Once again it appears that another Friday Game will not be happening. Although this is only the second week in a row, it is also becoming a regular pattern. Two months ago we did not game for three weeks straight, then last month two weeks in a row.

At the moment I feel a bit perplexed about the situation. I understand that people have lives, that things come up, and emergencies can be sudden. The problem is that its never an emergency it is almost always something that is known some time in advance and my friends in fear of upsetting me wait until Thursday or Friday to inform me that they are unable to attend, that is if they contact me at all (the exception to this rule is  steypuft who usually contacts me a week in advance).

In the grand scheme of life, with  intrepid_glory and I on the eve of marriage, my career finally in sight and the idea of having children when these two things come to pass, my time to game in a regular basis is dwindling. Pretty soon I will be the one that will be unable to game. Its bad enough I worry how Rogue's Fellowship will deal with it, but I personally believe that that is when the Friday Knights will come to an end. I run 95% of their games, we always game at my house. I suppose I could give the reigns to  steypuft but even then I fear that it will only prevent the inevitable from happening for a few months.

I suppose the situation with Rogue's Fellowship is also becoming stressful. At one point when I stopped playing because of external & internal issues within the gaming group, it was the others who came to me and asked me to return. They felt that I was getting my gaming "fix" on Fridays and they didn’t find it fair. I understood and rejoined, the group hadn’t done any gaming since my absence.

But once again the same crap that frustrated me before is now happening again. Players showing up three hours late without contacting anyone, discussions about something that nothing to do with the game that lasts for 30 min or more, and constant phone calls.  I may seem anal-retentive but when my friends and I go to the movies we don't talk over the movie for the majority of it.  When we go to a hockey game we don't show up 2 hours late.  They appear to have a understanding of social etiquette with other things, so why is gaming the fucking exception?

At times I worry that the games I run are not captivating enough for people to enjoy. On the other hand most of the time I feel like I am wasting my time.  When I sit there at watch them talk endlessly about something that we could have talked about on Wednesday (which ironically is what we hung out on Wednesdays for and rarely talk at all now) I consider what I could be doing that is more productive, like leaving and cleaning my house, reading a school textbook, or playing City of Heroes/City of Villains.  I wonder if I did leave like that, if it may get them to understand that I am upset.  But I remember that to do such a thing would be (in my opinion) incredibly selfish and this gaming experience is not just about myself but equally about everyone else involved. 

At this point I am unsure what to do and any advice would be extremely helpful.

location: Martin Luther King Library, SJ mood: aggravated music: The hum of an elevator

Ok so I copied intrepid_glory's post and used my own characters for a total blast of writing!

And here are the hilarious outcomes!

• So intrepid_gloryhas requested that I speak of two incidents that happened on our 7-day trip or Oregon.
  
  Incident # 1
  
  While heading to our friend rabid_pickle house, we observed a KB Toy store inside a large outside shopping center. While traveling from the parking lot to KB, we came across a bookstore. This bookstore had no role-playing books of any kind and no science fiction section, merely a “fiction” section which was way under stalked. On the other hand their religion section was quite large although it appeared to focus on Christianity and Catholic books.
  
  When I was getting ready to leave the store Alisha pointed out a book she though I would be interested in. At the front of the store was a huge amount of “Idiot Guide” books. Once such was “An Idiot’s Guide to Voodoo” Since I play City of Heroes/City of Villains and have a character named Voodoom, I figured for the low price of $7.50 it would make a fine addition to the pile of books we now stack on the floor since we have no more room for them on any of our 5 bookshelves. So after visiting the KB, and getting some ice cream we returned so I could purchase the book.
  
  While I was going to pay for this book Alisha waved me outside and pointed out another book she wanted me to get. This book was “The Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex” for another mere $7.50. So I go up to the counter and place the books on top of each other and this is what it pretty much broke down too:
  
  Idiot’s Guide to Voodoo - $7.50
  Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex - $7.50
  Sales tax – 0.00 (Oregon)
  
  The look on the cashers face and she contemplated what kid of depraved sexual Voodoo acts my fiancé and I were going to be doing with the combined information from these books – Totally Priceless
  
  Incident # 2
  
  While leaving the bookstore we stopped to look at a window display. The window was covered with several nativity scenes. One of them, a new style was silver statues. None of them had any faces at all, for the most part they looked cloaked in secrecy. As I looked at the statues I found a connection with Episode III when Anakin confronts Senator Palpatine with similar looking statues outside his office. I turned to Alisha pointed at the nativity statue and said:
  
  “Birth of a Sith Lord…” 
  
  http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a307/balric1/BirthofaSithLord.jpg
  

location: Martin Luther King Library, San Jose CA mood: amused

So the good news!  Conquest went extremely well this year!  The bad news is that it will most likely it is still my last Conquest.  With all the frustration of them attempting to force me into running 12 hours, and the utter lack of gamers there it proved to me that Kublacon is the much better convention and I would pick it as my 2^nd con of the year (Dundracon being the 1^st).  

So if your looking for a quick scan of the games I played here they are if you want more detail well then click on em!

mood: accomplished music: None