This week has been particularly devastating for geeks everywhere. Gary Gygax, creator of the tabletop role-playing adventure game Dungeons and Dragons, has died. I didn’t know much about the guy, other than he created Dungeons and Dragons, but a lot of people who have met him said that he was a really super cool guy. I imagine that he would have to be, seeing as he created one of the coolest games on the planet. Dungeons and Dragons has been entertaining kids and adults alike for years by forcing us into our imaginations where no other game could stand. It’s a game that has no set pattern, no board that forces you to only go one direction, and it has the craziest dice you’ve ever seen. It puts you face to face with terrible monsters, damsels in distress, and lets you step outside your dorky little shell and become a hero for at least a little bit…unless the DM decides to crush your hopes and dreams by dropping a Beholder on you at level 4, but that’s neither here nor there.

I urge all DnD fans who roll their dice on Saturday’s in the musty basement of their parents house to raise your goblets in tribute of the guy who gave you a reason to get together and drown yourself with Mountain Dew and contribute to the obesity epidemic by eating bagel bites and pizza rolls by the sackful. The very person who gave us all of this has passed from this world and onto the next. I really want to play some DND all the sudden :)

Now onto some TERRIBLE news, that I want to refuse to believe. Patrick Swayze has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I don’t even know how to take this kind of news. Pancreatic cancer, in most cases, is pretty much a death sentence for all who get it. I can only hope that the Swayz winds up having the Jobs-ian cancer that is curable and he goes on to do some awesome movies. I’ve liked this guy since watching Ghost years ago. That and “Tall Tale” which was a cool Disney movie about Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, and John Henry. That was a really cool movie when I was little. Patrick Swayze is awesome and my thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family. We need a miracle for this one :(