Still 29!

Thanks all for the excellent shenanigans over the weekend, and the lovely presents. As you probably noticed, I had a very good time. Sunday was less fun, with the feeling poorly, but Debbie took wonderful care of me and I survived. I even managed to get out to see the set in L&S's garage, and look at curtain material with Debbie. Admittedly, I mostly leaned on furniture while she was looking at curtains, but I rapidly realised that I have no particular agenda when it comes to curtain patterns. Our offer on a house goes unconditional today. All is looking pretty good, with one minor exception - the curtains actually belong to the tenant, not the vendor, and we can't get a quote in time for how much it will cost. I guess we can just throw down a figure and see if it's palatable. Problem is, having never had curtains made, I'm somewhat in the dark. The helpful person I spoke to at Radfords said it would probably be something less than $9000. Probably less than half that, depending on what we got. That seems like a lot? Then again, I think she was talking 'worst case scenarios' and, having heard what our situation was, was avoiding under-quoting. Anyways, last thing for today: Character Name Matt C Traits Evil Laughy Cetacean-friend Boils things Goals Be elected Prelate Frame Norman for the murder Bring about Luke's downfall Age 30 You were raised by chickens on a lard-infested farm. To this day eggs are your closest friends. You keep one with you at all times, its name is Barry and you have drawn a face on it. It has a goatee. Power 7 Fame 9

Weekend Fun

I am greatly looking forward to the weekend's shenanigans. We have a flat inspection on Saturday morning, which is not exactly fun, but is not quite so daunting since Green Acres cleared the garden for us yesterday. It was in a pretty shocking state of neglect, but they did a wonderful job of cleaning it up. After that, it's bowling and beverages and hanging out, which should be a lot of fun. It's nice that a few work peeps are coming, as well as gamers. They're not my workmates, as I tend not to talk to people at work all that much, but rather Debbie's workmates who we have become good friends with over the past couple of years. It should be a fun afternoon/night! It's cool that we can use the garden if we want to, though the weather is getting a little chilly for outdoorsiness after 6pm. For those interested, the price of having a hilly garden and cobbled area cleared after much neglect was $380 - and well worth every cent. There is other exciting news in the pipeline, dependent on builder's report, title search and such. I shall post details once it's settled :)

sarumata

Shake a spear?

Unfortunately I won't be gaming on Thursday this week because of a Shakespeare festival. It's a bummer that they clash, but Thursday seems to be a popular night for school activities (parent teacher interviews, meet-the-parents nights, prizegiving etc.). It's always a joy to see students getting up and giving the bard a try, and there are usually several great performances. Debbie and I went to the national finals a couple of years back, and they were very impressive. Debbie has suggested that I should assemble and train a team of students to be the school's video team - a group with the know-how and enthusiasm to record and edit together videos of significant events. It's a great idea, and one that I may give some time to once I've waded my way through the mountain of marking I seem to have scattered about my desk. Oh, and I should put a notice into the daily notices about original music too, for the 48. Better dash and get some of this stuff done!

Birthday Presents!

I've been meaning to make a list like this for quite a few years, and keep forgetting: Perennial Gifts: Alcohol of yummy varieties (d'you like Baileys?) A4 drawing pad Cool stationery, like pens and mechanical pencils and... twink? Book/CD vouchers Audiobooks that are not Artemis Fowl/Supernaturalists - YA or classic or Terry Pratchett... Dice, especially d4's, d8's and oddly d12's One-offs Pith Helmet Furry Russian Hat LCD Monitor (17"?) Internal DVD drive Kingdom Come graphic novel V for Vendetta graphic novel Watchmen graphic novel Equilibrium DVD (I'm teaching it to my Y13 class this year!) Adaptation DVD Basic, Old School RPG books for the bookshelves at the back of my classroom. Preferably with kewl art so kids will want to pick them up and take a look. I did have external hard-drive on the list, but then I bought myself one as a birthday present. It's nifty - 40gb and quite small (notebook drive in a 2.5" USB enclosure). There are much more capacious drives to be had, but for the $ and size it's cool. I also received a rockin' ipod video (30gb) from Debbie. It's awesome. She gave it to me early, since my birthday's not 'til the 11th. So, there's some stuff that I wants. I also like simple birthday greetings and the company of friends, so Saturday should be awesome. I don't expect presents from anyone at all (well, except my parents - they'll pretty much never be off the hook on that one). In fact, I might find it awkward to receive presents in a public situation. But for next-year Matt, when loved ones ask "what do you want for your birthday?", I can at least look at this list for some ideas. Except of course I'll be over 30 then, so the answer will always be powertools. And a shed (or sheds) to keep them in.

Back in the Saddle

Ahh, 'tis a fine thing to be back at work. All that free time and sleep was really getting to me :P We watched Deadwood season one over the holidays (courtesy of Luke and Sam) and it was very, very good. Now I should be working, and kind of am in the background (assembling a wedding dvd for a work mate). Better dash!

Content Free Since Term 1!

Being on holiday is not conducive to me blogging. Many exciting things have happened. I will write about 2 of them: Nocturnum Session One I ran the first session of a 19-episode Call of Cthulhu campaign for Debbie, Luke and Sam this week. It was a very Old Skool Cthulhu adventure, complete with shotguns. We spent about 5 hours playing, which is actually a pretty long session for us. Our Thursday games tend to be an action packed 2 and a half hours, so this was a double-hit. The choice of Cthulhu d20 is an interesting one, and one which I am pretty happy with. Fortunately Luke is very familiar with d20, and I've played in enough games to know the basics. It had a couple of distinct advantages over BURPS: - Hit Points. The characters are 4th level, giving them 4d6 hitpoints to start with. This means that they all start around the upper range of what a classic Cthulhu character would have, with attacks doing similar amounts of damage. - Healing. With hospital care the characters regained hit points in a matter of days, when classic Cthulhu would have required months of bedrest. - Leveling Up. At the end of every adventure, the PCs will level up (this is generous - the rulebook recommends every other adventure. However, given that the party is half the size of the usual, twice the advancement seems fair). They will gain improved skills, more HP, feats, stat improvements and such. They'll get tougher as the odds against them get worse. All this means that the characters might actually survive to see the second half of the campaign. This is a great thing, as too many Cthulhu campaigns go from serious to silly as you churn through characters. I had a good time running it, we had a few giggles over one or two 'classic' d20isms (such as briefcases - with traps!), and I'm looking forward to next session. 48 Film Competition I'm super excited about this. We had a meeting yesterday, and it felt good to see that we've learned some stuff from last year. It's also good that there isn't a LARP on the same weekend :) I am on the editing team, and Debbie is going to be the 2nd AD (extra wrangler and general troubleshooter) and hopefully an actor as well (the two should work together fine). We have bagsied a place to sleep at Norman's, just in case the editing of Saturday's footage needs doing overnight. It's a great bunch of people, with some awesome talent to draw on. The challenge is to channel all that fantastic creative energy and good will into something that comes across on screen, on time. I am confident and optimistic and excited. I also feel that we all have the fact that we missed the deadline as one of the tools in our utility-belts: we can all dig deep or push a little harder to get things done because we know we have to. Squee!

Just for Jenni

Cats. They are the most beautiful and elegant creatures in the world. Sometimes I look at my cat and I really understand why the Egyptians worshipped them. In, like, ancient times. I don't think they worship them any more, but they should, because cats are so totally Cockney. Today my cat was walking across the room when it stopped. Then it walked some more. It was so cute! Later it was sleeping, and I was all, "wow, that's so CUTE!". Because my cat is cuter than yours.

Queen of a Kingdom of Biscuits and Sleep

Ah, holidays. A fine, fine time. Debbie and I are greatly enjoying the not-being-at-work. There have been many fun things so far, including:

• A birthday party, complete with medical drama!
• Several films and vids.
• Boardgames and chocolate and visiting family
• Text messages from Italy and England
• Some sleeping in
• A really nice vegetable soup
• Choosing of birthday presents (toys!)

We have also had time to observe the sleeping patterns of our cat, and have noted that as the weather grows colder, the amount of time she spends not-on-the-bed becomes very, very small. We can go out for the whole day, and return to find the cat in exactly the same position. Now, she may have moved as far as her bowl to eat some biscuits, but the amount of cat hair that she sheds on the bed would suggest that that is the limit of her adventuring. She also lurks around in the morning and starts trying to push us out of bed at around 8-9am, so she can steal the warm bits of the bed. She will do charming things like lie across our feet, or walk up and down on the pillows (and our heads), or try to squeeze in between us and purr loudly in our ears. Hmmm, I think this is the most that I have ever blogged about my cat. Yay me!

First reviews in for Game Chef

Yay! Feedback! I have posted my 4 reviews on the game chef forums, and have had 2 reviews of my game posted so far. They are here: http://www.1km1kt.net/forum/ftopic838.html Some positive things in there. If nothing else, one reviewer said of my example of play: "the example of play is friendly (and for once, sounds like an actual example of actual play)" The other said: "The example of play isn’t really that helpful. It is funny to read, but it doesn’t really seem to clarify any of the game concepts. " Hooray for example of play! I think it was Svend's suggestion. Anyways, I feel like once again I have learned a bunch about how games are put together, and have a sense of accomplishment at having finished a project - even a silly 5 page one like 'We Have the Technology'. Now I just need to file away all these gems of wisdom for next year :) Oh, and one of my reviewers is in the games club which Morgue started. Small world! Next project: Kapcon SDC scenario. I shall finish the one I started after K13, then work on a second idea I had a couple of weeks ago.

The Power of Positivity

I've been thinking a lot lately about how important it is to stay positive. It's tiring work being a teacher, and it's possible to get bogged down in all the little stuff, and lose sight of the awesome goodness that is going on around you. Some concrete examples, and thoughts of late: *Being asked to video-tape an event like a school concert can be viewed as extra work, which is seldom a welcome thing (especially at the end of a term). On the other hand, you can look at it as an opportunity to see a bunch of students excelling and enjoying themselves in a different context. Popping in to a rehearsal for 5 minutes today was enough to give me a marked boost of enthusiasm for an upcoming concert, and I am now fully committed to and positive about the filming (compared to my prior ambivalence). *Making positive comments about ideas suggested by students, even when I don't necessarily agree with them, can result in improved rapport with the student in question. Something as simple as saying "that's an interesting take on things," or teasing out more detail with "I like what I'm hearing, take it a step further," acknowledges that the student is trying, and gives them opportunities to keep working and contributing. *Simple positive reinforcement can be surprisingly effective. Asking "who's going to the awesome concert on Friday?" rather than "who's going to the concert on Friday?" can make a difference. Just one word, if used in the right place, or used repeatedly, can reinforce a message. The same is true of the reverse - using negative language can erode the goodwill and enthusiasm of students. It can be a nasty spiral if I'm having trouble with a class - I am not pleased with their efforts, so I have to tell them off, so they feel bad about themselves or not encouraged, so they lower their effort, so I have to tell them off… Fortunately it works well the other way around, with compliments feeding good behaviour feeding compliments. I've been noticing this pattern with Kapcon too. The better Kapcon gets, the higher people's expectations rise. The more people expect, the more GMs and organizers deliver. There have been massive advances at Kapcon over the past 6 - 8 years, due to a lot of hard work and some great positive feedback. Keeping that post-Kapcon buzz going is a challenge, as it naturally dips as people get into the routine of the year. Confusion should be a good boost, as will BOD (which Debbie and I are now planning to fly down for). One of the best things that individuals can do to help promote Kapcon is to tell their friends about it, and to spread the word about all the awesome stuff that goes on at Kapcon. Positive word of mouth is by far the best tool for promoting and building Kapcon. Improvements are being made year-by-year, thanks to the suggestions of attendees and the injection of fresh volunteer blood every couple of years (the current pattern sees front-people running Kapcon twice, then handing it off to someone else. This is a huge commitment from the front-people, and it has clearly paid off in 2 ways - each person has introduced refinements of the systems each year, and there is a growing support group of people who have run highly successful conventions, who help mentor and guide the new blood). It's important to look around sometimes and appreciate how much support and how much positive energy there is around - in a school, a social group or an organisation. I've got a lot to be positive about, and a lot to be thankful for. So I say a heart kia ora to my whanau, my friends and my colleagues, and I send positive vibes in a broad spectrum to you all. Ka pai. Tino pai. [Yes, I think I have now exhausted my knowledge of Te Reo Maori. Except for a few snippits of a mihi, and the awesome phrase "Kei te kanikani ahau", which means "I am dancing".]

Weather, whether... wether?

I have added a new word to my vocabulary. Apparently a wether is a castrated goat. Who knew? Probably a lot of goat farmers and enthusiasts (I didn't want to say goat fanciers, as I have heard terrible stories about Palmerston North...). I am keenly awaiting reviews of my Game Chef game, even though they will be terrible. I saw a game that I thought was really quite good score 17/50! I hope I make it into double figures for at least one review, or at least get a positive comment somewhere. Still, even if it's all accurate and derogatory, I shall not let it get me down. I enjoyed the experience, and it has forced me to read other entries, and in doing so I feel like I've learned a lot about game design. [When your existing knowledge is limited, it's easy to feel like you've learned a lot. It's similar to having a buck in your pocket, and through hard work earning another dollar. You've still only got $2, but you've doubled your wealth!)]

Home Alone

Man, time flies when you're wasting time on the internet. I had plans for tonight, like tidying up and folding laundry and all kinds of chore-doing, but I only got about an hour of useful stuff done. Then I read blogs and NZRaG and looked at geeky toys (like USB enclosures and laptop hard drives to make a portable hard drive) and read more blogs and 1km1kt and such, and now it's late. I think I'd better go do the dishes, tidy up some laundry, and look at going to bed. That's not exactly fun, but it ain't getting any earlier... In fun news, emails about the 48 hour film competition have started bouncing around, and I am all kinds of keen :)

Sensory Overload

This weekend was quite something. There was a nice balance of being at home relaxing, and going out and seeing cool stuff. Friday Lots of Chardonnay. 7 different NZ wines, with blind tasting and analysis (of a very crude kind. Comments like 'it really attacks the gum line' and 'plenty of tang in the sinuses' are not the most refined). Saturday A trip down to Wellington to have lunch, see a brilliant exhibition at the civic gallery, watch V for Vendetta, and then spend a highly pleasant evening at Jenni and Lee's. The exhibition is by an Australian artist called Patricia Piccinini. It's called 'In Another Life', and it's a mix of photographs (with cute/odd creatures photo-shop'd in), sculptures that were both beautiful and cute and creepy, and odd cute technology stuff like li'l baby trucks. I found it to be a fascinating exhibition, as it was masterfully skilleriffic, beautiful, and combined emotions of comfort, familiarity, the alien, and sadness. Quite moving, and incredibly impressive. Me liked it. V for Vendetta has leapt into first place of my favourite comic-book adaptations. It is teh awesome. And the fine company of people who happened to be seeing another film at the same time as us was wonderful, even if some of them did make comments about Jake and Heath using their flatulence for fart-fishing (like dynamite fishing, only you stick your arse in the water). Wedding photos were lovely. Sunday 2 episodes of Miss Marple (at about 1 hour 20 minutes each), plus 4 episodes of Lost (thanks J&L!), with breaks in between for marking (the horror!) and going for a walk. We ate soup, too, which was lovely. Monday Back in the saddle again. Just 9 more teaching days to go, and on one of those I'll be off on a course!

Under Seige

There was some ugliness at work yesterday, with the mob mentality in full effect. It's an unpleasant thing to have about 30 or 40 people banging on the doors and windows, shouting and swearing. Fortunately there was a phone handy, so I could contact the main office for some support. I am reminded of comments Debbie made in the past, that people can look mighty damn ugly when they're being violent and aggressive. On a more pleasant note, it's the weekend tomorrow, and I am greatly looking forward to it. The weariness of the end of term is starting to sink in, and sleeping in and not seeing teenagers is a greatly good thing. The next two weeks might be a little tough, with extra hours and frazzled nerves, but there's a break coming soon enough. Oh, and plans are slowly being hatched for a joint 30th birthday celebration, perhaps around the [date to be sorted out, a Saturday in April/May, perhaps the 6th of May?] There will be bowling, and curry, and drinking, and possibly some Singstar. Further news as the plan takes shape...

Game Chef 2006 Entry

My rather silly 5 page entry can be found here: http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/We_Have_the_Technology.php There were 61 entries this year, and some of them look pretty damn awesome. Judging will take place over the next couple of weeks. I'm very curious to check out the top 8 entries, and the overall winner. As Morgue said yesterday, it's damn impressive what some people can achieve in a week!

To Absent Friends

Y'all is good people in my books, fer sure.

The rain it raineth all the time

I find it interesting the ways in which kids get hooked into topics at school. My Year 12 students have been struggling to read a book which is an autobiography of a young black woman growing up in the South in the 30s and 40s. I've found it hard to get them interested and motivated, but there were 2 things that seemed to get some students hooked this week: 1. An allusion to the Bible, and the discussion that it generated. The allusion was about the needle giving because the camel cannot. It was in relation to a sexual assault, so was a disturbing metaphor/analogy. The discussion about what the Bible stands for as a text, and what connotations that has for the novel was fascinating, mostly for finding out what the students really don't know. 2. A comparison to the Fort Minor song Kenji, as there is a chapter where all the Japanese people are rounded up and put into internment camps. A few students were familiar with the song, and this helped them to put the novel into a context that they could understand. I think that helped them to be more enthused in general about the novel (even though the link is to only one chapter out of 36). So, I should strive to introduce kids to as many literary texts as possible, as well as make connections that they can understand, as they may not be able to make those connections by themselves. And I've got to somehow get them to actually read the book, from cover to cover. Right after I finish this massive pile of marking on my desk... Hmmm, looking at the title of the post and the tone that some of it could be read in, it would not be hard to beleive that I was not the jollyest man alive. I can't quite claim that status, but I am very happy, and content. The world is a goodly place, and I am a lucky man. Sometimes I feel like a good teacher too - sometimes quite by accident :)

Matters Arsing

The report back from the College Council contained an interesting typo for Matters Arising. Debbie suggested I submit it to www.smuttytypoes.com. I don't know if they exist. I am running a course right now. I sent the students off to film something. They will return any second, so I'd better skedaddle. *whoosh!*

I Likes Days Off

Many nice things have happened recently, and I am a well happy fellow. The fact that I survived my first class of the week, and am now enjoying a non-contact hour, is the most recent reason for celebration. Friday My class went in their activity day. There were many outdoor pursuits, no fights this year, and everyone seemed to have a very good time. I managed to read about 30 pages of Capes whilst on the trip, so that was fun too. I had been warned that Capes was hard to read, and I tend to agree, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I am quite keen to run a little game some time, just to try it out. My main comment on the way that the rulebook is written is that it's oddly organised - with all the rules at the start, character generation at the end, and lots of specific terminology in the rules that's entirely based on stuff you use to make up characters? The more traditional approach of telling people how to make up a character, and then telling them how to use that character, may have some distinct benefits, and may have helped here. Friday night was a quiet one for me - I had a little sleepy in the evening, watched Ghost in the Shell 2 which is one of the prettiest anime I've seen to date, and picked up Debbie in the wee hours of the morning from her night on the harbour and in town. Saturday We tidied up, had a visit from Debbie's ma, and then headed over to Luke and Sam's for roleplaying stuff. We made up characters for Nocturnum, which we'll be starting soonish, and played through the start of a With Great Power game. The d20 character generation process is a lot of fun - it reminds me of the kind of gaming I did as a teenager. I was pleased to see that the Cthulhu d20 rulebook even has pictures of the most popular guns in it. WGP was really interesting, and I'm looking forward to playing a full session of it (some time when we're not all tired would be good). I like the way it focuses on what's going to be put in jeopardy for each character, and the way you have to think about the way each of your assetts can be vulnerable. Neat stuff. Sunday The Pink Ladies came over for lunch, then they all headed off to do work stuff. I bumbled about the house feeling slightly unwell, went out and bought a new camera (having lost the old one), and read blogs and such. I also submitted my entry for this year's Game Chef Challenge. Pretty light, silly stuff, but fun to write. In submitting it I have signed myself up to score and review 4-5 other entries. This should be an interesting process. I'm quite looking forward to it. The Future This week will be a busy one, as usual. I have a course to run on Wednesday which I am partially prepared for (maybe 70%?). I should really get to work on getting 100% prepared. Then there's gaming, and mufti day, and all the usual fun of the fairground. Should be a blast :)

Where'd the day go?

Huh. It's 4 o'clock and I haven't been outside yet. I had today off to prepare a course that I'm running next week. I managed to get 2 hours of solid wokr done in the morning, which was great. But now it's all 4 o'clocky and I haven't really done anything with the afternoon. I guess I'll be doing some work in the weekend. Now I have a whole bunch of chapter summaries to write. I may in fact have to go into work to pick up the book. I've been greatly enjoying reading people's blogs. I suspect that maybe that's where the afternoon went!

Crab Truckers - More detail

Morgue has written up the game here. It was a hell of a lot of fun, and I happen to have kept my character sheet, on which I also wrote a couple of quotes: Name: Iron Shell Role: Driver Skills: Drive, Sing, Scuttlebutt, Tai Chi Truck: Red Bertha, a tricked out karaoke disco truck Co-pilot: MC Cash, a Lifter Quotes: "The hut made of guns contains all the water from a swimming pool, minus the pool itself. The guns are all pointed inwards, and the water is too scared to move." "Swans are all smashing into the walls, in your face... you've lost your diagram of cheese." "I jam the barrel (of the Police Speed Tank) with 3 swans." "I spraypaint him (the slack worker who's holding things up) to look like boiling water" (crabs hate boiling water) Favourite moments: Debbie's crab decapitating a giraffe, and finding that he had eaten our truck! Norman's crab had spraypainted our truck to look like a herd of giraffes, so that we'd be unable to find it. We were totally fooled, and thought that the very motionless giraffes had stolen our truck and hidden it. We decided to take out the leader as a show of strength, then question the others. As it turned out we didn't have to question anyone, but sadly the sound system for the truck had been damaged by being eaten, and got stuck on Abba (Crabba?). BriX the giant brick-looking truck dragging several miles of fence along with it as it crashed into a missile testing site.

I Have the Nicest Friends

What a weekend! The last few days have been jam packed with awesome roleplaying goodness, a sprinkling of sunny outdoor activities, and heapin' heaps of hanging out with the loveliest of peeps. Friday The end of the working week is always a joy, as there is nothing like having to go to work 5 days a week to make you appreciate the weekend. Last week was a pretty average one in terms of work, so I was exhausted and mentally bamboozled as per usual. Debbie and I cooked delicious sweet and sour chicken, and enjoyed the warm feeling of freedom that Fridays brings. Later we were joined by Luke and Sam for some Buzz (which we bought just after school on Friday) and a viewing of the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The movie was well creepy, and featured excellent use of odd camera angles and framing of shots, and very spooky sound. I liked it a bunch, and it was interesting to watch and think about the scariness of it in relation to the discussions of zombies that's been going on over at NZRaG. Saturday Morning Debbie had dance class in the morning, so I got up and tried to get a few chores done. I managed to tidy up a little, and read quite a few blogs, so that was good. We finished tidying up and got ourselves showered and dressed just in time for the arrival of the Nick. He came bearing stories of 3L pineapple juice cans, ponchos, and being solar powered. All of this was wonderful and helped get my brain limbered up for the coming roleplaying experiences. We all headed off to subway, and discussed such concepts as horizontal bungy, where the bungyer would have to wear a jet pack or anti-grav belt of some kind to prevent falling, and would have to push off really, really hard. ROLEPLAYING THAT WAS AWESOME The event that we'd been looking forward to had finally arrived - Mega Roleplaying Redux! With something like 20 people involved, we were looking at 3 games running at a time. I managed to play in 3 games over the course of the weekend, and run one. Brief comments on each: I Know, Right? Run by Jenni, this game featured myself, Debbie, Sam, Morgue and Giffy as players. This was one of the most intimidating games I've signed up for in the past few years. As Morgue put it, it may only have been a game, but it was a game Debbie, Sam and Giffy had been playing for years. We were totally out of our depths, and were both frankly scared going into it. I started out as the Torn Bystander, basically wanting everyone to get along. Morgue was the Banker, the keeper of all secrets. Debbie was the Queen Bee, and Giffy was her sidekick. Poor Sam was the Target - part of our clique, so inherently cooler than everyone outside our circle of friends, but clearly the bottom of the pecking order. We were a drama clique, and had fixated (at Debbie's behest) on the term 'cockney'. We'd refer to things that were fetch as being cockney, and would eat, like, British food and everything. The games was absolutely awesome, and terrifying. We had the chairs set up to mirror the social status, and when the Queen Bee was deposed and we all had to move to new seats to reflect the new pecking order it was really effective. I was thoroughly impressed by everyone's roleplaying, by Jenni's GMing, and by the fact that nobody wanted to leave the room to go to the bathroom because they were too scared that everyone would plot against them when their back was turned. Big Mother Fucking Crab Truckers Morgue ran an hour and a half long session of this excellent game. The entire game - system and setting - was printed on a double sided A4 sheet. The premise is that you play giant crabs (6 foot high, 6 foot wide) who drive big fucking trucks, and ship stuff for the Crab Goddess. Each truck has a crew of 2 giant crabs. Debbie and I were a team, and were racing against 3 other duos to be the first to deliver our cargo from Crab Mountain to San Francisco. The cargoes were awesome - we had massive blocks of cheese (which we had to keep refrigerated); Luke and Frank had 600 live swans (which became very angry as Luke tried to train them to hate cheese); Norman and Nick C had hundred of wobble-headed dolls, interlocked to make a statue of the Crab Goddess; and Nick P and Sam had all the water from a swimming pool, minus the pool itself. The game was hilarious and heartfelt, with a lot of swearing, challenges to actions (with the official phrase "no fucking way!"), and madness. I have a few quotes, which I will put up shortly. Here's a taste: "A bunch of giraffes listening to Abba just stole my fridge!" Truth and Justice Paul ran a teen student supers game on Sunday. It was hilarious fun, with much crossover with Jenni's game. Nick C and Sam and I all played teen girls, and were much more worried about going to parties and getting dates for the prom than actually thwarting super villains. The game ended with us proving that a classmate was a witch by shining a cross shaped spotlight on her. Unfortunately this caused the 20 foot high demon inside her to come out, forcefully, through her skin. She kind of exploded on her date. We battled 2 villains in a deconsecrated church, then learned that the exploded girl had been voted Prom Queen, and had to contemplate the tragedy of her inevitable exploding. Me Run Game 'Twas OK. To Live and Die in Japan. Went well, enjoyed reminiscing. Other Business Some of us went for a short jog to the park, then met up with many others for Frisbee throwing and ball kicking. It was awesome. I remember looking around at all the people who were there and thinking "man, we know some great people." That pretty much sums up why the weekend was completely excellent - we know some great people. I am sure that a similar event will happen later in the year, 'cos it was just too much damn fun not to do again. My heartfelt thanks and congratulations to everyone for being your badass selves.

Weekend Now Please

Mmmm, the weekend is just around the corner. Just one non-contact, one detention and 4 lessons to go. I am decidedly keen for this weekend to arrive. This weekend Luke and Sam and Debbie and I are looking to take a tentative step towards restoring a fantastic tradition of the Mega Roleplaying Weekend. I only attended one of these, but it was a pretty awesome experience. The system as I had it explained to me was that a whole heapin' bunch of people headed to a bach for the weekend, and gamed like crazy. Everyone had to bring something to run, and everyone had a lot of fun. There was some amount of drinking, running around on the beach, and general shenanigans, and people sleeping (or trying to) on the floor in cramped conditions. And a lot of roleplaying. There was even a cool larp run by the esteemed Mr Sands at the MRW I went to. I played a fake ambassador from Achach-achachach, who was actually a priest of Mammon. It was a lot of fun. There was even a tribe of mini-Pitts running around. As a step towards or homage to the MRW, we're doing a cut-down, old working people type version. A bunch of people, several games, bbq, sleeping over, but not so full-on as the days of old. I am greatly looking forward to it - it should be a blast! I'm going to be prepared to run something, but will happily just be a player. Especially if I can get into Jenni's I Know, Right? game :)

Morning Tea is the highlight of my day

In breaking news, Matt ate a delicious morning tea today. This constitutes the highlight of his working day. Of course, the delicious saveloy in a baked piece of bread with cheese and mustard was complemented by a delicious Milo, so it would be hard for a class of students or detention monkeys to compete. Detention was actually quite pleasant today - I only had 2 customers, and they were both very polite. Just because a student forgets their homework or doesn't feel like working when asked to in class, doesn't make them a bad person. I was going to go into more detail about the exciting events of the day, but there aren't really that many to report on. I am watching Apocalypse Now Redux with a class, and it's quite good. Unfortunately some of the stuff that's been added in (there's about 50 minutes of extra stuff) is less than exciting, or is quite dodgy. The sequences we saw today both had women in them (breaking the otherwise extreme maleness of the film a little). One featured traumatised playboy bunnies becoming prostitutes, the other was a very boring dinner conversation. I'd say the film was better off without them. Of course, from a curiosity point of view I'm glad to have seen them, but given that it's a long damn film to start with, I would have been happier to have the original to show my class. Lastly, I have been ruminating on the teaching of boys, inspired by a visit from an excellent speaker. I have no real conclusions to draw, except to say that I wonder whether my start-of-the-year hard-ass-ness has actually made it difficult for some of the boys to accept my leadership. I wonder this as several of my students have begun to say hi and offer funky-incomprehensible handshakes this week, outside of class. I guess I'm currently somewhere in the no-mans-land of being a not-young-not-old guy, and they hadn't figured out where I stand in relation to other teachers. I think they've started to realise that I'm not actually old and grumpy, and while I may not be cool, there could be worse options. I think teenage boys are disinclined to accept rigorous discipline from someone younger than their fathers. Leadership and guidance and role modeling yes, full on you-will-obey-my-every-word discipline? Not so easy. That's not to say it can't be won from them, but it's a lot of work. Or maybe I'm just making this all up. That's fine - whatever keeps me entertained, I suppose.

Drive! While Cerebriated...

From the Cowtrap Ambulatory Extemporation Dictionary: Cerebriated - a condition where the brain becomes overheated due to extreme use. Giddy greed for thought is likely to follow, and semi-transcendentally-coherent utterances may emerge. Sample usage: Person A: "Dude, you shouldn't have tried to solve that 5th conundra today. One conundrum a day is good for you, but more than 3 and you'll be totally cerebriated." Person B (cerebriated): "But it's all connected in a one-ailty that is, like, um, universal. Ooh look, a squirell! Cerebriated messages can often be found on forums and bbs's, where cerebriated can be abbreviated to c3r3b'd!

More Responsibilty?

It's an interesting question for me, whether I want to take on more responsibilty at work and claw my way up the ranks, or whether I want to take the most chillaxed approach possible. I rather suspect that I would never turn down an opportunity, so I am likely to end up being given further responsibilities if I can convince the people I work with that I'm worthy of the offer. Given that I have a pretty shamelessly self-promoting streak, combined with a veneer of humility, coupled with a fairly high self-regard, I have some confidence that people see me as being a pretty competent type. This follows what I was rambling about at J&L's wedding - my desire to break away from false modesty and self-deprecation, and be more congratulatory to others and myself. It also follows on from an arrangement where I'm going to be running a session with some senior drama students about how to operate video gears and editing software, at the request of the Head of Drama. Having been asked to film the production last year, and having done what seems to be regarded as a good job, I'm being asked to take on more responsibilities in that area. I actually think it'd be pretty awesome to have a position of Media Specialist or something at a school, where you get a little extra $ and a little extra time, and you train people in the use of the gear that's available, shop for new gears, and take a role in promoting the school. In many ways that's more appealing than the exhausting job of being a Dean, where you spend so much time dealing with students who really don't want to be there. At least the session with senior drama students should be fun, and they're likely to be a responsive group. Given that I do actually want to run a school at some point in the future, I should really be more committed and directly ambitious. However, I have a suspicion that I can probably do OK by improving my teaching, doing stuff about the place that I'm interested in, making sure people know when I do get things done successfully, and applying for positions that come up. And getting fully registered as a teacher would probably be good too :)

Sometimes the monologue should stay internal

Another week starting. Another week closer to the holidays.

I am hoping to make it to a number of roleplaying events this year. First and foremost I want to get down to Christchurch for Buckets of Dice. With my gebruder having moved down to Christchurch recently, and my sister's family living down there, I'm very keen to pop down anyways, and going for a roleplaying convention should be a lot of fun.

Of course there will be some tension there - I'll be wanting to spend as much time as possible with both family and roleplaying. One awesome solution would be to get Adam to come to Buckets. He was keen on Kapcon (and may come next year), so a local con might be appealing. And his new job doesn't have any weekend work (unlike his previous job), so he'll definitely be free J

I'm also wanting to get up to Palmerston North for at least a day of Magecon / Panzershreck. I think it's the week before Buckets, so the middle of the year could be quite roleplaying-y. I shall have to make sure I have a con scenario ready to run, although going as a player would also be awesome (and less stressful than GMing).

Work is a place where I have to be 5 days a week. It's actually quite enjoyable at times, but there are times when I am really earning my salary. It's not easy teaching alternate classes. On the other hand, it's certainly not boring either.

In my old job I used to read a lot, play computer games, and write at work. That doesn't happen so much in teaching, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there aren't that many hours in the day when I'm not in front of a class - I have 4 non-contact hours a week this half of the year. That'll go up to 8 hours a week at the mid-point of the year, which is awesome. Also, strangely, the amount of work I'll have to do as head of a course will probably drop off too - a lot of it is start-of-the-year stuff. So the second half of the year should be pretty nice.

The other reason that reading and writing and other fun activities don't happen so much is that there are always things that need doing - marking, paperwork and planning. Those few moments that I do take as 'mental health breaks' tend to be to check email or, occasionally, NZRaG.

So - many good things about the job, some things that are difficult, but a job that is never boring. I got to play hack today for about half an hour with some Year 13 students, so that was awesome.

In related news, I didn't want to blog about my day specifically, as Debbie did such an awesome job on her own blog. I will say that the race from my school to hers to drop off keys was a much more pulse-pounding start to the day than sitting in staff briefing, and that I could totally get to her school in half the time, maybe less, if I had sirens flashing and was ignoring all speed limits.

I got stuck behind someone doing 40km/h for NO REASON for a while too, which made it take longer than it needed to. Still, there and back inside of 22 minutes, including waiting around for about 4 precious minutes at the office.

Hmmm, now I want to race around madly, seeing how quickly I can get from one place to another. Maybe I need to get a job as an ambulance driver, or *cheap shot about the Prime Minister's driver*. Or I should take up extreme roller-blading, as I think that it's technically not a vehicle, and thus I could go as fast as I wanted to.

Hmmm, do horse riders have to stick to the speed limit? What about animals, such as cheetah? Cyclists? Mad-fast sprinters?

To Johari?

I have all of 2 minutes before I need to run away, so this will be quick. I am tempted to set up a Johari window, but I want to be able to customise it with my own adjectives. I would love to know how many people see me as "masterful" or "crazy" or even "crack-smoking". I'm sure some clever internet person has already set up customiable Johari window thingees, but with 30 seconds left to type, I may never know. I actually thought the lack of simple adjectives like 'creative' was sad. And I felt bad about filling in a Nohari window. Having to point at flaws is less fun than you might think. Unless you did it behind someone's back. That would be totally I Know, Right?

He can read?

Last year (and the year before) I read a woefully small amount. This seems to be a common complaint among English teachers - a lot of them live in a world of words that extends beyond the 9 to 5 into soul-crushing evening marking. Reading for pleasure gets relegated to being a holiday activity, sadly, as there's so much student writing to wade through. The holidays were good, and the start of the year has been good too. I'm still well behind the amount I used to read when I was a projectionist (about 2 books a week for almost a year). I am at least reading for pleasure every day at the moment. So - books read since the end of last school year: Lord of the Flies - a very cool book, with some chilling moments. The Da Vinci Code - a well written action-film-as-novel. A very pleasant way to revisit the ideas in Holy Blood Holy Grail, which I've been casually flicking through over the past few months, without really reading. Venus on the Half Shell - a brilliant novel by Kilgore Trout. I'd been curious about what it would be like to read a whole book in that Kilgore Trout style, rather than just a plot summary. It's a lot of fun :) The Fat Man - some quality NZ fiction. A surprisingly crime-thrillery young adult book, that I very much enjoyed. Hatchet - another school text, but a good light read. Oddly enough it almost made me want to go camping in the Canadian mountains. Current Book In Progress - I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, the autobiography of Maya Angelou (or at least one book of her autobiography - I think she wrote other autobiographical books later on). It has introduced me to the words powhitetrash and whitefolksville.

You're Not Sitting There, Son

This year, somewhat unexpectedly, I seem to have developed the habit of calling students 'son'. Last year I did call a student son when he addressed me as dad (something that he was a little embarassed about, but not too mortified), but only once. This year the term 'son' has slipped out several times in the space of a week, both in the positive "good job, son" and the negative "I don't think so, son, you're sitting THERE." It's an interesting thing - I think I am moving into an age where I can actually start dealing with students as a 'proper' grown-up - someone they see as being old enough to be a parent to a teenager. Doing the maths, I would have had to have fathered a child when I was 16 to have a teenage child now, which is entirely possible. I think the teaching profession has artificially aged me too, hitting me over the head with a several-years aging stick. I feel it in my bones, and maybe it's starting to show in my unusual vocabulary choices.

The Vicar Ejaculated

It was an odd thing to be reading a Dorothy Sayers novel last night (Busman's Honeymoon) and come across a phrase something like "the vicar ejaculated several times while she was talking." I have, of course, seen that usage of the verb many times, and it seems rather juvenile to still find it amusing, but that particular sentence construction seemed to be very suggestive. It's the second example I've noticed recently of a very different usage of a word in a book I've read. I finally got around to reading The Fat Man, as I was considering teaching it, and came across the word 'pimp' used to mean 'squeal' or 'rat' or 'narc'. As in - "Martin was furious that Jones had pimped him to the principal on Friday." I would be furious too!

First Week Back

Holidays, lovely things that they are, are now over. I am officially back in the saddle, and have survived Week 1 of the school year. It went pretty well, both in the classroom and in my new position of responsibility. Cool things from the week: 1. My long-awaited projector/home theatre set-up in my classroom is now complete! There's a ceiling mounted projector, a DVD/VCR combo, a sound system, and space and cabling to plug in a laptop. I have used it for powerpoint notes (vastly superior to OHTs), and am looking forward to showing movies on it over the course of the year. It ended up being very cheap, as I went to Dick Smiths and had limited options for the sound system. All up it will be in the neighbourhood of $2000, but I think about $600 to $700 of that is curtains! 2. My first meeting with the teachers of the courses I'm running went well. I was feeling a bit stressed about this, but am now thinking it should go pretty smoothly. 3. Debbie and I were talking about the fact that we have both levelled up as teachers - it's clear from our first weeks back that we are both now Level 3 teachers. Obviously not experts, but noticeably improved. 4. Unknown Armies on Thursday was excellent. It's looking like the game is going to be a lot of fun, although certain happy-go-lucky characters may end up making my character pull his hair out. Actually, given that we won't be based at the restaurant, it shouldn't be quite so bad, but being sandwiched between Debbie and Conan while they played through an average day at work, and having to try to be their shift manager, was Ha-ard. 5. The weekend is awesome. I got to sleep in this morning, and that is a glorious thing. I wouldn't say that I ever took my holidays for granted, but boy do I appreciate the arrival of Friday night when I'm working. There were other things, little things that I've forgotten, but in a few broad strokes that was my week. I have managed to learn all 29 names of my form class (I did this on the second day I saw them, by staring at the seating plan and saying to myself "John sits next to Gavin, Gavin sits next to Amelia..."). I haven't learned all the names of my other students, but they'll come. I am still quietly upbeat about this year - optimistic even. I can see that some parts of it are going to be difficult, but that other aspects will be quite rewarding. I am quite sure that whatever else happens, it will not be boring :)

Super Quick Post

Weddings are awesome. The wedding of Jenni and Lee this weekend was stunning in every way. The castle is a pretty spectacular venue, and many comments were made about its desirability as a LARP venue. The ceremony felt very relaxed, yet still formal. Everyone looked lovely, and the celebrant left a hilarious pause after the 'any just cause' question - just long enough for people to chuckle, but not long enough for anyone to actually get smart. There were pool tables, so much bad pool playing ensued. Random quotage: "They're easier to insert when they're small" "I am not a flat surface!" The speeches were all really touching, especially Lee's (during which I was on the verge of tears). The dinner conversation (and dinner) were pretty fantastic, though the topics of conversation became less... polite... as the evening wore on. Talking about leveling up your marriage, and then being able to multi-class into other people's marriages (and take their gold pieces) was very silly. One of the really nice things that Luke and Sam and Debbie and I discussed in the car on the way home, was the fact that there aren't that many occasions when you celebrate relationships, and that it's one lovely thing that weddings can do - make you look around and appreciate the positive relationships around you. Oh, and I think I talked at length to several people (possibly semi-coherently) about my desire to move away from the self-deprecating mode that I grew up with, into a more honsetly congratulatory one. Both congratulating others for their awesomeness, but also being able to pat myself on the back and really own my successes. At least, that's what I meant to say. So, a lovely lovely wedding filled with lovely people, to celebrate a lovely couple and their success in being together and wanting to stay together. Tino pai.

Full of Metal!

Re-enrolment day is not the funnest day ever. It involves sitting in a very noisy hall and approving the course choices of a few hundred students. This means signing their pieces of paper, having first checked how many credits they got in English in 2005. We did this for three and a half hours straight. There were a few interesting observations to be made, which I shall list in easy-to-digest form, thusly: 1. Students in mufti at the end of the holidays seem to be either showing off their awesome tans (and thus wearing the skimpiest outfits possible) or declaring their membership of a social group (such as punk, mod or so forth). There were some interesting fashion choices at the fringes (most students, to be honest, were wearing either jeans + t-shirt or shorts + t-shirt). 2. Students love piercings! There were a striking number of nose, lip, eyebrow, and uppper ear piercings with really big jewellery stuffed in them. These will, of course, have to be removed before next week. 3. Some 6th formers, who should be either 15 or 16, are absolutely huge and sound like James Earl Jones. I swear that there were kids signing up for 6th form who made Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed look like a toddler. 4. Beards, though not popular, were in the hizzouse. Two of my former students had grown awesome beards over the holidays, one a full beard, and the other a kind of Abe Lincoln meets Skater beard. Heh. 5. Students are loud. Loudly loud. I grew tired in the vocal region from having to raise my voice to be heard by students sitting across the table from me, just because the hall itself was filled with chatting teenagers. 6. Catered lunches are awesome. We don't get many of them in the teaching profession (they are one of the benefits of going on courses), but that just means that when they do come along they're appreciated all the more. I should be working. I am at least at work, and have sorted out a network cable for the computer in my block, but I should really try to get as much as possible done before lunch time. It would not be so cool to have to come back after lunch.

Work Likes Me Not

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. I am back at work, slaving over a hot course outline. Teaching is not an easy job, and I don't think the profession would be well staffed if they reduced the holidays at all, but damn it's good to have a lengthy break over summer. I suspect that it is one of the motivating factors to enter (and stay in) the profession for many teachers. The year is so busy, and so much of your life is taken over by teaching, that you need the break away from it to recharge. So, another year of teaching commencing. It shall be interesting to see how it all goes. I shall say at this stage that I am quietly optimistic, and slightly worried. I know the two don't go together all that well, but there we have it. I think the teaching side of this year will go more smoothly (though I am teaching 3 new courses, so will have to spend a lot of time preparing materials). I think the management aspect will be fine once I've climbed onto the tiger's back. Must get back to work. Course outlines don't write themselves...

Heady Days of Summer

It's a very nice thing to be able to relax. Life has been filled with little and not-so-little stresses for what feels like a long time - end of year busyness, marking, Kapcon and the Kapcon LARP. The past week has been notably relaxed, as Debbie and I wind down from the stresses we'v e had. Yesterday was particularly unwindy, with a BBQ and hot tub and grand, fine company. I had thought that I needed to be back at school tomorrow, and that there was some work I'd need to go in and do today. However, after an early morning check of the school's website, I realised that I can take this whole week to prepare myself for the year, and don't actually see any students until maybe Wednesday or Thursday next week. Hence today is all relaxing too! Note to self: Spending more than 2 hours in a hot tub can lead to symptoms not unlike a hangover. 5 glasses of water over the course of the evening may not be enough to get back to normal hydration.

Getting Cultured

This has been a busy week on the Arts front, much less so on the Kapcon front. Well, apart from the frantic posting, checking blogs and NZRaG, and returning of keys and costumes. As Debbie has mentioned, we saw Memoirs of a Geisha and Beauty and the Beast. One was an exquisitely beautiful fairy tale, and the other was a stage show of a Disney film. Memoirs was very, very cool. Debbie pretty much covered this one, except to say that the audience was very gender balancy (quite the date movie from all appearances), with a slight bias towards female (several groups of women together). It was also the most asian audience I've spied at a Readings cinema so far. Beauty was good fun, especially Gaston. I tend to find that I get a little hot and fidgety during shows, so I did my best to control myself during this one. No item of clothing other than my jacket was removed, and I did my best not to bump anyone with random twitches or stretches. On the whole, most enjoyable. Now I will return to my Kapcon obsessing.

More Kapcon

I have written an official post Kapcon report for the Kapcon blog. It pretty much says that Kapcon was awesome, and that we did all right financially (as in made the smallest possible profit). I have also been posting on nzrag.com, as have many other people. I really enjoy the post-Kapcon enthusiasm. It's one of the nicest things about the convention. Although I only played in one game at the con, it was quite possibly the best con game I've ever played in. Dale is a genius, and Debbie, Nick, Jenni, Luke and Morgue are brilliant roleplayers. I should also remember that I actually got to play in a total of 7 Kapcon games this year, through the wonders of playtesting. Ah, I am a lucky man. The past couple of days have been really interesting from a stress point of view. I have been, understandably, very relaxed and quite chuffed with my efforts over the weekend. I think it will be a while before I commit myself to a long term stress generator like the LARP again. It was actually fun to write, and I'm very pleased with the way it went (a lot of people have said very nice things about it, in person and on blogs and such), but it was weighing on me for the past few months. It's a lot of work for 3 people to do, and it is to Debbie and Svend's credit that we managed to get 60 characters written, all the props bought, and the actual running of the game fairly smooth. I am very grateful to both of them for all their hard work, and I am deeply impressed by how excellent Debbie's LARP was. I remember, back in the innocent days of March last year, when Debbie conceived of the idea for the LARP. She had a vision of how the game ought to be, and I think we managed to stay pretty true to that vision, doing even better than we'd expected in some ways, and the awesome players who brought the whole thing to life added a depth and variety that we are entirely grateful for. And now, a brief word about something that I thought went very well over the weekend - the announcements. I actually quite enjoyed doing all the greetings and in between round announcements, but probably my two stand-out moments as an organiser were the pre-LARP briefing and the prize ceremony. Before the LARP I gave what I would estimate to have been a semi-formal introduction to the LARP. As Sam commented, it had a bit of a story-time feel to it, with people sitting down in a big semi-circle listening to my rambling set-up. I think, despite being quite exhausted and having not a little anxiety about how the evening was actually going to go, I managed to do a pretty good job. I was pleased with the way it went. Svend's explanation of the name badges was hilarious and tone-setting, which was most impressive. Of course, Debbie was hard at work on set-up while we were lounging about soaking up the spotlight, something I feel was in some small way less than ideal. It is interesting to be one of the people ulitmately responisble for the LARP. Over the past 2 years Debbie and I had written many characters for LARPs, and had played NPCs, but were not really the ones who'd be blamed if everything went to custard. It certainly adds an element of stress. Of course, that also means that we're the ones who get to bask in all the praise now :) The other part of the weekend that was really enjoyable was the prizegiving. I liked explaining how we decided who got what prize, and being able to ask people to explain little stories or demonstrate the things they had done in a public setting. It was especially nice because the scores and prizes made sense, and I felt really happy to be able to award them. It's a really nice tradition, and I'm glad that I got to be a part of it. There was only one thing that I want to say more about today, and that's Debbie's amazing contribution to Kapcon. I got lots of spotlight time, and I enjoyed it, but there's no way in hell Kapcon would have been half as good, and there simply wouldn't have been a LARP, without Debbie. I invited her to take the spotlight for some of the con, but she very kindly said that I was doing a good job and that was fine. People have thanked both of us, and I've thanked Debbie personally, but I want to give her the mad props she deserves here. Debbie - you are amazing.

Kapcon Comment Number 1!

My first ever post on NZRrag.com Thanks to everyone who came to Kapcon, who ran games at Kapcon, who helped with the running and planning of Kapcon, and who was awesome at Kapcon. It was a great experience running the convention. There were a lot of awesome things, such as: Dale's Superhero Game - the only game I played in, in the final round. We had a stellar group (Luke, Jenni, Nick, Morgue, Debbie and Matt), it was an awesome 4 colour superhero game, and the character interaction was magic. Best moment for me? I was playing the super-powered son of the dim-witted Captain Hope and the brilliant Professor Eternity. I had moved so I was sitting between Luke and Jenni (the players), quite close, so I could roleplay with them the most. Then they had a fight in front of me. Being 7, I was quite traumatised, and my character slunk off to hang out with the pistol weilding bad boy Salvo and the Vegas Narcissist Zia the Magnificent. I moved my chair so I was sandwiched between Nick and Debbie, leaving a big space between the players who had just argued. I then decided to get back at my parents by emulating my father's foil, Salvo. At the climax of the game the 7 year old Daniel whipped out a police issue revolver, screamed out Salvo's catchphrase, and started shooting blindly at the villains. The reaction from my super-dad was fantastic, and it helped to push him into a reconciliation with his best man. There are many other fantastic moments from this brilliant game, but I'll let some other people comment on those. Prize Giving - it really is a very nice thing to be able to acknowledge some of the cool stuff that people have done during the con in a public setting. We had a lot of neat prizes this year, as Chaosium, SJG, the RPGA, Milsims and others had donated lots of goodies. and the last one for now, Stephen Hickey (Hix)'s comment at the end of day 1 Matt: "How was your first ever day at Kapcon?" Hix: "Great, I ran some great games, and I have some interesting ideas to work on for tomorrow. And there are really good people here." Really good people. That's why Kapcon is so awesome.

Getting Close!

Kapcon is just around the corner! It's starting to get quite exciting indeed. There are lots of little jobs that need to be done between now and Kapcon, but everything is on track and looking good. We have about 35 LARP characters assigned, somewhere close to 60 people preregistered (and about 25 of them prepaid), and we have 27 non-RPGA games so far, with Jon and Erik and Svend all having promised to run something, but not yet on the list. So, I am very well disposed towards the world in general. I have also convinced myself to run Kapcon for another year if the rest of the committee agrees, although I won't be involved with the LARP again for a while. Three years in a row is a pretty good stretch anyhow. One of the things that I'm intending to do this year is to build on the records I kept from the organising of this Kapcon, so that the next organiser has a pretty clear guide as to how it's been done in the past. I'm also looking at taking on an aprentice for K16, someone to train up to run K17. I have one or two people in mind for this, and will be approaching them during or shortly after Kapcon. Just to make sure I don't forget, here's a sample of some of the things that need to be done in the next 2 weeks: - print out game choice forms, scoring forms and nomination forms - maps of rooms for each floor - get RPGA room signs printed - arrange for coffee urn and hot water for tea etc. - buy some supplies for Kapcon cafe (same as last year - mostly drinks and nibbles) - pick up t-shirts - buy props for Kapcon LArp (wooden puzzle, brooch, 'diamond') - print out name tags - count number of plastic badges and buy extras if needed - purchase small lockable money box - LARP meeting on Wednesday - Write newspaper sheets for LARP background info - keep assigning LARP characters and sending out character sheets - collect keys for venue (probably a Scott job :) - set up rooms on Friday Feel free to comment with extra jobs that I've overlooked. I do have a list in my Kapcon big book of stuff, which I shall also check today. We are booked into the function room at Southern Cross / Zeboes, although they have redecorated and may no longer do such delicious food.