Character Cover Sheets

So Monte has talked me into joining his Tuesday night D&D campaign.  Apparently, the Tempe players quit, so they were moving the campaign into central Phoenix from north Tempe.  All three other players were Mikes, so the DM nicknamed them as DM-Mike, Host-Mike, and Player-Mike.  The campaign uses a few optional and house rules including rolling for defense (instead of a +10 static AC), alchemical and magic items can be purchased with starting funds but will be scarce afterwards, magic (divine and arcane) users and items are rarer than rare, certain races and subraces are changed for player characters (including orcs and goblins as options), unnamed characters with 1 HP (basically using the rules for mooks in Feng Shui terms), and no psionics.

I created an Aquatic Elf Cleric of Deep Sashelas.  I don’t know why aquatic elves were on his list of allowed races, but I’ve always wanted to play one.  While I was finishing up my character, the other two players began the mission.  Our characters were hired by Quarius the Sorceror to root out the evil which has infested a temple of Heironeous.  Player-Mike is playing a Half-Draw Sorcerer by the name of Galen, Host-Mike is playing a Dwarven Fighter by the name of Garik, and DM-Mike is playing a Human Fighter named Harod to fill out the party.  The three reached the temple during a downpour and began killing the faithful guards of the temple.  When the found young acolytes they let them flee for their lives, then began looting.  Once my character was done, he raced to catch up with the rest of the party.  When he met the fleeing young acolytes, they warned him of the evil infesting the temple (ie the other player characters) and so he was spurred on toward his quest. 

Once all the player characters reunited, he used his divinely granted powers to heal the party.  That freaked out Garik and Harod, who distrust magic despite working for a sorcerer.  Our characters stumbled across some small, flat-nosed, blackened creatures who fled from our assault.  They tried claiming that we were on the same side.  When more guards showed up, they didn’t believe us about how they were preventing us from chasing these evil creatures and joined comabt with us.  I chose to have my character defend himself without injuring the guards, the others chose straight out combat.  As they were losing, they retreated — separating my character from the others.  As Rek’lawd-Nal freed himself from the combat he continued his search in the pouring rain for the little buggers who were infesting the temple, lighting a sunrod in the process.  How we pick up next session should be interesting.

Out of character, it’s fairly obvious that Quarius has hired our characters to exterminate the good faithful of Heironeous and sent some evil minions to assist us.  In character, Rek’ hasn’t seen his party attack any of the good folk, but has seen dead guards, fleeing children, and evil minions.  Not being a denizen of the surface world (and not having any ranks in Knowledge:  Religion) he assumes that the temple is neutral, nor does he think of his faith as a cult.  He thinks nothing about revealing his faith nor using the divine might provided by his faith.

Thanks to MaulKat for the quiz:

What Lord of the Rings race do you belong to?

Hobbit

You belong to the Hobbits race! Undoubtedly related to Men, in these halflings lays also the future of Middle-Earth. When Hobbits are called upon they do not stray from their quest, and they seldom fail. Their origins are neither known nor recorded in any book or scroll, but they, too, spawn from multiple houses. They befriended Elves and are skilled in song and speech, but also have a tradition of hunting. They all have curly hair and hairy big feet. Some other Hobbits are Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Merry.

Hey – try this personality test and see how we compare

FlashLARP PotterSpace

It was a busy weekend.  Saturday after work I headed over to Tricuspa’s so the two of us could enter all of the HLA events into the Phoenix Con Games web site.  We had started to enter them during our Thursday night meeting, but he was going to be unavailable the following Thursday and we were working against a deadline. 

Sunday morning we finally finished playing my Christmas themed D&D game, in the middle of Easter season.  Everyone seemed to have fun though, and gave suggestions for when I run again.  Of course, I have other priorities at the moment, such as LepreCon, Phoenix Con Games, and Chaos Out of Order for one of my other groups of friends.  I’m not adverse to running again though, and have several unfleshed out ideas I could run for them or others. 

After the game I rushed over to St. Francis Xavier Parish for mass.  I hadn’t attended mass there before.  It’s built in the classic domed ceiling style.  The ambo has a set of stairs leading up to it for proclamation (probably predating the microphones).  The main interior colour scheme was a very light aqua marine blue, like this colour only with a glossy sheen.  It made for a lovely worship space. 

From there I rushed to Copper Star Coffee to meet with LunarLumiere and her friends to see Levi Weaver in a live concert.  Charles ended up showing up after the concert, only expecting to be partially late.  Silly kid, he missed out on a great show.  Levi Weaver is a very remarkable and talented musician when playing live.  He manages to truely be a one-man-band, without needing to record several tracks separately in a studio to create the effect.  No, he creates that effect live, in a very impressive format that completely meshes with the songs and their performance.  I’d definately recommend seeing him live, and appreciate the fact that LunarLumiere talked me into seeing him.

Just in case humanity couldn’t disappoint you any further:  German Politician Proposes Seven Year-long Marriages

When Mike passed on, I took it upon myself to keep Shadowfist demos and tournements running at some of the local conventions while Travis took it upon himself to keep the Shadowfist Arizona Proving Ground running.  The first convention I ran Shadowfist at was CopperCon XXV, where the Shadowfist events were more popular than the official WotC demos (including Hecatomb and Robo Rally).  However, a co-worker beat me to the PTO the past two years.  CopperCon XXVI was in Tempe, so it wasn’t even worth riding there after work on Saturday.  I had family and parish obligations on Sunday, and it wasn’t worth riding over there after the evening mass on Sunday.  So I showed up on Monday and played some Shadowfist with Ken. 

OK, that’s enough backstory to my tale of CopperCon XXVII.  This year Bob, the convention chair, asked me to run Gaming.  I had to turn him down, what with my inability to get the whole weekend off.  I don’t know who ended up running Gaming.  When I showed up Saturday evening after work I discovered that they had Arcade Gaming in Salon E and Console Gaming in Room 2005.  They didn’t have any place set aside for pickup card or board games.  Program scheduled a Great Dalmuti game in Lower Pre-Convene on Saturday afternoon, so when I showed up the Shadowfist crew wanted to play there.  When I arrived there was a Vampire:  The Masquerade LARP running outside and a Masquerade Fashion Show running in Suite ABCD.  First I chatted with a few of the convention regulars in the lobby during happy hour, then played several games of Shadowfist in Lower Pre-Convene, including a seven player game.

Sunday I went to mass before arriving at the hotel.  There were several good things on Program for the day, but I knew that I would have to miss them.  We took over a small part of Lower Pre-Convene and played more games of Shadowfist.  Rockets for Kids was also scheduled down there, so we eventually left for lunch at Chino Bandito.  We returned, played more games, and eventually called it a night late in the evening.  Somewhere in there we also played High School Drama and Torches and Pitchforks, plus possibly some other games I no longer recall, visited the Dealer’s Room, perused the Art Show, and raided ConSuite (hospitality suite).

In the dealer’s room I ran into Shane again.  He’s become a major player in CASFS, WesternSFA, and AniZona since we last met (at the Frys’ D&D campaign).  He began simply enough staffing the Anime Room at CopperCons with the various anime fan clubs he’s been a member of for years.  His whole demenor smacked of someone who actually wanted to become a SMoF, the way he bragged about his fannish accomplishments and badmouthed his fellow committee members from various conventions. 

At one point (or possibly twice?) I visited the ConSuite.  There I was accused of being the Program director for CopperCon XXVIII.  I quickly denied such a thing.  Several times throughout the con I ran into Catherine, who was definately pressuring me to agree to Program both CopperCon XXVIII and CopperCon XXIX so she could back out of her commitments.  I certainly couldn’t blame her.  No one should have to Program that many years in a row.  She’s already done two years in a row (something insane that I promised myself I would never do again), that would make five conventions in four years if she kept those commitments, plus her commitment to FiestaCon.  I have agreed to be her staff for FiestaCon, but I’m not really interested in being the committee member again.  It’s too much work, even with the friendships and aquaintances I’ve made because of it. 

Kyla also approached me in person about her continuing offer to join the committee forming for a new convention.  She allayed my fears about inappropriate content, so I agreed to be banker/treasurer.  I’m just not interested in assisting anything which isn’t fully family friendly, and luckily she is of a similar mind.  Kyla’s been successful with AniZona (which she has been asking me to help with for years), so this should be an interesting process I’ve never been a part of before:  starting from the ground up.

So, over all, despite attending the convention only from late evening Saturday until late evening Sunday, I enjoyed myself.  I was able to get in as much gaming, visits to the ConSuite, touring of the Art Show, and browsing of the Dealer’s Room as I usually get at a CopperCon or LepreCon, about a third as much socializing as I usually get at such conventions, and completely missed out on my usual amounts of Filk and Program.  At least I was able to keep the Shadowfist faithful appeased, rather than letting the momentum falter.  That makes the sacrifice worthwhile. 

Thanks to hai-kah-uhk for the quiz:
Here is the personalDNA map that uniquely represents my personality. Mouse over any part of the box or strip to learn more about the traits that the colors represent.

“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.”  ~ E. E. Cummings

Batman’s arrival ruffles HK politicians.

And we continue from our twice-interrupted narrative…

We were going to join Troy for brunch, but Steve decided to skip. This is when Steve and Troy did the Guardian 6 trade off, although it ticked off Steve later when he found out that Troy just used his slot rather than buying his own.  So we went to the Johnny Rockets in Circle Centre Mall.  Troy needed to stop by the Playroom Entertainment booth, where we played a sample of Portobello Market.  It was a game I’d play again, but not one I’d buy for myself.  He ended up picking up a copy of Mother Sheep for his family after chatting with his friends at the booth.  We also ran into Chris while in the Exhibitors’ Hall.  I had thought that he wasn’t coming, but I guess he was able to do so at the last minute, although without Michelle.  I ended up accidentally giving him the wrong directions to the Paradigm Concepts booth, as I hadn’t yet made my way there. 

After we succeeded in retrieving SANDMAN and returning it in the biocontainment chamber to G6HQ, I parted company with my G6 comrades and headed to the Shadowfist Dueling World Finals.  On the way I ran into Ivan, who asked if I was going to the 4dventure panel that evening.  When I said that I wasn’t he mentioned that he had to go clear out the RPGA and their tables, set up the room for the presentation, keep the RPGA folks organized as their were likely to be the same attendees for the panel, et cetera.  (He’s the night manager for GenCon Indy.)  He hinted that their might be a correlation between the title and the room they chose to hold it in, but I told him not to worry.  It couldn’t be 4e as WotC had promised that all future D&D announcements would no longer happen at GenCon, but at D&D Experience.  (That was supposed to be the whole reason they renamed the convention, previously named Winter Fantasy.  Of course I didn’t believe that.  Hasbro has never proven to be that trustworthy.  Sure enough, later in the convention I heard that they had announced 4e at the event.)

At the dueling finals I played my Dragon Dojo deck, and did very poorly.  People were amazed that I had a Capoera Master in my deck, citing that it isn’t cost effect for a ramp character.  Maybe I should submit a new version of the card in the next set of submissions.  Between beat downs,  I organized the backpack full of Power for Promos I had brought, stacking boosters into 38 piles of 48 points each.  Allen didn’t bother to count them all, and let me submit a list of Promos he would get to me before the end of the convention. 

Friday night was also our True Dungeon Hardcore Puzzle night.  We survived, of course, earning not only a Hardcore Survivor pin but a special treasure token.  When we got back to the hotel room, something strange happened:  Troy decided that he wasn’t going to play our True Dungeon Hardcore Combat run the next night because Bill had invited Troy and Steve to join him and the other KFGers in a Hardcore Combat run Thursday night.  Once Troy bowed out, Steve, Bill, and Brian did too.  So, if I wanted to play I would have to assemble my own group or Steve was going to get a refund on our batch of tickets.  Even pointing out that the Hardcore survivor exclusive tokens might be valuable for trading would not deter them from their decision.

Saturday I had had enough of skipping breakfast.  I enjoyed the hotel’s full buffet breakfast, which was very good.  I chose to play Guardian 6′s Operation Deep Six rather than play the Shadowfist Multiplayer World Finals.  I had to pass by the Shadowfist room while on my way to pick up the identity of Component Alpha, and I saw a large group of players.  I did really want to play, but I was committed to trying this new G6 game, and I had no team mates for Saturday (as much as I tried to get Troy to join me).  I couldn’t risk not finishing in time.  I learned later that Ken had hoped to run into me at the event, and was surprised to see that I never showed.  However, I can play Shadowfist later.  I can even play in the world finals next year.  I cannot play G6 later, nor can I play Operation Deep Six next year.  So, it was a no brainer.

Plus, I was still trying to get a team together for a True Dungeon Combat run.  I contacted Kristin, Dan, and Eric as they had expressed interest in a Combat run.  The only tickets they were able to purchase were Puzzle, which had left them disappointed.  However, when I called with the offer they expressed a scheduling conflict.  I checked with some of the Shadowfist crew who had also expressed an interest during one of the earlier Shadowfist tournaments, but they, too, declined.  Ken wasn’t interested in spending that kind of money for an event.  I tried some of the G6 folks who had expressed earlier interest to no avail, and so I eventually had to give Steve the OK to get his refund.

Ken and I ran into each other wandering the Exhibitor Hall, and ended up sample playing ShaZamm! at the Z-Man Games booth.  It was fun enough to play again, but I probably wouldn’t buy it.  It was intuitive enough that Ken and I didn’t need much help from the demonstrator.   We stopped by a few other booths before and after, but then I ran into some G6 friends and I lost Ken. 

Near the end of my G6 run Troy gave me a call and he ended up joining me anyway.  I think he was enjoying G6, and after finishing the mission we went to the True Dungeon Tavern.  He was looking to do some token trading, and I chatted it up with Kristin, Dan, and Eric for a bit.  After they left for their game (the previously mentioned scheduling conflict) I tried my hand at the Rogue’s Game.  I failed miserably, and I was pressed into service as Nightshade’s token collection caddy.  After my service, Troy and I went to the G6 Safehouse.  There we cashed in our paychecks to play some poker.  I, once again, proved my inferior poker skills, having to be bailed out several times by Troy or others just to keep me in the game. 

Eventually, I bowed out and went back to TD to try my luck as a walk-on for a combat run.  I succeeded and played the new Druid character option through a Standard Combat run (with only seven players despite two walk-ons).  Woah, the monsters were so cool!  The TD crew took the time to have actual costumes for a wraith, rock golem, and medusa, plus a full-sized beholder on a track!  Way, way awesome stuff!  After that, we came out of the dungeon into the chaos of them tearing down.  Apparently they tear down the game room by room as the last group leave it and goes into the next.  It kind of acts as a buzzkill, especially as some in my group didn’t ever get to experience the tavern (which had been the first to be torn down, despite the fact that you’re supposed to get a free tavern visit after the TD run.  They felt that was really unfair, and the organizers countered with the fact that they wanted some sleep before the next event was scheduled in that room in the morning.  TD should give a free GenCon event ticket for the Tavern for each GenCon event ticket purchased for the TD.  That way you could go before the Tavern closes if you have one of the later TD runs.  That’s just my opinion. 

Afterward I returned to the G6 Safehouse, where I played some more poker, then hung out with Steve and some of his National Security Decision Making Game friends.  Eventually, because I was starting to fall asleep, I walked Bill, who was already asleep in the Safehouse, back to the hotel.

Sunday I got up, had the hotel breakfast buffet again, then rushed to mass.  Fr. Noah gave an excellent homily, asking that we be on fire.  It was very inspirational, and just what I needed to hear.  As his summation said, “Let us be caught on fire by His love, and let us become the fire of the Gospel in the moments and times of our lives.” 

After mass I went back to the hotel and grabbed my stuff for the day.  I hadn’t had time before mass to do so.  Then I went to the other Whirlpool of Blood tournament.  This time we drafted from Six Guns and Shurikens, Critical Shift, and Red Wedding.  I started drafting Purists, but discovered that someone else must have been so I switched to what I was getting a lot of:  Shadow Syndicate.  As the draft continued, I found myself with enough cards to make a Morphic Spirit deck anyway, so I did.  My final factions were Ascended, Eaters of the Lotus, Purists, and Shadow Syndicate.  The four player final saw me nearly win, as the other three banded together for a twenty-minute discussion on how to stop me.  By the time it was my turn, I was so anxious to do something I went off half-cocked and forgot half of my strategy.  Lesson:  I need more patience as I more than likely had enough to win that turn if I had played it right.  The game swung Braz’s way next.  Later, it swung away from both Braz and I and towards Daniel and Josh.  I started reascending, but not in time to stop Daniel from winning.  At least I won second place, much better than I’ve done previously at GenCon!  In addition to winning the second place set of promo cards, Daniel let me have the wrappers (and hence their Power for Promos points) as he had witnessed my previous usage Friday evening.  After saying my goodbyes, I headed to the Exhibitor’s Hall to see what kind of last minute discounts were being offered.

I ran into Kristin, Dan, and Eric at the Exile Games Studio booth.  They had asked me to check the booth out several times during the show, and mention that I knew them.  So that was kind of serendipitous.  I took pictures of the booth staff with the three of them for Kristin, before saying my goodbyes to them. 

I met the GM Syndicate folks after only knowing them from the Dundjinni boards.  They had some cool stuff, both current and pending.  I suggested that making animals as Objects was fairly useless to me, but that animals as Tokens would be something I’d buy.  I think they’re going to take my suggestion to heart, and offer the same images both as Objects and Tokens on the same product.  Once they do, I’ll be sure to buy it as promised. 

The folks at Paradigm Concepts had their new hardback copy of Psionics Unbound, which was supposed to only be available at the big three conventions:  Origins, GenCon, and DragonCon.  However, the folks at the booth told me that the hardcover was going to be available in game stores by October.  Huh?  I thought game stores were only going to get softcover.  No, apparently not.  Well, fine then.  I saved my money and didn’t buy it there. 

I have yet again run into the limit on the number of tags I can put into this blog.  Oh well, I’ll just split the week one more time and complete this week in history with the next entry.

Thanks to strangehermit for the quiz:
You are Apocalypse

Apocalypse 50% Magneto 48% The Joker 44% Green Goblin 44% Dr. Doom 43% Poison Ivy 41% Dark Phoenix 40% Riddler 40% Lex Luthor 37% Mr. Freeze 33% Mystique 32% Two-Face 32% Venom 30% Juggernaut 28% Catwoman 21% Kingpin 20%

You believe in survival of the fittest and you believe that you are the fittest.

Click here to take the Super Villain Personality Test

“A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.” ~  English Proverb

Expedition to Undermountain sounds like a great sourcebook.  I enjoyed playing through Undermountain in Mike‘s campaign.  I’d be curious to compare the Undermountain 2.0 boxed sets versus this 3.5 hardback. 

The Internet is an everchanging landscape.  Yahoo! Photos just recently upgraded to a much improved system.  So of course, shortly there after they announce that they will be shutting down.  Flickr (also Yahoo! owned) will be their sole photo storage system.  Rather silly, but they were probably working on those upgrades before the bigwigs made the decision.  I wonder if they’ll combine their separate blog services eventually, too. 

Even sillier is that the FAQ claims:

Select from among the photo sharing services offered (Flickr, Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Photobucket) and they will move the photos for you. You’ll need to verify your Yahoo! account information and either create a new account or login with an existing account at that other service, but beyond that they’ll take care of the rest.

Yet Flickr (owned by the same company, remember) doesn’t actually have the import tool developed yet.  They don’t even have a projected date!  To add insult to injury, Multiply already has a working import tool.  How can the competition already have an import tool when your own service does not?  No wonder rumours are always abounding about Yahoo!’s financial troubles. 

Thanks to Alluveal for the quiz:

“Kindness is the noblest weapon to conquer with.” ~Unknown

Respect His Holy Name

One of my favourite songs from White Christmas is “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep”.  Maybe because I don’t prayerfully thank Jesus for all of my blessings as often as I should.  The best gift I received this season wasn’t even material.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate the many useful and/or spiffy-cool material gifts I have received.  I don’t think I got a bad gift this year, which I can’t honestly say about every year. 

Christmas celebrations started early this year.  On Friday, our Doctor Who group gathered to watch the back-to-back two-part season finale.  Despite no prior notification, several of us had gifts ready for each other.  Da was in town, down from Tucson, and didn’t miss out on the action.  On Saturday, Steve was down from Vegas.  So he and Wayne showed up for a small social gathering instead of our usual Dark Sun campaign.  Several of us also had gifts ready for each other, despiate no prior notification as well.  It’s humourous how groups of friends can be similar yet different.

Yesterday my maternal grandfather, mother, and I attended Christmas Eve mass at St. Raphael.  They had a new icon of St. Raphael behind the altar, so between that and the tapestry which dates back to when my biological parents and I were still parishoners, there are two totally different representations of St. Raphael in the church building now.  The tapestry used to be behind the altar, but was moved by the previous pastor who felt a crusafix belonged there.  Now the crusafix hangs above the altar with the new icon on the wall behind.  The tapestry remains where is was moved years ago, behind the choir.  It’s been interesting to watch the parish change in small and big ways over the years. 

Father Milt was the presider.  Because he works at both my grandparents’ parish and my parish, it’s like he’s the family priest.  I know he’s the favourite of my mother and grandmother.  I know I don’t believe in having favourites, but he is certainly the priest who connects with parishoners the most of any I’ve ever seen.  I’m sure if I ever contemplated marriage my family would want him to preside over the sacrament.  He asked about my grandmother, and spoke to each of us before mass.  That made Grandma happy when she heard that.

After mass, my grandparents hosted a small little gift exchange and light supper with my parents and I.  For the first time in memory, we did our gifts on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Morn.  Today we returned, as my mother and I cooked dinner for the five of us.  Everything went well, although my grandmother seemed annoyed with herself in how little she could eat and how tired she was.  She’s not very patient with the effects of the chemo. 

So as I look back, I see that I am blessed with wonderful friends and family who love one another very much.  What more could a man want?  Thank you, Lord.

It’s not the best of Star Wars quizes, but I thought it serendipitous that I had received a MR mini-replica of Obi-Wan’s blade as one of my Christmas gifts and here I am quized out as Obi-Wan:

Male Jedi You scored 0% Dark side, 85% Light side, 63% Male, and 0% Female!

hmm…. strong powers of light in you, I sense.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 0% on Dark side You scored higher than 91% on Light side You scored higher than 20% on Male You scored higher than 0% on Female

Link: The Jedi/Sith maker Test written by Darthjavin on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

“You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.” ~Harry Drummond

The Ship is a cool medival carol about Mary of Nazareth.

So, where to begin?  While reading my regulars I found a couple of interesting things.  I found a recording of Michael’s voice posted by SerendipityWalker.  It is nothing earth shattering, just an ordinary message on a friend’s voice mail.  But it brought a smile to my face, the ordinariness of it all.  Thanks, SW. 

I also found that Mongoose Publishing has released a new edition of RuneQuest according to Rrraff on the Trollwalla.  Mongoose has been releasing amazing Conan and Lone Wolf d20 campaign supplements, and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into a revamped RuneQuest.  They’ve made the new edition Open Licence, with Gloranthia (the original RuneQuest setting) and Lankhmar campaigns already supported by them.  I really hope to see other companies take Mongoose up on this, as d20 needs some serious competition.  Thanks for the heads up, Rrraff. 

RuneQuest was my 3rd RPG. I had first played the D&D Basic Red Box, then SW:  RPG, then RuneQuest 3rd edition.  That was way back in middle school, sometime before I played AD&D 1st and 2nd editions and RuneQuest 5th edition.  To be honest, I think I played RuneQuest even before I read an issue of Groo! 

How You Live Your Life

You tend to deprive yourself of things you crave, for your own good. You tend to avoid confrontation and stay away from sticky situations. You prefer a variety of friends and tend to change friends quickly. You tend to always dream of things within reach – and you usually get them.

Where did fortune cookies come from and are they really Chinese?

similar_stranger said, “Somehow your quote makes me feel guilty. Oh well, small mind… at least it works–no?”  I certainly never meant anyone to feel guilty.  After all, journals (including weblogs like mine) are naturally about discussing people.  This here ‘blog is a discussion of me.  Does that mean we all have small minds?  No, my interpretation of the quote is that people that only discuss people are small minded;  those which discuss people and events are average minded;  and those which discuss people, events, and ideas are capable of being great minded.  It’s the natural progression of social development in people, IMO. 

I’ve been catching up on my lj blogs, but not my Xanga blogs.  Normally I do the opposite.  I need more time,  It’s had to believe that Advent starts next week.  My mother pointed out to me that I hadn’t put away my Christmas videos from last year when I pulled them out and placed them atop my television set.  (Why do we call it a set, when it’s a single unit anyway?)  There’s a lot of things I don’t make time for in my life.  I obviously need to reprioritize, something I seem to always be saying but not doing.   

Speaking of bad priorities, check out the most recent Onna Chance for another great gaming moment.  How could you not laugh? 

A week ago Sunday our hiking group resumed, doing the short basic trail between 40th Street and Tatum Boulevard and back.  Afterwards we went to 5 & Diner for breakfast, which was fun.  Then I went home for a nap before mass.  Father Joy read the gospel which inspired one of the best sequences in The Last Battle.  His homily focused on the Communion of Saints, a theme throughout all three readings.

Monday Bill and I went to Chuy’s before finally seeing the new Pirates movie at the discount theatre.  Can you believe that it’s $3 to see a discount movie now?!  The discount prices keep creeping up and up.  (I must be getting old.)  It was OK, but it was like The Empire Strikes Back or Back to the Future Part II in that it was obviously the dark second act of a three act story.  You knew early on in watching the film that it would end unended.  And amazingly, it did so fairly predictably.  That didn’t make it unfun, just not as entertaining as I had hoped.  That may also be part of the long period of anticipation preceding my chance to finally see it. 

Thursday saw a day off from work, so I went with my mother and grandparents to Thanksgiving Day diner at Cracker Barrel (yes, just like last year).  Afterwards we headed back to their place to celebrate my grandfather’s concurrent birthday, where my stepfather joined us.  He received a Marines ball cap from my grandmother, cash from my parents, and The Railroaders (from Bookman’s) from me. 

Friday my mother and I hit the Black Friday sales before I had to go into work.  We hit eight stores in two hours, plus eating breakfast from Jack in the Box while waiting between the stores we had already hit and the stores which hadn’t opened yet.  If you plan your sales out right the night before you can usually get everything you need quickly and without a lot of fuss.  Unfortunately, my mom know what I bought them and I know what she bought me, but that’s the price we pay for shopping when the best bargains are.  Of course, once I was at work it was relatively dead, as we don’t offer any Black Friday sales.  Thus, our holiday customers will hit the time-sensitive sales first and hit us when convenient.  Saturday was kind of slow, too, as usual. 

Saturday after work I also ran the first installment of Chapter Three in Chaos Out of Order, my continuing Dark Sun campaign set 300 years after the normal timeline.  They get some of the mystery so right, but then they get some of it so wrong.  It’s fun watching them slowly solve it, especially when one or the other has the right idea and the others disagree.  I think they’ve all been right at one time or another while the others disagreed.  As long as they’re having fun I’ll continue.

Yesterday I went to BJ’s birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza before my mother picked me up to go to mass.  It was fun, and BJ seemed happy with all of his many gifts.  I can’t recall them all, so I won’t bother trying to list them.  I gave him some Throne War, Netherworld 2, and Two-Fisted Tales boosters, a rule book from 10,000 Bullets, and a box of Deck Protector Sleeves so he finally has enough cards to hopefully build a deck and use the box.  Between the boosters I gave out for demos and those that he purchased at Hexacon, he didn’t have enough yet to build anything remotely playable.  I also had a chance to play Lisa in air hockey, which was enjoyable.  The time went too fast.  Despite my mother being antisocial, she did seem to enjoy talking with Kim and Lisa.  Maybe someday she can get the ladies to see what’s enjoyable about Doctor Who. 

At mass I was supposed to be the first lector, but ended up being the only lector.  Christ the King is a fun mass to attend every year, because before the main procession of the gospel book, altar servers, and priest we have several eucharistic ministers process forward with candles as the music minister announces sacramental and ministerial statistics for the past liturgical year (one stat with each candle that processes forward).  Of all of the parishes I’ve attended on Christ the King, St. Paul is the only one to do this. 

Father Gene noted before mass in the sacristy that one of the altar servers was now sporting an ear ring, and seemed surprised that his grade school allowed such a thing.  He didn’t make the server take it out, just as he never asks me to hide my long hair.  He did mention once again about his desire to retire in the next year.  I wonder if Father Joy would become pastor or if they’d assign us someone else.  In his homily Father Gene discussed kings and kingship, and how Christ is a holy king rather than a material king.

Before and after mass I was part of the team maintaining the Christmas Angels on the trees in the vestibule.  My mother volunteered to help, which was nice of her.  The Christmas Angels are clothing items (green angels), clothing sets (blue angels), or something nice–such as a toy for children–(blue angels) for the poor of El Mirage.  When I first was involved in our parish’s El Mirage Christmas Angels Project, El Mirage was a poor hispanic community in the rural area outside the metropolitan area.  Now El Mirage is mostly composed of upper middle class anglo families and retirees in various cookie cutter developments.  The poor of the community are now disenfranchised by their own city, which is now considered to be part of the metropolitan area.   The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Or something like that. 

Hey, I found my missing Feng Shui sourcebooks Back for Seconds, Thorns of the Lotus, and Blood of the Valiant today while looking for something else completely.  They had been filed with my outdated calendar collection.  Yes, I keep everything.  But, I was actually looking for some stuff I knew I had somewhere that I will be getting rid of after years of storing for absolutely no good reason.  Don’t ask me why the books were hidden with the calendars.  I have no idea.  And, no, I won’t be getting rid of my calendars.  They’re a journal of sorts with various events scribbled in them.  Future generations might want that history. 

Then I submitted some corrections to the RPG Wiki of RPGnet for the Feng Shui entries.  I’ll have to scan some covers sometime to complete their Feng Shui data for the Daedalus Entertainment (and Ronin Publishing) era.  Then I’ll work on inputting all of the Dark Sun data that they’re missing.  Remind me if I forget.  Thanks.

Well, Heroes:  The Best Show on Television will be on soon, so I’m gonna jet. 

Thanks to the_chaos_opera for the quiz:

Horus Sparkling personality, intense will, intelligent, understanding, impatient to exert influence. Colors: male: red carmine, female: gold Compatible Signs: Bastet, Geb Dates: Apr 20 – May 7, Aug 12 – Aug 19 Role:God of the pharaoh Appearance: Form of a falcon-headed man, wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt Sacred Animal: falcon What is Your Egyptian Zodiac Sign? Designed by CyberWarlock of Warlock’s Quizzles and Quandaries

“If an idea’s worth having once, it’s worth having twice.” ~Tom Stoppard

D&D in Nissan?

So, I’ve (obviously) been ultra busy these past few weeks.  I posted a mini-recap as a comment-reply in my last entry.  I just posted some pics from Hexacon XVI on my lj.  I still haven’t successfully attended choir practice more than once, so I’m going to just give up on that.  Supernatural Thursdays and Doctor Who Fridays are still a fun chance to hang out with my friends, and we’ve played a couple more sessions of Chaos Out of Order on Saturdays. 

Father Milt asked me a couple of Sundays ago whether or not the Psalm we were practicing for mass was the same as the week before, and I couldn’t even recall.  Which made me question,  does going to 8am mass even count if I can’t even recall it a week later?  I guess the intent was good, but they say the road to hell is paved with such as those.  So what do I do the next week?  Go to 9:30am mass, which I can barely recall a week later.  Perhaps it’s just a sign of being too busy, but I suspect it’s because I chose to do mass when I have to get up early.  So what do I do to fix the situation, lose more sleep and blog it or quit going to morning masses?  I mean, obviously I can’t control when my cousin visits Arizona, but I could choose to leave a convention (such as Hexacon XVI) early instead of allowing myself time for events to go over their timeblocks.  I’ve done that so I don’t have to accidentally show up late for mass or disrupt people by leaving an event running over.  I dunno, it’s obviously something that needs rethinking. 

Mondays I’ve been still watching Heroes, the best show on television.  Even the other week when I had to work on Monday, Monte was kind enough to let me stop by his place on the way home from work so I wouldn’t miss the episode.  He watches it, too, so it wasn’t too much of an inposition.  He even cooked up a good chicken-pork mix for our dinner.  Last Monday was also Parish Time before Heroes.  I baked anise cookies (using leaf and acorn cookie cutters) with caramel sprinkles for the occassion.    We discussed Wisdom, Work, and Worship and what elements of Catholicism fall under each category.

My mother and I went to Chuy’s for her birthday last month.  She enjoyed her card (which referenced angel food cake, her preferred birthday cake) and a mini-deck of cards I’d purchased for her during our last visit to Disneyland.  She had recently retired her last well-used mini-deck of cards, so it was perfect timing. 

My cousin was in town from Wilkes-Barre on business, but my grandparents held a picnic for him with my parents, niece, and I in attendance.  My cousin from Tucson was disappointed that she couldn’t make it, but the rest of us had a great time.  We all had to miss his wedding in Syracuse the other year, so we pestered him with various questions which he was gracious enough to answer.

For Halloween Jay ran the new Expedition to Castle Ravenloft adventure.  Bill made a 9th level elven fighter, Da made a 9th level dwarven cleric of Temmanon, and I made a 9th level monk.  It was quite fun, and it was great to do a Halloween game again. 

Elections kept me busy, too.  We had a four page ballot, with lots of candidates and propositions.  As soon as Hexacon was over I went into overdrive learning all I could, reading every candidate statement, researching every write-in candidate, reading every proposition, et cetera.  Of course, as happens in a democracy, only some of the people and propositions went my way. 

 

You are a Social Liberal (60% permissive) and an… Economic Liberal (11% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid Free Online Dating Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

 

“Great minds discuss ideas, Average minds discuss events, Small minds discuss people.” ~Unknown

What does the “10/6″ mean on the Mad Hatter’s hat from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland?

I keep wanting to make time to post, but life just keeps me busy. Here’s a recap of recent events.

The Saturday group was kind enough to let me cancel last weekend’s Chaos Out of Order session so I could go to a last minute birthday party for a friend. The host family had been sick for over a week, and thus were only able to give a five day notice. Unfortunately, that meant that besides the hosts, the guest, and I, only one other showed up–and he showed up with his son and new girlfriend in tow close to midnight! I guess he had had another party commitment the same night and tried to do both. The rest of those invited were unable to attend.

We still had a great dinner, played some Guillotine and Torches and Pitchforks, Guillotine was one of the birthday gifts our hosts had given, and the guest of honour seemed to enjoy it. I think she was a little bummed so few people showed up, but she did appeciate the fact that at least some of us were there. Hopefully the ladies had a good time the next day, at the spa.

The last few Wednesday nights I have tried to go to Choir practice after work. I’ve been arriving as cars leave the parking lot, and the church is already locked up and dark. It’s yet another example of how I forget when calculating commute time that I’m not as fast as I was before I was injured. I’ll try a few more times, and if it keeps up, then I’ll just have to respectly decline the offer of joining the choir.

Our Doctor Who Fridays have resumed on SciFi Channel, so we’ve been watching the new season of Doctor Who the last two Fridays. The first week of the season they showed the first two episodes, just like last season. That kept us up way too late for a work night. Luckily, just like last season they’re only showing an episode a week thereafter, allowing for a reasonable bedtime. All three episodes have been fantastic, despite the obvious change in tone and direction with the new Doctor this season. It’s been interesting how they’ve been preparing audiences for the Torchwood spinoff these last two seasons. I hope it airs here in the States.

It was good seeing everybody together again, at least the first week. Da was back in town from Tucson and even B was willing to drive from his side of town for the occassion. Asked to bring a vegetable sidedish, I opted to try my hand at carmelized leeks over green tea noodles. Da and BJ seemed to enjoy them, but Kim (not much for many various vegetables) isn’t likely to eat leeks again. By comparison, it was just Jay, Kim, and I this weekend. Even Lisa was out of town this week. Next week I’ll miss out, due to Hexacon XVI. That’s too bad, as I was always a big SJS fan.

This Saturday we resumed Chaos Out of Order. I miscalulated my d20 level progression. I was thinking people level at 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, et cetera, but it’s actually 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, et cetera. I thought maybe people were leveling too fast. Oh well, thank goodness Rusty caught me on that. We’re finally into a stretch of downtime, which is good since we won’t be playing next weekend during Hexacon.

Last Sunday my mom visisted for a game day. We hadn’t played (other than at my grandparents’ place) in a long time. So we played a game of Torches and Pitchforks and a game of The Game of Life:  A Jedi’s Path.  Afterwards, we went to mass, where I was the first lector and Father Milt gave another of his great homilies.  He reminded us that the gospel message applies to the election season and how we vote for candidates and propositions.  This Sunday I worked on some last minute DAL and KLA items for Hexacon before attending mass with another of Fr. Milt’s homilies.  He spoke of the importance marriage, the importance of working on a marriage from within, and working on a marriage from without by the community–married or single. 

Last Monday I attended the first session of Parish Time for the season, our parish’s continuing religious education for all ages.  We covered the Sign of the Cross before the children went off to their various grade levels.  Then the teens and adults broke into small groups and watched a film and answered questions related to each segment.  After I got home I made sure to tune into the what was left of Heroes, the best show on television.  This Monday I attended another DAL3/KLA1 meeting before coming home to watch Heroes, still the best show television.  If you can watch only one show, watch Heroes.

This weekend is Hexacon, so don’t expect me to return until after the madness is at an end.  Have a happy Friday the 13th everyone. 

Mad You scored 80% mad, 25% wild, and 0% wannabe!

You are clever. You think outside the box. You have amazing ideas, and a powerful wit. Your mind defies comprehension, and people never know what you’re thinking, nor can they unravel your master plan. Truly, you are MAD, like a scientist! Keep up the good work.

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 98% on mad You scored higher than 3% on wild You scored higher than 0% on wannabe

Link: The Fundamental Weirdness Test written by VillageWanderer on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

“You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.” ~Robin Williams