| Losing the battle against insomnia...

Just finished watching Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian. It was ok. I think the first one was more 'epic'. Especially the battle scene. Not quite as epic as the 30 minute grind fest of Return of the King.. but close. That cavalry charge in "King" still gets me every time. Hard. Core.

Good news: Company distributed boxes of "Edible Arrangements" for the Holidays. I have to say I was seriously surprised by just how awesome+sex these things are. It came with an assortment of fruit dipped in ridiculously delicious chocolate. Orange slices, apple slices, strawberries and even melon. The oranges were liquid schwartz good.

In other good news, I gifted one of my employees with the emergency phone, so I have that little bit of freedom. True, it was kind of a dick thing to do the week of Christmas, but considering I've had the damned thing for about 5 months straight and he was the only other qualified / trained person to handle it... sorry. It was to the point where I've been working 60-70 hours a week and having to answer the damned phone 24 hours a day on top of that.. I was about to crack and the relationship with pregnant wife was getting strained to the breaking point. I feel a little bad straddling the guy with the emergency phone because I know how bad it sucks.. but, it's his turn to spend some time in the barrel. Hoping to get some other people trained over the next month or so, so that we can start a regular rotation of the thing that doesn't last for 4-5 months a stretch. That's just too much.

In other news.. I think we're settling on "Bennett" for the kiddo's name. I still like Beau Jackson Nikisch, but maybe that's just the Raider fan in me. Heh.

My poor Raiders. =/

Will Al Davis ever die? (Does it make me a bad person that I wanted to write "Please?" in these parenthesis?)

Allllllrightie then.

Going to find some bad late night television programming to lull myself into sleep.

(WHY did they cancel New Amsterdam? That show was AWESOME.)

| my first skateboarding video

so i had a gnarly accident a month or so back when i was thrashin in my front yard. i taped it! im healed now so i also tapes the subsequent comeback. Enjoy my first skateboarding video:

RUDYs VIDEO

| happy xmas (war is[n't] over)

| Mancon United

jr0n: That sounds good to me. Count me in. I had a lot of fun last time and hopefully we will be better prepared to run some 4th Ed action this time. Although, I dare say I have forgotten everything we learned at the last Mancon.

Happy Holidays youz jerks!

D>M>

| Man-jo-Man Conbat

Well, the new year is approaching, and since there has been some interest from several actioneers, I thought I'd throw out the ManConToo proposal and see who is theoretically interested.

As a reminder, the general ManCon philosophy is:

1. Hole up in a businessman's hotel, away from your family and loved ones;
2. Play D&D;
3. When not doing #2, take advantage of the "Manager's Special"

Last time Eric, Aaron and I played D&D the whole time and it was a blast. I bet this time, at least muddily understanding the rules and flow of the game and with some advanced preparation, would be even better! Would anybody be interested in doing this the weekend of Friday, January 23rd?

| Kicked in the Ice Nutz

eLzar: You know, the first time I saw that image I thought to myself, "Man eLzar would find this hilarious." Then I realized I was an idiot and it was your post. That is a sweet set of wheeels. Now if they only retrofitted the car with the secondary "Oh-Shit" steering wheel. That would be epic.

It has been a tad frosty here. After several days of freezing my ass off I decided to do something about the heating system in our apartment. You see, some brain donor thought it would be a great idea to retrofit a thermostat 1.5 inches away from our wall heater. Ummm... is that okay? So the damn thing cycles on and off without doing much good. It sort of gets the job done in mild weather, but when it is 30 or 40 out, it is friggy frosty. So a couple sheets of cardboard, a pen and a ruler and now it's working like a champ. Still not any where on the level with a good forced air unit...

jr0n: Unfortunately, I have to work Xmas Eve so I don't get down to LA until 8ish on the 24th. No poop for me. Boooo....

D>M>

| For Enron

I have been pouring hot water on my car's windows in the morning because they are seriously covered in a thick layer of frost.

Tim Armstrong sums it up best with his lyrics from "Among the Dead":

Let me tell you something about the (Aptos): "it's California but it ain’t sunny (at least in December)"

Strange that he would sing about Aptos in a song, but there you have it. Sort of.

| Hella Cold

It's so cold I have to chip the ice off my balls.

It's so cold peeing on my hands is an hourly temptation.

What are everybody's plans? We'll be at the poop Christmas eve as usual, hope some of you can make it.

I guess I should start my Christmas shopping.

| D. Duck

Oh my god, you guys gotta play this adventure game, Life of D. Duck II. It's so good. All this fucked up broken english and grammar and the art style is this scribbly pen drawing shit. It's fucking funny. And it's actually a really well put together classic lucasarts style adventure - but its just twisted and good. Get it her:
link

| Enjoy This!

Christmas in Malibu. So good but bad.

| Charles Gablickens

Dice... What can I say? In my head, statistical theories such crazy randomization abnormality theories are common place with dice and other randomizing devices. Outwardly, I try to not to bore everyone with such mundane thoughts. So while my mind might be like that guy, passionate about inane details most people don't give a shit about, I try and tone myself down. So if I become that guy as I get older, I give you all the thumbs-up to have an intervention. I will say this: I had no idea some 20 siders were that bad, although eLzar's d20 rolling must accentuate any deficiency of a die. If only someone would come up with an affordable machining process for d20s.

Pump: That is a fine video. Something straight out of your dreams eh? Were you a Labyrinth nut when you were a kid? I know you wanted to be David Bowie. Hahaha

Rude: Yeah the long year between Cons can be quite a downer. On the other hand, it makes the conventions that much more exciting when we do get together.

The special lady friend and I went to the Dickens Fair last Saturday. I was dreading it all last week expecting the fair to be some bunk Victorian version of the Ren Fair. Or one of those lame street fairs with the same 20 crap purveyors you see at every fair. Instead the fair was indoors and everything was heavily themed without the irksome drama dorks. The costumes were cool, the life size props and building facades for all of the stores were all well themed, the air was thick with roasting chestnuts and cinnamon almonds and the purveyors were all related products. It was a lot of fun. We even had a go at authentic absinthe. Not at all what I expected. I really did feel as if I stepped into a Christmas season Victorian London evening. Well, maybe a bit cleaned up. Although they did have their share of "poor" ruffian kids, prohibitionists, seedy women, passed out drunks and filthy chimney sweeps.

D>M>

That dice guy was AWESOME! I want his fucking dice. I miss conventions :(

| On the Other Hand....

If anyone has been unfortunate enough to be subjected to my tastes, they will recognize all of them in this music video. It has all the ingredients close to my heart:

80's pop music
Elfy-looking singers
Dragons
Swords
Magic
Frilly shirts
Swashbuckling
Hot gothy ladies
Hot ladies in leather
Hot ladies doing magic
Hot ladies with swords... you get the idea

SHINE ON ME!!!!!

| Nerrrrrrrrrds!

Makes me glad to be alive in a world with a man like this. Gives me an excuse to buy new sets of dice. This one's for Aaron, I know you will appreciate it the most.

Dice!!!

To go with my gaming theme, a few choice names for Art and the wife to throw around:
Alucard
Bowzer
Gordon Freeman
PC Loicers
Guybrush
Daikatana

I can't think of any good ones. I actually like the name Gordon. So classy and yet sci-fy.

Cool jon! And now that both of our online statuses are hidden, we will maybe be on at the same time for 14 months! Or are we?

Playing the new Prince of Persia - it's awesome. Looks incredible (they went for this oil-painting aesthetic) and it's really fluid and fun. Also playing Fire Emblem DS and it's really good (it's just Fire Emblem again, but that's a good thing.)

Me and Eric about to podcast! I bought a skateboard today and had two gnarly slams already (I fell on the floor - I haven't fallen down in YEARS! I'm all bruised up and in pain, this will kill me.)