the continuous sound of lights that have reached the bottom

January 13th, 2012

Artist: Volumes
Song: “Edge Of The Earth”
Album: “Via”
Genre: metalcore, progressive metal (apparently)
Why: Spotify has a Genius-like feature these days, that creates playlists on songs that you like. This was one of the first songs that popped up when I started a Ghost Brigade inspired playlist. I immediately ‘starred’ the song and have been returning to it ever since. It’s because of that one guitar riff that keeps going on in the background, of course. And I guess I just like the wistfulness of it. Anyway, I just wanted to share this because I’ve been looping the song the past few days, and I just didn’t want to have yesterday’s blog entry at the top.
For what it’s worth, it’s not the greatest song in the world… but I like it and I thought it was worth a share :)

cancer is bullshit

January 12th, 2012

Amidst fun stuff like Connus Minimus, Olli’s retaining of his job, and purchased tickets for Mastodon and We Were Promised Jetpacks (next month), a lovely day of shopping yesterday, I also got the news this morning that Ron’s prognosis is that he has about 2-5 months to live. Probably two.

I feel rotten.

connus minimus II report

January 8th, 2012

Well, we just got home from the second installment of Connus Minimus. Wendy and Arno hosted the weekend and graciously offered us their hospitality for the duration of the event. Olli and I went together and brought Bodhi, who thankfully behaved well at a strange house.

On Saturday I immediately got into the groove of things; I ran two games as a GM. I did a Penny For My Thoughts game in the afternoon, and one in the evening slot.
It was very exciting, but I forgot quickly enough about how exciting it was and just focused on the great stories that were told based on those very short memory triggers. In the first game (Tijs, Kat, Wendy) alone we ended up with a sister killing a brother, a granddaughter killing her grandfather (and her dog), and a son being beaten within an inch of his life by his father (while uploading the whole thing on youtube). The group had some issues getting into the groove where they had to make sure the Traveller couldn’t make the choice; they had to offer the choice options. But once they got into it, it went very well and they seemed to like the journey.

In the second group (Lie, Bart, Marco) we ended up with a thief on the run causing a lot of collateral damage, a member of the Aryan brotherhood who learned that karma is a real bitch, and a father who saw the son that he gave up for adoption killed before his eyes. Some pretty powerful stories as well! The group reported here as well that it was hard to do a one-off thing and had to create memories out of nothing, but once they got into the groove they loved it, and they said that they would love to do the game again now that they’d gotten into the way it worked. They were especially amazed by the journeys they had taken – stories that came from a few slips of paper.
So all in all the GMing went well, everyone LOVED the system, and we had a good time! :D

Olli and I went home at night and drove back to Breda on Sunday morning, where we did a Grim’s Gangs game with Derek- who had created a scenario where some people in an elderly home cause havoc in the streets of Camden. It was a pretty silly and hilarious setting (count on Derek to come up witah great ridiculous settings :D )
I was the gang leader but I wasn’t very suited to the task, unfortunately – not in the least because I ROLL DICE LIKE ASS. Seriously, not one roll I made turned out well, I fumbled spectacularly on every roll I made and ended up dying in an embarrassing and spectacular fashion. I just shouldn’t play RPs with dice anymore, I just suck at it.
I ended up getting ganked by my own gang members (thanks, Olli ;) ). It was my own fault though. We did get to hurl dirty diapers (and grenades) at police cars, so we had a good time. :)

Anyway, all in all I had a great weekend. Good games, great company, will do again.
When is Connus Minimus III? Do we still have time for that before Condamned, people? :)