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Well, I got into SF safe and sound last night. Ironically, dinner ended up being Chicago style pizza. Good to see and again. I like the new pad. the bookshelves no longer loom. =)

Every time I come into town, I think about how this place feels like home to me. Homo hippy vegetarian nerd and all that. Chicago has those things within it, but it is not known for any of them, while san fran is known for all of them.

I’m not jumping ship immediately, but it may be that I won’t grow into Chicago to such a degree that I don’t want to go back to the bay area. I’m not infinitely flexible, and the parts of me that aren’t changing are more at home in san fran.

I still have several opportunities in Chicago that I intend to take advantage of. My current job is an excellent opportunity for skill development and resume expansion. Not to mention debt reduction and retirement saving. If I really want to play the town hopping game, I could switch to Seattle while not changing much else about my GAO employment. That I may do. For a year or two. Then settle in San Fran. Canada does sound nice, but it’s a separate country. I should work on improving my own, rather than fleeing to a [perceived] better place. =) (Why then don’t I apply that principle to my choice of cities? =)

Let the nerdity commence.

I’m going to be starting up an exalted campaign in the near future. Three people have already expressed interest. I may have room for one or two more. It’ll probably be a weeknight at my place in Chicago. We won’t start actually playing for a month or two, because I need to pull a story together and mold it for the players, but there will be some fairly extensive prep work. I’m going to ask all players to fill out a short/quick survey on what they enjoy in gaming and want out of a game. I’ll also ask them to come up with a couple pages of background on their characters. (hey, I’ll be writing way more than that, so no bitching).

The player characters will be solar exalted recently (a week to a month ago) rescued from the secret police, a lynch mob, or other such mortal social danger, by an as yet-un-named group using guile, trickery, stealth, etc. They were not liberated with an open display of force. They are a rather mismatched group of extraordinary people, drawn together by a common danger. Wacky hijinks will ensue.

Lemme know if you’re interested.

Hey all, Friday night, at 10:45 I’m going to be seeing harry potter with friends at the 1000 Van Ness theater in San Fran. Let me know if you can make it and are interested, and we’ll exchange necessary details to meet up.

I haven’t made time for lj lately. I started a very frequent, if not entirely regular, gym habit. And it appears to have come straight out of my already reduced LJ time. This is very sad. Self improvement shouldn’t come at the expense of social connection (and this is probably my favorite site for that, if my least immediate). This morning, LJ is coming out of my gym time. Sad, but true.

Currently in Denver, or more accurately, a 20 minute drive SW of downtown denver. I rented a car for this trip. Stupid B&B lost my reservation and forgot I ever made it (next time, don’t trust them when they say “just make a reservation at the government rate, and we’ll fit you into whatever room is available.”) Hotel is a hotel, not bad, but nothing to write home about.

I do intend to see Red Rocks Amphitheatre while I’m out here. I’m told it’s neat.

Btw, this training is fucking lame.

Leaving town thursday afternoon to head to San Fran. Staying near the Civic Center with Thursday through Monday. Simon and Lili get hitched on Saturday. Must prepare toast for the occasion. I hope I get to see alot of you cool California people while I’m out there. Need to make arrangements for watching Harry Potter on Friday.

Past couple weeks have been pretty busy too.

My dad’s welcome back from Iraq party. I had some trouble with this one. From the DVD of the photos of dad smiling in uniform with other folks in uniform, animated and put to stirring music, essentially played on repeat the entire time (to which my immediate and reaction was “Oh my, propaganda, how … nice.”) Not even the relatively clean pictures I’ve seen, like the guy who accidentally got some celebratory fire in his wrist on its way back down to earth (no serious damage), let alone the people with the back of their heads blown off, which I know my dad has pictures of. Mom refused to let him show them to other people. I want to see them, but keep forgetting to ask. Two nice little old ladies completely disconnected from one another, who know me only as my father’s son asked me if I was married yet. One even mentioned her daughter. I limited myself to “No” and “not any time soon”. Telling them to talk to Congress seemed unneccessarily obnoxious, even if I was very annoyed by the question. Besides, it’s my dad who’ll have to deal with these people in the future. Not me. They weren’t asking for me to bludgeon them with my politics. And I wasn’t going to be the one to deal with it afterwards. It seemed irresponsible to stir things up like that. Or was it just cowardly?

Then there was Origins in Columbus the following weekend. I got to play 3 new board games. (portobello market (not yet for sale), alchemist and fisherman of catan (new to me, anyway). I played Fisherman with a really interesting, rather cute gay guy who wore his sexuality on his chest (in the form of a button, and maybe his t-shirt, I can’t remember what his t-shirt said). I’ve invited him and up to Chicago for Market Days. Should be fun times. I also played two old favorites. I handily won a game of Puerto Rico with my lazy/bad wharf/factory/harbor/5 goods strategy. It was technically a tournament, but not really in practice. It would have been a very different game had the other guy who knew what he was doing ended up playing in any position other than right after me. And a pickup game of St Petersburg. I don’t remember how that went, played that one with . I made it back in time for dinner with before taking off for Denver on Monday (annoyingly long trip. Massive delays due to thunder storms).

For all you concerned readers, I haven’t posted lately due to a combo of angst and excessive business. Neither makes for great posts.

It seems there are many interesting people in Seattle. Additionally, it’s not insanely difficult for me to transfer there (as opposed to San Fran). And more people seem to be going there all the time. Sadly, it lacks decent rail or express busway systems. My feelings are mixed. Of course, I could actually go to a country that is not actively shooting itself in the foot, like, say, Canada… UBC seems to have a lovely environmental program that I wouldn’t have to mortgage my soul to pay for….

So, last week I did a few things.

Tuesday, I went out to Mundelein for board games with

  and the motorola crowd. We played scepter of Zavandor. I came in 3rd of 4, and had a great time doing it. I blame it on being stuck with the druid (and not really knowing how to play him). I think the knowledge of dust income is the first knowledge everyone should get. Maybe. Artifacts is another key knowledge.

Wednesday, I had immediately-after-work dinner with medium bigwigs at my agency who were visiting town. Then went to a very disappointing green drinks on alternative energy. They had a PV salesman, a lawyer of some sort, and the guy getting a renewable portfolio standard through the illinois legislature. I care about the technical side of these issues. The politics and marketing make me faintly nauseous. I left early.

Thursday, I went down to hyde park to a discussion group on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. I represented the office lesbian’s viewpoint on the matter. I want to get to know the office lesbian better, she sounds really cool. Not counting the moderator, I was by far the youngest there until Richard and his friend Justin arrived near the end. It was an enjoyable experience. Everyone there was very, very liberal on that topic. Still, it’s always nice to chit chat with ones fellow choir members.

I chilled out a bit friday evening, then the weekend happened. I did end up soloing pride on sunday. I enjoy walking against the course of the parade. It’s like fast forwarding through a porn or something. Very, very commercial. Lots of politicians and various alcohol floats. It was funny to me that one of the most ridiculous jiggling manflesh floats I saw was by RedEye, the throw away tripe rag put out for commuters by the chicago tribune.

Then board games, not excessively attended, perhaps ideally attended. I taught St Petersburg and Tichu. Both were well received. Excellent. I learned a thing or two about St Petersburg. Tichu was also most interesting. My partner (

 ) and I were seriously down. Then I channeled

 . I grand tichued sight unseen, pulled off a grand tichu 1-2. Then the voice of caution kicked in. I looked at the cards before grand tichuing. We again 1-2ed. We went from trailing with 315 v 785 or so to winning the game in two hands. It was fun.

And now it’s monday. My night to chill, pay the bills, do some laundry etc. More suburban board gaming tomorrow.  (Arkham horror!)  Wednesday, I’m checking out the twin spirit tribe’s “tribal fusion dance” (wow, that sounds really lame…), thursday, well, we’ll just say I have plans, and leave it at that. Then friday, it’s back to Ohio, for dad’s welcome back from Iraq party. Fun, fun, fun.

I hate being preached at. Kinda like how I hate TV. I know it works on me. I listen, I smile, I nod. Then later, I think about and wonder why. The fundamental structure of the worship is taken from the hierarchical model of the catholic church. Sit and listen to the dispenser of wisdom and understanding. If it’s really a free and independent search for truth and meaning, why does it involve sitting and listening to someone tell you what’s what? Can’t we form a social unit without sticking a monkey on top of the hill?