BAH!  Still having car trouble.  I installed a new alternator and then my jump starter wont jump nor start the damn car.  Story of my life.  Anyhow, some good news on Pokémon GO!  they just reset player levels for everyone!  I didn’t read up on all the specifics and criteria for the adjustments so, I don’t know exactly how the math works out.  What I do know is that the start of yesterday I was level 44 with three tasks to complete for level 45 and then in the afternoon I was level 65 and receiving hundreds of items.  Seriously, my inventory is about one thousand items over max.  And that’s after burning, throwing away, and using a few hundred items and buying a couple storage upgrades.  It’s kind of a pain and the majority of the items are useful and I was short on them before so, I can’t so much just throw away greater quantities to clear space.  So, that’s what’s going on there, no, wait, there’s MORE!  I just remembered that’s it’s been awhile since I’ve updated you on Bottle Cap’s success and progress to perfection.  I can’t recall what I said last when I filled you in but right now Bottle Cap has one task left.  He completed two Attack tasks, six HP tasks, and fourteen Defense tasks.  Still working on the last Defense task of ‘Catch 1500 pokémon with your trainee as your buddy’.  As of typing this we’re up to 1096 caught so just 404 more to catch and complete this task 255 days left to do it.  I was going to post some photos but I don’t have them ready right now.

     Another fun update because this just popped into my head.  Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game!  The Avengers Expansion finally came out a few weeks ago and I picked it up first day…and huh, I just realized that I did that when we working in Lancaster and this week we’re back in Lancaster for work.  Some of the bigger points with this new expansion for anyone who hasn’t gotten the book yet.  The one thing that the majority of people are most excited for in this new book is a HUUUUGE update for items and subsequently battle suits.  Like the Iron Man’s various armors for example.  Some broad strokes real quick.  The Iconic Weapon power first introduced in the Core Rulebook has been updated to the Iconic Item power.  This change opens the perspective of it include things beyond less common versions of typical weapons.  Allowing more versatility in characters possessing magic relics as they’re described in the first Doctor Strange movie.  Items channeling and granting certain powers to their wielders without taking up a hand in combat by being represented by something like a pair of boots for example.  This is something I was experimenting in some of the NPCs I’ve been creating.  I really appreciate the new rules and structure they worked out for these items.  A very clear and well designed system for creating such items.  I’m working on building the resources for Item Creation and will ideally update my resources on here soon.  The process differs only slightly from that for character creation.  In short, an item will have an Origin, Powers, and Restrictions.  When creating the item, the number of Powers minus the number of restrictions determines the Power Value of the item or, for you maths nerds, P-R=V.  This number then is how many Power Picks the item takes when creating the item as part of Character Creation.  Now, “What powers can an item have?” I hear you cry.  To start, an item can have any of the established powers we’ve seen in previous books.  Like Strange’s Cloak of Levitation allowing its wearer to defy gravity.  Or a Hydra blaster giving its wielder Elemental Blast(Energy).  More than that, we got a list of new powers specifically for items.  I imagine a lenient Narrator allowing such powers to be picked for a character’s own powers, to that point I’d recommend counting Item Powers as a set for purposes of thematic bonus and such.  I’m putting together a generator to create items like this randomly.  I haven’t thought it much the last few days but I’ll get back on that soon.

     There’s plenty more to talk about on this book and perhaps I will soon but in summation, they gave us quite a bit to work with in this new book and so far it’s been a lot of fun.  I can’t wait to start using all this in games.  I have a lot of fun ideas I’m excited to implement…but until then, Face Front, True Believers!

Now that the heavy shit is out of the way, let’s talk about some fun stuff.  LA Comic Con was last week and was fantastic!  I’m going to look up numbers for this show and line them up with numbers from other shows and see how things breakdown but I can tell you this much.  I seem to fucking love this convention!  I mean, being home in LA is first of all among the greatest feelings I’ve experienced since artie finally died.  But then, to have a comic con, more or less, down the street.  Sure, FanX was literally down the street from my old apartment in Salt Lake but still.  Being here, back home, and having this great convention here!  Could it have been better?  It was!  I got to be a part of this one!  I finally had my first panel at a convention!  I know I wrote about it before but now it has happened!  If someone wants to undo it they’ll need a time machine and then inevitably, undeniably, I’ll get their time machine and then I’m telling this timeline to fuck off…point is, I got a panel approved by programming at LACC, I executed my panel at LACC, I didn’t get the crowd I wanted but I did get more of an audience than I expected.  We had a good conversation and I got some good laughs.  I’m thinking a couple people got some information they didn’t have before.  All in all, it’s a great experience!  Obviously I’m already thinking about applying for a panel next year.  Some things I need to work out for that, though.  Do I expand on the concept of Podcasting for Beginners?  A more generalized ‘How to’ format for podcasting in general and open up the conversation to all things podcasting?  Clearly I’m going to need a few naps before I get that all worked out.  Maybe I’ll actually get some of my own podcasting shit done instead of just telling other people what to do and how to do it.  At any rate, I’ve got scores of other things to get going.

     I did manage to record and photograph a little bit this time.  I was going to make a photo postage to post with this but I was trying to transfer things among devices whilst at work and I wanted to make sure I posted this today.  I’ll figure out what best to do with the material I recorded later this week.  At the very least I’ll record something in the next couple days and upload a new episode to the RSD feed.  Maybe I’ll sit down and work out some of the Twitch shit and finally do a few things I’ve been intending for the last couple years.  I still have a bunch of those Loot Crates to tear open.  I still have a bunch of Lego and model kits to build.  AND I’m pretty sure those are all in my apartment and not storage sooo, I need to sit down, stop watching TV, and start getting shit done.

     I’m starting to seriously organize my thoughts and making real plans to accomplish these things.  This week I start making it happen…after a nap.  I mean, come on!  I got about seven hours of sleep over the last week and a half and not all at once.  I’m following up on some connections I made at the convention and then I when I finally get home tonight I’m taking a little bit of a snooze…AND YOU CAN’T STOP ME!!!  Sweet dreams, friends.

I had a lot going on last week.  First work stuff and then of course LA Comic Con.  I’ll get to fun stuff in a moment.  I had a little trouble the other night.  I should say now that this is going to be a hard read.  If you have trouble conversations about suicide, maybe skip this one.  I’m putting together my stuff from LA Comic Con.  Hopefully I’ll get that all posted in a timely manner.  All of us with depression figure out how to manage things to one extent or another but sometimes shit falls through the cracks and we’re caught off guard.  The other night I got to go the LA Comic Con party, for the record I’m not a ‘party person’ but it was fun and I appreciate that I got to go that for other things I’m working on.  My point is that I’ve been doing ok for a bit and conventions are one thing that I always enjoy, I’ve been having a good time lately, and I’m doing some of the things I really want to be doing.  So of course, my brain shit decides to fuck it up.  This party was held at the Bob Hope Patriotic Hall and at one point I found myself on one of the upper floors on a patio.  I spent a few moments looking out over downtown LA and then had some very prominent thoughts about jumping over the rail and down eight floors to the street.  Not so much in the way I normally do when I’m fantasizing about fighting ninja or onto the back of a Tyrannosaur but rather, very much and profound suicidal ideation.  It’s been awhile since I’ve had an experience like this, probably the last time I had to speak to my “mother” on the phone.  But that pretty well cleared up as soon as I heard she had cancer.  This was rough.  Just to be clear, I didn’t jump.  I have one thing I do to track my emotional state.  I’ve noticed that with me specifically, I can’t seem to imagine killing myself when I’m not in a full blown depressive episode.  It’s seems to be physically impossible for me to consider that when I’m not in the middle of my brain waging all out war on itself.  Conversely, when I AM in a full depressive episode, I quite literally cannot think of anything else.  “I received a package I’ve been waiting for a month…I have to walk to the mailbox now…surely I have a knife within arm’s reach.”  Is conversation I’ve had with myself many, many, many times.  It’s been very rare that I wasn’t experiencing an extreme emotional state where I’ve had spontaneous and intrusive suicidal thoughts like this and I’m still not feeling great about some things but I did manage to avoid breaking down weeping in a public place.  I guess we can call that a win.  I just wanted to mention this in case someone else needs it right now.  I didn’t expect this to be so long but I didn’t really want this to drag on the fun comic con stuff I’m going to post so, it’s best this not get shoehorned into that.  Stay strong, and if you need to talk about stuff, I can at least pretend to listen for a little while.

Ok, a lot has been happening lately and many of you have some idea how I’d react to certain things and more just think you know, chances are whatever you’re thinking I’m referring to, chances are I’m not a fan.  If you want to know what I think I about it, just ask.  Now, moving on.

     We’re just a couple weeks away from LA Comic Con now.  I keep getting more and more excited!  I can’t wait!  With my car being down again I haven’t been putting in the prep time I intended but I’m going to sit down tonight and start going through my notes and get ready to do this thing right.  From what I’m seeing so far of the organization for just the panel programming, this team definitely knows what they’re doing.  The communication from the organizers to at least me, has been thorough and consistent but more than that timely.  When our contacts say they’ll do something by a time, those things get done by that time.  I have to say, interacting and coordinating with this staff is one of the greater reasons I’m looking forward to doing more of these tings in the future.  This is going to be a fantastic show!  I haven’t looked through all the programming yet but I will and my next podcast episode that I will record in the next day or two and will release next Tuesday I’ll pick out some interesting looking items to plug and talk about a little.

     I’ve been watching Stargate lately, usually trying to get to sleep.  The other night I watched the episode of Atlantis when Beckett died.  Every, damn, time that episode gets me.  McGillion is a talented performer and did a spectacular lob with that character but there’s something special about that character, that performance, and that actor.  Something very right happened there.  And especially that last scene with Hewlett’s McKay is truly extraordinary.  Far and away, two of my most favorite performers!

     I’m short on time at the moment and now have to deal with internet issues before I can get done other things.  With that, smell ya later.  And don’t forget about LA Comic Con this month!

Alright, we’ll start with a big death.  Graham Greene died the other day.  I’ve only seen him in a few things myself but I remember him being a dry wit and a classic straight man.  Two things I’ve always respected and appreciated.  What’s really interesting is that I heard about his passing in the fifteen seconds I spent on Twitter the other day and not through an AP notification on my phone.  Do with that information what you will.

     Now then, as you may know, I’m a huge fuckin’ nerd.  One thing I’ve always enjoyed is Quantum Leap.  I watched that show all the time when I was younger.  It perhaps initiated my interest in time travel.  I mean that and Back to the Future, obviously.  I was happy to hear about the new series a few years back but I didn’t have the means to watch TV live then.  Or I was distracted, in either case, I didn’t make the effort to watch during its initial run.  I finally watched the new Quantum Leap the other day.  I really enjoyed it.  It’s effectively a sequel to the original series.  Continuing the story instead of retelling it.  I was expecting a cameo at some point, running into Sam Beckett mid-leap or something but they didn’t do it.  Ultimately I think I prefer it that way.  I think I need to watch through the original series, one show I haven’t watched beginning to end yet but I will.  There were references to the original series that I want to follow up.  Long story a little bit shorter, I really enjoy the new Quantum Leap series and am a little sad it only got two seasons.

     One more thing.  I can start fully promoting my Panel at LA Comic Con this month.  So, now that the new app for LA Comic Con will be released today I can start telling you that Podcasting for Beginners will be twelve noon on Sunday in room 402a.  Come on by, it’ll be fun!