People... I've met

There's a classic quote, along the lines of:

"Americans think 100 years is a long time; Europeans think 100 miles is a long way."

...that I was reminded of on several occasions during our time at Gencon.

A long time? Well when we did a very Segway tour, our host did at one point say: "This is a very old building... it was built in 1846." (Although to be fair, he said it with a chuckle and then added: "Though probably not to you guys.")

And a long way? Well on a load of occasions I had a conversation that went along the following lines:

Me: So where are you from?

Con Goer: Nebraska / Texas / Georgia / Somewhere miles and miles away.

Me: When did you fly in?

Con Goer: We drove.

I did it again and again. However hard I tried to stop doing it, I couldn't - although by the end of the con I'd changed to a related cock-up. ("When are you flying out?")

Why? Well over this side of the pond, we just don't drive that far.

Take us Londoners and our Edinburgh gaming friends, for example. Every March we go to Scotland's capital for Conpulsion. And every December they come down to London for Dragonmeet. Now I guess if we were more eco-friendly we'd take the train. And if we were poorer, we'd take a coach (bus). As it is, we always fly. But there's one thing we've never done, which is to drive. Why?

Because from London to Edinburgh is four hundred fucking miles!

A little over a year ago, I attended a wedding in Edinburgh. (I won't say who it is in case they don't want it talked about). Having flown up the day before and settled into the hotel, we got to the church at around two. There, we met three of the London guests. I was a bit confused as they hadn't been staying at the hotel. I asked someone when they'd flown in, and received an unbelievable reply: they'd driven from London to Edinburgh that day, starting out at some unearthly hour and driving four hundred miles solid.

The news spread through amazed whispers, accompanied by by confused looks. They'd driven four hundred fucking miles? In a single day? In the name of God, why? Had they left it too late to book flights? After all, no sane person would voluntarily submit themselves to such a feat of endurance, would they?

And then I came to Gencon, and found a race of automotive supermen with lead feet and cast-iron arses, who think nothing of getting in their cars and setting off across half a continent. (And that with a speed limit lower than ours). What can I say? I'm both awed and impressed. Not enough to copy you guys, I should stress. You won't catch me driving four hundred miles in a single day when I can sit in a magic tube at 30,000 feet doing 600 mph. You can keep thinking that one hundred years is a long time and I'll keep thinking that one hundred miles is a long way.

But I am seriously impressed.

Finally, of all journeys I heard of over the last weekend, I have to award the prize to the one reported to me by gmskarka - a journey from Kansas to Maine of one thousand, six hundred miles. Or to put it in a European context, London to Minsk.

Sir, I salute you.

I followed a link from ENWorld to Zach Houghton's liveblog of Gencon and found a huge set of descriptions and pictures, including one (with some very nice words) of some bloke attempting to flog his book.

...and so is singalongajonny, with "Tai A Yellow Noodle!". (Presumably a reference to this).

I'm not sure I am terribly romantic in gesture. Eeek. Maybe I need to try harder.

The glib answer to this question is "marry 'im!"

I guess early in our courtship I cooked him dinner at his house as a surprise, and assembled a table and chairs and bought a tablecloth. Not sure that counts as romantic, but it was done with love.

My husband, on the other hand, is the most demonstrably romantic man in the world. He has a way of being romantic in every thing he does. You know, like taking the bins out.

I could list a whole lot of stuff - but I think it comes down to the little things, like bringing me a blanket when I'm cold, or endlessly finding stuff that I've "lost" or driving into town to pick me up if I've accidentally had too many glasses of wine in the Hotel Du Vin. He is amazingly lovely and romantic.

Just typing this in the hotel lobby, before we get our luggage and call for a cab. I've got several other posts to make in the next few days giving snippets of my thoughts and observations about Gencon and Indianapolis - some good, a few bad.

But I will say now that I want to come back. If gaming is cocaine then Gencon is highly addictive crack. So grab me a spoon and hand me some rocks, because I'm up for more!

In the end, it was a very good con for us. We sold a good number of copies of Game Night, got some very good feedback, met some wonderful, friendly people, and hopefully sorted out a deal that will get the book into US game shops. (I'll give more on that when I have more info, but I will say thanks to luciddestiny for fixing it up. He was brilliant. It was like having a commercial director to take care of everything.)

Now to London via Chicago, and then onto the Discworld convention. Yes, after spending this weekend at the Indianapolis convention centre I'm taking my wife to the Birmingham NEC for the next. Dear God, she must love me!

For four days and three nights Indy blazed in the light of thirty-thousand geeks. Spend thirty seconds waiting at your hotel's elevator (and at our hotel, you could easily wait five minutes) and you'd get chatting to gamers. Walk down the street and you'd walk past gamers. Stop to scratch an itch in your arse and there'd be a bloke in a t-shirt just as dodgy as yours scratching his.

A lot of them had gencon badges, but that wasn't necessary. For we are gamers, and can recognise our kin. (Sometimes to avoid them, but that's another story).

And then, sometime around 7pm on Sunday, it just died. My favourite part of cons is always the partying that happens on the final night after the con finishes. I'd spent the week anticipating the answer to a very special question: how good would it be if thirty-thousand geeks had a party?

Well I didn't get to find out the answer to that question because it turned out that about twenty-nine thousand of them upped and pissed off as soon as the con finished.

( Read more... )

.... to go out for a lunchtime curry with the Bloke and feed scarysaxon and babysaxon chicken tikka masala? It was the most exciting colour red ever, and OK, scarysaxon isn't one yet, and only has 5 teeth, but she can still do some serious damage to an unsuspecting naan bread.

I choose to view this as cultural enrichment rather than child cruelty...

So Matt ran into P&E outside the Hotel du Vin the other night and Paul insisted we had *fun* this weekend.

Fun was duly set up for last night - dinner and a trial of our new cardgame - Wench!, a birthday present from rillaith and truemortality. I am pleased to report that Wench! is lots of fun and very silly indeed. Once we actually worked out the rules, it was even better.

As ever, I nearly faded at midnight, but just about managed to keep going 'till 2am.

Today we've had a visit from the Mother in Law and now we're settling down to some leftovers and last night's Big Brother.

To paraphrase (from a faulty memory) Douglas Adams, Gencon is mindbogglingly huge. You might think it's a long way to the shop to buy a loaf of bread, but that doesn't even begin to cover it. To attend Gencon is to realise that you are only one half-eaten peanut in a shipping crate full of snacks.

(Although it being located in the USA does at least offer the benefit of making you feel fit and svelte, given that about 30% of the attendees appear to have eaten the entire contents of the aforementioned shipping crate full of snacks).

As is usually the case with conventions, sales are somewhere between what I would have hoped and what I would have feared. But we are getting a very good response, with many people who've previously read the book coming to see us to say how much they enjoyed it.

WTF moment (in a good way!) of the con so far came last night, when the group of us (me, Jules, luciddestiny and syleth) were attending Game Live, a really fun event in which the Indianopolis Symphony Orchestra played theme music from varous computer games. I was making my way back to my seat after the intermission, squeezing past the couple who were sitting next to us, when the girl suddenly said, "Excuse me, but are you Jonny Nexus?"

For the five seconds it took me to remember that I was still wearing a t-shirt with the words "Jonny Nexus" written on the back, I really thought I was someone.

Yesterday evening, squeezed in-between the closing of the trade hall at 6 and Game Live at 8, I did a podcast interview with Ross Payton of Role Playing Public Radio. It was really cool, and I hope what I said was at least moderately interesting, and perhaps even informative. Certainly, for pretty much all the questions Ross asked, I could think of something to say - which I think says a lot about the skill with which Ross was questioning me and the quality of the questions he was coming up with. It was a real pleasure, I had a really good time, and I hope people like the end result.

Well that's about it, so I'm going to head off over to the convention hall to watch for the final time the daily rush for the WotC stand. Each morning they give away 250 limited edition somethings to the first people there, and so each morning I and my stall neighbours watch open-mouthed at the flow of humanity walking, running, sprinting and in some cases hurdling their way past us.

I don't attempt to pitch to them. It's like the melt-waters of spring after the winter snows have melted, turning a formerly trickling brook into a mighty torrent that sweeps all before it. You just have to stay on the high-ground and watch from a distance.

Might try and sell them something when they're on their way back though.

Saturday.

I woke this morning thinking it was Sunday. No, I'm not on crack, but we had the day off yesterday - half a day for matt - a whole day for me, so it seems like we should have been in Sunday already.

I had my six-weekly maintenance appointment on Friday and because of Julia's holiday (how very dare she?) I am all lovely-haired, but not waxed or polished. Oh dear.

Today we've been into Birmingham ostensibly for shopping and to see an exhibition. We managed the shopping (I needed shoes - since the incident on the escalator a couple of weeks ago ruined my favourite pair...and a mystery incident claimed another pair). I was successful in shoe purchase (two pairs - one in the sale), Matt found a shirt he liked and what with the skirt I bought - we had a good morning.

We spent our breakfast coffee time discussing the upcoming HOLIDAY. I've not really done any thinking about it or planning for it (really - I've been in denial) but we've started thinking about where we'll go and what we'll do. Just as well - as it's 9 weeks time!

Tonight we have guests. I have soup to make. I have a house to tidy round. I'd better get on with it.

Hi all,

Just a very quick update, because I'm trying to type this on a US keyboard on a free hotel PC with a bloke waiting to use it (he's being very polite, but he's still waiting).

We didn't win the ENnie, which wasn't surprising. Frankly, if we had, I'd have asked for a recount, fearing some kind of Welsh Culture Minister moment. I'll admit to a smidgen of disappointment, but in the end, it was cool to be nominated.

Sales are not bad. Not as much as I would like, but then the world isn't built like that. But we are getting some very good feedback, including many people who aren't buying the book because they already have it, and have dropped by to say hi and tell me how much they liked it. Which is very cool.

More soon, with pictures.

I know it's the big hoopla to post your critters and giggle over the 3 remaining weeks...

But behind all that bullshit (excuse my french), there's a really great story of them releasing the inspiration prototypes:

http://www.spore.com/comm/prototypes

Check it out...

I couldn't settle last night - a combination of being accidentally woken as I was dropping off and some sore lungs. I think I dropped off about 1am, though it could have been later.

I slept for a few hours, then woke again before 5am. Oh joy.

One of the things about this August is the RAIN! I sleep with my window open, and the amount of rain last night and this morning was phenomenal. The garden is looking really quite green, and even though I don't like the hot weather (or what passes for hot weather here in the Midlands) I can't help wishing there was a little more sitting outside and a bit less drying laundry indoors.

I have a mild ennui, I think. I'm sort of a bit tired and a bit bored but I have plenty to do, and I'm not sure I really want to do any of it.

Tonight I've made some lasagne for dins, as it's one of Matt's favourites. I played Ute Lemper loudly as I prepared our food. My German isn't what it was, and although some of it is straightforward "Ich bin ein Vamp!" there's something about the sound of Ute singing out her words with perfect clarity in declamatory German that goes perfectly with chopping onions. Not knowing what all of it means is fun sometimes. You can make up your own meanings.

ThelovelyElaine has been, so the house is all lovely again, and she's been going great guns in the garden. Not sure if it was her or the lovelyJoeClarke who has jet-washed our patio, but I'm delighted, either way.

Husband is currently addicted to Dexter and season 3 of The Wire, and I wonder if those are contributing to my strange dreams at the moment.

Anyway, posting this has lifted me from my ennui, which is a bonus. Now time to get dins out the oven, make some salad and settle down with husband for Uni Challenge.

Back in December 2005 I wrote about the deep pain I was suffering as a result of finding that the thing being built in the town centre was not the ten-screen multi-screen cinema I so desperately wanted, but was in fact a block of flats. (The ten-screen multiplex turned out to be stage two of the development).

My pain was even immortalised by my singing stalker, in verse.

But it got worse. Stage two never happened. The flats got built, and a 24 hour Asda opened. We even got a gym. But the carpark that was supposed to be stage two, subbornly remained a car park. Eventually, the council revoked the developer's license and we were back to square one, with the council promising a consultation exercise to find out what people wanted.

And this afternoon in the health food shop I encountered the first stage of that consultation exercise: a stack of postcards. I grabbed one for me and one for my other half. I don't think anyone will be surprised by what I wrote on mine.

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Friday night, we went to the Royal Albert Hall to watch Prom 29 of the BBC Proms.

There's a lot of fear surrounding classical music, and it's true that to someone raised on modern "pop" music, a first visit to a classical music concert can be a bewildering and confusing experience - a seemingly random cacophony of noise without melody or rhythm. But when the conductor arrives on stage, they start playing, and you realise that the previous noise was just the orchestra warming up, it all starts to make sense.

We listened to four pieces:

• A new piece by Chen Yi entitled Olympic Fire.
  
• Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.
  
• Vaughan Williams's Five Variants of "Dives and Lazarus".
  
• Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 6 in E minor.

It's often assumed that modern classical music, much like literary novels and free verse poetry, discards those things that the common man likes (i.e. melody) in a possibly misguided effort to distinguish itself from the past. And Olympic Fire certainly was different, with the violins beating out a harsh machine-gun rhythm I'd have expected from Wagner on a particularly nazi day (I mean that in a good way!), the trombones and kettle drums really going for it, all interspersed with some very good solos on the xylophone.

I loved it. It was such an onslaught on the senses that it took me a while to get into it, but when I did, it had me. Kudos to the orchestra for performing what I suspect was quite a physically demanding piece.

And as always, the Albert Hall is awesome, a miniature colosseum topped with an awe-inspiring domed roof. I'm almost tempted to say that it's wasted on music; it should be hosting gladiatorial contests.

I think it's better to be prepared for things we *know* will happen, rather than some fictional possibility.

So - I'm prepared for a rainy day, but no, not prepared for some fictional nonsense. Pragmatic, but dull.

Good day yesterday. Just the right mix of activity and snoring on the sofa.

Up early and into Solihull to run some errands - coffee (of course), haircut for husband, and just some browsing in the Mac store.

Home to the lovelyJoeClarke come to do something to one of our chimneypots (long story), lunch, and my favourite bit, the sleep on the sofa, my current book pushing a pattern into the flesh on my side....

Last night out to celebrate another birthday (not mine!) with drinks and dinner in La Tasca. All very jolly, though I was driving, so had to ignore the sangria (which is always a challenge) and make with the water and diet coke.

This photo was taken before dinner, and is a homage to the famous incident in the cupboard that led to immediate friendship between dunkdunkdunk and me.

Looong day again. In the office 'till just before 8pm.

Last night after work for a coffee with a lovely colleague and her friend. Hanging out for a while...too long, so dinner in Cafe Soya with lovely husband.

Picked up a copy of Macworld which has an article on 'testing' (read 'trying out') "32 of the best iPhone apps" - which was a coincidence as one of the things I read last night was this piece about the quality and selection of iPhone apps.

I know I've said it before, but the iPhone 3G is all that (and a bag of chips).

No, I'm still not down with the mini touch keyboard for SMSing (I SMS A LOT) but the predictivetext+ (somehow better than T9, even if it is T9) is making me happy.

Stuff it doesn't do that I would like it to:

1) Act as a bluetooth modem. I get free unlimited data, but I don't have a wireless dongle for my MBP. Sometimes I used to internet sharing from my other smartphone to the MBP where wireless wasn't available (or it was £10 a day)

2) cut and paste. I love some cut and paste.

3) MMS. Seriously. Why can't the iPhone give me my MMS crack?

but these are minor things, and I'm prepared to wait. Compared to the iPhone apps: I run Aurora Feint, Facebook, LastFM and Twitterific - these are minor, minor complaints.

I can't believe that a device can live up the hype - this one does!

I heartily recommend co-sleeping to anyone having or thinking of having a child. Simon stayed in bed with myself and John last night*. He woke us once because he was hungry, I latched him on and we all went back to sleep. So I basically got a full night's sleep on the fourth night of my child's life, and my second night at home with him. How many new mothers can say that?

Also, wow, sleep, how I'd missed thee.


*I hadn't come across this concept myself, but my sister and her husband have been planning on co-sleeping for some time and having seen how well it worked for them we decided to give it a shot. We took many precautions to ensure he'd be safe, including me plaiting John's hair because he refuses to learn how himself. We also have a bassinet beside the bed that we can put him down in if we need to (which is also very useful downstairs during the day).