First adventures in DC Online.  First impressions leave me thinking DC worked very hard to get this right and they succeeded, in my opinion, on almost every level of what makes a good MMO.  Some of the complaints I've heard echo more of why I got tired of other MMOs (WoW, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Eve).  DC is quick adventure, great gear, excellent pacing while leaving player options wide open.  I haven't experienced much of PVP, but it looks good so far.

First Attempt at Painting Miniatures

I worked on a practice mini from Jason.  We are working toward painting a set of MERCS minis and I wanted a first go at something with which we weren't going to play.  This guy represents that first foray into the process.  The use of the black wash worked well, I thought, to add to the leather gloves texture and make the outlines look heavy and worn.  Just getting started with the process and going mostly on just what I've seen elsewhere so I'm sure I'm making some mistakes, but I hope to improve through the process.

Call of Cthulhu

Played my second game of Call of Cthulhu the LCG with Linds.  It's terrific fun with clever mechanics, great Lovecraft inspired art and intense gameplay.  I lost the very first play out of the box as Linds proved the master tactician.  I clutched the win tonight from an 0-2 deficit in which I almost lost by a card two or three times.  It really brought the tension of the Arkham Horror game with it.

Fantasy Flight: LCG Mini-Site

Fantasy Flight has put together quite the theatrical promo/demo which actually does an adequate job of conveying the core concepts of the game and introducing a majority of the rules.  The LCG (Living Card Game) is FFs way of taking a collectible card game and encapsulating it into complete playable chunks.  It takes the random collecting out of it and replaces it with more disciplined card management and balanced play between two people.

Print and Play: Arkham Express

Detectives going about their work.

Arkham Express game layout.

Monsters are getting thick.

 This is my first attempt at a Print&Play board game.  I chose Arkham Express to make as a birthday present for Anthony who is currently deployed in the Army over in Afghanistan.  Just got word that he received it recently and enjoyed it.  Game design is by David Willem and I heard about this permutation from the Print&Play podcast at http://printandplay.blogspot.com/.

Brett, who is a board game connoisseur par excellence, added this to my repertoire as a means to add creativity to the hobby as well as titles to the library.  Most P&Ps are not available commercially and therefore offer that extra special get to the collector.

I enjoyed playing the tester round (solo) of this game enough to contemplate crafting one for my personal use, however that might diminish its uniqueness.

The mechanics are solid and offer enough variety and fun for a small group as a diversionary lark.  Dice are rolled and results kept or rerolled similar to Yatzee.  The die results give the player the actions they are allowed to take that turn.  The terrifying twist is that, unlike Arkham Horror, once the investigators close the requisite 6 gates Cthulhu must then be fought for the win.

Trying

I guess I just don't know how to use Blogs.

Downtown Sacramento Monuments

"First come nature that creates
and is not created.
Then comes nature that is
created and creates.
(Produces sensible world)
(Which you must feel)
Then comes nature that
is created and does
not create (in-sensible world)
(which you cannot feel)
(but must know or acknowledge)
(by invention or imagination)
Then comes nature that is neither
created no creative
in whom motion of things
is search of manifestation
(or is it perfection)
is terminated.

The Baked Potato

Really enjoying the quality of the meal that is Baked Potato. Having them cooking downstairs and I can smell them up here. Delicious. Savory. Should be ready soon :D

Brilliant Observation

This is, as the clip title clarifies, Milton Friedman on Capitalism. Might as well get back into blogging with a bit on the economy.

Spoiled

I am spoiled; and quite so. Back into it for '09 - got the Pandora going - http://www.pandora.com/people/aquanine. Good jams going on now, although I do need to edit my lists because there are some stations that I just don't listen to anymore. Right now it's "One thing leads to another" by The Fixx, didn't know the group much but the song is a classic.

The PSP - which is new to my retinue of distractions - was well supplied this holiday season. L got me some awesome movies; Terminator, Hackers, just to name a few. I received the Final Fantasy game I was really hoping for, but so much more.

The Holidays were stupendous: great time with my Family from Oregon (including a Ducks game!), good times here in Folsom, and my best bud is here visiting from his dedicated service in the Army.

I really, in all honesty, am incapable of asking for anything more.

November's good yes?

Well, sure let October go by with nary a whisper from me. Still contemplative as ever, holding your words until you know what you truly want to say?

No, not really. A best friend has now left and gone into the military, an election has past, Fallout 3 has arrived, and Batman now appears to have swapped powers with Superman in the so named "Batman/Superman" comic; all this has transpired and nothing on the blog.

And this! - after that large monologue that just preceeded this. This leads me to think when I go big, too big, this tends to stunt the proceeding posts. Gotta keep a balance.

A reevaluation

Where to put one's energies these days? It seems to me I am in need of a reevaluation of my talents; where I am placing them, and what I am to do with them in order to be, become, and serve as the being God has created me as.
[Although we are reminded of the wise saying: "Prepositions are never words to end sentences with."]
I really like that one.

To be sure there are times when most grow into a feeling of "un" fulfillment, as if one's limit or true North is not before them but in a direction they do not know and feel lost in the finding.

I see many directions and the sheer potential present in the world in which we live is staggering, so much so it truly sets one on his or her heels. Time to move from the heels to the balls of my feet, make some progress in a true direction, trust the guidance and support I am given and take to the chase.

Sure is a lot of talk going on here, I'll have to see about backing it up. Yeah, sounds like something I am,will,going to do.

Apologies if the meta-play of being/am/will et. al. seems a bit heavy handy. I have just been in a 'being' 'doing' mindset, and a sincere Lack of hat tip to Chopra, if that was where anyone was thinking toward. Well meaning, but in all honesty, I have absolutely no presence of mind concerning his work.

I have a Heidegger, Santayana, following Hegel feeling about picking through all of this, a C.S. Lewis hope for my humanity's revelation through God, an Aldous Huxley distrust in my surroundings to provide my answer, and a feeling as though I am stuck atop Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain. There seems to be no time, yet some"where" time is proceeding and must be accounted for, yet how to deal with all these thoughts I have up here.

Ah yes, the horizontal life, as he would call it in those High German Mountains. The air just seems so crisp and clean, good for thinking, now how to act, where to proceed.

How shall it seeks its ending.

Putting down Pages

I just got back from the Folsom Cyclebration. An event so exciting the had to start smashing words together just to get the whole concept across without melting people's cerebellum. All sarcasm aside it was a fun event and I was able to attend with my sister and dad. All the big bike dealers were out, some very impressive machines out there. All in all and wholly suprising lack of pretension. Perhaps it has something to do with the pure nature of man's might expressed honestly through the best of machinery he has devised to cover ground: No motors to blame, nothing but rubber across terra firma singing harmony to the breathing.

Sister has been getting into triathlons. I think that's the perfection of the ideal. Here, we have devised various means of human locomotion across spans, various terrain, and water. About all there is save the skies. Let us place them all in single competition.

Currently reading Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Gibbons, and am finding it terrifically compelling. Borrowed from LG, major hat tip there, finding a lot of what I suspected, expertly delivered, however, with exceptional interplay between the text and the art. I can see the movie spawning a very receptive re-admiration for the piece. It having compelling contemporary parallels, "the War (Vietnam)," our current conflict etc; the decimation of the hero concept, predestination vs. human potential, and an overall existential angst almost. A true coming to the end of the humanist's equation with appropriate terror, desperation, and hatred. Dr. Manhattan plays the perfect visionary to the modern dilemma, and his cold, not entirely dispassionate, yet alienated (definitely author intended; a once-human finding home on Mars) sense of being is the phantasmic highlighting that remains dutifully subtle in order to counter-balance the main plot's spiraling insanity.

WoW Buster - (not really)

Another offering in the free MMO world. This one could take the cake, and also several hours of my time.



However, I don't think I am ready to dump my Night Elf Hunter just yet, especially this close to 70. :D

Sea Monkeys

I will have to post up a pic or two of the mighty creatures. I have begun life in a small tank in my office. They rose up and are now trying to lay siege to the small plastic castle that lies in the middle of their domain.

In honor of the champion of their species, I give you the source of his name.

And to the individual who introduced me to this quote, he truly was the quote master.

Gotta have ElectroChoc

The dance station from GTA4 is here, presented for your entertainment.

Sports?

It is true, I am not the biggest sports fan. However, the match up currently underway between Woods and Rocco has been a pleasure to watch. Now even easier with the good people at NBC Sports and Lexus (they deserve the plug eh?).

Another vid to remember the good times

Sorry to skip over the new job discussion. However, this is hot on the youtube, only reason I know this is that it's on their header page. I don't get viral videos like I used to :( QQ.

This is Weezer off of their new album. If you want more detail just follow the tube embedded links following the clip.