I hear that I do this exact same thing when I fall asleep on my feet.

john pulsed:

When I see a blog with 5 stars but no comments, I know they’ve self-starred. I too have self-starred (I was young and needed the stars). You?

The world is diverse enough, that you should realize that people will use the system properly even if you don’t.

WASH: Pilot You scored 55% roughness, 60% intelligence, and 33% isolated!

Congratulations, you are Wash!!! Wash is Serenity’s pilot and is also married to Zoe. He is unassuming, self-deprecating and not at all the fiery hero type. Raised on a world so polluted he couldn’t see the stars, Wash entered pilot’s training to get a look at them. But he got more than a job when he applied to be Serenity’s pilot—he found a wife in the ship’s first mate Zoe. A laid-back, jovial guy with an active sense of humor, Wash just wants a ship to fly and his wife alive and at his side. Wash loves to fly but hates to fight. Other Possible Results… KAYLEE: Mechanic WASH: Pilot INARA: Ambassador SIMON: Doctor JAYNE: Mercenary ZOE: Soldier RIVER: Fugitive MAL: Captain SAFFRON THE OPERATIVE SHEPHERD

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

Here is a clever parody that mixes the Lord of the Rings movies with The Princess Bride:  Is This A Kissing Book?

And we continue from our interrupted narrative…

Wednesday, Steve, Troy, and I had brunch in the Circle Centre Mall food court (I went for Chick-fil-A).  They we went to the convention center to buy events tickets, pick up a program book, and pick up our freebie bag.  Bill was busy with the Forum Stink, but he met up with Steve and Troy as I left them to attend mass for the Assumption.  When I got back to the hotel Brian and some of his HeroClix friends were there, too.  We all went to dinner at Battery Park.  Our waitress was a cute twentysomething who, as we left, Troy asked about late night opportunities in downtown.  We had noticed that most things were closed by 17:00-18:00.  She said that she and a coworker always go to a bar on Wednesday nights to play Trivia, but that the two of them never have a chance to win because they’re competing against teams of six and seven.  So, when we got back to the hotel I suggested that we go join her team of two.  As gamers, we’d likely be of some great help.  None of the others were willing to go fourteen blocks.  This caused Steve to be concerned for Troy, a theme that lasted until we left him at Sky Harbor on Monday.  I wasn’t willing to walk alone fourteen blocks at night in a strange town, so I was stuck doing a whole lot of nothing with the others.

Thursday, I ignored my wakeup call.  By the time I got up and showered I ended up skipping breakfast to rush over to the convention.  I showed up too late to play an 08:00 game in the Mayfair area, as had been my tradition.  So I wandered on down to the Guardian 6 area, despite the fact that the game didn’t start until 09:00.  There was already one woman there.  We worked out the GenCon Puzzle Hunt for Tiamat before others came, including my friends from a few years ago, Kristin and Dan.  They had Dan’s brother Eric in tow, and they expressed how they had missed me last year.  Well, once it was 09:00 we started pulling out our tickets when I discovered I had left my event tickets in the hotel room!  So, I said my goodbyes and headed back.  The others were finally getting up, showering, and headed to breakfast (to which I was invited).  I just grabbed my tickets and headed back.  By the time I got back, the Guardian 6 folks had just arrived!  So everyone told me to get back in line (luckily, as it was very long by this point) and I was still second to sign in.  They didn’t have their dossiers yet, so we created a second line after signing in as we awaited the dossiers.  Eventually Mike Selinker came with the dossiers, and we began Operation Firefly.

Troy decided to join me that day, so I met him on the steps of the capitol.  The first puzzle we chose to tackle was set inside.  After we finished that puzzle we moved onto the only unfun puzzle of the entire G6 event:  the phone tag in the exhibition hall.  At least it gave me a chance to stop by the Fiery Dragon and Flying Buffalo booths.  We also ran into Mike, who Troy gave a hard time for having such a small picture and text in the program book (a mere quarter page).  Aparently Steve had just recently gave him a hard time for the same reason.  Other than the phone tag mission, we had a lot of fun doing the G6 event until Troy had to go to the World Series of Poker Tournament.  I finished what I could by myself before I had to go to the Comrades in Arms Tournament.  I passed on what I could to Troy when he was done, and the two of us rushed to the G6 booth to both get credit for finishing.  Then I rushed back to the Whirlpool of Blood Tournament.

During the Comrades in Arms I used my Jammers Ape City deck while Ken used my Ascended Monkey King deck.  Ken had a horrible time with the deck, which is one of Monte’s favorite decks to borrow.  I did OK with my deck, often fooling players into using the designator “Monkey” with their Discos then playing “Simian”s out the wazzoo.  Neither of us made it to the finals. 

Ken couldn’t stay for the Whirlpool of Blood, as his ride to the hotel wouldn’t wait until midnight.  The Flying Buffalo crew was staying at a low budget hotel miles from downtown, and he wasn’t willing to spend that kind of cab fare just to play another game.  It was the first draft I’ve played with pods.  We drafted Six Guns and Shurikens, Critical Shift, and Dark Future.  I ended up taking two Shadow Syndicate pods, and built my first Syndicate deck.  It worked fairly well, but my unfamiliarity with the 6G&S and CS cards worked against me.

Friday saw Steve choosing to join me for Guardian 6 and Operation Pandora, but Troy bowing out.  Steve got very frustrated with the first mission at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument.  He gave up on the game, chewed out the G6 staff at HQ, and Troy took over his slot.  Friday’s G6 “failure” was that people couldn’t operate a simple eTrex unit during one particular mission, so by the time I went to do the mission they skipped out on giving me a unit.  I was kind of disappointed, as folks at work call me a “GPS guru.”  (I really hate the term guru, but that’s another blog entry all together.)  However, there’s nothing cooler than meeting a contact in a back alley and being driven around downtown with a black hood over your head.  That’s immersion storytelling at its finest. 

I have apparently run into the limit on the number of tags I can put in my blog yet again.  Oh well, I’ll just split the week yet again and continue further in the next entry.

Thanks to otaku-d for this quiz:

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Lent 2007: A Time for Mending: Daily Scripture Meditations and Prayers

You Are a Centaur

In general, you are a very cautious and reserved person. However, you are also warm hearted, and you enjoy helping others in practical ways. You are a great teacher, and you are really good at helping people get their lives in order. You are very intuitive, and you go with your gut. You make good decisions easily.

“Quality is never an accident.  It represents the wise choice of many alternatives.” ~Willa Foster

Zombie School:  A Documentary is the second entry I’ve ever Boosted.

Well, after a few months of psyching myself up and letting my insecurity get the best of me, I believe I am ready.  I spoke with Debbie today, and it further embolded me to go forward with the plan.  It’s an action I’ve not done before, and I pray that it goes off well.  Months of research and prayer shall not steer me wrong, no matter how much I might fear otherwise.  Wish me well.

A co-worker is quitting, so I get to go in an hour early on Tuesday so he can train me to take on some of his duties.  I’m not sure when I’ll have the time to do the extra work, I don’t get done everything I’m supposed to do now.  I try to delegate, but because I have no authority, almost no one will assist me.  Those who have the time and talent would rather read the Internet or chat. 

The departing co-worker’s duties will be split between three people, rather than hire someone new.  I wish him luck in his search for something better.  He’s a good guy, who was stuck in a job that I certainly never envied.  It’s the one possition in the company where I think no one could have met (the somewhat unreasonable) expectations.  That’s probably why that possition is left unfilled for years at a time, and why when they do hire someone they never last. 

Heroes:  The Best Show on Television and Supernatural were great this week.  I’m trying to decide what to do about Heroes on Monday.  I’m doing the 2-4-1 deal with some friends at the King Henry the Only’s Birthday at the Arizona Renaissance Festival and Artisan Marketplace.  I guess I’ll have to tape record it, but when will I have the chance to watch it before the next episode?  This is going to be tough.  Tough, I tell you. 

I bet non-viewers didn’t know that the Weekly World News was featured in this week’s Supernatural episode, “Tall Tales”.  But even if you did see the episode, did you know that both the print and online editions of the Weekly World News dated 15 February 2007 featured Supernatural?  Talk about brilliant marketing.  That’s even better than when they created the web site which was featured in the episode “Hell House”.

Saturdays start early for me, and I’m later than I should have been.  Night all.

Thanks to jada_marnew for the quiz:

You Should Rule Mercury

Close to sun, Mercury has very long days – and is rarely visible to the rest of the solar system. You are perfect to rule Mercury, because you live for the present – and can truly enjoy a day that goes on forever. Like Mercury, you are quick and elusive. Your wit is outstanding, and you can win any verbal sparring match. Some people see you as superficial, but in truth, you just play many roles and have many interests. A great manipulator, you usually get what you want from people. And they’re happy to give it to you.

“The greatest motivational act one person can do for another is to listen.” ~Roy Moody

So many people give flowers without knowing the Language of Flowers.  It’s become a lost art.

This past week has been interesting.  Wednesday night, while we were trying to close down at work, the power went out.  That made things rather difficult.  I find out that the whole block is out, due to a fire at the nearby acrylic spa retailer.  That’s right, another major fire on the same block in less than a year.  It was on all of the news stations, despite not being as major of a fire, because the fire took out the transformer for the area.  That meant that the traffic signals for the interstate were out, causing major traffic delays.  My mom called me that night to make sure I was alright.  I guess several witnesses saw a transient throw something burning over the fense and onto a pile of vinyl spa covers. 

Thursday, a couple decided that they had to leave our store before they were finished browsing because they had just heard the news that some woman had died.  When I didn’t register the name, they seemed kind of surprised.  Apparently, she’s big news, but I hadn’t heard of her until then.  I notice that she seems to be in the news a lot now, but as it’s not really news I just tune it out.  It just seems to be some of that filler news that the news media creates.  I monitored news for a living long enough to recognise non-news when I hear it.  Unlike print news media, audio and audio/visual news media can’t change the length/size of it’s broadcast to match the quantity of the news available.  So they create filler news for the rest, which they can easily drop should real news pop up. 

The sad thing is that people actually invest themselves into such non-news.  People die every day.  Read the obituaries some time.  All ages and walks of life die every day.  Each is its own story, but do you see audio and/or audio/visual news media covering the obits?  Nope, just the few they decide are somehow more important than the rest.

Saturday after work I helped haul desks around town.  In exchange I got to unload an old computer desk I haven’t used since I had possession of the LepreCon Program computer.  Today I took advantage of the extra space and reorganized the entire living room.  It has a lot more open space now. 

Sunday my mother and I brought In-N-Out Burger to my grandparents.  We hung out and played golf (a card game using two decks of standard playing cards shuffled together) and Mexican Train Dominoes.  Afterwards my mother attended mass with me.  She spoke with Fr. Milt after mass about the actual condition of her parents, who apparently try to downplay things to him. 

After work yesterday I stopped by Mike’s to catch Heroes:  the Best Show on Television.  He’s finding the number of interpersonal relationships to be breaking his suspension of disbelief.  This despite the things he’s tried to get away with for his role playing characters.  This despite the many superhero comics, movies, and television shows he’s seen.  I’m not finding any of it hard to believe.  Truth is often stranger than fiction.  Look at the NASA love triangle fiasco from last week!

Tomorrow is Arizona Statehood Day.  I wish all Arizonans a wonderful day. 

You Are 68% Gentleman

You are definitely a gentleman. You’re very considerate and you have excellent manners. Occasionally, you slip and do something foolish… but usually no one notices!

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” ~Mother Teresa