Some New Links

I've added a bunch of new links to the sidebar today, as I like to have that section of the site representing the sites I most often visit on the internet.

Candlekeep is the best resource on the net for information regarding the Forgotten Realms D&D world of which I am so fond.

Amazon UK is my favourite place to shop for books and DVD's.

The Sweat Shop is a new store that sells individual D&D Miniature figures. I've recently foudn that these figures add a lot to the experience of running my Friday night games, so it is handy to have a store that sells them at a good price and gets them in the mail quickly. Plus it's a big help being able to buy specific figures rather than having to hope the figure I want is in a specific booster pack.

The Internet Movie Database is a huge resource of information of all kinds about just about any movie (and TV shows too for that matter) I can think of. This is where I get the quotes for the series of "Quotes From Three Movies" posts that I do.

Wizards of the Coast is the company that produces the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game (amongst many other things). When it comes to roleplaying books, I rarely buy products from anyone else.

Also I've changed the link to Celluloid Heroes as the writer of that blog moved to a new server. That's all for now, update complete. If you've not visited any of those sites before, I suggest giving them a try.

Locked Out

I guess it had to happen eventually. Today for the first time since I've been living in my current home, I left the house without my keys. I was pretty quick to realise this, in fact I was stood outside (having just left the house), when I patted my pockets to check that I had what I needed on me. Wallet? Check! Delivery Slip from the Royal Mail? Check! Keys? Fuck, bugger, shit, damn etc etc!!

As you might have guessed I was heading out on a walk to go and fetch a parcel from the Royal Mail Sorting Office as it wouldn't fit through our letterbox. There are currently 5 parcels/packets which I am expecting, and this could have been any of them. So I made the best of a bad situation. Knowing that Gareth would be home around 4:30ish, and the time then being just before 3pm, I took a leisurely stroll through French Weir Park to the Sorting Office, and picked up my parcel. Which was tiny. Of all the parcels I am expecting, this was the smallest.

Having fetched that I headed to the flat of my good friend Richard Adams, figuring that he'd likely be in and wanting some place to hang out for an hour or two. So we chatted whilst he was installing the City of Villains game, and we watched a couple episodes of Futurama (a show that I adore), until it was time for me to head on home, via a quick stop in Morrisons to pick up a loaf of Tiger Bread, some Roule cheese and a can of Corned Beef.

Thankfully by the time I got home, Gareth had been home for some time and he was quick to answer the door (likely helped along by my continually knocking the door until he opened it. This may also have contibuted to the decidely frosty greeting I got!). So I got locked out earlier today, which is a stupid thing to do, but for it to have happened once in the over 2 years I've been living here now is, I think, a pretty good record. Certainly this was a lot less hassle than the time I locked myself out of my old flat on Priorswood Road... now that was trouble!

Yarr!

Avast mateys, it be International Talk Like A Pirate Day! I might have forgotten all about this most grand of events a year ago, but not this time! So run up the Main Sail Jim Lad and let's set sail to plunder the Spanish Main! And don't ferget to feed Polly, she get's mighty irritable when ye don't, and I prefer me ear unpecked!

Get The Fuck Out

I was introduced to this band by my old friend and next door neighbour Robert Tutill not long after we first moved to Taunton. He had already got me listening to the music of Guns 'N' Roses, and he brought around to our house a casette with both of Skid Rows albums taped onto it. Needless to say my Mum didn't like this loud aggressive music, so I loved it. I grew up on the angry music of this band and a handful of their contemporarys like Aerosmith, Meatloaf and Def Leppard. This is a song that the band got in trouble with concert venues for singing, the London Arena going as far as to issue the band with a warning against singing it... which the band tore up on stage and sang the song anyway!

Get The Fuck Out by Skid Row

Well your jokes ain't funny and there's nothin' you say that I wanna hear
The sound of the door slammin' your ass out is music to my ears
If I can't beat you then I m gonna beat you to a pulp
So can the TV rays and take my tonsil glaze right down your throat

You're standin' too close what the fuck's with you?
You ain't my old lady and you ain't a tattoo
No need to whimper no need to shout
This party's over so get the fuck out
Get the fuck out

Well I puke. I stink. Bitch get me a drink 'cause I m payin' for the room
I ain't buying you breakfast so keep your mouth busy and wrap your lips all around my attitude
Take a walk with me with your triple double D's and your 40 foot do
Why you walkin' funny?
You must have spent some time with the boys in the crew

You're standin' too close what the fuck's with you?
You ain't my old lady and you ain't a tattoo
No need to whimper no need to shout
This party's over so get the fuck out
Get the fuck out

The morning's comin' in and this is my bed
If I find you here when I wake up
The maid is gonna find me dead.

You're standin' to close what the fuck's with you
You ain't my old lady and you ain't a tattoo
No need to whimper no need to shout
This party's over so get the fuck out
Get the fuck out
Get the fuck out
Get the fuck out

Pub Lunch

I have today off work. This is a rare occurence, in fact I cannot remember the last time I had a Saturday off work, that wasn't due to me being off on holiday. Every Saturday lunchtime a bunch of my friends have for moths now been meeting up at Henry's pub in the High Street for a meal and a pint and to chat for an hour or so. I normally miss out on this, as while I have a lunch hour at work, there's no way I'm going to walk all the way up there, order a meal, have it arrive and get the time to enjoy eating it, plus get back to work i that hour. Ain't going to happen!

So it was nice to be able to be there today. I was the first to arrive too, though Gareth turned up a couple minutes later. We were also swiftly joined by my mate Derek Adams. The three of us got our drinks and Gareth and I ordered food and we went upstairs to sit. I had wanted a bottle of Strongbow Sirrus, a mild cider that I've become quite fond of recently. Unfortunately the pub has stopped stocking it, so I tried a bottle of Magner's cider instead. According to my brother this stuff sells like crazy at the warehouse he works at. After trying a bottle I can't see why, it doesn't taste of much at all. I was left very unimpressed.

For a meal Gareth ordered what he always orders (Gammon steak with chips and egg), and I went with my usual meal also (Giant Yorkshire Pudding filled with sausages, garden peas, mashed potato and gravy). I also tried a side order of mushrooms, but I don't think I'll bother with them again. I don't have the same meal because of lack of choice, Henry's has a very good menu with plenty of variety on it, I just know what I like and when I'm short on money I'd rather spend it on food tat I know I am going to enjoy.

We were eventually also joined by Tony and Craig, a smaller group than is usually present, but then both Dan and Richard were in work, whlst Jen and Matt are having a quiet weekend to themselves. We chatted about all sorts of things as usual, with no single topic dominating, though I think the LARP group that the others attended recently being cancelled was the longest we spent talking about anything. It was a nice lunch, made better by us having the upstairs to ourselves for the most part. I finally left not long after Gareth went back to work, as I wanted to browse around a few shops in town. Didn't buy anything (though I was tempted to get the Directors Cut of Hellboy for just £6.97 in Music Zone). All in all a nice way to spend some of the day.

Faces Of Deception: A Book Review

I'm not entirely sure what it is about Elaine Cunningham's books that makes me not want to write reviews of them, but having recently finished The Dream Spheres by her I find myself uninterested in describing the book. At any rate I give it a 3/5 rating.

So with that done, on to the next book, which I finished reading yesterday. Faces Of Deception by Troy Denning is a Forgotten Realms novel and the second in a quartet of stand-alone tales entitled Lost Empires. I'm not entirely sure why the book is in this set though, because unlike the other 3 books in the series, this one does not feature some secret from a past fallen kingdom. It is set in the present day of the Realms.

The main character of the book is Atreus Eleint, a human of noble birth whose mother had him cursed with ugliness to hide him from the families enemies during the civil strife that tore the nation of Tethyr apart not long after he was born. His family were all killed in the strife, but he (and his families considerable wealth) survived in the care of the Shieldbreaker clan of ogres, who were his families former bodyguards. With his frightfully ugly features, he blended in with the young of the clan and his life was thus spared. Now a grown man, Atreus has found that getting rid of the curse is proving to be very hard, even for a man of his means.

To this end he has essentially bought himself a place in the faithful of Sune Firehair, the Goddess of Beauty. While his money is more than welcome though, he is not and to this end the temple's priests give him a false vision, sending him on a near impossible quest to find the mystical/mythical valley of Langdarma and to bring back a vial of sparkling water from the Fountain of Infinite Grace. Do this they claim, and his looks would be restored to normal. Utterly convinced by the vision, he and his ogre bodyguard Yago set off at once.

The next chapter is set some five months later after the pair have travelled many hundreds of miles to the state of Edenvale, in an area of the Realms not actually on the map of the continent of Faerun (in fact I cannot for the life of me find any map of the area where Edenvale is located) called The Utter East. There they get a short and rather confusing audience with the geriatric queen who orders her troops to send the pair back home. Cue an escape sequence over rooftops and through alleyways, helped by a native named Rishi.

Rishi is a thoroughly unlikeable character. A liar and a thief, who exagerrates about everything. I despised him within a page of reading about him. And yet Atreus just keeps on making allowances for this worm, even when he catches him trying to steal from him on more than one occassion. Continuing with the plot, the trio (and another lying thief called Bharat who is an accomplice of Rishi) head into the wilds of the Yehimal Mountains, being pursued by the Queen's guards, in particular a patrol led by a captain named Naraka.

Seeking to lose them after a fight in which Bharat is killed (by Rishi!), the group head into a bitterly cold swamp, and there they run into a group of slavers led by a devil (literally) called Tarch. Amongst his captives is the lovely Seema, a woman of great beauty and strong pacifist ideals. When Atreus and Rishi have dealt with the guards and then the slavers, she joins the group in gratitude, though she continually claims that Langdarma doesn't exist. Not willing to take her word over that of a goddess, Atreus and his companions continue up into the mountains, now pursued by Tarch who wants Seema back as she will fetch a high price at market.

I'm not giving anything away to say that yes they do find Langdarma and that it isn't what they expect (certainly it is neither Rishi or Yago's idea of a paradise). The book is a frustrating read, as in places it is very philosophical on the nature of paradise, beauty, honour and such things. It makes you stop and think. None of the characters is entirely right or wrong (except Rishi who is just plain annoying all the way through), even Seema whose admonition against killing prevents the group for simply dealing with Tarch, they instead unwittingly leading a devil into paradise.

The books ending leaves a lot to be desired though, as it just simply ends. There is no resolution of any kind, and you are left wondering what happens next as the book finishes on a cliffhanger of sorts, yet there is no follow-up book to it. I'm going to award this book 2/5. While it is well written it doesn't feel like a Realms book at all, it doesn't fit in with the theme of Lost Empires, it has no ending (or at least no end that feels like an end), and in Rishi, it has arguably the single most annoying character I've ever had the displeasure to read about.

Nap Attack

I finished work at 4:30pm today and after buying a bottle of Iced Tea from the store I work in, made my way home through the park. I don't really remember the walk home, but at some point just after 5pm I got home and sat at my computer for a bit. I can remember talking to Tony on MSN and telling him that he had one of those "You weren't in" notes from the Royal Mail waiting for him, and he saying that he'd drop by the Sorting Office on his way home to pick up whatever parcel it was.

I was tired and so I decided to take a nap. As I don't have work today, I didn't set my alarm and decided I'd just let my body decide when it had had enough sleep. I was a lot more tired than I thought it seems. I've just woken up after a NINE AND A HALF HOUR Nap!! So it's now gone 3am, I'm wide awake and couldn't sleep now if I tried (and I have). What to do, what to do?