Trismegistus

...makes a post.

Alas, Saturday’s snow turned out to be an utter bust, in that zero of the predicted 1-2 inches actually fell. Cloudless + cold is the absolute worst way for weather to do winter and I will never acclimate to it.

Sunday, combined session 0/1 with newest D&D group went really well! The campaign is a soft reboot for the DM, who’d lost most of her original players to scheduling conflicts. The GC and I came onboard because the DM’s good friend is one of the players in the TTOS campaign and extended the invite to us. This one looks like it will be incredible fun: the DM is new but has done her homework and ran a really excellent session 0 in terms of setting out group dynamics, expectations, redlines, and backstory. All of the five players (half of whom are new to the game) seem really cool and the group had good cohesion from the get-go. We’re tentatively scheduled to play every other week, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how this campaign develops.

Even cooler: I mentioned during introductions that I play Irish flute. TTOS Player did a literal double take and said “No way, I’m a fiddler!” We’ve both been playing since we were kids, she plays now with a local contra dance group, and is going to make introductions so that I can play with them too. As most of the local sessions here either died during covid or moved their communication and organizing to facebook (and sorry, nope, not even ITM can convince me to sign up to use that garbage) getting an in-person intro to a group is huge. Plus, someone I already considered very awesome shares not one but two niche interests with me, which is pretty great. 🥳

Longest D&D campaign had a session Monday, following a two-week hiatus. We got some major world and character backstory explanation in, which was a nice change following the previous two sessions of grueling combat.

AEW Collision this week was great fun, in no small part because the GC’s best and oldest friend had ringside seats, so we got to watch him watch the matches, in a mirror image of him watching us watch the matches at Dynamite last year.

Yesterday’s snow actually managed a respectable amount of accumulation. (Of course, opm bungled its response both yesterday and today, once more screwing employees who don't have telework authorization). I took a long walk in it after work, and was virtually the only person outside, so the atmosphere was lovely. I'm going to take at least one more hike today before the predicted rain melts it all away.

これで以上です。

1.
Having fortuitously discovered that the US branch of a major Irish traditional music preservation organization would be having its 50^th anniversary convention but a short metro ride away from my house and that you could sign up for individual events ala carte (indeed, without even being a member), I signed up for the pennywhistle workshop.( Read more... )

2.
We had BBQ again at Geek!Bar on the actual 4^th, possibly miscalculated the start time and duration of the official fireworks, but still managed to catch the finale from Sekrit Neighborhood Viewing Spot, and then watched/listened/fell asleep to the much more extensive neighborhood fireworks that go on into the wee hours of the morning every year.

3.
This past Thursday was the 5-year anniversary of Second Oldest D&D Group having finished Curse of Strahd. I've been playing with these guys for closer to a decade than not at this point, and that is wild to think about.

4.
Newest D&D Group has spun off an affiliated fantasy romance trope book club. The vibe is exactly what you would expect from "fantasy romance trope book club," which is to say unapologetically off the wall and I love it. And there is room for growth. (Moi: "May I interest you in a C-novel?" Book club: "What is a 'C-nove'—Yes.") So this promises to be a ridiculous good time.

5.
The inception of the book club lit the spark that got me to start my long-delayed Koori no Mamono no Monogatari reread, and god. I love everything Sugiura Shiho has written. It's just wonderful. I wish I could tell stories like she does. I wish she was still telling stories. But in the meantime, I have over 50 volumes of her work to read and I'm loving every moment of it.

6.
In the back of volume 3 of Koori I found a receipt from the Irish Lion, dated 12:59 am on April 3, 2003, where I had doubtlessly gone to play in an ITM session. According to this receipt, I had a pint of Guinness and a lamb burger with fries. I payed $8.70 for this. With tax.

$8.70 I AM WEEPING.

これで以上です。

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( Loose Change. )

これで以上です。