Origins in retrospect

So, went to Origins this year. I ended up doing stints in the Drive Thru RPG booth for most of the con, and I have to say, aching feet aside, I really enjoyed it. I felt kind of like I was back on familiar and well-loved ground, and it made me happy to be there again. It was a good con, despite the shift in time of year. Attendance was down, as I suspected it would, and I think sales were pretty dismal for everyone. That said... I have hopes that next year will be better. Now that the con is further from GenCon, there's a lot of companies who are considering returning.

I enjoyed working the con. I enjoyed getting to socialize with other designer folk again. I even did night three of Lone Shark's traditional Origins podcast. We went to Kooma for sushi Thursday night, and that was pretty awesome -- the sushi wasn't spectacular, but the bulgogi I had was amazing, and Matt got introduced to bibimbop, which has spurred a search for stone bowls and recipes for use at home. :) Jeni's was had twice over the course of the con, which was awesome. Their wheatgrass, pear, and vinho verde sorbet does not taste like you just licked a lawn. :) Good times, good times.

I attempted to run some demos for curse the darkness, but my players failed to show up. I also played some. It should be noted that I caught a bug and was somewhat under the weather for most of Origins. I suspect this affects my memory of various stuff I played in. Just that disclaimer up front.

I played... three games, that's right. One was Ashen Stars, which was a Savage Worlds space opera game. I played a genetically altered human while Matt was a mantis warrior. I liked it well enough -- the GM was good. It really didn't do much for me, though, and I didn't find the setting terribly compelling. This might have to do with it being a con game--I'm not sure.

The second should have been Jumpers, but the company cancelled the events prior to Origins and the message got lost somewhere. We ended up playing Mark Truman's new game, Our Last Best Hope. If you've ever seen a disaster sort of movie where a crack team of specialists gets sent to deal with the one thing that will kill off the entire planet... well, that's what this game emulates. I had a lot of fun with it -- so much, in fact, that I'm going to write a hack for it inspired by Inception. :)

The third should have been Time Shredders, but again no GM. We ended up playing a game called Broken Sky, which was a) entirely too fiddly for the concept for no good reason that I could discern and b) being run by an inexperienced GM who basically got wrapped up in playing with a friend, who he didn't have to explain anything to, and forgot that he was running the game to advertise it to new players. We actually ducked out early. I like the base concept, but I'm really not sure I care for the game at all.

I had a really good time at the con, and I got to meet some new people, make friends, and have some really fun conversation. I even saw Wil Wheaton in a kilt, which is nothing to sneeze at. The man has nice calves. :) It made me realize that I'm looking forward to GenCon--it's going to be a really good summer.

This summer so far....

I chose this icon because I haven't had hot coffee since Wednesday. I haven't had it because of getting my wisdom teeth out on that same day. Luckily, my husband loves me and has made me iced coffee, but still.

So, my first order of business this summer was to get all my put-off dental work done. I have accomplished this, filling 4 cavities and removing my last two wisdom teeth. I am still recovering from the latter. Blargh. Still, I'm glad they're gone. It would have been a mistake to leave them much longer--apparently the impacted one was getting close to a nerve that, if damaged, could numb my lower lip and chin permanently. Not something I was excited about hearing. All is well, though, and now I'm done with it for the foreseeable future.

I need to start getting back into Latin this summer, so I've got my book on order. Hopefully by the end of the summer, my starter refresher course will be done.

The much-put-off garden goes in on Monday. 10 x 10, which I think is smaller than I was initially planning, but it fits our budget much better. Tomatoes, grape tomatoes, tomatillos, zucchini, squash, a range of herbs, leeks, green beans... not bad for a starter sort of thing. Maybe some carrot seeds. We've bought some deer fence mesh and we'll be getting the poles tomorrow, along with the tiller we're renting and some garden soil to mix in -- oh, and the plants, along with a few things that will still start from seed. This is pretty much a learning experience for us this year, but we're all prepared for that. We'll know better going forward, and if we manage it well, we may end up making the garden bigger next year.

In a couple of weeks we're going to Pittsburgh for tattoos, and then the weekend following the 4th of July we'll be in Oklahoma, visiting family and picking up boys. Aside from GenCon, that's the extent of the trips this summer--which is just as well, really.

We're starting a curriculum this summer for the boys called the "Not Eaten By Wolves Initiative," which basically involves making sure they have sufficient survival skills to make GenCon a good experience for everyone. I'm an industry insider GoH and our book will be out, so Matt and I will both be busy (as will Sarah). We therefore will be trying to get the boys to some degree of capable independence before the summer is out, assessing their life skills and rewarding them accordingly. We've never really pushed them to be independent... I suspect Will will take to it a bit more easily than Al. We'll see. GenCon is a fraught environment for them both, because it's so spread out and so hard to find people, and so full of distractions. That said, I believe they can handle it, and any skills they manage to acquire that they don't already have will stand them in good stead this summer and beyond. We also have some fun family events planned: an evening at the drive-in movie, a fencing lesson, Cedar Point, a bit of camping, laser tag, etc. I think they'll be in good shape.

Lots of reading and TV watching to do. Also working ROBLOX full time, so that's cutting into my TV watching time. I have a disk of The Wire I've had since *mumble mumble* that I need to watch -- 2nd disk, first season. I'm still playing Alice: Madness Revisited, and I still love it. Need to buy the first one too.

And that's another post done. Yay! :)