Several people have written me emails about the JadeCon wrap-up, and the money we’ve raised. I’m sorry to say that we don’t have final numbers for you yet…but the current tally is over two thousand dollars!!! This will allow Jade to pay off several of the bills completely, and allow him to breathe a lot easier at night, let me tell you!

The con itself was wonderful! So many friends came to help, to play and to just spend time together. I got to sit in on two of the tables (both with Ed Wetterman running, which was a treat in itself!), and had so much fun – I rarely get to play with some of these folks, and really relished the chance to do so. In fact, I got to play first edition Tomb of Horrors for the first time, which I celebrated by being the first and second to last death!

I think the best part was the meals – sitting at a long table of old friends and new friends, laughing more than eating, and telling long stories on each other, or ourselves. I think it was very good for all of us, catching up with each other’s lives like that, and we should find a way to do it more often…maybe next year?

Over half of our tally came from personal donations, so I think I would be remiss if I didn’t thank you too. Some of them were from people who couldn’t make it to the convention, some of them were from friends, and their families. We even had a couple from complete strangers who visited our site. However you got here, please accept this heartfelt thanks from all of us here.

I’m also sending a thank you (again) to all the folks that came out to the con. We couldn’t have gotten this far without all of your thoughtfulness and kindness and generosity.

For now, it’s late, and I have to start closing the month tomorrow. I stayed up too late watching the Babylon 5 Lost Tales, in fact, I’m still sniffling a little over the cast remembrances of Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs, so I’m going to head on to bed before I get too sentimental. But thank you again, all of you, for all your help and kindness.

Yours, Charleen “Charlie” M.

We’re starting the ‘Con this afternoon, and I hope that everyone is just as excited as I am!!!

Just an FYI – we’ve had to update the schedule again, so please check for changes to the afternoon slot here.

Unfortunately, my phone has died, so until about 6pm or so, the best way to reach me is by text.

Also, please don’t forget our donate button on the right hand side of the page! Even after all is said and done, it will remain there as long as there is a need.

Thank you all! Charlie

We’ve added an event, added in information about signing up for games, updated some of the games, and added some blurbs. Check them out here!

Let us know if you find any mistakes or anything!

We’ve added a page for for the current schedule here! We will be adding blurbs and such as they come in

Update: I’ve split off the prize pages…

The Auction Prize page is here

The Raffle Prize page is here

Also, I’m holding the dice bags in my hot little hands! DJ Designs donated a dozen completely different large bags in a dozen quirky designs that range from “girly” to “macho” to “downright fun”! Believe me when I tell you that are very original, and that I’m very loathe to part with them!!

Tom Harrison has made a second flier for JadeCon, and it’s absolutely beautiful! You can find it here: jadecon_flier2.pdf

He actually finised this about a week and a half ago, but I’ve had some issues getting it up on the site. It’s up there now, though, so use it!

Joe Cox has put up a Yahoo Groups Page for JadeCon RPGA Coordination - go there and revel in the RPGA flavored goodness!

(also check out the lovely link on the right hand side under “Various Links”)

Update: I will no longer be updating this post with the prize listings – please go here for a full listing of prizes!

I thought I should list some of the prizes that have been donated as we move towards JadeCon. This is not a complete listing, as we are still working on donations, and are receiving them daily! I have moved them from the front page so that I won’t have to keep updating the post, and having it move down the page.

Here’s the current list of prizes for Ninja Pirate, in alphabetical order:

Dazzle Coffee in Pflugerville has donated a gift card for their store to the raffle – stop by for some caffeine and to give them a big “thank you” for their help!

DJ Designs – Seamstress Janie Green has donated a good number of home-made dice bags, for raffle and door prizes! They feature designs for adults and the young at heart, and are extremely sturdy. I’m thinking of asking her to make me one as things calm down!!! Email us for her address if you need anything sewn, altered or repaired.

Malcontent Games has donated a CD for the raffle containing full PDF’s of Rêve: the Dream Ouroboros, Vault of Dreams (a collection of 10 Rêve scenarios), and Seven Leagues, the fantasy roleplaying game of Faerie! Check out their flier here to find out more about the games: flyer_malcontent.pdf

Pinnacle Entertainment Group – the Savage Guys at PEG have donated three books – Deadlands Reloaded, Rippers (a big favorite in our group) and Tour of Darkness. If you don’t happen to win one of these fabulous tomes, you can also purchase them from any of the gaming stores, or at the links provided.

Round Rock Express Baseball Club - these folks were kind enough to donate four tickets for one of their upcoming home games; your choices are August 27th-31st against the Albuquerque Isotopes (ah, the irony!) or September 1st – 3rd against the New Orleans Zephyrs

Texas Renaissance Festival – This lovely festival in in Plantersville, Texas runs Saturdays and Sundays (and Thanksgiving Friday) from October 6th through November 25th from 9am until dusk. They were kind enough to donate two adult tickets and two children’s tickets for the entirety of the festival!

The first JadeCon flier is ready! Download it and paper the town!

This is actually the second draft, as the first one had fonts that weren’t a viable (outside of Word 2003). As soon as the next flier is available, I’ll post it here!

Update: Don’t ask me why I have that line on three sides. I have no clue. *sigh*

This is finally starting to get off the ground, so I need to make a post to let everyone know what was going on, and why we’re doing this…

In late June, while Jade was visiting some friends in New Mexico, he had a severe allergic reaction to some of his medicines, and ended up in the University of New Mexico Hospital for several days. He was admitted for congestive heart failure, but there were also complications with severe glucose fluctuations, renal failure, and a blood pressure so high that they thought he was going to have a stroke at any second.

In short, if not for the phenomenal care that he received at UNM, he would not be here today.

Unfortunately, UNM could not help Jade with the costs of his stay. For those of you that have been out of touch with him for a bit, Jade has been blind due to diabetic retinothapy for a while now, and Medicare does not kick in until two years from the date of disability. As a result, Jade has no health insurance.

Now, the owners of Ninja Pirate and Dragon’s Lair, have agreed to help us hold a benefit to help us defray the costs of Jade’s medical care – which now are over $15k – and have been very generous with their time and suggestions and support.

S o, come the weekend of August 25th and 26th, we are holding an in-store event. We’re going crazy trying to make some of these great suggestions into a reality, and have been juggling volunteers and participants from all over the state.

What’s been discussed: A game day, a Warhammer tournament, a VtES tournament, a raffle, a silent auction, a webpage (you’re there!), a donation button (see right hand column), a giant sponsorship based benefit game, donation buckets, a car wash, fliers (on the way) a bake sale… (forgive me if I’ve forgotten anything, just let me know via email)

As you can see, we have no shortage of ideas, just a shortage of time in which to organize, run and hold these events. We also have a shortage of people to delegate some of these tasks to. If you want to help, please fee free to email us.

Also, we’re trying to setup an email list for those that want to stay in the loop, so email me if you want to be included. If it gets large enough, I’ll start splitting it between participants and judges.

As the events start solidifying towards the end of the month, we will post updates. We will also keep this site up as long as there’s a need. Very important note: anything collected in excess of the 15k that Jade currently needs will go into savings for future medical expenses.

Many thanks to Ninja Pirate and Dragon’s Lair for the opportunity, WordPress for the forum, and Matt for guiding me so patiently when I couldn’t figure out how to put the darn donation button on. Also, thanks to Tom, Jason, Hieronymous, Ed and Joe for patiently emailing back and forth with us, and trying to get this together. There a hundred other thanks to add to this, but we’ll put them in a later post. If I can figure it out, I’m going to make a page for thanks – that would look nice, wouldn’t it?

well, we’ve finally got the donation button working, but then I had to remove the email link to put it on the sidebar …so I’m putting it in here: Email Me

If this doesn’t work, I’m throwing in the towel

Remember to mark your calendar for August 25th!