I've been pretty sick lately. Went to the doctor and was diagnosed with a respitory infection so I've been getting by on antibiotics and Nurofen Cold & Flu. I think I'm over the worst but I still feel crap without taking my drugs.

We had Suzy, Janto and Trish over for a bit on Saturday. It was a great night. We haven't had people over much since moving, and we're a bit more effort to get to now than when we were in Monkstown, so it's really good when people can make it out.

Haven't been writing due to feeling like I have a plague slug living in my head. Bad Paul.

I did re-arrange the sitting room and get some new light fittings put up, however. The sitting room feels totally different now. It's really relaxing and a much easier place to chill out and talk. The new light fitting helps give the room a much warmer glow than the other, ugly, broken one.

The gaming room now has a new set of twin hanging lights which makes it feel much more focused and intimate. They also give off a much stronger light.

My first batch of wine will be ready for bottling on Wednesday. I need to get the wine rack put together before then. I doubt this wil last us all the way through Christmas, though, so I may order us another set and get that started, ready to be bottled the week of Christmas or the week before.

www.dicehunters.ie/protean.pdf

In a sudden spur of inspiration, I have written a roleplaying game. Well, it's almost at the stage where it's playable. One more section of the mechanics to complete and it'll be ready.

The concept is very loosely based on what I know of the game Prototype, aiming for an interesting and fun amnesia mechanic, allowing players to create characters who have a variety of body-morphing powers, trying to find out who they are, what was done to them, and why.

More details to come.

It's not easy trying to figure out what characters should look like. Typically I would unashamedly prefer to give them appearances which somehow reflect their personalities, status, or role in the story, or are intentional subversions of this habit.

Of course, this can be tough when it comes to your protagonist. Let's face it. Everyone wants an element of "cool" in their hero. But the danger is in making him too bland or, worse, an obivious Author Avatar.

I have something of a foil for Nathan Shepherd showing up in his personal life. He's a construction worker, so he's well-built, tall, broad, with dark curly hair and thick hands. I'm thinking of opting for describing Nathan as the opposite. Slightly fair hair, fit but not muscular, thin features, maybe some facial hair? It's difficult to shake the fear I'm turning him into an idealised version of myself.

We're finally getting our deposit refund. I've been told the landlords were to make the deposit yesterday afternoon, so that should clear into my account either later today or next Thursday, depending on whether they made the lodgement by cheque, cash, or giro/debit. Yay.

We played L5R last night, and I learned that there's a lot more to being a good duellist than having good stats. Letting your opponent focus first is fine if they're not skilled, but if they are, it's an advantage you don't want to give up. I did end up with a total of 3.9 in Honour at the end of the Topaz Championship, however, which is something important to my character, so I'll happily settle for not getting to the finals in exchange for being a point away from Honour 4.

Tonight looks set to be a quiet night in. We're going to pick up some wine, have a nice dinner, and watch a movie or two.

Now we have a home wine-making kit. Hehe.

We need to order some 7-day juice packs because the pack that my parents got us to go with the kit will take 6 weeks to prepare and we want the first batch to be ready for Christmas. We'll be waiting until after payday, though. It's been a pricey month so we're a bit skint at the moment.

I took Jen to the National Concert Hall to see Vivaldi By Candlelight for her birthday. The concert was awesome and food beforehand was fantastic. Great night out.

People should see The Men Who Stare At Goats. It is awesome. Though it wasn't until we were going to the pub afterwards that I realised why it's funny to see a movie where Ewan McGregor learns about "Jedi Warriors." I suck.

This weekend's going to be relatively quiet. We're going to James' birthday on Saturday and bringing Pepper along. Friday we'll be staying in with a bottle or two of wine (Spanish dry white for €4 a bottle in Tesco!) and seeing if anyone wants to come out for a boardgame night.

The game is going well. Last night was our second session and we're starting to lay the groundwork for a party dynamic. Now if my Kakita-trained, Akodo-born ronin duellist could actually succeed in some sword-fighting checks for the Topaz Championship, it'd be great. :-)

But I write a mean haiku!

I've booked myself into a training workshop for level 1 Reiki in December.

It's something I've wanted to do for years, even before I knew Jen. My dad is certified to level 2 Reiki, and it was him who got me interested in it.

The workshop is on the 12th and 13th of December. I can't wait.

Ask a New Yorker is a website where you can post a questionon their forum and get an answer from native New Yorkers. I think a lot of my research issues might have been solved...

Autopsy reports are a matter of public record in Baltimore and Florida, but in New York, only next of kin can request them.

It's about time I did my frothing.

Gaelcon 2009 was awesome! The new venue alone is worth the admission in terms of convenience. 5 places to eat, including a late-night pizza place, and a small supermarket with off-licence, all in the one building. The only reason to leave the hotel was to go to the ATM across the road, and even then, everywhere in the hotel took Laser payments and gave cashback.

If Gaelcon's in the Ballsbridge Inn again next year, I'll be booking into the hotel for the whole weekend.

Tabletop games seemed to rule this year. There were huge lines to get tickets as they became available, and my Spirit of the Century game managed to draw 4 full tables. The game went down very well, as did Aonghus' Deadlands game which I GMed.

We stayed in the hotel on the Sunday. I'll just take this time to mention how great the hotel staff were. Everyone we dealt with was polite and helpful, which made the stay even better.

Didn't do much on the Sunday other than hang out a bit and chat with people. We watched the Dr. Horrible show, but to be honest found it very hard to follow what was happening. I think the next time a show like that is done, there really needs to be a budget set aside for proper AV equipment like radio mics and rifle mics, especially in a hall of that size. It looked like everyone had fun doing it. Costumes and props looked good, and though a few of the singers went off-key a little here and there, overall it looked like it was a decent show. Just wish I could've heard it.

I drank way too much on the Sunday and spent most of Monday trying to recover, so we picked up a copy of Settlers, which Jen has wanted for years, and played a couple of rounds of that.

Jen's been saying that this year was basically "Gaelcon: Reloaded," and that really sums up how we felt. The last few years Gaelcon hasn't felt like a lot of fun. This year totally changed that. Even when we weren't doing anything, the energy around the con was fantastic. There was so much choice for things to do, and such a variety of games on offer, particularly in rpgs.

Roll on next year!

I'll post more when I've had some sleep and had a chance to come down from the weekend.

Gaelcon was fucking awesome. The new venue was like a shot of adrenaline.

Going to go chill on the couch now. And then sleep.

Tonight I expect to be finishing up the first arc of my Conspiracy X campaign. It's been a lot of fun. More laid-back and just generally enjoyable than a lot of the Monday games have been for me recently. I much prefer games where the PCs share a common goal, whether that goal is set out in-game or decided upon by the players. Games that involve a lot of inter-party conflict but still require the PCs to work together just don't have the same draw for me.

Tonight we'll see if the group can rescue a group of abducted pregnant women and find out why they were taken in the first place. We haven't had any combat yet, and I think we might see our first bit of it tonight, so it should make for a dramatic finish.

There's simply no excuse for the lack of writing I've been doing. This weekend I've hopefully gotten the ball rolling on changing that, and gone back to my book. I have a lot of it roughly mapped out in my mind; it's just a case of stringing the pieces together, and getting past the dreaded "normal life" section before the actual plot begins.

Updates, rants, and desperate pleas for advice will be forthcoming.

I'm thinking about doing a second Christmas dinner this year, for friends rather than family.

I do a dinner every year, just usually for myself and Jen on St. Stephen's Day. Last year I cooked it on Christmas Day for myself, Jen and her mum.

I'm a firm believer in the saying that "friends are the family you choose for yourself," but it's always hard to see friends over the Christmas period because of family commitments. Since Christmas is meat to be about spending time with the people you love and showing how much you appreciate them, this is something I've long wanted to rectify.

So yeah, this year I'd like to have friends over for Christmas dinner, some time between the 25th and 31st. Just looking around to see who'd be interested at the moment.

I took yesterday off work because I'm sick. I should probably have taken today off as well. We'll see how this goes...

We got Pepper spayed on Monday. She's doing well. The stitching on her belly is very tidy and clean, and shouldn't leave much of a scar. She is still very low on energy, but Monday was a big day for her, and she's still probably very sore. This morning she was a little more active and trying to have her normal morning play before we dropped her to my parents' house for the day.

We're glad it's out of the way, though. I feel much more secure knowing that she's been fixed and we don't need to worry about my parents' husky going after her.

Why they haven't gotten him neutered is beyond me. Apparently their vet told them it would make him even more skittish, or something. Whereas our vet told us there should be no major behavioural changes at all.

Last night I ran the first session of my new Conspiracy X campaign. It went very well, I think. It's tough to determine the group dynamic just yet, but Janto's slightly crazy MK ULTRA scientist is awesome.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this first investigation goes. :-)

Jen and I went to see Dorian Gray with Brian on Friday. I was expecting a kind of jazzed-up adaptation cashing in on the vampire-romance craze, based on trailers and posters. It was actually an excellent movie and a great example of proper gothic, victorian horror. Definitely worth seeing and Ben Barnes gives a fantastic performance.

Yesterday we stocked up on some paint supplies and I got our wireless network set up before Dave and Michaela called out. We played Mwa-ha-ha-ha, which was fun.