Frak, Frel and Other "F" Words

One resolution: get in shape. I've already gotten a nice good headstart with my current level of weight loss (which I've completely gone off the rails today, what with pizza and cheesy bread and a banana split from Braum's) but I'm planning on resuming the gym visits starting Monday a.m. I want to be around 215 or less come my birthday at the end of March.

Every year for the last eight or nine years, I have purchased a new flash drive that doubles the capacity of the year's previous for around $20 and this year was no different. My 128GB drive is on its way now and I'm consistently surprised at this sort of thing. This flash drive has more storage capacity than most of the computers I've own (not my current one which has a terabyte, and not the previous one which was 500GB, I think) and this means I should be looking at 256GB next year which is insane... To coin a phrase from Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World , "What a fascinating modern age we live in."

Dammit. Going to have to go to the dentist again. Knew I needed to get a bad tooth extracted, but the one directly in front of it just broke so now I have to be very careful when eating. FML.

Not sure how I feel about this. Adria Arjona is gorgeous - she pushes every single one of my buttons so I could watch her reading the phone book - and some of the revisions seem neat (I especially like the Scarecrow having amnesia, hence him "needing a brain"). Daredevil's Kingpin as the Wizard could be amusing and I'm guessing the long-haired dude in platemail is the revised Tin Man (?), so ... dammit. Going to have to watch this just to see if it sucks, aren't I?

Steam sale had these for cheap and while I'm kind of tired of Bats, I will acknowledge that the Arkham games have been great ... until Knight. I'd read how people disliked the Batmobile crap but dear God, until I'd experienced it myself, I had not realized just how crap it is. Meanwhile, the Telltale game is excellent. Am through the 2nd ep and I love the re-imagining here, what with Thomas Wayne not being the paragon he's usually written as. And thus far, I absolutely love the Bat-Cat dynamic. The bar fight in ep 2 where Bruce and Selina (in civvie garb) kick ass? I would kill to see that in a movie.

According to MyFitnessPal, today marks the 200 day point and, while there has been a notable decline in how quickly I'm losing weight - too many 'screw it. Yes, I will have the cheesecake, thank you' and 'OMFG, I think I might murder someone for a Snickers' days - I am still down around 50 pounds, so there's that. This week ... er ... month has also kind of sucked with regards to gym attendance. Excuses are easy to come by - car trouble, was kind of sick earlier this week - but I am making plans to ramp that back up starting in January (like everyone else). Until then, my gym attendance will still be sporadic - for example, I'll likely go tonight after work for some overdue cardio. And finally, thanks to work (as well as general lack of motivation), my plans for Christmas kind of fell through so I'll be sticking around OKC. Am considering a second viewing of Rogue One , potentially in the Director's Suite (so I can recline and eat and all that.)

Rewatched ESB this weekend and was once again reminded of what I didn't like about the "special editions". This line was replaced with that whole nonsense about informing his star destroyer of his arrival ... I love the way this scene was originally done. You really get Vader's frustration and controlled fury. I really wish I could get a special SPECIAL edition where I pick and choose what they changed (e.g., the Solo & Jabba scene in ANH. It'd be gone too. And Han. Shot. First.)

Had a blast with this movie. There were some flaws in it - notably, that it honestly wasn't actually necessary in the grand scheme of things but also with regards to some digital recreations for a few characters, notably Governor Tarkin, that failed the 'uncanny valley' thing - but once it got cooking, it was fantastic. Seeing Lord Vader cutting down Rebel scum alone was worth the price of admission but the entire main battle was awesome. The director also had an excellent sense of scale, something that is sometimes lost with the SW movies (particularly 'The Force Awakens' which had people all over the galaxy being able to see the destruction of a single star system, despite not being anywhere near that system ... but then, that's J.J. Abrams and the first nuTrek reboot movie showed he had no sense of scale then.) Overall, at this point, I think I'd say that I liked 'Rogue One" better than 'The Force Awakens' but a repeat viewing is likely

The boss is a big Star Wars fan as well, so we're closing down the office and going to see it today as a group with him paying (which is awesome.) We did the same last year with The Force Awakens and ended up at Five Guys (again, with him paying.) No word on whether that's the plan today as well.

After hearing some of this song on the Guardians of the Galaxy 2 trailer, I wanted to hear the full song and stumbled on this fan vid. And ... wow . When Adriana Lima rolls her eyes at 1:34? To quote Jayne Cobb, "I'll be in my bunk."

Seriously, is it wrong of me to want Trump to paraphrase Obama and tell the Dems, "I won. Get over it."? Because I'm really getting tired of the post-election whining from the Dems.

Looks pretty darned good. I really like the little touches - Bruce Banner's picture in the wall of famous scientists, Howard Stark's face on the school mural - and am hoping this movie kicks ass. Thus far, the MCU hasn't screwed up yet, so there's that. Interesting that Spidey is shown in both his original suit and the post-Civil War suit, which makes me suspect that this movie might take place before and after CA3, which is cool

Have done an absolute shit job of going to the gym the last couple of weeks. Really, really need to get my ass back into the groove.

Episode 3 of "The Grand Tour" on Amazon was awesome. The Top Gear guys are in fantastic form. The so-called crossover event between the CW super-hero shows was kind of crap, though. At this point, I'm watching most of them out of loyalty to earlier seasons - this year's Flash has frankly stunk and I haven't caught up with the others. Compare that to the excellent Agents of SHIELD ep ...

Sweet.

Got the permanent crown put in this a.m. and was very gratified that I didn't have to pay the entire balance today. Thanks to the car work I had to get done yesterday costs almost immediately what I still owe the dentist.

Well, sort of. Car is repaired - my guess about the ignition switch being responsible was correct, although it cost me $330 to get it repaired. The problem I'm facing now is my dental appointment tomorrow and the $533 I'm supposed to pay ... which I don't have, dammit. Can pay some of that with my HSA (not quite half, but close) ... but if I pay the rest with regular funds, I'm going to be floating around $0 until next week's payday. So ... ugh. Sure could have used a bonus this year. Guess its not coming though...

You know the rest. Seriously. Not super enthusiastic about visiting family over the holidays because I'm inevitably reminded that I'm still single and likely to remain so until I croak, but then, when I have holidays like this one where I simply can't afford to go anywhere (and have a fraking dentist appointment in the middle of said holiday), I really take note of the fact that there just isn't much going on with my life. Yeah. Really need something to distract me from this.

So fucking pissed off right now. I joked about my car breaking once it as paid off and what do you know? It just did. Fucking thing won't turn over but the internal electronics (radio, for example) is acting like the key is still in the ignition and will not shut off. Which means my battery will be toast tomorrow. Fuck you, universe. Fuck you and die.

So, major progress with regards to the blood pressure medicine. About a month ago (10/30, to be exact), my BP systolic/diastolic recording was 161/97. Today, its down to 132/68. Definitely an improvement.

Hit the gun range today and did okay. Shots were a little high and to the right - will need to work on that. My little Croatian 9mm handled the rounds easily enough, but it was definitely a reminder that I need to hit the range more frequently. And get another pistol because why the hell not? Roommate's new Ruger had problems, though. Wouldn't eject empty casings properly so he's researching why. 

Heading to the range tomorrow. Been a while. Looking forward to that old familiar smell...

No more! The car is officially paid off today. Which means a giant meteor is going to fall on it any day now.

Am starting to recognize some of the faces at my gym. Not as many uber hotties as I would like, but then, this is a "no judgment" gym (Planet Fitness) so real gym rats are probably at the Gold's Gym. Am slowly getting back into the proper mindset, but I must admit that, for a person who really likes biking, I fucking hate the stationary bike. It sucks soooooo bad. Doesn't help that NCIS always seems to be on when I'm working out and I've tried to swear that show off completely. Although man, it's nice to Cote de Pablo again...

Entering the second week and there are still jackholes rioting and "protesting." I am not thoroughly convinced that the bulk of these protesters are Soros rent-a-mobs who are simply trying to cause havoc. At this point, if I were POTUS, I would start looking at a targeted assassination of that sonuvabitch as he is clearly attempting to destabilize the country and the POTUS has that whole oath about defending against enemies, both foreign and domestic. Of course, I'd have also long ago started looking at finding a way to legally put Soros in prison some time back, but whatever. The most frustrating part of this, at least for me, is that most of these protesters aren't even going to be charged for this shit. In fact, the 5th Column media is already in the process of trying to lionize them and turn them into modern-day Revolutionaries. At this point, I am all out of fucks to give for them ... although to be fair, I really didn't have many to begin with. Besides, fo

NY Times "Suddenly, the progressive, post-racial, bridge-building society he promised has given way to an angry, jeering, us-against-them nation to be led by a new president who relishes reality-show name-calling with racial overtones. " They still haven't learned.

Finally got around to watching this ... mostly. Found a thing on YouTube that has the movie in chunks - caught some of it out of sequence, but I was able to understand the gist ... and it was every bit the steaming turd I expected it to be. The storyline, as I understand it, is utterly retarded. Amanda Waller, who is supposed to be a highly intelligent badass, wants to assemble a team of super-criminals and use them to potentially stop the next Superman (presuming he showed up evil.) Her team? A hyper competent hitman, a deranged pyschopath, a thief who uses boomerangs, a crocodile man, a pyrokinetic (who might be channeling a demon? Not sure) and an idiot archaeologist channeling a centuries-old witch. Of this group, only the witch could potentially do much harm to Supes ... although again, the pyrokinetic is iffy, depending upon the source of his powers. And then, because she is evil , the witch manages to escape control and cause havoc. Which results, based on what I saw, thousand

I know nothing about "Valerian" but this looks interesting...

Doctor's appointment this a.m. Was in and out within 10 minutes, excluding time in waiting room (about another 5 minutes.) On one hand, this felt like a waste of time - I went in, got weighed, had my blood pressure taken, waited for a few minutes for the doctor to come in and tell me "Blood pressure medicine is working. See you in six months!" - but on the other, no news is good news, yeah? He did mention my cholesterol is a little high but not so much so that I needed to get more drugs. Something else for me to research, I guess.

Why? Because there ain't crap on TV and it's a really good show.

Here we are. Good news: Hillary Clinton, the most corrupt and despicable politician in America, lost. That's fantastic news and at least prevents us from running full tilt toward even greater amounts of socialism. Unfortunately, it comes with bad news: Donald Trump won the election. Think about that for a moment. Donald Trump is going to be the President of the United States. We have officially entered ... the Twilight Zone. Look, I have no illusions about the amount of gridlock we're going to see going forward. All of the Democrats who cried foul when the Republicans blocked a judicial nominee are now going to be doing exactly that and not seeing anything wrong with it. For that matter, quite a lot of the Republicans in Congress are going to be doing the same thing to President Trump (and man, saying that makes me throw up a little in my mouth), which means he's going to fall back onto what Obama did to ram through crap that couldn't get proper legislation: more ex

Have mostly unplugged today. Regardless of who wins, America loses. Trump is a buffoon, Clinton is a criminal, regardless of what that tool, Comey, says. So either way, we're all screwed.

Looks awesome ... but then, DC movies have poisoned the well with the shit that was "Murderman vs Mopeyman" so one never knows...

Monday is N7 Day where Bioware is dropping new info on Mass Effect: Andromeda. Tuesday is election day in the US where we get to choose between a buffoon and a corruptocrat. Can you guess which one I'm actually looking forward to and which one I'm dreading?

The problem with writing about an alien bug invasion (see before-mentioned references of "Earthfall equals Starship Troopers meets Man of Steel") is that one has to do a lot of looking at bugs. Like this beast. Now imagine it bristling with laser weapons and high-tech armor.

Is it wrong of me to derive an intense amount of satisfaction that the FBI has pulled an October surprise on Hillary? I'm less worried about Trump being POTUS than her - if he gets in, he's going to be facing resistance on all fronts (the Republicans, the Democrats, the media, etc.) but 2/3 of that will just roll over should the Queen of Corruption get the nod...

So very, very, very tired of this crap. Even more tired of listening to or reading ignorant people who definitely match the "low information voter" mindset. The fact that so many don't bother to understand why the email issue is a big problem ... just ... ugh. And the guy running with the R is nearly as bad. Frak this noise. I want "rocks fall. Everyone dies."

Been making some adjustments to the plot and "Sofia Dominguez" has become "Rivka Levy" ... I mean, Hollywood implies Latinas & Israelis are interchangeable, yeah? (See Cote de Pablo in NCIS and Alice Braga in Predators.)

Initial part of root canal is complete. Have to go back next Thursday for the temporary crown (presuming the medication application worked.) Confirmed also that my blood pressure is at least lower, but is still on the high side. Am guessing that I either am still acclimating to that medication or (more likely with my luck) it is not strong enough. They had to apply epinephrine as part of the initial numbing process and whoa, buddy. I did not like that at all. Nearly as bad as the hydrocodone I have as painkiller right now. Bright side: haven't eaten hardly anything today. This is also the dark side as well.

The office is fricking cold as hell today. Probably just me since the primary support guy is running around in shorts...

There are twenty planned chapters, five of which are going to be flashbacks. This is actually becoming my standard, I've noticed as "Fulcrum," "Vorticity" and "Aspects of Silver" all have that same technique baked into them. As outlines go, this probably one of my least figured out which honestly fills me with a great deal of trepidation about this.

So, NaNoWriMo is almost literally right around the corner and I've really been struggling what to do this year. Think I've finally settled on "Earthfall," which is intended to basically be a "Starship Troopers" type of story with super-heroes. Some additional (spoilerly) information behind the cut.

Root canal is scheduled for Thursday. So ... huzzah for that. I'm just so terribly eager... Did the gym thing on Sunday and actually lifted weights. As a result, my muscles have noted this change and strongly disapprove. Really need to go back today and do the lower body sequence so I can spread the pain around.

Doctor gave me a prescription and a follow-up in 3 weeks to see progress. I later checked in with the dentist and they want me to be on the BP medicine for at least a week before I come in for the root canal so ... ugh. Fortunately, the amoxicillin they put me on does seem to have caused the "discomfort" to ease slightly. The doctor also told me to hold off on the gym for a couple of days so I won't be able to go there until Saturday. Today was supposed to be a Gym Day, but alas. Good news in this pile of crap: had to weigh in at the doctor's office and it confirmed my weight lost of over forty pounds.

I hope I can get the high blood pressure thing sorted out tomorrow because if I have to multiple days with this level of tooth pain, I expect I'll go mad. Or seek our radical, ill-thought out remedies. Right now, I can barely chew  because of this! Imagine what eating is like (and if you imagined very unfilling pudding and yogurt, you get a No-Prize.)

Went to the dentist this a.m. to get a problem tooth resolved. It is going to be a root canal - $1600, fortunately paid in 3 installments, but still! Unfortunately, can't get anything done with it because my blood pressure is too high so I had to dig around & find a local doctor to check that. Appointment for 9 a.m. tomorrow to review ... and, knowing my damned luck, get put on high blood pressure medicine. And my fraked up tooth is still killing me. Ugh.

First visit this a.m. Girl at the desk was quite attractive - not gym rat fit or beautiful, but very pretty nonetheless - so that's definitely a plus. Only did about 40 minutes on the stationary bike today - going to try to go in tomorrow morning and get the trainer thing going on. Would be great to actually be in really good physical shape come GenCon next year.

Signed up for the gym membership today. Tomorrow, will make my first visit.

Finished my reread of "Fulcrum" and am now rereading what I've got written of "Vorticity." Am trying to get my Muse engaged so I can hopefully finish it next month, at which point I can plot out the unnamed part 3 and perhaps look to actually publishing "Fulcrum" somewhere. Would still like to go the traditional book route if possible but may have to self-publish which could be ... yeah.

So, October is almost halfway done and I still don't know what I want to work on for NaNoWriMo this year. I did manage a reread (and minor revision) of "Fulcrum" and am attempting to make myself reread what I've got done for "Vorticity" in the hopes that I can make myself finish that, but ... I'm just not feeling the urge or desire to really write, which sucks. I need to figure out what the heck my problem is in that regard and get it fixed.

Damn. Just ... damn!

Found this on the GURPS boards and rather like it: GURPS with Fate Aspects . That led me to actually reading the bit about "Destiny Points" in Monster Hunters, which turns out to pretty much be Impulse Buys (see Power-Ups book on IB.) So I might find a way to use this instead of existing activation rules. If nothing else, I might give this a test run when I run Red Sky next...

Something occurred to me yesterday while goofing off with ME3. I've been struggling with the timeline - specifically, when to set this theoretical game - and was fluctuating between " during ME1" and " prior to ME1" which ultimately limits the amount of time available since ME1 begins in 2183 and ME3 ends in 2186. While reviewing the official timeline, I realized that I missed a perfect time period: 2176 - 2178, 6 to 8 years earlier. Why? The Skyllian Blitz and the attack on Torfan. Specifically, in 2176, the "Skyllian Blitz" transpires. It is defined as "Batarian-funded pirates and criminals launch a surprise attack, later known as the Skyllian Blitz, on the human colony of Elysium. The assault is repulsed by the Alliance Navy and ground teams." This is where the "War Hero" background for Shepard occurs. This provides a golden opportunity as, logically, the PCs can be at Elysium in the opening chapters, then segue into hunting

Had a really bad weekend. Okay, a really bad Saturday, really. Basically sat around and played Mass Effect 2 on my PC and munched away on Slim Jims, Pringles (mmm ... cheddar cheese), then some caramel ice cream. On the bright side, I barely ate much on Sunday (even as I continued playing ME2 and finally finished it.) Was going to join the gym on Sunday, but then did maths and realized I need to hold off until payday this weekend. Then I can kick this puppy off again (he says hopefully.)

Into ME3 now, having completed the ME2 suicide mission with losing a single person. Haven't picked up the DLC for the ME3 yet, but that'll happen this weekend (probably). Had forgotten how much I like the general atmosphere at the beginning of the game - it's hit the "Hopeless" point, with the Reapers being impossible to defeat yet Space Jesus just keeps on fighting. Begs the question: how do you do that sort of thing in a face-to-face RPG? Granted, to this point, Shepard really hasn't failed in any of his missions - yeah, he lost Alenko at Virmire but that was still a successful op. But it is still a curious dilemma since ultimately, the war against the Reapers is doomed. Something to ponder, I suppose... Interesting to note that only 3 years have passed since ME1 (in-game) which isn't really a lot of time for various adventures to happen in a face-to-face game. I think if I was to run a ME game, I'd arbitrarily shift the time to 5 years later (incr

Yeah.  He's a Gorram Liar .

Awesome-looking.

SWEET!!!!

Evidently, last night was the vice presidential debate and to be perfectly honest, I didn't bother at all. Instead, I finished ME1 with my Paragon Earthborn Sole Survivor Soldier and then moved on to ME2. As someone who was once very much a political junkie, I find it alternately fascinating and horribly depressing how utterly disinterested I am in this year's election. I utterly loath Trump - he strikes me as a dishonest grandstanding opportunist - and find Shillary to be 100x worse in every facet, which unfortunately means I really need to vote for Trump ... but I honestly don't know if I'll be able to make myself do so. But it isn't just the election that has turned me off of all things political. The current presidential administration's policies - the fact that he is hard left and doesn't try to hide it - is nearly as bad as the opposition party's abject refusal to fight . So, like so many of my fellow Americans, I've just unplugged from the p

Found an awesome-looking homebrew set of rules for ME using the Fate system. Am really tempted to give that a try for the Saturday group just to get a feel for the rules...

Right. So getting ahead of myself with the space combat crap. I need to focus on the characters first. Once I figure them out, I can proceed forward. What I really need to do, though, is float this before the group as a "hey, I'm contemplating spinning up a Mass Effect game using GURPS but using the Action! rules; would you be interested in this?" because honestly, if more than half the group says "no", then what's the point (other than moving it to the Saturday game which is also feasible I suppose.) Presuming the Friday group, that means five players. With that in mind, I envision: Team Leader - (essentially a Shooter), the hardened veteran of Torfan, served under Shepard, probably a Lieutenant or Staff-Lieutenant (need to research this - think Torfan was 8 or 9 years earlier? That's a long time to just advance two or three grades... 'Driver' - the wheelman of the group, this character joined the Alliance intent on becoming a combat pil

Moving on, I looked over the ME wiki with regards to space combat and found this: Ship mobility dominates space combat; the primary objective is to align the  mass accelerator along the bow with the opposing vessel's broadside. Battles typically play out as artillery duels fought at ranges measured in thousands of kilometers, though assault through defended mass relays  often occur at "knife fight" ranges as close as a few dozen kilometers. Most ship-to-ship engagements are skirmishes between patrol vessels of cruiser weight and below, with dreadnoughts and carriers only deployed in full-scale fleet actions. Battles in open space are short and often inconclusive, as the weaker opponent generally disengages. Once a ship enters FTL flight the combat is effectively over; there are no sensors capable of tracking them, or weapons capable of damaging them. The only way to guarantee an enemy will stand and fight is to attack a location they have a vested interest in, such as

So, over on the Steve Jackson boards, I found this post that really works for me in terms of armor and weapons. I did a little bit of testing and, presuming my math is right, got the following results: Given: light padding undersuit (DR 10), light plating (+DR 10) with light (ablative, hardened 2) shields (DR 50) vs assault rifle (4d (3) pi ... although with the shields being hardened 2, the armor divisor is mostly irrelevant.) There is no shield penetration until the fifth round (presuming average damage of 12), at which point shields are depleted. This actually works with the mechanics in the game fairly well, with the option existing to increase the efficacy of the shields and the penetration capability of the rounds. Therefore, I think we have a winner. Will likely go with these mechanics and tweak them as any theoretical game progresses, which frees me up to think about other things. Hopefully.

So, further poking at the bear. Still concentrating on armor. My original thinking was "nanoweave armored vacc suit, but really, the N7 Armor that Space Jesus wears in ME2 and ME3 is really space armor ... so let's do some evil maths. Presuming TL10: Space armor has DR 75. Add ablative Shields of 30, this gives total DR of 105 Scenario 1: Hostile with gauss rifle - 6d+2(3) pi- Bullets do average of 20 points. BULLET 1: Even with armor divisor, this round will not penetrate the DR. Shields are reduced by 20, bringing total DR to 85. BULLET 2: DR 85/3 = 28 ... so again, unable to penetrate DR. Shields depleted as of this round. BULLET 3: DR 75/3 = 25. Average damage is not going to penetrate this DR at all. To get through, a shot is going to need to average 26 points on 6d+2 which isn't impossible (all 4s?) but is unlikely. Note: Gauss weapons can be boosted  which increases piercing damage by +1 per die at the cost of draining the propellant bottle. If that'

According to My Fitness Pal with this afternoon's check-in, I've dropped 39 lbs in 118 days. Very not bad.

Man, today sucked. Not the weather - no, that was glorious. Absolutely perfect for biking. All things considered, I should have managed more than the 32 & a half miles I managed. In fact, when I started, I was seriously contemplating shooting for 50 ... But instead, I started sucking hardcore at the 14 or 15 mile point and never really recovered. Doesn't help that I took a slightly different route than before (and this particular route opens up some interesting possibilities that I shall have to explore online before I make the attempt) and there were some seriously steep inclines that were great going down but utterly blew when I had to go the other way. And, of course, it definitely doesn't help that the boss called me while I was on the way back for work-related crap that had to get done today (and did, it seems.)

What about equipment though? Some of the ME stuff is definitely out there. My thinking along these lines is to keep it simple: "Omnitools" are just TL10 (?) wearable computers with holographic displays and the appropriate computer programs loaded in. So a hacker would have intrusion stuff, an engineer would have building stuff, a physician or medic would have a medical scanner (UT200) built in and so on. The holos that appear are just special effects that don't really have a lot of actual use (and could probably be turned off or muted or just seriously altered.) I suppose it could be a portable universal mini-tool (UT85), but that doesn't work for me. Medigel ... is problematic. Will probably need to let players know beforehand that doesn't exist because honestly, that robs of all the danger. Personal shields are relatively easy to figure out - they're additional DR. UT190 has the following: " A force screen’s Damage Resistance is semi-ablative: ever

As stated, my original thinking was to start with the PCs on a ship about to crash. Following that line of thought, this is what I'm thinking the initial story arc would be: Begin  in media res . All PCs at different locations on an Alliance ship that is going down! They must get to the nearest escape pod while the ship disintegrates around them. Think opening scene of Mass Effect 2 (which is still the best opening of the three games.) Maybe run this as a modified Chase of some sort? As "luck" would have it, the only remaining escape pod thing is where all of the PCs end up converging so they get away from the ship together. But then, their pod gets clipped by something and sends them tumbling out of control. The g-forces knock them out. When they wake, they find themselves dirtside, short of pretty much everything. As they weren't on duty at the time of the initial surprise attack, none of them have a lot of gear. Fortunately, this is a military escape pod so th

It dropped today so I expect my weekend is mostly locked. I fully expect to enjoy the show - Netflix has been killing it with their Marvel properties: DD s1 was great, JJ was good (if admittedly so dark that I'm actually not interested in watching it again), and DD s2 was fricking awesome with the Punisher & Elektra and ninjas! - while simultaneously hating the music because I don't like hip-hop or rap or urban or whatever they're calling it now.

Continuing my "thinking out loud" process here, I want to turn to characters. Now, the initial plan was to being in media res with the PCs aboard a crashing starship, which sort of indicates that they would start out in the same unit. However, what I'm currently thinking is that they don't know each other very well at all, so logically, it would work better if they weren't in the same squad or platoon or whatever. Perhaps instead, have them all be in the same battalion (equivalent) so some of them may recognize the others but only by sight. That works better because it means some (or all) could have dark secrets that come to light later. With regards to team make-up, I really like the stuff in Action 4: Specialists which lets you pick and choose elements from a basic template. Totally thinking of going with that. I also really dig the way ME1 split up your version of Space Jesus into two groups of categories. The first is their origin which is one of three:

Some interesting ideas have sort of materialized with regards to this game concept. In short: What if the game is initially set before the first Mass Effect and then ends the initial run with the PCs arriving at Eden Prime? This would hint at an offscreen TPK (total party kill) caused by the arrival of Saren, Sovereign and the Geth, but E.P. is a big planet. Surely there's a place for the PCs to kick a bunch of ass and not be whacked, yeah?  In ME1, we learn that the Normandy and thus, Shepard, were meant for the 63rd Scout Flotilla commanded by Rear Admiral Mikhailovich. This seems like an ideal place for the PCs to be based.  If the PCs are actively in pursuit of a former Council Spectre who ostensibly went rogue and was then later dealt with by Saren, a crossover between them and the Normandy crew seems inevitable, especially if any of the PCs have served with/under Shepard. Thus, they could exchange notes.  Would be awesome if could find some really cool space combat

I freaking hate them. I'm in a foul mood and not up for dealing with anyone today, which is bad enough but given that I can find no discernible reason for my foul mood, it's even worse. Slept well enough - went to bed a lot later than I should have, but that's not a killer as I'm totally alert and not at all tired - and there hasn't been anything that really pisses me off for any reason ... so I'm just irritated because of ... reasons? Gah. Want a do-over. No, wait. I don't want to repeat this day at all. Screw that. And on top of that, I still don't know what to do for NaNoWriMo 2016 this year...

Logged out of that platform this morning. The more I read about the business practices of Twitter, the less I like it and honestly, it doesn't accomplish anything for me. I already waste too much time online in a day as it is, so this is my first step in reclaiming myself from the sewer that is most social media. I've already significantly curtailed my presence over at Facebook - so much so, in fact, that I've received a couple of emails from online friends wondering if I'm okay or wishing I would talk to them via FB, even though I've sort of made it clear that I'm sick and tired of that platform, especially due tot he various political BS that one has to wade through this time of year. Even the so-called joke accounts are clearly run by leftists as every time something new comes up, I have to grit my teeth at the sheer bias involved. So very, very tired of that crap. There's a reason why I've tuned out of so much entertainment - NFL? Done, what with far

Finished out Mass Effect 1 last night and it occurred to me that a lot of the problems that Shepard experiences in this game could have been resolved if the ultra tech society that has folding up weapons, the capability to dissolve pretty much any bit of equipment into "omni-gel", and easily portable "virtual intelligences" bothered to put functional helmet cams (complete with audio recording) on the their armor. Seriously, everyone is all "You're the only on who saw/heard/talked with X..." throughout the entire game (which flatly ignores the two other characters with Shepard during the op), so it stands to reason that they should have taken some sort of recording bit. Hell, when Tali is introduced, she has a recording of Saren & Benezia! Fridge logic at its best.

In my office, I have several windows that look out over another office area. There is a No Smoking within 25 feet sign and a lady in that business is always right next to it when she ducks out for a smoke. Seems impossible for her to not to be aware of that signage. It's right there! Seems like she's intentionally going to that very spot...

Started replaying Mass Effect last week, this time on the desktop. Really wish I hadn't because now I'm sort of thinking about how I would run a ME game in GURPS ... and because my brain is wired to react in a certain way, I'm having to jot down my story notes or it just won't leave me alone. So what I'm thinking is thus:  Mass Effect: Counterstrike (although Mass Effect: Incursion has a nice ring to it as well...) Set during ME1, but is not intended to cross-over in any major way. Minor ways, yes, but not major. All PCs are human and members of the Alliance military. This is non-negotiable, although a single government operative might be a valid character idea. Begin in media res with PCs aboard a crashing starship originally bound for Eden Prime (to lend disaster relief). Initial adventure sequence deals with characters first surviving the crash (hopefully), then determining the cause of the crash (Batarian slavers seems logical) and dealing with the thr

So, it's rapidly approaching and, to be honest, I really haven't written much of anything in a long time. In between running my various RPGs (Red Sky & Casus Belli), I've been fairly busy with work and just generally haven't felt like doing anything. That said, I really do need to write something and am thinking about trying to finish "Aspects of Silver," my psuedo-Heroic Greece (like) fantasy novel. It is currently about halfway done with the first two parts being 21,710 words and 31,194 words respectively. Part three was started but I petered out, although I do have the outline for both part three and four complete. Am still very proud of the very first line: Four years ago, prophecy died. Yeah. Think I'm going to try to work on that again ...

Went biking after work yesterday and managed the usual 18 miles. Looks like there's a 50% chance of thunderstorms on Saturday (boo!) and a 100% on Sunday ... wonder if I'll still be able to work in my (hopefully) 40-mile ride on Saturday morning? Have now entered the post-Casus Belli "scheduling" and planning phase but, as expected, I'm already struggling to get the players to actually respond. That means I'm likely going to get irritated soon and shift all of my focus onto Red Sky, my other game (the Friday face-to-face one.)

Good advice. Going to have to remember this when I get on the bike again Saturday for the (hopefully) 40+ mile ride.  Avoid Bonking on the bike with these easy tips

Managed to get in 18 miles on the bike this morning before I came into work so ... yay, me. Decided to bring my bike into work afterward so I could swap out my seat because ugh, the one that came with this Wal-Mart special is atrocious. Ideally, I should have gotten up a little earlier than I did ... or more accurately, I should have gotten out of bed before I did. Instead, I rolled over and went back to sleep for another thirty minutes or so, which resulted in me getting into work almost twenty minutes late. Something to work on, I guess.

Finished up my run for "season 2" of this campaign and have entered the hiatus period where I play and plan for the next "season" (or run my Friday game.) Recap for 2x13 is online and it was pretty decent overall, though I do wish I'd had more for the other players during the big duel at the end. This marks (I think) the first time with the Saturday group that we've actually had a PC death and honestly, even if it hadn't been planned, I don't know if the character could have survived. He had failed a death check already and was thus, mortally wounded, but the poison in his system was going to keep going for quite a while, so ... ah well. Now I'm on to brainstorming for season 3 and am wanting to change things up a little, mostly in regards to the PCs having more of an active role with regards to determining what they do next. Am already planning a 5 year timeskip and ideally, I'd like to emulate that cool war table thing from Dragon Age: I

Everything was fine until around mile 33, at which point my energy level nose-dived and it was a real struggle to finish up. Admittedly, got off to a bad start - the so-called crossover points around Riverside frankly kind of suck except for one so I ended up going way out of my way trying to get back on track and then ended up cutting through a muddy field. Observation: road bikes are not good in mud. At all. So my pace was way down and I don't think I every really recovered it (hence the crappy duration.)  Next milestone is 40 miles.

So, Saturday will be the conclusion of "season 2" of this campaign run and I'll (gladly) go into hiatus for a time. This will be 13 episodes, which is better than the 12 I'd originally planed but not quite twice. I had material for at least two more eps after this one (probably three or four given how the PCs prevaricate) so why stop now? In a word: death. One of the players whose character is one of the primary if not the primary driver of the story had an idea about killing off his PC for dramatic effect; he has said that he's been enjoying the campaign and will miss the character and I have no reason to doubt him (even though I've made more than a few missteps along the way), but he was completely right in that having this character die will radically shake things up. And, as luck would have it, this upcoming installment fits the story narrative for that perfectly. So, in an ideal world, we'll end at the normal time with his character's tragic and

Mmm ... Daisy looks awesome...not quite as enthusiastic about Ghost Rider being there, especially since its the crappy car version and not the awesome motorcycle one. Would actually like to see them facing off against some other alphabet agencies (AIM, for example) or maybe working to setup SWORD ...

Still working up to 30 miles, but this is definitely improvement. According to MapMyRide, I just burned more calories in that bike ride than I'm allotted to eat today ... and I rarely hit that limit. Providing my bathroom scale isn't lying to me, I've officially lost 32.6 pounds since I started this program. Very not bad.

Aliens? I hope so.

I am trying very, very hard not to lose my freaking temper with work. As the only actual QA person, that means I am persistently overloaded with crap that has to be done RIGHT NOW!!!!! but it just gets worse as a project nears completion. Right now, I feel like the guy in Office Space who has three bosses. Normally, I'm okay with this, but ugh ... today ... today, I just want to start hitting people with shovels because they keep freaking out over their pet project not being done, even though the bottleneck is generally on their end. And don't get me started on the ones that are using incomplete enhancements to the software and then are surprised when it doesn't work. "What? This project that you failed for not actually working and sent back to development that I delivered to my client is broken? I don't understand!" Ugh. I need a long, long vacation. Preferably someplace with a beach and plenty of beautiful women in skimpy bikinis.

Managed 26 miles on the bike yesterday and, if I'd really wanted to, I think I could have managed 30. Will probably try for that this coming weekend. Of course, with September coming up, I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do once winter arrives ... guess I will have to stop with the procrastination and join a gym. Related, my weight is currently down 27 lbs following said ride (so how much of that is lost water due to sweating, I can't quite say) which is pretty good since today is Day 78 of the "eat less, exercise more" regimen that has been paying off at least a few dividends. I don't personally think I look thinner but I am having to tighten my belt on my pants, so I guess I have lost a bit, On Saturday, I ran the ninth installment of "Casus Belli" season 2, which is two more than I ran last time we played this campaign. Recap is here . I'd planned for 12 sessions but right now, I'm thinking we may go a little longer, in which

Used my insurance's "roadside assistance" for the first time today. Didn't even realize I was paying for that. Had a flat tire and could NOT break one of the lug nuts free. The dude who showed up had trouble himself. Considering my car will be paid off in December and I've had this insurance for the entire time, I'd say that State Farm has still made money on this. Of course, I'm about to drop $300+ to replace three of my tires, so ...

I've needed to get my front driver side tire replaced for like 3 weeks now due to a slow leak and have kept putting it off or forgetting about it. Today, as I was leaving work, I heard a loud hiss and, by the time I'd backed into a decent spot, not only was the tire already flat, but I was grinding concrete. Fucking awesome. And then, of course, one of the damned lug nuts would not come off because my pseudo-lug wrench blows chunks. So tomorrow, I get to ride the bike into work, then borrow a co-workers lug wrench and change the tire. I have a terrible feeling this is going to cost me a lot of money.

What have I done today? Nothing. Well, nothing except watch football all day on the NFL channel. Am hoping this is the season where I can come back to the game instead of wanting to just turn off the tube. I still maintain that my idea for a football channel where all you hear is the sounds from the game and none of the irritating talking heads would make bonkers money...

Man, I am really looking forward to this.

Rewatched this movie last night and ... yeah. Still rather enjoyed it. The soundtrack by Daft Punk definitely helps as does how unbelievably gorgeous Olivia Wilde is as Quorra.

Yeah, that 21 & half miles on the bike yesterday is definitely kicking my butt today. Yowch.

Just shy of 22 miles on the bike this a.m. Woke up at 6 fully awake so I decided to make good use of it. Discovered that, theoretically, I could do 20 miles on the bike every day before work and still get in on time ... providing I wake up at 0600 every morning which ... pffft. I left the Army cause I hate that...

Am down just under 24 lbs today, so that's definitely progress. Huzzah!

Have been fairly quiet with regards to this - the last couple of weeks have been terrible for me in regards to actually getting up on time and I haven't done much biking, which freaking needs to change, dammit. Granted, I live in Oklahoma and we've been in the high nineties all this week, but still! On the bright side, my food plan appears to be working: I am officially down 21 point something pounds, so that's good news. And I still haven't actually pulled the trigger on joining the gym yet...

Kind of difficult to identify the era - it looks kitbashed from multiple different eras...

Recap for this session is up at the Portals site I spun up for this campaign . The next installment coming this week is going to start out with a 4 month time-jump and will involve the aftermath of the Battle of Crecganford ("Creeksford"), which took place in 457 and is a major defeat for the Welsh. Originally, I was worried about this since the problem with PCs is that they could drastically change the outcome, so instead, I'm going to kick off in the aftermath, following the defeat. That way, I can just say "The Saecsens (Saxons) kicked your ass and sent you packing." Skipping forward four months is also going to be interesting with regards to one of the PCs in the group as that character is pregnant. Honestly, never had a PC give birth in a game...

All week, I've been unable to get up on time so I could go biking before work (and then, it either rained or threatened to rain in the evening so I couldn't go after work either.) This morning, I woke up at 6 a.m. and was good to go. Started getting dressed... And it began to pour rain. Ugh.

Seriously. I guess it says something about how utterly uninteresting my life is that I forget to remark on it for long periods of time. What did I do yesterday? I worked, then I went home and played Dragon Age: Inquisition. The day before that ... I did exactly the same thing. Today, I expect I'll do it again as well. Right now, there's nothing on television that interests me. I look at what is in theaters and am unmoved. Latest nuTrek movie? I'll catch it on HBO in a couple of weeks. Jason Bourne comes out this week and my immediate response is why? What is left of his story? The 3rd Bourne flick was not as good as the second one, but at least it ended on a nice bookend, with Bourne once more floating in the water but now having reclaimed his life. Knowing that the director, Paul Greengrass, is a hardcore lefty, I fully expect this latest movie will be yet another anti-America screed disguised as a cool action movie. And Ghostbusters? No. Not no, but hell fuck no. I have

Wow. COLOR! THERE'S ACTUALLY COLOR IN IT! Joking aside, this actually makes me more interested in seeing the movie, unlike all of the trailers for Murderman v Mopeyman which just made me more and more wary with each new trailer that dropped.

Got up about 2 hours later than I intended to this morning, but still managed to get the biking in even though I very badly need to get one (or two) of my car tires replaced. Managed 16.44 miles today at just under 12 mph (average.) Wanted 20, but will try for that tomorrow. Weighed myself after the shower and I'm currently at 251 exactly, which is 19 pounds under where I was when I started this 48 days ago. So ... progress!

After the disaster that was Murderman v Mopeyman: Dawn of Mediocrity, I have low expectations for this while simultaneously hoping it reignites my interest in the DC movie universe (which is going to be a very difficult thing to do after that shitfest mentioned before.) Considering she was only of the only decent things about that movie, maybe there is still hope...I certainly have none left for Justice League.

Slow leak in driver's side front tire. Filled it up the other day and observed a large nail or something in the tire. Looks like I know what I will be doing on Saturday... Which sucks because I was planning on doing the biking thing that a.m. The problem I've noticed with the particular tire place I go to is that if you don't get there really early, good luck in getting the work done that day. And even if you do get there early, so many other people go there (because they're the best at what they do, sort of like Wolverine) that it may still take all day. Hmm. Maybe I should take my bike with me, then drop off the car and use the bike to go home? Nah. Too far away. Should take laptop and work on Saturday's Casus Belli adventure...

Wow. That was really, really good. Well done, Netflix. Well done indeed. It does make one wonder: what's the secret? Why is Netflix stuff so consistently good and the networks stuff such utter crap?