Undebtification Part One

My wife and I hit a good financial milestone over the weekend when it comes to my student loans. I had both private and federal loans; the federal loans made up about 20% of the total. And we managed to pay it off, which is most excellent. We had only starting paying up on it in the fall, and before then had mostly been doing the minimum payments. We estimate that, should we be able to continue paying up on the private loans at the same rate (which shouldn't be a problem), that we will be out of debt in less than two years, which is very exciting. Then, of course, soon after would come the much bigger debt of a mortgage, but first things first. And hopefully we can get a house before the housing market improves. :)

I found out a little bit of sad news last week at work. Jay, my boss, is leaving the company in early May. He hired me back in 2005, and was mainly responsible for rehiring me in January after I left and was subsequently let go from Priority Publications after a few months. He has been an excellent boss to work for, and he will be missed around here. I can only hope that his replacement (I believe they're hiring from outside the company) is as good, and doesn't have a completely different management style. Jay is rather laid back, and maintains the type of work environment that I feel comfortable with. But alas, we'll see.

LotD: R2D2 Projector. I may have linked to such a product before, but this link is for a video that really shows it off. It is pretty sweet. :)

Yes, I Am A Nerd

I have gone a couple weeks without working on The Lords of Sargoff. But this will be changing soon. I posted the first chapter on an online fiction critique message board and got some good comments on passive voice versus active voice, which I will be able to apply throughout the story.

In the meantime, I have been doing some thinking about my card game, Reclamation, partially because I am looking forward to some playtesting while in Columbus in May. There have been several changes to gameplay since I last playtested with the Columbus Coopers, and more changes may be in order. Here are some thoughts I have been considering. Those who care not about this game may skip to the bottom for the LotD, which is a double, since I missed yesterday. :)

1. Multiplayer. One of the advantages of having each deck have both Heaven and Hell cards is that having any number of players (even or odd) shouldn't be a problem. At the same time, I see the advantages of designing the game so each player either has a Heaven or a Hell deck. This, however, creates some problems when it comes to odd-numbered multiplayer games.

2. Wounds. I currently have wounds represented by cards placed under the character. I also have the characters arranged in a grid. The problem starts out when the grid is empty, and being able to determine exactly what spot in the grid a character is played to. I have considered having cards under a character to act as placeholders and help define the grid, by it would be messy for the placeholder and wound cards to coexist.

3. I have considering restructuring how the grid works. I designed the grid to emulate a battle formation. However, in the game, non-warriors and animals are in the grid. In theory, I could change it from a grid to a battle line, and have one line of warriors who actually do the fighting, and behind them (in the 'trench', where order or placement doesn't matter). In theory, I could then both do placeholder cards and wound cards for the warriors (wounds underneath, placeholders behind them on the playing surface).

If I do this, then each conflict will be between two characters, instead of a whole row. I see advantages and disadvantages to doing it this way. An advantage is that it makes it harder for an army to be mercilessly better than an opponent's, forcing that opponent to rebuild for a long time (less warriors). A disadvantages is that battle conflicts become limited to one character per side, taking away the fun of full column vs. column. That being said, there may still be other ways to initiate conflicts between larger groups. So, maybe it's not so bad.

It would simplify things, so characters are now simply 'adjacent' to each other, as opposed to also being 'surrounding,' not to mention diagonally, vertically, and horizontally adjacent. If I did this, I would also quite possibly raise the numbers when it comes to might (when most characters are might 2 or 3, a +2 might bonus is massive; if they are usually between 6 and 10, a +2 bonus is not as overpowerful).

That being said, the battle line and numbers change do cause similarities to Lord of the Rings, which I am trying to prevent.

LotD: Programatical Proposal. This guy tweaked a game to propose to his girlfriend.

LotD2: Geekiest Pants Ever. Yeah, that's a keyboard on his pants.

Sarah Marshall, Forgotten

I haven't really had a post about movies in a little while. So, here goes - a recap of some recent movies I've seen and a look forward to this year's cinematic offerings. Over the weekend, my wife and I went to see the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It was good and funny, though a step below the much funnier and more interesting Knocked Up. That being said, by far, the best new movie I've seen within the past six months, at least, is Juno - while not as uproariously funny as Knocked Up, is still very humorous, more genuine, and better written and acted. It is also quite a bit cleaner, as Knocked Up is one of the biggest fans of the f-word that I've ever seen; Juno is also the only one of these three that does not include someone removing their clothing.

Looking forward, here are nine of the movies that I have interest in that are coming out in 2008, ranked in order (from highest to lowest) of my interest in them. Includes the release date. It is practically guaranteed that I will be seeing at least the first five of these in the theater.

Harry Potter And The Half-blood Prince (11/21)
- Each one has gotten better so far, in my opinion. This will only the third time ever (after Order of the Phoenix and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe) that I read the book prior to seeing the movie.
The Dark Knight (7/18)
- Batman Begins was an excellent reboot to the Batman franchise (that being said, I believe I've only seen one other Batman movie - Batman Forever). I am very excited to see this one, especially for the Joker.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (5/16)
- While not up to the same level in fantasy as Lord of the Rings, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was an excellently entertaining film, and has me wanting to go back and reread the books.
Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (5/22)
- More Indiana. How can this be a bad thing?
Iron Man (5/2)
- I had never heard of the character of Iron Man before a year or two ago. But the trailers look good.
Wall-E (6/27)
- More from Pixar = Good.
Get Smart (6/20)
- I watched the series a good bit when I was younger.
The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor (8/1)
- While I haven't really seen all of The Mummy Returns, the first movie was great.
The Incredible Hulk (6/13)
- I thought the first Hulk from a few years ago was rather good, but this is a completely fresh and new reboot of the series. Could be better, could be worse.

Ye Olde Rustbucket

First off, I have submitted my application for TEC 72, and I ordered the teams as Support, Wheat, and Kitchen. I am already excited, though the application deadline isn't for over a month. :)

My automobile is getting old. For those not in "the know" of my car, it is a 2000 Chevy Cavalier that is coming dangerously close to 175,000 miles. While it is still running just fine, at that mileage, who knows how much it has left in it. And a big repair would finish it off, because the car is simply not worth putting any fair amount of money into.

The newest sign of the car's age is a growing rust spot on the side underneath the passenger door (see image), which had me a little concerned, as I didn't know if that was all of the rust. I looked underneath and I didn't see any other big rusting, so that's good. Next time I take it in for an oil change, I may request that they take a quick look and tell me if there's any serious rust anywhere on the undercarriage. Cause that'd be a bummer. It's been a good car (I've had it for 5 1/2 years and thus far put nearly 127,000 miles on it), and it shall be sad when it goes away. But then again, I (we) get to buy another one then. :)

Double LotD: Warcraft Movie, and rumors concerning a possible Everquest movie. Ah, crazy times we live in. :)

Wheated

Well, here I am, back from the wonderful weekend that was TEC 71. Working on the Wheat team was definitely a different experience that working Support, but both are amazing. It was rather interesting, being at a TEC weekend, and yet not doing the normal Support things. This is the part of the blog entry where I make fun of the Kitchen team for not providing plates for Thursday night's meal. And here are a few highlights (of which there were many).

Talks - It was interesting to actually watch the talks, as opposed to only hearing them during the team meetings. I noticed as the weekenders become more and more interested in the talks as the weekend went on. The talks were all very good; the most powerful being (in my opinion) one that described in detail the crucifixion of Christ. It was similar in effect to watching The Passion of the Christ.

The Champion - It had been nine years since I'd seen it last, and being there during practice and the actual performance was amazing. The weekenders cheered and booed as the battle happened. It was perfect.

Table Commissioning - First experience with table commissioning since I was a candidate ten years ago. It was rather interesting to see the differences in the tables, and watch the tables do a little guessing on YTL.

And of course, I always enjoy the activities of Saturday night.

Now, the main question is: What am I going to apply for for the next TEC? Whatever it is, they should have my application by the end of the week.

LotD: Star Wars Urban Photography. Star Wars characters in modern day urban locations. Pretty well done too, but click on the image to get one that's bigger for best results.

The Art of Bowling Badly

Last night, my wife and I went out to eat at The Hunan Restaurant in Bloomington. It was a new place, and we had a coupon. :) It was pretty good, and I did enjoy my shrimp in lobster sauce. Neither of us finished our meals, and took some home as leftovers. From there, we went bowling, which was the first time I'd gone bowling in nearly two years, since the night before the wedding. So, how did I do bowling for the first time as a married man? Not so good. :) We bowled three games, and my scores were 90, 90, and 72 respectively. I started off the first game with four straight gutter balls. Yeah, that's right. I then switched to a different ball - one that was lighter - and went with the spin-the-ball approach, which worked better. But, alas. We both love to bowl, and it is a pity that it has been so long (though Megan beat me in 2 of the games. She has bowled a few times with her crazy kids at work.) :) Good fun anyway. I shall do better next time, assuming we don't wait until 2010. :)

Anywho, I brought my leftover shrimp in lobster sauce to work for lunch. As I was getting out of the car this morning, I evidently tipped the box a little, and proceeded to pour lobster sauce onto my pant leg. It was a good way to start off the morning. :) Ah, well.

Well, here we are. The TEC weekend starts tomorrow, and I am very excited, and of course, a little nervous. We seem to have a great Wheat team, and I look forward to working with them and getting to know them better. And of course, most importantly, to be part of making a difference in the lives of the candidates (errr.... weekenders).

LotD: Robot Sommelier. Can "taste" wines (without opening the bottle) to determine its ingredients and what would go well with it. Since I don't drink, this would be of no use to me, but I think the technology is impressive.

The Big Two-O-O

This is my 200th blog entry. Very exciting. I suppose this should be accompanied by some big celebration, but then again, that would just be silly.

Anyways, my big excitement for the day is all food-related. First off, I get to eat ice cream cake here shortly (thank goodness for other peoples' birthdays). And tomorrow, I'm ordering myself a pizza and, in doing so, am being rather adventurous - the pizza will be half anchovies. I may not like that half, but we shall see. I've never had anchovies before, so this will be interesting.

The second and last TEC meeting is on Sunday, and I am pretty excited. Then I will be off to the weekend itself next Thursday - six days from today. Holy cow. Where does the time fly to? I am excited for the weekend and being a Wheatie. On a side note, I bought some Wheaties the other day in preparation. Yeah, I'm good to go now. :)

And, just to clarify a previous post, I have not lost my job a second time. :)

LotD: Massive 20 Sided Die. In memory of Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons & Dragons, who died in March. This tribute is on the campus of MIT, no less.

Fifty Grand

So, The Lords of Sargoff hit 50,000 words today, which I find to be rather exciting. Through extras and chapter splitting, it now has 20 chapters. And yet, I need more. :) Like, 20-30,000 more words. I need more description, detail, characters, and events. One thing I've noticed (I think this is right, anyway), is that the story is pretty tight, as in, the characters zip around from place to place and there's little room to add other events. But alas, I will see what I can do. :)

LotD: The Star Destroyer Project. I want one.

Version 2

I have uploaded to the LoS site the newest version of The Lords of Sargoff. This version is just over 48,000 words, by my count making it approximately 200 novel pages in length. I would still like to add more. I have fixed several wording errors (thanks to everyone who has given input!), as well as plot holes. This doesn't, of course, mean there are no more errors or plot holes (or that the plot holes I've tried to fix are 100% perfectly fixed). If you happen to read it again (or for the first time, depending on who you are), please feel free to send me any comments or suggestions, or criticisms. I'd love to hear them.

Skip the next paragraph if you don't care about the names of characters in the book. :)

There are some names that will likely be changed. This includes the names Inevidens and Vidricks. I have considered renaming Lord Hamrin and/or Lord Arien, as I'm not sure they are "dark" enough names for dark lords. I had been considering renaming Jothan, but that name has grown on me. His father, Nothan, will certainly be renamed. Then I have the issue of having a character named Vylon and one named Vython; the names are rather close, and one of them will likely be changed. Finally is Cymor, who I like the name, but may change the spelling (Symor, Psymor; can also add an e to the end - Cymore, Symore, Psymore). I kind of like Psymore, maybe.

I have accumulated quite a list of link of the days. You get an extra one today because I didn't include one in my last post.

LotD: Flying Saucer House. It's certainly unique.

LotD2: Starfleet Bridge Illustrations. See into the bridge of a wide variety of ships from the Star Trek universe.