• I got no games I am hosting
• I can pack some games in the car for open gaming.
• There's a LARP Saturday Morning that Cynthia Barnes wants me to sign up for.
• I’ll be meeting the prospective publisher of Razumijen for the to talk business face-to-face for the first time for lunch on Saturday, though we likely have met over the years, especially at Celebrate History 1998-1999.
• I have a few other obligations to juggle on Saturday and Sunday, including:
- a D&D game in the East Bay Saturday afternoon-to-evening, and
- a trip to the Alameda County Fair Grounds for the Scottish Highland Games for Legio X Fretensis, if I can make it.
According to Merriam-Webster (M-W.com), Pacific means:
The Roman Latin etymology is “pax-ficus” which sort of means, oddly, “peace fig.” Perhaps if we all ate more fig newtons, or wore nothing more than fig leaves, or didn’t give a fig about fighting, we’d have less violence.1 a: tending to lessen conflict : conciliatory
b: rejecting the use of force as an instrument of policy
2 a: having a soothing appearance or effectpacific breezes>
b: mild of temper : peaceable
3capitalized : of, relating to, bordering on, or situated near the Pacific Ocean
Pacificon means, approximately, “the state of peace/lessened conflict (pacific) with (con).” It is a good day to formally advertise and declare the Global Understanding movement has begun here in California, and to try to recruit others to the cause.
Mark your calendars for this historic date! August 29-30, 2008. At the convention of “the state of peace with.”
Yet the show proclaims itself the “Pirate King of Cons.” It is somewhat ironic the amount of wars and violent, lawless lives that are celebrated for entertainment purposes. Yet in simulating and understanding conflicts, we can hopefully learn how to resolve conflicts in the real world.
YMMV
As I move to this, I think about the amount of personal resistance and conflict I have gotten into in my own life with some people I thought would have understood what I was working towards in my life. Arguments of recent.
About girlfriends, or my current lack thereof. About religion, and the prejudices thereof. Or those prejudices held against another’s religion. About people who have been subjected to prejudice treatment in the past by others who then hold prejudices against my own beliefs, or their fears about what I may or might not belief. About 99% of their fears are utterly unfounded. About the consensus of what is true for all, or for many, or for oneself. About what makes people spitting angry, and how they tend to cut each other off in conversation.
I am no hypocrite. I have argued with the best and worst of them. Yet I have done what I can of recent to learn how to avoid arguing, or apologize. Yet in the past few months, I have been contacting some people from my past who I have lost contacts with, or broken commitments to, or who I have offended. Friends I have lost or nearly forgotten over 43 years of rushing headlong, stumbling and bouncing, walking relaxedly or tip-toeing through life.
The word apology means, basically, an explanation for an act. Contrition is when you are truly sorry. Of late, I’ve been quite contrite, and often apologetic for my own flaws. Since my layoff from Cisco in 2001, and since the folding of Green Knight c. 2004-2005, I’ve had a lot of time to be contrite and apologetic, at least internally. Yet things began to change in 2006 for me, and now it is 2008. I am doing what I can to righten and make straight that which I have bent or broken over the years.
Getting good with God, and with my fellow men and women, with plants and animals, with heaven and earth.
Peace on earth, goodwill towards men. That’s what I have on my mind and in my heart today as I get prepared to go to Pacificon. Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV).
In a way, Pacificon is like Christmas in August. Plenty of toys and games!
Yet this year, I’ll be a full adult, attending with a completely different level of interest.
I am open to the possibilities!
-Pete.
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