Games and plans.

Well, we didn't see a movie yesterday. The movie that Z wanted to see -- One Hour Photo -- doesn't open nationwide yet. It's just in New York and Los Angeles. You priveleged high-society bastards. :) All the other shows didn't start until 1 or so, and as I had a game last night, requiring me to leave at 4:15 or so to get there, we decided to just do laundry instead. Clothes are good, yes.

Speaking of the game, it was... odd, to say the least. We ended the night with one of the party members in a giant sack, another 4 with scorpion bodies growing out of their rears, my character having sentient mushrooms living on his arm, and everyone carrying eggs.

No drugs or alcohol were involved, I swear.

So today, I work on minis for Dennis and Garrett. Only 2 to do for Garrett, although one is quite large and in multiple parts. And then... 21 or so to do for Dennis. And that's just the first of 4 batches. Oy. What have I gotten myself into?

Some decisions I made this morning:

1) I'm going to give Dennis back the copy of Neverwinter Nights he got me for my birthday. I really appreciate the gift, honestly I do. Unfortunately, I can't justify the $100 - $200 to get a new video card just to play it. I have plenty of other games at the moment, including the Diablo II characters that we need to get back to building up. Hopefully, he can find someone else who will get the enjoyment out of it that I had hoped to receive.

2) As much as I would like it, I'm not buying Onimusha 2. If it's 3 times longer than the original, it'll still only be about 10 hours long, which I could finish over a single weekend. Now, it's $50 if I buy it new, or $5 if I rent it. Hrm. $5 per hour of gameplay, or $0.50? You make the call.

3) I need to find some players for my d20 Rokugan game. 4 players, maybe 5 max. I wonder who would be interested? I'm nervous about asking Seth and Jed, since they both kinda, y'know, write professionally for AEG and helped develop and playtest the books I'd be using to run the game. So worried about screwing it up in the face of people more expert than myself.

4) I also need to work on my L5R deckbuilding skills... again. I'm very rusty. I'm going to have to ask the Casa crew if I can start going out there, like, once a week to get some play in. Perhaps do the same thing with Ben at A2Z, since he and I rarely get to play. Besides, I have so much free time in the evenings, it's not funny. I just usually end up blowing it websurfing or somesuch. Time to use it constructively!

(no subject)

Been contemplating my circles of friends. It's interesting to me to see how they line up...

The D&D Group: This is Garrett, Ashley, Chris, Justin, Jason, Mark, Kiersten, and Matt. They're the group I see most often, since I see them at church, and I game with them every other week. They're also the group I know the least well, although I get along well with all of them. I sometimes feel like I'm on the border of insider and outsider, and sometimes I catch myself trying to show off to them. Don't know why. I should just let my merits and flaws speak for themselves.

The Casa del Geek Group: This is Seth, Kim, Jed, Alycia, and Jake. I've known them for a few years now, gamed with them, gone out to dinner with them, hung out, and generally had a good time with them. It's also the group where I feel the most like an outsider sometimes, because they're much more social and party-riffic than I am. If I seem nervous around them (which Kim tellls me I do), I couldn't exactly say why, other than to guess that, for some reason, I don't feel like I belong. Like I'm always playing catchup, two steps behind them. Behind them in what exactly, I couldn't say. It's just the feeling I get, like I'm not operating on the same plane of existence as they are. Not a higher or lower one, or a better or worse one; just a different one.

The Anime Otaku Group: This is Dennis, Dan, Mark, Richard, and Kat. This is the group I've probably known the longest. I've known Dennis and Dan since I was in college, back when I was still dating Mel and playing Magic and Rage. I know them very well (except perhaps for Mark and Richard), but lately I've felt very separate from them. One reason is that they always get together on Sundays, and Sunday is downtime and ustime for Z and me. Dan's getting a girlfriend has also changed the dynamic a lot, since he's now a lot busier with a different circle of friends too, and that cuts into his time. I don't think I've talked to him in over a week, and it was a week or two before that instance too. This group's relation to me is shifting, and I don't know in what direction...

The #L5R Group: Besides those people I see at Casa, and Dan, this is... Aaron. Oh, and Jenny sometimes. Beyond that, I know hardly anyone on #l5r anymore. My old group there has dispersed, and there's a whole lot of new people, and I have trouble connecting with them. The fact that I only speak when I feel I have something really worthwhile and/or profound to say really prevents me from jumping into casual conversation, especially when there are a lot of inside jokes and references that I don't get, or when it's party talk, which is completely outside my realm of experience.