Jan. 20th, 2004
I'm no gamer
Jan. 20th, 2004 01:06 amSomething that came up this evening in a workshop ("Working Together") at ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
akienm's house... discussion led to an idea for an exercise that would require assigned roles and character-playing. A comment was "this should be easy for those of us who play RPGs." I raised my hand. "I've never played an RPG." (silence) Then dawnd said "Really, Brian, given your traits I'm surprised." I suppose that if I wanted to ding myself, I could say something about real life roleplaying being more challenging than things involving multi-sided dice... but that's a trait that I'm actually trying to minimize.
In any case, I stretched the truth slightly -- in early 1981, while visiting a friend's college dorm, I was enlisted in a D&D game once. I spent some interminable time rolling dice to determine character traits... then only an hour actually playing before my character was killed off. That's all I remember. Nothing in the ensuing 23 years, no role-playing games. Hardly any games at all, actually... I'm not a gamer. No video or electronic or online games over that time period, either, except for the occasional challenge from one of the kids or Pat. That particular flavor of escapism has simply never appealed to me. Some board games were played in social settings, but that has been more as a social activity than for the game's own sake.
Otherwise, as far as the rest of my weekend goes... I spent today and yesterday doing household chores (weeding out flower beds, spraying the roses, repairing an electrical fixture).patgreene and I had a good talk over dinner last night. On Saturday night, I went ballroom dancing with woodsbunny, who was visiting here from Oregon. I really like to dance... wish I could find a friend or partner locally who was willing to go. Saturday afternoon I spent over at dawnd's house, along with David and Kevin, cleaning up things. Friday afternoon was spent mostly online, talking on IM with dawnd and who_is_she as a crisis erupted. Friday night I spent away in a low-key evening with p3aches and kokoro43, watching a video of "A Mighty Wind" over at kokoro43's house and cuddling a bit afterwards. We collectively ran into p3aches's husband C and his new sweetie K at the same restaurant... p3aches and K had never met in person before... it was interesting.
akienm's house... discussion led to an idea for an exercise that would require assigned roles and character-playing. A comment was "this should be easy for those of us who play RPGs." I raised my hand. "I've never played an RPG." (silence) Then dawnd said "Really, Brian, given your traits I'm surprised." I suppose that if I wanted to ding myself, I could say something about real life roleplaying being more challenging than things involving multi-sided dice... but that's a trait that I'm actually trying to minimize. In any case, I stretched the truth slightly -- in early 1981, while visiting a friend's college dorm, I was enlisted in a D&D game once. I spent some interminable time rolling dice to determine character traits... then only an hour actually playing before my character was killed off. That's all I remember. Nothing in the ensuing 23 years, no role-playing games. Hardly any games at all, actually... I'm not a gamer. No video or electronic or online games over that time period, either, except for the occasional challenge from one of the kids or Pat. That particular flavor of escapism has simply never appealed to me. Some board games were played in social settings, but that has been more as a social activity than for the game's own sake.
Otherwise, as far as the rest of my weekend goes... I spent today and yesterday doing household chores (weeding out flower beds, spraying the roses, repairing an electrical fixture).
patgreene and I had a good talk over dinner last night. On Saturday night, I went ballroom dancing with woodsbunny, who was visiting here from Oregon. I really like to dance... wish I could find a friend or partner locally who was willing to go. Saturday afternoon I spent over at dawnd's house, along with David and Kevin, cleaning up things. Friday afternoon was spent mostly online, talking on IM with dawnd and who_is_she as a crisis erupted. Friday night I spent away in a low-key evening with p3aches and kokoro43, watching a video of "A Mighty Wind" over at kokoro43's house and cuddling a bit afterwards. We collectively ran into p3aches's husband C and his new sweetie K at the same restaurant... p3aches and K had never met in person before... it was interesting.
Open get-together with geekchick!
Jan. 20th, 2004 10:19 amgeekchick is coming to town, yay! Cathy will be at a business meeting in San Jose next week, and we are accordingly organizing a group dinner nearby in the South Bay for Sunday evening. Time: Sunday, 25 January, 7:15pm
Place: Thai Basil, 210 Town and Country, Sunnyvale, CA, (408) 774-9090 (highly recommended by
housedreamland folks)Afterwards, we might consider a molten-chocolate-cake/creme brulee run to Zucca's in Mountain View if there's enough interest. Feel free to link to this or to forward it to anyone that might be interested in renewing old acquaintenances or making a new one :). Please RSVP to me (brian1789@lithic.net) or
patgreene by Friday so we'll know how large of a table to request.
Pushing boundaries
Jan. 20th, 2004 12:29 pmMy local parish has theoretically accepted me, as a poly person... but it appears that there are limits to their acceptance. There are a large number of governing board (vestry) vacancies this year. I served once before, about 6 years ago, so thought I'd offer my services again -- both to contribute something, and also because there was a handpicked slate that exactly matched the number of vacancies. I view rubber-stamp elections as undemocratic and bad for the long-term health of a given organization. So I put my name in over the weekend as a candidate.
I just received a phone call, trying to strongly discourage me from doing so because my "lifestyle choices are inappropriate for someone in a visible leadership role in our parish." Welcome to second-class-citizenship, eh? That, and one of the existing slate candidates will only stand in a noncompetitive election "because she doesn't want anyone's feelings to be hurt by losing." I've lost four previous vestry elections, no big deal for me. Other candidates belong to small study groups, or donate larger %s of their income, but those aren't official requirements.
In the bylaws, there are no grounds for preventing me from standing... unless the rector officially deems me not in good standing, but he'd have to document why and in writing. Not whispers. I'm tired of buying into my own invisibility in that body... either I'm loved and accepted as a full part, or not. I'm still an OK person, whether or not they can accept my "lifestyle choices."
I just received a phone call, trying to strongly discourage me from doing so because my "lifestyle choices are inappropriate for someone in a visible leadership role in our parish." Welcome to second-class-citizenship, eh? That, and one of the existing slate candidates will only stand in a noncompetitive election "because she doesn't want anyone's feelings to be hurt by losing." I've lost four previous vestry elections, no big deal for me. Other candidates belong to small study groups, or donate larger %s of their income, but those aren't official requirements.
In the bylaws, there are no grounds for preventing me from standing... unless the rector officially deems me not in good standing, but he'd have to document why and in writing. Not whispers. I'm tired of buying into my own invisibility in that body... either I'm loved and accepted as a full part, or not. I'm still an OK person, whether or not they can accept my "lifestyle choices."