Going to Hell

Yep, as if there were any doubt before, it's pretty much a done deal now. I'm going to Hell.* Here's the story of my inevitable damnation. We had an SCA event this past weekend that was hosted by our Shire. We typically do a small, relatively laid back event for 12th Night about this time of year. In this instance, my wife was tapped to organize things and we ended up holding the event at her church. Well, it was far to cold outside to do any fighting, so mostly it's a lot of Arts & Sciences classes. For us fightin' types, who have little interest in making fruit men or learning to knit period socks (not that there's anything wrong with any of that), it means a lot of sitting around and talking. Well, I had planned for such a contingency by bringing along some dice and card games. Not necessarily period, but fun. I was actually eager to try out a dice game that Duke Seth had shown us recently at a mundane get-together. It's a type of gambling game, but we could just as easily use tokens rather than actually gambling for money. We ended up using Hershey's Kisses. The dice we were using are simulated "bone" dice and I thought to myself "if only we had a nice wooden dice cup to go with these". You know, to add to the ambiance. Well, it just so happened that the only merchant in attendance had a rather spiffy looking wooden goblet for sale, cheap. So, I buys it and we proceed to have a rollicking good time playing at dice for a couple of hours. Sometime afterward, the merchant comes up to me and informs me that the goblet in question was made of genuine olive wood. That's pretty neat, says I. Yes, he continues, it came all the way from the Holy Land. Hmmm...., thinks me, that's a good shtick ya got there, pal. No really, he continues (apparently seeing the disbelief on my face), someone brought it over from the Middle East. So, in effect, I had us all gambling (for chocolate, no less) in a church, using an item that came from the birthplace of the Abrahamic religions. Wow! Maybe it was the Holy Grail itself! It was certainly, as others pointed out later, grail-shaped. Oh, yeah, I'm gonna burn. But, you know, it's ok. Most of the interesting people are going to end up in Hell anyway.

*this is provided, of course, that I am not already in Hell. A cold, frozen Hell that I just can't seem to escape from.

Happenings

So much has happened since I last posted. Let me explain... no, it is too much. Let me sum up. December has been a difficult month. We had not one, but two or three major crises at work over the course of a two week period. Mostly involving our incompetent hosting company taking our servers down. We simply can't go down, especially at this time of year. Too many of our clients run 24/7 and for us to go down during the holiday rush is unacceptable. There was much screaming and gnashing of teeth. The bad part was that I was the one on call during the first week that we started having these issues. It has been officially dubbed "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Fortunately, we have almost finalized moving to a new hosting company and things are now fairly calm. Plus, I'm no longer on call.

In other news, the corporate consumer machine continues unabated. We've nearly bankrupted ourselves trying to cover the family's Xmas wish lists. Personally, I prefer the more spiritually significant Winter Solstice of Pagan tradition than the overly garish, artificially promoted, modern Christmas. I have no issue with Christians' reason for celebrating, but in my eyes, the *Season* is the reason for the season. Still, we are programmed practically from birth to participate in the orgy of consumerism that marks the Winter holiday here in America. And I have to admit, I generally get some good swag for it. I'd rather not go into massive amounts of debt, but at this point, it's more or less expected.

Our gaming group has finished up our Serenity campaign (based on the Firefly television series by Joss Whedon). The final adventure involved a heist on a space liner (netting us 1.5 million credits), having our ship taken over by my character's sadistic brother and his para-military goons, and after taking out all twenty of his guys, me getting to have a "showdown at high noon" scene in which I (barely) out-drew my nemesis in a pistol duel, killing him and leaving my character gravely wounded. Good times. The next thing on the gaming horizon is a Dungeons and Dragons campaign using the Ebberon game setting. I'll be running that one to give our regular DM a break. Plus, I really love that particular world. It has a great "cinematic" tone that is reminiscent of the wild and woolly adventure serials of yesteryear. Think "King Solomon's Mines" and "Indiana Jones" meets "Lord of the Rings", with a little "James Bond" thrown in for good measure. If I know our game group, it should turn out to be a real hoot.

One last thing of note. As many of you know, Ysabel broke her finger a few weeks ago in a longsword tourney. I'm happy to report that it is healing nicely and she is starting the physical therapy phase of her recovery. She's out of her cast/splint and just has a couple of velcro straps holding her pinky to her ring finger now. She can even take them off to do her exercises. So, that's a positive note among all the upheaval and chaos.

It's been a rough month, like I said, but we are looking forward with hope to the coming year. Whether you observe the Winter Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah or nothing at all, may you know peace, comfort and contentment this holiday season.

The Darkness of the Balance

It is the belief of some that the Universe requires a balance between Dark and Light in order to function. You can't know good without evil, etc. Well, that may be true, but it kind of sucks for people that have to live on the wrong side of that equilibrium. Someone has to lose, I guess, in order for anyone to win, but how is it fair to the ones that play that losing role all the time? I know, I know, life isn't fair. I do tend to hope that somewhere, somehow, it balances out on a personal level, not just a cosmic one. It's nice to think that in the long term, everyone who suffers and is beaten down will end up on top in their turn. Somehow, I kind of doubt it, but it's a nice thought. Have to keep plodding after that carrot, after all. Otherwise, what's the point?

Anniversary Weekend

The past weekend, my wife and I went out of town to Gatlinburg, TN for our anniversary. Now, I like a good tourist trap as much as the next guy, but when it comes to pure, unadulterated pandering to the American tourist ideal, nothing beats Gatlinburg. It's actually three towns all strung in a line leading from I-40 up to the Great Smoky Mountains. During the busy season (that would be right now) the traffic going in on Friday and leaving on Sunday is so bad that it can take two hours or more to go twenty miles. Most of the way, unsuspecting drivers are subject to tacky roadside attractions and glaring lights to rival the Vegas strip. The amusement park ambiance is given a slightly disturbing spin by Hillbilly chic that has to be seen to be believed. It's all in good fun, of course, but it can leave one wondering just exactly who it was that thought that this was in any way sublime or attractive to the eye.

We managed to get to our hotel after much grumbling and cursing at the traffic. I have to be honest, I expected the worst when we got to our room. Thankfully, I was wrong. The room was amazingly clean and not in the least run down. There was a gas fireplace, a jacuzzi tub and the whole thing was far classier than a chain hotel had any right to be. We settled in and then went back out to do some shopping and hunt down a meal. The traffic had thinned a bit, so it didn't take us as long to get around this time. Still, by the time we had eaten a nice supper (at Olive Garden) and made it back to the room, it was kind of late. Even so, we couldn't resist eating the dessert that we had brought back with us. The white chocolate raspberry cheesecake was heavenly. After that, we soaked in the tub for a while and then hit the sack, expecting a busy day on Saturday.

The weather Saturday morning was daunting, to say the least. Cold, rainy and miserable. Made it hard to get out of the nice soft, warm bed. But, we had plans, so off into the wet we went. We got to the main part of Gatlinburg (our hotel was one town over, in Pigeon Forge) early enough to get a decent place to park near the convention center and bummed around until the craft show that she wanted to go to opened. I'm not much for Southern country kitsch, but even I will admit that there were some very good artisans putting their wares up for sale at this show. We found her some nice mementos to take back home with us and then took a break to grab some food. Then it was walking up and down the main drag in the rain until we couldn't stand the crowds anymore. We picked up a few more items from the copious merchants that haunt downtown Gatlinburg and then headed out for the Tuckaleechee Caverns. I had seen an brochure for the cave on the way in and, having a fondness for the deep places of the world, convinced Ysabel to check it out. It was a long and winding road to get there, but the hour+ long tour was well worth it. The cavern was amazing! A lot of walking and stairs, but amazing, nonetheless.

We wound up sore, tired, cold and wet by the time we got back to the hotel. From then on, we were total bums, doing little but eating and sleeping until it was time to go home on Sunday. We stopped by a few more stores on the way out and then it was on to Knoxville to hang out with some of our rapier peeps at their local practice in the park. The weather was still chilly, but the company was good. They had a cookout after the fighting, so we mooched lunch off of them before we finally headed home.

All in all, one of the better weekend outings we've had. We are now very broke, of course, but we had a damn good time getting that way.

I'm tired

Just thought I'd share with the world how bloody tired I am. I know, it's nothing new or even the slightest bit important. I know that I'm indulging in gratuitous public whining. I even know that I'm not in any way alone in having to get up out of a warm bed (repeatedly) in the middle of the night to deal with a crisis at work. Despite knowing all that, somewhere deep inside me is a little voice that rebels against the cold, hard nature of our lives. Who was it that decided that the world had to be this way? I certainly wasn't consulted, I know that much. I never got asked, "Hey, would you like to live in a universe where 75% of everything is a pain in the ass?" Nope. Missed that interview question, I guess. Didn't get the memo or something. So, I have to wonder if there exists anywhere out there, in the vast reaches of the infinite Multiverse, a place where only 25% of everything is so tedious and exhausting. If so, I'd like to sign up for a transfer, please. Barring that, I'd settle for a few more hours of sleep. Funny how we lower our expectations, huh?

Another Milestone

As of Saturday, September 26th 2009, I have been alive for four decades. I've lived through some serious history on this chaotic dirtball of a planet and some really screwed up things that have happened to me personally. Turning forty is something that, in my youth, I couldn't have imagined. One never thinks about getting old when one is a teen or even a twenty-something. Now, I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, my body is definitely not what it used to be (which was never very good to begin with, really) and there is a sense that I have wasted my youth without much to show for it. On the other hand, I'm rather proud that I've managed to survive to this point and things could be (and have been) much, much worse. I know that there are still many good things to come, but there is also the fear of what could go so suddenly and catastrophically wrong. As I said, mixed feelings.

All that aside, I did have a pretty good day for my birthday. We started the day with some geeky fun at a "pre-release" tourney for the latest Magic the Gathering set (Zendikar). I love the way this set plays! The setting is awesome and the new rules click for me very well. I got some very good cards, won a couple of rounds before we dropped to go do other things and had a couple of very impressive plays. After that, we went home and picked up the kids to go meet people at Red Robin for dinner. The plan was to eat, hit a nearby bookstore (I love browsing the shelves in the sci-fi/fantasy section) and then head out to Dave and Busters for some evening entertainment. Unfortunately, it being a Saturday night, Dave and Busters was a little too popular. It was so crowded that we decided to forgo that plan in favor of a much less frequented bowling alley a few minutes from the mall. The place turned out to be nearly empty and most of the people that were there were old even compared to me. I was glad that there weren't very many witnesses to see how much I suck at bowling. I throw to the left so badly that nearly every throw was a gutterball. I did manage one strike, at the very end of the last game. I was starting to get the hang of it, I think. Of course, by then my wrist was aching and my back was twinging something fierce. Oh, yeah, I'm forty all right.

I got a couple of gift cards for various restaurants and Ysabel got me the entire Kung Fu series on dvd (the old 70's show with David Carradine), which was one of the main inspirations for me to get into martial arts when I was a kid. By the time we got home, it was too late for cake, but we made up for it Sunday night after we got home from rapier practice. I love me some cheesecake and white chocolate raspberry cheesecake is even better! So, overall, a good weekend, with only a few minor issues to speak of (which I won't). If I live another forty years, I'll be surprised, but what's important is that life now ain't half bad and I have hope that it will continue to stay that way.

Autumn's Grace

Today is the Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a time of balance between day and night, when Summer fades and we begin the slow slide toward the long, dark months of Winter. The modern Pagan Wheel of the Year calls today Mabon. It is the second of three harvest festivals that celebrate the bounty of the Earth Mother and the imminent death of the Sun God on Samhain (Oct. 31st). He is reborn on Yule (the Winter Solstice) when the Wheel turns and the days start growing longer again. As the leaves fall from the trees and the night air grows chill, I hope that everyone is able to enjoy this harvest season with warmth, comfort and good fellowship. Happy Mabon!