(A)D&D Musings on 5th Edition and What's to Come (Speculations)

So, Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons has been out for about 8 or so months now, and I've had some time to read up on bits and pieces of the new edition, having purchased all but one of the new Core Manuals (Some good friends bought me the new Players Handbook for my birthday last year.), the first two adventure manuals, and preordered the third.  From the looks of it, it looks a lot better than the D20 3rd edition, which was the last I even attempted to buy- That one I looked at, and was so lost by the rules, that I didn't even bother with it again.  This edition looks to be easier to grasp and play, even for beginners, or someone like myself who hasn't played in twenty years, and needs a bit of time to acclimate to the game.  I have also been checking up on release dates or speculations on upcoming modules or campaign settings.  The two I am most eagerly awaiting are Ravenloft and Dragonlance, having spent a lot of time in the "Mists" back when I did play 2nd Edition (a lot of time having my characters turned into vampires, or just go insane in some instances) and also having read approximately 80% of the whole Dragonlance book collection.  Thus far, it looks as if Wizards of the Coast is only going to be releasing two campaigns per year at this point, and there is no definite answer as to when and if those particular campaign settings will be released. So, I wait.

More Than Meets the Eye

Just recently, I purchased the entire DVD collection of one of my staple cartoon shows from my youth, the original Transformers series. Yes, I admit, I was fully around 17 years old when it first aired, but any true geeky person who was alive enough to enjoy the show when it originally aired on TV who claims that they never watched it, or didn't like it, in my opinion, is lying.  I would always get home from school and rush through my chores and whatever homework I had so I could watch it when it came on at 4pm.  I even collected some of the figures, some of which I still have somewhere. But I digress, as that is not the topic of this post.

As I was watching the first disc in the set, and singing along to the opening theme like a total geekwad, it occurred to me that we are all like the Transformers in that there is more to each of us than meets the eye. Think about it. Each one of us has an outer persona that everybody sees, regardless of who we encounter. That persona is what we put forward, our front, so to speak. However, there is always more below the surface that people do NOT see. That is our innermost being, those things we either do not share at all, or share with a select few people. That underlying identity can hide many things, from past trauma, to secret desires, fears, dreams, etc.  What we choose to share from this "hidden" persona depends mainly on who we trust enough not to use that information against us. In my case, it's usually only close friends and family members that I share my inner-being with.

Sometimes, that outer facade cracks, or fails, and what is kept hidden is revealed. Sometimes, this is a good thing, but more often than not, it is not. Take, for example, the leader who puts on an outer facade of fairness, honesty, and integrity. That facade fails to reveal someone who is completely opposite of what was put forward for everyone to see, and he is revealed to be unfair, unjust, completely dishonest, and has no moral integrity at all. What happens then?  Said leader will most likely keep the weaker-minded followers (let's call them the sheep), but lose those who are able to think for themselves and see him for the fraud that he really is. Always keep in mind when dealing with people that there really is MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE.

And the Winners Are....

Thanks to those who participated in the Faerie Blood/Bone Walker giveaway.  Though it didn't generate as many responses as I thought it might, I still think it got the word out enough to help support Dara and Anna.  Anyway, I will dispense with the babble and get on with the announcement.  Along with the help of my best bud, Raistlin, and my little buddy, Dude, (who each batted a name out of the bowl) the winners were decided as follows:

The winner of the Books/CD bundle is Dria Howlett.
The winner of the digital books is E Susan Baugh.

Dria, I will pass your information on to Anna so the books can be mailed to you this week.
Susan, please leave a comment with your email, so I can pass it on to Anna and make arrangement for payment.

And special thanks to Kat for throwing her hat in the ring to help get the ball rolling. She got copies of the book and CD for her birthday, and is enjoying them. (though she bought the digital copies so her books wouldn't get crinkled.)

A Completely Unsolicited Review of "Bone Walker" by Angela Korra'ti



Once again, I was not disappointed by the talents of my friend, when I opened my copy of her latest book, Bone Walker. From the first chapter until the last, it was a never-ending experience full of adventure, intrigue, and suspense. Bone Walker picks up shortly after the events of Faerie Blood, with our two main heroes, Kendis Thompson and Christopher MacSimidh, enjoying an outdoor concert in a Seattle park. With the sudden, and quite unexpected appearance of a somewhat battered unseelie bard, things rapidly get out of hand, and draw our heroes and their friends into a battle of life or death for them and those around them, no thanks to the queen of the unseelie court, and the ghost of an unseelie mage that is out to destroy not just them, but the entire west coast if she can.  The usual mix of elves, kitsune, warders, and non-magic-using humans joined by a family of nogitsune and a dragon child in trying to destroy the bone walker, keep a city from being destroyed, and restore order. To sum it up, Bone Walker is a roller coaster ride for the imagination. Ms. Korra'ti succeeds in holding the reader's attention through a variety of twists and turns and wrapping it all up neatly at the end.  I give Bone Walker five stars, and recommend it to any fan of urban fantasy.

Second Star to the Right, and Straight On 'Til Morning. Farewell, Spock!

It saddens me to report that one of the most iconic figures in the entire Star Trek universe has passed away.  It was reported this morning that Mr. Leonard Nimoy, the actor who portrayed the pointy-eared vulcan, Mr. Spock, on the original 1960s TV series, motion pictures, and various appearances in later series, as well as cameos on other television shows, has passed away at the age of 83 due to complications from end stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Mr. Nimoy had been a heavy smoker up until three decades ago, and verified a year ago the diagnosis. He was hospitalized earlier in the week, and though at that point, I sort of expected his passing, it still hits me hard.  I was at work when one of my co-workers out of the blue, assuming that I had already heard the news, asked how I was. Thinking he was asking if I was over the cold I had been fighting for the past few days, I said I was feeling a little better. When he asked if I'd heard of Mr. Nimoy's passing, it was as if I had swallowed a rock. I admit, I expected it, but it hit me hard none-the-less. I had to fight back the tears and felt myself choking on them the rest of the day. Since I have no access to social media at my job, I had to rely on the internet during my breaks to get as much information as I could. I read statements from former cast-members and fans alike, but I think the most touching was the tribute left by Wil Wheaton on his site:

Mister Spock made it okay for me to be the weird kid who eventually grew into a slightly-less weird adult, but it was Leonard Nimoy who made Mister Spock live, and who made Star Trek — and every science fiction TV series since 1966 — possible.

Thank you, Leonard, for making it okay to be me, and for making it possible for me to explore brave new worlds, and boldly go where you had gone before. I wish I’d gotten to know you the way so many others did, because everyone says you were as awesome and wonderful as I hoped you would be. Rest in peace, sir.

Mr. Nimoy was preceded in death by fellow cast members DeForrest Kelley, James Doohan, Mark Leonard, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, and the show's creator, Gene Roddenberry.  This leaves only William Shatner, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, and Walter Koenig of the original series cast.  Mr. Nimoy will be missed by Trekkers old and new alike.  Fly with the Great Bird, Mr. Spock.

An Interview with Dara Korra'ti of Crime and the Forces of Evil

Hey, readers! I'm Dara, a.k.a Solarbird the Lightbringer of Crime and the Forces of Evil, and the Dark Side of the Glass people have thrown me a bunch of interview questions. It's almost like an interview, and also totally different! So let's go:

1) Tell our readers a bit about yourself (ie. Where are you from? Significant life experiences that led to where you are now? Occupation(s)? Talents? Anything else you can think of...)

• From: Well, honestly, I don't know. Mars has been suggested, but I think we all know better than that, unless you mean the Sparks Nevada: Marshall on Mars Mars, in which case it still seems pretty unlikely. Maybe I'm a Jupiter Spy and don't even know it. If so: goddamn I'm good.
• Life: What it says on the tin. Superhero turned supervillain when the world turned around on me. Our supervillains won, and now we have the police state and the surveillance state and the endless war state and all that, and all that's now "good" somehow, and since most humans follow power - it's what you do - then opposing it makes you a traitor. "You speak treason!" "Fluently."
• Occupations: Supervillain, musician. Software developer and genetics researcher, but see also: supervillain. This thing is turning into a resume. I should make a resume generator. Or destroyer. "Life experiences: orbital heat rays ARE LIFE EXPERIENCES." Is that how this works?
• Talents: Really good at the heat ray thing; I can kill you with my brain; technical writing; glass sculpture that invites you to touch it but hurts you if you do; finding really terrible movies and passing them on to Drs. Forrester and Erhardt; triggering really hilarious IBM Urgent Service Bulletins; graphic design; bodhran; irish bouzouki; bass guitar; mandolin; flute; flutemaking; putting resumes through shredders.

2) How long have you been performing, and how did Crime and the Forces of Evil come to be?

I was sorta-kinda in a band called... no, that's not right, I was in a sorta-kinda band, that's right, called Three Good Measures, in the early 2000s. It was mostly a Great Big Sea cover band, but we dropped a few tracks on the net, the best absolutely being a cover of Billy Bragg's "You Woke Up My Neighbourhood." 

But getting serious about it is actually Alexander James Adams's fault. We met in 2006 and hit it off, and I was a at a show of his a few years later and during the meet-and-greet after, kind of out of nowhere, he spun round to me and said, "Dara, you have got to be doing this." My reaction, of course, was "You are so high." But, well, now here we are.

3) How many CDs have you released thus far?

TGM actually kind of had an EP (Duck!) but it wasn't released so that doesn't count, and that wasn't in any way my band - I was just the flautist. So... 

Crime and the Forces of Evil's first EP was a short set called Sketchy Characters, done pretty much as a demo and to have something for an event. I also put out a solo effort, Live from Mars, solely because I played The Mars Bar in Seattle and realised this meant I could have a live EP that was legitimately from Mars. Just, you know, not that Mars. 

Then we got our act together and put out a studio full-length, Dick Tracy Must Die, in 2011. We built our own studio for that, and I taught myself engineering. If you're into that sort of DIY, you can check out the series of columns I wrote on it here.
After that, we did a song-of-the-month project that turned into Cracksman Betty. Since then, a couple of singles, like "Kaiju Meat," and now the new album, Bone Walker.

4) What style(s) of music do you perform?

I called the Dick Tracy material "rage-driven acoustic elfmetal." And that's how I think of my original material, for the most part. The idea is: elves heard metal, thought THIS IS AWESOME WE CAN DO THIS and started doing it, with instruments on-hand. Hence Fake Drumkits made of hand drums, grinding Irish bouzoukis, and so on. This new album has a bit of that on it - particularly "Something's Coming" and "Anarchy Now!" - but it's mostly neoCeltic.

5) How fast has your fame (or infamy) spread since you started performing?

Well, we're here, that's a start. ^_^

6) Any other comments, insight, words of wisdom, etc.?

Everything becomes a racket, eventually. Everything.

7) Final question. How do you feel? :)

I FEEL LIKE PARTYING WITH SOME KLINGONS. WHO'S WITH ME?

The Student Loan Debt Forgiveness Scam, and How NOT to be Taken In

In the past year, there has been an increasing number of "student loan debt forgiveness" companies advertising their services to unsuspected borrowers, basically advertising that, if you utilize their services, your student loan debt will be completely forgiven, and go by such names as Student Loan Services, Federal Loan Forgiveness, and Student Loan Forgiveness, just to name a few. Let me clue you in on this- it is complete and total poppycock!  Basically, these companies are third party companies that have nothing whatsoever to do with debt forgiveness. They will lure unsuspecting, and more often than not gullible borrowers in by promising total loan forgiveness, all for a fee ranging anywhere from $300 to as high as $1500 or more. Once said fee is received, they will just access your federal student aid information, and attempt to consolidate your loans through the Department of Education with one of the four main Department of Education affiliated servicers. They will also outright promise lower payments without telling you that the lower payments are based on low income requirements, so if you're annual adjusted gross income is above a certain amount, you're basically out of luck. These companies seem to thrive on misleading gullible people into believing something that is not true, and take their money while doing so. More often than not, unsuspecting borrowers find themselves with a consolidation that they did not ask for, and loan payments higher than promised because they do not qualify for the promised lower payments. Said misled borrowers will then call the loan servicing company that the loans were consolidated with, and try to cancel it, but by the time they do, it is too late, as the loans have already been consolidated, and that cannot be undone, therefore, they are stuck with something they did not want.

Also, note, while there are some forms of loan forgiveness that ARE offered through the DoE, they are not instant, and require you to pay back your loans on one of the income driven repayment plans for a certain amount of time (usually 20 to 25 years for regular borrowers, or 10 years for borrowers working in the public service sector.)

Below are a few simple tips to avoid falling into this "loan forgiveness" trap:
1) If you get correspondence from one of these companies, tell them you do not want to commit to anything until you consult with a loan specialist at your loan servicer. More often than not, if you are eligible for consolidation, and lower income driven repayment plans, your servicer will be able to process those for you, and direct you to the department of education website to consolidate your loans, if that is what you want to do. As these servicers and the Department of Education's Federal Student Aid division can provide these services for free, it will save you a lot of money and a lot of grief in the long run.

2) If you continue to get phone calls from said companies that pressure you into using their service, block the number and contact the better busness bureau.

3) If you have been misled into believing these false promises, and have been charged for incomplete or improperly processed services by one of these companies, report them to one of the state or national consumer protection agencies or better business bureau. They should be able to intervene on your behalf, and may be able to get some of your lost money back.

Doing the proper research could save you a lot of trouble in the future.