Protcon/College Station

Much gaming goodness was had this weekend. I played six Living Greyhawk adventures local to the Texas area, got to play with a bunch of my old gaming buddies, catch up with some friends from the RPGA club here in Austin I helped start, and met a bunch of people I know from the various RPGA lists. My main character dumped a LOT of cash on buying things from her home clan that I only have access to after a local game, and chewed through most of her remaining play time for the year--I have enough left for 2 more games.

The convention was held in College Station at the A&M campus. As someone who attended UT of Austin for a decade, I was supposed to care about the A&M/UT rivalry. I don't since I hate football.

It was odd to spend a weekend on a college campus though. At one point I was buying a breakfast snack at the campus cafe and they asked if I had a meal plan card. I realized that given my normal mode of dress and a backpack slung over my shoulder, I do in fact still look like a student. Well, at least a graduate student with that grey showing in my hair. Of course, I ate like a student again over the weekend since there wasn't much but fast food, burger joints, and snack machines I could get to in the time I had with back-to-back games, many of which ran late. I even had Taco Cabana after midnight Saturday for old time’s sake.

I'm back in Austin today and trying to figure out what to do with my day. Have a few more people I need to try to meet up with before I head back to San Antonio Wednesday, so I should get to it...

"Underworld"

Went to see "Underworld" with onyxlynxx, maggiemaepisces, and platinumdragon2, which was chock full of gamer/goth goodness. My suggestion is to work hard to manage your expectations of this film, but go see it for the sheer eye-candy and gamer-chic of it. If you begin to think any of the following things:

Hmmm.... damn this film is starting slow...

The editing is pretty darn choppy...

What kind of plot is this? I'm getting really confused why I'm supposed to care...

I've seen better acting on day-time soaps...

Why are they making a little hand-pistol shoot like an automatic weapon?

Is it just me, or did they purchase the costumes at Hot Topic and the Ren Fair?

Just focus on what matters: That vampire chick kicks ass and is hot too boot. She's cool. She's pretty. Repeat as needed.

Honestly, I've seen much worse films and this was cheesy fun. It is made overseas, so forgive it's pacing. I've never seen a movie that managed a more solid sense of brooding in my life--being somewhat of an expert on the brooding thing. The combat sequences and effects are cool, and I kinda like the whole atmosphere of the thing. It is defintely a rip of the White Wolf 'world of darkness' storyline, with a fair amount of ripping of the The Matrix as well, but I found it to be much more interesting than say Blade.

( spoiler gamer humor )

Reflections on Austin

"Fun Dip... cause kids can't afford crack..."

Just got back from running to the corner store (or rather "korner store"--I hate the misspelling to make it unique thing... serious pet peeve) and enjoyed some fun dip for old times sake. Its been a good day including lunch with hdan and Tim at Trudy's and dinner and a movie. Tomorrow is my last full day in Austin for some time, so I'm trying to enjoy it as best as I can.

On some of my previous trips back to Texas, I've had to cope with serious home-sickness and the memory of ghosts. Each time is a little easier, and this time I feel that while I love some of the friends here and miss them dearly (as well as a lot of the food), Austin is not my home. This place is full of memory for me, much of it good, some of it bittersweet, and some of it is downright painful. I spent a decade of my life here; went to college & graduate school here; met, fell in love with, married, and divorced appleang; and forged my longest-lasting friendships here. At the same time, the heart I had in Austin was broken a long, long time ago. My healing started here, but until I finally let go of any lingering hope over Kim when I moved 2300 miles away, I wasn't able to really be whole. I just wish it hadn't cost me Andrea's faith in the process...