Sorry about the shouting, but I'm very passionate about the book that I finished reading Wednesday night, Three Cups of Tea. It's one of the few non-fiction books that I've read this year and I am so glad that I did. In 1993 David Mortensen tried to climb K2 in Pakistan but failed. On his way down, he got lost and found himself in a small village. Moved by their kindness and by the sight of the village children studying outdoors, he promised to build them a school.
Several times during this story of one man's attempts, triumphs and tragedies, I was moved to tears. True, that's not a very high bar, I've been known to cry at Hallmark commercials. The fact remains that this is a fabulous, hopeful book.
On to less serious matters...
Gaming: Last night we had an Annual edition of our Mutants & Masterminds game. As in comic books; Annuals are an episode out of the story line, usually focusing on particular members of the group. Diana had to work last night because she had Monday & Tuesday off (she went to DC for the inauguration). Rosemary wasn't up to gaming (Toby, her shelter-adopted sealpoint Siamese? died Wednesday - he was about 14 and had thyroid problems. She couldn't get him to the emergency vet because of the snow on the roads; she had to wait until the vet near her opened..and he died on the trip. Despite all her efforts, she feels guilty) so it was just Dr. Marvelous (Nate), The Wraith (Chris) & Totem (me).
David put together a pretty good plot, with a few threads to pick up later in the campaign, for only a couple hours of work. Some powered suits, with non-fatal weaponry but capable of being fitted with lethal weapons, were stolen. The military, or possibly some intelligence agency, was involved so they were keeping the local police and the supers out of the investigation.
The Wraith however, is everywhere. He read the manifest of stolen goods over the general's shoulder, for example (love that OMG hide skill). We did some investigation, sorely missing our PI, Lady Celtic. Dr. Marvelous got into some databases, Wraith spoke to his contacts and Totem chased down her half-brother to work on his training.
You kind of wonder about thieves who 1) use rubber bullets to subdue the gaurds & 2) drain the oil and gas from the stolen truck before dumping it into the river. Turns out that they were vigilantes hunting supervillains who used lethal force. It was a good fight and I got a real good 'Totem' moment. One of the people the trio was fighting had the ability to drain abilities, or suppress them. She suppressed Totem's magic; so Totem couldn't heal or use any of her other spells (translation -not using that in a fight anyway, probably and some other stuff). That means that, to Totem, she cut the connection Totem had to the gods and to her Valley. On Totem's next action she crit'd and knocked out the woman. Wraith helped by stunning her and Dr. Marvelous had helped by taking out the power in the woman's suit. But it was so perfect.
Totem, righteously irate that someone has done the unthinkable - cut her connection to the divine and violted her divine mandate - knocks her out with a solid blow of her sai (think the fight scene between the women in the flashback during Mummy Returns). Aww, cinematic goodness.
Reading: I've been catching up on my Shojo Beat magazines. I'm up to May 2007. Once I finished Three Cups and the four Thursday Next books, I've been re-reading books. I'd like to buy an external harddrive, to back up my laptop, so I'm trying to save money by not buying any new books. For at least three weeks, anyway. It's going to be soooo hard, biblioholic that I am.
Crafts
work in progress, Viking wire knitting, off the hex wrench (copper leader on the left, hanging down)
Same work, on the wrench - you can see the leader on the left. I need to practice more, my joins are still very rough.
And here it is, ready to work on it.
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