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My schedule is complicated, so I'll post an outline here where people can look it up as needed. There's some variation, but in general:
Monday.....Working 8-12pm and 3-10pm
Tuesday....Working 8-12pm and 3-10pm
Wednesday..Working 8-12pm and 2-10pm
Thursday...Working 9-12pm, Date night with Danielle
****monthly book club at 5pm
Friday.....Day Off! I could be anywhere, but am often sleeping, shopping, or cooking
Saturday...Working 12-8pm, Date night with Jason H, but am often available for parties
****2nd Saturdays are Victuals tastings, usually
Sunday.....Working 1-5pm, evenings largely devoted to maintenance (shopping, cooking, etc.)
****2nd Sundays are board games at my house @7pm
****3rd Sundays are Contra dance in Porter Sq. @7:30pm
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(Nobody died, I would say that nothing exploded except that isn't not true.)
- Before you invite people, count how many chairs/plates/forks you have.
- Consult your friends and housemates; they have opinions, ideas, and enemies.
- Think about how much food you will need, and cut that in half
- Every cup of water you put in the pot to make soup will become a cup of soup
- Sometimes simpler is better
- Remember that can of coke you left in the freezer? Yeah, don't forget about that.
- This is a fabulous thing and I'm totally doing it again
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Remember about a month ago, when Vampire Diaries came out and I wanted a chart of vampire powers? Well, teh Internets must have heard my call (or be obsessed with vampires) because such a chart has been found! Vampire Chart courtesy of io9 [article].
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| 2009-10-22 18:04 |
| Posted using LJ Talk... |
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today = tired...therefore + caffeine...but tired+caffeine+stupid long/pointless/uncomfortable meeting = fail
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I need a quick way to record/remember book titles/authors/ISBNs/etc. I find that every day that I shelve I encounter at least one book that I might want to read. I have no set way to recording these potential reads and so I wander around with spare bits of paper, notes on my ipod, and vague recollections of a location and color of several books. I need a cohesive way to record some vital information about these books and the put that info into a system ("my list" in the minuteman catalogue, GoodReads, LibraryThing, Amazon, a spreadsheet, something, anything) where I can retrieve the information when I want it. I have a camera phone and I've been known to take pictures of book covers, but it seems so inelegant. Plus, I'd have to carry my phone around with me. Paper and pencil, though archaic work just fine and are less conspicuous. What method do you prefer?
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Things that affect my food choices:
- easy of use
- tastiness
- price/sale
- cleverness/in a recipe
- health (weight related)
- health (hormones etc)
- localness
- organic
For the last two weeks I have gotten great enjoyment out of following recipes from a website. This site makes it easy: giving you 5 nights of food that use some similar ingredients and a combined shopping list. Additionally, the recipes are pretty easy to follow and quick. So I can cook for a hour or two on Friday and end up with food for the entire next week. The food that I get out of this is very tasty and I feel extremely clever and efficient; like I've accomplished something. In the past, my dinners have been rather slap-dash or skipped altogether. When I was on weightwatchers, I could tell you exactly what I had for breakfast, lunch, and snacks, but my dinner was always a vague mystery of leftovers, take-out, or scrounging. I really like the feeling of having a Dinner that I've planned, even if I made it in advance. It feels more like a meal and less like just people-fuel. However, this process that I have been following is not cheap. Part of the reason I believe is that I'm making more food than I need, strictly speaking. Like this week, I cooked about 6 lbs of meet (chicken and beef) in various things, and I really probably only needed about half that. But then again: in an average week I need about 8 portable meals and another 2-3 dinners I have to make. Dilemma 1: Get satisfaction of recipe following cheaply.Then there's the issue that I don't know how healthy what I'm eating is. Of course, I could seek out sources of recipes that declared to be low fat or following some plan (like WW). But these sources do not necessarily yield food that is as tasty or as cool-seeming. I would also want to find a similar "package deal" like the one described above where I get to reuse the same ingredients (as that is one of the few economical aspects of that system). And since healthy food is often more expensive, this adds to dilemma 1. Dilemma 2: Cheap, satisfying meals/cooking experience that is also healthy.Eating healthy often leads me to do things like buy fat free yogurt, which is fine. I like fat free yogurt since it's usually flavored with artificial sweeteners that taste good to me. Likewise, fat-free/low-fat cheese, whole wheat everything, lots of fruits and veggies year round are all things I try to buy when I'm worried about my health (read weight). BUT, where do green peppers come from in the winter? Probably California. In fact, they may come from there in the spring and summer too. I grow a lot of green peppers because I like them so much, but there's no way I can grow enough to meet even my personal demand (I really like them). So then I have to face the the local food question. This is mostly about veggies, I'll cover meat next. I'm not a big organic food fan; when the choice is between a mass-produced bag of baby carrots grown in California and an organic bag of mass-produced baby carrots grown in California, it comes down to price and shelf life. Frankly, organic produce doesn't last as long and since I can really only shop once a week, my produce has to last all week, usually after I cut it up or repackage it. So organic-ness is less important, but sustainability is more so. Since I generally shop at the big grocery stores (for the $ reason) the best way for me to support this is to buy local products...if I can tell the difference. But that means that I won't be able to get all my favorites year round, and I'm not sure I can handle that. I really love green peppers and I want them everyday. In fact, I don't even know what season most things are grown in so it's hard for me to evaluate what's freshest and most likely to be local. Granted, this is just a matter of education, but it's still an issue. One solution to this might be the Boston Organic's Dogma Box: a box of local(ish)ly produced veggies delivered right to your door. Trouble is, it's not cheap. Or maybe it is and I just can't tell because I have no handle on what things cost (which is likely). Now the meat question. I am not a vegetarian and I couldn't live without meat. Humans are omnivores and designed to east at least some animal protein. Plus it tastes so good! However, I may not have to eat as much as I do. Or perhaps I just don't have to cook it as much as I do. The fact of the matter is that whenever I am confronted with how animals are treated on their way to becoming food, I cringe a little. It's a callous and mechanical process and while a certain amount of that is to be expected given the distributions systems in place, it's a bit much to handle. I'd much rather be able to buy smaller amounts of sustainably-raised meats in my grocery store than the larger amounts of what I get now. Cambridge being the hippie refuge that it is (no offense intended, there are benefits) I could do a meat CSA...with the same issues mentioned about about Boston Organics, or a standard veggie CSA. Add to all this that if I limit myself to locally-produced/seasonal/CSA foods then I'll have to adapt my recipe hunting to what I get, planning will have to happen on-the-fly. Also, although I firmly believe that whole foods and local and fresh foods are better for me, I still want to prepare them in a way that is healthy. So in order to feel satisfied/clever/accomplished about my cooking, I can only make meals that use my restricted list of foods and come from healthy food sources...and that are simple and fast to make...and at a reasonable price. Dilemma 3: Find sustainable foods without breaking the bank or limiting my options too much.I seems as though there are a number of constraints operating on me, and I can only allow one or two sources have power or I'll end up eating nothing but potatoes. Constraints - Supermarket sales (money)
- Local food/CSA (sustainability)
- foods in recipes (cleverness)
- healthy foods (health)
I've tried to balance the cleverness with the money, and haven't yet succeeded, but should I even bother trying if I'm just going to change it by insisting on buying different types of foods. And will that be enough. I can say, "yes I'll sign up for the meat CSA and get 5lb of meat a month. Sure it's expensive, but I'm doing good and I won't have to buy any more meat." But what if I end up not using it all, or worse needing more or a different kind? Anyway, this doesn't even get into issues like bananas (can't be grown locally, but without them I need another source of potassium or I get charlie horses. Is fair trade good enough? Can I ever justify buying a product that has to use that much oil to get to me?). etc. etc.
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Hey everybody, I don't usually put out a request like this, but Read-Aloud needs your help!
My mother is the director of a small children's literacy organization called Read-Aloud (http://readalouddelaware.org/) in my home state of Delaware. In the last few years, their (already small) budget has been cut dramatically. Their mission is encourage a life-long love of reading in pre-school aged children by reading to them, one-on-one, in daycare centers, shelters, and doctor's offices throughout the state.
This year, Read-Aloud applied to Tom's of Maine for one of 5 grants of $20,000 each. The program is called 50 States for Good and Read-Aloud was selected from a 2,000+ pool of applicants as a finalist!
Now they need your support! Go to www.50statesforgood.com or click here (direct link) and select Read-Aloud's Project: Reading Fun, One-on-One! (You'll have to search for it, they don't seem to be in any particular order.)
The best part is, since there are 5 grants, you can vote for 5 different groups. You can also vote every day (hint hint).
Thanks everyone!
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Go to Google and search for [your name] needs, post the top 10(ish) results for general hillarity:
- Cate needs to take the cable-car up to Chateau Dumas
- cate needs profile views
- CATE needs new members with the willingness and drive to man the sub-committees
- Earthkeeper Hero Cate needs your help!
- Cate needs a haircut
- Cate needs a loan to be able to buy more hair oils
- CATE needs the active involvement of the user community
- Cate needs little introduction
- Cate needs to find the evildoer.s
- Cate needs water
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Just watched the first episode of Vampire Diaries. I find that one of the most interesting part of watching/reading/processing a new vamp series is learning, bit by bit, what the vampires can do and what their weaknesses are. So Vampire Diaries vampires have auspecx, protean, super-strength and agility, and glamor/dominate but cannot cross thresholds or walk in sunlight (without the magic ring). They also get the Buffy forehead effect on their eyes/cheeks when they get all mad. Also, they get sunken eyed and pointy at the sight/smell of blood.
I went looking for and couldn't find a chart of vampire powers/weaknesses/killing methods for some of out most beloved or recently popular vampires. I'd say that such a chart would have to have Dracula, Nosferatu, WoD, Buffy, Anita Blake, and Twilight. I'd say that Sunshine by Robin McKinley would be a good addition because her vamps are pretty cool. Then I suppose you'd also add True Blood, Let the Right one In, and Vampire Diaries for comparison. Any other cool vampires I'm forgetting?
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I recently listened to an audiobook on actual cassette tapes. When I worked at Harvard, I kept a portable cassette player and CD player in my locker so that I could listen to audiobooks in whatever format I got from the library. Now, it made lots of sense to use portables at work, but now that I"m not at work but I'm sort of stuck on audiobooks for this series (Sharpe), so how to listen to them at home?
My tape player is very old, like 2000 or earlier. It has been dropped multiple times. The sound is kinda wonky. If I had an alternative, I wouldn't use the portable at home. BUT, no one else in my house has a tape player, of any kind. So, obviously my alternative is my portable with external speakers and power source. Problem: my tape player needs a particularly small DC adapter. My household has dozens of AC adapters, but only one DC adapter that I've been able to find...and it's too big (it does work with my CD player).
All this is a lead up to reminiscing about old tech. When you use a tape player on batteries, it will keep working, at progressively lower levels of excellence, long after a CD player.
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So after last year's GenCon ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) worldnamer got really excited about the idea of making and marketing some sort of GenCon guide. I recently found a cool fold-out pocket map. So I went about trying to make a GenCon version. I made a PDF with restaurant locations on it and a key to that map. I also made a small map to go on the outside. When I got to the con, I put a map of the convention center in there and attached the front cover to make a ticket pocket. I didn't really use the ICC map much, but I did need the room locations for the other hotels, but I couldn't figure out how to get all the maps in there. Part way through I wrote the room names and floor locations for each hotel. It was better than nothing, but not quite good enough. I think next year I'll put some of the smaller hotel maps on the second fold-out and verbal locations for the others. See pictures here.
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Saturday
Did get up early. Got to the ICC by 9:30 and tried to get tickets for the Harry Dresden LARP. It sounded excellent, but was scheduled from 6pm-midnight and I didn't want to miss the White Wolf party. I couldn't get a ticket, so I went to the Rio Grande room and played a game of Dominion. worldnamer met me there and we went to the exhibit hall. The first booth in there was Dragon Dice, the game I played/tried to play/collected when I was a lonely little geek. Alas, I don't have my dice anymore. We browsed around, looked at board games, got tickets to WW party. John wore his fancy coat that he made, his goggles, and a hollow book. I was dressed as Agatha...everyone wanted to take our picture.
worldnamer had to go to a game, I started looking at clothes, and was roped into the Cubicle 7 booth by a guy who was in the 7th Sea game because "I was dressed perfectly" for the RPG he was hawking. It's called Victoriana and just as I was looking at it, jadasc walked by and we decided to get it. It looks cool and I may try and run it. It came with a code for a free copy of the PDF. Everything was all steampunk, which was fine with me. I saw custom goggles, top hats, a cool jacket with puffy sleeves that could have been GenCon Mistake 2009, but wasn't actually as cool as it first seemed. I can't quite pull off the full Gibson Girl look, but I think I could do something a little smaller. I went by the Utilkilts booth but didn't get fitted because I was heading off somewhere.
Around 2, I considered going to the Doom Squad LARP, but after reading the description, I decided not to bother. Instead, I decided to get lunch. I headed for Noodles & Co., but the line was long and a decided that I wanted something a little more sit-down. So I called Mike and we went to Houlihan's. I was hungry and neglected to call anyone else. Once I was sitting down, I called others and Lia and worldnamer joined us. I went back to the ICC to see if I could get in a Catan Histories: Germany board game. It was ok, better than the average Catan game. I'm not sure if this was because it was new and I had to learn it, or if it's actually better.
I then waited far too long to get an over-priced slice of pizza that I couldn't even get a plate for. I should have skipped it because by the time I was done, it was getting close to 6 and I had to run over to Union Station to try and get into the Dresden game. I discovered that it was run by Infinite Imaginations, who I thought were called Infinite Loop Games, and were the ones who ran Super-Villain Academy last year. They were marked in the program as *An Awesome Game* and so in addition to being sold out, I was the 7th person to show up with generics. About 10 minutes after I arrived, they announced that they had, at most, less than 6 open slots and they were going to wait a little longer for ticketed people to show up. So I left, but was too late to get into any scheduled or games of demos.
Then dinner plans tried to happen. I proceeded to send about 10 million text messages to try and get most of our group to one place for food. Eventually it was decided to meet at Sushi on the Rocks at 8. I was able to text the address to my group due to my awesome map. But I was unable to reserve us a table because I'd left off the phone numbers. This proved to be troublesome.
The Rio Grande room had put away Royal Palace, a game I'd wanted to try (and just bought online) and the other game I wanted to play was full. But they were serving dinner, so I stuck around and got pizza. I then proceeded to play the worst game of Dominion ever. It was all Intrigue cards, and the set included the swindler, which is almost the worst card ever (I hear the saboteur is worse). In addition to that, the group I'd joined, supposedly friends, backstabbed each other shamelessly. No fun. We played another round and it was better.
We gathered at Sushi on the Rocks. Dan, from last year, was the instigator of this meal. He asked for crash space before the con, but then made other arrangements, but then plans changed and he needed space for Saturday night. He suggested we all have dinner first, so he could meet people. Sushi on the Rocks was full, so we switched to Mikado, Mike calling ahead to make sure they had space. We had expensive Midwestern sushi and heard about other people's cool games. Daniel (not Dan) played in the same Exalted game I was in on Friday, and they did things totally differently than my group did. Dan (not Daniel) was in a really cool sounding Civil War super hero game.
The group split, some going straight to the WW party at the Ice Lounge, others returned with me to the hotel to change. I, unwisely I now realize, did the goth belly dancing outfit. We dithered a little waiting for people and trying to get them into the club. We went up to the third floor, with the little beds, and staked out one of the big ones. I wasn't much for dancing, but it was nice just to hang out and talk to people. I met Lia and Daniel's really cool artist friend Liz, whose contact info I failed to get, and whose booth I never made it to. Apparently she makes really cool messenger bags and jewelry. I drank far too much, but enjoyed myself. We then went to the after-party at the Omni. The suite it was in was really cool, two floors, balcony. Lia and Dan bartended and made like $40 each in tips. One of the professional bar tenders came to help, but then abandoned. The lack of glasses seemed to be the biggest issue. I left before the official "end" of the party because I was so tired, it was about 4:30. I went back to the room and crashed. I kinda wanted to try and stay up until 6 when Niki would be on the train and I could crash with worldnamer. I made plans to meet him Sunday when the exhibit hall opened. Early in the evening, dragonladyflame called and reminded us to call her sometime.
Sunday
Met worldnamer at 10 when the hall opened. I ran over to the Utilikilt booth and got fitted. I had tried on Jake's kilt previously, a 38, and it fit reasonably well, but the official people declared that a larger size (42) would be better. I went to the other booth selling kilts to see if they had a better selection, and they disputed the sizing, but in the end settled on the same answer. It makes sense, as that is closer to my hips measurement. Unfortunately, my hips are sufficiently large that I require moreApparently the sizing can vary by as much as half an inch between kilts of the same size. So my best bet is not to order online, but to wait until I can buy one at a show again. I ran by the booth with the cool jacket and confirmed that it was not as cool as first thought. I then sought out and found, with difficulty, a phone card to try and call dragonladyflame. It was a $20 phone card, and it gave us 5 minutes of call time. So we did a quick round robin and got cut off. I will be putting a lot of these posts in an email to her tomorrow. Hearing from her warmed the cockles of my heart. I miss her terribly.
Then jadasc and I took a cab to airport, we probably could have taken the shuttle, which would have been much cheaper. So we were at the airport supper early. We tried for breakfast, but were unsuccessful since it was after noon. jadasc and I talked extensively about steampunk and our RPG preferences and what we want out of conventions. We got a whole row to ourselves on the way to Atlanta. I slept for most of it. We got Atlanta as an earlier flight to Boston was boarding, we tried to get seats, but it was full. So we waited for our scheduled flight...3 hours later. There was a serendipitous moment when we both were thinking about having ice cream, so we got sundaes at Ben & Jerry's, which was fun. We landed around 10:30, home by 11:30. When I crashed heavily.
What I have learned:
I have to arrive on Wednesday, even if it's late and I still have to skip work. I effectively lost Thursday to prep. For a splurge, a hotel suite might be a good idea, as would a Sunday night stayover. I need to make sure I get tickets to Infinite Imaginations' game, email the 7th Sea people to get a particular character, and sign up for more then one RPG in advance. I think I also want to try for the Mayfair "Knight of Catan" thing, where you collect ribbons and get a discount at their booth. I think it's also a good idea to get TD tickets later in the week, like Friday mid-morning. Of course, I'm sure everyone thinks that way and that's why it's hard to get good spots. I also need to make more of an effort to schedule games with boyfriends at cons. I like seeing people at meals and in the dealers room, but playing games together is important and should happen more.
I have yet to fully recover, I continue to be tired and a little grumpy. Overall, a good con, when's the next one?
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Did get up early. Got to the ICC by 9:30 and tried to get tickets for the Harry Dresden LARP. It sounded excellent, but was scheduled from 6pm-midnight and I didn't want to miss the White Wolf party. I couldn't get a ticket, so I went to the Rio Grande room and played a game of Dominion. worldnamer met me there and we went to the exhibit hall. The first booth in there was Dragon Dice, the game I played/tried to play/collected when I was a lonely little geek. Alas, I don't have my dice anymore. We browsed around, looked at board games, got tickets to WW party. John wore his fancy coat that he made, his goggles, and a hollow book. I was dressed as Agatha...everyone wanted to take our picture.
worldnamer had to go to a game, I started looking at clothes, and was roped into the Cubicle 7 booth by a guy who was in the 7th Sea game because "I was dressed perfectly" for the RPG he was hawking. It's called Victoriana and just as I was looking at it, jadasc walked by and we decided to get it. It looks cool and I may try and run it. It came with a code for a free copy of the PDF. Everything was all steampunk, which was fine with me. I saw custom goggles, top hats, a cool jacket with puffy sleeves that could have been GenCon Mistake 2009, but wasn't actually as cool as it first seemed. I can't quite pull off the full Gibson Girl look, but I think I could do something a little smaller. I went by the Utilkilts booth but didn't get fitted because I was heading off somewhere.
Around 2, I considered going to the Doom Squad LARP, but after reading the description, I decided not to bother. Instead, I decided to get lunch. I headed for Noodles & Co., but the line was long and a decided that I wanted something a little more sit-down. So I called Mike and we went to Houlihan's. I was hungry and neglected to call anyone else. Once I was sitting down, I called others and Lia and worldnamer joined us. I went back to the ICC to see if I could get in a Catan Histories: Germany board game. It was ok, better than the average Catan game. I'm not sure if this was because it was new and I had to learn it, or if it's actually better.
I then waited far too long to get an over-priced slice of pizza that I couldn't even get a plate for. I should have skipped it because by the time I was done, it was getting close to 6 and I had to run over to Union Station to try and get into the Dresden game. I discovered that it was run by Infinite Imaginations, who I thought were called Infinite Loop Games, and were the ones who ran Super-Villain Academy last year. They were marked in the program as *An Awesome Game* and so in addition to being sold out, I was the 7th person to show up with generics. About 10 minutes after I arrived, they announced that they had, at most, less than 6 open slots and they were going to wait a little longer for ticketed people to show up. So I left, but was too late to get into any scheduled or games of demos.
Then dinner plans tried to happen. I proceeded to send about 10 million text messages to try and get most of our group to one place for food. Eventually it was decided to meet at Sushi on the Rocks at 8. I was able to text the address to my group due to my awesome map. But I was unable to reserve us a table because I'd left off the phone numbers. This proved to be troublesome.
The Rio Grande room had put away Royal Palace, a game I'd wanted to try (and just bought online) and the other game I wanted to play was full. But they were serving dinner, so I stuck around and got pizza. I then proceeded to play the worst game of Dominion ever. It was all Intrigue cards, and the set included the swindler, which is almost the worst card ever (I hear the saboteur is worse). In addition to that, the group I'd joined, supposedly friends, backstabbed each other shamelessly. No fun. We played another round and it was better.
We gathered at Sushi on the Rocks. Dan, from last year, was the instigator of this meal. He asked for crash space before the con, but then made other arrangements, but then plans changed and he needed space for Saturday night. He suggested we all have dinner first, so he could meet people. Sushi on the Rocks was full, so we switched to Mikado, Mike calling ahead to make sure they had space. We had expensive Midwestern sushi and heard about other people's cool games. Daniel (not Dan) played in the same Exalted game I was in on Friday, and they did things totally differently than my group did. Dan (not Daniel) was in a really cool sounding Civil War super hero game.
The group split, some going straight to the WW party at the Ice Lounge, others returned with me to the hotel to change. I, unwisely I now realize, did the goth belly dancing outfit. We dithered a little waiting for people and trying to get them into the club. We went up to the third floor, with the little beds, and staked out one of the big ones. I wasn't much for dancing, but it was nice just to hang out and talk to people. I met Lia and Daniel's really cool artist friend Liz, whose contact info I failed to get, and whose booth I never made it to. Apparently she makes really cool messenger bags and jewelry.
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All my other ticketed events were on Friday. I failed to get up early, but managed to back to my room by around 11. Everyone else was gone by then. I wore the pirate blue pirate costume. I figured I'd go try to play some board games, so I got a bunch of generics only to discover that Rio Grande had reserved two big rooms to demo all their new games for free AND they had free food and soda. So I grab some soda and learned to play Stone Age, which is a cool game similar to Pillars of the Earth and Agricola in that you collect resources which you used to buy buildings or special cards. Also, like Agricola, you have to feed your tribe at the end of year. But unlike Agricola, it's not as hard. I'd say is not a really fiddly game, more like a 3.
...Pause: Cate's game rating system goes from 0-5
0 = easy; rules are intuitive, like Start Player, Flux, and Go Fish
1 = pretty simple; few or easy rules, like Carcassone, Settlers, Bacchus's Banquet, Monopoly
2 = mildly complicated; I don't have many games that meet this description so my definition is hazzy, but I want to put things here that are quick to learn but at least mildly strategic, like Thurn & Taxis, Carcassone with some expansions, Gheos, Clue
3 = complex; having multiple phases and procedures and requiring a fair amount of set-up and explanation but no so complicated I can't sort of figure it out and strategize, like Tribune, Pillars, Mystery of the Abby, Puerto Rico
--mundane games tend not to make it this far and still be popular
--I like this category, I would play games like this all day if I could
4 = very complex; lots of rules, long play time, harder to learn and grasp, like Agricola and Arkam Horror
5 = very complex and based on something; no really, games based on things are hard, requiring even experienced players to look things up occasionally, this is where BSG, Dune, war games go. If you know the thing they're based on, they're more like a 4, but if you don't or you're new to the subject, they have rules and methods that make zero sense
--not all tie-in games are in this category, but many are
...Resume
Then at 2 I played an Exalted game. I was nearly late and the GM had already given my seat to a generic, but then he relented and let us all play since there were 6 characters for 5 people to choose from. The GM had been in one of Dustin's games and recognized me. We were sort of troubleshooters from heaven. We had to find this 1st age device, which turned out to be a writing desk (I thought it was going to be a whole building or at least a room, anyway I misunderstood. We had an alchemical (robot), a lunar, a midnight caste abyssal, a water caste dragon-blood (me), a sidereal of the maiden of journeys, and a twilight solar. It was a well thought out adventure that played fine with 6, our abyssal was supposed to be a social character, but the guy player her was very shy and quiet. The robot was super blood thirsty, the sidereal was cautious, the twilight was total mad-scientist, and the guy playing the lunar actually had very pointy canines. And I *was* wearing blue. Still, I think the abyssal and I should have switched, but I got there late and didn't have first pick. Good game all around the GM, Chris, was from a group called [find business card] that was also running a steampunk LARP that I considered but decided not to go to on Saturday.
Then I took a pole-dancing class with Lia. I was terrible, one of the wost in the room, I don't have the confidence in my arm strength needed to get the spins on the first dozen tries. But it was still fun. If I had somewhere to practice, I would. Lia and I left early to run and grab dinner. I got a sandwich at the world's slowest Subway in the mall food court. But it was a good idea as that sandwich provided lunch and dinner.
After food there was 7th Sea LARP, run by Plaid Chameleon people. They run great games. The due who's in charge is short, has a blond beard and often wears a kilt. dragonladyflame, worldnamer, and I were in their LARP two years ago and I did one of their tabletops last year. Two years ago, I played a mercenary and was dressed as a wench. Last year and this year I dressed as a pirate and was a knight and courtesan. I think I need to email the dude next year (as some people apparently did) and plan better. Lia had to leave because she wasn't feeling well, but I stayed. I thought I did a really good job, as I accomplished all my goals and didn't die. I got to talk to lots of people, collect information gossip etc. I was not, however, part of the main plot and as such had no idea what was going on with that. My deal was that I was working for the Daughters of Sofia helping courtesans protect themselves from fate witches. They had helped my sister flee the country after she pissed off the wrong guy. Her house was burned down and she demanded to live with me, but I didn't want her to, but couldn't refuse or no one would do business with me, so I hired someone to scar her face so I could take over her client list. The Daughters knew this and would tell her if I didn't help them sneak this magical salve out of the country. The salve provided protection from the fate witches. The dude who gave it to me got run over by a carriage right afterwards. There was a plan to give it to a woman who worked for the daughters and who'd just been poisoned (sealing her fate, and making her mission immune to tampering). But, my patron was planning on leaving the country and I figured I could get out with him instead and the woman wouldn't have to die. But he was being slow, so I negotiated my own way out. The game wrap, alas, did not touch on my brilliant success or (I thought) really good roleplaying, but was still awesome.
I came back to the hotel and found jadasc, Lia, and Daniel getting ready to head to a goth-industrial night at the Ugly Monkey (aka: white wolf's favorite bar). I went for awhile, danced for a bit but grew tired. I ended up having a bit of a case of not-the-prettiest, and took a walk up to monument circle and felt better. Went to sleep and resolved to get up earlier the next day and go to the exhibit hall.
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It was awesome, of course.
Details
Pre-con: spent Wednesday night packing and not sleeping and finishing up content my awesome-cool fold-out map (more on this later). It was at about 7 that I realized I'd left my iPod at work. There was no sleep. jadasc's friend W. gave us a ride in exchange for future furniture moving so we could catch our 6am flight. Flight was fine, nearly missed our connection due to momentary stupid (I blame lack of sleep) but did not and all was well. AirTran has started to charge for *any* checked bags which sucks eggs as I was considering doing so after last year's reaction OMG too much crap!
Thursday: took shuttle from airport to Convention Center (ICC) and nabbed multiple programs. Couldn't get into the room yet b/c it was only about noon, jadasc stored his bags and I met up with Niki and left stuff there. She had to head out to game and I changed into the red solider costume (my airplane outfit was a combo of comfortable semi-mundane costume articles that made me look like a folk musician) and got my act together. I gathered all my crafty stuff and found the open crafting room that had exacto knives, cutting mats, a paper cutter, lots of glue, no tape, and lots of other cool materials. I'd cut and folded the map holders at home and printed out copies of the info. Now I cut them to size, glued in place etc., or as much as I could without actual scotch tape. worldnamer was at an interview but then came and found me. We we joined by jadasc back from the exhibit hall with STUFF and Niki. We checked into our room, jadasc went to game. Lia and Daniel and their friend Allan arrived and the three of them, Niki, worldnamer, and I went to lunch at Alcatraz brewing. It was decent at least. Then there was TD token prep, a nap, the arrival of Mike and Mark, distribution of tokens, finishing the maps, and we were off to True Dungeon!!
True Dungeon
I'm going to try and remember all this, though it's hard without the riddle reveal.
The party
Fighter = Me
Barbarian = Allan (Mike had to drop out due to a work event)
Ranger = Lia
Monk = Mark
Cleric = jadasc
Bard = worldnamer
Wizard = Daniel
Rogue = Niki
There were 7 rooms:
1) puzzle and combat and trap: it was the same set as one of the last rooms last year, with an anagram puzzle on both sides of an arched doorway. The scantily clad woman of the year was in this room, she was a rather flustered dryad who couldn't remember her lines but helped with the combat. She was painted green and wearing a Tarzan-and-Jane tank and skirt make of leaves. We walked in and jadasc looks at the puzzle and tells me he's got the answer. But first we were attacked by a swamp monster! I forgot that we can only do one thing at a time, so jadasc couldn't do the puzzle while we fought, which I thought was lame. But still, we fought the monster and defeated it with relative ease with everyone chipping in, Niki unlocked the trap and got a token, and *then* we got to solve the puzzle and it was correct, despite the rather prickly GM trying to psych us out. The riddle instructions were cryptic, something about even numbers divide by two etc. But the anagram was "eleven and two" becomes "twelve and one." This is apparently a well documented anagram which is why jadasc recognized it.
2) Puzzle: we entered a small room with only a narrow space in front of a floor made of tiles four across and six long each with a letter on it. The first row was something like U U N U. There was a riddle on the walls that went something like: "Start with heat, then death, then to seed and cleansing breath." I'll put the actual text up here when I get it. We had no idea. We literally stood there for over half the time with no idea what to do. We though it might be describing composting, or something. Finally, I suggested we just start trying it. I stood on the first letter of the third column, a U, and nothing happened. We figured it had to spell something so I went for a consonant next (I think), anyway it was the tile directly in front of me. Nothing happened. I ended up walking straight across with no harm done and we realized that the letters spelled "summer" just out of order. And then, we saw that the other columns also spelled the names of seasons. So the next person walked across on winter, the third tried Spring, but was wrong, took damage, and then used Autumn. The fourth person followed on Spring, rinse, repeat and we got across. There were some plaster casts of women with butterfly faces on the walls I noticed.
3) Puzzle and trap: There was a central table (with faint UV paint markings of a spider web left over from previous years) it had numbers from 1-12 around the edge like a clock. In front of each number was a different colored gemstone (big plastic ones, about fist sized). We had to pick the right one that would open the door to the next room. The riddle said talked about dawn, midnight, and joyous arrivals. We pretty much got that it was a calender and not a clock, and Lia figured it was either 12 or 6 (December or June). Then Jason realized that the gem stones matched (loosely) the birth stones for the appropriate months, like green (emerald) for May and red (ruby) for July. Niki picked the trap and we confirmed that it was a calendar. And then Lia realized that since "joyous arrival" probably meant a birth and most people get married in June, that the correct answer would be 9 months later, in March. She was right and we got it on the first try (of 3). This room had little plaques again, but they were of a man with a sort of mane like flames. I should note that they were unpainted as before.
4) Puzzle and combat: The GM let us in this fort of waiting room early because we were so fast and pointed out a simple puzzle we'd have to solve to proceed. A board on the wall had 9 symbols, and the instructions said to pick the one that didn't belong. It looked really familiar to me, in fact I thought it was a bunch of the bard symbols, but I was incorrect. Rather, it was the stupid little test challenge they have on the TD website which I solved ages ago. Each symbol had one additional brush stroke than the last, except for the 6th one, which should have had 6 strokes, but had about 12 instead. So I declared my answer before the GM even showed up. The previous GM looked in on us, and tried to make us doubt our answer but to no avail. There was also a hole in the wall that we couldn't go through. The plaques here had a woman's face with seashells around it. The GM finally showed up and told Niki she could try the hole, we answered the puzzle and went through the door. There was a chasm spanned by a really awesome metal bridge with a stationary troll with a club on the other side. Niki apparently came out of the tunnel on that side of the bridge and had a chance to sneak attack the troll, but it wasn't useful or something, I think we got a treasure token at the end because of her actions though. So I went across the bridge first with the barbarian behind me and everyone else readying ranged weapons. This is an obvious thing to do, but apparently not everyone remembers that party order is important. We fought the troll, but it took awhile. The guy playing him was really good. We had to do a lot of healing after that and Jason wasn't so good at remembering the prayer beads, but no one died so it was ok.
5) Combat and trap: Ok this room sucked. We were in a tomb of some kind and they had a cool 3-D hologram thingy of a glowing light above the coffin, and then of a skeleton climbing up out of it and walking toward us. For every successful attack, by which I mean a hit on the shuffleboard, the GM flipped a large wooden coin to determine if it was a hit or a miss, 'cause ghostly skeletons fade in and out or something. He did this for spells as well as physical attacks. We did mostly all have rings of Pelor to do extra damage to undead, but we hit so infrequently that it didn't matter. And the ghost was really hyper accurate and did a lot of damage. We didn't finish the fight and had to flee to the next room. Niki slipped on the trap and didn't get whatever advantage that would have given us. I honestly can't remember if there was a puzzle or riddle of any kind, I know that if we defeated the ghost we got some treasure. I also failed to notice any face plaques in that room, I partly blame this on the fact we had to have our lights mostly off to see the hologram. But it was still careless.
6) Puzzle: This room had a table with a "stained-glass" looking surface with a pentagram drawn on it and circles at the axises and cups sitting on top of the circles. In between the circles there were five colorful face type things, each of a different color: a yellow sun, a blue crescent moon, a green tree, a purple thing, and a red sort of gnome face in profile. There's a picture on the website. In the center, there were five circles numbered I-V, and a riddle saying approximately "order me from peasant to king using [clues] foretold by the ring." Then we noticed there was a thin metal ring around the base of one of the cups. Oh, each cup had a little goblin on it pained a different color (red, orange, blue, purple, and green). There were 4 other rings like the first arranged on the outside edge of the table. I *think* they were placed randomly, but we tried to read into their placement unsuccessfully (one on one side, two beside each other on the other side). We had 3 chances to get the order right. I realize now that the GM tried to give us a hint when he said the cups were delicate and to be careful with them. We tried an order based on colors (Roy G. Biv), on seasons, with purple last because that's the royal color, blue first because that was the one with the ring around it's base. We debated and debated and totally got it wrong and took lots of damage. And it was one of those annoying ones where everyone took damage, not just the person who placed the last cup or the people standing around the table. Oh yeah, and we only took damage once they were all in place, not for each incorrectly placed cup. I found out later, as did jadasc that the solution was that each of the cups made a different tone when you hit it with the ring, like a tuning fork. None of us were particularly musical so perhaps that's why we missed it. Anyway, we'd taken a couple hits as it was and then failure damage at the end. Again, I failed to look for any face plaques.
7) In the final room's antechamber, we healed up and were given a choice: combat or puzzle. We picked puzzle and I have to say I think we should have gone with combat. Admittedly, we were low on the healing ability, jadasc was running out of potions and spells, but still we would have survived it, probably. And given that the puzzles had been getting harder and we hadn't gotten the last one...well who knows. Anyway, we went with the puzzle. It was a pentagonal table with a bowl of green liquid in the middle and a key suspended above it. There were five little painted plaques that we had to arrange at the five points. And, low and behold, they matched the ones I'd observed (and not observed) in the rest of the dungeon. The two I hadn't noticed were a green man and [one I can't remember now but might have been air-related]. The riddle on the right-hand side of the door said that spirit leads the way, and air rests here. We figured that meant that the tile for "spirit" went at the point angled straight at the door and that air went on the point to the right, the one closest to that side of the wall. The left-hand side had a riddle that talked about fire and spirit was a love it dare not know or something. We gathered that the order of elements was important and figured it had to do with which ones countered each other. Well, we tried a couple of things, but didn't get it. I suspect some of our early premises were wrong. I'd ask you to guess, but since I can't recall the exact phrasing or even what the last tile looked like, I certainly *hope* you can't figure it out without that info or I'll feel really stupid.
I'll post all the clues later when I have the full answers myself, it usually takes about 2 weeks for them to send out the email.
Ok, let's make this part one and I'll cover the rest in other posts.
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Is it vanity, no I tell you!
I googled myself today because it's the fastest way I know to check my True Dungeon XP. I discovered a couple of things. A podcast I listen to finally answered a question I asked *months* ago on their website. I am quoted in a Wired article about TD. I sound like a frat boy, but that's ok I guess. I also don't remember being interviewed.
Also, everytime I twitter or am mentioned on twitter it has my full name. Now I understand why people don't put their name up there and make me guess their identity. This will have to change I think.
Oh, and the result of my search? I'm still 3rd level, BUT after I play next year I'll be able to go to the tavern any time during GenCon for free, huzzah!
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Musing number 1: Breasts float
Well yes, this is hardly news. However, until recently I had never had the opportunity to be naked and submerged in a sufficiently large body of water to prove this. I have done so and it is glorious.
Mussing #2: tall escalators remind me of medieval scaling ladders with lots of people on them, ready to storm the castle. so the next time you're in the Porter Sq. station, think about those scenes in "The Two Towers" where the orcs are riding on ladders as they're lifted up to the walls.
Mussing C: there is no useful place to make a telephone call these days. The rise of personal cell phones and the demise of the phone booth means that it's nigh impossible to make a private call outside your own home. Granted, if you have an office with a door you can close you're all set, but not everyone has that luxury or even a cubicle approximation of it. If phone booths (with or without actual phones in them) still existed I would totally use them to make calls in. Today I had to sit on a park bench surrounded by people while I talked to my health care people about plan options. I had to speak my ss# out-loud and everything. I'd rather not do this in my office since, a) it's not very private either and b) it makes my employers wonder why I'm there and not working, plus I think I'm explicitly not allowed to make personal calls. We are told over and over not make calls while driving and yeah, duh, that's obvious. But the dangers aside, a car (if you have one) is an excellent place to make a private phone call...like a phone booth. ahem. </rant>
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I did not get the 625 job, but it went to a friend so that's good.
I *did* get a temp job through Spherion; I'm an admin in a finance office where I guard the door and stamp things. It's only my first week, but it's fine so far.
I really, really need to apply for a bunch of jobs that have been posted in the last week. Some are from last Friday or Thursday and I've been slow. Course, now I have less time and that isn't helping. But I will get to them.
Game tonight. Shopping and bourbon and men named Jason this weekend. GenCon in less than a week.
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consider this a place holder until I'm somewhere I can think this through better because I think this might actually be an Important Issue.
There's been a lot in the news lately on publishing side-issues. I say side-issumes b/c they're not what we genrally think of as publishing, but if we do, that's just because we're stuck in the print paradiam. So, near as I can tell, there are 3 things that have happened:
1) Amazon yanked copyright infringing ebooks (1984 and Animal Farm), not only from it's online store but also from the the Kindles of purchasers.
2) In a similar move, Apple removed Google Voice apps from the iTunes store. To my knowledge, individual copies have not been deleted, but since the only way to get updates is via iTunes, people will want refunds.
3) The GoogleBooks settlement was just announced and debated. I don't know much about this yet, but I'm working on it.
I just took an Intellectual Property class and this stuff is on my mind. I'm going to go do something else and come back later with more research and see if I still think there's a post here or not.
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So I mentioned the interview at CPL? Well I have two more. One was today and it was well. The other is in Lowell. I have applications out to Wheelock, Emerson, New England College of Optometry, and various Harvard departments.
I am signed up for unemployment and have applied for MassHealth...hopefully will manage to be approved before my current health insurance expires.
I have learned that a former coworker who was scheduled to and has rejoined the Widener lab has been given a second p-t position doing my old job. Granted, he used to do the same job, and it's a short term position, but it was not offered to me and I'm pissed about it. My old boss and I will have words.
I do other stuff...like watch TV and Tour de France, and prep for GenCon (GenCoonnnnn!)
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irritated
