thebitterguy

Good weekend. Celebrated Yuri's Day with Chris & Valerie on Friday by watching Futurama and playing Race for the Galaxy. We just didn't KNOW we were.

We went to visit the parents for Easter. Dinner was had after they got back from church. We went to Kingston for a short tour around town, and stopped by the old Lake Ontario Park to look around.

( Beyond here there are photos )

We also saw that they've installed a wind farm on Wolfe Island.

The farm is visible as you come up Bath Road into Kingston, and is easily visible from the Kingston waterfront. I wonder how loud the howls of NIMBY-ists were against its construction?

There are plans to upgrade it, either to an enviro-park or an art-park. It would be good to make use of the space.

On Easter we had a light breakfast before meeting up with Ron & Janet for Easter lunch with her family in Kingston. It being Easter, venue choice was somewhat limited, so it was at Lee Garden, an okay Chinese buffet joint.

We got there for noon, but it turned out the lunch was actually at one. Whoopsie! So we took a trip over to Bellevue House, former residence of Sir John A. McDonald. There'll be pictures of that tomorrow.

Seriously, I'll shut up about it someday, probably when I'm dead.

Okay, a lot of people are suddenly aware of the book, due to the impending movie. Or at least more aware than they would have been.

I was first introduced to it by an acquaintance about... oh... twenty some years ago. The book had just started coming out in single issues, and I drove to Maplecon, an Ottawa area convention, with one of my dad's nurses from his prison clinic and her son.

Actually, I was first introduced to it by some DC promotional material that showed the Comedian aiming a rifle out a window in Deely Plaza, and in an editorial that mentioned how Alan Moore had a great idea for using the Charleton characters, but if we used it we'd never be able to use the characters again! So stay tuned for Watchmen!

Anyway, after that I got a short intro to it by my traveling companion. I think issue #1 had just come out, so one of the most interesting character bits was Rorschach's tossing a guy down an elevator shaft.

Cut to... A year later.

Kingston had a series of comics stores. First off was Camelot Comics. I became a semi-regular there; whenever Pater would pick me up from school, he'd take me over and buy some funny books. It was located two blocks from my grade school, but we were verboten from leaving the school grounds. The guy there got grumpy one time when I picked up an issue of Love & Rockets. True, I can see how that would be bad.

Anyway, Camelot passed out of this world shortly, to be replaced (in the same location) by Cosmic Comics. The owner seemed a little more focused (he was older and wore glasses; I was a kid, these things meant thing back then) and I was a recognized customer there. So much so that he sent me to get his float from the bank around the corner one chilly winter morning. That stays with me. Cosmic was located next to the computer and electronics shop where I bought the very cheesy Marvel video games that were being released around that time. The shop eventually morphed into a video rental place, as they could make money on that.

One day, I saw at the counter a trade paperback copy of the Watchmen series I'd heard about. Tom, the cashier (who would eventually go on to own Comics Plus in Kingston), told me it was an excellent book, and offered me a discount as it had a bend in the corner. Sold!

And then, wow. The book has an effect when you first read it, regardless of your age. Admittedly, you miss stuff when you read it when you're just a kid. Homosexuality was a concept that didn't get discussed much at Holy Cross, either in or outside of class, so HJ & Nelly's relationship was a black void to me until I read Mayfair's rpg sourcebook for the universe, and just try to explain impotence to a teenager. No, go ahead, I dare you. They'll laugh you out of the building. Not getting an erection. That's crazy talk!

The book's been with me since then, an increasingly worn copy of the first printing trade. I've pulled it out with some regularity; sometimes to read it through entirely, sometimes to look at one bit or another. I still can't get into the damn bird stuff at the end of chapter four.

Anyway, over the past two decades, the book has become... worn. The front cover is not yet off, but it shows that it has traveled; seriously, it would be CGC graded in the fractions. Recently, Cynra took it with her to SDCC to get it signed by Dave Gibbons. In retrospect, I should have also sent her with my copy of For the Man Who Has Everything. I love that story.

I'll bet Gibbons was amused at how different he looked from his Bill Murray-esque author's photo, while Moore has changed little from then, no doubt thanks to his Yeti heritage. Well, as amused as anyone gets at looking at old photos of themselves. God, who thought photography was a good idea?

When she said that he was sketching in each book, I asked for a sketch of Dollar Bill. Primarily because I figured no one ever asked for a Dollar Bill sketch. I mean, why would they? He doesn't even get any LINES in the book. He poses for the photo, walks out the door, and next thing you know, shot in the head. So Dollar Bill needed some love.

Apparently, so few people do that he can't quite remember what he looked like, so he ended up looking inside to refresh his memory.

Apparently a few people commented on the aged qualities of the book. I've considered getting a replacement for it for a while. Well, not a replacement (definitely not now) but at least a supplemental that'll be better able to weather further reading. After loving my copy of the Absolute editon of The New Frontier, I'm contemplating getting a copy of the Absolute Watchmen (if I can find one; Chapters and Amazon.com are both coming up empty, but Amazon.ca looks like it might have a copy).

The story means a lot because it talks about the fears I can remember when I was young. A lot of people talk of Generation X and their slacker mentality. I think there's probably a certain fatalism to blame for that. We were raised to be aware that our world was dangling by a string; a well placed flock of geese, or a bundle of balloons, and we're game over. One of Watchmen's strengths is how it plays to that particular zeitgeist. My friend Gabe had a piece he wrote once about the effect of an oncoming nuclear armageddon on the people who grew up in its shadow.

I've read pieces where younger people (in their 20s) don't get the whole pre-apocalyptic vibe. That's fortunate.

Ah, man. I'm cursed. The Old Fort Henry/Kingston Symphony Orchestra 1812 concert is, of course, scheduled for this weekend. Dagnabbit. I think that makes three years I haven't been able to go. It's actually worse than the Kingston chili festival.

And I just realized that the CG architectural draft of my new office building reminds me of my high school.

You know, for some reason, I'm curious about visiting Kentucky, if only to see if the chicken is really that good. Plus, I'm sure they have many interesting attractions.

I've been reading Achtung Schwinehund! over the past few days. It came in the same day as the 4E PH, and I think I had it recommended by muskrat_john a few weeks/months/years back. It is a more interesting read, but that's just because it would be a very bad book if it was a less interesting read than most RPG rulebooks.

Stop crying. You know I'm right.

It's subtitles "A Boy's Own Story of Imaginary Combat" and is the tale of the author's youthful (and grownup) affections for toy soldiers, action figures, and other things that a lot of people reading this will recall with much fondness.

There's one passage on page 100 that, well, might ruffle a few feathers among the readers at home. So I shall post it in full for your enjoyment.

He starts off that section by talking about how much he hates Games Workshop (and, who among us?). He then proceeds to step a little over a certain line, even for a 'humour' writer.

To my mind, three men are responsible more than any others for the creation of this perversion of the hobby: J.R.R. Tolkien, creator of Middle Earth, Robert E. Howard, creator of Hyboria (which was kind of Middle Earth with breast) and E. Gary Gygax, the mild-mannered Canadian (sic) inventor of Dungeons and Dragons. 'All three of them should be put up against a wall and shot,' I said to TK while I was feeling particularly aggreived at World of Warcraft's continued encroachment into our territory. he raised an eyebrow. 'I think you're getting a bit carried away there, mate,' he said.

'Are you sure?' I said.

'Oh yes,' TK said. 'I mean, two of them are already dead. It would be a waste of bullets.'

Ouch. Zing, as it were (and now doubly factually incorrect). I was going to do a poll asking what kind of polearm maliszew would use to dispatch them (my money was on the Glaive Guisarme, or possibly Lucerne Hammer), but that was kinda childish too. Later on, he does say

But it is hard to maintain the moral high ground when you have just bought three hundred Garrison 20mm Macedonian phalangites from a man named Alistair in Auckland, New Zealand.

Overall, though, it's a good read. Paul in the Thursday Nighters is gonna borrow it when I'm done.

Good weekend at ACB. Uday & I did some more geocaching, and after two frustrating sessions we finally managed to find one.

The first one was called on account of "where the hell is that thing?", the second on account of gooseshit.

The third one was right in the middle of a parking lot. No, really, right smack dab in the middle of a parking lot. Very cleverly concealed.

Much BBQ was eaten, and I visited the Kingston Gaming Nexus and met up with the Sunday guy. Turns out he's going for a UD Tournament ranking, so maybe he will solve one of my problems.

Bought some Star Wars minis, and they're kinda pricy down in K-Town.

Drove to Nappers with Uday today. Cynra is staying at home to recuperate from her cold and wait for news on her dad. It looks like he may go home soon.

Dropped off the unwanted portion of my game collection at a new used game shop in K-Town. Not exactly good prices (strongly suspect Leon would have given me more) but the option of driving them back, then making time to go to the shop... it did not appeal.

Tired this week. Have been distracted and upset regarding the thing that happened last weekend, which is making difficult.

Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday were all washes vis a vis going to the wellness centre. Yesterday I managed to get in a full circuit.

I've been neglecting the machine that works your hamstrings, so trying it for the first time was interesting. There are fibres down there that can be stressed, that's all I'll say. Big thanks to everyone who reminded me to stretch first. Such a very, very good idea.

So, I got bored so I went back to the beginning of TBG and found this post about how I missed good winter gaming cons in Ontario.

I decided to do a search for Redcon, and found only this post from '95:

( REDCON 95 )

So the pre-reg was $10, which was pretty much a fundraiser for the RMC CSG and KWA, since I'm pretty sure as like every university group, they got the space for free. That was the con where Sam Lewis told me about the origin of Renegade Legion (it was FASA's submission for a Star Wars game system, which I've just edited Renegade Legion's Wikipedia entry to reflect! Two W&N points!). And I got to play Margaret Weis's Star of the Guardians game.

I also played the shittiest Star Wars game ever, which was the first time I ever walked out of a con game.

I will reiterate that Yeo Hall is the best venue in the world to run a gaming con in. I miss it.

It is nice to go out once in a while, even if it is for a quiet night together.

Cynra & I took a Tuesday evening to relax together by going to the Putting Edge to try the glow in the dark mini putt. Cynra had apparently never gone mini-putt before, which was just a shocker to my central nervour system. It just seems like such a normal thing to do that I couldn't conceive of someone never having done it.

Of course, Lake Ontario Park may have contributed to my bias. It was a strange little amusement/beach area in Kingston on the shore of Lake Ontario (Unverifiable fact! They actually named the lake after the park, and not the other way around!) that had a tiny roller coaster (mostly coasting, not much rolling), a big slide, a tilt-a-whirl, a big stage, some carny games, cotton candy, a big bandstand and an attendant campground.

The Min-Putt was either a 9 hole or 18, but it was fun. There was a windmill and other standard holes (no Abe Lincoln hole, though). Of course, the park got shut down because the owner was quibbling with the city. And the campground got shut down too

But it was a nice thing to do on a summer's day. Not quite as thrilling as the Ex or Lake Ontario Place or even a county fair, but it fit with Kingston's small town atmosphere. Kingston has always struck me as a small town that just happened to have a couple large industries (Army base, Universities, Dupont & Alcan) show up.

There were other Mini Putts along the way, in Myrtle Beach and Ottawa, but like in everything, it's the first you remember.

Of course, that means the one Cynra will remember most will have glow in the dark leopards.

For dinner we went to a Lebanese place nearby. We both got Chicken Shwarma dinners, with rice, salad & hummus.

Now, as is normal, the prep included some garlic sauce & hot sauce on the food. While YHB enjoyed his ("Hmm, this is an enjoyable flavour combination"), Cynra began to tentatively nibble on hers. Then, when she picked up a piece with the hot sauce, she got a look on her face. An unusual look. An unhappy look. The sort of look that seems to say "Why is this live tadpole wriggling around in my mouth?"

She does not like hot sauce. She's very sensitive to it, particularly on lettuce. The nice people at the Shwarma place were kind enough to replae it with a non hot sauce added version.

All in all, a very fun night. I've still got the putter's wrist.