The things you learn at the D&D table...
That, and roller girls make great cup cakes... no really... that isn't some kind of double entendre thing... one of the player's girlfriends made these awesome cup cakes with a melted Hershey's kiss in the middle... oh so tasty... and now she's taunting me with this red velvet cake description that is just... man... I'm having a Homer Simpson moment.
Packing, well, it goes. Man I hate how much dust gets everywhere no matter how much I try to clean... which is admittedly not as much as I should. At least this move will be easier than the last. We have enough boxes and I already have most of my stuff ready to put in boxes.
Warmachine continues to draw my interest... more as I read the rules and actually get a chance to play.
So this was one of the most cathartic weeks of my life. Took care of so many things and put so many others in motion for positive change. Going to end up waving good bye to someone who seems to be missing out, but that's the way things go. For so much of my life I've lived under so much weight, and this week did a lot to push that into the "done" column. Change is a brutal thing, and I'm feeling every bit of it, but man I'm happier to have things move forward.
All for now kids... anyone else want to share?
20 February 2010
15 February 2010
Weekend thoughts...
Watched most of the first season of West Wing Sunday... it's like watching a road map for the next 4 season... Sorkin telegraphs every story he's going to tell, but it's so brilliantly crafted, it doesn't matter.
Wiretree - great band... good driving to the lake music...
Warmachine is everything addictive about deck building in Magic The Gathering with the modeling fun of Warhammer... MK II is tightly written and the game seems to be all about going for the jugular. I'll have my Menoth army together by summer. Can't wait to learn a new game...
We are moving... Crowbar and I are moving just a hair north of where we are now because we found a better place for the effectively the same price... more space, we can see the sun and my cell phone works... just waiting to move out before I light up the old apartment on Yelp or something...
When I was a kid the dunk contest was the most magnetic thing ever... this year I completely forgot it happened until I heard the Sports Center Radio guy talking about how lame it was...
We got the T-Rex some D&D 4E on Friday... here's hoping the 1st TPK I've ever seen in 4E wasn't an indication of things to come....
A new Week dawns... anyone else do anything fun this Weekend?
03 February 2010
Siege and Lost
Mmmm... tasty serialized story telling
Lost came back... and while it answered things, it did the constant bait and switch of causing more questions... which is what Lost does better than any show ever has. I'm a sucker and can't wait to see where this goes.
"Osborn, you might want to turn around"
Siege... good God on a pogo stick... Siege. You can feel it when you read it... you can hear Bendis saying "remember how I kept telling everyone this was going somewhere? Well... ITS ON". Holy crap this is a great pay off book. I'm digging the heck out of it. Nevermind all of the push to it and the epic nature of the stories once you realized that was where Marvel was going.
All in all... its a good time to be reading comics... the coming tablet wars will redefine the industry, and the storytelling is ready to meet the new formats.
Lost came back... and while it answered things, it did the constant bait and switch of causing more questions... which is what Lost does better than any show ever has. I'm a sucker and can't wait to see where this goes.
"Osborn, you might want to turn around"
Siege... good God on a pogo stick... Siege. You can feel it when you read it... you can hear Bendis saying "remember how I kept telling everyone this was going somewhere? Well... ITS ON". Holy crap this is a great pay off book. I'm digging the heck out of it. Nevermind all of the push to it and the epic nature of the stories once you realized that was where Marvel was going.
All in all... its a good time to be reading comics... the coming tablet wars will redefine the industry, and the storytelling is ready to meet the new formats.
28 January 2010
Chrome Puff
So I hate to admit it. I've been a Firefox guy for almost 10 years. I'm giving Chrome a fair shake now that its up to version 4 and has Ad-block available.
OMG
It is so damn fast.
I can't even... I mean things load instantly almost. On top of that, very little of the web is crappy like you would expect. Just... an excellent browsing experience. I might even drop Firefox for it... maybe.
Two gripes... I want to be able to make the buttons smaller in the tool bar and I want to be able to move the extension buttons around. Other than that, its fantastic. I guess I might have to look into how to make a theme for it to see what is possible.
Over all, Chrome is an excellent browser, fast as hell and a minimal user interface for maximum content view.
OMG
It is so damn fast.
I can't even... I mean things load instantly almost. On top of that, very little of the web is crappy like you would expect. Just... an excellent browsing experience. I might even drop Firefox for it... maybe.
Two gripes... I want to be able to make the buttons smaller in the tool bar and I want to be able to move the extension buttons around. Other than that, its fantastic. I guess I might have to look into how to make a theme for it to see what is possible.
Over all, Chrome is an excellent browser, fast as hell and a minimal user interface for maximum content view.
21 January 2010
Seeing it live
First off, read this... it is a Bill Simmons article about the brilliance of Lebron James, who I'm probably going to have to go see after reading it. First basketball player since Olajuwan in his prime that I thrilled to pay the price to see.
Don't get me wrong, Jordan was amazing, and his impact on the entire game was felt like a wave of intensity (I saw him live twice), but Olajuwan was like watching someone move with super-human body control. His smile was this infection that spread through the team... when he was on, he was unstoppable...
David Robinson (probably the best defensive center of that generation), shell shocked after Olajuwan had averaged something like 34/9/4 for the 1995 EPIC play-off series between San Antonio and Houston: "I thought I defended him pretty well." The guy looked like you had crotch punched him for hours. He was in a state of shock. So was every San Antonio fan. The 1995 Rockets team had 6 real players. (The Dream, Clyde, Kenny the Jet, Mario "Kiss of Death" Ellie, Big Shot Bob, and Sam Cassell) When you are three guards and a soft power forward, you really should be able to stop the center right? He's the only inside threat. Not that year. There was no answer for Olajuwan. The guy flowed and moved like a cat bred with a snake. He moved fluidly, and the fade away he could pull on you after the seemingly endless head fakes was unstoppable. He beat a young Shaq, Robinson in his prime, and a motivated Barkley. Sure all the games and series were close... one man can only do so much, but watching Olajuwan in those play offs made me gleeful to be a sports fan.
And because my dad was awesome and had season tickets, I got to watch The Dream in his prime live. I got to see all the little things that make the great that much greater.
So here's my list of other moments that brought the same joy...
> Ricky Williams breaking the all-time rushing record against A&M - one of the truly epic moments in Texas Football history, he breaks the record on a long run to the endzone, carrying two defenders with him into the end zone. Williams remains the best back I've ever seen in college.
> Randy Johnson vs Mark McGuire, Astro Dome, 1998 - Before we knew all about steroids, when the home run chase was still AWESOME, I got to see this match up. Johnson was over powering and didn't even put McGuire on base the whole game. Pitched right at him and struck him out. A close second was watching Billy Wagner fan Bonds on 3 pitches earlier that year.
> No kiss for you (Last Southwest Conference Championship) - Texas had lost to A&M something like 100 times in a row going into that game. It was at Kyle Field. Texas was scrappy, but inconsistent. They beat A&M 16-6 to win the last SWC Championship, and more importantly, deny Aggies the chance to smooch after a touchdown.
> I will never doubt Vince Young again (vs OKState, 2004) - Texas was down 35-7 just before half. My father looks at me as we stand in a quickly emptying DKR and says "Ya know, if they score right here, then they get the ball back to start the half and score, they could totally come back and win this game." He was only kind of kidding. And then... they did it. Texas won 51-35. Second best single game I've ever attended. That was when I signed up for the church of Vince Young. The guy is unlike any athlete I've seen live. He has the a liquidity of movement like Olajuwan... his speed is deceptive... he doesn't look fast, until you realize he just cleared 20 yards in about 5 steps. He also has that John Elway/Joe Montana "we gonna win this right here, right now" presence. This was the night that he became a Burnt Orange Kool-Aid salesman.
> The Best Game I've ever been to... The Inaugural Big XII Championship (1996) - before the game when asked what he thought of the 20 point spread, Texas quarterback James Brown said "Hey, they might win by 20, we might win by 20, we gotta play the game." People lost their minds and thought he was insane for giving a dominant Nebraska team motivation to stomp a mud hole. Then... something happened in St. Louis. The band felt it when we did pre-game... there was an energy. The team came out fired up in the ways you never saw from Macovik's teams. They got the kick-off and went right down the field and scored. Priest Holmes had a GREAT day, while Dan Neil and the Texas O-line played out of their minds. The game came down to the best roll-out ever, Ricky Williams making the block that let Brown set his legs and throw a perfect ball. Running down the field, the tight end Lewis saw the Nebraska DB chasing him and made sure to secure the ball. I have goose bumps typing this...
Seeing the two Rose Bowl victories in 2005 and 2006 were amazing, but there is something about being in the stadium that makes those moments that much more electric.
So... who has their own memories?
Don't get me wrong, Jordan was amazing, and his impact on the entire game was felt like a wave of intensity (I saw him live twice), but Olajuwan was like watching someone move with super-human body control. His smile was this infection that spread through the team... when he was on, he was unstoppable...
David Robinson (probably the best defensive center of that generation), shell shocked after Olajuwan had averaged something like 34/9/4 for the 1995 EPIC play-off series between San Antonio and Houston: "I thought I defended him pretty well." The guy looked like you had crotch punched him for hours. He was in a state of shock. So was every San Antonio fan. The 1995 Rockets team had 6 real players. (The Dream, Clyde, Kenny the Jet, Mario "Kiss of Death" Ellie, Big Shot Bob, and Sam Cassell) When you are three guards and a soft power forward, you really should be able to stop the center right? He's the only inside threat. Not that year. There was no answer for Olajuwan. The guy flowed and moved like a cat bred with a snake. He moved fluidly, and the fade away he could pull on you after the seemingly endless head fakes was unstoppable. He beat a young Shaq, Robinson in his prime, and a motivated Barkley. Sure all the games and series were close... one man can only do so much, but watching Olajuwan in those play offs made me gleeful to be a sports fan.
And because my dad was awesome and had season tickets, I got to watch The Dream in his prime live. I got to see all the little things that make the great that much greater.
So here's my list of other moments that brought the same joy...
> Ricky Williams breaking the all-time rushing record against A&M - one of the truly epic moments in Texas Football history, he breaks the record on a long run to the endzone, carrying two defenders with him into the end zone. Williams remains the best back I've ever seen in college.
> Randy Johnson vs Mark McGuire, Astro Dome, 1998 - Before we knew all about steroids, when the home run chase was still AWESOME, I got to see this match up. Johnson was over powering and didn't even put McGuire on base the whole game. Pitched right at him and struck him out. A close second was watching Billy Wagner fan Bonds on 3 pitches earlier that year.
> No kiss for you (Last Southwest Conference Championship) - Texas had lost to A&M something like 100 times in a row going into that game. It was at Kyle Field. Texas was scrappy, but inconsistent. They beat A&M 16-6 to win the last SWC Championship, and more importantly, deny Aggies the chance to smooch after a touchdown.
> I will never doubt Vince Young again (vs OKState, 2004) - Texas was down 35-7 just before half. My father looks at me as we stand in a quickly emptying DKR and says "Ya know, if they score right here, then they get the ball back to start the half and score, they could totally come back and win this game." He was only kind of kidding. And then... they did it. Texas won 51-35. Second best single game I've ever attended. That was when I signed up for the church of Vince Young. The guy is unlike any athlete I've seen live. He has the a liquidity of movement like Olajuwan... his speed is deceptive... he doesn't look fast, until you realize he just cleared 20 yards in about 5 steps. He also has that John Elway/Joe Montana "we gonna win this right here, right now" presence. This was the night that he became a Burnt Orange Kool-Aid salesman.
> The Best Game I've ever been to... The Inaugural Big XII Championship (1996) - before the game when asked what he thought of the 20 point spread, Texas quarterback James Brown said "Hey, they might win by 20, we might win by 20, we gotta play the game." People lost their minds and thought he was insane for giving a dominant Nebraska team motivation to stomp a mud hole. Then... something happened in St. Louis. The band felt it when we did pre-game... there was an energy. The team came out fired up in the ways you never saw from Macovik's teams. They got the kick-off and went right down the field and scored. Priest Holmes had a GREAT day, while Dan Neil and the Texas O-line played out of their minds. The game came down to the best roll-out ever, Ricky Williams making the block that let Brown set his legs and throw a perfect ball. Running down the field, the tight end Lewis saw the Nebraska DB chasing him and made sure to secure the ball. I have goose bumps typing this...
Seeing the two Rose Bowl victories in 2005 and 2006 were amazing, but there is something about being in the stadium that makes those moments that much more electric.
So... who has their own memories?
20 January 2010
A few notes...
Sorry for the delay, been crazy busy...
> With the new Nids book out, I was WAY closer to an army than I thought. I should start seeing table time with them soon enough. The book itself reads like an awesome horror novel. It is GREAT.
> Gotta craft a Warshine for the Fantasy tournament this weekend. I have the parts... just need to get to it.
> Red Cliff is amazing... watch it if you get a chance.
> Blueprint III is still awesome... even after a ton of listens. The first 10 tracks on that record (minus one verse by Kanye) are untouchable. Brilliant record that moves the game forward.
> I had to resort to using a ticket sheet. MMMM gruel. To be fair tho, by using it, I was able to figure out how to make the super formula work on v2.
> The explosion of tablets at CES pushes things closer to my dream of an color e-Reader for comics.
> This just in... allergies suck
> Breaking news... new mattresses are expensive
Okay, enough for today. Don't break nuthin can't be fixed.
> With the new Nids book out, I was WAY closer to an army than I thought. I should start seeing table time with them soon enough. The book itself reads like an awesome horror novel. It is GREAT.
> Gotta craft a Warshine for the Fantasy tournament this weekend. I have the parts... just need to get to it.
> Red Cliff is amazing... watch it if you get a chance.
> Blueprint III is still awesome... even after a ton of listens. The first 10 tracks on that record (minus one verse by Kanye) are untouchable. Brilliant record that moves the game forward.
> I had to resort to using a ticket sheet. MMMM gruel. To be fair tho, by using it, I was able to figure out how to make the super formula work on v2.
> The explosion of tablets at CES pushes things closer to my dream of an color e-Reader for comics.
> This just in... allergies suck
> Breaking news... new mattresses are expensive
Okay, enough for today. Don't break nuthin can't be fixed.
08 January 2010
Well Shit
Really proud to call myself a Longhorn fan tonight. Really wish they had won and I'm sick to my stomach about losing. But man... they fought. They didn't lie down, and Garrett Gilbert grew up in front of everyone.
I'm also proud to root for a university and coaching staff that refused to let Colt come back into the game when his shoulder was sprained. It cost them the game. There is no doubt in my mind. But it didn't cost Colt his future. I'll take that any day of the week.
So... there is next year and more to watch. I'm proud to be a Texas fan, and really happy that I can sleep tonight knowing that Texas fought for every inch and kept coming back when they needed to. Those two videos in the previous post were a tad on the nose wouldn't you say?
I'm also proud to root for a university and coaching staff that refused to let Colt come back into the game when his shoulder was sprained. It cost them the game. There is no doubt in my mind. But it didn't cost Colt his future. I'll take that any day of the week.
So... there is next year and more to watch. I'm proud to be a Texas fan, and really happy that I can sleep tonight knowing that Texas fought for every inch and kept coming back when they needed to. Those two videos in the previous post were a tad on the nose wouldn't you say?
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