Checking In...

Okay, it's been a bit.

Basically, the heat wave that I had though had broken ramped up to hotter, but less humid over the past week. The outdoors felt like being in a blast furnace. That's no place for a sweater vest. Yesterday wasn't so bad, but I woke up so late I didn't have time for much else than a t-shirt and shorts. Sue me...

The weather forecast states that the heat has broken for about the five days or so, and I will take advantage of this to go back to the "uniform" I prefer to present to customers while at the store.

Things at the store are progressing slowly. I am finding my way back to actually doing stuff again after taking a mental break. I think it is because I do see a break on the horizon and am sort of (guiltily) looking forward to it that I am getting back into the idea of doing work. Work-wise, I had kind of shut down, just needing a mental break from things. It's hard to do that when I have employees who want to work on projects they feel need to be done, but I am not ready for that stage of work to happen yet. They chomp at the bit, and in doing so unknowingly antagonize me, the person who is actually trying to feel like SOMETHING is getting cleared off of the plate before we add another helping on. Eventually, there's too much proverbial food on the table and I finally go "I'm full" and step away from "eating" altogether for a bit.

It's not the best defensive mechanism. It's moody, uncommunicative, and generally leaves people wondering "WTF, mate"? It is however, the only defensive mechanism I have that does not involve me either...

A) ...screaming incoherently at people who don't deserve it...

and/or

B) ...randomly wandering the countryside killing hookers with a spoon...

Jus' sayin'...

-- GopherDave

The New Bat-Guy...

Tired GopherDave is tired...

Took the family to see the Dark Knight Rises last night. Many people around me thought is was excellent. I thought it was merely good. Here's why...

1) The core plot combines two of Batman's more recent comic story lines, Knightfall and No Man's Land. I love the Knightfall storyline, as it shows Batman coming back from adversity and defeating a foe that is a physical superior and an almost mental equal. I hate the No Man's Land storyline as it was rabidly stupid and no government would act the way the United States government was portrayed in that storyline.

2) I felt that while the movie was good, there wasn't enough Batman in it. A *TON* of Bruce Wayne, but not much Batman.

3) This movie really made me sit up and take notice about how discreet the DC Comics films are compared to their Marvel counterparts. Give the main situation happening in the film, I think Superman or Wonder Woman or Green Lantern, or even the Atom and/or Dollman would have dropped by and asked if Bats needed a hand.

To compare against another comic-book movie blockbuster...

The Avengers was a fantastic comic-book film. There was action, humor, tension, but best of all, the movie was fun to watch.

The Dark Knight Rises is an epic tale made with the tone of a (very) serious movie. It is a fine movie, and deserves the praise it is generating.

It just didn't seem like a superhero movie to me...

Your mileage may vary...

-- GopherDave

Bull In A China Shop...

I am currently a bit discombobulated... I have done some things to hurt someone close to me. I did not realize the extent of the damage I had caused as some of the things I did to cause the displeasure happened around six months to a year ago. In short, I feel like an ass. I am trying to arrange an opportunity to speak with this person to tell them how sorry I am in a face-to-face context, but understandably, they want some space.

As far as friends go, I am most definitely a double-edged sword. I can be fun, funny, loyal, and a blast to hang around. I can also be brusque, brutally honest, and oblivious to the feelings and positions of others. There have been times I have called myself "the friend that everyone needs, but no one wants to have". I call things as I see them, and I typically do not hold anything back. Doing so can reveal great truth to a person, but also expose them to great pain. When confronted about it, I tend to get more direct, and a tad belligerent about the whole deal. I have tempered how I act as I have gotten older, but have not changed it entirely.

As a result, my behavior has caused me to lose some very good friends that I have valued highly. It might have just done so again. Personally, I am hoping otherwise...

-- GopherDave

Can't Sleep... Clowns Will Eat Me...

I wasn't certain this combination would work. The green and purple make it look Joker-esque, but I believe the brown helps pull it together nicely.

Hey all... It's Saturday morning. Your humble narrator has gotten about four hours worth of sleep before pulling himself back into the store. It is supposed to be one of our "Minis Day" where folks can come use tables for miniature games, but no one is here yet, and two of our main miniatures guys are help some friends move today, so... we'll see what happens.

Tonight is Shady's Terracide game. At this point I have no idea what is happening. Either we are playtesting the Savage Worlds version of the setting, transferring the whole campaign over, or just playing another segment of it in S-Dub. To be honest, I have no clue. I'll find out later tonight.

Friday Night Magic was another "silly" night here, with 40 people packed in to play. We only have 46 spots, so it wasn't maximum, but it was close for the second week in a row. On top of it being release day for the new Core Set, it made for a very busy and tiring day.

Taking off for now... May check in later, but don't count on it. =P

-- GopherDave

All Seems Go...

Okay... late night, early morning... here goes...

The Point of Sale at the store seems like the damage has been repaired. Three clean sweeps from three different virus scanning programs with nothing outside of tracking cookies found (and destroyed). Much thanks to PC and RNR Cowboy for the help with the magical, blinking box. 'Tis appreciated, folks.

Today is the release for the new Magic: the Gathering M13 Core Set. We cracked packs for singles last night, and while we got done earlier than usual, it still made for a late night for me. Many MANY thanks to Loquacious, TinyLittleBabyMan, Big Bank, LaneLane, Snow, HiSign, and Double L for the help. It was fun, but you guys knocked it out of the park.

Finally, I broke down and purchased the 40K 6thEd rulebook. I haven't had a lot of chance yet to look through it, but it *LOOKS* pretty and has LOTS of that "new book smell" going on, so that's something. On first VERY CURSORY thumb-through, it looks pretty good. Once I am up to speed, I think I will break out the Mexi-Marines and go shoot some things.

Seems like a plan... =)

-- GopherDave

Still Checking...

Came into the store this morning to a clean virus scan. So far, so good. We are running a couple more with different programs, just to be certain.

Also, to place our credit/debit card-using customers at ease... The machine we use to process credit/debit transactions is, and has always been, separate and discrete from our point-of-sale system. There was talk of tying them together, but that never happened as I am lazy by nature and didn't follow through.

Now, I'm glad we didn't...

I have been talking with PC about locking down the browser to a few select web sites, and he stated that while it might help, the bulk of the malware he is seeing is being delivered via fake advertisements coming through services like Adclick and the like. If that's the case, then no one is truly safe from this crap, as web ads have become a part of daily Internet life. The malware propagators have found a truly ingenious and insidious way to dispense things to us, whether we want them or not.

We have now entered the era of Internet "pest control". We cannot stop them from getting in 100% of the time, so now we have to settle for killing them when they show up.

Ain't technological evolution grand?

-- GopherDave

Groove Check...

Today started out with something bad and it's still continuing. The point-of-sale computer at the store has caught a virus that won't let go. PC and RRC came over and did what they could with their limited time. We thought we had found everything and was finalizing clean-up when three more infections popped up. The machine works, but it is slow. PC is coming over tomorrow morning to see what he can do with more time. I'm thinking we take the machine offline and leave it there. If nothing else, it can get cleaned without the "back-door" Trojan letting more crap in.

This whole thing has kind of colored my day and put me mentally off my game. I'm trying to get back into the swing of what I figure I should be doing. That is working on game stuff. I think I'll go try to do so, if life lets me...

-- GopherDave