Roadside Picnic

Three weeks left in the semester. Papers and projects are moving along nicely, and I'm registered for spring's last push for the MPH. Less than six months until graduation.

Stephen K's brother died Tuesday morning. 30 years old. Fucking cancer, man. Service was Saturday morning; homework won out over attending, at Stephen's request. Expecting him to be back tomorrow for a work session, but won't be surprised if he takes the last day to spend more time with the family.

Ran around with Tegyrius on Saturday. Went to a disappointing train show, then hit the Baxter Avenue game shops. Since I didn't spend money at the show, I felt justified in picking up something at each shop. Talked a lot about gaming, career changes, life in general. Darn good day. And more homework that night. And Sunday, all day.

Short day at the desk today. An aunt and her husband are flying in and spending a week with Mom&Dad. I'm bailing out early to play tour guide and get an early vibe on how much interference I'll have to run for Dad. Short week, of course - normal day tomorrow, including class; half-day on Wednesday. I'm heading to Liberty Thursday afternoon, and staying until Saturday afternoon. Mom&Dad are taking the visitors to Nashville Friday afternoon, maybe coming back late that night.Gives me a lot of very quiet time to spend working, and then watch the UofL-UK game on Saturday.

UofL got whupped by Houston Thursday night, in case you were wondering. Houston had our number from the first play. National championship talk is over; Lamar Jackson is still a runaway favorite for the Heisman. Louisville will get a good postseason game, and then I start looking ahead to baseball season.

Conglomeration sent out an a call for GMs for 2017. I'll gin up something, maybe another Chronicles of Darkness game, or Shadowrun or something. Should look into CincyCon, too.

There are times when I don't mind being wrong, and this weekend has turned out to be one of them.

Following the anemic turnout Friday evening, Scarefest's gaming track took off on Saturday. About a hundred gamers at one point, across minis, RPGs, card and board games. Lots of happy faces - and plenty of kids playing games with their parents. No RPG time for me, either as player or GM, but Go Goblin Go and Elder Sign filled the gaps rather nicely. Ended the evening, as is the way of our people, at Marikka's, and the overlapping circles of friends continue to grow.

My love for Star Wars has been rekindled, thanks in no small part to Star Wars: Edge of the Empire. It focuses, tightly and without apology, on my favorite era of the saga, and on a part of the universe that I want to visit for a while. I've found myself making notes on NPCs and outlining adventures, and while this will never replace West End's work, EotE makes a fantastic complement to that classic work.

UofL, WVU, and Auburn all won yesterday, and today looks like a good mix of NFL games. Time to sign off and get cleaned up. There's football to watch, writing to get done, and tacos to prepare and eat. Have a good one, folks!

After seven months, I gave in. Bought a digital signal converter tonight, and with the quick antenna setup, I can pull in the channels I wanted - specifically, the local CBS, Fox, and NBC affiliates. See, I'm getting through baseball season with the iOS app, but there's nothing comparable for the NFL without switching my cell provider to Verizon, and with the rotating contract lengths on the shared family account, I'm just not interested in that without something nearly catastrophic forcing my hand.

So, hooray. I'll be able to watch Sunday afternoon and night games. Monday nights are my current gaming nights, and since I don't really have a team this year (probably going to default to the Bengals and/or Colts), I won't really miss anything by role-playing instead of watching football.

And, hey, as I'm writing this entry, I'm watching Supernatural. Already this investment is making a return.

Had the volunteer meeting for Scarefest tonight. Still keeping my expectations low for this first gaming track, but next year already looks positive. 2014's gaming track will be its own thing, using Scarefest resources, but run separately. This means a lower entrance fee for those only interested in gaming, while a Scarefest badge will still grant entry to the as-yet-nameless gaming side. I can get behind this, and will feel much better about working on and promoting this setup. So, tentatively, that moves me back up to four conventions for next year - CincyCon in March, GenCon in August, Convention X in September, and Archon in October.

Before I get into the meat of this entry, allow me this disclaimer: The Galt House is a very very nice hotel with excellent facilities and a really good bar, and the room was terrific, and I loved our view of the Ohio River lock-and-dam complex and the sunsets were great.

Things I Could Have Purchased With the Money Spent on the FandomFest Hotel Room:
20-25 movie tickets, matinee showings
2 copies of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire and a set of the game's funky dice
7 medium-sized bottles of my preferred bourbon and a few liters of Coke to mix
Half of a PlayStation 3
Several weeks' worth of reading/viewing at Half-Price Books

Thank Hammett the badge was complimentary. Unless I'm living in Louisville next year or have gratis crash space, I am done with this one. I'm not even disappointed - I was similarly dissatisfied last year. Now, observational data has been confirmed, and I'm out.

Also, thanks to ddneyal for great company and dinner and the offer to drive me home.

Now I'm home, and I'm going to either pour myself a drink or go to bed for a few hours.

I hate to sound classist or whatever here, but I have felt just icky when I left some of the car dealerships that advertise in the crappy little magazine. Most of them are buy-here-pay-here businesses, and there's an unpleasant predatory vibe there. The standout moment came when a car was being pulled around for a photo, and I heard a rattling not unlike a rod about to throw.

Tomorrow's Election Day. I expect it to be the shit-losingest day ever, no matter the outcome. Kentucky's going to go for Romney in a bigger way than it went for McCain in '08; I'm watching the 6th Congressional District race more closely. The incumbent, Chandler, isn't much to get excited over, but his opponent has run a terrible and odious campaign.

Scheduling issues have thrown kinks into gaming lately, and I'm still not comfortable enough with my footing on Mage to run it. I'm also starting to think that it's not the best option for a one-shot, especially with players who would come into this more or less blind.

I'm four months out from my first convention of 2013. Hoping that at least one of the new/revised/translated games is in a presentable state and I won't have to fall back on either of the fantasy lines. Don't get me wrong, it's all quality work, but my fantasy burnout shows no signs of abating. There's nothing to keep me from relying on SC2 to power the games at CincyCon - I know it, if not coming-and-going, certainly well enough to use it to represent Ten Thousand Bullets or [NOT AVAILABLE AT YOUR CLEARANCE]. In fact, using it for the latter would be pretty nifty, as I've never used the big grey book for anything besides crime drama or action-espionage/technothriller games.

I didn't drive up to Origins. I was up way too late last night, and slept in this morning. Backup plans for this evening fell through, too.

Instead, it looks like movie night. Watching In Cold Blood, and writing a little bit about narcotics trafficking.

Like a lot of other people, I've been watching some of the World Cup. The US made a good showing, but was knocked out today by Ghana. France's team self-destructed like a comic-book villain's doomsday device. I guess now I'm backing England.

My Dodgers have started going off the rails, too. After leading the NL West for a while, they've dropped into a tie for third in the division. The Reds are doing pretty well, currently tied for first in the NL Central. And I still really need to get to a Legends game, and soon.

Not a whole lot else going on. Still digging on the Pendragon game. Reading Driving Like Crazy, by P. J. O'Rourke. Learning bits and pieces about Pages as a layout application. Liking Bendis' Avengers and Brubaker's Secret Avengers a lot.

Today was our one-day visit to GenCon.

We arrived in Indianapolis around 7:45 and got registered quick as a wink.  Found a quiet corner to peruse our program books, and watched people.

Indianapolis is very easy to navigate, and the convention center hosting GenCon is frackin' huge.

We found a little table in the center's food court and plopped down, to watch people and wait for the exhibitors' hall to open.  Lord have mercy, but people packed in to the area outside.  spykeetom struck up a conversation with a Warmachine player who had a nicely-painted Khador army.

When the doors opened up, we waited a few minutes for the flood of humanity to thin out, then in we went.  The first thing we encounter is Privateer Press's beautiful display of Warmachine figures.  Much oohing and ahhing.  Moving on, next was Days of Wonder, where we played a game of Cleopatra and the Society of Architects.  Days of Wonder impressed me greatly with their Shadows Over Camelot game, and Cleopatra kept the feeling alive.  Great game (I lost terribly, and Spykeetom was fed to crocodiles), with the most amazing mechanics and props and components.  While we were playing, we met up with the inestimable fishxxiii, who became our guide for much of the morning.

Roaming around the exhibitors' hall, we linked up with cybogoblin, who is a decent fellow, as skirt-wearing New Zealanders are measured.

A note about the hall - it's huge.  The hucksters' room at DragonCon was my previous benchmark, but for sheer rockitude, GenCon wins easily.

Got to meet Alex Flagg and Scott Gearin of Crafty Games.  Good guys - Scott is by turns manic and gracious, and Alex was terrific to talk with.

Then, God help us, it was back to the exhibitors, where we spent us some money.  Bought Pizza Box Football, after a quick demonstration.  This thing is awesome.  It's a fast-playing football game, with some very neat strategic elements.  There's an expansion pack available that contains variant rules/playbooks for all 32 NFL teams.  This game will be played a lot in the coming weeks.

Bought Damnation Decade from Green Ronin.  Happy to throw them some cash - I like this company very much.  Got a copy of Spycraft: Conspiracies from Paradigm Concepts, and was told that Combat Missions should be out at the beginning of 2007.

Talked to Jon Bancroft at the AEG booth.  Discussed Archon and its future, mostly.  I'm getting a bad feeling about this.  The con committee wants to permanently move it to an August date, and cut waaaaay back on the gaming side of the con.  Much as I hate to say it, that would pretty well knock me out of Archon.  I love the other programming available, but, well, with the amount of gaming involved, Archon has everything I want in a con.

Our last stop was the same as our first.  Spykeetom got a Protectorate of Menoth shirt and patch from Privateer Press, and I snagged a Cygnar patch.  These guys are just the coolest - friendly and passionate about what they do.

Wow.  I'm looking forward to going back to GenCon next year, and very probably to DragonCon, too.