These few weeks have been great. I am happily involved in three ongoing DnD adventures, namely Shell's world of ELAMUSA, Vek's Scales of War (SoW) Official 4E Campaign, and Lex's Chapter 1 (of 74 maybe) which is about to end in a couple of months' time. (2 sessions completed so far.)
Between groups of mad sawn-off rifle, I mean staff-wielding shooter dudes, a level 8 Ogre trying desperately to tell us something (he died too fast for us to hear him properly. I do vaguely remember him going "FtF??!1"), and a mandatory cut-scene involving us involuntarily spending a night with a female witch/hag/pelican/whatever in a swamp, I can safely say I had been through quite a bit these days.
Then, there are my characters. In Vek's, I am Unn'Sah - the brash bandana-wearing 6ft 5in Swordmage feminist wielding a modified tennis racket(widely referred to as a longsword in DnD terms). In Shell's ELAMUSA world, I am Evening D'Odds-the quiet but deadly (random) Sorceress who blew her "top" off while dreaming away at the inn.
There is also the tormented Lang's Zai or Lz- the famous bard (in several small pubs at least) in Lex's immense world of three days North and a days South. Couple days West might be an option to uncover a loose floorboard. East is out of bounds due to family issues.
Oh, I have been spending way too much time on the DDi Character Generator, which is strangely addictive even though it is just exactly what it said it was - a character generator. I guess I have always been a builder in a way, be it cards or games. Thinking of and experimenting with builds is interesting; once in a blue moon when it works devilishly well, it is all worth the time wasted, uh spent I mean.
The DDi Character Generator makes it easier for me to throw an idea together, as it contains an updated-monthly DnD database that saves me the time of needing to flip through several books or check random handouts to recall an obscure feat/item/power. I am anxiously waiting for the first Tuesday of next month, where the Revenant race and the newer hybrid classes will be added into the mix.
This experience decided something for me. It confirmed my intention to get my own DDi subscription, even though I already "technically" have a small part in PT's account. I plan to share the account with Shane and Vek, at 5 Usd a month for a year.
Now that I think about it, it is rather cheap for that amount of cash. What can we buy with 5 Usd nowadays anyway?
3 copies of 8 Days? 5 cups of SweetTalk Bubble Tea? Three-quarter of a pack of unbranded cigarettes? The plastic ear of Christian's amazing Elmo toy?
The online deal is made sweeter with confirmation of more snippets of PHB3 coming out in the coming months, hopefully Monk-related (I am a monk fanatic). For fans who prefer gory poison-on-flesh striker action; a whole DDi Exclusive character class- The Assassin is scheduled to arrive in a few weeks.
Tennis have been great as of late. I bought a new Yonex racket, and yes they do make Yonex tennis rackets. I have been experimenting with new strokes and several new concepts I read/saw about on the 'net. I can feel myself wanting to play more. I feel like a student, all over again. I felt alive, hungry.
Through all this, I realized something.
It is not about the fact that I easily get hungry. I learnt that change is sometimes needed to challenge oneself, to do better and not rest on one's laurels. This is the attitude I want to put in all my students as well, for both their studies and sports. Heck, we re-specialize feats, skills, powers and what-not in 4E too. For the growth of the character, to make him/her stronger.
We are only worthy to witness his shoes.Roger Federer. The greatest of all-time. He changed himself after suffering crushing losses at Wimbledon'08 and the Australian Open this year. He was rumored to have bawled his eyes out. But since then, during the clay court season, he played more aggressive and went back to utilizing his trusty slice more often (which he mentioned was not a "natural" part of his game). Yes, he might not think that it is a natural part of his game, but the slice does win him points and wreck the tempo of the opponent on the other side.
That itself is worth forcing the stroke into his repertoire. I should add that he is not too shabby in the execution of the stroke.
*Imagine Tiffany cutlery, slicing thin layers of fine cheese, with a classical tune playing softly at the back.*
Now, the Federer Express has a career Slam in his ever-thickening resume, and is heading for a record-breaking 15th Grand Slam title. The No.1 spot is there for the taking, exactly one year after he relinquished it to a Spanish guy who could play some tennis.
A modern phoenix, no ? And an inspiring tale to share, yes.
Lastly and I am going rather out of topic here, my computer now has Foxit PDF Editor, which will allow me to make customized DnD "excerpts" with the exact layout and fonts. Monster and power templates can also be easily home-brewed; and did I mention this? They will look like the real thing in the books. Spoofs and parodies? Sign me up, babeeee!
p/s (11:35PM) - Oh no! Evening D'Odds, my Sorc in Shell's adventure seems to be in limbo due to player shortage.
p/p/s(1:20AM) - Hmm, now that I experimented more, some of the embedded information in the original text seems hard to edit, and the doggone fonts screws up when I try to type in certain letters. Oh well, at least I tried, back to MS Word for me until I install the rest of the Foxit suite in the future.
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