Not-so-random Musings

Lonely (old) Coot

2012-01-27T23:58:00.001-07:00

We get a bit of wildlife in our neighborhood. Usually it's frogs, the odd raccoon, and a few ducks. A coyote wandered into the neighborhood the other week. Fish & Game tried to catch it, but were unsuccessful.

Another visitor we got last week was a Coot. I knew what Coots were, but I have never seen one before this time. Usually they gather in flocks during the winter, so seeing one solo this time of year is odd.

I've tried taking some pictures of it, but it keeps it's distance, probably because I usually have Tessa with me when I'm down by the creek. Sometimes the Coot is completely alone and the rest of the time it is with the large flock of ducks that have taken to wintering in our creek.

Obviously Coots spend time in Idaho because they were in season until today.

OK, solo Coot, you can leave the safety of Boise and rejoin your flock.....

SOPA and PIPA Explained (Infographic)

2012-01-27T14:25:00.001-07:00

The fine folks as Lifehacker linked to an excellent article from Lumin Consulting:

Brought to you by Lumin Interactive and Condor Consulting

Dice Cleansing Ritual

2012-01-26T21:43:00.001-07:00

In an earlier post I mentioned how Jolly Blackburn cursed my dice, causing them to completely abandon me in a time of need. I was able to swap out to new dice before any PCs died.

When I got home I had to start an old-fashioned dice-cleansing. This is not a step to take lightly because it not only takes a long time, but there is a risk that your dice don't reset to a positive, or even a neutral state. If you follow all the steps and your dice remain tainted you will have no option but to throw them out...along with the dice box and the fame rub.

The first step was to isolate the dice. First you have to find an appropriate container. I have a goblet that was a trophy from winning the German National Tournament in 1996. After cleaning it out with some special Jeremiah Weed (that has a story of it's own, I'll have to tell someday). I put in all the dice and covered them with Kosher Salt, which has a history of use in magic. The salt isn't enough by itself. The opening of the goblet is covered with a book written by the man himself. Master of the Game by Gary Gygax. The dice and salt-filled goblet is set aside for at least a month.

At the time of a new moon (not just the day, but the time) the dice are uncovered in preparation of actual cleansing. The new moon is the moon of possibilities and recharge. Do NOT undertake a dice cleansing ritual on any other night, or during the day. It can be done, but it is extremely risky and not likely to succeed. These dice are expensive, so take that into account. Each die is pulled out individually, rolled until it shows the maximum result, and set aside. The dice are smudged with white sage, as is the dice box. The dice are carefully placed back into the box and smudged again.

I was lucky. The dice cleansing was successful.

I'm Just Saying.....

2012-01-25T20:42:00.001-07:00

New York Style Pizza

2012-01-25T18:48:00.000-07:00

This afternoon the Mrs. and I went downtown to represent the various Toastmasters clubs here in the the Treasure Valley during the Idaho Business League Expo.

After the Expo was over for the day we went out for dinner. Since we were downtown, a trip over to Guido's for pizza and garlic bread was in order.

I'm a huge fan of Guido's, but I like New York Style pizza. I won't pretend to be an expert, but in my travels I've come across four basic types of pizza: New York, "American", Chicago Deep Dish, and Polish.

New York Style is thin with large slices. I'll get back to this in a minute.

"American" is a generic pizza like what you would normally get at Domino's or Pizza Hut. This is normally what I get when I'm anywhere but Guido's.

Chicago Deep Dish is a monster of a pizza that is an entire meal in a slice. It is as far opposite of the pizza spectrum it can be from New York Style pizza. You need a knife and fork to eat a slice of Chicago Deep Dish.

Polish pizza is something I've just had once and it may have been a regional or just a local variation, but I've had it once and hated it enough that even 20-some years later I still remember it. It was like a New York Style, cut smaller, with extremely thick cheese and equally thick toppings. The slices I ate had at least 1/2" thick slices of what tasted like hot dog on it. Now I like cheese...and I like hot dogs, but the combo of them together on a thin slice of crust was disgusting.

Now back to my rationale behind today's post. Carolyn and I were eating a Guido's. Guido's serves New York Style pizza, which is a large, thin slice. Now if you have never had this style of pizza....well first of all, you need to get out more. Second, there is a simple...and natural way to eat a slice. You fold it in half down the middle and hold in one hand as you eat the slice. The first few bites you really don't need to worry about folding the slice over, but pretty soon the pie will be bigger than your mouth.

Odds are if you have never seen anyone eat a slice of New York Style pizza, you would figure out, or I hope you would figure it out. If you have any problems, Guido's was so kind as to provide a framed graphic on the wall demonstrating just how to eat a slice of of their pizza.

With all this lead-in, guess what I saw while trying to enjoy my garlic bread? Yes, some mouth-breather simply mashing his slice into his pie-hole. He got sauce and topping all over his cheeks. This guy looked 45ish and had just gotten off work. He might as well been pushing the food in sideways. It was pretty disgusting. Should I mention he was actually facing the "How to eat..." picture as he mooshed his meal in his gaping maw?

So glad I was nearly done with my meal....

Sgt Stubby

2012-01-24T14:50:00.001-07:00

I'm pretty sure I came across Sgt Stubby through a Tweet by

Lindsay Ellis.

The story of this rescued pooch is simply awesome. In brief: man "adopts" a dog while going through field training prior to going to war in France. Smuggles dog onto troop transport where everybody falls in love with it. Dog learns some awesome trick like saluting, alerting troops to poisonous gas attacks, and subduing enemy spies. Dog earns a bunch of awards and medals, formally gets a rank, and is smuggled back to the US to become a national hero and then the Georgetown mascot.

Decorated by General Pershing

The guy who adopted Sgt Stubby had him for the rest of the dog's life. Even though he was "adopted" by the owner's military unit, Sgt Stubby's enlistment lasted as long as his master, one J. Robert Conroy. Sgt Stubby was part of 17 battles and wounded twice.

Sgt Stubby died in 1926 and was probably the most famous "soldier" of World War I. His name was known by every schoolchild in the country. When he passed away his obituary was three columns wide in the New York Times. His body was preserved and donated to the Smithsonian.

Parking Wars and the Xbox Kinnect

2012-01-24T00:37:00.000-07:00

The Mrs. isn't feeling well so a normal Monday night in the Stogdill house of watching TV was replaced with....watching TV. We spent most of this evening watching Netflix movies we have seen before and probably have DVDs of.

After watching Billy Madison and Never Been Kissed. We popped in Parking Wars, which is fricken hilarious to me. These people of Philadelphia get their cars ticketed, booted, and then towed and they act like they've been raped or had their firstborn killed. On the show they post little factoids, like there are over 55K vehicles that are in the system for being towed.....and to get into the "system" they were talking about you had to have over $700 in fines. Before getting booted, owners have to have three parking tickets (or a super serious violation) AND they've been sent 6 written notices about their cars. OK, some quick math means that there is over $38.5 million in unpaid tickets just for that one class of violators. When people act surprised that they get booted or even towed, it is epic fun.

Don't even get me started that the fine, upstanding folks of Philadelphia cannot understand that they need a current license, registration, and proof on insurance before they can get their vehicle picked up from the impound lot. When they lose their shit 'cause they can't understand or chose not to get what "the man" says they must do to get their rides back. Except for a few folks who admitted they screwed up, everyone tries to blame the PPA (Philadelphia Parking Authority).

Good times.....

As we've been getting used to using the voice commands for the Xbox Connect we've been using it more and more. It's great. When the one episode of Parking Wars (or any episodic show) ends we can just say, "Xbox Next Episode" and bing, the next episode starts. The unit responds to my voice and my wife's voice without issue. I've been having fun with it, trying other accents and weird voices, but it has no problem picking up what I've said.

Carolyn suggested I try to speak to the Xbox in German. I'm not that fluent, so I looked it up using Google Translate. One "Xbox nächste folge" later and bing, the next episode starts playing. That was awesome! I start playing around with other languages. The Xbox doesn't understand Africkans, Dutch, Arabic, or Japanese. Now to be honest, I couldn't read, much less say anything in Arabic or Japanese, so I let Google Translate and my computer speakers do the talking for me. Kinnect did understand Spanish, but it went to the previous episode instead of the next one.

Watch this video....and you're welcome.

2012-01-23T11:12:00.003-07:00

I came across this video in my interweb travels and if I didn't share it, well that would just be a shame.

It is an excellent fan-film that deserves to be watched full screen at high-def resolution.

Enjoy.....I sure did.

Sorry, but no spoilers from me.....

Eleventy-Three

2012-01-22T11:20:00.002-07:00

Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
-Thomas Paine

Generally I post about things that "interest" me which I've encountered recently. Sometimes though, I just want to go along with a blogging meme. It makes me feels like I'm contributing some and I don't have to think too hard.

Today I came across some blogs that are participating in a particular meme where they ask/answer/reveal 33 things (3 sets of 11 questions). First the bloggers reveal 11 things about themselves, then they answer 11 questions posed by another, and then they rap it up with 11 questions for you to answer. That's a lot, almost eleventy-three things according to my internet math.

Eleven Random Things About Me:
1) I can only speak English. Having had years of Spanish and years of living in Germany I find that I can pick up words and phrases quickly, but I can only comprehend foreign languages, not replicate them. Instead I tend to speak a conglomeration of known foreign language words and phrases. For example, one time in Germany I asked "Wo ist der quatro de bano" when looking for the bathroom.

2) I am unnaturally lucky. I've won more than my fair share of dumb-luck contests and things usually just have a way of working out. If I forget to do something or screw up a major project it more often then not it doesn't matter.

3) I've always believed I'm just a little bit psychic, which is why I'm unnaturally lucky. Sometimes I get weird premonitions, some of which I can remember and others stick in the back of my mind becoming an interesting déjá vu. There is always one large aspect of the premonition that is way off though and when the events occur I'm always trying to figure out what isn't right.

4) I'm descended from German royalty. My Great-Great Grandfather was some Baron or Duke who fathered my Great Grandfather illegitimately. When my Great-Great Grandmother died he was orphaned and pretty much dumped onto the streets while his infant brother was taken in by family. I still have relatives in Germany which I never visited.

5) As a young child I was kidnapped by a religious cult. The shock statement is much more powerful than the actual story, so we'll just leave it at that.

6) I used to collect Non-Sports Trading Cards. I still have some cards and for a while I got into collecting promo-cards instead. My problem is that I was a completionist, which meant I had to get every card. When there was a redemption chase card I had to get both the chase card and the redeemed card. My most "valuable" card is one that isn't supposed to exist and I doubt I could sell it if I wanted to. Back in 1993ish I picked up the WildC.A.T.S. cards and found a chase card for a Jim Lee autographed special card. The thing was that the chase cards were not authorized and only a few cases were printed with the possibility of receiving a chase card. A couple of industry magazines, like Non Sport Update, helped me get the card redeemed. Since the card isn't supposed to exist, it doesn't even show up on price guides.

7) I've had to get stitches six times, twice on under one eyebrow, once on the other eyebrow, once on the chin, and twice on my right leg. All but one were from before I was five and the last one was when I used my leg to "break" a new pocket knife across my leg so I could close it. The action was too stiff and the knife was really sharp, slicing right through the meat of my thigh.

8) As a child I had a physically abusive step-father. He was a sick bastard that died of a heart attack when I was five. I don't have one single good memory of him, and I'm not sharing any of the bad ones here.

9) I have three tattoos. My real-life friends know of them for the most part since I don't try to hide them. I do hide them around impressionable kids, or I used to. When visiting my family I tried to hide them from my young nieces and nephews because I didn't want them thinking they were "cool". I got them for me, not them. The tatts are of an Eagle Feather bundle, a stylized Indian Head, and a ROMAD skull.

10) I'm an Eagle Scout and a Vigil Honor member of the Order of the Arrow.

11) I won the German "National" Advanced Dungeons & Dragon's Championship in 1996. My prize was an all-expense paid trip to the European GenCon where I had a top 10 finish. When I got back I had a trophy mug made as a reminder.

Eleven Specific Questions About Me:

What is your dream job? Professional QA/Playtester for an RPG company.
What is the farthest (furthest?) you have traveled from home? I believe Udari Bomb Range Kuwait
Do you think you can you have more than one best friend? No, best is a superlative.
What is your favorite cuisine? Anything not Americanized
Who is the first person you want to share news with? Whoever is closest
What are people likely to ask you to help them with? Advice
What are you likely to ask someone to help you with? Advice
Why do you read blogs? Like reading someone's diary
Who knows you the best? My wife
Do you believe in karma? Only in the traditional sense, not the payback sense.
What’s something you are really interested in, that most people don’t know about? (that you are interested in it, not the thing itself) Photoshop

Eleven Specific Questions For You:

What is your favorite movie?
What would be your last meal?
If you had to lose one of your senses, which is the one you could do without the most?
If you could go back to any one point in your life and tell yourself to take a different course of action, where/when/what would that be?
What is the best Christmas present you ever received?
If you could change one physical aspect about you what would it be?
What was your proudest moment?
If you could meet any famous person from history, who would it be?
What would you like to be most remembered for?
If you could only listen to one musical artist for the rest of your days, who would it be?
Who would you choose to be the lead in your made-for-TV autobiography?

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

2012-01-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

http://tonymooreillustration.com

Carolyn and I finally got to watch Tucker & Dale vs. Evil. Pretty funny flick with just the right amount of gore.

The two stars of the film are favorites of mine: Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine. Alan plays Tucker and will always be remembered by me as Wash from Firefly. Tyler will always be "Sock" from Reaper to me.

Tucker & Dale are two hillbilly buds who are heading up to a new cabin in the woods that Tucker bought as a vacation home. On the way up they come across a truckload of college kids up to the same area for a Memorial Day campout. The cute blond of the group hurts herself and Dale saves her from drowning.

One misunderstanding after another, coupled with the college kids being downright clumsy, or "living challenged" as it was, and most everyone is dead. The movie is a combination horror/comedy film with romantic undertones that probably didn't do so well since it lies between genres.

The film was released in the US and then again in Russia and Latvia. Reviewing the gross sales figures from IMDB I see the movie didn't do well at all. This is too bad since it was a good film.

It is on Netflix now and totally worthwhile way to spend 89 minutes.

Prime-Time Adult Puppet Show

2012-01-20T18:24:00.001-07:00

In my normal interweb travels I came across a gem of an idea that is entertaining and informative. Like many courtrooms across the country, the Federal Court in Cleveland, Ohio does not allow video cameras.

For the currently ongoing corruption trial for one of the County Commissioners, 19ActionNews has decided to forgo the usual courtroom sketch artist and punch the news up a bit by using puppets.

The results are awesome.
Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Enjoy....

Winning the battle, but we need to win the war!

2012-01-20T13:32:00.003-07:00

Recent news that SOPA has been slowed down is good, but there is still the PIPA bill to contend with.

I received a well-worded email from http://fightforthefuture.org which I won't share here, but I will share their press release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT

Fight for the Future

Tiffiniy Cheng

Holmes Wilson

press@fightforthefuture.org

(614) 465-6371

(508) 474-5248

January 20, 2012

Fight for the Future, which ran the largest organizing sites for the recent SOPA protests (sopastrike.com and americancensorship.org), applauds the announcement that the Senate and House have postponed action on the proposed web censorship bills.

“We sent the MPAA back to the drawing board,” said Fight for the Future Co-founder Holmes Wilson, “But any law that lets the copyright lobby block our websites, censor our search results, or cut off our Paypal accounts--without even going through a judge--will be soundly defeated.”

“This was the largest online protest in history,” said Fight for the Future Co-founder Tiffiniy Cheng, “The MPAA was trying to quietly force this bill through Congress, but when internet users started paying attention, real democracy happened. This is a watershed moment in the fight against lobbyists’ influence on politics.”

“The MPAA could have proposed a law to address copyright infringement,” said Holmes Wilson, “Instead, they proposed giving rightsholders veto power over online innovation and free expression. At that point, it was just a matter of getting the public involved.”

A timeline of the SOPA protests: http://sopastrike.com/timeline

Statistics from the January 18 protest: http://sopastrike.com/numbers

Statistics from the November 16 protest: http://americancensorship.org/infographic2.html

http://fightforthefuture.org

Click to see the full infographic

This isn't over yet.....not by a long shot. What has been accomplished so far is pretty good, but there is still the PIPA bill over in the Senate. Thanks to a TON of calls and emails we've managed to get the word out to about 13 million people. That sounds like a lot, but it's only about 4% of the US population.

This shouldn't be a "fire & forget" campaign. We all need to contact our Representatives and our Senators everyday until both bills are DEAD.

Not "slowed down", not "shelved", but DEAD....as in "if you are dumb enough to revive these bills, kiss off any chance of re-election"

Yes, SOPA and PIPA need to be political death sentences.

Click for full infographic

Please don't forget that this threat isn't over just because Wikipedia and Google have given up their blackouts.

Email your Representatives and your Senators. Feel free to call them up. The US Capitol switchboard is

(202) 224-3121.

I highly recommend not only putting some pressure on their place of work, but feel free to call their home offices. Let them know that you have a long memory. There is no need to threaten your congressmen, but if they cannot get the job done, feel free to let them know you'll support someone else who you think can.

PIPA and SOPA need to be political suicide....period.

Dice Superstitions

2012-01-19T23:42:00.001-07:00

Over the years I have had many dice. My original D&D and Star Frontiers dice have been lost to the ages, but the majority of my other dice are still floating around. I've acquired some rather odd dice, like a d34, and most of them remain sequestered in a small leather satchel I use just for dice.

A couple of years ago I became a bit of a "dice snob" and began using Gamescience dice almost exclusively. I'm a little superstitious when it comes to my dice and I believe in having what I consider the best. Generally speaking they don't let me down.

One time, however, they did let me down and my PC almost died. I place the blame squarely on Jolly Blackburn. My gaming dice kit is a cigar box with dividers between each cigar. Each compartment is perfect for my dice and the lid is the same depth as the bottom and folds down flat. I bought two of the same cigar boxes and asked Jolly to draw "something" on a couple of pieces of leather that I cut down to fit the lid as an insert. I kept one box and gave the other to my buddy Topher (the guy running for Congress). Topher's box has BA and mine has Brian.

Shortly before we started out normal Sunday night game I hopped onto the KenzerCo forums and planted a Rick-Roll in a forum post. During the game we had three PCs in the back of a cave that required everyone to carefully squeeze through a tight entrance. In the back of the cave was a ghoul. Just when I needed my dice the most I got a tweet from Jolly in response to him falling for the Rick-Roll. It was a simple tweet, "Curse You!"

We all had a good laugh for a moment and then we got back to gaming. I picked up my d20 and prepared to Turn the Ghoul. I rolled a "1".....an epic failure. Fortunately I have a mulligan with this PC, which allows me one free re-roll per session. Taking the mulligan I pick up the die and roll again......another "1". I burn 10 points of Honor for another mulligan. That's an expensive price to play, but there are PCs' lives at stake here. The Ghoul had already paralyzed one PC and the other was trying to fight them off. Should I switch out the die with a fresh one? I put the one d20 back in the box and then pick up a fresh one. *shooka* *shooka*....and one roll later my result is "2".

Crap! I remembered that right before I made the roll I rubbed it on Jolly's fame-rub signature in the lid of my box. That die was cursed by Jolly's signature....and then I put it in the box before pulling a "fresh" die. The whole box is contaminated now. We muddle through the session without anyone dying, but not for the lack of my dice trying.

What I need is an old-fashioned dice cleansing..........to be continued.

Another Great Show You Probably Aren't Watching

2012-01-19T22:42:00.002-07:00

With Betty White's 90th Birthday earlier in the week, I went back in to my Netflix queue to see if Hot in Cleveland had the second season available.

It was....

If you don't have Netflix, you can see some of the episodes online at the official TV Land website.

The shows are quick at 20-21 minutes, and all of the jokes are close to predictable, but still funny. I swear all the best lines go to Betty White, probably 'cause she's the best one to deliver them.

Susan Lucci's appearances on the show are pretty epic also. There is an ongoing feud between Susan and Victoria Chase (Wendie Malick) and in the 5th & 6th episodes of Season Two the cast heads back to LA.

There aren't many shows on TV with more than one strong female lead. Hot in Cleveland is nothing but strong female leads.

It's worth a look if you haven't seen it already.

Best SOPA Blackout Evah

2012-01-19T00:09:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of TheOatmeal.com

You can go back to your regularly scheduled life.

Senator Risch EPIC FAIL

2012-01-18T22:45:00.001-07:00

Unless you just crawled out from a rock, you have no doubt heard about the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA). It is a House of Representatives bill that has a Senate counterpart that not as many people have heard of. The "wonderful" Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011, or PIPA, or Protect IP Act is the Senate's version of the same dangerous bill.

It's like using a chainsaw instead of a biopsy needle to check the body for cancer.

I've used an online form that was designed to send my Congressional representatives a form letter to fight/not support either bill.

Tonight I went online to see who supports SOPA and PIPA, as well as who is actively opposed to the bills. I was a bit upset to not find one name from the four elected representatives from Idaho. I was downright pissed to see that Senator Risch was not only a support of PIPA, but he was one of the co-sponsors of the bill.

WHISKEY.......TANGO.......FOXTROT.......OVER

Oh, hell no! Some form letter isn't going to cut it. I headed over to Senator Risch's website so I could send him an email. He has an email link on his Contact page, but you cannot actually use it to send a regular email. Instead he has a contact form you can fill out. Like a good little citizen I go and fill out the form, entering in a respectful letter asking him to reconsider his sponsorship of PIPA. I enter the Captcha text and hit submit.

Nothing....well, almost nothing. The page reloads and tells me I have to enter in my last name to send the form. There must have been an issue with the auto-fill text. I re-enter my name, fill out the new Captcha text, and hit submit.

Again the page re-loads, telling me that I need to enter my last name in order to send my "email".

Seriously? No wonder my Senator sponsors SOPA. He obviously just doesn't get how some basic internet "stuff" works if he cannot get a simple website form to work. I find it amusing, in a getting-kicked-in-the-balls-and-you-chuckle-too-keep-from-losing-it sort of way. Here I am trying to use the internet to tell my Senator to withdraw support for a bill obstinately designed to make the internet difficult to use, and the internet is difficult (if not impossible) to use for just this one purpose.

Obviously he's already got the fucking up the internet part down at least in his own little corner.

Yes, I get that Senator Risch doesn't actually program his own website. He probably doesn't have a clue about HTML, IP addresses, or even how to hook up to his wireless network. He has people to do that for him. It should be safe to assume he also has people to advise him about aspects of upcoming legislation he doesn't know anything about.

I want to know who told him that not only is PIPA a good idea, but it's a great enough idea he should hitch his wagon to it as a co-sponsor.

This person will be shopping for a new Congressman, possibly more than one should either bill go through.

Luckily for me I can still call, write, or possibly visit his local office.

EDIT: My wife informed me that she was able to get Senator Risch's online form to work for her. I find it interesting that and hour after my blog post and a small Twitter rant it works all of a sudden. 99.9% sure it is a coincidence, but the .1% is hoping that there IS a connection and maybe we'll hear tomorrow that Senator Risch is also abandoning the bill. As of right now though, still EPIC FAIL.

Contact Your Congressman to Vote Against SOPA & the PROTECT IP Act

2012-01-17T22:36:00.000-07:00

Today Wikipedia, Google, and others are instituting a "blackout" of sorts to protest and bring attention to some current legislation that is more than capable of destroying the internet as we know it.

Please, read more about the Stop Online Privacy Act and the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011.

On the surface, both of these bills may sound like a good idea, but id passed, it won't be long until you can kiss off the internet as a place for free speech. What would basically happen is that the US would have to eventually have it's own internet. Gee, doesn't Iran and North Korea do this already? How well does the internet work for their people?

Please, contact your Representative and you Senator and let them know you don't support either act and you don't think they should either.

You don't have to use either of the links above unless you want to keep them for future use. Wikipedia has an easy breakout of just your Congressmen based off of your zipcode.

If you just want to fire off a quick and easy form letter, http://americancensorship.org/ can help you out and do the legwork for you. If you would rather mix and match, like taking that form letter and tweaking it for sending using your Congressman's web contact form, here is the body of that form letter:

I am writing to you as a voter in your district. I urge you to vote "no" on cloture for S. 968, the PROTECT IP Act, on Jan. 24th. The PROTECT IP Act is dangerous, ineffective, and short-sighted. It does not deserve floor consideration. I urge my representative to vote "no" on SOPA, the corresponding House bill.

Over coming days you'll be hearing from the many businesses, advocacy organizations, and ordinary Americans who oppose this legislation because of the myriad ways in which it will stifle free speech and innovation. We hope you'll take our concerns to heart and oppose this legislation by voting "no" on cloture.

Keep Calm

2012-01-17T11:05:00.001-07:00

Guess what game I've started playing?

A buddy of mine gave me a late Christmas present which I cracked open last night.

Don't expect my blogging to suffer just because I have a new Xbox game. If it suffers it'll be because I'm writing something else, like HackMaster adventures, job applications, or something for my upcoming "secret" project.

My "introduction" to Dungeons & Dragons

2012-01-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

I read a wonder post today regarding one blogger's introduction to role-playing games and felt motivated to post about my introduction. This isn't my actual introduction to RPGs, but the most appropriate one.

I was initially introduced to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in late 1978 or possibly early 1979. I had an Uncle who played and another Uncle who wanted to play. I was 7 1/2 at the time and the one Uncle was maybe 11 and "too young" to play with his Brother-in-Law's group. We both read the Player's Handbook and I tried to GM. It was a joke, but we had fun.

Fast forward a couple of years to when I was in 6th grade going to school in Wollaston, Massachusetts. Actually I was from Wollaston and the local school was closed down, so we had to be bused to a school in Quincy. That school was pretty crowded and not a very good school. One thing they did was institute a free "activity period" on Thursday afternoons. Teacher and older students volunteered to run a wide assortment of activities that students could sign up for. One activity was playing Dungeons & Dragons.

I was so stoked about finally getting to play. My very first PC was an Elf. This was back when an Elf was both a race and a player character class. The overwhelming majority of details about the game and my character are lost to me, but I do remember one thing: my PC was consumed by Green Slime. Normally an attack of Green Slime is a quick death sentence and you need to roll up a new PC. For some reason the GM allowed my PC to adventure for some time with the Green Slime slowly consuming my character.

To this day I prefer Elves and hate Green Slime. You will not find Green Slime or the like in any adventure I write. While I don't have problems with Save versus Death situations, I don't use monsters that instant-kill PCs. Sure you might get turned to stone by a Medusa, but you are going to get ample warning that one is around before hand. Using Green Slime to me is like having a Hippogriff die of a heart attack in the sky and having it land on a PC simply out of the blue. It can suck the life out of the game just as fast as it smashes the life out of a PC.

Activity Period went away from school as suddenly as it appeared, but it was too late as I was hooked. I went out and got my own D&D boxed set, the first of many, and devoured the rules. I tried to get my brother to play, but it was just not meant to be. The neighborhood kids could care less. Any game that involved reading was right out of the question. There was Kickball and there was the Atari 2600. If you were lucky you knew someone who had Intellivision Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game....that was OK.

I thought the one game sucked, but the Treasure of the Minotaur was kind of cool.

The summer after 6th grade I moved back to Iowa to live with my Father. I tried to get into gaming, but there wasn't much luck in rural Iowa. We attended a Mennonite church and every Christmas holiday season the Church would announce a list of evil and violent games that every good parent would make sure NOT to get their child. Of course Dungeons & Dragons was high up on that list so there was no way in hell I was getting what I really wanted for Christmas.

Instead, my folks got me Star Frontiers for Christmas. It was a good game in its own right, but it was not Dungeons & Dragons. The only really cool thing about Star Frontiers was that I was briefly allowed to play it in school. I was in 8th grade at this point. My friends and I had a study hall period 1st thing in the morning a couple times a week. The teacher in charge of the study hall allowed us to play as long as we kept the volume down. That only lasted a week or two until we had to stop because there were too many students wanting to play or watch us play. Bummer.

I got the odd game in here and there in High School and we had a small campaign going my freshman year at Iowa State University. Unfortunately having to work as many hours as I could as well as study really put a crimp in my free time.

Once I joined the Air Force and actually had free time I started playing again. I found a group at Fort Lewis and another when I relocated to Schweinfurt Germany. Another dry spell occurred when I got out of the military and moved to Boise. That drought cleared right up with my discovery of HackMaster while in Las Vegas on my Honeymoon. For the record we were at the comic book store where I bought it at my wife's request.

It was all downhill, or uphill depending on your point of view, from there. I love playing RPGs, with HackMaster being my #1 choice, and I have lots of friends across the country because of the game. While I may have had a rocky road when it comes to playing, it got me to where I am today and I appreciate what I have so much more because of it.

Next time you pick up a pair of dice, think about what you get out of it. If you haven't played before...maybe you should start. We could always use another player......

Betty White Turns 90 Tomorrow, Tuesday the 17th!

2012-01-16T00:27:00.001-07:00

Wish her a happy birthday on Twitter!

Really, do I need to post more than that?

Well, you can always watch "Hot in Cleveland" on Netflix or TV Land.

She also has a new show coming out called "Betty White's Off your Rockers"

I've embedded a few clips here for your viewing pleasure.

Almond Butter

2012-01-15T22:50:00.002-07:00

I'm always on the lookout for a new kitchen project that might save me a few bucks, especially since I've discovered that a lot of these projects yield better results at the same time.

I've got my sourdough pot and my almond milk maker, and I've recently started vermicomposting.

Browsing through the SquawkFox blog I came across this entry for making homemade peanut butter. There was this brief, sudden flash of realization that I have a nearly full 2 gallon bucket of almonds that I could substitute for peanuts. A couple of jars of store-bought peanut butter still linger in my cupboards until I find a home for them. Last year I made the switch to Almond Butter and now the store-bought peanut butter tastes overly sweet and just "off".

Have you ever priced out Almond Butter? It is expensive. The cheapest pre-jarred stuff runs about $8 a pound on sale. Both Fred Meyers and WinCo have on-site grinders that make fresh Almond Butter for about $6 a pound. Since I can get sliced or slivered almonds for $4 a pound on sale, it makes a ton of sense to make it at home.

I made some yesterday and then went whole-hog and made a huge batch today. It was super simple.

Heat oven to 350 degrees
Spread a thin layer of almonds in a roasting pan or cookie sheet
Roast for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes
Cool
Blend in food processor until smooth

That is it. Since my almonds were sliced or slivered they roasted quite nicely. I liked the color better from the sliced almonds since they still had skin attached. Most of the recipes had you adding some oil to make it smoother, but I prefer 100% almonds.

These aren't pictures from my set-up but they are close. The person who took these adds sweetener, salt, and oil, but that is overkill for me.

Time will tell if I need to get a special mixer to stir any almond oil back in.

All Zombies Must Die

2012-01-14T23:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I downloaded this new game from Double Six Games called All Zombies Must Die! I got it for Xbox, but it is also available for Playstation and Steam.

Now I'm generally a sucker for zombie games and I was about to spend my Microsoft Points on Amy. Well actually I started to download the trial version of the game and started reading reviews. The best review I found for the game (best as in highest marks) was a 4.7 out of 10.

After narrowly avoiding that fiasco I went ahead and download the All Zombies Must Die! trial version and quickly unlocked the full game with MS Points. It is a cartoony, cutish top-down shooter that doesn't take itself too seriously. That worked for Deathspank and I liked that game.

All Zombies Must Die! (or AZMD for short) has a lot of the elements of bigger franchise games, like the Resident Evil series. You can craft items, there are dumb sidequests, and you have to manage you ammo.

Up to four players can drop-in/drop-out to play across the various map boards. There is actually a generic 5th character which is just a soldier with a M16ish weapon. Each player can choose a "favorite" weapon which doesn't get replaced when you acquire a secondary weapon. Each player can also customize their loadout with a special ability. Right now I'm running around with a shotgun that sets zombies on fire and the special ability to pull out a torch and set the zombies on fire. The shotgun more often kills than sets ablaze and if I was undead torches I need to do it manually.

The undead drop coins, food, and ammunition often enough that on single player I haven't had too much of a problem keeping everything topped off. In multiplayer you need to share those drops. There are also containers that have items in them, but it takes some time to search them....time that the zombies use to wail on you. As you can see in the picture above the 1st and 3rd characters are hurting. In addition to having a low life bar, the icon showing the "hero" is beat up. The red tinge around the screen means that the player is close to death. That would mean the screen shot is most likely from player 1. Death means you have to start the level again. I'm not sure if it is handled differently in multiplayer.

The cutesy style of the game, along with the ability to customize your character and weapons add greatly to the game for me. The levels are relatively small and many quests could be completed quickly if you want. You could also take your time killing more zombies for points or drops and work to get extra crafting materials to use later. I found it enjoyable and worth the 800 Microsoft Points.

Finally got to use one of my Christmas Presents!

2012-01-13T20:08:00.001-07:00

I've blogged before about how much I liked my new shave routine and how I was hoping to eventually get a badger brush.

My wife bought me a Vulfix 2234 Super Badger Brush for Christmas. I haven't been able to use the brush yet because I didn't have a way to properly store the brush after use. It would be a crime against shaving to use such a fine brush and not take care of it properly.

If you weren't already aware, there are four grades of badger brushes, which can cost upwards of over a grand. Over $1K for a brush? The grades of badger brushes are Pure, Best, Super, and Silvertip.

My shaving setup

Until today I had been using a boar bristle brush. Today my order from Amazon arrived giving me a new stand that I could rest by brush and razor on. The brush needs to dry bristles-down or the bristle's softness and ability to retain moisture get damaged.

The boar bristle brush is cheap, felt cheap, but did the job ok. My new brush gave me a nice, thick lather and it felt like my face was being caressed by angels. The difference was surreal. I'm guessing the boar bristle cost $1 and the super badger brush in the $50 range. I can say that the new brush is more than 50x better than the old one.

It was made on the Isle of Man, which is interesting. Handmade with turned faux-ivory handle, it rocks. I feel like shaving again right now......is three times a day too much?

Gender Roles

2012-01-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

On one of the forums I frequent there was some discussion on gender roles brought on by this story from Tumbler:

"Yesterday I had a pair of brothers in my store. One was maybe between 15-17. He was a wrestler at the local high school. Kind of tall, stocky and handsome. He had a younger brother, who was maybe about 10-12 years old. The only way to describe him was scrawny, neat, and very clean for a boy his age. They were talking about finding a game for the younger one, and he was absolutely insisting it be one with a female character. I don’t know how many of y’all play games, but that isn’t exactly easy. Eventually, I helped the brothers pick a game called Mirror’s Edge. The youngest was pretty excited about the game, and then he specifically asked me.. “Do you have any girl color controllers?” I directed him to the only colored controllers we have which includes pink and purple ones. He grabbed the purple one, and informed me purple was his FAVORITE.

The boys had been taking awhile, so their father eventually comes in. He see’s the game, and the controller, and starts in on the youngest about how he needs to pick something different. Something more manly. Something with guns and fighting, and certainly not a purple controller. He tries to convince him to get the new Zombie game “Dead Island.” and the little boy just stands there repeating “Dad, this is what I want, ok?” Eventually it turns into a full blown argument complete with Dad threatening to whoop his son if he doesn’t choose different items.

That’s when big brother stepped in. He said to his Dad “It’s my money, it’s my gift to him, if it’s what he wants I’m getting it for him, and if your going to hit anyone for it, it’s going to be me.” Dad just gives his oldest son a strong stern stare down, and then leaves the store. Little brother is crying quietly, I walk over and ruffle his hair (yes this happened all in front of me.) I say “I’m a girl, and I like the color blue, and I like shooting games. There’s nothing wrong with what you like. Even if it’s different than what people think you should.” I smile, he smiles back (my heart melts!) Big brother then leans down, kisses little brother on the head, and says “Don’t worry dude.” They check out and leave, and all I can think is how awesome big brother is, how sweet little brother is, and how Dad ought to be ashamed for trying to make his son any other way."

Allegedly the story is "fake" or simply some allegory, but does it matter? I'll admit that this story touched me a bit because with some very minor details, this could be some of my family.

On a similar note, this discussion on the forums brought in this short (1:11) video.

Now this hits closer to home for a couple of reasons. One, I used to work in the HOM department of Fred Meyer and had to work in Toys. Two, my wife who is into princesses, is just as into heroes of all shapes, sizes, and colors (and has had the same rant as Riley for years). Thirdly, I don't exactly fit into my the "manly" norms. Sure, I've been in the military, love my guns/rifles/knives/beer/porn, have the first three seasons of The Man Show, but I'm also the one who does all the kitchen work. I'm just as likely to bake a cake as I am to change the oil in the car.

My wife isn't a big "girly-girl", which I am so thankful for. She's very feminine, but a lot of the over-the-top girly-girl crap I haven't had to suffer through. Not once have I had to hold my wife's purse while she shops and I have never had to run to the store just to by feminine hygiene products. She doesn't nag and bitch me to death (well, really at all) and if we see a Chick Flick it is because I'm interested in it. I also don't have to remember the 273rd monthly anniversary of the first time we held hand or some other made-up "important" event.

I'm not a big fan of the "every child is special" entitlement that our society has been gravitating towards, but I think there is a middle ground between that level of dumbfuckery* and strict enforcement of gender roles. I would hope that parents want their children to be respected for who they are, appreciated for their talents (their real talents), as successful in life as they can be, and.....I don't know....be happy?

*My new "special vocabulary" word, compliments of David Simmer II

Guerrilla Mail

2012-01-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

I for one love SPAM. Slice it thin, fry it up.....makes a great addition to eggs or a sandwich.

SPAM email...I hate the stuff. Things have gotten much better for me since I use my Gmail account as my primary email account. Google does a great job intercepting an overwhelming majority of SPAM before I even see it.

One other tool that is great for thwarting SPAM is a disposable email account. If you have your own webhosting account it it easy enough to establish a new email account and then delete it, but you still have to go through a few steps.

If you want an easy way to make a use & lose email account, head on over to Guerrilla Mail. As soon as you load the page you get an email address that will last for no more than an hour and goes *poof* when you close the page. Use that disposable account for things you need immediately and don't wish to get SPAM from.

I highly recommend Guerrilla Mail.