Pre-flight Photosplosion
Tomorrow I am going to Poland. I hope I haven’t forgotten anything important.
I am uploading as many outstanding photos to Flickr as I can before I go, now that I’ve found kflickr, which is a lot more stable than f-spot. I still need something better than f-spot to organise photos, but making uploading less painful than stabbing myself in the head is a good start, I suppose.
ETA: I should stop reading about airport security now; I am becoming increasingly enraged.
ETA2: All uploaded now: the third Chrysalids LARP, a mixed batch of weird things, Grove of Fallen Leaves LARP, Dragonfire, Simon’s birthday.
I forgot — comics!
Outer Limits had a stand at Dragonfire. Naturally, this meant spontaneous comic purchases. I finally received two graphic novels I ordered ages ago: Scarlet Traces: The Great Game (the sequel to Scarlet Traces) and Phonogram (an indie comic about Britpop). The Great Game is awesome, and Phonogram is enjoyable, and very reminiscent of Unknown Armies, although I would probably enjoy it more if I actually knew more (i.e. anything) about Britpop.
I also got Fables #9, which is probably the last book in the series that I’m going to get. Fables has become disappointingly dull and slow-moving, and it doesn’t look like it’s getting better. I was willing to overlook the sappy and annoying wedding storyline which many fans have complained about, but Snow White’s characterisation is getting worse — I distinctly remember her having interesting adventures of some kind in the first book; now she’s a stay-at-home mom. This is not inherently a character-nerfing concept, but it’s used that way in the books — she doesn’t even get to do anything interesting or meaningful to protect her husband and children when they’re in danger. In the last story, she hangs around wringing her hands helplessly, doing absolutely nothing constructive, and telling off her father-in-law about his lack of assistance, while Bigby heroically saves the day. What? This is the woman who, according to one of the side stories, was a kick-ass swordfighter once upon a time. Seriously, what?
The Homelands subplot looks intriguing, but it’s too little signal lost in too much noise.
I also got Fell, and it is good. I like “straight man” cop heroes who manage to hold onto their principles and sanity when everyone around them is crazy; I find this crime fiction trope a lot more enjoyable than fatalistic crime noir (which is why I don’t like Sin City).
After Dragonfire
It’s weird not having a looming writing deadline. Now we have a looming overseas holiday deadline instead.
Dragonfire was quite good. Grove of Fallen Leaves ran without any further disasters, but had a rather dire ending (you paranoid LARPers)!
We missed the Saturday morning session, sleeping late and getting our module printed. We weren’t expecting to play in the afternoon module, but were persuaded at the last minute.
On Sunday, I unexpectedly DMed both sessions. I won Best DM for Beth’s Cthulhu module; w00t! I didn’t get to see much of our module being run, but Hodgestar was watching, and I got the executive summaries afterwards.
Radish: resurrection
If you are ever tempted to buy radishes even though they’re slightly dodgy, and by the time you get home they’re all soft and icky, trim the leaves a bit, dump them in a bowl of cold water (the radishes, not the leaves), and leave them to stand for a few hours. Osmosis for the win!
In other news, Dragonfire is pretty damn nigh. Be there, or you suck! We have successfully playtested our module, By the Rivers Dark*, and I hope to finish the corrections tonight. Grove of Fallen Leaves is all fixed up, character sheets were sent out weeks ago, everyone seems to have got them, and all that remains is the petrifying anxiety that something will go terribly wrong at the last minute (zomg zomg LARP stress zomg)**.
* Our last fantasy module was called Brothers in Arms. We initially considered sticking to the Dire Straits theme, but Calling Elvis just didn’t seem appropriate.
** It did; we’ve had two day-before-the-LARP replacements. One player fell ill unexpectedly; the other had an incredibly feeble excuse.
Buy someone a cow
Recent Tweets
- @firstfallen I like option 4 too. Option two is also nice, but kind of busy.
- Twitter, you are making me sad in my pants. Fix your damn RSS feeds or stop linking to them. http://tinyurl.com/2apmyjv
- @AnnaMalczyk It wasn't hard -- wasn't actually using it for anything. Stupid LJ crossposting feature was final straw. Do not want! D:
- Or not so much. Now exploring these possibilities: http://tinyurl.com/382w9kg
- http://topsy.com FTW; actually seems to have access to full Twitter history.
- @TheRiver I'm following these instructions; don't know how "complete" this is: http://www.wikihow.com/Permanently-Delete-a-Facebook-Account
- I just nuked my Facebook account. When the boat anchor starts biting your ankles, it's time to let go.
- @firstfallen I don't think you're being oversensitive. Waiting would have cost little and been worth a lot. They chose to be dicks about it.
- @firstfallen They all deserve to be summoned to a compulsory team-building workshop on Christmas Eve. :P
- I think encasing the whole block in this tree would make the street look much better. Cut window and door holes. http://tinyurl.com/2vjhg3m
