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2004/04/26
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21:18
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The Illuminati Book Meme 1. Grab the nearest book. 2. Open the book to page 23. 3. Find the fifth sentence. 4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
My result:You'll never need that many in a single session, but it saves you the effort of adding to the list before each game. (Laws, Robin D. "Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering". 2002. Steve Jackson Games)
Man, I look like such a nerd for having this book as the "nearest" book to me, but it happened to be sitting in a stack under the desk, whereas the books I'm reading are on the dresser, near all the stuff that goes into my pockets in the morning.
Courtesy of Doyce.
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12:07
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Of Sleep and Dreaming There are incentives for not getting enough sleep. In the scheme of things, they're more hedonistic and not particularly responsible, but they're there. It all boils down to the fact that I should be in bed by 10 p.m. to get a full eight hours of sleep before my alarm kicks off next morning, but I think I've only managed that a few times.
More often than not, I'm lucky if I get six hours. I'm so geared to stay up late and it just feels weird to be in bed before midnight. Besides, there seems to be so little time to do stuff for me when I drop by 10. If I don't get enough sleep, though, I end up being not quite as sharp the next day at work. Maybe cranky if I get very little sleep or don't sleep well.
As an aside, I've noticed that I tend to get lower back pain accumulating to the point of discomfort around the six to eight hour mark of sleeping.
Staying up late, though, means that I can play longer. I've also noticed that my dreams get more interesting once I get a chance to "catch up" on sleep after some serious deprivation.
For instance, I stayed up really late Thursday night, got about two hours of sleep, worked the day, stayed up a little more so that I would sleep during a "regular" night. I ended up having some pretty vivid dreams. Or maybe it's one dream that's really disjointed.
It's gotten to the point where my dreams are referencing previous dreams, where they had never done that before. The one I had last night did that, while smushing in some people I know (I never used to dream about people I knew personally) and mixing in a hodge podge of themes from movies.
The rest of this is just a long recounting of a dream I had, so you can stop reading if you don't feel like looking into my messy head.
The earliest scene that I can remember involved something about a chase through an underground cavern. It was an artificial cavern under New York City, between the subway and the surface, but it looked far larger than it could have been realistically. It looked a lot like the scene in Fellowship of the Ring when the fellowship was running through the great hall in the Moria. The only difference was there were six of them and they looked a lot like the main characters of Friends and they were all in formal evening attire. They were running away from the impending collapse of the cavern floor, right down to having to swing on a cable to reach the other side of an abyss, with one of the tuxedoes people almost falling in. They were pursued, Gollum-like, by someone that looked like a coworker.
Surfacing, I was now running up a ramp that looked a lot like one outside a sports arena, following the Gollum figure, who had somehow morphed to look like one of the people being pursued, which still looked like my coworker somehow, but now looking more normal, rather than Bride of Frankenstein style. I confronted her and came away worse for it. She continued stalking the Friends. I ended up going to a deli.
The deli was on the southern edge of Times Square, except it didn't look like any Times Square we know of. It was somehow now in the 1950's, though I was sure that I'd been in the deli years later, maybe in the 90's. The deli was the one I worked in when I was in high school (except it had a U-shaped counter) and they were just starting to make their original variety of Montreal-style smoked meat--try it at the Budapest Deli in the Byward Market if you're ever in Ottawa. I was somehow aware that I was time traveling and so I was making stupid "prophecies" for the owner... who was played by Tim Curry. I even called him Tim at one point.
At one point, I convinced the counter jockey to comp me a danish--I'll note that the original deli never sold pastries--and all Hell broke loose. There was some kind of announcement that police were called and it seemed like some kind of big thing about this being a police state. The reason for the call was that something had been stolen from the deli. It took awhile for the counter jockey to sheepishly admit that he'd comped me a danish and Tim Curry nodded with understanding. Saying, "We don't give anything out for free," he made me pay for the danish and then ran off to call off the police.
As I was paying for the danish, the lady behind register looked at me funny and thought she knew me. It was a strange interchange between time traveler and someone with reverse deja vu or premonition. I made references to the fact that she would know me in twenty years, said something about an "M Hotel" (a play on W hotels?) that didn't exist but I knew would be visible over her left shoulder in the future. For some reason, she knew that I used to (or will) frequent the place with a regular group of friends, of which she could only name Soo Sun.
While paying for the danish, I was interrupted at one point by a pre-teen girl who asked, "Do you remember me? It's Carolyn." Or Charlotte, I don't remember. I suppose she could have looked like a pre-teen version of a Carolyn I knew back in my sophomore year of college. Truth be told, I had been trying to track her down a few months ago, with no success. I brushed her off with a "not now" gesture and finished my conversation with the cashier.
Stepping outside, my point of view changed. I could see me walking away from the deli and then cut over to a scene where there was a tornado in its infancy. All of a sudden, we were in tornado alley. I saw Carolyn again, sitting in a movie theatre. Everyone else in the theatre was also a pre-teen and wearing white shirts. Watched them all duck down like dominoes, row by row, leaving just Carolyn still seated normally and watching the movie, as if unaware of some particular protocol for an incoming tornado. There was also a middle aged man somewhere else in the theatre doing the same thing. I looked a lot like the casino demolition scene in Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven.
Never saw if it hit, because it was then that I jumped to some final confrontation scene where Tom Hanks was playing a character facing off against something Terminator-like, holding a woman hostage, while all wearing something that looked like World War II combat fatigues. Tom Hanks had some kind of special gun hidden inside a plastic flower watering thing. It was red. The Terminator thing ridiculed him for it. They shot at each other and, while Tom Hanks hit the Terminator, it was ineffective. Tom Hanks took a shot to the thigh and went down.
Then I woke up and discovered that I had overslept to the point where I couldn't go to my Bagua class. I suppose I could still go to Vegas to visit Chris and Sarah to salvage the weekend.
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2004/04/22
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11:00
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Car Shopping If you're in the market for a car like I am--well, not really. I want a car. I just don't want to pay for one--then you may be interested in this little tidbit: someone is selling a painstakingly recreated replica of the DeLorean Time Machine from Back to the Future on eBay. It's based on five years of research and is built on a clean, running 1982 DeLorean.
Nothing says style like 88 mph with the Flux Capacitor on.
Courtesy of Slashdot.
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10:56
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"Like all things spanish [sic], it is dangerous." Sometimes, I have to wonder if my own grade school essays were this painful to read. The topics are El Nino and Lightning.
I love how he goes round and round about how there's no English equivalent word for "pescadores," to the point of denying that "fisherman" is adequate, even though that's what it means.
Then, of course, there's the quote that leads this post.
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2004/04/19
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12:20
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Game 7 I'm not really keeping up with these very well, am I? It's hard to stay in the hockey mood when I can't sit next to a TV and just watch hockey all evening like I used to. No TV and different time zones really mess with the old habits.
At any rate, Ottawa won 2-1 in double overtime last night, sending the series back to Toronto for a final Game 7 on Tuesday night. Just my luck, I committed to going out to dinner that night. In the meantime, there are two other Game 7's being resolved tonight between Boston and Montreal and between Vancouver and Calgary. I'm cheering for Boston to lose, but that's entirely based on national bias.
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2004/04/18
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17:50
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Run/Walk for Women This is the eleventh year that Revlon will be holding their annual Run/Walk for Women. The difference is, this year, I'll be doing it on 8 May, Mother's Day Weekend here in North America. The Run/Walk raises valuable money toward research, prevention, education, and support services for women's cancers.
If you care to, please support me at https://www.revlonrunwalk.com/la/secure/MyWebPage.cfm?pID=172888.
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2004/04/15
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23:29
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The Ship that Made the Kessel Run in Less than Twelve Parsecs Ever wonder what the real Millennium Falcon looks like?
Courtesy of ***Dave.
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2004/04/14
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22:39
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Go Sens Go! Series tied 2-2 and going back to Toronto for Game 5 on Friday!
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2004/04/09
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19:28
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Are you ready for some hockey? To be honest, it's hard to be in the mood for hockey when your highs hover in the 70's and it's only been below freezing on freak spike days, but...
Ottawa beat Toronto 4-2! Game 2 on Saturday. Time to exorcise some demons! (And some Leafs!)
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18:48
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Nippit in the bud As soon as someone yells, 'Oh, God! Oh, God!' — or anything like it — the Nippit sound cone activates, sending out deadly waves of spermicidal ultra-sonic electromagnetism. Sound cone? Nippit? Deadly waves of spermicide? What could this be?
Believe it or not, like automakers, there are shows where manufacturers can show off concepts. Many of them don't ever see production. Some of them do. Who wants to take bets on whether or not a spermicidal cellular phone will see the light of day?
Courtesy of Lemming.
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2004/04/06
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00:24
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Butt-kicking for Justice Actually, neither justice nor kicked butts were involved.
Prior to my layoff and unemployment in New York, I had been searching out kung fu schools along with the other Bo Law refugees. Most of my friends and former training brothers ended up joining a Bak Mei (White Eyebrow) school, but that wasn't really my style.
During my search, though, I came upon the school of Dr. Su Yu-Chang and I was really impressed. Had it not been for money issues, I would have joined, especially after taking a couple of trial classes with them. Alas, I would never get the chance to join them fully. My path led me to Los Angeles.
Skip ahead several months of wishy washy doddering around, wanting to pick up kung fu again but being constrained by the lack of car. After my last experience, I really wanted to find a place with an excellent teacher. The particular style wasn't as important to me.
Through contacts, I found out about Jason Tsou's school in Monterey Park. Fast forward through a few more months of wanting to go, no car, etc., and finally, this past week, Henry and I committed to going, hell or high water. Despite the lure of a fine party the same night, we followed through.
Two classes later, I really like this school. While my personal technique is hardly anything to write about, I think I learned more in the seven hours--yes, seven hours spread over two classes in as many days--than I did in all the time I spent at my last school. Quite frankly, Jason Tsou explained things in a way that went really deep. From the rationale behind a particular move to its various applications (the same move could be used in different ways) to the philosophical underpinnings of the art.
One thing that really impressed me was a walkthrough of the Chen Tai Chi short form where each move and turn was broken down into yin and yang elements, with stresses on where and how they needed to be balanced. It was like having the curtains thrown back and seeing light in the room for the first time.
I'm very pleased with this school so far and will be returning next week.
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2004/04/05
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23:35
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Carte Blanche to Flirt Today, I was the guinea pig for a face reading class. To put this in better context, it was a facial diagnosis class, based on Taoist principles, that was being taught to Traditional Chinese Medicine students at Yo San University in Marina del Rey. I didn't know before going into the class, but this was the final class of the semester and this particular course happened to be the last of a four-course sequence.
In other words, all the students were very experienced and I was this course's dessert.
For starters, I had a lot of fun. It was a great class. The students thought the energy was really great, too, so I'm glad that the course ended on a high note. Judging from some of the opinions, there had been previous guests who were pretty tense. I guess it's a good thing that I'm loose like a pair of pants on MC Hammer.
The general shape of my head is characterised as Wood, with a strong grounding in Earth and some Water. Overall, it was opined that my entire body exhibited similar characteristics, with Wood grounded by Earth. A certain hollowness in my chest area indicated openness. Not being entirely familiar with what these elements represent, I can't say much more, though the general idea is that Earth is grounded, cautious, and stable, while Wood tends to be striving with determination.
Starting from the top, I was identified as a well-socialised child. That is to say that I behaved when I was very young, which was correct. I wasn't a particularly defiant little boy.
My forehead's width and size indicated a strong emotional and creative influence, without quite as strong an influence from the mental. This influence, however, shielded a brow bone that was strong enough to indicate control. There was some debate over what that control was about and after some hopping around, I think it was decided that it had more to do with self-control than a need to control others.
There was some debate about three markings on my brow that were left from a bout of chicken pox when I was seven. They indicated some kind of drastic change, involving some kind of separation, during my early to mid-twenties. This coincided with my move from Syracuse to New York.
Another mark on the side of my left eye indicated another major change in my mid-thirties. While I'm not there yet, the timing actually works out pretty well with plans that I had in my mind on where I wanted to be or where I wanted to be going when I got to that age.
I have warm, open, and receptive eyes. They're slightly "inside" of dead center, which corresponds to a more introspective nature. I'm having trouble remembering what element was associated with my eyes, but I think it was Earth. It wasn't the dynamism of Fire or the wide open receptiveness of Water. It was... receptiveness, with compassion.
I have ears that indicate longevity and the ability to make money. Yay! I can agree with that. I can make money. My problem isn't making it... it's holding onto it. That is reflected in the size and shape of my nostrils, which said that I was very generous and tended to let the money flow. My nose was also a gourmand's nose, leading to the assessment that I like good food and the finer things in life.
Whatever you call that spot just below the nose... apparently I shouldn't have any problem with fertility later in life.
The area between the brows and eyes is important for relationships with the father and mother. Here, there seemed to be a good deal of conflicting stuff. On the one hand, it looked like I had an issue with separation with my father and perhaps some resentment toward a lack of protection from my father by my mother. I didn't agree with this, but I didn't voice it until after the class had made a closer inspection that suggested that these issues might have had more to do with a "father of the self" and a "mother of the self".
Yeah, that didn't make sense to me either. It was explained as my own self acting as a father and mother. Where my parents were non-critical (something that was reflected in my face), I was critical. That actually became a major focus, based on other signs found on my cheekbones and cheeks. I was overly critical of myself; the Earth was holding me back and keeping the Wood from growing and pushing some of that emotional and creative content out. If I worked on being less critical, then I would have greater confidence (shown by broken lines on the cheeks) to bring that creative aspect out, rather than have it internalised all the time.
I have a double dimple on my right cheek. This was Fire, lively and dynamic, and external because it was on the right side. I am flirty and was told that I should let that flourish. Go out and have fun.
I had markings on the corners of my eyes that indicated two things: 1) I have strong opinions about fidelity, and 2) I don't quite know what they are yet.
While I'm still too young to really have expectations of fall lines around my mouth, I was starting to develop hints of two branching lines that led the instructor to believe that sometime in my future, I will embark on paths that will be interrelated and simultaneous. She saw success in it, if I let my Wood come through and drive it forward. She also noted that there would be bumpy spots, but that if I stuck with it, rather than shrinking back into what was "safe" or "cautious," I would be far better rewarded for the effort. She was also clear that these branches may not even be something I am currently aware of.
Coupled with the intimation that there would be big changes in my life in about five to six years time, it certainly seems to fit together quite well. The appearance of the fall lines were supposed to indicate some kind of discovery of a "golden path." It's like Curly's one finger in City Slickers, except in my case it would be two fingers.
Based on the fact that I had a younger sister and an absence of certain indentations on my left ear, they pegged it that I didn't have any problems or issues with my sister when she was born. That bears out how I've been told I was like with my sister. Moreover, based on my eyebrows, they felt that we had a really tight relationship early on, but that there was separation at some point. College. Leaving home. I haven't been great about keeping contact up with my family since leaving home and my sister and I have grown apart since then. It's not like we're estranged, just not as close as we once were. I was encouraged to redevelop that relationship.
Overall, the lower part of my face was pretty well grounded and the students thought this was a good thing. There were attractive driving factors and some that kept it from getting out of control; apparently dominatingly Wood characteristics can be hard to get along with.
That's all that I can remember at this time. I'll probably write more if I can get my hands on some notes from some of the students. I saw at least two of them taking copious amounts, one of which I wouldn't mind flirting with.
Did I mention I was encouraged to flirt more?
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16:42
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Weekend a la carte It was certainly an unconventional weekend, packed with all sorts of things that don't sound like they would mix together, yet they did.
Friday- Merle's surprise 50th 51st birthday party. Held at Los Angeles River Center and Gardens, it was a beautiful setup with fantastic food and a live band. It was somewhat dressy and classy, which was fun. Alas, Henry and I couldn't stay for more than an hour and a half, as we had committed to the next activity.
- Friday night class for Jason Tsou's Kung Fu Academy. Turns out the classes are really quite casual, so we didn't need to be quite so punctual for the listed 9:00 p.m. start time on the website. On the other hand, we were able to chat with some of the other students and ultimately stayed until about midnight.
Saturday- Saturday morning class for Jason Tsou's Kung Fu Academy. Henry and I went back the next morning for the "larger" class to see what that was like. We had intended to stay from 10:00 to 12:30, but didn't end up leaving until close to 2:00. Got to see a lot more than we did the previous night. I'll probably write more about the school in a separate post.
- Dim Sum. Right after class, we hit Ocean Star in Monterey Park for a dim sum lunch. Passed by a Vietnamese restaurant called Pho Kym and had to wonder if I had previously misheard the restaurant's name as Pho Kyu. Either way, some other day, we'll have to come back with a camera. Maybe we'll try the food, too.
- Speech by Thich Nat Hanh. By the time dim sum was done, I didn't have time to go home and change, so I got a ride straight to the speech by Thich Nat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who has a monastery in Escondido, near San Diego. Good speech, but I was so tired after all that kung fu and food that I was drifting in and out of it.
- Barbeque back at the house. Paul wanted to grill meat, so there was a large gathering back at the house. We had some Chinese dishes (courtesy of Henry) and fajitas, courtesy of Paul, Paul, and Eun. The gathering was large and probably the largest since the end of January, when we imposed the Fun Free February. Even got to meet a friend of Sarah's from UCLA. I hope I get to see her again.
Sunday- Slept in, but not too much. Changed the clocks forward an hour and ended up getting up around noon.
- Dim Sum. Went to dim sum again, this time with Henry and Yong Bin at Ocean Seafood in Chinatown. Food, food, and more food. The bean curd sheet rolls were better here than at Ocean Star, in my opinion.
- Food coma. Lay around the house for part of the afternoon, until Henry went to his friend's seder.
- Played Soul Calibur till my thumb hurt. On the other hand, I unlocked all of the basic characters' endings and got up to Chapter 7 of the Weapon Master mode, which unlocked extra stages, games, and all but two of the characters. I'm also only 3000 gold away from a new outfit for Taki. ;)
- Soup with Jamie, then Eun, then Henry. The slowly growing gathering around, big surprise, more food. Started with just me and Jamie and doubled in numbers as people got home from whatever else they were doing.
Plenty of stuff happening. Not sure another weekend like this will roll around any time soon. I'm surprised I had the energy for it, frankly. Next weekend, all that's planned so far is kung fu Friday and Saturday, and then a tax appointment on Sunday. Mind you, this weekend, only two things had been planned.
Tonight... I get my face read at a facial diagnosis class. I'll write about that later tonight.
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2004/04/03
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20:22
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I want one! I want one! I want one! Even moreso than the Mach 5 car kit I found awhile back, I want an Akira bike! Barring, that, I wouldn't mind the riding leathers at the bottom of the page.
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2004/04/01
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23:28
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Ambercon US 2004 Report Funny, I've never done one of these, but I felt inspired by Jack's example.
The last time I went to an Ambercon was 2001. I missed 2002 as a side effect of an extra week of holiday that I received in Hong Kong as a result of a visa mix-up. I missed 2003 because I couldn't justify the cost while I was unemployed. Being able to go to this year's Ambercon, then, was a tremendous lift to my spirits as I could see friends that I had not seen for three years. It proved to be as fun as the others, though I've noticed changes in my tastes in the intervening years.
My con started Wednesday night, when I hopped my redeye flight from LA, through Chicago, to Detroit. I didn't get enough sleep, and what I managed was fitful, so I wasn't in the best of conditions by the time I arrived. After waiting for Barbara, my rideshare, to arrive, we headed to the hotel. Time of arrival was right around noon.
Since my roommates for the con had yet to check in, I had to tough it out elsewhere until they did. Much thanks to Barbara for letting me crash in her room, especially since I fell asleep on her partway through our conversation about online Amber gaming. Sorry, Barbara, I was running on less than three hours of sleep.
The rest of the afternoon went by in a blur of settling in, figuring out where to get Internet access (yay, wireless!), and purchasing food for the weekend at Meijer's, where we ran into two separate groups of con attendees. Go figure.
First slot Thursday evening was "A Ghost Story," with Rae W. With only three players, there was a lot of face time in the game, though that was mitigated by a lot of out of character schmoozing. The game was a lot of fun and brought the campaign to a conclusion. A new power in the multiverse was created and my character, Kincaid, and Steed walked away with shiny new magical weapons and imprinting to a multiverse-hopping power. This sets up future episodic games, which Rae had decided to run instead of "A Ghost Story."
Friday was a full day for me, starting with a riotously funny game of "Fortune Favors the Bold (Again)" with Sol F. It was grand swashbuckling fun without the extremism of the "Blaze of Glory" series. It was also great to play with Chris Kindred for the first time and to spend quality time with Bridgette Ruggles's new boy, Isaac. Carla Arnoldi looks a lot like Alyson Hannigan was meant to look.
Friday's afternoon slot was Chris Kindred's "The Black Watch," where we discovered just why Chaos lost the war. Without a clear chain of command, it was just... chaos. Altogether, the group wasn't so bad, except that a few actions by Mercutio really made things messy. While I enjoyed the game, I think it could have turned out better. The best moment, though, was the amusing parallel to The Lord of the Rings, when the Black Watch, a group of nine representatives from each major house in Chaos, was sent forth from the Thelbane (a tower) in black, riding wyverns, to seek out and bring back three people who were bearing a package. I'm decently sure this was not pre-planned by the GM.
Friday night, I played in J. P. Brannan's "Shadowforce Oberon." It was more serious than his previous outings with "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and was enjoyable for that, though the group took a little while to warm up to it. At times I wonder if the super-silly stuff is really the sort of thing I should be going for. I had much better luck with the semi-silly stuff this time around and really enjoyed the serious game I was in
Saturday morning was the serious game, "Undertow." Simone Cooper rode herd over 20 people, comprised of 8 assistant GMs and 12 players. I enjoyed this game immensely, both during the game and in the lead-up to it over email. A lot of preparation went into this game from all involved and the preparation showed in just how well the gameplay went. There's been talk that this game may be continued at a future con and I would gladly rejoin it was.
On a personal level, this game is the one that I find each con that reminds me where the bar is for the excellent GM's. Among the company, I felt that I was the weakest in that regard and could use a lot more work to play to their level. It will be interesting to see where things go from here. I think I want to get some more GMing opportunities in before next year.
Slot 6, the Saturday evening slot, I took off to spend time with Wendi and Sean Frost, who no longer come to the cons, but who were great friends from previous cons. Dinner was absolutely wonderful and we had a nice long chat with lots of laughs. I missed them dearly and it was so much fun hanging out with them that we didn't notice we had "gone over" on time. They had expected to head home at 9, but didn't leave until 11. I think I might have been able to sow the seeds to get them to come back to the con in the future, though, if only for a day.
What happened after that was rather bizarre and later attributed to being "just like Ian," which makes me wonder what that really means. Anyway, the story goes like this:
After saying goodbye to Wendi and Sean, I hopped over to the con headquarters where I eavesdropped on "No Meaner Name than Diplomacy" with David Golden, Simone Cooper, David de Jong, Guy Gascoigne-Piggford, Joe Saul, John Schippers, John and Kristen Schleick. The game looked like a lot of fun and I discovered that one of the guys running it was someone I had met in New York, but since everyone was busy, I didn't stop to talk.
Instead, I gathered up the room numbers of the other games and decided I'd make the rounds and see what others were up to. I didn't get very far. The first game on my list was "Morpheus Defiant" with James Arnoldi and Sol Foster. The only problem was that the game was not in the room that it was listed under. However, I heard game-like noises coming from next door. Thus, I walked in on "The Lords of Chaos" by Patrick Franklin.
I was immediately greeted with "... and a fissure opens and this appears. Describe your character." A pad of paper was tossed over to me and I was encouraged to write down my character's stats. I made up a character on the spot while the others continued with the scenario. Half the group sounded like it was from Farscape, but that might've just been from Kris Fazzari saying "Frell" all the time, and the other half seemed like a bunch of primitive arcane types. I joined in and basically took a background observer role until I could figure out a way to inject myself. My first combat action was to pee my pants, except I didn't have any pants. I was also invisible, though lightly coated with a layer of dust.
As quickly as this began, the group suddenly packed up and left to join another game, James Arnoldi's "Morpheus Defiant," in progress as part of the plot. It wasn't until this point that details fell together. Apparently, three players in the room had appeared just before I entered as a pre-planned player swap that would embroil both games into a single game. When I walked in, no one knew how many other people were involved, so everyone assumed I belonged there.
The beauty of the confusion is that it lasted the rest of the night and was the source of much chuckling and head-shaking. I hear the story was retold at breakfast, but I never woke up early enough to attend.
Sunday, I had two games, after missing the roundtable discussion with Guardians of Order about the future of the Amber Diceless line of products, after it is transferred to GoO from Phage Press. The first was "Force 10 from Avalon," again with Chris Kindred. This time around, we showed what a similar group of players might do with organization in mind. The group turned into a highly effective fighting machine and even surprised the GM with a "practice witch" that they wanted to train against before going up against the big bad witch in the plot. It turned out rather well, with lots of quotes, and could lead to more games in the future. Here's hoping it happens.
The last game I played in this con was "Brave New World Reloaded" with Rae Williams, though I jumped back and forth a lot between it and "To Live and Die in Texorami: The Good, the Bad, and the Unicorn," another Chris Kindred game. I'm not sure what to think about this game yet. It started off really silly, perhaps too silly for my tastes. Also, there are a lot of people in the game, certainly more than I'm usually comfortable with, especially with limited space. It was fun for the one turn that I had, before I had to run off to pack and spend some time chatting with Jack Gulick for the first time during the con, despite the fact that he was a roommate.
Thanks go out to J. P. for spotting me and Leslie Lightfoot a ride to the airport. If only the rest of my trip had been as easy. Put in perspective, it really wasn't that bad. I was stopped at security for having a Swiss Army knife, which had slipped through security in LA. Not willing to give it up, I had to check a bag, which meant that I couldn't get on my scheduled flight, due to check-in restrictions. I flew out on the next flight (delayed on both legs) and arrived home an hour and a half later than planned. Had lunch/dinner with Henry when he picked me up and pretty much slept the rest of the day away, after grocery shopping.
Altogether, a great vacation, albeit exhausting. Now, I'll just have to see if Ambercon Northwest is in the cards...
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23:26
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Caught Up Okay, somewhere, I missed out on a lot of stuff and I just wanted to have it all recorded down, so sorry for the sudden slew of Flash animations. Now that I'm caught up on sleep from my weekend at Ambercon, I'm going to review. Post forthcoming.
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23:07
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For the Counter Strike players... It's "SON BITCH Counter Strike," a Flash animation of online Counter Strike play gone bad.
Courtesy of Sei Kasagi.
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23:05
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The Hundred Luigis Fight So... what would happen if the Hundred Smiths fight in Matrix Reloaded was replayed in a Super Mario game? Warning, it's as long and drawn out as the original fight.
Courtesy of Sei Kasagi.
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22:52
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Pin-pin the Rabbit Actually, it's "Pin-pin Lelapin," a cross between a whole bunch of anime titles and turned into a Flash animation. It's long, but amusing, if you can break past the dreadfully boring opening titles with the crappy soundtrack.
Courtesy of Kaipo.
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