Torakhan's Journal

LARP and stuff

2009-11-10T00:01:36Z

I managed to get to the camp not too late and even got a bottom bunk! I took Heidi to the store and came back with snacks for myself too. Since we didn't have a cave until Saturday, there was no rush for putting up a cave and game-on was almost on time!

I gotta admit, my "duty" at Winter Haven is pretty minimal at the best. I am at the event, but I'm not involved in the game in any way... I'm sort of a fire marshal, transport, gopher, and general lazy-body who occupies space at NPC camp. But as long as I'm wanted, I'm glad to be there.

Things seem to have gone very well over-all. We had Melissa from Final Haven helping out on Friday and early Saturday (I think she had fun) and a total players in the high 30s.

Saturday was the "Beer Fest" and then the "Waxies" show. A few folks mentioned maybe starting a fire, so I got a large fire going in no time and I tended it for the next several hours. The Waxies came in-character as "Ire Rememberance Army" members who fought against the Springhold occupation... so when they played "Go On Home British Soldiers", they changed the lyrics to "Go on home Springhold soldiers." They said it was their first dry show in 3 years. Afterwards, it was off to Big T's for the game break, and to give the band food and drink. They were about to order "what was on tap", when I mentioned to them that they had a beer list with hundreds of beers... they seemed glad I enlightened them to that and I don't think a single one of them ordered off the drink board. *laughs* While I was there, they had a "Philly Steak Burger" on the menu. It was supposed to come with "Green peppers, onions, Swiss cheese and A1 Thick and Rich", but I was like, "What the hell is this?" So I had them take off the A1 and replace the Swiss with American and WOW!!! I will order this burger again!

Then, it was back to the game and putting up the cave for the battle and such. Again, I didn't do much... just mostly chilled out near the cave at times, or down at NPC camp for the couple of "Starfish" calls. Otherwise, things seemed to have gone quite well with the rest of the night.

Sunday came early and the cave and most of the packing up was done early... we were almost ready to leave by 12:30pm... except that the PCs took their time.. and we didn't get out of the camp until almost 3pm.

At about 6pm, several of us met up at Golden Corral in Muskegon, then later to Phil's for chat and decompress a bit.

However, after I got home, I was getting ready for sleep, but I had this energetic boost and couldn't get to sleep until almost 3:30am. When I woke up this morning, I was feeling uneasy and had a headache. I wasn't feeling well at all, and so I called into work and stayed in bed until about 4pm. I have little more than just a little firmness in the brain, but I'll likely be hitting the hay anyways just in case I'm fighting something off.
It seems that someone at the LARP had the H1N1. Now, it's going to be another 6 months before we have another Winter Haven, but I think we will need to implement some sort of rule of "if you think you have the flu, please leave the game" policy. I mean, not even H1N1... if you have any sort of easily transmittable virus.

Dial-Up ... fail? Winter Haven and Stuff.

2009-11-06T17:56:02Z

So, last night I could not log onto the internet on either of my computers via dial-up. However, my mom's computer (which uses the same phone line, same username, password, phone number, service, etc.) could.

I could dial the number. It would connect. I would have 54k and both computers would send and receive packets, but it would not connect to the internet. But, again, both of my personal computers would not connect, but my mother's would. I'm running both XP and Vista. I ran AVG twice on both... nuthin'. I can't TelNet out, I can't FTP. I tried another internet service (NetZero) which apparently would dial-out, but (at least on Vista) would disconnect and pop up blank Explorer windows. WTF?!

I will try a hot-spot with my laptop shortly and see if I can connect without the modem.

This weekend is Winter Haven.
The Waxies will be performing on Saturday during the event. They'll be NPCs, so we'll see how that goes.
It'll also be a bit cold, and the flu's still going around. This should be interesting.

30th Annual Ninja Parade (ONN)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtR2m20C2YM

Bohemian Rapsidy on old skool computer equipment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht96HJ01SE4

Saturday night - Kim's Party

2009-11-02T00:18:17Z

Last night was Kim's Birthday/Halloween party.

I got over there around 5:30pm and downloaded the Queen music pack for Rock Band 2.
Folks started showing up sometime after 7 or 8 and Rock Band 2 was played while more folks showed up and began drinking... excessively.
I don't know how much of it was because folks' systems are still a bit weakened by illness, or if it was the newer folks who haven't "partied" with us before, but apparently by Midnight several folks were not only blowing chunks, but were more than just "occupying" the available bathrooms and taking their business outside too. By (the first) 1am, everything was pretty much wrapping up.
The cops weren't called to the house, but one car was pulled over and the folks had to be rescued. Other than that, it was the only legal problem that I know of (that's a good thing, well, for the house owner at least.)

Now, I'm not a drinker (for a couple of reasons), but I have a problem when someone can't figure out when too much is enough and doesn't seem to know that others don't enjoy them being drunken, chunk-spewing, vulgar, irritating assholes at parties. And I can't figure out why so-called "friends" can't stop them from at least drinking at the party. It seems like it should be party etiquette to either make a friend stop drinking or tell them they have to go when they've gotten past the controlled-drunk phase and moved onto the problem-of-the-party phase.
Friends should be able to tell other friends when to stop... because I tell you what, having someone breaking gaming equipment, spilling drinks, ruining activities, laying down on furniture heaving into buckets, and staying in the bathroom for long periods of time while other folks need to use the bathrooms too, and drunken arguing and drunken roughhousing that endangers yourself and others (even those not drinking) does not a fun party make for me. Does that sound fun to you? And if it does... why? Is this what a "party" is to you?... self-destructive and socially-destructive actions?

I think this will be the last time I go to a drinking party with friends. The beginning was fun, and after the 3 hours where the drunks ruined it for me, I enjoyed the mellowed several hours of wind-down time. But I don't enjoy the energy I have to expend to make sure my enjoyment isn't ruined by the drunks (drawing stuff spilled on, bumped into, talked to by drunken assholes, and generally concerned for the well-being of people, drunk or not.

Thanks to Kim, Shanna, Phil and the others who threw the party. The parts of the party that I enjoyed were good.

Zombie Walk in Grand Rapids, MI Tomorrow (Friday)

2009-10-29T20:52:18Z

The living dead will take over Calder Plaza Friday as Rob Bliss's latest mega-project hits the streets. The Zombie Walk 2009 is in the running to set a record. All ages welcome. A free will donation would be appreciated and an electronic music festival follows the fun.

Yes, last year was the "World's Largest" (well, for a little while), and so, with a bitmore press, perhaps Grand Rapids will again retain the undead throne as the center of Zombie Nation once again!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=145738132086
Or check out Google Searches here.

When Hollywood comes to you?

2009-10-22T14:47:19Z

So, Michigan passed some tax incentives to encourage movies to be made in this state.
Over here on the West side of the state, we're not used to having Hollywood (or, well, film makers in general) doing location shooting. "Road to Perdition" was shot just South of us in Holland, and scenes from "American Pie 2" were supposed to be shot here, but apparently didn't get used (After all, Great Harbor was supposed to be Grand Haven, just as Great Falls was supposed to be Grand Rapids) and then there was "The Steam Experiment" in Grand Rapids just earlier this year.

So, lately they've been shooting a movie in Holland called "What's Wrong With Virginia" (Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly [remember the girl in Labrynth?] and possibly some others that other folks might recognize) and it turns out that they're coming to Grand Haven to shoot some stuff too... and though some of it was shot yesterday (in front of the courthouse, etc.), apparently they're going to be shooting in front of our shop tonight (well, actually across the street at the funeral home.) I've no idea if it's internal or external, if it's with actors or not. They're going to be setting up equipment in the yard next to our shop, so I've no idea what all it's going to involve. Apparently it'll be starting around 8pm.
With the weather changing, leaves falling off trees, it's raining, etc., you have to wonder if their location folks chose this time of year on purpose for just these conditions, or if they spot the locations months ago, not realizing that come September-October, the environment can look vastly different from one day to the next (How do you shoot a movie out-of-order when the leaves go from green to golden to gone in less than a week?)

While it'd be awesome to have some blockbuster being filmed here, it's still kinda cool for it to be shooting so very close to me.

Galileo's Wedge - more worthless "art"

2009-10-20T22:46:26Z

What a waste of metal. 35' tall, already rusting, and somehow touted as something wonderful.

Somehow meant to be a combination of column and a wedge, the piece entitled "Galileo's Wedge" by Beverly Pepper is now a new sculpture at the Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I mean, if it was donated, that's one thing... but I bet the group paid in the tens of thousands (if not more) for this rusting piece of steel.

Now, in concept... sure, you can explore it, I guess... but I wouldn't DARE suggest that this was worth a ribbon-cutting ceremony, nor the money put into its purchase and installation.

Will this piece of metal really increase attendance enough to pay for this piece of crap? Would having some other educational program or other event have given them more money and more attendance? *sighs*

I become increasingly frustrated with groups who decide that Modern, Abstract, or some other un-useful rusted, distorted, junk is more important than parking, or something else actually functional or useful.

Eddie Riggs is a roadie for Dethklok

2009-10-19T03:02:30Z

I saw this on Cartoon Network last night and I'm surprised I can't find it anywhere else, even officially.

Toki's voice seems a bit odd, and there's a few other little odd bits when comparing it to a normal Metalocalypse episode, but, damnit, this is the first crossover with anything, really. Whoot! Of course, Mermaider is on the Brutal Legend game, but, still... heh. Cool. I just wish it was Jack Black's voice (at least, I don't think this is Jack Black's voice.)

Sylvania NB530SLX Blu-Ray Player Update

2009-10-17T07:17:11Z

Well... got it home, borrowed a friend's HDMI cable, plugged it all in and got about a minute of video before it flickered and went black. Occasionally it would flicker a frame of video, but nothing else... Plugging composite video cables into it gave me pretty decent picture, but HDMI would only give me a black screen. I tried the 2 other ports on the TV with the same result. I hope it was the borrowed cable, because if it's not, it's a bad HDMI port on the machine (I don't think it's a data, or wrong type of cable issue, since it worked for a minute or two before just... not working anymore.)

Tomorrow we look at a new TV anyways, but I plan on trying to get a new cable anyways to see if it'll work.

New Blu-Ray/DVD Upconvert player arrived 12 hours after ordering.

2009-10-16T15:59:09Z

So my mom came home the other day with a 46" HD 1080p LCD TV. Surprise! Then she wasn't happy with how big it was, and the picture quality. So it's likely it'll be going back to the store in favor of something in the 36" variety... but we'll see.

So, since we'll have an HDTV nonetheless, it's time for something to play HD video on, right? Blu-Ray and DVDs? Well, when I showed her what DVDs look like on the new 46" TV, neither of us were entirely impressed. So I knew that a new disk player would need to be either Blu-Ray or have DVD Upconvert. Well... Tiger Direct just happened to have a deal for a Sylvania with just what I was looking for:
Sylvania NB530SLX Blu-Ray Player -1080p Up Conversion, HDMI, Progressive Scan for $120 (and free shipping!)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4421603&CatId=4670
It's got great reviews, has both Blu-Ray and Upconvert for $120? Why not? (I can handle the lag in the Blu-Ray for now.)

So, last night I put the order in (free 3-7 day shipping), and this morning it arrived! Holy crap! Of course, I had it delivered to my work place (daily route), and it gets shipped from Chicago (3.5 hour drive), but still. Wow.

So I gotta go buy an HDMI cable on my way home, but otherwise I'm looking forward to comparing its video with regular DVD and such. For $120, I'm not expecting the world, but hopefully it'll do what it's supposed to do well.

This America Life investigates the American health care system

2009-10-10T18:41:20Z

This American Life, along with NPR News, has a 2-part investigation on the American health care system.
This week's episode investigates the causes of health care costs--the patients, the doctors, the insurance companies... and what the current plans in congress and the likes will do about it, if anything.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=391

It's amazing to listen to this sort of thing without people screaming and yelling, which has totally turned me off from the "solution" side of this.

Dethklok The Dethalbum II debuts at #15 on Billboard top 200

2009-10-09T05:04:32Z

http://www.billboard.com/#/charts/billboard-200
Dethklok: Dethalbum II debut at #15 on the Billboard 200

WHOO-HOO! 45,000 copies sold in its first week.
Their first album debuted at #21 (with 33,700 copies sold in its first week.

Also, I'm trying to figure out where the source of these "Dethklok Tour" entries are coming from, but I'm lazy tonight.
Day 04: http://www.billboard.com/#/news/dethklok-1003673451.story
Day 17: http://www.billboard.com/#/news/dethklok-1003681505.story

The Big Hole Cometh...

2009-10-06T16:46:00Z

... I am a single 30 year old living in his mother's basement. (there, got that out of the way)

ANYWAYS...

So, my brother is the handy-man type, who does construction and the likes and gets stuck doing the house work for my mom. So my mom has been talking about getting an egress window in my room (apparently, a 9"x15" window just doesn't cut it for some folks, or for the local code for bedrooms in basements), and my brother recovered one from a job site he was at... and it's sat patiently in our pole barn for about a year or two. Well, with a lull in jobs, he decided that since he'd spent Friday and Saturday installing new doors in the house, he was going to begin cutting concrete yesterday afternoon. After digging out the hole, he spent the next 2 hours cutting a 5'x3' hole in the exterior of the concrete... well not exactly. The wall is 7" thick, and the blade only goes 4" in... sooo... He then spent the next 2 hours cutting the OTHER side of the wall... my bedroom. I had tarped off the area he was working in... which worked well.. except that the side facing my bedroom came undone... and so my entire bedroom is covered in a thick layer of cement dust, including my lungs. Guh.

So today will be spent cleaning, washing, and generally trying to make my bedroom (which was a mess before) into something I can sleep in again.

The funny part? I don't even want more sunlight in my cave. :(

God's Cartoonist

2009-10-04T08:03:04Z

I caught the last half of an interesting documentary on DOC tonight called "God's Cartoonist: The comic crusade of Jack T. Chick"

Now, in case you need a little reminder, Jack Chick is the phantom artist who created the "Chick Tracks", those little bible-thumping hate-monger booklets where someone does
A) VILE, Evil things (Like raping their daughter daily) and in the very end asks Jesus for forgiveness and goes to Heaven and everything is fine.
B) Does good, wonderful things, but because they haven't asked Jesus for forgiveness, goes to Hell, or gets thrown into a lake of burning sulfur anyways.
C) Is involved in something Evil and Devious and Devil worshiping, like Wicca, being gay, a Mason, into rock music, or whatnot, and has a tragic circumstance, but as soon as they "repent", everything becomes wonderful and life goes on happily ever after.

Well, anyways, at first I saw this on the TV and rolled my eyes, expecting some sort of Pro-Chick propoganda (because, well, I'd never heard of the DOC network before), but it really seemed to be pretty even-handed, trying to keep the focus on his influence and overall history of Chick Publications and the likes. However, in the end credits, it becomes obvious that the makers of the documentary don't think very highly of Jack Chick. They recognize his devotion and the power of what he believes in, but obviously don't admire his "message".

The quote I found the most amusing was "If there was one thing I could say to Jack Chick it would be this: We take you Seriously. We just don't take what you say seriously."

Another thing, it's kinda interesting to learn that Jack Chick's artwork really sucks. The artwork that looks decent is actually drawn by a fellow by the name of Fred Carter, who felt inspired to draw religious based artwork, but didn't think there was a place for it, until he saw a Chick Track.

Dethklok - "Dethalbum II"

2009-10-01T21:28:30Z

Brutal.

I picked up Dethklok's "Dethalbum II" on the 29th. Local stores didn't carry it (I didn't bother with Wal•Mart), but a call to Hot Topic revealed that they had 4 copies in stock. So up I went and grabbed it up right away.

The CD is brutal. I give this biased oppinion both as a Metalocalypse fan, and as a non-die-hard death metal fan. However, from most of the metal fan reviews I've seen, it's getting good reviews from them too. And as of right now Amazon.com ranks it: #2 in "Hard Rock & Metal", #9 in "Rock" and #16 in "Pop".

On thing I found strange was that "Nathan's" voice is less, well.. Nathan Explosion. It's less deep-gutteral-bass-growly. It's plenty distorted, but it's less of that really deep-growly. Though I guess I could also see this as a progression of Nathan as we've all heard vocalists change their sound for an album or so in the past, whether successful or not.

The CD also seems to be less comical in theme, which makes sense too, as they probably decided to go more "professional" than "gimick" for this album--much more in the theme within the show, than the show itself. I do kinda miss songs like "Birthday Dethday" and "Fansong"

My only gripe: The "Deluxe" version (as far as I can tell) does not contain any extra songs not found on the standard release, and the "bonus DVD" is basically just music videos--the video shown behind the band as it played at their live shows. While the extra cost was minimal, I'm a bit miffed that there aren't any "bonus songs" as far as I can tell (maybe they'll become available through online download with the disk as a key somehow? Unlikely. But that's my only gripe about the album.

Sickening

2009-09-30T17:17:17Z

Well, since last weekend I've slowly succumbed to a cruddy cold. Why is it that colds get worse when you're getting ready to settle down for sleep? Some days I've been pretty good with just some sniffles (thanks to DayQuil and cough syrup), while nights like last night seemed like NOTHING would help. I wound up being left awake until the sun arose from the coughing and such. I Emailed my boss and said I wouldn't be in. FINALLY some more NyQuil kicked in and I succumbed again. Now I'm waiting for the next batch to kick in while I eat some chicken noodle soup. Ugh. Stupid cold.

Update?

2009-09-28T14:04:32Z

... Each time I've tried to update I've been distracted... soo...

• Went to the Michigan Irish Music Festival last weekend. Went all 3 days, had fun, stayed sober, slept little.
• Started getting sick middle of last week, now wracked with a crummy cold.
• Went to Red Lobster to celebrate my brother's birthday and shove shrimp into my maw.

That's about it. No movies, no drawing, nothing important.

Your lives may now continue on their merry ways.

Craic Wisely - The End of an Era

2009-09-17T16:40:31Z

Well, it seems that Craic Wisely's time has come and gone. I can't say it's a surprise though.

All good things must come to an end...
Since December 7, 2001 Craic Wisely has performed hundreds of shows for thousands of wonderful fans.
On September 26, 2009 Craic Wisely will make their final performance while headlining the Kalamazoo Irish Fest.
to all of our fans
to all the amazing musicians who have played with Craic Wisely
to all our venues, managers, promoters and friends
to our families
and to the music and culture that drove our success

Thank you,
Craic Wisely

May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind always be at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
May the rain fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand

http://www.reverbnation.com/c./fr5/artist_204385?eid=2543509_14533447&fid=14533447&fsc=3be80de5795
Todd Herring
todd@craicwisely.com
todd twitter: http://twitter.com/BonVox
craic twitter: http://twitter.com/craicwisely

Michigan Irish Music Festival

2009-09-17T03:22:21Z

This weekend is the Michigan Irish Music Festival in Muskegon.

The Waxies will be performing, but only officially for the festival at 5:30pm on Friday (the first act.)
It seems the only reason they got into the festival is by winning the Celtic Battle of the Bands in Ionia earlier this year. So hopefully they'll be playing again next year more frequently.
However, someone did mention that they believed the Waxies would be performing elsewhere on Friday night, or Saturday... so I gotta get specifics on that (since I didn't see it on their web site.)

Craic Wisely will be performing during the festival too, but to what extent, and in what way they will manifest themselves, I'm unsure.

My plan, at the moment is to leave work on Friday, and maybe meet up with some folks for dinner or something before getting into the festival before 5:30... and if someone is performing Friday night, I may not get home until pretty late.
Saturday I may be going to the festival early to see some bands... but it's likely I may not show up until after noon. Saturday night may be The Waxies show. Sunday... well.. I might try to make it for at least the Seamus Kennedy "adult" show.

I'll try to hit Fricano's with folks at some point... but we'll see.

Weekend(ish) update

2009-09-15T19:08:10Z

Well, Winter Haven went better than expected. The two big issues that could have dragged it down didn't materialize, and so things were pleasent for me.

Friday, after work, I drove down to Kalamazoo and I met up with Taki at the Alma Fricanos at around 5pm and found it to be an excellent pizza place. Their pizzas had a few more toppings (pepperoni, sausage, green pepper, mushroom and anchovies as well as onion, ham, green and black olives to boot.) I originally asked for an "EBA" and made the comment. "Sweet, they know what an EBA is here too.." but then Taki pointed out that they had more toppings... an EBA was the same thing we knew, but had more on it. The pizzas were a bit more like Muskegon than Grand Haven's, and the cheese was a better mix, for my tastes... more mozzarella, I think. The added ham to the toppings also made this more perfect union and I think helped "butter up" the taste that I"m used to as well. The crust was fairly crisp and solid, but not so much so that I hurt my throat swallowing it (like I did the first time eating at the Muskegon Fricano's after a lifetime of soggy pizza--I was not expecting a cracker crust.)

Anyways, after that I drove down to the camp and tried to help a bit with the set-up. The rest of that night and Saturday were a bit of a blur as I basically drove people around the camp when I could, or sat at NPC camp chatting with folks. Other than a somewhat rocky start, the rest of the event seemed to go pretty smoothly from what I could tell.
Friday night I slept in the top bunk of one of the girlscout beds... not designed for a 250# man to climb up into, let alone sleep in. So on Saturday night (is 6:30am really still "night?") I followed Taki to his place and crashed out there.
Sunday I woke up, played some Rock Band Beatles and went out to Olive Garden with Taki, Phil, Kooky, Shana and Michelle. After that it was back to Taki's for a little music-sharing via YouTube and then I drove back home.

In all, it was a pretty decent weekend.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get more than a few hours of sleep since Saturday and I think part of it was internet withdrawl. *Laughs*
There's no Werewolf this Wednesday as Matt is working 2nd shift and thus I can't play after 10pm or so. Oh, well.

This weekend is the Michigan Irish Music Festival in Muskegon, Michigan. I will be attending.

PAX EAST (aka, Penny Arcade Expo East)
By the way, did anyone know that Penny Arcade Expo is going to be in Boston this coming March?
http://www.paxsite.com/paxeast/index.php
March 26th - 28th. $45 for 3-day pass. Hotels seem to be about $120-$200 per night through their reservation system.

Movies I want to see:
The Informant
The Invention of Lying

.. no real artwork to speak of. I'm getting to a point where I think that if I don't force myself to somehow get my mojo back, I might as well just give up on it, at least in any way that makes me think I could/should use it for more than a doodle here or there... at least in any way that makes me rely on it for any reason. So I want to try to figure out how to force myself to do one full character drawing each day. I expect it to go as well as my attempts to get into shape, or eat better.

Weekend plans

2009-09-11T04:39:56Z

Well, this week has been pretty blah. The weekend was anticlimactic and Wednesday's Werewolf: the Apocalypse game was canceled because of LARP things that had to be done. I've been working 8-hour days all week so that I can take part of Friday off.

My current plan is to get down to Kalamazoo before 5pm to get to Fricano's Pizza and meet up with Taki so that we can devour pizza before Winter Haven. After that... I don't know. Originally I had planned to work the event, fire-tending and helping with whatever else I could help with, but even after the staff got rid of one problem, another one popped up almost before anyone could take a breath. Strangely enough, the lines seem to be drawn in almost the exact same ways. I have an opinion regarding the situation, but officially I have no right to influence the decision of the game's leadership one way or the other. I lose nothing if the game gets kicked out of the camp, and I don't hang out with most of the people in the game anyways. I may just go to Kzoo, have dinner with Taki and head back home.

There's a possible dinner on Sunday in Kzoo too for several folks' birthdays, so I may have to return, or figure out some way of staying down there. Maybe the drama and tension will be far less than I'm pessimistically expecting and I won't have any problems staying there all weekend.

The things you learn

2009-09-05T03:33:40Z

Looking up terms for the internet and server things, I found THIS SITE with some interesting definitions, including this one:

CATP -- (Caffeine Access Transport Protocol) method of moving caffeine across Wide Area Networks such as the Internet
CATP was first used at the Binary Cafe in Cybertown and quickly spread world-wide.
There are reported problems with short-circuits and rust and decaffinated beverages were not supported until version 1.5.3

Dice... but no dice... at least the ones I wanted.

2009-08-30T17:43:04Z

At Gen Con I decided the "commission" I wanted to make this year was to have a custom set of dice made for myself.

Years ago I had a Gangrel jar full of Werewolf: the Apocalypse dice... and it mysteriously went missing one day. I lost about 80 Werewolf dice in a single shot. No one ever knew or discovered where they went to. Since then, they stopped producing and selling them.
So I'm going to spend $100 to have Chessex re-create the dice... there was nothing in particular special on the dice, but the coloring was unique... a bit more of a light metallic than the "rootbeer".

Then I thought, "Maybe I'll see if I can get permission to put the "Bastet" logo on the top of the dice. Of course, that required permission from White Wolf's licensing department. I sent off an email last night, explaining it was for 100 dice for my own personal use and that I'd like to use the logo.
It wasn't surprising, but it was a bit of a let-down that this was their reply:

Dear Arthur,

Thank you very much for your interest. We always appreciate when fans take an active interest in our hard work and company. Unfortunately, we are not currently granting permission for this type of project.

Sincerely,
Merry Luong

*sigh* So I guess I'll just have to have them re-create the dice color, unless I come up with a logo or something to put on them myself.
So, it's a bit disappointing that White Wolf is holding onto the logo, even though it's for a personal project, it's not competing with any product they have, and they don't appear to have any intent on ever making this product on their own, let alone using the logo again.

Yeah, White Wolf is "the man". Then again, I guess the world did already come to an end for 'em. ;)

Go Forth and Die (after buying the CD and seeing the show...)

2009-08-30T09:21:59Z

Dethklok's newest CD "Dethalbum II" comes out on September 29th.

Also, Dethklok is going to be touring with Mastodon as well.
You can check out their tour schedule here.

The closest they get to me is Chicago (10-17), Milwaukee (10-18) and Detroit (10-21).
*sighs*

(By the way, that looks like a brutal tour schedule.)

Weekend Update

2009-08-30T06:03:19Z

Time for a update
Work
Work, huh? Well, I'm glad this work week is over.
I'm not quite sure why, but there's been some weird stress at work, and I'm not sure where it's coming from. I mean, my screwing up of a copier job and running out of stock on the 3rd time going through it wasn't the real cause, but my manager is feeling some stress and I think it's messing up the mojo of the shop. My GM's uncle died, we have a new "Production Manager/Print Manager", next week we'll have a "Promotions Manager" (who is an old Production Manager who is moving back into town), and we have a new Sales Rep who's been more active, but I haven't seen any solid sales come through yet (but that could be because I haven't done any artwork for her yet.)

Soooo, I took my car in to have the breaks checked out.
Well... I called City Auto Body (who's worked on my car a few times before) and they said they might be able to sneak it in early in the morning. I drove the car over and they dropped me off at work. Well, they didn't get to it in the morning, or the afternoon, so I had Matt pick me up and take me home.
They called back later... they said that pinch valves weren't closed when compressing the calipers and "dirty fluid" had gone back into the system and possibly an air-bubble. Also, that the slides weren't lubed and so it had to be dis-assembled and re-assembled... so about $135 in work hours and break fluid. *sighs* Well, my brother says some of it sounds funky, but... I mean obviously we did SOMETHING to the system if it doesn't work. So I'm paying them the $ to fix it, but I want them to show me what went wrong... if they claim we "took apart" something that we didn't, I'll bring up my issues with them. But they've been good to me in the past.

FRIDAY
Friday I drove up to Muskegon (using my mom's car) and played Rock Band (1, not 2) with Taki, Matt, Phil, Kyle and Tim.
Kyle had brought over the original Rock Band for Phil and we played that. We re-created our band and played for several hours. My voice felt oddly tight and I was having a lot of control problems... I found myself only achieving in the 80%s more often than the 90%s in Expert, and I contribute that to A) new songs, B) voice control, and C) Rock Band 1 is harder than Rock Band 2 (which I think was the consensus from all of us, but then again, at Gen Con I didn't do as well on their Rock Band 2 as I do at Phil's, so I wonder if some of our settings at Phil's somehow makes it easier for me?) We played until 2am and then I headed home. I stayed up until 5am and crashed.

SATURDAY
Saturday I woke up at 3pm with my typical "Saturday headache" that I get from fucking up my sleep schedule. I took a nap from 4pm until 10pm and was feeling better.

Artwork
Nothing. A few scribbles or sketches, but nothing. My muse has left me... and it's been months.. almost a year since I really felt inspired or able to really draw. I feel like I'm losing

Points of Interest (for me)
There is a commercial for "Chase Sapphire Card awards program" where a guy is talking to his (presumed) wife and suggests, "Hey, why don't we get out of here, take a vacation with our awards..." and she tries to say "we can't." He tries to refute her claims by saying that they're usable for all sorts of things... when in the end, it turns out she's already used the awards to buy a dress for herself. When she "reveals" that the dress she is wearing is the results of "their" points, he just smiles.

Now, either his wife's happiness is so important to him, or he's going to kill her after the screen goes black because he suggested they do something together with their points, and she's decided to use "their" points on something just for her. I can't help but yell out "YOU BITCH!" each time I see this commercial.

Then again, maybe she spends all of the money on the card, so she feels she "earned" the awards themselves, but maybe it's my chauvinistic side that's suggesting he's the one making the money and she's just spending it all and he's just a beaten man. Oh, well.. it's just a commercial, right?

Anyways, I guess that's about it for now.

I wish I was someone.

When bad breaks to bad...er.

2009-08-28T03:48:33Z

My brakes have been squealing a little bit lately when I back up, and rubbing at points when I am braking, so I figured I should replace them rather than waiting until the rotors are warped and I have to replace calipers and such too.

So I went shopping around for parts yesterday and I purchased sets of pads and rotors for $200 and tonight my brother came over and we started to install them.

The front pads and rotors went on relatively easily--the instructions included small clips which we later decided were probably meant for other set-ups and included with the box. Oh, well...

One of the back rotors was seized and had to be heated with a torch, then hammered on for about a half-hour, until finally it came off! The other one was sledge-hammered and it came off lickity-split.

Finally it was all done ... and the brakes are soft. :( So tomorrow I'll call around and see if I can find someone with an open time to bleed the brakes and such. I have plans for tomorrow and I'm nervous about driving the car in traffic (even at 35mph, it takes me 50 feet to stop.) My mom has offered to let me use her car tomorrow, so I may do that too, but her convertible is getting kinda crappy these days, but at least its brakes are good.