Big news this morning on CNN (And everywhere else.)  Former Pakistan leader Benazir Bhutto died in an attack this morning.  It looks like Pakistan, the only Islamic nuclear power currently, could be taking a turn for the worse.  We do live in very interesting times.

I was writing some notes just yesterday about the upcoming story arc I plan to do for D20 Modern.  I am excited to roll that out in 2008.  Look for some very exciting stuff soon.  Events in Pakistan and elsewhere  only make the project seem more topical.

OBS has been up and down for the last few days.  We are having a pretty good month, but I am sure that hasn’t helped.  Lots of folks bitching on the publisher boards about it, and most of the criticism is spot-on.  But not all of it.  Some people are calling for a halt on new code being implemented, but new code is what is going to fix the issues and bring new functionality.  And that is exactly what OBS needs to keep doing.  Sure, they need to get a better ‘up-time’ percentage, and maybe some redundant hardware but I am sure they already know that.  Look, if your server craps out then it just plain does.  You fix it and move on.  But to put a hold on developing new functionality is exactly what they should not do in my opinion. I don’t think any of the other PDF vendor sites have dedicated programmers on staff; they would have to hire out.  OBS would be giving up one of their main advantages.  My two cents.

Christmas was nice.  We didn’t do much of anything, which was nice.  Traffic was almost non-existant today, which was also very nice.  Work is almost deserted, so I can get some work done without a lot of interuptions.  I’ll have the house to myself tonight, so in addition to doing soem dishes and finishing the laundry, I plan to jump into some PDF projects.  (And if there is time, maybe play a little more Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on the XBox.  Thanks Santa!)

My brother works at a comic book store, so he hooked me up with several graphic novels for Christmas.  Daredevil, Supreme Power, District X, Ronin from Frank Miller and a few others.  I haven’t read any of the ones he got me, which is sweet!  For some reason the Marvel Comics online subscription does not “recognize” me as a member.  Oh, I can sign in and it shows my account, but whenever I open a comic it treats it like a free pre-view and only lets me look at five or six pages before it tells me I have to be a member to read the whole thing.  But I am a member, and I am signed in and it still isn’t playing nice.

One more week until 2008.  Big plans in store for 2008.  Lots of projects in the works.  Omens of Armageddon, The Pandora Project, Roar in the North, Otherverse Games and some as-yet-un-named projects.  More details to follow!

Saw this on a message board I was one earlier today:

Happy non-denominational politically sensitive generic winter holiday celebration time period!

May you enjoy this time with your (husband, wife, live-in companion, same-sex partner, poly-sexual communal living arrangement) at this very special (but not any more or less special from the rest of the year) time of year.

May (the higher spirit, mother earth, warm fuzzy) bless you, and yours.
Merry Christmas, every one!

Followed by:

I prefer to make sure that NO ONE can be offended by my holiday wishes.

To all of my Liberal friends;

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuassion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect to the religious/secular persuassion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater that any other country, nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference of the wishes.

To my Conservative friends:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I think the above sentiments sum it up nicely.  I am at work today, and plan on doing as little as possible tomorrow.  I told my wife I was going to wrap myself in swaddling clothes and make like baby Jesus by staying in bed all day tomorrow.  I told her she could bring the presents to me like the wise men and put stuffed animals around the bedrrom so it was more “manger” like!

I got some artwork back from Anthony today also.  Behold the leader of the North Side Spiders:

I just heard an interview with Phil Reed on the Digital Front Podcast which was very interesting.  Well worth a listen, but light on speculation about the future (4th edition etc. as it relates to the PDF/Electronic market) which is what I am most interested in.  I prefer to use the term “Electronic” market because we are only using the PDF format because its the most efficient one in common use *now*, but that could certainly change in the future.  Or for that matter expand.  I am very excited about the new Amazon Kindle.  It’s not perfect, or anywhere near it for that matter.  The price is way too hight at $400 bucks.  But I am a huge fan of the E-Ink technology and the Amazon service allowing books to be downloaded cheaper than buying regular print books.  We are starting to hit the mainstream area where anyone with an iPod (tech-savvy consumers with a bit of disposable income) can now have an e-book reader hooked up to a service where they can browse and download digital content.  (Sound familiar to any of you RPGNow publishers?)  Only instead of just gamers, we are looking at regular “folks” embracing the digital format.  I predict that Amazon will open their API up to third-party vendors to make hardware in a smiler way they did with Amazon.com’s software engine.  So then many different vendors can offer various hardware E-Books that utilize the Amazon “storefront” to load books/content onto the reader.  As they say, a rising tide raises all ships, so I see it as good for the electronic RPG industry.

Went and saw I Am Legend again last night after work with a couple of guys from the office.  Kind of an impromptu “guys night out”.  I saw a few new things my second time seeing the movie I hadn’t noticed before.  Taking the family to see the new National Treasure movie tonight.  We loved the first one, and hope this one is good as well.  (I have my concerns!)

Just a few more Christmas presents to buy; I’ll take care of that on Saturday.  The holiday sure has snuck up on me this year!  A week or so from now and it will be 2008.  Where does the time go?

I have a few small projects to lay out in addition to a couple of huge ones.  I also need to catch up on my Publisher Audio Commentaries.  I wish I didn’t have to go to work every day so I could focus on creating and publishing!  (But then, that’s the goal; now isn’t it?)

So the other day I mentioned I picked up a couple of trades at the comic book store.  I dropped near thirty-five bucks that night.  It got me thinking, so today I signed up for the Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited service.  (One year for $59.88)  It cost half of what I dropped the other day and lets me read a ton of comics without having to buy them all.  (House of M, Ultimate Spidey and X-Men come to mind, plus the annuals etc.)  For me it just seems like a great deal.  I like it so far, but will post a more detailed review after I’ve had time to really get into it.

Along the same lines, I also subscribe to Audible.com for audio books.  My iPod gets a workout cuz my commute is kinda long for my day-to-day job.  I prefer to listen to books rather than just veg out to music all the time.  For about $22.00 a month I get to download any two books I want; from a very large selection.  I usually go for the longest, unabridged books that interest me and usually end up with forty to sixty bucks worth of audio book for my subscription.  If you are into audio books, I think you should check them out.

My website is hosted from GoDaddy.com, for like five bucks a month.  The domain cost me about eight bucks a year.  The technical details are a Linux server running a Wordpress Blog engine with the PodPress and PhotoPress plugins to handle audio and images respectively.  Cost for all that software is free!  (Love open source software!)  I am running Filezilla as my FTP program.  For recording audio I use Audacity, which is also a free product.  I do all my “stuff” on a Dell D800 laptop running Windows XP with the Adobe Creative Suite (CS).  (Photoshop, InDesign & Illustrator)  I also run Adobe Acrobat 8 to create my PDF’s.

Looks like Brittny Spears lil’ sister Jamie done got herself sperminated. At just sixteen years old; its just a shame. She was the “good” one, with a show on Nickelodian and everything. I doubt she’ll be back for a new season. My daughter watches her show. What is with these kids; they get a little money, some fame and all of a sudden it’s time to go off the deep end. (Britt, Lindsey, Paris et al) We can do better than treat these “women” as role models.

In other news I got another D7ACU from Chris complete with artwork the other day. I also had an unexpected update come in for that Epic Level PDF from the author. I also got a complete cover (front, back and spine) of a large project in the works. I’ll be sitting down tonight to do some more work on a few things when I get home.

Stopped at the comic book store last night cuz I didn’t want to sit in traffic. I picked up the two latest volumes of the New Avengers trade, and the Ultimates Vol. 3 issue#1. (I rarely do issues any more, I wait for the trades. I am seriously thinking about doing the Marvel comics online thing they just announced. I’d love to read the whole House of M and Civil War arcs without having to go buy all of them. But my Honda needs new tires, and the Volvo just stopped working (prolly’ needs a new starter; have to put it in the shop and see) so most of my money is already spent for the next few weeks.

I am waiting to hear back from [CENSORED] about the progress made on the next phase of expansion for Skortched Urf’ Studios. I thought I was going to hear back on Tuesday, but so far nothing. I am very excited about the project, and have been working on it on and off for a few years now. It looks like the technical and financial aspects are finally coming together. It’s not publishing or even RPG specific, but definitely geared towards gamers. All will be revealed soon!

My picture upload plugin for Wordpress hasn’t been working since I upgraded to a newer version. I just installed the latest version of the plugin. Testing to see if I can get images into my posts without FTP’ing them onto my site directly or just linking to external images. Here is a pre-view of the cover for the Department 7 Adv. Class Update: Innocent….

Looks like it worked!

Tried to get some work done last night after I got home on some PDF releases, but my daughter seized my laptop for her homework.  Grrrr!  Kind of frustrating; I need to buy a second computer to keep my wife and daughter off mine.  So I painted some Warmachine figures instead.  I am knee-deep in a Khador faction, with some Menoth behind them.  I plan on having both factions ready for GenCon this year.  My daughter has some WHFB Dark Elves she is working on as well.

I got some artwork back from Anthony today for a project I have had forever.  The trouble is I had given the artwork assignment to two seperate artists, and they both dropped the ball and never did anything with it.  So I sent it over the Anthony and, as usual, he is doing a fantastic job!  The project is a Modern Arcana street gang called the North Side Spiders, very similar to the Mia Famiglia Lodovoco crime family relese we have already done. Check out some of the images:

Look for it soon!

Seems like RPGNow has been down on and off a lot in the last few days.  That’s frustrating, cuz if the sites are down it’s hard to get sales!

Saw I Am Legend on Saturday.  Great flick.  Wil Smith nailed it.  I made the mistake of reading a couple of reviews before I saw the movie.  One guy who wrote a review was so off base that I don’t think he has any business writing reviews.  He said in the review that Wil Smith’s character was doing things that made no sense during the movie.  Everything  made perfect sense to me.  At one point he does something I would call “stupid”, but he was suicidal/depressed over a great loss and was seeking some small revenge “on his way out” so to speak.  They even mention that later in the movie about how he was trying to kill himself by being so reckless.  And yet this reviewer didn’t “get it”.  He also was off base in a major way about a few other small aspects; like the fate his wife and child!  In one scene we actually SEE how they die; and the reviewer seems to think they are safely out of New York City waiting for our heroes return.  Be careful who’s review you trust!

So the verdict is that it’s a great flick.  Go see it.  Now if you have read the book, be prepared for a major departure from the book’s story-line.  They just aren’t the same story.  Didn’t turn me off the way it did a few of my friends.  But if you insist that the movie “be” the book you may not enjoy this film as much.  Otherwise, a great movie.

Dropped the wife off at her part-time job last night, then snuck off to Wal-Mart for some Christmas shopping. I had a couple of DVD’s in my shopping cart (High School Musical 2 for my daughter and the new Pixar flick with the rat for my wife) and was browsing for more stocking stuffers in the movie section. I turned around and my whole cart was GONE! Someone wheeled it off; I guess it could have been a too-helpful Wal-Mart employee, but I assume it was someone who liked the movies or needed a cart and saw it as an opportunity to sang one. Oh well, I didn’t much feel like shopping after that so I left.

When I got home I dug out all the Christmas decorations. We’ll get them all up before the weekend.

Got a D&D game tonight with the local group of guys from Church. My daughter will be joining us. Should make for a fun night.

I got two new D7ACU’s inspired by 80’s action figures from Chris Field yesterday. Need to send them off for some artwork. I managed to lay out most of the D7ACU Man Hunter last night. I still need to do a few things before it’s ready to post. Hopefully I will get it posted later tonight.

More info soon.

Lots of stuff going on. We released the D7ACU Hollowpoint Monk yesterday. Now on sale at all the usual places!

I have also been hearing a lot about these two shootings in Colorado. Some disgruntled guy they wouldn’t let go on a Christian mission to Bosnia cuz he was hearing voices or some such. Apparently he shot a few folks at the missionary training centre and a few hours later showed up at a huge church with like four or five thousand people attending. (Now that’s a Mega-Church!) Dude rolls in with a rifle, two pistols, body armor and packing over five-hundred rounds of ammo intending to do some serious harm. Only to come face-to-face with three armed church-goers who ended the episode in seconds rather than minutes.

You will hear a lot about Jeanne Assam being the hero that ended the rampage, and rightfully so. The other two men had not returned fire when she killed the shooter. The point I really want to make is that these people were not the police, they were not even hired security guards for the church, they were members of the congregation using their own weapons in defense of themselves and others. Ms. Assam is rightfully credited with possibly saving hundreds of lives. (Remember; when seconds count the police are only minutes away!) But had she failed to stop the shooter, with only her pistol against a man with superior firepower, there were still other armed church-members on hand to help stop the rampage. There was even one man who was unarmed that tried to get in on the action only to be wounded by the shooter. (Remember, the first law of gun-fighting: Have a gun!) Tragically, two teenage girls were killed before Ms. Assam was able to put the shooter down, but her actions prevented these two souls from being joined by dozens or hundreds more. I wonder if VA Tech had had a few teachers packing heat as Ms. Assam was if Cho would have been able to kill as many as he did? I think it’s high time we as a country began to re-think gun-free zones sitting duck zones.

***UPDATE***

The AP just reported that the church gunman killed himself! The words above remain un-changed for good reason. Weather Ms. Assam ended his life or he shot himself really doesn’t matter. People involved in mass shootings are really just committing “Suicide By Cop” . The Columbine Shooters and Cho at VA Tech killed multiple victims until armed men (Cops) showed up and then they killed themselves. We can surmise that the Colorado Church shooter intended the same thing. But I bet he thought he would have five or ten minutes to commit murder before he did himself in. (Typical police response time.) Instead he was confronted by several armed church members. So he ate a bullet while he still had hundreds of rounds of un-fired ammunition on him. Score a win for the good guys.

Got another product-pitch from one of my regular contributors yesterday. I looked it over and am excited to publish it. All I can say at this point is that we really need some more Epic Level material out there!

I still don’t have my Christmas Tree up or any decorations out. Still haven’t done any Christmas Shopping. I’d better get started or I’ll end up at Wal-Mart on the 24th picking over whatever is left!

Will be working on more PDF releases tonight when I get home. (After my daughters Band Concert at her school. ) More info soon.