CNN and ConnCon and other things...
Blog 040308
I finished my The Wolfman book. It’s from Darkhorse Press and based off the old Universal movies. While I found the situations the Wolfman found himself in very convoluted I liked the book a lot. I really enjoyed the aspect of a lonely man caring a burden he never asked for and now has been condemned because of it. I guess I relate to alienation. I read the book in a couple of days and liked it much better than The Bride of Frankenstein book which did not impress me.
The other day I started reading The Shadow of Frankenstein. It’s another Universal monster movie spin-off novel involving Frankenstein and Jack the Ripper. At first I put the book aside rolling my eyes at the concept. Having finished The Wolfman book I started in on Frankenstein and I’m finding I really enjoying it. I grew up loving the Frankenstein movies and the author has really caught the way I like the monster portrayed. I was really surprised by how different the Universal movie was compared to the original book. I prefer the movie.
Reading through some of the acknowledgments a lot of the names listed seem very familiar. The author resides in a town close by and I e-mailed him asking some questions about the people in the acknowledgments. If the people are the same people I’m asking about, I’ve played Dungeons and Dragons games written by them.
Mazzy Star’s song Fade into You is currently my favorite song.
I was griping to my brother about back to back work weeks of four days of pay. He said he knows how I feel as he’s doing the same. One week was the family court thing his ex putting their daughter in foster care and the next is the 13 year old’s arraignment. “What?!” I asked. Apparently the ex is serious about the assault and battery and larceny charges against their own daughter. So you have the ex signing their only daughter into foster care and also filing/pressing charges against her. Without a doubt I bet she’ll continue to claim to be the better parent over my brother. And apparently because my niece called the cops on her dad during the early days of the divorce just to cause grief and suffering the whole family has to be investigated to some extent before any of us could take custody of her. Did I mention that her mother coached her to say the right things when my niece first went to therapy and if memory serves correct that she went once and only once to help relieve the stress and pain of the divorce? Yeah. The ex is a real piece of shit of a human being. Here’s yet another kicker. Before we learned that my niece had been sent to foster care by her own mother – no mention to my brother about it – the ex filed papers to move the kids out of state.
ConnCon had its up’s and down’s. ConnCon is a gaming convention where all sorts of strategy games are played. The big draw is Dungeons & Dragons. That’s what my friends and I went to play.
I got home from work and did some things before heading to my friends who were driving. I don’t trust myself to do 2 or so hours of constant driving after work. So we get on the highway and we notice this huge column of smoke. There was no missing it really since it seemed as large as a tornado. We determine its got to be some sort of massive fire. It was the blackest smoke I had ever seen in person. I related it to something straight out of the Iraq war. It got to the point that we knew we’d be passing very close to the source as cops were all around, traffic was slowing and we were very close to the smoke. It was right by where the highway we were on passed over another highway and all I could think was that a tanker blew up. Then I caught a glimpse of the source and I was certain I was right. And I was. Seems a guy in a car came onto the highway and lost control of his car. He hit another car and the tanker swerved to avoid the original car. This caused the truck to jack knife and the trailer part ripped free and rolled off the highway. 9600 gallons of gas and 1000 gallons of diesel fuel caught on fire. The cab of the truck also caught on fire. The trucker was pulled free by heroic people that faced the flames of the truck. But with his body 60% covered in burns the trucker eventually died. I was surprised to hear he was the only on to die actually. The driver of the car that caused the accident was charged with several things including either manslaughter or vehicular homicide. My gut reaction was the initial driver that caused everything was being an asshat but I really don’t know that. In any case, the original driver now has a man’s death hanging over him. It’s not something I’d want to face.
The crash was so spectacular it made CNN national news and some other national news organizations.
We got to the hotel early and found it was undergoing renovations. Signs and tarps were everywhere. For some reason, Au Pairs were there for something. Lots of young women, some very cute, were about and none seemed to speak English. It was like something straight out of a Hollywood teen sex flick or goofy romance movie or something.
We played our first game that afternoon and into night since it was slated for 8 hours. I didn’t really want to play it because the guy that wrote the game and I do not get along. I figured it would be all about player kill counts – as in how many players can the module kill. I soon discovered that the guy would also be our DM. Joy. While fair, he makes no secrets about killing characters. He’ll kiss your ass if he’s playing his character but if he’s DMing ‘all’s fair…’
I was very happy and surprised to say I enjoyed the game and the guy and I got along fine with no problems. He did end up killing one player and turning 3 more, including my character, to stone. But he had warned us plenty that it was an optional encounter and that our characters would be raised from the dead. My buddy was the only character to actually die. Getting turned to stone doesn’t really screw a character over like dying does.
We went to our room and I got the futon while the father and son, both adults, shared the queen bed. It was the last hotel room available when the father rented it. The pillows were god awful terrible. I hated them! I also froze my ass off! I shivered most of the night and the temperature for the room was set at 68 degrees!
I got a restless 5 hours of sleep at best when the alarm went off the next morning at 6:30am. The father goes to shower and there’s no hot water. So he’s in there for a long time because he had to wait for the water to heat up. It seems like forever before he gets out and then announces that the shower is not draining. Oy. The son goes in after some minutes of waiting. He has to wait for hot water. Eventually he comes out and announces the shower is not draining. I’m afraid to go near the bathroom by now. But with my hair in all directions and not wanting to stink I go in and see a couple of inches of water in the tub. I give it a few minutes hoping for luck but it doesn’t drain. I further notice, my buddy being the hairy bastard that he is has apparently shed or something. I’m seeing all these little inch long black hairs sticking to the tub like washed ashore corpses. And the cloudy water was hardly thrill inducing to look at. It was rather cringe inducing. Plotting and planning I try to concoct a plan of some sort to wash while staying out of the shower. I turn the water on while still clad in my blue underwear. I start soaking my head awkwardly leaning over the shower side. If I can just wash my hair and arm pits I think to myself…
Soon water is sliding down my body soaking my underwear and/or splashing off my body and all over making a soaking wet mess on the tile floor. I realize that my current actions simply won’t work per my intent. With horrid reluctance I put my foot into that brutally nasty shower water and shower as best I can as fast as I can. Still, I want to amputate my foot. Gah! I would never have believed a shower could feel so dirty.
Somehow surviving the showering experience I dried off and dressed and ate breakfast. Breakfast was a blueberry muffin, a donut, orange juice and milk all bought the previous day at the local grocery store because I’ve been to enough cons to know we otherwise don’t eat breakfast. With that I hustled off to a new day of games.
Here ends Part One of ConnCon 2008.
I finished my The Wolfman book. It’s from Darkhorse Press and based off the old Universal movies. While I found the situations the Wolfman found himself in very convoluted I liked the book a lot. I really enjoyed the aspect of a lonely man caring a burden he never asked for and now has been condemned because of it. I guess I relate to alienation. I read the book in a couple of days and liked it much better than The Bride of Frankenstein book which did not impress me.
The other day I started reading The Shadow of Frankenstein. It’s another Universal monster movie spin-off novel involving Frankenstein and Jack the Ripper. At first I put the book aside rolling my eyes at the concept. Having finished The Wolfman book I started in on Frankenstein and I’m finding I really enjoying it. I grew up loving the Frankenstein movies and the author has really caught the way I like the monster portrayed. I was really surprised by how different the Universal movie was compared to the original book. I prefer the movie.
Reading through some of the acknowledgments a lot of the names listed seem very familiar. The author resides in a town close by and I e-mailed him asking some questions about the people in the acknowledgments. If the people are the same people I’m asking about, I’ve played Dungeons and Dragons games written by them.
Mazzy Star’s song Fade into You is currently my favorite song.
I was griping to my brother about back to back work weeks of four days of pay. He said he knows how I feel as he’s doing the same. One week was the family court thing his ex putting their daughter in foster care and the next is the 13 year old’s arraignment. “What?!” I asked. Apparently the ex is serious about the assault and battery and larceny charges against their own daughter. So you have the ex signing their only daughter into foster care and also filing/pressing charges against her. Without a doubt I bet she’ll continue to claim to be the better parent over my brother. And apparently because my niece called the cops on her dad during the early days of the divorce just to cause grief and suffering the whole family has to be investigated to some extent before any of us could take custody of her. Did I mention that her mother coached her to say the right things when my niece first went to therapy and if memory serves correct that she went once and only once to help relieve the stress and pain of the divorce? Yeah. The ex is a real piece of shit of a human being. Here’s yet another kicker. Before we learned that my niece had been sent to foster care by her own mother – no mention to my brother about it – the ex filed papers to move the kids out of state.
ConnCon had its up’s and down’s. ConnCon is a gaming convention where all sorts of strategy games are played. The big draw is Dungeons & Dragons. That’s what my friends and I went to play.
I got home from work and did some things before heading to my friends who were driving. I don’t trust myself to do 2 or so hours of constant driving after work. So we get on the highway and we notice this huge column of smoke. There was no missing it really since it seemed as large as a tornado. We determine its got to be some sort of massive fire. It was the blackest smoke I had ever seen in person. I related it to something straight out of the Iraq war. It got to the point that we knew we’d be passing very close to the source as cops were all around, traffic was slowing and we were very close to the smoke. It was right by where the highway we were on passed over another highway and all I could think was that a tanker blew up. Then I caught a glimpse of the source and I was certain I was right. And I was. Seems a guy in a car came onto the highway and lost control of his car. He hit another car and the tanker swerved to avoid the original car. This caused the truck to jack knife and the trailer part ripped free and rolled off the highway. 9600 gallons of gas and 1000 gallons of diesel fuel caught on fire. The cab of the truck also caught on fire. The trucker was pulled free by heroic people that faced the flames of the truck. But with his body 60% covered in burns the trucker eventually died. I was surprised to hear he was the only on to die actually. The driver of the car that caused the accident was charged with several things including either manslaughter or vehicular homicide. My gut reaction was the initial driver that caused everything was being an asshat but I really don’t know that. In any case, the original driver now has a man’s death hanging over him. It’s not something I’d want to face.
The crash was so spectacular it made CNN national news and some other national news organizations.
We got to the hotel early and found it was undergoing renovations. Signs and tarps were everywhere. For some reason, Au Pairs were there for something. Lots of young women, some very cute, were about and none seemed to speak English. It was like something straight out of a Hollywood teen sex flick or goofy romance movie or something.
We played our first game that afternoon and into night since it was slated for 8 hours. I didn’t really want to play it because the guy that wrote the game and I do not get along. I figured it would be all about player kill counts – as in how many players can the module kill. I soon discovered that the guy would also be our DM. Joy. While fair, he makes no secrets about killing characters. He’ll kiss your ass if he’s playing his character but if he’s DMing ‘all’s fair…’
I was very happy and surprised to say I enjoyed the game and the guy and I got along fine with no problems. He did end up killing one player and turning 3 more, including my character, to stone. But he had warned us plenty that it was an optional encounter and that our characters would be raised from the dead. My buddy was the only character to actually die. Getting turned to stone doesn’t really screw a character over like dying does.
We went to our room and I got the futon while the father and son, both adults, shared the queen bed. It was the last hotel room available when the father rented it. The pillows were god awful terrible. I hated them! I also froze my ass off! I shivered most of the night and the temperature for the room was set at 68 degrees!
I got a restless 5 hours of sleep at best when the alarm went off the next morning at 6:30am. The father goes to shower and there’s no hot water. So he’s in there for a long time because he had to wait for the water to heat up. It seems like forever before he gets out and then announces that the shower is not draining. Oy. The son goes in after some minutes of waiting. He has to wait for hot water. Eventually he comes out and announces the shower is not draining. I’m afraid to go near the bathroom by now. But with my hair in all directions and not wanting to stink I go in and see a couple of inches of water in the tub. I give it a few minutes hoping for luck but it doesn’t drain. I further notice, my buddy being the hairy bastard that he is has apparently shed or something. I’m seeing all these little inch long black hairs sticking to the tub like washed ashore corpses. And the cloudy water was hardly thrill inducing to look at. It was rather cringe inducing. Plotting and planning I try to concoct a plan of some sort to wash while staying out of the shower. I turn the water on while still clad in my blue underwear. I start soaking my head awkwardly leaning over the shower side. If I can just wash my hair and arm pits I think to myself…
Soon water is sliding down my body soaking my underwear and/or splashing off my body and all over making a soaking wet mess on the tile floor. I realize that my current actions simply won’t work per my intent. With horrid reluctance I put my foot into that brutally nasty shower water and shower as best I can as fast as I can. Still, I want to amputate my foot. Gah! I would never have believed a shower could feel so dirty.
Somehow surviving the showering experience I dried off and dressed and ate breakfast. Breakfast was a blueberry muffin, a donut, orange juice and milk all bought the previous day at the local grocery store because I’ve been to enough cons to know we otherwise don’t eat breakfast. With that I hustled off to a new day of games.
Here ends Part One of ConnCon 2008.
posted by DungeonMasterJim at 6:37 AM
1 Comments:
Um, lovely description of your whore bath.
You know my thoughts on the ex-sister-in-law.
We had two accidents in my town this morning - a hit-and-run just off the highway, and one just down the street from me that involved airlifting a victim.
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