Tag Archives: gaming

8976 – sat

Rennfest was a hoot! Much larger venue than South Florida’s, and more professionally done.

Highlights –

  • Kadon’s Game Tent (I lost two games of Quint, and BHK picked up a deck of Fluxx 3.0) – they’re the guys that make Volcano boards!
  • Hack & Slash – I got a long-sleeved Action Hero t-shirt, autographed by the guys.
  • (Good fellows and funny as all get out – They’ll be there all weekends except 10/20-21)
  • Swami Yohmahmi
  • Museum of Unnatural History
  • Coin Mashing Stand… Thinking of a Hare and a Bear for either side of one.

Not to mention soft pretzels, saw assorted foods on a stick (but only ate aforementioned pretzel and a lot of water) and a beautiful wooded location.

I think I especially liked it because it was just BHK and me, having fun. No herding cats, no phone calls, nothing… just grabbed a bagel and go!

After, we hit Susquido’s for white pizza, extra garlic with a Caesar salad and fried Zucchini. Yum. (Zukes were not nearly as good as BHK’s homemade recipe)

assorted recent kitty cuteness

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Renfest pics – taken with BHK’s rapidly expiring camera.

Most from Hack & Slash
note beat rennie behind BHK and me on the bench.

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1 year ago – the tick / pajama police, Zoom, car projections

2 years ago – Got fresh paid links, July 2002 Lumbee Entry (Active just 2 days ago!), Palm doodles, head photos and newt, foamy, Mind controlling death parasites, help Katrina critter

3 years ago – dream cartoon linker, The Forgotten, sample email from a stranger,Mountain Dew: Pitch Black, First Grade, Reiger resigning as chief of DCF, Stream of thought alphabet

4 years ago – Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang, Red Haired Barbarians, Aunt Jemima, $100K fart, esteem meme, dynamite magazine, Newt pic, flex points, cookie puss, annoying or not, bro stuff, blogshares, earthquakes, toontown, Frankie bugs me

5 years ago – heroclix, art fair, jellybath, skyscrapers (here’s Maryland), Ambient Findability, web hits, bike in the meter room

6 years ago – adultery, lj, rollercoaster

7 years ago – playing with html, long day at work, September b’days, Sacrifice to the Horned Goat, pesky work poop, coffee, bearded sadness, road trip, headache Geotarget

8971 – tues

Extra-Random very rough draft entry. Read at own risk, dear journal.


Current health issues – getting corrected a little at a time

  • Allergies – need to get blood work done in top of October for shots
  • Teeth – Bridge for broken tooth, and 2 fillings. Floss, kids!
  • Back-leg ortho workup.

Monday night after our appointments, BHK, Chris, Larry and I all met at the Lebanese Taverna for Half-price Mondays… yum on the falafel!

I also got a new shirt for work at good ol’ Value City – White with blue pinstripes.

Tonight after work there was a big traffic slowdown…Suitland was a parking lot, and all of i-4 was shut by police and helicopters. A cursory search online mentioned no specifics, and the traffic radio was of little detail as well. I wonder what was up? Chris speculated terrorist stuff, but there was really no hint as to what it might be at all. I made it to Tina’s about 30 minutes later than usual. When I realized I wasn’t going to be there by 7:15, I called and they ate ahead of me.. I got there in time to watch the last half of Gilmore Girls – BHK and Tina set tentative plans for a girls trip sometime in the near future.

This weekend, BHK and I will be taking a little day trip somewhere… maybe West Virginia to see the mountains, maybe Outpost Games, possibly both on different days.

We still haven’t been back to the Compleat Strategist… I want to give ’em a second chance, but it might be a while… too many other places to go and see.


Graffiti seen when we went to the movies last weekend –

Robot of love – says hate
(he cannot be fully erased!)

0826071340.jpg - hate robot
Boy says bait?
0826071342.jpg = Bait?

That rhymes!


1 year ago – pom, apples and limeade, GP ahooga, close to the edit, burrito/screech butt, god lj, more ernesto a-comin’!

2 years ago – katrina track, toyota safe vs falling knives, brothers grimm, eco footprint, The Outbursts of Everett True , caffeinated death quiz, cat toy, superheroes and goats, office has no juice

3 years ago – on call all weekend, cej packet returned, super hero movies, charities, spectral analysis

4 years ago – begging for freebies, cases, frankie, wifi, paper toys

5 years ago – comic book ads, genetic ID card, lifegems, happy tree friends, Bheesh got a vette, free fonts, and Pynchon paper dolls

6 years ago – sci-fi dorkness (pity enterprise is so bad), red headed wildcat, bacchanalia, ultima Thule, stinky cab driver, lj “post limit hububb”

7 years ago – zoo day, de-compartmentalized some pals, Brown, turtle Geotarget

8968 – sunday funday!

Still too hot to do much of anything out and about in the Crisco soup-like atmosphere, so we opted to take in lunch at the Sbarro’s in the Annapolis Mall and then hit a movie. Who knows why we woke up at 7:30 on a Sunday, but it gave us a solid head start.

We finally caught the Simpsons Movie on the big screen… I was surprised – it was a lot better than I was expecting… pretty solid TV episode from back when it was funny. We only saw 3 bits that would make it warrant a PG-13 rating – an instance of nudity, a curse word (or two) and some drinking / drug use. I could see them showing all of it after 10pm on network tv unedited, or without those three instances any time at all.

On the way home, we noticed that ATW has changed the sign again, as the search for “the man” continues. (atw is now a tag just for my ease of searching the story thread and pictures, now.)

Click to view larger
0826071649.jpg atw tv
ATW NEWSROOM
‘THE MAN’
BOOT RECOVERED
FINGERS POINTED
Police say ‘NO Statement – NO case’
Meanwhile, Man Sightings run rampant
Psychic to be called.

It was a good thing we caught an early show as the later part of the day was comprised of –

BHK Birthday Part II: Electric boogaloo!
allisonbdaycake

Party at Tina’s place… Mexican food! Both Meat and veggie protein varieties – Tina’s not a big carnivore, either. Matt (her new boy) seems like a nice enough fellow and I hope they have maximum fun / minimum glum together. He’s certainly more social and generally conversational than DR or W. Dessert was yellow birthday cake with chocolate icing, compared favorably to yesterday’s lemon cake with lemon icing. Added bonus, BHK’s mom didn’t absent-mindedly start slurping the frosting off of the removed candles like last night, rather than giving them to the b’day girl to taste.

Aside from Tina and Matt, Adam, Jimmy, Louise, Chris and Larry all made it to celebrate. We fit pretty comfortably at Tina’s townhouse… I wasn’t sure if we’d all be able to manage, but it worked out quite well.

BHK’s Loot received:

from Louise : Necklace and bracelet of multi-colored pearls.
from Tina : A pair of Peridot Earrings / Hello Kitty purse (which looks like ms. kitty is making a gesture I’m sure wasn’t intentional)
from Larry & Chris – Red Coral necklace and Earrings / and some lovely crockery
from Danny – A swell looking green-stoned ring in gold. (and he got Tina some yellow-stoned earrings, too!)
from my Mom and Wilt – Turquoise and silver necklace, Halloween Snow globe, a little cornucopia and a really lovely card.
from me – a lot of knickknacks – Grease & Grease 2, a pair of pink pseudo-crocks, some stripy socks that mismatch/match, a pink headband with little jolly rogers, bath scrubbie, black cat bowl, a green wire basket, some fuzzy slippers and a gift cert to scalped.

I’m the only person that didn’t get her any jewelry… she told me specifically *not* to get her any. Now, I understand why.

May’ve recruited Adam and Jimmy into a parlor game night. Who knows, maybe they’ll lure Kendall and Amanda into it, too, and we’ll have a big night of it sometime!

I don’t know if Matt is into parlor games… I do know he digs the Redskins and is willing to put up with chick flicks. come to think of it, I don’t know for sure if Tina is interested in boardgames or not… I suspect that she, like the in-laws aren’t really into abstract games. Louise is a good candidate, but is harder to reel in to a date or time than the teens. The last time we saw her was her birthday, about 6 weeks ago.

Poor Danny has students in his classes now – he’s back to running the Sci-fi club, and is incorporating Pirates into the after school program. I should send him a bucket of heroclix or mage knight commons/doubles as a donation. He really liked the Superhero stamps and Lord of the Rings Risk game we shot off to him a little while back.

1 year ago – back from an all too brief visit, nose buttering, bunny suicides, events of the day, liberty city psp homebrew hack, jojo the cannibal kid, maple cookies, folks, met Adam / Future In-laws

2 years ago – power out phone post, hurricane katrina aftermath pictures (and Newt), Bro out, Techs unavailable

3 years ago – BK heads north, random visit to a 2001 entry, behavior variances, quiet-please

4 years ago – sleep schedule, zombie game (poor thing aborted), monkey helpers, first lost child.

5 years ago – Deer Hunter, Apache, Equality/freedom Poll, Emerson, flying saucer, heroclix 200 point armies, McD hot dogs, wpoison

6 years ago – that piercing woman , lj vibe change, many links (not all work anymore)

7 years ago – Godzilla, quizzes, leftyrok added me, IMT threatens to move all operations north to Tampa, dean martin Geotarget

8962 – Tues

Chewing through a very solid work week – A lot of items on the desk to weed through. SQL is taking top priority, given our release date, but there are a lot of items to deal with from various aspects of the web site to planning budgets.

It’s a pretty challenging gig, and I like it like that. Not a lot of time to learn, but learn-as-you-go seems to be the rule for any tech thing nowadays.


Not enough code to worry about at work? Here’s some icehouse game java in the works, too. I’m not even going to look at that stuff until sometime in 2008, most likely – after crunch time at the office.


Taco night with the in-laws and BHK’s longtime pal Lucas (edit – LUKE! NOT LUC!) – he’s in town for a span before going off to NY or CA for work. I hope we get to have him over a few more nights before he launches – perhaps he’ll be interested in playing some parlor games in addition to any chick flicks that he and BHK both seem to dig.

I am very weary tonight – hitting the sack early. I don’t know if it’s the rainy weather, or what, but I’ve been feeling a need to snooze. I’m all for cool, misty days, and if a little sleepiness is a result, that’s ok, too. I think that I may be a bit tired due to a lack of unwinding when I first got home… I’ll try to kick off my shoes and change into some play clothes a bit sooner tomorrow.


Saw our “whatever” sort of bird of prey in our backyard… still sans camera, so a animated drawing will have to suffice.


‘Serial killer marked victims on a chessboard’ Continue reading 8962 – Tues

8958 – archival

Slow, comfy day at the grotto. Left the house just long enough to get the mail (Car Wars Card game came in!), some Chinese food for dinner, and pineapple-orange juice for BHKs sore throat. Not sure if my trip to the ER brought back another bug, or if perhaps seeing Jimmy with his cold was transferred to her via me. I know that I’ve been coughing heavily after my varied journey through doctors this weekend.

We played a few games of Polarity, Early American Chrononauts – I did well in the former, while BHK performed better in the latter. We also did a little playing of War of The Roses, Hey – That’s My Fish!, Mancala, Captain Kidd, China Gold, and a score of other diversions thanks to Yucata.de.

We also got to watch The Illusionist – not bad… best viewed while playing

1 year ago – gateway theater pic, steam shovels, zap guns, dr octagon

2 years ago – bro out, pay links, looking back meme, friday 5, monkeys in gov’t

3 years ago – Scotto as the prisoner, TV/Game idea, nazi weddings, adsense poof, steven tyler is a salt vampire, lj permanence, sick at work, poo humor, skin dry

4 years agomenstrualhut cloned, vampire game, pam visits, eagles vs giant gerbils, under nyc

5 years ago – A/C issues, Everyone Guilty of Enron, cake, Hurricane Andrew, bus stop photos, keywords

6 years ago – I photoshop my dream, coloringbook, fecund

7 years ago – time of darkness Geotarget

8957 – psa-gaming

Judging is OPEN for the Summer 2007 Icehouse Game Design Competition, and Penguin Soccer is one of 8 entrants! Please give it (and the other games) a try, and vote for your favorites.

From the Coordinator:

Submissions are in, and we have a total of **eight** games for judging
in the Summer 2007 Ice Game Design Competition!
http://icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=Ice_Game_Desig…

The following games (in alphabetical order) are open for judging
until September 17, 2007:

Geomancy
http://icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=Geomancy

Martian Coaster Chaturanga
http://icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=Martian_Coaste…

Moon Shot
http://icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=Moon_Shot

Penguin Soccer
http://icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=Penguin_Soccer

Pylon
http://icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=Pylon

Subdivision
http://icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=Subdivision

Trip Away
http://icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=Trip_Away

Zamboni Wars
http://icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=Zamboni_Wars

Tell your friends, corner your family, break out some pyramids! Then
send your opinion on the ranking for each game you play (from best to
“least best”) to this e-mail address:
IGDC.Coordinator@gmail.com

Play often, vote ONCE. See the IGDC page at the wiki (first link above)
for full rules and details.Geotarget

8955 – sat

Things of note – when getting an ekg or a stress test, I was stuck on a stretcher for about 8 hours straight. Do it again? thank you, no.

Off on a date to see Stardust – Double dated: Bhk and Me / Kendall & Adam. We all enjoyed it – a nice combination of humor, mild violence, and general purpose fairy tale.

Played 4 games of polarity with BHK – won 3 – Also won 1 game of martian coasters.


Center of hardware store’s quirky display is stolen
ATW Hardware and Supply owner Ted Kramer wipes a tear away from one of the ladies on his rooftop display. The figure known as The Man was recently stolen from the Edgewater store.

Continue reading 8955 – sat

8949 – Sunday

Sunday morning started with more reading, and a repeat of BHK napping a little bit while I played Pyramids and Dominoes with EM. Once we were all cleaned up and ready, we toddled off to Chris and Larry’s for a tasty breakfast of Belgian waffles w/ ice cream and fresh made strawberry syrup – Em ate 6 or 7 pieces of bacon, and a whole waffle! That little critter can *eat*!

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Post breakfast gluttony, (see photos), we headed down to the Bay to take a moment to search for fossils – – Emily got a lovely little bag of shark’s teeth and shells to take back with her.

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At about 1, it was time to head out for our rendezvous with Misti at the Arby’s – a reasonable halfway point between our homes (approximately an hour drive for each). during the drive, we saw quite a bit of Amish country, down to several Horse-drawn carriages – apparently you can pass them on a double-lined highway, unlike normal cars. A pretty broad assortment of them were out and about, covered and uncovered, families and older couples.
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After lunch and switching Em’s car seat to Misti’s truck, we encountered two stray cats lurking around the parking lot.

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After a little deliberation, we decided to take them someplace safer, either a no-kill shelter, home with us, or at least to a region without as much high-speed car traffic nearby. They’re Brother and sister, I think, and about four months old.
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We did have to name ’em, rather than just boy or girl –

Ripley – White and tan little guy (Named for a place that has a bit of meaning for ussee also ) The little lover… all about snuggles and purrs.

Pomonkey – Longhair Tabby female, looks like a “what if Pye and Newt had a daughter” Hair length and ear-wispies of pye, with Newt’s markings. (Name based on a city’s name I learned a while back and haven’t stopped enjoying yet) Super curious, purrs easily, too.

After taking them to the vet to be tested for Feline Leukemia (and anything else that might hurt Pye and/or Newt), they came home with us to stay in the guest bathroom. We located a good foster home for them both, and I don’t think either one will have any trouble being adopted.

While we’d love to keep them, we just don’t have the ability to do so in a good way. I really wish that we could… makes me want to own a barn a mile away from anywhere, just so we can have a homestead with a bunch running around.

Since we waited at the vets for about 5 hours (emergency room for animals – triage… the kitties were pretty dang healthy except for ear mites, so other, more urgent cases had priority.)

We watched the Meteor shower for about 3 minutes until we both got super sleepy, and had to head to bed. Caught a few shooting stars, though!

1 year ago – giraffe graffiti, giganta, danny talks to doug, I talk to GP, green wifi, Bob Ross feeds a Squirrel, starshine

2 years ago – Lesbian movie scenes, student aid, the goon & pie, lisas go to TX, Harry Potter, everything can change, wirehog

3 years ago – Bro’s sentencing, EN makes a good impression (other guy fizzed out), Daredevil question, Koko wants a dentist, Tropical Storm

4 years ago – muttonhead, rain, flash, dan at school, voodoo 4, lychee yum, walking stick self defense, ati multi monitor life, noisy neighbors

5 years ago – spiders on drugs, Uzumaki, me and newt’s custom HC dials, goodies for Kev’s sis, bear teeth, a moment of Zen

6 years ago – utility kilt, uncle bill, intrepid

7 years ago – first online radio(broken), food out with Danny, made the “decaf espresso=kissing your sister” joke, Hollow man Geotarget

8948 – Saturday

Yesterday, I forgot to mention that I received Martian coasters, filler colors of icehouse stashes, and other ordered loot. I’m looking forward to playing them with BHK at our earliest convenience.

Awoke early – about 6:45 on a Saturday. EM was up at about 6:30, I think.

Read in bed:

  • Oliviaclassic. Olivia would be Eloise, if Eloise were a pig. She is good at singing 40 very loud songs and is very good at wearing people out. And scaring the living daylights out of her little brother, Ian, particularly when he copies her every move. She is also quite skilled at reproducing Jackson Pollock’s “Autumn Rhythm #30” on the walls at home. When her mother tucks her in at night and says, “You know, you really wear me out. But I love you anyway,” Olivia precociously pronounces, “I love you anyway too.”
  • Ain’t gonna Paint No more – pretty spiffy, good rhythm, color and song.
  • 93 in my family Now *that*’s a fun kids book. Reads well, stuff to look at on every page, terribly cute, and gives a message that’s neat, too. Plus, a carsick hamster named Ed. We need more like this one.
  • Where Have The Unicorns Gone? – Lovely Art, poorly written – it just doesn’t flow.

BHK was tuckered out, and fell back asleep about midway through Olivia, so Em and I got up after reading and made necklaces with wooden beads and string from Em’s kit – very pretty stuff.

Played some simple stacking and lining up games with dominoes and red & blue icehouse pyramids with Em while BHK slept – may have developed the seed of a new game! Stacking Pyramids on top of a domino board to collect points. Needs a little work, but if I can teach the basics to a 4-year-old and it’s challenging to me, there could be a fun concept waiting to burst out.

Once BHK woke up, we all got cleaned up and headed out to take care of TM’s kitties (see picture in yesterday’s post ).

After many kitty snuggles, we all went to the marine museum to see the otters and the stingrays – it was also a Cradle of the Invasion day – folks dressed in garb of 1812, WWII, and modern style, showing how Marines in wartime lived and worked in the area. pretty neat. Apparently, in the 30s-40s, Tropical chocolate was mixed with paraffin wax so it wouldn’t melt… the K rations had basically a chocolate candle to eat along with government supplied cigarettes. Lots of items about amphibious warfare that didn’t interest Em too much, but I’d like to go back next time and spend a little while talking to the folks and getting some perspectives on things. My Grandfather on my mom’s side was a Marine during WWII, and he never really talked too much about it, short of taking me to the VFW and hanging out with other vets. (That’s where I got my first Shirley Temple.)

[edit – I forgot that we went to the amish market, and saw ducks and geese and chickens and goats and puppies and horses, and amish folks, and bought gingerbread and blueberry jam, and lemon meringue pie for Larry, and shoo-fly pie for us, and peppers to stuff with yum! – Sakes, we were busy]

Getting close to Lunch, so we headed off to Burt’s [Edit – dang, why do I always call it Fred’s?] for veggie burgers (em got popcorn shrimp) – good stuff, but I suspect the kids meal had more food than our veggie burger platter! We got puzzle place mats and crayons so we could color while we waited for our food.

Went to Aardvarks to pick up Early American Chrononauts (and ice cream – Play-doh is still my favorite… vanilla ice cream dyed bright yellow with red and blue chunks of sugar cookie dough mixed in. ) I suspect that I like Early American more than standard Chrononauts.

Chris and Larry’s for Dinner – Hot Dogs on the Grill, beans, slaw, and all sorts of yum. BHK had to duck out and tend to Tina’s Kitties again while Chris, Larry, Em and I hung out and chitty-chatted. Emily was very well behaved, and barely persnickety or bossy at all. She played very nicely with Tigger for hours.

Quote of the night was by Em – “I would never hurt beautiful Uncle Scott!”

Full and happy we all came home and crashed out.


Before I bail: a meme from Tarpo –

THE RULES:

1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song. Or your favorite kind of sandwich. Something random.
Whatever you like.

2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.

3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions.

4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.

5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.

Mine were –

1) Where did you meet your girl? Livejournal, actually – Sixish years ago, at least, when I was dating someone else. I think that I traded up nicely.

2) Is Newt still a vicious man-eater? He can be pretty aggressive to some folks, and a love to others. He hasn’t seen any Newfs lately, but he still attacks most smokers with great vigor.

3) Recommend 3 fairly cheap 2 player, easy to learn, fun games that are outside the normal Milton Bradley/Hasbro line. Well, you already know about Fluxx and Carcassone, so I’ll toss out Treehouse at about $10, you can’t go too far wrong (see links above) (which is a gateway drug to other fun games, too) and Chrononauts, also linked above, a little bit more pricey at $20, (with both games the more the merrier, but two can play handily.)

4) Without sounding offensive and I hope you don’t take this in the wrong way at all.. Has anyone ever mentioned that there is more than a slight resemblance between my Ex Wife and your Current Wife? Short of this question, nobody has… From what I can recall of her face, I don’t really see the resemblance! Eyes, nose, facial shape, hair and skin all seem pretty different to me!

5) Suggest something for a future DoWhatIDo
How about a picture of a favorite item, like a toy or book?


1 year ago – thread tracking, mallah/brain, sistine ceiling full view, 330 mpg car under $20k, hardest geometry problem in the world,

2 years ago – Delirium box, laundry good deed, matches, chain reaction game, Friday 5, autostitch pic, 200 e Broward pic

3 years ago – hr tag abandonment,Doug / tony memory trick, factoids about me, elevator breaks

4 years ago – Neverwhere, childhood memories circa ’74-75ish – lunch and Tonka toys,linked to hulk’s blog, bro stuff, Elvis & his prosthetic limb factory

5 years ago – Spanish TV, broken links, new he-man cartoon, mark quits FMM before he’s caught stealing, puppy pictures and palm doodles.

6 years ago – Soylent Green Tea Ice Cream at the Frieze in Miami, after seeing Kiss of the Dragon with my bro, cavort, first exp w/ Samurai Jack, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

7 years ago – saw the hollow man, and played Everway, day before sleep study Geotarget

8943 – Thursday

Emily arrived safe and sound about an hour ago… she’s all tucked in – BHK and I will be turning in for the night shortly, too. Until tomorrow, dear journal, here’s some stuff.


METEORS THIS SUNDAY! Can’t Forget!


The Red Line has resumed normal service after a suspicious package closed the Dupont Circle, Woodley Park, and Cleveland Park stations for several hours.

Metro Transit Police bomb technicians X-rayed the box, then safely disrupted it with a water cannon. The box contained paper and cardboard. The train was taken to a nearby rail yard for further investigation.


Sad to hear that Dresden Files was canned – I was digging it. It didn’t look like it was too expensive to produce, but who knows what was going on under the hood.

Ah, well… The nice thing about one less good tv show is that it’s one less tv show, period. More time for me to focus on other things.


Found this on the Icehouse list –

A new video of SLorpedo: The Mixed Reality Game Of
Naval Warfare is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWw0_X7b79Y

SLorpedo is a mixed reality version of the icehouse
game torpedo played in both real life and Second Life.

The new video shows real life footage of the
installation, a video of SLorpedo footage captured in
Second Life is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd-MoN9d_Nw

Mixing Icehouse and Second Life? I’m lucky that I’ve got BHK and the lads to intervene or I’d be wasting hours fiddling with that. (If it were 2 years or so ago, I’d probably be in there right now, working on the code and looking at what was what.) I haven’t tried Regular ol’ Torpedo yet, but it looks like fun.


Speaking of Doodles (last entry) and Pyramids, here are some more random doodles drawn on the bus. I’m fiddling wit hthe idea of a multi-tiered gameboard – some standard chase-game variant like monopoly or sorry, with different abilities or events on each level. also thinking about a Rock/Paper/Scissors element to the nests/trees, as far as landing and capture are concerned – big beats middle, middle beats little, little beats big. I’d like to finish it in time for this year’s Ice Game Design Competition, but I doubt I’ll make it. Maybe next year!

pyra doodle

Heck, have a recent Newtcam pic, too, dear journal!

Allez-oop! He was playing while BHK and Pye napped.

newtcamallezoop


1 year ago – looking forward to Autumn, man who knew too much, pumpkins, que sera sera, florida health inspection resource,

2 years ago – teacher memories, bro, shogun warriors (including great mazinga), 1970s Spanish Adult Movie Posters, Pic of Danny and I as heroclix fight an oncoming zombie and lobster-man menace.

3 years ago – Alabama, chatty-newt, spiky moods, war ellies, world audit, hijabs, olympic torrents, fake beheading.

4 years ago – vampire monkey dream, programming, puzzle pirates, nicotini, quizzes and kama sutra safe sex, blunt truth, mehndi designs

5 years ago – istockphoto, emergency day at work early-arrive (I wonder what’d happen if Sappho and Kev were out at the same time, now?), escape from alcatraz w/bro, misc meter quizzes, looking for cave/sea piccies

6 years ago – scud, agon, evil news, Wally out of the loop (he’s still awaiting trial for some of his crimes), Thai din din, colon contents, just finding out about bubba-Ho tep

7 years ago – geophagyGeotarget Geotarget

8940 – Tuesday

Hm… some more good reviews on the DC to NYC bus – I wonder how much cheaper it is than the speedy-train?


BHK talked to PG county’s Sheriff’s Internal Affairs about the car chase a little while back. I’ll be interested to see what comes of it – I only wish I would’ve been home with her at the time.


Treat from BHK! Yum. Tastes great,
looks far too brown for human consumption.

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Found out yesterday that someone I used to know very well is very deep in debt. I wonder what happened? I probably really don’t want to know.


We haven’t seen Louise for a month… I wonder where she’s been?


Flying_blind has a better entry about the ljopoly board and a lot of the recent drama – than I would make, so here’s a link.

I’m backing up my LJ pretty much once a week, just so I have a copy for when either inclination or necessity require me to put my stuff either on my own website, or transfer it to a different one. I suspect that neither will happen too soon, but it’s probably going to take place eventually.


Cruel 2 B Kind is a game of benevolent assassination.

At the beginning of the game, you and a partner-in-crime are assigned a secret weapon. To onlookers, it will seem like a random act of kindness. But to a select group of other players, the seemingly benevolent gesture is a deadly maneuver that will bring them to their knees.

Some players will be slain by a serenade. Others will be killed by a compliment. You and your partner might be taken down by an innocent group cheer.

You will be given no information about your targets. No name, no photo, nothing but the guarantee that they will remain within the outdoor game boundaries during the designated playing time. Anyone you encounter could be your target. The only way to find out is to attack them with your secret weapon.

Watch out: The hunter is also the hunted. At the beginning of the game, you and your partner will also be assigned your own secret weakness. Other pairs of players have been given your secret weakness as their secret weapon, and they’re coming to get you. Anything out of the ordinary you do to assassinate YOUR targets may reveal your own secret identity to the other players who want you dead.


1 year ago – finished pride & pred / monkey politics, Newt pic, kid rolling ajoint on the bus, solar powered sun bricks, firkin, 8500, flying model plane in miami, flight plans to maryland

2 years ago – deepest sender, jumping pictures, walkabout autostitch, mangrove tunnels

3 years ago – tmbg thoughts, sugar water vid, space issues, Rick James dead, Burpin’ at Newt, Magical Trevor, cocktail demons, nifty charts, Newt Videos, CoH Pix

4 years ago – Zombies, Army Men, mean cannibal pudding, time travel spam, vampire game, celeb phone calls, cej chat, bro request

5 years ago – Earth and Beyond Playtest, Kev & Bailey, fat parrots, french fry girl palm doodle

6 years ago – harried, inculpate, plane lands just down the road on andrews as a makeshift runway and kits my regular bus, wondering about lj’s image server (still not ready!), happy thoughts, magic can of soda

7 years ago – grumping, Space cowboys shows old man butts Geotarget

8939 – Monday

A small sampling of our 30 jars of pickles
pickles! we've got 30 jars of 'em!


Raquel Welch gets some more use out of that costume she wore on Mork and Mindy. Sing it, Rocky!
(don’t watch it for too long… it starts to hurt the brain)


via ze – The Tilted Room :: a really well done update to ernie kovacs “tilted table” routine.


Our sunflowers are at about 7 feet tall… but the heat and lack of water is giving them the wilties. Hopefully last night’s rain woke ’em up a bit.

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Playing with the myriad of games with pyramids in the Icehouse (handy wiki link) set make me feel a little bit like Enik from land of the lost. I wouldn’t mind making a light table board to look like the matrix table he used on the show. Played BHK 4 games of Treehouse last night, and I won 3 of the four.

to
Sorry, Marshall, Will, Holly, Enik… that’s my set.

Hm. Now I want a big bowl of honeycomb cereal, and to watch bad saturday morning 70’s tv.

Regarding Zendo – found a random Koan generator – might do the trick.

Some sample output –

A koan has the Buddha nature if it contains no more than 3 flat, small pieces.

A koan has the Buddha nature if it contains exactly 2 green pieces.

A koan has the Buddha nature if it consists entirely of upright pieces.

A koan has the Buddha nature if the number of its ungrounded, flat pieces is even.

A koan has the Buddha nature if the pip-count of its upright pieces is not equal to the number of its large pieces.

A koan has the Buddha nature if it contains at least 2 weird, small pieces.

A koan has the Buddha nature if the number of its flat, purple pieces is odd.

A koan has the Buddha nature if the number of its large pieces is even.

A koan has the Buddha nature if it contains at least 3 upright pieces pointing at a weird, red piece pointing at a medium piece.


Hello Kitty
Police must wear this shameful, shameful mark

BANGKOK, Thailand – Thai police officers who break rules will be forced to wear hot pink armbands featuring “Hello Kitty,” the Japanese icon of cute, as a mark of shame, a senior officer said Monday.

Police officers caught littering, parking in a prohibited area, or arriving late — among other misdemeanors — will be forced to stay in the division office and wear the armband all day, said Police Col. Pongpat Chayaphan. The officers won’t wear the armband in public.

The striking armband features Hello Kitty sitting atop two hearts.

“Simple warnings no longer work. This new twist is expected to make them feel guilt and shame and prevent them from repeating the offense, no matter how minor,” said Pongpat, acting chief of the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok.

“(Hello) Kitty is a cute icon for young girls. It’s not something macho police officers want covering their biceps,” Pongpat said.

He said police caught breaking the law will be subject the same fines and penalties as any other members of the public.

“We want to make sure that we do not condone small offenses,” Pongpat said, adding that the CSD believed that getting tough on petty misdemeanors would lead to fewer cases of more serious offenses including abuse of power and mistreatment of the public by police officers.


1 year ago – Monks in a circle, ken nordine, contact lens thought, 9-volt batteries, dragonball live action in spanish, shades vary electric bill,

2 years ago – Mona moves on from work, Lisa is a good name on lj, NASA pics, walkies phone post

3 years ago – Thinking Wolfsonian, CEJ, Skeletor, bro, bandwidth crooks, awesome search phrase, cat poop coffee, silly ad, Where do they make balloons… (hey, synchronicity)

4 years ago – miniature oranges, orisinal games, tv in my head, first/last meme, newt on a windowsill, daler mehndi

5 years ago – Newt Wakies, Croc bite brings beer, scotto-man, overtired, funions

6 years ago – vcr tape, gaming, militate, warren, scientific independence for researchers, Frontier Psychiatrist, evil SUV

7 years ago – many folks join my Friendy-list (probably due to addition of interests) , grover, graves museum Geotarget

8938 – Sunday

Crashed hard last night once we got back – comfy weekend, sort of like this found shot of Newt from Friday.

newtcamroller

This morning BHK and I lazed in bed for a good chunk, spending a little time reading or fooling on the laptop, before getting up and heading off to points non-bedlike. We played a bit here and there in yucata, superdupergames, tribal wars, and bella sara – I’ve discovered that I do better sitting cross-legged over laying back with the lappie.

Post-laziness, we headed out for a random road trip, and ended up going to Dream Wizards which was exactly like what we were hoping for (but didn’t get) when we hit the Strategist a couple of weekends back. A large gaming area, very well-stocked collection of games of every stripe, and attentive personnel. Of course there was the standard “teen-boy scent” – BHK noticed the was one half of the female population (the male population was maybe 25 or so) – the other a young kid, probably 12-13, playing Pokemon happily amongst the sea of boys. BHK also got to see a low-grade temper tantrum from one of the other players in a tournament… complaining that his purchased booster pack was useless… stomped and slapped the pack down amongst the poor counter-folk. I suspect that he was maybe about a half-hour to an hour to being ejected from the premesis.

I couldn’t resist picking up a copy of Polarity (thanks again for the hint, Keethrax!) and Cosmic Wimpout … a Yahtzee-like dice game I used to enjoy back in high school. I think the last time I played it was about 20 years ago in Mr. Eck’s Marine biology class, fourth period. Not sure of the exact day, but it was near the end of the school year in 1987.

Still no leads on the Pirates “Glittery” boosters, like Amy’s. BHK must have a giant crab covered in glitter to destroy ships with!

After that, we hit the Home goods store, shopped the Halloween goodies and got a few little household treats.. Some green cups, sugar free blueberry syrup, and Halloween sprinkles for cupcakes later in the season.

We consulted our good friend Zagat, and found an entry marked Lighthouse Tofu – a total wildcard as there weren’t enough reviews to give it any scores for service, menu or whatnot. (The link goes to the yelp page, which would’ve been more helpful, had we thought to look it up first). I think we stumbled upon a local Korean fave… The place was packed and we were the only non-asian couple in sight.

We ordered more than we thought, as everything was served home-style – even though we didn’t ask for it, we got an appetiser of Miso soup, followed by a broad assortment of dishes with a little sampling of this and that – Bok Choy in some Oyster sauce that was tasty but quite spicy, some minced garlic in clam sauce, some manner of peppers in a cool/spicy soup, cucumbers (my fave of that lot… sweet and spicy), and some sprouts in sesame oil. – all came before what we had ordered. BHK had the tofu vegetable soup that came to the table still at a rolling boil and served with a raw egg on the side – to be added to the soup manually. I got an assortment of sushi, of which I think the Tofu sushi was the winner. The “prima vera” one of mixed veggies was tasty, but the weakest of the lot – Tofu, tempura lobster, and cucumber all were just amazing.

They serve water with a little green tea added, which is disconcerting at first, because it has an off-yellow/green color that I have seen come out of the pipes in some well water communities – suffice to say that it was clean and delicious. No worries there.

As a palate cleanser, they also serve a little rice cooked in green tea at the end of the meal – I liked it!

Our host was friendly, and I think that he assumed we had never been out to eat at a place like theirs. He was kind enough to move us to another table when we realised our little 2-up location wasn’t going to hold all the food we had coming. – and then explained the difference between light and regular soy sauce.. also warned us against wasabe (he seemed pleased when I was enjoying a healthy dollop dipped from same mixed with the soy on my cucumber roll)

Oddly, he didn’t give any food consumption tips regarding the egg in the soup, which I think was the most culturally mysterious of the lot.

On the way out, he took me aside, and passed me a pair of strange little bottles covered in text that I couldn’t read, and a small oval with larger text inside (picture to follow – maybe I can get talonvaki or pilarcruz to translate it for me)…. said it was dessert, and to enjoy.

It looked like milk, and smelled faintly of vanilla, so I shrugged and took a swig. I was not expecting the lemon flavor at all, but it was pretty dang tasty. I don’t think BHK was as impressed, but she liked it fine.

Also on the way up and back, we got to see the Mormon Temple which is amazing to watch rise up over the horizon as you approach. The place is huge and beautiful – while lovely, the pictures don’t do it justice at all.

We had one last stop before heading home… the in-laws. Chris and Larry did a great job of pickling our cucumbers – about 30 mason jars worth. We won’t be needing any store-bought pickle-type product anytime soon. BHK is planning on using the remaining 3 or 4 jars to do some pickled peppers ala Peter Piper, although we don’t quite have a peck.

I’m just wondering where we’re going to store 30-odd jars of preserved veggie. I guess the garage is a reasonably cool, dry, dark place for ’em. They have to steep in the brine for a brief period before eating. I wonder how long they’ll stay good? If you don’t break the vacuum seal, I imagine we can store them fairly indefinitely – not sure how long they stay good once that seal is broken, though. I imagine that won’t be an issue, as this family loves ’em.


1 year ago
– bow beats atlatl, newt trip out, 11:11, California pizza kitchen, interview meme, cpap ick, electroe pic

2 years ago – bro picked up, last Danny day, blue-ringed octopus, konfabulator, tags, high speed cat photos, bus-sleeper, taser vs rennies

3 years ago – malam bails, lyric, BttF / Mr Fusion, busy, dream, neti pot, bro’s court visit, avocado memories

4 years ago – isketch, dan’s last summer day, ebay phishing, earth as art, kitty swf games, vampire game, dirty bathroom poll

5 years ago – pleasant dreams, headache passes, Bailey the puppy, puppet play!

6 years ago – code, up late, F/X porn, coloring book, jack-in-the-box

7 years ago – house to myself, foodies Geotarget

8937 – Saturday

After work yesterday we hit Aardvark to pick up some Icehouse pieces.We were in some serious luck, as he gave a ton to us at a very high discount. We got 2 monochrome stashes of Red, 2 of Blue, a Clear, a Yellow, and an Opaque White, (5 different colors, 7 sets), a stack of freebie Ice7 cards, plus Playing with Pyramids, and The Empty City – I think we gobbled up all of his warehouse’s Looney Stock. We also put in an order for Early American Chrononauts for pickup sometime next week.

Post Aardvark, it was a nibble at the In-laws for a little Chinese food , and Monk -watching. Unfortunately, it got a little hot, and my allergies started to kick up before I could watch Burn Notice (we did that tonight – with more garden veggies , crab cakes, tempura and Special Guest star Adam back from his mission work.). I’m glad insurance started 8/1 – time to hit the doc.

No real hits of friendship amnesty day… but maybe later.

Watched the “My Super Sweet 16” movie the other night, too … I had no idea that they made a movie *based* on a reality show…I thought it’d just be semi-scripted but actual spoiled bratty girls, not a full-blown production. Things of note – A lot of the sped-up time to zip into scene and zip out… and poor Neelix and Roddy Piper star in it! Do kids today actually use Internet-chat acronyms when they talk? Actually say Oh EM Gee, or is that some MTV fuddy-duddy’s idea of being cool?

Did I just say “kids today”? Criminy… I’m turning into a geezer.

Today, BHK and I put in an order for filler stashes of Orange, Purple, Black and Cyan, a pair of treehouse dice and some Martian Coasters straight from the Labs.

1 year ago – Danny’s last summer vacation day, pictures, hovering sombrero, many memes done in comments, hidden gp address in comments

2 years ago – cute mousie, taken, chatitn’, elevator express, ks sex preds

3 years ago – riding the bus, mystery creature, tv music in my head, a great new euphemism, maps, dr who, avengers, creep

4 years ago – COPS, nifty interfaces, Creatures, TV, Clay-o-rama rules

5 years ago – Signs movie, cancerless cigs, hellboy movie, scary bunny, 2nd wishes,Oz scary, zombies land on beach, Anna Nicole show hurt to watch

6 years ago – Oz quiz, Dictionaraoke, Day planning

7 years ago – Florida panthers, everglades restoration efforts, lj adds interests Geotarget

8935 – Thursday

After work last night, BHK and I had dinner at the Lebanese Taverna and then went to see Talk To Me which was surprisingly better than I thought. No roles were stepped on by big names (Cedric the Entertainer had me a little worried when I saw him in the credits) Some aspects of Petey Greene‘s life were left out, but you really can only do so much in a 2-hour movie. Plot-wise, there weren’t any surprises, but the story’s path seemed comfortable with simple viability. Though it was supposed to have taken place in DC, the bulk seems to have been shot in “generic city” or indoors – I didn’t get the Capitol vibe from the location. I’m glad we opted for that over The Simpsons or Transformers… I was more in the mood for a biopic than cartoony smash-em-up or yuk-em-ups.

On the way home, BHK pointed out to me that someone stole the man atop ATW hardware… now there’s a sign. “Return the Man now – Yes it was stolen)
DSCN5901
Aww… I
hope he makes it back… I rather like the weird little dioramas up on the roof.


I discovered the Vassal game engine. That should help with development of our own games, in addition to allowing a lot of regular new ones to try! Maybe I can lure Eryx into playing Axis and Allies minis online! All of the Carcassone variants appear to be done already, too.

Other Vassal modules that tickle my interest are –


All will be sniffed over in time, I’m sure – and now, the morning brings a new day. My ride to the train station overslept, but bhk got me to the station in fine time to catch my train into the city. That’s the good thing about planning ahead and making allowances for traffic and whatnot… I’m usually in by 8am, and this way, I got there by 8:30 (the time I’m officially due to arrive.) I did miss my “arrive by 8” bus by about 10 minutes, so I spent about 20 minutes waiting for the next one. – Gave me time to take the pictures below and write the text above on my phone.

Waiting for the bus.
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Squinty due to sleepiness and the sun in my face. I like the metro worker behind me with the long beard and short hair. The Sun was hot, and seemed overly large as it hung in this morning’s sky.


Good meeting at work today about upgrading our CMS. I like the way folks are looking to work together for a solution, rather than complain – project appears to be slated for the end of ’07, or the beginning of ’08 for testing.


Constellation Power has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to put a new nuclear reactor in Calvert county, the fourth to be applied for, nationwide, this year. There hasn’t been a new nuclear reactor built in the US since the Three Mile Island disaster, but with new tax incentives for power providers who get their applications complete before the end of next year, companies are positioning themselves to be able to take advantage of the new situation.

Are we ready for nuclear again? The US kind of freaked out after the Three Mile Island near-meltdown and the Chernobyl disaster, but with power needs proving insatiable, and with fossil fuels being subject to significant negative public attention due to global warming concerns, the timing could be ripe for an expansion of nuclear power.

Will it do anything to lower our power build? Almost certainly not. But, it might decrease dependence on fossil fuels, which can be considered a positive.


Tonight, I’m tucking in early to recoup a little extra rest.


1 year ago – paperclips, cross-dressing crooks, reading Pride and Prejudice, I predict a riot, good talking to folks, writely (now google docs)

2 years ago – sick of summer heat, paper robots!, spiffy car, where do they make balloons?, animal crackers, ADP nearly nailed, bugs bunny, heart shaped land, baron von bludd

3 years ago – sleepy, meeting, a year at current gig, 5 senses, scarecrow, codecs, game-dancing, oh danny bot, land of many colors, rain and running newtie-pic

4 years ago – bidet poll, food, vamp game, first gig paid poorly, games on the website

5 years ago – talked to rob (we never got together), baron von bludd, strange black blobs

6 years ago – rainy, Owen Ng, broken drug war link, Thunderstorm, code red, lord humongous

7 years ago – Finished HP2, started hp3, foodies, moved to the 12-8 shift at IMT Geotarget