This is unbelievably hard. When I was in high school, I had pithy, one-line summaries of all my friends, but never for Christian. Writing down how I feel about Christian is near impossible -- we were too close, he affected me more deeply than nearly anybody I've ever met.
I have more fond memories of Christian than any other person I've ever known. He and I were inseperable throughout the most formative years of either of our lives. I don't know what influence I had on him (good or bad!), but he made me a better person.
Christian is one of the most kind, spiritual, loyal, thoughtful, and caring people I've ever met. His easy laughter, careful insights, and fun-loving nature made him my best and dearest friend.
These memories are vauge and fuzzy. I have a bad memory, and this was long ago. Christian came from Germany in 1982, and he and I were close friends shortly after he arrived. In grade 3, we started playing D&D (the old red basic set), during our library time in religious studies. :-)
Playing A-team with Brad LeMay and... who? One other guy: played B.A.
Sniffing iodine fumes in the science lab - now, THAT was a bad idea
Arm twisting by schoolyard bullies
The Beaver Dam at South Oaks
Brad LeMay and the pit, and the pulley glide, and his family
Filling the drink machine at Green Valley - learning the correct way to hold the cans, looking at how the machine worked, etc
Schmeken miel
Gradeschool friends and not-so-friends: Norman Braun, Gordon Funk, Kevin Holmes, Daryn Chornoboy
Tag Christian, wie gehts?
Claudia Matter + the german competitions, Sebastian Sears and his rumpled, slept-in sweater: maybe this was at the german competition?
The Munich tour project, complete with overhead projector and Munich-accent narration a la Christian.
The barn fire, Moving the house
La Broquerie: Just an axe, I could have killed you, but I was dead once, you couldn'tve killed me. Getting nearly stuck that one time with my dad.
The wild boars
The fish supplies job
The Reaction Times science fair exhibit - an old Commodore PET, hit the J key when you see the green stripe, the numbers not working out, one old guy who was probably confused that tipped the balance, won all the way to Winnipeg, where we were beat out in the Dr Senile Sen award by some St John's Ravens Court people. The wierd guy who was near us that had a project about queue lines at airports.
Bertie and his colorful rocks, trying to convince us not to leave the excellent Grunthal school system.
Early characters: Perfecto, Aunoma Theora
Early games: Keep on the Borderlands, The Famous Gelatinous Cube Trap
I have a box full of paper notes from this time, as well as later, in high school. I'll go through this at some point, and as I regain more memories, I'll put them here.
Leaving Grunthal was the best thing that could have happened to us. Without the SRSS, we would never have met our high school friends, had keys to the school, done cool electrical/electronics, or done theatre tech. Going to the SRSS defined Christian's and my life more than any other single decision.
Life at the Regional is one of the fondest memories of my life: I've never, before or since, had such a great (and large) group of friends: Christian was the central pillar of our group.
People we knew: Steve Penner, Greg Braun (I hate everybody: my friends are people I hate less), Nathan (Jacob!) Penner, John Klassen (aka Oda), Kristen Bezditny, Myron, other people, on and off... Robert Beggs, Dale and Dave, Sincy, Carl Sankowitz and Don Peters, Adam Penner, Mike Zwaagstra, Marvin Neufeld -- many more here.
The famous sayings (they ended up in yearbooks, on walls, everything: "Be cool, be a Bhuddist monk", "Oda snacks taste like worms", "Camels rule"
Adventures with these guys: Oda's toes, chewing tobacco, in the woods, beating each other with sticks, Steve's katana from Campaign outfitters, Myron losing his gaming books, the Oda Snacks... tons of memories here.
The time we got stuck across town on Cement to Grass day, and had to walk back through Steinbach through the rain - stopped at the library, and bought used books.
On a whim, barking "Knife!", and dozens of knives were offered. I'll never forget that -- you'd never get away with it in today's high schools.
Tying Oda up in duct tape
Tying Don Peters up in masking tape/lit matches.
The night we got picked up by the cops - not our highest moment.
The electrical trip: the hook knife, "evil", ...
Making the Crucible - rust paint - going to the salvation army, the minimalist sets
Wet dog
Grad dance, dancing
Robert Beggs, and his stash of office supplies
Gaming was always a thing: it's what held our little group together. Shockingly, I have fewer memories of actual gaming incidents than I do of things we did outside of gaming, but here's what I have.
Playing D&D on the stage, under the lights, swinging on the Pirates of Penzance rope.
One of my most vivid story/memories of gaming in my life is this one: Hiram of Bes (my character) being strapped to a stick against his will (he could detect evil), by Christian's character: lifted up above the rooftops "Where's the evil!?" "Let me down!!", as archers shot at Hiram with arrows.
The first miniature we saw, when Christian and I knew ???: an unpainted paladin. What was that guy's name?
Steve Penner and I co-DMing an adventure, and my first experience with railroading people. Christian pulled me aside and pointed out the error of my ways.
Characters: Cyclops, Vishus Vee-zul, others?
The famous orange d20, and rolling 20 after 20 when we needed it. I still have that one.
The infamous phone number list (which I desperately wish I still had!)
The Spelljammer fiasco
Papers in his handwriting in the roleplaying book stack
As much as we had a big group of friends, Christian and I were inseperable: we spent lots and lots of time together, in school, as well as after school, doing endless theatre performances. This was the life I really remember, and the strongest memories of the SRSS.
Really, unless Christian's told people about these memories (and some of them are so little, and silly, that I doubt he has), I'm the only person now in the world that remembers them.
Drawing Forgotten Realms Dethek runes on everything.
Christian, in a moment of brilliance, making a chart: "Flies killed - flies eaten", complete with tallies.
Christian's job in the home-ec department, cleaning CPR dummies. I never know how he got it, but he got an extra key, and we hung out while he did it after school. I remember the nasty chemical smells, and looking in the refrigerator in the home-ec department, and seeing chocolate cake.
We once walked into 7-11, and in unison, we both grunted: "Food"
Funny computer stuff: Global thermonuclear war, Build-a-fish, Paracelcius, and the old Pascal D&D generator that we wrote together.
The Booth - of course: our lounge in the school. Really for the sound and lighting of performances, we hung out in it constantly. I should sketch the layout, but it was all in layers, with dozens of chairs, balconies, funny rooms, and stairs. It could house around ten people comfortably, sprawled amongst various levels. We usually had a tape deck in there: for a while we had Sincy's speakers (big monstrous things). The big container of writing implements (Christian's words) that we collected over time: we always had pens and pencils.
Larry locking us out of the booth because some authority figure went up into it when it was particularly messy. We shared a locker for all of our stuff for a couple weeks, at least: that was unpleasant.
Christian coating hands in lighter fluid, lighting it up. I heard about this, but never witnessed it. It seems neat: apparently it didn't hurt: just singed the hair off his hands.
Christian getting a container of green food coloring, and coloring food green. He told me about this once, years ago, but I had since asked him about it, and he has no memories of it. So either I dreamed it, or he forgot it. Who can know?
Rearranging Larry's office as a surprise: jesus, he was mad. :-)
The stolen pencil sharpener: we took a pencil sharpener from one of the classrooms, and installed it in the booth. Handy.
Laughter
The army: Christian chasing me around the electrical bench/table thing, me holding his army information papers. I think he was genuinely annoyed with me that once.
The brightly colored dice that he got for me, that later burned in my apartment in Chicago. :-(
The music we used to listen to: Queen ... Bohemian Rhapsody, Wierd Al ... 3D, gun song, Emerson, Lake and Palmer (Pictures at an Exhibition), Laibach, Sepulchura (via Steve), Metallica (of course),
The key copies
The robotic pencil sharpener: made from a training robot, a normal school pencil sharpener (we had to take the guard off: the robot wasn't precise enough), a 1/4 horse power motor (that really sharpened the pencils), a hopper for pencils to go in made of plexiglass and a solonoid. We videotaped it, and set it to music (Robert Plant - Heaven Knows): I wish I had a copy of it. :-(
Our teachers: Mr Holmes, Mr Sawatsky, Wilmer Penner, Alf Penner...
Computers everywhere: on an old Novell network. The computer in the advisory room, the computer in the booth for a while (it was boring -- remember, this was the days before Internet). Having root passwords for funny Novell networks
Chris Thiessen's user group attempt. Christian and I made an enemy that day: we were at school randomly late (we had a theatre thing), and there was talk about a computer user group being started up. Chris's idea was to write Basic programs and sell them for money, with funding provided by group members. Christian and I kindof usurped the meeting, giving lots of criticisms, and essentially foiling the attempt.
Walking through the music department, discovering the nasty jar of chewed gum. Wow that was wierd. And the endless microphone system that didn't work for us. It would have been handy, though.
Looking in the refrigerator in the science department, seeing nasty science experiements and stuff. Seeing the sodium in a jar. We never took any, though.
Electrical class was fun, especially the industrial parts. Playing with the elevator, milling machine, ladder logic, etc.
Elecronics class: making etched circuit boards, playing with the Hero robot, the long benches, the smell of solder, Mr Ian Elwood-Oates (what was his name again?) that was a sub for a while, and wanted us to do something profound: build a milling machine. Christian and I volunteered to write the software to drive it, but the whole project failed to happen.
Working the lights at the grad dinner from the weight room. Free food! It always seemed to be chicken cordon bleu
Of course, the thing that characterized our entire time at the SRSS, and made us kings of the school, was doing lighting + sound. Mr Sawatsky, the electronics teacher hand-picked us, and Larry Kehler, the AV technician, was our 'supervisor', but what it really meant, in those days, was keys to the school, and trust that we'd do the right thing. And we did.
The mike system that didn't really work (but why?)
Hanging out in the booth during performances, drawing with markers held in our toes. We missed more cues that way. :-)
Learing about the flaky lighting and sound systems. The touchy sliders on the 'solid state dimmer rack', a monstrous ancient behemoth backstage, that put lights on channels, and the dimmer panel, a huge faux-wood-grain box with flaky sliders that you could plug in upstairs (in the booth) and down.
The exotic sound board, that Christian was more a master of than I, that had thousands of knobs. We figured out most of them by the time we were done.
Getting the long ladder from the custodial room, and Christian climbing way up (he wasn't afraid), and him losing feeling in his fingers by handling hot light bulbs. The light bulbs that you couldn't touch with your fingers (the grease would make them explode when they lit up), and the gloves that came in the bulb boxes (once we got half a glove!)
Trying to hook the lighting system up to a computer. Adventures with Rosco cinefoil: it doesn't work as a gobo. Hauling around the video projector. Ouch!
And the endless performances: The fashion shows, The Crucible, The Mikado, Annie, Pirates of Penzance (and the swinging rope), The funny vegetable story - complete with cash!
Running network cables: The crawlspaces under the school, running like apes, network cables, the hammer drill, Getting fingers stuck in crimp tools
"Frosh week" at UM, meeting Chris Durston, going on the boat dance, hearing about Chris's true love.
The internet shutdown
Chris's car wreck
Datapac, and free UM access until we got caught
Rocks on the window at my sister's place
The University of Manitoba dorms
DB-X terminals
The car you had to pull a string to start
Christian's old website - Gargoyle's place? I wonder if anybody has an archive of that...
RIFTS
Shadowrun
The wierd UM University gaming group
Seeing Christian's posts on ADND-L - disgust with Dragonlance
Smoking
Working for my dad
The house he wanted to buy
Girl troubles
The abortive PBEM
That car looks like it's going to eat that guy
That guy's head is like a textbook
Voices
Getting back in touch
Hearing about his roleplaying world (mexican standoff, elemental train, city of the undead...)
Hearing about Buzzed Lucky
Seeing him on MSN
Seeing him logged in (away) after he had gone.