Thursday, June 26, 2008

"Free iPod with Braces"

I saw this little gem of an ad on the way home from Delaware today and had to snicker. But on reflection, why the heck doesn't this dentist just forgo the ipod and reduce the price of braces? It's not like the kids are paying for them anyway, right? Besides, a kid still can't sing in public to his new ipod sporting those braces without risking public humiliation. :)

Moving on, today is Day 1 of my extended holiday from work. There's a mandatory shutdown all next week plus the option of not coming in today or tomorrow. Guess which option I exercised? That's right, 10 more days of vacation--woot! Okay, so it's not all sunshine as not all of those days are with pay (one of them to be precise). But I'm hoping to make some of that lost money up when Linda and I do the Borgata in Atlantic City next Wed. You never know!

Monday, June 23, 2008

Weekend Happenings and the GSL

Blogger ate my previous post where I addressed the GSL but we'll see if I can sum it up here: I don't care for it one bit. It's a moot point, I suppose, since I don't plan on jumping into 4e anyway (either as a roleplayer or as a publisher) but you have to admit that the "we can revoke this at will" clause is a bit disturbing. Not to mention the fact that if you convert a current 3.5/OGL product to 4e then it can never go back. "Bah," I say, "To hell with that crap." It's been nice adventuring with D&D's owners over the last 25 years (give or take) but now I'll be stepping off the bus, thank you.

Elsewhere in RPG news, Joe Goodman contacted me on Friday. He was interested in my freelancing schedule and, although it pained me to say it, I had to bow out of the request for writing. I loved working with Goodman Games but 4e (as noted above) is not something I'll be participating in and that is, understandably, Goodman's push for now. On the brighter side, when I mentioned needing most of my time to devote to Tricky Owlbear, Joe said he thought out "Behind the..." lines were a great idea. Nice to see other publishers (especially one so noteworthy) liking our stuff!

On to other things. It was "Free RPG Day" this past Saturday and did you get out there to peruse the offered goodies? I sure did, along with Scot and Zlaty. We each nabbed, among other things, Mongoose's Traveller-0 booklet and Goodman's Punjar primer and the sweet looking Paizo adventure. We went to a little place called Cyborg One, located in Doyelstown, PA. They were nice enough to let each of us pick up multiple titles. I bought some of the new D&D minis out of courtesy and Scot bought one of the White Wolf Mage books for a few % off.

Sat. night the three of us along with Greg and Heather took the RISK--Star Wars Classic edition out for a test drive after having purchased it last Wed. Good stuff even though we did not finish the game before folks had to scurry home around midnight (are we getting too old or what?!).

Sunday saw some room cleaning (bought a new rug Friday night--6'x9' for only $40 from Pier 1) and then a trip with my parents to Delaware Park. It must have been my day as I turned $180 into $352.50. Not bad for 2 hours work.

This week will be spent in module prep as the planar PCs delve further into the mystery surrounding my "Stop 4th Edition!" story arc.

Contrary to Popular Belief...

...I'm still around! Feeling a little nostalgic for the old blogging life tonight so decided to stop in and post an update. Oh, life, yo...