Everett Moves

It took me a while to stop laughing before I could even post this.  You know that someone got fired over this mistake….

Being Creative

As D&D roots itself heavily in creativity and imagination, I thought this would be the perfect place to post a great link I found, “Do You Recognize These 10 Mental Blocks to Creative Thinking?”  It sums up the top offenders of squashed ideas and those rogue projects that never met completion.  I know for a fact that I’ve been guilty of most, if not all of these at some point in my life, and I like to consider myself a creative guy. 

A simple “there is no box” theme resounds in the article, and the focal point is that a great deal of what holds us all back is psychological.  Cliche, I know, but I’ve been subscribing to that notion for some time now.  In fact, I believe a lot of us use that very fact as a reason to justify our failure to create (again, myself included).  The list may leave out key points that are necessary in running a successful business (the absence of practicality being one shining example), but if you read the article without the commercial bias that we’ve been accustomed to, there’s good reading to be had. 

“Do You Recognize These 10 Mental Blocks to Creative Thinking?”

1. Trying To Find The “Right” Answer
2. Logical Thinking
3. Following Rules
4. Being Practical
5. Play Is Not Work
6. That’s Not My Job
7. Being A “Serious” Person
8. Avoiding Ambiguity
9. Being Wrong Is Bad
10. I’m Not Creative 

Read the full article here 

The Shaman on Your Homepage

If you’re like me, you love using using different feeds on your homepage to ease your browsing experience.  It collaborates all of your favorite pages and lets your see relevent content quicker than by going to each individual site.  On that note, I know a bunch of you use the iGoogle homepage, so if you’d like to add sultryshaman.com to it, click this link and simply add the feed.

sultryshaman.com RSS Feed

You can also do it manually by clicking “Add Stuff” from iGoogle and searching for “sultryshaman”.  For those of you who use other homepages, simply go to our website and click on the Feed button in the upper right hand corner of IE to add it automaticallty.  If you use another browser other than IE, tough luck, I can’t help you.  

You’ll be able to read all content and pictures, but you’ll need to visit the site itself in order to comment.  Enjoy!

Alien vs Predator: Requiem

Yeah, I’m gonna see it.  There, I said it.

If this trailer doesn’t add the “official” stamp to the production of AVP:Requiem (the sequel to the first release), I’m not sure what will.  The original, a flop-story hybrid of two massive franchises, was a special effects treat and not much else.  However, if you are enamored by both of these creatures as I am, you didn’t care.  And with that, I welcome this next installment.

From what I can gather, the sequel takes place in a secluded town that’s just waiting to be overrun by the baddies (and why wouldn’t it).  We trade the cold, windswept temples of the arctic for the warm, humid skies of the southern regions.  This fact totally baffles me, and here’s why:  didn’t we cater to Predator enough in the first movie?  Now we’re moving him to the more comfortable hunting grounds that he’s used to from his series?  Man, my beloved aliens get no love.

Requiem definitely seems to have gone the horror route (based on the trailer), throwing in sci-fi as more of an afterthought.  Blood and guts abound in this flick, and it doesn’t seem like anyone will be making friends with either of the races (a fact that I much lamented in the first movie).  I did however see a bright-eyed young teenager in the trailer who will no doubt live until the end of the movie and assume some type of heroic role.  Ugh. 

Anyway, check out the trailer – I still am mystified that they are making a sequel to this, but there’s no mistaking the smile on my face.

AVP:Requiem Trailer

The Quick Game

It took me a while to clear the dust off of my keyboard before posting this.  Ever since the GenCon excitement took over in early August, I can’t say that this site has seen much activity (and rightly so), but hopefully that will all change now that I have some more free time.  Speaking of which, now that the group has planned to meet for a pick-up game on the 30th, what better time to give you some links to the two items we’ve been throwing around.

My own miniature collection is cresting the 300 mark, and I know Sam has well over that – it’s pretty ironic that we have not even attempted to use them for the skirmish game they were made for.  Anyway, I figure we can give it a shot and see how some quick board-based versus games go over with the group. 

Spoils was another “pick-up-and-go” game that sparked some interest.  From what I can gather, it’s very Magic-like in its mechanics, but claims to have fixed many of the popular card game’s flaws.  I believe we’ll be picking up a deck to fool around with, so feel free to be critical!  Here are the links:

D&D Miniatures Homepage – The official site of the game.

Warband Generator – This is a handy little tool that would be fantastic if we starting playing regularly (hey, we all use laptops at the table anyway, right?).  There are a few different downloads, including one that you can import your own collection into, and then manage your warband through a broswer offline.  Pretty slick.  There are also card downloads, online generators, and other tools to take a look at.

The Spoils – The official site of the game.

The weekend of the 30th will also be a great time for me to get the final footage for our GenCon DVD.  I hope to have it done in time for Christmas, and I’m confident it will be a riot to watch.  Take a look and see what you think, and as always, feel free to to suggest any other games that may pique your interest.  Until next post!