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D&D Turned 40 This Weekend

Posted on January 27, 2014

dungeons-dragons-art-1In case you didn’t know, the venerable-yet-shows-no-sign-of-slowing-down RPG Dungeons & Dragons turned 40 over the weekend. No, I wasn’t in line to grab it when it first came out. Although I was, in fact, alive.

I did, however, start to play the game at a very young age, right before the first set of “Advanced” D&D books arrived. The game was great fun and allowed my friends and I to have lots of adventures. Sure, we didn’t have any “Next-Gen” graphics or “Force Feedback” controllers, but that was okay. Those things hadn’t even been invented yet and we wouldn’t have needed them even if they had been around.

What we did have (in addition to pen, paper and some cool rulebooks) was one of the most important things a kid (or anyone, really) can have: Imagination. With imagination you can see, do and experience amazing things.

Without imagination we wouldn’t have all of the things we take for granted: cars, planes, iPhones, the computer I’m writing this post on right now or D&D. Imagination is the key.

For me, and a lot of people I grew up with, D&D was one of the hands turning that key. That and a bag of many-sided dice.

Happy 40th D&D. Thanks for all the adventures.

This Supergirl Fan Film Is Worth a Look

Posted on January 16, 2014

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It’s become somewhat of a tradition around here. That is to say I like to bring interesting videos I find out there on the Interwebs to your attention. Frequently. Well, as frequently as I can now that I’m also Mr. Mom (more on that in a separate post).

I bring things to your attention, mostly, because I care. I care about you and I care about people doing interesting and cool things. So, if I can bring those elements together, I think the ten minutes or so I spend doing it is time well spent.

This time around the video in question is called Girl of Steel. It’s a Supergirl fan film with a great deal of promise. It’s good, in other words.

Watch it and enjoy.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNaQLxhQTyo?rel=0]

Trailer for ‘Police Story 2013’ with Jackie Chan

Posted on November 2, 2013

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One of the things you learn quickly when you have a new baby in the house is your time stops being your own. The baby becomes the priority and many of the other things you might want to do have to take a back seat. I’m not complaining, just making an observation.

Having Max is a great thing and I couldn’t be happier about it. He’s awesome and one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.

That said, I also use him as an occasional excuse (intentionally or not) to not do many of the things I’m supposed to do, or would really like to do — such as posting here. Yeah, I know, but what are you gonna do, right? Time just slips away.

I would, however, like to keep putting things here. To that end, here’s the Chinese trailer for Police Story 2013 with Jackie Chan. It looks pretty wild.

Have a great weekend all.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXOE5zm2UH0&w=560&h=315]

‘Breaking Trek’

Posted on September 29, 2013

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In truth, I haven’t watched the last couple seasons of Breaking Bad . . .yet. I have, however, watched every episode of every Star Trek series. More than once, in fact.

I also like when smart, talented people put things together and see what happens. Keeping that in mind, what do you think you get when you combine Star Trek and Breaking Bad?

Well, wonder no more because in the video below, we all get to find out.

On a mostly unrelated note, being a new father has, as you may expect, caused me to lose considerable sleep. Consequently, I’ve been having some difficulty being on a regular schedule and also fining the time, and coherent moments, to put anything here. Rest assured, I will get back to my version of normal as soon as I can.

Although, I guess with a new son I need to be open to the possibility things will change quite a bit and I will have to adopt a “new” normal. Fortunately for all concerned, the new boy is pretty awesome so if things have to change (which they surely will) I won’t mind one bit.

Anyway, here’s the video.

DIY Not?

Posted on September 20, 2013

DIY-Not?

As I’m currently sitting in a hospital room waiting for the circle of life to begin, I have some time to reflect on other, somewhat less important, topics. Here goes.

As some of you may know, we recently purchased a house. As the house is relatively new (only about 10 years old), it didn’t require any major renovations, or anything of that nature, for us to be able to move in and be happy/comfortable.

All we really did is paint the inside, change the locks and make a few other basically cosmetic changes. Nothing big and nothing that required a reciprocating saw or a sledge hammer. I can’t decide for sure if I’m disappointed about that or not.

Now that we’ve been in the house a couple months, I’ve become more or less hooked on DIY TV shows (that and increasing my arsenal of cool tools). In particular, I watch several shows on the DIY network including The Rehab Addict and Holmes Make It Right. Or, really, anything with Mike Holmes.

These shows are pretty interesting and often very informative. I’m also entertained and I usually learn something. They do, however, have one downside: I now want to redo the entire house (or most of it anyway).

Since I’ve been watching the shows I look around the house and I see a lot of things I want to upgrade or improve. I could redo the bathrooms, change the stairs, add a room above the garage or upgrade the kitchen. There’s just so many possibilities. In short, I now have a DIY issue.

I don’t think it’s really going to be much of a problem as long as I keep in mind the fact that the last time I did any real construction, or anything like it, was over twenty years ago. At the time I was pretty good at it, but again, it was a long time ago.

Sure, things haven’t changed that much, but I do think some more information and thought is required before I tackle any real DIY projects at home. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t keep building my collection of awesome tools, right?

The D&D Animated Series Is 30 Years Old This Week

Posted on September 19, 2013

dandd1983-1

I still remember that day in 1983 when this show graced the Saturday Morning Cartoon airwaves. To be perfectly honest, I can’t remember for sure if I loved it or not. I think I did, but that was a long time ago.

No matter, it’s always fun to check out things from my past, especially the mostly innocent ones. Here’s a bit of the series in all of its 1983 glory.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YacKar7y3mc?rel=0&w=550&h=413]

Busy, Busy, Busy

Posted on August 21, 2013

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I wanted to illustrate just how busy I’ve been recently by having not one, but three “busy” titles for this missive. So yeah, I’ve been busy.

That’s not to say that most of you don’t lead busy lives as well, I’m sure you do. It’s that I don’t know most of you personally so I can’t really speak with any authority on the subject, now can I?

I can speak with some authority or myself, however. So yeah, I’ve been busy. Been working on the house, working on other projects, working in general and also preparing for the arrival of Project M.

I’ve also realized that this time I have now to do things is going to be far less very soon. With the arrival of Project M imminent, I can foresee quite a bit of my time being taken up dealing with the day-to-day duties of being a father. No, I don’t mind at all. In fact, I’m really looking forward to it.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I won’t, occasionally, miss having time to do other things. Free time will just have to be regulated a bit more from now on, that’s all. When you’ve lived your life a certain way for as many years as I have, a very large change like this will certainly cause one to rethink one’s priorities.

Fortunately for all concerned, I’m a very evolved human being and will have no trouble making this important transition. Well, fingers crossed anyway.

Let’s switch gears now and talk about another subject I’ve become acquainted with recently: Home Improvement. Fortunately, I’ve got some background in things of this type having done a bit of construction as a young man as well as having spent several years as a Grip on film and TV sets.

Sure, that doesn’t mean I’m ready to add a room onto the house (it doesn’t actually need one, truth be told) but I do feel I know my way around a screwdriver, hammer and various other power tools.

That also brings me to a subject I’m very excited about: Tools. I think every home owner (well, almost every one anyway) should have a set of basic tools for doing things around the house. I have a decent set of tools I’ve accumulated over the years and also have many of the ones my Father left for me. Others have been broken, borrowed or otherwise lost over the years.

Consequently, my tool kit is a bit lacking in some areas. So, of course, that means I get to buy new tools. I’m enjoying that quite a bit.

Once I put the kit full together, I’ll post it here so you can see what I feel comprises an essential tool kit. Until then, try to get some fun outta life, you know?

Happy Birthday Gary Gygax

Posted on July 27, 2013

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Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons and the man most closely associated with the boom in popularity of roleplaying games, would have been 75 today. When he died in 2008, I wrote two pieces about his death and my personal connection and experiences with him.

You can read my piece for ComicMix right here. I’m including the one from this site below. He would have been 75 today.

Sad news today. E. Gary Gygax, the man widely considered the “Father of Role-Playing-Games,” has died. He was 69 years old. I already wrote a piece about Gygax and his death over at ComicMix. What I didn’t mention in that piece was that, like ComicMix’s Glen Hauman, I also had a personal connection to the man.

I was fortunate to meet Gary Gygax after some friends of mine and I decided to have a D&D marathon at my house one Summer weekend in the late ’70s. We decided to invite Mr. Gygax to join us by writing him a personal letter. We even enclosed an article from the local paper (the Coast Dispatch in case you’re curious) featuring our upcoming marathon in order to try and entice his participation a bit more.

Sadly, he wasn’t able to attend, but he did write me a personal letter with his regrets and also graciously included several D&D adventure modules, as yet unpublished, for us to use during the game. We used them and had a great time, all the while praising Gygax for being cool enough to not only respond to us, but for caring enough to send us stuff to help make our marathon D&D session a success.

Several years later, I was able to actually meet Gygax in person at GenCon after I had convinced my parents it was a good idea to drive me across country so I could play D&D with a bunch of other kids in Wisconsin. My parents were cool like that and did it not only once, but twice.

When I met him the first time at GenCon we spoke for several minutes and he even remembered me from when I had invited him to our game. He was a great guy to talk to. Over the years I would run into him again at various events and each time he would, somehow, remember me and we would have another very nice conversation. At each and every meeting he was gracious and generous with his time.

The magnitude of Gygax’s influence on gaming and pop culture, both directly and indirectly, isn’t something that can easily be measured. He was extremely popular among those who played his games, of course, but his creations, particularly D&D, also had a profound effect on kids of my and later generations.

D&D helped us learn to think logically, to solve problems, to work as a team and, more importantly, to use our imaginations. As someone who has the privilege of using his imagination on a daily basis and gets paid for it, I , for one, have a debt to Gary Gygax that can never be repaid.

I feel confident there are others out there working away creating the current and next generations of games, comic books, movies and TV shows that feel the same way I do.

Thanks for the help and inspiration Gary. We need more people around like you. You will be missed.

Picking Up the Pieces and Putting Them Away

Posted on July 2, 2013

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As I mentioned previously, we moved. In fact, we did the whole thing last Saturday on what was, up to that point, the hottest day of the year. Not a great day to be hauling boxes and whatnot from one place to another.

In truth, we had movers do the majority of the actual hauling. We just have way too much stuff and, more importantly, H is gestating Project M at the moment so she shouldn’t really be lifting anything. And as we know, I’m extremely lazy (and have a useless back). So, movers.

The movers were mostly okay and managed not to break 99% of our stuff. Sure, a couple things were damaged, but it could have been a lot worse. Most importantly, they got everything in the truck, got it to the new house and put it pretty much where it goes. All for a reasonable fee. I’m calling it a win and moving on.

Although, I did call the moving company to tell them about the few broken items (again, none of them were critical or irreplaceable) just to see what they would say. They haven’t called me back yet. I suspect I will be politely told to suck it up, but we’ll see. I could be surprised.

Now we are in the process of unpacking and putting stuff away. I only hate this part a little less than packing. Although, one highlight for me was finally being able to install my Nest thermostat and get it going. Yes, I did it myself and managed not to be electrocuted.

Plus, starting to set up my office and getting Internet installed were also very good first steps. It’s amazing how much we’ve come to rely on having super speed Internet. You really miss it when you don’t have it for a couple days.

There are many other aspects (good and bad) of moving and home ownership I won’t get into now. Suffice it to say we are slowly getting back to normal.

Or, as normal as we get.

Moving On (Again)

Posted on June 25, 2013

secret-moving-in-secret-1

H and I are in the process of moving to our new house. If I have anything to say about it, this will be the last move we do for a long time. I don’t enjoy packing. This wish will be made possible, in large part, because the new house is much bigger than we really need so we can grow into it should “Project M” ever decide he needs a sibling, or whatever.

Although, chances of that happening are slim at best. In fact, it’s almost guaranteed not to happen. Besides, he’s got to start learning to live with disappointment and this is as good a time as any to start.

Of course, with the move and move-related activities this week, things are a bit hectic for me, as you might expect. As I mostly work at home these days and have a more “flexible” schedule than H does, many of the moving particulars have fallen to to me.

In truth, it’s not so much the actual move that’s taking a lot of time (although it does), it’s all the other things you need to do to a house before you can move into it and all the logistics involved.

Things like painting, installation of new appliances, transferring of TV and Internet providers, utilities and more take a lot of time. Plus, there’s a lot of other things involved when closing out one household and opening another while also maintaining a third during the process. As I’ve said on more than one occasion, I’m not complaining, just explaining.

All of this leads me to the conclusion that I won’t be writing here (or anywhere) much this week, unless, of course, I am. Also, it’s going to be next Monday before I get Internet in the new place. That’s just the way it goes.

But fear not, I’ll be back soon enough to torment you with tales of my exploits and all the other gems and tidbits you’ve come to expect from this site, and me. I won’t let you down.

Oh, in case you’re wondering, the pic above is the J-Pop group “Secret” from their album “Moving In Secret.” Yes, I realize it has no more than a tacit relationship with actual moving, but I thought it would be more interesting than a pic of sweaty dudes hauling boxes.

I hope you agree. And if you don’t, I’ll try to live with the disappointment.