And, overall, her visit was a disappointment. I didn’t get to see the girl anywhere near enough. We went out to eat for an evening, and that was it. A rather bland evening at that – no good arguments. No arguments period, which is a shame. What is the point of knowing someone, if you don’t argue?

Mind, I did miss some invites to some stuff down at her sisters place in Decatur. But thats because I don’t use Myspace, which is where she posted them. I mean, I have a Myspace account, but the only time I log in is when I get an email saying her blog has been updated. Other than that – nada.

Alright, I have to chime in with my two cents worth. Its a free country, why all the criticism of how the two Spears girls live their lives?

Forget the bunk about role models – they are actresses, and singers. If someone, of any age, chooses to look at them as a role model, that is none of their business. They are not obligated, nor should they feel pressured to, take that into account in any shape, way, size, or form. America is a land of freedom, remember?

So, I downloaded a copy of Peter Pan from Project Gutenburg today. You see, I need to refresh my memory, because I had a striking thought for a series of adventures, all built around Faery Tales. This is based off the D20 horizons sourcebook Grimm – which is, in fact, quite Grim. (*1) Its the old faery tales, with a much nastier twist (and some of those old tales had some nasty elements in their own right).

I was at the libraries web page, looking at Holly Black books, and read mention of a book called Faery Reel, or some such. Its a collection of Short Stories, and a quick description of one sparked a fire in my brain. Captain Hook is resurrected again and again, for the amusement of his immortal foe, Peter Pan. Oooooh, I can work with that.

I haven’t read Peter Pan, it appears. Its like nothing that I remember. I do find the old style writing somewhat tedious, I admit. I’ll bet people reading modern books 80 years from now will think the same thing though. Hmm, it might be interesting to go back and read 2-3 books from the 40′s, then the 50′s, all the way through till today.

Anyway, more later, maybe.

(*1) Thats the old version of the book. Fantasy Flight games has put out a new, non D20 version of Grimm.

Alright, I’m out at drivethrurpg looking at stuff I really shouldn’t. (I am a PDF gamebook whore, totally). And I stumble across this blurb for the game Monsters and Other Childish Things: Completely Monstrous Edition.

So now, its brand new, in this edition – its an expanded one shot from some time ago. And quite a few folks seem to like it. See its about kids and their Chtuhlu monster pals. But now, the part that intrigues me, is that one of the monsters is named Mr. Whispers. I mean isn’t that the coolest name for a invisible friend/demonic beast from hell? Some guy on a message board liked gnarly toes. Thats kinda neat, but it pales in comparison to the genius of Mr. Whispers.

We give our gifts on Christmas eve. Then, on Christmas day, we have a big brunch. Its how we’ve done things for years upon years. This is my immediate family.

This year I got three shirts (which I’ve needed), a hundred dollar bill, Petsmart gift card, Doctor Who Season 2 on DVD. Thats not a bad run up at all. So now I’m trying to decide what to spend 50 bucks on. I need 50 bucks to replace the money I spent on a toilet seat earlier today (Home Depot was out of reasonably priced ones, and I needed one). Since I got nothing that was on my Amazon wish list, thats an obvious place to start.

In terms of gifts I gave – well, I gave my mom and sister season tickets to the Blue ridge GA community theater. They only do four plays a year. My sister is painfully hard to buy for, so I hope that this works out nicely for her. Her and mom both enjoy going to plays. I also got each of them a copy of the Diner Dash pc game. Mom also got a DVD on taking digital photo’s of wildlife. I gave Kat the Ratatouille movie.

For dad, I gave him a copy of the old gamecube game Tales of Symphonia, which I’ve heard is quite good. I have no idea of course, if it is or isn’t. I also gave him 2 months of Netflix 2 at a time, unlimited.

My brother, I got a linksys firewall and router, for his Internet connection. I *hate* software based firewalls, for all the trouble that they have caused me over the years. By getting him this, hopefully I’m saving myself work in the future. It also has wireless, not that he cares that much about that. I also gave him a Petzl Tactikka XP camo headlamp. Its an LED headlamp – i.e. a flashlight on a sweatband. Its for all the crap he has to work on at night.

I hope the bro’s router works right – I couldn’t get it to working quite right here at the house. And, when I wasn’t paying good attention to him, Harley destroyed its box. So its not being returned anywhere.

I’ve got a big old potroast on in the crockpot, and a large pot of 50% rice, 50% quinoa cooked up to eat on for the next few days. I quite enjoy quinoa. I don’t however, like its strong nutty odor while its cooking in the rice cooker. Thats why I mix it with the rice. I don’t like strong odors around my birds. (Both my brother and sister claim this is false – if it was true, I wouldn’t be around my birds myself, since I am a very frequent source of strong, noxious odors.) I made more of it than I’ll need. In the morning, I’ll give the birds a breakfast of rice/quinoa/broccolli before I put out their usual foods. I try to vary what they get a bit. Its mostly pellets. Either Harrison’s, or Tops (both are all organic brands). Saturdays are scrambled eggs and banana for them.

Hmm, this is just a self reminder to follow up on Holly Blacks books. They are urban fey – a genre created by Charles Delint and one that has long been a favorite of mine.

First off, Happy Christmas Eve!

Second, over at Green Ronin, they are offering a free downloadable adventure for the Faery Tale’s RPG. This is a fun little RPG that is playable by kids 6 and up. It is also quite fun for adults. Here is the blurb for the adventure….

Firefly Games and Green Ronin are pleased to present a special free holiday adventure for Faery’s Tale Deluxe. It Happened One Christmas, written by Scott Bennie with art by Jennifer Meyer, is a 10-page PDF challenging your faeries to help restore the true spirit of Christmas to a town cursed by a cold-hearted prince.

This particular adventure is heavily kid focused (it lays it on thick……) and looks like it would be a lot of fun.

Thanks to Jigsawdiva for the pointer to this site – determine your D&D stats. So here is me

Chaotic Good Human Wizard (5th Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength- 10
Dexterity- 10
Constitution- 11
Intelligence- 15
Wisdom- 10
Charisma- 9

Alignment:
Chaotic Good- A chaotic good character acts as his conscience directs him with little regard for what others expect of him. He makes his own way, but he’s kind and benevolent. He believes in goodness and right but has little use for laws and regulations. He hates it when people try to intimidate others and tell them what to do. He follows his own moral compass, which, although good, may not agree with that of society. Chaotic good is the best alignment you can be because it combines a good heart with a free spirit. However, chaotic good can be a dangerous alignment because it disrupts the order of society and punishes those who do well for themselves.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Wizards- Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard’s strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.

Ah, I begin to see. No, I didn’t play today, but I did a bit of reading. I didn’t play because I discovered that my frame rates are horribly low (like 11) and that what I was thinking as slow paced, is really a slow machine. So I’ve got to investigate different virtualization options.

Anyway though, I begin to see the attraction. My fortress is in a bit of a mountain valley, with a low marshy floor. There is a brook running through the area, and lots of chalk. The small area I have dug out is almost all chalk too – my underground fortress is in chalk. Kinda wild. I haven’t seen any interesting wildlife. Just some hoary marmots, dragonflys, and a few swarms of flies. I don’t think summer here is going to be too pleasant.

But, I don’t like my dwarves drinking from murky pools. So I want to channel that brook down through some of these pools.

I damn sure want to buy two picks next time. One is not enough.

These podcasts specifically discuss the 4th amendment, and searches, etc. Fascinating stuff, especially for those of us who realize that the government has way way too much power, and is prone to abusing it.

Dwarf Fortress is just plain weird. For one thing, it uses Ascii graphics. And yet, it is a high impact game – it will use all the processing performance you can throw at it. Its got an incredibly obtuse user interface. I mean, this interface is purely bizarre, and HARD to learn.

First, read the review out at Playthisthing – which is a blog worth visiting.

Now, I’ve been playing this little gem for a couple of hours. And, for the record, it works fine in windows xp under vwmare fusion, on a macbook, provided that you plug in an external keyboard. The standard macbook keyboard doesn’t have all the keys needed to play.

As of yet, I’m not quite getting it. Its amusing, in a way, but the neat stories haven’t started happening yet. Google boatmurdered and read starting around post 11 to see what I mean, or the excerpt below

It’ll reward you not just by challenges, but by some of the strangest anecdotes you’ll ever hear. I still can’t believe the forum post I read about the psychotic, incredibly-skilled leather-crafting dwarf who killed one of his peers after a particularly dark mood took him. Two days later a pair of dwarf-skin boots shows up in the storeroom…

Erk.

Anyway, so far its rather interesting, but I haven’t yet caught the magic.

What type of fucking clue is “But of course!” for “IGETIT” in a crossword puzzle????????????