Hey all.
Any interest in a semi regular gaming night at my place?
I am thinking more board and or mini games not RPG's (although I would be open to an RPG as well :) )
Right now I am thinking like every other week or so.

My wife has turned our kitchen into a Dutch bakery. I have happy happy dutch cookies!!

That is all.

So Here are pics of the scroll





Close up of the ship



Text reads as follows:

Then stepped forth from the bosom of the water
the Appointed Protector of Bhakail's Shores,
with stately look and pleasant cheer. I'll not
contend ~ quoth he ~ but yet command, in few
words my role hath been twice Bhakail's left hand.

Right is the course which Reason did councel, firm
was the faith that World Known did abide.
Loyal is the cutlass blade which keeps your
gold supplied.

And so vouchsafe sweet Excellencies to think,
what's said is right, and what is right is true,
that Griffith Davion be counted among the
Salamanders of Bhakail and before you
receive his due.

In Yule Court, fifth December A.S. XLIV

So another Yule has come and gone.
This was a large endeavor this year. The intent was to recapture the old school Bhakail Yule feel and put it back on the map as the one Yule you MUST attend. I think this was achieved to some degree of success.

The site was decent for a large feast but perhaps too many things were going on during the day. The room was loud and hard to navigate at times. The food was great. I might have preferred a little more day board and a little less dinner but it worked well as it was. The food itself was great thanks to Alysten and her crew (even if I didn't get any bambi :( )

I elected not to fence as my wrist was bothering me and it seemed stupid to push the issue.

In court I was called in for a bit of shtick that I was not expecting.
The Baron gave a small speech about River Wars and my place in it and "Paid me my due" with a a large glass decanter of rum.

I was happy to accept of course :)

When I thought we were done I go to leave and the Baroness says "We aren't done with you yet."

ooooooookay


They then proceeded to induct me into the order of the Salamander, The Baronial Service award, much to my surprise. The scroll is lovely and I will endeavor to get a picture of it posted.

At first glance it isn't very ornate. A ship at the top and the words.... But then you start to really look at the ship and realize that the front sail is the Baronial salamander and then almost instantly realize that the main sail is my arms (which only just passed last week) mostly obscured by the front sail ( a rather cool effect imo) The top pennant is the Tadcaster banner of green ermines and the flag is a flamingo.

Ian did an amazing job on this and I love it.

His lovely wife Annise did the calligraphy which is also just perfect The text is very well done and is credited to both Annise and Lissa. When I get a picture up I will also transpose the text.

I would like to thank all involved on the scroll for their efforts. It's just lovely.

It was unfortunate that neither Collin or Baron Larry (my Pel) could be present but they called after court and that was nice.

From Alysten
1. What is your best advice for a new kid just getting into the rapier game?
Believe in yourself. No matter how good the person across the list from you is you can always win.
If you do not think you can win... you can't.

2. What is your favorite season & why?
Late Spring/Early Summer
I love weather warm enough to not have to wear a jacket but not so hot that going out and fencing would be dumb.
Give me 73 degrees with a nice breeze and i'm a happy guy.

3. If you could do anything in your life over again, what would it be?
If you mean would I change something then honestly... nothing. I have things that I wish hadn't happened the way they did but I look at my life as one long event not a series of events.
My life so far has had many ups and downs but if not for the road I walked I would not be where I am at today. I have a great job a beautiful wife good friends and the ability to actually appreciate all of them because at different points in my life I didn't have them.

If you mean if I could experience something again... I'm not sure. I think it would be a toss up between The day I won K&Q rapier ( I was so in the zone I feel like I missed a lot of it and if I could go back and be a passenger in myself and just watch it it would be great.) And the day I got to look at Carla and say "I told you" (she will know what that means and I will get hit most likely but it's worth it)

4. What skill/ability do you wish you had?
Many but most of them would just be a matter of getting the drive to LEARN them. The one that can't be fixed that way is the one I would most like to have. A good singing voice. Music is a huge part of my life. I know the lyrics of countless songs and as those who hang out with me can attest I will sing them... badly... at volume. When I was a child I had a great singing voice. In my early teens I was in Bye Bye Birdy and in the middle of the production my voice started changing. One of the last nights of the show I was pushing a note really hard and my voice cracked and it hurt... a LOT... and them poof no more mid range. It was just gone. It never came back.

5. Why tigers?
Look at em... I mean just LOOK! Are you picking up what I'm puttin down?

no, ok really. I do not have an answer to this other than to say it just is. All my life I have felt an affinity to them. I have been facinated with them as long as I can remember. I actually considered trying to move to Australia and get a job at Tiger island when it first opened just so I could work with them. At heart I am a cat person. I like cats and for the most part cats like me. Cats that hate everyone walk up and jump in my lap.
Tigers are the end all be all of the feline world. They exude their predatory nature even in the most relaxed states. What other animal can look like they just want a tummy rub while at the same exact moment look like they might eat your left arm if you tried?

And another little oddity about Tigers... even when I have nothing to do with it they appear in my life. I take a meme with what animal are you... inveriably I come up Tiger. I get a random gift from a donation... stuffed tiger... I get married... she was born in the Year of the Tiger...
Stuff i can't make up.

From Ld_Lorenzo

1. Is there anything you wish Stephen King had done differently in his career?
I wish he had not decided to write anything that came up without actually looking at it to see if it was worth reading.
He bought into his own hype.

2. What could make heavy metal better?
Less noise for noise sakes and more skill and passion. I feel old saying this but "back in my day" metal wasn't all just screams and riffs. Bands like Metallica were singing about real things. Iron Maiden was singing about history. Anthrax about books and comics and politics.
So in all honesty What would make metal better? a giant rewind to back before it was about nothing BUT money.

3. Have you thought about getting a hunting license for PA?
Many times but I do not hang out with any hunters anymore. Hunting was never a solo thing for me. I always went with people.

4. Have you ever tried to write a comic book?
More than once actually. My big problem is I can not draw to save my life and I never found anyone that was a decent artist who wanted to do it.

5. Have your tastes in alcohol changed much in the last five or ten years?
In the last 10 years? Yes absolutely. my tastes have gotten more expensive. I really am far more into good rums than I was 10 years ago.
While I would not cal myself a scotch snob I do enjoy it and 10 years ago i hated it.
My taste in beer has drastically altered. Now it's purely Belgians for me.

1. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
depends on what age of kid you mean. But I guess the first real thing I wanted to do and understood what it meant to want to DO something was be a pilot. I knew everything there was to know about fighter jets. In my mid teens I learned I could never be a fighter pilot due to my eyes.
After that I wanted to be a writer.

2. How many comic books do you think you actually have in the house?
omg... uhhhh fast and dirty math... roughly 12,000 in comic boxes. Probably another 2000 that need to be bagged boarded and put into boxes.

3. How many titles are you currently reading and what are your favorites of those?
currently I am reading about 70 - 75 depending on what mini series are going on at the time. I guess my favorites are Iron fist, Walking Dead, Thor, and Green Lantern. The X books (x-men, x-force, x-factor et al)are all very strong right now as well.

4. What comic universe/character/hero would you like to see resurrected?
Until a couple of years or so ago I would have said Iron Fist or Moon Knight hands down but they brought both back and the new books have been great.
Now I guess i would say I really wish the had stuck with the "New universal" books which were bringing back the new universe characters from the 80's with a new telling .

5. Have you ever tried to determine how many licks dos it really take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?
Sadly yes the answer is most assuredly not three.

Ace of Cakes - Book Signing
Friday, December 4, 2009
Moorestown, NJ
Duff will be at Kitchen Kapers in Moorestown, NJ to sign copies of our new book, Ace of Cakes: Inside the World of Charm City Cakes.

Ok well seeing I have asked someone the 5 questions it seems only fair that I open myself up to the same scrutiny.

You get 5 questions that I will answer to the best of my ability. I can not promise the answer will not be silly or snarky but if you are reading this you knew that already.

A few minutes ago I was sitting in my wife's office petting the kittens and I hear some noise from outside. It's a young kid clearly upset. Initially I blow it off as "kids yell at each other, it's what they do..." Then I hear him start to cry and I get up and look out the window.

There are 3 boys, roughly age 10, standing on the sidewalk and two of them look rather sheepish and one is on his cell and crying.I hear him say "my skateboard went down the sewer".

So I say to Carla, "I'm going to go see if I can help the kid get his board back" and head outside. By the time I get there his friends are there but the board owner is halfway down the street and hanging up his phone. I walk up and ask his friends which sewer, they point and are clearly confused by the old guy coming out and talking to them. I walk over, hop down to look if I can see the board and I find that the sewers in my area are designed to make it so that you can not see down into them and there is a sharp 90 degree turn downwards about 6 inches in past the lip of the opening. I look at this and say "well not getting my arm down there" and start looking for my options.

The top of the sewer is part of the sidewalk and has two square doors muck like manhole covers. In fact, they have the same system of opening them; A small hole you are supposed to put a pulling tool into. I tell the kids I might have something to open it with and that I would be right back. One of the two runs off down the street calling his friend to tell him what I am doing. I head into the garage and find nothing and then say to myself "my old boot pulls would be perfect if I can find them." I couldn't, but I did find an iron bar with a hook at either end we use to hang a lantern in our yurt from and an old army shovel.

With tools in hand I head back out and all three are there waiting. I find that the hook wont fit in the hole but that there is enough gap to get the edge of the shovel into so I lever it up and pop the bar in that way and then pull it up and out of the way. I then used the long hook to snag one of the wheels and viola one skateboard retrieved. The kid was extremely happy and thanked me a lot as did his friends. I put the cover back in place and went back inside.

I have no idea what made me go outside to help the kid but I'm glad I did

Apparently my intertubes love me today...
It gave me my download of the new Wolfmother CD 30 minutes earlier than it was supposed to.
It's a silly thing but I'll take it.

so in honor of the fact that Rock Band released an awesome Queen track pack I give you...




And because Guitar Hero 5 released a Billy Squire Track Pack I give you....




On a side note they are releasing Lego rock band in April next year.
Edit: http://www.queenonline.com/news/1486/ Oh that's just too funny

see now THAT'S how you play bass.

I could likely make a huge post about all the things that happened good and bad at the event but my wrist hurts far to much to type all of that.

Let it suffice to say that the event happened. From all the feedback I have gotten I would call it a success. The only complaints I had were all related to the hotel itself and were out of our hands. Most often they were in regard to the food service. The cafe was slow, poorly organized, at times out and out rude and the food itself was drastically inconsistent. The Bar prices were outrageous and wait times for room service were insane.

I know I myself went to the cafe on Friday night and my personal experience was FAR from good. We sat at our table a good 45 minutes before our orders were taken. The food then took another 45 to arrive. When we asked for the bills to be separated (which the waiter offered to do)We didn't see him again for an obscene amount of time and when he did come back the bills were wrong. When I pointed this out he mumbled something and wandered away with the bills. After another 10 minutes he came back, handed me a bill and it was THE EXACT SAME BILL HE HANDED ME IN THE FIRST PLACE!! At some point another waitress overheard me saying something to my meal mates about how inane this had become and came over to help and I asked for the manger. The person who came back was in fact the manager for food service for the entire hotel.

I informed her of everything that happened and was pretty clear that it wasn't very busy at all and if they were this overwhelmed now what would it be like on Saturday? She assured me that they would take steps to rectify the issue. She blatantly admitted they didn't take my estimates for attendees seriously and were understaffed.

All weekend complaints about the food service came to me from almost everyone.
Suffice it to say we (ok, Greenness is) are writing a rather scathing letter to the hotel about this.

On the plus sides of the event, Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. My staff deserves a huge round of thank yous for all their work. Troll ran smoothly and quickly. Teachers were wrangled appropriately. The outside fencing went well when the weather permitted it. The inside fencing was a little tight for space but seemed to be enjoyed and go without problems.

At no point did my head actually implode while dealing with the errors the hotel kept tossing at me. All of which seemed to boil down to poor communication on the hotels part with it's own staff.

I think my curved sword class went well enough but I did learn that it isn't a 1 hour class. When I was less than half way through my intended topics JP came in and told me I was running over and he needed the room for his class... And here I thought I wouldn't have enough for an entire hour. I never got the the full on practical part of the class even after I took those student who were interested outside and continued for a second hour.

So all in all the event didn't suck; no one was killed; no heads imploded and the only problem I walked away with was a messed up wrist (from teaching curved sword right handed for two hours)

I deem this a success!

EDIT: I occurs to me after I post this that I think my personal "Bad Restaurant Karma " hit the entire event.

to quote Liam "I am boosting the signal"

Aion goes live next week and myself and some others, (some SCA friends and gaming friends are all going to start on Elyos side on the Lumiel server.
We are not trying to build some uberguild but the more the merrier.
ALso we will likely put our asmodians on the Ziel server but i doubt that will be as active.

It's a rated R trailer so play at own risk

My new iPhone arrived today!!!
A full week before I expected it.
SQUEE!!!!
Ok so first lets start with the hell that is AT&T....
So I decide to upgrade to the 3Gs from my old school 2G iPhone for various reasons...
I call the apple store to make sure they have them in stock cause why drive all the way out there and wait to be told "Sorry, sold out of the one you want" While on the phone the guy says they have "hundreds" (this is important remember this), and that I should go to the apple store and work out the upgrade there and that way my time in store will be much faster. He was very polite about it and I said I would do that. I hung up. Went to the site. Went through the process and wham... brick wall... "you have a business number we can't do this on the site... ooooooookay....
So I call the store back and luckily got the same person. "Hi I just spoke to you a few minutes ago and you asked me to go to the website and I did and it told me it couldn't help me because I'm on a business account." There is a pause and an audible sigh and then "I'm sorry to tell you this but if you are on a business account you will have to get your upgrade from AT&T and not from us directly." Pause " And none of the AT&T stores in the Pa metro area have any."
Long pause and then I speak...
"Wait,, seriously? But I got the phone I have now directly from an apple store."
"You have an original 2g don't you?"

"uhm... yeah"

"Yeah AT&T decided when they 3G went out that they wanted to keep all the business sales for themselves. So we can't sell them or upgrade them because we can't sell it to you without turning it on and we can't access business accounts."

after some flustered wtf commentary from me I get out...
"So basically AT&T is screwing me in the ass?"

"Pretty much yeah. And thats one of many reasons we all hope they lose the contract next year."

"Well, that sucks but thanks for the help. I do not look forward to dealing with an AT&T store."

And he actually says... wait for it

Wait for it...

"Try not to kill anyone. It will be tempting I assure you."

Ok so I get off the phone and rant for a bit about AT&T and their dumbassery....
and I call my local AT&T store. To be told that they do not have them. They only got a handful of them and they were gone in under 3 hours and he has no idea when they will get more. I ask him about this business plan measure AT&T put in place and he says that it was Apple that insisted on it. oh really??? Apple said no thank you we do not want to sell phones? REALLY?

Do the guy at the store tells me that I have to come in to put in a "pre-order" for a phone that is already out and I might get in in about 2 weeks, but not to hold my breath. I ask if I can put the order in over the phone and he says no he needs the CC in hand to run it. I ask if he is kidding because telephone CC ordering has been around since oh the stone age. He says they can't take CC's over the phone on Business accounts because it would cut into the business of their "premier site". I ask what he is talking about and he explains there is a website for business accounts to buy stuff remotely.
I say ok thank you and hang up....

I immediately use my google-fu and find said site and go through the process of using that...
I will save you the drama of how much of a horrorshow that was but suffice it to say I eventually just called their help desk. Was told again that this was all Apples fault because AT&T had nothing to gain by not letting apple sell me the phone... to which I said something to the effect of "You mean other than the sale?" They didn't get it... I moved on.
While doing the upgrade I decided I should up my minutes seeing I was getting very close on a regular basis and went over big time this month. This started a whole new series of problems.
This made me notice that the new data plan was more money and had less service than what I had currently. I pointed this out. They said well sir the 3G data plan costs more. To which I said well yes I believe that was my complaint. Why should this data plan cost more and come with less? They asked what I meant and I explained that my current plan is 20 dollars for unlimited data and 200 texts... this plan is 30 dollars for "unlimited data" but not really and no texts.
they said but sir the 3G costs more.... long sigh.... deep breath... Yes no shit! WHY?
"Why would I pay you money to upgrade to less service? That really isn't an upgrade now is it?"

"Well sir the new plans are set up this way I have no way of altering them.."

"Really? Even if I tell you that this gives me a pretty solid reason to change all 10 lines on this plan over to the Pre... which you don't sell?"

"Oh well sir I don't think we need to go that route Let me see what I can do please hold..."

2 min later...
"Sorry sir I can't change the plan but what I can do is credit the account the amount that you would be billed for the text plan and give you an additional 500 rollover minutes each year."

I move along


After two days on the phone with AT&T to order the phone, Get our premier account set up correctly and get my account updated correctly (which looking a the site while I type this STILL isn't right... GRRRRR), I am told that the order is placed and it will take two weeks to get the phone......

wait... But Apple told me they have hundreds sitting there... HUNDREDS!
Sooo being a business account means I get less service at higher fees with more roadblocks between me and what I want/need?

Uhg... And its the newspaper industries that are going under? The mind boggles.

Ok so today I go downstairs to find a box... It's addressed to my company not me... odd I think.
I open the box and viola spiffy new iPhone for me in only a matter of days.

There were some set up difficulties but nothing that I couldn't work around (iTunes was being persnikety)and now I have a new 32 gig 3Gs iPhone with the coolest feature EVAR!! Voice control!!

YAY...

the moral?

AT&T is the devil but a fast devil they be!