Lord Malachdrim

If what I just saw on TV is correct then Boondock Saints II is coming.

So North Korea is testing more missiles. We'll negotiate and grant new concessions, even though they're basically bluffing.

Iran is continuing to do it's thing and pretty much ignoring/laughing at us. Israel is going to hit them and when they do it's going to cause a hell of a mess for us.

Afghanistan is a nightmare where our troops basically have their hands tied behind their backs due to our current rules of engagement. And they are spread too thin to really be able to even defend themselves adequately. All the while our government is sitting around saying which way did he go George?

I'm not a touchy feely person so here's my thoughts on this.
1) the world hates us already so to hell with what they think.
2) either pullout of Afghanistan or take the gloves off.
3) If North Korea or Iran do something stupid. All bets are off. Use the best gear we have to take out their air defenses and then send in the old cold war style bombers loaded with old fashioned unguided bombs. The old guys do nice damage (can be incendiary as well) and they are a crap ton cheaper then 'smart' bombs/missiles. For the illusion of humanitarian efforts we can do something like announce that "we are going to hit one of the following cities in 48 hours" Anyone who ignores the warning...sucks to be them. Again though this is if they do something first.
4) Energy independence. I say drill, use the oil shale, natural gas and so on. Is it a final solution probably not but it'll cover the short term while we build the "green" energy infrastructure. Nuke plans...build new ones. The ones we have are old and growing more and more difficult to maintain. New ones are cleaner, smaller, and more efficient. And anyone that say's differently just remember that the US Navy uses them on their ships.
5) Immigration reform? No. Just enforce the rules we have in this country. As I said I am not a touchy feely person, so if your here illegally then good bye. Do not pass go do not collect 200 dollars.
6) As for balancing the budget. Stop funding so many inane programs. As well as giving money to foreign countries. Bring troops home from the various cold war bases around the world (why to we still have large numbers of troops stationed in England and Germany?


Just a couple of quick thoughts as I try to wake up for work this morning. Speaking of work I wish the Department of Education wasn't buying student loans from various banks. They give one reason why they're doing it and it makes sense when they say that. But they only tend to buy one part of a students loans. So that the student now has to pay multiple locations when they finish with school. And what's the government's solution offer consolidations under the Direct Loan program which has different terms and rules then the student agreed to when they took out the loans for school.

Just like the new Income Based repayment plan the Goverment is pushing us and banks to offer. Here's how it works take your Adjusted Gross Income from taxes and compare it to your loans. Based on that they decide how much you will pay per month for that year (low as $0). Readjust every year. Interest accrues on the account every day the entire time and it would normally. After 25 years in total. Any outstanding balance and accrued interest is forgiven. Sounds good right? Well here's the kicker. The total amount that was forgiven must be reported as income on your taxes. Yep you don't have to make any more payments, but you're going to get hit with a large tax bill. And if you don't/can't pay that...well you just have to convince the IRS of that. Have fun.

And it came to pass in the Age of Insanity that the people of
The land called America, having lost their morals, their initiative,
And their will to defend their liberties, chose as their Supreme
Leader that person known as "The One".

He emerged from the vapors with a message that had no meaning; but
He hypnotized the people telling them, "I am sent to save you.
My lack of experience, my questionable ethics, my monstrous ego,
And my association with evil doers are of no consequence. For I
Shall save you with Hope and Change.

Go, therefore, and proclaim throughout the land that he who
Preceded me is evil, that he has defiled the nation, and that all he
Has built must be destroyed." And the people rejoiced, for even
Though they knew not what "The One" would do, he had promised
That it was good; and they believed.
And "The One" said "We live in the greatest country in the world. Help me
Change everything about it!"
And the people said, "Hallelujah! Change is good!"

Then He said, "We are going to tax the rich fat-cats." And the
People said "Sock it to them!"
"And redistribute their wealth."
And the people said, "Show us the money!"
And then He said, "Redistribution of wealth is good for
Everybody"

And Joe the plumber asked, "Are you kidding me? You're going to steal my
Money and give it to the deadbeats??" And "The One" ridiculed and taunted
Him, and Joe's
Personal records were hacked and publicized.

One lone reporter asked, "Isn't that Marxist policy?"
And she was banished from the kingdom!

Then a citizen asked, "With no foreign relations experience and
Having zero military experience or knowledge, how will you deal with
Radical terrorists?" And "The One" said, "Simple.. I shall sit with
Them and talk with them and show them how nice we really are; and
They will forget that they ever wanted to kill us all!" And the
People said, "Hallelujah!! We are safe at last, and we can beat our
Weapons into free cars for the people!"

Then "The One" said, "I shall give 95% of you lower taxes." And
One, lone voice said, "But 40% of us don't pay ANY taxes." So "The
One" said, "Then I shall give you some of the taxes the fat-cats
Pay!" And the people said, "Hallelujah!! Show us the money!"

Then "The One" said, "I shall tax your Capital Gains when you
Sell your homes!" And the people yawned and the slumping housing
Market collapsed. And He said, "I shall mandate employer-funded health
Care for
EVERY worker and raise the minimum wage. And I shall give every
Person unlimited healthcare and medicine and transportation to the
Clinics." And the people said, "Give me some of that!"

Then he said, "I shall penalize employers who ship jobs
Overseas." And the people said, "Where's my rebate check?"

Then "The One" said, "I shall bankrupt the coal industry and
Electricity rates will skyrocket!" And the people said, "Coal is
Dirty, coal is evil, no more coal! But we don't care for that part
About higher electric rates." So "The One" said, "Not to worry. If
Your rebate isn't enough to cover your expenses, we shall bail you
Out. Just sign up with ACORN and your troubles are over!"

Then He said, "Illegal immigrants feel scorned and slighted.
Let's grant them amnesty, Social Security, free education, free
Lunches, free medical care, bi-lingual signs and guaranteed
Housing..." And the people said, "Hallelujah!!" And they made
Him King!

And so it came to pass that employers, facing spiraling costs
And ever-higher taxes, raised their prices and laid off workers.
Others simply gave up and went out of business and the economy sank
Like unto a rock dropped from a cliff.
The banking industry was destroyed. Manufacturing slowed to a
Crawl. And more of the people were without a means of support.

Then "The One" said, "I am the "The One" - The Messiah - and I'm
Here to save you! We shall just print more money so everyone will
Have enough!" But our foreign trading partners said unto Him, "Wait
a minute. Your dollar is not worth a pile of camel dung! You will
have to pay more..." And the people said, "Wait a minute. That is
unfair!!" And the world said, "Neither are these other idiotic
programs you have embraced. Lo, you have become a Socialist state
and a second-rate power. Now you shall play by our rules!"
And the people cried out, "Alas, alas!! What have we done?" But
yea verily, it was too late. The people set upon "The One" and spat
upon him and stoned him, and his name was dung. And the once mighty
nation was no more; and the once proud people were without
sustenance or shelter or hope. And the Change "The
One" had given them was as like unto a poison that had destroyed
them and like a whirlwind that consumed all that they had built.
And the people beat their chests in despair and cried out in anguish,
"Give us back our nation and our pride and our hope!!" But it was
too late, and their homeland was no more.

HackMaster Basic arrived here on Monday, and I've spent the last couple of days reading though it and getting familiar with it.

1) It's a new game (as it had to be), but still has the proper feel.

2) It's basic so even though it's a complete game it is lacking things that those of us who are use to the complexity of HackMaster 4th Edition are familiar with.

3) Can't wait to tear into a game.

June, unemployment still growing, debt growing faster, plans to spend more, Korea laughing at the world, UN still hasn't grown a pair, Mexico still wasting ammo, and media full of babel.

Change? Nope, just greater extremes of the old.

So my children how do you like your savior?

Fitting New Years song

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29

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Ok so I just saw "Monsters and Mazes" staring Tom Hanks (old movie) and it has one very clear message. RPGs make you into a crazy, loony that can no longer tell the difference between the fantasy game world and real life.

That combined with "Darkon" that portrays LARPers as nothing but pathetic losers with no life or social skills (to be honest a fairly accurate portrayal) does nothing to help those who enjoy these hobbies (well RPGs since larping is for social losers and loonies).

After weeks on extremely long days (on the road by 4am and back around 6pm) my schedule is finally looking a bit more manageable. thus here I am making a quick update. Lets see what have I been up to. Well there's the once a month trip to Canton (like this weekend's going to be) to spend time with Kris and slowly break in the rookies that call themselves a gaming club (D&D 3.x and 4.x are the limits of experience in that club). Then theres re-reading the Honor Harrington books, converting Warhammer FRP to Mongoose RuneQuest (a nice system with a free SRD available on their web page), Getting back in to Traveller slowly (tons of Cannon information to reabsorb), Slowly learning more about the new edition of HackMaster set to appear in 09, and of course play Left 4 Dead with Andy on xbox live.

Plus with the holidays fast approaching I doubt I'll be bored much for awhile yet. And not long after the holidays are over ARCON will be here and I've still got work to do for this years tourney (multi-rounder at that).

And the meltdown has begun.

And now we wait to see which evil will reside in the white house. No matter what should been interesting times.

Rudy may be a crazy loon but he does know how to speak.

I was out in Albany back on Wednesday and once again I wonder about the intelligence of those people. Do they put something in the water?

Is anyone out there paying attention to what's going on over in Europe? I'm trying but constantly finding coverage of it being downplayed in favor of McBama fluff.

Evening, afternoon, what ever. Not too much going on here outside of work at the moment. Jess is off with Kerry, Kevin, Amanda, and some Matt fellow at a animecon (big surprise there huh?).

I've been having to get up for work around 4am the last couple of weeks so I'm beat since I haven't been able to get to bed anywhere near as early as I should be. In a couple of weeks Kris moves into her apartment in Canton which sucks because she'll be a bit farther away and at the same time it'll be good for her to get out on her own for a bit. I'm hoping to head up that weekend and give her a hand moving in and getting settled.

Other then that not much going on. Well I think I pissed off a person I use to know fairly well but then its hard to tell since it's all be though text. Ah well, best get going. I'll try to keep this thing updated even though there isn't much to post about.

It's been a string of early days (2:00am today for example) at work. I'm busy with a few things at work that could make life really crazy for a few months.


Right now I'm trying to unwind before I crash for the night since I have to go to Rochester tomorrow. I'm also working on some gaming projects that are a bit long term in nature and hopefully this will work out.

So I was out in Johnstown and Amsterdamn today and looking around at the various signs and listening to the people out there talk led me to a simple conclusion. The IQ of Watertown is probably double that of those inbred slugs.


Going to be a busy weekend it seems.

Long day

Spent a good portion of it hooking up a large screen HD tv, xbox 360, wii, bose sound system and computer all together into one monster entertainment setup.

Then it was off into a metal shed to rearrange and move some things into. Oh and help push a Dodge Ram 1500 out of the garage (heavy fucker).

So a long, hot as hell day.

At lest the heat of the last few days broke today but I doubt the cool air will last very long.