Timewaster's Guide Archive

Well, another one down folks.  By all reports I just finished the toughest semester of optometry school.  It's all downhill from here.  Especially next year, which is just externships.

I managed to do a lot better than I thought I would this semester.  I'm especially proud of an A I got in Clinic, something that is hard to get and that means the doctors are particularly pleased with my skill with patients.  

And next year is going to rule.  Starting in May my externships take me to Kansas City for 3 months at one of the best disease rotations in the country.  Then I got to Brisbane, Australia for 4 months to do a contact lens rotation, and then back up here that spring for graduation.   It's going to rock.

For now, I'm just chilling.  I'm going on a cruise starting this weekend and will be in the middle of the Caribbean for Christmas.  I can't wait.

Then I come back ready for the new year.

Yeah!

Well, I broke down and got the gold edition a while back and I've been playing it as if my life depended on it.   I was a god-king of Civ II, but my strategies don't seem to work as well here and I can't figure out just why.  I can't seem to wage a successful war without it taking upward of 1000 years.  Guess I've just got to get my head around the changes.

Any of you have any tips.  I'd particularly love to hear how people start the game.  For some reason I think I lose a lot of pace there.

Cheers!

After one of my lj friends took the eHarmony survey and posted it, I thought I'd take it too. I keep hearing commercials and I always love to take personality tests. And it's free...

And accurate.

And when you do it they create a free account for you so you can see the people it matches you up with in your area. I had four matches on day one. They all seemed pretty interesting and one of them has already sent me a "I want to communicate" notice. And you can't 'communicate' without a paid account.

Tricky good marketing ploy! See, all I wanted was a personality profile now I want to see who these matches are and if they're actually a good fit. But then I have to pay. Tricky indeed.

And it's not cheap. If it was, I'd do it. But it's a pretty hefty amount. So tempted...

See, I used to date a lot, but in the past year I've barely had time to breathe, let alone seek out dates.  This would be a useful tool, it seems.  But still sooo expensive....

Are you TWiG fellows accepting new proposals?

I've been designing a homebrew mini game that desperately needs a setting.  Were this a fantasy game, I'd have no problem.  I've got a billion ideas for fantasy.

No, this is sci-fi.  Non-alien, psuedo-hard sci-fi. And for some reason I can't come up with something that doesn't seem completely trite.

I'll give you more details if you're up for helping, but if you're still refining the fantasy world then I'll just wait a while

Hey,  Whaaaaa happened?

Mr. P passes boards, says he's taking a break, and then disappears into the the night....whaaaa happened!?!?

Well, let me regale you...

The ninjas that Saint sent after me were able to take me with their shear numbers.  I took a few down with me, but I soon found myself locked in a room filled to the knees with spiders.  After the fear finally died down I used my knowledge of optics to focus the single shaft of sunlight entering my cell into a laser beam which I used to open the door.  Take that, Saint!  I've escaped your devilish plot!

Okay, maybe not...

What happened was passing boards ignited something in me I haven't felt in a while...the desire for self-improvement. The last two years I've been in a big rut...school keeps me so busy that its really hard to exercise and eat right and spend time doing the important things in life.  So I decided to cut down my internet time significantly to have more spare time to study and spend with friends.

In succeeding in that, TWG was kind of lost in the mix.  Other than email and livejournal I really didn't frequent my usual hangouts on the net, like here.  And hence, I forgot about Avast Ye... oops.

Then I decided that I have to start eating better.  For the past year it's been junk food, soda, take out, eating out, and fast food, as I didn't think I had time to cook.  This only accelerated my slide into fatness that had begun in late undergrad.  See, I was a captain of the football team in high school. Fit, strong, and not small.  When I got burned out on wieght lifting in college a lot of it turned to mush.  I started jogging to make up for it, but I only had time to do so in the summers.  Not good.

So I hit about 300 at the start of this October.  I didn't look too terrible as I'm a big guy who has always carried weight well.  But I felt terrible.  Sluggish, low-self confidence (which was never a problem before), and just malaise.  I decided to change that soon after my internet time cut.

So last week I started out on the South Beach Diet.  I'm not a fan of fad diets, but as a biologist I know it sure seemed medically sound.   A week later I'm 14 pounds lighter and still dropping.  Plus I've taken up jogging againt.  The results are higher than normal, but when the bad stuff you eat constantly is replaced by good stuff, something happy is going to happen.

I haven't felt this good in a long, long time.  I have more energy than ever and I still get to eat a lot of what I love.  Plus, I've been introduced to food combos that I didn't know existed.  It's great!

So that's where I've been.

Now the bad news--- When Spriggan reminded me of Avast Ye I got all excited.  I'd recently dropped out of all 4 of my games (biweekly though remember) due to time constraints and I'd love to get a dash of gaming in.  Plus, I'm really enamored with the setting even though I created it in like an hour.  It's got a lot of potential.  The more I thought about it though, the more certain I became of what would happen.  I would probably run it intensely for a few weeks but then start to fade off again as time got less and have to drop it.  Instead of leading you guys on, I think its best that we quit now, though someone else is welcome to take it over.  I feel bad as I know some of you have put a lot of work into it.  Let me know how I can make it up to you and I will, okay.

So that's my story.  I should be around still, though maybe not as much as I was.  I still have some reviews I'd like to write up when I find time.  But I will be here.  Of all the places I've gone on the internet, this is the only place I can really say I've made connections with people.  Sure, I know people on other forums, but its just in passing.  I've gotten to know some of you very well and I'd like to keep it that way.

Corny, yes.  But true.

Cheers!

First Warren Zevon passed away quietly on Sunday and now The Man in Black slips into the great beyond.  

Godspeed, men.   Words can't express how thankful I am for the music you both gave.

Well, I finally picked up this game after months of debating whether to actually try another minis game. See, I absolutely love Privateer Press' Iron Kingdoms as a game setting and I think the books they've put out are some of the best d20 book on the market.  So I finally broke down and bought the rules after lurking on their forum for a long time.

I shouldn't have waited so long.  This game is great.  For months I've heard people rave about this game, nary hearing any dissention, and now I understand why.  It's fast, its brutal, its strategic, and it is fun.  And cheap to boot.  

A lot of the folks mad at GW's gouging have hopped on board and the game has continually grown from its inception last decemberish.  

I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and write a review of this one, folks.

Okay, here's the skinny:

Cinematic, swashbuckling, pirate tale of derring do and such.   I'll be using Savage Worlds to run it, which is very light and is made to handle lots of characters (such as a boarding action) not that it matters since I'll be doing all the rolling and such.  

The way your characters are described to me we'll have some varying power levels, which is fine since advancement isn't tied into combat ability as in D&D.  Savvy?

It will be a light fantasy game and I will probably pick up and use 50 Fathoms once it comes out in fact.  So monkey-boyish folks fit right in.  There are 2 other races available on PEG's website in the 50 Fathoms preview in fact.  Just if you're interested.

Also, I'll probably take six players to start out with.  Hopefully that won't be too many.  I'm happy to take any suggestions.