Lots of things caught my eye on the internet this month, and with the month drawing to a close, i figured I would share a couple of them.

First of all, my new wallpaper, on all 4 (soon to be more) of my computers.

Then there is a dramatic reading of a real break-up letter. I nearly pissed myself laughing at this one.

Thanks to Sweetney, I now know the joy of Cake Wrecks.

I have two new favorite Facebook Apps: Send Pokemon (which i am sure drives all my friends crazy) and D&D: Tiny Adventures, which is just all together awesome fun if you are into D&D at all. Search for either one of them if you are interested.

I am collecting as many pictures as I can of the camping trip and I will do a nice video montage of them later to the tune of "Take Me Higher"...stay tuned for that one.

Got back yesterday from the LOA Camping Trip. Had a fabulous time, but at the same time it was great to get home and see my wife and son. Rather than write the whole blog post, I will just copy my post from the LOA Forums.

Walking up to the campsite for the first time was a surreal experience for me. Kamui and I walked up and Methus was there right away to make us feel at home. Got our tents set up and lamented at how small mine was (I had tent envy all weekend, but thanks to FireEyes I don't think mine was the smallest). With my tent set up, I turned around and there was Solf with some happy juice. (I was amused at the name happy juice until saturday morning when I decided that happy juice and myself were no longer friends)

Friday night was lots of handshakes, more than a few laughs (McLovin...heh), and I failed/shamed my fellow canadians by heading in for some sleep before everyone else. (America 1, Canada 0)

Saturday morning came much faster than I expected, the fire was already going by the time I crawled out of my tent. More conversations went on while I stared at the flames trying to wake up.
Saturday afternoon came around and it was time for River Wars 2008. We headed down and I got into the raft with the Geek Squad (Patent Pending). We were weaponless, had 4 people, 3 paddles (one of them broken), but that wouldn't stop us from getting into the fray. For the first bit, we approached a heavily armed raft and began the attack. (Jerith|Tony fell out during that exchange, and Livvy got some pictures so I imagine they will surface eventually). We beat a hasty retreat, and decided that the lead boat needed to be attacked. We headed down river to begin the attack, and felt the pain of not having any weapons once again. We decided that there was only one thing we could do, and headed back to the other rafts to call a truce and see if we could procure a weapon or two. We got a little more wet (i'm not sure how that was possible) and Kamui got pulled overboard but Demeth's boat was nice enough to lend us a weapon which we immediately put to use by attacking them (i got a little talking to for that so we decided to put our new weapon to the test against the lead raft again). The attack was successful, with Brimstone almost losing an eye thanks to a well placed shot by Kamui. I could go on and on with this but take my word when I say it was a blast.
Back at the camp we dried off and hung out until poker. Our table moved the action around an awful lot and I took the early chip lead (it didn't last). We were sure Brimstone was going to be sporting a new cowbell before the night was through, but he slow-played it like a pro and spent as much time as possible away from the table, and managed to just be second out. Kayelle was collared and took it all in stride, I didn't last too far past that point either. The cards were amazing quality (thanks Brim).
Saturday night was more drinking, some more shots, and a great time. I went to my tent around midnight to take a little break and woke up at 8 in the morning on Sunday. (America 2, Canada 0)

Sunday was bittersweet for me. Seeing people pack up and head out, it was hard to deny that the trip was coming to a close. Thank god we had creed playing all morning to lift our spirits (or "Take Me Higher" as some would say). Brimstone saved the day with his Durango (my hero).
Went for a swim and got to show off my amazing football skillz (was it just me, or were there far too many warm pockets of water?). After that it was drying off, lunch and then Jerith|Tony ran his 1st Annual Dungeons and Dragons adventure. It was great fun, and everyone who played got some nice trophies. (Dice, dice bag, clipboard, character sheet, pencil, and power cards...everything a gamer needs).
I learned how to play dominos and 4 wins later I was just about ready to proclaim myself domino grand champion of the words. I was put in my place though.
After that was hanging around the camp fire, telling jokes (horrible, horrible, jokes...) and just generally hanging out. I made sure to not head to my tent until absolutely everyone else had head in to theirs though (America 2, Canada 1)

Monday we took off, and the drive home seemed so much longer than the drive there. Can't wait for next year.

Some other memories:

- Pamela becoming the new offical spokesperson for Alexander Keiths India Pale Ale
- As soon as the Beer Bitch was named, Brimstone yelling "I'M ALL IN!"
- Those two people at the campfire making out and groping each other. (they were going at it so long I thought they were paid entertainment)
- Kamui's face when he was first named McLovin (and every other time he was called McLovin for that matter)
- Those potatoes sunday night, I don't know who cooked them (Lady A? Livvy? Pam? FireEyes? God?) but whoever it was, TEACH ME!

As usual with this sort of thing, I brought a camera but didn't take a single picture. I would just much rather be out there having fun than hanging back with a camera. As such, no pictures yet, but I am collecting all the pictures I have and I will upload them to Picasa in the next day or two.

So a member of my guild (LOA) has a sister who is trying to win this Pepsi Superfan contest over at Much Music. I figured I would throw a link up on my blog so that my three readers could help her out. You get one vote a day, and if you don't vote then the dreaded Ashley could win, which I think we can all agree would be a travesty.

My weekly gaming days have been re-branded. Although the activity curriculum stays the same, they are no longer "D&D Game Night", they are now "Tactical Playtime Training Days". In the words of our almighty leader:

"Let us band together with the one singular vision of creating a world based on the simple ideology of making fun the top priority."

- Dr. Steel

I also made buttons! These will be given out at the next gaming day (tuesday), with encouragement to spread the message.

I haven't posted in quite a while. Spent some time down near Toronto, and then had a bit of a lazy week. My 4th ed. Campaign is still in full swing, with the characters nearly at 4th level now. Matrix Online has fallen to the wayside, and isn't going to be continued next month. Money is tight so I doubt I will be getting into anything else until at least October. Some highlights from the last week and a bit.

• 4th Ed. D&D, obviously the campaign is still going, with "Flakey Friend" not having flaked out on me yet. (Unprecedented)
• Began playing a TT/TD Game over MSN of Qin: The Warring States, and I highly suggest that you check out this game if you like Warring States period fiction (Movies such as Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, House of Flying Daggers, Etc.)
• Added something like 20 new pokemon to my Pokemon Diamond Pokedex
• Rekindled my devotion to Dr. Steel (who is now on twitter)
• Added new blogs to my bloglines
• Finally saw The Dark Knight, and also finally saw Wanted.
  

Aside from that, my time has been spent preparing new material for Dungeons and Dragons, and working (which definately takes up most of my time).

I have a nice new computer set-up, having taken my computer from the office (which I need for as long as I am helping out with tech support still). I now have a nice little home office, with two personal computers and two work computers.

As an aside, I am not entirely sure that House of Flying Daggers is set during the Warring States period, but the abilities of the characters are very similar to those of the Wu Xia showing in Hero and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Those two are specifically mentioned in the "Sources of Inspiration" section of the book, along with a lot of titles that may or may not have made it to the western world. (A personal favorite is The Emperor and the Assassin)

In the last post about the Rock Band drum kit, I mentioned that I would put up a video, so here it is.

I went out yesterday and bought some new dice. I am hoping they will be ready for playing by tuesday, but you never can tell with dice. Dice, like the gamers who use them, are all different. They have different personalities, some dice roll extremely well in practice, but during a game they choke under the pressure. Some dice roll badly because they have been treated badly, or because they were introduced into a setting with dice they don't like. I prefer not to take those kind of chances, and I don't let my dice mingle until they have gotten to know me and I have earned their trust.

I have a friend who once put his dice in a torture chamber for bad behavior. The chamber was a small glass box filled with coke, and I think he may have left them in their for over a year. While I don't condone such practices, I can see where he is coming from. I myself have hurled dice into a woodstove for bad rolls, and have more than once thrown them out the window and into traffic.

A lot of people have rituals for breaking in new dice. I always store mine with the high value up for at least an hour a day after getting them. I talk to them sometimes, and I like to carry them in my pockets for a few days before using them for the first time. I hardly ever do any practice rolls with them, I like to save it for the game, and I don't introduce new dice into my dice bag until they have become old dice.

For this particular set of dice, I have constructed a treasure chest to be their home. I use the word constructed loosely, because what I have actually done is taken a red plastic treasure chest and painted it.That's it. For the next two or three weeks I won't use dice other than these new ones, and I won't let these new ones see my old dice. Once we understand each other, I will begin introducing my older dice one at a time, so as not to stress out the new ones too much.

It's been a few days since I updated, which is something I hoped to avoid (but ultimately knew would happen, for I am notoriously lazy (not to be confused with notorious B.I.G....who is dead)).. A lot has happened on the geek front, so I will dish it out here quick-like using the simplistic (yet genius) un-ordered list.

• I beat Pokemon FireRed for the GBA, including the Sevii islands and catching Raikou and Mewtwo.
• I proceeded to import some Pokemon from FireRed to Diamond (finishing this will take a week)
• I began an in depth Pokemon breeding regime (this will take more than a few weeks)
• On Tuesday, had another D&D4e gaming session
• Taught my son that by drawing in PictoChat he doesn't waste paper (this kept him amused for an entire bus trip and left me with regret that I can no longer safely play my DS around him)
• Helped convert my wife's blog (www.damenamedredd.com/blog) from crappy wordpress to bitchin wordpress (can i mention wordpress in blogger? Am I going to be blacklisted and given like an NC-17 rating now?)
• Delved into the depths of the machine of slowwwww that was my wife's laptop and cleaned it up nicely.

I think that should bring me close to up-to-date with geek affirmations. My "post something in bold every day to prove I am a geek" bullshit fell to the side pretty quickly and I decided it was probably better to just keep going with a personal blog with a strong geek theme throughout.

Joystiq did an article on Zombies!!! coming to Xbox Live Arcade sometime in the future, which I am extremely excited about. It removes all the crap about playing Zombies!!! (like flipping tiles every turn and placing zombies) and keeps all the good stuff (like...ummm...rolling dice i guess).

Also, from Joystiq, comes news that Soul Calibur IV might not actually have downloadable Star Wars content after release...which is complete bullshit.

Final thought: Why does my Firefox dictionary have a problem with the word Pokemon but is completely fine with me adding 4 extra W's to slow (making it slowwwww by the way, incase you had no intention of looking up 4 paragraphs)