Tidying up

Alright. I think I’ve finally settled on a simple theme I can work with. If you’ve stumbled here in the past few days you may have seen a couple of different iterations. I wasn’t wholly satisfied with them and they weren’t clean and minimalistic enough for me while still being somewhat aesthetically pleasing.

I think this one will work for the time being. I’m sure if/when I start posting more frequently I will look at other options, but for now I’m satisfied.

Now I shall go back to fiddling with the upcoming script of my group’s latest adventure. It should be fun. Thankfully I found a couple of new tools to make my GMing life so much easier. I’ve been using Scapple to storyboard the adventure. It suits my free-form, semi-sandbox style of GMing with it’s flowcharts, interchangeability and simple ease of use.

Thread Necromancy!

Well hello there world. It’s been a long time and here I am back again with yet another attempt to focus the swirling thoughts inside my head. I still don’t have enough time in the day to really give this site the attention that I want but I’m going to try a more minimalist approach and see where it takes me.

I still have a lot of great plans for the site, but the lack of updates, and backlog of things I wanted to do or had planned on trying was a monkey on my back for so long that it just became almost insurmountable. Even my attempt at a theme change last year sat there untouched because it was just too much.

So with that in mind, I’ve stripped back the theme to something more basic (but still somewhat palatable) and  I’m going to narrow the focus of the blog to three things and keep it simple.

First up. My friends and I are playing an Edge of the Empire Star wars campaign. While I’m going to keep the bulk of the campaign information contained over on it’s page on Obsidian Portal, I may reference it here from time to time.

I also have my standard fantasy campaign world, ‘The Realm of Tarsere’, but as it’s currently on hiatus the only thing that I plan on doing is to use the source material to build a series of stories I’ve been writing. I may even share them here.

Lastly, thanks in part to my daughters, I’ve rediscovered the joy of painting miniatures and am now trying to recover my painting skills to at least a shadow of their former glory. Progress is slow but I’m having fun, which is all that matters. While I doubt I’ll ever do a stream of me painting, I will probably post a few pics of works in progress and finished works.

I’m sure I’ve removed some functionality when I switched the theme but at this point I’m okay with it. I’ll address the broken links if and when I need them. In the meantime. Enjoy your stay.

A Gathering Storm

Alright… so:

“The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again.”

Sound familiar to anyone?

Yeah, I thought so.

If you are at all like me and have read at least one of the twelve books in the series you’ve read that line at least once. What does that line signify? Well it pretty much signifies that yup, even after RJ’s passing the Wheel still turns. A Gathering Storm, the twelfth book in the series was just released a few days ago. Penned by Brandon Sanderson from RJ’s copious notes it looks to be another massive brick of a book. I’ve only got a couple of chapters in so far and as of yet I haven’t been able to detect any real difference in voice between BS and RJ’s writing, though I suspect as we near the end of the book and the parts that RJ wrote prior to his passing we’ll start to see more of BS and less of RJ. Right now though I don’t care. as long as I don’t have to walk the fucking road to Caemlyn again I’ll be fine. So far so good… I’ll keep you posted.

Time Well Wasted…

You ever get the feeling that time, that arbitrary, ephemeral concept just sort of exists to piss us the fuck off?

I mean honestly, if it weren’t for time I’d be happily ensconced in a book without a worry in the work. Or perhaps I’d be scribbling words on a page, forging headlong and onward in the novel in my head. Instead I sit here, Stumbling and typing this trying to wind down from another exhausting day when I could be happily sleeping next to the woman of my dreams…

Actually ya know what… fuck you lot. I’m going to bed. This post can wait.

G’nite

(But in the interim…. The Trailer for “The Men Who Stare At Goats” is good. Watch it.)

House Of Cards

Hello once again my dear friends (pretending that there is more than one of you still reading this makes it easier on my fragile ego). I seem to have become quite the delinquent blogger over the past little while. I guess having a family and a job that takes up all your time does sort of prevent certain time wasting elements of life.

So, let me ‘splain… no there is too much. I’ll sum up. Prince Humperdinck marry… errr nevermind. You all know the joke. I’ve used it enough times already that you can all just finish it in your heads at your convenience. Think of it as my gift to you.

So let’s see how things are in Gregtown.

Baby is somewhere in the 5th Month and making mommy rather grumptastic with it’s kickfests. Apparently the Five Nations Cup is being played in Tamara’s Uterus. We still don’t know the sex but that’s intentional. We decided not to find out… or rather, I did. Tamara would’ve prefered knowing that way if it is a boy then she can get rid of all of Kayden’s old clothes but I opted for the “Surprise! it’s a 2-headed alien” option and Tam grudgingly aquiesced.

We have decided on names for both sexes though. I know I said in a previous post that I wasn’t going to say what they were but I figure what the hell. Barring any last minute changes of heart after we’re introduced to the squidlet, the name(s) will be as such: If it’s a girl, Zoe Elizabeth and if it’s a boy, Liam James. If it’s a two headed alien… obviously the name will be Zaphod Trillian. Duuuuh!

And just because we figured that the squidlet should have more than a box over it’s head, Tam and I have been looking at houses for the past little while. Apparently some drunken dolt forgot to carry the one and I’m eligible for a mortgage. Who knew!??!? The bad news is it’s not the greatest amount known to man, but the good news is we’ve found a house and have an offer on it pending approval of our conditions (financing and home inspection). For those of you interested in where… if everything goes as planned, we’ll be moving back to the Fort come September. Yeah, you heard me. I’m moving back to Fort Saskatchewan. Trust me… it wasn’t something that I had intended to do but my money went farther there and so I shall once again be residing in the town that I spent 20 years trying to move out of. I know I keep hearing that old sawhorse “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. Somehow I keep thinking that they’re trying to tell me something.

I’d show you the MLS listing but there are limits to the amout of info I will share. If you need to know though, I’m sure you can figure out how to contact me if you need to.

On the plus side I guess I’ll be closer to Dale’s place for D&D night… yeah you heard that right as well. I got suckered into playing 4th Edition D&D and despite my earlier misgivings, I actually kind of like it. Now if only we played more than once a month for 4 hrs. Oh to be young and burden free once again.

I haven’t done much of my own game world design in ages. The demands on my time are just too much these days for me to do much of anything beyond idle tweaking of things in my head. Never fear though. I am sure to get back to it once I get the house set up. I have been given a whole room in the basement for geekery and gamedom. I shall rule supreme! I wonder if I can sneak in one of those really high end custom made gaming tables without Tam noticing. Yeah, me either.

Alright. There’s a new theme up and running. I am going to see how I like it over the next couple of days. I might switch back to the yellowy parchment-ish theme but this one might stay… it’ll all depend on my mood (and time).

On that note. I’m off to have a quick game of Bloodbowl and then bed. If anyone wants to play me. Give me a shout and I’ll try and hook up with you online and we can play a game.

Literary Smartassery

While I haven’t read any Hal Duncan as of yet, I have decided that he’s next on my list of books to read based solely on his response to a bit of hate mail he received in his inbox the other day.

Maybe it’s just the literary geek in me but anyone who can tear someone a new arsehole so eloquently and with such erudition deserves to be read if you ask me.

For the complete story, I direct you thusly. Enjoy.

In Six Words…

Awhile ago (Nov 06), Wired magazine ran an article how Hemmingway had written a story in six words and they then challenged a number of modern authors to do the same. The results were amusing but I never bothered trying one myself… or if I did, I’ve long since forgotten it.

Tonight, while randomly link hopping I came across the article again and since I should be in bed and sleeping as I work in… oh less than 6 hours from now, I decided what better way to waste my time than to write a story.

Here goes.

On trial. Evidence lost. Case dismissed.

Now it’s your turn.