The Borgus MarsCon Report
I had the first glass of wine I’ve had in years. Honestly, probably the best-tasting, to my preferences.
The dealer’s room had the Callahan’s Saloon softcover (“Lady Slings The Booze”) I’d been missing, and the next Miles Vorkosigan I needed. I also discovered that FanPro’s Shadowrun supplements are a lot more expensive than the old FASA stuff.
Stayed up till 3am Friday for a dot/Hack//Enemy demo. I won, but then the newbie is supposed to win demos, so they’ll get hooked on the game. I’m very cautious about getting hooked on collectible games.
Only ate one meal Friday. I thought I’d outgrown that kind of con behavior.
Rain and I gave Jesse Braxton her Xmas present – a set which included figure of Lucy Lawless, as Xena, in the style of “The Simpsons”. It went over very well.
Spaz-quested for 30 minutes Saturday trying to remember where the nearby Wal-Mart was. (We never found it.)
Learned to play “Button Men”. Discovered that the game has a few game-balance issues, but at least I ended up with a pair of Dork Tower Button Men (my entry requirements) and another pair of general fantasy ones (a fellowship prize for not throttling the little kid I played one round against).
Had a lousy dinner in the hotel restaurant. That place is just cursed, I swear.
Won two starter decks and a box of boosters for dot/Hack//Enemy in the auction. Now I can build a few decks at a bargain price, and play some before I decide if I’m really going to get involved in this.
Enjoyed another good Caprizzio show – the vibrating duck was good for a laugh, though it got a bit overused.
Managed to order pizza at 2:30 am, thereby avoiding going another 24 hours between meals.
Drove home earlier Sunday than I really wanted, but not early enough to miss the snow. We counted 6 or 7 wrecks on our side of 81 alone, and there we a couple juicy traffic-stoppers on the other side.
Overall, a good weekend – I hope more of the folks around here can make it next year.
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.)
Days of Labor
Quite a long weekend. A pretty good one in a lot of ways, but long nevertheless.
Thursday, raininva left for DragonCon to do some contracting for WizKids. Thursday night, after my afternoon nap, I yanked half of my office out into the living room for sorting and re-arrangement. I ended up with a huge plastic storage tub full of gaming stuff that I don’t want to get rid of, but I don’t have room for in the office. That went to the storage along with another tub of loose items; several empty boxes that were just wasting cubic went to the trash, along with two bags full of stuff that just wasn’t doing anyone any good.
On a loopy Tuesday
I remember all the summers I spend, back in my school days, sitting around the house and reading because I had no friends to go anywhere or do anything with. Today, for the third time in the last few days, I’ve been invited to something I can’t do because I have a prior social commitment. My modern social life is an improvement over sitting around, but I sure hate to miss some of these parties.
Thought of meiran Friday night – we were in Best Buy (I was checking out the shiny new Macintosh retail goodness) and I saw an English version of the “Read or Die” anime in the DVD section. Might have to rent that eventually.
So: 1) I picked up some virus or something which knocked me flat on Thursday… 2) was still feeling kinda sick Friday, but went out in the evening with raininva and enjoyed her company… 3) still had a cough and some weakness Saturday, but we drove down to South Carolina to see some friends, and stayed up all night gaming… 4) still coughing and a little off Sunday, but I walked all over an amusement park in 90 degree weather and 95% humidity, and rode a few rides – then got drenched to the skin by a sudden downpour, and stayed up late attending a Weird Al concert… 5) got up way too early Monday to drive 5 hours from S.C. right into work… 6) got up way too early this morning to drop Rain off for work, then headed in for my weekly 13-hour shift. This all adds up to 7) if I can still stand up by the time I get home tonight, it will be a minor miracle.
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!
Well, that concert I mentioned is Tuesday the 30th in Virginia Beach, so I wouldn’t possibly have been able to go anyway. It figures, ’cause I could easily have won the tickets this morning by identifying the three TV show themes.
I hope my sweetie feels better. raininva was not well last night, and not a lot better this morning. She says she’s going to leave work as soon as she can do so without penalty, which is good. Go home and rest, hun! I love you!
lost…
Here is me getting ready to go to Lisa and Vond’s “Leaving for Japan” party.
Here is me remembering that I never got directions or a location. *D’oh!”
Well, I’m going to trust in blind faith and head toward the standard Haloween party locale. If you guys never see me tonight, you’ll know why.
Yes, I have a lot of driving to do this weekend
Imagine a world where the Star Trek transporter had been absolutely perfected, to the point where it was as safe and as easy to use as a telephone. To go somewhere, you find the nearest booth, stick a dollar in the slot for a local trip, up to $25 or $50 for international travel, and punch in a 12-digit number. Before you have time to get your hand 2 inches away from the “enter” key, *blink* and you are there.
Telephone-booth-sized units are spaced every few blocks in urban and suburban areas – wider spread in rural and wild areas. If you live anywhere that has decent phone or Internet service in the real world, going anywhere is a matter of walking a block or two, using the booth, then walking another block or two. Show-offs have their own booths (in locked waiting rooms, of course – no point in inviting thieves into your home). The local super mega-mall has four or five. Large travel centers have dozens.
The SF writer Larry Niven wrote a half-dozen stories about this situation, and its effect it has on society. Private cars disappear. In crime, the idea of the alibi is no more – you can leave the dinner table to use the bathroom, kill someone in another state, and be back before anyone notices you’re gone. You can now work in New York City and come home every evening to your house in the Rockies.
There would be issues, there always are; but I’d like it. There’s so many people I want to meet, so many places I want to go – I’d just love to be able to phone a friend in Britain and say, “Hey, are you busy? I’d like to come by this evening.”
Like everything else in the 21st century, this desire of mine is the Internet’s fault.
Various things I’ve been meaning to post about…
On reading Lord of the Rings: it’s a long, wordy story. It will take you a long time, and you could easily be pretty confused about lots of stuff the first time you read it. It’s also one of the best pieces of fiction I’ve ever read. See, it was written by a man who loved words – words were both his job and his hobby, so he wrote a lot of them. But the world he created, he spent decades building before LotR was published, and that’s one of the most amazing things in it. By the time period of the books, Middle-Earth has an oral history reaching back tens of thousands of years, and parts of that history are directly responsible for current events. It’s not light reading, but it’s a world one can get fully immersed in.
On my favorite Disney rides: Star Tours, Alien Encounter (way cool), Rockin’ Roller Coaster, Test Track, and The Haunted Mansion (we will make out on that ride someday, Rain!) and those are just the first five. Disgustingly, that place is just as much fun as all their propaganda says it is. 🙂
I still don’t know what “oekaki” is.
Everyone still freaks out when they see my beardless face for the first time, but I ought to have enough chin shadow by Rising Star to be respectable. Rain insists she was unaware she’d married a 17-year-old. I have to admit something, I got a little nervous about that costume being a bit “over the top” on the drive over to the party, but I got pretty good reactions from everyone. I should stop worrying so much.
As I am a card-carrying lemming, (“Let’s go!!”), here’s my job test:
# 1 Chef
# 2 Teacher
# 3 Artist
# 4 Author
# 5 Graphic Designer
# 6 Mathemetician
# 7 Park Ranger
# 8 Salesperson
# 9 Web Designer
# 10 Computer Game Programmer
# 11 Movie Star
# 12 Rock Star
# 13 Astronaut
# 14 Chemist
# 15 Doctor
# 16 Engineer
# 17 FBI Agent
# 18 Geneticist
# 19 Inventor
# 20 Lawyer
# 21 Politician
# 22 Professional Sports Player
# 23 Researcher
# 24 Police Officer
# 25 Reporter
… I think “Iron Filk” is as close as I want to get to chef, and I’d never be a salesperson, but the list is interesting nonetheless.
Biography trivia answers to be posted soon!
