Firefly Podcast, a new Tabletop RPG

Hey folks,

Long time no post, right? Doesn't matter. My creative energy hasn't stopped since before this blog started, but my time constraints have been insane.

All that aside, I've got a new podcast. Me and a bunch of nerdy ass friends of mine play the Firefly Role Playing Game. WTF is that? It's like dungeons and dragons, except with planets and spaceships and political turmoil and all kinds of other cool shit.

Basically, if you are a Browncoat, or a general Joss Whedon fan, or just like improv good or bad, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/firefly-podcast-balls-bayonets/id966096665 and subscribe. On android? Search Firefly Podcast in stitcher, or whatever podcatcher app you're using, and look for our logo above. Need the RSS direct link? www.fireflypodcast.libsyn.com/rss BAM taken care of.



I'm still playing bass for The Long Black Veils and we released our second album, In The Dark, which you can buy On iTunes Here.

Oh, yeah, and my wife had twins. Olivia Mae and Samuel Joe will be 1 year old on 5/13/15. We are done having kids now. For sure. Twins are INSANE to have! I feel so much sympathy for people with multiples now! But yeah, they are awesome, and I wouldn't trade the sleepless nights for anything. Sammy is a brickhouse eating machine with an attitude just like his daddy and Olivia cracks me up almost every time I'm with her. #dadlife yo.

Anyways, check out the podcast, check out the album, if you friend me on facebook or follow me on twitter you'll see what I'm up to. I'm on twitter way more than anything else though.

Peace out!

Goddamn ye, merry gentlemen

I've posted this on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, and now here. It is April 14'th, a day that I always save for someone whose body of work affected me deeply.

3 Years ago today, we lost one of the greatest minds in music. A hero to me and many others. An inspired bassist, prolific writer, and amazing vocalist. As I do every year, today my thanks to Peter will be made by spreading his music so others can be as inspired as I have been.

This is the full "World Coming Down" album in a playlist on youtube.
This album, to me, proved that Peter and Type O Negative were more than human. Each album was as strong, in some points stronger, than the previous. That's saying a lot since the previous album to this was "October Rust", a legendary disc itself.

The biggest thing I take from this album is the feeling behind it. Peter had said that this album was too personal for him and he didn't like playing it live. See that? He put so much of his pain and heart into this album it made him uncomfortable! I wish I could do that. I wish I had that pure of a conduit for my pain, to put so much of it into something that it gave me the shivers.

My favorite tracks are "Creepy Green Light" and "Everything Dies". 

  Rest In Peace, A hero to us: Peter Thomas Ratajczyk [Peter Steele] (January 4, 1962 – April 14, 2010). Thank you.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL61069BFB8B753370

SUPER HAPPY FUN TIME GEEK PODCAST!!!

Hey folks!

Long time, no see! That's because I've been so busy with my band, The Long Black Veils! We put out our Debut CD, we have t-shirts and everything!

But what's been taking my time lately aside from the band, family, and work, is a music focused Podcast! That's right, yours truly is on iTunes and any other podcatching software you want via TRSpod.com! I am a bassist, and I do the podcast with my drummer Johnny, so the podcast is called "The Rhythm Section with Johnny and Rob".

It's a podcast by a rhythm section, for everyone, but mostly for rhythm players. Just give it a listen, and if you like it, rate it on iTunes with a comment, email us at therhythmsectionpod@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or leave a comment here!

Also, I'm totally addicted to Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer, no expansions, straight vanilla. If you dig on it, hit me up on Steam and we'll noobtube some faces together!

Peace out homies!



p.s., here's a video of the sexiest woman on TV, Allison Scagliotti, with the most hilarious down syndrome actor of all time The Ponceman.

Flayed out like a nice honey ham

 Hi folks!

I'm going to paste here a post I just made over on the TAPS forum I help moderate. I'm exclusively in charge of the "Religion" section, since its such a taboo topic it's treated in the same way as politics, with a careful hand and strict moderation. I volunteered to open that topic on the forum, because it's been a banned topic for years, but I felt that wasn't right, and I was the only one wanting or willing to take on the job. We also have a politics and a debate section, I stay the hell away from those because I can't treat them with the objectivity or education that I can religion. I don't care for opinions on how people moderate forums, each one is different, so don't bother commenting with that stuff.

Anyways, if you know, or if you don't, I'm a Christian. The topic I was posting in was "How did you choose your religion?". Here's my answer, and my story.


"I suppose I should answer this question as well. This might (edit: WILL be) a long read. Don't worry, I put a "too long, didn't read" at the end.

I was raised in an Evangelical Free church. Never really did figure out why it was called that, considering the church didn't do much "evangelizing" and certainly held a social structure not unlike a high-school "clique" structure. After being a Christian for my upbringing, I came to a point in my life that I had unanswered questions, and that's when everything got weird for me.

I couldn't find answers to simple questions about why the world was in the state that it was, war famine death etc, but what it all really boiled down to for me was one stream of thought: "IF God is omniscient, he knows all past present and future, then he knew what would happen by creating Lucifer. He knew about the Holocaust. He knew about the Turkish genocide against the Armenians. He knew everything down to the girl crying in her room, hiding from her abusive father. IF God knew these things in advance, what kind of monster must he be to go through with creating Lucifer?"

I struggled with that thought for years. I only had two conclusions. A: There is no God B: God exists, and is a monster. Since I personally had experience with the paranormal, I couldn't fathom A being possible, so I could only assume B was the answer. It's like a switch was flipped in my head, from Love and belief, to absolute hatred and just as much belief. I never was one to say "God isn't real". I was the one who said, "God is all too real, and HE is the reason for your pain, suffering, and despair". That's a pretty powerful feeling when its at the core of your being. When you believe that so strongly, so purely, that you absolutely hate and despise God for his arrogance and narcissism, it becomes a mission to give the biggest middle finger you possibly can to this God you believe in but despise.

In my life, I have converted exactly ZERO people to Christianity. I have converted a few to Satanism, not "worship the devil" satanism, but actual humanistic LaVey'an satanism. I've converted dozens to witchcraft. From Gardenarian to eclectic to coven-based Dianic witchcraft. I've had experiences, I've seen things people talk about here on the forums, I know its real and I know its powerful. Problem is, I'm a Christian now, and that's not easy for me.

How I chose my religion is probably a little different than most. I chose my religion through personal experience with both sides of the coin. When it finally came down to "conversion day" as I jokingly call it, it was the voice of God or something akin that gave me my choice.

I was at a church mountain retreat, partially because, hey its a mountain retreat and that's awesome. But not because I wanted to be there for spiritual reasons, mostly because a longtime friend invited me, and I figured it would be a great time to spin these Christians heads with the knowledge that I had, to go on the offensive and watch the crestfallen looks in their faces as they realized that they also couldn't answer my question. That they, firm in their belief, could not give me any justification for the atrocities their God had caused simply by the act of creation. I looked in the mirror, and I saw my purpose. It wasn't until later that I realized that I wasn't the first half of the Saul story, I WAS the Saul story.

I spent time with the people at the camp, it was fun because I love being in the mountains since I was raised camping and fishing. I did the activities, I sang the songs - badly, I even prayed, though I wasn't praying to God as much as I was chastising him. My friend, the one who invited me to the retreat, asked me if I would go pray with him and his youth pastor friend. It wasn't a long, drawn out thing like this post has turned into. It was as simple as the guy praying "Lord, our brother here is in need. He needs you to show him why, and he needs you to fill the void he has filled with anger and hate" or something similar, its been a few years, forgive my memory.

I sat there, awkwardly, politely silent, and waited for someone to say "well, lets get back to the activities" or something. That didn't happen. What did happen was something that I will never forget, and it put the faith in me that everything happens for a reason. I heard a voice, not just in my head, but audibly, as though someone had set up a PA in the room and tuned everything to sub-bass frequencies. Not trying to be dramatic here, that's what it felt like, and I'm a bassist, I know what that feels like. It wasn't a speech, it wasn't a profound saying, or a quote from the Bible. It was one word, it actually was word.

 I heard, in my head and my ears, a vibration that could only be described as unearthly, it was a voice and it said "Word". This isn't significant to most, but at the time there was a movement in the area for duct taping, bejeweling, painting, and otherwise adorning your Bible with what makes it important to you. I looked down, and behind the youth pastor guy there was a bible, covered in duct tape, and in permanent marker was written very boldly "WORD". Aside from the "holy sh-- whats happening here" feeling, I got a flash of clarity in my head. For a split second I completely understood how predestination and free will worked together. How there was a reason for the things that happened. How no sacrifice was without purpose, and how no suffering or death was more important than the endgame.

I don't know why, but God chose to give me clarity for just long enough to convince me, beyond any human doubt, that not only was He the God that I believed in, but that the reason that I hated him was because I didn't understand, and never could. I still struggle, I'm not a good Christian, but I will never question God again.

TL,DR: It took a literal act of God to bring me back to Christianity, and that's what happened.

So, what's your story?"

And that is it my friends. Heart firmly stapled to my sleeve, that's the birth of my faith as it is. Comments, thoughts, fiery criticism, and anything else you have to say is welcome in the comments. You can follow me on Twitter @Zombieslag and check out my band (I'm just the bassist) @theLBV.

Seeya next time!

Debut Album Super Happy Good Times!

Hey folks!

So if you've read this blog for a while, you know I'm in a band. If you don't, hey, I'm in a band. Anyway, our long awaited and hard work filled debut album is out now! Available on HERE ON AMAZON and soon to be available on iTunes and everywhere else.

Buy It Please! Enjoy It Too!

You say I'm shamelessly self-promoting? Well, Duh! We've been working our asses off on this for a while now and I'm proud of it! We self produced the entire album except for having it mastered at a local studio, and we learned a lot in the process.

Everyone who buys the album is helping to fund us as we are still coming up with the cash to press the first limited run of 100 physical CD's. We are already hard at work on the second album, and have at least 2 more in the works to boot!! This is our passion, each of us has a part of us in this album. There was a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and alcohol to make this album, and every single one of those is literal!

That's it for now, been so busy with the band I haven't had time to finish any papercraft! Its been a very hectic few months for this little geek. Share the link around and enjoy people!

Get off the LagWagon!

Hey Folks!

I've been having trouble lately, and its with my PC. Games that I have been playing for a long time with this rig are starting to lag. Most of the new games I get do the same. I've searched everywhere for a solution. From updating all of my drivers, to creating a new hardware profile strictly for gaming (can't even print in that profile.).

Well I never found one. I'm buying a GTX 650 after the new year. But for now I found a bandaid. Instead of dropping to unplayable fps levels, I can now run everything at a minimum of 20+fps. Yeah, I know, not stellar, but playable. Here's how:

So thanks for reading, thanks for watching, and have a great day!

Man Day!

Hey folks!

This is a "listen up" type post, so click the button!