Geeks on Parade...

I went out with a couple of my gaming pals to the UKGames Expo (supposedly UK’s answer to GENCON). We met at Kevin’s and our first stop was at the supermarket to stock up on junk food and fizzy drinks before driving off to Birmingham.

The Friday before the event was a general get together at the main hotel, informal gaming and a few organised RPG’s.

The weekend proper was held at a nearby convention centre and consisted of several large halls full of trade stalls adjacent to demonstration areas where you could play the games. Also there were smaller rooms where organised games were played and a big area set aside for a table top miniatures war game competition.

There was a wide variety of games from those aimed at children in the family area, board games, card games, other table top games and role play games. There even was a live action game of Living Munchkin where ‘adventurers’ went down into the ‘dungeon’ and kicked down a few doors, battled monsters and took their treasure (it is based on the satirical card game Munchkin and its many variations).

Also at the show were several costumed groups, the Viking re-enactors were showing their fighting skills outside sending sparks flying as their blades clashed to the delight of children and adults alike, there were the Star Wars characters guarding the doors and patrolling the venue, Dr Who was near his Tardis with a shapely female companion as two friendly Darleks wandered around (one bumped into the other as they moved around and apologised in their distinctive voices “sorry darling”, “that’s alright darling” came the response). Other monsters from the later series were present as were a couple of inanimate droids from Star Wars. Also visible were Judge Dread and a couple of Super-Heroes (or Super-Villains – I wasn’t sure which).

I played a Triple Ace – Daring Tales of Adventure game using the Savage Worlds rule set, play tested a new game being developed and had fun zombie killing in a table top game called Last Living Souls. I bought a couple of items, a set of Steampunk Dice and a fun little two person game called Hive.

One small stall caught my eye (and I suspect quite a few other male attendees) it was the first appearance for a new company called AxFaction who make 32mm miniatures for collectors or gamers. This new venture only has two models available at the moment, but they are exquisitely crafted and shapely female characters of fantastic design.

Considering it was the hottest weekend this year, it was the most fun you could have with a group of predominately pale male, physically different (tall & skinny, short & fat, bald or longhaired) sweaty people hyped up on sugar based confectionary as a person can have.

Jamie’s Birthday Treat…

Jamie’s Grandmother, Aunt, Mother and I went up to see him for his birthday recently as we had suggested if we came over we could take him out and spend money on him. He graciously agreed to our visit, though he was a little under the weather from the previous night’s celebrations (just a quiet one with a few friends you understand). We brought a homemade chocolate hedgehog cake, that in retrospect perhaps shouldn’t have been made after we returned from the curry house and a few drinks before.

Jamie and I played on our Apple gadgets together as Sue cleaned the flat.

Lunch was at a well known chain of family restaurants where we were sat next to a table of children having a birthday party. Jamie struggled with his meal and the noise of the excited kids behind him. We had a good time.

Afterwards we went out to a local shopping centre and bought him some clothes, some vitamins (to help counter the effects of the alcohol), and then bought him more booze and food for his party that he was hosting that night.

Jamie’s Aunt Deb went out with him and she bought him a hookah (the shisha pipe, not prostitute) and I had fun assembling that later in the flat. I think Sue was a little jealous that she could not stay for the party, but we left and heard later that it was all a big hit.

Cheese, Wine, Football and Dogs…

We went over to a friend’s place for a cheese and wine party. Most of the cheese made it from table to mouth but some of the wine ended up on the carpet (white wine and salt used to counter the red stain). There was a big football match on the TV that some of the guys were interested in but I was happy sitting with the girls and trying not to trip over Lynda’s dogs.

Olympic Flame…

The Olympic Flame has arrived in the UK and is touring the country before the opening ceremony. It has its own entourage of security with the police wearing strange looking ‘sporty’ uniforms and bustling out anyone who strays into the security envelope. So different from when it last came through the country in 1948 - I heard a tale of how when it came through our village then a local woman stepped up to the torch carrier and lit her cigarette on the flame.

The spy who made me laugh…

Archer

This is the animated adult TV series about a man-child super spy Sterling Archer who works for his mother at the ISIS (International Secret Intelligence Service). Somewhere between James Bond, and Maxwell Smart (Get Smart for you youngsters out there), Sterling Archer is a complex man with serious issues who likes to self medicate on whiskey and resolve his problems at the point of a gun or in the bedroom. He is a self centred and emotionally immature yet highly skilled and feared secret agent. Set deliberately ambiguously in a timeline that mixes 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s visual references it harks back to a period where the spy genre was most popular while ensuring that there are enough contemporary tweaks and sensibilities to add to the unique feel of the show.

More of wot I have read…

Gridlinked by Neal Asher

I have got the feeling that I have read this before, it all seems quite familiar. It is a somewhat formulaic story with a few interesting and original ideas in it. The action is well paced that keeps the narrative ticking over. There are the occasional background details that show that the author has spent a lot of time developing his wider world setting to give more depth to this and future stories in the same environment. Might be interesting enough to want to see how the character develops in the later stories.

‘Not only humans who know the meaning of hate.

A technician comes through the runcible on Samarkand at a fraction below light speed. His arrival has killed thousands and wrecked a terraforming project. The immortal Horace Blegg sends agent Cormac to investigate, but Cormac must resolve things without the support of the AI grid, for his thirty years of being gridlinked has left him without humanity. He does have Shuriken, a throwing star with a mind of its own, the ambivalent dracomen, and Golem combat androids at his side. But Pelter, with his mercenaries and something out of nightmare, is on his trail.

Samarkand has descended into frigid cold and sabotage is uncovered. The prime suspect is unfortunately an alien called ‘Dragon’, which had apparently destroyed itself twenty-seven years before the event. An alien artifact is uncovered and its monstrous guardian is a killer. How did both of these get where they were? Why was the runcible destroyed? Cormac must resolve all questions and decide who is lying. He must do this while hunted by Pelter and avoiding the ungentle attentions of the killing machine, Mr. Crane. And in the end someone must be punished.’

More of wot I have read…

The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures by Louis Theroux

I remember seeing some of the TV series a few years back and found them interesting if not a little disturbing (though I am sure that was what was expected due to the interviewing style of Louis). This book revisits some of the stories and catches up with them a few years later to see what has happened to them. It is a good read and shows a reasonable journalistic balance without sensationalising events or people much at all, though this in turn does mean the book somewhat lacks the tension or drama that makes you want to read on avidly.

‘For over ten years Louis Theroux has been making programmes about offbeat characters on the fringes of US society. Now he returns to America and attempts to track down some of the people who have most fascinated him over the years, trying to discover what motivates them, why they believe the things they believe, and what has happened to the assorted dreamers, outlaws, and eccentrics since he last saw them.

On a journey that takes him to the porn sets of Los Angeles, among the UFO contactees of Arizona, and up to far Northern Idaho for a festival get-together of leading neo-Nazis, he asks what ‘weird people’ have to tell us about our own secret natures. Has he learned anything about himself by being among them? Do we choose our beliefs or do our beliefs choose us?

Louis Theroux’s first book is a hilarious, thought-provoking and at times surreal voyage into the heart of weirdness.’