Good News!

The other day I was in the Career Center at my school, getting some paperwork for a job application with the Sheriff's Department. While there I decided to visit my former boss (from my student worker days) in the Campus Library. She informed me that my former supervisor was getting married and moving to Florida. No decision has been made yet but I was asked if I would be interested in applying for this position!!

Yay!

I would LOVE to work in the school library. Even though it isn't a direct use of my degree, it would allow me to pay for my degree.

Good news all around, and even if that doesn't pan out I'm still applying at the Sheriff's Department and for a Forensic Trainee position in a nearby city.

Unemployment Sucks!

I finished my Associates degree at the beginning of October...

I have applied for over a dozen positions so far...

No one has chosen to even interview me...

This is disheartening! I am a qualified adult human, I even shower! Why will no one consider me for employment? I will soon be forced to go back to working in a convenience store or some other unsavory job, just for the money.

The Hobby Which Dare Not Speak Its Name!

A coworker of my friend Richard is also a gamer.
However he and Richard must speak in hushed tones about this as the coworker is worried that other of their coworkers may find out.
Now we do live in Virginia, the home of Pat Robertson, but I don't think it is the condemnation of the Religious Right(tm) he fears... it is the ridicule of his fellow man. I find it strange that our hobby, as well as sci-fi and fantasy in general, is seen by major components of our society as childish or unworthy of the attention of 'regular' people.
This attitude is somewhat hypocritical too. What is a fantasy football league if not a type of wargame? You choose your players and combine them into the 'ultimate' team and pit your invented reality against that of your fellow fantasy footballers. Or you sit and argue the merits of past sports figures against those of today. Wargamers have been re-fighting Waterloo pretty much sence it happened, and they also try to convince each other that Patton (for example) could out general Alexander (for another example).
Roleplaying is just an extention (or niche) of the wider pasttime of playing 'what-if', and I feel it is long overdue that it should be allowed out of the closet and people should stop feeling that they have to hide their interest.

So, there it is. Nothing new perhaps but I feel better for giving voice to my opinions on the matter.

Warforged - from Eberron

Tired

I am tired, tired, tired...

I have been going to school, putting in hours at my internship, and going to work for a couple of weeks now... My short days are 10 hours long!

Soon I shall graduate and then my world shall change...
Most people I know rejoice at graduation time, not me!
I will lose my job at the school library (it is a student worker position) and I have no prospects for a 'real' job... certainly not one in my field.

On a more positive note, My father has returned to us from the hospital in Richmond! We are all overjoyed, and he seems to be doing very well.

I have been able to see some movies recently (weekends are great for slack)
I saw "Pink Floyd's the Wall" and "Heavy Metal" (the original (ie good) one).

Extra points for the title of my Blog... ;)

On the roleplaying front we are just about to start a new D&D game using the "Eberron" setting. It looks like it will be fun! And Richard (who will be running the game) is very, very enthused!
I also just got the new "Mage" game from White Wolf, but I haven't had time to read it yet so it will be a while before we try to play it.

Out Early

Well, my father is finished with his inpatient care - post Bone Marrow Transplant.

Now he has several weeks of outpatient care in Richmond before he comes home. Things seem to be going well, they transfered him from in- to out- about a week early and today he doesn't even have to go into the hospital for tests or checkups (or anything).

Even though he is still weak, and tires easily, he seems to be coming along fine.
To my mind this is the first solidly 'good' news for over a year (when we first found out about the cancer) but I will reserve final judgement for when he comes home and stays...

- By the way there is nothing apropos of the pic from yesterday, I just like it.

Liska - one of my all time favorite pics

Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.

Champions

As an aside to my other new post I'll fill you in on the Champions game refered to there.

Our three protagonists include:
The All-American Ass-Kicker (Triple A-K) - A dog man with heightened smell powers a vicious streak and martial attacks to match.
John Henry - A powerful man with a hammer, straight out of American folk lore.
Redstone (my character) - The classic brick character who can increase his density, but only for one minute at time. (anyone who has ever played champions can tell you that is actually quite a long while...)

In the first session we faced off against four strange supervillans. Once it was pointed out that any one of them would be a challenge for the three characters present the GM had them take off (with the loot from their robbery) and leave behind a single bad guy; who immediately summoned four demons to kick our collective behinds... So you see how the original four would have been a problem.

We (collectively) were ultimately triumphant but only one of us was in any shape to go on... luckily we caught the demon summoner some how and didn't look too bad in the papers.

In our second encounter we faced a woman who was using stolen mutagens to, well mutate animals in the local zoo. We were up against a Giant Gorilla, a Werewolf type creature, and a Giant Yeti! (did I mention that the werewolf creature was giant too?)

Luckily the zookeeper was a superhero with mind control over animals, the Gorilla was commanded to defeat the other two so we could concentrate on the woman and her intangible accomplice. I am happy to report that neither of them got away.

BAM! POW!


I shall keep you posted on our various games as the mood strikes me.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Quite a lot has been happening in my little corner of the Universe...
I have recieved the score from the NYPD entrance exam I took several months ago, got a 92.9! I took it primarily because I can now put that on my resume, and they came here and offered it for free; who, in criminal justice, wouldn't take it?

My sister just made Captain in the Fire Department here! We're all very proud of her.

My father is still in Richmond for his bone marrow transplant. The transplant itself won't take more than a week or so, but the recovery can take up to a year! The first month is inpatient, then a month at a half-way house, then he can finally come home. His immune system won't be normal for quite a while but if all goes well he should be Cancer free for up to five years. (fingers-crossed)

In more fancifull news: we are breaking in a new Champions GM and all seems to be going swimmingly. He has fallen into the first time GM trap of overpowering his villans, but after two game sessions we are all having a ball and life is good.

Fear

My father is going away today to begin a bone marrow transplant.
They will harvest some stem cells from him, then use radiation to kill off (hopefully) all the cancerous cells. Then they replace the dead cells with (again, hopefully) healthy marrow grown from the stem cells. If all goes well he will be back with us sometime in August. He could still have immune system issues for up to a year, but if this works he will likely be cancer free for 3 to 5 years.

We've had some setbacks previously but Dad is still with us and we hope he will be around for quite some while yet...

Why don't I sleep?

Sometimes I just don't have enough time. With school and work and the rest of my life, I just run out of time. But all too often I have the time to sleep and I am (always) very tired, but I don't lie down and sleep. What mechanism in my brain tells me that I might miss something? It's usually TV or the Internet that keeps me up, but that's just an excuse because there usually isn't anything compelling about either of them.
I used to sleep all the time. When I was in the military I could sleep anytime, anywhere. Now I stay awake even if I know I am going to regret it later...

It is a Mystery!(tm)

Consumerism

I recently got my tax refund back from the government. Given that I am poor this was a relativley large amount (thank you Earned Income Credit - your tax dollars in my pocket...) and I went suitably nuts spending it. I did set a little aside, but the lion share went toward undeniably frivolous things.

I bought many DVD's and CD's (many of them used, so a little frugality reared its ugly head...) a couple of graphic novels (reprints of Sin City comics) Many Role-Playing books (some of which I may never use but I enjoy reading them) and some dice...

This last flabergasted my friends - granted they are dice made of steel and they cost me $40 American - but they can, and will, be used. The thing that struck me as odd was that the coolness of them, as objects, escaped my friends. One of my friends - well call him 'Kieth'- collects ceramic statues of comic book characters, keen to look at, but otherwise just dust collectors. The other friend in question - lets call him 'Richard' - buys virtually every video game that comes on the market, he bought a PS2 just to play a game that wasn't offered on the X*Box, then he only plays them through once and dumps them. Usually on me and I'm glad to have them!

The point is... wait, whats my point?

Oh, yeah! all this money my friends are spending on frivolous cool things which I may or may not like on an individual basis but their first and only reaction to my pointless dice purchase was that I was a 'consumer' and had, I guess, not gotten my moneys worth (even though I will use these dice). This was said, it seemed to me, as an accusation (or at least a revelation of the dark inner workings of my psyche) and not as a preexisting condition that we each share. We live in a consumer culture. "Whoever dies with the most toys, wins!" This is just the way of things...

The above may sound like I resent my friends for thier opinion of my dice. This is not the case, I do wish that they had enjoyed the coolness of having steel dice as much as I but they didn't. My view of the situation is more one of astonishment that they didn't just acknowledge that I had a keen new toy and express their wish that I enjoy it; but instead we spent five minutes discussing the other types of dice available and that they weren't worth the price either.

OK, maybe I'm a little upset. I didn't think I was at the time, and even while I was writing this I could say it didn't bother me. But, I do seem to have a great deal to say about it, and that emotional investment had to come from somewhere...


Damn it! I hate self-awareness.

Be gentle with me.

This is my first Blog entry... I don't have anything very profound to say, but I'm gonna say it anyway!

One of my longtime interests is Role Playing Games. I just found a fan produced Matrix game. It is what you might call 'Rules Light' but it captures the experience of the movie perfectly. (I don't say 'movies' because I don't want to get smacked in the face - see The First Rule)

http://www.steved.org/roleplaying/rules/MatrixRPG.pdf

I am currently running a Vampire: the Requiem game and an A,D&D game using Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed.

http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?splash

I'm also playing in a Champions game (or two...)