Did I miss a memo?

[mikekn]

Well it's noon, and I'm still the only one in the office...  Admittedly, it doesn't take much for this office to be empty - there are only four of us here most days, and one of them is never in this early.

So, let's see what's new... 

Had a good time at the Lichtenauer Fighting Academy last Saturday.  Not the sort of event I'd usually attend, but I had been asked to help out with the games in the evening.  Very interest class/lecture on period fighting manuals.  I appreciated the fact that the teacher walked us through some of his thought processes.  He basically said that what he was teaching today was the result of ten years of studying plus trial and error experimenting, and that while he currently believes he is correct in his interpretations, it is possible he is still wrong.  From my amateur view, everything he said made good sense.  Only a little bit of gaming took place before dinner, but the folks who were playing had a good time.  We had two tables of Poch and one of the Game of Goose (gambling style), plus two folks tried out Gluckhaus before moving onto Poch.

Sunday we had a great crowd for brunch and the movie.  Sky Captain was a lot of fun - but I doubt it will be a big success, which is too bad.  Still, great for them that likes that sort :)  In the afternoon I went off to the home brew store to pick up some juice and other needed bits to start a few batches.  Unfortunately I forgot a few things (like more yeast...), so I need to go back before I can start anything else.

Monday I made it to the gym after work (yay!).  In the evening we went out to dinner at Gino's, an ok Italian place near by.  Spent the rest of the evening watching some TV, including the latest Dead Like Me.

Tuesday I got out of the office late, so I skipped the gym and gave my muscles a day of rest.  We went out to our local Chinese place, were we ran into rarcke, neoparn, splizwarf and a friend of theirs (who I've met before, but don't recall...)  We got a giggle out of that since it's the third time (in three different places) where we've run into rarcke & neoparn at dinner.  We rushed out of there to catch a showing of Hero down in King of Prussia.  Very cool movie!  The previews are misleading - and thankfully I liked the actual film better then the preview one. 

Got home to find the a comic shipment waiting for us (yay comics!).  Sent in our latest comic order as well, at just under $300 it was one of our smallest orders for the year.  Still we're getting everything for about 20% off retail, and no sales tax.  If we had a decent local store (Showcase is good, but a bit far for weekly or biweekly pick ups) I'd have never tried mail order, but at this point I'm not likely to go back to a retail store - at least not for my regular books.  (And, no, the $300 is not all mine.  We've got ten people who go in on the order)

Wednesday, I got back to the gym - sore arms today.  Had dinner at Max & Ermas (do we eat out much? nah!), did some shopping, then back home to watch some more of Alias season 1.

Tonight is EK History night.  I'm going to try and dig up some old Pennsic stuff for Folo Watkins of Folump Enterprises.  He's working on a history of the event, and this will be a nice change from typing in inventories.  If we get time, I may start going through The Box in earnest.  What's The Box?  Well, it's a box of SCA stuff that a truck driver (who was passing through the area) gave to alphaggek and his wife about three years ago.  They recently passed the box along to me, and well, it's full of all sorts of interesting stuff.  Much of it dating back to the very beginning of the SCA.

Friday is dance practice.  I'm also hoping to hit the gym again.

Saturday we'll be hanging out with Margarete and Finn, helping out and celebrating her birthday.  Sunday I have no plans yet, but violet_amy will be at a bridal shower for a friend of ours.

October is already filling up...  the first weekend I'm going to go to the Small Press Expo in Bethesda (sorry, it was closer then Coronation...)  The next weekend is Kingdom Crusades - looks like we're only day tripping on Saturday.  The weekend after that is Schola, where I'm teaching at least two classes (Intro to Board Games (kids), Intro to Mead Making).  If I they need more classes, I can alway pull in one of the other game classes, but I'd like to try and do something new.

Fun, fun, fun...

Comments

[suba-al-hadid.livejournal.com]

How do you play Goose gambling-style? That sounds interesting!

[mikekn]

We did a simple version - one coin ante to play, one coin payment whenever you land on a special space (goose, bridge, well, etc). First to the center wins it all (and can then put in another coin and keep playing). We also played with the "mean" rules - only way out of the well or prison is for someone else to take your place. I think we only had two or three winners throughout the whole time they were playing - but judging from the laughter they were having a good time.

[suba-al-hadid.livejournal.com]

Cool!

What are the non-mean rules? I've only ever played by the mean ones. This is the kids' favorite game.

[mikekn]

The mean rules are the correct rules for the game, but at Pennsic we sometimes give the kids an out. We let them roll each time their turn comes around and if they roll a nine they could go to one of the dice spaces (like rolling nine from start).

[suba-al-hadid.livejournal.com]

Cool! I may use that next time I play with kds six and under. Thanks!

[jducoeur]

Interesting -- I just learned those non-mean rules a couple of weeks ago at Worldcon. (The lady from Kadon Enterprises was mentioning them to me.) I wonder where they originally came from?

Regardless, I may adopt them as the norm for smaller games, regardless of age. When you've got a big crowd for Goose (~10 players), people are tripping over each other enough that it isn't a problem, but when you're playing with a small table of 4-5 people folks can get stuck in the well for basically the whole game, and that's never fun. And since I'm gathering that house rules were fairly normal for Goose, I don't feel that it's an unreasonable hack...

[mikekn]

My understanding is that they originally came from a misunderstanding of the roll nine from start rule. When he first learned the game, Istvan thought any time you rolled a nine you'd move to one of the dice squares. He eventually realized it was wrong, but kept it as a way out of jail and the well.

[jducoeur]

Sky Captain was a lot of fun - but I doubt it will be a big success, which is too bad.

I don't know about big success, but it seems to be doing decently well. Maybe not blockbuster-level, but it looks to be making its money back in the theaters, which is the Hollywood definition of success.

And, no, the $300 is not all mine.

The scary thing is, there are months when I *do* spend that much by myself.

One of these years I may wind up doing mail order. I've stuck with store-based solely because of Outer Limits: Steve (the owner) gives me a 20% discount off the top, *and* lets me put back the occasional book when I look at it and decide that it looks dreadful, so he has my loyalty for as long as he stays in business. But there are times that I'm amazed that he keeps his head above water -- running a comic-book store ain't easy these days.

They recently passed the box along to me, and well, it's full of all sorts of interesting stuff. Much of it dating back to the very beginning of the SCA.

Oooh -- you'll have to tell us what you find in there. Archives like that are the most fun part of the Historian's job.

the first weekend I'm going to go to the Small Press Expo in Bethesda (sorry, it was closer then Coronation...)

'Tsalright. One of these years I'd love to get down to SPX myself -- sounds fascinating.

[mikekn]

I suspect Sky Captain will make back what they spent (an amount they seem to be keeping a secret, but less then $60 million), but I would love to see a movie like this bring in a ton of cash.

Looking back, the most I've spent in recent years was about $256 - it was a good month, our total was over $600 and our discount over 25%.

I used to get all my books from a comic store in the mall, but they would fail to pull or even order many of the independent books on my list. After several trips to other stores to find my missing issues (assuming they hadn't sold out) I figured it was time to give up on them. It's too bad though, cause they were nice guys. The store as since expanded into pulp novels and vinyl records, so their comic selection has gotten even smaller.

The Box really needs it's own post soon. I went through a lot of it last night and pulled out a few treasures (serious, could auction them for hundreds of dollars, treasures).

[fionawolf.livejournal.com]

What kind of comics do you read?
Mmm...the box sounds intriguing.

[mikekn]

My first comics were Elfquest and Sandman, and I still read anything related to them that comes out.

The rest of the titles are split between mainstream super hero stuff (Mostly DC stuff like: Green Arrow, Batman, Birds of Prey, plus Joss Whedon's X-Men book) Vertigo titles (Fables, Hellblazer, Lucifer, etc) and independents (Strangers in Paradise, Girl Genius, Lenore, PS238, Thieves & Kings, Blue Monday, Poison Elves, etc). I also read a few manga titles, but not as many as I used to.

Yes...must post about the box tonight.