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?
Web-comic thoughts
I am jealous of Barb and Chris’ upcoming cartoonist fame, so I went and found the old Artificial Intelligence strips Tom Monaghan and I collaborated on.
*sigh* It’s not that I’m not still proud of the work, it’s just that the jokes all seemed funnier back in 1987.
Spent today catching up on Mac Hall… that strip can be pretty dang funny sometimes. Even smiled at the Digimon porn. Bad Boys of Computer Science just didn’t do anything for me, though. By the way, if a hi-resolution version of “Bob’s Quick Guide to the Apostrophe, You Idiots” was on a t-shirt, I’d own three of them.
The artist of Mac Hall did a total conversion, “Marathon: RED”, for Bungie Software’s Marathon Infinity shooter game – some of the best bitmapped art that game’s ever seen. I was hoping to get the Aleph One:SDL version working to show meiran, but the Windows port is still just too buggy. Maybe next time she’s close to a Macintosh.
While digging through my files, I also found the digital file of my game card… yes, I am a card in the Star Trek Collectible Card Game. The original artwork is by Chris Impink, and alert people can see where I got my default LJ user icon from.
Stuff
We got pizza for lunch, Humble Pie. But I accidentally ate a slice of the pepperoni pizza (’cause all the cheese was on top) and now my stomach’s badly unsettled.
The people who programmed the spell checker for this client weren’t real hackers… the spell checker doesn’t recognize the word “pepperoni”.
Someone is advertising miniature cattle in this week’s issue of the paper… I keep flashing back to the conversation about “raising albino lesbian micro-beefalo in a windowbox” that came up during kittykatya‘s Roanoke TFOS game from years ago. The beefalo weren’t part of the game, you understand, just part of our gaming conversation.
The Australian government, responding to the RIAA’s “we can hack your computer when we feel like it bill”, has said that such activity may make US executives criminals under Australian law, and expose them to charges and possible arrests if they enter the country. There’s more info here. Good for them! “Australia, Australia, Australia, we love you, amen!”
Hi to rubinpdf – say, do you think I could actually film the Commissioner Horton part this time?
Coolest… Dad… Ever.
Some kids get tree houses when they’re young. I always wanted one, but never got one.
What do this guy‘s kids get? A freakin’ BattleMech!
I cannt tyype…
I meant to say that MiB 2 was not as good as the first one.
Also, I’m glad that I’ll finally get to play Voyager: Elite Force holomatch with Rain. Of course, she’ll find her groove in about a game and a half and start kicking my butt, but at least I can spawn a cube’s worth of Borg to help out if it starts getting too humiliating.
