Normally I Eschew Fads...

[the_gneech]

But I'm feeling solipsistic today, so I'll join in with Ten Things You Might Not Know About Me.

1. I am related to the real life Ichabod Crane who the character in "Sleepy Hollow" was modeled after. He was a doctor, not a teacher, and never encountered a headless horseman to my knowledge. :)
   
   
2. I jumped into the window of an out-of-control car to rescue a pair of kids when I lived in Richmond. (Mom had gone into the store and left the kids in the car, at the top of a hill ... kids had been playing and shifted the car into Neutral. I stopped the car by slamming it into Park.)
   
   
3. The Robey family's heralidic crest is a red stag on a yellow field.
   
   
4. I wrote The Perfect Warrior, the only adventure scenario published for White Wolf Games' short-lived "Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game."
   
   
5. I was offered a modest scholarship into NYU's theater program based on my acting ability.
   
   
6. I have a condition known as "scrivener's palsy," which is related to the brain's ability to filter commands sent to the hands and feet. Basically, that part of my brain did not mature at the same rate as the rest of me, and never quite fully developed. This used to give me difficulty with writing, drawing, and other activities involving manual dexterity ... you could watch my left hand twitching while I was using my right hand to write. Now that I'm grown, the only real effect is that my hands and feet are proportionately small compared to the rest of my body.
   
   
7. I have an 18' scarf modeled after the one worn by Tom Baker as The Doctor, that was knitted as a present for me by my mother when I was in college. I generally only wear it when it's really, really cold.
   
   
8. When the space shuttle Enterprise was being flown around the country on the back of a jumbo jet, I happened to be up on the roof of my parents' house helping with repairs and watched it fly directly overhead.
   
   
9. A friend of mine and I were "lunchtime DJs" at our high school, broadcast over the cafeteria P.A. system, until we did a sketch lampooning the Moral Majority and got yanked by the principal, who found it "offensive."
   
   
10. I studied how to play the highland bagpipe for a while; I never graduated from the practice chanter to real pipes, but I could at least eke out a recognizable version of "Amazing Grace" on the practice chanter. I decided I had other things to spend my time and money on, but if I had more of both, I'd go back to it.
    

-The Gneech

Comments

[jamesbarrett.livejournal.com]

As your best friend, (well, you are mine), I scored 5 out of 10. I was aware of 1,2,4,6,7.Had forgotten all about 9. the rest were new. Thanks for letting me know. -Friske

My Tally

[murrrmaiyd.livejournal.com]

I had 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, and I had also forgotten about 9. Of course, one of those I actually learned through reading a previous journal entry!

I was on the back deck of the Carolyn Avenue house when the shuttle piggybacked over, and hollered for Mutti and Mongo to come out and see, but by the time they managed to scramble out of the sliding glass door, it was out of sight. It was nice and low too, really cool! :)

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Eenturreschting, Meester Neesh. Werry eenturresting. *Pulls on a fat, smelly cigar*

A friend of mine and I were "lunchtime DJs" at our high school, broadcast over the cafeteria P.A. system, until we did a sketch lampooning the Moral Majority and got yanked by the principal, who found it "offensive."

Haha! How apropos. Of course, he proved your point... ;)

[graveyardgreg.livejournal.com]

YOU WROTE THE PERFECT WARRIOR? AWESOME!

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Whoa -- somebody read it??? -TG

[graveyardgreg.livejournal.com]

I loved the Street Fighter RPG!

Hmmmmm...you also did a lot of Mage stuff for White Wolf as well. This was before I started going to cons, and thus, didn't care for who wrote what.

So, did you write all of Mage second edition, or just some of it? And why don't you get back into it? That would be COOL!

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

I wrote very little of it; basically filler stuff. Phil Brucato, who was the Mage line developer at the time, had been a member of my gaming group in Richmond when we were all going to VCU together, and he would call me up when he needed someone fast and fairly dependable. My largest single chunk on Mage was a dissertation on Joseph Campbell's ideas regarding the Hero's Journey, and how it related to Mage, as well as some of the source material regarding Seattle.

Alas, I don't want to shatter any illusions you may have, but I didn't care for Mage very much; I don't like any of the World of Darkness games. Of them, Changeling sucks the least, but strikes me as being basically unplayable.

The Street Fighter game, on the other hand, was quite totally awesome. James Estes, Steve Long, and I had great plans for that series ... but it cost too much to produce, and returned too little to continue, so it was dropped -- particularly after the movie was a flop. That was quite disappointing; I loved the game and the movie, too.

Anyway, the last writing I did for an RPG was the stuff on Technomancer's Toybox, and, without wanting to sound too bitter, Phil butchered it. After that, I didn't want to do any more stuff for Mage. The pay was too low for the time, effort, and stress.

These days, if I'm going to write, it's going to be stuff that I'm in control of, instead of work for hire. Phil has also moved on to other stuff now; I ran into him at Dragon*Con the year before last, but just had time to say "Hello."

-The Gneech

for #7 and #8

[mammallamadevil.livejournal.com]

I have a crocheted pattern for a Tom Baker Dr. Who scarf. Your mom deserves a medal if it was handdone---my mom did it and hated the process...if anyone is interested, I'll crochet one---$250 plus materials...$300 if you want fringe

Saw the Space Shuttle Enterprise at Vandenberg AFB with my mom and brother that summer. It was over an hour drive from the house one way...I'm still not sure if it was her trying to give us some education or the Trekkie in her coming out...(grin)...

KMO

Re: for #7 and #8

[mooncat.livejournal.com]

I've got a knitted Tom Baker-esque scarf that my mom made for me :), and you're right, she does deserve a medal. Took her quite some time to finish it. Not sure how long it is though.

[level-head.livejournal.com]

All interesting. In certain areas, we have a bit of overlap (ah, but that's what excercise is supposed to deal with, neh?) ;)

You LOOK more like a proper piper than my acquaintance Eric Jones of the group Clandestine -- but he is certainly very good at it, having mastered both highland and lowland style pipes (smallpipes, right?), and various related instruments. They're quite good.

As you know, I am keenly interested in the Shuttle and related doings.

Now, all you have to do is get yourself situated so that the world can pay the piper! You deserve it.

Best wishes!

===|==============/ Level Head