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That Was The Week That Was
Well, last week was certainly an experience. Not a waste of time, but certainly not what I expected, for hardly anything went to plan.
I began by leaving last Sunday (the 8): Victoria to Calgary, Calgary to New York. When we were over Manitoba the pilot announced there were thunderstorms over NYC, and he did not have enough fuel to orbit, so we landed at Ottawa to refuel and see what was what. So we sat on the tarmac unmoving for four hours, almost as long as the flight would have been. I could not leave the aircraft because everyone had been through customs in Calgary, and had to sit scant miles from friends, with no cell phone to call or anything! Wah. My knees sure did not enjoy the forced folding either. But I did sit next to a nice couple of old folks, one a retired professor from the University of Alberta. Got into NYC at almost 1:00 Monday morning. 45 minute wait for a taxi to go into Manhattan (I spent so much on taxis this week, revolting but it's the only way to get around there).
Also, I had landed in the middle of a regional heat wave - it was incredibly hot and humid wherever I went all that week, temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s while it was barely 66 in Victoria when I left.
Got a couple of hours sleep and then off to Penn Station to catch a train to Connecticut, had to wait 2 1/2 hours for that, train was more or less on time. I rather like travelling by train, I'd take it over the bus any time. I got to Mystic CT in time to drop my gear and make it to the US Coast Guard Academy to check in with the Symposium people and see the end of a presentation. Had greasy burger dinner and my friend Joe showed up about 9:00.
Tuesday we went back to the USCGA to get Joe checked in, found they didn't really want us around because of the security concerns - we stopped in for a demonstration of "Algernon" (the computerized version of my Algeria game) and left to do some sightseeing. We went to Groton, a town across the river where the main industry is submarines - it's called "The Submarine Capital of the World". General Dynamics' "Electric Boat Division" is there, with some huge windowless and spookily official-looking construction buildings, a regular US Navy submarine base, and a big museum dedicated to submarines which we visited. The main attraction was the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine to go to the North Pole, restored and on exhibit since 1986.
We were driving around in Groton looking for a place to have lunch and Joe said, "Is that a game store?" as we zoomed by this strip-mall-looking place. We went back for a look and it was - "Citadel Games" had been there since 1977, we went inside and the dust was thick in the air. We went further and further back into the store and it was like going back in time - big tumbled heaps of old wargame magazines, miniatures and boxed games long out of production, even a small used pile. I got a load of stuff I didn't have (there was a lot there that I did already have, but rare in any event) and dust bunnies all over my trousers. I've had dreams where I found forgotten-looking stores like this full of old crap I like to look at. The owner was somewhat impressed to have two such prestigious game designers in his store!
Wednesday we went to New Haven, about an hour's drive away. Joe had lived there when he was a little kid and we wanted to find his old house. First, though, we went to Yale (which is actually scattered in dozens of large and small buildings throughout downtown) and visited the Peabody Museum of Natural History, a nice place. We passed by an old cubical windowless building and figured this was where Skull & Bones met up:
Later we found Joe's old house without too much trouble - not much to it but everything looks very different when you are six years old.
That night I went to a "clambake", the main social event of the Symposium, at Mystic Seaport. They had an old whaling ship on display, and some old buildings staffed by some people who knew a lot of history - for example, there was a printing shop full of old letterpresses and job printers from the 19th century, and the odl guy there knew a lot about printing - next door was the smithy and the guy ther, an apprenticed blacksmith, really knew a lot of metallurgy and the history of methods of working metal. Food was OK too. On the whole I had a good time but it wasn't quite worth what I paid for it.
Thursday we attended the special unclassified session - tossed around a lot of talk, and a lot of work, and so I have a chance to contribute to this "community of practice" they are setting up for military wargaming. I met Peter Perla, who wrote a book I admired very much. He was a nice guy. That night we all went out to dinner, by chance the same place Joe and I had had dinner on Tuesday (and Joe had had dinner on Wednesday). Unfortunately for a number of reasons it seems that the "Algernon" project is not going to proceed further, and similarly my Virtualia game will have to be hawked vigorously if anyone is going to be interested in it. Rather a disappointment but no reason to give up on this.
Friday morning was a special private meeting where we discussed running a game (pairing players with analysts, to help the latter understand the thinking that goes into these games) in Washington DC in September some time - good idea but there is no way I am crossing the continent to be part of something so short.
I left on the noonish train back to New York City, and made my way to Bill's place - Bill and I were on the same teaching program, and lived in the same town in Japan, in 1991-92. We've kept in touch ever since, mostly through quick meetings at Burning Man. Bill's apartment looks out over Central Park West:
That afternoon Bill and I went to The Compleat Strategist, a game store I had wanted to visit since, well, forever. Another time machine trip (though the store had considerably more modern stock) and I got my hands all grimy pawing through the wads of old stuff they had hidden behind shelves, etc.. Manhattan is incredible, with all the crowds and stores everywhere, think I looked rather a gawker. Then we met Mitch, the publisher of the Black Rock Beacon, and we had dinner at a Turkish restaurant and talked Burning Man stuff.
Saturday we met Mitch again for breakfast and walked through Central Park. It's so great to see so much green space in such a big city, and it was surprisingly quiet. I left about 2:00 to make my 4:30 flight and then the trouble started. It began to cloud over and the thunderstorms they had predicted for midnight that night came early. They delayed the flight back to Toronto several times and then announced they were closing the airport, come back tomorrow please but probably before 5:00 am since everyone else will be coming back then too.... No vouchers or other considerations, well half a phtocopied piece of paper with some hotel phone numbers on it, so it was either sleep in the airport for the next 12 hours or go back to Manhattan - so I sprang for another taxi and crashed at Mitch's place.
Up at 4:00 am, back to the airport, got to Toronto on an 8:00 flight, even that was delayed but had landed by 10:30. Problem was, my connecting flight to Victoria was scheduled to leave at 8:15 pm, so I had almost TEN HOURS to kill in Pearson Airport (the itinerary I had before spending about 80 minutes in Toronto before going home). So, I checked my baggage through and ended up taking the city bus and subway to downtown Toronto! Would have been nicer if I hadn't been carrying over 20 pounds of assorted books and papers with me in my pack, but no help for that.
I hadn't been in Toronto in 20 years. I went to Queen Street, which is where I used to walk all the time when I visited, and was glad to see Pages bookstore is still there - got a Taschen book on "DDR Design" and the new Lewis Black book for Lianne. Part of Queen Street was blocked off because they had the MuchMusic Video Awards or something happening outside the CityTV building, crowds of screaming Girlicious fans all over the place, suddenly it clouded over and rain poured down for 20 minutes as if someone had opened a tap. Hope they all got zapped by shorting out PAs.
I went up to Bloor St. and had late lunch at Dooney's Cafe, so I could do one thing on "My Imaginary Perfect Trip To Toronto List" (http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/147135.html).
It was a Sunday, so no time to meet publishers or anything, my cousin was visiting my aunt and uncle in Orangeville, my step-grandmother's senile, and sorry![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sonjaaa and sabotabby, I would have called you, but I don't know your number and I don't know what I could have said other than "hello, I'm stuck here all day".
No time of course to see a Reg Hartt film show, another item on the list, but his handbills were all over the place - I see the selection hasn't changed much in 20 years, as I saw these way back then:
After looking around a little more, I made my way back to the airport, to be held up for another hour or more before the plane finally took off. I arrived in Victoria and didn't get home until 1:00 am on Monday, almost 27 hours late. Air travel ain't what it used to be.
So, on the whole, this was not the week I expected and it certainly did not have the outcomes I wanted, but it was far from a waste of my time. I was glad to have seen NYC finally and a piece of the Atlantic coast.
I began by leaving last Sunday (the 8): Victoria to Calgary, Calgary to New York. When we were over Manitoba the pilot announced there were thunderstorms over NYC, and he did not have enough fuel to orbit, so we landed at Ottawa to refuel and see what was what. So we sat on the tarmac unmoving for four hours, almost as long as the flight would have been. I could not leave the aircraft because everyone had been through customs in Calgary, and had to sit scant miles from friends, with no cell phone to call or anything! Wah. My knees sure did not enjoy the forced folding either. But I did sit next to a nice couple of old folks, one a retired professor from the University of Alberta. Got into NYC at almost 1:00 Monday morning. 45 minute wait for a taxi to go into Manhattan (I spent so much on taxis this week, revolting but it's the only way to get around there).
Also, I had landed in the middle of a regional heat wave - it was incredibly hot and humid wherever I went all that week, temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s while it was barely 66 in Victoria when I left.
Got a couple of hours sleep and then off to Penn Station to catch a train to Connecticut, had to wait 2 1/2 hours for that, train was more or less on time. I rather like travelling by train, I'd take it over the bus any time. I got to Mystic CT in time to drop my gear and make it to the US Coast Guard Academy to check in with the Symposium people and see the end of a presentation. Had greasy burger dinner and my friend Joe showed up about 9:00.
Tuesday we went back to the USCGA to get Joe checked in, found they didn't really want us around because of the security concerns - we stopped in for a demonstration of "Algernon" (the computerized version of my Algeria game) and left to do some sightseeing. We went to Groton, a town across the river where the main industry is submarines - it's called "The Submarine Capital of the World". General Dynamics' "Electric Boat Division" is there, with some huge windowless and spookily official-looking construction buildings, a regular US Navy submarine base, and a big museum dedicated to submarines which we visited. The main attraction was the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine to go to the North Pole, restored and on exhibit since 1986.
We were driving around in Groton looking for a place to have lunch and Joe said, "Is that a game store?" as we zoomed by this strip-mall-looking place. We went back for a look and it was - "Citadel Games" had been there since 1977, we went inside and the dust was thick in the air. We went further and further back into the store and it was like going back in time - big tumbled heaps of old wargame magazines, miniatures and boxed games long out of production, even a small used pile. I got a load of stuff I didn't have (there was a lot there that I did already have, but rare in any event) and dust bunnies all over my trousers. I've had dreams where I found forgotten-looking stores like this full of old crap I like to look at. The owner was somewhat impressed to have two such prestigious game designers in his store!
Wednesday we went to New Haven, about an hour's drive away. Joe had lived there when he was a little kid and we wanted to find his old house. First, though, we went to Yale (which is actually scattered in dozens of large and small buildings throughout downtown) and visited the Peabody Museum of Natural History, a nice place. We passed by an old cubical windowless building and figured this was where Skull & Bones met up:
Later we found Joe's old house without too much trouble - not much to it but everything looks very different when you are six years old.
That night I went to a "clambake", the main social event of the Symposium, at Mystic Seaport. They had an old whaling ship on display, and some old buildings staffed by some people who knew a lot of history - for example, there was a printing shop full of old letterpresses and job printers from the 19th century, and the odl guy there knew a lot about printing - next door was the smithy and the guy ther, an apprenticed blacksmith, really knew a lot of metallurgy and the history of methods of working metal. Food was OK too. On the whole I had a good time but it wasn't quite worth what I paid for it.
Thursday we attended the special unclassified session - tossed around a lot of talk, and a lot of work, and so I have a chance to contribute to this "community of practice" they are setting up for military wargaming. I met Peter Perla, who wrote a book I admired very much. He was a nice guy. That night we all went out to dinner, by chance the same place Joe and I had had dinner on Tuesday (and Joe had had dinner on Wednesday). Unfortunately for a number of reasons it seems that the "Algernon" project is not going to proceed further, and similarly my Virtualia game will have to be hawked vigorously if anyone is going to be interested in it. Rather a disappointment but no reason to give up on this.
Friday morning was a special private meeting where we discussed running a game (pairing players with analysts, to help the latter understand the thinking that goes into these games) in Washington DC in September some time - good idea but there is no way I am crossing the continent to be part of something so short.
I left on the noonish train back to New York City, and made my way to Bill's place - Bill and I were on the same teaching program, and lived in the same town in Japan, in 1991-92. We've kept in touch ever since, mostly through quick meetings at Burning Man. Bill's apartment looks out over Central Park West:
That afternoon Bill and I went to The Compleat Strategist, a game store I had wanted to visit since, well, forever. Another time machine trip (though the store had considerably more modern stock) and I got my hands all grimy pawing through the wads of old stuff they had hidden behind shelves, etc.. Manhattan is incredible, with all the crowds and stores everywhere, think I looked rather a gawker. Then we met Mitch, the publisher of the Black Rock Beacon, and we had dinner at a Turkish restaurant and talked Burning Man stuff.
Saturday we met Mitch again for breakfast and walked through Central Park. It's so great to see so much green space in such a big city, and it was surprisingly quiet. I left about 2:00 to make my 4:30 flight and then the trouble started. It began to cloud over and the thunderstorms they had predicted for midnight that night came early. They delayed the flight back to Toronto several times and then announced they were closing the airport, come back tomorrow please but probably before 5:00 am since everyone else will be coming back then too.... No vouchers or other considerations, well half a phtocopied piece of paper with some hotel phone numbers on it, so it was either sleep in the airport for the next 12 hours or go back to Manhattan - so I sprang for another taxi and crashed at Mitch's place.
Up at 4:00 am, back to the airport, got to Toronto on an 8:00 flight, even that was delayed but had landed by 10:30. Problem was, my connecting flight to Victoria was scheduled to leave at 8:15 pm, so I had almost TEN HOURS to kill in Pearson Airport (the itinerary I had before spending about 80 minutes in Toronto before going home). So, I checked my baggage through and ended up taking the city bus and subway to downtown Toronto! Would have been nicer if I hadn't been carrying over 20 pounds of assorted books and papers with me in my pack, but no help for that.
I hadn't been in Toronto in 20 years. I went to Queen Street, which is where I used to walk all the time when I visited, and was glad to see Pages bookstore is still there - got a Taschen book on "DDR Design" and the new Lewis Black book for Lianne. Part of Queen Street was blocked off because they had the MuchMusic Video Awards or something happening outside the CityTV building, crowds of screaming Girlicious fans all over the place, suddenly it clouded over and rain poured down for 20 minutes as if someone had opened a tap. Hope they all got zapped by shorting out PAs.
I went up to Bloor St. and had late lunch at Dooney's Cafe, so I could do one thing on "My Imaginary Perfect Trip To Toronto List" (http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/147135.html).
It was a Sunday, so no time to meet publishers or anything, my cousin was visiting my aunt and uncle in Orangeville, my step-grandmother's senile, and sorry
sonjaaa and sabotabby, I would have called you, but I don't know your number and I don't know what I could have said other than "hello, I'm stuck here all day".No time of course to see a Reg Hartt film show, another item on the list, but his handbills were all over the place - I see the selection hasn't changed much in 20 years, as I saw these way back then:
After looking around a little more, I made my way back to the airport, to be held up for another hour or more before the plane finally took off. I arrived in Victoria and didn't get home until 1:00 am on Monday, almost 27 hours late. Air travel ain't what it used to be.
So, on the whole, this was not the week I expected and it certainly did not have the outcomes I wanted, but it was far from a waste of my time. I was glad to have seen NYC finally and a piece of the Atlantic coast.
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New ones spring up but they do not have the old stock.
What did you score?
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Diadem (FGU)
Rebels and Royalist (Citadel Games Series)
National Liberation Front (Lawrence Harris)
Sniper! Special Forces (TSR)
Kill Everything! (Crunchy Frog)
some magazines
At Compleat Strategist I got:
Best of Board Wargaming (book)
Wargame Design (book)
Artifact and Hot Spot (Metagaming, very dusty as they had been crammed behind a shelf for years)
It was also gratifying to see that they had half a shelf of my designs for sale, the new versions as published by Fiery Dragon - even I hadn't gotten my copies yet!
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Sniper is more fun than a computer game for you?
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