I am sitting on a train which will take me to a plane that will take me to a car that will take me to cadhla!
See you all on the flip side!
Month: August 2007 Page 1 of 2
Well, since Our Heroes™ dispatched the evil cleric and saved the town of Threshold, it was time to do what all adventuring parties do when they succeed — bask in the glory, spend their valor-gotten spoils, and then look for a new job.
Well, we had the second (and concluding) session of the introductory adventure in the new AD&D campaign. As a special treat, we had a visiting bedlamhouse sitting in, taking over the role of surrdave‘s cleric.
From my e-mail, a link to an amazing set of photographs from the 35W Bridge collapse in Minneapolis. Two pictures that really jump out at me are one of the three priests and the one of the two young girls, both just looking on as the rescuers do their work.
Saw this this morning on rec.humor.funny.reruns. It made me grin.
| $665.95 | Retail price of the Beast |
| $699.25 | Price of the Beast plus 5% sales tax |
| $769.95 | Price of the Beast with all accessories and replacement soul |
| $656.66 | Walmart price of the Beast |
| 6, uh… what’s that number again? | Number of the Blonde Beast |
| 00666 | Zip code of the Beast |
| 1-900-666-6666 | Live Beasts! One-on-one pacts! Call Now! Only $6.66/minute. Over 18 only please. |
| Route 666 | Highway of the Beast |
| 666 F | Oven temperature for roast Beast |
| 666k | Retirement plan of the Beast |
| 6.66% | 5 year CD interest rate at First Beast National Bank, $666 minimum deposit. |
| i66686 | CPU of the Beast |
| 666i | BMW of the Beast |
| DSM-666 | Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the Beast |
| 668 | Next-door neighbor of the Beast |
Well, we actually got the new AD&D campaign underway last night. While we did ultimately have the traditional “meeting in the tavern”, I actually directed each of the characters there for reasons that fit their own agendas. Because we only have three players (plus me as DM), each player is currently controlling two characters.
We had a wonderful weekend, all around. I went and got myself a massage at Massage Envy on Friday after work, which was wonderful and refreshing; I hadn’t actually been since June, as I had been saving my July appointment for after the move and then I promptly fell and hurt myself.
wheezinggirl and oneandonlymatt came over for dinner Friday, since they were unable to come to our housewarming. We had a lovely dinner of baked chicken spiced with a blend we picked up from Alpharetta Spice, a local concern run by a man and his wife right here in Alpharetta. Very nice folks, and they make some wonderful spice blends. I’m particular fond of their Garlepeno Salt. I believe the chicken that night was the Rusted Roof Border Blend. The meal was rounded out by a bacon and spinich pasta dish and a potato-and-sweet-potato medly, all courtesy of kitanzi, who had the audacity to tell me when we first started dating that she wasn’t much of a cook.
After dinner, we sat and talked for a good bit, before moving into the computer room to share some music with one another on the computer, starting with an old Firefly fan video set to Leonard Cohen’s “Halleljuah”, and then they directed me to Emerald Rose’s hysterical Never Split the Party, done in stop motion LegoMation, leading me to play them bardiclug‘s “Secrets”. My memory leaves me at this point, but we had a great time, and made plans to get together again soon.
Saturday, Alice came over to bring us some shelving unites from Ikea she no longer needed, and then we went and met up with hilfy to see Stardust. What a fabulous movie. I’m a huge fan of Neil Gaiman already, of course, so I was prepared to like it, but it managed to exceed my expectations. Robert DeNiro absolutely steals every scene he is in, the chorus of ghostly princes is delightful, and every single thing about the movie makes me happy. There are some changes from the original novel to the movie, which is inevitable (Gaiman has some interesting things to say bout that process), but it has been so long since I last read the novel that I didn’t notice them overly, and in fact even managed to be surprised by some things in the film that, in retrospect, I knew were going to happen. Positively five stars; go see this film in the theatre.
Unfortunately, my back had been bothering me all week and wasn’t getting much better, so we opted to skip the Atlanta housefilk that evening. I hope everyone had a good time — we missed being there. I managed to finally find a solution for what was causing my pain by putting one of the memory foam pillows kitanzi got a while back and put it under my back. I expect that once we get the new bed broken in it won’t be a problem, and meanwhile I’ve found a way to sleep comfortably and not wake up in excruciating pain, so that’s a win.
Sunday was a quiet day. I spent a good deal of it playing World of Warcraft, but over dinner we finally got around to watching the finale of Heroes. Yes, we’d actually managed to not watch it all this time, and even more impressively we’d managed to avoid all spoilers. I won’t include any here, in case someone else has been living under an even bigger rock than us, but….wow. What a great ending for a great season. Interestingly, I read a fanfic back around the first of the year which ultimately predicted what would happen with Peter…I wonder if the author of that fic was as chuffed as I was? (If anyone feels like helping me out on this, point me to your own reaction to the finale, so I can go back and read it.)
Tonight is gaming night. We’re about to start a brand new AD&D campaign from level 1, with what’s left of our current group. bedlamhouse‘s cruel and heartless desertion moving away marks a huge change in the dynamic of the group, but we’re determined to carry on. I realized recently that I’d been playing with this group, through various iterations, for eight years, which is pretty much the longest I’ve ever been with a single group of people gaming. There was the group I started with (1983-1987), the East Carolina Gaming Club (1986-1990), Jim and Steve in Athens (1990-1993), asynaka1 and his friends (1993-1998), Craig & Co (1994-1997), and then a gap until I joined up with Bill and Don. (Yes, several of those dates overlap. I’m polygamerous. I’m not even trying to figure out all the various places I dropped into and out of hejira2006‘s Doctor Who and Star Trek RPG campaigns.)
The people at the table change, but the game is forever. And so it goes.
Last night after work, I drove down to Perimeter Point to meet up with Alice for dinner and a movie. We had a leisurely meal at Atlanta Bread Company and discussed the day and a variety of other topics; one of the things I love about hanging out with Alice is that she’s always got something interesting to talk about, and often about subjects that I’m not already immersed in, which is a good stretch for my brain.
Our movie for the evening was the just-released The Bourne Ultimatum starring Matt Damon. I admit that I had no idea what to expect from this film, having seen neither of its prequels nor read any of the novels which they are (loosely, I’m told) based upon. But it was the film that Alice suggested she was very interested in seeing, and I had no objection to it, even if it was a film I might not have ever seen if someone had not asked me to go with them.
I’m glad she did. Ultimatum isn’t a deep film, by any means, but its a roller coaster ride that starts on a high and never lets up. The plot is tight and gripping, and paced in such a way that even when something preposterous happens, your brain doesn’t quite have time to object before the action moves on. The violence is hyperkinetic and neatly manages to avoid unnecessary gore while at the same time never being cartoonish. I heard the director refer to some of the fight scenes as a “violent ballet” in a radio interview last week, and that’s a fitting description.
Jason Bourne as a character is interesting to watch. Matt Damon manages to be likable enough for us to keep us on his side while still being about as emotionally withdrawn as its possible to be without completely ceasing to be human. David Strathairn is fantastic as the CIA Black-Ops director who wants to stop him before he learns to much, and Albert Finney makes a surprise appearance at the end. Surprising in an action film, the various characters never quite become caricatures.
I’m not sure this was the Platonic Ideal of an action movie. But it was awfully darn close, and i’m looking forward to getting the two previous films on DVD and watching them now.
Saw a pointer to this in kobold‘s journal. This may be the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.