Posts Tagged ‘friends’

Read and enjoy. Or look upon it and despair.  Whatevs.

But this makes me happy.

KJToo » The Return of the Native.

For awhile last fall I did a series of blog posts called ‘waypoints’ that were intended to highlight various blogs/discussions/sites/products that have had a big impact on my roleplaying and my approach to thinking about roleplaying. Well, over the past few days, I’ve flagged several items that I want to turn into posts here on the Monkey – they’re currently sitting in my drafts folder waiting to be fleshed out and published. And I’ve noticed that most of them fit really well under the premise of the original waypoints posts.

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Weddingcon2009 – See Sean and Carinn get Handfasted.

The site for Sean Patrick Fannon and Carinn Seabolt’s big event. We’re all invited!

Today I was hoping to create something either written or visual to share in honor of Brigid’s Day, but in an odd twist, I got completely buried today in client work due to a botched Joomla upgrade.

So tonight, as I try to settle in for the evening, I have been reading through some of my favorite blogs and I ran across a really potent entry from Paul Tevis that hits creativity right between the eyes.

I’m going to be thinking about what this means for me all night tonight, I suspect. And hopefully tomorrow, I’ll grab a moment and make myself available to it, and CREATE something.

Becoming Available To The Moment » paultevis.com.

After I wrote here on LJ last week about getting the news of my father’s death and the strained state of my relationship with him, I spent a lot of time over the next few hours pondering and processing.

As a guy fond of fantasy and myth, it’s probably not surprising that I spent a lot of that evening thinking about various “what if?” scenarios. What if I’d been in touch with him before he died? What if we’d made one last attempt at reconciliation? Better yet, what if someone other than a hospice nurse had been there at the end? What if I had been there?

I imagined that somewhere, somewhen, in an alternate universe where just a few different choices had been made, some different things said, things worked out better, and I was there with him right up to the end. I imagined what that might be like.

In one of those odd and wonderful things that the universe occasionally cooks up in spite of the cynics and skeptics, I happened to subscribe to Sean Patrick Fannon’s LJ () just a day or two before that, because I wanted to follow his ongoing Quest for a lady geek to share his life with. I’ve know of Sean for several years, because we share some common friends and associates, a passion for roleplaying, and a fondness for our Irish heritage. But we’ve never actually met. I’ve listened to him on podcasts, read some of his work, but never personally met him. Well, I was just catching up on the news of his Quest on his LJ when on Thursday morning, Sean wrote about his father being in serious ill health and being taken to the hospital. Sean and other members of his family went there to join him and keep vigil. During that time, Sean shared some updates about developments with his dad.

Suddenly, that alternate reality that I’d been imagining gained all kinds of poignant clarity.  Without even knowing it, Sean’s heartfelt sharing of his family ordeal reached across the aether to my laptop and captured me. Every day, I would read his journal, with its emotional ups and downs and its example of a true family acting like a true family, and I would be confronted with my own regrets, my own hopes, and my own what-ifs. And I was able to process them.

I’m still not fully comprehending how this whole odd mingling of lives and journals and fathers is really affecting me, but I know that Sean’s sharing of his week has been an incredible help to me in dealing with my own grief and regret.

And now I find myself without a good way to close out this entry. I suppose I’ll leave it with this: Thanks Sean, for sharing your feelings and your ordeal this past week. I grieve with you and I appreciate you.  I am awed at how these sorts of uncanny things happen – even in the midst of sadness, grief, and turmoil, threads of lives weave together and bring healing and empathy.

And here’s to two men of Irish blood – Charles Edwin Fannon and Robert Richard Bradley, who each in their own way helped make their sons the men thay are today.

Here’s something true about GenCon, for me anyway: It takes about 45 minutes to unpack all the material stuff I bring home from Indy. But it takes a helluva lot longer to unpack all the mental and emotional stuff. Well, after nearly two days of vegging, the time has come to try to start unpacking. So, I present the first in a series of quick-hit lists of things I did, saw, and heard at GenCon ‘08. More details (i.e. entire blog essays and TGTMB audio episodes) will be coming on many of these items over the next several weeks/months. But for now, just basic unpacking to start the process.

Here’s the first half of my list of things I did at GenCon. Catch the second half of this list tomorrow, and then things I saw and things I heard after that.

Things I Did at GenCon 08: Part One (Wednesday – Friday Afternoon)

1. Wednesday night: for the first time ever, I PLAYED Vegas After Midnight. As in, I was at the table but not the GM. Thanks, David, for taking the reins – it was mondo helpful!
2. Thursday morning: ran my first-ever con scenario – Vegas After Midnight: Welcome to the Madness, Baby! And holy moly, it actually rocked! I had a great group that grokked the campy gonzo aspects of the setting and were all very enthusiastic about participating in more playtesting. I also, however, discovered that my biggest concern about VAM is true – that it currently needs a lot more mechanical and situational support for the underlying dark/emo tone that I’m hoping to infuse into the setting. It’s not there yet. We’ve got the 1960s Batman tv show tone down. Now, I’ve got to work on making it the game I want it to be, which is, well, a lot more like The Dark Knight.
3. Thursday night: Primetime Adventures: Star Wars Episode LV with Judd, Rich, Paul, Daniel, and me. My best roleplaying experience ever, period. I’ve got a lot more to say about this, but it’s going to require some distance and consideration before I can effectively unpack it. Meanwhile, I’ll keep you abreast of what the other guys are writing about the game.
4. Friday morning: VAM con session redux. In a neat twist, for the first time, the guy playing the Presleyan PC takes an aspect establishing that rather than just being a kid who stole the King’s guitar, he believes himself to BE the rightful King, and that the current King is a phony. I immediately decide I need to explore the idea of running with that in the official text. Hmmm.
5. Friday dinner: Buca de Beppo with David, Jeff, and Caroline. Good food and excellent company. David has become like a brother to me. We grok. I truly love Jeff and Caroline and I get giddy watching the cool stuff that they’re wading into. Jeff is an excellent artist who is about to break big in the hobby, I predict, and Caroline is starting her run as a co-host of a new video show called Geekology.It was marvelous to sit and share good Italian food and talk about life and futures and other nifty stuff.

More tomorrow …

I’m getting to that place again where I’m letting all the juggling of too much stuff overwhelm me. It’s all good stuff, it’s just, well, I have never been really good at juggling and multitasking. I’m trying to finish up a big Web project AND a quarterly print project while negotiating for two new clients and manage an ongoing Web project. Many of you could probably do that with your hands behind your back – I envy you.

Of course I’m also parenting full-time, keeping my house in order, and trying to spend quality time with my best friend, lovely wife, and boon companion. And I’m pressured trying to get enough VAM stuff written down that I can pass basic info on to the folks who are helping me with the project and I’m way behind on that, too. Self-discipline, thou art my adversary.

But I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna figure it out. The first thing I have to do is to cease and desist all arguing, evangelizing, and debating on various forums where I’ve been championing story games the past few weeks. Gotta use that time for other stuff. Gotta be committed to VAM.

Okay, speaking of commitment – terrible segue alert! – I just got some pics from the wedding of Jeff and Caroline from Gamer: the Podcasting, and I thought I’d share one here and link to the page where others are in case you’re interested in seeing how these two great people put together their wedding LARP. <grin>

Most of you probably know or know of Jeff and Caroline, and so let’s all share in a big huzzah for them as they move into the next phase of their togetherness.

Click on the image if you want more pics.