Saturday, August 13, 2005

Welll, that was fun.

After a morning spent tearing through various chores in preparation for the day, I hopped in my truck and took a different route to GMU. I’d just received a SmartToll transponder, and was eager to try it out. I figured out a likely route, left very early, and got to GMU no sooner than I would have had I not taken the toll road. Well. Disappointing, but I’ll try a few other alternatives and maybe I can shave ten or fifteen minutes off my hour-long commute.

I arrived at GMU, walked in to the Johnson Center, and hung out for a while until the Otherspace crew gathered. We started the meeting, which was extremely busy; I had half a dozen agenda items to discuss. I also had the pleasure of distributing posters and business cards, which everyone was a bit tickled about. Then, two people interviewed with us, to help draw backgrounds. I hired both of them on the spot. One is an excellent graphic artist, the other draws lovely furry artwork. Great stuff.

We finished up at 4:00, at which point I drove up to McLean Bible Church for Redemption. I hauled my stuff in to our room, then tromped up to the information desk to check our room reservation, which keeps changing around…and sure enough, we were in another room, across the hall. Okay. So I hauled all my stuff in there, and waited.

Nobody showed up for awhile, so I tried calling them on my celphone, to discover I couldn’t even send calls. I fiddled with it for awhile before discovering that the phone hangs up every time I try to use the touch screen while on the phone. I managed to make a few phone calls, and confirmed that two RPG friends were coming, at least. They were the only ones who could make it, and then not until 7:30. I had a wait of almost two hours.

So I cracked open my laptop, wrote a bit more VR story, and re-read How To Be Creative. A productive wait, at least. Then the guys showed up, and we did some impromptu role-playing, first as soldiers during D-Day, the next as space marines on a ship taken over by aliens. Lots of fun.

Then, home, and the rest of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Yep, I finished it, and it’s quite a book. The plot leaps forward near the end, and Rowling is certainly setting up an amazing finale. She has amazing skills at plotting and pacing. I envy her.

But then, she’s written how many thousands of pages of Harry Potter?

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