The interview went well. I should hear next week or the week after if they want to have me back for a second round. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

As you can see from my last post, the D&D books arrived yesterday. You would think that I ripped open the package and started reading all three at once. Actually what happened was that I got home, and it was sitting waiting for me, and I brought it into the house, put it down, and didn't touch it for about 3 or 4 hours. Crazy I know, but a combination of being really worn out from the excitement of the interview, and needing to get a few things done around the house conspired to keep me from opening the box. Once I did open it up I started reading the players handbook. I only made it to the second chapter before exhaustion claimed me.

I don't expect to get a whole lot more reading done until this weekend. Luckily the weekend starts tomorrow!

The plan is to get up early and to drive to Assateague Island National Seashore. There we will spend the day relaxing on the beach, swimming, and walking the nature trails.

The plan for Saturday involves sleeping in!

It was a busy weekend. Fun, but busy. On Saturday I went up to Westminster to film a dog agility trial. tigergladys would normally have done this, but she had to do inventory at work.

Sunday while tigergladys went to film, I headed over to the farmers market, and then back home before driving up to Pennsylvania to spend the day gaming with my cousins. We started with a couple of games of Lord of the Rings. We picked some simple scenarios from the Return of the King rule book.

The first game involved a horde of orcs (24, split into 2 groups played by Alex and me) attacking a smaller group (8) of Warriors of Minas Tirith(WoMT played by Cory), while the remaining WoMT (16) moved up the far side of the board to assist the beleaguered defenders. The first side to reduce the other force to half wins. The game only ran about 7 or 8 turns, with the orc casualties numbering around 17, with only one dead WoMT to show for it. When we picked this one I hadn't realized how lopsided it was in points. The basic orc costs 5 points while the basic WoMT costs 7 points! It also helped that Cory kept rolling really really well for his archery attacks and wounds.

The second scenario was a group of 24 Warriors of Minas Tirith performing a rear guard action, holding out for as long as possible so the rest of the army can get away. Against them are a never ending tide of orcs (only 24 on the board at a time). The longer they hold out, the better the result. If they could last for 19 turns it would be a minor victory for the good guys. A little longer and it would have been a major win. Alex, playing the Warriors of Minas Tirith set up a couple of archers in a ruined tower, and the rest of the troops mostly within some low walls. Cory and I split the orcs. I took the 4 archers and a bunch of sword and shield and 2 handed weapon guys. Cory had spear & shield and sword & shield orcs.

I moved my archers up to shoot at the 2 hiding in the tower, and I killed one of them a couple of turns in. The remaining WoMT and the orcs traded shots for most of the game until finally the orcs managed to kill him.

The really exciting part of the battle occurred around turn 8 or so, as one of my orcs took on 5 opponents, and won! 4 turns in a row!! Killing a guy just about every time! Around this same time, on the other side of the ruins, one of Alex's troops performed a similar feat. We opted to have these "captains" duke it out. After several dramatic tied rolls the Warrior of Minas Tirith killed the orc. However this only delayed the inevitable, and a turn or two later the remaining men were slaughtered by the orcs. Final result was a minor evil win.

I would post pictures of the battles, but in spite of having charged the batteries, made sure the memory card had space, and even brought the camera to the table, I forgot to take a single picture until it was all over.

I also got to try out Super Smash Brothers on the Wii (didn't really like it, needs a tutorial), and a game on the x-box 360, the name of which escapes me, which was pretty cool, and had Cory kick my ass in Halo. He is scary good at that.

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My next post is going to be about the water heater.

Ok, last post on the D&D books for a while. Why? Because they are completely out of stock, and at this point are not scheduled to be back in stock and shipped to me until July 3rd. Yup, a month from now. All because I ordered the 3 books in the gift set with the nice slip cover. Had I ordered the books individually without the slip cover I would have had them probably on Monday. At this point though, looking at my calendar, the July 3rd ship date means I'll get the books (theoretically) just as I'm finishing up my summer class. So the timing works out kind of nicely for that. I'm disappointed, but this really gives me the time and incentive to focus on my accounting class.

Speaking of, tonight is the first test for the class. In preparation for that, I took my notes and the book to the library last night for some focused studying. I read the chapters, did some problems, checked the answers, and then reread the sections that I screwed up. And while I was there I also checked the library catalog to see if they had the new D&D books.

They didn't.

What? You thought I wouldn't look!!

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tigergladys pointed something important out to me the other night after reading my post. We already have the paint for the hallway. It's the same paint we've been using for the closets. So, I guess that answers the question of what's next!! :-)

Of course the next question is when that'll happen. Chances are it's going to be the weekend after next when there will be some real time to devote to it. Until then we'll prep the area; get it cleaned out, wash down the walls, and tape it up.

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This weekend is the NADAC agility trial, the one which Tigs is the secretary for. One of the events we are running Lucy in is a weavers course. Now, mind you, Lucy is only so-so with weave poles. Sometimes she gets it perfectly, most of the time she doesn't. But it's also a fairly advanced skill to learn, and we hadn't really been focusing on it. That is until Tigs thought about the fact that we are entered in a weavers course this weekend. Thus began "Weaving Boot Camp" week. Practising 3 or 4 times a day for about 5 minutes each (sometimes longer) is really paying off. We'll see how it goes this weekend.

muskrat_john is currently dealing with a flooded basement, and has suffered some losses to his graphic novel collection (hardcover 300 and Girl Genius vol. 1). From this loss he posed this question:

What games or trade paperbacks would you grab first, if you only had a few minutes?

I'm presuming that basic necessities are taken care of here. That said I'd probably grab the 3 core D&D books. I'd think about some of the warhammer stuff, but they take up too much space. Plus then I'd want to bring my paints and stuff … too much. As for books, I would probably grab something I haven't read yet, and something I have read a number of times. Maybe the Chronicles of Narnia?

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Last night before agility class I touched up the paint in the dining room. I took care of the inevitable spots where the tape pulled up some of the paint, or didn't keep the trim paint out, or a spot that just didn't get enough coverage. It was kind of hot detail work in generally uncomfortable places (along the baseboard, in the corners, etc.) but it didn't take too long. After I finished that I went up to Trader Joes for some needed groceries, and then we went to class.

Agility went pretty well. The buildings air conditioner kept things tolerable, but it was still warm. Were focusing pretty heavily on weave poles right now because I'll be running Lucy in the Weavers class this weekend, and she doesn't really have them down yet. Aside from that we had a bit of a hiccup with the dog walk. I think this is due to a combination of factors, including the fact that the ramp is warped, and she slipped off of it during the walk for the animals demo. We'll see how it goes.

When we got home tigergladys went and watered her gardens while I took down the x-pen in the dining room. We then swiffered the floor, put down the rug, and took the dining room table from the living room (removing our one and only zombie barricade) and brought the chairs up from the basement. We even put in both of the leaves to the table, which means we can put all 4 chairs under the table without them sticking out several inches each.

After that was all set I pulled out the drill and installed the window shades. We had to get ones that are a little too long, which isn't too big a deal, as they can be shortened (in spite of what the twit at Home Depot said). However one of the ones I put up was actually too short! Somehow it was either mispackaged or mislabeled. This is also not a big deal because it is the right size for the blue/craft room windows.

This is the first room in the house that really looks done. While we've done the bedroom and the library, there is still a ton of clutter in each of them. The library has mismatched shelves, and the books aren't in any order. The bedroom has all the fragile stuff in it, mostly all boxed. The dining room however looks done. Sure, we still have to hang pictures, and put the books on the dining room shelves, but it's not cluttered or messy.

Next up is either the hallway or the living room. The living room is going to be a major pain. MAJOR. So it might just be better to hold off on that till we can devote some serious time to getting it done. It's probably a weeks worth of work to get it done, and unless we take time off of work to do it, it'll probably consume a whole bunch of evenings plus a couple of weekends. And of course during that time the living room will be rather unlivable. Probably more of a July project, when I'm done with my accounting class.

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Amazon still says that my D&D books are due to ship today, but the internet says that it probably wont ship till next week.

Not that I'd have any/much time to read them anyway. *sigh*

According to Amazon my D&D books still haven't shipped, but that I should expect them tomorrow.

I'm feeling a whole lot better then I was at the beginning of the week. I still have a little bit of a cough that creeps up on me now and again, but aside from that, I'm good to go!

School - started Advanced Accounting 1, terrible first class, but it can only improve. Oh, and I finished Intermediate 2 and Advanced 2 with A's.

Tomorrow the D&D core books should arrive. I am unreasonably excited about this. I also have a gaming day planned with my cousins in a couple of weeks. We're going to be playing some Lord of the Rings, but we haven't picked the scenarios yet. Need to do that so we can pull together our army lists.

I'm going to be interested in seeing what comes out of the Obama camp now that the primary season is over. Clinton would be a bad choice for the VP slot, but at the same time she needs to be asked. I think she would make a good Secretary of State, but I don't really know what she wants (aside from the presidency, which she isn't going to get).

It looks like summer is going to arrive this weekend. Highs in the 90's, and staying there for the foreseeable future. We get to see how cool the house stays. Even in the 80's the house isn't bad, and the basement is great.

Off to class!

This was a very different Balticon from any that tigergladys and I have attended before. For one thing, we only attended on Saturday and Sunday. We both had to work on Friday, and there wasn't anything all that interesting going on either Friday evening, or Monday, so we just didn't go.

We also didn't volunteer at all. Usually we'll do at least enough time for the free t-shirt but not this year. I felt a little bad about that, because I know how much work goes into running a con, but I just didn't have the energy to do it. Next year, I promise!

Ok, onto the good! The masquerade and the film festival were both better then last year. A whopping 32 entries in the masquerade (only a couple of which were merely a pair of fairy wings or ears and a tail) and then a whole bunch of movies the worst of which was merely bad (as compared to last years worst agonizingly bad 2 hour long "short" film).

All of the panels we attended were full, and then some. Seeing people sitting on the floor was common. There also seemed to be far fewer conflicts in the schedule this year. I'm not sure how much of that was good luck and how much was good scheduling, but either way, it was good! The con suite also seemed to be better stocked this year, and the coffee was decent. The art gallery had some familiar stuff, but also some neat new things.

The less good has to be the gaming side of things. There weren't really any scheduled games, and there didn't seem to be all that many panels with a gaming theme. With D&D 4th edition and 40K 5th edition both coming out this year I'd have thought there would be something to talk about. I was disappointed.

Because I was so disappointed I went ahead and caved to the temptation of the first D&D 4th edition adventure (with quick start rules) that was for sale in the dealers room. I've finished reading the players guide (only about 15 pages or so) and have started reading the adventure. So far I'm relatively impressed with the new rules that I've read so far, and have actually gone ahead and pre-ordered the D&D4e boxed gift set with the 3 core rule books.

In my previous Goml post I wrote about Kings Quest 3, and how it was one of my first games. I always got stuck at one point in the game where it came time to cast some of the spells. You see, some of the guidebooks had the spells written down incorrectly, and if you type the spell in the game incorrectly, you die. Anyway, it's been out of print for a long while now, and unless you had a really old computer you couldn't play it even if you found a copy.

Last night Tigs and I went to Target to get a couple of odds and ends, and as we passed an end rack with a couple of clearance computer games Virginia paused and pointed and my eyes were immediately drawn to a very pretty box. It was a compilation of all of the Warhammer 40K Dawn of War games! (Ha! You thought I was going to say Kings Quest!) And right next to it was a compilation of the first 7 Kings Quest Games (which was what she was actually pointing at)!!!!

No, I didn't get both. Wanted to, but I realized that I barely have any time to play games as it is, and the Kings Quest set comes with 7 games!!

After we got home, I loaded it all up, and then clicked KQ3. The screen went black… and then popped back to the deck top after about 20 seconds. It turns out it needed a couple of patches to make it work, so I downloaded them, and restarted the game. I played for about 12 minutes before I died. It's amazing how much I remember. I spent way more time obsessing about this game when I was 10 then I needed to, probably because I got stuck. I'm so thrilled I can finally beat that damn wizard!

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1. What's your favourite TV network?
Netflix

2. If you could create your own channel, what would it be?
A mix of scifi, history/documentary, foreign and independent films, and home improvement shows.

3. What TV show did you watch as a child, that you wish they would bring back?
Star Trek The Next Generation

4. What show have you always hated, and wonder why they ever made such a dumb show?
Soap Operas

5. What TV show's seasons would you buy on DVD?
Heh. Lots of them!!

6. Are you a good worker?
I can be.

7. What do you carry?
Years of experience, less hair, my wallet, cell phone, and keys

8. Do you know your neighbors?
Not yet.

9. Where do you like to go for a day trip?
Hiking.

10. What is at your feet?
My backpack

11. What makes you feel old?
Everyone telling me I'm old.

12. What makes you feel young?
Sticking my tongue out at them!

13. What was better when you were allowed to do it the old way?
Summers (when it actually meant time off)

14. What's better now that you do it the new way?
Driving to work, I don't use the beltway anymore!

15. What's something you are old school about?
Video/computer games

So you know I have a miniature habit. It's a pewter monkey that get's heavier with every new release by every company that looks cool. Every once in a while, when its claws dig in a little deep, I give it a small sacrifice to ease it up a bit. The most recent sacrifice was the new Chaos Codex for Warhammer 40K. Mind you, when I say "new" what I really mean is it came out 8 months ago, and I was both annoyed at the reported changes, and gearing up to buy a house plus taking classes so kinda busy.

I'm still not thrilled with the changes. My very characterful (though often not that successful) army is going to need some tweaking to make playable again. Some of these tweaks will require converting some figures, which is kind of ok, as I wanted to make some changes anyway, and some will just require refiguring how my guys are organized within the army.

Of course this is all rather theoretical, as all of the painting and converting I'm doing right now is on the house. I'm hoping that by the time I finish my summer class (July 10) that all the painting in the house will be done, and that I can do some gaming stuff over the following 7 weeks before I start my fall classes. Is it doable? Maybe. We'll see.

Now I'm off to go take a final.

Happy Birthday ywingempress!!

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What a weekend! First off there was Ground Zero Games East Coast Convention up in Lancaster, just about 10 minutes from where my aunt lives. One of the big things that I was most interested in was a Full Thrust (starship combat) tournament.

At the same time there was the Dungeons and Dragons Experience (where D&D4e is being previewed) down in Richmond. D&D 4th Edition!! And from the little I've managed to read about it (Wizards has been keeping it really under wraps) I'm actually getting excited about it. It seems to address a number of core issues that D&D has always suffered from. When the Players Handbook is released I may just have to pick it up.

It would have been nice to go to either. My cousin Cory and I are making plans to go to GZG ECC next year though!

Friday night after work was an agility practice at the building. We've been working on jumps and weave poles. We're working on jumps because Lucy jumps kind of flat, and tends to knock the bar with her back legs. This is due to a combination of factors. She's a little lazy and doesn't care if she knocks down the bars (more noise & action!), and she isn't as aware of her hind end as she should be. And she should be very aware, given the amount of farting she does.

Saturday morning was tracking for Tigs and Lucy, while I wrapped up all the stuff I sold on e-bay and went to the post office, and then went to work to pull some overtime. Then once we regrouped at the townhouse we headed off to Frederick for the first time in months. First stop was Brainstorm Comics. I picked up our box, flipped through the last 4 or 5 issues of White Dwarf (of which I only decided to buy one) checked out some of the preview D&D4e stuff. Then we headed down to Two Paws Up where we picked up a 6' leash for rally along with more poop bags and some more dog food. From there we walked over to Ten Thousand Joys where we picked up some incense and a candle designed to cleanse and renew, which we plan to burn in the new house. Something about a nasty divorce that kinda needs to be burned away.

We then continued on to The Trail House. Tigs got another pair of the socks that she has fallen in love with. Out front of the store was a troop of Girl Scouts selling cookies. $7 for 2 boxes of cookies was enough to get by them unscathed. We then headed back up Market street passing by the pizza shop that has some of the best pizza I've ever had. They're a pizza and pretzel shop, which may seem like an odd combination, but let me tell you that when pretzel dough is used for pizzas it's wonderful! Delicious! And it was impossible not to get a small pizza to share. Lucy didn't get any. We then walked back toward 2 Paws Up (because that's where we were parked) and stopped back in. I've mentioned before that Frederick does a first Saturday event every month. This month was "around the world in 15 blocks." 2 Paws Up was celebrating Italy, and so had wine, cheese & crackers, grapes, and puff pastry. We sampled and then headed home.

Sunday there was a rally show n' go down in Beltsville, which started around 10, and went for several hours. Novice dogs were last, so we got to hang out till around 2. Luckily a number of our friends from our dog club were also there, and I got some reading in during all that waiting. On the other side, the judge for the show n' go was rude to just about everyone from our club. The judge said that Lucy was too slow.
...
What?!?!

Monday morning… I was about 7 or 8 minutes away from work when I got a call on my cell phone from Tigs. Her check engine light had started flashing, and the car started running extremely rough. She pulled over and shut off the car. I arrived about 30 minutes later, and we called AAA for a tow to the (new) local Kia dealership. We then walked next door to Enterprise to secure some transportation for Tigs. They gave her a Ford Edge. For those unfamiliar with this model, it is a massive SUV designed to carry a couple head of cattle from the field to the vets a single rich person short distances on paved roads with no concern about gas mileage. That evening she swapped it out for a Jetta.

The car itself broke because one of the coil packs (the thing that makes the spark plugs fire in the proper pattern) failed. Thankfully the car is still completely covered under warranty, and this is a relatively simple replacement. So they ordered the part with overnight delivery. Unfortunately it turns out that the part is on back order. It would have been nice if when the order was placed that the warehouse let the dealership know that!! So now the Kia regional manager is involved, and it's going to be at least 1 more day before it gets fixed.

Monday night brought rally class, which Lucy felt was not nearly interesting or fast enough. Then agility class in which she did very well, though she still needs to work on jumps. There was even a minimum of herding activity (nipping)!

Tonight… well, we were going to go get the car, but clearly that isn't happening.

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Gary Gygax, the father of role playing games has ended his adventure on this plane of existence. A sad day for geeks everywhere. Next time you roll a d20, think of him.

It’s Thanksgiving week. Tigs and I only have Thursday off, though I think we’re both hoping to get out early on Friday for good behavior. Despite that, it’s shaping up to be an alright week. The worst part will be tonight. I have class, which is going to suck. We’ve been assigned a team project. We have to watch a movie, and then analyze the management styles it shows. I picked Ocean’s 11, so at least the movie wont suck. After our hour of class, we’ll all gather around the laptop and watch. Maybe we’ll be able to snag a room with a projector and use that instead. Of course, that’s all presuming the person who’s supposed to bring the movie actually does. I feel like I’m in high school again.

Once tonight’s finished it’s smooth sailing for the rest of the week. There is agility class tomorrow night, and just work on Wednesday. The college is closed for the day, so no class that night. Thursday is Thanksgiving, and Friday at work should be really quiet. I’m hoping to spend some of Wednesday doing a bit of studying for my accounting test next Wednesday. This weekend I had hoped to be able to go up to visit Kim and the boys again, but I don’t think that’s going to happen before finals.

This was an exciting weekend. Not all of it exciting in a good way. Priya late last week had once again injured herself. A little scratch on her throat, which over the course of a few days became irritated and infected. Tigs noticed how bad it looked on Saturday morning, and we decided to take her to the vet. There aren’t a whole lot of emergency vets who know anything about hamsters, but one of them happens to be in Bel Air. We didn’t have to wait too long before they sent us in to be seen by the vet, and unsurprisingly Virginia predicted *exactly* what the vet would say. There was a funny moment while the vet was checking out Priya's cheek pouches, and he said, “There’s something green in here…” and out pops a small, green, slightly chewed sphere. “Mung bean,” Virginia and I said together. Priya just looked mad, and has not stopped looking mad since.

We were given antibiotics and benebac, as well as a sheet on hamster care. Giving Virginia a sheet on hamster care is kinda like giving Michelangelo a how-to-paint book, but it’s the thought that counts.

After that I trekked up to Lancaster to visit with my cousins. Dragging along a planet and some starships, we quickly divided up the fleets between the 4 of us. Cory and I took the Chaos fleet, and Alex and their friend Aubrey took the Imperial ships. There will probably be a separate post about that, once I go through all the pictures I took. The game was fun, and close, including things like one ship getting shot at by 18 torpedoes, ships ramming, and a light cruiser that survived far more then it should have. In the end the Imperials had crippled most of the chaos fleet and held the board, though they sustained some very serious losses. End result would have been a minor victory. We then played some Halo. I never want to play against Cory again. He’s insanely good at it! He switches between the sniper rifle and the missile launcher (which he uses at close range) for his kills. We ended up playing the 3 of us against him. By the time he got his 50 kills, we had only killed him 11 times. Total.

Last night I chopped up a bunch of stuff for chili, which is in the crock pot right now. There is a green pepper, a yellow squash, a potato, a quarter cup of dry roasted peanuts, and red, black and pinto beans, as well as a can of beets. It’s been cooking all day, and I can’t wait to taste it.

1. Have you ever been pulled over? How many times? I’ve been pulled over a couple of time for speeding, and driving with an expired registration.

2. What are you most likely to be pulled over for? (Speeding? Reckless driving? Expired tags/inspection? Bad signal/headlight?) In the future? Probably something stupid like a bad signal.

3. You're driving along on your merry way when you see a police car. What is your first thought? I check the speed I’m going.

4. When you see a cop car, do you hit your brakes or keep your foot on the gas? I keep my foot on the gas. Maybe let up on it a bit, depending on how fast I’m going.

5. What's your personal speed limit? How do you determine what it is for any given road? Usually around 5mph over the listed speed limit. This of course depends on how much over the limit everyone else is going.

6. What’s something you suspect you regularly overpay for? Car insurance.

7. What’s something you suspect you regularly underpay for?

8. What’s taking up more of your time than it should? The leasing office

9. What’s causing you stress only because you let it? Life.

10. If all your karma were based on your positive and negative attitudes, would it be in good shape, in bad shape, or perfectly in balance? It would be in good shape, but it would need a little work.

11. If you were a full course meal what would you be?
soup: French Onion
salad: Caesar
meat: Roast Pork
dessert: Pumpkin Pie with Vanilla Ica Cream!
beverage: Spiced Apple Cider

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Over the weekend tigergladys and I spend a couple of hours each day painting agility equipment at the club. Each day we went early and met up with the owners of another puppy named Tonks, and we gave the puppies the chance to play with each other. It went really well, they really liked each other, and they tired themselves out with greater ease and pleasure then we could do. The best part was that they offered to take Lucy during the day over the next couple of weeks, rather then us putting her into doggie daycare at Petco or the vets office.

Tuesday was Lucy’s first time spending the day not at home and not with us since we got her. She loved it, and now seems to love us less. She also came home completely exhausted. We needed to make a quick trip to Trader Joe's, and because she didn’t even get off the couch as we were leaving we decided to not lock her in the kitchen. When we got home, she had moved to the floor, but that was it. She was so exhausted I had to carry her upstairs at bedtime. She was ready to sleep on the couch rather then move!

As most of you know Friday we got a letter from the leasing office letting us know that they would be doing inspections of the property between the 4th and the 14th. With the arrival of the letter I contacted the bank where we got our car loan about getting pre-approved for a mortgage, and Tuesday we heard back. We’re pre-approved for $190,000, which depending on where we look can get us a fair house. That is of course, more then we can currently afford, though by the time Spring rolls around I should be making significantly more. So now it’s time to contact a realtor, and get ourselves into our own house!

In addition to painting, finding some place for Lucy to go for the next 2 weeks, and calling the bank, we spent a whole lot of time cleaning. It’s probably one of the top 3 cleanest the house has been since we moved in. It’s kind of nice having it all clean, but having to keep it clean for the inspections is a pain.

I finished the game of Galactic Civilizations that I was playing before. I won through cultural domination of the galaxy. It happened rather quickly too. I think I’m going to go for a variety of game styles as I go along, including an alliance/diplomatic victory, a military victory, and a technological victory, just to see how the game plays differently while attempting those styles. I have however discovered that trying to ally with some of the minor civilizations isn’t all that great an idea. It doesn’t work all that well.

I don’t know if it’s because of playing Galactic Civ that I’m also in the mood to work on my Battlefleet Gothic stuff, or I’ve been playing Galactic Civ because I’m in a sci-fi mood. And I don’t just want to paint them, but I want to do some converting and even some scratch building! Of course all this desire will come to very little. There is too much else going on that needs to be taken care of right now, and many other projects that have a significantly higher priority. Besides, I need more storage for my painted minis. I can keep the unpainted ones in ziplock bags, but ones that I’ve actually finished (and want to keep) need someplace safe to go.

Speaking of higher priority, Wednesday night was accounting. 201 seems to be more about theory and a deeper understanding of why we did all of the things we did in 101 and 102. The professor has stated a couple of times now that it’s not a bookkeeping course, it’s about understanding why you do bookkeeping the way you do. This is, as far as I’m concerned, a great thing. I love theory. Everything works and makes sense, in theory. We’ll see if theory matches reality in this case.

Thursday was payday, so we went to the bank, then came home and watched some TV.

Friday I took off to take Lucy to the vet. She was about due for her rabies vaccination. Her appointment was at 8:30, so up early we headed off. Lucy, thinking we were going to see her friend Tonks again was thrilled to get in the car, but when we hadn’t arrived after about 20 minutes she started to get a little upset with me. She eventually settled down, and just watched out the windows as we drove along. Things went fine at the vets, and he complimented Lucy on how beautiful she was. I agreed, saying she was a pretty girl. He then said that, yes, she is pretty, but he was talking about her personality.

Once we finished up at the vets I took Lucy off on a house hunt. I had found an online listing for a house from 1850 with over an acre of land for a mere $119,000. Ok, it is out in the middle of nowhere, but I’m willing to do the long commute thing for a house at that price. Anyway, we eventually found it (I forgot to print directions, and only had the printable flyer from the web) and it was awful. It was built in the 1850s, maybe updated once in the 1950s, and apparently by midgets who hate windows. Standing on the porch I could hit my head on the ceiling by standing on my toes. The sides of the house each had only one window. The front had 5. The sheds and barn on the land were kinda cool, though also needed some structural work. All in all it was a little disappointing, but not really surprising. Also it is right next to a quarry. That’s what that big white thing is on the map. It’s in a great little town though. Shame.

We then rode back to Frederick , swung by Two Paws Up and Brainstorm Comics, and then onto the park to relax, enjoy lunch, and get some homework done. We succeeded in the first two, and then Lucy started to feel the vaccines. On top of that the day was getting rather hot by this point, so we packed up and headed to the dog club building to get out of the sun. In spite of not feeling all that great Lucy really wanted to play, so again, not a lot of homework got done. Around 4 we headed home, and spent the rest of the night vegging out.

That was all last week. Tomorrow (maybe) I'll post about this past week.

The last week has been fun, computer-wise. On Tuesday (8/21), while I was home studying, the printer died. I spent an hour trying to get it up and running again with nothing to show for it. So when Tigs got home we checked the net for what was on the market, and then hit the stores. We ended up with a very cool wireless photo-printer, with crazy cheap ink. Of course that was another $200 I didn’t expect to be spending this weekend. Anyway, we brought it home, and after a couple of hours and a whole lot of cursing later we managed to get it talking to our router, but failed to secure the wireless network. But it all worked.

Wednesday I registered and paid for the fall semester classes ($600), bought the books for them ($300), and then went on to take the accounting final. I must have done pretty well on it, as I got an A in the class. As soon as it was posted I sent in my reimbursement form. The 4 months of the fall semester, plus the month to wait for the check are going to be less then fun with that, plus the tires, plus the printer all sitting on my credit card. Ug. And then I’ll be taking 2 more in the spring. But by mid-summer I should be making enough to make up for it!

Wednesday night the internet decided it didn’t want to play with us anymore, and it’s been like that since.

Thursday night we called Comcast at around 8, after futzing with the internet and trying to make it work for a few more hours. Shockingly we actually got hold of a real live person, and after he did what was necessary to prove that we aren’t ID10T users he scheduled a tech to come and check things out.

On Tuesday. *sigh* Between 6 & 8, or so they say.

So it was a weekend without the internet. I know for some of you this would be easily as horrifying as a zombie horde coming over the next hill, or learning that Fox is yet again canceling an awesome show that barely got off the ground. In reality it wasn’t all that bad. Besides, it was a busy weekend, so we wouldn’t have spent a whole lot of time online anyway.

On Saturday we started the day by checking out the AKC Obedience trial at the dog club, and hung out there for a while. Then around 11 we headed home, packed up some stuff, and headed out to an all corgi picnic. In spite of the high humidity and very sunny sky it was a lot of fun, and it turns out that a number of ODTC members are also members of the corgi club. (Although none of them were there.) The picnic was in honor of rescue corgis, but it was open to all. Lucy had a somewhat stressful time, but overall enjoyed herself. Plus, there were puppies! (Lucy loves puppies.) The picnic wrapped up around 4, and we went home, all of us feeling tired and worn out by the heat.

Pictures will be posted soon!

At home I decided to treat myself to some painting time. I looked through some of the stuff cluttering the top of my painting table, and picked out the two assassins that were sitting there. The standard GW paint scheme is really boring: black body suits and some details picked out in primary colors. I wanted something a little more interesting to paint, though I did keep the skull masks bone looking. I opted for a dark green body suit with some fairly intense highlights. It’s not perfect, but the effect is close to what I was going for.

Again, pictures will be posted soon!

Sunday morning we went to the farmers market and picked up this week's veggies. When we came home I worked on the minis some more. As it is I still have about an hours worth of work before they’re done. Then they’ll be listed on e-bay. Why will I be selling them? Mostly because I’m not really impressed by the sculpts, they don’t fit into my army, and I don’t have anywhere to keep them.

Around noon we headed back over to the club to watch some more obedience. The main thing we wanted to see was the basic rally. (Since the Monster is signed up for a class in September.) Now, most of the time events are run from basic to open to advanced. Of course, this time it was reversed, so we didn’t get out of there till around 8. A long time, especially since I hadn’t eaten lunch. However it was cool to watch all the different dogs run through the course. Tigs was really good at picking out which of them had the top scores. Then we went home, made dinner, and watched some Reno 911.

Monday night I had my first management class. It’s MGT 105 – Principles of Management. It’s going to be a ridiculously relatively easy course, with about 500 pages of reading over 15 weeks, and some written (easy) assignments. The book though… oh god it is BAD. In the first 10-15 pages there were 3 MAJOR grammatical errors. Major enough that the editor should be shot for incompetence! Seriously they were bad enough that I noticed them! Either way, it’ll be a relatively easy “A.”

Management isn’t anything I need for the accounting certificate, but when I want to take the CPA exam I’ll need to have about 30 credits in accounting courses, and another 30 in related subjects. I already have a significant chunk of that done (more than half), so it’s mostly just filler, since I couldn’t fit another accounting course in with the intermediate accounting and dog agility. With luck they won’t stick all the accounting classes on Tuesday night again in the spring. (Again, dog agility.)

I’ve also managed to squeeze in some Galactic Civilizations time. The first couple of games I played back when I first got it ended quite badly for me. This time I played at the easiest level (rather then normal) and on the next to smallest map. I’m actually doing well in it now, but honestly at this level that’s not all that hard. At this point in the game I’ve hit the middle part where no one is powerful enough to take on anyone else directly, so everyone is trying to build themselves up as quickly and as powerfully as possible. There have been a few little skirmishes, and I’ve lost some ships, but nothing too bad. I also have a couple of battleships currently being built. Once those launch things should move quickly. Plus my culture is dominating most of the map. I’m going to see if I can use it to “encourage” some stars to defect to my Federation.

Tuesday night the cabledude was due to come and fix our line. The window we were given was from 6-8pm. So around 6/6:15 Tigs took Lucy to the park, and I waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Finally at about 7:50 the Comcast truck pulled into the parking spot in front of the house. The tech grabbed her stuff, came in, and checked the line. The cord was a little lose, but it had a strong signal once she tightened it up. Then we checked the connection, and it worked. She stayed maybe 10 minutes. Where the connection doesn’t work is through the router, either wireless or through an ethernet cable. So last night Tigs ordered a Buffalo router, which should be arriving on Friday. It’ll be nice to have internet on my computer again. And then I’ll be able to upload this massive post, rather then keeping it on a word document.
Or just post it from the laptop, with a 50 ft ethernet cable plugged directly into the modem.

I should be more tired then I am. I've been busy, both physically and mentally. On Thursday I helped load up the equipment needed for the agility trial this weekend. This included all the jumps, the teeter, the dog walk, all the tunnels, plus several hundred pounds of sand bags. Friday I mostly did homework. Saturday was spent at the agility trial, and at the park, both with Lucy. Today we were back at the agility trial after hitting the farmers market this morning. Then when the agility trial ended we helped pack everything back on the truck, came home, and then I went to help unload the truck. Granted they were mostly done by the time I showed up, but still. I should be more tired.

I'm reading a Star Trek book of short stories right now. It's the first of the Strange New Worlds series. A yearly publication of the best fan submitted (non-professional) stories. For the most part, it's awful. You can really tell it was the first year they did this. Most of the stories, the authors just don't have the characters voices. So far the best ones are the ones that focus on secondary characters, the Data story, and the story about the Enterprise D without any crew on her. Luckily, the stories are short and so pass quickly. I have to say though that this is one that is going to be relisted onto paperback swap very quickly.

Games Workshop is releasing a new Chaos Space Marines Codex in September. From what I've read online so far, I'm rather disappointed by it. Compared to the current (for the next couple of weeks anyway) codex it's very bland. Chaos armies have always been some of the most characterful and diverse to be fielded on the gaming board, and yet this new codex drastically changes some things, removes numerous options, and reduces the 11 types of lesser demon to a single uninspired unit that is more bland then raw tofu. In some ways I'm glad I don't play much 40K any more, and when I do play I can use the old codex.

In other gaming news, Wizards of the Coast has annouinced that 2008 will see the release of Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. While I am neither surprised nor disappointed, I'm also not interested. I have more then enough books to run D&D in a number of different editions, (though I did recently get rid of most of my 2nd Edition collection) so when I play again, it'll be using one of them.

With all this recent gaming news and my reactions to it, I've been wondering about my state of mind. Why am I so resistant to these changes? Is it because of my limited gaming time, that I don't want to take the time to learn something new right now? Or am I just getting old, and am now ready to sit in my rocker and reminisce back to when playing an elf meant you had a level cap of 12, used magic and swords, and that's the way it was, and we liked it that way. And how kids these days with their new-fangled elves with classes are spoiled rotten. And get off my damn lawn you brats!

Poll #1041969 Old or Busy?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Am I getting old, or just too busy?

I'll leave it up to you!

Bibelot was the word of the day according to google. Its one I’d not heard before. Turns out it means trinket, curiosity, small decorative object without practical utility. Aka dust collector.

I took Friday off of work to bring the cars into the garage. A fun way to spend the day hua? On top of all that excitement, I brought my accounting homework with me to work on while I wait. It does not get any better then that ladies and gents! It went faster then I expected, and without any problems! Hallelujah!! Plus I mostly finished that chapters homework there.

I gave blood on Wednesday. It was an interesting experience this time. I’ve apparently developed a bit of scar tissue in my right arm from consistently giving from that side. Did you know that trying to stick a big needle through scar tissue hurts? I didn’t. There I was, waiting for the slight pinch, watching the Cosby show, when there was this piercing pain in my arm. It took quite a bit of self control to keep from moving my arm. The vampire tried again very briefly before we both decided it’d be easier to switch arms. So now I look like a junkie, although there isn’t much bruising this time.

In gaming news I picked up a game called Galactic Civilization from target for real cheap. It’s a PC game, similar to Civilization (although from a different maker) with an interesting morality aspect to it. I’ve only played a little bit of it, mostly just enough to make sure the disk worked, but it seems pretty cool. All these great games and no time to play them. Maybe I’ll get some time this fall. I may end up only taking one class, depending on how the schedule at ODTC works out.

1. What’s overdue for a good cleaning? Swar. Yesterday Tigs did a spot cleaning of both cars, but Swar really needs a good deep down cleaning.
2. What’s overdue for some kind of professional examination, service, maintenance, or upkeep? My teeth, and again Swar.
3. Who’s overdue for a phone call or letter to you? Eric
4. What’s overdue for an appearance in your neighborhood? A good rain. There have been several storms that have moved through the area, but the west side of Baltimore seems to keep missing it.
5. Who’s overdue for a good comeuppance? Bush

Sunday Tigs, Lucy and I went up to Lancaster to visit Kim, Cory, & Alex. While we were there we took some videos of Lucy playing in the creek that runs through their yard, and running through the tall grass beyond it. We’ll probably post the good ones this weekend. We also ate a whole lot! Kim, like my Mum, doesn’t seem to be able to cook for groups smaller then an army squad. Try as we might, Tigs & I (and even Lucy) can't eat like 10 soldiers. This means that we brought a lot of it home, because surprisingly (the teenage) Cory and Alex mysteriously don’t eat like a squad of soldiers. I did when I was their age. The end result is that we don’t need to buy any groceries this week. *Thumbs up*

I also got in a couple of games of Lord of the Rings with Cory and Alex. We played the Hunt the Mumak scenario. Basically one player takes the Mumak with a dozen haradrim archers, and the other player takes 400 points of whatever to try to kill it, or at least everyone on it. The first game Cory and Alex took a bunch of warriors of Minas Tirith with Legolas and Gimli. That game went about 12 turns before I (playing the Mumak) stomped them all into the ground. The second game was against a bunch of Uruk Hai scouts, who did more damage to the Mumak, but also died faster. The most amusing part was watching them fail their courage tests when they attempted to attack it, and instead ran away. Several of the Uruks even ran off the board. The end consensus was that a 400 point Mumak could probably be handled by about 500-600 points of a general army, or 400 points of something designed to take it down, like siege weapons.

Next game Cory wants to try is a 40K kill team battle. I've never played one of those, so it should be interesting!

1. What sets you apart from your friends? I'm old.

2. What sets you apart from your family? Miles mostly.

3. What sets you apart from your coworkers/fellow students? I'm not trained in any medical skills besides CPR

4. What is the one thing about you that is most unique? I'll probably be the first of my friends to buy a house?

5. What is your most interesting quality? Honestly not sure...

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1. What is your first name? How do you feel about it? David, and I feel good about it. I always liked that it was both a biblical name and the name of a king.

2. Do you feel that a name can influence the course of a person's life? Their personality? I think it's possible, but the majority of the time, no.

3. Can a person's name sway your opinion of them? Why or why not? Well, I guess through emotional attachments it would help predispose me to like or dislike them.

4. How do you feel about the current trend toward androgynous first names? No strong feelings.

5. Are there any names that speak powerfully to you, whether by association or imagination? Yes, mostly strong anglo names.

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( Stolen from Hugh )

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I am now the proud owner of an x-box, relatively cheap off of ebay. It's due to arrive on Monday, but I won't be able to pick it up till Tuesday. Any game suggestions? Halo is at the top of the list, but beyond that? I need ideas!

This may come as a shock, but I happen to be something of a nerd/geek. I know, I know, it's beyond belief, yet it's true, and one of the things that has been particularly geeky about my life is the games I play. Granted, nowadays certain games are less geeky, and more mainstream, mostly video games, but way back when, gaming of any sort was geeky.

My introduction to games (outside of candyland, monopoly, etc.) came in the form of mazes. I had seen a map of a dungeon from my mother's D&D game, and when I was told about it I wanted more. Being maybe 5 at this point, my mother got me a book of mazes. This lead to my first interest in Greek myths (which fit right into D&D as I would later discover) starting off with the myth of the minotaur.

After that came the Nintendo Entertainment System. I'm not quite old enough for the Atari systems, but the NES grabbed my attention like nothing else. I finally got it for my 8th birthday (I think) after a whole lot of time spent enticing my parents with stories about how it helped increase hand-eye coordination. I never had a lot of games for the NES, but I didn't tend to get too bored with the ones I had either. Super Mario Bros. was a game I could go back to again and again!

My first computer game was Kings Quest III. My 5th grade teacher had it on the computer in her classroom. Unfortunately the copy of the spell book for the game that she had contained a typo, and so no one was ever able to cast one of the spells needed to progress off the island that you start on. Rather then being put off by this fact I explored that island, and every little nook and cranny on it for both 5th and 6th grades, often at recess.

When I hit Jr. High School (grades 7 & 8) I had a friend named Ayo who had a computer at home! And on this amazing computer was a game called Civilization. Now here was a game! Matching wits against a strategic artificial intelligence! This was good stuff!! Unfortunately it was on his computer, so I didn't get to play it nearly as much as I would have liked.

High school found me moving away from computer games (though I did end up with a Sega Genesis, mostly because they put out a Star Trek game for it) and into role-playing games. However I did discover that a new game had been put out called Civilizations II. I even bought a copy of it from someone, even though I didn't have a computer. See, I was a wanna-be computer geek. The only thing I was missing was the computer.

Get to college, and I'm too busy to spend much time playing, though by that point we finally had a computer, and off and on I would play Civ II. I got to be fairly good at, almost always winning by peaceful means. I even learned some cheat codes, and a bit about how to modify the game somewhat.

A little while ago, when I was thinking about getting Knights of the old Republic (still might) I won an auction for The Sims for Tigs. I think I've played it more then she has, and it's really right up the same alley as Civilization, ie making sure you buy the right things, research the right things, befriend the right people, and keep the people you play happy. The sims has less violence, and is on a smaller scale. I've also once again gotten back into Civ II. Seeing as Tigs has Civ III I really ought to give it a try, but I just enjoy Civ II so much.

(The videos I mentioned in my previous entry are here.)