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I decided around GameConjunction that I was going to skip GMing at the January and spend the time playing games instead. That plan isn't doing so well. It's seven weeks until that one, and there's not nearly enough on the roster to get me to spend my money on a badge. Same locals running the same stuff, and there are some good GMs there, but it's more of the same and more practice runs for whatever Lurking Fears is doing at whatever other cons later in the year.

Thanksgiving was just a delight. Spent the day with Dad and Kaiser, grazing on snacks and pizza, reading and watching football. Late lunch on Friday with my brother and sister-in-law, more reading after that. Saturday was the Governor's Cup, and I was fully expecting UK to beat an injury-depleted demoralized UofL team. Yeah, that didn't happen. The Cards ran away with the game, winning 41-0. It was a good end to the season, breaking a three-game losing streak and hopefully making a good enough showing for a respectable postseason game. Felt pretty good after the game and decided to head back home that evening so I could have all of Sunday to do whatever, and "whatever" turned out to be more reading and NFL games and it was good.

Haven't done much this weekend. Some household chores. Picked up my new contacts. Napped. No regrets on that front - it's good to just rest sometimes.

UPS and FedEx and some others grounded their MD-11 fleets after the crash last week. I've driven by SDF a few times in the last couple of days and seen five or six of the planes parked on the apron in front of the big UPS hangar. I wonder if their days are numbered now.

So, what happened was, the left engine fell off during the takeoff roll. There are a hojillion videos of the takeoff and crash and the immediate aftermath. It's cold comfort to the survivors of the 14 folks who died, but this could have been so much worse.

A UPS air freighter crashed during takeoff this afternoon. I had just swapped a company car for mine at the East Broadway site when I saw the cloud of smoke and noticed some ash on my car. Called Dad and Housemate, drove home with the windows down for a while and probably breathed in some things I shouldn't have. Shelter-in-place orders were issued and just now reduced.

It was a MD-11, loaded for a nonstop to Honolulu. About 40,000 gallons of fuel sprayed along a quarter-mile or so, hitting a petroleum recycling business and an auto salvage yard. The aircrew is dead, 11 injuries reported so far.

I'm a little shaken. I pass by the airport several times a week, and drove through a couple of the access roads to avoid a traffic jam today. This hits home, much more than the commuter jet crash in Lexington several years ago.

My beloved Dodgers are now the Repeat Defending World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. The Series went seven games, two in extra innings, with Game Seven ending with local guy and former Louisville Cardinal Will Smith getting a solo home run and a game-ending defensive play. Toronto played some incredible baseball and while I'm obviously happy with the outcome, losing to the Blue Jays would have been no shame at all.

Our new/renewed convention went well. We hit the attendance goal and there was plenty to do. Two of my three scheduled games went off, both more-or-less successfully. Had some frustration with a player's decision paralysis, enough so that I started skipping his actions when he was taking too much time and cutting into other players' time. Didn't get to play anything because of my GM and staff scheduling, sadly. Going to rectify that in January - not GMing anything at that one.

The Dodgers have gone 10-1 so far in the postseason. Swept the Reds in the Wild Card, went 3-1 against the Phillies in the NLDS, and swept the Brewers in the NLCS. The team has been playing terrific baseball following the September slump. Shohei Ohtani in particular has been just incredible. Beyond incredible. He's damned near redefining the game.

Ran a DCC game for a buddy from the Outer Rim Heroes days and some of his friends last night. It was a good time, lots of cat-herding and chainsaw-juggling. Got paid for it, to my surprise.

I have a mighty need to get back to GMing regularly. It's been my chief creative outlet for years and not doing it has beat on my mental health.

Jesus fucking Christ, I hate ideological purists and their inability or refusal to just admit to being wrong.

The MLB regular season is over. LA took the NL West for the 12th time in 14 seasons, but finished with the worst record of the division champs, so they're hosting the NL Wild Card series against Cincinnati. Of course, I want the Dodgers to win another World Series, especially with this being Clayton Kershaw's final season. The postseason field looks good, overall. Let's see how the next week goes at the parks.

Helped out with a DCC Day bonus round at a new store in Versailles yesterday. Good turnout, some folks new to DCC. Ben P came in and it's always good to see him. Had a good post-game chat with the owner and the other Judge and we're going to coordinate some monthly-or-so game days there. I'm taking my NFL season break from SYR, and if we can set things up for Saturdays, that'll work out nicely.

My last uncle on Dad's side died last week. Garland had a long history of heart problems and I guess it was just one beat too many and that was it. Dad's taking it about as well as can be expected; he and Garland were close. I'm concerned about my aunt - she's been dealing with Parkinson's for some time and it's the type that causes strong hallucinations in addition to the tremors. She's got plenty of kids and grandkids to help care for her, but there's going to have to be some kind of professional care involved.

FX's Alien: Earth has been fantastic. It's managed to introduce additional non-terrestrial critters that are plenty icky without taking away any of the menace of the good ol' Xenomorphs. Timothy Olyphant continues to be an absolute treasure.

Went to Lexington last week to see Heat with Ben P. It's a favorite movie, one I watch at least once a year, and it was good to see it on a theater screen again - the second time I've had that experience, and it was in the same theater that I first saw it 30 years ago.

It remains an incredible piece of work - a sprawling crime drama, procedural, and character film. And it is a very different movie at 53 than it was at 23. There's so much that I see now. There is so much in the movie about loneliness. That's hitting me pretty hard right now. I've parrotted Robert de Niro's line - "I am alone, but I am never lonely" - often, and most of the time it's true. But when it's not, it hits like a sledgehammer.

NFL season looms. I'm watching a Bears-Bills preseason game tonight, not a great game so far and I'm barely invested in either team outside of the existence of Buffalo wings, but it's pleasant to have the comfortable background noise and I'm going to return to the Sunday afternoon ritual of football, pizza, and homework in a couple of weeks.

Yowzers. Not yet halftime and the Bears are up 28-0.

Superman was everything I wanted out of a summer blockbuster. Mister Terrific was great, Lex was a villain and a half. The only complaint I have is Hawkgirl should have had more to do.

Saw Dad last night. His group had a performance in Edinburgh this morning so we took advantage of the opportunity to get together for dinner, and I drove him up there after. We had a little moment during the drive - how many hours have we spent together on a relatively empty Interstate, in companionable silence, just rolling along. Most of those hours with him driving, but last night he was in the right-hand seat, and all was well with that.

So, I resigned my seat on the Nerd Louisville board a few weeks ago. I hadn't accomplished anything and didn't see that changing, so I decided to just get out of the way.

I headed up to Indy Wednesday morning, easy drive, recharged AC in the Impala doing what it's supposed to. Got into town, had some confusion about directions to a new storage unit, got things sorted, went to the ICC to set up the booth and that's when I started suffering the effects of only eating a couple of donuts so far in the day. Nearly passed out a couple of times. Got helped back to the hotel, started cooling off, ordered a pizza, went to bed.

Thursday morning, much better. First of the weekend's breakfasts at the Jugs Catering tent. Incredible sales on Thursday - the second biggest single-day total we've ever had at GenCon. Picked up a couple of things from Green Ronin, company dinner, sleep.

Friday, good sales but down from Friday. Played the upcoming Cyberpunk Legends card game and proceeded to sign up for an early order. Played some BattleTech until midnight or so.

Saturday was my day off, and I slept in. Some more BT, then a Cypher RPG session. Good times at the tables. BattleTech Gothic looks good, but not enough that I'm buying into it.

Sunday, we sold out of everything we had at the booth, including display/demo copies. Tore down the booth in under 45 minutes. Drove home, unpacked, started sorting purchases, slept so very well.

After Wednesday, the weather was delightful. A cold front blew in and knocked air temps down into the upper 70s.

Most of the publishers I heard from reported very good sales, and overall good table experiences. The Exhibit Hall was busy, of course, and props to GenCon for implementing and enforcing a policy banning wagons and carts and strollers-as-wagons in the hall.

It was a good time, a good crew, and I got to see a number of friends and chat briefly with Mike Pondsmith and Mike Stackpole and Ken Hite. Got stuff to read and four new Mechs.

My goodness, the heat. Heat indices up in the 105F range most days the last week and going into this one. And the Impala leaks refrigerant, it seems, so I'll have to recharge it with a sealant additive before lighting out for Indy Wednesday morning.

I think I'm going to make GenCon weekend go as long as I can. Thought about coming back Sunday afternoon, but, heck, we have one of the hotel rooms until Monday morning and I have the PTO to use, so, why not.

Been a while.

Charcon was a heck of a lot of fun. Saw the people I wanted to, ran three DCC sessions, played some stuff. Similarly, yesterday's DCC Day went darn well. Ran two short sessions, the other judge ran a full-length module. Lots of giveaways and exclusives, as usual. And we were one of three DCC Day events in the metro. Pretty cool.

Ten days until GenCon. Looking forward to that one. Got some people I can't wait to see.

I'm glad for the day off, of course, but there's not much to celebrate today.

It is fucking hot and I hate it. I at least got the Impala's AC recharged, but the actuators are still fucked and it intermittently blows warm air on the driver's side. Frustration, coming and going.

It was good to be away from work and clients for a couple of extra days. I didn't do much, and much of what I did do was unsatisfying. I did get plenty of rest, and that's not nothing.

Saturday was Free RPG Day. Went over to Golden Keep and picked up a few things, bought the BattleTech Alpha Strike box. The store has been scheduling demo nights for an array of games - playing Alpha Strike there a week or so ago was a good time, and it's hard to beat getting in a lance-on-lance fight in about an hour. The box is a heck of a deal, two IS lances and a Clan Star for $80, plus all of the maps and terrain and stuff. They're hosting a Mothership demo night on the 26th, and I'm hoping to make it out for that.

Slur Your Role didn't go well tonight. I was the only board member there following a last-minute cancellation; two players had tried to get into my game but the ticketing system wouldn't let them; one person who had bought a ticket for my game didn't ion show; no one showed for another GM's game and I invited him to join mine and boy did he live up to the "mostly a D&D5 and MMO player" in his bio. It's Star Wars, dude, do more than endlessly ask for "who looks disgruntled in this bar" and ah fuck it.

Finally got around to seeing John Wick: Chapter Four. Liked it more than the third one, felt it was a return to the feel of the first two.

Early escape on Friday was good. I did get in some time with a couple of my favorite clients before going home and reading a nice chunk of Moscow X.

Went to the No Kings rally on Saturday. 4500-5000 people there, passionate but peaceful. No signs of trouble all afternoon.

Nerd Louisville board meeting after that. Nothing exciting. I'm not running for re-election at the end of the year. I haven't engaged with the position very much, and, honestly, I'm happier running games than being in this leadership and organizational role.

Drove to Liberty to see Dad after the meeting. Early Father's Day dinner and good talk. Spent the night, played with the dog, did some other stuff. Good times.

This will be a short week. June 19 is a holiday for us, and I took a vacation day on the 20th for a nice four-day weekend. Got some things on the schedule, and some time blocked out to just allow myself to recharge.

Whee, the excitement of being on call. A bunch of non-emergency calls over the weekend, and then one on Monday that resulted in taking a client to EPS because ambulances don't respond to psych calls anymore and the client and his guardian combined have the executive capacity of a drunken tree sloth.

But it ramped my week's engagement time way up and I'll get to bail out way early on Friday afternoon.

After far, far too long, I got myself out to a baseball game Thursday evening. The Bats are not doing well this season (again), so I wasn't expecting much beyond just having a good night at the park. Low expectations paid off, I guess, because I had an absolute blast. Norfolk put up four runs pretty quickly - four solo homers in the first two innings; the Bats fought back, tying the game, but lost 5-6. Disappointing, a little, but the experience was good for the soul. Slugger Field is a great park, the small crowd was enthused, and the hot dogs were delicious. I gotta do this more often.

In other Louisville baseball news, the UofL Cardinals are going to the College World Series! They won the Super Regional this afternoon against Miami, getting hot when it mattered most. They ended the regular season badly and were knocked out of the ACC tournament in the first round. Swept the Regional, beating host and top-seed Vanderbilt, got the host slot for the Super, and went 2-1 over Miami.

Things aren't all sunshine and rainbows. Protests against ICE's bullshit out in LA have been declared "unrest" by that orange bastard and federalized National Guard troops were deployed early this morning. LAPD and LCSD declined to escort ICE operatives out of their raid in Paramount and that caused some drama - but, really, if LAPD is declining the opportunity to beat up on people, things are definitely off.

And at the moment, I'm watching the last few episodes of The Handmaid's Tale, so, yeah.

It's been a decent long weekend. Saturday and today were spectacularly lazy - didn't get out of the apartment or my pajamas, even. Ran a decent CP Red game Friday night and a banger of a D6 Star Wars game last night at SYR.

I made myself sleep in, or at least lie in, this morning. Kept playing a new podcast episode every time I woke up and went back under the covers, and it felt fantastic. Finally got up and made breakfast and had some brief thoughts about finding something to do. Decided, nah, let's do some more reading, and that was a good course of action for the day.

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Roadside Picnic

Bright Ideas, Dark Futures

Lost Weekend

Never Crossed My Mind

Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines in Pieces on the Ground

Don't Listen to the Wind

East City Blues

This Modern Love

I'll Need Someone to Hold Me

Always on my MInd

Crucified Son

Kings of the Breakers

Bend in the Water

Execution

Danger in Fives

My Time Ain't Long

Summer Madness

The Steps

Nine Pound Hammer

Ground Walks

Wichita Lineman

Picture Window

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December 2025

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