Saturday we played our Star Wars RPG campaign.  Until 2:30 am; so I didn’t get to bed until just after three!  Didn’t make it to church on Sunday.  Ooops.

I had sent some stuff over to my buddy when he expressed an interest in doing some illustrations for me.  I sent him most of the Pandora Project material including some concept art Anthony has done and stuff written by Chris Field and myself.  He liked it and started sketching some stuff, asked me some good questions to clarify the ideas etc.  I also sent him home with a Wacom tablet I have.  He’s really good and I am sure I can keep him busy. Fingers crossed that it pans out.

It was also nice to get some ‘outside’ feedback on the Pandora idea; and it was very positive.  His questions, while related to the artwork, also made me think hard on some aspects of the game.  I am excited to get the project fleshed out.  We even talked a bit about how the game would appear once published.

I have been working on some writing; both PDF and other projects. I’ll put some of that on the back burner this week and get another PDF or two out ASAP.

Sorry for the lag in posting; crazy couple of weeks.

Still no new GSL news.  Big surprise there.

I have a few new releases on deck.  I should get a free otherverse release up soon followed by a couple of regular PDF’s.

Work has been really crazy for the last couple weeks, but we just ended our fiscal year so hopefully things will settle down going forward.

I got a call a couple days ago that my other motorcycle was finished.  It needed two new tires and brake pads along with the safty inspection.  Holy crap they are charging a ton of money!  I didn’t even get dinner out of it.  I already had to pay them for the 600 mile service on my new bike, and this repair bill is killing me.  October is a really tight month over here with several other items all due this month.  We can do it but there isn’t a whole lot of play money left over.  But I knew being a homeowner would mean a tight budget, so i have no room to complain.  (Maybe I can get some of that bail-out money to help me out!)

My brother will be out to visit me at then end of the month.  I haven’t seen him in a while so that will be nice.  We’re supposed to hit the Baltimore Aquarium and a big Haloween party while he’s out so that will be fun.

First off; conrats go out to Louis Porter Jr. and his new bride!  Enjoy you Vegas honeymoon!!

Look for a new release to go up later tonight or tomorrow. It’s been a rpetty good month so far, but I also want the whole 4E/GSL thing to shake out finally so we can get to some semblance of “normal” and not this whole waiting game to see what is going to shake out.

I saw most of the Presidential debate, fell asleep on the couch halfway through.  I think McCain came out with a slight edge, but again the debate is all sizzle and no steak.  Neither candidate made any serious gaffes or scored the ultimate sound byte.  Looking forward to the VP debate; I hear Biden isn’t so good unscripted and Palin needs to hit one out of the park to solidify here position.  Should be fun.  (But again; it’s all sizzle so I am not swayed terribly one way or the other by debates; the “steak” is a candidates past voting record. Not what they say, but how they vote.)

I got an email from a buddy of mine that is great with a pencil and paper.  I have been trying to get him to draw some stuff for me since I started publishing.  He said he wants to dust off his sketchbook, so I sent him some stuff to draw and told him I can use whatever he turns out.  I hope it works out, but in the meantime I’ll keep Anthony as busy as I can. Like Louis says a good artist is worth every penny.

I spent most of Saturday messing around in the garage.  I am putting shelves along one whole wall to give us better storage.  I got most of the stuff up, but still need to put some more screws into the support structure before I actually mount the shelves.  I worked a little too hard and a little too long with no quite enough water.  Ifelt lousy by four in the afternoon, but drank lots of water and downed some asprin before heading out to the in-laws for a family dinner.  I took it easy on Sunday; church and then a nap at home followed by round two of dinner at the in-laws.  This time it was burgers and dogs on the grill; yummy!

I have to pick up my motorcycle from the shop tonight.  I didn’t make it over there on Saturday, and they were closed on Sunday. I had it in for the all-important first service.  They change the oil and make sure all the engine parts seated correctly during the break-in period.  I am kinda glad it was in the shop as it was one less thing to have to move out of my way while working on the garage.

Lots going on here at SUS HQ!  I got the first PDF in the new “Thinking Races” series up last night.  I have two more on deck right behind that one, and several more in process behind that.

I also got my laptop set up on the home wireless network last night, so I will not have to compete with my wife for CPU time while she is in class.

I wathced the first half of Heroes last night, and so far I am digging it.  Not sure I like the elder Petrelli’s sudden intrest in God, but we’ll see where it goes. I love the new DVR that lets me watch stuff when I have the time; now I can catch Attack of the Show whenever I want!  And South Park, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force.  Yeah, I like the new DVR.

Adobe just announced the CS4 suite that will ship in October or November.  I feel like I just bought CS3 (which I did) but now I have to save my nickles to upgrade the CS4.  It will be worth it for many of the things I have planned for the future. Gotta dig into more of the upgraded features; I am especially interested in adding some more Flash elements into my listings.

On the political front the huge bail-out fiasco is taking up all the headlines.  I love how we keep hearing how it is a lack of regulation that is to blam for all this mess; as if MORE government intervention is the solution.  Does anyone really believe that the home mortgage industry isn’t regulated?  That stock traders are not regulated? The fact of the matter is that the financial and real-estate markets are heavily regulated and that has been part of the problem; insane regulations requiring and encouraging banks to loan money to folks who are not qualified to repay them.  (No the “Keep-Up-With-The-Jones” consumer doesn’t get off the hook for not reading the fine print or getting in over their heads, nor do the greedy brokers who made as many loans as possible only to sell them off as quickly as possible.)  But for Congress (going back many years, not just this Congress) to pretend to be blameless in this is an outright, bold-faced lie.

Look, if I throw my life savings into opening a retail game shop and it goes bust in a year or two then I am not magically entitled to get money from Uncle Sam to bail me out of a bad financial decision.  Why is it different for these companies?  The fact of the matter is that companies fail, and should be allowed to.  Capitalism will find the best way to deliver goods and services to consumers; it may be messy and result in some hard times, but it works.  It works better than any beurocratic solution ever tried in all the history of mankind. We didn’t bail out and prop up the viynl record industry when CD’s came along.  We didn’t “save” the riding crop industry when cars came on the scene.  Sometimes you just gotta tighten your belt and pay your bills.  America needs to start doing this now.  Handing a blank check to some guy in the Treasury to try to buy our way out of this mess IS NOT THE ANSWER. Seriously, they want no oversight, no review and no accountability for a single person who was appointed,not elected, to spend almost a Trillion bucks of our money.  Bzzzz; wrong answer. OK, I am easing down and stepping off the Soap Box.

Looking forward to the first presidential debate Friday night.  I never expect any of them to actually say stuff worth hearing; the debates are all sizzle and no steak in my opinion.  But it will be nice to see them square off one-on-moderated-one.

Looks like Priateer Press is saying no the 4E GSL for their Iron Kingdomes RPG.  What an epic fail the GSL has turned out to be.  Maybe that will turn around with the revision, but I doubt it.  With the initial middle finger of theGSL, a watered down”apology” of a slight revision isn’t gonna help.  Mybe WOTC will get smart, prolly not.  I mean I saw anothe $25.00 module for sale the other night; I simply have trouble swallowing the idea of that much scratch for a product that is not intended to be re-used in the same way a rule book or suppliment is.  Sure, maybe the maps can be re-used; but still.

Just saw the press conference on the economy and am now hearing all the talking heads talk about it.  They say we need to do something “bold” and they want Congress to stay in session an extra week to “get this done”.  Mark my words, anything that is rushed through Congress is not a good thing.  Ever. (I’m looking at you Patriot Act.)

Went ot a VCDL meeting last night with my buddy; we rode our motorcycles.  Stopped for dinner at one of my favorite hole-in-the-wall Chinese food places; then went for a ride.  Some punks in a Dodge 300 revved their engine like they wanted to race.  Too much traffic to give them a real run; but there is no freakin’ way a multi-thousand pound car with two guys in it is ever gonna take a 650cc bike that weighs under 500 pounds. From the line, quarter-mile or top speed; forget about traffic weaving or twistys.  I just laughed. Had to leave the meeting a bit early cuz I didn’t want to be out too late.

My wife has a big conference she is helping organize, so she has been working like mad all week.  Tonight she’ll be staying at a hotel and doing the conference thing until tomorrow afternoon.  I plan to get some PDF work along with some more house chores done tonight.  Look for a release or two soon.  Saturday my friend flies into town, so I am gonna meet him at the airport and then we are gonna hang out.  I am going to bring my DVD of Gamers: Dorkness Rising and a couple copies of Boot Hill 3rd Edition and maybe Battletech so we have some choices.

I just finished up the latest Crosstime Traffic novel by Harry Turtledove.  Great series of books; by all means check them out.

The Force Unleashed Campaign guide as well as the Adventurer’s Vault for 4E are out this week.  Looks like I need to drop by the game store on my way home tonight! I also need to pick up the Warmachine: Legends book as well.  Wow, that’s gonna get expencive!

We got the Fios fiber optic service from Verizon installed yesterday.  I am really happy with it so far.  The Comcast customer service rep was also quite rude to me when I stopped in to cancel the service, and the line was really long with only two people working the counter.  I am happy to be done with Comcast.

I got a letter from my homeowners association yesterday that said I owe them $507.00!  (Keep in mind I have only made two house payments so far, and we officially closed in July!)  Turns out they had a balance owed from the previous owners, and the nice lady is working it out so the balance is corrected.

I picked up a wireless adapter for the XBox as well as the Force Unleashed game yesterday.  I managed to get online and play some Halo 3 with my friends; something I haven’t done in several months.

On the politics front I am seeing a lot of rancor and vileness against Sarah Palin that I just can’t get behind.  Here is a small town girl who goes from the PTA to mayor of her town, actually takes on corruption and wins, goes on the become Governor of her state while being happily married and raising a family.  (Did I mention that her state loves her and thinks she is doing a great job?) She gets tapped to become McCain’s VP and now she is the worst woman on the planet!  From “Creatioist psyco bitch” to “less f$%#able than a dead pig”; and that’s just from another RPG publisher! Others accuse her of molesting teenagers.  Those represent the more outlandish and frankly vile things I have seen.  Of course there are the simple half-truths and almost-lies about here beliefs and record that are part and parcel of any campaign. But I have to ask; if all you Obama supporters can come up with is name-calling, innuendo and potty-jokes, then what is your candidate really bringing to the table that makes you resort to such tactics? Just askin.

***UPDATE***

Now it seems that some 133t h@x0rs cracked her Yahoo email password and posted screenshots of her email and her contact list.  People are calling her daughters cell phone number and emailing her husband and what not. Gawker.com is keeping the stuff “up there” because she is “newsworthy” and making noise like there are hidden, private messages that she used her Yahoo email for instead of her official email.  Total BS.  I have like six email addresses; my main work email, Skortched Urf’s gmail account, two other gmail accounts, a Yahoo account and a couple associated with other websites I host. Yet no one is pointing to any top secret communications that were supposed to be hidden.  And who in their right mind would use a Yahoo address to keep secrets? So tell me again why Obama is such hot stuff that we have to resort to this kind of non-sense?

We got the furniture delivered and I am quite happy with it. The house is really starting to look like a home now.  My wife does a great job with all the little things that make a place look good.

I am working on making the Audio Commentary Podcasts better.  Right now they are all broke, but I am working on it so they will be back soon.  I discovered an issue with them when I did the little player for the Behind the Spells product for Tricky Owlbear.

I did go to the gun show, and took my in-laws with me.  Believe it or not it was all “product research” for a new business venture my mother-in-law is contemplating.  I have never gone in and out of that show in such a short period of time!  I didn’t even buy anything.

The Verizon Fios guys will be at my house tomorrow.  Looking forward to that.  Will be canceling Comcast five minuites after they finish the install.

Headed home right after work so I can…get back to work!  Only it will be on stuff for Skortched Urf’ Studios and the house.

They are delivering our living room and dining room furniture tomorrow afternoon.  That means tonight and tomorrow morning will be making the main room ready for the delivery.  We need to clean some stuff out of there, steam clean the carpet and put some trim up.

Somewhere in there I will also make the time to get a PDF out.  Hopefully tonight.

Last night I clipped out and put together a few of the 40K miniatures from the new box set.  Very cool looking minis.  I tried to pick up the latest Warmachine release (Legends) but my FLGS was sold out, so it will have to wait.

I just realized the huge gun show is this weekend.  It snuck up on me.  I will try to see if I can get by but I am not sure.  Of course I don’t have any spare money to blow so I would just be window shopping.

Next week is shaping up to be a busy one.  Tuesday the Fios guys will be installing our new fibre optic network.  All week at work we will be having a government inspection, and Saturday one of my long-lost best friends is coming to town for a conference.  We’ll pick him up Saturday morning at the airport and then spend the day getting our game-geek on.  Not sure what we are gonna play, but Boot Hill 3rd edition and Paranoia are both great “one-off” games.  Boot Hill 3rd edition is one of my all-time favorite games; the rules are simple and combat is deadly.  If you find a copy in the bargain bin, used book store or on ebay; do yourself a favor and pick it up.

I just saw on the ENWorld forums that the GSL revision is still being worked on.  It looks like we are at least a month away from seeing the new GSL.  Of course all this is still casting its “chill” on the PDF market.  I think that when the new license comes out it will still suck, but not as bad as the monster they tried to push on us before.  But once the cat is out fo the bag it will allow those publishers who are gonna go with it to do so, and the rest of the market to “get back to work” without all this uncertainty about how to proceed.  I personally would love to put out 4E stuff and convert some of our current products as well; but I am not one for submitting to the insane restrictions of the GSL 1.0.

I wrote this email on September 14th, 2001…

Dear America,

Like all of you I was shocked, hurt and angry at the attack on my
country and the freedom it stands for last Tuesday. I have been glued
to the news since then, as I am sure most of the country has been also.
I have received all manor of e-mail regarding the tragedy; from calls
for prayer, pictures of the wreckage, direction to display the flag of
the United States and a yearning for justice, or, barring that, revenge.

I have read first hand reports from people who were in the WTC Tuesday
morning. I have heard people on the radio and TV express their views as
well. Though I was not at the Pentagon or in NY on Tuesday; I had dear
friends in the Pentagon, extended family in New York City and a child in
school when these events took place. I feel moved to share a few
thoughts.

This attack was not against our country in a military sense. Four
airplanes, stolen from American companies, against the might of United
States pose little military threat. (Despite the large numbers of dead
and wounded.) This attack was against freedom. America stands for
freedom on the world stage. We let freedom ring from our shores like no
other country. We worship it. We fight for it. We cherish it. It
defines America. That is why we were attacked. This attack is meant to
force America to shun freedom, restrict rights, and give power to those
who would covet it. I am pleased to hear that our leaders understand
this and have vowed not to give in and change our way of life.

I hear our leaders use the word ‘war’ when speaking of this attack.
This is as it should be. (There is even legal precedent for this IIRC
as George Washington declared a state of war against pirates ravaging
shipping in Colonial America; we declared war on a people without a
country.) We are at war with terrorists, nations that shelter them and,
more importantly, ANY nation, creed or belief that would restrict
individual freedom. It is no longer a war of ideology, it is now a war
of weapons and of will.

We must understand that wars cost lives,
American and ally; enemy, guilty and innocent. This should not blunt
our resolve or our actions. When this war is won, and terrorist
organizations are left leaderless, ravaged and defeated the world will
be a safer place. This campaign should not be one designed to only
eradicate a handful of terrorist leaders. We must work to free the
people under their ideological boot; until we do this there will always
be more zealous men willing to give their lives for an evil cause.

That is not to say that the handful of men responsible for this attack
should not be punished. They will be. Harshly. And in the process we
will find out which countries should be punished with them. Furthermore,
countries that support terrorism do not deserve the respect of our world
community. Their regimes are little more than fiefdoms built upon the
backs of oppressed peasants, led by wicked dictators. We may never
change every country in the world into bastions of freedom, but a small
step in the right direction is better than a descent into servitude.

Which brings me to my next point. Many speak of revenge, justice and
using our military to extract it. This is what our military is for; and
it will be employed in that capacity. What we must NOT do is act in
anger, hatred or haste. Force of arms is a choice. Violence is a
choice. War should not be waged in anger; it should be waged with
resolve. The professionalism of our armed forces is legendary, and they
will successfully acquit themselves in this mission.

Though it may be far too soon to suggest; I also think we should
re-build the twin towers. They were powerful symbols of freedom and
America, as is the whole city of New York. If the New York skyline must
be changed, let it be re-modeled with even larger towers of stone and
glass to show the world that we as a nation are even stronger than when
those buildings were first built. America and New York deserve such a
distinction and though it might take a decade or more to complete;
America and its corporate citizens can erect a monument to freedom and
her cherished dead on an unprecedented scale.

What we as a people must not do is give in to fear. Though the tree of
Liberty has been watered with the blood of Patriots, and will shortly be
fed the blood of tyrants, its roots are strong and its branches cover
North American and reach to all points of the world. We must continue
our lives, buy goods, travel, interact and ‘engage in the animating
contest of Freedom’ as our founding Fathers put it. If we must change,
let us be more mindful of ourselves, our family and our security. Let
us also be more mindful of our freedom and our rights. Let this tragedy
remind us of our place in this world; and be proud of what our country
has accomplished and will accomplish in the decades to come.

-An American Citizen