Yes, I’m well aware that the frequency of my posting has dwindled alarmingly to almost nothing and I make no apologies for it. Apparently one can not have a social life and work and write and still blog all within the allotted 24 hour time period. Who knew?!?!

Anyhow, this isn’t going to be any more interesting than any of the previous posts unless of course you’re a Doctor Who geek like me. Yup. Series 4 debuts in the UK on Saturday April 4th, 2008. Which of course means that by about early Saturday evening local time, it’ll be up on the usual Torrent sites for the rest of us to all enjoy. I can’t wait.

And because I can’t wait… here’s the Teaser Trailer for the upcoming season. Looks good. Ood, Sontarans, Daleks, Rose, Martha and Donna. What more could a Who geek ask for… except maybe a Tom Baker cameo. But that’s just wishful thinking. Enjoy

Oh and I will actually try to start posting with some semi regularity very soon.

Tags: Doctor Who

Recently, the New York Times published an article on E. Gary Gygax and how he influenced much (if not all) modern geek culture. They even provided a shnazzy flowchart that I’ve copied below for handy dandy referencing. I’m still trying to figure out where on the great big wheel of geekiness I fit in personally though.

Yeah, as you can tell, there haven’t been many posts lately. I’ve been busy and distracted by other shiny things (Life, it’s full of them. Who knew!)

As per the norm, whenever I end up being short for time. I always end up spamming a few mindless links to fill up space and to give myself that hollow sense of accomplishment that posting something, no matter how puerile, gives.

Today is no exception. Today you must be a valid holder of a Geek ID card to truly appreciate this next useless quiz.

Enjoy

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: D&D

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet. They released a new trailer for the upcoming Iron Man movie with Robert Downey Jr. as the titular character. It looks good. I’m really looking forward to this movie.

Tags: Movies

Gary Gygax, the co-creator of the oft-maligned and misunderstood role-playing game known as Dungeons & Dragons, has passed away at the ripe old age of 69.

This saddens my geek attuned heart greatly. D&D and The Lord of the Rings were how I cut my teeth to the wonderful world of fantasy. They started the fire in my imagination that has fuelled everything I’ve done since. I remember with great joy the fun I had playing in my friend Brian’s basement back in grade five using only the the old red and blue boxes where lf and Dwarf were classes and not races. I remember too the fun Shane, Brock, Colin, Rob, Daniel and myself used to all have in my basement exploring the vast worlds of Greyhawk, Krynn and the Forgotten Realms. I remember talking with Dale, Eric, Trevor, Ashley and Corby in junior high about the worlds beyond D&D. Of Conan and Gamma World, of Top Secret and Marvel Super Heroes. I remember us exploring these worlds together and expanding our imaginations to greater heights.

I remember my introduction to other games beyond D&D and the TSR umbrella. To GURPS games of unparallelled sophistication with Trevor, Allan, Dale, Rob and Shane. Of late night Vampire sessions that we continue to talk about to this day (“No. I do not know where the sword is currently.”). Of Shadowrunning through futuristic Seattle with Rick, Steve, Calvin, Adam, Brian and Jon. And finally to my introduction to Live Action Roleplaying with far too many people to mention.

I remember too the stigma of being a gamer geek. Growing up through junior high and high school with the “geek” and “nerd” label firmly stamped on my back that assured that few girls would talk to me and fewer still would understand the fire that fueled my imagination. The same badge that “concerned” (read close-minded) parents used to label the game as sinful or blasphemous. It’s a badge I now wear proudly and I wouldn’t have traded it in for the world. The ostracization were a small price to pay for the imaginative outlet it allowed. Okay sure, it would’ve been nice to have had a girlfriend or at least have a girl talk to me now and then, but that’s beside the point. I’ve more than made up for that shortcoming in the years since.

Hell, if it wasn’t for D&D and Gary, I wouldn’t have ever owned my own comic & games store. He did so much for me without ever meeting me. I owe him a great debt. I intend to pay it forward.

*raises a pint*

To Gary. May you live long in our hearts and minds. May you find many new lives to touch in your next adventure and may the dice always come up 20 for you from now on.

Cheers.

Addendum:

The nerdcore are out in force after this news. Here’s an Order of the Stick comic in tribute to Gary.

Tags: D&D

Woot!

I’m just full of all sorts of geeky joy today. Here’s the first trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Ican’twaitIcan’twaitIcan’twait!

As I have said before…. Rock the Fuck on!

Rock the hell on… Spore will be released on Sept 7th!

Here’s hoping it lives up to the hype, and more to the point, that it isn’t delayed any further.

I cannot wait to play this game. It will be soooooo much fun.

Check out these two Wired articles (with shnazzy screenshots) here and here.

Excuse me while I geek out a little bit.

It’s been a very long while since I geeked out over comic book paraphernalia but I saw this over on Saint Neil’s site and realized… I MUST HAVE IT!

Found this little gem of oddness over on Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist.

It’s safe to say that I’ve never been a Trek fan. I just have never really enjoyed the show(s) all that much, even when they were originally aired. Just something about it turned me off. I think it was the utopian ideals that did it. It just seemed too unrealistic. Too much of a pipe dream. I much preferred the nihilism and dystopian futures presented in such films as Bladerunner, Alien and more recently The Matrix and Firefly/Serenity. To me those were more real and plausible, and subsequently much more enjoyable. Yes, I’m well aware that I just said The Matrix was plausible. Shut it!

The other thing that really turns me off from the whole Trek phenomenon is the fans. Now I’m not talking about the regular people who like Trek, there are tons of those and for the most part they’re just normal people united in a common bond over a television show. It happens. We’re human. We do silly shit like that all the time. It’s genetic. The problem isn’t those few, the problem is THE FANS. Those people that go above and beyond. The ones that Trek is not just a show, it’s a fucking religion. The rabid, red shirt wearing, klingon speaking, “I’ve got my own moulded Vulcan ears”, Kirk vs Picard, “I know every bloody episode backwards”, “I hate Wesley”, “In episode three.one.seven of Next Gen, they couldn’t really do that because in episode one.zero.two they did…” idiots that just don’t get out enough. To me, Trek fans like the idiots that news reporters find when they do their “Live on the scene with an Eyewitness” reports. Those guys are always the most inbred, useless, shower cap wearing, idiots ever to flunk out of third grade. You all know the type. The stereotypical idiot that gives the rest of us a bad name. That’s what Trek fans are in my eyes. Just plain idiots. They give the rest of sci-fi fandom a bad name.

Maybe I’m just bitter and cynical and spent too many years behind the Warp/Outland counter listening to an endless parade of ‘Gavins’¹ sour me to all things Trek.

The above link just proves that to me one more time. These guys really, really really need to find something more productive to do with their time. Guh. The mind boggles. I bet that prior to their little manifesto petition, the hardcore amongst them spent a good four months of forum trolling, emailing and newsgroup posting just to come up with the idea.

Bah! What the hell do I know or care. I’m a self confessed browncoat. (It’s not the same. Shut it!)

¹ It’s a Kids in The Hall reference. If you know me, you know I’ve done the voice… “If my head were made of_____, how much do you think it’d be worth?”

Heh, I wouldn’t be me if the first thing I did after working today, wasn’t immediately start pricing out gear for my new computer.

It may take me about 3 or 4 paycheques to accomplish the basic setup and another 2 or 3 to get it exactly where I want it but this is what I’ve come up with so far and now I have a goal. Muwhahahahahah!

The Basic Rig is as follows:

• 1× ASUS Maximus Extreme Motherboard
• 1× Intel Duo Core 3.0 Ghz Processor
• 1× Sapphire HD 3870 512MB Video Card
• 1× 2 GB DDR3 1066 RAM
• 1× 1 Terabyte Western Digital SATA Hard Drive

And the Advanced Rig will be as follows.

• Upgrade the processor to an Intel Extreme Quad Core 3.0 Ghz Processor
• Increase the Ram to 4 or 6 GB (or all the way to 8 if I can find it cheap enough)
• Add another HD and put them in a RAID 0 Config. 2 TB of space!
• And of course get another Video Card and Crossfire link them.

Beyond that. The next upgrade will be a 20″ widescreen HD monitor and eventually either a Blu-Ray or HD compatible DVD Rom (depending on whichever product wins that war – though I suspect it’ll be Blu-Ray). After that… it’ll be laptop time… and I’m seriously tempted to shell out the $ and get me an Alienware rig… either that or one of the World of Warcraft XPS ones from Dell.

I’m even tempted to pick up an OEM copy of Vista *shudder* when I grab the CPU just so as I have it.

And now, I’m off to dream of electric sheep…. So I guess that means the answer to Phillip K. Dick’s question would be yes.

Tags: Computers