In celebration of the end of the first very long school year, my friends and I went down to San Antonio last weekend to attend the Alamo Grand Tournament for Warhammer 40,000. 40k, as the game is known to players, is the science fiction themed war game I’ve been building and painting in the monthly spare moment I have found in the past year. I’ve discovered that I enjoy the creative outlet of painting and constructing these small things and look forward to doing some more of it since my schedule should slow down a bit this summer. Until I leave for England to get married, I mean.

As if I needed more encouragement, at the Alamo 40k GT in San Antonio this weekend, I was awarded 2nd place Sportsmanship, or the Davy Crockett category. I didn’t win it due to my amazing generalship and impeccable win ratio (I went 1 win, 1 tie, and 3 losses), but because I was such a gracious player and was charming. Also, the incredibly bad luck for my dice might have had something to do with it, and I definitely wasn’t getting any painting points. I think my opponents felt sorry for me and rationalized it like this: “Good Game! Sportsmanship points for that depressingly bad luck you had there!” Or something to that effect. Oh well, I won $75!

I also hope to do some more blogging, but we’ll see how that goes. Progress has been made, however, since this post doubles all the posts I had since last year at about this time.

I have some pictures from the tournament and always some cute ones of Luke from recently. I’ll try and get those up in a timely fashion. If you look for thefathermapple on a couple of the big forums, or my favorite, bolterandchainsword.com, then you might see more of my painting process.

In the meantime, I’m going to go paint in preparation for a doubles 1 day event in Plano on the 28th, and hope to hear from any and all of you!

P.S. I’m trying to type more of this on my phone because that seems like a good idea. It means I’m into it more often and its more constructive than looking at things like… This.

- I got engaged to Tamsyn last August. That was very nice.
- I passed my first semester of law school at Texas Wesleyan. Fun.
- I got to visit Tamsyn after Christmas due to snow storms and horrible service from American Airlines. That was incredibly frustrating followed by lots of joy.
- I started a hobby of painting and modeling plastic and metal figures, which I wish I had more time for instead of homework.
- My son turned six, I hit 28. His party was better than mine.
- In ten days and four tests (one today) I’ll be done with my first year of law school.
- In two months and 14 days I’ll be getting married to Tamsyn in England.

So if you’ve got some spare prayers or happy thoughts, I’d appreciate them the next 10 days.

What have you been up to?

First, the most immediate bit of news that most people will find quite important.

I got accepted to the 2010 Fall semester at Texas Wesleyan Law School. This is good news. I am still awaiting a decision from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.

The GI Bill should cover all the costs of me attending law school at Wesleyan. It’s located in Fort Worth, which is not too far away. Commuting would be possible and traffic would be less than going to Dallas.

Regardless of which school I go to, I will be a law student next fall. No teaching, no paralegal work, and no Army. Also, no social life.

If you’d like to see me before the Fall, please let me know! It will be a productive kind of social isolation.

Edit: As of April 18, it’s final: I’m going to Texas Wesleyan in Fort Worth!  Go Rams!

Shucks.

Actually, Double-Shucks. Five years ago, I could chalk some of the disappointment I felt upon receiving a denial letter from a law school to several factors. I hadn’t studied at all for the last possible LSAT date of the school season. I had applied during the “late” windows for most of the schools. I didn’t get to spend much time with the personal statements or essays. I was expecting my son to be born in a few weeks and was nervous.

I don’t have those excuses this time. I am consoled by the fact that my father wasn’t admitted to Baylor either. He didn’t need those Bears, and I don’t either!

Perhaps I shouldn’t say that, so other future schools don’t think I’m some kind of fair weather turncoat, spitting childish names at a university because they turned me down amongst their huge pool of other applicants who are just as qualified and successful as I am. I should, in theory, be wishing the other happy, accepted applicants well on their personal journeys and hope they are successful in their endeavors.

Except, of course, if they are facing me in some future court room. I’ll go to lunch with another attorney where we’ll talk and laugh over law school stories. I’ll find out my opposition graduated Baylor Law School in 2013. Casually, I’ll put my napkin on the table after finishing my food, say I’m going to the bathroom and would they wait one moment, and then walk out the doors to my car.

They’ll sue me or something.

The “or something” part is why I want to go to law school.

I asked my parents how much they had to remind me to do homework. They remembered that it was a lot harder to motivate me than I recall, coincidently. Apparently I refused to practice anything that I couldn’t do successfully the first time. If my little brother did better than I did at something, that was the end of it; I wouldn’t try again. One of the qualities that has made me successful in college, at my banking job, in the Army, and (hopefully) as a law student is that I wouldn’t give in and would continue to work until I’d exhausted every avenue of approach.

The frustrating part of all this? That I was the one who frustrated someone previously. Being a self-identified hypocrite is a tough, bitter, non-chewable pill to swallow. It’s like seeing a pill and assuming it has to be chewable. So you bite into it, but it cracks a tooth and there’s a horrible taste in your mouth that toothpaste can’t get rid of. That’s what this feels like.

The other part of this that I  just don’t understand is when did it all change? Most likely, there is no identifiable date. “Oh, look! April 5th, 2002 I suddenly kept all my appointments and buckled down at work!” More like a slow process of improvements gained through long hours at the grindstone of character.

Whatever. Typing this post is taking too long. I quit. I’mma gonna play some Wii now.

Childrens’ literature is written and illustrated by adults. I’ve read a fair share of it to my son, but so much of it, like fiction in general, is just not worth reading. The plots are so obvious that my four year old can tell me how it is going to end before we’ve finished the first reading, and they either aim too high or too low for children. These books should have a lasting appeal in case I don’t happen to read a book during the three month period in my child’s development that he would find it interesting. I think, (and not originally, might I add) that the books penned by the author with the incredibly famous pseudonym of Dr. Seuss stand up to this test.

My son, right now, can’t read. He’s four, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now. He likes the rhyming and silliness of the situations that make up a Dr. Seuss book. (I use the doctor term because I think he’s earned it.) But I, the parent with an English Degree, enjoy the clever rhyming, unique metrical style, punning, and the artwork that was also done by the same person. People usually are blessed with a superior talent in life, where the good Dr. Seuss was able to illustrate as well as he wrote. These qualities of the books cause parents to smile as often as the child, and that is the true beauty behind the absurdity of books like “The Cat in the Hat comes Back.”

What are some other childrens’ books that will stand the test of time as well as Dr. Seuss? I am always looking for new recommendations and would like to hear yours.

I spent weeks with my son and we have gotten to understand one another again. This is important. He listens when I say things because he knows I mean them, both when I reward or discipline him. Rewards happen more often because I can’t help but love him, but he’s a four year old boy. Every boy needs some correction now and then, or else they’d be robots. Also, he’s started Pre-Kindergarten and loves it. I’m not one to brag about my son (all day: I have to rest and get a drink of water sometimes), but he gets compliments from his teachers each day and even received one from another parent!

I have gotten to spend time with friends I haven’t seen in years. I go over and play video games with a buddy while our kids play together (which is weird in a fun way), I play my pen and paper tabletop games once a week with old and becoming friends gathered around the table. I’ve seen my grandmothers more than just once a week for the two weeks I used to visit when I was on leave in the military. My cousins and I have been able to hang out and see each other sometime other than Christmas or Thanksgiving.

The only thing I haven’t done yet? Get a job and post on here. Well, there’s one thing taken care of. If finding a teaching or paralegal job was as easy as blogging! I don’t get enough traffic on this site for it to even supplement my income, but I know people who do. I’ve identified a potential new career path to explore!

If anyone who reads this needs an odd job done, let me know. I’m sufficiently odd to fix a variety of problems! Also, I can open jars, lift heavy objects, and conduct thorough legal analysis. Call my cell, I’ll work you in to my schedule if you need me.  I jest, of course. My resume is posted underneath “Pages” on the left of this post, then “Work Resume.”

I did update the Flickr page with some pictures of Luke and I showing a friend from the United Kingdom around the Fort Worth Stockyards. It was hot that day, in a classic Texan fashion, but it was fun. Check them out here.

I think this post contains a record number of exclamation marks in one piece of writing that I’ve done, so I should probably stop now. Suffice to say, this time has been good to me and I would like to share it. Thanks for reading.

I was happy to see a lot of old buddies and to eat a lot of good food. I was proud at how much fun my son was in company and how he impressed so many with his wit and charm. I am humbled by all the other people who said thanks to me for serving in the Army and have never gotten used to people doing that. It does make me feel appreciated.

But most of all, I found out there are people who mean something to me even if i hadn’t seen them in four years or four days, and the fact that they still care about me blows my mind into a fine particulate of former disbelief. To all those who stopped by, thank you again. You made my night.

Perhaps I can use this time which is currently used to re-read the same twitter, facebook, and myspace postings all over, and instead be working on a draft post or publishing something on my blogs. Perhaps.

In Japan, they have these novels people read on their phones that were written by other people on their phones. Let me repeat the significant part of that statement: written on their phones! Granted, I have not heard of anything that rivals a Dickens or Steinback yet, but mediums are changing quickly if I can write this very post on my new Blackberry Curve smart phone. Review is forthcoming of the phone.

For me, knowing some other imperfect human has done something gives me a bunch of encouragement to at least try that same thing, and makes me realize how much we human beings are capable of if we try and think hard enough. The current 40th anniversary of the lunar landing is an example of the intellectual upper echelons of human achievement, with Michael Phelps being a good example of the physical. I understand I might not have the physical ability to swim 4 miles a day, even if I worked hard for the rest of my life, I do know I could swim at least one.

This kind of thinking is what led me to running 26.2 miles in April and to sign up for another marathon, the Fort Worth Cowtown in February. If amazing singular humans can walk on the moon or write novels on their cell phones, a more well rounded individual like myself can be posting small updates like this one, work on a poem or a book, or run a few marathons.

Now I conclude, hopefully, the first of many posts from my phone, and hope these rambling words (which I think the late hour, darkness-save-for-the-cell-phone-screen, and soft bed are inspiring) provide you the mental feul to think of some realistically fantastic goal to set for yourself and take the first few steps towards it.

The opening title screen is what sets the mood. A slow, synth-orchestrated intro of a sun rising over a view of a planet from orbit, with the title slowly fading in. My first thoughts were “Blade Runner” due to the sublimely sublimated soundtrack. It continues to get better through the entire game. The voice acting for the different player and non player characters is superb as well, compared to games, and acceptable when compared with movies.

Graphics are good, with minor loading issues that eventually fill in as you enter areas.

The game play is good. Combat feels like a slower paced third person shooter, but it can be hard to determine what is going on around you unless you constantly pause the combat. At the end of the game, I was able to single-shot kill most enemies with an upgraded shotgun, and I skipped some of the larger side missions. The game deserves a derogatory mention of the way you collect weapons and armor from enemies and manage the resulting inventory. I couldn’t program it, but I could think of 10 different ways that other games have handled it better. The elevators are clever disguises for loading screens, but due to the inability to do anything inside of them, they are just as sharp of a break in the experience.

The main bread and butter of this review is the narrative and dialogue system. First, the narrative.

There is a slight build up of escalating mission goals with Shepard, a special military agent, leading a hunt for a rogue agent, which slowly turns into an epic “save the civilized galaxy” story. But like the best dramas, the plot is somewhat inconsequential. The secret to most good narratives is the characters that the plot works around, and while the nature of the primary character that the player controls is somewhat malleable, it is the group of other adventurers that accompany Shepard that shine.

The female Chief Petty Officer with a family history she’s living down in the military; the wanna-be tough cop Turian who can’t respect the rules; the wandering Quarian who has to find something before returning home; the Krogan who is the last of a dying species and working for whoever pays; the naive anthropologist looking for the nurturing relationship her mother couldn’t give her; the Lieutenant who has to come to grips with the limitations he has placed upon himself; all these characters are enough for individual short stories, and Bioware takes its time and spends considerable resources fleshing each one of these people out. The result is a rich tableau of interconnecting stories, even amongst a galactic backdrop. Bioware is concerned with the villains as much as it is the protagonists, as the enemy agent, Seran, has a fascinating story and psyche that is revealed through clever cut scenes and interaction.

The game requires you to weigh the needs of one companion against the other. For example, one time you are forced to make the choice on which person, who, after this much time together you would call most of your companions friends, you have to volunteer for a possible suicide mission. If or when a character dies, you feel the loss and your other companions deal with it as well, either through viewing your subsequent actions differently, or supporting you.  The game is not afraid to have plots that don’t end happily, or some which are never completely resolved, which gives a feeling that there is more going on in the galaxy than even one extraordinary person with a space ship full of extraordinary help can accomplish. This is a good thing.

Also notable is the considerable amount of pregenerated history and lore the game comes packaged with through the use of a Codex or in game encyclopedia. The characters talk about their surroundings, history, life styles, and other people as if they were real people. Bioware’s money on hiring a “professional” writer to flesh out the timelines, details, and “fluff” necessary to create a believable world is well spent.  Obviously Bioware is setting this up for a trilogy, as stated in press releases. Other media, who have not taken this much effort to create the setting in which the story takes place, have watched their sequels ring hollow as the continuous “make it up as we go along” approach results in an unweildly narrative with a reliance on plot devices to close holes, instead of believable decisions by the characters.

The dialogue system, I’m sure, will be incorporated into future Bioware products quickly, due to the ease of use the system brings to dialogue. A small circle with choice appears at the bottom of the screen with various selections that indicate the general nature of the response Shepard will actually give. An example is necessary. During a hostage negotiation, Shepard can respond a couple of ways. The choices available to you are “You don’t have to do this.” “Can we talk this out?” “Go ahead, I don’t care.” What he actually says, is “Just put the gun down, let the hostages go, there are other ways to deal with this problem,” or, “Let’s talk about this. Tell me what we can do to resolve this so no one gets hurt,” or, “Shove it, bad guy. I don’t care if you blow their brains out or not, I’m still going to kill you afterwards.”

This system works 99% of the time, with the occasional “No” turning into an angry retort you didn’t expect, or a “Yes” being said with more sarcasm, and offending someone you didn’t mean to. Regardless, the system works more than most of the time and makes the dialogue interesting since you are not hearing Shepard re-speak the exact words you just read. This keeps conversations more interesting than in some games, and provides an immersion that there is a real narrative that your character is an actor in the events with real decisions, not just a puppet on strings for some omniscient player.

In whole, Mass Effect was a wonderful experience for the 32 hours it took me to finish. I did two thirds of the optional content,  and could have spent another six hours in the universe if I chose, but unfortunately many of the side missions are a bit repetitive. If you focus on just the character driven ones, instead of the “random ship is hit by random pirates. Go investigate at random point,” then your experience will be a bit shorter than mine.

I am anxiously awaiting Mass Effect 2 which has been announced. The characters and story are well above the average, and I hadn’t had this much fun in a role playing game since Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer. It mixes the best elements of Blade Runner’s exploration of humanity, Star Wars’ space opera, and Star Trek’s exploration of possible futures within an interactive experience that none of those movies could provide in their native media format.

I recommend Mass Effect to anyone with a computer or XBox 360 who enjoys a great story, role playing games, science fiction, or easy shooters.