Two things.

First thing is that today was International Tabletop Day. since we didn’t have anything planned for today, the Dork Club did our celebration yesterday with a nice game of Diplomacy.

Not shown: shattered friendships

Basically, Diplomacy is a game that kind of recreates the shifting alliances and fronts of Pre-World War 1 Europe. Players control one of seven powers as they maneuver armies and fleets to control important supply centers while also blocking the advances of everyone else. Backstabbing and plotting ensues, and boy did it ensue.

I chose to play England, and things got off to a rough start only because we didn’t know the rules. but we figured them out pretty quickly, and I set up shop in Scandinavia with every intention of invading Russia. However, I misread one of the rules so my Russian invasion was scrapped, especially when Russia came knocking in Sweden. Knowing I was outmatched, I asked France if I could have Belgium, just as somewhere where I could build up resources so I could better fight Russia. They didn’t answer, so in retaliation I sided with Russia and invaded France. I was kicked out soon after, but things turned around for me when I took Denmark and Portugal. Now I had enough stuff to challenge France, but the game ended due to time constraints before I could go any further.

That was just in my neck of the woods. On the other side of the world Russia (played by Professor Porter) got off to a great start, as did the Ottomans who turned out to be sneaky little jerks. Italy was the receiver of most of the punishment, losing most of their cities and being forced to disband their armies. Austria was in a pretty good position and probably played everyone at one point or another, although they had issues when the Ottomans came by looking for some territories to take. Germany… ceased to exist by the time we finished, in no small part due to Russia, Austria and England teaming up on them.

It was a good game. I’ll have to play it again sometime.

Second thing: TODAY WAS MY BIRTHDAY! Yay!!! I got a lot of nice things from my parents, my sister and my girlfriend, and I got to go out for dinner and shakes with my sister and her boyfriend. It was great, and it really made me happy. I think today has been one of the best days of my time here at Wabash. So for everyone that made this a great day, when they read this blog, thank you so much for making this a great day.

Wow, I’m already 19. I’m going to be even more of an adult in two years… Well, guess I’m on my way, or:

We’ve been having a pretty good stretch of weather lately. The temperature is consistently above freezing, and I don’t have to put on a heavier coat in order to go outside. Also, sun. Since Oregon often goes with long stretches between sunny days, especially during winter and spring, this was a welcome sign.

I didn’t go outside much yesterday, but Sunday…

This was Sunday afternoon. It is better than your Sunday Afternoon

Isn’t that pretty? That right there is a nice day. I decided to go for a walk yesterday, stretch my legs and get some fresh air (it gets monotonous being stuck inside the house for days on end). I did my usual loop, although I did take my time as I walked around the school. Again, it was a nice day, so I was in no rush to get back to the house. There were plenty of people outside, which is always nice to see since on my previous walks all the company I had were squirrels. Squirrels are cute and all, but it’s always refreshing to see people enjoying the nice weather.

Anyway, after my walk I made my way over to the Fine Arts center to see the Glee Club Concert. I normally have an aversion to choirs due in no small part to my high school choir director, who was a total prima donna and a jerk to our theatre teacher, but since that was in the past and several of my Brothers were performing, I thought I’d stop by. We have some pretty amazing singers here at Wabash, and I’d like to say that I have a somewhat decent ear for music so it sounded pretty in tune. Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling the greatest at the time, so I left at intermission to go take a nap.

Glee Club preparing to sing. We’ve got a great group of guys here

Anyway, we’ve got a few more weeks of school left, so I need to stay focused and make sure that I finish off the year on a good note. I did register for next semester earlier today (and didn’t get half the classes I wanted, but what can you do?), so I have significantly less to worry about for next year. Now I have a bit of time to relax, and with my parents stopping by for a visit in a few weeks that’s more than enough to keep me focused for the end of the year.

Remember my first blog post concerning Dork Club? Well, I still think Picard is awesome.

Today (we rescheduled from Wednesday) Professor Porter brought in his big Deep Space 9 model for the Star Trek game. It’s big, it’s pretty… and everyone want to take control of it. so we split off into two teams, and once again I got control of the Enterprise commanded by Captain Picard. We placed our ships in their corners and got ready to fight.

And fight we did. With the Space Station representing a neutral, yet somewhat hostile, objective, our goal was to get redshirts and mooks onboard to take over the weapons and such. I stayed near the edge at first due to getting blasted by DS 9’s defenses, but the various Klingon, Romulan and Dominion ships in the group had no such qualms. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t helpful; in fact, after kind of shooting up one of the other side, I convinced him (with help from Sulu) to join our side. Yay for diplomacy.

This is DS 9. For size comparison, note the hand and the Klingon Warbird in the back

On the other end of the map was an all out brawl for the Station. It was mainly Klingons vs. Worf, Sisko and someone else I didn’t know, and that resulted in Mutually Assured Destruction. However, the Station itself got shut down due to boarding teams from both teams contesting the Station, although my team had more guys onboard so we had an advantage there. Ships were shot down, although the tide began to turn when Sulu’s ship Trans-Warped across the map (watch this for added effect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nSKkwzwdW4). One of the other ships I can’t remember (I think it was Dominion) turned around to try and shoot down the Romulans (who were neutral until they got shot by DS 9, so they joined my side), but this brought them in range of the Enterprise. Needless to say, that did not end well for the Dominion (or whoever it was), and they were reduced to fine dust. By then most of the other team had been shot down, and their men on the station were outnumbered almost two to one, so it was declared a win for our team.

I decided to head back to the house after that game, but I had fun, and that’s what matters. I have spoken at length on how awesome Dork Club is, and how it helps me unwind after a stressful week, and today was no exception. I got a chance to relax, play a couple of games with other like minded people, and just have fun in general. But again, I’ve spoken about Dork Club’s awesomeness before, so I’ll just say that it is awesome and leave it at that.

It’s been almost five days since I’ve made a blog post. I apologize; I’d wanted to update right after Honor Scholarship Weekend ended, but I got sidetracked… a lot.

Anyway, the last two days of Honor Scholarship Weekend were much more low key than the first day. Everyone had gotten their Rush out of their system, so what visitors we did have were few and far between. Fair enough, most people can’t sustain a multiple day long party (I have no idea how the ancient civilizations had week long weddings).

And then it snowed again earlier this week.

Even Picard is tired of the changing weather.

While it was not a lot of snow and it melted soon after, I just had to ask: why? We’re already freezing over here, we don’t need more snow. It’s actually not that bad outside while I’m writing this, but still, no more snow. Rain, I wouldn’t be too adverse to, but… well, I’m kind of sick of snow.

Anyway, in unrelated news I picked out new courses for fall semester. I think I have a nice spread of options: Physics, more history, English (specifically, creative writing), philosophy, and a religion class. I think I will go for a history major and religion minor, but until I have to declare a major I am going to keep my options open… to some extent. As much as I like hanging out with Professor Porter, I’m not going to be a science major (I have a head for numbers, though… I just don’t enjoy applying it).

Anyway, that’s what’s going on in my courses. For everything else I will still be going to Dork Club sessions and trying out for plays as they come. Might work to improve my Space Marine list, but for now I think it’s rather good. And I will most definitely look around for internships and immersion trips, so I can take advantage of all the resources that Wabash has to offer.

Today is a nice day. The sun it out, even if it’s a tad cloudy, and I can go outside without wearing my winter coat. Today is a good day, not only because the weather is nice, but because it is Honor Scholarship weekend.

I know I mentioned Honor Scholarship Weekend in my last blog, but this time it’s actually happening. Prospects are wandering around campus, taking tests and hanging out with cool guys. Earlier today was the club fair, where all the clubs and organizations got a chance to present themselves and what they do, and sell Wabash as well. It’s a great opportunity for prospective students to get a chance to figure out what they like, and realize that Wabash is a great place for them to go because we’ve got so much cool stuff.

And I couldn’t go.

I feel ya, Bolin. Don’t worry, you’ll get another girlfriend in Season 2

Unfortunately for me, I still had classes scheduled for today. I know my classes are important, and I should have been smarter and asked if maybe I could take a day off (On second thought no, that’d be silly), but I would have really liked to have been at the fair so I could show off my very pretty Space Marine army. Looks are one thing, but telling prospects that every piece, from the lowliest scout to the biggest tank, is assembled and hand-painted by me, and you get to chainsaw people (or at least imagine that you’re chainsawing people). What more do you want? Part of the pitch is the visuals, while the other is the dialoguing, and talking about what makes your group so great is what sells them. You can have the best booth on campus, but if you don’t tell anyone what it means it won’t do you any good. Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes fame said that good writing can cover for poor drawings, but amazing and witty drawings won’t do jack if the writing is terrible. If I got a chance to talk about how awesome it is to play Warhammer, and all the time and money I’ve invested in the hobby, I could have brought in even more people.

…

Oh well, I’ll get my chance next year. Maybe with some other units to make the visuals even more appealing.

Anyway, as soon as the prospects get back from their tests and their dinners it’s going to be Rush Time. Now we at fraternities have to sell the prospects on the idea of going Greek, so it’s like the club fair only a bit more mixed.

And I will be there for that.

If Benny’s happy, I’m happy. SPACESHIP!!!

So if there are any parents that happen to read this between now and Rush, send your kid over to Kappa Sigma so they can Rush there and meet me.

After all, you are drawn to my magnetic personality and Space Marines.