Something Positive

I thought I would post something positive since lately I've been in a funk.

Last weekend I went to Oaxtepec with some friends, I want to thank Vilrandir for inviting me over since I really needed to get out of my house and actually breathe some fresh air, swim, role-play and play one-too-many strategy games. :) It was a pretty cool stay with friends and killing little things on a board is good therapy to let some frustrations go.

Upon my return I got in contact with Zeff and DJgotga and we abused the hell out of every character in Smash Bros. Brawl. I became proficient in the use of Meta Knight and Peach. Go figure.








This last week was mostly non-eventful, other than lots of talking about. I finally managed to organize a BBQ on Saturday. It was good to see friends talk about completely different subjects than those that plagued my mind (I mean, I translated "Todo a Pulmon" you HAVE to be pretty depressed to do that kind of thing.)

By this point most of the food was already gone!

Lots of food was also good. I'd like to thank Al for handling most of the cooking :P it's not always you have an actual chef minding the BBQ for a small party/reunion. It's kinda sad that some friends were not able to come but, well I did think of them on at least one of the several toasts.

After about 3 hours of food, we decided to start brawling. Agan Super Smash Bros. Brawl took over and the mindless violence and good company was not only cathartic but encouraging. At least I was able to bent my frustrations on just about anything that moved and kick them off the screen so they could either fall into the distance, smash against the screeen, or blown to particles by rays off-screen.

To finish up we watched Hot Fuzz in spanish to see how good the translation was... it was amazing! Some jokes like "Mothers!" in English works infinitely better in Mexican Spanish, because "Madres!" is an expression we use CONSTANTLY. (i.e. Ya valio madres!)

Anyway, it was fun, and although this last week was full of good and bad surprises, having my friend's support and just their presence trully keeps my spirits up.

Nya!

Another one fallen...

Arthur C. Clarke, writer of 2001: Space Odyssey died today (March 19th 2008). There is not much I can say about this. The man was an inspiration to thousands.

As I said earlier, so many are dying these days... soon, the whole world of Fantasy and Science Fiction will fall completely into the hands of the following generation. It is not yet our time, but seing it approaching is at best, bitter-sweet.

Good travels, Arthur, wherever the universe will take you.

Going out of the City

Well, I'll be going out of the city for the weekend, so I hope to post pictures and stuff. I remembered this song
which I think expresses how I feel right now. I'm getting better, slowly and I don't plan to be an annoying
depressive bastard.

I'm finding this at least, to be a creative oportunity to work into stories and such, maybe out of this I'll get the
motivation to start writing proper short stories instead of the really short stuff I've produced lately.
Writing is good, and it's a good way to get rid of feelings that get cramped inside of you; it's an expression, good
or bad, that funnels out the flow of feelings before they drown you in them.

The rest of the post was deleted since it was done in a temporary moment of weakness.

The UK Embassy... Again

So, today I went to the UK Embassy for the 5th time since August in an effort to somehow get leave to enter the UK again.

This time however, since my interest is only for a visit I filled out the internet application forms they provide for this specific purpose. So, the form itself only demands for a passport-sized picture, which I secured easily enough. Then, the only thing it says is the following: "If you feel that you need more documents, please bring them with you to your appointment."

Now... personally, I think that is VAGUE as hell. Especially when one of the "documents" they need is somehow proof that Stacey is just my girlfriend and that she exists. And as an example of a document to prove that, I was told I could bring "emails" to support my relationship and prove that it was true.

Of course, if I do that they will probably say that someone else could have wrote them. These people are not helpful at all. Every turn there is a fucking Catch-22. They simply do not want you there, even just VISITING.

So how did it go? Well once I'd buggered the hell out of my friend DJgotga to print out all of the forms for me, I had to go to sleep early...

I left my house at 7:30 AM. Which, with an appointment at 9:15AM in Mexico city was the equivalent of saying: "I want to travel the world in 80days... walking."

2 hours later I had arrived at the Consulate, which thankfully had started late. So I was still admitted inside.

Since the last time, a lot of the issues of me not getting in were related to the fact that I went in as a Mexican, this time I chose to put the visa on my American passport. This raised a few eyebrows when the girl at the counter asked me why I wanted to put it there. When I told her that there had been suspiction of me being stopped the first time because I was Mexican, her answer was to hold up both passports and say:

"I assure you that a customs officer will see no difference in either of these."

So I answered: "Yes, that is what I'd like to think to."

I asked if it was a problem to put it through the american passport and she said no, so I gave her all the paperwork. All this time, she knew that I only brought that particular set of documents. But she made me go through all the motions of putting my fingers up for scan, etc. Then the only thing she asked was: "Do you want to give me any more documents?"

So I said: "I think that's all I need, do I need anything else?"

She just shrugged and took them. Then they had me wait for a while until everyone else was gone and a guy just came up and told me to get back there at 3PM.

So I had to go back at 3, which, with the prospect of a visa to finally get to see Stacey, didn't sound so bad. So I went there at 3. The passed me into a room to have an interview...

The man walked in, looked me straight in the eye and said. "At this moment, we are refusing your visa."

Their reasoning? The following:

"I have refused your visa application on this occasion because I am not satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that you meet all the requirements of section 41 of the Immigration Rules. This decision was made on the merits of this application. (...)"

Apparently I didn't provide the exact paperwork they were looking for, including the aforementioned email to prove my girlfriend exists. Not only that but, the cost of the visa was roughly 1400 pesos, which is about 130 dollars or about 60 british pounds... and I don't get it back. In fact, if I apply for another visa, it will cost another 1400 pesos just for them to check.

And the best part? They decided that since I hadn't provided the other paperwork, they wouldn't even look at the stuff from the Denial of Entry bit. So, assuming I go through the whole thing again, I still don't know if they'll give it to me.

Anyway. That was my day. Thanks for reading.

Remembering those gone...

Like many other gamers in the world, one of the RPG groups I'm part of decided to honor the passing of Gary Gygax by roleplaying one of his adventures.

In our case the story chosen was "The Tomb of Horrors" a campaign setting dating back to 1978, revised and converted to 3.5 by the people in Wizard and made available to the public in the form of a PDF.

More information on it can be reached at WIKI. Just about any RPGer worth his/her salt would have at some point heard of this adventure.


My character in this case was a dwarf Fighter with a keen flaming greataxe, which was created by the DM. Sometimes it's cool for that to be done; you don't have to worry about your character too much, it's a one time thing. Another thing is that you might end up playing a character class that you normally don't use, like in this instance, since I am more of a Ranger or Spellcaster type.

The really cool thing about today is that I got to see friends I hadn't seen in a while and it's always good to roleplay with the old gang. As most roleplayers know, the right group can make the worst adventure an entertaining event, and a really good adventure turn even more memorable.

It was good although we all ended up dead in the end in a rather silly and frustrating manner. (No way something that has the STARE OF LIFE SUCKING with a saving throw of 23 is properly classified as a CR 12!) Anyway, we did good after all, we managed to get 3 rooms away from the final boss. Guess we can't win them all.

It was great fun and very entertaining. Thanks for everything Gary! All of us gamers will carry on your legacy.

I refuse to go Emo!

But it sometimes hurts a lot to hear people say certain things.

A sad day for RPGers

Today it was announced that Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons and Dragons died at the age of 69. I started role playing when I was twelve... that makes it roughly 16 years worth of playing a game that was designed by him and a select group of people that inspired the way the Fantasy Genre would take off for the next three decades.

Of course there are other, non-DnD fantasy novels, etc. out there, however, you cannot step into a fantasy section in a library or bookstore where there is no influence whatsoever of DnD based or related books.

Some RPGs might not work under the d20 system, but modern RPGs take their roots in Dungeons and Dragons. All of them. New rules, new settings, nothing-to-do with fantasy products all exist, but all came from the same root, developed by Gygax and his team.

In all my years of RPGing I never got the chance to shake the man's hand. I never emailed, or went to a Gen Con to meet him. Not too long ago, Robert Jordan, another writer who I wanted to meet passed away. I am starting to realize, that the people I looked up to will soon be gone and I will have not met them or even just gotten an autograph.

As such, I'll leave this post with my best wishes and condolences to his friends and family, my regrets at not having met him and join the world of RPGers across continents to mourn his passing.