Pr3++yG33kyTh1ng

Yesterday was an absolutely jam-packed Saturday and I wasn't even able to participate in all of the awesomeness due to scheduling issues.
Ok. So I left the house at about 9am. After passing the sixth smashed up car, I exited the interstate in favor of the surface roads. It had rained, and in Houston people freak out while driving if water falls from the sky. "Bad magic! Bad magic!"
I was looking for a specific book for the game last night, but it wasn't at Borders.
Still early for my reef meeting, I decided to go to a comic book store (one I've visited often) for Free Comic Book Day. I'm not ashamed to say I've been to a lot of Free Comic Book Days. The way it usually works, comic publishers have dropped off an enormous pile of swag which is then spread across a table. People can take whatever they want. Politeness serves to keep people from grabbing every copy of any one thing, but in some cases one copy of each comic is pre-bagged and handed to people as they walk in.
In the case of my first stop, I said "FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!" as soon as I walked in.
The clerk replied, "Oh yeah" and wandered off into the back.
When she came back, she handed me one comic. I KNOW they have more and if they were limiting it they could have let me choose one, but they gave me one lame-looking comic, stamped across the front with the name of the store.
I was a little upset, but there was another store nearby and I needed to get to my Reef Club meeting anyway as we had flown in a speaker to talk to us about sea horses. After a trip for burritos (whole wheat tortilla) and introductions at a local fish store, I headed for my next comic target.
I'd never been to this store. It isn't out of the way, I'm just usually on the other side of the freeway.
This shop was crowded, packed with geeky stuff and dark. It also smelled even more strongly stale than most comic shops. And apparently they take the hobby too seriously to celebrate Free Comic Book Day. I left, taking comfort in the fact that even wearing a Jolt Cola T-shirt I looked like too much of an outsider to greet and accept into the discussion of when Deep Space Nine jumped the shark.
I darted over to another comic shop. I'd never been to this one, either (geeks are a territorial people) and I was forced to park waaaaaaay over near an "erotic cabaret boutique" because there was a crowd.
While the comics were laid out across a table in the back, there were big magic markered signs dictating a limit of three free comics. All that was left was crap.
I left without buying anything.
Frustrated at the amount of time this was taking, I took off for another store. This was my store. I know these people. I should have gone there first. This is the place my daughter (when she was four) proudly named "The Geek Store". The geeks were not amused, but I was.
Every time I visit they are playing some table top role-playing game, discussing important stuff like politics (or how lightsaber battles would improve congress), current events (how much the latest comic book movie sucked compared to the comic book), literature (how could they cut Tom Bombadil from Fellowship of the Ring?!?!?), and interpersonal relations (who has the most tyrannical mother).
This obviously amuses me much more than it amuses the comic industry. They had nothing from the announced titles strewn across a table.
They were celebrating anyway. There were a bunch of regular comics priced at ten and twenty-five cents. I picked up several and some full-priced regular titles. I also got eight ten-sided dice that rolled well in test throws on the counter. Later in the evening, they sucked.
Still missing my Star Wars Free Comic Book Day comic (the main purpose of my quest) I drove out past our exit to a little shop I've only been to once or twice, almost always because it is right next door to a Japanese place we like.
This shop had everything. I gratefully purchased a few comics and chatted with the owner for a bit.
I made it home about twenty minutes before the first person showed up for the game.
The game was awesome. My underwear model werewolf continues to surprise everyone, including himself. It is possible to have both substance and style, at least in a fantasy game.
My favorite moment was when I criticized our group's young magic user. I asked him "bend reality" and improve our seats at a sporting event.
He replied that he couldn't do that yet.
"Why do we keep you around?" I asked,"Can you make an omelette?"
"Yes." he confidently replied.
"Using magic?"
"No," he clarified.
I love this game.
I did miss a music festival my family attended and I'm sad about that. This time of year weekends tend to fill up months in advance. I'm going to try to watch the scheduling more closely in the future.

Finally, lawyer David Canton has drafted a general disclaimer for the internet. Like all disclaimers, it is probably in response to a lawsuit or something stupid someone did. Either way, I like it:

Business is unpredictable and unsafe. The Internet is dangerous. Many blogs have been written about these dangers, and there's no way we can list them all here. Read the blogs. The Internet is covered in slippery slopes with loose, slippery and unpredictable footing. The RIAA can make matters worse. Patent trolls are everywhere. You may fall, be spammed or suffer a DOS attack. There are hidden viruses and worms. You could break your computer. There is wild code, which may be vicious, poisonous or carriers of dread malware. These include viruses and worms. E-mail can be poisonous as well. We don't do anything to protect you from any of this. We do not inspect, supervise or maintain the Internet, blogosphere, ISPs or other features, natural or otherwise.