Where the Hell is Matt?

I came across this link this morning and after watching it, I immediately had to share it. I find it very inspirational.

Where the Hell is Matt? ( 2008 )

I think what really hit me is that across the 42 countries that this guy visited, of all the people he encountered, we are all the same. The crowds dancing with him really spoke to me beyond the dance, and instead showed me that we share more than just this planet we live on. We are, essentially, all the same.

Watch the video in it’s entirety (don’t fast forward, it’s only 4:28 long, for God’s sake!), and tell me you don’t feel at least a little bit at what I’m hinting at.

Astar, Hero of The People

Do you remember Astar the Robot?

I sure as heck do. I can remember this as one of the coolest PSA’s ever made. I used to love the commercial breaks on Saturday morning between Thundercats and Transformers, because there was a chance I might be able to see the Astar commercial. I wanted to be Astar. I wanted to be able to put my arm back on if I didn’t play safe. When I was growing up I didn’t know anyone who had their arm sawed off in an industrial accident, and I like to think that Astar was directly responsible for that.

However, looking at the video now, my adult brain starts whirring and clicking and thinking about the things that my child brain didn’t consider. Is Astar a boy or a girl? The voice makes it kind of hard to tell. Is Astar some kind of superhero robot? I mean – it leaps up the side of a building and stands on the side of it like Spider-Man. Astar then leaps, spins, rips open walls and stands on narrow pipes.

Is Astar some kind of espionage robot sent into this massive factory in order to shut it down? I mean, obviously something nefarious is going on as Astar gets inside and then opens up it’s radar-dish ears to track down some kind of signal. I think we can all agree that Astar is searching down the reactor core for this monstrous manufacturing facility in order to plant some kind of thermal detonator in order to blow the whole place sky high. Why else would the factory’s autonomous security features attack the robot? Clearly the machines were trying to shear off Astar’s head, but Astar dodged and they got the robot in the shoulder instead. Can Astar put his head back on? I would doubt it. Loss of brain function would probably shut the robot down on the spot. The factory’s security computers would know this, as this isn’t the first time that the rebel forces who built Astar have tried to shut the machines down. But do you blame the rebels? Wouldn’t you want to shut down a factory that builds Fryodyne Cosmatomic Death Rays™?

Astar is obviously a hero of this far-away planet, a hero built by rebel forces trying to shut down the war machine that has plunged their society into thousands of years of fighting and death.

Go, Astar. Go. Put your arm back on and kick some ass.

Family Time

This weekend was pretty good, considering the rainy weather we had to endure.

Friday night was game-night with friends (we played a successful and properly-ruled game of Arkham Horror!). It’s amazing how much easier the game is when you don’t have portals opening up on every person’s turn, only one per round. We didn’t finish the game, as it takes an enormous amount of time to play it through to the end, but we did have a good time.

On Saturday we had friends from London arrive around 10:30am (despite the promised 10:00am start time!) with their two kids, and we piled the families up into the cars and headed off to the City of Waterloo Open House. We had a fantastic time with the boys (their two, my one), who only seemed to enjoy running up and down the ramp of a Grand River Transit bus. My daughter slept most of the time we were there. Aside from the bus, the kids got to sit in a fire truck (which, I have to admit, was pretty cool for me, too) as well as various utility vehicles such as massive front-end loaders, mowers, snowplows, tractors and back-hoes. There were animals, a barbecue, balloons, face-painting and the chance to go 30′ up in a City cherry-picker.

The rain kept us in for the majority of the afternoon, but we ventured out to Funworx at Bingeman’s where Connor got to run around and burn off some energy in their massive three-story kid-safe jungle gym. Melodie actually climbed up on the upper level with him and took him down the big twisty slide. We had a great time.

Sunday was another “iffy” day, weather-wise. The morning was nice enough for Connor and I to play outside in the back yard for a while and to do some yard work together. Doing yard work with a 2-year old is an exercise in futility, and I ended up having to do more work that initially thought because of the “help” that he gave me. I didn’t care, however. We had a great time. After the storms rolled through we piled into the car again and went over to the K-W Multicultural Festival in Victoria Park and wandered around there for the hour between thunder storms. After that, we went home, had pizza and I gave Connor a bath and read a few books to him before settling him down for the night.

I was exhausted, tired and achey. but as I sat down on the couch after Connor was in bed for the night, I thought “This is what it’s all about.” Despite the frustrations, sleepless nights, tight budgets and loss of personal time, I wouldn’t change a thing. There’s nothing like spending time with my children and wife, like having those arms wrap around my legs and hearing a little voice say “Hi, Daddy!”, or having my 10lb little girl puke on my shoulder.

Well – maybe I would change the puking part.

Kilroy 2.0 Was Here. Kilroy 2.0 Is Everywhere.

I’ve been involved in podcasting since September of 2006 when my friend Fraser Ronald of Sword’s Edge Publishing approached myself and another friend, Chris Groff, about starting up a podcast dedicated to discussions about modern-themed tabletop roleplaying games. For a time I had been listening to other podcasts like The Dragon’s Landing Inn, GeeksOn, (the now defunct) Gamer: The Podcasting, and some others. At some point along the line I heard about a fantastic audio novel being released in podcast format (now coined a “podiobook”) called 7th Son, a novel written by JC Hutchins and read by the author. I added it to my iTunes podcast collection and began listening. After the first episode in which the main characters are all drawn together under mysterious circumstances, I was hooked.

If you haven’t listened to any of the 7th Son trilogy, I won’t spoil anything for you – but I will try to whet your whistle. The story starts with the murder of the US president at the hands of a four-year old boy. Taken into custody, the child dies of a strange brain affliction within a couple of weeks. In the mean time, who turns out to be one of the stories’ main protagonists is kidnapped in broad daylight on the streets of Miami and taken to an undisclosed location. There, he meets six other men – all of whom look terrifyingly familiar.

JC Hutchins masterfully crafts a tale of intrigue, fear, excitement and sorrow and there’s no better way to experience this story than by it being read by the author. The production of the podcasts is expertly done, and any audio effects used in the podcast are understated, and though not essential to the experience, certainly ramp up the fun.

The 7th Son trilogy was finished in 2007, but recently JC has partenered with a collection of authors (including Mike Stackpole, Scott Sigler and Mur Lafferty) on a new project called 7th Son: Obsidian, which is a collection of short stories following other, normal folk having to deal with the fallout from what happens in the climax leading up to the end of the third 7th Son book. I’ve listened to six of these shorts and they are as impressive as JC’s trilogy.

If you enjoy audio books and intriguing tales, don’t pass up an opportunity to listen to 7th Son, and the follow-up short stories in 7th Son: Obsidian. You will not be disappointed.

My First Look at 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons

Jeez Hank, the fun was here just an edition ago. I don't know where it went!

Thanks to an unscrupulous (or should that be Chaotic Nuetral?) employee of the print company that Wizards of the Coast must have been using to print the 4th Edition Core Rulebooks for Dungeons & Dragons, I had an opportunity to look over some illicit PDFs of the latest edition of the game I love, many hate, and some love to hate. I say an employee of the print company because one of the PDFs still has pressman’s marks on it (the little trim marks and color information around the outside edge of the paper after it’s gone through prepress). While the others don’t have these marks, one of them has a font issue that could be chalked up to being a press proof.

When Wizards of the Coast (WotC) began leaking details of the upcoming 4th Edition, there was a lot of mixed feelings in the circles I run in. Some were very excited to see something new coming from the D&D camp. Some were ambivalent, not really caring one way or the other because they didn’t intend on switching away from the 3.5 edition rules. Some were frustrated, likening what they were seeing to a “dumbing down” of the tabletop roleplaying games. Not having bothered taking a look at any of the advanced detail releases, I didn’t bother getting in on the discussions.

Then, last week, this Chaotic Nuetral rogue released the 4th Edition D&D PDFs, and I decided to take a look (I’m not going to tell you how I got them – you can figure that out for yourself). What have they done to my Dungeons & Dragons?! It reads like a tabletop version of an MMORPG!

Cool downs, supernatural abilities for non-supernatural creatures, and variations in the Monster Manual that read like something directly out of World of Warcraft. On top of that, add numerous suggestions to Dungeon Masters to skip boring encounters and get the players on to the next combat, trap or puzzle. Combat rules also assume that you’re using D&D miniatures, battlemaps and dungeon tiles (all available from WotC!).

On the other side of things, though, is that 4th Edition pre-sales have outstripped 3.5 pre-sales by a wide margin, and I can’t be upset about more people involved in the hobby.