It's the Finals Countdown

By this time next week, I should have completed everything for my first semester of graduate school, unless something truly unexpected comes up.  In the past four months, I have had to read over a dozen novels (okay, one might technically be called a novella), about half-a-dozen short stories, and well over one hundred poems.  This doesn't include the lecture materials, articles, extracts, and non-fiction books I had to read to complete all of my assignments.  During this same period, I think I have only read one novel for my own pleasure, and I sped through so fast that I may have skipped some of the more boring parts.  There are at least three books I have been waiting to read, but I haven't had the time to spare, not with all of the required reading, assignments, and the other things I do to pass the time.  I have a backlog of over two weeks of puzzles I have been wanting to solve, but I just didn't have the time or enthusiasm to do so.  Tonight, I will probably take a short test about my researching knowledge, before tackling the big tasks.  I have the first of three theses due this Friday, with the other two next week.  I will also have to tackle my lone (hopefully, the other syllabi didn't mention anything) final test, as long as I can find a three hour block at a location with strong steady wifi to take it.  Strangely enough, the wifi at my store is horrid, at times.  It can take over five minutes just to load Facebook, with another ten minutes or more to start a game.  At home, I really don't have a three hour block that I can take a test comfortably, unless I cut out something minor, like eating or sleeping or cleaning up.  If the test were available on the weekend, I wouldn't have this problem, but it will only be online from Monday through Wednesday.  I am still trying to figure out how to do everything.  At least next semester will be better.  I am currently only taking two classes, one on syntax and an advanced writer's workshop.  None of the other classes even halfway feel suitable.  So, I will go back to writing theses soon. Checking online sources.  Confirming facts.  You know, all that fun type of stuff.  To be honest, I actually like doing that sort of thing, sometimes.  May the blogcast be with you.  I will try to make that a real word, and soon.

But Sir, Where Are Your Pants

Yesterday, I took a day off of work and went on a short trip to Lexington,  Excuse me for not telling anyone.  I found out where I would be going to take my GRE.  It is located in the corner of a strip mall.  I would have thought it would be somewhat larger.  I saw more turkeys than I could shake a stick at.  Literally, I would have needed a stick to chase them all off.  One field had over three dozen! That is too many turkeys, even fo this time of year.  I also did a little shopping.  I found a few shirts, but what I really looking for was some pants.  For some reason, I keep having problems with my trousers, and they need more updating than I would like.  While I did find some I liked, they all had a problem.  Their stretchy waists made it so that they wouldn't fit.  Now, by some miracle, I have managed to keep a 34 waist, possibly a little less, with diet and exercise.  The picture shows that while I am no cover model, I am not that bad either.
So, I tried on a pair that were on sale.  While the tag said they were the right size, the stretch made them just a little to loose.  Even with a belt, it would have been uncomfortable wearing them, due to other features that I really didn't like.  I went to another store and found some other pants on sale.  These were actually in a better color and with a better discount.  However, the first pair I tried on were way too big.  I couldn't wear them even with a belt.  These weren't supposed to have as much give, but they did.  I even tried a smaller size, a 32.  These were still too loose.  I could take them off without unbuttoning them!  I might have been able to wear them with a belt, but it was still too much.  I couldn't try anything else on, as I was too despondent.  There are a few brands I like, but this was the first time I ever encountered not being able to wear anything that I found.  Why two pants have to be so stretchy nowadays.  Are other men so not wanting to admit that they are a larger size that they are getting a smaller size?  I would rather get something correctly labeled that fit than getting something "labeled" as my size that wasn't and didn't suit me.  Although, with Thanksgiving coming up . . .

Something Not to Marvel at

Earlier this week, I heard the news about the death of longtime Marvel comic book creator Stan Lee's death.  I almost couldn't believe the level of coverage it received.  It was a headliner event on the news.  Much higher than other famous people.  Most celebrities were lucky if they  got in after the first commercial.  Lee's death mad the first segment.  Sure, he helped create the intellectual properties that became a multi-billion dollar film franchise.  That still does no qualify his death to be a featured news story.  I was quite surprised that it garnered so much coverage.  I am still amazed, not sure why. There have been other famous people whose deaths didn't warrant so much.  I don't mean for this to be sour grapes, not really.  It is just that I have never liked Marvel comics.  There, I've said it.  For some reason, I just never really got into them.  I've always been a DC or Disney fan.  Marvel characters just didn't appeal to me.  I have purchased less than a dozen Marvel super hero comics over the decades.  By comparison, I get over a dozen DC comics every month, and usually one or two Disneys as well.  Maybe another one or so every few months.  I haven't bought a Marvel comic in a very long time.  Sure, I glance at a few every now and then, but I don't buy them.  I only look at them so that I now what's going on, just in case I need to strike up a conversation with someone.  I wouldn't want to seem a complete idiot, since Marvel is so popular.  While I must admit some of the stories seem interesting, I just don't feel u[p to actually buying any of them.   Yes, I know that Lee wrote some stories for DC, his take on some iconic characters for a special event.  Those stories are now part of a special world in the DC multiverse; it has been conformed, somewhere.  Just this morning, I heard a news story from his daughter, that Lee had been working on a new character, just this past weekend, 'Dirt Man.'  I have no idea what publisher, if any, this work was for, but I am not sure how good an idea or how much of it had been developed.  Anyway, I know many people loved the man and what he helped bring into this world.  He will be missed.

That's What Friend Requests Are For

So, I get online this morning, and I discover that today, the day I am writing and posting this, mark my two year anniversary on Facebook.  In all honesty, I only joined it as a means for trying to drum up business for my store, Booknotes.  It hasn't helped that much, and I might to be needing it for too much longer, but that is a tale for another day.  It took me almost three months, give or take, to look for friends, but I finally reconnected with so many people that I had missed for so long.  It sometimes left me in an emotional mess, realizing just how much I had missed out on, but I eventually balanced everything out.  I rejected a few requests I should have kept.  I began playing way too many games, especially all the iterations of Candy Crush Saga.  I just won my second week in a row on the "Popsicle Planet" promotion.  Lately, I have been getting some strange, random friend requests.  In the past two weeks or so, I got two requests from random women, complete strangers.  They weren't connected to any of my friends, so I have no idea how they found me.  When I clicked on their pages, one had a close-up of her chest in a very tight top, while the other had her rear end suggestively pointed towards the camera, again in very revealing clothing.  Now, while I admit that I am single and technically looking and available, I really don't think I would want to meet a random stranger in this way, especially since I don't really know how to date.  (If anyone wants to teach me, I would be an eager apprentice/wingman.) Things got weirder this weekend.  Saturday morning, I played a quick match of Golf Clash against someone from Asia.  This is only a guess, as he had a cartoon character in his photo and his name used characters I couldn't read.  It may have been Korean.  He made a huge mistake, and he had to forfeit, right while I was putting for the win because there was no way he could catch up.  That night, I got a friend request from him.  At least, it could have been him.  I didn't look too closely at the pic and name at the time, but it was another person from Asia, so it could have been him.  Just yesterday, I got a request from a person whose only friends were business pages, no humans.  He seemed to be some sort of game company entity, if not an actual corporate member.  It almost goes without saying, but I rejected each of these requests.  Each of them seemed just a tad off, in one way or another.  I might not be the best at social media, but even I could tell that this might not be fully authentic.  Anyway, I am thinking about starting a new wave of friend requests only own.  There have been a few people I was thinking about asking, and this seems about the right time to do so.

My World Is a Vampire

About a day after I wrote my last post, I got a copy of Vampire:  the Masquerade, fifth edition, from my local game/comic book store Page 3's Game Zone.  Late on that day, I found out that I could have gotten it from at least one of my book distributors, even though it wasn't available the last time I had checked.  Never mind.   The point is I finally had a new book in almost ten years.  (I did purchase some replacement books, as well as one older one that I missed out on when it first came out.). I had heard some doubters say that they didn't like many of the changes, but I am keeping an open mind.  I haven't had enough time to fully read it, schoolwork and all, but here are some of my first thoughts.  The cover is predominantly purple, with a woman dominant.  The green marble from the original is there, but you have to search for it.  In fact, almost all the pictures are in color, and I do mean pictures.  Actual photos are used in place.  The art style is more to date, but something seems missing, even if it meshes well with the setting.  Most of the metaplot and backstory have been kept, with the much needed updates.  Nothing too outlandish, and it makes perfect sense.  The setting is about the same, as are the general rules.  You can only choose from the original seven clans, although most of the other thirteen are mentioned, if not prominently.  The big changes are in character creation, systems, and rules.  Character creation has been simplified; it is actually based on making rounder characters from the start, instead of having to be forced to go back to add later on.  Some plot details make things confusing, especially the retooling of clan weaknesses into banes.  You are also only allowed two sects, the Camirilla and the Anarchs, at the start.  Others are hinted at, but not yet available.  Many of the systems have been streamlined, but a few have been added.  Damage is simpler, but can now apply to mental concerns as well as physical.  The biggest change is to disciplines, vampiric powers.  Now, you can have have as many powers at each level as you want, per  Vampire: the Requiem.  However, you are limited to one power per level in a discipline, meaning you would be forgoing a higher power by getting multiple lower ones.  Blood sorcery is changed as well.  The paths are forgotten, it seems, but rituals are easier.  There are even new dice and special rules for some of the new ones.   Some of the storytelling advice needs to be made clearer, as well as some of the antagonists, many of the more supernatural ones are even vaguer than they were in earlier editions.  Overall, I will need a good long reading before making any final verdicts, including downloading the free pdf version and errata.  (I'm waiting until after I upgrade to Mohave OS this week, just to make sure I won't lose it.). I will probably wait until the first supplements, on each of the first two sects, to see if there are any more surprises before starting anything.  Be back for updates.  Happy Halloween!!

V Is for Vampire, and Five

A few months ago, the latest edition of a role-playing game I like came out.  I haven't mentioned it until now, because I have yet to get my hands on more than a brief preview.  That game is Vampire:  the Masquerade.  I have been a fan of it since the mid-90's, although I haven't actually played it with others.  It was originally produced by White Wolf, before the studio decided to end all of their game lines based in the horror genre (known as the World of Darkness).  They then re-started a new line of horror games, ultimately called Chronicles of Darkness, but at the time was just called World of Darkness 2.0.  Then, White Wolf got bought out by a video game company from Iceland, who later sold the rights to another video game company, possibly from Sweden.  White Wolf became a print-on-demand production, so I was left out on new products for years, barely keeping up with new product.  One of the reasons I opened a book store was to make sure I could get my game products without having to hope that my local game store remembered to get it in.  White Wolf later dissolved as a separate entity, but the game line continued with a secondary company, Onyx Path Publishing, gaining the rights to continue to publish new material based on the intellectual properties.  The company was started with many of the original developers, so they knew what they were doing.  They ultimately brought back the original World of Darkness in 20th anniversary editions, including new and updated books.  Still, I was unable to purchase them.  It is hard to get things when you don't have modern banking options.  Anyway, about a year ago, the Swedish game studio announced that they were producing a new edition of the World of Darkness games, starting with Vampire.  The task would be performed with a new subsidiary called White Wolf.  The production would all be in house, with a new set or writers and artists, as well as updating many of the old rules.  Much of the olde meta-fiction and background info would be kept, but new twists would be added, to update the styled and plot lines.  Onyx Path would be involved in the production of new product as a third party developer, but they would not have any final say.  Strangely enough, the new edition would be available through certain retailers, but I have yet been able to access them through any of my distributors.  Much of the sales are still online only, but I am hoping to get my hands on something soon.  You know, at one point, I wanted to be a writer for these games.  Part of me still would enjoy it, although with the company now controlled in Europe, there is less of a chance.

Same Old Games, Brand New Rules

Lately, I have been so busy with work and school, that I haven't been working puzzles and playing games as much as I used to.  I am about a week or two behind schedule in finishing up some of my puzzle magazines.  I haven't even been able to solve a contest that is due in by the end of the month.  I actually had to delete some of my games apps, and I might have to drop a few more, just to keep playing my favorites, but only for an hour or so combined most days.  Unfortunately, some of my games have made changes that have made them less fun to play.  Take Candy Crush Saga.  A few weeks ago, I was playing a quick round or two, when I realized that the winning streak bonus wasn't coming up.  With that bonus, I had been able to work some levels out with just one move.  Now, I have had to take days and multiple tries to solve a level, if I don't want to use up all of my boosters.  Apparently, the producers removed the feature from the Facebook version of the games, but not from the mobile or PC versions.  Since I only have a Mac, I am out of luck getting to play the game the way I used to.  Strangely enough, other features weren't effected, even as others that didn't give me any problems were.  A few minor features also went, but I didn't mind them as much.  I wouldn't be complaining, but just before the feature went, it looked like they were changing the motif from spaceships and hats to robots.  There is even a new game in the series, Candy Crush Friends Saga, but it is so far only available for mobile and PC, not Facebook or Mac, so I am out of luck there, too. Another game that has changed is Golf Crush.  They added the feature of clans, groups of up to fifty who compete against other groups, and receiving in game bonuses for winning as a group.  Along with this new quirk, the pairing algorithm for match-ups changed.  The game now made sure to pair up competitors based on best performance, and to current performance.  This meant that someone on a losing streak could continue to face better opponents that were harder to beat.  When the change occurred, I had 698 trophies.  Now, I have 390.  I spent almost all of my in game resources to try and keep up, but I am still losing well more than winning.  I am so afraid that I will be kicked out of my clan, Kentucky BBN who is currently at the top of our division, that I spent currency I didn't have to enter a tournament, as a means of showing that I am qualified to be there.  So far, I haven't been able to advance.  If I don't, I don't know what will happen.  I doubt any other clan will take me in, with my recent record.  I lucked out getting this clan.  I love the feeling of being on a winning team.  I just think I won't be there much longer.