The rarely-used and often-imitated LJ of Himself

I am astonished to realize that as of today, I have been married for a full year to a beautiful, wonderful, kind and loving woman who supports me in my every endeavor, through good times and bad. Her mere presence in my life truly inspires me to better myself. And I am a better man for having known and loved her.

Upon the evening of the 3rd of May, my lovely bride and I will be arriving at Ontario airport in sunny southern California. We intend to attend the Renaissance Faire on Sunday, and then spend the remainder of the week taking care of a few crucial errands (like visiting the fabric district and emptying my storage locker... finally) and visiting with as many friends as we can. The reason for the visit is my sister's wedding on Saturday, May 10th. We must, sadly, fly home that night (very late that night). But this leaves us the early half of the week largely free of obligations.

If this is the first you've heard of this, and you live in the area, I apologize for the late notice. Unfortunately, my organizer lost battery power some time ago and I lost untold amounts of contact information for more friends, family and others than I can count.

So, please, contact me if you can (or post a comment here), preferably with a phone number, and I'll get in touch with you as soon as I can. I hope to see all of our friends from Cali while we're in town.

I logged in! I added 2 (Count 'em! 2!) friends!!

Woohoo!!!

OMG!!!

I just about wet myself when we found this. Enjoy!

http://askaninja.com/

Question 16: How to Kill a Ninja was hillarious.

OK. Here's the 5 minute update.

We're in Atlanta, GA at Silverstah's parent's place. Having a really nice visit. She's now an aunt (for the second time). Turkey day was nice. Food was plentiful. We saw Harry Potter tonight. It was excellent. Siverstah's father let me drive his Mustang today. That was fun, and a bit of a surprise.

Have been working hard. Had a disease break out in one of my higher profile accounts (lost 3 VERY expensive fish). Panera's been INSANE this month. Glad that November is almost over. Even gladder that I'm not working this weekend. Is that a word? Gladder? How about happier? Chipper even. No, giddy. I'm giddy that I don't have to work this weekend. *sigh* I've got to get rid of that job...

On the plus side, Aquatic Creations has informed me that I'm now officially full time. That means I get Health and Dental! WOOHOO!!! I'll be turning in the forms this week.

Silverstah and I will be coming out to California this December. We arrive on the 16th, and leave on the 26th. And with 10 days, we already have WAY too much planned. But it should be a lot of fun, though. We're really looking forward to seeing everyone out there!

If anyone's interested in my futon or a fish tank while I'm there, let me know.

And, yes, you heard it here first. I got an email from someone named Amy in Admissions (not that that name will mean anything to anyone). I've been accepted to UNC Pembroke's Business School! I will be starting classes via the internet this January.

Aikido's been going very well. They tell me I'm now the senior student (which means that I'm the only person attending regularly that doesn't have black around his waist). So that's been a big, but pretty cool, change. Yay responsibilities!

Lost most of my interst in Wizkids' Pirates! game. Still fun, but I've been playing a lot of Warmachine (which is kind of like Warhammer 40K, but with lots fewer figures that cost a lot less money and somewhat simpler rules). But it's still expensive. At least I can borrow minis to play with. The best moment so far happened last Monday when I was finishing up the longest game ever that I was expecting to lose at any moment. The guy who's been teaching me to play had just said that I was dead. At that point, it was impossible for me to win. The next turn, I did. That was really satisfying.

I think that's about it for now. Hope everyone is doing well and I will hopefully see you soon.

Later,
Me

There was much charring of the flesh... and it was good.

So I was at faire with my sweetie and friends in Georgia. I'm sitting talking with one of the Wenches and the subject of how long we've been doing the Faire thing came up. I did a couple of quick mental calculations... double checked the numbers... then was both proud and dismayed to realize that I've been involved in Renn Faire (mostly as a paid performer) for SIXTEEN YEARS!

Looking back, my feelings on the matter are best described by: "Looking around the Faire and realizing that most of my friends had quit or moved on to other faires. I would catch myself replying to eager, fresh-faced young newbies, 'This is nothing. You should have seen it years ago, before REC took over....' I've become Old Faire Folk! You know; the older faire workers who've been around for at least a decade and have all the really cool stories about stuff that you used to be able to do, and knew all the cool people you hear stories about like they're legends or something. The ones who just look quietly bemused at you when you say you wish you could live at the faire year 'round. Where'd all my friends go?! And who put this torch in my hand?!"

Man! It's been a heck of a month and it's only been 2 weeks.

It started with getting an email saying that I'd been invited to join someone's friends list on Amazon. Upon checking it out, I figured out that it's an old friend of mine from many, many years ago. I sent her an email through Amazon to see if it was who I thought it was: "M". As it turns out, it was.

M had been told 3 years ago that I had been killed in a car accident and had been searching for me ever since, trying to find out if it was true or not. Due to the source of the information, it was suspect. And as chance would have it, that person was the only one she was in contact with that knew how to get in touch with me.

Not a week later, I received news that a very dear friend of mine had passed away. David Gotcher, known as Mychael Wordsmith on the Renn Faire Circuit, and as Mykie-Dave to his friends, was a gifted storyteller and poet. He was a great influence on me, both as a storyteller and as a man... and he was my friend. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him.

Mykie-Dave's passing and news that a friend had thought me dead have both had strong and related, all be they different, impacts on me. Dave wasn't much older than me. I had not been too concerned about the fact that we hadn't talked much in the last year or two because I KNEW he would be around and we would have plenty of time to catch up. I was wrong.

When M told me she had been told I was dead and couldn't find me, it made me reconcider the faith I've had in my friends (and in myself) and our ability to track one another down if we wished. How many others have I been close to over the years and drifted away from as our lives took different paths? How many of them have actively sought me and had no luck? How many think I may be dead? How many are dead and I never heard?

Maybe I'm being melodramatic (it wouldn't be the first time), but I've decided that when I do finally die, I don't want to look back at my life, at the things that really matter, and say: "Man! I really wish I'd just done this or that when I had the chance. I wish I hadn't wasted the time I had."

OK. So, I avoided Magic the Gathering. Never even played it. The Tombstone card game seemed fun, but not enough to actually start buying cards. Tried the Star Trek card game and didn't really get into it. Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon... please! Sad, sad marketing programs disguised as cartoons.

I actually got a couple of packs of Mage Knight, by WizKids, because I was too poor to dump the money for Warhammer or Game Workshop's LOTR games (which are pretty fun). But I never got really into it and dropped it after a while.

Just a couple of years ago I was shopping for DBA figures (that's De Bellis Antiquitatis, a miniatures-based strategy game, for the uninitiated) and I said to myself, "Hey. What I'd really like to play is a miniatures based 1700-1800's-ish warship battle game. Yeah, that'd be cool!" I should've known better than to say something like that out loud. Someone was bound to be listening and make money off it before me.

So, just last year, WizKids comes out with Pirates of the Spanish Main. Little pirate ships you punch out of credit card plastic, assemble and play with. Brilliant!! Only $4 a pack (which includes at least 2 ships, or, in Pirates of the Crimson Coast [same game] possibly a ship and a fort, crew member(s), complete rules, treasure and stuff). That's a great price for a nifty little game.

IT'S CRACK I TELL YOU!!! DON'T DO IT!!! It's too late for me. Save yourselves! I have no idea how many ships I own now. Pick up a pack here. Another in a couple days. Two or three on Monday on Pirates night at the game store.... I shudder to think about how many packs I've purchased. I only don't figure it out so that I won't be depressed about how much money I've spent on what is ostensibly a beer and peanuts game.

Ok, who's surprised by this?

Cyclops Congratulations! You scored 77!

You're the leader! You've got the average life of an X-man. A steady (ish) girlfriend, quite a good bod, great superpowers, and arch enemy (the anarchic girl stealing Logan) and a mentor to keep you sane (Xavier). You're a good fighter and not afraid to give up your life for a worthy cause.Maybe you should try not to be so bossy, though.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 40% on xmenpoints

Link: The Which X-man are YOU Test written by hippies_rule on Ok Cupid

And I think this test may be a little flawed. That or it's more insightfull than I want to admit.





You are a four-sided die, a d4. Otherwise known as a tetrahedron, a "Caltrop", or (to a lesser degree) "Ol' Pointy". This crap bores you, so I'll get to the point. Others tend to see you as petty, conniving, manipulative, argumentative, defensive, greedy, and needlessly antagonistic. You see yourself as focused, effective, efficient, influencing, shrewd, tactical, and direct. Both points of view are in fact correct. You always know the best way to get things done, a fact that never wins sympathy with others. Whenever you manage to gain control of a situation, your solutions are swift and brutal. Unfortunately everyone else is convinced that granting you such power is "a bad thing" and often conspire to keep it out of your hands. Such short-sighted fools!

Take the quiz at dicepool.com