Animal Man, Secret Origins -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:58:00 AM ----- BODY: This still doesn't answer my big comics question right now... how, in the post-crisis continuity, where I thought the Crisis wasn't a perceived event to current characters, how was Barry Allen's death explained? Oh, and I read all of Sandman today. Yes all of it. All today. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:56:20 AM ----- BODY: The genius and hilarity of Adult Swim's current Flying Shark vs. Flying Crocodile ad cannot be understated. I just wish they wouldn't play it so much. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:55:32 AM ----- BODY: It begins at the material realm. One step removed is that which is most familar to the mass conciousness of the present- the realm Pop Culturon and Sitcomia. In the former lives the figures of modern mythology. The cowboy, Darth Vader, and laser guns. In the latter are the images of that wich is familiar but distilled: the wise father, the wacky neighbor, the ditzy friend. At the far end are the impressions with the least form. Metaphors, icons, and raw ideas dwell here. The gradiations between the realm of the abstract and the realm of the concrete are what form the basis for all imagination. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:27:55 PM ----- BODY: Been reading a lot of stuff lately that involves a bunch of historical/mythical figures all bound together. In fact, I'm working on my own version of that sort of thing, perhaps for my RPG. I'll post some ideas about that later, but for now, here's a good reading list: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Promethea Sandman Fables Silverlock The Dark Tower series -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:47:03 PM ----- BODY: Interviewed with Kinko's yesterday. The first good sign was that several of the employees there were guys with facial hair and long hair in ponytails. I think the interview went well; the manager seemed nice and energetic. She said because of my previous experience, I'd get paid extra. The pay would be more than the specialist position I was offered at Staples, which was what I was hoping for. (Well, I guess I was hoping for an absurd rate of pay for little work, but realistically, I was hoping for a bit more than a Staples promotion.) Plus, the guy who's leaving and job I would be taking did their tech work on their computers, and I would love to do tech work as part of my job. I also asked about the discount, because I know I'll be making some prototypes at that place. When explaining the discount, she mentioned that she gave an extra discount to the guys who are making their own comic book. Of course, I'm going to have to show them up with my obviously superior comic books. It sounds like this could be good for me... let's just hope I actually get it. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:14:15 PM ----- BODY: Hilarious spam roundup: > These hot amateur girls do *it* for their first time, ON THE INTERNET of all things My god... on the internet? Shocking! > Start smoking today! Well, I didn't because of the peer pressure or because of the advertising, but if this spam says I should... > Subject: no one will love u if u are fat mismatched Ouch, that hurts! Especially that mismatched part. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:35:20 PM ----- BODY: You know you have a problem when... You start thinking of download speeds in "rounds" -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:12:33 AM ----- BODY: The Honor of the Apron -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:49:00 AM ----- BODY: I have decided it is my fate to not be able to download at broadband speeds for nifty stuff. If it's not one thing, it's another... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:47:54 AM ----- BODY: "The tetsaiga effectively changes from a katana to a falchion, changing its damage from 1-10 to 2d8 and upping its threat range to 18-20. And if you know what that means, you have a problem." --Adult Swim card during Inuyasha -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:34:29 AM ----- BODY: Take that, LJ, you totally got burned by a webcomic. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:42:50 PM ----- BODY: So I've decided that I'm going to fix the "hidden trackable" problem with Quo Vadis? Of course, the redesigned game is going to be called Quo Vadis! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:41:08 PM ----- BODY: "The heroes of the Justice League return in August with a new series, Justice League Unlimited , which incorporates a bold new look and a much larger scope. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern continue to lead the universe's most powerful superheroes in an effort to stop criminal plots and alien threats that endanger the universe. Now, in Justice League Unlimited , they are joined by an even greater collection of heroes some of whom are well-known, like Supergirl, Green Arrow and the Atom, as well as some that are less familiar, like Booster Gold, Hawk & Dove, Elongated Man, The Question, Mister Miracle, Big Barda and Zatanna. Each half-hour will tell a power-packed story, combining some of the original heroes with new ones as they band together to battle alien invasions, powerful sorcerers, vast shadowy conspiracies and even ancient gods." Green Arrow, huzzah! Big Barda... guh? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:38:52 PM ----- BODY: Totally got to geek out tonight. Speedy fought Robin on Teen Titans tonight... and he used the boxing glove arrow! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:17:13 AM ----- BODY: So have I mentioned that I'm unemployed? If anyone wants to offer me a job out of nowhere, that would be GREAT. Don't be shy. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:01:17 AM ----- BODY: Argh, uploading on Blogger over this cruddy cellular phone internet connection is really poor. But I went to the Games Club of Maryland Westminster branch tonight with Justin. The guy running it is a friend of my parents, so that made it a bit easier. (There were like, 4 or 5 Dave's there. Creepy.) I played Attika, which was good but didn't seem like it lived up to all the hype. It's a resource management quasi-tile laying game with I guess what you could call an artifical luck control system. It's interesting, and might be worth additional plays to get the strategy, but there wasn't enough unique or that stood out to be a great game in my book. I also played Medici, a Knizia auction game. I liked it alot, though it was very harsh. You have such a wide range of bids that it's hard to chose an appropriate one, and if you choose wrong, you definitely pay for it. I liked it alot though, and definitely want to play again with more people. The graphic design really hurts the game though... there are a lot of bad choices made on the main board that don't make any sense and make it hard to get a sense of the current game state at any given point. For the last game of the evening, while others collapsed into Settlers (which I was expecting, that or Puerto Rico, but I'm more willing to play PR than Settlers nowadays) I brought out my copy of Coloretto, the chameleon game not about chameleons. It was the first time that I can remember getting utterly destroyed in that game. I guess my bad luck in the game evens out with the fantastic run of luck I had a couple days ago. That was the last game of the evening, but Sackson's I'm the Boss was there, and I desperately wanted to play it, but it was not to be. Sigh... just out of my grasp once again. I pointed this out to Justin afterwards- it seems like every group has one guy who gets angry and obnoxious if he doesn't like one tiny thing. One guy, named Dave I believe, was VERY upset that you could have two horses in Bang! but only one gun. "It doesn't make sense!" he cried. A guy named Dave said, "You're thinking about it too logically." And I thought to myself, "Geez, it's just a game. No one is expecting anyone to try to use two horses." I will probably go to the next one in two weeks. I put myself on the mailing list so I'll have reminders. And maybe this time I'll show up on time. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:44:44 AM ----- BODY: From the packing slip of the packages I received today, and proof that I had the greatest coworkers ever: "Just a reminder that we, the one conjoined conscious of Staples 1020, think YOU Dave Chalker are a beautiful, beautiful man... and we love you as much as a group of retail employees could possibly love a big, sexy, hunk of man such as yourself. Good luck you lovely creature. -" ::sniff:: Excuse me, I need a moment... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:20:34 PM ----- BODY: Family Guy Returnith! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:25:50 AM ----- BODY: Vitamin-filled echanacia mega-tea! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:24:41 AM ----- BODY: Consarn it! They're stealing my ideas! It's the orbital mind control lasers! Wizards of the Coast and comic book author are reading my mind from space... Where's my tinfoil hat? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:41:24 PM ----- BODY: Oh yes, for anyone who wants to reach me in these next few days, my internet will be disconnected or crappy. Please call me at 513-290-9163 (a local call from O-town) -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:39:54 PM ----- BODY: The Last Hurrah for Oxford A car full of stuff is in the hands of UPS now which just leaves the stuff that's going to travel by car or get thrown out. Being the last weekday before my departure, I'm going to have to drop of my cable box and cable modem soon, so I'd better give my last post here from this apartment. (I may post using my wonderful phone-machine later on.) This is my last, sappy, shout-out post to everyone who has made a difference while I've been out here in Ohio (and Indiana.) Thank you to: The Staples Crew: The sad irony is that you give some of the best customer service of any store because you are better than the job you are working in. Working in Hamilton in that field is definitely a unique experience, one that I will never forget, and I know that you all are great and intelligent people and will go on to better things... and will never become the customers that we've had to deal with. Ryan: I definitely have to thank you for putting up with all my annoying questions when I became a vegetarian and since then. You're an example of the kind of vegetarian that I want to be: someone who leads by example and not by pressuring. Hope you're able to stay in and get that Philosophy degree and do something great with your life. (Oh, and your terminology is great too.) Don: The other long-haired hippie at Staples, your irreverancy is beyond match and you are easily one of the funniest people I've ever met. You and Ryan need to keep the Band going... I've never heard your music, so I don't know if it's good or not, but the spirit of Rock & Roll is much more important than analyzing inventory for a corporation that punishes you for doing your job too well. Dallas: What can I say about Black Spy to my White Spy, my arch-nemesis drinking buddy who I have never drank with? I'm glad that things are going well enough for you that you can buy awesome TV's. Finish up school though... for your sense of humor and intelligence would be wasted on being management at Staples. Whenever you see that cheap looking bottle of Grain, remember me. The MU Westerners and Allies: Even though I only took a year and a half of actual Western, I will definitely always consider myself a Western College student no matter where I go and what I do. Thanks for being different and proud of it. I'm still sad that I won't be able to receive one of the most useless degrees in existance... Friday Night D&Ders: Man, after tonight, it's just going to feel wrong, like all those other times there was no Friday night game. Maybe I will have to set one up and steal all of Justin's ideas... mwa ha ha ha ha. Megen: I know you're sad, and I am too, but look at it this way. We've known each other forever, and of everyone else, I have the highest chance of seeing you many, many times more. Just don't even leave fandom (ha, like that'd ever happen) Maybe I'll start making Midwestcons more frequently... Abby: The Ooey Goodness- you know you want to come to Baltimore for North America's biggest anime convention... Mike: "The Father of modern SGC." I told you once that if there were no game club starting at Miami I would have made one. I'm glad that we've started something that I hope will continue on and continue to grow every year, even after you finally decide to leave your (admittedly really sweet) job. We'll have to throw down with some Archfiends the next time we meet. Remember, now that I've left, it's up to you to fill the void of guy who purchases all the games for others to play... ;) Seth: You REALLY have to run a horror game. It'd be awesome. And I forgive you for introducing Brandon to the friday night game. You've more than made up with it with your happy songs and excellence choice of bands. Craig: Though nowadays you just hate everything except Stwazararsls, you've always been great at being critical of my games and ideas, which is something that I really need. Otherwise, the Ninja's power might still be the original. Austin: People have referred to you as my biggest fan, an honor I'm surely not deserving of from someone as imaginiative and funny as you. We can't let all our potential collaborations come to a halt here- there's too much work that has to be done. As soon as you graduate Western, I'm driving out and kidnapping you, and we're game designing dammit. And doing something with Werewolves, because you're right, they are really cool. Jason: You've opened my mind to a world of music and indie-ness that I'm glad I got to experience. You are easily one of the most unique individuals that I have gotten the pleasure to get to know well, and I hope that your vegan soup kitchen concert venue in Chicago becomes a reality. Never stop making music either. When the N-Tron noise tour comes to my area, I'm following like a groupie. Finally... Laura: I don't know if it's in my power to accept your apologies or even if that's a worthwhile gesture. I think the biggest thing I can say to you is that you're finally becoming mature and doing the right thing. Jen: You introduced me to a world of intellectualism that I have not been able to shake despite falling from academic to blue collar worker. Thinking back I know I didn't treat you like you should have been treated, and I hope you've found happiness since away from your family. Alex: There's a million things that I want to say and reveal here, but I'm not going to. It's meaningless and empty, and everything will fade with time and distance. What I did I did not out of hate or lack of love but because of hurt, and if you couldn't see that, it was for the best for the both of us. Despite your facade, I know inside you are a scared little girl, taken from her home that just wants to be loved by everyone. What you are doing now is not that answer, and I hope someday you will realize that instead of falling further. Once, Oxford was our town. Now it is yours. To the Legitimate Businessmans Society, Extended Family, and Wunderland Toast Society (man, I know a lot of societies), I'll see you soon. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:19:15 AM ----- BODY: "My name is Paragon. I am Heroism Incarnate. All other heroes are reflections of me. Otherworldly power and human ambition are merely facets of my greater whole. I am the object from which all champions are derived." -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:51:34 PM ----- BODY: Devastatin' Dave... The Turntable Slave! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:45:38 PM ----- BODY: Had a really bad day at work. Which in a way, is a good thing. It has reminded me of everything I hate about my job: the two-faceness of the management, the ridiculous rules that treat me like I'm 8, crazy customers who cease to be funny and just end up being mean and, well, crazy, priorities that have making things look nice over selling things or treating your employees well. And being reminded of all this will push me extra hard to get a real job next week. Honor of the Salesman may suffer, but I gotta do what I gotta do. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:46:41 AM ----- BODY: I slept on top of a bottle cap that says "toothbrush" last night. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:34:21 AM ----- BODY: This won't mean anything unless you're familiar with D&D Planescape and d20 Modern... but man is it mind-blowing. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:42:46 PM ----- BODY: Deconstructionist superheroes, as exemplified by the wonderful Planetary. Deconstructionist rpgs: Probably something like Mage that unifies all theories of magic in history. Deconstructionist campaign setting for all weirdness investigation games: what I'm working on. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:18:58 PM ----- BODY: The afterlife is supposed to be an eternal paradise. The Greeks had their Elysium Fields with Hades, their guardian. The Norse went to Valhalla. But times change. Beliefs evolve. And in the shapings of the Afterlife, even the dead may die. This time, they aren't going to take it lying down. Will ancient ghosts be able to stem the tide of an Afterlife that threatens to envelop their own? Or will their afterlife be shunted off, never receiving the souls of anyone knew, and falling into stagnation? Can the dead convince the living that they're important? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:23:03 PM ----- BODY: toby: have started playing chess a fair amount toby: and have learned go Dave: I'd like to learn more about Go Dave: I'm still fairly disdainful of chess toby: b/c you think it's fiddly? Dave: It has fiddly rules, but that's not why I dislike toby: chess is one of the best games out there toby: so why the disdain? Dave: Arguable, and popular does not equal best Dave: It's deterministic toby: certainly not - i happen to think it's a great game Dave: In many cases there is no point to playing- one person will always beat the other, and in many cases, there is nothing to be learned by the loser tobysayre: true - it's a game of advanced strategy and tactics Dave: Games like Go have a higher potential for advancement Dave: Well, strategy, not so much tactics as the current board state doesn't matter as much as what's going to hapen toby: i disagree - once one player has the upper hand in go, i think it's easier for them to continue to dominate toby: than in chess Dave: I'll agree with you but that's a different point toby: advancement as in easier to learn? Dave: It has what's called a "Rich get Richer" problem. But along the way in Go there's much more you can learn and much more of a chance of the game being protracted long enough so that the loser actually learns something while playing Dave: Instead of being checkmated in x moves Dave: Plus there's this funny thing called the "fun" element... :-) toby: perhaps this is true, but it is counter to my own, albeit limited, experience - jon kelvey and i both learned go together for the first time, and i continued to beat him again and again toby: he did learn eventually toby: but i've seen people pick up chess quicker Dave: But you don't have that problem in chess? toby: different people, yes toby: also, games are not "fun" - they are serious mental excercizes Dave: But assuming you and Kelvey started really playing chess for a long time (which is impossible, I remember him being really into chess back in high school) do you think it'd be a big back and forth? Because that hasn't been my experience at all toby: as in - one player will always be better? Dave: In my experiences, yes toby: perhaps, but that's why there are multiple chess players in the world - you can play more than one person, learn in different ways from each game, and you will improve your game Dave: I've known groups who claim that it's always a big back and forth between two people of roughly equal skill level Dave: Sure, but really... Dave: In order to have enjoyment out of the game, should I really have to play a lot against a single person, then seek out slightly better other players so as to improve my game? Dave: There's a lot of work to improve at chess toby: when someone uses a pawn fork against you for the first time, and you're like "whoa, hadn't thought of that" you will do it yourself next time you get the chance Dave: Maybe that's what appeals to you, which is cool, but I'd much rather be able to pick up a game and play it against other people and figure out unique strategies for myself toby: no, you should take advantage of the fact that there are multiple people who play chess toby: and play against all of them Dave: That's what I'm saying toby: not just one at a time toby: like in mortal combat Dave: So the only ideal form of chess is playing against multiple tables? toby: "now that i have beaten you, i can move up to the next level" toby: not simultaneously toby: of course toby: i think this might be the kind of the where we're agreeing, but disagreeing in how we agree Dave: Hmm, possibly toby: perhaps one of those "in person" conversations we always hear about would be better to discuss this Dave: And we're both colored by our own experiences, and by our own preferences. I've found that there's a lot of "german-style" gamers that don't like chess and vice versa Dave: But both seem to be comfortable with Go toby: hmh toby: i'm not really familiar with the "german-style" Dave: You've played Settlers of Catan, right? toby: yeah, and that other one that's similar toby: w/ a foreign sounding name Dave: That tends to be the most representative of german-style games, not necessarily the best however toby: ok toby: well, one big difference here is the random element Dave: Elements of skill and strategy with an element of chance that can be overcome through skillful play, often with strong interative elements toby: neither chess nor go have one, with the exception of who goes first Dave: Well yes, it's pure strategy no hidden information toby: like "rummy" the card game toby: random, but still plenty of room for strategy Dave: Which is what I prefer, though there are pure strategy games I like Dave: Games that I don't consider work toby: so you consider chess "work"?! Dave: toby: also, games are not "fun" - they are serious mental excercizes Dave: :-) toby: right toby: i was mostly joking Dave: It was more true than you realize toby: lol toby: but curious - which games w/ no randoms do you like? Dave: Othello has always been a favorite of mine toby: ah toby: sort of like go toby: a little simpler Dave: Yeah toby: as i remember, you don't have to completely surround the opposing groups, just put two of your pieces on either end? toby: (of a straight line of pieces) Dave: Yes toby: good game Dave: Yeah Dave: I like that it's very simple and you only have a few moves to choose from, but the choice is agonizing. I also like that it's possible to come back, which is very rare is all strategy or mostly strategy games toby: right, prolly easier in othello than go Dave: It's a big reason I don't like risk anymore Dave: Yep toby: well, we'll have to play some games when you get back -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:37:18 AM ----- BODY: So tired... D&D went very late. Then I was up for a bit preparing. At about 4:30 I tried to go to bed. OF COURSE, this is when one of my jerkass neighbors decided it would be a good idea to start blaring music with heavy base. (Heavy base usually is what keeps me awake because it really seems to mess with my heartbeat.) This lasted for about TWO HOURS. Then I was woken up several times this morning by various loud noises outside. It's not 11:30. I've gotten maybe 5 hours of sleep thanks to that jerk, and today is the day that I really need to stay up late. Is something really trying to stop me from having this party? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:10:55 AM ----- BODY: Much fruit has been placed in a bowl of grain alcohol (mixed with a few other liquors such as Bacardi 151, old Vodka, and light Rum) We'll see how well this "Hairy Buffalo" thing works out. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:04:13 AM ----- BODY: D&D players' response to my exodus: "When you leave, I want your Paladin's stuff." -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:56:54 PM ----- BODY: Alright, so big party coming up? Lots of people coming who don't usually come to your place to see you off? Then how about getting sick and having your phone stop working! That's great. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:21:00 PM ----- BODY: "You kissed a girl? That is soooo gay!" --The Simpsons -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:44:31 PM ----- BODY: So obviously, when I first found out I had to produce a ridiculous amount of money to go back to school, instead of avoiding it I should have come up with an elaborate scheme to get more money quickly ala many, many bad movies. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:32:16 PM ----- BODY: Player: Are you using the d20 rules system? The Computer: No. PARANOIA is fun. D20 games are not fun. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:39:50 PM ----- BODY: If you had theme music that followed you around wherever you went and announced your prescense, what would it be? I think I'd like mine to be O Fortuna. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:34:37 PM ----- BODY: ::drool:: -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:24:05 AM ----- BODY: There's a freakin german game club in Westminster that I'm not involved in??? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:22:39 AM ----- BODY: One of the most effective ad campaigns that I've seen in a long time: an ad that's funny, groovy, and features a song that is song addictively catchy that my friends and I don't seem to be able to stop whistling it. And it's for gum. Anyway, I like The Whistle Song. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:26:38 AM ----- BODY: Mom: Did you hear about the Dyslexic Rabbi? Mom: He kept walking around saying "Yo!" -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 8:35:35 PM ----- BODY: Albert: Jesus Saves!...the rest of you take damage. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:53:43 PM ----- BODY: The riddle has been solved. Enlightenment has been found. The archives on both the DaveLog and Honor should be working. I've also changed it to archive monthly, in the hope that if this experiment does continue on, I'm set up for the long run. EDIT: Honor seems to be working, but Dave's archives seem to be nonfunctional still. Crast! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:07:54 PM ----- BODY: When in high school, I did a lot of hanging out with older guys with cars all night. A friend in college and his buddies. That's when we played a lot of 2nd edition D&D, Warhammer, and other things that I've ::snicker:: grown out of. I usually wouldn't call, or if I did, it would be very last minute. I got in trouble alot for it. I realized this weekend that I've grown out of the high school kid and moved right into the role of older kid with car facilitating all night gaming guy. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:02:40 PM ----- BODY: Ah, the awkward silence of four tired introvert gamers on a long car ride together. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:52:39 PM ----- BODY: I feel I must reflect upon the importance of the time... Two years and one day ago, Alex and I told each other we loved each other, despite it being Valentine's Day. Now I actively avoid hearing about her and her sexual exploits in the hope that my hurt won't be deepend by hearing of who else she's sleeping with, especially if it's someone I know. Two years and two weeks ago, I broke up with Jen, in one way trying to avoid waiting until Valentine's Day, part because of the symbology and part because she was superstitious that her relationships always ended on holidays. I heard from her once, a few weeks later, and have not heard anything about her since other than she starting dating her "friend" that she was always have stay over while we were dating, another Purchase University student named Racheal. 2 years before that I drove out to Ohio by myself for the first time, borrowing my friend Mike's car. I went out there to try to win Laura back from the guy she had met in the mental institution. Only the people at college knew I was going, I knew my family would say it was not a good idea (and of course, they were completely correct.) I went on one $150 paycheck and a heavy dose of depression. I ended coming home on a train using my credit card, having totalled Mike's car by being hit by a semi and charged with "failure to yield" in Middle of Nowhere, Ohio. The resulting loss at school, the problems as a result of my trip at home, and the resulting friction between me and my only friends and school (who had every right to be mad for totalling a car) lead me to conclude at the time that my only two options would be to leave Maryland or to die. 2 years before that, after bribing Josh heavily, we spend hours searching Frederick for the gas station that Laura's sister had dropped her off at which was not the place we had agreed to meet. We spent an incredible weekend together, including presenting her with what I am told is an incredibly romantic gift, complete with poetry and trickery. The year before that, Laura and I began to date long distance. I am paranoid that my parents will find out (for no real reason) and am forced to make excuses why there are long distance charges to Ohio and having to convince my friends to drive me to the post office so that I can mail her the first of many presents, a CD by the one-hit wonders The New Radicals. I have seen Laura recently. She has finally started to pay me back the large amount of money she owes me, accompanied in no small part by apologies to what she had done to me in the past. It is 2004. I have spent all of Valentine's Day basking in bloody sprite animation on a comptuer screen in a hot room full of smelly men, talking about frags and overclocking. It is 2004. I am truly single again for the first Valentine's Day in over 6 years. It is 2004. In two weeks, I leave Ohio. It is my expectation that I will never move back as I doubt I'll ever have the money to return to Miami University for my degree. I also expect that once back home I will be able to leave all the demons of girls past here, especially the most recent, who I hopefully will never have to see again so that the healing can continue. I raise my glass to you. To all the girls I've loved before. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:57:12 PM ----- BODY: It seems that with my recent spat of comic book collaborations that I've found yet another industry that I have no chance to make money in, and yet is large enough that I have even less chance to suceed in! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 8:55:12 PM ----- BODY: Staples Invention Quest All the ideas are pretty easy... I'm sure they'll all be marketed soon enough. Nothing revolutionary, which is what I was hoping for. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:50:22 PM ----- BODY: Ryan: I think kucinich finished 3rd in maine this weekend as well. He really should be getting more credit and coverage, the media gives him no publicity Dave: Well, the media is biased against Vegans Dave: Damn Meat-wing media -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:41:09 PM ----- BODY: Justin: wow Justin: terrifying statistic Justin: you're never more than 12' from a spider -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:33:51 AM ----- BODY: I've been pretty remiss in my blogging "duties" as of late, but, well, I've been very busy lately. And I imagine it'll be that way until after I leave. I'm looking to reschedule my party to the 21st because I few friends wouldn't be able to make it, and besides, the more I think about it, the worse idea I think it is to have to clean a house after party on the same day I'm supposed to move out, and how bad idea it is to get really really trashed the night before a long trip. This way I can still have my TV and stuff hooked up. Work progresses on the Dusk comic book... we have the sketches for two pages done. Still a ways to go, sure, but I really feel like Austin and I make progress with every one of these sessions. (It's just bad when I get really tired or sick during them and don't contribute anything... ugh) Last weeked, I spent a bundle on comic books, and it was worth it. The weekend before, I spent a bundle on three games: Clans (very good, though there's probably a level of strategy I don't get with it yet, and it reminds me a lot of Aquarius), Coloretto (already a favorite), and Captain Park's Next Big Thing (the next Cheapass games collection.) It's liberating to realize that I don't have to pay rent next month, and really, I can let some bills such as electricity go a bit. So I'm spending more than I should, but hey, this is my last Hurrah for Oxford, and I'm gonna enjoy it dammit. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:27:10 AM ----- BODY: "I just kill characters. You destroy their souls." --Mike on my GMing style. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:00:03 PM ----- BODY: One party to end it all, one party to drink at. One party to trash my place, and and in our drunkness vomit. Saturday, Feb. 28th. 7 PM until whenever (crash space available) I will attempt to create as much space in my small apt. as possible- a lot of stuff will already be shipped out or packed up. Please RSVP and bring booze. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:38:33 PM ----- BODY: For Sale: Computer Desk $5 OBO Two-shelf bookcase, perfect for gaming books: $5 OBO Various cleaning suplies and such: Free Stand-up Lamp: $3 Must be able to pick up and transport item from Oxford. Deadline is Feb. 29th -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:26:33 PM ----- BODY: Well, no turning back now. I've told my landlord that I intend to move out at the end of the month. He's going to do his best to sublease it, and says it's almost guaranteed. I just have to get my place cleaned up (which he emphasized many times) so he can start showing it off. I'll also be paying a price (no deposit back,$50 sublease fee) but shouldn't be any problems. So, here we go... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 8:49:47 PM ----- BODY: Ryan: I'm so excited about the fashion choice for having "piping" on the staples shirts, i'm gonna add piping to all the rest of my wardrobe! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:42:11 AM ----- BODY: These weird japanese batteries came with my digital camera. I'd show you, but they're powering my digital camera. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:26:08 PM ----- BODY: I'm glad I didn't have to break tradition and got to watch Groundhog Day, even if it meant no groceries tonight and a crappy dinner. Man I love that movie. Though there's almost no evidence to support it, I'm convinced that the bartender is what caused it. He gives too much of a knowing look. And maybe he's the bartender from Quantum Leap (i.e. God) who was influencing Sam's jumps. And maybe he had to get the two characters together so their child (remember the emphasis on having children) could grow up to be something really important. Maybe this isn't the first time someone has been stuck in the same day until a specific event happens. Damn you Mystic Bartender, how many lives will you play with to fit your grand design? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:15:23 PM ----- BODY: "People do crazy things in ads. Like eat at Arby's." --Marge Simpson -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:14:40 PM ----- BODY: This really sucks... the only radio station I've ever liked is going away. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:24:08 AM ----- BODY: Van Helsing looks really good. Austin proclaimed it "the best movie werewolf" he's ever seen, and that really means alot coming from him (who has made it his mission to watch every movie with a werewolf in it ever made.) Unfortunatly, it looks like that Van Helsing uses a reloading six-shooter style crossbow, something that Austin and I poured over for over an hour to design for our vampire hunting tale. Our indie production is almost riding the coattails of a major motion blockbuster... for good or ill. Speaking of which, we went to Borders on Saturday and discovered that there are a bunch of good books put out by DC comics on how to pencil comics, how to ink comics, and great for me how to write comics. They also had a very good graphic novel and rpg section, though we ended up not purchasing anything. (Next weekend, when everything is 20% for students and hopefully fake students, might be a different matter.) We also have a full page, in draft form, done for the comic, and decided a bunch of cool stuff we want to do. I can almost guarantee we're not going to get done everything we want to do, but I would love to have a finished comic. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:35:33 AM ----- BODY: So we were watching the Superbowl half-time show last night at my place, but mostly, we were playing a game and making fun of the half-time show. Most of us weren't actively looking at it, but then when it wrapped up, someone shouted "Did anyone just see that? Did Justin Timberlake just rip off a part of Janet Jackson's top?" Yes. Yes he did. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:43:29 AM ----- BODY: Lots of stuff to fill in whenever I get a spare moment... but for now, I'll just announce that page 1 of The Edge comic first sketch is done, and I'm very happy about it. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:55:51 PM ----- BODY: Stolen I was, yes, hmm... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:32:26 PM ----- BODY: Star Trek: Take That, Prime Directive -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:56:01 PM ----- BODY: THE CUBE LIVES! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:03:52 PM ----- BODY: I think I've been bit by a Vampire... on my chest. I've got two weird irritated bites on my chest that are spaced as much as fang marks would be. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:03:17 PM ----- BODY: For those of you who haven't heard, a Star Wars Episode 3 presentation done by Lucas has leaked out onto the internet. And the leaked footage is all action, no spoilers, and pretty sweet. You even get to see Chewie. Not ::ahem:: that I've downloaded it... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:49:33 PM ----- BODY: This site has been my best friend lately... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:48:06 PM ----- BODY: 5:30 AM. The roads are snowy and icy, with a strong wind. I am going very slow. I am passed, from several cars behind, in a no-passing zone, where there is on-coming traffic. The passer honks at my angrily. Jerk. Many people have died in this storm. Speaking of which, we were dead today, and it's been our best day weather wise in nearly a week. I think people just like to shop during snow emergancies because they can. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:46:31 PM ----- BODY: Most of my email messages, ever since this newest virus has started propagating, have either had the virus in it or are bounces from an email address that redirects to mine (but I have no way to send from, so I know it's not me). I also can't seem to find an option in Eudora to not automatically download files. My attach directory is full of fun "Norton has deleted this file" files. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 8:29:47 PM ----- BODY: Another fun day of bad drivers, office politics, and localized retail insanity. It's 8:30, and if I want eight hours of sleep before work, I have to go to bed soon. Sigh. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 6:40:48 PM ----- BODY: toby: i ate a chicken sandwich for lunch, and i've already lost feeling in the left half of my body. is that bad? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:03:09 PM ----- BODY: Ryan: ??? What exactly is the deal with an orphanage "shutting down" on the snow closings list? "sorry kids, no food today, its snowing outside" -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:28:45 PM ----- BODY: The most ridiculous reasoning I've ever heard. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:49:52 PM ----- BODY: Gods & Undergrads Online Comic -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:25:12 PM ----- BODY: Well, so much for my grand plan to study comic books, books about comic books, and check out the new game store in Colerain... It's snowing. Alot. And I have little food and non-alcoholic beverages. Sigh, guess I have to get some REAL work done... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:14:45 PM ----- BODY: "We're on Western, right? Don't the girls throw underwear at each other here?" --Gene Hastings, tough student/hardcore rocker. Band Lineup: The Broken Tombstone Jesus's Weasel The Scott Farkus Affair Elvis and the Band of the Dead -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:16:20 AM ----- BODY: The King has Returned... Thank you, thank you very much -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:25:10 PM ----- BODY: In case a coworker didn't point it out and think he was funny, the date today is 1-23-4 -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:36:22 PM ----- BODY: Bleh. Yesterday evening as we were closing, I started to get quick headache pangs followed by short burts of nausea. This happened a few times, and I got really paranoid that it was like a tumor or something. When I got back, I realized I was hungry, so Austin and I went to grab pizza while we worked late into the night on the comic book (which I'm tenatively titling "The Edge") Well, even though I wasn't going to get much sleep anyway, I got far less for some reason I can't figure out. Then when I woke up... well, it wasn't pleasant and it involved many trips to the bathroom, and I'll leave it at that. I called in and said as much to work (despite meaning that I'll miss ANOTHER day of work when I really, really need the cash to settle my bounched rent check and large cable bill) and apparantly two other people have called out from a stomach virus. So whatever the reason- brain tumor (hope not!), sleep deprivation, late night pizza, stomach virus- I'm sick. It doesn't feel to me like the virus though, so I'm still going to put everyone (including my old college buddy now graduated Mike Z who's crashing me tonight) at risk for the sake of gaming. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:36:29 AM ----- BODY: DESTRUCTO JUICE Ingrediants: A very small portion of every kind of alcoholic beverage you own. Mix together with ice. Take in shots. Never look back. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:14:05 AM ----- BODY: Just dumped the pineapple juice-tequila-blue drink. Today's experiment.........failed -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:13:04 PM ----- BODY: Kinda disturbing when your digital camera's manual has a lot of spelling errors. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:05:34 PM ----- BODY: Didn't mention this earlier, but I bought a really crappy digital camera last Friday for really cheap, so I'll start posting more pictures here. Here's the story behind the digital camera: Staples, for the holidays, got in a bunch of really cheap looking but really cheap digital cameras, but decided to merchandise them without displays, in a location where nothing sells, and not near the digital camera area. So understandably, they weren't selling. At all. So I suggested we display them with the digital cameras, even the cheap ones. So I did, and they started selling. (Imagine that.) However, the one $50 640x480 doesn't have an lcd screen camera still didn't sell at all. Like all our camera displays, they had to be alarmed. Well, like a dummy, I assumed that the camera would be ok to have an alarm where most cameras do. Unfortunatly, when showing the camera to a customer, I pulled too hard, and the alarm pulled on the camera and cracked the screen. Well, fast forward a month or so. Like many promotional products, all the boxed products were sent back to the warehouse, and the display sat in the back, broken, with only a loney cryptic tag on the floor advertising its existance. Well, someone asked to see it, and I knew they wouldn't buy it. But I brought it out anyway, and they didn't buy it. Before putting it back, I said to a manager, "You know, I'd buy this if it were cheap." The managers said, we'll take $20 on it since no one will buy it. So I bought it. I figure, I have use for a digital camera here (friends, ebay, etc) , and when my brother goes on field trips he can borrow that and it won't be huge if he lost it. I also bought an extended warranty on it and gave myself credit for it, so that helped our numbers. So basically, it was me that put the camera out, me that broke the camera BECAUSE it was out, and me that bought it cheap because it was broken and not sent back. I'm a friggin' genius. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:26:00 PM ----- BODY: “The words... they’ve burned themselves into my brain. Every single passage, be it in English, Latin, or something else, is constantly on the tip of my tongue. I could recite the whole book from memory right now. All of it is etched into my consciousness. I have no sense of their actual meaning or sense, but I do know what they will do. These words have power. And I intend to use that power.” -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:12:55 AM ----- BODY: December 12th, 2003 Ah, the Friday before finals. For several freshmen at Miami University, it hasn't been an easy semester. Between haunted trains, psychotic statues, killer parties, and reality television, they're reading to get finals overwith. Little do they know that they're about to receive a letter that will change their lives forever. And who are those two mysterious strangers who have come to town looking for the party? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:47:46 PM ----- BODY: The Edge: (W) Dave Chalker (A) Austin Frazee Western-style Fantasy. Dusk is on an impossible quest: kill all the vampires in The Edge. After they turned his wife and daughter into vampires and forced him to kill them, Dusk has spent his gold-mining riches towards his crusade, but has completely lost his ability to trust. Will the fastest crossbow in The Edge be able to handle vampires clans, a mysterious mute girl, and the seemingly random Elf attacks? Eldritch: (W) Dave Chalker (A) Danny Rupp Granted powerful magic abilities by a copy of the Necronomicon, one man uses his strange powers to fight abominations and servants of the Great Old Ones. But at what cost? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:15:24 AM ----- BODY: Have to pass this around: Emily's pictures of "The Valley of Seven Castles." Does that sound like a D&D setting or what? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:14:27 AM ----- BODY: BitTorrent isn't allowing me to pirate comic books, and it makes me sad. Apparantly, the Silver Surfer fought Dracula. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:40:53 AM ----- BODY: So last night, I was all ready to watch the entire Adult Swim block, most because I usually don't get to because I have to wake up early on Mondays for work. But then, after Mission Hill, I realized I had this dumb training thing from 8-9A even though my shift wasn't until 2P. So I put my newly poured Margarita in the fridge, and went to bed. Only to receive a call at 7 that the training was canceled. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:51:15 PM ----- BODY: Been watching the Celebrity Poker Showdown finals. No Limit Texas Hold 'em, anyone? If I had any cards, we might have played yesterday. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:50:35 PM ----- BODY: "I've invented a new drinking game. There's only one rule: Start to get depressed, take a drink." -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:09:32 PM ----- BODY: The Ultimate Roleplaying Purity Quiz! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 2:25:02 PM ----- BODY: Even if you're not a fan of the Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin, these would make some damn fine character portraits. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:00:26 PM ----- BODY: I think DC Comics- not reading them, mind you, but reading about them and watching cartoons of them- are starting to take over me. First, I watched a Static Shock episode where's he's blasted into the future, in a pretty delightful crossover with Batman Beyond. Then I watched Teen Titans, where Starfire gets blasted into the future. The BEST touch in that one is that there are some kids tormenting Future-Beast Boy who are OBVIOUSLY the same style as the Mutant gang from Miller's I-can't-express-how-good-it-is Dark Knight Returns. (I mean, it's the future! And DC has been using Miller's stuff, or deliberately NOT using his stuff, ever since it came out. I guess I'll have to go more into that later). Of course, the main characters get back in the end, learn a lesson, and there's some vague paradox stuff. But what was really interesting was watching the continuity stuff, especially when you factor the really good old Batman cartoon, which looks like it operates in the same as the new Justice League Cartoon and Static Shock (and for that matter, the Superman cartoon. Batman Beyond is arguably the same continuity, especially with the movie they did.) The only "character" present in all of it is Robin. The later days of Batman: The Animated Series had Robin (Dick Grayson) becoming Nightwing, and I _think_ Jason Todd replacing him. Then again, they might have just skipped Todd and gone right on to Timothy Drake. For context on what I'm talking out, I highly recommend going here. And while I don't think there's any sense of continuity between Teen Titans and the other, more "official" set, it would seem to imply that the Robin in the Teen Titans is Dick Grayson. (Though I can't say that it melds well in my head with the Dick Grayson from the Batman: Animated Series) Now, what's also interesting is how Static Shock met the "newer" Robin from B:TAS before being blasted into Batman Beyond, and even saw the empty Robin costume in the batcave. I know Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker dealt with the whole Robin issue and revealed (like many of us guessed) that the reason Batman gave up crimefighting was due to one of the Robin's death. There was also another Robin around, though long retired. I think I may have to rerent BB:RotJ to sort it all out. But it would be really interesting if DC comics, through no less than THREE different cartoon shows, have set up this huge meta-meta-plot of the death of Robin, that interlocks with all the series it deals with! And if I'm right, it's true genius because we've seen this character in many different lights, and is definitely a sympathetic character (which they played up at the beginning of Static Shock) and we get to see the far-reaching impact of the death of an important piece of Americana. Whew! Oh, and while I'm at it, Smallville and Batman continuities are mutually exclusive: Smallville references an early Batman, and early Batman references a Superman in Metropolis. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:59:42 AM ----- BODY: You know how commercials for products have that little "fine print" at the bottom of the screen, like "Doll does not actually talk" and "Do not attempt. Professionals on Closed Course"? I just saw my favorite one, on a commercial for a ski-ball like game. It says "Score varies on skill of player." -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:34:34 AM ----- BODY: I'm really broke. It looks as though mom drainined the bank account so much that my rent check bounced. So I've lost money due to the nebulous "Insufficient Fund Fees." Who thinks it's a good idea, when someone's check is declined, to have your bank charge you and your rental company charge you? Let's make the poor get poorer! Then they'll pay us! Plus I have my credit card payment settlements that will automatically withdraw from my account Anyway, I've opted to not go into work or go in very late today due to the scary amount of accident reports on the news and all the closings. It means I lost money that I really need next Friday, but if I were to get in an accident, it would cost me ALOT more in the long run. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:42:53 PM ----- BODY: ATTENTION! To anyone currently playing Vampire: The Masquerade. Gehenna has happened. All the vampires are dead. It is now illegal to play Vampire: The Masquerade. This is your only warning. Your campaign will be stopped by the Canon Police. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:21:28 PM ----- BODY: Take that, Vampires! Not only are you doomed but you can't even get the book that dooms you! MWAHAHAHA! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:20:35 PM ----- BODY: "All of our values have been challenged by the Monsters of Mud." --TMBG -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:18:33 AM ----- BODY: Speaking of D&D, it occured to me that the Mobility feat really has a strong benefit for armored characters and not for actual mobile characters. Mobile characters with little to no armor will have high Tumble, and won't need the extra AC versus AoO. They may have to take Mobility as a prereq, but they will very rarely be using it especially at high levels when the Tumble check is automatic. An armored character, on the other hand, can use mobility since it'll help boost an already high AC and they won't be able to Tumble anyway. So really, Mobilty ought to be called something else and not use how it is. "Armor Mobility" maybe? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:15:37 AM ----- BODY: One of the emails in my inbox today via the Star Wars Epic Duels mailing list that I'm on is "white supremecist" (read: racist) spam about how the only people who enjoy LotR are primarily white, and how this must mean that whites are ready to connect with their culture blah blah blah. Well, despite the fact that there is evidence to the contrary, it's pretty ludicrious to compare orcs to black people. (Then again, it is spam from a racist.) The odd thing is, one of the issues I've grappled with in my own writing is something similar. See, in the fantasy RPG that is currently on my backburner, there are a variety of Tolkien-esque races who happen to vaguely correspond to certain geographical areas and are similar to real world major cultures. (This is a choice to create a coherent and believable "modern" fantasy, and also to have a variety of genres to play the game in.) Humans are pseudo-European: there's a Arthurian type country, and a coastal city full of swashbuckling/musketeer types. Orcs come from a continent with many different tribes, have a strong religious and cultural heritage, and were wrongly enslaved in ages past. They are often viewed with suspicion and many think they are "stupider" than humans (but in fact, the game statistics give them equal intelligence. In fact, bonuses and penalties to mental ability scores have always rubbed me the wrong way. It assumes a baseline and then compares all things to it, while saying "No matter how well you do, you'll never be as good a wizard as he is, just because of how you were born.") However, it troubles me that I seem to be making the same comparison as a racist, only to different conclusions. I'd be really hurt if I put this game out somewhere and I were embroiled in this big battle and called a racist, when what I was actually trying to do is show people how stupid and untrue racism is! From another standpoint, do I want a game that encourages in-game racism? (especially since not every group who played would necessarily handle it responsibly) Sure, it creates a game that has a better sense of realism and could lead to a number of really interesting roleplaying oppurtunities, but is it worth it overall? Stock D&D simply has "Elves and Dwarves dislike each other, Dwarves and Elves hate Orcs, all Orcs are evil, Gnomes hate Kobolds and Giants, etc etc" which rarely has any real roleplaying benefit (in my experience at least.) It's been suggested before that I scrap the world idea I've had for my fantasy RPG and create something more interesting. I'm not really sure what to do at this point. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:21:29 AM ----- BODY: From Roger Ebert's Website: Q. Andy Serkis is brilliant as Gollum, the CGI character in "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King." Given the increasing overlap between technology and acting, when do you see an actor in such a role getting nominated for best supporting actor at the Oscars? Chris Jillings, Cal Tech, Los Angeles A. A lot of his admirers are asking that question. Patrick Miller of Helene, Ala., writes: "After being amazed by the 'performance' of Gollum in 'The Two Towers,' I truly felt that Andy Serkis deserved an Oscar nomination for his portrayal. Do you think that now, thanks to all of the behind the scenes footage in the 'The Two Towers: Extended Edition' DVD, that details how much work and how much true acting he did, he has a shot at an award for 'Return Of The King'?" And Tony Hernandez of Chicago asks: "As we head into the Oscar season, I am wondering what your thoughts are regarding awards for CGI characters and voice actors. When Disney's 'Aladdin' was a huge hit in the '90s, there was brief talk of Robin Williams snagging a best supporting actor nomination for his voice work as the Genie. The Gollum character in the 'Lord of the Rings' movies is equally impressive and just as significant to the movie's success. In cases like this, should the Academy make a special award as it has done in the past for unique contributions?" Serkis not only voiced Gollum, but did the physical acting that became the basis for the animated creature -- who was certainly one of the most fascinating and convincing characters in the movie. But animation and robot theorists talk about a strange phenomenon that happens when artificial characters begin to seem "too real." This is the Uncanny Valley Effect, named in 1978 by the Japanese robot scientist Masahiro Mori. According to a New Yorker article by John Seabrook, "Mori tested people's emotional responses to a wide variety of robots, from non-humanoid to completely humanoid. He found that the human tendency to empathize with machines increases as the robot becomes more human. But at a certain point, when the robot becomes too human, the emotional sympathy abruptly ceases, and revulsion takes its place. People began to notice not the charmingly human characteristics of the robot but the creepy zombielike differences." A definition on the Word Spy Web site gives more examples. It is possible that the rejection of the sci-fi movie "Final Fantasy," which used computer animation to create "real characters," was caused because it fell into the Uncanny Valley. The genius of Gollum is that it seems like a convincingly real creature -- but not one we have ever seen before, so that its realism does not seem creepy except in the ordinary way. If Serkis brought Gollum to life, other artists fine-tuned the balance with the Uncanny Valley. So this is something other than a conventional performance, and should not compete against characters of a different nature. Perhaps a new category is called for? Beyond the Oscar of the Uncanniest Valley? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:21:00 AM ----- BODY: David Byrne's PowerPoint Art -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:17:35 AM ----- BODY: Bad dreams last night again, featuring you know who. This is a problem. I might have to see someone. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:11:32 AM ----- BODY: "I've found that life is full of ironies. I'm appreciating them more and more, even as it is detrimental to me." "See, I just don't believe in coincidences. I believe that everything happens for a reason. Absolutely everything." But where is it going? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:09:28 AM ----- BODY: So I put this on my Christmas wish list, under the assumption that I wouldn't get it. You see, I hadn't seen Hedwig and the Angry Inch, but the album was for a great cause and it had a bunch of bands I really liked. (And, of course, the fanboy gene kicked in on a TMBG song not available anywhere else...) Of course, I got it. It was a great gift, but I was ill-prepared for it. But I got to see Hedwig tonight, and it's very good. I recommend it, though going through a class called "Women in Theatre: The Politics of Representation" probably heightened the experience. I'll report on the quality of the album, but Sleater-Kinney doing "Angry Inch" is already awesome. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:03:50 AM ----- BODY: Well, there goes any semblance of getting work done today... at least I can claim research for the comic book I'm working on -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:56:42 PM ----- BODY: I have a suspicion that the the debate between regular Mayonaise and Miracle Whip may be another Mid-West vs. East Coast sorta thing, like the obviously correct soda vs. the ridiculous p-word debate. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 1:18:52 PM ----- BODY: Good use of funding. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 12:09:38 PM ----- BODY: Arrgh, I'm so mad. Usually I'm terrible about setting up my VCR to tape a show I really want to see but am going to miss. But for They Might Be Giant's guest-starring on Home Movies? I remembered. Everything was set up before running out the door on Friday. But when I checked the tape, I had something crappy on Comedy Central. And the cable box itself had been changed to Oxygen. See, I think someone in an apartment nearby has digital cable too, and sometimes a random signal gets to my box and changes it, and I think that's what happened over the weeked. Curses, everyone told me how funny an episode it was too. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 11:49:02 AM ----- BODY: The moment in The Two Towers where the Ent has been caught on fire but then when the dam is burst he is able to dunk himself in the water to put himself out. THAT is satisfaction. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:21:08 PM ----- BODY: The moment where you peel off the Biore Pore strip and look at what was on your nose but now was ripped off due to modern facial science... That, my friends, is satisfaction. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 8:59:41 PM ----- BODY: Albert's Away Message: I am not available because I am playing a computer game that takes up my whole life. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:19:03 PM ----- BODY: The process of movement has officially begun. I've received a notice asking me if I want to renew my lease, and I've opted not to. I've removed myself from the sometimes-interesting usually-liberal but too often painful Western listserv. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 7:13:58 PM ----- BODY: Back from JanCon. Dad was not happy at the con, not one bit, but I did have some good times. I won't get into the whole thing about having quality time with my father for the first time, in my memory, since ChiCon when Steve was born 12+ years ago, and hearing some incredible stories. (Maybe later. It's pretty personal.) But I will say this: Gary Gygax, inventor of D&D, often called the "father of roleplaying," has a greater signifigance. Not only is he the father of roleplaying games, but the father of roleplaying gamers. A humourous, intelligent gentleman, slightly overweight, with goatee and pony-tail. He takes smoke breaks, and insists on drinking some gin after the game. He loves bad puns and bad jokes. He makes references to science fiction and pop culture. He makes fun of other game systems. Though he himself began in wargames, an originally geeky feel, it is from his mold that every branch of gaming pays homage. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 6:34:30 PM ----- BODY: Early American Chrononauts, eh? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:01:10 PM ----- BODY: To Denise, Mike Z, and any number of other smokers who play D+D, take heart: The father of D+D takes smoke breaks every hour or so. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:16:24 PM ----- BODY: I have experienced the ultimate of hubris (mixed with a touch of glee)- I am thinking of how I could be DMing this better than Gary Gygax. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:12:00 AM ----- BODY: Well, I'm at JanCon. I think the hotel it's at is off the same exit where Alex lives, only left instead of right. Very scary. The con is the first one of its kind, and it shows. Some very amateur mistakes (let's close registration at 6! let's spend opening ceremonies thanking my friends and making injokes!) don't bode well overall. Gaming has some vaguely interesting things, especially if I want to do some rpga. For some reason, a huge chunk of games started ay 9am and nothing much is going on until much later. I was up before 9, but not able to rouse myself to get ready in time. Really, what gamers want to be up before 9? Hopefully I'll get some decent gaming action in. I doubt I'll be able to nudge my way into a Gygax-run game, but dad has promised to introduce me when they have their signing together today. I settled on bringing The Game Inventor's Handbook for him to sign, starting my equip quest to get every game designer profiled in there to sign it. Dad says the dealer's room has no novels in it, which is really bizarre for a con. But it probably means there's tons of gaming stuff which could be dangerous. Well, hopefully the con will be fun for both dad and I somehow despite a dissapointing start. Signing off for now from Indy -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 10:46:02 PM ----- BODY: She won't be there. She won't be there. She won't be there. She won't be there. Yes, it's the city where she lives but it's a big place. She won't be there. She won't be there. She won't be there. She won't be there trying to pick up boys. She won't be there. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 9:08:38 PM ----- BODY: Despite not being "into" comics right now in the traditional sense, nor having read any of those pictured, I really got a kick out of this. -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 8:58:51 PM ----- BODY: Right, so, it's pretty easy to find pirated RPG books online, but yet it seems impossible to find pirated comic books online. I demand illegal satisfaction! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 8:31:48 PM ----- BODY: Dave: Instead of having the experience of a lifetime overseas, you should have just upgraded your computer to play games slightly faster Justin: TRUE! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 8:27:55 PM ----- BODY: Shower musings dump: I will shout it from the rooftops! I am an intellectual! I love college, and miss it dearly! I cannot resist making interjections about class struggle into nearly every meaningful conversation! Topics such as the Philosophy of Technology interest me! I feel that I could get a major in Women's Studies, and actually be interested in it instead of just being in it for the chicks! Educate me! -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 6:57:10 PM ----- BODY: Cheapass Games - Rename that Spy! "Dr. No means No" "Before I Bond You, Mr. Kill..." "Elaborate Death Schemes For Fun and Profit" "At least tell me the details of your evil plan first." "No, I expect you to die" -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 5:37:53 PM ----- BODY: Ahh, Spielboy... -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 4:24:46 PM ----- BODY: This --> This --> This? -------- AUTHOR: Dave The Game DATE: 3:46:11 PM ----- BODY: Recommended song: Fette'
