But I won't do that!

I'm getting stuff ready for Dragon*Con and had to meet up with some friends to get a few things off of them. And I did make them a little jealous listing off some of the people I can get to meet. Yesterday I covered some of the TV Series actors and today I'll list the Movie actors that I'd know by name (there probably more that I missed but it's a really long list).

Sean Astin (The Goonies, Lord of the Rings)
Tia Carrere (Waynes World) She will be mine, oh yes She will be mine!
Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk)
Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th)
Kelly LeBrock (Weird Science)
Daniel Logan (Star Wars Clone Wars)
Patricia Quinn (The Rocky Horror Picture Show)
Brandon Routh (Superman Returns)
Marc Singer (Beastmaster)
Shawnee Smith (Saw)

One by product of the convesation with my friends was what is now considered the quote of the day. I was asked if Michael C Hall from the series Dexter would be there and I said I wouldn't know him by name so it was possible. She then asked if I would stalk him a little for her if he was. I gave an honest reply.

"I'm not stalking a Serial Killer for you!"

And why the hell not?!!

And he'll be there, and she'll be there and they'll be there!!

So Dragon*Con is on in 5 days and I finally had a look at the guest list on Thursday . . . . . I had such a Nerdgasm I'm only able to talk about it now. First off there are a lot of people going to be there that I am really excited about. The first time I read the list through I had to stop and take a breather. I was repeatedly saying "Oh my God" to myself . . . . there may have been dancing . . . . you can't prove anything. . . . don't you judge me!

The short list (and it is a short list) below is of the TV Series's I like to watch there are also movie stars and musicians and other notables (I'll try get round to them tomorrow).

Andromeda:
Lexa Doig, Kevin Sorbo

A Town Called Eureka:
Erica Cerra, Colin Ferguson

BattleStar Galactica:
Edward James Olmos, Aaron Douglas

Firefly:
Morena Baccarin, Jewel Staite, Summer Glau, Sean Maher

Futurama:
Billy West, JohnDiMaggio

Quantum Leap:
Scott Bakula, Dean Stockwell

StarGate:
Ben Browder, David Hewlett, Corin Nemec, Michael Shanks, Christopher Judge, Paul McGillion, Jason Momoa

Star Trek:
Rene Auberjonois, Robert Beltran, Avery Brooks, LeVar Burton, Denise Crosby, John de Lancie, Michelle Forbes, Jonathan Frakes, Armin Shimerman, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, Garrett Wang

All I can say is I'm going to have a blast over there.

And why the hell not?!!

I like to read!

I'm still feeling run down due to the bug I have, so this will be another short post.

Next week I'll be flying out to Atlanta for Dragon*Con. If you read the previous posts you'll know I had a lot of fun at last year's convention. I plan on doing so again this year but to avoid some of the disappointments I had last year, I've refrained from checking out the Guest lists for this year. I know of one or two people who will be there due to accidental spoilers but other than that I'm completely in the dark.

One of the people I've been told will be there is an author that a lot of my friends like but whom I had never read . . . . till now. She has a series of 20 books that I'm about half way through thanks to my local library and I hope to have finished by the time I meet her. 10 books to go? I'm going through a book every day and the weekend should get 3-4 out of the way. I think I can do it.

Tomorrow I'll be posting my reactions to the guest list, hope you tune in.

And why the hell not?!!

Down with a sickness

Ok so I missed Fridays post and almost missed today's, but I'll do an extra post either Tuesday or Thursday to make up.

I caught something somewhere, it could have been my sick friend, it could have been my sick relatives, it could have been from walking round in the rain the week end before last, I'm not sure where but I've a annoyingly bad cold. It's mainly in my chest but I'm starting to get the head symptoms too. I picked up some meds which the pharmacist reckoned were the best for my situation. So I've been dosing myself with them at the appropriate hours. It's the congested chest and cough that get me the most.

I knew a guy who had undergone a heart and lung transplant, he told me the worst part was bringing up someone else's phlegm. I've just been told I probably shouldn't have shared that story.

And why the hell not?!!

Come fly with me!

I love airports, I really do. Maybe it's from my childhood when we would go out to meet people coming home, or say goodbye to those leaving again and we'd usually end up getting a McDonalds on the way home. Whatever the reason I tend to get a thrill when I go to one, they always seem to have a happy energy to me anyway.

I think Kevin Smith nailed it in the establishing scene in Dogma??? If you don't remember it, here's an except from the script:

]---------------------------------[

LOKI

Now here's what I don't get about you: why do you feel the need to come
here all the time?

BARTLEBY

(off travelers)

I like to watch. This is humanity at it's best. Look at them.

**A reunited family share a group hug and move on, making way for two young
lovers to embrace and kiss passionately.**

OC BARTLEBY

All that tension, all that anger and mistrust, forgotten for one perfect
moment when they come off that plane. See those two? The guy doesn't even
know that the girl cheated on him while he was away.

OC LOKI

She did?

**Bartleby and Loki continue to watch the arrivals.**

BARTLEBY

Uh-huh. Twice. But it doesn't matter at this moment because they're both so
relieved to be with one another. I like that. I just wish they could all
feel that way more often.

]---------------------------------[


I've seen that scene played out dozens of times while I've walked through the Arrivals area. The last time, it was a girl waiting for her boyfriend, she was standing there on her mobile to him waiting for him to clear customs. And she had a couple of coffees balanced on top of each other so they could share a drink. I liked that . . . . made me a little warm and fuzzy inside.

So I'm a romantic, I'm ok with that, . . . . aren't you?

And why the hell not?!!

And then what happened??

First off, I didn't miss the schedule, I had most of this written yesterday but it wouldn't post. So I've added in a bit about last night.

Ok so when I last left you I was supposed to starting a gaming session . . . . but that didn't happen. After cooking our dinner, me spending a fair bit of time blogging and showing the GM an awesome Slam Poet named Taylor Mali (look him up on youtube and watch as many of his readings as you can. My top 3 are "What do teachers make?", "I'll fight you for the Library!" and "Tony Steinberg: Brave Viking Warrior" we had used up too much time and neither of us felt we would have been able to give the game anywhere near our full attention.

So at around midnight he said he'll drop me home. I made sure I have all my gear and headed for the door when I heard him shout from upstairs "You've made a mistake!". I did a quick pat down trying to figure out if I left something up there but I couldn't think of anything missing. So I called back up to him "What did I do this time?" He made his way down the stairs and told me "I'm up now . . . . we're going dancing!" And I said ". . . . ok". We drove into town (which so the opposite direction to my house) and parked in Temple Bar to go into a Bar called the Garage.

We met up with one of the girls from earlier and were there till closing. I did get up to dance . . . but only for one or two songs. (I'm not a big dancer) I sat for a bit, chatted with my friends when they were there and watched the communal pile o'stuff when they weren't. Eventually I got home and stayed up chatting with Nazu till my folks left around 6:30am for a ferry and then I went to bed.

The rest of the weekend was less eventful, I was meeting up with some of my American relatives that are over visiting. We met up, got some pizza and then walked to The Cobblestone in Smithfield as they have a trad session that was recommended to my Cousins. We stayed for a round or two there, before heading over to Temple Bar on the insane mission of trying to find a decent pub that wasn't packed, played decent music (at a reasonable volume) and had somewhere to sit.

This proved to be a tricky task. We stopped briefly into the Auld Dubliner, ended up walking down Fleet St to Westmoreland St before doubling back up Dame St and stopping in the CitiBar for a round. After leaving the CitiBar, we tried to find a bar that one of the Girls had been in on one of her previous visits. She couldn't remember the name of it, or exactly where it was, so I had to work off of a vague description. But we were eventually successful (turned out it was the Mezz) and we got into the bar for what was our last stop of the night.

Sunday was thankfully even more relaxing. I had planned on bringing my Cousins on the Viking Splash Tour which is a fun spin round Dublin city pointing some of the historical landmarks in an ex WWII amphibious vehicle. Unfortunately the tours for Sunday were all sold out. After I rang my cousins to let them make other plans I killed some time in the City before heading home. Once I got home I just chilled, took a shower, cooked a meal and watched some movies while practicing on a Guitar. I was glad of the rest.

Monday was a hellish day in work, the phones wouldn't stop ringing and it was a constant stream of calls, though that does make for a faster day. Once I finished up I confirmed plans with my Cousins to do a session of Karaoke in the Ukiyo Bar. So there was a bit of madness (they tricked me into singing Madonna . . . . . yeaaaah tricked me, that's what happened) for an hour or two before going for a few Drinks in the International Bar.


And why the hell not?!!

Days since last post . . . .. 1

Ok so, so far I'm keeping on track but it's only been a day so it's not all that hard. I've had a fun day realising just how frickin' small this island is. If you don't know I live in Dublin, the glorious Capital (take that Cork!) of Ireland, the Emerald Isle if you will. Today I had planned to meet up with one of my friends before going for a quick gaming session with that awesome GM I mentioned in the last post. She was delayed due to the fantastic Bus service that we have, so I ended up meeting with the GM first and we waited for her together. Once she joined us, we went down to a small chocolate shop for a hot chocolate and ran into one of the couples we knew.

While waiting for our order, we had a great laugh talking amongst ourselves and watching the reactions of the passersby who tended to walk past at the worst possible moment (see the Coyote, law of.) and had no idea what we were talking about. . . . "The best line in Mrs. Doubtfire, 'Brace yourself Effie!'" followed by roars of laughter and a dirty look by a woman walking by. As she went on I had to look to my friends and say "I think her name was Effie?!" Cue more laughter.

One really good time later we finally finished up and went on our way. We stopped in a grocery store and picked up some fixings for Dinner before heading for the Bus. As we reached a set of traffic lights I noticed the girl standing at the lights was the girl who trained me in for my current job. She had left job just before Christmas and this was the first time I had seen her since then. We had a bit of a catch up as we waited for our bus, but she finally had to get on hers and my GM and I went back to his house.

And that's where you find me now. We've just eaten dinner and might just try get into the planned gaming session before the night is out.

And why the hell not?!!

Back to the Blogging!!

Ok so this is the first post in . . . . I don’t know how many months . . . . apologies for the delay but let’s face it no one who reads this is actually screaming for updates. So I’ve decided push myself and post more often . . . . try to gain more readers (not that those who do aren’t appreciated) and see if I can keep to an update schedule. To that end, for the rest of the year, I’m hoping to post on Monday – Wednesday – Friday . To do this I’m probably going to bend one or two of my rules for blogging but c’est la vie.

So unfortunately over the last few months things have been Rollercoaster like for me. I got involved with a girl who was fantastic, and fun, and cute, and made of win and awesome in equal measures, and for a short time life was good. It would have been perfect if she hadn’t recently gotten out of a 10 year relationship and was actually ready to be in another relationship. Now she was completely upfront about things and I made an informed decision to continue on regardless. We had a lot of fun but eventually it got to that point where we couldn’t get that balance . . . . . . it wasn’t enough for me but it was too much for her. So things ended, as amicably as they could, and I’m still licking my wounds from it.

Work has been consistent at least, I’ve been kept busy enough during office hours but nothing has left the office with me. There will always be those frustrations and tensions but I’ve been in worse working environments. While I’m not using my training or preferred skill sets (yet) at least I’ve got my time after hours that will always be “my time”. Speaking of my time let’s talk about gaming!

I’ve been having a lot of fun running an OWoD (Old World of Darkness) Werewolf game with Gogz and Dave and a couple of friends that haven’t been named yet. I like creating Characters and locations for games so I’ve had fun with this. Though I have been known to get carried away . . . . Gogz spent a couple points in the Mentor Background which gave him an NPC (Non Player Character) to contact if he ever needed help outside of the regular avenues. So I started thinking up this guy and as I was making him up I kind of went overboard on his stats and he ended up 2-3 levels higher than he should have been. But I had so much fun that I made up people he’d have known and a plot hook or two that’ll come up. So I had to tell Gogz shortly after “Em . . . Dude, you have 3 extra dots in Mentor.” Of course there were no complaints from him.

Another game I’m playing in is a Dark Heresy LARP (Live Action Role Play) which is run by a fantastic GM. Twenty months in and we’ve gone through about 8 players even more characters (one player is on his third) to the point where there’s only about 3 of the original players who are still on their original characters. It’s an espionage game set in the WarHammer 40K universe dealing with low level assets of the Inquisition. If you like to get an idea of the setting read The Eisenhorn Trilogy by Dan Abnett . . . . or the Ravenor Trilogy by Dan Abnett . . . . . pretty much anything by Dan Abnett. It’s always a fun game when you fear character death at every turn.

And from gaming we go to Conventions, much less to speak about this year. . . . . I’m counting down the days till Dragon*Con (21 if you’re interested) I don’t know much about who’ll be there this year as I’ve tried to avoid the disappointment that happens when you find out people have dropped out. One name I know will be there is Stan Lee. Only one word for that . . . . Excelsior!!! There will of course be my favourite webcomic artists (Jennie Breeden, Aaron Williams and Pete Abrams to name a few) and I’m hoping to pick up a few more sketches for my Comic Kilt.

And after Dragon*Con there will be the run up to Gaelcon! I’m not on the committee this year but I’ll still be in command of some minions **evil laugh** I don’t know what’s planned for this year but I know it’ll be awesome. More on that as it gets closer to October.
I’m going to wrap up but I’ll leave you with two pieces of advice:

1. Nothing good happens after 2am. (Yeah I heard it on “How I met your Mother” too, but it’s still good to follow)

2. Never ask a question you don’t already know the answer to.

Learn from my mistakes, because I haven’t yet.

And why the hell not?!!