So! Allison and I are visiting my parents in order to manage some wedding business, and we scheduled a very important event for our first night in town! As no one wants to DM (almost ever) I ended up running the game, but that's sort-of fun too. Here's the party make-up:
Alli - Bowsey the Elf Ranger
Allen - Avdron the Dwarf Fighter
Spike - Oberlectrisk the Dragonborn Warlord
Tim - Thraak the Dragonborn Barbarian
Jenna - Kyllakin the Elladrin (?) Wizard
Ian - Rellyk the Half-Elf Warlock
Pretty decent party make-up, really. I've been running one of the WotC pre-made adventures (because I am a Dungeon Master by necessity rather than choice) and it's pretty fun and easy. Fourth edition's style of listing monsters with all of their attacks with the bonus of each makes pre-made adventures especially helpful.
We only get to play when I visit for a few days (mom always gets grumpy if I come and don't spend much time with the family, so one night must be "family night," [or Settlers of Catan / Ticket to Ride night] that's tonight this time). There are two main issues with gaming in town. First, at the beginning I have to remind everyone what they have done and are trying to do for the mission (here, they're in catycombs that have been inhabited by hobgoblin forces to secure a town's buried relics and captured prisoners). Second, and this has always been a major issue with gaming groups here, people talk too much and pay too little attention! It's not that bad, but I continually have to say, "OBERLECTRISK, GO!" or "Your turn, RELLYK!" etc. (it makes me feel a bit like a pokemon trainer in battle!). I guess it just makes sense that everyone wants to talk to everyone else about their personal preferences about geeky stuff (examples: Spike - Mother 3, Ian - Warhammer Online, Allen - randomy neat geeky stuff he can do with his iPod touch). Oh well. Also, this was Alli's third game and she did better than ever. I was not only really impressed with her, but I was also super in love with her. Boo-ya.
Ian has said officially that he'll DM after the adventure is over. I am going to play either a rogue (Striker) or a Bard (leader). Whoop!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Wedding Shower
Sunday, Allison and I visited my parents, so my mother could throw her a shower. Such events are a bit spooky for me for a few reasons (questions about church, school, or future plans), but Allison was scared of the pressure of meeting so many ladies from my mom's church and work. As it turned out, my mom decided I would go, too. That way, Allison would be less isolated, and I could introduce her to people (as if I knew more than like 50-60%). In my opinion, that was a slightly obfuscated excuse for my attendance.
See, my mother's parents were in town for the weekend. Grandmother and Papa, as I grew up calling them, are a bit particular, very social, and somewhat demanding. My theory about men at the shower is twofold: 1) I had to go because Allen, my brother, went to his, and/or 2) Papa really wanted to go and feel included so all the men of our family had to show up. Regardless, I had Allison and Allen, and I also summoned two of my other groomsmen, Jeffrey and James.
James and I talked about school some (and I mentioned my regrets that Tim purchased all those New Mutants issues from him before I knew about it), and Jeffrey and I talked about his recent tour with his band, Cheap Time, through Europe. The punk got to visit Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia. Those are three of the few European countries that I have yet to see. He traveled all over, but he was fairly unimpressed with the greatness of Europe. Perhaps playing so many shows draws from the desire to sight-see (though I have difficulty seeing that). He also gave me copies of his new solo LP and a 7" that he has released since I last saw him. His family got us the crock pot we wanted (and are keeping), and his sister and brother-in-law, also friends of mine, bought us the silverware set we wanted from Target.
Remarkably, we only had a handful of stuff we did not like, and only two or three repeat items. So now Allison and I are now the proud owners of tons of stuff, including 2 crock pots, and 3 rice steamers. We also got some delightful (read: lame) knick-knacks with Christian messages (example: door-knocker with a "knock and it shall be opened unto you" quote). While I'm totally into God and Christianity, I would prefer to keep such related objects to a minimum, especially without any artistic value (I'd LOVE some Byzantine art--especially authentic pieces).
Now my apartment is full of stuff. Karel and I have had the kitchen overly full before now, but if I start putting much of this stuff out, it will only fit on the counters or piled on top of each other. And I try not to clutter the apartment up too much (except all my toys and books piling up everywhere!). At least we also got a vacuum cleaner which I think is my favorite gift! I can keep the floor nice and relatively dirt/fuzz free!
I have an abnormal love of vacuuming. I hate dusting, because it takes a long time and has so many steps to removing objects and then spraying then wiping. Vacuuming is like a respite of delight. It offers both the satisfaction of being productive by cleaning while also being fairly quick and painless. My favorite part is when you vacuum carpet, you go forward over and leave tracks of extra clean-ness and then pull it back over to make the carpet go back and forth between different shades. Those lines are super fun! I vacuum like I'm washing a mirror, start at the far end (top on mirror) and work back in rows. So fun!
See, my mother's parents were in town for the weekend. Grandmother and Papa, as I grew up calling them, are a bit particular, very social, and somewhat demanding. My theory about men at the shower is twofold: 1) I had to go because Allen, my brother, went to his, and/or 2) Papa really wanted to go and feel included so all the men of our family had to show up. Regardless, I had Allison and Allen, and I also summoned two of my other groomsmen, Jeffrey and James.
James and I talked about school some (and I mentioned my regrets that Tim purchased all those New Mutants issues from him before I knew about it), and Jeffrey and I talked about his recent tour with his band, Cheap Time, through Europe. The punk got to visit Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia. Those are three of the few European countries that I have yet to see. He traveled all over, but he was fairly unimpressed with the greatness of Europe. Perhaps playing so many shows draws from the desire to sight-see (though I have difficulty seeing that). He also gave me copies of his new solo LP and a 7" that he has released since I last saw him. His family got us the crock pot we wanted (and are keeping), and his sister and brother-in-law, also friends of mine, bought us the silverware set we wanted from Target.
Remarkably, we only had a handful of stuff we did not like, and only two or three repeat items. So now Allison and I are now the proud owners of tons of stuff, including 2 crock pots, and 3 rice steamers. We also got some delightful (read: lame) knick-knacks with Christian messages (example: door-knocker with a "knock and it shall be opened unto you" quote). While I'm totally into God and Christianity, I would prefer to keep such related objects to a minimum, especially without any artistic value (I'd LOVE some Byzantine art--especially authentic pieces).
Now my apartment is full of stuff. Karel and I have had the kitchen overly full before now, but if I start putting much of this stuff out, it will only fit on the counters or piled on top of each other. And I try not to clutter the apartment up too much (except all my toys and books piling up everywhere!). At least we also got a vacuum cleaner which I think is my favorite gift! I can keep the floor nice and relatively dirt/fuzz free!
I have an abnormal love of vacuuming. I hate dusting, because it takes a long time and has so many steps to removing objects and then spraying then wiping. Vacuuming is like a respite of delight. It offers both the satisfaction of being productive by cleaning while also being fairly quick and painless. My favorite part is when you vacuum carpet, you go forward over and leave tracks of extra clean-ness and then pull it back over to make the carpet go back and forth between different shades. Those lines are super fun! I vacuum like I'm washing a mirror, start at the far end (top on mirror) and work back in rows. So fun!
Monday, April 13, 2009
I'm not going to finish that last post.
So! Last night I had horrific and scary dreams. Also, I woke up sicky and distressed. So, anyways. made tea to drink while I worked on my computer.
Several months ago, Allison, Tim, and I huddled around my computer, trying to dismantle it to repair the fan. If you didn't know, it makes a horrible noise that sounds like a cross between killer bees in a scifi movie and a weed-eater. Don't worry, though. It only makes the noise if you do something particularly trying on the computer (like, say, run iTunes while typing this entry). For that reason I've sort of avoided taking my computer for adventures to coffee shops. Anyway, on the adventure to get to the fan in my HP Pavilion dv9000 notebook, we discovered that to get to the fan, one merely has to disassemble the drives, power devices, keyboard, backscreen, sensor pad, MOTHERBOARD, and then you get to the fan. How dumb is that?
But that adventure taught me how to get at least the first few steps done. With my cup of Lady Grey tea, I sat down to unscrew ~19 screws to remove my keyboard. Afterwords I blew in it a lot with compressed air. I let it sit for a bit longer, then reassembled the laptop.
No changes. In fact, I discovered that c, C, D, E, and # wouldn't work. Very weird. I called HP, and proceeded to waste around 45 minutes for them to tell me the one thing I'd been asking all along. For them to fix it, I'd have to mail my computer to them (Alli did that last fall and the 1 month repair time stretched to ~3). I then regrettably informed them that we had wasted each others' time. I went ahead and booted my comp back up, and keys began to start working again. Now they all do, and I figure it just needed to cool. Lucky me. Also, lucky it was just water, so there was no stickiness or damaging residue. It's like a karmic pat-on-the-back for being semi-healthy.
Went to a comic store to pick up some back issues (super cheap), and had fun. Allison bought her first set of dice so she won't have to borrow them for Dungeons and Dragons (green with coppery/goldish numbers). After some coffee and wandering, we came home where I made spaghetti. We then watched several episodes of The Big Bang Theory (my first time--funny stuff!). Alli left, I cleaned dinner stuff, and now I'm babbling to the two people who read this.
Thanks and goodnight!
Several months ago, Allison, Tim, and I huddled around my computer, trying to dismantle it to repair the fan. If you didn't know, it makes a horrible noise that sounds like a cross between killer bees in a scifi movie and a weed-eater. Don't worry, though. It only makes the noise if you do something particularly trying on the computer (like, say, run iTunes while typing this entry). For that reason I've sort of avoided taking my computer for adventures to coffee shops. Anyway, on the adventure to get to the fan in my HP Pavilion dv9000 notebook, we discovered that to get to the fan, one merely has to disassemble the drives, power devices, keyboard, backscreen, sensor pad, MOTHERBOARD, and then you get to the fan. How dumb is that?
But that adventure taught me how to get at least the first few steps done. With my cup of Lady Grey tea, I sat down to unscrew ~19 screws to remove my keyboard. Afterwords I blew in it a lot with compressed air. I let it sit for a bit longer, then reassembled the laptop.
No changes. In fact, I discovered that c, C, D, E, and # wouldn't work. Very weird. I called HP, and proceeded to waste around 45 minutes for them to tell me the one thing I'd been asking all along. For them to fix it, I'd have to mail my computer to them (Alli did that last fall and the 1 month repair time stretched to ~3). I then regrettably informed them that we had wasted each others' time. I went ahead and booted my comp back up, and keys began to start working again. Now they all do, and I figure it just needed to cool. Lucky me. Also, lucky it was just water, so there was no stickiness or damaging residue. It's like a karmic pat-on-the-back for being semi-healthy.
Went to a comic store to pick up some back issues (super cheap), and had fun. Allison bought her first set of dice so she won't have to borrow them for Dungeons and Dragons (green with coppery/goldish numbers). After some coffee and wandering, we came home where I made spaghetti. We then watched several episodes of The Big Bang Theory (my first time--funny stuff!). Alli left, I cleaned dinner stuff, and now I'm babbling to the two people who read this.
Thanks and goodnight!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Easter get-together
Tonight I had several friends over to hang out and eat dinner for Easter. A few interesting thoughts:
A) My apartment is too small/crowded for big gatherings at the moment.. maybe it will be better when my roommate moves out and I'm happily married
B) My roommate is unknowingly odd and rude. How hard would it be to at least walk out of his room and say "Hi" to our guests? This is not the first time, either. Why can't I have roommates like in Scott Pilgrim?
I'll post more later, spilled water on laptop and it's being odd.. I am unable to use the letter between x and v, so I'm having to work around using it with different words. it's pretty entertaining, sort of. Going to turn my laptop all the way off to let it dry off and hopefully fix itself.
shift+e won't work either.. WeIRD.
A) My apartment is too small/crowded for big gatherings at the moment.. maybe it will be better when my roommate moves out and I'm happily married
B) My roommate is unknowingly odd and rude. How hard would it be to at least walk out of his room and say "Hi" to our guests? This is not the first time, either. Why can't I have roommates like in Scott Pilgrim?
I'll post more later, spilled water on laptop and it's being odd.. I am unable to use the letter between x and v, so I'm having to work around using it with different words. it's pretty entertaining, sort of. Going to turn my laptop all the way off to let it dry off and hopefully fix itself.
shift+e won't work either.. WeIRD.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
First posts are generally dumb
So.. instead of introducing myself or some such genericness, I've decided to talk about my upcoming (May) wedding!
Allison and I have, with tons of help from her sister, Elizabeth, successfully mailed most of our wedding invitations. The dress stuff and tuxedo stuff is all figured out, and now we're to the particulars of the ceremony and reception. She's making me pick out the music, which baffles me slightly, but whatever. I'm happy to take some of the planning burdens, but I'm much too lazy to try to be original with my choices. During the reception, we'll play more music, which will be easier to choose (Pixies - La La Love You, Figurine - So Futuristic, etc.), but there's two ways to go with the music for the ceremony.
We could be traditional and just get through the ceremony pretty rapidly (most likely) or we can try to be original and have people either weirded-out or confused (unlikely because of the pressure to be awesome or at least interesting). So! I've twitted in attempts to borrow wedding music cds from people, with limited results. I couldn't find a collected download anywhere, either, so I suppose I'll end up going to Target or Best Buy to buy some. Blah.
There's a few really cool things about the wedding. My friend MattSmith is coming to be a groomsman from Korea, and that's really awesome. Also, Jeffrey has agreed not only to be a groomsman, but he has given me a FIVE smile guarantee for pictures. I'm quite excited about that. Elizabeth has been working on a photo montage of Allison and me, and she made me choose the music for that too (Suburban Kids with Biblical Names - Marry Me). That should be really cool, and I hope she uses some of the entertaining pictures of me that Adam let me borrow (the old d&d gang playing D20 Modern, a fps-style picture of Adam choking me, etc.). One common denominator for pictures of me, it seems, is either a big cheesy grin or a goofy face. Also, I'm excited about my groom's cake. For my brother's wedding they had a cheesecake of some kind (something with extra stuff like chocolate or coffee flavor or some such [I think cheesecake is best when it's just the cheesecake and no fruit or whatever]), but I'm slightly convinced that his wife was behind that decision more than he. Regardless, I've thought about my cake alot, and have decided upon an X-Men themed cake.
Really.
It'll likely be the Xavier Institute logo (the round one) on a rectangular cake with some figures stuck in the cake. Awesome. I can't decide if I want to use figures I don't care about (worthless X-Men figures from the Hall of Fame [frozen in place] toy set) or superhero squad guys with people like X-23, Beast, Magneto, etc. Either way, I'm very excited. One reason to do the former option would be that I wouldn't have to be terribly concerned about guests stealing them. Here's a picture of it. The idea was neat, sure. A twenty or thirty dollar set of the more popular figures that were, by the release of this set, older and more difficult to find. There's a key problem to the child who wants the set, however. There figures hve been glued or somehow frozen into their positions and are plastically attached to the display. Sure, it's neat to look at, but kids want to PLAY! So in an effort to make them semi-playworthy, I cut each figure from the case under their feet, but their arms/legs/heads/etc won't budge! Sauron's mouth opens and closes, and the professor's arm will move up and down, but that's about it! I guess the concept is interesting enough, but no child will look at that and think anything other than, "I want to play with those figures." There's no warning on the box that it's for display only, either. Or maybe I just don't remember one.
Either way, I'm excited about my cake. The wedding should be really stressful, but I cannot wait to be married to that beautiful woman. I've even gotten her into comics! Huzzah!
Allison and I have, with tons of help from her sister, Elizabeth, successfully mailed most of our wedding invitations. The dress stuff and tuxedo stuff is all figured out, and now we're to the particulars of the ceremony and reception. She's making me pick out the music, which baffles me slightly, but whatever. I'm happy to take some of the planning burdens, but I'm much too lazy to try to be original with my choices. During the reception, we'll play more music, which will be easier to choose (Pixies - La La Love You, Figurine - So Futuristic, etc.), but there's two ways to go with the music for the ceremony.
We could be traditional and just get through the ceremony pretty rapidly (most likely) or we can try to be original and have people either weirded-out or confused (unlikely because of the pressure to be awesome or at least interesting). So! I've twitted in attempts to borrow wedding music cds from people, with limited results. I couldn't find a collected download anywhere, either, so I suppose I'll end up going to Target or Best Buy to buy some. Blah.
There's a few really cool things about the wedding. My friend MattSmith is coming to be a groomsman from Korea, and that's really awesome. Also, Jeffrey has agreed not only to be a groomsman, but he has given me a FIVE smile guarantee for pictures. I'm quite excited about that. Elizabeth has been working on a photo montage of Allison and me, and she made me choose the music for that too (Suburban Kids with Biblical Names - Marry Me). That should be really cool, and I hope she uses some of the entertaining pictures of me that Adam let me borrow (the old d&d gang playing D20 Modern, a fps-style picture of Adam choking me, etc.). One common denominator for pictures of me, it seems, is either a big cheesy grin or a goofy face. Also, I'm excited about my groom's cake. For my brother's wedding they had a cheesecake of some kind (something with extra stuff like chocolate or coffee flavor or some such [I think cheesecake is best when it's just the cheesecake and no fruit or whatever]), but I'm slightly convinced that his wife was behind that decision more than he. Regardless, I've thought about my cake alot, and have decided upon an X-Men themed cake.
Really.
It'll likely be the Xavier Institute logo (the round one) on a rectangular cake with some figures stuck in the cake. Awesome. I can't decide if I want to use figures I don't care about (worthless X-Men figures from the Hall of Fame [frozen in place] toy set) or superhero squad guys with people like X-23, Beast, Magneto, etc. Either way, I'm very excited. One reason to do the former option would be that I wouldn't have to be terribly concerned about guests stealing them. Here's a picture of it. The idea was neat, sure. A twenty or thirty dollar set of the more popular figures that were, by the release of this set, older and more difficult to find. There's a key problem to the child who wants the set, however. There figures hve been glued or somehow frozen into their positions and are plastically attached to the display. Sure, it's neat to look at, but kids want to PLAY! So in an effort to make them semi-playworthy, I cut each figure from the case under their feet, but their arms/legs/heads/etc won't budge! Sauron's mouth opens and closes, and the professor's arm will move up and down, but that's about it! I guess the concept is interesting enough, but no child will look at that and think anything other than, "I want to play with those figures." There's no warning on the box that it's for display only, either. Or maybe I just don't remember one.
Either way, I'm excited about my cake. The wedding should be really stressful, but I cannot wait to be married to that beautiful woman. I've even gotten her into comics! Huzzah!
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