An Offer

Four days ago I called Jim for more information on a website we are building. We talked a bit about the site and then he mentioned if I would be interested in going to an anime convention. Having almost no interest in Anime but being bored out of my mind, I said "maybe". He told me to call him tomorrow about it. So I called him and essentially told him I was tight on money this month and needed the trip to be as cheap as possible. He said he had almost everything for "free" and we would be running a LARP for a convention. Naturally I told him I was excited. I have learned you always say you are excited if someone is giving you an "opportunity". I was excited because I had only played in 3 LARP games so far and I was looking for a new experience.

Knowing my friends who are interested in anime, I expected the convention to be filled with costumes of anime characters and other odd people running around. I was not disappointed. We got to the convention and they immediately got going on getting players for the game. At the convention I learned we were going to play Legend of the 5 Rings (L5R). I have never played L5R nor anything from the publisher which is similar.

I hung out at the table and soaked up all the good descriptions of the game they were giving to potential players. Before the game started, I read the rule book to figure out the mechanics of the game. However I have learned the rulebook and actual play is a lot different. So I watched the new player briefing closely. At the beginning of the game, we had a combat tournament for the warriors. This helped reinforce the specific mechanics I would need to perform. I have learned it is a lot different watching someone keep the game flowing and actually doing it.

Now most of my friends know I am a pretty shy guy. I don't approach or talk to new people very often. I like going to conventions once in a while because it brings me outside of my comfort zone. Boy, did this ever bring me outside mine. One of the things I tried to do was make sure everyone looked happy during the game. I stayed in one place for a while and just observed the player interactions. Answered a few questions with the most eloquent bullshit I could muster, remember I have never played this game, and generally be there for advise and consul.

That first day, one thing happened which I will remember. I was walking around and two players looked at me. I came over and they wanted to have an ambush. So I brought them out of the main room and into the hall so we could have some space to act it out. Started initiative and got to the first attack. The first attack was unsuccessful but it took a while, remember I have never played this game. So the guy who wanted to ambush really had to leave. He killed himself for attacking, the only honorable way to leave, and it was over. I told the head game master what happened and went on. This ambush became a reason the players thought there was an assassin ready to kill them.

The next day we went out again to get more players and I was the one to talk about the world. Remember I had never played this game. I made some stuff up while furiously reading about the world and embellishing on what I read. Since this was a convention we would only be playing for 2 nights and the majority of the people were new to the game. So it didn't matter what I said so long as it provided more information than what was on the introduction paper, it sounded good and it got the players excited about playing the game.

The second night Jim and myself setup a second room as a meeting hall. I had to babysit it but I was supposed to roam around once the game started. All fine with me, remember I had never played this game. The players came to the second room and I went roaming. Soon a major plot had developed and everyone I was escorting to the second room wanted an audience. None of the players would accept the audience. The line got backed up so much we had 4 of the 5 game masters at that room.

The game progressed but we needed 2 game masters for the room. So I looked for people needing help again and trying to get some involved. One of the new players wanted to check to see if they saw anything in the room. One person was actually invisible and the high ranking players talked about a "presence." So I agreed and set an extraordinary high value to find the invisible player. The guy drew 2 black jokers from the deck of cards in a row and an eight. So he scored a 27 on his check and I told him about the invisible player. Of course he alerted the high ranking players. Now I have played this game.

I had a lot of fun being a game master for the LARP. It involved keeping the mechanics straight, adjudicating decisions the players made, roleplaying NPC characters, keeping everyone involved in the game and making sure we all had fun. I also think I am judging people's emotions better than I usually do. Even though I am new to LARP, I think I may want to do this in the future. Maybe someone saw something in me and would like me to join their game as a game master. You never know what will happen.

Something New Entered My Life

I got a new scooter from Tulsa Scooters. I got the Kymco Agility 125. It was what I could afford after my tax refund. I bought it because my car was ailing. I really needs a bunch of work and I thought I could bring the car down for a few weeks to fix it. So then I could use the scooter to go around town when needed.

I learned how to ride a scooter since I had never ridden a two wheel vehicle in my life. I got my motorcycle endorsement and tag and insurance. The more I rode the scooter, the more I liked it. I rode the scooter back and forth to work. Then the envitable happened and my car broke down again. So I rode my scooter all the time. It was my primary form of transportation and I really liked it.

So I have fallen for my scooter. I ride it every place even though I fixed my car. Last weekend I rode from Stillwater to Tulsa. It was a pleasant ride going in the morning. On the way back the sun beat down on the pavement and it got really hot. I drank 3 bottles of gatorade on the trip back. When I got home the temperature was 110. At the end I have a really nice tan and a mild sunburn which is amazing. Next time I do that ride, I'll remember to wear sunblock.

Washington, NYC and Me

I just got the first two seasons of the West Wing on DVD from eBay. Finally I can watch them in order instead of the bones Bravo throws my way. I absolutely love this show. It is witty, dry humor man, inspiring and some great writing.

I went to NYC after Christmas, had a great time and will definitely be back. Watched Spamalot at the Shubert theatre, appeared on the TODAY show and saw the Statue of Liberty all in two days. However our first hour didn't start out so smooth.

We parked the car at the hotel and entered the rear of the hotel. We stood in the middle of the hallway and a debate broke out on the best way to proceed. After much discussion we decided to get rid of our luggage. We then debated on the direction to the luggage check. My mother, being the enterprising sort, just left and asked the many hotel employees standing around the direction. We then proceeded in the direction specified. We found the lobby and my father got confused because the directions led to the local bar. We again stood in the middle of the thoroughfare in the lobby debating the directions. I decided to go toward the bar and found the luggage check just down the hall. After convincing them the directions are indeed correct we proceeded to the luggage check. This is how we spent the next 60 minutes trying to find a subway in NYC. It was a blessing from God we were able to find the theatre in the dark.

I came back from the holiday and my sister's energetic personality tired needing another holiday. Luckily for me one came next week. I spent the last 2 days of last year and the first day of the new year with Kim and Brian at their house with many house guests I really don't know. At the end I got a couple hugs (all women, good thing!) so I figured most things turned out all right. Next week it is back to the grind of balancing school, work and play. Poohie, no more all night marathons of the West Wing!

Stupid Quiz

Judas Iscariot You scored 35% Pride, 37% Envy, 65% Ambition, and 55% Deceitfulness!

You are Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus. Many Christians would consider you to be one of the worst villains who ever walked the Earth. Jesus himself said that it'd be better for that man if he had never been born. As horrible as that sounds, you do have some good qualities. You were a humble servant of Christ for three years. You also genuinely cared about your fellow man. You had compassion for the plight of your people. This compassion and your ambition, eventually led you to betray Jesus. Your ultimate goal was to overthrow the Roman Empire and set up the Messianic Kingdom in Israel. You thought Christ came to Earth for this purpose. When you found out that Jesus was not going to do this any time soon, you betrayed him to the authorities in hopes that this may provoke Jesus to wield his powers upon the inhabitants of the Earth and save Israel. Your ambition took you out of accordance with Christ and eventually led you to the dark side. Your deceptive nature made you a perfect candidate to betray your master. Only a snake can hide out in the leader's circle for three years without being noticed. Well, Jesus knew, but the other eleven didn't have a clue. You're pretty sharp.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 12% on Pride You scored higher than 33% on Envy You scored higher than 61% on Ambition You scored higher than 58% on Deceitfulness

Link: The Which Biblical Villain Are You Test written by MetalliScats on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Google Print and Copyright

One of the recent stories to catch my attention is the lawsuit by the Authors Guild against Google for the Google Print program. I won't get into any legal details as other sites can present them such as Groklaw in much better detail. However the ramifications are great and many. I have no doubt this lawsuit may eventually go to the Supreme Court to decide what is fair use. The argument is essentially the difference between how much use is fair use. The Authors Guild contends any attempt to make a copy even if the public information displayed is short snippets violates copyright. Google contends the copy is private and allowed under copyright while the public information is only short snippets allowed by the fair use provisions of copyright. I believe if Google could obtain the short snippets through other means than copying the book digitally, the Authors Guild would not make this fuss. I also believe the Authors Guild is concerned about the amount of people accessing snippets from the book. Never before has a medium allowed for millions of people to find any snippet in the book they are wanting. We always had to take the snippets offered by the publishers, reviewers and authors and buy the book to judge its content. Now we may be able to obtain these snippets quickly and can judge the content for ourselves. I believe this scares publishers and book distributors as much as copying the book. I've always hated reviews which just quote a few words from books. You are never able to understand even the most basic context and need to rely on the reviewer for any insight. I have always adored publishers who add a couple pages to the end or beginning in a book about another book they are promoting. It gives you a feel for how the book is written and the content you may expect from the book. Google Print does much less than provide a page or two about the content. They only provide at most a paragraph and at least a couple of lines. In the end Google is trying to provide people with another resource about the content of printed materials. They are allowing us to view short snippets from a huge collection of books and asking us to evaluate the content. I think Google Print will allow people to more accurately evaluate whether a book may fill our needs or not.

Confirmation

Two weeks ago I received confirmation from my parents they booked tickets to the Broadway musical Spam-a-lot for the day after Christmas. Ever since they asked if the family was interested in going to NYC for Christmas I've been looking forward to the trip. Yesterday I received confirmation my plane ticket to Philly is booked for Christmas. My parents live in Newark, Delaware so we'll spend Christmas there and then stay in NYC overnight. I am very excited as this will be my first trip to New York City. I'll get to experience the Big Apple, Broadway and hopefully some other institutions. Last weekend I also received confirmation someone really does read this blog. A friend from work asked for a RSS feed on my LiveJournal blog. I decided to switch because this one looks prettier and easier to customize. Yesterday I also received confirmation that my co-workers read this blog too. It was promptly reported to my supervisor. No problems arose yet. I am puzzled how it can be found so quickly as it is a very new blog and the search engines probably haven't indexed it very high. I can't find it doing some specific searches. If you have any ideas, I would like to hear them. That fact makes it very creepy and suspicious. It reminded me of this piece done by 60 Minutes.

Look at Creative Lab's Financial Data

I thought it was time to put to use all this information I'm learning in school and make an amateur attempt to analyze Creative Lab's latest financial filing. It hasn't been good news for the company announcing a $588,000 profit this year and a net operating loss of $68,548,000. Those are the numbers which really stand out. The troubles with the company's excess inventory have been well reported and I think overemphasized. There are bigger problems within the income statement. The largest trouble spot is the excessive growth of receivables. Accounts Receivable grew 91% while sales revenue grew 50% from 2004 to 2005. This could mean the company didn't collect the sales it made on credit and/or extended credit to distributors or retailers when the company normally would only accept cash terms. Also the allowance for bad debt only grew 2.8% representing management's confidence they will collect most of the sales on credit. The other problem with the company is the acquisition of 3dLabs. This year the company wrote off $65,225,000 in goodwill and intangible assets from 3dLabs due to performance below expectations and new product delays. In 2002, Creative Labs acquired 3dLabs for $25,806,000 net. This probably represents a loss for the company because I do not believe 3dLabs has generated $90 Million in operating profit. However the financial statements do not separate income by subsidiary. Some areas of minor concern is the product warranty and settlement increases. In 2004, the company had $4,871,000 in warranty settlements with $8,417,000 in warranties issued. In 2005, the company had $21,241,000 in warranty settlements with $27,603,000 in warranties issued. This is a significant increase in the settlement rate of the warranties. Creative also issued a $0.50 dividends ($41,357,000) during 2005 compared to $0.25 dividends for 2004 and 2003. This comes after borrowing $175 Million to pay for the net cash flow loss of $208,464,000 in operating activities. The company faces several challenges including reducing inventory and increasing gross profits, collecting receivables in a timely manner and reducing accounts receivable, managing 3dLabs more effectively and investing the loan in product research and development. If the company can overcome these challenges, they will make a return to profitability. Now comes time for the disclaimer. I do not make any warranty, expressed or implied, or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. The opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Creative Labs or any of its subsidiaries and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.