Hythia » Rambling

Bad Blogger

Hythian — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:49:49 +0000

I know I am a bad blogger when I let such a gap happen between posts that I forget my password to login.

So what’s happened since last I posted…

Dark Sun game never took off. Characters were created, campaign designs were laid out, Essentials and Hybrid rules were argued over and then Gamma World came out.

Gamma World is crazy silly fun. Not sure I’d want to do a long-term campaign in the system but for an occasional “get togethor and watch silly stuff happen then the dice hit the table” game it is pretty good. Though it also helps if you have players who know better than to take their characters too seriously.

Watched season one of both The Mentalist and Leverage on DVD. Liked both shows enough that I’ve gotten the 2nd seasons on DVD now (they in fact arrived today and are on my desk next to my laptop).

Watched Sherlock on PBS on their Masterpiece Mystery program. Really really good, Steven Moffat (yes, the Doctor Who and Coupling guy) and Mark Gatiss (who has also written Doctor Who eppys) did a great job in both updating the characters to the modern day and in keeping the right sort of feel and style to the characters. What they failed in was only producing 3 episodes and the next set doesn’t air until August of 2011.

More D&D Essentials products came out. Short form: Monster Vault is tokens and a small book containing monsters that I am pretty sure have already come out in 4E monster manuals, Dungeon Tiles Master Set: The City is another box full of great tiles that are prefect if you missed the earlier tile releases and actually intend to use them, and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms is book with about 190 pages of new/updated rules and 175 pages that were already printed in Heroes of the Fallen Lands.

On the flip-side, D&D Insider updated their Character Builder to be a web-app that is actually pretty sharp and pretty snazzy and have started showing off the long-long-long awaited Game Table (it was what, 3 years ago it was announced as a DDI feature and just now finally seeing it?).

Champions Online started a closed beta of the F2P features (Which the NDA allows me to say I am taking part in, but I can’t tell you about the changes like the QoL & UI improvements or the additions to the powersets or the great new content changes and additions. Nope. Can’t talk about those at all.)

Star Trek Online just finished it’s second set of Feature Episodes and they really were great ones. Lots of nice improvements and changes in the Devidian missions that I hope get used in updates to existing content through out the game.

The STO Foundry is supposedly going to be available for Open Beta testing next week (Didn’t get invited to that CB unfortunately). Going to be interesting seeing those tools then as I am looking at them mostly as a hinting towards what the Forge tools for Neverwinter may or may not be like.

Not much new information on Neverwinter which remains my most-anticipated game for next year.

This month is NaNoWriMo so I started writing a lot more this month. More about that in another post.

Had an abscessed tooth that I had to get removed the other day. Good news, it cost far less to do that then I thought. Bad news, now I get this empty spot in my jaw that is going to likely have to be filled with an implant or a bridge and both of those are looking to be fucktastically expensive.

Thirty-seven days until Christmas. Not even sure who I am going to be shopping for yet, and a friend of mine chatted at me over Steam today that she’d finished all of her holiday shopping already. Gyah…

Steak + Sandals = Burned Feet

Hythian — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 05:38:57 +0000

Common sense lessons you would think I’d have learned by now. When cooking something on the stove, steak for example, in a frying pan with very hot oil you do not want to be wearing sandals.

Which is similar to a lesson I’d learned years before, only involving cooking bacon as part of a breakfast and wearing only a bathrobe.

Ouchies.

Anyways, made steak for dinner and served it up along with some dinner rolls I’d been waiting half the day to rise and some cucumber, tomatoes and green peppers from the garden. Kind of impressed by the garden this year actually, last year I think I got one stunted green pepper and a couple of tomatoes from it. This year I have more tomatoes and cucumbers then I think I am going to manage to eat before they go bad, though still not much for the peppers.

Think I am going to have to move the pepper plants or maybe try something different with them next year, they either don’t like the amount of sunlight they are getting or the soil is complete crap where they are or something is wrong since they really should be doing better than they are.

Been getting back into cooking more, making steak a couple of times a week now. Playing around with some tricks on treating the steak ahead of time with spices and salt to flavor it and cooking it with hot oil (as in, oil that is very hot not as in spicy hot oil) which works out pretty well and is pretty fast at only a couple of minutes per side.

Got the slow cooker sitting out on the counter right now, planning to make chili in it later in the week if I can just settle on a recipe to use. Tricky because I want to try doing it with ground turkey and the recipes I have for chili that I really really like all use beef. Sounds like a simple switch but they really are very different meats and I’ve had bad luck in the past with just simple substitutions.

Thinking I might try a white chili later too, have a recipe for a really good one that I had when I visited some friends year ago that I’ve been meaning to try cooking myself.

Other than that, been watching Castle on DVD. Got Season 2 the other day and the show continues to be fun. Amusing little bits too when Castle (played by Nathan Fillion) dresses up for halloween as a ‘space cowboy’ and gets crap for it being a costume that he wore five years ago and that he needs to move on (referencing Firefly / Serenity). Show continues to be fun to watch.

Just finished watching season 1 of White Collar on dvd the other day. Another fun show, though I wish I’d gotten to it sooner because season 2 has basically disappeared entirely off of On Demand on my cable box so if I’ll have to wait for it to show up in re-runs, show up On Demand again, or for the second season to come out on dvd.

Other than that, spent the day caulking around some crown moulding. Initially, I wasn’t sure if crown moulding was going to be worth the effort but after seeing it… I have to say it looks really good. Only up in the master bedroom right now but thinking I kind of want to put it up in more of the upstairs of the house now. It’d probably not look as good downstairs, might make the lower floor (split level so slower floor is actually half-way underground) feel more cramped then it is.

226 Hours until Civ 5

Hythian — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 07:39:41 +0000

226 hours until Civ 5 is released (10am on Sept 21st).

Nothing else to say, just counting down how long until my social life ends again and I am given over to the mantra of ‘One more turn… Just one more turn…’

With a Whimper and not a Bang

Hythian — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 16:54:10 +0000

So after having had my Kindle for a day now, and already having finished reading one book on it and bought several others, I have realized that I may need to re-name my Kindle to WalletBane.

Quite simply, it has the potential to drain money very rapidly from my checking account as it really enables me to impulse book shop far far far too easily.

I already have 139 paper books sitting on my shelf waiting for me to read (not counting the 11 books I am currently in the process of reading) and now I have 6 books I bought last night on my Kindle waiting for me to read them.

And I’ll probably read the Kindle ones first because the novelty of using the device will last for quite a while still.

Definately love my Kindle, no regrets buying it, one of the first bits of technology that I’ve seen in a while that actually seems useful and well designed.

Just have this lingering suspicion that I will have to be very careful watching my book buying or I’ll be financially insolvent by the end of the year.

I love my Kindle

Hythian — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:09:26 +0000

So I’ve been playing with my new Kindle for a little bit, and I have to say that I really do love it. Probably the first device or purchase that I’ve gotten in years that I look at and wonder how I got through the day without it.

Summer TV is winding down

Hythian — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 04:13:06 +0000

2nd to last episode of this season of Eureka was yesterday, the Warehouse 13 season is down to just a few left. Not sure where Psyche or Burn Notice are at for their seasons, but I can never make sense of when USA’s seasons start or end.

Eureka has been a lot of fun this season, it’s 4th (or 5th if you count the two parts of season 3 seperately). Without spoiling too much, if you have a chance and you can watch it off of OnDemand with your cable or find it online, this is a really good season to start off watching the show. Their was enough of a change at the start of the season to make it easy for new fans to get into without actually alienating existing fans. Always a fun trick to pull off. Only 1 episode left (I haven’t watched yesterdays yet myself) so seeing how they manage to actually tie togethor all the plot points of the season will be interesting.

Warehouse 13 surprised me last year with how fun it was. Was glad to see it come back for a second season and they did a very good job before the season started to not spoil the season’s beginning. (Cliffhanger at end of season 1, despite the ad blitz for season 2 they managed not to spoil the resolution of the cliffhanger by showing any scenes that would give it away.) Looks like 4 episodes left in the season to go, so that means another month until I have to come up with something new to watch.

Psyche and Burn Notice both got me back into watching them this season. Actually missed most of the previous season of Burn Notice so it took me a bit to catch up, and Psyche previously ran hot-and-cold with me as some episodes were great and some of them just had a few too many annoying ‘sound effect and zoom in as Shaun notices something!’ moments in them. But both shows have been fun this season and I hope they both get renewed for another.

Other than that, watched a bit of True Blood (started reading the books and was surprised by how fun the first one was, need to get some of the others sometime), and the Closer (can’t bring myself to watch the show regularly, but it is usually pretty good).

During the summer I picked up season 1 of Castle and season 1 of White Collar on dvd. Watched the Castle season already and loved it, looking forward to season 2 coming out on dvd soon and season 3 starting on TV.

White Collar I caught an episode of on tv, looked interesting, picked up the first season on dvd and just haven’t gotten to watching it yet. It is on my ‘shelf of dvds to watch’ along with the entire series of Deadwood (saw most of it on HBO, been meaning to watch the dvds), the second season of Black Lagoon (watched the first season, own the manga up to vol 9, just not gotten to season 2 yet), the complete series of Claymore (manga is still ongoing when last I looked, curious to see how different the anime is and where it ends at), and the first part of Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood (loved the manga series which has since ended, the first anime series was pretty good though very untrue to the manga, the bits I’ve already seen of this anime series are more accurate to the manga though still not entirely so).

Where Have I Been?

Hythian — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 21:15:42 +0000

Been about 10 months since I last posted, so what have I been doing in that time?

The short answer is… Not much.

Got my book blog started back at the start of the year, though I only manged a few posts there before work absolutely murdered my free time.

Not too long after my last posts in October the STO closed beta started up and I was involved in that up until launch. I played for a little while after launch, but the same work project that killed my blog time also killed my gaming time and I have never quite gotten back to STO. Good game, with flaws, will write more about that another time.

Still off and on playing some Living Forgotten Realms 4E D&D. Kind of meh about it for the most part due in part to the very uneven module writing, the pain to find games that are near enough to me that I don’t spend more time commuting to and from them than actually playing, and the fact that where I live is the East Rift region of the living campaign and a lot of the modules don’t necessarily adjust well to that region (a big heavily dwarven populated hole in the ground) so at times the stories are just… odd.

4E Dark Sun is out before the end of the month, might try to get a home campaign going for that then. Always liked the setting and just have to hope they do a better job with it than the piss-poor version of Sigil that showed up in DMG2 (poor poor Planescape).

Ordered a Kindle, should arrive near the end of the month. Doubt it’ll cut down on my book buying, probably just enable me to more easily spend far too much money on books, but it will cut down on the number of huge piles of books in my house that may someday fall over and bury me.

Despite not playing much STO, still hanging out on Coldfront IRC with the crowd that I met online leading up to the launch of STO. Fun people, amusing to chat with.

Finally gave in and started using m Facebook account for actually social stuff (and games, stupid time-wasting facebook games) instead of just having it to lurk with and look for updates on Civ 5 and Civ Network (which I thought was supposed to have launched by now but I guess will be next year after Civ 5 now).

Still no Twitter. Twitter is the enemy. Bah!

Speaking of Civ 5, got that pre-ordered and Sept is going to be a crazy gaming month with FFXIV, Civ 5, Valkyria Chronicles 2, and something else that I have pre-ordered by is escaping me at the moment all coming in that month. Also Atelier Roronoa (yay! a new Atelier game, on the PS3 but hopefully it is still a good game series and not just prettier graphics and worse gaming as seems to be the trend) and Fable 3 are up and pre-ordered for later in the year. Will have to actually check to see if my 360 is still running before Fable 3 arrives as it’s been ages since I’ve used it (been playing a little on my PS3 with ‘Grand Theft Horse’ and ‘Trinity Universe’.

Writing projects have been slow going. Need to just take some time away from work and gaming and just focus on my writing and get through some of the sticky parts of the stories I have been working on and just get them done. Be nice to get some new ones finished. Will see how that goes.

Garden turned out pretty well this summer. Cucumbers and peppers turned out great, though my tomatoes are still all green. The couple of sunflowers I had last year spread all over the yard and damn near took over one whole side of my garden. Was kind of freaky, kept thinking ‘Day of the Triffids’ or the Ringworld sunflowers when I was going outside for a while. Finally pulled most of the sunflowers out when I spread barkdust to keep the weeds down in the flowerbeds.

Still have some remodeling to do in the house. Still need a tread on the stairwells and need wood down the entrance hallway. Likely going to hire someone to do that as I broke my hand since I did the hardwood floor upstairs and I am not sure it has the grip strength and endurance anymore to do that much carpentry work.

Other than that, not much has changed or happened in the last year. Sure there were other big events or happenings that would have made for good blog posts when they happened, but looking back over the year not much stands out right now.

Plus, I am eating lunch while writing this and really should finish up and get back to working now.

LotRO

Hythian — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:20:12 +0000

After a few days of play in LotRO I have to say I am still not sure what I think about it. Honestly, I still think DDO might be the superior game (go go Diablo style MMO!) but LotRO is fun for all of the interesting cameos and places to see.

So far my highest level is a level 16 elven Rune-Keeper, also have a level 14 human Warden that has been a lot of fun. Both of them are still on the way to the deeds for reaching level 20 without dying. My Hunter and Lore-Master both bit it already not long after getting out of the intro chapter, most annoying for me was the Hunter death as if I’d headed right back to the trainer after hitting level 10 and training for Medium Armor and Dual Wielding instead of trying to finish the mission I was on at the time I probably would have lived through the fight that killed me.

Champions Online is still fun, though some of the Monster Island quests got a little stale. Several of the new quest lines were truly irritating in that they basically meant going to a map, exploring it, going back to your contact, and then heading back to the exact same map again and basically doing it over again with maybe a couple new glowies to click. The old existing content is still good, but the new content is… Meh.

The Blood Moon event coming up in CO is a bit… Hrmph… Tried it on the test server and the best thing I can say about it is that I am glad the event has at least a week left to be worked on before it goes Live.

Still looking forward to the STO (Star Trek Online) beta starting, been watching a lot of Deep Space 9 in the last couple of weeks to get back up to speed on my Trek-fu. Watching “You Are Cordially Invited” in season 6 right now, the marriage of Worf and Dax, where the male members of the cast take part in a Klingon bachelor party which turns out to be less of a bachelor party and more of a four day torture session.

Looking forward to “In The Pale Moonlight” which is several discs further into this season and which was always one of my favorite episodes.

Mid-term for the class I am taking is on Tuesday. Been sick for the last couple of days so not studied as much as I would like, also missed my Thursday class which was supposed to have been the review before the mid-term. So at this point not expecting to do as well on the test as I would like to do. Blegh.

Blegh…

Hythian — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:41:18 +0000

I am just not very good at keeping my blog up to date. Keep meaning to be better about it, but just hard to find the time in my schedule for it and really actually motivate myself to bother.

Anyways… The class I have been taking has gotten a lot better then how it started. At the beginning it felt like the teacher hadn’t really been reading the material before the class started but now either my first impression was wrong or he has had more time to prepare and actually look at the assignments before we discuss them in class…

CO is still a lot of fun, though it is still getting blasted by a lot of people for some of their bizarre balance and design goofs…

Waiting on STO to come out, started lurking in the #STO chatroom on the coldfront IRC servers. Woo… IRC… Feels like it is 1995 all over again…

Been a bit sniffly and waiting for fall to finally start, getting tired of the warm weather…

Still been reading lots, need to start reviewing these books as I read them so I can get my other site up and running…

Was something else I meant to say, but forgotten about it now.

Get The Boredom Out

Hythian — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 21:15:51 +0000

So the class I am taking twice a week now is… I can’t come up with the adjectives for it. The closest I can think of is that I can literally feel the seconds of my life passing me by as I sit there. The boredom is palpable and the instructors lack of preparedness is just shameful.

But I need the certification from it and it is the only class going I can reach during hours I have free to take it so I am basically screwed.

It really wouldn’t be that bad if the instructor was just better prepared. He is an amusing fellow, full of stories and anecdotes meant to make the material more interesting. Except he doesn’t know the actual text we are using very well. On top of which he hasn’t actually looked at the problems we are supposed to be solving in class so it is often up to us (the students) to walk him (the instructor) through finding all the information needed to solve the problems.

Not fun.

Had meant to do a yard sale today. Get rid of some of the crap I have laying around the house that I never use anymore. Except it rained today. I actually am rather glad it rained, it feels like Fall might finally be here, but it is messing up my plans somewhat. Eh… C’est la vie.

Champions Online continues to be a mix of fun and perplexitude. Fun to play but every so often I run into a game dynamic that makes me go, “Er.. Wha?” and I am once more left wondering what the testers in the Closed Beta were actually doing for feedback since I have a hard time imagining this not having other people questioning the logic involved.

Still, as much as I say that, it is a very fun game. Lots more variety in the ways to build your character, the Southwest Desert is simply the best designed zone I have seen in a MMO both in terms of the layout of the areas within it and some of the actual fun variety of missions and tasks.

The game is getting a lot of bad press at the moment from the fanbase. Their own stupid fault really. They should have known better then to roll out a sweeping balance patch on launch day without having it tested first. Big patch, then a day later opening the public test server up. Definately the wrong order to do things in.

Finished the first book in the “Soldier’s Son” series the other night (“Shaman’s Crossing” by Robin Hobb). It was a good read, but didn’t feel like a great one to me. Still, if you have been a fan of the other series that Robin Hobb has written you will like it. I found the narrative viewpoint a little disorienting myself and the story itself just didn’t seem as interesing or uniquely engaging as the previous books by the author.

About mid-way through the second book now and it has continued to be a good series but I am loosing hope that it’ll be a great one by the end. Still, I do again recommend it to fans of the author or of the fantasy genre (specifically the ‘young boy coming of age’ sub-set of fantasy). Just I won’t be pushing it on all of my friends, whether they are fantasy fans or not.