_www.FantasyLibrary.com [Visit Who Is Joseph Teller?] Synthesis & Synchronicity 014

Synthesis & Synchronicity #14

May, despite the onset of allergies, is one of the months of the year we always appreciate the arrival of in our household. It is our month of relief from the terrors of April (See Synthesis & Synchronicity #13), begins with a combination of Beltane and our Wedding Anniversary (Kiralee & me), and in this case a short vacation from the daily work schedule.

So I haven't been doing that much with the website while working our way thru the vacation time and general recovery from April. I've been trying to relax, continuing with Yoga, reading a bit more, writing a bit more, spending more time on long walks and other exercise, and celebrating love and passion with my dear Kiralee.

Winter has finally faded, though Spring is being wet and annoying at present (lots of wet weather always sets off my arthritis making me ache, so then I take pain medicine, which then upsets my digestive track etc. We're still not getting seasonable temperature or weather, probably more side effects from pollution, Quantum reflections from the War, and climate shift combined.

There has been no word, as yet, from Whole Foods about the decision on the fate of the Putnam Cafe (which Kiralee and I have been acting as Community Representatives for, as I mentioned last column. We have heard that the Manager in charge of the store it is attached to is now leaving for California, so I'm not sure if this has scuttled the efforts of the community to come to a reasonable future for the space or not. No one at Whole Foods has, to date, responded to direct email, and several deadlines have passed without any public announcements or information.

The Western Ave Irregulars have continued to meet with no problems over the last few weeks. I'm enjoying myself considerably in Dave Jackson's Greenstone campaign, an interesting mix of detective work and magic under the Hero system. My character may now be out of play for a bit since Jordan managed to get attacked twice in one session leaving him hospitalized and in a coma (typical, the character with Healing abilities always gets hit first and hardest). Jordan went several rounds in unexpected HTH combat with a Clay Golem on a rooftop, survived, only to get clobbered while trying to heal a fallen party member in a second conflict against a different magical construct an hour later. Our Wed game is going ok, as Jim leads the Quartermain group thru a puzzle to expose gambling fraud in the Dome City. We may be facing a change of game on Wed in the near future, or hiatus, as we have one member leaving for the summer for a job in New Mexico, one going on vacation for a couple of weeks, and Jim taking vacation for the month of July outside the area.

Our Grand Basement project appears to be in a dead stop mode, for no apparent reason, despite passing the concrete stress tests, we have no lallies and no new support beam, and no word about what is going on. It's now been 2 weeks since we've had a workman on site, Chris has been away most of the past two weeks, and no one is telling me anything. This is sure to set our timeline back even further... meaning the work dragging into the winter, as I originally feared.

That Brings Me To The Website : I'm continuing to solicite for other writers, artists & gamers to contribute articles, games, stories, novels, drawings, paintings etc. to be distributed here. We won't get you rich, but we get a LOT of visibility that can be useful to you, and we'll gladly set up paypal donation links for you to your own email account for the material for those folks that want to send you a buck or more for your efforts and their enjoyment. I had a disk of new materials arrive from one source this month, and will be getting those up shortly, but we need a regular supply of new things.

My gaming project has now split into two projects, two settings using the same basic mehanics (called Audacity!) though no timeline yet on availability, playtesting etc. Basically the settings are being done two different ways : the first is a full blown setting, to be fully fleshed out in detailed, the second is a fantasy travel campaign with a fleshed out starting point but the world details to be worked out as the party travels. The second can be brought into play faster, and can be more flexible, but requires a lot of week-by-week setup work, while the first requires more starting overhead on my part but less work once play begins.

Anyway, that's about all I have to pass on. Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.....

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