On the whole, I'm feeling far less stressed out about the holiday than I've typically been in the past.  This sense of good humor has translated into my work place.  Normally there is always much to get done.  Once in a while, the company picks a day to slow down though and yesterday was the "Winter Celebration" event at work.  Essentially it boils down to food, games, and silliness.

I have one coworker in particular, Erin, who is normally remarkably self assured and intelligent.  It's pretty hard to ruffle her feathers.  As luck has it we caught her during a moment of weakness.  With very little coaxing we got her to try the jumping game in the arcade.  She had no idea how the thing worked and we were highly amused at watching her try to figure it out.

Office pranks seem to be much more common these days.  As insurance becomes more expensive and benefits keep getting cut back, it seems like we are attempting to compensate by adding laughter to the office.  Erin has a great sense of humor which has really brightened up the office.

Does your office have an Erin?  What sort of things to do you do at the office to reduce the stress?

Hellas's game engine is built on the OMNI system from  Morrigan Press.  The basic premise for the system is all roles are made on a single d20 with modifiers then compared to a single results table.  I feel the simplicity is the systems real strong point as it allows you to focus on the characters and the situation instead of crunching numbers.

The campaign world the adventurers travel in it very interesting.  Here is a quote from their website:

In ancient times, the spacefaring Hellenes and their Gods defeated an empire that threatened the entire galaxy. Now, after centuries of darkness, their enemies have returned for a final reckoning, and only a chosen few -- wielding the power of the Gods -- stand between them and certain destruction.

The setting is a blend of ancient Greek ideals and theology mixed with futuristic alien races and technology.  It should be noted that Hellas is not Greece as we know it but is simply inspired by the culture.  Because of the game embraces a few adult concepts, this would not be a game for younger players without being heavily modified.

The player characters are constantly striving to find their places among the gods through glory and actions.  And as with ancient Greek heros, it may take generations before the legacy is fulfilled.  The game plays into this by offering a system where after your character dies, the new character gets written into their history and carries on the legacy left behind by the fallen hero.  This might be a son, daughter, apprentice, or even friend of the family.  This is why it is said that the character a player starts a campaign with will likely not be the one they end it with.

I really look forward to running this game with my group.  For anyone interested in trying it out for the first time, they have a preview of the game available for download at their website.  If you do give it a try, stop by and leave your feedback.  I'd love to hear how it went.

Back in 2006 I started a podcast called JD's Musical Alchemy.  The show has been on hiatus for a couple years now for a few reasons which I won't get into now.  The show was a musical review of great upcoming and indie bands.  Some of the best music you may have never heard of. 

Back in October of 2006 I did a special Halloween episode highlighting songs I felt had a strong Halloween theme.  To celebrate the holiday I'm reposting the episode for you now.  Hope this helps you get into the mood to celebrate.

While looking for a fully hosted system I came across Squarespace.  I love the WYSIWIG site creation interface.  It makes on the fly configurations and updates so simple and the best part is there is no software to maintain to keep it up to date.  As a technical professional, the last thing I want to do when I get home is upgrade my web site.

I'm going to give it a good run.  Over the next few weeks I'll be doing some design work to customize the look and feel of the site.  I'll also be adding back in some of the other services I've been using like My Blog Log.

I will also look into converting as many of my old posts as possible.  I've decided to strip out the digests as I don't think they were really that relevant.  Let's see how this goes.