Confessional

12:46pm: Scion: Industrial Evolution Part II
Hello, all!

This weekend was a lot of fun, though thoroughly exhausting. Friday night saw a much livelier and more successful session of Scion: To Every God His Day, which put our heroes on the cusp of their next great extra-planar adventure (check below the cut for a full account). I spent Saturday morning catching one of my secondary characters up in Dragon Age. In the afternoon I went to Ed McKay's Used Books and actually managed to find the first two volumes of the Invincible comic series, rounding out my collection nicely (I have 1-7 now). That evening I took a break from Dragon Age and just relaxed, read a bit, and watched a couple of movies with the new Netflix streaming PS3 system while The Wife played Vampire in High Point. Sunday we were back to Dragon Age (sensing a pattern here?), playing both an alt and a main for a while before segueing into Mutants and Masterminds that evening... which also included vampires, now that I think about it. Oh, and sprinkled liberally throughout were large dollops of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which became available as DLC for The Beatles Rock Band last week.

( Industrial Evolution, Part Two )

Confessing Honestly,
Mike

11:28am: Age of the Dragon
This is a self-indulgent post about my current obsession, Dragon Age: Origins.  If you have no interest in fantasy RPG video games, then you shouldn't click on the cut below, but rather should just watch this video:


If, on the other hand, any part of the phrase "epic fantasy video role-playing game" piques your interest, you should click on the cut and hear what I have to say.

( My Dragon Age Characters )

Confessing Honestly,
Mike

2:50pm: Scions and Dragons and Bats, Oh My!
This weekend was a whirlwind of dizzying highs, disappointing lows, and creamy centers.  Our bi-weekly Scion game started a new story with a somewhat mediocre session (I blame no one but myself), but see below for the write-up nonetheless.  Most of the rest of the weekend was spent playing the beautiful and addictive new videogame called Dragon Age:  Origins (with a little Batman:  Arkham Asylum on the side to keep things interesting).  I've now played five of the six possible beginnings in this game, and my main character - a female human noble warrior named Dierdre Cousland) is well into the meat of the game proper.  I've had fun running the gamut of character types, from the honorable and kind Dierdre to the self-serving wizard named Thomas (physically patterned after another wizard by the name of Tom Riddle, don't you know), to the poor elf laborer named Finn, who is kind and noble to his own people but harbors a deep resentment towards the humans who destroyed his life.  Sunday night we got back to Mutants & Masterminds, wherein our group took down a demon-possessed illegal clone and the super-powered madame of an illegal brothel (Necessity got to take out the madame pretty much on her own, which made me happy).

( Industrial Evolution, Part One )
Confessing Honestly,
Mike

3:44pm: Garbledina...
Didn't do much pen-and-paper gaming this weekend; two players had to miss Scion on Friday night, so we called it off until out next scheduled game.  I played a lot of Fallout 3 to fill the void, and managed to finish the first of the expansions, Operation: Anchorage.  It was a nifty little simulation of a "historical" battle, in which American forces fight to liberate the city of Anchorage, AK from the invading Chinese.  It was nice to feel like part of a squadron for a while, but the real reason to play this expansion is for the awards.  The Gauss Rifle is incredibly powerful, General Jingwei's Shock-Sword is a must for any melee combatant, and the Chinese Stealth Armor is a game-changer for snipers like yours truly.  With that suit equipped, I was able to take out the entire encampment at Evergreen Mills without suffering wounds from a single returned shot.

On Saturday, The Wife, The Kid and I went to the zoo with three good family friends, and a good time was had by all.  Okay, so it rained pretty heavily for a while, but that was mostly when we were in the cafeteria, so it's all good.  Though The Kid exclaimed over the lions and zebras and elephants, they maintained an aloof distance, and he seemed more impressed by the playful otters and seals than anything else.  We got him a plush otter on the way out, and named it Harry.  (Get it?  Harry Otter?  Yeah, even I feel bad about that one).  Later that evening it was dinner for five at a moderately-priced Italian restaurant, with good food and good conversation making for a very pleasant evening.  Though The Kid showed remarkable fortitude and resilience (he missed his nap on Saturday), he finally conked out on the car ride home from the restaurant, and only barely woke up when we changed him into pajamas at home.

On Sunday I played more Fallout, though the frequent game crashes eventually frustrated me to the point that I have put it away for awhile in favor of Brutal Legend (I'll come back to it in a week or two, I'm sure).  The Wife and I watched Across the Universe that afternoon, and quite enjoyed it.  While the cast's renditions of classic Beatles songs will never equal the majesty of the original recordings, the skillful way in which the songs' lyrics were laced together into a story, and the innovative use of choreography and camera-work made for a pretty decent flick overall (Bono's trippy rendition of "I Am the Walrus" stands out as a high point of the film).  Then we played an enjoyable session of Mutants & Masterminds in which our intrepid heroes attempted to break up a powerful prostitution ring.  Though I'm confident we'll succeed, the session had a definite cliffhanger ending.

Oh, and between it all, I've been playing the hell out of the Abbey Road DLC for The Beatles: Rock Band.  "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is my current favorite, but "Polythene Pam/She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" is a close second.  :-)

Confessing Honestly,
Mike

10:20am: No Longer Footsoldiers...
On Friday night, our intrepid TEGHD scions gained a point of permanent Legend, bringing them one step closer to true divinity, and though they eventually found and stopped the one responsible for the chaos in Chicago, what's done can't be undone.  Check out the full story behind the cut below.  On Saturday my old Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles group got together to finally beat that game goddammit.  Though the old skills came back to us pretty quickly (about a dungeon and a half of practice saw us right as rain), the evening was ultimately an exercise in frustration, as the thing we thought was the final boss wasn't.  We beat the "meteor parasite" handily, with only one of the four of us losing a single life in the process.  The secret follow-up boss, Raem, was ten kinds of pain in our collective ass, and thanks to the time-consuming and frustrating segments leading up to that final-final boss fight, it'll probably be at least another 5 years before we tackle him again (though I admit, I'd sort of like to re-make the caravan and start again from scratch, as that game is a lot of fun if you've got a good group of four playing it).  Sunday was a fun-day; we went out for breakfast and discovered many new things at our local bookstore (new Astro City paperback!) before tackling a giant robot assassin in Mutants and Masterminds.  Between Tommy's magnetic grapples and mad gun skillz, Mike's disintegration rays, and Necessity's solid steel punch, we took care of the nasty AI rather handily.

( Odin's Boys, Part II )
Confessing Honestly,
Mike

11:46am: Tangled Up In Blues
Hello, all!

Beneath the cut is a side-story about Thomas "T-Bone" Walker, my character in baronsamedi 's Scion: Petro game.  Enjoy, if ye've a mind to do so.


( Tangled Up In Blues )

Confessing Honestly,
Mike

10:48am: Odin's Boys, Part One

Great Weekend!  Friday saw the first session of a new two-part story in Scion; my second attempt at a humor-themed story in this campaign.  Adam Wednesday from baronsamedi's Petro campaign guest starred... details below the cut.  On Saturday, I beat Fable 2 with a "good" aligned character... and because I chose the "good" ending, I ended up sabotaging my chances of continuing certain quests after the credits rolled.  I've started an "evil" character, and am about 1/3 of the way through already with him.  Saturday night was the final session of Iron Star, which ran late into the evening but provided a very satisfying conclusion to the story arcs which began literally years ago.  Since the last two sessions of the campaign were held at our place, I got some nice closure for the Dennis character (whom I've been playing in one campaign or another, off-and-on, for about ten years now).  Sunday's session of Mutants & Masterminds was cancelled, as the GM had other pressing issues, so The Wife and I took the opportunity to call it an early night.  As of this morning, it doesn't seem to have helped.

( Odin's Boys, Part One )

Confessing Honestly,
Mike

EDIT:  I have been reminded, much to my chagrin, that I forgot to take advantage of a perfectly good opportunity to humiliate Brent.  Embracing the Superhero subculture, at the bank he began referring to himself as "The Great Briton."  Unfortunately, his enthusiasm fizzled when, later, other characters began calling him "Big Ben," or even "The English Muffin!"

9:34am: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit...
September 22 was the shared birthday of Bilbo (b. 2890) and Frodo (b. 2968) Baggins, before they departed the shores of Middle-Earth and sailed to the Undying Lands in the west.  Yesterday, September 21, was the anniversary of the original British release date of J. R. R. Tolkien's first novel, The Hobbit in 1937, which has long been among my favorite books.  I'll raise a glass to Bilbo, Frodo, and the Professor tonight, and I hope you'll do the same.

And remember... "do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."

Scion this Friday; I'll write more about the first session of "Odin's Boys" next week.

Confessing Honestly,
Mike

10:21am: Scion and Sleuthing
Hello, all!  I am working on very little sleep right now due to a combination of a late-running game session (we stayed up talking for about an hour after the game actually ended, to be fair) and my own insomnia, but I figured I'd go ahead and post the weekend summary as per usual, seeing as how it's been a whole month since the last one.

Friday night was a lot of fun; my Scion players breezed through Mictlan and managed to rescue Hector's soul in just one session (more on that behind the cut, as always).  We also got to try out vocal harmonies in The Beatles: Rock Band, which is a lot harder than one might assume.  But I liked the system enough to pick up two more secondhand USB microphones on Sunday so that we'll be prepared to try it again in the future sans loaners.  On Saturday, the Wife, the Kid and I went to the fair, where we spent too much money on fried foods and got to see lots of chickens, rabbits, goats, llamas, camels, and ponies.  We eschewed the rides this time, as everything was more expensive than we'd planned for.  That evening, we had dinner with most of the Scion group, and filled Hector's player in on everything that had gone into his rescue.  Sunday was spent browsing used bookstores until the evening, when we played Mutants & Masterminds.  I really enjoyed the session, as Necessity got to do some real detective work using her mental and social skills; her superpowers really only came up in an incidental way at the very end of the session.  Oh, and Dominic and Tommy got to take down a radical catgirl animal rights activist, which is always fun.

( Dias de los Muertos )
Confessing Honestly,
Mike

1:44pm: Both Fab AND Gear!

Okay, so yesterday (09/09/09) was the official resurgence of Beatlemania, and I was not immune.  All of the Beatles albums were remastered and re-released to stores in digipacks that mimicked the original album sleeves.  The only problem was that our budget allowed us to pick up only one album from the set... and how do you make that choice?  Do you go for an early album like Please Please Me?  A great choice; aside from the title track you get some great early rock anthems like "I Saw Her Standing There," "Love Me Do," and "Twist and Shout."  Or do you go for a later album like Abbey Road?  The Beatles at their trippy, experimental best, with classics like "Come Together," "Octopus' Garden," and "Here Comes the Sun."  In the end, I settled on Rubber Soul, a transitional album which reminds me of mowing the lawn with my Sony Walkman as a teenager (I was a weird teen; I rarely listened to current stuff).  I'm sure I'll pick up the other albums gradually over the next few months anyway... I've never owned the original Beatles albums on CD, instead picking up compilations like the Anthology series and the Past Masters albums.  And it's high time I rectified that.  This stuff is going on my iPod PDQ.

So, as I obviously love the Beatles, I also picked up The Beatles:  Rock Band yesterday (hence the budget issues mentioned above).  Click on the cut for my feelings on this musical milestone.

 

( Totally Gear, Mate! )

Confessing Honestly,
Mike

11:53am: Plrz Glrb...
In the words of Joss Whedon, "There's No Place Like Plrz Glrb..."

I am that tired.  The Wife, The Kid and I had a lovely four-day weekend in North Myrtle Beach, staying first at a very ritzy seaside high-rise hotel, complete with indoor-outdoor heated pools, in-room jacuzzis, and a private beach.  Our room turned out to be a suite, so The Kid could sleep in the living room while The Wife and I took the bedroom.  We spent the last day of our vacation at a rented beach house a few miles up the shore, in one of the last undeveloped stretches of beach in South Carolina.  We stuffed oursevles with seafood, hung out with the family, and went shopping at the discount outlets (got a nice new leather coat at what amounts to 84% off of retail price).

Yesterday, however, was an unmitigated disaster.  Driving back from the beach, we expected Labor Day traffic, and we were not disappointed.  Three hours into our trip, at about 5:00, we were a scant 50 miles from Wilmington... not quite half-way home, in other words.  That's when the car broke down (as it turns out, it was nothing serious... just issues with overheating and a lack of engine coolant, but we had no idea what the trouble was at the time).  Since we were stuck on the shoulder of I-40 in the rain with a very upset 17-month old, I dialed 911 and was put through to the Highway Patrol.  Four hours and countless phone calls later (including a few from my aunt, a recently retired police dispatcher), the cops finally arrived.  The officer in question was very polite and apologetic, and helped us to fix the car's problem with a stop-gap solution, but we were understandably frazzled at being stuck in the rainy, 80-degree-plus weather for so long without food, water, or bathrooms.  My father arrived a few minutes later, having driven up from Myrtle Beach himself to render humanitarian aid, and the four of us drove back to Greensboro in a two-car caravan, arriving home after midnight to grab a few hours of sleep before returning to work today.

But that's not what I wrote to tell you about.  I'm finally finished with reading Star Wars novels for a while.  Click on the cut to get my thoughts on the Legacy of the Force series (spoilery, but nothing that hasn't been spoiled a thousand other places on the net already).

( Legacy of the Force Review )
Confessing Honestly,
Mike

10:19am: Beowulf & Wendel, Session Three
The Fall semester is ramping up, so things have been a little hectic around here (hence the late post regarding Friday night's Scion session).  The weekend was fun.  On Friday we wrapped up the Beowulf & Wendel storyline in TEGHD, with some surprising results... check below the cut to get the whole story.  On Saturday I really got into Fable 2 (I am a master blacksmith in that game), before Iron Star got started at our house, allowing me to reprise the role of Dr. Dennis McSweeny for the penultimate session of that game... always a pleasure.  Sunday was more Fable 2 (not only do I make the swords... I chop the wood, too), capped off with a great sophomore session of Mutants & Masterminds, in which Nessie got to use two of her alternate forms for the first time (fire and air) and we began to get the hang of that system's unorthodox combat rules.

( Beowulf & Wendel, Session Three )
Confessing Honestly,
Mike

12:57pm: There's No Place Like Home
Took the weekend off so that we could visit the In-laws.  BEING in Connecticut was a lot of fun; we got to see the family (and the family's dogs) and take in a few sights like Gillette Castle.  Actually DRIVING to and from CT was Hell-In-A-Bucket.  The trip took a few hours longer than usual each way due to the Kid's presence, and he was not happy with being strapped into a car seat for thirteen hours (twice).  not an experience I would like to relive any time soon.

The Wife and I took Monday off so that we could recover from the return trip.  We played Rock Band, went out to lunch to celebrate our eighth anniversary, and took in a flick.  The flick was G.I. Joe:  The Rise of Cobra, which I had resolved to see even though the commercials made it look like utter crap.  I was pleasantly surprised by the end result... though admittedly, that was probably because my expectations were so very low going in.  The film was dumb fun, much like Sommers' earlier Mummy franchise, and was actually not too bad as long as you're willing to suspend your belief in little things like the way matter and energy interact in the real universe, and the details of human interaction.  I still liked it better than Transformers, anyway.  And they made the requisite references to the 80s franchise with lines like "knowing is half the battle" and "a real American hero."  Hell, they even referenced the 60s toy line by mentioning Heavy Duty's "kung-fu grip."

Now it's back to the salt mines for four days.  This week's Rock Band DLC is a whole mess o' must-haves (Gorillaz, Janis Joplin, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, etc).  Scion:  To Every God His Day is Friday night.  I'll post a summary here early next week.

10:14am: Beowulf & Wendel, Session Two
Man, I have got to start sleeping on the weekends!

As per usual, Friday night was reserved for Scion:  To Every God His Day, which went "swimmingly" well even without Maria's player present (though of course he was missed).  More on that behind the cut.  On Saturday, I played a lot of Lost Odyssey and picked up two new games while the Wife went off to play Iron Star (most of the video game playing took place after The Kid went to sleep, of course).  Taking advantage of a Gamestop coupon, I picked up Oblivion for the PS3 and Fable II for the 360, and am thoroughly enjoying both... though I'm a little frustrated at my own lack of skill with Oblivion's combat system.  I also watched the first epsiode of the second season of 4400... Summer Glau as an insane girl with superpowers?  Who'd have thunk it possible?  Sunday, while Lexie's player babysat The Kid, The Wife and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was, in my opinion, the best made film of the series so far (at least from a cinematic point of view).  That evening, we played Mutants & Masterminds, wherein our characters laid the groundwork for their Security business and got their first true case... I'll let you know what happens with that after the next session.

( Beowulf & Wendel, Part Two )
Confessing Honestly,
Mike

12:05pm: Weekend of the Damned
This past weekend was a lot of fun.  I took Friday off work to prepare for the Rock Band party, and ended up doing yardwork and cleaning the house for about eleven hours straight... meaning ironically that I worked much harder than I would have had I gone to work.  It was worth it though... the yard, kitchen, living room, hall, and front bathroom look as good as they have since we moved into the house.  One of our guests stopped by a little early (about 15 minutes after I finished cleaning) and helped me out with the Drum Trainer.  With the two of us working together, we managed to knock out all 76 of the sample beats at 100 bpm, thus earning three trophies... two for the Drum Trainer and the coveted "Complete Discography" platinum trophy for earning all 50 of the other RB2 trophies.

We had about 15 people show up in total for the evening, and a good time was had by all.  There was no downloading of tracks this time, though our existing library of about 280 songs might have had something to do with this.  Rob Zombie's "More Human than Human" was a popular track this time around (I played drums on it once... fun track!), as were "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)" and "All I Want" by the Offspring.  We actually managed to gold star a song with a full band for the first time on my console... four people all playing or singing "Hungry Like the Wolf" on Expert level, and all performing significantly over the 5-star level.  Though people trickled out starting at about 10:00, we kept enough of a crowd to keep playing until nearly 2:30.  It was a blast!

Saturday saw the Wife and I thoroughly exhausted, of course, but the Kid was having none of it.  He's walking (and sorta talking) now, and he's really doing a lot to keep us on our toes.  I had dj_yomi 's Star Wars game that evening, so there was no rest for the wicked.  The game was a lot of fun; we got into our first full-scale space combat at the beginning of the session, and found ourselves in a major "quest hub" by the end, where we were forced to decide what our next course of action would be from a list of eight options.  There were some disagreements about that, but in the end we came up with an equitable compromise.

Sunday was baronsamedi 's Scion: Petro game, which saw the end of the current "Hod & Seek" storyline, and our characters' elevation to the next level of Legend.  We're top-tier demigods now, and the next major boost will see us into the ranks of the lesser gods.  We achieved this elevation in legend through a massive, nigh-endless combat against wave after wave of powerful foes, which only ended when Beowulf himself showed up to see what was going on (there was many a "I'm here to kill your monstah..." comment from the players, and at least one reference to the fact that he was free to help us because the characters in the TEGHD campaign were taking care of Grendel at the moment).  It was a massive, stellar session, and a fitting end to an epic storyline in which we acted to prevent Ragnarok.

And now another work week.  Frankly, it's almost relaxing to be back here after so much fun...

Confessing Honestly,
Mike

9:55am: Beowulf & Wendel, Session One
This weekend was fun in a harrowing, strung-out kind of way.  Friday night was the beginning of a new story in the To Every God His Day Scion campaign, and I think it went relatively well with only a few minor hiccups.  You know the drill... click on the cut below for the full account.  Saturday was mostly spent playing the Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition on the new Xbox 360, followed by quality time with the Kid and a late-night viewing of Terry Gilliam's Tideland to cap off the day (wow... talk about dark and disturbing films).  More monkeys on Sunday - I finally got all of the acheivements - leading up to the "prologue" session of a new Mutants and Masterminds campaign, which went quite well with a minimum of dice-rolling... though it ran until about 2:00am, which is why I'm kind of a wreck today.  :-\

( Beowulf & Wendel, Part One )

Confessing Honestly,
Mike

9:56am: The Six Faces of Grendel
So, for the past week or so, in preparation for the upcoming "Beowulf & Wendel" storyline in the Scion:  To Every God His Day campaign, I've been researching various versions of the saga of Beowulf.  As the players' most immediate foe is the Troll-beast Grendel, I have focused most of my attention on this fascinating monster.  Click on the cut below for a few of my thoughts on the various portrayals of Grendel, and on the conclusions I have drawn about how he should be portrayed in my game.

( The Six Faces of Grendel )
Confessing Honestly,
Mike

2:18pm: Scion: Dark Truths
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

10:43am: Areocracy, Finale

The three-day weekend was an interesting mix of hectic and fun.  Despite the absence of Hector's player, the Friday night "To Every God His Day" Scion group managed to make it through the final chapter of the Areocracy storyline, and began to gather the first hints of the upcoming Beowulf & Wendel story (more on all of that below the cut).  Iron Star was cancelled on Saturday, so the Wife got to spend an evening with the Kid and I, and we waved sparklers around in the backyard like loons before going to bed early and sleeping for nearly eleven hours straight (yay!).  This left us more than prepared to stay up late for the final session of Changeling, in which our characters all came very close to death... and one of us became trapped in the Hedge for the forseeable future.  But hey, we managed to see the story out in style, with none of us compromising our principles and all of the innocents getting rescued.

I've been racking up the trophies on the PS3.  I finally managed to get the "Flawless Drumming" trophy for Rock Band 2 by getting 100% on drums on "Charlene" by Stephen and the Colberts on the Expert difficulty setting.  I'm proud that I didn't have to resort to downloading "Polly" by Nirvana for that one; that would have just felt like cheating.  The next day (which I had off work), I completed the Endless Setlist 2 on Expert Vocals, earning me the "Gold Artist" and "Platinum Artist" trophies.  I managed to get through most songs without having to restart, but "Rob the Prez-o-Dent" and "Shackler's Revenge" gave me fits (giving me just one more reason to hate the new Guns 'n' Roses stuff).  In Fallout 3 I've been giving the game a second run-through, this time playing as an Evil character.  Being bad is fun, and gives the game a whole new feel.  I've already killed someone by slipping a live grenade into their clothing during a pickpocket attempt (earning me the "Psychotic Prankster" trophy), and I'm well on my way to completing the sole quest that is only for Evil characters.  Plus, Tess' pickpocketing skills have already earned her Eulogy Jones' bright red zoot suit, which just looks awesome on her.

Now, on to the game...
( Areocracy, Final Session )

Confessing Honestly,

Mike

2:20pm: The End Is Not the End

I finished Fallout 3 last night, after completing all of the possible main-line and side-quests, achieving level 20, getting all 20 bobblehead collectibles, and killing all five Super Mutant Behemoths.  Suffice to say that the end of the game is fairly... definitive in nature, and I'll be interested to see how Bethesda manages to continue the storyline when "Broken Steel" comes out for the PS3 in about three months (without giving too much away, I personally hope to see more of "Liberty Prime").  I have truly enjoyed playing John Staff, my good character (based on a Hell on Earth character played by victor_von ), and am looking forward to seeing how the game differs when you're playing an evil character.  I'm thinking of making a high-Charisma female "Black Widow" style stealth-sniper at the moment.

Which reminds me... The Wife and I killed a black widow spider that had made its home under the rim of our outdoor recycling bin yesterday.  Brrrrr.

To recycle a reference I've already used at least twice in this LiveJournal... "Good News, Everyone!"  FOX has officially signed off on an order for twenty-six new episodes of Futurama, to be aired as two thirteen-episode seasons beginning in mid-2010.  This is exactly what most of us had hoped would happen in the wake of the direct-to-DVD films.  Don't get me wrong; the movies were great in a water-to-a-starving-man sort of way, but the "bigger is better" mentality of the ninety-minute format sort of took away from the intimate nature of the half-hour series.  Here's hoping that a return to the original format will spell more classic episodes along the lines of "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings."  Congrats to Groening, Cohen, and the rest of the crew for staving off cancellation a second time!

This weekend is Adventure!, Star Wars, and Scion:  Petro.  I'll post more when I've more to post.

Confessing Honestly,
Mike

2:21pm: A Break in the Routine
No Scion this week, owing to the fact that Maria's player will have a booth at HeroesCon, and I'm not about to run the final confrontation with the man who wants to kidnap Maria's twin children without that character present.  In a happy coincidence, this also frees up the family to visit my folks on the coast.  We'll have three generations of Walker men together for Father's Day, and we'll actually be able to spend some time with the Kid rather than just picking him up from Day Care, driving him home, giving him dinner, and putting him to bed.

The announcement that the Fallout 3 DLC packs will be released on the Playstation 3 platform (at freakin' last) has inspired me to play the game a bit more lately (as in, "I haven't gotten to sleep before 1:00am in the past three days").  My "good" character has now completed about 75% of the main quest and all but two of the side quests, and I've started working on earning some of the more esoteric trophies.  Last night I killed the last two Behemoths, giving me my second-ever gold trophy on the PS3.  I have 16 of the 20 collectible Vault Boy Bobbleheads so far, and only 3 terminals shy of the hacking trophy.  Once again I am staggered by the sheer scope of this game.  I have logged more than 100 hours with this character since December, and I'm pretty sure I haven't even discovered half of what the Capital Wasteland has to offer.  That's okay, though... in order to get all of the trophies available for this game, I'll have to play through the main storyline at least twice more.

Tonight, I will download the Evanescence track pack for Rock Band 2, and there will be much rejoicing.  The Spinal Tap track pack is still in the "maybe later" category for me... mostly because it's almost all stuff off their new album, rather than songs from the movie.  And with only one more session in baronsamedi's Adventure! mini-campaign, it might be time to start planning a third Rock Band party...

Confessing Honestly,
Mike

10:17am: Weekend Update

This past weekend saw us getting back into the swing of the gaming thing.  Rather than four cancellations for Scion on Friday night (as happened with the previous scheduled session) everyone showed up, and we were able to bring Areocracy one step closer to its conclusion... which will probably come with the next session.  Click on the cut below for full details.  Saturday our cable was out, so when The Wife went off to play Iron Star, I booted up the computer and caught up with Spectacular Spider-Man online... after putting The Kid to bed, of course.  On Sunday we downloaded a couple of tracks for Rock Band ("Pride and Joy" by Stevie Ray Vaughan and "Under the Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers), and I played my "Hard" level band all the way through the vocal challenges before the rest of the gang showed up for the penultimate session of Changeling.  Looks like we're in for a tough fight in the final session of that campaign!  This morning The Kid moved up from the Older Infants to the Younger Toddlers room at his daycare center.  He was confused and frightened by the new surroundings, and did not want The Wife or me to leave him there with these strange big kids.  It broke my heart... but he'll probably be used to it by the end of the day.

( Areocracy, Part Four )
Confessing Honestly,
Mike

12:41pm: Are You Not Entertained?
( What I've Been Up To )
Confessing Honestly,
Mike

10:21am: Unusual Weekend
Well, Scion didn't happen on Friday, due to four unconnected cancellations (Out-of-Town, No Reason Given, Close-Friend-With-Minor-Head-Trauma, and Illness).  So it ended up as just The Wife, Lexie's player, and I sitting around and making small talk for awhile.  Though I would have liked to have gamed on Friday night, this was nice, too... we had WALL-E netflixed, and none of us had seen it, so we gave it a shot.  I enjoyed it, though I did not think it was the best thing Pixar has ever done by a long shot.  Honestly, the short film Presto made me laugh a lot more in eight minutes than WALL-E did in an hour and forty minutes.

It is also possible that the fact that we were home-invaded by THE BIGGEST FREAKING WASP IN THE UNIVERSE during the movie might have diluted my enjoyment of the film.  I have a phobia regarding bees, wasps, yellowjackets, hornets... whatever.  This one was the size of my thumb, and not at all afraid of us.  Lexie's player killed it with my shoe.  It's head popped off.  It continued to twitch for minutes after death.  I could swear I heard it shout "there can be only one!" as we flushed it down the toilet.  I shuddered and twitched involuntarily every few minutes for the next two days.

This did not stop me from attempting the Endless Setlist 2 on Rock Band 2 while The Wife went to play Iron Star on Saturday evening.  This was an exercise in frustration.  I easily made it through the first 81 of 84 songs, with only a few 4-star hiccups amidst the 5-star performance.  I even made it through "Battery" with 4 stars, and completed "Bodhisattva" for the first time by saving overdrive until I really needed it.  Then came "Visions" by Abnormality.  I played that song 12 times, and never got past 25% before failing out.  I was going to post a link to a YouTube video of the chart for that song, but I could only find it on Expert level, and I was only playing Hard.  I went back later and beat the last two songs on the Endless Setlist 2 ("Panic Attack" by Dream Theater and "Painkiller" by Judas Priest) individually... so "Visions" is my only remaining hurdle at this difficulty level.

Sunday was Changeling, which was a lot of fun, as we faced a near no-win situation against a marauding, glamour-eating snake creature.  After the game, many of the players remained behind and we discussed the finer points of character creation and combat for Mutants and Masterminds, which will be our next campaign with that group.  I have a character fully fleshed out in my head - an amnesiac named Necessity Harris who can mimic the properties of any substance she touches - but need to put numbers to her in the soon.

Monday was Memorial Day.  The Wife and I didn't actually get the day off of work, but as The Kid's daycare was closed, we took it as a furlogh day and enjoyed ourselves.  The Kid got to play in the inflatable pool his grandparents got him for his birthday, and after some initial trepidation, he had loads of fun splashing around and throwing inflatable beach balls at us.  While he napped (or went shopping with The Wife), I picked up Fallout 3 again and finished off the "Agatha's Song" quest.  I had been told that Vault 92 was pretty much empty, and that I could just waltz in and pick up the Soil Stradevarius.  I was misinformed.  King Mirelurks, man.  Freakin' King Mirelurks.  Luckily, I had found the Alien Blaster on the way in, so Star Paladin Cross and I managed to make it through in one piece.  Now I'm rounding up Nuka-Cola Quantums for a crazy chick named Sierra...

Confessing Honestly,
Mike

9:00am: Back to Rock Band
Yesterday was my annual Performance Evaluation.  Despite increasingly tight budget constraints and a few minor issues with the job, I was not fired.  I cannot tell you how relieved I am by this; it's a scary time to be a government employee.

On the other hand, if I had been fired, I would not now be working in a 90+ degree office which is slowly filling with toxic fumes.  They're doing work on the gymnasium that is below and adjacent to our office suite, and conditions are unpleasant.  When we inquired about possible solutions to this situation, we were cheerfully informed that the work "should be done by the second week of June."  Then they'll start resurfacing the gym floors.  Sigh.

With the TV season over, The Wife and I have been catching up on our Netflix viewing in the evenings.  We just finished My-Otome, the follow-up anime series to My-Hime.  Erm... weird.  Lots of lesbian undertones (and overtones).  I don't have a problem with that per se, but it's a little awkward when the characters in questions are 14 year old girls.  Also a disturbing level of affection between a young girl and her adopted father.  The main story is pretty good, and a lot of the characters are quite likeable, but I could have done without a lot of the bizarre relationship stuff.

With that out of the way, I picked up Rock Band 2 again last night.  I haven't been playing it as much lately, and it's nice to see that my skills haven't atrophied too much.  The Wife and I downloaded the Alice Cooper 6-pack, and played through all six songs on Bass and Guitar (I went back and sang three of them later).  I'm still playing on the "Hard" difficulty setting, and this was a challenge, as half of this pack was at the "Impossible" level of difficulty for guitar.

"Poison" is a lot of fun to play.  "I'm Eighteen" is a little repetitive, but not bad.  "School's Out" is also a lot of fun to play, but not as fun to sing as I had imagined.  The other three songs I had never heard before, but discovered that I quite liked them ("Billion Dollar Babies" in particular was a favorite of mine).  Now if they'd just put up some tracks from "The Last Temptation" I'd be thrilled.

I went on to play a few other Impossible songs, just to test my limits.  I made it through "Battery" on Hard for the first time (82%, just shy of 4 stars).  At the Wife's insistence, I tried "Blackened," and made it through that one as well.  My streak ended when I got cocky on "Bodhisattva" and didn't save my Overdrive for the final solo.  Once I muddle through that one, and try "Visions" and "Panic Attack," I will have made it through every song native to Rock Band 2...

Looks like it's time to contemplate the Endless Setlist 2 on Hard at last.

Confessing Honestly,
Mike