Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Mikey's LiveJournal:

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Friday, March 7th, 2008
7:58 am	Horrors in Memorium In Memorium of E. Gary Gygax I will be running a slightly modified version of the Tomb of Horrors. This was one of Gary's early modules and was designed for the D&D tournament at Gencon 1. That is why it has the reputation it has as being a pure PC slaughterfest (and deservingly so). I have modified the backround of the module so as to make it more fitting to the occasion. I will be running the game in 3.5 so as not to have to find a copy of the original and teach all the players old rules for one game. the 3.5 version is also a little easier (more saving throws are allowed). I've also enlisted the aid of the luckiest dice rolling dwarf in the history of the game to roll up the characters. If you haven't played an RPG this is probably not the best way to get your feet wet. However it should be a blast to watch even if you're not playing and if you're really gung ho I will not turn away players for lack of experience (pun intended). If you're interested in coming, be it to play or watch. please reply with a rough idea of some upcoming times that would be good for you. Ideally I would like to dedicate a whole sunday for the game and finish it in one day, but I am not above running it in a few weekly sessions if that works for more people. I'd like to have as many people play as possible so if you have any interest at all, please leave a reply. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
7:57 am	In case you have been living under a rock Like me... I found out this morning that Gary Gygax died yesterday at the age of 69. He was the Co-creator of dungeons and dragons with Dave Arneson that launched the roleplaying and modern gaming industry. While I never met the man I have known his name since I was 12 and I would simply not be the person I am if he hadn't had the imagination he did. I was not exactly popular in grade school. I was a bookworm stuck in my head and imagination. When my brother and father introduced me to D&D after playing the old Dungeon board game I found something that I could channel my imagination into. It gave me confidence to be able to use a talent I had in a personal and productive way. While I did well in School so did most of my class so that didn't make me special. I was tall but when People keep bringing up how much taller you are than the rest of the class that just makes you feel like a freak. And needless to say I was not athletic, which when you're a little boy at recess seems to be the only thing that matters to the other kids. So while other kids were playing sports I was thinking up grand plot twists to throw at my adventurers. Dungeons and Dragons taught me Math, Problem solving, Writing & Vocabulary. I used the think the first non children's/Young Adult book I ever read was Vampire of the Mists by Christie Golden, but I just realized it was actually the 2nd edition Players Handbook. I was not a always a happy kid, but without gaming in my youth, I shudder to think just how depressed I might have been and what I would be like today. I know I wouldn't be as self sufficient and complete a person as I am. Without Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson's creation it is likely we would be living in a world without not just Dungeon and Dragons, but things like Magic the Gathering, Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, Warhammer, Vampire the Masquerade, Larping, Munchkin, Order of the Stick, Nodwick, Dorktower, Dragonlance and so much more. I am sure that I will be doing something gaming related in the near future as a tribute to his passing. Goodbye Gary and thank you for giving nerdy kids everywhere a chance to slay dragons and be heroes. I know that somewhere out there you're just getting started on a new campaign. We're all hoping you roll natural 20s. Current Mood: sad (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
8:48 pm	A belated note on the Superbowl First off, if you are not aware, let it be known that I am not a sports fan. I do not know any sports statistics, I do not follow any teams or players etc. I do know the basic rules to most sports (certainly the ones played in america). I used to tune into the superbowl for the commercials but haven't in a few years since you can get them all online the next day. Nevertheless, this year I watched some of the big game and had a striking realization. I noticed that no players on the field ever helped any other players get up. play after play, down after down, players would end up on the ground and have to pick themselves up. even members of their own team would not offer a hand to a fellow teammate. It goes without saying that the other team didn't either. Nothing was mentioned about it and the none of the football fanatics I've mentioned it to could understand why I was bringing it up. Clearly this is the norm in professional football. I just wrote this whole long pontification about how this a symptom of what is wrong with professional sports, but It didn't read well. I don't think my thoughts are fully developed on this yet so I guess I'm interested in hearing yours. What do you think about the complete lack of such a simple gesture. Am I making mountains out of molehills, or is this sort of thing indicative of the kind of enviroment that leads players to do the sorts of things that have been making headlines in the sports section lately? (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 15th, 2007
12:07 pm	GET RID OF YOUR HAMMERS!!!! So I'm sitting in the new internet cafe on main street, in my jewish neighborhood which over the course of my life has moved from a modern community to being overrun by more and more right leaning folks. I'm sitting in this internet Cafe where I just paid $2 for a normally 65 cents single serving box of fruit loops. and you know what? I'm happy about it. And I'm going to do it again. I bought fruit loops instead of a nice looking piece of cheesecake because they don't have any kashrus certification on their entirely prepackaged food products. It seems the reason they don't yet have a certification is that they are an internet cafe. Well that means that impressionable people might use their services to see things that they shouldn't. never mind that they could also use it to see plenty of stuff they should. This of course means this place will go under in about two weeks. Which sucks because it's actually pretty cool. So I've decided if you can't beat the idiotic bigotted people join them. So In the great (and recent) tradition of discriminating against tools because of their possible negative uses I ask all of you to potentially save the life of someone who may one day be clubed to death by the hammer you use to hang pictures. I mean really do you actually need to hang them. Isn't it better that you deny the future possibillity of someone being beaten beaten to death in rage by an angry house guest or child who happens upon your toolbox. After all we can do without the forward moving progress of, you know, building things. We have stuff already built. you have pictures hung in your house already. How can you possibly trust your children to actually have any sort of moral compass or responsibillity and do anything even close to what you teach them is right. It's not like anyone can or should expect you to teach your kids how to use a hammer responsibly. I'm sure if you think about it long enough it makes perfect sense. I'm sure it will make sense to me one day. Actually I'm pretty sure it won't. But I will support this place just because it's here in any way that i can. If you don't fight back. you have no right to complain when they win. And Damn it I want to get to complain! Current Mood: pissed off (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 13th, 2007
6:13 pm	Epistimology 101 and a request ( a brief lesson and discussion session, please attend ) Current Mood: pensive (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 13th, 2006
6:20 pm	Current Events and a religious rant of a different kind ( cut for length, but please read it, especially if you'd like to know more about what makes me tick, or rather what ticks me off ) (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 11th, 2006
5:16 pm	unbelievable It's not that I don't know people are this stupid. It's that I didn't know they could type and breathe at the same time. honestly, this really depresses me. Especially after reading some of the comments on his blog and even more so after reading his follow up post. http://marchtogether.blogspot.com/2006/07/murder-without-conscience.html Oh and credit goes to doeeyedbunny Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: Brian's Radio (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 12th, 2006
2:43 pm	A Review of an old Comic ( J. Michael Straczynski's Rising Stars ) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 26th, 2006
6:43 pm	Steps Step 1 Resolve to figure out what it is about your life and yourself that you don't like and and resolve to actually try to fix it. Step 2 Resolve to actually follow through with these kinds of concious fix things resolutions Step 3 Give up and aproach life from a virtue perspective. Decide who you want to be and how you want to live your life and then do it (with realistic goals.) Step 4 Let the rest of the pieces fall into place Step 5 Enjoy the feeling of piece of mind and actual (hopefully somewhat justified) self esteem. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 12th, 2006
8:27 am	I am an irrevocably changed person as of approximately 7:30 last night, The Most Wonderful Woman in the World and I changed. We are now respectively an Anunt and Uncle. My Brother in Law and his wife had a baby girl last night. Current Mood: excited (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 6th, 2006
10:06 am	Shabbos Meals (an Idea sort of stolen from Gnomi with an upaid account so no polls allowed) So the most wonderful woman in the world has given me the task of cooking for shabbos. Since she is doing all the Cooking for Pesach (now up to twelver people per seder). I am currently under stress for 4 deadlines 3 of which I'm behind on and 1 of which is due in two hours. I have not the time nor mental capacity to spare to come up with a menu. I will not get to supersol before 9:30PM (they close at 10:00). I don't want to run around the store trying to figure out what get. I also don't want to make a boring meal since I almost never get to make shabbos for The Most Wonderful Woman in the World. I leave it to you the reader to come up with a menu. Please keep in mind the following things: 1. it's shabbos hagadol and I do not want any leftovers because they will be thrown away for passover (we are converting the Kitchen Saturday night & sunday Morning) 2. The MWWITW is on a very restrictive eating plan and cannot eat Grains (of any kind) and most starchy vegetables (potatos, sweet potatos etc.) most green vegetables are fine. 3. Since I won't start shopping till 9:30 or so I won't star cooking till 10:15, 10:30 I also have to be at work at 7:30 tomorow so, preferably a menu that wont take more than 2-3 hours to prepare. Thank you all who will spen the time giving me input. Current Mood: busy Current Music: WPLJ from my coworker's Cubicle (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 15th, 2006
5:06 pm	You can find the absolute most wonderful things online For all my geeky single freinds http://www.gk2gk.com/ (Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 21st, 2006
6:54 pm	Yeah, I'm a big geek Ultimate Gamer!! GM says drop 2d10, aanndd... you roll 79% ! What, are you a first generation gamer? Did you own the brown box?! Whatever you do in your spare time, gaming seems to be your job. Either you looked up the answers or you're the best of the best, the type that makes other gamers strive to know more. Just don't let the knowledge overwhelm the newbies, it tends to push them from the hobby. We all bow before you. You are the living nat 20, congradulations. I'm going to flee the scene now ;) My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 83% on dice Link: The Real Gamers use Dice Test written by luminasita on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 11th, 2006
4:37 pm	I Got Tagged and noticed, so... As a general note I do MEMEs when I get tagged if I notice I get tagged. That being said I get pretty busy and often don't have time to check livejournal very regularly and don't always see them. Anyway... ***Ground Rules: The first player of this "game" starts with the topic "5 weird habits of yours" and people who get tagged need to write an LJ entry about their 5 quirky habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next 5 people to be tagged and list their names.*** 1. Most of the time I can't have brekfast food (i.e. eggs, pancakes, waffles etc)unless I've woken up within the past 2-3 hours. (cereal seems to be an exception for some reason). 2. I often find small random objects interesting and will some times carry around useless bits like bottle cap rings for an hour or two fiddling with them (sometimes chewing on them) before I throw them away. 3. I'm relatively certain I could have chinese food/sushi for every meal for the rest of my life and be happy about it. 4. one acronym S.C.A. 5. When I watch TV I sometimes find myself holding my first finger and thumb in an L shape against the side of my head with my mouth open. I don't know why I do it and I stop whenever I notice but somehow it always happens. If you're ever just hanging out watching TV or a movie with me watch for it, it's kind of spooky. Tagged ARIB Leofwynn Mouse 42 Sdelmonte/Batyatoon (Ishto Ki-goofo) Dotsomething Oh and let's face it, if you're tagged and you don't do it, I won't remember and it's not like the MEME police will come after you. (as far as I know) (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 5th, 2006
6:44 pm	OH GOD THE HORROR THE ABSOLUTE HORROR Cute furry animals being mamed and obliterated. *Warning not for the weak hearted or stomached* http://happytreefriends.atomfilms.com/index.html (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 8th, 2005
12:57 pm	Oh Great Cthulhu! I have been an extremely diligent devotee this year. In August, I stopped philfoglio from defiling Lovecraft's grave (-20 points). In January, I burnt my copy of the Necronomicon (-75 points). In September, I defiled the grave of that traitor, Lovecraft (90 points). In February, I legally changed my name to Randolph Carter (-40 points). In April, I rescued ps238principal from being sacrificed (-200 points). In May, I fed gnomi to a Shoggoth (250 points). In short, I have been very good (5 points) and deserve to get hooked up with one of those cute Innsmouthers. Your humble and obedient servant, dragonbear82 Submit your own plea to Cthulhu! Name some friends or leave them blank and let me look them up myself: (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, November 14th, 2005
6:03 pm	Hi people!!!!!!!! Hi Everyone. I owe a lot of people phone calls from the past week or two. Please don't feel bad if I haven't talked to you. I just got done with my timecard from last week that ended up being 57 hours. so that has a lot to do with it. I've been banging a project around in my head for a little over a year. As you probably know reading this I majored in and rather enjoy philosphy. I also rather enjoy games. I've been thinking about writing an ethics of gaming. Not just an ettiqutte of playing games, that's mostly common sense, but a whole series of articles about different ethical systems and how they apply to gaming as well as a few of what I think are rules of gaming that a lot of people don't follow or even realize. I'm just curious if anyone on my freinds list would be interested in reading a series of articles posted here on that topic. Then when it was done maybe I'd try and publish it in one of the myriad od online gaming zines out there. So any interest? I can tell you if I did do it the first article would try to define what makes a game. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 4th, 2005
7:21 am	Which Action movie star are you ( interesting 4 way tie ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2005
1:29 pm	copied from sdelmonte If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want- good or bad. When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 31st, 2005
11:13 am	Hmm... George Washington You scored 61 Wisdom, 84 Tactics, 55 Guts, and 35 Ruthlessness! Washington first served as a British officer during the French and Indian War, a war which he inadvertently helped to start. Afterwards, he resigned his post to marry Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy widow with two children. He was elected to the House of Burgesses and became a revolutionary leader at the outset of the American Revolution, attending both the first and second Continental Congresses. Washington was appointed Commander in Chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War (1775–83), leading the Americans to victory over the British, although sometimes in not the most scrupulous of ways. After the war, he served as president of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Because of his central role in the founding of the United States and enduring legacy, Washington is sometimes called the "Father of his Country." My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 42% on Unorthodox You scored higher than 93% on Tactics You scored higher than 50% on Guts You scored higher than 17% on Ruthlessness Link: The Which Historic General Are You Test written by dasnyds on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test (Comment on this)