Feeling Good

[rowyn]

I went through my regular workout today. I haven't been wholly indolent so far this vacation -- John and I have done some walking around and I did some exercises last night -- but it feels good to have done my whole regular routine. Now I'm showered and clean and feeling nicely relaxed. If I manage to finish a Silver Scales entry today, I'll even consider myself productive. :)

Last night, after koogrr got home, we invited moonwolf, gwendelkitty and jordangreywolf over. The idea was to watch a video and/or play a game. I rather wanted to play more SPANC (Space Pirate Amazon Ninja Catgirl), a cute and simple game John got back in August. Except that SPANC only alows a maximum of four players. At first, Moonwolf volunteered to sit out, but Greywolf had spotted Tales of Tomorrow, one of John's graphic novels that I'd finished readng earlier in the day, sitting out. The lure of graphic novel was a strong temptation for him, so we figured the rest of us could play SPANC and he could read in contentment. So Jordan sat on the couch reading and laughing, occasionally laughing at the comic book and occasionally at the flavor commentary we invented for the narrative.

The first several times I played SPANC, it was a pretty quick game; I think the longest one went for an hour and a half, maybe two hours. This one went for nearly three. It would've been quicker if we hadn't had three rounds of ganging up on whoever was about to win and stopping them. :) In the end, we all had enough loot to win, but gwendelkitty had the most so she took the victory.

By then, Greywolf had finished reading and was drawing a picture of three of the Superior City NPCs, in a scene from the last session: Jing Li (my character), Nao, and Abigail, all wearing their new thematic kimonos and shopping. So cute! I was particularly pleased because I'd wanted a picture of the three in their new outfits. Heehee! And Moonwolf drew a cute SPANC-themed Sasta picture. <3

After that, everyone went home and we went to sleep.

Today, well, apart from exercising, I haven't done much. At about 5PM, Moonwolf is going to come over and take me to meet John at a dance studio, where the three of us will have a dance lesson. We think it's a ballroom dancing class but none of us actually know what kind. Should be fun!

Comments

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're having a good visit! :-)

[rowyn]

Thanks! I'm glad to be having a good time. :) But I still haven't seen you! There's a rumor we might be able to catch you at a screening of Mirrormask on Friday, though. :)

Woo! SPANC!

[genkitty.livejournal.com]

SPANC rules, utterly. And it gave Baba a new character for his collection of personalities: Rauol, the Poolboy.

Have fun with the dancing!

Mmmm, poolboys

[rowyn]

Collect all four! :D

I rather hope they'll do an expansion set to the game. John was saying "Just put out some blank cards, we'll draw on them" -- it'd be fun to design more challenges, especially. :)

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

"Tales of Tomorrow" was interesting in parts, but Koogrr's warnings were on-spot in regards to what parts I might find less than entertaining. =P It seemed to really go downhill toward the end of the collection. (Maybe they were running out of steam? All I know is that everything seemed to get gorier, grosser, and more in the gutter ... oh yeah, and suddenly, not-funny. But then "The Cobweb" was just stupid-weird for the entire run, ugly, badly drawn and ... why in the world was it sharing space with the other comics? I wonder.) But all the same, there was enough good stuff that I was glad to read it. =)

[rowyn]

I wouldn't call "The Cobweb" badly drawn, although I don't think the artist ever pulled off the effect the writer wanted with the title character's costume. But otherwise, the art was more WEIRD than bad. Did you notice how each Cobweb story was done in a different style? One like a woodcut, one like a "l'il Abner" comic, one in that "doll style" where I'm still not sure if they used photographs or drawings, one in 50's detective style ... very strange. But all of them were done by the same artist. Just being able to pull of that many different styles is pretty impressive, in its way. :)

But I was rather sorry to see "Johnny B. Quick" go. I could do with a whole collection of just "Greyshirt", though. One of the neat things about the "Greyshirt" story were that almost all of them weren't about him. It's like he was a bit player in his own comic. And yet cool. Maybe I should try writing some stories like that. :)

[(Anonymous)]

"Greyshirt" was interesting mostly in that it kept reminding me of "The Spirit": in the setting, in the fancy "Greyshirt" title setup on the front page of each comic, in the plots, etc. The "Spirit" wasn't all that GREAT, a lot of the time, but it had some neat elements in it, and in a sense Greyshirt seemed to catch "the spirit of the Spirit", so to speak ... though I think that the gratuitous gore (eyeballs being blown out, etc.) cheapened it and gave it more of an anachronistic "EC Comics" twist. The "main character is bit player in his own story" element reminds me of "The Spirit" as well; the author had a lot of stories to tell, and "The Spirit" was his stage, but it couldn't always be told with that character. That this author chose to do much the same thing with Greyshirt, however, suggests that it was a more deliberate and immediate choice. Not sure what to make of it.

Yeah, I thought Johnny B. Quick left a bit too early. I thought it was a bit disturbing that, in the last Quick episode, it looked like Ma and Pa were about to hang themselves in the barn. "It's all yours now, son."

And, yes, Cobweb used different styles. So can I. It didn't impress me greatly. Maybe there's a "story" behind it all that would make it more compelling, but that reminds me of art history in class - very ugly paintings are suddenly "profound" once you know the STORY, but if you were left with the piece on its own, you'd have to wonder why it was taking up the wall space.

Whoops!

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Didn't meant to post that one anonymously. Perils of using too many computers to check my mail.

[koogrr.livejournal.com]

I bought the collection on the strength of the Johnny B Quick and Greyshirt stories. I also liked First American. It was somewhat hit and miss. Greyshirt's tales were very subtle, the JBQ ones really off the wall in an agrarian way. I think the only Cobweb story I liked was the one where she was a child. I agree the ending was a bit of a downer, either running out of material or reacting to it being finished.