Well, just done the Dragons' campaign event - Games of Fire and Shadow.

Let's do the standard breakdown.
Hot:
Team Gravity.
"PUB?"
Generally safe fighting.
Brilliant set pieces.
Good make-up.
"Anything you can do, I can do better..."
Getting to see people again.
Most monsters reactions to hits.
Banquetting Club food!
Breaking Cosaint's curse.
Breaking Frankie - both whilst armed and whilst miming...
My camp bed meaning I'm about five inches off the floor - see the Not section for details...
Mr. Lardner's bottle of Jameson's.
Panelling a charging monster into the floor without getting off of my perch on the corner of the stone 'bench'
"How do you put handcuffs on a Watermelon?"
Watching Bren explain why he keeps a school uniform at work.

Not:
The weather*.
Waking up in a tent with about two inches of standing water.
Monsters who don't understand what strikedown actually does, despite having it explained to them several times.
A two hour journey up there taking six hours
Skipping my tent at the end of the event.

All in all, a good event. There was a bit of excess faffing, due to it being sandbox rather than linear, but it went well, and with the exception of the last hour or so or time in each night, there was plenty to keep the vast majority of players interested.
I had fun playing with the Beasties, especially helping them to hunt... in their own province... But that generated roleplay, and some connections, so it's all good. There was also some fun swapping weapons- Kyle and the Warmaster's belt and my Silver sword does tend to put a crimp on a monster's day, and Kyle's polearm gave my Strikedown a bit of extra reach.
Also, being able to borrow Barron's Crush Naginata to give Team Gravity a bit more punch whilst he fixed his armour was very big and clever. :)

Thanks again guys.



*at certain points.

Well, I'm back from the Lions' event.

I'm knackered.

And to get the bandwagon rolling:

Hot:
The players.
The plot.
The food - The Banqueting Club were awesome as ever.
The monsters - They were great.
Doing my claw comp.
The looks of panic on people's faces when I didn't just disappear on hitting the floor.
Fighting the guys in burgundy and green and their wild-elf mate. :)
Spending some nice relaxing time in the monster room between encounters.
XIV constructs - Especially me and Dickie as 'Team Construct' on Saturday afternoon. :)
Stone Goleming on Sunday Morning. Again... And again... And again... :)
The look on people's faces when I interspersed the Stone Goleming with being a Scarecrow Golem, and being a one-hit kill.
Who's the Mummy?
Seeing Eleanor Williams. :)
82?!

Not:
The temperature - it was a mite chilly. :S
Tripping and falling face first whilst running between encounters.
Bouncing off two trees on Friday night - my own fault.

Weird:
The conversations between zoe_far_away and elmlea about pornography.
Ads being 12. :)
zoe_far_away's Agressive Pacifism.

Apparently Primeval season three will be taking over the Saturday evening slot on ITV1 on 14th February, from Demons.
...
...
Hey, I quite like Primeval.
I also liked the first episode of Demons, and plan to watch the next episode tonight. :)

Put your music player on random.
Post the first line from the first 20 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
Let everyone guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Mark the songs when someone guesses correctly.

Answers will be screened, to allow people to have their guesses without having to wade through everyone else's answers.

1) A more humane Mikado never did in Japan exist... - Singer, composer, lyricist and album identified brilliantly by zoe_far_away
2) If ever words were spoken, painful and untrue... - Correctly identified by svartmetall
3) It ain't no joke, I'd like to buy the world a toke... - Correctly identified by musoholic and carnaaki
4) ... (Yes, it's an instrumental. Five points for the somewhat monochromatic artists, and five more for the track.)
5) *Angry scream* GO! So fucking determined! (Second line added to stop the guesses of it being Slipknot).
6) Shout! Shout! Let it all out! - svartmetall was close, citing the original, as did vixmonsta, but psysquid was correct with the version on VLC player.
7) True Thomas sat on Huntley Bank... - glittermouse got this one.
8) Got some time to kill... (Double points for both artist and title on this one.)
9) What's up with what's going down? - Correctly identified by svartmetall
10) Something takes a part of me... (Double points for the artists on this version.) - Song identified by musoholic and carnaaki
11) Well I'm frantic 'cause I still can't find the answer... (Double points again.)
12) Are you ready? - Correctly identified by musoholic
13) Ooooooooooh-oh-ooooh...
14) All that is, was and will be...
15) Emotionless I slip in to the black... - Correctly identified by musoholic
16) So many miles, so many years...
17) I know the feeling...
18) Say your prayers, little one... (Five points for the artist on this version.) - Song identified by musoholic
19) Keep me around, waiting behind glass...
20) The sun shines and people forget... - Correctly identified by carnaaki

I'm going to give you one more to make up for the instrumental.
21) United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru... - Correctly identified by musoholic

Well, I'm in my parents' back garden, with the sun shining, a nice cool breeze, the smell of barbecuing meat, and the sound of Wimbledon on television.

I'm going for another glass of Pimms. :)

No release date yet.

Okay - Lots of people have been posting a meme about how many books they've read from a list that claims to be the BBC Big Read list.

Others have pointed out the interesting flaws in the list, like how, for example The Complete Works of Shakespeare and The Chronicles of Narnia appear on the list, only to be followed later by Hamlet and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

However, if you actually go to the BBC Big Read Webpage, you can get the correct list.

On to the rules:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE, add an strikeout the books you read but didn't like.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read only 6 or less and make them read.

( And now for my answers... )

Well, I quite enjoyed the last two episodes.

Now, let's see if Steven Moffat can keep that tone going for season 31 when he takes over as Executive Producer.

Hopefully he will, and we will end up with more actually scary aliens (Come on, the concept of the Vashta Nerada is quite disconcerting, isn't it?).

And less aliens made of fat.

We had a small party for our housewarming.

It was nice and relaxed, with plenty of stuff to drink, eat and talk about, with friends from work and our social lives coming to see our new place.

Mark, bloke_incognito and zoe_far_away came and stayed overnight, with my parents doing similar at a nearby Travelodge, and there was a nice cooked breakfast (yeah, okay, bacon and eggs) for those who actually crashed here.

We introduced Nicki from work, her daughter Millie, and Becky's son Spencer to Chorlton and the Wheelies, and Spencer and Sally's other half Dan to our LRP weaponry.
There were two dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts, which went rather quickly, a Thornton's celebration cake, Pizza, Pringles, lager, cider, more Pringles, dips, Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs, Sharon sitting quite happily and nodding politely while Live Roleplayers frothed, and tried to convince her to come to events, Pip and carnaaki bringing the strange pyramid of random toys and sugar, more frothing, mead, and hopefully everyone had as nice a time as we did hosting it.

Oh, and we passed on the info that glittermouse has a job interview tomorrow, and so positive thoughts will be winging your way at the appropriate time...

Oh, and it snowed a few times. We awoke to see the garden covered (well, half-covered, as the sun had melted some of it) in snow. :)

I've also managed to put the surround speakers on the wall (finally!) and tidied up the speaker cables, and we have a nice big living room, suitable for doing RPG sessions in, or later in the summer, a nice big room and garden for barbeques... Watch this space. :)