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Yest-o-day I helped Shawn, Mariko & Loki move from Main street to Burnaby. That was all well and good, but afterwards my left leg and right arm hurt a bit. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay for a free Chinese food dinner, as I had to go home to prepare for visitors. Marlo, Eng, Rob, Chirs, Lin, Adrian, Anghold and of course Mr. Chris and I watched the extended edition of Two Towers and ate many different flavours of potato chips, pop, cookies, bridge mix, crackers & cheese, and oranges. Fun for the whole family.

I am designing a new campaign for Marlo, Anghold, Michelle & friends. Hopefully things will work out to everyone’s satisfaction, as I know Michelle & co are still under a campaign run by Kathryn, who is a busy beaver (and often an out-of-town beaver). I have some grand schemes, and this campaign will take some of my best ideas from the past 10 years of running D&D. Running a campaign is really difficult these days, because it’s hard to get a regular group together on a weekly basis. This is why for our current group, I mainly run short adventures that last 1-4 sessions so that I don’t have to rely on 1 “set” group of characters to be on hand constantly and consistently.

Ultimately, for this new campaign, however, if I can get 2 or 3 people as the main core players, all the rest can drop in and out as their schedule permits, and we can still have a coherent, long-term storyline play out. That is my goal. Anghold has expressed interest in being a cleric, and Marlo an non-spellcasting elf. This will be my first time diverging from published scenarios in third edition D&D. Hopefully I don’t kill everyone off needlessly.

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Such a Party Pauper

Last night I went to a party. Rob, a friend of Stewie (who I will now refer to as Mr. Chris), works at an advertising agency called Rethink. They did the PlayLand ads, you may recall. When Mr. Chris asked me along I was unsure, but in line with my relatively recent philosophy of “getting out more” I acceded. When we arrived there was a strange rigamarole with different colour nametags and “upgrading” from grey to other colours, and “Schmooze ‘n Win” contests and whatnot – none of which I was the least bit interested in. The issue was clouded even more since I couldn’t understand what the host was trying to say through his tremendous accent/speech impediment (I don’t mean to be cruel but I actually couldn’t tell which he had, if not both). After being told once, and asking for clarification twice, I gave up and just followed Mr. Chris’ lead. As it turns out, upgrading to different colour name tags allowed you access to special shooters, and the prize for the schmooze contest – whereby you had to find out a bunch of stuff from people at the party to fill out the form – was a night at the Opus Hotel. Once I knew what the payoffs were for the rigamarole I was suddenly still not interested. It was one of those parties where the music is so loud you can’t hear what the people you’re trying to chat with are saying. They even turned it up halfway through the party when they caught on that too many people were having interesting conversations and actually getting to know one another. But at times I did get to chat with Rob and Edna and Chirs and Linn and some guy who apparently knew me as a coworker from Duthies. The free food was amazing, and, being a starving artist, was really the selling point of the party for me, having been eating ramen and tomato soup for the past week. I wanted to pull a Dan Aykroyd in the Santa Suit from Trading Places, it was so good. I wish I was there right now.

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Doubleyoo tee eff

Lately, children have been named after big brands as diverse as beauty company L’Oreal, car firm Chevrolet and designer clothes company Armani. There are even two little boys, one in Michigan and one in Texas, called ESPN after the sports channel. Car models are a popular source of inspiration; 22 girls are registered as having the name Infiniti while 55 boys answer to Chevy and five girls to Celica. …more

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Who else is annoyed that the TV listings channel (channel 2) goes up to channel 157? Who has that cable package? I would think that the people who get channel 157 would have their OWN tv listings channel. Is there some kind of system where I can subscribe only to certain channels? Because all I want is Teletoon, YTV, the Knowledge Network, UPN, Fox, Spike (sheesh), TLC, Discovery, Space, and maybe Showcase, Bravo and The Comedy Network. What’s the special deal for only a dozen channels?

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Titbits:

The Bush Administration, worried about the political cost of the Iraq war and increasingly plagued by comparisons with Vietnam, decided to speed up its “Iraqification” plan by transferring sovereignty to a provisional native government
by June 30. President Bush said that he believes the Iraqis “have the capacity to run their own country.” Four soldiers just back from Iraq were charged with stabbing another soldier to death, setting his body on fire, and leaving it in the woods. General John Abizaid, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, said that it was “beyond my imagination” that Saddam Hussein had planned for a guerrilla war prior to the fall of Baghdad. It was noticed that more U.S. soldiers have died so far in Iraq than in the first three years of the Vietnam War. Thailand said that it will give amnesty to more than one million illegal foreign workers who perform dirty, dangerous jobs that Thais would rather not do. American Roman Catholic bishops embarked on a new campaign against contraception. “The Church teaches us a lot of things we don’t practice,” said Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver. “But it’s the constant of the Roman Catholic Church that contraception is wrong, sinful, and contrary to the meaning of married life.” The Food and Drug Administration approved a new chewable contraceptive for women. Newly declassified files from MI5, the British intelligence agency, revealed that in 1940 German saboteurs had planned to attack Buckingham Palace with exploding cans of French peas. American scientists at the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives created an artificial bacteria-eating virus in 14 days using synthetic genes. parts of Los Angeles were covered in a foot of hail. Biologists were trying to exterminate nonnative frogs that have invaded the Galapagos Islands.

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My week:

Tuesday – catching up on artwork and writing
Wednesday – Playing D&D and catching up on writing
Thursday – catching up on writing and artwork and playing Call of Cthulhu
Friday – unknown at this time. Probably writing and art.
Saturday – help Shawn move!

No swimming this week. I cry.

On ebay I won a copy of Dark Crystal on VHS. Paid about a dollar more than I would like. It’s okay, because I sold a copy of Necronomicon Files on ebay this week too. So I’m ahead by 7 bucks.

One of these days I’ll write up my VHS vs DVD tally. Maybe I’ll start right now.

Myths

DVDs have a better picture quality than VHS. – Not always true. A lot of the time when I am watching Buffy or some other film, you’ll get what I believe is called ‘artefacting’ and it’s kind of annoying.

DVDs Last Forever. They say that with each viewing, VHS tape deteriorates, while DVD will last for generations. This, again, is not necessarily so. I have VHS tapes that I’ve had for years and they still play fine, whereas DVDs can get scratched and often that’s that: one scratch and your movie is hooped.

PRO DVD/CON VHS
1. Some DVDs have audio commentaries & other bonus features you wouldn’t find on a VHS tape.
2. Chapter Links. I put this as a pro, but for some DVDs, it’s actually a con.
3. Zoom functions. This is pretty neat.
4. DVDs take up less space.
5. DVDs are instantly rewound.

PRO VHS/CON DVD
1. If you don’t like what’s on a VHS, you can tape over it.
2. VHS is much cheaper than DVD, especially on ebay.
3. There is no standardization issues with VHS like there are with DVDs. Sometimes DVDs simply won’t work in our DVD players (take for example Terminator 2). The more fancy the functions they program into DVDs, the more likely it will crap out while you’re watching.
4. Some DVDs won’t let you fast forward through the trailers and the FBI warnings.
5. If a VHS breaks, you can fix it yourself. If a DVD stops working, there’s not much you can do.
6. Many DVDs have menus that are confusing, take forever to get to, and are generally annoying.

And on a personal note: I don’t like Easter Eggs. I didn’t pay for a DVD to have to spend my valuable time hunting for all of the features. I would like an easy, simple to use menu, preferably with all the options on 1 menu page.

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QUIZ

So you’re an American soldier in Iraq. You’re in a tank, and you see a wall with a mural of Saddam Hussein on it. Do you:

a) Leave it be.
b) Shoot the wall with your big tank gun.
c) Paint a new mural over it.
d) Ram the wall with your tank.

Well if you’re Some Guy I Saw On The News Last Night. You chose (d), of all things, and not only that, but most of your body was outside of the tank itself, so when the wall toppled on you, you became paralyzed. Sir, that really sucks for you, but you’re dumb.

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Oh yeah, and I got an email yesterday confirming shipment of the Two Towers extended DVD set, so…movie night soon.

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Last night Yvonne and I went to see some Francey animation shorts at the Pacific Cinematheque. The block we saw was “taking flight” – not my first choice but I was very pleased, as it turned out. There was only one incredibly dreary short. We got to the theater quite early, and we bought our tickets. The guy selling the tickets told us we could go into the theater and watch the remainder of the last show, but as we strolled over to do so, the lady at the concession turned us away. I was MORTIFIED. Disheartened and disconcerted, we walked around town for a bit and then returned when the time was right – or so we thought. We walked into the theater (loudly, of course) during a question and answer period with a bunch of…well, authorities I guess, and many people were giving us the evil eye. And I spilled my hot chocolate. And I dropped one of my Wunderbar pumpkin candies -which had nothing to do with pumpkins except that the wrapper had jack o’ lanterns on them, and in fact looked more like a dinosaur egg – which rolled down the theater floor several rows in front of us. We drew the audience’s headbacks (that is to say, the back of their heads – there should be a single word for that. After all, you don’t call it the front of your head, you call it your face. Perhaps anti-face or reverse-face will do?). The films were good, especially The Monk & the Fish but I have all my usual problems with the PC: painful seats as you well know, plus….$3.00 for a small hot chocolate that tasted like coffee. Regardless, I recommend you go and see them while you can – they’re only here for a few days. And while you’re at it take me with you. There are five different blocks.

So that was pretty much the night except then I hanged out at Yvonne’s for a bit, yakked it up and snooped around, and then walked from home (from Alma and Point Grey Road – took about an hour I would say) at midnightish.

And HOLY SMOKES I got a Deeeeeeeeeeeluxe scrabble board that I am going to break in tonight! Thank you Mike & Bev!

Meanwhile, Not far away…..
We’re trying to sell the Thicket tour van, just in case anyone is interested:

1982 GMC Vandura (black)
Fully loaded
350 cubic inch engine
setup to haul trailer
air conditioning, cruise control, power everything
engine recently rebuilt (within last 3 years)
$3500
604-845-0646 (Chilliwack)

Free stuff in Vancouver:
ENTERPRISE 30″ almond gas stv, everything wrks, incl clock, broken dr hinge. Vancouver Tel: 604-736-4977

HOTPOINT dw, gd wrkg cond. West Vancouver Tel: 604-921-9700

KENMORE stv, 30″Wx36″H, wht. North Vancouver Tel: 604-929-7798

LARGE old, light brown, solid wooden desk, w wht laminate top, 3 drwrs ea side, 32″Hx60″Wx34″D. New Westminster Tel: 604-526-5509

MOTOROLA TV record player, radio, in lge cab. Burnaby Tel: 604-299-8799

PULL-OUT sofa, matt 3 yrs old, ugly orange but gd cond. Vancouver Tel: 604-916-4843

QUEEN sz boxspring, matt & frame, Beautyrest, gd cond, w some bedding. Burnaby Tel: 604-421-7948

SHELF 1.3m x 1m W x 23cm D, dk stain; (2) Ikea kitch chrs, birch veneer. Vancouver Tel: 604-224-9214

TRADITIONAL style chfld, gold & wht patt, clean cond, you PU. Vancouver Tel: 604-263-9945

WHIRLPOOL dw, wrks. Surrey Tel: 604-583-4425

Would anyone with a vehicle be willing to help me pick up a couch, should it come up?