Introductions

This post is party to push the butt off the top of my blog (I am in public and every time I open that window I fear I'll make people uncomfortable).

I never introduce myself to bartenders or baristas.  I know when I slung coffee it was always a weird position.  People just assume they have an relationship with you because they see you everyday.  You HAVE to deal them.  So now, as a customer, I let them make introductions.  So it was nice when they finally introduced themselves today.  It is a bit of acceptance.  "We are cool with you being here everyday."  Although it might just be "We want to know your name so we can mock you when you leave."

No.  I am not insecure.

Update:  They have had three conversations in the last 15 minutes - Three's Company plot points, whow you would least like to be trapped in an elevator with, and what things can be improved by wrapping them in bacon.  Yes, this is why I hang out here.

Cephalerotica

Brookelynn has a coined a phrase/fetish.

Cephalerotica - images that combine eroticism and octopi.

Here is her Flickr set. (Warning! Most are NSFW.)

Perhaps I need a sex/tentacle subset now.

Update: The comments led to 100 Girls and 100 Octopuses.

(via BoingBoing)

"Well, I blew that resolution..."

Sign at a Duane Reade on Jan. 1st.

(via The Gothamist)

"I'm Batman!"

Note: JoBlo points out that Bale's Batman voice sound like Cookie Monster.  Yes, it does.

(via AOTS via JoBlo)

Wait for it...

(via Arbroath)

"21 years in captivity..."

The coffee/ice cream shop around the corner from my home that I am currently blogging from has a childcare/playspace (like a non-corporate Gymboree).  A 4 year boy in puffy coat and mittens is standing in center of coffeeshop portion.  His father is standing by the entrance of the playspace trying to convince his son to come play.  The boy is obviously nervous.  

"Come on, Kevin.  Let's go play."

"I'm scared..."

"It's okay.  Nelson Mandela will be here soon.  Let's go play."

"No.  I'm scared."

Nelson Mandela is coming.  He'll be here any moment."

I am operating under the impression that "Nelson Mandela" is the name of one of Kevin's friends (which say TONS about my neighborhood), but if the actual Nelson Mandela walks in the door and buys cones for all the children, '09 will be the best year ever.

Update: Nelson Mandela got here.  He immediately took charge and made sure all the others kids were playing well together.

Update 2: Now Nelson Mandela is putting on a puppet show.  He has a lion and a zebra puppet and roaring.  I think it is symbolic morality play but unsure what the message is.

Speaking of Rock Band...

Rumor of LEGO Rock Band in the works.

(via Kotaku)

The Birth of '09: Music, Killing, Cold

My New Years was spent up at the Jersey Shore at an adorable beach house of a friend.  Mixed group of friends (meaning the host's friends) in a relatively small space.  

Too be honest it was pretty much just the way I like to celebrate New Years.  Because of the space you are basically forced to be social (which, to be fair, I am often guilty of not being) and interacting as a group.  And seeing as everyone is sleeping there, there is none of that discovering that you are alone at the end of the night.

Played a lot of Rock Band 2 for the first time.  Actually I watched it more than played it.  I enjoy watching it.  It is definitely not a skill I'll ever pick up well.  I really did enjoy playing drums... even if not done well.  I know it has been said over and over, but it is amazing that how Guitar Hero/Rock Band has become one of THE adult party games.  I had more than one discussion on that topic.

Played a fair amount of Taboo which always a sign of a good time.  There is a fair amount of improv lessons to be learned from it.  For example, how much communication can be given by just changing one's voice.

Someone brought Settlers of Catan but I missed the boat at jumping into playing it. (Oh, if only they had the expansion for 5-6 players!)  I so love Catan.  I could play Catan every night and be happy.  I hope I hid it well, but I was super jealous that there was a game of Catan being played just ten feet away from me.  "Sheep!  I have Wood for Sheep!"  Seriously, that joke never gets old.

I finally played Werewolf (not the World of Darkness RPG but the party game variant of Mafia).  Werewolf is a game that seems to have filtered into the improv community with a vengeance.  Get more than 10 improvisers together and they'll often play.  As I knew I would, I enjoyed it a lot.  (The process of getting a mixed group of people, most of them at least slightly drunk, to play a game like Werewolf is always a very interesting study of group dynamics.)  My bossy/director/gamemaster side took pleasure being the Storyteller.  I am sure I'll jump at the chance to play more.  (Hint hint everyone.)

On Wednesday night there was one slight problem: the heat wasn't completely working.  Just enough to get it to the high 40°s/low 50°s.  Outside was somewhere around 1° or 0.5° with windchill (big gusty winds).  But, you know, nothing bonds a group together like bitching about the cold.  I learned that in Minnesota.  I have a feeling that the Donner Party and those rugby players in the Andes really got along and were super bonded until they started to dead.  Actually I better those that didn't get eaten were even more friendly with each other after dinner.  ANYWAY, the heat was fixed the next day thanks to the wonderful work of the parents of the host.  They're the type parents that just enjoy seeing people happy.  When they ran out to buy a new filter for the heater, they came back with tons of KFC and other foods.  So wonderful and giving and welcoming.

Final note: Dick Clark was just scary.  And sad.  Slightly moving, but most scary.

Anyway, '09 is has started very well indeed.

Wunder Boner: "My wife would sure love one of those!"

I hope you all get a wunder boner in '09.

(via Boing Boing)

Thank you.

Thank you, family and friends.  You always believe in me... even when I (1) have a hard time doing it myself and (2) give no signs of having anything to believe in.  You fill me will joy and hope.  You make the world a beqautiful place to be.

Time waster

I'm waiting on some downloads playing Super Obama World, which is pretty awesome.

Track, Trig, Tripp

Bristol Palin had her baby.  Named it Tripp.  Apparently the Palins believe firmly in TR names for boys.  

By request...

Here's the thing.  I know that my brain doesn't quite function in this reality.  It is some where else a large portion of my days.  It's often hard for me to find ways to get those thoughts and images out into this world.  That's one reason why I like gaming.

When gaming the other night, I realized that a play stronger than I do on stage.  That's ridiculous.  I need to channel that energy and intensity.  In part is the difference in goals.  Gaming is LONG long form improv.  It's not trying to make the next minute and a half entertaining but make the story mean something.  But there is something there.

I'm going to the Jersey shore for New Year's.  I'm very happy with that choice.  But I need a sleeping bag in case I end up on the floor and not in a bed.  I'm fine with sleeping on the floor.  I also need gloves.

I am debating going to the gaming store to look for 10+ year old books.  I don't need them but I am realizing that there are so many bits and details that I have forgotten.  I could just make them up myself I suppose.  But the next chapter is going to be hard to balance.  I need to introduce the characters to the world and how the world works and how different factions think the world works.  The players should feel that their way is right and true.  (Not "right as in "just" but "right" as in "best.")  And it needs to be convincing and, most importantly, rich.  The more I can flesh it out the better.

Maybe that is my improv problem.  I have always had a problem with specifics in scenes.  Although I am obsessed with pop culture, it is often in broad terms.  I never remember lyrics to songs or the names of bands or actors.   I immediate jump to grand ideas and thoughts.  I can flesh out a world of entirely making without problem.  I can even share that creation process with someone.  But when an audience is not in that world, when they are observing it, specifics can be great to make it so that they can relate to it.  

I'm not quite being clear.

My relationship with my body is a complex one.

I am either too disconnect to the world outside or too connected to it.

The Cool, Refreshing Tatse of Tentacle Rape

Tentacle Grape, the caffeinated grape soda.  Actual product.

"This new beverage, inspired by the genre of adult Japanese animation called Hentai, is a perfect caffeine rush for gamers, cosplayers, and comic book fans."

I was about to qualify that, while it is a real product, it is also tongue in cheek... but that phrase is too close to the topic.

(via Kotaku via Bent)

Good reads

After playing "When will UPS drop by today?" for three days, I received a lovely collection of comicbooks yesterday (thank you!).  I of course dived in pretty quick.

The Umbrella Academy written by Gerard Way, art by Gabriel Bá.

Darn fun.  Gooky.  Goofy.  But dark and moving.  Reminds me a lot of Doug TenNapel's work.  And very very pretty.  Your basic superhero team story.

The Alcoholic written by Jonathan Ames, art by Dean Haspiel.

One of those heart breaking works.  Very funny and truth full.  Ames is a regular at The Moth (in fact I am pretty sure I saw him there 3 years ago) and it shows.  

Both are great.

Another attempt at the ol' gamin'

Last night I ended up starting another game, for better or worse.  I am hoping that I am structuring this story/attempt in such a way that will be easier to keep going.  (1) It is less ambitious in scope (at least to start).  The last one, the large meta-plot was main driving plot, which meant there was a ton of balancing of how information got delivered to the players.  Inthis case, I am making it up as I go along.  I had no idea what I was going top do until I hear the characters.  Today I have some theme ideas and such.  Luckily most of the beginning story would be just self-discovery, which hopefully means that the players and I get to discover the story together.  (2)  The setting is pulled much closer from the source material.  The last one was such a massive mish-mash of sources that I ended up creating so so much.  Which I enjoy, but it makes it hard to pull things out thin air.  And seeing as this is set in a gaming world I spent many many years in, I know it forward and backward.  (3) Because it is a world I adore and miss and am curious about what it is like 7 years later, it is a fun way for me to explore it again.  It's kind of like the new BH90210.  It's a bit like the story I told with Liz and Erin playing werewolves where I looked at the affects Silvertongue was having on the world.  (Yes, that last sentence made no sense except to about 6 people.  And if any of the those 6 people end up in NYC, I might have you do a cameo.)  (4) It was hard to do the last game because there felt like there was a need to follow almost every waking moment of the characters... and their lives where very tight interwoven.  This has more freedom to one-on-ones and such.  Because, more than anything else, it was the juggling of schedules that killed the last one.  (Okay,  it isn't dead.  It is just hard to look at since I know it is anywhere from 10 to 20 sessions from complete.)

Anywhozits, its fun to watch people play for the first time.  And its fun to see new people stumble in to the shadows the NYC I knew before I ever moved here.  Besides it gave me an excuse to play Hedge again.

When my bias shows

I was scanning google news and I read the title of this article as "Rich people will soon thank Bush."

Who watches the Watchcats?

This immediately made me thing of the book The Mouse and Child.

(via Arboath)