Currently Reading Lord of the Rings Adventure Game By Iron Crown Enterprises see related

 

 

BTW, whatever you do DO NOT WATCH "Legend of Earthsea".  I cannot stress this point enough.  Please, please, please read the books instead!

 

Anyway, I'll quit ranting about that. 

 

Two weeks ago tomorrow we had Rusty's Talislanta game.  Ken and Corencio joined Kitty, Monte, and I as a group of adventurers who were approached by a secret agent of the government (with whom our five characters had all worked before) to join a caravan in order to covertly investigate who might be trading technology to the everthreatening barbarian hordes.  We were paid half up front and will be paid the other half when we bring back relevant information.  On the way, slavers tried to ambush us.  Our aerial scout was able to shout a warning, but eventually our mage fumbled a spell and knocked almost everyone out on both sides of the battle.  Half of the party was left behind at the mercy of the slavers when we had to call it a night.  It'll be interesting if and when we return to that particular game.

 

The next day was the LepreCon 31/32 committees meeting, as mentioned.  Jen was my ride, and we had the chance to chat non-convention stuff along the way.  It turns out we have a lot in common:  have done, and still need to do a lot of house repairs;  prefer living naturally (cooking real food rather than prepackaged foods, I don't cut my hair/she doesn't wear a bra, et cetera); and we do our best work at the last minute--so when given ample time will wait for that last minute to start working many a time.  It's interesting to get to know a co-worker.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the similarities as we're volunteering for the same not-for-profit.  It'd make sense that it would attact the same kinds of people.  I just don't often find those particular traits of mine to be shared with others. 

 

One thing that was disturbing was how cynical she was about the genders.  She said that most guys who want to be friends with gals would happily (well, you know) those gals if they thought that they were available.  On the other side, gals know this and expect that if they show interest in such a guy that he'll automatically be her's.  I argued that surely not all guys and gals would fit into this small stereotype, but she seemed to think such people would be rare indeed. 

 

Well, it's late.  I had more but I work early on Saturdays.

 

 

 

I have never been so offended by an "adaptation" as I was with Earthsea.  It was like they went out of their way to personaly insult every fan of the series in a much more violent way than a mere slap in the face.  I could rant for days.

 

I'm much too riled to post what I wanted.  I'll be back later. 

The CPB might lose it's funding.  Sign this petition to save its funding!  Thanks to Jon for the link.  We were talking about how important CPB was in the formation of our generation both on the PFF boards and our Sunday hiking group.  Meera then turned the conversation to the Downing Street memo.  When she turns conversations towards anti-Bush news and heresay, she reminds me of Rita who did the same with anti-Clinton news and heresay back in the day.  It's amazing how much things stay the same when they change, to paraphrase the saying.

 

Speaking of Sunday, I received an early morning email from Trav canceling Shadowfist for yesterday, so I went to AZGD for City of Secrets at Imperial Outpost after "hiking".  Our group mallwalked Arrowhead Mall this time, which was certainly filled with more natural light than PV Mall.  Then we had breakfast at 5 & Diner.  Service was slow, food arrived cold, and all of the servers were rude to all of the patrons on the patio, so I suspect Father's Day was harsh to them.  City of Secrets was mostly fun, but then again, I'm easily pleased.  There was a player in our group who purposely had a character who was at odds with the rest of the party (a lieutenant in the occupying army, who wouldn't let us do anything even remotely outside the law, even if it was the right and good thing to do).  When XP and GP were awarded at the end, the offending player shouted across the room to Ed, a man who I hold in very low esteme as you might remember, and bragged about how he had screwed the party.  When the player left the store, all of the other players (and even the GM!) complained bitterly about him.  They sounded as if they had let him ruin their game for him.  Then again, they weren't too happy about missing out on all of the cool certs in the book.

 

Afterwards, I rushed to mass.  Father Milt was back, and he had a rather short homily compared to Father Joy's homilies.  He seemed to be holding in there after his outpatient surgery.  I guess he'll be seeing my grandparents at mass next Saturday evening in their parish. 

 

Following mass I called my grandfather & godfather, stepfather, and father for Fathers' Day.  My dad went on about the Downing Street memo in his usual anti-authority ways.  There sure are a lot of people who fear losing all of their rights to a Bush regime.  However, I have trust enough in my fellow Americans that we wouldn't just let it happen.  This nation was founded by fighting restrictive government. 

 

Star Trek:  Enterprise was replaced with the first episode of Veronica Mars.  So I suspect they want to hook new viewers over the summer.  It was a pretty good modern teen mystery show.  I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it, but if it continues to run before Buffy and Angel I'll keep watching it.  I've always enjoyed mysteries. 

 

The ending of "Normal Again" was just awesome last night.  How anyone could dislike a series with such solid episodes, where nothing is sacred, where anything could happen, to anyone, and still make it compelling--well I'll never understand.

 

"That Old Gang of Mine" was one of the first episodes of Angel I watched.  Now that I've seen the majority of season 1 & 2 episodes, how things arrived to this point are a whole lot more clear.  The episode definately doesn't have the same feel to it when you actually have the full backstory, not just what little is in the recap.

 

Tuesday and Saturday of this week we had HLA2 meetings after work.  We got a lot done.  We also got a few volunteers for HLA2 while I was at AZGD on Sunday, so hopefully these new contacts will pan out. 

 

Last Monday I worked, so Sunday was my only weekend.  Sunday I had to go to morning mass (Father Joy homilies don't inspire wakefulness, unfortunately) before the LepreCon XXXI Wrap Up meeting, dinner, and LepreCon XXXII Launch meeting.  A lot of good stuff came up at the meeting, both official and unofficial.  Shahn continues to ask me to run Program at LepreCon XXXIII, but I'm really not interested in doing Programming for life.  When pressed, I did agree to do at-con Program Ops if all he could find was someone willing to do pre-con Program.  At-con is dirt easy and doesn't consume so much of your life.  We'll see what comes of that.

 

I see that sometime in the last week anwelei's comment went missing here.  Hopefully, it'll be returned.  Also during the last week I started on the minor site redesign for Crusader Citadel.  Nothing that exciting, just cleaning up dead links, updating changed links, joining a web ring, adding a sidebar, et cetera. 

 

See ya 'round!

 

Here is another spoiler-filled review of Revenge of the Sith by a member of the national film scene. 

 

Imagine waking up to your beard being eaten.  That's how my Monday began. Keep in mind that when Christmas and Spunky were kittens they wouldn't bat around a ball of yarn like other kittens.  They'd unravel the yarn and eat long pieces of it.  Christmas eventually turned to eatting the shed hair on the ground, while Spunky turned to eatting wires.  I'm sure the electrical zaps he must have had over the years are what changed his personality and eventually caused him to have his final stroke last year.  However, I'm none to fond of anyone who'll eat my hair before I have even had the chance to shed it!

 

So I spent Monday cleaning house from all of the clutter built up during LepreCon XXXI preparations and Star Wars:  Revenge of the Sith camping.  Bill called mid-project, and we decided to finally see Episode III in DLP.  Afterwards we went to BK to get Kids' Meals (Bill got two so he could get the General Grievous windup and the Boga stuffed critter.  I got one, so I could get the Princess Leia magic viewer.)  His actual reason was to borrow Epic Duels for the upcoming PFF meeting.  So, before he left we played a few rounds.  After all, I'll be at work during the meeting.

 

 

Sunday our hiking group wussed out and "hiked" PV Mall for a few laps, then went to breakfast at 5 & Diner.  Afterwards, I started cleaning up my place (just like the next day as above) before Mom came by.  We chatted for awhile, before heading to mass where I read the second reading of St Paul to the Romans. 

 

It was my first mass with our new associate pastor, Father Joy.  He's an interesting bird, having a long homily which sent mass over an hour, but then jetting as soon as possible after mass--not even stopping to greet folks as they left mass as is typical of the presiding priest at most churches in town.  He even seemed to try to put me off when I came to ask him about a change in mass protocol I had noticed. 

 

Wednesday after work Wayne and I met to discuss the event descriptions for Hogwarts Live Action 2.  We did a little, but we mostly discussed in depth our analyses of Revenege of the Sith. 

 

Saturday, Monte ran his Star Trek:  Feng Shui campaign for the first time in months.  We tried to talk the leader of the village out of abandonning his duties to the village to no avail.  Then, once Kitty's medical officer was able to get him to admit that he had Dr Sprint and Capt Maddox under his mental dominion, my security officer phaser stunned Sprint and ran back to the ship while the village leader was strapped in the machine meant to steal his powers.  Thus, we prevented his escaping his duties and rescued Sprint--the best of both worlds!

 

On our way back to Earth at maximum warp we were attacked by Borg, who tapped into our system and triggered our self destruct before fleeing.  Rusty's engineering officer was able to hack the computer and turn off the self destruct barely in the nick of time. 

 

Then we made characters for Rusty's new Talislanta campaign.  That should begin this upcoming Saturday. 

 

Well, it's late.  Besides, you should always leave them wanting more.   

 

Here is a spoiler-filled review of Revenge of the Sith by a member of the local film scene. 

 

So, where do I begin?  It's like I'm starting a new volume, only now it's electronic instead of pre-bound paper.  I guess I'll start with the ordinary and work from there.

 

Saturday evening the old Friday group created a game plan on turning Saturday nights into a rotating GM night for role playing.  Next Saturday we start with a return to Monte's Star Trek:  Feng Shui campaign.  The following week Rusty will start a new Blue Planet campaign, this time with an undersea group.  After that Kitty might run Changling:  The Dreaming and I'm supposed to run something.  We haven't decided upon the order yet.  The main theme of our new Saturday night campaign is that they be one shot adventures, so that if people are missing one week, the game doesn't come to a screeching halt.  It should prove interesting.  We'll also be potentialy adding some new members, which will be cool.