Vacation’s all I ever wanted…

After several weeks of tough, tough life, I have a paid week to loaf around.

Well, not really. My lovely wife has plans to tear up and redo our front garden this week, as well as clean out from under the porch (no telling what we’ll find — we haven’t looked under there since we moved into the house nearly two years ago).

I also hope to get some work done on my Earthdawn adventure Pilgrimage, as well as a serious read-through/critique/edit of the current incarnation of the Earthdawn Player’s Compendium. (Coming later this year! Ask for it by name!) Actually, the priority on those two will probably be flipped — the EDC will be out later this year, while Pilgrimage won’t be out until ’05 sometime (depending on how soon I get the manuscript finished and the various publishing schedule).

Oh yeah, I want to catch up on some sleep as well… though somehow that always seems to slip my mind when I’m working for that next level in Final Fantasy XI.

I’ve been reading the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. Seven books and counting (I just finished Burnt Offerings about five minutes ago). I don’t think I’ve ever encontered a series I could work through that quickly, without getting burnt out on it and needing a break (except perhaps Terry Pratchett).

If you haven’t read these books, and you’re a fan of dark action-adventure with vampires, werewolves, zombies, and a host of other preternatural beasites, this series rocks on toast. Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer if it were on HBO or something.

These books are what I wish the new World of Darkness was going to be like… *sigh*.

Other stuff… hmm….

Visit http://www.wilwheaton.net/. Yes, Wil Wheaton. Wesley from Star Trek: The Next Generation. He’s got a great blog, and is a self-professed geek with a book out (and another on the way). He’s been a guest (or guest host) on Tech TV several times, and he’s been a joy to watch. Visit, enjoy.

While you’re at it, visit another blog, maintained by an acquaintance (I hesitate to call him a friend, even if we did game together and he ran the early stages of what was sure to be a kick ass Ars Magica saga). His name is Mike Daisey, and come to think of it, he’s been on Tech TV a couple times himself. He made a bit of a splash last year (or the year before — time blurs when you start pushing 30) for his one-man show (and accompanying book) 21 Dog Years — about his time working at Amazon.com.

(I haven’t read the book yet, Mike, but I will, I swear!)

Anyhow, you can visit his blog at http://www.mikedaisey.com/. Read. Enjoy.

Final thought: Despite all the plans I have for this upcoming *paid* *week* *off* (Woot!) I’m probably going to spend most of it playing Final Fantasy XI.

There is more to tell, but I’ve been more verbose than usual, which is a sure sign that I need food and/or sleep. I need both in fact, and I’m not sure what order to tackle them in. So until next time…

Con Report`

I spent this past Saturday at NERE, the North-East Regional Event for the Camarilla LARP. I had a good time, all things considered, but I could have had even more fun. I was a little reluctant to try risky things that could get my character in trouble.

As a result, I kind of spent a bunch of time lurking around not doing much of anything. If I learned anything from this experience, it’s that — in Live-Action Roleplay anyhow — you are largely responsible for your own fun. In fact, the larger the game, the more responsible you are. The GM doesn’t have the time to make sure that everybody is having a good time. So if you’re bored… do something to get involved!

Here’s some things I should have done… introduced myself to the Prince hosting the party. As Primogen of my clan in Bangor, I should have done so — especially since the Prince was also of my clan. I also should have caused grief for the vamp that cheated at cards and cost me $4,000 (it was actually somebody else that was cheating, but that’s not what I thought in character). I should have added myself to the list of performers at the party, and lightened the mood with a little humorous or ribald song… especially after the last song (while a great performance) turned the mood rather somber. I should have struck a bargain with the Ventrue Primogen of Bangor — not reporting her infraction of the rules in return for a favor to be paid later (as it is… I may need to offer her a favor to return to her good graces).

In the end, any lack of fun on my part was purely my own fault. Of course, I have never been in a LARP on that scale before, and was a little reluctant to get out there and be me (or rather… be Harlan). So.. my words of wisdom for today? Get out there and make your own fun, I guess.

*Sigh*

So… here’s the latest round of headaches with regards to our stolen car.

The police were done with it, so we called the local dealership, where we have all our repair work done. They were going to send a wrecker down to Winterport to pick up the lady and bring her back to Bangor. However, the garage where it is currently being held will not release it until his bill is paid — for towing and storage, nearly $500. The dealer won’t cover it for us… until that gets paid, we can’t get the car fixed.

Not having that kind of cash, I got on the horn to our insurance company. Our adjuster (April) spent the better part of the afternoon on the phone with the dealership, and the garage in Winterport. The final fall-out was, she is overnighting a check to Winterport (which will arrive Monday). When he gets the check, he releases the car, and we have to have it transported up to the dealership that day… or we’ll get another day’s worth of storage that needs to be paid before we can transport it again… *sigh*

Anyhow, this is all in the midst of overtime at work, and all the other regular day-to-day stresses of life.

And there’s still no sign of my keys. What a pain.

In an amusing note, one of my wife’s co-workers made the ludicrous insinuation that we faked the whole thing in an affort to get a new car.

Yeah… we intentionally drove our car into a gravel pit, called it in as stolen, and are now dealing with the headaches of police and insurance reports, not to mention the rest of this delightful saga — all in order to get a new car, which will replace the car we bought new last summer, and had just over 6000 miles on it when it was stolen.

I’m amazed the police haven’t exposed our brilliant scam by now.

The Saga Continues…

They found our car!

Yesterday evening, we got a call from the Bangor Police Department that our lady had been found about a mile off into the woods on a snowmobile trail by Waldo County Sheriffs. They couldn’t pull it out that night, but it was towed out this morning, and we took the opportunity to drive down to Winterport and see the damage.

It wasn’t as bad as we had feared. When you learn that your car has been abandoned so far out in the woods that they couldn’t get a wrecker out there until they got a logging skidder to widen the trail… the worst goes through your mind.

The damage…? Well, the passenger side mirror was taken off, but it was recovered, and there are a few superficial scratches, but no serious (or even moderate) body damage was apparent. We don’t know what sort of condition the undercarriage is in — that’ll have to wait until we get it to the repair shop and up on the lift.

Anyhow… the perp left a baseball cap in the back seat, so there is some hope that other evidence was left behind. Also — in what may be a classic insight into the lunacies of the criminal mind — the burned CD-Rs we had in the car were taken. Real CDs? Sure — you can pawn those for cash or something. But CD-Rs? I don’t know of any pawn shop or second-hand store that will deal with them, and our musical tastes are… eclectic to say the least.

I guess they wanted mix discs of Wierd Al Yankovic, ’80s Hair Metal, and They Might be Giants.

Anyhow, I took some pictures, but lacking a digital camera, I need to get the film developed and scanned in before I can share them with you. Stay tuned!

Quick update…

On the car thing, some good news from this past weekend. While picking up in preparation for our Sunday night Earthdawn game, I found our leather CD case — which we thought was in the car. It turns out it had been taken out a couple weeks back, and had gotten buried under a pile of papers on my desk.

In the end, we only lost a couple of actual CDs — everything else that was in the car was burned CD-Rs, and those are easily replaced.

I’m still bummed about my keys, though.

Bad news…

My car was stolen this morning.

I woke up and noticed it was gone, along with my key ring — it appears the thief got into our house in the wee hours of the morning, grabbed my keys, and made off with our car. We haven’t even had it a year yet.

What I find most annoying about this, oddly enough, is not that my car was stolen, but rather that my keys were stolen along with it. Not only did I need to replace the locks on my front door, but the spare key to my grandmother’s house, the key to my locker at work (which I fortunately do not keep locked), the key to my bike lock, my steamer trunk, our luggage… all of these keys are gone (unless, through some miracle, the car and keys are found). Also, those convenient little key-ring tags from the video store and whatnot are gone as well.

Oh yeah, I should mention that our 30-disc CD wallet, full of CDs, was in the car as well. So now, we have to replace that gap in our collection (naturally, it was the stuff we liked, otherwise it wouldn’t have been in the car).

It’s a pain in the ass, and it’s generally not cool. So if, through some bizarre quirk of fate you see a black, 2003 4-door Chevy Cavalier with Maine lcense plate 5470 KC, tail it and give me a call. We’ll call in a strike force and take the lady back.

I know I haven’t posted in a while…

In fact, it’s been nearly a month. There is a reason for that, and it isn’t just that I’m lazy (though that does factor into it). The past three weeks have been heavy on the OT for me at work, and as a result my public musings here get pushed a little into the background.

There’s another reason, though…

Final Fantasy XI

Damn… it’s a sweet game. I’m not one for MMORPGs, but this game is really cool. My brother-in-law, Sean (who lives with us), bought it a couple months back. Then, so he and his girlfriend, Leanne (who also lives with us), could play together, they bought another copy and installed it on my wife’s computer… which sits in the dining room… and I got sucked in.

*Sigh*

Long story short, I now have a copy installed on my own computer… and another friend of mine is getting a copy soon… we’ll be able to have a big ol’ FF11 party. (And it will soon be out on the PS2 as well!)

So, here’s some screenshots from some of my recent play. A little bit of sightseeing.

This is Drachenfalls, which is a huge waterfall near my own home city of Bastok:

(October 2016 note: At some point in the course of moving the blog from host to host, the picture  vanished into the electronic ether.)

 

And here is the Crag of Dem, which lies in the nearby Konschtat Highlands:

(October 2016: Same with this one.)

 

If you play, I’m on the “Fairy” world server, and my handle is (not surprisingly) Mataxes. I’m usually on late night/early morning EST. Drop me a line if you want!

I promise to update a little bit more frequently… really.

Have you ever…?

Have you ever read a book that changed the way you felt? I recently finished reading Daughter of the Forest — it was sitting on my bedside table for a while, and I finally picked it back up and finished it the other night. I was in a crappy mood, and finishing this book changed that. I recommend it.

Next up is Kushiel’s Dart, and noticed that I’ve been reading a lot of fantasy novels set in dark ages Britain/Ireland — The Dragon Queen, Daughter of the Forest, and now Kushiel’s Dart. I’m not complaining, mind you, just making an observation.

The Dragon Queen, by the way, had a strong ending. If you can get through the dense, slow opening two-thirds, the last 100 or so pages really reward you. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in that series, but I can only take so much of Alice Borchardt’s prose at once.

In totally unrelated news…. take a moment and visit the online gallery of a cool young fantasy artist, Rita (SaDE) Marfoldi. Good stuff.

Anything else… oh yeah, as you may know, I’m a Questor for RedBrick Ltd., who is producing Earthdawn Classic under license from FASA. I’ve been in a bunch of late-night chat sessions with James Flowers, the line developer, and I have to say I’m excited about this product! Because of confidentiality agreements, I can’t really spill any details, but watch this space for future developments!

What are you reading?

I’m reading Alice Borchardt’s The Dragon Queen. Subtitled “The Tales of Guenivere” it’s an Arthurian tale set in dark ages Britain (as these stories usually are).

For the longest time, I couldn’t decide if I liked it, and I’m still not 100% sure. There are some things about it that bother me, but there are other things that I think are really interesting. First of all, the story not only changes point of view pretty regularly, it changes voice as well — large sections of it are in first-person, as Guenivere is telling the story of what happened to her. The other parts are told in third person — it makes for a little bit of a strange narrative flow.

Another thing that bothered me at first is the presence of Maeniel (the werewolf from her other series). Inserting him into this Arthurian tale struck me as a little bit gratuitious, but as the story has progressed his role has diminished. I appreciate that.

The novel does a couple of interesting things with the traditional Arthur canon. Merlin is made out to be a villain; he is interested in holding power over Arthur, and by extension, the high kingship of Britain. Uther is alive and well, knows Arthur is his son, and had him fostered by his aunt Morgane (aka Morgan LeFay). Guenivere, rather than being made out as a foolish Christian pawn (as she is in MZB’s Mists of Avalon), is a noble descendant of Boadiccea, the celtic queen who fought against the Roman invasion. She was raised by Maeniel and his wolves, and has a strong celtic, neo-pagan philosophy. She refuses to bow to the will of Merlin, and Merlin (rightly) fears the influence she will hold over Arthur.

There is so much juggling of the canon here, I’m not sure where the story is really going. Right now both Arthur and Guenivere are involved in separate quests to save the Flower Queen — a manifestation of the Goddess — in different times. Or something like that, I’m not really sure.

It’s an interesting book, but it’s a slow read. If you like new takes on classic stories, this one may suit you. If you’re a hard core Arthurian devotee, you may be insulted by the liberties this novel takes.