Mix CD #2 - 1/30/10

Dragon Hunters Theme - The Cure
I Like It Rough - Lady Gaga
For Your Entertainment - Adam Lambert
No Direction - Longwave
Use Somebody - Kings of Leon
Why Can't I Be Me? - The Cure
Safety Dance - Men Without Hats
A Sign From God - Cogasm
Sugar Crystals - Airiel
Beat It - Fall Out Boy
Norway - Beach House
They Are Night Zombies!! - Sufjan Stevens
Steppin' Out - Joe Jackson
Night Of The Hunter - 30 Seconds To Mars
Pick Up The Phone - Dragonette
The Affectionate Punch - Associates
Without You - Fauxliage
A White Demon Love Song - The Killers
Fake - The Cure

Under Cover - Mix CD #1 - 1/30/10

Shadowplay (Joy Division cover)- The Killers
Shake The Disease (Depeche Mode cover) - Hooverphonic
Pretty In Pink (Psychedelic Furs cover) - The National
Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics cover) - Bat For Lashes
Teardrop (Massive Attack cover) - Simple Minds
The Killing Moon (Echo & The Bunnymen cover) - Nouvelle Vague
Sex On Fire (Kings of Leon cover) - Alesha Dixon
A Forest (The Cure cover) - British Sea Power
Four Winds (Bright Eyes cover) - The Killers
Faith (The Cure cover) - Nadja
Bizarre Love Triangle (New Order Cover) - Sennen
New Sensation (INXS cover) - Snow Patrol
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper cover) - Starfucker
West End Girls (Pet Shop Boys cover) - We Have Band
The Lovecats (The Cure cover) - The Futureheads
Down In The Park (Gary Numan cover) - Foo Fighters

January Wrap-up

Wow, I guess I had a lot to say in the month of January, judging by the slew of blog entries that I've posted.  Don't worry, this blog entry isn't going to be preachy or snarky, just rambly.

I helped out in the boys' classroom last week because one of the teacher's husband passed away.  He had surgery back in December and everyone thought he was doing really well, so his passing was very unexpected.  They have the same teacher but Xander goes M,W,F, and Zach is there on Tuesday & Thursday.  I was there 3 days last week and I'll be there for 2 this week.  I went to the viewing on Tuesday and they had everything set up beautifully.  Ms. A was standing up at the front and greeting everyone with a smile and a hug.  I don't know how she could smile or laugh at a time like this but she was being so strong.  My heart just goes out to her because I can't imagine being married for 33  years and then all of a sudden the other person is just gone. 

Xander is currently learning how to count to 100 in preparation for Kindergarten next year.  His teacher sent home a note saying that she didn't expect them to be able to count that high but she wants to get them to at least 20.  However, if the student is able to count to 100 all by him/herself they will win a trophy.  Xander is so excited and wants that trophy so badly.  He's also been asking for a Battle Force 5 toy and I told him that if he gets the trophy at school, he'll also get the toy.  I made him flashcards yesterday and he's pretty much got the hang of it, except for 13 because it doesn't sound like the rest of the numbers.  I also have to tell him what 20, 30, & 50 are because he can't remember how to pronounce them.  He's a smart kid.

Zach is learning how to count to 10 for his class.  I know that he can do it because I've heard him count in his room while he's playing.  But when I or his teacher sit down and ask him to count for me, he gets all giggly and won't do it.  He's a lot like my brother in that respect, if he doesn't want to do something then no amount of arguing or bribing will make him.  I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do with him because of this.  If he doesn't want to do it, he won't.  How do you work with or motivate a kid like this?  My mom and brother used to spend hours arguing and yelling at each other.  I don't want to do that with Zach but I find myself getting so frustrated with him sometimes.

Last night, I told Zach that if he wants a toy like Xander then he needs to learn how to count to at least 20.  His response was, "Damn it."  Aaron and I looked at each other and struggled not to laugh because he sounded just like Moss from The IT Crowd.  I wish I had a video camera constantly recording us sometimes because of the funny shit that they say.  We were watching TV a little later in the evening and there was a trailer for the movie Legion.  Xander starts jumping up and down and he says, "There's a spider-grammy!  I want to see that movie!"

I took the boys to get their hair cut yesterday after school and Xander told the lady that he wanted his hair to be short and spikey.  Zach said he didn't want a haircut but he was looking pretty shaggy so I told him he had to get it at least trimmed.  The lady cutting Zach's hair was pretty cool but the one doing Xander's was kind of all over the place.  At one point, she was spraying water on his hair and sprayed it right in his eye.  I wasn't too happy with her but she did a good job on the haircut.  Xander looks so much older with shorter hair.

New & improved hair!

One of the little boys in Xander's class is having a birthday party today so we're going to that later on this afternoon.  Aaron is at Sharepoint Saturday Indianapolis for the day.  This is where I won my Zune last year, although it was in Chicago.  Hopefully he'll win some cool swag, too.  I'm going over to Robbie's later and he's going to run a Star Wars game for me & Randy.  We haven't played the Star Wars campaign since around August or September but luckily for me, I take notes!  Randy is playing a dark jedi named Darth Bril and I'm playing an assassin named Oola.  They are siblings to the characters we played in an alternate game with a larger group of people.

Sunday is our final game for the Curse of the Azure Bonds module.  We will be facing Tyranthraxus in the ultimate showdown, ultimately we hope to win our souls back and be freed from hell.  Barring that, we hope to at least defeat Tyranthraxus and prevent him from entering the Realms.  Details of the final game will be posted!

Randy has already informed me that I am to post blogs about his game when he starts running, which will be after this session.  He has already run a couple of games for me and Rob and I suppose I should post those adventures as well.  But first, I'm going to update my Zune playlist!

Crime and Punishment & Dungeons and Dragons

Someone left a comment over at Dragonmum's blog about Kevin T. Singer, a guy who is being denied his "right" to play D&D because it's been banned in the prison.  The authorities believe that the game could be used to foster "gang-like" behavior and a desire to escape.  The commenter is pro-D&D in prison and says that Singer is "being denied the solace and comfort of letting his mind and his imagination soar while his body is restricted in a cell."  I started to leave my two cents about the whole thing in the comments but decided not to, as it wasn't the original topic of Dragonmum's post to begin with.

First of all, this man was imprisoned for beating and stabbing a man to death.  Prison is supposed to be a punishment and this guy is just lucky that he's not getting the death sentence for taking another man's life.  He is supposed to be confined to a cell, body and soul.  Why should he get to enjoy the things that he used to do when he took another person's life?

The commenter says that he believes the prison system is taking away a useful rehabilitation tool by banning D&D.  He then goes on to say that he doesn't think the U.S. prison system is rehabilitating prisoner's at all and it's a tool to abuse and torture them.  I'm not arguing the fact that D&D could potentially be used as a tool for prisoner rehabilitation however, I don't think prisons have the time or funding to institute it as such.  And I really don't have an opinion on the state of prisons and their failure/success rate on rehabilitating prisoners but I don't think that prisons are a device of torture or degradation.  Although, come to think of it, maybe prisoners - at least the violent ones - need to be tortured and degraded a bit.  But that's a whole different rant.

Could the game itself cause gang-like activity or foster dreams of escape?  Potentially.  I'd like to think that grown men would know the difference between reality and fantasy and that they wouldn't band together and go marauding through the prison.  But then again, you have to wonder about the state of mind of a person who kills another human being in the first place.  I think the prison has a legitimate reason to ban the game.  I also think the man doesn't deserve to play the game.  He's being punished.  Let him be punished by taking away those things that give him enjoyment.  When my kids do something bad, I don't tell them to go to their room and then give them a toy to play with.  It doesn't teach them anything.

If this was a direct attack on the game of Dungeons and Dragons, i.e. the people in prison are there because of D&D, I would gladly sign the petition.  However, I think the prison system is looking at the game as a tool of mentally deranged men who might use it as an excuse for more bad behavior.  And I'll reiterate my previous statement - why should they be allowed to do something they enjoy when they are there to be punished?

We Don't Need Your Us Or Them

"There can be no effective control of corporations 

while their political activity remains." Theodore Roosevelt

Aaron was watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart yesterday and Stewart's guest was Elizabeth Warren, Chair of the Congressional oversight panel for TARP.  Listening to her speak about the big CEOs and Wallstreet was really eye opening.  From what I gathered, they want things to stay the way they are so that they can make the big bucks while grinding the middle and lower classes into the ground.  "The chips are all on the table," Warren added. "We are going to write what the American economy looks like for 50 years going forward. And right now the CEOs have any real change bottled up in the Senate."

If you want to run for political office you have to have some serious money.  The person who raises the most money is the one who gets the backing of the Democratic or Republican party for President.  But are the politicians too rich?  It seems to me like the people that we elect to speak for us are way out of touch with the middle and lower classes.  They don't have to worry about loosing their jobs or living paycheck to paycheck and they are guaranteed excellent health care.

Then you have the lobbyists who contribute money to campaigns and in effect "buy" a politician's vote.  How are America's average citizens supposed to compete with that?  Even if we all wanted a public option on our health care we aren't getting it because Big Business Insurance has lobbyists telling the politicians to vote against it.  It's very frustrating to hear things like the CEOs are stonewalling change and politicians protecting their more lucrative interests rather than the American people.

Should lobbyists and big business be banned from contributing to campaigns?  Should politicians only be allowed to take public money?  Should they have to divest themselves of all outside interest (stocks, chair positions on big business boards, company ownership, etc.) once they are appointed to office to insure their impartiality?  Should more issues be put to a public vote rather than having one person speak for a majority of us?  I'm not a political expert but it seems to me like the system needs a serious overhaul at this point. 

Books, Books, Books

I've been slacking on the book review front so here is a general overview of the last 5 books that I've read.

I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert - I have to admit that I never really cared for Colbert when he was on The Daily Show and I never gave his show, The Colbert Report, a chance because of this.  Having read his book, I think I finally get Colbert's style and it has given me a brand new appreciation of his comic appeal.  His persona is of the ultra-conservative, right-wing persuasion but he takes it to such an extreme that I can't help but laugh at him and his huge leaps of logic seem to work in a really messed up way.  For instance, "A father has to be a provider, a teacher, a role model, but most importantly, a distant authority figure who can never be pleased. Otherwise, how will children ever understand the concept of God?"

Colbert has divided the book into 14 chapters so as to cover all of the important topics facing America today, such as Family, Religion, Homosexuals, Higher Education, Immigrants, and Sports.  He also comments upon what he's written by making notes in the margin of the book and by using footnotes extensively.  One of my favorite uses of this was in his chapter about old people.  He says, "Since seniors can't read this, I can say whatever I want about them."  And then in tiny, tiny font in the margin he says, "They look like lizards."  Whenever Colbert specifically wants to address old people he uses really big fonts.

I have to give Colbert props for this book because there are people out there who will read it and a) think that he's being serious and hate him for it or b) think he's being serious and use his book to back up their own ridiculous arguments.  And then there are people like me who just think he's fucking funny.  I would recommend this book to anyone who gets a kick out of tongue-in-cheek humor.  It's a very quick & easy read, as well. (For more funny quotes, go here.)

P.S. Something that cracked me up to no end was his disparagement of people who borrow books.  He said that under no circumstance was the purchaser of his book to lend it out to anyone.  In fact, because Colbert thinks everyone should own their own copy, the book was not going to be allowed in libraries.  However, I checked it out at my local library. Muwahhahahahahaaa!!!

Broken Music: A Memoir by Sting - I've been wanting to read this book for a while now because I am a big fan of The Police and I've been in love with Sting since I was old enough to listen to his music.  I really didn't know what to expect from this book because I don't read biographies often.  But I'm really glad that I read it because it was fascinating to read about how Sting grew up and what led to his music career.

One thing that I forget about him is that he was born in 1951 and that he's the same age as my dad.  Sting grew up listening to Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles and he got his start playing bass in a local group that played big band & jazz.  Sting's command of prose is very descriptive and I can picture the town of Wallsend, England, where he was born & raised as dark and romantic; with dreary skies and hulking ships blocking out the sun, & the ruined shells of buildings blasted during WW2 still left standing.  I can taste his frustration and excitement at almost making it several times and the struggle that he endures to follow his dreams.

Sting doesn't mention The Police until almost the end of the book, maybe seeing it as the culmination of all that he experienced when he was younger.  A little tidbit that I found very interesting was that Stuart Copeland, the drummer and founder of the Police, is the son of Miles Axe Copeland, Jr., one of the founders of the CIA.  I would recommend this book to anyone who loves the music of Sting and/or The Police.

Micah by Laurell K. Hamilton - This book was only 245 pages long, the shortest Anita Blake book in the series, so I was able to get through it in 2 days.  There was only one sex scene in the book and it was only 20 pages, with the talking about sex after it was done being another 3 pages.  Blake spends the rest of the book in a graveyard, arguing with a judge & a lawyer about whether or not she gets to raise a zombie and dancing around the issue like her pants were on fire.  Hamilton could have written this book with 100 less pages if she had just cut out the crap in the graveyard.  Honestly, any long time reader of the Blake series could have skipped this book and not missed anything.  Anita has sex, Anita argues with everyone in a position of authority, Anita's powers grow stronger and she gains another facet of said power.  Nothing new or earth shattering.  The cover exclaimed NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED and now I know why.  Cause it was pointless.

Danse Macabre by Laurell K. Hamilton - Hamilton starts the book out with a crisis in the making, Anita is potentially preggers!  Gasp!  Now, this is not a route I ever expected Hamilton to take with her main character so I was pretty intrigued.  I could actually feel the shock & fear that Anita feels when her test turns out positive.  Initially Anita decides to keep this little fact secret from the 7 or 8 men that she is currently fucking (I actually can't keep count of all the men she is having sex with) but it gets out in delicious little ways, like her "best friend" snarkily remarking on her having sex in front of the baby or having her mind read.

Hamilton also introduces several other plot lines within the story: there are numerous big bad master vamps in the city; Anita has several strains of lycanthropy in her DNA (something which should be impossible because once you gain one, you become that animal); Anita has a visitation from 2 very powerful master vamps, Belle Morte and Marmee Noir (the mother of all vamps); she's gaining yet another animal to call (lions) and has to potentially choose a Rex to her Regina; she's not actually preggers but her messed up DNA is showing up not only a false positive but the fact that she has both Vlad's syndrome or Mowgli's syndrome even though she's not preggers; Anita potentially has the same ability as Chimera (the ability to shift into several different types of lycanthropes); She has to try to bring Sampson, a siren, into his power's by having sex with him.

I don't know if I'm missing anything because there was so much going on in this book that I thought my brain would explode.  In fact, there was too much going on and Hamilton drops the ball by not wrapping anything up.  Anita has sex so many times that most of the book is filled with the descriptions of her doing the nasty and when Hamilton finally gets to the actual plot lines, its down to the last 50 pages of the book.  The ending is rather anti-climatic in retrospect of all of Anita's actual climaxes.  The fact that Anita has both Vlad's & Mowgli's syndrome is leading to a very obvious place (for me) in that Marmee Noir is both a shifter & a vampire.  Hamilton is setting Blake up to assume that role, too.

Why do I keep reading Hamilton's crap?  I actually have no idea, except that maybe since I've started the series, I feel like I have to finish it.  I also like the idea of Hamilton's characters, if not her execution of them.  Read it, don't read it.  You won't miss much.  Unless you're like I am and you just have to know what happens next, if only to hate it later on.

The Lone Drow by R.A. Salvatore - This is book 2 of The Hunter's Blade Trilogy.  When Salvatore last left off in The Thousand Orcs, Drizzt was under the impression that all of his friends have been killed by orcs.  Instead of actually investigating the fact, Drizzt decides to mope about it and withdraws into the mindset of The Hunter.  The Hunter is a ruthless and brutal killer who only feels hatred and rage for his foes but in reality it kind of reminds me of what I used to do when I was a retarded teen-aged girl and I'd have my heart broken by one boy or another.  I'd say to myself, "I'm the ice girl, I'm the ice girl," and I'd picture myself with a heart of ice that no one could touch.  But in truth, I was emotionally fragile and I'd break just as easily the next time.  Drizzt is just as emotionally retarded and I can't help but hear him going, "I'm the hunter, I'm the hunter," while curled up in a little ball & sobbing his heart out.

Salvatore divides his book up into parts and then breaks each part down into chapters.  At the beginning of each part he has a letter written by Drizzt and it makes me think of Drizzt going, "Dear Diary, today I fell in love with a boy..."  I've skipped over those little preludes to each chapter for a while now.  I don't want to hear about Drizzt's day or how much he hates himself or how he's had his precious ideals shattered once again.  Grow some balls, Drizzt!

I guess my book reviewing has degenerated into snarky bitterness but I just feel like at some point, Drizzt should realize that a) the world is not perfect and b) neither is he.  I still like Regis & the rest of Salvatore's characters but the levity of his previous books is missing from this book and honestly, it's been missing from the Drizzt books for a while.

I'm currently reading The Two Swords, book 3 in The Hunter's Blade Trilogy.

D&D Reality Show

So I guess there is a D&D reality show in the works. It features this guy, who runs adventures for a merry group of porn stars. Should be interesting. I wonder what channel it will be on or if it will be an internet-only show.  The show should go a long way for the game's image.  Or for the geek image, I guess.  Hot chicks playing D&D!  What could be cooler than that?

I've been reading his blog for about a month now and it seems like he runs a pretty serious D&D game.  Serious, for all intents & purposes, meaning that I don't think this is a gimmick.  They still act goofy and crack up just like my group does but he and his players really seem to enjoy the game.  He seems to really know the game and to be a good DM.

BTW, he's asked for help to name the show.  It can't have the words D&D or dungeons & dragons in the title.  I suggested "Babes & Broadswords".  Some of my favorite suggestions by others are "6d9", "Between The Character Sheets", & "The Real Gamers of San Fernando Valley".

Someday...

Let's Talk About Sex

This is reference to a post made by Rachel.  She linked a blog post about kids not being the victims of sexual acts when they're younger if they don't feel like they are and I don't know that I'd agree with it.  

I was molested by an older neighbor boy & an older cousin when I was little and while I was too young to understand what was going on (I was around 3 or 4 w/the cousin & 5 w/the neighbor), it still made me uncomfortable.  And both boys threatened me & my parents with violence if I ever told anyone about, which scared the hell out of me.

It really screwed up how I viewed myself and I spent years when I was older covering myself up so that boys wouldn't like me.  I never wanted that shit to happen again.  It wasn't until I had my very first sexual relation at the age of 19 that I realized how deeply it affected me. 

I never told anyone, so it wasn't some stranger or my parents making me feel like a victim.  I just knew, subconsciously maybe, that somehow what those boys were doing was wrong.  It wasn't until I was much older that my mom found out and it was totally by mistake and to this day, I still don't think she believes me.

I don't really think that kids have a full understanding of sex or intimacy and that without that understanding, they can't consent to it.  Granted, there are some adults who don't understand sex or intimacy but the law says that at a certain age, a person is capable of making that choice & therefore legal.

One of the arguments posed by some pedophiles is that kids are naturally curious about sex and that we shouldn't stifle their curiosity, that we should nurture it.  I agree that kids would be curious about sex but that doesn't mean you should have sex with them.  Answer questions, yes.  Let them know that sex is more than just some physical action and that there are emotional responses as well.  Explain things to them but also make sure you explain the consequences of it, like pregnancy and STD's.

Kids are going to be confused when growing up with such conflicted messages flying around.  Almost everything on television is hyper-sexualized.  They can't turn on a cartoon without seeing the chicks drawn with big boobs and the commercials can't sell anything without sex.  But at the same time, no one wants to talk about sex and how to be responsible.  You have those who teach abstinence and refuse to give out birth control and the teens end up preggers.    

Children had to grow up a lot faster in the past, when life spans were shorter.  So if you were going to die when you were 40, you'd better start having kids when you were 12 or 13 to make sure they were old enough to care for themselves when you died.  But times have changed and kids, at least in America and other 1st world countries, have the luxury of being children for a lot longer.

I'm not saying that kids are dumb.  I'm just saying that for a long period of time, kids are like sponges and they absorb anything and everything that they hear and see.  They need parental guidance to help them sort out what is right and wrong in what they are taking in.  Granted, most parents these days are pretty fucked up but it's our responsibility to teach the children well and let them lead the way.  Show them all the beauty they posses inside.  Give them a sense of pride to make it easier. (Sing it, sister!)

I may have gone off on a tangent from what Rachel and that other dude were talking about.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that I still think children are the victims when someone older does anything sexual towards them, whether the kid feels that way or not.  I get that the experience after the fact, the counseling and the questioning by authorities and/or parents maybe more traumatizing than the actual act but that doesn't make it any less worse.  I also understand that some kids mature faster than others but that's why we have the laws in place, to protect those who can't protect themselves.

The "Contr​overs​ial" Surve​y

[01] Do you have the guts to answe​r these​ questions and re-​​post as The Contr​overs​ial Surveyy?​​
It's not a question of having the "guts" but rather the attention span to complete the survey.

[02] Would​ you do meth if it was legalized?​​
No.  I doesn't sound appealing and it does some fucked up shit to your body.  I'll stick to over-eating & binge drinking, thank you very much.

[03] Abort​ion:​​ for or again​st it?
For.  There are circumstances where a woman should have the choice, i.e. incest, rape, life or death medical issues.

[04] Do you think​ the world​ would​ fail with a female president?​
The world or the United States?  As long as it's not Sarah Palin, I think that America would do just fine with a female president except for all the bullshit bi-partisan games that get played. 

[05] Do you belie​ve in the death​ penal​ty?​​
Yes. Child molesters and rapists also need to be made eligible for the death penalty.

[06] Do you wish marijuana would​ be legalized already?​​
I really don't care one way or another.  It might help with some of the prison overcrowding and in this economy, the money spent in relation to marijuana related cases could be directed elsewhere.

[07] Are you for or again​st premarital sex?
Ummm...my first child was born 2 months before I got married.  What do you think?

[08] Do you believe in God?
No.  I believe that the Christian god is just one more step in the religious myths to keep people from doing bad things.  It doesn't really work, though because people still do bad shit but as long as they say, "I'm sorry" and give money to the church, then it's all ok. 

[09] Do you think​ same sex marriage should be legalized?​​
Yes.  Gay people have just as much right to be miserable as the rest of us :)

[10] Do you think​ it's wrong​ that so many Hispanics are illegally moving to the USA?
Yes. I understand that they want a better way of life but they need to follow the proper channels to do so.

[11] A twelv​e year old girl has a baby,​​ should she keep it?
Depends.  Does she have the support and guidance of a responsible guardian?  Then yes.  Is she going to try to raise it while she herself is being raised by alcoholic or abusive guardians, then no.

[12] Should the alcohol age be lower​ed to eighteen?​
No. Some argue that if it's legal, it will loose the glamorous taboo identity that so fascinate teens. But I think that today's teens are much more irresponsible and so out of control that adding alcohol to that fire would create a disastrous situation.  Can you tell I'm getting old?

[13] Should the war in Iraq be called off?
Yes. America should have never been in Iraq in the first place.

[14] Assisted suicide is illegal:​​ do you agree​?​​
No.  There are extenuating circumstances where I think it should be allowed, i.e. terminal illness. But there need to be safeguards in place to keep emo teens from wanting to kill themselves because the mean kids at school were picking on them again.

[15] Do you believe in spanking your children?​​
Yes. I think more kids need to be spanked.  See above rant about spoiled teenagers.

[16] Would​ you burn an American flag for a million dollars?​​
I'd burn just about anything for $1m.

[17] Who do you think​ would​ make a better president?​​ McCain or Obama​?​​
Well, I voted for Obama so draw  your own conclusions right there.

[18] Are you afraid other​s will judge​ you from reading some of your answers?​​
Not really.  I don't think I said anything was that controversial.

Curse Of The Azure Bonds Game 7

When we last left off, our intrepid band of heroes were surrounded by 5 chromatic dragons and facing off with an evil (18th level!) wizard.  "See," exclaims Dracandros, "I told you they were here to kill you!"  And then Robbie told us to make a save.  Part of the curse of the tattoos is that the creator can use it to compel us.  At that point, we'd gotten rid of 3 of the 5 tattoos but Dracandros' mark was still upon us.  Fortunately for us, all 4 of us were able to make our saves and we did not attack the dragons.  At which point Blackberry yelled to the wizard, "You're going DOWN!!!"

Dracandros, frightened for his life and rightfully so, cast dimension door and escaped, leaving us alone with the dragons.  The red dragon, the biggest and meanest of the bunch told us that he could not harm the wizard but that if we killed him, our lives would be sparred.  As long as we didn't take any of the treasure.  "And I will know if you steal any of it," snarled the ancient Red, looking directly at Blackberry.

yup, something like that

The only way to leave the roof of the tower was for the black dragon to melt a hole in it with his acid breath weapon & the white dragon froze it to create a slide down into the tower.  (Weeeee!)  Upton said the he thought Dracandros had been there recently so Samsung cast invisibility purge.  Luck was with us because Dracandros was indeed in the room, trying to sneak down the stairs.  

Blackberry quickly moved to attack and Edrick, the paladin, moved to the flanking position.  Both Edrick and Blackberry scored hits upon Dracandros and Upton tried to cast lightning bolt but it got reflected back at Upton.  Dracandros yelled something out to the dragons and then dropped a fireball right on himself.  Of course, Dracandros was wearing a magical circlet that gave him immunity to the fireball & allowed him to heal most of the damage we did.  It was also the reason Upton's lightning bolt was turned back.

not a nice guy

I kept waiting for the roof of the tower to be torn off and for 5 angry dragons to storm in and kill us all.  Instead, the green dragon dropped down into the room with his head torn off and there were sounds of fighting from above.  Blackberry held her action so that if Dracandros were to cast a spell, she would attack thus breaking his concentration and adding damage to his defensive casting DC.  Samsung gave us all aids (he cast aid on us) and Edrick hit Dracandros several more times, dropping his hit points into the negative digits.  

After Samsung delivered the killing blow, at which point our 4th tattoo disappeared, we heard a sibilant voice from the rooftop, requesting parlay.  We thought it was the ancient red but it was in actuality, Grimdrac, a dracolich that had stopped by to join the party.  Not our party, but the party party.  You know, like with balloons and cake?  But in this instance, it was more like death & mayhem but no cake.  Although cake would have been nice.  Good times.  We actually had him to thank for killing all of the dragons on the rooftop.

Upton has silver dragon heritage in his blood lines, so he was able to negotiate the terms of the parlay so that Grimdrac wouldn't eat us when he decided the conversation was over.  He created force steps for us and we warily climbed back up to the rooftop.  Grimdrac then demanded that the elven paladin attack him.  There was a moment of hesitation, when we all basically said, "what the fuck?" but being inherently good and the dracolich was most definitely evil, Edrick complied.

Edrick killed Grimdrac (hooray experience!) without any retaliation from the dracolich at all.  Then we all noted something odd about Upton but we couldn't place it.  Samsung asked Upton if he wanted to get drunk but Upton refused and the jig was up.  The dracolich had possessed Upton but instead of Upton's soul being sucked into Grimdrach's phylactery to be destroyed, it remained in the body so that the dracolich did not have complete control. 

We tried to convince Grimdrac to give Upton back because the 5th tattoo still remained and would give an evil demon control of the body he was inhabiting.  Grimdrac made the mistake of letting us know he could only enter a body that had draconic heritage & then he tried to run away but Edrick tackled him & being the practical and smart halfling that she is, Blackberry cut Upton's throat.  

Blackberry's reasoning was that A) Grimdrac couldn't posses any of us because we didn't have draconic heritage B) The dracolich was probably like a virus and couldn't survive outside of a body for long C) So we just had to wait for a bit and then use our rod of restoration to bring Upton back as he was before the dracolich possessed him.  Turns out this was a good thing because if Edrick had knowingly allied with the dracolich, he would have lost his paladin hood.  Although, I'm sure Blackberry could have found it cause she's good at finding things.

there it is!

And then the EFREET (Happy Randy? BTW, Firefox spell checker doesn't like the way YOU spelled it, either) appeared into the room.  He told us that if we found his urn he would grant us 2 wishers and I became very uncomfortable.*

*i've probably told this story before but In a game session a long, long time ago, my character was given a chance to make a wish.  I agonized over the wording for at least 15 minutes because my DM is very particular about granting the wish to the letter.  I became so distraught and nervous that I exclaimed, without thinking, I WISH YOU GUYS WOULDN'T TRUST ME WITH THIS!!!  And of course, the party has never trusted me with a wish ever again, no matter what the setting is or the characters being played.

Fortunately for all involved, Blackberry was not the one to be making the wishes. While searching for the EFREET's urn, the party found a second identical urn.  I thought it was some nefarious trick of Dracandros' to protect the real urn so that it couldn't be stolen from him but Samsung decided to rub both urns.  Turns out that Dracandros had 2 EFREETs and the other one promised us 3 wishes if we destroyed his brother's urn.

Samsung searched the library for a book on EFREETs so that he could determine if they would go home after making all of the wishes or if they would be freed.  In doing so, he found a tome of understanding +2, a tome of clear thought +3, a tome of leadership +4, a book that summoned an earth elemental of which Samsung has control, & a DECK OF MANY THINGS!!!!  Robbie has been waiting a long time to put a deck of many things in his game because he knows that I will want to play with it.  However, Samsung has it and Blackberry was condemned to hell for playing with a magical item that possessed her and made her kill a lot of people, so she's hesitant to play with the deck.  Although it would be fun...

And this blog is getting really freaking long so to wrap things up, Samsung wished for Upton to be resurrected, knowledge on how to defeat Tyranthraxus, & for each EFREET to be returned to it's urn and then Edrick smashed both urns.

We gained 2 levels from our encounter with Dracandros, bringing us up to 9th level and we've gained many cool magical items.  Our next game session will take place at the Pool of Radiance in Myth Drannor, where we will create a one way portal into hell and we will confront Tyranthraxus in an ultimate climax of awesomeness.

To Wish Impossible Things

I usually play D&D every other Sunday but due to some scheduling conflicts, we played last night and the guys came out to my house because Aaron had one of his programming meet-ups. *details of the adventure coming up in a separate blog!  It was kind of nice to not have to drive home after a long game session but I ended up staying up until 11:30 PM anyway.  Bleh.   

I made chili for the guys because we didn't have a whole lot of time and they wouldn't have to stop for food on the way out.  I was a little nervous about cooking for them because both Rob & Eric have cooked for us and their food was super yummy but they all seemed to like the chili.

I thought the boys did really well while the guys were here.  They hear me talk about playing D&D and they've met Rob before so whenever I say I'm going to Rob's house, they always want to go with me.  Xander really wants to play D&D with us but he's only 5.  I told the boys that they had to watch movies in my room while we were playing because I didn't want them to bother the guys.  Of course, they wanted to be out in the living room with us because we were obviously having fun but they listened to me for the most part.

At one point, Xander told me that he thought he was going to throw up.  I kind of felt that maybe he was doing that for the attention but he really didn't sleep very well last night.  He's been coughing & he started running a fever around 3 AM.  I think he caught Zach's cold but he seems to be doing better today.

My stomach started hurting around 2:30 AM and I woke up with a headache.  I think it's because of nerves.  I've been feeling kind of anxious and jittery the last couple of days and I don't really know why.  It's like I feel this underlying sense of worry but there isn't really anything going on.  Things aren't nearly as bad right now as they were this time of last year.

I wish I could have a weekly D&D game at my house but I live too far away from all of the gamers that I know.  Aaron doesn't really like to play D&D, or rather he wouldn't mind playing that once a month but he'd like to play other types of games, too.  It really wouldn't be fair of me to kick him out of the house every week so that we could play D&D and I don't foresee any of my friends driving out to my house once a week.  Le sigh.

Curse of The Azure Bonds Game 6

It's been a few weeks since we last played so I might leave things out but here's a rundown of our last Curse of the Azure Bonds D&D session.  It was almost our last but the wizard and my halfling rogue saved the party! 

After dividing up the treasure from the last encounter and leveling up our character sheets we ventured off to Haptooth Hill.  We were there to confront Dracandros, the Red Wizard of Thay who was responsible for the 4th tattoo.  We traveled through the forest to come upon the sight of chromatic dragons of every color circling a tower on the hill.

As we ventured into the small town at the base of the hill we decided to stop at the church of Lythander since it was fast growing dark.  There we learned that the town was being besieged by drow, who were taking the towns people to feed to the dragons.  The Paladin wanted to stay in town and fight the drow but several of us argued against it, seeing it as a ruse to waste our time instead of fighting the true source, the wizard of Thay.

The priest of Lathandor told us that we could stay there for the evening and the dwarf & the human decided to rest while Eldrick Eric Emenrick Rick James the elven paladin & Blackberry, the brave halfling ranger/rogue (ranogue?), kept watch.  It was a good thing, too because there came a loud pounding on the door.  Blackberry inquired in her politest voice as to who was at the door but instead of answering, they used magic to simply unlock the door, which is cheating, by the way.  Where is the fun in simply saying "blah" & wiggling your fingers to open a lock?  Where's the artistry?  The romance?

So anyway, it turns out that a party of drow wanted into the church to collect money from the townspeople.  Instead they met a brave group of adventurers who KICKED THEIR ASS!  But first, the leader of the drow was giving the elven paladin a hard time & then they shot him with their sleepy time darts.  Being an elf, he didn't have a very good resistance to sleep poison the way he does to magical sleep.  So then it was up to Samsung the dwarven cleric, Upton the human wizard, & Blackberry, slayer of drow and other annoying and icky bad things.

There they were, surrounded by 50 drow (more like 7 or 8), one of whom was a fearsome wizard and they were all armed with their evil sleep poison.  The fighting was fierce and at one point, Blackberry was enveloped in a circle of darkness and assaulted by a sneaky drow fighter who had blind fight (also cheating!).  Thankfully, Blackberry was able to escape the darkness with little damage where she began to stalk the terrible wizard.

At this point the drow fighter turned his hateful gaze towards Upton, the courageous and wonderful (and perpetually drunk) wizard who traveled with Blackberry.  However, the drow was unable to harm Upton, thanks to the wonderful magical bracers (+8!) that we had acquired in Zhentil Keep.  Upton cast a really pretty spell on the drow wizard (glitterdust) & not only did Upton pass the drow's spell resistance, the drow critically failed his save and was permanently blinded (Awesome!).  The drow wizard knew that Blackberry was close so he dropped a fireball on himself, in the hopes that he wouldn't penetrate his own spell resistance and he did not (Boo!).  Fortunately, Blackberry has the reflexes of a large jungle cat and was able to evade the fireball, taking no damage (Hooray!).

In the meantime, the drow fighter had killed Samsung and he tried to jump over him but tripped over the dwarf instead and fell flat on his face.  Upton was able to move past him (he did stop to kick the drow for good measure) to give Samsung a potion to cure him.  Thankfully, Samsung was wearing a periapt of wound closure, so that he was stable without any further damage and he jumped up and killed the drow fighter.  Blackberry dispatched the drow wizard and the other 75 drow rogues who were trying to kill the party dead, while mercifully sparring 2 of the pitiful creatures for questioning.

The elf slept the whole time.  He looked really cute while he was sleeping but we woke him up.  Then Samsung said, "Can I borrow your sword?" And the elf said, "Umm...why?" and Samsung said, "Cause I'm gettin' some answers." Apparently, the elf thought that was a good enough answer cause he gave it to Samsung.  And then Samsung chopped off the head of one of the drow prisoners and the other drow told us everything we needed to know.  

So then we had to go to a barn & there we talked to an Frittie (Efreet) and he told us that he couldn't help us but that he wasn't there to stop us.  Then we played 20 questions until we asked the right question and the Frito (Efreet) teleported us to the top of Haptooth Hill.  There was an old man there who started yelling for help and then he ran off and we followed him only to be surrounded by the chromatic dragons and he says, "See!  I told you they were here to kill you!"  And the dragons looked at all of us, the old man included, like we were snacks and while I'm sure that I'm a...I mean Blackberry is quite tasty, she doesn't really want to be eaten.

And then the session ended until next time...

Snow Day!

I took the boys sledding last Friday because school had been canceled but we weren't there very long.  We walked to the hill from our house, which on a good day is 10 minutes but through the snow, while wearing snow pants & boots...the boys didn't do so well. 

The hill was pretty steep so the had a hard time getting back up & I would fall on my ass every time I'd try to help them up.  There was a group of pre-teen girls there who ended up helping them.  The girls would hold the boys' hands while they would walk up the hill & carry their sleds for them.  It was cute.

There was another hill that wasn't as steep but it hadn't been used so the snow was too deep.  I sat on one of the sleds & scooched the whole way down the hill, trying to make a decent path for the boys.  I ended up with a wet crotch instead and my butt went numb.  

At one point, Xander's boot fell off and his sock was covered in snow.  We gave up after about a 1/2 an hour because the boys were already exhausted from the walk there & going up and down the hill plus we had to walk BACK to the house.

When we got home, the neighbor kids were outside so we went to their house for a few minutes.  While we were over there, Xander made a snow angel.

My ass was pretty frozen & both boys were soaked so I made them go back in the house after another 10 minutes and then we had hot chocolate w/marshmallows.

What's Happenin' Hot Stuff?

So I've been slacking on the blogging front.  You can blame my mom for that.  She's the one who got me Dragon Age for Christmas.  Now, I'd rather be killing things than blogging.  But Aaron's monopolizing the TV right at the moment, the kids are fed & bathed, & the house is relatively clean so I might as well blog.

(Have I ever mentioned how cool Mozilla Firefox is?  It spell checks what I type without me having to first Google the word if I'm not sure how to spell it.  See!  It did it again!  I wrote google but Firefox said, "Hey dumb ass, it's Google.  Like, with a capital G."  Awesome!)

So Christmas was nice.  We went to Ohio to visit the in-laws on Christmas Eve.  My dad came over Christmas morning & then we went to my mom's for Christmas dinner.  Lots of travel but the boys liked the fact that Santa visited all of the same places before we did & just happened to leave them presents.  Xander was super happy about getting the Bat Cave.  He kept saying, "I really wanted this!"  Both boys were thrilled with all the Lego sets that they got but they could have cared less about the clothing.  Zach was like, "I didn't ask Santa for shirts.  What the hell?"  (He didn't really say "What the hell?" but I could tell he was thinking it.  He's polite for a 4 year old.)

I don't really think I was very nice this year but somehow I managed to score $80 in Applebee's gift cards, a $50 Cracker Barrel gift card, Dragon Age, a dark gray cardigan, a car kit for my Zune, slippers, some lotion from Bath & Body Works, & Yahtzee.  

I went to Rob's on Saturday for a quick D&D session and some drunken Rock Band 2.  Randy ran a quick game for us to introduce our characters to one another.  My character info can be found in a previous blog.  Randy's game is going to be superhappyfuntimes (Firefox doesn't like that word) and I can't wait to play.  We played RB2 and drank until the wee hours of the morning, when I decided life would be better if I was lying down on the couch.  Then the vomiting began.  It was not fun.  I didn't leave Rob's until around 9:30 AM & I vomited twice on the way home.  And then I vomited next the garbage cans by my house.  My neighbors saw that &  I'm never going to live it down, either.  I spent the rest of the day in bed.  

The following week after Christmas wasn't that interesting.  I took the boys to see the new Alvin & The Chipmunks movie and wondered why Jason Lee hasn't committed suicide.  I mean, Heath Ledger had a very promising career (OK, A Knight's Tale wasn't a great movie but damn it, I LIKED it) and he killed himself (oh yes he did, I don't care what Wikipedia says).  But Jason Lee has starred in not one, but two Chipmunk movies and he doesn't have the decency to just end the humiliation.

My friend Breanne was in town for the week and I got to meet up with her to have lunch at Steak & Shake on New Year's Eve.  I told everyone via Facebook status that I would be at the S&S on the west side but some people were to lazy to show up (RACHEL).  The boys & I hung out with my mom for a bit after lunch and went to Half Price Books.  My dad offered to watch the boys for us so I dropped them off at his apartment after we got done at HPB.  I really hate driving on the west side of Indy/Avon.  It's way too fucking crowded over there now.

I stopped at Applebee's on the way home to use some of my gift cards & picked up dinner for Aaron & I.  He had candles lit when I got home and he had a dozen red roses and a box of Dove chocolates waiting for me.  We had a very nice, romantic dinner and a quick cuddle and then we went over to my neighbor's house.  Actually we were in their garage.  To be fair, it's a big garage and they had a wood burning stove keeping it warm, an HDTV hooked up, and an improvised stripper pole but it's not quite how I expected to spend the evening.  And contrary to popular belief and lots of peer pressure, I did NOT get drunk on New Year's Eve.  I could still taste the pizza that I had thrown up the weekend before & I did NOT want a repeat performance of that.

My dad brought the boys back on Friday and Zach spent the rest of the night, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning throwing up.  At first I thought he had partied too hard with my dad and was hungover (from a sugar high, assholes.  My dad isn't irresponsible enough to give the boys alcohol.  He'll wait until they're at least 7 or 8.).  I made cheese burgers & tater tots for dinner on Sunday and if I'd known that it was coming back up a few hours later, I totally would've made something else for dinner.  Not that anything tastes good when you puke it up, but some foods have a better texture for vomiting.  Tomato soup, for instance, slides right out.  Aaron & I spent Sunday night and all of Monday feeling awful, throwing up, & having explosive diarrhea.  Xander also got sick Sunday night but being the awesome kid that he is, he woke me up to tell me that he had to vomit and then he made it into the bathroom and puked in the toilet instead of his bed and he was only sick the one time.

It was back to the same old shit on Tuesday.  Woke up, took Zach to school, cleaned the house, etc.  Aaron went back to work even though he was still feeling like he had been run over by a semi-truck.  I did get rid of the cat.  It was a hard decision because even though he was a righteous bastard, I liked him.  But he wouldn't stay in the house and as a result he was dirty and I didn't want him bringing fleas and/or worms in.  He also made the house very dirty (more than the boys) and he was tearing it up on the outside.  And he bit Zach, although Zach probably deserved it cause he was always messing with the cat.  Still, my house feels 10 times cleaner now that he's gone.  I guess I'm not a cat person anymore.  Which sucks cause I have a cat tattoo on my left wrist. 

Imma Gaymur

I received a couple of XBOX 360 games for Christmas.  Here's a little review of both.

Lego Rock Band (LRB)- This game is awesome.  The boys like to play Rock Band 2 (RB2) with me but since they are only 4 and 5, it's kind of hard for them.  RB2 does have a no fail mode but you can't save any of your game progress while using it.  LRB gets rid of the no fail mode and gives you the super easy option instead.  In super easy mode, you only have to strum the guitar & you don't have to worry about hitting the correct color.  The drums have an automatic kick pedal and as long as you are making noise into the microphone, you'll score a 100% on vocals and all progress is saved.  And if you mess up badly on a song, instead of failing & ending the song, you loose 'studs' (which are LRB's equivalent of money) and you have the chance to earn them back as you continue the song.  

LRB has challenges for each venue that you play in.  So far we've had to demolish a building with our music (which inspired a great quote from my kids, Zach: How do we knock down the building? Xander: By playing really awesome.), scare away some creepy ghosts by playing Ray Parker, Jr.'s Ghostbusters theme song, & get rid of some pesky octopii while aboard a pirate ship (although, I really wouldn't mind it if we had an octopus drummer).  You also unlock different vehicles that drive you to the different venues, minifigures such as a vampire or fireman, & you can customize your rock den.

I can export all of the songs into RB2 but I'm not sure if I can play RB2 songs in LRB yet.  I know that all of the RB1 songs that I have are playable in LRB so I would think the same would be true of RB2 songs.  I just haven't exported any songs yet.  I don't see why we would go back to RB2 if this is the case just because it is so easy for the boys to play along.

Dragon Age is like Diablo II for the XBOX 360, only with better graphics and story lines.  My only complaint about this game is that there weren't any free demos.  I would've loved to have been able to play the game for an hour to figure out how it works, instead of the 6 hours that I wasted the first time I played.  Of course, if I was smart, I would've gone online to read about playing the game.  I had to make a new character and start over after I got the hang of how the game worked but I was able to choose a different race & class, so the beginning of the game was different from the first time I played.  I wasn't too far into the game the first time so I only had to repeat 2 of the actual quests.  

I would like to say that I'll continue on with the city elf rogue that I made and beat the game but if Diablo II is any indication, I'll never beat the game.  I'm already itching to make another character, maybe a Dalish elf mage this time.