Mark D/Admin

I’m in my late 20s,  grew up on Staten Island NYC. Lived along the Jersey shore for a few years. When you have a NYC accent and live close to Seaside everyone automatically hates you. Eventually I got the hell out of there and moved to the suburbs of Philly, from where I get to listen to some of the best sports radio in the nation. Philly fans are crazy on a level I can’t describe to anyone that hasn’t lived here. Its not like those Yankee fans from North Jersey who only care when the team is winning. I have a wide range of Interests and tend to talk or rant about them. I’ve always liked the idea of a bard since I was young, and one of my first online nicknames was BardOfTheWeb. Since then I’ve used a ton of different Bard monikers. It fits for this blog because I tend to be a jack of all trades, master of none. Since I’m lazy most of my posts will be via the admin account. Sports wise I’m a fan of all the bad teams in NY: Islanders, Jets, Mets and Knicks. Haven’t been able to celebrate a win since 86.

My Interests

Markland/Medieval Re-enactment

That’s me in Black with the Big Red Hammer. It’s called Fratricidal combat as we don’t use steel weapons. We also don’t choreograph the fights. What you see live involves no planning beforehand. I am also the Warlord of Paper Street Brigade and I’m always recruiting new members. Feel free to email me for more info.

The Evil Cupcake is a female from South Jersey with an interesting writing style and the same could be said of her view on life. I enjoy her writing very much and hope that you do too.

Sports

As I’ve mentioned, I’m a long suffering Jets/Islanders/Mets/Knicks fan. I’ve never seen a team I like win the championship. But I tend to really hate all Boston teams. The only team I hate more then anyone from Boston is a tie between the NY Rangers and Pittsburgh Steelers. I tend to like playing with stats, but I shy away from the more complicated ones (Saber-metrics) for simpler. I also hate Mike Milbury more then anyone else in any position in sports.

Board Games

That’s my closet of games, socks and computers. I just started getting into the board game hobby a few years ago. I was always interested in war games and you can see that much. But I’ve been widening my taste in games to include Euros and different themes. You can take a look at my whole collection. My current favorites are Here I Stand, Paths of Glory and For The People but there are a lot of games I want to play that I haven’t been able to. I’m always looking for someone to play against, so feel free to message me if your in the Southeast PA Area.

Politics

I couldn’t agree more with Goldman.  Today voting is a joke, most people don’t realize the real issues they should be voting on and most elections have a less then fifty percent turnout. When it comes to politics I consider myself of the Far Left persuasion. I believe in Trotsky and the Fourth Internationale. There seems to be two histories in America, the History they teach you and the history you have to learn yourself. Take a chance someday and read a book you wouldn’t normally read and question history.

History

History has always been one of my favorite topics. When I was in school during Desert Storm when we were talking about American soldiers kicking butt, a teacher asked me what those Iraqi kids might have been thinking. Ever since then I have tried to take a look at both sides of history, to see what each side thought and what really happened.  I love history and alternative history for that matter. Its amazing how little things in the long run can make such a difference in history.  I wonder sometimes what Western Culture might have been like if Carthage defeated Rome. What the whole world might have been if Alexander The Great didn’t drink himself to death. Its amazing how intricately intertwined so much of history is.

Entertainment

Now I usually rally against the entertainment business. But it’s more towards TV. I love Radio and listening to Howard Stern. I’ve been a Howard fan nearly all my life. Of course anyone that listens to Howard will tell you that one way or another all the pop entertainment stuff your not interested in, he will be. Another love of mine is Movies. I used to spend weeks just reading the IMDB website. I know way too much useless trivia about every movie and I can name if a movie opened #1 at the box office. This was nearly ten years ago now that I think about it. My memory retains odd facts.

Video Games

My favorite Bard of all time. If you’ve played Final Fantasy Tactics the Bard is easily the best class. If you doubt this great trueism then I feel bad for you. I played a lot as a kid, but its kind of tapered off the last few years. Huge fan of GTA for the consoles. But other then that I tend towards sports management sims now. I also am a huge fan of the Paradox Interactive series of games. Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, Victoria and Hearts of Iron are all high on my list and played whenever I get a chance.