BBQ, car accidents and old-school RPG's....oh my!

Hey folks!

Figured I'd post a rambling, incoherent journal today (like I can do any other type in the first place).  Well, let's see what to say here.  Firstly, I bit the bullet and picked up my first 'real' professional BBQ/smoking apparatus a few weeks ago.  Well, I actually ordered it and it's being made custom for me.  It's a Stumps Smoker XL Baby smoker with all the bells and whistles like custom wheels, latches and the ubiquitous cover to protect it.  Seems that my love of BBQ and slow smoking meat, fish and pork is really getting its claws into me.  The main reason I ordered this BBQ over other types (and I researched a lot of other manufacturers over a half year period) was that its the only BBQ that is completely insulated!  That means I can fire up the smoker 24/7 any time of the year and not have to use a lot of extra fuel (wood/charcoal) to keep my temperatures steady; and after doing the math I figured out I'll pay for the smoker in 3 years just with the savings on the fuel!  If you are curious, here's the link to the all new, updated Stumps website.       www.stumpssmokers.com/

Another thing that happened lately is my car got nearly totaled in a accident a couple weeks ago.  Seems my non-driving neighbor just can't park without hitting shit in his girlfriend's big-ass leased Caddy Escalade.  Seems he slammed into my front grill while trying to back up at 35mph; and that's not a good thing.  When I talked to the insurance people, they asked where I was when the accident happened; and I told him "I was in bed!" and we laughed.  But the car will get into the shop at the end of the month; so that's cool.

Not much else is happening unfortunately; but I am working on a detailed space-opera type of story.  I've had to scrap my original idea of dieselpunk/pulp type story due to the fact there is no 3d resources to work with.  But I do have a butt-ton of science fiction clothing, sets, props etc.  So my 'brain trust' and I are working out reworking the original story into a sci-fi theme and its going very well.  The big trick when doing such things is to work in a medium that you're comfortable with.  In my case I'm super comfortable with old pen and paper RPG's like Traveller.  So my friends (all fellow neckbeards and gamers) are doing the same thing.  In the group there are 5 of us and everyone is taking on a distinctly varied approach to the story.  Old cousin Dan and I are reworking the core story and the other 3 of my friends are making ships, NPC's and other items to put some meat on the story skeleton!  We got together yesterday and showed what we got accomplished since the last get-together (we get together over a fish fry every 2-3 weeks); and massive progress is being made.

I did tell everyone that not all of the ideas, etc. would be used or even could be used in the story; but it will be used somehow, somewhere so nothing would go to waste.  Overall, everyone is just enjoying themselves immensely in this process.  We're making the story in the framework of a full-on Traveller campaign with multiple adventures, etc.  Hell, we may even actually play the campaign and see if it'll work as a RPG supplement. 

I must say one thing to anyone reading this; you're probably a online or computer gamer.  You should look into picking up a old school paper and pen RPG sometime.  They're not expensive in comparison to a single console or computer game (60 bucks, geez!).  They're a lot of fun and if you don't have anyone nearby to play with, there are plenty of people you can link up with online and hammer out a game.  Dimes to donuts you'll have a great time!