Tuesday, February 21, 2012

30 years of being the sun in Newark's Geekverse...


A few months ago, The Newark Post, a small paper in the city of Newark Delaware, ran a story about a store celebrating 30 years in business... The Days Of Knights. 30 Years, “holy crap” I thought “Am I that old....have I been coming here that long?”


I believe I was in 10th grade when the store opened, Gaming geekdom up until then was largely the domain of the Hobby stores like the Hobby house and Hobby Horse ( where i bought my first copy of D&D and redeemed the coupon for my dice). I had been gaming for a few years already and had meet John and Lee ( then the faces of the Days of knights) at a local toy store that also served as the city of Newark’s gaming shop “Punch and Judy’s” ( If you call a book rack and some miniatures a gaming shop). One day we learned that a entire store had opened in the Newark minimall that would be dedicated to games and off we went.


When I first walked through the doors they were still stocking the shelves...or what past as shelves, there was a glass case with miniatures and racks of modules and books...but much more then hard copy and lead... There were people, people who shared our interest in Fantasy and Science Fiction.


To this day I am still amazed by the talent of some of the patrons that I would come to call friends. So many were talented artists or doctoral students. The vast majority were just amazing fun people. The store acted as the sun for our local gaming universe and all things seemed to revolve around it. If you played, you would eventually go there.


I am still close friends with people I first meet there. I believe that is were I first meet Camo, who would introduce me into a circle of friends that 30 years latter are still some of my closest ( Dave Smith is my eldest‘s godfather and we still game over his house every Sunday). I grew to know the Managers, Lee and John and their wives Mica and Carol, (Though Lee would latter move on) and to this day still talk with them, I have watched their Children grow into amazing adults ( Yes.... I’ll even include Kyra in that). To put it simply, I have often felt like the store and its people were like a second family.


You just didnt go there to buy, you went there to play, to talk....conversations could last for hours and could have you in stitches the whole time... It was like the patrons were (and are) as much of the store as the merchandise.


It was at Dok’s (as we geek hipsters came to call it) that I meet my first Girlfriend, a great girl named Sue whom my total blundering of the relationship warrants a post of its own. Girls didnt game back then....it was a rarity and those that did seemed never seemed to lack suiters.


When I was young we used to go almost every weekend (if not more) to the “Club” (or in the early days...tables in the store itself) and spend the day in either established campaigns or pickup games of this or that. God how that place must have smelled to the non-gaming patron.... a mixture of pizza and body odder.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Bardic Song of Insanity.....


1 bottle of water on the wall....one bottle of water.
Take it down and take a drink.....
but make sure you fill it in the sink...

Repeat.... infinitely

Sunday, February 12, 2012

A Clockwork update...


What have I been up to for the month of January and February you ask? Not a easy question but I’ll offer a update


First, I no longer live a normal existence, I work till the early AM, come home wind down go to bed, wake up to help get the Kids off to school (the only time I get to see them 5 days a week) then go back to bed, wake up do a few things then back to work and it all starts again. Am I bitter….hell no, I am employed and thankful for it….do I wish things were better….sure, but hey they could be a hell of allot worse.


Then there is the whole diabetes thing, I was diagnosed in November with Adult type II onset, since I only have one kidney to start with I have taken this pretty serious, I lost some wait, cut out sugar, white bread, potatoes and everything else I used to live for and my glucose was ok at my last test…now I just have to keep it up.


I usually get a chance to play a couple hours of “Old Republic” when I get home (cant go to bed right away anyway) and have been enjoying the hell out of it. I haven’t really come across a story line I don’t like and it is the only MMORPG that I have played that I have actually looked forward to getting and turning in quests due to the cut scenes.


Movies….I have seen a few, I liked the new “Sherlock Holmes”, I loved “Girl with the Dragon tattoo” and thought Chronicle was great as well, I did see the new “underworld” movie and was not that crazy about it. I wish I had gotten out to see “War Horse” but alias it just never happened. I have to watch TV ondemand as I am not home but I have be laughing my arse off at archer, the first three episodes were simply fantastic….in my opinion.


Are things perfect in the clockwinder world….hells to the no….but I have no real complaints. I do miss reenacting and the friends I have through it, working Saturday has really put a kibosh on that sort of thing, but there is always the future. I wish I had two days off in a row…but hey….Thats the least of my worries.


I’ll try to get back to blogging more then once every month and a half.