| Posting to my journal after a near year absence. I suspect I'll have more time and energy to keep up my blogging.
Last week, I gave my notice at Wizards, and my last day will be July 27th. It was a difficult decision, but one I'm quite happy with.
I'll be doing a vigorous job search after I leave the company, looking both inside and outside the gaming industry. For instance, there are many fine theatres in the Seattle area and I'd be happy to get a staff job with one of them in management or publications. | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment   |
| Heading off to Ashland, Oregon next week for the Shakespeare Festival.
Seeing 3 plays: Cyrano de Bergerac, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the Merry Wives of Windsor.
I always enjoy Ashland vacations. It's a lovely small town, so intently focused on the theatre. Vacationing there for 3-4 days is absolutely perfect. Time enough for to see some plays, walk around town, and enjoy the place. | | comments: 15 comments or Leave a comment |
| This fall, a new set of campaigns is starting up at Tindalos House.
Traditionally, the first weekend of the month is taken up with gaming.
Andy originally ran a game. It grew. Then he ran different sessions of the same world on Saturday and Sunday. Very tiring and it grew. Recently, Andy's run on one day and Greg's run on the other. These ended and they're starting up a new set.
Andy's running an anything-goes Greyhawk campaign and Greg's running a military war-focused campaign using Heroes of Battle and Red Hand of Doom. The number of players has grown. So, on one of these days, Scott (one of Andy and Greg's longtime D&D/high school friends) will be running a third campaign to make it so that everyone who has been playing can do so and a few folk long on the list can be added. (No, they're not looking for more players.) I'll be playing in Scott's campaign which will use the Shackled City as a base.
So, that's a long winded intro for talking about last night.
Last night was great fun. I wanted to work out some character ideas for my character.
There have been so many cool books that have come out in the last year, I knew I wanted to play with some of the new D&D "toys" (races, classes, etc.)
Often, in both tabletop D&D and online games, I play supportive characters: buffers, healers, maneuverers who give the rogue flanks, etc. Many of my in-combat actions have been geared to helping or setting up another character.
For this campaign, I want to do something different. I want to be a very independent operator. I don't mind giving folk buffs, but don't want that to be my main modus operandi; I don't want to spend my precious actions on it.
So, the dragon shaman from Player's Handbook II looked interesting.
For race, I wanted to be one of the races I drafted for Races of the Dragon, either the Dragonborn or the Spellscale.
Starting with that, Andy and I spent several hours last night, hashing out ideas, looking at possible feats, build choices, and options.
Considered and discarded were dragonborn aasimar, goliaths, and spellscales. A wide variety of multiclassing was investigated: Dragon Shaman with Paladin, Fighter, Marshall, Bo9S classes.
Final Race: Dragonborn Warforged. Oh, it's cool. Good mechanics. The Con boost helps the Dragon Shaman. The Cha hit hurts a little, but overall strong. As a warforged dragonborn, I get to keep all of the type/subtype traits. So, lots of immunities. I lose the crit resistance and many things, but I like what I retain.
In addition, there's so many story potentials here.
Breath Weapon from Dragonborn.
Wings as a feat.
Final Class Combos: Warblade and Dragon Shaman in pretty even increments. Taking a few of the abilties of the Tiger Claw discipline (referring to it as "Dragon" Claw, of course).
Gives me lots to do as a front-line fighter. I also contribute to the party with my auras. Here's a couple of the coolest bits: The Sudden Leap maneuver's sweet, letting me jump as a swift action once/encounter. With my draconic wings giving me a +10 to Jump checks, and the eventual Leaping Dragon Stance giving me another +10, I'll be leaping around the battle field so well, I don't think I need the second Wing-based feat to give me a fly speed.
But what's really awesome overall is spending a night with my husband, just geeking out and collaborating on a new character. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | So, what the heck, it's been more than a while since I've posted. I'm throwing in the towel on any idea of "catching up" (which proved a block to me posting) and you'll rejoin the conversation of my life in media res. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| Today, I attended a talk on Law and Order in Online Games up at the University of Washington. Daniel Pargman, a professor from the University of Skovde in Sweden, spoke about how both the community of players and the computer coding of the game impact the social norms. An interesting talk.
Because I'm going to dinner up here in Seattle, I decided to see if I could reduce my amount of travel time. I arranged to take all the materials I'd need and work on one of the many campus computers. It has been a fantastically productive day. I've been able to do a great deal of work without interruption or distraction and have even indulged myself in a 10 minute break to update my blog. Sometimes a change of environment is a perfect spur to creativity.
Currently, I'm serving on the development team, so I'm not doing whole-cloth creation, but I still had a lot of revisions to input and new entries to write. It has been great. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Well, I've been doing a lot of things, and it's obvious that updating my blog has not been one of them.
Theatre
In addition to The Woman in Black, at ACT (see previous entry), Andy and I have seen about a play a month.
Noises Off! I adore this comedy. It's fantastic live, but the movie version's also good. Andy and I saw it with his brother Greg and Greg's girlfriend, Adrienne.
The Mystery of Irma Vep (yes, it's an anagram of vampire). This was another 2-person play that was absolutely fantastic. Andy and I saw it with Jesse and Beth Decker.
Just the two of us went to see Tea at Five, a one-woman play about Katherine Hepburn starring Kate Mulgrew (from Star Trek Voyager and more).
We'll be seeing more in the future with my recent purchase of season tickets at the Renton Civic Theater.
Holidays Gwendolyn-Style!
Celebrated "Easter." (Andy's family divvies up the holidays and we have Easter.) His mom and aunt were away at Mariners' spring training (both avid baseball fans), so we hosted the family holiday about a month after it's calendar date. Twelve people (Katie and Bill [Andy's folks], Al and Gail [Andy's uncle and aunt], Erin and Eric and their children Clair and Maddie [Andy's cousins], Greg [Andy's brother] and his girlfriend Adrienne, and Andy and myself. Twelve people. Salad, chicken parmesan, pasta, veggies, and homemade raspberry sorbet for dessert. It went well.
My birthday. Well, I was actually born on December 11th, but December's an awkward time to fit in another celebration. A few years ago, I decided to move my birthday by six months to June 11. This year, I decided to have some friends over to share readings of poetry, fiction, etc. We had nibbly food and lounged around reading everything from T.S. Eliot's "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" to J.R.R. Tolkein to "Chinese Arithmetic" a New Yorker short story about a chronic erection to a rather funny real-life anecdote about a summer job at a sawdust factory. Extremely diverse selections. I had an absolutely wonderful time. In attendance were Katie, Bill, Greg, Chris Galvin, Jesse and Beth Decker, John Rateliff, Janice Coulter, Faith Price, Andy, and myself. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Alloy by Boiled in Lead | | Subject: | The Week in Review | | Time: | 04:31 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/ankhappyg.gif) content |
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| Been a busy week, over all. Nearing the end of my project at work. Pretty pleased with how it's coming together, though I'll be working over the weekend to get up to my word count.
Wednesday night, Andy and I celebrated a late Valentine's Day. We went to an early dinner at the Union Square Grill. Fabulous food, rather expensive, but worth it.
After dinner, we went to the ACT Theatre in Seattle to see The Woman in Black. It's a play where two people play most of the parts. A mystery that managed to be quite spooky and very entertaining.
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| Recently returned from two weeks in New Zealand. I've been playing with the electronic pictures we took, making collages with the PhotoMix program. I'll be giving photo albums of the trip to Katie and Bill (my parents-in-law) and Greg (my brother-in-law).
The three of them, Andy (my husband), and I took the trip together. I was the primary scheduler/events coordinator. Although I'm not overly fond of event planning for a group such as ours (diverse tastes and opinions, and a fair amount of doubt on my part that everyone involve is communicating their wants and needs openly and clearly), I'm sure I was much happier in charge of the process than as a bystander.
I'm very schedule-focused and I like to have things arranged and reserved well in advance. Others in the group are much more relaxed and catch-as-catch can. I find I'm not content with that. For example, I can't stand to be around smoke. Even if it's a restaurant/bar where the smoking is at least 10 feet away, I'll start to feel sick: nauseous and drained of energy. Finding a non-smoking restaurant for dinner isn't hard, but it does require some advanced thought. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | E is for Everybody, Cooler Kids, MegaMix | | Subject: | Sherman Alexie | | Time: | 04:20 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/ankitteng.gif) complacent |
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| This week is an employee appreciation week at Wizards.
Sherman Alexie visited Wizards today as a contributor to the 30th Anniversary coffee table book. He's a charming speaker that related how he became interested in D&D while growing up poor on the Spokane Reservation. His tale was moving, amusing, and simultaneously depressing and uplifting.
When I heard him speak on NPR some months ago, I received the distinct impression that his engagement with the game was a fond memory of the past. I was pleased to learn that he is currently running a monthly D&D campaign. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Monday evening.
Things went well today, overall.
Travel is tiring.
Our first day in NZ.
Christchurch.
The Round House is lovely! A spa, pool, large tub, lots of bedrooms, and room.
Went to the supermarket since some folk wanted an early night.
I was feeling tired and hungry, a classic Kestrel recipe for grumpy.
Sitting around with just snacks wore thin. I determined that I needed a real dinner. Andy was kind enough to escort me. We eventually wound up at Portofino's (Italian food) after some too-smoky early efforts.
A weird (but tasty!) chicken Marsala restored by equanimity. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Taxi-ing for take-off at LAX. At last able to shrug off many of the little cares. Managed to get a window seat. A bit cramped for Andy with the bulkhead row.
I love the Aussi? Kiwi? accents of the crew. Feels like we're truly on our way.
Reading Sayer's Lord Peter Whimsy stories.
Andy likes the surprise of the iPod I bought. Quite a bit of doing to get it, load it with music, and keep it a secret. I congratulate myself on my deviousness. :-)
Lots of fun things planned for the next few weeks. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Nothing is Good Enough-Aimee Mann-Bachelor No. 2 | | Subject: | New Job! | | Time: | 05:23 pm | | Current Mood: | ecstatic |
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| Starting next Monday, I'll be shifting from my post as Managing Editor of roleplaying games at Wizards of the Coast to full-time design! I am absolutely thrilled.
I've worked hard to get this opportunity. I took on a lot of freelance over the last couple of years and have striven to improve my design skills and knowledge of game mechanics. I'd work all day as an editor and go home and write.
Now, I'll get my writing/designing fix in my day job. I'll occasionally do freelance, but not for a while. My new boss, Chris Perkins, seems to understand my propensity for over-committing and has recommended/required that I not take freelance for at least six months. I think it's a good call. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | How Am I Different-Aimee Mann-Bachelor No. 2 | | Subject: | Compliments at Work | | Time: | 05:19 pm | | Current Mood: | good |
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| | Wearing kicky high heels today. They were a gift from Andy for my birthday. I had noticed them in a Victoria's Secret catalog and thought they looked sexy. A lovely gift. Wore them to work. Got a compliment. Feeling good. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Working at finishing up an editing project at work. My computer's being rather a slow poke in printing, which gives me a welcome excuse to post on my livejournal.
So many different, random things have happened over the past few weeks.
One day, I drove up to the University of Washington. Unusually, I had only a $50.00 bill on me. The parking garage would not take it as payment for the $8.00 fee. I scrambled around my car and purse collecting as much spare change and fast-food dollar bills as possible. I was still $2.00 short. The driver of a car leaving the garage and getting a refund for a short stay saw my plight and volunteered the two bucks I was short. So incredibly sweet! I try hard to give strangers kindesses, but it always surprises and pleases me when I'm the recipient. Interestingly, the UW food court broke the $50 when I bought a $0.97 cup of tea. A very weird experience overall. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | differentown_final-Strongbad | | Subject: | Pain | | Time: | 09:55 am | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/anksadg.gif) sick |
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| | Pulled a muscle in my abdomen. Really laid me out for the last week. Hence, not much in the way of posts. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner-Warren Zevon-Learning To Flinch | | Subject: | Friends | | Time: | 02:15 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/ankthinkg.gif) contemplative |
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| I've recently used my website and my blog as an excuse to email some old friends. It's difficult to keep in touch with folk who live elsewhere.
Two people with whom I've been able to maintain contact, mostly through email, are Rob Nicholls and Molly Brewsaugh. They're both very dear friends. I would that I were a better correspondant with them. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Pinch Me-Barenaked Ladies-Maroon | | Subject: | My Website | | Time: | 01:38 pm | | Current Mood: | cheerful |
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| | It's up at gwendolynkestrel.com. Yipee! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Pinch Me-Barenaked Ladies-Maroon | | Subject: | Monstrous Madness | | Time: | 11:17 am | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/ankitteng.gif) okay |
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| | Andy's running a fun voting bracket on D&D monsters: Monstrous Madness. Yesterday, the kobold made a good showing against the mind flayer, but lost to the illithid. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Too Little Too Late-Barenaked Ladies-Maroon | | Subject: | Website | | Time: | 11:13 am | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/ankangryg.gif) annoyed |
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| | Well, I worked on it last night and finished. Seemed fine, but today, I can't reference it. Very odd. Can't even get into my control panel or my webhost. What makes it very weird is that Andy uses the same webhost and his site is just fine. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Frequence3 -- www.Frequence3.org - Une Rafale De Tubes - The French Webradio live from Paris France | | Subject: | GwendolynKestrel.Com | | Time: | 03:02 pm | | Current Mood: | pleased |
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| Did a lot of work on my website last night. The basic structure's mostly finished, and I've made great progress on the content of the pages.
I had a severe technical difficulty. Silly thing, really. I had installed the FrontPage extensions on my webhost and later had changed my password. This prevented me from posting my page. The Cedant (my webhost) customer service folk were very responsive and kind, but after trading a number of emails and trying different solutions, I had to solve it myself.
Here's to uninstalling and reinstalling! | | comments: Leave a comment |
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