I wanna dance with the Sidhe...

So, despite my earlier post, I never went to sleep. Instead, I finished reading The Mysteries, by Lisa Tuttle. This was a fantastic book, set in the United Kingdom. Well, basically just England and Scotland. An American private detective with an uncanny knack for finding missing people gets handed a case that's over two years old. During the course of the case, he notices parallels with his first case, which he's never talked about. These parallels involve the Otherworld -- the faeries, the Sidhe, the Wee Folk.

It's set in modern England, going so far as to refer to 1995 as "several years ago". I love this kind of story, and immediately began reading it when I got it home on March 3*, even though I had Requiem for the Sun, by Elizabeth Haydon, and Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, by Gregory Maguire, begun already. Of course, I'm not going to pick either of those back up immediately, for I have gotten my dirty hands on both of the new novels set in the world of Eberron. City of Towers (CoT) is by Keith Baker, creator of the setting, while Marked for Death is by Matt Forbeck. I've already begun CoT.

Aside from reading The Mysteries, I prowled the newsgroups for more music. I found some ambient stuff that's rather weird**. (Check my "Current Music".) I snagged the full live production of Beauty & the Beast for andric, who is still using her ISP's newsgroup servers. (I was too, until I noticed most of the headers were coming down incomplete. That's when I decided to go with the unlimited download power of Giganews! Ahem, anyway.) I've got it, I've finished the book, and I'm going to bed now. For real this time.

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* - I'm silly, but I get a thrill knowing I own a first edition of this book, and that it had been out for all of two days when I bought it. Now, barely into the 12th, I've finished the book, and I feel satisfied having done so.
** - No, I mean weirder than normal. Really.

I'm getting one of these!!!

What could be cooler than having Darth Vader on your iPod? This is a cover for the generation of iPod that I own, and it's badass to boot. That's $30 that I can't wait to spend! :)

Holy Crap!!

Wow, they're planning quite the media blitz, huh? I guess I should expect that by now, though. The M&Ms look to be my favorite, with them released a dark chocolate "dark side" variant for the film. :) Of course, if I can get my grubby hands on some of the Burger King things, I won't cry. :) (I just wish they would do a glass promotion like they did back in 1983.)

FROM STARWARS.COM:

April 2 Launches Star Wars Promotions

March 04, 2005

On April 2, Revenge of the Sith's family of promo
partners will launch some of the coolest merchandising tie-in promotions ever
conceived for a Star Wars film. Breakfast cereals, kids meals, candies,
soft drinks, ringtones, and much more stand ready to be received by fans,
families and collectors. Here's a look at some of the activity that will start
soon in the U.S.

Burger King
Burger King rejoins Star Wars for the first time
since 1983's Return of the Jedi collectible glass promotion. This time,
collectors will have a go at a wild array of "super deformed" Star Wars
character and vehicle toys spanning the entire saga. Their adult-targeted*
campaign will include a scratcher card game that allows players to "Choose Your
Destiny" in which every card is a potential winner--you must simply make the
right choice to win!

Masterfoods
Masterfoods, whose brands include M&M's, Kudos,
Skittles, and Lucas, are giving fans a plethora of packaging designs to collect
across their candy and snack brand lines. The M&M's brand will launch the
Star Wars M-pire campaign which will debut the new dark chocolate
M&M's and feature several new M&M's characterizations of Star
Wars characters. Read more about it here.

Pepsi
Pepsi's activities will include unique Episode III packaging
designs on their 12-packs, 24-packs, and 2-liter soft drink products including
Diet Pepsi, Pepsi, Caffeine Free Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Diet Dew and Slice. Also,
Pepsi is launching a Darth Dew Slurpee, in collectible cups at 7-Eleven stores
nationwide.

Cingular
Cingular is offering exclusive mobile content consisting
of ringtones, screensavers, wallpapers, and games.

Frito Lay
Fans can expect Star Wars-themed packaging for
LAY'S® Classic and LAY'S® Wavy potato chips, including an in-bag surprise
consisting of 1 of 12 exclusive sticker designs and in-store displays picturing
scenes and characters from across the saga. Also new this year, for a limited
time only, Frito-Lay will feature a Star Wars-inspired CHEETOS® snack.

Kellogg's
Kellogg's "Fuel the Force" campaign will include their
breakfast cereal, toaster pastry, waffle, cracker, and fruit snack brands with
features such as Star Wars-themed packaging, game card boxes, light-up
"saberspoon" premiums, cookie jars, plates, and snack bowls. Star Wars
even get its own licensed cereal!

Keep checking starwars.com as the Episode III excitement heats up for more
details about these exciting promotions, contests and premiums.

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* - How cool is that? It's not even a silly toy thing, but something MADE with adult fans in mind?

Adventures in Lollygagging...

I did nothing particularly constructive today. I read more of City of Towers, and came up with some things I can do to tie the group into the first Eberron module, Shadows of the Last War*, but that's about it. Things are going to be fun. Scott mentioned that he is going to be running a D&D game on Tuesdays, and invited me. Since I work 8-5 Tuesday and Wednesday, this shouldn't be much of a problem. It's set in the Forgotten Realms, and specifically the Silver Marches. I have the Player's Handbook and all four books in the Complete series, as well as other materials by DM approval. (For me, that means, Arms & Equipment Guide, Draconomicon, Expanded Psionics Handbook, Frostburn, Libris Mortis, Manual of the Planes, Planar Handbook, as well as the books from the Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Dragonlance, and Midnight settings.) Now, what could I make? A bard/wizard who fights with a spiked chain? Hahahahaha....no. :)

I'm not sure of much, but I know this much:

• I don't want to make another archer.


• I don't want to play a paladin.


• Spellcasters are nice, but I find that I tend to prefer someone who can mix it up in combat.


• Divine magic requires a link to a deity, and well, that's just not something I want to do.


• The Oriental classes -- Samurai, Shugenja, Wu Jen, and Ninja -- are crap, and out of flavor for pseudo-medieval fantasy.


• Of the Complete series' classes, I am most interested in Swashbuckler, Hexblade, Spirit Shaman, Warlock, and Scout.


• If I use a melee weapon, I think I'd like to try something we rarely use, like spiked chain or flail.


• Of the core classes, I'm LEAST interested in Cleric, Monk, Paladin, Sorcerer, and Wizard.


• While I profess to dislike a divine character right now, a multiclass Cleric/Paladin/Monk of Ilmater would be pretty neat.


• I don't want to use a long sword, short sword, or bastard sword.

Simplicity itself to make a character, eh? :) Oh well, we have no game tomorrow, so I'll spend tomorrow working on my character. After I get him built, I'll work on MY game for next Sunday.

Thanks go out to prissi for clearing up some confusion for me regarding The Purpose Driven Life. I needed that. Thanks, Meimei. *hugs*

Finally, I think that I'm going to sleep with the window open, even if the fans are turned to low. It feels absolutely sensual right now. *shivers*

* - Yes, they're fifth level, and I'm only just now getting around to starting them on this adventure. It's a shame, really, but I've kept them busy so far. Perhaps I will let the Elemental Evil theme go for now, and just concentrate on running a series of enjoyable adventures, without concerning myself about a meta-plot?