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[May. 14th, 2008|10:04 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  fragile | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Pysche, "Sanctuary" | ] |
Last night's game went pretty well. The DM likes to experiment with the game and came up with some nifty supplemental "per encounter" and "per day" powers based on our characters' "superheroic" concept. Orson Lamont, aka The Shedu shifted rather abruptly from a decent low-level psion to an information gathering cop bribing machine. He is, however, the most fragile character I've played in years and I'm going to have to bear that in mind. Fortunately, he's got some cool abilities I can use to lurk and skulk while rummaging around in people's brains.
This morning, I'm in fend off headache mode. I forgot to take a Claritin-D last night and the migraine triggers are all lining up in a row. As a result, I'm trying to lie low and take care of things that don't involve a lot of moving around. I'm also training a new Pandora station ("Duotone Rainbow") just because I can.
Dammit. I just ran out of skips for the hour. This one is much harder to educate than Elfcore!!!. |
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[May. 12th, 2008|03:49 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  awed | ] |
Someday, somehow, I will use this image in a game:
It's an active volcano in southern Chile, engulfed by an electrical storm. At least, that's the conventionally accepted explanation. I'm pretty sure any GM worth his dicebag can come up with something more interesting/sinister/awesome.
(Additional, less spectacular pictures here) |
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| Inside Straight - A Review In Midstream |
[May. 12th, 2008|03:37 pm] |
I'm still in the process of reading Inside Straight, the new-ish "Wild Cards" novel. There's a lot to like in it. But parts of it don't sit well with me and it took a while for me to put my finger on it. Namely, it's the fact that much of the story so far revolves around "American Hero," a reality TV show where teams of Aces live together, face contrived challenges, and vote people off each week.
I hate such shows. Despise them, frankly. They hit a number of hot buttons for me, namely feelings of never being good enough to hang with the cool kids.
I'm going to stick with the book, because it's going in interesting places now that a number of characters are in Egypt, but I'm not going to feel less dirty about it. |
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| One Last Football Related Thought |
[May. 12th, 2008|08:27 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
To: The Premiership Announcing Staff At Sky Sports
Re: American Goalkeeper Tim Howard
Dear Sirs,
Yes, Everton's star 'Keeper, Tim Howard, is an American. For that matter, 20% of the starting goalkeepers in the Premiership this past season were born in the United States. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, you seem incapable of mentioning the man in any other words than "American Goalkeeper Tim Howard," as if that were his entire name. I've checked and it isn't.
Given the relative paucity of actual English goalkeepers in the Prem, I thought perhaps this was being done to distinguish foreign-born talent from your native sons, in case Mr. Capello was watching and inadvertantly tried to name young Schmeichel to the national team. But I haven't noticed you saying "Czech Goalkeeper Petr Cech," or "Spanish Goalkeeper Pepe Reyna," nor do you actually say "American Goalkeeper Brad Friedel" for that matter, so clearly this is a localized aberration. At any rate, you can drop it.
Yrs Truly,
T. F. Bretz
Deceased |
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| Stuff That Won't Make a Bit of Sense to 99% of the Readership |
[May. 11th, 2008|03:51 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  pensive | ] |
The longest season in sports comes to another end with another EPL title for ManU. Giggsy takes his 10th title and the record for appearances in a ManU uniform on the same day. Chelsea made it vaguely interesting at the end, but they were never really in it this time around. Too much playing for results instead of playing for wins. My Reds came fourth, but they really need to make some serious changes, in personnel and strategy if they want to crack the top three, much less win the title. Given their ownership situation, I'm not optimistic, but hope springs eternal on the Merseyside, and right now, we're tied for first in the 2008-2009 season.
Good show to Fulham avoiding relegation. They've got the largest number of players from the USA on their squad, and it's important for our international team to get as much top-flight experience as possible. Mr. al-Fayed, if you'd please spend some money on the team this next year instead of raising more questions about the deaths of Princess Di and your son, you might not have to squeak through again.
It appears FC Arkham will finish eleventh in the fantasy league, one place behind Jane's Slytherin 993. Not as good as I'd have liked for myself, but I'm proud of her. Clearly, my "No Ronaldo, No Chelski" policy played a big part of my undoing. Next season, no such restrictions.
Fortunately, this summer won't be as bereft of things football as 2007. A week remains in Serie A, and hopefully Roma can overtake Inter for the top spot. There's still the Champions League final in ten days, and the FA Cup final coming up. Euro 2008 starts next month (Allez Les Bleus!). We've got MLS all summer, and the Dynamo actually looked good last night, and there's Olympics as well, though I expect either a South American or African squad to take gold. |
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| For Them What's Interested |
[May. 10th, 2008|12:53 pm] |
I decided to set up an RPGnet league for the upcoming Euro Tournament.
To sign up for Fantasy Euro, go to http://en.fantasy.euro2008.uefa.com/
Once your team is set up, the code to sign up for the league is 48304-6481
The deadline to for maximum points (for this league) is May 23. |
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| It's A Slow Afternoon |
[May. 9th, 2008|01:57 pm] |
So I'm linking to stuff I may want to use for the upcoming game I'm working on.
(Also, because in this case, it's just freaking amazing. If you want a futuristic, cyberpunk city, look no further.)
Dubai Architecture
(Courtesy of a thread on RPGnet. They can be useful once in a while.) |
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| More Fun With That Internet Toy |
[May. 9th, 2008|01:23 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  vaguely artsy | ] |
The one that does the DC Animated style artwork.
( Emma Frost, aka - The White Queen ) |
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| Update Full Of Blather |
[May. 7th, 2008|07:33 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | okay | ] |
Yesterday was, physiologically speaking, headache-free. This morning feels like today shall be as well. Usually, I'm pretty good at anticipating these things, so let's hope that holds up.
Work-wise, it wasn't much worse. I had a (L)user-based problem first thing in the AM, setting up someone's profile on a new machine, but that wasn't the poor computer's fault. I had issues that required two trips to the main building to essentially flip a switch in order to get people up and running. And in the afternoon, I had to go dismantle two workstations that are moving so I can re-mantle them this morning in their new office. No big. The one crisis occurred when I realized we weren't getting inbound internet email, nor could you navigate to our website or reach our remote server by name. But pinging the IP address worked, so I figured out our DNS server was down. I called the folks who host it, and learned they'd had a power issue and that it should have been up as we were speaking. And it was. I love it when a crisis comes up that I can 1) diagnose, and 2) diagnose as something not caused by a problem on our end.
I had some time to kill before pre-game dinner and wandered over to Borders. Good move that. When I was heading towards the checkout counter, I chanced upon the very pleasant Charlaine Harris signing copies of the latest volume of Jane's current guilty pleasure, the "Southern Vampire" series. I got her to sign a copy to Jane, thereby garnering mondo Good Husband Points. Also picked up the new Wild Cards hardback. I followed the series religiously back in the day, and much more indifferently when they tried to revive it a few years ago, but this volume seems to be going for more of a generational break from the past. So far, it's pretty decent.
Last night's game was a transition. Val leveled up. Paladin's don't get much when they hit 10th, but he managed some nifty swag from prior adventures, and there's a damsel to court, and drow to kill down in the basement, so he's a happy camper all the same.
Starting some groundwork for a supers game I'm looking to run for ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) j_in_question and a number of the Clix crew who don't live too far away. Too early to tell what that's going to be like, but it's got the creative juices moving around a bit.
Finally, spare a thought for mechanteanemone, who was already dealing with recent bad job mojo and then lost her father yesterday. :-( |
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| Aw, Man... |
[May. 6th, 2008|01:59 pm] |
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I just found out that Mike Ness is playing a solo gig here tonight, with Jesse Dayton opening for him. 'Twould be an awesome show. But I'm not sure it's $30 awesome. On a weeknight. Never mind my gaming commitment. |
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| Urg |
[May. 5th, 2008|02:33 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | blah | ] |
It didn't last. When the weather turned yesterday afternoon, my sinuses locked up and the migraine fairy returned.
Last night was bumpy, though it gave me a chance to try out a slew of palliatives I haven't explored in the past. Nothing worked completely, but a few of them worked well enough to allow me to sleep in two hour stints. I stayed home an extra hour this morning, and I'm getting through the day OK, albeit slowly and kind of muzzy at times. There's still some background pain, like a light on a dimmer switched turned down low, but it's manageable.
I just hope whatever it is that's setting off my sinuses will blow on through quickly. |
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[May. 4th, 2008|01:51 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | relieved | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Pens vs Rangers | ] |
This morning is the first time since Wednesday I haven't woke up with an incipient migraine. I switched to a different sinus treatment last night, so let's hope that had something to do with it, because I'm now out of Imitrex until the 17th. Vibes, crossed fingers, sacrifices to the god of headaches, whatever will be much appreciated.
In spite of that, it's been a fairly good weekend, if a bit out of our regular rhythm. Jane's folks put an addition on their house (a new master suite) and Jane's been over there yesterday and today helping her mom clear out of her old room and move into the new one. According to yesterday's report, they produced thirteen garbage bags worth of clothes, etc. for Goodwill. The woman had 300 purses in her closet. It could be worse, I suppose. It could be cats.
As a result, I've been holding down the home front with C-Monster. Yesterday, we went to get free funnybooks, and hit the local gamestore where I play Clix to see if they had anything interesting in the display case. As it turns out, some guy is selling off a piece of his collection and there were a number of choice Uniques at decent prices. I picked up a MODOK and a Krypto (Yes, Superman's dog. It is very cute.)
Around 5 PM, we went to a fundraiser picnic for a friend who's running for the state legislature. He's got a good shot at it actually, because his opponent is fairly universally reviled, even by Republican loyalists. It was a good time, all in all, helped by some very cooperative weather.
Then, things got really odd. We came home and let C-Monster play until a bit later than usual. When he finally got to bed, he was constantly up and down and would NOT fall asleep. Every time I thought he was out for the count and turned out the hall light, he'd start squawking about still being awake.
This went until about midnight. By this point, my headache was getting worse and I was trying to decide whether or not to take the final Imitrex. I'd ruled it out and finally shut the house down around 1 AM and apparently dosed off for a while.
At 2 AM, I woke up, still hurting. I rolled over and got a face full of light. What the hell? Then I heard a TV on. I got up. C was wide awake, had his bedroom and the hall light on, was watching a movie on his TV and had just booted up his PC. I got up, shut him down and turned out all the lights. At which point, he began doing that forced fake sobbing thing that all parents of a manipulative child know all too well. Which woke up Jane, who thankfully tagged in and got him settled down.
At 2:30, I gave up and took the last Imitrex, which kicked in and put me to sleep by 3.
And thankfully, there wasn't a new one waiting in the wings this morning. Today is all about laundry. And soccer. And hockey. |
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[May. 3rd, 2008|09:59 am] |
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Iron Man was damned-near note perfect. Not just as a superhero adaptation, but as a big budget extravaganza. |
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[May. 1st, 2008|09:01 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  bouncy | ] |
Iron Man tickets pre-purchased. We're meeting my friend A for dinner and catching the 8:30 showing tomorrow night. j_in_question already saw it and gave it high praise. Though from what he told me, I don't think he stayed all the way through the closing credits (I've been spoiled and will be staying). It's been a long time since I've been this amped for a movie. |
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[May. 1st, 2008|03:52 pm] |
I'm back on the job today. Much, MUCH better frame of mind. I'm getting things done and not feeling quite so weighed down by the prospect of taking on all of this network management nuts and bolts.
And at the moment, I've got a bit of a lull, so I'm a-gonna talk about a few funny books I've been reading and what I'm liking a lot and not so much. All opinions, as usual, are mine and mine alone.
( And behind a cut for the protection of people with lives. ) |
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[May. 1st, 2008|02:47 pm] |
If there's any justice in the universe, Ben Stein will be afflicted with a virus that has evolved a hefty degree of drug resistance.
Just sayin'... |
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| Well, crap |
[Apr. 30th, 2008|04:15 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  morose | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Chelsea 3 - Liverpool 2 | ] |
Well played, lads. Just a bit short at the end. Great game though. An instant classic.
At least we finally scored at Stamford Bridge under Rafa. Small satisfaction, but you take what you can. |
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| Three Sentence Review |
[Apr. 29th, 2008|07:45 am] |
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Gentlemen of the Road is a delightful short novel. You should read it. Unless you already have, in which case you already know how delightful it is. |
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