=After a less than wonderful Monday, the last thing I wanted to do on Tuesday was to get up unreasonably early and go to the hospital. But that's exactly what I did. Damn alarm rang at 0630, and by 0730 we had stumbled our way through the early morning chill to find ourselves seated glumly in the day surgery waiting room with the MIL. I am not a morning person. Never have been and never really wanted to be. Force me to get up early, couple that with asking me to do something I really don't want to do, and I become a fairly unpleasant person to be around. I managed to keep a lid on the unpleasantness today, mostly because I was too tired to be snippy. I also had the good sense to realize that no good could come of being difficult when the FIL is looking at getting a stent. In the end, he wound up with two in the same artery, and I was back home and in bed by 1030. He's doing well (if you don't count the pieces of metal near his heart) and should be discharged tomorrow. I'm still somewhat groggy and looking down the barrel of another less than pleasant evening at work.
=We took some time Monday after lunch to go look at a house M1 had thought we might be interested in. Mostly because we're both thinking that the new high school complex that's going in will be most detrimental to the overall quality of the neighborhood. Since we have a couple of years, it doesn't hurt to look. Anyway, after we had seen the property, were headed back to DeKalb on 23 when off of a side road this truck comes flying across both lanes of traffic. This was maybe 100 yards in front of us and we were moving at highway speed. This guy shot across the road, bounced through the ditch, and came to rest at the edge of a cornfield. It took us all a couple of seconds to comprehend what had just occurred, and a couple of more to realize that if we had been moving just a tad faster, he would have smashed right through us. The driver of the truck (which was piled high with forms for concrete) managed to miss the safety rail, the utility pole, and the road sign, only clipped 1 of four guide lines, stayed upright and came to rest on all four wheels. For as fast as he was going, he was one lucky fucker. He had lost his brakes and couldn't stop. So he was heading west, probably around 50-60 mph, and the two lanes of N-S traffic he crossed were moving at the same speed, if not faster. That would have been one hell of an impact. And probably fatal.
=The next game night is in the planning stages. Since Cromag is heading up this weekend, I was going to see if he wanted to have me get an Ameritrash scramble together for Saturday or Sunday night. Otherwise, I think I'm going to target the 16th of October. I'm thinking of bringing RoboRally to the table as the main event for that evening, and then having a couple of filler games as warm-ups. Not sure whether it would be better to start earlier or not.
=I would think that it would be logical to assume that if you have a primary instrument that generates a large amount of numerical data, and that primary instrument is teetering on the verge of death, you should have a secondary instrument, and said secondary instrument should have a computer interface to keep you from having to manually enter every single damn bit of data that said secondary instrument would generate. Now, should said secondary instrument be a brand new arrival, I could maybe understand how that interface was not immediately established. When said secondary instrument has been in place for over a month, I have no real idea how it never got done. Just sayin...
=After nights like I had at work yesterday, I understand why there are no windows in the lab. To keep me from jumping.
=
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Now That's REALLY Secret....
Tonight, after seeing the local paper, I had one of those moments where I'm pretty sure a fuse blew somewhere in my brain. It was just one of those moments of a bizzare juxtaposition that you never could have come up with on your own. The local Mason lodge is having an open house. Now, for those of you who didn't quite get that, I'll repeat it a little slower. The Masons. Are having. An open house. WH-WH-WH-WH-WHAT!?!?! One of the most secretive and influential groups on the face of this planet (and several others) is having an open house?? Is that the grand master plan for making everyone in the world one of them-punch and cookies?? 'No, forget global domination of the currency supply, Most Exaulted Grand Poo-Bah, I think we should really be working the Oreo and Hi-C angle.' These are the folks who sit at the second to left tentacle of god, and now they're having an open house? Something isn't right here....
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Anti-Social Chickens
**7PM and it's almost dark out. Every day the light creeps further and further into the house as the sun sinks closer to the southern horizon. I don't like it. It makes me feel uneasy on some base level that I don't quite understand. Summer was almost non-existent, but the planets continue to move through space as they have done for who knows how long regardless of my opinion concerning the inadequacy of the past season.
**Finished the Adventure mode of Plants Vs. Zombies. The music video in with the credits was hilarious! 'I got butter on my head'. When I heard that I laughed so hard I racked my knee on the bottom of the desk! ....Well......I guess you had to be there......
**So, the statement has already put forward that someone who lives in my house and is not me will not be putting up with me being mopey during my vacation at the end of October. The solution that was suggested for this was a return trip to Las Vegas. I'm not quite sure how those two things relate to each other in an oppositional manner. Mostly it revolves around me never being satisfied with how a party goes, no matter how much people say they enjoy it. I think I would like to do another full-blown Halloween party, but I doubt my ability to attract party goers. Then there's the large shadow being cast across the holiday by the intrusive presence of Christmas stuff, and the lack of people who really enjoy this particular holiday. On the flip side of all this is the idea that I'm not too enthused about the thought of going to Vegas, odd as that may seem. Yet another thing to consider is that a big reason to get the basement done was to be able to have people over. Still, it seems silly to have a party if you know people aren't going to show up. So, if history is any judge of the situation, I'll just flip back and forth on what I want to do until it's just too late to do either, at which point I will feel that my mood funk is justified. Not a very fair or fun way to approach a vacation, but if I don't get my head in order by whatever means are needed, it is likely to be the outcome. And the thought of that just sucks...
**OK, if it's gonna cost $1500 bucks and result in a hole being put in my roof, I think I am perfectly justified in thinking that the other member of the household should be just a tad more enthusiastic than they seem to be regarding the entire project. Ergo: that project is now on indefinite hold.
**What in the heck made Morgan such a prominent part of Dreamville last night? And Why were we in Vegas??
**Another question put to me recently was if it was possible that Hawaii could be considered as a destination for the celebration of my 40th birthday. I have no idea what to think about that.
**Pink leopard print. Hmmmmmm....
**The first of what will hopefully be many game night gatherings happened Friday night. Attendance was in the low single digits, but we manged to get 3 different games onto the table in the space of 4-5 hours. Gemlok was the warmup game, and was well received by everyone. Instead of being a mindless dice fest, there proved to be a decent degree of strategic thinking involved, especially when the center of the board started to get clogged with pieces. The first house rule to be thought up for this game: endless pawn bumping. That we may just try out next time around. The running score after 3 complete games (30 rounds) had Neil out in front with me second and Forrest within spitting distance of me. Since Gemlok had been my choice, I opened the table for suggestions, and Neil opted for Galaxy Trucker. Since I hadn't done anything more with this game than pawed through the box and looked at all the bits, I set to busily punching out parts while Neil perused the rules and tried to educate us all as to what exactly all the bits were for. We jumped right into constructing our first ships (because the rulebook said we were supposed to), and our stint as outer space deliverymen was off and running. We stumbled our way through the introductory game with near constant references to the rulebook, and endless amazement at how badly we had constructed our first ships. Forrest had plenty of engines, but only 2 batteries to power them. Neil had no space for cargo, and I had nearly half of my ship connected to the rest by only one component. But we forged ahead, encountering smugglers and abandoned ships along the way. after we had played the 8 adventure cards in the introductory game, it struck us as odd that every single one of us finished the game well behind where we had started. Our obvious conclusion was that we had done something wrong, but even with three of us flipping back and forth through the rules, we were unable to figure out exactly what we were doing wrong. After deciding that it would be best to confer with BGG before attempting this game again, we moved on. Forrest bowed out at this point, having already worked a long day before arriving and looking down the barrel of having to work again in the morning. Once again, I had Neil choose what our next game would be, and he opted to try HeroScape. So while he scanned the minimal basic game rules, I dug through my boxes of terrains looking for what I needed to build the Table of the Giants map. I was still in the midst of locking tiles together when Neil finished glancing through the rules. He had reached the same conclusion that I had: the basic rules weren't so much basic as they were remedial. But since neither one of us had any actual game experience with HeroScape, we decided to give the basic rules a go. Neil commanded the red team, and I ran the blue. After far too much dice bouncing and far to little strategizing, I managed to eke out a win, leaving only one of my Tarn Viking warriors standing. Since we were both less than impressed with the basic rules, we decide to play a game with the master rules on the same map. To make things somewhat fair, we did a blind draw of the units I had up to a 400 point cap. I wound up drafting Jotun, the Airborne Elite, and the Marro Warriors. Neil got Agent Carr, the Krav Maga Agents, Ne-Gok-Sa, the Zeitan Guards, and the Ashigaru Spearmen. Needless to say, his starting zone looked like a waiting line at ComiCon. In the end, I somehow managed to wade through the hordes of opposing figures, which included 1 Krav Maga Agent who simply refused to die, and gain the victory. Thanks to the Water Clone ability of the Marro Warriors, I ended the game with that squad intact. Half of the Airborne Elite squad managed to hold one of the high ground areas for about the entire game and pick off numerous enemies from a distance. Neil and I both agreed that the basic rules just weren't for us, and that HeroScape was a game we would definitely be playing again. And thus ended the evening.
**I still can't figure out why my car smelled like cookies the other day.
**
**Finished the Adventure mode of Plants Vs. Zombies. The music video in with the credits was hilarious! 'I got butter on my head'. When I heard that I laughed so hard I racked my knee on the bottom of the desk! ....Well......I guess you had to be there......
**So, the statement has already put forward that someone who lives in my house and is not me will not be putting up with me being mopey during my vacation at the end of October. The solution that was suggested for this was a return trip to Las Vegas. I'm not quite sure how those two things relate to each other in an oppositional manner. Mostly it revolves around me never being satisfied with how a party goes, no matter how much people say they enjoy it. I think I would like to do another full-blown Halloween party, but I doubt my ability to attract party goers. Then there's the large shadow being cast across the holiday by the intrusive presence of Christmas stuff, and the lack of people who really enjoy this particular holiday. On the flip side of all this is the idea that I'm not too enthused about the thought of going to Vegas, odd as that may seem. Yet another thing to consider is that a big reason to get the basement done was to be able to have people over. Still, it seems silly to have a party if you know people aren't going to show up. So, if history is any judge of the situation, I'll just flip back and forth on what I want to do until it's just too late to do either, at which point I will feel that my mood funk is justified. Not a very fair or fun way to approach a vacation, but if I don't get my head in order by whatever means are needed, it is likely to be the outcome. And the thought of that just sucks...
**OK, if it's gonna cost $1500 bucks and result in a hole being put in my roof, I think I am perfectly justified in thinking that the other member of the household should be just a tad more enthusiastic than they seem to be regarding the entire project. Ergo: that project is now on indefinite hold.
**What in the heck made Morgan such a prominent part of Dreamville last night? And Why were we in Vegas??
**Another question put to me recently was if it was possible that Hawaii could be considered as a destination for the celebration of my 40th birthday. I have no idea what to think about that.
**Pink leopard print. Hmmmmmm....
**The first of what will hopefully be many game night gatherings happened Friday night. Attendance was in the low single digits, but we manged to get 3 different games onto the table in the space of 4-5 hours. Gemlok was the warmup game, and was well received by everyone. Instead of being a mindless dice fest, there proved to be a decent degree of strategic thinking involved, especially when the center of the board started to get clogged with pieces. The first house rule to be thought up for this game: endless pawn bumping. That we may just try out next time around. The running score after 3 complete games (30 rounds) had Neil out in front with me second and Forrest within spitting distance of me. Since Gemlok had been my choice, I opened the table for suggestions, and Neil opted for Galaxy Trucker. Since I hadn't done anything more with this game than pawed through the box and looked at all the bits, I set to busily punching out parts while Neil perused the rules and tried to educate us all as to what exactly all the bits were for. We jumped right into constructing our first ships (because the rulebook said we were supposed to), and our stint as outer space deliverymen was off and running. We stumbled our way through the introductory game with near constant references to the rulebook, and endless amazement at how badly we had constructed our first ships. Forrest had plenty of engines, but only 2 batteries to power them. Neil had no space for cargo, and I had nearly half of my ship connected to the rest by only one component. But we forged ahead, encountering smugglers and abandoned ships along the way. after we had played the 8 adventure cards in the introductory game, it struck us as odd that every single one of us finished the game well behind where we had started. Our obvious conclusion was that we had done something wrong, but even with three of us flipping back and forth through the rules, we were unable to figure out exactly what we were doing wrong. After deciding that it would be best to confer with BGG before attempting this game again, we moved on. Forrest bowed out at this point, having already worked a long day before arriving and looking down the barrel of having to work again in the morning. Once again, I had Neil choose what our next game would be, and he opted to try HeroScape. So while he scanned the minimal basic game rules, I dug through my boxes of terrains looking for what I needed to build the Table of the Giants map. I was still in the midst of locking tiles together when Neil finished glancing through the rules. He had reached the same conclusion that I had: the basic rules weren't so much basic as they were remedial. But since neither one of us had any actual game experience with HeroScape, we decided to give the basic rules a go. Neil commanded the red team, and I ran the blue. After far too much dice bouncing and far to little strategizing, I managed to eke out a win, leaving only one of my Tarn Viking warriors standing. Since we were both less than impressed with the basic rules, we decide to play a game with the master rules on the same map. To make things somewhat fair, we did a blind draw of the units I had up to a 400 point cap. I wound up drafting Jotun, the Airborne Elite, and the Marro Warriors. Neil got Agent Carr, the Krav Maga Agents, Ne-Gok-Sa, the Zeitan Guards, and the Ashigaru Spearmen. Needless to say, his starting zone looked like a waiting line at ComiCon. In the end, I somehow managed to wade through the hordes of opposing figures, which included 1 Krav Maga Agent who simply refused to die, and gain the victory. Thanks to the Water Clone ability of the Marro Warriors, I ended the game with that squad intact. Half of the Airborne Elite squad managed to hold one of the high ground areas for about the entire game and pick off numerous enemies from a distance. Neil and I both agreed that the basic rules just weren't for us, and that HeroScape was a game we would definitely be playing again. And thus ended the evening.
**I still can't figure out why my car smelled like cookies the other day.
**
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