Category: Livejournal

(in the key of Randy Newman minor)

If I had cancer, I’d be losing weight and my hair
If I lost an arm, it’d be easy to see
If I had jitters like Marty McFly
I wouldn’t need to explain why
But I can’t
I can’t
God knows I’ve tried
But you know what they say about trying

There’s a thing in my head
(You’ll have to trust me on this)
But it’s in there and it isn’t going away
Not now and not tomorrow and not the next day
It has a mouth and it has teeth
And its eating all my words
Sad thing for a writer to lose all his words
But that’s what’s happening to me
You can’t see it but it’s there
(You’ll have to trust me on this)
It’s something you just can’t see

It ate my marriage
Its eaten my friends
Ate a book I was supposed to write
And you’d think it would be happy with that
But it isn’t
It just keeps on going
And it won’t stop
No, it won’t stop
It won’t stop
Even if I beg

It gets into my arms and legs
Gets into my mouth
And I watch it
Just like it watches me
Pretty soon there won’t be anything left
Just me and it
No words
No memories
Ntoinhg

It ate my marriage
Its eaten my friends
Ate a book I was supposed to write
And you’d think it would be happy with that
But it isn’t
It just keeps on going
And it won’t stop
No, it won’t stop
It won’t stop
Even if I beg

If I had cancer, I’d be losing weight
If I lost an arm, it’d be easy to see
But it haven’t
Maybe if I did it would make it easier to believe
It has a mouth and it has teeth
And its eating all my words
Sad thing for a writer to lose all his words
But that’s what’s happening to me

______

More Houses of the Blooded tonight.

My temp agency sent me to the Santa Monica MTV offices today for a job I am completely unqualified to do. That’s okay; they were too busy to train me today, so I sat in front of a computer screen and read the Amazing and Brilliant Dictionary of Mu.

(Trust me when I say this. Your game shelf is barren without this game. Lacking. Empty. But take care: this book will beat the holy hell out of your other books if you leave it alone too long.)

When my shift was done, I went down to the lobby to get my parking validated. A long day. Boring, yet exciting. Energizing, yet draining. Inspired and restless. The security guard was on the phone, so I had to wait. The very cute girl behind the counter…

… wait a second. Let me say this about working at MTV. Every single person in that office is hot. I mean it. I felt like a raisin in a county fair grape contest. Damn, damn, damn. Anyway…

… chatting with the girl behind the counter. She apologizes and blushes because the security guard is on the phone with his girlfriend or something and “too busy” to validate my parking. The elevator doors behind me open and She steps out.

Her hair and eyes. Her lips. Her smile. I’ve heard say that Hollywood thinks she’s not skinny enough. Hollywood can go fuck a mop. Better yet, a vacuum cleaner. She steps out of the elevator, and I’m stunned. Floored. I don’t know what to say. Her eyes look up at me…

… and she recognizes me. Wait a second. What the…

“Hi!” she says with that excited voice of hers. And she walks quickly across the lobby, straight toward me. “How have you been?”

And now, right now, Discordia is in my head. And she’s laughing. Laughing so hard, I can’t hear the security guard talking on the phone or the gasp of the cute girl behind the desk, or even the sound of my own heart. Discordia is laughing. And She’s telling me exactly what I need to do. Right now. Do it, John. Do it. Right now. Right now. Right. The. Fuck. NOW.

But Discretion wins out. And just before she reaches me, I give a friendly, apologetic smile and as charming as I can, I say, “I’m sorry, but, you don’t know me.”

She stops, just a few steps away from the hug I was about to get. And she looks at me again. Closer. Hearing my voice. Then, her eyes go wide and her face goes red. Pure red.

“Oh!” she says. “I’m so sorry.”

I laugh. “It’s okay,” I tell her. “I get it all the time.”

Then, she finds a nervous laugh in her belly as her people usher her away as fast as they bloody well can.

And all I can hear is Discordia saying, “You should have listened…”

Every year, Ken Hite (

princeofcairo

) hands out “The Outies.” Awards for what he feels are significant contributions to the game industry and outstanding game design.

In the category of Best Sui Generis RPG of 2006:

A First Runner-Up goes to John Wick’s “ops planning game mechanic that eats like a meal,” Wilderness of Mirrors, about which more anon.

I’m waiting for the “more anon,” but until then…

Yay!!!

I’ll be at OrcCon this year. (I’ll forgive the fancy French-ified spelling.) I’m running games and I’ll have a booth. Feb. 16th – 19th. Be there!

Houses of the Blooded Preview
RPG
Friday 8:00 pm
Event #:
Room: TBD
Up to 6 players

Game System: Houses of the Blooded
Gamemaster: John Wick
John Wick, author of the Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea, reveals his next “big game!” Houses of the Blooded is a roleplaying game of ruthless politics where a sharp wit is just as valuable as a sharp sword. Enter a world where Blood, Lust and Treachery are the coin of the realm. Pre-release demo.

Cat: A Pirate’s Life for Me
RPG
Saturday 10:00 am
Event #:
Room: TBD
Up to 6 players
Kids Game
Game System: Cat
Gamemaster: John Wick
On the good ship Agamemnon, life for the sailors is always full of adventure. Little do they know their ship’s mascots are protecting them from monsters they could never imagine. Cat is a roleplaying game for beginner and advanced players. This particular adventure is for both parents and children: the grown-ups playing the pirates and children playing cats.

Wilderness of Mirrors: Olympus 7
RPG
Saturday 8:00 pm
Event #:
Room: TBD

Game System: Wilderness of Mirrors
Gamemaster: John Wick
The agents of OLYMPUS 7 have to stop a terrorist plot, but who can they trust? Take everything you love about the spy genre and make a game out of it. Paranoia, deception, planning, and a ticking clock. Come see why Wilderness of Mirrors is being touted as the best spy game on the market.

DISCORDIA!: No Cookies for Christmas
RPG
Sunday 3:00 pm
Event #:
Room: TBD
Game System: Discordia!
Gamemaster: John Wick
The Queen of Cookies has been kidnapped by fascist penguins plotting to take over the world! Sound silly? You have no idea how scary it really is. Incorporating the rules from WILDERNESS OF MIRRORS, “No Cookies for Christmas” is a deadly serious adventure with a downright silly premise. Just as Discordia would want it.

As I prepare to leave Los Angeles, people keep asking me why I’m leaving. I keep giving the same answer.

“My love affair with LA is over,” I tell them. “It’s turned into an abusive relationship. I keep getting beat up and we never have sex anymore.”

With this analogy fixed firmly in my vocabulary, love songs have taken a completely different meaning in my life. I hear break up songs and I think of her. I hear make up songs and I wonder if we still have a chance. I hear love songs and I remember the early days when the sex was great and uncomplicated.

But as the song fades, my melancholy and reminisce fade as reality washes them away. It’s over. I tried. I really tried to keep it together. But it really is over.

Tom Waits, Chris Isaak, Sarah McLachlan and the Big O are all singing the same thing over and over again. But Randy Newman keeps my head above the water.

I ran out on my children
And I ran out on my wife
Gonna run out on you too baby
I done it all my life
Everybody cried the night I left
Well almost everybody did
My little boy just hung his head
And I put my arm put my arm around his little shoulder
And this is what I said:
“Sonny I just want you to hurt like I do
I just want you to hurt like I do
I just want you to hurt like I do
Honest I do honest I do, honest I do”

The time to leave is coming soon. Sooner than even I know. And I think, “Maybe I’m breaking her heart.”

Then I hear a voice remind me, “She broke yours first.”

My website is hosted by Registerfly.com. I’m having a great deal of problems with them.

Does anybody know if I can transfer my registered name from Registerfly.com to someone else?

Oh, and for the record, Registerfly.com sucks.