Nolympics

I saw the other day the cover of the papers read that the Olympic pooh bahs “warn” Canada to put more money into sports/athletics. I have a better front page: Toren warns Canada to put more money into health care, public transportation and environmental programs.

Blood and free stuff

So I have a family reunion this Saturday afternoon. Anyone feel like spending the day with me and my wacky family? Mom says: “White Rock, Legion Camp Ground, 16327 Beach Road, Surrey, and it is just before the border, turn off just before Peach Arch Park. If you can come with a couple of friends, who can drive you, that would be great, there is more than enough food, so a couple of friends would be no problem. Saturday, Sept 4, 1 pm until whenever. Dinner is a roast beef by Uncle Harry this time, plus probably fresh corn from Chilliwack, all kinds of side dishes and goodies.”

Also this looks exciting:

Announcing the Fun and Fancy Free Store, September 6th, Grandview Park 11am-6pm. as part of the PlayBour Day/Fun For Free day organised by MOMpops (Momentum Magazine pop-up parties) (http://www.momentummagazine.com/mompop.html) in association with The Work Less Party (http://www.worklessparty.org/), with support from PedalPlay (http://www.pedalpower.org/)

WHAT: A free store: like a garage sale with the lowest prices you’ve ever seen — everything is for free!
WHERE: Grandview Park, Commercial Drive @ Charles St., Vancouver.
WHEN: Monday, September 6th, 2004 (Labour Day), 11am-6pm, rain or shine!
WHY: Because we all have a lot to share!

The Fun and Fancy Free Store is currently accepting donations! If you have new or good-quality used goods or items that are collecting too much dust, consider giving them away at the one-day free store! All items need to
get to the event between 10:00am and 2:00pm the day-of, of their own accord, unless prior arrangements are made with the organisers. You may also arrange to pick up any un-given goods of yours at the end of the event, along with your very own thank you card! Leftover items will be donated to charities that do pick-ups. Please no junk-dumping (you know what I mean!) and no resellers. Volunteers and donors welcome the day-of to ‘person’ the store checkout, chat, and have a generally good time while enjoying the other MOMpops activities and entertainment.

If you are thinking of donating items, please let us know ahead of time and give us an idea of what you might be bringing: We would like to be able to set up enough table and ground space to accommodate everyone.

** We are still looking to borrow tarps and rope (to hang from trees as cover in the event of rain). Also, if you have a good idea for renting / borrowing a few tables and/or ground sheets (for the store items), please let us know ASAP. **

Contact: Rhiannon Coppin via email acoppin@sfu.ca or phone (604) 255-9225.

PS – Please forward this email to potentially-interested groups and people!

Con-Genital

I just spent the entire weekend running a gaming con. It was fun but I’m very drained. I’ll have stories to tell, but later. Thanks Stewie for buying me Chinese food for dinner to put that spring back in my step.

More travel stories

I got on the #99 at Commercial heading back to my place and the bus driver opened all of the doors and at least two thirds of the people at the bus stop went in without paying or showing their bus passes. It seemed like it was routine – what gives?

O!

I was walking across “the” street today, and almost got to the other side when at 1:00 I saw a car turning right, towards me. I was about 10′ from the sidewalk, in the intersection. It wasn’t going particularly fast, this car, but it wasn’t slowing down to avoid hitting me. So, what did I do when I realized that I might be in danger? I stopped walking, and at practically the same time this woman -she was an older woman possibly in her late 40’s, fair-skinned but maybe hebraic or mediterranean – hit her brakes. I looked at her as she stopped suddenly and she had the telltale O-shaped mouth and I’m sure if her windows were open I would have heard a good, solid “Ohhhhhh!” when she realized she was about to hit me. And then I continued walking down to Prompt Printers where I photocopied the program booklet for H.P. Lovecraft Birthday Party

Yupdate

I went to the PNE today and watched the Superdogs – twice! And had a taro popsicle.

Knitting in the Buff program for tonight included:
Reboot: “Enzo the Smart”
Eps 4 and 5 of Buffy, second season
Extreme Ghostbusters: “True Face of a Monster”
Charlie’s Angels 2: Full Throttle

I’d post more, but I’m working right now.
RIGHT

NOW.

It's getting colder out – and I'm happy

I feel bad about missing the video game movie party, but my date went late and by 8:30 I didn’t feel like taking transit (nor did I want to spend the two bucks after eating out all day) – we walked back from downtown over the bridge. Some interesting things happened on that bridge – there was a pile of AA batteries, two of which I grabbed and they seem to work fine. Also, there was a paper bag full of pears, and once we passed that we found intermittent half eaten pears on the sidewalk, three in total over a distance of about a quarter of the bridge length, which we proceeded to kick off onto the tops of buildings on Granville Island. The splats were very satisfying.

Andria and I met at the library in the early afternoon and then we circuitously walked down to Canada Place and the cruise ships. We discussed the many different ways we could sneak on to the ship for a free cruise. One of the ships had guys with coveralls with logos on them, but the other ship’s stewards just had flourescent vests and hats that looked like they came from Value Village. That seemed to be our in. While we were watching the guest go through their lifejacket drill, somebody started waving to us. It was Angie’s (Chris [Woods’] wife) mom. That was a weird coincidence. We had a short hollering conversation in which I found out she’s on a 1 week cruise to Alaska. Then she told me I should call Chris and Angie. I don’t know though…it might be a trap.

Now I’m going to use that bus money I saved to do some laundry. Wish me luck.

My character's a girl

I have a friend who doesn’t allow cross-gender roleplaying in the groups he runs. I’m not sure why.

But, here’s an interesting article on the subject: http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/play18aug04.html

I personally have played a few different female characters. In one D&D campaign I used to play Ursula Umbragia–a mother who sold her soul to a demon to save her son, and in another I played a barbarian who I modelled after Bjork and whose name was Mjath. I made up a couple of superheroines that I never actually got to play – a black cop, mother of two, who moonlighted as The Black Lantern, and a pair of shopaholic yuppie teenage twins who were also cyborgs. I’ve never played a female in Call of Cthulhu, but I have known guys who have, and gals who have played male characters. I don’t have much experience outside of those genres/systems, so that’s that. I quite enjoyed playing Umbragia because she was on this tortured quest to find some way to break the deal with Anarazel and get her soul back, as her son had since grown to maturity and abandoned her because of the demonic stigma (ingrate!). The others I didn’t invest much time or energy in, but I think I would have had a lot of fun with, like, the twins, totally.