Okay, it's not like there is an army of gategeeks reading this blog so I can say whatever I want to about Continuum. First Holy macaroni was it cool! Second, I'm going to have to watch all 10 seasons because I don't remember Ba'al and Katesh hooking up. Third, great to see Jack back. And, it was nice to see General Hammond. This was Don S. Davis' last performance before he passed this Summer. Wow talk about bitter sweet. Now... spoilers:
The first thing I hate is when people bend/fold/spindle or mutilate SG-1. And that includes the writers. Daniel loses a leg in the Arctic, and gets gut shot with a staff weapon on Praxis. I know Daniel is danger prone but c'mom... why does he always get this crap? Ba'al kills Jack. The only good president this country has ever had is burried under a mountain of rubble when Katesh betrays Ba'al and attacks Earth anyway. Sam gets shot... again. Teal'c switches system Lord teams like Brett Farve having pissing contests with management, gets gut shot twice and written out of existence once. And Vala is just plain bad news no matte how you write her. The highlight is that Daniel is free of her loving interests. Apophis dies again. Yea Ba'al! Oh and did I mention that Daniel is reduced to the freak status that he had at the beginning of this ride with the original Stargate movie? I swear these guys love making Daniel look like a raving loon.
The second thing I hate is when the sci-fi guys mess up the sci part of things.
Cameron meets his grampa. Now, in traditional interpretations of EVERY physics model (including the episode where Sam meets herself) when same particles occupy close space in the same time the particles degrade. See, I kinda talked about this in the LHC post. Two particles cannot occupy the same space in time unless they are Higgs boson particles. And in large clusters, say the kind it takes to put a person together, same particles cannot exist close together for any duration without degradation. In other words one you would contaminate the other you. You should not be able to meet your family either. And what happens? Cam meets grampa. Of course, had he not taken that chance then ba'al would have succeeded in his plan to dominate and subordinate the Tau'ree (us) and then get murdered by his diabolical queen because she is a greedy bitch. divorce doesn't happen among the gods... they just kill each other.
In the end, order is restored and things go back to how they are supposed to be with Earth never facing the cataclysmic danger that befalls SG-1 because they are on the front lines taking shit for everybody else. And... Jack takes them to lunch. His treat.
In all, i loved it. But I hate crying when they kill people who should not die if I am going to get to watch more Stargate. And it is stupid. I know they won't let Daniel stay dead, Sam or Teal'c either. But sheesh... The emotional roller coaster should be a ride at Cedar Point!
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Techokay
Actually, while I am waiting to hook up with a conversation, I'll watch Continuum. I an do that cause i have a 'puter now.
I love stargate. Jack is back in this one.
BIG CHEESEY GRIN DROOL SLOBBER DROOL DROOL DROOL
I love stargate. Jack is back in this one.
BIG CHEESEY GRIN DROOL SLOBBER DROOL DROOL DROOL
Throwing ones and twos
Right now I am exploring the multitasking functions of my Acer laptop. I have headphones plugged into the 'puter and the 'puter plugged in to the wall. I am, to Timothy Leary's dismay, plugged in. Since nothing is surgically implanted and it is looking like I was way cool and technologically advanced for 1970, I don't feel as Borgie as I could. Though... if I suddenly sound like Locutus, plug me and run. In many regards I feel on top of the world.
I think I just named my friend Allan's grand baby, he's totally impressed with the weight that I have lost, I have another geek on the line that ACG doesn't approve of, and I am really starting to push through the difficulties to get my life to where I am living for me, another great Wheaton post, reconnecting with a high school classmate that I can actually call friend and we get to use the pool at work on Sunday's. So... i should feel like I am rocking the casbah.
Problem is, for as good as a rainy September morning this rainy September morning is... I am still throwing ones and twos when it comes to the man issues. Yeah, I've got another geek on the line. The last one, an engineer/conductor [nothing to do with railroading thanks] isn't going anywhere that I can tell. And this guy, whom we shall dub, PhD [physicist in Detroit] has sent me a flirt and not responded to my reply e-mail.
There is one big red flag that I consider only a yellow alert. ACG on the other hand is reacting as though a Romulan Bird of Prey just materialized off the starboard nacelle firing disruptor phasers at my 25% degraded shields. In this I'd have to say he is reacting with typical Worf aplomb and diplomacy. One man's red flag is another's olive branch.
And he hasn't responded at all in three days to the email I sent in response to his flirt. So, I am wondering if his research is so involved why he is even looking. And if he doesn't need help finding, why the hell is he on line anyway? I mean, he is hot lookin' for a nerd/geek. Although... on closer inspection, he shares some traits with Mr. Lyle which, in the wrong setting, could make me run screaming from the Centre. [Pretended]. The thing about this guy that bothers me is that he seems to have been created specifically for me. What? Me see invaders inside a gift horse? of course I do. It seems to improbable that a physicist who started life as an art major and spends his free time playing violin and drawing figures in cafes, who look like he does, would a. need help or b. exist. Everything matches. So what's the problem?
If he initiated contact, why has he not accepted my reply? On the heels of my "I'm chucking this whole damn thing" retort to experiencing a protracted episode of plak tow, I am inclined to follow through on what may be less than an idle threat. Of course, I am paranoid that the whole thing is a ruse.
Ruse? Yes. I think it might be a fake profile. There are several reasons which, if I think to hard I will accept as truth rather than theory. But most telling is the quality of the photograph. It is staged and posed. Most everyone else just grabs what is handy, cropping themselves from a group photo at a keg party. Or they use the promo shot from their business promotions. This guy used a photo that was designed to say hello ladies. Now, being that he is a geek, I can say over preparedness is a quality which causes one to carry a briefcase when a book bag would do. it could simply be that he went into this prepared. But its the candid admission of what may or may not be a problem, the inordinately high ratio of hits to misses in our likes and dislikes and the very SPECIFIC descriptions "play violin to stay sane" and "free time in cafes sketching" that make me the weensiest bit skeptical. of course the big red flag that puts ACG on alert is nothing to me.
First, blazing red flags are to girls what men in white pants on Pamplona's streets are to bulls in the Spring. What a girl learns to mistrust are the subtleties. Second, his "admission" reveals a person who simply has spent too much time in his logical world of science to understand much about what his heart wants.
If the profile is a fake, there is a signature within that tells me who the perpetrator of the hoax is. That would be the label Capricorn. There is only one person who would do that to me to build his case that I am a flake. I don't want to believe that it is possible. But I have watched a girlfriend built a fake profile to bust a cheater on myspace. I even helped her build the woman's back story to be a believable thing, not an easy feat since I've never been outside of MI but the fake person had to live in Buffalo, NY. I know that it is possible and how easy it is. That was the great thing with ACG, he had a place where I could corroborate everything he said. Now, I only have my gut. And my gut is as poisoned with he plak tow as my blood is.
I through a +30 with ACG. So now I expect everything to go that way. I've totally rolled 1 or -1 on my flirts to other guys. And the lack of dialog with PhD is a big goose egg on my rolls, can you have a -Yahtzee in RPGs? If you can this is it. I signed up for another site and that's been a disappointed 2 roll. Lots of great matches, but they are already hooked up and never bothered to remove their profiles. I have NO HITS from that site AT ALL. And someone I was trying to hook up with else where has hisself a girl so there's a fail. I am frustrated and in desperate need of relief. I've never had this last this long. I don't know what to do.
Okay... I've been girly geek long enough. I'm gonna go look at what the LHC is doing today.
I think I just named my friend Allan's grand baby, he's totally impressed with the weight that I have lost, I have another geek on the line that ACG doesn't approve of, and I am really starting to push through the difficulties to get my life to where I am living for me, another great Wheaton post, reconnecting with a high school classmate that I can actually call friend and we get to use the pool at work on Sunday's. So... i should feel like I am rocking the casbah.
Problem is, for as good as a rainy September morning this rainy September morning is... I am still throwing ones and twos when it comes to the man issues. Yeah, I've got another geek on the line. The last one, an engineer/conductor [nothing to do with railroading thanks] isn't going anywhere that I can tell. And this guy, whom we shall dub, PhD [physicist in Detroit] has sent me a flirt and not responded to my reply e-mail.
There is one big red flag that I consider only a yellow alert. ACG on the other hand is reacting as though a Romulan Bird of Prey just materialized off the starboard nacelle firing disruptor phasers at my 25% degraded shields. In this I'd have to say he is reacting with typical Worf aplomb and diplomacy. One man's red flag is another's olive branch.
And he hasn't responded at all in three days to the email I sent in response to his flirt. So, I am wondering if his research is so involved why he is even looking. And if he doesn't need help finding, why the hell is he on line anyway? I mean, he is hot lookin' for a nerd/geek. Although... on closer inspection, he shares some traits with Mr. Lyle which, in the wrong setting, could make me run screaming from the Centre. [Pretended]. The thing about this guy that bothers me is that he seems to have been created specifically for me. What? Me see invaders inside a gift horse? of course I do. It seems to improbable that a physicist who started life as an art major and spends his free time playing violin and drawing figures in cafes, who look like he does, would a. need help or b. exist. Everything matches. So what's the problem?
If he initiated contact, why has he not accepted my reply? On the heels of my "I'm chucking this whole damn thing" retort to experiencing a protracted episode of plak tow, I am inclined to follow through on what may be less than an idle threat. Of course, I am paranoid that the whole thing is a ruse.
Ruse? Yes. I think it might be a fake profile. There are several reasons which, if I think to hard I will accept as truth rather than theory. But most telling is the quality of the photograph. It is staged and posed. Most everyone else just grabs what is handy, cropping themselves from a group photo at a keg party. Or they use the promo shot from their business promotions. This guy used a photo that was designed to say hello ladies. Now, being that he is a geek, I can say over preparedness is a quality which causes one to carry a briefcase when a book bag would do. it could simply be that he went into this prepared. But its the candid admission of what may or may not be a problem, the inordinately high ratio of hits to misses in our likes and dislikes and the very SPECIFIC descriptions "play violin to stay sane" and "free time in cafes sketching" that make me the weensiest bit skeptical. of course the big red flag that puts ACG on alert is nothing to me.
First, blazing red flags are to girls what men in white pants on Pamplona's streets are to bulls in the Spring. What a girl learns to mistrust are the subtleties. Second, his "admission" reveals a person who simply has spent too much time in his logical world of science to understand much about what his heart wants.
If the profile is a fake, there is a signature within that tells me who the perpetrator of the hoax is. That would be the label Capricorn. There is only one person who would do that to me to build his case that I am a flake. I don't want to believe that it is possible. But I have watched a girlfriend built a fake profile to bust a cheater on myspace. I even helped her build the woman's back story to be a believable thing, not an easy feat since I've never been outside of MI but the fake person had to live in Buffalo, NY. I know that it is possible and how easy it is. That was the great thing with ACG, he had a place where I could corroborate everything he said. Now, I only have my gut. And my gut is as poisoned with he plak tow as my blood is.
I through a +30 with ACG. So now I expect everything to go that way. I've totally rolled 1 or -1 on my flirts to other guys. And the lack of dialog with PhD is a big goose egg on my rolls, can you have a -Yahtzee in RPGs? If you can this is it. I signed up for another site and that's been a disappointed 2 roll. Lots of great matches, but they are already hooked up and never bothered to remove their profiles. I have NO HITS from that site AT ALL. And someone I was trying to hook up with else where has hisself a girl so there's a fail. I am frustrated and in desperate need of relief. I've never had this last this long. I don't know what to do.
Okay... I've been girly geek long enough. I'm gonna go look at what the LHC is doing today.
I have been lax
For some reason, probably the yakking with ACG that I have done the last several days, I have not visited wilwheaton.typepad.com. And thus, did not see his geekfest over the LHC. I just caught up with three posts in which I find that I was a geek way before I ever heard the word. I coveted the neighbor kid's LEGO and my brother's TENTEs (which I found to be the superior product at its initial release). And I am still saddened that I only came to D&D during the geek uprising post Hanks modern fantasy and then due to the quality of players never played again. Not only do I want to play D&D, I want to build a LEGO avatar of my character.
And because nothing is ever simple for geeks, I declare today the start of a cliche reclamation process in which the words "die" or "dice" appear in an axiom will be hence forth replaced with "polyhedra" or "polyhedron". What say you geeks?
It's just the luck of the polyhedron.
The poly-h is cast.
throwing polyhedron
Yes, the geek is cast.
And it is me.
And because nothing is ever simple for geeks, I declare today the start of a cliche reclamation process in which the words "die" or "dice" appear in an axiom will be hence forth replaced with "polyhedra" or "polyhedron". What say you geeks?
It's just the luck of the polyhedron.
The poly-h is cast.
throwing polyhedron
Yes, the geek is cast.
And it is me.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
It's the end of the world as we know it or Stephen Hawking Loses a Bet
Today the LHC at CERN is fired up, initiating a process that will allow physicists to collide particles and generate unstable, rapidly decaying blackholes or allow us to see for the first time the Higgs boson. Either way, it's going to be a fun day.
One group of antiCERNs thinks the blackholes will not decay but rather find their way into the earths core, causing our planet to implode and then proceed to eat this solar system; create strangelts or monopoles. These people fail to recognize the fact that cosmic rays bombard the planet all day long, doing the same thing that the LHC does without deliterious effects.
So what is the point of atom smashing? Atom pie? But seriously, if the y do find visual evidence of the Higgs boson particle, it would support the theory behind the Higgs field and give us a foundation to explore unified field theory to its inevitable conclusion. And what's in it for us? First, better medical imaging. Of course the MIC [military industrial complex] will use it to foster "greater homeland security for America" but we will be better able to fine tune the equipment that doctors currently use for med scans. Those scans use accelerated anti matter particles to get better pictures than the old exray technology. The other potential benefit o such a thing is to make quantum computing possible. We already have ridiculously fast computers, but done on a quantum level we would have computers better, faster, smarter an more intuitive than the shipboard computer on the Enterprise [which is also the point of science fiction- giving direction the theory, goals to attain]. It would also allow for super secure communications. The Higgs boson is both matter and force particles depending (theoretically) on how the quarks are bundled. Understanding how bundling occurs would enable us to develop truly secure communications independent of encryption codes. This is my estimation of the possibilities; not something that has been stated in the scientific community. But it makes sense.
Dr. Michio Kaku states that we have the potential to discover new energy sources :"...brink of the granddaddy of all unifications... the unification of all forces into a superforce. We think the uperforce if a superstring theory, that drove the Big Bang, that created the heavens and earth..." could this be the foundation for understanding the theoretical zero point energy, making cold fusion work, establishing wormholes and developing hyper drives? Indeed. it could also be the best picture we have of G'd.
The Higgs boson particle is a scalar elementary particle, a force carrier, that exists in the Higgs field which is the tachyon of which Star Trek speaks. The Higgs field is a quantum fluid. As particles, including Higgs boson particles, react to the field those particles attain mass and gravity. It is its own antiparticle and the cause of other particles to have antiparticle, it has no spin and it is responsible for creating mirror images of a physical system. As a particle and a field, Higgs boson particles possesses a unique ability; two or more bosons of the same energy signature can OCCUPY THE SAME PLACE IN SAPCE. In short the Higgs boson is the stuff of which matter is composed and the glue which holds matter together. Essentially, the Higgs boson gives form to the formless... the function of G'd as the Creator of All Things according to the oldest scriptuaral and mystic teachings on the planet.
In short... we are about to meet an aspect of our Maker. Are you prepared?
One group of antiCERNs thinks the blackholes will not decay but rather find their way into the earths core, causing our planet to implode and then proceed to eat this solar system; create strangelts or monopoles. These people fail to recognize the fact that cosmic rays bombard the planet all day long, doing the same thing that the LHC does without deliterious effects.
So what is the point of atom smashing? Atom pie? But seriously, if the y do find visual evidence of the Higgs boson particle, it would support the theory behind the Higgs field and give us a foundation to explore unified field theory to its inevitable conclusion. And what's in it for us? First, better medical imaging. Of course the MIC [military industrial complex] will use it to foster "greater homeland security for America" but we will be better able to fine tune the equipment that doctors currently use for med scans. Those scans use accelerated anti matter particles to get better pictures than the old exray technology. The other potential benefit o such a thing is to make quantum computing possible. We already have ridiculously fast computers, but done on a quantum level we would have computers better, faster, smarter an more intuitive than the shipboard computer on the Enterprise [which is also the point of science fiction- giving direction the theory, goals to attain]. It would also allow for super secure communications. The Higgs boson is both matter and force particles depending (theoretically) on how the quarks are bundled. Understanding how bundling occurs would enable us to develop truly secure communications independent of encryption codes. This is my estimation of the possibilities; not something that has been stated in the scientific community. But it makes sense.
Dr. Michio Kaku states that we have the potential to discover new energy sources :"...brink of the granddaddy of all unifications... the unification of all forces into a superforce. We think the uperforce if a superstring theory, that drove the Big Bang, that created the heavens and earth..." could this be the foundation for understanding the theoretical zero point energy, making cold fusion work, establishing wormholes and developing hyper drives? Indeed. it could also be the best picture we have of G'd.
The Higgs boson particle is a scalar elementary particle, a force carrier, that exists in the Higgs field which is the tachyon of which Star Trek speaks. The Higgs field is a quantum fluid. As particles, including Higgs boson particles, react to the field those particles attain mass and gravity. It is its own antiparticle and the cause of other particles to have antiparticle, it has no spin and it is responsible for creating mirror images of a physical system. As a particle and a field, Higgs boson particles possesses a unique ability; two or more bosons of the same energy signature can OCCUPY THE SAME PLACE IN SAPCE. In short the Higgs boson is the stuff of which matter is composed and the glue which holds matter together. Essentially, the Higgs boson gives form to the formless... the function of G'd as the Creator of All Things according to the oldest scriptuaral and mystic teachings on the planet.
In short... we are about to meet an aspect of our Maker. Are you prepared?
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Did I ever tell you about my gaming experience?
While the parental units were freaking out about D&D when Tom Hanks' "D&D warped my brain" movie came out we were all wondering how to get in a game. I was in 7th or 8th grade. There were several groups of geeks in our school. I couldn't be part of any of them. My mom was the detention warden so I was persona non grata in every group. In highschool, when we grew up a little and learned something about not suffering for the sins of our mothers, Dragon Lance came out. When I started reading it, I was part of a group that would finally acknowledge that girls can like dragons, armor and crests. Good thing too because the faux family crest was an 80's fashion staple. I still hit the glass ceiling when it came to the game. I knew if the boys wouldn't let me play RISK! they wouldn't let me slay dragons with them.
And there was the first of many misconceptions that took years to get away from. It wasn't until the ripe old age of 23 that I played in my first game. It was a weekend, 15 people spent the night at my house and we ran a map all the way through. It was a basic game, dice only. Hit or miss no extensive rolling to inflict damage. It took 12 hours. I don't know the name of the campaign we ran. I only remember that there was a one way corridor [our mage sealed the corridor behind us when we attracted the attention of a large number of Orcs and our barbarian lost brain capacity] that opened into a room... an empty room. Three walls stone. One wall polished metal, a mirror. No latches, no loose stones to indicate a foot pad trigger. No spells. Everytime the mage launched a spell it bounced back at him. We'd seen something similar before and decided to restrain him... he insisted he could bust through it. Stupid half elf mage. So, we spent the barbarian's strength bashing his head against the wall, the dwarf's staff splintered. Our leader kept insisting that we would suffocate since the mage stupidly sealed the corridor. I kept insisting that we could get through this thing if we would stop and think about it.
Here's something the newbie should refrain from doing... don't be smarter than the seasoned gamers. The leader kept yelling at me. After an hour they threw the dwarf. The dwarf and the mage had gotten into each others face... I mean the players representing said characters. It was getting pretty ugly. The DM was loosing patience with all of us. The barbarian got pissed and picked up the dwarf when the dark mage, taking the leader's side, suggested dwarf tossing to amuse themselves while the air ran out. DM intervened. "How does the dwarf hit the wall?"
"Ass first so that when he lands on it it'll knock some sense into him."
Done. The dwarf went through the wall.
I wish I could say hilarity ensued. I was tired, angry and desperately needed excedrin. At this point I was thinking this was the least fun thing in the world. I thought maybe girls don't really get it. DM asked me what I was doing. "Huh?"
"What are you doing while these idiots are fighting?"
"Standing in a corner twiddling my thumbs. Why? You wanna roll the dice on that too?" The room went quiet. I guess the first rule of D&D is that the DM is G'd. Second thing newbies don't do... sass g'd.
"What did you say to me little girl?"
Oops. Oop would have been the proper response. Instead I said "You heard me."
"Describe what you are doing. In detail. Leave nothing out."
I huff, blowing my bangs out of my face. Then I drop my knapsack with a thud.
"What is your problem?" the half elf asks.
"You guys are idiots." I put my hands on my hips. "I'm tired, I cold, I want to get out of here and you guys are giving me a head ache." I grab a piece of fruit from the sack and start chewing. "Go ahead and fight. When you've killed yourselves I get your treasure, your weapons and the satisfaction of knowing I don't have to deal with any of you."
"Only if your roll is successful."
"Why should have to roll, I'd have to be dead to not be able to carry your crap."
"Because it isn't fair." the mage whined.
"I guess you should have spell protected your weapons." The DM barked. He'd told the mage to think seriously about that.
As it was, I sat down, crossed my legs and leaned against the mirrored wall with a smug look of satisfaction on my face.
"She disappeared." The DM said.
A collective "Wha...?"
She's gone. They wanted to take my knapsack and split my limited treasure. It took them another 30 minutes to figure out that they had to go throughthe wall walking backwards. It was grueling to have won some kind of respect from those guys. And I did. the barbarian was pissed that I seemed to get the nuance of the game. But that's the way things go for geeks. The next time we played we were more involved.
I built a character, sketched her and built a back story that I presented to the DM because I was just that into the possibilities. That was a fun campaign. We had to reconvene twice. But we never finished it. the game got ugly hwen people wanted to add some realism and some of the in fighting bled into the map. If it hadn't been for that, I would have been a gamer forever. The group broke up and I couldn't get people to play if evryone couldn't play together. it was a gruesome end to somehting that could have been fun.
I saw recently that there is a Star Gate module and there will most likely be an anniversary game book for Dragon Lance. I want to play. I see people, other geeks and nerds, who played a long time ago before everything was on line. Dice, face time, pizza in middle earth... a delicious anacronism... I would love to play again. How do I find them? Can I still find a set of dice in town? Ah... the things that might have been.
You'd think that Gary Gaigax's death last year would have made me nostalgic for D&D. But no... Wheaton went to PAX and he's deep in the RPG books. And he can't get the boys to play with him. So many want to play. But we are do far apart physically.... how does one get a game on when there is only the net?
And there was the first of many misconceptions that took years to get away from. It wasn't until the ripe old age of 23 that I played in my first game. It was a weekend, 15 people spent the night at my house and we ran a map all the way through. It was a basic game, dice only. Hit or miss no extensive rolling to inflict damage. It took 12 hours. I don't know the name of the campaign we ran. I only remember that there was a one way corridor [our mage sealed the corridor behind us when we attracted the attention of a large number of Orcs and our barbarian lost brain capacity] that opened into a room... an empty room. Three walls stone. One wall polished metal, a mirror. No latches, no loose stones to indicate a foot pad trigger. No spells. Everytime the mage launched a spell it bounced back at him. We'd seen something similar before and decided to restrain him... he insisted he could bust through it. Stupid half elf mage. So, we spent the barbarian's strength bashing his head against the wall, the dwarf's staff splintered. Our leader kept insisting that we would suffocate since the mage stupidly sealed the corridor. I kept insisting that we could get through this thing if we would stop and think about it.
Here's something the newbie should refrain from doing... don't be smarter than the seasoned gamers. The leader kept yelling at me. After an hour they threw the dwarf. The dwarf and the mage had gotten into each others face... I mean the players representing said characters. It was getting pretty ugly. The DM was loosing patience with all of us. The barbarian got pissed and picked up the dwarf when the dark mage, taking the leader's side, suggested dwarf tossing to amuse themselves while the air ran out. DM intervened. "How does the dwarf hit the wall?"
"Ass first so that when he lands on it it'll knock some sense into him."
Done. The dwarf went through the wall.
I wish I could say hilarity ensued. I was tired, angry and desperately needed excedrin. At this point I was thinking this was the least fun thing in the world. I thought maybe girls don't really get it. DM asked me what I was doing. "Huh?"
"What are you doing while these idiots are fighting?"
"Standing in a corner twiddling my thumbs. Why? You wanna roll the dice on that too?" The room went quiet. I guess the first rule of D&D is that the DM is G'd. Second thing newbies don't do... sass g'd.
"What did you say to me little girl?"
Oops. Oop would have been the proper response. Instead I said "You heard me."
"Describe what you are doing. In detail. Leave nothing out."
I huff, blowing my bangs out of my face. Then I drop my knapsack with a thud.
"What is your problem?" the half elf asks.
"You guys are idiots." I put my hands on my hips. "I'm tired, I cold, I want to get out of here and you guys are giving me a head ache." I grab a piece of fruit from the sack and start chewing. "Go ahead and fight. When you've killed yourselves I get your treasure, your weapons and the satisfaction of knowing I don't have to deal with any of you."
"Only if your roll is successful."
"Why should have to roll, I'd have to be dead to not be able to carry your crap."
"Because it isn't fair." the mage whined.
"I guess you should have spell protected your weapons." The DM barked. He'd told the mage to think seriously about that.
As it was, I sat down, crossed my legs and leaned against the mirrored wall with a smug look of satisfaction on my face.
"She disappeared." The DM said.
A collective "Wha...?"
She's gone. They wanted to take my knapsack and split my limited treasure. It took them another 30 minutes to figure out that they had to go throughthe wall walking backwards. It was grueling to have won some kind of respect from those guys. And I did. the barbarian was pissed that I seemed to get the nuance of the game. But that's the way things go for geeks. The next time we played we were more involved.
I built a character, sketched her and built a back story that I presented to the DM because I was just that into the possibilities. That was a fun campaign. We had to reconvene twice. But we never finished it. the game got ugly hwen people wanted to add some realism and some of the in fighting bled into the map. If it hadn't been for that, I would have been a gamer forever. The group broke up and I couldn't get people to play if evryone couldn't play together. it was a gruesome end to somehting that could have been fun.
I saw recently that there is a Star Gate module and there will most likely be an anniversary game book for Dragon Lance. I want to play. I see people, other geeks and nerds, who played a long time ago before everything was on line. Dice, face time, pizza in middle earth... a delicious anacronism... I would love to play again. How do I find them? Can I still find a set of dice in town? Ah... the things that might have been.
You'd think that Gary Gaigax's death last year would have made me nostalgic for D&D. But no... Wheaton went to PAX and he's deep in the RPG books. And he can't get the boys to play with him. So many want to play. But we are do far apart physically.... how does one get a game on when there is only the net?
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Hate jealousy
but learn from it.
I am so envious of the way the author of "4cats, a dog and a birdfeeder habit" writes. I said he was great. Reading the blog is like talking to him.it's It's just that his brain is just as sharp as it ever has been and mine feels like it's been through a cuisinart. And... for no other reason than some atrophy.
I haven't had the mental exercise of vigorous conversation like I am used to. The way my world has shrunk in the last ten years has diminished some of my faulties as well as my well of information. I am in the shallow end of the swimming pool and longing to be deeper. I just don't know that I trust my skills in the deep end. Fear is stupid. Davida said it. I quoted it. I know it is stupid.
So what is left for me is to learn from this jealousy. I always thought of Evan as some kind of mentor. So between him and the Wheaton, I shall learn the art of the short essay and short story form. I shall hone my skills so that if someday, many moons from now, they read me they will find me worthy. I have one regular fan and I treasure all of his positive feedback as he is an excellent writer as well. But, Evan's style is so close to how I have always imagined my writer's voice would be and Wil is just hilarious. I hate being jealous.
So I will learn.
I am so envious of the way the author of "4cats, a dog and a birdfeeder habit" writes. I said he was great. Reading the blog is like talking to him.it's It's just that his brain is just as sharp as it ever has been and mine feels like it's been through a cuisinart. And... for no other reason than some atrophy.
I haven't had the mental exercise of vigorous conversation like I am used to. The way my world has shrunk in the last ten years has diminished some of my faulties as well as my well of information. I am in the shallow end of the swimming pool and longing to be deeper. I just don't know that I trust my skills in the deep end. Fear is stupid. Davida said it. I quoted it. I know it is stupid.
So what is left for me is to learn from this jealousy. I always thought of Evan as some kind of mentor. So between him and the Wheaton, I shall learn the art of the short essay and short story form. I shall hone my skills so that if someday, many moons from now, they read me they will find me worthy. I have one regular fan and I treasure all of his positive feedback as he is an excellent writer as well. But, Evan's style is so close to how I have always imagined my writer's voice would be and Wil is just hilarious. I hate being jealous.
So I will learn.
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