Funny old week

Despite the heading, this week hasn't been much fun at all, has it?

Ogrek's job is making him ill and there's something misfiring in the brain that isn't doing you any good. Why don't you go see the doctor about it? He did, which is why he's doing something about it all, getting a new job and not getting pushed around by the old one. OCD is no joking matter. Fretting about rubbish and writing and re-writing lists is not normal.

Something is very, very wrong.

In Memoriam

"How wonderful Dungeons & Dragons was actually invented by a guy named Gygax!" ~ Mitch Benn, entertainer on BBC4's The Now Show.

Yep. How wonderful indeed. It's a bloody good name.

He died aged 69 (Dude!) on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. What he left to the world was many other worlds for a lot of people to explore. Some of those people developed strong friendships from those explorations. Others got married. I did both, and I owe it to Mr. Gary Gygax, because if I hadn't decided to go to a D&D game one cold, wet Sunday in 1992 I wouldn't have met Ogrek about 3 months later ~ although I came close; he still remembers the green-and-red haired punk in the ABC Cinema during a Star Trek 1 to 6 Marathon a couple of years earlier.

I'm not the only one. Tarol Hunt (who does Goblins) met his soulmate at a game, as did many, many others. Not bad for a game considered to be the domain of 'Geeks' who didn't have a hope of 'getting laid'.

He's homaged in Dexter's Laboratory and Futurama, two of my favourite cartoons. The fact that he uses a D6 and a D10 in an episode in the latter because there were no D20s developed until a little while after the game system still brings a smile and makes for interesting D&D trivia down the pub.

The Griffin Gamers honoured him with an empty chair placed at the gaming table.

Goodbye Gary. Don't forget your dice.

~Chaszmyr

The Other Quote Of The Week

"You WRING OUT your hair?!" ~ Ogrek

The hair in question is over two foot long, takes 15 minutes on average to brush and absorbs water like a sponge.

Quote Of The Week

"Do not step into that room! It makes your head go all fuckey!" ~ Kalil the Tiefling.

The room in question had a chaotic Idol in it that convinced him that breathing fire on the rest of the D&D party was a good idea; understandably, they disagreed strongly.

Phrase Of The Day

Swedish Imperialism ~ the description given by a Danish sociologist on the radio today about the naming conventions behind IKEA products.

His main point was that quality products like their range of beds had Swedish or Finnish place names, whereas the miscellany such as bowls, draught excluders and wastepaper baskets had Danish ones.

IKEA's response was that it was a coincidence.

On a similar note, considering the most recent adverts, one wonders if there will be a Doink Ikeasson in CP this year.

Mentos of the World

Chlorophylle (also known as Spearmint) from Holland,

Green Apple from Germany,

Pink Grapefruit and Red Orange with Vitamin C from Switzerland,

Licorice from Italy,

Mango-Orange from France

and Watermelon from Spain.

In the UK and everywhere else, there's also Strawberry, Wild Berry, Mint and Fruit, plus minty chewing gums with green tea.

From Japan there was Melon and Soda flavour.

Most people buy ethnic tat, but you buy Mentos? Well why not?

Aftermath

France
Belgium
Holland
Germany
Austria
Leichtenstein
Switzerland
Italy
Monaco
Andorra
France again
Spain
and across the Bay of Biscay...

In 9 Days.

In a battered and now notorious red Vauxhall Astra.

This has to be the most insane thing you have agreed to do.

Your sanity is shot, you managed to lose your patience a few times and now possess a desire to stay in England for a very long time indeed. But on the plus side you saw a lot of interesting places, collected seven different flavours of Mentos and have now visited roughly 10% of the Earth's countries and principalities.

What's next - the Moon?