Conclusions of Variety A Personal Blog on my happenings and thoughts

San FranciscoPosted by cczernia on October 20th, 2009

Over the past few days Stephanie and I went up to San Francisco to explore the city and hang out. We flew in Thursday afternoon and after and Bart trip and quick walk we were at the Hotel Mark Twain. The Hotel was really nice but was on the edge of the Tenderloin. We quickly discovered that if we walked down we went into the bad part of town but if we walked up we were in the shopping distract.

After getting checked in and relaxing for a bit we took a long walk to Haight/Ashbury area for dinner and to listen to a reading by Sarah Vowel who is a regular on the radio program “This American Life.”

On Friday we head out early to meet our friends Jonathan and Michelle for Alcatraz. The four of us headed over on the boat, hooked up to the portable listening device and got to explore and by explore I mean go where the man told us to.

Later Stephanie and I hopped on the Bart to Berkeley where we had lunch at Chez Panisse, a famous restaurant for foodies.

After the restaurant we met up with my parents and their old friends, Anne and Bill who I had known since I was six and can remember playing with their kids. We had a great time catching up, drinking beer and having all six of us squeeze into a medium sized sedan/taxi with Stephanie sitting on my lap and Anne on my dad’s. Anne couldn’t stop laughing and most of us were cracking up by the absurdity of the situation. Somehow we made it back to my parent hotel which was a short walk back to ours.

On Saturday we had breakfast with my parents. We then went to the farmers market at the Ferry Building. After we met up with Jonathan and Michelle to tour China Town and grab some Dim Sum for lunch. To completely wear us out we went to the SFMOMA, the modern art museum. After that we were exhausted and decided to stay in and watch baseball.

Sunday was geek day. Stephanie and I grabbed some breakfast and then we went our separate ways. I went down to Oakland where I met Jonathan and my other friend Erik (San Diegan who was working in San Francisco at the same, this trip was full of weird coincidences). We went to the big game store “End Game” and much gaming goodness was bought.

But that wasn’t enough for us so we headed down to Games of Berkeley and a third game store that I can’t remember the name. We then proceeded to beer and sandwiches and finished the geekiness off with a riveting game of Talisman.

After we had to bring the women back in so the three of us met up with Michelle and Stephanie at a pizzeria.

Overall a great trip. I recommend San Francisco to anyone, just walk up, not down.

Wine Tasting and Gateway 09Posted by cczernia on September 13th, 2009

Last weekend Stephanie and I went up to Temecula for the weekend for some wine-tasting. We stayed at the Temecula Creek Inn which was around $230 a night. The most either of us had spent on a hotel room and neither of us was impressed. The room was nice but nothing special. We could have easily got the equivalent at another hotel and probably for $100 less.

While up there we went to Old Town farmers market and had breakfast from a restaurant in San Diego that set up a tent there. Later we drove out to South Coast Wineries and used up a bunch of wine-tasting tickets that my parents left us from a previous trip. We had a nice lunch and bought a few bottles of wine. Apparently, Kenny G was playing there that night.

The evening was spent back in Old Town where we did some more wine/cheese tasting and then had dinner at a Mexican place. Overall, a great little weekend getaway.

During Labor Day weekend I went to Gateway gaming convention up in LA. I had a lot more fun than I did at the previous one. I started off with a game of Zombie Cinema and then ran my Song of Ice and Fire rpg which went really well. That evening was Heroquest which was ok but the GM ran a dungeon crawl with an open, not tactical system which I didn’t care for.

Sunday was all Spirit of the Century starting with me running a game with a time hopping pulp game. I than played in a planetary romance mars game which was a lot of fun as the GM played up the romance.

Gencon Indy 09Posted by cczernia on August 17th, 2009

Last weekend I flew out to Indianapolis for Gencon, the biggest gaming convention in the world. I had gone to Gencon Socal for all four years it existed but had never been to Indy. My friend Andy and I flew out Wednesday and got to Indianapolis at 11:30 at night.

We got to our hotel and met up with our other friends Jonathan, Sam and Erik. The five of us got a few drinks and then headed to bed. Unfortunately, I didn’t sleep well at all.

The next morning we got up and got a decent breakfast. My first game was Centuries Edge, a Victorian era independent game that had some interesting mechanics. The adventure was similar to Alice in Wonderland and was fun until the last hour where we got frustrated with trying to figure out what to do.

After that Andy and I got some lunch and then attended a Q&A on Geist, the new World of Darkness game that looks like a lot of fun. I then headed to my next game.

My last game was World of Darkness: Innocents and possibly the best game of the con. We played kids who were being babysat by an old Russian woman. The Russian woman tells us a story with the Russian dolls that fit into each other but the dolls’ eyes appear to be moving. The lights go out and the old lady goes to get some candles. A few minutes later we hear the sound of someone falling and the dolls have disappeared. It just got better from there. This game was especially fun because two of the players were actually kids (9 and 11 I think).

After dinner we went to True Dungeon. The props, mood, and puzzles were all top notch but I didn’t have a lot of fun. We managed to beat most of the challenges in under half the time it normally takes. This was mostly a result of having a guy who had bought hundreds of tokens and our friend Eric who was really good at the game and use to be a GM.

Friday morning I missed my first game but got to work my way through the dealers room. I only got through 3/4 as I had to run a game. The game was World of Darkness: Guess Who is Coming to Dinner. I have run this game three times and it went well and this time was no exception. I only had three players and had to call in a fourth but it still went well.

That night I met up with my friend Morgan from LA for food and he then ran a game of Spirit of the Century for us.

The next morning I had to run to my first game because I slept late. It was a two hour game of Starblazer Adventures. The GM took a long time setting up the game so not much happened and we didn’t really get a feel for the system. I also had to leave early because my next game took place right after.

The next game used something called the Conflict System and was a fairly standard rpg system. The players were all normal people who were all on the same bus. After the bus crashed we all headed to a strange town and discovered we had a destiny. To fulfill our destiny we must collect 7 different keys in the town and bring them to the head priest.

I had a one hour break and then headed to my last game of the evening, Changeling the Lost. I have been skeptical of this game since it came out and this adventure did nothing to change my opinion. However, we did have 7 players (too many) and the adventure was fairly dull.

On Sunday I finished my round of the dealers room. At the end we headed to Games on Demand, an area that has GMs ready to run independent rpgs. We got into a game of Houses of the Blooded which started out to be a lot of fun but Andy, Jonathan, and I had to leave to catch our flight.

Overall, a great time. I would definitely do it again.

Comic-Con 09Posted by cczernia on August 3rd, 2009

I almost didn’t go this year. Not from not wanting but when I went to buy tickets in April the 4-day, Friday, and Saturday tickets were sold out. Luckily I had a friend who hooked me up.

This year is probably one of the slowest comic-cons I have been to. I did my usual thing taking two half days on Thursday and Friday and then doing all of Saturday. Nothing really exciting happened and the panels I went to were mediocre and had long lines (had to wait 1:30 to get into the main Ballroom). I did get some great deals and had fun walking around the dealers room. I think my favorite parts were hanging out with friends after the con and gaming Saturday night with friends I don’t normally get to play with.

By Sunday I was completely exhausted so I didn’t go. Overall, a fun event as usual and to make sure I get my 4-day pass I bought my membership a year early at the con.

Pride Parade 09Posted by cczernia on July 20th, 2009

Last Saturday Stephanie and I walked in the San Diego 2009 Gay Pride Parade. Stephanie’s company, Cox Cable, is a big supporter of gay rights and had a truck with water and sunscreen lotion to hand out to the crowd. There were a a lot of volunteers plus we had are celebrities Sam the Cooking Guy, and Ongina.

We got to the location Cox was setting up at around 9:15 and had to wait until 11:30until we actually started moving. During that time we helped out a lot but it was mostly a lot of waiting around. When we started Stephanie was pulling a wagon full of water and I was passing them out. All the Cox volunteers were so eager to move that we started passing out water at a rapid rate. We had almost passed it all out 1/4 the way down. Half way through we ran out of water and just walked and waved.

Overall it was a lot of fun. The crowd was enthusiastic and the other floats were great. I think next year I want to view the parade instead of being part of it.

Date Night: Roller-skatingPosted by cczernia on June 16th, 2009

Last Saturday Stephanie and I went roller-skating for a date night. There is a roller-skating rink a few miles from us. We went rented our skates and headed out to the rink. It was a little shaky at first but we quickly got our groove and started doing laps. There was Lots of cheesy 80s music and after awhile they turned off the lights and turned on the disco and Thriller. We continued for about an hour but our legs and feet just couldn’t handle the punishment that the skates were dishing out.

For dinner we headed to California Cuisine in Hillcrest which was recommended to us by a friend in a cooking club. I enjoyed a tasty scallop dish and Stephanie got the linguini. We finished with a cup of coffee and an adult milkshake.

Stephanie wanted to try a couple different dessert places in Hillcrest but one had shut down and the other was closed so we ended up having a nice walk and heading home.

The next day we headed up to Orange County to hang out with member of the Straight Dope Message board which Stephanie is a member. We met some interesting people and had a good time. I also got to drink some good beer as the place had around 100 beers on tap.

Parents and GameX 09Posted by cczernia on May 30th, 2009

Last week my parents came to town. I took half days off work from Tuesday to Friday and got to hang out with them in the afternoon. They also brought their friends Ruth and Rob who I have known since I was a kid. Ruth is head of the theater department at NMSU and runs a children’s theater workshop. I was in both (not at the same time) so it was good seeing them, too.

On Tuesday we went to Point Loma and got some seafood and then hung around Cabrillo Nat Mon. Later we got dinner at the Linkery and then went to see the play Cornelia (about the politician George Wallace who ran for President in 72 and his wife) at the Old Globe. On Wednesday we went to the Hotel Del Coronado and got some lunch and then bummed around the beach. After we stopped at Extraordinary Desserts and then Old Town to have dinner with Stephanie. On Thursday I played tennis with my dad and then we went wine tasting in Temecula. Finally, on Friday we went and saw the Padres whoop the Cubs 4 to 0.

I didn’t get any rest because Saturday morning was the GameX gaming convention up in LA. We headed up at 7 but arrived late and ended up playing a bad OD&D game that took 2 hours of prep. I tried to run Hunter the Vigil after lunch but only had two players and one left in the middle which ended the game. I was upset by this time and luckily the third game, a John Carter of Mars style game using Fate, was a lot of fun.

On Sunday I ran Monsters and Other Childish Things which was fun but wouldn’t have had any players if my friend Sam hadn’t wrangled some up. The final game was a demo of White Wolf’s new game Geist, which I can’t say anything about since I signed a NDA other than it was a lot of fun and has the potential to be White Wolf’s best ghost game yet. We also got free dice and books. Overall, I give the con a C and probably won’t be running any games at the con since I have more fun playing.

Annivarsary and Death CabPosted by cczernia on May 5th, 2009

On Sunday the 26th was our 1 year anniversary. We didn’t do anything special that day because Stephanie was sick. We did eventually make it out for a nice dinner at The Linkary who had catered our wedding. Pretty typical of us to keep things super simple.

Last Wednesday Stephanie and I went to see “Death Cab for Cutie.” It was a great concert. The venue, Rimac Stadium at SDSU, was small and it was all general admission. I didn’t push my way to front like when I was in college but picked out some close seats where we could easily see the band.

Hyphen-Con and WeddingPosted by cczernia on April 20th, 2009

Last few weekends have been a lot of fun. A few weeks ago was the fifth rpg-sandiego meet (hyphen-con). This is our local game day where a bunch of us get together and play rpgs all day. We had some great games going and our biggest turnout around 23 people. I got to play in an original D&D (1974 White Box) game where we were sent out to hunt some dark elves but in classic D&D style everyone died. Later I played Transhuman Space, a game set about 100 years in the future where AI and uplifted creatures are fairly common.

The weekend after Hyphen-Con Stephanie and I went to go see the Padres beat the Giant which was fun. We got free Adrien Gonzales t-shirts.

Last weekend was Joe’s wedding. I flew out to Ft. Lauderdale on Thursday and Joe stayed at my hotel so he wouldn’t see the bride, Kelly. We stayed up late a drank beer so he would be ready to go the next day. Luckily we woke up without too much trouble and got some breakfast. The rest of the day was all wedding which was fun. The Friday after we went on the water taxi and looked at the swank houses and yahts and then ate at a nice restaurant in down town. We finished off the evening drinking in their suite.

Baseball and TeethPosted by cczernia on April 1st, 2009

A couple weekends ago Stephanie and I went to the World Baseball Classic semi-finals and final. Actually, we started off watching the WBC in San Diego with Cuba vs Japan. Not the most exciting game but things would heat up when we went up to Los Angeles for the finals.

It was a lot of fun. We actually stayed in a Marriot Suites in Anaheim do to one of our friends working at the same hotel chain and able to get a great rate. Since we were down there we went to Disneyland and ate at the Blue Bayou, the restaurant in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
The two semi-finals were blowouts as Korea beat Venezuela and Japan beat the USA. However, the final was amazing and possibly the most exciting baseball game I’ve ever been to. It was Japan vs Korea and the Korean fans were crazy making noise at every pitch. They ended up coming back in the 9th pushing the game into extra innings but Japan won in the 10th.

In other news I have finished getting a root canal and have started getting a crown. The crazy thing about this is both of these require two trips and I had a cleaning in the middle for a total of five trips to the dentist in two months.