You know, these people are really cool.

And yes, I imagine you did know that. But - I'm not doing any volunteer work for LiveJournal any more - and yet, the promotion for free paid time for volunteers (which was decided on while I was) was applied to my secondary account as asked (which I hadn't really expected either way on). Thank you!

And then today, for having contributed to LiveJournal, I was among the group who got a coupon for a free item of clothing at the LiveJournal store. And I'm very glad several supportish (and ex-supportish) people on my friends list posted about theirs, because apparently I never listed Brad's email in my filters, and my spam filter dropped it into the "possible spam" folder where, last night, tired and spacy, I read 'free' as the first word of the subject and deleted it.

Heh. Guess I shouldn't review that stuff quite so haphazardly, or while tired.

Mmm, movies and gardens.

So, last night we saw Spirited Away. It was fun. I'm not sure it was worth the price of a movie, but I'm almost never sure of that with movies. If it wasn't, it came close, anyway. We had a good time. Fortunately, it got better as it went along, and I wasn't required to sympathize with the parents (which would have been difficult).

( Further musings that might constitute spoilers )

The gardens have nothing to do with the movies, they're just getting written up today, is all. I went over to the Japanese Gardens this morning, and had a lovely walk through them. As a member, I can get in as early as 8 (Tuesday thru Friday, anyway), but I got there about 9:15. This turned out to be good timing; I wandered through at my own pace, took pictures (which I may post later, if they came out), and was nice and calm and happy. Then I left.

And that's when I was very glad I'm a member. For non-members, the garden opens at 10 am. It was 10:05 when I stepped out (and had to wait for a woman to finish her membership application at the gate, so that I could return my card-holder, since those are taken down at 10). It was 10:10 when I reached the bottom of the path to the parking lot...

...where an entire high school class (from the looks of them) were heading up the path to go into the gardens, moving 4-5 abreast and completely blocking the path (they literally refused to step aside for me even one person) and talking so loud I'd heard them well up the path. I could still hear them as they were halfway up and I was in the parking lot.

Ill-mannered, badly-raised, loud, obnoxious, rude jerks. So glad I get to be in the garden before people's negligently-raised children wander in. Ugh. On the one hand, it shattered my serenity. On the other, it only did so for about a minute, because I am well aware that I could have had the misfortune to be in the garden with them, instead of merely encountering them as they went up.

I feel sorry for the people - non-members, staff, and others, and especially the new member - who were that unlucky, though.

And for another, albeit small, triumph, I stopped in Beaverton for gas on the way back - which had been my plan all along, as I had a recollection that prices were slightly better. Well, yes. Ten cents better than my next-best nearby option....

Japanese Gardens - pictures!

Yay, Japanese Gardens! Yes, my pictures came out. So, time to inflict a few, of course. :)

When I first got there, it was obviously very early, as the waterfowl were still asleep. Either I or the gardeners woke them up in short order, though:

   

Some general shots from that vicinity, no witty commentary at this time:

            

Then we've got this bird. He let me get very close - how close is more evident in the full-sized photo, but it's huge. This is on maximum zoom, but I was probably within three feet of him at various points. I just held very still and let him hop about while I took a few photos, then walked off (which only startled him into a couple feet worth of flight - very calm bird).



And finally, the lower gate on the trail up (admissions is at the top of the trail; this gate, then, can just be wandered through) as seen from the trail, probably 2/3 of the way up by height and only slightly less than that by distance.

Woohoo! Game!

GURPS tabletop, specifically. Tonight's session (first session) was a lot of getting organized and a little initial jaunt without much in the way of plot. Nonetheless, it was hella lotta fun. We have:

1. Scott's playing Natwir (spelling questionable, pronounced Not-we're, which led to me complaining that yes, of course he was weird). This is a rich fellow out to make a family name for himself. His skills include carousing, brawling, sex appeal, and, yes, some useful skills such as horseback riding, etc.

2. Gareth, a half-orc slave who serves as Natwir's bodyguard. Ironically, with the lowest intelligence, he may still be more sensible than his owner....

3. A human ranger/druid sort, with the use-name of Oak. I think this character is questioning his sanity in signing on.

4. My character, a female mercenary of a demi-human race called the Liden. Initially appearing very human, they have purple eyes with catslit pupils, are built for better load-bearing (and have 'wrong' musculature and even bone structure if watched closely, despite the initial similarity of form when at rest). They're generally considered to be somewhat eerie sorts.

So, first we worked out conditions of our hire; the druid got a powerstone. I got 1500 silver; ironically, somewhat more than the druid got hired on for. (My character started out bidding rather higher, pretty much to see how stupid the foreign lad was. He wasn't very stupid, anyway. He came down within range, and he got my services for a year. Paid in full, in advance; Astera said he was welcome to pay in installments, but if he missed one, she was out. He didn't feel like carrying that much just to dole out to her. Smart man.)

So the party discovers that Astera can stand most of the night watch herself (she sleeps an hour or two, meditates an hour or two, and stands the rest of the watch - and if she has to, she can ditch sleep and meditation as long as she makes it up within a few days - the meditation isn't mandatory, but it keeps her centered when the gregarious humans are babbling at and around her). Then we have an encounter with a moose.

Seriously. The main encounter was a moose. See, our leader is an impulsive, overconfident.... Yeah. He has hunting dogs, too. We saw movement. The druid sent a dog to see what it was. The dog started going nuts about "prey! prey!" and...we had a moose. So our bright nobleman wants the moose's antlers as a trophy.

Beating the moose involved, ultimately, a tree. Specifically, the moose charged a tree (having failed its perception check to realize its original target was the thing behind the tree, not the tree)...and got a critical on its roll to damage it. The tree came down on the moose. We shot it full of arrows, and it then collapsed, beneath the tree. Though young, it was probably (we were told) 200 pounds worth of tree. Maybe more.

Which is when I got my moment. The half-orc could maybe have heaved the tree off on his own, but Astera got off her horse, tied it up, walked over, and just lifted the tree off like it was an annoyance - heavy, but not straining. (The extra load-bearing means that she can literally carry 200 pounds, never mind just lifting it aside briefly. Of course, she's very slow if she's carrying that much, and a tree is not the proper shape for carrying, but...yeah.)

Hehehehehe. I think, by the end of the session, the nobleman understood why she asked such a high price for her services. Hee.

We game again next week; the game will be every other week in general, but the GM wanted to run another session just to fully establish, plus it will mean that the week I'm out of town on business next month is already a non-game week by default.

I do have to update my character sheet with what my character actually has, since she got an extra 1500 silver to spend. I imagine she has, among other things, a fair amount of money on her person....