Toren Atkinson’s Absolute Blog

I keep forgetting to mention this:

The book I co-wrote with Warren and others, Spaceship Zero the RPG, won an award last weekend. The Silver ENnie (second place - gold is first). Does that make me an award winning author? Either way, it’s pretty cool. I usually don’t put much faith in awards, but the ENnies are actually decided by public vote. Not that a million sheep can’t be wrong, but still. Adrian was at GenCon to accept the award for us (Adrian wrote some of it too, plus he’s so damn sexy) - for a limited time you can see his pic at www.greenronin.com (third photo down). Yes, the award is an oversize metallic d20 mounted to a plaque. Which is ironic because Spaceship Zero doesn’t use 20-sided dice. We won the award for “best non-open gaming product.” What does that mean? I’m not 100% sure. I do know that I’ve been watching episodes of Rocket Robin Hood all day long and it’s driving me APE-IN-HEAT-WILD!!!

So many colors that surround you
Some so bright I can hardly see
A light reflects on all the things that make you real
Things that make you truly free

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The new Ween album comes out in 3 days.

Do you understand?

THREE DAYS UNTIL WEEN. “Quebec” it’s called.

I long to see another Ween concert. I don’t really go out to concerts that much. As a person in a band, who has spent hours in bars and clubs all over this great country of ours, who doesn’t smoke or drink, I tend to stay out of bars for a number of reasons, some which may be obvious, others not. But there are bands that I will suffer the jerks and the aromas and the lack of creature comforts, they are: Ween, Nomeansno/Hanson Brothers, Queens of the Stone Age. And others. They will always get me out - providing I know about them. Typically I have to rely on my friends (that’s you!) to let me know when concerts are. I don’t really read the straight on a regular basis. I do get some newsletters from certain bands in my email inbox, but rarely do they have much to do with me or my town, so oftentime I gloss over them. Gloss gloss. Did you know that you can listen to Ween 24/7/52/ at weenradio.com? Because you can.

Anybody else going to see Eddie Izzard on the 29th?

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Malaise (n) 1. A vague feeling of bodily discomfort, as at the beginning of an illness. 2. A general sense of depression or unease.

What a contrast today is from yesterday. Yesterday my agenda was full to capacity. Today I’ve got no plans. There’s aways work. I wonder what everyone else is doing today. I could call and find out…couldn’t I? I’ve been feeling lately that the summer is a time when I should accept everyone’s invitation to do anything at all - no matter what my work schedule is like. I want to savour this summer, much more so than usual. Usually the summer, to me, is little different than any other season, except that it gets really hot in here. I want to do new and different things. I want to spend time with my friends, for a change! So, next time your doing something - and you wouldn’t mind me being a part of it - please gimme a call. I took a walk around the neighborhood this morning (early afternoon) looking for garage sales. I found four. There was nothing worth buying.

I’m not usually one to dwell on age, but it was recently my one month anniversary of my last birthday. Maybe I’m just at that exact age when birthdays seem to mean more than they really do. Before my birthday my feeling was “crap, my birthday’s coming up” but afterwards it was more “phew, well, now’s the MOST amount of time until my next birthday”. Which is retarded since the actual day is just an arbitrary marker of age (unlike replacing the filter in the Brita). It’s not like POINK!!! I’m significantly older now. I still can’t decide if I should have a regular old birthday party or one of my infamous birthday auctions. What’s your vote? You’re invited of course.

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You go through your life, thinking, “gosh (or shit, or whatever), if I just had this and this and this, I would be set. Life would be great. I would be satisfied.” If I just had a girlfriend and/or a better job and/or a nice house and/or etc etc. But it doesn’t matter what you have. Once you accomplish a goal, you set your sights on something else, don’t you? You’re never satisfied.

There are brief, placid moments in my life - ticks of the third hand - where I feel genuinely satisfied: After sex with someone I truly love; freshly holding in my hand a book in which I had a substantial creative input. After these moments pass - there’s always something more. Something else out there that I crave. I think that’s natural, a desire for that which is not yet experienced, attained, acquired. I think that’s “ambition”, or at least the catalyst for it. But it also leads to a feeling of unfulfilment. That I “should” have this, or I “could” have that by now, if I had played my cards right. And is that fair…to myself? That I don’t know….

I need to travel more (and farther) when I get some money. Or somebody drops a free trip in my lap.

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Well, I got my blog working again. Though as you can see, I had to reset everything. All the links are gone. I’ll get to them whenever the hell I want to. And you’ll like it! I also changed my comment service - so please feel free to post comments. I’ll give you a big sloppy wet kiss if you do. Or, if you don’t want me to give you big sloppy wet kiss, post a comment or else I will!

Today was a very busy day. I started out getting a call from Shawna about a half hour after I got up. I offered to help her move and she took me up on it. So I took the bus down to her old place downtown, and met Dave her boyfriend, and Dave’s parents, and Phil, and Sabrina her now ex-roommate. Then we moved stuff. Oh the stuff we moved! Actually it wasn’t so bad, in fact it’s one of the easiest moves I’ve done. I got all sweaty, so it made up for not playing tennis for days.

Let the word go forth: If you are moving, I will help you move. No questions asked. Actually, there is a caveat: if you’re not in walking distance of my place, you pay for my bus fare.

Phil drove me home and we talked about roleplaying games and H.P. Lovecraft’s Birthday Party. Yesterday an old client of mine, Mark Prince, got in touch with me. He asked me if I’d ever thought about selling my art at the Comicshop (on W 4th). I thought it was a whacky idea. Who would buy my art from a comic store? Who has the money? Why would the folks at a comic store want my art taking up space? But he knows Keith the manager there and said I should stop by. So after I got home from helping Shawna move, I threw together some art samples and walked down to the Comicshop. I talked to Keith and Matt and now I’m going to try to sell my artwork at the Comicshop. They were very friendly and open-minded about it so I guess we’ll just have to see what happens. I will actually be surprised if anyone is willing to buy my crap, but I suppose it’s not impossible.

While I was poking about the store I saw a beholdier miniature that I didn’t have, so I had to spend the $12 on that baby. Hopefully Jamie will paint it and glue it up for me. He’s been doing a stellar job on a good handful of my minis. He’s going to custom make me a gelatinous cube out of epoxy. I am, to use the parlance of our times, stoked. Then on my way back I walked past Zulu Records - I decided to go in and see what they had in the used section. They had a Cake album and the new Weezer album. I picked up both for 10 bucks each.

I walked back home, taped Powerpuff Girls, and then took the bus to Stephane’s. He had his BBQ/Housewarming party tonight. It wasn’t bad - Jamie was there and Sheri, of course, and a whole slew (slough?) of people that I didn’t know. CONS: Some girl talked to me about how astrology is a science and I stared blankly back at her; There were hideous singalongs. PROS: we played lots of colecovision games (Burger Time, Zaxxon, Pepper 2, Ladybug); chicken tandoori; blueberries; Stephan played piano.