GelaSkins

It isn't like this has been a state secret, but I just found these and the inner geek in me wants some for his devices. GelaSkins is a company that makes skins for various electronic devices. I was rather surprised to find out that many people didn't know what a skin is. To quickly explain a skin, in simplest terms, is a large sticker for your device. They have actually been around for years. Cell phones where the fist I saw them for and then they started appearing for consoles like the X-Box and the PS2.

It seems while I wasn't looking GelaSkins(and possibly other companies) upped the ante and offer them for just about any type of electronic gadget your little heart desires. Phones, consoles, controllers, laptops(not mice though), Ebook Readers, and whole host of other devices.

This almost has me trading in my first generation Kindle(K1) for a K3.


Geekness aside they are a bit on the pricey side at about $15 - $30US. The upside however is that you can also upload your own pictures for a custom skin on your favorite device. You can position, stretch, and rotate the picture(even multiple pictures) to fit any device they have a template for.

Reviews over on Amazon are generally positive. Most people seem to be able to apply the skin with little to no difficultly. Though once they are on they are on or off and not on and off. It seems while the skin does protect from scratches well and is easy to remove it is also easily damaged when removing. So the price is doubly hefty if you are thinking to switch these out to fit your mood.

So if you are interested you can check them out here: http://www.gelaskins.com/
(Don't worry I don't get anything for you clicking.)

Kindle vs. NOOKcolor?

There are probably many of us that are seeing this since Barnes & Noble announced NOOKcolor, which is people clamoring to get it and saying Kindle is behind the times. A huge fact they are missing, and that Barnes & Noble is conveniently hiding under the table, is that the screen is no longer E-Ink. Being back-light it is more than likely simply an LCD screen. There is where the problem comes in and in the rush to have "the best gadget" people need to be aware of. The number one reason some many move to E-Ink in the first place is how much less eye strain it causes.

From simple personal experience I can say that when I have the time I can read for hours on end with needing to "rest my eyes" or getting tension headaches that same amount of reading done on an LCD would cause. To most that have tried eReaders the difference can be felt almost immediately when moving for looking at the LCD screen on their desk to going to their favorite eReader. It truly is like reading a book and while it is inconvenient to not have the back-light at times that back-light it part of the problem. That is the thing while in the title I might say Kindle vs. NOOKcolor this is more about E-Ink vs. LCD. If you really like nook better then buy it, but buy the E-Ink version while it is still available. Your eye will truly thank you for the difference.

Since I know I might not be the most persuasive voice out there here are two very good links that might help you understand all of this a little better. First is Amazon's explanation of E-Ink which can be found half way down on their Kindle product page titled "E-Ink 101: Compare Kindle's Screen to Traditional LCDs". The second is a microscopic comparison of E-Ink and LCD(http://www.bit-101.com/blog/?p=2722).

It is always sad when someone dies.

I prefer not to talk about personal things so instead I'll talk about a writer I liked who it seems died recently. Jennifer Rardin died on Monday, September 20th. She was the writer for the Jaz Parks series. The series is about Jaz Parks who is an assassin for the government. In this alternate universe supernaturals do exists, most especially Vampires, and it is Jaz Parks job along with her mentor Val(a vampire) to stop some of the most heinous of these from continuing to do harm.

For the most part it is a fun series of books that has a little bit of adventure/comedy/etc. There is a love interest between Jaz and Val, but the books never become romances and stay firmly this side of the Urban Fantasy line. The author never tried to go for any shock factor to the story lines that seems to becoming all too over used now. The main character Jaz can be a bit of the typical tough woman with the troubled up bringing, but it does work for the character and doesn't come off too trite. She does have a "chosen one" situation, but thankfully the author doesn't have that mean the character leaves everyone behind in the power department especially her partner Val. He continues to grow as both a character and in power. It becomes an equality of saviors rather than the chosen one and her minions.

I really suggest the series if you are looking for a Vampire Urban Fantasy that hasn't yet done like many and degrade into some bodice ripper romance. Mrs Rardin's last two books for the series are finished with the 7th book due out this November and the final book due out June 2011.

Our condolences to her family and friends. Her site is JenniferRardin.net.

The Grand Masquerade (part 1)

Yes, I admit it I went to a gaming convention, a White Wolf gaming convention no less....and it was a blast. I had already mentioned I would be going to The Grand Masquerade, but to admit I went is a big step. I get less weird looks when I admit to going to an anime convention than a gaming one and that is from fellow gamers. It was well worth the price of admission. I got to game, hear some announcements of things to come, and party like it was 1997.

Any way as I said it was a lot of fun. I met a lot of people that I had a really good time playing with. I played all vampire so that will have to be my fix for a while. VtM(Vampire the Masquerade), VtR(Vampire the Requiem), DAV(Dark Ages Vampire though I prefer VtDA), and then VtR again(twice). The table top games were hosted by The Wrecking Crew and they all did an awesome job.

Game 1
The VtM game was set in Las Vegas. The characters had been gathered by the prince to play protection for a visiting Vampire. We where told by the seneschal that the Kindred in question had some enemies among the Primogen of the city and that it was very important to keep him safe. We pick up the Vampire after he arrived in a private jet and found out that he was a Lasombra Antitribu. For those that don't know the best way to put it is you have the bad vampires then the really bad vampires. He was a part of a small group that was a part of a bigger group that are the really bad vampires. This small group doesn't like the bigger groups methods so they left. Needless to say neither group really trusts them.

After a few bumps along the way we found out that he was gathering other questionable groups to support the Prince. My character gets shanked a couple times by an Assamite(the assassins of vampires) and we just barely escape. I had fun and Justin from The Wrecking Crew did a great job as ST even if he did do the whole Gangster Guido character a little too well.... :) I'm not saying nothing for nothing I'm just saying.

Game 2
This one was set in New Orleans on Halloween. It was a scavenger hunt were a mixed group of creatures of various morals competed to collect the most items before the deadline. This was my first VtR game and it wasn't as bad as I feared. The game does play better than it reads, though I still much prefer OWoD. I played a Daeva(Vampire) and then there were also a Gangrel(Vampire), a Garou(Werewolf), and two Changelings(One Oger and one Elemental).

If I had fun in the first one I had an absolute blast in this one. We all worked really well together and if Dawn, the ST in this one, was a little quieter the situations she setup for us were not. :) Which in turn had us going to extremes in how we went about things. I laughed so hard a couple times I about cried. Our group ended up going after the high point items. Among other things our characters stole "toys" for the back room of a club, a limo that we shove the motorcycle into the trunk(and we delivered the two people that stole them before we could as well), but the piece de resistance was the statue of Andrew Jackson that we used a water cutter to cut from the base and a dump truck to hall it away. Needless to say I didn't do well at the very end. Lost to a frenzy check and ran from all the fire the Elemental was doing. :) The two southern gentlemen where quite nice and gave us a clap for a job well done at the end though.

This game also started the running joke for this character. I built this character with the thought that he was an elder character and wouldn't know how to drive. So when asked to drive the limo I explained he couldn't. He does however have a max Dex for his blood potency so he can manage in a pinch. One of the other players said don't forget to keep your hands at 10 and 2. So thus was the power of 10 and 2 born.

Game 3
This one was the DAV game set in Constantinople in 1100. We were invited to the Princes party for his favorite childer. The Gangrel in this one was bound and determined to be the first to gift to the childer, so much so that 3 of us had to restrain the character so that it wouldn't look bad on us. The first time we managed it, but we were too slow the second. After that the unknown to our characters Assamite presented himself as the gift, was accepted, and then promptly told to kill another of the party goers(not one of our party) who had done something(I can't remember what now). That was turning out really bad so two of our party finished the guy of to avoid our group being embarrassed further. Upset(as part of his path_ the Assamite attempted to kill the Tzimisce for honors sake. When he decided to take himself and the other off the side of a cliff my character took the opportunity to save a fellow party member and remove a not so fellow party member by kicking...I mean helping him off the cliff.

After that our group was tasked by an elder to intercept a caravan and retrieve two gifts they were bringing. Needless to say it all went south when the Assamites Ghoul betrayed us and we got jumped by 3 archers. My character ended 1 and helped kill another. The group had already beat trail for a ship one of them owned and the three of us that stayed to defeat the Assamite archers joined them.

The ST for this one was David and a bigger character I don't think you could ever meet. He did a great job in keeping it both light yet still presenting how monstrous vampires of extreme age can be in the VtX setting.

Game 4
This game was set in Phoenix Arizona and was a follow up to the first VtR game I played in. This one was also ST'd by David and was kind of broken into two parts. The first had that we needed to get a map from someone. When we agreed we found out that someone was an inmate at one of the prisons. My job in this was to drive a Van into the gate of a prison across town to distract the police. 10 and 2! I made the rolls and got away with no problem.

Meanwhile back at the first prison they managed to get a small group inside. High jinks in sued and the found out that the map was on the back of a prisoner. A kindly individual offered to get the map for them....Yeah. We got back to the contact and found our next mission was to go to an insane asylum and retrieve someone. The asylum it turns out had a gate to Arcadia (Which is a Changeling thing that I know very little about now). It was a 1800's London and after thinking about it we realized we just brought fairy London a Jack the Ripper. He managed to slip away as we boarded a train that it seems our target had gotten on as well. Which took us to a stage coach.

No one was going to drive so I invoked the power of 10 and 2(don't ask how that works with a coach, but it involves holding the reigns up high). The Garou with me took up the reigns but lost them when the horses freaked when he shifted shape. I being the extremely reluctant hero jumped on the back of the horse and snatched up the reigns. Neither I nor may character knew what might happen, but when faced with the fact that the road curved harshly up ahead tried to turn the horses just a little to see if how much force was needed for them to respond. Not much it seems as the ran right into the side of the mountain when he pulled on the reigns.

To shorten the rest of the story a bit. Crash, fall forward, kicked by dying horse, everyone out, big brass changeling falls taking stage coach with it, anther vampire fills chasing Werewolves with powdered sliver hollow points, save BBC, meet Francis Ford Cupola Dracula....out of time. We took much to long plaining the prison entry that we ran out of time at the end. My character did get a fairy cures out of it.

I'll follow up later with part two that contains the final game and talks about some of the announcements that were shown to us at The Grand Masquerade.

The Grand Masquerade

In September I will be going to my first gaming convention White Wolf's The Grand Masquerade. If nothing else it should be an experience. One of the things I'm looking forward to is finally playing some Vampire the Masquerade(VtM) and Dark Ages(VtDA/DAV) table top games. Collectively I refer to them as VtX. Hey if it works for algebra then it can work for acronyms as well. The game can be a lot of fun, but with the right group of friends a lot of games can be. There is one major problem the game suffers from and it is the reason I don't get to play it much. The problem isn't with the game itself it is with some of the preconceived notions that people bring to the game.

The first seems to stem from the idea that if it drinks blood then it is evil. In most cases it isn't a moral objection just that they don't see how they could play an evil character. From the VtM perspective it doesn't say drinking blood is evil. It says Vampires have problems and how they deal with them is what makes them evil or not. At its base a vampire is nothing more than a supernatural hemophiliac. It has within it the supernatural desire to feed and that desire if not kept in check leads to killing. It isn't required that they kill however and yet some people come with the impression it has to be so they don't want to play.

The second is that all vampires must be sexual creatures. Again this is a preconception that people bring to the game and not of the game itself. Popular media has moved more toward portraying vampires and the drinking of blood as erotic. While it can be played that way again that isn't the focus of what VtX was trying to be. In fact for the most part Kindred(what VtX calls vampires) do not care about sex and while drinking blood is a pleasure for them it does not require acting it out. It isn't about erotic fantasy it is about a creature that requires blood to survive and how it handles that.

At its core VtX tries to be what all table top games try to be and that is what the Storyteller and the players make of it. It leans a little to the political, but is setup for a more combative experience as well. Though in that respect it is more harsh than games like D&D were at mid and high level characters have hoard of hit points and spells can do massive damage that characters can still walk away from. If you can get past the preconceived notions it can be a wonderful game with the right group of people.

So tGM among other things is going to be my chance to play again. If you are already going to The Grand Masquerade and want to play a table top game then The Wrecking Crew, the senior White Wolf Demo team, will be hosting several games. They are not limited to only Vampire games nor OWoD(Old World of Darkness), but WtA and NWoD as well. Information about the games and how to sign up can be found here: http://forums.white-wolf.com/cs/forums/t/29552.aspx?PageIndex=1http://forums.white-wolf.com/cs/forums/t/29552.aspx?PageIndex=1. If you are interested sign up as it should be fun. :[

Kindle books falling to the wayside? (Part 2)

So I finally got a firm responce from both parties so I was able to send some form of what they sent to me to each other.

St. Martin said:
"Amazon has not given us a release date for the Kindle version, so I’m afraid I do not know. Amazon converts and distributes all Kindle books independently, so you may want to be in touch with them? I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful, but Kindle is Amazon’s territory."
***********************

And Amazon said:
"Hello,

"Bound By Sin" by Jenna Maclaine isn't currently available for Kindle. At this time we don't have further information about availability of this book in Kindle compatible format. When publisher provides the book in Kindle format, we'll list Kindle books for pre-order so you get them delivered wirelessly when released.

Your direct feedback to the publisher is helpful.

You may see a link labeled "Please tell the publisher: I'd like to read this book on Kindle" directly below the product image on some book detail pages"
***********************

My only hope is that I can get them to say that to each other so they can figure out who needs to do what.

Kindle books falling to the wayside? (Macmillan vs Amazon)

So now that the whole Macmillan vs Amazon debacle seems to be over it seems there may be a few casualties of war in the whole process. Well besides the fact that customers often have to pay half again more than before. When looking into a book, Bound By Sin by Jenna Maclaine(think Period Urban Fantasy with Vampires), I've wished to read for quite some time it turns out that there actually should be a Kindle version, but there isn't one listed. Macmillan(St. Martin's Press in this instance) says they sent it and Amazon says they don't have it. I would think that would be a problem they might want to fix. That whole selling more books and making more money thing. The only problem is the book continues not to be listed with a Kindle version and neither Amazon nor St. Martin's seem to be doing anything about it.

It would also seem more than likely that several of these other titles people have been waiting for(and talking about) could be having the same problems. So I'm just giving out an FYI and suggesting that we all write both Macmillan (St. Martin's division for this book: trademarketing@stmartins.com) and Amazon (Kindle Customer Service form) telling them which book we want and the fact that we want our Kindle books now. :)