... the IT man in LibraryLand
This year for Australia Day I patriotically celebrated by accepting The Viking Hat GM's invite to see his new house and indulge in yet more Gygax style old school gaming.
There were another five gamers there of which I had only played with one before so it was cool to experience play with new people - and they were all fun to play with, plus there were snacks.
I do think that The Viking Hat GM has gone soft after missing out on gaming for the last few months of his packing and moving as he only killed three of the characters and the worst thing we faced was a basilisk unlike the horrors of last time. Kiwi Nick has written the chronicle of our game if you're interested.
I was going to go home for the evening but TVHGM offered free dinner and a free beer. Uncharacteristically I ended up spending the rest of the evening in conversation with him until, in a desperate effort to make me leave, he subjected me to the latest atrocity from Uwe Bolle - In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Needless to say I ambled out of there as fast as I could despite remembering BestFriendSincePrep giving it a "Best Movie Ever!" rating.
.
... The Collection of Short Stories
My apologies for going almost a fortnight between updates however I have been suffering under the ravages of my unshakable man-cold and - yes Supervisor Grand Chief K - working quite a lot.
The gap has however allowed me to gather up a collection of small tales of the events that have occurred during my absence.
So let's begin...
The Duchess and the Admiral
I had the opportunity to play this with Pirate Dave and Juzzy J Thursday week.
Hmmm, perhaps I better point out it was a role-playing game.
Hmmm, maybe a better further point out it was role-playing in the dice, pen, and paper sort and not the other kind.
Anyway, with The Bastard's back problems re-surfacing I have been handed the gaming reins and, as I am so busy with work, rather than spend oodles of time prepping I have been experimenting with some quick random dice rolls for the initial set-up and then improvising the evenings episode. I have dubbed it Random Travelling and with this Thursday's game going well it seems to be a success.
The Corporate Image
Friday week I was back in the Corporate castle working hard imaging up a pair of computers for the library. Whilst slaving away there I was introduced to The Warden the new boss of all things IT.
Farewell to The Doctor
After the hard working week my Saturday was a reasonably relaxed day at home. I finished my watching of the second season of the new Doctor Who. I am really quite fond of it, although I suspect the emotional resonance bits that I like were virtually non-existent in the original so traditional fans may want to burn me in effigy.
Avoiding doom with Doom
After a coffee catchup with Rugrat Twin the rest of my Sunday was devoted to gaming. The main
game of the afternoon was Doom's sprawling Arkham Horror boardgame and we were surprisingly effective in preventing eldritch horror from manifesting and destroying the earth - yay us!
The Twilight Party
After two long, hardworking days back at work I was looking forward to crashing this school holiday event. However Lord of the Small Fries banned me from participating despite my claims that an old man hanging out with teenage girls was completely on theme for Twilight and besides I am only a third of the age of perfect Edward. Oh well at least I was able to console myself with leftover pizza from the party.
Setting the date
Thursday morn brought me back to the Physio and we determined the date for my return to soccer. Oh and since many of you undoubtedly though this was Svetlana related I should mention that I had myself a quite short haircut afterwards that would most likely not be approved of by the lady herself and will most likely see her show up on my doorstep to chastise me any day now.
A real werewolf film
After making it late to farewell drinks because of having lots of work to do I scooted home to catch up with BestFriendSincePrep to go and see Underworld: Rise of the Lycans a really and truly werewolf film. Considering how bad the second in the series was this one was quite enjoyable although it was quite dark and I did feel like shining a spotlight at the screen to see what was going on.
The Morning Nip
I resumed my morning walk/jogs this morning after a couple of weeks off due to illness and work commitments.
So calmly dragging myself along the path I was suddenly beset upon by a vicious pack of bloodthirsty yippy dogs. One of them took it upon himself to stretch up and bite me just below the knee (the good one thankfully) then as I was busy saying ow he nipped around to do the other side. It didn't seem to bad so I let the owner off with only a mildly upset look and was on my way again.
Now in the cold light of afternoon I sit here anxiously awaiting the onset of rabies - or perhaps even werewolfism (and I really don't relish the idea of turning into a yippy dog at the full moon).
.
The gap has however allowed me to gather up a collection of small tales of the events that have occurred during my absence.
So let's begin...
The Duchess and the Admiral
I had the opportunity to play this with Pirate Dave and Juzzy J Thursday week.
Hmmm, perhaps I better point out it was a role-playing game.
Hmmm, maybe a better further point out it was role-playing in the dice, pen, and paper sort and not the other kind.
Anyway, with The Bastard's back problems re-surfacing I have been handed the gaming reins and, as I am so busy with work, rather than spend oodles of time prepping I have been experimenting with some quick random dice rolls for the initial set-up and then improvising the evenings episode. I have dubbed it Random Travelling and with this Thursday's game going well it seems to be a success.
The Corporate Image
Friday week I was back in the Corporate castle working hard imaging up a pair of computers for the library. Whilst slaving away there I was introduced to The Warden the new boss of all things IT.
Farewell to The Doctor
After the hard working week my Saturday was a reasonably relaxed day at home. I finished my watching of the second season of the new Doctor Who. I am really quite fond of it, although I suspect the emotional resonance bits that I like were virtually non-existent in the original so traditional fans may want to burn me in effigy.
Avoiding doom with Doom
After a coffee catchup with Rugrat Twin the rest of my Sunday was devoted to gaming. The main
game of the afternoon was Doom's sprawling Arkham Horror boardgame and we were surprisingly effective in preventing eldritch horror from manifesting and destroying the earth - yay us!
The Twilight Party
After two long, hardworking days back at work I was looking forward to crashing this school holiday event. However Lord of the Small Fries banned me from participating despite my claims that an old man hanging out with teenage girls was completely on theme for Twilight and besides I am only a third of the age of perfect Edward. Oh well at least I was able to console myself with leftover pizza from the party.
Setting the date
Thursday morn brought me back to the Physio and we determined the date for my return to soccer. Oh and since many of you undoubtedly though this was Svetlana related I should mention that I had myself a quite short haircut afterwards that would most likely not be approved of by the lady herself and will most likely see her show up on my doorstep to chastise me any day now.
A real werewolf film
After making it late to farewell drinks because of having lots of work to do I scooted home to catch up with BestFriendSincePrep to go and see Underworld: Rise of the Lycans a really and truly werewolf film. Considering how bad the second in the series was this one was quite enjoyable although it was quite dark and I did feel like shining a spotlight at the screen to see what was going on.
The Morning Nip
I resumed my morning walk/jogs this morning after a couple of weeks off due to illness and work commitments.
So calmly dragging myself along the path I was suddenly beset upon by a vicious pack of bloodthirsty yippy dogs. One of them took it upon himself to stretch up and bite me just below the knee (the good one thankfully) then as I was busy saying ow he nipped around to do the other side. It didn't seem to bad so I let the owner off with only a mildly upset look and was on my way again.
Now in the cold light of afternoon I sit here anxiously awaiting the onset of rabies - or perhaps even werewolfism (and I really don't relish the idea of turning into a yippy dog at the full moon).
.
... The Trials of Vodka Parties and Man Colds
Since Saturday I have been struggling under the debilitating effects of a yet another Man-Cold, this time in the Summer edition.
Something about late nights and taking improper care of oneself allows the opportunistic Man-Cold to take hold I guess.
In any case, despite my hardship, I made my appearance at Zombie Monkey's vodka-themed birthday do on Saturday eve - I must say that Vodka made a much better theme than the Dalek Porn of his previous do a couple of years back, but I digress.
Despite my Man-Cold-Summer-Edition keeping me to one and a half free vodkas I had a delightful time. I was peripherally involved in a religious discussion The Composer and Scary Adam; had a measuring contest about injured knees and fitness regimes with Geisha Girl (inexplicably I lost); had a short gaming conversation with an anonymous minor-level nemesis of The Viking Hat GM; caught up with Hemy's goings on and even uncharacteristically left before the end of both the party and the snacks.
Surprisingly the vodka did nothing for my Man-Cold so I was forced to take it easy all day Sunday. I decided Monday was needed as a precaution as well before dragging myself in to work today for some quiet air-conditioned time in the extreme heat.
.
Something about late nights and taking improper care of oneself allows the opportunistic Man-Cold to take hold I guess.
In any case, despite my hardship, I made my appearance at Zombie Monkey's vodka-themed birthday do on Saturday eve - I must say that Vodka made a much better theme than the Dalek Porn of his previous do a couple of years back, but I digress.
Despite my Man-Cold-Summer-Edition keeping me to one and a half free vodkas I had a delightful time. I was peripherally involved in a religious discussion The Composer and Scary Adam; had a measuring contest about injured knees and fitness regimes with Geisha Girl (inexplicably I lost); had a short gaming conversation with an anonymous minor-level nemesis of The Viking Hat GM; caught up with Hemy's goings on and even uncharacteristically left before the end of both the party and the snacks.
Surprisingly the vodka did nothing for my Man-Cold so I was forced to take it easy all day Sunday. I decided Monday was needed as a precaution as well before dragging myself in to work today for some quiet air-conditioned time in the extreme heat.
.
... The Romance of Cat Poop
So it seems I have been accused of being un-romantic.
I received a late night/early morning SMS from Svetlana the other night - she's currently gallivanting around Srpski next door to Svetlanaland since her job has gone into winter hybernation.
In my reply I mentioned that I'd had to spend some amount of my middle-of-the-night time freeing The Tiger from a fluff and poop disaster of her own making, and that I wished Svets herself had been there.
Apparently, as was said (texted?) to me with much sarcasm, that was one of the most romantic things to reply with - hmmm, unless it wasn't sarcastic - who knows with these Svetlanese people??
In any case my stating that I would have kissed her afterwards, mysteriously didn't seem to improve my case at all and I thought that doing things together was one of the cornerstones of romance.
.
I received a late night/early morning SMS from Svetlana the other night - she's currently gallivanting around Srpski next door to Svetlanaland since her job has gone into winter hybernation.
In my reply I mentioned that I'd had to spend some amount of my middle-of-the-night time freeing The Tiger from a fluff and poop disaster of her own making, and that I wished Svets herself had been there.
Apparently, as was said (texted?) to me with much sarcasm, that was one of the most romantic things to reply with - hmmm, unless it wasn't sarcastic - who knows with these Svetlanese people??
In any case my stating that I would have kissed her afterwards, mysteriously didn't seem to improve my case at all and I thought that doing things together was one of the cornerstones of romance.
.
... Nursing Legion3
The other morning I was able to shirk off from work in order to collect Legion3 from the hospital.
You see he had decided to emulate his older brother and go in for some minor surgery. Of course it took him some three and a bit years to catch up - and even then he wasn't rugged and manly enough to struggle through the pain and go home the same day (some of my detractors would say that I had no choice being day surgery but I'm sure if I'd begged to stay like Legion3 it would have been possible).
Anyway I arrived bright and early for the collection, unlike the doctor who in the end didn't even pop his head in to say Legion3 could go home and left that up to the nursing staff who all kept assuming said doctor had been in and okayed it and so had to keep going off to check.
The end result is that Madmog and I had to wait around for close to an hour until the staff finally came back to release the patient.
I must say I am quite disappointed with private hospitals - there was no breakfast delivery during our arduous stay, nor a morning tea cake trolley, not even a bowl of fruit in the room! I feel I made it out just in time before starvation took hold.
I dropped them home and headed off to work finally getting some respite from all that "ooh it hurts" and "stop punching me there Phill".
Of course that took me to work where it was all "ooh it doesn't work" and "stop just sitting there Phill".
.
You see he had decided to emulate his older brother and go in for some minor surgery. Of course it took him some three and a bit years to catch up - and even then he wasn't rugged and manly enough to struggle through the pain and go home the same day (some of my detractors would say that I had no choice being day surgery but I'm sure if I'd begged to stay like Legion3 it would have been possible).
Anyway I arrived bright and early for the collection, unlike the doctor who in the end didn't even pop his head in to say Legion3 could go home and left that up to the nursing staff who all kept assuming said doctor had been in and okayed it and so had to keep going off to check.
The end result is that Madmog and I had to wait around for close to an hour until the staff finally came back to release the patient.
I must say I am quite disappointed with private hospitals - there was no breakfast delivery during our arduous stay, nor a morning tea cake trolley, not even a bowl of fruit in the room! I feel I made it out just in time before starvation took hold.
I dropped them home and headed off to work finally getting some respite from all that "ooh it hurts" and "stop punching me there Phill".
Of course that took me to work where it was all "ooh it doesn't work" and "stop just sitting there Phill".
.
... Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
A couple of days on the train and a well written read-more story has seen me finish this reasonably quickly.
Stepping away from his usual cyberpunk setting - but maintaining the intrigue side of things - Gibson tells an interesting story that explores the consumerist society we live in.
I enjoyed it and, despite Badgers protests about most of the characters being based on real internet forum personalities (about as real as most blogging personas - oneself excluded of course) I recommend it.
To appease Badger in some manner I am starting on the monster book he lent to me called Ash. Honestly it's like lugging a brick around and my wrists start giving out on me after only five or so minutes. I expect I'll be a while at it's 1100 or so pages and damn him it's good so far so I can't abandon it!
Also speaking of Pattern recognition I seem to have been in a pattern of work, sleep, work lately which combined with the holidays of many around me has left me with little to chat about. Still I can sense something stirring in the wind so stay tuned.
.
Stepping away from his usual cyberpunk setting - but maintaining the intrigue side of things - Gibson tells an interesting story that explores the consumerist society we live in.
I enjoyed it and, despite Badgers protests about most of the characters being based on real internet forum personalities (about as real as most blogging personas - oneself excluded of course) I recommend it.
To appease Badger in some manner I am starting on the monster book he lent to me called Ash. Honestly it's like lugging a brick around and my wrists start giving out on me after only five or so minutes. I expect I'll be a while at it's 1100 or so pages and damn him it's good so far so I can't abandon it!
Also speaking of Pattern recognition I seem to have been in a pattern of work, sleep, work lately which combined with the holidays of many around me has left me with little to chat about. Still I can sense something stirring in the wind so stay tuned.
.
... Princess Mononoke
I finally caught up with this anime feature only some 5 or 6 years after it's wave of popularity has passed - I'm so anti-cool.
It is a studio Gibli production and various others of theirs have been enthused towards me by the likes of Sir Clive Pitbull and The Composer in the past - both of whom would be horrified that I watched it in the English dub rather than with the subtitles but, sometimes, when I want to see a movie I want to SEE the movie rather than spend my time reading it. And besides with an all star voice cast I figured it would be well voice acted and in the end I was mostly right.
Princess Mononoke was quite the enjoyable movie and managed to have an epic feel without too many over the top anime moments. I recommend it as a reasonable storywith a great sense of the landscape it is set in - much like Lord of the Rings. Why one reviewer called it the Star Wars of animated films I don't quite understand since LOTR is a quite suitable comparison. Oh well.
And how did I come to finally view this you may ask?
Well it was returned by a conscientious borrow on one of the many occasions I happened to be near the desk during the the post-Xmas borrower blitz. Said borrower remarked that the disk didn't work properly.
With Seditious Sam (our designated DVD checker-outerer) off on holidays I decided on the spot to take it home for some technical investigation.
Other than a few small sound glitches all was well and I'll have to try this whole technical investigation thing again and make sure I get my money's worth out of my time in LibraryLand.
.
It is a studio Gibli production and various others of theirs have been enthused towards me by the likes of Sir Clive Pitbull and The Composer in the past - both of whom would be horrified that I watched it in the English dub rather than with the subtitles but, sometimes, when I want to see a movie I want to SEE the movie rather than spend my time reading it. And besides with an all star voice cast I figured it would be well voice acted and in the end I was mostly right.
Princess Mononoke was quite the enjoyable movie and managed to have an epic feel without too many over the top anime moments. I recommend it as a reasonable storywith a great sense of the landscape it is set in - much like Lord of the Rings. Why one reviewer called it the Star Wars of animated films I don't quite understand since LOTR is a quite suitable comparison. Oh well.
And how did I come to finally view this you may ask?
Well it was returned by a conscientious borrow on one of the many occasions I happened to be near the desk during the the post-Xmas borrower blitz. Said borrower remarked that the disk didn't work properly.
With Seditious Sam (our designated DVD checker-outerer) off on holidays I decided on the spot to take it home for some technical investigation.
Other than a few small sound glitches all was well and I'll have to try this whole technical investigation thing again and make sure I get my money's worth out of my time in LibraryLand.
.
... The New Year
Welcome back!
I'm all refreshed and ready to roll again. Well as refreshed as I can be with the morning light waking The Tiger at ungodly hours like 7am!!
As is customary at the beginning of the year there has not been a lot happening other than catching up with all the bits and pieces around the apartment.
I did make it back to my home library on Friday which was a highlight although doing stats all day was a bit of a lowlight.
I suppose I could fill up this post with New Years Resolutions but I have been of the opinion for quite a while that, while having a significant point to mark the beginning of changes has it's value, if you want to make changes then make changes. Of course I haven't had the opportunity to test this little theorem of mine as I have no need for changing.
Anyway, I'm sure the coming week - and indeed year - shall provide me with ample material to cast my finely honed objective and observational eye over.
So let us go onwards into 2009!
.
I'm all refreshed and ready to roll again. Well as refreshed as I can be with the morning light waking The Tiger at ungodly hours like 7am!!
As is customary at the beginning of the year there has not been a lot happening other than catching up with all the bits and pieces around the apartment.
I did make it back to my home library on Friday which was a highlight although doing stats all day was a bit of a lowlight.
I suppose I could fill up this post with New Years Resolutions but I have been of the opinion for quite a while that, while having a significant point to mark the beginning of changes has it's value, if you want to make changes then make changes. Of course I haven't had the opportunity to test this little theorem of mine as I have no need for changing.
Anyway, I'm sure the coming week - and indeed year - shall provide me with ample material to cast my finely honed objective and observational eye over.
So let us go onwards into 2009!
.
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