Poe quotes and such

Posted on : 10-06-2006 | By : Brian | In : Links, News

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Brennan Taylor, the guy behind Galileo Games, just contacted me to let me know that the psionics supplement that I wrote for Bulldogs! is, in fact, in the pipe even as we speak. Needless to say, this got me excited. In other, related news, Brennan Taylor is currently launching another role-playing game, Mortal Coil, which sounds pretty cool. I know this because I subscribe to Mr. Taylor’s blog, Why is a Raven like a Writing Desk?, which is a very good read. At any rate, I firmly believe that Galileo Games is a publisher that deserves more attention that it gets, and I’m not the only one.

In other news, I’m an idiot.

Posted on : 09-06-2006 | By : Brian | In : News

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I just looked through my Manage functions for WordPress (which powers this blog), and noticed that I had not one, not two, but ninety-three comments pending moderation. Good grief. Anyway, I’ve gone through them all (most of them were spam), and approved the ones that were legitimate comments. Er, one. Anyway, to Chad Underkoffler of Atomic Sock Monkey, I apologize that your comment has only now been displayed on my website, especially given that the post that it was associated with is four or five pages back now. Mea culpa.

Dell, concluded

Posted on : 13-04-2006 | By : Brian | In : News

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Well, I finally–finally–got my new, working laptop. I’m posting right now, using wi-fi, so I guess it’s all good. Also, I played _Oblivion_ on it, and it ran great, so basically I’m happy. Anyway.

Somewhat miffed

Posted on : 22-03-2006 | By : Brian | In : News

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I’m not too happy with Dell at the moment. I’m still working with a faulty laptop, even though my replacement was supposed to arrive last Friday. Apparently, the replacement is still being built (it’s been in the build stage for more than a week now), because something is holding it up. Nobody at Dell can seem to tell me what’s holding it up, though, or when I’ll ever see it. Anyway, I’m grumpy about that.

At least I can still play games on my faulty laptop, though. Oh, and I got _Oblivion_ yesterday, which is fantastic so far, so that’s taking the edge off. Anyway.

On Dell

Posted on : 09-03-2006 | By : Brian | In : News, Reviews

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Alright, so on Monday, I got my new Dell laptop. It was everything I expected it to be, with one exception: something was seriously wrong with the wifi card. So wrong, in fact, that my laptop, my brand new laptop, regularly locked up when I had the card turned on. So, hoping to iron out this issue with a minimum of fuss, I called Dell tech support, and proceeded to spend a combined total of about six hours on the phone with them over the course of two days. It sucked, and ultimately turned out to be a complete waste of time. This wasn’t necessarly Dell’s fault; or, at least, it wasn’t Dell tech support’s fault. As it turns out, Dell seems to have shipped me a laptop with a faulty wifi card that crashes the system when used. Not the kind of thing that can be fixed over the phone.

Anyway, I called Dell customer service yesterday, and they were very quick to tell me that they could send me a brand new, replacement laptop with the same hardware configuration, free of charge, as well as a method of sending the faulty laptop back once I got the new one (again, free of charge). I’ve since been called by Dell twice, once to confirm that I had actually requested a new laptop, and again to let me know that my new laptop was being processed, and to give me an order number. I’ve also been told that, once the computer is assembled and tested, the will overnight it to me. Not bad.

At any rate, while I was pretty peeved (and still am) about having gotten a faulty laptop in the first place, I am quite pleased with the way they’re resolving the issue for me. Of course, a big fat wad of cash to boot would be nice, but you can’t have everything, right?

The return is almost here

Posted on : 04-03-2006 | By : Brian | In : News

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I’m still using the old rig, cobbled together from pieces of better machines. However, I’ve got a brand new laptop coming to me from Dell, so I’ll be back in fighting form in no time. I’ll post again when I have my new toy.

A quick word from the Other Side

Posted on : 20-02-2006 | By : Brian | In : News

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My computer died the other day. It was very polite about it; it said something along the lines of “We apologize, but Windows did not start up properly.” At any rate, until I can afford a new one, I’m using an unholy amalgam of my hard drive and my wife’s old tower, which is at least six years old by now. Anyway, please excuse my lack of postiness.

Snowshoe Country

Posted on : 12-02-2006 | By : Brian | In : Links, News

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I’ve just gotten back from Huntingdon, PA. Why was I in Huntingdon, PA? Not for the tourist attractions, I can assure you. No, it was because Huntingdon is the location of my alma mater, Juniata College. Juniata was having an alumni career event, so my wife and I (both alumni) trekked up there (3.5 hours, each way) to attend. Interestingly, Huntingdon got less snow this weekend than Philadelphia did (which is the area in which we live).

Also, I’ve been tagged. By my wife. So, I figure I’ll keep the ball rolling.

Four jobs I’ve had:
1. Food service worker, Pencader Dining Hall
2. Validation Specialist, Phoenix Imperative, Inc.
3. Inventory Associate, Staples
4. Paraprofessional, Delaware Autism Program

Four movies I can watch over and over again:
1. _Serenity_ (Joss Whedon is my master now)
2. _The Italian Job_
3. _The Lord of the Rings_ (any of them)
4. _The Shawshank Redemption_ (I don’t get to watch it often, but I’m always up for it)

Four places I’ve lived:
1. Williamsburg, Virginia
2. Cameroon, Africa
3. Ripon, England
4. Havertown, Pennsylvania

Four TV shows I love:
1. _Firefly_ (does this surprise anyone?)
2. _Lost_
3. _Alias_
4. _Scrubs_ (this show cracks me up)

Four places I’ve vacationed:
1. Italy (all over the place)
2. Orlando, Florida
3. London, England
4. Mystic, Connecticut

Four of my favorite dishes:
1. Risotto
2. Buffalo chicken anything
3. Chicken Vindaloo
4. Pasta with cuttlefish ink

Four sites I visit daily:
1. Bloglines
2. Google
3. Evil Avatar
4. EN World

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Italy
2. England
3. Playing D&D almost anywhere
4. Sleeping

Four books I love:
1. _House of Leaves_, by Mark Danielewski
2. _Already Dead_, by Charlie Huston
3. _Neuromancer_, by William Gibson
4. _Big Trouble_, by Dave Barry

Four video games I can play over and over:
1. _The Longest Journey_
2. _Civilization 4_
3. _Thief: Deadly Shadows_
4. _The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall_ (or at least, I would if it worked properly on my computer, which it doesn’t)

Four bloggers that I am tagging:
1. The Chapel Perilous
2. Why is a Raven like a Writing Desk?
3. Treasure Tables
4. RPG Blog

Happy New Year!

Posted on : 01-01-2006 | By : Brian | In : News, Reviews

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Well, 2006 is here at last. Personally, I believe that January 1st should be universally recognized as “Recovery Day”, as I feel I need a full day to recover from the sleep deprivation and dehydration that accompanied last night’s festivities. We had some friends of ours over for the New Year; the plan was to play a bunch of board games and maybe watch some movies, and then to go out to a diner for breakfast at midnight. We did wind up playing, though we only really got to play one game. We didn’t watch any movies. We went to the diner, but we had stuffed ourselves so thoroughly during our little party that nobody really ordered much. Anyway, here are some holiday capsule reviews for you.

Apples to Apples
This is the only game we really got to play last night, but it was worth it. We played for about four hours, and it never really lost its appeal. It’s basically a word-association game; I’ll explain. Everyone has seven cards with various words or phrases on them. These might include things like “Eddy Murphy”, “Wheat”, or “Picking Your Nose”. Every round, one player plays a Green Apple card, which has a descriptive quality on it. Some descriptive qualites are “Touchy-Feely”, “Trustworthy”, or “Scary”. Then, everyone tries to play a card that matches that description as best as they can, face-down; only the first four cards are counted. The person who played the Green Apple card then judges them, and the winning card gets the Green Apple. The person with the most Green Apples at the end wins. Pretty simple, and pretty damn hilarious. Highly recommended.

iPod Shuffle
Speaking of apples (or Apple, I suppose). The iPod Shuffle was my big Christmas Present this year, and I’ve been enjoying the heck out of it since I got it. I got the 512MB version, which has proven to be more than enough for me. I listen to it in the car, and last night we hooked it up to our stereo during the party. I’ve got to say, I’m impressed with the battery life, the shuffle algorithm used, and the ease of use of the device. It’s a wonderful little toy.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m off to finish recovering. Enjoy 2006, everybody!

So it begins

Posted on : 23-12-2005 | By : Brian | In : News

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Well, we’re off to start celebrating the holiday season in a few hours. First we’ll be going to New Jersey, to visit my mother in law and father in law. After that, we’ll be going to Delaware to visit my folks. All told, I’m really looking forward to it. I hope you all have a great holiday season, too!