Get to the Punchline, Already...

Musing

2009-09-09T04:00:21Z

If I ever go back to school, I think I want to major in business and minor in martial arts. After graduation, I will open an accounting dojo. If anyone reading this is a C.P.A. and also has a black belt, feel free to send me a resume.

Inspired by Bryce

2009-09-09T03:58:42Z

Conversation at Work

Me: I know. I wanted to check on those today so I could talk to you and Allan about it at work, but instead I played dolls for like two hours before I came in.

Ira: I hear ya. I played Polly Pocket for a solid hour this morning.

State of the Stuff

2009-09-01T00:17:34Z

Ok, we're coming off of one of the worst weeks on record. Jenny's best friend found her father dead in bed, a good friend of ours had to flee the country or face deportation, my brother-in-law was finally deployed to Afghanistan (though he arrived safely, so hooray for safe trips), and there's the constant threat of an international kidnapping hanging over my best pal's family (I shit you not).

On the more-or-less upside, my writing partner and I may be about to embark on the single biggest undertaking of either of our creative lives. More details on that when/if things start to come together.

Already?

2009-08-23T16:47:27Z

I can't believe my baby girl is a year old already. Wow. I guess time flies when you're having fun.

Double XP

2009-08-03T05:02:36Z

This might've been the most productive double xp weekend so far for me, despite not getting to play much on Friday or Saturday.

USAphid (Minute Men) and Mr. Malice (O.C.T.O.P.U.S. Inc.) both went from 14 to 20 or 21, with Mr. Malice becoming my first level 20 villain.

Armageddon Jones (Atlas Park Arbiters, I think maybe the second CoH character I made) went from 26 to within 1500 xp of 34, and I'm excited about him again.

Man Out of Time (Atlas Park Arbiters) went from 36 to 37 or 38.

Gallows Jester (Atlas Park Arbiters, my highest-level character) gained... I think two levels, which would get him to 46. He got his second epic pool power, so whatever level that is.

The Asgardian (Infinity, no SG) went from level 4 to level 9, I believe.

So all in all, a pretty good weekend. Thanks to everyone who played with me!

R.I.P. John C. Odom

2009-03-04T02:49:07Z

A bizarre and not entirely surprising end to The Batman's tale. Here's hoping he finds peace.

Back in Black (but not in black)

2009-02-23T19:14:07Z

I'm back online. I vanished with no explanation, I know.

I got... We'll call it 'mildly electrocuted' a couple of Saturdays ago, on Valentines Day, while re-boxing the gable ends on my parents' house. Soon after that, we found some electrical problems that meant we needed to shut down the power to our place until we could fix them. "Until we could fix them" turned out to be Sunday. So here I am, at home again, with electricity and internet.

While the internet was down, I did manage to read a couple of books I'd been meaning to get around to and do some design work on our next D&D adventure. Or... I think this one's going to be a Pathfinder adventure, but still. Same difference, right? I also saw a few movies that had made my 'might ought to see sometime' list, so those are out of the way. I loved Blades of Glory. It's that same movie again, but it just never seems to get old to me.

In other news, today is O.J.'s half-birthday! She's getting big, but unfortunately she's still not very cute. Oh well, she makes up for it with orneriness.

See you guys soon then, hopefully!

New Angry Whopper

2009-02-13T00:23:06Z

All day, I've been dealing with anger.

This morning before I left for work, I was about as fired up as I get.

By the time I got off of work, I had worked it down to a sort of simmer.

On the way home, we drove through Burger King. I got the new Angry Whopper (with Angry Sauce (I kid you not)).

I sat down to eat dinner with wifey and little O.J., and by the time I was done I was furious again.

Coincidence?

I think so.

Published

2008-11-24T14:33:52Z

That adventure that my pal Steve and I were working on for Paizo is published. It was an educational experience. I'm not sure that writing gaming stuff is something I'd ever want to do for a living - certainly not fantasy stuff - but writing with a friend is a good time. My current plan is to continue to pursue it (along with Steve, who is definitely going to keep on keepin' on), but in a more half-assed manner. I'll let you know how it goes.

Back?

2008-11-19T03:21:33Z

To celebrate my internet getting put back together, I resubscribed to CoH. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to play this month, what with it being the rainy season at work and all, but I'll be on at least a little bit.

Shameless Plug

2008-08-27T02:19:06Z

Here's a plug for my pal Phillippe-Antoine Menard, whom I owe big time. He's one of the guys who helped run our event at GenCon, and also one all-around cool cat. Without further ado, check out Project Kobold Love.

Offspring

2008-08-26T15:10:32Z

Well, we're home. Olivia Jane was born at 2:30pm Saturday, a 7lb 14oz, 21.5 inch baby girl. So far she's mostly either hungry or asleep, per the usual. On the odd times when she's cranky but not hungry, she is delightfully easy to soothe. Here's hoping that holds.

More on this later.

The State of the Stuff

2008-08-20T03:18:02Z

Lots of news on my front. GenCon has come and gone, and the event went pretty well. I was sleeping very little (somewhere in the neighborhood of three hours a night for the last week or so) as was my partner in crime, but we managed to more or less pull it off. A 126 player interactive RPG event using the D&D Open Game License ruleset, set in a game world that is still very loosely defined at this point.

For the record, they doubled the size of our event in late June, then didn't give us the go-ahead to work on the project for real until 10 July. Despite having to draw up 126 PC's, a setting, several random encounters, a mechanic for the objective and an entirely new system that had never really been addressed before we got everything more or less ready by our Friday night deadline. I'm still tired. The good news that came of all that: my co-conspirator and I are now working on our first paying gig for Paizo publishing. I suppose that's more or less a dream-job landing in my lap, but I'm so tired that it still hasn't really set in. And of course, our first draft is due on 5 September. As if I didn't have enough on my plate already.

Work has been in overdrive, with me working six day weeks and lousy shifts through one of our peak periods. Back to school is more or less over now though, so hooray for that.

Probably the most important news is that today is our due date. Still no sign of a baby, but it can't be much longer now. She's over 80% effaced and about a centimeter dilated.

The Mini-Man has been in town for a little while, and will be until after our baby is born. I can't wait to see him and her together. He's really growing up. Some of the things that he says or does just kill me.

Other than that, it's been a lot of Olympics-watching (which has caused a big disruption in my baseball watching, but I love the Olympics) for Jenny and I. She got more excited about the women's team gymnastics than she did about the Colts winning the Super Bowl, I think.

chathandle @ 2008-08-11T02:02:00

2008-08-11T06:07:46Z

I'm still alive, fellas. Writing is taking up all of my time right now, but that will end on Friday. The baby should be here soon after that, but you all know how that goes.

Speaking of babies, the Mini-Man is in town right now. We've been having a ball when we can, but this looming project really is taking up damned near all of my time. It will pay off though. I got some news the other day that I need to keep under my hat for a little while yet, but it's exciting and I'll share it as soon as I'm able. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to getting a chance to catch up with you guys. I've been keeping up with your lj's, but that's just not the same!

Bryce Made Me Do It

2008-07-12T05:28:46Z

I blame dbrycegh for this, you know.

Superhero Team Quiz

LiveJournal Username

Your Primary Super Power

Cape?

Identitiy

Origin

Location of Head Quarters

Primary Costume/Uniform Colors

Why are you a Superhero?

Your Superheroic Codename

The veteran grim member of the team

aardfluffhead

The sexist and crass but annoyingly effective one

cobie

The bright-eyed novice or sidekick

chathandle

The teammate that will eventually go evil or insan

archmage

The inept yet determined/reoccurring supervillain

aardfluffhead

The sinister Arch-Villain and team's greatest foe

chathandle

The perky civilian that keeps getting kidnapped

archmage

How often does your team actually 'save the day'?

42%

This Fun Quiz created by Shannon at BlogQuiz.Net

Taurus Horoscope at DailyHoroscopes.Biz

chathandle @ 2008-04-09T01:05:00

2008-04-09T05:16:15Z

In high school I had this friend named Jimmy. This guy was a riot, the sort of guy you can never be bored around. Our art teacher used to drink in class, and she was pretty out of it most of the time. So Jimmy and me, we'd find ways to liven it up a little bit - which is to say that Jimmy would think of something hilarious to do, and I'd go along. We'd dip Q-tips in ink or paint and light 'em on fire, then throw 'em across the room. Or when she set up still lifes for us to draw, we'd see how much of the stuff we could get out a window during a class period (extra points for hucking it all the way into the parking lot). A favorite of his was cutting a little slit in the rubber on an extension cord, then putting a piece of foil from a stick of chewing gum in the slit. When you plugged it in, it made a tiny little fireball. He was full of this shit, it'd come along non-stop.

As we got older, he mellowed out quite a bit. Very laid back, non-judgmental, cool cat. Married his high school sweetheart and lived happily ever after for a while, 'til she finally divorced him. He moved off to Florida for a while, and I didn't see him for a couple of years.

Within the last couple of years though, he moved back to town and I'd been seeing him every couple of weeks. He'd stop in my work or whatever, we'd talk but never really hang out. I guess we had become more like close acquaintance than really friends, but the point is we still after all that time really enjoyed each other's company. I liked his carefree attitude, the way he took everything a grain of salt. Kept it all firmly in perspective, you know? Didn't sweat the small shit.

Jimmy knew all about not sweating the small shit. Yesterday he finally died of HIV, which he got from a blood transfusion for hemophilia back in high school. I'm gonna miss that guy.

We Found Out Yesterday

2008-04-08T13:54:48Z

We're having a girl!

Gary Gygax

2008-03-05T03:41:15Z

It's still sort of sinking in that Gary Gygax passed away today. Role-playing was the very first hobby I chose for myself, at (I kid you not) about six years old. I'd sit and watch my neighbor play with his friends, then go home and get out my basic D&D boxed set - you all remember, the red one with the dragon on it - and roll up characters for hours by myself. From there, it seems like RPG's are the one thing I never lost interest in. Everything else came and went, but they remained constant. I can't really put into words what they have meant to me over the course of my life; they helped me form the circle of friends that has played the part that would have been played by a family in most lives. I never met Gary Gygax, but he is someone whose work I'm very thankful for.

Been Offline

2008-02-19T05:28:13Z

Been offline once again, and generally out of touch with everyone I know, since Friday or so. Grandma (who had seemed to be recovering) passed away, and the time since has mostly been taken up by family stuff. I say mostly because I still made it to D&D Sunday. I really needed some time to relax. Friday afternoon I left work early for the hospital, and spent most of the evening with Grandpa. Once I felt like it was ok to leave there, I gathered up my middle sister and my wife and drove down to Huntington West Virginia to meet my baby sis halfway through her trip back home. A quick switcheroo left my sisters riding together so that they could stay awake and alive, and me with Wifey for company. It was about fourteen hours round trip, accounting for an hour pulled off at a gas station to powernap, of which I drove all but an hour and a half or so. Once I stopped hallucinating, I knew I should take a break. That's when you've gone too far. Fun stuff. Got home about 9 am, and had to be at the funeral home at 11 am Saturday. That reminds me, if any of you ever come across my corpse, have it buried. If you have it cremated, a funeral director may refer to it as 'cremains'. I'm serious. What the fuck.

Anyway, the rest of the time between then and now has been taken up with funeral preparation, with the exception of a few hours for D&D on Sunday and a few more for work today. Funeral tomorrow, and out-of-towners start leaving the next day so my schedule (if not my life) should settle back to normal shortly thereafter. See you all then!

On A Morning When I'm Eating Snack Pack for Breakfast

2008-02-14T15:10:17Z

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The absolute best thing about being an adult is getting to eat what I want when I want. It's 10:02 on my day off, and I just powered through my fourth pudding cup. Yes, I'm gaining weight. Yes it bothers me. Does it bother me so much that I'm going to stop eating this pudding? Hell no. This pudding is delicious.

In other news, Mamaw seems to be at the start of a long, slow, somewhat miraculous recovery. We're all very tentatively optimistic, although none of us is admitting the optimism to the rest of the family yet. We're funny that way.

For my day off, I have to go dig through our totaled car to see if I can find the title there, and then likely go apply for a new title once I can' t. That ought to be fun. I cherish those trips to the DMV. That, a trip to the hospital, and fighting for control of the planet Kronus in the name of WAAAAAAAGH Gorgutz (Dawn of War: Dark Crusade style) should just about round out my day off.

Oh yeah, and Happy Valentine's Day, fellas. Wouldn't you know it? I'm off, and Wifey has class 'til 2 and then works from 2:30 'til 10.

Back Online

2008-02-10T16:06:25Z

Damnit. We have three computers. Three - two desktops plus Jenny's laptop. And all three of them were down (varying degrees of down) for several days there. Thanks to hours of help from a pal o' mine though, we're back in business now.

Mankind's Greatest Invention

2008-02-01T14:11:31Z

Tuesday afternoon, we got a rental car. If you had asked me Tuesday morning what mankind's greatest invention was, I would have said the wheelbarrow, because I love Mr. Show. If you had pressed me for a serious answer, I probably would have said, "The process of medical sterilization. It saves more lives before noon than seatbelts, flak jackets, and RoboCop save all day." But if you asked me now, both my flippant knee-jerk reaction and my serious answer would be the same. Mankind's crowning achievement is the invention of Sirius Satellite Radio. Apparently it is in all Enterprise rental cars (which is brilliant), and its coolness is beyond the power of words to describe.

Been a While

2008-01-29T03:59:55Z

Wow. Looking back, it's been quite a while since I posted. I suppose that's due to life being busy as hell here lately. Let's see what I've been up to...

1. Moving. That's more or less done with.

2. Trying to figure out whether or not my sister is even remotely fit to raise her son.
That one is still up in the air, though things are tentatively looking good.

3. New semester starting for Jenny, combined with moving, means our schedule is almost
completely different. That has taken some getting used to, but I think we're more or
less settled in.

4. D&D is going, and it's pretty fun. Our party currently has zero chemistry, thanks in
large part to a good pal of mine (I won't mention your name, but you know who you
are!), but I'm confident it'll come together soon. Or else he'll die.

5. Tabula Rasa is taking up some amount of my free time still, though less than it did
at first.

6. I finally got interested in the Xbox 360 too, when I rented Assassin's Creed.
Turns out it's not just for my wife after all.

7. Still waiting for that online Legend of the Five Rings game to kick off.

8. My great aunt died.

9. Shortly after my great aunt passed on, her sister (my grandmother) was hospitalized
and will likely never be quite the same. She had a heart attack and a stroke, and
things were pretty touch-and-go for a while, but they eventually let her go home.

10. Jenny got in a wreck yesterday. A semi moved into her lane, hitting her and
forcing her off the road into a line of small trees, one of which she hit. She's
more or less alright, and the baby seems to be ok, but it made for a rotten night.
Also, our car is done.

11. While I'm in the ER, standing in the hallway alongside my wife (since they didn't
have a room for her - thirty-seven patients and one doctor), my aunt walks up to
me seemingly out of nowhere and asks how she is. This is surprising to me because
I hadn't called and told any of my extended family that Jenny had been in a wreck.
Also because I'm standing in the ER, where they control who gets in and out pretty
well, and she just sort of strolls up. Well, turns out she found out when she
called to tell my mom and dad that grandma was back in the hospital, with most
of the same symptoms, but this time with added internal bleeding. So that's bad
news.

Well, I think that's more or less it... Some good, some bad, just like always. Catch you all on the flipside.

Update

2008-01-21T23:11:05Z

Well, I'm moved in to the new place. Back online, after a bit of difficulty (my pal and I teamed up to break the power button on my computer, among other things) and ready to get into a new routine. Life is still a bitch, but it might slow down soon. Or soonish.

See ya later, CoH

2007-12-24T03:41:14Z

Well guys, it's official. I'm gonna go ahead and cut the subscription at the start of next month, while I try out Tabula Rasa with an old pal of mine. We tried the free trial separately, and he loved it. I was less impressed, but I'm willing to give it a shot. The ol' City of Heroes just hasn't been scratching my itch lately, as I'm sure you've noticed. It might have been doing exactly the opposite: making me want to be in a roleplaying game even more.

I'm not ruling out coming back to CoH in the future, but for now we've agreed to see other people (or MMO's as it were).