I managed to overlook another Clan Lord diary, though this one is more like mine in that it blurs the line between the character and the person playing. This is probably why I like it so much. James may be much maligned for his role-playing style, but he works hard, is willing to put himself out there, contributes quite a lot, and he always makes me laugh. He doesn't post all that often, probably because he leads a much healthier life than I do. I wish the bloke wasn't on the opposite side of the world, so I could buy him a pint.

I always enjoying getting to know the people behind the characters in Clan Lord. (Well, ok, not always. Frequently.) Now that I don't have to completely hide my relationship with Nori, I can interact directly with people who've gotten involved with her tangled web. The drawback to this is often times ICQ is more interesting than Clan Lord. But, that's why I play Clan Lord any way, for the people, so it's sort of the same difference. I stayed up way too late shooting the shit with PWC Shepherd and we both found out we have quite a bit in common. Not that I'm surprised, since I find I usually really like that I meet through Nori. It's all in the networking.

Speaking of which, get well quickly, Kim. You're missed by a lot of people. I'm one of them.

If you haven't voted in the poll, do.

I got a remarkable email from Gyges, one of the GMs of Alchera. The more I hear from them, the more I think they get it. The problems they are trying to solve are the deep ones in the Clan Lord design. It's not an easy problem. In essence, he's extending an invitiation to me, which is really flattering, and extremely tempting. It's something worth elaborating on, but I'll have to revisit it in a bit.

I had one of those great shared fleeting moments with a stranger last night. Going to visiting my ex-wife on the Upper East Side, I was mashed into the 6 training heading uptown. I hate that line, it's always a sardine run. I was mashed against a door on one side, and standing in front of me was a gentleman clearly enjoying the music pumping through his headphones. He was gently bopping and moving to his personal beat, nothing too overt, but noticable. I like when people aren't overly inhibited, so this made me smile a little bit. I look across the car, and notice someone against the opposite door. He's looking at the Bopper and he's smiling too, though, I think he was more amused than empathetic. I looked back at the Bopper, and started to find it more amusing too. I look back across the car, and realize we're now sharing in this joke. We catch each others eyes, and both start grinning. We have to look away, because I know I was going to laugh, and I think my fellow observer was in the same situation. The Bopper was completely unaware of this transaction. I had to do everything not to look at either the Bopper or the guy across the way, for fear of snickering. This was hard, since there's just not that many places to look on a packed subway. Luckily, my stop came, and I stepped out and could chuckle freely. Mind you, the whole situation wasn't really that funny, but everything is much funnier when (a) someone else is in on the joke and (b) you're not supposed to laugh.

posted 3:02 PM | link |