Notebook of Randomness

The last few days have been fun. We had a party last night for our two resident protestants at the Catholic Center who have recently decided to convert. I'm pretty sure that Scott's doing it for his girlfriend, but Josh Copper has been hanging out at the Center for years, apparently, asking questions the whole time, and no-one thought he was _actually_ going to convert. But by golly, the other night he announced that he was ready to take the leap, and Fr. Fred said that he'd go ahead and waive the RCIA requirements because Copper already knows more about Catholicism than most Catholics. So come Easter Saturday, we won't have any resident protestants anymore. :-)

Of course, this being the Campus Center, the party consisted of the ravenous devouring of five pizzas and a few dozen cupcakes by twenty-odd people, along with a viewing of "Spaceballs" and much general goofiness.

Ooooh, and I almost forgot about the Atari. Hee. Laura brought her very old Atari to the Campus Center, Scott fixed it up, and now we can play Frogger and Ms. Pac-Man on the giant screen in the lounge. I feel vaguely deprived that this console was not part of my childhood. Now that I've gotten into a couple of 3-D games, the Atari is just so... retro. And extremely cool. Apparently it doesn't get any better than a few pixels and a simple objective that just keeps getting harder and harder to accomplish.
( KotOR II )

I finished Knights of the Old Republic this morning. _Took_ me freaking long enough. I think I will tell Chris to never ever give me a computer game ever ever again. I have a thesis to think about. Anyway, the ending was annoying. Blah.

Also, when I finished with the climactic battle, I was actually _sweating_. Computer games that get me so mentally involved that my adrenaline reactions kick in freak me out. It _can't_ be healthy.

Anyway... the Kansas City Renaissance Festival this weekend was fun. It's a permanent setup, and extremely cool. There were shows like mad, including real jousting, a birds-of-prey demonstration, a guy who did some insane tricks with fire, several plays going on at any given moment, a maypole, etc., etc. There were tests of skill and strength like axe/dagger/star throwing and archery. And of course there were shops... though I was largely disappointed with the selection. Lots of commercial jewelry and a surprising dearth of chainmaile. And the truly impressive stuff was way, way beyond my meager pocketbook. Hand-forged, battle-ready weapons; those awesome sculpted leather masks; middle eastern silk clothing; all sorts of things, really. I contented myself with spending money on food and entertainment--kind of a shame, really, since I like shopping at Faires, but there just wasn't anything I _had_ to have (that I could also afford). The food was good: I had a scotch egg and apple cider for lunch, both excellent, and I still have leftover cinnamon almonds. Mmmmm. :-) The birds of prey show was run by a bird sanctuary, and they took up a collection afterwards with the help of a white-beaked raven who would catch shiny coins out of the air. That was too fun to pass up.

I took a few pictures--if I ever figure out a website, I'll try and post some.