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chrisvenusAnd since I'm updating I'll finally getting around to putting in some more stuff. Recntly I seem to have been talking about specific events and I know you are all fascinated if not entranced by the events of my life so here is your fix. Don't read it all in one go, it might be a while before you get more...
At the beginning of the month, several weeks ago now I went home to see my parents for Mother's Day (a week late). It was great. I picked mum up some flowers before leaving oxford which I think she really appreciated so I think I got points for nice things late rather than minus points for not hitting mothers day exactly (I did phone, just no card).
When I got to my parents they had guests: one of my mum's old college friends and her husband. They had stopped for the night on route to cornwall. It was fun talking to them and nice to hear about some of my mum's childhood. Listening to them reminiscing was really nice and the joking was really good too. I ended up doing work that I had to do over the weekend and stayed up very late finishing my first drafts. Lack of interent connection is good for me and I really must do it more often I think. Parents house is a great place to avoid distractions.
Next day my brother and sister arrived late evening (this is friday night now, I took an early weekend) and we caught up with them. They played with the dog and got him very excited and were then told off. The dog is getting a bit old and is suffering as all dogs do when they get old. Water on the lungs I believe is the problem and I think there was something else. The upshot of it is though that doctors orders are that he not get excited. However those here that have met him (that is probably a whole one person but I guess it may be more) know that he is such an easily excitable dog. He gets excited hearing doors open, people hugging, pretty much most things really. The dog is alright generally though so no real worries there.
Anyway, the weekend passed on with a trip down to Lyme Regis which was fun. We had holidayed there in pre-memory so there were silly jokes about stuff. We wandered down the beach, had a pubs lunch and had a really nice family day out. It was great. Sunday I left relatively early but on the plus side this got me out of the gardening others were getting roped into.
Anyway, time passes and work happens. The job I am working on is one of those ones where the client is really apathetic about giving us feedback or anything. A lot of copy needs to be written and the impression I get is they aren't fussed about writing it too soon. Oh well, means I am not too rushed (despite the fact I have been at times). I probably will leave what I have still to do for tomorrow rather than finishing off tonight. I'll just upload latest site version and finish off the next set of pages tomorrow.
Anyway, other stuff I've been doing. Headed down to london the next weekend. Was due to be meeting up with Mr P before Sabbat game, doing some shopping and then out for a few drinks in the evening before back to krys's. Unfortuantely due to illness and other plans arriving steve bailed so I ended up doing other stuff. A trip to camden to see Simon and Caroline and then some shopping were I satisfied my addiction and bought the latest Exalted book. Its wonderful but I will probably mention more of that later.
The evening was spent sitting in the pub were the Vampire game (C/A) was happening and reading my new book. Nick was there too and not playing so I stopped reading and chatted with him and then we were joined by a nice (and cute) girl called something like "Henny" (Simon, caroline, you got any idea for a better name or spelling than that?). She was a non-roleplayer who had come along with her boyfriend. We talked to her lots, explained what was going on and how the whole thing worked and she might come along later. She liked the whole goth side of vampires. :)
The trip to krys's house where my car was was entertaining to say the least. Missed the last train so we adlibbed. Its nice knowing the place since it meant we could make it up as we went along. However, a few miscalculations on getting taxis left us pretty pissed at lack of taxis and the bus which was our primary aim. So, on seeing a far off taxi I did a sprint, a vault and a sprint and hailed a taxi which I jumped in and then swung back around for krys. I asked the poor driver if he could get us home on £5.50 and he said basically "the machine tells me what to charge". in the end he agreed to take us as far as our money would carry us though and in fact 30p further. However, this got us to the absolute best place to be dropped so we were happy. We then rolled in and went to bed.
Next day was my exalted game. First proper session and from what people said they had a lot of fun. Its ages since I last ran anything and I was quite nervous. I had the plot worked out and took people to one side to introduce them to the plot privately. Then the meeting with the dude giving them their mission. People were chatting a bit but I was worried that it seemed to be me just talking a lot. However, I guess that is because people aren't very into their characters yet and as dom later mentioned lack of familiarity with the world makes random chat a bit more difficult. To my players reading this though, feel free to make it up. You got a twenty page hand out. That tells you more than enough about the world. Certainly more than I care about being kept strictly accurate. :)
I think the players really started enjoying it when I through in my pirate attack (the idea having been given to me by Nick the night before). I was almost as surprised as the players when I found out the ship was housed by the undead. Some skeletons, some just very pale. I am always surprised by how much I adlib things when GMing. I always assume others have it perfectly planned but I guess the reason for that is you can't tell when people are adlibbing that easily.
Essentially I found the captain telling people about her experience with piracy and realised that I wanted more than just the average pirate ship. And maybe it also had something to do with the fact that I bought the abyssal exalted book the day before which deals with the dead (undead maybe but they are more just dead and able to get back from the underworld).
The abyssals book is wonderful though it has to be said that what I have read so far doesn't make me very interested in the abyssal exalted but absolutely in love with the ghosts. I am intending to try to run a solar game next term for student types but I am tempted over summer to think about running a ghosts game.
Then last weekend was easter weekend. Barbeque at David's on thursday was good. White horse happened on Friday. Other people have said a lot about it so I can't be bothered. Essentially though lots of nice people including a chance to catch up with sally who I rarely see. After being shouted at for talking cam we both snuck off to go elsewhere to talk about it where they wouldn't catch us. :)
Saturday I slept late and in the evening headed over to David's for gaming. Got quite into a snowboarding game (and since I know they both read this I have hit over 150,000 on some runs and am now male) and played some silly dreamcast games. ChuChu Rockets is a fantastic game. It involves not just mice and cats but Space Mice and Space Cats! Yes. And powerstone 2 which was very silly but very fun.
And then we are pretty much up to present. My between weekends is generally very dull so not a lot to say. Usually a good mix of watching TV all day and working. Occasionally with seeing people in evenings too.
Anyway, that was my life update for most of this month. Next weekend is Krys's birthday, swordsmaster and the oxford cam game on sunday evening. Sunday will be hectic and I just hope the traffic on route from Feltham to Oxford won't make me too late. Well, just so people know I will be late to the game but have an ETA of about 7PM. Plenty of time to get people signed in and stuff. :) I may be later but if so I'll phone somebody and let them know. Hell, not the end of the world if I am late since the room gets paid for at the end. :)
May morning coming up soon too. Week today maybe? For those non oxford types there is a tradtion that at dawn a choir sings at magdalen college and the world and their friends congregates on MAgdalen bridge (or as near as they can get). The police have recently started their own tradition which involves stopping people from getting onto magdalen bridge. After straining your ears to hear the choir everybody ambles off to the various things nearby. This includes many food shops, morris dancers and of course, the funny christians.
The funny christians are great. They do this silly theatre with morals that tell you to accept jesus into your life. However, some of them, despite the fact they are meant to be serious, look a lot more like python than anything else. Its also a lot of fun when one of the funny christians comes up to you and says "Are you a christian" or words to that effect to reply with "no, I just think this is the funniest thing I have ever seen".
At the beginning of the month, several weeks ago now I went home to see my parents for Mother's Day (a week late). It was great. I picked mum up some flowers before leaving oxford which I think she really appreciated so I think I got points for nice things late rather than minus points for not hitting mothers day exactly (I did phone, just no card).
When I got to my parents they had guests: one of my mum's old college friends and her husband. They had stopped for the night on route to cornwall. It was fun talking to them and nice to hear about some of my mum's childhood. Listening to them reminiscing was really nice and the joking was really good too. I ended up doing work that I had to do over the weekend and stayed up very late finishing my first drafts. Lack of interent connection is good for me and I really must do it more often I think. Parents house is a great place to avoid distractions.
Next day my brother and sister arrived late evening (this is friday night now, I took an early weekend) and we caught up with them. They played with the dog and got him very excited and were then told off. The dog is getting a bit old and is suffering as all dogs do when they get old. Water on the lungs I believe is the problem and I think there was something else. The upshot of it is though that doctors orders are that he not get excited. However those here that have met him (that is probably a whole one person but I guess it may be more) know that he is such an easily excitable dog. He gets excited hearing doors open, people hugging, pretty much most things really. The dog is alright generally though so no real worries there.
Anyway, the weekend passed on with a trip down to Lyme Regis which was fun. We had holidayed there in pre-memory so there were silly jokes about stuff. We wandered down the beach, had a pubs lunch and had a really nice family day out. It was great. Sunday I left relatively early but on the plus side this got me out of the gardening others were getting roped into.
Anyway, time passes and work happens. The job I am working on is one of those ones where the client is really apathetic about giving us feedback or anything. A lot of copy needs to be written and the impression I get is they aren't fussed about writing it too soon. Oh well, means I am not too rushed (despite the fact I have been at times). I probably will leave what I have still to do for tomorrow rather than finishing off tonight. I'll just upload latest site version and finish off the next set of pages tomorrow.
Anyway, other stuff I've been doing. Headed down to london the next weekend. Was due to be meeting up with Mr P before Sabbat game, doing some shopping and then out for a few drinks in the evening before back to krys's. Unfortuantely due to illness and other plans arriving steve bailed so I ended up doing other stuff. A trip to camden to see Simon and Caroline and then some shopping were I satisfied my addiction and bought the latest Exalted book. Its wonderful but I will probably mention more of that later.
The evening was spent sitting in the pub were the Vampire game (C/A) was happening and reading my new book. Nick was there too and not playing so I stopped reading and chatted with him and then we were joined by a nice (and cute) girl called something like "Henny" (Simon, caroline, you got any idea for a better name or spelling than that?). She was a non-roleplayer who had come along with her boyfriend. We talked to her lots, explained what was going on and how the whole thing worked and she might come along later. She liked the whole goth side of vampires. :)
The trip to krys's house where my car was was entertaining to say the least. Missed the last train so we adlibbed. Its nice knowing the place since it meant we could make it up as we went along. However, a few miscalculations on getting taxis left us pretty pissed at lack of taxis and the bus which was our primary aim. So, on seeing a far off taxi I did a sprint, a vault and a sprint and hailed a taxi which I jumped in and then swung back around for krys. I asked the poor driver if he could get us home on £5.50 and he said basically "the machine tells me what to charge". in the end he agreed to take us as far as our money would carry us though and in fact 30p further. However, this got us to the absolute best place to be dropped so we were happy. We then rolled in and went to bed.
Next day was my exalted game. First proper session and from what people said they had a lot of fun. Its ages since I last ran anything and I was quite nervous. I had the plot worked out and took people to one side to introduce them to the plot privately. Then the meeting with the dude giving them their mission. People were chatting a bit but I was worried that it seemed to be me just talking a lot. However, I guess that is because people aren't very into their characters yet and as dom later mentioned lack of familiarity with the world makes random chat a bit more difficult. To my players reading this though, feel free to make it up. You got a twenty page hand out. That tells you more than enough about the world. Certainly more than I care about being kept strictly accurate. :)
I think the players really started enjoying it when I through in my pirate attack (the idea having been given to me by Nick the night before). I was almost as surprised as the players when I found out the ship was housed by the undead. Some skeletons, some just very pale. I am always surprised by how much I adlib things when GMing. I always assume others have it perfectly planned but I guess the reason for that is you can't tell when people are adlibbing that easily.
Essentially I found the captain telling people about her experience with piracy and realised that I wanted more than just the average pirate ship. And maybe it also had something to do with the fact that I bought the abyssal exalted book the day before which deals with the dead (undead maybe but they are more just dead and able to get back from the underworld).
The abyssals book is wonderful though it has to be said that what I have read so far doesn't make me very interested in the abyssal exalted but absolutely in love with the ghosts. I am intending to try to run a solar game next term for student types but I am tempted over summer to think about running a ghosts game.
Then last weekend was easter weekend. Barbeque at David's on thursday was good. White horse happened on Friday. Other people have said a lot about it so I can't be bothered. Essentially though lots of nice people including a chance to catch up with sally who I rarely see. After being shouted at for talking cam we both snuck off to go elsewhere to talk about it where they wouldn't catch us. :)
Saturday I slept late and in the evening headed over to David's for gaming. Got quite into a snowboarding game (and since I know they both read this I have hit over 150,000 on some runs and am now male
And then we are pretty much up to present. My between weekends is generally very dull so not a lot to say. Usually a good mix of watching TV all day and working. Occasionally with seeing people in evenings too.
Anyway, that was my life update for most of this month. Next weekend is Krys's birthday, swordsmaster and the oxford cam game on sunday evening. Sunday will be hectic and I just hope the traffic on route from Feltham to Oxford won't make me too late. Well, just so people know I will be late to the game but have an ETA of about 7PM. Plenty of time to get people signed in and stuff. :) I may be later but if so I'll phone somebody and let them know. Hell, not the end of the world if I am late since the room gets paid for at the end. :)
May morning coming up soon too. Week today maybe? For those non oxford types there is a tradtion that at dawn a choir sings at magdalen college and the world and their friends congregates on MAgdalen bridge (or as near as they can get). The police have recently started their own tradition which involves stopping people from getting onto magdalen bridge. After straining your ears to hear the choir everybody ambles off to the various things nearby. This includes many food shops, morris dancers and of course, the funny christians.
The funny christians are great. They do this silly theatre with morals that tell you to accept jesus into your life. However, some of them, despite the fact they are meant to be serious, look a lot more like python than anything else. Its also a lot of fun when one of the funny christians comes up to you and says "Are you a christian" or words to that effect to reply with "no, I just think this is the funniest thing I have ever seen".
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Timmy in Non-excitable Shocker
Date: 2003-04-23 12:50 am (UTC)How?!?!
*gets an image of the dog in "There's something about Mary* ;)
It's the only way to be sure...
Re: Timmy in Non-excitable Shocker
Date: 2003-04-30 11:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-23 12:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-23 01:15 am (UTC)I always assume others have it perfectly planned but I guess the reason for that is you can't tell when people are adlibbing that easily.
I certainly couldn't tell - smoooooth !
In fact, I once ran an 18-hour-straight Call of Cthulhu game with absolutely zero preparation. The players had never played CoC before, so I just nicked bits from all the other games I'd run. It was mad ! (Literally, this being CoC...)
(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-23 09:17 am (UTC)I've never seen it. Nor is this likely to change any year soon. I'll have to make do with the twin chorus.
Typo
Date: 2003-04-24 02:08 am (UTC)I initially read that as lack of inherent connection. And it still made perfect sense.