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.
The Sorceress of Speed and Time
I am very proud of my sweetie! She played the third scenario of a short Mechwarrior: Dark Age campaign last night, and she had done her homework; she’d gone over the scenario description, fine-tuned the force she was going to use, and even used me as a guinea pig for her strategy. (She ran roughshod over me, but did at least tell me that she hadn’t even expected the minimal resistance I provided, so I guess that’s a compliment *smirk*)
Last night she beat both her opponents in less than half the permitted time, and walked away with a valuable “Atlas” collectible game piece. (I told a non-gamer that it was a little like winning permission to replace your bishops with an extra queen in a chess game.) She also impressed the judge to the extent that he is going to sponsor her as a judge, which will be good for local cons and get her some nice perks as well.
Hooray for Rain!
Musings on a game of Mechwarrior: Dark Age
The simple fact of the matter is, as much as I enjoy all kinds of games, I am a rotten loser. It’s just something built into my personality, and I’ve never been able to overcome it. I honestly don’t know how to be casual and cheerful about losing a game; I envy those who have mastered that. I sympathized greatly with Jim Kirk in The Wrath of Khan when he stated flatly, “I don’t like to lose.”
Still, I want to be a good sport. Win or lose, I’ll want to play again, and throwing a fit can make it hard to find repeat opponents. So, when the burning feelings of anger and embarrassment hit, all I know how to do is to try to keep them hidden inside, let them sear through me quickly, and be calm and normal by the time I’m asked if I’d like to play again.
Well, I have to face facts… that’s not working very well any more. Shutting down my feelings fails completely around friends who know me and can see right through my mask. Besides, I can tell that my spirit is beginning to rebel against the decades of attempted stoicism; the mask is getting thinner and more transparent with every use.
I just have to figure out how not to let it bother me when I lose. Or give up all forms of competitive gaming; but that’s not exactly the answer I’m looking for.
Found a streaming server for Japanese anime music and j-pop… http://japanaradio.com/. Listened to it this morning while getting dressed – it was nice background music. I would listen to it here at work to annoy everyone, but our ISDN connection isn’t fast enough. Besides, the only other person who will be here today is my coworker Adam, who wouldn’t be annoyed by it at all – and how much fun is that?
As near as I can tell, the only game shop in Roanoke that has available stock of Mechwarrior: Dark Age is a little place called “Ground Zero” that doesn’t even have a phone. We got our figures, though… but then Rain had to stay at work until 10pm ’cause of a stupid virus outbreak on their machines. We’re not even sure what time she’ll be home tonight. So no playtesting. 🙁 The figures are nice looking, and we got a Unique Hatchetman and an Elite Centurion in our first boxes. (For those not familiar with the game, those are two of the most playable mechs in the original Battletech.)
Gonna be hot and sticky again today 🙁
Tuesday is, of course, production day here at the paper. The last weeks have been rough, as the salespeople have seriously overloaded the production staff with full-page full-color spec ads for accounts they probably won’t be able to land; incorrect runsheets giving us faulty information about the existence, size, and placement of ads; and major changes made at the last minute, after the last minute, the day after the last minute, and “you understand that the printer is printing these pages now” after the last minute.
None of this is unusual in the printing industry, of course, but the last weeks have been unusually ridiculous. My stress levels were so bad last week, that I had stomach pain for the next three days. So, last Wednesday I went to my boss and explained to him that: a) I was no longer working more than 13.5 hours straight on Tuesdays, and that b) I was no longer going to kill myself compensating for the careless work of others. I had more of a leg to stand on with “b” than one might expect; I’m the only one here who knows what’s really going on and how to fix it when it breaks, so if my work burns me out completely, my boss has a real situation he’ll have to deal with.
I think it was worth it. I’m tired this morning, but I’m not wild-eyed, wired, and shaky, and my stomach hurts only a little. Lunch ought to handle that.
raininva is going to try to score some MechWarrior: Dark Age starter sets today for us to try out tonight. Anyone want to come over and help us try out a new miniatures game?
