Sunday, September 20, 2009

Life is Funny - What happened to your gazebo?

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Another week, another chance to share how funny your life is. And it is funny. Don't you hear us laughing? Oh, uh, we're laughing with you, not at you. You do believe me, don't you? So go ahead and jump on the Life is Funny blog carnival train. You'll be glad you did.

Hello, my name is Wendy and my husband is a gamer. (Hi Wendy.) Did you know that gaming isn't just for kids? Yeah, I didn't either until I met my husband. While I may not get it, he has fun with it, so more power to him. It's good to have time with friends. Over the years he's tried to organize many a game group, but something always seems to go wrong. Kind of like trying to herd cats or nail jell-o to a wall, gamers just can't seem to get it together. I know this drives my very organized husband bonkers. But this weekend, the heavens parted, the angels sang and my husband had a game. Games are at our house. No, not in the basement with all the soda they can drink. Our basement is unfinished and without a bathroom which would make the whole soda thing a little off-putting. They played this night in the dining room. I was sitting in the office and could hear the talk around the dining room table, but really? Most of the gaming lingo and such are beyond me. I haven't a clue. But it reminded me of an email I got years ago about gaming that even I could understand and get a good laugh from. So for your reading enjoyment...

The Tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo

by Richard Aronson [aronson@sierratel.com]

In the early seventies, Ed Whitchurch ran "his game", and one of the participants was Eric Sorenson. Eric plays something like a computer. When he games, he methodically considers each possibility before choosing his preferred option. If given time, he will invariably pick the optimal solution. It has been known to take weeks. He is otherwise, in all respects, a superior gamer. Eric was playing a Neutral Paladin in Ed's game. He was on some lord's lands when the following exchange occurred:


ED: You see a well groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you see a gazebo.
ERIC: A gazebo? What color is it?
ED: [pause] It's white, Eric.
ERIC: How far away is it?
ED: About 50 yards.
ERIC: How big is it?
ED: [pause] It's about 30 ft across, 15 ft high, with a pointed top.
ERIC: I use my sword to detect good on it.
ED: It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo.
ERIC: [pause] I call out to it.
ED: It won't answer. It's a gazebo.
ERIC: [pause] I sheathe my sword and draw my bow and arrows. Does it respond in any way?
ED: No, Eric, it's a gazebo!
ERIC: I shoot it with my bow. [roll to hit] What happened?
ED: There is now a gazebo with an arrow sticking out of it. ERIC: [pause] Wasn't it wounded?
ED: OF COURSE NOT, ERIC! IT'S A GAZEBO!
ERIC: [whimper] But that was a +3 arrow!
ED: It's a gazebo, Eric, a GAZEBO! If you really want to try to destroy it, you could try to chop it with an axe, I suppose, or you could try to burn it, but I don't know why anybody would even try. It's a @#$%!! gazebo!
ERIC: [long pause. He has no axe or fire spells.] I run away.
ED: [thoroughly frustrated] It's too late. You've awakened the gazebo. It catches you and eats you.
ERIC: [reaching for his dice] Maybe I'll roll up a fire-using mage so I can avenge my Paladin.


At this point, the increasingly amused fellow party members restored a modicum of order by explaining to Eric what a gazebo is. Thus ends the tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo. It could have been worse; at least the gazebo wasn't on a grassy gnoll. Thus ends the tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo. A little vocabulary is a dangerous thing.


The above is Copyright © 1989 by Richard Aronson. Reprinted with permission. The author grants permission to reprint as long as all copyright notices remain with the text.


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Now it's your turn. Ready to play? Here's what you do.


1. Anytime this week, blog about what in life you find funny. It could be something that happened during the week, your general impression about why life is funny, or even just your favorite joke. Be creative!


2. Please put a link to my blog in your post. And I'd appreciate it if you'd add my carnival button (made for me by Andie - thanks so much Andie!) to your post. To make this easy, I've put the code to do so under my blog button on my sidebar to the right.


3. After you've posted, come back here and sign up on Mr. Linky below. For the first box, put your name and your blog (example: Wendy @ Weight...What?), then your URL in the second box. Make sure you link directly to your "Life is Funny" post (not to your main page) so we can all read what you have to say.


4. Visit all the other participants and see what they have to say, even if you don't have a blog of your own. And very important: Comment, comment, comment! Oh, how we love getting comments...


5. If you Twitter, please tweet about this - the more participants, the merrier! So go out and spread the laughter! I can't wait to see what everyone has to say!

12 comments:

Helen said...

I wonder what he would have thought of "cupola".

Ginny (MAD21) said...

This is hilarious. I find it so funny, because my hubby is a gamer, too. It used to be that they played online games where they would also use Skype to talk with each other when playing. I actually enjoy listening to him play the games with his friends, simply because they'd have conversations exactly like this all the time. It was hilarious.

They don't play online anymore. Now we have game days almost every weekend at our house and some of them come over so we can have the same silly banter in person. Plus, I get to play (and usually win --evil laugh--)

[Wendy... note I was first to post!! Hee]

jasonS said...

How do you not know what a gazebo is!? It's all fun and games until the gazebo strikes...

Stephanie Wetzel said...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I don't know why that's so funny to me, but it IS.

And grassy "gnoll? Is that a combination of a gnome and a troll? Do they guard only tiny bridges?

Wendy said...

Steph - Yes, grassy tiny bridges. It's a specialized field.

I didn't correct the spelling since it's one of those copywrited things. If I did that, it might lead to things like ripping tags off of mattresses...

Jaime said...

Hahahaha!!! This is hilarious...thanks for the morning laugh!

Marni said...

Snort! Poor guy, someone should have handed him a glossary when he walked in to prevent the embarrasment. But then again, we wouldn't be here getting to read his story and thus make fun of him ;-)

The toilets at work didn't explode. I'll have to wait for something funny to happen now...sigh...

Heart2Heart said...

AH this story took me back to my highschool days of spending many long nights playing Dungeons and Dragons. OK, I guess I was a nerd but at least I was the only girl playing with a room full of great looking guys, so maybe I was a nerd but a smart one at that.

Love and Hugs ~ Kat

Beth said...

Man, seems like lots of gamers and ex-gamers hover around you, Wendy. Next thing you know, the gazebo will comin' after you...

Add me to the list of D & D players from back in the day. It was all about the cute, creative, nerdy, guys...yup.

Nick the Geek said...

Ok, first you need to qualify "gamer." Seriously there are many types of gamers, and you are talking about Role Paying gamers here so ... um yeah.

That said, I hope they never encounter an overstuffed ottoman.

Sherri Murphy said...

I'll never look at a Gazebo the same again.

Beth said...

Hey,

I just had the funniest thing happen at the Wal-Mart...so I'm gonna go write about it! Woo hoo! I'm finally participating! Of course, it's on twitter ho down day. But we all know I'm not good at following directions.