Weekend

[ironphoenix]

Aikido Friday--Weapons. An unusual group, with three black belts (none of our sandans or higher), and two white belts, both of us in the upper white-belt ranks, and reasonably competent with weapons. (Okay, the other white belt is more than reasonably competent, especially with jo kata!) We ended up doing a lot of collaborative exploration, with everybody demonstrating new techniques (often invented on the spot) to the class. I can see our head instructor's style in my inventions, especially the use of a strike or feint to create a moment of unbalance which can be leveraged to complete a disarm and/or throw.

I finally got the car license renewed. The renewal form had helpful information about the Government of Ontario automatic kiosks at lots of local malls, where I could do this conveniently and easily. Unfortunately, when I went to 3 different ones, they refused to let me renew there, and gave no explanation. So I went to the human-staffed office, where they promptly and cheerfully told me that it was because there had been a transfer of ownership, so the machine couldn't do it. Why the machine couldn't be programmed to do it (they did nothing special at the center that I could see), I have no idea, and why the form itself couldn't have indicated this, or failing that, the machine, is even less clear. Provincial government seems to be the dumping ground for politicians and senior bureaucrats who couldn't cut it in the federal arena, especially in Ontario.

In the evening, we did a bit of walking down by Remic Rapids and Lemieux Island. If you've never been to the rapids there, it's worth going to see, especially around sunset: people, birds (geese, ducks, gulls, mergansers) and the balanced stone sculptures¹ blend into a really beautiful tableau of silhouettes.

2038 game today... should be interesting. This is the first Big Game I host in quite a while, so I'm hoping it goes well and is fun for all involved, win or lose!

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1: Pic is from 2005; I think new ones are built every year, because they're different now. ETA: Yes, they are: they're made every year by John Felice Ceprano.

Comments

[cristofcanada.livejournal.com]

Not sure if my opinion counts, but I think the game went quite well. Was longer than some anticipated, but interesting. I had forgotten about the difference in player attitude with competitive boardgames versus roleplaying (where it is more of a co-operative atmosphere).

Still much fun, and look forward to more at some point.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Of course your opinion counts! The whole point of the games is for the players to have fun, and if that happened for you, then that's 1/6 of the game going well.

Yes, the feel of a competitive game is very different from an RPG, for sure. Some players get more invested in that competition than others; I don't get as invested as I used to, but I do try to play my best. This having been a long game, some people's mood or focus did begin to wear as it got late. Generally, the shorter games are a bit easier-going.

For the record, I think you played well; thanks again for coming by!