Moths are just werebutterflies.

So I would be willing to argue that one aspect of true happiness is the following:

Forgetting that you had leftover mini doughnuts from last night's dinner as leftovers in your lunchbox, discovering them, reheating them perfectly in the microwave, and eating them in the breakroom with the free piping hot chocolate milk from the machine in the corner.

It has been a good time of late. I went to Seattle for Mike and Diana's wedding, which was absolutely wonderful. Seattle was gorgeous, the wedding was beautiful and true to their characters, the reception was a blast and involved walking in the river in my party dress, and the after-reception-party back at the house was filled with random slightly tipsy discussions of movies, literature of all varieties, and gaming tidbits with an outright excellent group of people.

After that, it was back into working, which has been building up to this weekend, when all the freshmen move in. I really do like my job, and I am very lucky to say that, I know. I'm beginning to personalize my office - so if anyone has suggestions for good pretty pictures I should print out to stick on the walls, email me them! It needs a personality besides "generic office 24". I mean, it's got my name on the door now! It needs to start looking that way!

Also, in what seems to be a recurring theme for WTB, I took my jeep in for service today and discovered it (surprise, surprise) needs lots of things fixed on it. So it's off being fixed this weekend, which means that I get to bike to work til Tuesday. And since I get overtime on Sunday and don't have Monday off... that means that I get to bike 10 miles a day for a bit. We'll see how well this goes. At least it's downhill in the morning, which means I will arrive at work still smelling nice, and when I'm all sweaty and gross from the ride home I can just hop in the shower and it'll be fixed.

I get to start gaming again soon too - Nathan's putting together a D&D campaign. It's been three months since I've gamed in general and well over a year since I've done any form of D&D, much less fourth ed, so we'll see how it goes. I'm really looking forward to it, though - we've already got quotes from our character creation session. That's how you can tell it's going to be a good game.

Though I came to the realization the other day that while I have owned my own gaming books since my 16th birthday, and thus for over eight years, I have been actively gaming with groups since my sophomore year of college, which means I've been gaming for almost five years. It's been a blast - I am so glad I've gotten into this over the years.

I also realized, as a corrallary to that whole "I'm getting old" thing, that this is going to be the first school year since 1989 where I am not preparing for classes in September. And man, if THAT isn't a weird feeling...

-Beth

this is made of lame.

I've been sick since Tuesday. My sinuses are fucked.

I found out today that I don't have a fever, but the reason that my equilibrium is shot is because I've got a sinus infection.

I went to the doctor today and they told me to stay the fuck off my feet for the next couple of days.

w00t. I mean, yay for time off, but really? now I get to miss out on all the neat shit happening this weekend. (like 1337 at le klub tonight... the one night they have a geek party...)

the doc said that I CAN work saturday night, but not before that.

sooooooo.... I'm gonna be lying here on my couch, bored out of my mind, prolly writing and watching freaks and geeks, and not smoking. not smoking.

get that? not smoking. (I may kill some people.)


the last time I left my house was for my alcohol training class. even if i get nothing else done this week, i got my class 12.

I had a bizarre experience Monday Night, I'll tell you more about it later. It's a combination of hilarious ridiculousness and Jon, with drunk military guys, punk rock girls and a stalker.

jm

I don't often update to my LJ, but every so often something important changes in my life and I like to let people know about it :)

I'll be quitting my career as a freelance artist as of 18th September, and returning to the computer games industry. I've had some great times (and difficult times) over the last five and half years, and gotten to work on lots of interesting projects - Magic the Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, World of Warcraft CcG and many others. I've learned an awful lot about about drawing and painting too :-)

Trouble was I had next to no life outside of what I did. It was getting too difficult to work for american dollars, roleplay/card games companies *and* live within London prices. The other big issue was I've never really gotten the time to work on my own projects, like SLA Industries and ... well, other concepts I'm not going to talk about yet ;-)

My new job will hopefully allow me the time to explore other ventures and pay the rent without a blind panic every month. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll still be able to work on SLA, but I'll need to look over my new contract and see what the rules are outside office hours.

Dave

Looking at the future of Angus it occurs to me that I need to buy a really good new laptop loaded with all the programs I need so I can still keep on top of things whilst I am away from home.

Must check that out at Christmas if I have any spare money.

29th August FRI - Oxford
30th August SAT - Oxford (Wedding AM); Reading (GenCon PM)
31st August SUN - Reading (GenCon AM/PM)
6th September SAT - London (Cubicle 7 Staff Meeting)
13th September SAT - Reading (Colours 2008)
14th September SUN - Reading (Colours 2008)
17th September WED to 24th September - Belgrade, Serbia
27th September SAT - Milton Keynes (Concrete Cow)
28th September SUN - Diary of Dreams, London
4th October SAT - Tring, Hertfordshire (Gamefest 3)
12th October SUN - Rotersand, London
19th October SUN - Gameforce, London
22nd October WED to 25th October SAT - Essen, Germany (SPIELE 08)
1st November SAT to 2nd November SUN - Manchester (GAME 08)
7th November FRI to 10th November MON - Christchurch, Dorset (IndieCon)
16th November SUN - Gameforce, London
29th November SAT - Dragonmeet 2008, London

2009 Schedule is already starting to fill up too and has a lot more conventions in it than this year. I think I'm going to have to rope some of the rest of Cubicle 7 into running stands at some of them as otherwise I'm never going to be home or getting anything done.

Swiss Exonerate Europe's Last Executed Witch



Anna Goeldi, a maid in the small alpine region of Glarus, was beheaded in 1782
for being a witch after she confessed under torture to conversing with the devil
and poisoning the daughter of the house.

Goeldi was a maidservant in the house of prominent burgher Johann Jakob Tschudi.

Tschudi, a doctor and magistrate, and a prominent married politician at the time,
was alleged to have had a love affair with Goeldi. Tschudi then denounced her for
witchcraft claiming she made his daughter spit pins and suffer convulsions.

She insisted on her innocence but confessed after being strung up by her thumbs
with stones tied to her feet.

Should his adultery have been made public, his reputation would have been seriously damaged.

The case was brought to light through a book by local journalist Walter Hauser, who
claimed Goeldi's employer had used his influence to convict her after she threatened
to make their relationship public.

But her name could now be cleared following a decision yesterday by local lawmakers
to recommend a reversal of the conviction.

Campaigners claim she was the victim of a conspiracy between the eastern town's
judical and Protestant church authorities.

After months of debate and consultation with the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches
the regional government formally acknowledged "that the verdict handed down came from a
nonlegal trial and that Anna Goeldi was the victim of "judicial murder".

The trial and beheading in the village of Mollis was carried out at a time when witch trials
had disappeared from most places in Europe.

The Protestant Church council, which conducted the trial, had no legal authority and
had decided in advance that the woman was guilty, the government said.

She was executed even though the law at the time did not impose the death penalty for
nonlethal poisoning, it added.

Goeldi's torture and execution was even more incomprehensible as it happened in the
Age of Enlightenment when "those who made the judgment regarded themselves as educated people,"
the government said in a statement.

"In spite of that they tortured an innocent person and had her executed, although it was known to them
that the alleged crime was neither doable nor possible and that there was no legal basis for their verdict."

But it noted the exoneration should not give the impression that today's generation
assumes the responsibility for the history of the ancient villagers.

Several thousand people, mainly women, were executed for witchcraft between the 14th and 18th centuries
in Switzerland, as they were elsewhere.

The Glarus government said it will contribute 120,000 Swiss francs ($110,000) to a planned theatre production
on Goeldi as "additional sign" to the rehabilitation.

A museum dedicated to the "witch" was opened in Mollis in September on the 225th anniversary of her death.

"Rehabilitation is to be more than simple confirmation of innocence," the statement said.
"It has to set aside an incomprehensible, unjust state act and acknowledge a crass injustice and seriously false verdict."

The ruling will be referred to the Swiss Parliament for final approval.



(the Anna Goeldi Museum in Mollis, Switzerland)

 

That's right, we're off in about 5 week's time to down under :-)

Have some cool new personal records:

Ran 6.2 mph for 40 minutes at a 6% incline and sprinted at the end 4.15 miles.

Ran 2 miles in 13 minutes and 42 seconds - no incline.

Fast walk (4.0 mph) at 9.5% incline for 40 minutes sprint at the end 2.71 miles.

Run 5.17 miles in 40 minutes (no incline) started at 7.5 mph (8 minute miles) and began increasing the speed every few minutes at 28 minutes.

I have been including some upper-body work. For bench-pressing I was attempting reasonable weight and increasing it 5 lbs when I am able to do 3 sets of 20 in a row.
Due to being in a bit of a rush and being curious, I tried heavy weights (stopping at 12 reps in a set) last week and found out I can bench press a bit more than I weigh - that was really a surprise, when I was working out in college I could not bench my own weight.

This made me laugh...

Plummer: "My Sex Injury Made Shatner A Star" (IMBD.com; Monday 25th August 2008)

Guess that taught Christopher Plummer not to have one night stands :p

Who is going to GenCon UK next week?

I was originally going to give it a complete miss but I'm now contemplating going their after the wedding on Saturday afternoon and possibly booking a rioom over night and going home on Sunday. I have to pass through Reading on my way back from Oxford anyway so could just hop off the train and then get a ticket for the Reading-London leg the next day.

I have a few people that I'd really like to catch up (business and socially) who are there so it would kind of make sense for me to pop by. Plus Cubicle 7, although we don't have a trade presence this year, are running a variety of demo games over the weekend so it'd be good for me to catch up with Roger and the demo crew and say thanks and hi.

Haven't 100% decided as yet but the possibility is now on the cards.

So, who amongst you will be there?

People I know having babies. Does this startle anyone else out there?

I got many of these from people's journals or e-mail but I forget where most of them came from.

• A periodic table with videos about each element.
• Recipe for Crumpets that I need to make at some point soon.
• Seen this before but it's a good reminder: Treaty with Tripoli Anyone says that we're founded as a Christian Nation, point them to Article 11.
• Why film schools teach screenwriters not to pass the Bechdel test
• List of Company Name Etymologies from Wikipedia
• Very disturbing cake photo.
• A collection of Perfectly Timed Photos
• Possibly one of the best here: Internet Leme Timeline

Watch it!  It's campy, but well worth it.  Trust me.

Thanks to s0b for bringing this cover to my attention.

It's the unlikely match up of Scooter (yes, the dance band) covering The Sisters of Mercy's "Marian"...

The lovely guys at Steve Jackson Games, and most notably shooting partner Paul Chapman, have made two mentions of Cubicle 7 and/or our products in todays Daily Illuminator AND Steve Marsh is writing up his experience of one of the GenCon Doctor Who Demo's for inclusion in their Pyramid Magazine :)

What We Saw (Daily Illuminator 24th August; Steve Jackson Games)

Plus Critical Hits wrote a nice piece about us a couple of days ago... Preview: Doctor Who RPG and Starblazer Adventures RPG from Cubicle 7 Entertainment - complete with some pictures of our booth at GenCon!

AND ICv2 carried a little interview by me last Tuesday (Cubicle 7 Plans "Doctor Who RPG"; ICv2.com; Tuesday 19th Augsut 2008)

Andy, Chris and myself did a number of interviews and podcasts over the four days of GenCon so keep an eye out for other news snippets appearing around the web for us :)

Right, back to work for me!

It's Friday night and I'm laying in a hammock in amoungst many trees at Mo's parents house in Poulsbo. I like sleepinh outside; get to here all the outside-y sounds. Will need to find out what the major road going through nearby is.
Off to sleep now.

The good news is that I finally found my watch this morning after it's been MIA since my return from the States last Tuesday.

The bad news is that I still can't find my sunglasses. This is doubly bad as the same case included the clip-on shades for my regular glasses too, not even thinking about the fact they cost me over £300 due to the joys of my eyesight!

I'm not sure where they are. I thought I'd packed them for the US trip but couldn't find them anywhere whilst I was there and presumed/hoped I'd left them at home by accident. But alas I still can't find them! I'll have to do a major saerch this weekend as I really don;t want to have o fork out for anotehr pair - especially as I somehow seem to have chipped the corner of my regular glasses lens whilst I was away - nothing major and I don't notice it whilst I'm wearing them, but there is a definite chip on the left hand side of my left lens now :(

I also still can not locate my Gym Pass. This has £59/10 sessions of credit still on it. As I've decided to really kick in the 'get fit/loose weight' routine over the next few months this is an added irritant. If I haven;t found it by next Friday I'm just going to go and buy a new one as I have Friday off (due to heading to Oxford for Dave and Marysa's wedding on Saturday morning, so I'm leaving on Friday late afternoon) and quite fancied taking the opportunity to go swimming and for a full workout before I go.

I've also decided to cut down (note - cut down; not give up) on the amount of 'eating out' I do. Home cooking and making sandwiches for work is back on the agenda. Not least due to the health considerations but also the silly amount of money that seems to be spent on take aways.

Anyway, I'm working today and looking forward to a whole two days off IN A ROW! Although saying that I have a ton of Cubicle 7 work to catch up on during those days including processing all the orders we've received in the last ten days plus going through the list of people who brought Victoriana and Starblazer from us at GenCon and sending them complimentary PDFs.

my grandmother has asked for family photos. i need to get some taken but i hate having my photo taken i am always so unhappy wit them and they cost sooo much. plus leif is so small and wiggly that i dont think he would sit though a shoot. any body know a good photographer that works cheep?

Young Women parade naked in front of their window and get mad when people look in

Unbelievable.

This article illustrates the culture of entitlement my generation suffers from. Favorite line: "[we're not provocateurs because] we wear boy shorts, the least sexy underwear in the world."

...

They're apparently now disappointed with the world and the justice system because now they have to close their blinds or put their clothes on.