Ramble on

There are a couple blogs on the interwebz which I write for and post on, with DTP being my own little private pulpit. Occasionally I run into a day like today where conversations similar the following happen:

Me: I posted a couple updates to and realized it had been 9 days since I had posted something there.
Wife: That's nice, do you think people will like the post?
Me: Probably, it had some good updates in it. It made me realize its been a while since I posted to _my_ blog though, I need to write up a post for that.
Wife: Oh really? What are you thinking about writing about?
Me: Honestly I have no idea.
Wife (somewhat confused): Why do you feel the need to post then?
Me: Well, its been a while and my last post got some really good traffic and comments. I think I need to figure out something to write about.
Wife: Can't you just write something about the last post?
Me: Nah, that doesn't feel right.
Wife: Why do you need to post something if there's nothing you want to write about?
Me: I don't know, I just do......

Sometimes I get the urge to write something up for the blog but cannot put my finger on exactly what approach I want to take to the article. In those situations I have a goal in mind or a topic I want to explore via writing and need to just narrow down the angle I want to present or how I want to express my point of view. Other times I have a general idea about things I want to write about and I just let me fingers wander across the keyboard and then go back and read out what I ended up with. Then there are times like now, where I can feel something banging away in my brain but I can't find the exact door to open to let it out.

That means that today you get wild ramblings about what I have been up to lately. Thats not entirely fair, you also get some more pictures from my latest picture taking spree. Yes, that is an actual painted Malifaux Child in the intro to the article. I picked him up as one of my very early and first Malifaux purchases, not recently after seeing the wonderfully updated and newly justified V2 version. I grabbed and painted the Malifaux Child to add as a totem to my original Pandora crew. Originally I picked up Pandora for my wife to play, and Kade was actually the first Malifaux model I painted up. The idea for her crew was going to be a Kid crew with Pandora, Candy, Kade, Teddy, and the Malifaux Child. I went so far as painting the little guy up before realizing he was pretty damn bad. He has since sat in my shelf, sadly watching as Pandora and Kade regularly hit the table.

Recently I was able to sit down and play through Mass Effect 3 on my XBox. I really enjoyed the game and while I have no plans of doing a complete write up ala Mike, I will mention a couple things. First off, I heard that early on in the game you choose to kill off a race and that it is inevitable this will happen. I am not sure where that happens, if it did I missed it in my play through. Next I will mention how my Shepard developed in game and relay one amusing quip from my game play. In ME1 I played a fairly saintly Shepard and did not develop any romances during the game. In ME2 I ended up developing a romance with Miranda and took that through the non-graphic physical scene. I had decided that come ME3 Shepard was pretty much going to nail any female character he could. Partway into the game I got the first opportunity to hook up with a female character in Shepards quarters. Now, let me pause here and explain one little piece of info that's fairly important to this story. I have the Kinect for XBox and had been using it off and on for voice commands in ME3. The way the voice commands work in the dialog allows you to read the whole selection and the Xbox will automatically have Shepard choose that selection. So, back to the "nookie scene". My wife was watching me play the game and I had walked to the kitchen to grab a snack. I was using the Kinect voice commands to progress through the options and my wife was fairly amused at my talking to the TV. When the option came up for a romantic interlude I joked with her that "now comes the sex". My wife made a disgusted face and asked "Seriously? Your guy can choose to sleep with these characters?". I told her Yes, see there are two choices on the screen. When she asked what choices I read them to her in order, starting with the one to "keep things friendly" (i.e. no sex). Of course the Kinect picks up my reading of that option and selects it for me, losing my opportunity for a hook up. Sigh. Overall I enjoyed the game and found it to be a great ending to the series. I had downloaded the extended ending so have no idea what the original and disappointing ending was, but for those who are wondering (without giving away to many spoilers), I was able to choose the middle ending.

So, with just rambling I have been able to show Santana, Purse holding Marcus, and the Malifaux Child. Lets Ramble just a little more and finish up showing Pink Dress Lilitu. I would be remiss to post Purse Holding Marcus without mentioning where it came from. Many of you probably already know the story, but its worth retelling. Damian (Lord Shaper) is a friend of the show (Gamers Lounge) and the blog for a fair while. He heard the interview with Mike and Craig (UKRocky) on the podcast about how to play Marcus and enjoyed the jokes about Marcus only being good for holding Kaeris's purse. In response he modeled up the pictures Marcus above and sent it over as a surprise for me. I have gotten him on the table with Kaeris and enjoyed the game immensely. I also have had several fans of the show ask to see Marcus and the fantastic job Damian did. Apparently that is just enough rambling to get pink-dressed Lilitu into the blog and then finish up with a Cherub.

On the Malifaux front I have started getting games in with McCabe. I find that I am enjoying him the least out of my 10T masters, but he rounds out the faction for me so I want to get experience playing him. I have a lot to learn as he is not exactly clicking for me yet. I am hoping to get in another 5 games before the end of Summer!