This is who I am.

Current Location: Riccarton, Christchurch, NZ
Current Mood: good
Current Music: Doug Garrett - Garrett's Games 361 - Guilds of Cadwallon and Balloon Cup vs. Pinata

Some of my afternoon today was spent in my room organising and beginning the process of getting rid of things that have accumulated over the past few years. I quickly came across a stack of magazines to get rid of, after combining them all it's more than a foot high. I also removed my box of excess books from the corner of my room so if anyone wants Star Trek books I have more than a dozen to get rid of. There's also a few Quantum Leap novels as well. What I'm getting rid of. See anything you want?
I didn't do as much to clean up as I wanted but even with the little I've done my room looks better. I expect that moving furniture around so my bed is in the warmer corner of the room will also be useful. I find it hard to avoid cleaning when furniture is moved, it just seems like the right sort of time.

While at games last night I played the game that has taken me to 3000 recorded plays at BGG. A game of Werewolf where I was both Wolf and Lover, with the same other person. Who ended up one of the lynch nominees in the first round. One of the quickest games ever and I lost without really seeing anything I could do to avoid the crushing defeat. I was amused from the moment I realised that the two of us were paired that way though.

I have purchased the complete Stargate Atlantis TV show on DVD so for the next however long it takes I'll be watching the last three seasons of SG-1 and five of Atlantis during my free time here. Aiming to keep the internal chronology straight as I watch them. Of course this comes just before Buckets of Dice is going to take an entire weekend of time and the week after I had no work. I've also started spending my Saturday afternoons at a friends place, watching children's DVDs and enjoying the warmth of a fire and a lot of hugs.

I spent much of my Saturday watching children's DVDs at a friends place. Very relaxing especially as I got a few hugs, and the lack of internet wasn't really noticed by me during my time there. Being somewhere with a fire was also a welcome change to here with the heat-pump, the heat each provides is different in some way. I did realise that I should have worn a coat of some sort for the walk there and back though. Even if I did feel colder for most of the walk there than I did while walking home.

Buckets of Dice is approaching, with just under three weeks until I spend most of a three day period at the University playing games. I've been trying to work out if I'll be able to run a game of Quantum Werewolf in person, dealing with the state resolution during the breaks between sessions. I think I've figured out how to do it, but the time involved may be prohibitive. In addition to that I hope to play a bunch of games, and see at least one person attend that doesn't come along to SAGA.

I need to get a little better about judging how long games are going to take I think, last night we played a game of First Sparks that ended up going longer than it should have due in part to teaching. Similar issues have come up with other games in the past months, I've expected the game to be over noticeably earlier than it was. This isn't usually a problem, especially at SAGA as we don't really have a set time for leaving, but last night it held up the rest of the group and that's not something to be ignored.

After a friend starting getting rid of excess stuff he had last year I started thinking about finally getting rid of the extra books and other things I've accumulated over the years. Unsurprisingly nothing came of it then, but I got a little motivation just recently and uncovered the relevant box last night. As such I may be offering a number of books to good homes in the next week or two, mainly Trek stuff as I manage to acquire duplicates easily. (Over 300 in my collection leads to memory lapses regarding what I own, what I've read, what I want to own, etc. etc.)

Current Location: Riccarton, Christchurch, NZ
Current Mood: good
Current Music: Everly Brothers - All I Have To Do Is Dream

I'm continuing to get a reasonable amount of work, and I've been informed I'm owed about $150 in tax refund for a couple of years back. Money shouldn't be an issue in the immediate future. This is good as I'm intending to take some holidays this year and having money to pay for such is useful. At some point I should make use of the gift cards I've been acquiring as well.

After a couple of weeks without Mainly Music (due to holidays) I'm going back tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing the children again, some of whom seem to like trying to get me to dress up which is odd. It's also a far more pleasant morning waking at 0900 instead of 0500 and being in a room of (mostly) happy children instead of a room of loud machinery.

At some point in March, after finally finishing StarCraft, and StarCraft: Brood Wars, legitimately (more than a decade after first playing them) I started making a list of all the PC games I own that I had purchased and then not completed. With the intention of installing those that I could on this laptop and then playing them more. A matter of days after I got the list complete I purchased LEGO: Star Wars on Steam and started playing that instead. Not long before I finished playing that (67% and each level finished apart from special things) I got Portal and Portal 2 which I have also finished now. I'm going to try and avoid buying more games there, even though there are others I want, so I can play at least one of the many game I already own.

A Spotify user has created a playlist that contains all the UK #1 songs from 1958 through to today, over the space of a couple of weeks I listened to most of that playlist in around other things. I've definitely been made aware of how much I prefer the older music than recent pop music. I think I skipped a couple of songs that would have been released before I was born. I gave up on the playlist as it got to what would have been 2005 or so I think.

Current Location: Riccarton, Christchurch, NZ
Current Mood: good
Current Music: Take That - Back For Good

This weekend just been was the first of presumably two Mini-Con events that SAGA will be running this year. Over the course of the weekend I spent nearly 24 hours at the Uni, mostly playing games.
Near the middle of the afternoon on Sunday friends that attend the Monday night gaming showed up, with their son, and I quickly got a hold of him and ceased playing games, instead playing with him and removing him from the room while he was loud. The two of them stuck around long enough to play their first game of Galaxy Trucker with the two expansions and then left with their son. Leaving me in a position to play GT with a young couple that I'd picked up the night before, a SAGA member that I haven't dealt with much, and another member that friended me on FB last year and I only accepted the request because I thought he was a different person. The newest player did very well for getting thrown in at the deep end, managing to end with a score which has recently been beyond some of us that play often.
I did fairly well over the weekend as far as scores etc. are concerned, winning exactly half of the games I played and only feeling I'd performed poorly in a couple of the others.

Today while at work there was quite heavy rain, heavy to the point that it overwhelmed the plumbing and we had a mini lake inside. After dealing with that water much of the factory shut down, electricity and water don't mix after all, and I got to go home early. Having done two days of work already I turned down the offer of a third tomorrow, mainly on the basis of how I feel after that many early starts. I'm hopeful of more work on either Thursday or Friday (or both).

Friday night I went out to a friends place, after first finding out where she lived three weeks earlier when I waited in the car as another friend was doing a round of pick people up to go play games. There was alcohol which I didn't really partake in, which was probably good for my bank balance, some of what I tasted was good enough I thought about buying some. I also surprised some of the group that was there as I ate snacks at the end of the evening.

A week earlier I was informed that I could be part of a cute couple. Surprising me initially, but on reflection I realised that it would have been easy for others to get that impression and contrary to prior occasions I've actually been able to see it as reasonable. The sheer amount of time I've spent talking with her is well beyond normal for me.

Current Location: Riccarton, Christchurch, NZ
Current Mood: good
Current Music: Small Faces - I Feel Much Better

Even with the weather getting worse this past week my mood has been up noticeably from what it was recently so I'm hopeful that things have improved for me again.

Getting a couple of days work at the end of last week provided exercise which I don't otherwise get, mainly at work but also the getting there and back home. I'd probably do better with three days, not just for the obvious money issues, but two days is enough to leave me with a little leeway.

Saturday night I almost spent at home, but late motivation to leave the house was provided all the way from Australia and I went to a birthday party. Where, admittedly, I spent most of my time on the outside of conversations, even among those I already knew, but I enjoyed myself, playing a game of 8-ball pool and four games of Werewolf with a variety of themes.

Sunday morning at church I was tired as expected after being out late again, but I went into Crèche and this week spent much of it with the littlest of the children, without needing to monitor the behaviour of adults. Post service I ended up with many crumbs on me as I held another child while he ate cake and I headed home until a BBQ was scheduled to happen. Which ended up being mostly a non-event for me as soon after it began I headed to the nearby park to help mind children. The hour I spent there provided sunshine, hugs, and, most surprisingly, exercise. After initially refusing to join in I took place in the game of tag that was being played.

Games last night was also good. I made good purchase decisions in the game of Dominion I played at the start of the evening, winning comfortably. I had my first win at Lords of Waterdeep after spending most of the first three rounds getting requirements for an extra worker over the rest of the players and then managing to catch up and surpass the scores of my opponents largely as a result of that extra action each round. WereWolf was a little disjointed as we didn't know all the roles in play, but it played out quickly as the second and third lynch were the wolves with no other evil roles in play. My last game of the night was one of Galaxy Trucker with a new player that had a couple of particularly unfortunate rounds after the first.

Current Location: Riccarton, Christchurch, NZ, Christchurch, NZ, Christchurch, NZ
Current Mood: confused
Current Music: Phil Collins - Sussudio

My hope is that my mood this past week (since my last entry) is directly attributable to the change in weather, as if it is I'll adjust soon enough to the cold and be back to my level self. If it's not the weather that brought about how I started feeling a week ago though I'm not sure what could be responsible apart from the lack of work and resulting food/sleep choices. That would not bode well for me.

Last Wednesday morning I woke up in plenty of time for Mainly Music, much as I have for most of the past few years when I've been intending to help, and might have avoided going if not for the fact I'm expected to be there. Going along didn't really help my mood any and I left earlier than I normally would have, to come home and sit here playing games. My mood improved enough by the evening that I headed out to Game Night where I won two of the three games I played (and had what was probably one of my best scores in the other game) but once I returned home I felt down again.

Thursday night I went to SAGA where I played Galaxy Trucker using both expansions and had a good time with the new stuff but apart from that my mood was much as it had been. To the point that I came close to not going out on Friday when given the opportunity to see someone I don't see enough and play games. That alone is enough to make me wonder if something specific has happened to alter my mood long term. Luckily I did go out, and apart from the normal issues regarding food etc. I had a good time.

Saturday a friend had his birthday party, his home draped with sheets to make a blanket fort. I spent most of the early evening just sitting around, the same way I do at most gatherings there, listening to the conversations and being entertained by those that drink. Come mid-morning there were a few of us left in the lounge, three or four had already been drifting off to sleep and I decided that I couldn't be bothered heading home either. I ended up lying on the couch for a few hours with a friend resting her head on my shoulder while she slept.
After leaving once people were up and moving around again on Sunday I nearly skipped church because of the lack of sleep but made it along in time to go help in the Crèche, where I ended up trying to stop a couple of the 'adults' fighting with little hammers.

Monday I went along to games again, with a small detour to the Uni to show yet another friend where a meeting was happening. Up until the game of WereWolf I actually spent most of my time distracted by the toddler that is present each week (this isn't actually uncommon there). He seems to take great delight in placing ping pong balls in glasses or other receptacles and then tipping them back out. I still wasn't back to normal last night though, I didn't actually make any record of the games I played while I was out, something that would probably shock a few people from the games groups.

Current Location: Riccarton, Christchurch, NZ, Christchurch, NZ
Current Mood: happy

Yet another weekend of games has gone by, with a wedding in the middle of it. A weekend where I played games at three different occasions, and missed playing at two others. One was because the wedding took more of my afternoon than I had expected, the other because I started the afternoon feeling a little unwell and would have been leaving reasonably early anyway to game in the evening.
Friday night I went to a small gathering at which I played my second game of Seafarers with a physical set, having number chits placed randomly and unseen until settlements were placed, something I don't intend to do again. After that I took part in a game of Galaxy Trucker where I came close to winning but was just beaten. Last game there was a game of Ad Astra where I tried Terraforming with the colour least likely to do it well, coming third with a score close to the win.
After finishing there I headed to another location and gamed some more with other people. The first game I sat down to, got told to play cards and won, only having been told how to win when I asked. I then taught three others how to play Tikal, and was beaten by all three of them, soundly by two. Pentago was then taught by the owner, and I won against him and two other new players after setting myself up to have two separate ways to win. I ended the night by playing a couple of games of Base Dominion where neither is experienced with deck thinning strategies, one because he continually plays to try and get action chains. I did okay in each of those games, having the middle score in each.

I have reached the end of a financial year and looking at my records I didn't even get paid for 800 hours. (records) Which is still good as I probably got paid for a lot of public holidays over that time frame. It does mean my gross income for the year will be less than $11,500 leaving me with a Nett income of a little under $10,000. This is why people won't ever convince me that the Unemployment benefit is insufficient. My weekly average was less than the benefit would have provided me, and I still purchased a new laptop, a few games, a lot of books/DVDs and went on a couple of holidays.

I spent much of my weekend, including the Friday, sitting on my recliner. Not particularly out of the ordinary in and of itself, however, I was coughing and sneezing enough that one of my flatmates left a number of cough lollies on my chair at some point Sunday.
Because of the illness I was experiencing I didn't go to Church, for the first time in a long time, and would have skipped working yesterday if not for the fact the boss would have come in to find a worker not present. It turned out that I was okay by partway through the shift, and apart from a sneezing fit during one of my breaks didn't really have any issues anyway.
While at work I also found out that a woman that had worked with me a lot up until a year or two ago is coming back, as an office worker. Probably better hours, depending on her child, and she's going to have a better idea than most of what's going on as far as the factory staff are concerned as she's done that job before.

In more positive news, I've recently finished the entirety of the original StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood Wars campaigns, for the first time not using any cheat codes. My play 'style' still left me playing the final mission for almost six hours but it was beaten honestly. Since then I've started making a list of all the computer games I have and have been testing to see which will install on my laptop and which I can only play on the old desktop. I even found three that I'd completely forgotten about owning. While working out what I had, and sorting the listing by release year, I also found that a few more had been added to the VideoGameGeek system since I first catalogued there (and one I'd made a mistake about adding). With the PS2 games I own there are 40 on my listing, and that's at least 5 short.
I may start playing Steam games more often as well, a couple of people have found me there, without me intentionally doing anything to have them find me. I won't be buying games (lack of money makes buying things hard, as does lack of credit card) but there are a few free to play games that have caught my attention. And with me having Ticket to Ride on it I may end up playing that more online, including against actual people again; although I should play it via the BGG implementation so as to earn GeekGold for winning games there.

This coming weekend is looking to be busy for me; a wedding on Saturday, games on two (3?) separate days and four(?) locations, as well as Church as long as I'm not ill again.

Current Location: Riccarton, Christchurch, NZ
Current Mood: content

Yesterday was my 32nd birthday and it was good. I've taken a few days off work so I've been sleeping in and playing games in the evenings.
Last night I got to gaming a little early and ended up playing one of the games I'd been wanting to play during the evening, before getting to play a few simpler games, including another couple of games of Werewolf, and my first game of Jungle Speed for about four months.

On Friday afternoon RBC started a café that I went along to so the little children could be occupied. In the evening I went to the Pallet Pavilion and played a few games that I'm not likely to get to play elsewhere, including a game that relies on listening to cubes as they fall down a tower. I didn't get to see one person I'd hoped to see, and another was only flying back to the city so she couldn't come along. I did get to see others that I like though, and may be seeing more as there are a couple of new players to the group.

Sunday I spent most of Church in the Crèche minding some of the little children, and while I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to it was still good. I didn't head out in the afternoon like I'd thought I might, largely a result of not leaving Church until almost 1300 and the fact it was wet.

Tonight I went to SAGA again and we've acquired a few new games, two of which were played there. We also acquired about 2000 card sleeves, most of which I'll be using in the coming week.

I got nearly 40 separate well-wishes from people on FaceBook, various other in-person messages and a couple of text messages. Probably a few other birthday messages as well, this seems like a lot for me.

Current Location: Riccarton, Christchurch, NZ
Current Mood: recumbent
Current Music: Chris Rice - The Face Of Christ

Presumably that is heavily dependant on who else is playing (and the GM) but the same is true for most games, RPG or otherwise. I don't even remember what made me decide I wanted to take part instead of just watching the Facebook group go by. Tonight was week two of adventuring, with three different GMs running games, each at (or just above) the limit of players. This bodes well for SAGA role-playing although it's not quite so good for a diversity of games. The lack of long term commitment works though, as it's not hard to miss a week and join back into a game. I'll probably not take part for a month or so, then again, I hadn't thought I'd take part at all.

As to the actual game I played in, there were six players, four of us were (I believe) completely new to the game and the other two had played last week but wanted new characters. After a 30 minute or so introduction to how the character sheets work and us making the choices we wanted to, we started off on the adventure.
The island we'd been sent to was suspected to be the home of dubious characters and so we set off to find traces of them. After a minor incident with a river and losing some stuff we found an individual with tattoos that had fallen down a cliff, although it was not a big cliff. Examination turned up some worrying things and nearly caused (presumably) loss of life among the characters. Clever action led to the immediate danger being removed from the group, but probably not actually dealt with in a complete, final manner so there could be more danger there. Minor party split, which worked out better than it might have, occurred with one of the characters flying off into the distance to examine the ship that could be seen in the distance while the rest of the party went to examine the mountain the was faintly shimmering. Entrance through the shimmer left the party in a tunnel, that quickly turned out to have a lot of pit traps, each of which ended up leading to a bottomless hole that broke the laws of creation as I know them.
Three of the party ended up there for a while, falling into the hole and then back out, while the other two party members headed to the other end of the tunnel where they found evil afoot. A better shot from the ranger could have led to a much more satisfactory end, especially the Paladin surviving. However, the target was missed, flunkies came to fight and the Paladin heroically gave his life to take out another of the flunkies after managing to dispatch one of them in a 3-on-1 fight. The ranger had redeemed himself a little by dispatching one of the flunkies but was caught up in dealing with a second while the Paladin was sacrificing himself. Just in time to have the three remaining party members join the Ranger and deal with the last flunky that had been fighting the Paladin.
Final fight had the four remaining party work together to dispatch the main troublemaker although one of them passed out for a while. With the bad guy out of the picture the distant party member found things changing where he was so he turned around and flew back to the ship that had taken the party to the island in the first place. All in all things could have gone a lot worse, both for the party and the world in general it seems.