Something

Don't have much to report. I came down with a cold, but I'm almost over it. I've been trying to kick it before we get on the plane tomorrow, Idaho bound. Gonna take a half day tomorrow. Work's been long hours again. I'll never get used to getting up between the hours of 4am and 5am no matter how many times I do it. Bleh.

I got your gift from Cutco, Grandma, and it's awesome and I'm using it. Thank you!! No, I won't be taking it on the plane. Tomorrow I go pick up Dad's gift. It finally came in. They sent it all the way from North Carolina, and no, it's not another weiner dog.

And yeah, that's about all I got. Felt I should say something, so, there you go.

Idaho Gaming

So this is more or less for my sister and anyone playing in the D&D adventure I'm running in Idaho around Christmas time.

Character Creation Rules:

Any D&D 3.5 Book is legal if you have it (Except for Miniature's Handbook).

For reference, everything from the Players Handbook, the Dungeon Masters Guide (a great place to find your gear), and other stuff can be found at:

www.d20srd.org

That's if you don't have the books.

Everyone will be 9th level characters.

28 point buy where each ability starts at 8 and you buy your ability points up, using a total of 28 points to spend. The ability point values are as follows:

9 - 1 point
10 - 2 points
11 - 3 points
12 - 4 points
13 - 5 points
14 - 6 points
15 - 8 points
16 - 10 points
17 - 13 points
18 - 16 points

OR roll 6 sets of 4d6, dropping the lowest die in each set

Bonus feat every odd level (instead of every 3rd level)
Ability boosts are normal (1 point into 1 ability every 4 levels)

Usually it helps to figure out what kind of character you want to play first. When you don't know what the options are, think of a movie character or something like that to help come up with a concept, and I can help you build it.

Angie has my email address, and I'll see if I can't get the forums to work for you.

Holiday

Happy Holidays everyone. I'm so damned thankful it's a holiday right now. It couldn't have come at a better time. I'm exhausted. These constant 13-14 hour days have been killing me. As soon as we finish building all the racks inside and organize everything to where they're going to go, I think I can stop working so much.

I've had to come in so early because we're in a new building with new restrictions, and if the guys don't have proper guidance, it takes forever to get the trucks out of the yard and on the road to make deliveries. We're getting there though.

Today i slept about as long as I worked yesterday. Felt great.

So Cindy put up a Christmas list, which means I should probably do the same.

1. When in doubt, D&D Miniatures are never a bad idea. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, just plug in D&D Miniatures at Amazon.com. In fact, most of my ideas can be found at Amazon.com
2. Anything from my Amazon.com wish list. I just updated it.
3. Guitar Hero: Rock of the 80's
4. Any of the following Ian Fleming James Bond Novels (my collection somehow dwindled)
   
• Casino Royale
• Dr. No
• For Your Eyes Only
• Moonraker
• Thunderball
• The Spy Who Loved Me
• The Man with the Golden Gun
  
5. Alternatively, just a new set of ALL of the Ian Fleming James Bond Novels (my partial collection are some pretty ratty paperbacks)
6. Any James Bond Novel by John Gardner (Except Never Send Flowers)
7. Any of the following James Bond DVDs:
• Diamonds are Forever
• Live and Let Die
• On Her Majesty's Secret Service
• For Your Eyes Only
• The Man With the Golden Gun
• A View to a Kill
• The Spy Who Loved Me
• Living Daylights
8. A Cutco Pocket Knife
9. A pair of size 12 running shoes
10. Apples to Apples game (it's a card/board game)
11. Neat coffee mugs
12. A subscription to GameFly
    

Well, I think that's plenty. I'm also TOTALLY happy with gift certificates to places like:

• Amazon.com
• Starbucks
• Best Buy (one just opened down the street from us)
• Macy's or some other clothes store that's nearby. I think I need to get some button down shirts, but I don't know my sizes.
• Target

Okay, it's time to hop in the show and get ready to have Thanksgiving with friends. Happy Turkey Day everyone!

Guitar Hero Video

This was Cindy, me, Jeremy and Katie all weekend.

I can't believe we did this ALL day

When I first heard about this game, I thought it was like that other interactive game, Dance Dance Revolution. You know, that game where you look like a big douche standing in front of a TV, stomping on a stupid game mat trying to mimic something that resembles a Britney Spears video. Guitar Hero is a game that comes with a controller that looks like a toy guitar. See below:
People have been going nuts over this game. So on Friday, our friend Rian Bosak was in town so everyone came over to hang out at our place. Jeremy and Katie are our new friends that Rian introduced us to. We introduced them to D&D, and Friday, they introduced us to Guitar Hero. I was reluctant at first, but I'll admit I was curious.

Jeremy had Guitar Hero 1 and 2. Turns out Guitar Hero is way more fun because if you have two of these guitar controllers, one person can play lead guitar while the other player can play the bass line. And the music selection is really awesome. I went through the tutorial on Guitar Hero II, and then Jeremy and I gave it a whirl. I think my first song was Motley Crue's "Shout at the Devil". HOLY CRAP was it fun!

So Jeremy and I are rocking out and Cindy comes in and sees us. She watches for like 30 seconds and says "Oooh! I wanna try!" I was stunned. Cindy does not really play video games. Except SpyHunter, which she kicks my ass at.

She picked it up really fast, and before long, we were all swapping turns rocking out. Then someone said that Target was having a sale on Guitar Hero III, which included TWO guitar controllers all for $99.00!

Yep, by noon the next day, Guitar Hero III was ours. It would have been sooner, but we were up late the night before rocking out to the other Guitar Hero games.

Heh, I can actually hear Cindy in the living room right now playing the game as I write this blog. She's playing the game BY HERSELF!

This game is a great party game. You can take turns two by two, with different songs and different difficulties. It's definitely a game that gets more fun while drinking too of course!

And we played Guitar Hero III ALL DAY yesterday. I think we ended around 8pm, watched a movie, and then played a little more before everyone took off.

Here's a video of just how ridiculous it is, but don't be fooled, if you ever find a controller in your hand, you too will fall to the temptation to rock out.

The move is over

Now the fun begins. We just finished this week moving my entire facility at work to a new location. The facility is much bigger, but there's no yard and they're being very strict on storing flammables, which is bad because that's what we sell primarly: Flammables!

Now comes the the fun part of unpacking, sorting, finding things, setting up the office, etc. It feels like I'm in a perpetual state of moving. Some day, I'd like to not move for a long time.

It was a really long week. Worked a 14 hour and then a 15 hour day Thursday and Friday respectively. Made up for it though this weekend. I pretty much slept the whole weekend. I'm not going to bust myself next week. I'll put in my day, and call it good.

SoCal is on Fire

But we're not. We in the San Fernando Valley are just starting to see smoke in the clouds. It's very warm outside. 91 Degrees right now. I sent drivers today through what I thought were trouble spots, but the roads were clear and they actually got back early today. So we seem to be doing well so far. I'll keep you posted.

I guess I'm moving Saturday... maybe?

So I get a call today from the guy who has my job over at our headquarters plant in Bloomington, CA. "How soon can you have those surfboard blanks loaded onto that trailer over there so we can get that out of your hair for your potential move on Saturday?" ...

...

What?

So I've known since I took this job that we were going to have to move our facility to a new location. Our lease was expiring at the end of October and we weren't renewing it. That was in June. It's now October 22. Last I heard over a week ago we still hadn't signed papers for a new location. In fact, I didn't even know for sure which location it was until I talked to the bossman at 5:30pm tonight.

Our warehouse also has a store, and sure it's been slow but we do get a fair amount of walk-in business. Part of my job is to grow that walk-in business. Here it is, less than a week away, and none of our customers know we're moving.

Had I not called, and had my counterpart not informed me, I may still not have known until tomorrow? Wednesday?

Well, as stressed out about that as I am right now, I can say I'm up to the challenge and we're going to make it as smooth as possible, but holy wow.

sigh.

In other news, Matt and I have started working on a fun project together. We're going through and watching an amazing list of crappy movies. Why? Well I can't leak everything, but let's just say it's a long time guilty pleasure with the two of us.

In case you're interested, here's the list. If you're bored, look them up on IMDb.

The crossed out ones are movies that we thought at first applied to what we're doing, but decided that they didn't fit. The BOLD titles are the ones we've finished watching. Yeah, it's gonna be great. I feel bad for our wives.

Amazons (1986)
Amazons in the Temple of Gold (a.k.a. Golden Temple Amazons; 1986)
The Arena (a.k.a. Naked Warriors; 1974)
Ator, the Fighting Eagle (1982)
The Blade Master (a.k.a. Ator II; 1984)
Iron Warrior (a.k.a. Ator III; 1987)
Quest for the Mighty Sword (a.k.a. Ator IV; a.k.a The Hobgoblin; 1990)
Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy (1968)
Barbarian (a.k.a. Barbarian: The Last Great Warrior King; 2003)
Barbarian Queen (1985)
Barbarian Queen II: The Empress Strikes Back (1989)
The Barbarians (a.k.a. The Barbarian Brothers; 1987)
The Beastmaster (1982)
Beastmaster II: Through the Portal of Time (1991)
Beastmaster: The Eye of Braxus (a.k.a Beastmaster III; 1996)
Circle of Iron (1978)
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Conan the Barbarian (1982)
Conan the Destroyer (1984)
Conquest (1983)
Darkest Knight (2002)
Darkest Knight II: Rise of the Kingdom (2003)
Darkest Knight III: The Ultimate Sword (2004)
Deathstalker (1983)
Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans (1987)
Deathstalker III: Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell (1988)
Deathstalker IV: Match of the Titans (1990)
Fire and Ice (animated; 1983)
Gor (a.k.a. John Norman's Gor; 1988)
Outlaw of Gor (1989)
Hawk the Slayer (1981)
Hercules/The Adventures of Hercules (double feature; 1983)
Highlander (1986)
Hundra (1983)
Ironmaster (1983)
Krull (1983)
Kull the Conqueror (1997)
Ladyhawke (1985)
Legend (1985)
Merlin and the Sword (1982)
Prisoners of the Lost Universe (1983)
Red Sonja (1985)
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
Sinbad of the Seven Seas (1989)
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974)
Sorceress (1982)
Stormquest (1987)
The Magic Sword (1962)
The Seven Magnificent Gladiators (1985)
The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982)
Thor the Conqueror (1982)
War Gods of Babylon & War Goddess (double feature; 1975)
The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984)
Warrior Queen (1987)
Wizards (animated; 1977)
Wizards of the Demon Sword (1992)
Wizards of the Lost Kingdom (1985)
Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II (1989)
Yor, Hunter from the Future (1983)

Nutless Wonder

Well I would have posted a picture but Cindy made off with the camera on her girly weekend trip. Seumas did a lot better today. He was walking around, even trotting sometimes.

Didn't sleep very well last night of course. Seumas stayed in the bed with Cindy and I and that usually results in not sleeping well. It's particularly difficult when you have to prevent the little bastard from licking his wound, while also trying to be unconscious.

The wound is a little pink, but not bloody. His poor little scrotum looks a bit like an overripe cherry which I have to say kind of horrifies me. He used to have those two proud testicles which he displayed so unabashedly. Had to put his lamp shade on him a couple times today to keep him from messing with his wound. He's definitely loving the soft food that Cindy got him. Helps with giving him his antibiotic pill too.

I can tell he's going to bounce back really fast though. Already he's climbing steps. Yesterday I had to pick him up. He got his peanut butter filled bone today that Cindy got this morning and of course within a half hour, both Cordy and Seumas had their bone totally gutted.

Matt came over and I taught him how to play D&D miniatures, during which he promptly kicked my ass. It's an odd game for me. It's the one I continually lose and still can't wait to play it again. After that we had food and beer and rum and bad movies and it was much fun.

Tonight will probably be yet another crappy night's sleep, but with Cindy gone for the night, the dogs are sleeping in the bed. I'm a sucker like that.

We're under attack!!!!

I slept awful last night. Went to bed at 9pm. Boohoo, right? Well, I read for a bit and fell asleep pretty quickly. I don't even remember Cindy coming to bed. That's right, I beat HER to bed. Unheard of.

The next thing I remember, I wake up hearing the transients outside digging through all the neighborhood recycling bins for cans and bottles. I mean, I feel sorry for them and all, and I'd gladly donate any and all recyclables to them so they can get a little cash, but the feeling that a stranger is outside your house rummaging through your former stuff in the middle of the night is not settling. You wonder if they're going to get curious and start walking around your yard or something. Not a safe feeling.

I roll over and ask Cindy if she'd locked the doors before going to bed, and she mumbled that she did.

Good enough. Slipped back into unconsciousness.

Sort of. The next few hours, we are plagued by helicopters swarming the airspace above our neighborhood. Know what that probably means? Police, looking for someone. In your neighborhood, in the middle of the night!

Somewhere in all that I had the following dream:

Cindy and I were at my grandma's house in Boise, but we were the only one's there. There was a homeless guy who knocked on the door. I asked him what he wanted and he wanted to know if he could take his shower for the month.

I told him that we were in the middle of something and said sorry... but he wouldn't go away. He was much larger than me, and in the argument that ensued (in the middle of which I told Cindy to call 911), he attacked me and I ended up putting him on the ground punching him in the neck, yet still getting my ass kicked.

I woke up right around there, and wouldn't you know it, it was 5am. Time to get up. I snoozed a bit more, but it was restless.

Been in a rotten mood all morning. Feeling better now, but WHAT THE CRAP!

My wife made me do this

GenCon Indy 2007

Can you believe this is Nathan and me? So, GenCon went well. For those of you who don't know what GenCon is, it's the largest gaming convention in the country that doesn't largely involve video games. This is role-playing games, like Dungeons and Dragons, collectible card games, like Magic: The Gathering, and all the board games and miniature gaming stuff. Yeah, it's awesome.

What you are seeing above is a piece done by Jason Engle, for the Demon Hunters Role-Playing Game, which will be coming out this fall by Margaret Weis Productions. That's right, the folks who brought you the Serenity Role-playing Game and the new Battlestar Galactica Role-playing game, licensed Dead Gentlemen's Demon Hunters property to do a new role-playing game. So far, the feedback is that it's one of the hilarious good times in role-playing to be had. I co-directed the DVD that will be packaged with the game, and we played it at the booth throughout the con. In the Spring, Ben and I directed the Demon Hunters: Brotherhood Orientation Video, which makes the Demon Hunters RPG the first role-playing game ever to have video content packaged with it. We're nominated for an award for next year already!

The video gathered a crowd like the old days when our movie The Gamers was still new. It was refreshing to see that we could still draw a crowd.

In attendance from our group was also Cindy, Steve Wolbrecht, Chris Duppenthaler, Jen & Dave Page, and Chris and Sarah Ode. We had a blast hanging out with our friends at Margaret Weis Productions.

You can click HERE for more GenCon pictures.

We had a screening of The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, which was packed. That was even on a Friday afternoon at 4pm, when people were running games and whatnot! There was even a panel for Monte Cook that people had to skip out on (Sorry Monte).

We were also invited as special guests to Tracy Hickman's Killer Breakfast, which is this Improvisational show he does, running a game with people from the audience as players, and killing their characters in creative ways. It's really a spectacular and entertaining show. And HUMBLING! We were invited along with people like Ed Greenwood and even Gary Gygax (Co-creator of D&D)!!!

I died in the first 30 seconds at the table when he asked "why are you here?" to which I bent over to the microphone replied in my deepest voice, "I'm Johnny Cash". Apparently that was explanation enough for him, and I was going to answer every question with a Johnny Cash song, but my improv wasn't up to snuff and was dead in a matter of moments.

Well, that's about all I can say for now on the trip. Of course promptly upon returning I got some kind of head cold that laid me out. I went to bed at 6:30pm last night. My sinus still kind of feel like they want to implode. Everyone at the office is getting it too, and I know it's not because of me since people I haven't seen in person in over two months are coming down with the same symptoms on the other side of the city.

Ick.

Allergisick

Either my allergies are crazy or I came down with something, but holy crap do I feel awful. I left LA for GenCon on Wednesday the 15th with a bad sore throat. When I got to Indy, the sore throat was gone and I felt great.

Came back from Indy on Monday, and within hours I was under the weather again. Ug. Went home at noon today from work because I couldn't concentrate. Not good when you're trying to be a good leader.

Going to be spending a lot of time with a Kleenex box and OTC drugs. When my mind is more coherent, I'll post an update on how the convention went. In short, it was awesome. Very reassuring that we can still draw a constant crowd at the booth. Unfortunately sales were down to about half this year. Oh well. That's what happens when you don't have anything new to sell.

Haven't gotten the numbers from the other booth yet. Well, Ta for now.

Knott's in my throat

On Saturday, to celebrate Camille's birthday we all went to Knott's Berry Farm. You can tell I'm not from around here, because when I first heard that's what we were doing I thought to myself "Why the F are we going to a jam factory? How is that all 'Happy Birthday'? Does Camille have a jam fetish I don't know about?"

So yeah, besides jam, they have big roller coasters. One of which scared the piss out of both Cindy and I. We got the picture, but I don't have a scanner so I can't share it. However, I can share the pictures we did take.

Here's us just getting into the theme park when it's 100 degrees outside and all we want is something cool to drink. If you look behind me, you'll find a stand full of ice cold refreshments THAT WE COULDN'T BUY BECAUSE THE DAMNED TWIT'S CASH REGISTER WAS BROKE or something. She wouldn't even accept exact change.

I thought I'd record my demeanor about the whole situation for the rest of you. I'm sure you appreciate it.

Here we are trying to figure out what kind of jam they sell... Oh, and that's our new married couple friends, Katy and Jeremy. They now play D&D with us. They're hooked, and it's my fault. :)

Here's Jeremy and I chillin on the river raft ride that only lasted about 30 seconds after standing in line for about a half an hour.

I actually didn't get sunburned. Although, Katy got soaked. It was nice to have some cool water nearby though, after not being able to buy the obviously cold and refreshing beverages that just teased you as you walked in the gate. I mean that's just evil, people!

And speaking of evil, let me introduce you to Ghost Rider. This is one of the largest wooden roller coasters in the world. It's also one scary S.O.B. This is a ride that when you get off of it, you hurt. It shakes, rattles, and rolls you all over hell and back. I wish I could show you the picture, we both thought we were going to die.


I'm sure it's supposed to be safe and no one has died yet. But wow, let me just say, it's a real trip.

Unfortunately, I think it turns out that Knott's Berry Farm is also in one of the more polluted areas of LA. So either the fact that I was screaming at the top of my lungs, combined with the fact that there's a bunch of screaming kids around, or the pollution, or all of the above... well, what I'm trying to say is that I ended up with an inflamed sore throat for the past few days. I blame Ghost Rider.


Well, tomorrow I leave for GenCon in Indianapolis. So, a sore throat just in time to talk all day to a huge constant crowd. When did fun get so hard on me?

The Don Whisperer

I'm a lazy git. Well, when I'm not working I am. I guess maybe just evenings and weekends when I sleep all the time. Am I working too hard? Am I expending everything I have to offer my new life here in LA at Revchem Plastics?

Truth is, I think I'm actually not lazy per se, as I am inactive. In my old job at Revchem in Tacoma, I was a lot more active. I was running around, pulling orders, carrying heavy things, unloading trucks. I was support for the operations there. Here, I'm the leader of the operations. I have two employees who do all the things I did in Tacoma. So I sit in my chair at work, I talk on the phone a lot, and work out logistical problems, I deal with personnel issues, and then wonder why my back hurts, my body is sore, and I'm sleepy all the time.

The blood, it does not flow... as much. Cindy to the rescue, or something like that. So my darling wife has found new zeal in life through that show "The Dog Whisperer" starring Cesar Milan. She checked out his book Cesar's Way, and over the course of about a week she read it cover to cover. Suddenly, the dogs HAVE to be walked every night, and I feel like a jerk because I'm too tired to go with her. One evening she really wanted me to go with her and I was really not in the mood, and needless to say the air was pensive for a while. All the sudden she wants to do all these new things, and it's starting to impose on me.

Well practicing what Cesar was teaching her, she stayed calm and assertive, and when I was done with my tantrum, I followed our new pack leader. Turns out not only do the dogs need daily exercise and discipline and affection, so does the husband. I began to read the damn book. You know what, the guy makes a lot of sense. His approach is easy, natural, and improves relationships not just with dogs, but with other people. Well, actually, it also improves your relationship with yourself. You begin to understand what kind of role you want in life, and that you are the one who gets to choose what that is, as pack leader. Now it is up to me to also be a pack leader for our dogs. I can't let Cindy be the only authority figure for those two little sausages.

Then, as you probably read on Cindy's blog, the two of us watched the entire disc of "The Dog Whisperer" she got from Netflix. Every single problem the people were having with their dogs was a direct result of not being in control and being dominant over their dogs. Many of examples Cesar used to help the people understand what kind of role they had to take up were examples from their work, or as a parent. If you are calm and in control and provide clear boundaries, you will get the results you want. Allow too much freedom, and there's chaos and you are no longer in control.

I too Seumas for a walk one night using the new leash technique I'd just learned. I took the chain leash, and latched it to itself so it became a choker leash. I put the leash high up on Seumas' neck, just under his jaw, and led him around. We didn't move until he was relaxed and submitted to me going first. Then, with slight corrections which involved a slight tug upward on the leash bringing Seumas' head up, instead of nose to the ground, he was no longer darting in front choking himself to death trying to drag me. In less than a minute he was trotting beside me relaxed and happy as I practiced good posture pulling my shoulders back and filling myself with confidence. It's amazing how much easier it is to breathe when you're not slouching like I am right now as I write this.

Ahem. Okay, corrected.

Suddenly several things clicked into place. I needed this exercise just as much as the dogs. I need to take better care of my body. Just because I'm skinny doesn't mean I'm healthy. So did I go with Cindy tonight to walk the dogs? No, I was too tired and didn't feel like it. Am I going to challenge myself to walk the dogs when I don't feel like it. I'm going to try real hard.

Because like correcting bad behaviors in your dogs, you have to make those corrections before they escalate. If you can be observant enough to correct those tendencies at level 1, instead of trying to arduously try and bring it down from level 10, success will come quickly. This carries over to a lot of areas where there needs to be authority structures. At work it carries over for me as the new boss, where I have to demonstrate my authority, yes even dominance over my employees. I've been a bit soft in my authority there. Some of the personnel issues (preexisting mind you) were allowed to flourish even though I was taking corrective measures. Demonstrating and demanding the respect that is needed to be a good leader requires, REQUIRES not domination but assertiveness and being collected and in control. You're not always going to be calm, you're not always going to be in control, but if you can roll with it in the moment, even more respect will be gained. And then you give respect back when the behavior you observe is what you want. Now of course this only works at one level with humans. On top of that, you have language to deal with. That's a whole other topic. The words you choose to say your piece.

Now that I've digressed, back to me being lazy. (correcting my posture again) Change is hard. Rest is still needed, but so is exercise.

Next, I might reflect on biodiesel and Volkswagons, versus a MiniCooper. In the meantime, here's a little Google search for you: Make your own biodiesel at home!

Saturday morning irritations

Why can't a husband and wife have the same sleeping patterns? Why can't the dogs stay unconscious as long as I do? Why does EVERYONE in my house except me need to wake up at 6am on a SATURDAY!

Okay, it's now 10:45am, and I'm awake and had enough sleep to catch up. In fact, I've even been up for a half an hour. But what a chore it was just to get caught up! Dogs barking, people outside honking (at 6:30am!), Cindy in and out of bed. At least we don't have a TV in our room, she used to watch TV at 6am on a Saturday in bed while I "slept".

Yep, I'm irritable this morning. Not because of all that (partly but not entirely), I'm actually pissed about a ticket I got in the mail yesterday. Ran a red light. They got pictures, one of which has my goofy face on it. Sneaky bastards! But the worst part is, it's for $381.00!!! For the love of Stan!

It's clear I did it. I don't remember doing it, but they sent me proof. Can't really argue with it. You know, everyone in this damn town runs red lights while attempting to turn left at an intersection. It's because there's no damn left turn arrows. So in a line of cars attempting to turn left in a busy intersection, only two or three get to go through because of the shear line of cars going straight on the opposite side of traffic. So when am I going to get a ticket in the mail for trying to turn left? Was I turning left in this instance... admittedly, no. Sure I deserve the ticket, and $381 is going to prevent me from doing it again. Welcome to California.

Okay, back to my Saturday morning rant. Also, Cindy has a cell phone. When she leaves the house, does she:
1. Take it with her?
2. Turn it on?
3. Answer it if it is on?

The answer: NO! So I don't know where the flip she is. Don't know when she's coming back. I was going to head to the store and pick up some groceries, like milk. I needs my milk. But I can't do that if that's one of her errands this morning. Sometimes it is. Maybe I should call her, OH WAIT, I ALREADY DID AND IT WENT TO VOICEMAIL!

This is a lesson to anyone who does this. Take your phone with you, OR, leave a note on the whiteboard by the door for your significant other to know where you are.

I sound like a parent. It's probably because I worked a hella long week (averaging 12 hours a day lately), as usual since I didn't arrange the kitchen I dont' know where anything is. I'm hungry, but I'm too busy making excuses and complaining to do anything about it.

And how do I add other peoples' blogs to that sidebar thingee? I tried to figure that out once, and I couldn't do it. It's as frustrating as trying to learn how to use MySpace, which I dislike incredibly. Not really sure why, maybe because it's not very intuitive, yet everyone at least 10 years younger than me understands how to make it order pizza! (not really but you get my point) I am techie savvy! Grumble. I feel old.

At least, we have plans to game today. That will make things better. Crap, I suppose I'd better prepare the session. But after I eat. If we can afford to after my $381 blunder!!

I am a boob.

More Than Meets The Eye

So we went and saw the big Michael Bay movie, Transformers. Most of you probably know how big Transformers were to my childhood, so this movie was a big deal for me. And several months before the buzz even started, I began to see disappointment.

First, Michael Bay was to direct it. This is the same guy who directed Armageddon. I rest my case. However, hope was rekindled when I recently watched The Island, which he also directed, and I liked very much.

Second, Bumblebee was going to be a Camaro, not the original VW bug that he was in the cartoon. Still yellow, but still... I was hoping for the new Beetle, or even a Mini Cooper, but nope, it's a Camaro.

Third, I finally got a look at the designs for the new movie robots, and they were definitely weird. Plus, Optimus Prime was not the same kind of Semi as he was in the series, and that kind of cheesed me.

Now you probably think that I hated the movie now having seen it. You couldn't be more wrong. You have to remember, this is Michael Bay. That means, hi speed chases, big explosions, and shrapnel heading towards the camera. So do you think VW Bug if you're going to have a hi speed chase. Not so much. I actually got over that one real quick.

Also, the original voice of Optimus Prime, from the original TV cartoon, was brought on to voice Optimus Prime in the movie. That made ALL the difference for me.

Still not crazy about the new designs of the robots. To many pieces, to many sharp angles and well, overall it's hard to know what you're looking at. But it definitely looks alien.

The movie has some really hilarious moments, some really intense action, and some really touching moments.

This long time Transformer fan was going to be a big opponent of the film, but it's a huge blast. You should go see it, it's worth every penny the spent, which was a lot. I'm looking forward to the sequel. Now if Hasbro would just make some decent quality toys out of this, it'd be even cooler. But they'll sell a ton just the same. Oh well.

This movie was more than meets the eye. Go see it, because I wants to see a sequel or three, and you best damned be sure I wants to see some Constructicons. Sorry for the spoiler, but no constructicons in this movie. They had a LOT to cover, and they did a great job with it.

LA Moments

Recently, we decided to file Seumas under "S".

Okay, had to get that bit of cuteness out of the way. So I just finished my first four weeks at Revchem and I thought I'd share what I've been up to. Besides trying to stay afloat, some really cool things have happened.

About a week ago, I got to visit the set at Universal Studios of the new movie National Treasure 2. I haven't even seen the first one, but now I'm going to have to rent it. It's one thing to see cool looking sets on your "behind the scenes" features on your DVDs; it's quite another to actually see it in person. I wish I could have taken pictures, but I didn't want to press it. I had the ability with the camera on my phone, but as I said... didn't want to be rude. So you'll have to do with my recounting of the experience.

The first set piece I visited was around 50ft high, built on top of a steel pool. The set was meant to be flooded with water. It looked like the inside of an underground cavern with Mayan ruins built into it. All of the stonework was literally styrofoam with a fiberglass facing. It was incredible. To actually see fiberglass work as a MAJOR part of the set. Everywhere you looked, it was fiberglass.
To back up a bit, you might be asking WHY I was on the set in the first place. One of Revchem Plastics' salesmen asked me to come along with him to meet some of our big customers in the movie industry. Revchem is one of only two companies in the LA that supply fiberglass products to the movie business. We apparently have about a 60% hold on the market as well. So I road along with Jeff the seller. As you can imagine, security's pretty tight around the studios, so I had to surrender my drivers license (newly acquired CA drivers license I might add) so they could check me out. Eventually a series of calls were made, and they gave me a permit to get in. From there, the world was ours.
After driving through old western towns, a small lake village with a giant fiberglass shark hanging over the water upside down from it's teeth, and survived helicopter explosions and various fire eruptions, we arrived at the fiberglass shop we were going to so we could drop some resin off and meet some folks.

What was surprising to me was that it pretty much looked like any other glass shop I've been in. They could have been building boats or hardtops for all I knew, so it was encouraging that the scene was familiar to me and I understood what they were doing. From there I was introduced to a very nice Korean gentleman who was the man we were there to see. He was very kind to show us around and let me see the various things they were working on, and then took time out of his day to show us around the sets for about an hour.

Okay, back to the outdoor set. It was rigged like a stage. Scaffolding on the side. Lights around the top. They had just finished shooting the day before, so they were striking the set. (Apparently after the Art Director/Production Designer takes what he/she wants, they pretty much chop everything up and throw it away.) They shot most of that scene at night, and apparently there were a lot of explosions and whatnot. That must have been really neat to watch. Just behind this set, was a big concrete pit in which they were going to fill with water and submerge a set into it with a crane. The set was sitting next to the pit, and looked like a big odd shaped wooden box. But if you went around to one end of it, you saw inside looked like underground caves and temple stonework like that you'd see in a Mayan Temple or something. All fiberglass inside of course.

On to the next set. Got in the car and drove to a big building. Inside was an enormous underground cavern with temples of gold carved into the side, and one golden temple right in the middle. Apparently the thing just gets flooded with water. The set was about as big as a football field. Probably also 50ft high. We walked around and saw a few smaller mini sets, tunnels that the actors had to crawl through. They made those sets out of latex. Smelled like a room full of halloween masks. But making it out of latex allowed the actors to crawl through and not scrape themselves up. Looked EXACTLY like the fiberglass sets. Got to pick up a 2 foot latex rock and throw it at Jeff. Again, styrofoam covered with latex. Pretty amazing.

Off to another building, where they had big rock spires with a rope swing across it. Behind the physical set the actors had to work across was of course the blue screen for special effects, digitally putting in the background.

Quite a bit bigger scale than I'm used to. It was truly an amazing experience to see that this is what people can do for a living, and the incredible things they can make out of fiberglass.

Also, Danny Roebuck walked into my store about two weeks ago and bought some stuff. He's been working on a few museum displays of old movie monsters and props and such. If you're not sure who he is, you might have seen him on Lost, or Boston Legal. A while back there was also an HBO movie called "The Late Shift" which was about Jay Leno and David Letterman's struggle to get Johnny Carson's place on the Tonight Show. Danny played Jay Leno.
He was a really nice guy and we got to talking about Dead Gentlemen and The Gamers. He was really interested in The Gamers and thought the concept was really unique. That he hadn't seen anything like it. We exchanged email and phone numbers. So yeah, the schmoozing has begun.

In Dead Gentlemen news, we got our new trailer up for the movie The Gamers: Dorkness Rising. You can view it by going to: www.deadgentlemen.com or www.the-gamers.com. The front page of the Dead Gentlemen site also shows you where you can download the trailer instead of just watching it from the website.

We're also plugging away at the new Demon Hunters RPG. Jimmy McMichael's been writing some really great stuff.

Speaking of RPG, Matt, Camille and Cindy and I are starting our first D&D campaign together. It's Camille's first time gaming, so hopefully we'll get her hooked. She's already on the whole Warcraft thing. Even I'm not up on that. But that's my own lameness. Tried City of Heroes, and I'm sort of getting into it. Right now it's more fun to create the character than it is to actually play the game. Not sure if that's supposed to happen.

OH. I almost forgot. We got an amazing deal off craig's list on a 42" HD TV for $600!!! We bought a new stand and everything for it, and we've been pretty much lazing around watching movies and playing the playstation on our new huge TV. Here's a picture:

Oh, and Cordy says Hi!

It's Wednesday

And I'm a tired meatsack. I'll write something meaningful later.

Wee!

It has begun

I was putting this off until we finally had technology in our house that we paid for. While stealing WiFi from the neighbors makes do, you have to deal with the hassel of instability. Well, with the WiFi I mean. Unstable neighbors are an entirely different matter. Luckily, I'm not aware of any yet.

The weather has been fabulous. Not too hot during the day, maybe 80 degrees at the high. Drops down to the low 50s at night. Perfect.

The new job at Revchem is going to be great. I feel really good about it. I've started cleaning up and simplifying some of the operational procedures, and established a rapport with my staff right away. Is it going to be an easy job? Not even close. There are many incredible challenges I'm going to have to take on, and that's exciting to me. Because I do feel challenged professionally. It's a great feeling.

At home we started putting up our framed art, and sorting through the remaining boxes. All that's left is the back part of the house: the office, the den, and the spare bedroom. We have one pallet left at Revchem that I think I'm going to need to have it delivered to my home. It's got some heavy stuff that I'd need help lowering out of the back of my truck if I were to just load it all in my truck. I may still do that, and see who I could recruit. At any rate, I'll take some more pictures soon and put them up on Flickr. By the way, if you haven't seen them yet, you can view my photos on Flickr at:

www.flickr.com/photos/56262315@N00/


W00t.