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| Monday, October 4, 2004 04:10 PM |
| Weekend...of the Dead!!! |
 by Fëanor |
As you may have noticed, I have failed in my stated attempt to post every single day. I am sure you are all very, very disappointed. But really, it was only a matter of time. In my defense, this weekend was really, really busy, as you will see below. And since I haven't posted in such a long time, this one is bound to be incredibly long, so settle in, folks.
- Friday night, after I got out of work early and ran home to do some long overdue grocery shopping, Peccable, TrackerNeil, Super Tarzan, and I met up to see the British film Shaun of the Dead (btw, since the hell when did the price of movie tickets go up to $10.25 each??? Is this just at the crazy Bridge theater, with their stupid assigned seating? Am I paying for that, because if so, can I have mine without and get a discount?).
Shaun of the Dead may very well be the best movie ever. It is at times a romantic comedy, at times a horror/zombie film, and at other times an earnest drama, and somehow it meshes all of these genres seamlessly, and handles each one with the utmost skill. In other words, the funny parts are funny, the scary parts are scary, and the moving parts are moving. It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry. Plus, it has a dude whacking zombies with a cricket bat. And a fantastic scene in which Shaun and his buddy Ed go through his record collection looking for LPs that Shaun is willing to fling at the undead that are shuffling slowly toward them, in the hopes that the vinyl will somehow incapacitate them.
Like most zombie films, Shaun does a bit of social commentary, too. Shaun's life is full of people who are practically zombies already, shuffling through their work-a-day routines with mindless expressions on their faces, so when they start actually turning into zombies, he hardly notices at first. And soon after the zombie horror is all over, the zombies become the subject of TV movies, talkshows, and gameshows.
Shaun is also full of allusions, references, and clever in-genre-jokes. You don't need to have seen other zombie movies to appreciate this one, but you certainly won't get the rage-filled monkey reference if you haven't.
Basically, Shaun is a ton of fun, and you should go see it immediately, before it's too late!
- So anyway, that was my Friday. Saturday, I cancelled a dentist's appointment and spent almost literally the entire day at this con, which I posted about earlier (while digging around for that post, I realized I need a way to search the post archive; there's another project for me). Dave had told me about this con, and since it was right around the corner, and they were running some things I like, I decided to check it out. I met him pretty much right at the front door, but didn't end up playing a game with him until later in the day. My first game was the last of the qualifying rounds of a Hero Quest tournament. It was a lot of fun. The guy running it had written his own quests, and each quest in the tournament made up a piece of an ongoing story, which was concluded in the tournament final. He also made up some pretty decent house rules for the game, and added in two new character types--a thief and a cleric. I played the thief in the first game, and had a lot of fun. Our group (which consisted of four heroes) barely survived the quest (which, nevertheless, was way easier than most of the official quests in the quest booklet that comes with the game--damn, they're hard!). We made it mainly due to our good teamwork and cooperation, and the GM's generosity with powerful items. After the game, players voted on who did the best roleplaying, who had the best combat moment, and who had the best non-combat moment. The players with the highest scores moved on to the final round. I tied with another fellow, but he decided to give up his spot to me.
After Hero Quest, I took some time to eat and check out the dealer's room. I picked up a copy of Cities and Knights of Catan (which I already know is cool, since Erik had a copy, but which I need a copy of, since Erik moved away), as well as the expansion for 5 or 6 players, which now completes my collection of Settles of Catan games, and gives us something else to play on the game day that I've scheduled for the 23rd! Woo hoo!
I was tempted to buy a sword again in the dealer's room, and once again resisted the temptation (as I did at the ren faire--the picture from which, btw, I have finally posted). I think if I get one, I want it to be really good quality, and really cool. So I'm going to wait until I see one like that. Or, you know, until my willpower breaks, whichever comes first.
Then it was time to play, fittingly enough, Settlers of Catan. Joining me at the table were my friend Dave, his friend Jim, and some other guy. It was a rousing game. I was disappointed that Jim, the newbie, kicked our butts, but he was being given a lot of advice from the other players, as well as the guy running the game, so maybe he had an advantage. That's the story I'm sticking to, anyway.
Dave nearly talked me into sticking around to play Puerto Rico, but I decided it was time to go home, take a break for a while, and see how poppy was doing. After some hanging out and some dinner, it was back to the con for the Hero Quest final. This, unfortunately, was not as fun as I had hoped. First of all, it went on way, way too long. There were six players and two boards, and way too much quest. Plus, it was late, I was really tired, and the two players on either side of me were really getting on my nerves. They were constantly yelling really childish insults at each other over my head, as well as making stupid, selfish moves with their characters in the game, and also doing lots of nerdy, larp-ish roleplaying ("I whack him with my quarterstaff, like this! Ya!"). Argh! Anyway, that game finally ended, and I didn't get the first, second, or third prize (first prize being a complete copy of Hero Quest, and second and third prize being free months of membership at game table online). This didn't surprise me, since winning was once again based on player voting in those categories I mentioned above, and I had been in a bad mood during the game and not exactly firing on all cylinders (a rather obvious puzzle in the game totally confounded me and all the other players), but it did disappoint me. Luckily, I've since won a second eBay auction, and now have two Hero Quest expansions headed my way, and that almost makes up for it. Warning note: I'm thinking of writing my own quest for game day. Look out, my friends.
- Even after that marathon day of gaming, I was right back at the con bright and early on Sunday for more. I met Dave and we got in on a game of San Juan, the card game version of Puerto Rico. It's nearly as much fun as Puerto Rico, and quite a bit less complex, with a lot fewer bits to keep track of. Pretty cool. I considered picking up a copy in the dealer's room, but never got around to it, and here's why: I suddenly had no time to do everything I wanted to do. I had planned originally to leave after playing San Juan, but then Dave talked me into hanging around and playing a Reiner Knizia game called Amun Re. I still needed something to eat, so I drove over to McDonald's. Then I realized I needed to tape the football game for my Dad (and for me, for that matter), so I drove home at a breakneck pace and set up a program, then drove back at the same pace, nearly running over various other drivers. I arrived only to discover that the game was late in getting started, and I had plenty of time. This was a relief, and I had a chance to try out Kung Fu Fighting (I think that's what it was called), which was a really basic fighting card game. But Amun Re was taking longer and longer to get started, and when it finally did get going, it took another half hour or so to explain the rules to us (it's one of those complicated German games). And then the game itself took a long time. Meanwhile, I was supposed to be running various errands and then arriving at TrackerNeil's surprise party. But of course, I just couldn't bring myself to leave in the middle of a game. D'oh!
Anyway, I didn't win, but the game was cool. It's a slightly different spin on the typical German resource management and building game, this time in an Egyptian setting and with an interesting auction element.
Anyway, I ran out of there and raced to the city, messing things up and forgetting things (like my digital camera! I had to buy a disposable one instead) along the way. I realized, not for the first time, that I have a very poor memory and am very bad at planning things and at managing my time.
I was really afraid after all of my screw-ups that I'd ruin the surprise at the surprise party, too, so I called up Peccable and asked him to deliver me a coded message if he and TrackerNeil were not yet at the party. He sent me back the code, and I knew I was still safe, so I dashed over there.
It was an '80s party, and I felt ashamed that I had not dressed the part, as others, like Sarcasmo, pink haired girl, and Amy, had done it so very well. But the surprise worked wonderfully well, and we had plenty of fun with Peccable's well-designed Guess That '80s Tune/'80s Trivial Pursuit Game, as well as Tim's '80s song lyrics quiz. And, of course, there were tasty snacks of all kinds to be had.
- Anyway, with all that going on, I had to take Monday off to catch up (and get to that cancelled dentist's appointment), and now...
- ...it's actually Tuesday when I'm finally getting to my blog post! Oh, it's a busy life.
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