Nuketown-in-Exile

The Nuketown Redesign 2012 is entering the final stretch, and the production web site is no longer being updated while we upgrade our stage environment to Drupal 7 and implement make the last round of tweaks to the theme.

I'll be posting updates to The Atomic Age from time to time so folks know how the process is going. The plan is to have the new site up and running by the end of Thanksgiving weekend 2012.

Recruiting a new RPG player in the Lehigh Valley

My gaming group is looking for a new player. Full details on Nuketown.

mcall.com: Easton Farmers' Market draws a fresh crop of farmers

The Morning Call has a nice article about the Easton Farmers' Market attracting a bunch of new farmers this year, due in part to young, second-career farmers joining the industry. Just as importantly, they're going to be running trolley service from downtown to College Hill, which means if it gets really hot this summer, we can still walk down with the kids and then ride back on the roll.

Hat tip to my wife for finding the story.

Easton Farmers Market Returns!

Winter is over, spring is in the air and the Easton Farmers Market returns this weekend! Our family makes regular pilgrimages down from College Hill to the Easton Centre Square because of the Farmers Market throughout the late spring, summer and fall, and I'm looking forward to getting back into the habit.

An added bonus is that May 2 is Free Comic Book Day; you can pick up your comics at Slacker Comics, which is also located on the Easton Centre Square. It's a win-win for geeks and their significant others!

IronPigs in Facebook

The IronPigs have a page in Facebook. There's not a lot there; a handful of pages for players, a bunch of photos from games, and a few of their "As the Bacon Turns" promotional videos, but it is good to see them using social media. Here's to hoping they keep using it, as I'd much rather hear about the 'Pigs then get 30 more invites to "vampires vs. werewolves".

Pubcrawl for Celtic Classic

According to the Morning Call, Bethlehem's Celtic Classic has been hit hard by hurricanes and rain; first Hurricane Ivan swept through a week before the show in 2004, and then last year it rained all three days.  As a result, they've accumulated a boatload of debt, laid off their three employees, and gone back to their roots with a new pubcrawl fundraiser.

The Hell or High Water Kilted Celt Crawl and Walk will be held  2 p.m. May 17. The registration fee is $25. For more information: 610-868-9599. The Call article says they're hoping to raise $50,000.

Local contributors increasing presence of Lehigh Valley on Wikipedia

The Express-Times has an article up about local folks contributing Lehigh Valley articles to Wikipedia. There are a bunch of articles about Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown, as well as the region's history; you can learn more about what LV content is available on Wikipedia through the Lehigh Valley Wikiproject.

Online Adventuring

I've got two posts up on Nuketown reviewing about ways to scratch your online-adventuring itch. The first is the Legends of Zork, which is a sort of lightweight MMORPG inspired by Zork (but without the innate cleverness you'd associate with Zork). The second is D&D Tiny Adventures, which is also a straightforward hack'n'slash game, but bulks it up with an enjoyable narrative.

IronPigs, Twitter and Baseball

Baseball returned to the Lehigh Valley last week as the IronPigs had their opening game at Coca-Cola Park against the Scranton Yankees (and, ahem, proceeded to get swept by said Yankees). On a geeky note, the IronPigs are on Twitter now.  They've been tweeting their games, which is very cool, and it's a great way to keep up with how the team's doing.

Powering up Atomic Age...

The Atomic Age has been slumbering for the last few months, but I'm going to be powering it up again. Don't expect having blogging, but there will be the occasional geek/baseball/Lehigh Valley related posts.

Radio Active #77: Footsteps in the Night

On this episode of Nuketown Radio Active, Neutron Lad gives up diapers for good, StarGirl and I get in a game of Settlers of Catan, I head back to the gym (again) and set some goals and I share my reviews of a bunch of new games, including Resident Evil 5, Star Ocean and Ticket to Ride.

In Netheads, I take a look at the Launchy fast-application launcher for Windows and Linux, and share some Tor.com-inspired thoughts about the future of comic books.

Get the episode from Nuketown.

Radio Active #74: The Sound of Distant Crashing Xboxes

On this episode of Nuketown Radio Active, I dream of a good night’s sleep, remember the adventure that is potty training my son, recount my Xbox 360 "Red Ring of Death" woes and talk about the boatload of games I’ve been reviewing. In Netheads, I try out the “Is Gd” url shortner, test drive the Obsidian Portal gaming wiki, and round out the show by geeking out over the Star Wars RPG game master’s screen.

Get the episode at Nuketown.com

Radio Active #73: The Cold Touch of Autumn

The kids are getting over colds and we've got another round of home
improvement under our belts as Nuketown Radio Active returns for more
adventures in geek parenting.

In this episode I've got a run down the video games I'll playing over the next few weeks, I take a look at Green Ronin's new Wizards and Warlocks
role-playing game and find kindergartners playing chess with spaceborne
astronauts. Rounding out the show is a review of Apple's iPod touch,
the one geeky gadget that could conceiveably replace my trusty black
iPod...

Get the episode at Nuketown.

Haunted Walking Tour of Easton

There's going to be a "Haunted Walking Tour of Easton" on October 24 and 25, 2008 from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tours leave from Centre Square, Easton, Pa. The cost is $7 in advance, $10 on the tour date. Tickets are available at Pearly Baker's Ale House, Porter's Pub, the Csmic Cup, Partyology, Connexions Art Gallery, Easton Yoga and the Easton Farmer's Market.

Learn more by visiting the Scarecrow Festival page on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/eastonscarecrowfestival

Mike's Mets: Mets 08 Lament (with an eye to 09)

OK, technically it's Dave Mills writing, but I think he sums up the Mets season pretty well. There were some bad breaks throughout the season (probably the worst of which was the loss of Wagner as a killer closer), but they fought hard, and this September's defeat doesn't feel nearly as numbingly awful as '07. Fans can always rally around cries of "Next Year!" but in this case I think they've got a lot of the foundation in place, they just need to make some tweaks, figure out their closer situation, and they'll be in prime position for another run at the pennant.

In Your Schools for 9/26

The Morning Call has posted their "In Your Schools" column for 9/26. Nothing earth shattering there, but useful all the same.

Radio Active #72: Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition

Radio Active #72 contememplates the best way to organize a geeky bookshelf, takes another turn at chess with kids, finds out that Neutron Lad has a lot to talk about, asks questions about Nuketown's long-dormant RADIATIONS newsletter and finally reviews Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, the latest edition of the venerable role-playing game by Wizards of the Coast.

Get the episode at Nuketown.com.

Radio Active #71: Summer's End

Summer's over and Nuketown Radio Active's back in the saddle as I talk about a different kind of game day, dodge a bullet with a crashed hard drive, get ready for a Western-themed NukemCon 2008.

My promised review of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition has been bumped to Radio Active #72, and instead I talk a little about the challenges of reviewing the game, and what my gaming group's decided to do with the new edition.

Get the podcast.

A Lehigh Valley Gaming Club?

In my latest blog post, I speculate about the possibility of a gaming club in the Lehigh Valley, Pa. Check it out and if you're interested, post a comment or email me at nuketown@gmail.com

Easton Garlic Fest 2008

The Easton Garlic Fest will be held Saturday, October 4 in downtown Easton. If memory serves, they take over the entire Center Square traffic circle to accomodate the throngs of people that arrive to "Eat, Drink, and Stink".

Learn more at their web site: http://www.eastongarlicfest.com