Those aren't birds, doll…they're giant vampire bats!

Friday night I went over to James and we watched Capturing the Friedmans which was pretty disturbing but good. I slept over and had some Moose Tracks ice cream with Reese peanut butter uh…you know that stuff you pour over ice cream and it hardens and is delicious. Moose Tracks was vanilla with fudge and little tiny peanut butter cups in it. That was tasty and bad for me. James & Marlo went to bed earlier than me so I stayed up watching Abbott & Costello and The People’s Court. I want to watch more A&C.

Yesterday I went to the Luminares parade of lanterns thing-a-ma-jigger with Yvonne and Janet & Brian (the “&” signifies that Janet and Brian are “together” in “that” way, whereas the “and” just signifies that we were part of the same group). We met up with Satomi and Andrea & Brian (see?) and wandered around seeing lots and lots and lots of people, and fireworks, and people playing with fire, and my favourite part – bats. Bats are cool. They fly around like they’re drunk with their echolocation picking off moths and whatnot in midair. The scientific name for bats are chiroptera, which in and of itself is cool, and the ones I saw were probably hoary bats, cuz they were pretty big (for a North American bat) and they roost in trees and feed in open fields. Possibly could have been the aptly named big brown bat.

At one point yesterday I only had 21 megs on my hard drive, so I had to uninstall the old school D&D game that I’ve been playing on and off since I got back from vacation. Now back up to 200+ megs.

There is so much going on today! I’ve got a game of World Wildlife Federation of Justice at 4:30 and I was invited to go to a lake in Hope with Ursula and Anghold has her sci-fi movie night tonight, and Sam is having his hard-boiled detective movie marathon today. Too much stuff, really, because I can only do 1 of them (after WWFJ). I don’t even know what’s going to happen after the game. I don’t even know, do you hear me?

I Excursed – part 2

I got my pound of candy (licorice of course) in the mail while I was away. I got it in trade for a gmail account.

While I was away I did a lot of writing. I worked on the girly D&D campaign a lot. For a recap, the storyline is basically thus:

-PC’s (Player Character’s) wizard mentor has a prophetic dream of the apocalypse.
-Mentor sends PCs into woods to find old oracle/ranger friend to see confirm omen reliability
-While on quest group is underground in grimlock caves (grimlocks are the D&D version of morlocks)
-PCs come above ground to find the land has been afflicted by an aurora that causes blindness. During this aurora invaders from another dimension have taken over major cities and the cleric’s god has been killed.
-Home town has been evacuated, mentor and townsfolk migrated to bigger city through mountains, PCs follow trail.
-In mountains PCs meet old wizard who scries (scrying is looking through a crystal ball, basically) to find out much of what’s going on. He explains how Demon Lord of Undead (Orcus) and his new bride (Queen from alien dimension) are working on conquering the realm. This info ties in with mentor’s omen.
-Wizard (“The Hyrkanian”) sends them on mission to safeguard evil Queen’s little sister so she can return to her home dimension and possibly undo some damage.

That’s pretty much where we are now. Over the week I’ve been working on backstory and come up with some pretty interesting things for the near and far future. I would say that we’re about 2/5 of the way through the campaign, and that the group is slightly higher level than I anticipated they would be, even though I’ve been pretty stingy with the XP to hold them back to be in line with the advancement of the scenarios. Considering I’ve never DM’d a really long campaign where I had to plot out at what level the group would have to be to coincide with a given “module’s” recommended level several adventures ahead (this campaign is mostly a group of pre-published adventures that I’m stringing together with one common thread), it’s working out not too badly. No major hiccups.

I have also been working on a script for a tangentially Lovecraftian short film. I’m not ready to divulge any more info on that at this time though.

Amusing Email of the week…

This was to Bob, our bassist. Note the misspelling of ‘Cthulhu.’

Dear Mr. Fugger,
let me quickly introduce myself: My name is Constantin Gillies and I’m a
German journalist/author. I’m currently working on a book about Star
Wars-fans called “Die Macht mit uns” (The Force with us).
I’d like to use one of your photos in the book: The backside of the album
“Chthulu Strikes Back” by a band called “The Darkest of the Hillside
Thickets” (a painting by Chris Woods). According to my information you took
the picture. Is it possible to license it?
I am looking forward to your answer.
Best regards
Constantin Gillies

Sorcerer of Light

I got an email from a fellow at CBC radio who wanted to ask me some questions about D&D for a feature they may run on the 30th anniversary of the game. I may be out of town when and if they do an interview so they may just get David from Imperial Hobbies instead. Too bad, that could be fun. But we had a good long conversation on the phone about the game. We decided it’s really hard to try to explain it to someone who knew nothing about it, but we settled on a blend between a board game and a play. At least I pointed him to the Deadale Wives humourous mp3’s.

Ladies: “if you have any suggestions about female players (not necessarily the ones who play with you) I’d be interested in finding one as a possible balance for a male guest (don’t know the format yet).” Marlo? Tamara? Kate? Michelle? Kelly? Now’s your chance to be famous(ly linked to nerds).

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

Pick your favourite fear:

Asymmetrical things- Asymmetriphobia
Things to the left side of the body- Levophobia
Bowel movements: painful- Defecaloesiophobia
Bridges or of crossing them- Gephyrophobia
Bullets- Ballistophobia
Burglars, or being harmed by wicked persons- Scelerophobia
Chinese or Chinese culture- Sinophobia
Color yellow- Xanthophobia
Cooking- Mageirocophobia
Criticized severely, or beaten by rod or instrument of punishment- Rhabdophobia
Defeat- Kakorrhaphiophobia
Deformed people or bearing a deformed child- Teratophobia
Dining or dinner conversations- Deipnophobia
Dirty, being dirty or personal filth- Automysophobia
Englishness- Anglophobia
Erect penis- Medorthophobia
Everything- Panophobia, Panphobia, Pamphobia, or Pantophobia
Flutes- Aulophobia
France or French culture- Francophobia, Gallophobia or Galiphobia
Friday the 13th- Paraskavedekatriaphobia
God or gods- Zeusophobia
Greek or Greek culture- Hellophobia
Handwriting- Graphophobia
Kissing- Philemaphobia or Philematophobia
Knowledge- Gnosiophobia or Epistemophobia (stop reading if you’ve got this)
Mice- Musophobia, Murophobia or Suriphobia
Mirrors or seeing oneself in a mirror- Eisoptrophobia
Names or hearing a certain name- Onomatophobia
Needles- Aichmophobia or Belonephobia (Marlo?)
Objects, small- Tapinophobia
Ocean or sea- Thalassophobia
Opinions- Allodoxaphobia
Otters- Lutraphobia
Peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth- Arachibutyrophobia
Puppets- Pupaphobia
Railroads or train travel- Siderodromophobia
Relatives- Syngenesophobia
School, going to school- Didaskaleinophobia
Sharks- Selachophobia
Single: staying single- Anuptaphobia
Slime- Blennophobia or Myxophobia
Snow- Chionophobia
Stairways- Bathmophobia
Standing upright- Basistasiphobia or Basostasophobia
Step-mother- Novercaphobia
Tyrants- Tyrannophobia
Undressing in front of someone- Dishabillophobia
Ventriloquist’s dummy- Automatonophobia
Waits, long- Macrophobia
Wealth- Plutophobia
Wet dreams- Oneirogmophobia
Words, long- Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia or Sesquipedalophobia.

Leaky Heaven Circus

Satomi, Yvonne and I went to the Leaky Heaven Circus yesterday and it was really fun and wunderbar. I recommend you look into it and catch it while it’s still going. It goes to Sunday I think. http://www.leakyheaven.com
I went to their website and on the front page was the poster but it was cut up and rearranged so rather than try to figure it out I just clicked on the image and looked for an address inside the site. I found Leaky Heaven Performance Society 600 Campell Ave but it turns out that was wrong so we spent some time trying to find a poster or make calls to get the proper info. We found postcards in a community center that had the real address – 1500 block of Williams St – and when we got there it was sold out, but there was a waiting list that one could be added to, so we had our names added even though she said “it’s not looking too good.” We waited for a while and then they called out 6 more people on the waiting list, then another 6, then another 3 and so on and so on until finally we got in. So, despite my rushed research the day before, we got to see a fantastic circus, complete with madcap monkey shines, rockillicking revelry and haughty high jinks. I donated some extra money after the show was over.

We played D&D tonight and then Anghold and I went over to Ursula’s to play poker. Somehow I ended up with everyone’s money at the end of the night (even though everyone’s money was Ursula’s, and I didn’t get to keep it). I made some bold dealer plays – whatever the term is when the dealer calls what’s wild and how many rounds of how many cards are dealt – but most of my overtures were brutally frowned upon.

eBay at the moon

I just had an annoying eBay encounter. One of the things on my “favourite” searches is the Predator soundtrack. You can fix your settings so that every day you get emails containing new listings for your favourites. I got an email telling me about a listing of a rare Predator promo cd that had all of the songs that are on the regular Predator sountrack (which is a very limited edition CD that usually goes for $60 US or more – which obviously I can’t afford or justify). Usually when there’s a new listing I just bid my max ($20) and I am grossly outbid almost immediately – which I expect. So I did likewise on this listing but a split second after I bid I realized there was a “BUY IT NOW” price of $20, which means I shouldn’t have bid – I should have just hit the BUY IT NOW button and ended the auction. So I emailed the seller telling them I had made a mistake and I would like to “Buy it Now” and then figured out how to retract my bid. So I retracted my bed, and then hit the BUY IT NOW button. Then I Paypalled the guy $26.50 (I had earlier emailed him about how much postage would be and $6.50 was the response). This was yesterday or the day before, and I just got an email that says:

Sorry, but it looks like someone else already beat you to bidding on the item. I show that ebay user llwilloughby won the auction thru Buy It Now and he already sent me a Paypal payment. I only have one CD so I can’t sell it to you. I’ll refund your money immediately. Once again, I’m sorry.

Which I can’t figure out since it took me all of 5 minutes to go from being the first bidder to retracting my bid to hitting the Buy It Now button. I guess god hates me. Or he wants me to save my money. Either way, DAMN YOU GOD!!!!

Also, sellers of Nausicaa DVDs who live in the Vancouver area but won’t let you come and pick up the disc to save $5 on shipping deserve a little kick in the bum.

Don't forget – tomorrow is Knitting in the Buff

I had some errands to do today and it looked overcast out so I dressed slightly warmer than usual. And then when I got to the end of the block I turned around and changed into something cooler. I walked down to Divine Industries our record company where I gave them my only copy of Great Old Ones so that we can reissue the album. Allen was on the phone so I chatted with Laura about Scrabble but then it was back on my feet to go to the Comicshop where I dropped off posters and tickets for H.P. Lovecraft’s Birthday Party. I didn’t plan on buying anything while I was there but I couldn’t resist a few of the open D&D miniatures they had (lemure, ettercap, grick – all monsters all the time), and some discounted DUNGEON magazines (cheap and useful!). I talked with Ryan and Jeremy who work there about the con and this and that – some young kid there was saying that I might not have a steady paycheck from my artwork but at least I’ll have valuable art to hand down to my children. Valuable, valuable words to live by.

From there I walked down to Drexoll Games where I dropped off more tix/posters and while I was there I exchanged the dice that Ursula gave me for my birthday. She saw me ogling dice when we were at the 24-hour game-a-thon and so she got them for me, but she got me the set of 12 six-siders instead of the full nerd set (d4,d6,d8,d10,d12,d20). I was going to keep the d6’s because they could come in handy, but this morning I decided that I had enough d6’s for my needs – but not enough d20’s, so off I went. Ziggy was there so at first I wasn’t sure if he had the authority for exchanges (since I didn’t have the receipt) but it was no problem. The problem arose when I went to find the set I wanted (dark marble royal blue with gold numbers) and I saw the green dark marble and then a kind of neat plasma green that were also very appealing to my artistic sensibilities. There was a girl there talking with Ziggy so I asked her which ones she liked best. She picked the dark green. Then I showed them to Ziggy and he chose the plasma green. My original jones had been for the royal blue so I was back where I started. I decided that I better roll for it! Ziggy got out a d6 and I decided 1-2 = dark green, 3-4=plasma, 5-6= blue. I rolled a 6 so we made the exchange and I was $1.50 up on the deal to boot.

TO BOOT!!!!

Then I walked over to Jolly’s Bistro and I had a veggie roti. The food there is really tasty but about 10% too expensive. I suggest you try it though (it’s just west of the Naam). Marlo and I are on no junk-food diets right now (pretty much since we saw Supersize Me!, although for me it had more to do with the fact that I had a buddy, not because I saw the movie. It’s been something I’ve been thinking about for a couple months now. The problem (if you can call it that) is that Kelly is a chocolatier and she always brings over decadent treats that are delicious-cubed. I think the hardest thing to do will be to give up chocolate, in fact I don’t think I’m going to do that. I’m just going to cut down. Nixing the chips & pop won’t be much of a problem – nuts/raisins and juice make good alternatives. There’s no alternative to chocolate though.

Now I’m off to draw undead squid for charity….

World Wildlife Federation of Justice.

We had a couple new superheroes to the home WWFJ campaign today – Otter Destruct (super strength and invulnerability) and Drako (Duck with draconic powers) joined Go-Rilla, Bushido Dragon and the Invisible Fink. They saved the lives of several animaloids in a burning building, part of a rash of arson that has been plaguing New Metro City of late. The Invisible Fink arrived late (he heard about it on the news while everyone was on the scene moments after the fire started (by two firebombs in the building, as it turns out). A hippo that Otter D saved told her that he had information about the arsonist, and that he’d meet her at the waterfront subway station at midnight with more info. The heroes arrived (most undercover) later that night to meet with him. The hippo took them across the street into a construction site where he introduced them to his “boss” – a shadowy horse wearing a hood. The horse said “Superheroics are all well and good, but I’m prepared to offer you something more substantial for your abilities” and he cracks open a couple briefcases filled with money. Go-Rilla asks “and if we refuse?” The dark horse snaps his fingers and out of the shadows come Tarmadillo and Rhinosferatu. That’s where we paused for the day.