Conclusion of Variety

I’ll put up a recap of comic-con later. Until then here are some pictures of people in costume I managed to get a picture of.

My first trip to San Diego was in 1997 for Comic-con. While we were in San Diego we went into the ocean and swam around. I did this every time I visited San Diego but since moving here I havn’t been in the ocean past my knees. Until the other day.

One of my co-workers is a regular body border and I convinced him to take me out which he did last Wednesday. We headed down to Pacific Beach from work which is only a few blocks away. The guys got me some fins, a wetsuit, and a bodyboard. It was a lot of fun and while out there I managed to catch four waves and get lots of salt water caught up in my head. I look forward to doing it again.

For the past two months it seems like I have been busy with weddings, European vacations and other things. Well, it has all slowed down and it looks like I have a long term of normality which I don’t mind.

The last big thing I did was go to a small gaming convention in LA called Gamex which was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. They had a good selection of games and I got to play a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” rpg set in Rome and then a game called “Hollow World” which was basic pulp where you drill to the center of the Earth and discover it is another world filled with dinosaurs, lizard people that speak latin, and barbarian princesses that can’t speak english unless they put on a special crown.

About a month ago we went and saw “Desire Under the Elms” which is a classic play by Eugene O’Neil. Stephanie decided she wanted to do something special and supported an actor. She put both our names down so we appeared on the program and got a bunch of free tickets so we took our friends. We were suppose to meet our actor after the play but after waiting about 10 minutes we gave up and left.

Last weekend we went and say “Bunbury”, a play about a character (or concept) from Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Ernest” which manages to escape his play and with the character Rosaline (from “Romeo and Juliet” another character that is never seen) they reek havoc on the literary world. Play was funny at moments but had a horrible ending that made no sense.

Every week my company sends out an email ad to our customers. This is stuff for a retail store and usually is our latest items in our catalog.

We recently decided to create a new category where we put items by a store type such as clothing store, sports store, jewelry store etc. Our first one was a portable store which was also a way to push one of our newest products, portable display cases.

When creating these ads we usually just have a picture of the product but in this case we are pushing a store type so having pictures of a bunch of fixtures doesn’t help much. We needed a picture a swapmeet/flee market or convention booth. We couldn’t find any decent pictures on shutterstock or google. So, we ended up using this one.

I had three weddings to attend this year (friends Albert and Jenny, Erik and Emily, and my brother Jonathan and Sonia) and I just finished up my brother’s. I’m not a big wedding fan because I always feel uncomfortable at them. There are a ton of strangers so you tend to form in clicks and hang with the people you know and then say “hi” to the bride and groom when they pass by.

My brother’s wedding was even more overwhelming as I knew too many people and felt like I had my attention pulled in three directions. Twice I mistook someone for someone else which was embarrassing. I don’t function well with extended family in general but I was able to hold it together for this. However, it is all behind me and I don’t have to worry about such things until the next surprise family get-together.

I say all this and yet I made this post a few years ago about my friends Jonathan and Michelle when they had their wedding. I still stand by that I had the most fun at this wedding which didn’t feel like a wedding but more like a party.

Last weekend was Rpg-Sandiego Roleplaying Meet III. Every spring a local message board focused on rpgs gets together to play games. We had a huge turn out this year with 6 games and over 20 people. There was a ton of food and it was great visiting old friends and meeting new ones. I ran Rippers (Savage World system) and it went ok. I only got to stay for half because I had to pick up Stephanie from the airport. Other games run were Feng Shui, Dark Sun (Castles & Crusades system), Serenity, Spirit of the Century, and Wild Talents.

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Last night I went to see the band “Tool.” I’ve wanted to see them for awhile and finally got my chance. They were originally scheduled for March 20 but got postponed. They opened with a band called Kanid which was a metal band san singing. I didn’t really care for them as a song would start out well but end in a typical metal mess. Tool was great and they played out the full version of their songs including 10000 day parts 1 & 2. The most impressive part of the show was the visual effects which including a lot of video and a great laser light show.

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It has officially been four years since I moved to San Diego. The last year has been stable in that nothing really ground shaking happened. For that past year I have been with Stephanie, worked at the Trio and generally lived my life on a regular schedule.

Stephanie and I in Paris

The two of us seeing the sites.

Two reasons why I love London.

Our tiny room in London.

Pictures from the London Eye. Inspired by the great pic of Lisa and Pat.

The insanity that is Speakers Square

For more images click here.

I went to London and Paris this past week from April 14-22. I had blast. I will be posting pictures next week because Stephanie has the camera and is still in Paris with her girlfriends.

We left for the airport at 6:30am and took off a little after nine. We arrived in New York for a short layover and arrived in London, Gatwick airport at 9:30am. We were exhausted as neither one of us got any sleep. We hoped on a train that took us to the Underground Station and then head to our motel.

We got to our room around and checked in around 10:30 but the room wasn’t going to be ready until 11 so we went to a small cafe down the road. I ordered a cup of coffee and the server asked if I wanted it “black or white.” I told him black and when he brought it I asked if he had any milk and he said “I though you wanted it black.” After that we headed to our room and slept for four hours.

When we got up we headed out and hopped on the Underground train for Harrods, a large department store. Stephanie wanted to look at their large selection of food which was impressive. We then went to Hyde Park and saw people playing soccer, cricket, and rugby. We also saw Speakers Corner in the Park where people can freely preach whatever they want. After the park we grabbed some pub food and then headed back to our motel.

The evening we got the full effect of jet lag. I fell asleep for a few hours but then woke up at 1am and didn’t fall back asleep until 4am. This occurred again on Tuesday night but I just didn’t fall asleep until after 2am. On Wednesday night I bought sleeping pills.

The next day we got up and went to “Pret de Manger” for breakfast. This would become our default breakfast and lunch place for our stay in London. It is a chain restaurant that focuses on healthy food with a great selection of sandwiches.

That day we visited The Eye, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace where we got the end of the changing of the card. For the rest of the day we visited the National Art Gallery and starred at paintings.

On Tuesday we went to Wimbledon and visited the Museum. We then got a drink at the “Hound and Fox” which was supposed to be a popular place for tennis players but we didn’t see any. After that we saw a movie, “Sunshine” by the popular English director Danny Boyle. The movie cast 13 pounds per person and had 40 minutes of preview and commercials before the movie started. I don’t see why anyone would go to the movies but this probably due to seeing it in Leicester Square, a popular tourist area.

On Wednesday we went to the British Museum and saw ancient artifacts. I then geeked out went to two gaming stores. We finally finished the night with the play Equus starring Daniel Radcliffe (he plays Harry Potter). It was a great, disturbing play. It has gathered some media attention because Radcliffe gets naked.

For our final day in London we visited the Tower of London and the Tate Modern. Overall, I loved London and just the general vibe of the area.

On Friday we got up early and headed off to the train station. We got on our train and after it got moving it made me a little sick but I eventually got use to it. The train ride had some great scenery but we did get a french couple sitting next to us that constantly held hands and talked in romantic gibberish.

Our motel was a just a few blocks from the train station. Right after I left the station a woman, supposedly Bosnian, comes up to me and asks if I speak English. I say yes and she hands me a piece of paper that says she is from Bosnia, her father was killed and she is try to get back home and needed money. I promptly handed the letter back and said I couldn’t help her. I ran into two similar women at the Eiffel Tower.

After checking into the motel we went out and grabbed something to eat. I took a look at the menu and saw something called “Jambon et Fritz” which translated into ham and fries. In my mind I pictures and complicated dish but I got deli sliced ham and french fries. All the other places we ate at had similar issues where we never knew what exactly we ordered.

After lunch we walked down a street close to us and visited a sex museum and the second most popular graveyard in Paris.

The next day was the quick and dirty Paris where we visited a few popular sites but just long enough to view them and then head out. The sites we saw were: Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysee, Arc de Triumphe, The Louvre, Notre Damn, and a large garden.

Sunday Stephanie and I seperated way as she went off to meet her girlfriends who flew in Saturday for a girl only meetup and I headed to the airport. I had some problems at the airport because I couldn’t find my airline and they had problems checking my bag. I made it to my flight with only 10 minutes to spare and then I discovered at Customs in Atlanta that my luggage never made the flight.

Overall a great vacation but I’m glad to be back.

So, I have been running the teen program for a little over a year and at least three of the teens have been with me for most of it.

I have conflicted views of the program. Overall, I really enjoy it and will continue to do for a long time. I feel that I’m giving something back and it is something I enjoy. However, for a lot of these kids it is a big chance to blow off steam. They enjoy hanging out as much if not more then the game it self. I appreciate that, and in many ways this is a reason that I get together with my friends.

This can distract heavily from the game. I want them to focus but I don’t want to be a tyrant. I was a substitute for a while and learned to manage these kids you had to put your foot down the second they entered the door. I don’t want to do that so I only get on them when they are especially rude.

Sometime this results in them taking over. This can happen in a classroom, too. The kids can literarly take over and you loose all control. I’ll then come up with these ideas to change things but after waiting for a week a loose all resolve. The other problem is for some reason when they are little devils one week they tend to be angels the next.

The game itself has gotten a lot better. For the first year they were running around in a made up setting. I had created a map of a city and some general areas around that. They were bound to an evil wizard named Venzer who cast a spell that if he died all the PCs died and if all the PCs died he died. After a year they finally managed to break the spell and kill Venzer but Venzer’s last action was destroying the city with a massive earth quake spell.

After that I didn’t know where to put the kids and it lost all continuity. The kids seemed to loose interest. I didn’t have the time nor inclination to come up with my own setting so I borrowed the Forgotten Realms book and dropped them in there.

It worked and the kids have been more interested in the game. They are still full of chaos and enjoy creating havoc.

I’ve also been playing in a few other games. I just finished the first of a three part Mage: The Ascension game were everyone plays students at a Mage school ala Harry Potter only on a smaller school (18 students instead of the hundreds in Harry Potter). I ran the game once before but this time I’m being more experimental and it has been successful. I ran a game where 2 players got to play a PCs important NPCs. One adventure involved a time loop where the same repeated and only one player could tell (the other players had to try and repeat their actions from the previous loop) and finally one player died, became a ghost and didn’t know similar to “Sixth Sense.”

So the roleplaying is still strong. I am also playing in a Dune GURPS game, Heavy Gear and then our continueing Ptolus game which has been a ton of fun.

Stephanie and I got a professional portrait done. Well, as professional as JCPenny has to offer. Neither of us happy with it but it was the best of the photos they took. I think what I dislike the most is how un-natural we look.