Hello readers, I hope you are all having a great Memorial Day and enjoying some well deserved time off. I'll be running the Bolder Boulder 10K race and then playing lots of video games. Speaking of, let's talk about what I've been doing for the past few weeks.
Read MoreToday Blizzard took the Overwatch servers live. Ok, they took Overwatch live at 12:00 AM GMT on 05/24/2016, but that was like 40 minutes ago here in Denver. And while I have not had a chance to actually step in the game, I did want to point out something interesting that I found on Eurogamer. Apparently in different parts of the world giant Overwatch action figures have appeared.
In Hollywood, CA twitter user RuzGofDi snapped photos of the Tracer box, Mamytwink found Genji in Paris,and @osevno snapped one of Pharah in Bexco, Busan.
Read MoreDo you like beer? Do you like geeky things? Do you like live music? Then do I have the event for you! Tomorrow at Stoney's Bar and Grill Denver Comic Con is going to debut this years beer, Snape-ricot! Yes the winning name and excellent pun based name for an apricot beer is also going to honor Alan Rickman with how he masterfully brought Snape to life on the silver screen. Go for the popular vote! Ryan Workman, Breckenridge Brewery Brand Manager, is pretty happy and could not have thought of a better name.
Read MoreAfter all of the weird stuff that happened last week, I'm happy to have had a more normal schedule this week. I was able to play some video games, had a day off of work, and went to the theater. In all, a lot of fun this week.
In Elite: Dangerous, I've got my Type 7 Transport equipped with all the best modules. I feel like I've run into a lot of bugs involving interdiction, and ended up getting blasted up by a lot of NPC jerks. I've re-tooled my ship to focus on defense, rather than offense. Considering that running is the more practical option for me in most cases. I should be in a good place to start running a regular trading route to pick up the credits that I need in order to get to the next ship.
For those not in the Denver area, I may need to provide some background information about what I did in the middle of this week. Devotchka is a local band (who has had some level of national success), and they are known locally for annual concerts with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. This year, they partnered with the Denver Center theater company to perform Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. And, with only a few performances left, I managed to get in to see the show. It was a whole lot of fun. I was really impressed with the performances, and had a lot of fun watching it.
That's all for this week. Have a great week and game on!
Yesterday was the end of the Overwatch open beta. Thousands (guessing) of players jumped and got what was potentially their first taste of Blizzard's first FPS. And it appears to have gone over well. In order to gently let us newbs get a feel for the game you have a standard training tutorial, and then you have team vs AI. Here you are set with a human team vs a set of AI opponents with a set difficulty. Once you have had your feel of the AI, then you can go for some good old human vs human action.
Read MoreHello readers! This has been a very intense week on the more personal scene. Crystal ended up in the ER (she’s fine) and I had a job interview. Between the two, and trying to make up for the time I missed from work, I didn’t have a whole lot of time to do anything for myself. During most of the evenings I ended up watching various HGTV shows with Crystal, since those are a bit of a comfort show for both of us.
We had our second session of Traveler this weekend, which involved some interstellar travel, trade negotiations, and problematic passengers. We had a bit of a time sorting out all of the rules, but I think we are gradually getting a handle on it. I’m now on the hunt for some simple apps that will simplify some of the dice rolling (looking at you trading rules). We’ll be taking the weekend off for Mother’s Day, and I have no idea which players will come the weekend after that, so we may end up playing a completely different game.
Also, I am now the proud owner of a Type 7 Heavy in Elite: Dangerous. It’s a bit of a beast to handle, but it can carry such a huge amount of cargo. And, although it is not the fastest profit, I’m opting to do multi-hop trading. Mostly so that I can get to see more of the inhabited galaxy. In fact, I equipped a discovery scanner in place of my smallest cargo rack, primarily because I’m visiting systems that I’ve never been to before, and it would be hard to find the stations without the navigation data. As an added bonus, I can sell the scan data to help subsidize the original purchase cost. At this point, I’m planning to sink some money to upgrade my ship with top of the line frameshift drive (to maximize profit/hour) and thrusters (a valuable quality of life upgrade).
That’s all that I have for this week. I hope everyone had a great free comic book day. Have a great week, and game on!
Last weekend Anime Southwest had it's (technically) first event. Due to some personal circumstances I was not able to go near as long as I wanted, but I was able to get a decent handle on the event.
To start the event was short handed due to a number of staff bowing at the week before the convention happened. The rumors (and that is all I can call them at this time) is that staff from a different con was supposed to assist, but opted not to at the last moment. Despite this problem the staff that were there all friendly. When I met with the press head he took the time to give me a tour of the convention showing me where the panel rooms, VG Room, Main Event, and Dealer room were. It was a much appreciated tour. I also spoke to a few guests and they were appreciative to what the staff were doing for them. One group had a technical issue that was handled in short order while another was able to get an impromptu Digimon panel setup. I hope that in future years they can keep up this level of dedication.
As for the venue, it was definitely not the location they had wanted, but they were able to make it work. The center of the convention featured Artist Alley. To get to any of the other rooms you had to go past the artists. They also had the small restaurant with, what I assume, were free snacks to keep the attendees going strong. While I don't see this happening in the future, or at least for all future cons, it was a nice gesture.
Do I plan to attend next year? Yes, I do. Hopefully I won't have the same personal problems next year to keep me from attending all weekend, so I can truly enjoy Anime Southwest. And for those that want to see the photos I did manage to take, they can be found here.
Hello readers! I’ve managed to have a week with a more normal work load, and therefore had some more time to enjoy myself. To start with, I’ve spent a few more hours in Elite: Dangerous and manage to get myself to within about 2 million credits of my new ship goal. I only need about another hour to get myself to my goal, and start the process of searching the galaxy for my new ship and all the equipment that I want for it. Then, I’ll be off to make a living as a bulk trader: stocking up on goods in one station and hoping that I can make a profit on them by carrying them to another system. I may keep my existing ship so that I have an option to go back to if I find that I’m not enjoying life as a merchant.
In other space news, we had the first session of our Traveler game this past weekend. Everything seemed to go fairly well. Most of the session was dedicated to role-playing the characters and introducing the world, with only a few skill checks to see how things went. Next session should get us much more involved in the rules system, and therefore have a much greater chance to bog us down with making sure that we’ve learned how to play the darn thing. I’m expecting the players to spend some time negotiating commodities prices, searching for delivery jobs, and booking passengers on their vessel before heading off to one of the neighboring systems. Who knows, we might have a space combat. But that will depend on the random encounters table.
And finally, I’ve discovered a rather bizarre little anime to watch. The show is called Dagashi Kashi, and the plot is a bit hard to explain. To start, “dagashi” are inexpensive Japanese snacks, sort of like penny candies, both in terms of size and price, as well as a degree of sentimentality attached to them. The show centers around Kokonotsu, a middle school boy who dreams of becoming a manga artist. His father, Yo, owns a dagashi shop in a small town, and wants Kokonotsu to take over for him. Hotaru, daughter of a snack manufacturer, comes to the town to recruit Yo. Yo says that he can’t leave unless Kokonotsu agrees to take over the shop. Hotaru agrees to convince Kokonotsu to take over the shop in exchange for Yo coming to work for her father’s company. Hotaru is passionate about the snacks, and spends most of the show trying to kindle Kokonotsu’s passion for dagashi. In spite of this somewhat odd and convoluted plot, much of the show is basically a love letter to the dagashi themselves. So, if you are interested in the niche world of Japanese snack foods, it’s a fun watch.
That’s all for this round. Have a great week and game on!
That is right ladies and gentlemen. It is time to don your capes and masks to do good around the world! According to the National Superhero Day Facebook page 21 years ago today employees at Marvel created National Superhero Day. Interns wore capes from http://powercapes.com/ and wondered around the streets finding out what people thought of superheroes.
Now just because Marvel created the day does not mean you can't celebrate DC or Indie heroes. It also does not mean you have to celebrate a fictional hero. You should also celebrate the heroes that helped you get to where you are today. A Father/Mother that supported you on every step of a long journey, a teacher that never gave up on you, or a friend that picked you up when you were at your lowest. Heroes are everywhere, and today is a day to celebrate them!
This has been another week with a lot of commitments at work. But, I've managed to spend a fair amount of time with virtual jobs this week as well. I've spent a lot of time this past week playing Fantasy Life. At this point, I'm trying get myself to master rank in all of the professions. At this point, I've got about 4 professions to that rank, and should be able to get the rest in a few more weeks.
I've also been flying around a bit more in my Cobra MkIII in Elite: Dangerous, and am now within about 3 million credits of my goal. I'm excited to be getting to a new ship, mostly just for the novelty of it. I'm also looking to start doing a big trade loop through inhabited space, rather than doing a single circular loop. I won't have the armaments of my current ship, but will be able to haul a huge amount of trade goods instead.
Finally, I've found some time to start fleshing out my homebrew D&D campaign. We've had a long break from playing, but I am anticipating some playing time in the future. And now, I have to plan some adventures for our Traveler game.
Have a great week and game on!
