Darn it; yet another long time between posts. I hate it when the sidebar stretches across the whole window like that. It’s always a good reminder that I need to put a new post or two up.

It’s also been a while since I put any new reviews or editorials up, which is a worry. I’m really slacking off. Still, we’re coming into the Winter stretch now, so you can expect some cabin fever-inspired bouts of prose over the coming months. Including that next fragment of Slamdance I’ve been promising.

Still, it’s not like I’ve not been keeping my fingers exercised. The Lexicon of the Whisperers At War is still on Turn E-F; as the entries were trickling in and Marcus needed to do some server maintenance yesterday, I extended the turn a day. It was a decent buffer for Vickie and I, as we’d been slacking off enormously over the weekend. We’re still producing some interesting stuff, so please drop by and have a read!

On the topic of exercise, Vickie picked up an un-used piece of gym equipment called a Power Rider for $40 on eBay. It gives us the opportunity to work out whilst remaining indoors, which I quite like. Frankly, I do find exercise tedious, which is probably why I don’t do push-ups or even use the skipping-rope as I’ve intended at various times over the past year or so. Being able to do three sets of forty repetitions of stand-up-rowing-thingies whilst watching TV is a bonus in my book.

And another tangential similarity in subjects allows me to segue from buying stuff on auction at eBay to the auctions I’m running on eBay. As I write this, they should be about to complete, and it looks like each one is going to earn me $50 after postage. I was hoping for a little more for Night City, as it’s something of a collector’s item, but I did pencil those street names on the page maps. (Not including street-names on those zone maps was a criminal oversight by the designers, I think; I like the idea of being able to look up one of those places and just say “It’s on the corner of Williams and Varney.”)

From selling to buying: I mentioned a little while ago that I bought the Hero System SideKick for $20 at Games Paradise, and that the game store near where I work was getting a copy of the main rulebook in. I had a phone call last week from them, to let me know they hadn’t been able to get any copies in, so I asked them to cancel the order. Then I get a call today; they weren’t able to cancel the order, and it turns out a copy just arrived. They did assure me they could put it on the shelf if I declined, but they’re offering it for $75 instead of the $90 it normally goes for, so what the heck, eh?

From one RPG to another: I bought a pre-owned copy of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for the Xbox on Saturday. I know, I know, I said I was going to wait for the PC version so I could get patches and bug-fixes, but I figure my Xbox has languished un-used for long enough. Besides, the pre-owned copy I got was in pretty darned good nick, so I’m happy with my purchase. Gameplay is very reminiscent of Neverwinter Nights (not surprising, as BioWare developed both), and I’m keen to complete it as there’s a sequel on the way next year.

From video game on DVD to movie on DVD: the Battlestar Galactica Day is still a firm go for this coming Saturday. Sim is a lock, unless she’s gone and double-booked or work's swapped shifts on her, but the other respondents in the affirmative to the original invitation have been conspicuously silent. One wonders what they’re up to?

And finally, from local friends to international ones: Pierre of the IMAGinewS list and usually of San Diego is at this very moment over here! I just called him earlier, and we had a quick chat; his wife and kids are still battling the jet lag, and tomorrow they’re off to the Sunshine Coast for a few days. Vickie and I are planning to hook up with them sometime next week. It should be fun; I'm looking forward to catching up with Pierre and finally meeting his family!

And to take us out this evening, here’s a little linkage that might elicit a little laughter!

P.S.: The Night City auction just ended, and a very nice gentleman squeezed in at the last minute with a winning bid of $81.00! Well, that covers the Hero System!