Not Quite a 3rd Part 2

 What the hell is this part two business? Dont read my blog eh? HERE'S PART 1!
Mega Ran & Doctor Awkward @ the DNA lounge!
 My Two days of Awkward continued from Sunday into Monday.
I rolled up to The City and strolled up to DNA and made it up the steps with a few minutes to spare.
Dr. Awkward kicked it off with great aplomb and style.
Honestly, I'm not sure if I can continue to write about certain artists performances when all I can say is "great, awesome, WHOO!" about their sets.
AND Int80 IS NOW A BAY AREA HOMIE AND HELPED PERFORM "KUNG FU"

 DURING AWKWARD'S SET!!!!!!!
After that I found my date for the evening, a good friend of mine, Mac. I tasked her to pick targets and I would be her wingman for the eve. Apparently she wasn't too taken with my first choice for her, probably for the best.
While A_Rival rocked it I began my Merch-table networking/schmoozing/fanboying. And Urizen also went crazy! Very metal.
I snagged a copy of Black Materia because I didn't realize the day before that the Album "Black Materia" had a white cover, oops. It's cool, Random signed it for me!

Black Materia: Signed by Random, in a super cool DVD case

I then scoped the tour poster and had to have that happen, Random then tasked me with with collecting signatures of every performer present. I did not succeed but I did get a few.

NES in The West Tour 2013: signed by Radnom, Dr. Awkward, Dj DN3, & Special guest Int80

But I also had a bit of clever the day before in thinking, "oh man, I really like getting shirts and CD's signed but they sort of hard to show off and be like 'look at this cool thing with cool things on it!' and then have then get destroyed/washed repeatedly . . ." But then I was like . . "ooh, maybe I should have them sign MY NES! - - - No, that's dumb, it's hard to carry it around, if you drop it, hard to show people as they'd have to be in it's presence . .  I KNOW! I have extra copies of old NES game, I can fit it into a large pocket and even if I drop it or whatever, it has less mass and wont break into a million heavy peices! BRILLAINT!"

Harmless NES cartridge?

NO! Nerdcore Signature Transportation device!

I have some serious stalking to do now, I need ALL THE NAMES emblazoned onto this one Cartridge!
I then wanted to straight up donate to Dr. Awkward because sometimes music appears online and I want to honestly buy it but am broke at the time. So seeing these guys live is my opportunity to be like, "I have monies today, take them so I can not feel guilty 'choosing to pay 0.00 dollars' on Bandcamp when I really want to give you 15 and get a full CD in a jewel case, ya heard?"
And Doc Awk, humble as always was like, "nah man, take some merch for your cash!" So I snagged a mixtape sampler, which I gave to my sister (she LOVES MC Frontalot's "Start Over" yeah, that's right, my sister likes Nerdcore deep cuts, I'm so Indy) and a shirt THAT ISNT EVEN AVAILABLE ONLINE! See?

Zombie Shredder!

And then, as Bit Brigade started their AWESOMENESS I got a call that said I should head home, which turned out a good thing as 101 was shrunk down to ONE LANE! I don't give a fuck that it was 11pm on a Monday night it's 101 AND IT WAS ONE LANE!?!?!? Oh yeah, I didn't get any of the sigs from Urizen because they were post performance and I like to give performers some time to breathe and come down before I start bombarding them with fanboyness.
But Otherwise, the show was a blast and I can't wait to see any of these guys again on-stage or off as Nerds be Nerds and we should all hang out sometime.
P.S. I'm not gonna say anything is official or even "in the works" or anything, I'm just gonna say the words . .  which sound fun and may not mean anything at all . . .
Doctor Awkward at Fanime
I'm just gonna leave that there and TRUST me, I will let you know if any combination of the above comes to any sort of fruition.
Thanks again for reading H47ites!
And here's some vid from their show in so cal before the weekend I saw them...

Not Quite a 3rd Part 1

TWO NIGHTS OF AWKWARD! Also, master lyrical educator Mega Ran!
Day one was in my favorite metropolitan areas SAN JOSE!, next to one of my favorite centers of learning, SJSU.
This concert was a bit unique from the typical venues that "small bands" perform in as this was at ROCKAGE SJ an awesome video game and Indie music fest that goes the entire weekend (ferreals gonna attend the next one). This year it was held at the San Jose Woman's Club, an awesome 20s-30s style building tucked up past SJSU.
I had it all planned out, I even made a facebook event (for any of you who know me personally you know how much I LOATHE Facebook, so, big deal) and I was gonna roll down there and be boss cause, ya know, home turf, PARTY! Little did I realize in my ignorance of cultural diversity, it was also Chinese New Year and everyone else had plans. But WHATEVA, I slow rolled around the place a couple times blasting Zealous1 looking for parking but decided to park in one of my favorite parking garages and strolled over to the event. "First 50 at the door receive free Wii Guitar!" I was among those first 50, B-day present for my Sister! (I no have Wii, she do).
I thought I'd be there a little early so I could see Doctor Awkward and then watch MegaRan's set. APPARENTLY Mega Ran went up first and was the followed up by Doc. I think it had something to do with the fact Ran had to get to the Grammys. So I got to see Random's set first and then watched a very intimate set by Awk. Would you like to watch it!?
HERE!!!! is the Twitch.tv feed of it plus the other acts that played that day and some interviews, all kinds of fun. check it!
After Awk's Set I camped the merch table for some quality time to chat. So many questions and of course, as soon as you get there, you forget them all.
It's cool, talked with DJ DN3, a pro producer and all around cool cat, while grabbing some swag, but the main event of this trip was the LIMITED EDITION 1 OF 15(13) special box set of Doctor Awkwards Discography!
I have friends who are terribly averse to unboxing videos so here are unboxing PICTURES! Check it out.

Wii guitar (& Taylor Swift face plate), Dr. Awkward Discography AND White Materia

White Materia is several remixes/mash ups of Black Materia as well as other FFVII music

Like mainstream beats but cant stand the lyrics? SOLVED! ty DJ Nerd 42!

Diggin the Tron inspired W/Deathly Hallows front cover!

Title Spine! (yes, its a VHS box. I'm excited)

It IS a VHS with cryptic messages!

 

Sweet, a little light cycle in a custom gutted VHS shell, ha!

Its a USB light cycle. METAL!

IT GLOWS BLUE JUST LIKE MY SPECIAL EDITION SCII TAG! WHHOO!!!

But H47!? How was the show?
I'll tell you. Fun! I'll be honest, it had a "wierd" vibe as it was like RIGHT after lunch ("morning" for most nerds. amirite!?) and there weren't a lot of people at the event yet as it was earlier in the day BUT, consummate professionals all, Random & Doctor Awkward gave a full 100% for the hardy few of us who came out to see them specifically.
I'm glad to pass the few bucks I could to Random, DJ DN3, & Doc Awk to show my appreciation for coming out to my home town and hope they come back again as I hear tell SJ has a thriving indie scene that welcomes all sorts of acts.

STAY TUNED FOR PART 2! . . . .

Roll your toon! All of it!

Earlier this year a good friend of mine was in town for a visit, so we had to RP cause he only visits so often from out of state and his time is often monopolized by his slew of friends & family.
Because we didn't have the entire crew from a different gaming group, and none of us really wanted to start lvl 1 chars out of nowhere, we decided to make randomized characters.
I jotted out a roll chart for classes, struck out some that I really didn't want to deal with, as was communally agreed upon by the other players (but they're still on the list if you want to use them).
We then realized to speed things up we should randomize race & alignment. And then there's more, but here are the tables as we developed them . . ..

Roll a d20 for class
1 Magus
2 alchemist
3 oracle
4 inquisitor
5 cavalier
6 summoner
7 sorcerer
8 rogue
9 ranger
10 paladin
11 monk
12 fighter
13 druid
14 cleric
15 bard
16 barbarian
17 gunslinger
18 samurai
19 ninja
20 witch
20 wizard
20 roll twice
(Strike through denotes we did not use them for that game, roll twice was for dual classing as I think we were running lvl 8's? and I don't know how we forgot the Wizard, or if we chose not to use it)

Race!  We had 3 charts associated w/ race, lets see if I can make them make sense . . .

Roll a D10
1 gnome (nobody wanted to play a gnome) orc
2 halfling
3 human
4 elf
5 1/2 elf
6 1/2 orc
7 dwarf
8,9 or 10 roll on "Next Chart"

Next Chart d10 alternative races
1 aklo
2 tengu
3 earth (elemental race, don't remember the name, not going to look it up)
4 wind ( " " )
5 fire ( " " )
6 water ( " " )
7 (Not "Heart") goblin
8 kobold - Roll on "Color Chart" below
9 Assemir
10 teifling
(there was a general agreement to not have damphires)

 I've developed some tentative alternative racial rules for Kobold sin the games I play/run that there are  different colored Kobolds, just like the dragons they emulate giving slightly different racial perks &  flaws.
Color Chart: D10
1 red
2 blue
3 green
4 black
5 white
6 brass
7 silver
8 copper
9 bronze
10 gold
I'm even looking to expand it to the alternative dragon "colors" later on.

Then you roll on your alignment chart which has been modified to only those allowed in this particular campaign.

Alignmet Chart: D10
1 or 6 Lawful Good
2 or 7 Chaotic Good
3 or 8 Neutral Good
4 or 9 Chaotic Neutral
5 or 10 Lawful Neutral


Oh yeah, these tables are intended for use with Pathfinder, but I'm sure the equivs can be translated to other system.
Now, I know these charts exist already in several incarnations, many of them inside the very source books we use, but, like many things in this ultimately customizable universe we all play in, sometimes you want something a little more tailored to your needs, so here's one for my groups and groups like mine.

Enjoy h47ites, see you later Space Cowboys!

Zelda Lightsabres Potter Caine

First and foremost, early last week I saw this and it made me cry. I think my jaded has grown back since then, but its really cool. It's like 10 minutes, watch it, it restores nerd soul points. At least it did for everyone I know, don't be a soulless dick, this isn't PvP combat.


   

"Okay H47 but why is your post 3 days late!?" Well, I'm working with some potential interns for the light sabre fight I'm Directing later this summer. Stay tuned for details. I was at the high school I teach Stage Combat at annually, interviewing and talking with the kids to see who was interested, had the schedule, who's folks said it was okay, waiting for their teacher (my friend) to deal with the 300 other things he has to daily till he got around to pointing me to the specific kids.

The OTHER reason is because I have started playing Ocarina of Time again and am exhibiting SERIOUS force of will just sitting down to write this filler+ amount of a post. BUT!, to not leave you hanging, it has inspired me to attempt to run a Pathfinder game(s) set in Ocarina/Majora Hyrule and build playable races and all that good sh-t. Stay tuned, I will most assuredly post anything I build, or I will  . . . LINK . . . through, oh ho, I know, if I find anything already made out on the intarwebs.

GAH I WANT THESE SO HARD!!! AHAHAHAHhahah!!!

And the OTHER OTHER reason it's taken me so long, is because I have really nerdy friends who keep tweeting about their Pottermore experience. As well as T1nk was poking around on it too. So I'm hearing about my male AND female friends "wands" and what house they got sorted into, so my brain goes "I like Facebook quizzes even though I hate allowing the applications access to my account, this could be cool and quick." NO! I spend like, 2-3 hours on it because I'm reading everything EXCEPT the bit about how your supposed to find your shopping list, I finally find that and then it's all "choose wisely as you can not change what is chosen for you based on your answers which feed into our previously determined algorithms." So I sit there and belabor over some silly not-psych profile test that will probably never effect anything in my life ever, but it was fun. Just look at my tweets from that evening . . .

"CHESTNUT WITH DRAGON CORE, TWELVE INCHES, HARD! 7g" I'm all on that. p.s. Vineblood, crimsonblood, silverpurple, chose Patronusquest2090
— tony elfson (@h47) April 19, 2012

There are many "winners" for your potential user name. The idea is there but the execution is a little left wanting.

"I like it. textured grip, small hilt, bowie clip." "oh. you." "Yes I just described my wand using knife terminology, what!?"
— tony elfson (@h47) April 19, 2012

As a note, the pic for the wand is the same across the board, I'm a little dissapointed, I don't think that would be that hard. Especially considering you geta few options for your avatar, even IF only owls, cats and toads are "approved." WTB other obscure PETS/FAMILIARS PLZ!

WTFBLARGH BLARHG Hufflepuff!?!?!?!? REALLY? Is it cause I felt bad for the thing in the box instead of going for the sexy silver one?
— tony elfson (@h47) April 19, 2012

And then this happened. And my fiancee was like "what? Youve never considered what house youd be in?" And I was like, absolutely, I'm an RPer and actor, this shit haunts me, but I was always like . . . I could be in Gryff cause I' think I'm such a strong personality, but then I could also go slytherin for the same reasons plus being a jerk sometimes, or back to Gryff for same reasons. Ravenclaw cause I pride myself on my smarts and think I'm better than everyone else, but then of course I could go Badger cause, well, I'm just weird enough. Well, fine. Funny enough, T1nk thought she would claim to be a Ravenclaw, but end up in Puff, but GOT SLYTHERIN! I think they're doing something clever on this part, and I'm okay with that. As a matter of fact, I tried creating a couple more accounts just to shiggle my way through and see what I got. Well, I only managed to do it once because I actually made an account that claimed I was 11 (if my new character is attending Hogwarts he would be 11 right? But I guess they have a different protocol for emails to younger players, which is fine.) but the other one I did . . . gave me a cool wand, not as awesome as my first one, but then . . . different sorting hat questions, and HUFFLEPUFF AGAIN! I think someone is watching my IP and trolling me. Either way. Entertained. And I think the site is cool as there are quite a few gems from Rowlings "not for the books" content and I think this is a great way to share it if you read through the books again. I'm not sure if I will, but, with this setup, I might.

Gary Oldman is a BEAST, Sirius Black is a PIMP. SO pissed when he died. Word up to the black sheep of the Black Fam.

3rd 4 T3h Nrrd: July '11

Microsoft W3RD N3RDS! I got another Original Gamer of the Nerdcore Crop For ya . . . .

Mega Ran Or, Random, Random Beats or Big Ran!
This dude is mad prolific. He's been hustling beats and raps for just as long as anyone else in the game, because, like many great Nerdcore cats, he's a musician first.
Excellent production value keeps all the sounds clear and bumpin, a smooth flow and steady rhythm to beats keeps his lyrics running through his music.
I consider him an O.G. of the scene not just due to his longevity but because I have seen him all over the culture since I first heard him in a Collab with Front, all the way up to his contributions to Nerdcore Now. Did I mention he also has mad connections to video games, check the wiki. Mad Nerd Cred.
One of his most recent projects was an amazing collab album based entirely on Final Fantasy VII

Hot, right? Hit him up, pay some of his bills, enjoy!

Nerdy Fresh

Word, nerd, I got some fresh beats for those of you who have a hard time finding new, sweet Nerdcore Notes to bob your head too, or don't want to waste your time trying to find, what I consider, GOOD Nerdcore Hip-Hop.

Boss fights, as featured a month or so back, you can snag their first three free songs HERE, and word has it their first actual album is breaths away from being ready to be distributed, probably in the same place.

Rise, the new Mixtape by Zealous1, who we've discussed before dropped about a week or two agoe, snag that goodness NYAH

Soup or Villainz, is a new group that just released this album, and woo boy it is entertaining, I shall not lie. Snag it 'DERE, if I hear more about them in the future I hope to do a 3rd 4 t3h Nrrd on em.

KTP, or Kabuto the Python, had an album called Ill Ron Hubbard drop a little while back that apparently consists of old cuts intended for something else, short but chock full of Kabuto goodness, snag it NYAH!

Ran, Random, &/or Mega-Ran, seems to always be hard at work, After pulling down some of his free stuff across the webs, I think I will drop some cash to buy Black Materia, his album solely covering FFIV (NerdLife!) as well as as some of his other goodies. Perhaps even do a 3rd 4 t3h Nrrd on this bad boy before too long as well. Here's a sample from that Fantasy EP, enjoy.