3 January 2010: Holiday report

Friends, I hope that all your holidays were happy! Janice and I enjoyed relatively quiet workweeks at the end of December 2009, and we drove to Upstate New York on Christmas Eve. We feasted on lasagna at her parents’ home and stayed at the Country Inn & Suites across from the Great Escape amusement park.

The next morning, we exchanged gifts with Janice’s parents and her middle sister Shelly’s family. Among other things, I got some DVDs, a Jedi costume, and books. Thanks to Amazon.com, I exchanged most presents online and through the mail with my own family in Virginia. Janice and I then headed down to the house of her youngest sister, Melinda, for a Christmas dinner of ham.

I gave comic books and Lego sets to my nephews David and Joshua, and we played pool and Wii video games with grandpa Marvin and brothers in law Melvin and Gary. My nieces Laura and Amanda played Dance, Dance Revolution, while Becky texted her boyfriend Tristan. I also caught up on videos, including the mildly amusing G-Force
and Night at the Smithsonian.

The day after Christmas, the children went sledding, and we enjoyed a sloppy Joe (what Janice’s family calls “barbecue”) lunch before returning to Massachusetts. On New Year’s Eve, Janice and I got vaccinated for the H1N1 flu virus and screened Sherlock Holmes at the new Showcase Cinemas at Legacy Place in Dedham, Mass. I liked the steampunky film, which I’ll try to review in more detail in the coming week or so.

We also had lunch at Qdoba and picked up my subscription at New England Comics in Norwood, despite the snow. That night, we went to local New Year’s Eve celebrations, including a Celtic music concert, some square dancing, an ice sculpture, the Needham Concert Society, and the Homegrown Coffee House. It was also interesting to visit various churches, which served as venues for the civic events. We had dinner at The Rice Barn, a good Asian restaurant.

On Saturday, 2 January 2010, former co-worker and fellow genre fan Ken G. and his girlfriend Kahmmie came over to play more Wii games. Thanks to Ken, I finally got my Wii hooked up to the Internet, and we ate nachos and macaroni and cheese. We had considered going to Avatar, but snow and mixed reviews led us to postpone seeing James Cameron’s latest blockbuster. We did watch an episode of the geek comedy The
Big Bang Theory.

I liked the finale of Doctor Who: the End of Time, which I’ll also try to review in the coming weeks, along with other genre entertainment. The D&D4e “Vanished Lands:
the Faith-Based Initiative” fantasy campaign has finally wound down, amid some
contention among the role-players and clearing the way for one-shots and
miniseries.

Since my circles of acquaintances suffered through layoffs, divorces, and other stresses over the past year, let us hope that 2010 is better for everyone!

7 December 2009: Potter, cake, and catching up

Friends, I hope you had a good weekend. Janice and I took Friday, 4 December 2009, off from work. We slept in, did some housecleaning, and walked to the Fuji Japanese steakhouse for lunch (and Spasso Café for gelato dessert). I also touched base with longtime friends including Damon F.P. and David I.S. by telephone. Among other things, we talked of news of murders at our alma mater and Dave’s university.

On Saturday, Janice drove her parents and me into town for the Harry Potter exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science. The movie props and costumes were impressively detailed, and there were many young and enthusiastic fans of J.K. Rowling’s fantasy novels.

We went to Bertucci’s for lunch, followed by a chocolate cake for Janice’s birthday. Janice’s parents later returned to Upstate New York as snow began to fall. In addition to doing most of our Christmas shopping online, Janice and I ordered a new laptop from Dell. It will be in addition to our aging desktop computer and my work laptop, and we plan to use it for watching Blu-ray DVDs, travel, and faster performance.

I caught up on recorded genre television, including the half-season finales of metahuman melodrama Heroes, alien invasion remake V, and new sleuth show White Collar, as well as
the midseason premiere of syndicated fantasy Legend of the Seeker and the bittersweet series finale of BBC America’s Robin Hood. I need to get started with holiday cards and decorating.

Last night’s Pathfinder: “Holy Steel” teleconferencing game was canceled because of scheduling conflicts among some of the remote role-players, but the D&D4e “Vanished Lands: the Faith-Based Initiative” fantasy game should continue tonight, despite the
death of one Player Character in the Underdark last week and the absence of a few members.

Damon and Dexter V.H.‘s planned visit for this coming weekend is up in the air because of family issues, but the next few weekends should be busy as winter and the holidays approach. Upcoming movies include Disney’s traditionally animated The Princess and the Frog, James Cameron’s sci-fi actioner Avatar, Guy Ritchie and Robert Downey Jr.’s take on Sherlock Holmes, and Terry Gilliam and the late Heath Ledger’s Imaginarium of
Doctor Parnassus.

Wednesday, 16 September 2009: Meaty weekends

Friends, I hope you’ve had a good fortnight. I’ve been busy with work during the past two weeks. I helped coordinate TT’s coverage of the annual VMworld conference in San Francisco, and I’ve been transitioning to my new role as an associate site editor, which
involves tracking editorial content from assignment to submission to posting on our Web sites.

For Labor Day weekend, Janice and I drove to Upstate New York to see her family. We spent most of our time at the home of Janice’s sister Melinda, her husband Gary, and their children Amanda and Joshua. Janice’s parents Marvin and Linda also joined us for good home-grilled meals.

Among other things, we rewatched Coraline, and I played Wii Motion Plus and Wii Sports Resort with Josh, Amanda, and Gary. We plan to meet Janice’s folks again at the “Big E,” or the Eastern States Exposition, in western Massachusetts in a few weeks. My own family went to the Delaware shore and will be in Europe in the coming month or so.

This past weekend, Janice and I went to the new Legacy Place shopping plaza in Dedham, Mass. Although the Showcase Deluxe cinemas and Borders Books aren’t open yet, several other shops are, including an impressive Whole Foods. I especially enjoyed checking out its fromagerie.

We also ate at Uno Chicago Bar & Grill as part of a charity event. Like another midrange casual restaurant, T.G.I.Friday’s, the food has improved in the years that we weren’t going there. Closer to home, Stone Hearth Pizza and Wild Willy’s (especially
its spicy Buffalo-style chicken) are still among our favorites.

Thomas K.Y., Beruk A., and I ended up not meeting for 9 because the postapocalyptic “stitchpunk” movie got mixed reviews, but we may meet for Cloudy With a Chance of
Meatballs or Surrogates in the coming weekends. I’ll blog more about the new genre television season once I’ve had a chance to watch more premieres.

The arrival of autumn also brings new comic books and role-playing games. In addition, the Pathfinder: “Holy Steel” and D&D4e “Vanished Lands: the Faith-Based
Initiative” groups have kept me busy, with the former being a classic pseudo-historical dungeon crawl and the latter featuring a recent battle against vampires. Can Halloween be far behind?

28 August 2009: Game updates

On Sunday, 23 August 2009, the “Holy Steel” teleconferencing team resumed, now using the Pathfinder core book, which revises the Dungeons & Dragons Edition 3.5/D20 System Reference Document. So far, despite this rule set’s complexity and the tome’s heft, I like Paizo’s iteration of the world’s most popular fantasy role-playing game more than Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition (D&D4e)/Game System License.

Although Dexter V.H. has been too busy with family commitments to rejoin our virtual sessions as Drow Ranger “Faelonia,” Byron V.O., Beruk A., and Paul J. have
continued their exploration of the pyramid of Unas as Paladin “Ibrahim,” Rogue “Milos,” and Wizard “Derek,” respectively. Their adventuring party has fought monsters and is searching for the Book of Thoth, which it believes cultists of Set are also after.

I’ve had to cancel two weeks’ worth of D&D4e “Vanished Lands: the Faith-Based Initiative” face-to-face (F2F) games because of work. We’ll probably meet again around Labor Day. After about 50 consecutive sessions, I don’t think missing a few Monday nights will hurt the momentum of that party, which is investigating smugglers in the
Hifalendorin human capital of Hesolin. Overall, “Holy Steel” has had more interesting investigations by Player Characters (P.C.s), and the “F.B.I.” has had more action scenes. A good group has a balance of the two.

I’m still looking forward to taking a break after the “F.B.I.” winds down, although that has taken longer than I expected. On the one hand, several people prefer Pathfinder or other systems to D&D4e, and the Player Characters (P.C.s) are approaching Tenth Level, which used to be “name level” — the midrange in power that usually marks the end of my campaigns.

On the other hand, the current Boston-area P.C.s have been gaining in experience and knowledge, and some gamers are understandably interested in maximizing their abilities. I still hope to give other Game Masters a shot and to run shorter-term steampunk, superhero, and/or space opera scenarios, most likely using a D20 variant, although I’ve seen mostly favorable reviews for the rules-light and pulp-flavored Savage Worlds.

I don’t expect my F2F game to return to the “Vanished Lands” setting, probably using Pathfinder, until spring of 2010. Since I’ve been building that fictional world since 1982, I’d like to take some time to tweak it to properly challenge and entertain
another party, which won’t be easy because most of the current group is now
familiar with it.

I ended my subscription for Lord of the Rings Online because college chums David I.S. and Dexter haven’t had the time to play regularly. The “Dimensional Corps Online” supergroup for the City of Heroes multiplayer online game is still going strong, and Dex invited me to try Champions Online (now separated from the Hero System 6th Ed. license). I have, however, enjoyed Wii Sports Resort. Batman: Arkham Asylum also looks cool, but it isn’t available for the Wii.

Coming soon: Superheroes and work!

Entry for May 20, 2009: Egyptian and Arthurian fiction

Although most of my attention has been focused on the job search during the past few weeks, I have had some time to catch up on reading and filing.

I recently finished Brad Geagley‘s Day of the False King, the first of two historical mysteries set in Ancient Egypt. I had previously read his Year of the Hyenas, partly because Janice recommended it and partly for running my Pathfinder: “Holy Steel” teleconferencing game. I liked both novels for their plots and archaeologically accurate descriptions.

I also just read The Killing Way, a novel set in post-Roman Britain by Tony Hays that does a good job of blending historical fact and Arthurian myth. Speaking of the legends of King Arthur, Janice and I watched 2007’s The Last Legion, which featured several familiar actors and made a nice companion piece to the 2004 film titled King Arthur.

I have a bookshelf worth of Arthurian stories, references, and analysis, and I prefer the more realistic versions of the tales to the tragic fantasy of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur, the musical Camelot, or John Boorman’s Excalibur.

On the other hand, I have used the epic version in various role–playing games and have enjoyed approaches as diverse as the BBC’s serious Legend of King Arthur, the comedic Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Spamalot, and the space opera graphical Camelot 3000. Inspired in part by T.H. White’s The Once and Future King and Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon, I even wrote some Arthurian fiction for Prof. Elizabeth Tucker’s folklore class back in college.

Whatever your preference — romantic and chivalric or Dark Age gritty, comic or tragic — there is a version of the tales for you!