thessalian: (Default)
I know I've done this one recently, but I'll do it again in honour of new LJ friend [livejournal.com profile] fan_dancer.

+ Open your playlist and click "shuffle."
+ Choose the first 20 songs.
+ Write your favorite line of each song and have your friends guess what it is.
+ Don't Google the lyrics. You actually have to know the songs.

In case you really don't care )
thessalian: (confident)
First of all, welcome [livejournal.com profile] tolshak to livejournal in general and my friends list in particular. Yet another one of my old friends gets bored and decides, "Hey, I'll have a LJ". Hope he actually updates from time to time; what with his schedule and mine not quite meshing as far as IM is concerned, I'll never find out what he's up to otherwise. So hooray for [livejournal.com profile] tolshak. Missed you like whoa, mate.

Meanwhile, back on my side of the Pond, it's a grey and muggy Sunday morning. And we're meeting the rest of the gang in an hour and a half. First a pub lunch, and then we play Mage. [livejournal.com profile] weaselbitch has reported that she's got into "Silent Hill Mode" too, so the meme spreads ever further. And, after [livejournal.com profile] nadriel has faced the wrath of Clue for still being behind on his write-ups after two weeks, we'll start off on Mage, where all sorts of neat stuff is about to happen.

Let the horror begin. Muahahaha.

Serenity

Mar. 4th, 2005 08:34 pm
thessalian: (Default)
There's an exhibition at the British Library at the moment called "The Writer's Garden" or something similar. I went in early this afternoon and had a look. It's very quiet in there, and talks about gardens and their place in literature. There's a whole little room about the garden in children's books, and bits about Capability Brown stuff, and all sorts. But the best part is that it was incredibly quiet except for the ambient birdsong they were playing through the stereo. So I went in there and had a look at the exhibits and listened to the birdsong and achieved a badly-needed peace.

Then, a short while later, there was no such thing as peace because I met [livejournal.com profile] nadriel's friends.

I liked them, don't get me wrong. [livejournal.com profile] mapp is such a sweetie -- actually, he reminds me rather of Yuki in that he's bouncing off the walls in a cheery sort of way one minute, giving the "Muh?" look to all and sundry the next and then asleep two minutes after that. [livejournal.com profile] lokean has this sort of Vetinari sort of air about him except maybe a little less sparing with his words -- actually, think Vetinari as a mod. (On second thought, don't.) And [livejournal.com profile] guido_was_taken was a truly amiable gent with lovely hair. Thing is, they're all totally batshit. Some of the conversation ... let's see. There was how to have penetrative sex with someone's torso by cutting a slit somewhere above the sixth rib. There was how to administer crack to a cat. There was [livejournal.com profile] lokean trying to make the "it's like kicking a sack full of puppies" analogy to denote cruelty apply to me while I was in Logic Mode. ("But you can't see the puppies in the sack." "Well, a clear sack, then!" "Well, the only clear ones are plastic. The puppies would be asphyxiating." "Okay, there are holes in the sack!" "But then the puppies would be able to tear the holes bigger and get out." "They're in a cloud of chlorine gas!" At this point, I commented, "As you have it now, me kicking them is the least of their problems" and [livejournal.com profile] guido_was_taken said, "Well, then she's obviously kicking them to put them out of their misery." Oddly, it got worse from there.)

Note to the gaming group, specifically the Sourcebook Central Brigade: This is what you're up against when I say, "And oddly, this is still not the strangest conversation I've ever had".

We went and got [livejournal.com profile] mapp's straw boater from Jermyn Street (which I'd never been down before; really interesting and must be explored further, despite the whole "gentleman's clothier" nature of the place. It was like walking around in an Arthur Conan Doyle novel) and then had dinner. Well, breakfast for two of us, since it was a breaking of our fasts. I hauled them off to Tokyo Diner, a nice little Japanese place just off Chinatown. Everyone else seems to have enjoyed themselves as well, so I feel I made a successful contribution. Still, I was surprisingly tired after that despite a good night's sleep (long day, I guess) so I decided to make a break for it and head home.

So now here I am, the weekend begins and I'm not entirely sure what to do with myself tonight. I suppose raiding the DVDs again might be an option. Am I in the mood for anime, artsy stuff, blood n' guts or stupid comedy? Or maybe I'll just go back to [livejournal.com profile] cholten99's complete Buffy box set. Hot bath might also be a good thing. And tomorrow, grocery shopping and Sourcebook Central people coming 'round for dinner. Yay!
thessalian: (Default)
Somewhere in the depths of my just-woken-up mind, I am having a girlie moment. I'm off to meet Exeterian lunatics this afternoon and I'm mentally perusing my wardrobe for something that's appropriate. Then again, I'm not even sure what constitutes 'appropriate' with that lot so I'm sort of wasting my time. I'll likely stick with the knee-length denim skirt and Eva jumper, unless it's too cold for skirts, in which case my olive-drab track suit bottoms and whatever T-shirt I can find that's basically clean. And now I realise that I'm having a girlie moment with "bachelorette who hasn't done the laundry recently enough" overtones, and that's just strange.

Meh. It's first thing in the morning, at least as far as I'm concerned, and my brain can short-circuit if it wants to, I suppose. I will admit that it was nice to sleep in my own bed again. Despite odd matresses, I wonder if the real problem isn't trying to sleep without the *whmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm* of the rather large fan in Frankenbox's video card and the fairly loud ticking of my alarm clock. Just goes to show what you get used to.

Yuki's been incredibly affectionate, even for her. If she's not curling up on my lap, at my side or at my feet, she's following me around with the big adorable "Puss in Boots from Shrek 2" eyes. I think someone's glad I'm home. Not that [livejournal.com profile] cholten99 isn't, but that was a two ships passing in the night sort of being glad I'm home.

I now start thinking about all the stuff that needs to be sorted out either today or (more likely) at the start of next week. You know, I think I'm better off with the girlie moment.

Homecoming

Mar. 3rd, 2005 12:31 pm
thessalian: (Default)
I'm hooooooome! The kitchen is clean and the cat is a doofus and I had my little adventure and it was really ... um, I'd say "different to what I expected" except I didn't really have any true expectations in the first place so basically just "different". And now I'm home.

There has been insanity during my absence. I am now quite glad I wasn't around to get involved. Short version is that we're playing Mage on Sunday. I'm not arguing with that.

Letter from my old job, basically telling me, "We're sorry you don't want to work here anymore; yes, it's just as well you don't serve your notice period; we'll pay you to your expiry date (13th March); please have an exit interview on the basis that you feel we fucked you over". Do I really want to go back there and tell them the contents of that letter? Part of me says that it might be better to leave it as it is because they obviously don't hate me and I'll be able to pull a reference out of these people with no problem. The other part basically wants to go in there and give some human resources flunky a serious verbal whipping. So I don't know.

In other news, I am now the proud owner of a copy of The Art of War. Been looking for one for ages. It all seems like common sense to me, but maybe I just think too much about that sort of thing.

I need to get in touch with [livejournal.com profile] nadriel about tomorrow. So Friday is the meet-up with [livejournal.com profile] nadriel, [livejournal.com profile] mapp, [livejournal.com profile] lokean and [livejournal.com profile] guido_was_taken. Saturday involves being all hostessy (yay!) and watching [livejournal.com profile] dodgyhoodoo be a "complete animal tart" as regards the adorable fluffy grey doofus who is still trying to eat my bloody candles. Then Sunday's Mage. Then I go punt myself out to agencies. And yes, at some point I will probably arrange to be in so that [livejournal.com profile] cholten99 has someone to sign for his computer bits. Seems I took off for holiday before he could tell me he had delivery coming on Tuesday. Whoops.

So yeah. Home again, home again, jiggity-jig.

Converts

Feb. 18th, 2005 01:50 pm
thessalian: (Default)
Somebody on [livejournal.com profile] the_ascension was asking how one could reconscile the Mage and DnD 2nd Ed systems. Now, for the benefit of those who take my occasional WTF moments as they relate to D20 to mean that I actively hate the system, let me make it clear right now that I don't. I just don't understand it yet. However, aren't there enough D20 conversions in the world without trying to narrow the wide, "whatever the fuck you want to do" magic system as proposed in Mage into the channels of D20's magic system? And from what little I know, the magic systems in D20 are pretty narrow. Named spells are all well and good, but not when ingenuity and imaginative use of spheres is a major component of the game. Although there was an amusing bit of commentary about what spheres you would need to perform Magic Missile; a part of me thinks it was a joke except for the fact that someone apparently already did that conversion, which baffles and confuses me.

Saturday I'm going to be in taking delivery of a package -- various of [livejournal.com profile] cholten99's new computer bits. Apparently, when he gets the new ones, I get the old ones. Still, thrill-a-minute way to spend one's Saturday, no? But they get better, I suppose. According to [livejournal.com profile] nadriel, I'm supposed to be meeting up with him and [livejournal.com profile] mapp for drinks or something on the 26th (wave hi to the new rabbit pooka on my friends list, everyone). The following Saturday, I was thinking I might invite the denizens of Sourcebook Central over for dinner, if they're not busy. It's always problematic having people over here because of the back-end-of-beyondness that is Enfield, but [livejournal.com profile] cholten99 says that he'll pick them up even though he actually won't be at the dinner himself, and I know of a slightly faster way of getting to Tally Ho Corner from here (though I generally take the bus just because it's more fun). We'll just have to see how that goes, though.

And then Sundays and Wednesday evenings. I don't know exactly what's going on with the one-off evenings and who's doing what game in them, and while I'm sure I'll find out, I'm not sure which ones I'll be participating in, if any. Not to put too fine a point on it, I'm studiously avoiding any social situation where I might find myself in the presence of [livejournal.com profile] cholten99's girlfriend. I'm not actually jealous in the typical, standard way, but there's treatment discrepancies and I'm bad at meeting new people under the best of circumstances -- and these are not the best of circumstances. There's a definite need on my part for more time, and a lot more distance from [livejournal.com profile] cholten99, before I'm ready to watch him be soppy over someone. Without that, there will be awkwardness. It's just a bit hard to be avoid situations like that because, of course, he wants to introduce his girlfriend to the people he referred to in a venting match the other day as "my friends", who are of course my friends too. Funny how he tried so hard to remind me that they're my friends and not just his until that particular idea made his life harder. See, this is why not typical jealousy. I wouldn't have him back in a romantic fashion on a bet.

Anyway, the point is that I'll be missing whatever Requiem, Forsaken and Deleria one-offs are in the offing and it sucks. But after all, [livejournal.com profile] cholten99's girlfriend deserves face-time with the gaming group and I have no right to be pissy about it. I just wish he hadn't told me that she thought I was "silly to think that there would be awkwardness"; I did not need that on top of my current self-esteem hiccups.

D'you know, my head still hurts? I remind myself that this is not the longest-running migraine I've ever had, nor the worst to date. Doesn't help.

Argh.
thessalian: (Default)
Thank you, [livejournal.com profile] markahix! Were it not for your kind reminder to everybody about the extension of paid time due to recent LJ problems, I wouldn't have known squat. Now, however, I have an extra two weeks of paid LJ.

I had a fairly good time last night. There are DoomBoots. There are my ideal DoomBoots. They were expensive as fuck (but not the £300 that [livejournal.com profile] ninja_arzt had it; I'd still recommend bringing the extra £300 to London but only because, as well as DoomBoots, I remember there was at least another two dozen things you wanted to buy in Camden). All the same, worth it. I finally have the DoomBoots of my dreams and other people's nightmares! Now all I have to do is break the fucking things in.

And now, a sad announcement. They are yuppiefying Camden. They've torn down about half the fucking Lock to do construction work and I've seen the pictures of what they want to put there. I don't know what it actually is, but I know what it looks like. It looks like a fucking shopping mall. Or an office block on crack. It utterly, utterly blows. It's not bad enough that they ripped half the Covent Garden Market down to make room for the Disney Store, Paperchase and a bloody Gadget Shop, or that they closed the Covent Garden General Store (which was so very, very cool) for a fucking Mark's and Spencers, or that they closed the funky Chinese shop near Covent Garden station and put in a trendy surfy shop. It's worse yet that they completely revamped Carnaby Street, turning it from alternative chic to trendie-ville in the space of six months. And let's not even talk about the Gap branch on the corner of Haight and Ashbury. Now Camden's starting to go. They cannot do this. Someone has to die.

Anyway, after squeeage over the DoomBoots, brief wander to see if there was any apparel that took my fancy, trip to Waterstones to replace my copy of "The Bachman Books" and brief dinner, I went to the Dev very early so I could grab a table. Hey, I had my book, money for drinks, no problem waiting, right? Except for the drunken guy hitting on me when I went up to the bar. I hate it when people make my accent a prime point when attempting to chat me up; things like "Did you buy those boots in this country?" and (worst of all) "What part of the States are you from?" is not going to get me to think, "Ooooooooh, you noticed I'm foreign! Your observational skills are soooooo sexy! Your keen wit and intellect makes me want to ride you like a mechanical bull!" In fact, I'm more likely to think, "Fuck off before I tattoo New Rock to your testes with my boot".

Met up with [livejournal.com profile] nadriel and [livejournal.com profile] rx_ritalin, a friend of his from Germany. Conversation ensued, mostly involving Mage and various other gaming things. Turns out [livejournal.com profile] rx_ritalin (who seems really nice, always assuming I didn't scare her too badly) is a keen V:TM player but wasn't all that keen on the scene in Germany because "they take it too seriously". She also apparently mostly does LARP, but showed an interest in Mage. Now, I know there's a fuckload of us currently doing Mage, but by the time she settles down in London properly we'll have probably moved to the alternate Sunday that [livejournal.com profile] cholten99 can't do and will have room for another player.

After that, went home, showed off the DoomBoots, and wound up having to sleep in the study due to incontinent cat. Again. *sigh*
thessalian: (content)
So I never explained about meeting [livejournal.com profile] nadriel; too busy being caught in the throes of musedom last night. (Yeah; Thren's currently running around in my head, waving character sheets and going "woohoohoo!" Can we put her on Thorazine?)

He was easy to locate in the small crowd at Golders Green station because, as [livejournal.com profile] cholten99 suspected, he was the one dressed all in black reading the Akashic Brotherhood sourcebook. I don't tend to have expectations regarding the people I meet online, same as I don't make firm mental pictures of people I hear on the radio, so there weren't any illusions to dispel in that regard. As for anything else, I have to admit to not paying too much attention, being nervous about starting game and all. He did seem cool, and I think getting to know him beyond a first-time-meeting-online-person thing will be good.

I'm not going to talk about him 'fitting in', because the concept is kind of ludicrous. After all, we're misfits each and every one of us, and I don't think we actually try to fit in much of anywhere. We seem to just sort of plonk ourselves down somewhere we want to be and say, "I'm here, I'm queer (in the original sense of the word), get used to it because I'm not going away!" Of course, this isn't entirely true, as we're sort of boycotting O'Neills until such time as this European Cup crap stops. While we can occasionally be patient with the people who come to watch the football, there is a saturation point and I'm not sure any of us would be strictly comfortable talking about daiklaives, rotes or glomping furniture over a bunch of over-testosteroned man-things singing "You're shiiiiiiiiiit and you know you are!"

(On the other hand, Cup matches tend to happen late. We might not have a problem. But if it means not having to eat one of those bloody burgers for awhile, I'm happy to maintain the boycott.)

So anyway, I'm not going to talk about [livejournal.com profile] nadriel fitting in per se. However, he does seem a welcome addition to the proceedings. I think the only thing that really differentiates him from the others gaming-wise is the ... well, the sensibility. Mostly (and I'm no different, I grant you) our lot rush in where angels fear to tread, armed to the teeth and ready to sustain and cause grievous injury. By contrast, [livejournal.com profile] nadriel's character hung back, listened for the screaming, and then came down when the screaming didn't happen (and, wisely, after the sound of the shotgun blast with which Andy O's character blew the lock off the doors of the cellar workshop. See, this is what I mean about people doing silly things in the name of action -- in an enclosed space about ten feet on a side, you do not want to be firing off both barrels of a shotgun for the sake of your eardrums). On the other hand, having backup is going to be of great use in the future.

On the whole, good guy.

And now, back to real life, work and phone calls coming in three at a time. W00t. I'll spend my free minutes refining the next bit of plot for Mage -- I wasn't entirely happy with the fuzziness of the last one, despite it being a prelude thing. The next one should be more to my storytelling standards. And then there will be clinic letters coming out my ears because God knows we're overbooked enough this week...

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