Well for those following along at home ;)

Yes I havent posted in a (Looooong) while but what the heck.

Carolyn and I can't really go out on New Years, what with the kids and all. So we decided to throw open our doors and have an Open House for New Years.

So New Years eve you're more than welcome to stop by and say Hi! For a few min or for the whole evening. Yes there will be wobbly-pop's consumed, though with kids the overall rowdiness will be kept to a reasonable level.

Come and celebrate with us! New Baby, just bought a New House, I've had one (and soon to be both) of my eyes lazered so no more glasses! Its going to be an exciting new year and we would love to see you all!

If you need directions/address just let us know!

As a reminder we live over in Bowness!

Also on New Years day we are going to also have an open house - come hang watch movies, play poker and/or board games and etc.

BYOB and Pizza may be ordered and split if people are interested.

Well facebook came along... So I've been hanging out there - but its not really a bloging place.

I added steampunk fashion to my friends list = no reading my friends list.

So I removed it from my friends list and wow - my friends have lives ;)

I'll try and post more here I think.

Whats new? Not much...

Still under crushing amounts of debt that hinder any kind of social out that involves even the slightest amount of money. (You know your in trouble when you argue if you can afford a $5 bag of socks...)

Yes the debt monster has been caged, lured to a single den, but it requires appeasments and consumes 95% of all our suplus or it will break free and rampage across our landscape.

It hurts having to pay this much rent and not have any equity to show for it. I REALLY want to get a place, but finding one we can afford is an issue.

anyways hopefuly other topics will be more intresting in the near future...

:) - awesome!

I even got a check in the mail yesterday! For one of the articles I wrote - another should be quick on its heals.

Linky to my article:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mi/20071004b

Yay me!

TEDTalks are always intresting, educational and even a little bit humorous at times. Here a canadian speaks about her hip replacement. A little gem from the ted talks (only 6min).

From Felica Pach:

Light Saber Battle Postponed.

Due to our inability to secure a city permit in time, the lightsaber battle will have to be postponed, most likely until spring 2008. Sorry about the mix up, but olympic plaza was already booked and a new booking would take us about 6 weeks, and by then it would be just a little too cold for a battle. We were also unable to secure a permit for anywhere else as there was no other suitable venue that was available on such short notice as well as within our price range.

If you have any questions, concerns or comments please don't hesitate to contact either Felicia Pach, Bonnie Critcley or Jon Best."

Darn it, I was looking forward to this too :(

I decided recently that I really enjoy Steampunk costuming and I wanted to get into it.

I also at the time said to myself. 2 Months - thats enough time to get ready for halloween.

Sadly halloween is about 5 weeks away and I doubt I can get anything togeather in time. Time and money being the two limiting factors.

However I still really want to get something togeather soon!

FallCon 20: My first FallCon Experience

I’ve been aware of FallCon for a number of years now. I’ve always wanted to go but never really made an effort before. I did stop by once to drop off flyers for Con-Version. This year I had a blast. I ran into a lot of people I know, through stores or Con-Version, or other general gaming.

Friday:

I went via transit directly after work. I got there in plenty of time. I brought a few of my own games with me, as I had open gaming Friday night.

I showed up at the door and was given a pair of d6’s (a pair of dice) with the falcon logo for the 1. Very cool! I had pre-registered over the internet and just had to pay to pick up my badge. Signing up was very easy from the website!

The badges were cool. They had your name, what year this was for you at FallCon (1st, 2nd, 3rd… etc). They also listed the events you were signed up for or just open gaming. I’m sure that was a big help for the moderators.

I played Carcassonne, which I never played before, with a nice group of people (players total). I came in middle of the road for final score (well one guy had ~150 points the rest of us were about 100 points).

Afterwards I played WizWar and Lunch Money (both games I brought with me) with Jane (a friend from Con-Version) and one of her sons Iain. Jane’s other son Erik was playing in the 12 man Titan tournament and won (yay!).

I also wandered around a bit and looked into some games. Jane was very nice and gave me a ride home.

Saturday:

I was signed up for the RoboRally tournament at 9am. Jane was nice enough to pick me up and drive me there (thank you again!). I did pretty much as I expected – middle of the road. I had only played it once before. There were 12 seats at the table and 11 people played. 12 people I think is a little too busy. I suppose it’s a good format for the tournament and it was a well designed board, the house rules for 12 players worked well. I think I may have enjoyed a smaller game better, but I still had fun. I helped out a bit with the game keeping track of time (you have 2 min to lay your cards down) and helped a little keep on track (calling out the phases). That gave the moderator (Ian) a bit of a break. He came by and thanked me for my help and gave me a FallCon leather dice cup! That was really nice and I appreciated it. I was ready to be done an hour before the game was over, and we ended up all agreeing to call the game at noon instead of 12:30. This gave us a longer lunch.

At lunch I started up a game of Merchant of Venus (my game). By the time I had worked out the rules and we had played 3-4 turns, lunch was over.

I had open gaming for the afternoon session, so I tried to start up a game of Republic of Rome (my game) but there wasn’t enough interest. I started up another game of Merchant of Venus, and we played for most of the afternoon session – I had forgotten what an interesting game it was. We wrapped up a bit early so we could get out of the way of the setup for the auction. My friend George showed up just before the auction. I convinced him to come out and play Decent: Journeys into the Dark.

Between the afternoon and evening sessions they had an auction. They auctioned off over 500 boardgames and accessories in two hours. That is a massive amount for so short a time! The auction format was very simple. They name the boardgame and the reserve bid (usually a $1), then hold it up. The bidders all raise their cards. The auctioneer starts counting up price from there until there is only one bidder left. Simple and effective.
I picked up a few boardgames.
- Master Labyrinth – the German version: I’ve wanted this game for quiet some time now I think this is one I will teach and play with my kids. I just need to find the English version of the rules – should be easy on the internet.
- Raj: a very simple game of Cards and tiles – has a poker like feel. Its very fun. I was shown this game at Con-Version by the FallCon guys. I’ve been talking about it to my friends ever sense. Brent showed it to me but when I had asked him on Friday about it, he hadn’t brought it. I was very happy to pick it up!
- Lord of the Rings: Return of the king board game. Nobody else bid on it so I got it for the reserve price. Its un-punched (all the counters still in baggies) and pretty much in mint condition.

George picked up the D&D boardgame of the Haunted Tower(?) and the second-to-last board game HeroQuest. An old classic.

The auction ran right till 8pm so the final game I had signed up for, Decent: Journeys into the Dark, didn’t start till 8pm. It was a fun game, half way between D&D and HeroQuest in complexity and difficulty. We ran till midnight when we called it game. Brent ran our table and he was great, although a bit worn out after auctioneering for two hours.

Afterwards I got a ride home from Susanne (sp?) from Lethbridge. She was in my RoboRally game in the morning and I really appreciate her giving me a ride!

Sunday there was more gaming, however I had my D&D group playing on Sunday so I did that instead.

Final Thoughts:

This was my first FallCon and my first Gaming Convention that I went to. I had a blast and plan on going again next year!

Do I live under a rock? WTF?!? Why have I not heard about this before? My god - I'm very supprised I'm not in it!
My gods a metric ton of my friends are in it!



Ok People I know that I see ON MY LJ FRIENDS LIST or otherwise:
drakkenfyre, jet morrison, drhaggis, ash_xavier, & Thought Admiral Qel Iv epetai Sat'Ir, IS, KAD, MK (aka Paul C).

Crap I gotta see this!

More here:
http://www.pegwarmers.tv/

EDIT:
Showing at the Calgary Film Festival

http://www.calgaryfilm.com/schedule.php?fd=931
Showtime
Monday, Sep. 24, 9:15 pm
Uptown- Downstairs

I am planning on going to FallCon this weekend.

I have signed up for the RoboRally game Sat morning and Decent Sat evening.

I'm looking forward to attending a convention as an attendee!

I hope to see some of you there!

FallCon Gaming Convention - September 21 - 23 , 2007

Calgary Marlborough Community Association Hall
636 Marlborough Way NE, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

An Amish boy and his father were visiting a nearby mall. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny silver walls that moved apart and back together again by themselves.

The lad asked, "What is this, father?"

The father, having never seen an elevator, responded, "I have no idea what it is."

While the boy and his father were watching wide-eyed, an old lady in a wheelchair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched as small circles lit up above the walls.

The walls opened up again and a beautiful twenty-four-year-old woman stepped out.

The father looked at his son anxiously and said, "Go get your mother."

I've mentioned this movie before, but I've found it on google video - I dont know how long this video will remain up, but it is a great "documentry" shot a couple of years after the assination of George W Bush in Oct 2007.

http://wickedthought.livejournal.com/680568.html

Well done youtube video! I dont like zombie movies but damn this was well done - fan film.

Went to the IFWA meeting last night. I had a good time, got to see lots of people I know. I like the mechnisims of the meeting - looking forward to going again. I hope to have more of my story preped for next time.

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/09/06/additives-lancet.html

Certain common artificial food colourings and additives are fuelling hyperactivity in children, a British study has found.

The study in The Lancet medical journal, released late Wednesday, confirms a link long suspected by many parents between hyperactivity and food preservatives.

For the study, researchers at Southampton University studied 153 three-year-olds and 144 eight- to nine-year-olds, giving them fruit drinks with various levels of additives.

They found that children without a history of any hyperactive disorder showed varying degrees of hyperactivity after consuming the drinks.

Some became more boisterous, impulsive and had difficulty concentrating.

While some children in the test groups showed little or no response, the results were still significant enough for Britain's Food Standards Agency to issue a warning several hours after the study's release urging parents of hyperactive children to avoid foods with multiple additives.

Among the additives studied were:

E211, sodium benzoate, a preservative used to extend shelf-life of food and drinks.
E102, tartrazine, a yellow food dye used in ice cream, soft drinks and fish sticks.
E104, quinoline yellow, a yellow dye used in soft drinks, cosmetics and medications.
E110, sunset yellow, a dye used in yogurts and sweets.
E122, carmoisine, a coal tar derivative used in sweets and yogurts.
E129, allura red, a dye used in pop drinks and bubble gum.
According to Health Canada's website, all but one of the additives, carmoisine, are permitted for use in Canada.

The British government's Food Standards Agency stopped short of calling for a ban on the additives, although other countries have banned some of them.

Norway, for example, has banned all of the additives while the U.S. has banned quinoline and carmoisine.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mi/20070906b

yay!

Its the long weekend - anybody possibly intrested in coming to my house for a game of republic of rome at some point?

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1513

The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.
- Paul Fix

IFWA – Imaginative Fiction Writers Association

A local group of writers here in town. They put on the “Phantom of the Space Opera” at con this year.

Anyways I went out last night and helped film the show – we had about a ½ dozen cameras. It was just as good and as funny as before. Took about 2 hrs when it was all said and done, not including travel time.

Anyways because I’ve been doing writing I’ve been thinking about joining the group – we’ll see. I’m going to go and check out a meeting next Thursday.