Happy returns

Last month, my best friend pulled a fast one on me.

We met for lunch at Subway, as we try to do every couple of weeks, on a Thursday. Although it happened to be my birthday (which he knew), it wasn't a birthday celebration; at my age I'm lucky if I even remember that it is my birthday, let alone do anything to celebrate it. When we departed, he mentioned that he and his wife were having family and a couple of friends over on Saturday for some cake and ice cream in honor of their anniversary the following day, and asked me to come by. Sure, I said.

Well, you probably can see where this is going. The "anniversary get-together" was merely a clever ruse to lure me to the first surprise birthday party anyone has ever thrown for me, complete with, yes, ice cream and a luscious cake, prudently decorated with just three candles (the full number would undoubtedly have triggered smoke alarms throughout the neighborhood). Besides my friend's family, he had invited two of my former colleagues from The Company, and even arranged for another former colleague, now living half a country away, to call for a welcome chat.

Maybe I'm unusually dense, but I swear I never suspected a thing. I've been included many times in their holiday dinners and kids' birthday parties, so the invitation didn't seem at all unusual. Anyway, it was a more than pleasant surprise all around. Thanks for fooling me so thoroughly, Tim.

Read More......

Year of Hell

In roughly 12 hours, it will be exactly one year since I, and a number of my friends, were "transitioned out of" The Company in its first wave of layoffs. Although I eventually found employment in a much less stressful job at a much higher salary (making the layoff ultimately a Good Thing for me, as my friend DrHeimlich says it was for him), it took a six-month-long trek through dense clouds to reach that silver lining. It will be a while yet before my finances recover from the double whammy of living on unemployment insurance while having to pay the full freight on my medical insurance, and I don't think I will ever forget the punched-in-the-gut feeling from getting that figurative pink slip on Black Monday.

That said, I know that many of the others caught in that layoff and the two later rounds (not to mention those who pre-emptively departed for greener pastures before they could be likewise unwillingly "transitioned") had their lives disrupted a great deal more than I did, having to pick up and move, some with houses to sell and/or babies on the way. I'm thankful that I was able to find a new job locally, and that I didn't have to worry about the impact of my unemployment on anyone but myself.

To all of my former colleagues, here's wishing y'all a peaceful and truly happy new year in 2006, sans pink slips, job hunts, moves, or any of that bullshit. I miss you all.

Read More......

An Evening at Busch Gardens

Too tired to write much. There's nothing like keeping up with a four-year-old at a theme park to remind me I'm not as young as I was once. Of course, he got in a nap on the drive to the park, and then slept most of the way home, too. But we had fun. Random observations:

• I last rode the log flume 32 years ago. It's just as wet as I remember it.
• BBQ chicken at the Trapper's Smokehouse. Mmm good. And chocolate cake that's to die for.
• My main gripe with the food: no Coke. It's strictly a Pepsi venue.
• Never before have I seen an animal show with such a variety of dogs, cats, parrots, geese, and one large pig.
• I'm not a roller coaster person. The flying dragon ride is about my speed. John went on it with me to show me how to work the controls. We rode in a green dragon this time.
  
• The Curse of DarKastle castle looks very impressive. Maybe someday I'll take the ride. But not today.
  

Next time I want to ride the train.

Read More......

What's good at Busch Gardens?

Looks like I'm going up to Busch Gardens again tomorrow. When I was there in May with Tim & son, the only ride I took was one of the skyride gondolas. (They said I was too big to ride on the little boat ride with John.) I know a lot of you have been there; any advice on rides I should definitely try -- or definitely NOT try -- given that roller coasters in general scare the crap out of me? For instance, anything that will have me hanging upside down is an automatic no-no.

Read More......

Pink Slip Blues

To the recipients of the latest round of pink slips (which, a certain out-of-kilter Aussie has pointed out, weren't actually pink) from our erstwhile employer, you have my sympathy and/or my congratulations, whichever fits your feelings about the situation. May you all find bigger and better opportunities in your future.

Read More......

The Cookout

• Gorgeous day.
• No rain.
• Grilled chicken.
• The grillmeister having to replace the gas tank mid-cookout.
  
• Chips and cheese curls.
  
• Potato salad.
  
• Coke.
• Brownies.
• Cupcakes.
• Chocolate cherry decadence.
• Strawberries and poundcake.
  
• Guarding the food against the pugs.
  
• Relaxing in the shade of the pine trees.
• Marveling at how many kids there were.
• Getting squirted with their squirt-guns.
• Checking out the ladybug one of them found.
• Watching the squirrels and the duck-ducks.
• Commiserating with laid-off friends – and the ones still employed.
  
• Missing the absent friends.

Can't wait till next year. :-)

Read More......

Cotton candy and purple dragons

Most of you know that I don't have any kids. So while I've been to DisneyWorld 5 or 6 times as an adult, I'd never actually been to a theme park with a small child until Saturday. I tagged along to Busch Gardens with Tim and his 4-year-old, and we wandered around to the kid attractions. The big grin on John's face as he rode the purple dragon with his daddy was priceless. He was a little less certain about going on the boat ride alone (I was going to go with him but it was "just for children"), but he went anyway and smiled and waved to us each time his boat came around the little pond, so I think he had fun as long as we were watching. He even endured the slowest-moving cafeteria line in the world with remarkable patience for a 4-year-old; heck, I think he took it better than I did. And he persisted in his request for cotton candy in spite of all distractions, until Tim finally got it for him. (I think he got more of it on his dad's clothes than he actually ate.) We ignored the roller coasters and other stomach-churning rides; the most adventurous thing we did was take the skyride from Germany back to England.

So did it make me regret not having kids of my own to take to Busch Gardens and DisneyWorld? Heck, no. I'm perfectly happy enjoying Tim's kid's delight in cotton candy and purple dragons.

Read More......

I remember...

Meeting Jason and other dStaff at Star Trek 30 in Huntsville, and coming in 7th in the first STCCG "Nationals" -- my first tournament ever.

Hashing out the dilemma rules with Jason by email.

Being invited to "help out" at the Exhibition Tournament Weekend in Rochester, New York, and watching Jason lose a gunslinging match when he inadvertently seeded a stack of dilemmas under his own mission.

My first unsuspecting trip to the basement restroom, puzzled by Jason's inexplicable "Have fun".

Collaborating with Evan by email on the Useless Romulan Review.

Finally meeting Evan at the second First Contact playtest. He wasn't as blue as I had expected.

Lord of the Rings movie premieres.

Evan and Matt's "Men In Black" impersonation at STCCG '97 Worlds.

Proofing the First Contact rules sheet with Evan on the red-eye out of Vegas.

Teaching Chase Masterton to play STCCG at '98 Worlds.

Hairstyle variations -- dyed orange, shaved off, shoulder-length, ponytailed... and that was just the guys.

Job jackets.

Helping Evan, Brad, and Todd design The Borg.

Evan interviewing me and Brad on RFD before the Borg playtest.

Helge's tantrums.

Sheer terror, flying into Norfolk from Pittsburgh with Mark and watching as lightning struck the wing of our plane. The pilot came on the intercom and assured everyone it hadn't come near us. Yeah, right.

Brad's bottomless bowl of candy.

Tripping on the carpet during booth setup at Essen, plowing headlong into one of the black shipping crates, tearing my pants and almost breaking my wrist.

Escalating e-mail wars with Sandy over rules committee issues.

Thanksgiving dinners at Kendrick & Bonnie's, Tom & Kathy's, and Tim & Melony's.

Not having a phone for my first two months in-house. I got so used to hoofing it upstairs and down to talk to anyone, I kept doing it even after I got a phone.

Mark and me being accused by the lady on the plane of having diarrhea of the mouth.

The Bin of Mordancy.

Four-hour rules committee conference calls.

Trying to figure out the German subway ticket system. I was probably riding illegally most of the time. I'll never know.

Judging Continentals and Worlds with Evan.

Blurting out a totally stupid, totally broken card suggestion at 3 AM at the playtest house. It took Evan all of 3 seconds to point out its fatal flaw. I think 2 of those seconds were just to be polite.

Bad news -- that Jason was leaving -- that spawned some good news -- they hired me to be the new "dAnswerman".

A phone call from Carol with good news -- they were hiring Evan -- and bad news -- I wouldn't be handling rules any more.

A year later, good news -- Evan was moving into PD -- and more good news -- I got the rules-guru hat back.

Breaking Jason's record for tenure as STCCG rules guru.

Listening to Mark record... and re-record... WARS Radio in the office next door.

Memorial Day cookouts at Tim's.

"Porn runs."

Getting tipsy at a Mexican bar in Germany. At least, I think it was a Mexican bar. And I think it was in Germany. But I could be wrong. Does anyone remember just what we were drinking?

Looking for Grunty photo ops.

Playing the Pez Game with Tom and Kathy and Chuck.

Splitting the Worlds photo and article assignments with Marcus.

Putting the booth together and tearing it down at all those Origins and Gen Cons.

Joy at the job offer from Bill. Terror at the thought of pulling up roots and moving to Hampton Roads at the age of 50. If I hadn't already had so many friends here, I couldn't have done it.

I miss you all.

Read More......

Bad case of deja vu

That's what I got today when I started seeing rumors of more layoffs at my former employer. With a sinking feeling I started checking my friends' blogs and various other sources and found that, sadly, the rumors were all too true. To all of you who have just joined the ranks of "former employees of the company which shall remain nameless", my thoughts are with you.

Read More......