Friday, December 19, 2003

Jon, Son of Dean

So... I'm going (a-going, even) to see Return of the King on Sunday, is the reason I won't be around on Sunday. Any of you guys seen it yet besides Johnny? (By the way, I sure hope there's someone loudly hitting on a girl when I watch the movie! But oh well, I guess you gotta take your chances where you can get 'em.) Anyway, I thought I was going to be busy tomorrow as well, but upon further examination, my schedule is clear until about 5:30 or 6:00. Also upon closer examination, these are loafers. Any chance you'll make it down tomorrow Rude?

I'm glad a good time was had by all. I'm not sure that I was the organizer, unless the rule is that whoever gets the beer is the de facto organizer. Everybody made valuable contributions, including my father for stepping in when I freaked out and hid in the bathroom, and also Torengo Mfg. Co. for sponsoring the event with fine snacks.

If the Romans had d20s it was probably to stick up each others' asses, so I think I'll keep my eighteen thousand dollars.
Happy Festivus to all.

Ya! Sorry I didn't get to see any of you guys at the convention - believe it or not, I had left Saturday open for it but OHHHHH i'm just an asshole like that. :( I wanna see strippers!!!

My cell phone number again: 3 two 3 eight 4 juan 6 se7en 6 seven. My old phone is LONG dead - so, update if u plz. I still need updated cellys from some of j00z.

I've been working a lot - lots of overtime - couple of 14 hour days every week- its a fucking drain. I wanna see you guys - are any of you meeting this sunday? i'll be seeing my folks and my buddy dore on sunday, so ill be in the neighborhood mostly, so maybe i can take the scion down there for a bit.

good luck with the ladee jahknee! thatd be cool if u could hook that up.

whatever happened to the pyramid scheme erlock was talking about? i want info! maybe if i meet up with some of u - my company was offering employees stock at 20% off up until today - they just went public or something. they (Thomson Group) are a mega-corp, so i dont really know if its worth buying stock in a big ass company like that. help me out PLZ.

new drink: Morroccan Mint Tea from Coffee Bean - its pretty good. Its like a mocha but feels less "heavy" (its green tea instead of cafe w/ chocolate.) I've also been drinking a shitload of Chai - mmm. My girlfriend makes it every morning - rad!

- c u l8rz al-e-gay-torz

PS Initial D is gooood. If you like weird racing cartoons.
Yay! kudos to Peter Adkinson, possibly the greatest gamer CEO of all.

If gencon so cal had stocks, I probably still wouldn't buy it, seeing that the ROI is so horrid. But it's all a labor of love.
More GenCon info...

Peter Adkinson's writeup of the con can be found right here.

cool

Also, check out this pretty cool NOFX song. (For Windows Media Player.)
Funnee how one meets people at the oddest of times

Met this girl who is a friend of a friend, and I lek her a lot. It seems the relationship bug is going around. I have to quickly shed this single stigma as I think I am the only pathetic soul in The Dating Action Team that is still single. So she is nice. and she's going to FUCLA. We talked throughout the movie and although I felt I may have been inconsiderate talking so much, i had to capitalize on the opportunity. So... she gave me a big hug at the end. I'll probably call her later. yah! she is a girl I would consider dating, my friends. Eric, if this succeeds you will HAVE to allow one more to your wedding party!

NEXT issues -

*LOTR III was good.

*Roman dice is a good opportunity. specially if we create a whole set, d4, d6, d8, d7, d5 etc

*Kublacon is next! Peanuts, Burgers, Big beerskis, Lots of good miniature gaming!

*Jon was a fucko for not attending bachelor con. Dean however, was one slick dude. I vote we send jon to boot hill, and straddle dean in the saddle.

Night!

Thursday, December 18, 2003

Fucker Jon

At least his father is a real man. Cowboy hat, moustache, accent and all. None of that city slicker bull. He sure knows how to rock the casbah.

Now that I have alittle extra time on my hands I am learning the ways of Cascading Style Sheets. I had know how to hack at it, but now I am learning the ins and outs. Good stuff. Well.. At least Elrock will know what I am talking about.

Man one glass of wine and I am toast. Damn fly weight anymore.

Chopper, suck ballz
Man, You're right!

I'm actually a little pissed at Jon for not showing up, or rather conveniently getting lost in the bathroom. Having Dean around did ease the pain of Jon's rejection, but still, it hurts a little bit. That Dean is quite a guy. He must have had quite a life growing up a Texan in South Carolina, but more power to him!
Good idea Elrock.

18K? Damn. I want one still. Mike, go steal one at the next dig. I am sure there is one just waiting for our personal use. In other notes... Jon? Jon didnt go to the Bachelor party remember? I think Dean organized things. Stupid Jon got lost in the bathroom or something. Twas a good time had by all. I am glad that you enjoyed your eve of debauchery.

5100 ppl. That sounds about right, but still was well under the anticipated amound of 13K. At least that was a rumor around our group as to the expected turnout. Hopefully the GenCon SoCal will fill out in years to come and the Union will not scare away the vendors. Bastages. Speaking of which I would not be surprised if the union workers dont get screwed out of the Vons deal. In a city like LA, companies just do not have issues with hiring scabs. Go Union Bloat.

More notes/comments on GenCon:

+ The con did seem a tad heavy on cards, but the dealer-room-onovich didnt seem to reflect that. There were only a few tables. However, I was very disappointed at the lack of representation of minitures games. There are by far more at Strategicon events.

+ Speaking of... Do you think GenCon will have an effect on Strategicon events? I would hope it would have a positive effect on the event by bringing gaming back to the attention californian gamers. Yet, I am still fearful that it will not have any effect.

+ True Dungeon was definately a great event. How many years have any of us dreamed of a real life dungeon crawl like that. Kudos to mike for getting the tickets. Kudos for whoever discovered the event.

+ The Ripley Quote, Priceless. "Ease back Ripley, Thou art only grinding upon metal. Thou hast broken thine transaxle." Or something to that effect. Gotta love JP in his element.

+ Carrie, my sister. Dancing? Yeah... All of you... Assholes! But funny assholes.

sidenote: KublaCon this next May 28-31? Johnny and I are interested. Takers? For those of you who are not Elrock, Ja-eL, or I: KublaCon was very fun last year. Mo Betta than Strategicon.

OhshitnowImbooooored!
Note

From SJGames: "Remember that Roman 20-sided die? It was auctioned on Dec. 11, and according to the Christie's website, it went for $17,925."

We need to make and market replicas of this fine die. A small (VERY small) fortune is waiting for us there.
Sheesh, what a jerk

I just realized that I never thanked you guys formally for a rootin', tootin', good tyme bachelor party! Thank you all! I had a blast! So, thank you, Jon in particular (I think he was the organization guy?), for the night of fun.

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

Yarr?

I'm going to run a short (2-4 session) 50 Fathoms campaign for me, Eric, n' Denis' group. Mike and Rudy, if you guys want to join in the fun you're more than welcome... I'm not 100% sure when we'll start it. Sunday, possibly? If not, then probably the following weekend.

I've got plenty of stuff to run, actually. That Deadlands adventure I converted for GenCon, and also a pretty cool pulp-style adventure. Either of these would be good for one-shots.

Unfortunately, I don't have too much free time on Saturday. Maybe enough time for an early 3rd Planet run or something. I don't know what Sunday is like yet.

Starting Monday, I will have tons o' free time as Panasonic is closed from the 22nd-4th. If people have free time during the week, I would love, love, love to do some gaming.

By the way, I noticed that the Firefly box set is out. I really liked this show. I don't recommend buying a $60 box set without knowing if you like the show or not, but for those of you with Netflix or something, I'd definitely recommend checking it out.

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

ohshitnowhesmaaadd!!

5100 is a lot of people. That is a lot of gamers to be in one place. Understandably we are somewhat jaded in our views of what a GenCon should be since we have sexperienced Milwaukee. Of course it sounds like Indy eclipsed even the amounts of people in Milwaukee, but still, I think it was impressive when we were there. That being said, I think that GenConSoCal should be classified as a success. 5100 is still a nice number, and my thinking is that Peter Atkinson is a competent businesman and probably would not have sunk his new GenCon, LLC venture into the ground by funding a crappy, unsuccessful convention. I'm sure the numbers will grow over the years as word gets out, the only major hurdle is that attendees are still in school at the time of the con and thursday and friday attendance will be weak.

Thoughts and fave memories:

- I think the con was very CCG oriented. The main room was for the CCG tournaments, and there were a lot of card dealers throughout the hall. I don't know if this was representative of the current gaming climate or what, but not having GW there to represent the miniatures for the kids, and almost NO historical wargames, the CCG took over.

- Strange to be missing WizKids and Games Workshop from the dealer room.

- WTF were the guys selling computer parts doing there? Do you think ANYONE bought a MOBO while there were at GenCon?

- True Dungeon ruled. So many great things about it to mention. It was definately a top 3 highlight of the weekend, and my idea of what could be done with it in the future is exciting. I'm glad we did it, kudos to Mike for getting the tickets! It's one of those, "man, why didn't we do this before?" type things, you know?

- Eric's Best Purchase of the Con: Either the True Dungeon Tokens or the ClawGame stuffed Christmas ornament (though I didn't actually even use my own quarters for the clawgame!)

- Eric's Worst Purchase of the Con: Nothing! I love the few things I bought! Maybe the 7-11 coffee the first night.

- Eric's Greastest Missed Opportunity of the Con: Either not going to the Masks of Nyarlathotep seminar on saturday, or NOT buying the amazing Master Maze opportunity (their entire display consisting of roughly 700-900 dollars worth of goods) for 500, though with some bargain skill and my high charisma, maybe een 450.

- Strangest Con Moment: Twighlight Imperium @ 3am in and empty convention hall.

Anyone up for some Call of Cthulhu this weekend? I am home alone!


5100

Apparently, 5100 people made it to GenCon.

Oh shit, people are coming and I'm at work!

Monday, December 15, 2003

I was saying "boo-jon"

I have to make a big public apology to Rudy... sorry I forgot to email you man... I thought your cell number was the same as before and we had no Internet this weekend. :( Anyway, I figured you either had or could get Eric's cell if you really wanted to come by but still, I feel like a total flake. Sorry man!