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

. . . . 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

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

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

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 . . . .

. . . . 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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Moo Cards

Ran across some pictures on Flickr today of Moo Cards and said what is this. With some diging I found out what they are. Custom mini-cards, pictures on one side and info on the other. Good for business cards, personal cards, product info and many other things (I can not think right at this time). The size of the cards are 0.87 in by 2.76 in. Looks like a good idea. From the pictures I have seen, the pictures on the cards are not just of one, but of many different pictures.

MOO.com | MiniCards
Flickr Group for MiniCards
Found Weblog on Moo Cards

Some found review info on D&D 4th Ed.

AICN World Exclusive: Massawyrm Has Played Dungeons And Dragons 4th Edition!!
Part 1: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35776
Part 2: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35799
Part 3: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35811

4E and New Players
http://freeport-pirate.livejournal.com/101102.html

Its here.

I ordered the Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook from amazon (for a good price). The email said the 12th, but it came today with a few other items. From the hype I have heard it is a great improvement from the previous version. Bob from our game group plans to run us thru the H1 module in August, to give him some time to read the rules and the module. During this time I hope to read up on most of the rules or at least bog down the book with post-a-note tags.

Its gone.

I have a '82 Volvo with a radio to match. I went to visit my parent for a while and parked in the back alley. Heading out I unlocked the door to find it already unlocked, the window was down a inch to vint the car and found the radio gone. The radio was at least 10 years old, had a cassette slot and had no memory for radio stations. Who would steal my POS radio.

Summary of Game Day

The new 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons is out today. At some game stores they game deoms of the new system. I did not do this, I took it easy on my day off. A friend and some other people I have played games with a few game conventions played at D&D Game Day and this what happened.

From a email that was sent to me:

Well, half the folks here were at Game Day, so this may seem
redundant to them, but after playing the system through three or four
encounters today with a couple of different characters, here's my take
on some things.

   The short summary is that I am very happy with the way characters
worked.  Having seen things work together (or not work), I have some
thoughts on how people should try to coordinate and I have seen some
things that I need to be aware of as a GM.  I saw every character
fulfill the role I envisioned for them and change the shape of the
battles they were in.  And I saw that whether you used your powers or
your just a basic attack, the important thing that characters do is
*not* roll damage.  It is the effects of all their other tricks that
matters, from the ability to move around or control other people's
movement to the ability to get or give bonuses or do huge amounts of
extra damage.

   Garry, Eric C, Tim and I got there around 9:15-9:30 am and they
were packed.  They clearly had more people than they expected in the
early morning.  We signed up and wound up waiting for a GM to finish
up and open a new table for us.  While we were waiting, we walked
around, saw a lot of things and met some folks.  Along the way I
managed to get some questions about things that I was curious about
answered.  Norm got there about 15 minutes after we did and we
managed to get him put at our table in a group of 5.

   They had some games out to play with while you were not playing
D&D so four of us went to a table and played a little Inn Fighting.
This is a simple, little beer-and-pretzels game based on the generic
"you are all sitting in a tavern"  scene where a bar brawl erupts.
We'd spent enough time wandering around and looking at things that we
really only got through about three rounds of the table before we were
called for our D&D game.  Tim was rolling 1s so I am not sure if he
was having fun, but I thought that Inn Fighting was at least a run for
Munchkin in the beer-and-pretzels genre.

   Around 11:30 we went down and met our GM, Chris Tulach, Head
Content Manager for RPGA.  We got to ask some fundamental questions
about things including whether or not RPGA would be at Dragonflight
this year (sounds unlikely, but he said to keep an eye out for Penny
Arcade eXpo three weeks later where they would be in full force!).  We
got started on the first scenario which was a 5-man adventure to
rescue some children who had been abducted.  We were promptly
interrupted (and Chris offered us a break) by a call that all the main
developers were upstairs signing books.  Tim and I went up to get
signatures and they were kind enough to sign everything that we had so
my entire gift set and Tim's StarWars Saga Edition all got love.

   We got back to the table and got down to gaming for most of the
rest of the afternoon.  The first adventure was a 5-man party with a
human cleric (Eric C), a dwarf warrior (Tim), a human warrior (Garry),
an eladarin wizard (Norm) and a half-elf rogue (me).  As mentioned in
the car on the way up there, the rogue had taken Eyebite as his
half-elven special and although there were a few times I thought about
it (and it would have been useful) I wound up not using it.  Our first
adventure was two or three or four encounters long (depending on how
you counted).  The "first" encounter was a puzzle and while I would
have given experience I would not have counted it as an encounter
(this matters for the distribution of Action Points).

   The second encounter was a combination of two kobolds and some
traps.  Tim did exactly what he was supposed to do as a dwarven
fighter and jumped up on the crypt being used as cover where he
promptly discovered the first trap and got a lucky save to avoid
problems.  The next action he had, the Kobold Tim was attacking tried
to knock him into the trap and Tim got lucky again and the trap was
"destroyed" by failed use.  Seeing this, Norm promptly used his
(normally unused) minor action and a telekinesis power to disarm the
other likely trap.  Important note: Minor action which could be
mistaken for flavor text on the wizard sheet is wisely used to
eliminate a trap that caused 20+ damage to a fighter at another table.

   Tim's Kobold runs away around the back of a pillar and moves to
join the other behind the other barricade that Garry and I are
assaulting.  I try to show off and burn some of my larger powers as
the rogue.  First, I run past the two Kobolds to get a flanking bonus
with Garry (making use of Artful Dodger to avoid some of the
Opportunity damage).  Then I try one Encounter attack intending to
push a Kobold into Garry's Cleave (this fails), then I spend my Action
Point to get a second attack and cripple the other Kobold so that
Garry is in a position to smash things.

   Every time Garry gets a chance, he dives onto the blade of any
Kobold attacking him and as Tim comes running up behind the second
Kobold to get flanking Garry hits zero hit points and we get to see
the death and dying rules.  It's pretty simple and, like everything
else in the system, favors the heroes.  Eric C tosses Garry a heal
before he's even been down for a full turn and Garry is conscious if
not back on his feet while the rest of us finish the encounter.

   The next encounter is probably supposed to be a single encounter
but we kinda diffused it.  There's a locked door with the abducted
boys behind it and a second chamber further along the "hall".  Tim and
Garry take point and examine the door and then I draw lock-pick duty.
While I am baffled repeatedly by the lock Garry moves on to see what
he can see.  All hell breaks loose at the same time...  Garry see's
the evil necromancer who grabbed the boys who activates some statues
in the room with the boys (stone golems?) and then sends his skeletal
minions to make trouble from the next room.  Seeing the trouble
showing up all the way around, I finally figure out how to roll and
unlock the room and the boys (who are close on my heals in initiative)
come running out and away from the combat.  Garry charges the
skeletons and Eric and Norm move to back him up while Tim and I look
at each other and the golems in confusion.

   The combat shows a couple more nice tricks about the system...
The golems move but don't reach us (I think that Chris took pity on
Tim and I to be honest) so I slam the door in their faces and lock it
back.  Then I run off toward the other fight and holler at Tim to
spike the door.  The golems bang on the door and fail to break it
down.  Now we're down to a one-front fight.  On that front, Norm says
he was a bit frustrated because he never had a clear line of fire to
use his controller powers.  (Fighters and leaders take note...
Getting surrounded causes issues because the controller cannot handle
the group of targets to provide you advantages.)  Norm finally took
his encounter teleport to a far corner of the room and unleashed his
Thunderwave power (another we have talked about) and turned the fight
completely.  He knocked the unreachable necromancer into the middle of
the party where Tim, Eric C and I were able to make short work of him
while Garry threw himself onto the skeletons' swords some more.  This
was the end of the scenario save wrap-up and teaser for the other con
scenario.

   In later conversation with Norm, I saw another thing that has not
been mentioned...  Some stuff that is hidden in the DMG which most of
you probably don't know about...  The system has very clear
instructions for GMs.  LET THE PLAYERS DO WHAT THEY WANT!  There is a
table which shows for every level what the DC and damage equivalents
are for easy, normal and hard combat actions.  Their example is "if a
player decides to grab the chandelier and swing across the room into
the troll to knock it into the brazier then LET THEM!"  The difficulty
should probably be medium since this is a typical cinematic stunt.
The damage should also be low or moderate for the level since it will
burn the troll but he can get out of it.  The player has not asked to
knock the Troll prone so probably make it medium."  Then you look in
the table, get the DC, call for it and allow the player to do damage.
Alternatively, if the player had wanted to knock the Troll prone, you
could instead make it a DEX vs. Reflex challenge and provide low
damage but also knock the Troll prone.  The ideal behind the table is
to give a GM a clear idea what the character should be capable of with
his normal powers and make this an equivalent alternative...  Not more
or less attractive, but a viable story-telling alternative...

   Norm left after our first adventure and the rest of us signed up
for the other campaign with one open slot.  We got assigned pretty
quickly (they had more GMs show up around noon so things got lots
busier).  The second adventure was a single encounter with a solo
monster.  The same characters...  This time, I am the human warrior,
Garry is the half-elf rogue, Tim and Eric C stay with their characters
and we had a kid named Liam and his father playing the wizard.  I
dunno what the others took away from this, but I learned a lot.
First, I had high initiative so I ran into the lead and Liam followed
right behind me.  Then the dragon moves and charges me.  That was the
only damage the dragon did to me the whole fight.  Eric C followed up
right after and healed me and then Tim and Garry stepped up to short
or medium range and unloaded.

   Because we knew this was a single fight encounter with a single
monster, I approached it in a way that I would not normally approach a
fight.  I opened by burning my daily and my action point.  My daily
missed but provided me bonuses for the duration of the encounter
anyway and my action point allowed me to hit and do damage (and mark
the dragon) before it could go after anyone else.  I kept the dragon
marked the whole fight and while it never seemed to help Tim, it made
the difference between being hit and not for Eric at least twice.
Other folks followed suit and the Action Points and Daily Powers
rained down on the dragon quickly.  Lesson to GM reinforces something
I read before...  Try not to open a day of adventuring with a solo
monster encounter, especially not a hard one, because as cool as it
sounds, your solo will be crippled, slowed, stunned and giving combat
advantage before the end of the first full round of combat.  Lesson to
players...  If the fight is dire enough to need your daily powers,
spend it early since it will save you other resources over the course
of the fight.  You'll have bonuses for more rolls or have less
opposition for the remainder of the fight.  You may not always see it
early, but when you do, don't hesitate.

   A solo encounter is a single beast designed to be equivalent to 5
normal monsters.  Since they took the lid off and showed us how to
make anything into an elite or solo in the monster manual, I can give
a brief summary about how the monsters work...  Normal monsters are
what you are used to from 3.0 or 3.5...  They also introduced minions,
which are equivalent to a normal monster in most ways but they have 1
hit-point, never take damage unless they are hit, but never survive
being hit.  Four minions equals a single normal monster for exchanges.
Elites are the next addition and they have twice the hit points of a
normal monster plus a "package" which gives them some special
abilities (usually related to a class or theme).  For example, one
package is the Lich package.  A gnome illusionist can become an elite
gnome illusionist lich with some necromantic bonuses, a susceptibility
to radiant damage and twice as many hit points and one new recharging
power.  A single elite exchanges for two normal monsters.  Finally, if
you take an elite, add another package and double its hit points again
you are close to a solo monster.  You also add some Action Points and
there you are...  A single monster which swaps for 5 normals and is
intended to be a complete encounter for a first level party all by
itself.


   More than anything else, the thing today brought home to me is
that position is mucho important in this system.  The ability to move
people and know when and how to move is a huge advantage.  The first
scenario was most changed by my rogue moving and avoiding attacks of
opportunity, Norm moving and then pushing the necromancer into a bad
spot and then my rogue moving the necromancer into a worse spot...
Would we have won without out that?  Yes, but not as fast or as
handily.  On the flip side, the dragon tried to run away from us a
couple of times and both times the warriors had abilities to punish or
prevent the move.  As a rogue, never try to move away from a
warrior...  You'll pay.  Dearly...

   In addition to the fun day, there was also loads of schwag.  I
have a dice bag for Eric A.  There were dice and miniatures and RPGA
tokens and all sorts of things to be seen and had.  This has just
served to whet my appetite for more in-depth play and I hope others
had as much fun as I did.

ComicCon soon to be.

Its about a month and a half away. Travel is taken care. The room is taken care of and we at least 5 people in our group to make the room cost low. I have set aside some stuff for the trip, but most of the packing will be done as the time is near. To see how much the plane ticket have changed, I plugged in the same info and found that the tickets went from $223.00 to $518.00. I am glad I got my tickets back in February.

Pirate's Booty

An ex-Jack Sparrow spills on life at the Magic Kingdom.

Link: lamag.com/featuredarticle.aspx?id=7016&page=1 @ Los Angeles Magazine

The Squirrel

Yesterday I stoped by a Jumba Juice and parked in the back. I was walking around to the front when I spotted this guy. I used my camera phone and snapped a picture. He came closer, I snapped another. I tried my luck for a closer shot. The squirrel came closer. I could reach out and pet it if it were for that squirrel bite. I had pushed my luck for today and went and got my drink. While waiting for my order, the squirrel came around to the front like of the Jumba Juice shop. It almost seemed like it was tame.

(Click for a bigger picture)

Meeting of Will Wheaton.

This last Saturday I hitched a ride with Rich to Emerald City ComiCon. I had read on his blog that he was going to be there and made a effert to seek him out. While looking around, the voice over the speaker said he was here and signing now. I left the group of friend I was with and headed over there with a good 15 people long. It did not take too long. He said he like the shirt I had on and asked where I got it from. The shirt said "Nice to meet you. Roll Initiative" from geeklable. It made my day. I picked the hard back verison of his current book, The Happiest Days of Our Lives and had it signed along with a picture from his TNG days. I had wanted to pick up some of his other books, but he did not have any there. I will have to see what he has at San Diego ComiCon. I shuck his hand (good grip) and took a picture of him (see below). Had fun, not a full day con, but found a few items I did not know I needed till I found them.

Iron Man Egg

I found this Easter Egg on the Iron Movie:

Captain Americas Shield in the background of Iron Man movie.

Crossover

Was watching the current CSI show (The Theory of Everything) on my DVR and I spoted Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman (in the background) from the Mythbusters show from The Discovery Channel.

Some found trivia on The Theory of Everything:

In order to see what caused the flames that killed a man, the team sets up various test using ballistics dummies. During an experiment to determine the cause of the man burning to death, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman from the T.V. show Mythbusters appear in the background, observing the experiment and taking notes. When a ballistics dummy is successfully lit on fire, the duo give an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

Another The Discovery Channel easter egg is seen with Hodges investigating a crawl space underneath a house. While crawling on his back through a lot of dirt, Hodges resembles Mike Rowe whom is the host of Dirty Jobs. Hodges says the word "dirty" three times in succession, as an homage to Rowe and Discovery Channel television show.

NowPublic

Just today, I had another request to add a picture to a NowPublic story from a email thru my Flickr account.

The picture was taken at the 2007 ComicCon. I was walking in the main room and noticed a puppet was interviewing a group of three people in Marvel costumes. I could not hear what was being said, but some hair pulling was done.

Superheroes Invade Met's Costume Institute on NowPublic

Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Over to Seattle.

Today I made a trip into Seattle over to the U-District to visit the local comic shop for Free Comic Book Day. The normal exit from the freeway was close, due to a lot of boats crossing (the exits goes over a river) and had to find a different way over to the U-District. Did stop by Half Price Books and fround a book I was looking for. Then I stoped by the comic shop to have a look at the free comic (and others items). Did not find any thing I was looking for. One of the guys that work there did remember my name (that was good), I had not been in the store from 2 to 3 years. Did not leave with much, but I did pick a great lamb dish that I had not had for a while. That was my day out.

Cut it out.

Last night I caught the last 30 min of "The Fires of Pompeii" a 4th season Doctor Who episode on the SciFi Channel. I had watched the original BBC episode a few weeks ago and with the US release I noticed they had cut at least 2 shots. One was at where the Doctor and Donna were running back to town from the escape pod and they just showed up the house were the Tardis was. They cut the street shot that was in the BBC original. The other shot that was cut was at the very end where had a "Six Months Later" shot of the family that survived. Why did they need to do that? Time? More commercials time?

Schmap

The other day I found out that the picture that took in 2006 at Metropolitan Museum of Art of some armor has been oked to show on the Schmap site, which show East Cost Museums. The picture shows off some armor and head off the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Click the picture above to see the bigger picture of
the web site. The direct web site to the picture is here.



Click the picture above for the full picture
that shows on the Schmap web site.

The 20,000th View on Flickr

As of today, I have over 20000 views on my Flickr pictures, a update from 16000 views on 02/17/08.

Wrong Turn

Tonight's plan was to get some food after work and see a movie with some friends. That did not go as planed. I got off work killed a little time. Got a table before the other got there. We ate and talked. One of the others had found out from the internet that the movie started at 7:50pm. We all got there about 7:35pm and found out the movie had started at 6:50pm and the next one was not till 9:35pm. We used out phone to find other theaters near by and what time the movie stared: 6:10pm (no), 6:20pm (No) and the last was found for 7:50, it was 7:40 at this time and would take at least 15 min to get to downtown Bellevue on a Friday night (NO!). We called the night done and went our own ways. At this time it was lightly snowing. It was not sticking to the ground, but it was snowing mid-April. Its spring it should not be snowing at this time of year. Oh well. I did a little shoping in the area and went home.

Trek found.

Star Trek Meets Monty Python


Are you a Trekkie?

Check this out over at Savage Chickens.

Free Lunch

Our work group earned a free lunch for the January time frame. We had the Hamburger/Hotdog lunch on April 5th.

Monday, April 14 we had our free lunch for Febuary. This time was a taco bar with all the fixins.

Both has great food. Looking foward to the next one.

Sakura-Con 2008

Saturday, I went to Sakura-Con at the Washington State Convention Center. I carpooled with Rich and JP. The day started at 8:30am at work's parking lot with Rich picking me up. We got there about 8:50am. Registration took about 30 min, which is alot better than the 3 hours it did last year. Getting there early sure did help. I went down to the dealer area to find it not open yet. I hung around the entrance area and took some pictures of the people in costumes. The doors opened, I did a round of all the tables. Took some pictures and did another round of the booths. Took some breaks in the Anime Theater or in Artist Alley at Rich's table. The dealer room closed down at 6pm, I hung around took some pictures and waited around till a anime movie was playing. I got most of the way thru the movie, till the dance party up stares got noisy, the metal door in the back of the room was shaking and I could not hear the movie. It was something I had seen before, so I headed back to Artist Alley to hang out. Be headed out to get a bite to eat around 11pm and got back to the car around 12:30am to find my car covered with snow.

I had fun. I might do Sunday next year. It has been a few day sense the convention and my cafes are still sore from all the walking, at lease my feet are not hurting

Click the picture to get a biger picture of what
I took with me and what I came back with me.

Also check the pictures set I have of Sakura-Con on Flickr.
(It will take awhile to post all the pictures,
check back to see what has been added.)

Issue with work.

I went to work to finish my time sheet today and found out that the cell phone order I put in for my mom had been canceled. It seems that all my three cell lines must change to a current price plans for me to upgrade one line. For the two lines that I have for my parents, it is not a big deal. Their plan are like or are the current plans. But for my plan, I have a great low use plan. I currently spend about $17.00 for my plan. If I move over to a current (with employee discount) for the same options, it will cost about $30.00. To upgrade a phone (not mine), I have to change my plan and spend more money. This just sucks.

The knock on the door.

Not too late last night there was a knock on the door. A guy was there wanting to server his wife divorce papers a few doors down. He even offered money if I did. I said no and closed the door. (I do not want any pissed off neighbors in the apartment building I live in.) He went to the next door and knocked on it.

Some Work News

With the new schedule beginning next month, they are matching up to new supervisors with the same schedule. Along with this change, is also a move to a new desk. There is no date for the desk move, but I am sure it will be done by month end. For my new desk, I get a good view of a wall. There are some team mates from my current team and a friend the will be on the new team and of coarse some new face for me.

Found out yesterday, that there was a miscalculation with some of the spiffs when on the job. On my next paycheck I will get around $250.00 for the last 3 month of the miscalculations.

Stargate DVD

I picked up the new Stargate: The Ark of Truth early this week. One of the Special Feature is the Stargate Pannel they had at ComicCon 2007. I can say I was there. From the stage, I was in the middle off to the right. I tried to spot myself, but no luck. They never did pan that direction. They did trim it down to 20 to 25 min long. Cutting the intros and a lot of the in between questions dead air. One nice thing was, for answers to questions some clips were added to what was filmed.

Click here to see my picture of the Stargate Pannel at ComicCon 2007.

My 30 Day Project

The picture a day, for 30 day is now complete. I had to keep in mind a picture to post for the day and some times took a few for the day, in case something better came along. I enjoy the project in the short time, but would not over a longer time. I may do another 30 days at point in the future.

(Click the picture to get the breakdown of the pictures.)

Some things I picked up.

A busy day started with some OT at work at 5am to 2pm. Next I headed over to Norm's place to tag along for a Costco.

Picked up about $120.00 worth of food and stuff.

Headed over to Half Price Books. Found and picked up the follow game books.

• 7th Sea: Nations of Theah, Ussura
• 7th Sea: Secret Societies of Theah, The Invisible College
• 7th Sea: Secret Societies of Theah, Los Vagos

Next, headed over to Fred Meyer. Found the following TV DVD series on sale.

• Stargate SG-1 Season 8
• Stargate SG-1 Season 10

Also Norm lent me two book.

• Oath of Swords by David Weber
• The War God's Own by David Weber

Some things I picked up.

I stoped by Half Price Books on my way home and picked up a few books:

1. Shadow on the Sand (Book 5) Lone Wolf, A Role Playing Adventure
   It a pick your own adventure book as a RPG and it was found in the Dollar rack.
2. Blood of the Fold (Book 3 of The Sword of Truth) by Terry Goodkind
3. Also picked up a few Piers Anthony books.
1. Mercycle
2. Prostho Plus
3. Split Infinity (Book One of The Apprentice Adept series)
4. Virtual Mode (Book One of The Mode series)
5. On A Pale Horse (Book One of Incarnations of Immorality series)

System Restart

Today at work, our group had the system sofware upgraded. With me entering my login it went thru the process as normal till I got a message that it will restart due to new stuff. Again I login. I check the needed programs, I see I am missing a one. I choose it and restart it myself. About 30 to 60 min later, I am off the phones work on a little project when I get the 5 min till shut down message. So I shut it down myself. Thank the computer god that was the only time it happened (to me). I have noticed a few people around me that they got a the 5 min message durring a call and some of them had it happen to them 3 to 5 time durring the day. No more updated, please.

Some things I picked up.

1. Justice League: The New Frontier (Two Disk Special Edition) with a Green Lantern action figure from DC Direct with the DVD package (from Best Buy).
   (a cut good from the graphic novel to movie)
2. Beowulf: Director's Cut
   (looked good, noted some good reviews, never went to it the the theaters)

ConQuest NW 2008

My days at a RPG conventions call ConQuest NW.

Day 1 (Friday, February 15th)

Decline to game today. The games begin later in the day and decided to game with my normal gaming group.

Day 2 (Saturday, February 16th)

1. Freeport: The Buccaneers of the Sky
   Savage Worlds: Explorer's Edition
   
   
   
   
2. Arena of Death
   Hero System 5th Edition
   
   
   

Day 3 (Sunday, February 17th)

1. Cat: Dia de los Muertos
   Cat
   
   
   
   
2. Bureau 13: Roach Motel
   d20 Modern
   
   
   
   
3. When the Heroes Are Away
   Hero System 5th Edition
   
   
   
   

Day 4 (Monday, February 18th)

A pick up game of a Star Trek (TNG timeline) using the Hero System 5th Edition.

The 16000th View on Flickr

As of today, I have over 16000 views on my Flickr pictures, a update from 11000 views on 11/01/07.

The plane to ride.

Today after work me, Rich and JP went to my place to find a flight to ComicCon. A great nonstop flight was found to and from ComicCon. Due to the bad lay over with flight home from ComicCon last year, we were looking for a nonstop flight. One for $197.00 was found and bought today. The flight info was texted to Myles and Chris. Chris has his flight purchased (after he got home from work) and is in the next row over from our group.

To get a room for ComicCon (UPDATE).

Rich told me today, that JP got a room about a block from where the prev hotel was last year. It would be $1,000.00 for the 5 day. It would be about $200.00 per person for the 5 people we have planed. The cost of the room also covers the breakfast in the morning.

To get a room for ComicCon.

The phones opened to get a room for ComicCon 2008 today at 9am. I tried to call in at 9am for 15 mins durring my first break. I got 15 mins of a busy signal. I tried two hours later at my lunch and got into a live person to be told that all the rooms they had available were full. They offered a waiting list. Rich got a room on the other side of the airport, which is not near the convention center. Time will tell, if some more rooms open.

Some things I picked up.

Last week I picked up a few DVDs.

• Blade of the Phantom Master DVD (There was a preview on another disc and it looked good.)
• Veronica Mars: 3rd Season DVD (Picked it up for the great cost of $19.99 at Best Buy.)
• Life of Brian: The Immaculate Edition, 2-Disk DVD Set (One of the last Monty Python movies I needed to complete the set.)

30 days of pictures.

I have see a few 365 picture a day projects on Flickr. I wanted to test the water and see if I could do it on a small scale. That where this 30 day project of mine comes in. I am going to try for 30 day to get a picture a day posted.

This is going to be from February 1, 2008 to March 1, 2008. Most of the time I will be using my camera phone, which I have with me all the time and is 2.0 MP.

My 30 Day Project

The ComicCon number.

The number is up to four people that are going to the 2008 ComicCon. There is me, Rich, JP and Chris (which did not go last year).

The car is back.

It took about a week and a half to get the car back. Mostly it was waiting to get the part. The passanger side wiper transmission was broken. It took 2.5 hours to complete and $444.82 for the final cost. One small part that was under the dashboard cost a good amount of money to fix. On a side not, the fan in the Volvo had stoped working about a year ago. It had blown a fuse and was a easy fix.

My Nerd Test

Some things I saw and picked up.

Picked up my first Wii game the other day of Super Paper Mario. I like the prev game of Paper Mario. I am aware the it not a RPG like the GC system game. It looked good to me. Time will tell.

Looks at a few item to look up online.

• AMF Bowling Pinbuster! for the Wii (Got some bad, bad reviews, not a game I will be picking up.)
  
• Wii Zapper with Link's Crossbow Training (There were some good review of the game with the zapper, I almost picked it up myself.)
  

My car update.

Found out today, that to get to the wipers to check them out (on my '82 Volvo), you have to go thru the dashboard. I myself tried to look at how you get to them and had no luck. Its about 2.5 hours of labor at around $200.00 just to find out what needs to be fixed. Once there, maybe it is a easy fix (fingers crossed). From what I was told, Volvo still make parts that could be used on my car, if it is broken.

Some things I picked up.

This last Thursday I picked up two DVDs.

• Family Guy Presents Blue Harvest DVD
  
• DragonLance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight DVD
  (A good story, but the animation was just ok, it could have been better. The of animation and digital did not merge well.)

On the road home.

Coming back from my parents today, my cars wipers crapped out and stoped working. I pulled over to check what happened. The left one had pooped out and the other one is not working correctly. I need to get it fixed.

The new Wii.

I got the notice after work on Monday. Monday night it snowed.

Tuesday there was snow and ice all about.

Wednesday was better, I went and picked the Wii up at the post office, during my lunch. And after work I got some play time in.

(The Wii was a belated Christmas gift from my parents and my brother's family.)



Also see the picture group here.

Our HERO game tangents.

Here are some of the off topics that came up durring on HERO RPG game on 1/11/08:

TV (Series) - Big Bang Theory
TV (Series) - Buffy and The 8th Season in comics
TV (Cartoon) - Kim Possible
TV (Series) - Final season of Veronica Mars
Food - Rikki Rikki
Podcast - Dragons Landing
TV (Series) - How I Met Your Mother
Movie (DVD) - Shrek the Third

My game blog.

Some things I saw and picked up.

Picked up the book Stardust by Neil Gaiman at Half Price Books.

Also spoted two different covers of the MYTH series of books that I have read and reread.

MyMiniCity Found

As of today the town of Heathtown has been founded.

Found this nifty simulation over at Boards at Fear The Boot. It simple, you click and visit the town to make it grow. The more visits, the more it grows.

Please visit Heathtown.

If you want to start your own, click the "Build My City" button on the town page.

Wii Update

I just checked my email and found a update of the status of my Christmas Wii.

Subject: Wii were successful! Mer-wii Christmas!

We just wanted to let you know that we have your Wii in hand and will be sending it your way post-haste. Merry Christmas!

I almost have a Wii.

What D&D Character Am I?

I Am A: Lawful Good Human Fighter/Sorcerer (2nd/2nd Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-10

Dexterity-11

Constitution-10

Intelligence-13

Wisdom-13

Charisma-11


Alignment:
Lawful Good A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion. However, lawful good can be a dangerous alignment because it restricts freedom and criminalizes self-interest.


Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.


Primary Class:
Fighters can be many things, from soldiers to criminal enforcers. Some see adventure as a way to get rich, while others use their skills to protect the innocent. Fighters have the best all-around fighting capabilities of the PC classes, and they are trained to use all standard weapons and armor. A fighter's rigorous martial training grants him many bonus feats as he progresses, and high-level fighters have access to special melee maneuvers and exotic weapons not available to any other character.


Secondary Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)




Detailed Results:

Alignment:
Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (26)
Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (23)
Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20)
Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (25)
True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (22)
Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19)
Lawful Evil ----- XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Neutral Evil ---- XXXXXXXX (8)
Chaotic Evil ---- XXXXX (5)

Law & Chaos:
Law ----- XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Neutral - XXXXXXXX (8)
Chaos --- XXXXX (5)

Good & Evil:
Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14)
Evil ---- (0)

Race:
Human ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Dwarf ---- XX (2)
Elf ------ XXXXXXXX (8)
Gnome ---- XXXXXX (6)
Halfling - XXXXXXXX (8)
Half-Elf - XXXXXXXX (8)
Half-Orc - XXXXXXXX (8)

Class:
Barbarian - (-25)
Bard ------ (-19)
Cleric ---- (-2)
Druid ----- (-23)
Fighter --- XXXX (4)
Monk ------ (-2)
Paladin --- (0)
Ranger ---- (0)
Rogue ----- (-2)
Sorcerer -- XXXX (4)
Wizard ---- XX (2)

Try it out yourself here. What Kind of D&D Character Would You Be?

Something I picked up.

Did not find any new DVDs to pick up at the store, did find a older one on sale in the $9.99 bin.

• Shooter with Mark Wahlberg

The calendar come today.

My Calendar from SnapFish came today.

I did not do a calendar for my friends this year due to time, scaning a lot of old paintball pictures and the cost of it. I did have some nice pictures os a few paintball, 2007 Comic Con, family pictures and a few shots from New York.

There were a few shots for a few dates that I could have centered. But all in all, it came out good.

I started the month in February, so I would full month on my wall at work.

My YouTube first post.

Gingerbread City



At work, they gathered up all the Gingerbread Houses that the teams did and placed them in a conference room. It looks like a Seattle city scape done in food and candy all spread out on a conference table.

See my pictures that I took here.

This is my first post on YouTube. I took video with my camera phone, a LG-9900 (aka the enV). The upload was simple, fill in some info and upload the origanal file that was stored on the phone. Once uploaded, YouTube did its thing and converted it for the web.

Some things I saw and picked up.

Pick up two DVDs:

• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, The Laughing Man DVD
  (Put together from the Laughing Man plot from first season. Most of, if not all, the voices of the main characters voices have been redone. From what I recall, some of the scrip was rewritten to fit all the bits and parts into a 160 min DVD.)
• Ragnarok: The Animationm, First Quest

Due to geting a Wii for Christmas (or will get soon), I am looking into some games. Here are a few that I saw in the store and looked good.

• Super Swing Golf Season 2 for the Wii
  
• Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure for the Wii

One item of note that I snaped a picture of with my cell:

Sports Pack for the Wii

Attachments for your Wii remote from NERF. Looks to include a club attachment for golf game use, a bat attachment for baseball game use and racket attachment for tennis game use.

Moving.

I just got a call about the apartment that it not needed that I move out of my current apartment. Yea, I can get rid (recycle) of some of the boxes that I started to collect. When asked, looks like I could renew the lease with out being kicked out.

Books I have read in 2007.

2007 is over and my list is complete. The total of books read is: 19. Which is good for me. There were some comic books and mangas that were read in between the books and are not listed.

The list is in order of read. The top is most recent and the bottom is one I stared reading the beginning of 2007.

1. Ringworld by Larry Niven
2. Trail of Time by Jeff Mariotte
3. Class Dis-Mythed by Robert Asprin
4. Phule's Errand by Robert Asprin
5. No Phule Like An Old Phule by Robert Asprin
6. Phule Me Twice by Robert Asprin
7. A Phule And His Money by Robert Asprin
8. Phule's Paradise by Robert Asprin
9. Phule's Company by Robert Asprin
10. Conrad's Quest for Rubber by Leo Frankowski
11. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
    
12. Ghost In The Shell:SAC Revenge of the Cold Machines
13. The Last colony by John Scalzi
14. The Pocket and the Pendant by Mark Jeffrey
15. Myth-Told Tales (2007) by Robert Asprin & Jodi Lynn Nye
16. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever: Book One, Lord Foul's Bane
    
17. Conrad's Time Machine by Leo Frankowski
18. His Dark Materials: The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
19. His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Things you do not say . . .

Dad's birthday is Jan 5th, but my brother is us in Seattle. We got a cake, wrapped our presents and planed on celebrate it early, today. We got them in the house with out him knowing about it. We set them up in the dinning table while Dad got dinner ready. Benjamin (my nephew) came into the dinning room and yelled out "Who is the cake for?". He quickly was silenced. He had looked at the cake, but he did not read it. It did say"Happy Birthday Dad" on the top of it.

Happy New Year.

Out with the old: 2007

In with the new: 2008

It is a little early, but HAPPY NEW YEAR !

Drive Someone Insane with Postcards

See ebay listing: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320196148761

Below is the ebay description:

You are bidding on a rare chance to traumatize a treasured friend or relative with baffling, mind-numbing, mystery correspondence from abroad.

Here is the arrangement:

I will be spending the Christmas holiday in Poland in a tiny village that has one church with no bell because angry Germans stole it. Aside from vodka, there is not a lot for me to do.

During the course of my holiday I will send three postcards to one person of your choosing.

These postcards will be rant-ravingly insane, yet they will be peppered with unmistakable personal details about the addressee. Details you will provide me.

The postcards will not be coherently signed, leaving your mark confused, guessing wildly, crying out in anguish.

"How do I know this person? And how does he know I had a ferret named Goliath?"

Your beloved friend or relative will try in vain to figure out who it is. Best of all, it can't possibly be you because you'll have the perfect alibi: you're not in Poland. You're home, wherever that is, doing whatever it is you do when not driving your friends loopy with international prankery.

Your target will rack their brains in the shower. At dinner. During long drives. At work. On the golf course.

"Who did I tell about the time I got fired by a note on my chair?" they'll ponder, "And where the hell is Szczeczinek?"

But wait, there's more.

To add to the sheer confusion and genuine discomfort, one missive will be on an original promotional postcard announcing the 1995 television premiere of Central Park West on CBS.

Another will be a postcard celebrating Atlanta's disastrous hosting of the 1996 summer Olympic games.

Your mark will be at a complete loss, desperate for answers, debating contacting people he or she hasn't talked to in years.

"I know this will sound weird," they'll say, "but by any chance were you in Eastern Europe ranting about cantaloupe... twelve years ago... right before some show with Mariel Hemingway debuted?"

When you decide to end the torment is completely up to you. If you can, I recommend owning up on 1 April 2008 - giving you nearly half a year of joy and a George Clooney-esque level of prankage. If you can't hold it in that long, I totally understand.

The winning bid was $415.00

After work today.

With Christmas over, there are sales discounting most Christmas items. I hit two Bartell Drugs store, a Walgreens, a QFC, a Hallmark store and a JC Penneys. Found some stocking stuffers (for when family comes down this Friday), two ornaments (at 40% - 50% off) and switched out some Levi's 501 for Levi's 505 at the correct size (for dad).

Around the block.

Happy Chrismas day. My and my day tried to goto a buffet we have gone to the past and found it closed. We tried a few other places. I think I say a Starbuck open. We did find a Safeway that was open and picked up a few things and some hot food. Back at my parents place, while we ate our food it started to snow. It melted on the road and given some time it did stick to the grass and trees. With it snowing, I headed back to my place in Bellevue for the rest of the day. Thats my story for today. No gifts today, we are waiting for my brother to come down this Friday.

A Chrismas Greeting, of sorts.

The 12 Days of Email



This YouTube video was done for my brother's work and features his family.

The Apartment

A few weeks ago I was offered a deal to move to a different apartment. A free month's rent and repayment of any cost of utilities due to the move. When they remodeled the apartment, I think there is a problem with the placement of the water heater. At the time of the offer, dad was still in the hospital. About two weeks later, I informed them that I would like to do the deal. I left a message and did not hear back them. I pick up a package in the apartment rental office, they said they are waiting for work from the owners. Today there was some info taped on my apartment door. There are some new owners and new apartment manager(s). Looks like the deal may be off. Not sure if I should bring the issue up, maybe I will not have to move. Time will tell.

Our HERO game tangents.

Here are some of the off topics that came up durring on HERO RPG game on 12/08/07:

Book: Wizard's First Rule
TV: Chuck
Podcast: Dragons Landing

To start up again.

Things are getting back to a little more normal. I started to walk to work again. It was a bad day to start. It was raining and there was a wind. When I got to work I was only a quarter wet and found out that I left my lunch. The walk home was dryer.

Wacky news

A New York judge lost his job after taking 46 people into custody after they all refused to admit whose mobile phone rang (WENN)

Another Update

Dad is at home resting and working around the house. From the last few weeks I have been busy with family business. Today I got some me time and took it easy on my day off. Getting back to a more normal schedule for me. I did find out that part of my FMLA thru Metlife was approved and the other part needed some missing info to be completed.

Update

Dad is doing good on his rehab. With the holiday, there was a day of no rehab, but with my work. It game me some additional time off with out using any more FML. I go thru Metlife for FML, it took a while to get the paperwork, get it to the doctor to fill it out and get it faxed into Metlife. I should know if they are approved by this Wednesday.

The floor up stares.

I found out today, from dad that he will be moving up stares to rehab (physical and speech). It turns out that his room is right above the prev room down stares. He stares tomorrow with a full schedule.

Walking it off.

Found out that my dad is walking (with a little help from a walker, to keep him steady). He walk times up and down the halls. Given he had a fever yesterday and is clear for 24 hrs. He will be moved up to the rehab floor.

Good News.

Up thru Tuesday the 6th, my dad was not speaking. Just head nods. Today me and my mom came into the room. I said "Hi" and I got a "Hi" back from my dad. He has been speaking for most of the day and looks like he does not have any long term problems. He is progressing nicely.

The Sleep.

Today after work, a friend from dad's work, drove us (me and mom) to a vet. Once there, the family dog of 16 years was put to sleep. Due to age, being blind, deaf, not eating (even when given food) and not being able to walk, she was put to sleep in my mother's arms. It was a hard thing to do.

Here is a picture younger older days (I think it was a few years ago).

A bad Friday.

This is in basic terms to keep it simple. This last Friday, my dad had a fall off a ladders and hurt his head. Went into the hospital and had surgery. It went good and is recovering with some therapy this next week. To top it off, the family dog of 16 years is not doing good at all and is going to put to sleep soon.

The 11000th View on Flickr

As of today, I have over 11000 views on my Flickr pictures, a update from 8000 views on 9/3/07.

The drunk guy in the subway.

Yesterday I saw my first drunk guy in the New York subway. Heading back from dinner, I noticed a guy in a white shirt slumped down on a bench along the wall, off to my left. The train jerked to a start and he toppled over onto the floor. He did not move, he was dead drunk and it was only 8:30 pm. A guy near by, to the guy on the floor, came over to make sure he was alive. He slapped him a few time and he stirred.

The Painted Figure.

Last Thursday (10/18/07) I finished Bob's figure he gave (after I offer) to me to paint (oh so many months ago). Cleaning, priming and adding the base coat were the easy part. After I did that the figure sat around for a few months, our game was on hold due to our GM's wife was having a baby. We planed to met for our prep game on Friday (10/19/07) to talk about the game and our characters. I had put the paint of the figure off to long and need it finished. I went through my colors and picked the standard ones (armor, metal, leather colors). The choices were the small items on the figure and the one large item that not a standard color was the cloak. It took 2 nights after work to get a final product completed for our Friday get together.

I took some pictures of the different stages of the painting of Bob's figure, which should be named Darbor.



Click the picture for a larger picture and some more info on painting the figure.

The last few days.

Last night I went over to Norm's place to talk about the Hero game. We picked up some food and talked over dinner. Characters were talked about and for me very little will change. Bob's character will change on how it will be played and maybe the powers. The game will pick up in two weeks after my trip to New York, on Nov 2nd. After the take of the about the Hero game, we played a few games of FLUXX from Looney Labs. A fun game where the rules changes as the game is played. We got 4 games in and one game ended with a forced play of a goal. I also got a set of 6 new Hero dice from our GM as we prep for restarting our game.
A long time ago we came up with a name for game group, due to our some time unlucky roll of the dice and what ended up happening to us in the current game. We had for a while thinking of a icon for our group to post on the wiki and such. A few days ago my thoughts were running around and it popped into my head. A four leaf clover on fire, that luckless. You can see the picture off to the left, the first and maybe final draft of the idea.
On Thursday, a day off for me the power went off for about 2 hours, due to some high winds right when I was on the computer. It was during the day and it was still light out side. I got some comic reading done. The day continued. The next morning the alarm went off and I got up as usual. Got some food and looked at my watch. It was earlier than I thought, the alarm clock was running 15 min fast. Better fast than slow.

Dad's New Car

Today, me and dad went to two large lots near my apartment and found a car in his price range. It was a 2000 Subaru Forester. See below for the out come of the day. Good condition, AC, automatic and over 100,000+ miles.

Customer Service Week at work.

This week was Customer Service Week. Food, games and gifts all week long.

See some pictures here.

Game Night

Tonight was game night. This is our first meeting in over 3 months. It looks like the Hero game will be picking up soon.
We got 2 games of Give Me The Brain!, the color special edition. We then got some food and came back to play a game of Ticket To Ride. A new game for me. Not too hard to learn, but will take time to master. I did not win, but I did not do too bad.

Give Me The Brain!


Ticket To Ride

Older

Yesterday I headed over to a friends house thinking it was game night. It turned out I was off by a week. That showing my age. ;-) We talked and I got to see the new baby. With some time I headed over to Half-Price Books and found a few items. I next started to head back home, but stoped by Best Buy to pick up the The Grim Adventures of Bill & Mandy. Took a little bit of time, it was found in the B section. I thought it would be under the G section. Oh well.
While I was at Best Buy Chad (my brother) call to wish me a happy 35th birthday. Two days late, but understandable due to getting ready for our parents trip to see them in New York. I did learn that they have moved into the new bigger place and that dad is help refurnish most of the cherry furniture. The new place is about four blocks from Chad old place in Forest Hills and required about a month of work to clean and fix up the place before they moved in.
Just a little over a month away, I will be heading down to see them for about a week. Till then.

My 35th Birthday.

Today I turn 35. Today I took off work, slept in and took it easy. This last Sunday I had dinner with the parents and opened most my gifts. With the last gift arriving today. I got everything on my list (see prev post). Yea!

Also my parents are going to see my Chad and Kate down in New York for a few day. I picked them up and droped them off at the airport for a 11:50 pm flight.

On a side note, I found out it is also Talk Like A Pirate Day. Arrrr.

New novel based off the TV show, Heroes.

Got a email with the following info:

NEW YORK, NY - September 18, 2007 - Del Rey, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group, announced plans to publish a novel based on NBC's Emmy® and Golden Globe® nominated Heroes. HEROES: SAVING CHARLIE (Del Rey Hardcover; $23.95; on sale December 26, 2007) by Aury Wallington will be an original novel based on the characters Hiro Nakamura (Emmy and Golden Globe Award-nominated Masi Oka) and Charlie (Jayma Mays), created by executive producer/creator Tim Kring. It is developed through a licensing agreement with Universal Studios Consumer Products Group.

"One of the more memorable relationships in Season One was Hiro's first love, the waitress Charlie. We were as smitten as Hiro by that story and seized the chance to tell the full adventure of Hiro's six months in the past. Aury Wallington was hand picked by the writers of the show for her brilliant voice for these characters. The novel is a welcome addition to the Heroes family," said Tim Kring, creator-executive producer, "Heroes."

The novel--written with the full cooperation and consultation of the show's creators--will tell the story of Japanese office worker Hiro, who, through the use of his ability to pierce the space-time continuum and manipulate time, bravely catapults himself into the past to save Charlie, a small-town Texas waitress with an extraordinary memory, from being brutally murdered by super-powered serial killer Sylar (Zachary Quinto). Fans of the television series were given only a brief glimpse into Hiro and Charlie's relationship as it grew into love over six time-changing months, but their history is told here with the depth and insight that only a novel will allow.

To Sell a DVD

With two main outlets for DVDs (at least for me) there is a choice for new releases. Cost can be a factor. But if both stores have the same cost. This is where extras come in. Not the extras on the DVD, but item that come with the DVD. Here are a few examples.

Superman: Doomsday DVD
At Best Buy they had a Justice League: New Frontier mini comic book attached to the DVD.
At Circuit City they had a poster of one of the Death Of Superman comics.

Family Guy DVD
At Best Buy they had a Exclusive Animated Art of the DVD cover.
At Circuit City they had a little bit lower cost.

Smallville Season Six
At Bust Buy they had a mini visual guide to Smallville by DK.
At Circuit City they had it on sale, not sure if it different.

The ones above were the ones I recall from today's trip to the store. They did something similar with the Ghost Rider DVD and Heroes.
One thing I will point out is look for the sticker on the DVD saying the item is in or on the package. They the standard ones and the special one mixed together. Make sure you pick the right one.

Chainmail Bikini Webcomic

Check out the new web comic (with the link above)
and Digg the webcomic here.

Check out the podcast episode fromFear The Boot:
Bonus Episode 17 - web comic announcement

The 8000th View on Flickr

As of today, I have over 8000 views on my Flickr pictures, a update from 5000 views on 8/13/07.

Upcoming by Yahoo

Upcoming by Yahoo. Found this site the other day and updated a few events today. I think this is a good tool to see what other people my be going to and share some pictures (via Flickr) from that event. I have added myself to: ConQuest NW 2008, Sakura-Con '08 and Comic Con 2008. Also added a past event of Dragonflight 2007. Also added new banner off to the side of the blog of the upcoming events.

Preregister for ConQuest NW

I preregistered for ConQuest NW for a good price of $32.00. Five days of gaming from Feb 15th thru 19th of 2008.