One of my goals this fall has been to get my calendars under control, and to do a better job of keeping track of what I’m doing (and where I’m supposed to be doing it). Somedays that works better than others (Monday, in which I forgot my wife had yoga, would be one of the … Read more
Like a twister carving its way through a Midwestern cornfield, Nuke(m)Con has come and gone. My gaming group held its annual (well, almost annual) home-grown convention over the weekend. In a break from previous years, which typically saw a mix of Dungeons & Dragons and board games, this year’s Nuke(m)Con had a western theme. We … Read more
NeutronLad growing up fast, and quickly leaving behind his inventive toddler speech. I decided I better jot down some of his classic terms before we forgot them in the mad rush toward preschool. Fuffy: Sofa Brrff-Brrff: Make a raspberry sound twice in quick succession, and you’ll almost have Neutron’s original name for StarGirl Brrf-ordie: NeutronLad’s new name for StarGirl Tretrow: Grandma … Read more
Shortly after graduating from college, I tried starting a gaming club in the Lehigh Valley, Pa. I was fresh off having helped create the Role-Playing Underground when I was a student at Lock Haven University, and I was desperate to get a new campaign up and running.
It failed. We had a few meetings, and I was able to find enough people to get my own campaign off the ground, but in the end I didn’t understand the fundamental difference between a college game club, and a real-world one. In college, the club was about recruiting people for your game. In the real-world, it was about playing games
Quick note: for those who might have been drawn to this post by the casino going up Bethlehem, Pa., I’m talking about role-playing, card, board and war games, not gambling.
Ultimately, I was able to patch together enough players from the club and some local cons. Once I had a group of my own, the need for the club faded. So did the club.
I went to my first-ever baseball game with my dad last night, as we watched the Lehigh Valley IronPigs take on the Buffalo Bisons at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, Pa.
It took us a while to get there, seeing as how I’m 36 and he’s 66, but it was worth the wait. The IronPigs are the AAA affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, which means they’re one step down from the Show. The new stadium reflects that; it’s a first-rate, beautiful stadium. I doubt there’s a bad seat in the house; we had field-level seats down the first-base line and even we had a good view. It was also cheap; tickets were $9 a person, and even with the entire family there — my parents, Sue and the two kids — the whole thing end up costing me about $60.
It was fantastic being there with the kids, sitting in foul ball territory with Jordan, gloves in hand, waiting for fly balls to come soaring our way. None came close, but it was fun to watch and wait all the same. Jordan was half-crazy with excitement about being at the game, and while she got a little wild at the end, she loved it. It was a good trial run for going to a big league game — like watching the Mets at Citi Field next year.
After about almost four weeks of consistent (ok, more consistent) exercise, I’ve reached 208 lbs., down 6 lbs. from my starting weight of 214. It’s nice to see progress, and I’m hoping to do as well in the next four weeks. That said … it’s going to be tough. The start of the semester is … Read more
One of Luke’s first words was “elmo”. No, not the Sesame Street character. He rarely watches TV, and when he does, it’s not Sesame Street. No, “elmo” was his word for truck. Cars he calls go-gos (no doubt from the many readings of Go Dogs Go he’s enjoyed) but trucks have always been elmos. In recent months, he’s mixed this up. Dump trucks? Dumpy elmos. Big trucks? Bumpy elmos. No matter how many times we said otherwise, trucks were elmos.
Until last week. When, while walking up the stairs to his room, he decided to call them trucks, and keep calling them trucks. They’re simply not elmos any more. Infact, if you say “elmo”, he corrects you and says “truck”.
All of this is part of his toddler word explosion. Car. Grass. Green. Money. Bike. Blue. Saint. Move. Play. The words just keep coming, as do the combinations, as he tells the dog (that’d be saint) to move, points out blue trucks, and exclaims that he wants to play on his bike.
When Wizards of the Coast decided to kill the ill-fated (and ill-named) Gleemax project before it got out of alpha, a bunch of role-playing game bloggers stood up and said … who needs Gleemax? You want a gamer community … well we’ve got your community right here! Or words to that effect.
They formed the RPG Bloggers Network, which is aggregating the RPG-centric posts from more than 30 gaming blogs including Critical Hits, Musing of a Chatty DM and Uncle Bear.
And yeah, Nuketown is there too.
One of the things I like best about the site is how it aggregates content — it’s pulls in stories into its home page and incorporates a rating mechanic as it does so. I haven’t found a page that aggregates those ratings into a big list, but I imagine that’s coming.
This week’s weigh-in was 211 lbs., down two pounds from last week, three pounds since I started this two weeks ago. Three pounds in two weeks isn’t bad, but I also realize that this is the beginning, and it’s always easier to lose a few pounds at the start (or at least, it is for … Read more
After long months of intermittent exercise brought on by family craziness, business trips, bouts of novel writing and a dozen other excuses, I’m finally getting back to a consistent exercise regime. I had been getting to the gym and pool intermittently over the spring and summer, but for the most part, I’ve been slacking. And … Read more