Daily mini updates from Spain

So, I´m going to try and keep this going. I have no idea how long this will go on for but here goes nothing. Mini-daily Spain updates!

Sept. 21 2011

DAY 1:

Found a comic book store on my first day again without even trying! Potential landlord offered me drugs (ran out of there) & I asked directions from a Spanish mute....good start. Also met Mikail and Amanda who are both very friendly.

DAY 2:

Apartment hunting galore! Very little time to do anything other than that. That being said, I met a Ninon from France who is very nice and lots of fun. She´ll also be staying in Spain for a while on an Erasmus. Found an apartment on Aluni which was recommended by Kate from Scottland (I´ve been working with SO MANY people from Scotland). Went to the tapas tour where I met several fun people and found a new favorite drink. I also found TWO MORE comic book stores! What´s up Seville¡!?¿!

Day 3:

Walked 3 hours to find a place that was 6 minutes away. Had to remind the Seville Inn that chicken with rice is in fact not paella. Found out Ninon is a theif!

More to come,

Nerd out and live on,

Michael

If you were a basic D&D character

Hola ya´ll. This is Michael, or as the students spell it, Mikle/Mikul/Mikel.

Have some time before my next class so I decided to make the fellow Warp Zone Nerds into basic D&D characters. If you want to do the same look up srd20 ( http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/classes.htm ) on google or contact me for help. I made the character's abilities using a 32 point buy using the point buy calculator found here http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-legacy-discussion/169520-how-does-point-buy-work.html . Also, I will try to give each character a flaw/benefit that will both help and hurt the character and make them more unique.

First, and foremost. Thomas.

Thomas the Wordslayer, also known as Thomas the Bat Man, is a Lawful/Neutral human Wizard. Thomas does his best to enforce the law by settling disbutes. He often feels that taking the law into his own hands will be better but he does his best not to. He is fully capable of feats that allows him to do things from convincing someone that they need to obey what he says to simply fireballing a room. He has an extremely high Intelligence and uses his photographic memory to his advantage. He tends to lean towards using magic instead of brute physical strength to get things done. While he has an average Charisma score he is able to substitute that with his high Intelligence score when it comes to debate, easily being able to manipulate others, and this is before his use of magic. He will, however, have to be able to sway the argument into an intellectual manner of facts. In other words he would not be able to convince someone to leave his guard post, just because. However, depending on the situation, he could convince him that he is fighting for the wrong side by giving the history of whom he is working for. The Ability change used will have to be approved by the DM per scenario. Also, he can only do this once successfully per gaming session.

Due to his high dependence on Magic, he has a high Intelligence and Wisdom with a average Charisma. However, due to this he has a lower Strength, Constitution and Dexterity. He is an important person to have in a fight and in other varying situations but he will need to stay in the back lines when it comes to a struggle. Still his enemies will have to get close to him first in order to make him worry.

For his use of word manipulation he is known as Thomas the Wordslayer. In some circles he is known as Thomas the Bat Man because of his unusual choice for a familiar, a bat.

Thomas's Ability Points and bonuses before any modifications are made are:

Str 9 - 0

Dex 10 - 0

Con 10 - 0

Int 18 - 4

Wis 15 - 2

Cha 11 - 0

He has a custom made flaw/benefit:

Photographic Smugness:

He has photographic memory which allows him to be able to skip the preparing spells in the morning process. He will still have a limited amount but he will have to keep track of the scores just like a sorcerer. However, he knows he has a photographic memory and is smug about it. In gameplay the character should play this smugness in an "I'm better than you" attitude. Because of this, the character receives a -3 in Charisma.

Well, more to come. Hope you enjoyed this. Until next time, when we see Chase the Wise, our mighty Bard, I'll see you.

Michael

Thankful for...

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Just thought I'd take this moment to say what I am thankful for.

I am always thankful to my family but every year it seems like I am more and more thankful to have them. My parents have been very supportive of me and I know it can't be easy. This year I decided to pull a fast one on them and accept a job in Spain. They were thrilled that I had this opportunity and have helped me in any way imaginable. I love them and appreciate them more than I can say.

I am also thankful for all the friends that I have back in the states that still somehow manage to keep in contact with me. I would be lying if I said that I do not get homesick but my conversations with them help keep me grounded...Especially with my nerdy/geeky friends 8P. I am pretty sure I am one of the bigger nerds in the country of Spain, definitely one of the biggest in Plasencia (the other runner ups I'm thinking of are in fact two other Americans). Nerds here are treated like aliens. People just stand back, stare at us and wonder whether they should run away from us, interact with us or poke us with a giant stick. Being able to log on to L4D2 or TF2 randomly with people or seeing a random twitter post from a fellow nerd is surprisingly refreshing. So thank you all, especially those on twitter I do not know but follow us anyway because they deem us worth following.

Finally, I am thankful not only for this teaching job in Spain but also the new friends I have made because of this. Without these new friends, life here would be more complicated. A couple have provided a place for me to stay while I was looking for a flat of my own. Another has become a great flatmate (watch out Tom, competition for best flatmate 8P ). Everyone helps with my Spanish and they are just so extraordinarily friendly. Also, they are so awesome that we all just finished a Thanksgiving dinner that we all prepared ourselves. Think about, we just had a successful Thanksgiving dinner in a country where Plymouth Rock has no meaning to them other than maybe a chapter in a world history book. Five of the people who attended are not even American and yet they still wanted to be involved. I get asked in class many times why I like Plasencia so much, out of everywhere in Spain I could have been, and a big reason for that is you guys. Thanks.

Well, thank you all for reading this. I am of course thankful to those who read this because I did not write this for nothing! 8P

The Thanksgiving holiday may be over for me (you know, time difference and all) but for others the Thanksgiving dinner is just beginning. Have a great meal and a great day with your families....And please, eat an extra slice of pecan pie for me....I miss pecan pie....

LLAP and geek out with pride,

Michael

Warp Zone Nerds Episode 2.06 - "Nerd BS-ing"

Due to lack of a topic, the nerds take this time to talk about whatever comes to their minds.