In the not too distant future.....

One of the biggest influences on me was the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was a show that provided me with so much laughter in my first couple of years after "growing up and moving out". We know that it went from Comedy Central to the Sci-Fi channel to the void.....but.....big news

I think it's going to be at Cinematic Titanic.

If this isn't big enough for you, I don't know what is.

Furthermore, other aspects of movie mocking still live on with 2 projects that Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett are doing...

• RiffTrax.
• The Film Crew.

And finally, IF you live in the Central Texas Area....

• Master Pancake Theater!
  

Negative Calories?!?!?!

As many of you may or may not know, Celery is a vegetable which actually causes the body to burn more calories trying to digest it than it provides. The common yet misleading name for this is "negative calories". However, today I discovery that there are MORE foods that fall into this category. I bring this up, because it turns out that my current favorite snack falls into this category.

APPLES!

I adore apples. I refrigerate them for a nice, cold, crisp snack. I grew up alternating between Red Delicious and Granny Smith apples. However, my current favorite is Honeycrisp. If you haven't had a Honeycrisp apple, you are missing out. They are in season right now, so you should be able to get one at your local grocery store. Yes, they are $3/lbs. While that may seem like a lot, when you try one, you will understand WHY they are worth it. The flavor is similar to a Pink Lady, only it's a little sharper and more intense. I highly recommend them.

Other foods with "Negative Calories" include more of my favorites: peas, spinach, peppers (I wonder if this includes my beloved jalepeno and green chile?), blackberry, raspberry, peaches (no mention of variety), Strawberries (OMG!) and Grapefruit (have you noticed a distinct lack of Texas Ruby Reds recently?).

I'm not someone who chases "fad diets". In fact, I'm very comfortable with my current weight. I feel good and I DON'T need to go to Casual Male Big and Tall. However, when I see some of my favorite foods listed in a category like this, I sit up and take notice. After all, I could make a meal of spinach and strawberries.

Death Company!

I played a game of Warhammer 40,000 last night when I was up at Ninja Pirate. I played against a friend of mine who also does Space Marines with the Blood Angels Codex. The REALLY cool thing is that his space marines are painted Oregano. Why is this cool? It is the exact same colour as "Army Men".

Anyway, I FINALLY won a game of Warhammer 40k last night, and it was against him. Most of this success I attribute to my "Death Company". I don't have official models for them so I use my Legion of the Damned models. Here is why they are cool.

1. You get 1 free Death Company model for each squad you have in your army (Max 10 models).
2. Furious Charge - You get 1 extra attack and a +1 to Strength when you charge.
3. Attacks are Rending - if you roll a six on your to-hit, it is an autokill.
4. Led by a Chaplain with "Litanies of Hate" - Reroll misses when you charge.
5. Led by a Chaplain who makes his squad "Fearless".
6. Feel No Pain - Except for exceptionally powerful attacks, you can roll a D6 after every save. On a 4 or better, you shrug off the damage.

While this may seem really broken to a non-40k player, it isn't quite as broken as you'd think. Every army has some funky sets of powers that makes them "uber". Eldar have their Falcon, Necrons have their Monolith, Tyranids are insane in close combat, Chaos.....are Chaos, etc.

Anyway, I maxed my Death Company and they pretty much ate EVERYTHING they came in contact with. The fact that they all had jumppacks meant that I could get them where they were most effective quickly.

Oh, one more thing. Ninja Pirate had the Space Marine "Masters of the Chapter" box. I wasn't originally planning to get it, but they had it in stock.

...

I WANT IT!

Dungeon and Dragons session - Hellenika Campaign

So we had our D&D game on Thursday. Previous campaign notes can be viewed here. Its abbreviated, but it is enough to catch you up.

Cast

• Galathiel - Half-Orc Druid
• Kerin - Human Cleric
• Iridanae - Human Ranger
• Tesla - Elven Sorcerer (my char)

Last nights sessions went thus. (Note the Doctor Who references :) )

The Castallan came in and asked us if we wanted to go to "Monster Isle" and collect "The Rainbow" - a series of stones that the timelords use regularly. Realizing that this was the only way that the council of the Time Lords would hear us, we agreed.

They still didn't have meat for Woof-woof (our half-orc druid's pet). The odd thing was that we knew that meat was loaded on to the ship that we set sail on to get to "Atlan". Kerin seemed to conclude that the Castallan knew about this meat even though he insisted that meat was not imported.

He gave us a map (nicely colour-coded). We will have 24 hours to collect the various items and then left us to our planning. The Castellan said he would return tomorrow.

Last night, Lendor (the god of time in this world) visited us and gave us various magic items to assist us. He also advised us that we should try to talk to the Giant (after we beat him up).

• Lightning Lizard - Indigo
• Twisted Ettin & Raging Dragonette - Blue
• Rock Giant - Violet
• Land Shark & Poison Giant - Red
• Stone lizard & Sea Snakes - Orange
• Spidermen - Green
• Trash Leech & Swamp Thing - Yellow

After talking to a servant, we found out that there was an "expert" on Ettins (one of the critters we need to defeat). We asked that servant to relay a message to the expert "Glargofage" that we would like to speak to him.

Glargofage arrived (a short orc who seemed a little dimwitted). However, he seemed to know about the monsters there.

• Twisted Ettins tend to absorb magic they are hit with. Apparently they've been twisted by magic.
• Trash Leeches tend to absorb any healing magic in the area. magically altered also.
• The Raging Dragonettes are small dragons that can go into a "blood frenzy" and can tear one to pieces.
• Sea Snakes he thinks they are like "Sea Nagas" (we faced those before).
• Spidermen are also twisted by magic. They are humanoids melded with magic and can fire webbing around. They have poisonous bites and keep huge poisonous spiders as pets.
• The Swamp Thing is an animated semi-humanoid plant that shambles around swamps.
• Lightning Lizards are like dragons that breath lightning. They can swallow a person whole.
• Stone Lizards have a gaze attack that can turn you to stone.
• Rock Giant is just a normal giant that lives in the mountain.
  
• He didn't know about the Poison Giants nor Land Sharks.

He also told us that "monster island" is just a place that the Time Lords leave their "failed experiments". Though he also indicated that specimens were collected for study and were possibly experiments by other groups. The island is about 20 miles "tip to tip".

I asked him about the Temporal Sliders. He seemed surprised that we'd been in the timestream. He seemed amazed that we'd actually fought them. Apparently, the council created them millenia ago - one of their successful experiments.

The session ended early because the GM needed to get early.

Houston!

This past weekend I went to visit my cousin - as seen HERE, HERE, and HERE. I had a very fun weekend with her and her son. The four of us (The Informatician Extraordinaire was there too) be-bopped around Houston. It looks like I may be getting the kiddo hooked on the idea of painting and Warhammer 40,000, he's about the right age to start looking at that. I picked up a little paint starter kit for him. I think it provide a bit more of challenge and learning experience than his Playstation or Yu-Gi-Oh (not that there is anything wrong with those). I also helped him buy Final Fantasy X.

While there we went to dinner at Lai Lai's Dumpling House in Bel Air. This is a great Chinese restaurant. If you are ever in Houston, I recommend looking it up.

Wow that's a lot.

First up. This lady is my new hero.

Now...

OK, so I have the figs in my Bretonnian Battleforce box assembled and primed, FINALLY. And now they go into the queue of stuff to get painted. Couple this with the new figs I got yesterday and it is apparent that I've got a TON of stuff to paint.

I've noticed that many people tend to fall into the trap of "more stuff than they can paint", and now I know why. There is a solid case of "Oooo, that is pretty, I want that", which outstrips the time it takes to get them ready. Oh well. The lady friend has an other civil war trip this year, so I'll be home alone for a week. Perhaps I can clear out most of the stuff I want painted by then, including the fig for "Tesla" the Elven sorcerer in the current Dungeons and Dragons campaign.

So what do I have on tap? In no particular order:

1. House Escher Necromunda Gang
2. Sisters of Sigmar Mordheim Gang
3. Tesla (fig is Celeborn from the Lord of the Rings game by Games Workshop)
4. Sejana - Paladin (fig is Eowyn from the Lord of the Rings game by Games Workshop)
5. City of the Spider Queen set of Drow from Wizards of the Coast (I love the Dark Elves).
6. Bretonnian Battleforce - 16 Men at Arms, 16 Archers, 8 Knights, 3 Pegasus Knights)
7. Princess of Hell - Scantily clad Demon girl from Reaper Miniatures.
8. 3 Warrior Nuns - Also Reaper, I'll probably do these with the Sisters of Sigmar
10. 10 more Assault Squad Space Marines.
11. Finish off the 10 Scouts I am painting faces on.

Yeah, that IS a lot.

Pod..errr Netcasts!

One of the things many do not know about me, is that since getting my iPod, I have been addicted to netcasts (as Leo Laporte calls them because you don't need an iPod) of various types. Its inexpensive entertainment that I can listen to while driving or when I'm caught with nothing to do. While the list of casts I'm subscribed to is FAR too big to list here, here are a few choice casts to which I listen.

• DL.TV


• Revision 3's Netcasts - The Totally Rad Show, Tekzilla, iFanboy, Diggnation


• Twit Network - This Week in Tech, The Tech Guy, Windows Weekley, net@nite, Daily Giz Wiz, Munchcast


• Fear the Boot (RPGs)

Just to name a few. I'll go into a little more detail about each netcast I listen to since there are very many good ones out there. The FEW I've listed above I consider some of the cream of the crop. Keep an eye for cool netcasts and drop me a line about them.

Events of the Weekend

Last Friday, I observed/played a demo of Rackham's AT-43. It is a rather simple miniatures game with some nice pre-painted minis. Apparently, I played it with a bunch of Steve Jackson Games employees who had decended on Battleforge games to give it a try. That was an interesting experience. I didn't care for the static quality of the maps and the rules seemed to be unclear in certain situations, but all-in-all it's a fun game and worth a look. It was also kinda neat to realize that I was playing with people who work in the industry of which I'm a consumer.

Saturday, I headed back to Battleforge for a Warhammer 40,000 tournament. I like tournaments because I can get 3 games in in a day and I like the random quality of not knowing what mission I'll have nor what person I'm about to play against. As usual, I did get seriously beaten down but I did do better than I had. I've been trying a slightly different Space Marine list using the "Blood Angels" chapter codex. I like the "in your face" close combat quality and the fact that I can use my "Legion of the Damned" squad for Death Company. Of course, while I did come in dead last, I did get a Bretonnian "Damsel of the Lady" blister to add to the Warhammer Fantasy Army I'm building.

Sunday, I went and hung out at another local gamestore called Ninja Pirate. I was hoping to get another game in, but that ended up being a no-go because of the fact that they'd hosted the 'Ard Boyz tourney the previous day. I like that they stepped up their support with Thor's Hammer (my previous hangout) vanishing. So I chatted with a few people (one of whom I'd not seen for a few years) and worked on my Bretonnian battleforce box. This week, I gotta basecoat them. Then I can get them assembled enough to field and paint at my leisure.

There has been talk about playing Mordheim and Necromunda recently. I've always wanted to play these games and at the very least wanted to get the minis. Well, I've gone ahead and ordered House Escher (Necromunda) and Sisters of Sigmar (Mordheim) warbands. I've decided that aesthetics should be the primary deciding factor for picking miniatures from now on. Also, because I'm now wanting to make sure my local game stores are supported, I made sure to buy these from Rogue's Gallery instead of ordering them online.

Now the only problem is that I need to hold off before I can pick up the Dungeons and Dragons Rules Compendium. This looks like it is going to be a useful text for me, so I'm strongly considering picking it up. Every rule listed in Alphabetical Order to make rules easier to find. They also seem to have been edited a little bit for clarity. There is a preview over on the Wizards of the Coast website, click here if you are curious.

So, where has Rachael been?

Yes, I admit, I've not been in Paragon much. I've only been lurking around invisibly when I've been on so I can run a mission or two then log off.

I love City of Heroes, and I like what I know about Issue 11, but I think I let myself get burned out running the morning STFs (the primary reason I created this blog).

Well, the Stone Goddess has instead travelled to the grim darkness of the far future where there is only war and has been commanding an army of Space Marines in battle playing Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000. This has been a fun change of pace as I've gotten to meet many people in RL and have a new challenge to master (feeling that I've mastered almost everything CoX has to throw at me).

I've wondered to the disposition of this blog. It was originally meant to be a CoX blog, but I'm figuring I'll expand it to my general gaming experiences. I certainly don't play World of Warcraft enough to warrant listing that here. If I do, I'll certainly keep the "Rachael" identity as I'd prefer to keep my gamer half somewhat divorced from my "tech" half. I've still run into many people who don't get "table-top gaming".