Happy Holidays!

While we didn't make it back to Canada for the holidays, we're having a very nice and relaxing time at home. To all our friends and family back home, we miss you very much and hope to see you again soon. Take care!

Dickens Fair 2007

Me, TUO and some friends went to Dickens Fair last weekend up at Cow Palace near San Francisco. Good times! As is usual in the scale of California events, the place was massive and the quality was high. Lots of great costumes, peformances, and reproductions. I'm sure TUO will give a full account! :-)

Go, Riders!

Yes! The Saskatchewan Roughriders have pulled off another Grey Cup win, the third in the team's history! While I was far-removed from Saskatchewan in the distant lands of Virginia, thanks to the miracle of Internet broadband streaming we managed to watch the game on a laptop here. What a game!

Favorite quotes:

• "Since Saskatchewan doesn't have an offence, their defence needs to score!"


• "He was on that ball like a hungry man on a cheeseburger!"

Woot!

No, the Sky Isn't Falling

I've getting getting various emails and private messages from friends about the sale of CoH/CoV to NCSoft and various other rumors flying around about the state of my current project. While I can't give details, I'll just say EVERYTHING IS FINE. My project is going great and selling CoH/CoV was a huge benefit for Cryptic.

Thanks for your concern! :-)

Richter? Damn near killed 'er!

TUO and I were at home on the computer when we felt a rolling sensation from the ground beneath us - our first noticeable earthquake! It lasted about 10-15 seconds, it centered at Alum Rock (about a 20 minute drive from our place) and it registered 5.6 on the Richter Scale, but caused no major damage other than a couple of downed power lines.

Our first instinct was just to look at each other while it was occurring. Really, we should have head to the nearest door jamb just in case it was a big one, but TUO was fretting while I was going "cool!" And it occurred we should probably re-stock our emergency Earthquake supplies...

Cool Link: http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/

Oktoberfest 2007

TUO, me, and Zeke

A week ago we went to Oktoberfest in Campbell (about a 10 minute drive from our house). As usual, there were crazy amounts of people there. It's been running a few years now, so you'd think they'd actually increase the amount of beer tents to meet demand or seperate non-alcoholic beverages into a seperate queue, but noooo...

While there was beer and schnitzel, there was also a tonne of craft booths set up on the street as well. TUO ended up getting another cool mask and bracelet. Me, I was happy with the Hefeweizen! I still remember the Harvest Moon Beer Festival they had at the U of R - good times, that! :-)

Work Blog

Yes, we now have a work blog! If any of you are interested in the stuff that goes on at my work or the people there, check it out:

Cryptic Work Blog

One of the blog entries mentions my work on the soon-to-be-released-in-retail-stores Savage World of Solomon Kane from Pinnacle Entertainment Group.

PAX 2007

I was sent by work to check out PAX 2007. It was my first time to PAX, and it was pretty cool. For those of you who have never heard of it, it's the Penny Arcade Expo and it features the finest gaming geek culture has to offer, from video games to board games to minis games. It's sort of a mix between E3 and GenCon, but completely for the fans.


Cheyenne upstaging the Bioshock "Big Daddy"


Nice gams... guns! I mean guns!

What was really great was I got the chance to hang out with my buddies Cheyenne Wright (an arist friend who lives in Seattle) and Chad (an old friend from Regina who came down from Vancouver) on Saturday. It was very cool hanging out with them at least for a little while.

If you ever get the chance, check out PAX. While not as grandiose as E3 or GenCon, it's definitely got a high fun factor.

GenCon Indy 2007

GenCon was again, very much fun. It's a relatively cheap vacation and I always end up wondering why I ever think of NOT attending if I have the means to do so. Good fun, good friends, good geeking.

Pinnacle Entertainment Group released The Savage World of Solomon Kane for the Savage Worlds game system. For those who don't know, Solomon Kane is a character created by Robert E. Howard, more popularly known for his Conan novels. PEG acquired the license to publish a role-playing game based on Solomon Kane a couple of years back, and now here it is! I have an "Additional Material" credit for writing four of the adventures in there. It is being shipped out to your local gaming store soon. Check it out - it is "teh awesome"!


Oooooh! Shiny new book!

GenCon has a costume contest every Saturday, and there are a lot of AWESOME costumes there. TUO being TUO, she couldn't resist getting involved, and dragged cenobyte along with her. What did they come up with? Victorian Steampunk. How cool is that? Inspired by Girl Genius, of course.


"SCIENCE!"

You also start seeing the video game industry making its way into GenCon as well. A number of companies had exhibits there, and along with the video game exhibits comes the inevitable onslaught of booth babes.

I asked her what is best in life, but she seemed kinda confused. I don't think she's a REAL barbarian.

And a little somethin' for the ladies!

GENCON 2008! If you are interested in coming out with us to GenCon next year (Aug. 14-17, 2008), START PLANNING NOW! Start budgeting for the trip, making plans for meeting up with us, share hotel rooms, etc. Every gamer should go to GenCon at least once in their life, and it's worth some serious geek cred! :-)

Family Visit

My brother came to visit with his family, so we had a nice visit as they toured the sights of the Bay Area.


Boxing on the Wii


Alcatraz boat tour


Golden Gate view

We also ended up going down to the beach in Santa Cruz (the one they used for filming of the Lost Boys - good vampire flick if you've never seen it).

Shelfari

Xiaolung first introduced me to Library Thing, which is very cool. Shelfari went one better by adding in groups, friends, better visual widgets, and commentaries. Check out my Shelfari sidebar (under books) or take a look at my Shelfari home page.

Diagnosis: Displaced Pelvis

I went to a physiotherapist this morning and was diagnosed with a displaced pelvis. The displacement was appravating the nerves in my lower back resulting in extreme pain. After some muscle-stretching and leg-wrenching (as fun as it sounds), the physiotherapist snapped my pelvis back into place. He's successfully treated thousands of patients with this problem over the years so the prognosis looks good for recovery based on physio treatment.

I'll still need to go into physio a couple of days each week for at least the next couple of weeks to check progress and strengthen the muscles supporting the pelvis so it doesn't go out of place again, but in the interim it should get gradually better and the lower back pain should disappear. I still am getting some shooting pains when I sit in a chair and walk around, but these should (hopefully) recede over the next couple of days as I do the prescribed back-strengthening exercises at home.

Looking forward to being painless, mobile, back at work, and NOT in a Vicodin-coma...

Back Injury

I've been incommunicado for the last week because I'm recovering from a back injury. No spinal damage or anything (that the doctor is aware of); the current thought is that I seriously tore some ligaments in the lower back last week. I've been on muscle relaxants and painkillers this past week so I've been doing a LOT of sleeping while trying to remain horizontal.

The improvements have been slow, but steady. Last Saturday night I couldn't even turn from my back to my side without agonizing pain. Now I can walk around with marginal discomfort and even sit upright for about half an hour before I start getting shooting pains in my back.

I'll be going to see a physiotherapist Friday morning to see if they can identify the problem and possibly relieve the worst symptoms. Here's hoping it's something easily treatable and nothing too serious.

KublaCon 2007

In late May I headed up to Burlingame with my buddy and co-worker Thomas to attend KublaCon. I was only there for a day, but it was a lot of fun!

First thing we noticed when we arrived at the place was a PT Cruiser decked out with Arachnos logos on the front and back! How cool is that!




"Strength Through Undying Loyalty"


Lord Recluse would approve

My friend Mike was running a game of Gunfight!, a minis game by Flagship Games (of which Thomas is a co-creator). Good fun, and I ended up cleanin' up the town with my posse of law dogs!

"No unlawful armaments this side o' the tracks!"

That evening at the con there was a group running through - get this - a live-action game of Aliens. It was kinda bizarre.


Wasn't that the Alien-human hybrid from Aliens IV?

All-in-all, another fun (and tiring) con.

My Pod

I had mentioned a while back that we were now in "pods" at our new office (complete with new state-of-the-art cubicles) and that I'd show pictures of what they look like. Here they are:


Me flyin' the colours!


Carlos, Ryan and me

Really, they're nothing more than glorified cubicles, but they're glorified cubicles with sliding windows and doors that you can write on anywhere with erasable markers. I guess that counts for something, right?

Canada Trip 2007

TUO and I went up to Canada to attend a wedding and took the opportunity to visit some family and friends. We got into Edmonton late Wednesday night, visited there for a couple of days, drove to North Battleford for the wedding, then to Saskatoon for a couple of days, then back to Edmonton. Whole lot of traveling!

Edmonton
We crashed at Bne's place for a couple of days and got to catch up with a bunch of Saskatoon expats now living in Edmonton as well as TUO's littlest sister. TUO got her hair done in a salon on Whyte while I scrounged around the book and game stores and coffee shops.

Al & Jen's Wedding
Despite the overcast and rainy day, the wedding was a lot of fun!


The happy couple!



First dance


Kate & Mitch


Friends gathered


Carl & Bne, Kaz & Rilla



The groom bustin' moves!

Saskatoon
Being back in S'toon was great. Alan was kind enough to let us crash at his place. Suz was being her usual sweetheart self and threw a party to celebrate a bunch of our birthdays (including me and TUO). We manage to catch up with a LOT of people!


Terry, John, Jen, & Alan


Suz's party extravaganza!

Laura, Dana and li'l Walter

Special Salute: Broadway Roastery Coffee



I like coffee. I like coffee a lot. I like the smell of freshly brewed coffee. I like light brews and dark brews without any cream or sugar. I also have a thing for "those unmasculine European coffees" (name that movie quote), with a special love for mochas (or mochaccinos they are sometimes called) and all the tasty variants thereof. I mean - strong coffee, espresso, chocolate syrop, and steamed milk topped with whipped cream - how can you NOT like that?!?

Well, despite having traveled and sampled coffee from a good portion of North America (including all over Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta, Ontario, Washington, California, Virginia, North Dakota, Minnesota, Indiana, Wisconsin, and New Mexico), the best mochaccino I have ever had were those found at the Broadway Roastery in Saskatoon. I don't know if it's the fact they use a rich chocolate whip instead of regular whip cream or the quality of the coffee beans or espresso, but that's a DAMN fine cup o' joe! I dare anyone to find anything approaching this coffee barrista's masterpiece!

Back in Edmonton
Back in Edmonton, my long-time buddy Trent was kind enough to run a game for TUO and I and our mutual friend Rob. It was a one-shot set in his own game setting/system called Kingdom Come. It is AWESOME and he should really get off his duff and publish the damn thing already! :-)


Rob and Trent

Back in Cali
After being stuck on the tarmac at the airport for far too long, we finally took off and arrived back in Cali. It was a warm and sunny day - again. It sounds awful, doesn't it? I think growing up in Saskatchewan really put an emphasis on constrasts. Constrasts make you appreciate the good times more and puts the bad times in perspective. Bitter cold winters, damp springs, hot dry summers, cool windy falls. Seasons. I loved the fact that it rained most of the time we were in Canada, loved the smell of the leaf mold after a long winter, loved the act of going in out of the pouring rain and chill and into the roasted-bean smell of a coffee house, sipping on hot coffee to warm up. I guess I'm a bit sentimental about such things.

Otterfest 2007

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has recently just launched their Wild About Otters exhibit where they have some guest otters from different parts of the world. In addition to their regular sea otters, they have visiting Asian small-clawed otters and African spotted-neck otters. I don't know it is about those moist furry tube rats, but I think they're pretty nifty. We ended up going down to see them numerous times with various friends.


African spotted-neck otters


Asian small-clawed otters


Sea otters snoozing with their toys


A very helpful vermillion rockfish


Zeke, TUO, and Dianne

Oh, and here's something disgustingly cute. I'm serious - if you don't have a cute tolerance, do not click on the link.

Perspective

It's important to have perspective in one's life. This one's for Rilla.

GDC 2007

Last week some colleagues and I took a trip up the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Our company had a booth at the career expo set up there, so I had to put in a couple of hours while people tried to tell why they are AWESOME and should be hired. We had a few good candidates, but a swear I spent about an hour talking with people about comics. Hard life, I know...

I got a chance to walk the industry expo as well. It's kinda nice to be a name in the industry. There are people constantly looking to recruit you or work for you, and you get invited to parties! In the couple of hours on the industry floor. I was approached to work by about a half-dozen companies, and was invited to the Ubisoft, Icarus Studios, and CCP parties that evening.

After a meal, me and my colleagues attended the Icarus Studios Fallen Earth party where they had plenty of food, drinks, and post-apocalypse-dressed hostesses! Their game has a GREAT degree of interactivity and I look forward to playing it when it comes out. While we were there we had a chance to meet Tycho from Penny Arcade! Tycho is a really great guy, and I hope we can meet up with him at PAX later this year.

We went over to the CCP party next where they were doing heavy recruiting for the new White Wolf MMO. Their party was a LOT bigger, being held at a big industrial dance club called dieMASCHINEN. There was again lots of food and drinks, but with more women who were dancing in go-go cages. Man there's a lot of money being spent in this industry...

All in all, it was quite and good time. I put a lot of effort into my work, and it's nice to have events like this where you're treated like a rock star!

Biography (courtesy of cenobyte)

If ever there was a time when the flagrant use of the exclamation point was acceptible, it would be in the dissertations of Randy!. Randy! grew up in the make-believe Megiranthea, which would be slightly to the left of London, England if it could be mapped. It was in Megiranthea where Randy! discovered his great love of game design. He has worked on some of the world's most loved games, and was part of the original 15th century team which invented what is known today as “chess”. Randy! was instrumental in designing the Queen and her moves, fashioning her after his beloved wife, TUO!. Because of his mysterious origins in that other-worldly place, Randy!, like others of his kind, is actually a therianthrope, and can transform himself into different animals at will. Because of his great love of sleeping and playing, Randy! has often been known to present himself as an otter (or lutrinae, to his Latin-speaking friends). Unlike many therianthropes, Randy! does not lose all aspects of the creatures into which he transforms, choosing instead to keep a thick pelt of fur for his own insulatory purposes. If he ever does forget to retain his pelt, he is fortunate to have a warm sweater, made by TUO! herself, with the use of magic spinnerets. By the standards of his people, Randy! is still just a 'whelp', yet he has already done most of what he dreamed of doing. He still dreams of creating a great huge gun shaped like a penguin. No one understands all the mysteries that flow together to meld the creature known only as Randy!.

DundraCon 2007

It's a long weekend in the US due to President's Day. was this weekend so TUO and I ended up going on Saturday (technically, TUO went a-dancin' first in the city, then joined me later).

I really do love gaming cons. There's something really nice about kicking back and seriously geeking out for a day or so in the company of other gaming geeks. Everyone is there because they love games, and no is is judging because of it. It's gaming geek solidarity - hold your dice up high!

Saturday morning I mainly spend in the dealer's room and flea market looking for deals. I ended up picking up a number of board games including HeroCard: Champions of New Olumpia (and the two expansions), HeroCard: Rise of the Shogun, Order of the Stick: Dungeons of Durokan (note my new BoardGameGeek.com widget on the sidebar). I also got a deal on a bunch of Warmachine minis and a fully painted Plague Marines army for Warhammer 40K for $75! Woot!

Saturday afternoon I met up with my good friend Brent Wolke and I ran a game of Empire of Bone. The story involved the indiscretions of Cardinal Ravenswood of the Black Church causing him to contract a virulent plague which affects both the living and the dead. The heroes were asked to track down the Typoid Mary who caused the problem which involved a brothel in London run by a Rotter named "Gummy" Johnson. Secret societies, Grims, Bonetellers - all good stuff!

Saturday evening a friend of Brent ran another Savage Worlds game called "Fliegenhusaren" which involved dragon-riding hussars set in 1755 prior to the Seven Year War. Amy played in this while I caught up with Brent, but it was a VERY entertaining game to listen in on!

Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I don't have pics to show from the con - maybe next time!

The Effects of Drugs on Spider Webs

Hinterland Who's Who is a series of 60-second public service ads profiling Canadian animals and birds, produced by Environment Canada in the 1960s. The distinctive refrain of flute music that each of these ads opened with, along with the deadpan style of the narrator, John Livingston, describing the animal over footage of it taken in the wild, became a widely recognized and often parodied feature of Canadian pop culture. At the end of each message, he reminds viewers, "For more information, contact the Canadian Wildlife Service in Ottawa."

Here's a parody involving the effects of drugs on spider webs:

Seattle/Saskatoon Trip

(I realize this post is a couple months late, but better late than never, right?)

We took a double-wedding trip beginning of November to Seattle and Saskatoon.

Seattle
In Seattle we went to the wedding of my friend Cheyenne Wright, a freelance artist I met while working with PEG. The wedding was nice - it was held on Nov. 1st and thus was a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) themed wedding. We also got the chance to visit with Freelancer and his wife who were in from Minnesota.

TUO, Freelancer and his wife at Pike Place Market

Cheyenne and Eli

Huzzah! I'm married!

Freelancer & wife posing with the newlyweds

Chey and Eli on the balconey

TUO posing outside the wedding

TUO and Freelancer at The Matador

Chey cutting the wedding cake

We spent an extra day in Fremont taking a walk around the city. While the wedding day was perfect, the day we spent walking was pouring rain. It was actually kinda nice - after living in California for so long you learn to really appreciate the rainy days.

TUO in the fall

Cool rain drizzling in Fremont

Hot coffee tastes good

So we started walking around downtown Fremont where there were lots of great little shops, bookstores and coffee houses. When we stopped for some tasty hot coffee we found a little walking guide for downtown Fremont. There were a couple of things which stood out: a point of interest called "Lenin" and another called "Troll". We thought these were nightclubs or something, but a short walk later showed a large statue of Vladimir Lenin! A history of how it got there can be found here.

Lenin on the march!

We thought we'd find a similiar troll statue a few blocks away, but what we found was even cooler. We walked under one of the large overpass bridges and were wondering where the troll statue was when we looked up - crawling its way from underneath the bridge connection at the top of the hill was the troll emerging from its underground lair! It threatened to crush my bones to make bread, but I told it my bones weren't exactly in the best shape and that I was high in cholesterol, so it decided otherwise. Whew!

AIIIEEEEEEE!!! Bad Troll! Stay!

Saskatoon

It was great coming back to Saskatoon and seeing all our friends, even for a short while. Drang's wedding was very nice, and Suz was very nice to arrange a get-together for us on the Sunday before we left.

Visiting with friends at Drang's wedding

The happy couple and their cute kid

The Return Trip

I wish we could have stayed longer, but TUO was already running low on vacation time with our planned trip to Virginia for the holidays. C'est la vie!

The Seattle airport has its priorities straight