Well Honey
Feb. 9th, 2006 07:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebe
Ooof, it's been a slightly hectic two days.
Tuesday, I threw my D+D game for a bunch of people...and I thought it was one of my best ever(tm). The pacing was good, the story was nice and self-contained (for the most part) and there are a lot of things starting to come together for the players. Though no one's really said anything about it, I think it feels like a lot of those little clues and happenstances that seemed isolated before are finally starting to come together and a...picture is developing. Though I could be wrong. :) My biggest worry is...getting the party to operate at more of an even keel. Even during the fight there was quite a disparity in participation. And Odis is getting a pretty big head about his mage, so there's the impulse to just throw stuff at him, but that might just get the rest of the party killed. :) I'm faced with the challenge of finding a way to keep the game interesting to a wide confluence of personalities and someone with a not-insubstantial ego. ;) So that's the biggest challenge; the game changes immediately once the plot is revealed and while I don't mind that, I wonder if the way things have developed has been...just right. Well, I mean, of course it hasn't, but...what could I have done to make it...more mysterious yet interesting, without sputtering between too much information and too little? I really should have kept better notes after the games; hell, in general. :) That's one of the best lessons I've taken home from all of this...keep *extensive* notes about player reactions, and be as specific as possible. Also, I could have arced the transition from commoner to hero classes a little better. Ah well, c'est la vie.
Yesterday, work was fairly insane. In addition to having piles and piles of books to shelve there was an *enormous* order to take care of. Some outfit in New York that specializes in rare and special photography books suddenly pounced on our selection, to the tune of $1300 for 3 books. I can't even imagine paying that much for a book...unless, you know, there was a first edition signed Hesse or something. :) And even then, I would have to learn German to *really* enjoy it. ;) By the way, did you know that the craze over first editions is really a holdover from Victorian-age England? According to the way I hear it, first editions were really tiny printings of anywhere from 200 - 1000 printings to see how the public would react to the book. Based on the feedback and/or buzz (and the ridiculously easy British libel laws), the publishing house would edit the book and print a much larger second edition would be published or...not. In many cases, the first edition of a book would be drastically different from the final version that we've come to know and love. Since we have focus groups and advance review copies and all that stuff now, there's no need for the small first printing any more...but people still go crazy over it anyway. We have...maybe four or five first editions of "The DaVinci Code," and they're selling for upwards of $75.00. Which isn't *quite* so big a markup as other books, but that's a significant pop in the four or five years it's been out.
Tangent! The three books were really expensive, and the customer is keenly interested in buying more from us. Which is just awesome. Even with the bookseller discount, the sale ends up being near $1200, which makes Charles giddy with happiness...which makes everyone *else* giddy with relief. If ever there were a moment I understood intimately the Anya-ian joys of niche capitalism, it'd be right now. :)
Anyway, juggling that internet order along with the monstrous stacks of books was a real...challenge. I tend to get rather tight-lipped and easily flustered when I'm overwhelmed with stuff, and part of it's just a show to Charles and Don that I *am* working hard at this, and this *is* a lot of work for me to do day in and day out. It's not a 16-hour day or quite as involved as anything having to do with computers, perhaps, but it's decent, hard work...and compared to a lot of my coworkers, my workload is substantial. I worked quickly all afternoon, making sure that not only the books were organized on the brick-and-mortar shelves, but that this order and the others that came through were filled to spec. (Some online book buyers can get really finicky about merchandise.) So I do all that, get ready to run the credit card through...and one digit in the credit card number for the photography order is missing. Unf. I call the customer's workplace; he's gone home for the day, so I'll have to wait until...well, today to fulfill the order. Write a note for Charles about it, and stew about it for much of the day. Well, at least until![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dakimov called me to keep me company for a couple of hours. Thanks Dad. :)
I've been trying yoga about three times a day for the last little bit, and it's been helping my back *immensely*. There's a lot less tension there, though I can feel the knot against my right shoulder blade people have been talking about now. Oof. It doesn't feel like it's ever going to go away!
Also spent a good bit of the last few days checking other dentists about the tooth situation; it turns out that $100+ is standard for fillings these days, and *no one* uses metal any more. Which, hey, probably great, but...damnit, no one's going to see the bottom of my upper molars anyway. ;) Anyway, I have a tentative date scheduled for Feb. 20 with Dr. Beavers. Since his prices are comparable and everything, loyalty wins out over convenience, I suppose.
Anyway, it's time to get ready for work, officially.
Tuesday, I threw my D+D game for a bunch of people...and I thought it was one of my best ever(tm). The pacing was good, the story was nice and self-contained (for the most part) and there are a lot of things starting to come together for the players. Though no one's really said anything about it, I think it feels like a lot of those little clues and happenstances that seemed isolated before are finally starting to come together and a...picture is developing. Though I could be wrong. :) My biggest worry is...getting the party to operate at more of an even keel. Even during the fight there was quite a disparity in participation. And Odis is getting a pretty big head about his mage, so there's the impulse to just throw stuff at him, but that might just get the rest of the party killed. :) I'm faced with the challenge of finding a way to keep the game interesting to a wide confluence of personalities and someone with a not-insubstantial ego. ;) So that's the biggest challenge; the game changes immediately once the plot is revealed and while I don't mind that, I wonder if the way things have developed has been...just right. Well, I mean, of course it hasn't, but...what could I have done to make it...more mysterious yet interesting, without sputtering between too much information and too little? I really should have kept better notes after the games; hell, in general. :) That's one of the best lessons I've taken home from all of this...keep *extensive* notes about player reactions, and be as specific as possible. Also, I could have arced the transition from commoner to hero classes a little better. Ah well, c'est la vie.
Yesterday, work was fairly insane. In addition to having piles and piles of books to shelve there was an *enormous* order to take care of. Some outfit in New York that specializes in rare and special photography books suddenly pounced on our selection, to the tune of $1300 for 3 books. I can't even imagine paying that much for a book...unless, you know, there was a first edition signed Hesse or something. :) And even then, I would have to learn German to *really* enjoy it. ;) By the way, did you know that the craze over first editions is really a holdover from Victorian-age England? According to the way I hear it, first editions were really tiny printings of anywhere from 200 - 1000 printings to see how the public would react to the book. Based on the feedback and/or buzz (and the ridiculously easy British libel laws), the publishing house would edit the book and print a much larger second edition would be published or...not. In many cases, the first edition of a book would be drastically different from the final version that we've come to know and love. Since we have focus groups and advance review copies and all that stuff now, there's no need for the small first printing any more...but people still go crazy over it anyway. We have...maybe four or five first editions of "The DaVinci Code," and they're selling for upwards of $75.00. Which isn't *quite* so big a markup as other books, but that's a significant pop in the four or five years it's been out.
Tangent! The three books were really expensive, and the customer is keenly interested in buying more from us. Which is just awesome. Even with the bookseller discount, the sale ends up being near $1200, which makes Charles giddy with happiness...which makes everyone *else* giddy with relief. If ever there were a moment I understood intimately the Anya-ian joys of niche capitalism, it'd be right now. :)
Anyway, juggling that internet order along with the monstrous stacks of books was a real...challenge. I tend to get rather tight-lipped and easily flustered when I'm overwhelmed with stuff, and part of it's just a show to Charles and Don that I *am* working hard at this, and this *is* a lot of work for me to do day in and day out. It's not a 16-hour day or quite as involved as anything having to do with computers, perhaps, but it's decent, hard work...and compared to a lot of my coworkers, my workload is substantial. I worked quickly all afternoon, making sure that not only the books were organized on the brick-and-mortar shelves, but that this order and the others that came through were filled to spec. (Some online book buyers can get really finicky about merchandise.) So I do all that, get ready to run the credit card through...and one digit in the credit card number for the photography order is missing. Unf. I call the customer's workplace; he's gone home for the day, so I'll have to wait until...well, today to fulfill the order. Write a note for Charles about it, and stew about it for much of the day. Well, at least until
dakimov called me to keep me company for a couple of hours. Thanks Dad. :)I've been trying yoga about three times a day for the last little bit, and it's been helping my back *immensely*. There's a lot less tension there, though I can feel the knot against my right shoulder blade people have been talking about now. Oof. It doesn't feel like it's ever going to go away!
Also spent a good bit of the last few days checking other dentists about the tooth situation; it turns out that $100+ is standard for fillings these days, and *no one* uses metal any more. Which, hey, probably great, but...damnit, no one's going to see the bottom of my upper molars anyway. ;) Anyway, I have a tentative date scheduled for Feb. 20 with Dr. Beavers. Since his prices are comparable and everything, loyalty wins out over convenience, I suppose.
Anyway, it's time to get ready for work, officially.
