The D’Arque Cathedral

It’s kind of funny. With the advent of the fourth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, it’s been appearing more and more in things I read like Penny Arcade, PvP, and Something*Positive (though, to be honest, tabletop RPGs have come and gone in S*P throughout the comic’s history). It makes me sad, in a way, as I never really got into D&D, even though I always wanted to. I’d been wondering why I never did, and it finally occurred to me recently why that was.

Now, keep in mind, I’m not against tabletop RPGs as a whole. During the 1990’s, I used to play the various World of Darkness games (especially Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse) with two different groups, and I loved playing them. However, while I got into those and enjoyed playing them, I still couldn’t get into Dungeons & Dragons. I have no idea why, as “sword and sorcery” fantasy tales are something I enjoy watching and reading. I thought it might have been just the whole “hack and slash” nature of D&D as opposed to WoD, but talking to my friend George recently helped me put it into perspective.

The thing that had never come into my mind before then was that D&D ISN’T inherently all “hack, slash, get the gold” like I had imagined. Reading tales of the D&D games played by the Penny Arcade guys, Scott Kurtz (of PvP), and Wil Wheaton hammered that point home. What, then, made it that way when I played? It then dawned on me while talking to George.

Another friend of mine who was in the RPG group with George was Chris, who I’ve known since first grade. The other RPG group I was in (headed up by Malinda and Jeff, aka my ex and her now-husband) didn’t play D&D, but instead played only WoD at the time. Chris was the center of the D&D group. However, Chris has never taken much to actual roleplaying. He gets the most enjoyment out of hack and slash. A perfect example is one of the times Chris and George played together in EverQuest II; George would want to read the NPC’s dialogue and find out why he was killing these particular monsters they were hunting, while Chris would impatiently drag him on to the next one, saying, “Come on, come on! Let’s get the next one!”

In fact, if it wasn’t for the nature of WoD itself, I’m sure Chris would have been the same way in those sessions. In WoD, for the most part, going in and hacking/slashing will get you nothing except very dead very quickly, especially considering some of the monsters out there. Chris had to do character roleplaying as a result, but he mostly only ever played one type of character. Still, it would explain why Chris preferred Werewolf out of the five WoD games, as it was easily the most violent and combat-intensive of them. We ended up playing it far more than Vampire, and almost never played the other three games.

Since those days, I’ve only done one RPG session with Chris et al, and that was a D&D fourth edition campaign run by Chris’s former roommate Preston’s wife. Even then, the hack and slash mentality was there; Chris complained that there wasn’t enough combat, while I was the one who worked out the riddle behind the entire story and came up with the plan to fix things. It was fun, but the combat wasn’t something I was thrilled with and even was any good at.

So, where does that leave me now? Well, the answer is… in the cold, I guess. I don’t have any real RPG groups to play with, even though I would like to try D&D with a non-hack and slash focus. I play these games to act out a different role. If I wanted pure hack and slash gameplay, I’d play either Diablo II or Gauntlet. Heck, I have a couple of board games like Talisman and Dungeonquest that would fit that category. It’s not just D&D, either; I’d even like to try something like Paranoia, Shadowrun, or even Dark Heresy. I’d been thinking of going into World of WarCraft or Warhammer Online, but then I like the versatility that comes with a tabletop game. (There’s also the MMO burnout to think about, but that’s a whole different subject right there.)

In the end, it’s just a bit of geek culture and entertainment that I wish I had had a better opportunity to get into. It’s not too late, I know, but for now, I’m just going to wait and see what comes up. Here’s hoping I actually do get to enjoy D&D on its own merits sometime soon.

I spent most of yesterday over at my friend Dave’s place. In the evening, while he and I were discussing something regarding movies, Dad gave me a call. He suggested that I stay the night over at Dave’s, as the air conditioning at the house was out. I decided it couldn’t be that bad, as I endured two weeks without A/C after Hurricane Ike, and made my way home when it was time to go. (I also had other reasons for not wanting to stay, but I won’t get into them here.) It wasn’t too bad when I got home, so I decided to ride it out.

I’m beginning to wonder whether that was really a good idea.

What I forgot to take into account was that temperatures in Houston dropped significantly in the aftermath of Ike, and Houston is presently in a record-breaking heat wave. Right now, the temperature indicator on my system keyboard says it’s 99 degrees in my bedroom. Fortunately I have the ceiling fan going full blast, and also have a desk fan sitting elsewhere in my room providing circulation. My main server’s faring a bit worse, though; the LCD temperature gauge on the front of the case is reading twenty degrees higher than usual. Probably most horrifying of all, I’m also having to wear a pair of shorts and a muscle shirt in order to keep cool. Those who have met me in person will tell you that I almost NEVER wear shorts (and haven’t in public in probably over a decade), and I don’t have anywhere near the physique that can carry a muscle shirt well. Fortunately, with it being nearly 5:30 PM, it should start cooling down in the house within the next few hours.

Dad’s already arranged for someone to come out first thing in the morning to fix the air conditioning. I wish it could have been today, but never mind. For now, though, I’m just going to go downstairs, have a cold drink or two, and help my parents figure out what the heck we’re going to do about supper (as none of us want to work over a hot stove or oven).

Well, as you can probably tell (unless you’re seeing the site via the LiveJournal mirror), I’ve switched the site’s theme. I had been using the same theme since I reopened the D’Arque Cathedral back in 2005, and while I had been updating the site’s WordPress software all that time, I hadn’t been updating the theme. It’s just as well, as the theme stopped being updated some years back. Unfortunately, during that time I decided I wanted widget support in the site, and the original theme was too old to support such things. So, I went ahead and looked for a new theme. I FINALLY found one today that I could use with a bit of tweaking, and with Joey “CCShadow” Schorr’s help, I got it up and running. It now looks a bit cleaner and more up to date, and to keep it from looking too static I made my Twitter feed available on it. For now, though, I think it looks nice.

The website isn’t the only thing I recently updated. A few days ago, I went ahead and bit the bullet.

Windows 7 desktop on my main PC

Yes, I put Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 on my main PC.

Actually, so far, I’m quite impressed. It certainly runs smoother and lighter than Windows Vista did, and so far the only problems I’ve had with installing stuff have been my fault, especially when trying to restore my Firefox and Thunderbird settings. The interface took a little getting used to, especially as other than when testing the release candidates of Vista for a couple of weeks, I’m mostly used to Windows XP. (I, of course, exclude Linux and Mac from that.) Still, I think I’ll definitely migrate to the final version of 7 when it comes out. The only thing I haven’t tested has been games; I’ve reinstalled Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2, but haven’t tried loading them yet. Then again, I don’t know if the latest video drivers from ATI will support my video card; my card is less than four years old yet ATI recently retired a bunch of cards including mine. Ah, well…

For now, though, I’m just going to continue tweaking the site and my system as best I can, until I get them to a point that I’m most comfortable with and think runs best. We’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, suggestions/comments on the new layout are welcome.

All right, let’s get the obvious news out of the way. Michael Jackson is dead. If you’re one of the very very very few people who didn’t know that already, now you do. (And if you didn’t, how the hell is it you’re reading about it on MY site?!)

Moving right along…

One of my old friends from junior high and high school, Kerri-Leigh, has had a rather different take on the whole thing. While everyone else is seeing fit to give their RIPs and condolences to Michael, she is instead giving RIPs and condolences to Navy enlisted and officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty. Unlike Michael, these are people who, other than their shipmates, friends, and family, aren’t known to the public at large and gave their lives in the service.

She’s been posting them on her Twitter, which you can find here. Please take a minute to read through the list; while these are not celebrities, they are people with friends and family who died in the service of this country, and do deserve be remembered.

It’s pretty obvious to anyone who knows me that I’m a pretty big fan of Mortal Kombat. So, it really should be no surprise to anyone that I have the first movie on DVD, and also on my iPhone/iPod. I’ve stated before that one of my little traditions is that if I go on any trip for Mortal Kombat Online, I watch the first movie on the flight. Well, there’s one confession that I kind of need to make, that I really haven’t told anyone before today.

When I saw the movie in theaters, I was actually a bit disappointed.

I should explain. About a month or two before the movie came out, I had bought the novelization of the movie from Waldenbooks. I had already read it before the actual movie came out, so when I saw the movie I was expecting something pretty close to the book. As it turns out, I’m guessing that the novelization was based on an earlier version of the script than was one filmed, as there were some pretty significant differences. In fact, I would personally say that the story of the book was better than the story of the movie. The book differences added more character development and exposure; on the other hand, being closer to the book would have meant the movie would have lost a major fight scene and three major game references (two of which were played for laughs).

Some of the changes that come to mind are…

• Jax is seen after Sonya boarded Shang Tsung’s boat in a minor sideplot, investigating the tournament and eventually reaching the Temple of Light and meeting Liu’s grandfather.
• There is a scene after the dinner, where Art Lean is looking for his quarters, is confronted by three or so belligerent fighters, and easily dispatches them.
• Sonya’s first fight is with Jade. After Johnny comments that he’s heard she’s pretty tough, Sonya begins the match by bowing to Jade. Jade responds with a deep bow, and when she’s at her lowest point, Sonya kicks her in the face with her combat boot, killing her instantly.
• Sonya refuses to kill Kano during their bout, as it would have meant doing what Shang Tsung wanted and she’s having none of it.
• The Scorpion/Cage fight ends right at the point where Scorpion created the portal in the movie; Johnny shadow kicks him and knocks him unconscious. At that point it’s revealed that Art saw the whole thing, and comments he thought the shadow kick was a special effect done for movies. Johnny offers to teach it to him after the tournament.
• Goro is portrayed as a much less blatantly evil and more honorable warrior. After he defeats Art, instead of contemptuously telling Art it was time to die, he says, “You fought well.” After Art’s death, the other Earthrealm fighters give him a funeral/memorial service.
• After Johnny makes his deal with Shang Tsung, Raiden confronts him with Sonya and Liu. Johnny chews him out, and it is at this point (in front of all three) that Raiden says, “At last, one of you has understood.”
• In both the book and the movie, Raiden tells Johnny that because of his fear, he’ll rush into any fight to prove he’s not a fake, fight recklessly and foolishly, and lose. His fight with Goro in the movie seems to still be reckless and off-the-cuff, seemingly showing Johnny hasn’t learned anything. In the book, the fight is much longer, and much more brutal. More, Johnny has a definite strategy he uses, including the use of a chain as a weapon and dodging in and out of obstacles to avoid Goro.
• In the movie, it’s never shown why Goro couldn’t pull himself up from the ledge he was holding onto with one hand, and Johnny makes a smartass remark to him before he falls. In the book, Goro couldn’t lift himself up because Johnny had broken his other wrists using the chain. Johnny offers to help him up, but Goro refuses, saying Shokan die in battle. Johnny acknowledges it and gives a word of respect before Goro falls.
• In the book, the nature of the light show on the boat, the island itself, and Raiden’s lack of authority there are explained: Liu realizes that they crossed over into Outworld during the light show, and that the island itself was an illusion. It’s when Liu says it that Raiden says, “I have nothing further to teach you.”
• When they return to the Temple of Light at the very end, they meet up with Jax, Liu’s grandfather, and Raiden. They also see Kano, and Sonya and Jax arrest him. Kitana asks Liu to return to Outworld with her, and Liu asks if Raiden knew it would end like that. Raiden responds with his “I didn’t have a clue; you humans are so unpredictable” and vanishes, ending the book. There’s no confrontation with Shao Kahn.

I’m sure there are a lot of people who would disagree with me, but I actually liked the character development with Art Lean, and the fact that Goro wasn’t just a one-note monster. I still have the novelization of the movie on my bookshelf; I’d probably get rid of the movie sooner than lose the book, especially as the book is FAR harder to come by these days. Truthfully, while we’re getting a heck of a lot of remakes of films out there these days (especially ones that don’t need to be remade), I wouldn’t mind seeing the first movie remade, to be far more like the novel. While the movie as filmed had more of a “kick ass” mentality and crowd pleasing action… I simply thought the novel’s story was better.

If you come across the novelization somewhere, and are a Mortal Kombat fan, I highly suggest you pick it up. It’s a different take on the events of the movie, to be sure… and in my opinion, a superior one.

Well, I knew this trip was coming for a while. My bosses had been talking about it, but nothing concrete had been stated until a week or so ago. The details were finally worked out early last week, and now I’m working to get prepared.

I’m leaving for Dubai on Thursday, and will be returning the following Friday.

The company I work for has a joint venture out there, and one of the things that needs to be done out there is to get the computer systems operational and also get their databases set up and the like. While I doubt I’ll have a week’s worth of work to do, it’s better to be out there longer than necessary than have to make a return trip later on, especially considering it’s a fifteen hour flight from Houston to Dubai. I still need to get with my coworkers to decide what exact software I need to take with me, but I should have that all taken care of by the end of the day tomorrow.

Mostly, now, my preparations are something of a personal nature. I’m finishing up converting movies into an iPod-friendly format; I’m taking the iPod as well as the iPhone because the iPod has ten times the storage space, which means it can carry all of the movies I want to watch. So far this weekend I’ve converted the Lord of the Rings extended edition trilogy, The Towering Inferno, and the original Star Wars trilogy. In the next day or two, I need to pick up a couple of new pairs of tan slacks, plus maybe a new pair of shoes and a panama hat. Most of my clothing tends to be on the dark side, which doesn’t help in temperatures of 100-110 F. I also should get an airline power adapter for my iPhone and iPod.

I’ll still be online from there, of course. I plan on taking a camera with me, plus the iPhone has its own camera. I’ll make the occasional Twitter posting and site posting. I just don’t plan on doing as much Twitter posting as usual, as the data service on the iPhone will be disabled (unless I go through a wifi access point). Still, I will be checking email and instant messages. Just don’t try to call me unless you absolutely have to.

This should be an interesting experience. I’ve never travelled quite this far; ten hour flights are old hat to me, as I’ve been to England more times than I can count. I’ve never been to the Middle East before, though, and I’m hoping a fifteen hour flight is as doable for me as a ten hour flight is. Still, I’m truly looking forward to it, and plan to make the most of it. Right now it’s looking like I’ll be staying at the Courtyard by Marriott; it’s not in the center of the city, but it is close to the facility and it does have a shuttle to/from the Mall of the Emirates. Seeing as I’ll be there on a Saturday, maybe I’ll have time to look around there. We’ll see.

In any event, I’m looking forward to it. I’ll let you all know how it turns out.

Time Out’s list of essential science fiction films. Italicise the ones you’ve seen, and bold those you like, while strike-through the ones you disliked (nb: I’ve changed the formatting codes to make this clearer).

The Abyss (1989)
Alien (1979)
Batteries Not Included (1987)
Cocoon (1985)
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
Battlefield Earth (2000)
The Black Hole (1979)
Cherry 2000 (1987)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
ET: The Extra Terrestrial (1982)
Contact (1997)
Sphere (1998)
Critters (1986)
Dark Star (1974)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Dune (1984)
Earth vs The Flying Saucers (1956)
Enemy Mine (1985)
Event Horizon (1997)
Explorers (1985)
The Fifth Element (1997)
Sunshine (2007)
Flash Gordon (1980)
Flesh Gordon (1974)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
The Fountain (2006)
Howard the Duck (1986)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
The Hidden (1987)
The Last Starfighter (1984)
The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976)
Mars Attacks! (1996)
Metropolis (1927)
Morons from Outer Space (1985)
Pitch Black (2000)
The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
Red Planet (2000)
Mission to Mars (2000)
Repo Man (1984)
Brother From Another Planet (1984)
Serenity (2005)
Silent Running (1972)
Solaris (1972)
Solaris (2002)
Soylent Green (1973)
Spaceballs (1987)
Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)
Ice Pirates (1984)
Solarbabies (1986)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) (note: I liked the Director’s Edition. It’s a clear case of editing making/breaking a film.)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Star Trek Generations (1994)
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
Star Trek Nemesis (2002)
Star Trek (2009)
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Starship Troopers (1997)
Supernova (2000)
The Thing (1982)
Things To Come (1936)
This Island Earth (1955)
Total Recall
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
War of the Worlds (1953)
War of the Worlds (2005)
Independence Day (1996)
Zardoz (1974)

Admittedly, a couple of these are classics I actually need to sit down and watch. We have Metropolis and Forbidden Planet on DVD here, and I really need to rent the original The Day the Earth Stood Still…

My father’s birthday was a week and a half ago. Unfortunately, this year, he decided not to put a birthday list up, so neither my mom nor I knew what exactly to get him. Mom was cut a break thanks to the fact that Cirque du Soleil’s show Saltimbanco is coming to town in a couple of months, so her present to him was tickets to that show. For me, though, I was still a bit in the lurch. However, soon, an idea came to me.

Whenever I call Dad while on my way home from work, he answers the phone with, “Dirty Dave’s Bar and Grill… how may we serve you?” By this time, he usually already has gotten his scotch out and has had a drink or two. He’s also said recently that if he were to open a bar, he would call it Dirty Dave’s Bar and Grill. With that in mind, I did a bit of research, found what I was looking for, and placed an order… only to find that considering how long I had taken to figure it out, the gift would arrive well after his birthday. So, on his birthday proper, I warned him the gift would be late, but said no more.

During the time waiting for it to arrive, Mom happened to mention to me that his thoughts as to what it might be were completely wrong. He was assuming that it was a Star Wars DVD or something similar that was on backorder.

Anyway, the gift arrived yesterday. When I got home, I put the plain brown box on the kitchen table, and said, “Happy birthday.” He looked at me with a look of puzzlement, especially when he saw the label on the box that said “GLASS: HANDLE WITH CARE”. He opened it, and dug through the packing, and smiled when he saw two scotch glasses and two beer glasses. He unwrapped the bubble wrap from a scotch glass carefully… and then grinned in surprise and elation when he saw that the glass had the words “Dirty Dave’s Bar and Grill” etched on them.

He’s since had one drink of scotch from one of the glasses, but then asked me tonight if I minded if he just kept them for show pieces, as they’re nice glasses and he didn’t want them to be damaged. Of course, they’re his glasses, so I told him I didn’t mind what he did with them. In any event, he’s extremely happy about them, so I think I can consider that a job well done.

On another note, I won’t go into details (though Louie for one will get a kick out of it), but seeing as she didn’t know my father’s name was Dave, Misty made an assumption as to what “Dirty Dave” referred to that was hysterical and somewhat true, if completely wrong. When I told Mom and Dad about it tonight, they damn near died laughing. I have to admit that I didn’t even think of that one…

All in all, I think Dad’s very happy with his birthday gift this year. I just hope I don’t have to outdo myself next year…

The following is my post on truTV’s message board about Operation Repo, a show they air about repossession agents. I used to like this show, but it’s become patently obvious to me from reading about it that the show is staged. If you want to read the post on the message board itself (including the inevitable replies from fans who probably won’t have any real evidence to back up their claims about it being real), you can find it here.

Frankly, this show bothers me.

I first caught this show several months ago, and I thought it was a fun show to watch. It kind of surprised me that the repo agents on this show got away with some of the stuff they did, but I didn’t think too much on it. I figured that because truTV was all about “not reality, actuality”, it had to be on the straight and narrow.

Well, after catching it again and deciding to read up on it… I now know that this show is fake. Even calling these re-enactments would very likely be stretching the truth.

Let’s start with the actual cast. Luis Pizarro has an active manager’s license for a repo company. His actual reposessor employee license is cancelled. No big deal, probably. Sonia and Froy, on the other hand, do not have active licenses. Sonia’s license is listed as cancelled, and shows an expiration date in 2006. Froy’s license is also listed as cancelled, and shows an expiration date in 2003. That means that Froy hasn’t been a licensed agent in nearly six years, and Sonia in three. Matt and Lyndah, on the other hand, do not have licenses at all, and unless they have them from another state, never had them. Before anyone jumps in about Lyndah being a “trainee”, no real on-the-job training is listed as a requirement for being a licensee.

In any event, let’s think about this for a second. Froy and Sonia have not had active licenses in YEARS, yet the show implies they’re doing active reposessions of recent vehicles. An example would be a recent episode where Froy doing a repo of a Dodge Journey, where they weren’t familiar with the type of vehicle… which came out five years after his license expired. Also, mention is made of the bad economy, and the like. So, in essence, if they’re doing re-enactments of their own repos, they’re stretching the truth quite a bit. If they’re doing re-enactments of others’ repos, then they’re being very dishonest by making people think its them. Also, keep in mind that there’s no real effort except for a brief disclaimer to show that these ARE “re-enactments”. With camera people around in plain sight, and people “reacting” to the cameramen, we’re meant to think this is real.

It’s plain dishonest, is what it is.

So, why does this bother me so much, and why shouldn’t I just “not watch it” instead of griping, you may ask? The reason is because I actually like watching shows on truTV, for the reason that they ARE “not reality, actuality”. I like watching shows like Forensic Files, The Smoking Gun Presents: World’s Dumbest…, and Inside American Jail, where they show events as they happen, or if they show re-enactments they’re clear about what they are. This show, on the other hand, is obviously staged, and tries to deceive viewers into thinking it’s real. It’s a lie, and it’s a black mark on truTV’s schedule and reputation.

I wish the show would be taken off the air, honestly, or placed on another network which doesn’t pride itself on showing “actuality”. Unfortunately, seeing how often it seems to be on the schedule now, I’m guessing it’s getting good ratings… either because people are fooled, or people don’t care. I guess all I can do is speak my peace here and hope my voice gets heard.

I can hope truTV does something about this blemish. Maybe it’ll not be for nothing.

Note: if you want to reference the rules for repossession agents and their licensing, go to http://www.bsis.ca.gov/forms_pubs/repo_fact.shtml . On the left side of the page is a link marked “Verify a License”; that’s where I looked up and got the information on the show’s participants’ licenses (or lack thereof).

You know, it’s kind of sad.

I’ve got this perfectly good website here, and I haven’t been updating it. Instead, I’ve been spending more time updating my Twitter. I don’t know why that is; I guess I just like the quick-and-easy format of doing status updates. I was doing status updates on my Facebook page, and then when I realized I could link my Facebook status updates to my Twitter, I switched over to that. It helps that I have two quick methods of updating my Twitter: TwitterFox for my web browser, and Twitterrific for my iPhone. What I’m going to end up doing, though, to make the site a little less static is put the Twitter feed in via a sidebar. Of course, the fact that this WordPress theme doesn’t support sidebars means I need to find a new theme. I’ve found one; the problem is that I need to create a new header image, as the new theme requires a larger image size. Oh, well. Hopefully I can get some help on that, and have the new theme up relatively quickly.

On another tech front, I have to admit to a bit of disappointment. At the house, if I have to do work on the company network, what I’ll frequently do is take my work laptop and set it on my desk next to my main PC’s monitor. However, it’s usually a bit inconvenient for me to reach over to use the laptop keyboard and touchpad, and there’s not really enough room on here for a second keyboard and mouse. I managed to find a piece of software called Synergy, which allows one to use one keyboard and mouse on multiple machines. You move the mouse off one screen, and it appears on the next. Just what I was looking for, right? Well, the problem is that the machines need to be able to communicate via TCP/IP for it to work. Normally that’s not a problem at all, except for the fact that when my laptop connects to the corporate VPN, the VPN profile automatically disables all communication to computers on the local network. So, in other words… I can only use Synergy when it’s not on the corporate VPN, and 99% of the time when the laptop is booted up here, it’s on the corporate VPN. Thus, it’s useless to me. I wish there was something I could do about it, but I’ll just have to grin and bear it.

Ah, well. We’ll see how things go on either front. For now, though, I’m just proceeding as I have been and hope things change where I can implement either improvement I’m looking into.