Because I spend the majority of the day at my computer working with shots, it's easy to forget that I'm working in the film business. Sure, I have to walk past the sets on my way to the lunch room, and I have to run all my work by the directors before they get sent off to editing, but I'm not involved in the filming process much. (Hence the term, post-production...)

But, then there's some days when the film industry lands in my lap. Like yesterday. Out of the blue, the production manager ran into my office and swept me away to go on a whirlwind bout of location scouting. We needed to film some plates of water that will later be composited into greenscreen backgrounds, and since I am the one who will be doing the compositing, he brought me along to consult on the shots. We had a little camera with us so that I could do some test composites before we shoot it on the good film.

The majority of our scouting took place along the little sloughs off the side of north Idylwyld, so before you go thinking that it was some sort of glamorous Hollywood type affair, think again. This is Saskatchewan. Our locales amount to sloughs and bluffs. And horizon shots. Lots of horizon shots.

Anyway, we marched around the sloughs a little while, pointing out different shots and arguing about the angle of the sun at certain times of the day. This was interrupted every so often by me quietly squealing and pointing out marshbirds. The redwing blackbirds were out in full force, as were the catbirds, and there was one big old goose who wadled out of our way, but sat across the pond from us, honking. I was particularly fascinated by the eared grebe that kept paddling in and out of one of our shots. They're such distinctive birds, with their bright yellow 'ears', red eyes, and sleek black feathers. The production manager, on the other hand, kept hoping that 'that darn loon' would get out of the way.

Anyway, birding aside, we're going out again tomorrow for the actual shoot. We've got two different sloughs that should be perfect for what we need, provided the weather holds, and if everything goes well, we'll be able to make it down to the Victoria bridge to do some overhead water shots at about the time the sun will be at an angle to get some good sparkle off the water. Hee! I have a film shoot tomorrow. I feel all professional and stuff. ;)

Sometimes when you LARP, it's hard to get into your character's head space. Maybe OOC concerns are nagging at the edge of your mind, maybe you're tired and your heart's just not in it, or maybe the game that given night is just plain slow. But then, every once in a while there comes a game when you are so in-character that it hits you on an emotional level, and even though you, the player, are delighted on the inside because of how awesome the scene is, you're bawling so hard you can't stop.

This weekend's KC game's was one of those amazing, serendipidous games. It was so good that it hurt. Literally. I spent the majority of the evening with that "I'm not going to cry" burn in the back of my throat, and by the end of the game, my whole heart hurt. It was wonderful!

The night couldn't have been more dramatic. When Vatusia led the blinded Manahem into the room, conversation stopped dead, and even though I was expecting it OOC, I still froze in mid-sentence. It took me well over a minute to be able to form anything coherent, and even longer before I could explain what was going on to the newly Reckoned Fallen that Mahalia had been speaking with. The rest of the night continued on in much the same vein, with Mahalia trying to deal with her usual rounds of crisis-control, all while worrying about if her friends would still be alive tomorrow. (Actually, that sounds like the majority of her life...)

There will be a lot of fall-out from these recent events, both on a personal and a political level. The White Court has already seen a fairly major restructuring, and I don't think Vatusia's ever going to be quite the same after what happened, which will only break poor Mahalia's heart. Heh. I for one love it!

Where did I spend my long weekend? Not at the lake, or anywhere like that. Nope, this long weekend, all the cool people hung out at JBA's house.

Saturday the SLARPA fundraiser BBQ, and JBA was kind enough to let us invade his house and burn all sorts of animal flesh. It was a little slow early on in the day, but by 7:00, things were in full swing. The weather was a little cooler than I would have liked, but the died down enough in the evening that we could get a fire going in the backyard, and after that we all huddled around it for warmth and tried to keep from singeing ourselves. (Though, there were a few smart folks who went inside and continued the tradition of the Saskatchewan Kitchen Party.)

Sunday I was back at JBA's house for a big craft session. Almost everyone who will be running something at SLARPcon was there, and we worked on props for the various LARPS. I'm eager to see how things turn out. Shadowrun will require minimal prop-creation, since we still have tons of stuff from the last two Shadowrun LARPS Layne has run, so I actually have a little time to invest into other projects. I spent Sunday wrestling with a sewing machine, and hopefully I can work it well enough that we'll have a few extra props in time for the KC game this weekend...

I also have a demon costume in the works for TY's Nightmare City game at SLARPcon. If I can pull it off, it'll be my most elaborate costume to date, surpassing even the green medusa headpeice I made last year. I really hope it works out, but even if it doesn't, I'm still going to have a hell of a lot of fun making it. I keep thinking of the pile of supplies I have sitting at home, and itching to use them.

Gun and ninjas and trolls... Oh my!

Mmm... Shadowrun.

We had our first Shadowrun game in months on Monday night. The session was spent recapping what had happened before, though we did manage to wrap up a few minor loose ends so they don't get forgotten completely by the rush of plot that is yet to come. Even though we haven't played in five or so months, I had a pretty easy time jumping back into it. There was very little in the 'current' goings-on that I had forgotten, and even those few things were pretty minor details. (Just don't ask me to remember the top-ten grossing-movies of all time, or what I'm doing next week.)

The energy level of the game was a little low, but that's probably to be expected after so long a hiatus. I think it'll pick up once people can get their heads back into it, and having a new addition to the group will also help. Besides, there's nothing quite like having a bucket of plot dumped over your head to kick things into motion.

* * *

In other Shadowrun news, I just found on on Kicked in the Blog that there is a Shadowrun game in the works. Normally, that news would fill me with joy, but it looks like Microsoft is doing the usual 'big corp purchases rights to semi-obscure rpg' tactic, and completely ignoring all of the things that made the original so popular with its fans in the first place. As far as I can tell, they've completely ignored the cyberpunk feel of the game by changing the setting from a gritty urban sprawl to some sort of battlegrounds in the jungle. It is less Shadowrun, and more a game about elves with magic and guns that just so happens to have the Shadowrun label on it. Shadowrun is one of the few RPG settings I've run across that would translate amazing well into video-game format. And they have to go and do this to it?? Boo. Boo urns.

I feel like I've been kicked in the stomach.

Anyway, go read DG's post about it. It really sums up my feelings on the subject.

Poodles are to dogs as cheese whiz is to camembert

This past weekend, Layne and I headed down to Regina to visit our respective moms. I had supper with his folks on Friday, and then spent the rest of the weekend with my family.

It was great seeing everyone again. I did a little gardening with my mom, cruised around town with my brother listening to loud, angry music, and sat around reading comics with my sister. In fact, we probably would have just hung around talking all weekend if it hadn't have been my grandmother's birthday was on Saturday. She was in town visiting, so we threw a combined birthday/mother's day supper that amounted to throwing some burgers on the grill and buying an ice cream cake. It was pretty laid back.

It would have been even more of a relaxing weekend if it weren't for the poodles. My mom's friend is moving to Australia this week, and she's staying with my mom until her flight leaves. Leaving with her are the smallest, most useless little demons I've ever met. One was completely neurotic, and spent most of the weekend cowering on her owner's lap. When her owner wasn't around. she was absolutely scared out of her mind. If there were any thoughts in that tiny little noodle of hers, they probably went something like, "big things, loud things, fast things, all around me...going to get me with the hurting and the smashing and the yipe..."

The other thought he was entitled to everything, but especially people's laps, and if you didn't lean down to pick him up immediately, he would nip at you until you did. I was just sitting there, minding my own business, and the little bugger started trying to chew off my toe. He might even have succeeded, except that my socks were too thick for his tiny teeth to penetrate. (We're talking thin cotton socks here, not those big wool ones.) Obviously, his owner had never introduced the idea of discipline to him, because when I bapped him on the nose, he retreated to another room and would have nothing to do with me afterwards. Every once in a while, I would catch him watching me, and he would snarl with his tiny fangs, and then run away yelping. Goddamn furball...

I love dogs. I really do. These obviously were not dogs.

Apparently, I am all about the ladies...

Your results:
You are Will Riker

At times you are self-centered but you have many friends. You love many women, but the right woman could get you to settle down.

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character am I?" quiz...

Arrr...

So, Layne mentioned a really cool idea he had for a Pirates tabletop game, and now I just can't seem to get the idea out of my head. I'm sitting here, trying to work on some shots from Episode 2, and part of me keeps insising that I should be drawing pirates instead. Right now, the conversation is going something like this:

Muse: You should draw pirates.
Me: No. I'm working.
Muse: Work is not pirates. Pirates are better.
Me: Shut up. If I'm going to draw anything, it's going to be my comic.
Muse: Are there pirates in your comic?
Me: No. And before you ask, there's no ninjas yet, either.
Muse: ... Well, there should be. Pirates, I mean, not ninjas. Pirates are cooler than ninjas. They say "Yarrr" and "Avast, me hearties!" and have awesome boots. You -know- you like drawing pirate boots...
Me: *whimper*

Speaking of tabletop games, Layne's Shadowrun game, which has been on hold since before Christmas, is finally going to be run again!! Finally, I can get my fix of big, green, gun-toting trolls and invisible elven(ish) ninjas! The current campaign is heading into the end-game, which means that all of the Big Plot that has been hanging over our heads will hit the fan. It's going to be a wild, edge-of-your-seat, we're-so-screwed kind of ride, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out. As an added bonus, KQ is going to be joining us, and I look forward to seeing how he fits in with our little group, both in and out of character.

As well, a bunch of us got together at CK's place last night to make characters for WL's Unknown Armies campaign. I quite like the system. The character creation system forces you to spend far more time thinking about who your character is than what their stats should be like, and as a result, I really got a feel for who everyone's characters are, even though we haven't played a session yet. It should be interesting to watch them all turn from generally reasonable people to traumatized, paranoid psychos.

Another weekend of gaming and hanging out in the sunshine... I'm gonna get spoiled if this keeps up!

Friday's SbN game was interesting enough that I think it needs a seperate post. I'm still putting together my thoughts on how things went, so I think instead I'll ramble on about my non-gaming activities this weekend.

The production crew from work all got together for a BBQ on Sunday, and proved that even though we're all artsy little buggers, we suck at baseball. Still, there's something sort of satisfying about hanging around and grilling up raw hunks of meat, even if it's only on a little George Foreman grill. Film crews seem more close knit than your usual office worker crowd, and it also helps that most of us also went to school together at the ill-fated SCETCH. It's also nice to be working with a young crew, as my last group of coworkers were all in their fourties, and we had very little in common, whereas here, we spent most of BBQ discussing Nintendo's decision to name their new system the "Wii", and how it stacks up against the other systems.

Afterwards it was off to yet another BBQ at my uncle's house. It was my cousin's birthday, and a small crowd of my relatives had gathered to wish him well. Things went remarkably well. There wasn't any bickering, despite the presence of my less-than-civilly separated grandparents, and I got to visit with my cousins for a while. (ie - be mauled by them for a half hour or so. They're a lot younger than me, and seem to see me as a large, ambulatory swingset.) I don't see them often, since they're all sports freaks, and it seems that every night they're off at someone's practice/lessons/games/playoffs.

Layne, who was pulling together the last few bits of his thesis, had to miss both of these excellent opportunities to eat charred meat, though my aunts and grandma certainly kept asking after him. Next weekend we plan to head down to Regina for Mother's Day, so I suppose they'll just have to visit with him there.

All told, I think this was one of the most enjoyable weekends in recent memory.

I got paid on Friday, and to celebrate, Layne and I went out for sushi and a walk by the river. We haven't seen that much of each other lately, what with me being busy with exams/work, and he finishing off his thesis, so it was nice to just sit down and spend an evening together.

Saturday's Inheritance game was a bit of a blur for me, or rather, for Mahalia. If i think about it carefully, I can pick out all the details of what happened, so I'm guessing the rushed-to-the-point-of-breaking energy I got out of the night was an in-character reaction. Poor Mahalia. She went from dealing with Grace's guilt over not being able to help the sick Paxael, to holding Paxael as he died, and without a pause to even mourn, was swept away again to deal with an overly-stabby White King. In short, I had a marvellous time. As far as I could see, there was plenty for everyone to do, as well as time for private, internal conflicts. Wonderful! It was also great seeing the Edmonton folks again, even for just the brief period before and after the game, especially since Trevor was visiting from the Cayman Islands.

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous out, and MG had the brilliant idea of spending it in the park, roasting hot dogs. (Actually, I believe she said 'weenies', but I refuse to call them that on the account that everyone giggles.) It was a mixed group of her non-gaming friends/relatives, and a bunch of the usual suspects. We hung out, ate tasty charred flesh, and enjoyed the sunshine. I even got to rescue a kite from a tree!! Afterwards, John, WL, Layne and I still hadn't had enough chatting, so we went out for coffee until they kicked us out.

Gaming, good food, and hanging out with friends? This weekend had it all.