RadCon was cool. Alison got her Patricia Briggs books signed, and I finally managed to put together that I’ve been seeing Patricia at RadCon for years. I just never cared who she was before. Funny how writing a book set in an area can put you on the map there, particularly if it’s never happened to them before. I felt sorry for the other authors at the book signing because, while they did get some traffic, it was clearly Patricia’s show. I did get a kick out of Mike Shepard ruthlessly exploiting his position next to Patricia to sell his books to folks in line to see her. I’m going to have to read some of his stuff.
I had mixed feelings about bringing Alison to con. On the one hand, it was wonderful to have her there. I know how she enjoys cons, and I’m happy when she’s happy. On the other hand, it was like being tied to an anchor in some ways, since I had to watch her constantly to make sure she hadn’t caught a whiff of smoke and keeled over. The experience was positive overall, but I’m glad it’s over.
Played some Battletech. It was cool, but actually not as cool as Thursday Night’s game (back to that in a bit.) Played some Full Thrust, though not nearly as much as I would have liked. Played more 1st Edition D&D than I would have cared to. The parts where the gazebo was actually a threat, the guard-towers actually had machine-guns, and alison saved the day by calling me and interrupting the game were all pretty neat touches. Jason’s half-orc fighter/thief beating a guy to death with his own gun because he couldn’t figure out how to fire it was also pretty amusing.
I noticed (somewhat belatedly, I think) that Heather Alexander has changed identities. That was weird. While I’m sure that’s just because I’m an unenlightened heathen that has trouble with people changing names, let alone genders, it was especially weird in this case because a singer’s public persona is a big, big deal. Now, my opinions on transgenderism (and we’re going to save that for another post, kiddies. It really deserves one of its own) aside, it’s really none of my business, and I’m looking forward to many more years listening to Alexander James Adams.
My WoW subscription has lapsed, and since I still have no money and no income, I fell back on KotOR, and now I’m trying to get into EVE in a big way. I’m becoming an ACTUAL director (as opposed to simply wielding the game mechanics for one) for Black Lotus Heavy Industries, and BLHI has begun hiring contract killers. Sadly, with our industrial base in the shape it’s in, I can’t really afford to hire more than I’ve already got.
Thursday’s Mechwarrior game pitted me as Major Roy Connell and my company of Lyran regulars against an Elite Star of Jade Falcon warriors led by a Turkina. We weren’t supposed to win. We did anyway. So now I’m a Major in command of the Battalion-or-so still defending Winfield, and the fighting has apparently bogged down a bit. Now I just have to figure out how to survive.
