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.
1,000 points to Ryan Stiles for the whole “tall” thing
I’m typing up a pamphlet on selling strategies for work, and I hit this passage:
Client: How soon can you get us the product? Seller: What time schedule would be suit your needs?
… and I’m immediately thinking, “Look, it’s the Question Game!”
Client: Are you sure you understand my needs? Seller: Have I given you reason to think I don’t? Client: Can’t you see I’m a little uncomfortable with this purchase? Seller: How can I alleviate your discomfort? Client: Can I have a cookie? Seller: What kind of cookie would you like?
… and so on, and so on.
Someone told me yesterday about a website I needed to check out. Now, if I can only remember which site, or even who it was.
Today’s Dumb Thing To Say:
Radio Announcer 1: The crows are huge around here!
Radio Announcer 2: They’re like chickens!
Radio Announcer 1: Yeah, well I’d like to see a crow lay an egg!
Today’s Dumb Thing To Do:
After tracing a cryptic 911 call, police found a woman naked, bound, and gagged in the back of a car. When untied, the woman asked, “What are you guys doing here?” Apparently this was a bit of kinky role-playing, and the boyfriend thought it would add spice to actually call the police. The VHF amplifier had no comment. (No, sorry, I made that last sentence up.)
This Morning’s Good Thing:
Despite attempts by a Blacksburg landlord to claim that the hosting computer for elfie.org is actually an international terrorist, elfie is back on-line, and I am once again in e-mail contact with the world. Also, LiveJournal seems to be working again, and I will be very careful with my posting client until I can verify that it’s not the one flooding the network.
Last Night’s Bad Thing:
I spent late last evening and most of overnight blackly depressed. I’ve come out the other side now, but memo to myself: Don’t watch ER when you are feeling that way.
Tonight’s Possibly Good, Possibly Bad Thing:
SheVaCon starts tonight.
Tomorrow Night’s Good Thing:
raininva‘s 3000 point, house rules, massive MechWarrior:DA slugfest.
Thoughts on a Tuesday morn
My head killeth me. I’ve had a cough for days, and though all the other symptoms of my New Year’s cold are gone, the nagging cough burns in my chest and sets my skull pounding. Concentration today is an interesting challenge.
I think vond and kittenchan should come back to the USA, but that has nothing to do with what’s good for them; I just like having them around 🙂
I’m beginning to understand the attachment Amiga users have to their unsupported, out-of-date machines. I was given an old unused Apple Newton for Xmas, and I’ve become quite fond of it. Not only do I finally have a digital address and date book, but the other day I passed an afternoon with it reading Jules Verne’s “From the Earth to the Moon”, writing a journal entry or two, and playing a version of the old mainframe Star Trek game. Sure, it doesn’t slide invisibly into my hip pocket, but I don’t lose it at the bottom of a bookbag either 🙂
raininva has done an incredible job with the apartment this last week, the living room is unrecognizably nice. We’ve already got two discrete gaming areas worked out. Looks like we’ll be up and running this Friday night – MechWarrior for sure, possibly Settlers of Catan, Chez Geek, Illuminati, or selected PlayStation 2 games as well. If you’d like to come by, we’d love to see you – drop us a note so we’ll be able to estimate a number of warm bodies.
And a special thank you to healerkou – this week, you did something that made me a little happier about a personal project. Too bad I can’t ask you to sign up, but it’s a bit of a drive from your digs to southwest Virginia. BTW, is the last syllable of your screenname pronounced “coo” or “kau”?
Uuuurgh
Finally woke up about 10:30 this morning… bad enough, except I’d already been at work for 2 hours by that time. I slept very badly Saturday and Sunday nights; considering that I was very busy both days, that means that by yesterday afternoon, I was pretty dead. The dreams have been many and interesting, as well; one of Sunday’s involved, myself, raininva, jdunson, and other local fen being chased from Hogwarts by bad guys. Eventually, when they couldn’t find us in the room in which we’d holed up, they just stole the whole room.
One good thing happened to me on Sunday; I reluctantly entered November’s first MechWarrior: Dark Age sanctioned scenario, and walked off with second prize. (Rain and I were supposed to compete for first and second, but I got hit with a clue round, and offered her first place before we began, thus saving a lot of useless bloodshed. *grin*)
Rising Star 11 starts in three days. Am I ready? (Insert maniacal laughter here…)
Scary clothes day
Was an interesting weekend… it was fun Friday night, standing in Wal-Mart with limited funds and wondering what in the heck raininva and I were going to wear to VTSFFC Halloween the next night. Not sure whether it was loopiness or creativity, but we ended up building props and going as ‘click-system’ figures that had broken off their bases. You can see us in some of the party pictures that yubbie has already posted. (If you’re not quite sure what a ‘click-system’ figure is, you can see them at the Wiz Kids Games website. There were enough gamers at the party to get the gag.)
The party itself was good fun… nius did an excellent job arranging everything. plenty of munchies, good music, some fun costumes, and all sorts of gaming downstairs. Rain introduced meiran and markush to click-system MechWarrior, and I got to see Kingdom Hearts, Frequency, and Armored Core 3 on the PlayStation 2. (They’re all on my wish list now.) We stayed late and had a good time.
Sunday, we forced ourselves out of bed to play more click-system MechWarrior for prizes at a local venue. That wasn’t quite as pleasant an experience; while the players were skilled and sportsmanlike (which isn’t always the case), the scenario was horribly skewed; a smart player could easily win by making sure to play the ‘weaker’ of the two sides. The house rule we created to try to fix that favored the other side automatically, and it just didn’t work well. On top of that, each prize comes in two parts, a figure and an enamel pin in a collectors’ box… well, the venue had removed the pins from the boxes for some reason and had to be reminded to give them to the winners. Not cool.
Still, the weekend was good… if a bit tiring. Also, Rain and I need to remember that going 24 hours without food is bad. Very bad.
From the Desk of a Bonehead
In the midst of praising Rain for the incredible job she did last night, I inadvertently insulted her by suggesting that she may not have been able to handle her opponent in Sudden Death. As has been pointed out, her opponent had the advantage, but that doesn’t in any way mean that she couldn’t have won.
Sweetie, I apologize.
