Recently, I played two Warhammer 40K games with Mario. He's a fantastic modeler - he has a Golden Demon award for a model sci-fi walker he did and won Best Single Figure at this year's Astronomi-con Winnipeg.

We both used Eldar armies based on the 4th edition codex from Games Workshop; my Swordwind against his Guardian-heavy force.

Mario has a great "table sense." That is, he can see moves ahead and uses movement and terrain to his advantage to deny his opponent firing opportunities on his own troops, while maximizing the effect of their own shooting.

We split the games evenly, one win each. They were very close games, the outcome turning on single rolls of the dice.

IMO, as far as gaming goes, it doesn't get any better than this.

Death related affairs have been much in evidence that last month or so.

P's mother died. It turns out that she had breast cancer for awhile. P's busy winding up her estate - all the stuff in her house, etc.

On a related note, Jen's parents have continued their cleaning out of their closets and giving away or s@#t-canning possessions. They say they don't want us to have to wade through a lot of crap when they're gone.

Sigh.

On another related note, my longtime friend S won't get tested for breast cancer, despite many of her relatives dying of the same disease. Seeing her this week. Maybe things have changed.

J's dad died. J says he went fast - just collapsed and died. I attended the funeral, a Ukrainian Orthodox service. Lots of male singing in Ukrainian. At least the priest seemed to know the family - no mispronounced names, etc.

E is trying to settle matters regarding her sister's estate and real property back in the old country. Seems that some relatives wasted a bunch of money on bribes (?!) yet no title was registered at the local Register of Deeds.

Ah, corruption.

***

One of our friends has finally decided she's an atheist. Jen told her that she should talk to me. As Jen related her statement, "Asking where you go when you die is like asking where the light goes when you turn off a light bulb."

Current Mood: thoughtful

From the Canadian Iaido Association list:

"As you know, in early June, Ted had an operation to remove a tumour from his spine. This left him with minimal ability to use his legs. It turned out that this tumour was caused by a very aggressive cancer. After a month in hospital, he came home, where he was comfortable and happy. He worked hard to get more movement back into his legs, with some success.

But the cancer came back and he had to return to hospital. We knew that he had limited time left and brought him home after 10 days. He had two days at home, supported by me, Logan, his daughter, Jeannine, Logan¹s mother, and Sue, his sister.

Yesterday, Friday, he died.

Although Ted lived only 60 years, he lived it to the fullest and accomplished more than most people could imagine. He had a strong influence on the lives of a great many people. He was a teacher right to the end ­ whether it be iaido, kendo, biology, philosophy, or just sharing his understanding of life as he knew it.

I cannot tell you how much I will miss him, as will all of you. But his spirit lives on in each of us, and each in our own way.

We will be holding a memorial service for him this month­ the date is not yet chosen but we will let you know. If you would like to send flowers, please wait till then so many people can enjoy them. We are also planning to set up a Ted Davis Biology Scholarship fund as an alternative to flowers. More later when the date is chosen.

Thank you for all your well wishes during the past few months. Ted received them all and was happy that so many of you cared so deeply.

Sincerely,
Colleen Kasting"

I only trained with him a few times. However, I found him to be a knowledgeable, friendly, and patient teacher. He knew many variations of technique. I remember that he was very supportive, and he gave me some very helpful instruction and examples of drills to do on my own.

Current Mood: sad