Posts, a Couple of Reviews, and My Take on Practical Jokes

This is my final blog for 2015.

It will have the usual updates so don’t expect anything new or exciting.

Christmas has come and gone. Boxing day has come and gone – and I must say that I was not impressed with this year’s. Seemed in the past there were always great deals to be had on the stuff that I wanted or liked.

There were a few this time around, but nothing like before. Still, it was nice picking up some books for cheap and a few DVD’s to add to my ever-growing collection.

Work has progressed on the compilation book, and I’ve managed to whittle the three pages of notes down by half. Still have a lot of work to do once I’ve completed the new material, but I am quite certain that the readers will be happy with the end product.

Even though I have finished writing Buck Who? I have been working on additional short stories. I mentioned these stories last week. Since they’re short stories I finished a third fantasy and started a forth, and on Christmas I posted a short story that was written for my best friend called ‘The Argument’.

It’s a story written as a comedy and it contains a lot of humor – something that was completely lost on a couple of people who read it. Talk about utterly clueless. Kind of the reason I haven’t been back to that writers group in six months.

Anyhow we shall see if I’m going to continue to post these stories every week. I may, I may not. Odds are quite good that I will however.

Although I really want to write three more stories – the horror short, the Star Wars fan fiction and the revenge story, I will probably hold off. I really need to get my ass in gear and do the edit and rewrite for my two zombie novels and look for an agent.

So I’ll probably start that at the beginning of the year. Which is less than a week away.

This week I posted the usual New Mutant Monday entries, with the Hotter and the Lagromea. Two more will go up, as always, first thing in the morning.

I did post several new conversions as well this week - the Krampus, Doombringer and Dimensional Dragon. I guess I could have written one up earlier today to make it four but I got caught up with Fallout 4 and going to a friend’s late Christmas party.

This is one of the rare weeks that I did not finish a new novel. I’ve been working on a new book, but with Thursday and Friday off, I did not have the time to read as I would have liked. So expect a review for books next week.

My wife and I did watch a gem of a movie called ‘Chappie’. It reminded me of the old ‘Short Circuit’ movies from the 80’s but with far more violence. I found that I really enjoyed this movie!

Oh yeah… I did get a couple of new RPG books this week for Christmas. I picked up Pathfinder Bestiary 5, and Pathfinder Players Companion: Agents of Evil .  What can I say about either that you haven’t already heard? If you like Pathfinder, then both books are for you. If you don’t, then save your money and don’t bother.

I know, what the hell kind of review is that? Alright I’ll go into a little more depth. The Agents of Evil talk about Evil organizations, some interesting tables that list some unpleasant occurrences during your character’s youth that ended up leading them down the path to the darkness… It even covers evil patrons, reasons behind being the bad guy. There are pages devoted to spells, feats and equipment and of course a new class variant.

Personally I would never play an evil character. It goes against my nature. I know my nephew would jump at the chance, but he’s a strange on in that aspect. The book is an excellent source for making nasty NPC’s though.

And what can be said about the Bestiary – it’s a monster book! Lots of new creatures to use in your game, some old-school converted, some new critters. If you like monster books, get it, simple as that.

Oh and before you read any further, if you have not seen The Force Awakens …

DO NOT READ FURTHER! SPOILERS AHEAD! IF YOU READ AND HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE, THEN COMPLAIN ABOUT IT, YOU’RE AN IDIOT!

After seeing the movie twice, I have to say that Rey is Luke’s daughter. Too many aspects of her character point to it… She’s a natural pilot, an expert when it comes to tinkering (like her father and grandfather), is strong in the force, and when she had the flash-back sequence after holding Luke’s Light Saber, there was a mention of an ocean and a island. Which happened to coincide with the very last scene of the movie.

So that’s my take on it.

I’ll see it a third time, once my best friend is able to get away from his work and his twin girls.

Hehe, he wanted a family, it hit him hard!

Time for that weekly observation.

Some people will think I'm a Scrooge here, or that I may not posses a sense of humour.

Some practical jokes are genuinely funny... Others - not so, and are in bad taste. I have four rules when it comes to practical jokes.

• It cannot cause physical harm to the target.
• It does not cost the target money.
• It does not damage or destroy personal property or items.
• It does not mess with someone’s phobias.

Having a guy dressed up in traditional Arabic clothing, then leaving a package behind and running away?

Considering the hate being directed towards Muslims right now (and two of my students in Kung Fu are young Muslims)... This is in very poor taste.

Yeah, there are plenty who find it funny, and who knows - maybe in a different era I would too. But right now, not so much.

Bad timing people, bad timing.

And that’s it for this week.

I hope all my readers had a great Christmas with their family and those they love. I hope that you will all have an equally great New Years as well.

See you in 2016!