A seemingly fun Meme from Rafaela

(Cross-posted to my Facebook)

The Rules: If you've been tagged (or even if you weren't and would like to play along)...

(1) Turn on your MP3 player.
(2) Go to SHUFFLE songs mode.
(3) Write down the first 25 songs that come up--song title and artist--NO editing/cheating, please.
(4) Choose any number of folks to be tagged.

Play along if you like. It's fun!

(In order of appearance in playlist)

Apotheosis - O Fortuna (Apocalypse Chorus Mix)
Raven - Speed of the reflex
Obituary - Dead Silence
Doro - Fuel
Led Zeppelin - Since I've Been Loving You

Crimson Glory - Transcendence
Tool - Stinkfist
Dream Theater - Voices
Nobuo Uematsu - Lurking in the Darkness (FF VII)
Nightwish - The Islander

Coronatus - Scream Of The Butterfly
The Chieftains - Raglan Road
Dangerous Toys - Here Comes Trouble
Accept - Sick, Dirty And Mean
Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way

Symphony X - Fallen
Norah Jones - Wish I Could
Celtic Frost - Wings of Solitude
Bob Seger - Shakedown
Midtown - Give it Up (Spider-Man 2 OST)

Toad the Wet Sprocket - All I Want
David Arkenstone - River Crossing
Ernest Tubb - (I'm Gonna Make My Home) A Million Miles From Here
Nightwish - Cadence of Her Last Breath
Two-Mix - Second Impression

Yes, there's a lot of metal there. Out of 117 GB, almost 50 GB is classified as metal*.

* - By me. What's labelled as metal in my iTunes are things that I feel are metal, and fit a metal "vibe" when I'm jamming music. Were I to neatly catagorize every bit of music by its intended genre, metal would likely go up, but its focus would be spread farther apart. Of course, most of it would be splintered into the various metal subgenres, such as hair, black, death, power, thrash, etc.

Dungeons & Dragons, or How I Wasted a Decade...

I first truly discovered D&D in the summer of 1991*, when I was spending the summer with my mom in California. I'd been reading the Dragonlance series of books, and realized that it was tied to D&D somehow. I got the Dragonlance Adventures book, and picked up the 1990 black basic D&D box set, not knowing what the difference was between AD&D and D&D.

* -- Prior to that, I had 3 chance encounters:

1. Seeing the basic box set for sale in 1985 in Baton Rouge, LA, when we were visiting my mother's friend,
2. I seem to remember Jay Timbs either talking about it, or showing me a Monster Manual, and
3. Rick Hubbard showed me one of the first edition books when I first met him (he also had a killer Maiden "Stranger in a Strange Land" poster, but I digress).

I came back to Memphis, met Kevin Dunn, and learned more about AD&D in general. Before I'd ever tried playing, I was the DM for my friends in my room. No one was particularly paying attention, but I think that I had fun despite all that. I was sold on RPGs.

After that, my next attempt to run a game was the Robotech RPG. By that point, I was into computers, had realized Anime extended beyond Robotech and Speed Racer, and was on the verge of quitting school (long story, and for another time). It actually went rather well, though I brought it to an end when I realized that I mainly wanted to have the characters stay in their mecha (odd, isn't it, that all I needed was someone to introduce me to Battletech then, and I'd have been sold?).

( I played in a - click to read more )

I realized tonight that I have no real intentions on going back to 3e, or even 2e. I want to play D&D, but the advances that 4e brought about have made the older versions far less appealing. However, as I said, Scott doesn't want any part of 4e, and I don't want to force him to play a system he doesn't like, nor do I want to run one I don't like. Also, it feels like no one else is interested in stepping up and running a game, and the sense of satisfaction I had from campaign creation has not returned (probably because of one too many stillborn campaign ideas that would have been absolutely amazing, if I'd had the chance to implement it). Charles has his own hobbies, and things like D&D and Guitar Hero seem to be time-wasters at best for him.

So, unless something miraculous happens that gives me access to a new group, I have run my last game, and played my last character. I understand that I've not asked some folks (like Mike), but in most cases, they quit years ago, and I figured they'd moved on, and I don't feel right bringing it up. How DO you ask someone with a wife and kids to play D&D? Especially if, as I feel, we need to commit to a schedule to keep things going.

Well, if you're still reading this, I thank you for following my thoughts all the way to their conclusion. I invite comments about any of this.