I Miss My Hunter…

I was mucking around a little yesterday as my Dwarf Hunter alt (Bozzrom – the dwarf in the banner) and I realized just how much I missed playing Smaken, my level 73 Orc Hunter. There is quite a difference between playing a low level Hunter and playing a higher level Hunter.

Okay, that’s pretty obvious, but I’m talking about the capabilities. You really do gain a lot at the higher levels and it makes the lower levels seem weak or even more difficult.

It probably doesn’t help that Horde races tend to be more combat oriented with their racial abilities. As a dwarf I don’t get any real offensive bonuses, I get Stoneform and Find Treasure, but little else that makes a Hunter better. Even as a Night Elf, you don’t really get much that helps as a Hunter in an offensive way – the Dodge bonus is nice but that’s it. On the Horde side, you get extra damage for ranged weapons and a temporary haste as a Troll, as an Orc you get a damage increase to pet damage while also getting a self damage buff and as a Blood Elf you get a AE mana eating thing that also silences mobs for a short time which is good for interupts (I miss this on my Paladin too). Only the Tauren doesn’t appear to get a lot that is offensive. Of course, it does get that PBAE stomp that stuns.

See the difference?

I got Bozzrom up to 16 and a little bit then switched over to Lannister for a bit. I ran around questing. I finished up a quest in Hellfire and moved into Zangarmarsh where I completed a ton of quests… I think I’ve only got a few left. I was really in the mood to quest. I probably would have finished those off too but I had someone ask me to tank Ramps for them. No problem, I like instances and helping out and I probably shouldn’t be leveling too fast (sorry Chris!).

Sad thing is I think I’ve turned most of the quests in Terrokar (and some of the other zones near there) green. Ah well. I was worried about that but then I realized I probably wouldn’t get much use out of the factions in TBC once I’m into WotLK. That’s unfortunate too but I guess that’s the way things go. It’s linear or sequential if you will.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll likely come back to help out or even get some faction mounts. I do enjoy that sort of thing. It’s just too bad leveling comes so fast that I miss that content.

The game doesn’t stop at 80, it just changes.

By the way, I used to think that as soon as I hit 70 (back in TBC) with Smaken, I’d be able to jump right into raiding things like Kara. In most other MMOs that tend to be the case with some minor tweaking of gear (if any).

I was wrong. So very wrong.

I did some research and saw that in order to be able to contribute to the raid succeeding I needed a certain minimum of gear. There was even a guide that walked you through why and where to get the items (I wish I could find that guide, it was great!). There was a minimum load out and one that was ideal. Most of it came from running regular instances or were world drops. That isn’t the case for Kara now, given the cap is 80 now so 80s can crush the raid zone. But I’m almost certain you’re going to need this sort of thing for level 80.

I expect on hitting 80 I’ll need to run instances (or grind faction, marks or do arenas) for a minimum gear set to let me be useful in the heroic instances. From there I’ll get gear that helps me set up for actual raiding. It’s not as painful as it sounds but if you look at the raw recommendations, it will look pretty intimidating, especially if you’re in the 50s or even the 60s. Just remember there is a power jump in WotLK. Solo mobs will start looking like elites from TBC. The ones I was fighting as Smaken had health in the five digit range (with elites having six or seven digit ranges) but I was able to handle them. I remember it seeming like a big jump from what I was fighting in the later zones of TBC, but it was doable.

I’m looking forward to it.

Anaphylaxis

What is it? It’s pretty serious.

My oldest son (5) has this type of reaction to egg. We discovered this when he wasn’t even a year old yet and his mom gave him some egg. Fortunately, she called an ambulance and they got there fast enough. We’ve had him tested yearly since and so far it’s shown no sign of lessening.

It has meant changing what we have in the house and the types of food we eat. It also means making people who are going to be watching him aware of the seriousness of the issue because he’s too young to know when egg is in something – ask yourself that next time you pick up something to eat, do you know if there is egg in it or not? Some things he knows about for sure, other things he has to ask about. He has to rely heavily on adults and they have to take it seriously.

Even with all our diligence he’s come into contact with egg once at home, once a party and once at his first daycare. The incident at home happened to be a cloth that was used to wipe up egg was later used to wipe his face. His eye was swollen shut for a day. The birthday party (the hostess is a moron) had treats out on the table and amongt the was a bowl of mayonnaise. Does that make sense to anyone else? Somehow he got in contact with it – go figure, put it in with the goodies and you’ve got a bunch of kids toddling about. Again, his face swelled up. The time at his sitter, he actually ate some bread with mayonnaise on it – apparently only a little. He swelled up, she gave him Benedryl and called the ambulance. They checked on him when they got there and said he was okay but to keep an eye on him.

Lately he’s becoming more aware – that happens with age – of the fact that he’s missing out on some foods. This past Christmas he was in his Kindergarten class party and there was a bunch of cookies, brownies and other baked goods for the kids. Most of them were decorated and looked really nice. None of them had ingredients marked anywhere so we had to assume there was egg in them. This meant he could eat any of those delicious looking treats (he was limited to things we brought) and he got upset but he didn’t touch the other treats.

I don’t expect people to avoid bringing treats in and I don’t expect them to avoid bringing food in that contains egg – there is just too much food that contains egg. It’s just really hard on him to see his friends with all these things he can’t have.

One of my fears is that someone is going to give him something, saying it is safe and not look. That happened yesterday – he’s fine – and how it was handled was all sorts of wrong.

First of all, there was a substitute teacher. She asked if there were any peanut allergies in the class. She was told no, but there was an egg allergy. One of the kids had a birthday that day and his mom sent in chocolate bars. Normally, they send in cake or cupcakes and we have some eggless cupcakes at the school in a freezer for these sorts of occassions. But this mother sent chocolate bars – I’m not going to question that or belittle that, maybe her son really likely chocolate bars and she figured she send some for everyone.

Here are the ingredients:

INGREDIENTS: Sugar, Corn Syrup, Modified Milk Ingredients, Cocoa Butter. Cocoa Mass, Hydrogenated Palm and Palm Kernel Oil, Lactose, Malted Milk Powder (Malted Barley, Milk Ingredients, Sodium Bicarbonate, Salt), Palm Oil, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Dried Egg-White, Artificial Flavor

So the sub didn’t read the ingredients even though she knew there was an allergy. Apparently he reacts differently to Dried Egg-White. Instead of inflating and having his throat swell shut, he threw up, a couple of times.

The school called me at work and left a message. The called my wife at work and left her a message. They didn’t call at home, where I actually was. I only found out about it because my work wife saw a message on my phone from the Catholic School Board and IMed me saying as much. I called them and discovered all of the above an hour after it all happened.

What has me frustrated was the sub asking me, “Should I give him his epy-pen?”

This just annoys the heck out of me because they’re all supposed to be trained to handle this. They also have regular “Personal Development Days”. Oh, and they are no longer required to have a nurse on staff.

I’m going to drop him off today and I’m going to be talking with the teacher and Principal as well. I’m not looking to blame anyone, I’m just looking to raise awareness and ensure their training is refreshed.

D&D 4e Character Builder…

This application is now available in all its level 1 to 30 glory to D&D Insider Subscribers (I got a year long subscription for Christmas). For non-subscribers, you can take a look at a trial version that limits you to levels 1 to 3.

I have to admit, it’s a pretty straight forward and simple application. The installation takes a bit of extra elbow grease due to some of the prerequisite software, but the end result is quite straight forward. It’s like they took a look at how video games (i.e. Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights) handled creating characters and said, “Let’s do that!”

Really, it’s step by step with information available per selection you make so you can get an idea of what you’re picking before you look at it. It guides you through building a character and lets you hop back and forth. It also seems to tie into released content, including Dragon Magazine stuff (with a note of where the material comes from if you want to exclude it). It appears to do this by a built in updater – go figure.

Here’s a look of the content it contains:

The current data set available to create characters includes material from:

• Player’s Handbook
• Dungeon Master’s Guide
• Monster Manual
• Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide
• Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide
• Adventurer’s Vault
• Martial Power
• Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons
• Manual of the Planes
• Online Magazines

• Dragon Issues 364–370
• Dungeon Issues 155–161

• Adventures

• H1 Keep on the Shadowfell
• H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth
• H3 Pyramid of Shadows
• P1 King of the Trollhaunt Warrens
• P2 Demon Queen’s Enclave
• FR1 Scepter Tower of Spellgard

• Preview Content

• The Artificer, levels 1–30 (to appear in Eberron Player’s Guide)
• The Barbarian, levels 1–30 (to appear in Player’s Handbook 2)
• The Bard, levels 1–10 (to appear in Player’s Handbook 2)
• The Druid, levels 1–3 (to appear in Player’s Handbook 2)
• The Invoker, levels 1–3 (to appear in Player’s Handbook 2)

You have to admit, that’s a pretty impressive list considering I don’t even own close to half of those books. I was checking up on this to see how things are coming along. I was thinking about it earlier and wondering if my money was wasted since they don’t have all the D&D Insider Tools complete yet but I am happy to see this.

Still in the pipe is the Character Visualizer, Dungeon Builder and the Virtual Table. I’m have to admit I’m excited about the Virtual Table. I wouldn’t use it to replace my existing group (don’t lynch me guys) but it could be cool for bridging the gap between me and some others who might be interested in playing it.

UPDATE – July 10, 2009:

I just wanted to post a minor update to this entry since it seems to be getting a lot of hits. At the moment, the extra projects have been put on hold or have had development suspended for the time being. This happened awhile back and I did mention it in another entry.

If you subscribe to D&D Insider right now you basically get this tool (which does still get content updates including advanced looks at new source book releases), Dragon magazine and Dungeon magazine (in web or PDF format).

I have to admit, I think this is a good move on Wizard’s part.

By the way, the year subscription cost about as much as a PC game off the shelf.

UPDATE: I poked around with this a little more.

I created some characters from Dragon magazine material and from the Martial Powers sourcebook. I went ahead and made another Ranger, with this one being an Orc (Monster Manual rules for creating Orc characters) and I picked a new build from Martial Powers which has the Ranger give up the weapon spec choices (dual wield or ranged) for focusing on working with an animal companion. Martial Powers also adds a fair number of feats and powers suited to this. Very cool.

Here’s a quick character summary generated by the Character Builder:

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
Karrn, level 1
Orc, Ranger
Build: Beastmaster Ranger
Fighting Style: Beast Mastery
Beast Companion Type: Cat

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 19, Con 14, Dex 15, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 8.

Starting Ability Scores
Str 17, Con 12, Dex 15, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 8.
AC: 15 Fort: 15 Reflex: 13 Will: 10
HP: 26 Surges: 8 Surge Value: 6

TRAINED SKILLS
Nature, Perception, Stealth, Athletics, Endurance.

FEATS
1: Beast Protector

POWERS
1, At-Will: Circling Strike
1, At-Will: Predator Strike
1, Encounter: Enclose the Prey
1, Daily: Partnered Savaging

ITEMS
Raise Beast Companion, Adventurer’s Kit, Hide Armor, Broadsword, Handaxe, Longbow, Arrows (60)
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======

I also poked around with some of the tabs and saw one called “Campaign Settings” under the “Manage” option. Guess what that lets you do? It lets you disable content from other sources. Don’t like Dragon mag content (Darin)? Just disable it. Cool thing is a DM can go in and set all this then export the settings and pass it along to his (or her) players who import it and can make characters to suit these limitations (basically, limit your choices).

Coming from a group where most of the players have also DMed and we all have varying levels or permitted sourcebooks and materials, this is great! (Unfortunately, we’re sticking with 3.5e…)

Other features include a journal (add entries, add images, etc.), an information panel for adding your background or other fleshing out things, a portrait picker and the ability to set XP and level the character up as needed.

It goes beyond just classes, races, powers, feats and builds though, it also includes items, lots of items, for equipping your characters too including the content from the Adventurer’s Vault.

When I bought the source books, there was no where for me to enter any codes or register that I bought these books so all this content comes to you with the subscription - I’m really impressed!

The Current Campaign…

I’m currently the DM in a 3.5e Eberron campaign for a group of seven others that range up as old as… 40 something? I’m actually the youngest in the group. I’m at a point in my life where that isn’t the case so often any more so I enjoy pointing that out.

The group has been subject to a number of plots I’ve been wanting to do for several years now. I’ve been releasing some little short posts of what else is going on in the world or things that have come up based on actions they’ve done and people they’ve interacted with. Some things are straight forward while others have had some twists. I like to mix things up. Too many things being straight forward makes everything predictable and too many twists means the group becomes a little too paranoid.

Sometimes a Goblin carrying a chamber pot is just that…

I enjoyed the brewing emnity between Malik (PC) and Garrow (NPC). An enchanter in the party got off a lucky Charm on a NPC Cleric which annoyed the Cleric to no end. He chased the group down and showed up at bad times throughout their adventures, until finally he managed to capture them – sort of. Unfortunately, he learned the higher ups in his Church wanted them left alone so he let them live, simply leaving them a message. He inquired as to why they were so special but Malik answered truthfully. It was revealed to Malik that their Elven Priest was suspected of being a descendant from a long dead Dragonmarked House, Vol.

This was another tie in I added during character creation and it had a bunch of things that would be set in motion once that player finally used the Mark of Death (the Dragonmark of House Vol). He has since used it and in doing so, changed a lot of things in the Eberron world. Garrow suddenly became a minion (for a short time) while Vol decided it was time to reveal her plans. The Cleric had been… visited… by some Elven maidens who were then taken to another plane where time was faster than what it was on the material plane. They gave birth, the children aged and manifested Marks of Death. They also were taught what they needed to know to return House Vol to its former glory among the Dragonmarked Houses. When they returned, Malik (now a retired PC) was elevated to King of Galifar and the nations that had split off or removed themselves from the Kingdom were brought back under one King. A King that wasn’t beyond using his powers of enchantment, augmented by the devices of the Thirteen Dragonmarked Houses, to force the rulers to submit to his will. House Vol now sits at the top of the Houses, favored by Malik. The Houses have begun to work together for the better of Galifar. They’re investigating the Mournland in hopes of restoring it.

One of the earlier plots I abandoned before it got too far because the group didn’t appear too interested in it. One of the characters it was anchored to actually ended up dying before it could get much further too. I regret this a little because I was going to throw some pretty morally questionable choices at them to see what they’d do. The short of it was some nightmare creatures from another plane were using living hosts to ferry their kind into the material plane. One of them was carrying a key to a ritual that would unlock a portal to this plane of nightmares. The key, a small sphere, contained a potent being which could be used to augment spell casting or counter certain effects. The catch was, the more you used it, the harder it became to resist it and eventually, it would take you over. Sort of like an addiction. Either way, it was a chance for ‘evils’ to do something ‘good’ for a less than good reason – selfishness. Hey, even evil folks would have a hard time submitting to another evil ruler that would prosecute them and treat them like cattle.

Another, which really is what I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, is in the works. I’ve been making a lot of use of the campaign world lore on top of what the characters submitted for the backgrounds and I’m mixing them into what I have planned or tweaking what I have planned if I see something that suits the group a little more. So far I’ve got most of the group hooked or aimed in the direction I wanted them to go. There are a few more that need to have a similar tie in and that will be coming. A few are thoroughly wrapped up in what is happening.

What has been revealled so far is that a god-like being claims to be one the last remaining divine being. The old Gods are long forgotten and the new Gods, all of them, do not exist. Instead, he has been fueling the prayers of those with strong wills.

TANGENT: One of the changed Keith Baker made in Eberron is that the alignment restrictions placed on Clerics are removed. In fact, you didn’t even need to worship an actual God or deity. This really upset a couple of players, one of which suggested he’d never play a Cleric in Eberron. Guess what he’s playing? Guess what plot he is involved in revealing? I’m evil like that. You like what is going on so far right, Ken?

Why this happens has been given an answer. Is it truth or simply the manipulations of some greater power? This being also claims to have had a hand in everything, including the Dragonmarks and Artificer magic. They have seen that things that die on the material plane find their after life taking place on the Plane of Eternal Battle and some have experienced that he can return these souls to the material plane but I don’t know that they’ve connected the cost of it. Doing this consumes the energy in that area, making it an Artificer and Divine magic dead zone.

The being claims to have spread his divine energies out to span the world where it is used by those of strong will. The Cleric can actually see this energy (part of this is RP leading up to the PrC he wants – the Ur Priest which is a Godless Divine caster who steals the energy from other Gods) and is starting to learn how to manipulate it and move it about. He is being guided by another, Dayrus, who has a similar history, even sharing the same abusive Clergyman mentor. Dayrus is also responsible for bringing another character to the material plane, a brutal and vicious Tiefling. The Tiefling also has a role to play and has been called The Reaver – he’s Chaotic Evil, anyone want to guess what his purpose is?

Some things to consider: Why is Divine magic weakened in the Mournland? What will happen if this being is telling the truth and he decides to withdraw the divine energies he supplies? What happened to the folks that used to be on the other side of the journal? What happens if Vol’s own descendant stops believing in her divinity? Vol’s teachings aren’t that far off what the being suggests, what does she know?

A line will be drawn in the future and the player’s may find themselves on opposing sides or they might find themselves together on a difficult side. Either way, what they choose could end the campaign or it might take it in a whole other direction.

I have plans for any choice they make.

*insert evil manical laughter here*

WoW Status…

I guess I’ve been a little quiet about WoW lately. Well, I broke the 60 marker and managed to get my Paladin Charger mount – it’s pretty sweet.

It wasn’t easy, I had to get some help from people in Aftermath. Saur gave me a hand with Stratholme (for the holy Water). Kaldonar (and his son, Damogoth) gave me a hand in Dire Maul. Kaldonar, Styed and Arinos gave me a hand in Scholomance – which, by the way, requires a key to open. A key no one had.

I had to go and get it which didn’t take too long and they were pretty patient with me, which I definitely appreciate.  I called them in to help and wasn’t prepared. That was lacking awesomeness.

I’m now up to level 64 and I’ve run the Hellfire: Ramparts, Hellfire: Blood Furnace and Coilfang Reservoir: Slave Pens. I still have oodles of quests in Hellfire, which I want to complete before going into other zones like Zangarmarsh. With Smaken, I was level 62 and had done all the quests I could in Hellfire before moving on to Zangarmarsh.

I get the feeling I might out level a lot of Burning Crusade content without doing all the zones on this character. I’ve got mixed feelings about that. I liked doing a lot of the quests before but I have done most of them already. So far the Horde side and Alliance side aren’t all that different as far as quests go. I’m not sure if that will change. On the other hand, I’ll be into some of the Wrath of the Lich King content which means I’ll be catching up to where I left off with Smaken.

I’m also worried I won’t be able to afford the epic flying mount. The regular flying mount is in range, but the epic flying mount is a ways off. I suppose it won’t matter much if we’re into WotLK and can’t fly there until 77 and I can afford Cold Flying Training (or what ever).

Another thing I’d like to do is see some of the raids for older zones. No rush I suppose.

 

Oh, here‘s a video I put together for one of the guild Paladins that was asking about being a Protection Paladin. The quality is crappy, I have to figure out how to deal with the wide screen and aspect ratio issues. I also had the sound removed because there was a song in the background that was trademarked/copyrighted. It’s good that YouTube does that and I’ll be more careful next time. I put in a substitute song that is available on YouTube, unfortunately, I couldn’t control where it started.

The video shows me pulling and tanking (at level 62) a bunch of solo mobs (level 61) and clobbering them at once. I was trying to show people that playing a Protection Paladin is different from other specs because you actually want more mobs to attack you than less. The end result is you kill most of them in about the time it takes you to kill one. I also was showing how nice Spiritual Focus is for letting you cast while getting beat on – in this case, I was casting some heals.

The first and last bit was me riding around on the new Charger mount.

You’ll notice my mana doesn’t go down a whole lot. I’m using Seal of Wisdom (every hit on an enemy gives me a chance to get some mana back), I’m judging Light (every hit on an enemy there is a chance I get some health back), I’m using (Improved) Devotion Aura (increased Armor), I use Consecrate (point blank, area effect damage over time – the yellow stuff on the ground), Reckoning pops a few times (increased chance of getting extra swings in), Redoubt pops a few times (a hefty increased chance of blocking) and I use Holy Shield liberally (it also increases block chance for X number of hits and will do damage to attackers it blocks). All that is in use while I’m under the effects of Blessing of Sanctuary (which reduces damage taken and when I block, parry or dodge an attack I get a certain percentage of my mana back) and Righteous Fury (which increases threat generated by Holy spells by 90% and reduces damage taken).

It all adds up to being able to block a lot so I get my mana back fast which allows me to continue to fire off Consecrate, Holy Shield and Holy Light (heal) if I need it.

Oh, I also use Avenger’s Shield (throws the shield and it bounces off several targets damaging them all) and Hammer of Wrath (a finisher that is only available when the target is under 35% health – does some pretty hefty damage) in there too.

“pst” Acronym or Verb?

I have to admit, I chuckle everytime I see someone type, “pst me” or “send me a pst” or “I’ll pst you”.

An acronym, WoWified.

Almost There…

I popped into Stratholme alone last night. I figured I was in the area collecting Arthas’ Tears (flowers) and just did the quest where you clean up some restless spirits so why not take a look and see if I can get the holy water needed for my mount quest.

Sure enough, I saw a sparkly supply case within a couple of pulls of the entrance (which you can’t easily exit from). Solo Paladin, level 60 looking at a bunch of level 58 regular and elite mobs. What’d I do?

I pulled them.

I tagged them with my shield toss and ducked around the corner (some were casters). They bunched up really nicely in front of me and I proceeded to Holy Shield, Consecrate and Judge them down to Hammer of Wrath level (35% or less health).  It wasn’t easy and I had to heal myself several times – though handling mana was easy thanks to Redoubt triggering, Seal of Wisdom + Reckoning, Holy Shield and Blessing of Sanctuary.

I moved on to the next group and pulled. Then another. Then another and I was finally in reach of the box. Clicky…

“You cannot see your target.”

What? Move, clicky.

“You cannot see your target.”

Move, clicky, move, clicky… grrr. I grumbled about it in guild chat which got an immediate response. It was so immediate I almost missed it. Saur, a level 80 Death Knight, said he could pop by and give me a hand.

Man, I love this guild. People are so nice and helpful.

Being me, I kept pulling and clearing. It was fun though I almost died against the wandering abomination that punts you backwards which interrupts casting. Clever timing of the heal, use of stun and bandages won out the day though.

Soon enough, Saur arrived and proceeded to clear through the rest of the instance – even though I got the holy water I needed not too long after he showed up. Again, pretty awesome of him.

Things went pretty smoothly until he told me, “Don’t agro the this, k?” I stepped back and waited. He attacked a named banshee on one of those ziggurats and suddenly he turned red and started attacking me. I almost didn’t notice it because I was clearing crap out of my bags. After taking a few of his hits, I decided I’d let him live and not kill him off. He was helping me out so I figured I’d take one for him.

The run back wasn’t too painful, I managed to get a key to the city so now I can unlock almost everything in there. Very cool instance, I liked the feel of it and got the impression there was a really neat story behind it (witnessing the Scarlet Crusade folks battling off undead and the undead flowing in behind us as we were clearing the Scarlet Crusade complex).

We (okay, Saur) beat down the rest of the stuff in the instance while I cured diseases and dropped the odd heal here and there. He wasn’t spec’ed for tanking so I had to be careful what I did so as not to grab agro. We got down to the Baron but he refused to give up his mount. Ah well.

Thanks again, Saur.

I handed in the quests I completed and got the follow up to get the enriched horse food. I stopped there though because it was almost 1am and I knew if I didn’t stop there, I’d probably push on and get myself into trouble in Dire Maul.

I’ll save that for a later date.

In other games, I was playing a little of Wizard 101 with my Big Little Ogre. He’s up to level 17 (I think) with his Myth/Ice Wizard. He’s got a bunch of other combinations he’s using but that is the one that is the farthest ahead. I got my Life/Balance Wizard up to 15th and popped into Krakatopia to help him out.

Man, you can really use that “Go to Location” friend teleport to trivialize things. We did the Sunken City instance together and sometimes had one of us gate back to the tower or home, collect some mana then teleport back to the other guy while we were in the middle of combat.

We were also using it to help me get caught up in quests. When I was off to hand something in, he’d move on to the other area and wait for me near what I needed.

Sounds sneaky? Am I teaching him bad things like exploiting systems?

It was his idea. I think it was innocent and he was trying to be helpful.

I have to admit, I really like Wizard 101 for the kids, even the Little Little Ogre gets involved. He’ll select cards and play them for me when I’m helping Little Big Ogre out. Other times he’ll play his own little character and just run around.

It also teaches them a bit about thinking ahead or even some simple strategies. It gets a little trickier as you advance too. One of the encounters I had to help out with involved some Dark Sprites using some sort of absorb spell? It was blocking all of Little Big Ogre’s myth spells and he lost that fight a few times.

I’m impressed he didn’t go into a barbarian rage and smash stuff – which is another thing he is learning to deal with, failure. That’s something we often try to avoid for our kids and it’s getting to be a real issue once they get older where they have to deal with it but aren’t prepared to do so.

All sorts of good little lessons in there. Oh and his reading is getting better too.

I’m Jealous…

I just watched Obama’s speech and have to say that I wish Canada had leaders like him to pick from. He spoke with clarity, conviction and feeling. I suppose the closest choice we have to him is Jack Layton, but Layton comes off feeling more like a salesperson than a leader. I can remember waiting for him to say, “And if you act now…” where as you don’t get that from Obama at all.

Obama had a lot of good things to say and made me feel a little sorry for Bush having to sit there, almost like he was rattling off things Bush should have done.

I’m jealous you Americans had a chance to vote for this man and I shake my head at the current state of Canadian politics. I cringe at having to vote again in such a short time for, most likely, the same candidates.

“… time to shed our childish ways…” I hope the Canadian political parties were listening to that.

Happy Blue Monday!

Apparently today is supposed to be one of the more depressing days of the year given the proximity to Christmas (credit card bills coming), New Years (this is about the time where you realize you failed at your resolution), weather being cold and boredom (product of it being cold and inhospitable outside).

Yeah, some of the motivations behind it are commercial, but maybe there is a bit of truth behind it. Or maybe I’m just drawing a connection because it’s a general enough list of symptoms. Truth is, I generally feel this way on Monday so I don’t think its a matter of any of the above.

Grooming…

… is really important, but can you please leave things like clipping nails for your time at home and spare everyone in the office?

Either he has 20 fingers or he’s doing his toes too!