Saturday, December 06, 2003

Sweet, sweet Ja-el

It looks like the fate of you all lies with me... I do not believe that this is chance... when I see, one objective... one free action team member... having arrived just in time... I do not see coincidence... I see providence! Ok. I think I should be able to do it. However, someone needs to explain to me how we get characters and stuff because I don't have time to search through the website before I leave on Monday. I get to be the paladin -- tap tap not playing a girl! (Aaron?)

Good Rowing News: I know you all probably don't care, but we came in second place in the big race of the term yesterday... very exciting, and will lead to much drinking tonight at the Boat Club dinner = fun packing tomorrow with bad hangover!

See you all soon!

Mykal (the last incarnation of my name was in fact, my anime persona Myka-choo, like Pica-choo!)


Friday, December 05, 2003

hmm.

I finally checked out the website for this... definitely looks like a hoot! As far as ticket acquisition, I'm working on Wednesday. I guess in theory I could make it down to Anaheim by 8 pm if I left right after work, but it would be a lot, lot better if Mike could make the run... I'll do it if that's the only option though.
but, Oh my god!

That is totally totally out of the question! Celsius and I have to do our nails~ Seriously, my flight won't be arriving until 6:45 and therefore we won't be able to make it on wednesday. Jon... you are the man.

Also, I don't know HOW we are going to fake this, but since my natural charisma is 18, by my good-looks and all, it's unfortunate you fellas get handed the hand your dealt with. Eh... but C'est la vie! hehe.
I'm jubilant about this whole dungeon jaunt.

- I vote we don't screw the party. Plus we're gonna get the 1000 bucks. It goes into our Action investment team fund. Therefore, the goal is to finish!

- Also, Jon and Aaron needs to live the longest granted, save for bladder implosions. Eric is the lovely network admisistrator in case theres a technical issue. Fair Mykal needs to live because he's the only one that can spout "We are victorious"" in a decent english accent, plus he also says "ikki ikki ikki ikki" fairly well. Unfortunately, I, with my good-looks, am the only one that is truly expendable. =( However, I can fight and take damage!


Change of plans we're going to Girl Talk

Okay, so I emailed the True Dungeon coordinator and he said that at SoCal there would be no generic tickets and that we had to buy an actual event ticket, which also go on sale at 5pm Wednesday night. I am almost certain I won't be able to get there to buy any as I am working on wednesday, but for those of you that are not working, we should press gang a group of you to go down there and get in line and get us some tickets! Football? Celsius (Enron's new name)? Johnny? John Peterson?

The good news is that I checked to online registration and most of the slots (which are NUMEROUS) are either completely open or have one or two players signed up.

Also, the "Jug of Holding" is a good idea, however foul it may be. I know one person that has to go potty every 5 minutes in this adventuring party....

Also also, we need to decide if we are in it to win it, or to have fun, i.e. do we take the free "I screwed my party for this T-Shirt" or do we heal the party 2 HP's? That sort of thing.

Also also also I think we need to keep Jon alive the longest 'cause he knows those word problem things and Celsius knows those math problem things... I will exist only to soak damage cause I went to Junior College... unless of course I get offered the T-Shirt, then things will change.....

no potty breaks

Since there's no bathroom breaks in the midst of the game, we can carry an emergency urination can, or AKA Magical Bag of Holding, just in case someone has to go, especially aaron who has a tiny bladder. Can't have the cleric/thief dropping out because he can't hold natures urges.

just a thought

j
Gesundheit!

Is that a cold Mike or is that your Rugby nickname?
I'm with you too!

If we each had a single representative item telling which class we were, then it would kind of be like the old D&D cartoon! I approve of that. Sounds great, Let's DO it! Can't wait to come home and see you all... only 400 things to do between now and Monday morning! YIKES!

Mykachoo!


Thursday, December 04, 2003

I'm in... sounds like a hoot!

I propose we all bring a prop, ie cloak for thief, staff for wizard, sword for fighter ect. We don't have to all dress up, just an item to look authentic...

Also did you guys see the clip on LARP? looked pretty cool when the knight smite the guy from Tech TV.

http://www.techtv.com/xplay/features/story/0,24330,3494821,00.html

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

dk roolz

omg, dark castle was a pretty sick ass game! i remember those things that went "NEE NEE"- i think they looked like bats kinda.

how much money would it take to join that investment thing? im all for making some money.

im going to vegas this weekend and plan on winning quite a bundle, so wish me luck thx.
True Dungeon Manicans

Did you notice that the Manicans used in the true dungeon website looks very similar to the Realistic blow up sex dolls that I referred to you guys a while back? The truth is that big breasts would be quite a hinderance in combat. Amazon warriors used to cut off one of their breasts so that they can shoot bows better. Saw that on a discovery show. Did you see the cost anywhere? How much are six tickets?

Count me in on the Good Returns Action Investment Team (GRAIT). The acronym needs some work, but we gotta have a cool name. I for one am already doing investments. I started approximately 1 and 1/2 month ago. The first month I broke even. November I made around 3500 dollars, which is not very good. I was a little cautious and undersold a lot of my stocks. My potential gains should have been around 6 grand.

- Discount brokers are a great starting point. The cost per trade is cheap, doesn't offer advanced features such as shorting, options and financial advisors. I use Datek, or AKA Ameritrade which is around $10 dollars a trade, plus a 2.00 transaction fee. There is a company that is offering 8 dollars a trade, but I think they have a limit on the number of shares capped. Ameritrade allows trades up to 100,000 shares, which we won't have to worry about anytime soon.

- Since we shouldn't be daytrading and our objective should be Long Term with less risk, I would suggest diversifying our portfolios in less riskier stocks. But that's always objective and can change as we valuate our risk adversity.

On a side note - I was doing some statistical research on the Super California Lottery. I'll show you guys my statistical charts at Gencon. Mike, maybe you'd be interested a dissertation on this. hehe.

J.
True Dungeon

I also think that true dungeon will be awesome! Just no one go crazy and stab anyone on the subway. The story behind the true dungeon is pretty cool too, tre nerdy, but very cool. Check it out!

True Dungeon Website

EDIT: Okay, after reading Jolly Blackburns review and seeing some video of a True Dungeon event, we HAVE to do it. We can't buy any event tickets anymore, the registration is closed. The GenCon Indy even sold out immediately, so we have some work to do. Here is what I am thinking, we can buy tickets beginning at 5pm on the 10th on site, the event takes 10 generic tickets each person, or $15 but they don't take cash. Anyway, so we need someone (probably me) to get all the tickets, and then we need to get in line EARLY (3rd floor in Room 303) the next morning to sign up for the event. I really want to do this, it seems like fun and it takes over 2 hours to complete! Read Jolly's review for some kick-ass inspiration!

Page One | Page Two
The Action Investment Team

We should start an investment club. Seriously. I'm working on the details right now (research) but loosely it would be as follows:

- A fee to buy in for each member which is then used as the working capital for the club.
- A monthly due per meeting to be used to buy more stocks, or if we can't decide on a new stock, to be put in the cash account for later use.
- Monthly meetings, one way or another, ICQ, conference call for those of us out of town, face to face, whatever.
- Each meeting one or two members decides on a stock they think is strong and offers it to the club. Then we vote to either buy or not.
- Then we get some money (I haven't read about that part just yet, meaning I don't know how the profits are distributed, tax issues, law crap, etc.)
- The goal being an education for everyone one the topic of money as well as experience with making money and creating a nice nest egg for everyone.

I think we would be good at it and it would be fun. No, it would NOT be a get rich quick way of investing but it would be a good way to learn the stock market, which is one of the main reasons people get in these clubs, most are trading neophytes. We have such a diverse set of skills and interests I think we would compliment each other well.

I'm dead serious about this. Thoughts?

Feel free to shoot it down, I think those that don't immediately crap on it and think on it will profit from it and have a good time doing it!
Aaron also likes gerbals...

woops, did i let that one out the bag? My mistake. Okay, so aaron, my confirmed flight is at 5:45pm and will arrive instantaneously at 6:45. Umm.... Long beach airport, Jet blue and you know the rest.

There is a "live dungeon" featured at Gen Con. It would be interesting to see how well we fare, our teamwork, puzzle solving. Its not LARP, (according to the website) but I can't imagine it being much different. Purportedly there is also a cost. Think we should all balls up, and Sally forth into the dungeon.

J

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

Aaron likes computer research projects

And since he likes them so much, I would like to send him on the adventure of a lifetime. Aaron, your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to find me a ROM of Dark Castle for the Mac. I have, what I believe, is a Mac emulator all I need now is a ROM of the game and I am ready to revisit one of the greastest games ever made. I am salivating over the idea of chucking endless rocks at the Nyah-Nyah's (SP).

Alternatively, you could write me a floppy disk driver for a Unix system from scratch. Your choice.

Maybe Jon knows something of said game being available for the Mac in some form?

Also, we would easily be THE coolest gaming group if we had a Roman D20 in our possession. And even cooler if we brought it to GenCon and used it...
Cool But...

That would be an awesome bit of gaming history to own. However, I dont think Leslie would let us back in the house if we bought Elrock a 4 to 6 thousand dollar die. Myke, why dont you change your disertation mid-stream? I mean it shouldnt be too much work right?

Back to work for me...
Cool Beans


Hmmm. Didn't know about the polyhedron dice, knew the Romans had normal D6's but, well, you learn something new every day. Crazy symbols -- wish I'd known about them before, I could have done my dissertation on them instead! Do you think we could get it for Aeryk and Leslie's wedding? Comeon, we could all chip in, it would only be about a grand a piece - that's cheap for 2nd c. AD gaming stuff?

Well, I DON'T have me badge yet, but I assume that's because it's at home. I hope so anyway! Getting excited about the Con too, and about coming home and seeing all of you! (I know its only been a year, but it seems like forever!) Trying to get things sorted here. Applied for my first accademic job two days ago (was THAT ever fun -- imagine writing about the work you are doing -- and are tired of for that matter -- about 20 different ways having to emphasize why it is cool and worth money). What a waste of time. Anyway, its over now for a couple of minutes, and so now I'm trying to get everything in order before I leave on Monday. Whoohoo! Can't wait to be home!

Bus ride from Cambridge to Heathrow...2.5 hours! Flight from Heathrow to LA...10.5 hours! I think I WIN! Doh!

Monday, December 01, 2003

D20

Appearently the Romans were AD&D fiends. Or something. This is pretty wild. Christies is autioning off a Roman era (Circa 2nd Century AD) Glass D20. Damn that is cool. Too bad it will be going for an estimated $4-6k. Futball, why didnt you tell us the Romans were geeks too.

Drive from LA to SF.... 8.5 hours! Rule!
Man, I hated that guy Ethan Hawke

But that doesn't apply to anything that I have to say right now. So fun was had by all this weekend. I enjoyed some turkey and fixin's, a night of trivia and alchohol, surfed a bit, ate like a pig all weekend, drank a lot of coffee and coffee based beverages, played multiplayer Halo and Crimson Skies, a few one sided BB games as well as The Fall Classic: The Dragon Company vs. R Dub Cubs. If anyone cares to check out the replay of the BB game, it's here (http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=match&op=view&id=180131), it was a GREAT game.

So, I had a successful weekend and look forward to GenCon; I got my badge finally!

Mike?