d-r-m

Oh the suspense...

2008-10-22T08:37:00.005-04:00

This blog is dying...but it is being reborn!! In true comic book cliffhanger fashion, to see the second half of my memorable comic covers from my youth you have to go my new blog site. http://d-r-m.posterous.com/

All future posts will be at http://d-r-m.posterous.com/

2008-10-16T13:06:00.021-04:00

75th post extravaganza!!!

I just realized this is my 75th blog post! To celebrate, I'm going to feature 75 of my most memorable comic book covers from my "golden age" of comics. Er, 75 covers seems like a lot...howzabout 30 covers? I'll break this into two posts.

My particular golden age falls between the age of 8-18 (1987-1999). I'm not saying the comics in my golden age are the greatest comics ever. Most of them are definitely not anything groundbreaking or the highest examples of what a great comic book is. So my apologies in advance for inevitable the Rob Liefeld and Image comics at some point in this list. I'm being honest here, and when the '90s comics came out I gobbled them up and begged for more. I was young. Tastes evolve over time (thankfully). For better or worse, these comics bring that nostalgic essence of what comic books were "back then."

GI Joe #46
One of my earliest comics that have long since gone to comic book heaven. I don't remember anything about it except the cover.

Wolverine #5
My first exposure to Wolverine. Back when he also went by the name "Patch." Great cover by John Buscema. I love the feeling of fast action/movement frozen in time.

Captain America #358
As a kid - when it comes to comic book covers - it is hard to ignore the looming threat of death of one of your favorite superheroes. I remember thinking "What's going to happen - will he survive?" When a superhero "dies" these days, I don't even bat an eye.

Uncanny X-Men #222
Wow it's that Wolverine guy! My first X-men comic featuring a classic Sabertooth vs Wolverine battle. Sadly this comic perished by the oft recurring disaster known as "Mom Doesn't Approve." When this disaster hits the comic is destined for the garbage. This isn't the only comic on this list to meet that fate. Mom was probably right on a few occasions given some material and my age. But only a few...

Amazing Spider-Man #300
Spider-Man was always safe from "Mom Doesn't Approve" disasters. Ironic since it was often just as bloody and violent as X-men. Ah well... Black costume Spidey was the coolest thing for me as a kid. The only thing more bad ass was Chuck Norris and Rambo.

Amazing Spider-Man #328
A fun cover with Spidey beating on the Hulk. Impossible you say? Not when you favorite wall-crawler gains cosmic powers! This was during the Acts of Vengeance crossover/event.

Captain America #375
I loved the Captain America era when Ron Lim was the artist. A berserk Cap ready to tear Daredevils head off! A great fight between Cap and Daredevil gave me my first exposure to Ol' Hornhead.

Iron Man #249
I never really bought Iron Man that often, but the idea of a showdown with Dr. Doom sounded cool. One of the few things I remember from this issue - Iron Man uses his chest laser beam (technical term) to make popcorn.

Detective Comics #610
I always loved this cover of a somber Batman standing in a cemetery. I really didn't buy any DC except Batman and Detective comics. Don't know why. These days it is about equal between the DC and Marvel stuff I buy.

Punisher War Journal #11
Punisher has an uzi and is seeing red! I snuck this one past my Mom at the store. Success! D'oh you idiot, don't sit in the living room and read it! She caught a glimpse of the cover, flipped through 22 pages of drug dealers getting made into swiss cheese and that was the last I saw of that one. "But Mom, they are all scum who deserve what they got." That didn't persuade her. The Jim Lee art was cool - what parts of it I got to see. Looking back this probably was a bit too violent for me at age 10. Although I had seen Terminator by that point so go figure.

Amazing Spider-Man #344
Back to Mom-approved Spidey... I was intrigued by this new Cardiac character. I liked his costume and his powers. Back then that was all you needed to be gnarly and radical. I loved to say gnarly and radical. I should bring gnarly back.

Wolverine #50
The unique die-cut cover was enough to convince me to buy this one. "Sweet, it's like Wolverine took a slash at my comic book!" Little did I know that the comic book cover shenanigans were just beginning. Die-cut, chromium foil, hologram, super-foldout covers. Hello '90s...

X-men #1
By this point I must have hit the magic age where X-Men was no longer on the "Momma Don't Approve" disaster list. I was really mesmerized by this comic. I was convinced Jim Lee was the greatest artist ever (still one of my top 5) and the X-Men where the best team in comics. These were the absolute glory days of comic books for me.

New Mutants #100
Riding off the high of X-men #1, I found this issue still on the racks shortly after. "Dude, more mutants!" then "What?! Last issue?" This was followed by more excitement upon realizing this would become X-Force. I admit it - I was pretty impressed by Liefeld's art. Something about it seemed really energetic. It had lots of lines so it had to be good art, right? Back then I think I placed him just below Jim Lee. My how opinions change.

Daredevil: The Man Without Fear #1
Ooh, not just a foil logo, but red foil all over! The cover sold me, but I quickly realized the story was even better. I really like this look at Daredevil's early years as he learned to cope with his blindness and his powers. Frank Miller and John Romita Jr. were a good match.

Check back in a couple days, when I post the the other 15 covers!

a little backed up

2008-09-25T08:05:00.003-04:00

I've gotten a little backed up...with pictures that is. I'm hoping to post some pics from the last few heroclix games sometime this weekend.

2008-08-07T08:08:00.002-04:00

08.06.08 game night

The Game: 400 point teams with random placement.

We played on the Baxter Building map from the Fantastic Four starter set.

Chris played a fun theme of "Granny and her grandchildren".

Katie/Energizer, Julie/Lightspeed, Alex/Zero-G, Granny Goodness, Jack/Mass Master, Star-Girl, Robin, Baby Hellboy

Adam brings out the stars and stripes for a Captain America theme.

ww2 Captain America, Bucky, Isaiah Bradley Captain America, U.S. Agent, Captain America, Ultimate Captain America

Jeff played a "Fantastic Couples" theme. Ignore the Invisible Woman/Spidey (or pretend they are an alternate universe FF couple!).

Invisible Woman, Spider-man, Crystal, Human Torch, She-Thing, Thing.

I came up with a "Time Travelers" theme. It was stretching it a bit with WW2 Captain America.

WW2 Captain America, Kang, Bishop, Supernova.

Game Summary: I tried to hold the middle of the board, FF laid the smack down on a grandma, and Adam's WW2 Cap is a sadistic beater of little children. Poor Power Pack.

2008-07-30T08:07:00.004-04:00

game night 07.23.08

The Game: With the Secret Invasion set being released today, we decided to do a "blind box" game. Each player has one booster pack of Secret Invasion heroclix and whatever is in the box is your team. This usually leads to some wildly unbalanced teams between the players, but the fun is in the anticipation of what's in the box.

What's in the box?... WHAT'S IN THE BOX!?

Sorry about that, wild tangent. Anyways...

The Map: We used the map from the new Fantastic Four starter set. The middle cross section is blocking terrain that can't be flown over, phased through or shot through. Also everyone started in the middle of the map separated by the barriers.

The Teams:

Chris pulled a Dr. Strange, Dum Dum Dugan, Yellow Jacket, Spider Slayer and Gravity

Adam discovered a Spider-Girl, Arachne, Hawkeye, Lightspeed and Attuma in his booster

"It's not Attuma" - joke of the night courtesy of Adam

Jeff found Mass Master, Spider-Man, Immortus, Triton and Namor waiting in his booster

Lo and behold, I pulled Triton, Captain America (John Walker), Sharon Carter, Attuma and a Moloid

It was a fun game despite the uneven teams. It ended up coming down to Adam vs. Jeff, with Adam the victor if I remember right.

And finally sing along with me,

*It's heroclix in a box*

2008-07-03T15:23:00.003-04:00

07.02.08 game night

Another night of Heroclix. 400 point teams.

Break out the hair dye, Jeff plays a blondes theme team.

Stature, Liberty Belle, Saturn Girl, Rip Hunter and Emma Frost.

Adam lets the big guns out to play with DC's trinity.

Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman

Greatest theme ever! Chris came up with a "people with flowey shirts" team.

Kang, Black Tom, Abra Kadabra, Firestorm, Luke Cage.

My hastily thrown together theme was "Marvel Marriages" and a dog.

Lockjaw, Mockingbird, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Marvel Girl, Vision and Cyclops.

Game Summary: 2/3 of the Trinity holds up (RIP Batman) and squashes us all.

2008-06-20T14:41:00.003-04:00

game night 06.18.08

A three team Heroclix game, as Adam and Comfort were not present(busy with The Uniques comic, conventions, etc.) We decided on a 400 point game of random placement. No map picture - it was the standard 2-3 buildings and hills.

Teams:

Jeff played a bug team bent on not being squashed.

Ant Man, Spider-Man, Blue Beetle, Blue Beetle, Spider-Woman, Spider-Man, Ambush Bug

Chris had a different mix of Teen Titans besides the usual Titans team.

Speedy, Raven, Tempest, Jericho, Kid Flash

I used an X-men team from the Days of Future Past storyline (minus Magneto).

Colossus, Storm, Colonel Logan, The Hound (Phoenix), Shadowcat

Summary:
I had a sneaking suspicion that my Rachel Grey/Summers/Phoenix/Hound clix sucked for 130 points. Maybe I didn't play her correctly, but e-gads, what crap for the point cost. It was anyone's game for most of the night, but it finally came down to Jeff vs. Chris. It became a lengthy roll off with Chris using Kid Flash to hit Jeff's Ant Man with an 18 defense. After many rounds of rolling (including a nice crit miss by Jeff to lower Ant Man's defense) Chris was finally victorious with a hypersonic KO punch!

2008-06-09T09:30:00.004-04:00

Model cars, oh no!

I've suddenly found myself somewhat into cars again. I blame the video game Forza Motorsport 2 and my new TV. As always with me, if I'm into cars then model cars aren't far behind! Someday I'll maybe buy a "real" sporty car. The problem is mechanic work and me generally don't mix. That's another post all together.

Notice the Tic-Tac block sander, which is the limit of my engineering abilities.

So I'm putting my model-making skills to the test. I dusted off a model ('67 Shelby GT 350) I got for Christmas back in high school/college. Opening the box, I remember I kinda suck at building models. As a kid there was always a point where the pieces wouldn't fit together just right. Every model I can think of ended with Dad salvaging my mess and creating a masterpiece.

Hopefully I'm a little more patient and crafty this time around. Expect progress posts. Crash and burn? We'll see...

2008-06-05T16:34:00.003-04:00

game night 05.28.08

The Game: 400 point teams, random placment.

The Map: We had a cave in the middle of the map. Yeah, that's right, a cave.

The Teams:

Adam played a nice The Brave & The Bold - esque team. Green Arrow, Black Canary, Green Lantern, Flash

Jeff is eagerly awaiting the upcoming Fantastic Four starter set. In the meantime is this interesting FF team. Yeah yeah, 5 figs instead of 4, but Ant Man is, well, the size of an ant! Invisible Woman, She-Hulk, Human Torch, Ant-Man, Mr. Fantastic.

Chris played a ..... his theme was......OK so I forget if he had a theme or not. This always seems to happen. It is practically a trend now. Well there was a guy with a moustache on his team. Always worth pointing out. Chris add a comment if you had a theme! Animal Man, Mr. Miracle, Robotman, Omni Man, Hydro Man.

I played a theme team of characters from this summer's comic book movies. Hulk, Batman, Iron Man, Joker.

2008-05-23T07:56:00.002-04:00

Halo 3 Postcards

As promised, here are the rest of the Halo 3 LAN postcards I made up (see prior blog post for explaination).

2008-05-21T09:22:00.002-04:00

Halo 3 LAN Invite - Friday, June 13, starting 7 p.m.

Interested in a Halo 3 LAN? Consider this your invitation. Anyone that wants in on this LAN that didn't get an e-mail (Lexicus & crew) send me an e-mail if you'd like to participate.

It's time again for another Halo 3 LAN. I had a clever idea for invites this time. I made up a bunch of cheesy/lame postcards like you receive in the mail from friends/family on vacation. Kinda like these:

I ended up making 8 of these postcards for the Halo 3 LAN announcement. In the process I got lazy. Rather than hunt down addresses, print and mail these postcards, I decided to put them up here instead. Almost as good, although the "what the hell...?" moment of getting one of these in the mail would be great.

I'll post the rest of my postcards in a couple days.

2008-05-16T08:24:00.005-04:00

Game Night 05.07.08

The Game: 300 point game. Standard starting positions.

The Map:

The Teams:

Chris: The theme Chris picked for his team was "Captains." Green Arrow (filler piece?), Captain Ben Daimio, Captain Britain, Captain America.

Jeff: A nice random assortment of characters for Jeff this time out. Liberty Belle, Clayface, Johnny Quick, and Atom.

Adam: Adam assembled a good looking Freedom Fighters team. Phantom Lady, Damage, Uncle Sam, and Ray.

Dan: I had an odd theme for my team. Not sure where I pulled this one out of. Well yeah, actually I did pull this one out of my butt. My theme was Wayland Union High School - attended by yours truly some 10+ years ago. Damage (for the mullets), Shatterstar (white - school color), Wildcat (school mascot), Meggan (green - school color).

Summary: Chris started the game off with a bold move to the middle of the map. I chased after him with my team on one side with Jeff getting in the mix on the other side. Adam moved on to the hill and was able to make some ranged shots on all of us with Ray. Later in the game after Chris's team was KO'ed Jeff and I got into a close combat role-off. Adam headed towards us methodically landing hits on the biggest threats. We had to end the game because of time, but at that point it was looking like Adam would have won it. It was a fairly close (and fun) game.

2008-04-29T09:52:00.002-04:00

game night 04.23.08

The Game: 400 point teams, maximum of 6 clix on a team. Normal starting positions.

The Map: A flat map with lots of blocking terrain pieces.

The Teams:

Jeff: It is Young Avengers meets, errmmm, X-23 and Devil Dinosaur! Stature, Wiccan, Patriot, Devil Dinosaur, X-23.

Chris: The Teen Titan teams have been popular in our game nights as of late. Chris adds a few other teens to the team with Atom Eve and Stargirl. Speedy, Atom Eve, Robin, Stargirl, Kid Flash, and Jericho.

Adam: What a shiny team. Adam played a Metal Men team (plus Captain Atom), and they looked very cool together! Lead and Tin, Iron, Gold, Captain Atom, and Mercury.

Dan: Summoning forth my fond memories of role-playing games (I miss having the time to play those) I went with a D&D classes and races theme for my team. Nightcrawler (elf), Puck (dwarf), Abra Kadabra (Wizard, Sorcerer, etc.), Valkyrie (barbarian), Shining Knight (paladin), Green Arrow (monk).

This ended up being a pretty good game. Unfortunately it ran late, and we had to quit before a winner could be determined. At the end, Chris and I were more or less finished so it would have come down to Adam or Jeff. All the blocking terrain made it quite different than the usual game map we play.

2008-04-23T13:08:00.003-04:00

game night 04.09.08

Just another straight up 400 point game.

The Map:

The Teams:

Adam: Look out, it is a team of Teen Titans from then and now! Robin, Kid Flash, Speedy, Wonder Girl.

Chris: Some heavy hitters here with Darkseid and Granny Goodness. Scary stuff.

Jeff: Run for it Marty, it's the Libyans! Jeff's team was comprised of time travelers/people who can alter time. Dr. Strange, Bishop, Bouncing Boy, Scarlet Witch, Rip Hunter.

Dan: I'm horrible at making theme teams on the fly. I tried to do a female Disney characters team, but it kinda fell apart. Sage, Namorita (Ariel), Star Sapphire, Liberty Bell (Belle), Mirage (Pocahontas).

The highlight of the night had to be the utter beatdown of Darkseid by the Teen Titans over the course of 3 turns. It was nasty. I almost felt bad for Darkseid. Almost. Adam ended up taking this game after defeating Darkseid and Granny Goodness. Jeff and I had reduced each other's teams to shambles, so once Adam moved on to us there was little we could do except watch all the KO's fly.

The mighty Lord of Apokolips is not so mighty when squaring off against teen angst.

Never trust men with mullets and bright red boots. They're ca-razy.

2008-04-12T10:01:00.003-04:00

Brzoziller LAN Party

Well here it is, a montage video of some gameplay from the March 28th Brzoziller LAN Party. Unfortunately I was kinda limited on video clips because I accidently lost most of the replay videos before I had a chance to watch them all. As a result, there isn't too much carnage and explosions in this video. Oh well, next time will be better.

I'm probably going to get a capture card because I had fun making this video. It is about 8 minutes long so you might want to give it a minute to load before you play it.

In the next few weeks I hope to make a trailer to announce our next LAN party!

2008-03-31T09:19:00.002-04:00

Halo 3 LAN Sneak Peek

The Halo 3/Smash Bros. Brawl LAN was alot of fun this past Friday night. We ended up with a turn out of 9 people. Hopiefully we can bump that number up to at least 12 players for the next one (16 would be even better!). We had a wide spectrum of player ability yet it is safe to say everyone had a good time.

I have a feeling my video montage will take me longer to make than I first anticipated. For now I'll tease you with a few random screenshots. Nothing too wild. *Disclaimer: Screenshots do not reflect actual individual player skill/non-skill* :)

Dean and Adam (left to right) face off.

Chris unloads his Assault Rifle on Josh.

Driving a Warthog can be hazardous to your health.

Dean gives Rudy a whack to the noggin.

Shot through heart! And your to blame.... Adam feels the pain of a well placed bullet.

2008-03-27T10:40:00.003-04:00

Game Night 03.26.08

I thought I'd try something different for this Game Night post. I plan to make a video of the upcoming LAN party, but first I have to familiarize myself with Windows Movie Maker. What you see below is the result. Good practice. Hopefully I can post this correctly.

The song ends right when it gets to the chorus, but oh well.

2008-03-21T15:37:00.005-04:00

LAN Party - Controlled Chaos

There is something about a LAN party that really riles me up - in a good way. One of my co-worker friends Jeff and I are hosting a Halo 3 LAN party for the second time next Friday. I would say the last one was successful. I presume everyone had a lot of fun, which is really the only thing that matters.

What I became more aware of by hosting a LAN party for the first time is the work needed to keep chaos during the LAN party at optimal levels (a little mayhem is part of the fun).

In the case of the Halo 3 LAN it requires things like:
-Loading player profiles for everyone on the consoles ahead of time so everyone can start playing faster(more of an Xbox360 issue)
-Explaining game play mechanics, controls, game types for players new to Halo 3
-Creating balanced teams when playing team/objective games
-Keeping everyone besides the hardcore gamers interested for 4+ hours
-Avoiding physical injury and property damage (likely harder to do if alcohol is involved)

The list above makes it sound like alot of work but it really wasn't too bad. Most everyone at the LAN party was pretty laid back, so I'm sure that helps. I'm hoping to iron a few kinks I noticed at the last one. I doubt any of the players noticed these things though. Either way, my hope is everyone coming to the next LAN party agrees it is more fun than the last one. There is nothing better than a rip-roarin' LAN party!

I'm planning a big write up of the party with lots of pics and hopefully *fingers crossed* some gameplay video goodness.

Thoughts on Zen Meditation

2008-03-18T08:56:00.003-04:00

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2008-02-28T14:22:00.004-05:00

game night 02.27.08

The Game: 400 point random placement game. Simple as that.

The Map:

The Teams:

Adam: Adam played a "Dicks" theme team. There is a fine line between arrogance and dickish-ness. Most would be in agreement that these characters have crossed that line at one point or another (or all the time). Black Adam, Hawkman, Quicksilver, and Gambit.

Chris: The first in the group to pick up heroclix from the new Crisis set, Chris played these new clix. Speedy, Kid Flash, Deathstroke, and Green Lantern

Jeff: A nice mix of some classic JLA members in their original costumes (minus Green Arrow). Wonder Woman, Flash, Superman, Green Arrow, and Batman.

Dan: I screwed up and thought we were doing a 300 point game so I only brought 2 teams worth 300 each (I wasn't sure which one to use). Since we did 400 points I had to mish-mash the two so I have a "Scientists & Shields" team. Captain America, Arkon, Beast, Hulk.

Highlights:
-Green Lantern is tough to hit.
-Hulk Smash
-Flash, Super Senses, and Jeff = Aggravation
-Gambit is a stealthy, cardthrowin', dickish (at times) mutie

2008-02-22T13:26:00.005-05:00

A mix of some of the music I've been listening to alot lately.

Nickel Creek - Smoothie Song
I haven't been listening to Nickel Creek that much, but rather bluegrass music in general. There is something I really like in that awesome simplicity of the various combinations of guitar, banjo, mandolin, violin (fiddle), resonator.

Metallica - Through the Never
Talk about contrast. At about the same time that I'm getting into bluegrass, I'm also listening more to some (stressing some) metal music. Wierd, huh? So I missed out on the Metallica craze when I was in junior high/high school, but I'm discovering it now. By today's standards I guess you could consider Metallica more heavy rock than metal.

Stray Cats - Rumble in Brighton
Rockabilly is pretty cool, especially when played by Brian Setzer and the Stray Cats. I like the "classic" '50s rock/country guitar sounds that are unique to rockabilly. A hollowbody electric guitar (preferrably Gretsch) slightly overdriven...neat! I can only tolerate it for so long though before it kinda sounds repetitive, but then again what genre doesn't get that way after awhile? Disco, that's what...

Jerry Douglas - Little Medley
So back to that bluegrass thing...My favorite thing about bluegrass music is the resonator guitar (when it is in the mix, which isn't always the case). Something about that sound, the unique tone and slide playing. It is a very distinct sound. This is a nice little video with solo resonator playing so you can really hear it. One of the best resonator players is Jerry Douglas, who is most well known as a member of Union Station with Alison Krauss. I swear, if I ever learn guitar to my satisfaction, I'll pick up a resonator and learn how to play it!

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Two
I've been really liking some of Ryan Adams' albums, particularly Cold Roses and Easy Tiger. Alot of his songs have a sort mellow country vibe to them. I think a bit of that sound comes from the pedal steel slowly doing it's thing in the background. It has a country sound, but without the usual country themes/motifs you find on country radio (which is a good thing). I had a hard time finding a good youtube vid that featured this, so here is the best I could find.

eh, here is another one.How Do You Keep Love Alive

Queens of the Stone Age - Avon and 3's & 7's
Yes, I've been living under a rock. So Queens of the Stone Age have a great CD, Songs for the Deaf, that came out a few years ago. I don't know how I missed it, but it is my favorite CD at the moment. Very basic, repeated, rhythmic rock that has kind of a dirty, grungy sex-type feel to it (don't know how else to describe it). Might not be your thing. I dunno, but I can't wait to check out their other CDs.

Ignore the French at the beginning....oui!

Now for the I-wish-I-could-do-that moment. This is a snippet of the U2 Medley by Doyle Dykes played by 9 year old boy, Sungha Jung, who lives in Korea. I hope to someday be able to play like this. He had only been playing guitar for about two years at the time this video was made!

Here is the full U2 Medley performed by Doyle Dykes. One man. One acoustic guitar. Very cool! No video with this though, just a slideshow of u2 photos.

2008-02-15T08:12:00.004-05:00

game night 02.13.08

The Game: Regular 400 point game, except at the start of the game each person placed a smaller map tile from the upcoming Crisis DC heroclix set. We added the tank as a separate play piece, but it ended up not playing a factor in the game

The Map: Take a look

The Teams:

Adam: Adam had a nice fire and ice theme going with Ice, Fire, Iceman, White Queen and Human Torch

Chris: Chris had some sort of theme, but I don't remember what it was...just kidding! I usually forget Chris's themes much to his chagrin, but this time I remember his theme is "Black Attack" (black costumed characters)! Merlin, Donna Troy/Troia, Black Cat, Batman, Dr. Mid-Nite, Hulkling, and Black Tom.

Jeff: I really need to pick up that Legion action set...Jeff, puts his to good use with this Legion of Superheros theme team. Cosmic Boy, Phantom Girl, Bouncing Boy, Timber Wolf, Dream Girl, and Ultra Boy.

Dan: I played a team made up of "C" and "D" listers, although you could argue that most of them are "D" listers. The Hood, Living Laser, U.S. Agent, The Creeper, Gargoyle, and Copperhead.

It ended up being a pretty good game, with the majority of the fighting split between Chris and Adam, and Jeff and I. We had to wrap it up early because it was late (that sounds funny) so no clear winner emerged.

2008-01-24T08:11:00.001-05:00

game night 01.23.08

The Game: 400 points. We played on two of the 2'x3' maps with designated "teleportation" spots scattered on both maps. These were numbered 1 thru 4 and had 3 teleportation options for each number. So if you went in teleported #1, you could choose where to come out between two other #1 teleporters. Movement was not stopped by going through a teleporter, and running shot, charge, etc. were allowed to be used in conjunction with teleporting. People were closer together than it seemed at first glance because of the teleporters.

The Map(s): The JSA museum map and the Infinity Gauntlet space map were used. Oddly enough everyone ended up on the JSA map, what with the crazy teleporting.

The Teams:

Adam: In honor of Martin Luther King day earlier in the week, Adam played this team: Luke Cage, Steel, Mr. Terrific, Storm, and Cyborg.

Chris: Oh crap, it is time for my "I-forgot-the-theme/was-there-a-theme?" team of the week. This week it is Chris's team. Don't remember his theme. Animal Man, Enchantress, Manhunter, Catwoman, Dr. Polaris, Titan.

Jeff: A nice different mix of X-men characters for Mr. Jeff. Bishop, Banshee, Emma Frost, Rogue and Jubilee.

Dan: I played an Alpha Flight theme team. Yay Canada! I was very sad to have to leave out Puck on this team. A tumbling hairy midget should be required on every heroclix team. Shaman, Wild Child, Aurora, Box, Sasquatch.

Game Summary: Does anyone really bother to read these? People just like to look at pictures. The game ended in a draw when we quit at 11:30.

2008-01-23T08:57:00.001-05:00

game night for 01.16.08

The Game: Adam and Jeff had 400 point teams, Chris and I had 200 point teams. Part way through the game Chris and I got roughly 100 points of clix randomly selected from Jeff and Adam's teams. Confused? Oh well.....

The Map: Check it out.

The Teams:

Adam: All the clix on Adam's team had red or red/blonde hair. A nice mix of characters for this theme team. Batgirl, The Ray, Marvel Girl, Banshee, Flash, Daredevil, and Arsenal.

Jeff: A very classic looking Avengers team for Jeff. Hulk, Thor, Giant Man, Captain America.

Chris: All we need now is Wonder Twins clix for a wonder theme team. Wonder Man and Wonder Woman.

Dan: I picked random women from the last two heroclix sets that I haven't played yet. Agent Brand, Zatanna, Black Canary, Dazzler.

Game Summary: What you want a game summary too!?

2008-01-16T16:03:00.001-05:00

game night for 01.09.08

The Game: We tried something different this time. 400 point teams as usual, but we split the board down the middle and randomly picked who we played against. Essentially 2 simultaneous 1-on-1 games going on at once. The victor of each game continued on (with whatever was left of their team) to duke it out on the entire map. It was wild fun and something we'll probably play again.

The Map: Didn't snap a shot of the map. Standard fare of buildings and hindering terrain.

Battle A:

Adam: A very nice looking team, using the X-men First Class/original costumes. Marvel Girl, Cyclops, Professor X, Iceman, Beast.

Dan: With Strong Guy/Guido finally being released in the Mutations & Monsters set, I was able to play a good (looking) X-factor team. Havok, Multiple Man/Madrox (x3), Polaris, Quicksilver, Strong Guy.

I had a hard time reaching Adam's team. That Prof. X's 12 range kept me from getting to close and then I would inevitably be mind controlled once close enough. Strong Guy went down a couple rounds in after trying to charge into Adam's team. About 3/4 of the way through the game I managed to KO Professor X, but it basically took my whole team's concentrated effort to do so. Cyclops and Beast were able to finish off the rest of my team. Cyclops, Beast and Marvel Girl survived to face the winner of:

Battle B:

Chris: An interesting mix of clix from the last 2 sets, Chris had some heavy hitters on his team. Bulleteer?, Cyclops, Gorgon, Granny Goodness.

Jeff: We had a lot of mutant teams tonight. Jeff kept the mutant theme going with a mix of the original X-men, including some from alternate time lines. Cyclops, Age of Apocalypse Jean Grey, Iceman, Beast, Angel.

I couldn't really tell you what happened in this match, since I was busy getting brow-beat by Professor X and his mutants. From what I gather, Jeff managed to put a dent in Chris's team before being over-run by Gorgon and Granny Goodness. Chris claimed the victory and moved Gorgon towards Adams X-men remnants.

Battle C: Chris was forced to charge toward Adam since Gorgon didn't have any ranged combat. Chris managed to get it down to 2 vs. 1 when Marvel Girl was KO'ed, but Adam took the win a short time later.

2008-01-10T08:42:00.001-05:00

Wednesday Game Night 12.19.07

I'm finally posting the pics from our game night way back before Christmas. So, uh, here they are...

The Game: 400 points, vanilla game.

The Map: Very open middle section with a couple buildings on the side.

Adam: With the latest Marvel heroclix set (Mutations & Monsters) release of Archangel and Iceman, Adam was able to put together a nice original X-Factor team. Jean Grey/Marvel Girl, Iceman, Cyclops, Archangel, Beast.

Chris: Eager to try out some of his new clix from the M&M set, Chris had this team to play. Cyclops, Zauriel, Black Tom Cassidy, Zombie Iron-man, Gorgon.

Jeff: I usually forget at least one theme team each game night. This week it is Jeff's team. I don't remember if he had a theme or not, so make one up yourself. Plastic Man, Mr. Myxzplztx (yes I spelled that wrong), Batman, Young Superman, Wonder Woman.

Dan: I had sort of a half theme team. My theme was arch rivals/enemies. Falcon and Lockjaw were just throw-ins. Kraven, Spider-man, Wolverine, Hulk, Falcon, Lockjaw.

Super short summary of what I remember from this game:
- Hulk smash Jeff.
- Mr. Mxzyzlplzyt (still spelling it wrong) outwits Dan. Alot.
- Cyclops optic blasts Chris's team.
- Zauriel & Gorgon inflicts lots of damage.
- _________ wins (fill in the blank).

Random Music Videos

2007-11-29T10:19:00.000-05:00

Another selection of random music videos. This list is has a few songs I've been listening too lately from the Rock Band game. Yay, Rock Band!

Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi
By far my favorite Bon Jovi song. I love it when Richie Sambora switches mid-song from the 12-string acoustic to the electric guitar. Richie has some pipes on him too, by the by...

Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
I confess I had never heard of this song or the band prior to hearing Maps on Rock Band. It is a catchy, cool song though. The vocals kinda get lost in the mix on this video unfortunately. I'll be checking out more music by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Fo' sho'!

You and My Iron Lung by Radiohead
I couldn't pick just one of these videos. These videos are from around the time The Bends and OK Computer albums came out, so mid to late '90s. Very cool - these videos feature just Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood. Watching these I notice how much tighter Thom was on the vocals back then compared to today.

Testify by Stevie Ray Vaughan
Somehow I've managed to forget posting a SRV video before this point. The late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan has got to be my favorite guitarist (an obvious choice for someone into guitars like me). My favorite thing about SRV is that Texas blues sound. Kinda twangy but with lots of punch. I believe this is a performance from Live at El Macombo. Great DVD.

Ballroom Blitz by Sweet
Of course I have to end my music videos segment with an odd video. Oh man, the drummer's grin at the start seals this video as "classic". These guys are kinda creepy looking back from today's styles. Then again this was in the hey-day of glam-rock. Thank you, David Bowie. That Dracula/Dr. Strange cape on the bassist is wicked!!

2007-11-17T11:22:00.000-05:00

Game Night 11/14/07

The Game: We played what turned out to be an interesting game. 400 point teams. We played on a blank white map. At the end of your turn you rolled dice to see what kind of terrain (blocking, hindering, or fire) and how many you can place on the map. You then color in squares with the corresponding color of the terrain you rolled. Heroclix and crayons? Fun!

Map: Here is a pic of the map one turn in.

Adam: I remembered Adam's theme this time! Adam picked "Men Out of Time" for his theme. Alas, after two weeks of much improved pictures, the blurry shots have returned... Ultimate Captain America, Hourman, Bucky, Booster Gold, and Sandman.

Chris: The theme Chris went with is an angels and demons team. Magma, Merlyn, Zauriel, Hellboy, Shade.

Jeff: Jeff dubbed this his "jerk" team on account of playing against one hypersonic clix is usually a pain, a whole team is just....cruel. Pretty fun team though. Kid Flash, Professor Zoom, Johnny Quick, Jesse Quick, and Flash.

Dan: I rolled out with a pretty basic JSA team, plus Ray. Wildcat, Hawkman, Ray, Power Girl, and Mr. Terrific.

Game Summary: The placing of terrain quickly became almost a side game of "trap the speedsters." Lots of blocking terrain and hindering terrain was placed all around Jeff's team, forcing him to move around them before being able to engage other teams. This really slowed him down, but I had moved close enough to him to end up stuck most of the game trying to hit Flash, Kid Flash and Johnny Quick. Chris also had half of his team taking on some of my guys while his ranged clix traded shots with Adam's team. We ended up calling it at 11:15 with plenty of clix in the game still at full health or nearly full health. It could have easily gone on another hour or two.

2007-11-13T13:41:00.000-05:00

Wednesday Game Night, 11/07

Another night of Heroclix. No, we never do seem to get sick of playing this game...

The usual vanilla game: 400 points, normal starting positions, etc.

The map had 2 buildings near the center of the map separated by a hill. These were surrounded by flat, open spaces and the scattering of hindering terrain.

Adam: Now that I don't bother keeping stats (it was fun while it lasted) I tend to miss what the themes are because I don't have a notebook handy. So I am clueless as to what Adam's theme was, if he had one. It looks like a cool team though. *edit* Chris has informed me that Adam's theme was superheroes without powers. *edit* Batman, Punisher, Green Arrow, Black Panther and Shang Chi.

Chris: Also not sure if there was a theme to Chris's team. I will say, I do love how that Batman & Robin duo figure clix looks. Very dynamic! Supergirl, Batman & Robin, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold.

Jeff: Jeff played with a machine/metal theme team. Iron Man, Machine Man, Ultimate Dr. Doom, and Ant Man.

Dan: I rolled out a team comprised of my list of current favorite characters/comics. Spidey was a filler though, sad to say. Hmm, looking at the list, it appears the street-level vigilantes really appeal to me. Flash, Batman, Iron Fist, Daredevil, Moon Knight, Spider-man.

Gameplay: I found myself in hot water right away when I moved too much in the center of the map. I was quickly surrounded and had my hands full with Batman & Robin, Supergirl, Dr. Doom, Iron Man, and Ant Man. Mid-way through the game I had managed to reposition myself with a minimum of lumps taken. At that point, it turned into a battle between Chris and Adam, and Jeff and I. Late in the game Adam knocked out Chris and then a nasty brawl began between the remaining three players. I bowed out a few rounds later. It came down to a one on one situation with Jeff's Ant-Man coming out on top.

2007-11-13T13:29:00.000-05:00

Wednesday Game Night 10/31

It was just a three person game Halloween night - no Adam. 300 points, random placement.

The Map: We played on one of the "Heroclix Approved" flat maps. I think it is supposed to be a zoo.

Chris: I'm trying to remember, but I'm pretty sure Chris went with a "Boy & Girl" theme. Power Girl, Robin (the boy wonder), Beast Boy, Bouncing Boy, and Stargirl.

Jeff: Jeff had a nice team with Avengers and their Young Avengers counterparts. Thor, Wiccan, Iron Lad, and Vision.

Dan: I played a random assortment of DC baddies, since I recently got a box of the latest DC Heroclix set. Parasite, Cheshire, Captain Boomerang, Cheetah.

The game ended up being fairly close. There was a nice even displacement of the clix across the map to start out. The fighting more or less involved everyone. Eventually it came down to about two of my clix and two of Chris's versus Jeff's Thor. We proclaimed Jeff the winner since none of our clix could cause enough damage to break through Thor's invulnerability (outside of a critical hit). Good game.

Woo-Hoo, it's Friday!!

2007-10-26T08:36:00.000-04:00

What better way to celebrate Friday than a bunch of random songs pertaining to Friday!

Friday by Goldspot
I really like this music video, which takes place during show & tell at school! Kinda feels a little too contrived by the end though. The song isn't too bad either.

Friday Night by The Darkness
Ahh, more wacky, throwback operatic-rock from The Darkness. Alot of their music videos from the first album linked together to make a weird, cheap, sc-fi movie spoof. It's great. Too bad the lead singer got hooked on nose candy, which caused the demise of the band. I tell ya, stay away, the snort'll get ya!

Friday I'm in Love by The Cure
Hmmm, haven't heard this acoustic version before. Seems kinda bland. They look very disinterested in this video.

Friday Night by The Rabble
I confess this is the first time I've heard of this song and the band. ahem, well, according to wikipedia they are a New Zeeland band formed in 2003. They definitely have the pop-punk Green Day thing going on. Some of those opening office/cube clips hit close to home. I should try the mohawk though. It might liven things up.

Friday Night by Arabeque
What better way to end this post than with some Disco! It has some great dance moves too. Yeah, get down...

2007-10-22T16:57:00.000-04:00

October 17th Game Night

Apologies in advance for some blurry pics (some things never change)
.
The Game: A good ol' vanilla game with 400 point teams.

The Map: No pic this time. Envision lots of buildings around the perimeter with an open, hilly middle section.

The Teams:

Adam: Adam came up with an interesting team comprised of non-American super-heroes. Fire, Ice, Black Panther, uh, Crimson Fox, Nightcrawler, and Ultimate Scarlet Witch.

Chris: The theme of Chris's team was the elements, such as water, fire, electricity, etc. Colossus, Hydroman, Storm, Firestar, Ultimate Electro, Icicle?, and Man Thing.

Jeff: It was a Teen Titans theme team for Jeff, with Hellboy filling in for Kid Devil. Hellboy, Ravager, Robin, Wonder Girl, and Zoom.

Dan: I've been waiting to play my Defenders team until I found a Veteran Valkyrie (spelling?). Alas, she is hard to come by, so I finally rolled out this team. What a bunch of C and D listers! It was fun! Gargoyle, Valkyrie, Dr. Strange, Blazing Skull, Nighthawk and, errmmm Havok. I need a filler to get to 400 points!

I'm fuzzy on the details of the game. I ended up getting stuck in the middle, Chris bombarded me with his team. Adam and Jeff later began to mix it up with us...and that is all I remember. We called a stop to the game at 11:30 without a clear winner.

Yay! I fixed it!

2007-10-16T15:20:00.000-04:00

All back to normal now. My web page, that is....

My Web Page is Borken!

2007-10-15T14:48:00.000-04:00

I'm so lost when it comes to html. I know just enough to screw things up.

Example: My lovely sidebar to the left. It seems to have disappeared, but really if you scroll down you'll find it at the bottom of the page. Don't ask me how to fix it. I was using blogger/blogspots "simple" layout editor to add a little this and rearrange a little that.

This is why I'll never be a computer programmer, let alone a web designer.
I'm u8er lee7! (That was my poor attempt at "leet speak", which is probably also wrong...

Random Music Videos

2007-10-09T13:17:00.000-04:00

I'm not a huge music video person. I don't have VH1, MTV, MTV2, 3, 4 or however many stations MTV has now. Still I run across a few videos on the 'webz and here is what strikes my fancy. The videos themselves don't really matter, it is the music, the visual side of it is just a bonus.

As usual, my musical tastes are all over the place. You may hate country, you may hate rock, etc. There are some songs (or more than some in the case of country music) within each genre that I can't stand, so if your musical tastes are different for various reasons, I get it.

I'm With the Band by Little Big Town
This is a new song by LBT from their upcoming album. I like this song so much because it starts of slow with lots of nice harmonies, kicks it up for the middle of the song and then ends slow and quite again. It makes my ears smile!

Carrie by Europe
Wow. A great look back at rock when every band seemed to have a "monster ballad." The video speaks for itself - the hair, the shoulder pads....hard not to laugh. The music, especially the keyboard intro is a little cheesy, but Joey Tempest could sing. I much prefer the vocals of '80 glam/metal/arena rock like this compared to today's "cookie monster" vocalists. The range some of these guys had was nuts. Maybe I'm just getting old...

Heroes by Shinedown
Speaking of nu-metal/cookie monster vocals, one newer "metal" band that has a great singer is Shinedown. This is about the heaviest music I will listen too. Anything heavier than this, for me, becomes more about how \m/ metal \m/ can you get and less about melody, harmony, etc.

Original Fire by Audioslave (Chris Cornell)
The song itself is pretty standard fare, but I really like this video because it is just Chris Cornell on an acoustic guitar. Since it is so stripped down I really focus on his voice a lot more. Man, if I could sing like that...

More Halo 3

2007-10-01T08:37:00.000-04:00

This weekend I got to sit down and spend some quality time playing Halo 3. I'm only about half way through the story/campaign mode. So far the story seems pretty good. It definitely has that epic feel to it. I'm playing on the Heroic difficulty setting, which would equate to "hard" in the general sense. I die a lot. I don't know if I'll be able to play it on Legendary (expert) and make any progress unless I'm playing co-op with someone else.

Jeff and I about to clash. Jeff has the sword. I die.

I also got the faster broadband internet set up this week. So I then tried out quite a bit of Halo 3 online. It went like this: Enter Halo 3 online multiplayer. Die. Oh, hey look, there is somebody. Die. etc. It took me a while to get the hang of multiplayer again after not playing Halo 2 for a couple years. There is definitely a little bit of lag even with my now faster internet connection. It just is taking me a while to account for it. People are generally a split second ahead of where I see them on the screen, which can make it confusing/frustrating at times. Oh well, that is why LANs are cool...

Just a funny pic I took. You can hijack people out of vehicles. I managed to jump on the back of this guy's vehicle. This is just before I swiped him off of it.

If you want to check out my "Halo 3 service record," you can check out my stats here. Bungie really does a nice job of compiling multiplayer stats. You can also upload screenshots of the games you play or see a full breakdown of each multiplayer game. Cool stuff.

Halo 3

2007-09-25T08:05:00.000-04:00

IT'S OUT!!!!

Now I just have to make it through a day of work until I get to play.

Am I a geek?

Yes....yes I am....

2007-08-29T08:01:00.000-04:00

wednesday game night 08.15.07

The Map: We played on Jeff's cool Dr. Doom's Castle map he made. It turned out pretty nice!

The Game: A standard 400 point teams game.

The Teams:

Jeff went with a good ol' mutie team. And a dog.

Chris put together a team of West Coast Avengers.

Adam had a team inspired by the Ultimates Universe &/or Ultimate Alliance video game.

I also played a team full of X-men.

Game Summary: It was an interesting game with all the walls and rooms to play through/around. Jeff and I traded a few shots at each other while Adam swung around the side of us. Chris meanwhile took control of the hallway. I saw Adam coming so tried to force my way through the hallway, but ended up getting my Wolverine trashed by Chris's Iron Man. Adam began to dismantle Jeff's team, while I tried to KO Chris's Scarlet Witch (grrrr...probability control). We ended up calling it around 11:30, with Adam being the likely victor.

Video Games

2007-08-20T09:21:00.001-04:00

Well I finally took the plunge and picked up an Xbox360.

*Skip this paragraph to avoid nerd talk*
I ended up getting the elite version (ooh, black) instead of the "regular" 360. Apparently with the current batch of 360s made in July '07 they fixed the overheating issues that plagued the older ones. Alas, all the models I found were made in June '06 though, so I bought the Elite (June '07), which at least has the added heatsinks. Hopefully I am safe from overheating.

I'm sure my blog posts will be very minimal as a result. Or altogether non existent. I'll probably cut my posts down to short game night reviews, quick video game posts and drop the other kinds of posts I would do. Unless I get really bored.

I went about 2 and a half years without a game system but I'm back into the old habit again. Yes, video games are my addiction - my crack.I got rid of my original Xbox because I felt I needed to be more "productive" with my time. You know, learn some skills and become good at something I can use to further myself in some way. Looking back over the past 2 years, I never really became any more "productive" than when I played video games. Which either means I'm extremely lazy or I don't have very much free time. Or both.

I picked up Forza Motorsport 2 for my first game. Very fun if you like the racing simulation gameplay. It is not an arcade style racing game. Steep learning curve, but very satisfying when you get better. The graphics are so-so for a next gen game. I personally think they are good. The focus is definitely on the game play with Forza 2. It also has a very cool "paint booth" where you can customize your vehicles. It is insane the designs people have come up with.

Now I just have to figure out how to get a phone line in the basement and a nice 42" HD TV. *drool*

2007-07-30T08:14:00.000-04:00

Wednesday Game Night 07.25.07

*Click here for more information on Heroclix*

The Game: Vanilla heroclix: 400 point teams, a map, dice, cursing on crit misses.

The Map: Another one of my paper fold-up maps, this time with a gas station. The roof/overhang kept tipping over if anyone tried to put anything on the roof. I'll have to fix that...

The Teams: We were without Adam as he and Comfort are busily preparing for the upcoming Wizard World Chicago among other things.

Chris: It was a pseudo BRPD team, as Chris brings out a supernatural theme team. Man-Thing (Rookie), Hellboy (Unique), Gentleman Ghost (Unique), Liz Sherman (Veteran), and Magma (Rookie).

Jeff: Jeff has been playing too much '80s Edition Guitar Hero because his theme team was Heavy Metal. The Darkness (Veteran), Colossus (Rookie), Ultimate Dazzler (Experienced), Metal Man (Unique), Ultimate Doctor Octopus (Experienced) and Iron Man (Rookie).

Dan: I decided to finally play my Sentinel I got for Christmas. 400 points of mutie hatin' robot.

Game Highlights:

Chris:
Average Roll: 6.77
Number of Rolls: 22
Number of Hits: 13
Hit Percentage: 59%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 18 clicks

Jeff:
Average Roll: 6.26
Number of Rolls: 23
Number of Hits: 14
Hit Percentage: 60%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 33 clicks

Dan:
Average Roll: 6.73
Number of Rolls: 11
Number of Hits: 9
Hit Percentage: 82%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 16 clicks

Turn Order: Chris, Jeff, Dan

First Hit: My Sentinel was afraid of Doc. Ock (he's a smart guy) so he hit with running shot for 3 damage.

Critical Hits: none

Critical Misses: Just one by Jeff, rolling a crit miss for Doctor Octopus.

Most Damamge in a Single Attack: It is a tie between Jeff and Chris. Both had an attack for 6 damage. The first was Jeff's Colossus charging my Sentinel with a dumpster for 6 damage. It was so comic book accurate it was cool! The second was during the fierce battle between Hellboy and colossus, with Chris's Hellboy blades/claws/fangs for 6 damage and the KO.

Favorite Team of the Night: I liked Jeff's Heavy Metal theme idea.

Game M.V.C.: Most Valuable Click award goes to Colossus for taking the fight out of my Sentinel. Those 6 clicks of damage moved my down into the Sentinel dial were it gets really crappy from that point to KO. That one hit more or less took me completely out of my chance for victory. Nice job.

Game Summary: It started out with Jeff and Chris teaming up to take out the huge Sentinel. The first few rounds were going my way since the Sentinel has some good opening clicks. That ended when Jeff charged his Colossus up and smashed the Sentinel with a dumpster for 6 clicks of damage. I was out a couple of rounds after that, leaving Chris and Jeff to duke it out. It went back and forth between the two for a while until Jeff's Iron Man and Metal Man survived to be the winners.

Chris's team plans their assault on the Sentinel.

Jeff sends Colossus and Metal Man to rescue The Darkness.

Hellboy says hello to Colossus.

The Champions!

2007-07-24T08:55:00.000-04:00

Some of you may have heard of the term mort in reference to very cheesy/lame comic book characters. I believe this term was pegged by Wizard Magazine when they ran a "Mort of the Month" article in their magazine 10 years ago or so. I don't remember the exact reasoning to use the word mort. I'm sure it was in reference to some obscure character.

For fun I looked up mort on dictionary.com and came up with:

1. Hunting. the note played on a hunting horn signifying that the animal hunted has been killed.
2. Obsolete
3. A three year old salmon

OK.....I'm not sure about the first or third definitions, but maybe the second one applies. Thanks to my love of Wizard Magazine in the early to mid '90s, mort with forever mean dorky, cheesy, and/or lame.

Now on with the blatant rip off of the "Mort of the Month." I'm going through my Marvel Universe Handbooks from the late '80s and picking out the biggest losers. These have probably been done before. Oh well. I'm having fun.

Aguila

Aguila jumps out at me as a really bad take on Zorro. He has the mask, the sword (rapier), the Old West/Spanish styling and the Errol Flynn moustache!

Background: Alejandro Montoya, born in Spain and later moved to America, dons the name El Aguila (The Eagle) upon discovering he has mutant powers. He has the power to discharge electricity (up to 10,000 volts) through conductive matter. He decides to use a sword as his electric conductor of choice. A Zorro fan from childhood, in case you couldn't tell, El Aguila battles drug deals and crooks that victimize the poor people of New York.

De-Morting Potential: Moderate. El Aguila still has some minor relevance in today's comics. He was apparently on the list of depowered mutants from the House of M fallout. He could possibly be used in the new Initiative program that resulted from the Civil War storyline. There isn't really a whole you can do with El Aguila. Except kill him. Marvel seems to be bringing back a lot of D-listers lately. Mostly, I'm sure, so they have some cannon fodder to kill off for any upcoming events like World War Hulk.

Mort-O-Meter: 4 out of 10. Yeah, the costume isn't spectacular and the power is so-so, but he could be a lot worse.

Ugh, not a very fun Marvel Mort post. I'll try and amp up the crazy for the next ones.

2007-07-22T10:38:00.000-04:00

*Click here for more information on Heroclix*

Somewhat short and sweet game review this week.

The Game: 400 point teams as usual except no clix over 100 points. Also each player randomly rolled to determine what their team ability would be.

The Map: A nice map layout this week with a fair number of buildings yet some large open areas.

The Teams:

Adam: Much to the dismay of Jeff and Chris, Adam's random team ability ended up being the Superman team ability. This is one of the uber team abilities that allows the team to ignore hindering terrain for movement and - more importantly - stealth. Basically there was no way to hide from Adam's ranged attacks. Adam team was a super buddies/JLI team. Elongated Man (experienced), Ice (veteran), Fire (veteran), Mary Marvel (rookie), Blue Beetle (veteran) and Booster Gold (veteran).

Jeff: The random team ability Jeff rolled was the Suicide Squad team ability, which more or less give you free healing if an adjacent teammate is KO'd. Jeff had a nice Young Avengers team, with Quicksilver representing Speed. Quicksilver (experienced), Iron Lad, Stature, Patriot, Wiccan, Hulking.

Dan: I rolled the Hydra team ability, which gives a ranged attacker +1 for every adjacent teammate with line of sight to the target. For my team, I went with a "mentally distraught" theme. Moon Knight, Joker (experienced), Captain Marvel (experienced), Ultimate Marvel Girl (veteran), Scarlet Witch (experienced) and Aurora (veteran).

Chris: Chris rolled up the Skrull team ability, which is like a fancy version of plasticity (or is it shape change?). Blue Beetle (experienced), Booster Gold (rookie), Power Man (experienced), Dr. Mid-nite (veteran), Phantom Lady (experienced), Black Knight (experienced), and Warpath (veteran).

Game Highlights

Turn Order: Adam, Jeff, Dan, Chris

Adam:
Average Roll: 7.55
Number of Rolls: 22
Number of Hits: 14
Hit Percentage: 64%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 27 clicks
Average Hit Percentage (11 games): 67%
Damage Dealt (11 games): 360 clicks
Average Roll (11 games): 7.19
Average Number of Rolls per Game (11 games): 21
Average Number of Hits per Game (11 games): 14

Jeff:
Average Roll: 6.80
Number of Rolls: 10
Number of Hits: 5
Hit Percentage: 50%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 6 clicks
Average Hit Percentage (11 games): 51%
Damage Dealt (11 games): 185 clicks
Average Roll (11 games): 7.09
Average Number of Rolls per Game (11 games): 16
Average Number of Hits per Game (11 games): 9

Dan:
Average Roll: 7.18
Number of Rolls: 17
Number of Hits: 12
Hit Percentage: 71%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 31 clicks
Average Hit Percentage (11 games): 57%
Damage Dealt (11 games): 277 clicks
Average Roll (11 games): 7.10
Average Number of Rolls per Game (11 games): 19
Average Number of Hits per Game (11 games): 11

Chris:
Average Roll: 5.67
Number of Rolls: 9
Number of Hits: 2
Hit Percentage: 22%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 6 clicks
Average Hit Percentage (11 games): 47%
Damage Dealt (11 games): 146 clicks
Average Roll (11 games): 6.92
Average Number of Rolls per Game (11 games): 13
Average Number of Hits per Game (11 games): 6

Critical Hits: 2

Critical Misses: 1

Game Summary: A good game. We called it at 11:30, so no clear winner. Look at the pretty pictures.

Patriot looks on in awe as Mary Marvel picks up Stature by the neck.

Chris and Dan battle it from the roofs to the streets.

Adam's and Chris's teams party on the roof while Jeff's Stature wishes she could join.

2007-07-14T10:08:00.000-04:00

*Click here for more information on Heroclix*

The Game: Just another straight up heroclix game with 400 point teams.

The Map: We revisited the "Legion" map from last game, but with awesome 3-D upgrades by Jeff! It turned out really cool, and helped to give a better sense of what was elevated vs. non-elevated terrain.

The Teams:

Chris: Chris had a random sampling of clix for his team. A little of this, a little of that, and a hard hitting Lex. Manhunter (veteran), Robotman (rookie), Silver Samurai (veteran), Colossus (veteran), and Lex Luthor (unique).

Jeff: What fun is playing on a Legion of Superheros headquarters map without a Legion team? Jeff brought out some of the clix from the Legion of Superheros pack. Overall a very nice set. Lightning Lad, Timberwolf, Colossal Boy, Saturn Girl, and Superboy (called Young Superman).

Dan: I decided these young Legion punks needed some major league competition in the form of the JLA. I went with the team from the current Brad Meltzer JLA. Arsenal (veteran), Red Tornado (experienced), Batman (experienced), Wonder Woman (veteran), Black Lightning (veteran), and Hawkgirl (rookie).

Adam: It's not easy being green...(have I said that one before?) In this case it's not easy being an enemy of Adam's themed green team. Beast Boy (veteran), Green Arrow (veteran), Green Lantern - Kyle (experienced), Ragman (veteran), and Fire (veteran).

Game Highlights

Turn Order: Chris, Jeff, Dan, Adam

Chris:
Average Roll: 8.2
Number of Rolls: 10
Number of Hits: 10
Hit Percentage: 100%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 26 clicks
Average Hit Percentage (10 games): 50%
Damage Dealt (10 games): 140 clicks
Average Roll (10 games): 7.04
Average Number of Rolls per Game (10 games): 14
Average Number of Hits per Game (10 games): 7

Jeff:
Average Roll: 6.43
Number of Rolls: 14
Number of Hits: 6
Hit Percentage: 43%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 9 clicks
Average Hit Percentage (10 games): 51%
Damage Dealt (10 games): 179 clicks
Average Roll (10 games): 7.11
Average Number of Rolls per Game (10 games): 16
Average Number of Hits per Game (10 games): 9

Dan:
Average Roll: 7.43
Number of Rolls: 23
Number of Hits: 13
Hit Percentage: 57%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 24 clicks
Average Hit Percentage (10 games): 55%
Damage Dealt (10 games): 246 clicks
Average Roll (10 games): 7.09
Average Number of Rolls per Game (10 games): 19
Average Number of Hits per Game (10 games): 11

Adam:
Average Roll: 7.62
Number of Rolls: 13
Number of Hits: 9
Hit Percentage: 69%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 23 clicks
Average Hit Percentage (10 games): 68%
Damage Dealt (10 games): 333 clicks
Average Roll (10 games): 7.16
Average Number of Rolls per Game (10 games): 21
Average Number of Hits per Game (10 games): 14

"Oh jeez, they have a giant on their team, hide!"

Critical Hits: 2 - The first was by Chris, when Colossus dropped a metal handed punch on Green Lantern (Adam) for 2 damage. The second crit was by Adam pouncing Ragman on my Wonder Woman for 4 damage. Youch!

Critical Misses: None!

First Hit: Adam had Green Lantern running shot on the Silver Samurai (Chris) for 3 clicks of damage in the first round.

First KO: The first casualty of the game was my Black Lightning about midway through the game. Chris used his super powered Lex shoot poor BL for 3 damage.

Most Damage in a Single Attack: Chris wins this category also - again with Lex Luthor. A vicious blast to Jeff's Timberwolf for 5 damage.

Favorite Team: My favorite team was Jeff's Legion team. They really look sharp together, especially with that giant sized Colossal Boy.

Game Summary: The game started off with Chris moving half his team down to the lower middle area of the map. Jeff began moving his clix towards Chris's team, but staying mostly on the higher elevation. I moved most of my team down to the lower middle section of the map toward Jeff, but hid behind a wall so I wouldn't get blasted by Adam. Adam moved his team up towards the edge of the elevated section to see who he could snipe with GL and Green Arrow. After that round the fighting started. Jeff's Timberwolf got hit early on by Lex; half of my team become occupied by Jeff's Superboy (who is really tough to hit) while my ranged clix took pot shots at the rest of the Legion team. Green Lantern and Colossus had a big battle by themselves most of the night. Eventually I managed to take out a couple of Jeff's Legion team; he KO'ed a couple of mine; and Adam swooped in on the rest of my team. It became clear about half way through that Chris was going to walk all over us since his Lex (217 points by himself) had yet to take any damage. We later called the game at 11:30 and declared Chris the winner! It was a pretty fun game.

2007-07-08T19:39:00.000-04:00

This is it, True Believers! This issue of Amazing Spider-man marks the real beginning of my love of comic books.

The Amazing Spider-man #324 - November 1989

Alright. I thought comics were pretty neat earlier in my childhood, but here is where I really started to appreciate them - mostly the art at this point. It is 1989. I'm ten years old. It is at this age that I actually start to seek out comics which, for me, meant buying one from Shop-Rite every week when my Mom took me grocery shopping. I had a few Spider-man comics before, but this is the first one hand picked by me. I had limited choices in regards to what comics I was allowed to buy. X-men was a big no-no (the X-men comic story I'll leave for another time). Spider-man, OK.

Spidey hanging upside down. Ahhh. So classic.

Issue Summary: I only know the bare basics of the story, since I only have part 5 of 6. I read the comics I bought, but I never really digested the story. It was all about the cool art (which is why - looking back now - Image comics and many comics in general in the '90s were so lame). Spider-man, with the help of Captain America, Silver Sable, and the loose cannon, Solo are trying to stop some crazy terrorists (A comic plot that has never been done before, I know. But I'm ten years old, remember and comics were all about the pretty drawings). Sabretooth is somehow connected to the terrorists. Cap and Silver Sable are on the hunt for Sabretooth somewhere in Mexico.

Captain America and Silver Sable bust some poor Mexican guerrilla heads - with style.

Spidey is busy mopping up terrorists on Ellis Island and New York. There is a good fight between Sabretooth and Silver Sable in some ancient Mexican ruins that I thought was fabulous.

Cap picks a bad time to visit the men's room. Thanks for the help, Cap!

That really is all you need to know. A standard comic book issue with some good action scenes.

Amazing Spider-man #324 was the first comic where I really took notice of the art. I remember seeing "Erik Larsen" as the artist and from then on checking my next Spidey issues to see if he was drawing it. He quickly became my favorite artist. I just missed out on Todd McFarlane's run on Amazing, so I'm sure he would have been my favorite if I had gotten his comics first. Larsen is a sentimental favorite of mine when it comes to artists.

That would be Solo. If I remember right, Solo was a character created (co-created?) by Erik Larsen. Pretty much a carbon copy of The Punisher, but I didn't care. I thought he looked cool. He had, you know, guns and grenades and stuff. Plus he had some sort of phasing/teleportation ability so he could pop up out of no where with guns blazing. Anyways, Solo became one of my favorite characters of course. Man, a lot of "favorites" in this issue.

Young Dan's Geeky Cool Rating: 10 out of 10.

Revised Geeky Cool Rating: 7 out of 10. Being my first Spider-man comic, it is still one of my most beloved comics. I went crazy over the art. This issue is very beat-up because of the number of times I flipped through it. I carried that thing all over the house.

Original Cover Price: $1

Current Value on ComicsPriceGuide.com (which doesn't really mean anything): $10 NM. My issue is probably in fair condition, but it is worth more than $10 to me. Nuff said!

Wait, I almost forgot the best part: cheesecake! Oh MJ, you sure could make a ten year old boy feel funny inside. It was probably just the sloppy joes I ate for lunch, though.

2007-07-01T16:30:00.000-04:00

*Click here for more information on Heroclix*

The Game: The newest heroclix set, Avengers, was just released, so we decided to do a "blind box" game. Each player plays with whatever clix they pull out of one booster. This can make for some lop-sided games, but this one actually turned out pretty close.

The Map: We played on the new map from the Legion of Superheros starter set. This was a cool map that had teleportation points near each of the corners of the map. This didn't get used except once in our game, but a cool idea none the less. Also the corner sections and the middle section of the map were lower in elevation that the rest of the map. It created kind of a raised circular walkway. A good map.

The Teams: No more Rookie, Experienced, Veteran, Unique labels for the new clix.

Jeff: Jeff's box had some serious errors in it. Starting with this set, all clix now come with a character card describing powers/abilities and the new special powers. Jeff pulled a Red Skull clix, but it came with a US Agent card. So he wasn't able to use Red Skull's special power since we didn't know exactly what it did. On top of that, he received a Thunderstrike dial with a Wonder Man figure. We called that piece Wonderstrike to help differentiate it from his other Thunderstrike clix. He pulled Wonderstrike, Red Skull, Thunderstrike, Hulkling, Ronin.

Dan:I pulled the monster booster of the night. Uniques were replaced with "Super Rare" pieces. I guess the pull ratio on a super rare is about 1:50 boosters. I got "super" lucky and pull one of the most sought after clix of this set: Ultimate Hulk (Ares is the other in demand super rare). What a great Hulk clix. I had a ton of fun playing him, but I put him up on eBay after seeing the price he is going for ($30-$50). Not bad for a hunk of plastic. I gotta have some extra cash for the Chicago Comic Convention in August! I pulled Piledriver, Lionheart, Baron Zemo, Moon Knight, and Ultimate Hulk.

Chris: Chris had a nice booster pull with some interesting clix. Hulkling, Ultimate Quicksilver, Ultimate Abomination, Ultimate Captain Britian, and Scarlet Witch.

Adam: After seeing a 187 point Ultimate Hulk and a 150 point Ultimate Abomination on the board, at first glance Adam's team seemed very under powered. He managed to hang in for the full game by playing smart (which he always does). Taskmaster, Ultimate Captain Britian, Darkhawk, Piledriver, and Union Jack.

Game Highlights

Turn Order: Jeff, Dan, Chris, Adam

Jeff:
Average Roll: 6.5
Number of Rolls: 16
Number of Hits: 8
Hit Percentage: 50%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 15 clicks
Average Hit Percentage (9 games): 52%
Damage Dealt (9 games): 170 clicks
Average Roll (9 games): 7.16
Average Number of Rolls per Game (9 games): 17
Average Number of Hits per Game (9 games): 9

Dan:
Average Roll: 7.4
Number of Rolls: 25
Number of Hits: 20
Hit Percentage: 80%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 46 clicks
Average Hit Percentage (9 games): 55%
Damage Dealt (9 games): 222 clicks
Average Roll (9 games): 7.05
Average Number of Rolls per Game (9 games): 19
Average Number of Hits per Game (9 games): 11

Chris:
Average Roll: 7.2
Number of Rolls: 20
Number of Hits: 9
Hit Percentage: 45%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 15 clicks
Average Hit Percentage (9 games): 44%
Damage Dealt (9 games): 114 clicks
Average Roll (9 games): 6.91
Average Number of Rolls per Game (9 games): 14
Average Number of Hits per Game (9 games): 6

Adam:
Average Roll: 7.76
Number of Rolls: 28
Number of Hits: 22
Hit Percentage: 79%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 41 clicks
Average Hit Percentage (9 games): 68%
Damage Dealt (9 games): 310 clicks
Average Roll (9 games): 7.11
Average Number of Rolls per Game (9 games): 22
Average Number of Hits per Game (9 games): 15

Critical Hits: Lots of crit hits and misses this game. Adam and Chris both had two critical hits. Chris rolled back to back crit hits with Quicksilver hypersonic punching Wonderstrike both times. Adam used Darkhawk to land a critical hit on my Baron Zemo. His other crit was Taskmaster on Abomination I think.

Critical Misses: Ready, here we go: Jeff's Ronin stabbed himself with a throwing star instead of hitting my Lionheart; My Baron Zemo's gun backfired when trying to running shot Chris's Scarlet Witch; Chris's Abomination had a crit miss on Adam's Taskmaster; Union Jack had a bullet ricochet back when attempting to running shot my Moon Knight; Chris's Quicksilver lost his balance when trying to hypersonic punch Jeff's Wonderstrike. Whew. That was five crit misses in that game.

First Hit: Chris's Quicksilver races down the stairs to the center of the map to deal 2 damage to Moon Knight.

Most Damage in a Single Attack: Once again no one attack stood out from the rest. There were four different attacks that each did four damage.

Hardest to Hit: I charged my Hulk into the mass of Chris's team fairly early in the game. Hulks starting defense was nice and high, and being a giant figure means it is alot harder to get close enough to hit if you don't have range.

M.V.C.: I would say Chris's Quicksilver was the MVC just because no one could get to him to land a hit. He would race around a corner, hit someone and then race back behind cover. It wasn't until the end of the game that Quicksilver was KO'ed since he was the only character on the board with Hypersonic Speed.

Game Summary: Jeff and I moved to the center of the map early on while trading shots at each other. Chris moved up beside me until I slowed his team down by dropping Hulk in the middle of it. Adam sat back for a round to assess the situation. Mid-point in the game saw Chris's team still preocuppied with my Hulk. Half of my team was targeting Chris while the other half fought with Jeff's team. Jeff had also split his attention between me and Adam. Adam moved most of his team up towards the Abomination/Hulk throwdown. He also pinned down Jeff's Red Skull and Ronin. Late in the game Hulk was KO'd after landing some good hits on Chris's team. The other giant piece on the board, Chris's Abomination fell a round or two later. I was the first one out of the game. The focus then shifted to trying to stop Chris's Quicksilver. It took a few tries to stop him. It came down to Jeff and Adam, with Jeff's Wonderstrike being the sole survivor and victor!

wednesday game night 06.13.07

2007-06-22T20:37:00.000-04:00

*Click here for more information on Heroclix*

The Game: 300 point teams. Random placement, first turn 2 movement actions only to regroup/avoid annihilation.

The Map: A nice mix of buildings and open spaces, with the Apparitions Comics building prominently featured (Wednesday game night endorsed comic shop of choice).

The Teams:

Chris: My favorite superhero cartoons from childhood assemble into a team. Batman (E), Hulk (U), Robin (E), and Spider-man (V).

Adam: Who needs guns when you all you need are your fists! Adam composed his team of world renowned pugilists. Elektra (U), Captain America (E), Daredevil (V), Wildcat (V), and Batman (E).

Jeff: Any muscle-head's dream is an entourage of hot babes to follow you around. That is just what you get if you are a veins-poppin', 'roided up Hulk with an extra long tongue. I present: Hulk and his green haired hulk babes! She-Hulk (R), Aphrodite IX (V), Polaris (R), and 2099 Hulk (U).

Dan: Alas, another no-theme team for me. Let me know if you can think of a theme for this team. Black Lightning (V), Knockout (E), Angel (V), Superman (U).

Game Highlights:

Turn Order: Chris, Adam, Jeff, Dan

Chris:
Average Roll: 5
Number of Rolls: 12
Number of Hits: 0
Hit Percentage: 00%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 0 clicks
Average Hit % (8 games): 44%
Damage Dealt (8 games): 99 clicks
Average Roll (8 games): 6.88

Adam:
Average Roll: 6.96
Number of Rolls: 26
Number of Hits: 16
Hit Percentage: 62%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 30 clicks
Average Hit % (8 games): 66%
Damage Dealt (8 games): 269 clicks
Average Roll (8 games): 7.02

Jeff:
Average Roll: 6.83
Number of Rolls: 24
Number of Hits: 11
Hit Percentage: 46%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 25 clicks
Average Hit % (8 games): 52%
Damage Dealt (8 games): 155 clicks
Average Roll (8 games): 7.14

Dan:
Average Roll: 6.83
Number of Rolls: 12
Number of Hits: 4
Hit Percentage: 33%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 12 clicks
Average Hit % (8 games): 52%
Damage Dealt (8 games): 176 clicks
Average Roll (8 games): 7.01

Critical Hits: Two in this game. The first was my Knockout attack on Adam's Wildcat for 3 damage. Later in the game Jeff's Hulk pounded on Chris's Hulk for 4 damage also.

Critical Misses: Only one, from Chris. His Hulk didn't like getting smacked by Jeff's Hulk. In blind rage he swung, missed and fell off the side of the building instead. SMASH!!

First Hit: Don't remember/didn't write down. Idiot!

Most Damage in a Single Attack: Adam and Jeff both a had few attack for 4 damage apiece.

Favorite Team: Jeff wins this one because it is so fun! Hulk with green haired lady-friends....too good....

Throw Down I Most Wanted to See...and Did See: What happens when a golden-age Superman takes on a future Hulk from 2099? Well, both characters have a hard time hitting each other. Then they finally landing punches, and I don't remember who wins. Anti-climatic, ain't it? Gotta post these suckers while they are fresh in my mind.

Supes leaps into action against Hulk while Angel tries to look pretty.

Clix of the Night with Hurt Feelings: Poor Robin. He wanted to get into a fight, but no one would join him. Instead he spent the night on the roof, under an apple tree trying to dig his speedo bottoms out of his crack.

Over here! Guys, I'm over here! Guys!! ...guys...???

And the Winner Is: ??? It came down to Adam and Jeff I think but I don't remember who won. We're all winners on Wednesday Night Game Night. Hurray!

wednesday game night 06.06.07

2007-06-12T20:46:00.000-04:00

*Click here for more information on Heroclix*

The Game: Well, I tried to mix things up for our Heroclix match and it didn't go to well. I thought it would be fun to think up some sort of Heroclix football scenario. What ended up was a glorified version of - hmmmm how do I word this that isn't offensive to a certain populace? I give up, I'll just call it what it was called in 3rd grade - smear the queer. Queer meaning the odd man carrying the football whom you tackled and then stole said football from. That is the only meaning "queer" has for me so please don't leave any nasty comments about "queer" being a derogatory term. I love everyone. I love you, man.

Phew, moving on. The football started in the middle of the map. A player scored one point for picking up the football. Another point was given for every round that the player had the football. Read the game summary to see how this turned out.

The Map: I kept it very simple with a pretty wide open flat map. Boring to play on, but what are you gonna do.

The Teams:

Jeff: For Jeff's team, he used clix with red costumes. Atom (V), Shazam (R), Elongated Man (V), Red Tornado (R), and Mon-El (R).

Adam: Another clever theme team. This time it was "princesses, a prince and knights." Black Knight (V), Starfire (V), Wonder Woman (V), Black Panther (R), and Starman (E).

Chris: Rockin' robin, tweet! Tweedle dee deet! Rockin' robin... Chris chose a bird theme for his team. Falcon (R), Hawk (E), Nighthawk (E), Red Robin (U), Dove (V), Raven (R), Black Canary (V) and Mockingbird (V).

Dan: My problem is I can't think up theme teams on the fly. I tried this time and failed again so I just went with a random assortment of clix. Blackhawks (V), Sunfire (E), Wolverine (U), Titanium Man (E) and Dr. Light (V).

Game Highlights:

Turn Order: Jeff, Adam, Chris, Dan

Jeff:
Average Roll: 8.2
Number of Rolls: 10
Number of Hits: 7
Hit Percentage: 70%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 18 clicks
Average Hit % (7 games): 52%
Damage Dealt (7 games): 130 clicks
Average Roll (7 games): 7.18

Adam:
Average Roll: 6.96
Number of Rolls: 27
Number of Hits: 16
Hit Percentage: 59%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 40 clicks
Average Hit % (7 games): 67%
Damage Dealt (7 games): 239 clicks
Average Roll (7 games): 7.03

Chris:
Average Roll: 7.25
Number of Rolls: 16
Number of Hits: 10
Hit Percentage: 62%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 15 clicks
Average Hit % (7 games): 50%
Damage Dealt (7 games): 99 clicks
Average Roll (7 games): 7.14

Dan:
Average Roll: 6.97
Number of Rolls: 31
Number of Hits: 19
Hit Percentage: 61%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 39 clicks
Average Hit % (7 games): 54%
Damage Dealt (7 games): 164 clicks
Average Roll (7 games): 7.03

First Hit: Adam didn't waste any time on his first turn. Poor little Billy Batson felt the heat from Starfire on a running shot for 4 damage. Awww, what did the kid ever do to you?!!

Critical Hits: None

Critical Misses: A couple from Adam and I both. Starfire was the unlucky one for Adam rolling the snake eyes elongated man. The killer with this one was it was a reroll graciously granted from Chris via Raven. Starfire also crit missed on Atom, who was also the bane of my night. I rolled two consecutive crit misses on Jeff's Atom. One with Blackhawk and the other with Dr. Light. Ray Palmer why do you just go *pop* out of existence again.

Most Damage in a Single Attack: About 8 different attacks by different people throughout the night, each hitting for 4 damage.

Favorite Team: It was a tough choice, but I gave the nod to Chris and his tweety bird team.

Hardest to Hit: Without a doubt it was Jeff's Veteran Atom. For 64 points you get a clix that starts out with a top of the line 18 defense. The next click after that it goes up to 19! But wait, there's more! Can you believe a 20 defense on the next click! Thankfully he never made it onto that 20 defense click otherwise we never would have hit Atom after that.

Most Valuable Clix: MVC goes to Atom of course for the reasons mentioned above. He won the game for Jeff.

Game Summary: After the football changing hands a couple times in the early stages of the game, it came to rest in the hands of Atom. Crazy high defense = hard to hit = lots of points for Jeff. Nine points in fact, which was enough for him to win the game. I was basically a non-factor. By the time I got to the football it was already taken by Atom. Spent most of the game, along with everyone else, trying to hit him. Once Atom was KO'ed, Adam took charge of the football for 8 points. Chris scored 4 thought the course of the game. I finally scored 1 point after KO'ing the last clix in the game, which ended it immediately. D'oh! Points were tallied and Jeff waltzed away with the victory. It was a different game type to play, but I don't think we'll play that one again.

wednesday game night 05.23.07

2007-06-05T10:26:00.000-04:00

*Click here for more information on Heroclix*

Lots of pics this time.

The Game: It is business as usual, with 400 point teams and one small catch. Each player had to pick one of their clix between 60-80 points that would be held in reserve. Before the game started each player randomly drew two character names. Once those two were KO'ed (either by you or other players) you could bring in your back up piece.

The Map: It was a mass of buildings in the center of the map. It made for some crowded battles on the rooftops. You had to worry about getting knocked off the roof for extra damage. It was pretty fun.

The Teams:

Adam: Please bow your heads for a moment of silence.... Adam's theme team was comic book characters who have died. Of course no one really seems to stay dead in comics so don't shed too many tears. Mr. Rogers, I'm sure you won't have to wait too long until your return. Green Arrow (V), Hawkeye (E), Psylocke (V), Hawkman (V), and Captain America (V).

Jeff: It is a pseudo Mighty Avengers team for Jeff. Black Cat (E), Wasp (V), Ant Man (E), Iron Man (LE), Tigra (E), and Black Widow (V).

Dan: I was trying to do a trench coat theme, but I didn't have enough trench coat clix. So instead I went with a detective/investigator theme. Thug (R) - this thug is very street smart thank you very much, Multiple Man (R) x2, Multiple Man (E), Multiple Man (V), Martian Manhunter (R), Daredevil (V), Robin (E), and The Question (R).

Chris: Orange you glad to see me? It is an all orange theme team for Chris. The only character missing is Citrus Boy - with orange peel skin. I don't know what I'm saying either.... Robotman (R), Wasp (U), Aquaman (V), *liquid hot* Magma (R), Copperhead (E), Catman (R), and Tigra (E).

Game Highlights:

Turn Order: Adam, Jeff, Dan, Chris

Adam:
Average Roll: 7.35
Number of Rolls: 31
Number of Hits: 18
Hit Percentage: 58%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 43 clicks
Average Hit % (6 games): 68%
Damage Dealt (6 games): 199 clicks
Average Roll (6 games): 7.04

Jeff:
Average Roll: 7.6
Number of Rolls: 25
Number of Hits: 17
Hit Percentage: 68%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 41 clicks
Average Hit % (6 games): 50%
Damage Dealt (6 games): 122 clicks
Average Roll (6 games): 7.01

Dan:
Average Roll: 6.61
Number of Rolls: 18
Number of Hits: 7
Hit Percentage: 39%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 20 clicks
Average Hit % (6 games): 53%
Damage Dealt (6 games): 125 clicks
Average Roll (6 games): 7.04

Chris:
Average Roll: 7.62
Number of Rolls: 8
Number of Hits: 7
Hit Percentage: 87%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 10 clicks
Average Hit % (6 games): 48%
Damage Dealt (6 games): 84 clicks
Average Roll (6 games): 7.13

Uatu Karath stops watching and plucks Tigra from the game. Hawkman and Multiple Man hide in terror.

First Hit: The opening salvo came in the second round, when Green Arrow(Adam) said hello to Catman(Chris) for 4 damage.

Most Damage in a Single Attack: There were a lot of attacks for 4 damage, but only one attack that did 5 damage. You would assume from Iron Man or Martian Manhunter perhaps. Nope. Little Robin aka Tim Drake can be deadly. There was a huge battle on the rooftops. Antman was proving difficult to hit with his 18 defense. Robin, crack shot that he is, throws a batarang and nails Antman clean in the forehead. I rolled a 12/critical hit. This also knocked Antman off the roof, bringing the total damage to 5.

Critical Hits: Two. The one mentioned above, and a twelve rolled by Jeff. I didn't record what happened on Jeff's attack. It was late in the game. I'm slacking at my statistician job.

Critical Misses: One. I thought Robin was on a roll, so I tried the same attack on Black Cat(Jeff). This time Robin held on to the batarang too long and it flew straight down out of his hand and into his foot. That Black Cat is bad luck. D'oh!

Favorite Team: Orange is one of my favorite colors, so my favorite team of the night goes to Chris.

Hardest to Hit: I would say it was a tie between Wasp(Chris) with a 19 defense, and Antman(Jeff) with an 18 defense and super senses. I know it took me quite a few tries to nail Antman. Wasp finally got squashed by Hawkman, who has that insane 12 attack.

Wasp one second before becoming a decoration on Hawkman's mace.

Craziest/Gutsiest Move: I'll have to say The Question(Dan) wins this category. Jeff had Iron Man and Black Widow positioned to really lay down the hurt on my main bruiser Martian Manhunter. I took a chance and rushed The Question up next to Iron Man and Black Widow so they couldn't target anyone else. He did end up getting blasted pretty good from Iron Man. The didn't really end up helping me all that much. Martian Manhunter never really became much of a threat in the game.

Most Valuable Clix: M.V.C. goes to Hawkman(Adam). I think I picked Hawkman for this category before. He is just very dependable when it comes to making an attack. His lack of range is really his own negative, but that isn't anything major. Crazy high attack rolls throughout his dial, high damage and I think a click or two of regeneration makes him a tank.

Greatest Battle of the Night: Oooh boy was it intense watching the Thug take on Black Cat! Not really, but I thought it was a funny picture. Thug did land a hit on Black Cat though before she leaped away. Take that!

Mutliple Man finally makes it to the rooftop.

Game Summary: Again the details are foggy on this game, which happened a couple weeks before I posted this. I had my work cut out for me getting all my multiple men onto the roof with only one flier. That didn't work out too well. I think I took three or four turns getting those clix up the stairs to the top of the building. Jeff, Chris and I almost immediately went up to the tops of the buildings. Adam began firing up at Chris's team with Green Arrow and Psylocke. I was the first to get my reserve player in the game - Daredevil. He actually helped me out quite a bit outwit Iron Man, Antman and Black Widow here and there. Adam and Jeff were really the powerhouses of the game, making the most attacks and both dishing out over forty clicks of damage each. I think Chris was the first with his team KO'ed and I followed suit a couple turns after that. Chris managed a few good hits on Adam's Green Arrow and Captain America. It took me most of the game and most of my team, but I either KO'ed or almost KO'ed Jeff's Iron Man. I can't really remember who won, Jeff or Adam. I'm going to guess Adam, because I think he had his Hawkman at almost full health when the game ended. I could be wrong though.

wednesdy game night 05.16.07

2007-06-03T19:22:00.000-04:00

*Click here for more information on Heroclix*

The Game: We were without Jeff for this game since he was on vacation. To make up for losing a player, we went with 500 point teams. We also had random placement on the map with one catch. For our first turn each player could select two of their clix to make a basic, non-attacking move action. This gave each player somewhat of a chance to try and regroup or to get away from a potential beat-down. As mentioned before, random placement is chaotic, and sometimes bad placement can take you out of the game right from the start. I thought this worked really good to help offset some of the negatives of random placement.

The Map: Nothing special, just nice and simple.

The Teams:

Adam: For tonight's game Adam chose a JLA/character team-up theme. He had Batman (E), Superman (R), Black Canary (V), Green Arrow (V), Fire (V), and Ice (V).

Dan: Since we had a rare 500 point game, I seized the chance to finally play my Sentry clix (a year and half after pulling him out of booster). My theme was dudes with long hair. Damage (V), Sentry (U), Wendigo (E), Hydra Technician (E) - who has a really bad mullet under that mask, Harpoon (E) - with the Moe haircut, and Arkon (U).

Chris: If you aren't from Earth and you need to integrate yourself into society, what better way than with a moustache! Chris's theme was aliens. Omni Man (U), Starfire (E), Mister Miracle (R), Skrull (E), Hawkgirl (E), and Allen the Alien (E).

Game Highlights:
I'm not going to run cumulative stats for this game. Not that it matter really, but this way for cumulative stats everyone will always have played the same number of games.

Turn Order: Adam, Dan, Chris

Attack Rolls & Damage:

Adam:
Average Roll: 7.15
Number of Rolls: 27
Number of Hits: 10
Hit Percentage: 37%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 23 clicks

Dan:
Average Roll: 6.72
Number of Rolls: 29
Number of Hits: 13
Hit Percentage: 49%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 37 clicks

Chris:
Average Roll: 6.50
Number of Rolls: 12
Number of Hits: 6
Hit Percentage: 50%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 10 clicks

First Hit: Supes doesn't like imitators and he lets Omni Man know it with a heat vision blast for 5 clicks of damage with a little outwit help from Batman.

Most Damage in a Single Attack: I connected for 6 damage with, err, Damage. Allen was the poor victim of this crit hit.

Critical Hits: Just the one mentioned above.

Critical Misses: Two of 'em. Early in the game Adam tried to charge Fire into Omni Man but ended up with the accursed snake-eyes. A little later Chris rolled a two when Allen the Alien tried to lay the smack on my Arkon clix.

Supes and Omni Man duke it out. Yo, Omni Man, the camera's this way! Stop staring at Starfire!

Game Summary: I can't remember too many details since I'm posting this three weeks after it happened. I know after Adam struck first blood on Chris's Omni Man, Chris seemed to focus most of his team on Superman and Batman. I started out with much of my team tangled up with Allen the Alien. That clix has a crazy high defense up close thanks to Combat Reflexes. To make things worse, though, is if you are in close combat with him, he has Plasticity which makes it really hard to break away. Later in the game, I had managed to land a few good hits on Chris's team. Adam was fighting back with all he had on Chris for most of the game. I think Chris managed to take out Superman. I can't recall who ended up winning this game though. I don't think we called it - it seems like someone won. Adam, Chris, do either of you remember?

the comics of my youth

2007-05-25T09:11:00.001-04:00

I wouldn't be a true child of the '80s if I didn't have a G.I. Joe comic.

G.I. Joe #52, October, 1986

Issue Summary: Another single issue I got that seems to be right in the middle of a story. In this issue, The Joes are busy training when Storm Shadow sneaks into the base to talk to Snake Eyes. There is a short fight where the Joes are trying to stop Storm Shadow. After quickly dispatching Quick Kick, and disarming Lady Jane of her crossbow, Storm Shadow explains he just wanted to talk. Everyone leaves him and Snake Eyes alone. Storm Shadow is apparently on the run from Cobra and need a place to hide out. After getting Snake Eyes' sympathy through their clan/past connection, Snake Eyes gives Storm Shadow the key to his place (awwww, softy).

Meanwhile Cobra is gathering for an assault on the G.I. Joe base. It seems like that is all that ever happens in G.I. Joe stories. Cobra attacks the G.I. Joe base, G.I. Joes attack the Cobra base, or some combination of the two. Also, Cobra Commander is whining (as usual) because the new Cobra leader (King Cobra? The guy in gold with the snake head helmet) is ruling with an iron fist. I always love it when Cobra Commander gets put in his place.

My first exposure to G.I. Joe came of course from the cartoon. I had my fair share of G.I. Joe merchandise too - T-shirt, puzzle, underwear, toys. Sadly, many of my G.I. Joe toys were KIA in the mid/late-'90s from BB gun friendly fire. None of them saw it coming, and none of them deserved their cruel fate. Except for Cobra Commander - that jerk had it coming.

Anyways, this issue isn't really anything special for me. It is one of the first few comics I remember buying myself though. Every summer two of my cousins (who were about the same age as me) and I would spend a week "up north" (near Cadillac, MI) with our grandparents. They had some land with a cabin/trailer on it. It was the best thing for young boys like us. Plenty of fun, games and outdoor adventure. One year on our way up we stopped at some gas station/convenience store. That is were I picked this issue up. It must have been sitting on the shelf for a while - our trips were in the summer. I liked karate/martial arts as a kid, so the cover really grabbed me. Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes were my favorites. Big surprise, I know. Quick Kick was a close third.

I actually don't have very many G.I. Joe comics despite loving the cartoon and toys. It looks like I have a total of three G.I. Joe comics.

Young Dan's Geeky Cool Rating: 5 out of 10.

Revised Geeky Cool Rating: 4 out of 10. No major wow factor for this issue. Very basic art. Not a whole lot of characters featured. Just a G.I. Joe comic, nothing more.

Original Cover Price: 75¢

Current Value on ComicsPriceGuide.com (which doesn't really mean anything): $3 NM

my comic book pull list

2007-05-24T08:26:00.000-04:00

Added a list on the sidebar of the current comic books I buy each month. In case you are curious as to which current comics I'm reading, or you want to bash my poor comic buying choices now you know exactly what I'm getting. You'll see I've made plenty of bad comic purchases in the past when I get to the "Image Comics of My Youth" posts. *shudder* For the most part, I do enjoy the comic book I've been reading (otherwise I wouldn't buy them).

You'll notice I tend to buy more Marvel comics. Mostly because I'm more familiar with the Marvel Comics universe. The whole Civil War/Initiative and soon to be World War Hulk story lines are getting a little out of control though. I wish a lot of titles would start being more self contained again instead of these huge story lines spilling into every title. It isn't as bad as the bazillion crossovers in the '90s, but they need to slow down with the number of company/universe wide story events.

On another note - yay, Art Adams Avengers covers!

wednesday game night 05.09.07

2007-05-17T08:35:00.000-04:00

*Click here for more information on Heroclix*

The Game: 300 point teams (I think). The teams had to be made up of either Batman characters or Spider-man characters, or some combination of the two.

The Map: Quite a few buildings for this map, since both Spidey and Bats are known for their Leap/Climb powers.

The Teams:

Chris: Chris went with Batman affiliates and a Black Cat for his team. Black Canary (E), Nightwing (R), Cat-Man (E), Blue Beetle (E), Huntress (R), Black Cat (E), Green Arrow (R).

Adam: Adam also had a Batman and Co. team with Robin (E), Batgirl (E), Ragman (V), Spoiler (V), Batman (E), Nightwing (V).

Jeff: A little of this and that for Jeff. Spider-man (E), Spider-man (R), Nightwing (E), Batman (E), Harley Quinn (V), Catwoman (V).

Dan: I used a Spidey/Bats and their villians team. Batman (R), Kraven (E), Spider-man (U), Cat-Man (R), Vulture (V).

Game Highlights:

Turn Order: Chris, Adam, Jeff, Dan

Attack Rolls and Damage:

Chris:
Average Roll: 6.46
Number of Rolls: 13
Number of Hits: 2
Hit Percentage: 15%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 7 clicks
Average Hit % (5 games): 40%
Damage Dealt (5 games): 74 clicks
Average Roll (5 games): 7.03

Adam:
Average Roll: 7.40
Number of Rolls: 20
Number of Hits: 15
Hit Percentage: 75%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 27 clicks
Average Hit % (5 games): 70%
Damage Dealt (5 games): 156 clicks
Average Roll (5 games): 6.98

Jeff:
Average Roll: 7
Number of Rolls: 16
Number of Hits: 8
Hit Percentage: 50%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 13 clicks
Average Hit % (5 games): 46%
Damage Dealt (5 games): 81 clicks
Average Roll (5 games): 6.90

Dan:
Average Roll: 7.17
Number of Rolls: 24
Number of Hits: 11
Hit Percentage: 46%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 25 clicks
Average Hit % (5 games): 56%
Damage Dealt (5 games): 105 clicks
Average Roll (5 games): 7.13

First Hit: Adam's Batman lands a hit on Chris's Nightwing for two damage.

Critical Hits: Adam, Dan

Critical Misses: Jeff

Most Damage in a Single Attack: My Vulture surpised Black Canary(Chris) for 4 damage. Never underestimate an old bald man with feathers.

Game Summary: This ended up being a pretty good game. Everyone was evenly matched since we all had similar teams. Damage seemed to be spread out among us four. Near the end of the game we had riotous battle going on a rooftop. We ended up calling a truce after running out of time. See, good superheroes learn to play nice together.

the comics of my youth

2007-05-16T08:31:00.000-04:00

Ok, here is another comic that I'm very fond of. There is a little story behind it, which I'll explain after the issue summary.

The Flash #330, February 1984

Issue Summary: I'm kind of at a loss for what is going on in this issue. It is obviously a continuation of a story from the previous issue(s), which I don't have. Here is what I pieced together re-reading it: Flash's (Barry Allen) fiance Ms. Webb (not Iris West!??), is locked up in some mental institution. A doctor is recording her mad ravings about Barry being Flash. He plans to sell them to the news in order to be rich. Flash arrives and races him out the building and throws him through a carwash at super speed.

Ok...then apparently Flash is also searching for some missing boy. While searching the city, Flash is lured by some sort of mist/smoke, which knocks him unconscious. This is part of Gorilla Grodd's doing, but what his master plan is, I don't know.

Flash is now in some sort of alternate dimension/astral plane type place. This is also where the missing boy is. There are some other goons here too who are involved somehow with Grodd. There is some deal where one of the guys is going to steal/absorb Flash's speed. That is about all I can figure out. As a single issue it isn't very good. Hard to figure out only reading one part of the story. Not many cool action shots in this issue either. So why is this one of my favorite comics?

Why This Issue is Special: Here is why this is near and dear to my heart. It is one of the first comics I ever remember. Ahh, 1984. That puts me at 5 years old when I got this. Money was a little tight with my family back then. My Dad was working 2 jobs. This second job was managing a car wash. I remember him coming home one night with a small stack of comics he found that someone had thrown in the garbage at the car wash. No, he wasn't dumpster diving, I think they just happened to be at the top of the pile (in good condition) when he was changing the garbage cans. I think some parent just tossed them in the midst of cleaning out their car interior. Anyways, I remember three distinct comics: Conan, Incredible Hulk, and the Flash (I'm still trying to replace the Conan and Hulk issues). Oh this Flash character was cool! The cover was great, with a giant gorilla on it. Of course that will appeal to a 5 year old. I loved the Flash costume and the way Carmine Infantino would draw him racing around.

I remember tracing my finger along the red streak Flash always left behind. This probably inspired me to beg for a Flash costume. I was pretty pumped when I got a red shirt with the Flash logo on it. My mom sewed me a partial red mask (a domino style mask) with shiny gold trim on it. I ran around the house in that for a long time. That is the main reason Flash is still one of my favorite characters today. Plus running a hypersonic speed would be really, really fun.

Dan's Original Geeky Cool Rating: 8 out of 10

Dan's New Geeky Cool Rating: 8 out of 10. In terms of action/story it is about a 2. Sentimental rating is a 10, so that evens out to an 8.

Original Cover Price: 75¢

Current Value on ComicsPriceGuide.com: $6 in NM condition

Wednesday Game Night 04.25.07

2007-05-15T19:42:00.000-04:00

*Click for more information on Heroclix*

The Game: 500 point teams. The game was won when the player to your right had all their clix KO'd.

The Map: I went overboard on pictures of this map. I had been working on getting this map put together for a while now. Finally all that paper folding and gluing I did felt worth it once we played on the map. Now I just need to make more buildings.

The Teams:

Chris: Tom Selleck would appreciate this team. Moustache power! It was a bit of a stretch with the Joker (you have to think of the actor that played Joker in the '60s Batman TV show). Deadshot (E), Omni Man (U), Joker (E), Iron Man (R), Falcon (R), Green Arrow (R).

Adam: I pretty sure it was a satellite JLA team Adam went with. Elongated Man (V), Red Tornado (V), Batman (E), Hawkman (E), Green Arrow (V), Green Lantern (E).

Me: Another Avengers variation for me. Not sure if it was ever an actual Avengers team, but all Avengers members at one time or another. Quicksilver (E), Captain America (ultimate) (V), Ant-Man (E), She-Hulk (R), Vision (E), Hawkeye (V).

Jeff: Attack of the Supermen! Jeff used an all superman team. Cyborg Superman (E), Steel (E), Superboy (V), Superman (Blue) (R).

Game Highlights:

Turn Order: Jeff, Chris, Adam, Dan

Attack Rolls and Damage:

Jeff:
Average Roll: 7.11
Number of Rolls: 9
Number of Hits: 5
Hit Percentage: 55%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 14 clicks
Average Hit % (4 games): 45%
Damage Dealt (4 games): 68 clicks
Average Roll (4 games): 6.87

Chris:
Average Roll: 6.77
Number of Rolls: 13
Number of Hits: 5
Hit Percentage: 38%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 13 clicks
Average Hit % (4 games): 46%
Damage Dealt (4 games): 67 clicks
Average Roll (4 games): 7.17

Adam:
Average Roll: 6.78
Number of Rolls: 9
Number of Hits: 5
Hit Percentage: 55%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 19 clicks
Average Hit % (4 games): 69%
Damage Dealt (4 games): 129 clicks
Average Roll (4 games): 6.88

Dan:
Average Roll: 6.37
Number of Rolls: 16
Number of Hits: 10
Hit Percentage: 62%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 23 clicks
Average Hit % (4 games): 59%
Damage Dealt (4 games): 80 clicks
Average Roll (4 games): 7.12

Critical Hits: none

Critical Misses: Three. One each from Adam, Chris and I.

First Hit: Start of the second round Jeff charges his Superboy into Chris's Deadshot for 5 damage with a heavy object. Ouch and KO.

Most Damage with a Single Attack: Two hits for 5 damage. Both came from Jeff's team. The first hit mentioned above, and later on a hit from Superman Blue on Falcon.

Favorite Team: How can a team of Moustache toting superheroes not be picked as favorite team? There aren't a whole lot of theme teams Omni Man can fit on, but a moustache theme team is one of them.

Game Summary: Adam chased me around the board. I chased Jeff around the board. Jeff chased Chris around the board. Chris stood his ground and pounded on Jeff, which helped me out. I ended up winning based on all of Jeff's clix being KO'd first.

my current CD listening

2007-05-15T10:44:00.000-04:00

What has been spinning lately in my truck CD player & my iTunes at work? Read on..

The youtube clips for these are all pretty crappy video quality, but the sound quality is slightly less crappy. Slightly.

Keane - Under The Iron Sea
This CD has really grown on me lately. I started out just liking one song on the CD (Hamburg Song) but now I like most of the songs. I can't place my finger on what I like about Under the Iron Sea so much. I just put it down to them being a British band. Brit pop/rock is cool.

The Darkness - Permission to Land
Ahh, catsuits. If you want an over the top ode to classic rock/hair bands give this a listen. Beware, the CD is a bit F-bomb heavy. It has some killer guitar parts and outrageous falsetto vocals. The band doesn't take themselves too seriously. Just crank it, and if you're like me you'll start grinning. Goofy fun. Also British I might add...

Here is their Christmas song (yes, they have a Christmas song)

Dierks Bentley - Dierks Bentley
I'm a bit late on Dierks' debut album, but oh well. I really liked Modern Day Drifter so I went back and gave this album a listen. More good stuff. Dierks and Brad Paisley are my favorites as far as country music goes. Brad for the guitar playing and Dierks for the vocals. Alot of these songs are about love lost and life on the road. I know, the staples of country music (and alot of other music too I guess).

AC/DC - Back in Black
This album has some of AC/DC's biggest hits on it. Back in Black, You Shook Me All Night Long, etc. I don't have much to say about AC/DC other than their songs all kinda sound the same. It is pretty much just variations on the same song type. Oh but they sure know how to rock out that one song. My favorite song on this album is Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution.

This song isn't on Back in Black, but I couldn't find a good youtube vid from "back in the day" before the replacement singer.

my arcade project is an exercise in frustration

2007-04-30T14:44:00.001-04:00

\Begin rant. Grrrrrrrrr......grrrrrrrrrr. Skip this post if you hate rants. My arcade project seems destined for the garbage pile. Here is where I'm at with things:

1. Buy huge ass computer monitor (27") for dirt cheap - Great so far
2. Get my old computer to run the arcade games on - Excellent cheap idea
3. Try to play arcade games on said pc only to watch them run at 12 frames per second - So much for that idea
4. Go to arcade auction to buy an arcade cabinet for cheap (cheap is a recurring theme with me. Hey, I'm on a budget alright!) - Crashed and burned
5. Watch ebay for other empty arcade cabinets to buy - Lots of choices, good plan
6. Read up on the MAME community forums to learn more about making MAME run better on older pcs - Should have thought of that the first time!
7. Get hyped up when I manage to get quite a few games running on the old pc - Woo Hoo!
8. Rage in burning anger when the CD drive won't recognize the CD-RW's that have all the game files on them - Not good. This is not good...
9. Reflect on how much this is going to cost to build. Around $400 using the old pc. Around $800 if building a new pc - Ouch. Starting to lose it
10. Thinking about the cost some more while noticing those purty graphics on the next-gen video game consoles - wipe drool off chin

I'm currently debating on giving up the whole arcade cabinet. I'll still be able to play all the arcade games on my laptop whenever I want, it just won't have the "authentic" feel of the joysticks and buttons. Right now though, here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking.....you know what?......Screw "authentic!" I can save a bunch of that money I would spend on "authentic" and get an Xbox 360 or PS3. I'll still be able to play the "oldies." It's like having your cake and eating it too. It's like a chocolate/vanilla twist ice cream cone. That sounded dumb - let me try again. It's like having not only Dana Scully on the case, but Fox Mulder too! That makes even less sense.... Ok, one last time. It's like, uh, it's like....uh...

So anyways, what good is a next-gen console without an HDTV?
(What am I getting myself into?)

I think I need to just take a break from the whole arcade project for a while and figure out what I really want to do. End Rant/

pinball at the 'zoo 2007

2007-04-22T20:47:00.001-04:00

This weekend I went to the pinball at the 'zoo with Jeff.

I thought I'd try a little multimedia extravaganza for this post - even with music! Unfortunately the video I shot on my digital camera is tilted sideways and I can't rotate it, so no video. I know, I know, this slideshow is pretty lame.

I wasn't able to get anything at the auction. Most of the arcade cabinets were too narrow to fit that giant monitor I got. I'm going to hunt around on ebay for a week or two and then build my own if I don't find anything.

The auction had a real genuine auctioneer. It was quite a new experience for me. I had a hard time interpreting auctionese. Usually by the time I figured out the price the auction was over.

The crowd was quite an eclectic mix too. An interesting mix of video game/computer geeks (me), carnies (your garden-variety type you see at carnivals and fairs), and those who don't bathe/shower. Actually that last category was sort of a mixed category. There are video game geeks who don't bathe; there are carnies who don't bathe, but there are also video game-geek-carnies-who don't bathe. Those are the ones you want to avoid. I made the mistake of getting right in the thick of the auction crowd at one point. The aroma was decidedly...stifling. I can only image it on a hot and humid August day.

Here's the kicker: In true fairground fashion, the building the event was held in was also hosting a reptile show! We pulled in to the driveway and saw a huge sign that said ARCADE AUCTION. Below that was a little black sign with white type: REPTILE SHOW. Very nice. Jeff and I were going to run through it for the "snakes on a plane" experience, but they were charging admission. Bummer.

All in all it was a good time and a fun experience.

wednesday game night 04.18.07

2007-04-19T20:22:00.000-04:00

*Click for more information on Heroclix*

The Game: 400 point teams. Random placement a la Chris's handy random number generator program. Random placement is...well, random. It generally makes for intense games, which is great. A lot of times though there is always one person that gets screwed with random placement. This happens either through bad placement (naturally) and/or going last. The result is that particular person's team get beat down fairly quickly in the frenzy of the first couple rounds. I've had this happen a few times with random placement. Aggravating? Yes. Exciting? Depends. Fun for everyone else besides that one person? You betcha! I would have to say Adam was the random-placement-beat-downee this game. For only having three clix for a team though he lasted quite a while.

The Map: Buildings! Now featuring catwalks! (cue music)I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, too sexy yeah. On the catwalk. On the catwalk. I do my little dance. On the catwalk.(end music) Ok. So. Look at these pictures while I go take some Prozac.

The Teams:

Chris: Invincible leads a teenage superhero team!(Angst sold separately) Starfire (E), Invincible (E), Kid Flash (V), Atom Eve (E) and Stargirl (V).

Adam: The theme for this terrific trio was aliens...hey wait a minute...Kyle Rayner is an alien?! I'm the first to admit I'm not up on Rayner history, so I must be missing something. Starfire (V), Hawkman (V) and Green Lantern (V).

Jeff: A team of DC villains and a Doombot was put to good use by Jeff. I can just feel the vile, festering evil just oozing from this team. Clayface (E), Joker (E), Doombot (V), Johnny Quick (U) and Sinestro (R).

Me: I went with a (semi)random team. I picked a handful of 12 clix and then rolled two six sided dice (or 2d6 in D&D-speak (if you are frightened by D&D ignore this parenthesis(or ignore all of these parenthesis if bad grammar make you naughtious(spelling too (sorry, I know it's nawtious(damnit, nauseous(whew!))))))) to determine who made the final cut of my team. Colonel Logan (U), Mister Miracle (R), Iron Fist (E), Wonder Girl (V) and Zoom (LE).

Game Highlights:

Turn Order: Chris, Adam, Jeff, Dan

Attack Rolls and Damage:

Chris:
Average Roll: 7.25
Number of Rolls: 28
Number of Hits: 15
Hit Percentage: 53%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 36 clicks
Average Hit % (3 games): 49%
Damage Dealt (3 games): 54 clicks
Average Roll (3 games): 7.31

Adam:
Average Roll: 6.33
Number of Rolls: 12
Number of Hits: 8
Hit Percentage: 67%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 30 clicks
Average Hit % (3 games): 74%
Damage Dealt (3 games): 110 clicks
Average Roll (3 games): 6.91

Jeff:
Average Roll: 7.06
Number of Rolls: 31
Number of Hits: 16
Hit Percentage: 52%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 33 clicks
Average Hit % (3 games): 42%
Damage Dealt (3 games): 54 clicks
Average Roll (3 games): 6.79

Dan:
Average Roll: 6.7
Number of Rolls: 17
Number of Hits: 9
Hit Percentage: 53%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 18 clicks
Average Hit % (3 games): 58%
Damage Dealt (3 games): 57 clicks
Average Roll (3 games): 7.37

First Hit: Right off the bat, first turn Chris uses Kid Flash to perplex up Stargirl's attack in or to blast Adam's Green Lantern for 5 damage.

Critical Hits: 3. One by Jeff, two by me ( on successive rolls no less!).

Critical Misses: 2. Chris and I. I didn't record who the clix were. Too much carnage going on.

Most Damage with a Single Attack: Another tie between Chris and Adam. 5 damage on the first hit mentioned above. My Mr. Miracle's 18 defense with super senses couldn't escape from Hawkman's 12 attack with a light object. 5 damage.

Hardest to Hit: This was a tough decision. It seemed like Hawkman had everyone attacking him and missing most of the time. At one point I had him in close combat with Wonder Girl and Colonel Logan. Both of them were on their willpower/flurry clicks and I could never land a hit. The other hard to hit clix was Jeff's Joker. That first click of 18 defense with combat reflexes (20 defense against close combat) made him nigh impossible to hit. I say Hawkman based on the sheer number of failed attempts on his life.

Favorite Team: Villains are fun, and we usually don't see very many pure villain teams on the board. Jeff gets my nod this week for my favorite team.

Craziest/Gutsiest Move of the Night: Nothing really stood out in my mind this game. Most of the game was crazy.

M.V.C.: Most valuable clix for this game was a tough choice. Everything seemed fairly spread out this game. I'm gonna say Hawkman. His ridiculously high attack values throughout combined with 4 damage and super strength for a couple clicks can really mess up your day. He could hit who ever he wanted. That plus the regeneration click and overall hard to hit (for me anyways) makes him M.V.C.

Game Summary: Just an absolute knockdown drag out battle. The teams were evenly spread out across the map for the most part. Fights broke out immediately between all of the players. It was an intense game. I was the first one out of the game, but I felt completely satisfied with how my game went. Plus I could sit back and focus on my stats. At one point Adam only had Hawkman left, who was tied up with Johnny Quick. Johhny would hit Hawkman onto his regen. Hawkman would heal. The cycle repeated a few times before Adam conceded to let Chris and Jeff battle it out for victory. The final battle took place on one roof top. Invincible vs. Joker/Clayface. We kinda goofed up at this point. Both of Jeff's clix could only do two damage each. Invincible had invulnerable, which reduces the damage by 2, negating any damage Jeff could do to him. Well, Jeff started rolling anyways with the hope of rolling a crit hit. After a round or two Adam looked closer at the Joker and Clayface clix and said, "Uh, both of those have exploit weakness." This of course cuts through invulnerable. By this time Chris had given a few hits to Joker and Clayface. By the time Jeff realized he had exploit weakness it was all over and Chris was the victor. Now you might not think simple observation would have such an affect on the game, but oh does it. Study up those heroclix dials, kids. The more you memorize, the better.

wednesday game night 04.11.07

2007-04-15T18:56:00.000-04:00

*Click for more information on Heroclix*

The Game: The standard Heroclix game of 400 point teams.

The Map: We've been playing a lot of 2-D maps lately. This time it was the new map from the BRPD Heroclix set that just came out. Lots of water on this map, which means you'll need some fliers, leap/climbers, phasers or swimmers on your team to really get around without the water slowing you down.

The Teams:

Adam: Ugh, what moron took that shot? FOCUS! FOCUS! I have got to figure out how to take good pictures at Chris's place. Anyways, Adam used the letters of his last name to build a team. Each character's name started with a letter from his last name. Iceman (R), Tigra (R), Wildcat (R), Havok (V), Sandman (U), Elektra (V?), and Ray (V).

Jeff: Less than one month until Spider-man 3. I think Jeff is anxious for the movie because he made a Spider-man 3 team: Sandman (V), Black Cat (E), Black Suit Spider-man (E), Spider-man (E), and Venom (V).

Me: Michael Moore would be proud...my team featured clix with guns. Lots of guns.... Deadpool (V), Kang (E), Spymaster (V), Shield Agent (V), Black Widow (V), and Sage/Tessa (E).

Chris: Another team where I missed what the theme was. Chris, you'll have to post a comment saying what the theme was, if any. For now I'll say it is the "Bat Outta Hell, Boy" team. Man-bat (E), Kabuki (E), Destiny (R), Witchblade (R), Hellboy (U, or V?), Solomon Grundy (E), Liz Sherman (V), and Man-bat (E).

Game Highlights

Attack Rolls & Damage: (I'm starting to have cumulative stats on damage as well as rolls, so the total will start with this game and the last one)

Adam:
Average Roll: 6.97
Number of Rolls: 34
Number of Hits: 30
Hit Percentage: 88%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 64 clicks
Average Hit % (2 games): 77%
Damage Dealt (2 games): 80 clicks
Average Roll (2 games): 7.20

Jeff:
Average Roll: 7
Number of Rolls: 6
Number of Hits: 3
Hit Percentage: 50%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 9 clicks
Average Hit % (2 games): 36%
Damage Dealt (2 games): 21 clicks
Average Roll (2 games): 6.65

Dan:
Average Roll: 7.8
Number of Rolls: 20
Number of Hits: 14
Hit Percentage: 70%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 31 clicks
Average Hit % (2 games): 60%
Damage Dealt (2 games): 39 clicks
Average Roll (2 games): 7.71

Chris:
Average Roll: 7.55
Number of Rolls: 9
Number of Hits: 4
Hit Percentage: 44%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 8 clicks
Average Hit % (2 games): 47%
Damage Dealt (2 games): 18 clicks
Average Roll (2 games): 7.33

Turn Order: Adam, Jeff, Dan, Chris

First Hit: My Black Widow pops Sandman up close and personal for 2 clicks of damage.

Critical Hits: none

Critical Misses: 2. I rolled a crit miss when I had my Shield Agent push to hit Jeff's Black Suit Spider-man. Ouch 1 click damage to myself for pushing, then 1 more for the crit miss! Adam rolled the other one with an attempt by Iceman to put out the fire of Liz Sherman.

Most Damage in a Single Attack: This was a tie between Adam, Chris and I. Adam had two instances of doing 4 damage. One was a nasty blast from Havok on Man-bat for 4 damage and the KO. The other was Havok again, but this time on Witchblade. Chris had some payback when Hellboy laid the smack down on Adam's Tigra for 4 damage. I also did and attack for 4 damage, but I forgot to write it down. Some statistician. D'oh!

Craziest/Gutsiest Move of the Night: This goes to Chris playing against crazy odds on one of his turn. Hellboy was trying a ranged attack on Adam's Havok. He had to hit a 19 defense. It was a long shot, but possible. Chris rolled a 3.... Not content with the odds, Chris then has Liz Sherman attack Havok from range (19 defense still). This was an even more unlikely chance to hit, due to her lower attack value. Lo and behold Chris rolls a 10! For a MISS! I laughed. It was funny. Good times...

Favorite Team: Adam is on quite the streak when it comes to the favorite team of the night category. I would vote for myself, but that just doesn't seem right. I liked the creative use of using letters from his last name to build a team. That is something I never would have thought of. I usually have to build my team in advance. Otherwise I would spend all night trying to come up with a team (partly because I agonize over the team building).

Successful Super Senses Rolling: Jeff wins it this game, as usual. His uncanny knack for using super senses to avoid attacks is amazing (and annoying if you are trying to hit him). This game he was successful on 3 super senses rolls.

M.V.C.: The most valuable clix of the game has to be the Ray (V). Adam was tearing it up with that figure. He just seems really versatile with hypersonic speed, 10 range, ranged combat expert, and 2 clicks of mid dial regeneration, among other things.

Summary: It basically became 2 separate games for the first half of the night. Jeff and I duking it out on one end of the map. Adam and Chris on the other side. The large amounts of water played a part in keeping the teams separated. I was rolling pretty high most of the night, so Jeff's team eventually fell to my gun toting team. I then began to move my team over to were Adam was fighting Chris. By the time I go into position Adam had most of Chris's team KO'd except for a few guys. My main problem was my own piece: Kang. He has a great attack value through out his dial which means he is more or less guaranteed to hit whatever he attacks. The problem though, is he only has one click of a move/attack power (running shot). This was not good when it came time to try to catch Adam's Ray. I would move close enough to Ray to be able to shoot, but I would have to rest. By the time I could attack, Ray was long gone. Adam's Sandman was also a big nuisance (I like that piece though). In the end I had to take drastic measures and push alot. Once when I finally hit Ray, all I did was put him on his Regen click. Next round he was back to full health. It was over after that. It was a good game. It was really long though. I think Adam and I didn't get done until about 12:15 a.m.

One thing I noticed with stats is they are skewed quite a bit by how long you stay in the game. Jeff was the first player out of the game. When you look at the number of attack rolls he (or Chris) made compared to Adam and I ( the last two playing) it is quite a big difference. I don't know that there is any way to reflect that in the stat keeping though. Just one of those variables that isn't reflected in the game stats.

arcade project

2007-04-02T09:14:00.001-04:00

I recently acquired the first piece of my upcoming arcade cabinet: the monitor. I was lucky enough to get this from work. The company used to use it for presentations, etc. when they first bought it ten years ago. Today it never gets used because most of the conference rooms have built in projectors. The monitor also has a maximum resolution of 800x600. While that may suck for most of today's PC applications, it is perfect for an arcade cabinet. Most, if not all, arcade games ran at a resolution much lower than 800x600.

Size wise, I think it is about equivalent to a 27" TV! My main concern now is making sure I mount the monitor in the cabinet so that it will actually hold it. That would be bad if it fell out. It would be even worse if it fell out and crushed somebody... I also need to make sure it fits in an old cabinet if I find one at the upcoming arcade auction. If not I'll just build the cabinet myself like originally planned. Fun fun!

wednesday game night 03.28.07

2007-04-01T16:49:00.000-04:00

*Click for more information on Heroclix*

The Game: Another Heroclix 400 point teams game, but this time with a slight twist. After playing for 1 hour we each rolled a dice to randomly select one of our clix to remove from the game. We were trying to play a fast game because we wanted enough time to watch a movie.

The Map: This game featured a building-heavy map along with some semi trucks. Fliers and clix with the leap/climb power were a must to move around on this map.

The Teams:

Chris: Chris had a team made up of I believe "elemental forces." I might be off on that though, I kinda missed his explanation. Hey, the new Wizard magazine came out all right, lay off... Anyway, his team was made up of water - Hydro Man (R), weather - Storm (V), darkness? - Shade (V), ice - Iceman (V), fire - Magma (R), umm, either gamma radiation or RAGE!! - Hulk (U), and the speed force - Kid Flash (V).

Adam: Taste the rainbow...A very cool looking team. Adam went with a "candy" theme team made up of all colored translucent clix. Wonderman (E), Iceman (E), John Stewart Green Lantern (E), Human Torch (E), and Ray (E).

Jeff: I also kinda missed what Jeff's theme was if he had one for his team. I'll just make up a theme right now instead. Jeff's theme team was "Beat Down on Dan", which he did most of the game. D'oh! Atom (V), Batman (an LE or promo fig), Nightwing (E), Supergirl (R), and Robin (R).

Me: I went with a "Cape-Wearing Clix" theme team. Superman (U), Batman (R), Vision (E), Robin (E), Batgirl (R), and Nighthawk (V).

Game Summary:

Attack Rolls & Damage:

Chris:
Average Roll: 7.125
Number of Attempts: 8
Number of Hits: 4
Hit Percentage: 50%
Cumulative Hit % (2 games): 41%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 10 clicks

Adam:
Average Roll: 7.44
Number of Attempts: 9
Number of Hits: 6
Hit Percentage: 67%
Cumulative Hit % (2 games): 68%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 16 clicks

Jeff:
Average Roll: 6.31
Number of Attempts: 13
Number of Hits: 3
Hit Percentage: 23%
Cumulative Hit % (2 games): 44%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 12 clicks

Dan:
Average Roll: 7.62
Number of Attempts: 8
Number of Hits: 4
Hit Percentage: 50%
Cumulative Hit % (2 games): 54%
Damage Dealt (after reducers): 8 clicks

Turn Order: Chris, Adam, Jeff, Me

9:30 a Character Dies:
Chris: Storm (full health)
Adam: Wonderman (full health)
Jeff: Supergirl (maybe 1/4 health)
Dan: Vision (full health) Ugh, he was the main part of my team, and I didn't even get to use him for a single attack!

First Hit: Jeff - Supergirl charges in on my Batgirl for 4 damage and a KO.

Critical Hits: none

Critical Misses: none

Most Damage with a Single Attack: Tie between Adam and Chris. Adam demolished my Batman very early on. I forgot about Green Lanterns TK (duh), but I'll remember now. GL TKs Wonderman, who then charges in and crushes Batman with a heavy object for 6 damage and the KO. Late in the Game, Chris unleashes Hulk on GL for a nasty 6 damage with a heavy object and KO.

Favorite Team: Adam's candy team is just too clever not to be favorite team of the night.

Game Highlights: This was a really fast game. We didn't even play to the end since we had to cut it short to watch a movie. Things were going pretty quickly so I didn't write down all of my usual game summary categories. Basically Jeff and I were duking it out. Adam was flying in from the rooftops to take shots on all of us. Chris was moving in towards Jeff and I, but them he launched Hulk on Adam for most of the game. Jeff had most of my team tied up with his Supergirl and Batman. He had Nightwing, Robin and Atom outside the fight shooting in on my team too. Nightwing would usually outwit some defensive power of mine then make a ranged attack with Atom perplexing up the attack roll or damage. It was pretty effective, when he hit. which wasn't much. For some reason he could not seem to hit my Nighthawk. Adam was wearing us down with his ranged combat, but Chris tied up 3 of Adam's team by moving Hulk up on the roof with them. We stopped shortly after about the 2nd hour into the game. If I had to guess I would say Chris might have won. He had quite a few of his team left and a pissed off Hulk!

Wednesday Game Night 03.21.07

2007-03-25T18:35:00.000-04:00

*Click for more information on Heroclix*

The Game: Heroclix. 400 pt teams. I concocted Danger Room "rules" since we were playing on the Danger Room map. Each round one person rolls a 20 sided die. On a result of 1 thru 10 some battlefield effect took place for the remainder of the round. The effects were mostly taken straight from Battlefield Condition Cards, with a few exceptions. The effects were: Bright Lights, Atlantis Rising, White Noise, Darkness, Quicksand, Build-a-Wall, Crosswinds, Hurricane, Low Gravity, and Proximity Mines. On a roll of 11 thru 20, nothing happened. Of course most of the game we rolled 11-20.

The Map: Another flat map this week, the Danger Room map. I hosted game night this time and I was frantically trying to finish the game "table." I got it done, but didn't have enough time to finish my 3-D terrain. Next time.

The Teams:

Chris: Metal men was the theme Chris went with for his team. Robotman (R), Silver Centurion Iron Man (LE), Iron Man (E), and Manhunter (R).

Adam: What better for the Danger Room map than an X-men team? Adam went with the X-men "Blue" team from the '90s X-men comic. Gambit (V), Cyclops (E), Beast (V), Rogue (V), Wolverine (E), and Psylocke (V). Just missing Jubilee, but her clix pretty much stinks.

Jeff: A very intimidating team from Jeff. The Marvel family and Mr. Mind. You'll notice in the pic that some of them are crossed-eyed. Time for glasses. Black Adam (R), Shazam (R), Mr. Mind (U), and Mary Marvel (R).

Me: I finally decided to use some of my new clix from the Origins set. Mon-el (R), Steel (R), Wildcat (E), Hawkman (R), and Catman (R).

Game Highlights: I decided to keep track of stats this game for something different. I think I might have screwed up in a few places though, so they are not 100% accurate. I'll have to pay more attention next time.

Favorite Team: Adam's X-men team just fits the map so well.

Turn Order: Adam, Chris, Dan, Jeff.

First Hit: Cyclops lands a stunning shot on Mr. Mind, who has a 19 defense, for 5 damage and the KO. This happened on the 2nd round and had a big effect on how Jeff would play the remainder of his team.

Critical Hits: Just one crit hit this game. Jeff rolled a 12 to land a big hit on my Mon-el from Black Adam.

Critical Miss: Also just one crit miss this game, from Chris. Robotman had a malfunction and rolled a crit miss on Adam's Wolverine.

Most Damage With a Single Attack: It was a tie between Cyclops's hit (see 1st hit) and Wolverine slashing Robotman for the KO. Both of these attacks landed 5 damage.

Most Devastating Turn/Combo: I would have to say the one-two attack of Black Adam and Shazam using hypersonic speed to combine for 7 damage on my Mon-el piece.

Stupidity Move of the Game: I am dumb. At the beginning of the game Jeff was pushing his Marvel family pieces to get past the activation click so they would all get the crazy "Shazam" click (hypersonic speed, impervious, lots of damage, etc.). Right as Jeff does this I move all my characters close to his team. Don't ask me why. I wasn't thinking. Well, I was thinking, just not very smartly. As soon as I do that I get unloaded on by his whole team. It really knocked the wind out of most of my pieces and I had no choice but to retreat. I moved as far away from him as possible. It took me a couple rounds to get back in the game.

M.V.C.: To me the Most Valuable Clix Award of the night goes to Adam's Cyclops. He was nailing people left and right with that guy for usually high damage. Taking out Mr. Mind in one shot was just....ouch!

Attack Rolls:

Adam:
Number of Rolls: 22
Average Roll: 7.27
Number of Hits: 15
Hit Percentage: 68%

Chris:
Number of Rolls: 9
Average Roll: 7.22
Number of Hits: 3
Hit Percentage: 33%

Me:
Number of Rolls: 18
Average Roll: 7.44
Number of Hits: 10
Hit Percentage: 55%

Jeff:
Number of Rolls: 12
Average Roll: 7.83
Number of Hits: 8
Hit Percentage: 67%

Damage Dealt (After Damage Reducers):
Here is where I might have messed up stats.

Adam: 42 clicks

Chris: 5 clicks

Me: 29 clicks

Jeff: 42 clicks

Game Summary: It was a game that really came down to the wire between Jeff, Adam and I in the end. Chris went for Adam early on again. I already mentioned my blunder at the start of the game. It took me a while before I got in the thick of things, but we had a big pile up for a while with Adam, Chris and I all jumbled together duking it out.

Jeff kept zooming in and out with the Marvel family taking shots at us. Adam and I had to more or less gang up on Chris Iron Man before he ko'd us all. I was really impressed with my Wildcat and Hawkman, the least powerful of my team who ended up carrying it. Near the end of the game Chris was defeated and it became a matter of not getting nailed by Jeff's Shazam and Black Adam. They eventually fell, and it was down to the last roll between Adam and I. I just barely won, thanks to Hawkman and Wildcat having a deeper and more effective dial than I thought. Fun Game!

wednesday game night 03.14.07

2007-03-16T23:18:00.000-04:00

*For more information on Heroclix, click here*

The Game: Heroclix. 400 point teams. No special rules.

The Map: Something different for us: A flat map. We usually have the whole 3-d terrain thing going, but tonight we wanted to try out the new map that came out with the new Origins set. This is a map of the JSA museum. It is pretty cool, with lots of walls to block those long range attacks and plenty of hindering terrain to hide in.

The Teams:

Jeff: A whole lotta green on this team. Jeff's team was a St. Patrick's Day Theme team. Green Arrow(Rookie), Swamp Thing (Experienced), Legionnaire pog, Martian Manhunter (Experienced), Ambush Bug (Unique) and Knockout (Rookie).

Adam: Justice Society of America. A perfect fit for this map! Hourman(Veteran), Hawkman(Veteran), Stargirl (Veteran), Mr. Terrific (Veteran), Hawkgirl (Experienced) and Dr. Mid-nite (Veteran).

Chris: Aside from a character from Invincible, this was a team comprised of figures from the newest heroclix set DC Origins. Angstrom Levy (Experienced), Gentleman Ghost (Unique), Phantom Lady (Experienced), Mister Miracle (Rookie), Robotman (Rookie) and Copperhead (Experienced).

Me: I went with a theme team featuring some of Marvel's lady mutants. Storm (Veteran), Diamond Lil (Veteran), Polaris (Veteran), Ultimate Dazzler (Veteran), Meggan (Veteran) and Sage (Experienced).

Game Highlights:

My Favorite Theme Team: Jeff's St. Patty's Day Green Team

Turn Order: Jeff, Dan, Chris, Adam

The game started off right away with two different battles: Chris vs. Adam (near the boat on the bottom right of the map pic), and Me vs. Jeff (mostly the top middle section of the map pic).

First Hit: Me using Storm to zap Jeff's Swam Thing for 4 damage after Sage outwitted his Impervious defensive power. This happened about the 3rd round.

Gutsiest Move of the Night: Chris rushing Mister Miracle and Robotman right into the middle of Adam's team. To my surprise neither of those two clix took a hit on Adam's next turn. It ended up pinning Adam down to force him to duke it out right there.

Most Damage in a Single Attack: A little later in the game Adam used Hawkman to swoop in on Chris's Phantom Lady for 5 damage (critical hit). Ouch.

Critical Hits: There were a couple crit hits in this game: The one just mentioned above was the first. Chris rolled a critical hit with Angstrom Levy, who was hiding behind a statue. He pegged Adam's Mr. Terrific for 3 damage. Adam rolled another critical hit, but this time with Hawkgirl. Chris's Gentleman Ghost was no more, taking 3 damage for the KO.

Critical Misses: Well you can't blame Adam for having a balanced game. Not only did he score two critical hits, but he also got the only two critical misses! Very frustrating. Crit miss number one happened on his first turn when Stargirl missed a running shot blast on Copperhead. Maybe it was the target that was the jinx. Hawkgirl also had a critical miss on Copperhead too.

I happened to roll very good most of the night. That combined with Jeff's lower rolls gave me the edge in our battle. I began to move my team over to the Adam vs. Chris battle and started to lay some hits on Adam's guys. By this point it was getting late so Adam and Chris graciously conceded. I never expected the team I picked to do as well as it did!

wednesday game night 03.07.07

2007-03-13T21:37:00.000-04:00

I'm almost a week behind on my Wednesday game night report. Nevertheless, here it is short and sweet:

Game night was at Jeff's house this week. The two games on tap for the night were Rumis and Clue Museum Mystery Caper.

First up was Rumis. I thought of it as a board game version of Tetris. Here is the scoop from Boardgamegeek.com if you want more info. The basic point of the game is everyone uses a bunch of odd shaped "tetris" pieces to build on top of a template. The pieces can only reach a set height, such as four squares high. You score points by counting how many of your colored squares are showing at the top of the shape. You subtract out the pieces you couldn't use and come up with your score. There is a little more too it than that, but really a very basic game. Very easy to learn, yet with a lot of thought needed when playing. Simple, challenging and fun. This will be going on my "games to get" list.

After that we played Clue - The Great Museum Caper. This was an older game Jeff found on Ebay. Much different that the traditional Clue game. Each player takes a turn being the thief. All the other players are trying to catch the thief. The goal for the thief is to steal at least 3 paintings (or comics in this instance - nice touch Jeff!) and exit the gameboard without getting caught.

The thief marks where he/she moves each turn on a piece of paper, so the "detective" players can't actually see where the thief is. It takes a bit of guess work and hopefully catching the thief with the remote cameras you place on the board. If the detectives manage to see the thief then his game piece is put on the board. The thief then has to try to exit the map through set spots on the board. There is a lock game piece that the thief flips over to see if it is locked or open (50% chance). The best part of the game by far is being the thief. Playing with four people it did start to get a little tiring. It probably isn't too boring if you can keep the play going fast enough.

All in all a good night of board gaming!

how to induce insanity

2007-03-09T11:19:00.000-05:00

I thought it would be fun to post a picture of my cube. Heh, never thought I'd say "my cube" and "fun" in the same sentence. Well, here is where I spend too many of my waking hours. The good thing is I get paid to occupy this space. It measures about 4-1/2 feet by 8 feet, give or take a few inches. I absolutely love the monotone office colors, don't you? The highlight of my cube is the dual screen 20" LCD monitors.

Of special interest are the superhero toys - I mean action figures in the corner - and the "karma's a bitch" sign above one of the monitors. I made that in my so-called depressed state about 4-5 months ago (before being diagnosed with diabetes). I'm not crazy... I just haven't gotten around to taking it down. I've got the mini fan because it is always 78 degrees where I sit. That temperature also means I always wear short sleeve shirts to avoid sweating to death. I'm rambling at this point so I guess that's it.

wednesday game night 02.28.07

2007-03-02T21:41:00.000-05:00

Finally made it to game night again after a couple weeks of missing out. I firmly believe a mid-week game night to be healthy for the "workin' man" (Girlfriends/wives take note). A good way to let off stress and have some laughs. It makes working Wednesday and Thursday much more tolerable.

Pictures are smaller this time, but just click on them for a bigger image. Sorry, like you haven't figured that out by now, you tech-savvy person you. I forgot to take notes this time. That's probably a good thing, because last time my recap was way too long. I'm going to say right up front that I flat out had a terrible game. Let me explain:

The Game: Straight up vanilla heroclix game. 400 point teams. If you don't know what all this heroclix talk means, but you want to know, click here.

The Map: A very basic map with the usual 2 or 3 buildings and some hills. Our maps have been getting pretty minimal lately with less buildings than we used to have.

The Teams:

Adam: Adam went with a family oriented theme team. It consisted of Human Torch (Experienced), Invisible Woman (Rookie), Havok (Veteran), Ultimate Cyclops(Veteran), Kid Flash (Veteran), Flash(Experienced).

Chris: This team featured Invincible. It was a teen heroes team made up of Invincible, Atom Eve, Kid Flash(Veteran), Robin(Experienced), Spider-man(Rookie), and Raven(Rookie).

Jeff: Following on the heels of Marvel's wrap up of Civil War is Jeff's Civil War Whores. Iron Man(Rookie) Thor/Clor(Rookie), Mr. Fantastic(Veteran), Tigra(Experienced), Songbird(Experienced).

Me: I had a hard time deciding what to do for a team. This is evident by the weak theme I threw together. It is the "Put Ya Hands in the Air" Team. Yeah. This is why I try to pick teams ahead of time. Jubilee(Rookie), Raven(Experienced), Black Lightning(Veteran), Captain Marvel(Experienced), and Drax the Destroyer(Rookie).

Game Summary: There isn't a whole lot to say. This is due to the fact that I got beat down before I really had a chance to do anything. I was out of it so fast I really lost my focus in the game.

I ended up going third. Starting third is usually pretty good because two people have already moved. This makes it easier to figure where you should go to set up a nice attack or avoid one. I must have made the wrong decision. Before I knew it my toughest guys (Drax and Captain Marvel) took quite a few clicks of damage from all the other players. It was up to Jubilee... The Civil Whores team took up residence on a nearby rooftop shooting down on me while Chris's team rushed right in on me from the other side. Adam quietly moved his team into the middle of the board for some long range bombardments.

A couple rounds later I was all but over. It was just a matter of mopping me up. After I was gone the real battle began. It was probably a pretty good fight, but I started to zone out. You see, the Ninja Turtles 3 movie was playing in the background and as much as I didn't want to watch it, I was. Oh the horror *shudder*. Having bad movies in the background is a staple of Wednesday game night. It give you something to watch, but it isn't interesting enough to distract you from the game. I left shortly after, since I was getting sleepy. I got the scoop on who ended up winning, but now I can't remember who it was. It was either Jeff or Chris. Sorry guys. Next time expect a better highlight reel. I promise.

This probably all sounds like I'm a sore loser. I'm not. Ok, maybe I was a teeny bit pissed at first just because I felt so helpless. Just part of the game though. When you are playing a four player heroclix game, the odds of consistently winning are next to none. Unless you are Adam :) For me, I really get the most fun out of picking my team to play. I probably could have given a better summary of what happened with the other players if I had taken notes. Gotta remember that next time.

Here's a preview for next week's Wednesday game night: Jeff's place to play one of the plethora (vocab word of the day!) of new board games he has recently acquired. Stay tuned!

the comics of my youth

2007-02-23T18:07:00.000-05:00

I'm starting a new series of blog posts which highlight my favorite comics growing up. This should be pretty fun, especially when we get to the Image Comics years. Looking back at these comics from the late-'80s thru the '90s can be difficult when you consider how bad some of them were (again some Image Comics come to mind). All I can say is ignorance is bliss. One other thing, I don't know if showing some pages from these old comics is copyright infringement or whatever. I like to think of it as free advertising for the comic companies. Buy DC comics! Buy Marvel Comics! Just buy comics new and old! There hopefully that makes it better...

One comic I own that I'm not ashamed of is Detective Comics #612 (March 1990). This comic was one of my earliest Batman comics that I recall buying. I remember picking it off the rack at the good ol' ShopRite grocery store. I must have read/flipped through it about ten times that day.

First off, here is the summary of the issue:
Batman is out preventing an old lady from getting mugged when he discovers that there is a tiger loose! The runaway tiger is a Siberian Tiger that belongs to Thomas Blake (aka Catman). Upon finding the empty cage, Catman begins his search for his pet. The tiger somehow manages to get to the top of a huge skyscraper(don't ask me how), where an unlucky would-be thief becomes cat food. Batman and Catman both here the thief's scream and head for the building. Catman somehow gets the upper hand on Batman, and sits back to watch Batman try to tame the tiger without his utility belt!! No chance of using that handy tiger repellent! Catwoman shows up out of the blue and tosses Catman off the roof. She then sits back to watch Batman vs. the tiger, mesmerized by both the cat and the Bat. Batman eventually is able to knock the tiger unconscious. Catwoman takes off, the cops apprehend the tiger, end of story. Short and sweet.

I had some exposure to Batman comics earlier than this, but this one grabbed me for a couple reasons. First and foremost was the art. I loved Norm Breyfogle's Batman. Looking back, it isn't the most amazing art ever, but it is interesting and dynamic to me. Breyfogle was good at showing Batman's athleticism and drew some great fight scenes.

Another thing that I liked about this issue was Catman. This was the first I had heard of Catman. While they don't explain much about him in this one-issue story, it doesn't really matter when you are 11 years old. He looked cool, I liked his costume colors. That was enough for me.

The story by Alan Grant was simple, which might have been another reason I was so fond of it. Reading it again today, it has the feel of an episode of Batman: The Animated Series.

Estimated Original Rating: 9 out of 10

New Rating: 9 out of 10. This comic just holds a lot of sentimental value for me. I still love it just as much today.

Original Cover Price: $1
Current Value on ComicsPriceGuide.com: $3 NM condition

pinball at the 'zoo 2007

2007-02-21T14:39:00.001-05:00

**UPDATE - Pinball at the 'Zoo '07 has been moved forward a week to April 20-21**

I stumbled across this upcoming event in Kalamazoo, MI in my quest to build an arcade cabinet. The main event that interests me is the auction. Why build an arcade cabinet from scratch when I can win one at an auction? My hope is I can find something really cheap and just restore that rather than build a cabinet from scratch. We'll see...

In addition to the auction are pinball tournaments, arcade game tournaments, and an arcade and gameroom show. There is a $7 admission fee, but the pinball machines and arcades are set up for free play.

If you don't have any plans Saturday, April 14th anyone is welcome to join me in the festivities. It looks like a fun chance to play some classic games. Plus if I win any auctions you can help me load it into the truck! I'll be getting there bright and early (8 a.m.) to preview the auction items.

Pinball At The 'Zoo 2007 takes place on April 13th-14th at the Kalamazoo County Fairgrounds. Check out all the details and directions at pinballatthezoo.com. More fun in a fairground building since 4-H's "How Fast Can You Scoop The Poop" event!!

ikea trip

2007-02-19T20:12:00.000-05:00

I just had my first experience with Ikea. To celebrate Angel's birthday (and President's Day!!) we had a "mini" shopping spree at Ikea. We went to the Canton, MI Ikea and it was really simple to get there from Grand Rapids.

You'll notice from the pictures that the frigid temperatures must have frozen Angel's eyelids shut.

We were at Ikea for about 5 hours total. Luckily when hunger called they had the handy-dandy Ikea cafeteria. The food quality/taste was about what you'd expect from a cafeteria. I had the obligatory Swedish meatballs.

I know you're dying to see a picture of the furniture we picked up. Behold Ikea furniture in all it's glory!!

You'll also notice the really crappy chair, curtains and "desk" in the background. The desk is actually my Mom's old sewing machine stand. Yes, it is time for an upgrade. Ugh, that reminds me, we just bought about 4 gallons of grey - I mean Lunar Eclipse - paint for the basement too.

I did manage to at least put this chair together.

My goal is to have the coffee table fully assembled by the time Heroes is done tonight. Guess I better get to it.

wednesday game night 02.07.07

2007-02-12T08:59:00.000-05:00

Last Wednesday's game night was at Jeff's place. We played a new game called Monsters Menace America. Jeff conveniently has a post about it on his blog. So rather than reading my post, you can check out his review here. Enjoy.

my current CD listening

2007-02-08T11:25:00.000-05:00

Here's some of the music I've been listening to alot lately. My music tastes are all over the place, so don't expect just a certain genre.

Little Big Town - The Road to Here
I think of Little Big Town as "country meets the Mommas and the Poppas." Lots of good vocal harmonies throughout the CD. My favorite song from this CD is "Bring it on Home."

Alice In Chains - Dirt
Alice In Chains - Jar of Flies
Some of the best '90s grunge rock. Kinda depressing and introspective. For the most part not a super fast rock band. "Nutshell" really grabs me. Check out this cover by Staind.

Jonny Lang - Lie to Me
I still can't believe Jonny was in his mid-teens when he recorded this CD. He has a great voice and can play that Telecaster guitar pretty good too. A fun CD.

The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo
This album, released in 1968(?) marked The Byrds transformation into a country-rock music band. It has some very classic/basic country guitar work that featured a B-bender guitar. A B-bender guitar can mimic some licks/sounds of the pedal steel, which is a staple of alot of country music. The songs start to all feel the same on this CD, but it is essential listening for learning some basic country guitar work.

Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
It's been a long time since I listened to this CD. You know what? I really like it. Very catchy melodies and some nice guitar. I love that creamy smooth guitar intro to "Champagne Supernova" (I think they used Vox AC30 amps). To me their sound is pop-rock. I think it still holds up today, unlike some music from the '90s.

building an arcade cabinet

2007-02-06T13:07:00.001-05:00

I recently decided to build an arcade cabinet. You know, the big 6 foot plus tall amalgam of wood, circuit boards, buttons, joysticks and a screen that ate all your quarters as a kid. Pac-Man, Joust, Galaxian, the list goes on.

Nostalgia hit me one day, and I realized how much I missed the "classic" arcade games of my youth. Classic arcade games, for me, covers everything made from about 1980 to the late 1990's. I found MAME, an arcade emulator, online. Playing some of those old games on my pc is fun, but it just doesn't have the same feel as playing on an actual arcade unit. So I'm going to build one!

Right now I'm in the planning stages. I'm a little intimidated by the construction aspects of the cabinet itself, but hey, I need some more daring adventure in my life. I just retrieved my old pc from my parents. It's a Pentium 3, 500MHz. I'm hoping this will be enough power(currently testing). One of my goals is to build this as cheaply as possible. Cheaply as in "not spending much money", not cheaply as in "a cheap, rickety piece of crap". It very well could end up being both "cheaplys" though. Cheaplies? Cheaply-s? "Cheaply"s? Anyways...

There will be more updates (with pics!) as the project progresses.

wednesday game night review

2007-02-03T13:47:00.000-05:00

Warning: this post is very image intensive. If you have dial up you may be doomed.

Warning #2: I got carried away typing. This started to get long winded. If you start getting bored just scroll through and look at the pictures, I won't mind... I promise I'll do better next time :)

Every Wednesday night is game night for me. I get together with some friends and we play games. Usually we play some form of Heroclix, but we also play board games and occasionally video games. Tonight's game was Heroclix. If you aren't familiar with heroclix, think of it as a chess game with dice rolls and comic book characters. Check out the link if you want to find out more.

The Map:
Chris* has a great modular map setup where it is really easy to change the map we play on each game.

*(Side note: I tend to drop names on this blog without much reference to who they are. Not sure how to remedy that, because I don't want to waste time explaining who everybody is. When you see a name mentioned, just think "friend." Except for the name Angel. That would be my wife.)

The mind transfer device is placed in the center of the map. What is the mind transfer device?? Read on!

The Special Rules:

400 point teams. Heroclix 101: Each character piece in the game has a certain point value. The higher the points, generally the more powerful the character is. You then make a team that adds up to 400 point total. Again, check the Heroclix link if you want more info.

We usually play with a bunch of different random rules each time we play. This game felt like it could have been a Silver Age comic book story. In the center of the map we placed this object. Blurry image ahead...

This was a mind transfer device. If you placed a character next to it, on your next turn you could attempt to take control of another character within 8 squares of the generator (must have clear line of fire). If successful you gain control of that new character. The original character (who used the generator) more or less became useless(couldn't do anything b/c of the mind transfer). I know that all sounds confusing but I'm moving on.

The only other special rule we had was random placement. Chris has a number randomizer on his pc that will corresponds to every square on the map. We place each of our characters randomly as determined by the number randomizer.

The Teams:

Half of the fun of Heroclix is building a team. Even better is creating a team with a theme. Alot of times I'll play general comic book teams like X-men or Avengers. Our theme teams can get pretty out there...

Adam's Team - "Christmas Time" (all characters have either red or green costumes)
Iron Fist(E), Daredevil(V), Green Arrow(E), Green Lantern Hal Jordan(E), Green Lantern Kyle Rayner(E)(I might have spelled that wrong). Heroclix 101: Each character typically has 3 versions, each one more points than the last. Rookie(R), Experienced(E) and Veteran(V).

Jeff's Team - "Spider-Man and 2 Chicks"
Spider-man(E), Jean Grey(V), Black Costume Spider-man(E), Scarlet Spider(U), Jessica Drew(Spider-Woman)(U) and err, Jumpin' Spider-man(V).

Chris's Team - "DC Characters"
Batman(E), Dr. Mid-Nite(V), Firestorm(R), Black Canary(E), Green Arrow(R), Flash(R), Manhunter(V)

Dan's Team (That's me!) - "The Man Team" (Every character's name ends in "man")
Batman(E), Antman(E), House of M Spiderman(U), Titanium Man(E), Multiple Man(E), Starman(R) and Swordsman(E).

After random placement the start of the game looked like this. I know it is hard to make out who everyone is. It is just to give you an idea of how spread out the teams were. The turn order was Adam, Jeff, me, Chris. Generally with random placement, if you have the last turn in the turn order you're screwed.

Game Highlights:
The game started off with everyone pretty much attacking anyone that was adjacent or in range. Adam's Green Arrow started things off by sinking an arrow into Chris's Green Arrow and Black Canary for 1 damage each. Green Lantern(Kyle) flew up a hilltop and blasted Chris's Dr. Mid-Nite for 3 damage.

Adam's other Green Lantern(Hal) tried to smack Chris's Flash up close, but missed. That Flash is fast!

Jeff started out moving most of his characters towards the center of the map where the mind transfer device was. His black costume Spiderman started the game next to my Batman. Spidey tried to land a hit on Bats in hand-to-hand combat, but missed. Meanwhile Jeff's Spider-Woman had her hands full with my Spiderman(House of M). That attack by Spider-woman also missed (you can also see the Green Lantern vs. Flash battle in the background).

My swordsman started the game adjacent to Chris's Manhunter. I was hoping to inflict some good damage, but it was a swing and a miss. I was more successful in the Batman vs. Spidey(Jeff) showdown, with Bats landing an uppercut for 2 damage.

Chris tried to retaliate in the Dr. Mid-Nite vs. Green Lantern Kyle(Adam) battle, but his attack was brushed off by GL's energy shield. His Manhunter laid a solid kick on my Swordsman for 2 damage.

Jeff rallies most of his team around the generator. At first everyone stayed away, not wanting to lose a character from the mind transfer device.

Jeff's Spider-Woman KO's Chris's Green Arrow with a blast for 4 damage.

I landed a crushing attack on Jeff's black costume spiderman by charging up my Titanium Man and dropping a motorcycle on him for 5 damage and the KO. Batman really appreciated it.

About the same time, Chris rolled a critical hit with his Batman, dealing 4 damage to Adam's Green Lantern(Kyle). Those explosive batarangs, I tell ya...

Later on, it was Black Canary (Chris) vs. Spiderman(Dan). Black Canary hit for 3 damage to Spiderman.

Adam made quick work of my poor Starman who got into a close combat fight with his Iron Fist. He completely dropped Starman after 2 attacks.

My Multiple Man had no affect on the game and was quickly KO'ed by Adams Green Lantern(Hal). The Green Lantern gets around, because he also KO'ed Chris's Black Canary later on.

Jeff has a special ability when it comes to the super senses roll. Heroclix 101: you completely avoid an attack if you roll a 5 or 6. He always seems to make these rolls. He did it again when Adam thought he was going to land a solid hit on Jeff's Leapin' Spiderman with Green Lantern(Hal). What do ya know, though Jeff dodges it with a Super Sense roll...

I had finally moved my Batman (who was pretty useless after taking a few hits) next to the mind transfer device. I was able to gain control of Jeff's Scarlet Spider, who was still at full health! BWAHAHAHAHA!

The end game was a battle between Flash(Chris), Adam's Green Lantern(Hal), Iron Fist(Adam), Antman(me) and Scarlet Spider(me - after stealing from Jeff). Green Lantern and Iron Fist whittled away at Scarlet Spider while Flash kept trying to lay hits on Iron Fist. After Scarlet Spider was KO'ed I was just left with Antman, who still had a really high defense (18) and super senses. The Flash was KO'ed by Adam, leaving it between Adam and I. After a few tries with Iron Fist and Green Lantern, it was decided that neither would be able to land a hit on Antman. Deciding to live another day, GL and Iron Fist retreated, giving the victory to Antman (and me)!!!

Here are some more random pictures...

Chris's Green Arrow takes aim at Spider-Woman(Jeff)

Spiderman(me) takes a kick to the chin from Chris's Manhunter

Batman(me), Spider-Woman and Spidey(both Jeff) take time out to compare JLA vs. Avengers insurance plans

Next time I post this it should be much shorter and less pictures. I got excited this time, in case you couldn't tell.

The Many Faces of John Mayer

2007-01-30T09:16:00.000-05:00

My last test. The whole html thing is new to me. Anyways, I'm trying to post a youtube clip...

This is a John Mayer clip from Crossroads. This is over a year old, but still good. If you don't listen to much John Mayer you might just think of him as a pop musician. Other than his first CD, I don't particularly like most of his CD/commercial music. Ah, but this is blues. Mayer has a lot of critics in guitar player circles. Basically that he isn't original, trys to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan, etc. All I know is that he can flat out play. I can only hope to be that good someday.

Anyways, the main reason I posted this clip is his facial expressions. I know that there is a traditiona of making faces when playing blues. The faces John Mayer makes seem to be over the top to me. I get a kick out of them. I can't stop laughing. I just wonder if he is just "naturally" doing them or if he is trying to be funny. I'm thinking it is a little of both. I've seen some interviews clips of him and he seems to have a great sense of humor. The clip is 8:47 long, so it might take a few minutes to load. You'll get the basic idea after a couple minutes, but he does some weird faces throughout. Enjoy.

I have to work on being more concise. :)

picture test

2007-01-28T14:46:00.000-05:00

Another test. My cats are the test subject. The brown one is Pippin and the grey one is Bella. You can see how thrilled they are about being photographed.

Don't worry, I'm not going to post a million pics of my cats. I'll move on to more mature things like comic book covers and miniature gaming figures. :)

my first post

2007-01-28T13:17:00.000-05:00

Angel and I just got a digital camera yesterday, so I figured it was time to start a blog! I don't know how often this will be updated, I just wanted to be able to have a place to post some pictures and the occasion rant. The topics will mostly be about hobbies and '80s-'90s nostalgia moments (*sniff, sniff* can't you smell it?). Beware, you will soon come to realize the levels of geekdom which I have attained...