Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that everyone who takes the time to read this blog will have had a wonderful time with their family and loved ones. If you are not religious, that is the real meaning of Christmas (again, IF you are not religious) and it shouldn’t be commercialized the way it is. I really do miss the way it was when I was a kid, many years ago.

I digress and it is not a good idea for me to get into that topic.

Unfortunately I was not able to finish writing the epilogue for ‘Dark Inheritance’ as I had hoped to this week. In fact I was so busy with Christmas and its aftermath that I did not have the time to watch the DVD’s that I had hoped to catch up on.

Even though next week will be a somewhat shorter work week, I still hope to finish the epilogue and get it sent to Michael Varhola. He won’t be able to get to the editing for some time though because he is concentrating on getting the Kos campaign finished and published. Already have quite a few books out for that so if you haven’t picked it up by now, I would recommend doing so.

And I finally got more rough drafts for three more chapters from Giorgio Alfonso Maesa. I sent him the descriptions for all but the epilogue now and hopefully he will get those rough drafts completed before he returns to school after the Christmas break.

As usual I will post one of the rough draft images with this blog for your viewing pleasure.

The free material that I have been working on for the D-Infinity site has been coming along splendidly. I have only one more creature to convert and write up now from the Metro 2033 series of games and that will probably be posted as of Monday, December 30^th.

After that I will probably start working on converting and posting mutants from S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

And I fell behind on writing up bonus content for my Wisdom from the Wastelands issues that I have not provided any for as of yet. I blame that on my lack of time over my 5 day weekend. Really I was that busy!

Once the epilogue is finished however that is when I will be concentrating on getting that bonus material written up and getting back to work on my various other Mutant Future projects. I have a feeling that the robots and hacking rules will be next, liberally mixed in with experimental vehicle rules.

It was also fun to have participated in the latest D-Infinity live podcast last Thursday (December 26^th). It has been probably pretty close to a year since I was last involved with one of the podcasts and I forgot how much fun they could be.

One thing that I have been considering doing for my faithful readers is that once all the creatures from the old Skirmisher site have been reposted (along with a liberal smattering of NEW converted creatures) is that I am going to convert the whole document after its been entirely reformatted to PDF and making it available to ONLY THOSE who read my blog and contact me privately once the project is complete! I don’t want anyone contacting me now in regards to this as it won’t be finished until more than likely May or June of 2014.

Consider this a gift to those who have taken the time and effort to read my random and oft confusing ramblings.

A few weeks back I posted about having seen the Desolation of Smaug in the theater. This weekend I caught the re-imaging of 47 Ronin. Let me first say this. I enjoyed it. So did my wife. My recommendation to anyone who is on the fence about seeing the movie consider the following…

1. Ignore the naysayers. Think for yourself. If the movie interests you, go and see it. Don’t listen to the ramblings and often unsubstantiated opinions of those who are trashing the movie and yet have not even seen it! You have no idea how many comments I’ve seen where people have bashed the movie and yet state that they didn’t bother watching it! The opinion of those people is not worth a damned thing.
2. If you have an issue with Keanu Reeves, then you probably won’t like the movie. He plays his usual character in the movie, but despite that I enjoyed it.
3. The visuals were stunning! Beautiful costumes, scenery and of course excellent special effects.
4. If you are a fan of swordplay and martial arts, then you will be in for a treat. The choreographed combat sequences were stunning.

As you may have deduced, I have a serious issue with people bashing a movie before they have even seen it. That has always driven me nuts. I realize that many people will argue about free speech but it is my view that no one is entitled to an opinion regarding anything if they have not first experienced it. Do not bash or attack something that you have not taken the time to watch, read, listen to and so forth.

It makes you look like a buffoon or worse.

I guess I should take my own advice when it comes to the Twilight books and movies…

Anyhow, what does the New Year hold for me? I have no idea. I know it’s going to be a good one, and there are quite a few things that I am really looking forward to, such as meeting Bruce Campbell at the 2014 Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo in April. And getting my Colonial Marine armor as well…

Writing? I REALLY want to see the massive mutation books finally get finalized and produced. However I will settle for us putting the material up on Bookforge first, if need be and going from there. I have quite a few Wisdom from the Wastelands issues on the go so my readers can look forward to that as well.

Maybe the robot and powered armor books, maybe the faction book as well. And of course the sequel to Dark Inheritance.

And I will try to get some rules for vehicles written up as well. But I’m not making any promises.

Have a great New Year’s folks!