Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms

Well what do you know. A new post not even a year and a half after the last one. 

World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting

Forgotten Realms Campaign Set

I have been on a bit of a nostalgia kick of late, and pondering two of the classic TSR campaign settings. Specifically two of the three to come out of AD&D 1e, namely Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms. I’m not sure why I’ve never viewed Dragonlance in the same vein as the other two, perhaps because Dragonlance was so tied up in a seemly all consuming story that just left less room for personal adventure. Or perhaps because TSR just never published as logical a starting place for Dragonlance as Greyhawks’s World of Greyhawk folio followed by the gold box World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting in 1983, or the gray box Forgotten Realms Campaign Set in 1987.

Modern me enjoys and appreciates both settings a great deal, but if you were to force me to choose one, I’d come down on the side of Greyhawk. This hasn’t always been the case. As I’ve stated here before (even if years before at this point), I got my start in the hobby as an 8th grader in 1990 in the early days of AD&D 2e, and I quickly became a bit of a Forgotten Realms fanboy. 

 A steady diet of Dragonlance fiction paved the way to adding the Forgotten Realms fiction into the mix. If memory serves the first two FR novels I read were Greenwood’s Spellfire, and Salvatore’s The Crystal Shard. Whatever else you want to say about TSR’s Forgotten Realms novels of that era, for me they certainly did a fine job of demonstrating how both adventure and adventurers had a place in the Realms. And did so without going the Dragonlance route of tying nearly everything to a massive campaign event, be it the current version of the event (the war of the lance as shown in the original trilogy and the DL series modules), the first version of that event (the first war of the lance with Huma and co.), or the aftermath of the event (the post war stuff, including the Legends trilogy which did the double duty of telling us the fates of Caramon and Raistlin while simultaneously presenting the history of the cataclysm). In any event fairly early on in my gaming journey (some time before the AD&D 2e version came out in 1993), I picked up the gray box, and tried to figure out how to make use of it. 

 I initially found the World of Greyhawk to be a bit silly. I was at that time completely unaware that any Greyhawk novels existed, so I didn’t have the in to it that I did with the Forgotten Realms. Also in those days my only sources of information about products was almost exclusively the pages of Dragon Magazine, and the Wargames West catalog (to a lesser extent the adventures in Dungeon Magazine suggested products I might want to consider picking up as well). The realities of TSR at the time meant a definite bias towards the Forgotten Realms. My knowledge of European political structures and how they changed from the middle ages into the 1500s, 1600s, and 1700s was rather lacking, so the idea of independent baronies, counties, and duchies outside of a kingdom seems strange and laughable to me. So all the various Ulek and Urnst states just confused me. My first major Greyhawk purchase was the 1988 Greyhawk Adventures hardback. It didn’t really help sell me on the setting. I also didn’t begin to collect all the classic 1e era modules set in Greyhawk until late in the life span of AD&D (and the majority were only picked up after the advent of later editions of D&D), so I didn’t have their legacy to stoke the fire of any Greyhawk fandom in me. 

 My opinions on Greyhawk began to change in the latter half of my high school days (probably in 1993). It was the Carl Sargent penned From the Ashes box set (October 1992) that started me down the road to appreciating and even preferring Greyhawk. Reading the history of the Flannaess and seeing a seeing a logical enough reason (perhaps not good enough to survive contact with an expert in geopolitics or history, but more than good enough for a lay person wanting a logical-ish fantasy gaming world) for the campaign world to exist as it did, dramatically changed my opinion of Greyhawk. 

 I went off the college in the fall of 1994 and entered my golden age of role playing (at least in terms of frequency). And I didn’t make much use of either setting. I used the specialty priests in the Forgotten Realms Adventures hardback (1990), but that was hardly my only source of AD&D 2e specialty priests. I did continue to pick up products for both settings. It wasn’t until D&D 3.0 that I finally set a campaign in the Forgotten Realms. I don’t remember much about it, aside from vague sense of being disappointed at how it went. For Greyhawk I didn’t actually acquire the gold box until sometime in the mid 2000s (before 2008 and 4th edition). And it wasn’t until the 4e days that I set a campaign in the World of Greyhawk when I translated the U1-3 modules from AD&D 1e to 4e (with some prep work ahead of time, but largely on the fly at the table). My memories of this campaign are much more favorable. 

 I think I’ll be continuing this soon, with thoughts on how the ‘83 gold box and ‘87 gray box compare to each other, and how useful I find their contents.

Happy Halloween - Let's Talk D&D

 Sadly this will be in no way, shape, or form Halloween related.  

Dragon Mountain

I keep turning over in my mind this idea of using both Dragon Mountain and Return to the Tomb of Horrors in the same D&D campaign.   Both are box sets published by TSR back in the 1990s for Advanced Dungeon & Dragons Second Edition.   Dragon Mountain was for levels 10-15 and featured the planes hopping mountain lair of a red dragon, plus the investigation leading up to finding the mountain.  Return to the Tomb of Horrors had suggest levels 13-16, but the one time I played in it the party was comprised of 20^th level characters and the adventure still seemed challenging.  So I’m thinking whatever level a party ends up at after Dragon Mountain ought to work just fine for Return to the Tomb of Horrors.

 

I foresee a few different issues.  I don’t currently have a plan for getting a party to 10^th level to start Dragon Mountain.  Depending on the group I could certainly have them start as 10^th level characters, but I wouldn’t want to do that with relatively inexperienced players.  If I do start them at 1^st or low level, then I’ve still got to actually get them to 10^th level, a not uncommon stopping point for many campaigns, before we can even start my apparent goal of this campaign. Then I’ve got to figure out how to transition from completing Dragon Mountain an adventure that really does feel like a campaign climax, to but wait there’s more here comes Return to the Tomb of Horrors.  Also I’d likely want to run this in 5^th edition, and both of these are definitely 2e adventures. 

Return to the Tomb of Horrors

 

I love the idea of Dragon Mountain, but there are some details I’m not in love with.  The whole first third involving investigating the Mountain and obtaining the needed plot coupons to move on (if I recall correctly a map and a game breakingly powerful magical amulet) has some issues.  The plot hook seems really weak to me.  A dude in a tavern is telling a story about a plane hopping mountain with a dragon horde in it, the adventure assumes the party will naturally want to talk to after hearing this tale.  Even assuming you get 10^th level characters to bite on this hook, the most obvious and logical path forward (the storyteller’s old adventuring companion who the storyteller explicitly identifies to the party as having been to the mountain ) is a red herring.   I’m not saying don’t use red herrings, but maybe give the party a win or two to get them good and committed to this investigation before dropping a false lead on them. 

 

I have some issues with the starting town as well.  I’ll concede these are mostly minor nitpicks that few players would either notice, or care about (but I’m definitely one of those few).  The starting town was supposedly founded (and the adventure assumes the party will learn all this as it has the above storyteller drops all this background on them before ever getting to the dragon treasure bit) by a guy running a ferry at a strategic waypoint on a trade route.  Then the founder managed to offend a powerful wizard who dried up the river to teach him a lesson.  And that is the why the town is in its current shape when the adventure starts, an otherwise unremarkable pseudo medieval fantasy village next to a dried-up riverbed with a rotting dock and ferry.  That just makes me wonder, if the river has been gone long enough for the dock and ferry to start rotting, why is this town not abandoned?  If the river has been magically dried up, why does the region map in the adventure show the village on the second biggest river in the region?  If this is supposed to be a waypoint on a trade route, why is the village not actually located between any two points of interest on the map (it mostly just looks stuck out of the way on the map, river access not withstanding)?  I know I’m probably overthinking this. 

 

I have also played with many players who would immediately latch on to this dry riverbed and wizard story as the plot hook and doggedly pursue it completely ignoring anything about a mountain with a dragon horde in it.  And frankly in most the actual campaigns I’ve run, that would be fine.  Generally, I don’t have any specific goal in mind for the players, I just throw stuff at them and see what they get interested in and expand on that.  I have no doubt I could come up with numerous sessions worth of content regarding a party learning how to and then actually fixing the river.  It’s just the point of this exorcise is I want to run a specific adventure here.

 

Then we get to the actual dungeon part of Dragon Mountain, and the main opposition the party would

face before getting to the dragon. . .  Tucker’s Kobolds (from a Dragon Magazine issue 127 editorial by Roger Moore).  There isn’t anything wrong with Tucker’s Kobolds in principle, when implemented by a GM/DM that knows what they are doing.  When it works, the DM remembers that monsters (even ones weaker than the party) want to survive, they want to win, and they know the place they live in much better than the PCs.  So it’s just a question of the DM running the monsters in a devious, tactically smart manner that takes advantage of the monster’s natural strengths and knowledge of their home turf.  However not every DM is all that tactically sound (I certainly don’t think I’m any kind of tactical genius), so the danger of Tucker’s Kobolds comes in two extremes.  When implemented poorly, either the much stronger party repeated steamrolls the weaker monsters (less of an issue in 5e where numeric advantage can be a great equalizer, but still a real possibility when the monsters always fight on the PCs terms), or the party has to suffer through a seemly endless barrage of DM fiat, unavoidable damage, all the other little power trips used by a DM to keep a party in their place (because otherwise the stronger PCs would just easily defeat the weaker monsters that again aren’t fighting intelligently).     So while Tucker’s Kobolds can absolutely be done well, I just don’t know that I’m the DM to do it justice. 

 

On the plus side the adventure does a pretty good job of giving you some ways of differentiating between the different kobold tribes in the mountain, and provides a handy chart of which tribes are allies and which tribes are rivals.  A canny DM could certainly make sure the party gets this information, and intelligent players can get a lot of millage out of exploiting different factions inside a dungeon. 

 

On the other hand, although I haven’t yet reread it to the same extent that I’ve been looking at Dragon Mountain, The Return to the Tomb of Horrors doesn’t seem to have as many issues.  So far, my biggest complaint is I’ll need to rename Moil the City that Waits to something else.  The problem is, and I’ve witnessed this in action as I’ve been a player in a campaign using this adventure, the presumed pronunciation of Moil, is quite similar to the presumed pronunciation of mohel.  In the campaign I was in every damn time the DM mentioned Moil, the flow of the game ground to a halt as the next two-three minutes was made up of various players (and I probably joined in) making circumcision jokes.  Every damn time.  I need to keep looking over the adventure, I have no doubt I’ll find other things, but for now it’s just I’d need to rename the city where much of it takes place. 

Surprise Post after a "Brief" Hiatus

 

Hello from 2022.  So been awhile hasn’t it?

 

I make no promises of any future posts, but really quickly here’s what I’ve been up to.

 

I moved from Saint Louis Park to Eden Prairie, and from Eden Prairie to Saint Paul.  I’m still at that job I had just started back in September of 2011.  I greatly enjoy it.  After working eight years as a telephone operator in rural Minnesota (which wasn’t a bad job at all), and spending however long I spent working for CPP (a company that doesn’t even exist in the US any longer) trying to convince people to not quit their identity theft memberships they signed up for on their random credit cards, I find working for a company that manufactures actual useful physical products to be amazing. 

 

We mainly manufacture and sell variable-frequency drives and related products.  I started in customer service and a few years back moved to technical support of all things.  It’s great.

 

I still play WoW off and on (I tend to come back for an expansion, play a bit at the start and again a bit at the end).  I still play City of Heroes (thank you Homecoming) off and on.  I play the odd other video game off and on (Final Fantasy XIV for example) as well.

 

Still role-playing.  Ran a second BESM campaign set in Nayado using BESM 3^rd edition that ran for five years.  Enjoying D&D 5^th edition quite a bit, trying to DM when I can, and playing in a campaign as well.

 

I still watch the odd anime here and there.  Still read the odd comic book.  Still do most of the same things as before really.

Totally lost that game of chess back in 2011, but I'm far to lazy to go digging around in old Facebook posts to find the moves.

 

Until next time.

Nutshell

So you may have noticed, I haven't had much to say here in the last few years.  So the brief overview of my geeky life:  I've stopped playing WoW, I've resumed playing City of Heroes, I've obtained a Wii (but I don't use it very much), I still enjoy tabletop RPGs, I plan on running a new BESM campaign soon, I got a new computer, I changed the OS on my old computer to a Linux distro (Linux Mint, plus dual-booting my main computer to Kubuntu alongside the Windows 7 it came with), I'm still watching anime (but not as much as I used to), I've rediscovered my love of Doctor Who, and I'm currently engaged in a game of chess over Facebook.   For any who care less about my geeky hobbies, but may be curious about my personal life in rough chronological order:  I left Onvoy, I moved from Morris to the Twin Cities, my father died (October 19, 2008), I floundered around a bit working some jobs that weren't very good fits for me,  my roommate moved to Vermont, I paid off my car, I became unemployed, I remained unemployed for far too long, and most recently (as in this week) I started a new job that I am extremely excited about.

So that's been my last three years or so in a nutshell.

Now to keep me honest, the breakdown of the Facebook chess match with my friend Joel:

             Me                   Joel
             White               Black

 1.         e4                    e5
 2.         Nf3                  Nc6
 3.         Bb5                 Bc5        (Ruy Lopez, countered by the classical (Cordel) defense)
 4.         c3                   Nf6
 5.         d4                   exd4
 6.         e5                   Ne4
 7.         O-O                dxc3
 8.         bxc3               d5
 9.         Nd4                O-O
10.        Nxc6               bxc6
11.        Bxc6               ba6
12.        Qxd5              . . .

I leave you with an amusing video found on CollegeHumor (the ending veers into NSFW territory YMMV):

It's the best day ever tomorrow!

I don't imagine it is that terribly hard to find amusing videos on YouTube. I just don't generally have the patience to go look for them myself. Fortunately for me I have several friends who are very good at finding them.

A fair warning, the following is probably NSFW do to language reasons (I guess you all know your respective work environments best, but just so you can't say I didn't warn you).  In any event this was originally uploaded to YouTube by bishopvids.  Enjoy.

My gift to you.

I felt like sharing some positive feedback. So here you go.  To anybody that has done something good:

 And to anybody that I like:

 

 You may now return to your regular Internets. . .

How to Give a Surprise Post

Basic Instructions

I'm not sure why I keep forgetting how funny this web comic is. I really should read it on a regular basis. To be fair the list of things I should do on a regular basis probably has a few more important entries than go read this excellent comic, but that doesn’t lessen the fact I really ought to add it to my list. For some reason it always make me think of an old coworker of mine from the days I worked at Onvoy Voice Services. With that non sequitur out of the way, I disappear back into the void of no updates I emerged from.

And again

Just to reestablish the primacy of my geekdom:

Out of the blue

As much as I identify myself as being a geek, there is still a healthy dose of nerd in me. I found this link very interesting:

Math is not linear on Prezi

Comfort Food and Short Work Days

As it turned out I only had to do a half day at work today. I’m about 75% thrilled, 25% annoyed by that. I am generally always happy to get out of work early, especially on a Friday - by all means let my weekend get started Friday afternoon instead of Friday evening. However there is a small part of me that cannot quite stop thinking, “I couldn’t go home and see my family for this, a stinking 4 hour day at work!” It’s not like I didn’t think there was a halfway decent chance some people would get to go home early, of course there was no guarantee I was going to be one of them, so I couldn’t really make any plans around it. If I had known for sure, I could have had my laundry done, been packed, had my car’s oil changed, and been ready to leave the cities straight from work. I had a few fleeting thoughts about quick tossing some clothes in a bag and hopping in my car for the seven hour trek back home anyway, but in the end I decided I really probably should make sure I have something to wear to work next week, and I suspect my roommate would appreciate having the dishes be washed when he gets back to the apartment on Sunday. So instead of a road trip, I’m blogging.

I realize looking over yesterday’s post I perhaps came out sounding just a bit more pathetic than I’m actually feeling. I didn’t spend the day sitting in the dark, drinking alcohol, and weeping over missed turkey dinners or any similar activities. I had a perfectly enjoyable time playing a few video games, and listening to the Theft of the Dial marathon on The Current. I also implemented the first step of my “Make This Weekend be About Comfort Food Plan” I had come up with earlier this week. I started things off pretty simply, I went with tomato soup and grilled cheese for supper. I have not had either for years, and I’ve been craving tomato soup for the last month so all in all it was an excellent substitute for the nonexistent turkey dinner leftovers.

I was about halfway to my car after getting off from work when a new step two dawned on me. I very quickly placed a to go order for some fettuccine alfredo, and a bowl of chicken and gnocchi soup from the Olive Garden down the street from my office. I’m probably going to have to rethink my supper plans however; I had planned on deciding between Annie’s Shells & Real Aged Cheddar, and Annie’s Shells & White Cheddar. Again something I haven’t eaten in years (I used to pick them up at the food co-op back in Morris), but I don’t think I’ll eat two pasta dishes on the same day. I may go with cooking up a half cup of rice (probably with some chicken or vegetable broth added for flavor), and one of those individual servings of chicken cordon bleu you can get out of a store’s frozen food section (strangely enough one of the few times I’ll willing eat ham). Alternatively I may have to go with a baked potato, the point is I have plenty of options.

Enough about food, and enough blogging, it is time for me to decide between (or probably more accurately choose an order for) anime, manga, movies, and video games. Surprisingly I have to report as a dark horse possibility I find myself actually tempted to go out shopping. This would be pretty unusual behavior for me as a basic rule-of-thumb I try and avoid retail on Black Friday (and really for as much of the Christmas shopping season as I possibly can), but for some reason I keep thinking that a trip to Best Buy, and Barnes and Noble could be rather fun.

Regardless of what I end up doing today, I bid you all a good Black Friday however you choose to spend it - be it sane or otherwise.

Another Bachelor Thanksgiving

For the second Thanksgiving in a row, I’m hanging out alone at my apartment. In many ways it is just as depressing as it sounds. I would prefer to have made the seven hour car trip to South Dakota to have Thanksgiving with my family, but as I have to work tomorrow that was impractical.

Like last year I went to my local Perkins to eat. Their turkey dinner is passable, certainly not in the same league as a proper Thanksgiving spread with friends and family, but nothing really to complain about. It certainly made me feel thankful for the Thanksgiving meals of my youth (probably not the feeling Perkins would like to invoke). Mostly it was seeing all the children there that made me feel that way. While you can spend an enjoyable time with family in most any setting, I was still quite glad I never had to settle as a child for a trip to a restaurant instead of getting an oven roasted turkey with all the accompaniments.

The alternative to my trip to Perkins, and this weekend I may still end up doing this, would be preparing the bachelor Thanksgiving meal. I did this once while I was still living in Morris. The main ingredient is picking up a broasted turkey breast from a grocery store. Everything else is just selecting what sides to go with it. When I did it in Morris, I went with carrots, potatoes, stuffing, and gravy. I boiled the potatoes and carrots until they were just shy of being done, and then arranged them around the turkey breast in a baking pan, I added some turkey broth to supply a little moisture, and finished cooking them while I was reheating the turkey in the oven. The stuffing and gravy were sad compromises as the gravy came from a jar (I shuddered while typing that) while the stuffing was made on the stove. All in all a tastier, if more expensive option then a meal at a restaurant, but it does have the benefit of leaving leftovers.

Happy Thanksgiving all.

ZOMG E-mail Fraud

I received a Nigerian Letter via e-mail today. This amused me a bit, and got me to thinking, "have I ever received one of these before?" After some thought I have to say to my best recollection, I have not. Or at least I haven't received one that didn't get caught by a spam filter and get deleted without me ever knowing of its existence.

For my own particular letter the "bank" in question is located in South Africa and not Nigeria, but a scam is a scam is a scam regardless of where the con men claim the fictitious money is located. Were I to actually contact the sender of this e-mail, all I'd get for my foolish greed is somebody trying to get me to give up my bank account information and/or wire him money. In honor of me getting my first Nigerian Letter scam (at least the first one I've actually noticed) I'm posting a copy of the actual letter (I did blur out the e-mail address just in case someone takes this seriously despite the fact I've done nothing but talk about how it's a fraud).

Procrastination defeated? (plus less Wednesday annoyance)

I have this bad habit. Well truthfully I have several bad habits, but the one I'm thinking of is I tend to borrow anime and manga from my friend Dan, and then ignore it. This is a pretty silly thing to do, because I only borrow the things I'm interested in either watching or reading, yet I still do it. I don't believe it has anything specific to do with Dan, quite honestly I behaved in much the same way when I last had Netflix. My latest movie would arrive in the mail, and I wouldn't watch it. I think what happens is I start thinking of the borrowed item as something I need to watch (or read) and then return ASAP, so I subconsciously equate the borrowed media with a chore, and not as something fun I'd like to do. Procrastinating chores is as natural as breathing to me (perhaps a small bit of hyperbole there).

I bring this up because seemingly out of the blue the other day I started reading Monster again. When I first borrowed Monster from Dan (probably almost a year ago at this point) I read and really liked the first volume right away. Over the next month I very slowly read volumes two and three. Then I stalled out on four. Two nights ago, I picked volume four up again, and finished it off. Volumes five and six quickly followed, and last night I devoured seven. I have every intention of reading eight tonight, and keeping up with my pace of one or two volumes a day until I finish this off, and return it to Dan. It is among the best manga I've ever read, so beyond my little theory outlined above, I have no clue why I haven't finished this off months ago.

I have a few general observations about Monster. Finding redemption for past mistakes and/or wrongs seems to be a poor survival tactic in the universe of Monster. I'm quickly losing count of the number of characters who while trying to make up for their past sins are killed either by Johan or somebody connected to him. Only slightly less deadly would be choosing to either directly or indirectly help Tenma on his quest to stop Johan. Of course the absolutely most deadly job in the world of Monster is being Johan's foster parents, chances are quite high that any character introduced as being such, was already dead when introduced to the story.

As per my usual Wednesday ritual I watched the newest Kimi ni Todoke this morning before work. Since this was the end of a story-arc I did go to work much happier today then I did the last two Wednesdays. Granted I'm still impatient for more episodes, and I strongly suspect that future Wednesdays will leave me in much the same state as I described last week, for now I'm satisfied (well mostly, did I mention I'm impatiently waiting for more episodes).

One of the nice things about living in the cities as opposed to being back in Morris, is I'm once again able to watch anime with my friend Dan. This last weekend we finished off Ghost Hunt (third time through that series for me, first time for Dan). I've mentioned Ghost Hunt here in this very blog after I'd finished watching it the first time. I like it, I wouldn't have suggested Dan watch it if I didn't think it was quite fun. It is however not perfect. I have a few minor quibbles here and there, and one fairly large complaint with one story-arc right in the middle of the series. That arc features both a really bad case of plot induced stupidity (well technically I guess TV Tropes would call it Contrived Stupidity, but I've always liked the sound of the former better), and a troubling blow to ones suspension of disbelief (we are supposed to believe a body left basically in the open at a church remained unnoticed for 30 some odd years). That little two-episode arc aside, it remains an enjoyable series that is well worth watching.

Returning to an old blog tradition I return to the Monster theme and leave you with the following amusing picture.

Oh Patience, how you vex me

It's not that I'm incapable of restraint, I'm just not, in general, built for patience. I tend towards being impulsive. I prefer my gratification to be of the instant variety as opposed to the delayed kind. I admit this as a preface to the snapshot of my last two Wednesdays.

On both days I woke up earlier then usual, and checked the Internet to find that, huzzah, a fansub of the newest episode of Kimi ni Todoke had been released. I happily started the download, and went off to do my usual shower, and get dressed and ready for work routine, just like every other weekday morning. Upon completion I settled down and started watching the newest episode. And both times it was joyous, and both times I loved watching it, and both times when it was over I started swearing to myself because I now had to wait an entire week to watch the next episode. I have gone to work the last two Wednesdays very annoyed at that fact.

One would think that since I own the first two volumes of the manga, and already know what is going to happen next, I wouldn't be so impatient to watch the next episode. One would think that seems reasonable. Sadly one would be very much incorrect in that thought process. This is why I like watching anime that is already complete, and I have full access to; I can stop when I want to stop, not when I have to stop. So to reiterate, delayed gratification – not my strongest suite.

Of course now that I've admitted all that, I have to say I've shown what I think is pretty excellent restraint and patience on the Beatles front. I didn't go all crazy and buy all of the remastered CDs in one fell swoop. I have been steadily buying them in reasonable batches, and have only the Magical Mystery Tour, and Yellow Submarine left to get. I'm probably going to use this as an excuse to pick up Let It Be... Naked as well. Ultimately I opted to get the Wii version of The Beatles Rock Band, buying an Xbox 360 for the sole purpose of playing Rock Band proved to be a bit too excessive. Although as I stated last time, I'm now going to have to buy a Wii at some point in the future when my roommate and I stop being roommates. But since that is some undefined point in the distant future, I can live with that.

For the record, I'm really loving the new CDs, and yes I can hear the improvement in sound quality between the two versions.

Happy Beatles Day

I’ve spent the last half hour or so flipping back and forth between a few different pages on Amazon.com trying to decide if I should buy all the reissued Beatles music separately, or if I should just buy the box set. I’m waffling a bit. Do I really need to buy this music again? I mean I already own it. And do I even have stereo equipment good enough to be able to hear the difference between the original CDs and the remastered ones?

As for the answers to these pressing questions - no I don’t, strictly speaking, need to buy them again, however I really, really want too. Also, technically speaking here, I don’t actually own all of the original versions of the CDs that have been remastered (just most of them). The final point is perhaps the most valid concern. The audio equipment I own, while by no means horrible, is still a far, far cry from anything that would of even moderate interest to a true audiophile. So I am a bit concerned that I wouldn’t actually notice any real improvement in sound quality if I were to buy these again.

The other, perhaps even more ridiculous, purchase I’ve been pondering is The Beatles Rock Band. Now the last time I bought a gaming console it was a PlayStation, so I’d first have to buy either an Xbox 360, a PS3, or a Wii, and then buy the game version that came with the instruments (using the term instruments pretty loosely here - specialized controls might be more correct). I could get by with just buying the Wii version (again the version with the instrument like controls) since my roommate already owns a Wii - a workable and less expensive midterm solution. Sadly it has an obvious flaw, it is unlikely that my roommate and I will continuing living together for the rest of my life (not that we have any immediate plans to stop being roommates, but at some point I imagine one of us will do something like get married or get a job in another state or some such thing). This would create a future source of awkwardness when I’m eventually forced to steal his Wii when he stops being my roommate (admittedly I could at that point just buy my own, but that is less dramatic, and thus less fun to ponder scenario).

Decisions, decisions. I suspect there is about a 50-50 chance I’ll be the part reluctant, part proud owner of an Xbox 360 by the end of the month.

Real Vampires Don't Fricking Sparkle

A quick glance to the left will show that I read a fair number of web comics (although truthfully I should edit that list and remove a few that I no longer really pay much attention too). Most of them have some sort of front page blog/news feed (or some other way of letting readers know what is going on with the creator (or creators)). It is a bit hit or miss as to which ones I pay attention to. However as luck would have it while reading Red String last week, I did come across a link to a delightfully funny comic called Bite Me! Well worth the hour or so it takes to read.

Random Musings from Work

There is something kind of sad about the last two hours of work, mostly in how long they seem to last. Instead of focusing on something constructive, like work, or one of the numerous things I really need to take care of, I find myself concentrating on all the things I'd rather be doing. The top of that list in no particular order would be playing WoW, playing City of Heroes, watching anime, or reading. My top four not withstanding, I've come to the conclusion I have quite the talent for finding things to do that aren't constructive. Actually it is a wonder I ever get anything done.

OMG Stealth Post from work

I think it is an interesting facet of human nature that after just one slow Friday where I got to go home early from work, I find myself actually feeling putout that I don't get to go home early this Friday. I mean really, how dare they keep me at work for the fully scheduled duration to do the job they hired me to do for the agreed upon financial compensation.

Baseball

I went to a baseball game today. It was the first one I've been to in something like 20 years. God it was fun. I'm definitely going to have to go to some more games. It didn't hurt that the Twins won, and Blackburn pitched a complete game - he even got to within one out of a shutout.

Figures it would be baseball that would get me to post something again after almost a year's absence.

Moving sucks

Well all kinds of things have been going on with me. Sadly I don't really have time to tell you about them, as I need to be moving to my new apartment in the Twin Cities. I'm not 100% sure when I'll have regular Internet connection again. I might have it as soon as tomorrow, or it might not be until August.

My move isn't even close to the biggest thing on my mind these days, but it is the thing I need to be focusing on at this time. So I bid you adieu until I'm settled into my new place, and I have Internet again.