eddyfate

The check-up with the surgeon's office was very short -- mostly it was a cleaning of the extraction sites and a quick lesson in how to do it myself (twice a day). The nurse told me that actually I'm doing really well -- many patients can't really even open their mouths at this point, and nearly all of them are still on constant pain meds (I'm on one pain pill in the morning and the rest of the day on ibuprofin for the past couple of days). The pain, numbness and nausea are all common, especially with the number of extractions I had (apparently I had twelve novocaine injections for this surgery). I asked if I would be able to eat and talk around this time next week, and the nurse said that shouldn't be a problem, and if it is a problem, I should probably come in for another (free) post-op check-up.

I asked because next week is ICC. I also found out that I'm going to be working in the office for parts of ICC weekend -- probably all of Wednesday, and likely at least part of Thursday and Friday. That may also mean coming home Wednesday and Thursday night to make sure our pets are handled and fed, and so I can get up and go to work without bothering Michelle and David by waking up insanely early (by convention standards). So, I'm not going to be around as much as I've been at previous ICCs -- in fact, I think this ICC I'll be positively scarce until Friday evening. This does mean I don't have to rush Whitechapel, though, and I might even fudge my NaNoWriMo wordcount to start late next week instead of trying to cram it in on the Sunday of ICC.

Which reminds me -- I need to post about my NaNoWriMo plans. But first, I need to do the Whitechapel Post-Mortem.

Just spent an hour and a half converting all my Requiem characters over for the reset. Here's the scorecard (barring VSTs requiring rewrites, of course):

Vitya: Due to a slight change in how I spent my dots to get much the same effect, combined with the very irregular play schedule of the Casablanca, Morocco game, I actually ended up gaining 30 XP, so I got to pick up some Celerity and buff out some of his Merits to reflect his growing criminal empire.

G.T.: I lost about 300 XP, but really it just gave me a chance to ditch some bloat so I could focus on important aspects of the character. So, still a win -- I don't think I'll play him any differently.

Capt. Jack Spade: Lost about 350 XP -- I think the extra two years of game time ended up balancing out how infrequently I play him nowadays. This means he lost a lot of combat capability and Theban rituals -- honestly, he looks a lot like he does when I first brought him into play. Which is awesome, because I'm looking forward to getting back to his roots and taking them in a new direction. But man, Jack's going to need friends.

Overall, I'm pleased how it shook out -- the character that needed a boost got it, the character that needed to lose some dots lost them, and the character that needed something to freshen him up is getting that.

Some people (either who couldn't make ICC or who aren't in the Camarilla) wanted to see what I came up with for my LARP theory presentation. A PDF of the release version of the presentation is now available for download from the Camarilla site:

Killing Sacred Cows

So much happened that I have to cover it in bullet-points.

* The Sabbat charity game was fun. It was shorter than I expected (and I was reminded why I hated mass combat in oMET), but it was great to RP with some old friends, dress in outlandish costumes, and generally be horrible to characters.

* The Requiem game was really entertaining. G.T. is a lot of fun, and a great chance to explore an aspect of the Requiem property that I haven't gotten to do before. Plus, he's really, completely bat-shit crazy. I was also really impressed with how the game was run and managed overall.

* The after-parties were pretty awesome too, both Saturday Succubus Club and the Sunday Dead Dog. Clipping 10 badges onto an unsuspecting person was an awesome high point.

* I got a great chance to hang out with current friends as well as reconnect with very old ones, and maybe make a few new ones. Some people are still dramatic douchebags, but ignoring them was pretty easy.

* Getting to hang out with Joe and see the Camarilla through his eyes was really interesting. I adore Joe and massively respect his opinion, and to see him enjoy himself and get a chance to really talk to people was amazing to watch and hear about.

* With the exception of my attempt to run Long Live the King, all of the events I organized went well, and the LARP theory presentation went really well, to the point that I had to cut people off so I could fit it all in. (Side note: I've already sent the PDF of the presentation off to get put onto a Cam site somewhere -- I'll let y'all know when it's up.)

* I think whiskey and amaretto sours give me heartburn. Or maybe it was the shitty service on Sunday.

* Getting to clear up some old baggage from a few years ago and find that I have a couple of old friends that I get to learn all about again is amazing, and I'm truly happy for the opportunity.

* Being able to help another old friend get something he has deserved for a while is also pretty cool.

* Overall, it's certainly one of the most positive ICCs I've ever been to. It might even be the best. Even though I worked my ass off there, it was well worth everything.

* Installed twitterbar on both my laptop and work Firefox browsers, so I can do it more often than "when I think to check my phone and Twitter account."

* Partially that's because I'm preparing to leave tomorrow for ICC, and I want to see if I can "live blog" the convention through Twitter.

* And partially it's because there's a certain amount of strange shit that happens in my life, and I want to see how much of it I can capture.

* Planning to play G.T. a fair bit at ICC. Will probably play Jack Spade a bit, but right now it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for Jack or Aspasia to be hanging around large Kindred gatherings for a long period of time.

* Picked up a couple of books this weekend - yet another anthology of Sherlock Holmes pastiches, and Night Watch by Sergey Lukyanenko - to flip through when I'm not working at ICC and on the LARP Cruise. I'll let y'all know how they are.

* Also picked up a new Xbox 360 to replace the dead one we've had for a couple of years now. Got a lot of good Gears of War action in over the weekend. Also got a Halo 3 collector Master Chief helmet and stand that I gave to Chaney as a present.

* I missed Raw last night. I'll have to catch up next week.

It's kind of amazing to get back onto an email list you unsubscribed from two years ago, only to discover that they're still arguing about the exact same shit.

Invictus-OOC, I salute your tenacity.

With Jack going back to being a nomad for a while and my Casablanca character staying very firmly in the Casablanca VSS (because vampires are FUCKING SCARY), I'm working on a new Requiem PC primarily for play in Atlanta. However, I still want to have connections outside the local game (although I want to give priority to locals), so I'm tossing it out for other Camarilla players as well.

Sid "G.T." Crawford, Daeva Invictus. The wiki is pretty vague, but that's because the character is an amnesiac. I'm restricting information not because I don't trust players to keep it OOC, but rather because I want players tying to my background to all have a rather different perspective of who G.T. was, which will add texture to our mutual roleplay of who he is now.

Note to old Camarilla Invictus players: If you're expecting another Invictus like Nick Ebon, this is totally not the case. This character is very different -- certainly far younger.

If you want to create ties, send me an email at eddy (dot) webb (at) gmail (dot) com.

Friday was our company kickoff. Seems that the company traditionally has a big party and meeting looking at the year forward around September, because that's near the end of the Icelandic summer, and it's evolved into a regular time to get together and talk about our goals for the upcoming year.

The North American office went to Lake Lanier. After the chartered buses failed to provide enough seats and some of us had to wait for another one, we all got there about half an hour late. We had some company presentations, lunch, and then the afternoon was given to ourselves to enjoy the area. Ethan found a nice side room with a table, so he, Aileen, Aaron, Joe, Russell and I got together and had a one-shot D&D 4e game set in Hollowfaust in the Scarred Lands setting. I played a Dragonborn fighter that grew from a dragon's tooth that Aaron's character used when they were surrounded by ghouls. I've never played someone else's magic item before, but it was pretty cool. We got through three combat encounters and a little bit of roleplay in seven hours, so the 4e system is certainly faster (and probably would have been even faster if we knew the rules better). It was a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to another opportunity to game with that crew in future.

Saturday, however, did not go as well. After discussion we decided to try to make it to the Auburn Camarilla Game of the Month. I had an idea for a new Requiem character that I want to try out (since Jack Spade is evolving back into a character that I play once in a while instead of one I play as my main character), and we decided to head down there and give it a test run. Then we noticed that most of the gas stations around us were closed and had no gas. We finally managed to find one that sold us gas for $4 a gallon. After heading back home to check our finances, we realized that going to the Auburn game would have cost us around $100, and we had two more cars we had to try to fill up over the course of the week. So, reluctantly, we decided to skip it. On the one hand, it gives me more time to flesh out the idea, but I was looking forward to getting a chance to LARP again after months of not being able to. I did get some reading for work done, however.

Today's kind of up in the air. I'm thinking I might try to get some more work done (whether reading or redlining I'm not sure yet), and then see where the day leads me.

Not everyone reads my Camarilla character LJ (wod_fate), so I thought I would post information on my latest two characters here:

Vitya (Daeva Carthian based in Casablanca, Morocco. Background. Wiki entry). I am looking for ties, primarily in the Daeva clan but some in the Carthian Movement as well. Vitya is not a very good Carthian (he's a self-proclaimed democratic plutocrat when he bothers to talk about politics at all), but I do plan to start bringing him "out of the box" in the next few months to American games, so it would be nice to have a few ties to vampires that don't scare the ever-loving bejeezus out of him.

Schmiede Vorfahr (Moros Silver Ladder based in Atlanta, Georgia. Background. Wiki entry). I'm definitely looking for Silver Ladder ties for this PC, and some Moros ones, but he's the opposite of Vitya -- far more focused on his order (societal ties) than his Path (innate nature). He's also moderately conservative: he believes in the "way things are done" and is very precise about the form and order of things, but things that don't have utility are meaningless to him. A thing is worth doing right or not at all, which is how I believe a German Matter master would view the world.

Anyhow, you can leave a comment here or email me at eddy (dot) webb (at) gmail (dot) com to work on character ties. Don't be offended if I can't work you in, though -- not every character makes a good connection.

So, this will only be funny for people who know me and Michelle, but I still post it because I find it awesomely hysterical.

For those who don't know, my wife Michelle (greebotrill) was recently appointed the Master Storyteller of the Camarilla. Regardless of what you think of that decision, the point is that my wife now is the head Storyteller for the White Wolf official fan club. I, of course, work for White Wolf, although my job has very little to do with the Camarilla at all (and has nothing to do with overt oversight or authority in the organization -- in essence, I'm just another member that can't draw the line between where my work ends and my hobby begins).

Anyhow, apparently there's a rumor circulating around now that if I say "no" to anything in the Camarilla, Michelle has to listen. To this I respond thus:

[ahem]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

I want to live in that fantasy world where Michelle does whatever I say without questioning me. Seriously.

I've been so wrapped up in work and posting short fiction to my Camarilla IC LJ (wod_fate) that I haven't had a chance to post a personal update.

I got back into St. Louis late Friday night. It's been great seeing greebotrill and garchangel again, as well as Puck and Greebo. It was weird having a proper weekend, too -- the last three weeks I've been doing something work-related for most of the weekend, and before that weekends were where I got most of my writing actually done, so having two days where I don't have to focus on something game design related was a strange feeling. I played a little Smackdown vs. Raw 2008, watched Survivor Series, ran some errands with greebotrill, helped around the house, and generally relaxed.

The past couple of days I've been getting up around 7 so I can work from 8am-4pm (which corresponds to my usual 9-5 schedule in Eastern time). Actually, it's been more like 8-6, as I've been reading up on Scion to get acquainted with the line. I finished up the drafts of the Storytelling Adventure System (SAS) core documents and kicked them up for review, and I did a revision of Sekrit Project: Digital Dirge (remember that?) and kicked that up for review. Today will probably be a few smaller projects I've been meaning to work on regarding the print-on-demand side of things, and then I'll start doing redlines on some of the other SAS manuscripts sitting on my desk.

I've also been watching the first season of Babylon 5 as I've restarted my workout routine. I try to do 40-45 minutes of cardio, and I had found in the past that an hour-long episode without commercials fits that perfectly. kristnitori has all of B5, which I have never completed, so she loaned me season one to watch while she borrows my first season of House on DVD. Before I return to Stone Mountain, I'm going to work with greebotrill on developing a workout that I can do in my hotel room, without equipment, so I can stay on the wagon. I'll also be a little more careful about what I eat as well.

It's been a busy week thus far, but I feel like I'm finally settling in a bit.

My breakdown of yesterday's events, including a link for donations

An update directly from Ifer

An update on Drew, including an address to send gifts and flowers to

Edit: Further updates from ladyleo.

Edit, 2:20pm CST: The CT scan is clear, so Drew has been transferred from ICU to a normal room.

b_daniels forwarded this to me from the local Cincinnati Camarilla list.

"This morning Drew and Ifer Biddle were in a car accident on their way to work. Both are in the hospital right now. I have very few details other than that. I know Ifer has a possible broken leg and arm and Drew has a possible ruptured spleen and broken ribs. Ifer was taken to St. Luke West and Drew was transported elsewhere."

For those who don't know, Drew and Ifer were my roommates for the last year or so that we lived in Florence, KY. They started dating at me and greebotrill's wedding. I'll post more as soon as I know more, including details on any help that can be provided (if it is needed). My heart and thoughts are with them both.

Update 9:45am CST: Apparently they were T-boned somewhere in northern Kentucky. We're not sure what side got hit, but initial reports are that Drew got it much worse than Ifer.

Update 10:05am CST: Got a call from b_daniels. The details I have are these:

Ifer was driving Drew into work in the rain when a car slid into them, impacting on the driver's side. Ifer had to be cut out from the vehicle. Her arm is definitely broken, and there's something wrong with her leg, but the doctors expect her to be released this afternoon and transferred to UC, where Drew is. Drew had his spleen punctured (not ruptured) and his ribs are cracked. He will definitely need surgery, and should be out from that this afternoon. The Cincinnati domain will be meeting up at UC and calling people once the surgery is over. The doctors expect no complications in either case, and both should make a full recovery. Neither of their kids were in the car when it happened. They are fully insured (both medical and vehicle), so financially they should be fine.

Update 11:40am CST: From ladyleo's LJ:

"I spoke with Ifer about 10:30am. They have her on pain meds, in a soft cast on her arm and are trying to figure out exactly how bad the injuries to her leg are."

Also, Drew has no sick time, as he just started a new job on Monday.

Update 11:47am CST:
Ifer has a compound fracture of the arm, but not of the leg. She'll be let go shortly and then she'll head over to UC. Drew's not going to need surgery, as the bleeding in his spleen stopped. His intestines are bruised, so he's being looked at and will have some tests tomorrow. ladyleo is letting me know where Drew will be situated at UC, and when he'll be able to receive gifts and visitors.

Update 2:15pm CST: ladyleo has more updates in her own LJ. As she said in her latest call to me, it's kind of retarded trying to convey second-hand information from one person who's hearing impaired to another one who's hearing impaired, so we'll keep linking between our LJs as things develop.

However, if you want to send a message to Drew or Ifer, go to ladyleo's LJ and post a comment to her, or email her directly if you know her address. She'll print up all of the good wishes and bring them with her when she goes to Cincinnati on Friday.

Update 5:55pm CST: More from D-Cincinnati.

"Ifer has a Broken left arm and right leg. She is going to see the Ortho on Thursday to have the bones set. Drew is and will be in the SICU at UC for some time now. He currently is bleeding internally and they are waiting to see if that will cease. He has a punctured spleen, kidney, and aorta. He has broken ribs on both sides and bruised intestines.

"A fund is being set up for them to help with expenses and such....

"As for the accident, it happened around 7am this morning on KY 18 in Burlington, KY. A 17 year old female came out of her apartment complex and slammed into a truck, which in turn hit the Cavalier. The children had just been dropped off at the sitters. The vehicle will be totaled. The dashboard exploded, the airbags exploded, the rear seat crumpled from the impact. Ifer was cut out of the car after Drew was removed. They were then taken to the Hospital. They are at University Hospital in Cincinnati, OH."

Here is a link to the fund being collected for Drew and Ifer. Please spread that link far and wide to people who are friends with or were touched by Drew and Ifer.

Update 6:30pm CST: Ifer is home now, and Drew is on his own in ICU until the testing tomorrow. We probably won't hear anything more until tomorrow.

I've returned from ICC. Well, in fact I returned last night, but was so fried that it was all I could do to unpack one bag and then sit and watch Raw for 20 minutes before falling asleep. Today was a lot of catching up (mostly for New Job) and general preparation for being in a different state in a week -- normally I like to take the day after a con to relax, but in this case I needed every scrap of time I had.

I had debated actually doing a more thorough recap of ICC this year, but each day would come down to some flavor of "got up at 9am, went to meetings and/or worked the booth, played some characters, drank too much, stayed up too late, and got to bed at 4am." That's not to say it was bad or unenjoyable -- it's just a different experience being a White Wolf employee instead of a fan (even when the internet access sucks and your work email goes down). The games themselves were entertaining, although I usually spend more time developing existing social ties and creating new ones instead of interfacing with Storyteller-initiated elements (or, if you prefer, "riding the plot bus").

As for socializing, there were some staple friends I've hung out with every con this year, old ones I hadn't seen in forever that I got to reconnect with, some new ones I met, a number of Atlanta members who were extremely nice to me and greebotrill and made us feel welcome, a lot of people I wanted to spend time with and didn't, and a few jerks who seem to enjoy shitting on other people's hard work (not necessarily mine, although MET: Awakening was certainly not immune). From that perspective, it was a pretty typical ICC for me, although my interactions with most people was on a different level than in times past.

Finishing up a few things at Old Job before I start poking at a few things for New Job and start packing for ICC. We leave for Nashville tomorrow morning-ish, and return to St. Louis Sunday night-ish. I've set aside Monday for catching up on email and other stuff, so I'll exist in the Intarweb-o-sphere then. Assuming I don't get a chance to check email and the like at the con, or that I haven't been devoured by zombie gamers who have the stench of the grave about them.

So I have been doing more than just selling about a third of our book collection (yes, we still own about twice that many books).

Shopping: I've been picking up some new clothes for the job, mostly. I'm checking to see if I need a power converter for Iceland so I don't blow up my laptop. I also got some new LARP costuming for the first time in about two years, primarily a new coat for Jack Spade and a pair of glasses from Pearle Vision for Mr. Hudson. I looked at Halloween glasses, but they were all either nerd glasses or Harry Potter glasses, and I decided that I would spring a little extra for actual eyeglasses with demo glass lenses so they would last and be comfortable. Plus I can get them adjusted and cleaned for free.

House: I've been helping to clean up the house and throw away a variety of crap I've accumulated. I purged a lot of files, moved some of my references to virtual or PDF versions on my computer, cleaned out a lot of stuff in my office closet, and so on. I still have a lot of stuff stored in the basement I need to go through, as well as clothing and other sundries I need to sort out.

Old Job: I've been steadily going through all of my processes at my old job and writing them out as explicitly as possible. I'm also finishing up a few projects that it's easier for me to handle than train someone else on, and training my boss and a couple of other co-workers on what it is I actually do. I found that some old processes I did were needlessly complex, so I trimmed those down. I have six business days of work left, so I should be able to sort it all out in time (even if I have an annoyingly long data conversion project in the middle of all that).

New Job: I've been poking around at a few things prior to my start date, but mostly I'm getting things in order so I can hit the ground running on Oct. 29th. I have a new email account (eddy at ccpgames dot com will replace my old white-wolf address, for those interested), and I'm playing EVE Online a little bit now and then so I at least understand the basics of the game.

ICC Prep: During all of this, I'm trying to prepare for ICC. Most of my prep isn't that bad, like getting my characters in order and the like, but I'm also hauling a tub of books for people at the con, and I'm mentally preparing to run at least one seminar there. There's also a few scenes that people are setting up for the convention that I'm participating in. At the moment, it looks like I'll be able to play Requiem and Lost -- Awakening might have to get skipped (again) for various reasons. I still haven't written a friggin' background for Mr. Hudson, though, and I still need to get some Camarilla logistics sorted out at some point.

Exercise: I honestly haven't had time to do any exercising this week, which makes me feel guilty as hell. I'm hoping to get back on the wagon tomorrow, and maybe stay on it until Wednesday. I'll try to keep working out at the convention, but I tend to have about a 50/50 rate on that. I have been trying to eat less and walk more to at somewhat counterbalance my lack of exercise.

Breathing: I'm pretty sure I'm doing that in there somewhere.

So after a year of debate and money-pinching, I finally decided to spend a couple hundred bucks of my well-earned cash from MET Awakening and bought a rifle frock coat for Jack Spade. I figured since it was ICC, and there's no signs of him dying anytime soon, it was time to get him a proper coat. It's a shame the pockets aren't big enough to hold my bible, but otherwise the coat fits me well and is wonderfully good quality.

Just because I've been asked a few thousand times, and I figure I can save perhaps a few thousand more:

I'm not going to USCC. Right now, I'm only scheduled to attend three conventions: Origins, GenCon Indy and ICC. People can plan around that as they need to. :)

The past several days have been a blur.

Friday was a dance between a problematic computer upgrade at work, funeral leave, and staying on top of a complicated situation in my Mage LARP, as well as keeping tabs via greebotrill of the status of our Canadian visitor, HM.

Saturday was running the final game of my Mage LARP before stepping down, then scarfing down food before rushing home to meet up with our Cincinnati visitor, RF. Then there was socializing.

Sunday started with a bit of a lull, which was nice because it took me forever to get moving in the morning. Soon, however, greebotrill and garchangel returned with HM. Then RF met back up with us from his hotel room, and we all had lunch with mrogre and banzaigrrl. We then headed back to our house, and chatted out wrestling and sci-fi until we left to go to Judgment Day.

The event itself was entertaining. The seats were fantastic - we were very close to the floor, and faced the ring and tron. The card was average overall, but that's to be expected considering there's a ton of injuries post-Wrestlemania, and a glut of firings recently. (If you watched the PPV and saw a group of people holding a Canadian flag at the beginning or for Edge and Benoit's entrances, that's us.) We drove to get dinner at Denny's, and I crashed late, only to be woken up by my cell phone because I got a text message at 3am and I didn't turn it off while it was charging.

Today has been finishing up the computer migration at work, while trying to stay on top of a few things that need to get done today. Tonight will be more socializing with RF and HM before they leave on Tuesday, and probably watching Raw tonight. Since Friday my exercise and writing routine has gone to shit (but I did try my best to stay on my diet). Once I spend a couple of nights getting those kick-started again, I think I'm going to sleep for a few days.

So, the Judgment Day PPV is this Sunday in St. Louis. greebotrill, garchangel and I are all planning to go, as well as a guest driving down from Cincinnati and one from Toronto. It's part of a deal we struck with RF in Cincinnati after Wrestlemania to try to attend wrestling events that are central to both of us, and our other guest is also a huge wrestling fan that I've known for years. They're both coming down Saturday-ish, so we'll get to hang out for a weekend before watching what the WWE does now that they have had a couple of key injuries.

In a sad coincidence of themes, a co-worker of mine was suddenly killed last week (he was hit and killed by an SUV while riding his new motorcycle), and his funeral is this Saturday as well. And somewhere in there I'm running a Mage LARP, the wrap-up to a storyline I started eight months ago.

It's going to be a very conflicted weekend.