http://blog.drawn.ca/post/23260161591

Husband-&-wife team Sarah Labieniec and Ryan Meis form the creative team Lab Partners in San Francisco. Clearly a talented team! 

(via Lab Partners » Colors Are Magical, with a hat tip to Mia Hansen)

Well, today is the start of CanGames, the local gaming convention here in Ottawa. I'll be spending the rest of the morning getting ready to go to the convention, putting together all the stuff that I need for the con, among other things.

Once more, for those who are going to the convention or who might be interested, here's the listing of the games that I'm running with times and descriptions included:


**********
Message in An Anomaly
Game: Primeval RPG
Time: Friday, 7:00 pm - 11:00 pm
Number of Players: 6
Description: Since the Anomalies first started to appear, you've had to deal with your share of incursions. But this one's different. Someone's sending you a message from millions of years in the past - and the message is "HELP ME"... A scenario for the new Primeval RPG, based on the tv series.

Une Abondance de la Folie (An Abondance of Madness)
Game: All For One: Régime Diabolique RPG
Time: Saturday, 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Number of Players: 6
Description: When your Musketeers are sent to investigate the seeming bouts of madness that have struck several prominent nobles allied with King Louis XIII, you and your friends may have stumbled on an affliction with more to it than meets the eye. But will you succumb to it yourself? Adventure in a horror and intrigue filled world of the Three Musketeers. All For One, and One For All!

Feast or Flight
Game: Primeval RPG
Time: Saturday, 7:00 pm - 11:00 pm
Number of Players: 6
Description: When an Anomaly opens at an international conference and summit on the world's food problems, your team has to keep the delegates off the menu. But you'd better try and keep yourselves off the menu as well! And you'd better not let the delegates expose the Anomalies, either. A scenario for the new Primeval RPG, based on the tv series.

Une Abondance de la Folie (An Abondance of Madness)
Game: All For One: Régime Diabolique RPG
Time: Sunday, 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Number of Players: 6
Description: When your Musketeers are sent to investigate the seeming bouts of madness that have struck several prominent nobles allied with King Louis XIII, you and your friends may have stumbled on an affliction with more to it than meets the eye. But will you succumb to it yourself? Adventure in a horror and intrigue filled world of the Three Musketeers. All For One, and One For All!
**********

I've also got a bunch of stuff that I'll be selling at the convention this year (you can see the list of games for sale at this blog entry), and hopefully I can sell this stuff for some reasonable sums, as I could use a bit of money for later in the year.

Needless to say, I'm still suffering from the two broken toes that I've got on the left foot (so if you're going to CanGames this year, please don't step on me!), and am still plagued by the back pain from the bulging disc, although that's not been so bad of late (::knock on wood::). I just hope that things go well, and that with luck, I'm all right when the weekend is over and done with.

I won't be spending a lot of time on the computer this weekend, so folks will have to wait for when I have spare time for the post-convention report for stuff about CanGames 2012. Hopefully, some of my friends going to CanGames will be taking a few pictures and the like for posting all over the net. :)

In any event, I hope I'll see some of you at the convention. Since you've seen the photo of me here on my blog, you'll know who to look for. The hair's a bit more gray, and there's a bit less of it, that's all. Oh, and I'll probably be walking slowly. :)

Last night was not a good night.

I went to bed around 10:15 pm last night, and read for around half an hour to forty-five minutes, and then turned out the lights. Sleep didn't come easy, and I tossed and turned for most of the night, having dreams and nightmares that I can vaguely remember, though one does stand out. Being naked at CanGames with everyone staring and all, and having this feeling that I've forgotten something. I don't remember how the dream ended, but I woke up around 2:20 am from that one. Suffice it to say, I was up with the birds around 6:10 am, and haven't been back to sleep since. Just lay in bed, and finally decided to get up and do stuff.

The lack of sleep last night was due to the various stresses that I've been dealing with this week, notably from work, the nerves about CanGames (which I have the night before every game convention), and the pain that I've been suffering from the broken toes and the recurring symptoms of the back pain caused by the bulging disc. Still, I would have preferred that this not have happened to me, and that I could have gotten a good night's sleep before the convention.

However, it is what it is. And I just have to deal with it. Such is life.

Dear self,

You know I needed to get some sleep tonight, because today is the start of CanGames, the local gaming convention here in Ottawa, and it's going to be a long weekend. But instead, you decided that I would toss and turn this night, and have nightmares that unfortunately I remember 'cause I woke up during the denouement of one of them.

Would it have been too much to ask that I get a decent, stress-free night to coincide with the start of the convention, so that I won't feel ragged and all tomorrow? Going to try to go back to bed now and sleep, and would appreciate your cooperation in this endeavour. Thanks.

Me

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CoudalFreshSignals/~3/6iIzMXKzPu4/up_onward.php

http://coudal.com/archives/2012/05/up_onward.php

Up & Onward, the design portfolio of Paul Shively.

I want to get the issues to bookgroup on Saturday, so I'm going to try to get all three in by tomorrow night.

This is a double issue with an unusual cover (by J.K. Potter) to go with The Last Judgment by James Patrick Kelly, I had to keep looking back and forth. It was a really good novella in a future Earth where aliens have killed all the men (too dangerous) and arrange babies the way they want. Some of the aliens disagree.

Williams' article is about SF on tech. Not her idea, but a lot of people emailed and said they liked it.

The other really good story was by Carol Emshwiller -- Riding Red Ted and Breathing Fire -- where somewhere else, spiffy soldiers are flying really dangerous fairy/horse-like beings. Our protagonist is going to pick something up, but things don't quite turn out the anticipated way.

And what for? Our museums, our bike facilities, our public art? Our greenspaces? Our scientists? Even our politicians?

Nope.

BBC Scotland did an in-depth piece on our trips over to Hull (oops, I mean Gatineau) to get a cheap 2-4 (beer for non-Canadians).

See the video and story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-18071464

On a related note:



Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there.

Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there.

I may be in the market for a stripper pole for my house in the future. Does anyone know where I can buy one?

I was looking at this panel from an old Fantastic Four comic, from 1962, which I was putting up on Tumblr:



And it reminded me of the pirate comics in Watchmen.

Seems to me the time is ripe for pirate comics. Why is no one publishing them?

Bring 'em on, say I.

I watched this week's episode of Smash tonight with maaseru.

How I love that show.

A few specifics...( A few specifics... )

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CoudalFreshSignals/~3/ujC50AFs2Ow/le_mans_classic_1.php

http://coudal.com/archives/2012/05/le_mans_classic_1.php

Re-link, the fantastic Le Mans Classic 2010.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CoudalFreshSignals/~3/CkU3Uwt077Q/raw_mag.php

http://coudal.com/archives/2012/05/raw_mag.php

The Raw Magazine rejection form letter. Efficient. Via This Isn't Hapiness.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CoudalFreshSignals/~3/lF-4fsS1oxE/mechanicards.php

http://coudal.com/archives/2012/05/mechanicards.php

Artist Brad Litwin's MechaniCards. "Miniature, hand-operated, kinetic sculptures." Via Doobybrain.

Wondering if anyone here can recommend good SF with strong agricultural themes and/or backstories?