Will's Journey

Hey guys.

You wouldn't believe the spending-spree I had on Saturday...Spent my week's pay and then some.

I got...uhh...What'd I get...

Another crappy zombie movie. Just...Because.

Season one of the teen drama Popular. I love it so much. We watched three of the episodes that night :P

Uhhhhh.......I bought Dave a copy of Stranger Than Fiction. I love that movie.

That was Cinema 1...Oh, I also ended up buying a ridiculous amount of tacos for Dave and Eric. NEVER give them a twenty dollar bill and expect change back. I was stupid.

Then we went to EB, where I bought many games. I was picking up a couple of the Devil May Cry games, but when I got to the counter, he'd just sold one of them. I was heartbroken. Until he said that he had all three in a pack for only thirty bucks! I was going to buy just two of them, for twenty a piece. I saved ten bucks and got an extra game. I already owned a copy of the game, but it was a used one. Now I have a new one. Woo for me. I also picked up the original Samurai Warriors for the PS2. I now own the entire series of Samurai Warriors games. Samurai Warriors, Samurai Warriors 2, and Samurai Warriors 2: Empires. I am truly a SAMURAI WARRIOR. And you know it's true 'cause it's bold AND italicized. I also pre-ordered Halo 3 for Dave, and bought Titan Quest for Rick for twenty bucks. AND I bought a new DS game for myself, which is really weird, but also pretty fun. Contact, it's called.

And then we went to Chapters. I like Chapters. I bought four D&D books. Then afterwards, I sent Rick back for ANOTHER ONE. That's five new Dungeons and Dragons books.

The Complete Warrior
The Extended Psionics Handbook
Tome of Magic
Dragon Magic
Dungeonscape

That adds to the base three, the Libris Mortis, and the Spell Comendium. Giving me ten Dungeons and Dragons books.

Oh, and Ryan, it probably is a better idea to split the group up, but for now only half of them actually have characters, so I'll sort it out when the time comes. And regarding my PC, yeah, I should probably get rid of him, but since I play more of a noncombat role, just picking locks and looking for traps, it doesn't interfere as much as one would think. I mean, if I was a fighter, right on the front lines rolling for both myself and the monsters, that'd get confusing, but I stay in the back and fire the occasional arrow to make the others think I'm "contributing". Then I swoop in and steal all their gold, and lie to them about what I found. Of course, this means having to keep my mouth shut as we pass by treasure that they're not noticing, hidden rooms that have cool shit, and stuff like, and that is hell for me, but being the Dungeon Master, I can just put it in again later anyway, so it doesn't matter. :)

Although in any campaigns where I think doing both might be too much work, or lead to too many complications, I just write myself out of the story. I'm already not going to be present for at least half of the first adventure I'm writing.

But yeah.

I also picked up a whiteboard for D&D, some whiteboard markers, and some strange pens. And some of those post-its for text-books, so that I can put them in the D&D books so I don't have to find certain things again and again.

All in all at the mall, it was myself, Rick, Dave, Eric, and Eric's lady-friend. And I don't think any of them bought anything for themselves. Except Eric's lady bought her own lunch. I believe I paid for everything else that day.

And then we went back to Eric's, hung out and watched Popular, then I ordered an insane amount of pizza. Then we watched the musical episode of Buffy. I don't think Dave had seen it before. God I love that episode.

But anyways, I'm off now. I spent the entire day playing Devil May Cry, and I beat it. Yeah, that's right, took me one day to get through a full game. I might as well try the second one for an hour or so before I go to bed. Then it's work with my dad tomorrow again. I'll make some money to earn back everything I spent over the weekend...lol.

Until next time,
Why did they never make a sequel to Illusion of Gaia? I think that, of every game that was on the SNES, I played that one the most. It was...Love.
~Kataron

DaBlackMarket

Hey guys.

As you may have guessed from the lack of posting, boring week...Just been working with my dad, and all my free time has gone into reading the Dungeons and Dragons DM Guide, which I just finished the other night. Since then, my time has gone back to coming up with a kick-ass campaign for my players.

Which I have a whole shitload of.

Me - Rogue
Eric - Paladin
Rick - Sorcerer
Andrew - Bard
Jared - Ranger
Dave - Fighter
Rebecca - Druid
Chris - Unknown

The last half of 'em haven't even made character sheets yet. Eight freakin' characters, and unless Chris plays Cleric, we don't have a freakin' decent healer! I mean, sure, we've got a Paladin, but he can't heal worth a crap.

Heh...The average party of adventurers is supposed to be about four, I'm gonna have twice as many players, lol...Depending on how many I can get together at a time, though. So yeah.

Yeah...Uhhh...Aside from that, I haven't really been up to anything at all this week.

Oh, I beat Dragon Quest VIII! It only took ninety hours total to run through it. I'm pleased. But that's also leaving it on for hours and wandering off to various places, so the playing time would actually be significantly less...Which is why I love the Skies of Arcadia system. If you're inactive for a certain amount of time (a minute or two), the screen goes dark and it stops calculating play time, so you get a much more accurate depiction of how long it took. Good job, game designers!

Uhhh....So yeah. Video games, Dungeons and Dragons, and work...God I'm a nerd. Well, I suppose I'd be more of a nerd if I worked in an office with a cubicle, but alas, I don't. Which is a shame, because I love cubicles with all of my heart.

I'd be the guy that put up a new "Dilbert" strip every day. Just because.

*dreamy sigh*

OH. I BOUGHT DARKWING DUCK. Come on, I know you guys remember that show! It was only the best Disney cartoon EVER! The crime-fighting duck-billed avenger of the night? Freakin' classic! I got a set with the pilot plus the first twenty-five episodes. I'm freakin' psyched.

Oh, and I got a weird poster, a zombie movie that'll probably suck, and Predator, 'cause I never got around to seeing it.

Oh, and I bought a poster for Dave, and a Spiderman toy, and a magazine of some sort. So...Yeah...

Tomorrow maybe mall yes? Nate want buy more D&D books, maybe some games.

Oh, and check this out:

http://www.benlandismusic.com

Great site, and the guy can play the crap out of those songs. I give it two thumbs up, and tell you all to listen to his blend of Chrono Trigger's 600 A.D. theme and the Super Mario Bros. theme. Freaking awesome. Blows my mind right away.

And if any of you guys watch some of the videos and then, like me, think "Whoa, hey emotionless music-playing guy...", watch the Sonic Invincibility Medley. He's really getting into that one...lol

Oh, and Dr. Wily's Castle theme is definitely worth checking out, simply because that song is so fucking awesome. Yeah! Dr. Wily! Yeah!

Youth group was fun tonight. Chris showed up. Hadn't seen him in a long time. 'twas weird. He...Didn't change much. Still as arrogant and strange as ever, but then again, hey, who am I to talk?

Sooooo yeah.

Oh! And for the playing of Dungeons and Dragons, we even have a basement lined up. How cool is THAT?! We'll be playing Dungeons and Dragons in a basement! Devoid of sunlight! And I think we all know that I'll be supplying a large amount of caffeine and junk food for each session...Not to mention writing the stories, drawing the maps, buying all the books...lol

And I wanna try coming up with CD's to play dramatic music for certain parts of adventure. And maybe props...Musty tomes, shiny treasures, deadly broadswords with a plus two to damage against undead... You know, the usual. I want people to think "Wow, what a cool DM". Which of course means that I'll have to concentrate a lot more on that than on the playing of my Rogue, but not too much, since the rogue is a very essential class. Without me, they'd get stuck at the first big door. Eric would try to bash it open, have a trap sprung on him, and then all of a sudden the sky would explode with pain.

Yeah. That's how it'd go down.

But anyways, I'm off to bed now. Gotta get up tomorrow and CONQUER THE KNOWN GALAXY. So...uhh...Mostly Earth.

Oh, and Jack Thompson's been up to his old crap again...Penny Arcade's got the intel on it, so if your interest is peaked, head on over there. If you read this post late 'cause you suck, you might have to drop back a post or two. But to sum it up...God I fucking hate Jack Thomspon.

Until next time,
Let's get....DANGEROUS.
~Kataron

Int Check Failed

Do you ever have so many passwords that you just...forget which one you're supposed to be entering? It's worse when some of them are quite similar. I forget all the time.

Anyways...Howdy.

Still not finished the DM guide, but we did run through a pre-made adventure on Friday. Both before and after youth group, we played for a number of hours, and blasted through the dungeon that came with the D&D starter pack dealy I bought. Six adventures with maps and miniatures,
ending with a face-off with a Blue Dragon. Not a full-grown one, mind you...But still...

It gave us four pre-made characters to work with, but we scrapped them and went with our own. Instead of the Warrior, Cleric, Rogue, and Wizard, we had a Paladin, Bard, Rogue, and Sorcerer. The only common one is the Rogue, and that's just 'cause we're so fucking useful. So yeah. It was fun. We played, we slaughtered, we leveled. And all without a Cleric! Screw you, healing!

It was pretty weird playing the Rogue and DM'ing at the same time...I mean, I was searching for traps on chests that I KNEW were safe, but what else was I supposed to do?

So yeah. It was good. We were insanely lucky fighting the Dragon, though. I don't think he got a single hit on us...Of course, that'll happen when he targets the fighter with the crazy armour, and has a series of really crappy rolls...Honestly, it should have killed at least one of us. The closest any of us came to dying was when I tried to shoot something, and missed. Well, missed the target. Hit the Paladin (Gralas) for a full eight damage...Man he was pissed. But yeah. So that was myself, Andrew, Rick, and Eric. Good times.

We didn't have Jared or Chris among us, but I still haven't seen or spoken to Chris in years, and Jared works too damn much to actually get into the D&D. He MIGHT be getting more free time in the near future, but I somehow doubt it.

So yeah. Still trying to work out a date for weekly D&D get-togethers, but it looks like if something doesn't change with Jared's schedule, he won't be able to take part in them. Which sucks, but we'll probably play D&D all the time when we're living together. Although I guess we're gonna have to find some new players when we go away for school...That could be difficult. Or it could be really easy.

But either way, I'm going to enjoy playing with the players I've got now. Andrew makes a particularly good Bard. And Eric loves his holy powers. I ALMOST had him perform what might be construed as an "evil act", though. I'd found three hundred gold when searching something, and tried to do a bluff check to hide the fact that I'd found some cash. Eric was the only one that beat me on a sense motive check, so I offered half (ha, more like one third that I TOLD him was half) in exchange for his silence. And he was considering it before he realized that his God might not approve, and he might lose all his powers. To be honest, I hadn't really thought of that, but he came close to being excommunicated from his church at only the first level. That would have been a sight...

Anyways, I'm off to bed, as I've got to get up tomorrow to work with my old man again. It's been a fun week though, one I wouldn't have had if I was still working at the factory. Didn't see Rebecca at all, though. I think we were intending to hang out at some point, but it just never happened. Ah well. Dungeons and Dragons has become my new expensive hobby.

Until next time,
"All women look like strippers to me. I'm hilariously sexist!"
~Kataron

The Dungeon Master Knows Best

Yeah.

So, I've been delving pretty heavily into the D&D books...Well, that and video games. Mostly video games...But I'm still reading the Dungeon Master's Guide.

So,after I got up on Monday, played video games for a while, and then got a call from Eric. Apparently Andrew was heading into town, and we were gonna do some D&D stuff.

And we did.

And it was awesome.

We started the whole affair off with a trip to Guelph. I picked up a new D&D book at The Dragon, as well as two new sets of dice. The book was The Magic Compendium, which is essentially just a hella-long list of spells. Pretty cool.

Then we went to Chapters, where I picked up three books about the undead. The Encyclopedia of the Undead, The Necronomicon, and the D&D Libris Mortis: The book of Undead. Pretty sweet, all in all.

Then we spent the next...*thinks*...*thinks some more*...Eight-ish hours creating our D&D characters...Yeah, that's a damn long time, but most of us hadn't done it before, and I guess Andrew was a little rusty. And we had a break for dinner, plus a large number of distractions, including Eric's guild meeting in WoW. So yeah.

But we got them done!

Since I'm the Dungeon Master, and can do essentially whatever the fuck I want (which is well-deserved, considering the amount of preparation the DM has to put into it...*grumbles*), I decided that I'll be a player too, which can be weird, but...hey, I mentioned this part in the last post. *moves on*

So, as well as being the Dungeon Master, I play Kataron, the Half-Elf Rogue. He's lovable. No stats below 13, thanks to some decent rolling by yours truly. My best stat is my dexterity, which is a beautiful 17. The max stat when you first roll your character is 18, and only one of us got one of those. Eric, which he put in his strength. But he's got crappier other stats (I think his lowest was 10). Oh, he plays a Human Paladin. Andrew is a Gnome Bard. Jared's gonna be...some form of Ranger. Not sure what race he's going for. Rick's going to be a...Sorcerer, I think. I dunno, I'm tired and I forget things. We also apparently may have Chris Anderson, a guy from Ross that I haven't seen in years. Since he graduated and junk. I stuck around for the extra year, he didn't.

So that's me, Jared, Eric, Rick, Andrew, and Chris. With the possibility of Ryan when he's a-finished school ('cause I know you wanna.), as well as Rebecca, Dave, anybody else that's interested...I'm not sure if either of them are that interested at present, but I can change that. By making a diplomacy check! Hahahaha...Oh..Wait. Darn. That was a bad joke. Guess I rolled a natural one on Perform (Comedy), huh?

Be warned, this blog is going to get nerdier by the scores as I delve deeper into the darkened, basemented world of Dungeon Mastery.

And yeah, I am going to keep making a point of the fact that I'm the Dungeon Master. Why, you ask? Because it's a lot of work.

Normal players basically just have to know the basics of the game, and have a Player's Handbook kicking around for when they get scared. So they just have to know that, really.

The Dungeon Master has to know that, too. But he also needs to know the Dungeon Master's Guide, plus any other books that are used in the campaigns, in case questions about them come up. That's a bunch of extra books.

Plus I have to design the campaigns themselves. And prepare for all the fuckin' possibilities. I can make the perfect NPC to guide the players to a great dungeon filled with treasure and intrigue. And then it can be slain by a drunk Ranger, or Sorcerer, or Warrior, or Monk, or anything. Just...Bam. 'cause as much as I'd like to brainwash them all to follow my adventures down to the letter, I have no control over the players. I just have to set up the hints, and prepare different things in case they decide to take different routes. It's even worse, because I'll have a character in the party that can't speak up about it because I can't allow the DM aspect to affect what he does...Bah.

So yeah. I haven't started on my first campaign yet...But I do have a couple little campaigns that I got with starter sets, as well as two pre-made campaigns I bought a few years back. So I'm in no rush...

But I did buy things to help me with my campaigns! Namely two books of graph-paper to draw up maps, one large notebook for various campaign notes, and a bunch of mechanical pencils. It's been a while since I owned all of those things.

Now, I just have to think of a way to fuck over Eric's character. See, he's a Paladin, so he can't associate with exceptionally evil people (I'm one step away from Evil as "Chaotic Neutral"), and he can't willingly perform an evil act. If he does, he loses all his powers forever and can't gain another level as Paladin. And wouldn't it just be lovely to see a Paladin fall like that? Aside from on Order of the Stick...

Anyways, I'm off to the land of tiny Nazis that wear snorkels all the time.

Oh, and I picked up God of War 2 today. Pretty freakin' sweet.

Until next time,
I have four ranks in Open Lock. If I only I had some ranks in Having a Life...
~Kataron

Roll The Bones

Hey all. It's been a little while since I posted, so I have a bit to catch you all up on. Well, my dad and I spent the rest of the week working at that place, and the job is essentially done. Well, what they want done now, anyway. There'll be more later. Now we're taking the week off, then starting another job. I didn't post for a while then because there just wasn't much to discuss. And then I've spent the last two nights at Eric's, hanging out and playing video games. Friday night after youth group, Rick and myself stayed there, playing Smash Bros. and geekin' around.

The next day, Rick went to work, and Eric and I went to the mall to meet Rebecca and Caitlin. We were late, but they were later. I bought three PS2 games right off the bat. Bouncer, an older one that came out around the time the PS2 was first put on the market. Still fun. Also X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse. X-Men = Good. And last but not least, Samurai Warriors 2: Empires. It's like Samurai Warriors 2, but...Completely different. You no longer run the little story modes, you have full-fledged campaigns where you conquer Japan. You choose an army, make allies, kill enemies, and use a hell of a lot more tactics. Formations and all that. Neat-o! It's fucking hard, though. Harder than Samurai Warriors 2, anyways...

So I bought those, then Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, the DVD.

And let me just say now that Gundam Wing was the best Gundam series of all of them. The first one was...well, old. And the new one was just...well, CRAP. Gundam Seed can suck it, it was fucking terrible. And all of the goddamn characters were fags. Not in the literal sense, mind you. Just in the sense that they were all stupid, and I didn't like a single one of them. Now, the characters of Gundam Wing are timeless. There's the strong silent main character that kicks all the ass. The wise-cracking guy with the deep thoughts that he keeps only to himself. The guy with no name, so he just takes somebody's after he sees them get shot. The little guy that blames himself for everything. The enemy with...THE MASK. And the Asian guy. All timeless.

Plus the Gundams themselves were awesome incarnate. Particularly Death Scythe. Duo didn't call himself the "God of Death" for nothing! He uses a Scythe made of energy. Sweeeeeet. That plus the whole black theme his Gundam had just looked grand. But anywho, then there was Wing Zero. It had wings. What's that you say? A robot with wings?! But...Aren't wings for...birds?! Yes and no. Mostly no. Stupid. Birds and robots.

Then there was Sandrock, the only Gundam that used swords. I don't know WHY he used swords...It seemed kinda dumb. But whatever. And by "the only Gundam that used swords", I mean the only Gundam that used actual metal blades, rather than the energy sword that became popular. Kinda cool, but lasers are flashier. Then there was Heavy Arms, the Gundam with giant gatling guns for arms. How cool is THAT?! I'll give you a hint. Very.

And then there was the Asian guy's Gundam...I forget what it was called, but it wasn't that great. Weapon was kinda cool. Dual-ended laser-spear dealy. And his arm got really long to attack. meh.

But yeah. It was much better than any of the other Gundam shows to air on television. I recommend that you all download the series, or find some other way to watch it. I miss it.

Uhh...Where was I?

Oh yeah, after we bought that, we had lunch. I bought Eric some A&W, and the girls had some...weird food. Wait...WAIT. I bought the movie AFTER lunch. That's right. But unimportant...

Moving on...

Then we kinda split up as a group. The girls wanted to go look at girlthings. And I can only assume that girlthings range from dresses to thongs to an ungodly amount of shoes. So Eric and I went to Chapters. We pretty much went straight for the gaming section. Then I splurged like crazy. Bought a pack with all three D&D books needed to play. The Player's Handbook, The Dungeon Master's Guide, and the Monster Manual. One hundred and twenty bucks. Plus a twenty-dollar D&D-based card game. Yeah. And yet another D&D starter pack. Some random little adventures, a new map, some miniatures, and another set of dice. I figure "new dice = good", because if we just use my set of dice, nobody will want to touch them...They've been in some exceedingly awkward places over the years. So new dice for those of you that want to play and aren't me. Yay!

So then Eric and I went looking for teh ladies. We found them, then went BACK to Chapters, where we bought some philosophy books. Eric and I each picked one out to read, then we're gonna swap 'em. But in the end, they're both mine 'cause I paid for 'em. Suck it. Eric picked out Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, which is also the name is a kick-ass game for the PS2. I picked Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Philosophy. 'cause I'm just that fucking cool. I haven't had the chance to start it yet (having spent the last two night's geeking it up with Eric and Rick, and then just Eric), but it looks really good.

Then the ladies left, and Eric and I went back to EB for one last purchase. The Ultimate Avengers, on DVD! woo! Such a good movie. Only fifteen bucks.

So all in all, I spent probably around...three to four hundred dollars, but now I have the means to play D&D. Which I've wanted to do for years.

So the next logical step is to assemble a group of dedicated nerds to play D&D with. So far I've got myself, Eric, and prossibly (probably + possibly) Rick. I will most likely end up DM'ing, 'cause that's what I did every other time I tried, and I'd really like to come up with some cool campaigns. But I'm also going to create a character to run through the campaigns with the players, so I'll be both player and DM. It could get a little awkward at times, but I'm sure I can keep the roles separate, and not use my knowledge of the dungeon to help the party beyond what would be fair. Maybe I'll play a warrior with a really low intelligence score. Then he wouldn't even realize that he knows more about the dungeon....heh...

So yeah, I'm looking for people to play with. If you want to play Dungeons and Dragons with me, Eric, and Rick, and Jared (I just decided that he is now on "The Team", and told him, though he's away and couldn't respond, but it doesn't matter 'cause he's my henchman and will do what he's damn well told), drop me a line and I'll see if we can fit ya in. We're probably going to try to get together every week, or every other week or something. So we'll have to work out schedules and junk before-hand. 'cause I know some of you people work a lot. My hours are pretty much normalized now, working with my dad, so I have pretty much all evenings and weekends free, so I'll be open to just about any time.

But anyways, I'm tired now, so I'm gonna wander off and sleep for a while.

Until next time,
"Well, as long as I've stumbled into Princess Savitra's bedroom, I might as well try to seduce her."
~Kataron

Somebody, hand me my pants.

Oh no, the livery is on fire!

Now that I have your attention...

My day was pretty good today. Once again the bus to school did not run (making it the fourth day in a row, though yesterday they were canceled while IN motion, so they had to go to school anyway, but they just didn't come back to pick people up. Pretty fucked up, eh?), so my dad decided that we weren't going to work. So I got an extra hour of sleep, then played video games.

It's good that we didn't go to work. The little kid would have been there today. Benjamin. He's crazy. Last Thursday when he had the day off and I was down there working, he was running around all day, trying to shoot me with a cane, popping out of rooms naked and then darting back in, all sorts of stuff. Very...Weird. Today we would have been painting, and I just know that the kid would have gotten into it at some point and then it just would have gotten bad.

I got dragged off to a crappy job fair hosted by the government. Boredom central. My mom threatened to cut off my Coke supply if I didn't go. So I went. Picked up an application for Staples that I'm never gonna return. Then we went to the mall. I picked up three games.

Galerians: Ash, which came out a while ago. It was only eight bucks, and I played through some of the prequel and didn't hate it, so I thought "Why not". If the game is decent, it's worth the eight bucks.

Then I got Steambot Chronicles, which came out a few months ago or something, and I've wanted it since. It went down in price from sixty bucks to twenty-four, so I figure "Yay". Just like that. Otherwise I woulda picked up Rogue Galaxy.

And I bought...Phoenix Wright: Attorney at Law: Justice For All! The infamous DS game where you play as Phoenix Wright, kickass defense attorney. It's fun, but I lent my DS to Eric, so I gave him the game to go with it until I get it all back.

Oh, and I preordered God of War 2, which comes out in about a week, so woo for that.

Then Eric and I played through a couple more Samurai Warriors 2 campaigns. There's only one left, and it's just lady Noh. Aside from being smoking hot, she's a pretty crappy character.

Then I played Gun for a while, which I rented the other day. Then I played Steambot, 'cause Gun froze. And Steambot was great! You ride around in mech suits and play music. Well, not at the same time. *pictures robot holding large harmonica*. *shudders*.

Yeah....

Oh, and about that story I put up last night, the post prior to this? I have no idea what that is. Just sorta popped into my mind randomly. It's the first story bit I've written in a long time, so I'm happy. Maybe I'll go somewhere with it. Maybe not. I promise nothing.

But anyways, the old man is gonna drag me out of bed early to go off to work (provided the little ones won't be there), so I'm gonna head off and sleep.

Until next time,
It's the sequel to a game that never came out.
~Kataron

Story Fragment

Nobody ever noticed him. And he preferred it that way. He simply observed those around him from afar. Well, usually afar. He moved around a lot. Sometimes he would watch from a rooftop, staring down at those below as they scuttled about from place to place. Sometimes he would watch from atop statues scattered about the city. Usually, though, he would simply observe from the shadows.

He wasn't watching for one person in particular. The fact of the matter is that he watched for three. Three completely different individuals. One, a young preacher, fresh out of his theology school and already working at a small church. Another was a student, a simple teenager intent only on finishing his final tour of duty in the local high school. The last was a young college girl, studying to move on with her life and do her best to make the world a better place. They didn't know each other, most likely hadn't even seen each other before in their lives, but little did they know that their lives would soon connect and intertwine in a way they could never reverse. It was destiny that these young people meet. Destiny that they together would accomplish a great task, one which could be accomplished by no others.

And it was his destiny to watch them, to watch them without ever being seen by them, without ever interacting with them. And yet their lives rested in his hands. In the hands of a stranger that observed them from rooftops. If any of them knew, they would surely be disconcerted, but by the time any of them would learn of his existence, they would be far beyond the point of being disconcerted. He kept them safe from the shadows beyond, the beings that wanted their destiny to never come to fruition. He would show himself only when it became absolutely necessary, necessary to save their lives and ensure that their destiny does not end in failure.

Night fell, and he slipped a pair of large goggles down from his forehead, over his eyes. The world flared green, and his visibility returned. He must be ever vigilant, especially during the night, when the shadows are strongest.

Leaning against a tall smokestack on the edge of an old building, he watched and waited. Waited for a sign

Nobody ever noticed him. But that was for the best.

Tabula Rasa

Howdy.

So...uhhh...Today was dull. Got up, played some Twilight Princess. Then my brother wanted the Gamecube, so I gave it to him, and played some Dragonquest VIII. Tried my best to powerlevel myself, just sitting outside the town and summoning monsters to fight (neat skill called "Whistle", instant battle), so I did that for a few hours. Battles in RPG's are easy. I don't even have to pay attention. Just keep hitting X, and check back in every so often to see if you need healing or if you need to assign some skill points after gaining a level...Other than that, I can just watch TV. My system is almost perfect. I could have retrieved the Gamecube to play some more Zelda, but getting out of bed seemed like far too much effort. So I didn't bother. Eventually Eric came over, and we finished another campaign in Samurai Warriors 2. And all but one level of another. The he left, and I spent the next hour and a half or so running through a survival mode in the game to unlock a character. A particularly faggy character. At first glance, one is generally positive that he's a girl. He was in the first game too, but at least then he didn't SOUND like a little girl. He just looked like one. He's a decent fighter, all in all, but damn man. That's just not something you wanna see. Anyways, aside from one other character I have to unlock in a special way, I've got everybody in that game. Eric and I have sunk over forty hours into it. Mind you, that's over the last few weeks.

So...Yeah. That was basically my day. Nothing impressive or even interesting.

So let's talk about something else, shall we?

I want to get philosophical, and again discuss my version of empiricism with you. Now, I've heard a lot of negative things 'bout my philosophy, mostly that it's stupid, and that I'm a loser for deriving it from a video game. To you, I say "Suck it".

I won't deny that I first formulated this idea based on the game "Dungeon Siege", which had the brilliant idea of loading only the environment within your visual range, an very efficient system. That's when I realized the possibility that things outside my perception may not exist. I mean, I'd thought of it before, but not much more than just a passing thought late at night. But I had no idea at the time that it was an actual philosophical concept that had existed for hundreds of years. Oh yes.

Empiricism began long before they even had a term for it, when people may not have been aware that they were even using any ideas of it. Aristotle would be one of the early philosophers to stress the ideas of perception of the senses, although this was probably just to contrast his teacher's views, which relied much more heavily on reasoning and assumptions, rather than personal experience and sense perception. For a student, he sure did disagree with his teacher a lot...

A generation or so later, the Stoics and the Epicureans came up with their own theories of empiricism (although the term still hadn't been invented. But that's coming soon). The Stoics formed one of the base beliefs of empiricism, regarding the mind. They claimed that when born, the mind was an empty slate, to be filled with one's experiences. But before then, it was empty. This paved the way for the first British empiricists. Although, the Stoics actually only believed that the mind was a mostly blank slate, and that some very base ideas are there from the very beginning.

I liked the Stoics. They didn't give a damn about anything. To be stoic is to be indifferent. I can just imagine them...Sitting around on large porches, watching stuff. Watching, but not giving a damn.

But back to the blank slate bit. Thomas Aquinas, whom I know many of you have heard of, said that "Nothing is in the intellect which was not first in the senses". A simple statement that shows that he agreed that we learned everything through experience.

Now, this might seem very different from my "Nothing exists but me" view, but that one's coming up soon, so be patient. The ideas had to evolve over the years.

We're now getting into British empiricism. Back then, they argued about the existence of innate ideas, concepts that your mind begins with, basically the opposite of the "blank slate" idea. John Locke described the mind as a "tabula rasa", or blank tablet. It was also the name of an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The one where they lose their memory. Season six, episode eight. Heh...Spike thinks his name is "Randy". And he's British. Randy means horny. Hilarious. Just so we know, I looked up the episode number. I'm pathetic enough to remember the name and season, but not the episode. Just so's we're clear.

Anyways, in response to Locke, Bishop George Berkeley came to the conclusion that Locke's view opened up a door that would eventually lead to Atheism (aw snap!). HE is the one that popped out the idea that things are only in existence when they are in perception, or if they are a being doing the perceiving. Of course, being a Bishop and all, he believed that anything we weren't perceiving, God was, so BAM, it still existed. An idea which, though close to my own, still allows for everything to exist all the time. Now, seeing as how I'm agnostic and don't necessarily believe in the existence of God, I can't exactly think that he's perceiving anything, can I?

That idea also gave way for other beings to perceive things and cause them to exist, but quite frankly I've doubted the existence of other people for years before I came up with my extreme view on empiricism. I always kind of figured that you people were robots. It seemed logical, since I had no idea whether anyone but me had a consciousness, or any form of thought. Robots just seemed the best way to describe it as a kid.

Anyways, I'd love to go on and rant more, but I'm really tired, so I'm gonna go sleep.

Until next time,
It's a little strange to write a blog post for people that I don't believe exist right now, but hey, I had nothing better to do with my time.
~Kataron

I see.

Greetings, oh sea creatures and small forest-dwelling goat-men.

Nate here, reporting in in a mid-weekend blog post.

Buses weren't running again on Friday, so Eric hung out with me a bit more, then wandered off to Rebecca's. I watched "Find Me Guilty", the Vin Diesel movie where he has hair. It was actually pretty good. Then I went to youth group, which was awesome as always (Alliteration!). We sang a lot of karaoke. Whenever nobody was singing, Andrew and I would jump up and sing something. Eric even brought a lady. Then instead of going to Tim Horton's afterwards, we went to McDonald's. It was cool, 'cept I realized that I am whipped by all of my friends. Dave somehow convinced me to buy him and Eric each large milkshakes, for no real reason. I'm not sure how he convinces me to buy him things...

It was like when we were playing the game of Life. I gave him hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the end, it was every cent I had. He kept asking for it. I'd say no, and he'd say "BUT NATE! I NEED IT! For...MY BRACES!". So I'd give it to him. I'm weak...

Then today...Well, I just played video games. Started things off with a few hours of Twilight Princess, the Cube version which I borrowed from James, then when my brother took that, Dragon Quest VIII. I've now officially beaten Disgaea and Disgaea 2. Both fantastic games.

You know what I love about the internet? If I wanted to build a bomb, I could just search it up on-line. And then I've got potential explosives. I mean, I've no intention of building a bomb. But it's nice to think that if I ever needed to, I could. Although, if I ever tried to build a bomb, I'm certain I'd end up blowing myself up. And that doesn't sound even remotely pleasant.

But maybe a bomb woulda been useful earlier today when I got up to go to the washroom, and was sucked into a hell-dimension through a portal that somebody left open. I'm lookin' at you, oh nameless Demi-God that lives in my head and makes me do things. A little warning next time would be nice...

Anyways, there I was, surrounded by demons, Nazis, and a single ice cream man with a really bad mustache. I'll spare you the details, but needless to say, I left more than most of my long intestines back there.

You know what I don't want one of? A Facebook account. I really don't care. To me, it's just the same as MySpace. I've got one of those, but I haven't logged on in months. But nowadays everybody seems to have a Facebook account. I've received more than a few of those annoying emails inviting me to join. But I've no intention of doing so. Oh no. Because if I do, I'll just have another useless account somewhere that I will never, ever use. So I'm not going to bother.

Yep. I also hate babies, happiness, sunlight, and articles of clothing that are pink. Except possibly a necktie.

*wanders off*

Until next time,
I have powers of the mystical variety.
~Kataron

When The Moon Crushes France

I'm tired, bored, and have a headache, so don't expect anything epic here.

Uhhh...

So, today there was a pretty bad storm. Buses were shut down long before the storm even started, so I mostly hung out with Eric today. That is, after I worked with my dad for three hours sanding stuff. God it was boring. But then Eric and I played Samurai Warriors 2 for hours. And watched "Stranger Than Fiction". It was good. I liked it.

We played through Hideyoshi's campaign, Nagamasa's campaign, Magoichi's campaign, and about half of Nene's campaign. Each campaign being about five levels...So it was a lot of video games.

Yeah. And yes, I'm perfectly aware that I have no life. But at least I was playing video games with somebody else, rather than just sitting in my dark bedroom playing video games all alone.

I also bought some movies. I'm trying to get a decent collection of DVD's going, and they were selling a bunch at the video place where I rented Stranger Than Fiction. I got Dungeons and Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God, The Night Listener, and something else with Vin Diesel in it. He has hair. It's weird. Haven't watched it yet. And please note that this is the good D&D movie, not the crappy one that came out years ago. That one sucked balls. This one rocks.

So...uhhh...Yeah.

Sigh. It's sad that I can get bored with the entire friggin' internet at my fingertips. I'd write a story or something, but my head is freakin' killing me

And at that, I think I'm gonna go sleep. There's a good chance I'll be working with my dad again tomorrow, then youth group.

Karaoke at youth group tomorrow night, and further proof that I have no life. But I'm gonna have a blast anyway.

Until next time,
Thorn raised his arm up, pointing his small wrist-mounted crossbow at the head of the cowering form before him. He tried for a moment to think of something witty to say, then gave up, mumbled something about chicken, and fired.
~Kataron