Conclusion of Variety

The Holidays were a nice break. For Christmas we drove up to Orange County to visit Stephanie’s mom and then to LA to visit the rest of her family. For New Years I ran a Serenity RPG for a group of friends and we then watched a movie and brought in the new year smoking a cigar.

Throughout the Holiday I say “I am Legend” and “Juno.” Also got a lot of Netflix watching done plus the new Doctor Who season 3.

Stephanie and I also made plans do rearrange the furniture in the condo, get rid of stuff, and buy a bigger TV. Plus clean so it is sort of a cooperative resolution.

I’ve decided this is the year of change. My company is moving into a new building which will change the way we do business (from web only business to showroom. Plus I’m getting married and a good friend is moving away.

On Friday night me and a bunch of friends went to see “Shonen Knife” at a local club called the Casbah. We met up around 7:30 at a quick Thai restaurant and hung out for about an hour. We left for the club which was neat. It had two indoor areas and one outdoor. It was covered in stickers and had that rock bar feel throughout. We drank a few beers and chatted until around 9:30 when the first band Wildbirds came on and then a band called Juliet Dagger.

Finally it was time for Shonen Knife. For those who aren’t familiar Shonen Knife is a Japanese j-pop/punk band. Their lyrics are silly and fun and make little sense. They will do typical punk/hard rock posturing but it is fun and silly. They will throw the horns \m/ with big smiles on their faces. I loved the show and got into it. They were a ton of fun.

On Sunday we bunch of us went and saw “It’s a Wonderful Life: The Radio Play.” Stephanie and I saw it last year at the Cygnet Theater and it was just as good the second time around. All our friends enjoyed it and the play was a great holiday activity.

Not a whole lot has been going on. Stephanie and I went up to LA and visited her family for Thanksgiving. It was fun, lots of drinking and eating. The rest of the weekend was spent laying around and doing some Christmas shopping.

Over the last month I did manage to catch a play “The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged)” by The Reduced Shakespeare Company. It was hilarious and during a bit with Noah’s Ark Stephanie and I were volunteered to be two apes while Emily and her friend were two gay ducks.

Gaming has been kind of slow and chaotic but is starting to return to normal. We are on an indy game kick playing Spirit of the Century (with a Fallout setting) and Burning Empires. Both games have been great fun. Plus we also did some oneshots of Star Trek and Serenity/Firefly.

The Library D&D program has gotten large averaging 8 players. I now have to split the game again and have one of the kids run D&D while I run Star Wars (which I been running alternate to D&D for two months). Kids still love it and it seems more popular then ever.

A week ago I flew up on Thursday to Minneapolis to visit my friends Joe and Lisa. We hadn’t seen each other for over a year and that was just visit to Madison WI. It was good catching up with him and of course the first day was all about old times and catching up including playing an old video game called “Rpg-Maker” where you create a rpg in the style of Final Fantasy II and III. We called our “The Adventures of Hot P” and it was about a blog that wanted to became human so he could have sex. It was silly but brought back a lot of memories.

We also visited Dinky Town, played and beat Halo 3, and played a lot of other games. We also went to the Walker (modern art museum).

I returned on Sunday and as I was flying over San Diego I noticed a number of forest fires. So, I land in San Diego to have it burning down around me… again. Four years at almost the exact same time of year and exact conditions we had a huge forest fire. Now I got to experience it all again. It wasn’t as bad this time because I was 8 miles from the two forest fires. Monday and Tuesday were extremely intense as people were evacuated and we couldn’t control the fires. Even though I wasn’t in danger I had a lot of friends that were in danger of the fire. While I was at work everyone was glued to the internet or radio and constantly updating the google map of the fires.

Everything is fine now but it was a crazy experience. No one got much done at work and everyone is looking forward to normality.

Last Saturday it was Stephanie’s turn to conduct a date night and the evening I was suppose to propose. For the evening we hopped on the train to San Juan Capistrano (a little town in Orange County about 60 miles North of San Diego)which was a lot of fun in itself. We arrived at 2:30 and visited the old mission for a few hours. Next we stopped at a wine bar and then headed to dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant called El Adobe where I had a really good burrito.

It would had been at the restaurant that I would have proposed. Strangely, there was a huge reception in the room below us.

We killed the last hour walking around and then having a coffee at Starbucks. Finally, we hopped back on the train and headed home. A delightful evening that was a lot of fun.

Back in 1994 I went to see the Smashing Pumpkins during their Siamese Dream tour. I went with my friend Tim and it was my first concert without adult supervision (the previous concerts being Bon Jovi and MC Hammer with Vanilla Ice). On our way there I remember discussing the music Tim and we kept referring to the lead singer which at the time we did not know his name. To help the conversation we gave him the name Bobby Johan. The name stuck for about five years.

I saw Smashing Pumpkins for the second time almost 13 years later at SDSU Open Air Theater and they were just as good now as they were then if not better. I went by myself this time and had a seat unlike the 1994 concert where I got to push my way to the front and get sprayed down by a security guard to keep everyone from over heating. However, the rows were not clear and at one point a guy said I was in his seat. I asked him if this was row “J” (my row) and he said it was row “H”. I hopped one back and that guy said I was in his seat and that I was now in row “K”. I was kind of frustrated that I went from row H to K but hopped one more back where there was a gap. Made me wish for the old days where I could push my way forward instead of having people whine me backwards.

Still, I had a blast and the Smashing Pumpkins put on a great show.

For Labor Day weekend I attended Gateway which is part of Strategicon, a gaming convention that is held three times of year near LAX. I attended GameX which was a few months back and had a great time. This time I decided to attend Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday started with a fun game of historical BuffytVS in which we played Muskateers trying to protect the Slayer and fight evil. After that I got to run “Guess Who is Coming to Dinner.” A World of Darkness oneshot I created and ran for a group of friends a few months ago. They loved it so I decided to run it at the con. It went really well and I was told by one player it was the best con game she had ever played and it was the first time her husband actually got involved in a rpg.

Sunday I played in “Executive Decision,” a game where you take the rolls of the presidents cabinet (I was the Chief of Staff) and try to convince the president to choose a specific direction on a issue according to your own agenda. It was fun and different. After that I played in a Star Wars: Spirit of the Century game which was the best con game I played in.

Overall, a great experience and I look forward to next years LA gaming cons.

Also, I bought Stephanie an engagement ring on Monday. It has diamonds and glitters.

Stephanie and I got engaged Wednesday night. I didn’t exactly propose to her but I had been planning on it. My original plan was to propose on date night.

Date Night is something Stephanie and I do a few times of year where one of us plans a romantic evening. It was Stephanie’s turn to plan date night and I was going to propose during it. However, Wednesday was one of those deep conversations about marriage where she felt I would never ask her. In a moment of weakness I revealed my plans and since the gig was up I asked her right there and she said yes.

So, there you go. We’re getting married.

Earlier this month my parents came down to San Diego for the weekend. We went up to Torrey Pines Park, visited Bodies and Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit and went to the final Acura Classic tennis tournament where Maria Sharapova defeated Patty Schnyder.

It was a lot of fun having them down with no special occasion like wedding or thanksgiving getting in the way. We got to play some tennis go to restaurants and basically do whatever we wanted.

Not much else is going on. I’m taking a javascript/ajax class that goes until the end of October. I’ve been running a superhero game that has been going well and allowing the kids to GM the library game.

Comic Con was great this year but it started off a little rough. My original plan was to go half a day Thursday and Friday and then all day Saturday. I decided to pick up my badge on Thursday at 12 but discovering that the line wrapped around the convention center I decided not to go and take a full day on Friday.

On Friday I picked up my badge at 9:30 (with no problem) and headed in at 10 when the door opened. I walked the dealers hall for about 3 and half hours when I ran into Joss Whedon at the Dark Horse booth and got my picture with him.

After that I went to the Neil Gaimen panel and then back down to the dealers hall to hang out with my friends Albert and Jenny for an hour. I then headed back up for a panel on Vertigo Comics and then after that a panel on the new “Babylon 5: Lost Tales”, the new B5 direct to DVD movie which had JMS and Bruce Boxlightner.

On Saturday I went with my friend Jonathan and his friend from out of town Dale. Once again we hit the dealers hall for about an hour and then went to see the panel on Laura K Hamilton who write cheesy vampire fiction. After that we went back down to the dealers hall (which wasn’t as crowded as I thought it would be for a Saturday) and then got some lunch.

Next was three more panels including “The Women of Battlestar Galactica”, “Futurama”, and “Joss Whedon.” The Futurama was the best panel as they handed out little comics and had all the voice actors from the show do a live reading.

Overall, a great con. Can’t wait for next year.