Wow! Happy birthdays to baronlaw , gaaneden and cherikasshoku ! I cannot say enough times that I am lucky to know all of you.

Best wishes for the coming year- may all of you have wonderful things happen to you!

I remember Alex's brilliance. The hilarious stories about his life he would share. His courage and wit and all the other things that make him Alex. And remembering them, writing about him, the numbness that I had earlier breaks, and the tears come.

Later there will be time for helping, or for giving toasts, or for whatever can be done. But tonight, there's just memories. Remembering and grieving and missing Alex.

Wishing you the best birthday today, and many many more.  May this coming year see new hope and opportunities for you!  Because you deserve good things, dang it!

Managed to get britgeekgrrl and dancingshaman pretty much moved over to the new place this weekend- a weekend pretty well spent.Yesterday I mostly recovered from exhaustion, while reminding myself that if I hadn't let myself get so out of shape, it wouldn't be so bad. 

But the important thing is we got them moved.  And so, a pic:

Happy birthday, fairegoddess and pirateseneschal!  To both of you, I wish many happy returns, and best wishes for your upcoming year!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY therobbergirl!!!!!


Knowing you is a gift in itself, so I wish you a wonderful birthday, and happy year!

A toast to devonapple, one of most deserving of a toast persons around. Have a wonderful birthday, go tag the moose or some other non sequitur activity!

Many Happy Returns palecur !  You're in our thoughts, and you have all our wishes and hopes today. 

So, for the massive numbers of you who have expressed interest, here's the two places showing Coreline:

AMC Cupertino Square 16

AMC Mercado 20
3111 Mission College Blvd., Santa Clara, CA - (888) 262-4386

7:05  9:40pm  12:10am


I'm inclined to go for the AMC Cupertino, because even though it's off Wolf and not the 101, the hours are better, and its likely to be less crowded.  The theater also got a good review, too.

Also, what do people want to see?  the regular version or the 3-D version?

This Friday it's opening, and I've heard some really great buzz on it.  So, this Friday evening I'm planning to go see it.  Is anybody interested in coming with?

here's wishing you many happy reruns of the things you like a lot!

Following my 6.1 hike up Stevens Creek/Coyote Ridge trail with deirdremoon</lj> , I got dinner, went home, developed the shakes and fever, had a bath, drank tons of liquids, and crawled into bed.  Today, I'm not to bad.  My knees and hips are OK, suprising given how they were complaining last night, and I'm mainly dealing with some muscle aches and pains...like my chest.  I guess I'm not used to panting that much.

It was a beautiful hike though: I got to see deer, and birds, and some really beautiful misty scenery.  I got to chat with deirdremoon while hiking about everything and nothing, which is something I just don't get to do as often as I'd like.

I also got to see just how hard I can push myself when I need to;  I have a long way to go before I'm as fit as I want to be, but I did do better than I thought I would, and I did finish the hike.  And being able to continue when my body is telling me that I absolutely have to stop is a feeling I had almost forgotten.

It's a good thing to remember. 

I feel like a homeowner, who looks out the window to find his garden is covered in squirrels. Dozens upon dozens of squirrels. Dozens of cute, fuzzy, perky, bushy tailed squirrels, dancing, chttering in chorus, running around in rings, balancing on the end of the bean poles, and juggling nuts between them.

The question is not so much "What should I do", as "Why?"

Happy birthday, obsessivewoman !  I want to take this chance to say again how wondeful it is to know you and have you as a friend.  

May your day be filled with good tidings, cheer, and very large fluffy cats!

So, over the last weekend I:

1) Played a guest hero in the final game of a year-long superhero campaign...that ran Friday night and nearly oall of Saturday. I had a Green lantern Analog, and even if I didn't have that much to do I had a lot of fun. Part of it was the game, and a lot of it was the company.  More on that later.

2) Sunday I got up way, way, WAY too early to go up into the mountains to go shootin' with racerxmachina</lj>as part of her belated birthday present. It started out cool and foggy- almost too cool, but the mountains were beautiful, and eventually the fog cleared away, and it became just a perfect day to be out shooting targets.

• We got instructions, and though I was very, very cautious, my major fear did not materialize: I did not drop a gun, I did not shoot anyone in the foot, nor did I forget and accidentally point at anyone anything that shouldn't be pointed at anyone.
• Of the three pistols we had (.22 auto target, .357 magnum, .45 automatic) the .22 was best for target shooting, with low recoil and a long barrel. The .357 was almost as good, and had the advantage of easier to see bullet holes. The .45 had a lot of kick to it, and I tended to not be accurate.
• I tend to overcompensate my aim for the anticipated recoil- have to work on that. it wasn't so bad on the short range targets, but the 40 meter plinking range ment I only got one good hit in, with the .357 of all things. That Nestle's Quick bottle will never menace the earth again!
• The targets were silhouettes, and after some deliberation, I decided not to take any home to pin on my annoying downstairs neighbor's front door, or put behind my desk at the office.
• My lovely sweet dear racerxmachina</lj>allowed afterward that some time we could get some guns if we take shooting up as a hobby, most likely either a .22 or M-1 rifle, and some light pistols.
• She STILL won't let me buy a crossbow. And that's just injustice. She pointed out the reduced ineffectiveness of crossbows vs. zombies; I should have pointed out theri increased usefulness against vampires.

By the way, the people at the range were really cool and nice- it figures that the people there wouldn't be jerks about guns. there was a lot of checking out of each others guns, including a beautiful genuine W.W.I Mauser. And in spite of the "no instruction" rule, I got some good hints on firing stance and aim from a range master who turned out to be a really interesting SCA guy.


And then I went home, and collapsed and slept for four hours. Then watched anime to unwind. What a weekend.

It's odd, way back during the last years living in Goleta, when our local social group had contracted to about half a dozen friends, I just would be this exhausted come Monday.  Actually having friends and an active social life is tiring.

Let's see...Friday we went for dinner, cake, and movie (Hellboy:three thumbs up), with palecur and anam_moon; managed to get into bed by 2:30, and woke up on Saturday just in tim to go hiking with deirdremoonand loopyone.  Even though i'm woefully out of shape, it was still great fun; it was interesting how hot it would get on the sunny portions of trail...enough so that shaded sections, or sections of rock with breezes were greatly appreciated.
*  Note to self: pack much more water next time- go pick up a proper wineskin, not new-fangled propel bottles!
*  Note to self: much, much more exercise.  I should not need encouraging shouts from passing fratboys!
After that, it was dinner in oakland with devonapple, and Batman (verdict: excellent, grim, depressing) 

Sunday was another trip up to Oakland, so racerxmachinacould learn metalworking with ren_wench, while I prowled Berkley, and bought a couple game supplements I've been needing.  Then a drive back down the bay to visit the Bunko...Bunraku...Onsen...OBON!  That's right, I went with sandpantherto the Mountain View Obon festival at the local Buddhist temple.  With lots of things to eat, games to play, and swarms of happy families (including a lot of young folk in colorful kimonos).  I happily ate teriyaki beef yakitori, and the Japanese specialty dishes of corn on the cob and strawberry shortcake.  And then a trip back to Oakland to pick up racerxmachina. 

I'm exhausted.  But it's nice to look at the list of people up there and realize that this one weekend had us playing with more friends than we hung out with in the years before we left Goleta.  I wonder how we survived back then, and I know I wouldn't trade this exhaustion for lonely peace and quiet for the world.
 

I just want to take this time to say that I really appreciate having you as a friend. I'd also include an old Irish toast, but I always manage to make them sound like threats or insults.

In any case, I hope you have many, many more happy birthdays!

So, I'm going to try it again; I'm going to run another one-shot game, because lord knows, I need the practice.  As for the game I'm planning to run...its going to be set in the present day.  And if it turns out well, I'll do more episodes of it.


Are you more than a little unusual?  Did you inherit your mother's Magical Girl outfit?  Do ghosts bother you with annoying requests?  Do objects mysteriously stop levitating when you're around?  Have you ever possessed a demon?  

Have you done things that no one can see, seen things that no one can do?

If so, we might have the job for you.

SHADOW COPS!  Now in Spooky Purple!

Humanity at large is unaware that the creatures of myth and legend exist, coexisting along side them in the shadows.  There's a good reason for this: studies have shown people would react negatively to the knowledge that vampires, faeries, and magic are "out there.  Thus there is an uneasy peace based largely on concealing the existence of the magical world: the supernaturals leave humanity alone, and in turn, humanity politely refrains from mass hysteria and breaking out the torches and rake-thingies. 

The people charged with defending the peace, enforcing the treaties and solving crimes between monsters and humanity are the Shadow Cops.  They may have strange abilities, be supernaturals themselves, or are just plain odd.  Their Mission: To Serve, Protect, and Conceal.


The game will (hopefully) be humorous or at least light-hearted, with a satirical bent.  Influences include the World of Darkness seen through a funhouse mirror, Buffy, Ghostbusters, Supernatural, Kolchak, tons of supernatural anime, and whatever other popular references anyone brings up.  The system will be Risus, a simple, free game available here.    Character creation should take at most 15 minutes.  I will be supplying a dinner meal, and some wine and beer.  And coffe.  And sugar.  Maybe even pixie sticks. 

More information, later.

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want -- good or bad. When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.