V is for Valkyrwench

...I was going to try and do a speech where every sentence started with the letter V, but about 3 lines into it I realized that this was some of the most irritating shit in the world, so I scrapped it.

What comes to my mind when I think of Ali is that she's a really good person. She's the sort of woman who keeps track of her friends and family, and when she knows someone could really use a friendly voice, she'll give them a call and say "Hey, she's in town and having a really bad day. Would you mind getting her out for some lunch?"

She's deeply passionate about people deserving to be treated equally regardless of who they are or what they do behind closed doors, and she's always clear and eloquent about what she believes.

She's funny, she's snarky, she's caring, and she's not afraid to whack you atop the head at the most appropriate times.

And, y'know, she puts up with Trav. :)

I hope this helps you have a better day, Ali. You're my friend, and you're awesome.

If you can't say anything nice, you're probably talking about blipangel

Just kidding, Blip. :)

Geoff's a guy who I know because of EVE. A while back, he was travelling through Columbus and attended one of our meetups, and we struck up a conversation when it was clear I was paying as much (...or more...) attention to the hockey game on the bar TV than I was to Code Red waving his e-wang around.

This quickly lead to an invitation to go to a CBJ game next time he was in town, and a friendship getting struck as the Jackets kinda whupped ass on his beloved Avalanche. :)

Since then, I ended up moving to join his corporation (guild) in EVE, been through more than a few odd in and out of game adventures, discussed our deep mutual mancrush on Tony Stark (AKA the Invincible Iron Man), grilled some steaks, and I've gotten to watch him grow from a guy who was mostly a smooth recruiting operator and combat pilot into a leader and executive.

Meanwhile, we've also been watching as he and his wife get ready for their first child, who I expect to be sending extremely noisy and difficult to turn off toys for in a few years. :)

Here's to you, b'wana. Keep flying without fear, and flying without pants.

indigoskynet is a clear part of the plan to rid Atlanta of Mountain Lions

I've done these sort of things a couple times with ego boosting, friend pimping, etx.

I talk about Indigo a lot. Mostly because she is, was, and continues to be awesome. :)

I talk about her art, mostly, so I'm not allowed to do that this time, except to say it is very nice and she is very gifted.

Instead, I'd like to tell you about the fact that she's got an incredible gift of being a warm, caring, friendly person, and the talent to project this even through many, many miles of pulsating intertubes from her secret underground IndigoCave, filled with her crimefighting equipment, to your monitor.

She's graceful, funny, and apparently one hell of a cook, and the woman has the charisma to handle doing panels at Dragon*Con year after year after year, which is quite frankly both awe-inspiring and terrifying.

She's in a unique class of people where I'll generally drop whatever to help her when she asks, but I've never actually met her in person. The closest I've come is arranging for pizza delivery for her one night when I lost a gentlemanly wager.

And I count her as a very important friend. :)