sleepless

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Sleepless Night in MoBu City

I could not sleep. My room is clean and after another night of hard work it might even be downright tidy. Strange.

I read the article on Tu’Narath from Dragon. I really liked the history of the Githyanki and history of the -yanki/-zari split along with how Gith sealed the pact with Red Dragons by venturing into hell and talking to Dispater. Neat stuff. Then the article took a turn, where they sought to mess with the status quo and boy-howdy, I am all for that. It was an interesting try but didn’t light my fire.

It got me thinking about fantasy cities, though and the Make Your Own New Crobuzon thing and an IM conversation I had with Rob Donoghue about possibly making a city with all of the Burning Wheel lifepathed stocks. I had this vague images of Great Spider webs connecting crumbling elven towers.

MoBu City was born.

“It is a city built out of raw hatred, greed, faith, spite, and ancestral taint. A wyrd-weaver will read your fortunes in her web in the Tower Districts. Afraid to be smashed come sunrise, trolls mine coal that is fed into tremendous furnaces that keep the trains running. Great Wolf packs stay in the city only long enough to sell their hunt and be gone before the city’s stink can settle into their fur.”

I dunno, it was that kind of night.

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Dreamation, notes before I collapse.

I haven’t slept in a while; this isn’t something I do at cons. I’m at my mom’s, where I’ll eat and then collapse.

I think me and Jeff hashed out in a neat thing to do with some Sons of Kryos content, inspired by a breakfast with Rob Donoghue. Interactions with Rob Donoghue cause good shit, the last time we talked at length, 1st Quest happened.

Speaking of which, 1st Quest had some solid sessions. I need to entirely toss out the text I have and re-write it this summer. That doesn’t mean I will. But I need to.

Agon is a hoot. Is long-limbed broken?

It was a weekend of walking too briskly past amazing people in order to meet up with other amazing people with whom I had an appointment/game/something.

My first Dreamation happened half a decade ago. This is nuts. Time is nuts.

When disagreeing in real-life, it is much easier to bring levity with penis jokes than it is on the internets.

I need to stop repeating stories; it is obnoxious. I am not sure I can stop.

Vinny talked to us at the Indie Round Table and the long and the short of it is, we need to think creatively about our small table groups and his logistics. He has bent over backwards for the indie crew and I’m going to enjoy finding ways to solve this problem that have nothing to do with letting in overblown groups but still solves the problem.

Talking too late with Luke and Thor. Talking too late with Matt and Joshua. Up too early for Warlock Corner. Diner foods.

The first lines of 1st Quest’s new manuscript:

This is 1st Quest.

Let’s play.

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Crossfit

I am fascinated by this fitness movement called Crossfit.

The head of the Crossfit movement was interviewed recently and gave the Crossfit definition of fitness:

“So Girevik readers can get some sense of our method, here from that issue of the CrossFit Journal is “World-Class Fitness in 100 Words”:

“Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.”

The nearest gym is in Syracuse, a bit of a haul but Jim and Charlotte and I might head up there for their foundations training, learning the basic movements of the exercises they use.

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Honey Crisp Apples and other little things

The Autumn MVP award goes to Honey Crisp apples. Holy shit, they are good.

Years ago, my cousin, Gerami heard how many apartments I have lived in this town and mentioned that a chapter for each apartment would be a novel. So, for NaNoWriMo, I will write 13 Apartments, writing a chapter about living in each apartment in Ithaca. I’ve made a list, tried to jot down a few things about each place from my dorm in the West Tower to Bostwick Road to here.

I am re-watching A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints and it is breaking my heart all over again. “It is good to see you again, to say your name…to you.”

Couldn’t sleep last night, stayed up all night re-watching Slings & Arrows. For some reason that show has emerged as my comfort food.

We lost internet for a few days, the roadrunner guy came by this evening to deal with it. We talked about climbing poles while he fixed our connections.

Now it is heading into midnight and I am trying to figure out how I am going to sleep.

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Can’t sleep through the year’s first frost.

I just can’t sleep, so I got some sweaters out from a crate in the garage.

It was a nice weekend with Janaki. There was some really nice, quality giggling and cuddling. The two weeks time between our visits seems longer and longer.every time lately.

The foliage on the drive back was really stunning. I took some back roads and it added a little bit of time but with Richard K. Morgan’s Thirteen playing on the iPod, and autumn draped over the hills and valleys, I really didn’t much care. I have the book too and might finish it tonight by reading it, rather than listening. There will be a review to come; the book is intense and I find myself having quite a bit to say about it.

The Sci-fi Sorcerer setting is now officially stuck in my noggin. I’ll get to play it in a bit and see how it pans out at the table. The other book I am reading is Old Man’s War; I’ll track down some other science fiction mentioned in last week’s thread about the solar system.

Now to shave my head, write and read.

At some point, I’ll sleep.

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Up late.

I have stayed up far, far too late talking life, gaming and shit with Aaron. He has been back in town since August but this was our first real chance to hang out away from the gaming table. Late as it is, this was nice. I realize that he needs to play Memoir ’44. And I, conveniently enough, need to play my board games more.

Tomorrow, coffee, work, exercise and then dishes.

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1st Quest Red Inked & The Monthly Comics Box

I got some decent work done on 1st Quest tonight, putting red ink all of what I’ve currently got and outline what I want done in the coming week. It felt good to sit down and do some work. Cracking the 3-ring binder open, with the 1st Quest manuscript printed out within was the hardest part. After that I was all, “Hey, I like this game.”

I had forgotten.

But now I can’t quite sleep, so I thought I’d review the latest comics I’ve read.

Once a month, Mayhem Comics sends me my pull list, a list that is constantly being fiddled with online.

This is my first month since culling a bunch of comics off of the list. Keeping track of comics here has helped remind me which comics are on probation and which have been routinely just lame.

Northlanders: Sven the Returned 5 and 6: This series continues to read like a Burning Wheel solo campaign GMed by Thor Olavsrud. I’m not sure I have any higher praise than that for a medieval fantasy/historical fiction comic.

Thor 7-9: I’m still digging the Asgard dropped into midwestern U.S. as a way to have both real world drama and Kirby-Asgard fun. We’ll see if Loki’s shenanigans are enough to keep me in this book. I consider this book on probation.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer 13 and 14: It is just a damned enjoyable good time. I like the decisions they’re making and the dialogue is spot on. The comic is capturing what I liked about the third through seventh seasons of the show.

Criminal #2: This series of one-shots is rocking, both illuminating back-story for previous arcs and creating fresh, new material. Brubaker and Phillips are engaging in some amazing crime/noir world-building that is consistently my favorite comic of the week.

Action Comics 863-865: With Geoff Johns on this comic and James Robinson on Superman, I am in an odd place where I’m buying and enjoying both Superman monthlies. Odd, because I’ve always considered myself more of a Batman fan. The Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes arc ended in a satisfying way and the next arc with Brainiac looks like fun.

Ultimate Spider-man 120: It feels like this series is getting back on point. In particular, this issue felt right in the past pages, where Peter and Mary Jane have a talk about their evening with the X-Men and Magneto while sounding like fun teenagers.

Thunderbolts 120: The only enjoyable thing about this series is Warren Ellis writing Normon Osborn, who takes up the mantle of the Green Goblin once again. In Ellis’ hands, Norman Osborn is one part George W. Bush, two parts Two-Face, played by Tommy Lee Jones. I’m not making that shit up, the artist is clearly drawing Tommy Lee Jones with the ole Osborn hair.

But even that isn’t enough for me to hold on to this comic. I’m dropping it.

Daredevil 106 and 107: It sure feels like I have been threatening to drop this comic for a while. The Mr. Fear arc was just a dud but this most recent arc is looking promising. I’m interested to see Matt get back to some court work. It sure still feels like this comic is on my pull list based on the greatness of Bendis’ run and Brubaker’s fantastic arc with Matt in jail with Kingpin, Bullseye and the Punisher.

A new writing team is coming on and I’ll give it till then but if this arc has a slow issue, I’ll likely ditch it.

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Thanks for the help.

I just listened to the recorded playtest notes that John, Terry, Alexander and Thor did for me last year for 1st Quest and I wanted to thank them all again. Having that information in that format made it really easy for me to get back up on that bucking bronco that is 1st Quest. I know what I have to do to get that sucker moving again and I have two pages of notes to prove it.

Thanks, playtesters. You make the gaming world go ’round.

I could not sleep last night at all.