Let's Play: Star Trek 25th Anniversary - Part 2

Geekumentary: Part 1 - What IS a geek?

Personal Projects: Death Ray

Well....I'm building a death ray.

For future video installments, I've decided to construct a death ray prop. I've been toying around with this idea for quite some time and I'm finally going to get started on it. Coincidentally, the item I've been eyeballing for the death ray just kicked the proverbial bucket and has now been torn apart for death ray parts.

  

This WAS the main portion of my lightning lamp (kinda like a lava lamp, but with lightning). Recently, the lamp finally died (I got the damn thing many years ago so...whaddyagonnado?), and now I'm going to use it for death ray parts. 

 

As you can see, I've been able to separate the main globe into its three component parts: the plastic "base", the glass globe, and the plastic tip. 

  

Upon closer inspection of the base and globe, you'll see the globe has a small opening at the bottom.

 

A closer look at the opening reveals a space large enough to house a small light of some sort. I'm hoping to put an LED light in there and wire it through the base into the body, stock, and trigger. At the very least, maybe a maglite lightbulb.  

 

 The bottom of the base reveals the opening and holes where the rest of the lamp was attached. I'm considering sawing this bit off to open up this end to other bits I may want to cram in there (the light, specifically), but I'll hold off until I have a light.

Finally, the tip. I'm planning on running wires into the tip and down the globe so that it'll give the whole death ray a nice "sciency" feel to it. These wires will be purely for show, but I think it could look good.

Overall, my goal is to have the entire lamp portion be the "barrel" of my death ray. I'm considering adding some attachments to the tip (maybe an antenna sticking forward from it). My OVERALL overall goal is to connect a light to the glass globe, running the wires through the base and into the gun's body and being able to activate the light via the gun's trigger.

Will keep updating!

Tabletop Tales: My First Gaming Experience

How does one get into gaming?

And I'm not asking how one enters a particular game. No, I'm asking how does one enter GAMING as a culture and interest.

Well, my entrance into this geeky world came nearly ten years ago at the young age of 14. I'll explain.

When I was 14, I was working at a Boy Scout summer camp for the very first time as a counselor-in-training. I really didn't know anyone at the camp in which I was working, so I had to do my best to make friends.

One evening, I was walking through the camp, bored out of my mind, when I came upon some of the older counselors huddled around one of many picnic tables strewn about the camp. Upon the table rested tomes upon tomes of books about something called "Dungeons and Dragons".

Now, I was aware of Dungeons and Dragons, but didn't know anything beyond the fact that it was a game where you played a character and rolled dice. Being the bored and curious young man that I was, I asked the elder counselors what they were doing and they replied that they were building characters for a D&D campaign they were going to play.

I nervously asked if I could join, they jokingly ran me through the ringer for my inexperience, and sat me down to show me how a character is built.

Now, normally building a D&D character is difficult (for a newcomer, anyway), and I was no exception. Fortunately, the premise of the game made character creation easier than normal. Here's why:

We were playing a group of kobolds that, at the beginning of the campaign, were just hatched from their eggs. We were LITERALLY birthed at the very beginning of the very first session. Our personalities, stats, equipment, etc were all determined by the actions we took shortly  after our emergence into the world.

After being born, our kobold team got into a combat with some...creatures, I believe. Me, being the inexperienced player that I was, decided to attack the creatures with reckless abandon. The leader of the party (a role he took for himself, since he had the strongest out-of-game personality), gave each of us names and dubbed me Rath (get it?).

Unfortunately, our first session was our last, but the impact the incident had on me made a lasting impression that gaming was enjoyable and that I wanted to do more of it. Nearly ten years later, I'm still gaming and probably still will be ten years from now.

Tabletop Tales: End of the Greek Gods...Rise of the Runes

This is why you never give Pete an inch.

He ALWAYS takes a mile.

You'll need some backstory for this incident to be properly explained.

Pete and Mike, two friends that I game with, have been gaming with each other a LOT longer than they've known me, to put it mildly. Those two, with other past players of course, have been through many different games and sessions with each other. Because of this, Pete has plenty of history in the world that Mike set his Greek gods game. So much history, actually, that he was able to summon the dead spirit of one of his former incarnations and take that incarnation's memories.

Now, you probably don't initially understand why this is bad. I'll explain.

Mike designed the Greek god game to be for characters of 5-7th level (or the equivalent of it in that gaming system). Initially, we all WERE 5-7th level equivalent characters when we obtained our god-powers. Pete, however, absorbing the memories of past incarnation, acquired most of the skills and abilities OF his incarnation, which essentially jumped him from a 5-7th level character to a 20th level character.

Another session or two with Mike and Pete had the entire problem we were facing fixed.

*sigh*

I don't begrudge Pete for this. It was ingenious. I was just having fun and wish the game hadn't had to end so quickly and abruptly.

BUT! There IS light at the end of this tunnel. Mike has planned a NEW game that we will be starting tonight. This time, to choose our powers, we have to choose one of the 24 Elder Futhark Runes and whichever we choose will determine what powers we receive.

Mike has also assured me that Pete won't be able to pull a stunt like this again, so the game should last longer than two months.

Haha, I have faith in Mike's abilities, but Pete is crafty. Only time will tell, I suppose.

Strange Dreams

Warning: Some of the things I'm about to describe are slightly graphic (in a gross way).

They're really strange the dreams I've been having lately. I'm completely serious when I say this...the past several nights I have, without a break in stride, had at least one dream a night.

I suppose I'll do my best to recall what they were about...

• In one dream, I was at some sort of convention setting. Initially, I kung-fu'd with some individual in the eating area (with surprising finesse and ability, I must say) and then proceeded to the video gaming area where it was filled entirely with old-school arcade games and a display of Power Ranger merchandise. And I'm talking ORIGINAL Power Ranger merchandise, like the Green Rangers Dragon Dagger and VHS tapes of the episodes. 
• In another dream, I was helping the Maximals/Autobots escape from an evil cult's underground prison...and then my teeth fell out. 
• I was hanging out with the Scrubs cast and one of them mentioned that I had some weird markings on my face. So, I proceeded home, looked in a mirror and found these giant...THINGS on my face. I asked my Father and he suggested I pop. I did so, only to find strange parasites in them. LARGE parasites. That was a disturbing one. 
• In another, I seemed to be wearing some sort of mask (though I never actually got to see what it looked like) and I was walking around ODU campus, randomly attacking people that I claimed were "demons from another plane of existence". Quickly following each attack, campus security arrived and chased me away.

That's all I can currently remember, but I believe those are a good indication of what I'm dealing with. My subconscious must be ridiculous!

VLog 10/1/10 - Random Stuff

Watch as I mock both myself and my poor attempt at making and everyday VLog!