How Many?

Mark James Robert Essex, 9 dead, 13 wounded.
James Oliver Huberty, 21 dead, 19 wounded.
George Hennard, 23 dead, 27 wounded.
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, 13 dead, 21 wounded.
Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, 14 dead, 22 wounded.
James Eagan Holmes, 12 dead, 70 wounded.
Wade Michael Page, 6 dead, 4 wounded.
Charles Joseph Whitman, 16 dead, 31 wounded.
Stephen Paddock, 58 dead, 489 wounded.
Dylann Storm Roof, 9 dead, 1 wounded.
Omar Mateen, 49 dead, 58 wounded.
Adam Lanza, 27 dead.
  This is just a short list of some of the perpetrators of mass shootings in America. America has more mass shootings than any other country. For more information on this and a more complete list of American mass shootings, look here. After the Las Vegas shooting the Republicans, the White House and Fox News offered a bunch of hollow platitudes and meaningless prayers while claiming that now is not the time to be politicizing events like this. Of course, for them, the topic of gun control is always off limits because they're all lap dogs of the NRA, GOA, the gun lobby and the gun manufacturers. They have the power to do something. The fact that they do nothing is a clear indication that they care nothing about the victims. All they care about is money and power. These callous motherfuckers would rather lick the shit out of Wayne LaPierre's ass crack for campaign cash than make any effort to control gun violence here in America. How many people have to die or be wounded in attacks like these before they stop sitting with their collective thumbs up their asses and do something about it? It should be noted that the NRA supports new rules regarding bump stock devices.

Latest Health News & Other Items

  I saw an opthamologist a short while back. My prescription has changed slightly since my eye exam about a year ago. I don't need to upgrade my glasses just yet but I might upgrade my prescription sunglasses prior to Gen Con. Both eyes are exhibiting the early stages of cataract development. This could mean cataract surgery in about 10 to 15 years. The opthamologist also noticed that I had a weirdly twisted artery near the optic nerve of my left eye and recommended that I see a retinologist. After dilating my eyes and taking some scans and pictures, the retinologist said that it was a vascular loop and, other than looking weird, was nothing to worry about.
  My tumor markers came back negative for the third time in a row. The CT scan of my pelvic and abdominal regions showed that my organs are functioning properly. Things are looking bright on the health front.
  Plans for this year's Gen Con are proceeding better than expected. I've been making large payments on my credit card while putting as little as possible on it. I have more than enough room on it to cover my hotel bill and gas. Between my Simple and Serve accounts, I have a little over $1,000.00 put aside to buy stuff at the convention and eat. I'm going to try to add another $200.00 to the total before August. I want to get some of the Doctor books Cubicle 7 is publishing for the Doctor Who RPG plus get a copy of the revised The One Ring rule book and Bree supplement. I'm also going to see if anyone is selling the gargantuan Orcus miniature my friend TJ told me about. It will go nicely with my gargantuan blue and black dragon, colossal red dragon, balrog and Great Cthulhu miniatures.
  I've recently purchased a lifetime VPN (virtual private network) subscription from VPN Unlimited. I found out from the iDrop newsletter that they were offering these subscriptions for a limited time at 92% below the normal price. The offer was too good to pass up. PC Magazine gave VPN Unlimited 4.5 out of 5 stars. I'm including some VPN related YouTube videos to provide you with further information.

Gen Con & Other News

  I got into most of the Gen Con events I had on my wish list. I was 2,900th in line and only the Firefly and Paranoia events filled up before I could check out. On a related note, I finally got a copy of Narcissist: Crash Free v0.7. This game was to be a companion game to Aetherco's time travel RPG Continuum. I came across Continuum back when Gen Con was still in Milwaukee. I was slated to play a Changeling event that particular Gen Con. All the players showed up but the Storyteller didn't. A staff member said we should wait a half hour. If the Storyteller still hadn't arrived, we could get a refund on our ticket. A table near where we were sitting was about to run a Continuum game and we were invited to join them. Since I had nothing else planned, I gave the game a try.
  That day I bought the Continuum main rule book, the Further Information supplement and the span book software program. Continuum's not a bad RPG but it is one of the more complicated ones to play. As noted above, Narcissist was to be a companion game told from the point of view of the crashers. However, for reasons unknown to me, Aetherco stopped production of any new Continuum supplements and Narcissist never became a full fledged RPG. Trying to find the printed pre releases of the v0.5 or v0.7 editions of Narcissist Aetherco put together is nigh impossible and could easily cost you quite a bit of money. The Continuum main book and Further Information are regarded as rarities. I'm not sure how rare the span book program is. I tried for quite a while to get my hands on a copy of Narcissist. There was a PDF version on Scribd for a period of time but it was gone by the time I tried to get it. Other searches proved fruitless. Finally, I found a torrent that contained not only a copy of Narcissist v0.7 but it also had PDF copies the other two books and some supplemental material. If you want a copy of Narcissist: Crash Free v0.7, leave a comment down below with your email address and I'll send you a copy. I can also email you PDF copies of the other two books, supplemental materials and span book software (with registration key).
 

Health Update

  This past Tuesday, I went over to my oncologist's office to have my blood drawn in order to check my PT-INR and a1c levels. My primary care physician, Dr. Boerger, said that my a1c was 7.3 which was slightly on the high side for someone with type 2 diabetes. At her suggestion, I arranged an appointment with an Aurora opthamologist to have my eyes examined. For the most part, the eye exam was uneventful. My prescription has changed slightly since last year's exam but not enough to warrant new glasses. The early stages of cataract development have been detected. There's the possibility that 10 to 15 years down the road I may need cataract surgery. Since diabetes is a risk factor for cataracts, I'll have to be more careful controlling my blood glucose levels. The only noteworthy item from the exam was an unusually twisted artery near the optic nerve of my left eye. I'm going to see a retinologist on June 22nd in order to get a better idea as to what caused the arterial twist and whether or not it's going to be a potential problem. The opthamologist said it might be due to a blood clot.

Gen Con Update

  The plans for Gen Con 2017 are proceeding along nicely. My 4 day badge has been ordered. The hotel reservation has been made. I had to wait 7 hours and 5 minutes before I could reserve my room and thus ended up about 10.5 miles outside of downtown Indianapolis. Since I don't feel like driving into downtown Indianapolis everyday and paying for parking, I'm going to see what mass transit options exist and use those. I've set up a wish list of 8 events that I will submit when event registration goes live this Sunday at 11:00 am CST. Hopefully I won't end up way back in line like last year. I had to watch as most of the events I wanted filled up and I had to wait until I got to the head of the line before I could secure what events were still available. Then I had to pick other events to replace the ones I didn't get into and get in line again. I asked for this Sunday off so I could log in early and submit my wish list.

The Republican Healthcare Plan & Trump's Budget Proposal

  After more than 60 attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Republicans have finally revealed their healthcare plan. This plan, called the American Health Care Reform Act of 2017 is their answer to the ACA. In typical Republican fashion, this bill sticks it to the poor, sick and elderly while giving massive tax cuts to the rich. Some questions and answers regarding the Repuclicans health care plan can be found here. Needless to say, the majority of people disapprove of the plan. Senate Republicans still don't like the plan and the CBO reports that while premium costs for young, healthy people would go down, for many others, like the elderly and those with pre existing conditions, the rates will increase significantly.
  Trump and the Republicans seem to love fucking over the average American citizen while dumping large sums of money into the pockets of the extremely wealthy. Trump's budget asks for deep cuts to social programs and Medicaid while providing tax cuts that benefit primarily himself and the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans and corporations. The people that elected this tangerine turd blossom are the very people he's screwing over the most. And, to make matters worse, many of these idiots will likely vote for him again should he run for reelection in 2020.

The Ideal Republican Constituent

  Rich, white, Christian, conservative, straight, cisgender and male. This is the ideal Republican constituent. The closer you are to this ideal, the more likely it will be that they will lick the shit out of your asscrack in order to cater to you. The farther you are from this ideal, the more likely it is that they will pass laws depriving you of your rights, costing you more money and ruining the environment where you live. The reason Republicans are so gung-ho about repealing the Affordable Care Act is because it taxes the rich. Golden Showers pick to head the EPA, Scott Pruitt, frequently tries to undermine laws protecting the environment. Betsy DeVos, Golden Shower's choice for Education Secretary has proven woefully incompetent for the job she now has. The real reason she was appointed was so more federal tax money could end up funding Christian schools in violation of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. They want to create a Christian nation in violation of Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli. Christian supremacists must be ecstatic over Golden Shower's pick. Steve Mnuchin, our new Treasury Secretary is exactly the kind of person Golden Shower railed against during his campaign. Wall Street looks to make massive profits under Trump's administration while the rest of us suffer. Conspiracy theorists Monica Crowley and Michael Flynn were picked to be the National Security Council's senior director of strategic communications and National Security Advisor respectively. Republicans only care about the average person during election time when they need their votes. The rest of the time they cater only to their ideal constituents. If the Supreme Court ever declares that money equals votes, they'll be able to ignore the average person completely.