rants and ramblings of an unhinged mind

so its wednesday lunchtime,
wednesday is a wierd day for me, it is my P.P.A day at work so i sit out of class with my laptop planning and doing the various jobs that are related to teaching in a school like mine then its lunch then Drama club which i enjoy.
also wed is a day for after school meetings so a strange day especially with the wind whipping around the school and the rain battering the windows.

but my wednesday is not actually very interesting..... to be fair most wednesdays arent.

this weekend just gone on the other hand was great fun,

Friday ight i finished work went home had a shower and packed some stuff before heading off to Liz's who had kindly put me up for the weekend, the weather was awful and the M1 was full of people freaking out in the rain and wind and a crash on both sides of the motorway slowed me down a little.

when i arrived a game of 4th ed DnD was in full swing i watched for a bit (not sure i like the look of 4th ed ) i chatted to liz and the pyro guy and his girlfriend, then went to bed on the floor of the lounge, and fell asleep to the sounds of DnD battles. had a reasonable nights sleep with the exception of lizs 3 legged cat plucking up the courage to investigate me at about 3am and deciding i was a comfortable place to sleep.

sat morning my alarm went off at 6 and i got up and got dressed, about 6 30 a small group of us headed off on the short drive to Shepperton Studios arriving in time to see Baby John in his ladybird Pyjamas and be fed bacon sandwiches by the always awsome Caterporium, and get dressed in to costume for Bills latest project, the day was good, long and the only injury was Kiera who gained a few stitches but no broken nose so garnered no sympathy from me, sunday was more of the same , im not gonna give anything away but the group of people we worked with were as always ace, from actors to fighters to make up , camera and pyros all lovely guys and girls, fight sequences seemed good especially sunday last thing, and falling off stuff is officially cool.


like i said not gonna give anything away ............but it was very cool i look forward to seeing the finished product the wrap party and sherberts with jim and the worst swat team evvaa.


awsome weekend that has left me very tired and little bored with the everyday. thanks again guys and girls ......it was truly sweet.

so ive just had my performance management at work,

i apparently have jumped through the right hoops and have achieved the right targets and have (sorry i cringe as i write this because i know that you go over one of these) gone 'through' the thresh hold.

didn't know i was supposed to be but without knowing it i have.


apparently this is a good thing it means more money.

have to do some more training and then deliver training across the school both in drama and team teach positive handling. oh well not a bad start to the day.

also went in with an idea what targets i wanted for next year and why the school imposed targets where in places unachievable and that put me in a good position to get reasonable and achievable targets for next year.


not a bad day.

Breakfast

This mornings breakfast
Of last nights meat feast pizza
Cold
As on the way to work
I drive through
Autumns rain, and fog

Sits a million miles from

Pancakes
Croissants, crumpets coffee
Freshly squeezed orange juice
And home made jam

.
The grey buildings
And view of rain
And clouds for miles
Contrasts
The view of sun kissed roofs
out to the sea And lazy summers days
Of warmth and sun
And clear blue skies

and suit and tie
and proper shoes
conflicts with
jeans t-shirts
and trainers worn
with battered pride

and work and rain
and proper shoes
crush the dreams of summer

and pizza slices
cold
fill my mouth
with flabby bread
tomato paste and congealed cheese

killing the memory
of breakfasts past

though sometimes I think of
croissants, crumpets, coffee
freshly squeezed orange juice
and home made jam
but I’m not sure I remember how they taste.


guess that about sums it up really

Does anyone have a current number for will segerman or jackson?
I would really appreciate it
Al

so outcast has been and gone.........and as far as i can gather a good time was had by all.

so hot or not then or rather Badb or bad


Badb

meg, the crazy crow queen.
el and nicks poking things habit..
...and nicks following blindness.
luggage rocking out as a crazy wisewoman
ben appearently having a good time because he was playing ' agrunt who does what im told'
facepaint and the reation we had on friday night as we walked past the bar.
visions and dreams
kids getting it right while we got it very very wrong
no nannying
bethan
jen having a good time
tims herbs
bran and bran (big and little)
the mediocre (lovers not fighters)
the queens beserker bodyguard.and the 6 second off from a fatal wound.
fistfights with dessie
the grandson of badb and the ensuing fight.
having an ic sister
the sun
the rain
mostly safe fighting
the high quality of kit
perching
the feeling that it is possible
the yo tan
children
bizzare bears vipers role reversal
the cloak incident.
perching
people being friendly and in it together
ethos
flocking
and cowardly archers
catching carrion.
new kit =new keen
did i mention my boots are awsome
plot
monsters
staff
rain
sun
spirit refs
rich finally getting his heavyarmour wearing good guy group
celts without stupid accents
ghost at the temple
and earning fogiveness
the waveskimmers turning up with bards and poisoned heads
freaking people out by closing our eyes
massive compliments from happy noodle girl as well as others.

Bad

not enough monsters lead to some high statted stuff, but on a plus that made every kill an achievment.
sunburn on the top of my head
not sure how to progress
quality of kith masks (but im just bitter cos of the hell that was being in breeds by the end of a hot day)
the vakarna ( not for anything they did , but because there werent enough of them.)
not having the other tribes represented in ulidia and knowing that it was mainly my fault as i hadnt quite written them as well as the warriors of badb, still will look at that over the coming weeks.
time out.
being in work and not fighting deamons in the holy lands



another horrendously one sided hot or not..........remember why i do this hoby after this and serenity.
looking forward to the rest of the LT mainlines now.

so on my break thismorning im gonna do a hot or not for serenity event 5
land grab.... so here goes

Big damn Heroes

Mcskippys,
hostage rescues,
hospital ship relentless,
larns drunken surgery,
fistfights,
slow counts to 10 and then being supprised at 1,
public murder in our bar,
being in the thick of things, geograpically and otherwise,
'we cant of broken his arm sherriff we were only hitting him in the face'
alternative uses for silencers,
being mistaken for actually being austrailian,
vaughn nearly getting it,
vaughn on radio,
monologuing bad guys and hench men without an internal monologue at all,
skippys boys being on a tight leash,
meg looking like some sinister mob boss with a fag and a cup of tea,
'dont blame me blame science!',
'youll have to dose me better than that you prick',
spending sat night unconcious and face down in the sand,
checking out the injured
skippy,
bouncer,
beacon,
cashew,
sponge,
reader,
a plan for downtime,
rich and Meg being awsome in the kitchen,
punching cashew followed by 'wheres my gun'
Skippys first words when coming round,
local flavour,
blueberrys,
radios,
reactive plot,
high levels of roleplay,
candleston,
sunshine,
food
loads more stuff i cant think of now.


Gorram greenhorns
vaughn getting it,
night fights,
spending sat night unconcious and face down in the sand,
luggage still not feeling very well after last weekend, felt really bad for her, as i know she loves playing serenity.


not related, while brushing my teeth this morning a chunk fell out from between my front teethnot sure if it was just plaquey stuff or a bit of tooth its a bit uncomfortable today.
i have bupa dental cover, but am not registered with a dentist in leicester yet, which i have just realised means i havent been in 4 years, oops,
still with any luck luggage is sorting that today...........

in short serenity lrp = awsomnator
Mcskippys = awsomnator
meg and rich = awsomnator
luggage = awsomnator

teeth = looooose

ps this is about the most one sided hot or not i think i have ever written.

one of our hamsters just died.

this is sad.

sputnick was the friendliest hamster we owned and really inquisitive, he was also the little runt of the litter that walked on his hind legs, and that i had based a lot of breeds on
he was just over a year old.

im gutted, so is luggage

very sad day

so on friday last week we were told to be expexting OFSTED on wed and thursday
which meant i spent the weekend working and getting everything that should have already been in place in place.
it also looked to bit of a dampener on my plans to travel around the countryattending counting crows gigs.... that is untill the head said
"do exactly what you had planned to do this week and nothing different"
although im reasonably sure she was reffering to lesson plans i took it as an endorsment to go and see music.
Monday night i picked up luggage from work at 5 and drove (possibly a little fast )to manchester and by 5 to 7 we were standing in the MEN arena waiting for the support bands to start. the men is a large venue last time id been there id lived in manchester been a third year at drama school and gone to watch the WWE wrestling, the only thing that was in the least bit similar is the fact that both times i have been in the fith row of people.
blind pilot who opened the gig where awsome really worth a listen, they played good music and seemed nice and friendly... the holdsteady were however, crap .they thought they were great but were all over the place..........then counting crows came on
they played an acoustic gig and were awsome, while its tru i am an uber fan the songs they played where an interesting choice of set including two dylan covers and songs from there rockier albums that translated into heartfelt acoustic numbers supprisingly well Adam Duritz spoke eloquently and honestly about his life and the songs that he was singing, the gig felt special every song tweaked and played with unveiling new meaning.
at 11:30 we were still in the MEN singing with Adam to califrnia dreaming it was nice.

we got home about 1:30 and went to bed. then iguess Tuesday must have happened.

wednesday came and with it the suited booted and bizzarly cardiganed spectres from ofsted
i taught through the day only vriefly seeing one through my classroom door look in briefly and then walk on, at break he came to my class while most of my students were outside and observed an LSA working on the computer and 1 student calming from an anxious morning by doing a jigsaw then left after 5 mins (i , as most other teachers will be , was supprised to know that that counted as my part of the ofsted inspection and they decided that they didnt need to see me the next day, although i wouldnt know that untill 3;30 on thursday)

wed aftre school me and claire from work drove back picked up luggage and then headed off to the birmingham Nec for more counting crows. some people (including luggage) have questioned the need to see two dates from a band in the same tour, but wed was as faremoved from monday as it could be. it was still awsome but the set list was awsome and acoustic instruments replaced with the "clang of electric guitars" we were maybe 2 /3 rows back the entire gig was fantastic. even the hold steady where together, still dull but a 100 times better than they had been in manc.
due to birmingham only being half the distance away that manchester is we got home about 12;30 and went to bed.

thursday happened without much to report , and under the new pilot ofsted we did allright, the head was happy, all good.

got to work today after my 20 mile journy to be told that the post 16 coordinator who was supposed to be at a meeting of other people with her job title in coalvill couldnt make it so could i go.
it was dull middle managment style bull with a few nice people and one very rude abbrasive person(no not me)still i got home before school finished and lunch was good.

this weekend am off to one of by best mates 30thshould be nice
and tues day is more counting crows this time in nottingham awsome

ps
book for serenity larp it rocks and is in candlestone and mcskippys(jade lotus are catering)
do it now

HOT
confused beastkin care pakages
tribe in woad
being in a dark cabal
sorting out training for the world and his mum
interesting and intelligent fixes of a potentially difficult problem(well done LT)
being known by everyone
Fagan and his gang
umberellasasasas pineapple
GM elthorne
walking into god to hear 'good afternoon sir, how can i help you'
the caterrporium earning breeds 25 gold
emo vipers
drunken controlled zombies
romance
new world orders
playing a character who wont kill or steal.
playing with the guilds
that feeling of a moot circa 1997 and the levels of 17 year old keen that swept through a selection of us who where playing back then.
being able to help and realising that im and expert at something

and something else ....what was it now..........erm.................
oh yes

RATS sir, thousands of em

not
ooc roumers and how quick people are to believe them
realising im an expert in somethig and that i was one of the few there who could help.
the chronic event comedown i am currently suffering from


in all the event as a roleplaying game was awsome the levels of play across the field where high, the plot although sparse due to lack of monsters was good the organisation was good , the toilets awsome, clean, lacking in smell. the factions grumbling friction being just under the surface and the uneasy alliences that formed against a greater foe.
and most exciting the feeling that this is either the start of something new or a return to form.........writing this has started to cheer me up

despite being down about one situation i am absolutly frothing with keen about the game, the world and the organisation...........and even more so about the rats.

the future is bright the future is egg shaped.

al

so last weekend

went up on friday night to johns lee wood and the inccantulas event, with the intent of monstering for fri night, but ended up playing, it was fun, skaven are cool especially when there are loads of em,

left about 12 and hung around until 1 while luggage frothed and chatted which is an interesting change of role

sat morning saw us up early (ish)pottering about for a bit and then heading to norwich for harry'heston'harrolds' 40th birthday,
we arrived at the hotel (a short walk from harry and mandawifes place) and dozed for a bit before walking over around half 4 to help set the table for dinner.
the table stretched the length of the freshly emptied lounge and dining room and was set with white paper tablecloth jam marmalade and the like as well as dotted along the table 9a selection of trestle tables long enough to seat 15 down each side) were toasters bread and muffins,
the theme for the dinner was breakfast and over 9 courses and several hours of solid eating we were treated to home made baked beans with black pudding, deviled kidneys, perfectly fried bread and mushrooms, kejeri, hash brows and tomato, sausage and onion jam, poached egg and crispy bacon bread and butter pudding and in an amazing moment a boiled egg that when it was broken open contained a lemon sorbet egg white with a mango ice cream yolk
the whole meal gave birth to possibly the worlds only bi lingual egg based birthady pun
"the meal was proof that l'euf begins at 40" relating to the 8 dozen eggs the meal contained. i was proud of it though rupert said it was shit.
all in all the meal was fantastic and very alice in wonderland especially with harry calling all change half way through. on the most part the company and conversation was brilliant ( with a very minimum of lt bashing, from only 1 person, but this was brief and innoffensive and conversation got on to interesting real life stuff) we met lots of friendly interesting new and different people.
it was nice to be invited (even if it was as a luggage appendage) and i had a really good time.
sunday saw us getting up early (luggage with a bit of a bad head) and heading home via johns lee again to pick up some kit and monster for the events final battle. had a bit of fun, then went to the pub to froth about being rats and eat, then home for a bit of work and then sleep.

all in all a fantastic weekend.

now have more work to do than hors to do it in so im procrastinating by updating live journal then eating dinner then work again i suppose

want to get finished before the moot

had quite a lazy hlf term not working everyday like i had planned but thats part of the story.


thursday before half term we met up with meg stu and lisa at demontford hall and went to see tim minchin, he was very awsome it was good we had fun we laughed we shouted it was good.

friday night after work we went to see friday the 13th at the cinema. some of you may know that i have been a fan of these fims ince as a thirteen year old stephen lock lent me a vhs casette of number 4 and since then i have watched everysingle one of the franchise including X which is an abomination of a ilm i have even had days where i have watched 1-5 in a single sitting. anyway the film was ok a couple of nods to old movies asid from starting at the end of one paradying two and then rewriting three in its brief time on screen quite interesting not as good as 3,4 and5 but better than crazy psychics and super zombies that the series rapidly degenerated into after they realised the had killed the main character of in episode 4. in short although this hasnt been it was ok.
now i dont hold with superstition but while watching friday the 13th on friday the 13th i lost my wallet wit my cards my cash my drivers licence and more importantly my alton towers season ticket card so had to cancel my cards and all that ort of thing.

luggage had been feeling ill all the previous week and just as i had finally been infected by her and full of tyhe ill she got better (which is just inconsiderate if you ask me ) and while it laid me up on the sofa for a few days mid week i still didnt complain as much as luggage confirming that woman flu is no where near as bad as man flu which is why i complain if i get man flu but dont when i get some girly version like you womwn carry.

the week started with some rehearsals i was supposed to be doing getting cancelledso i sat around then i was ill so i sat around then it was friday so i went to nottingham to be fed by meg and chill with meg and stu (i was supposed to be dming con x but due to two of four players crying off from the friday for various reasons we resolved to just hang around and chat and watch police story 2 which i couldnt remember seeing untill about 20 mins in)it was a nice relaxed evening apart from a brief 20 mins of frantically searching for an incredibly expensie needle in a imense hay stack befor Meg roled a real life natural 20 for her spot and we all calmed down a bit.

saturday we i ran con x although for some reason i had forgotten lots of stuff about how it works and ended up just making stuff up in places still the story and character interaction is good even though it is wildly different to how i thought it would go.
sat saw the guys take on manchester supprisingly well although completely underprepared which allowed some quite nice devlopment of npc antagonists that i didnt really get to use when i ran the same scenario before( i say the same scenario although there actions have changed the game radically so its very very different)
the hardest thing with the game is making sure the antagonist plot line/time line is progressing at the same speed as the players and that all of the factions involved are doing tings and not just waiting for the players to arrive.

sunday was actually the best they had dealt with any section so far planning hapened recon happened sneaking thieving and a lot of running happened. it wa quite good , although wasnt overly happy with combat that i ran but hey swings and roundabouts, was happy with bits and not with others.
the thing that makes the game good for me is the characters interaction and humanity, stus absolute refusal to believe the stuff megs hatred of vincenes daves leaving 20 quid in the glove box of a car that hed nicked as payment for the loan and lisas utter panic as she watched horror unfolding on her lap top while sat in a pub in manchester. its most fun to watch what they do and how they solve problems as a group.

now bak in work for the day and its lunch time

hope everythings good with everyone
al

few things in life are a s sweet as a snow day

being phoned at 6 in the morning is forgivable as long as the person on the other end is your head of department implimenting the inclement weather phone tree and telling you to stay at home.

in other news weekend of the 20th of feb should be good for con x if people are

that is all

at nicholmasmasmams a couple of people said they wanted another installment of con x, maybe before christmas,
that pretty much means next weekend,
am supposed to be helping harry with something sat day but could do a sat eve /sunday day session

what do people think?

having come back from manchester early sick as a dog
running a fever and hallucinating i have been off work
yesterday my fever broke late into the night and i felt a bit clearer, still with a temperature a horrific hacking cough that brigs up fluid and gack and a crippling headache that mkes it near enough impossible to sleep.

i phoned in on monday morning appearently (i say this because i dont remember doing it) and phoned in this morning as well as sending in lesson plans.
the school i work at requires you to phone in by 2:30 on the day you are sick to let them know if you will be back the following day, on monday i was asleep throughout the day and only really surfaced around 12:30 when my temperature dropped to the point that i could focus on things.

last night i was up the majority of the night coughing and sweating, this morning despite being in a state i sent in lesson plans with a couple of brain addled mistakes and a copy paste error. doh.

lee barfoot came round today at luggages request to make sure i was alright as i have been so obviously poorly. i missed the 2;30 deadline to phone in, just got a phone call from my head of department at 2:56, which was answered by lee,who wanted to know if id be back tomorrow. i said no , she asked if i would phone tomorrow as i was supposed to. and i said i would and that i would send in lesson plans tomorrow, she then asked that i would make sure they where the right ones as one that i had sent in the wrong ones, due to the fact tht i had used an old lesson plan as a template and neglected to change 1 line.

i'm quite cross now and still feeling like absolute crap.

it has annoyed me quite a lot as even being with it enough to send in lesson plans thismorning was a stretch, being criticized because it had mistakes on it is really annoying,
even typing this has been difficult

right the next instalment of the con x game for meg stu lisa and dave will be at mine the weekend before the harts event.

snowy if you want to/can play let me know

also can people let me know what they plan to do in the couple of weeks 'downtime' you will have before something else goes crazy.


let me know

al

so lst week saw such highs as
100%ing lego batman by tuesday morning
not leaving the house all day that day or indeed getting out of my dressing gown
and finding that at 2 oclock on fri i was sat on the sofa in my dressing gown eating the night befores lemon chicken cold and with my fingers
all in all it was my knid of half term, lazy lazy lazy.
that said i did let myself down a bit on friday cos by 3 i was showered dressed and tidying the house ready for the lovely meg, stu, lisa and dave to arrive by 4 i was sat at my laptop doing my long term planning and by 7 when dave arrived i was finished confused (where had this lack of apathy come from?)and waiting with a beer.
frothing happened then meg stu nd lisa arrived with guns and ingridients for serenit, amd lots of frothing occoured. they were shortly followed by the return of luggage who was delivered home by Harry, lots more froth and a fair amount of beer before harry left for an event and we headed out to firebug, for more drinking.
saturday saw me and dave getting up early and dave cooking breakfast, meg and stu arrived early due to the fact that i had parted with my gerkin (not a euphamism) the night before.
we then (every one in the house except for luggage) sat down to play th con x game i had been planning, it wasa reworking of a game i had run before and was interesting to see how a different group of people dealt with the same(ish) problems, the nswer is they idnt really, they worked around them followed different paths and roled so increadibly badly pretty much all of saturday that i was genuinly worried that they wouldnt make it through sundays prtion of the game.
having said that the rolemaplay was really good with an anxty dave a meathead stu an arrogant and slightly crazy lisa and a sane but thoroughly disturbed meg.
sunday saw a heroic turn of fate that lead to some awsome and indeed lucky roles at times,that coupled with a reasonably good if not entirely thought out plan and some awsome on the sopt thinking by pretty much everybody lead to quite a tense days play where most objectives were met , although im sure most of the party arent exactly sure why.
still that can wait til next time.
i had fun running it .
back at work now
oh and i forgotto change my alarm clock so i got up at 5 thinking it was six.oh well

oh and snowy they so despeatly needed a computer programmer it was untrue.

and i still refuse to learn lj cuts although i would quite like to do that link to someone elses diary thing , oh well should probably get back to it.

so am thinking the weekend after the harts event

so thats the 24th 25th and 26th of october for conspiracy x, apple stroodle martinis cooked breakfasts and the like.

what do people think??
al

im thinking of running a con x game at my house
over a weekend to be decided at a later date

what i was thinking was this

friday night turn up
finalise little character details
sort out cell stuff

then either a sort of prelude or pub

sat morning get up
cooked breakfast
play game for the day
followed by chinese food/ pizza
then more play or pub depending on what people are feeling
sun get up
brekkie
bit more play
home time

anybody interested in this ideally we would need about six players martin(ribeenadeamon) has already voiced an interest, so anyone else interested in theory
let me know
al

jack nicholson (sp) eat your heart out.

some time ago a man called adam west did his very best to destroy the comic book, his weapon a high camp tv series that emasculated and belittled one of the darkest and more complex characters. batman was a trashy, shallow character who spent more time with a teen boy than could be considered healthy, gotham a sunny place of pastels and laughable villains, who capered through there capers. this portrayal reflected not only on the batman comic but on comics as a whole colouring and clouding the way they where viewed, taking them away from the edgy, and dangerous things they where considered in the 50s , sanitizing them and making them appear...well...for want of a better word ......flacid.

there have been some mass media rays of light ,the original batman film for example, however you can watch the influence of wests tv show poison the series as the sequels come, each one becoming camper and camper untill you have arnie spouting shit like "ice to meet you" in a neon lit abortion of a film. as a comic fan it made me weep.

then came batman begins and hope. dirty, aggressive, troubled and part way to what a batman man movie should be.

and now dark knight.
good plot well shot, silly in places but somehow anchored in the real, gotham seems real, gordon real, police real, terrified bystanders real, and ledger alarmingly real. it feels grubby, and familiar.
sure dent is a bit of a let down but i dont think that is due to a bad performance he is just outshone by so many really good ones.

i really enjoyed it, at one point it made me jump, at one point it had me fooled, and it made me remember why i read comic books.
i was prepared to be dissapointed, prepared to see another hero destroyed by hollywood, prepared to be let down by the hype surrounding ledgers death. what i was not prepared for was just how brilliant his performance was, just how close to the way it should be the film is.
something i am used to saying is, i expext it would be ok if you knew nothing about the comic books, you only have to look at constantine, or wanted to see what i mean. where dark knight changes some things, adapts creation myths and so on it does it in such a way that doesnt jar, and in one care adds a certain amount of depth that i have always felt lacking for that particular character.

i would have put this behind a cut but i dont know how, and besides read this be worried that i am still up past 1 writing about it and then get yourself to the cinema and watch it.

and remember
"you either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

so im still ill, back to the doctors today, test results and more tests,




and its my birthday, woohoo.