Will I miss my deadline?

Yes. It looks like I will.

Sadly, after reviewing the requirements for the RPG Halloween contest, it seems I was unable to get 11,000 words out by the deadline. :(

All is not lost. The adventure has been a joy to work on, and I plan to finish it, polish it up and see if they can't still make use of it. This will give me a chance to play-test it as well, which is just a joy to contemplate.

2000 Words - A measurable percentage?

Well, there you go. I've hit 2000 words of my novel, and all of them have been written in bed. That's amusing to me. I'm surprised at how my life has consistently missed my "dream scenarios" yet still worked out pretty well. I used to always dream of writing in coffee shops, or in big oak or cherry paneled offices, or in libraries - but I'm just happy to get some words down at all. So I write in bed.

I still write in other places too, but it seems like the drudgery of day-to-day living eats up a lot of my valuable creative energy.

And I'm also way more realistic than I used to be, and constantly find ways to remind myself that I'm privileged and shouldn't complain.

Perspective: I can write. I don't have to worry about where my next meal is coming from or whether or not my family will be blown up while they go to the grocery store. I don't spend a lot of time concerned that my shelter will burn down, or the water I drink will make me sick. I'm privileged.

BUT - I also have this other perspective that creeps into my mind. There are only two forms of immortality that seem to work to any degree of success.

1) Have kids (done that) and your genetic identity will at least be partially carried on and reproduced. Whether it (or your kids) will survive is uncertain, but it is a way that has worked. If you consider that your own existence required that every single ancestor you've got had to have survived to the age of reproductive viability, and then successfully found a mate, and then gotten through childbirth - well, that's a lot of iffy territory that had to be crossed to make you be here.

2) Write. You may not get published, and you may not be famous, but the only way we really know about the ancient Greeks and Egyptians are through their writings. Aristotle may not have any direct heirs today - but millions of students know his work and his ideas live on.

There is no greater invention in the history of mankind than that of written language. I doubt there ever will be, for it gives substance to the vapors of our minds, and volume to the whispers of our soul.

Practice what you preach?

I finally got around to actually BUILDING a system of my own instead of buying one already assembled. No, seriously.

I've done thousands of repairs on thousands of systems, including changing out system boards but in all the time I've been using PCs I've never gotten around to installing my own system board replacement until tonight.

I'm installing the O/S right now - but it seems like (cross-fingers) I got it right the first time. If you've never done this before, installing OEM equipment instead of fully component-ized Dell, Compaq or [BRAND-X] systems it is a bit different. Reading the silk-screens and matching them to the manuals instructions is quite a treat.

A special thanks to Mung, who pointed me in the correct direction on lining up the various LED cables since that was not explained in the manual.

---TOPIC CHANGE ---

I am moving along with my COC scenario submission. Not sure if I'll make the deadline, but I'm definitely enjoying the writing and creation.

In other game-writing news, my article on Wights is coming along. I hope to get it done by Thursday so I can submit it to Pyramid this week - but if it goes out till next week that'd be OK too. Since it doesn't have a deadline I should probably focus on the COC adventure.

Call of Cthulhu

Call of Cthulhu may be my favorite RPG. It probably is. It is definitely the one I feel most comfortable running & playing - and I have a lot of source books for it.

The publishers at Chaosium are running a contest, soliciting for Halloween-Themed adventures for one of their special books. I may work on that this weekend; the deadline is the 30th of September.

Probably the first really great electronic character generator I ever saw and/or used was made for COC - and it is still out there today, working great. Byakhee is its name, and it is now a sourceforge project if you've any interest in making a D20 version. (Though the original version of the game and generator are super-fun, super-easy and golly-gee-whiz, just Super!)

Secrets - the After School Special

There may come a time in your life as a GM where you want to run a game and the number of anticipated seats at the table is a sub-set of the total number of friends who would want to play. What do you do? Do you run a secret game and ask the players not to tell? Do you invite everyone and try and re-design the scenario to fit the numbers? And what if you want one of two players who don't get along with each other?

Surely this isn't the kind of problem that non-gamers run into is it? Maybe it is. Maybe sometimes you want to have a BBQ at your house but can't invite everyone who would want to consume your food and partake in your meal. But how to handle such a social situation?

I think the scenario can be exacerbated with gamers, because lets face it - most of us are trying to retain our childlike interest in games. And many of us have instead retained our childish interest in self-fulfillment.

I've got friends who would be offended if you didn't invite them over for an asparagus tasting party even though they can't eat asparagus. They want the invite and the (imaginary) prestige that comes with being invited to such an exalted event.

Then again I've got friends who are cut-ups. They only want to play funny characters and make jokes and recall things they've seen on TV. Perfect friends for playing TOON with, but not really the right player for that heavily researched Call of Cthulhu campaign I've spent two months preparing for Halloween.

And I've got friends who are fragile, whose egos aren't built for rejection by good ol' me.

And I've got friends who are tanks. They'd plow on through life just fine if I got caught under their treads.

I think I'll write an article about this and see if I can get it into Pyramid. If I succeed I'll like to it. If they reject it, I'll post it on GGO.

1500+ words tonight!

Wheeee! I knocked out 1500 words on "Rufus Tidwell and the World's Greatest Flutist." Neato. I'm very happy with that progress, but to be fair I took a pain pill for my back and am "very happy" in general.

Speaks for itself

Some costumes speak for themselves.

New Movie Review

Ok - I've posted a new movie review on the GGO site. As a part of my "filling in the blanks" effort, I'm trying to revisit the Sword & Sorcery movies that I missed growing up in a conservative Southern family.

I've seen a lot since I got out into the world, but there are plenty I missed. These movies aren't "great" in the "Citizen Kane" sense, but they're fun and I'm reviewing them in the context of the genre sub-set they represent.

So far I've seen "Deathstalker II" and "Hawk the Slayer." The review of the latter will be up this week barring unforeseen circumstances.

Novel Progress: I've got around 1,000 words so far. Good words. Words that form sentences! And unlike this blog (bjournal) the words may save me from ignominy. Speaking of ignominy - has anybody made a mock-version of the game In Nomine? Wouldn't Ignominy make a nice title for such a micro-niche product?

Site Re-Design - Pt II

Ok - so the site as you see it now is a lower-cost hosting solution, and is based on PHP scripting and HTML. The host offers CHAT and BOARDS - so I set them up. Not sure how they'll be used yet, but they exist and if you want to sign up you can.

I've had a couple of blogs in my life, and I've ditched them both in favor of this one. I barely have time for one blog with all my life's projects - but I'll manage. Besides, occasionally I have something to say to the Universe and the Internet is a comically apt analog to the utility of such an effort.

Today I entered into a pact with Mr. Ollerman.

Mr. Ollerman.

I know you're reading this, Mr. Ollerman.

But on to the pact. Today is September 11th, 2006. I have until September 11th, 2007 to finish a novel, or will have to buy Mr. Ollerman a Billy Bass.



I do not enter into this pact lightly. The very idea of Mr. Ollerman having a singing fish (purchased at my expense) in his Yankee Writer's Workshop is anathema to me. It sickens me. It makes my stomach roil. And that makes me want to write, which is exactly the point.

On the other hand, having Mr. Ollerman purchase a Billy Bass for me - well that's suits my decor. Besides it will fit neatly between my collection of bottled dreams (unfulfilled) and clown tears (the crying on the outside kind of clowns).


But I'm sure that won't happen. After all, he's already written a book.

5 years later...

September 11, 2006.
It has been 5 years since the terrorist attack that finally got the attention of Americans.

To commemorate, President Bush is travelling to all the sites where planes struck, and will hold a special national address tonight to re-read "The Pet Goat."




You can buy your own copy on Amazon (See the above link) and follow along tonight. It should make a stirring tribute that will become a tradition with your family, like it has with mine.

Site Re-Design - Pt I

It all began with a simple idea. My friends and I like to game and we like to create web pages, so why not combine the two interests and try and make a gamer friendly site? Sure there are already 12 other gamer sites on the web – but we’d be the 13^th, and that had to bode well for us, right? So we pooled our skills: Rico took first watch, Dutch grabbed the pencils to do the ‘toons, and I stoked the fire and heated up the VanCamps. After all, you can’t make a web-page without chili.

Our first mistake was trying to use dot-net-nuke to be our document management system. It turned out after months of tweaking and piddling, that we could have had the site out in a month if we’d stuck to what we knew – HTML & CSS.

Our second mistake was in believing that we had plenty of time to work on this kind of thing. I mean really, it all comes down to the core principal I’ve come to live by: My time is worth money. It doesn’t mean that I always get money for my time, but it does mean that I have some imaginary number that I believe my time is worth per hour. This is my Personal Time Wage (PTW).

That is a value I use when people want to use my time. If I’m giving these “free” hours – am I getting something in return that compensates me for this time? And I use it even if I’m the one “wasting” my time.

From a gaming perspective, I think in terms of entertainment value relative to movie ticket prices. If I play a five hour RPG was it at least as fun as the value of a 90 minute $9 movie ticket? (That comes out to a $6/hr “Entertainment Wage.”) I often do a post-game internal evaluation to consider how my PTW compares to my EW. The better the game, the less I worry about this, but if the game is not truly engaging then my PTW may force me to stop playing for imaginary fiduciary reasons.

There’s more to this story – but my son is upstairs screaming for somebody to come read Thomas the Tank Engine™ stories to him. That’s my cue.

Thanks Blogger!

Now I can share my important thoughts from anywhere!

Test #2 - Desk Encounter

Another posting test.

Testing autopost

This is just me testing the autopost feature from my "Sprint Treo-700" palm phone. (It's only the greatest friggin' phone ever made!) With Microcenter selling 1GB SD cards for $16.00 I gotta believe this is a glorious age for the digital photography fan.

Welcome to GGO’s “Random Encounters” – the BLOG where the “geek” and “nerd” perspectives are finally given voice on the Internet!

Let me start by saying that I hate the word “BLOG.” If you’re one of the 14 people who don’t already know the etymology, this is a sort of portmanteau word formed from combining web+log. Only it should be formed from web+journal. This should really be a “bjournal” or a “webjo.” But them asses have spoken. I mean the masses have spoken.

(Although I must confess; I really like the Swedish styling of “bjournal.” )

The whole gamegroup.org website is the place where (in theory) some friends of mine and I put our game-related ideas out on the web for the enjoyment and edification of the gaming community. In reality, it seems like I’m the one doing the lion’s share of the uploading, editing, writing, etc…

But, man does not live by dread alone…

Here in our articles section you will find some items for your role-playing games that were just too dangerous, too extreme for Dragon Magazine or Knights of the Dinner table. Now they’ve a home.

You’ll find cutting-edge reviews of movies that came out anywhere from 1 to 80 years ago. Priceless.

In the crypt of comics you’ll find drawings and illustrations so amusing, so profoundly avant-garde, so infrequently updated – that you may find yourself chuckling with mirth.

There are message boards. There is a chat feature. There is even a munginator.

This is the only “first” post I plan to have on this site, and I hope all the rest of the posts are totally sweet. I detect a tinge of sour in this one.