A New Place to Blather

Long time no blog! There's two main reasons for this; first off is that work's been crazy and any downtime is spent doing other things to relax. The second is that I've been mostly drawn into an even easier way to post events to share with people: Facebook. I don't tend to write personal essays for the world to see, so having a place where I can restrict my expositions to trusted friends works out much better for me. Plus I can post pictures and notes from my iPhone - technology rocks!

So if you're looking for more frequent updates from me, jump on Facebook and look me up. It's kinda creepy at first because you have all kinds of friends, family, and schoolmates coming out of the woodwork after a decade to get back in touch with you - it's like a cult. The important thing is to only let people you trust connect with you, don't put any information on their you don't mind getting out occasionally, and learn to love the "Block this Application" option from people if you're not in to getting a tonne of app requests.

Perspective

It's important to have perspective in one's life. This one's for Rilla.

Biography (courtesy of cenobyte)

If ever there was a time when the flagrant use of the exclamation point was acceptible, it would be in the dissertations of Randy!. Randy! grew up in the make-believe Megiranthea, which would be slightly to the left of London, England if it could be mapped. It was in Megiranthea where Randy! discovered his great love of game design. He has worked on some of the world's most loved games, and was part of the original 15th century team which invented what is known today as “chess”. Randy! was instrumental in designing the Queen and her moves, fashioning her after his beloved wife, TUO!. Because of his mysterious origins in that other-worldly place, Randy!, like others of his kind, is actually a therianthrope, and can transform himself into different animals at will. Because of his great love of sleeping and playing, Randy! has often been known to present himself as an otter (or lutrinae, to his Latin-speaking friends). Unlike many therianthropes, Randy! does not lose all aspects of the creatures into which he transforms, choosing instead to keep a thick pelt of fur for his own insulatory purposes. If he ever does forget to retain his pelt, he is fortunate to have a warm sweater, made by TUO! herself, with the use of magic spinnerets. By the standards of his people, Randy! is still just a 'whelp', yet he has already done most of what he dreamed of doing. He still dreams of creating a great huge gun shaped like a penguin. No one understands all the mysteries that flow together to meld the creature known only as Randy!.

Visits from Canada

This fall we had the good fortune to be visited by a number of friends and family.

Alan's Visit
Alan came to visit us in August. We went up to the city (of course) as well as up to Napa Valley with Carl.


Alan on the train to San Francisco


TUO and Alan on the docks of Fisherman's Wharf

Jeff & Neuba's Visit
Jeff and Neuba came to visit in September. We went to my company picnic and to the NorCal Renfaire.


TUO, me, Neuba and Jeff at my company picnic


The Danse Macabre at Renfaire


Jousting is more medieval than Renaissance... I mean... Huzzah!

Family Visit
Also in September my parents and sister came to visit. Again, we went up to the city, to Moneterey Bay and Carmel.


Me, Mom, & Dad at Monterey Bay Aquarium


Mom, Dad, TUO and my sister at Fisherman's Wharf


My folks at the Golden Gate Bridge


Me and Dad at the SF Giants Game


My sister & Dad on the train after the Giants game

Gilroy Garlic Festival

Ah, the greatness that is Gilroy, and the marvel that is its annual garlic festival. We were NOT expecting the sheer size (or expense) of the event, which involved parking our car in a HUGE field and bussing out to the place. It was quite a spectacle, with three stages, food and craft vendors... I had no idea that it was such a big deal! Below are a few pictures from the festival:


Ben, me, Amy and Rilla with the The Garlic Mascot


The Lovely Ladies of Garlic! (and me)

More to follow!

Cheyenne Makes Good Eats!

My buddy Cheyenne Wright, a freelance artist who does a lot of work for GWG (through whom I co-authored/edited Necessary Evil), was recently contacted by Alton Brown, star of the popular cooking show Good Eats. Apparently, Alton wants Cheyenne to create caricature comics for him after Alton saw this piece by Chey:



It's pretty cool to know people who know people!