Monday, March 14, 2011

Break Out the Leather …

Because leather is what you give for a third anniversary gift and it’s my third blogiversary!

“Was,” actually. Back on the 11th.

Don't worry, I forgot it, too. In fact, some of you have thought I've forgotten this blog altogether but no, I think of it every day and I've many a-post simmerin' on the stove for you.

While those finish cooking, I thought I'd bring you something most of you have never read before -- my very first, full blog post here in which I admit straight away to my youthful (and ongoing) nerdiness.

Enjoy and see again you shortly.

OF DICE AND MEN

Had a flashback to middle-school awkwardness this morning reading Joel Stein's syndicated column about the passing of Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons & Dragons.

My D&D days were relatively short, but vivid. My friend, Seth, started me on the game in 7th grade. He set up my first character (an elf that Seth - son of a graphic artist - penciled on my profile sheet with a crooked smile, craggy face, flat-top comb over and a pointy set of ears only Spock could love) and took me through my first campaign. With his artistic genes and anarchist pre-teen spirit leading me through the foggy moors and dank underground passages of strange medieval worlds, I was hooked.

The ever-present smoke and stray CO2 fumes from the wood-burning stove his family used to heat his house may have also enhanced the experience.

I geeked it out with my friends throughout middle school. I spent months creating my own elaborate campaign, based on the Moody Blues "Knights in White Satin" for wussiness' sake. Two of my friends even typed/programmed an adventure they created into a "state of the art" Commodore 64 gaming console computers with the cassette recorder hard drive.

OK, we had a lot of time on our hands in those days, but not enough to wait for the frickin' thing to reboot so they could scroll through endless lines of text and code on a tiny monochrome screen, trying to find if a +2 mace of confusion could be skillfully wielded by an uncharismatic half-human thief against an ogre huffing acidic stink breath while encumbered by 34 gold coins, a flagon of rancid mead and pouch full of -2 everlasting Gobstopper grenades.

My D&D days ended when I graduated into the local Catholic high school and my friends stayed in public education. I occasionally find stray sheets of the reams and reams of graph paper we used for mapping tucked into old books and files.

But I wonder: Whatever became of my tan suede pouch of 20-sided dice?

15 comments:

  1. Happy 3rd Blogiversary! Mine happens here in a couple of months.

    So what is the appropriate leather gift to give??

    Maybe a leather pouch to replace the suede one that went missing so long ago??

    The 20-sided dice, though... you're on your own for that one

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  2. Happy Blogoversary!

    My D&D days were short-lived as well. I remember joining some friends who had been playing for a while. They needed a cleric, so I begrudgingly agreed to that character class.

    The DM, a kid I really didn't like, asked me to recite my spell after I tried to cast a protection spell or something. Huh, what's that? "You need to write a poem or something for each spell you want to cast" he told me. Yeah...I'm not doing that. So I played for a few weeks using the only cleric in D&D history that never healed anyone.

    Played a few other sci-fi and Japanese mythology role-playing games with some kids I actually DID get along with for a while, but that was it for D&D for me.

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  3. Once again, God ruins everything.

    Happy Blogiversary! You don't look a day over 2.

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  4. Happy Blogiversary!

    "Knights in White Satin"? You really WERE a dork.
    Haha
    :)

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  5. Happy 3rd year o' bloggin' blarney.

    I hear lace goes very nicely with leather.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Happy blogiversary! I've never actually played D&D, but I bet I'd be awesome at it, get addicted and end up not leaving the house or showering or changing my socks for weeks at a time, kind of like my reaction to Word of Warcraft. I'm totally kidding, kinda.

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  7. Happy Third Blogversary!

    I'm shopping now for that appropriate leather gift.

    Never did play D&D. Look at all I missed!

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  8. I really have no clue what you are talking about here. I think I was too cool for D&D. Or maybe, I was more interested in Shaun Cassidy. You pick!

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  9. Huh????

    Now leather I understand......

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  10. Really? You started 2 days AFTER me? I thought you were always around, always home, always uncool.

    See what I did there? That's a reference to your blog name. I worked it into a sentence. Those are the kinds of word skills you pick up after three years of blogging. Am I right? Yeah I'm right.

    Happy blogiversary, dude.

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  11. Happy Blogiversary, my friend!

    That's all kinds of cool. And guess what?

    I still have my dice.

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  12. Happy Bloggywhatsie!

    By the way, I stll have all of my dice...carefully tucked into the black kidskin bag I sewed for them, safely ensconsed in the Tigger lunchbox on my bookshelf.

    Shade and Sweetwater,
    K

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  13. Happy Blogoversary!!
    While I don't know anything about D&D, I do LOVE leather, especially the smell!
    And I am SO glad that my high school days are OVER!!
    Glad to hear you're back to blogging more regularly.

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  14. Happy leather year writing birthday.

    ReplyDelete

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