Vampire Diaries dose "If You Were Gay", via anothersuperboy

LULZ!

Well I was able to kill Paul's laptop last night. I tried watching True Blood on Megavideo and now it won't boot up. Looks like the OS is fried. I used to think I had a computer aptitude, and I guess I still do, but I also have gremlins these days. Yesterday was so made of fail.

Hope today will be better, but I won't hold my breath.

Wow, Supernatural gets better every week. I loved, loved "The Real Ghostbusters". Basically a thank you to all the fans and a really nice nod to their gay ones. You'd think after 4 seasons they'd run out of new and fresh ideas. They just have an amazing writer.

Of course on the one day I have an 8am status meeting on the current project, which includes the facility manager and my boss, my alarm doesn't go off. I did wake up 15 minutes before the meeting, so I made it in on time, thank god for a 5 minute commute. Then it was pushed back by a half an hour. Oh well. We are still sitting and spinning here, have a ton of pages due out tomorrow, can't get them into proofing since we are sill missing images from the client. Gonna miss deadlines, but we are OK with it since it's not our fault.

Paul had brought his Pokemon cards home the last time he visited his mom, so he showed me how to play last night. It's an OK game, I'm not very good at it, of course. But it's something the 2 of us can do.

We then watched Star Trek reboot. Still good. I wish I had gotten the more extended version, the one I have doesn't have any of the deleted scenes. I guess I should have checked for that, but I figured that deleted scenes was a feature they'd include on all copies. More fail on my account. Might have to get another copy, or something. We will see.

Tired and back is still mega sore. Plus I work at the mall tonight (unless real work has a crisis and I have to work late).

The game went well, I think. There was last minute character sheet work, which I expected, so we only ended up with an hour and a half of actual play. But that little session was probably good for the first one. I'm running the intro session out of the DM guide. I figure I'll run them though that and then Shadowfell. By then they will be around 6th or 7th level I think, and will have a good idea if they like it and what types of play they like. Then I can make a campaign or session tailored to them.

All the did was fight 5 Kobalds, but they seemed to have fun and got to try out their powers and abilities. I used a suggestion in the GM guide to use pieces of candy instead of just markers for the bad guys, so after they kill something they get a prize. Went over well, I'm told. It was suggested that I be more descriptive when describing what they encounter. Gonna try for that, but I also realized that not only have I never played 4e D&D, I haven't actually GMed anything in like 5 years. I've played since then, but it's been a while since I was in charge of the world. Learning experience for us all.

Hopefully everyone continues to enjoy it. And we are gonna try and start earlier next week. I also had no idea how powerful the Warlock class is. Impressive.

My neck/back/shoulder is so messed up. It hurts to lay flat on my back. Going to the bone cracker on Friday, hopefully that will help.

There is a 2 foot tall mountain of pages we have to get through today at work. A bit scary. Also need to do some more research for next week's game.

ceria_taliesin didn't tag anyone, but I felt like doing this one.

( meme thing )

It was a busy weekend. Got many things done. Still have things on my todo list. Biggest was the stupid leaves are raked and bagged. And I just know the leaves in the neighbor's yard are gonna blow into our yard. I also picked up Legend, which I haven't seen in forever. My copy has the director's cut, so I'll have to watch that to see how much is different.

In an attempt to fix my computer, I've been set up with an iMac. It is my new "secondary" screen, with my cinema display as the main screen. The iMac screen looks sharper and brighter though. Plus the iMac is almost the same size. Hopefully this will fix my crashing problems.

First D&D session tonight! Not sure if everyone's characters will be done, so they might not get too far. Plus none of them have EVER played in a combat session in a RPG. It will be interesting.

I haven't reviewed a podcast in a while, figured I should. I've been listening to Never Was lately. I really enjoy the world he's built and the stories. His characters have depth and there are plot twists that keep me interested. The main problem is the reading is overly dramatic, adding stress to phrases to try and build suspense. It really doesn't need that. The writing style also seems a bit rudimentary, over use of the same term or word in a passage is distracting. But it is a good fantasy story. Plus instead of one huge, overwhelming story arc, he has a few mid ranged stories, all based in the same world, but dealing with different characters and story lines. It gives the world more depth and the listener isn't left wondering if the small slice he or she is hearing is all there is to the world. Very Mercedes Lacky in that regard.

Also, his elves tend to be ass holes, which is a nice change. It might just be that the main elf we've heard about is like that, but it's a interesting way to take an elf.

He also has good music and his 3 year old son doing the opener is kinda creepy/cool.

Should I start grading these (a la Wil Wheaton on the Futurecast podcast)?

Sure: B

I might be a free agent this weekend, there's a chance Paul will head up to the Twin Cities to see his mom and sis. Not sure yet, we'll find out today. If so I foresee yard work, reading, TV and walks with the dog in my future. Probably working some too.

Current project is becoming annoying again. First we have tons and tons of pages just sitting there waiting for the customer to send us reduxes of pages and covers so we can update the images and output the next round. Things will start missing dates soon if we don't have these images. And somehow it will be turned around to be our fault. Also, last few weeks I was in charge of my small section of the project. I was doing the tracking and handing out the work to others and knew the state of everything and what needed to be done. It went smoothly. Now we have a bit of breathing room, so the actual project lead is tracking the part that I was working on. His system and mine to not mix, but today he is off and me and Alexis have to cover for him, but we have to dig though his tracking stuff to try and figure things out. Kinda annoying. Also, giving me a headache.

Paul got Dragon Age for the Xbox, he's enjoying it. Seems interesting, but not something I can get into. I will continue to plan for the D&D game and probably over think everything. Hope I'm not getting my hopes up too much.

Supernatural from last week was awesome and very funny, plot building, and ended well. Not a twist I was expecting. Last Glee was kinda a downer, I'm not sure why they are trying to hit so many "hot" topics and going away from the fun and campy feeling they started with. Stick with what works people.

Alan Tudyk (Wash) is on V! As well as "Inarra", of course. It's a freaking Firefly reunion show. Great to see him on screen again though. We just watched Knight's Tale last night with him in it. All in all I like V, we will see where it goes and if they can keep a good story going, but it's worth giving it a shot, I think.

EDIT: Oh, well I guess Alan isn't on for very long... dang.

via copperbadge



So much awesome, John Barrowman roqs!

I made my own D&D character last night. I won't be using him, but I wanted to go though the process so now I know how to do it and where everything in the book is. I've written down the important pages and now when I sit down with the group there will be less of me searching for info. Though my character is pretty sweet. Maybe if someone else GMs later I can bring him out.

Now I have to read the various free adventures that I've downloaded and decide which ones to run, in what order, and what should change, if anything. Then I need to get the stats and miniatures we need together. In theory we are playing the first session on Monday.

Volleyball went well last night (see, this isn't turning into a gaming only blog, and you were worried). We were short a player due to the flu, but won all there games anyway. And I played well too. The ref, who always gives me a hard time (in a friendly way) even said I did a good job. I told the team he's been replaced with pod people.

First night of character creation went well, I think. We got a late start since Jess made us a 6 course meal for dinner. It was delicious and way too much food. Everyone picked out their class and race, and we went over some basic RPG concepts. Will continue to flesh out the character throughout the week so we can play next Monday. It would have been a bit faster if I'd had time to read the player's guide before we played. I stayed up last night after we got home and read most of it, so will be able to find things better and make characters easier. Tonight I'm gonna make my own character (I want PG2 so I can make the druid, but that can wait), just so I can find the existing gaps in my knowledge.

Was an odd weekend. Though most of weirdness was Saturday night. We hung out with Jess and Lari, as normal, but some of our other friends, Nikki and Kristin, were there too. They had found the Bible video game for rent at Family Video and we played that for a while. It was like a game show, where you spin a wheel and then you get categories like Testament Trivia, Do onto Others (i.e. give you points to other players), mini games (like throwing rocks at Goliath, running your horse around Jerico to bring down the tower, or running from Lions and trying to trap them before they eat you), or Wrath of God (which takes away your points and ends the round). It was hilarious. And this Lutheran boy was able to kick the butts of some Catholics.

Then we played the Newly Wed Game, where we just tried to answer questions about each other. Paul and I didn't do too bad. During the story of how Paul and I met, it came up that I did lots of role-playing in college. Nikki mentions that they had bought the started set for AD&D 4e, but were over their heads on how to play it. So they begged us to show them how to be geeks. So tonight the 6 of us are getting together to make characters. As supreme geek, I get to be DM and walk the newbies though the process.

Yes, I've gotten Paul to play a role-playing game. Jess seems worried that she's not read yet for this level of geekdom. I've never played a role-playing game with another out gay, much less 5. It will be interesting, will have to save the bar wenches for the girls.

The tricky part is I've never played AD&D 4e, so I have to show them it's fun while learning it too. Not too worried, all the reviews I've gotten have said it's pretty simple. They saw the Serenity RPG in the game store yesterday, and have already decided that if they like AD&D that's the next one to pick up.

RENT was really good. I think in general I liked Wicked more, so it didn't take the #1 spot in my list, but I liked it. The two main leads were done by the original cast members when it first was done on Broadway, and they wre great. You can tell they've been doing those two parts for a while now. I was impressed how costume changes could change one's perception of the supporting cast so much. We were in the third row, so you could really see everyone, which was a new experience for me for a musical. I wonder how different the show was 15 years ago when they first did it. I bet the feel of the show was a lot younger.

Em's sister has a huge obsession with Adam, the guy how played Roger, and watching her be so excited all night was a blast. She works for the Appleton Performing Arts center, where we saw the show, so she got to met him after the show behind stage.

It's official, I'm too efficient, we are almost out of work on the project. Hopefully there will be enough clean up between the rounds to keep me busy without having to go beg for work on another project.

Paul made french toast this morning for breakfast, which was very yummy. And this afternoon I leave work early (I actually came in early to get my full 8 in) and met Em at 4:00 to leave to go see Rent at the Appleton Performing Arts center. Looking forward to it. I've never seen Rent, not even the recent movie, and I've heard great things about it. It's one of Paul's favorites.

Though I will have to dodge the "are you going to an interview" questions all day, as I dressed up a bit for the show.

Listening to Leonard Nimoy and some of the TNG cast read War of the Worlds this morning. Well done, go listen if you want, http://www.bigcontact.com/latw

The post-it note tracking system just saved our asses. While checking to make sure everything that needs to ship tomorrow is going smoothly, we found that one batch of pages never went to India, so were never done, and they are due out tomorrow.

I IZ ROQ STAR.

And now I have to burn though said batch and make it work. Love my job.

I WANT THIS IN POSTER FORM!

http://xkcd.com/657/

My brain is full of schedules again. On Wednesday we have 5 week/batches due out, on Thursday we have 10 due, on Friday we have 5 due out, and on Monday we have another 4 due out. A "week" is about 300 pages, the amount of material a teacher should be able to get though in a week. The main/core pages of each week is being done in Chenni and the front and back matter is being done here. So I have 24 piles of paper floating around the office, each split in half, so really 48 piles (and corresponding groups of files) that I have to keep track of. Most of my day has been wondering around the building looking for pages. Getting a lot of exercise, at least.

It's all going OK, which worries me, cause that's when you've forgotten something that will bite me in the ass later. There should be over time every day though, which is cool for the extra money.

Yesterday I got the leaves raked, so tonight I have to put them in bags. I'm hoping they aren't too wet. Along with that my back is sore from the raking.

Well yesterday was a hell of a day at work. Just cause of all we had to get out. It went OK, no major problems, but keeping track of all 9 piles of pages that had to ship (where they were, what stage they were in, who's doing what) filled my brain up. Not used to those long days.

Today is a breathing day. We have only 3 more batches of pages to get out tomorrow, and they are moving though the system fine. Today is also allowing me to get some tracking processes figured out, so I don't have to run around crazy so much, and has allowed me to stream line the system more. This might have been able to be done if I'd been brought in when the project started up, but it's not too late to benefit from it. I feel I'm becoming a person to be brought in to help organize a smaller part of a bigger project. So they are trusting me some again. And the number of people who are reporting to me is manageable too.

Next week will be long though, 4 batches out on Wednesday and then 10 out on Thursday. With the added complication is a lot of those are being done in Chenni, India and thus they have to do it, we have to output and proof it and then still get it out. Keeps me busy at least.

I'm also getting some other personal things done today too, which is nice. Looking forward to Angela's party tomorrow night. And I have like $50 to spend at the iTunes store plus some extra birthday money. I'm waiting for Star Trek IX at least, but might get another movie/tv series/book also. We will see.

My nephew is super cute!