Ok, well, this is like my second blog entry and it looks like it has been just over a year since my last one.  Tune in next year for the follow up! :)

For some reason, I suck at journaling in general.  You should have seen my old high school "enforced" journal entries.  Stream of consciousness crap and the occasional little story.  The teachers didn't like it, but they just didn't seem to understand that I simply don't work that way.  I don't have opinions on things and I don't dwell in pools of angst over the events of my life, assuming I even notice them as "events" to begin with.  Yes, I can have an opinion, but it only springs into being when it is needed and might be different on a different day.  My opinions don't sit under a heat lamp, they're made fresh to order. 

Plus it's hard to write about things that I don't find interesting, which is most stuff.  Well, rather, everything is interesting once, but after I've explored it, I'm done.  I can't read the same novel twice, for instance.  Once I've experienced it, I get nothing from experiencing it again...

The same thing that keeps me from journaling keeps me from holding conversations.  I've basically got nothing to say to anybody.  I can respond to questions and maybe even elaborate on them, but if I don't keep getting prompted the conversation will die.  My wife often accuses me of being "argumentative".  Well, sort of.  The problem is that, for one, I don't hold any strong opinions, so I'm always on the "other side" of whatever crazy opinion anyone might have.  If everybody is left or right, and I'm in the middle, then I'm to the right or left of everybody, so to speak.  The other thing is, since I don't have anything to say, all I can really do is debate a point.  I generally don't have any emotional investment in "my side" of the argument.  If I'm proven wrong, well then, the conversation is over just as much as if I'm proven right.  It was just something to do.

Even this blog is just a dull rehashing of things I've said on the subject before.  Honestly, I bore myself, why would I want to inflict that on other people?

Anyway.  What am I doing?

Morrowind:
I've stopped playing Morrowind for some time now.  The "main" quest was delayed for "several moons".  Without any pressing goals, I wandered around a bit and then quit.  Just as I don't like "hunting wandering monsters" I don't especially feel compelled to "hunt for wandering quests".  Oh well.  However, that leads me to...

Oblivion:
It's a pretty cool game.  I'm looking to upgrade my system to take advantage of its shininess.  Even with everything on low, though, it's a nice looking game and it's fun to play.  It's very flexible.  After the first few "main story" quests, I wandered off to explore the world and get into some trouble.  I accidentally picked up a few quests, and I'm working to clear those out, before returning to the main story, but the main quest is beginning to loom over me and I may have to do a little more of it before clearing out the quests I have on the side.
Apparently, the encounters and rewards in Oblivion are scaled to your character's level.  This is good as it keeps the game appropriately challenging and is pretty much what any good GM does in a pen and paper game, but I find that I feel just a little bothered by it.  Basically, I could persue the main quest from start to finish right now.  Or I could roam the countryside gaining levels only to return to the main story and find that it is now...  just as "challenging" as before.  *shrug*  It's still a good way of doing it, but I kind of wish I hadn't been told about it.  Of course with all of this Oblivion playing, I've fallen behind a bit in...

Dungeons & Dragons Online:
It's a great game.  It's simple, really, but it's fun and fun to play with friends.  It captures the root of the Dungeons & Dragons experience which is what is really important.  Sure, there's no "crafting" but other than making magic items for personal or party use, who really plays D&D to make and sell stuff?  Nobody.  Well, almost nobody.  Can't account for every weirdo out there.  Leveling is "slowish" but they break it up into little "sub-levels" which keeps things interesting.

Las Vegas:
I'm going to Vegas next month for work.  That ought to be fun...  I haven't seen my friends there in a while.

Scientology:
So, I caught the recent South Park where Chef dies.  It seemed vindictive and petty and I didn't really enjoy it.  Not to say that Scientologists aren't messed up, just that the level of violence in Chef's death, and the attention to datail, were disturbing.  Looking for meaning and direction in life, I recently read a book on Scientology.  It started out good, and I was willing to suspend disbelief on a couple of elements in an attempt to benefit from what it had to say, but then it got all crazy and pretty much asked for my credit card number.  The book I read, for instance, decried psychology as worthless since it refused to see the benefit of a system that would allow people to heal themselves of psychological problems.  It said that the psychological community didn't want to give up its monopoly where only the "specially trained" can help with mental/spiritual ills.  It then goes on to talk about its special "soul-o-meter" device, which is absolutely necessary to spiritual healing but (get this) can only be "interepretted" by a specially trained Scientologist.  I couldn't get past that unfortunately.  The rest of the book was practically a catalogue for classes, tapes, books and a variety of other tools and courses to help one advance spiritually.  Notably these things were not free.  Now I understand that nothing in life is free, but if it's so great and they are so interested in helping the world, why isn't it free on the internet?  A couple of decent donations from the stars who like this "religion" could host a nice website and even pay some people to create and maintain it.  I didn't even get to any of the ridiculous "sci-fi" crap that I hear about.  Silly or not, a scam is a scam.  It's too bad, too, because the first chapter of the book seemed very insightful.  Scientology may even be the route to happiness, but I'm not going to support a corrupt system that attempts to bilk the populace as it doles out "wisdom".  Bah!

Fading Suns:
I really like this sci-fi/fantasy RPG setting, but the original rules I find to be somewhat lacking.  They're supposed to be working on a 3rd edition, and I'm hoping it learns from the likes of d20, Shadowrun 4th Ed., and the new World of Darkness line (which one of the Fading Suns creators collaborated on).  Until then, however, I'm stuck with no good system.  The original is functional, but clunky and weird math-wise.  The d20 version is also doable, but it wasn't given enough thought.  It's like they just put a Fading Suns veneer over the standard D&D 3.0 (another issue, since were doing 3.5 now) rules, even going so far as to come up with a psychic "Beastfriend" class.  Basically, they needed something to fill the "Druid" slot.  Yuck.  Still, I'm really starting to feel the need to get out of the house, and I think I'd like to run a Fading Suns game.  Along comes True20.  It's a very flexible "lite" d20 variant and so far, in my conversions, it seems like it's really going to fit the bill.  Once I get the rules conversions done, I've got to come up with a campaign.  So far, I'm thinking of keeping it on Pandemonium, based out of the Hub.  The trick will be keeping it interesting and keeping the players in the "sandbox".  I suppose that with enough "unsolved mysteries" in the Hub I can keep them going until I can get them invested in the city's politics and economy and whatnot...  That's the plan anyway.  There will certainly be trips to other parts of the planet, and maybe even the occasional "in-system" space flight to one of the other planets nearby.  First thing's first though.  I've got to finish the conversion.  I've got the races done and I'm working on equipment now.  Next is feats and then perhaps the trickiest part, the supernatural powers.  Wish me luck.

Ok, that's enough for me.  See you next year. :P