Needs a Subject

The Most Bloggable Subject Ever

 

NaNoWriMo is coming up in the very near future, and as usual I am planning to attempt to write something... don't know what yet, which is already a bad sign seeing as your supposed to plan this kind of thing ahead of time... Maybe I'll just quit smokeing... seeing as I've never smoked a cigarette in my life I don't think it will be very hard... In fact, hey, I've already succeeded!  Ahhhh... now I can feel good about myself... not really...

 

Anyways.  I guess, seeing as I'm writing stuff down anyways with this here blogging thing I might as well stretch it out to 3000 words a day towards the 50,000 word novel... we'll see how I feel on the first.

 

I guess I'll have to come up with something to write about in the next few days.

 

Saturday

 

So it's almost time for my party. A few people have said they will come, so that's good. I like to have people over... I'd do it all the time but fewer people show up when you start having them over every week... I think it would make Trish mad too.

 

Work Continues to Be Stupid

 

There is something wrong with today... everyone seems to be more idiotic then usual... most of the time the average customer isn't so bad. It's probably just me being cranky. I did wear all black today, and I havn't had nearly enough caffeine, and I missed my bus stop and ended up being 15 minutes late for work and I'm generally not feeling very happy but... COME ON... caller after caller is slow, stupid, inatentive, rude, confrontational... with stupid little problems that they could fix themselves if they had half a brain in their head and were willing to use it.

 

I mean... PEOPLE!!! wake your dense selves up... you will waste an awful lot less of both of our time if you don't rely on me to think for you. If you are just a stupid moron, please forgive me for being insensitive to your disability.

 

I feel like my brain is going to climb out of my skull and make it's way to the nearest library or book-store... leaving me here to continue to take calls... I wonder if they make drugs for people to make them not conciouse of the fact that they are working.

 

-- Benjie

 

 

Brains! Braaaains... Brrrainsss!

Zombie Walk Missed

So, despite the fact that I still have my costume from last Hallowe'en and had been planning to participate since I missed the Zombie Walk again... I had been thinking it was monday and I wouldn't be able to participate again... but then I saw on the sunday evening news that it had happened sunday the 22nd... *sigh* ... Missed opportunities.

Benjie's Late-October Gathering - RE: Zombies!!!

So, I'm having a party-ish thing on Saturday the 28th (if you havn't been invited email me/assume you are invited... if I have never met you and you know where I live and show up... kindly don't take this as an invitation to murder me in my sleep) and at this party I intend for us (among other things) to play agame called " Zombies!!!".  Now it has been insinuated in the past that I play games unfairly by knowing all the rules and only revealing them when it is profitable to me.  I feel this is unfair as the rules of the game are 2 sides of a half sheet of paper and half of that again is flavour text, and I always offer people the opportunity to read them before the game starts.  So what I will do first of all is provide you with the rules to study, at your leisure, before coming so there will be no excuse for those who don't want to know how to play.  Another reason for me to post these rules is because I would like to make some additions and changes, house-rules if you will, that Rob and I have come up with due to the fact that many people find this game "Long and Boreing".

 

Firstly the orriginal rules can be found at this location, and the rules for the Zombie Corps(e) expansion can be found here. I don't expect you to read them in advance, but in the case of disputes there are helpful FAQ for both the orriginal and the expansion available aswell.

 

Now here are the modified core rules to make the game faster and exciting.

 

A "Round" is a series of player "Turns"

 

A Turn Starts When a player draws a tile or card, and ends when the player discards a card or declares it to be over and no-one has an immediate objection (this is basically what it says in the rules but I like to make it very clear).  This means that if someone goes to discard a card or calls their turn over and another player sais, "Wait I play this card before your turn ends," they can play the card and resolve it's effects before the acctual turn end... in general, if the next player has done any actions (aka drawn a card) the option to "Oh Wait" is negated... this encourages people to be jerks and play faster wich should speed things up.

 

You may play 1 card during your turn, and may discard 1 card at the end of your turn, this is normal.  However to make things interesting during other players turns you may play 1 card on another persons turn aswell.  One on turn card, one off turn card... this does not mean you get two off turn cards if you don't use your on turn card. This allows people

 

Because of the extra card to play you get to have 4 cards in your hand... during the draw phase you may draw up to 3 cards, as long as you don't end up with more then 4 cards in your hand (aka if you have 0 cards you draw 3, if you have 1 you draw 3, if you have 2 you draw 2, 3 draws 1, 4 draws 0)... this lets you save good cards while cycling the other cards.

 

You only roll the movement die ONCE... this is your movement and zombie movement roll... those 10 seconds less each turn and the ability to think about your zombie movement while you take your normal turn should speed things up. in a game where 100 or more turns go by before the end of the game (typical of matches with more then 3 players), this minor change really helps move along the pace of the game.

 

Glow-inthe-dark Super-Zombies can hop over other zombies when they do their double move... official rules get them stuck behind the other zombies which basically makes them really easy to avoid and not nearly cool enough... they basically get ignored and are a waste of space.

 

The normal/boring strait pieces from the orriginal set are excluded... they make the cool buildings be too far away from eachother.

 

When you go to draw a tile you draw both a base and a normal tile, you play the normal tile and keep the base tile.  When the base entrance gate is drawn (shuffled into the top of the normal draw pile), on each persons turn for that round people will play their base pieces all at once... then drawing goes back to the way it was described in the expansion rules (choose a draw pile, play one card)... this will usually make the base, including the helipad, show up all in the same round, which will usually mean anyone who isn't trying to kill 25 Zombies will all start racing towards the Base Helipad right away.

 

Basically All this stuff, while it took a while to read is pretty simple and fit's in nicely with the current rules... aside from the 4 cards thing we've played with these modified rules before and they worked pretty well... not all at the same time but I'll try to bug rob into playing another test game.

 

The Rules As Of Now

 

Setup:

You have all the cards in their own pile on the table cause I put them there... , remove a cross piece and a straight piece from the standard set and put aside, remove the rest of the strait pieces from play, the draw piles are shuffled, the gate entrance is shuffled into the top half of the orriginal draw pile, the helipads are placed at the botom of their respective piles.

 

Place the Town Square tile in the center of the board, and each players shot-gun guy in the center of the Town Square tile.  Players do something to determine turn order, usually either rolling dice, rock-scissors-paper, or Super Smash Bros. Melee Tournament Standings.

 

Each Turn:

Note: At anytime during anyone's turn, any player may play a card, you get one in turn card and one other persons turn card for each turn.

 

IF the Military Base Tile has not been Place {

- Draw a Normal Tile Card and a Base Tile Card

- Keep the Base Tile face down in front

- Place the Normal Tile and neccessary Zombies/Bullets/Hearts in a legal position (roads must line up with other roads)

  - Follow the instructions for specific cards aka helipads and the Base Entrance Gate

}

IF the Military Base Tile has been Placed This Round {

- Place the Miltary base tiles you have already collected instead of drawing, in a legal position, one at a time, placeing Zombies/Bullets/Hearts as you put down each card.

}

IF the Military Base Tile has been Placed in a Previouse Round {

- Draw either a Normal Tile Card OR a Base Tile Card

- Place the Drawn Tile and neccessary Zombies/Bullets/Hearts in a legal position.

}

 

Draw up to 3 cards, not to exceed 4 cards in your hand.

 

IF Your shot-gun Guy is on a space occupied by a Zombie, roll the die to kill the Zombie.

 

Roll the movement Die

 

Move up to the number of spaces as your roll, rolling the die to kill any Zombies you land on.

 

Move the number of Zombies as your roll for the movement roll.

 

Discard a card if you wish.

 

Declare the end of your turn.

 

Winning:

You win the game by landing on the center square of a helicopter pad and surviving this move (aka, no zombie, killing the zombie that is there, moving there while protected by the effect of a card, or moving the zombie away from the space)... or by collecting 25 zombies

 

Combat: Roll the die, if you roll less then 4, lose a heart and reroll or pay bullets to increase your roll to 4, if you roll 4 or more you collect the Zombie.

 

Yeah... I don't know if that counts as a blog entry...

 

Heroes Tonight

 

I have a show now.  I watch it every week. I haven't had a show I cared about enough to plan my life around in a while.  They took Superheroes and Soap Operas and Funny Japanese Guys and mashed them into one show... Yay!

 

I would recomend if you have missed the beginning you find a "friend" who has recorded the other episods and "obtain" a copy of them... as the story is continueous.

 

Dinner

 

I believe it is my job to make french bread pizza for dinner tonight... hurray!

 

Chiropractic

 

The treatment seems to be going well... my weight has shifted further onto my left side... and I've started traction or something which is kinda weird... it's supposed to pre-stress my neck or something like that.

 

The End

 

Still busy reading "The Amulet of Samarkand" but when I'm done I get to move onto "The End", book 13 of the "A Series of Unfortunate Events" series... Yays!

To Blog or Not to Blog?

Oh Noes!

 

Google.Talk seems to be down here at work.  Looks like the LAN team finally figured out how to block it properly. Inicially it was just blocking the connection about 50% of the time, then it was blocking the normal version of the page but if you forced the secure login it would be okay... now no luck at all. Oh well, I didn't really use it all that much other then letting my wife know I was just finishing work or something. Hey, look... it's back up... must have been a glitch... well now what am I going to blog about.

 

Christmas is Comeing

 

Well, it's accurate to say that Christmas is coming at pretty much any time of year, but what I mean is that we are getting to the part of the year where christmas purchases should start being made.  I know that people whine about how early christmas decorations go up and such, and why people start worrying about christmas shopping shortly after thanksgiving, but I would recomend it.

 

One year I had all of my christmas shopping done in by the end of October, wrapped it all up that week and put it in a box in my room and didn't have to worrry about it for the entire holiday season.  Being able to enjoy the christmas season without having to risk the crowds is very nice.  I doubt I will do it this year, not nearly enough moneys in the bank to start shopping this soon.

 

At Work, "Working"

Meta-Meta-Meta-Blogging

 

I talk about blogging in my blog too much, I am now blogging about blogging about blogging... oh noes it's getting worse!  I also use "Anyways..." too much in my writing... Anyways... yeah... uhm... I think I say "uhm" too much... seeing as when I'm writing I could easily go back and just write what I want to instead of all the filler words and "oops I didn't mean to says thats" it's quite likely that I am affecting these literary manerisms in an attempt to convey, at least in some way, my personality.

 

... meh.

 

No Waffle Irons

 

I would like to point out to all those who qestioned the number of waffle irons on our wedding registry that we have been living together for over a year and a half since the wedding and still do not own a wafflemaker.  When I pointed out the fact to Trish, she said it was probably a good thing, seeing as we never eat waffles anyways.  I countered, saying that the reason we didn't eat waffles was because we don't have a wafflemaker.  She said if we really wanted waffles we could have gone out and gotten those eggo waffles, and that we don't eat pankakes very often in the first place.  The discussion ended before I was able to make clear the fact that waffles are a lot easier to make in a wafflemaker then a pancake is, that pankcakes and waffles, while similar, are completly different foods, or that we don't have eggos because we don't have any freezer space to spare most of the time. I would have lost in the end regardless.

 

The World of Grea'iren

 

I have started dabbling in the role-playing game genre. The idea of an interactive story-telling framework with elements of problem solving, acting, creativity, and competition in an inclusive social context. Many things I was strictly forbidden to do while growing up I completely agree with, but I never really got what was wrong with D&D in the first place, and the vague reasons that were provided to me lack stength now that I can think for myself.

 

Basically unless I'm going to stop playing video games with magic in the, stop watching movies with magic in them, and stop reading books with magic in them, then the magic in a board game is no more harmful. Now, granted, acctually putting yourself in the mind of a character that can do these things is a little different from other activities, and one of the problems that people had with D&D when it came out was that people took their characters too seriousely and people ended up killing themselves or other's over losses in game... but people have been murdered over movies, music and video games too... it's not the game that's the problem, it's just that there are some crazy people out there looking for an outlet for their craziness.

 

Now, the more informed arguments against the game point out that the game exists in a moral vacuum, encouraging un-ethical behavior as part of gameplay.  The problem I have with arguments like this is that this can be said of all fiction... in the context of any fiticiouse story the author is effectively playing the character of God... writing his lines, making his decisions... even in christian fiction there is no way for the author to know what God would decide in the story they are writing so they have to make guesses based on what they know about him, so really all fiction creates a false god in it's own context.  This isn't wrong, it's unavoidable, it almost makes more sense to completly ignore any higher powers in the context of fiction to avoid the possibility of miguessing the mind of god.  In the context of an pen and paper style game the part of the gods are controlled by the GM, basically this is no different then any other kind or creative writing.  I suppose a good example would be this; If you are a christian you belive that what God tells you to do is a command, therefore if god told you to do something that was against one of the commandments in the bible, would that christian do it?  For example, in the old testament god tells people that they should not murder, and then within a few books is advising them to kill people shortly after... even more specific the Abramham being told to kill his son for no apparent reason.  It is not possible to know the mind of God unless he reveals it to us so there is no way to make desisions based on this.

 

So, if the GM of a D&D campain rewards sensless murder, this is the the rule for that game... next time you may play a good character and be punished for this type of thing.  I think an even better counter-argument would be games like RISK and Monopoly... in these games you aren't representing very virtuouse behaviour, taking advantage of the poor, sending people to slaughter and kill innocent defenders, and think of how you act playing these games.  Sure you call "lying" "bluffing" and you call "deceiving" "negotiating" and when you take someones property because they can't afford to pay you you have no thoughts of mercy because "it's only a game".

 

Oh, and anyone who sais "Well if you feel what you are doing is okay then why did you just spend 3 paragraphs defending your posision" I would like to point out that I am indicating my thought process to demonstrate that I HAVE thought about it and decided it's okay.

 

Anyways, it's really nice to have a creative outlet, I've been playing a game online and it's an awful lot like writing a story... I think of it as practice towards improving my writing skill.

 

Heroes

 

So I've been watching this "Heroes" show every monday... I really like the whole "X-men" concept in the first place and this show is really good.  I'm always looking for more at the end of each episode, it's like a constant ever-renewing cliffhanger... almost like a soap opera in the way that you switch between all of the characters as they move in and out of eachothers lives.  I would recomend it to pretty much anyone... it's a bit violent sometimes so maybe not to impressionable children.

 

Work

 

Sucks... signifigantly less now that we're down to... 7.75 hour?... shorter shifts and I'm getting a regular schedule more often. More staff also means that we have fewer times when we have calls back to back.  I'm still annoyed by the fact that I come home with my mind burned out and can barely think for myself anymore, but I think I just need to find myself a creative outlet... hey... maybe I could start blogging again...

 

The Band

 

Well, Scotty's gone for a while now... so that means our basist is out of the picture... it's kinda sad.  The rest of us are starting to kinda pull together, trish has written a song and some lyrics to one of Matts riffs... I can't have her be the only songwriter so when I get really bored in a situation that isn't actively sucking out my brain I needs to sit down and write something... maybe able how stupid everyone is.

 

-- Benjie

Adendum to Z?...

For those of you with a MIGHTY URGE for ZIM

 

The first output of Invader ZIM Fan Animated Series

 

Future projects are planning to acctually animate the un-animated episodes that have audio tracks included on the bonus disk you got with the box set... which is awsome.

 

http://ppg.snafu-comics.com/ + http://zim.snafu-comics.com/ = really awsome fan comics that happen to contain ZIM characters.

 

 

Z?

The Future

 

First of all I would like to point out that if I don't die due to complications from my caffeine abuse I will be terribly dissapointed... well I guess not because either A: I'm not dead so that's a good thing, or B: I'm dead and either in heaven and don't care... unless I end up spending some time as a ghost... I'm pretty aure christians don't get to be ghosts... but if I DO end up being a ghost, and my death wasn't a direct result of caffeine, I believe I will whine about it to those I have the opportunity to haunt.

 

My wife and I sat down and itemized our near future goals (they do not include me dieing, thoough that has been discussed on occation before, we decided it was a bad idea because she need my income to pay for all the debt we have.)  that include things that I had just assumed we were working towards... I suppose to the organized mind it is helpfull to have a list, but I guess I'm not the kind of person who cares about lists. Anyways, it's a good list, and I'm exited about some of the items on it... what's that? you want me to post the list... nah.... too lazy.

 

I got a call from my cousin last night, he's getting married... I am very excited for him... his fiance is canadian so that makes the whole situation that much better.

 

Question Sleep

 

Sooo... I didn't get too much sleep last night... I would blame Jhonen Vasquez, but he neither forced me to download his comics from the internets, nor forced me to choose midnight sunday on a day before I had to get up early for my chiropractic adjustmant to read six of them, and I was the one who drank all that coke and coffee, and I was the one who never read them as in high school when he was acctually writing his early stuff despite the fact that other kids were reading it and I could have if I wanted too... so I guess I don't blame anyone, I guess I sorta thank myself for holding off so long, but also regret it... oh, I seem to have forgotten that I am tired because I am too busy and too filled with coke to notice, odd that.

 

Anyways, the lack of sleep and influx of caffeine and mind-altering comics have put me in a rather creative place, but that is being balanced by the job I do sucking it out of my brain... have you ever read "I feel sick", while I don't pretend to be an visual artist very often anymore... I really understood about how a job sucks up all your brain power without acctually giving you an outlet for creativity... like using your mind constantly but never acctually thinking about anything, it's awful...

 

Anyways "Jhonen Vasquez" is the obsession of the moment.

 

There are two ways to approach his work really.  There's the "watching Invader ZIM until your eyes bleed and then when it's over, going into a deep depression and discovering his old works which will join you in that dark place", or the "reading his dark works like Johnny The Homocidal Maniac and I feel Sick until your head explodes or you poo blood, and when all hope is lost discover ZIM and become happy again".  It doesn't really matter which option you choose... your brain explodes either way and in the same amount of time and with the same amount of torment.

 

Yeah, a lot of Mall-Goth's think that Jhonen Vasquez is whatever their little "Desperately Trying to Fit In With All The Other Social Outcasts" equivalent of a prophet is... and seeing as he seems to hate all people incliding those who idolize him and that quoted part I put of there is from and interview I found of his, that exemplifies a lot about a lot that I won't go into... let's just say something fancy like "the irony is both delectable and satifying".

 

One thing I really like about his work is that it seems to spur on my creativity... I really wonder what he's been doing all these years seeing as he's avergaed about 1 comic a year for the period of time when he was not working on ZIM.

 

Anyways, I'm not an insomniac, I'm a caffeine abuser... there is a difference in that I don't use caffeine all the time and I acctually get quite a bit of sleep.

 

I havn't acctually read JTHM yet... I plan to do so over the next little while between X-men comics and the Bartimeus Trilogy... but I have read quite a bit about it in the bit's and pieces I've been finding out about JV... and I look forward to entertaining the idea of murder as being a character flaw instead of "the big evil thing we must stop" you get on shows like CSI.

 

Goodnight Schmee.

 

Anyways... Stuff

 

So I'm planning on having a party in the near future, technically all you you are invited... but seeing as I am using this blog as a glorified diary that is censored for... spelling and grammar... yes... that means I'm inviting myself over to my place saturday the 28th for board games like Atmosphere, Zombies and Some Structured Interactive Story-telling... and maybe some food and music and talking...

 

I was hanging out with the Band this saturday evening and we had a great time just sitting around the appartment... playing a few games... watching hockey... been so long since I did that kind of thing with more then just trish... and maybe gene... but seems to fall asleep when you turn your back on him for a second so it's not quite the same. It's nice, I like the Band guys and they are fun to hang out with and talk to even when we arn't jamming.  The process of making music together is not magical... it acctually resembles work from what I have observed... as the singer songwriter in a band that only does covers I haven't had too much to do myself up till now... when I get bored later in the day I think I'm going to write a song about caffeine, sleep, busses and morons... the only subjects I have a passion for which make good heavy-metal-blues-fusion subjects... I fear I may be becoming emo.

 

Anyways... yeah... needs to write a song or something.

 

I think I'll be done with this for now... caffeine is running out and I might not be thinking strait right now.

 

-- Benjie