Monday 7 April 2003
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I had about a half dozen paragraphs when X-Tools crashed. I am not happy with this computer. It seems like every program crashes every time I use it.
Let’s see. Friday we played Jackson’s campaign, with Kitty and Rusty’s characters run as NPCs. Kitty was just returning from her mother’s funeral that night, and Rusty was taking her to dinner. I guess her mother’s ashes are being taken to Glendale, California for interment.
Meanwhile, Skrag and Squigbarm scouted out the second level of the dwarven mines. We found evidence of recent mithril mining, so we talked the group into coming down the whirlpool. We rescued five dwarves from the mines after slaying their skeleton and zombie guards. Then we had the dwarves draw a map of the smelter plant so that we could go rescue the dwarven princess. We’ll have to go past the ballistas, skeletons, zombies, and Huge zombie golem. But we had to stop there because the combat would have run into the early morning hours. Considering how Steve, Lori, and I had to work Saturday it was best to end there.
Saturday Steve ran his campaign, and introduced us to our new players Dustin and Kendal. They play Bloodbowl with him, and used to play in his Vampire: The Masquerade game. Dustin is playing a half-orc barbarian (with Improved Unarmed Combat) who was sent by his sensei, the human monk Master Lee, to go seek out his former comrades and assist them. He is to serve Sven, the human barbarian, in his master’s stead. Meanwhile, Kendal is playing a human rogue who became apprenticed to Pegleg Pete after he was orphaned. Pete, in his pre-pegleg days, was a member of the group of heroes including Master Lee, Sven, Rodolpho Redd, et cetera. So the two have joined them in their current endevours.
After everyone was reunited, we headed to our destination. Along the way we passed a Zhentarim keep whose occupants wanted to charge us 100gp each to continue. After the gnome paladin and half-orc barbarian failed diplomacy, we slaughtered the inhabitants. Inside we found a magical door behind which the paladin could sense several evil presences. We ended there, on the cliffhanger.
Saturday also saw my first birthday present. Jackson gave me a Character Record Folio, which I'm using for Capernicus Redd, my changling druid in Steve's new campaign. This, despite the fact that Jackson feels that my character's name is too punny.
Sunday morning I was woken up by the phone, which I answered instead of ignoring it for some reason. It turned out to be my mother. As we all know, Gary’s niece (Lori Piestewa) was confirmed dead in Iraq. My step-father has already been taking the war bad, as it reminds him of ‘Nam where he picked up his bum knee. I guess this and the tenth anniversary of his father’s death caused him to fall off the wagon this weekend. I ask that any who favour any sort of higher power pray for him this day. He’s tried so hard to build a better life for himself and others, I hope and pray that he’ll be able to get back up from this stumble on the road of life.
This evening we had another Saint Paul’s Café after mass. They served burritos, tossed salad, lemonade, artificial watermelon beverage, two-layer white cake, and cherry ginger cookies. I met Frank, Pam, and their son Michael. It turns out Frank recognized me from work. They’re a fairly active couple, so we discussed GPSes, mountain climbing, hiking, mountain biking, and even commuting by bicycle. Michael is trying to get his service hours completed before Confirmation next month as well, so they were discussing schedule strategies for that. I’m so glad that our parish offers the café so that we can get to know our fellow parishioners in an intimate setting.
After that we had another Harry Potter Live Action meeting. Tom was upset that Wayne wanted to stick Hagrid with a unicorn instead of a huge scarey beast as per the books. Lori got frustrated with Wayne’s focus on the small details before finishing the major plot points. Matt and I couldn’t understand half of what Wayne was explaining. Overall I’d say we had a typical meeting. Considering how these meetings go smoother than the Pokemon Live Action meetings, I can only hope that bodes well for HPLA. After all, PLA was well received all three years we ran that.
During the meeting I received a notice from the park informing me that we’ve switched garbage pickup companies starting the next morning. Nice. What about people already asleep (not unreasonable at 21:00 hours)? I suppose the fact that they wouldn’t know that the days for garbage pickup had changed until they left in the morning is of no concern to the park management. I guess I’ll go put the garbage on the curb after I post this, lest I forget.
I saw the new Jack ‘n’ the Box Fish and Big Chips commercial. Hil-ar-i-ous! I also got to watch Stargate: SG1 episodes Wormhole X-Treme and Desperate Measures tonight, along with The X-Files episode The End. The End is a very pivotal episode in the series; bringing back CSM (whose escape from death had only been hinted at before then), and introducing Jeffrey Spender, Diana Fowley, and Gibson Praise. It also features CSM’s torching of the X-Files office, Scully turning to the Lone Gunmen for help in paranormal investigation, and guests by other important characters including Walter Skinner, the Well Manicured Man, and Alex Krycek. Desperate Measures, meanwhile, guests Colonel Maybourne, Colonel Frank Simmons (John de Lancie), and introduces new gaoul Adrian Conrad. While not as pivotal as The End is to The X-Files, it is nonetheless an important part of the continuing story arc involving the NID. Wormhole X-Treme is non-pivotal, but is a sequel to Point of No Return. Where the original episode poked fun at the show’s fans, this episode pokes fun at the show itself. They make fun of specific episodes, the actors, producers, network executives, writers, sets, creative consultants, and USAF guest stars.
Anyway, I’m not sure why I’m explaining television episodes to my diary. I guess it’s time for bed. I tend to ramble as I get tired. At least I’m not laughing at anything and everything. That’s the next stage I reach as I get even more tired. Night!
Comments (4)
While I thoroughly enjoy the retellings of your RPG adventures, I also enjoy your takes on various sci-fi episodes. I watched X-Files for the first few seasons, and stayed mostly current on the major themes of the show through the feature film, then I stopped altogether keeping up with it. I'm currently going through my coworker's Stargate SG-1 DVD collection (I'm on disc 2 right now) so it's neat to hear about upcoming episodes I'm sure to enjoy. Q in Stargate? That's gotta rock.
Is Gary your stepfather? At any rate, that kind of news is hard to read. That kind of news and photos of the war bring it too close to home. I'll pray for him today.
Interested in joining an online Metamorphosis Alpha game? There's one starting up play-by-post style in a new Yahoo! Group. Check out this website for an overview of an existing MA game, with a link ("Story of Man") that explains the setting. The ship that the MA game is played on is a generation ship called Warden.
Ok that's enough commentary for now, this is after all your weblog, not mine!
No, Gary is a good friend of my stepfather and who is also a recovering alcoholic (they both went through the now defunct Tribal Lodge program). I try to not mention my parents' names on this weblog, as anyone who enters my name in a search engine can quickly find this site. There's a Paul Tanton working at some television station in Atlanta, another who's an engineer somewhere, and there's me. I don't mind making my life an open book to any who'd care to read, but my parents' are very private people. So, out of respect for them, I refer to them by their titles instead. I don't think they want their life stories out on the Web for all to read. In fact, I'm almost possitive that they'd be furious with such an invasion of their privacy.
Thank you for the prayers. I know he can use them.
MA PBP, eh? What kind of a time commitment are we talking here? An hour or two a week? More? Less? I don't want to commit to something and then not be able to fulfill my commitment.
I'm glad to see my television commentary isn't wasted. Sometimes it just wants to come out, so I let it. Even if I'm tired, even if I'm cranky, even if I'm giddy. I've always preferred to express myself through the written word. I think I get that from my mother.
Well I don't know what the pace of the new game is going to be since it really hasn't started up yet. It's at eggspace, but the pace of other games I'm in varies. Sometimes the game master will post every once in a couple or three months (like the Gamma World game I'm in), sometimes once a week (like the T&T games that khara_khang runs at the Blue Frog Tavern). The original MA game I'm a part of is run by stacinator so it varies depending on how she feels, usually once every couple of weeks. You could always lurk and see how fast the pace is and jump in if you feel it's slow enough. That's what I'm going to do with eggspace. The game master for eggspace, and the majority of the players, all tried out the "Murphy's Law" game at the [first?] MetAlpha Y! Group but they didn't mesh well with the game master (ghost_of_warden, aka khara_khang from the BFT, so they decided to all go start a new group and game. Apparently most of them are friends in real life. Anyways, enough rambling and on with the games!
(P.S. I tried to post this yesterday but xanga was messing up, go figure.)
Once a week I could easily handle. Anything more would worry me. It sounds like it could be fun. And it's time I stretch my role playing abilities to trying PBP style.
Thanks for the invite!