I Love the Girl…

So when this whole deployment thing went down, I volunteered for one main reason. My wife! My wife is one of those rare people who have a knack for being the underdog. Like me she has few friends but the ones she does have are quality through and through.

Like many soldiers who come out here I have contact with the wife through a variety of means. For us it is a bit more difficult than others as we have certain unique obstacles to overcome at times. A lot of the times neither of us have access to a phone or an internet switch but somehow we manage to stay connected and manage to make it work.

I am a lucky guy in that my wife is a rare subspecies of woman. She leaves me alone to be myself. She is not out to change me or make me some guy she saw in Cosmo. She knows the kind of guy that I am and accepts that (I am a thug at heart… reformed of course).

I am looking forward to spending some quality time with her when this is over because it has been a long year. I miss her and can’t wait to just chill with the missus.

Anyone who wants to see what she is up to can travel over to http://fuzyvizion.blogspot.com/.
Stop by and say hello… chances are you too can make a quality friend.

Best Regards,
Walt

Two Coffees, blogs, and the Eventual Blah

Every one thinks that being deployed to a combat zone is the worst thing in the world. Normally it would be. Luckily, things here in Iraq have been cleaned up a bit since the invasion. On most big posts there are small gathering holes called Green Bean Coffee Shops. Much like the Starbuck’s that we have back home, Green Beans was started by a couple of guys who knew Joes (that military folk for those that don’t habla) would go grape ape for overpriced coffee house java.

Most soldiers are lucky in that they have access to a PX (shop) where they can get coffee and a coffee maker, but there is something about sitting down with a bunch of buddies and having a cup of coffee. I am a huge cappuccino junky and the thought of showing up to a Green Beans and sucking down an espresso filled delight gets me all stupid inside. The guys who run the shops here are mostly Pakistani, Indonesian, Sri Lankan, and from various places about the globe. Most of these places even brew their own blends of coffee that are out of this world, but at Green Beans, you can forget you are in Iraq for just a few minutes while sipping down a hot (or cold …They Have SMOOTHIES!) beverage.

I went down to the main side of the base I am staying in for the next few days (I am currently in Somewhere Iraq, rather than where I am usually stationed in Out There, Iraq) and had myself a cappuccino. It was the weirdest thing. I sat down outside to watch the varied Military Life (Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen, and even some civilians) pass me by and the strangest thing happened. I realized that I was completely alone.

This is pretty significant as most of the time…Soldiers are never alone. As part of the team I work in, I have been with someone with zero privacy since May of last year! Dear LAWD! But today I was totally alone to study for something I have to do here and as my platoon went back to Out There and I am still in Somewhere… I am absolutely alone.

Now aside from any masturbation jokes you could come up with, this is pretty significant. We pretty much do everything in groups and if you do get a spare minute to yourself… it is usually fleeting. Poof! There it’s gone. But I had a whole day where I got to eat, go to the bathroom, shower, and grab a coffee all by myself. Holy Crap I feel like a grown up!

Aside from getting a lot of studying done, I had an opportunity to download Heroic Moments from Highmoon Media and Purple Duck Games alongside of World Meta-human Factbook: Germany. I am hoping to give both a read while I am out here as well as a review for the boys who took the time to craft them together.

Coffee… Light reading… and the possibility of getting blowed up… what else could a person want in life.

Best Regards,
Walt

What do you mean I have to stay!

What do you mean I have to stay!

There are times in the military that one has to consider the cost to ass ratio. This formula allows one to look at any given situation and weigh the cost of putting his ass on the line for one reason or another. When I came back into the military I ended up coming in with no knowledge of the job I was entering or of the people I would be working with.

After all this time I really should have learned my lesson. I left the last time because a declining military budget combined with liberal training practices (yep… you can read that as SISSY!) meant that the Army was being populated by idiots. Unfortunately, ten years later, Darwin must be on vacation. Idiots combined with explosives should have made my return to the military a triumph. Nope. And because of all of this (and me being forced to stay while my crew goes out of the wire) I have to constantly weigh the cost to ass ratio of me telling my superiors how pathetic my current situation is.

So here I sit here in Somwhere-Ville, Iraq, and I have to wait for some dog and pony show to be over before I leave. The good part about this is that I can draw when I get some free time and continue to work on the next projects for HAZARD Studio. So what is it that the Hooligans are up to?

Research mostly. The big thing that no one can miss right now is that we have a HUGE happening in the gaming industry. Wizards is supposedly upping the ante on what an RPG should be and should be doing. They have launched certain digital initiatives backed by huge amounts of money but have they really started something revolutionary for the RPG industry? Look at what a lot of the publishers under them have done. Podcasts, digital publishing, updating PDF’s with errata when it becomes available, etc. are the hallmarks of guys like RPGOBjects and Green Ronin. These guys have been trying to up the ante for years and now Wizards is playing catch up.

One of the things I would like to see is integrated adventures. Something that can be played either on or off line. Something that could be possibly tracked online? Something that we as gamers could use to enhance our games. There are so many things that the net and associated technology can do for us that it would be silly for us as self labeled geeks not to take advantage of.

Is this what Wizards has planned? Who cares. We know they want to make money on this (who wouldn’t) but do they want to craft a superior product. I am interested in seeing what a digital initiative does to a tabletop role playing game. The thing I am afraid of is whether or not it will still be tabletop at all when the digital dust clears?

So the research continues on what HAZARD is up to next. There are some nibbles on the hook but no one has taken a definitive bite yet. Any takers?

Regards,
Walt

Art, Chai, and the Nature of War

It’s been some time since I was able to get any amount of wiggle room allowing me to get my thoughts out of my head and coherently into the digital ether. Things my way have been busy and me being currently out in the Middle East doing my best to represent the US of A and make the world a better place has kept me on the go.

One of the good things about being who I am in the age I live is that technology allows us to stay connected even in places that were previously unreachable. This is very cool as slinging graphite onto a page helps me bleed off the stress of my day. I can then take these inky hallucinations and splatter them all over the internet. Ahhh… Digital bliss.

So what does an art junky on deployment do with his spare time (other than drinking Chai and learning Arabic)? Well, I go and hock my wares (art… don’t get weird) to anyone willing to help me build a portfolio I can shamelessly show to everyone. Recently that someone has been RPGObjects. The new product by Chuck Rice entitled, Fantasci has hit digital shelves and some of the art within is mine. Of course due to twists of fate beyond my control my name was somehow left off of the credits… the art proves that somewhere in the creative process I got to tag along for the ride (this is in no way to insinuate that I had any help crafting the world. Mr. Rice has a mind like a bullet train and he can craft products that would leave my attempts chugging along like a broken diesel). The product involves fallen races, ancient and forbidden technologies, and a thirst for adventure wrapped up in a product to support his Modern20 rules. On first blush the product invokes feelings of stories many of us have played with digitally (video games rock!) but as you dig a little deeper, you can tell that this world was crafted as a playground for gamers to sink their teeth into. As sure as there is plenty of material to flesh out the world of Aurianis, there is also plenty left alone in order to let people’s imaginations go schizophrenic. All in all I was very glad to have seen how this project has progressed so far and with Mr. Rice at the helm, it can only continue to show off the elegance of the Modern20 system (Since I spewed about it why not check it out at http://www.rpgobjects.com/index.php?page=pro&product_id=355).

With that project out of the way and our deployment turning a corner, I can only hope to scribble more digital drool from my head into yours. The roughest part about trying to run a company and answering the country’s call is that the two are directly in conflict. Both demand your time and both want to be first. Right now…the camouflage that I wear (that doesn’t blend into anything) insists that I make the flag come first… and rightly so. But that doesn’t mean that when I have a spare minute that isn’t devoted to my duty, I can’t continue to hock my wares (art again people, don’t get loopy on me…)?

The other thing that continues to help me keep from going mental is the martial arts training that some of the guys out here get to do with me. I have a small group of guys that I get to train with on a semi regular basis (nothing out here is consistent other that nothing is consistent). Although it is unsettling to have my coworkers and friends walk up and start throwing punches… it does make for very interesting distractions to my day. I can't even begin to thank all the great folks who have supported us by sending us gear and stuff to research on the subject. Very cool.

So after all is said and done, as a soldier, I am making the best of this deployment by learning all that I can and always helping out when I am able. This was definitely the right choice to make in coming here and although I will be glad when it is over, I can say that there are elements of it I will miss.

Talk to you soon…
Walt