Busy Day Ahead

Well, another post...(I really need to be more regular about these posts)

Today is June 11, and it looks to be a busy day ahead. Couple of items have come together to make this day an important one.

First of all will be a party to celebrate the second birthday of my nephew. I am looking forward to it as I do not see him that often. I do have my present ready, and I hope that his parents like it. I got an idea from a supervisor at work to get a US savings bond (to help with his future education), so I put down $25 for a $50 bond. It's not much, and I expect to do more like that, but it's the thought that counts. I also get to see his new swing set out in the back yard.

I then have to travel to the other side of my town for a cook out at the home of my supervisor. He decided to hold a cookout for the rest of the department, and the rest of the guys did not want to have it on Sunday. So, I am planning on leaving the party around 6 to make it for the cookout. I'll bring my own drinks (and I am not planning on having alcohol as I am driving). The only complication that I foresee is if the party goes late (or if my sister in law has a late meal). I'll talk more either tonight or tomorrow.

I just was on jury duty...

Well, I just finished up a period of petit jury duty for my county's court system. It was a bit different than when I my last served on petit jury duty. Let me explain by telling this tale of my history of jury duty service.

The first time I served on petit jury duty was several years ago. I was asked to serve for a two-week period at that time. I was selected to sit on a total of three cases, and was on hand for a fourth day before leaving due to the pending cases being settled by the parties. The first case was a domestic battery case, which lasted one whole day. Jury was selected, trial began, two people testifying for the county, two testified for the defense, jury made its decision, and the defendant was convicted. Not bad for a first case.

Second case was a civil case, but I was excused (no comment as to why).

Third case was a criminal assault case, but I never found out the verdict as I was the alternate juror. Case went into a second day for final arguments for the lawyers, and I was excused as the alternate was not needed at that point.

There was an incident during my service. Remember the day when I was on hand but was let go? Well, I was on my way to get some lunch before going back to work, when I noticed several emergency vehicles rushing towards the courthouse. Later on I heard that a man had entered one of the court rooms and threw an incendiary device at the judge's bench. It did not do any harm, but it did a lot of property damage. This was well before 9/11, so security was not the top priority that it is nowadays.

My second petit jury duty experience was several years later at the new Federal Court in my town. Now, in orientation I was told that my jury duty period was for a three-month period, but because the court docket was planned out in advance they knew that the court would only have one total case for that period. I was on hand for jury selection, but was not selected. With it being a new building (and a Federal court to boot), security was a lot more extensive than my remembrance of the county's court house. Mind you that it was post 9/11, so security would be enhanced.

As for my most recent call, I was asked to serve at the county courthouse for this last week. First of all, the county's courthouse was completely renovated after the fire bomb incident (plus that it was a very old building). Now the public can only go through one entrance (with its requisite metal detectors). And now they also ban all cell phones inside the building to protect any juror from having his or her image splashed on any web page. Anyways, there was only one case this last week, and that was a civil assault case involving two employees of the local university (a professor and an IT person, I believe). It was expected to last three or four days, but I was not called.

Now, I do like to serve on juries. I have not had a bad experience in serving, so that helps. Plus, I had a teacher back in high school who extolled the virtues of jury service as a civic duty. I would like to someday serve on a grand jury and also serve on a Federal jury, if possible. Not that I am going out of my way to volunteer. If it never happens, so be it.

Wisconsin road trip...

OK, welcome back. I said I was going to be doing more posts here, and I aims to please.

I took a trip to Wisconsin this weekend. My youngest brother is getting married later this year in Las Vegas, but due to budget constraints I will not be attending the wedding. However, he and his fiancee were both having a get-together for family and friends, so I and brother #2 and his family (he is the one who adopted a son back in 2009) made the trip up to visit them (and brother #1) in northern Wisconsin. My parents did not make the trip due to my father's recent illness (recovering from a staph infection). So, in my father's borrowed van, we made the trip up north. My only issue with the trip came up when I realized that my laptop's battery was not going to last the whole trip. We did stop at a town just south of Rockford for food and gas, which allowed me to buy a DC to AC power converter. They had other issues, but I did not want to get involved (and I do not air their issues in public, so let's keep it at that). My main form of entertainment was watching several episodes of Samurai Sentai Shinkenger (this is the basis of Power Rangers Samurai that is being shown on NickTOONS).

We arrived at brother #1's home (actually it belongs to his girlfriend) around 11:30 PM, and we were all happy to get there. I got the computer room with the unfolding futon. It was not a bad place to sleep, and thankfully my nephew knows not to open doors that he should not open without permission. The one that was happiest to see us was their labradoodle, who became best friends with my nephew over the course of the weekend (brother #2 and family have a dog, so being around a dog was no bid deal for my nephew).

SATURDAY:
Brother #1's girlfriend had to put in some time at her job early in the morning, but she still had time to make a breakfast casserole. I got up a bit late, but due to sleep issues, I felt it was not long enough. Anyways, while #1's girlfriend, #2's wife, and #3's fiancee went for a ladies' day with some of friends of the fiancee, the brothers and myself watched a bit of TV, watched nephew play with the dog, and we also talked to our father over the phone for a half-hour (using my cell phone). Lazy day of seeing NCAA basketball and hanging out.

Then the ladies came back and we did some more light talk, and brother #2 and wife gave the new couple a shower gift (tool set).

Then came the guy's night out. We planned on going to an early show at a bar/comedy club in town, but the plans shifted to the late show (one of #3's friends was coming from out of town and could not make it for the early show). So we ventured out to a bar in the same strip of stores as the club (cheaper food), where we met a pair of #3's friends (including the late arrival). We got food and drink (mine was not alcoholic as I planned on being a designated driver). After eating and watching a bit of the Wisconsin game on TV, we walked to the comedy club.

***My only complaint about that club is that they really need to work on how they handle lines going into the club. Back to my story.***

The MC for the night was a rather young comedian. Not bad, but he is a work in progress. Averell Carter was the next act, and he was very good. His best bit was a shot at a couple of people he encountered in a line complaining about poor service with a line "This is so gay". His retort was that they really needed to find a better complaint line (offensive words were at one time really offensive, now they are really lame). He told it better; I recommend you go see his act.

The headliner was Michael Mack. Now his act was funny. And his work with the women in the audience was great. One person that he worked into his act was an older woman who had her family with her in the club, and they sat to his left at the foot of the stage.

***Another note: the seats that the six of us (four brothers and two friends of youngest) were very nice. Great view of the stage, but not right next to the stage so that the comedians would not be using us in the act).***

My favorite part of his act was his ending, including his props to simulate various famous rock acts. The Queen bit from Bohemian Rhapsody where that band did the 'figaro' bit had me laughing hysterically. Loved it!

After the end of the act, we all went back to the first bar. We found out that Wisconsin had won (boo). Brother #2 and I split off from the rest, and after borrowing #1's gf's van, we went back to the house to get some sleep.

SUNDAY

Late night became late morning. We did find out that brothers #1 and #3 made it back to their respective homes safely (#1 was locked out of the house for a bit because I had the keys). The group met at a local restaurant for brunch, followed by a trip to a local outlet shop for a look at the selection (its almost a tradition). After that it was trip preparations and #2 and I traveled back home. This time I listened to my NPR podcasts, and watched part of a documentary on the Crusades (my nephew liked seeing the men riding on their horses...ok, he liked the horses). The odd thing about the trip back was the weather. Up in norther Wisconsin it was only in the upper 30s to lower 40s. Back in central IL it was in the 60s when we stopped for dinner. I had to ditch some layers of clothes during the trip.

Long trip, but fun nevertheless. I'll have to think about my next trip up that way in the summer for the post-wedding reception. I may just drive myself. I liked watching my shows on the computer, but I think I may prefer to listen to XM for the trip. I also liked the drive with my nephew, but...I'll stop here. Have a good day.

Um...

(deep breath) *Whoosh* *cough cough*

Oh my, so much dust here. *COUGH*

Wow, has it been this long since I posted here? Time to clean up the dust.

(sounds of a LOT of cleaning)

I am very sorry about this. I meant to keep this up, but life gets complicated, and I never got into the habit of coming here. Well, I hope to do more to post here and share my life with others out there. I'm going to keep this post short, but I will put up a longer post as to what is going on in my life within a couple of days. I just wanted to show that I am not dead, just lazy.

I may also try to post about my views of the world. I have seen news out there that makes me wonder about the state of the world. Lots of changes in the Middle East and in the good old United States makes me wonder about the future of the human race. But I will save that for a future post.

Enough of this. I have more cleaning to do here. This place is REALLY dusty.

Last Vacation Time, end report

Well, it looks like I've attended my last convention for 2009. But the last two were a blast, for entirely different reasons.

On the weekend of October 2-4, I was in Bloomington, IL, for the 10th iteration of FlatCon. And it was the last Flat Con since the organizers are giving the convention to others to run. It will most likely be under a different name for 2010, but it was a marvelous run for those years that I attended. I was there to help the CIRCA Gamers run Living Forgotten Realms games, but I was able to get in some playing as well. That was a nice change of pace, as it is not easy for me to play modules when I am running games at cons. Plus, I won a couple of raffle prizes as well.

FlatCon was unusual in they held raffles for a local charity. They procured games and other donated items, sold raffle tickets, and then held a drawing to give them away. I got some decent items (as well as a bunch of filler stuff). A Dungeon Tile supplement, a couple of books, a tote bag, several magnets, two 4.0 D&D modules, with the rest being some free items, store promos, and three copies of the same Hackmaster Hacklopedia of Beasts. Oh well.

On October 9 and 10, I attended Brewfest in Cape Girardeau, MO. This convention was a blast for different reasons. The bad part was the drive from where I was staying to Buckner Brewery, where the convention was being held (thus the appropriate name for the convention besides it being inspired by Greyhawk D&D). My gaming on Friday and early Saturday were LFR games that I wanted to get for my local group, and they went well. But the game on Saturday evening was nothing short of a laugh riot.

If you have never played a round of Kobolds Ate My Baby, then you are missing something in your life. And since this was an all-adult group that went from 8-12 PM, this was an R rated game, and there were times when the game master was laughing so hard that he cried (unless there was the time when he almost choked on his drink). In short, I felt that my entire trip was worth it for playing a game that I had not seen in three years. I plan on spending a bit of my spare cash (what little I have) to find a copy of this game and the harder-to-find supplement.

But anyways, I can see what month we are at, and I know that my employer will be ending overtime work soon. Time to get back to my job and grab what precious overtime pay that I can. It is the main way that I can afford these moments of fun.

GenCon Recollections

I attended the GenCon Game Fair in Indianapolis, IN, recently. I had a lot of fun, but it was not all fun and games (pun intended). But before I forget all about it, here are some highlights.

Wednesday, August 12:
My friend Brayden picked me up for the drive, but not before I had to leave some of my items at home for lack of space in his car. So no updates for my LFR PCs, as one of the items that were left was my laptop. We got to Indy for his slot zero, and as he parked the car, I checked myself in at the Marriott. A bit later my first slot zero table convened in the bar just off of the lobby. We ended up ordering dinner instead of moving to a different table. But we did break for the RPGA judges's meeting in the convention center. The shirts that they got for us this year are certainly different than the ones I got two years ago. Mine were a bit too big (2XL). My other concern was getting a refund for my player's badge, but the RPGA staff said that they would take care of that. After that, I was able to drag Brayden from our room so that we could have fifth player for my second slot zero. Fun all around.

Thursday, August 13:
Thankfully I did not have to judge the first slot, as that allowed me to get a bit more rest. When I did go over to the convention center well before my first judging round, I made the mistake of entering the center during the opening ceremonies. That was brutal, but then again I was wondering if most of those people were competing to see who would be the first into the dealer's area. I was able to get one of my shirts exchanged for an XL shirt, which fit much better.

After that, I had my first session as a judge, and it went well. I was able to ask for a particular table featuring another friend from my area (Hi, Harold!) and Gerrie, a friend whom I had last seen at a convention in Cape Girardeau, MO.

In the last slot, I was released due to lack of interest (or maybe due to the number of players who tried to get into a level 4-7 module with their level 1 characters). I went to the front desk, and was asked to run a module for "open play" (they play whatever is available), but the only module that I had at hand was that module that I had prepared to run. So, after procuring a copy of the special (and a borrowed battlemat), I was given a party to judge. All went well, but I feel that I could have done better. But for the fact that I had had no time to prepare, I feel that I did my best.

Friday, August 14:
Another day, more judging. Got through the morning session alright, although I was once again asked to judge a module that I had not prepped. Thankfully I was able to borrow another judge's pre-made map.

After that I had an open slot, and I decided to play that round instead of going to the dealer's room right away. I went downstairs and got in line to buy an event ticket for an LFR game. I had two choices, and went with my second one. But after buying that ticket, I checked the event guide...only to find out that I did not have a character for that game. Oops. I then got in line at the Customer Service booth to get that error fixed. I got back to the RPGA room just in time for the slot, and then proceeded to play the low-level special that I had just judged the night before. Thankfully I was playing a silent fighter-type. I later got in a trip to the dealer's room, coming away with a free key chain, a Hare+Guu Deluxe part 2 DVD, and a new flipmat from the Paizo booth. I passed on their Pathfinder D&D 3.75 product, preferring to get it later, if at all.

After dinner at the Circle Center Mall, I was able to finally get back to judging the module I had prepared for. I really liked that table, and not just because of the all-dragonborn characters. The only downside was the event ran a bit long, so I reverted to a non-D&D decision making prop that my local group adopted from the Champions RPG. I had all of the players make what is called a "luck roll" to decide the outcome of the final combat. I know that is a cop-out, but due to the fact that my side had a good chance to win, I felt that having them make those rolls was a fair decision. The rolls were in their favor, which makes me feel better about the situation.

Saturday, August 15:
Time for some more judging. Five of us were released from our group, and we were all given the choice to run the two-round MINI game. As three of those released had the next round off, I and one other judge were assigned to that game, with the caveat that we were not expected to be there for the next round at the IMPI1-5 group. I was thankfull that I had bought that flipmat the day before, as the only mapping items that I had brought with me were the Dungeon Tiles that I had picked out for the IMPI1-5 game. Turns out that what I had heard about the MINI1-1 game was true, as my table got done in a little over 5 hours, including player stops for food and bio breaks, and I even got a bit of lunch in.

I went back down after the game, with the intention of getting a three-set of generic tickets and the thought of getting into another round of playing. When I returned to the RPGA area, I found out that the IMPI area got slammed and was the group that needed more judges. Well, I decided to put back on my judge's shirt and run another round. At least my area did not have to turn away players.

I then went to get my judge's rewards (aka swag). I let the people at the front table that I had judged an extra slot, and was told that it did not matter that I had somehow fit in another game. I had been put in for 7 rounds, and that was the reward level I was set at. WHAT THE?!? I proceeded to pick out my rewards (Books: Divine Power, Eberron's Player's Guide, and Adventurer's Vault 2, one pack of the new minis, and two Dungeon Tile sheets featuring boats) and vowed that I would talk to others later.

Another trip for dinner to the Circle Center Mall, and I ran into the marshal for the IMPI1-5 area. I told him my issue with the front desk, and he asked if I had talked to anyone in charge. Well...DC had been absent, and I had not seen TB, who is a person I had known from a couple of trips to Chicago-area conventions back in the Living Greyhawk days. He said that he would talk to DC about the fact that I did not have to volunteer to run a slot when I was asked to. When I got back to the LFR area, he took me to the desk, and I was then credited with my extra effort (book: Monster Manual 2, and a pack of the Rewards Cards).

Then came my last judge slot with Team Wootzor. They were the most eclectic group that I had ever judged, even going back to all of the tables that I had run in the LG days. They even had a bit of feng shui going, as every player had a particular seat that they had to have in conjunction to where the judge sat. Needless to say that they really got into the role-play portion of the game. And their needing to shout out their name whenever one of them rolled a critical hit. (I was even expected to yell out "Whoop-Ass" whenever I had a critical, which I had a bit of a challenge to remember). In the middle of the game, just as I was rolling initiative for the second combat, the fire alarms went off, forcing us to evacuate the convention center (but not before everybody gathered their stuff). We reconvened in an open-gaming room at the Hyatt, where the gang was forced to keep their yells down a bit. I came away with a keepsake d6 and an appreciation of their group.

Sunday, August 16:
I had the entire day off, and I took advantage of it by sleeping in a bit. However, Brayden and I had to be up in order to check out in time. He had a bit of a panic by having misplaced his Rewards Cards set, but he had packed them in one of his bags already. After vacating the room, we checked out and had the bags put in temporary storage. While he went to visit friends, I proceeded over to the convention center to play a couple of games. I ended up getting involved with their University of Catan promotion, having gathered the basic commodities that are present in the game Settlers of Catan, thus gaining the title Knight of Catan, an entry in a drawing they were holding, and a half-off coupon I used to buy the latest version of Eurorails. After that, I hooked up with Brayden, and watched our stuff while he got the car. And that was that.

All in all it was a good convention. I am considering judging for them at DC's next convention (DDXP in Fort Wayne, IN), but I will make sure that I hit the free hotel room level.

They say it's your birthday...

Well, here it is. Birthday #43. Yipee.

Anyways, I decided to take the day off and get the home prepared for the upcoming visit of my sister and her husband. They should be here by Friday the 17th. And what have I got to show of it by now? Well, I have my shed cleaned out and rearranged. And I should get back out there and put some of my stuff in the shed. Other than that...

Let's just say that I have been planning on cleaning my home for some time, and mainly due to tiredness from work, gaming with friends, and some laziness, it has not gotten done. But I can live with a bit of clutter myself. Besides, I do not have others coming to my place to make me keep up the cleaning. And I also usually spend the majority of my day cleaning a warehouse, so I feel somewhat justified in not keeping my home free of clutter.

Anyways, time to get back to getting some cleaning done. I may not get my home fully cleaned by Friday, but at least I'll have it in much better shape than I have seen it for some time.

Oh, and I will most likely go out for some form of dinner tomorrow. It is my birthday, and I intend to treat myself. I just have to figure out which place to go to.