September 2002

The Convention Report

The Games...
I'm back from ConQuest. I'm not as tired as I normally am after a gaming convention. I suppose that's because I'm smart and I get both sleep and food at regular intervals during a convention now. Then again, it may be that I'm just getting too old to abuse my body like I did when I was younger.

Friday night, I was in Rob and Dave's Villains and Vigilantes superheroes game. I had a good time but it took a little bit for some of the players to realize that the game was not just a series of bad throw away lines in a lame attempt to be funny. If they hadn't calmed down, I would have left the game at the break and that would have been a shame because some of the other players were really good, the plotline was amusing and Rob was look fine. [Side note: Rob was looking MIGHTY DAMN FINE the entire convention and him greeting me openly with "Hello beautiful" and "Hey Sexy" all weekend didn't hurt one bit. Since he is safely married, I happily ogled him every time I saw him. *purrrrrrrr*] Favorite quote of that game: "We're the good guys. They're the bad guys. What's the problem with dropping a plane on them?"

Saturday day, I continued a rather strange, but acceptable, tradition that has occurred for the last three conventions. I didn't get into any of the games I wanted to Saturday morning (but that always balances out with me getting into the DoD LARP - so, it suits.). Since Bill arrived that morning, we hung out, relaxed and saw the dealer's room. Then, I split off to check on the Good Omens GMs and ran into the Reno Cutie, Newt. More about him later.

Saturday night, the GO crew got together for dinner at Denny's and were frightened by Helga, the Battle Waitress. Scary woman. Afterwards, Bill did an improv 7th Sea game. It was awesome! I know it links into the Adventures of Eric and Cathena somehow but I'm not sure quite how. I got to play a Vodacce Fate Witch named Lady Theodora Angelica. Rich played my Vodacce traveling companion and escort. I really enjoyed the characters and the relationship that our characters set up. Whatever would happen, she would look at Vincenzo and say, "I trust that you will deal with this..." Vincenzo would say "Yes, of course, my Lady." And both of us would expect - no matter out outrageous the situation was - Vincenzo WOULD deal with it. Favorite quote of the game: "Do not make me kill you all." Vincenzo to a crew of 24 unhappy Castillians who were ready to mutiny.

Sunday day, I ran my 7th Sea Vodacce game. I was the only 7th Sea game in the convention and I had a good seven extra players show up, wanting to get in. Fortunately, one of the spill over guys decided to run a 7th Sea adventure in the open gaming room, taking everyone else who didn't get into mine. More people should run 7th Sea games! In any case, I really had a great time running the game! It was darn near flawless for me. It was high energy the whole game and I think I did a good job of keeping everyone occupied - even if, just like my Big Dragons in Little China game, everyone skipped the secondary information gathering scene. Hmmmm. I did have to add in an impromptu demon of Legion to the mix towards the end but no one realized that that hadn't been planned.

Things I have learned from Convention GMing:

Sunday night, I made it into the Dreams of Deirdre "Shadows of the Past" LARP which turned out to be an amusing twist on the Lord of the Rings myth based on the fact that 9 rings to the humans, 7 to the dwarves, 3 to the elves and the One Ring equaled 20 and the DoD LARPS are based on 20 to 25 people. I asked for a low pressure character and I got one of the hobbits. I also had the All Seeing Eye. It was fun game. My only (tongue-in-cheek) complaint is that I'm always a bridesmaid and never a bride. I keep getting nominated for the player RP award but I never win. *sob* (Actually, I won once but still....)

No games on Monday. Just lunch with Rich, Blinkie and Bill. It was all good, too - if you discount the spillage that happened a couple of times.

The People...
Bill - It was great to see him! We easily fell into a comfortable routine. I don't mind sharing a room with him at conventions at all. He's also looking great, having lost twenty pounds.

Newton - The Reno cutie. He was the only one who actually surprised me and not in a good way. I'm guessing I was reading much more into his emails and body language than what was there. I discovered that he's dating again. How did I discover this? Saturday, when Blinkie and I met up with him to go have a drink, there was this girl with him. He didn't introduce her as his girlfriend but I knew something was up when I found out that she drove up from Reno with him. I finally had to ask her how she knew Newt and she told me that they were dating. Internally, my comment was "Oh...! Oh, my. How interesting. Hmmmm. Ok. No passes at Newt for this convention." I was really glad that Blinkie was with me when we met up. Otherwise, I think I would have felt strange.

The DoD Crew - It's always so good to see them! I love roleplaying and talking with them. Hopefully, Lori and Dave and I can get our schedules set up right so we can RP at the UA LARP together again. I've missed them there. Also, Wendy and I must get together soon! It was like seeing my sister after a long absence.

Max - There is a guy I have met through the DoD LARPs that I would really like to smack upside the head in the worse way. I swear, every word out of his mouth is either a compliant about something or a condescending statement of opinion about the topic at hand. I discovered over the course of the convention that both Dave (who can be judgmental) and Bill (who is really laid back) both hate this guy with a passion. He had the gall to pick up a Forbidden Kingdoms book from an Other Worlds display at KublaCon, look at it, dismissively toss it to the table then proceed to lecture Dave about how FK isn't 'true pulp'. I'm surprised he's still alive. Bill groused about how this guy ALWAYS causes problems in LARPs. The DoD crew won't even talk to him after the games anymore because all he will do is tell them how they messed things up and give them advice on how to run LARPs. I don't see him running any LARPs *grrrrr* The thing that I'm most pissed about? One of the other LARPers had a service dog in training with him and Max refused to let the dog stay because he has allergies and is allergic to "all antihistamines." He forced one guy to give up his slot in the game because someone had to hold onto the dog while the trainer was LARPing. NO ONE ELSE had any problem at all with the dog being there. Personally, I wish he would have left.

The Shorts guy - He was there. Same blue short shorts every day. He's a con fixture now.

Overall...
Hmmmm. I think I can sum up my thoughts on the convention by stating that it was like eating a piece of white toast. I like toast. I like eating toast. It tastes good while I'm eating it. However, it is nothing special, kind of bland and I don't remember it specifically after I eat it. That was the Con - fun but bland. Nothing outstanding or terrible happened. I'm not even sure I want to write a review on it now.

SEPTEMBER'S JOURNAL SPOTLIGHT: Reflections of the Dragon's Eye by Liz. Geek girl, gamer, struggling author and all around cool chick. This is a woman after my own heart from her desire to be published to her online gaming addiction to crushes on imaginary people. I love reading about her exploits at work and play. She is currently working on a novel while working as a computer programmer and there hints of a possible child in the relatively near future. Sometimes she's serious. Sometimes she's not. But, she is always an enjoyable read. You should check her out!

Tarot Card for the Day: Eight of Pentacles

New Things

This vacation has been both wonderful and too short. I could use about another month off. I feel like I've just now started to relax. Next time, I'll see if I can't take two weeks off to do nothing. I'm not going to get the time to do so for the rest of the year. My schedule is way too tight. However, I've really enjoyed the time I have had off.

I have a mostly clean apartment. Well, I did until today. Now every thing that was in my car is in the middle of the living room floor and will stay there until I get my new (to-me-used) car which is now looking like a really pretty silver Saturn 200L series 4 door sedan - if they will knock the price down $1000 to match the Alero they sold 30 minutes before I got there after I told them that I wanted it. Unfortunately, that is the way it is with cars. However, I still told them that I wanted to sleep on it for this silver Saturn.

In the meantime, I've been visiting with new friends. First Bethany and Ralph. Then, Thea and Monte. Bethany and Ralph have great home that is wonderfully cluttered in a hobbitish manner. Plus, they have a very sleek black kitty, named Dora, who has marked me as "approved." I appreciate that. We had dinner in which the drive back was punctuated by the Mysterious Ass Attack where I managed to sit on, not one, but TWO 4-6 inch long shards of glass. We have no idea where the glass came from or why I wasn't bitten on the way to dinner. The world may never know. Ah, well. Didn't stop the fun though.

Then, dinner with Thea and a nice 3 mile walk that had us looking at some really neat architecture in Palo Alto. Thea pointed out an awesome place for a LARP. Very groovy. Plus, we had a very keen talk about this, that and the other. A nice thing to do when getting to know new people. The talk went good enough that I got invited up to Thea's place where I ran into Monte - almost literally - while exploring the patio. He was working out with head phones on. I didn't know he was there. It was a most comical meeting.

In other news, I have purple hair! Ok, so, the consensus is that it is actually burgundy and I must reluctantly agree. My hair is indescribably groovy... but I've decided that I want MORE purple next time. I want anime hair! I'm glad I did this. It may delay the black a little while I fuss with the vibrancy of the purple until I get it just right.

In even more interesting news, I have new kittens! They are Bester and Byron. Yes, still in the Babylon 5 theme. Bester is an almost all black kitten with a tiny bit of white on his chest. He is grumpy and suspicious and occasionally hisses at me. Byron is almost all gray but seems to have a bit of white on he chest. He is less grumpy, purrs for me and likes to lick my fingers. Both are about eight weeks old. Both are EXCESSIVELY SHY around people. So, I'm going to have to do a lot of patient socializing work with them. But, they seem to be warming up to me ... slowly. Which is ok. I have until October before I bother to weigh them in any case. Oh, yes. Jean isn't so sure that Byron is actually a male now, in which case she may actually be Lyta. Still, I'm supposed to check and we both now how good I am at that.

Tomorrow I get to decide if I want the silver Saturn, contact Games Unplugged about all of the contracts owed to me - including the latest Hucked Tankard tale that has been sent in, start writing on Doll #3: Percussive Maintenance and fiddle with paying my bills with online bill pay. Yes, yes... I'm finally getting into the 21st Century. I'm sure Kevin will be proud of me.

Tonight was one of the most awesome "You Did It" LARPs, yet. Holly accidentally set off a big ritual while doing a promotion for the Parthenon, then when she found out that Liam was dead, she lost it and after having a shouting match with Mari, ended up decking Jimmy, then ran to her office to cry. Jake, of all people, ended up coming in to help her cope with the death of another one of her friends. Whoo-boy. What an emotional roller-coaster for my sweet lass. For once, she actually has an opinion on the Grove family... which should make things really interesting in the future. She blames them for Liam's death.

SEPTEMBER'S JOURNAL SPOTLIGHT: Reflections of the Dragon's Eye by Liz. Geek girl, gamer, struggling author and all around cool chick. This is a woman after my own heart from her desire to be published to her online gaming addiction to crushes on imaginary people. I love reading about her exploits at work and play. She is currently working on a novel while working as a computer programmer and there hints of a possible child in the relatively near future. Sometimes she's serious. Sometimes she's not. But, she is always an enjoyable read. You should check her out!

Tarot Card for the Day: The Empress

Not about 9-11

Work...
Our lovely CEO has now 'officially' instituted a mandatory 50 hour work week for all salaried employees. I'm so thrilled. Really I am. Instead of working from 7:30am to 4:3pm0, it's now 7:30am to 5:30pm which puts me right in the middle of the rush hour traffic I was trying to avoid by coming in and leaving earlier. So, that puts me at a normal 7:00am to 6:30ishpm for my word day and commute. Yay. But, to make up for it, we did get these neat little company fidget toys. Joy.

Despite the 50 hour work week, I am still pretty happy with my job. Granted, they just merged the second and third milestones and changed the pattern in which we are supposed to test and I have the sinking feeling of someone about to be blindsided by an avalanche of work. But, the EE is still pretty neat. I just wish it wasn't quite so alpha. It makes testing pretty difficult.

Hmmm. I should probably call PTL and see what we need to do to accommodate these changes.

Writing...
I've actually been fairly light on the writing side lately. I haven't started "Doll 3: Percussive Maintenance" yet but I did write up a flasher for Fetish Fancy as well as a rather twisted erotic dream (that sparked a little fire storm of activity over at my LJ) that I'm probably going to modify for FF's November theme set of 'Dreams.'

I am falling into the bad habit of wanting to game instead of write/submit and I know I need to kick that in the butt pretty quick here. I want to keep up my writing/submitting schedule.

Oh! "Doll 1: Initiation" is currently up at Ms-Abby's. Unfortunately, I haven't been given code yet to go see what it looks like. I'll let you all know when I've seen it.

Gaming...
It seems that the GMs are really happy at some of the stuff that I've been doing in the Unknown Armies LARP because I'm providing events for the playership while providing "perfect" backdrops for some of the plots going on right now. I, as a player, realize that this is going on but I, as the character Holly, do not. She's got a plan and she's following through with it. Damned if the Underground and the Invisible Clergy keep using what she's setting up for their own plots. Despite some of the obvious things going on, Holly is really trying to keep things to a mundane level.

Of course, in a more personal sense, Holly has had three of her friends die now. Two of them she really liked despite their obvious flaws. (Yes, yes. I know Holly likes everyone. Well, that's changed.) Based on the way she found out about Liam's suicide and some of the misinformation that got back to her in her traumatized state, she's actually got a very poor opinion of someone in the game... and that someone really surprises me because it came from left field. Not only that, because of this, she's been kicked out of her neutral stance on the two main families in the area. One she looks at a little nicer. One she looks at with a more negative eye. Quite the accomplishment for someone who likes everyone (without judgment).

Though, I've been warned that some people are now looking to either use or befriend Holly since the Parthenon is becoming a central node of the game and because she's held onto a mostly neutral stance between the two major families. Heh. Cool!

Friends...
I'm slowly getting to know some of the UA people I've met as new friends. It's not easy as my first urge is to flee back to my shell due to [insert some low self-esteem issue] and hide in 'safety.' It's funny. There are days when these issues seem so overwhelmingly huge. Then, there are days that they are small.

I really enjoyed a recent outing to Will's place in Fremont to watch Buffy with a lot of UA group. Admittedly, I mostly just sat back and watch, not participating in the conversations too much. I guess, I'm using my usual tact of getting a 'lay of the land' first, before diving in and offering my opinion.

At the same time that I'm getting meet and know new friends, I'm trying to remember to not forget my older friends who have been with me for a long time. I've been trying to get together with some of them but it hasn't worked out yet. However, being loyal to a fault, I'll keep trying. It's just the way I am.

Over all, I think this foray into new relationships has been relatively successful.

Newness...
Thinking of newness... there are actually a lot of new things in my life.

I have the new kittens who won't sit still for pictures and being still mostly feral, have a hard time with remembering to use the litter box much to my unhappiness. However, they both are slowly showing personalities. Bester, the black one, is still grumpy. He hisses at me a lot but he has never swatted me or bit me. He does show curiosity and some wanting of attention. Byron, the gray one, is much more friendly. He's now coming out to greet me and purrs on contact. Now, if I can get them to use the litter box, I'll be a happy camper.

I have new hair. Well, a new color. It's a neat (obviously fake) burgundy. I was going for more purple but I'd have to strip my hair for it to work and I'm not ready for that. I like it enough that I may not dye my hair black in October. Maybe. *grin* I don't know. We'll see.

I have a new car! It is a Saturn. 2001 L200 four door sedan. Silver. He's already told me his name and that's a good thing. I'm so pleased with my new toy that I made Yony, Robert and Jeff ride with me to Will's place instead of me carpooling. It has AC and a CD player. It's very comfy and quiet. Driving Sterling is very different from driving Dante. Dante was much older and noisier. Sterling is very smooth and sleek. More power, too.

SEPTEMBER'S JOURNAL SPOTLIGHT: Reflections of the Dragon's Eye by Liz. Geek girl, gamer, struggling author and all around cool chick. This is a woman after my own heart from her desire to be published to her online gaming addiction to crushes on imaginary people. I love reading about her exploits at work and play. She is currently working on a novel while working as a computer programmer and there hints of a possible child in the relatively near future. Sometimes she's serious. Sometimes she's not. But, she is always an enjoyable read. You should check her out!

Tarot Card for the Day: Justice

True Lies

I have always loved the movie True Lies. Not only because it was a fun, brainless action flick, but because of the smarmy car salesman, Simon, played by Bill Paxton. Well, not him personally, but because of the idea his character planted in my head about pretending to be a secret agent and giving women an 'adventure' in order to get laid. Well, not the getting laid part, not that I would mind that. But, I digress.

Ever since I saw that movie, coupled with the fact that I am an avid LARPer, I have wanted to pull that on someone. "That" being, to give them, a complete stranger, an adventure. The spy in trouble, needing help... a place to hide or a ride. The car chase or the witnessed kidnapping or slipping the undeveloped film into his/her pocket.

I would want it to be a short one to three day adventure. Whirlwind into, then back out of, their lives, leaving them changed forever. The ultimate adventure - the knowledge of danger in complete safety. What a rush. More over, this is something that I want to happen to me, too. Who wouldn't want an adventure? The handsome agent in trouble, needing help, making me feel important? Oh, yeah... *wistful grin*

However, they say that an adventure is 'someone, a 1000 miles away, having a perfectly rotten time and wishing they were anywhere but there.' You don't enjoy an adventure until it is over when you can sit back in your easy chair, sip your drink and reminisce over what just happened. Then, there is the fact that many people react badly to surprises. Even me. It's one of those paradoxical things. I like them but they can piss me off especially if I am frightened.. Finally, there is the possibility that the target for the adventure could end up being either psychotic or something like a cop. Both of these could have dire consequences for those participating as the "bad guys."

A couple years ago, I had an idea of treating my favorite GMs to a game of "Who is Kaiser Soze?" Four GMs would get invitations to dinner, where someone unknown to them all, would present the game to them. Each GM would be allowed to bring one companion. It was an all expense paid day trip to San Francisco, where they would follow clues and be guided by various "Kobiashi" characters to the next destination and clue. The end of the day, there would be a dinner and a party where they could give their guesses on who Kaiser Soze is. After the guesses, I would reveal myself to everyone at the party. Hopefully, everyone would have had a good time with it.

This little idea of mine would have needed a lot of man power and a decent amount of cash. I started running into problems when I started recruiting the Kobiashi characters and those players started adding their own ideas of what they thought should and shouldn't be done. Some of which was in direct conflict with what I wanted to set up. It was something I didn't expect. I was stuck. I didn't want the secret revealed but I didn't want to work with people who wanted to run my idea themselves and in directions I didn't want it to go. So, I let the idea drop.

Of course, I hadn't even considered, at the time, that my GMs would be too paranoid to show up to the opening dinner. In later, oblique conversations, I discovered at least one GM wouldn't have gone. Probably two of them. So, I guess it was a good thing that it didn't happen.

Still... I have this real desire to make an adventure happen for someone. Damn the consequences. Screw the reality of the situation. I want to plot and play! I want the thrill and stress of seeing if we could pull it off. I know I'd need at least three other people. One good contact and two bad guys. All would need to have cell phones and cars and be willing to take risks. I have this whole little scenario in my head about a spy on the run, undeveloped film and chase scenes.

I think I would want to target a man eating alone in a restaurant. Single men in restaurants have a higher chance of being single and less burdened with things like families. Lord knows I wouldn't want to accidentally mess up someone's home life in my attempt to give them an adventure.

*sigh* This is probably a desire that I will never get to fulfill. It's a sad thought to have this urge and know that mundane reality is such that it is impossible to follow through with it. I guess, I'll just have to keep my adventures and scenarios to myself for now.

SEPTEMBER'S JOURNAL SPOTLIGHT: Reflections of the Dragon's Eye by Liz. Geek girl, gamer, struggling author and all around cool chick. This is a woman after my own heart from her desire to be published to her online gaming addiction to crushes on imaginary people. I love reading about her exploits at work and play. She is currently working on a novel while working as a computer programmer and there hints of a possible child in the relatively near future. Sometimes she's serious. Sometimes she's not. But, she is always an enjoyable read. You should check her out!

Tarot Card for the Day: Temperance

LEMURS!

Sunday was the most awesome day. A group of us decided to go to the San Francisco Zoo to see the lemurs and all of the other animals (of course). It was me, Robert, Hans, Thea, Monte, Yony and Yony's college friend, Nelia. The trip out to the Zoo was great, mostly because we were all in one van, the drive was easy and I saw the best beach that Bill and I can go to sometime later. I kept the directions. I'm really jazzed about that.

The zoo itself was laid out really well. We started (and ended) with the Lemurs since they were right next to the entrance and the main point of the trip. I have never seen a more interesting lemur exhibit along with so many different lemurs subspecies. Still, the ring-tailed lemur is my favorite. There were several amusing exchanges that I saw were just too cute for words.

The next best exhibit was the big cat exhibits. There were four snow leopards. It was just before feeding, so the big cats were pacing and restless. What an awesome sight. One of the zookeepers came over and pet the male leopard. I was so jealous. I wish it could have been me doing that. At 2pm, we got to watch the feeding of the lions and tigers. There were so many people that I couldn't see a thing. Thea found me hanging back. When she found out I couldn't see any of the big cats, she pretty much bulled her way through the crowd, bringing me with all the way to the front, so I could see what was going on since she knew the big cats are my favorite.

I was maybe three feet away from the alpha lion. He was magnificent. He was gnawing on his meal, then he paused and looked up, looking directly at me in the face. I got the distinct impression that his thought was "If not for these bars, you'd be next, prey animal." It was a powerful thing to have the king of the beasts stare directly into your eyes. Intimidating. Awesome is a good word. It really is.

After that, the day coasted in a wondrous blur of good conversation and adorable animals. The meerkats were definitely noteworthy for two reasons. First, they were about half the size I thought they would be. Second, the meerkats were really active and entertaining. I especially liked the sentry. He sat on his top rock, watching about 300 degrees around the area while the rest foraged or rested.

By the end of the day, I was beat but really happy. Let me tell you, those skinny-minny friends of mine walk really fast at times. For a woman with arthritis in her knees and about an extra 100 pounds on her, I think I kept up pretty darned well for the near five hours of walking. I definitely slept good last night. You know it's good day when your cheeks are slightly sore from all of the laughing and smiling you did during the day. Many good memories (and private jokes) were created and will be cherished.

Oh! I almost forgot. On the way home, I got flirted with! I'm amazed. I was all sweaty and red from the sun with my hair a mess and this cute guy in a white truck started flirting with me at a stoplight and continued to flirt with me for about a mile until I turned onto the freeway. What a way to end a really good day!

The kittens got their bath and flea dip. They seem a lot happier now. Byron is his normal sweet little lovable self. He loves the attention and pettings. Whenever I go back there, he starts purring because he knows, no matter what I'm back there for, I'm going to pick him up and cuddle him. Also, I have found out that Bester is already 2 pounds. I need to contact Jean about that to get him fixed. I wanted more time to socialize him but he is getting better already. He's coming up to me on his own even if I still have to chase him down to pick him up.

I think, if his new owner is smart and patient, Bester is going to be an awesome cat for someone. He is very smart. He absolutely adores the laser pointer and has already figured out that the black thing in my hand and the laser bug are connected. He gets really excited when he sees me pick up the laser pointer, starting his hunting calls (which sound vaguely like a small series of sneezes), even before I turn it on. That impresses me.

I really need to get a digital camera and take better pictures of them.

So, I'm back the Atkins program. I just completed my first week of Induction and my weight loss was... *drum roll*... eight pounds! *cheer* It's just like the last time I started up Atkins. So, if I follow the same pattern as before, next week should be a fairly big week, though, not as big as this week's loss. I'm really pleased that it is working again for me from the get-go. Last week, I got an email from a reader who talked about how she's only lost 1-2 pounds per week from the beginning. Then again, she has a lot less to loose than I do.

I did exercise three times last week. While that is a good thing, I'm not going push it. My main concern is to get me back into the swing of things diet wise. THEN, I'll work more on the exercise. That said, I would like to note that I kicked much butt on my trip to the SF Zoo (as mentioned above). I was in a pack of skinny-minny fast walking friends and I was able to keep up for almost the whole day. That's a real accomplishment for me. I remember when I couldn't do that. Now, it was only at the end of the day when I was tired and my knees were aching that I started to lag behind a little. Even then, when I realized I was lagging, I was able to force myself to catch up and keep up without too much labored breathing.

In my Atkins journal, I listed what I ate all last week, if you are curious about such. It's not that exciting but it might be informative for some people.

SEPTEMBER'S JOURNAL SPOTLIGHT: Reflections of the Dragon's Eye by Liz. Geek girl, gamer, struggling author and all around cool chick. This is a woman after my own heart from her desire to be published to her online gaming addiction to crushes on imaginary people. I love reading about her exploits at work and play. She is currently working on a novel while working as a computer programmer and there hints of a possible child in the relatively near future. Sometimes she's serious. Sometimes she's not. But, she is always an enjoyable read. You should check her out!

Tarot Card for the Day: Four of Wands, Inverted

Dodging the Bullet

Tonight is the Unknown Armies LARP. Unfortunately, Rich cannot make it and is gracefully dropping out. (Un?)Fortunately, another one of the players (and my co-worker), Hans, had a character die recently. He was at loose ends as to what he wanted to play next. I've asked him to play Holly's brother and he's accepted.

We spent part of Friday talking about who Terry Stevens is, his basic background, why he is what he is and the relationship between Holly and Terry. I know it won't be the same as what Rich would play but that's OK. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun finally having Holly's brother (and the Parthenon's owner) in game.

Also, the GMs approved of the mini-plot I've created for tonight. I've spent the last couple of days getting the props together for the 1920's party that my character is throwing tonight. I've picked up little prizes for the contests, as well as Martinelli's for the champagne. During our email conversation, Ted, one of the GMs gave me the BEST compliment. He said, "But, boy howdy, can I just tell you that your 3rd level Avatar bids have been very, very, very impressive and brilliant? I just wanted to thank you for that." Makes me happy that my not subtle and subtle efforts have not gone unnoticed.

I really hope everyone enjoys tonight.

One the writing front, I haven't been a total slacker. I wrote 1800 wrote on "Doll #3: Percussive Maintenance" and plan to finish it this weekend if possible. I also edited a 4500 word story called "Dark Epiphany" for the ERWA group's critiques. This story, one of my older stories, hasn't done as well and the ERWA group gave me some good, if harsh, feedback. So, I have some work on it.

Also, I finally got my copy of Campaign magazine with "The First Huck" in it! It looks faboo! I inflicted it on some of my friends and co-workers. Most of whom made photocopies of it so they could read it at their leisure. Now, I'm nervous. What if they hated it? What if they think I'm a bad writer? Paradoxically, all I could think was, "Don't read it. Just see that it's in the professional magazine and know that I did it!"

This last week is what Casey has called 'a bad traffic week.' On our way home Friday night, we witnessed an accident. If we had been 15 seconds sooner, we would have been IN that accident... and I was the one driving. 15 seconds. That was the amount of time it took for Casey to see if MM was in. It was also the same amount of time it took for Casey to remove an errant leaf from my car and tease me by pretending to wash my windows, too. If he had not done either of those... I would have been at a position where I would have been merging from the off ramp, onto the freeway and into the accident as it happened. We really dodged the bullet on that one. A very scary thought.

But, speaking of dodging bullets... Casey couldn't dodge one. Friday, he was let go because there weren't enough projects in the queue at the moment. I suppose I shouldn't be too upset. His contract was for 3 months. He was kept for 6 months. Still, I loose having both a friend and a carpool partner for work. I'm sad about that. The only silver lining I can find is the fact that, now, if someone from the Peninsula calls me up and invites me out to a last minute dinner/walk/game, I can just do it without worrying how I will get home, etc... My schedule is my own. Still... I think I would rather have my carpool buddy and Casey working.

Last night was game night at Robert's place. A bunch of us were there: Miriam, Andi, Bob, Robert, Yony, Jeff, Will and me. The guys first played some fantasy version of Risk (Castle Quest, I think) while Andi finished homework and I finished making props for the YDI LARP. Then, after much chatting and laughing, we started an 8 person game of Munchkin. The game started about 11pm. It ended at 3:30am. That is ONE game.

OMG! I thought that game, as fun as it was, was NEVER going to end. At one point in the game, 5 of the 7 players (Miriam left due to fatigue) were all at level 9. At one point, I was going to win the game, but didn't realize it because someone mated the monster I was fighting. But, that happened only one time. I do believe that I get the award for the most number of Curses drawn when kicking in a door. It got to be a joke. But, seriously, I drew curses a good 75% of the time.

At the end of the game, two of us were 9th and Clerics and we knew that the Divine Intervention card was in the pile. It was so close! So very close! Andi finally won with the Divine Intervention card (that would have made me and Andi both win) only five cards down in the deck. SO close! However, I think we were all really happy for the game to finally end, but no one had been willing to throw the game. I'm glad. It was a lot of fun even if I am a little bit wonky today.

I had a kitten breakthrough! Bester is no longer running from me. He lets me pick him up and pet him. This morning, he started purring for me! That's the first time he did that. I'm so pleased that I've finally gotten him mostly socialized. I really am. I was a little worried since he goes to be fixed on Tuesday and can be adopted after that.

However, it is a good thing I have two possible adopters. I found out, after the second week in October, Furry Friends Rescue does not showcase black kittens until the second week in November due to the problem of people getting black kittens for Halloween and doing... not nice... things to them. *shudder* I would much rather have my kittens adopted by friends of friends who can vouch for their conduct than have the possibility of something bad happening to my little fuzzballs.

SEPTEMBER'S JOURNAL SPOTLIGHT: Reflections of the Dragon's Eye by Liz. Geek girl, gamer, struggling author and all around cool chick. This is a woman after my own heart from her desire to be published to her online gaming addiction to crushes on imaginary people. I love reading about her exploits at work and play. She is currently working on a novel while working as a computer programmer and there hints of a possible child in the relatively near future. Sometimes she's serious. Sometimes she's not. But, she is always an enjoyable read. You should check her out!

Tarot Card for the Day: The Magician, Inverted

Dating != Sex

Saturday was the You Did It game. As a player, I had a great time. Things went so well at the beginning. However, as a character, Holly feels like she's swimming upstream. I have to admit, it is hard to play an optimistic character in the Unknown Armies universe. Holly got really depressed by the end of the evening when her wonderful party was destroyed. *sigh* A little of that leaked over into my mood after I left Yony and Robert to head home.

Putting that mood to good use, I wrote up a closing scene called, "Stains" as Holly cleaned up the bloodstains left by Lu Grove from being shot. It is a great little maudlin piece about 1000 words long and gave a little insight as to why Holly stays and some of her inner doubts/demons she has to contend with on a daily basis. My only concern it to make sure the character doesn't become too much of a martyr.

The only really unhappy thing that happened was the fact that Hans didn't enjoy playing Holly's brother, Terry Stevens, thus, not wanting to play the character seems to have now quit the game. I guess Terry was Hans' last shot to boost his flagging interest. With Hans gone, I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the Terry character. I may have him killed off and have Holly become the owner of the Parthenon. I'm not sure I could go through getting yet another player to play Terry, explain everything that is going on with them and reveal all of the secrets between brother and sister one more time, only to have the player drop the game/ball/character, etc...

Sunday, Alex has switched over the Port Townsend game from WoD to the Buffyverse and the change is great! We are still working on figuring out the translation from one genre to the other but because everyone knows the Buffyverse so well, we slid, almost flawlessly, into it and the game. Delphi has basically become the Cordelia of the group with her visions, only less annoying and with a groin kick from hell. (Pretty much her only offensive skill because this character abhors violence, can't shoot a gun but is good at hucking things - go fig.)

The one liners were zipping all over the place as we got into the spirit of the game. My best line one-off line came from a scene where an ax wielding vampire was chasing Delphi through her house and, in missing her with the ax, destroyed her dining room table. Her response, "Hey! That was French!" There was a pause of confusion, then the screaming and the chase were on again.

Kevin's character, Daffyd, is no longer even a vampire. He's half demon monk. He's the reason we all have our souls back. His best line, as he was picking himself up from a wallop from another demon, was to call out in a scholarly voice to Patricia as she barreled her way towards the two other bad guys, "Remember! We need answers!"

I'm finding it easier to get into the low carb routine than expected. I lost 2.5 pounds this last week which brings the first two weeks of Induction to 10.5 pounds. Not bad at all. I'm going to continue on Induction for another week or so, or until I loose my willpower and start up the 20-40 carbs/day Sunday through Thursday and 40-60 carbs Friday and Saturday routinue. I'm actually going to try and hold that off on that, if I can but, we'll see. Also, I'm going to bump up the exercise from three times a week to five times a week (on average) and see how that goes. In a week or two, I'll add the weights. Hopefully, I won't hit any plateaus and I won't need to go on thermogenics again.

A snippet of an IM conversation from much too late Saturday night.

Him: how's the love life?

Me: Good enough for now. I'm dating a couple of guys off and on.

Him: woot! they good in bed?

Me: Huh? When did I say I was sleeping with either of them?

Him: you said you were dating them.

Me: Dating != Sex

Him: it doesn't? guess I've been doing it wrong.

Me: You mean to tell me that you've never dated a woman without having sex with her?

Him: nope. unless grade school counts.

Ok. When did the definition of "dating" become "person I'm having sex with on a semi-regular basis"? Whatever happened to the dinner, movie and a good night kiss equaling a fine date? Ok. You can toss in a little petting, too.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy sex quite a bit. Vanilla or kinky. Tie me up, hold me down, pull my hair, it's all good. But... what about the actual act of dating? Long walks in the moonlight. Long talks about everything and nothing. Why can't an evening end without a tumble in the sheets still be considered a great success? For that matter, why can't a relationship that is not platonic also not include intercourse? Am I too naïve or too old fashioned to still be thinking like this?

There are a number of men out there that I would love to date on a regular basis that can't/won't have sex with me. The reasons are varied. Everything from other partners to health issues. However, this would not stop me from dating them - going out, having a good time, dancing, a movie, dinner at home. The physical act of intercourse does not constitute dating in my book. That's just sex. I can have sex with many different men without dating any of them. There is no real emotional investment.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this. Nevertheless, the whole concept of dating = sex is frustrating to me. My mind has been chewing on it for two days to no satisfactory closure.

SEPTEMBER'S JOURNAL SPOTLIGHT: Reflections of the Dragon's Eye by Liz. Geek girl, gamer, struggling author and all around cool chick. This is a woman after my own heart from her desire to be published to her online gaming addiction to crushes on imaginary people. I love reading about her exploits at work and play. She is currently working on a novel while working as a computer programmer and there hints of a possible child in the relatively near future. Sometimes she's serious. Sometimes she's not. But, she is always an enjoyable read. You should check her out!

Tarot Card for the Day: Page of Cups, Inverted

Girly Moments

I'm having a girly moment here. I just have to say that I really adore the fact that 'romantic' clothing has come back into style. Especially the bell sleeves and ruffles. I love bell sleeves. I love the ruffled cuffs that get into everything. I love the images they provoke in my mind's eye. When I wear this clothing with lace, bell sleeves, ruffles and flowy fabrics, I just feel that much more pretty. I stand taller. A smile hovers about my lips more often and I daydream easier.

Maybe it is something additional to me losing weight. I feel prettier over all. So, I can have the prettier clothing. Feeling prettier, I feel more confident and I really do have a glow about me. I've been told that a positive outlook and confidence is one of the most attractive things about a person. It must be somewhat true. I've been complimented every time I wear my new shirts.

Along with this girlish squealing over clothing, I'm getting the urge to dress up more often. To fix my hair, curl it and fuss over it. I'm still not overly fond of make up but I am somewhat vain about my hair. It is long enough to put up in a French twist for work now. I enjoy that because it shows off the neck I'm slowly revealing.

I have the sudden urge to wear my 1920's dress to the Ethyria game tomorrow, just because I can and that gaming group never sees me dressed nice. Maybe I will. Should get some interesting reactions.

On the writing front, I've finished Doll 3: Percussive Maintenance and I've had great flash of inspiration for the next installment of the series. I'm tentatively calling it: Doll 4: The Hunt. The premise is a fox hunt with Doll as the fox... Should be lots of fun to write. Doll 2: The Bath and The Ultimatum will be up at Mistress Abby's site in October. I'm excited for that.

I'm a little behind on my works for Fetish Fancy. I've got them picked out and I'm polishing them now. They are due on Monday, the 30th. The flashers and poems are done but, none of the stories are ready. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I -must- get this stuff done by EOD Monday but I'm booked solid for the entire weekend. If I don't go to Johanna's card game thing, I'm sure I'll get it done tonight.

Oh, yes. I've decided to count my Fetish Fancy Stories and Poems under contract/publish for my Scorecard but not the flashers. I don't know. I guess it just feels like the flashers aren't "enough" to be considered for the scorecard. They will be under my bibliography once published, though.

Thursday night, I went out to dinner with a couple of new friends. We decided to meet at the Dana street coffee house. I had been warned by Autumn that she was always late but she would try to get there as close to on time as possible. I wasn't particularly worried. I had been to the Dana street coffee shop before and I liked the atmosphere.

This coffee shop is one of the local college hang outs. It has a wonderfully bohemian feel to it. There are always students present; reading, studying and/or messing around on their computers. There are quiet philosophical discussions going on and occasionally, they have live music like the sax player from late Thursday night.

As I sat there, reading the Voice, sipping my blanca mocha, I know I was being checked out by the regulars. There was a cute guy across from me reading something that would occasionally glance up to look at me. I know, I caught him once while I was glancing up to see who was coming in the door. I favored him with a smile as he ducked his head again.

I silently marveled at how comfy the place felt to me. At that moment, I really wished I had a laptop so I could hang out there and do some of my writing outside of the house, watching the world go by. I felt very... I don't know... artsy... bohemian is a good word... just thinking about image I would present to myself if I did this. The slightly purple hair. The flowy ruffled bell sleeved shirts. The mocha I would drink and the consistent, quiet clicking of the keys from my laptop as a story flowed from my mind through my fingertips to the page in a harmonious concert of creativity.

Ah... what an idyllic image... Maybe, someday, I'll be a fulltime author and be able to hang out at coffee shops while I write my next best seller.

I like it when I validate myself at work. This time, I did it by asking a couple 'simple' questions and chasing the answers from manager to manager who seemed to be in a private game of Hot Potato over the issue I raised.

Manager1: Talk to Manager2 about it.
Manager2: Talk to Manager3 about it but not Manager4.
Manager3: Talk to Manager2, Manager4 or Manager5 about it or come back to me if you need to. I've been trying to get answers on this for six months. Good luck.

At that point, I wrote an email and kicked the whole thing back up to Manager1. Manager1 spoke with Manager2 and newVP about the issues I had raised. Next thing I know, Manager1 comes back to me, "Well, you did it again, Jennifer. As a reward, I'm sending you back to Portland next week to discuss the issue with all involved from the product management side of things, the engineering management side of things and the engineer to is working on the issue. Oh, yes, Manager6 will be going with you. He will be in charge of making sure all of the issues involved with the topic you raised are dealt with."

Apparently, I kicked a management hornet's nest and they all decided that this was a really important issue. Heh.

SEPTEMBER'S JOURNAL SPOTLIGHT: Reflections of the Dragon's Eye by Liz. Geek girl, gamer, struggling author and all around cool chick. This is a woman after my own heart from her desire to be published to her online gaming addiction to crushes on imaginary people. I love reading about her exploits at work and play. She is currently working on a novel while working as a computer programmer and there hints of a possible child in the relatively near future. Sometimes she's serious. Sometimes she's not. But, she is always an enjoyable read. You should check her out!

Tarot Card for the Day: Two of Wands

Dragons in Heat Friday night, I worked like a mad woman to get Fetish Fancy's October set of erotica done. I managed to do it, too. Yay, me! So, by 2002.10.10, they should be up. That will be a nice edition to Doll 2: The Bath and The Ultimatum on Mistress Abby's site. I still haven't found out when First Time Client will be on Bloodfetish. Kind of annoying, really.

Admittedly, I haven't done another round of submissions, yet. I'm not sure why I'm putting off. I suppose, partly, due to my 50 hour work week sapping some of my energy. Partly because I'm so busy in my personal life and partly because I'm just being lazy. I do know that if I'm going to do any more submissions this year outside of Fetish Fancy, I do need to do it this month because November is the novel dare and December is recovering from the novel dare.

I wonder who else is doing the novel dare. I know of three other people who have mentioned an interest in it. I'm just not sure which ones will follow through. Life has a way of being a real pain in the butt for some of my friends.

Saturday, I was over at Rich's house playing our monthly Steam Punk game, Ethyria. This was a particularly good episode for me because Rich messed around with Zjiria being an adolescent female dragon. She got to meet another full adult male dragon, Lord Varethrax, whose presence kicked her into her first heat. Unfortunately, it also turned out that Lord Varethrax is her father, so he couldn't help.

Fortunately for most of the males in the group, Daddy dearest has been working with a weir of dragons on the Bulgarian/Prussian border which included twelve male dragons. A quick trip out to Bulgaria soothed the needs and Lord Gloucester's virtue was left in tact. He was the next male that Zjiria was going to go after if Dad had not suggested a quick trip to the weir. It's almost a shame. It could have been a really amusing scene between Ben and I if Zjiria had decided on the good Earl.

"Who does a female dragon in heat have sex with?" "Anyone she wants." "She would have broken him!"

I love biological imperatives.

Of course, three weeks later, she ends up with bad stomach pains, starts feeling really threatened by the 'mammals' near her and is ready to eat them. Fortunately, the good Earl is an experienced zoologist and figures out something is wrong and gets everyone away from her. A day later, she has three eggs and buries them in the desert without letting anyone know. (Can you say, "Future Plot Device"? Yes, I knew you could.)

Sunday was a trip to the Ren Faire with GregE. I'd say we had a really good time, despite the fact that there were WAY too many people there, constantly bumping into us. Greg picked up a couple of nice looking rings while I picked up some wooden hair combs and an amber resin necklace. Oh, and I picked up a little leather mouse for the kittens. It went over like a lead balloon at first but by this morning, they were all over it.

I think my favorite part of the Ren Faire was the Subila Dance Troupe. They were a really good troupe of belly dancers. They were extremely talented and obviously having fun. It was mesmerizing to watch them. They did this sword dance that was exquisitely graceful. It made me so envious. It made me want to get back into belly dancing. I think I'm going to make belly dancing lessons one of my lower number treats for me.

Though, I have to admit, the crocodile guy/actor had a really good patter going. He explained how they weren't crocs, but inner dragon heads and how he got them. He had a response for every comment and was quite charming. Plus, he had names for each 'dragon' head. THAT was amusing.

Tomorrow, I'm off to Portland for a quick one and one-half day trip to deal with the issues I raised last week and go to the weekly EE meeting held in Portland. At least, this time, I get to spend the night so it's not another 20 hour day with work the next day. I'm sure it's going to be extremely productive in one sense, but day trips like this are rather disconcerting on the body and schedule.

Also, I'm going to be missing Buffy at Will's place. All I have to say is that my hotel room better get Buffy or I'm gonna be a really unhappy camper.

SEPTEMBER'S JOURNAL SPOTLIGHT: Reflections of the Dragon's Eye by Liz. Geek girl, gamer, struggling author and all around cool chick. This is a woman after my own heart from her desire to be published to her online gaming addiction to crushes on imaginary people. I love reading about her exploits at work and play. She is currently working on a novel while working as a computer programmer and there hints of a possible child in the relatively near future. Sometimes she's serious. Sometimes she's not. But, she is always an enjoyable read. You should check her out!

Tarot Card for the Day: Knight of Wands