Musings and Ravings

Restless Night, Sunny Day

Tue, 13 May 2008 12:47:27 GMT

Didn't get a lot of sleep last night. Tossed and turned most of the night, and had a terrible headache that forced me to finally take a couple of Tylenol around 2:20 am. Had some very strange dreams about being chased by what I thought were Green Men of Thark¹ through a landscape that reminded me a lot of a Yorkshire coastal region, you know, on one of these gloomy, slight rainy days with thunderclouds gathering. I actually spent several summers at a family relative's home in Yorkshire, and have vivid memories of those days.

Woke up when the alarm went off at 5:30 am, and felt...tired, unrested. I felt a bit better after breakfast (scrambled eggs with mushrooms and green onions), and the sun shining through the windows of my home made me feel better, too. Looks like it's going to be a glorious day. The drive to work was peaceful. Anyway, back to stuff here.

¹ A kewpie doll to anyone who knows what the reference is here. :)

Feeling Ill

Mon, 12 May 2008 21:47:03 GMT

Came home from work, and am just feeling...rotten.

I've got a head ache, a bit of chest pain, and feel warm and fuzzy headed. My bowels have been uncomfortable, and... Oh, and my eyes are itchy and sensitive to sunlight. Lots of sunlight, it being a bright, sunny Spring day in Ottawa. According to the thermometer, I am not running a fever. I lay down for a while once I got home, and have just woken up, two hours later. I don't nap or sleep during the day, except when I'm sick with something.

I am really, really hoping this is just allergies. (The change in allergy meds is hopefully what's responsible for this.) I can't be sick right now, too much going on... There's stuff I want to do this week, I've got to go to CanGames this weekend.

I don't need this right now. :(

Happy Mother's Day

Sun, 11 May 2008 13:10:43 GMT

Today is the day we celebrate our mothers and thank them for everything they've done for us throughout our lives. Those of us who are older have more to be thankful for than the younger folks out there whose mothers have yet to share all the joys and sorrows that their children bring over the course of years.

I will be giving my mother her card today, and have flowers that are being delivered to her this morning, but those are just the physical tokens that we give to our mothers on this day. It's important today to spend some time with our mothers, to cook them a meal or take them out to a restaurant, but above all to share some quality time with our mothers.

Hug your mother today, if you live close enough to do so. Make sure you give her a call today if you do not.

I want to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. We may not show it year round, but you *are* very much loved and cherished by us, your sons and daughters.

Goddess Bless.

Diabetes Test Results

Fri, 09 May 2008 22:24:08 GMT

I got my copy of the blood test results for diabetes that I had done earlier this week.

The test results are...pretty bad.

That's all.

50 Questions Meme

Fri, 09 May 2008 14:23:42 GMT

Haven't done a meme in a while, so I figured it was time to do one. Got this one courtesy of thebitterguy, but have fleshed it out with three other questions to bring it up to an even fifty.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
John Hershel, my sister's "boyfriend" at the time. Weird.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
The last time I cried was when I hurt my thigh, and thought I'd torn the muscle there.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
I liked it better when I was younger. Now, it's just all right. Most other folks don't like it, however.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Farm Boy Fat-Free Turkey

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
Nope, unfortunately.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
I think so. Hard to tell, really, of how others perceive me. I suspect we'd have a lot to talk about.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?
Not as often as I could, but you'll know for sure when I do. :)

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Nope, had them taken out when I was 35. Complications from mono.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
Not in this lifetime!

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Cocoa Puffs. But they don't make that any more, do they? Of course, even if they did, I wouldn't be able to eat it anyway.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Yes, when I wear shoes with laces.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?
Well, they say that life makes you stronger, so I like to think that I'm tough given some of the adversity that I've faced. But if you mean physically, I'm of average strength, I would say.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
Peppermint with chocolate chips in it. Don't eat that all too much anymore, either.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
Weight, than height.

15. RED OR PINK?
Red.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
My lack of mechanical aptitude. Then my temper.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
My father.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU?
Sure, why not? Isn't that what blog memes are about?

19. WHAT COLOUR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
Dark brown suit pants, and black business shoes.

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?
Omelette with mushrooms and green onions.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
Workers talking on phones; Jethro Tull on my headset.

22. IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
Some shade of dark brown.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
Lilacs, fresh coffee, apples

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
My mother.

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
Well, no one sent this to me. I got it off thebitterguy.

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Hockey and English football (soccer).

27. HAIR COLOR?
Brown, with lots of grey.

28. EYE COLOR?
Blue.

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
Not me. I wear glasses.

30. FAVORITE FOOD?
Stir fried chicken with vegetables.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Definitely happy endings.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (on DVD).

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
White business shirt.

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Winter. November, preferably. Actually hate both summer and winter. Prefer Spring and late Fall.

35. HUGS OR KISSES?
Hugs

36. SEX OR ROMANCE?
Romance.

37. FAVORITE DESSERT?
Crisp Granny Smith apple.

38. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
Good question

39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND
Not a clue.

40. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
The Children of the Company by Kage Baker.

41. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
Don't use one at home; at work, a calendar.

42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?
Nothing. Read book instead.

43. FAVORITE SOUND?
Waves rolling in on a beach.

44. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
The Beatles.

45. FAVOURITE MUSICAL ARTIST
Jethro Tull. After that, Thea Gilmore.

46. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Cairo, Egypt.

47. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
Nope.

48. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
Manchester, England. Moved to Canada when I was four.

49. FAVOURITE CITY
Paris, France.

50. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK?
Yours!

Babylon 5 News, Sort Of

Thu, 08 May 2008 20:13:36 GMT

Some Babylon 5 news to share...

Stephen Furst of Babylon 5 (and even earlier, St. Elsewhere) fame turns 53 today. Happy Birthday, Stephen! :)

In other B5 news, TV Guide Online's Michael Ausiello reported that Babylon 5 star Bruce Boxleitner has won a top-secret recurring role in NBC's Heroes, a role that was originally going to be modeled after Senator John McCain.

The character has since been re-conceived, and Boxleitner will reportedly share the screen with a female series regular. Heroes returns in the fall. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) See the link here:

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=53713&type=0

Incomparable II

Wed, 07 May 2008 17:10:43 GMT

The day has been a pretty good one so far...other than having blood drawn, of course.

In the meantime, some of you may recall reading my blog entry about the incomparable Dejah Thoris... and so here is a treat from the talented artist Blaine Taggart:

Gave Blood, Now Work

Wed, 07 May 2008 12:44:23 GMT

Beautiful, crisp Ottawa morning (about 8⁰C, with lots of sunshine).

Just got into the office after having gone to the DynaCare clinic, where I had my blood tests done. Had one of the veteran technicians there, Marianne, take the samples, and eight vials of blood came out of my arm no problem. She had a good touch, and I didn't even feel the needle go in or come out.

I went to Denny's this morning on my own for breakfast, but decided to eat healthy, so I had some scrambled eggs with veggies, and some whole wheat toast. Washed it all down with their decaf coffee. I took my Lopid (I have to take the pill half an hour before breakfast and supper, so have taken to calling it the "half-hour pill") just as I was about to leave the clinic, so was able to eat when I got to Denny's and that was fine. I'm felt a bit light-headed after the blood tests, which is normal for me after having that amount of blood drawn, but I'm fine now.

Gonna see if I can take a bit of a walk around lunch, since it's such a nice day outside, although it is supposed to rain this afternoon.

Long Day

Wed, 07 May 2008 02:41:21 GMT

It has been a long day, both at work and here at home at Casa Kahane. Nothing I really want to go into, although I did feel accomplishment at the end of the work day before coming home.

Still have no kettle here at home, so am having to boil water in a saucepan. Must take the time before the week is out to go and get a new kettle.

In the meantime, off to bed. The joy of my three-month diabetes blood tests is upon me, so I will be going to the lab bright and early tomorrow morning. If you prick me, do I not bleed? Damn, I hate these tests! And I don't think these are going to come out all that well. *sigh*

Sunday Game and April Book Thoughts

Mon, 05 May 2008 14:24:13 GMT

Didn't sleep all that well last night, so am feeling slightly groggy and all, even though I've been up for hours. The weather seems all right, and there is sunshine outside, so at least I don't feel tired and depressed. :)

Yesterday afternoon's gaming session saw spross attempting to playtest his Star Wars (West End d6 system) scenario for CanGames. I say "attempt" here because, as spross found out yesterday, the amount of work in man-hours that you put into a convention scenario for any rpg system is proportional to how well the scenario will work out. That said, I'm going to let him blog about "things that went wrong" with the scenario and so forth.

After supper, I spent the rest of the evening finishing up re-reading Tanith Lee's The Book of the Mad, the first book in the Secret Books of Paradys series.

On the subject of books and reading, the month of April was a pretty slow month for me this time around. I did manage to get in six (6) re-reads of books last month, including the The Hercules Text and A Talent for War, both by Jack McDevitt, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, and the Edgar Rice Burroughs classic A Princess of Mars. The only new book that I read this past month, well new for me at any rate) was Jeff VanderMeer's City of Saints and Madmen, which had been sitting in the queue for a while, and demanded reading. Fabulous book and all.

That brings my reading for the year up to 20 books through April, not the pace that I was hoping to set, but part of that was due to all the roleplaying game stuff that I was doing during the month as well. I am seriously hoping to do better reading-wise this month, and have already finished a couple of books.

Sunday Morning This and That

Sun, 04 May 2008 15:07:20 GMT

The last couple of days have been pretty gloomy weather-wise, both dark and rainy, with temperatures in the 8⁰C range. Today appears to be no different, although the temperature will be a bit warmer today.

Saturday was a pretty quiet, relatively uneventful, gloomy, rain-filled day.

Given the stuff as pertains to the Elfquest roleplaying game and all (see the previous journal entry), spross returned to me the copy of the Elfquest RPG and its supplements that he's been holding onto for me for several years (no storage space in my cupboards and all!), and we got to talking about the game, and the potential playing of it again.

Did a bit of grocery shopping in the morning, house cleaning and some laundry sporadically through the day, and some stuff on my gaming bits that needed to be done.

Spent part of the evening watching DVDs. I saw that the first movie based on The Chronicles of Narnia was on the tube, but had seen it in the movie theatre, and decided to rewatch The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen on DVD instead. While not a faithful adaptation of the comics, it has some interesting and fun moments in it. Read a couple of dozen pages of the current book I'm reading, The Book of the Mad by Tanith Lee, before bed.

Woke up this morning to find the kettle was fritzed, the power cord short circuiting at the base of the kettle itself when I plugged it in, so had to boil water in a pot to make my decaf coffee. Need to get a new kettle some time this week.

Nice to have today, Sunday, off from running a game. spross is supposed to run the playtest of his CanGames Star Wars rpg scenario, so hopefully he'll have that material ready when he arrives at my place. Should be an interesting afternoon of gaming.

Anyway, I'm off to clean up from breakfast, and then get ready for the afternoon.

Catching Up on the Friday Night RPG

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:45:31 GMT

It occurred to me last night, being reminded that I was running a roleplaying game this evening, that I haven't blogged about the Friday night group's roleplaying of Desolation since this journal entry. So there's two weeks to cover in ongoing story.

As you may recall, the player characters took on a band of raiders/bandits (they weren't sure which), an encounter that Ellie's character, Asper Kalvi, may or may not have led them into. While they didn't defeat the bandits/raiders that easily, the spoils were well worth it. The world of Desolation is one where the remnants of humanity and the other races who survived the apocalyptic Night of Fire are constantly struggling to live and scavenging and looting is a way of life. The characters pretty much took everything that was portable, and came away with a nice haul of worn clothing, some armour, a few weapons that need sharpening but were still usable, some foodstuffs, and a bit of money (which is meaningless in the post-Night of Fire world). They continued to search the ruins, and found signs that the people who had dwelled there were not of any race that they knew. All they could tell from the dessicated bodies that were left was that they had dark (or black) skin, pointed ears, and an odd set of markings on their arms and chest. They also found what appeared to be a long, thin, hollow tube of dark wood or metal that had a varnished look to it...but couldn't figure out what it was, although Teela Goran, the sorceress in the party, could tell there was some trace or residue of magic to the thing. They encountered a few creatures here and there, nothing out of the ordinary, except for some weave spiders that gave the characters problems, and a pair of strangleplants that had a unique, illusory power.

The session of April 25th saw the player characters decide there was nothing left to loot or find in the ruined village, and so they began to set out for their home across the ruined landscape. As mentioned, Kiarra Foxten, the thief-turned-innkeeper, had taken a liking to the girl, Asper Kalvi, and managed to convince the others that she should accompany them back to Chanord. The trip back to Chanord was...not as uneventful as the player characters would have liked. They encountered a group of Rovers, one of the various races in the world of Desolation, and Torvu Peng, Tom's Rover, was suspicious about them, although he couldn't put his fingers on why. When the Rovers attempted to kidnap Asper in the middle of the night, the characters had to fight them off, and the characters found that their attackers were hypnotized through some spell or charm. When the spell wore off in the middle of the fight, the characters learned that the Rovers were from a place called Hillsfar, but couldn't remember where it was. None of the characters knew, but the Rovers agreed to come back to Chanord with the characters for their own reasons. An attack by a pair of Core Delvers (no, I'm not going to explain what they are, although spross or Tammy Powers or one of the Friday nighters can tell you what they are...sort of) during a night's camp thinned the ranks of the Rovers, and forced the characters to take shelter in a set of caves. The group had to kill a savage cave bear living there, and ganging up on the creature, let's just say made good use of the all the bear's parts. Finally reaching Chanord with the three surviving Rovers, the party received a heroes' welcome, although there were some who were jealous of them. What will happen next remains to be seen, but all kinds of plot potential is present.

The Desolation game went really well, better than I had expected, given that I'm using the second edition of the playtest materials to run the game. The players told me that they are having a really good time with the system, and Joanne said that she had been worried about playing the spellcaster in a free-form magic system like this, but she's enjoying it, and likes the challenge it presents her.

While I would have continued to run Desolation and start a new scenario, the Friday night gaming group has decided to give me a few weeks off from running in light of CanGames being in a few weeks, so we'll be doing some boardgames over the next few weeks. Looking foward to it.

Origin Awards Nominees Announced

Thu, 01 May 2008 15:14:46 GMT

Well, for those gamers who haven't heard, the Origins Award nominees have been announced.

Origins Award Nominees Finalists

There are some interesting nominees here, to be sure, but I was very pleased to see that Faery's Tale Deluxe from Firefly Games has been nominated in the Roleplaying Game category and the Hollow Earth Expedition GM Screen from Exile Games has been nominated in the Roleplaying Game Supplement category.

I won't be at Origins this year, having chosen to attend GenCon instead, but I wish my friends at Exile Games and Firefly Games the best on being finalists, and hope they both win the awards this year. :)

Of course, reading these lists of nominees and finalists always shows me how out of touch I am with the gaming industry in a lot of respects.

30 Years of Spam

Thu, 01 May 2008 13:59:48 GMT

Believe it or not, today is the anniversary of spam e-mail.

Thirty years ago today, May 1st, 1978, Gary Thuerk was a salesman for Digital Equipment Corp. He managed to connect a computer to the Arpanet (what the Internet was called at the time), and sent a message advertising a new computer to 390+ folks on Arpanet. He was slapped down by the first "stop sending us spam" type message, and it didn't happen again for another 10 years. However, the model was set, and today about 120 billion spam messages are sent each day, accounting for 85 percent of all Internet traffic.

And we owe it all to Mr. Thuerk.

Happy birthday, Spam. We hates you, we does, yes, we do.

Sign of Spring

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:19:55 GMT

While on the way home from work, I saw my favourite chip wagon at the side of the road on St. Laurent, and got off the bus to go and grab some fries. I only had a small fries, so didn't do too badly in that regard.

When the chip wagons that usually only come out between the spring and fall seasons are on the streets again, you know it's a sure sign that Spring is here.

Things Squiddy

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:11:39 GMT

I was catching up on some of the news today, and came across this lovely bit:

Giant Cannibalistic Squid Invades British Columbian Waters

I find this completely ironic, given that I have just finished up Jeff VanderMeer's City of Saints and Madmen only a few weeks ago. Geez... :)

Incomparable

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 03:23:45 GMT

And the sight which met my eyes was that of a slender, girlish figure, similar in every detail to the earthly women of my past life. She did not see me at first, but just as she was disappearing through the portal of the building which was to be her prison she turned, and her eyes met mine. Her face was oval, and beautiful in the extreme, her every feature was finely chiselled and exquisite, her eyes large and lustrous and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair, caught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure. Her skin was of a light reddish copper colour, against which the crimson glow of her cheeks and the ruby of her beautifully moulded lips shone with a strangely enhancing effect.

She was as destitute of clothes as the green Martians who accompanied her; indeed, save for her highly wrought ornaments she was entirely naked, nor could any apparel have enhanced the beauty of her perfect and symmetrical figure.

The above is the very first description of the incomparable Dejah Thoris, as seen through the eyes of earthman John Carter in Edgar Rice Burroughs's A Princess of Mars. It's an image that I absolutely adore, and that has stuck with me for oh these many years. In many ways, when I first read this book when I was nine or so, Dejah Thoris was the second woman (after my mom, of course!) I fell in love with. I have just finished re-reading the book for the first time in at least fifteen years or so...and I've got to say that this is one of my favourite moments in the book and one of the memorable descriptions that Burroughs engaged in when writing this book.

Incomparable indeed.

Books Away!

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 23:02:11 GMT

Today has been a day for the books.

spross came over after work today, and helped me take 8 (yep, I said eight!) boxes of science fiction and fantasy books to the my favourite used book dealer, The Book Bazaar. The gentleman who owns the store, John (yes, another one of us!), bought most of the old furniture and bookshelves when I closed up Basilisk Dreams Books back in 2004 (ohmygoddess, is that it that long already???), and I've been pretty pleased at the prices he gives me on second-hand sf and fantasy stuff, both hardcover and trade or paperback.

He bought a good chunk of the stuff I took in to him today with spross's help, although I won't know until Tuesday or Wednesday how much he'll give me for the books. Despite the condition of my leg (see previous blog entries on this), I helped Steve as best I could with the carrying and all, and after leaving there, he and I took the rest of the stuff to a Book Market (where they pay a pittance for books, regardless of condition), and dumped off what they didn't want at the local library. I know that Steve himself is hurting from his own injury last weekend, so I am really grateful to him for helping me out with this today. I figure at some point he'll suck my brains dry asking for information or help with something or whatever, but that's cool with me.

In any event, it cleaned out a bit of my storage cupboard full of books and made me a bit of money for GenCon Indy. So, there are some folks out there who will be getting some good reading in soon, either by buying the books I sold to the Book Bazaar and the Book Market, or the stuff that I donated to the library.

Off to make some dinner, but have no idea what I feel like eating.

Pondering Fave RPGs

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:09:52 GMT

An interesting post in the comments of one of mylescorcoran's posts made me ponder something.

For those who are roleplaying gamers out there...

What is your favourite roleplaying game to play and to run?

For me, my favourite rpg that I've run is a toss-up between two game systems. I ran the DragonQuest fantasy rpg for over 20 years, and experienced a lot of wonderful and classic moments of gaming in that system and the world that I had created. There are so many highlights for me from that game, that I can't begin to cover them all. My other favourite rpg to run was Torg: The Possibility Wars, a game full of...possibilities. :) The game was a nightmare to run at times, because of some of the conflicts that one would encounter in terms of various technologies in different Realms where the Laws were different, but this became easier to deal with as one ran the game. When I ran this game, there were also a few of those "I can't believe this just happened!" roleplaying moments. And then there was the Drama Deck, something that I both loved and hated in the game. "The best laid plans..." and all that could be totally frelled by the Drama Deck, but this was compensated for by the interesting variations that it could lead to due to some unknown or unexpected factor setting in. Torg was a fun system to run because it had some interesting ideas and concepts going on in it, and because of the sense of the action adventure in the game. Besides, the Nile Empire was just *cool*!¹

From the playing point of view, my favourite rpg has to be Pendragon. This game is exactly what it sounds like, based on the Arthurian myths and all, and was a fascinating game that introduced some revolutionary mechanics (notably the Traits system). I played in a campaign of the game that lasted for 52 years of campaign time, and was simply marvellous. I have a lot of good memories from that game. Heck, the first edition boxed set of Pendragon is still one that I have, and have never sold off. I don't particularly like later versions of the game for a variety of reasons, but that's another story.

Looking forward to hearing from folks about their favourite rpgs to run and play. :)

¹ I suspect this is one of the reasons why I like Hollow Earth Expedition so much! :)

Monday Ramble II

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:22:34 GMT

Came in to work this morning, despite the pain in my leg which had eased off somewhat during the weekend, as I took it as easily as I could (other than having to go out for groceries a couple of times and going to dinner with friends on Saturday night). The pain is not good, and the Tylenol has been helping me only marginally.

I'm scheduled for the MRI bright and early tomorrow morning, and am not looking forward to that. At least I'm having it done at one of the imaging labs here in town, and don't have to go to the hospital. I've been in too many hospitals in my life, and have pretty bad memories of them for the most part, so they're a trial for me all the time.

The weekend was pretty good, other than the pain, and I got a bit of reading done and some work done on a few other things as well. I finished re-reading Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass, and enjoyed it all over again, and also managed to wrap up one of the roleplaying projects I'm working on.

Anyway, back to the grind.

Health, Magic, and Calendar Debts

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:23:47 GMT

Came in to work after stopping by the Bank Street medical equipment store that's open to the public, and picking up a set of crutches, which I will keep here at the office for now. The pain is still pretty severe in the leg, so it's going to be an interesting day, given that I'm supposed to game this evening with the Friday night group, and still have to do a bit of grocery shopping after I get off work.

**********

The time I spent on the telephone last night with Tammy Powers discussing her character and the use of magic in the Desolation fantasy rpg last night was pretty cool. She always asks a lot of intelligent questions, and last night was no exception. Should be interesting to see her play her spell caster.

**********

In the news this morning is this lovely bit from Spain...

Spanish moms in debt after calendar flop

or

Poor sales leave Spanish "Calendar Girls" in Debt

You would have thought that Spanish men and others would be flocking to buy a nude or semi-nude calendar of women and all, but I guess such was not the case. Mind you, they did sell over 1,000 of the calendars, but 7,000 copies of the calendar printed? That seems a bit excessive to me for a calendar of this sort and given its place in the world. Who knows...maybe the calendar will now become a collectible?, and the women will make a bit of money on this thing and be able to pay off a bit of that debt.

Spring Day Thoughts

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:35:08 GMT

Got in to work this morning at 7:15, and it was a beautiful day outside. About 6⁰C, but going up to 15⁰C, and with sunshine streaming down and a lovely spring feel to the day. The kind of day that makes me glad to be alive.

Only two things have marred the day for me so far. First, the fact that my legs feel like painful wooden logs after the exercise I did yesterday on the elliptical. I may have overdone it by 5 minutes (I was on the machine for about 25 minutes), and am paying the price for this today. Second, the sheer amount of paperwork that got dumped on my desk at 8:30 this morning by the folks from filing (thanks, Donna! :)). However, I am not going to let this depress me today at all. It's too beautiful for that.

For my daily exercise today, I am likely going to do some walking outside, given the lovely spring weather and all. Thank Goddess for this beautiful day - and for allergy meds! :)

Weekend So Far...

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:18:04 GMT

The weekend so far has been pretty enjoyable.

Thursday after work, I finished reading Jeff VanderMeer's City of Saints and Madmen, one of the best novels (if one can rightly call it that) I've read in the past year. Friday, I started to re-read Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass, and am about 140 pages into the book. It's still as fresh and as good a read as it was the first time around, and I am seeing how faithful the movie was to the book, albeit minus the elements of religion and some of the gypsy stuff that was removed from the movie version.

Friday night, the gaming group met to play once more, and Kathy and SteveB brought Ellie along. As I've noted in other posts, the group is playing Desolation, a post-apocalyptic fantasy rpg, and I was somewhat concerned that Ellie would feel... a bit left out. I needn't have worried, though, as she took on the role of Asper Kalvi, a young girl the characters met in the ruined and "deserted" village they are currently searching through. Kathy's thief-turned-innkeeper Kiarra Foxten has taken a liking to the girl, and seems inclined to take her back to the village where she has her inn, but the others are hesitant to trust the girl and all. Should make for an interesting game, especially as Asper got the characters in trouble when she "found" an ancient trap that nearly beheaded two of the player characters! Asper fell victim to one of her own pranks, falling asleep due to a powder that she accidentally released from the morphus trees that she led the party to; this was done so that Ellie could go to sleep around 10:15 or so. :) The characters than continued to search for a means of reviving her for the rest of the game session, but had some other...things to deal with (that I won't mention here for fear of giving too much away). Good night was had by all, and we didn't break up until some time after 12:20 am.

Saturday morning was spent doing a bit of grocery shopping, primarily for Saturday night's stir fry, and when I got back, I took care of a bit of house cleaning and then did some work on the game notes from Friday night, and preparing a few things for Sunday's session. Had to re-read the character creation stuff for Desolation, as the Sunday group will be creating characters later today. spross dropped by during the afternoon, after his work shift, and stuck around for a while. We talked about a variety of stuff, and I had stir fried veggies with some chicken for supper, and a tossed salad.

I spent last night reading a bit of the Pullman book, listening to a bit of music by Andreas Vollenweider, and doing a bit of work for today's game of Desolation.

For some reason, I went to bed very late last night as well, and woke quite late this morning. As a result, I've been feeling rushed and all. Not a good feeling, by any stretch of the imagination, but at least nothing serious to worry about. Had a boiled egg with some cucumber slices (and the obligatory decaf coffee) for breakfast, so we'll see what the rest of the day brings. Meanwhile, back to work on the gaming stuff for later today.

New Amsterdam, Anyone?

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:28:35 GMT

waiwode brought this up on his journal, and I thought I should do so as well...

One of the current new series on tv that I really like is New Amsterdam, and was wondering if anyone else was watching it, since I haven't seen a lot of blogs about it.

The series focuses on John Amsterdam (at least that's what he calls himself nowadays), a detective in New York City. The twist is that he's 400 years old! I think that what appeals to me about the show is how each case Amsterdam and his partner try to solve relates in some fashion to something from his past. And with 400 years of his past in the NYC area, there's a lot of cool stuff that one can relate back to.

It's certainly a detective series with a difference from all the ones that feature supernatural creatures, for sure. :) I really hope that it survives to a second season.

Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy?

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:48:20 GMT

I have been a fantasy fan for a long time, ever since I first read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien when I was a kid of around 8 or so. Of late, I've grown interested in a genre that can best be described as post-apocalyptic fantasy, but to be honest, I draw a blank on books, tv, movies, and the like when it comes to this sub-genre.

So, I'd like to request a bit of help here. Can folks give me an specific recommendations for post-apocalyptic fantasy books, movies, television and other media? I'd appreciate a bit of a write-up on why you liked it and why it's considered post-apocalyptic fantasy.

Thanks in advance, and the Mood icon says it all. :)