Things To Do At The Weekend #2: Forget Things

I forget names. We’ll come back to that, though it’s important. Who are you again?

I was going to go Blog-Zing crazy yesterday with stuff about BLL, but after my first post I realised I was tired and firing on about one-and-a-half cylinders, so it was time to sit down. Sorry about that. Still, that first post got bundles of great comments out of you, some of which reminded me about the forgetting names thing I’ve been meaning to mention.



Here's one dude I do know the name of. Russ welcomes you to BL Live.





Anyway, covering the basics I should have covered yesterday:

Yes, I like White Scars a lot.
I had a great time.
I’m not sure which I liked more - the mind-zap Horus Summit or BL Live, as they were both so enervating.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been out, so thanks to everyone for being so nice.
I want to write a book about Imperial Navy actions sometime.
I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to talk to you longer, Matthew; I’m sorry I didn’t get to talk to you at all, Sarah; I’m sorry I missed you, Big; I’m sorry we didn’t get to dissect Aliens properly, Xhalax; I’m sorry I don’t necessarily know more of you better (more of that again later).
I finally met the quite splendid Junior McNeill.
I want to thank Jim Swallow for his advice.
I want to thank Alex Stewart for the lift.
I want to thank Caroline and George for the tea.
I want to say “Hi Katie, sorry you didn’t get to go dancing”.
Just before Aaron decided to throw me to the mob to ensure his safe entry to the BL building, he, Jim and I had created a Second Founding Space Marine chapter called The Arseless Chaps.
Thanks to the Heresy Summit, I know what my next Horus book is going to be called.
No, of course I can’t tell you.
I forget names.

I don’t know how the summit could have been bettered, apart maybe for running it over several days. There’s a great thing that happens when the ideas start ricocheting around the room (“Put that thing away before you get us all killed!”). I’m not going to call it synergy, because that a pants word, but something happens that there’s probably a five dollar term for. I think it’s fair to say there were four or maybe five probably great, big ideas that came out of the afternoon, and we all, collectively, recognised them the moment they occurred. And each idea was had by one of us for one of the others to use. There was no “I’m keeping that one for myself”.

BL Live was an excellent way to spend the day. For me, it was like getting back on the horse after my recent high jinks. Thanks, everyone.



Warhamer World was its usual splendid self. This is before the gaming hordes descended.

Now, I would like to make it publicly known that I’m terrible with names. Properly terrible. Birthdays too, but that’s another story. It’s bad enough with people I don’t know, but when you’ve done a few years of Games Days etc, and the same faces are beginning to crop up more than once, I feel proper anguish that I can’t remember who people are with any degree of precision. I would never want to be rude and mis-remember people, and clearly there is a growing bunch of you that I’ve actually got to know now, but please, everyone else, don’t be shy. People can only remember so many faces anyway, and I’m crapper than average at it (especially now my synapses are mis-firing). Remind me when I saw you last, or if you haunt this blog under a colourful pseudonym, or whatever, otherwise I come away with a sense of slight regret that I didn’t recognise someone, or engage with them more than in a general, cheerful way.

Right, that’s the end of the pathetic-sounding appeal. Those of you who have queued up in the past know what it looks like as you approach the signing table.

Here's what it looked like for Graham, Neil and me.



pyro (Sarah) - ADB’s sideburns will dominate any room. Fact.

tim - I actually found being verbally redacted by the Inquisition to be quite fun, though I was trying to think of something to say that was so outrageous Alex would have had to physically tackle me and hurl me to the ground. Also, during the summit the day before, we thought (too late) of taking some mock photos of us all sitting there looking bored, like in school on a Friday afternoon. God, that would have been funny.

suneokun - Yeah, I heard they called it the Third Reich Building.

Matthew - There are no wolves on Fenris. Maybe cats...maybe...

Hagelrat - sorry you weren’t there but thank you so much for the bookmarks (in use now).

Ilmarinen - this is exactly what I’m talking about!

Big! What happened, buddy?