- I will have a kitty in late August-yay!. Because that's when I decided I wanted one, and coincidentally one becomes available/homeless then. Black & white female, a bit over a year old as far as anyone can tell. Current name "Booze" - this will have to change. Not sure to what yet.

- I just bid a game for Intercon (MA). Yes, I often do crazy shit like this right after running one. But I know my limitations, and it's a small game, 6-7 people, 2 hrs. General tone is players will find themselves inside a horror movie, more or less. Game is called "Screwed". Premise is 6 apparent strangers all wake up in a locked room, bound in some manner. 1-2 has something within reach that might help. Mindf*&# ensues.

- I have another game brewing in my head too, but am not going to bid it unless it percolates into something playable. All I have now is a tone and a story. Many games I write start out this way though. Might hold out for G on this one, we'll see.

- Car has backseats again. House still a disaster, no news there. I have at least achieved clean underwear for this weekend, which is important. Still haven't packed for XPI, but I'm pretty sure I know where everything is.

- Spa reservations made for vacation-woot! I have a day or two unplanned still, any recommendations for the Newport Coast, CA area?

- Younger sis already camping at Dorney's house to care for her dog, so I figure I can slip piggy in there as well.

This video is made of awesome -
http://www.vimeo.com/1223566?pg=embed&sec=1223566

-oh, and probably NSFW
And it's better to not have liquid in mouth while watching. Trust me on this.

(thanks for the link Balth - I had to share the love)

-going offline now

(sorry I missed you, hon, I was in the shower)

So many pieces floating around in the air, and one by one, they fall into place....

This is, without a doubt, the most ambitious game I have ever tried. Sure, I've helped run stuff on the land before, but that's been campaign games, where we already knew the main characters and just had to write to them. This is 30 fully plotted character sheets - I wrote 12, Suzanne 12, and Paul 6, all totalling 160 pages of text. Plus more than 7 physical locations to still set up. Puzzles and documents of varying sorts, written by Paul, Dirk, Brandon, Rita, and me. Cast scenarios and sheets which will hopefully be a lot of fun. Gordon, Dirk, Yvonne, Mike, Ken, XPI, Goatman Hollow, etc providing props. And Jeannie helping us edit everything, continuity checking all sheets, and distributing them (if you're reading this and haven't gotten yours yet, you will by tonight). Stephanie creating a yummy menu for us. Gary creating a bunch of sound effects cds. Even a couple of gung ho players, John and Denis, creating an album cover. :o)

Of course I'll do a more complete thanks after the game, trying to put in all the names I know I'm already forgetting. I want folks to know it's going to rock, and how much work so many folks are putting into this. Because I don't want anyone thinking this is *my* game. I'm just a mouthpiece for a whole lot of busy and creative folks!

Woo hoo!!! Now back to writing my grisly murder news stories for the list....

Taking a cue from ladysprite, instead of the "X Number Of Things I've Done That You Haven't" meme (original answers here), I give you

X Things I've Done That Probably Should Have Killed Me (That You Probably Haven't Done, But Might Have):

1) Hitchhiked to work during a hurricane (was picked up by a really nice trucker)
2) Attempted to ski on intermediate slopes after just 1 day of lessons
3) Roller skated down the extremely hilly and busy streets of Monterey (I had to keep diving into grass to avoid traffic or crashing into something)

There are probably countless other less interesting incidences where something almost ran into me but with my Clouseau-like obliviousness and luck I avoided disaster, but I was oblivious...

A Cool Big Thing and Another Cool Thing - ordered
Cool costume things from XPI - borrowed
Bossman actually has a spare boat anchor we can borrow - woo hoo!
Character hints - sent (will send out email to list as soon I double check that Paul & Zandor sent all theirs)
Players - still 3 2 short. We've have drops and adds, drops and adds, and are holding steady. Ah well. Life happens, no worries.
Plans in the making to borrow my sister's children for a prop load bearing experiment. My brother-in-law said using his children for an experiment was fine by him, but I still need to run it through "the scheduling parent". (Hey Dorney I only really need one of them...but I know they often come as a package deal :))

So, we're still looking for large props that can represent landmarks of varying sorts. I know the Brassy's gun is at the barn and we do plan to use it, any other ideas/objects folks can loan?

That is all.

monster_girl & I, talking about a puzzle -
me: so, the only way in is through Uranus.
mg: Yes. You could put it that way.
me: *giggle* *snort* ..Uranus.. *tee hee*

Proof that rudolfrassen is highly evolved. :o)

I promised myself I'd wait until at least mid August. I don't want to get a new pet and then go away on vacation. It's better I wait, right? But then there's this kitty. Sigh. At least I have enough self control to know I just can't have a dog right now, not living alone and being away a lot. Sadly pit bulls seem to be still the ones no one wants. I'd totally love her though. Ah well.

That reminds me - I will need someone to watch King Cesar next month. I'll bug my sisters first though.

So we have one player who stated that they love romance plots, but hate angst.

??

I'm sorry, but seriously, I have no clue how to write a happy love story. I mean, if there is no angst, there really is no *story*. Does that mean a player is ok with adversity but wants things to work out in the end, or just wants to be happy with their love the whole game?

Yes, I know I could just ask the player, and possibly will. Here I name no names but bring it up because I do think it leads to an interesting discussion.

What does a romance plot in a game mean to you? Does it mean you start the game in love with someone and will do all to defend your love? Does it mean you secretly pine for someone and try to win them in game by revealing your feelings? Does it mean you and your love were separated by some circumstance and now have to find each other again but first must overcome great challenges? Or does it mean you get your heart ripped out of your chest as your great love is changed before you, forcing you to rethink everything, possibly leaving, or maybe changing yourself to stay?

Because me, I'm a fan of the latter option. :o) I like drama. Angst. Bittersweet endings. One of my favorite game romances I've played will always be in the old XPI Horror, where raging_apathy's character showed his great love for mine by electing to go completely insane with me, sharing in my doom. I also still fondly remember playing a romance plot with doubleplus in Dark Summonings. It was a doomed romance. He threw himself on a grenade for me. Literally. It was awesome.

So is it just me? Do romance plots in games always have to be "happily ever after"? I'm not saying we don't have the possibility of endings like that in the romance plots we have in The Island, but trust me, none of them are an easy road. I just don't see a point or story if it is.

ed. - To add - to me one of the best love stories ever told is in Casablanca. I mean, talk about a deliciously dramatic no win situation...

Registration deadline is today (6/15)!

That said, we are not casting until at least Monday evening, so if you sign up, pay and fill out the questionnaire on Monday you will still be ok.

At this point we have no more room for cast - we have only 3 player slots left. Sign up today! The game will rock! The food will rock! The players will get killed in a rockslide! (wait. um, ignore that last one)

http://www.islandlarp.com/

Well of course the only players that responded to my query of whether they were playing or casting are the more responsive ones who have already paid, so I already knew they were playing. Ah well. Theoretically we'll have the casting form up by end of week, so then I can pester people in earnest. :)

Based on reasonable assumptions that most others that signed up do really mean to play, plus accounting for drops, I believe we are at 25 players, 3 cast, and 7 staff. We are capping at 30 players. So we could use a few more signups. But only a few more, so if you were thinking about playing, quit dithering and sign up!

We have 30 tightly plotted, cool characters. We even now have a color coded flowchart that shows all sorts of connections, thanks to Suzanne's mad scribblings on a whiteboard, and Paul translating it into Visio. Suzanne also gets a dedication award for having a game meeting yesterday, on her birthday! (There was a break for cake)

Next week I'll finish up news stories and post those to our google group for players. The world is mostly same as this modern world, but after some haggling there are a few literary references that work better if the source doesn't exist in the game world.

Sign up deadline is June 15! Fast approaching!

"Patience is one thing, waiting another."
-me

"Longfellow was a twat."
-me

"All things come round to him who will but wait."
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"All things come to him who waits - provided he knows what he is waiting for."
-Woodrow T. Wilson

"How much of human life is lost in waiting?"
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

I've been averageing 6 a night all week or less, as I just have a hard time falling asleep early, then I need to get up at 0530. And last night I tried to burn my house down. I got home from game meeting and realized I had only had a pretzel for dinner so thought I should eat something else (wasn't really hungry, more habit I think), but didn't want much, so put on a couple of eggs to boil. Then went upstairs to check email and pay some bills. Then I went to bed, forgetting all about the eggs. I lay there for over 30 minutes tossing and turning (having some weird very painful muscle pull in my right side not helping at the moment) and then somehow suddenly remembered the eggs. The water had boiled down to almost nothing. Amazingly house not on fire yet. I threw eggs in the fridge, turned everything off and went back to bed.

Also yesterday I completely forgot my 18th anniversary with this company. Not like anyone else remembered either. Only reason I remembered today is that our admin assistant had an automated ecard that went out last night to me. Well that's something I guess.

ED - I just got flowers too! That does brighten my day up some.

me: You what these glasses remind me of? I have a fake nose. You know, they make my nose look big and these look like those glasses with the eyebrows and the nose, like a bad disguise, that's what I feel like, like my nose is fake.
(pause. monster_girl looks at me strangely)
MG: Are you ok? Have you had too much coffee today?

yeah. maaaybe.

If an American Airlines airplane were to leave Heathrow for New York, and crash somewhere between, presuming a large portion of the passengers were English, is it realistic to assume a large public memorial service of some sort would be held in a London church years later if that's when the remains of the plane were found?

No, no reason. :)

I hate my new glasses. Hate 'em, hate 'em, hate 'em. I hate them even more than I hated my old ones. Well at least I can see better. But I just can't be allowed to pick them out by myself, especially picking out glasses when I'm wearing glasses, which means I'm blind when trying on frames and can't get a decent look at how they look. I have no idea what I was thinking with these. No, I can't return them, the lenses are too costly. Well I'll just have to look like a dork until my new contacts come in. Sigh.

3 stores down that is, in our current upgrade project. I've been at work for almost 7 hours already, and it's not even 10 am. Something wrong with that. But I am chock full of caffeine, and for quite possibly the first time ever, we have made a change in stores that so far no one has bitched about - yay! Quite the opposite, cashiers and customers all seem happy. I know I'm pretty squee filled. The new front ends look awesome.

Not sure yet how next week is going to break out. Da boyz are all headed up north for the remaining stores, and monster_girl and I are holding down the fort here, so another week of early shifts for me. But should be getting up at 5:30 early shift, not middle of the night ones.

Actually I don't want to rush June that much - still lots of writing to do. And dammit, it's not our fault that Zandor and I came up with some things *first*, and Lost is now stealing our ideas. I swear. Don't worry though, there are still plenty of things that are different. Our game I think is definitely its own universe.

And I got a new foofy hat, as well as a dress for the Victorian tea! I can not say enough good things about Victorian Trading Co. Some of their stuff is really pricey, but they have a few more reasonable things as well as sale items, and they do pack things nicely, even including a padded hangar and garment bag, and the hat comes in a really nice hatbox. What really excites me though is the fact that the dress (which I wasn't even counting as a purchase until I got it and tried it on) actually fits me well. For me buying clothes online or from a catalog is such a crapshoot because sizes vary so much, and I mostly avoid it, but decided to take a gamble because I was just really enamoured of this dress (did I mention they have plus sizes?). The 1912 gap in my costume rack has now been filled (yes, I have truly felt this gap for some time. Nevermind that I didn't actually *need* anything from that era - I'm sure I will someday).

Something else I was going to babble about, but this whole not sleeping thing is making me lose focus. (But I also have SUGAR! AND MORE COFFEE!) Oh well, back to attempting to work until the relief force arrives (monster_girl), then home to sleep, so I'm awake and perky for BSG.

ed. - Now I remember - so, Supernatural season finale.  ( Cut for spoilers for those that care and might not have seen it yet )