Another Roanoke Valley Saturday
Yesterday was quite productive, I got four other people in my office to Talk Like a Pirate.
dot/Hack definitely has raininva and myself sucked in, I’m up to seven hours of play, and I’m not sure how many Rain has. The “game within a game” aspect appeals greatly to my interests in metareality, and I’m pretty impressed with the emotional range of the characters – not something that most of my PlayStation games do much with.
Our Kellan Colt promotional figures for Shadowrun: Duels came this morning, so now we have a truly complete set of Series One. I’ve noticed that there’s already a FAQ posted on the official site with clarifications and errata. What did we gamers do before the Internet?
Rising Star has a staff meeting this afternoon in Blacksburg, and I’m looking forward to discussing ideas for the Emcee skit with rattrap and yubbie. I know that there will be other, less entertaining issues raised at the meeting, but I have a great deal of faith in RS and the people who make it happen. I see no reason yet to change my opinion.
Reboot!
Ever actually noticed your brain’s chemical balance shift?
I’d been fighting thick, heavy depression for several days, and though the battle was going well by this weekend, the war hadn’t been won. Then yesterday, it was as if I blinked in mid-afternoon and suddenly felt fine, up to dealing with my personal issues and being pleasant company to others around me. I felt the change, it was sudden and slightly disorienting.
Strange how a funk like that can be like a poorly-designed, ill-maintained roller coaster that you didn’t realize you’d gotten on until you’re screaming down the first hill. You don’t want to be on this thing, but you can’t work out any way to get off immediately, and you’ve got to ride it until an opportunity for escape presents itself.
With my 5-year wedding anniversary coming up, and Invisifest to boot, at least I should now be in a frame of mind to enjoy them properly.
Congratulations to jdunson on his birthday Monday, and to raininva for having been WizKids MechWarrior Rules Arbitrator for five days now and not having killed a single gamer fanboy yet! A further hello to the friends page of the filking blog dandelionreport. I look forward to the White Plectrum reunion at Rising Star 12!
Issuing a ranged combat “suggestion”
Went to the VTSFFC New Member Picnic Sunday, but missed most all of the new members and just hung with the old ones for a couple hours 🙂 Now, I’ve been attending VTSFFC meetings for well over a decade and a half, and raininva‘s been doing so for about a third of that time; yet as we walk up the path to the Duckpond, someone (I never did find out who) yelled, “Hey, it’s Rain… and, uh, that guy!”
Sigh. As has always been true in fandom, the hot girls get all the attention.
Spent most of the weekend getting my Lexmark printer to work right, and a lot of the rest annotating the MechWarrior:DA rulebook for my own reference. (The firestorm that incautious use of the words “attack” and “order” can cause among MechWarrior players is nothing short of incredible.)
First things first…
Happy belated birthday to meiran. My calendar said your birthday was on the 27th… on the other hand, it also said you were born in 2080, so it obviously needed a bit of correcting.
Thanks to vond, jdunson, corin_wolfkin, and the Carilion crowd for showing up at Rain’s party, and thanks to yubbie for the cake on Saturday 🙂
It was a heck of a weekend – I got a little personal time in after work Thursday, but Thursday evening I drove some stuff over to Rain’s gaming venue, and finished the evening with dinner at the Tanglewood Macado’s… Friday I went from work, to bill-paying, to home to pack for Rain’s party, to Anne-Marie’s for the actual party *puff-puff, whew*.
Saturday, over to VTSFFC click-base day, where I discovered (by running demos) that the Shadowrun Duels system is fast-paced and fun, and does lend itself to use in actual RPG situations. OTOH, Benny and jdunson both found out a click-base truism: though two sides may be even in points, the side with more figures has a noticeable advantage.
Saturday night was dinner at the Blacksburg Macado’s, where we plotted to make everyone at nius‘ high school reunion jumpy and confused, and we discussed the details of wirelessly networking sex toys.
Sunday, I had a little personal time, but it got divided between a long-distance phone call, laundry and dishes, and installing MacOS 6 on my G4. (Really – and I had a good reason.) After that, dinner with rattrap, corin_wolfkin, and Rockbender. Back home, to a couple hours of private time with the lovely raininva, and finally to bed.
And after all that – I couldn’t sleep last night!
Celestial Light and Magic
Having tried twice, this Thursday and Saturday, I’ve discovered that I can’t go to see The Matrix Reloaded without rain coming from the sky in bucket loads and lightning searing my retinas away. Apparently, it’s an extra special effect arranged by Warner Brothers.
I shaved my beard off this weekend, just to re-introduce the skin of my lower face to the outside world. So far, the reviews of this new (quite temporary) look are mixed and a bit negative.
Happy news I’ve had for a while, but not posted; I’m running the Crimson Skies marquee for WizKids on June 7, at Xtremes in Tanglewood Mall. Time to dig out Commader Coalsack’s (and the Rabbiteer’s) old rocket backpack! I’ve also got some venues interested in having me Battlemaster for them, so it looks like I will be able to fulfill WizKids’ minimum activity requirements.
Had some thoughts this weekend on gaming personas and how they relate to the player who maintains them, but that’s a lengthy, introspective post that is going to need some more thought before I put it up here.
Playing Catch-up Today
Much too long since I’ve posted anything of substance here. I need to slow down my life a bit, take the time to catch a breath and write about what’s in my head… that was one of the big things I’d planned to do with the Newton, and I’m not taking the opportunities I might with it.
This weekend I played the first game of Dungeons & Dragons that I’ve played in what I think is 20 years. Kinda funny, too, since (due to slightly confused, over-experienced players and GM) at any given moment a roll might be decided by a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd edition rule; and, since most of the players knew more about Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies than they did about D&D, we tended to be playing our elves and dwarves Tolkien-style instead of TSR-style. I had a good time though, and the other people in the group seemed to also.
Last weekend I raised my heart rate by playing Laser Tag in an arena in Salem with raininva, rhaps, and shrewlet. We wanted to play against each other, but ended up on the same team with about 8 kids against about 12 other kids. My laser tag gun was doing terribly at range, so after a while I hunkered down and ambushed the opposition repeatedly until they learned what I was up to… then I moved to the other end of the field and kept doing it. Still, I wasn’t that happy with the game until we got out; then the scoring computer reported that I was the top scorer for both teams. Rhaps was heard to remark, “Old age and treachery over youth and vigor, every time.” 🙂
I’ve found an exercise machine at the gym that gives me natural movements (protecting my Borg hip) while giving me a real workout. Three-quarters of a mile in 10 minutes burns about 130 calories; I’m down to 188 pounds now. Now if some of what remains will just move to more asthetic locations… on the other hand, a girl in a passing car shouted that I had a “nice ass, there” yesterday, so I suppose I’m not doing too badly.
Shrewlet and I are going to DC this weekend to spend time with a good friend. I only wish I had time to drop in on some of the VTSFFC people I know up there!
Quiet yet diabolical laughter
Thanks to Fragile Gravity (April 18th comic), I believe I now have artwork for two of the characters at Rising Star’s run of Badge Wars.
Too bad I can’t run a game of that at Origins.
Go Me
Once I take care of a remaining piece or two of WizKids paperwork, I’ll be approved to carry a loadout of 12 tons of armor, a particle cannon, 6 lasers, two machine guns, and a six-missile launching rack. However, I may not be allowed to appear in public thanks to the lawsuit over Dougram/Macross images.
Technicon prep underway
Gonna be a busy night tonight and tomorrow night – lots to do before Technicon. Last night, raininva and I assigned stats to all the Badge Wars characters, so progress is being made on that front.
- Run more laundry tonight.
- Rain and I need to make sure that the BattleBots are ready and that we have good batteries for them.
- Burn a CD for Dwight (with the dance cuts he wanted).
- Contact trenn to see if he has duplicates of the last two XXXenophile cards I need for a complete set. Offer trades.
- Build actual badges for all Badge Wars characters and enter assigned stats.
- Design Badge Wars rules cards.
- Rebuild my Junkyard Geeks video-capture system to get badge photos for several characters. Still not sure what I’m going to do for art for a few characters such as The Vile One.
That’s everything I can think of off the top of my head, though I’m sure there’s more.
