Tired and True
 
I'm very tired and ready to go to bed, but I figured I'd better update because Mom wrote this morning to update so she'd know what I was up to.

Mostly, I've been working on the new game I mentioned a couple of days ago. It's going well and I think I have all the major points worked out, now it's just a matter of working out the things I haven't foreseen. I'm looking forward to it, though, because the system is pretty fun and offers a lot of options. And, best of all, I don't have to have it done tomorrow, er, today, because the contracts aren't finalized. So it looks like I have at least another week to work on it.

The upshot of that extra week is that I think I'll get to go have a fun, party weekend with a bunch of friends from work that are going to Portland (never been there) for the Flugtag that one of them is participating in. It should be a riot.

Wednesday night I met up with Maya, James, Chad, and Dorcas (everyone except James and I are ex of my workplace) for drinks and relaxation at the EMP's Liquid Lounge. It was nice. We talked, had some snacks and drinks, and even played a trivia game the bar has every week. I'd go back -- if only in hopes of talking to the cute girl I chatted with when we swapped answers for the trivia contest.

Convention Fun
 
I spent the weekend in San Diego at the Comic Con International. It was very similar to how last year's convention went. I even bumped into Joss Whedon, but it wasn't as funny as last time. See, I was working as a line wrangler for the Wayan brothers and I looked up -- and there stood Joss Whedon, talking to someone and looking around.

Why was I working as a line wrangler for the Wayans brothers? Good question. But I think a better question is, "Why would anyone stand in line to meet and get a signature from the Wayans brothers?" Unfortunately there was no shortage to the private answer to that question in the minds of many people at the convention, because we had a pretty solid line for a good  two hours.

Oh, wait, I was explaining why I was playing line wrangler; with radio, assistants, and commanding tone. The reason is, the Wayans brothers went to Topps to produce a card game called The Dozens. It's a wacky game that includes lots of insults about yo' mama! Such as, "Your mama is so dumb, she returned a jigsaw puzzle because she thought it was broken." And Topps decided to make this game and bring the Wayans brothers to promote it at their booth. They didn't have enough security -- well, that's not fair, they would have had enough security, but all the security guys wanted to be close to the Wayanses, so they didn't do much but stand near them, off-handedly tell people not to crowd around, and talk to the Wayanses -- so, I was asked to lend a hand and I did.

I got to meet them briefly, shake their hands, and thank them for signing a card for Shane. I thought he'd get a kick out of it and he did.

The rest of the show pales in comparison, really.

I met with a lot of comic professionals. I was probably most excited to talk with Robert Kirkman, the writer of Invincible. I really like his stuff. He's definitely one of the up-and-coming writers out there right now.

I also talked with the City of Heroes guys quite a bit. We're doing some work with them and we both hope it will continue.

I started work on a game today that looks like it will be some fun. There's a fair amount to it, but I think I'll get pretty much all of it done this week despite the fact that some people are really trying to make this a difficult week.

Oh, Patrick, I got your Skull plush doll. I'll be sure to bring it next time I see you.

The Return

I'll tell you more about it later, but I've returned from Comic Con International. It was a busy four days.

This evening I played City of Heroes and now I'm going to bed.

A quick post as I get ready for a busy weekend.. I probably won't have time to post until Sunday, but if I can, I will.

I was happy to get some things sent out today. I've been collecting names and lists of items that they want for a while now, and I finally got everything together and boxed up. It's not a major accomplishment, but it felt like it.

I completed the reviews of my employees this week. That went well.

I have a ton of work to do when I get back on something I haven't done anything with in a while, but needs to be fleshed out by the end of the month. That should be a challenge. I'll give it some thought over the next couple of days as well.

Okay, gotta run. Have a great couple of days.

The Weekend of Work and Fun
 
I've been very busy at work, so Friday was a full day. It was our monthly game day, but I didn't get to play because I had plenty of work to do. Pat and Angel asked me to join them for dinner to celebrate his birthday, so I left work at a reasonable time and drove over to Eastlake to a place called Bandoleone. It was excellent. I also got to meet some friends of Partrick's, including his mother and younger sister. They were a lot of fun.
 
After dinner we met up with a bunch of others at Golden Gardens for a bonfire on the beach. It was laid back, but fun to stand around and talk, watch the fire, and listen to the water.
 
Saturday I got up and headed downtown to meet Seth at Xanadu for comics, then we went to lunch with his parents. I haven't seen them in years and they seem to be doing well. They'll be here for a while, so I'm sure I'll see them again soon.
 
I was going to head straight home and go to work, but Shane convinced me to meet he and Cathy at Volunteer Park because they were going to go walk the dog they were watching and enjoy the nice day. How could I say no to putting off work in favor of lazing around in the sun? I couldn't. So that's what I did for an hour or two, then I went to work.
 
I worked from 3:30 until 9:30, then, as i was about to leave, Shane called and said to meet them for dinner down at Thai Ginger. It was late to be eating dinner, but we were all hungry. Shane and I talked a bit about the comic -- and hopefully he'll be getting some work done on it soon. I hope so, it would be cool to get it going again.
 
Sunday I woke up feeling pretty darn good. My cold stayed merely a cold all week, but it made me awfully tired, but unable to sleep very well. An annoying combination. But Sunday I felt pretty well-rested, so I got up and went to work. I chatted with Kim while I worked, but I managed to get everything I wanted to get done done. I have more to do this week, but the bulk of the work is complete.
 
Sunday evening was Matt and Meredith's  wedding. It was great. Very informal and comfortable. Their dog was the ring-bearer. They also had the most beautiful cakes I'd ever seen. I'll have to be sure to ask them where they got them and pass the info on to Shana. They had the wedding at the Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park. It was a great venue. Matt was sure to point out all the single women at the party (okay, he pointed out the one single woman that I didn't already know). She was very cute, but not really my type. Still, we had a good time dancing and talking. The English woman who's a friend of Meredith's was there, too. We always get along very well. She was funny because she has her Masters (hmm, maybe it was her Ph.D.) but now all she wants is a brainless job for a while. Matt's sister was there, too. I remember meeting her a long time ago at a party. She's a cutie (don't hit me, Matt!).
 
And that was pretty much the weekend. Tomorrow I try to work like a madman to get everything done before I go on my trip.
 
Oh, I think I've injured my foot somehow. If I haven't walked for a while (after I get up from sleeping or taking a drive) and I take a step it feels like my bones are trying to force themselves out the heel of my foot. And lemme tell ya, that don't feel good. I hope it doesn't cause me much trouble at the convention . . . but I know it will. The funny thing is, I have no idea what could have caused it. I'll try to pamper it a bit and hope for the best. Maybe I need new shoes.
 

Headlines Now Included! or
"Look They Added Some Toys to Blogger!"
 
A few people commented on my last post and the only things I really have to say about the subject is that I know how I'm voting next time -- and it will be very similar to how I voted last time -- and we live in a country that is based on Freedom for its people, not Security. Those are two very different things. I think we need to protect ourselves, but I don't that protection should come at the cost of our Freedoms. Especially since that's what makes this country what it is -- or what it's supposed to be.
 
Anyway, all that said I'll move onto more mundane things.
 
Wednesday night Seth, Kate, Katie, and I went to see Napoleon Dynamite. It was a very goofy, very good movie with a lot of character. There were a couple of nit-picky things that I didn't like, but overall it was a lot of fun.
 
I was still not feeling very well, so I didn't mind going to see the movie, then going home right away, but I had to chuckle later when I thought about it because we picked up the girls, went to the movie, watched the movie, then dropped them off at home again. Not a very exciting night out. No dinner. Nothing but the movie. Ah, well, we can't always be circus acrobats.
 
Thursday evening I played in the regular game, but it was fairly low key. We had a good time talking and joking around. Next week I won't be there for it, but I'm going to try to convince Seth to come the week after and then join us regularly.
 
Totally off the cuff: I thought of this the other day. There have always been homosexuals. It's difficult to tell the numbers at any given point in history, but wouldn't it be interesting if they're numbers were growing out of proportion with the number of people in the world? I say that would be interesting because I was thinking "What if homosexuality is one of the human race's responses to continued overpopulation? Wouldn't that be cool?" I have no idea who would do a study to find out something like that -- or even if you could find it out with any sort of veracity since you'd have to have accurate data and you'd have to have it on a geological scale, dealing with numbers over a significant period of time. Even so, I think it's a neat idea. 

As mentioned in the headline, they added some new features to blogger, so I can create headlines and even upload my own pictures or write in color! Cool, eh? 

When you follow the link and read the story you should be very angry. I'd also say you should be ashamed, but, well, we didn't agree to the damn Act.

I'd say something witty and fun, but I'm pretty damn tired due to this cold. Fortunately, it feels like it's not turning into my horrible throat thing, but it's moving into my head, so I'm awfully stuffy. Here's hoping it doesn't move back into my throat! I'm going to get some good rest tonight . . . right after I read some comics.

Wish me luck in kicking this cold in the butt.

Friday night watching Super Troopers with Seth, I started to get really tired and my throat felt funny. The feeling persisted once I was in bed and it felt like I needed to swallow whatever was caught in there, but couldn't. Eventually I fell asleep.

I felt better Saturday morning and went to pick up comics. The 520 bridge was closed to we had to take I-90. It was a bit slower than normal, but still reasonable. In the afternoon I did laundry, then grabbed a quick dinner and bought some birthday gifts for Katie and Beth because that evening was their combined birthday party. This was another theme party, this time it was a jumpsuit party. Everyone who'd known about the party ahead of time actually showed up in jumpsuits, so that was pretty cool. I'll post a picture once I have them.

The party was good, but throughout the day I could feel my throat acting up -- and a fever rising -- so I didn't drink at all and left fairly early so as to avoid getting sicker. I can tell this is my irregularly-returning "strep" throat thing (I don't know if it's really strep, but it sucks like it) and I'd like to actually fight it off myself rather than getting more amoxycillin (sp?). Because of the throat thing, I slept poorly Saturday night. It never felt like I was sleeping very deeply so I didn't wake up feeling rested.

Sunday I went to work for a while, then went to see Anchorman with Shana, Liz, and Madalyn. It was very, very funny. I don't say it often about silly comedies, but I'd see this in the theatre again -- and I may actualy have to buy it on DVD. I enjoyed it a lot.

After that I played City of Heroes for a while and now I'm going to read some comics before collapsing into bed.

Sometime soon I'm going to go through all of my books and sell some off. I just have too many gaming books that I never use or even look through. I may as well get a little cash out of them, right?

Hmm, the other thing I need to do is figure out what I'm going to do for my birthday. I've never been out here for my actualy birthday, but this year I will be and I want to arrange some sort of get-together with everyone. My place is a little small, though, so I don't know what I'll do.

I forgot to mention in the post I just made (below) that I went to see Spider-Man 2 yesterday. Work was nice enough to buy us all tickets, so I couldn't refuse.

It was very good. Raimi is doing a great job of putting Spider-Man on-screen the way he's supposed to be. It's nice to have a good director who's also a comic fan in charge of the franchise. I'll definitely pick it up on DVD and I'm sure I'll enjoy it all over again when I do.

All of the miniatures I have to paint are fully primed and I have paint-schemes planned out. Now I have to get a painting lesson or two and I'll be ready to go. I'm going to try to do that in the next couple of days if I can work it out with the painter at work.

I found out last night that Jen (my ex) is dating someone new. I was surprised that it bothered me at all, but it did. Not much, but a little. Ah, well, life goes on.

I drove over to Seattle tonight for the regular Thursday game. Matt wasn't quite in the right place to run, so we ended up playing a game of Pirates of the Spanish Main. They loved it. It was a lot of fun to watch them try it out. Actually, it was a pretty good game and it came down to some pretty intense rolls at the end to see who could wipe out the other players before being wiped out themselves. Matt won. The best part was the derelict, plague-ridden ship that was left out in the middle of the ocean to rot.

On the way to the game I was surprised to see that the 520 bridge will be closed from midnight Friday until early in the morning on Monday. It must be standard repair, but it's really going to mess with traffic. Plus, Katie, Kate, and Beth are having their jumpsuit party this weekend, so it'll be a little (but only a little) bit trickier to get back and forth to their place.

Instead of playing City of Heroes the last couple of nights I've been catching up on nearly five months of comics that I haven't read. See, I get a little behind and then they start to pile up. I read a few, but not the whole stack, then more come out and I read a few, then more, and more, until I have 60 comics to read plus what I pick up every week. I've made good headway and I'm cutting back on what I'm buying, so it should be easy to keep up with from now on.

I'm having some trouble with a new game at work. Big project. But I came up with some interesting options/ideas on the way home tonight, so I'm going to go jot them down and send them to work to discuss with Matt tomorrow.

I'm currently very annoyed. I was supposed to run my Mutants & Masterminds game tonight, but three of the players backed out today -- two of them about 20 minutes before we were due to start playing. I'm not angry about it, just annoyed.

Actually, that's a weird thing about me; I don't get angry. Not unless something is really wrong. I mostly just get annoyed at things. I have no idea why that is and I have no idea if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

I picked up some honest-to-goodness miniatures the other day and I'm going to try my hand at painting them. I had some of the sculptors helpd me assemble them, and today I primed them. Now I just need to learn to paint. I'll have to come up with a paint scheme for them and plan it out. Happily, I don't have to go out and buy a bunch of paint, because the painter at work said I could borrow his stuff. I really can't believe how much time people put into these games. I know it's a hobby, but where do they find the time and money? I haven't even purchased a full army or the paints, etc. and I've already spent about $100. Ridiculous. Maybe the assembling and painting is just that much fun.

Yeah, I don't see it either.

Turns out I was wrong. We weren't going to go out on the boat Monday, but on Sunday. Regardless, after I figured it out I made it to the get-together with no problems. I'll backtrack a bit.

Friday I helped Shane and Cathy take their new kitchen table home since it wouldn't fit in/on their car. Seth came with and afterwards all of us, plus Kate (who only lives a couple of blocks away) went out for dinner at Julia's Restaurant on Broadway. It was a very cool, very affordable, very good place to have dinner. Probably a great date place.

Afterwards we were thinking about seeing a movie with Shana, but we finished too late to be able to make it to a film -- so instead we looked through a bookstore for a while and then hung out at Shane and Cathy's for a little while.

Saturday I woke up much later than expected when Seth called to ask about comics. I got up, got ready and he came over, but we couldn't reach Shane. So we waited a while, tried again. Rinse. Repeat. Finally, about an hour later we decided to go anyway. It was Free Comic Book Day, so we got loaded up and trundled home. Seth went home to write and I did more laundry. A while later Shana called to see about doing some movies, so we organized it and went to see Dodgeball, eat dinner, and then see Farenheit 9/11.

I thought Dodgeball was pretty funny. Lots of goofy stuff that's completely unbelievable, but it was still a lot of sarcastic, mocking fun. Farenheit 9/11 was interesting. I wish we had people of character as our leaders. I really do. And no, this movie is not what made me think that. No matter which party is in charge it seems that they're more interested in making money for themselves and their friends than they are in doing the right thing. If I cared more I might feel like becoming political, luckily, I don't care more.

Sunday I cleaned a bit, then went to Jen and Hays' to go out on the boat. We left around five o'clock and didn't return until midnight, so it was a long trip. We run under power for a while, then put up the sail until we got to Elliot Bay. After some fiddling with the anchor and having to move because we were too close to the fireworks barge, we settled in, made some dinner, and watched the fireworks. It was a very good show. Very consistent, but I didn't think it lasted very long. But, like I said, it was a very good show. Some of the fireworks were really amazing.

Monday was a holiday, so I went to work for a while to get some things done while no one would bother me, then went to Seth's for dinner and a movie. He'd rented Down With Love. It was a fun movie with a lot of style. I recommend it. (Especially to Shana, whom I have to remember to tell this movie about.)

Now I'm going to take care of some bills and go to sleep.

It's been a good week. I dove right back into work and have managed to get a fair amount done while also having some fun. Monday I and a couple of others ran down to Wonderworld during work to pick up comics and get some reference material. Tuesday we were supposed to play my Mutants & Masterminds game, but everyone flaked out, so instead some of us played City of Heroes. Wednesday Beth, Matt II, Tiffany, and I went to see the Mariners lose to the Texas, um, Rangers, I think. It was a good time.

The bummer is that Thursday morning I found out I owe my storage place a bunch of money that I don't have. I need to watch my money more closely. I'm too free with it. The first step is to seriously cut down on my unesessary purchases. I have no idea where my money goes and that's a problem. Jim also convinced me this weekend that I really ought to write off my comic and game purchases. He's right, I could probably get back another few hundred dollars over the course of the year.

I feel the need to do something, but I don't know what it is.

This weekend should be fun. Mostly I have freetime, but Monday I'm going out on Jen and Hays' boat. That should be a good time.