10/8/11

Balsamic Pork With Vinegar???

OH YEAH !!!


Yeah, it appears that my "genius" idea of naming the site "The Geek Chronicles" has already been taken...by a cook-thing-website and tons of inactive people...
Umm...well...I'm not going to change it again so you might as well compare my posts with Balsamic Pork With Olives or any welsh recipe you'd fancy...
Jeez-louise that was unexpected.

Yet Another Song

Hope you like it, I recorded it this morning so I can't say it's the best quality recording ever. If you want to hear more of my creations go to my youtube channel and check them out!

10/7/11

How To Write A D&D Campaign

 Well, well, well....this is one of my favorite-occasional-pastimes, although I must confess I don't have too much experience in taking it to an end of sorts, as every campaign  I've ever designed was designed for normal human beings with feelings and RP capabilities, not for brain-eating-loot-hunter-beasts, as my party turned out to be every. single. time.
 Needless to say every-time I failed in designing a simple enough campaign I tried writing another one from scratch...just so I can fail again.
By failure I'm referring strictly to the fact that the campaign was either too hard to follow or too "puzzley and not action-packed enough" ...what can I say? I am more inclined to write something a tad bit intelligent than "Your family is dead. Now kill goblins. Now loot. Pull lever. What is above your head. Roll perception.  You are dead." (I tried to and it didn't work).

Part 1: The Players

So, back to the title, writing a campaign is extremely easy and intuitive if you already have the "vocation" to do it, the end product however might not, however be satisfying for your players and that's where it becomes pretty tricky.
 The 4th ed DM Guide explains it pretty well: You must know your players. And you must also understand that your game sessions, however good your setting, feeling, dungeon etc. might be, it isn't always going to be a perfect game, because of the players, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
I mean, they're human beings, they're going to need to go do stuff while playing, that includes eating, speaking OOC and just being a troll. Sure this can all be avoided by getting a dedicated group, but for the casual "I just wanna try it" group there aren't many chances that this will be the case. And to be honest it's kind of hard to get players anyway because of the whole "nerd" stereotype that surrounds the game, I mean, when I asked my friends if they wanted to give it a shot most of them were either plain "rude" and said stuff like " Get that thing out of my face" (that's what she said) or just "nah". I found out that they didn't want to play because it's nerdy, not because of the idea itself, which they liked.
 The DM guide divides the players into eight types:
 

Actors
Explorers
Instigators
Power Gamers
Slayers
Storytellers
Thinkers
Watchers


Now, it's obvious that these player types were made so that you have a wider, better idea of how people are generally gonna react to whatever you put on the table and how to please them all.
So think about your players and how their psychology fits into the stereotypes, it's really not that hard to assign them, for example one of my players is very excited about shields.Any kind of shield will do, any story will fit into his expectations and suit him as long as he has a shield. Strangely enough(or not at all)  this player has a very stoic physical build and likes to smash things with his forehead.
Another one of my players liked the Idea of being an illiterate barbarian and eating hearts while running around naked, you get the point. Don't ask me how I put this group together...


More on players and how to write a D&D campaign in the next post, so stay tuned!
 

10/6/11

The Geek Chronicles

 Greetings!
  Some of you might have noticed that the blog's URL was changed...from obvious reasons as well...an url that's 22 characters (not including the ".blogspot.com" bit) is not likely to be memorized or liked, as a matter of fact!
  I changed it to The Geek Chronicles because, taking a close look at everything I've written since I started the blog is Geek Culture...what can I say? I just can't help it, IT'S TOO COOL!!!
  So what should you expect to see here?
A mighty shittonne of music and RPG-related coolness!!! Oh...and the usual mind-turned-blue post from now and then...But you don't have to read that one if you don't want it :P

9/28/11

What is Vocation?

 Yeap, I'll start by admitting that my "Hey look at me I'm back, I'm back" post was kind of a letdown, seeming as there's been almost a month since I wrote anything from that point...
  So, these past weeks I've been doing some serious thinking...no real theme, just thinking, the kind of thinking you do when you have a lot of time on your hands and nothing to do with it, the result was...ominous to say the least, as it always seems to happen.
  This week my school's assembly material was based on the idea of a "Holy Vocation", or a preset goal in your life that you are supposed to achieve at some point in your life ( If not throughout it, excuse my "relativeness") 
  Now, this assembly was placed around the idea of religion more than anything, particularly the Roman-Catholic side of view, but the whole idea of a vocation made me think.
In my case "vocation" is a very vague term right now, I can't really understand if Vocation refers to the feeling of "being on the right track" or just the notion of finding the mentioned path.
To be honest, I don't care about vocations or finding my predestined road because I think "hey, if it's meant to happen, it will"...(even though I am completely clueless about where this life of mine is heading to right now(maybe cuz I'm fifteen, derpa-hurp)).
  And now for some appropriate music =)))


Peace-out!


8/27/11

Long Absence, I'm back!

   Hello, boys and girls of the internetz!!!
   I know it's been a long time, and I missed you too but summer was upon me and I had to take a break for the sake of staying sane. We all know that the summer holidays here in England are shorter than in the rest of Europe so spending the little I was given on anything PC-related would have turned me into a depressed-zombie-with-personality-issues. Or at least increase the level of depressed-zombie-with-personality-issues-ness that I have already reached.
  I must add that i haven't found a band yet. Who knows...maybe I'm destined to be a lone shredder, going from band to band playing a few songs and then hunting some ninja turtles.
  Anyways on another note, I'm happy I actually got to experience ... Life while I was in SH*. I did literally everything EVERYTHING from a to z you name it, I'll write about all of it when im less tired =))!!!
And I'm happy to say I'm happy right now...Although the thought that there's going to be another full year before I'll be able to go through this again since socializing went quite poorly for me in England...*sight* lets just say it kills it.
  Anyway I have posted a new Jam video on Youtube and I'm planning to start recording my other songs once I get some decent recording gear.
   Don't forget to follow and comment!

* = Summer Holiday in cool-people-language

5/19/11

Auditions incoming!!!!

I just wanted to tell you that I'm planning to start a band...a real one would be awesome...(haters will hate).
That being said, I need two people for this: a drummer and ...well I'm not sure yet but I'll let you know when I come to a conclusion.
I'm looking for people who have enough experience to play some technically difficult songs, mainly metal, jazz, hard rock and instrumental rock. Ages 14-16 ...Now I'm not really prepared to stick to only one type of music so adaptability is preferable...
I currently live in Westcliff on sea, Essex :/ just remember...You need your own instruments for this...(duuh)
           If you are interested in participating in the auditions then...send me a mail and I'll contact you.
Oh, and we haven't come up with a name for the band yet sooooooo......If you have an idea just post it in a comment...who knows...

5/18/11

How to write a song.


One way to do it is to close your eyes think real hard about who or what you are writing the song about.
Is it going to be a sad or dark song? Then take a look at this (minor scales).
Is it going to be a happy, light hearted song? Then think about writing it in a major scale.

Now I'm assuming that you aren't interested in a full-on music theory lesson so I'm going to put it like this:
First think about a tune. Doesn't matter if it's already taken by someone in a song. Now, think about adjectives that describe your song's subject.
Try and fit that tune into a scale. You can always use adjacent or complementary notes if it doesn't exactly fit into  it...and if it really can't be changed start playing with the tune until you get something that sounds okay, the best way to do it is to use metamorphosis, (meaning you just change it one note at a time ) 
If you play an instrument you might wanna think about adding some pentatonic licks to your composition. And why not go even further? Develop your song by learning the diatonic scales and modes nothing easier, as there are only seven of them :
Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and the dreaded Locrian.

Now that you have the modes covered why not go even further than even further learn all about cadences and  how to use them in different contexts, enter the wonderful world of enharmonic relations and develop your music vocabulary by learning the chinese, Indian, Arabic,Romanian,Hungarian,Bulgarian,Slavic,Islamic and African(aka pentatonic minor) scales!!!
All in all this shouldn't take you more than 9-12 months to learn!
If this is too complicated for you than read through our next method:  

Learn four first position chords preferably major, do not make the mistake of leaning a 7th chord.You will never use it
Come out with some lyrics about 
a) Getting drunk and partying
b) Impossible love 
c) Impossible drunkness
d) Loving someone but not being able to confess because you are too drunk
e) Learning the Alphabet
Now mix the shit out of those 4 chords you learnt until you find a good combo.Don't bother about the rhythm...make it as basic as you can 

Either way you do it you can now enjoy a very successful musical career. 


If you followed the 2nd method then expect to get a massive amount of fans and money!!!!

I hope this helped. 

5/1/11

Mixing is bad

I Won't be mixing the "Delusion" series with my pointless blabbering anymore =)) so from now i'll only post the Delusion series and other fictive stories on this blog.
If you still want to check out my personal blog you can find it here, most of it is in Romanian at the moment but i'm onlygoing to post in english from now on...(well not really but...anyway)

Delusion (pt2)

    I was genuinely surprised by the woman's choice to leave her "unreachable" husband's journal to my custody. I was even more baffled by the manuscript's contents. As it turns out, the events that were recorded in it were stretched out on a period of 13 months.But I specifically recalled that the preacher's residence in the Nhutbian tribe was longer than a year and a half.
   I immediately began the study of the manuscript.This is when I had my first glimpse of the horrific realities that I   would so soon discover...
                                                                              *
   The preacher's name was John Barry Bowers, he worked as an religious colonist for the I.C.A-The International Conservative Association- his job was to help the last few members of the North African tribes to adhere to the nearest urban or rural areas and to help them understand how the world works around them while conserving and recording their traditions and rituals. He was supposed to focus on the last untouched Nhutbian tribes, and record their behaviour, and to teach them Christianity's basics.
   His first four months were spent in the presence of a bigger tribe, the only thing that was worth a second look from his recordings were two days in April when the whole tribe suddenly entered a state of complete idleness that later evolved into a very aggressive-"berserkish"-fever. The records state that in those two days the tribesmen were acting like savage beasts for exactly three hours, followed by another three hours of idleness and so on, every eight hours a sixth of them fell into a deep trance from which they couldn't be awaken. One of the savages suddenly attacked him during one of the tribe's berserk fits, Mr. Bowers was able to react and to immobilise the tribesman until the idleness part of the cycle began again.
After the second day of madness ended the tribesmen who were engulfed in that deep trance awoke.
None of them could remember anything that happened in the previous two days, not even the Nhutbian who attacked John.

Strange as hell.Essex girls

 I went to that party I was telling you about on Friday... It wasn't the kind of party you would normally expect from England...at least not the kind that I was expecting when I was invited. But it was a really really nice party.
  The most interesting thing about it was a group of seven or so girls ( Yes...like many "foreigners" I am not used to talking to English people let alone girls),who kept on hitting on me and my friend Alfie (English born/Aussie state of mind)...which was pretty awkward as the party was really very ...childish. And me and Alfie were clearly older than most of the children there. They said that they really liked us ( the word they used was "fancy"...i'm still learning what exactly that means...also there is a word- "peng"- wth is that????comment if u know) So yeah...they gave us their numbers ( which we pretended to save as they looked like the kind of girl u wouldn't wanna know) and said that we should hang around...
   My feelings towards this were these:
1.I was somewhat flattered
2.I was disgusted by how easy the go
3.I was afraid that they would turn into zombies and eat our brains.
4.Just...baffled by their..."slut-iness"
   But we decided to just wait and see what happens without actually doing anything.Eventually they asked for my name ...asked for theirs without actually be interested. then my age...15...they didn't believe...and that was about it...me and alfie were both treated as pedos from there on ...we laughed...a lot, made fun of them and that it...I wouldn't have talked to them anyway ...these horrible beings of a naive nature...these DUM DUM DUM!!!!! ESSEX GIRLS

4/29/11

Is it?


Hypocrisy?

 And here it is ladies and gentlemen, The Royal Wedding!!!
that's not me (or mine for that matter)
But let's be honest, how many people out of the hundreds that will get drunk today really care about the wedding? I'm not talking about the wedding in this post because I find it pretty interesting myself. I will, however talk about what English people do when they ain't got a clue what they should do: They get drunk.
It's not a crime or anything that anyone couldn't understand but it's somewhat strange that where everyone respects a thousand-years old custom, they decide that getting drunk is the best way through. The only explanation why they don't get any liver disease is that they are genetically resistant to alcohol, meaning they've been doing it for quite a while.
Well I am supposed to talk about hypocrisy...and I am. I do so because I am myself a hypocrite, I am enjoying their holiday even though I wouldn't do it if I wasn't living in England now...I'm not sure how I'm supposed to get drunk but...hey at least there are gonna be enough people to make fun of...oh well on this I must end, I am supposed to get to a party round a friend of mine but he forgot to tell me where i should go...See you in a bit!

4/26/11

Soul-Song?

   Have you ever listened to something that just makes you...freeze? Not in a bad way ofc...It would be kinda strange to make a post about that kind of music...although I'll post some of those songs too.
   Anyway, the first song of that kind that I heard was Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin...(I was 9 at the time) I just froze, unable to move or to pay attention to anything else for the full 8 minutes of the song. That's also how I decided I want to play guitar...3 years later I did start and I learned how to play the song.  Many followed ...one of them is Promises by Megadeth...just found out about it and I wanted to share it.
  
   The second type of 'soul song' is the kind that just makes you think if you chose the wrong type of music...or something like that...it's really hard to explain but those who heard one know what I mean. For me, they're mainly death/black metal songs like Silence calls the storm or Nemesis or Walk with me in hell. They just melt your brain without giving you any chance to fight back O_o ... I still love them though.


   The third and last one is that type of music that is SO STUPID it makes your gut bubble, your nose swell, your eyes start to get runny and your tongue magically transforms into a 10 ton anvil. Yeah...it doesn't have to be good...just mindblowingly bad or stupefactiously creepy, check this out...

4/25/11

Delusion (pt1)

    Word that the Shaman is in the possession of some unidentified, ancient looking artefacts got to me from a Christian preacher working with one of the Nubian tribes...
At least this is what I have heard from his friends and family.I tried to talk to the man in person but I just couldn't reach him.

    I did not know-at the time- that the man was insane, and that his relatives only told me part of what the poor soul confessed to them in his hideous, bone-chilling seizures.He was sent home from Africa after he brutally murdered two of his former colleagues with nothing but some blunt cutlery.

     As I embarked upon the ship that was supposed to carry me to the Egyptian Port of Safaga, one of the preacher's relatives (his wife would be my best guess) stopped me to give me the preacher's Journal. She said that it might prove useful to me, and that she would be relieved if she got rid of it anyway.
    

Back in England.

I'm Alive!!! OMGWTFBBQ. As you know I left for England yesterday evening.The whole journey-thing took only 5 1/2 hrs  ( This including the horrible conditions from the Baneasa airport in Bucharest. I wouldn't recommend it as I hate it with my deepest being, and unless you like being treated like Cows in a slaughterhouse you won't like it either.If you have a choice go for Otopeni) Everything was great: Great weather in the UK, Awesome flight, nice clear sky...the check out was kinda creepy though. First of all the officer threw me a long, cold stare before deciding that I'm really the guy in the passport picture (Gosh! I really am another person then I was, now that I think about it!).then they thought that my guitar tuner was some kind of improvised grenade-bomb... But everything ended well.

Then we realised that we have nothing to eat, so we decided to go Tesco's .WE SPENT TWO HOURS IN THE PARKING LOT!!! We were going with the lightning-like speed of 1/4 a mile per hour!!!We got everything we needed then guess what?!? We had to take the car out of the parking lot...another 45 minutes. added up to how much we did from Luton to Westcliff and that's 4hrs ...3/4 of what going from Romania to the UK took us.                
              ME GUSTA? NO!!!! ME ODIO!

4/23/11

Is World of Warcraft ruining RPGs?

     I'd be a hypocrite to say that I don't like WoW.I do like it...well, I used to before Cata (that's probs just cause i used to play the most frustrating class in the game) ...but really, Is Wow destroying every trace of honest Roleplay? Well in my experience it does.
     Let's just say that I was playing LoTRO one day and I was engaged by a hobbit who started to Roleplay around me...I was kinda confused so I started trolling him...It ended bad for me and I got a ban warning...(I think It happened because I called him a midget and told him to cut the crap of and bring me a beer...he was offended by this somehow...strange -_O) but then I tried to roleplay in the pony...people know. AND I LOVED IT!!!!!!!
   Then I went back to Wow.got into a RP server,made a dwarf and God knows i was this (-) close  to punching the screen when a gnome told me Gay cuz I asked him if he "wants to get some ale from the tavern and share a Tale." ...Well all of this is irrelevant right now...my motherboard is fried because i tried to play Perfect World with a friend...Suits me well...Trying to play cheap MMoRPGs ...just because was bored with Wow and LOTRO was too "HARDCORE!!!!" for my Pc. God, i suck.
    Now i'm learning how to roleplay on this really cool site, roleplay gateway. I'm still figuring out how to use it and my Username is Loki96...so if you wanna meet just send me a mail on my ...email address.geezas!
Oh yeah and sorry for my Fail day...
     I won't be able to post anything till Monday because: IMA BE ROLLING THROUGH THA' Countries ...(Like a boss ofc) Yeah i'm going back to England...I guess th holiday is over...anyways here's mah question for you:

                   What's your favorite RP stereotype?     
rp= roleplay...FAIL. notice how the question is Bold, Italic AND underlined  LIKE A BOSS!!!!

4/22/11

Confession

           Have you ever felt that the world spins around you? That the fabric of the Universe itself bends to your Fears, Needs and Wishes?


         The following scraps of memory have been laid on paper on a very short notice. I apologize for any incertitudes that may result from it. But I feel like I have -or at least try- to explain what monstrous truths I have witnessed...or at least I think I did, on the night of  the 23rd of May, 2002.
For if I don't, I feel like I might lose the last patch of sanity that I possess...or worse.


       I shall start from the beginning.

     My name is Victor Druchenski, I am an anthropologist. By the time the following events would unfold, I had just graduated from the cultural and social anthropology wing of the Odysseus University, California.
After I finished my studies, I managed to get in touch with a charitable group of volunteers whose main goal was to help the poor indigenous tribes of north Africa to adapt to the modern civilization.
    I told them that I was willing to join them because I was interested in the traditional African culture and customs, they told me that I was free to do my research as long as I could also contribute to the assimilation plan.
I must admit that I had little to no concern for the actual project, my opinion always being that, as long as civilization accepted them, it was their choice to adapt or not, and no project could change this.

    My true intent was to find and interrogate a Nubian shaman by the name of Abdul Alhazred.

Music?

Can you imagine your life without music? I certainly can't. And I know there are millions of other people who can't.
A few days ago I was thinking about how my music preferences changed with time.
I found out that the answer was waaaaay more interesting than what I was expecting; well that's really one of my hobbies, breaking ideas apart and "splitting the straw into four" as we say in Romania.
I started like everyone does, with pop music and really everything that was on the radio at that time.
Then, by the time I was in 1st grade I was listening to rapp music and some Romanian Hip-Hop music.Again this was an increasingly popular genre. Then as I discovered Tolkien ( through the LotR movies tbh) my music tastes changed as well, I was starting to like classical and opera music.
Later on I found the Guns n' roses Use your illusion I and II , Spaghetti incident and Appetite for Destruction tapes ( yes good ol' fashion tapes), and I loved it. And that was the end of my "follow the trend" approach to music. Of course now I'm into more heavy stuff, but hey, I was only 7 at the time so...:P.A few years later I got into Marylin Manson, I don't regret it, but I'm not proud of it either. That's when I found out about commercial Show-offs. Now I'm listening to loads of thrash metal bands, my fave being Megadeth...
       
    Now, that's not that interesting or special is it? I know. I mean, I told this to some of my 'metal' friends in Romania (where being 'metal' isn't common). All their stories were somewhat similar...(including the fantasy books part)
I think that Music doesn't only get you closer to people like you, but also gets you to people with similar backgrounds ...well, not a very special theory but still makes you think.

4/21/11

What is Irony?

   It's a question that I usually get from small children or non English-Speakers from Romania...in which case my answer is "Irony is when life gives you lemons, you sell them, become a millionaire and 10 years later you die because you weren't paying attention to the lemon-carrying truck." I'm usually told that the example could have been avoided or improved. But my point is usually proven.
   Sometimes Irony is a pain in the backside...but as hard as it is for some people to appreciate it, it's one of the greatest spices of life. One of those things that underline the fact that life is supposed to be lived at its best and not 'thrown' away with idiotic past-times. But we still throw it away...and this is Irony in a nutshell.
What a freaking mindf--k.
              
                         What's your definition of Irony?