Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Sunday, I got up bright and early to get on the road. I wanted to get back and spend some time with The Gryphon before his weekly meeting of Philadelphia Area Game Enthusiasts (PAGE).

When I called to tell him I was on the road, he told me that The White Rabbit was having a barbecue at his place that day, if I wanted to go.

"Of course," I said.

I told him to check with The White Rabbit about what we should bring.

My drive home was uneventful. I managed to avoid the traffic I'd encountered on the way there. When I got home, I uploaded all the pictures I'd taken from my camera to the desktop so I could erase the card and start over.

After I'd changed into a cooler outfit, since it was warmer in Philly than it had been in Central Pennsylvania, I was ready. On the way, we picked up some water, which is what The White Rabbit told us to bring.

Of course, as we soon discovered, we could have brought more food, as well. When we arrived, a few people were there. The food consisted of chips, cookies, fruit salad, a spicy Korean chicken dish that Batman made and whatever they cooked on the grill. Also, there was soda, water and a small amount of beer.

I was hungry when I arrived and expected the barbecue to start soon. After all, the party had been supposed to start at 1 p.m., and we arrived closer to 2. But the grilling didn't get underway until The Paper and I started asking about it. We both eat a lot earlier most days.

In the meantime, I had some of the spicy chicken, along with a little milk to counteract the spiciness. It was tasty.

The turnout was smaller than most of The White Rabbits parties. Attending were The Cheshire Cat and The Paper; Batman; The Dormouse; The Devil's Advocate; The Treasurer; The Big Kahuna; The Ops Chief; and The March Hare, who brought with him for the first time a woman he'd just started dating recently.

There was also a couple who looked vaguely familiar. It turned out they'd gone to Penn State and had been members of the Penn State Science Fiction Society. Now, I only went to PSSFS meetings to be with my friends, and I'd been to many of their parties, but I didn't get to know all the members.

The guy had been a lieutenant in the Army, stationed in Germany after we graduated. He was telling us stories from his time in the service. He still had the vestiges of a military haircut, along with a mustache. His wife was really quiet and hardly said anything. She had dark hair pulled back in a ponytail.

When The White Rabbit took orders for the grill, I asked him if he had anything other than red meat. He thought for a bit and offered me a turkey hot dog, which I said would be fine. When they were finally cooked, they were tasty.

The Devil's Advocate was in fine form, making strange jokes that gave people pause. I was also silly, and I suggested that we start a web site where you get a choice between five different people and then various options for how to beat up on them. Your final choice would then be shown to you in flash animation.

For example, how about Dick Cheney being eaten alive by sloths? Can't you just see the T-shirts now? I can't take credit for that, by the way, the sloths being The Paper's idea.

I took a few pictures, very few. The party was a typical gathering of these folks, and since there were fewer people, it was pretty low key. Mostly talking, eating and socializing.

The Dormouse, The Cheshire Cat and The Paper

The Gryphon and Batman

The Big Kahuna, The Devil's Advocate and the PSSFS members

In addition to the pics above, I also photographed the condiments, which The White Rabbit says were all bought for him by people coming to his parties. He requests that we not bring any more until these are used up, which is one reason I photographed it. I told him next time, he can send out the picture and said, "Bring anything but condiments!"

Of course, then people will think he's joking and he'll have a party serving nothing but mustard and ketchup.

I made the rounds of the various conversations and joined in as appropriately. I spoke for a bit to the woman who came with The March Hare. We talked about her name, which is unusual. Turns out it's Greek, although I'm not certain she is. She told me that her mother named her after a friend. She could, however, have Greek heritage, given her curly dark hair.

For a while, I joked around on the back porch with The Cheshire Cat, The Dormouse and The Gryphon. We talked about how frustrating it can be to help your parents deal with technical problems, such as computer issues. Of course, The Cheshire Cat beat us all with his stories, since he's a computer programmer and techie. According to him, until buying a new laptop, his father's previous computer experience involved something equivalent to punch cards.

The Devil's Advocate got a game going on Puerto Rico, a game I'd played with him once before. Each player sets up their own version of the island, complete with buildings and plantations. Whoever accumulates the most Victory Points by the end wins. You can earn these either by making and shipping goods or by accumulating buildings that are both worth Victory Points and can give you special circumstances whereby you earn more.

Along with me and The Devil's Advocate, the other players were The Big Kahuna, The Ops Chief and The White Rabbit.

The only thing left to chance is the fact that the plantations are shuffled before they're arranged in piles to pick up. Otherwise, it's a highly strategy based game. The first time I played it, I think I spent a lot of time with very little money. This time, I concentrated on simply practicing a good business model. First you build plantations and buildings, then you hire workers, produce goods and sell them. Each round, I did whichever of these I needed to do to keep the money flowing, which I trusted would eventually turn into Victory Points.

I did have a little advantage, in that The Treasurer came in late and, since he couldn't play, gave me advice instead. Between the two of us, I came in second behind The Devil's Advocate, who's played the game often enough to know some tricks, such as making a high-income good like coffee that no one else is selling.

As the day wore on, people started talking about what to eat for dinner. There was very little left for the grill, and they pulled out a menu and started talking about ordering pizza or subs. But I'd already eaten a lot that day and wanted something lighter, so The Gryphon and I said our good-byes.

We stopped at an Asian buffet on the way home so I could get sushi and fruit, thus salvaging my splurge of a day.

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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