Small Joyful Things

Claire has always enjoyed thrift store shopping. She loves spending hours going through the racks of assorted clothes and bags for treasures. And she often comes out on top, finding incredible items among the mountains of cheap tops and pants.

But this summer she pivotted away from clothing to start searching the glassware. She loves watching thrift store videos on YouTube and through them she has internalized a lot of details on what to watch for and how to fairly accurately identify genuine high value antique items from cheaper reproductions. 

Because of this, she has amassed a modest collection of very nice vintage glass and ceramic wear, and started selling some of her nicer finds that she doesn’t want to keep herself on eBay and Etsy.

However, before that, she’s been recording videos of her discoveries! They detail the history of the item as best she can tell, what to watch for in relation to that particular style of object and other interesting facts! Her channel is still quite new, but she’s been very consistent with her uploads, and as a result, her trips to the thrift stores around us. If you’d like to watch her videos, her channel is Small Joyful Things. If you’d like to buy anything she has on offer, you can order through her Etsy store, or check out her eBay page. Please buy stuff. Our home can’t support the amount of glass it currently contains, and it only grows almost daily. 

Circles And Art

I love drawing. I’ve been drawing comics since I was a kid. I remember filling up copy books with long stories featuring characters from the shows I was watching wihle at school. As an adult, I’ve drawn short strips featuring animals that were causing a disturbance for our neighbours!

Ada loves drawing too. She started with circles and faces, just eyes and mouths, then hair and ears. But her art has grown more and more detailed over the last year. At five years old, she now draws recognisable characters, and tells stories in her art. Her real life friends appear in her drawings, and she does entire scenes, with buildings and backgrounds, skies and rainbows. Lots of rainbows. 

She’s very detail orientated, seemingly adding new skills to her repertiore on a weekly basis. She draws lips and eyebrows, clouds and petals. Most amusingly, all houses have chimneys and smoke, despite our home actually not having one. 

We post her stuff on the fridge, and it gets added to over time, until eventually there’s too much paper for the magnets to hold. That’s when I love going through them and seeing the clear timeline of progression over the previous months, like peeling back layers at an archaeological dig. 

I love seeing Ada draw, and love to draw with her. I try not to do it too often though, as she tends to just ask me to draw things for her to colour. I rather see her draw herself. 

Just a few months ago Connor was deliberately drawing a page full of circles, his first fridge art. In the last week or so he’s started adding eyes and a mouth. I can’t wait to see the stories he’ll tell too. 

Edited For Content

During the currently in progress pandemic social distancing guidelines and lockdown that started back in March, a lot of people have been trying new things to break the monotony of the new normal. Some have been learning new skills like wordworking and gardening, other refining and perfecting skills they already have a start in. 

I fall into the latter. I’ve always been interested in video editing on a casual basis. I love putting together videos celebrating my kids development, or holidays, or other significant events. In the last year, I’ve started creating more videos celebrating my neighbours and neighbourhood. I’ve been diving into the very robust video editor LumaFusion on the iPad. It can do a lot more than I can, so I try to add a new skill or feature to every video I make. 

I’ve just uploaded a few new videos to my YouTube channel if you’re interested in seeing them. I haven’t uploaded them before, because I usually just Whatapp them directly to friends and family. Theey’re fun to make, but I worry that they’re the video eqivalent of listening to someone describe their dream from last night, only intersting to those directly involved. 

Regardless, I do love editing with LumaFusion, and I have a few sketches written and locked away in my notes that I might film some day. Until then, I’ll stick to snapshots from my life. 

Chilliwack Corn Maze

Trip to Victoria

Dead Tree Appreciation Post

When I was much younger, back in the days just after my parents generation had eradicated the last dinosaur and before we had civilisation and high speed internet, I used to read a lot. Like, even more than I used to watch TV. Well... maybe not that much, but reading came in a close second.

The first author whose name I learned to recognise was Roald Dahl. I don't remember what book I started on, but I have many fond memories of losing myself deep inside the worlds of his novels. I remember buying Charlie and the Chocolate Factory one Saturday morning while shopping with mum, coming home and going straight to my room. I pulled the covers off my bed, wrapped myself up on the floor and opened page one. I didn't leave the room until I finished it later that evening, forgoing dinner until I had learned all the secrets of the great factory. BFG is one of my favourites, Matilda is a beautiful story, with a wonderful movie adaptation, and George's Marvelous Medicine is still an all-time favourite, which I love to read every other year or so.

My first proper novel after Dahl was Jurassic Park, by the late, great Michael Crichton. My cousin lent it to me shortly after we saw the movie in theaters on release. Reading The Lost World followed swiftly afterwords. From there I tried my hand at John Grisham, but didn't last long, and a few others, before settling on Terry Pratchett. I started Pratchett with Mort before going back and reading the earlier stuff. I enjoyed what I read, but never got past book seven or eight, just losing interest and wandering away from reading in general for a while.

In college I read bits and pieces, but by then I was mostly into comics and graphic novels, starting what was to become a massive collection. Occasionally I would pick up a book or two on sale, fully intending to get back into reading novels that didn't have pictures of costumed heroes leaping about the place on every page. But I read far less than I didn't, never really finding a way to set aside enough time to get into the stories they were telling. I couldn't read in bed as I would inevitably fall asleep five minutes in, waking up to find my face stuck to the page. Reading by osmosis doesn't work.

I was infinitely jealous of Claires ability to read at lightning speed, while still taking everything in, or Jp's seemingly unending enthusiasm for the next book from a variety of authors. It honestly annoyed me that I couldn't seem to get myself to focus long enough to do something as simple as read a fucking book.

The Xbox 360 and high speed broadband at home was a big part of that. There was so many other things to do and see and read online that committing myself to a single novel, many of whom had teeny text just seemed beyond me.

So, upon arriving in Vancouver I swiftly realised two things: 1) I had no internet at home yet, and 2) despite bringing my Xbox, I had nothing to play it on, as the best I could manage was sharing it on Claires monitor, and she used that all the time. Grabbing this opportunity, I raced to the nearest bookstore in search of a good read.

Failing that, I picked up Frontier Earth, by Babylon 5 star Bruce Boxleitner, and actually rather enjoyed it. Nothing amazing, but a nice gentle book to get me back into the swing of things.

Once I started I knew I had to keep going without a break. My biggest worry was that I'd stall and go back to not reading again, so I picked up the first in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher, Storm Front. It immediately grabbed my attention, and I bought the next few books in the series before I had even finished the first.

As I got close to the end of Dresden Files, I was stuck. I didn't know where to go. Some of my friends in Vancouver had recommended a work by a first time author, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. It was huge and daunting to look at, but I jumped in feet first and couldn't drag myself back out. I needed to know what happened next at the end of every chapter, I couldn't put it down, reading it on the bus to work, on my lunch break, on the bus home, before, during and after dinner, every free moment I had. It was amazing!

After Jonathan Strange I felt I needed a break from magic, and started reading a series Claire and gotten hold of here in Vancouver. It's a series of six books set during the Italian Renaissance, following the adventures of a heroic mercenary, Sigismondo and his manservant, Benno. Written by a pair of authors under the pen name Elizabeth Eyre, the books are full of mystery and intrigue, with plots within plots and secret enemies within every palace. They are a fantastic read, and I'd urge anyone who is a fan of Assassins Creed, or Italy during the Renaissance to try them out. Funny, action packed, entertaining, but never complex or difficult to follow, I was sad to reach the final page of book six, knowing there was no more. And I don't understand why there isn't any more. Not to spoil anything, but at the end of Dirge for a Doge our two heroes are alive and well and continuing in their adventures. I can only guess that at the time they might not have sold well, and they've never been reprinted, so they are hard to find unless you order online. Pity, they really are fantastic.

My next adventure brought me back to Italy, in the year 1327. Umberto Eco's The Name Of The Rose is set in a monastery over the course of seven days as the two main protagonists attempt to uncover the truth behind a series of gruesome murders. It was an enjoyable read, and I did manage to finish it, but it was hard going. The novel is less interested in telling the story than in letting the tale become a frame upon which to mount a series of essays on the church and religion and learning and a number of other topics, as characters discuss at length these issues with one another. I did enjoy it, but there were times when I just wanted the net murder to occur and the adventure to push forward. That said, I do feel smarter for having finished it, and a little more knowledgeable about the history of the Roman Catholic church.

For a while I debated starting Foucault's Pendulum next, but decided against it right away. I needed something a little less cerebral than Eco, so of course I started a series by a physicist who has been involved with Cern and the European Space Agency. That was clever of me.

Thankfully, Alistair Reynolds is a riveting read. His writing style does favour large chunks of exposition and world-building, something he has been criticized for in reviews, but I enjoyed it. It felt at times like I was reading the completed text of a role-playing game and those parts were the GM bouncing in his chair, excitedly describing the newest cool thing his world has. Some of his players find it boring and amateurish, others accept those parts because the rest of the story is so enjoyable, and the last group, like myself, sit quietly in our seats, soaking the world into our imaginations, enriching the story. I've only read Revelation Space so far, and have started Chasm City, which I'm loving already.

Where to next? I'm not sure. There are too many choices, too many suggestions by friends whose opinions I trust. I'm delighted to be back into reading again, and I hope I never lapse again. The joy of reading is a gift I look forward to giving my children some day.

I think I'll start with Llama Llama Red Pajama, and onwards from there.

I Have Blistas On My Fingas!

Moving to Vancouver was always going to be tough. We left so much behind; family, friends, comics, books, boxes and boxes of action figures. But one of the things knew I'd miss most long before we set out on this great adventure was hanging out with friends.

Specifically, hanging out with friends playing Rock Band!

Yesterday I had the joy of playing a massive twelve song setlist with two friends from back home thanks to the glory of Xbox Live. Normally I play guitar or base, but as those were both claimed before I joined, I jumped onto drums for the first time in a long, long time. It was either that or vocals, and I didn't think either of the others had done anything to deserve hearing that while we played!

Twelve songs was not only the longest run I've had in Rock Band in some time, but also shattered any drum session length record I had previously set. I stayed on Easy, testing the waters of Normal for about 30 seconds at the start of the fifth track before I beat a hasty retreat back to the safety of Easy.

Playing Rock Band again with friends reminded me of all the great nights and afternoons we had back in Ireland, rocking out on plastic instruments, handing around the microphone to blast out our favourite tunes. I've brought my set to a wedding and several house parties, and every time it's been a huge hit.

I still buy new tracks that I like, but it's not the same playing by myself. Rock Band was never even really about playing the game. It was about relaxing in good company, chatting and enjoying a few snacks while listening to and interacting with some great music. Of course, it was also about jumping about and making somewhat of a fool of yourself in front of friends, acting out all those dreams of wanting to be on stage in front of a crowd of thousands of adoring fans. Playing it on a projector with surround sound certainly added to the experience.

I miss those days. I miss my friends.

I'm going to go and console myself with a few tracks on Rock Band. Guitar this time. That ring finger needs time to recover.

Get Your Comics

As anyone that knows me will attest, I like comics. A lot. I have a substantial collection, though nothing on the scale of serious comic collectors. Currently, my collection stands at 12 standard comic boxes, sorted and labelled to an almost OCD degree. It's impressive, and has stuff from Marvel, DC, Devils Due, Top Cow, and loads of independent publishers. The box I find myself most proud of is a single box full of G.I. Joe, though within the other boxes, I have some amazing treasures and collections, as well as all of my paperback graphic novels. One box holds my bagged and boarded collection of signed or otherwise special comics, as well as a tonne of various Marvel Handbooks that I intend to use some day for a Marvel Universe based super hero RPG.

But this mighty collection was not a thing of ease to accumulate. Many random issues here and there were retrieved from ebay after a certain comic supplier randomly never got it an issue, or stopped halfway through a series, or got issue one and two, and then stopped. I've ended up moving most of my collecting to graphic novel format, particularly for Marvel comics, as Marvel are excellent at publishing almost everything in collections.

For a while, I availed of the short lived and long missed GetYourComics.com, a site owned and run by a good friend of mine. Conveniently, while the site was based on a postal delivery system for most, the fact that both of us lived in Cork meant that my comics were delivered direct to me. It also meant that I could just ring my friend and get him to order a single issue, or know that he'd hold special covers or limited editions of issues from series I liked. I was even able to order clothing through his service, a feat I couldn't manage even while I worked in my afore mentioned local comic store!! It's a pity the business never took off, and more of a pity that it eventually folded, but it was great while it lasted.

It was fantastic, then, when the owner of GetYourComics pointed me toward a U.K based site that was doing similar, and succeeding. He had been using it, and thought I might like to give them a go. Even factoring in the cost of shipping that has to be included, getting comics through this supplier works out cheaper than my LCS.

Economic Comics has been serving me well since before Christmas now, and I've received, quickly and without error, three orders through them to date, the most recent of which only arrived today, prompting me to write this blog.

It's a simple system; you send them the comics you want, and the issue number to start from, then they hold them for you. Every week you get an email updating you of what is now on hold, and depending on how often you like to get your comics, you'll get a regular order email with a PayPal link. Hit that, and the comics are posted within a day or two, arriving shortly afterwords. I get my orders on a monthly basis, as I only have one or two comics a week to collect. However, during a quiet month, the site kindly allows me to wait a week or two before taking my comics together, helping spread the cost of shipping over more issues. Because of this, I actually only receive comics every six to eight weeks, which suits me fine.

If you're living far from any comic stores, or even if you have one nearby but they charge a bit too much, give Economic Comics a look. Good service, friendly staff, prompt response time. You won't regret it.

Stay In, Fall Out

In a little over eight hours, I will be outside Game waiting to pick up Fallout 3 for the X-Box 360. Ten minutes later I'll be home and firing it up.

See you all on Monday.

Convention Scenario Writing

In my last post I mentioned the two adventure scenarios I had worked out on the journey home from Dublin. It seems that post caught the attention of a few people, and I've been requested, much to my surprise and joy, to write a Spirit of the Century scenario for LepreCon XXX. How could I say no?

I haven't really come up with a plot yet, but discovering that the coming LepreCon is their 30th anniversary, I was suddenly hit with a lot of inspiration. Thus, so far, while I know little about the guts of the scenario as yet, I now know that it will feature the XXX Investigations (Triple-X Investigations) private detective agency, Trinity College, possibly the Library, most likely hidden demonology within the Book of Kells (have a close look at the above image) and all sorts of wacky shenanigans in 1927 Dublin.

I think it's coming along nicely, don't you...?

As well as that, I've spent a little time on the other two scenarios, and have come up with the final blurb for each of them.

Murder On The Cambrian Coast Express
Welcome aboard the 10:00 train from Aberystwyth, stopping at Borth, Dovey Junction, Machynlleth, Welshpool, Wolverhampton Low Level using the Shrewsbury Abbey Foregate curve, then on to Birmingham Snow Hill, and finally Leamington Spa, arriving at Paddington at 15:50. Sit back, relax, enjoy the company of the other passengers and prepare for a peaceful trip through pleasant English country-side, stress-free and without any incidences of ritual murder... Oh, who are we kidding. The title is a dead give-away!

The Mechanauts
The battle cruiser Space Defence Force Omega is the last line of defence against a possible attack against the planet Earth. As crew members of the S.D.F. Ω, you are invaluable to its continued smooth operation. Unfortunately, not many people understand the importance of your work as a D.O.O.S.E.R. (Daily Ordinary Operational Service Equipment Repair). Thankfully, you have Hyper TONK Simulator eX 2, the latest installment in the TONK Simulator game series for ViaSofts home console, the Z-1080G to pass the boring hours between boring shifts, blasting enemy clans with your Friends List in Clan Mechanauts. And tonight, you have a grudge match scheduled. Bring it on!

Now all I have to do is create characters, add NPCs, draw up maps where appropriate, read up on key subjects, plot a bullet point, step-by-step list of the scenarios for ease of reference by willing GMs, and put everything about the actual plots that is in my head onto an easy-to-read PDF!

Simple.

Renewed Enthusiasm

Last year I mentioned how my trip to GaelCon XIX had greatly renewed my interest in gaming in general, but particularly in RPGs. Having just returned from GaelCon XX this evening, I find myself in a similar situation.

Since this time last year, I have ran a very successful campaign that lasted an astonishing 14 sessions, I've bought a lot more card games and board games, and I continue to look for ways to increase my time spent at this hobby, enjoying Monday Night Gaming, and trying to play board games with friends more often.

Now, I find myself contemplating the idea of maybe, possibly giving LARPing a chance, and stranger still, giving Vampire LARPing a chance!! That is not something I would have written, spoken or even thought three days ago, but GaelCon changes me, in ways that frighten and disgust me some times...

However, not everything is bad. On the drive home from Dublin to Cork, I wrote not one, but one-and-a-half once-off, convention-friendly RPG scenarios! How did I manage to write one-and-a-half? Simple. While the first one I came up with was entirely new, the second was a development on one of the sessions from my own Spirit of the Century campaign, so I already had that one worked out. I just spent some time tweaking it. Both are potentially for WarpCon 19, in January 2009. And both will be written using FATE 3.0, the Spirit of the Century system. Here are the blurbs, in reverse order, so the second one is my brand-new idea (subject to change):

Murder On The Orient Express
Welcome aboard the luxury trans-Europe train, the Orient Express. Sit back, relax, enjoy the company of the other passengers and prepare for a peaceful trip across Europe, stress-free and without any incidences of ritual murder... Oh, who are we kidding. The title is a dead give-away!

The Robo-Techs
✔ The Space Defence Force Omega is the last line of defence against a possible attack by the evil alien forces of the (Insert name here) on the planet Earth.
✔ As crew members of the S.D.F. Ω, you are invaluable to the continued defence of Earth.
✘ After all, without you, who would fix the 32 coffee machines in the canteen, or ensure hot showers for the 3,200 ship's company.
✘ Who would unblock any of the 237 toilets on board, or crawl through miles of air vents to find a loose wire?
✔ Yes, as S.D.F. Ω engineers, you're pretty important crew...
✔ Luckily, you and your friends have clocked up over 1,000 hours of combat apiece in TONKs, the 12 meter tall elite combat mechs of the S.D.F.
✘ But only through Hyper TONK Simulator eX 2, the latest installment in the TONK Simulator game series for ViaSofts home console, the Z-1080G.
✔ But your clan, The Robo-Techs, is one of the top 10 in the game. And you have a game scheduled against your biggest rivals, Xentraidee, tonight.
Five ✔'s against three ✘'s. Life isn't all bad, right?

The first blurb is a proper, convention brochure style blurb. The second is far too long, but I just started having too much fun writing it. Sorry. And I know it's full of terrible, terrible gags, but I'll probably change all of them before the final draft. Probably.

Gaming, Friends & Madness

I'm just back in Cork after a long and mostly enjoyable weekend in Dublin, at the 20th anniversary of GaelCon. Like last year, Claire and I decided to stay in Clontarf Castle for the weekend, saving us from nightly travel, and adding greatly to the sense of relaxation and time we could spend with friends. Also, we got to enjoy kick-ass all-you-can-eat breakfasts with everyone else that was staying.

As with last year, we played lots of card games and board games, but far less RPGs. I don't think any caught my attention, even enough to read beyond the title. Even Claire, who played in something for every slot last year, spent most of the Con just hanging out with friends, playing table-top, non-RPG games. That said, it was a heck of a lot of fun! Not only did we get to play games we know and love, but also lots that were new to us!

Both nights had us up late into the morning hours, chatting to the others that were staying in the castle. And there were a lot. About ten others from Cork alone, and then a bunch of gamers from all over that would be very good friends. Sunday night in particular found around 20 of us in the lobby until 3:30am, howling with laughter over some incredible stories and general shenanigans!

All in all, it was a good convention. Not as good as last year, possibly, but then, that was an extraordinarily good year! I'd say that while last year was my favourite convention so far, this year was my second favourite. We had to make our own fun a lot more this year, and that's a sentiment I've heard echoed quite a bit over the last hour before we left this afternoon. Everyone seemed to have fun, but only because they made their own.

There was one huge disappointment, though. Last year, I missed the table-quiz, which seemed like a blast, and this year, I was determined to stay for it and join in. Except this year, the GealCon Charity Table-Quiz was an unbelievable disgrace, with clear bias towards the Dublin crowd, an utterly unfair and non-sensical "bonus round" system, ridiculous rounds, an annoyingly ambivalent "odd-one-out round", and just a general lack of entertainment, apart from two, possibly three rounds.

But, you know what? We had fun. We bought some new stuff, played some new games, made some new friends, played some old games, hung out with some old friends and enjoyed every bit of that. We're definitely going next year, and definitely staying at the castle again. Far too much fun to miss!

SDCC- The Good Times Don't End

Let me update you guys on some of the stuff we've done or seen so far!

• The sketch-book I brought over for the entire trip, including all the amazing people I'm sure I'll meet at PAX, is, with a day still to go in Comic Con, full. Completely! And I can't find a suitable replacement for tomorrow.
• We have already met and held conversations with, among others, Seth Green, Breckin Meyer, Jackson Publick, Ben TenNapel, Gabe and Tyco, Peter David, Orson Scott Card, Raymond E. Feist, Larry Hama, Wil Wheaton, Rob Liefeld, Greg Pak and countless more I'll try to mention once I'm not using a tiny keyboard and touch pad instead of a mouse. We've met and got autographs or more from Hideo Kojima, Gerard Way, James Stewart & Gabriel Ba, as well as many more.
• I've bought way to many books already!
• I'm very proud of how few action figures I've bought!
• We have, so far, attended a total of one panel, and even then, it was because we met the guys it was all about outside and spent ages talking to them... also, it was the Marvel/Hasbro Action Figure Panel... so, you know. Some interest there...
• We have met and exchanged email address' with the most incredible people, making friends with folks from all over the world!
• So many photos. So, so many photos.
• San Diego is beautiful and friendly.
• My feet hurt.
• Good (or even passable) tea does not seem to exist here.
• Everyone wants to visit Ireland, particularly the writers and artists.
• Dear Joss Whedon: You are awesome. You are a funny guy, and seem very natural and honest. But I am not willing to queue for six hours just to sit in a room with 6,000 others and listen to you talk. Sorry. There are far to many things to do at SDCC than to make that worth considering.
• Claire got a drawing of herself by Yoshitaka Amano! It is as incredible as you think it could be, and more. She nearly cried. He drew it without prompt. Apparently he liked the hat she was wearing.
  
• By 1pm, sitting down for ten minutes becomes more important that seeing the next line of writers or artists.
• Skype is a wonderful invention.
• People recognised and complimented me on my t-shirt (which is meaningless to most readers until I post pictures!!)

More updates soon, but nothing detailed until I have a real keyboard with a mouse. Also, photos may take a little while, but I have lots!! And no Picasa to run them through.

Why Do You Need A Testing Facility That Far Into The Desert?

Session Four: Stop That Train!!

Available: Maurice LeBec, Sir Alistair Montgomery, Chloe M, Ares Astral, Hank Scorpio
Guest Starring: Agent Smith, Agent Johnson

The morning after the events at Carnegie Hall, the group were contacted by Atlantic Philanthropies and told to meet at a building in the city. Once there, they were met by two agents from the Department Of Investigation. Someone had stolen a piece of valuable technology and the DOI requested the assistance of AP in it's recovery. The agents were "not at liberty" to discuss the details of the stolen technology, but assured the party that it was in their best interests to help.

And so, off to San Francisco!

They knew that the stolen goods were being transported by train, and the agents had leads as to which one. They arrived at the train depot and began investigating the container storage area. Chloe had to turn on the heat to help get passed the guards at the gates, one or two decided to sneak in, and soon everyone was snooping around. Maurice found a long, office-like building toward the back of the area and ducked in, just in time to see some shady characters handing a thick envelope to a plain-clothes youth. Maurice waited for the courier to leave and managed to pickpocket the envelope, open it and return it to the young man all without being seen. Inside he found and took blue-prints for a one-man jet propulsion device, a rocket-pack!

Meanwhile, the rest of the group had managed to dramatically disable all the Mafia thugs in the depot, even finding a few more on the street behind the offices and interrogating them. Learning that the container with the stolen goods was already well on it's was to Salt Lake City, they quickly decided to give chase.

This was the point where I folded my arms and listened in amazement as the players took the initiative and began a whole scene that I never expected. My notes read "Players learn where train is and race to catch it. Once at the train...", fully expecting to just say "Ok, you arrive in sight of the train as it screams down the tracks..." Instead, the players all took it upon themselves to have an elaborate race to get to the prize first. Ares and Maurice took Gir, Ares' Martian tripod, Agents Smith and Johnson took their Custom Ride, a fully kitted out Stunt, Sir Alistair took his own Stunt gadget, a one-man clockwork helicopter, and Chloe and Hank simply relied on an excellent driving stat, nabbed the mafia car and took off while the others agreed on the "rules". The spontaneous action was hilarious, as all sorts of back-stabbing and shenanigans came to a head! Sir Alistair spent a while fiddling with his copter, thinking he could make it faster, but it would "Need More Cogs". Unfortunately, without Sir Alistairs player even seeing, Maurice's player rolled to pocket a few cogs in order to slow the contraption down. Because both rolled the same, I simply negated the effect of Sir Alistairs tinkering!!

Eventually things got back on track, so to speak. Everyone arrived at the train, though some were shakier than others. Gir put a foot through a passenger window and Ares had to reign it back from zapping the screaming "fleshbags" inside. They checked the containers attached, but the one they were after was nowhere to be found. Searching the rest of the train was fruitless. I threw in the old "Runaway Train" trope here as well to give them something to do onboard, but while they were solving that, Gir detected a cargo container in the mountains. Once the train was safe, they backtracked along the tracks to a split that lead upwards into the hills. Following it, they discovered an abandoned mining facility with several storage buildings and an unusually high number of armed thugs for such a dilapidated area.

Fighting and explosions later, Maurice had explored one empty building and a second with several large cargo containers. The rest of the party arrived in and helped search the containers until they found the one they were looking for. Cracking it open, they recovered the missing technology, as well as the young man wearing it, much to the surprise of everyone involved.

At this point, I threw in more mob thugs and a leader to give the players someone to question and learn more about who was in charge. As it was getting late, we left all the questioning for the next week, but they did they did learn that the vile Doctor Eternity was somehow connected!! Dun-dun-duuuuuuuun!!

The Cool Exec With A Heart Of Steel

Just got back from Iron Man preview screening. It was fun. We all enjoyed it, and Claire managed to not fall asleep once throughout... well, except right at the start, but that's because we were in the cinema 45 minutes before the movie started to guarantee great seats.

The problem with describing why it's not better that "fun", means having to go into detail. Normally, I hate to comment on particular scenes as soon as a movie is released, and this is worse, as I saw the preview screening! However, I really want to voice my concerns about key scenes. If you've seen the movie, highlight below and read on. If not, wait until you have, then come back and check!!

Last warning, below this line goes into detail on key scenes. If you have not seen the movie and do not want to be spoiled, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER!

Everything above is a lie! Iron Man is the best movie of the year so far, and I can't imagine Hulk, Batman or anything else beating it! Everything is so perfect, so well scripted, acted, shot, realised, that even Claire was freaking out about it! Even my darling girlfriend who has yet to see the new Transformers movie due to lack of interest, walked out of the cinema gushing over how good this was! Seriously. Seriously. This can easily be the best super hero movie ever made, regardless of what you currently hold in that esteemed position. For me, it is X-Men 2. A stunning blend of action and plot, with a great cast, and unexpected character development. Great sequel that built on the original. Iron Man has all that in it's opening number! Wow! Seriously. Gushing does not describe how I feel about this movie right now! Ohh! And in case you missed it first time round, there was a bit at the very end of the credits!! Seriously. The most awesome after-credit bit I've ever seen in a movie! Geek-out heaven!! I said it would never work. I disliked it when I heard rumours. I was wrong. So very, very wrong! And now I'm throwing my friends off the scent! I'm telling them all that it was "Ok, nothing special, all the best bits in the trailer". I'm lying of course, but by the time they find out, it'll be too late!!

Bwa-ha-hahaha!!!

And no spoilers in the comments please. Be fair on the others.

I Wee When I Get Excited

When I get all excited about something, I clench my fists, shake them side-to-side, and screech "weeeee" through a huge grin that spreads from ear to ear. Rather like Wallace I suppose. When I get really excited, the screech becomes audible to dogs and kids that can still register that annoying mosquito sound places use to disband hoards of emo and goth kids. What...? You thought the title meant something different?

At the moment, any time I think about my Spirit of the Century game, I find myself shaking and screeching. A lot. Looking back on the last few weeks, things have been going far better than I could ever have hoped (I'm a little behind in my summaries, but hope to post new ones soon), with everyone now rushing head-long towards the endgame. Looking forward, plots seem to be jumping out at me, coming together with very little effort, tying directly into player characters backgrounds. Next Tuesdays scenario was particularly fun to research. (Ack! Just now, even writing that last sentence, I let out a little screech!) Of course, I can't go in to detail now, as some of my players do read my blog occasionally, and I'd hate to spoil anything.

I Prefer Jazz Anyway

Session Three: Music To Calm The Soul
Note: This session was stolen from RPG.Net's Roleplaying Actual Play thread. As such, credit goes to the original author, walkerp. While I'm at it, I took inspiration from the excellent comic miniseries Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way for some modifications to the nefarious villains of the piece.

Available: Maurice LeBec, Sir Alistair Montgomery, Chloe M

After their adventure in Africa, the party were granted some down-time, and offered tickets to the opening performance of a symphony that has swept through Europe to high acclaim. Reluctantly accepting the tickets, the party were whisked away to New York, and the famous Carnegie Hall.

Arriving at the show, Sir Alistair spotted an old acquaintance of his, Doctor Deedes, and wandered off to join him in the parquet. Maurice and Chloe headed upwards to the first balcony area, but did not sit together. Chloe had spotted a well known adventurer, Jack Savage, and pointedly chose to ignore him.

As the music began, Maurice realised he was experiencing something wonderful. His knowledge of the Arts meant that he was aware that this was truly as great as the reports from Europe were claiming. The music was astonishing, and he soon found himself taken away by it all.

At the break, the party joined up briefly in the bar and discussed the show so far, as well as having time to chat to fellow attendees. But, with a mere fifteen minutes for the intermission, they learned little of value save that everyone seemed to be enjoying it in varying degrees.

The second half of the show was a little different. Very shortly after it began, Chloe noticed that people were staring more intently at the orchestra than usual, and some had their heads tilted slightly to one side, while a small few were even drooling. Looking around, she noticed that Maurice has seemingly fallen asleep!! Sir Alistair noticed his friend acting strangely, as well as an unusually strong sensation of calm. Using a handy Gadget he just so happened to have with him, he found that something was producing a frequency that mimicked and caused a state similar to REM sleep in the people who could hear it. It was clear someone was tampering with the audience.

Chloe woke Maurice, who proceeded to scale the walls and head along the drapes and balcony boxes towards the stage. Sir Alistair attempted to awaken Doctor Deedes and some others, but was met with resistance. The music changed and all the hypnotised people began to crowd around him chanting in a monotonous voice "Don't stop the music. Don't stop the music..." At the same time, Chloe spotted men moving through the crowd, hold large sacks. They were dressed in impeccable tuxedos and every one of them wore a small domino mask. As they passed through the zombiefied high society of New York, they simply held out the bags and people put wallets, jewelery and anything else of value willingly into them.

Despite drifting off to sleep again while clinging to some drapes, Maurice reached the stage and leaped down to attack the conductor. Sir Alistair fended off zombies, trying desperately not to hurt anyone, but pushing to get towards the men in the domino masks. Chloe raced down the back stairs to try to get to the stage, and almost ran into some more domino masks who were on the way up.

After dropping the curtains and various other items on the orchestra, Maurice managed to stop the symphony long enough to pound on the conductor. The violinists were firing bows using their instruments like bow and arrows, and the orchestra proved themselves capable of a fight. Chloe spotted someone in the rigging about the stage, and climbed the ladder to investigate, but was almost blasted away by an ear piercing sound. Sir Alistair took down one of the men in domino masks before the hypnotic effects wore off and people began to press towards the exits. He caught a brief glimpse of one of them reaching to remove his mask, and then they vanished into the crowd!

With the conductor beaten and bruised, and himself not much better, Maurice pulled the conductor through the trapdoor in the stage for questioning. Getting only babbling, incoherent phrases and the odd unexplainable apology to an unnamed someone. Heading back up to the stage, Maurice spotted Chloe dangling off the ladder and went to help. Sir Alistair was determined to examine the instruments immediately. Up on the catwalk, Chloe and Maurice confronted a shadowy figure. He was wearing a cape with a high collar, and over his mouth was a piece of grated metal. He roared at the two adventurers, sending them rolling back alone the catwalk, and Chloe almost fell. "You ruined this symphony", he said. "But our Apocalypse Suite goes on! This shall not be the last time we meet!", and with that, he seemed to drop from the far end of the catwalk.

Chloe and Maurice raced back down, but neither could see the enemy, and Sir Alistair seemed to have not noticed anyone moving. Rushing down below the stage, they discovered the body of the conductor, blood weeping from his eyes, nose and ears. Frozen on his face is a look of unnatural horror. Sir Alistair's cursory examination revealed that he was most likely killed by a sonic device bursting blood vessels in his head. Investigating the area reveals a simple pulley lift shaft that runs from the catwalk to under the stage. Going up, a skylight is open, letting in the cool New York night air.

A round of questioning the captured domino masked man, as well as a few of the orchestra, revealed some interesting facts about the symphony and it's creator, though nothing to help track him now. Sir Alistair was intrigued by the devices he found in the instruments that allowed them to be attuned to the frequencies of the human mind, putting it into a trance-like state. Naturally, he pocketed one for further study. Handing all the captives over to the police and spending some time relaying their own findings, the party then called it a night and headed back to their hotel rooms for some well deserved sleep.

Not a bad night at all this one. Everyone got to do lots, and had a ball of a time. The session ran on just enough for the night, feeling neither rushed, nor dragged out. It was interesting to put the PCs up against a non-physical threat, making them role Rapport, Resolve and Arts more than Guns, Might and Athletics. Fun, and funny, and while the original author pointed out that it ran late for him, I found it to be a nicely paced, enjoyably session with just the right mix of action and investigation for my group.

Truth And The Nile

Session Two: Welcome to the Jungle

Available: Maurice LeBec, Hank Scopio, Sir Alistair Montgomery, Chloe M

Called to the Society again, the party were brought up to speed on some missing members, two of the original founding members of AP, Reginald and Sarah, who had been searching for the True Source of the Nile. On Donald Fairfaxs information, the party were instructed to travel to the National History Museum in Cairo, retrieve an artifact, and then travel on to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, to pick up Reginald and Sarah's trail.

Arriving in Egypt the party questioned the museum curator, and noticed that some of the shadows in the exhibition hall were unexplainably "off", but the huge overhead skylight washed the room in harsh African sunlight, so further investigation proved pointless.

The following morning, the party boarded a zeppelin bound for Kigali with the required artifact, an ancient Egyptian urn. While relaxing on board, they noticed the headline on a newspaper: "History Museum Attacked. Priceless Artifacts Stolen" and discovered that robed attackers broke into the museum late last night and made off with random artifacts. Most interesting was that they came in through the skylight in the room that had contained the urn! Dun, dun, duuuuuunnnnnnn...

The discussions on the implications of this were cut short as robed assailants attacked the zeppelin, arriving on board via bi-plane. Getting up into the main body of the zeppelin, the party discovered two dead crew members on the walkway that circles the gasbags. Before they even had time to investigate, they were attacked by the robed figures, who flung knives across great distance with stunning force. One acrobatically enriched combat scene later and the attackers were defeated and revealed as (unsurprising to everyone at the table) gorillas!!

In Kigali, they spent some time investigating the disappearance of Reginald and Sarah. In fact, they spent longer than I had anticipated, but came up with lots of ways to track an impossible trail and they discovered that the missing members had been in the company of a pygmy tribe before they disappeared.

While investigating the hotel room Reginald and Sarah had been using, the group were quick to note a lack of any sign of a struggle or forced entry. Questioning the staff, they learned that the missing couple had gone to their room, but were not seen leaving. Only a single burn mark on the carpet hinted at anything unusual. Sir Alistair questioned the nature of the mark, and upon closer examination discovered it was created by a high energy electrical discharge. Stupidly, I made Ray role for this, but when he questioned it, he had the puzzle solved already, even naming his nemesis, Doctor Eternity, as being involved. I should have just thrown him one, if not two Fate Points straight away without a role and confirmed his suspicions, instead he wasted a bunch of Points on rerolls as he just kept rolling minus'!! Ah well. I learned for the future.

Resting over night, the party proceeded into the thick jungle in the morning light and followed Reginald and Sarah's trail toward the Source of the Nile. Before they knew it they were surrounded by a large tribe of pygmy's, bows and spears pointed at the adventurers. After leaving the team to sweat for a little bit, an English speaking voice told everyone to calm down.

A tall figure dressed entirely in purple, with a black domino mask stepped out into view to address the PCs. After some introductions, the Phantom admitted to having met Reginald and Sarah, as well as offering the assistance of some of the native people to safely return to Kigali. After expositing some plot, and answering all he could, regretted that he had other business to attend to for now and vanished into the jungle once more, taking the tribe with him.

Proceeding on to the temple, the party discovered evidence of movement all around the site, as well as evidence of recent movement into and out of the temple itself. Moving into the temple, they were tricked into a trap room. Behind a metal grate in the high ceiling, the imposing face of a bespectacled gorilla looked down on the group. "Give me the urn."

A Brief Tangent: This is the first, and so far only time that I have done something that I completely regret in hindsight. In my haste to wrap up the adventure for the night, as the investigating in Kigali went on far longer than I expected, I had the lead gorilla talk, and express his desire. Looking back, there was no need for him to speak. He could have grunted and groaned, pointed and flailed. The party already knew what he was after. Plus, having him talk made him just another villain, but in a primate suit. Leaving him with just the Language of the Primates would have added something unique to his character. Besides, nothing he actually ended up saying was vital or required.

The party refused to relinquish the urn, and the room began to flood quickly to drown the characters. I had planned on the Phantom showing up at the Last Possible Second to rescue the team, but instead they came up with a great escape plan of their own, and I decided to let them enjoy the fruits of their teamwork. Bursting into the upper room, the party found themselves in a cylindrical room with a domed ceiling, an unopened sarcophagus with a pedestal at the head and beyond that was a finely carved stone chair, upon which the head gorilla was awkwardly seated, surrounded by minions.

Combat wrapped up with the lead gorilla leaping for Hank, getting shot in the chest, crashing into the Unsteady Floor (a Sticky Aspect placed on the room by one of the PCs!) and falling through, into the Flooded Room below. Once things had settled, the body of the gorilla was nowhere to be found! This, of course, lead to chants of You Thought I was Dead, Not All Gorillas Are Poor Swimmers, and Hardly the Last Time We'll See Him from the players. Honestly, I was just writing him off as dead at the time. I was far too tired to be clever, but when my players did the work for me, I knew what had to be done. Oh yes! He will return!!

Only one thing remained. The urn, and the not-at-all-obviously-placed pedestal! Cracking open the sarcophagus first, they found an undisturbed Pharaoh's body, mummified in the traditional manner. Placing the urn on the pedestal, a mechanism activated, opening a small window in the ceiling allowing light to pass through some crystal directing it straight down on the pedestal. Originating from the urn, light shone out onto the cylindrical walls, showing a surprisingly detailed map of the eastern half of the African continent, the flow of the Nile, and the location of the temple. Sir Alistair took some photographs of the strange phenomenon, then, after some further investigations and questioning the GM about various factors, the urn was removed from the pedestal and the party made their way back to Kigali.

In this session, the players used Fate Points far more, and benefited from them as well. I messed up once or twice, as I pointed out above, but over all, I was once again happy with how things went. This game ran a little late, and I had to cut some content to get it done in the session, but the players had a blast, and everyone seemed pleased with the outcome. The urn is important to the overarching plot, while still being an interesting discussion point for that session. After mutated shrewmen and intelligent gorillas, I promised regular humans for session three, and almost lived up to that promise...

Should We Just Call The FF?

Session One: Adventuring 101- Thrilling Tales and Monstrous Creatures

Available: Sir Alistair, Ares Astral, Maurice LeBec

The groups contact at Atlantic Philanthropy (AP), Donald Fairfax, informed the attending members of trouble in Chicago. Reports were coming through of unusual disappearances and large holes around the city. The party was to travel to Chicago immediately and make contact with an associate of the Society, Professor Harvey Dale.

On arriving at Chicago they were greeted by a Friendly and Talkative taxi driver who filled them in on the large science labs overlooking the city, what little he knew of the Professor and the rumours that were spreading through every district about what might be really going on. Suspicions were firmly on the labs, but there was no time to think them out, as another car slammed into the side of the taxi, putting both through a shop window!

An Elephant Sized badger stood between the party and the remains of the entrance to a hospital. Obviously Bad Tempered and Out of Control, it was thrashing and causing chaos! Two Japanese tourists raced past the shop window screaming something about a mutant dinosaur. After being driven into, set on fire and generally shot at, the monstrous creature was lured up onto a building and onto the tracks of an elevated train, frying itself and shorting out the line! Ares investigated the remains, with the assistance of Sir Alistair, before both clambered down the ruins and headed toward Maurice, who had made it into the hospital.

Maurice had discovered that the creature had come up through the hospital floor with some more unnatural friends, and was seemingly lead by a small, grotesque man who, according to one hysterical nurse, referred to himself as "The Mushroomoid". The hole they came up was already filled in, and the creature dealt with.

As Chicago's finest arrived on the scene, the party chose to beat a hasty retreat instead of having to stand around answering questions. The ventured on to the labs, using a car Maurice appropriated.

Greeted warmly by the staff at the labs, the party was immediately brought down an elevator into a large, advanced lab, and was met by Prof. Dale, who showed them an interesting goo that had been discovered and delivered to his labs some months ago. Only in the last few days have they made any progress with it, as running an electrical current through the goo causes it to move, shift and reach out tiny fingers of goo. However, they discovered too late that their experiments were coinciding with the strange occurrences in the city, and fear there may be a connection.

After some brief talking, the lab began to shake and rumble, and the party, after making successful Alertness rolls, felt as though they were back in the elevator again. The lights went out, and everything and everyone was plunged into darkness. Maurice's excellent night vision allowed him to see strange creatures moving in the shadows, and over the din of the chaos, he heard a high-pitched voice command "The gir*crash*! Take *crash, bang*rl! Pretty girl. So commands the Migh*crash, bang, wallop*manoid!!"

Lights come up, and a hole leading out of the base of the lab into a cavern is found. Once in the cavern, it becomes clear that the labs have been Sunken Into the Ground, and now only the top floor of the building remains above ground. Following some tunnels leading down and towards the city, the party ended up in a huge, deep chasm with a spiral walkway leading all the way down, and several dodgy looking bridges criss-crossing the cavern. Wandering downwards they hear scratching and scraping noises from several of the tunnels leading off this central area. Below, a blue glow illuminates the floor of the cavern from a side tunnel, and strange creatures can be seen scurrying around. Reaching the floor, the creatures turn out to be blind Naked Mole Rats! Huge, blind, naked mole rats! Everyone made Stealth checks, Maurice blending seamlessly into the shadows, while Ares trips on a rock and stumbles into Sir Alistair, both falling loudly onto the cold rock floor. Some mole rats wandered over to investigate, but a quick bright flash of a torch into their faces caused them to reel back in horror and flee.

Investigating the blue glow, the party discovered a smaller cave with a Tesla Coil, a Mysterious Contraption, made of bits and pieces of various stolen things from the city, a pedestal with the goo positioned between the Tesla Coil pylons, and a badger in front of it. Just the regular kind! And finally, to one side of the cave was an impish, ugly man, siting on a rough stone throne, with a female lab technician chained to the wall, as all good Damsel In Distress' should be!

The small figure gestured dramatically, and complained loudly about surface dwellers invading his Subterranean Empire, sacred home of "The Mighty Shrewmanoid"!! Yup. Turns out, the nurse has misheard him, much to his annoyance once the party explained questioned it. This brought howls of laughter from all three players who had been quizzing everyone in the labs earlier about intelligent fungus, and discussing among themselves how to defeat a plant-based opponent!

Combat ensued, someone shot the Mysterious Contraption, Maurice used the shadows to get to behind the Shrewmanoid, Sir Alistair was horrified by a Star Faced Mole, and Ares tussled with a large, but not elephant sized badger! Once the dust cleared, Maurice had a wire around the Shrewmanoids neck and a few rounds of combat was brought to a dignified conclusion. Dragging the villain to the labs, with the rescued lab assistant in tow. Questioning him got all the answers they needed, before handing him over to the authorities.

Overall, the first session went well. Most importantly, everyone had a blast, there were lots of fun moments and laughter, and the players got right into the spirit of the game! None of us really made much use of Fate Points, and I needed to reread combat before the next week. Also, I learnt that I need to be harsher in combat. Characters can take a lot, and don't go down easily. I tend to be cautious in dealing damage as I don't want to remove players from the game. Mechanically, though, that's a rather difficult thing to do, so I need to be more ruthless with what my NPCs can do!!

Let's Get This Party Started

Session Zero: Character Generation
Note: While this first session was going to be CharGen and the start of an adventure to get everyone going, CharGen ran on longer than expected.

Spirit of the Century, for anyone reading that hasn't played it is an awesome experience in and of itself. Rather like the City of Heroes character generator, you can have tonnes and tonnes of fun just throwing up characters and playing with ideas. And that is what happened for this group. Two of the five players were familiar with the rules, while the other three's experiences of role-playing were mostly limited to White Wolf's World of Darkness. It took them a long time to wrap their heads around the freedom SotC's CharGen system gave them, particularly in relation to creating Aspects.

A brief word on the CharGen system for SotC in case you're unfamiliar with it. As it's a pulp style game, character names usually include dramatic, short descriptions, such as Doc Savage, Man of Bronze. Aspects are character traits illustrated through phrases or character quotes, like "First on the Scene", or "Where Did You Come From?" They are completely up to the player to invent. Players tag them by saying things like "Ah! But perhaps Jet arrives early and is "First on the Scene"?!?" gaining additional successes to the role, or affecting the flow of the story. Interesting Aspects should be ones that the GM can compel to put the PC in harms way, by saying "Ah! But Jet arrives early and is "First on the Scene"", before throwing him early into a conflict, now horribly outnumbered and awaiting back-up!

As well as aspects, you then get to choose from a list of Skills. You get one Superb, two Great, three Good, four Fair and five Average, with everything you didn't pick considered at Mediocre. These are things like Athletics, Drive, Pilot, Fists, Science and so on. I'll include the top three each player choose in the character descriptions below. Players then get five Stunts, special abilities related to their Skills.

One of the most interesting parts of SotC CharGen is the concept of Novels. As everyone is essentially a pulp hero, they each have their own novel, the story that outlines their background. However, they also guest star in two other PC's novels, allowing the game to start with everyone knowing some others in the group, if not all of them! This is really handy, as it eliminates the "Why are we all here?" problem most stories have to deal with. There is already a connection between the PC's, and the game starts with them all working for Atlantic Philanthropy, operating out of Boston. The novels all contribute to Aspects that the PC has.

Other than any interesting background they care to create for themselves, they're done. Sounds simple, but the freedom involved leads to hilariously difficult choices to be made and interesting co-operative character development among the group.

So, without further ado, the party as it stands is as follows:

Maurice LeBec, Retired Gentleman Thief (Gar)
Novel: The Man In The Fog
Sample Aspects: The Man in the Fog; The Style Justifies the Means; So, Your Plan Requires my Death?; Your (Chloe, see below) Sister Stole my Heart
Skills: Burglary, Stealth, Sleight of Hand
Guest Staring In: The Chrono Catastrophe; Lipstick on a Shattered Mirror

Sir Alistair Montgomery, Inventor to His Majesty King George V of England (Ray)
Novel: The Chrono Catastrophe
Sample Aspects: If Wishes Were Horses; Never Enough Cogs; Pull it out of my Hat; For King and Country; The Evil Dr. Eternity!
Skills: Engineering, Academics, Science
Guest Starring In: The Man In The Fog; Areas Astral Vs. The Ice Queen of Mars

Chloe "The Siren" M (Stephanie)
Novel: Lipstick on a Shattered Mirror
Sample Aspects: Old Flame; Exit, Stage Right; Where Did That Come From?; At the Last Possible Second
Skills: Deceit, Rapport, Alertness
Guest Starring In: The Chrono Catastrophe; Hank Scorpio in The Mystery of the Blood Medallion

Hank Scopio, P.I. (Tom)
Novel: Hank Scorpio in The Mystery of the Blood Medallion
Sample Aspects: Don't Lie to Me!; And it all went Dark; Of all the Gin Joints; Dames...
Skills: Investigation, Rapport, Drive
Guest Starring In: The Man In The Fog; Lipstick on a Shattered Mirror

Ares Astral, Prince of Mars (Brian)
Novel: Areas Astral Vs. The Ice Queen of Mars
Sample Aspects: Things Man was not Meant to Know; Stranger in a Strange Land; I Never Suspected my own Brother!; Ares, my Friend! My Camel is your Camel!; If Only we had More Time
Skills: Mysteries, Resolve, Guns
Guest Starring In: The Man In The Fog; The Chrono Catastrophe

And there we have it! An interesting bunch that have given me food for thought! They are a great group to game with, and everyone is really getting into the pulp swing of things! Hopefully I'll have some time to write about each of the adventures they've been on so far soon. I'd like to keep a record of how things go, and where I feel I could have improved on it.

For now, though, don't touch that dial! Keep watching for further updates, and more thrilling adventures!