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Blog - February 2004 |
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This page stores my blog entries from February 2004. The entries are dated February 2, February 4, February 6, February 19, February 24, February 26, and February 28.
Bizarre Search for My Blog / Dry Hands = The Devil's Work / Busy Super Bowl Weekend / CD-RW Drive Issues Monday, February 2, 2004
***** Nearly every winter, my knuckles and the backs of my hands dry up and, on occasion, crack and bleed. Some aloe lotion usually helps, but sometimes I questioned this particular formula's effectiveness. It could be because I don't use it often enough, especially since I wash my hands numerous times a day. It could also be the fact that the lotion is probably about 8 years old. I ran across something online somehow that led me towards helping my hands without lotion. Generally, when I dry my hands, I rubbed the towel rather strongly across my hand, making sure it's completely dry. Now, I just pat the backs of my hands dry. So far, it seems like my hands are doing a lot better. They still need help with lotion, though, which I rarely remember to use. Some of the help might come from staying out of the cold or the slightly warmer temperatures. I don't think I'm spending any less time outside, though. I'll continue this method and see if it might help other areas like my nose, which seems a little dry as well. ***** I had a very busy weekend this past weekend. Much ado about Pam and much ado about the Super Bowl and work as well. Things started early Saturday morning, when I had a short one-off project through AppleOne. I had fun with this, but getting up at 6am on a Saturday was a killer. Fortunately, the tasks were simple and the time went fast. On my way back from the assignment, I stopped by Computer Warehouse. My Plextor PW-X4012TA (40/12/40 CD-RW drive), for some reason, has refused to burn to my TDK discs. I have had no problems with this until now, which bothers me a bit. Actually, it bothered me a lot, since I had just finished organizing things in Nero to back up my hard drive. I thought Computer Warehouse would have copies of the new CCN so I could check the assorted store ads for prices on new CDRW drives. When I found out that they didn't carry any, the guy behind the counter said that some items might be less than marked due to something. Before I entered that store, I had wondered why I had such a poor impression of them. His remark solidified that for me. I hate going into a store and either not see any prices for things (as I did long ago in that store for full systems) or not really knowing for how much things cost. I picked up my CCN at my usual Arco station. In between the CCN run and getting home and ready for Pam, I stopped by a small yard sale. For $1, I picked up a rather nice wine rack that holds eight bottles and, I'm assuming, about eight glasses in the slip-in slots on the underside of the top. It's wooden with tiles along the top and sides, and the sides of the inside have decorated mirrors on them. One tile is missing, but I bet I can find replacement tiles of appropriate size that I can use. My evening and night belonged to Pam. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner of grilled-cheese sandwiches, minestrone soup, and Dreyer's Triple Chocolate Thunder ice cream. Yum! We watched "Head of State" with Chris Rock to top off the evening. We both felt that there were a few funny moments, but it was overdone. It felt like they tried too hard or something. I like Chris Rock, but this movie just didn't do it for either of us. I did resist the urge to suggest killing the movie after the first half-hour and wasn't too disappointed. Super Bowl Sunday turned out wonderfully. In the morning, I got some more reading done in Dune, looking forward to the middle-end of the novel. In the afternoon, Pam came over, and we all watched the Super Bowl. Part of me wanted to see New England win again, but another part of me hoped for the underdog to get their chance. Neither team disappointed after the first half, making up for a horrifically boring first half with a flurry of scoring. We enjoyed homemade pizza (on homemade crust), beer, and some Sunnyside Farms Coffee Toffee Fudge, one of the best ice creams I've tasted out of a carton. The post-Super Bowl period included some Murder, She Wrote on some station's Murder Bowl II airing. ***** My CD burner issues have become rather weird. As mentioned in my previous section, my burner refuses to burn or, really, even read my TDK discs. They worked perfectly fine before, but now they seem utterly useless. Plextor says it's a media issue, but they were wrong when they said that it was also the cause of the self-test failing on the drive. I used a Verbatim CD-R, something packaged with the drive itself, to do the test. So, I don't know what the problem is right now. Possibly tomorrow, I might go out and get a different CD-R disc to use. I'm not sure if that'll help, since I tried to burn something to the Plextor CD-RW disc earlier today. It burned without a problem. The problem became that I couldn't read it. My whole computer would lock up at certain points, trying to read the disc. We'll see what I can do. I have a (hopefully) new driver for my DVD-ROM that I might use.
Hijacked By Radio Stations / Verbatim the Answer? / Stormy Teeth: Weird Dreams / To Do, Or Not To Do: Thoughts On High School Friends and Getting Together Wednesday, February 4, 2004 My luck with radio stations sucks. A year or two ago, a station appeared on 105.5FM (I believe) that played
club music and things like that. A very dance-y station that most people would never think I would give any
sort of time out of my day. I loved it. The high-energy music proved to be upbeat and very enjoyable.
After a couple of months, a Christian group bought the station and changed it to a Christian format. That
excitement to sheer boredom ticked me off. Before then, I never really listened to a station that I enjoyed
so much. ***** There is hope for my CD burner, and I'm happy about it. It appears, through a trial with the CD-RW disc that came with my drive, that the drive is not the issue. I'm fairly confident of this, and I'm much more relaxed about the whole ordeal. The only problem has been figuring out what media would work best for it and for long-term storage. Apparently, from things I've read, TDK can be a bit sketchy. My current fear is that the stack of TDK discs I have may have aged beyond usability. One of the recommended brands for Plextor CD-RW (and DVD±RW) drives is Verbatim. Their DataLifePlus discs appear to be rather highly regarded by Plextor. We'll see what happens when I get some tomorrow. ***** Weird dreams continue to plague me. Actually, for the most part, they're really cool. I'm not sure what they mean, or what I could be thinking about at those times that would create such bizarre or apparently-meaningless sets of imagery. One dream involved my neighborhood. A huge storm with big, billowy grey clouds floated by with no breaks in them. The wind whipped the trees around like metronomes. Suddenly, the power pole from near the store breaks off and comes crashing through my next-door neighbor's house. Their house isn't what it is in reality, though. The house in the dream occupies its lot and the one next to it. Lots of glass flies around from the front windows shattering. Another dream involved my teeth. The only thing I see are my teeth in a mirror. It appears that one of my lower-front teeth had split in two. Either that, or it suddenly split into two teeth. The gums were very red and blood covered some of the other teeth, including between the two new teeth. I have no clue about the first dream. The second dream could have something to do with my concerns from my days of teeth-grinding, an apparently fairly common occurrence with young people. I haven't ground my teeth in years now, but I can still notice the effects of it: the flat, smooth tops of some of the teeth, the tiny cracks in some of the teeth, and the very, very rare pop or pain in my jaw. It's possible that the tiny cracks in my teeth concern me a little more than I realize. ***** My high school friends are having issues, and I'm not sure if "friends" should be plural. One of our gang tends to be the center of any social event with us, and he normally does the planning for the get-togethers. Recently, he expressed that he will not plan another occasion until someone else does. Frankly, I completely agree with him, since he shouldn't have to do all the planning himself. Many theories have flown around concerning the lack of participation in the planning. I couldn't help but wonder, "at what point do we need to move on?" It's something I hadn't thought about for myself in a long time, and I certainly don't think of it right now. High school friends can be such a great group of individuals. Unfortunately, over time, the individuals become more individual and less a part of the group. They try to forge a career for themselves, with that action sometimes taking them away from the home state. Some have gotten married and have their own family. Some are flat poor and really have to watch their expenses, something that the relatively rich may not consider. More and more details pile up as everyone tries to create a life for themselves, making it more and more difficult to get people together. Of course I'd want to see my old friends on occasion. I have many great memories with that group. The times when Bino and I would easily kill two or three hours on the phone or in-person, talking the whole time. The bowling gigs with Jordan on Fridays after school. The Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay campaign that Paul ran. Jordan being "baptized" in Dice's pool on Jordan's birthday (the end point of our "kidnapping", which involved handcuffs and driving him around all over the place while he was blindfolded). I'm sure there are other moments and occasions I thoroughly enjoyed on one level or another. The unfortunate thing about life is that I cannot recreate these moments. I can't go back and stop the things that harmed the friendships I had with some of them, either. Those great moments will always be a part of me, though. So, when does one just let things go? Should anyone do so? I don't think a lack of activity between members should indicate that point. With any close group, when people are ready and have a time that works, the get-together will occur somehow. If nobody arranges something and nobody really wants to get together, then that very well might be a sign.
The Genesis of an Increasingly Conservative Nation / Oregon Trail and Nancy Drew: Remade in Binary / Plextor go "Poof!" / Today's Activities Friday, February 6, 2004 "This is the world we live in
I rarely introduce a section of a blog entry with a quote, but this just seemed too appropriate. In hearing this song on 103.9FM, I was thrown instantly back to when MTV still showed full videos and remembered the video for this. A heavy criticism of the then-Reagan Administration, the video sported puppets for Ronald Reagan, Nancy, and all sorts of other characters. Replace Reagan with Bush, and it certainly seems true that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Different problems, of course, go on today. The whole Janet Jackson blow-up seems ridiculous to me. The media and highly conservative people make more of a deal of it than truly necessary. The image on that page (click on "Janet Jackson" in the second sentence of this paragraph), to me, clearly shows some sort of metal sunburst held in by a pin. I seriously doubt that such a piercing was meant to be in public view and is certainly not a pastie, as most people report it. Even if Janet and Justin intended this as a stunt, such matters would never be given this amount of attention if we, as a society, didn't act like such puritans. It's a part of the human body. For the most part, the only reason why such things garner so much attention and are used for shock value are because we have made it taboo. If people would grow up and quit acting like they do to such things, people wouldn't use it to gain attention, good or poor, to increase their sales. "Marriage" should become a hot topic in the next couple of years. Divorce rates have soared above 50%. The media hypes up a 50-hour marriage by a celebrity who thought it'd be "fun." Bush throws money at the poor religious people, thinking it'll help them become better parents. Yet, what is it that garners the attention here? It's whether homosexuals can marry. Statistically, homosexual couples tend to be more stable and caring than heterosexual ones. I believe that the highly promiscuous people in that population segment are a small minority with a public image blown up by '80s-era irrationality and fear. What is there to threaten? If anything, committed homosexual couples would actually bring back some respectability to the "institution" of marriage. Hopefully, good, rational people will put an end to this silly, unbased set of fears and the "irrational-right agenda." It appears, so far, that this viewpoint will be shared by both Presidential nominees. So much for having politicians who represent my views, which won't happen this Presidential race. These viewpoints shouldn't be given the amount of airtime they've gained. So many more important issues exist that should be addressed, yet the populace hangs onto such relatively petty notions. This certainly is a Land of Confusion, and, at times like this, I wonder if this world will ever be made worth living in considering the hands we've given to run things. ***** I saw a couple of software releases yesterday that looked potentially really cool. Back on the old, cool Apple IIe computers at Merryhill, we had a game called Oregon Trail. A cool educational game, Oregon Trail required the player to take a family safely along the Oregon Trail. Trading, repairing wagon wheels, and hunting (my favorite part) enraptured the player for possibly a half hour or more. Well, apparently the Learning Company released a 5th Edition of Oregon Trail. Naturally, the graphics should be a huge improvement over the Apple IIe. This might become a "if I have the money and am in the mood" purchase at some point. Back in grade school, I loved to read the Nancy Drew mysteries. I don't know whether they were better written than the Hardy Boys or if I just preferred to read about a cool, intelligent girl who could be mine someday (yes, intelligence can be attractive), but I loved these books. Now, Her Interactive created some Nancy Drew computer games. I didn't really get to look at these, but many appear to be out and new ones coming out semi-frequently. ***** Well, my lovely Plextor PX-W4012TA internal CD-RW drive is toast. It's behaving erratically, and all selftests fail. So, the cool and quick Plextor Support people gave me a ticket number to receive an RMA number to return the drive. The only problem is that my drive is five months past the warrantee. Instead of getting a free replacement drive, I'll either have to buy a burner from some other company or get a refurbished one from Plextor. I'll have to weigh the options before acting, though I will get the RMA number in order to leave open the option of getting a refurbished drive. Anyone have any recommendations on other high-quality CD-RW drives? I've heard that ASUS and Lite-On make solid drives, and I have good experiences with ASUS equipment. ***** I waited a long time today to hear back from someone who was interested in me from some job for which I applied. Unfortunately, when that person called, I was in the middle of exercising and didn't get their name, company, or contact number. Next time, I'll let the voicemail get it. Given that, I spent a lot of off-line time away from the job hunt. I got some sorting and cleaning done in my room, moving my smaller candles and my incense into the top drawer of my secretary. I got my first check from AppleOne and found a bottle of Robert Mondavi Private Selection Zinfandel for Valentine's Day's dinner with Pam. Most of the AOL, Earthlink, and AT&T discs I had stockpiled ended up in the trash, saving a few for coasters. I saved the odd-ball ones (four are in metal cans; one is in a wooden box) and saved the DVD cases. I planned out how I'll get my room organized. Before, I would either just stuff papers and such wherever there would be room. Now, I'm figuring out the best use of what I have. So far, everything has gone smoothly and worked out well. The point of concern I'll have will be when I get towards organizing my books and finding appropriate space for them.
Foreword // Excitement of the Upcoming Season / Organization Movement // Sick / I Don't Know What I Know / My Per-Plextor-ing News: Refurbished Drive Works! Thursday, February 19, 2004 As a foreword to this post, forgive the rather late and off-timing of some of these entries. Some of these elements are still valid at least for their emotion (located between double-row starred section). I have been rather sick lately (see below). ***** ***** The year grows towards a time I look forward to the most. Although I love the rain and the atmosphere a thick blanket of clouds can produce, I love it when it starts getting sunny. So many cool things and memories come to the forefront of my mind as the year progresses. Baseball. From the excitement as a kid in going to baseball card shows or memories of sitting around the TV on a warm summer night watching a game, baseball becomes the center of my attention around this time. I remember lying down on the floor in front of the TV, watching the Giants' game and hearing the peacocks crow from a field not too far away. A voluntary report date on Valentine's Day approaches. Players in arbitration will exchange figures with their team, leading to show-downs and surprising results for salaries. Spring training starts at the beginning of March. Various records and landmark achievements might be met this season, too. Will Barry Bonds make it to 700 HRs? How far will he go? Will Andres Galarraga get signed and hit is 400th homer? Will Ken Griffey, Jr. stay healthy enough to hit his 500th homer? Will Rickey Henderson be signed and extend his stolen base and walks records, or will Barry set himself up to catch Rickey in the walks category? So many things could go on, including added wins to Roger Clemens' record, Greg Maddux' chase to 300 wins, and how teams like the Houston Astros, Detroit Tigers, and Boston Red Sox will do this year with their improvements. The warm weather allows me to do so many more activities than before. Pam and I have been waiting for the weather to improve so we can continue our tennis practices with each other. I've been waiting for the temperatures to rise so that I could sit outside and read peacefully. Hopefully, come Saturday, the sun will warm things up to make my trip with Pam to Placerville a wonderfully warm adventure. ***** Generalization of methods fascinate me at the moment. During this past weekend, I worked with my maternal grandfather towards the eventual completion of two cases in which to put my samurai helmets. We cut a base to size, rounded the top edges with a router, sanded it down, and patched the holes as needed. Our only hitch is that my initial determination of dimensions for the plastic were off; thankfully, it was off on the large end and not small. But still, I just have to re-evaluate how things will be arranged, and we'll be off again. It feels like the planning time and thought process has generalized a bit. At the moment, I'm in the middle of a semi-major overhaul of my bedroom, rearranging things and organizing things to limit clutter. I find that I put quite a bit of thought into things before actually doing a thing. Before, I'd just shove things into a pile and forget about it for some time. The result? Things are getting done, and my room will certainly be a nice, neat, organized dwelling. The Japanese have a couple of good mindsets when it comes to working with things. One of them is the mindset that if you do a little bit of something every day, it'll eventually get done. It seems like a much easier and relaxing way to tackle big projects. I think I'm slowly beginning to capture that mindset for myself. I have a lot to work on. With my room-cleaning project, I have done the following:
My next steps will involve the following:
I think I may have to take smaller steps with some of those, but those are the general plans. ***** ***** For at least the last week or so, I have been sick. At the moment, I'm still not well, though I hope to be so sometime soon. Be thankful that you do not have this! So far, my fever is gone. At one point, it peaked at about 103.9° F (the digital thermometer tends to register my normal morning temperature at 97.2° F). I still have some fatigue, and, apparently, a bad sinus infection could occur. One of my mom's co-workers apparently had this, came back to work, and had a relapse. Whatever it is, it is nasty. ***** "All I know is that I don't know nothing!" - "Knowledge" by Operation Ivy Or, more correctly phrased, it should say, "all I know is that I don't know anything." I'm seeing and finding that such a mindset would be preferred over any other. It's not that one truly doesn't know anything, but that someone should assume that they don't know everything. This way, a person would think more critically about what one needs to know and as questions accordingly. I think too many people make too many assumptions on what the other person knows or understands, and many conflicts or misunderstandings would be prevented with this mindset. I know that I sometimes assume that a person knows more about a situation than they do. I may also assume less or even assume differently overall. I could, for instance, assume that a person believes or thinks in the same manner as they did in high school, which would be absurd in most instances. Unfortunately, it's not an easy mode in which to think. If I could get myself to think in this manner and ask more questions, I think it could help smooth things out for myself with other people. ***** On a last note before I collapse, I got my refurbished Plextor drive yesterday. It's a PX-W4824TA, which is a 48/24/48 CD-RW drive. I was surprised to see UPS come and drop it off (with signature). The drive is currently installed and, so far <*knocks on wood*>, it is working wonderfully.
Kings: Is Dave a Jinx? / Shift in How I Spend My Time / J-High of 1995 Pro Baseball Players Round-Up / Done With Dune; What's Next? Tuesday, February 24, 2004 Although logic tells me otherwise, I feel like I'm a curse to the Kings. So far, in five games that I've seen, the Kings are 2-3. They lost to the Trailblazers in the first game I've seen them at Arco. They lost against the Timberwolves a couple of nights ago. They did win against the Chicago Bulls, but everyone is beating them. I know I have caught them at a rough time in the season. Chris Webber is out and will be until March 2. Bobby Jackson has been hurt off and on with a pulled muscle. Brad Miller has that sprained ankle. Tony Massenburg had food poisoning, missing the Bulls game. I don't think Doug Christie has been 100%, either, given his limited role in that Trailblazer game. Pam and I both noticed that rather unusual lack of play time Christie had in that game. ***** It's an eerie feeling to check my e-mail every day and have very few e-mails. For so long, I had a huge amount of messages to scan or read through. About 90% came from the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay e-mail list, which has since nearly died due to the death of the game publishing-wise. For a while, I had a huge amount of spam to my e-mail account, but that has, for the most part, ceased. While at UCD, I had a couple of e-mails every day or so from friends, but those kinds of e-mails no longer are sent in my direction. Usually, after a few 30k+ sized e-mails, there isn't much else to talk about. I know this certainly marks a change in my online habits and gives me future opportunities to do things away from the computer. After nearly 10 years of diligently reading and responding to e-mail through my personal addresses and dance club address, my semi-obsessive clambering to see what new morsel has been sent to me may be at an end. I'll continue to enjoy hearing from friends or whatever new thoughts spurt forth on the WFRP mailing list. Finding things to do will not be a problem. Eventually, when I do get a job that pays reliably, I'll join a club and pick up racquetball like I've wanted to do for a couple of years now. I have more time to read, something I have rarely done for pleasure in the past. Who knows what else I may do and what else might come to mind? ***** As Spring Training commences, here's a round-up of the Jesuit Class of 1995 baseball players. Admittedly, I only know of two who are actually in organized baseball; please e-mail me if you know of others.
Hopefully both will see some time in the Majors, possibly as a late-season call-up. Good luck, guys! ***** I finished Dune last night, and I rather liked it. Actually, I love it. I don't know whether it was some sort of exhaustion setting in, but the end seemed to skip around a little, possibly foreshadowing some weak writing. I'm not sure if that's the case for Dune, though, since it felt like the skipping ahead of things was effective. Today, I thoroughly completed the book, reading the appendices. I referred to the glossary frequently during the reading, but I saved the other entries, one on Arrakis religion and one on how Kynes set up the Fremen towards developing the planet, until today. The religion and report via Lady Jessica, in my opinion, should certainly be saved until after finishing the novel. The section on the development of Arrakis could, I think, safely be read beforehand. It may still ruin the story, so don't take my word on it. I have yet to figure out what I want to read next. Part of me wants to dive right into Dune Messiah and continue the series. Part of me wants to read something different for a change of pace. I'll have to see what I have and what sounds interesting.
Blow Me Away: Major Storm II / I Don't Get It V: Pulling Out of Driveways / Anticipation for The Passion / Valentine's Day on Leap Day / Death to Judas: R.I.P. Carl Anderson Thursday, February 26, 2004 The second nasty storm blew through the region yesterday. I don't ever remember the back yard flooding like this during or after a storm. It flooded along the rose bushes and all across the back of the garage and towards the back fence. The rose bushes will certainly survive such deep-watering, but I hope nothing else is affected. The front yard flooded a bit in the planter sections. I saw a Roger Dickinson sign get blown about, dancing around someone's front yard as if it were in a ballet. Each delicate step of the metal rods seem to be carefully chosen as to how it moves with the wind. By the end, it most certainly won't stand upright; hopefully that's not an omen for his election. A few birds sit at the bird feeder in back. The weatherman says the winds should blow around 20-30 MPH with gusts up to 50 MPH. Whether they feel a necessity to feed themselves for the upcoming hatching or feeding their mate, their huddling up against the shaft of the feeder seems silly and fruitless. As I sat in the living room reading the paper, I watched the big tree in the front yard sway back and forth. That is, I was watching the trunk sway back and forth. Never had a movement of maybe two inches made me so nervous. Thankfully, trees are fairly elastic. I had thoughts of heading out and taking care of a few things. Mervyn's had a sale on everything in their store. I still need to ship back that old Plextor drive. Things changed significantly during the afternoon, but I stayed home and baked my dad's birthday cake. The resulting downed limbs formed a rather sizeable pile in front of the house, too. ***** On rare occasion, I see something that makes me wonder about society and wonder if I live in a completely different world. I sometimes amaze myself at the seemingly trivial things that get people fired up and angry, too. My little pet peeve involves a minor element of driving: backing out of a driveway. One does not do much when backing out of a driveway. One backs out into the lane they'll drive in (assuming a one-lane road; otherwise, the slow lane), changes gears from "reverse" to "drive" (or "first gear" for those of you who still drive stick-shifts), and start driving forward. Back at my old house, I constantly watched an older genteman pull out and start driving on the wrong side of the road. This really confused me and really made me wonder about his sanity with regards to driving ability. I chalked it up to old age and moved on. When I moved into my current neighborhood, a neighbor across the street did the exact same thing. Maybe it's the water? Nope; I drink the same stuff and don't do that. The "old person" theory stuck, though, until my next-door neighbor did the same thing as well. I think both of them do it, actually. So, what's wrong with people? Is there some sort of new driving law or method that I was never taught? Are people getting lazier when it comes to driving? Given how horrendously fast and reckless some people drive, I figure that 90% of all drivers immediately discard everything they learned about driving and the law once they pass their written and driving tests. So, what is it that I'm missing here? Sadly, I have no answer. This is something I can't even theorize or rationalize for myself. I could go on about how different people have different driving abilities and control capabilities, but this issue has nothing to do with that. ***** Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" (which, to me, sounds like an awkward phrase) captured my interest once I heard the details of the movie. Completely done in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin. Supposed to be a realistic version of the story. It sounded great to me, and it has been on my "must see" list for some months now. Eventually, I'll get around (with Pam) to see it. Despite my background, I seriously doubt that I'll find anything anti-semitic about the movie. Granted, I haven't seen any of it yet, but I don't view the story as the Jewish people being responsible for his death. People routinely forget that Jesus was Jewish himself; there was no Christianity at the time! He was most certainly Jewish and just observed the Jewish laws as he saw fit. It'll be interesting to see how Mel Gibson's vision for the movie pans out and how well it does in the theaters. On a separate note, congratulations to Peter Jackson for Return of the King reaching the $1 Billion mark worldwide. ***** Due to my two week illness, Pam and I will be celebrating our Valentine's Day on Leap Day, February 29. Our plans include breakfast at a local cafe, a trip to the old section of Placerville, and a nice spaghetti with meat sauce dinner with a bottle of 2001 Robert Mondavi Private Selection Zinfandel. We both have a little something for each other, but that will be revealed after this weekend. ***** As a last note for this posting, I found it sad that Carl Anderson died recently. Anderson would be best known as playing Judas in the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" in the '70's film and sharing the role with Ben Vereen on Broadway.
Poltergeist IV: The Haunting of the Nordic Track / A Man's Experience with Role-Playing / New Hope For Sac Ballroom Dance Club? / CD MAP Settlement Received Saturday, February 28, 2004
***** Role-playing has a love-hate relationship with me. Despite the campaigns I've been involved in, I can't say that I know much more about role-playing now than I did when I started. I'm sure I know more, but I don't think I've ever progressed. There's a saying among potential school teachers that there are two different teachers who have taught for 20 years: one who has 20 years of experience, and one who has 1 year of experience twenty times. The idea is that teachers in the latter instance do not learn from their experiences and never adjust. The former instance learns and grows with his/her experience. I feel I'm in the latter instance. I know many reasons exist for this. It's not that I don't enjoy the fantasy aspect because I do love games like MERP (Middle Earth Role-Play; the world of J.R.R. Tolkien and such, for those of you who don't know) and WFRP (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay). If Gemini had lasted longer than it did, I probably would have found a way to get involved in games for that. Sociability, ironically, seems to be rather important with the whole role-playing experience, yet that's something with which I have my difficulties. After all, the basis of role-playing is to act as an imaginary character and interact with the imaginary surroundings. I tried starting with a group that was already rather experienced. Mix in the fact that we met in large groups (between seven and ten people per meeting) and with a group that I had problems with, and it just didn't add up overall. It didn't help that most sessions ended up as long discussions about things completely unrelated to the game. Even one of my friends said that role-playing, among other events, was just a cover reason to get together. I know that the huge groups proved to be a disservice, since the experienced people had all the action and made all the decisions, leaving me to do nothing but sit around until the big battles came about. The only exception I can recall involved a cool Vampire game some time ago where I felt I role-played my character very well ... until the very end when I kind of broke character. But, such is inexperience. I didn't exactly start under the best circumstances, either. I knew close to nothing about role-playing until high school, only hearing very little about AD&D when in grade school. Despite many generous offers, I resisted joining the group. I think I was afraid of such a different thing; the unknown, despite how mundane, can be a bit scary. Add to that some crappy experiences with other peers, and I wasn't too willing to trust much of anyone. Eventually, I started hanging out with them while they played. I got roped into a MERP game, and I ended up enjoying aspects of it. I had very little control over the creation of my character, but I took that over in due time. A friend at the time, when talking about my role-playing confusion, said that I did kind of "skip marijuana and went straight to heroin" by starting with MERP. If anything, I'd think that starting with MERP would have been a good thing, given that I had at least a little knowledge of the setting. Or, maybe I missed his point, which wouldn't surprise me. Maybe it was more to the point that a game like AD&D plays more like a beginner's realm to role-playing by simplifying the aspects of character creation, removing the difficulty of defining one's character and gaining experience with just the role-playing aspect itself. As the reader, you might be asking yourself (or, yelling at the monitor), "so, why didn't you find some other people to role-play with?" Unfortunately, no simple answer exists. I had my own problems that I had to remedy, and those problems would have only made things worse in other ways with different people. Due to what experiences I had in the past, I wasn't motivated to seek out other opportunities. When one doesn't have the best experiences with something that they're not sure they truly enjoy, regardless of the reasons, one is not going to pursue other options. I know I was busy with school for almost six years (undergraduate and graduate work), so time was an issue for me as well. In a little more than a week, I'll be a part of a new MERP campaign. For a brief moment, especially after I wrote the previous paragraphs, I wondered why I would continue to get involved in role-playing games. I think a part of me hopes that things will be different. I know I am not the same person now than I was back in high school, and I know that it's true, for most things, with the others. I think part of me hopes that the others will see me in a different light and allow me more of a chance to grow and enjoy this as much as they do. Also, and most importantly, I hope to act differently and try to do different things in-game and in-character that may make my character more of an important factor than an iron-clad hit-point-absorbing battering ram. A lot of what needs to be changed to further my enjoyment has to come from me, but I know I'll need help. So, as the first step in my change towards better experiences with role-playing, I need to think up a character concept for this upcoming game. Sadly, I've failed many times with this, including having a couple of heated arguments over this subject many years ago with one of The Group for a D&D game. I think I've gotten better recently, and, maybe, my increased reading will help me with more ideas. The same person with whom I had the heated arguments did try to help me out, asking me if there was some sort of movie character or character in a book that I really liked. Given that my concept at the time was, "a big beefy guy who runs around and kills things", I couldn't think of much. Fortunately, my characters turn up a little better. A current D&D character is a human fighter who enjoys painting and speaks with a Scottish accent. I don't remember much more about the character, but at least he isn't just a blood-thirsty half-elf or a metal tank of a dwarf. ***** Earlier today, I chatted with a reporter from the State Hornet, the school newspaper for CSU Sacramento. Initially, she e-mailed the dance club concerning receiving more information about it for a future article. I wrote back, letting her know that the club folded and, unless she wanted to write an article about that, she was out of luck. She was interested in hearing more about the failure of a club she thought would be rather popular, so we arranged to talk this morning. I'm not sure in what form this conversation will see the light of day if it does at all. Part of my hope is that it'll drum up notice among the current CSUS students who are interested in taking the reigns of the club and lead it to new glory. Well, as much glory as a ballroom dance club can muster, but at least it could be better than its current state of inactivity. I had been tempted to say much more about the demise of the club, but I held my tongue. My personal distaste for the political atmosphere of CSUS shouldn't enter into the raw factual reasons for the club not succeeding. I kept from talking about non-committal officers or our lack of ability to find and recruit new officers as the need arose. I think I spoke honestly and truthfully without throwing unnecessary mud. ***** A few years ago, an ad somewhere made me aware of a class-action lawsuit against various music companies concerning an illegal minimum advertised price (MAP) agreed upon by various companies. The companies included Capitol Records, Virgin Records, Elektra Records, Rhino, and BMG, with Tower Records as being an entity named as a defendant with the others and many other pre-recorded music companies. It was possible for anyone who registered on time to get a portion of the monetary settlement, though if too many people applied, there was a possibility that nobody would receive a dime. A week or so ago, I read an article saying that a settlement had been reached, but I didn't expect anything from it. That is, I didn't expect anything until today, when I received a check for $13.86. I never expected to receive a thing, so this money is a wonderful surprise. |
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