En dan blijf ik Adam's Apples toch een dope film vinden. Het enige nare is dat er op een gegeven moment door de excuusmoslim 20000 vogels uit de boom geschoten worden met z'n shotgun (en dat de kat ook ineens kaputt is :( ).
Nu ja, de film blijft doop.
11 juli optreden met theNIM op een verjaardagsfeestje en 22 augustus op nóg een verjaardagsfeestje. We worden een gelegenheidsbendje voor achtergrondmuzak??
Om dat te voorkomen moet de road gehit worden. Dus oontz naar Berlijn. Waarom? Omdat ik vind dat ik daar best eens geweest moet zijn. Omdat lieve meisje meegaat. Omdat ze daar veel platenzaken hebben. Om cd's van theNIM uit te delen in obscure kroegjes.
Kaartjes zijn gekocht, het hotel geboekt, nu nog even knaken verdienen zodat er ook daadwerkelijk platen gekocht kunnen worden en dan is t eindelijk vakantie.
Gisteren naar de kroeg geweest en om klokslag 12 een zigarette gelicht. Dat was een historisch moment en daar moest op gedronken worden (wel in de kroeg dus). In de kroeg waar een vriendin van me werkt mocht er vanaf klokslag 12 niet meer gerookt worden. Onder het mom van 'dat ruiken ze'... Jahoor! want die sigaret van 1 voor 12 ruiken ze niet. En die van de afgelopen 15 jaar ook niet. Laat die café's toch lekker zelf uitmaken of ze een rookverbod willen. Kijk, ik vind het best als je niet wil roken, maar kom op zeg. Een café is een ruimte ter gelegenheid en bevordering van ontspanning. De onbezonnenheid van het nuttigen van een eventuele alcoholische versnapering en het opsteken van een sigaretje.
FOUT! CRIMINEEL! SLECHT! DEPORTEREN DIE HAP! Ome overheid weet wat goed is voor ons, dús heb ik niet uit te maken of ik mezelf wil vergiftigen met een sigaret, want dan gaat diegene die naast me zit DOOD!!!! ...echt waar...
Van het weekend eens bewonderen waar Dieuw en Mark al hun spullen neergeflitst hebben in hun nieuwe huis. Dat zag er best cool uit enzo. Ik krijg spontaan zin ook te verhuizen.
Morgen koekjes bakken.

mood: in de duinen music: Mark Lanegan Band

Ladies and gentlemen,

I've been receiving a lot of questions and request via forum-pm, email about Black Box, mainly about characters and characters building questions. Just to save me a whole lot of questions: send them to the central email of blackbox @ evolution-events.nl, and read the briefing that is on the forum and/or in your email. I have arranged the location and I am helping with various logistical aspects, but game-technical aspects are handled by other EE'ers.
The same thing goes for Lex and Exodus, too, in a lesser form: lextalionis / exodussl @ evolution-events.nl for all your questions so that they arrive with the right people. I am lucky to have seven other wonderful people that I share the joys and sorrows of the thing called larp-organizing with, and between all of us we are generally fairly quick to respond to any queries by whatever medium they arrive, even if it is CPIP.

I know I am handy cause I am on MSN / IRC / Email / fora a lot, but I get stressed out, and my fellow orga feel left out. Thank you.

PS: don't feel bad, it is not meant to anyone specifically. I just had a really bad day at work, and that combined with my mail / msn / fora pm's overflowing made me feel somewhat overwhelmed.

Nou er zit eindelijk wat vaart in de werk/baan acties. Ik heb morgen een gesprek met een bedrijf in Delft genaamd Hint Tech, en dan de security afdeling. Deze lui doen IT beveiliging op een niveau van beveiligingsplan schrijven, dat bij klanten doorvoeren, etc. Weet niet of het wat is, was wel een aardige man aan de telefoon, maar Delft als uitvalsbasis voor het bedrijf... ze moeten me wat garanties geven dat ik rondom Utrecht gedetacheerd kan worden.

Ten tweede heb ik Madison Gurkha aangeschreven. Een technisch IT beveiligings bedrijf wat o.a. penetratie testen doet, scans, etc. Dus meer technisch. Hier heb ik nog geen reactie van terug, maar ook daar ga ik achteraan.

Dat zijn alvast twee goede opties lijkt mij zo. Valori heeft op het moment ook niet echt een probleem ermee dat ik rondkijk, sterker nog blijkbaar zijn ze door wet verplicht mij te compenseren als ik ga solliciteren. Wat dat precies inhoudt, I dunno.

Verder erg druk. Huis, werk, allerlei zaken. Daardoor laatste tijd best moe enzo. Symbols 8 schrijven is begonnen, maar kan er neit echt veel tijd aan besteden, meestal te moe. Zal wel overgaan zodra het huis een beetje rond is.

Het weekend laminaat leggen in de woonkamer en zaterdag avond Black Box met Elf. Ik ben benieuwd, smoking ligt klaar.

PS: Waar was Dr. Who zaterdag!? Ik kan nergens een torrent vinden en dat met een enorme cliffhanger, ik heb mijn shot Dr. Who nodig verdorie!

==========
Current RPG book: Mage: The Awakening Corebook
Current novel: @Work: Assassin's Apprentice // @Home: Speed of Darkness (The Starcraft Archive)

location: @ Work mood: contemplative

Once in a while it takes a busy weekend in order to appriciate all that you have. Not that it is bad, mind you...

Friday I went to Movie World. It's story is much the same as Six Flags: bought and re-specced several times, and now under the flag of Star Parks. Most people know it as Warner Brother's Movie World, but after the take-over all rides needed to be re-specced to exclude all the old licences. Hmmmz. We linked up with JW and selmaika @ Capelsebrug and drove in JW's car to Germany, a short hop. We had tea, coffee (thanks, guys!) and plenty of munchables and the ride to there was pretty uneventful; I took over driving for the latter half due to JW's back and we arrived well in time. Did a bunch of rides, enjoyed the relative quiet and shopped a bit. Rollercoastered some, too, but one kinda shook up Judith (it was VERY bumpy) and we took it easy after that, including my favorite bit: in the museum area there is a greenscreen with Stargate, and we took this picture.



"Mr. Koudijs, dial the gate!"


Mwahaha. Ahem.

Had a bit of grub, did a few more rides and around 4 we vagually went in the direction of the exit and made our way home, with me driving. Ran into a bunch of traffic jams and a not-quite-fender-bender near Arnhem (no damage to either car, but a minor bump) before eating full dinner near Veenendaal and blazing through the last bit of the trip before we arrived at our respective houses, quite tired. Still, navigating in a real car with a mini-map does make the experience feel somewhat less... real... Yes, I had my first TomTom experience.

Saturday saw the Yoshida Picknick, and I picked up fyrane, nokey and janestarz on my rounds to get there, with a visit past JW to pick up my Daisho (as JW borrows them on Symbols for his character). We were in Uden on time and went in-character about an hour after, after a group meet discussing the last few DF details. Picked up Hans from the station and walked in-character almost immediatly, to report victory to the Daimyo in regard to our battles on Shodo, eat some grub and generally catch up. Had a lot of fun family time, a few good skirmishes with Lenny and Mike, and a very good afternoon despite the really weird weather (rain, sun, high wind and ending with a blue sunlit sky...) and the ninja-musquitos that seem to have taking a liking to the Inca Terrein and surrounding areas.
Annet made a few gorgeous pictures, some of which I will post if people on the Yoshida forum are okay with it, and I took her up on her offer to drive back. Hans drove with us, too, and with 5 peeps we casually went home. Driving was no troubs for Annet, and after stopping for foodies on the way we had a blast; and it was very nice to be driven for a bit, as I was quite tired. Dropped Hans off on the station as he needed to go to Utrecht, and dropped the rest off home. Spent the last bit of the evening showering and practically falling asleep on the couch. Slept almost 11 hours.

Sunday I joined Lies going to Jolanda's b'day in Zaandam, a small affair with Kelly, Martijn, Lies, Ork, Jo and myself and that was a lot of fun, too. Ork's house is really nice and we, being nerd, exchanged a few gigs of data (mainly books) so he has something to do while he is in Canada *grin*. We played some Machiavelli, ate some of Jo's great stew and talked a great deal. It was really late really fast, and it was well past 12 before my head hit the pillow. Good days, good friends... and now it is time to spend a good long night behind my computer. The only thing that really went awry this week was that I likely blew out my computer's powersupply... managed to replace it quite fast, luckily, and everything is working fine now.

The week is fairly relaxed, with just one Lex meet planned and no further really big plans before the next weekend hits. I intend to use that time alternatively chilling and working on a few projects I still have lying around. Looking forward to it.

location: Krimpen aan den IJssel, the Netherlands mood: calm music: Stargate Atlantis - Main Theme tags: life

I must say that I have had a lovely week.

Had 2 great sessions with the Tuesday-night party: they are playing Abbarants, superheroes who are well on their way to becoming something far more and far less the human, and care about human life less and less. Mucho fun. Being a White Wolf system the whole good and bad does not come into the equation, and my lovely heroes and heroines are pretty much on the ruthless spectrum.

Had a nice dinner with saakie, who has been very busy this past year. Was happy to see that she was doing well, but is still busy. Hang in there, girl! Thanks for dinner and listening!

Went to JW and had a good talk and dinner with him and Lies. He needed to hold near bed-rest for a week for his back, and he was bored out of his skull offc. Fixed a few things on his comp and caught up. Found it quite the chill evening.

Had a good meeting with the EE'ers, and Black Box is coming along nicely, with both Exodus and Lex 'specials' drawing nearer.

Public Transportation did a wonderful "welcome back, Mr. Sna", and promptly managed to get me a delay of an hour and a half. Doh. Ah well.

My father had a bit of a scare two weeks ago that his skin was starting to show signs of cancer, and he was right. Still, it is benign and will be taken away soon, so he is off to Rome on my recommendation and having fun with his partner.

Seen "The Hulk". WELL worth it, my favorite of this year, currently, followed closely by Ironman. Wow, finally a few good Superhero movies. Okay, okay, I am also an Edward Norton fanboy.

Also, my good days are now good, my perfect days are now perfect and my bad days are mjeh. I can take more stuff, though I still feel very 'vulnerable' to to comments. Things are consistently looking up.

Thieme had asked me to NPC for him on Saturdaynight for his Rotterdam by Night Chronicle, and I asked Jules and Mone to join me, them being very near. Pickup up John, picked up them and drove to an anti-kraak office in Schiedam, where we had the run of the very big basement, full of nooks and crannies. Ran into Jenny, too; she has started playing there since she moved to Amsterdam halfway this month. Was good to see her again, and to catch up with several peeps that I had not seen in a while. Fun fun, and a nice mindless Nerf Fight. Modded my own Nerf Gun, and spent the day after cleaning and checking all the EE Nerfguns, since we do need to use them too in the not to near future.

I installed Age of Conan on Saturday, together with my girl, but it wasn't until Sunday that I got my first real good playing session in, and I was happily surprised by the game. The early beginnings in Tortage are a lot of fun, and I rushed through all the night missions, ending Monday with the "End Battle". Torix, Priest of Mithra on the Hyrkania server (RP PvE), is currently level 29 and in Poitain, working on his gathering quests. I intend to join Gijs' Guild V.o.C. (yes, named after...) and I hope we can make the requisite 24 players to build our own Guild City. I went through Old Tarantia and the Wild Lands quite fast, and I really like the levelling curve as it stands now; I managed to complete quests fairly effortlessly and without repeating the same section twice, also due to my method of getting all region quests first and then deciding on a course of action. My methodical style both fits the character and the style of the game, and that is working for me. The ability to add your own markers and waypoints to the maps works wonderfully to both note major NPC's and resource nodes, and the built-in quest help works like a charm.
Gear upgrades are still a bit sketchy, though, and I don't feel much like a Priest with the constant smiting (despite the fact that he is the most powerful type of healer in the game), but I guess that is just part of the more vicious, gritty world that Age of Conan portrays. On that note, I like the maturity level and the ability to respond in-character to even NPC's; I've also had a few bouts of good roleplay and have been invited to several groups while playing with all due courtesy, and found that in general the player population of Conan is more adult and less 'give food plx' then the WoW crowd - PUGs are very doable. All in all, I am having fun and well on my way for collecting the resources to become an Architect for a Guild City to be. I hope we can name it, though I have the feeling that Julian might just stop me from naming it lest he end up with another "Von Meinkopf's Macro Mainspring of Multitudinous Precipitation of Pernicious Lead" debacle... Lies is on there too, and she is in the final stages of Tortage with her Aquilonian Dark Knight Camilla. Simone, Julian, Dennis, Harma and Ellen are all in the server, too, and I think we can make a nice crowd; if you consider hanging around or joining, think of the Hyrkania server. Be prepared for a great experience, and be prepared for a seriously demanding game for your hardware - 27 gigs of HD space, and my dual Nvidia 7900 - 3 gigs of ram - 2.2 Ghz Dual Core Hecate is only just hacking it. Heh.

Looking forward to seeing the Yoshida again at the picknick on Saturday and Ro's coming to dinner today, to see our house. Friday will see a small group of us going to Warner Brother's Movie World to have a day of fun there, mainly to give JW a good outing after his week of rest. Nae bad.

location: Krimpen aan den IJssel, the Netherlands mood: mellow music: The Gathering - Sand And Mercury tags: age of conan, life

Gister eindelijk met de plafonds en muren klaar. Met grote inspanning van Sebastiaan en Sanne (B!) en mams (en ik).

( Wat nieuwe sfeer plaatjes )

Volgende stap is dit weekend vloer vervangen waar nodig en plinten erop zetten. Als het even kan ook nog wat raamwerk, is best veel. :)

==========
Current RPG book: Mage: The Awakening Corebook
Current novel: @Work: Assassin's Apprentice // @Home: Sadow of the Xel'naga (The Starcraft Archive)

location: @ Work mood: accomplished

Over naar het 4e jaar. Met een 8 en 7,5 voor praktijk.

( zie foto's )

Sooo... Sonsbeek

The other Sonsbeekian tales, in order of appearance:
Ellen
Simone
Joost
Annet

( Prelude & Preparation )

( Time in & Pictures )

OC Review
All in all, it was a weird weekend. The park is absolutely gorgeous and the group got in gear quite fast. The other groups also put a lot of effort in their backgrounds and clothing, and it was extremely easy to tell people from groups apart by behaviour and dress. Especially the first day, barring all the logistics problems, we all got in-character and did quite well. The Fridaynight and Saturdaynight talks were a bit of a downer for me, as I had expected a lot from these games, but all in all I am very satisfied with how we as a group went in-character and stayed that way. We only started running into problems when there were no external calls or assignments, and the groups managed to avoid conflict alltogether. The Firandi did not fight a single duel, staying true to the core concept of trying to work things out diplomatically, and that was echoed in various other groups. Ironically, THAT was part of the problem: the orga did not count on groups settling their differences and sharing resources.
The 'plot' and 'confrontation' thing can be thrown on cultural differences, though Mone's point on 'research your audience' is partially valid as well. It is what I would likely do, but since I really do not have any inkling to how the preps went for Sonsbeek I will not judge; there are always circumstances beyond your control that take a lot of time. While my little nerd heart loved the lasers I just could not see the ingame use for them; I did not see their point beyond the obvious outgame fun with them, though if their had been more confrontations they might have been more useful. My main dissapointment is that of promises; basically several things (alcoholic beverages on the first night, cubicles, banners, a request for size in the intakeform) that were not delivered upon. A few things can be chalked up to culture shock, such as food (there is a difference between fully catered and fully catered, fair enough), but downright not coming with stuff was not really cool in my book. Mistakes happen, really, I know all about it. Shit happens, too, really, I know all about it. Got plenty of material for that Game Controller Support Group that I also intend to invite maglok to, amongst others ("I'll see your crashed car, and I'll raise you a burned location..." "Owwww!" "...twice"). My second one is that from an orga standpoint this was a cool chance, having a subsidized larp; this is a chance that more then one of us local orga have dreamed of. And it didn't work out, that first game. My fear is that this will dissuade others from trying, which is the antithesis of what I personally as a larper want: variety, and the freedom to do my own stuff. I may not be a great cook, painter or whatever, but this is the closest thing I can be to freeform uninhibited creation, and I hold larp, the live(s) it has gotten me and the friends that surround it very, very dearly. It stings.

Why I waited for posting this is for a call with Martijn, who was also present at the second game, and saw vast improvement. Calls were made, Forest Guardians had assignments, food was good both nights and stuff had been taken care of. My own paradigm is quite strict on learning from mistakes, and that happened. Regardless of my own feelings that first game, they worked on it and improved the second, and that may spark a few more larps coming from the theatrical side (it were students of the HKU that played that second game). So all in all my conclusions is simple: I'll see if I can have another go. I doubt I can convince the full Firandi to give it another try, mainly because we're all busy, have lives and do want our vacations, but I don't want to give this up just yet. Also promised Lies that we'd go at least once as muggles to view the gorgeous park ourselves... and I still want my ritual by/in/on/through the waterfall. My plans for now: Mone immediatly said that she wanted to give the Firandi another go, and I wholeheartedly agree; with Judith and spacegeest added we're up to eight, four males and four females, and we could make it an interesting concept on any low to mid-fantasy live. The search is on for a home for the Firandi, then, and we shall see.

location: Krimpen aan den IJssel, the Netherlands mood: contemplative music: [Firandi Theme CD] The Miracle (Enjoy the Silence - Lacuna Coil) tags: larp

Dus zaterdag en zondag geklust. Zaterdag met een Kim, Chris en Jojo. Zondag met een Sebastiaan en Marijke. Sebastiaan weet echt heel erg van wanten, zo erg dat we besloten hebben morgen weer te gaan. Hij heeft altijd vrij op woensdag en ik heb het genomen. Allemaal alvast erg bedankt voor het geklus!

We hebben de woonkamer en de kleine kamer nu af qua plafond en muur (er moet nog vloer en houtwerk gebeuren oh en plinten). Het idee is dat we morgen de slaapkamer en hal doen en dat het sauzen dan af is. Het is nog best veel werk.

Dan ga ik 28 en 29 (zat en zon) aan de gang met vloeren en plinten. Als iemand morgen nog mee wil klussen (overdag) geef maar een gil. Ik maak dan ook wel eens even wat foto's, het ziet er al een stuk frisser en blauwe uit.

==========
Current RPG book: Mage: The Awakening Corebook
Current novel: @Work: Assassin's Apprentice // @Home: Sadow of the Xel'naga (The Starcraft Archive)

location: @ Work mood: accomplished