Possibly the Bank of America is plotting to drive me crazy: no, of course not, they're actually plotting to drive everyone crazy :)
After my unsuccessful attempt to talk to them about mortgages a couple of days ago, I tried applying for a credit card - after all, they had turned me down before because I wasn't a permanent resident, and that has been solved. I did this online, after my experiences with the staff (plus, I know from last time, all the staff would do is log into the same screen and do the typing for me, which, well, I can do easier than I can get them to spell my name right for one thing).
However, I got turned down - when I clicked on the link as to why, it referenced one of the credit check sites, and indicated that either there was a problem, or the bank deemed that I had all the debt I could handle, in their opinion. OK, annoying, but I know better than to argue with computer-moderated processes, and added to my mental list, an item to go elsewhere & apply for a card.
However, I log into my electronic Bank account before work this morning, and all of a sudden, instead of 3 accounts (cheque for each of us, joint savings), there are 4 - and the 4th is something called a Platinum Visa, with an assigned limit and no activity to date. So ... did they make a mistake? Did I misunderstand what 'You have been declined' means? No, actually I think some Gogol-like conspirators have taken over the bank and are using it to experiment with surrealist comedy: that might explain the Bank's performance for the last couple of years, and how it got so close to bankruptcy, after all.
And why was I applying for a new credit card? Not, actually, because I need more credit to go spending with, I've been down that road once, never again. No, because I discovered that the credit rating agencies - the all-powerful arbiters of the US financial markets - use the amount of unused credit you have as part of how you are rated: the more unused credit you have access to, the higher your rating.
So, to get a card and then never use it will improve my credit rating, something which still needs work as (of course) they only consider US financial history. Slightly bizarre. And, in case you're unaware, your credit rating will substantially affect not just the amount of mortgage you can acquire, but the interest rate and other terms you will be offered, so getting it as high as possible, fairly quickly, just makes financial sense. Seems a very odd way to run your country.
Oh, and Gogol? Russian satirist :)
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Medical Bulletin Day
Well, first off, a trifle of good news: my calf problem is in fact just cellulitis, & I've gotten antibiotics to finish clearing it up. I have to say (immediately wandering off topic) that we were amazingly lucky in picking our doctor when we got here - she & her husband are in joint practice, are SF-fans (nuts) complete with photos shaking hands with Shatner (!) and a Deforest Kelly Award on the wall for providing medical services for one of the WorldCons, and she is so incredibly friendly, open and relaxed: we're never hurried through or given the brush-off, she never patronises us, she's quite open about her own medical issues (and issues with doctors' attitudes, to my great amusement), and we always feel well-informed, and well tended.
Not sure how we got so lucky, but she's the first doctor I've met since leaving NZ that understands (and complies with!) the concept of informed consent - not that all NZ doctors are up to scratch on that of course :) Given all the horror stories I'd heard over the years about American medicine and the mercenary nature of it, I feel like we've struck a tiny vein of gold in a bedrock of pure lead.
Yesterday, for instance, she spent an hour dealing with both of us (from our UK experiences, we'd learned to always to to appointments together, for a variety of reasons). By any other standards, that's at least twice what'd I would expect: and this is on top of the nurse conducting the initial formalities (weight check, temp check, taking initial notes as to the cause of the visit - all very efficient & a good idea of how to maximise the doctors' utility, I think).
And the hour was well-spent, don't get me wrong. In her relaxed & charming manner, she reviewed all our medications (quite a list, between the two of us!), checked symptoms, and carefully left openings to draw us out & find anything we might have been shying away from mentioning. All in all, really impressive as a technique, I think.
I was going to launch into another rave today, but it'll have to wait for another time: all of a sudden, I'm a bit busier at work - not actual functional things to do, just checklists and reports and paper-chasing for the new manager. Hmm, what do you call paper-chasing in the brave new world of email and the internet? Electron-chasing? pixel-chasing? tail-chasing?
Not sure how we got so lucky, but she's the first doctor I've met since leaving NZ that understands (and complies with!) the concept of informed consent - not that all NZ doctors are up to scratch on that of course :) Given all the horror stories I'd heard over the years about American medicine and the mercenary nature of it, I feel like we've struck a tiny vein of gold in a bedrock of pure lead.
Yesterday, for instance, she spent an hour dealing with both of us (from our UK experiences, we'd learned to always to to appointments together, for a variety of reasons). By any other standards, that's at least twice what'd I would expect: and this is on top of the nurse conducting the initial formalities (weight check, temp check, taking initial notes as to the cause of the visit - all very efficient & a good idea of how to maximise the doctors' utility, I think).
And the hour was well-spent, don't get me wrong. In her relaxed & charming manner, she reviewed all our medications (quite a list, between the two of us!), checked symptoms, and carefully left openings to draw us out & find anything we might have been shying away from mentioning. All in all, really impressive as a technique, I think.
I was going to launch into another rave today, but it'll have to wait for another time: all of a sudden, I'm a bit busier at work - not actual functional things to do, just checklists and reports and paper-chasing for the new manager. Hmm, what do you call paper-chasing in the brave new world of email and the internet? Electron-chasing? pixel-chasing? tail-chasing?
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Dorothy, I dont think we're in Surrey any more
Except maybe we are?
I went to the bank yesterday to send some money to England, which took the usual 40 minutes or so - they appear to have institutional Alzheimers, as it's a calamitous major issue every month when I do this, and it always takes much tut-tutting, consulting of colleagues, staring blankly at computer screens, looking up help screens, asking what IBAN number they need for the UK bank and ignoring my proffered advice that they dont use IBAN numbers, you need to use National ID (which is always the major stumbling block).
Anyway, that wasn't what astonished me - I brought a book and got 3 chapters read while they rotated in ever-decreasing circles.
After that, I asked about talking to someone about a mortgage. Not applying for one, not even asking for pre-approval so we could go house hunting, just an initial discussion. The girl* serving me told me that she wasn't permitted to, and in fact (if I understood her correctly), noone was allowed to until they'd called a special number to check (something) first. And of course she didn't know the number.
I spent another 20 minutes waiting while she tried to find the number, asked her colleagues, and did all the usual useless show of activity without achievement: then I told her not to bother, I'd go try to find someone who could actually talk to me about doing business.
I hadn't realised, Kafka was an optimist.
I went to the bank yesterday to send some money to England, which took the usual 40 minutes or so - they appear to have institutional Alzheimers, as it's a calamitous major issue every month when I do this, and it always takes much tut-tutting, consulting of colleagues, staring blankly at computer screens, looking up help screens, asking what IBAN number they need for the UK bank and ignoring my proffered advice that they dont use IBAN numbers, you need to use National ID (which is always the major stumbling block).
Anyway, that wasn't what astonished me - I brought a book and got 3 chapters read while they rotated in ever-decreasing circles.
After that, I asked about talking to someone about a mortgage. Not applying for one, not even asking for pre-approval so we could go house hunting, just an initial discussion. The girl* serving me told me that she wasn't permitted to, and in fact (if I understood her correctly), noone was allowed to until they'd called a special number to check (something) first. And of course she didn't know the number.
I spent another 20 minutes waiting while she tried to find the number, asked her colleagues, and did all the usual useless show of activity without achievement: then I told her not to bother, I'd go try to find someone who could actually talk to me about doing business.
I hadn't realised, Kafka was an optimist.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Another week, another boss
It appears the new boss really is the corporate hexagon, not just in wanting weekly written reports: we had a meeting of all the teams he supervises, to 'let the teams get to know each other' on Thursday .. of course, I just dialed in, and as almost none of the team members said anything (or got much chance to, to be honest), it didn't actually advance that cause at all. Possibly it worked better for all the people sitting in the same room in Albuquerque.
The most alarming thing about the meeting was probably the new boss(es) both urging how important meetings are, and how we should be having more of them to "get things organised". This bodes very ill - in my experience, meetings are what you do instead of getting things organised, or done, and are an excuse to bloat customer expenses, avoid responsibility, and provide the illusion of performance & management for managers who don't understand what they're managing.
In fact, I would have to say that 95% of all meetings, and 99% of those running more than 30 minutes, are a complete waste of time, from my experience. Typically when something is achieved, the meeting is dominated by exchanges between 2 or 3 people at most, and should have been limited to those people. The others are then included as a CYA manouevre, so they can't claim not to have been told about whatever it is (except of course they fell asleep or mentally wandered off, not being involved, and didnt actually take it in).
If I sound somewhat exercised over the whole topic, well, it's a plague I've been fighting all my working life, and it seems to be insidiously spreading - and the prospect of a boss who wants lots of meetings just makes my blood run cold. The last year has been a real blessing in that regard, my last boss wanted to be involved with all the emails, so she never needed weekly briefings as to where we are up to, on any topic, and didn't do meetings for the most part, just one on one phone calls. The only meeting she did was a fortnightly chinwag for the DBA's - primarily so we could sort out any confusions or issues between us, which was about all that was needed.
Oh well, other than doing my nut over new managers, had a pretty quiet weekend. Cat went to lunch yesterday with our nextdoor neighbour, Holly, & afterwards to dinner-theatre (Well matinee I suppose) - very indifferent, so I was happy to have missed it. Afterwards we went around a few of the open homes (the lunch thing ran late so we didn't have much time to see many)
- a cheap one very close to here, done up to the dernier cris of fashion, & will doubtless sell in days because of that
- a slightly more expensive one, obviously been given a very quick one-over by the current owners (lick of paint on the walls primarily): Cat thought it had potential, but it seemed boxey & in need of major fixing with layout, and the back yard was small, and horribly overlooked
- another in the same price range, nicely done & not needing work, with a great landscaped back yard with tons of privacy, and a great deck. The bedrooms were a bit small (hard to see one as a wargames room), but otherwise the only drawback Cat saw was that it was too well done, nothing left needing to be done to it (I dont see this as a drawback, personally! But Cat would really want a bargain fixer-upper that she could remodel to her heart's content).
Oh, and my right calf has been swollen for the last few days, with sharp pains running up it - I think it's just cellulitis again, as it's diminishing of its' own accord, but I'm planning to see a doctor about it tomorrow: never hurts to double-check in case it's PAD or something of that ilk, plus I haven't seen any doctor in six months, so it's kinda due anyway.
The most alarming thing about the meeting was probably the new boss(es) both urging how important meetings are, and how we should be having more of them to "get things organised". This bodes very ill - in my experience, meetings are what you do instead of getting things organised, or done, and are an excuse to bloat customer expenses, avoid responsibility, and provide the illusion of performance & management for managers who don't understand what they're managing.
In fact, I would have to say that 95% of all meetings, and 99% of those running more than 30 minutes, are a complete waste of time, from my experience. Typically when something is achieved, the meeting is dominated by exchanges between 2 or 3 people at most, and should have been limited to those people. The others are then included as a CYA manouevre, so they can't claim not to have been told about whatever it is (except of course they fell asleep or mentally wandered off, not being involved, and didnt actually take it in).
If I sound somewhat exercised over the whole topic, well, it's a plague I've been fighting all my working life, and it seems to be insidiously spreading - and the prospect of a boss who wants lots of meetings just makes my blood run cold. The last year has been a real blessing in that regard, my last boss wanted to be involved with all the emails, so she never needed weekly briefings as to where we are up to, on any topic, and didn't do meetings for the most part, just one on one phone calls. The only meeting she did was a fortnightly chinwag for the DBA's - primarily so we could sort out any confusions or issues between us, which was about all that was needed.
Oh well, other than doing my nut over new managers, had a pretty quiet weekend. Cat went to lunch yesterday with our nextdoor neighbour, Holly, & afterwards to dinner-theatre (Well matinee I suppose) - very indifferent, so I was happy to have missed it. Afterwards we went around a few of the open homes (the lunch thing ran late so we didn't have much time to see many)
- a cheap one very close to here, done up to the dernier cris of fashion, & will doubtless sell in days because of that
- a slightly more expensive one, obviously been given a very quick one-over by the current owners (lick of paint on the walls primarily): Cat thought it had potential, but it seemed boxey & in need of major fixing with layout, and the back yard was small, and horribly overlooked
- another in the same price range, nicely done & not needing work, with a great landscaped back yard with tons of privacy, and a great deck. The bedrooms were a bit small (hard to see one as a wargames room), but otherwise the only drawback Cat saw was that it was too well done, nothing left needing to be done to it (I dont see this as a drawback, personally! But Cat would really want a bargain fixer-upper that she could remodel to her heart's content).
Oh, and my right calf has been swollen for the last few days, with sharp pains running up it - I think it's just cellulitis again, as it's diminishing of its' own accord, but I'm planning to see a doctor about it tomorrow: never hurts to double-check in case it's PAD or something of that ilk, plus I haven't seen any doctor in six months, so it's kinda due anyway.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Change is Good
Too tired yesterday
And been too busy today - the trouble with taking a holiday is the work that piles up in your absence. On top of that, new site manager, with no understanding of what we do or how it's managed. That would be fairly predictable, but the new one seems sadly addicted to form-filling, and meetings: the first communique I had from him was a weekly report that is to be filled out & sent in every Monday, so he can see what we're doing.
Given that my work is not really susceptible to being divided into weekly chunks, and I don't have projects with weekly milestones, I can see that I'll be expending some of my creative energies on this every week, to try and fit in.
Also, and to my extreme dismay, this includes a section on 'Business Opportunities' or somesuch, which, well .... that ain't me. If I see something that we could extend into, I will pass it onto my boss, but given the type of maintenance role I'm in, plus being located 500 miles from the users I deal with, the idea that I could come up with weekly or monthly business openings is just silly: plus, I ain't a salesman, and I ain't about to start being one, and any attempts to press me into that role is going to lead to a brief but forceful reply of simple Anglo-Saxon*, followed by a decided deterioration in interpersonal relations (probably from both sides).
And when I was mostly caught up with the emails (at least), I get sucked into an hour long teleconference (well, for me - 90% of the teams were there face to face), featuring endless somnolence inducing promulgations and declarations by our new site bosses (2 of them). It all made sense, but both displayed a talent for using 20 words where 3 would have done: and apparently this is going to be a regular feature (weekly no doubt), in order to familiarise the teams with each other.
Which might be fine for those who are face to face, but I have no idea even who 90% of the participants were (i.e. all those that didn't speak, and about half of those that did as well), so I didn't perceive any actual familiarisation going on: I suppose that is just meant to be part of the warm fuzzies we get by getting consulted by our bosses.
Wow, that was all fairly victriolic - I have to chalk that up to a combination of disappointment at losing a really great (and informal) boss, and bitter past experiences (many many experiences) of bosses who don't know how to manage people, just paper.
Cat appears to have gone into shock over actually getting our Green Cards ?! - I'm not sure why, but the prospect of actually having to get a job at this point seems to be seriously freaking her out: I guess because she hadn't really identified what she wants to do now - she has a fairly serious longterm aim of setting up her own business in the interstices between floristry, home decoration, and botanical art (I think that's the best description anyway), but how to get there from here, and whether Little Rock is the right Here, is yet to be determined.
I daresay she'll come up with something, tho: it's too important to her goals, for her to remain stuck for long.
* or not, there seems to be vigorous debate over the point
And been too busy today - the trouble with taking a holiday is the work that piles up in your absence. On top of that, new site manager, with no understanding of what we do or how it's managed. That would be fairly predictable, but the new one seems sadly addicted to form-filling, and meetings: the first communique I had from him was a weekly report that is to be filled out & sent in every Monday, so he can see what we're doing.
Given that my work is not really susceptible to being divided into weekly chunks, and I don't have projects with weekly milestones, I can see that I'll be expending some of my creative energies on this every week, to try and fit in.
Also, and to my extreme dismay, this includes a section on 'Business Opportunities' or somesuch, which, well .... that ain't me. If I see something that we could extend into, I will pass it onto my boss, but given the type of maintenance role I'm in, plus being located 500 miles from the users I deal with, the idea that I could come up with weekly or monthly business openings is just silly: plus, I ain't a salesman, and I ain't about to start being one, and any attempts to press me into that role is going to lead to a brief but forceful reply of simple Anglo-Saxon*, followed by a decided deterioration in interpersonal relations (probably from both sides).
And when I was mostly caught up with the emails (at least), I get sucked into an hour long teleconference (well, for me - 90% of the teams were there face to face), featuring endless somnolence inducing promulgations and declarations by our new site bosses (2 of them). It all made sense, but both displayed a talent for using 20 words where 3 would have done: and apparently this is going to be a regular feature (weekly no doubt), in order to familiarise the teams with each other.
Which might be fine for those who are face to face, but I have no idea even who 90% of the participants were (i.e. all those that didn't speak, and about half of those that did as well), so I didn't perceive any actual familiarisation going on: I suppose that is just meant to be part of the warm fuzzies we get by getting consulted by our bosses.
Wow, that was all fairly victriolic - I have to chalk that up to a combination of disappointment at losing a really great (and informal) boss, and bitter past experiences (many many experiences) of bosses who don't know how to manage people, just paper.
Cat appears to have gone into shock over actually getting our Green Cards ?! - I'm not sure why, but the prospect of actually having to get a job at this point seems to be seriously freaking her out: I guess because she hadn't really identified what she wants to do now - she has a fairly serious longterm aim of setting up her own business in the interstices between floristry, home decoration, and botanical art (I think that's the best description anyway), but how to get there from here, and whether Little Rock is the right Here, is yet to be determined.
I daresay she'll come up with something, tho: it's too important to her goals, for her to remain stuck for long.
* or not, there seems to be vigorous debate over the point
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Home again, home again, jiggety jog
Whew ... made it back. Totally exhausted at the moment, will try to write something more substantive tomorrow. But, a couple of things in the mail:
1. A $50 ticket for turning right on red in Morristown (this is legal in Arkansas, and some states, but apparently not in W Virginia).
2. Letters for both of us from immigration, saying we'd been approved for our Green Cards!!! Woo hoo!!! Finally beat the bureaucracy :)
Now, off to sleep some more
1. A $50 ticket for turning right on red in Morristown (this is legal in Arkansas, and some states, but apparently not in W Virginia).
2. Letters for both of us from immigration, saying we'd been approved for our Green Cards!!! Woo hoo!!! Finally beat the bureaucracy :)
Now, off to sleep some more
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Bigger, brighter, smellier
Well, I got it together sufficiently to play the Theme tournament yesterday, or at least the 1st 2 games of it : an easy win against Norse Irish, due to some stupendously bad dice on the part of Ian Buttridge, then a narrow winning draw against Feudal Scots (Steve Payne) - which would have been a wide winning draw, almost a total victory, except that - without Steve or I being aware of this - the umpire had changed the time rules, so each round was meant to be 4 hours.
As that meant the last round wouldn't finish until after 11pm that night, I forfeited my last game and stomped off in ill-humour: it's probably 20 years since I've been able to play from 8 am til that late at night (and frankly a lot of the other competitors didnt look up to it either), and I regard it as a fairly silly change, and quite rude not to have told anyone at the start. As the same umpire was running the Open competition today with the same rules, I didn't bother participating in that: if winning tournaments is meant to be primarily a competition of stamina, well, that's a game I have zero interest in joining.
However, I spent today wandering around, watching games, and joining in a round or two of some of the demos - a spectacularly silly set of Napoleonic rules called Warfare in the Age of Napoleon - an extension of the Frederickan Warfare in the Age of Reason, but with quite a lot of changes by a different author, and frankly quite ridiculous in its' final effect: looking like nothing so much as a General Haig Spectacular (up & over the top, lads, and never mind how many thousands of dead). The cavalry interaction was unconvincing & seemed to put a premium on not moving so you could catch your opponent moving (with cavalry!?!), and the artillery would have done the Waffen SS Machine Gun regiment proud.
Also a refight of Cowpens (War of Independance). I forget the rules, but again it had a lot of fairly silly outcomes, such as skirmishers never being able to be killed, or to be routed for more than one turn (they auto-rally and return to the spot they routed from at the end of the turn), so essentially the British are -always- doomed by the superior American skirmishing, no matter the result of the clash of the main forces (I say superior, but in fact the scenario gave the Brits no skirmishers at all). Of course, given that this is written for the American market, I suppose that might be a good selling point, but still ...
Also watched (didnt play) a couple of truly pointless games - one a refight in 28mm of the Charge of the Light Brigade. Not the Battle of Balaclava, which might have been interesting, just the bloody Charge, which of course only ever has one outcome, and the 'win' measure was how little or much of the British cavalry gets massacred. Sigh. Oh well, it was truly gorgeous.
Equally gorgeous, and equally pointless, was a refight of the left wing at Fredericksburg, attacking Stonewall Jackson's Corps. Again, I can't see any other outcome than the massacre that actually eventuated in history - attacking into a steep hill with dugin troops and heavy artillery support, with only unsupported (and not that well-motivated, frankly) infantry is just an exercise in Haigism* really.
Ray also spent today (and yesterday) wandering around and watching, not participating in much I think. I'm a bit worried about him, he seems to periodically be in intense pain from his damaged back, and at times is definitely fading in and out of awareness, but he's pushing himself quite hard to get around and spend as much time at the con as possible: I suppose memories of all the stuff he used to do at old Historicons is part of that, and perhaps a sense of trying to make the most of it, as he may not be able to make it there too many more times.
The convention itself is huge, but this is a lousy venue for it - it's split up into at least 20 different rooms and auditoria, on 4 levels and every room seems to have at least half-a-staircase up or down to get to the next one: it's a real maze to get around, and a nightmare of hostility for wheelchairs, or those of us with dodgy knees who dont much enjoy stairs at the best of the time. Elevators and ramps seem to be more or less an unknown technology. As it is, I never got to the top floor to see the FOW / WW2 games, which I"m told were very pretty, because the stairs were just a flight too far. Oh well, next year they are (finally) moving to Baltimore, which is easily reached by airplane, and will have a much more modern venue.
Meeting internet friends (Tiff & Pete) tomorrow for the first time, for lunch - they are driving over from New Jersey to meet us: then hit the road and start the grueling trip back. Never again, at least not just for wargaming.
*If I seem a bit obsessed with Douglas Haig (of WW1 trench warfare and 2 million dead soldiers to no point fame), this is prolly because I encountered at the con another of the (apparently numerous) efforts to rehabilitate his reputation, which makes me mad enough to spit tacks. Rehabilitating Haig is like, oh, rehabilitating Judas ... oh, worse, really, because his evil had no point. The man was a bloody monster, who continued the pointless slaughter on the Somme for 4 months after he privately admitted in his journal that there was no possibility of success and nothing was being achieved ... and why? because he thought it would damage the governments' trust in his judgement if he called it off, and because he couldn't think of a better plan. Migod, I'd rather defend Subedei and Genghis for the slaughter in Kwarismia on account of their lovely table manners.
End of rant :)
More in a couple of days when I'm home, I think. Dunno where we'll be stopping tomorrow night, but I'll doubtless be shattered again - at least on the return journey we'll be breaking it up more evenly, 2 9 hour legs I think, rather than one horrendously long one. I dunno, maybe if we had a huge american car with tons of leg room to stretch out and lie down, the journey would be easier. OH well.
Update: oh, the title? Well, 3500 gamers gathered together is the biggest con I've ever seen, and ... well, it's hot, and bathing seems to be optional for too many of them. Amazing and alarming to see so many potential heart attacks gathered in one place - I felt positively svelte and lithe compared to some of them.
As that meant the last round wouldn't finish until after 11pm that night, I forfeited my last game and stomped off in ill-humour: it's probably 20 years since I've been able to play from 8 am til that late at night (and frankly a lot of the other competitors didnt look up to it either), and I regard it as a fairly silly change, and quite rude not to have told anyone at the start. As the same umpire was running the Open competition today with the same rules, I didn't bother participating in that: if winning tournaments is meant to be primarily a competition of stamina, well, that's a game I have zero interest in joining.
However, I spent today wandering around, watching games, and joining in a round or two of some of the demos - a spectacularly silly set of Napoleonic rules called Warfare in the Age of Napoleon - an extension of the Frederickan Warfare in the Age of Reason, but with quite a lot of changes by a different author, and frankly quite ridiculous in its' final effect: looking like nothing so much as a General Haig Spectacular (up & over the top, lads, and never mind how many thousands of dead). The cavalry interaction was unconvincing & seemed to put a premium on not moving so you could catch your opponent moving (with cavalry!?!), and the artillery would have done the Waffen SS Machine Gun regiment proud.
Also a refight of Cowpens (War of Independance). I forget the rules, but again it had a lot of fairly silly outcomes, such as skirmishers never being able to be killed, or to be routed for more than one turn (they auto-rally and return to the spot they routed from at the end of the turn), so essentially the British are -always- doomed by the superior American skirmishing, no matter the result of the clash of the main forces (I say superior, but in fact the scenario gave the Brits no skirmishers at all). Of course, given that this is written for the American market, I suppose that might be a good selling point, but still ...
Also watched (didnt play) a couple of truly pointless games - one a refight in 28mm of the Charge of the Light Brigade. Not the Battle of Balaclava, which might have been interesting, just the bloody Charge, which of course only ever has one outcome, and the 'win' measure was how little or much of the British cavalry gets massacred. Sigh. Oh well, it was truly gorgeous.
Equally gorgeous, and equally pointless, was a refight of the left wing at Fredericksburg, attacking Stonewall Jackson's Corps. Again, I can't see any other outcome than the massacre that actually eventuated in history - attacking into a steep hill with dugin troops and heavy artillery support, with only unsupported (and not that well-motivated, frankly) infantry is just an exercise in Haigism* really.
Ray also spent today (and yesterday) wandering around and watching, not participating in much I think. I'm a bit worried about him, he seems to periodically be in intense pain from his damaged back, and at times is definitely fading in and out of awareness, but he's pushing himself quite hard to get around and spend as much time at the con as possible: I suppose memories of all the stuff he used to do at old Historicons is part of that, and perhaps a sense of trying to make the most of it, as he may not be able to make it there too many more times.
The convention itself is huge, but this is a lousy venue for it - it's split up into at least 20 different rooms and auditoria, on 4 levels and every room seems to have at least half-a-staircase up or down to get to the next one: it's a real maze to get around, and a nightmare of hostility for wheelchairs, or those of us with dodgy knees who dont much enjoy stairs at the best of the time. Elevators and ramps seem to be more or less an unknown technology. As it is, I never got to the top floor to see the FOW / WW2 games, which I"m told were very pretty, because the stairs were just a flight too far. Oh well, next year they are (finally) moving to Baltimore, which is easily reached by airplane, and will have a much more modern venue.
Meeting internet friends (Tiff & Pete) tomorrow for the first time, for lunch - they are driving over from New Jersey to meet us: then hit the road and start the grueling trip back. Never again, at least not just for wargaming.
*If I seem a bit obsessed with Douglas Haig (of WW1 trench warfare and 2 million dead soldiers to no point fame), this is prolly because I encountered at the con another of the (apparently numerous) efforts to rehabilitate his reputation, which makes me mad enough to spit tacks. Rehabilitating Haig is like, oh, rehabilitating Judas ... oh, worse, really, because his evil had no point. The man was a bloody monster, who continued the pointless slaughter on the Somme for 4 months after he privately admitted in his journal that there was no possibility of success and nothing was being achieved ... and why? because he thought it would damage the governments' trust in his judgement if he called it off, and because he couldn't think of a better plan. Migod, I'd rather defend Subedei and Genghis for the slaughter in Kwarismia on account of their lovely table manners.
End of rant :)
More in a couple of days when I'm home, I think. Dunno where we'll be stopping tomorrow night, but I'll doubtless be shattered again - at least on the return journey we'll be breaking it up more evenly, 2 9 hour legs I think, rather than one horrendously long one. I dunno, maybe if we had a huge american car with tons of leg room to stretch out and lie down, the journey would be easier. OH well.
Update: oh, the title? Well, 3500 gamers gathered together is the biggest con I've ever seen, and ... well, it's hot, and bathing seems to be optional for too many of them. Amazing and alarming to see so many potential heart attacks gathered in one place - I felt positively svelte and lithe compared to some of them.
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