Highmoon's Ponderings

ANNOUNCING HIGHMOON MEDIA PRODUCTIONS

October 11, 2004 – Miami Beach, FL: We are pleased to announce the arrival of Highmoon Media Productions to the game publishing world.

Highmoon Media Productions is a small studio dedicated to producing quality and innovative roleplaying accessories, adventures, and sourcebooks using the d20 System under the Open Game License. Our products are designed to be used with any d20 compatible products, both in the fantasy, modern and future genres.

Highmoon Media Productions will offer small and affordable electronic, printer-ready products in the PDF format through http://www.rpgnow.com/, with plans to eventually offer our products in printed format using Print-On-Demand technology.

Visit us online at http://www.highmoonmedia.com/ to learn more about the company and about our current and upcoming products. You can also visit the Highmoon Media Productions’ RPGNow.com Vendor Page to purchase our products.

And check out our first release, Liber Sodalitas: The Blind Path, by Daniel M. Perez. The Blind Path is a 6-page PDF detailing a drop-in organization for any d20 Fantasy game, complete with history, tenets, ways of joining, iconic and generic NPCs, a new prestige class, and a new feat. Available now for sale at www.RPGNow.com.

For more information please contact Daniel M. Perez at daniel@highmoonmedia.com.

Hag Sameach! (Joyous Festival).
Sukkot is now over, and tomorrow we start both Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, bringing to a close all the High Holy Days (and you thought it was only Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur!).
Highmoon Media Productions is going well. God willing, I should have our first release ready for next week! I’ll post a link.

On an unraletd note, I saw the movie Kissing Jessica Stein the other night and I liked it a lot. It was cute and funny and not what I was expecting. It was sold as a gay romantic comedy, when it fact it isn’t. This may very well be the first Bi-curious romantic comedy ever. The girl who plays Jessica Stein reminded me physically of someone I once knew. Like I said, cute, check it out.

Signing off for another 3-day holiday hiatus. Man, being an orthodox Jew is hard; all we do is pray and eat in our holidays.

– Highmoon
Sitting in the sukkah
PS. All links point to Judaism 101- http://www.jewfaq.org/

Well, that’s Charley and Frances down, now it’s Ivan left to go. What, does Florida have a big ol’ metereological bullseye painted on it?

Anyway, on to other and better news:After threatening with doing this for months, if not for a whole year (I’d have to check my journal), I finally did it. Yesterday I filed all legal papers to begin doing business as Highmoon Media Productions. Yep, I am starting my own business, a publishing company. I will be starting with gaming material for D&D/d20 system, allowing me to market my own projects without being at the mercy of other companies’ editors and/or budgets. I don’t know that this will be hugely succesful, but it has got to be better than the big NOTHING I am making right now.

I chose the name Highmoon Media Productions (HMP) for two reasons: (1) Highmoon is a name that I have been using since 1996 when I first went online, and I’ve actually used HMP for other endeavors in the past, like when I did web design; (2) HMP allows me the flexibility of releasing other things than gaming through it, as long as it is media (and what isn’t). So for example (and this is something I will do) I can use HMP to publish fiction, mine or my wife’s (or solicited), or an e-zine, or do more web design, etc. Flexibility is good, and with HMP I have all I need.
I am quite excited about this new project, and am currently hard at work finishing the initial HMP gaming releases, and contracting artwork. Couple this with getting ready for the High Holy Days, and starting Grad School, plus regular work, and of course all these wonderful hurricanes that keep wanting to plow through Florida (do they hate Disney or something?) and you can understand how busy, stressed and tired I am. But it is great!
I’ll keep you updated.

– Highmoon
Fervently hoping that Ivan decides to go somewhere else. “Shoo, Ivan, don’t bother us!”

I’m reading now The Da Vinci Code (and strangely enough, so is my mother-in-law) and liking it a lot. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s 100%, but as fluff goes, it’s not that horrible.

I find incredibly funny that so many Christians have had their feathers ruffled by this work of fiction. Of course, as much a work of fiction as it may be, there are some truths in there, and that’s what has people scrambling.

I’m not naive enough to take everything presented in the book as fact: I can do my own research, thank you very much. However, I am not naive enough to think that for the last 2000 years everyone in the church has been 100% honest and telling the whole truth. Ridiculous! If you truly believe that you are either possessed of an unearthly faith (and thus should be removed from this plane of reality) or incredibly stupid.

Thing is, none of the so-called great secrets revealed in the book are new to me. I have either read them before in a variety of sources, or have come up with similar ones myself. And for the record, yes, I do believe (and have believed for more than 2 years now, before the novel was published) that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. In fact, I go so far as to say that the “Beloved Disciple” of the gospel of John is indeed Mary Magdalene. You figure it out.

Is the book biased? Of course, it is a work of fiction by a man who holds a particular set of beliefs. Is everything in the book accurate? Nope, you go look it up and find out for yourself; don’t get your history from a novel (or a movie, for that matter, even if it claims to be the authoritative vision of the passion of Jesus). Are some of these theories real? Absolutely, many are documented going back centuries. Do they tell the truth? Who the hell knows. Only God knows the truth of the matter–the Truth, if you will; we humans must make due with history, what we know, and what we unearth in our constant search for an understanding of our world. But do me a favor, don’t let anyone tell you what is true or not, in this book or anywhere else. Go find out for yourself.

And remember, that just as the author had a bias, so does every single book being published right now claiming to crack, explain or debunk the Da Vinci Code: notice the majority are being published by Christian writers who cannot stand even the suggestion of such an idea as Jesus’ humanity and all that entails.

For now I’ll keep reading. I look forward to seeing how much of it is old news to me, and feel really good about it.

– Highmoon
Clamouring for people to think for themselves!

It’s a sad day. Our rabbit, Pele McFufu, passed away yesterday April 21st. Pele was the first of all our rabbits, the fluffiest, the craziest and much loved by all. Though he never weighed more than 3 pounds (and that’s when he was fat!), the empty space he leaves is large indeed. One never knows how much one loves these little balls of fur until they are gone.May he go and meet up with Duncan (see Dec 02, 03: Back From NYC And Sad News) and may they wreck havoc in the great burrow in the sky.

Pele McFufu

– Highmoon
Quite bummed…

Just dropping by to say hi.

Not much to tell lately except that I’VE BEEN ACCEPTED TO THE GRADUATE STUDIES IN LITERATURE PROGRAM AT FIU!!!!!!!!

Kickass.
Not just that, I was also accepted into the Teacher Assistantship Program, which means I get to help out some professor or other, I eventually get my own class to teach, and (the best part) I have my tuiton covered plus a monthly stipend. Now this is the way to go to University!

– Highmoon
Who wants eventually to have that “Dr.” in front of his name.