my blog sucks

I keep finding blogs that are way cooler than mine. Sure most of them don't really blog about the creator, mostly they just link to funny pics, videos, articles etc, but still, way cooler.
Any suggestions on how I could make my blog cooler?
either way, check out these 2 awesome blogs
http://www.mypointless.com/
http://blameitonthevoices.blogspot.com/

*warning, the following rant contains Role playing gaming terms, a glossary might be available on the bottom of this post. If not, too bad, look it up on wikipedia.*

I think I've mentioned it before, but I am a geek who plays D&D with my friends. We had a session yesterday, I was running the game, and it seems that we might have some issues. One of the guys who plays with us might be bailing on our weekly sessions due to World of Warcraft (aka WoW) Commitments. Seriously?! He is going to bail on us because of a friggin video game? He already plays at least 20-30 hours a week for crying out loud!!!
One of our other players is also having his D&D gaming time with the group affected by WoW. He has been playing it into the night, not getting his sleep, and then showing up tired and grumpy. When this particular player shows up tired and grumpy, it doesn't take much to have him snapping at you in regards to the rules during combat. Too much arguing and (I've seen this actually happen) can go from playing to quiting the session and threatening to quit the campaign in 20 seconds flat!

The funny thing is that we all aren't the best roleplayers and I am certainly not the best GM. We metagame (although this is getting better), we min/max our characters, and we could probably be called munchkins without us being offended. It's not entirely our fault however.
I still mostly blame the RPG system called Rifts for our poor roleplaying skills. It introduced us to min/maxing, and exploiting game rules.
We also tend to put an emphasis on killing and damage as being the most important thing our characters can do, so then we get super competitive when making characters.
This takes away from any chance that a character with real personality flaws, quarks, or realism might be used when creating characters. Those things don't help in combat, so why bother :)
Also it can give way to the players being bored if combat isn't occurring which means that actual roleplaying between characters and NPCs doesn't occur as often.

Setting the scene or giving descriptions to flesh out the world and make it trigger the imagination might not matter as much, and the players might bypass entire campaign ideas or scenarios just to get back to fighting sooner.

You might think that "isn't being the best in combat is a good thing", or "isn't fighting what these games is all about?". Well combat is a big part of most RPGs, there is a great deal to do with story lines, plot, setting the mood, suspending disbelief etc. It is a game of the imagination, so if it just becomes a numbers game with no substance or interaction with the PCs and the game world other that killing, then why don't we all just multiplayer Halo?
RPGs offer you the freedom to create almost any type of character and have them do whatever you want. Video games tend to be limited by the game itself.

I think I should cultivate some new players, but I have played with these guys for so long, that it would be scary to open the table up to unknown players who could be uber RPG nerds with no social skills, personal hygiene, and are still virgins at age 30.
That is the worst stereotype, but it could happen.

****** glossary of terms ******
RPG - Role playing game. typically played with pencils, graph paper, and funny sided dice. Typically played with 4-5 people. One person being the DM or GM. The other people creating characters to play in the game. We have been incorporating software with our mapping and combat by using Maptools from http://rptools.net/

D&D - Dungeons and Dragons. A RPG that is set in a fantasy/adventure genre that deals with weapons, armor, magic, monsters etc. i.e. Lord of the Rings was the inspiration for the original game back in the 1970s, so read the books by Tolkien, and or watch the movies and you will get the gist of it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&_Dragons info about
http://www.wizards.com/DnD/ game site

DM/GM - Dungeon Master/Game Master. Typically the referee and architect of the adventure. Typically D&D refers to him as a DM, most other game systems use GM. By habit, I tend to refer to it as GM regardless of the system I am playing.

PC - Player character. The in-game character that the players get to control. They usually have to follow some creation rules, but the character's actions are determined by the player.

NPCs - Non player character. Characters in the game world that is created to assist, give information, fight the player's Characters. Usually the DM/GM plays these characters.

Metagaming - When the player's character acts on information that he/she wouldn't know, but the player knows. ie. if the character has no prior knowledge of Trolls, but then purposely attacks them with acid or fire which the player knows trolls are vulnerable too.

Min/Max - minimizing some stats that aren't considered combat important in order to boost (sometimes ridiculously high) the combat relevant stats. i.e. lowering social stats to boost stat that apply more damage in combat.

Munchkin - a player who min/maxes as well as uses rules/items or anything in the game (sometimes borderline game illegal) to make their character ridiculously powerful, regardless of how impossible or absurd the combination might be. This usually frustrates the DM/GM due to the fact that the DM/GM cannot adequate challenge the players when they can easily overcome any challenge with hardly any effort what-so ever. It can also wreck game balance if one player is a munchkin, and the other one makes a character based on concept.

almost there

Is it wrong that the more Christmas shopping I get done, the more excited i am about Christmas? It's that some kind of capitalistic mentallity?

I like to get it all done in one big effort, and have everything wrapped and ready to go.
I did about 5 hours of shopping yesterday, however I still have about 1/3 of the people on my list to shop for. One item for my little munchkin, I couldn't find at 3 stores. I will check out costco and maybe one more, but if I cannot find it, then im dooooomed!!

His "Santa" gift is that nerf vulcun mini dart gun. I saw one at superstore last week, but now it seems to be the most popular item as no stores have it now!!
(update) went to costco over lunch and found one! should be a fun time christmas morning, the chain gun shoots 3 darts a second!!!

I saw the end of "Fred Claus". It seemed like a pretty good holiday movie. I might have to watch it from the beginning.

And hey, those who follow my blog, and live in Calgary, how about that snow eh? :P We got about 6 inches on Saturday i believe, and today its gotten pretty darned cold. Just in time for Christmas.

I don't mind the cold and snow, and long as the streets are cleared, and my car doesn't break down and I freeze to death on the highway. I have only ever had car accidents during the icy season. In all cases ice was the main contributing factor. I hate driving on ice!!!

Vancover 2010 here i come

I played 2 and a half hours of hardcore badminton, basketball and ping pong last night, I am not sure if any of those are winter sports in the upcoming winter Olympics, but g-dammit they should be so I could compete!!!

I felt great afterwards, tired but great. I hope to keep this fitness streak up so that I can fit into my bikini for my trip to Cuba in March.
Oh crap, do you need a passport to travel to Cuba?

So Christmas is now only 23 days away. I haven't bought anything for anybody yet. I might go to sunridge mall and shop there. They have a charity organization wrapping presents for a donation. I hate wrapping presents, I usually try to buy and wrap everything in one fell swoop.

My mom decided to buy a fake tree this year. She said the cats will be less likely to attack and knock it down if it's fake.
I am 95% against it because my tradition since childhood has been the real tree. Having my mom yell at my dad to go buy one and make sure he doesn't pick out a crappy one like last year. She couldn't just go with him, that would make too much sense. Then my dad will eventually come home and the tree will sit in the yard for a week. Eventually my mom will get him to move it into the house, and that's when the real tradition begins.
The tree is usually too tall, and my dad will insist that they cut off the top. My mom will scream bloody murder and get him to cut off the bottom. He will want to cut too much and include the bottom branches. My mom will scream at him that he can't cut those ones off cause they are what makes the bottom of the tree look good. My dad will by then start cursing and screaming and then stomp downstairs. Some years he will have cut the bottom off by then, but other years I have had to do the honors.....
The rest is usually pretty easy. Lights, garland, decorations, tinsel, oh and don't forget to tie the tree up. The stands are usually not to be trusted :)

The fake tree was easy to stand up, however you have to pull down and open up all the branches which was a pain in the arse. The tree itself looks pretty good, my mom spent 400$ or more on it, she said she has been looking for the perfect fake tree for years now.

I guess fake trees are ok, they save a real tree (even though they mostly get cut down from tree farms), but then it doesn't need to be thrown out and go into the landfill or community compost.

fine!

So I was told to blog by 2 out of my 4 loyal followers to blog soon... so I will g.damit.

Um... it's been pretty busy but good. I got a month pass at the Cardel Place up in Coventry, its a fitness/recreation center that has lots of fun things to do.
Mostly I've been playing badminton and ping pong. Oh, how I rock at Ping Pong!! I also have been in the pool, they have a "Lazy river" which basically swirl ls you around with the current of the water. It's super fun! If I win the lottery I am going to build one in my house but it will be twice as fun and ten times as fast.
I am trying to eat better and exercise a bit more. I still need to work on getting more sleep (as I write this at 1:00am).

My dad had to go in for some extensive tests on his heart, and they found that his arteries were pretty blocked up. He had to go in for an angioplasty which is were they put a balloon in your arteries (though your groin to your heart), and when it gets to the blocked part, they inflate it, and put a metal shint in to hold back the blockage. Needless to say the family was a bit uneasy, but I am happy to say that my dad is back home and seems to be doing well. He is trying to quit smoking and I think he realizes that some dietary changes are now required.


I have also been catching up with Season 3 of Dexter. It's still pretty good, but I think the first 2 Seasons were better. I still think it's a great show even though it is taking some heat because of that fanboy freak in Edmonton (i think) who worshipped the show and premise and lured another man to his house to kill and video tape. They caught the guy as far I know, but I don't think they found the body. Remember kids, things on TV shouldn't always be imitated!

I saw"Bolt" the new animated movie. It was pretty good, it took me half the movie to determine that it was John Travolta's voice that was being used for the dog. The movie was funny and pretty touching. The hamster and the poofy evil cat were horribly cute. Totally had an "awwww" factor off the charts.

I finished Fallout 3, it was a bit anticlimatic. I probably could have played the game for another week doing all the side quests, but after I got to the highest possible level (20), I found it a little boring. I did finish the game 3 different was, and part of the cinimatic is different at the end, but the end fight itself was too damn easy. I should have done it without armor and with a NailBoard that the Super mutants drop....

I might still play the game, make another charater, and try going a different path. Maybe I will be evil this time and kill everyone and everything in my path. I might even detonate the bomb in Megaton city and see how that pans out. I don't know how far in the game you can go if you blow up the starting city.

Left 4 Dead is out soon (or now) and it looks promising. I might try that out next. I also saw a trailer for Dead Space, that also looks good as a Scifi Space horror game.