"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." –A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

My theory of the conservation of luck runs like this: Rarely will someone (OK, me) be fortunate in all aspects of life simultaneously. Work, family, health, social life, finances, hobbies, and other pursuits are too tricky to juggle well for most of my peers. Perhaps this is just a phase for those of us in our 30s and 40s. Somebody gets a promotion; someone else's car breaks down. Somebody finds a girlfriend; someone else needs a root canal…

Last week was a good example of this. It started out promisingly, with a good copy desk summit at work, solid attendance at my role-playing game, and the genre television season in full swing. Then, as VH1's Behind the Music might say, it all went horribly wrong.

I had a dispute with my superiors about workload and workflow issues, several gamers got into heated debates, and my autumn allergies came hard on the heels of my summer sneezing. I'm still behind in reading newspapers, magazines, and comic books.

Fortunately, things did turn around. Despite being shorthanded at work, we got some lengthy articles read and posted online in good time, and some management changes gave my unit hope amid ongoing cubicle rearranging. After assorted conversations by telephone and e-mail, I dealt with the difficult task of asking Ben R./"Slink" to leave the D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands: the Broken Chains" Arabian fantasy group.

And, my favorite holiday, Halloween, came to the rescue. Janice and I decorated our second duplex in Needham Heights, Massachusetts, on Saturday, 27 October 2007. That night, we attended an excellent costume party at the home of co-worker Brian F. and his wife Melissa in Dedham, Mass.

Although I've hosted similar shindigs for years, Brian & Melissa (or "the Lone Ranger" and "Marge Simpson") were very hospitable, and Janice and I (as a medieval knight and lady) hit it off well with their friends. We left as the beer pong got going, but later than we had originally planned — another sign of a good party!

On Sunday, after the usual City of Heroes virtual session and Janice attended to horses at the animal shelter, we mowed our lawn for what we hope is the last time this year and began raking leaves. Of course, New England sports fans had more than pleasant weather to celebrate, including the Boston Red Sox's victory in the World Series and the Patriots' march (we hope) to another Super Bowl…

On Tuesday, I enjoyed more munchies and camaraderie at an office Halloween party. More photos of various events can be found through my MySpace.com page. That evening, the latest "Broken Chains" game went fairly smoothly after a few weeks of intraparty bickering.

On Halloween itself, I chatted with college chums David I.S. and Dexter V.H., dressed as Batman for a New England Comics run, and logged in for some late-night exploration in City of Heroes. While we didn't get many trick or treaters this year (co-workers and gamers will get the extra candy), I was happy to have multiple adult parties to attend.

Tonight, the D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands: Holy Steel" teleconferencing team is scheduled to resume, and Janice and I may go to a craft fair in Boston this coming weekend. It's hard to believe it's already November!

Ah, the Web! The ever-evolving nature of online communications and business will reportedly result in the demise of this site:
http://google.blognewschannel.com/archives/2007/10/25/yahoo-360-killed-who-sa…

I'll probably transfer this blog to my MySpace page: myspace.com/gened5. More details to come.

In other news, the casting for the Justice League movie continues. Let's hope that the youth of the actors is balanced by good writing and some faithfulness to the best comic book and animated incarnations of that superhero team. Have a good weekend!

On Saturday, 20 October 2007, Janice and I attended a charity pancake breakfast offered by the Rotary Club of Needham at a local elementary school. After that, we drove to meet her folks, who were visiting for the weekend.

We then went with Janice's parents, her sister Melinda, and Melinda's family to the Southwick Zoo (see photo above). Fortunately, the clouds cleared up and the unseasonably warm weather continued. It was nice to spend time with my brother-in-law Gary T.L. and with my precocious niece Amanda and happy nephew Joshua.

I have mixed feelings about zoos. On the one hand, they provide opportunities for children to see animals from all over the world firsthand and for adults to appreciate conservation efforts. On the other, zoos tend to focus on large, cute mammals at the expense of habitat preservation and valuing creatures in the wild, where most belong. Circuses have the additional problem of properly caring for animals while traveling and performing. Still, the petting zoo (of domestic animals), walk-through deer park, and food vendors make Southwick a good place to spend an afternoon with the family.

On the way home, we stopped for dinner at Firefly's, one of our favorite barbeque restaurants. In the spirit of hanging out with fellow superhero fans Gary and Joshua this weekend, Janice and I have caught several episodes of the classic Superman: the Animated Series, Batman: the Animated Series, and Justice League on Toon Disney. As much as I enjoy Legion of Superheroes, The Batman, and Smallville, the current adaptations from DC Comics aren't quite as stylish or well-written. Janice and I also enjoyed the two Scary Godmother Halloween cartoons.

Speaking of metahuman vigilantes, as fellow bloggers Steve M.R. and Cecil R.W. have noted, there are a number of "What superhero are you?" quizzes online. My results were Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman — no surprises there. I still plan to blog about recent comic books and graphic novels in the near future, but I've fallen behind again in reading.

On Sunday, after playing City of Heroes online, I drove up to Lexington, Massachusetts, where I met Thomas K.Y. Unfortunately, Beruk A. and Ken G. had other plans. Thomas and I had a late lunch at Mifune, a Chinese/Japanese restaurant in Arlington, Mass., before settling in to watch some videos on his new 40-inch widescreen LCD television.

The direct-to-DVD Superman: Doomsday was decent, with more graphic fight scenes than in most mainstream U.S. animation. The voice casting/acting was a bit shaky, but I thought the condensation of the comic book storylines mostly worked well. We also viewed the latest episodes of Smallville and the fantasy Avatar: the Last Airbender (which I would compare favorably to the Timm/Dini cartoons mentioned above) on Thomas' DVR.

Of course, for most local sports fans, this past week has been as good as they could hope for, with the New England Patriots continuing their winning streak against the Miami Dolphins and the Boston Red Sox entering the World Series for the second time in four years, not to mention the Head of the Charles. I'm not a huge sports fan, but the excitement among co-workers and neighbors is hard to ignore.

Speaking of enthusiasm, I have been closely following the new television season. Here are more good sources for genre news:
–IGN.com
–Mania.com (formerly Cinescape)
–Dark Horizons
–ComingSoon.net
–SciFi Wire
–Zap2it
–SyFy Portal
–SFTV Lists

We had a gathering of copy editors across my employer's units yesterday afternoon. I thought the meeting went well, partly because my team won a Jeopardy-style trivia contest. However, we did have to deal with a heavy workload of online stories to edit once we got back to our desks.

Meanwhile, on Tuesdays, "the Broken Chains," the current Player Character party (Yb-4a) in my D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands: Halmed Desert" Arabian fantasy campaign, has been dealing with some growing pains after the role-player turnover of the past month. I hope that the gamers will be able to find common goals and have fun without worrying too much about rules or combat. Time will tell.

The Thursday night D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands: Holy Steel" team is taking a break while Byron V.O./"Ibrahim" is in China for work (as Thomas will soon also be), but Dexter V.H./"Faelonia" and I have more customization to do of the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil module for the higher-level P.C.s. Bwah, ha, ha!

This coming weekend, I have the first of a few adult Halloween parties to attend. Enjoy the autumn!

Friends, thank you for the birthday wishes. I've received numerous e-cards, and Janice gave me some henley shirts, Volume 2 of the Loony Tunes Golden Collection on DVD, and a chocolate cake! In the coming year, I look forward to celebrating the 40th birthdays of several friends in my cohort, although I don't know how many I'll be able to travel to.

On Saturday, 13 October 2007, we decided on the spur of the moment to drive up to Salem, Massachusetts, for the afternoon. Since we moved to New England about eight years ago, I've only been there twice: first with college chum Corbin A.Y. and then with Janice about four years ago. However, neither visit was as close to Halloween as this one.

The crisp autumn air was offset by a strong sun as we wandered through a street festival and various shops. Although I'm as big a fan of All Hallows' Eve celebrations as anyone, we should remember the religious zealotry, mass hysteria, and introverted small-town affairs that led to the deaths of 19 colonists.

The juxtaposition of the 400-year-old cemetery and the simple memorial to those killed in the infamous witch hunt with noisy food vendors right outside the cemetery gates and gaudy modern "museums" of witchcraft, piracy, and monsters has to be seen to be believed. Still, we enjoyed the carnival atmosphere (similar to New Orleans at Mardi Gras) and readily joined the tourist crowds thronging Salem.

Among the New Age and souvenir shops, we were pleased to find some good book stores, including Cornerstone Books and Harrison's Comics & Collectibles. For history buffs, there's also the Peabody Essex Museum, the House of the Seven Gables, the sailing ship Friendship, and a few antique and art galleries. We browsed through a neogothic art show.

We had lunch at the New England Soup Factory and dessert at A&J King Artisan Bakery. On the way home, we stopped for dinner at Fuddrucker's, whose hamburgers I fondly remember from college in Upstate New York. On Sunday, between rejoining David I.S. and friends online for City of Heroes and running errands, we had lunch at Stone Hearth Pizza, another new upscale restaurant in Needham, Mass.

Although I won't be hosting the annual costumed session for the local role-playing group this year, I've been invited to a few Halloween parties and look forward to dressing up. As I saw in a documentary last year, the holiday has evolved from a pagan harvest festival to a solemn religious commemoration to a secular event for children to an occasion for adult Saturnalia-style parties.

On my birthday itself, I received telephone calls from my family, and Janice cooked spinach fettuccini and meatballs. Earlier today, I met fellow SUNY-Binghamton alumnus Cliff Y. for the first time since his wife Eliza had given birth to their son Timmy several months ago. We ate lunch at Curry Leaf, an Indian buffet near where we work.

This coming weekend, some of my in-laws will be visiting eastern Massachusetts, and we'll either visit the Southwick Zoo or the New England Aquarium, depending on the weather.

Congratulations to former Vice President Al Gore and to the international climate commission for winning a Nobel Prize. As fellow blogger Steve M.R. has noted, Gore's efforts to raise awareness of the dangers of human-induced climate change have distinguished him among U.S. politicians, despite the fact that George W. Bush won the White House in a court ruling.

While we may debate the causes and extent of damage to the environment, I hope that Americans and people around the world can rally to protect our fragile planet. I also support calling the killings of numerous Armenians in the early 20th century genocide, but it's unfortunate that the proposed resolution in Congress has damaged our relations with Turkey. As much as I would like idealistic leaders such as Jimmy Carter or Gore to be in office, I expect the current presidential candidates to be more pragmatic. I only hope that they will be able to provide both leadership and unity.

In unrelated news, more casting announcements for the Star Trek movie reboot and Marvel Comics' unveiling of a new costume and supersoldier to be Captain America have kept fanboys busy online. Speaking of fellow bloggers, here are some links to those of friends:

The Velvet Edge (Tim M.B. about gaming and life)
Author Paul B. (Cecil R.W.'s genre fiction)
Distracted by Shadows (Thomas K.Y. about gaming and other interests)
Showbits.net (Ken G. about genre entertainment)
Tech_Space (Angela G.'s science news)

Have a good weekend!