No Chance

Obviously I didn't get a chance to update last Sunday or Monday to tell you how the busy weekend went. Anyway, it was good.

Sunday I picked up comics and then went to Clementine's first communion party. It was very low key, with some of her teachers, some of Mike and Sharon's co-workers, and Sharon's mom and dad who were in from out of town. After spending a couple of hours there I went to James' place and played poker. It was the last week that his friend, Sandy, and his roommate, Kevin, were going to still be in town. I can't quite figure out what I'm doing wrong, but I haven't had a very good record at poker lately. I think I have to play a bit more to figure it out completely. Maybe it's just the cards, but I think I'm not being selective enough and I have to work on that.

Monday was work, followed up by a birthday party for Julia's brother at their parents' place. Julia's brother is apparently a big comic book fan and particularly likes Batman, so I regifted a Batman and Catgirl statue I received a few years ago from DC for being a licensing partner. I didn't really care for the series, so I really didn't mind giving it away -- plus, when was the last time I successfully managed to get something like that out of my house as opposed to bringing it in?

Tuesday after work I played in (what ended up being) the last session of Jason's Game of Thrones game. He ran a good game and wrapped things up for this first stretch of the game very well. That means I'll start running a new Deadlands: Reloaded game this Tuesday. More on that in a moment.

Jim was in town this week to have a bunch of meetings on something he's working on that sounds pretty interesting. I'd go into that a bit more, but 1) I don't really know all that much, and 2) I don't want to give out information that he wouldn't like me to give out. So, wait and see with the rest of us on that one.

Skipping ahead to this weekend; Julia had a jewelry show on Saturday and I asked some of the sculptors to make a display for her. Unfortunately they didn't get started on it until Friday night, so they were up late Friday and then because the glue hadn't dried and they didn't have the right paint, Brian (one of the sculptors) and I were awake and at Home Depot at six in the morning on Saturday and spent until nine o'clock painting and drying the paint with hair dryers. Thankfully we made it just in time and I delivered it to Julia's show on time. She got a lot of compliments on it throughout the day. I'll see if I can post a photo. While she was doing her show, I actually had a chance to play City of Heroes for the first time in months.

This morning I suggested a buffet brunch to Julia and she was up for it, so we went on a quest to find such a thing. We eventually made out way to West Seattle to Salty's. Their buffet was pretty astounding and definitely something I'd do again, but it was pretty pricey, so I won't do it too often.

Now, I'm home and making notes for my aforementioned Deadlands game. I have a perfect start to the game, but I used it years ago when I first ran the original Deadlands and I'm feeling a little quilty about reusing the plot -- even though I'm updating and expanding it a bit. I'm sure I'll get over it. The plot is good and should be pretty enjoyable for everyone.

As I've been typing this, I've also been watching the last hour of Mulholland Drive, a David Lynch movie from 2001. I remember wanting to see it at the time. The movie is very odd, which should surprise no one who knows Lynch's work, and I really have to wonder what he's saying with it. I'm sure it could be surreal for the sake of being surreal and have no point, but it's just too damn well sculpted for that to be the case. I'll do a bit of digging and see what others have to say about it.

Now I'm signing off and getting some things done before going to dinner with Julia, Shana, and (hopefully) a couple of other people. More later.

Free Minutes

I've been busy lately with work and all sorts of other fun. And this weekend looks like it will be equally busy for some reason. I have things to do all day tomorrow and most of the day on Sunday. I'll tell you all about it Sunday or Monday.

Tuesday this week we played the second session of Jason's Game of Thrones game. It was an interesting mix of characters. Seth and I have non-combat characters and their personalities even stayed in place when we encountered some bandits. I think it helped (only slightly) that neither of us had a single weapon. I'm looking forward to seeing how this little adventure resolves.

Here are some random bits that I found amusing or interesting over the past few days. Enjoy!

First, an Easter-related recipe that appeals to me because I love Peeps!

I really enjoyed the Normal Bob Smith Website and I think most of you will find something cool there as well.

If you need some art for the walls, are a comic and animatino fan, and want to support a good cause, do I have the site for you! Here's my favorite of the bunch.

And finally, if you're in Seattle next Saturday and you neeeeeed some cool, new jewelry, then you should come to Swank Seattle and get some goodies from Julia!

More later!

Happy Easter

The past few days have been good. I've had a little stress about a couple of things lately, but nothing really worth mentioning until I know more.

Oh, Julia got back from her trip on Thursday and we've spent much of the past few days together. She's really jazzed about her jewelry and has been spending time making new pieces and getting things set for her upcoming show. She's very industrious.

Saturday was pretty normal; I went for comics and then hit the gym, then in the evening I went to see the first show for Concorde, which is Shane, Cathy, Matt, and Javier's band. They were very good -- especially for their first show. I'm looking forward to the CD they're apparently working on. The show started pretty late, but lots of people showed up to see them. By the way, the link has some of their songs, check them out.

Sunday we went to Shana's for Easter Brunch. It was fun to hang out with everyone again, it's been a while. The food looked great, but I behaved myself and stuck to eating the shrimp I brought. I mean, it's hard to go wrong with shrimp! In the afternoon I sat and read at Julia's until I came home while she napped. While here, I'm getting laundry done and then I'm going to do some reading. Sounds like fun, eh?

I talked to my little sister earlier and she said she can get her kids to eat anything if she tells them, "Uncle Jon used to love that when he was a kid." Then they dig in. Funny. She's very tricksy.

Okay, time to get some things done! More later.

Night Off

I'd normally go to the gym on Wednesday night, but I decided to stay home and do some reading. I'm seven pages from the end of R. Salvatore's Homeland (though not this printing). I've heard of this trilogy for years and figured I'd finally check it out. I mean, Tritz based all of his D&D characters off Drzzzt for years, so...

Anyway, I'm going to finish the book when I'm done here.

I talked to Julia earlier tonight and she had some fantastic news. She's taken a bunch of her jewelry to try and sell it to some stores. She spent most of the day walking to stores until she found one where the store's buyer was available and she loved Julia's work. So, she took all of it on consignment and seemed really excited about featuring it in her store -- even pulling another jewelry case out of storage to house it. Pretty cool! And my girl was really happy about it.

I received a nice gift from my mom and dad, a box full of yummies from Harry & David, so I called and talked to Mom for a while and learned some interesting things about when I was a kid. I don't remember any of this, but apparently I got sick pretty regularly as a kid and it continued until I was about five when my mom finally told the doctors to figure out what the hell was wrong we me. They figured out that I'd had a staph infection that settled in my leg -- and I'd had it for about three years. The doctors admitted they should have found it long ago and that it was a good thing they found it now, otherwise I could/would have developed rheumatoid arthritis by the time I turned seven. So, they did whatever to fix me and then told my parents that I had to avoid physical activity for a year.

Now, I don't remember going to see the doctors, I don't remember if there was hospital time, I don't remember not participating in gym class (although I may have a slight memory of that now that I think about it), but I do remember that I had to sit still a lot. I also remember sliding up and down the family room stairs on my butt because I couldn't use my leg. My mom remarked tonight on how unbeleivable it was for the doctors to ask a kid to avoid going outside and playing and running around, but apparently I did it and the infection went away and healed up. (Although I do limp a bit when I'm tired. Seriously.)

There's a couple of things that came of that year: I developed some bad habits, like watching a lot of T.V. and eating food -- and not exercising. So, I went from being the cutest, skinniest little towheaded kid to being a chunko who really wasn't into sports or playing outside. And that persisted throughout my life; I learned some bad habits and they still haunt me today. (Like, say, that 95 pounds I could lose. No joke.)

I tell this story mainly because I think it's interesting. Do I think it's unfortunate? Yes, but I think I'd rather be like I am than be in chronic pain. Seems like an easy choice to me. Still, it would have been interesting to see how I would have turned out differently if they'd caught the infection when I first had it -- but I think I'd be a very different person and I gotta say, I like me the way I am.

I'm gonna go read.

Tomorrow I get to see Julia and that can't come soon enough for me.

Coincidence

Coincidence is a funny thing. I was just talking to Seth today about food poisoning and a sour stomach. And then as I was leaving work tonight (after Jason's first session of his new Game of Thrones game) I started a feel...off. In fact, I felt a bit like I might have to vomit, but that was a silly thought, so I drove one of the other players home, then made it to my place just in time to realize that I really did have to vomit. Bleh. I have no clue what caused that, but I hope it was a one-time thing.

In completely unrelated news; Kevin and Kim had their baby today. It looks like everyone is doing fine, but Kim won't be coming home for a few days because the took the baby Ceasarian. Anyway, congrats to them!

Julia has been out of town since yesterday. It's very odd to be the one who's here while she's gone. I'm more used to things being the other way around.

Gah, I don't feel right. I'm going to go relax for a bit before I sleep. See you soon.

Hubba hubba hubba! Who Can You Trust?

Four of the headlines on Yahoo news right now:

• Papers: Cheney aide says Bush OK'd leak
• NYPD detectives convicted of mob murders
• Ex-CEO denies Merck withheld information
• Software helps agencies catch tax cheaters

I know those links won't stay live forever, but seriously, who's left to trust? The government lies. The police kill. Corporations rip us off. And we lie to our country to avoid taxes.

I'd say something about the state of trust and honesty in our country (and the world), but I think the headlines speak for themselves.

I kind of feel like Jason when I blog about this stuff.

April Fool's Redux

I knew I couldn't continue my string of April Fool's posts unbroken, so I decided to take the year off. Sorry to disappoint you, Scott! But, I have to say, Seth and John came up with some good options for what may or may not have happened to me this year.

So, what's actually happened in my life lately? Well, I'll run through some random things. Last weekend Julia and I went to a thrift store and I was pleased to find Wildcards Vol. I (now I just need to find Vols. II and III) and a copy of Liavek. I was really happy to find them both, but Liavek surprised me because glancing through it I remembered that it was where Phil swiped the idea of investing your Luck in his D&D games. Yes, I know that's only meaningful to the people who played in Phil's games, but it was so central to the game that I'd forgotten where it originally came from. I think I had a copy of Liavek at some point, but it disappeared. I'm happy to have the new one.

This last weekend was the Emerald City Comic Convention. Work donated a bunch of stuff, so I was given a free pass. I only stopped by for about an hour on Sunday afternoon, but I found a couple of things that I wanted...not much, but something to make the trip worthwhile. Overall I thought the show was good, but they really need to start growing. Personally, I'd love to see my company adopt it and try to make it something special, but I understand why that's not a very attractive proposition (lots of costs, very little payoff) -- even so, I'm going to try to convince people it's a good idea.

I forgot to do something at work last week, so I kind of paid for it today. Luckily it wasn't something that takes days and days to make up for, but I really wished I'd taken some time to think about this project. Anyway, the presentation is tomorrow and I'm sure it will go very well. The idea is solid and a lot of fun.

Something completely at random: I listen to the BBC Radio Newspod everyday now. I think I started a couple of weeks ago. After listening to American news for my whole life it's refreshing to hear reporters that have some guts. The BBC newscasters are much more dogged about asking tough questions, often cutting off the interviewee to ask the question again and tell them to answer it without the crap or spin control. It's also interesting to get a glimpse of how the British view America, American politics, and American foreign policy. That makes me think that I should post a list of the podcasts that I (try) to listen to on a regular basis.

I don't talk about this much, but things are going very well with Julia and I. We've been together four months as of the first of April and we're having a blast. Sure, we run into issues every now and again, but everytime we do it seems like we figure it out and things get better. That's great.

More later.

April Fools!

No big news today. Nothing happened at all. Not a thing. I'm not even going to tell you a story and then say it didn't happen. I think everyone sort of expects it at this point, so all I have to say is that I have nothing to say.

I don't want you to think that anything unusual happened today. I don't want you to be excited for me because something amazing happend. I don't want you to be upset that something bad happened. Nope, nothing out of the ordinary happened at all.

I hope you had an exciting April 1st.