Currently watching Robotics;Notes, Psycho Pass.  Enjoying both series greatly. Code:Breaker was okay, but I think I'm done watching it.

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 09:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Sorry, had to turn on 'registered users' comments.  Too many spammer scripts hitting my posts.

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 01:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I will be posting more Android: Netrunner info in a bit, but I have to wrench myself away from the story of the Vault Hunters and Handsome $&@$! Jack first....

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 11:39 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I am a happy board gamer tonight.  I finally acquired my copy of Android: Netrunner from my FLGS.  I was hoping a friend might be able to score me one of the GenCon copies, but that ended up being a bust. 

Netrunner represented one of the more interesting variations on the collectable card game genre when it was released.  At the time, MAgic was the game in town.  You bought cards, you built them into decks, and squared off against the same pool of cards in your opponent's deck.  With Netrunner, your opponent was using a completely different pool of cards than you.  One player is the corporation trying to advance their 'evil' agendas, and the other is the 'Anonymous' of the day, hacking into the Corp's servers and liberating the agenda cards to score as their own.

Until Netrunner's release, I can't recall a CCG that used a format like that.  Not only that, but they were using art and terms from the R. Talsorian Cyberpunk universe which I was fond of (though I had not played any Cyberpunk yet.)  It was a great thing overall, but I was disappointed when it only got two expansion sets and then was dropped by Wizards of the Coast.  I was busy with work and social life at the time, and couldn't buy many boosters for the game.  I don't know if it was a general falling out in the CCG market or something specific to Netrunner, but it was just done. 
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Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 05:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, it has been a good week at the office.  My turn to be the other desktop support tech and I spent most of it running around the building moving hardware.  Made me achy and tired in the evening, but overall I felt and slept really well after all was said and done.

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 03:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I just wrapped up a two hour play of 'The First Reconnaissance' scenario for Mage Knight - The Board Game.  My initial reactions are jumping between 'omfg, theres so much I don't know about some of the cards' and 'that was pretty damn cool.'   More after the break.
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Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 04:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Having trouble finding good anime to fill the time between Rinne No Langrange and Moretsu Pirates coming back on the air.  Need more media to consume...

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 02:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Lately, I find myself strangely addicted to Let's Play videos on YouTube.   Just got done watching on series on Assassins Creed 1, and had a blast from the past watching Dragon Force (Sega Saturn) an amazing game I had stolen from me a long time ago.  It is fun to just kick back and watch everything that is going on.  I think I might look up some videos on Crusader Kings II and see how other people play it.  My attempts to be the Earl of Shrewsbury in 1016 and build a proper Abby there were less than steller.  (Points to those who get the reference.)

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 07:19 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I'm a bit of a sucker for the 'sandbox' video game.  I like being able to drive around a city and participate at will in the various events.  Saints Row the Third is satisfying that, despite the over the top atitude and style.  Admittedly, this isn't the first time they've gone over the top, but I would say that they've never gone this far before.  Certainly not a game I would play with my kiddos watching (at their current age.)  I am having fun with it.  Now I need to plug in the xbox controller and see if that helps steady my aim.

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 08:21 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A pigeon was sent to me, informing me that three men had to die after stealing a valuable map and killing some men while doing it. The nearest target to me was making laps around an open forum in the middle of Forli and I was frustrated by his three guards being right with him.  To complete this mission, I could not be detected in any way.  Amazingly enough, a bard came to my rescue.  I had thrown some gold to get him out of my way and all three of the target's guards when scrambling for the florins I had tossed away.  I just casually stepped past the target and scratched him with my poisoned blade. 

I was surprised and a little stunned at how well the system responded to those mechanics.  The AC series has really had some great moments like that while playing.

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 10:11 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm still out here, trying to decide what to do with this space.  Trying to decide if I should post excerpts from my WIP writing here.  I'm tired a lot.  Need to get out and walk more.

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 10:33 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've been a World of Warcraft player for almost six years now (might be seven, not sure,) as a member/founder of The Looters Guild on Earthen Ring.  We are fortunate enough to have a guild just large enough to maintain at least two regular ten man raid groups.  A fair number of people would be extremely tired of the week-in, week-out attendance of raids just to throw yourself at the same content over and over, and I've seen people who have decided they've had enough.  I'm still largely content with it.  I like the people I raid with (in both raid groups.) I like the group challenge it provides. It has up days and down, and I've had to skip just for my own mental health sometimes, but for now, I'm still in on WoW End Game raiding.

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 04:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Okay, Moretsu Pirates 25 was strong and led into an even stronger episode. I'll be shocked if there isn't a second season at this point because the timing for wrapping everything up just doesn't seem to be there for one episode. I suspect Steven Den Beste has a more in depth report on the episode.

Looking forward to some Eclipse tonight with a couple of old friends. It is shaping up to be a solid game. Now if only I could find a way to get in a Twilight Imperium game at least every six months.

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 09:05 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Not much to say right now, but I'm trying to get into a better habit of posting.  (Not on a schedule, but just finding the time to organize some thoughts and put them up.)

I've recently read the full available High School of the Dead manga and enjoyed it.  I think I like it better than the anime series, though overall the story is mediocre.  Read all the way through a manwha called School Shock.  Sci-fi series with many echoes of Mahoromatic.  Not bad over all, and looking forward to the next chapter. 

On the anime front, I'm looking forward to tonight's Moretsu Pirates.  Really liking this series overall.  Pacing is a little weird, and needs more indication when more than a week passes in show.  Corpse Princess has been a solid show and I can't wait to finish it up.  And I'm very happy that Rinne no Lagrange 2 is airing soon.

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 11:57 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I was on my way home when the song '@#$ Back Home' by Gym Class Heroes played on the radio and triggered a line of thoughts. We live in a society where everything is close together. Assuming money is not an object, I can be anywhere I want to be on the planet within a twenty four hour period. I can communicate with people pretty much anywhere at will, even those few that are currently in orbit. But it also occured to me that much like smartphones, this closeness has only sprung up recently. As little as forty to sixty years ago airplane travel was not that common. So, could this be affecting people's perception of what depth of investment a trip to Mars would involve? more...

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 10:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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There is a moment in watching tv... No, that's not right by current standards. Consuming media? Let's stick with enjoy a show.  There is a moment in which you realize that those are characters out there.  They stop being real people as their characters and they start being people playing characters. It's this moment where you sit back and stop paying attention to the plot. Your brain freezes and loops around the fact that edge of the screen has fallen away and you can see the grips, gaffers, electricians, makeup artists, and various and sundry staff on the sides. This moment occurred for me while watching the Fifth Doctor.  A random synapse fired, linking this absurdly dressed scientist in an impossible box, to a foaling barn deep in the farmlands of England.  What made it even more surreal was that I had been watching several episodes on PBS since the new Doctor had arrived...err...regenerated, and hadn't made the mental link up yet. To me it was downright stunning! Here he was, 'without a single how'd you do' as I've heard it said on various Brit Coms over the years.  The only thing I could think of when my sister walked in on that Sunday afternoon to see me giggling like a madman at the little black and white tv was "its a shame he wasn't a doctor in both series." (I think that was the moment she may have decided she didn't understand her twin teen brother anymore, but that's conjecture at this point.) I've seen Peter Davison in many other shows over the years.  Heck, I just watched one I hadn't seen before this morning called "The Last Detective". Last is used in the form of 'he was last in line.' here, and I've found that it can be carried forward to another thought.  I've found it very hard to unlink that revelation of actor vs character from him.  I found myself examining how he had changed over the years.  Where does the character of D.C. "Dangerous" Davies end? What part of the role, aside from his general appearance and voice is his? Are actors these people ever split in two by their roles? It leaves me with a lot of questions about why I watch what I watch, or what actors I end up following their career.  It also leaves me asking why we might become enamored or obsessed with various figures in the media.  Either way, a good mystery story has led into a wonderful line of thought on our media oriented culture.  Guess I'll just have to go  consume more  media on the issue!

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 02:58 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, once I again I find myself debating various ideas and have the urge to give them some form outside my mind.  Writing descriptions is a start, but I have this urge to try an model some of them to see what they look like.  Off to unreal editor!!!

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 01:29 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Yeah, looks like it's a non-PC, non-360 kinda night tonight.  Some good music on Pandora and a book for the evening.

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 06:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, even with playing Battlelore on Friday, I didn't get to push enough cardboard or write enough this weekend.  Thankfully, I still have tomorrow off, so we will see what comes of it.

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 10:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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And I got to introduce Bran to BattleLore tonight.  He came away really liking the game.   I'm glad.  I have every expansion except 'For Troll and Country' scenario, Creatures expansion, and Dragons expansion. 

That, and I like the Command and Colors system a lot too.  I pointed out that Memoir 44 is a very similar system, and he wants to play that sometime too.  This is when I demonstrated the concept of Epic BattleLore by laying out the maps just to demonstrate the change in scale. 

Yes, I want a reason to pull out these games and play them.  Now if only a few more of my boardgaming friends lived closer to me!

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at 10:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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