My First "A"

Hooray! I just got the results from the final I took this morning. It was a 200 question multiple choice test for my Political Science class.

I had the 4th highest grade in the class (about 55 students). I'm a freakin' genius I tell ya! One down, one to go.

Sexy and Smart, imagine that!

Now I can mow my grass... how anti-climatic. Shouldn't there be a marching band or something?

Chez Toast or Toast Haus

I've got finals this saturday and next week... BOOOO
Then I get 2 weeks off... YAAAAAY
Then maybe I can ride my new motorcycle... YAAAAAY

Up for sale - *sniff sniff*

Well, I haven't done it yet but I think I am going to. About 6 months ago, I started to seriously consider selling another large chunk of my Star Wars collection. I stopped buying toys (for the most part) about 5 years ago, but continued to collect "higher end" stuff, like some of the Gentle Giant busts, Riddell helmets, Applause Statues etc. So, much of that stuff is what I want to sell, leaving only my Vader stuff (save for a few odds and ends - and a ton of opened toys that aren't really worth the trouble of selling - besides, they look good on my Christmas Tree every year).

I've gotten to the point where I really don't have a desire to buy anything else which kind of tells me that I've satisfied my collector "itch" to a large extent. While I've said for years that I'd never sell my collection, I don't really see this as a liquidation, so much as a culling of the herd. I'll still have my "pride and joys" like my Gary Kurtz lucite stars, my lifesize Han in Carbonite, Compulsion Gallery/Attakus/Gentle Giant Vader stuff. But when I tallied up the stuff I'm planning on selling, it came to a nice total of over $1000 - which is double what I paid for them (finally, Star Wars collectibles that increased in value!). I could sure use that money towards other pursuits about now (tuition, travel etc...).

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has reduced their collection in one way or another over the years. I'm sure I'll experience some seller's remorse afterward but do I really NEED all this stuff? The stuff that means the most to me is the stuff I am keeping, so am I doing wrong by myself?

Don't know why I am posting this. Just needed to vent I guess.

That's love right there!

While I am finishing (I was close to finishing when I posted earlier - wishful thinking) my paper, my girlfriend is out mowing my grass... I feel like a loser :(

School daze

I just finished my first paper for my history class. I've not written a paper since 1989... it going to take some getting used to.

It's a book review (not a report) of Jonathan Alter's "The Defining Moment" - about Franklin Delano Roosevelt's First 100 Days. It was a good read to be honest. Lots I didn't know about him. He cheated on Eleanor. Eleanor might have been a lesbian. All sorts of good stuff.

Anyway, school continues. I am done with the semester for the most part. I just have finals left in a few weeks. I should have a solid A going in to my history final. And almost the same for my poli-sci final. Wish me luck!

I'm a proud Papa!

Not of a kid or anything... but of this little sweetie! Her name is Charlotte. I got her in Charlotte. She's a 1997 Kawasaki Concours.

I guess I should back up some. About 3 months ago, 4 of us at the office were talking about how cool it would be to take a cross country trip on a motorcycle. We were inspired by Ewan McGregor's Long Way Around documentary.

We talked about it, waffled back and forth on the idea, and much to all of our suprise, we all bought bikes last week. It just kind of happened really. We had no hard plans to buy bikes that week. We went to look at one nearby and within 24 hours, 3 of them had bikes. I didn't get mine until about 72 hours later. The strange thing is that my dad called me out of the blue and told me he was going to Charlotte to pick up a motorcycle that saturday. I had just gotten off the phone with a guy in Charlotte about one I was interested in (as my 3 co-workers had just scarfed up all the used Concours in the Atlanta area). I didn't even know dad was in the market, let alone looking in Charlotte. Well, he and I ended up going to Charlotte and picking up our bikes together (with a good buddy of mine named Mark - the same one who went to Origins with me - to whom I will forever be in debt).

No. I don't have a license. No. I don't even have a learners permit yet. But, I DO have a cool yellow helmet and a matching jacket :)

We are all planning to take a basic motorcycle riders course next month and after that, we'll have our licenses. Should be a good time. When's the trip cross country trip you ask? After the class... sometime after the class....

Origins, snot and tests

Okay, I have lots of snot in my nose at the moment. Not really enjoying it much. And not how I wanted to spend my week off. Boooo.

Went to the Origins International Game Expo in Columbus Ohio last week. It was very cool. I've never seen so many gamers in one place before. That can be a good thing or bad thing depending on how you look at it.

There were plenty of people there who were promoting the gamer stereotype (shorts hiked up past your bellybutton, sneakers with black socks and no shampoo for a week) but I found them to be in the minority. Most of the people looked like regular people. You probably saw less football team jerseys than your normal cross section of people but all in all they were pretty normal. Problem is, the ones who sport the sterotype (some even seem to relish in it) are the loudest ones for sure. So, it's no wonder why gamers have such a strong stigma attached to them.

I play an RPG called Savage Worlds. One strange thing I noticed about that was there seemed to be fewer "gamers" playing that game. I think the reason for it is that hardcore smelly gamers aren't attracted to the system. They are attracted to other systems that are much more complicated. Savage Worlds players tend to be older, with jobs, familys and lives... we play Savage Worlds becuase we don't have time to mess with all the crap that comes along with more complicated systems. Just an observation...

I met and gamed with a guy named Andy Hopp who came up with a game called Lowlife for Savage Worlds. Gaming with him was the highlight of the convention for me. The words "leaving a trail of hickeys and torn underwear" actually came out of his mouth. I played an Elvis impersonating post-apocolyptic twinkie and had an absolute blast. Andy is putting on a much smaller convention in Kent Ohio this November so I am very much looking forward to gaming with him again.

Mark and Amy (the fellow geeks that went with me) and I all played in a Settlers of Catan (a popular boardgame) World Championship Qualifier Tournament as kind of a joke. Especially Amy who had only played the game 3 times prior to the convetion. The winner got a free trip to Germany for the World Championship in October. Amy actually made it to the semifinals by being ranked 10th place out of 80 or more players! She had a winning strategy for the semifinal match but the dice didn't go her way. I hope she was as thrilled to make it that far as we were to watch her do it!

I also got to demo a few games I'd never played before which was cool. There was also a great Irish Pub near the convention center that had awesome corned beed hash and fish and chips. We ate there twice!

I was talking with a guy from Mayfair (the company that makes Settlers of Catan) booth about the gaming show that happens in Essen Germany every year. Germany is responsible for the influx of new boardgames into our country over the last 10 years or so. Germans are BIG into board games. Not Monopoly type stuff but much more social/strategy oriented games. Anyway, we got to talking about how there really isn't any such thing as "gamer culture" in Germany. The whole country plays games so there's no "smelly gamer" stigma attached to the hobby. I found that interesting.

Oh yeah, I got my test back for my History class and I got a 94. Hooray beer!