Nothing to see here...

Not much going on in my life right now.

I'm still living off taxpayer money... (no job in sight)

My father did get me a spiffy new smartphone though! (my first one)

I'm trying to get a new RPG started. (Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, it's fun!)

The latest season of 'The Walking Dead' ended. (But 'Game of Thrones' new season started.) :)

Anyway, I'll try to keep a more regular cycle of updates... (yeah, right)

I like Mona Sax

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Now playing: Aretha Franklin - A Natural Woman
via FoxyTunes

Put Out My Flames With Gasoline...

As some may know the incredible video game Max Payne is being made into a movie. It comes out in October and I am very much looking forward to it. I was happy when I heard that Hitman was being made into a movie, but as you know if you've seen that one, the Hitman story is hard to film. Max Payne is a great story as well as a great video game, and therefore should make the transition much better.

Looking at the trailer, I am somewhat concerned to see the overt mystical elements played up so much. In the original game, and its sequel, these things are part of the story but are not overtly or objectively 'true' the story is very grounded in 'reality'. Granted it is a reality were the protagonist can use 'bullet time' and recover from being shot with simple pain killers. But there are no angels literally following him around either...

I have heard some express concern over Max being played by Marky Mark, but I think he is going to fit pretty well. I liked him in 'The Departed' and his face looks to be a pretty good match for Max from the game.

All in all I think I will enjoy this film and wait with much anticipation for October 17th.


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Now playing: Peter Hajba - Max Payne Theme
via FoxyTunes

Triumph!

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was at Comic Con. I don't know if I would let him give me a wedgie...

The keynote address given by the Insult Comic Dog.

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Now playing: Guns N' Roses - Sympathy For The Devil
via FoxyTunes

The Call...

...of Duty!

Ever been sucked into a video game?

It has happened to me, I have become obsessed with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. I play it every chance I get, I have begun resenting any activities witch curtail my access to playing this game. I play it for several hours after work until I am forced to go to sleep, then I wake up and play for an hour or so before work... It has become ridiculous!

So I've consciously decided to take a break from it. This break has afforded me some time to play a Role Playing Game with a friend of mine and even to go to a concert (which I usually never do). I still enjoy the game and will probably still play it a great deal, but I am making room for other pursuits in my life.

...like the internet (and blog entries).

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Now playing: Joe Walsh - Take a Look Around
via FoxyTunes

New Post

Sorry, it's been two months since my last post.

I have no real reason for this, time just been getting away from me.
On the assumption that anyone is still reading this (if, indeed, anyone ever really was), I will try to bring you up to date.

I have a new job! I am a Radioshack Sales Associate. It sucks, but no more than any other retail job. And I get to watch TV when it gets slow. I just hate having to push the damn cellphones so much.

My friends and I haven't been doing any Role-playing games lately, you gotta budget time for those and we just can't seem to get together regularly. We have been substituting online sessions of HALO 3 late at night. (it's not the same.)

Sadly there is nothing else of note just now; I go to work, play video games, spend too much money on semi-frivolous things, eat, sleep... and wait for death.

(that sounds more morbid that I meant it to.)

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Now playing: Akira Ifukube - Godzilla's Rampage [From Godzilla 1954]
via FoxyTunes

The Modern League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

I was discussing Alan Moore's excellent League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with a friend. We were trying to come up with a modern incarnation of the league when we realized that limiting ourselves to the printed word was ignoring the fact that popular literature has been taken over by popular television.

The rules we used to populate this list were that each character must both be created (written) and live (set) in the last 50 years or so.

This is our group.

Gary Seven - Agent of Peace.
Mr. Seven was recruited and trained by alien beings and returned to Earth to protect us from ourselves, he has brought together the new league and gives them their assignments.





John Steed - Gentleman Spy.
The quintessentially British secret agent. He can accomplish more with a bowler, a bumbershoot, and a quick wit than others can with a Walther, a submarine car, and a licence to kill.






Willow Rosenberg - Powerful Wicca.
Familiar with the strange and horrific world most of us choose to ignore. Willow has been helping save the world since she was fifteen.






Colonel Steve Austin - Former Astronaut.
Barely alive after his experimental aircraft crashed, Steve was rebuilt at a cost of six million dollars.







Special Agent Dana Scully - Level headed seeker of truth.
Originally assigned to debunk the wild theories of Fox Mulder, Dana came to see the truth and fight the future planned for us by unseen conspirators.





Carl Kolchak - Investigator of the Macabre.
Never satisfied with official explanations doled out by PR cronies, Carl will get to the bottom of a story no matter who, or what, gets in his way.

I am the LAW!!

...and as Shakespeare tells us; the law is an ass.

Last night I stayed up late (until about 11:00am) and therefore was asleep this afternoon when my friends called to see if we were going to game today. Because I was tired (read: sleeping) at the time and in kind of a funk over some recent issues with the game, (I seem to be running a different kind of game than my players want to play...) I wussed out and canceled the game.

I am a jerk.

I don't want to scrap this game as I have so many in the past, but I fear that we are not enjoying it as much as we should. And that is the reason we play these games in the first place; to have fun!

I am currently doing some soul searching about the direction I should be trying for and hopefully I can get myself back on track...

Away Game

A friend of mine, who we'll call Keith (because that's his name), has gone out of town. He and his family went to the aid of his grandmother in Carolina. His family plans to return on Monday but he will be staying indefinitely. This has put a large hole in my social life. Not only is he an integral part of our Role-Playing Games, but he and I go to movies and generally hang out together. So now I must come up with ways to entertain myself!

Richard, Keith's brother Nick, and I will still try to do our once weekly RPG session, but we will have to find some way to explain the absence of Keith's characters or start yet another ongoing campaign. (we have over a dozen unresolved games hanging over our heads just now)

None of this is meant to be a recrimination against Keith, I fully understand that when family needs you, you should be there. I'm just listing all the ways I will miss him and hope circumstances allow him to return soon.

Tonight is the premiere of 'V for Vendetta', I am trying to replace Keith as the coordinator of the movie gang which is a much wider net than the RPG gang. It's tough getting in contact with everyone and syncronizing schedules. We'll see how this goes...

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.

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.