Roll for Initiative, Monkeyboy

If you understand "initiative" but don't know where this comes from, please take the time to visit the Knights of the Dinner Table part of Hoody-Hoo. "When Critical Hits Attack" and "Man versus Archeticture" are the best, in my opinion.

The last few weeks of school have been spent desperately trying to keep up (a failing effort) with my gargauntuan reading schedule. In between sortes with my books, gaming has thrived in the dark places of Lewis & Clark. There is much D&D afoot on campus, much of which I have participated in. Additionally, I plan to pick up the Vampire: Dark Ages book to run an elders game; should be fun for all.

But the most engaging activity has taken place on the weekends... "Ninja." Several gamers on campus have combined capture the flag with boffing weapons. Every saturday night, about a dozen of us gather in lower campus (where all the classrooms are and such) at 1 am. There are two teams, one are the gaurds who have an "object" (i.e. a flag) to protect. The other team are the ninjas, who must start at the top of the field and sneak/run/fight there way to the object and make it back up to their starting point again without dying. The ninjas are clad in all black and wield black boffing swords, while the gaurds wear white shirts and get to use walkie-talkies to communicate. Without getting into too much, the game has bunch more rules, like one gaurd is a Shogun who coordinates gaurds and ninjas can kill with unarmed attacks making it a "stealth kill." Needless to say, the game is awesome. There have been all kinds of crazy stunts attempted by the ninjas and gaurds such as:

• Ninjas hiding in the rafters of a small covered area on the field
• An epic battle that was fought down approximately two flights of stairs
• Ninjas leaping off a ten-foot wall with varied success (I sprained my ankle, for instance)
• One Ninja killed five gaurds by himself... At the same time
• Another ninja managed to evade eight gaurds at once without getting hit, even when surrounded

We've become lore on campus now. Whenever some of us are seen carrying weapons late at night, people who walk by will say "he's a ninja, I heard about that..." Every week more people show up, even though we're not supposed to talk about it much on campus; much like fight club. Someone here in Stewart (my residence hall) wants to come film and photograph us, which I will post online as soon as they're available to me.

Oh, and if anyone requests it, I can post pictures of Adnan in drag, if you'd like. Apparently, he was a big hit at the drag ball this year.

From Canille to Gallipoli

I recently returned from seeing the latest version of King Lear in Portland. I can't say that the director captured Lear perfectly, but the play is such that the admirable effort was pleasing enough. The advertiesments spoke of a modern Lear, where the King is transformed into a CEO. I cringed at this, but held out hope. It turned out that they used the exact (almost) same lines from the Shakespearean play, they just used a "modern" theme for props and the like. It turned out really cool. The same group did this for a showing of Antigone many years ago (when I was much more young and venerable).

It's definetely worth it if you feel like doing something a bit more intellectual and you've got extra cash to blow, especially if you've read King Lear before. If you do end up going, check out the performances of both "Edmund," "Edgar," and "Kent;" all of which are superb.

Romanticism in an era of social obfuscation

I think it would be really romantic if a girl told me: "Oh Charles, you make wounds bleed and flesh crawl." But then again, my dear Lenore, I shall see thee, nevermore.

In case you are wondering why I am romantically attatched to an entropic corpus, watch the timeless classic, Nightmare Before Christmas, which remains one of my favorite movies ever.

Nothing really happens when you're on campus all the time, but I still manage to squeeze out a charming little social niche every once in a while. School plods on, inexorably with lots of reading and discussions and papers and bears. Oh my. My Great aunt and uncle came to visit yesterday from Missouri, and in preparation I had my fingernails painted black (like my foul heart) in preparation. As expected, they noticed them, but said nothing. My mother on the other hand pitched a fit about the corruption of the youth and so on. I was pleased with this result.

I've been thinking I should grab somebody's digital camera and take some pictures to post. There are lots of cool happenings on campus, and I should share some of them. For instance, I must post a picture of my sexy roommate, Adnan, because when he dies I GET DIBBS ON HIS THIGHS. Going along with that, I'm still the only person who has "human cannibalism" as an "interest" in his Blogger profile. That makes me a sad panda.

I'm about to be whisked off to go "spandex" shopping with a cute girl, so no matter what happens, I'll have a pretty damn good day.

See you later, space cowboy.