Wacky news

The German army sent a draft notice to a four-week-old baby named Lucio, ordering him to report for duty within the next 10 days, before realising it had blundered.

A spokesman for the army said the notice had been sent erroneously because a clerk typed in the wrong date of birth for the boy from Aubstadt, in southern Germany.

“It was an accident,” an army spokesman told Reuters.

“Somebody entered the wrong number into a computer. There was no harm done.

"We realised the error the same day and called up the family to tell them to throw the notice away when it arrived.”

New Source.

Happy Easter.

DVD to cash.

I had some old DVDs that I did not want, that I bought the full set on or got the special edition of a old DVD. I cashed the out at my local DVD/CD store for $44.00, which was around $2 - 5 each for the lot. Cleared up some space and added some cash to my pockets.

Does not match.

Today at work I talked to a woman named Joy, but there was no joy in her voice.

A change in rent.

This last Saturday I got a letter about renewing my rent for my current apartment. Apparently there was rent increase from my current rent of $920 to $975. The place is in a good location, was remodeled last year and is still affordable. Papers were signed for a 10 month lease.

What I did today.

Today I saw the movie TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), which was a great movie, at the 11:05 am to get the lower cost, which is around $9.00 for prine time. Great movie. One thing I saw at the end of the movie in Splinter room, on a shelf was that time travel specter in the 3rd movie. After the movie I got some food and played Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords on my PSP. And them I went over to the Games Workshop to have a look around. Its close to where I live , but I have never been in there. I did find a good color (Desert Yellow) to use for some minis I am painting.

Time frame. Update

I check the GeekLable.com today and low and behold our picture has been posted on the GeekLable Fan Photos page. It took a while, but there it is.

From when I sent the photo, Feb 25th to today, Mar 31st. It took around 35 days to get the photo posted.

Our HERO game tangents.

Here are some of the off topics that came up durring on HERO RPG game on 3/24/07:

1. Deep Space Nine episode: Trials and Tribble-ations

In our game Bob's character, Darbor said something along as this: When Bashir and O'Brien ask Worf why 23rd Century Klingons look so different he will only tell them "it was a bad time in our history... we do not discuss it with outsiders".

2. South Park episode: With Apologies to Jesse Jackson

3. Bob's character new dog: the size and name of it.

4. The flash game of Desktop Tower Defence
started a Group Scoreboard under the name "Luckless"

My Anime Rant

Watched the Pokemon movie, Pokemon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, that was Cartoon Network tonight and was sorry to see a good chunk of the movie missing. I saw the Japanese version of the movie the movie opened with a good overview of the Pokemon world which was about 4 to 5 minutes. That was missing. Then the next shot was with the Pokemon Ranger rescuing the Pokemon egg from the pirate ship which was about 10 to 15 minutes. That was also missing. From what I could tell the movie did not suffer from the cut shots, the scenes were in the original Japanese version, why were they not kept. I do not know why the movie was not kept whole. The only reason I can possibly see is it was cut for time. The movie was given 2 and a half hour, but the movie only used 2 hours and 10 minutes. The other 20 or so minutes were used to a different cartoon show.

Thats my story and I am sticking with it.

The Flight

Meet up with Rich and JP after work to get our tickets for the flight to San Diego Comic Con. After some food we head over to my place. Rich started with a flight the would work. Next JP, with a little work, was able to find the matching flight (thru Orbitz). Last , was me. Found the need flight to match the others (no trouble finding it) and booked the flight. Step two complete.

Room. Check.
Flight, there and back. Check.

Time frame.

GeekLable make a great shirt, it has held up to a few washing so far. I had given our game group (of 3 including me) a GeekLable shirt. On one game day I got everyone to put on the shirt and was able to snap a picture.



From what GeekLable's Web site says, "Have a fan photo you'd line to share?". So I did. I email the photo on February 25th and got this email responce on March 6th:

Hey heath,

Thanks for the awesome photo! Sorry not to get it online sooner. Hopefully, I have it online in the next day or two.

jay

Jay Lynn

President

Geeklabel, Inc.

www.geeklabel.com

As of today, March 18th, it has not shown up yet on their photo page. You say 2 days, it should be posted there in around the 2 day. It has been 12 day, it should be posted by now.

Thats my rant and I am sticking to it for now. ;-)

300 the movie.

Some info on "300":

Time Warner Inc.'s battle epic "300'' was the highest-grossing movie for a second straight weekend in U.S. and Canadian theaters, taking in $31.2 million.

The movie topped Sandra Bullock's "Premonition,'' which opened in third place with $18 million, and Universal Pictures' ``Dead Silence,'' which debuted fourth with $7.7 million, box- office tracker Media By Numbers LLC said in a statement today. ``Wild Hogs'' retained second place, taking in $18.8 million in its third week of release.

``300'' last week broke the record for a March opening, taking in $70 million. While receipts fell 56 percent this week, the movie has now made $127.5 million since its March 9 release and is the biggest-grossing film this year for Warner Bros., which may have its second number-one debut of 2007 when ``Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' opens next weekend.

The full story is at Bloomberg.com

To paint or not to paint.

I made a offer to Bob, my fellow Hero Game player, that if he found a mini figure that I would paint it. The first one he found was Tolan, Male Druid (2692) of the Dark Heaven Legends line from Reaper Mini. It looks good, but he found a better one, Blackclad Druid (PIP81019) of the Iron Kingdoms line from Privateer Press. He liked this one better, the character is holding a long ax type weapon, which looks it could be converted to a staff weapon which Bob's character mainly uses. Early this week I was planing to sit down and start them. Well, I did sit down and opened the Blackclad Druid figure picked off the biger pieces of the metal on the figure. I went to my craft box (which is where my paints, brushes and tools are) to get the get the files to smoth down the edges. But they were not there, I looked around but still could not find them. I recalled the last time they were used were on some horse mini I purchased a few months ago. I gave it a few days, but sill no luck. Last night I looked from file in the local area, but again no luck. Today a made a trip to American Eagles Hobbies over in Seattle to pick a set of fine files and found a another figure for myself. Now I start to prep the minis and get them painted. Thats my story and I am sticking with it.

The Death of Captain America

A bad day in Marvel history.

The superhero's death in Captain America No. 25 is the latest development in Marvel Comics' long-running "Civil War" story line, in which the American government is cracking down on superheroes, requiring them to register or be declared traitors. Captain America had resisted the government and was killed on his way to trial.

Check out the story here.

Not a good day. Update.

From what has been told to me. Kate will be heading home this Wednesday, while Chad will be going back to work. Kate will also be put back on solid foods.

The state of the game questionaire.

Here is the 2nd email on the state of game of out Hero game we are currently in. My answeres are in red type.

Gentlemen,

It is that time again. Time for your thoughts and comments. I am
BCC'ing everyone again to keep thoughts private.

Character maintenance:

Do you like where you character is right now (as in its development)?
Yes I do.

What new things are you interested in for your character?
As a change, maybe a new little power that we my have. Maybe something strange.

Player's Thoughts:

Just wanted to get some feedback from you two on several things. Sort of a pick-your-brain type of thing. The following are not in any sort of order, just how they came out of my brain:

1. (Most important to me) Are you having fun? Yes I am.
a. What do you like? The story is good, with a battle here and there.
b. What do you hate? Liver. Oh, about the game. Very little. Nothing come to mind at this time.
c. Is there something that can be added, removed, or done
differently to make the game more fun for you? Just to toss out something, maybe have metal be a little more available, so they could be used a little more. The blacksmith and armorer skill will not get to much use. Also maybe some people have a minor power or small ability they could use or have to have a little magic in the area. It posable there is something in the water.

2. Plot hooks. The way I have been running it right now is pretty
controlling of where you go and what happens. At this point, I like the some what controlling path.
a. What things that have happened, or have heard about, in the game did you want to explore in greater detail? A large city is good to explore, and there is those pesky wizards we could pay a visit to. How about the pesky bandits.
b. Any sort of side plots would you like to see in exploring something about or for your character. Some side quest on Vaden's family.
c. Did you still want me to lead you more often that not? Do you want to pursue your own opportunities? Or is there some sort of middle ground that you two want? I like the way it has gone so far along the path you have given us so far.

3. Game mechanics. Rules that we are using in the game.
a. Any rules that you read about (especially the optional ones)
that you want me to include? I am happy with the rule we have currently.
b. Anything in the rules that do not make sense to you? Or that
you think that they is a different interpretation? Nothing that comes to mind. As the item come up in the game, I will give out my 2 cents.
c. Anything that you think is just plain dumb? Nothing that comes to mind at this time.

4. Did you have any other thoughts or comments? How a board game night sometime. Not to replace a RPG day, maybe a Sunday or Wednesday? Or if a break is needed, this is a option.

Thank you for all of your help and for playing in my game.

Norm.

Not a good day.

It has been a week sence this has happened, I wanted to wait for a while frined of the family were told by Chad himself. I read the following email on Saturday Feb 24th, while the email was dated Friday Feb 23rd and this all hapened on Thursday Feb 22nd. This is what he sent me and my parents from Chad (my brother):

Yesterday, Kate was admitted to New York Presbyterian after fainting and having abdominal pains. It turns out that the blood vessel leading to Kate's spleen had ruptured, a condition that went undiagnosed for many hours until she eventually lapsed into unresponsiveness and was rushed into surgery. After suffering massive blood loss, Kate is recovering really well and was breathing on her own just six hours after they closed her up. Unfortunately our daughter was not so lucky. She passed away after a crash C-section in the emergency room. We haven't yet processed the loss fully yet, but we feel amazingly lucky that Kate is alive.

Everything is much better, Kate is still in the hospital resting. She is able move around on her own a little . Kate is recovering nicely and healing at a great rate (according to the doctors, Chad said).

To close a podcast.

About a week ago I recorded the ending credits for one of my favorite podcast, The Dragons Landing Inn. With the next podcast, Episode Bravo 74, it showed up at the end. Yea me.

ConQuest Day 2 and 3

Only a few games were played these last 2 days. Saturday morning I went to a Intro to Shadowrun game which went over the game history, character classes and a sample fight. I had the afternoon free, so with a friend we got some lunch and went see the Ghost Rider movie. That night the Savage World game of Stargate: Mictlan had a full house of player.
On the last day (for me), I only went for one game. The game was Intro to Dying Earth. With only one person showing up (that would be me) we went over a little of the history, the game mechanics and a short sample intro game. It was a ok system, it might have been a better experience if more people would have shown up. The game system was based off a outcome of a d6 with a pool of possable rerolls. That was one thing I did not like about the system.
Over all it was fun time, not as large as Dragonflight was last summer, but still fun.

ConQuest Day 1

Having registered before hand, I pick up my registration packet in the lobby. There was going to be custom dice (with the my name, con name and date) was going be part of the packet, but was not there. I found out it was due to low turn out last year, they cut the cost some where. A little sad on that, not a big deal. I picked up a convention shirt, tried to put on my credit card, had a little problem with it, I ended up paying cash for it. During this time it hit 3 pm and the game I wanted to play filled up. I ended up reading a book for a while and did two quick games of a block stacking game. I got my name down for the next game I wanted to play, Depth of Evil, a Pulp Hero game with the Hero System rules. The character I ended up playing was the Green Hornet with other similar 30s heroes in the group. Our group was able to defeat the enemy and save the day.

The game listing for Depths of Evil:

Captain F. Schaeffer, Cliff Secord and other adventurers of the 30's join forces to battle an ancient evil lurking beneath the Atlantic waves!

When I got home I got a good look of the con shirt, it said "Veni, Vidi, Conquest!". Which comes out to say: "Came, Saw, Conquest!"

Off to sleep for the next day of gaming.

My plan of attack.

ConQuest is around the corner. My plans so far are as follows:

Fri.
3:00 PM Big Al and Able Team vs. the Snow Monster! (Spirit of the Century)
7:00 PM Depths of Evil (Pulp Hero)
Sat.
10:00 AM Intro to Shadowrun (Shadowrun 4th Edition)
1:00 PM Shadowrun: The Body Electric (Shadowrun 4th Edition)
7:00 PM School of Illusion (Talislanta 4th Edition)
Sun.
12:00 PM Intro to Dying Earth (The Dying Earth)
8:00 PM Who Stole My Zepplin? (Hollow Earth Expedition)

Here is the online game schedule.

The games may change or a movie may be seen instead of a game. Time will tell.

From point A to point B.

Last night there was this sound coming from the right side of the car. I thought it might be some rubber coming off the tire, but the sound did not come from the wheel well. I had to pull over and see what it was, thinking there might be something wrong with the front right tire. It turned out to be the pasenger side belt stuck in the door draging on the ground and hitting the car.

Also on the way back from a hair cut, I noticed that the car hit 21,000 miles.

Update: I was pointed out that with my car the max number it could show is 99,999 miles before it would go back to 00,000. So, it could be 121,000 miles or even 221,000 miles.

A rush to get a room.

The phone lines opened today at 9am for hotel reservations for the San Diego Comic Con 2007. A group of us are planing on going and pool our resources and go this year (this is the first large convention for me). Rich starts work a little after 9am and tried to call in and get a room. Busy signal. I had a break and tried. Busy signal for me also. Rich got thru around 11am and there was no one room for the time frame we were looking for (July 25th to July29th) and was put on a waiting list. I got thru at about 12:30pm and also got put on a waiting list. With luck, a frind of Rick got a room for the time frame (but a little ways away for the convention center) for $200 a night. Which for a group breaks down to smaller chunks. Yea for us.

The GeekLable Shirts

I ordered some GeekLable shirts as a x-mas gifts for my game group on Jan 4th. I got the notice for the items on Jan 29th. Thats 25 days to get the product. To compare to a simular product, I ordered a Dragons Landing Inn shirt from CafePress and got the item with in a week (7 days).

To make a long story long, the GeekLable shirts were sent to my apt. manager office which is open from 9am to 6pm. I have to get to work before 9am, so that would work for me. But from work I got home on Tuesday about 10 min till 6pm. They were closed for the day. The next day I got home 15 min, again they were closed. Thursday came around, I got home about 20 min and yes they were closed again. That day I found out that we were gaming the next day. I needed to get the shirts for the group. I came home from lunch around 1:15pm and they were closed for lunch. I got lunch myself and right before I headed back to work and found they were open. I picked the package brought it to the group to hand them out.

Looks like a good product, but processing time sucks. Over 3 weeks!

Podcasts and Conventions

I sent some info local conventions to my local podcast I listen to and got mention on air on Episode 72.

• ConQuest NW - Feb 16-19 in Bellevue WA
• Dragonflight 2007 - Aug 10-13 also in Bellevue, WA

A long punchline.

Had lunch with the parents today. I was talking to mom about computers and that I have not used my Power Macintosh in a long time. I offered it to them so they get some use out of it. I explained that I use the PC and do use the Mac any more. She could not grasp the difference between the two. I next stated that the Macintosh was a Apple product. She was surprised with hearing this, she has using Macs for over 10 years. That is one long punchline.

Retro Cell Phone Handset

The Retro Cell Phone Handset comes in three excellent colors -- Back-In-Time Black, Retro Red, and Way-Out White. The handsets have the standard 2.5 mm plug, plus you also get adapters, so it should work with just about any cell phone. The sound quality is good (butt not Hi-fi), and the "Cool Factor" is off the charts.

Link

Become An M&M

Found a character creater at the M&M's web site:

Become An M&M

My M&M Picture

Star Wars Car

Found some picture of what looks to be a Star Wars car at Knuttz.com.

http://knuttz.net/hosted_pages/Star-Wars-Car-20070124

How Digg Works

Been using digg.com for a few days now to look thru the new story and posts. I started by go to my podcast and "digg it". Then found that this site had its uses.

Found the link on digg on "How Digg Works" thru how stuff works.

How Digg Works

The Dresden Files

Watched the pilot episode called "Birds of a Feather" the other night and enjoyed it. I checked the episode number on my TiVo and it was labled 103. This was not the first episode, but the third (at least in production). For the first episode shown it did give some good information (a mix past and current events) to get you hooked on the series.

Link to SciFi.com, home of the series.
Some found info.

"Heroes" renewed for 2nd Season!

On Jan. 17, NBC announced that it was ordering up a full second season of the hit series, about ordinary people who discover they have extraordinary abilities.

For the full story.
For Digg story.

ConQuest Soon

ConQuest is next month and a list of RPG is showing. A few Hero game were canceled due to the GM had something come up. There are still a good crop of games showing. With no online registering for the game, I wonder how fast the games will fill.
At this time, there is a Hero game on Friday, a Unknown Armies/Over the Edge and a Hero game on Saturday and a Hero game late Sunday that look good to me. There are no games showing on Monday, probable due to the limited hours from 9 am to 1 pm.

The list for the RPGs: The List.

Wii for Water

Nintendo Wii 'Water' Radio Hosts Fired

Radio station KDND 107.9's "Hold Your Wee For A Wii" contest that caused the water intoxication death of Jennifer Strange has resulted in ten employees being fired.

To get a human.

Found a new web site:

The gethuman project is a consumer movement to improve the quality of phone support in the US. This free website is run by volunteers and is powered by over one million consumers who demand high quality phone support from the companies that they use.

Basicly it tells you how to get a human to talk to when you call a company and get the IVR phone system.

gethuman.com

Ghost in the Shell

Found some info on Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society

NEWS: http://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/47_/index.html


YouTube Video Link

To BLOG or to WIKI.

Our GM has set up on his network a Blog and a Wiki. The Blog covers our character, my is for Vaden. The Wiki covers the game, characters and other items.

Blog: Vaden's Blog

Wiki: Games and Gadgets Wiki

There is not much there at all right now, but given some time, some info will show up.

Junk Food.

At our RPG games we have been eating a lot of junk food. It was brought up about eating health at the game table with better health snacks. A few item were brought up, a few yea and nays on a few foods. We shall see how this goes over the next few weeks.

Also a few DVDs were brought up:
Bones, Seasons 1 (I am lending Bob to review.)
Frank Herbert's Dune (I am lending Norm to watch.)

My snow covered car.

After a few days of not using my car (I walk to work), I cleared off the snow off of it. That took awhile clearing off the front, rear and the sides, leaving the top for now.

Update: . . . and to have it snow again a few hours later.

Another Update: Here is the before picture of the car.

Snow still around.

Wednesday it snowed and is still around today (Friday). The temp has been a high of 31 and a low of 19 today. From what I heard it took most people longer to get home. During these time I am glad I live near work and can walk if needed. I good number of people did not show up to work the follow day (Thursday).

The USB Beverage Chiller

It works. Got one for Christmas and have been using it a few days. Plugs into the USB port on your computer and keeps your drink cool.

USB Beverage Chiller

Family guy - rejected S04E01 beginning

In the mail.

The calendars have sent out tonight and should be there in around Monday (I hope).

The post office (near my apt) has a 24hr machine that has been down. So I headed over to downtown Bellevue's post office, which has a working machine. Postage has been purchased and the package has been drop off in the drop box tonight.

This year's project was more work than the past. There was the 20 or so hours worked on picking and scanning in the paintball photos and working on the layout of the calendar. And then there was the DVD project I have been working on for a long while. It was off and on over the last year or so. One down and a few more to go. As a added bonus to the second DVD I was able to tape a item on paintballs. It all take time, just to get the best quality from VHS Tape to DVD to Computer (for layout with Menus) and back to DVD.

The guests from New York.

My brother and his family has left and I am back at work. One of the things I will remember about the was my father's birthday gift. I called mom and checked dad's size for blue jeans. I was told Levi 501 with the size of 31 x 30. I had found a close out sale and jumped at the price and got 6. A story came up about how dad did not like button fly. For the heck of it I checked the ones I got. As I went thru them I said "shit" six time. Levi 501s are button flies. I did not know this. Ok, this may still work. The family went to the mall and Chad (my brother) found out the his size was not the 31 x 30 as I was told. Now I was screwed. The close out sale item were not refundable. Kate (my brother's wife) and I snuck away and found some Levi in the right size and some shirts for him. All was saved. Yea!

Wacky news

A Doctor Who fanatic in York, England has made a Dalek to scare away drunken students from his street. (WENN)

Click here for the full story.