Currently Reading
Tunnels & Trolls Superheroes -- Power Trip 2nd Edition
By Ken St. Andre
see related

Notice how Disney Insider Warwick Davis USPS Star Wars is nearly identical to "Star Wars" Weekends with Star Warwick Davis?  I wonder who plagiarized who?

A month or two ago I was riding my bicycle into work when my path crossed a couple of patrol cars with their lights on which were stopped at the southbound bus stop at Bethany Home Road and 27th Avenue.  All of the traffic was merging left into the inner lane so as to give the cops an open lane between us and them.  Then, 3/8 of a mile later, I was pulled over by a patrol car myself.  When the officer asked me if I knew why I was pulled over, I admitted that I did not.  He tried to claim that I passed them without giving them a lane of clearance.  When I stated that I had indeed moved to the inner lane as required by law and then went back to the outer lane afterward he seemed taken back, and then told me that I was only going to receive a warning.  It is very frustrating to be accused of not doing something which I did indeed do.

Yet it doesn't stop there.  Friday night I was bicycling home from Wayne's place after work.  A similar situation happened on 7th Street between Northern Avenue and Butler Drive when traveling northbound at night.  This time, when I merged into the inner lane, I had one guy in a van who honked and shouted a threat at me, "You're gonna die!"  Immediately after that a black car with thick tinted windows honked at me and drove in the open lane between the rest of us and the patrol cars.  Yet, once I was between Butler Drive and Alice Avenue I was pulled over by the three officers we had all just passed.  Did they pull over the guy in the van who they must have heard threaten me?  No.  Did they pull over the car that illegally drove through the lane next to the patrol cars?  No.  They pulled over me, and then had the audacity to ask me why I had merged into the inner lane.  Once I explained to them that it is a requirement of the law, I was told that in the future they would prefer that I pass them on the right by pulling up onto the sidewalk.  When I pointed out that the people they were speaking with were blocking all traffic on the sidewalk, I was told to be slow and careful when passing patrol cars on the sidewalk in their preferred method.

Is it any wonder why society in general is losing respect for our law enforcement?  All of the officers in these two incidents were kind, friendly, personable people who truly seemed like they cared.  Yet they are pulling over a law abiding citizen for following the rules of the road.  Worse, in one instance they're trying to accuse me of doing the exact opposite of what I did; in the other instance I'm being told to do something incredibly dangerous instead of following the law.  Still worse, in the later incident the cops chose to pull over the law abiding citizen rather than either of the law breakers who passed at the same time.  Worse even than that, all of these are cops who are all employed by the same city who are giving me conflicting advice within a few weeks of each other.  Know your laws.  It's your only defense against unwarrented police harassment.

Your result for The "What Type of Intellectual are You?" Test...

The Bibliophile

Take The "What Type of Intellectual are You?" Test at HelloQuizzy

“What's another word for Thesaurus?”  ~ Steven Wright

Character Cover Sheets

So Monte has talked me into joining his Tuesday night D&D campaign.  Apparently, the Tempe players quit, so they were moving the campaign into central Phoenix from north Tempe.  All three other players were Mikes, so the DM nicknamed them as DM-Mike, Host-Mike, and Player-Mike.  The campaign uses a few optional and house rules including rolling for defense (instead of a +10 static AC), alchemical and magic items can be purchased with starting funds but will be scarce afterwards, magic (divine and arcane) users and items are rarer than rare, certain races and subraces are changed for player characters (including orcs and goblins as options), unnamed characters with 1 HP (basically using the rules for mooks in Feng Shui terms), and no psionics.

I created an Aquatic Elf Cleric of Deep Sashelas.  I don't know why aquatic elves were on his list of allowed races, but I've always wanted to play one.  While I was finishing up my character, the other two players began the mission.  Our characters were hired by Quarius the Sorceror to root out the evil which has infested a temple of Heironeous.  Player-Mike is playing a Half-Draw Sorcerer by the name of Galen, Host-Mike is playing a Dwarven Fighter by the name of Garik, and DM-Mike is playing a Human Fighter named Harod to fill out the party.  The three reached the temple during a downpour and began killing the faithful guards of the temple.  When the found young acolytes they let them flee for their lives, then began looting.  Once my character was done, he raced to catch up with the rest of the party.  When he met the fleeing young acolytes, they warned him of the evil infesting the temple (ie the other player characters) and so he was spurred on toward his quest. 

Once all the player characters reunited, he used his divinely granted powers to heal the party.  That freaked out Garik and Harod, who distrust magic despite working for a sorcerer.  Our characters stumbled across some small, flat-nosed, blackened creatures who fled from our assault.  They tried claiming that we were on the same side.  When more guards showed up, they didn't believe us about how they were preventing us from chasing these evil creatures and joined comabt with us.  I chose to have my character defend himself without injuring the guards, the others chose straight out combat.  As they were losing, they retreated -- separating my character from the others.  As Rek'lawd-Nal freed himself from the combat he continued his search in the pouring rain for the little buggers who were infesting the temple, lighting a sunrod in the process.  How we pick up next session should be interesting.

Out of character, it's fairly obvious that Quarius has hired our characters to exterminate the good faithful of Heironeous and sent some evil minions to assist us.  In character, Rek' hasn't seen his party attack any of the good folk, but has seen dead guards, fleeing children, and evil minions.  Not being a denizen of the surface world (and not having any ranks in Knowledge:  Religion) he assumes that the temple is neutral, nor does he think of his faith as a cult.  He thinks nothing about revealing his faith nor using the divine might provided by his faith.

Thanks to MaulKat for the quiz:

What Lord of the Rings race do you belong to?

Hobbit

You belong to the Hobbits race! Undoubtedly related to Men, in these halflings lays also the future of Middle-Earth. When Hobbits are called upon they do not stray from their quest, and they seldom fail. Their origins are neither known nor recorded in any book or scroll, but they, too, spawn from multiple houses. They befriended Elves and are skilled in song and speech, but also have a tradition of hunting. They all have curly hair and hairy big feet. Some other Hobbits are Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Merry.

Hey - try this personality test and see how we compare

The crime that created Superman: Did fatal robbery spawn Man of Steel?

It's been a busy August.  My maternal grandmother has died, I've attended the first annual Tunnels & Trolls Convention, lectored at my grandmother's memorial mass, attended her graveside service, flew out to the fourty-first GenCon, and am preparing now to run At-Con Program Operations for CopperCon 28 this upcoming weekend.  My bicycle broke down a few weeks ago, and they're still awaiting the part as of yesterday.  My house became a complete mess due to no time for cleaning, and I received a notice about the uncontrolled growth in my yard. 

So I find myself with some time to post here, for a change.  Yet, strangely I'm not in the mood.  Perhaps it's due to the fact that I am woefully out of practice.  Thus I am forcing myself to post anyway.  Or perhaps I'm not ready to compose a memorial for my grandmother. 

I found a stack of Batman Adventures volume two comics which I had never read.  I had had a subscription to Batman:  Gotham Adventures which was canceled and replaced with this second run of Batman Adventures.  I didn't like the drastic change in tone and theme, so I never read the rest of the series and let the subscription expire.  So I read the first seven issues this month.  It was well paced, well scripted, and brilliant in making drastic changes in character circumstances while maintaining continuity and characterization.  It's amazing what five years of perspective will do.  Now I regret not having any of the subsequent issues.  The previous series was more a series of one shots, while this newer series had stand alone issues which wove into a single whole.  Each issue laid the groundwork for future issues, without a need to own any other issue than the one in your hands.  Yet the story made you want to own all of the other issues.  Issue one takes the step of introducing the main characters, letting readers see how each of the heroes and villains will be portrayed in this series.  A great place for new readers and old readers alike.  I understand that this first issue was also published with a Free Comic Book Day cover. 

"Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him, 'Father!'" ~Lydia M. Child