Whispers in the Windstorm

I promise more entries to come. But this one demands to be seen.

( Jeff self-congratulates himself on a feat of trivia )

Yesterday was quite the delicious and wonderful day! (Except for the part where my hips were killing me, and it was really cold out in the evening. That sucked.)

Got up a little late (so enjoyed a little more sleep, woooo!). Packed up my 7th Sea stuff, but couldn't find my actual decks, so I had to leave everything at home and get it after work anyway.

Work was pretty productive - I really caught up with all prior work-work, I posted to the prelude threads for Laughing Boy, I finally started Flashback Number Three for him, I posted to all the threads of the Home on the Ranch thread in Blood Loyalties, and carried on a few quite powerful and wonderful conversations at the same time. And, I did an additional bit of writing which was quite rewarding. So all in all, work was a wonderful time.

Drove home, making excellent time, and changed clothes, found my Doomtown and 7th Sea decks, packed up Fluxx Version 1.0 for Brian (who gave away his copy before realizing that GP was out of stock), and dropped back into the car. Had a wonderful conversation with my brother, who is hip-deep in Dance Dance Revolution - sorta. (Whoda thunk it?) He also told me not to leave voicemail any more - which I won't. I'll just call until he answers. Nyahh. :)

Got to Games Plus, saw </a></b></a>matt for the first time in ages (except for a lunch last week - thanks, man). We also saw the LOTR Click-tech version of the Balrog. Whooo, is that thing big! I mentioned to Brian that I'd finally remembered to bring my old copy of Fluxx. He pulled out the shrinkwrapped copy he'd bought not twenty minutes ago - GP had restocked. Sigh - it was funny, anyway. I went out shopping while Brian and Matt played 7th Sea, and </a></b></a>rich and </a></b></a>noel arrived. We got back in and organized two games. Matt wanted to play Doomtown, Rich didn't want to play 7th Sea, and I had a lot of 7th Sea work to do (not that I got it done while we played), but we played a three-player game of Doomtown. Brian and Noel played 7th Sea. Their games went pretty well.

I started as Maze Rats, Matt as Agency, Rich as Blackjacks. Matt played a strike early, and I had a nice gun and went to take it. Net result - I lose two guys, Matt loses one. THEN, Rich plays Stoker Versus Knicknevin on Matt (after having played Blackjack Experienced). Net result - both shooters die. THEN Rich brings out Rachel Sumner, and tries to take on Johnny Quaid. Net result - Rachel dies. Nobody has very many dudes, and New Town is in play. I can chase away most anybody at New Town, as I have a Soul Blast Cannon with a Claw attached. But Rich puts out a number of Control point strikes and Matt and I are depleted, he takes it.

Ernie showed up in all of this! WOWWW! He's working from 2PM to 10PM, and managed to get his way in. It was good to see him, even if he didn't play. We talked for a good long time - hope he's free this new year.

Then, we talk for a bit while I sort cards, and Rich and Noel both help me - bless their hearts. Then, Noel insists that I actually play 7th Sea - after I went home and got my decks and everything, to imagine I'd be playing? Oh, the nerve. (Al actually showed up with no decks, late, and in pain - but mad props to him for saying hello. He's too cool - even for a Star Wars player.) I played my S&M Love Boat deck, and Noel played broken-a$$ Pepin again. You know, it's not bad ENOUGH that most of the Montaigne are relatively undercosted. It's not bad ENOUGH that they're the most Influence-heavy people in the game, so their people usually flow like water. But then they give them the only person in the game that's just a straight-up "untack someone"? And Noel wonders why we cherish memories of Syrneth Guardians like days of milk and honey. :) Anyway, I get a few surprises out, but she wins. We sort more, we get kicked out, and I give everyone their Christmas presents. Matt got some extras (for which I got a hug), Ernie got my Fluxx 1.0 as he knows a lot of family who'd get a kick out of it, and Rich'n'Noel got some wrapping paper they needed. :) Brian - well, he gets an uncomplaining player of Say What. Yes yes no no yes yes no no sit sit sit. There.

Drove home and chatted with my new friend </a></b></a>melisa for a bit, and then nodded off. Sleeep good.

Today's largely sucked, as a few rushes got dropped into my lap - and I know half the reason they're such rushes is that the consultants and administrators want to LEAVE at noon. Oh, the heartbreak of having to stay until 2PM. My heart bleeds for them. :P

But not even a sucky day will spoil my afternoon and evening - and thus a friendly wave to my one and only Myra, with whom I celebrate our one-year anniversary this Sunday. First of many, I believe quite fervently. So a relaxing weekend (and we might see the Incredibles together - woooo!).

Eat Snacky Smores - and give a few to a friend.

Middle-Aged Man Rocks!

Work was thankfully slow Tuesday afternoon. I managed to get some plowing in done on my Amber games, and this morning I posted fresh to the Demon game. So, with the sad demise of the Cthulhu game, I am mostly caught up. This afternoon, if time permits, I'll do an audit of Flashback status, and I might cogitate on whether the experiment is working. I'm also hoping to write another VTES deck for tomorrow.

(Speaking of Thursdays, letting R'n'N (and hopefully Matt) know right now that I'm not available for next Thursday, but that Brian is amenable to making the 16th a 7th Sea day. (I will be occupied by entertaining a very special company of guests.) I hope it works out with Matt's schedule.

Anyways, back to Tuesday. Got home, did some light chatting while pulling cards for LOTR. It was actually somewhat nastily snowing all the drive home and the drive out to Brian's. However, I turned up the heat as soon as I got into the car from work, and had on work clothes and my parka. By the time I got home, I was a little...stuffy. So I put on shorts and a T-shirt, and wore that to Brian's. Except for ten minutes in the car after I left Brian's, it worked out fine.

Got to Brian's around 8PM, and Charlie, Brian and Rob were about to start a three-player game. I asked them to do so, as I had two decks to assemble and sleeve. Their game went fine, and I managed to get all the decks assembled, one old deck taken apart, and my spares sorted by block for filing. A job well done indeed!

Game 1 was against Brian, and was my Rohan/Gondor/Easterlings deck against his Elves/Nazgul deck. Black Riders are a little annoying (but not in an unfair-to-own way, just in a non-unique Nazgul kind of way). But having a 13-strength unwoundable damage +3! Easterling was not altogether too shabby. I think I'll pull out the Thundering Hosts and replace them with City of Men, and the Rohan guy who gets sites (but is screwed by the Shadows site rules) is coming out for someone else. Eventually Frodo got to meet an enduring Nazgul and died horribly.

Game 2 was against Rob, and was my Middle-Aged Man deck against Elves (sigh)/Sauron. This time, my Gandalf just ROCKED! That is, until I realized that he couldn't swap in for Frodo's skirmish, and wounds started landing on him like cream cheese on a bagel. (Oooh, forgot - new Foamy. Go check it out.) My Orcs were more powerful than expected - but a last-minute double-play by Rob spared him having to assign Frodo to a skirmish, so he ran all the way. Gotta get me a fourth Persistent Orc - those guys just rock for a swarm. (Kept calling the Orc Orcs Moria Orcs. Go figure.)

Both games were good, but suggested improvements in their decks - which is also good. If it wasn't the case that I'm building VTES today and building MTG either Friday or Saturday, I'd rebuild then. Perhaps Monday night (sigh).

After the games, we talked for a good long time - about Journey, Gen-Con So-Cal, LOTR Click-tech, and general stuff. I left Brian's at a rather shocking 1:25. The car was covered with snow that I had no real interest in dealing with, so I dove into the car, started it, and let the heater clear the snow. It sort of worked - after TWENTY minutes, I might add. Wish I'd brought my Palmpilot - Bookworm would have flown by. :) I got home around 2AM, and pretty much went to bed immediately.

Woke up this morning at the delightful time of 8:19. Ugh. Still feel grungy. But the morning's work is a slow project with a lot of down time - printing presentation booklets for Gary. So I can get stuff like this done. Yayyyy!

Eat Snacky Smores.

Oh, my GOD, has that song been stuck in my head. And it's a terrifyingly depressing song, it is.

LOTR went better than I expected. Rob wasn't obsessed about Greenleaf, and indeed actually built one or two decks I was creatively impressed with. I figure in about three weeks I'll be annoyed to death with them - or I'll start packing Terrible As The Dawn just for sport. But Charlie, Rob and I played three three-player games and they were all right. Maybe there's hope for the dear boy. He's a nice guy - which is part of the problem - but he's a pro player in a casual player's body. Sigh.

Monday night was pretty keen. After a bit of misnavigation on my part (in which I was delightfully accompanied by phone), I arrived at Sebastian's place. We played Kung Fu Chaos for a bit, and in Freestyle mode I totally kicked. That shotgun limit break is just whacked. Anyway, we then watched Season 2 of Red vs. Blue. Sebastian says it's more coherently laid out than Season One, and it's pretty darn good. I'm surprised it can be done with just the basic Halo game. The switching back from Red to Blue can be disconcerting, but the sweeps over the landscape help. Then I showed them a little Foamy the Squirrel, and they were unimpressed. Hmph. They're not getting into the cult, that's for darn sure.

Yesterday at work was annoying and busy. Plan documents are starting to sweep my way - I've got four on my desk that are halfway through, and two already done this week. And it's only a three-day week. In addition, Rick HAS to have a Powerpoint presentation done today, so I've been running that down, too. I was also tired after my fruitless attempt to pull away from chatting and HL2 on Monday night, so I don't think I was really in a mental frame for writing Amber - hence my post on the OOC thread, maudlin and all. I'm feeling okay right now, and the afternoon promises to be free. So I've got hope.

(But LORD do I feel rotten for having let it bake so long. And my players are KILLING me with their patience, bless 'em.)

I also have to write more for Laughing Boy - but I hit his first Flashback so right on the money that it's hard to go further. (And yes, Kathy, I owe you two files. I tried to send them once, but apparently I hadn't updated my email at home for current addy. Again tonight.)

Matt tried to set up a lunch, but he's way tired. I might try to find my way to Crooked Hat Games tonight, as he's playing a tournament there. (Might sneak up on Brian, too - little rascal that he is.)

And I wish someone would take my car money and buy me a newer car. Putting down so much money is terribly intimidating for me, even though I [b]do[/b] need one that can make long trips. To Iowa, dear. :)

Feelin' pretty good.

Eat Snacky Smores.

P.S. I will try to be online and connected to AIM for most of Friday. (You hear that, Kathy and Karen? AIM! Not MSN, which not only has a lesser interface in my view, but also appears to be randomly activating (sorry about that, Kathy).

Dundee's fixed!

Yayyyyy!

Shower, drive, enter checklists and write the LJ posts. Now lunch at Chipotle's (and possibly a FOURTH phone headset) and this afternoon...

AMBER. I -promise-. You might not see anything today, but if you don't, tomorrow will be all the richer for it. I've been derelict at the wheel far too long.

Eat Snacky Smores of Patient Forgiveness.

Last night was lame, but okay.

I drove out to Games Plus, but they're still out of LOTR Reflections. Crap. Got myself some Return of the King, some more Kamigawa, a pack of LOTR click-tech, and a pack of Star Wars minis. Got a second Obi-Wan Kenobi - almost DEFINITELY being traded to Brian tonight.

Drove out to Mike's house. Ernie wasn't there - again. And no email, no call, no nothing. Getting a little annoying, ya know? Anyway, we hung out for a few hours, just Sebastian, Mike and myself. We didn't play anything, but we talked about work, WWE stuff, games. You know, the usual. Sebastian left, Mike and I talked, I left. I got home and decided I hadn't walked enough that day, so I walked out over to Caribou Coffee. Unfortunately, they closed approximately 5 minutes before I got there. Arrgh. So I doubled back to the Blight of Lake County. By then, of course, I was a LOT hungrier and thirstier, so I got more than I should have. But hopefully, I exercised some of it away. I got back home, talked with the folks a while, and then went upstairs. Chatted with Matt and Lori, and got REALLY tired. I think I finally got to sleep before 1AM! Wowzers.

Today's been slooooow. Caught up with PM harvesting, caught up to Demon, just generally caught up. Still reading GilGalen's piece (sorry, dude), so that's on my agenda for lunch. (Which I think is gonna be Subway at Northbrook Court in ten minutes.)

So hey, if you read my LJ and like it, leave a comment to this one, just to check in and say hi. Tell me what your favorite restaurant is. And your birthday - I never have those down.

Eat Snacky Smores.

Friday evening, after work, I stopped at Barnes and Noble. For once, a relatively painless transaction! I went in, stated the problem, a clerk pulled a duplicate from stock, it was opened and examined to confirm all ten tapes where there, and it was released to me! Ain't no thang. :)

But a blemish. Approximately twenty minutes after I left work, I realized that I'd left the phones on forward, not on night mode. Having done that last week, there was no way I could let it go again. So after I got home, the family went to Walker's (where we picked up a spare order of Forty-Niners that we gave to Chris later), then we went home and packed. Took me a bit to get everything I wanted, but the Bag O' Doom was not challenged. (The trunk was, however.) We loaded the car, got gas, drove out to work, and then picked up I-94 for the trip out. (Turns out that two calls had gone in before this, so I started today in a little trouble - but I wayyy outbalanced that by having come in from Lake Zurich that night to fix it. Yayyy!) By this time, it was after 9PM, so traffic was relatively non-existent, except for one stretch in (hah-hah-hah) the express lanes. I started my new book on tape over again, so that Dad could listen - but he fell asleep rather rapidly. So, I listened to it all again. I like doing that with the early tapes in a book - sets the central concepts in mind so that you can find your way better when things get complex and fast.

We got into Chris' place somewhere around 1AM. He showed me some Final Fantasy X-2 scenes he'd taped to VHS, and I checked email and chatted briefly. Then I went to bed, sleeping on his couch.

Saturday we got up around noon, and went to IHOP for breakfast. Lovely IHOP. Had their multi-grain pancakes and got to torment Chris a little while he tried to play Bejeweled for Palm at the table. The nerve of it! It's no better than reading at the table. I was highly offended.

(Wanders away for three minute laughing jag, returns.)

Very offended. After that, we went back to Chris', and I played 3 in Three while we waited for his friend Brian to join us. We drove out to what is probably the best comic/game shop in Michigan - Fanfare Comics in Kalamazoo. Anyone in the area is highly encouraged to visit. Comics, graphic novels, magazines, RPG books, board games, CCGs, CMGs, video games, DVDs (including Doctor Who, Lori), and most supplies that those hobbies entail. It doesn't compete with Games Plus as a game store, but it has more for someone interested in the many subparts of the geek/gamer spectrum of interests. We hung out there looking around for an hour. I got myself:

1 pack Rebel Storm
4 packs Champions of Kamigawa
1 RPG book
2 books of Fastner and Larson art (both of which were amusingly covered with little blue button tabs)
1 surprisingly found DVD
2 3-lane shoeboxes

Money spent - probably too much, but it was all good.

We went back home after that, and then Brian and his wife Chris met Dad, Chris (my brother) and myself at Hong Kong Kitchen for a perfectly wonderful dinner. I had the General Tso's Chicken, as always - and it was very good. (Though oddly enough, even though I first found Green Garden's General Tso's Chicken weird, I think I like it more now - it's spicier.) We went back home and watched Murder on the Orient Express. I had forgotten a line from near the beginning that tickled my fancy. Poirot is discussing the murder with the doctor and the line director near his first interview, with the murdered man's assistant.

Doctor - "He did it."
Bianchi - "He could have. He had constant access to Ratchett."
Poirot - "And the dagger he might have obtained from working in concert with the chef."
Bianchi - "You believe so?"
Poirot - "Of course. And he stealthily crept to Monsieur Ratchet's beside, pulled back the covers, and plunged the dagger repeatedly and without motive into the body of his suitably surprised victim!"

It's pretty cool. After the movie, I played more 3 in Three, chatted online, and went to bed somewhere around 3. (3 in Three, done at three. Oooooooo.)

Sunday was another wonderful breakfast at IHOP, then gaming with Jeff Boes and his son Adam. We played a game I have been itching to try for some time - Alhambra. I haven't bought it yet because I found out there is a significant error in the English printing of the rules, and so I was happy to try it out. It's a neat game, having some resemblance to Carcassonne. Apparently, it started design as a stock market game, but a tile-playing structure was added, and it (at least in the game I played Sunday) was the determining factor in who won (me - yayyyy. I might pick it up sometime soon - especially if I crack open a copy at Games Plus and find it fixed.

After that, we broke for Magic trading. I traded a bunch of my Mirrodin-block stuff and a few Kamigawa rares for cards Jeff and Adam had. I'm edging closer to building my War Elemental/Ion Storm deck - but I'm saddened to discover Jeff had built it already. Oh well. Mine will rock, however - in many ways totally different from the way in which Mr. Boes' deck rocked. So nyahh.

We tried to play Goldbrau, but Chris was asleep at this point, and Adam had to go to work. So it was more of a demo. Then Jeff broke out a game still in the shrinkwrap, and we played Clippers, which was pretty good. (Of course, I might be saying that because I won - but I like games I win. :) ) It could be improved by making the port markers larger and/or more distinguishable, but otherwise it's a neat game with lots of "but I wanna do BOTH" - always a good factor for a game to have. Chris seemed to like it, too - but the end has a whole lotta math. (I'm still amazed how many people seem to have endless trouble with math. Not fractions and exponents and calculus (which looked so useless I never even touched it - but basic adding/subtracting! I frequently produce totals which, had I waited, would have cost someone two or three more extra seconds of thought. I dunno - 67 plus 48 is 115, and it looks pretty obvious to me. Oh well.

After that, we went back home to pick up Dad, who had fixed Chris' toilet, and then to El Rodeo for dinner. It was good, but I think Dad was pretty achy at this point. We went back to Chris' place, loaded up the car, and Dad drove home. Uneventful - but I slept from the Michigan state line to the first toll booth. Got home, yanked the Bag O'Doom upstairs, and talked to Myra for a while. She's doing well, but her beloved Cards are not, and she's losing hope. But the Series moves to St. Louis for three days, where they won all their games in the League Championship. So there's hope yet, I would wager. After that, I chatted with </a></b></a>matt and </a></b></a>lori for a while. Matt is still vaguely bummed out at college - but he's found a twice-a-week Heroclix group, so he's better. Lori is helping </a></b></a> deal with an impending tragedy, and her loyalty and deep concern for him reveal her noble nature. But even a Knight of the Cross needs a break once in a while, and I am pleased to spin a tale of happiness and joy (that might occasionally contain a nugget of wisdom or two) as comic relief. She'll return to the emotional meat grinder unhappily soon enough, I wager. About the only advice I might offer to him at this moment goes something like, "Friends of convenience will always show up to a party. Friends for life are the ones who gather around you in times of unique crisis." Not the best phraseology, but you get the point - if you're reading this, that is. You got my support, man - there but for the grace of God...

Anyway, after that, I was about to log out, when I noticed Karen logging into MSN Messenger. A brief ping to say hi...resulted in her logging off! How wude! (But what I suspect happened was that someone else with access to her computer accidentally launched it. But if he happens to read this (hint, hint), I would welcome an opportunity to talk with HIM, actually. I understand he might not be interested/able, given his busy schedule of the moment, but we are actually playing a game together, hmm? (She just now issued a formal denial, saying her PC was just acting up on its own - but what would he have told her to say if it happened the way I describe? Hmmmmm?)

Regardless. After that, I set up Katamari Damacy and played through the demo level and the first level of that. It's neat, and pretty hard. But it's one of the only games I've seen where the intro made me think, and I am certain would make most people think, "Dang! This game is SO gay!" But that's just the intro, and the game play was fine. It's certainly no Big Gay Monkey.

Sleep at last. Today's been nice - I'm moving along in both Amber games, the Cthulhu game, and I finished this rather extensive entry. Tonight's Everquest RPG, ideally. In fact, a brief rundown of this week's schedule:

Monday night - Everquest RPG, with Ernie, Mike and Sebastian
Tuesday night - LOTR CCG, with Brian, Charlie, Ken and Rob
Wednesday night - Scrabble most fair
Thursday night - Random boardgaming, with Brian, Ernie, </a></b></a>noel and </a></b></a>rich
Friday night - LOTR CCG with Ken and Charlie, conversation with Noel and Rich
Saturday night - Possible spectating at Mike's house
Sunday - dunno yet; recuperation?

Eat Snacky Smores.

Ah, sweet all-nighters. Twice in the past three months, I have made the enormously wise choice not to go to sleep. I'm just too busy - or too lazy - sometimes to turn everything off and go to bed. But let us review Wednesday night, Thursday and Friday morning.

And by the way, I want to clarify that I am not getting tired of my journal or anything, just because I've only made serious entries on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for this week. I just got busy at work and Tuesday and Thursday evenings aren't terribly accessible to me. So I was forced to save 'em up for when I had time.

After work (which I stayed at until 6:30), I went home and talked with Myra, playing two games of Scrabble (1-1, with an awfully close second game). We watched the Red Sox beat the Yankees (Whooo-hooo!) and we talked for a while, then she went to bed. I'm not sure I remember when </a></b></a>lori came online, but we had QUITE the interesting and varied conversation, as she herself will tell you. I think I'm just rather good at offering a somewhat non-judgmental point of view sometimes, which is one of the best ways to elicit openness and communication. I think that, if I were any less opposed to alcohol, I'd be a pretty darn good bartender. Heck, maybe I actually would be - it's not like I would swipe any product or anything. :) But we traded a few good songs, a few good stories, and I concluded the conversation by cowing her into meek acceptance. ;P (Oh, and I wish to issue an official correction on behalf of my brother - his Doctor Who collection is flawlessly organized and stored. Pity I can't find what I need anyway - must be my ever-errant vision or something. Key to something, something Key... what was that again? Hmmm.)

Anyway, that particular conversation concluded around 3:30AM. After that, I played some MTGO, installed Lord of the Rings Online and looked at the spoilers for Shadows, and cleaned up my room a bit. But I checked the board at 4:30, literally just as I was considering taking a slight nap - and I see Garvey online! I soon am chatting away with him as well, providing welcome relief to his busy evening/morning working on school projects. His wife had sensibly gone to bed several hours ago, and while I'm not surprised she allowed him to remain awake to finish his work, I am surprised that she would permit such fancies as AIM to be left on during this vital crunch time. Go Gaja! (Even though your web page still refers to Matt as your fiance.) I'm still looking forward to the first pictures from your photography class. But Matt welcomed the relief I provided, and we spoke briefly. After that, I watched Galaxy Quest and began harvesting cards from my VTES collection for a deck design I wanted to put together for that evening's festivities. It's a nice anti-Toreador affair, but I'm missing a vampire for it. Rats. But I got out of the door reasonably on time. The drive to work and Thursday morning were a bit nerve-wracking, as I was actually suddenly quite tired. But as I got closer to lunch (which I had originally intended to nap through), I found myself gaining energy. And so when lunch got around, it felt natural to just go out and have Baja Fresh and read from Fanfare for the Area Man. (I'd get Democracy Inaction, but it's kind of pricey. Dunno.) After I came back - sigh - I got tired again for a while, but nothing too bad. Then, work is done! Yayyy! I drive down to Games Plus, saying hi along the way. Brian and Ernie are there, and </a></b></a>rich and </a></b></a>noel show up soon afterwards. The breakdown of the game:

A) Brian, playing Tremere. Go figure. This one is a standard Talaq-plays-Burst-of-Sunlight thing.
B) Rich, playing Brujah/Anti-Brujah extra strikes stuff. At least it's not extra strikes/AGG.
C) Noel, playing a vote deck. Yayyyyy. (Sigh.)
D) Ernie, playing Tzimisce. Not sure what he was doing - Noel is funny about not letting her prey do anything like what they were intending to do. They tend not to sit down to a game as to a short yet painful death.
E) Myself, playing anti-Ventrue and Salubri. I saw a Salubri hit the table, and it was cool doing stuff like Anesthetic Touch and Sight Beyond Sight and Repulsion. But it didn't go far enough. I think the next one I'll try for the scarce clans is True Brujah.

Only casualty was Ernie - between votes and bleeds, he didn't stand much of a chance. But after that, most of us had our stuff together enough to prevent more lawnmowing. I'm still somewhat surprised every time Noel thinks she's got the ENTIRE TABLE - three players' layouts, deck types, and hands - in her head, makes a big move, and gets surprised by ONE detail which screws it all up. I really don't think, when a game turns into a 3-on-1 situation (as a vote deck running the table is wont to do), that one person can really hope to take on three players and be successful. Perhaps as a straight bleed deck (though don't get me started on stealth/bleed) might be able to - but if you throw politics in the mix as well, not sure what can be done. And she gets SOOOOO mad about it, too. It really puts a damper on in-game chatter, which is quite a pity.

Anyway, afterwards, we went outside and watched Jon Stewart beat up the Crossfire hosts on Brian's laptop. (No, I'm not linking it. Just go Google "Jon Stewart Crossfire" and you'll find it.) Kind of funny - but then again, it was just more of the same. People have this weird feeling that the august Mr. Stewart 'destroyed' the hosts. But what kind of TV is Crossfire, anyway? All they want is argumentation and controversy. All they did in having Mr. Stewart there is temporarily appeal to a larger audience. They didn't learn anything from that - except maybe that getting themselves hit attracts ratings as much as having the guests get hit. Me, I just ignore the whole 'news' thing for the most part. NPR and the front pages of the Chicago papers is about it. And even NPR ain't perfect.

Drove home, chatted with Selyna again, though not nearly so long and wonderfully - as I was getting tired at long last. I cleaned off the bed (or at least the right side) and went to sleep. Luxuriant that it was, but brief.

Today's been pretty reasonable. Filled up two trash cans with page counting stuff, and I've got an hour to write material for Blood Loyalties and post to the Private Threads. I've been a little focused on ACD at the expense of my own game. Sorry, folks. Riding/driving with Dad tonight to Chris' place. Yayyy, Chris! (Even if you are an old fogy.)

Oh, and A) I caught up with page counting today, and B) I found the receipt for the book-on-tape I've been listening to! Woohoooo! I'm stopping at Barnes & Noble tonight to get a new one.

Eat Snacky Smores.

Well, bad news this morning. I put on some weight - more than I thought I had, and more than I thought I could in a month. And I think I've been fitting into some of my clothes better at the same time, too. I've been walking around an hour a week, I didn't change much from my LAST doctor's visit, so I'm not sure what's up. I need to give Tack more information now, so I have to put together the diaries and twice-a-week weigh-ins he asked for. Icky icky.

But to yesterday. I am (as you might be able to tell) really digging the idea of posting decks and making the card names active links! I developed an Access query that pretty much spits it out as you see it, except for the divisions between categories. I posted a separate question about Magic card linking (once again, thanks, Matt), and I also looked at VTES. There are no images online, but there is a reference page for each card. Unfortunately, they're indexed not by name, but by number. And it looks like they started numbering just before Sabbat War came out. So the initial batch of 600 or so is roughly alphabetical - but is charming enough to skip a few numbers and duplicate others! - and then I figure each set will be numbered by name. So I can do it, but it'll be quite the headache. Not sure how I'm going to handle the whole "%20" thing in the link name - might get a query to strip them out. I have a way to force it, but it's tedious.

Work was obviously quite slow. Still weird, but it won't hold a candle to today. I'm not altogether sure what I spent the bulk of the day doing, aside from the whole link-building project. I talked to Chris on the way home, and confirmed that he's available the week of the 22nd-24th for a visit. He's been asking for me to come over, and he sounds all wonewy about it. Awww. So he gets a visit, and we'll try out Kathmari Damacy (if that's how it is spelled). It's a bizarre PS2 title we found out about from Penny Arcade and liked the idea. Got home, made some chili for dinner, and went upstairs.

Hey, Garvey! Haven't seen you in a while!
Hey, Matt! Talk to me about my deck!
Hey, Myra (Yes, your name finally appears in lights)! Let's play Literati!
Hey, Kathy! LOOONG time no see. But I'm in game now.
Hey, Rich! Long time no chat. But I'm in game now.
Hey, Lori! I'm in game now.

Maybe it was just that this happens every day, and I'm not home to see it - but it felt kind of barrage-y.

But I finally redeemed last week's miserable failure with a 60-point win, an 8-point win, and a 10-point loss. Oh, and the Cards won! Good news by me. Anyway, after she toddled off to bed, I talked with Lori, the only holdout who stayed up with me. And she introduced me to Foamy the Squirrel. You owe it to yourself to go there right now, RIGHT NOW, and watch Five More Minutes. Beware the Squirrelly Wrath (tm)!

We talked more, and I enlightened her as to the function of polyester in a partner-rich environment. (Grotesque Gulp, anyone?) Then I played it for a while (like an hour), and then just as I was about to retire...

Hey, Karen! Long time no chat.

And so we talked. She works three days a week, but has apparently decided that today she needs to maintain her activity level. I don't remember them, but she listed six to eight things she was doing today. Going to the gym, shopping, writing, relieving world hunger - I lost track. I do recall the word 'coffee' coming up, though - a good thing.

I slept, woke up a little late, but still had to shower for Tack. I'm also wearing a bright red shirt underneath my green-white work shirt. Must look a little odd with the red showing through at the neck.

And today, on the day BEFORE the deadline for reports, our report clerk called in sick, AND had locked out his machine, so we had to reset his password. That means I have to do non-401(k) reports today as well as the 401(k) ones. Greeaaaaat. "And I am already weary."

Let's see if Subway still does twofers.

Eat Snacky Smores.

Greetings, harsh and uncaring world.

Yesterday was quite normal and pleasant. Over lunch, I went to Breast Buy and bought the new Leisure Suit Larry title and the special edition of the Untouchables. "Did it sound anything like that?" However, for the second time in three weeks, I went to BB, bought stuff, and neglected to pull out my $5 gift certificate. Sheesh. Still, I think I might have something I want to get this weekend. (And no, I'm not telling - yet.) The afternoon was light work and attempting a project you'll see here later today. (Not that you'll care, but you'll see it if you look.) And then a quick drive home, with a call right at the end that somewhat degenerated but was otherwise quite pleasant.

I'm developing a liking for Progresso Chicken Noodle. It's just a reasonably good soup, but U of M cafeterias got me hooked on soups, so it's pretty neat. I once again fell to the temptation to suck up and bought Mom a Suzy-Q. Oh well, at least it's not a freaking box. I took a LOTR deck design I put together that afternoon and pulled cards for it. Rob was 10 minutes late (gasp) and so I actually had time to finish it. Not that it won, but it almost did something really cool.

LOTR was surprisingly pleasant. Rob and I played two or three games (which I think he won), and then Charlie arrived. I let him play a game with Rob, and then we played a three-player game. It might actually be that Rob won every game yesterday, but it didn't have the sting it sometimes had. Maybe it's because someone who gets all tense, irritable and angry wasn't there last night. But then again, it really would have been more pleasant with him. I think. But Charlie got a little fatigued towards the end. He's officially called for an in-group banning of Rallying Call (of all things), and before Rob and I talked him down (thank you, Relentless Charge), he was talking about dropping if Greenleaf isn't banned. I can't say I blame him, as Greenleaf is so boringly powerful as to be nauseating. Rob can't really afford to get into Shadows, so he's semi-making noises about asking to freeze our group pre-Shadows. Of course, he's also not looking forward to losing Bill Ferny - something like the EIGHTH card Decipher has taken away from him. I don't agree with a LOT of the decisions Decipher makes, but sometimes they score a hit. Banning all cards with "Bill" in the name has been one of their good ones. The problem with all this is that we're down the one tournament player who might have a little more perspective on this, and we're also down one of our casual players who will be going forward with Shadows as I am. So it's hard to get discussions going that aren't really one-sided.

After that, I picked up, watched a little CSI with Mom, and then went upstairs. I dropped online and noticed that I got into Garvey's game! Whoo-hoo! Let's hear it for people who write 15,000 words of background! So that's all good. And then I loaded up Leisure Suit Larry. It's good - it's way more adult than most of the previous titles, and that's saying something. But it's also looking to be more of a series of mini-games and has a vague MMO influence on it. So good and the bad. I got a souvenir from one fine young woman and put it away. I'd been itching to hit iTunes for a few songs, and picked out around ten. I bought them and went to bed.

This morning, stupid computer trick:

A) Burn CD with iTunes containing purchased songs in weird-ass proprietary format
B) Rip from CD to make MP3s
C) Take songs and put them on MP3 player, something Apple appears to not want you to do without owning a freaking $200 iPod

And the drive to work was made pleasant and happy, if a little late due to the delay. Mom's muffins rock.

Eat Snacky Smores.

But sometimes we'd rather not have done. In other words, I'm a little tired.

Yesterday. Work was light on Columbus Day, but more people were here than I might have expected, given that schools are also out. Maybe all the parents here had their partners stay home - I don't know. But it was odd. It was more odd that they were here on October 11th, 4 days before the deadline, and so little got done. Thursday is starting to look pretty scary. ;)

I had nicely long email/PM conversations with several people, and I brought my LOTR Access database up to speed with around six to eight of the new spoilers. (I'm beginning to suspect that "archer" as a keyword on the Free Peoples' side might be over with, as 'ally' has been generally retired. BOTH versions of Legolas out of Shadows lack this important keyword that he has never lacked before.) I also got two more people to post on the Who Are All These Fine People thread - and that was a chain, as I only asked one! Whoo-hoo! Give it up for peer pressure!

After work, I drove out to Games Plus, looking for some items friends asked me to look out for at the auction. No luck. Wahhh. Maybe I'll find them somewhere else. (Reminds me - alt-tabbing to write a letter, back soon.)

Anyway. Went from there to Mike's house. Sebastian showed up soon enough, and we chatted amiably for quite some time. (Not to mention Natalie's wonderful a$$ cookies - I *must* ask what they were for.) But as it became clear that we weren't going to see Ernie, and therefore wouldn't be playing EQRPG, we started talking Bush/Kerry. Sebastian and Mike seem to be some of the ONLY gamers I know who support Bush. Sebastian is just a social conservative/Darwinist - I became more convinced during our argument that Bush could have been found to have killed his parents and he'd still vote for the Republican. Mike actually presented a cogent argument for electing Bush - he continues to impress me, even though he is pure evil. But the argument is that Bush's experience is more management and team-oriented, whereas Kerry is more a doer and an active participant. Such a quarterback might be unused to either handing off the ball or letting the coach call in the plays as needed - which would be fine if we trusted him in all arenas of national and international politics, but if we believe he needs advisors, he might not be relied upon to listen to them. I used a classic Socratic, lead-them-into-contradiction technique, and had Sebastian call Iraq both "a war" and "not a war". He quickly clarified each wording, but I pointed out to him that the GOP's chief complaint against Kerry - that he is wishy-washy - can emerge from similar situations. Nobody moved in viewpoint - that so rarely happens in political discourse as to have an accompaniment from the Vienna Boys' Choir when it does - but it was educational, I think. Then we called it a night and I drove home.

Dad was asleep, brief words with Mom. Once again forgot to deposit my check - it's to my right now, but unendorsed. Went upstairs and launched AIM. Chatted with Matt about new LOTR spoilers and a nice development in his future. Chatted with Selyna about...well, go read her journal. Chatted about sleeplessness and pink elephants. Then, I got Matt's script working - YAYYY! Harvested around 200 or so messages while I chatted. I could have spent TODAY doing that, but it's nice to have gotten it out of the way. Mad props to the codemaster. Slept.

Morning goes as all mornings go, but traffic was annoyingly stop-start. I want to either DRIVE when I'm in the car, or be so blocked that I can read. This whole drive-ten-feet-wait-fifteen-seconds crap drives me up the wall. But I got here, I've got a few bits of work that wonderful people gave me last evening at 5:20, and things are going well.

Eat Snacky Smores.

Hello, avid readers!

Well, Collateral was quite a good movie. Tom Cruise usually does at least passable work, at least when he's trying to do someone with a cool and confident attitude. Jamie Foxx is actually pretty good. (But then again, I go to the movies to BE entertained, not to find fault, so my reviews are usually nicer than those of my contemporaries.)

After that, we went to Walker Brothers, home of the best pancakes this side of Mount Olympus. (Put it this way - Mom, Dad and Chris went to Walker Brothers on Saturday, and when I asked on Sunday, the only question was whether Dad would come with us - and he did. They're that good. Then we came back home and I fooled around with a combination of Okage, SW Battlefront and MTGO. Played an incredibly amusing game of Magic, two-headed giant. Somewhere about four to eight Beacons of Immortality played - PER SIDE. My partner would play Beacon of Creation, and the other team would play Wrath or Vengeance. Our opponents played Standstill - with NOTHING on the board! They continued to Vengeance/destroy our creatures - after they'd crossed into 1,000 life points and more! It started annoying, as my partner told me that he had to -unblock- one of our opponents, so he was pretty confident we were facing blue steal. I would say literally ten turns per player got eaten up with draw-go thanks to that Standstill. I managed to hold my partner off until they broke it themselves - with a Madness-inspired (and I'm not really kidding) Obsessive Search. Not an Armageddon, not an Upheaval - a stupid draw-one-discard-one. The game became quite comical, actually - it finally ended with my partner getting Opportunitied out of the game, myself pulling the Phage/Endless Whispers combo on one of theirs, and a final game loss by decking, as the opponent had two cards in deck. I should have cast Phage on my second-to-last turn - not sure what I was holding out for. Sigh.

I was starting to develop a rarity for me - a rather nasty headache. It came on slow, but really started ramping up on me as I was playing Literati. I took some Advil - something I haven't probably done since my last bout of sciatica - and then laid down for an hour. I felt better, and wasn't tired, so I played more MTGO and finally cleaned all the unmatched socks off my bed. Next stop - the laundry all over the floor. :)

The morning was nice. Showered, little traffic, work was three cover letters and a few labels. Looking forward to pelting Garvey (there, Matt, I said it again - and I know too many Matts) with nags after he gets in - both about the ACD game and that I have installed ActivePerl and might get the script running tonight with his cooperation. I also need to spend some time scoping out Selyna's online games, and I have responses to write for Demon and Cthulhu. Ah, a busy morning at work.

Eat Snacky Smores.

Well, I found out my doctor's appointment is next Thursday. Whooo! (I have no idea if I'll do anything meaningful in that time, but it feels like a release anyway.) So I'm playing Vampire tonight at 7PM, not 8.

I felt a little guilty driving over to the auction, as I had the music up way loud and my phone off. I drive faster and more aggressively with tunes on, and I wanted to get to the auction ASAP. (Not to mention talking to the kitchen sink.) But I wrote an email later that night asking how the evening had gone. It's probably enough - but it shouldn't be. Siiiigh.

The auction was pretty fun, if slim pickings. Ernie, Mike and I hung out for most of the time - and Mike and I kept trying to get the other to buy stuff. Mike actually BID on Star Trek cards, so that he could give them to Sebastian, so that Sebastian could give them to *me*. I'll get to those stupid cards someday, just to laugh at and with Sebastian as I hand him his $5 check. But in the end, all I got were some Vampire cards - and mostly bulk commons at that. But many of them are Camarilla Edition, which had a mess of reprints with dramatically reworded texts.

Got the two things on my desk out of the way in fifteen minutes, so I'm a little idle at work now. I'll dive into GilGalen's notes, I hope. I also have to update a few of the private threads, and maybe update my new character's history to account for discussions with Garvey.

Oh, and paranoid me can no longer tell if Brian's lying or not. He stormed off last Tuesday (squealing his tires, no less) and then canceled Thursday, next Tuesday, next Thursday, and the following Tuesday. On the other hand, he IS working at Fright Fest at Six Flags. I know this takes up almost all of his October. On the other hand, I'm not sure I recall his absences being so -complete- last year. Anyway, I still have his Champions of Kamigawa, and he's welcome to pick them up or have them delivered whenever. If he'd been at the auction last night or stopped by on Tuesday anyway, I might have given him crap. Now, I can hardly care less. He wants to palpitate his heart, fine.

And now, on with the show.