Diapers and Dicebags

mudbunny @ 2008-12-03T13:11:00

2008-12-03T18:12:06Z

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid Personality Disorder:	Low
Schizoid Personality Disorder:	Moderate
Schizotypal Personality Disorder:	Moderate
Antisocial Personality Disorder:	Low
Borderline Personality Disorder:	Low
Histrionic Personality Disorder:	Low
Narcissistic Personality Disorder:	Low
Avoidant Personality Disorder:	Moderate
Dependent Personality Disorder:	Low
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:	Low
-- Take the Personality Disorder Test -- -- Personality Disorder Info --

mudbunny @ 2008-11-25T12:18:00

2008-11-25T17:18:49Z

Raised on a steady diet of comic books, you grew up to be an unstable lunatic, whose wacky ambitions are only matched by your delusions of grandeur. You're too crafty to get caught, otherwise you'd certainly be locked away in the loony bin!

Take the quiz!

Decisions, decisions

2008-11-04T18:41:55Z

Not easy these damned decisions.

I have a number iof things that are out that I want/need to buy.

New HD to replace the one that is in the process of dying on me. This one is fairly urgent, as it is the HD that has my OS on it, and without it, I am stuck using my wife's laptop. While it is nice, it is slow, and it isn.t mine.
FallOut 3
Fable 2
Gears of War 2
Subscription to XBox Live for a year.

Unfortunately, my budget doesn't have room for all of the above at once.

The new hardrive is a necessity. There are some nice Seagate 250GB drives at Future Shop, I just have to check at home tonight to see if my system can use SATA drives. My BIOS says that it can, I just don't know if I have the connectors.

With some XBox 360 games that I have finished and that I plan on turning in to Future shop, I should get close to $50 in gift certificates, which will bring me close enough to the purchase price of a game for the XBox. I just finished Gears of War, and was fairly disappointed by the shortness of it. Less than 10 hours, all told. Gears of war, while it is expected to have more story, will still be on the short side of things. Plus, Gears of War 2 has on-line multiplayer as its big draw. I don't have that much time for that. plus, I am more n the mood for an RPg right now.

So that leaves me with Fable 2 or FallOut 3. I am nto sure that you can get a more contrasting pair of games in there, unless you were to throw in a JRPG. FallOut 3 is fairly serious, and is supposed to have a lot of different options. The skill system is supposed to be extremely well-developed, and the game is apparantly fairly true to the FallOut franchise. At the same time, it is fairly dark and serious. Fable 2, OTOH, is a bit simpler, but more of a sandbox game from what I have seen described. It contains a lot of silliness, but apparantly also has a lot of silliness in it.

Decisions, decisions. There is also the option of dropping the gift cards on anothet Hard Drive to expand my goodness and then dual-booting with Windows XP on one and then Linux on the other...

Computer problems

2008-11-03T16:36:55Z

When I start up my computer, the BIOS loads, and windows will start loading (or at least the Windows Loading screen shows up) and then I hear a loud grinding noise. I get a very rapid BSOD, and then it shuts down and starts up again in the DOS-looking "Your computer did not shut down properly...bhlahblahblah".

I spent some of the weekend, poking around inside my computer.

I took the sides off, and started it up, trying to figure out which of my HDs the noise is coming from. Turns out it is not coming from my HDs, the clicking/grinding is coming from one of my DVD players. When I put my hand on it, I can feel it vibrating.

However, that still doesn't change the fact that my computer won't start up. I tried putting my Windows Installation disk in the drive and set the drive to be the start-up device, and there was no happiness. No real difference in what happened.

This all started wednesday morning, after the power outage on Tuesday night. My computer stuff is behind a power-bar, and we did lose power once or twice on tuesday night/wednesday morning.

Help!!

Have a happy and safe Halloween

2008-10-30T16:04:10Z

Stolen from http://drcheckmate.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/have-a-happy-and-safe-halloween/

Some tips to keep us all safe this Halloween!

0. Do NOT under any circumstances whatsoever tempt fate.

1. When it appears that you have killed the monster, NEVER check to see if
it’s really dead.

2. Never read a book of demon summoning aloud, even as a joke.

3. Do not search the basement, especially if the power has gone out.

3a. Or closets or attics for that matter.

4. If your children speak to you in Latin or any other language which they
should not know, shoot them immediately. It will save you a lot of grief in
the long run. However, it will probably take several rounds to kill them, so
be prepared. This also applies to kids who speak with somebody else’s voice.

5. When you have the benefit of numbers, NEVER pair off and go alone.

6. As a general rule, don’t solve puzzles that open portals to Hell.

7. Never stand in, on, or above a grave, tomb, or crypt. This would apply to
any other house of the dead as well.

8. If you’re searching for something which caused a loud noise and find out
that it’s just the cat, GET THE HELL OUT!

9. If appliances start operating by themselves, do not check for short
circuits; just get out.

10. Do not take ANYTHING from the dead.

11. If you find a town which looks deserted, there’s probably a good reason
for it. Don’t stop and look around.

12. Don’t fool with recombinant DNA technology unless you’re sure you know
what you’re doing.

14. No, the previous number isn’t missing; Remember rule 0.

15. If you’re running from the monster, expect to trip or fall down at least
twice, more if you are female. Also note that, despite the fact that you are
running and the monster is merely shambling along, it’s still moving fast
enough to catch up with you.

16. If your companions suddenly begin to exhibit uncharacteristic behavior
such as hissing, fascination for blood, glowing eyes, increasing hairiness,
and so on, kill them immediately.

17. Stay away from certain geographical locations, some of which are listed
here: Amityville, Elm Street, Transylvania, Nilbog (you’re in trouble if you
recognize this one), anywhere in Texas where chainsaws are sold, the Bermuda
Triangle, or any small town in Maine.

18. If your car runs out of gas at night on a lonely road, do not go to he
nearby deserted-looking house to phone for help. If you think that it is
strange you ran out of gas because you thought you had most of a tank, shoot
yourself instead. You are going to die anyway, and most likely be eaten.

19. Beware of strangers bearing tools. For example: chainsaws, staple guns,
hedge trimmers, electric carving knives, combines, lawnmowers, butane
torches, soldering irons, band saws, or any devices made from deceased
companions.

20. If you find that your house is built upon a cemetery, now is the time to
move in with the in-laws. This also applies to houses that had previous
inhabitants who went mad or committed suicide or died in some horrible
fashion, or had inhabitants who performed satanic practices.

21. Dress appropriately. When investigating a noise downstairs in an old
house, women should not wear a flimsy negligee. And carry a flashlight, not
a candle.

22. Do not mention the names of demons around open flames, as these can
flare suddenly. Be especially careful of fireplaces in this regard.

23. Do not go looking for witches in the Maryland countryside.

24. The mentally challenged make vengeful ghosts and revenants, don’t mock them.

Mother Nature is crying

2008-10-23T16:52:23Z

If it sounds like there is someone crying out there, or it is raining where you are, it is mother nature.

The application I am working on is 400 pages, and the prior art for it is 500 pages.

mudbunny @ 2008-10-15T20:25:00

2008-10-16T00:25:29Z

Getting to know you
Stolen from seankreynolds.

If you are on my friends list, I want to know 36 things about you.
I don't care if we never talk, or if we already know everything about each other.
Short and sweet is fine... you're on my list, so I want to know you better!
Comment here and repost a blank one on your own journal.

01) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
02) What was your dream growing up?
03) What talent do you wish you had?
04) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
05) Favorite vegetable?
06) What was the last book you read?
07) What zodiac sign are you?
08) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
09) Worst Habit?
10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
11) What is your favorite sport?
12) Do you have a Pessimistic or Optimistic attitude?
13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
16) Do you have any pets?
17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?
18) What was your first impression of me?
19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
22) What color eyes do you have?
23) Ever been arrested?
24) Bottle or can soda?
25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
26) Favorite band to listen to when you're mad?
27) What's your favorite place to hang out at?
28) Do you believe in ghosts?
29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
30) Do you swear a lot?
31) Biggest pet peeve?
32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
34) Favourite and least favourite food?
35) Do you believe in God?
36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?

mudbunny @ 2008-10-14T10:59:00

2008-10-14T15:00:20Z

I Am A: Lawful Neutral Human (4th Level)

Ability Scores:

Strength-13

Dexterity-14

Constitution-13

Intelligence-15

Wisdom-12

Charisma-11

Alignment:
Lawful Neutral A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs him. Order and organization are paramount to him. He may believe in personal order and live by a code or standard, or he may believe in order for all and favor a strong, organized government. Lawful neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you are reliable and honorable without being a zealot. However, lawful neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it seeks to eliminate all freedom, choice, and diversity in society.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Monks are versatile warriors skilled at fighting without weapons or armor. Good-aligned monks serve as protectors of the people, while evil monks make ideal spies and assassins. Though they don't cast spells, monks channel a subtle energy, called ki. This energy allows them to perform amazing feats, such as healing themselves, catching arrows in flight, and dodging blows with lightning speed. Their mundane and ki-based abilities grow with experience, granting them more power over themselves and their environment. Monks suffer unique penalties to their abilities if they wear armor, as doing so violates their rigid oath. A monk wearing armor loses their Wisdom and level based armor class bonuses, their movement speed, and their additional unarmed attacks per round.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Detailed Results:

Alignment:
Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20)
Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19)
Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14)
Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (21)
True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20)
Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Lawful Evil ----- XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Neutral Evil ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Chaotic Evil ---- XXXXX (5)

Law & Chaos:
Law ----- XXXXXXXXX (9)
Neutral - XXXXXXXX (8)
Chaos --- XXX (3)

Good & Evil:
Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Evil ---- XX (2)

Race:
Human ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
Dwarf ---- XXXXXXXX (8)
Elf ------ XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Gnome ---- XXXXXXXX (8)
Halfling - XXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Half-Elf - XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Half-Orc - XX (2)

Class:
Barbarian - (-25)
Bard ------ (-25)
Cleric ---- (-6)
Druid ----- XX (2)
Fighter --- XXXX (4)
Monk ------ XXXXXX (6)
Paladin --- (-21)
Ranger ---- (0)
Rogue ----- (0)
Sorcerer -- (0)
Wizard ---- XX (2)

Decisions, decisions

2008-10-09T20:01:18Z

What with my youngest daughter almost 1 year old, I am starting to have a bit mroe time to play my XBox 360. There are two games coming out soon that both really interest me.

Gears of War 2
FallOut 3

They both lie at very opposite ends of the spectrum. GoW 2 is a first person shooter. Much violence (chainsaw gun!!), much blood, guts and gore. Looks very, very cool. Fallout 3, on the other hand, is very much a RPG. It also looks very, very cool. The gameplay (based on the videos) looks very similar to that in the old FallOut RPGs.

So which one do I choose?

Shiney new toy!!

2008-10-07T14:09:24Z

I have been using Google Reader for quite a while now to collect my RSS feeds and read them at my convenience. While I am still not completely happy with the functioning of it, it does have some nifty tools that I have found.

For example, I can share cool posts and blogs that I really like. I plan on using this feature more often.

mudbunny @ 2008-10-05T19:59:00

2008-10-05T23:59:54Z

Your result for The Mythological God Test...

Thoth

Indeed, you are 67% erudite, 63% sensual, 46% martial, and 46% saturnine.

Thoth, the Egyptian God of secret wisdom, intellect, geometry and other forms of higher mathematics, was also the God of books and learning, of writing and numbers. And above all, he was the God of Magic. Indeed, he was the first and greatest of all magicians, said to create miracles from nothing by the mere vibrations of his voice alone.

Within his main temple were said to be stored his books of magic which were open for the edification of all, providing those absorbing this magic understood its sacred content. Over the centuries, these books were said to have been carefully translated by various priests of secret orders until finally, the Greeks compiled them as the works of Hermes Trismegistus.

One book most everyone is familiar with which is attributed to the mysteries of the God Thoth is the Tarot, considered to be an unbound book of symbols that may be read in an endless variety of sequences imitating the random nature of existence itself.

The Fifteen Gods

These are the 15 categories of this test. If you score above average in

all or none of the four variables: Dagda.
Erudite: Thoth.
Sensual: Frey.
Martial: Mars.
Saturnine: Mictlantecuhtli.

Erudite & Sensual: Amun.
Erudite & Martial: Odin.
Erudite & Saturnine: Anubis.
Sensual & Martial: Zeus.
Sensual & Saturnine: Cernunnos.
Martial & Saturnine: Loki.

Erudite, Sensual & Martial: Lug.
Erudite, Sensual & Saturnine: Coyote.
Erudite, Martial & Saturnine: Hades.
Sensual, Martial & Saturnine: Pan.

Take The Mythological God Test at HelloQuizzy

Mass Effect

2008-09-30T02:47:56Z

So I just finished Mass Effect for the 360. What a great game. Of course, the classes are all fairly different from one another that I will play through it a couple more times.

What class to pick this time??
I am thinking I will go straight Adept this time, and go for soldier the next time.

RSS Feed aggregators

2008-09-27T03:21:53Z

Currently, I use Google Reader to read all of my RSS feeds. It is nice, except for one teeny little problem.

It always, always puts them in order. Even if I have read a whole bunch of them, I need to scroll through the read ones to get to the older unread ones. That is a pain in the ass with the number of updates that show up.

I would use an offline aggregator, except for the fact that I check the feeds at work and update certain threads/posts on the WotC website.

Does anyone out there reading this know of any decent online RSS aggregators??

A Fallout MMO

2008-09-25T00:24:35Z

Fallout 3 is coming out on the 360 soon.

And then I found out that there looks like there is going to be a Fallout MMO.

Me is a happy!!

Map making tutorial with Gimp - Part 2

2008-09-05T14:35:19Z

Making a Dungeon

There are some steps you want to do first before we start work on this.

1 - Open the grid file that you saved.
2 - Save the file under the name of the dungeon that you are working on. Make sure that you

are not working on the master grid file. If you want to be really safe, set your original grid file to be

read-only.

Making the dungeon layer
The first thing that we want to do is to make a dungeon layer. This is the layer that will contain the

layout of the dungeon.

1 - In your layers window, make a new layer (I called mine Dungeon Layer). Set the Layer Fill type

to either foreground or background.

You should now have three icons in your Layers Window. You look at them top to bottom. The top

layer

should be your grid (If you want to change the name, just double click on the name of the layer, and

change it.). The second layer is the colour of your dungeon walls, rocks, etc, the third layer, that you

just created, will be the colour of the open areas of the dungeon.

2 - Using the Up/Down arrows in the Layers Window, move the layer you just created to the top of

the stack.

3 - Configure the grid to what you had it before. (In my case, 16 pixels apart)
4 - Use the Foreground/background colour selector (red rectangle) and pick a colour that you

want the filled-in of your dungeon to be.>
5 - Select the Fill with Colour or Pattern tool. (Red Circle)
6 - Make sure that Fill Type is set to either FG (Foreground) or BG (Background) colour,

depending on which colour you want to use.

7 - Click somewhere, and the layer should change colours.
8 - Move the layer to the middle of the stack.

Making the Dungeon

Now we are going to make the dungeon. The concept that you want to keep in mind is that we are cutting into the rock of the dungeon, leaving behind holes the shape of the corridors, rooms, etc

1 - Enable Snap to Grid (View -> Snap to Grid) if you want. I will be working with it enabled.
Having Snap to grid enabled will force all lines to be either vertical, horizontal or diagonal. This is useful when drawing castles, prisons and other dungeons that have been worked and contain traditional, straight-line architecture.
Having Snap to grid disabled will let you draw freehand. This is helpful for drawing cavern systems, curves and natural dungeons.
2 - Pick either the Select Rectangular (Red square) or Select Elliptical (Red circle) tools. (I'll be using the Rectangular tool in this example.

3 - Select an area.

4 - Switch to the Freehand selection tool. (That is the lasoo beside the Select Elliptical tool)
5 - Now press and hold the shift button
You should see a little cross beside the cursor. That means that you are adding to the area you are selecting.
6 - Add some hallways and rooms by drawing their outline.
7 - After drawing each room, let go of the mouse button to see what it looks like. If you don't like it, you can always press CTRL-Z to undo it.
Here is the dungeon so far.

8 - Hmm, that room in the upper left-hand corner isn't right. Not symmetric, I want to remove the top level of squares.
Let go of Shift, and hold CTRL. You should see a little minus sign appear next to the cursor. You are now removing areas from the selection.
The red square in the image below is the area that I outlined while holding CTRL.

This is the result.

9 - Let go of the CTRL button, and you should have an outline of the dungeon so far.
10 - Hold the Shift button down and continue adding rooms/corridors as you want.
11 - When done, let go of the shift button.

12 - Edit -> Cut
13 - Play with the Fill tool and the colours until you get the contrast that you want.
If you want to change the colour of the stone, click on the middle layer in the Layers window, choose the fill tool, choose a colour and click on a stone area.
If you want to change the colour of the open areas of the dungeon, click the bottom layer in the windows area, choose the fill tool, choose a colour and click anywhere.
14 - Now, in the Layers window, move the grid layer to the middle, and you will have your finished dungeon.

15 - To make columns or rooms within rooms, simply make the room outline first (Using Shift) and then, using CTRL, draw the columns where you want them.

There you go.

Map Making Tutorial for Gimp - Part 1

2008-09-05T14:34:34Z

Gimp Tutorial for making maps

Create a New File

1 - Start up Gimp
2 - Create a new file
File->New; or CTRL + N

Here are the settings that I will be using:

Click OK

Create a Grid
1 - View -> Show Grid

The default settings has the grid being a bunch of crosses. Nice for drawing, kinda useless for making a dungeon. We need to change this to lines suitable for an (x,y) coordinate grid system.

2 - Image -> Configure Grid

3 - Change the line style from Intersections - Crosshairs to Solid
4 - The default spacing for me was 10 pixels apart. On my screen, I decided that was too small, so I increased it to 16 pixels apart. This is entirely up to you. You will probably have to play a bit to find a setting that works for your map.

5 - Make sure the image is displayed at 100%. You can double check this by looking at the header of the window. If it is not at 100%, go the lower left-hand corner of the window and set the drop-down menu to 100%.
6 - Take a screenshot. In Windows, the fastest way is to click the Print Screen key on your keyboard. For Macintosh, it comes with a tool that can take screenshots, found in the Application list.
7 - Edit -> Paste as New
8 - Select your Crop Tool. There are three ways to do this. The first is Tools -> Transform Tools -> Crop and Resize. The second is Shift-C. The Third is to use the button on the main Gimp Toolbar.

9 - Make sure the window setting is at 100 % and that the entire grid is visible in your window. You may have to expand the window to do this.
10 - Starting at the Upper-left hand corner, click and drag down to the lower right-hand corner. Once you click the button, a window will open up. Ignore it. You will know when you are perfectly aligned with the borders of the grid when the borders of the grid change colours.

11 - Click Crop.
12 - Save the image as a GIMP XCF image.

Cleaning up the grid

1 - Pick the Select Regions by colour tool.

2 - Click inside one of the squares.
3 - Edit - Cut (CTRL + X)
4 - It will look kinda wierd, but that is all right, we haven't set a background colour yet.

Adding background layer beneath grid
Now it is time to add the background layer that will go beneath the grid.

1 - First you need to select a colour for the underlayer beneath the grid.
2 - Go to the Tool window and click on the background colour.

3 - Using the options, pick a colour. I am using 6f6363 (the html code) in my example.
4 - There are two ways to add a new layer. Through the Window Menus (Layer -> New Layer) or from the Layers Control Panel. (See red circle)

5 - Make sure the Layer Fill Type is set to Background colour, give it a name (I called mine Underlayer) and click OK. Your precious grid just disappeared, but don't worry, it is just hidden by the new layer you put in.
6 - Go to the Layers window, click on the new layer that you just created, and click on the down arrow. Voila, your grid just appeared.

7 - Save your file.

Thanks to SpaXe for the inspiration and for allowing me to copy his Photoshop Tutorial format.Map Making Tutorial for Gimp - Part 1

Mapmaking with Gimp - Intro

2008-09-05T14:33:52Z

Hello all,

I have spent some time putting together this small tutorial for mapmaking with GIMP. GIMP can be found at http://www.gimp.org/ If you own the software and it is accessible on a computer, and can't wait to make a map for your campaign, this tutorial is right for you.

My goal is to create a simple step-by-step instruction that an experienced user can whip out in 10 minutes, 30 minutes for first-timers. You can always expand your map later.

Before We Start

This tutorial assumes you use Microsoft Windows as your OS. If you are a Macintosh user, substitute Command in place of Ctrl, and Option in place of Alt, and so forth. If you are using GIMP on another OS, you should be familiar with the user interface available.

I use GIMP 2.2.15 myself. If you have an older version of GIMP, don't worry. It can still do wonders for you. However, some of the graphical user interface may not be in the same place, or look the same as mine. If you have a different image editing software, this tutorial may be a good reference for you. If you are confused in following any step, or find an error in the tutorial, feel free to PM me, or discuss in this thread with others!

Is This Tutorial For me?

If you have no experience with GIMP, but own it, and want to attempt at making a map, this is for you!

If you are also a GIMP user, and have inspirational experience to share with the Weavers community, post away! I will compile an index in this first post, providing hyperlinks to your posts.

What Do I Need?

    * A computer with GIMP installed and capable of running.
    * A curious, never-afraid-to-try mindset.
    * The desire to make a map for your own campaign!

Tutorial Index

    * Part 1 - Making A Grid For Your Map
    * Part 2 - Defining Your Own Dungeon
    * Part 3 - Creating Your Own Tokens

Introducing a friend to D&D 4E

2008-08-29T14:02:42Z

So I went over to my friend's place last night to introduce him to D&D 4E. I came prepared with a complete set of core rulebooks for him. (A belated birthday present). I also had a bunch of small scenarios ready to go to jump into the combat with him, but he took it in an interesting direction.

He has played a lot of D&D, all the way from AD&D up to 3.5, and is fairly familiar with the rules.

The rumors and bits that he had heard about 4E worried him, and he wanted a quick overview of the rules. So we went through the PHB from cover to cover, section by section. Once he started seeing how all of the individual pieces that he saw that had worried him all fit together, he started getting a lot more excited about playing in 4E.

One of the things that worried him was the whole "roles" idea in 4E. Once he figured out that character creation in 4E required a bit of a shift in thinking, it clicked in his mind. In 3.5, a large part of what your character can do is decided by what class you pick. In 4E, they take this concept and abstract it a bit farther. First you decide what you want to do. That is your role. Then, once you have decided your role, you look at the various classes that are in that role and decide how you want to perform that role.

He also seemed very cautious about the skill challenges. After giving him a couple of examples, including the ones in the DMG (questioning a corpse, navigating a forest) and explaining that failure was not the end of the adventure, it just added some difficulty, he got really excited. More so when I said that the skills that were to be used were at the discretion of the players. If they came up with a good use of a skill, then I as the DM would allow them to try it, that the list wasn't a hard limit, the list was just suggestions.

He also liked, once it was explained, the multiclassing method. He saw that it didn't allow quite as much freedom for choice as it did in 3.5, but he saw how the limits in the choices were all much more viable as the multiclassing is much more tightly controlled. He also saw how it would allow a lot more customization of your character to make one fighter/cleric a lot more different from another fighter/cleric. Combine that with the retraining aspect of 4E, and he was very happy.

All in all, despite no combat it went quite well, and I look forward to starting a once-a month campaign in the fall for a bunch of people. I plan on starting first an introductory session or two with the pre-generated characters from WotC and some basic gladitorial combat ("You have been brought together by a mysterious power to fight for the amusement of a crowd. Fight or die!!") to get them used to the combat mechanics. I imagine one or two frinday nights of that, then get into the actual gaming.

I haven't yet decided on whether I will pick out one of the WotC modules, or work on one myself. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. We will see.

Making science cool

2008-08-29T03:58:43Z

A friend (Thanks Olivia!!) sent this to me.

If you have ever wondered what atom smashers do, this little tune is for you.

Long time no post

2008-08-27T04:13:36Z

Well, it has been a long time since I have posted, but I am (still) on vacation and, as I told wolfstar, vacation beats blogging like rock beats scissors.

I have been on vacation since the first of August. My youngest daughter is heading to daycare on the 8th of September, and my wife goes back to work (from maternity leave) the same date. So, because we haven't had an actual vacation in a while, combined with the look in my wife's eyes that said that if I didn't take the vacation, I would be coming home one day to find my kids locked in the dryer, I took the month off. The Collective Agreement that my work has is great. Combined with the wonders of the Canadian social network, I am getting pretty much my full salary for the month that I took off.

This is the last week of my vacation, and it looks to be a good one. My wife is at her school, running a training camp for her schools cheerleading team, so I get to play with my daughters all day.

My oldest is almost 3 1/2 years old. She is starting to assert what she feels is her authority. I am papa when she is asking for something, and Marcel! when she is demanding something. If I then don't answer, I become Marcello!! It is rather cute. She is also demonstrating a surprising amount of intelligence that I wouldn't expect from a 3 1/2 year old. For example. Last week, when I was staying at the chalet with the in-laws and my daughters (my wife was in town running a summer camp for, you guessed it, cheerleaders), we drove by a rock cliff. My daughter piped up "One day, we will get rope and climb the cliff". Nothing unusual in that, except for the fact that the only time that she has seen someone climbing anything with a rope is in Robin Hood. Another thing. We were asking her questions about who lived on what lake. When she was stumped with one answer, she told us "Wait a minute, I need to reflect on my answer." WTF??

Anyways, more tomorrow. For now, it is bed time.

DDi VCL stuff

2008-08-01T18:33:07Z

It has been a little over a month that I have been the VCL for the DDi forums. The DDi forums are centered around the digital initiative of WotC. Their digital initiatives consist of, among other things, digital (.pdf) versions of Dungeon Magazine, Dragon magazine, a Rules Compendium (that, despipte the name, contains only the Rules Elements), a Character Builder, Character Visualizer, a Dungeon Builder and a Digital Gaming Table that, when released, will allow people in different physical locations to play D&D online (not the MMO Dungeons and Dragons Online, the pen and paper RPG) togather.

Dragon and Dungeon Magazines are out and get a couple of articles a week. The articles are released, and a discussion is held on the articles in either the Dragon Article Discussion forum or the Dungeon Adventures Discussion forum. So far, there have been errors found in the articles, which then get corrected by the staff at WotC for the final release of the magazine(s) as a pdf file containing all of the articles for that month. There have been some hiccups, that is to be certain. Currentlym, there are some people that are having problems viewing the pdfs as pdfs. Their computer, for whatever reason, identifies the articles as text files. It seems to be limited to IE. Previewing the files in Firefox (I use 3.0.1 with the PDF download add-on and it works) seems to work for me. The exact cause is uncertain, however there is a workaround that involves saving the file to your desktop then choosing "Open With" and forcing the file to be opened in Adobe Acrobat.

The Compendium is up and has some data in it, but I am not sure if it has been updated. It is still very much in a beta stage, so not too much should be expected from it. According to some posts in the DDi forums, it has not yet been decided just how much will be included. Currently, it is limited to PHB stuff, however there are a lot of people pushing to have the MM and DMG stuff included as well. I am not sure how it will turn out in the end. I think that WotC is probably worried that people might use only the Compendium to play and not actually buy the core books. i am not so sure how realistic that is though. I figure that most people will find it much more convenient to have the books in front of them when they play.

The other components haven't been released into the wild yet. According to some posts in the DDi forums, the game table has been being put through some small-scale internal tests inside WotC. I expect to see an announcement of some sort at GenCon indicating when the beta-tests will start. I would be surprised if there *wasn't* some sort of interactive demo stations available at the WotC booth(s) at GenCon.

I am down to two News Minions...errr...Guides. One of them resigned due to a disappointment in the direction that WotC went with 4E and a desire to prevent his losing his enjoyment of D&D. The two that I have remaining (Cart_Sprinter and wolfstar) are doing a pretty good job, although wolfstar seems to be slacking off lately. He gave me some excuse about a friend being in town on vacation, but I am not sure if I believe him. :D

Apparantly, the fact that I have News Guides also means that I am no longer simply a VCL, but am now considered worthy of the title "Senior VCL". I am not sure what it means, but I must be one step closer to the groupies that they promised us way back when the VCL program was first being discussed.

Edit to add: Wow - Two fairly substantial posts in one day!!

Friday Stuff

2008-08-01T15:35:54Z

Been a while since I actually posted something on here, so thought I would clear out some of the thoughts currently residing in the trashbin that is my mind.

I have a 3 1/2 year-old daughter. The van that we have (2005 Saturn Relay) we bought with the entertainment package installed. The entertainment package includes a DVD player that drops down out of the roof. This has to be one of the greatest inventions to have been put into cars. For long drives, we don't get "Are we there yet?", we get to listen to my daughter signing, watch her dancing in the rear view mirror or listen to her laugh at something, which leads me to my second point.

Disney princesses. My daughter has been fully subsumed by the magical marketing machine that is Disney. Specifically, Disney princesses. (Dear lord, they even have their own website!!) Now because of opint number 1 (DVD player) I have listened to a lot of the disney movies over and over and over again. Recently my daughter was watching Sleeping Beauty an awful lot. At some point in time I realized that Sleeping Beauty is sending an awful message to our daughter. In part of the film, the conversation goes something like this:

Sleeping Beauty - I am sorry, I can never see you again.
Prince - Never??
Sleeping Beauty - Well, maybe someday.
Prince - When?? Tomorrow?
Sleeping Beauty - No, tonight, at the cottage in the glen.

If Sleeping Beauty hadn't run away after the last question the prince asked, I am sure that the next answer would have had the prince doing her up against the nearest tree.

I bike to and from work most days. Now I am a fairly cautious biker. I stop at stop signs, stop lights and make sure to make all of the proper hand signals to let people know what i am doing. Earlier this week, I was a victim of road rage, from another bicycler no less. I was going down a hill that ends in a stop sign. I start slowing down and put my hand out and down in the signal indicating that I am stopping. The biker behind me, didn't have room to go around me due to cars beside us is thus forced to slow down/stop behind me. As we wait for a car to cross in front of us, I hear her start bitching me out for stopping. I just laughed and walked away.

This leads me to my next point. What the hell is up with bikers ignoring the rules of the road and ignoring stop signs, etc? Are they just stupid, or do they not care that in a collision between them and a car/bus, they will lose. Badly!!

I am going on vacation for the month of August!! Paternity leave is a good thing. Paid paternity leave is a better thing. Paid paternity leave at 93% of your salary is a great thing!! A lot of work to do around the house. A bunch of trees that need trimming back/cutting down. The cedar hedges need trimming, badly. A bunch of cedar chips needs to be spread around as well and there will, of course, be a fair amount of weeding to do. However, the vacation will not be all work. The third week of the month, my wife is running her first ever Cheerleading camp (Cheer Ultime Outaouais). That week, I have informed my in-laws that I will be staying, with my daughters, with them at their chalet.

A nice weekend

2008-07-02T19:23:55Z

So this is the first day back from a long weekend. I took Monday off, and yesterday (tuesday) was a holiday, so it was a nice long weekend.

Went to the in-law's chalet on Saturday morning. Relaxed a bit, and then I helped my father-in-law build a platform for the picnic table. This involved digging out an 8'x8' square (with lots of rocks), making a frame out of 2x6 planks, leveling it, and then arranging 16 80-lb patio stones on top of the frame. Nice, hard, physical work, which got me a free game of golf out of it.

The game of golf was at Montpellier Golf Club. The course is not a difficlut one, but is challenging enough for me. I only play a couple of times a year (if I hit double digits, that is a lot of playing for me) and I had an amazing round of golf yesterday. 1 Birdie, and a bunch of pars. I broke 100 (shot 97) for the first time, and played the best round on the second nine (42) out of the foursome, two of whom are bogey-golfers that regularly shoot in the low 80s. All in all, I was very pleased. I finally appear to b egetting a hang of my drives (I had a nasty snap-slice that played havok with long holes) and am getting a decent grip on my approach irons. Some regular time at a driving range should help a lot.

Long Weekends

2008-06-27T17:35:34Z

I love long weekends. Especially when the holiday is on the Tuesday, so I can simply take the Monday off and get a 4-day weekend.

This weekend is one of those weekends. Tuesday is Canada Day, which is a national holiday up here in Canada.

So, we are going to the chalet for the weekend. Unfortunately for my wife, the cheerleading team that she manages has a practice on Sunday night, and has open tryouts/info session on Monday night. So I had a choice to make. Either stay at the chalet sunday/monday/tuesday and go home tuesday night, or go back to the house on Sunday.

Lets see, at the chalet I have:

beach
possibility of a round of golf
a mother-in-law who will feed me as much as I can eat.

In the end, the decision wasn't all that hard.

Grab bag 1

2008-06-20T02:23:19Z

This is just going to be a random grab-bag of thoughts that I have had this week so far.

I am astonished how rapidly, once I start biking to work in the summer, I begin to hate drivers. The entirety of my route to work (almost 9 km) is along roads that, while not busy, are occupied enough. Whether it is people cutting me off, opening car doors or squeezing me against the sidewalk, I have seen it all. It's probably a good thing that I am not miced up for my drive into work. It would have more bleeps than The Osbournes.

I love my wife, I really do. She is a high school teacher, and the coach of a couple of high school cheerleading squads. Just the same, she has a remarkable blind spot when it comes to teenage girls. She can't conceive of the fact that teenage girls are attractive to men. Put those same teenage girls in a cheerleading uniform...

Fathers day is really quite disappointing in the overall scope of things. I got a nice pencil holder from my daughter (3 years old). At the same time, didn't see any ads on TV. No ads on the radio. Nothing reminding people to buy stuff to thank their fathers. A local call-in show, when they do their Mother's day show, has the phone lines swamped with calls. On Father's day?? 2 calls about fathers in 2 hours.

The bus I take to work in the winter is also the same bus that carries a fair number of students to the local school. The local all-girl school. May I also mention that the school is a catholic school?? I have finally accepted several truths

I will never be attractive to those girls.
I am a dirty old man.
I can live with that.