Marsden is Here

Most people are probably aware that over the past going on 24 hours NZ has been hit by another series of major earthquakes starting at very just after midnight Sunday/Monday. I had not long gone to bed when it hit so after about 10 seconds of "aftershock" and then ~ 1:20 minutes of "nope, crap, that's a BIG quake inland just getting here" and some minutes on FB checking that no-one in Christchurch itself was reporting major issues I went off to sleep, thus not seeing the tsunami warning and evacuation notices (which didn't affect me anyway) until checking again during a wake around 4am. I figured if anyone needed transport or to shelter at my place I would get a message or txt directly so I slept for another few hours, starting the day feeling not significantly tireder than usual. That wasn't to last.

Fortunately I had already booked the day off work to recover from attending a 48 hour charity event over the weekend (more on that below). The first hour or so I spent touching base with various people by FB and phone before starting on my pre-existing chores list. I didn't get through as much of this as hoped - a somewhat overdue cleaning of the bathroom leaving me physically exhausted and attempting to set the ball rolling on a safety inspection of the Hall further soaked up energy. I eventually spent 2-3 hours napping - in part to shut down some nervous energy and generalised anxiety - before setting out to help a friend with transport and hugs, do the grocery shopping and after a simple dinner deliver some care packages. (One of which had already been on my to-do list but which under the circumstances I bulked up a bit more ;) ) I could tell that I probably shouldn't be driving well before I got home, and if I wasn't waiting for a better time to take my meds I would be back in bed already.

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Friday / Saturday I spent about 24 hours total at SAGA's now-annual 48-hour gaming event to raise money for charity (this year AVIVA). I'll just copy and paste from my FB statuses here ...

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Saturday 4:30pm
Plays so far:
Colony Wars (obliterated by Daniel Starky's base spam strategy)
Thurn & Taxis (resounding win)
Dominion w. Prosperity (barely last but a long way from the winner)
Broken Eagle the Learned Nano who Combines Words of Power is about to set out into the world of Numenera in search of greater knowledge.

Saturday 10:50pm
After Numenera finished off for the day with a game of Tiny Kingdoms. Didn't do particularly well but probably OK for a first time.
I'd liked to have stayed longer but it is patently obvious that it would be a very bad Idea. If I can get a good sleep tonight I may be able to stay later tomorrow night.

Sunday 3:20am
Didn't get to games until after 2pm but then stayed somewhat longer than expected. Still 3am is no later than I get home from a good party. Cat seems unimpressed by my long absence.
Plays today (pretty sure I have forgotten something)
Tiny Epic Kingdoms
Settlers of Catan
DC Heroes
Colony Wars
Zombie Dice
Biblios
Kingsburg
Seven Wonders
Istanbul (new)
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... preliminary reports are that we raised well over $1000 if everyone comes through on their pledges. I enjoyed myself - overly much so without really realising it, on the Friday in particular which left me stuck in bed until much later than I had planned on Saturday. I did spend more time and energy than I had hoped taking the lead in deciding on and teaching games; the teaching not so much of a problem (I was actually recommended, to my face, and later even messaged thanks for the fun time someone had as a result). I also made sure one person who probably otherwise would not have made it but I knew would benefit greatly from getting out of the house got both there and home.

As always I experienced more downtime between games than I would have liked, but I had gone prepared for that also with things to do.

Sunday afternoon (you noticed the status update at 3:20AM above?) was spent on a few chores and Sunday evening instead of my usual game we chilled and watched Guardians of the Galaxy which a couple of our members had missed at the theatre. (I am really enjoying the new projector.) I actually went to bed feeling uncommonly relaxed and happy ... and then the quake hit.

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That has filled in the time nicely; shortly I will be abed and hopefully will feel much better in the morning. Because otherwise I am /not/ looking forward to work tomorrow.

I went to see this on Thursday with the multi-club Sci Fi Soc etc trip. Spoiler(s) behind the cut. I'm attempting to put enough text before the cut that nothing makes it into the extract that will get pushed over to Facebook ....................................................................................................................................................................................................
( snip )

Went to see Tangled in company of littlel, tatianitska, codym. Was suitably light, silly, and lacking in cringe. Enjoyed the movie and the company, would see again :)

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Dropped tatianitska at the airport at 4:30am after failing to sleep most of the intervening time, haven't managed much sleep since either. Feeling a little shattered but getting on with the day.

It's been one of those weeks where all the projects that have been pushed back suddenly become urgent. As a result I've been working more hours than is really good for me. The money is nice, but next week needs to be lower pressure.

Other side effects include a backlog of things I want to blog about, so there will be at least one consolidated post of those today.

The week hasn't been completely work though
- I took time on Wednesday to go and see (& enjoyed) How to Train Your Dragon & and have lunch with niennahirilfea and friends.
- ShadowRun (Tuesday) ran this week after missing last week, and we are having slightly fewer blatant disasters on our second run even if acquiring our target for the wetwork mission is proving tricky.

The plan for today is low-impact:
- There's still one small work project I want to get done and sent back. That's better than the 5-hour one I did have scheduled for today, but which managed to get done.
- Bloggage
- Gardening if the weather doesn't pack in too much (edit: nope)
- Blobbage
- Party

because I can put everything in one post.

Turned up to the SAGA board games briefly this afternoon (1 1/2 games of Settlers) before joining uaekiwi and friends for his birthday dinner at The Flying Burrito Brothers.

[burp]

Following which was a group trip to see "Dead Snow" at the Film Festival. There were sadistic Nazi Zombies, a lot of snow, splatter galore, moral lessons (the people who have inappropriate sex die first, always check your pockets, don't touch a zombie's jewels) and a serious overdose of shaky-cam.

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Received a txt with an update on my brother, salient points are
- Waiting to have halo & vest fitted. To be worn for for 9-12 weeks.
- Has good use of arms and legs.
-'Jefferson fracture' of C1 & C2 vertebrae.
- Very lucky.
- May transfer[from Middlemore] in 48 hours

My parents came in today with firewood and food, and while my mother & sister went to the mall my father & I went over some of the 8mm movies. In places it seems a lot of material has just basically evaporated from the reels leaving white empty film with the occasional few frames showing up, which is a shame.

There's actually quite a bit of interesting material. Some of the country around Cromwell, now flooded by the Clyde dam for example. Ilam Road, near Memorial Ave, circa '60's - I was like, seriously? wtf? Very tempted to youtube those few seconds.

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Went to Transformers II last night - the movie is best seen as a ride, and from that perspective it's done quite well. Don't go for the (lack of) plot, go for the big robots and explosions.
I would really like to have seen the Autobots from the first movie other than Optimus and Bumblebee given more character time. Was again disappointed by the preponderance of bodily-function humour, but at least there wasn't as much teen-comedy-shmultz to get in the way of the action this time.

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Soldier of the line how does it feel
you´re far away from home polishing steel
The sun moves in between the mountain and sky
As dawn puts out it´s fingers splitting them wide
Soldier of the line what do you know
About the other side, they never show
They must be well disguised biding their time
Their armour well prepared so nothing will shine

Went to Wolverine with the usual suspects last night, enjoyed the movie.

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Spent a couple of hours at the Christchurch Creative Space, which I've been seeing tweets about for the past few weeks. 50% curiousity, 50% "get your ass out and interact with real people outside the current reprobates, boy!"

Got a bit done and enjoyed the experience. Didn't expect to see anyone I knew directly (I know from perusing twitter lists that there is a significant 1-degree overlap) but nevertheless crossed paths with sethop.

I think I'll make it a regular Sunday excursion, and maybe Wednesdays if I've had a quiet Tuesday.

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Dunedinites - my calendar says that the Slave Auction is on the 16th - less than a fortnight away - y/n/m/a ?

Bad enough to be watchable (once, twice with the right company ;) ) but not bad enough to be good.

And the writers etc etc continue in the direction they started with Casino Royale. Character development and carry-over plotlines (and villians) over movies is quite a novel concept for the Bond franchise.

I noticed little product placement but they seem to be compensating for that with external tie-ins. The game, the drink, the TV, the music video....

I enjoyed the movie. Thanks again to leatherdoll for organising the trip.

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Today has been a pretty good day all up. Several things fell into place and nothing broke. Now I just have to stay sane until the 29th.

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There is a car parked across the road with the motor running, lights on and no-one in it. It was there when I got home 10 minutes ago - another 5 minutes and I think I better go door knocking. There it goes.