Marsden is Here

What started out as entering Lazakus' spells into a quick-refence sheet turned into constructing an Excel spreadsheet which updates the caster-level derived numbers automatically. I learnt a couple of new tricks in the process.

~~~
My Nana's almost-90'th (next week) birthday party was on today in Ashburton. She held up well, and my Granddad was on good behaviour.

Just before Hornby picked up some hitchhiking german journeyman carpenters on their OE, bound for Dunedin. Provided company for the trip. The most different things about NZ are apparently driving on the other side of the road, the bread (all soft), and the sausage. And we build smaller houses.

~~~
I spent an hour weeding the "vegetable" garden and mowing lawns this morning.

They've finally started doing the concreting on the driveway. The sides went in today - as the boxing has to be removed before the slab can be poured I presume that will be sometime next week.

Nearly there!

~~~
My shoes gave out today. One anyway, something in the inner sole. They've given service and value well beyond the $30 I originally paid for them. Will still make good gardening shoes.

So I had to by a new pair in a hurry. These cost $100 and I don't actually expect to get good wear from them. Expensive shoes and I have a poor track record (heh). Since I'll be breaking them in over Kapcon I better take some sticking plasters with me. Timing could be better.

I think I need thicker ankles.

~~~
KapCon this weekend - flying up about midday and back about the same on Monday. Don't know if I'll get net access in Wellington. Phone will be off most of the weekend too, but I'll check it periodically. Prius is going into the service centre out by the airport Friday morning for a Recall service, and I'll pick it up on Monday afternoon, thus conveniently saving me two taxi fares and leaving it parked on the side of the road while I am away.

( friday )
( saturday )
( sunday )
( other stuff )


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Hmm. I suppose I do have a certain tendancy to fade into the background.

That I get so much physical exercise, attending a roleplaying convention. successfully avoided having to taxi to the venue at all, my legs are expressing their displeasure at all the walking though.

Taxi to the airport - $15. Taxi home - $23. Grr..

~~~
Friday.

Got to airport, got to plane, flew to Welington, got to hostel. All good.

A few issues signing into the hostel, the room Jono & I had been assigned didn;t have 2 keys. After some shuffling we wound up on a different floor to the rest of the group.

Wandered around the appropriate shops. Bought a video, bought a couple of novels which I have been looking for for some years (Lensman from Rigel and Z-Lensman). In the afternoon went to see Ocean's 12 with xyphoid and lemurkat.

In the evening went to the gathering at Zebos, caught up with a couple of people but left about 8:30pm.

~~~
Saturday.
Hauled myself out of bed and went to my usual breakfast place only to discover their hours have changed. The Subway across the road also wasn't open yet. Wound up breakfasting @ MacDonalds :(

Arrived @ Kapcon, paid my entry fee, found out when I was scheduled to run games.

Session 1. - Nocturnals. Based on a graphic novel series, I got to play a 10-11 year old littel goth girl who saw spirits and could animate and enlarge her toys. Started with a Mastodon, to put out a fire one of the other characters started while we were fighting off some zombies.

Anyway, we didn't stop the cultists summoning the big monster, but we did manage to take control of it, free the hostage spirits and eliminate the cult.

Session 2. Ran "Return of the Janis". Worked wonderfully cut down for the shorter time slot, I've managed to get the pacing right. Having a good set of players didn't hurt either :)

Session 3. - When Clones go Bad, my first ever Paranoia game. Trond and xyphoid were both in this game, so being totally outclassed I mostly just sat back and tried not to be killed too much.

Live Game - The Big Ten Four. As usual I wasn't playing, but I did run around with my camera. I'll post a few selected photos later. Popped out for dinner partway through.

Arrived back to the hostel about 12:30 am

~~~
Sunday
Sunday starts later, so I was able to get a decent breakfast.

Session 1. - Ran Janis again. Another good session.

Session 2. - Players of Games - In the year 20something high our characters were professional Roleplayers (essentially actors without a script) playing characters in an entertainment genre descended from reality television. We were to go through a scenario homaging the "Doom" series of computer games. (So our characters (I was the "rich bastard", others where the "good guy", the "party animal", the "best friend", you get the idea) had to play characters which we got early in the session. and then we were to play through this scenario which was essentialy the original Doom. it was an interesting idea, which I would describe as a mixed success.

Did get inspiration for my next one-shot.

Session 3. Was to run Janis again, but the game was dropped as there wasn't enough interest. Instead played Guillotine and Ticket to Ride, which was far more relaxing :) Hung around and chatted to people until about 10 before heading back to the hostel.

~~~
MondayBreakfast, spent most of the morning reading, Home again. House is still standing.

Expenditure for the weekend: about $100 more than I would have liked, but acceptable.

Closing thoughts: I wasn't as rejuvinated by KapCon as usual, probably because I got a gaming rush late last year and it's still going. I did enjoy myself a lot, the trip was worth it.

In summary - there were plenty of lice but not as many as this time last year. There were ample prickles, many of which will work thier way out of my hands, arms and probably knees over the next couple of weeks. All my muscles ache at a level just below noticable, as long as I don't do anything active. Some quite impressive bruises seem to be developing on my lower legs.

( monday )

( tuesday )

( wednesday )

( thursday )

( friday )

Monday
Flew to Queenstown, drove to Cromwell. Started drafting sheep - weather went from beautifully sunny to freezing and wet in the space of about half-hour. Draafting wet sheep by eartag in poor lighting conditions. Not happy.

Checked in at teh motel, nice hot shower, just got out when the lights went off. A power cut which affected the whole of Cromwell. The lights came back on after a while, but then there was another one. Mindlessly watched TV for most of the evening. Took good advantage of the fact that work was paying for meals - a pattern which continued throughout the trip.

Tuesday
Started sunny despite the dusting of sonow from the previous night, changed its mind several times over the next few days. I'm used to erratic weather, but this was some of the worst I've seen. A bit more drafting, then into the counting. We've somehow upped our efficiency by about 60%, so we had done about 90 of the 120 sheep by the end of the day, even with dragging additonal sheep over the board. The sheep had longer wool = more prickles, but few lice.

Decided to splash out and tried one of the Archers Aqua pre-mixes instead of my usual Bundeberg at the bar. (peach). A mistake - didn't like the mix.

Didn't feel too bad physically, the aches didn't kick in until

Wednesday

Stiff. Moving slowly. Fortunately relatively few sheep left. We were finished by lunchtime and could easily have caught an afternoon flight back to Chch, but the guy in charge decded that we could just take it easy and catch the Thursday morning flight as planned. I would have much preferred to be home sooner. Decided to take advantage of the unlimited hot water and try a bath. Soaking is supposed to be good for tired muscles.

The tub was a little short. I managed. Tried figuring out how long since I last took a bath (as such). Led to reminiscing, leads to brooding, leads to unhappy Marsden so I cut the bath somewhat shorther than I might have otherwise. I think the aches were worse when I got out. Dozed the afternoon away.

Killed the evening watching TV. Over the weekend I saw 3 of the new "Everyday People" ads for Toyota. I don;t know how many there are in total.

Thursday.
Later rising and breakfast. Drove to Queenstown, got on plane with asian tour group who were running up and down the boarding ramp to take photos of each other gettng on the plane. Tail wind got us to Chch in about 25 minutes. Dropped home, fed starving cat, came to work. Waded through email. Hope I didn't delete anything I should have read. Waded through LJ friends page.

Contemplating what to do with the rest of the day at work. Feeling really unmotivated. Walking is uncomfortable. Stairs are worse.

The flight I was moved to had mechanical difficulties, which delayed it for 3/4 hour. This was enough to miss the connection, but fortunately they held the connection for the handful of people who were on my plane.

Only got lost once on the way out of Tauranga.

Took samples. Wrestled with sheep G007 who was somewhat of an escape artist.

Went back to airport hoping that they would accept the bag of samles into luggage. They did. Didn't get into Tauranga to bookshop. Time was too tight.

Flew to Auckland in a little Beech.

Didn't get lost in Auckland airport but did trigger security with my bag (xray), my coat (xray), and myself (walking through the arch). Didn't lose anything from my stuff after closer examination, and the hand-scanner couldn't find whatever was making me beep.

Flew into chch by night. Am now home. Eating. Shower soon, then attend party as best I can. Have accumulated more strained muscles. Tired. Single.

[static]

I had almost finished when this godamn useless fucking piece of crap computer crashed. So here we go again.

I am back earlier then expected, even earlier than hoped but not by much. I've just lost the equivalent of the earlier than hoped time.

( rant about my week )

Monday

Chch - Wellington. Wellington - Hamilton. Hamilton, from what little I saw of it, is much like Christchurch only lumpier.

Learnt how to insert internal temperature loggers into sheep. Discovered we can only use ewes (that will slant the data). Phil, tell Belle she was right about the location of the logger. I'm not going to go into any more details but all the ladies reading this should now cross their legs on general principles.

Hamilton - Tauranga (by car). Book into Bethlehem Motor Inn. Fish & chips for dinner as their resturant is closed. Watch TV until humidity drops to a point where I can sleep.

Tuesday

Snap awake at 6:45am. Suspect the newspaper I found outside my door had just been delivered. Breakfast & stuff.

Tauranga to Te Puke, kill time, half hour meeting, back to Tauranga.

Attempt to kill 3 hours wandering around central Tauranga looking for 2nd hand bookstoores. Found a games store which still had 3.0 stuff on the shelves - but also some recent releases. Prices at least $10 higher than locally. Found one decent 2nd-hand bookshop with a fair selection of sci-fi/fantasy. People feel free to give me a list of books to check for next time I'm up there (Febuary). Saw another 2HB on the way to the airport.

Airport - 2:30 meeting there is a no-show. Flight due to leave 5:00pm. Lucky I have a couple of new books. Tauranga - Wellington

Wellington - board plane. Pilot apologises for delay while they try to locate last two passengers. Pilot apologises for delay while unattended baggage of said passengers is unloaded. Plane begins to reverse. The lights go out.

Lights come on. Pilot apologises for delay while the nav computer is reprogrammed with the information for the trip, lost in the power cut. Meanwhile, missing passengers turn up. Corridor reattached, luggage reloaded, two teenage girls seem blissfully unconcerned by any inconvenience they may have caused.

Eventually Wellington - Christchurch, taxi, home. Attach IV 'net feed. 50+ spam messages in my primary mailbox. Ring various people.

Type up LJ. I have spent most of the last two days sitting doing nothing, I'm not tired but I am exausted.

One last thing ... four hops (in four different sized planes) and I didn't get a window seat for any of them. I was hoping to get a look at some of the North Island while I flew over it.

And I'm being very naughty and using the computer in one of the lecture theartres to check email/LJ. But it can't be any naughtier than what they were doing with google on the system last night ;)

The trip down was wonderful. Brilliant weather. Played in a fun, if bland game - I think subsequent groups will have a better time of it.

Billeting with the generous adrexia who lives just across the road from the venue. Sleep was patchy for reasons she has already mentioned :), but sufficient. I'm not playing in the Live game tonight so should be able to make a reasonably early night of it tonight. My bodyclock is again hardwired to waking up at 6-7am.

Found a breakfast place. Seemed a little expensive - but they had several staff on and not many customers.

I'm the only one here - I expect other people to start arriving in about 1/2 hour. Meanwhle I can start reading my shiny new RPG book :)

( Edit: meme )