Category Archives: Gamer

Calling All Dark Lights

What’s a Dark Light?

Someone who has seen the darkness. Someone who has experienced incalculable loss. Someone who has felt indescribable pain. And passed through the terrible veil without losing their light. A light they now share with others to help them grow, to persevere and someday again to thrive. They’re healers, empaths, writers, artists. They are us.

Where Did It Come From?

Inspired by The Left Hand of Light, originally published in early 2013, whose lead character Michael is a Dark Light pursued by forces of Shadow while an empath under his protection discovers her own talents as a healer, Dark Lights are called to help others despite the darkness that surrounds their own lives.

A Community of Dark Lights, a Society of Broken Healers

Now more than ever, the world needs its Dark Lights. Suffering, oppression, pain are all taking their toll on our fellow human beings. Many are confused and want guidance. Others are in pain and seek solace. Some are lonely and cannot find their voice.

What Next?

If you’re a Dark Light, let’s connect. Let’s read together, write together and help together. We can be the faint light in the darkness that gives hope to that one person who needs it most right now.

More to follow…

Zombies!

English: Front Cover of "The Do-it-Yourse...

English: Front Cover of “The Do-it-Yourself Guide to Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Got this from Jim Hay of ConDor Con fame.

The creators of The Walking Dead will be giving you a chance to see how you would do in the zombie apocalypse this Judy 12 – 14. Petco Park, across from Comic-Con will be “infested with zombies where you will climb, crawl, hide and slide your way to safety.” http://www.thewalkingdeadescape.com/. $70 for “35 – 50 minutes of Walking Dead Madness”.

For those who wish to join the ranks of the undead, the San Diego Zombie Walk will be conducting their usual Gaslamp walk during Comic-con on Friday, July 13th. http://www.sdzombiewalk.com/ (No charge, but you provide your own costume.)

And on October 20th, in Temecula, there will be a 5K “Zombie Marathon” in Temecula, for more practice in advance of Armageddon. http://runforyourlives.com/locations/south-temecula-ca/ (Currently $77 and filling fast.)

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Condorcon 2012 Delivers

English: A twenty-sided die (d20) as used in w...

Condorcon 2012 was awesome this year. Met a lot of great authors and artists, including the lovely Kat Rocha (wife of Josh Finney) of 01 Publishing; Alicia Hollinger, Liliana Atanasio, and Tom Kirkbride, creator of the Gamadin sagas. Played a little Dungeons & Dragons with @securesandiego (aka Ron Simmons) and his awesomely wild brood. Workshopped a little sci-fi poetry with my Science Fiction Poetry Association peeps. There wasn’t enough time in the day to do it all.

I appreciate Condorcon because it’s smaller than Comicon, so there’s plenty of parking, no lines and you can spend some quality time talking with the authors and artists.

Already looking forward to next year for the big 20 year anniversary! If you’ve never been to a Condorcon or San Diego, you should be there too.

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CondorCon 2012

CondorCon 2012

From the CondorCon website

CondorCon is coming! March 02-04 in San Diego, CA at the Town & Country Hotel. Cost to get in is $45. I am SO there!

A New (Old) Take on the Hobbit

With the Hobbit movie due to come out this summer, I received a link to a story about the original animated version from Gerry Williams, sci-fi movie enthusiast and proprietor of San Diego Vintage Sci-fi Films–and I don’t mean the 1977 cartoon with Orson Bean.

The story is quite fascinating and the man named Gene Deitch that originally bought the rights had a LOT of…err, interesting ideas for the story, including new characters. For example, instead of naming the dragon Smaug, he called it Slag. And that was probably the simplest change!

Although Deitch’s imagination is impressive, is it okay to admit I’m fine with the fact that his version never took off? Might make a great computer game though.

Diablo III

C’mon, hurry up!

http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/

To Calculate the Edges of a Polyhedral

I’m sure this math is trivial to most statisticians, physicists and mathematicians, but some friends and I determined how to calculate the edges of any 3 dimensional polyhedral. We used my AD&D dice to verify.

(E * F) /2

where

E = the number of edges on a single face of the shape, and
F = the number of faces on the shape.

For example, a six-sided die has 12 edges, a 20-sided die has 30 edges.

A Legend Makes His Way Beyond the Prime Material Plane

Gary Gygax passes away at 69:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/03/04/obit.gygax.ap/index.html

Gary Gygax was a major influence for why I learned to read. When I was in the 6th grade, I stood in a bookstore staring at a strange book entitled “Monster Manual”. I picked it up and the first monster I turned to was the Trapper, with a picture of an off-balance fighter surprised to see the floor rising up to attack him. I was instantly hooked on AD&D. I still love it.

Dungeons and Dragons opened up a new way for geeks to socialize under the context of “gaming”. It tempted all but the most anti-social from their darkened hovels and into the light to spend time with others of their kind.

I’ll bet he and J.R.R. Tolkien are rolling up new characters right now. I’m ready to play back here on Earth. The Trapper is still my favorite monster. Let me tell you about the time my 3rd level thief pulled the lever of a magical machine and was transformed into a pseudo-dragon…

ConDor 2008

This year at ConDor 2008, the Southland Poets of the Fantastic will host a speculative poetry workshop, 3-5pm Saturday March 1st. Multi-dimensional visitors welcome. A few of us plan to read. See you there!

Reality Bumpersticker

My barbarian horde smashes your enlightened society.