Gaming-1

Warning - Gaming Post

For those of you who have been enjoying my posts about Witchhunter, I have some bad news. I finally got tired of staying up well past midnight and often not even having a game, so I've stopped going to the Witchhunter games. The good news is that I may revisit Witchhunter again in the future. I intend to introduce my gaming group to the game eventually.

It's been awhile since I've given a Marvel Superhero update. Our fearless heroes have been having a fairly easy time rolling over street thugs and standard super-villains. Unfortunately, they fought a few mind controlled Avengers in the last session. They weren't too happy to discover that Iron Man could give them a pretty good beating. I'm not entirely sure why they were surprised. He is one of Marvel's icons.

Digimon

I've been playing Digomon World Data Squad for the past few days, and I must say I'm really enjoying it. I've always been a fan of the Digimon series. I feel that it was a more epic drama with better characterization that it's competitor, Pokemon.

Unfortunately, the video game adaptations are seldom done well. I was really excited when I first heard about the original Digimon World, and it wasn't really that bad except for 1 concept. Each of your Digimon stages last about 4 hours of real time, and if you didn't get your stats set right to digivolve, then your Digomon died and you had to start with an egg again. There was so much grinding just to fail again and again before getting it right.

Digimon World 2 had a similar flaw. This time you got three digimon to work with at a time, and you could get more. However, they had level caps. In order to pass the level caps, you had to combine two more powerful digmon and start over again with slightly better stats. Unfortunately, the level cap was set by the weaker digimon, so you always had to sacrifice two strong ones or you got screwed again.

Digimon World 3 was actually a better adaptation. This time you had three characters, who each had one digimon. They introduced the concept that a single digimon could digivolve into multiple creatures and change back when it wanted to. This was a good step forward. The downside was that would have to level up each form separately, so there was a lot of grinding.

Digimon World 4 changed the game from an RPG with trainers to an action game where you play as the digimon. The good news is that you could still choose from multiple forms, but you had to retrain every form to use weapons, and there were six different styles of weapons. To make matters worse, weapons had skill requirements, so you could be using the best weapon in the game, and you go back to the starter weapon when you digivolve. The game required you to store dozens of weapons just to be able to work up your attack power again. Other than that, it was a decent game.

Digimon World Data Squad seems to have finally learned what the game is about, though. They are back to the RPG aspect. Digimon get and retain multiple forms. There is no need to retrain at all once you level up. So far I'm really enjoying the play and variety of Digimon forms, though I still don't know why four of my characters turn into Numemon.

Hot Fuzz

My wife and I enjoyed watching a movie together last night. My buddy RT lent us Hot Fuzz on DVD, and I must say it was a really great movie. I loved Shaun of the Dead, and Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have once again made an amazing film. Shaun of the Dead was primarily a parody of the standard zombie apocalypse film. However, Hot Fuzz actually has a serious character driven drama at it core. The comedy is well done, and for the most part doesn't detract from the seriousness of the film itself. They did an amazing job balancing the two elements, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they do next.

Rantasaurus

Grrrr. I am so sick of dealing with people who think nothing is more important than what they want. Don't bother consulting the employee when you start making up new policies and scheduling them for conference calls. Don't bother asking your trainer whether you can switch the two training sessions, just invite everyone to show up for the wrong one. Don't bother selling the product for it's actual price, just give it away because you don't think anyone will buy it otherwise. I especially am sick of people who are too lazy to do their work and then get mad when you can't take up the slack. I am incredibly close to telling someone off or storming out right now, and I just hope that getting this out can calm me down a bit.

Words of inspiration: There is only so much shit you can put in a 5 pound bag before it explodes and gets shit all over everyone.

Why Geeks and Nerds are Worth It...

I know it's two posts in one day, but I found this on best of Craig's list and had to share it. There is hope yet for all you geeks out there. There are women who understand your worth. If this ever gets seen by the person who posted it, post a comment. You're the best in my book.

Why Geeks and Nerds Are Worth It...
Date: 2005-04-03, 9:30PM PDT
In the wide world of dating, there are many options. Do you go for the flashy guy with the smooth smile, or the dude in the corner typing away on his laptop? The following are reasons why I think my fellow females should pay more attention to the quiet geeks and nerds, and less attention to the flashy boys.

1.) While geeks and nerds may be awkward, they’re well-meaning 9 out of 10 times. That smooth dude with the sly grin and the spider hands? Wonder what HIS intentions are... plus, I’ve never had a geek guy not call me when he said he would. Score major points THERE.

2.) They’re useful. In this tech-savvy world, it’s great to have a b/f who can make your laptop, desktop, and just about anything else that plugs into a wall behave itself.

3.) They’re more romantic than they’re given credit for. Ok true, their idea of romance might be to make up a spiffy web-page with all the reasons why they love you, with links to pics of you and sonnets and such... but hey. It lasts longer than flowers, plus you can show your friends.

4.) Due to their neglected status, there are plenty to choose from. You like ‘em tall and slender? There are plenty of geeks/nerds who are. You like ‘em smaller with more meat on their bones? Got that too.

5.) They’ve got brains. Come on now, how can intelligence be a bad thing?

6.) Most are quite good at remembering dates. Like birthdates and such, especially if they know it’ll make you happy. Due again to their neglected status, they’re more attentive than guys who “have more options”. Plus, with all that down time without a steady girlfriend, they’ll likely have mental lists of all the things they’d love to do once they GOT a girlfriend.

7.) Sex. Yep. Sex. I’m not really familiar with this myself, but I’ve friends who’ve been intimate with geek guys and it’s raves all around. They say a virgin wrote the Kama Sutra... all that time thinking about sex, imagining sex, dreaming about sex, (they are male after all) coupled with a desire to make you happy? Use your imagination.

8.) They’re relatively low-maintenance. Most can be fueled on pizza, Twinkies and Mt Dew. No complicated dinners needed here, so if you’re not the best cook, eh. Can you order a pizza?

9.) Most frequent bars as often as slugs frequent salt mines. You won’t have to worry much about your geek guy getting his “groove” on with club hotties because, frankly, he’ll be too busy rooting around under his computer wondering where that spare cable went. You won’t have to worry about him flirting with other women because, 9 out of 10 times, he’ll zip right by them in a perfect b-line towards the nearest electronics store. I’ve seen this happen. Me: “Eww. Victoria Secret’s Models... They’re so skinny. How is that feminine? You can see her ribs!” Geek Guy: “ooooooo...” Me: “Hey!” *notices he is staring lustfully towards the computer store* Geek Guy: “What?” Me: “Never mind...”

10.) Although he may not want to go to every outing with you, you can arrange swaps, as in, you’ll go to his Gamer Con dressed as an elf princess if he’ll take you to the ballet. Plus, if he doesn’t want to go someplace with you, you won’t have to worry much about what he’s up to. You’ll probably come home to find him asleep on his keyboard in a sea of Mt. Dew cans with code blinking from the screen. It’s ok. He’s used to this. Just toss a blanket over him and turn out the light.

11.) His friends aren’t jerks. I can’t stress this enough. You’ll more likely get “Omg! A GIRL!! Can I see?!” than “Hey hot stuff back that ass up here and let me get some grub on...” They’re awkward geeks too and will, 9 times out of 10, treat you with the utmost respect and, more than likely, a note of awe. A cute girl picked one of their clan to date? It could happen to them! Hope! Drag some of your single girlfriends over, open up a pack of Mt. Dew, crack open the DnD set and get working. Nothing impresses geek guys more than a girl who can hack-n-slash (well ok maybe if she can code... a geek can dream).

12.) They’re rarely if ever possessive. They trust you, so you can be yourself around them. You like to walk around the house in a ratty t-shirt for comfort? He won’t care. He does too! They won’t get pissy if you don’t wear make-up or don’t want to bother primping your hair. If you gain a few pounds, they won’t try their best to make you feel like crap.

13.) They’re usually very well educated. Physics majors and the like. See #5. You won’t have to listen to him blathering on about his car (ok maybe a little), he’ll have loads of other interesting things to talk about. Politics, world events, how much the chicken burgers down at the local place rock, so long as you douse them in hot sauce...

14.) You’ll almost never have to hear, “Yaw dawg whazzap!!” plop out of their mouths. Unless it’s in jest. They spell properly, use correct punctuation, and are able to tell the difference between the toilet and the floor. They almost never get “wasted”, so you won’t have to worry about coming home to find him and his friends passed out on the floor amidst a pile of beer bottles. Mt. Dew cans, perhaps...

15.) And the final reason why geeks and nerds make great boyfriends: They actually give a damn about you. Not how you look (though that’s a plus), not how skinny you are, not how much make-up you primp yourself up with, but they like you for you. That kind of thing lasts longer than “DaMN baby you got a fine ass!!!” Believe me.

PostingID: 66795671

Slaves in the Workplace

There is a line between what you should and should not be required to do as an employee. The question is, where is that line. Unfortunately, it's usually hidden in greyspace. Many employers think that anything they want done is part of your job. Many employees will go along with that for fear of losing their job. When I was younger, I followed this mindset. When the manager of the meat market asked me to use nail polish remover to remove the dates on meat packages that had just expired, I did it. I didn't feel right about it, and it was almost definitely illegal, but I did what I was told.

Do what your told. Don't ask questions. Be a team player. If you aren't a mindless drone, then you aren't a team player? There are a lot of people who believe that. I am no longer one of them. I believe in doing things right and doing the right thing. I will recommend better ways of doing things. I will ask questions to clarify issues and make sure I understand. I will also call bullshit when I see it. It has been said about me that I make career limiting remarks. I say, do I really want to work for a company that doesn't want to think before instituting what could be a very costly procedure. There is a line that comes up so often that I have stopped saying it, "I seem to remember pointing this out a few weeks ago." It's funny how some people become irritated with the person who points out an issue for pointing it out and if it actually becomes an issue.

Anyway, I thought I would share some over the top examples of people I have actually worked with. At one job, the owner would call the manager to bring him donuts if he felt like a snack. This was usually on a weekend, and they lived in different counties. The manager would do it because she felt she owed the owner for her job.

I worked at another job where the owner made one of his employees come out to his ranch every weekend to empty a dump truck full of horse crap. He got to use a bobcat, but that's still not a job I would want. To make it worse, he didn't get paid for the time he was doing it, but he did it for fear of losing his job.

A good friend of mine had a boss that would call him at all hours of the day or night for any thought that came into his head. We used to joke that he had to call and ask how to wipe himself. I remember one Fourth of July where my buddy had a bunch of friends over for a cookout. His boss called three times while we were there. One of the calls was over 45 minutes and none of them were even important. My buddy took them all, though, because he wanted to keep his job. He helped the guy go from a two man operation to a multi-million dollar restoration company, and in the end, he got fired because they could pay someone less to do his job.

Is all the anxiety really worth it. Despite my perceived troublemaker attitude, my first instinct is not to make waves. If something strange comes up once, just go with it. However, if your having problems all the time, stand up. You will either live in constant fear or eventually get fired anyway. Why deal with all that crap and end up in the same place in the end?

Gamers

I'm taking a speech class this semester. It's the last class I need to get my degree, but I hate the concept of standing up in front of people and giving speeches. Somehow, this doesn't really make sense as my job is to train people to use our software. I give 2 webinars a week, and train about 50 schools and clubs throughout the year. I also handle almost all of the client support issues and communication with our clients for both our school product and our home use product. It really makes no sense at all that I have an anxiety attack at the thought of presenting a speech in front of two dozen classmates who I will likely never see again.

Despite the inherent paradox, my anxiety still exists. I've come up with a plan to get me through this class, though. It's my belief that the anxiety is more of a product of the fear that people will judge me rather than the actual speaking. I have already made a fool of myself in one class activity, but since it was my intention, I had no problem speaking my part in our skit. To remove this fear from the four major speeches that we have to deliver, I have decided to reveal my deepest darkest secret in the first speech. I'm a gamer. What more could I say or do to make people judge me more? Here's the outline for the speech I intend to give:

When I was in High School, I took up a new habit, one which made people look down on me and caused no end of trouble for me at home. My mother didn't know how to cope with my new friends and my new habits, so she forced me to see a counselor. My entire family looked at me as a disappointment and a freak because I had become a gamer. Gamers are a little understood and much persecuted minority, but gaming actually improves the character and cognitive abilities of the gamer. I shall share styles of gaming, benefits of gaming, and details of my own struggles with gaming prejudice.

Gamers usually fall into three general categories, but many will actually participate in more than one style of gaming. The most common and generally peer accepted is the video gamer. Shooters are usually played by competitive and social gamers. Real Time Strategy games, or RTS, are usually played by competitive gamers. Massive Multiplayer Online Games, or MMORPGs, are usually played by competitive gamers and social gamers. Player versus Environment, or PVE, is designed for gamers who prefer to face of against a computer. Player versus Player, or PVP, is designed for players who prefer to face other live players.

The next most common and least accepted form of gamer is the table top roleplayer. Most roleplayers play in fantasy settings such as Dungeons and Dragons, Hack Master, and Middle Earth Roleplaying Game. Many roleplayers also enjoy science-fiction settings, such as Star Wars or Star Trek. Still others enjoy less popular genres such as old west, anime, super hero, or post-apocalyptic settings.

The last group of gamers is fairly small, but generally accepted. They are the wargamers. Most wargamers are interested in historical re-enactment. Many wargamers also enjoy fantasy settings. Most major roleplaying games have their own miniatures. Finally, there are a wide variety of starship combat wargames.

Gamers will usually display several advantages over their non-gamer peers. Gamers generally have better reading ability that their peers. Many games have copious manuals that must be read to play the game. Many games have charts that must be consulted to determine the results of certain actions. Most gamers also enjoy reading novels about their favorite games or settings.

Gamers generally have better math skills than their non-gamer peers. Most game systems require adding, subtracting, or multiplying several numbers to determine the results of a player's actions. Most game systems require players to keep track of constantly shifting modifiers to determine the results of the player's actions. Many players attempt to min/max their characters in order to maximize their potential in the game.

Gamers can usually adapt to odd situations better than their non-gamer peers. Decisions on how to deal with a new situation are usually based on one's prior experiences. Gamers are forced to make decisions about how they would react to situations that non-gamers would never be exposed to. Gamers are usually inclined to work with others to solve a common problem.

Gamers tend to face persecution, whether actual or perceived, for the hobbies that they enjoy. Movies, such as Mazes and Monsters with Tom Hanks, depict gamers as incredibly strange, crazy, or uncaring. Many people will blame the behavior of sociopaths on their hobbies, such as gaming, rather than other sources. Religious fanatics often equate gaming with devil worship.

Gamers very often feel like outsiders. Cruel peers will often call people geek, freak, weirdo, or the like for having habits outside of the perceived norm. Perceptive gamers quickly learn that non-gamers have no interest in a story about their last gaming session. Gamers can face job persecution as few bosses want to promote the weirdo, regardless of performance at work. Many women will immediately become disinterested in a man at the first hint of his gaming activities.

I have faced constant persecution from my own family for my hobbies. Despite regular church attendance, I was accused of devil worship. Despite exceptional test scores, I was constantly lectured for gaming when I should be doing my homework. My mother would sneak into my room when I was out and throw out the gamebooks that I had spent my hard earned money to purchase.

Despite, or perhaps because of, persecution for my gaming hobbies, I have developed into a mature, confident, and intelligent adult. I am a husband, a father, a provider. I am a Mensa and an educator. I have worked in a dozen different fields and done and exceptional job in each. I am a gamer, and I owe most of my success to the skills that I learned while gaming.

Where Does the Time Go?

It is amazing how quickly we can lose track of time. I can't believe it's already been more than a week since my last post. It always seems that the more you try to get done, the less you accomplish.

Gaming Post

We had another game of Witchhunter this weekend, though I don't know how much longer I can keep it up. I've started school again on Saturday morning, so I'm not catching up on any sleep now. Staying out until 4AM Sunday morning is really starting to take it's toll on me during the week.

We headed down to the Carolina colony for this session to hunt a monster that was attacking settlers out in the wilderness areas. The governor was offering a hundred pounds to anyone who could kill the beast. We rented a canoe and headed upriver to see what we could find.

First, we discovered a small settlement that had been burned to the ground. There was no sign of any survivors, though we did find some strange tracks that were almost ape-like. Farther up the river, we found a tent of Middle Eastern design with several sets of manacles scattered around. We also discovered more tracks. They appeared to be human up to a point and then changed to the ape-like tracks. To our gamemaster's dismay, we promptly decided we were facing were-dragons. Poor Eric doesn't know how to handle us sometimes.

Before we could do any more investigating, a large group of canoes arrived. the governor had arrived with a mass of incompetent, would-be hunters. They promptly set up camp and ruined any chance of us catching the man-apes if they returned to this camp site.

One of the funniest events of the entire session was when Dolph was on guard duty. An Indian approached him to warn him about the monsters who made their camp where we were. He promptly replied that he was pretty sure that was why we were their. Ryan played his character's stupidity so amazingly through the series of question that followed, that the Indian was forced to ask if there was someone else he could speak to. The entire camp was roused to Dolph's shouts that an Indian wanted to talk to someone. It goes without saying that the Indian was gone by the time anyone arrived.

We left camp early the next day to track the creatures, and the Indians approached us again. We decided to join forces with them despite the two strikes against them. 1. We don't have much luck with Indians in this game. 2. Bird are always the harbingers of bad luck for our party. The Indians name was Soaring Eagle.

We arrived at a nearby Indian village to find it under attack by the man-apes. We quickly sprang into action to save the day. I had the third best fighter on our team, and likely the second most damaging. Unfortunately, I am incredibly unlucky when it comes to rolling dice. I botched two of my attack rolls, severely injuring Dolph and prompting him to threaten to pummel me when the fight was over.

Luckily, I did the most damage to our party during the fight, so we didn't take much of a beating. We finished off the man-apes in short order, but somehow, the governor had arrived while we were fighting and gotten himself killed, so no reward.

Mensa

Well, Mensa finally finished processing my paperwork, and I received an email from the president welcoming me into the organization today. For those who may not be familiar with Mensa, it is a high IQ society that only accepts members who have IQ scores in the top 2% of the world. I should receive my official welcome package in 10-12 business days. I'm really looking forward to it. The Broward Mensa chapter is pretty active. They have events every Saturday and Sunday, and usually several times during the week. It should be fun to hang out with the other outsiders.


I'm still playing Dead Rising. It really is a good game with a decent story. As I said before, one of the primary objectives is to rescue other survivors. I was a bit disappointed to discover that some of the survivors I rescued are now listed as lost. Apparently, from time to time, some of them decide that there isn't a helicopter coming, and they would be better off on their own. If you don't check in on them regularly to stop them, they run off.

I'm nearing the end of the game, or I should say nearing the end of 3 day survivor mode. There is also a 5 day and 7 day that you unlock, but I'm not sure how they vary from 3 day. The special forces have shown up to kill the zombies, and apparently make sure their are no witnesses. I have no idea where the people I rescued have disappeared to. They are still listed as safe, but they aren't in the security room anymore. I did finally manage to find the underground maintenance tunnels. Throughout the rest of the game, I had killed less than 2000 zombies. In about 10 minutes in a car in the maintenance tunnels, I ran over more than 3000 more. I'm looking forward to seeing how this game ends. I really hope it doesn't go Jericho on me.

Blah Day

I'm feeling pretty blah today. Usually I keep to myself for the most part, but today I feel like talking. Unfortunately, I don't really fit in with the humans. I could care less about what most of them seem interested in, and they don't understand half of what I'm interested in. I can't wait for a new season of TV so I at least have something I can chat with the humans about.

I've started playing Dead Rising again. The game is pretty cool, which shouldn't be surprising seeing as how this game was responsible for destroying so many first gen 360s. I was surprised that it is still apparently pretty popular. I looked up the guide book on amazon.com, and they are asking $75 for a used one and $99 for a new one. I just can't fathom that. It originally sold for about $15. I like to collect the guidebooks for games I like, but I'll probably have to do without on this one.

I finished Clive Barker's Jericho over the weekend. I wouldn't really say that I was horrified. The story was okay, and the setting was full of blood and mutilated bodies, but I can't say it was horrific. It definitely didn't immerse me like Bioshock. That game scared the crap out of me. That said, I did enjoy Jericho, but I believe it fell short of it's true potential. What I liked best about it was the ability to switch between characters with completely different abilities. From time to time, it would force you to play certain characters, and I actually learned to like a few that I hadn't used previously. My major gripe comes from the ending. It was almost non-existant. There was a boss fight that left me feeling disappointed and then they ran the credits. I like an ending to at least resolve the immediate situation. I would say that this game is good for a rental, but probably not worth a purchase.

What is Normal?

I know it's been awhile since I've posted. I'm busy planning a war, and I forget to share my thoughts. I did want to take a few minutes to get some of my thoughts on paper, so to speak.

Normal is just the most commonly accepted perception of reality. Of course, common perception doesn't necessarily make something true or right. There was a time when most people thoguht that the world was flat or that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Only a madman would think otherwise. However, thanks to the non-conformists, we now know the truth, or at least the truth as it is commonly perceived today. :)

However, even though it normally takes a non-conformist to make breakthroughs, society isn't very accepting of their non-conformists. Most normal people will ridicule and berate the non-conformists for looking or acting differently. I love a good hamburger. Most normal people in my neck of the woods do. However, in some cultures, eating a burger is like eating the family dog. That is also acceptable in some cultures.

Remember to be more accepting of your non-conformists in the future. One of them may someday solve world hunger or develop a method of alternative energy.

Samurai 7

Over the weekend, I picked up the box set for Samurai 7. This anime is a steam punk themed remake of the original Seven Samurai film made by Akira Kurosawa. Many other movies including The Magnificent Seven, Battle Beyond the Stars and even Star Wars owe their origins to this great film. The original film is about a poor village that can only offer three meals a day to hire Samurai to protect them from bandits. Unfortunately, no Samurai will work for such a payment. That is until they encounter Kambei, an older Samurai who agrees to help the villagers. The other six Samurai join just for the honor of fighting beside Kambei.

Samurai 7 is a futuristic steam punk retelling of this classic story. So far I have watched the first four episodes, all of which were masterfully done. My wife watched them with me and enjoyed them as much as I did. Each of the classic characters are represented with personalities very much like those of their original character. The story is well told, and even the additional side plots do not detract from the main story. So far, there has been no profanity, nudity, or gore. Bearing in mind that this is a story about warriors, most of whom will die, it is family friendly. I would highly recommend this series to anime fans, Samurai fans, fantasy enthusiasts, and anyone who likes a good story with three-dimensional characters.

The World is a Sadder Place

I have just been informed that Burnie Mac died today of complications from pneumonia. Some may know him from Ocean's Eleven, Charlie's Angels, Mr3000, Guess Who(remake), or even Transformers. I loved to watch the Burnie Mac show.
I would laugh out loud usually 2 or 3 times while watching an episode, and my wife said it reminded her of when her dad watched Leslie Nielsen. Today the world has lost another great comedian.

Pitch Black

I received a wonderful surprise from my wife when I got home from work yesterday. Without my having asked, she had bought the Chronicles of Riddick Trilogy. Pitch Black is one of my favorite movies, and it's is great to have a wife that understands me and does all sorts of little things to make my life better. No offense to women, but I find most to be alien creatures that are incomprehensible. My wife is probably the only woman that I could live with without going crazy.

Pitch Black is one of those odd science fiction thrillers that has the distinction of being well made. Science fiction and fantasy is an area of film making that is so horribly misunderstood that you get either a Hollywood blockbuster that is all about explosions, or some piece of crap that even the Geeks don't want to watch. Of course we do, because there aren't many options for our favorite genres. I would like to thank Peter Jackson for showing people that a fantasy film could be a serious film and when it is well done, it is appreciated by almost everyone.

Back to Pitch Black, my favorite movies are those that spend time developing their characters. Many films try to cram in more action and more story by skimping on character development. What they don't understand is that if you don't care about the characters, you really don't care what happens to them. I especially love when a movie spends so much time developing a character that you know they will survive, and then they don't.

For those unfamiliar with the film, a group of anti-heroes survive a crash and face not only the threats of a hostile environment, but also the threat of human nature once it is removed from civilization. I thoroughly enjoy it, even the tenth time, and I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys science fiction or horror movies.

Heroes and Villians

This weekend was a busy one. On the first and third Saturday of every month, I run a Marvel Superhero RPG. We just started at the beginning of the summer, so I decided to start off with a few modules to get everyone used to playing again and working as a team. I'm actually pretty happy with the team that the guys put together this time.

Nova is the team blaster. His primary powers are Flight, Plasma Generation, and Force Field Generation. He also has Water Breathing and Water Freedom. His powers combine to make him the teams damage sponge and heavy hitter.

Dim Don Lee is their scrapper. He is a master of martial arts. His skills all him to focus his chi for powerful attacks and allow him to fight in almost any environment without penalties. While he does have enhanced physical abilities, he has no true powers.

Flashback is the team controller. He can create an army of illusionary duplicates. they operate independently of him, but he can see and hear anything that they see or hear. He also has the ability to create large scale illusions and solidify them. Physically, he is the weakest member of the team, but he makes up for that with the ability to make himself invisible to others.

Last night, the team finished up the first module in the Gang Wars Trilogy. An ancient tome had been stolen from a local museum and the heroes were investigating it's disappearance. It was said that the possessor of the tome could summon monsters to do their bidding, and shortly after it's disappearance, monsters started attacking the city. The attacks were focused on local gangs, and it appeared that the gangster Hammerhead was behind the attacks. During their investigation, they discovered that Hammerhead was being framed to cause a gang war
that would weaken all of the local gangs so that a new gang could move in and take over. The heroes had several run-ins with the monsters, where they discovered that the monsters were really only villains who resembled different storybook monsters. They finally managed to track down the lair of the mastermind villain, and captured all of the monster villains. However, they did not find the Big Boss of the missing tome.
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In our Witchhunter game, we found that several Indian and colonist homesteads had been burned and the children were missing. We managed to find some hoof tracks and followed them to a glade with a waterfall. There we encountered a Satyr and some Red Caps. After defeating the fairies, we rescued one of the missing children, a young girl named Gayle Baker from a cave behind the waterfall. Her brother and a young Indian boy had been taken away the day before, and there was no sign of them.

Unfortunately, we seem to have missed a clue or two along the way and failed to defeat the Satyr for good. That night, a voice whispered to us from the dark that this wasn't over, and another home burned that night. We never found the child from that home, and the fires stopped after that, so the Satyr likely moved to another area.

Hi-Q

Sorry for not updating the past two days. I was feeling a bit under the weather. I do have some good news, though. Yesterday, I got my acceptance letter for Mensa. Yeah! I'll be joining the Broward County chapter.

Yesterday I took my son to see the Veggie Tales Pirate Who Don't Do Anything movie. I enjoyed it, but he's still too young to handle a full length movie. About a half hour into it he was already saying that he wanted to go home. We did manage to make it through the whole movie, but it took alot of my daddy powers. I'm hoping by this time next year he'll be able to focus his attention for more than 20 minutes or so.

Overall, the movie was pretty good. The songs were catchy and the story was good. It wasn't as fast paced as the half hour episodes, but few movies are. If you have children, or are a big child yourself, I would recommend seeing it.

I also started playing Tenchu Z this week. I had never heard of this game before, but when I see something go under $30, I start researching it. The reviews were good, so I picked it up. Most games are pretty one dimension, even when they are good. Tenchu Z turned out to be surprisingly good and multi-dimensional. You can customize your character's abilities, outfits, and inventory. There is a large selection of skills, equipment, and outfits that unlock as you finish certain levels or complete certain accomplishments.

Tenchu Z is a mission based game where you assume the role of a ninja. You have alot of control over how you complete your missions. The key is to hide in the shadows, move slowly, and try to take out the guards as quietly as possible. Of course, you could just rampage your way through the entire mission, but you end up with your reward reduced for getting spotted and what they call mayhem time. You can also system link and go online to play with other people. I've replayed the first ten levels about 4 times each trying to improve my score, and I'm still not bored with them. Overall, a really good game.

Deltaverse

Another of my hobbies is a browser based game called AstroEmpires. The concept of the game is to colonize planets, build fleets, and do research. Of course it would appeal to a bean-counter like me.

There are multiple servers for the game, and Delta is the primary one that I focus on. I'm in a guild called GRITS. We bounce back and forth between being the first and second ranked guild on the server. It's usually pretty peaceful on Delta, but things have been heating up for the past two months, and they are just about to boil over. Two of our allies started fighting in our backyard, and a nightmare that dragged in almost all of our allies ensued. We stepped in a put a stop to it about a month ago, but now it's started up again.

WMD which is our closest ally is fighting 5555, which used to be a good ally, but they have been disrespecting us alot lately. 5555 started calling in other guilds from outside our territory, so we moved in to stop those other guilds from interfering. In retaliation, 5555 attacked our fleets and has apparently declared war on us. The funny thing is that our guildleader doesn't want us to fight them. I believe that he is afraid we will look like a bully if we attack them. I say smack them down and then sort that out later, but that's just me. I'm interested to see how this turns out.

Which Witch is Really the Witch

On Saturday nights, I head up to the Adventure Game Store and play Witchhunter. One of the game's creators actually runs the game for us, so it makes a good game even better.

Witchhunter is a game based during colonial times on an Earth similar to our own. The major difference is that all those old wives tails and myths about monsters and witches are actually true. Player characters are parts of secret organizations that hunt these monsters down to make the world safer for humanity.

I play a German nobleman named Dieter Mannheim. He is a member of the Stalkers of the Unseen hunt and trained in the fighting tradition of the Freifechter Fencing Guild. That basically means that I have special maneuvers while wielding a greatsword. Due to a game mechanic called complexity, I sacrifice some of my combat skill while wielding the weapon, so while I do lots of damage when I hit, I don't hit often against major villains. However, Dieter's primary abilities focus around Command and Charm skills.

The other members of our witchhunting team include a German hunter, a German brawler, a French artisan, an English inquisitor, and a Dutch graverobber. These aren't your average heroes, eh?

We had our third session last night. Our first session, we hunted down an immortal pirate with a zombie crew. In the second session, we stopped a demon that was disguised as an angel hunting down sinners.

Last night we got to dig through a lot of misdirection to figure out who in the town was a witch. Our first suspect was a slave girl that witnesses saw kill a tree just by touching it. However, she had an alibi. She was with her master at the time cleaning out the cellar, and now she was deathly ill. The problem with her alibi was that her master, Abigail Green, was our second suspect, and even the slave girl said that Ms. Green was using witchcraft against her. Our final suspect was a Mr. Henry Sutton. Ms. Green accused him, but he was her major competitor in the lumber trade, so it could have been simply trying to eliminate the competition.


The climactic battle pitted our party against a demon, the witch, and more than a dozen mind-controlled lumberjacks. It looked grim at the outset, but I learned the value of parry and kept the two major villains at bay while my teammates worked through the minions. Once they were handled, we made short work of the other two.

Video Killed the Radio Star

The need for instant gratification has been the bane of some of our favorite activities. Why should I play a board game when I can play it on the computer? Why should I roleplay when I can play an MMO? In our modern microwave society, it is difficult to find people who aren't looking for instant gratification. When I was a kid, we mailed off UPCs to get something cool in 6 to 8 weeks. I can't imagine a child doing that now.

I'll admit that sometimes it's nice to get the instant gratification. I play Guild Wars on Friday nights with my friends to get that, but we also play tabletop RPGs. The tabletop crowd has thinned quite a bit with the introduction of MMOs. To make matters worse, now people can't even wait to level up their character or get their special equipment. They buy money and items on ebay and pay other people to 'power-level' their characters.

Right now I'm playing a browser based game called AstroEmpires. One of the biggest complaints is that it takes forever to do anything. The game is played in real time, so even while you sleep, people are building and moving, and maybe even attacking you. It takes time to build up a strong empire, but some people would rather just play Starcraft, which is an awesome game, or something else where they can have everything built in less than an hour. My dirty little secret is that for me, AstroEmpires is a form of instant gratification. It reminds me of a play by email game I used to play called Fire on the Suns. You used to have to wait 2 weeks to get a turn processed, and you would accomplish only about as much as in a day of AstroEmpires. :)

Welcome to the World of Geeks

This serves as a welcome both to me, as this is my first post, and to anyone who finds what I have to say interesting. The word geek has long had a negative connotation that is used to hurt people who are often friendly and intelligent, despite having interests outside the box of 'normalcy'. I am a happy, well-adjusted geek with a good job, a family, and good friends. I hope that by sharing with all of you, I will be able to show people that they don't have to be afraid of being labeled a geek. It is often a path to creative freedom and self-fulfillment.

I love to read, mostly science fiction and fantasy, and I love to watch movies, mostly in the same genre as my reading. It is a shame that most science fiction and fantasy movies are handled poorly, though. Hats of to Peter Jackson for his work with Lord of the Rings. Hopefully, we'll see a new market for the kind of movies that we want to see. I actually enjoy watching a wide variety of movies, though nothing pisses me of more than what I call a 'Hollywoody' movie. The stories are weak. The characters are flat and undeveloped. And most of the time, there are tons of explosions that make no sense whatsoever. It's almost as if Hollywood is dumbing everything down so no one has to think when they see a movie.

I enjoy reading comics, though many of them suffer from the same 'Hollywoody' effect that the movies suffer from. I had just about given up on comics until I read Planet Hulk. Hulk isn't a title I normally read, but it looked interesting and it ended up being awesome.

I am a gamer and a gamemaster. I'm currently playing Witchhunter and running a Marvel Superheroes game. I also play GuildWars online.

I'm also a video gamer. I enjoy RTS, action, RPG, horror, and shooters. I play on PC and 360 mostly, though I may talk about some older systems from time to time.

For those of you wondering where my 'normalcy' is, I have a wife and a 4 year old son, and I work for an educational software company. I'll probably be talking about them alot too.

I look forward to sharing my geekiness and normalcy with all of you, and I hope you gain something from what I share.