Friends, I hope that your holidays were happy and that 2006 is better than 2005! After returning from visiting Janice's family in Upstate New York for Christmas, we had a relatively relaxing workweek after months of being very busy. Among other things, we bought some shelving at the new Ikea in Stoughton, Massachusetts.
We met Greg D.C. and Thomas K.Y. and his brother Tony Y. at the Boston Museum of Science for the "Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination" exhibit. While not as extensive as last year's "Lord of the Rings" show or similar exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., it did have lots of interesting educational features for children and a full-size mockup of the "Millennium Falcon's" cockpit!
I also ran two D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands: Seekers of Lore" heroic fantasy sessions, including the first one hosted at my duplex in Needham Heights, Mass., since October's basement floods. Thanks to friends and holiday gifts, I'm continuing to rebuild my library of books destroyed in those floods. The current Player Character party fought seafaring Ogres and Undead pirates as they sailed northeast…
In addition, I made a cameo as Elf Ranger "Helena" in Paul J.'s D&D3.5 game, which turned out to be a sequel of sorts to the successful Flying Citadel scenario I ran during Dexter V.H./"Faelonia" and Stuart C.G./"Tunnel's" visit in November. Brian P.W. is gearing up for his GURPS 4th Ed. Fantasy miniseries, which I hope is successful.
However, I haven't yet gotten back to the "City of Heroes" massively multiplayer online game (although David I.S. and Steve M.R. may soon join Dexter and me), and I'm still behind with the role-play by e-mail folks–Dex, Stu, Carolyn M.P./"Grace," Bryon V.O./"Ibrahim," and Greg/"Janus." See the Yahoo/eGroups message board for more about these games:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/DnD3VanishedLands/
Speaking of visitors, CW's copy desk plans to meet Jacqui M.D. for dinner while she's in town from Des Moines, Iowa, interviewing. Our former co-worker and fellow genre entertainment enthusiast will be staying in Needham. I probably won't be get to Byron's home in Hopkinton, Mass., for the SciFi Channel's half-season premieres tomorrow night (Friday, 6 January 2006) or to Thomas' place in Lexington, Mass., for a viewing of the "Full Metal Alchemist" steampunk/fantasy anime on Sunday.
I'm looking forward to "SciFriday," including new episodes of the long-running "Stargate SG1," space opera spin-off "Stargate: Atlantis," and the revisionist "Battlestar Galactica." Let's hope that the current season of teenage sleuth "Veronica Mars," young adult metahumans on "Smallville," and the time travelers on the BBC's revived "Doctor Who" continue to go strong.
Not all is well in genre television: "Teen Titans" is ending after this month, and the final episodes of the animated "Justice League Unlimited" have been delayed. Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Warner Brothers' team of animators and actors have given us close to the definitive version of the D.C. Comics universe for the past decade, IMHO. And yes, I'm also still following comic books and graphic novels, as the two biggest publishers continue darker crossovers in search of the heroic light…
While I watch the latest "Batman" cartoon, it will be a while before those iconic characters are again handled as well (although the live-action "Batman Begins" and "Superman Returns," not to mention various Marvel Comics adaptations like "X-Men 3," are cause for fanboy celebration). Of course, this only whets the appetite to run or play "City of Heroes," D20 "Mutants & Masterminds" 2nd Ed., or GURPS 4th Ed. "Powers," preferably in my "S.J.I.: Drake's Port" setting… Excelsior! -Gene
Gene's Worlds 