The World of Lucky

First, woke up at 5:00am but had an on again off again sleep. Dreams were weird and anxious, I think its mostly an over-tired sort of thing, plus every time I sleep with the bedroom door closed it gets stuffy and I dream funny. Ankle and back both ache.

The weekend went really well. We have had a steady stream of new people in the last two months that are repeat customers. They are very low key and seem to be enjoying the game. Some of our regulars were busy this weekend and others probably wont be coming back. It will be nice to see the ones that couldn't make it come out next month, and I wish luck to those that wont be coming back. I still don't understand why people wont just say they just aren't into the game, but then again I guess it might be natural to worry that the wife or I may be upset about it (not everyone likes the same kind of game).

I will give a more detailed update of event later today. For now I will try and wake up with a cup of tea.

The last two days I have been commuting out to Skykomish. Its about an 1.5 hour (or a little less) commute each way and I get gas reimbursement and exchange time for it. Its a nice drive, but by the end of the day I put in at least 11 hours and it does make me a bit tired. This is why last two days I hadn't done any working out. The wife and I plan to remedy this on Thursday, get in a good workout before going down to Dying Light on Friday.

I woke up this morning at 1:30 am. I was so hot and sweaty that I couldn't handle myself. I also was coughing a lot. Great, a fever and a cough not a good sign. I should have figured this was what was happening, yesterday my nose wouldn't quit running. Now its 3:00am and I am no longer too hot and my cough is subsiding, I think I am going to call in sick as I still am not on top of my game. I will probably work a little bit from home.

I realized this morning, this event will be the last event I take the whole Friday off. This is because after this Friday (at least until July) ethicalcannibal has school until noon. It means I can work a half day at least each Friday instead of blowing a vacation/exchange day to head down for Dying Light. Don't get me wrong, loving DL, I just hate blowing a vacation day so I can sit down at the park until 4pm or later until people show. This way I can save more vacation for other things that don't require waiting for people to show up. I have a ton of stuff for plot planned this weekend, unfortunately I haven't been able to talk to my two main plot guys to go over the stuff, will have to have an impromptu meeting when they get there Friday night. The cool thing is I have a ton of plot volunteers, I will have to divvy them over the weekend, but I am stoked about that. Especially since at least the first few games I wont be as mobile with the still healing ankle.

In good news, combining our tax return and extra hours put in at work we were able to pay back about $1,000 on our credit card this month. Slightly less than 10%, but it was an awesome feeling (we are mostly worried about paying the two Chase credit cards used for medical/moving, the revolving line of credit has decent interest and the credit union is cool so we aren't so stressed about that). YAY!!!

Oh, and to just share with everyone, I love my wife (ethicalcannibal ) I don't think I publicly shout this enough, so here I am shouting it again.

Here is a couple of pictures of me playing Vaya in my costume. I play a "Seeker", a fey who spends his life guarding the other fey races. Of course in game I am married to ethicalcannibal for the first time in our larping history. Its nice to be able to touch her like she is my wife.

Of course, I don't play much due to plot, but I figure I should at least put my costume on. Only sad thing is no ears, the wife was tired and making dinner and I had just gotten home from a 10 hour shift and wasn't capable of putting them on (my hands wouldn't stop shaking).

Oh, and you will notice that Vaya does not have wings this season, there is a reason for it :)



Just a normal picture of me, oh ya I forgot I have a beard now, it looks a little weird.



Me sorta posing, with a cat that is very interested and I am wearing the hat that hornetskaya gave ethicalcannibal .

Although the pictures definitely remind me that I need to start working out again.

Family:
I am going to be in Bellingham twice this weekend, I am taking tomorrow off to get the car checked out, then up to Bellingham to help parents with some appointments. Unfortunately I will have to cancel tomorrow's plans with Matt, hopefully I can get through to him by then. Then we have to go back up on Saturday, damn I am exhausted.

Work:
Work is going very well. They changed up the schedule, and starting next Monday I need to commute to Oak Harbor daily for an audit until mid october. It should be fairly straight forward, and there will be good reimbursement of both mileage and hours. Means I might be able to take a small chunk out of the credit cards YAY!!!!

Non-Larp Gaming:
Today ran Project Hidden. It was the first time in over a month (and it was nice), unfortunately a small game, but it was fun. This Sunday is our first Burning Twilight game in about as much time, that should be fun as well. Finally we will probably once again play PH either Friday or Monday depending on how I feel.

Dying Light
Dying Light's inaugural game was awesome. When we started this we would have been happy at 10 people. We know that the other larp we ran had only 7 its first game so we had higher hopes I guess. By the time the event occurred we had 25 people in the database, and 23 people showed up with another 4 adding characters to the database (for a total of 29 people interested enough to submit characters and requests). Hitting over 20 for our first event (in what is really a beta version of our game) was awesome. We have already determined some issues and are working on patching them for the new year (Healing was the main part, but we are working on a gun path and other path additions).

The game went really smooth. There were some issues, namely we were a tent only site with a primitive bathroom. The site is small and it rained a little in the mornings. I do think the small site did promote more interaction, but I have a feeling that being a pro is based on the person you ask.

Plot was fun but also extremely exhausting. For the most part plot consisted of me, ethicalcannibal, finnegwyn, godling, and a couple of volunteers. We were ran ragged and got about 2 hours of gaming in. True, the gaming was something we don't expect to do until we find someone we want in charge of plot and who is stupid... I mean wonderful enough to want to run plot.

We wrapped the game up and the best part was how many people said they were happy, including people new to larping. That is the key to a successful larp, having the brand new people be excited and wanting to come back. Some of them were so excited that even though they are going to miss the September game due to a vacation that was scheduled, they paid the entry fee so they could get blanket (and they have sent us plans on what they want to do in October).

Now it is a week later and we have already had a rules meeting and a plot meeting. We are working out issues and I really think the game will be stronger. In addition we now have somewhere near 35 characters in the database (each person only has one character currently), we also know at least 4 more are being made. In addition we get to play at an ELC from now on, now we have running water, a heated cabin that will sleep 24 (with a kitchen, living area, hearth, and two private bedrooms) and about 5 miles of trails and camping area (wife and I are going to camp in our tent still).

We are sad, we know a few of the players can't make September due to previously scheduled things. However, things are going really well, better then we had hoped for and from what we can see October may be packed with people. I think this means as we hit Season 2 in March things will pick up again and by next summer we should be rocking.

Oh, I have pictures I just need to go through them, once that is done I will post them up here (or on flickr, still deciding that one).