Penny Arcade and PVP play D&D

Okay, this freakin' rocks. I just downloaded the ((download link)) first segment of an all-day D&D game played by the two guys from Penny Arcade (scroll down), a guy from PVPOnline and Chris Perkins from Dungeons & Dragons R&D.

Holy crap is it funny.

"Did you choose a name?"

"Yeah, I'm Jim Darkmagic."

"Wha--? No. What? Why don't you just call yourself Trent Awesome-Laser."

"Okay."

"No."

"Yeah, I'm from the New Hampshire line of Darkmagics."

These guys fuckin' slay me. It's damn funny. I'm 12 minutes in right now, and the game is getting going with Chris Perkins telling them about D&D stuff at a high level (hit points, and such).

If you can't access the link to download, just register. Dragon (which the podcasts are a subset of) and Dungeon, the two publications, require the registration (which is free).

7 more days til 4th edition release!

Day After 'Keep on the Shadowfell'

Last night was my first session with the new gaming group, and our first run through 4th edition D&D rules using the pre-rules release module, "Keep on the Shadowfell." The guys were all nice and, after BBQ sausages and chatting for a bit, we divvied up the character sheets and dug into the game.

Due to the fact the characters were pre-made, there was some question as to why and how some of the abilities were arrived at, but we played what we had. Within 5 minutes, we were ambushed by kobolds and found out that they weren't the same as the 3.5 edition cannon-fodder kobolds. Seems most critters have racial abilities, and kobolds are Shifty... they can 'shift' (move 5') as a free action. That meant they could come up, hit us, then move back. Then, when we went for 'em, they'd shift back again (using the free action) and we couldn't come in range. Enormous pain in the ass, given we were mostly close-range fighters.

Powers were pretty complementary. The Warlord and Paladin had group-enabling powers, most of which were activated with an attack. Paladin's was a once-a-day power that did 3d8+5 damage to a single target and allowed any one ally within 5 squares (25') to use a healing surge.

Healing surges are a handy new addition. Everyone has X healing surges per day. Only one can be used in combat. That's called a second wind. A healing surge gives you back 1/4 your health. While a second wind can only be taken once per combat, lots of abilities courtesy of the Warlord, Cleric or Paladin can allow someone to take a healing surge in addition to a second wind already taken.

Anyhoo... at the end of the night, we had a TPK... a total party kill. I've never been in a gaming group that's been wiped out, certainly not in the first game. The final encounter, however, was a bit overkill. Not enough minions (a great new 'fodder' feature for select baddies') and too many decent-strength kobolds. We also couldn't have outrun them, anyway. They could move farther each round than we could.

Overall, the rules are decent and work well. Game flow is vastly improved and there's a lot less of the "crap, I'm out of abilities - guess we have to camp" situations. After an encounter, a group can pause for a few minutes, use up healing surges to heal and regain once-an-encounter power. This allows for a lot more get-up-and-go and keeps things moving.

4e Cometh

I've been a gamer for a long time; about 15 years. I started with AD&D 2e (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition) back in grade 8, courtesy of James D. and a few others. We'd gather in the library over our 40-minute lunch time and smack a few orcs, then head back to class. (I think we were the ones responsible for the library's subsequent "no students at lunch time" policy.)

For me, it's rarely been about the game or game system. It's been very social. Over the years, I've been lucky enough to meet some exceptional people through gaming. Even years later, I'm very good friends with most of those, especially the first group, from Kingston. (I can proudly claim to have taught Pascal's daughter how to pick up and throw dice with her toes, and no one will forget Angela's trembling fear of Pascal's pink d20... or the smoked-meat watermelon...)

So... now, 4 years after 3.5 edition arrived, 4th edition (4e) is two weeks away. Normally, I'd be in the "dammit - now I have to buy a whole new set of books and supplements" crowd. However, I haven't been a huge fan of 3e or 3.5e. The basics were alright, but nothing scaled with the game's progression. That was my overriding issue (as Pascal and Adrian know full well from my numerous rants).

Enter 4th edition. The changes are, frankly, pretty startling. They've done a lot of cleaning up, simplifying (without dumbing-down) and finally the characters will scale properly.

The first glimmer of hope came in the form of Star Wars Saga edition, a gaming system owned by Wizards of the Coast who also own D&D. They use the same core d20 system. When I saw the changes to SW, I was really happy with them and could only hope for much of the same for D&D.

Well... turns out it's even better. The classes are, as I predicted, designated for certain roles: leader, defender, striker and controller. The core races and core classes are also different. While there are still humans, dwarves, halflings, elves and half-elves, there are now dragonborn, tieflings and eladrin. Bye-bye, gnomes!

The core classes still include: Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Rogue, Ranger and Wizard, but now include Warlock and Warlord. Each has a role to play, and each has a tonne of flexible options based around a core strength or concept.

The big change is Powers. Feats and such still exist, but class abilities have been more or less replaced by Powers that fall into three categories: at-will, encounter and daily powers. These are pretty self-explanatory. They change everything, and most powers have secondary effects that either aid the group at large (excellent) or impedes the baddies. The entire design philosophy seems to be one of creating complementary roles. Finally.

The issue of scale has been fixed by allowing damage, skill bonus, defense and attack bonus to advance as the character does. In D&D 3.0 and 3.5, only certain skill bonuses advanced, and attack power was the only constant advancement bonus.

Anyhoo... it's quite exciting and I'm very much looking forward to it. Next Friday, I'm playing "Keep on the Shadowfell", a 4e pre-release module with quick-play rules and pre-made characters. I've found a new gaming group and the DM seems awesome. I'm still with the Star Wars gang but we haven't actually played a game yet. I think we're supposed to kick off Star Wars on June 7th. Regardless, found a guy who already has a group who was looking for one more for D&D 4th edition. Yay! So we'll see how that is.

Unrelated to D&D, Age of Conan: Hybrorian Adventures is out tomorrow (pre-order early release, anyway). I guess we'll see how that is. It's a MMO-style online game, like WoW, but a whole lot grittier and darker. Here's hoping...

Conan Reborn in... Riddick?

I've been reading the original Robert E. Howard Conan stories lately, having just bought and received the last two in the reprinted series that consists of The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, The Conquering Sword of Conan and The Bloody Crown of Conan.

I always read a bit before going to bed, and Angie always asks "So how's Conan doing in this one?" The answer, of course, is that he's kickin' ass and taking names, blackmailing priests and barons, outsmarting bureaucrats and eviscerating Picts. She and I talked about the early 20th Century need for an all-hero, one who is well versed in everything. Superman is a good example. Conan is another. The contemporary image of Conan - courtesy of Arnie - is that of a dumb, buff barbarian lopping off heads and carrying off maidens. And punching out camels.

Oh, how wrong. Conan's resume would read something like: Barbarian, master woodsman, reluctant general, armoured warrior, fearless reaver, lone wanderer, stoic mountaineer, panther-esque thief, bloody pirate, well-dressed pirate lord and... despondent king. Again, however... he's good at everything.

I was watching Pitch Black the other night and it struck me: Riddick (from Pitch Black) is Conan. He's calm, has good lines, is clearly superior to those around him despite pedigree and has no regard for those who are not, in his view, worthy. Worthy of what? Worthy of living, worthy of being capable, worthy of accomplishment, worthy of rising above self-pity and other human foibles. Riddick is a murderer, he's a tracker, he's observant, he's resourceful, he's knowledgeable, he has a code of honour sans guile, he's pragmatic and visceral. Above all, however... both Riddick and Conan are care-takers.

Ironic, no? Yet that's the basic theme in Pitch Black: Riddick sees everyone through, becoming magnanimous despite his overarching instinct to survive and come out on top. Conan is exactly the same. Regardless of what he's doing or where, Conan is a care-taker. Yes, of women (good ol' mostly-useless 1930s women as Howard wrote them) but mostly of men; powerful men of high standing with no morals to speak of, low men who are victims of circumstance, etc.

Interestingly... he's usually only ever a care-taker of white people. In the story I'm reading now, there is even a mention by one unsavoury pirate that Conan would never abandon him and his men to the Picts (who are black or "dark"). Conan then affirms this judgement, saying something to the effect of "Indeed, while you may be fools, I cannot leave other white men to die at the hands of another race."

Interesting. Not something to get up in arms about, since Hyboria is actually extremely culturally and ethnically diverse and many characters of "non-white" races are well portrayed, but it's still interesting.

Anyhoo... that's my rant. I'll trying to think of other examples of "Conans reborn." And if you haven't read the original stories and are a fan of classic fantasy fiction, get them. They're great reads and, hey, even H.P. Lovecraft had great things to say about Howard's writing.

Grand Theft Childhood - A New Study on Video Game Violence

This is an interesting look at violence in games and social or behavioural carry-over.



A synopsis for those uninterested in the entire segment: In a one- or two-year study of 1250 children from across the U.S., Harvard researchers found a behavioural pattern amongst both boys and girls: Those who did not play violent video games were/are more likely to have real-life behavioural issues and manifest violence against others. The other extreme that applies to boys only is that those who played violent or mature games for more than 15 hours a week also displayed similar behavioural dispositions.

Now that's interesting. Playing violent or mature games actually leading to reduced risk of social violence?

Given the amount of research (and/or opinion) on the other side of the fence, viz. that violent games cause and reinforce unhealthy and harmful behaviours, I expect both the book and its study results to come under a great deal of fire.

On this same topic, I read an article a few weeks ago. It discussed research done on brain patterns of video game players. To paraphrase, it found that stress levels and aggression receded while playing violent games, especially online games that focused on fighting real people over the net. I'll try to track that down and post it here, or in another post. It also talked about stress and anxiety levels of merely wounding another player in game vs killing them. Anxiety and fear brain responses were triggered in situations where the player did not outright kill or otherwise remove an enemy player. Killing or removing them caused a healthy release of *insert medical term I can't remember here*, promoting bodily health.

Terra Nova is a "collobarative weblog featuring several important scholars in the field. General focus is MMORPGs and social aspects of online gaming communities." It tends to deals with MMO-style game influences, lessons learned, how to apply virtual theory to real-world situations, etc. I haven't read much of it because it tends to deal mainly with Second Life and EVE:Online, neither of which I have any interest in. However, the articles make for interesting reading given the prominence in the field of the authors.

Too funny to pass up

Courtesy of Penny Arcade. As 'Tycho' wrote:

It's a little inside baseball I guess, but at the same time the story was so delicious that we couldn't leave it be: a District Attorney in Texas is on trial for building himself a sweet rig on the county dime. This machine in question sports "two hard drives, seven fans, high-end video and audio cards, a wireless Internet connection and cables that glow under ultraviolet light." It's a crime, yeah, but it's an awesome crime. I make an exception for awesome crimes.

"I would not configure a backup computer in that way," says Mr. Gregg, FBI senior forensic examiner and reigning Understatement King.

Oh yeah... this thing

Wow... colour me forgetful. I think I may have beaten Kelly in the "no posts in forever" competition.

As the media world has already blabbed on and on about... Gary Gygax died last week at the age of 69. For those of you who don't know who he is, look him up. At a glance, it may seem like his contribution was small, but he shaped the lives of millions of people, creating a life-long hobby/obsession for many and creating a foundation for multi-billion-dollar industries.

Not too much is new, I'm afraid. Work is going on strong now that the minority government has evaded all threats of a non-confidence vote (Afghanistan mission, budget, etc.). Everything is great with Angie, which isn't making Pele happy, I don't think.

Something occured to me the other day while playing World of Warcraft. I wonder why no schools have taken up the auction house function in the game to demonstrate real-time economics. I'm sure someone would love to make a bundle from an already-developed application, and I'm sure Blizzard would love the exposure and positive publicity that comes with furthering education. (see my second point below)

The other day I read an article about WoW. It spoke about the negative aspects of game immersion. It naturally got me thinking about the positive elements of it and any MMO (massively multiplayer online [game]):

Team Work: I'd say that's a fairly ubiquitous and oft-desired trait, no? Playing a game whose very existence is founded on the inclusion of thousands of people simultaneously must, at some level, incorporate team work. It's quite possible to play a game like WoW and never really interact with others. However, in so doing, one would miss out on that which makes the medium unique in the same way going to Barbados and playing card games inside an air-conditioned room the whole time would.

Many portions of MMOs are designed for group play, and often require multiple groups to coordinate. In WoW, the largest group possible is 5 people. However, many raids require 5 groups to complete. In DAoC, I once led a raid that involved 170 people, and I'd been on 200 (max battlegroup size) raids. Size wouldn't be an issue if it was a free-for-all-slaughter-everything objective, but completion requires strategy and coordination. Once X had been completed, groups Z and Y had to move to S location and do blah while two other groups went somewhere else to active blah blah. The final objective took 20 minutes just to set up.

Does it always work out well? No. It's like herding labotimized cats most of the time. Do team work projects always work out well in real life? Nope. However, when you finish up (successfully), it's a huge rush. Same thing in-game.

Free-Market Economies: This is what made me think of MMO application in schools. "Whaa...?" you may be thinking. WoW is the best example out there. There is an auction house in every major city, and they're linked together to create a single market. Using these auction houses, players can buy and sell various items. As in the real world, people not doing any research or price-comparing get screwed.

I'll give an actual example from the game: wool and silk. Just like real life, the game professions rely on resources. Tailors (and others) need wool and silk to create products for themselves and to sell on the auction houses to make money to fund more production or to invest in other areas. Wool is a "lesser" grade item than silk - you get it earlier in the game, and it's used to make simpler, lower-tier items.

However... the demand for wool is consistently higher than silk. While a 'stack' of 20 pieces of wool can go for 2 gold, a stack of silk will only go for 70 silver. (100 silver = 1 gold) However, should 20 people go out and find wool and sell it over the course of a few hours, prices will suddenly bottom-out. In putting my product up for bidding or outright buyout, I check what wool prices are (if I have any sense). If 2g 30s (2 gold and 30 silver) is the lowest price, I put my stacks up for 2g 15s. The next guy sees my price is 2g 15s, so he makes his 2g, screwing me. The next guy sets his for 95s... and so on. Suddenly, the market is flooded and prices continue to drop, a great day to be a tailor in need of materials.

Also, finished products go for more than raw materials. I can put up 20 pieces of felhide for 15g, but if I turn that felhide into 5 armor kits, I can sell each kit for 5g. Finished product nets me 25g vs raw materials at 15g.

Opportunity Cost and Niche Abilities: Simply put, doing X means that you can't do Y. Even in fantasy worlds, one can't have everything or be the best at everything. If you want this ability, you have to sacrifice that ability.

Also, the kinds of characters you can play are [usually] carefully constructed. If you're playing a healer, chances are you can't fight well. If you're playing a fighter, chances are you can't heal well. But wait... what if they work together? Well whadaya know... they can accomplish three times as much as they could individually. Obviously, this ties back in to team work.

The best hypothetical example of this is archetypes system in Warhammer Online, as yet unreleased. Each faction has four archetypes: support, tank, melee DPS and ranged DPS. (DPS = damage per second, but has come to mean someone who does a lot of damage) They aren't all the same classes for each faction's archetype, but the roles are clearly established. A ranged DPS character isn't going to run up and swing at baddies, nor is a melee DPS character going to try to heal. The roles, while being flexible, are known well in advance of character creation. Groups in that game will have 6 slots, meaning a full group could have one of each archetype class, plus two spaces for whatever customization desired. You could have a group comprised completely of one archetype, but it will not be versatile or efficient.

Consequences: I suppose an issue a lot of parents have with games is that there are no consequences or, if there are, they aren't enforced or otherwise significant. In MMOs, there can be relatively huge consequences. Want to be a jerk and bad-mouth people in a public chat? You get temporarily banned from the game or, worse, people remember you and your infamous mouth. Suddenly need to get in on a group-necessary task? Too bad the leader of the group is someone who remembers your assinine antics. Bait another player into fighting you so you can have a laugh? Too bad his friends were standing nearby and creamed you afterwards. Nemesis, consequences... both great things.

Anyway... I feel like this isn't a great "back into blogging" post, but whatevah. Since returning from China, I find I have little to talk about. I like consistency and routine. That hardly makes for entertaining blogging.

I'm Famous!

Okay, not really, but it's given me a good reason to get my arse out of lazy-mode and post an update.

A while back, a guy randomly sent me a message through Flickr regarding one of my photos from Song Shan. I just got an email saying he's used it for his company's website, Home and Abroad, specific to Song Shan. Kinda neat. It isn't the Washington Post or The Times, but hey.

Things have been busy. Work at the Senate's been pretty hectic; few days have been shorter than 9 hours. Last week, Weds was 12 hours, after which I slept for 4 hours and worked another 12. Despite the schedule, the work itself has been good, and I think I'm more or less in the groove. There are still instances that pop up that I'm not sure how to deal with (such as when the Senate went to Committee of the Whole), but I'm 95% there.

I just had a Bell guy in to fix two jacks. Turns out, someone had torn out the entire phone line from the computer room through to the living room and into the kitchen where the "main" is. So the guy had to run 80'+ of cable and install two new jacks. Landlord will be footing the bill or it's small-claims court for him. The good news is that I finally have my phone in the living room and not on the stovetop, and the DSL modem is in my computer instead of on the kitchen table.

Did you hear the Merriam-Webster has added "w00t" to their dictionary? Jesus H... And people saying gaming isn't in the mainstream. Next year they'll add "h4x0r", "wtfbbq" and "roflcopter" to that, too. We're in a linguistic downward spiral, comrades.

I'm looking forward to Christmas, I guess. Just can't seem to get myself in the spirit, though. I still need to grab stuff for Angie and my mom, but otherwise things are taken care of. Trying to wrack my brain for something wicked-awesome for Angie, but I think I outdid myself when I got her a Slanket for our anniversary. It's going to be hard to top that unless I could find her a blanket comprised of synchronized-cuddling kittens.

Going for a pint this Friday with a bunch of folks, which will be fun. On Saturday, Angie and I are going for supper and drinks with Angela, Ben, Jimmy and Heather. Again, looking forward to that. Sunday is our 1.5-year anniversary, so that belongs to us. We're then heading on Monday to Brockville to stay with my parents over xmas, then will head to her mom's for more of the holiday break.

Can't think of much else, really. I know quite a bit has happened recently, but since I don't update often enough on here it's hard to remember what's transpired in between.

Giving In to the Inner Geek, & Other Updates

For some reason, a few weeks ago I found myself caught up in the idea of finding a Star Wars table-top game in Ottawa. However, glancing through the core guide and various sourcebooks to get a refresher on some of the rules, I came away disenchanted. The Star Wars license was officially given by LucasArts to Wizards of the Coast, makers of Dungeons & Dragons and the origin of "d20" gaming, back around 2001. Lately, though, I've become extremely dissatisfied with the whole d20 system (Star Wars, D&D), for a number of reasons. The main issues I have are ones of passivity, pigeon-holing that can't be avoided with a class-based system, the progression feels chuggy and uninspired, and freedom of choice is severely limited. In other words, it feels more like a video game and less like a game of imagination.

So, still in a Star Wars mood, I attempted something different. A few weeks ago, I started to adapt the Shadowrun 4th Edition rules for the Star Wars setting. (Weird. In attempting to get a link for Shadowrun in order to hyperlink it here, I discovered that the FanPro site is all in German, and poorly organized to boot... Anyhoo... check wikipedia if you care.)

When I originally began, I thought it would take too much tweaking to be worthwhile. However, now being well underway and nearly finished, it was a lot easier than I thought. Or rather, it's required a great deal less altering than I had initially thought.

What I'm doing is basically this: Imagine you really like the boardgame RISK, but you think that perhaps Monopoly's rules would be better for it. That's kind of what I'm doing; the point of my "transliteration" isn't what the games focus on, but the actual rules mechanics.

So now, two or three weeks after starting, I've got 32 pages of adjusted rules, additional rules for concepts not in Shadowrun (like the Force), etc. etc. You may be thinking "I thought you said it wasn't taking much to alter the rules to suit?!". However, when you consider that the Shadowrun rulebook is 352 pages, and the Star Wars core rulebook is 380 pages... 30-ish pages (which is not the same as 30 pages in an actual double-columned rulebook) ain't bad!

Now I just need to find someone who'd be willing to use the rules and run a game for me. There's a very large gaming community in Ottawa. All I need to do is find the right person, which shouldn't be too tough once I hang a flyer at Fandom II on Laurier St.


In other, non-geek-related news... Work kicks ass. I'm really enjoying being a scopist. It's the perfect job for my personality type (Perfectionist): every day, the work is the same but different. There are rigid parameters and guidelines and forms that must be adhered to make countless others' lives (including mine) easier, but within those bounds the work is always different. Some days I may work on the Senate itself, but on top of that I may be handling the Fisheries and Oceans Committee, or maybe the Banking Committee, or Aboriginal Rights Committee, or Defense Committee. It changes up all the time depending on what's happening on a particular day. However, the fundamentals of my job remain unchanged regardless of what I'm editing and cleaning up. It's great!

I treated Aaron to supper at The Keg in the Market on Friday, to repay him for letting me bunk at his place for so damn long. On my way home, I picked up at Sears the blinds I'd ordered. Around 10pm that night, James came into town with a co-worker for a conference and stayed over at my place, making them my first official overnight guests. Adrienne came over for a beer and to see the new place on Thursday evening, and we hung out talking until 1am. On Tuesday, Roger, Kelly and I are having drinks at Patty Boland's. YAY!! Really looking forward to that.

My apartment is almost there. I just need to rearrange the living room and, in the kitchen, I need to put together the island I bought at IKEA. Once my parents come into town with all my stuff from China, I can get some actual decor happening. All that remains is to get two small bookshelves from IKEA to handle book overflow and I think I'm good.

All Moved In... (mostly)

I'm all moved into my new place downtown now. By that I mean that all but three boxes are unpacked and sorted, and most of my furniture is assembled and set where it'll be staying. When my parents and I moved my stuff up, we forgot all my China paraphenalia. So the decor is a bit barren... no scrolls, paintings, masks or anything. I'm really looking forward to putting up my shu fa scrolls and paintings (hua hua I think?). Dunno where I'm going to put Xiang laoshi's shu fa scrolls, though... they're pretty huge. Need a good 7 or 8 feet of vertical wall.

It's great to have Pele back and be reunited with all my books. I did a count and I have ~760... I need two more small "Billy" IKEA bookshelves to hold the little overflow that exists. Oh, I'm tossing a few novels, so if anyone wants "Eragon" and some David Eddings novels, let me know.

I really love this new place. There's tonnes of space for me and Pele, and the smaller of the three rooms makes a great computer room. I ordered blinds the other day from Sears, and two sets of those should be arriving next week and then another two sets a few more a few weeks after that. There are still some issues with the apartment that need to be resolved, but overall, things are pretty much settled here. The only annoying thing is not having on-site laundry, though that may be added in the next few months.

Anyhoo... I've had this week off due to the Senate taking a week for Remembrance Day/Week. The good news is that it looks like this coming Monday will see the approval of the committee selections report, which means we'll go into full hours mode shortly.

That's it for now!

Cpt Dawe

I just found out this afternoon that a guy who was in my platoon during Infantry training Phase II at CFB Gagetown died on July 7th of this year. It just about knocked me over. I was watching the live text feed from the Senate floor yesterday when it was mentioned in opening remarks and Senators' Statements, but the reporter had heard "Dodd". I only saw it today when I read through the finished hardcopy publication. Still thinking it could have been someone else, another Dawe perhaps, I googled him... I wasn't mistaken. It was him. In that link to the Hansard, Senator Segal spoke very well of him.

Now, I wasn't best friends with Dawe, but I certainly remember him well and we got along during our brief stint. There weren't many people I met in training that I looked at and thought "I'd follow you, trust you, in a theatre of war" but Dawe was definitely one of them. Him, Miksa, Luft.

I remember Dawe actually grinning after Warrant Ashford PT-raped 26 minutes of our lives away during range week for having wasted 26 minutes of Cpt Sharlack's time two weeks prior during a night navigation pre-inspection. Hell, during firing practice, he challenged the warrant to a pull-up competition. As sections were firing C-7 rounds a few feet away, they were up in the rafters, doing chin-ups. Dawe beat Ashford in two-handed pull-ups, but Ashford kicked Dawe's ass in one-handed ones. Throughout all the exercises, barracks time, down-time (ha!), etc., Dawe never had the "RMC airs" - that attitude of superiority over us reservus goofs.

I'm going to see if next week while I unpack I can find some pictures of him from our days in Gagetown. I don't think I have any, as most of the ones I took were from pre-RESO, the first three weeks of training before RMC students showed up for Phase II. Though I seem to recall a photo of us all eating freakin' IMPs in the woods during night nav/camo week. Think Mundi and Dawe are in that one.

A good article about Dawe can be found here. The picture of him with his son is just... hard to look at, I guess.

Quick update

Halloween weekend was good! Had a blast at both parties - Jimmy's and Suzi's. Not doing anything for tomorrow evening except what I'd normally do which consists of playing Final Fantasy III or IV on my SNES emulator or writing or watching a movie.

Work so far is great! Nice people, but someone needs to kick a certain senator I shall not name. She keeps stalling the committees selection which means a 4-hour day instead of a 10-hour day. Cuttin' into my bottom line... And next week is a week off because it's Remembrance WEEK. When did Remembrance Day turn into a Week? Or maybe that's just a fed gov't thing. Most times I'd be jumpin', but money's an issue at the moment and having a week off is not a positive. I just hope that committees are sorted out for the week of the 12th, if not tomorrow. (Please don't adjourn the debate again... please!)

And... moving this Friday! Got a great place downtown. I'm so looking forward to having my own place with my own furniture and my own space. Also, people can visit and stay over whenever because I'll have enough room. I'll send an email out soon to let people know what the new info is.

That's it for now. More after I get settled into my new abode.

Gaming and DAoC People Weekend

Had a pretty good weekend, but it felt hectic and long due to the travel.

I managed to drag my sleepy arse out of Aaron's place on Saturday morning at 6:20am, and made it to the train station five minutes before the train was set to leave at 7:00. The ride itself was relatively banal, though there was an overindulged and coddled eight-month-old across the way from me who wouldn't stop crying out and making a nuisance of itself. Did a lot of reading, though, and almost finished Hermetech. Also listened to a 59-minute .mp3 interview of Neil Gaiman by Rotten Tomatoes. That was interesting, and it was a 'comfy' recording with subtle restaurant background noises. It felt like I was eavesdropping, though... audio voyeurism. Neil Gaiman seems to know everyone.

After receiving directions from two people on my way to Adrian and Fiona's, I arrived at their place just in time for some french toast. Mmmmm... french toast... Afterwards, around 8:30 or so, we all wandered to a sushi restaurant and ate and took it easy. I then hurried via subway to Spadina to catch up with a guy I'd never met. We used to both play DAoC (Dark Age of Camelot), though on opposing sides. So we knew of each other, but had never really spoken. I had written in a DAoC forum that I was going to be in Toronto for the weekend and by happenstance, he happened to have read it and was living in Toronto, so we worked it out from there. We were both exceptionally late... We were supposed to meet originally at 8:30, but I arrived at 9:45 or so, and he had gotten there at 9:15. However, he had a lady-friend with him, and another gamer: Hawkin. (that's a picture of them, top left... girl, Wulf, Hawkin) So that was fun. None of stayed too long.

On Sunday, I had a bit of an issue since my train was at 9:30am, but I left Angela's place at 8:30 or so, hoping to catch the subway down to Union. No go. What I didn't know was that the subway doesn't start running on Sundays until 9am. So... I found the Dupont subway station doors locked... and the Spadina station doors locked. At this point, I thought perhaps there'd been an accident or something on the lines and they were closing it off. Had I waited 10 more minutes, I would have been fine. But not knowing what was up and not wanting to miss my train, I took a taxi. It wasn't far, so it didn't cost me too too much.

The ride back was fine. I finished Hermetech, and got back into where I'd left off with Something Wicked This Way Comes. I tried to sleep a ways, but everytime I managed to doze off, the next stop was announced on the PA so that didn't work out too well.

Got in around 2:15pm, and met up with Pat (another DAoC player, and good buddy of mine - photo right) at the Royal Oak. The skany one (the Sk'Oak), not the more upscale new one (the N'Oak). We had a few beers, checked out some podcast videos for W.A.R. (Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, made by Mythic, the same folks who did DAoC) and had a bite to eat.

I took a bus back to my place, dropped off my stuff, and took off again, this time to Angie's as Aaron had people over. Had a fun time over at her place, and hung out with her and a few of her friends and had mulled wine. At one point, Ross was using Google Maps to track down his place, using the satellite view option. That gave me an idea, so I used it to show some people Guilin, Suzhou, Beijing and I found Tangshan. I showed Angie Xin Hua Dao (the main street) so she could see where the earthquake memorial is, where EF was, and where I lived. I was able to get in pretty close, too! It brought back a lot of memories. It was nice to see it, but it also felt really odd to be looking down on places I had come to know so well.

That's about it. I'm going to see an apartment today, and hopefully claim it for my own. I really need to get out of Aaron's place. He has been more than accomodating, but he needs his own place back after having both myself and August here all summer, and I'm still here. It has to be frustrating and irritating for him to not be in his usual dynamic.

Halloween parties are coming up, so there ought to be lots of pictures and another blog entry after this coming weekend. Hope everyone is well!

Workie-Work

Looks like my first day of work is next Friday. It was initially to be today, but committees have resumed so there's not too much work; not enough to go around between nine English scopists, anyway.

I've been apartment hunting over the past few days, and things on that front are looking hopeful. I'm seeing a place on Frank St early this evening, and on Monday I'll check out a place on Kent. I'm really hopeful that one of those is nice and I can nab it. I'm so looking forward to having my own place again. (I think I've said that already a number of times over previous blog entries, but there you have it.)

Yesterday, I went out to the west end to have lunch with Andy. Should have taken my camera so I could post his mug up here so others have a face to put to one of my most frequent commenter's name. Drat. After lunch at the Lone Star, we headed back to Entrust so I could visit with a few people.

My god... it was so eerie. It felt like I was approaching some haunted place, or the home of an estranged and subtly malicious family member. It was just so odd walking back in there. I was happy to see Kelso again, and we ended up chatting for a good 20 minutes, at which point I had to head out to meet up with Laura. It was my first time in the Third Brigade building, and it's quite a nice set-up in there. It was good to see Laura, as I hadn't seen her in well over a year. We chatted about old Entrust folks, she told me about Third Brigade and I gave her my advice on media monitoring and tracking applications. It was a lot of fun to see everyone out there!

On Wednesday night, I took Jamie out for belated birthday beers. We went to MacLaren's for beer and pool. It was great to spend some time with him. I don't think Jamie and I have ever gone out just he and I before. We had fun, and I think we each won as many games of pool as we lost. Swung by Angie's afterwards to surprise her, and we walked home.

It's been a great week and is looking like a fantastic weekend. I'm heading to Toronto this weekend for gaming and... meeting up with a fellow DAoC player! I never played with him, though I played against him and we were aware of each other. He and I are still frequent posters on a DAoC forum and I happened to mention I'd be in town, so we're hooking up Saturday night at a pool place on Bloor. I'm looking forward to that. Funny enough, on Sunday I'll be meeting up with my friend Pat, who I first met via DAoC, also. Ah, geekdom... bringing people together since 1974.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Stuffing Update

Since I cut my finger open, it's been a pretty busy four weeks, and for the most part those weeks have been great.

Big news first, I suppose. I have a job. I'm back with the Senate, and while I'm still in the same department, I'm with a new supervisor and in a different position. I'll be a scopist, which is basically an editor/proof-reader and fact-checker. It pays well, is only four days a week, 9 months a year. So that's sorted. Finally! To say I'm relieved would be an understatement. I'm looking forward to an end to this unwanted professional hiatus.

James' housewarming out near Ste-Sauver was a blast. While I've seen James and Katrien quite a few times since I've been back (and since they've been in Canada) I hadn't seen Dave or Jamie in years. It was fantastic to spend some time with them and catch up on things. They're both looking and doing well! (photo above left) Given the weather was fantastic, we hung out outside and Katrien built a nice fire. Beer, fire and friends... good times.

I've also been doing some gaming in Toronto. Well, we've started a game anyway. It's a once-a-month thing, and nice to re-unite the old Kingston gaming group, with a photograph of PG looking on. It's quite nice to take a break from Ottawa, gaming rocks and socializing with old and good friends is the icing on the cake. Also managed to sneak in two breakfasts (Saturday and Sunday) with Christina and Laura, Angela's sisters.

Anyhoo, with the job coming up and money actually starting to come in, I'll be looking for apartments soon. I can't wait to get into my own place again and truly begin to feel settled and back into things. Pele will soon be living with me again, and that's as it should be, I suppose, given how she and my dad get along...

Last weekend, I also hooked up with Pat from DAoC - had breakfast at the Gloucester Oak - and Angie and I went for drinks with Adam, and ran into Daniel! Hadn't seen him in years.

Angie and I headed back to her mom's for Thanksgiving in VKH. Lorne and Dee made extravagant quantities of food, and everyone ate themselves stupid on Saturday evening. On Sunday morning, Angie and I went for breakfast at Carole's with Angela and Ben. Carole's was a frequent haunt of Angela's and mine back in high-school. Last night, between bouts of Guitar Hero II and Colessium (cool boardgame that Chris brought), we lounged and chatted and just took it easy, dining on hamburgers, cole-slaw and other goodies. Definitely a nice Thanksgiving and another weekend away. Just got back this morning (Monday), courtesy of Jenny and Chris.

That's the news for now. Looking forward to an upcoming Sudbury visit, starting work, Halloween parties, and finding and moving into my own place.

As per usual, pictures of various stuffs up on Flickr.

Dishes Suck

Damn glasses. So I came home from Angie's around noon or so, and by 1pm I was on my way to the Civic Hospital emergency room. The culprit? Washing a freaking glass.

Nothing too serious. I was washing a glass while doing the dishes (oddly, it was the last thing to clean) and it broke while my right hand was in it. My first reaction was, in no uncertain terms, "holymothafuckinshit!" followed by more intermittent swearing as my brain tried to process exactly what had happened while blood poured down my hand.

I ended up cutting deeply into my pinky finger, and three hours later when it was looked at by a doctor, found out I'd cut some minor artery or some such. It wouldn't stop bleeding. I soaked through a bathing towel Aaron gave me when we left, the gauze the triage nurse gave me while I waited another two hours, and the doctor went through about eight packages of gauze while freezing me and sewing me shut. (6 stitches... yay...) It only stopped when she placed a stitch through the little vein/artery and sewed it down. My arm was resting in an actual pool of blood. Lovely imagery, eh?

I found it all fascinating, actually. I watch Nip/Tuck religiously with Aaron, and have always been amazed by their re-creations of surgeries and such. Some of them very... disturbing. Very accurate, it turns out. I watched the freezing, and then the stitching. I had to help a bit at one point because blood just kept flowing over the areas she was trying to work on. I asked questions the whole time because I was really curious about it all. It was all very surreal. I couldn't feel anything, and because my hand was completely obscured by surgical towels or whatever, it looked like a disembodied hunk of flesh. Like it had no association with me personally.

On the plus side, I'm now up to date on my tetanus shot. On the down side, I wasted five hours of my day and can no longer boast that I've never broken a bone nor had stitches. My brother used to be the one who was always getting sewn up or having bones set. So much for my 28-year streak.

Wish I had a picture. I think the doctor had a camera phone. Should have asked her to take one before and one after. The one before would have been gruesome. It looked a bit like I had split my pinky in two. Not quite that bad, but the cut went a fair ways in. (edit: 24 hours later, I re-dressed my cut and decided to snap some pictures. Ugly...)

Nothing much else to report. Still no luck on the job front, and that's pissing me off. Well, some days I'll optimistic, other days pissed, and other days just down about it. Angie's moved into her place, and it's great to finally be in the same city.

That's about all I can think of for the moment.

When CSIS Comes A-Callin'

Had a bit of a surprise this morning. Woke up, fiddled around for a bit, made coffee. Aaron comes out of his room moaning about a hangover and hands me a piece of mail. I open it up and it's half a paragraph from CSIS recruitment.

It wasn't completely out of the blue. I'd sent in a generic cover letter and my resume to their recruitment dept. However, I didn't really expect to get anything back. Now, it may be that they contact the majority of people who apply, once they determine that the cover letter and resume contain promising elements. I dunno. All I know is that I opened the letter... and three hours later received a call on my cell.

"Hi, this is so-and-so from CSIS. Is this a cell phone number?"

"Yes it is."

"When are you available for a short interview over a land-line?"

And so it began. I arrived at my parents' place around 3pm, and the call happened at 3:30pm. The woman was really nice, and it wasn't so much an interview as a preliminary screening and information transfer. I asked a few questions, and she was quite... thorough in terms of follow-up questions. "Military? What clearance did you have? What year was that again? Why did you seek honourable discharge? What made you decide to enlist?" It was quite a fun conversation, and very interesting. Highly informative.

What may have turned into a career with them was cut short (knowingly, on my part) when I said that, yes, I was "hesitant" when it came to the issue of "mobility". I just spent 10 months away from Angie, and I'm not about to jump into a job that involves a great deal of... well, mobility. The mandatory training programs (which I'm not sure I can talk about) seemed pretty intense and they themselves involved being in various places.

It's kind of funny. When I had sent my resume and cover letter in, I had assumed that positions would be for support type roles. You know, non-007 type stuff. Analysis, research, etc. The recruitment, however, was for something else entirely. It's all good, though: the recruitment person forwarded my information and resume to other departments internally that are support-type jobs, and based out of Ottawa.

Anyhoo... it was an interesting day! I doubt I'll have any calls quite like it in this job-search process.

Of Weddings, Visits & Bikes

A few weeks to catch up on, I suppose. Fell out of the ol' blogging mood for a bit, but here we go.

Angela and Ben's wedding was fantastic. They had it out at Strathmere on the 8th, and luckily the weather cooperated nicely. Slightly overcast, but that actually works better for photographs (or so I'm told by people who know what they're doing). The venue was great, the ceremony was personal and without ornament, and the reception was tonnes of fun. In my opinion, they had just the right amount of people.

Angie and I got all dolled up in our Chinese clothes, the super secret ones I'd gotten with Lili's help in Beijing my last week in China. We received some nice comments about them, and Angie looked amazing in her dress. My shirt was somewhat nonconducive to eating, what with the sleeves and all, but I managed just fine. Many subtle flicks of the wrist were necessary. The bar wasn't expensive, either: a glass of wine was $6, and I think I only bought two glasses. The rest was provided as supper accompaniment. I even danced. (Scary, I know.)

That's been the major event up until this weekend, really. Otherwise, I've simply been sending out resumes, having a meeting here and there (agencies, not job interviews unfortunately), and being hopeful, job-wise. It's frustrating at times, but c'est la vie. I hooked up with Kevin B. last Monday around midnight, and we hung out til fairly early in the morning, chatting.

Oh, I house-sat for Jamie and Suzi, and it was good to get out of Aaron's for a bit to give him and August some of their own space. The animals were good, for the most part, and I got some writing done, watched plenty of movies, and played WoW. Aaron came over one evening for bbq, beer and to watch Tremors, a movie neither of us had seen since it came out way back when. Good times.

While I was there, I finished reading Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix, which I wasn't a huge fan of. It was good, but not great. That tends to show in the movie, as it was a bit bland. The ending was good, and it was awesome that Helena Bonham Carter played Bellatrix Lestrange. Good casting on that. (I still despise Richard Harris' replacement, though.)

I've also finished The Silver Spike, She Is the Darkness and I'm well into Bleak Seasons (all Black Company books). It's quite a fun read. Nothing too heavy, and it moves along quite nicely with a great bunch of motley characters.

I've been down in Vankleek Hill since Weds afternoon, visiting Angie. Last night we went to see John and Linda at their place, fulfilling the promise made in Zhuhai. John bbq'd steaks and sausages and potatoes, and they both kept the flow of beer unhampered. Angie got a chance to chat with Linda while I mostly wrangled with John. I think Angie said it best when she said "even though I agree with a lot of John's opinions, it's still hard to agree with him". So true, and makes for some nice, heated discussions. It was very relaxing.

Something cool: my dad bought a Triumph, centennial edition. He had a '63 Triumph when he was a youngin', and for ages he's talked about getting one. Well, today he's back from Nashville where he went to pick it up (go eBay). I can't wait to see it, and it looks like I'll be able to on Weds or Thursday as I'm aiming to go down for a visit while my Nan's visiting. It's relatively rare for my dad to get excited about something, so it was fun to hear him on the phone.

He called first and just said, "Did you check your email? No? Go check it and call me back". He'd sent me an email with the picture of the bike and the invitation "Want to go to Nashville?". Any other time I'd have been all for a roadtrip, but girlfriends before father's dreams, I suppose.

I guess that's about it for now. I'll try to get back to my more frequent posting routine.

Realities

I got an email from one of my 16-year-old students today. He and I have been emailing back and forth since I left Tangshan and started traveling in late March. Now he's no fool, and is cautious about what he reads and believes from Chinese media. (wise boy) However, the isolation of reality with the Chinese frightens me. I suppose what frightens me most is witnessing intelligent, independent-thought-driven people in China left in the dark. For us ("us" in this case being Canadians, I think), if we choose not to believe a thing it's because there is evidence to the contrary and we can point to it. We can see both sides of the coin. Not so for most Chinese people. Their "coin" has been riveted to steel and involves a government-run laser-light show that promotes the side showing.

Because of this, it amazes me when Johnson (my student) comes to me either telling me what he thinks, or asking questions. He has no basis, information-wise, to divide his opinion from the norm. Imagine a book that tells two sides of a debate, except each page reserved for the side that the Chinese government doesn't find convenient is blacked out completely. That's essentially how it goes. It's crazy to think that some of my students are looking at the black pages and going "I'd rather side with uncertainty than what's being said". They're tossing their away a government-generated "truth" in favour of a void.

This post was prompted from an email I received this morning, which contained: "Today I found a terrible fact: the Austrilians think that Taiwan is a country!! China has announced for lots of times that Taiwan is a part of China! Do you Canadians have that idea, too?" A bit of background: that teenage class was taken on by Jeff, an older Australian man, when I left. So clearly something is being discussed in class that has prompted Johnson to take whatever they were discussing as Australian gospel. (That's another thing... if I say "I think food in China is too spicy", that response would be tantamount to saying "Canadians think that food in China is too spicy".)

Ouch. How can I answer his question? 1) Prior to just looking it up (like, 5 minutes ago), I had no knowledge of Taiwan's history or political situation, and 2) is it right for me to give him the information I have available? He's asked an earnest question, and deserves an earnest answer. However... I worry that things I tell him could sow the seeds of further mistrust in him, and is that fair? Granted, China faces this problem now more than ever. Information restriction was quite easy before the Internet, but more importantly (and ironically) before English became a large part of their education. There aren't many Chinese newspapers outside of China, so 10-20 years ago what English media was saying wasn't a big concern because Chinese people (in China, obviously) couldn't read it anyway. Now that's changed, and I think China's heading towards a kind of information-based revolution. John (as in Zhuhai "John and Linda" John) believes that China is aimed right at a more traditional revolution. It's inevitable, he believes, given the hundreds of violent protests that occur every year... in China. (Not that you'd hear about them...)

I have to say that I think he's right.

In the bit of research I did on Taiwan, I came to the conclusion that despite PRC (People's Republic of China) influence and its enormous shadow, it is a somewhat independent country. Nice strong conclusion, eh? They have democratic elections, and their own president. However... technically, the UN recognizes Taiwan as being a part of China, and there are anti-secession laws preventing its independence. Counter-however... Taiwan has its own military. A huge issue is the US' Taiwan Relations Act, and the fact it sells arms to Taiwan. (Who don't they sell to?) So... if Taiwan makes a move to officially become sovereign, China will react militarily... prompting a counter-counter-response from the US. ... but not from the UN, which does not intervene when it comes to border or land disputes. Anyway, they recognize Taiwan as being a state of China.

For a nice propaganda-soaked read, check this out. Scary, but very typical.

For a more middle-of-the-road look, I found this interesting.

In other news, I went to tai ji quan on Thursday. The teacher, for the summer, is doing it under the Sapper Bridge near Parliament Hill. It was great. Lots of discussion about philosophy, and learning about the Chen family style and lineages, as well as application and some resistance push-hands (tuishou).

And what - the - fuck. Hamas TV martyrs Palestinian mickey mouse. Time to add some chlorine to the global gene pool, methinks.

Damn those stereotypes to hell!

Interesting. Makes sense, I guess.

Also a study done to show that eldest children have higher IQs.

I'm gunna be tired tomorrow. I'm here at work until like 2:30 or 3am. Weeeee! Then up again to be in for 9. The internet is my entertainment. Go digg.com!