Abbey Review

The first review for Abbey of the Golden Sparrow at OBS has appeared!

I have to say that it echoes my thoughts as well. We won't be sticking to limiting the locales to one class in the future. I was cobbling a new locale yesterday called The Prophecy Stone which will be good for any characters who wander by. :)

Best Sci-Fi Soundtrack of all time?

Guessing #1 should be easy but some of the others on the list were quite a surprise (especially #10!). Have a look at the list!

Gas Prices Made Easy

I found out about this site awhile ago but not sure if I mentioned it before. If you need to know the current gas rates where you're headed (or en route to that location) and, like me, you want the best deal possible, then check this out.

If you're not in PA, then just inert "newjersey" or whatever into the url. Or, you can just click on one of the station's "map" links and bring up the google map. It's nice to pan along a route to see just where the cheapest stop is located. The prices are updated very regularly. Happy gas hunting!

D&D Soda

I'm a bit slow on the draw here with this post but in case someone's been dying for a cup of Illithid Brain Juice, here you go!

New & Free Music

Ottmar Liebert has a new CD that's a FREE download. It's a collaboration with oud player Rahim Alhaj: http://wp.me/pgATL-xu

Saw this little note posted on the Echoes facebook page. The whole Flamenco-meets-Middle Eastern flair isn't quite my thing but I thought I'd pass it along anyway.

The Greenwood Files

There's been (as of this writing) an interview in 3 parts featured over at Grognardia (link to your right) over the last week or so. I suspect more Q&A will appear before too long as Ed Greenwood (Forgotten Realms creator and author most prolific) always is happy to answer questions. I met him once at GenCon when I was on a mission from Brad to snap a picture of the man should I see him. He approached the Mystic Eye Games booth where I was toiling before the Con opened that day. I didn't get to speak with him too much except to ask for the picture. If I could go back I would have probably asked many questions about his dealings with TSR and the Realms in general which makes this series of Q&As most welcome. Check them out!

Foreign Affairs

Wow, had a recent visitor to the blog from Bombay. That's cool (unless it's some kind of spam bot of course).

Fall TV Begins!

I've probably missed the premiere of something that looked interesting before tonight but there's not many things I'm keeping on the radar. Tonight we've got the Fringe second season premiere which, by all accounts, is going to be pretty good. Do I really remember what was happening last season? Sure, Olivia gets sucked into an alternate dimension with Spock, er I mean William Bell. Fringe has had its highs and lows but you can't really judge a series with this kind of mythology too harshly from its freshman season. After all, if you did there most certainly would not have been more than one season of Star Trek: TNG (oh god, the first season pain!).

Also starting tonight is NBC's Community which marks the questionable big network debut of that guy from The Soup and the return of Chevy Chase to primetime. Unlike many people, I like Chevy so on that basis alone I'm going to give this a watch. Regrettably, these two shows are on at the same time so I'll need to tape the latter to watch later. A small price to pay for having some new stuff back on the tube.

What's next that I'm looking forward to? Stargate: Universe, Legend of the Seeker, and, yes I'll say it, season 2 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Communication

So I'm filing quarterly taxes now that I'm an independent contractor and, I must say, it's been nothing but a pain in the ass. Oh, I don't mind paying the taxes, it's not that. What I've been having a problem with is my tax preparer. He has another time-consuming day job besides being an accountant. I know and respect this so I try to not bother him until close to tax time (in this case, Sept 15). The history up to this point is that the man is also chronically last-minute with these things (maybe it's more dramatic?).

When he suggested setting up quaterly taxes for '09 I thought that was a good idea. He said, "Call me in June." This was around the time we did 2008 taxes so I just thought maybe it was too late at that point to make the quarterly April payment. No biggie. Well, June rolled around and it was like pulling teeth to get ahold of the guy. Again, I understand he's busy but the next payment was due 6/15 and, of course, I didn't get the info about the payment until the end of June. WTF? And even then, there was no interaction. A brief phone message informed me that my info was ready and so, when I went to the man's place of business to meet with him found only an envelope waiting for me. Inside was the info I had given him plus two payment vouchers (fed and state) along with the amounts to pay--very large amounts.

I would have loved to question the amounts but the guy had gone back into hiding and was incommunicado. Fine. I paid the taxes (on July 1) and life went on. But then before too long September rolled around. I made a phone call or two that wasn't returned and then discovered an email for the accountant at his day job. After sending an email on 9/3 and on 9/10 I was getting a bit peeved. I made a final request for aid this morning but, as of this moment, received no response.

I was lamenting my state to the woman where I get my coffee in town (we're pretty good friends) and she mentioned another accountant in town whom I had forgotten about (and who lives 30 seconds drive from my house). Immediately I went home, gathered my tax info, and went down to see Charlie(who I actually knew from my drug store days). Charlie brought me right back into his office and, after some quick and dirty figuring, came up with some lower numbers. I let him know how much I paid in June and he could not believe the numbers which, as it turns out, were enough to cover me for the year!! Charlie said not to make any kind of Sept payment but instead to contact him in Jan. Then we could check my year's pay stubs and make sure I don't owe any more for '09.

Ah, finally some relief. And, I suppose, this could be why the first guy wasn't contacting me--I had already paid enough for the year. Even so, how fucking hard is it to return an email? Thus, we come to the point of this post--communication: just do it. Whenever you deal with others, be it personally or professionally, you have to have communication. Nothing drives me up the wall more when someone doesn't get back to me. I don't care if you have good news or bad; whether you can get a project done or not.

You have to be up front with people in a timely fashion. Life can then move on. I'm happy I jumped ship to a new accountant. It was something that was long overdue (not unlike I believed my taxes were about to be!).

Old School Cool

As I ponder what neat challenges to put into What Goes Up, our first Swords & Wizardry adventure, I wanted to ask you blog readers what you remember from your formative years that was "cool" in an adventure. I realize that half of the cool things became so due to some brave/foolish action your character took but this question looks to the other half for my answer.

For example, I recall in DL14 when one of the PCs tried to excise a gem from a column and then a ghostly hand emerged from the stone to smash the aforementioned character's head into the column. It was just something that made me go, "Whoa!" and stuck with me for some reason after 20+ years.

Spellcraft 101

I saw a question on the Paizo pathfinder rules forum yesterday concerning using Spellcraft to identify a divine spell as it is being cast. I can see where they're coming from in that they don't like the idea of a mage identifying a divine caster's spell but why do you need to come up with yet another rule to govern it? Magic is magic. It's why they allowed psionic and spell resistance to interact in 3e, for example.

Consider this--if you draw water from the sink, whether you use a paper cup or a porcelain mug, I can still tell you're drinking water if I see you tapping it. To me, magic works the same way be it arcane or divine. Divine casters pray while arcane casters babble but both still use gestures (i.e. somatic components) and these are presumably the same. The magic may manifest from different vessels (cup or mug) but it is still the same. Otherwise, you'd have to have very different spell resistance rules et al to govern when arcane and divine interact.

Just sayin'.

Early Fall?

We'd had some damn fine days this week which are making me pine for autumn to just arrive already! There's a cool breeze blowing through the window as I type...ah...

So, you might be wondering what I'm getting done with my free time now that I'm only working in the afternoons. Answer: Not much. Looks like the more time I have to myself the less I feel the need to cram it with writing (or other work). But that's the trap I must not fall victim to. Tricky Owlbear had what was probably it's best month in August thanks to our two most recent releases. I've got to keep on writing and releasing products to keep the momentum but the trouble is that, as the company president, I don't get in trouble for being unproductive. Kind of makes me wish I was still a green freelancer trying to make a name for myself.

In other news, Linda and I hit Atlantic City all day Tuesday and had a friggin' blast! Didn't come home broke but also didn't manage to get ahead. We were at the Borgata (who comped us $50 in slots play and food) for 4.5 hours before heading over to park at Caesar's. We played enough there and at Bally's to earn free parking but I printed the voucher at Bally's. Thus, I was concerned it would not work for the Caesar's garage. But the guy at the guard station took it without batting an eye so that working out fine. We had some comp $$ for Bally's but didn't get to use the food ones as the valid places were either closed or too busy. We ate at a Wawa on the way home which working out just fine. All told, we were in AC for 9 hours, most of which saw us slots playing. I'm sure we'll do it again next year.