New D&D game.

I'm going to start running a D&D game tonight with a few friends. This will be my first time DMing a game and I hope I do well.  It shouldn't be a terribly long game since we still have to get some characters rolled up, but I have some great ideas going in.  If you have any interest in spoilers, the first few adventures will be unpublished adventured from Wizards of the Coast:
1. The Dark Knight
2. Wreck Ashore
3. Cooking
4. Burning Plague

I'm not sure of the overall setting of the game. It will be Forgotten Realms -esque.  I'm telling myself that I'll make up the world as they go along, but I'm not sure how long that will work without complications. I'll try to remember to post audio of the game sessions here when we finish one.  I have some crazy schemes in my mind, and I hope they all turn out well.  So here's a good luck to my players, and I hope they enjoy...

Priest Review

This is interesting...

I found some red goggles designed to make red laser beams more visible to the wearer.  As it turns out, the same color lens also blocks out green light, as in a green laser, which is strong enough to produce a visible beam in the daytime.  The bright spot produced by the laser is completely invisible through the red lens, and even looking into the beam is seemingly safe.  Looking straight into the business end of a green laser is not a good idea ever, especially not for periods of time longer than half a second.  It's dangerous, but I took the risk for science.

Source Code Review

The Superbowl...

So the Superbowl came and went for another year, and I still couldn't really care.  The only thing I got out of it was some okay food, and some zombie killing time with my good pal Colby.  The Packers won, whoop-de-doo.  I did catch the end of it and some of the post game stuff.  I thought it was funny that they gave that one guy a car.  These people make millions upon millions of dollars for playing a stupid game, and the car company just decides, "hey, you know who deserves a free car? Someone who can buy ten of them with the money in their pocket." 

HEY CAR COMPANIES! IF YOU GIVE ME A FREE CAR, YOU CAN ADVERTISE WHATEVER YOU WANT ON IT!  Maybe more people would aspire to do better academically if we saw scientists and engineers making that kind of money, and winning free cars.  Instead we have these golden calves to worship.  No thanks.

Frig.

Photoshop

I like to work with Photoshop from time to time.  I had no prior experience going into it, but I learned quite a bit from just playing around with it and looking up tutorials.  Most of my work is forum signatures, so that's what I've been improving on. 

More after the jump...

On the topic of obscure games...

Dwarf Fortress is a very strange game.  The unseasoned player will likely feel sick playing for the first time.  The game is presented in top of the line, new age, high definition ASCII format.  It seems like a stupid little version of SimCity or something, and sure it can be regarded as such.  But when you understand the complexity and all that goes on underneath its facade, you can figure out pretty quickly why it takes so much processing power to run.  The game itself can have very strange and deep story lines.  No two games are ever the same, and losing is half the fun, especially with a little imagination.  A personal experience with it after the jump.

Learned something...

I learned how to do jumps.  It's really rather simple, but it's a fun little trick.  Something after the jump, but it's not important.

Minecraft...

     If you haven't heard of Minecraft, you should.  It's a game that's stupidly simple to start, but so very complex at its root.  It takes me back to the days of playing with Legos scattered all over the damn floor.  With enough time and effort you can build whatever you like, but it really introduces a rare concept in video games: scarcity.  And not like, "you will run out of ammo if you can't find a guy with the same gun as you."  No, no.  If you want to build a 64 by 64 by 1 block wall, you need to go gather 4096 blocks.  Usually someone who tries it plays for a few minutes and gives up.  But then somewhere down the line they're reminded of it, and then it infests itself in their head.  "I'll give it another shot," they'll say.  But Minecraft is more than just a game.  It means something.  More after the jump.

Shows that I recommend.

I don't usually like to watch TV, even though I've been watching an inordinate amount lately.  Sometimes someone recommends a show to me, and I think it's amazing.  Other shows I've been watching for years.  I highly recommend these shows after the jump.

Topics and Improvements

I was trying to think up a topic to blog about, but I don't really have a whole lot to talk about in my life at the moment.  Working every day on the weekend kinda sucks, my school schedule is all over the place, I hate doing most of my homework... Mainly because it's mostly writing reports or writing programs...  I'm talking to a woman who I really like, and she seems to really like me, though I couldn't tell you why.  I only have a few friends and I am having a hard time trying to find time for them.  It's mutual, I imagine.  So I thought I would create a post to let my reader(s) know that I want you to give me topics to discuss.  Simple things, complex things, ask me thought provoking questions, or something I can look up, and I will try to talk about it in length here.  Or if you think my blog is a little dull and needs some touching up, tell me that, too.  After all, it's not worth having a blog that no one will read.

PS. I'm really hating Java right now.

First real post.

Java. Can't live with it... Can't get my IST degree without it. I used to enjoy coding, unfortunately, that feeling died around my third semester. Such is life. I dabbled in it for a semester last year, but I recycled a lot of code without knowing how it did what it did. I don't know. Maybe if I were to write something substantial, something that served a purpose besides being homework, I'd be more into it.

New blog.

I was told by a friend that I should start a blog. I didn't see the point, because I don't think people will read it, but I digress. Welcome, friends, to my blog. This is my first blog post, as you might be able to guess. I haven't decided what to write on this blog, but I'll try to keep it interesting if you decide to read it. I'm considering using this as a journal, as well as possibly a review blog... Perhaps even an entertainment page. I have a few stories I could share with you all. If you'd even consider following my posts, feel free to leave a comment and show some support. This could be good for me. I've never really had a journal before.