The Lehigh Valley’s annual Celtic Festival is underway in Bethlehem, which means that most of my friends chose to drink, eat and listen to great music rather than game.

That said, two of us were still able to get a little gaming in, namely a playtest of the new Halo ActionClix collectible miniatures game from WizKids Games. That provided a lead into even more Halo, as I fired up my newly-purchased cpy of Halo 3 and tried (and largely failed) to get into match making with my Geezer Gamer clanmates.

Hallmark's released their Winter 2007 ornaments, so it's time to warp ahead to the future of this year's Geek Tree. I have my eye on three new ornaments, two spawned by Star Trek and and Joss Whedon's Firefly.

The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival 2007 will be held October 5-7 at the historic Hollywood Theatre in Portland, Oregon. It will include eight feature films, 13 special guests, discussion panels, world and regional premieres, There will also be Lovecraftian vendors, multiple door prizes, and more than 20 short films.

Tickets are $12 per day per person on Friday, $15 per day per person on Saturday, $15 per day per person on Sunday. Advance tickets can be purchased at http://www.hplfilmfestival.com.

According to the organizers:

The 14th annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival shall prove to be our most exciting festival yet. This year we have some great films lined up along with thought provoking discussion panels and compelling live events."

There's a new print edition of Cosmic Encounter on the event horizon. According to Peter Olotka, Cosmic Encounter designer at Future Pastimes, a new edition of the game will be released by Fantasy Flight Games in Summer 2008.

Prepping for Issue #1 of Infinity Storm didn’t leave me with enough time to write a Game Day column last week. This week though, I’m back in the player’s seat for our ongoing Ravenloft campaign.

The campaign’s got a few new tricks up its sleeve, mainly a whole slew of deadly effects from Paizo’s GameMastery Critical Hit Deck. Meanwhile, a box was waiting for me when I got home from work, and in it was the gaming goodness I’ve been looking for: my review copies of Halo ActionClix.

In "For the Good of the Settlement" by Vonnie Winslow Crist, readers find that vigilantism and frontier justice is nothing new, but not every conflict is solved at the end of a gun.

In other SpaceWesterns.com news, the site is looking to publish web comics; check out the submissions page for details.

The Libertarian Reform Caucus seeks to change the Libertarian Party into something more pragmatic, more moderate, more relevant and ultimately more effective. Exactly how much more moderate is a subject of considerable debate, both in the libertarian community at large, and in the essays featured on the site.

The Cosmic Cup had live jazz tonight (with my boss on drums, so I stopped by with the kids for coffee, hazelnut chocalate gelato, and good music. We didn't stay long -- Jordan was tired after a big day at preschool -- but the kids seemed to enjoy it, and it was a great break from the regular routine. Luke really liked it, and spent half the time bouncing up and down on my lap, smiling at my friends, and occasionally pretending to be shy.

All in all, a good outing -- I hope Troy hosts more live music and other nighttime events this semester. On a related note, he's got a new post up on his blog so stop by and show your support with some comments (which will hopefully inspire him to blog more frequently).

This brand-speaking new Radio Active promo talks about the wonders and challenges of geek parenting. It's 1:52 minutes long and is saved in MP3 format. Download the file and share and enjoy!

On this edition of Radio Active, Nuketown ventures into Facebook, the epic MacQuest gets an update (and the nifty new/old iPod nano arrives) and Halo 3 looms like a shadow over all that we do. We've got Mighty Morphing Toddlers as Luke walks and talks like never before, and Jordan delves deep into Princess Star Wars.

Netheads round out the podcast with Heroic Cthulhu, a podcast/alternative ruleset that lets characters live more than one session, and Starship Dimensions, a web site for sizing up ships from myriad TV shows and movies. and Call of Cthulhu goes heroic.