Well, I just went to see The Fellowship of the Rings. And I have to say, it's pretty darn good. It has a nice set up, introduces you to the characters, and then it's off and running. There's a lot more action than it feels like when you read the books. Mostly because Tolkein liked to describe the trees and leaves and such, but all of that was cut out, so all you're left with is the beginning to an awfully good story, which just happens to be a good story in its own right. I'll be happy to see it again -- from a bit further back in the theatre, I hope. And buy the DVD, although I'd be tempted to wait until all three come out as a set. I'm sure the set will have extra goodies.

As for how the movie will effect the gaming industry...well, I'm not sure. At least now everyone will know what an elf, dwarf, wizard, orc, goblin, and halfling/hobbit are. But will the popularity of movies like this and Harry Potter lead to a more widely held acceptance of fantasy gaming? I think that the answer is very little in the short term, but much more later on. Kids will see it, it will stick with them and when they hear they can play a game with all the elements that were in The Lord of the Rings they probably won't balk at it as nearly as much as people do now. And they may even search it out on their own. At least I hope so. Gaming is fun and I think it has a lot to offer people in terms of cooperation, math skills and imaginative abilities.

So, my personal trainer called me the other day (sorry, I forgot to mention it sooner) and tells me she's leaving the gym to do private training for about half the price I've paid the gym. Damn. But now I have a resource open to me in the future. She's referred me to one of the people she works with now, Jason, and he seems nice. We'll see how it goes. I really have to watch myself over the holidays. It'll be too easy to misbehave and undo some of what I've done. Some is forgiveable, there are good restaurants I want to hit in Madison, but I have to watch it. And I may not get a chance to work out.

Must be good.

My little, old company got some electronic ink yesterday and the news has quickly spread throughout the industry. I'm glad to hear that people care. I really enjoyed working on the magazine, but my new job requires me to give it up due to a conflict of interest. Hopefully I'll be able to do something with it every now and again, but that'll be few and far between.

Work continues to frustrate due to last minute changes and incomplete (or just plain wrong) information to begin with.

Got a meeting now.

I tried to log in earlier and do some updating, but blogger was being fickle and not allowing me to log in. So I didn't do any updating.

I'm trying to catch up on work before I leave, so I'll be busy until I leave on Saturday.

I'm getting a headache, so I think it's time to go home.

I met with my personal trainer on Saturday (no I'm not rich, I'm just at a plateau and trying to get off) and she gave me my "meal plan." It looks okay, but now I have to actually cook. I enjoy cooking, but it takes time. I don't like that aspect of it. Ugh, just what I need is something else that takes time.

I may stop collecting comics. I really enjoy them, but I just have too damn many of them and they're a pain to deal with. It bums me out to consider it, but I've collected them for over 20 years and I think that may be enough. Too bad, 'cuz there's some good stuff being produced right now.

So, last Wednesday I had a date. That date took a long time to set up because of she wasn't comfortable calling me, but was perfectly fine with me contacting her. Anyway, while all that was going on I was also corresponding with someone from some personals. We talked Saturday and I asked her out for dinner that night since I figured we wouldn't get a chance to meet again until after the new year. Anyway, we met and she seems very nice and cute. I'm not sure if I'm "in" to her, but we had a good time. She's 25 and seems a little young to me. Attitude-wise, not age-wise. I don't have a problem with dating someone 25, but age is pretty relative.

Work is good. Awfully busy before the holidays, though. I have off all of next week and then return to work on the 3rd, so I need to work ahead to stay on top of everything. Luckily not much work gets done in that time period.

Nothing new.

Except for this: which rocks!

That's all for now.

I ran Champions last night. It went well. It's always interesting to start gaming with a new group of people. Eveeryone has to sort of feel their way as to what's acceptable to everyone else. I think we have a pretty good group, but it's funny (and slightly annoying) to see people change their character in play because a situation comes up that they (as player) really chafe because they don't want their character to behave the way they said their character would. (For example, a character that holds all life sacred being played by a player who'd prefer to just kill.) Oh, well, we'll see how it goes. Overall I think the first couple of games have gone well.

I picked up Massive Attack's Mezzanine. It's very cool. I think they used some of the music from it in either The Matrix or Pi. I'm not sure which.

But it's good.

I have to say that I've been slacking on updating lately, but work has been crazy. For those of you checking on the continuing saga of Jon's date...well, it went very well. We met at 8:30 at Marcus' Martini Heaven (click on the devil). We had some funky martini-ish drinks and talked for just over 3 hours. No awkward pauses, lots of interesting stuff. And she has the coolest accent; how could I not enjoy listening?

She's headed out of town next Tuesday and won't be back until January 6th, but I've an open invitation to call her, so the date is marked on my calendar.

She's tall. Did I mention that? She must be over six foot, maybe 6' 2". Tall. And very cute. And really nice.

This could be bad. :)

Things are good. I met with my boss today for my 2-month (ne 6-month) review. Even got a bonus! Woohoo! And tonight I have a "date." I know putting that in quotes makes it sound like it's not an actual date, but I'm considering it one. I hope it goes well. She's very nice and I'm attracted to her, so I'll just have to be my naturally charming, charismatic self to win her over -- or at least get a second date to try again.

We'll see how it goes. I'm sure they'll be an update tomorrow unless it turns into something out of a Ben Stiller dating comedy.

I'm horribly tempted to pick these up. I heard a bit of them last night on NPR's The Connection and they seemed interesting. Especially considering how dissimilar they are to improv. Very tempted indeed.

I tried to call Joanna last night, but the phone was busy. We've traded some e-mails today and it looks like we'll be getting together tonight for drinks or coffee. Hooray!

Who are the people in charge of the world?! I mean seriously!

This guy is such a moron that it hurts to even read about him. I'm not big into politics, but it makes me sick to hear him talking about this "new enemy," clearly referring to terrorists and the like, but using it to justify a freaking MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM!? What the hell? We don't need to worry about missiles heading our way any more than we did yesterday or the day before. What we need is a Person Defense System that will shoot threatening people before they can sneak a small nuke into a city and blow it up. Personally, I'm less afraid of a nuke than I am some horrible, wasting disease that randomly targets myself, friends, relatives, friends of friends, etc, etc, etc with a death so horrible that I'd only wish it on people who would actually use such a weapon.

But, no, missiles. Missiles are the way to go. That's where the true threat lies.

Argh! Moron. Moron. Moron.

It just bugs me, is all.

XTC may be the finest band ever!

I really like their stuff. Damn.

Very busy at work again today, but I wanted to stop and and write something. I'm in the middle of writing a ton of different things and most of them are running behind schedule due to executives beyond my control. Uh, I mean, forces beyond my control.

I received an e-mail from a woman I met at a party a while ago. We're going to get together soon. Updates to follow.

It's nice to know art isn't dead.

I got so busy today (basically treading water) that I didn't get a chance to get here at all.

I had a fun weekend with Tim in town. We went to a party Friday night thrown by some of the guys I work with. Tim used to work with one of the women who was going to be there and they spent most of the night catching up and talking about life. Whereas I spent most of the night talking to people -- especially this cute girl that I really shouldn't have been interested in at all. But sometimes I still go for the "punkish" chicks. I thought I was over that.

Saturday we played a game with some people at work, checked out the store WizKids owns, and returned Tim's rental car. Then it was off into the woodlands to find the owner of the company's house. It was large and not very homey in my opinion, but it was big and had some cool things in it. Including a nice Schuiten print I was jealous of. We left the party around midnight and crashed. Early the next morning I drove him down to the train. That was about it for the weekend.

Oh, I met with my personal trainer for the first time at noon and that went well. It seems like that will be good for me. We meet again on Wednesday and she may have a food plan for me.

I checked into contacting the young woman I met a while ago at a party and got her e-mail address. I hope that goes well. The person I asked for the e-mail address from asked her if it was okay to give it to me and she said it was okay. I hope that's an open door. I would really like that.

That's all for now.

Seth has posted another one of these and I thought it was so cool I had to try.

And I was very happy when I learned that...



How cool is that?

Anyway, I'm headed out soon so Tim and I can grab some dinner and then figure out if we're going to a party tonight. It's being thrown by a couple of the guys at work. I'd like to go, but I don't know what Tim thinks. Have a good weekend, I'm not sure I'll make it in before Monday.

But knowing me, I will.

Okay, so the site isn't cool, but the cards absolutely rock! You must try to find these. They are very cool and they're perfect for nephews and nieces.

They're cards made of something like credit card material with shapes cut into them. You pop out the shapes and assemble them into the form of tanks, planes, helicopters, dinosaurs, animals, and motorcycles. Damn they're cool.

Tim has made it to town, shown his goods (heh, heh) around to a couple of places and then met me out at work. Where I immediately co-opted him into a playtest of the large scale battle and castle rules for Mage Knight. It went well in the beginning, and we took out lots of minotaur warriors as they attacked the walls, but out opponents managed to squeak past us on points and won the field. Damn. Overall the game was pretty fun and I enjoyed playing the Atlanteans, whom I haven't used before.

After that we went to dinner at Chili's (since I know Seattle is the only place that has them). Tim was apparently pretty tired, because as soon as his head hit the futon (not violently) he was dead asleep.

The playtest took some time from my day yesterday, so I have to muscel through some work today. Time to get back to it.

Yes, Seth, people can still be killed by pirates.

But the most humorous thing about the story, is the quote, "In March of 2000, Blake said he had received letters from someone threatening to kill him and harm his family. . . We've always got crank mail, but it has been going beyond that recently.'' Uh, hey, dead guy, I don't get mail like that. In fact, no one I know gets mail like that. Methinks you should have been a bit more concerned about it, instead of just "taking precautions."

And now you're dead.

Of course if that happened to me I couldn't read the letter anyway, then I'd find the guy, hide on the ceiling with my spidery legs, and eat his spleen! (if that doesn't make any sense, please check the post directly below).

Thanks to Seth, I've learned that:



Isn't that interesting?

I haven't received any e-mail about yesterday's link, so apparently everything is well and good with all of you.

Tim arrives today. I have no idea of how we will while away the hours, but he's friends with some of the people I work with, so we've been invited out for drinks and Saturday is my work Christmas party -- though really I should say Holiday party. It sort of surprises me how much is bothers me to say "Christmas" when I know there are people around who aren't Christian. I never knew I was sensitive to that sort of thing. Basically, it's the lack of consideration that bugs me.

Who would'a knew?

I had a productive day even though I arrived late, so I think I'm going to go home, go to the gym, and then go home to put some books away.

Gosh, that sounds like fun!

Hopefully Seth will have updated his site by then, the slacker.

Unbelievably, Seth hasn't updated his blog in over a day and a half. I am quite distraught and feel like I'm horribly out of the loop about what's going on in his life. Who knew I looked forward to reading his blog so much? Not me!

Maybe he's a total slacker? Maybe he's really busy? Maybe he's goofing off while his boss is on a train bound for Seattle? That seems most likely. I wonder what's going on at the Human Head offices now?

Definitely time to go.

I'm sure I'll hear from anyone who's horribly offended.

My alarm clock is apparently messed up. I woke up at 9:05 today and don't remember hitting my alarm clock. So I got to work about an hour late. Ah, well. It's not like I don't work late all the time and come in on the weekends. Right?

Tim G. called me last night from the train. He's on his way out to do some business and he'll be staying with me at my new digs in Bellevue. My goal before he arrives is to get most of my books put on shelves and try to straighten up a little bit. I have a staggering number of empty boxes already and more to come. A lot more.

Ahhh, that was a nice, short break. Halve an iced "A"!

Lookime! Lookime! I'm an updating fool!

I don't really have much to say, but I thought I'd take a break for a couple minutes and do some writing.

One of my friends (Stephanie) asked me if it felt weird to write an online journal and if I found it distrubing that people I don't know might read it -- or people I mention might read it. And my response is, no. I don't put anything here that I have any trouble sharing with other people. Maybe it's slightly exhibitionist (not as much as Joe Matt's excellent Peep Show) but really I think it's kind of fun to be able to keep a number of people up to date on what's going on in my life without actually corresponding with them. Hmmm, maybe that's not entirely true; I think what I write here is more for me than anyone, but I don't care if anyone reads it. This is just a damn good place to write things down and get them out of my system and "on paper." Maybe that only makes sense to me, but I doubt it.

Here's a surprise -- I have a lot more work to do, so I'm gonna get to it. And later tonight I might get to play Little Fears. Very cool.

I've been surprisingly productive this morning and it's freaking me out. I've still got a ton of stuff to do today, but I've made a good dent in some things that have been lying around for a few days. That's good.

Did you notice that I'm keeping my vow to write a bit more frequently? Cool, hunh?

Lunch soon and then time to write some more copy.

I'm not getting to update this as often as I'd like. And when I finally do I feel like I have to summarize the whole day. That probably won't happen, but I am going to try to stop by a couple times a day and do some writing on a more regular basis. So now all, like 2 of you that stop by will have something new to read more than once a day.

That's actually a good question; let me know if you're reading this. Just his the "contact" link above and send me a note saying you read the site. I'm just curious who checks this out with any sort of regularity.

I have to do some writing for work, so I'll see you soon.

I changed the look of the blog a number of times before deciding on this one. I hope you like it.

I came into work, but haven't really done a damn thing. That's probably okay, but it means I'll have to write like hell Monday and Tuesday to make up for it. It's nice to relax in front of the computer for a while instead of always stressing in front of it.

I had a long talk with Kim last night. She was very funny and we had a good time, despite the fact that she was coming off of a pain-in-the-ass of a week. We had a good talk.

I signed up for a personal trainer at the gym yesterday. They were having a "sale" that was a pretty good deal. I say "sale" in quotes because it's still DAMN expensive -- and I paid about 60% of what they normally charge. But I've hit a wall, I'm sorry, plateau, and I think I need help to get moving again. I'll meet with Kelly (I think) next Sunday for the first time. I hope it goes well, I'm really pretty excited about it despite the cost.

I finally did some unpacking yesterday. It's surprising how much time it takes and yet how fast it goes. I had a good time taking things out of boxes and trying to find places for it. Unfortunately one of the mail areas that I have to fill is currently where all the boxes are sitting, so that takes a little coordinating. I'm trying to keep all of my gaming books accessible, but out of the way, and all of my general-interest/reference books out for easy perusal. I think it'll work well. If I figure out how I'll try to post some pictures.

Time to do some writing.

I decided to change things around a bit on the blog. I hope you like the changes. If you don't, e-mail someone who cares.