The Bar None. Blog of Heath.

Changes

2011-08-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

Will be mainly posting on my tubblr account from now on.

http://heath-bar.tumblr.com/

The Real Steel of Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots

2011-06-06T23:26:00.000-07:00

Old School (Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots) meets the New School of movies (Real Steel movie) with fighting robots.

Its gravy time with Rich.

2011-05-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

Its moving day for Rich and some friends are helping him out. Its lunch time with some KFC. Before work begins a new, Gravy Time is called where Rich finishes of the gravy we had.

Kickstarter of the Gamer type.

2011-05-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

Here are the Kickstarters I have backed or keeping a eye on.

If you know of others, please leave a comment.

Time well spent.

2011-05-07T16:42:00.000-07:00

With me on twitter, I have not been updating this blog that much.

Here are some things that has happened in the last few months.

Emerald City ComicCon 2011
Here are some pictures from the convention and some videos of the panels I went to.
I meet up with Kirsten (@pkmn_trainer) and got to hang out with her.
I helped out Echo Chernik with her set up of her Artist Alley table.

SakuraCon 2011
Here are some pictures from the convention and some videos of the panels I went to.
Carpooled with my friend Rich who had a table in the Artest Alley area.

Epic Game Day 2
Here are some pictures from the Epic Game Day.

The last item of note is that all pieces are in place for San Diego Comic-Con International for me and my nephew. Convention tickets purchased. Flight booked. Hotel reserved. Now all I need to do is wait.

Last year in review.

2011-01-21T20:37:00.000-08:00

This list is what I did in 2010.

The conventions I got to go to a few convention last year:

The local ones I went to:

Emerald City ComiCon

Sakura-Con

PaizoCon
Dragonflight

The out of town convention I went to with some friends:

Comic-Con International

Gen Con Indy

Check out the pictures I took during the different convention.

I got to attend two w00tstocks this last year. w00tstock 2.0 in Seattle and w00tstock 2.4 in San Diego. Both were great fun and I even got a w00tstock 2.4 poster with in me in it by Len Peralta. (pix/video: 2.0, 2.4)

Check out the list of book I have read in the year of 2010. There were 35 books read and a good number of comic books and graphic novels read in between the books during 2010. With the last three years, I am averaging over 30 book read. Which is great for me. In my youth, I mainly stuck to comics book and only read a few books here and there.

I got to be in a video that was done at PAX called Paul and Storm Get Thirsty. I was on screen for a whole 44 seconds [0:28-1:12]. Back in January of 2010 I became a Paul and Storm minion.

This last year I completed some of my music collection and found some new ones.
Completed my collection of Kirby Krackle, MC Frontalot, Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Storm.
Found some new artist of Molly Lewis and Lady Gaga.

With comics, I used to get them a friend. His situation changed and I now get them from a local Comic and Game store.

A final note:
Check out my pictures on Flickr.
Check out me on twitter.

My time at the Seattle Geekly Game Day

2010-10-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

The first game was the 2nd edition of Betrayal at the House on the Hill. It was a fun game where we end up wining a chess game with Death.

The next game we played was Who Would Win? A game a new game I picked up a few months back. The game played great and I think 5 player is the right number of the game. The box says 3 min for the number of players, that could work with one vote to win. 4 players could work, but there could be ties. 5 is the magic number for the min number of players. It was a fun game with some great match ups, here are some of the match up we came across:

Wayne Gretzky vs Stephen Speilberg in a cooking contest.
Darth Vader vs Stephen Hawking in dogsledding.
Helen Keller vs Blackbeard in juggling.

We next played Back to the Future: The Card Game. Its is Chrononauts with a Back to the Future fell to it. It was fun once I got the feel of the game.

The next game that got played was Rorschach, a game with inkblots. What you see is not always what others see.

The last game of the night was Zombie Dice, with one of the players rolling and keeping 10 Brians.

Game day was fun and I even got a shirt as a give away.

. . . and here all the good pictures I took.

My summer of conventions.

2010-10-12T18:39:00.000-07:00

Here is what I did during the summer.

San Diego Comic-Con
Had fun. I did not get to all the panel I had wanted to, but I did get a few autographs I wanted. One being was the full cast autograph of the Mythbusters and one I did not plan on was with two of the Farscape cast signed a Farscape comic book cover.
Got the chance to walk the floor of the convention more than the past and found some good swag and other items I did not know I wanted till I found them as seen here.

Here are the videos I shot at SDCC.

Here are a few panel I went to that were found online:
Mythbusters Panel Podcast from San Diego Comic-Con from the Nerdist Podcast.
Comic Con 2010: Joss Whedon Experience Panel (When Nathen Fillion shows up)
Comic Con 2010: Bones (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5)

A panel I wanted to goto, but could not get in to or end up skipping:
Comic Con 2010: Big Bang Theory (Intro song by BNL) (Part 3) from CBS, good camera placement, got the whole stage.
Comic-Con 2010: Castle Panel (Reads form Heat Wave) (Pranks on set) (Embarassing moments on set) (Ryan and Esposito's relationship)

GenCon

Here are the videos I took while at GenCon.

Some videos that I show up in that were filmed by the people at Fear the Boot.

Fear the Boot: Gen Con 2010 Booter Dinner (Buca di Beppo) - Video #1

Fear the Boot: Gen Con 2010 Booter Dinner (Buca di Beppo)- Video #2

Fear the Boot: Gen Con 2010 Wing Night

Dan Runs Star Trek

Here is a search on YouTube for the Wil Wheaton Panel at GenCon.

D&D Preview Show from Gen Con from Dungeons & Dragons Podcast.
Dark Sun Seminar from Gen Con from Dungeons & Dragons Podcast.

Dragonflight
Played in some RPG game with some convention friends and played some new boardgames. Fun times.

See pictures here.

PAX

I got to be in a YouTube video that was shot at PAX with Paul and Storm, Molly Lewis, Wil Wheaton, Kim Evey, Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot and the 68 volunteers and PAX enforcers who showed up on a tweet.

I'm the one who took the bottle of water from Storm [0:28 - 1:12].

Click to watch.

Here was the basic idea (in video form):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGsqbpm7YZU

Behind the scenes pictures of the video being shot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/heathbar/sets/72157624750465359

Also check out the D&D podcast with the members of Acquisitions Incorporated that was done was at a panel durring PAX.

Update to the PAX video.

2010-09-11T07:44:00.000-07:00

The video is out as you can tell from the post. I'm the one who took the bottle of water from Storm [0:28 - 1:12]. Click to watch.

Also added a few more pictures to "PAX Video Project":

My Friday at PAX.

2010-09-03T22:57:00.000-07:00

It started at lunch, I checked twitter and fround a re-tweet of the following:

PaulandStorm Want to take part in a cool video project that
will take ~60 minutes of your time? Meet us at #PAX Bandland at 6 pm.

I got to the Bandland area before the time and ran across Storm (of Paul and Storm) and asked him what the video project was. I got a basic run down of what they whated to do. I said that sounded good and I will be there. He said that he would make me leader of some sort (with me be in the know of the project). We gathered at the place and others showed up.

Paul gave a speach (see the YouTube video for the speach):

At the count, there were over 60 people showed up to help.

I ended up being singled out to start the project. People were set up along the 2 and a half blocks from Paul and Storm's hotel. Me and two others were taken to the hotel. One was left just outside the hotel, one was left just outside the elevators on the first floor and there was me. I got to go to the hotel room and hang out for a little while it was worked out how this was start. It ended up starting with Storm handing the water bottle outside the room door, where I took it to the elevator where I rode it down to the lobby and handed it off to the person waiting down there. I was a little nervous, but I think it turn out fine.

Greg Benson from Mediocre Films shot the video on his Flip Video Camcorders in mostly on shot with a few pick up shots. From what I heard the video come out to be about 9 to 10 min long. After editing it my end up being shorter.

After my shot was over, I followed the action snapping some picture along the way, missing out on the final shots due to having to wait for the next elevator. I saw a little of what was filmed and it looked great. I can not wait to see it, for the the full final video and to see how my part came out.

This was one of the things that made the day great. I ended up meeting a friend from con past. We walked around for awhile and had some lunch. And after video project was over, I got to hang with a w00tstock friend I ran into along with Molly Lewis for a while along.

It was a great day with some great item purchased and great swag.

The time of ScoobyThulhu.

2010-08-09T14:53:00.000-07:00

ScoobyThulhu is a game of Scooby-Doo with some Cthulhu in it.

The game was played 10 Fear The Booters on Thursday night at 9pm (That would be Aug 5th at GenCon). I am not sure of the game system, it is a quick to build characters.

The game was great. Laughter was all about and we had a full cast with 5 guest star characters. I was able to snag a few of the characters after the game (see below).

Cast:

Freddie
Daphne
Gimmick: "But I'm so pretty.", +High Charisma, +Accidentally points out the hidden lever, -Dumb as a box of rocks, -Oblivious, Fatal Flaw: Damsel in distress
Velma
Shaggy
Scooby-Doo

The special guest stars:

Batman (I played him, I could have a little better.)
Gimmick: Utility Belt, +World Greatest Detective, +Fighting with sounds effects, -Can't stay out of trouble, -Target for Villains, Fatal Flaw: Over engineered traps
Don Rickles
Gimmick: Hilarious, +Knows everybody famous, +Devil's advocate, -Winded on stairs, -Knows everyone famous, Fatal Flaw: Unable to be killed; Diplomatic
Speed Buggy
Davy Jones
Vincent Price

See here for some info on other guest stars: http://scoobydoo.wikia.com/wiki/The_New_Scooby-Doo_Movies

Pictures taken durring the game:

More to tell or was in the game please comment on the is post.

The times of Then, Here and There.

2010-07-18T22:42:00.000-07:00

Its a busy year for conventions. Looking at 7 major/large conventions this year. The largest number for for me (so far).

Emerald City ComiCon
- I only went one day this year and with some great panels, I did not get all the time I would have like to look around. I will be doing the full three days next year.

Sakura-Con
- Three days of fun. I even got my tickets for next year.

PaizoCon
- Great SWAG bag. I did not get in on any of the games. Did sit in on a few of the seminars. Saturday was Free RPG Day and had a good game of D&D with a preview of the new Dark Sun setting. I will try it again next year and register early to get into a game or two.

Comic-Con International
- This is 3 days away with w00tstock the night of the first full day of the convention. The schedule has been reviewed and some plans have been put together (in my head) that I hope come to pass. Now I just need to finish packing.

Gen Con Indy
- This will be my first GenCon. Going with two friends for a first time all around. I have done my research on what to expect, but time will tell on how much fun will be had.

Dragonflight
- A local RPG convention with people I have played with in the past. The games they have listed look great, with the full weekend of playing games.

PAX
- I have my full weekend ticket already purchased (this year), with the passes now sold out. Looking forward to the geek bands and such for the conventions. With some good swag from what I picked up from PAX past.

This is one last trip planed this year. It would be to see my brother and his family over on the east coast some time mid-September around my birthday.

It has and will be a busy time. Fun times.

The time of the weekend.

2010-06-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

The weekend started after work on Fridays. Headed out for a meet up for some food. After the consumption of food, we went to the place of gaming. One of our group was not there and after arriving at the place one of the other player were not feeling to well and was not up to gaming, but was OK for boardgames. A boardgame night was not planned and we did not have a large choice, luckily there was a copy of Ticket To Ride available. Fun was had and I came in 2nd with 132 points with a good end game scoring, but lost out to Norm, who scored 153 with some good passenger scoring.

Saturday was here and I headed over to PaizoCon. Picked up the swag bag that you get with the convention. Score. The bag had 3 books, 2 modules, a magazine, a minature, a game map and a game aid. With not being able to getting preregistered for any of the games, I checked out a few of the seminar. With a break from PaizoCon, I headed over to Dragon's Lair (in Bellevue) for Free RPG Day. I had wanted to pick a free game they had available and ended up signing up for a D&D 4th ed game of the module they had free for Free RPG Day, Bloodsand Arena (a Dark Sun game). Fun was had and after the game (with a roll off of 17) I was given Tomb of Horrors (the D&D 4th ed update of the original module). I was informed by the Wizard GM that ran our game, that the module is not being sold and is only given away as a prize by Wizards. Score.

Sunday. I sat in on a few more seminar and called it a day.

That was my weekend.

w00tstock 2.x poster on the wall

2010-06-05T21:04:00.000-07:00

The poster has been framed. With the odd size, it took some work to get this done. Found a oversized frame that I knew it would in and got a custom cut mat. I did not know that there were so many different blacks and textures for a mat. With the mat, frame and poster now together, it has found a home on my wall. The good news is that it did not cost a arm and a leg to get framed. It cost around $38.00 for this frame job. A lot better than than the quote of $70 for a total custom frame job.

Boardgame Night with Arkham Horror

2010-06-05T20:45:00.000-07:00

With a group of four (two people down from our normal RPG night group) we played our first game of Arkham Horror. We played it for about 3 hours and got about over the half way point before we called it a night. For a first game I think it went well. There was a lot of rules review, but with the next game, it will go a lot smoother the next time.

Not a short game. The box says 2 to 4 hours and it was more for a first game.

With this being the first time I have played it, I would give it a 7 out of 10. It had a feel of a RPG, like we normaly play.

The night called w00tstock 2.0

2010-05-11T23:26:00.000-07:00

The quick run down of Friday, the day of w00tstock 2.0 in Seattle.

Boardgame night was canceled early Friday. Checked to see if tickets were available. Yes! They were. Got directions to The Moore. Waited for work to end. Went home for a while. Headed to Seattle from Bellevue. Sat in traffic. Sat in more traffic. Found a parking spot right across the streen from The Moore. Got my ticket, which was a balcony seat. Waited for the show to begin. My seat was in a great location. Great view of the stage and the sound was no problem. Took a fair amount of video and pictures. Almost killed the battery and maxed out the memory in my camera. Got some great shots.

See my pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/heathbar/sets/72157623894528639/
And my videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/White425

Great show! It was last minute and fun as hell (well, if hell can be fun, if it snowed maybe.)

Also check the post below post for some of the videos that was played at w00tstock.

Videos of w00tstock 2.0

2010-05-09T21:43:00.000-07:00

Found the videos that were shown at w00tstock 2.0 in Seattle and posted them here in one place.

Also found the musical interludes that were included in the show over at Phaser Rock.

My new minicards.

2010-04-25T20:22:00.000-07:00

Ordered a set of 100 minicards with my contact info to hand out to people that I meet up with at conventions and such.

For the info side there is a drawing of myself on the left side, my name, email and other links on the right.

2x Location shots (New York and Seattle shot I took)
2x Paintball shots (ones that I really liked, that took a while ago)
2x Costume shots (single person shot with a great costume)
2x RPG related shots (two that fit nicely in the frame)
2x Gaming related shot (with the click shot it had the grouping and layers; with the Apples to Apples, it was a my winning hand that I snaped a shot of)

Found 10 pictures that would fit in the 1.1 in x 2.76in frame.

MiniCards by MOO USA
us.moo.com/en/products/minicards.php

My time at Sakura-Con 2010

2010-04-07T22:05:00.000-07:00

Day 0 (Thursday)
After work, me and Rich headed over to the Washington State Convention Center to pick up our badges for the convention that started the following day. After dealing with some trafic and a quick line, the badge was in my hand. Next was for Rich to set up his art in the art show. With that set up, we got a bite to eat at the Subway outside the convention. Home we went to rest up for the next day.

Day 1 (Friday)
With the dear's room not opening till noon, we had a lazy morning. We made good time and got there before the dealer room opened. Rich was not able to get a Artest Alley table, but was able to split a table in the dealer's room. With a borrowed exhibitor badge I was able to get in before the others and help Rich with a quick set up at his table. With the doors open I was free to look around. After once around the dealer's room, I headed off to a pannel and then watch some anime where I rested my tired feet. I had brought my Pokewalker to keep track of the steps durring the convention, I had noticed a good number of people had the same idea. With moving the Pokewalker from my belt to the lanyard I was using with my badge. With that move I had a good number of people come up and do the friend connect.

Day 2 (Saturday)
With this being main day of the convention, we headed off earlier from the day before. The dealer's room was already open when we got there. I did my walk thru for another look around to find some thing that I may or may not know I am looking for. One item that was found was at the Ninja-Bot booth was a free Level 5 Mudkip with some great Battle Moves. I also got a chance to look around the Artest Alley and picked up some Iron Man and anime postcard art.

Day 3 (Sunday)
The final day with a lot of walking around the dealer's room and around the convention center for the final rounds of looking and snapping some pix of the people in costume. I also paid for next years Sakura-Con for a low cost of $30. When the 6pm time frame came, the convention end and closed. With the exhibitor badge I was able to stick around for a while. We got some food and did a final walk thru of the empty dealer's room (which was not the dealer room any more). It made me a little sad that the convention was over for the year. :-(

With the Pokewalker I kept records of the stats:
Day 0: 02291 steps
Day 1: 08659 steps, ~13 friend connects
Day 2: 09572 steps, 30 friend connects
Day 3: 11930 steps, ~29 friend connects

For totals, if you keep in mind that 2000 steps = 1 mile, I walked over 16 miles with over 70 friend connection during Sakura-Con.

Check out all the pictures I took during the conventure.

My day at Emerald City ComiCon

2010-03-18T13:41:00.000-07:00

The day started with waiting for my car pool pick up. We got there a little before 10am. I had preordered and just walked up to the badge pickup window and got my badge. I spotted the DC booth was near the door with that was starting to get a little long. I got in the line for the freebies. While I was waiting for the line to move I spotted Shannon and Matt from the Seattle Geekly Podcast. After my grab of comics and such, I started to head over to the media guests area when I spotted the Kirby Krackle booth where I picked up heir new album, E for Everyone. I continued on my way to nice sized line for Wil Wheaton, where I waited for a while till it was my turn. He commented on the shirt I was wearing, the How We Roll shirt, which was a highlight of the day. I picked up the Memories of the Future book, which he signed along with a picture I took of him last year. I also got another picture of him with the picture he sign. I had a idea that will take some time to complete. Like this shirt Wil had on Sunday, when Wil is in Seattle again (ether PAX 2010 or Emerald City ComiCon 2011), I will get another picture of Wil holding this year's picture to have a picture of a picture of a picture in it. That the plan anyways. After meeting Wil there was still some time before his panel started, I decided to play it safe and find a good seat for the Wil Wheaton Awesome Hour. The panel was great, I had heard the story before, but it great to hear it live by the person who wrote it. With me staying in my seat, the next panel to begin was Spotlight on Leonard Nimoy. I have not been to a panel with him and it was a great one to start with. I found out a few things about him I did not know of before. With me in the same seat, the next panel to begin was Spotlight on Stan Lee. It was great to hear him again. After these panels I had about three hours to look around the convention floor. I one stop I needed to make was to pick up the 3rd Season of The Guild signed by Sandeep Parikh, Jeff Lewis and Robin Thorsen. I continued to look around, found some item I wanted to but, but held off till I get a good look around. I found for something I was not actively looking for, D&D Miniatures. I sent the last of the cash I brought with me on 22 figures. The price was good, but had a weird way of determining the cost of the figure. It was higher if the figure could be used a playable character. The convention closed their doors at 6pm, but there one last thing to do. Down on the first floor we has a Seattle Geekly Meetup which total of 22 people showing up along with Larry Nemecek and the hosts, Shannon and Matt. Had a great time and won a Star Trek: U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (Battle Damaged with DIECAST metal with Display stand) by answering what alien had yellow blood. A few wrong answers were given, and gave the only other alien I could come up with. A ferengi. After this I got some food with some friends and then headed home.

This year I only went one day and I did not have the time to hit all the booth I would have like to. Next year they changed from a two day, to a three day convention and I will be doing the full three day. I only had the cash on me to spend. Next year I will bring more money to spend.

It was a great convention with some great panels. This was a great start to the convention season.

See all the pictures I took here at Flickr.

My Swag and Loot from Emerald City Comicon
(Click on the pictures for the labled items.)

We need a name.

2010-02-04T17:31:00.000-08:00

That was the question I email to the group, that our character's group need a good name to be called instead of Mumble Mumble Mumble. Here the names we have come up with so far.

The Players:

Drifters
Crafters
The A-Team
Prowlers
Rangers
The Squad
The Patrol
The Worthy
The Five Aces
The Strike Team
Hey Youse
The Motley Crew (I still like it, although spelled this way so as not to be you know)
Situation Unique
One of a Kind Adventurers
Them Weird People
Those Who Do
Wha-Who-Hunh?
Rotto-Rooter
Power Rangers
Nut Crackers
Group 42 (the answer to any problem)
Devastators
Equalizers
Demolition Squad
Veneniferous Team
Vorpal Squad

The GM:

Plot Fodder
GM's Bi*ches
Railroad Runaways
The Fab Five

Here is my game blog for my character with links on the right for the other character's blogs:

http://gamesandgadgets.org/theblogs/kross/

02/04/10 - updated some more name that were email to the group today.

Football Joke

2010-02-04T17:04:00.000-08:00

Football FINALLY makes sense..........
A guy took his blonde girlfriend to her first football game. They had great seats right behind their team's bench. After the game, he asked her how she liked the experience.

'Oh, I really liked it,' she replied, 'especially the tight pants and all the big muscles, but I just couldn't understand why they were killing each other over 25 cents.'
Dumbfounded, her date asked, 'What do you mean?'
'Well, they flipped a coin, one team got it and then for the rest of the game, all they kept screaming was:
'Get the quarterback! Get the quarterback!' I'm like...Helloooooo?
It's only 25 cents!!!!

The Forgotten

2010-02-03T17:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday at work near the end of the day, I had a question on a address on a order I was processing and needed my supervisor to sign off on it to complete it. I walk over to her desk, she is working and ask her to have a look at the item I have on my computer screen. I got a standard answer of a few minutes (she was busy). I give her a few minutes, she get up, locks her computer and walks off in the other direction. In my mind I go WTF. I find another available supervisor and get what I needed answered.

Two hours later after I am home watching TV, I get the following text message:

Omg Heath I just remembered I needed to go over your desk!! I'm soooo sorry I completely forgot!! So busy today!!

Followed up with:

Please accept my apologies!!

I followed up with:

Sure. The problem was solved. C U tomorrow same
time. Same place.

Three is the number.

2010-02-01T18:28:00.000-08:00

Last week prereg opened up for Gen Con. I have my badge ordered, along with two friends. A room was booked a few weeks back and has been used to judge with what can be found thru the Gen Con Hotel booking links. So far that what we booked before is the best. Two queen beds, a fold out couch, a mini fridge, free WiFi and a free continental breakfast. For the location, it is about a mile or two away.

At this time we have 3 people confirmed and a maybe from a moved away friend that I have left a message on Facebook about this trip. At this time there are 184 days left to Gen Con, the first I have been to. From different podcasts, I have heard many stories and interviews of the good times that have been had and I look forward to that time. Its is going to be a busy time. About a week before there is Comic-Con, which I am going to with a friend from work and a friend of his, like we have for the past few years. The week after Gen Con is Dragonflight, a local RPG convention for the Seattle area.

Plans are being made to make the good times roll in. The time ahead look good. See you there.

Links and Info found.

2010-01-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

Dark Tower
http://www.hotflashgames.com/darktower.htm
A classic board game found online.

Star Frontiers
http://www.starfrontiers.com/rules/
PDFs of the classic game from TSR.

Perfect Fit Buttons as seen on TV
https://www.buyperfectfitbutton.com/
Looks like a good idea.

The Unwritten (Comic)
http://www.dccomics.com/vertigo/comics/?cm=13677
Looks like a good story with some of the review I have heard.

Water Joe (caffeinated water)
http://www.waterjoe.com/main.html
I have heard of this product some time ago and just came up in a search. Water with caffeine.

The first post of the new year.

2010-01-05T16:51:00.000-08:00

Looking over what I posted last year as compared to the year before, the number have gone down a lot. In 2008 I made 102 posts and in 2009 I made 28 posts. If I had to point a finger of blame, I would point to Twitter for that. Its micro bloging made easy. At this point I have 1,444 post or tweets as they like to be called.

Another look back to the books I have read, in 2009 I read 37 books as compared to the 32 books I read in 2008. I had set a goal to read more than the year before (not counting comic book) and have meet the goal for the last two years. Check out my profile over at Goodreads, a great site for those people who are reader of books and such. Sign up if you dare.

There are plans to attend to two big Cons this year. The first would be San Diego Comic-Con for the full time with a few friends from work. This will be my 4th year going. The second one would be Gen Con (two week after Comic-Con). This years' Gen Con would be my first time going. With the Pod Casts, Twitting and blog post from the last year I had wanted to go at least once (maybe more) for some time. Luckly my friend Norm had the same idea and wants to go too. A hotel room has been books for the time frame. The number of people the are positive at this time only number two, I am hoping more. In our game group there are at least 2 maybe at this time and also another maybe from a old gaming buddy (that had move away a while back).

And last but not the last, I have found or been point to some great geekie music (as seen in the below links):

Kirby Krackle
MC Frontalot
Jonathan Coulton
Lemon Deamon
Garfunkle & Oates

To my Secret Santa

2009-12-05T16:26:00.000-08:00

Our family is doing a Secret Santa again this year, I got ****** for my Secret Santa. My brother and his family will be down to Seattle early January, which we celebrate the holidays. Here is the email that was sent out to the family.

----

I've been very good this year. Here are some things that I'd like. Sorry this took a while to compile.

Arkham Horror (board game) ~$60.00
http://www.amazon.com/Arkham-Horror-VA09/dp/1589942108/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1259893332&sr=8-2-fkmr1
(can be found local at Uncles Games at Crossroads)

MC Frontalot CDs/MP3
http://frontalot.com/
1. Final Boss
2. Secrets From The Future
3. Nerdcore Rising
(The albums can be downloaded from the site above and then can be burned on a CD, save some money for more gifts or a iTune gift card can be given.)

Dawn of Discovery on the DS (Game System) (form Best Buy for a local location)

Memories of the Future - Volume 1 by Wil Wheaton ($19.87)
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/memories-of-the-future---volume-1/7742853

Sauder #190752 Cherry 2 Shelf Bookcase by SAUDER (~$30.00)
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=042666015653
(in the Seattle area, found it at Fred Meyers. UPC 042666015653)

JCPenney gift card for some new stuff to put on.

X-Shaped Rubber Bands (2 boxes) $(not much)
http://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/ProductDisplay_X-Shaped%20Rubber%20Bands_10451_10001_16698

Does not match the post.

2009-10-21T22:48:00.000-07:00

For my Character Game Blog for the Hero System RPG, I had made the following post a few weeks ago:

Spent XP

Used 6 XP on some new Area Knowledge of the Westerlands, Far Westerlands and North Mitharia.

. . . and from the post I got the 3 following comments:

Thank you! You often write very interesting articles. You improved my mood.

Very interesting and amusing subject. I read with great pleasure.

Valuable thoughts and advices. I read your topic with great interest.

There were SPAM link with the comments (which I have not posted here).

I found it funny what was entered did not match the simple post I did. It like the poster did not ever read the post.

The SPAM has been deleted and is never to be heard from again.

x

Pen and Paper Games Get-Together

2009-10-10T16:26:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday at 2pm was the Pen and Paper Games 3rd Anniversary Get-Together at Games & Gizmos in Redmond. I got there about 2 and a D&D 4th Ed Forgotten Realms game was about to begin.It was a 1st level test game for WotC. Characters were provided, but some people had some 1st level character made up. One character of note was a Drow Assassin called "The Darkness". Of course the joke, "I shoot at The Darkness", came up a few time. The game was fun. For a test game it was ok. Some of the plot points and skill challenges need a little work.

There was pizza & cake provided and a meeting of other gamers.

Some spots opened on another D&D 4th Ed game for the 2nd part of the game. This time 4th Level characters were provided. It was another fun game. My character was only knocked out 3 to 4 time and once rolled a 20 vs Death, which allowed me to use a healing serge. For the big bad guy, I was able to land the final blow to end the game. Yea!

It was a fun day. I look foward to next year's get together.

Check out the pictures from the even I took.

www.flickr.com

heath_bar's Pen and Paper Games Get-Together photoset

Search and Find

2009-09-16T21:07:00.000-07:00

Small version picture listed here for reference,
the larger one has been removed.

Here is the message that turned up on the above picture:

Hi Heath_bar,

I am the girl dressed up as Aeon Flux whose picture you have used without permission. I am asking that you PLEASE remove my image here. I was shocked to find that when a Google Image search is conducted using "Aeon Flux" and "comic con" or "costume", the results link to a photo of me. For the rest of my life, I will remember my attendance and dress at this convention as one of my most shameful moments.

I am a young professional, not a model or entertainer of any sort. I am certainly not someone who seeks profit through using my image and believe it or not, it was not my plan to seek major media exposure when I wore this outfit to Comic Con. I had no idea what I was getting myself into at the time. Following the convention, a popular cosplay website asked to use my image, and I respectfully declined. I did not want my image splayed across any website, no matter what type of exposure.

I hope that you appreciate my late yet legitimate wariness. I have a mild online presence and have already been subjected to cyberstalking, having my image posted on pornographic websites, and other questionable net practices as a result of my naive costuming. I trust that you will do the right thing, and respect my wishes by removing my image.

Thank you very much for your time and understanding, from one Aeon Flux fan to another.

A few notes about the above message. One I dislike is being told what I can and can not do. I took the picture in a public place and the person made a choice to dress in the costume. If the request was of just a note to take it down, I would have deleted the message and kept the picture. But due the story and asking it it be removed, I put in a filler picture to keep the spot and the stats of the picture. The story could be just that, a story, but it sounded like the truth (well mostly). For this post I have a small version of the picture (with a basic name) to go with the story. See below for the filler and the direct link (if you want to click on it).

Birthday List

2009-09-03T21:42:00.000-07:00

My Birthday list for the year 2009.

HERO System 6th Edition: Character Creation $39.99
https://www.herogames.com/viewItem.htm?itemID=240410

Mort by Terry Pratchett (Book)
Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett (Book)

Wraith Recon by Mongoose Publishing $34.99
http://paizo.com/store/games/roleplayingGames/d/4E/mongoose/v5748btpy83wz

Hunter X Hunter, Vol. 3 (2009) DVD ~$39.99

Gift Card from Best Buy or Half Price Books

The August Post

2009-08-31T23:34:00.000-07:00

With posting on twitter, I have not posted as I once posted. For the blog I going to recap the basics of last month.

With Dragonflight, I had some great fun. Played a hand full of RPG games, some with Norm and others that played with at past conventions.
Got some nice freebies, picked up a few good deals on some RPG books and filled out on some D&D minis.

Check out the pictures I took at Dragonflight here.

With Comic-Con 2009 over for this year, I am still working on going thur the all the pictures I took. I have uploaded all the pictures from the main floor, the stars that had a booth or were in the autograph area and one of panels I went to. I still have a good number panels shots to review and upload. I should have those up soon.
Check out the Comic-Con Set link here for what I have uploaded so far and check back later for the other picture once I upload them.

Also this month we got some more play time in our newly started Hero System game. We now have 5 games under our belt.

Check out my character blog: http://gamesandgadgets.org/theblogs/kross/

The last note was that my brother has move out of the New York area to live in a house in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. The move is complete and they get to play whats in the box.

My time at Comic-Con.

2009-08-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

From the blog post on Ninja Robot Dinosaur, I would like to answer some items from my time at Comic-Con.

Top 5 Things to Remember at Comic-Con:

"Buy water and food at a grocery store, not on the floor (it’s expensive and sucks)"

I mostly planed ahead for the time at the convention. Knowing that in most cases that I would be in a panel during lunch. I packed some energy bars and a few snacks for those time. For water, I also brought the On The Go packets and a resealable 16.5 oz container that I filled in the morning or a free water source during the convention. I did check the prices and they were high. I only got one food item at the convention.

"Line-ups and crowds are a fact of life at Comic-Con. Going to comic-con and complaining about line-ups is like going on a cruise and complaining about water."

From what I recall, there were only three time I just walked into a panel. Two of those time the panel was a off main stream topic and the third was half way thru the panel that was mostly full. The other times there was a line. The kind of line that was long, that stopped/started and took some time to go thru (the longest I recall was between a 1 to 2 hr wait to get in. Most of of the panels I wanted to see were in the same room, mostly right after another panel I wanted to see. Once in the room I would stay there. The main area of the convention floor (ie Fox, Marvel, DC booths) were crouded and took some pushing to go thru. Same thing with for the swag. There was always a line for the large bag for the Fox booth. Also some of the booths had autographs with some of the stars, you should see the lines for thoes times. Fact of life for Comic-Con, there will be lines. Have fun, talk to the people next to you, people watch, read a book or play your DS.

"99% of pros at Comic-Con are normal people – don’t be afraid to say hi (the remaining 1% are total nutters though – be afraid, very afraid.)"

The few I talk to were normal and I am glad I did not run into the 1%.

"Don’t be distracted by 50% discount bins – Did you spend over $2000 on flights, hotels and food to save a few hundred dollars on graphic novels?"

I did keep a eye out for some good deals or special items. On the last day I did get 50% off a Doctor Who t-shirt and a good deal on 2 graphic novels. I did not buy much, about half dozen items. But I did come back some good swag.

Comic-Con is Over.

2009-07-27T15:03:00.000-07:00

I got back home (Bellevue, WA) last night. Took it easy and watched some TV. I have the next two day off to relax and reflect on Comic-Con. Currently I am going thru my swag and loot I came back with and next I will be going thru the pictures I took.

Now for the numbers.

By my count I took 931 pictures. More than half are shots of the panels. The others are stuff at the con, costume shots and other things.

I made it to 15 panels.

I missed, did not go or could not get in for 9 panels.

For 2 of the panels I get in half way thru or left half way thru the panel.

Time was not wasted, I was ether standing in line for a panel or down on the convention floor walking around picking up swag or looking around.

Will post a few other posts about Comic-Con. I will be working on sorting thru the pictures I took to upload them to flickr.

Check out my twitter post during the convention here.

What to do at ComicCon 2009

2009-07-12T19:38:00.000-07:00

Below is a list of what looked good to me with some overlap of panels for full rooms and below this is the description of the panels as they show on the Comic-Con web site.

Wednesday, July 22

6:00-9:00 Special Sneak Peek Pilot Screenings— Comic-Con and Warner Bros. Television proudly present exclusive pilot premiere screenings of some of the most buzzed-about new TV series of the 2009–2010 season—Human Target, V, and The Vampire Diaries—as well as an exclusive preview trailer for additional upcoming shows.
Ballroom 20

Thursday, July 23

12:45-1:45 Disney: Stan Lee's Time Jumper— Don't miss Stan Lee and Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment as they present a special sneak peek of their new digital motion comic series Time Jumper. Comic book legend Stan Lee is joined by Natasha Henstridge (one of the character voices in Time Jumper), Omar Ponce (writer), and Anthony Diecidue (artist) for a Q&A session.
Room 6BCF

1:30-2:30 LEGO Star Wars Visual Dictionary— Ten years ago in a galaxy not far away LEGO and Star Wars came together! Find out how such an amazing partnership was formed from Jonathan Rinzler (executive editor, Lucasfilm) and Rob Johnson (art director, The LEGO Group), while Simon Beecroft (author and publishing manager, DK Publishing) doles out all sorts of information on the upcoming LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary. Collectors and fans won't want to miss the unveiling of the exclusive LEGO Star Wars minifigure that will be released with the book on October 10. The first 50 attendees will receive DK swag and be entered to win a LEGO Star Wars set and a free copy of LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary
Room 8

2:30-3:30 DVD/Blu-ray Producers 2009: Now in Glorious High-Definition!— Bill Hunt, Adam Jahnke, and Todd Doogan (of The Digital Bits.com), talk about the latest DVD and Blu-ray developments with some of the leading special-edition producers in Hollywood! Panelists include Robert Meyer Burnett (The Hills Run Red, Free Enterprise: The Wrath of Shatner), Laura Gross (Coraline, 9), Charles de Lauzirika (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Ridley Scott's Robin Hood), David Naylor (Fringe, Bad Lieutenant), and Cliff Stephenson (Crank 2: High Voltage, Gamer). You can expect inside talk, a Q&A, and a sneak peek at great upcoming discs!
Room 7AB

2:30-3:30 USA Network's Burn Notice— Bruce Campbell (Sam Axe), Matt Nix (creator and executive producer) and Alfredo Barrios, Jr. (co-executive producer) host a panel discussion and answer questions about the creative process of evolving an embryonic idea into a finished episode of cable's #1 hit show. Fans will gain an intimate look inside the world of Burn Notice, complete with war stories from the writer's room and filming on location in Miami. Exclusive video content will include tips on how to survive Comic-Con from your favorite burned spy, Michael Westen (played by Jeffrey Donovan), highlights from the previous two seasons, and an exclusive sneak peek at future season 3 episodes, including the half-season finale and beyond.
Ballroom 20

3:00-4:00 Robot Chicken with Titan Maximum— Seth Green (co-creator, Robot Chicken and Titan Maximum), Matthew Senreich (co-creator, Robot Chicken and Titan Maximum), Tom Root (head writer, Robot Chicken/co-creator, Titan Maximum) and Doug Goldstein (head writer, Robot Chicken) with Chris McKay, Breckin Meyer, Kevin Shinick, Mike Fasolo, and Dan Milano discuss the popular Adult Swim series Robot Chicken. They will also discuss the upcoming new stop-motion animated series Titan Maximum,Keith Crofford, vice president of Adult Swim production.
Room 6A

4:15-5:15 Cartoon Network: Chowder! The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack! Adventure Time with Finn and Jake!— This panel celebrates three of the best comedies from Cartoon Network Studios. First up is a sweet treat with Chowder, including special guests C. H. Greenblatt (creator) and Tara Strong (voice of Truffles). Then set sail with The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack and creator Thurop Van Orman (voice of Flapjack) and Steve Little (writer, voice of fan favorite Dr. Barber). Finally, hold onto your seats for a sneak peek of the new series Adventure Time with Finn and Jake with creator Pendelton Ward. It's algebraic!
Room 6A

4:30-5:15 Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus— Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of both Comic-Con and Monty Python, we welcome the sole American Python, the great animator and director Terry Gilliam (Time Bandits, Brazil, 12 Monkeys) to introduce you to his new film starring Christopher Plummer, Johnny Depp, Heath Ledger, Colin Farrell, Jude Law, Verne Troyer, Tom Waits, and Lily Cole. Dr. Parnassus is a fabulous anachronism, touring the streets of modern-day London in a horse-drawn carnival wagon accompanied by his beautiful daughter, devoted dwarf, and neophyte barker. On stage Parnassus plays a holy man whose Imaginarium can realize the innermost fantasies of all who dare to enter. Backstage, he is a drunkard, a gambler who centuries ago lost a wager with the Devil and must now pony up with his daughter once she turns sixteen. Tomorrow. Yet, there may still be hope for the Doctor and Valentina in the person of Tony, a well-dressed amnesic they rescue from a perilous fate and invite into their world of unrelenting magic and possibility.
Hall H

upon its release. slated to premiere on Adult Swim this fall. Join this meet-up of show creators, writers and voice actors for a Q&A, moderated by Nighttime Programs
8:00-10:00 Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog— The California Browncoats host a screening of the original three acts, followed immediately by Commentary! The Musical. See why Joss Whedon's (Dollhouse, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) first foray into webisodic "television" was the talk of the town with critics and fans alike in 2008. Be prepared for a night of singing and surprises hosted by the fans who know what you like best. Dr. Horrible stars Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother), Nathan Fillion (Castle, Firefly), and Felicia Day (The Guild) and is written by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon (Dollhouse), Zack Whedon (Fringe), and Maurissa Tancharoen (Dollhouse). Room 6A

Friday, July 24

10:15-11:15 Farscape 10th Anniversary Panel— Brian Henson (executive producer/ director), Rockne O'Bannon (creator/writer), Ben Browder (John Crichton) and Claudia Black (Aeryn Sun) reunite to celebrate the beginning of this landmark series, share exciting news, and answer questions
Room 6BCF

10:30-11:30 Stargate Universe— A new chapter of the Stargate saga begins with the Syfy original series Stargate Universe. Stars Robert Carlyle (Dr. Nicholas Rush), Brian J. Smith (1st Lt. Matthew Scott), Elyse Levesque (Chloe Armstrong), David Blue (Eli Wallace), Alaina Huffman (1st Lt. Tamara Johansen), Jamil Walker Smith (Master Sergeant Ronald Greer), and Ming-Na (Camile Wray) join series co-creators Brad Wright and Robert Cooper to take you through a gate you've never seen before.
Ballroom 20

1:00-2:00 The Big Bang Theory Screening and Q&A— Bazinga! Your favorite scientists and girl-next-door are back as The Big Bang Theory returns to Comic-Con with a special screening and Q&A with the show's creators and stars. Come chat with executive producers Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Men) and Bill Prady (Dharma & Greg), as well as series stars Johnny Galecki (Roseanne), Jim Parsons (Garden State), Kaley Cuoco (Charmed), Simon Helberg (Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog), and Kunal Nayyar (NCIS). From Chuck Lorre Productions, Inc. in association with Warner Bros. Television, The Big Bang Theory airs Mondays at 9:30 PM ET/PT on the CBS Television Network. The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Second Season is released on DVD September 15.
Ballroom 20

3:00-3:45 Bones— Showrunner Hart Hanson and stars David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel are on hand for a discussion of what's on deck for Booth and Brennan, hot on the heels of this year's much talked-about season finale in which the pair finally wound up between the sheets.
Ballroom 20

3:15-4:15 Eureka— Eureka is back this summer with all new episodes, and Salli Richardson-Whitfield (Allison Blake), Erica Cerra (Jo Lupo), Neil Grayston (Douglas Fargo), and Jaime Paglia (executive producer/co-creator) are stopping by to let you in on the fun. Moderated by Josh Gates (Destination Truth).
Room 6BCF

4:00-5:15 Dollhouse— Join Dollhouse creator Joss Whedon and star/producer Eliza Dushku for a no-holds-barred Q & A about what they have planned for season 2, after they unveil a special screening of the never-before-seen "Epitaph One" episode of the Fox hit, which releases on DVD just four days later.
Ballroom 20

4:30-5:30 Buck Rogers 80th Anniversary— Hermes Press celebrates Buck Rogers' 80th anniversary with a panel presenting guests discussing Buck Rogers in print, on television, and in film, including plans for a new movie. Join Flint Dille (Transformers), Daniel HermanNick Barrucci (Dynamite publisher), actors Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers from Buck Rogers) and Erin Gray (Wilma Deering from Buck Rogers), and author Chris Irving (From Four Color to Silver Screen: The History of Superhero Movie Serials) for a discussion and Q&A.
Room 4

5:45-7:15 DC Universe Animated Super Powers: Green Lantern: First Flight and Superman/Batman: Public Enemies— Get the inside scoop on the next two action-packed entries in the popular series of DC Universe animated original PG-13 films, Green Lantern: First Flight and Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. Hal Jordan's first full-length adventure, Green Lantern: First Flight, brings together executive producer Bruce Timm (Superman Doomsday), casting/dialogue director Andrea Romano (DC Universe films), director Lauren Montgomery (Wonder Woman), writer Alan Burnett (The Batman), and voice talent Christopher Meloni (Law & Order: SVU) and Juliet Landau (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) to discuss and show film clips from the all-new film set for release on July 28. Then, Timm and Romano will be joined by supervising producer Michael Goguen (Justice League: The New Frontier), director Sam Liu (The Batman), and writer Stan Berkowitz (Justice League: The New Frontier), for the first-ever footage and public discussion of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. Kevin Conroy, the undisputed benchmark voice of Batman, joins the panel for his first Comic-Con appearance in six years! Based on the popular Jeff Loeb/Ed McGuinness comic series/graphic novel, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies finds U.S. President Lex Luthor using the oncoming trajectory of a kryptonite asteroid to frame Superman and declare a $1 billion bounty on the heads of the Man of Steel and his "partner in crime," Batman. Superheroes and supervillains alike launch a relentless pursuit of Superman and Batman, who must unite—and recruit super help—to stave off the action-packed onslaught, stop the asteroid, and uncover Luthor's devious plot to take command of far more than North America. Superman/Batman: Public Enemies will be distributed by Warner Home Video in fall 2009. The movie reunites the lead voices from the landmark Superman: The Animated Series and Batman: The Animated Series—Conroy, Tim Daly (Private Practice) and Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption) reprise their roles as Batman, Superman and Lex Luthor, respectively. Other members of the cast are expected to join the panel, as well. DC Comics senior VP of creative affairs Gregory Noveck moderates.
Room 6BCF

Nighttime Programs
8:30-10:30 Syfy Screening— Warehouse 13 and Eureka air every week on Syfy, but only Comic Con fans can see them on the big screen. Join Syfy for an exclusive screening of the next all new episodes of the summer's two hottest series along with best of clips from Ghost Hunters.
Room 6DE

(Hermes Press publisher), Saturday, July 25

10:00-11:00 Chuck Screening and Q&A— Chuck returns to Comic-Con! executive producers and co-creators Josh Schwartz (Gossip Girl) and Chris Fedak are joined by series stars Zachary Levi (upcoming Alvin and the Chipmunks ), Yvonne Strahovski (upcoming I Love You Too), Joshua Gomez (Without a Trace), Ryan McPartlin (Super Capers), Mark Christopher Lawrence ( The Pursuit of Happyness ), Vik Sahay ( This Is Wonderland ) , Scott Krinsky ( The O.C. ), Sarah Lancaster ( Everwood ) , and Adam Baldwin (Serenity) for a Q&A to discuss season three and screen an exclusive retrospective highlight reel. Plus, don't miss a special surprise from some of your favorite characters! Produced by College Hill Pictures, Wonderland Sound and Vision in association with Warner Bros. Television, Chuck airs Mondays at 8:00 PM ET/PT on NBC.
Ballroom 20

11:15-12:00 Family Guy— Seth MacFarlane and the brilliant creative minds behind Family Guy present a raucous discussion of what goes on behind the scenes of TV's most subversive animated hit. They'll also be offering a not-to-be-missed sneak peek at "Something, Something Dark Side," the Empire Strikes Back parody follow-up to Star Wars: Blue Harvest. Giggity!
Ballroom 20

12:00-1:00 The Cleveland Show!— Comic-Con fans will get the first look at The Cleveland Show, the wickedly funny new spinoff from Family Guy starring America's favorite beleaguered animated African American, Cleveland Brown. Co-creators Seth MacFarlane, Mike Henry, and Rich Appel and voice castmembers Sana'a Lathan and Kevin Michael Richardson
Ballroom 20

1:00-1:45 Futurama: Life or Death?!— Be a part of sci-fi history! Join executive producers Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, and stars Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, and Maurice LaMarche for high-stakes thrills as a top-ranking FOX executive decides live, on stage, whether Futurama will make yet another triumphant return or whether it is gone forever! The very fate of Futurama hangs in the balance! Paramedics will be standing by in case the intense excitement causes any panelists to collapse. Raucous celebration or abject despair to follow the news.
Ballroom 20

1:45-2:30 The Simpsons— Now entering its record-breaking 21st season on the air, The Simpsons is the longest-running series in the history of American television and a household name around the world. Get a behind-the-scenes look at what's coming up in the Simpsonverse, including never-before-seen highlights from the upcoming "Treehouse of Horror XX," with a panel including Simpsons creator Matt Groening, showrunner Al Jean, executive producer Matt Selman, and supervising director Mike Anderson.
Ballroom 20

2:45-3:45 V Pilot Screening and Q&A— Already one of the most talked-about new series of the upcoming television season, catch a special screening of the pilot episode of V, a re-imagining of the groundbreaking miniseries, followed by a Q&A with stars Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost), Morris Chestnut (The Cave), Joel Gretsch (The 4400), Morena Baccarin(Firefly), and Scott Wolf (Go), along with executive producers Scott Peters (The 4400), Jeffrey BellAlias), Steve Pearlman (Related) and Jace Hall (Chadam). From HDFilms in association with Warner Bros. Television, V will premiere midseason on the ABC Television Network.
Ballroom 20

4:00-5:00 Fringe Screening and Q&A— Fringe cast members Anna Torv (upcoming The Pacific), Josh Jackson (Shutter), and John Noble (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) appear with consulting producers Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) and executive producers Jeff Pinkner (Lost) and J. H. Wyman (Keen Eddie) for a Q&A with fans and an exclusive video presentation. Join the discussion of this critically acclaimed thriller, which explores the ever-blurring line between science fiction and reality, where hybrid monsters tear through sewers, thieves walk through walls and portals open to worlds unknown. From Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, Fringe airs Thursdays at 9:00 PM ET/PT this fall on FOX, premiering September 17. Fringe: The Complete First Season will be released on DVD and Blu-ray Hi Def September 8.
Ballroom 20

Nighttime Programs
7:15-8:15 Myth Busters Q&A and Sneak Peeks— The series called "the best science program on television" by the New York Times returns for its second year at Comic-Con. Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage are joined by Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara to discuss their offbeat series that uses science to determine the truth behind urban legends. Adam, Jamie, Grant and Tory will answer questions and share behind-the-scenes stories and showcase world premiere sneak peeks of upcoming myths. MythBusters airs Wednesdays at 9:00 PM E/P on Discovery Channel.
Room 6BCF

8:30-12:15 Watchmen: Director's Cut—Live with Zack Snyder! Plus Sneak Peek of Batman: Arkham Asylum with Mark Hamill & Kevin Conroy— Get the ultimate inside track on two landmark Warner Bros. releases with the world premiere screening of Watchmen: Director's Cut and a first-look panel for the breakout Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment game Batman: Arkham Asylum. The festivities will open with a Batman: Arkham Asylum panel led by the benchmark voices of Batman and the Joker, Kevin ConroyBatman: The Animated Series) and Mark Hamill (Star Wars), as well as award-winning writer Paul Dini (Batman: The Animated Series). Then Watchmen director Zack Snyder, legendary illustrator Dave Gibbons and actor Jackie Earle Haley discuss the nuances of the film's Director's Cut— which hit stores on July 21. And for the pièce de résistance, Snyder will host a BD Live Community event—providing a real-time, in-person director's commentary for Comic-Con attendees (and BD Live viewers at home) as the film rolls. Audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions of Snyder via computer kiosks within the room, making for an entirely interactive viewing experience.
Room 6BCF

will all be on hand to discuss this new series premiering on Fox in the fall. ( ( Sunday, July 26

10:00-11:00 Dr. Who— Actor David Tennant, writer/executive producer Russell T Davies, director Euros Lyn, and executive producer Julie Gardner discuss their creative process and experiences working on BBC America's Doctor Who—television's longest-running sci-fi series—with exclusive clips and a Q&A session.
Ballroom 20

11:15-12:15 American Dad— Showrunners Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman and stars Seth MacFarlane, Wendy Schall, and Dee Bradley Baker are back to regale the fans with an insider's look at how an episode of the hilarious Fox animated comedy is made, from table read to animatic to color. Don't miss this one-of-a-kind Comic-Con event.
Ballroom 20

2:15-3:45 BBC America: Being Human/Torchwood— You won't want to miss these special back-to-back panels on Being Human and Torchwood! Being Human creator Toby Whithouse and cast members Russell Tovey, Lenora Crichlow and Aidan Turner appear on stage to give an inside look at BBC America's U.S. premier sci-fi drama about the lives of three twentysomethings and their secret double-lives—as a werewolf, a vampire, and a ghost. Following that Torchwood actor John Barrowman, creator/writer/executive producer Russell T Davies, executive producer Julie Gardner, and director Euros Lyn talk about the making of the epic five-night television event Torchwood: Children of Earth as well as take questions from the fans.
Ballroom 20
,

Links of Twitter

2009-07-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

Over the last day or so a few links of and about twitter have shown up. He are the ones I found on twitter in one place.

The meet up in New York

2009-06-30T17:42:00.000-07:00

The trip was from June 17th thru the 21st. This was the best time that fit everyone's schedule.

With me traveling from Seattle to New York, its a all day trip, I got there the day before everyone else and spent some resting. I got to spend some time with my brother and my new nephew.

We were all meeting up at Chad's place, they all got there Thursday night for some cold pizza and a few game of Apples to Apples as a ice breaker game. Fun was had by all.

The next day we went to Ground Zero, Liberty Island and to the Top of the Rock. We meet up with Chad, went back to the apartment and started our Warhammer game. For a game we have not played in 10+ years, we picked it up slowly again. We got a good 5 or so hours of play and it looked like about 20% the way thru the adventure. More to play when we get together again in a year or two. To save on travel time Chad spent the night on the couch for a few hours of sleep.

We got up when we got up, picked up put rent a car and headed to play some paintball at Paintball Arena in New York. Last time I had played was sometime in 1991 (I think). We brought what stuff we had and rented the paintguns and masks. We played in a indoor arena, a first for me. For most of the games, we played on the same side. Running, shooting and getting hit. Not all in that order sometimes. We had fun in a game we had not played in a long time and I walked away with only 14 bruises.

Durring out trip we talked about old and new time, like old time. We plan to make a habbit of this and head over to my neck of the woods (Seattle) when next we meet up in a year or so.

See the pictures I took here.

The game of old.

2009-06-18T11:01:00.000-07:00

Currently I am in New York seeing my brother and meeting up with some childhood friends. We are planing to have a old school game of Warhammer (the '86 RPG ver). Most of the characters are created, down on paper or in some one's head. The GM has a adventure in mind for us to go thru. As he has stated, it has been many moons from the last time he has played the game. We will most likely be playing most of this by ear.

The name for my Dwarf that I came up with is Rustfist Redforge.

See my game blog for other notes about the game: mygamenotes.blogspot.com

We shall see how this turns out.

Creation of a character

2009-06-07T00:29:00.000-07:00

I have a few posts on my game blog so far. They are on character creation and some ideas on what could be. Our GM has the Hero Designer Software and entered most of our characters to find the totals. Due to time, I had email the changes I wanted with my character and currently waiting for the outcome to tweak to my liking.

I have also fooled with the design of the blog. The bloging software has been updated and I find I like the changes. I have tweaked the theme, added a picture and arranged the side bar as it looks good to me. For now I will let it sit and see how I feel about it later.

See the game blog here.

The End is here.

2009-06-04T18:53:00.000-07:00

This story has ended.

Our old Hero System has ended (on 10-10-08) and will not be continued. My blog for the game/character will not be updated and I have added my last post on it with most of what I have posted here.

We next played the Keep on the Shadowfell, a 4th Ed Dungeons & Dragons adventure. The game was well played and our character lived to fight other battles.

We have gained a total of 5 player now and we have begun a new Hero System game. We are at the character building time and the plot will begin to twist soon.

As with any ending, there are beginning.

A new blog for the game has been started. There is very little in it at this time.

I will list below my blog and any others that are started by the other player.

Kross the ????? of the Pakasa/Dumawe
http://gamesandgadgets.org/theblogs/kross/

Perrol the Bard Half-Elf
http://gamesandgadgets.org/theblogs/perrol/

My Character Review

2009-06-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

Our 4th Ed D&D game is over. We completed the Keep on the Shadowfell and want to start something different. We are restarting our Hero System back up, now with more players.

With my character being mothballed, I wanted to reflect on the choices I used for the Feats, At-Wills, Encounter, Daily and Utility Powers.

My character was a Ranger and I had fun.

First off are the Feats:

Defensive Mobility: It helped some when the attacker came to me when I was off to the side pelting them with some arrows.
Lethal Hunter: A great benefit with my Hunter's Quarry target.
Elven Precision: It helped when I got to re-roll one of my attacks for Elven Accuracy
Distant Advantage: We leveled up our character for the last battle and did not get a chance to use this at all. With past battle in mind. I think it could be put to good use.

Next would be At-Wills:

Wit the two at will I had, Careful Attack and Twin Strike, I found out I mostly used the Twin Strike attack. You have two chances to attack and most of the time you would hit with one of the attacks. A few time you could hit with both. I could see using Careful Attack with Distant Advantage to get the To Hit bonus up to +4, but never got a chance to try it out.

Next would be Encounter Powers:

The two power that I used were Two-Fanged Strike and Thundertusk Boar Strike. With Two-Fanged Strike it helped out some, it is like Twin Strike, as you attack twice, but has the possibility of a little more damage. Almost all the time I used this power I only hit the one time that boosted the damage a little. This would be a power I would change if I remade the character.

With Thundertusk Boar Strike, it attacks twice. The option of this was that it also pushes the target it it hits. I used this many a time to get the target in the right place.

Next on the list is the Daily Powers:

With Split the Tree daily, you do need to get the two targets near each other for this to work. With the attack, you roll 2 dice and take the best one. Then you roll the high damage on targets. This as help a many a time to deal damaging and killing attacks.

The last item was my Utility Power choice:

The Yield Ground option sounded good in the begining, but only got used once or twice. With Being a arrow chucker, I was off to the side or in the back and when I did get hit it was by ranged attacks. Yield Ground only kicks in on melee attacks. This would be the other item I would change.

My Skill choices worked for the character and I do not see any changes that would have help durring the game.

That a my review of my character choices. Now to put the character sheet into the folder and put the folder onto the booksheld with the other RPG book and papers.

To play games in New York.

2009-05-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

With the New York trip next month. I am going over my game that could play 5 or more player (and that does not take too much space in the suitcase).

Here are the games I have that fit the bill:

The Great Dalmuti (4-8 players)
James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game (3-6 players)
Monty Python Fluxx (2-6 players)
Inn-Fighting, D&D Dice Game (3-6 players)
Citadels (2-7 players)
Castle (2-5 players)
Super Munchkin (3-6 players)
Wing of War (2-6 players) [ Update: Played the game the other night. A good game, but looks like this I will not bring it. ]
Give Me The Brain (3-8 players)
Rorschach: The Inkblot Party Game (3-8 players) [ New Game: Looked like a good and fast playing party game to bring on the trip. ]

I am also looking what game I could get/purchase (that does not take too much space in the suitcase).

Any suggestions?

Use of a Group Template

2009-05-03T19:35:00.000-07:00

This or part of it is for use in a Group Template for our next Hero System game that is to start soon.

Personal Background: Mixed
Character Types: Mixed
Character Jobs/Classes: Mixed

Location: Small City/Large Town

Common Background: In order to gain status (ie Vote, Own Land, Hold Title) in the town/city a length of time is needed to spent in the Town/City Guard. A time of 1 to 2 years till they could leave or reenlist. During this time our group met and worked together.

Possible basic skills learned:
Riding
Streetwise
Area Knowledge: Home Region
Area Knowledge: Home City
Weapon Familiarity: Common Melee Weapons
Weapon Familiarity: Common Missile Weapons

Thinking about the next game.

2009-04-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

After our D&D game last Friday night, the topic of the next game came up. Looking for a fantasy game with about a mid-level magic/power range. Looks like we would be making new characters with a power level that has yet to be determined as of yet. Looks like there could be a choice of different races other than human. We will we using the Group Template that has been talked about on the Fear The Boot Podcast. As for the world, it might be some version of the world we played in before or something brand new. Time will tell.

My time at Sakura-Con

2009-04-14T21:58:00.000-07:00

It started out on a Thursday after work. Me and Rich headed over to the Convention Center to pick up the weekend pass and have Rich drop off some of his art for the Art Show. We made good time and found a parking spot. We got our weekend badge with around a 20 min wait in line, which went fast with the book I was reading. Headed over to the Art Show room to find they need some help with the stand ups they use to display the art on. It took about 2 hours to get them standing and ready to be used, after that we headed on home to get some rest for the next day.

We got to the Con around 11:30 am on Friday, before the dealer’s room opened. Rich set himself up at Artist Alley while I waited in a line for the Exhibitors' Hall to open. From last year, things were moved around. The Exhibitors' Hall and the Registration were next together, which gave a lot of foot traffic to the Artist Alley which was right outside the two rooms. I did my look around the Exhibitors' Hall and found the isles well spaced and easy to walk thru and with the traffic the con had it was needed. After my rounds in the Exhibitors' Hall, I went and looked around. I found the Main Stage, the Autograph area and the Video Rooms. From the layout of last year, the Video Rooms were above the Main Room (were the Concerts were), not below. So when the Concerts were playing the wall did not vibrate. The day was mostly walking around the main floor area or outside taking pictures of the people in costumes and when I needed to get off my feet, I headed back to the Artist Alley or headed up to the Video Rooms, if there was anything good playing.

Saturday was planed as a full day for me, with getting to the Con about 9:30am and leaving well past midnight. With some more walking, picture taking, sitting, video watching and eating (not all in that order) the day was enjoyed. With night time here, the Main Stage was full of people jamming to the DJ waiting for Smile.dk to play. At one point glow sticks and such were tossed from the stage and I was lucky to get a rebound off the ceiling into my hands. The place was jumping, you could literally feel the music. For a white boy that can not dance, I think I did good. I just copied the people around which was basically jumping up and down, waiving your hands (like you don't care) or doing a fist pump. My feet started to be a pain and I took off to the Video Rooms for some sit down time. After some time I got a text from Rich that it was time to call it a night.

Sunday was another day. If you wanted to be technical it wad the same day, just with five hours of sleep. We got there a little before the Exhibitors' Hall opened. They had pre-registration open for next year for just $30.00 for the full weekend. I grabbed the paperwork and head for the short line. With one person on the window, it took some time, around 30 min if I recall correctly. With the pre-registration done, I went thru the Exhibitors' Hall one last time to see if I missed anything and then did some more walking, picture taking, sitting, video watching with the day ending around 6pm.

For the anime that was showing in the theaters, I wish I had planed a little better to catch some of the ones that I missed. I did catch Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, some Code Geass, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and some Shin-chan.

One thing I can say about the Exhibitors' Hall is keep a eye on what they have available. I picked up a few figures one day and looked for them the next finding they had sold out. Another item I found was at a good price of $6.00. I went back the next day to pick a few more up to find the cost showing was $70.00. Looked like I got a great deal on the one I did picked up. I should have picked up the full set of 4 at the $6.00 cost the first day. Keep your eyes open.

The item that I got a lot of work out of, was the digital camera I got for Christmas. I tried out a few of the setting to find they worked out great for what I needed them for. A few of the pictures came out bad, but that is what the delete button is for.

This was the first time doing the full weekend at Sakura-Con and I had a great time. Took over 400+ pictures. Went over my spending budget (a little) and got a chibi charature done of my self.

. . . and I am doing this again next year.

(Currently uploading the pictures I took at Sakura-Con up to flickr, you can see the growing pictures here.)

My time at Emerald City Comicon

2009-04-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

Emerald City Comicon was last weekend. I did not go the full weekend, just Saturday. I car pooled with Rich, a friend from work, that was in the Artest Alley and got my tickets at the door. From last year it seemed bigger and better. I found some items I had been looking for (four Mighty Muggs) and some item I did not know till I spoted them (two art prints: <1> <2>). I spent the day looking around and taking some pictures.
Wil Wheaton was again at Emerald City Comicon. After I got in the door I headed over media guest area. There was a short line of about 6 to 7 people to see, talk, get and have stuff signed. It was my turn. We shaked hands, told him that I did the composite of his Criminal Minds ep that his posted on his blog. I got that picture signed, a picture of him last year, his first book and got a copy of Sunken Treasure (that he signed, as you can see here). He handed them back and good bye. It was not till a few munites later that I relised that I had not paid him for the Sunken Treasure book. I went back from where I exited the line and handed him the money for the book. From Will I got a "Thanks for being honest." from him as I left.
The convention closed and I left. I had fun and I will come back next year.

See my picture set from the convention here.

Next: My weekend at SakuraCon

The choices for the game.

2009-03-28T23:27:00.000-07:00

After our D&D game last night, we talked about how we have around 5 or some games till we finish the Keep on the Shadowfel l adventure. After D&D we are planing on going back to our HERO game, but now with more players. We have one confirmed player, one player that fit in but due to work plays in about half the game and the last player is new to gaming and still has not found his grove. With the two original players (that includes me) and the one confirmed player we are looking at a minimum of 3 players and a GM.

Questions came up for characters and the game world.

With the characters I saw three options:

We keep our characters (powers/level),
Make new characters or
We power down our characters.

With the game, it was decided we stick with a fantasy setting, but with the story I came up with another three options:

We continue the story where we left off with some minor adjustments,
We jump ahead in time in the game world and restart the story from there or
We start over from scratch.

Time will tell on what we do.

My day at Worldwide D&D Game Day

2009-03-22T00:56:00.000-07:00

Saturday was Worldwide D&D Game Day.

I got to the game store about 11am and waited around for a bit for a second GM to appear. The game started about 11:30am with a full table. The first encounter started with the players getting use to the new character classes. Hit were traded and the enemy took most of the damage. We won. Someone from Wizards (that works on D&D Insider) showed up to talk, ask questions and watch our game for a while. He even spotted my dice shirt I had on for the game day done by Wil Wheaton and he asked if I have heard about the current D&D podcast with the D&D game with Wil.
With the second encounter it started out normally till someone started to play with fire in the mill and the grain dust exploded. There was fire everywhere. We finished the encounter off the map.
The third encounter was not as tougth as I thought it would be. The monster was defeated in no time. Speaking of time, it took somewhere around 4 to 5 hours to finish the 2 to 3 hour game that it said it would take.
The game was fun and enjoyable, we even got to keep our minis and some of the others that used in the game.

Chech out some pictures I snaped with my cell phone of our game.

To rebuy or not to rebuy.

2009-03-19T17:52:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I got a Blu-ray player. With some new movies out, I have picked up the Blu-ray verison of the new movie. The question that I have is, should I rebuy the Blu-ray verison of some of my favorite movies. With my Blu-ray player, it says that it will improve the resolution of a standard, making it a little better.

The one move that I purchased again was WALL-E. The reasons I came up with for the rebuy was:

It was on sale.
Blu-ray only features.
One of my favorite movies.

The main turn off is that you are spending more money for a movie you already have in your collection and it probably have the same features the DVD verison has. If it has "Blu-ray only features" it might catch my eye.

To those who read this, what do you think?

A new start.

2009-02-11T20:36:00.000-08:00

Last week I got a new phone, LG-9100, the enV2. The screen size is different from the prev one. The internal only had a small adjustment, while the external was much smaller and had to have adjustment. Here is the current wallpaper I am using. Fell free to use. All I ask, if you can, leave a comment.

Ghost In The Shell - Online Screen (wallpaper)

My current external wallpaper.

Ghost In The Shell - Group (wallpaper)

My current internal wallpaper.

Me and ConQuest

2009-01-18T21:46:00.000-08:00

This year ConQuest was not as close as it was last year. I did not know where the place was directly, it took a little longer to find the place. I missed the first game I had planed, it filled up and had already started.

I had a chance to look around and found a miniatures game called Golden Age of Hydroplane Racing. Fun game, played a game, came in second in the race and went around again to see what others were playing. One of the players of Hydroplane Racing game was someone I played a game with last year and after some time talking, some others showed up. It was a lunch time and we ended up at Denny's for some food.

We decided to try our hand out at the next game that I had planed to try which was called Savage Traveller and was hosted by Steve Schonberger using the Savage Worlds system. For the game all I can say was, good try. Steve did not know Savage Worlds too well, he used money as a prop when he did not have to, items need for the game was not provided and mapping when need, did not work. We each ended up playing a few characters each and with the plot, there were these robots that could only be killed by one of our many players. The game ended when it was decided that we could not continue, we packed up and left. It was a little fun with the other players, but not too enjoyable.

The next game I planed on was a Call of Cthulhu game. I was the only played to signed up for it. We gave it some time, but no one else showed. The game was reschedule for 9am Sunday. There was another Call of Cthulhu game going on next door. We moved on over and played the game. For a first time game master, Adam knew his stuff and hosted a great game. It was not till the end game that I recalled I had played this long ago, but this came out with a different out come. The night ended with me heading home to get some sleep.

Sunday started out cold with me deicing the car. The drive was not uneventfully. The entry ramp was icy and had already had one car slide into the side bumpers. Take the ramp slow, my car did skid a little and was able to get around the accident and not add to it. On the freeway there were some slow downs also. Some how a car had ended up on its side, bring the road down to one lane. I got the con at a little after 9am to make the Call of Cthulhu game that was original schedule last night, called Mystic Alliances by Kamal Lombardi. Counting me, there were a total of two players. The game was enjoyable. Could have been planed out a little better. The characters sheet were put together on a copy machine, info was spread out and some times missing. Handout were good, but they had game master info on them. Nowadays computers are widely available, he could have done some typesetting and greatly improved the game feel. This was a home brew game and even had a magic components to it, which I did not even use. Basically a good game.
The last game of the day called The League of Extraordinary Cats by Sophie Lagace using a system called Cat, which we play . . . cats. A great game and enjoyable story. I had held onto my character from last year and was able to play him with a few minor adjustment. A nice item that she continued with was little cat miniatures to get a feel for our characters (and we were able to keep them.)
Overall a good convention. There were not a lot of role playing games (excluding D&D) to chose from, but fun was had.

(Picture will be added soon. Just need to upload them to Flickr.)

ConQuest is near

2009-01-11T22:51:00.000-08:00

The game convention will be this next weekend and for the RPG part of it, here are some the possable option that I may go to.

http://www.conquestnw.com/

Time Block H: Sat 9:00AM

HR-119 Web of the Spider Cult

by John Reiher, Jr, Savage Worlds, 4.5 hrs, 4 players, Game, Some gaming, Characters/Armies provided

When you find a dead body in your house, especially one which belongs to a notable explorer, you know it’s not going to be an ordinary day. Web of the Spider Cult takes the heroes from the corridors and galleries of the Boston Museum, to the bayou of Louisiana, and onto the dark jungles of Mexico. There, amid the ruins of a centuries old temple, the adventurers face their greatest enemy so far in their extraordinary adventures.

Time Block K: Sat 2:00PM

KR-253 Savage Traveller

by Steve Schonberger, Savage Worlrds, 7 hrs, 6 players, Game, Kids, Characters/Armies provided

This is an adventure in the Traveller setting, but using Savage Worlds rules. More details will become available closer to the event date. Players need not commmit to the whole time slot.

Time Block M: Sat 7:00PM

MR-113 Mystic Alliances

by Kamal Lombardi, CoC 6th edition, variant setting, 4.5 hrs, 6 players, Game, Kids, Characters/Armies provided

Play teenage COC investigators in this variant setting/ruleset for Call of Cthulu which is set several years in the future, during a time in which Mythos threats are once again on the rise in Seattle.

Time Block S: Sun 11:30AM

SR-122 The League of Extraordinary Cats

by Sophie Lagace, Cat, 4.5 hrs, 6 players, Game, Kids, Characters/Armies provided

When the Cheshire Cat, Duchess, Orlando the Marmalade Cat, Ame Tomoe, Lion-O and Schrödinger's cat team up, is there anything they can't do? A simple game, character creation takes 5 minutes, and new or younger players are welcome.

Books I have read in 2008.

2009-01-04T23:00:00.000-08:00

2008 is over and my list is complete. The total of books read is: 32. Which is better than last years total of 19. For those people that count the pages, I have done that for you. The total page count for 2008 is 14,034 pages.

There were some comic books and mangas that were read in between the books and are not listed.

32. Guard Against Dishonour by by Simon R. Green (188pgs)
31. Swords of Haven: The Adventures of Hawk and Fisher by by Simon R. Green (544pgs)
30. Blue Moon Rising by Simon R. Green (480pgs)
29. A Game Of Thrones by George R. R. Martin (807pgs)
28. Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi (320pgs)
27. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini (784pgs)
26. Fool Moon by Jime Butcher (352pgs)
25. Centaur Aisle by by Piers Anthony (304pgs)
24. Storm Front by Jime Butcher (322pgs)
23. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein (438pgs)
22. The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey (248pgs)
21. Castle Roogna by Piers Anthony (329pgs)
20. Glory Road by Robert A. Heinlein (320pgs)
19. On A Pale Horse by Piers Anthony (303pgs)
18. The Source of Magic by Piers Anthony (326pgs)
17. A Spell For Chameleon by Piers Anthony (344pgs)
16. The Callahan Chronicals by Spider Robinson (317pg)
15. Unicorn Point by Piers Anthony (337pgs)
14. Robot Adept by Piers Anthony (341pgs)
13. Out Of Phaze by Piers Anthony (309pgs)
12. Race Against Time by Piers Anthony (224pgs)
11. Juxtaposition by Piers Anthony (358pgs)
10. Blue Adept by Piers Anthony (327pgs)
9. Split Infinity by Piers Anthony (354pgs)
8. Prostho Plus by Piers Anthony (216pgs)
7. Soul of the Fire by Terry Goodkind (792pgs)
6. Temple of the Wind by Terry Goodkind (822pgs)
5. Blood of the Fold by Terry Goodkind (623pgs)
4. Stone of Tears by Terry Goodkind (979pgs)
3. Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind (820pgs)
2. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (518pgs)
1. Ringworld's Children by Larry Niven (288pgs)

Check out my Goodreads profile for my current books and feel free to sing up and be a friend.

The surprise for me.

2009-01-03T22:16:00.000-08:00

With my brother and nephew in town, our family celebrated Christmas by opening our Secret Santa gifts. My brother was my Secret Santa. My surprise was what was give came from my Birthday list and was out of the price range given for the Secret Santa gift exchange. He said he got a good deal. Who is to argue.

What I got was a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5.

Currently reading the manual and taking a few pictures and filling up the internal memery. Next on my list in to get a large memery card for all the picture I must take in the furture.

Today at work.

2008-12-22T19:32:00.000-08:00

Last night I found out that the campus (at work) would not open till 10 am due to the snow down pour on Sunday. I slept till about 8am and spotted that I missed a call from my supervisor saying that the campus would not open till 11 am and wanted a call to see if I would be able to make it in. After a walk outside in the new snow, I said no problem. I walked to work with some sliping and sliding along the way and clocked in at 11 am to take some calls (thinking that the training was been canceled). It was not till the end of the shift that I found out training was not canceled, I only thought it was, thinking that my supervisor know that it was canceled. I talked to the trainer and found out that the info can/will be made up later (about half the class was not there).

Snow, Snow and more Snow

2008-12-21T21:06:00.000-08:00

Currently it is snowing and has been off and on over the last week. Wensday due to snow and low turn out our training class was calceled and we were told to go back to the phones. As a first, work closed down at about 11:30 am and sent people home due to the snow level. The next day the campus opened at 10 am. Of corse leaving close by I just headed on over at 8 am to be told it was close. You do get a nice work out walking in the snow. After some time I called in to check if they still will be opening at 10 am. I headed on over to find a sign that training was canceled again and headed on over to take some calls. After seting up my computer and taking a small break, I got word that training was back on. Yea. We had about 2/3 of our people show up. We went over business writing, took some time and enjoyed ourself.

Today being Sunday and snowing. I could see work being delayed or the campus could be closed. Time will see.

Its about Bears.

2008-12-12T12:26:00.000-08:00

This was sent to me. Its about bears and funny in its own way.

http://www.thingsbearslove.com/

My Christmas List

2008-12-06T19:59:00.000-08:00

Beyond the Blue Moon (Hawk and Fisher Series #7) by Simon R. Green
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnInquiry.asp?r=1&ISBN=0451458052&r=1
Wii Play with Wii Remote (~$49.99)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000KRXAGE/ref=nosim/coffeeresearch108305-20
(Currently only have one remote. Would be up for a 3rd Wii Remote Controller.)
http://www.amazon.com/Wii-Remote-Controller-nintendo/dp/B000IMWK2G/ref=pd_sim_vg_4
Dragon Quest IV for the DS
Gift Card for Best Buy

Cheap Minis

2008-12-02T22:39:00.000-08:00

At Toys R Us found some cheat minis for 4th Ed D&D game. Found Plasma Dragons Battle Realm Booster Pack in the Logo section for $1.98 each for for 8 figures (4 orcs type and 4 knight type with weapons and shields). It took awhile to put together. I ended up getting 2 packs for uses of enemy characters.

From the blog of Emerald Gamefest.

2008-11-28T00:39:00.000-08:00

From Emerald Gamefest web site, they give out some links about their game day. My blog, this blog that you are reading, got a link as you can see here. Also my Flickr set of pictures of the event got a link also. I say Yea!

I got named.

2008-11-19T20:59:00.000-08:00

The latest episode of Fear the Boot (ep 124) was recorded in Seattle with Dan, Tex and Ed Healy (a local guy). About 10 min into the episode I got a shout-out from both Dan and Ed.

Yea me.

Emerald City Gamefest

2008-11-17T20:47:00.000-08:00

With my Fear the Boot t-shirt on I went to Emerald City Gamefest and I can say I had fun. The morning game I played in was a 4th Ed Forgotten Realm D&D game that was s sneak-peak at some of the features of Downshadow by Eric Scott de Bie. The afternoon game was a Hollow Earth Expedition game Gmed by Tim Brown (who has GMed other con games I have played in the past).

After the last game was played, I got a chance to look around and spotted Dan (from Fear the Boot) by his well worn FtB 9000 Compliant t-shirt (pix) and got a few min of talk time.

Check out pictures I took at Emerald City Gamefest via my camer phone here.

World Wide Wing Night 5

2008-11-10T00:26:00.000-08:00

Not a big turn out. It was just me and my friend Norm. Had some good wings and talked about our D&D game.
Will try again next year and will hope for a larger turn out. From the people I heard from, the day did not work for them.

See pictures from other people here.

Our Pre-Game Meet Up

2008-11-03T20:27:00.000-08:00

We are starting our first game of 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. For me, it has been a while sense I have played D&D. I recall some games of 2nd Edition and a few games of 3rd Edition. For some of the others that are playing, they have not played D&D at all. That is including our Game Master (GM). Most every one has play in some kind of Roll Playing game, but one from what I know. We are starting our game from a pre-made adventure called Keep on the Shadowfell.

This last Sunday (11/02/08) we meet to go over our character and get some info on some backgrounds for use with our characters. I had planed and read up on Clerics and Rangers. The Cleric was passed onto Bill for his use. That left me the Ranger. The GM brought up that it was strongly suggested that we have a Rogue in our party and we need some one with a range attack. By the time I left, I was playing 2 character to fill out the party. The Player's Handbook suggests that a balance adventuring party include a wizard, a fighter, a cleric and a rogue. Norm was goint to play the Wizard (a Controller), Janielle is playing the Fighter (a Defender), Bill is playing the Cleric (a Leader) and I am playing the Rogue and the Ranger (both Strikers) to round out the skills for our group. Found out today that we may have a 5th player for our game from where Bill and Bob (our GM) work. Time will tell. If he does play, he can use one of the two character I made for our group adventuring party.

Friday (11/07/08) is our first game with our first level character.

The Samurai 7 DVD

2008-11-02T22:25:00.000-08:00

Finished the last episode of Samurai 7 with my workout on the bike today. Great series. My one big problem with the DVD was the color of the menu functions. The color of the selection of the menu was only a small difference and had to look closely to see what was selected.

World Wide Wing Night 5

2008-10-29T23:30:00.000-07:00

Started by the Fear the Boot Podcast, its a night of eating wings, meeting other gamers in the areas and eating wings.

For the Seattle/Bellevue area, the meeting is on Saturday, Nov 8th at 7pm at:

Wing Dome
232 Central Way
Kirkland, WA 98033
(425) 822-9464

For those that are planing to show, if you could drop me a message (post a comment, Personal Message, Twitter me, etc . . . ) that you can go and if I could get your email for quicker updates.

> Look for the guy in the Fear The Boot t-shirt, that will be me.

Not in the Seattle check out the post over at Fear The Boot for other areas.

To show support.

2008-10-27T23:19:00.000-07:00

As per Wil Wheaton blog, he did a episode of Criminal Minds called Paradise. He filmed the episode a few months ago and aired October 22nd. Last week he released his production diary he wrote during the filming, which go from his point of view from the audition to the final shot. From my end to show support, I took some screencaps from the episode and created a mosaic of his time on screen. On his final post about his time on the show, the mosaic I did got mentioned along with my Flickr user name of heath_bar.

In the style of Simpsons

2008-10-16T22:52:00.000-07:00

A friend made me aware of this site that is cool. It is called Springfield Punx by Dean Fraser.

Here is some info from the site about the site:

Springfield Punx is a little pet project of mine. The idea of doing fan art parodying some of my favorite characters and stars in such a fun and simple style got me hooked immediately. Some of these guys and gals have appeared on the Simpsons and I could just work from that, but most I had to do from scratch.

Check it out, the artwork is great.

Christopher Paolini's appearance on the TODAY show

2008-10-11T11:37:00.000-07:00

Found this video clip in my not much checked email address for the book Brisingr that came out on Sept 20th.

Check me out on Goodreads.

The Iron Man DVD release

2008-09-30T18:23:00.000-07:00

Last week when I went to Best Buy and noted that they were going to release the Iron Man Movie DVD at midnight Monday(09/29/08) night (well early Tuesday morning) with the offer of free stuff. I inform this to a friend and that night we headed on over. We got there about 10 min till. With only a few cars in the lot, we went to the entrance and stood in the small line that has started. At the time we went in to get the DVD. They had some nice freedies to go along with the DVD release. I got 2 Iron Man t-shirt, 2 Iron Man lithograph, 2 poster tube Stark Industries logo on it, a Talk To The Repulsor.com magnet and a gift card from Sideshow Collectibles with a unknown amount (it ended up being $40.00). When I looked around there were some where around 12 to 20 people that showed up for the event.

Click on the picture for a larger picture.

The meeting of old friends.

2008-09-22T20:17:00.000-07:00

Found out during the vacation from my brother that the old gang has all oked a get together next year some time in June or July. A time will be nailed down sometime in January. For me, June or early July are good for me. ComicCon begins July 22nd of 2009. From what I know, Chad has his wife's brother's wedding some time in late June (I think). As time goes on, time will tell.

This is close to a group picture as I have.
On the left we have Luke, Heath (thats me) and Chad.
On the right we have Neal, Mark and Will.

It has been a while sense we have all been in the same room together. I thinking of a date of some time in 1991, plus or min a year. We have all spread out all across the US.

The internet is for . . . .

2008-09-22T20:09:00.000-07:00

A friend at work asked about my vacation. I stated that I got to go to a Broadway Show of Avenue Q. I also mentioned that a good and funny song was "Internet is for Porn". He had wondered where that came from. He pointed out that a video was done from that song with video clips from the Warcraft game, see below for what I found.

The last day of my vacation in New York.

2008-09-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

Gotten some time to sit and blog the last day of vacation (in New York), which was Tuesday (09/16/08).

The morning was not rushed. Kate had go to work for a while. Me and Chad took it easy. He worked on the computer and got some reading done. We got a chance to play We Love Golf on the Wii.
Kate got home and we drove out to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. After we looked around, we headed back to New York, where food was prepared. At that time they brought out enchiladas with birthday candles on them and sang Happy Birthday to me. One thing that was learned was that you do not put wax birthday candles into hot food, they tend to melt. Presents were given and opened. One that I did get a ticket to Avenue Q on Broadway for that night. We left early to look around Time Square and then we headed to the theater. The show was great. We stoped for a snack and headed back.

The last day of my vacation in New York.

2008-09-16T21:16:00.000-07:00

It has been a log day. A good many things have been done. At this time it is late in the night. When I get some time in the next day or so I will get my notes and make a proper report of the day and add some pictures to the posts.

My bags are packed and by the door. The alarm clock is set for 6:15am wake up call for my 6:45am ride to the airport.

Good Night.

Monday, a not at work day.

2008-09-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today we went into New York's Chinatown and Little Italy. We basicly looked around to get a feel for the area. One of the places that we looked into was Mahayana Buddhist Temple. It is the largest Buddhist temple in Chinatown. It was lucky that we also ran across the The Feast of San Gennaro and had some great pasta. After that we headed back to their place to rest play with the kids. Some food was cooked, some games were played (Eco Fluxx and Yahtzee) and a little was watched.

Sunday, traveling incognito.

2008-09-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

Today we traveled to Wild Safari, a Six Flags Animal Park in Jackson, NJ. It was basically a 2 hr drive to get there. In the car some reading was done, the DS was played and a iPod was on. Once there, our car was used to drive thru the park (at slow speed) and stopping to look at and take pictures of the different animals in the different sections of the park. It was a great day to do this. The sun was out, a little over cast and there was no rain in sight. We had some time before we had to head back, we headed over to Jenkinson's Boardwalk for some food, rides and video games. For food I had a cheese hot dog and two fried oreos (not all at once). For the rides, we went on three of them (the names to be added later). And for the games, there was two games of air hockey (I won 1 and lost the other), a Deal or No Deal (for tickets) and some video games. We headed on back to home base where dinner was served with some DVD watching of the Star Wars Robot Chicken and 2 Episodes of Mythbusters. The day ended with some needed rest.

Click the picture to see the set of pictures on flickr.

My Review: Inn-Fighting

2008-09-13T20:27:00.000-07:00

I picked up Inn-Fighting: D&D Dice Game at PAX 2008. I spotted a demo going and it looked good, so I picked it up at the booth they had there. One half month later, I am in New York with family playing the game for the first time. Well I am sorry to say the fist time we played, we played it wrong. We over looked tow little rules that did make a difference. We decided to give it another try, this time doing it right.
For the game, the box says for ages 12+ and is good for 3 to 6 players. My nephew is 11 and he had no problems with the game (he is close to the age range on the box). There were 3 of us playing and it worked great. I was balanced, so that there was no ganging up on one player and there is no cooperation going on. Like in a bar fight, you are in it for yourself.
One thing the box does not say is how long the game would take. For the games we played, for 3 players, I would say it would take from 1 to 2 hours for a normal game and a little more for a first game. For more players, I could guess it would take longer for each added player.

For a Dungeons & Dragon feel and a good 3 player game. I would give this 4 stars out of 5.

The Saturday away from home.

2008-09-13T20:07:00.000-07:00

I am still in New York. With some jet lag, I did stay up late and got at the same time I would normaly go to work (plus 3 hours). We started the day by watching The Gamers: Dorkness Rising DVD and found it a funny movie for the geeks in us. We then headed out and got some groceries for our meal over the next few days. After the food was put away, we set our mind to play a game. We play Inn-Fighting: D&D Dice Game by Wizards of the Coast (see my review on the next post). For dinner we went to S'MAC, located in the heart of Manhattan's East Village, which has some great Macaroni & Cheese.

My first day of my vacation.

2008-09-12T22:47:00.000-07:00

Today was my day of travel. I got to sleep in some today. Finished last minute packing and then headed over to my parents place for a ride to the airport. Got checked in with no problems. With the check point they did put my backpack thru twice, no problems there. Just some waiting for the plan to load. Next was waiting for the plane to take off. Then there was waiting for the plane to land. When it did we had to wait to the walkway to the plane to be fixed. Lastly had to wait for my bags. Kate did show up to wait with me while Chad did a few laps in the car around the airport. Dinner was had and talking was done by all. There was a lot of waiting and sitting to get to New York, but the fun is just beginning.

My birthday list.

2008-09-01T21:55:00.000-07:00

My family, for gift giving times, send out a want list to family members so they have a idea what the person wants. Here is my list.

1. Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 ~$300.00
A 9-megapixel, superzoom camera from Panasonic with a 3-inch LCD, 10x zoom, image stabilizer, and secure grip.
For info see here: http://www.ecost.com/detail.aspx?edp=40677518&source=EWBBASE&cm_mmc=CSE-_-google-_-ewbbase-_-Camera/Camcorder&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=40677518
Note: Can be found online or Best Buy

2. Spirit of the Century RPG book (soft cover plus PDF combo) ~$30.00
Spirit of the Century is a complete, stand-alone pulp role-playing game based on the award-winning Fate system.
For info see here: http://www.evilhat.com/home/?page_id=103
Note: Found online. (A local game store could order.)

3. Zoe's Tale by Scalzi (Hardcover Book) ~$25.00
For info see here: http://www.amazon.com/Zoes-Tale-John-Scalzi/dp/0765316986
Note: Can be found online or local book store

4. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Messenger Bag: SAC Smile ~$27.00
http://www.rightstuf.com/cgi-bin/catalogmgr/rvpZtDoaqH6i0oTYk=/browse/item/72724/4/0/0

5. Hobby Games: The 100 Best Editor: James Lowder ~$25.00
In Hobby Games: The 100 Best, the top designers, authors, and publishers in the hobby games field write about the most enjoyable and cleverly designed games of the last fifty years. Their essays cover the gamut of the hobby market, from roleplaying games to collectible card games, and miniatures games to wargames to board games, with titles both familiar and esoteric. These are the games that the designers themselves play, the ones that have inspired their most popular creations.
For info see here: http://www.greenronin.com/store/grr4001
Note: can be found online and maybe at local book store

6. Nintendo Power Subscription ~$20.00
http://nintendopower.com/subscribe

7. Best Buy Gift Certificate

My Sunday at PAX

2008-09-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

In case you did not know, PAX breaks dow to Penny Arcade Expo and the web site can be found here.

My plans were to go with a friend. As things go, plans changed. I started the day by getting some breakfast at IHOP and headed on over to Washington State Convention Center. Found a parking spot and headed on up to get my ticket. The line was not large at and got taken care of in a few minutes. First thing I did was pick up the The Guild: Season 1 DVD and got Felicia Day to sign it and talked to her for a min or two. I looked around to see a lot of eletronic game booths. I did some demos at the Wizards of the Coast booth for awhile, the first one was on the Magic:CCG to get some SWAG. I got a Time Spiral Tournament Pack (75 cards), a Planar Chaos Booster Pack (15 cards) and a Magic:CCG Artwork mouse pad. It has been about 5 or so years sence I have played Magic and a creature from the past has shown in with the name of Slivers. I also got a online demo of the D&D character creation that is available thru D&D Insider (so I was told). As time got close, I headed over to the Wil Wheaton panel. I got there some what early, but not early enougth to get a seat. There was only standing room available at that time. Things started and found out that audio system was not the greated. At the back it was hard to hear. It got a little better. Wil read Blue Light Special from his third book, The Happiest Days of Our Lives. I had heard the story before, but is good to hear it live. Next he did a colorfull reading from a review (he did) of a classic Star Trek:TNG episode, called Datalore. After the panel I went around to see what was available to the RPG and game section. I spoted a room with Wizards of the Coast games (ie D&D), some miniture gaming and board game. I went over to the main exhibition hall to look it over once or twice. After some time I went home and called it a day.

I also want to note that I spotted a lot of people with their DS out playing some games. They had a lounge area where they had these beanbag type chairs for people to play their DS, work on their labtop or crash out.

Also for the record, the Rock Band game were in at least 3 or more different booths rocking out with no shortage of victims.

For the record, this does make my 6th convention for the year.

Here are the pictures I took at PAX.

The noise the other night.

2008-08-26T20:31:00.000-07:00

It was Sunday night around 11:30 pm when there was a noise, like a snap, that woke me up from the hour or two rest I have taken. It was quiet, too quiet. The alarm clock was off, the fans were off and none of the lights works. I set the alarm on the cell phone and went back to bed. The clock radio alarm went off about 5:30 am, due to the battery back up (good to know if I slept thru I would have still woken up on time to get to work). I turned off the radio alarm and went back to bed for 30 more min of sleep. The power was still off. I grabbed my lunch and went to work. Work was ok for a Monday. I stoped on the way home to get some food and read my book for a while, just in case the power is still out. I got home to a note on my door saying as of 4:00 pm the power was still out due to some blown transformers. I opened the door and . . . . the light did not turn on. It was still light outside. I opened the window and sat down to catch up some my comic book reading. It was not till around 7:30 pm that the power came back on. There were 3 repair truck that fixed the issue hanging around the parking lot. They stayed around for at least 4 or more hours more doing something. The main thing that I did check on was the food in the fridge and the freezer, to stay cool thru the issue. I did not use them much to keep them from going room temperature and the food spoiling. And it all turned out ok.

What I did at Dragonflight.

2008-08-11T22:37:00.000-07:00

Dragonflight was from Aug 8th thru the 10th.

I took Friday off and slept in. I headed over to where the convention was being held, which was about a 10 min drive, around 2:00 pm. I spotted Bob (a friend) in the board game room playing a game. Norm (another friend) showed up after a while and we went over to Kohana, a Mongoliam Grill,for a late lunch early dinner. With food in our bellies we head back to the con and waited for for our 7:00 pm game to start. The game was called "Just a Mater of Time", used the Spirit of the Century system and was GMed by the Blue Dragons. This was part 1 of a 2 part game. We had about 15 people, which we split into 3 group with 3 different GMs. The game started with a flash forward (in game time) for the intro and and then we woke up needing to stop the bad thing that happened in our dream (that would happen if we did not stop it). We got to a point and called it a night to be continued the next day in part 2.

Saturday, the game I have signed up for started at 9:00 am and was called "Saturday of the Dead", used the Savage World system and was GMed by Steve Winter. We started by making some quick characters on some note cards. The game set up with building models and such as seen here. The game was a survival game. We were to get supplies and not get killed by zombies. I liked the set up, but we had too many zombies start showing up with all the gun fire, which two other players were a little too gun happy. We got some item and had to end the game with a quick get away. The game after that was part 2 of the "Just a Mater of Time" where out group and the other two were able to stop the Cthulhu type monster. The last game for the night was called "Who you gonna call?" used the Palladium system and was GMed by Richard Johnson. The game used the Ghostbusters history after the two movies. I had thought it was going to use the Ghostbusters system that was out there. Still the game was fun and was finished the game with a big battle were we kicked some, but I degress.

Sunday, I only planed on one game and it started at 9:00 am. It was called "Aces Harrington and the Hijacked Airship", it used the Spirit of the Century system and was GMed by Eric Aldrich. Like the name, we had to defend the Airship we were traveling on, which we did and lived to see another day. After the game, I meet up with Bob, were we went out for pizza and talked about the "Just a Mater of Time" game we were both in (but at different games).

See the pictures I took of Dragonflight 2008.

Back from Comic-Con

2008-07-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

It started early. Got to the airport with time to spare. Check in was simple. Meet up with the others. We got to the hotel and rested for awhile. We walked to the convention center to get our badges. I help Rich set up his stuff for the art show. Rich got a artist table on the con floor. Due to the table, we got onto the floor early with no Preview Day crowd and was able to snap some great pictures. The doors opened and the floor became crowded. I got a large bag and filled it up with some feebies for the three hours of the Preview Day.

The next day started with getting a Torchwood autograph ticket at the BBC booth and then I rushed up to the autograph area to get a ticket for the panel autographs. Got in a some what long line and got the needed ticket on the first try. The first day panel was the Stan Lee and Grant Morrison Panel, then the Doctor Who panel and finishing with the Torchwood panel. All of them were in the same room. After the panels it was time to wait in line for the Doctor Who/Torchwood autograph. It took over a hour, but I got 2 of the 3 people signing. I tried to get into the next panel, but it was full. So I wondered around the con floor. There was one exclusive item I wanted, I had to stand in another line at the Hasbro booth for around 20 to 30 min. The day ended with my feet needing a rest.

The next day was Friday. There were 3 Stargate panels going on, again all in the same room. I left at the tail end of the Atlantis panel to goto the floor for the Slave Leia Group photo shot. I found that it was going to happen at 1pm at the Gentle Giant booth in front of the life size bust of Jabba The Hut. When I got there they were was not group, just some single Leia posing on Jabba The Hut. I happily took a good number of photos. (I found out later that the group shot was done at 11:30am on that same day). Next I went to stand in a long line to get into the American Dad panel, which then changed into the Family Guy panel, which showed a full episode of the next season. I laughed my ass off. In the same room, the next panel was Bones panel, which showed 1/3 to 1/2 of a episode of the next season. They almost had the full cast there. I tried to got into the Robot Chicken pannel, but they closed the line off 30 min before the panel stared, so I wend down to the con floor to look around there.

Saturday can along. Went to the Iron Man Animated Screening which it showed 2 full eps. With Rich, we tried to get Mythbuster autograph tickets. Rich got his on the 1st try. A line friend got a extra one and she gave me her extra ticket. I had some time, I went to the con floor and looked around. Next was the Chuck panel and the Eureka panel. Rich got in line for Mythbuster autograph and I meet up with him. I got some good pictures of them from the line, when I got up there I got to shake both of their hands. From there I went to get in line for the Mythbuster panel. I got in line. The end of a very long line. I stayed in till they said the room was full. With Rich and JP, we went and got some food. The other went to do their own things, while went to the see Wolverine and The X-Men Animated screening. It was great, 3 full episodes, that will not begin till next year. After that in the same room was the world premiere of Mutant Chronicles.

At the freebie table I noted they were giving out poster tubes that had fake FOX stickers on them along with handy shoulder straps. This was the only thing of note they were giving out at the freebie table. This poster tube came in real handy with getting my posters home on the plane in one piece.

Sunday was the last day. No major plans were planed. Went around the con floor for a while and watched some anime for a while and the met up with the others to head out. We went to the hotel to check out. Chris was not there. He had met up with his cousin and had taken a nap. We met up with him at the airport later. Got home with no major problems.

Check out the picture here on Flickr. (Will post the pictures as I go thru them, it could take a while.)

The night before.

2008-07-22T22:58:00.000-07:00

It the night before my trip to Comic-Con. I check my Flicker account and noted there are 1,500 pictures and over 30,000 views on my Flickr pictures, a update from 20000 views on 04/22/08.

All the days in a row.

2008-07-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

Thursday, July 24.
10:00 Line ticket drawing for Doctor Who/Torchwood autographs -- AA2
12:00-1:00 Doctor Who -- Hall H, Ballroom 20
1:00-2:00 Torchwood -- Hall H, Ballroom 20
2:00-3:00 Autographs for Doctor Who/Torchwood -- AA2
(2:00-3:00 Red Sonja: One-on-One -- Room Hall H, 6CDEF)
3:00-4:00 Wizard’s First Rule -- Hall H, Room 6B
5:00-6:00 Bandai Entertainment’s Anime Invasion -- Hall H, Room 4

Friday, July 25.
10:45-11:45 Stargate Continuum -- Ballroom 20
11:45-12:15 Stargate Worlds -- Ballroom 20
12:15-1:15 Stargate Atlantis -- Ballroom 20
1:00 Slave Leia Group Picture at the Gentle Giant booth
1:30-2:30 Joss Whedon -- Ballroom 20
3:30-4:15 Family Guy -- Ballroom 20
4:30-5:30 Bones -- Ballroom 20
6:15-7:00 [adult swim]’s Robot Chicken -- Room 6B

Saturday, July 26th.
10:00-11:00 Marvel: Iron Man: Armored Adventures Animated Screening -- Room 6CDEF
11:00 Line ticket drawing for MythBusters autographs -- AA4
11:30-12:30 Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Screening and Q&A -- Room 6A
3:30-4:30 Chuck Screening and Q&A -- Ballroom 20
4:45-5:45 SCI FI Eureka -- Room 6CDEF
5:30-7:00 Autographs for MythBusters -- AA4
7:15-8:15 MythBusters Q&A and Sneak Preview -- Room 6B
8:30-10:00 Marvel: Wolverine and The X-Men Animated Screening -- Room 6CDEF

Sunday, July 27th.
(no plans at this time)

At Comic-Con . . .

2008-07-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

Thru some web sites I found out that some Trek Celebrities will be on the convention floor signing autographs.

At the Lightspeed Fine Art booth #3745:

Avery Brooks: Thursday, July 24th to Saturday, July 26th
Nicole de Boer: Wednesday, July 23rd to Thursday, July 24th
Jonathan Frakes: Friday, July 25th to Sunday, July 27th
Cirroc Lofton: Wednesday, July 23rd to Thursday, July 24th
Bob Picardo: Friday, July 25th to Saturday, July 26th
Levar Burton: Sunday, July 27th

Found the info here.

Wil Wheaton will be at Comic-Con at the Dumbrella booth #1335.

Found the info here.

Cross Promotion

2008-07-18T17:39:00.001-07:00

This was the front page picture on the NY Times to advertise the new iPhone. Look closely.

Talk about great advertising for Verizon Wireless and poor attention to detail for AT&T.

What To Do on Sunday, July 27 . . . .

2008-07-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

. . . . at Comic-Con.

Sunday, July 27th.

No panels cought my eye. I will roam the convention floor or check out the Anime room.

What To Do on Saturday, July 26 . . . .

2008-07-16T20:41:00.000-07:00

. . . . at Comic-Con.

Saturday, July 26th.

-- A showing of the Iron Man cartoon, I am so there. --

10:00-11:00 Marvel: Iron Man: Armored Adventures Animated Screening— Tony Stark, heir to a billion-dollar corporation, lives a life of luxury, free to pursue his chief interests—seeking extreme thrills, solving scientific mysteries and creating mind-boggling inventions. But everything goes horribly wrong when a tragic accident robs Tony of his father and nearly costs him his own life. Now dependent on his own impressive technology for survival and dedicated to battling corruption, Tony must reconcile the pressure of teenage life with the duties of a superhero. Inside his remarkable invention, Tony Stark is geared for high-speed flight, high-tech battles and high-octane adventure! He is Iron Man. Meet Josh Fine (Marvel Studios), Christopher Yost (head writer), and others involved with this exciting new animated series and watch an episode of Iron Man: Armored Adventures before its Nicktoons 2009 premiere. Room 6CDEF

-- Liked the 1st season, looking foward to the panel. --

11:30-12:30 Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Screening and Q&A— Back for a second year at Comic-Con, the producers and stars of this hit action-adventure drama will debut the trailer for season two and answer questions from fans during this one-hour session. Executive producers Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds), John Wirth (The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.) and James Middleton (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) will be joined by returning series stars Lena Headey (300), Thomas Dekker (Heroes), Summer Glau (Serenity), Brian Austin Green (Beverly Hills, 90210) and Richard T. Jones (Event Horizon), as well as new series regulars Garret Dillahunt (No Country for Old Men) and musician Shirley Manson (Garbage). Produced by C2 Pictures in association with Warner Bros. Television, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles returns for a second season September 8 and airs Mondays at 8:00 PM ET/PT on FOX. Room 6A

-- Good and funny show. Glad it is back for a 2nd season. --

3:30-4:30 Chuck Screening and Q&A— Chuck executive producer Josh Schwartz (Gossip Girl), co-creator Chris Fedak, and stars Zachary Levi (Less Than Perfect), Yvonne Strahovski (Gone), Joshua Gomez (Invasion), Sarah Lancaster (Everwood), Ryan McPartlin (Super Capers), and Adam Baldwin (Serenity) return to Comic-Con for a Q&A to discuss the People’s Choice Award–nominated action-comedy, and to screen an exclusive series highlight reel debuting new footage from the upcoming second season. Produced by College Hill Pictures, Wonderland Sound and Vision in association with Warner Bros. Television, Chuck airs Mondays at 8:00 PM on NBC. Ballroom 20

-- A great summer show I am looking foward to see. --

4:45-5:45 SCI FI Eureka— SCI FI’s hit summer series returns for its triumphant third season on Tuesday, July 29 (9:00 pm/8:00 pm Central). But first, fans can experience the quirky fun of America’s smartest little town up close and personal by joining the cast and executive producers of Eureka for an exclusive Comic-Con discussion. Panelists include cast members Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, and Joe Morton plus co-creator and executive producer Jamie Paglia, executive producer Charlie Craig, and Tony Optican, SVP for original programming, SCI FI. Room 6CDEF

-- MythBuster is another great show that I watch and rewatch the repeats. Looking forward toward the panel. --

7:15-8:15 MythBusters Q&A and Sneak Preview— Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage of MythBusters talk about their offbeat Discovery Channel series that uses science to determine the truth behind urban legends. With backgrounds in animatronics, robotics, model building, and prototyping, Adam and Jamie will answer questions about the 300+ myths they’ve busted to date, show untelevised clips from their most explosive myths, and feature a Comic-Con exclusive sneak peek at the upcoming NASA moon landing hoax episode. Room 6B

-- A sneek peak of the animated X-Men show with the first three episodes series. --

8:30-10:00 Marvel: Wolverine and The X-Men Animated Screening— When an explosive event shatters the lives of the X-Men and takes away their mentor, the beaten heroes walk away from it all. But then they're given a rare glimpse into the future, and see a world in utter ruin, ruled by mutant-hunting Sentinels. So now the most legendary of all X-Men takes the lead—Wolverine! Reuniting these broken heroes, Wolverine embarks on the ultimate mission—to prevent the world's destruction. To rescue us from ourselves. To save the future. Meet Boyd Kirkland (lead director), Craig Kyle (supervising producer), Greg Johnson (head writer), and others involved with this new animated series and watch the first three episodes of this epic new X-Men series before its Nicktoons 2009 premiere. Room 6CDEF

What To Do on Friday, July 25 . . . .

2008-07-14T22:39:00.000-07:00

. . . . at Comic-Con.

Friday, July 25.

-- I am also a Stargate fan and there are 3 panels of it all in the same room. I plan to get a good seat and stick to it. --

10:45-11:45 Stargate Continuum— Following on the heels of the hit DVD release Ark of Truth, the next full-length feature will be released Tuesday, July 29, with principal cast members returning for the biggest adventure of them all! This panel features Brad Wright (series co-creator and Continuum developer, executive producer and writer), Martin Wood (director), and (subject to availability) stars Richard Dean Anderson (General Jack O'Neill), Amanda Tapping (Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter), Ben Browder (Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell), Michael Shanks (Dr. Daniel Jackson), and Christopher Judge (Teal'c). Ballroom 20

11:45-12:15 Stargate Worlds— After nearly 15 years on the air, the Stargate franchise is launching its first-ever multilevel online game, with all the elements—and more!—fans expect from the Stargate family. The key creative team from Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment and FireSky Studios present a compelling sneak-peek and answer questions. Panelists include Brad Wright (Stargate series' co-creator, executive producer and writer) plus Dan Elggren (FireSky Studio head), Chris Klug (creative director), Howard Lyon (art director), and Demetrius Comes (director of technology). Ballroom 20

12:15-1:15 Stargate Atlantis— With new allies and new challenges, Stargate Atlantis is making big waves in its action-packed fifth season. Be on hand for this exclusive panel discussion with the cast and creators of SCI FI's hit series. Panelists include cast members Joe Flanigan, Robert Picardo, and Jewel Staite, co-creator and executive producer Brad Wright, and , Chris Sanagustin, VP original programming SCI FI. Moderated by Martin Gero, executive producer. Ballroom 20

-- Its Joss Whedon, Family Guy and Bones, again all in the same room as with the Stargate panels. --

1:30-2:30 Joss Whedon— Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and the writers and cast of his new short film, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, will show never-before-seen clips while Joss also discusses Buffy Season Eight, the Fray crossover, and the upcoming Serenity comic focusing on Shepherd Book. Ballroom 20

3:30-4:15 Family Guy— Stars Seth MacFarlane and Seth Green and the producers of the Fox animated hit give fans a sneak peek at a never-before-seen episode and discuss the highly anticipated spinoff The Cleveland Show. Ballroom 20

4:30-5:30 Bones— Join the entire cast (David Boreanaz, Emily Deschanel, Michaela Conlin, Tamara Taylor, John Francis Daley) and creators Hart Hanson and Barry Josephson for an hour of behind-the-scenes secrets and the chance to ask them everything you always wanted to know about the hit Fox drama. Ballroom 20

-- A great show with toys. --

6:15-7:00 [adult swim]’s Robot Chicken— Seth Green and Matthew Senreich (co-creators), Tom Root and Doug Goldstein (head writers/co-producers), Breckin Meyer (writer/actor), and Kevin Shinick (writer) speak about [adult swim]’s original series, Robot Chicken. In its third season, the network’s Emmy-winning stop-motion and animation show known for its pop culture commentary just released the episode Robot Chicken Star Wars on DVD. Room 6B

Autographs Signed

2008-07-14T20:56:00.001-07:00

The autographs schedule has been update and there were only a few people that I am look at to get a autographs of.

Doctor Who/Torchwood
Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Steven Moffat, Naoko Mori
Line ticket drawing at 10:00 am on Thursday
Thursday AA2 2:00 pm–3:00 pm

MythBusters
Jamie Hyneman, Adam Savage
Line ticket drawing at 11:00 am on Saturday
Saturday AA4 5:30 pm–7:00 pm

Erin Gray, actor (Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Silver Spoons)
Thursday AA15 3:00 pm–7:00 pm
Friday AA14 11:00 am–3:00 pm
Saturday AA15 11:00 am–3:00 pm
Sunday AA19 11:00 am–2:00 pm

Threadless in a Shirt

2008-07-14T20:07:00.000-07:00

Today I placed a order to two shirt I plan to bring to Comic-Con from Threadless T-Shits, hoping they get here in time (finger crossed). From what I can tell, they pre-print the shirt in the given color in the different sizes. Which they can sell out over time.

I like the picture of the Monster in Training and it is in my color.

The below shirt is in two parts, one that is shone below and the other comes out in the dark that says "Hold Me". I like it. It something that could be used at Comic-Con. What came to my mind is the panel rooms where they would have lights on in the beginning and would turn them down when they started or to show some videos. I like the effect it could have.

Christmas Time In July

2008-07-12T19:40:00.000-07:00

Today (July 12th) Hallmark released some of their Christmas ornament, with others coming out in October.

I picked up the Iron Man ornament because it looked cool and I am a fan.

I picked up The Joker ornament because it is a Limited Quantity Special Edition.
I got the last one at that store and the price was not bad at $12.50.

What To Do on Thursday, July 24 . . . .

2008-07-11T23:33:00.000-07:00

. . . . at Comic-Con.

Thursday, July 24.

-- I am a Doctor Who and Torchwood fan, last year I did not get there in time. I waited in a long line and did not get in. Plan: get there early. Both events are in the same room. All I need to do is stay put and for the next panel. --

12:00-1:00 Doctor Who— Writer Russell T Davies (Doctor Who), executive producer Julie Gardner (Torchwood), and writer Steven Moffat (Doctor Who) discuss their creative process and experience working on the BBC’s Doctor Who—Britain’s most successful sci-fi franchise—with exclusive clips and a Q&A session. Hall H, Ballroom 20

1:00-2:00 Torchwood— Writer Russell T Davies (Doctor Who), executive producer Julie Gardner (Torchwood), writer Steven Moffat (Doctor Who), and actors John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd, Naoko Mori and Burn Gorman discuss their creative process and experience on working on BBC America’s highest-rated show ever—Torchwood— followed by a Q&A session. Hall H, Ballroom 20

-- Its a first look at the Red Sonja movie with Rose McGowan. Worth a look. --

2:00-3:00 Red Sonja: One-on-One— Robert Rodriguez (Sin City), Rose McGowan (Grindhouse), Doug Aarniokoski (2nd unit director, Resident Evil 3) and David White (Undisputed 2) are teaming up to bring back the red-headed warrior woman known as Red Sonja. Join Robert, Rose, Doug, and David for this one-on-one interview and Q&A session! Room Hall H, 6CDEF

-- Loved the first book and looking foward to the new show. --

3:00-4:00 Wizard’s First Rule— A first look at the upcoming action-adventure series Wizard's First Rule with book author Terry Goodkind and show executive producers Robert Tapert (Xena: Warrior Princess), Kenneth Biller (Star Trek: Voyager) and Sam Raimi (Spider-Man). The one-hour weekly television show premiering late fall is inspired by Terry Goodkind's bestselling epic fantasy series: The Sword of Truth. The story follows the journey of Richard Cypher, a simple woodsman, as he discovers the magical powers he holds within. With the help of a mysterious woman and a powerful wizard, he must use his newfound abilities to stop a ruthless tyrant from unleashing an ancient evil and enslaving the world. Join Terry, Rob, Ken and Sam for a moderated interview and audience Q&A session! Hall H, Room 6B

5:00-6:00 Bandai Entertainment’s Anime Invasion— In 2008, Bandai Entertainment has put together an amazing line up of anime titles: Code Geass, Lucky Star, Gurren Lagann, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Sword of the Stranger, Ghost Slayers Ayashi, Gundam 00, and many more. Join Bandai Entertainment president Ken Iyadomi and director of marketing Robert Napton to hear all the latest news on the company’s releases, learn some tidbits about what’s coming, up and maybe get some free stuff! Hall H, Room 4

(For the time not in the panels, I plan to walk the floor of the convention floor. That my plan and I am sticking to it.)

Gamers Showing At Comic-Con

2008-07-08T17:36:00.000-07:00

Found out from the All Games Considered podcast the long pending movie The Gamers: Dorkness Rising will have its show at this years Comic-Con. I have heard good review and will be on To Do list at Comic-Con.

Get rid of it.

2008-06-30T22:12:00.000-07:00

On June 1st I got a notice on the front door of the apartment door, saying due to the new insurance, BBQ Grills (gas or other) are not allowed to used or kept. They needed to be gone by month end. I look around to see if I can find a friend to pass it on to. About mid-month there was a general notice that BBQ Grill are going to be supplied around the pool area for residents to use. They seen to be trying to come up with a compromise due to the loss. Luckily I did not have to place my grill by the dumpster. I did find a friend to pass it onto. He came by last night for a pick up and then it was gone.

Its not here.

2008-06-23T21:55:00.000-07:00

Watching the Food Network show called Unwrapped. Item that came up was for Blue Bell Ice Cream that is sold to 17 mostly Southern States. Now that I recall I have not seen it in the Seattle area, I guess Seattle is not Southern, it more Northern.

Back in my younger days, when me and my brother were at the YMCA summer camp, I am sure there was a field trip to the Blue Bell Creameries. I recall a long bus trip, but worth the free ice cream at the end of the tour.

ComicCon is almost here.

2008-06-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

I checked the website today and found they have posted the Action Figure Exclusives available only at the 2008 ComicCon.

Its time to make a list and check it more than twice.

On the First page I see:
1. SDCC 2008 Marvel MIGHTY MUGGS- Peter Parker $20.00

On the Second page I see:
2. Iron Man MIGHTY MUGGS $20.00

On the Third page I see:
3. Marvel Miniature Alliance 6 Piece Figure Set with Metallic Paint $20.00

And on the Forth and last page I see:
4. Iron Man Helm - Mark 2 $39.99
5. Skeleton Jack Cosbaby $7.00

Disclamer: Just becase I listed the here does not mean I will get them. I have the right to pick a choose the products I like and I do not want to spend all my money on the first day geting the above item. I plan to be broke a the end of the con, not the beginning.

Slave Leia Photos at SDCC

2008-06-20T18:26:00.000-07:00

Found via Flickr that at this year's Comic Con there will be a meeting of the Slave Leia in there metal bikini. I missed it last here as seen here from last year. This year it will be on July 25th at 1 PM at the Gentle Giant booth around Jabba the Hut. Check out the web site here. My plan to get some good pictures, time will tell.