Another world, another time...

Wow. It's a wonder this is still here.

OK.... so posting. Yeah... I ride my son - the writer - about posting and writing. On honing his craft by daily posts, even if they're nothing more than a "here's my thoughts on X" or "I had this kind of day". Anything to keep him sharp and able.

Same should apply to me.
I follow so many fun blogs and I don't know how they do it. Really. I they must write from work, the bus, the train, the bathroom... somewhere.

Any way rambling.

Things for today:

Work
Gaming plans
More work
and that's as far as I've gotten today. It is Monday, foggy, and no network usage at work. Yay.
But we can get on the interwebs... go figure.

Ok. Once again we start this!
Forward to Victory!

Or a a nap, yeah... I could use a nap.

Nearly a year later...

So wow... near a year later and I post.

I'm finishing up my second round of P90X and my experience has been interesting. Nutrition is so important to the success of this system it's mind blowing. When I was hitting my nutrition just right, I was losing weight and putting on lean muscle mass. Now... I've plateaued and cant' quite figure out why.

I can't complain too much. I've lost 40 pounds, dropped 2 pants sizes and went down a shirt size. I'm sharing clothes with my 15 year old(scary), and I'm liking how I look. But not completely happy. In the beginning of my first round I was "bulked" and now not so much. I've got muscle mass, it's just unequaled and... weird.
I did round one with a meniscus tear in my right knee. It hurt, but certain leg work outs strengthened my knee and I'm better for it. But...I injured my shoulders from doing a bazillion pull-ups, push-ups et al.
I started using other supplements to enhance my workouts, I started using preworkout drinks before lifting days. They were great. So great, I pushed through an intense(see painful) shoulder routine and injured myself so bad that I couldn't finish my first round.
And it hampered, and still does my second round.

What I found out via my inter-webz skillz was that I thought I had torn my rotator cuffs or at least exacerbated them to the point that lifting over my head was mind blowing painful. But more digging and research to find exercises for rehab lead me to find out that perhaps it wasn't my rotator cuff at all. Turns out bad posture and generally weak trapezius muscles will cause/feel like my shoulders do.
So I started doing stretches/exercises to strengthen those muscles and what do you know... pain got less and less. So I'm happy with that.
While I am/was getting more musclular, my obliques were still (and for the most part are) flabby. Not the entire v shape you want, but more like a u. :D
So I've started doing more cardio. Speed walking when my joints hurt and running/jogging when they don't. I even started doing 20-30 minutes of cardio on days when I lift.
In just the past week of doing this, my abs have responded. Who knew?
Plus keeping my diet clean doesn't hurt either.

Ok rant off. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I can post more stuff and pics too of my progress.

Slacking and P90X

So.... I've been a miss at running my weekly (er) bi-weekly game. This last month of my daughter's life as a senior in high school has been packed with things to attend and do. Not to mention work is a bear right now. So when I'm not attending/creating/doing something for my senior, I've been working my butt off.
And thus my game has suffered. I'm seriously burnt out. bleh

In an effort to correct this, and it may seem counter-intuitive, I started P90X last Tuesday.
And wow. Monster workouts and lots of soreness. Feels like 2-a-day's in high school all over again. I thought I was in decent shape... emphasis on thought. I was barely on the cusp of the word, like on the beginning o f the letter S, if at all.

For the most part, I've been able to keep up with the work outs. The Plyometrics workout was... ugh... a bit more high impact than I anticipated. Had to modify it quite alot. But that's the cool thing, modifications are encouraged. Two things were core to me. Show up, and Bring it.
Participation is better than not, and if you need to mod every more, do it. As long as your moving and in the action, it's all good.

So on the down side, the last two work outs have been screwed up. My legs/back workout got interrupted with my Wife cooking in the kitchen. I found myself getting seriously nauseated due to the smell what she was cooking and had to stop the workout. It affected me quite a bit, and twisted the rest of my day.
And then yesterday, I just didn't find the time to get my last workout of the week, Kenpo, in.
Which is sad, I was looking forward to that.

But... I'm on the fence. Today is my "rest" day, and technically I could do Kenpo, since I really rested yesterday. Gotta think about this.

Hopefully, I'll game with my adult group this week.
Almost forgot, finished the adventure Tower of Maraj for my daughter, two of her friends and my son yesterday. They loved it and they wanted to make their own characters for an ongoing game. So we did. Brianna is running an half-elven hunter, Matena is running an Eladrin Invoker(mage), and Ariel is running a Warpriest of Pelor. They're so excited and so am I.
While I adore my adult group, starting fresh with group of new players is fun. Everything is exciting and new to them. Everything.
Will post more soon.

I swear to Dog that work needs to back off. 2nd weekend in a row where I've put in 16 hours or more on projects at the last minute.

I understand grabbing an opportunity, but planning helps people. Really.

So I'm burned out again, and today doesn't look like much of a rest.
Emails started flooding in with changes and alterations to material I produced already as soon as I logged into the VPN.

Peachy.

I'm not sure if I'm going to run anything this week. At least right now I'm thinking no. Mentally foggy. Want to play. Want. Just can't bring myself to build up the energy to do it.

On a side note, a friend of mine has been tempting me with Rift.
I am totally tempted. I love MMO's and something unique looks good.
I love WoW. But... it's just hit a dull spot with me.

I enjoy all aspects of the game. But dungeons are too much for me at this time. I started running a tank in November of last year, and loved it. Easy peasy. But now, I'm struggling with the mechanics of it. I don't want to spend an hour to two running 5 man's.
I don't know if it's the content, me, my spec, or what. It's just not fun. And I don't want to pay for not fun. Y'know?

So Rift has a lot of options, does alot of what WoW does, and is all new. I enjoy the traditional fantasy races, but I want something... different from a solid fantasy game.
Unique races, with not the same ol tropes.

I'd love an MMO that has one faction. Not Horde vs Alliance or any such thing. That way there is a common goal. Let PVP be like WoW arena's, testing player vs player. I'm tired of the "Horde sux" "Alliance is ghey" mentality.

It builds an animosity that doesn't need to exist in a game.

Anywho... I tried EVE online and couldn't get into it this weekend. It's lovely, but I couldn't figure out for the life of me what the heck I was supposed to do.

So I'd like to play an rpg/mmo. I may end up checking out NVN2 or Dragon Age just to have something to let my imagination wander with.

But it's monday.

Slow start, great follow-up

With the slow start to the new year gaming, I found myself filling the time with work, and other things(other than family) instead of RPGing.

But in the last 2 weeks, I've gotten in 3 games, and am heading for my 4th game of the year this week.
I ran two games, and played in one(my friend Craig's Cthulhutech-mwahahaha). And we're now on track for the third game in a row of my DnD game.

And I've made some changes to the game to help speed it up and allow my players to progress faster.

• I've added the "you level up" functionality instead of rewarding exp at the end of each session. Less book keeping and more control on my end of how the ebb-flow of the game will be. Plus they love the faster progression.

• 1 minute rounds for the players. Hastens game play and gets people focused on the game. If they finish up their turn within the time, they gain a poker chip with they can use as a +1 dmg or attk bonus. They can only use one per attack or damage roll. They can have as many as they can earn, but they can turn in three of them for a +2 chip.

So far my players love it. It made for a faster game play in terms of combat, and I didn't have players getting "analysis paralysis".

I plan on adding in Complications from Burning Wheel/Mouse Guard for failed rolls. So things are not a total loss something will engage the player from their attempt.
For instance, the group is searching for a lost grain merchant. They know he went into the Harrowing Woods. The party decides to let Velrin use his Nature to track the merchant down. Velrin fails, by a lot, he doesn't find the merchant, but does find the merchant's wagon with scattered grain and tracks.
So it's an attempt to create a sense of drama from a failed roll.
I should have done it in the last game when the Fighter rolled a critical miss on an attack. The person she attacked had a hostage in one arm, and his weapon in the other. I had her describe her miss, which kinda fell flat on my end. I should have told her, "in your aggressive strike at the duergar, you barely miss him but do connect with the gnome hostage. Blood sprays forth from a grievous wound splattering your face, blinding you and wetting the floor." But I didn't... oh well.

Even the best laid plans...

So how's this for a kicker.
In my "so-ultimate" plan for better gaming. I have to cancel my first true game of the new year, and back out of a character generation session in a Cthulhutech game one of my players is putting together.

All because of work.
I love my job, don't get me wrong. But it's a beast at times.
This week being one of those times. Multiple projects with due dates this week, covering/helping the UK with projects and leading up "potential" projects that I have no clue about. Oy.

Just frustrating... working 7-to-7(or more) daily lately, and pulling in plenty of weekend hours too. If only I were paid by the hour...

Here's to a better week next week.

Keep it together, man!

So in my attempt at running better games, I've been fighting the elements and losing.

Not the Primordials.
The sleet, snow, ice and scheduling woes that come with adult life and gaming.
My group has not gamed since before Christmas.
Christmas. Of 2010.

I was the first to bail out on our game coming into the New Year. Work has picked up significantly for me, and usually alot more toward the end of the week. Seems by Wednesday's I'm looking at half-a-dozen projects that are due now!

So I canceled the first one and rescheduled. But Winter has put us on hold. Seems North Texas isn't prepared for snow and icey conditions. It's always "Look it's a snow flake! Shut down the city! It's the end! Woe! Woe!"

But last week it was a interesting sight. 13 inches of snow at my house and it didn't just melt the next day with the normal 80 degree weather in Texas. Oh no. It stayed and stayed. And stayed.

And it seems we're in this position again this week. Albeit, a much smaller amount of snow, but lots of ice and problems with scheduling for everyone.

My solution may be just working to keep the excitement of the game alive. I plan to do this with Obsidian Portal.


I've looked Obsidian Portal as a resource for a while but haven't been motivated to use it.
I have a group that only uses the resources I provide at the table some of the time. I was concerned that if I created/setup our game there that it wouldn't be used.
So I stopped myself before I even used it.

Now after not playing for almost 2 months, I want something to reinvigorate our game and I think I'll check this out and maybe even pick up a subscription.

The site allows me to create a wiki of the campaign, store maps, handouts, npc's, pc's and a ton of more stuff.

I see the npc aspect a strong plus, as well as the possibility to store info about the game there. I've got notes and pdf's on my computer and laptop, but I need to put them somewhere where I can access them and my players can too without having either machine available.

I'm starting today, and will update you tomorrow(if not sooner) how well it goes over.

Keep your fingers crossed.