A Descent into Dullness

So the ex-roommate managed to badger me into leaving the house and going to the Friday Board Game night. Played a game of Lost Civilizations, Princes of Florence and some Ra to finish up the night. Won the first, lost the others. But fun was had. Of course now I'm expected to leave the house MORE often. Socialize. Interact with others. Not slowly turn into a crazy shut-in...

Got my copy of Wind Tunnel Dreams by shadesong today. Very pretty cover. The glasses on the woman are a nice little touch...

I'm reading a lot this month. Probably from having all this free time with not working most of the week. And not having such a screwed up sleep schedule. I'm generally managing six to eight hours straight instead of the four hours out, then awake for awhile, then sometimes managing another four hours before work...

Plus I've got nothing social going on. No one returns calls, even when the phone was working. Which its not right now. But I call the few people I know and no one ever calls back. Which makes me sad. I'm living near my friends again, I've got my weekends free until I find more work and STILL I'm at home. I'm just not a drop-in on people kind of person...

Anyways. Enough whining. New book!

Well, we only had about half the people we invited show up, but otherwise our first real party to break in the apartment went well. Everyone else seemed to enjoy talking to the neighbors while grilling. Me, I can't take more than a few minutes at a time of being polite to mildly racist morons. After that we played some games and watched the insanity that was 70s super-hero 'toons...

Last Thursday I was flipping around the channels and happened briefly upon the O.C.. I've caught the show maybe 2 or 3 times previously. Enough to recognize the "nerdy" best friend of the lead. Who now apparantly runs a mall comic shop. And the scene I manage to hit is one where he sends a young girl (who looks to be about 7-9) running from the store in tears. And why has he reduced this young lass to weeping flight? Because she dared, DARED to ask if their were comics based on the X-Men movies...

Now at first maybe the hard-core comics nerd in you might think this is a good thing. After all who could possibly be stupid enough not to know that the X-Men were comics first? And to that, I'd answer, a small girl who has never been in a comics shop before. So strike one on young Nerd Friend character, he made a little girl cry. Strike two, he drove off a potential customer. And strike three, he drove off a potential comics fan. Good job dumb-ass. I wanted to reach into the screen (as I so often do) and slap the stupid out of him...

If your job is to SELL comics then when someone unfamiliar with comics comes to your store YOU HELP THEM. You do not mock them. You do not treat them like morons. And you sure as fuck don't send them away in tears. Being reduced to tears makes it unlikely that they will come back and GIVE YOU MONEY...

What truly annoyed me about the scene was that I've heard about and even on rare occassions seen clerks and owners act this way to comic-book virgins. Not in stores I shop at regularly, because they're run and staffed by people who like having pay checks. But the smug, poorly socialized comics nerd is a stereotype for a reason. I've also known people who are even more misanthropic than I am, who manage to bury that when someone, no matter how out of place they seem, comes into their comics/games/book/whatever store. Seems they like making rent more then showing their superior nerd knowledge...

So remember, that clueless eight-year old is your potential 20 comics-a-week shopper. So leave the smug attitude on your online forums and take the little kid by the hand and introduce them to mystical realm of comics...

So today was supposed to start off a Sunday Shadowrun game down at Game Den. Spoony was going to run 3rd edition. Except no one showed up at 12 (store wasn't even open) when he got there, so he left at 12:30. I got there about 15 minutes later and it was open, but none of the other players ever showed. So I waited around for an hour or so, watching "The Longest Yard" remake with Mike's dad. Decent sports movie, I've definately seen worse. Overuse of gay stereotypes and slow mo shots though...

Wasn't a total waste. I spent some birthday schwag to pick up Godlike and Rigger 3 (which is aparantly a hard book to find). Then swung by Game Depot and got the 30th Anniversary Edition Tunnels & Trolls tin and a discount copy of GURPS: Falkenstein - Ottomon Empire...

I need to find people to run a game. Preferably ones who are willing to try out various game systems. And can play on Thursdays. Though I'm willing to compromise on that last point...