How many different characters on Lost have uttered those words? Having watched all of Season 2 and the first two episodes of Season 3 over the last couple of weeks, I can tell you that it’s quite a lot. And after all that viewing I’ve come to the conclusion that those characters are a self-deluded lot. I do, in fact, think they are stupid. They are after all outthought, outmaneuvered, and outfought by the Others at every turn. They are easily fooled and can be manipulated at will. They are utterly incapable of turning any situation to their advantage. All they end up doing is losing their guns, their boats, and even their kids. For awhile I was willing to go with it. Now that we’re into the third season, it’s just getting tiresome.

I caught Flags of Our Fathers Friday night. As if there were any question I’d see a Clint Eastwood directed WWII flick. It’s an excellent film all in all and the best war movie I’ve seen in a long time. It will likely be compared to Saving Private Ryan but it’s a much better film. Saving Private Ryan had these really harrowing combat sequences but an ultimately stupid story. Flags of Our Fathers brings the brutal fighting on Iwo Jima into sharp focus but that’s only part of a larger, well-drawn story. The last 20 minutes of the movie suffers from “Return of the King Syndrome” somewhat, where you keep thinking it’s about to end and then there’s another scene. Other than that bit of drag at the end though, it’s a really well made film and well worth checking out. Eastwood has made a followup film, Letters from Iwo Jima, that shows the battle from the Japanese point of view. That’s out in February and I’m really looking forward to it.

The GR summit is over and it went very well indeed. It’s rare that we get the whole staff together outside of the convention environment, so we tried to make the most of it. Nicole’s organization of the event was masterful and all the comings, goings, and outtings went off like clockwork. We had many important discussions and made some key decisions about the company’s future. Productive and fun to boot.

Friday I’m off again, this time to Ft. Wayne for the Alliance Open House. Ft. Wayne is nothing to write home about but the upside is that I’ll get my yearly chance to browse Alliance’s warehouse. Next week I will surely be reading a half dozen new Osprey books. Man, I love those things. If they had a subscription service, I’d sign up instantly.

I got back from my weekend trip late Sunday night totally exhausted. I had a blast but it was one of those go go go sorts of trips. I didn’t help myself by arriving at the airport at 4:30 am when my flight was at 7:40. I think somewhere along the line I thought I’d have to get there by 6:30 and then in my mind that became, “My flight is at 6:30.” This was the info I gave Shuttle Express and they told me to be ready at 4:00 am. I was thus running on about two hours of sleep for all of Friday.

Chris Hanrahan of Endgame picked up me at the Oakland airport and we went to his place. He offered to let me nap but I didn’t fly all the way there to waste my time sleeping. There was only one thing to do: play Battletech. As near as I can tell, 1991 was the last time I played classic Battletech but the game hasn’t changed that much since then. We played with 200 tons of mechs each, which was probably too much for the time we had, but whatever. We spent a few hours blasting away at each other, but had to leave before finishing to make sure we made our dinner reservation.

Around 3 pm Chris, Brian Isikoff, and I left for Napa Valley. We were having dinner at Bouchon, one of Thomas Keller’s restaurants. Chris had allotted extra time in case we hit traffic but the roads were clear and we made it up there with an hour to spare. And what does one do with an empty hour in Napa Valley? Why head to a winery for a tasting, of course! We went to St. Supery and tasted six different wines. My favorite was the Muscato, a tasty dessert wine. It was sweet and fruity without being cloying. Very nice indeed.

Feeling nice and relaxed after a bit of vino, we then headed to Bouchon. Our fourth for dinner, Bruce “the Traitor” Harlick, met us there and we were soon seated. Nicole was not on this trip, so I’m afraid there isn’t a slideshow to run you through the whole meal. I started with the Assiette de Charcuterie, a delicious selection of cured meats served with mustard and gherkins. I chose one of their daily specials, seared scallops served on chestnut puree, for my entrée and it was excellent. I also tried Bruce’s Boudin Noir and Brian’s Steak Frites and both were also great. You wouldn’t think that you could do much to kick up French Fries, but they were outrageously good. Despite all that food, I could not resist Chocolate Mousse for dessert. Nicole would have loved it. Very chocolaty but not too sweet.

Amazingly, I did not fall asleep in a food coma on the ride back to Chris’s place. Once there we went to his home studio in the basement to record an interview for Chris and Brian’s podcast 2d6 Feet in a Random Direction (http://www.2d6feet.com/). We spent over two hours talking about games, the game industry, and related topics and it was really fun. Look for that in a few weeks. I think they may split it into two episodes.

I was up the next morning at 7 am after a fitful night of sleep. We got to Endgame by 8 am so Chris and the staff could do their last minute prep for the party. This was the first time I had seen the new Endgame location and it is an amazing game store. It has a great selection of games, well organized and cleanly presented. Overhead there’s a mezzanine with tables for gaming, including a whole area for minis gaming that features beautiful terrain and battle boards. After a quick tour, I said to Chris, “You bastard, I’m going to spend money here today.” (And I did).

At 9:30 I met my friend Amanda nearby for breakfast. She’s one of my punk rock friends from NYC who now lives in the Bay Area. We played in two bands together in the 90s and she was on that European tour I roadied for ten years ago. She’s also a vegan and breakfast is hard on her kind. We ended up waiting until 10, when a vegetarian Vietnamese place she knew opened for the day. It was like having lunch for breakfast, but the food was good. We caught up and I got the round up on some of my old punk friends she’s been in touch with. She also gave me a CD of songs from her latest band, Crunch Push Ups.

At 11 I returned to Endgame to find the party in full swing. The store was full of people and the game tables on the mezzanine were already beehives of activity. I spent an hour or so meeting and talking to various folks. I got a chance to chat with the other special guest, Guido Teuber, and with Green Ronin’s only ex-employee, Heather Barnhorst. Then at noon I went upstairs for the charity True20 game. Brian Isikoff was running the game and he decided to go with a pulp adventure. Bruce Harlick also joined us. The other three players had won their seats in a raffle but it could hardly have worked out better if we planned it. Everyone in the game was a good roleplayer and we had a blast playing classic pulp archetypes. Brian was a very good GM and the players all got into the spirit of the genre. I think it’s fair to say that a fun time was had by all.

Later in the afternoon one of the other owners of Endgame, Anthony, gave me a demo of the Spanish minis skirmish game Infinity. My friend Rick has been collecting the minis because they have an anime-inspired look but we haven’t had a chance to try the game. I think I’ll need to play a couple of more times before I decide if I really like it, but I will give Infinity huge props for playing differently than most other minis games. There is often a certain sameness to miniatures games and Infinity tries hard to shake things up. It is quite successful in making the game interactive. You never sit bored while your opponent takes his turn. Instead, because of the reaction system, you are constantly analyzing his moves and trying to find line of sight from your models so you can take a shot (I found this also led to a lot of squatting to get the “models-eye view”). Due to the game’s lethality, it seems like you’ve got to play with a lot of terrain. Running your infantry out in the open is a sure way to die. When Infinity’s full English-language rulebook comes out, I will definitely check it out.

Saturday night I had dinner with TS Luikart and his girlfriend at the Fat Lady, a restaurant that used to be a brothel. The décor was kitschy and the food was good. I had a nicely cooked piece of tri-tip with a mushroom pan sauce. TS has been working with me on WH40K Roleplay, but nearly all our interaction has been virtual. It was nice to meet up face to face and talk things over. After dinner I met up with the Endgame staff at another restaurant. Despite the waiter’s best efforts, I did not have a second dinner, however. I did get a chance to talk to Finn, one of Endgame’s other owners (there are four, for those keeping track at home), and his wife Nina. Finn is an old punk rocker so we spent some time chatting about music in addition to the usual game talk.

Sunday could have been a mellower day but with only three days of trip I figured I should make the most of it. Chris dropped me back at Endgame at 10:30, where I met up with another staffer (also named Chris) for a morning game of Flames of War. This Chris was nice enough to loan me his Italian army. It was my Bersaglieri defending against his American Armored Rifle Company in the Hold the Line mission. It was nice to get to try out a different army and fight something other than a British Armor Company. I did well with my reserve rolls and managed to concentrate my firepower in a couple of areas. We didn’t have time to play through the whole game, but in the last turn I destroyed one of his rifle platoons and saw off his Sherman tanks with an ambush by a Lancia 90 so things were looking good for the Bersaglieri.

From there I hopped on the BART and met up with Jeremy Crawford, one of the key figures in the development of Blue Rose, and Phillip Lienau, the cartographer behind those outrageously detailed maps in Freedom City, 2^nd Edition. We picked up a couple of deep-dish pizzas and then headed over to Book of the Righteous author Aaron Loeb’s place. There I met Aaron’s 9-month old daughter for the first time and she was quite a cutie. Aaron’s wife Kathy joined us for pizza and then retreated to the basement to work. The rest of us settled in for an afternoon of Runebound, Fantasy Flight’s adventure boardgame. Runebound is basically Talisman: the Next Generation and I mean that in the best way. It takes the basic concepts of Talisman and refines and modernizes them. The death rules do seem a bit harsh so I might recommend using the optional rules for that. In our game at least two of the players were so hosed by dying that for the second half of the game it was clear they could not win. Other than that, the game played well and I enjoyed it.

Aaron and Kathy dropped me back at the airport and my 9 pm flight left on schedule. Once I sat down on the plane, I realized how tired I was. I felt like I had maximized my fun though and got to play games like I was 19 years old again. Big thanks to Chris Hanrahan for inviting me down and congrats to Endgame for making it 5 years in a tough business. May the next 5 years be even better.

I’m not sure why, but lately I have been finishing things I started 15 to 20 years ago. Oh, not big and life changing things, but small things I had always meant to get back to. So in the 80s I read and enjoyed Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, but I never read the sequels. Last week I finished Speaker for the Dead, which was excellent, and Xenocide is on deck. In the movie department I finally watched Superman II. I had seen the original in the theater but never bothered with any of the sequels. After seeing the new Superman film this summer, which decided it was important to cleave to the continuity of the original two movies, I figured I’d check out part II and see why. Thankfully, I only recorded this on Tivo and so didn’t spend any extra money to see it, because man Superman II blew. I mean OK, “In Zod We Trust” is funny and all but overall it was a total piece of crap. I have considerably higher hopes for Samurai II, the middle installment of Hiroshi Inagaki’s trilogy about legendary samurai Musashi Miyamoto starring the mighty Toshiro Mifune. A lifetime ago when I was working at Kim’s Video in NYC I had taken home and watched part I but never got around to finishing the trilogy. When I saw IFC had part II coming up, I had Tivo record it. I haven’t watched it yet but hope to next week some time.

In the morning I’m leaving for Oakland. I’ll be there for the aforementioned 5 year Anniversary party at Endgame. Bay Area folks, I hope to see you there.

Over the weekend we had a house guest, a friend of Kate’s named Alex we had agreed to watch while his family was out of town. Friday night we took the kids out for Mexican food and then bowling. In the car in the way to dinner, we were talking a bit about Kate’s school and (as it often does) the phrase “hippy school” came up. That triggered the following exchange in the the back seat:

Alex: Is Chris a hippy?

Kate: Chris? No, he’s a punk.

Alex: Oh yeah, well I’m a pimp!

Nicole and I cracked up, Alex being a 10 year old white boy with a lisp and all. Oh yeah, a pimp indeed. So I asked him if he knew what a pimp was and he admitted that he didn’t. At this point I had to stop and consider my options. I didn’t want to explicitly tell Alex what it was all about, as I have no idea what his parents may have told him about sex and I didn’t want him running home to say, “Mom, I learned about pimping this weekend!” I finally setttled on, “Pimps are people who make money by exploiting women. They are not cool guys and you really don’t want to be one.” This seemed to satisfy Alex and there was no more talk of pimping that night.

I went to the Suicide Girls Burlesque Show last night at Neumos. I had missed the last tour and was curious to check it out, particularly since I’ve seen a fair amount of Seattle burlesque over the past year. I must say that I expected to have a better time. My impressions follow:

The Venue: Neumos is a music club and it’s a fine place to see bands. I’ve caught acts like Mission of Burma and the Ex there and liked it fine. It was a shitty place to see burlesque though because if you are standing more than ten feet from the stage it’s hard to see. It was also completely packed with people and thus really hot. I had pushed my way up pretty close, about fifteen feet from the performers, and I was still constantly shifting in place trying to catch the action. For the most part I was only able to see torsos. Now when I’m watching Mission of Burma perform, I don’t care if I see Roger Miller’s legs. When I’m watching a burlesque show, I’d like to see it all. There were parts of the show when the girls dropped from sight completely and I could only wonder what they were doing. I think this sort of show would have been much better at a venue like the Moore Theater, which has tiered seating that would provide a way better view.

The Anonymity: I was surprised that the show had no MC. Reagan talked to the crowd before and after but during the set there was nothing. I think the production would really benefit from a MC. At other burlesque shows I’ve seen the MC would introduce each routine, telling you who the performers were. At no point in the entire show were the individual SGs called out and introduced to the crowd. That seems a shame.

The Music: I must say that I found many of the musical choices lacking. Suicide Girls has always billed itself as a site for punk and goth girls. Well, there was a bit of goth thanks to Nixon but there wasn’t even one song that approached punk rock. I realize punk isn’t always going to be the best choice for dance routines, but it seems to me that it’s pretty integral to the SG identity and should be represented. Surely the girls could have some fun with songs like “Beat on the Brat” and “Teenagers from Mars”.

The Good: Lest you all think I’m just a cranky SOB, let me say that I did like a fair number of the routines. I thought the movie-related ones worked the best. The Reservoir Dogs and Napoleon Dynamite segments were both really good. The stewardess routine was fun, ending with them throwing packets of peanuts into the crowed. I also liked the “Mister Mister” skit, a vignette about obsession and insanity.

The Conclusion: Overall, while I had an OK time, I’ve enjoyed local troupes like the Heavenly Spies and the Atomic Bombshells more. This may in part be due to their more retro approach. I think the SG show was trying to be more “edgy” but in so doing they missed out on some of what makes classic burlesque, like the glitzy costumes and even tassels. All that said, I’d probably give a new SG show a shot if they performed it in a better venue.

Today is the anniversary of one of the most shocking events in American history. On September 11 religious militants murdered a large number of innocent citizens on American soil.

The date was 1857 and the place Mountain Meadows in the Utah Territory.

The victims of this attack were the settlers of the Fancher-Baker Party, one of the richest wagon trains to ever strike west. The settlers were from Arkansas and they were quite the prize. They had a sizeable herd of cattle, large sums of gold, many modern weapons, and a trove of household goods. As many wagon trains had done before them, they planned to rest and resupply in Mormon territory. Their timing, however, couldn’t have been worse. The Mormon church was in one of its periodic disputes with the American government. Although Brigham Young was the appointed governor of the Utah Territory and the superintendent of Indian Affairs there as well, he had proclaimed that he would decide which American laws would be obeyed in Utah. President Buchanan appointed a new governor and other officials and ordered 2500 troops to escort them west.

The Fancher-Baker Party had no knowledge that Utah had turned into a bubbling cauldron of discontent. When they arrived, they were surprised at the hostility that met them. Communities had been barred from selling them food. They had hoped to spend up to a month resting and resupplying. They soon realized that they’d get no supplies and decided to pass on through. They were quite careful, circling the wagons every night and posting regular guards. Finally they passed through Mormon territory and reached a verdant area known as Mountain Meadows. Here they hoped to rest up before they final push through the desert and on to California.

Feeling the worst was behind them, they were lax in their security that night. They did not circle the wagons, they did not post armed guards, and did not set up camp adjacent to a water source. They next morning, September 7, gunfire erupted all around the camp and in minutes seven settlers were dead. They reacted quickly, circling their wagons and setting up defenses. At this point they likely suspected Indians were attacking them. They were quite wrong. It was in fact the Mormon militia, though many had painted their faces in Indian war paint.

A siege developed over the next few days. Water soon ran out and ammunition began to run low. The settlers tried dressing two young girls in bright white dresses and sending them with buckets on a mad dash for water. The girls were gunned down in sight of the whole party.

On September 11 a man named John D. Lee (a relative of Robert E. Lee) came into camp under the white flag of truce. He said Indians surrounded them but that he and the Mormons had negotiated a settlement for them. If they gave up their arms and marched out with the Mormons, they’d be allowed to leave in peace. The settlers argued furiously about the offer. Many were convinced that giving up their arms would be a mistake. Others pointed out that their situation was dire and they wouldn’t hold out much longer. Eventually, they decided to trust John D. Lee. It was their last mistake.

The men were separated from the women and children and each marched off with a militiaman at his side. When the men had gone some distance, the women and children were allowed to follow. Then a command was given and each militiaman shot the man beside him at point blank rank. Over the next three minutes most of the remaining members of the Fancher-Baker Party were killed. They were shot, bludgeoned, bayoneted, and run through with swords. Others had their throats slit. All told over 140 settlers were murdered. Less than 20 children survived. All of them were less than 8 years old. Older children died with their parents.

The bodies were then stripped of clothes and valuables. The cattle were seized and re-branded, the wagons and goods confiscated, the gold taken. The nearly naked bodies were left to rot unburied. The children were parceled out to local families like prizes. And when the Mountain Meadows Massacre was discovered, the men who perpetrated it said, “It wasn’t us, it was the Indians!”

Within a year it was widely understood that it was not in fact the Indians who did it. Soon, however, the Civil War overtook America and the fate of a wagon train in distant Utah was forgotten. John D. Lee was eventually put on trial and executed 20 years later. None of the other participants or the men who gave the orders were ever punished. In fact, many of them testified against Lee as part of a face-saving political deal.

If you’d like to read more about this very different September 11, I highly recommend American Massacre by Sally Denton. It’s a very well researched book that tells a powerful story.

Since I left WotC in 2002 I haven’t had any kind of decent health coverage personally or for my family. This is one of the parts of working in the game industry in America that is not so great. This week I finally bit the bullet and went to a dentist for the first time in four years. After the obligatory x-rays, the doctor was charting my teeth when his assistant shouted out, “That guy is in the hallway again!” He jumps up, pulls off his latex gloves, and hustles to the phone to call the police. Turns out the offices on their floor had been plagued by a thief with good lockpicking skills. This guy had broken into the dentist’s office a couple of times. Apparently his usually tactic was to steal stamps (which is odd) but on one occasion he took photographic equipment worth 2K. Since the thief had begun targeting the building, the dentist had installed new locks and video cameras. They had caught him on tape one day and had a screen capture of him taped to the wall.

So the dentist calls the cops. The thief is at the office right next door, trying to pick the lock. Apparently those folks are on vacation. The assistant gives a good description, down to the target bad he’s carrying. After a few minutes, the guy leaves, having failed to get the door open. The dentist then returns to me and begins once again to chart my teeth. Less than five minutes later, someone from another office in the building comes in and says the thief is in cuffs in the lobby. Then the cops show up to take statements and confirm that the guy is in custody. The dentist and his assistant are delighted. He returns to me again and apologizes for the delays and interruptions. I said, “That’s OK, this is the most exciting dentist appointment I’ve ever had.”

I was back there today for a cleaning and some fillings. I have two other visits to make to take care of everything. I’ve already spent all the money I had budgeted for this. I tell you, rates for fillings have really gone up since the mid-90s. I think I may fund the rest with some Ebay auctions of excess game stuff I have. That’d probably work a lot better than a “Will Design Games for Dental Work” sign.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I haven’t been in a bloggy mood lately. Too much stuff going on and most of it things I can’t talk about publicly anyway. Tonight we had dinner with “the other Chris Pramas,” a cousin from Gloucester that I’ve barely seen in the last 20 years. He works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (part of the Dept. of Commerce) as a Consumer Safety Inspector. He’s in Seattle for a few weeks helping out the local office and we had a chance to get together over dinner at the Brooklyn. I had seen him a few weeks ago at my aunt’s funeral. I don’t think I’ve seen him twice in one month since we were kids. Anyway, it was good to catch up.

I’m trying to get my plans in order for my travels this Fall. It’s looking like I have four trips from mid-September to mid-November. These are all business trips, though we are tagging a wedding onto the end of one of them. We’re also hosting the whole GR staff here in Seattle for our annual summit in that period as well. Staying home over Xmas this year is thus looking very attractive.