Ian McKellan's Richard III

I finally got around to seeing Ian McKellan's Richard III - a movie shot in 1995 where Shakespeare's villain is shown in a 1930's England, where he plots to take the throne from his family. The period music and fascist costumes really bring home the timeless relevance of Shakespeare. It also gives me a thrill seeing people like McKellan, Hawthorne, Annette Benning, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jim Broadbent, etc. performing Shakespeare so magnificently. Perhaps now I should put in Brannagh's Henry V, and make it a Shakespeare day.

Thank you, Humphrey

One of the things I love to do at Norwescon is the infamous Friday Night Call of Cthulu game. When I took my first look at the character for the game, I was aghast: Roger, an Oxford PhD historian. How the hell do I roleplay an Oxford PhD? I sat gripped in panic for a good five minutes as the game got underway. Then, as we were introducing our characters, inspiration struck - Sir Humphrey Appleby.

Played by the gifted actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne, Sir Humphrey Appleby was a career civil servant in the series Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister who constantly foiled his boss - Jim Hacker, the latest elected buffoon whose bumbling attempts to set policy always threatened years, even generations of work by the civil service.

Humphrey never used one word when five would do; never used one syllable when 25 were available. While I don't do a very good British accent, I seized on this verbosity as the defining trait of my character. I then proceeded to give my best performance of any roleplaying game to date.

Thanks, 'Humpy'. I could not have done it without you. (And requisat in pace, Sir Nigel).

Norwescon 05 was a blast

Norwescon '05 (Seattle's major annual science fiction convention) was a lot of fun this year. I was able to to squeeze in panels, gaming, and serious partying all in the same con. I've had so much fun, in fact, I've lost my voice. (this is the part where people who know me say, "Wow, I hope it stays lost." No such luck, it'll be back tomorrow or the next day). My great friend Jackie has a good and a bad new picture of me up. Or at least, bad and not-so-bad. I am ashamed that I haven't updated this blog more - Jackie blogs more in a day than I do in a year. Of course, I'd rather read Jackie's blog than my own, so perhaps it's just better that way. I met some new people who are also writers, which is always fun. I basically have two professions - writing and programming. Writers talking shop is more interesting me right now than programmers talking shop. This is going to be a very busy year for me for conventions.