A Leonard Nemoy Memorial Post I Just Don't Get

I've been on Facebook more and more lately...and I usually find it hilarious. At first it was just a way to keep tabs on some of my old classmates, but as these things do my Friends list gets bigger and bigger. I'm probably not as keen as I should be about paring down that list, but sometimes a Friend literally asks for it.

Facebook is, of course, inundated with fans grieving over the loss of Leonard Nimoy. As par for the course I've seen a wide variety of memorials (even though I like Blogography's the best, even though it isn't on Facebook). One of my Friends posted a picture of four larger ladies.....naked, as part of wherever he was going with it.

Now I'm not used to seeing nudity at all in my Facebook feed. I don't have an issue with nudity and aside from some usually-false modesty, I don't give a rat's ass. I did, however, question this post with a simple "WTF" and I did follow up with the simple statement that I'm "not used to seeing nudity of any kind in my Facebook feed."

Of course my Friend simply replied that he didn't need to be in my feed. OK, simple fix there.

Since I made that post I still get notifications when others post and I've already started seeing a defense of the female form, regardless of size. I find this hilarious....because I pretty much don't care. It wasn't like I was offended by the fact that they were larger women. Hell, I'm still scratching my head at why or how this has ANYTHING to do with Leonard Nemoy. Now to be fair I did actually click on the post, thinking maybe my clue-bucket would get filled, but all I got was an additional photo of these women.....I have to assume it was the same four women, but I honestly cannot remember.

Of course this was on my iPad and I've been noticing that it screws up way too frequently when trying to show me content that isn't just the truncated Facebook post.

This'll probably be a mystery for a while...but seriously, WTF do these women have to do with Leonard Nemoy? I think I liked it better when people express their grief subtly and/or privately, but I won't begrudge those that do otherwise....unless I just don't get it.

2015.02.28 EDIT: Ok, I was able to find out a little bit more about the "original" post on FB though another, much better post (of course it helped I wasn't using the mobile FB app) about this article of 20 Cool Things Nimoy Did Other Than Star Trek

Remembering One of My Briefly-Lived PCs

I was completely planning on putting this on my other blog, but wisely decided against it because.....well the because will become readily apparent. I may have told this story before, but I doubt everyone has heard it (I might like it, but it isn't that good)....

I was reading a RPG-themed post on Facebook asking about "epic" skill check failures. Now some games, or maybe just some GMs, don't allow you to completely screw the pooch, but I remember 4th Edition HackMaster sure did. Heck, you could fail so bad when trying a skill untrained that you could never....every, learn that skill because the earlier failure was so traumatic.

Now this isn't a HackMaster story, but a D&D 3.5 story. I didn't play too much 3.5, but this edition saw the beginning of my "infamous" PC that started out as an inside joke about what would happen when two gamers had a kid and treated him like a PC. The mythical tyke's name was BALADAR and he would refer to himself in the 3rd person. BALADAR wants a juice-box! BALADAR wants his blankie! Yes, BALADAR is always fully capitalized....just like on his birth certificate.

After a game session of laughing and having a fun running commentary about this poor mythical kid I had to create my next PC in honor of the joke, but I went with the subtly different "Baladar". He was a 1st level cleric and we were off to our first adventure, once we could overcome the usual DM dickery. Our DM wanted out first obstacle to be actually getting to the adventure location, which was on the other side of this desert. The quickest and easiest way was to get hired on as caravan guards, but the caravans were already full up when our Sorcerer went to make arrangements with the caravan matron, an older woman of "generous" proportions and appetites, according to the DM. Think a female version of Jabba the Hut, but not worm-like. Evidently she was more than willing to hire on a few more guards if the Sorcerer was willing to "satisfy her". Yes, this is the part where I'm to go

Well neither the player or the PC was willing to partake in the means to an end and instead offered up my PC to do the deed. Now I'm trying to think quick on my feet and see something to my advantage so I agree to it. The DM smiles like he's going to roll 3d20 to see how many STDs I get and I just point out that I had prayed for the "Command" spell today. "No problem," I state triumphantly......"I got this." My PC casts the spell and commands the caravan matron to "orgasm".

Now at this point I'm pretty smug with myself and the DM lets me have my 10 seconds in the sun before "politely" pointing out that we are playing D&D 3.5 and not AD&D or even HackMaster. Evidently what used to be a pretty multi-purpose spell was "nerfed" to one of something like 4 command words that could be used. Instead of choosing any one word the recipient had to unfailing try to act upon, I had t pick one of the four. I think I remember him managing a "nice try" as he laughed in my face.

So Baladar figuratively had to take one for the team. It was no surprise to me that in our first combat my dice turned on me an Baladar died a quick and painful death. It wasn't a curse or twist of fate....it was a blessing for that PC because he didn't have too long to live with his shame.

Needless to say, I'm a little more careful about spell selection when I play...especially if it is a new system. I'll just stick with archers until I get the spell mechanics worked out, thank you very much.

$5 Says DM Rob still thinks about that and laughs.....that bastard.

Ouch....Right in the Feels

For years I've had this massive antique "sewing basket" that I've kept a metric shit-ton of personal relics from decades ago. This basket was traditionally used by German girls to keep their future wedding "stuff" in (it was a complicated thing) and afterwards was often used as a large sewing/craft box. When I was overseas I bought one that had been restored, fully intending to give it as a wedding present, but that damned thing is huge and not easily shipped.

Anyway, the basket is made of wicker, which isn't exactly a good thing to have around with three cats. I'm tired of keeping it safe under blankets and towels, especially since I never go through the thing. Last week I dug it out and started emptying the contents. Aside from a bunch of old pictures I have clippings, souvenirs, old letters, and a surprising amount of signed nude photos of porn stars. Evidently I had completely forgotten about my little "hobby" while I was in Bosnia of writing porn stars.

Heh.....now I do remember folks getting interested when I got mail.....

The pictures are starting to fade or stick terribly to the photo album pages so I've decided to just start digitizing everything. I've got a couple of good scanners, all the required software, and (unfortunately) time. As part of the whole process I'm organizing the pictures, tagging and where I can identifying individuals. Since I'll have digital copies I can more easily share stuff, keep backups, and most important, toss out old crap.

Seriously.....do I need to have a copy of my kindergarten report card? Not really....a digital copy will more than suffice for memory lane. Some of these "artifacts" really haven't held up so well and they are things I'd like to look at from time to time. An example is a poem written to me by a close friend in high school. At the end of my junior year I hit a really rough spot and things were feeling pretty bleak for me. It felt as if I'd lost everything and for those that know me I tend to not only wear my heart on my sleeve, I've got the worst poker face ever. Evidently whatever I was going through looked a lot worse than I remember it being, which is really saying something.

Anyway this poem my friend wrote has not aged well. She presented it nicely, but it has been folded over, stained, and the colors deteriorated so much in the last quarter-century (now doesn't that make me feel old). Now most of the stuff I've scanned gets some minor Photoshop work, mostly color-correction and scratch removal, but the poem needed a complete overhaul.

Yeah....I couldn't lose this....I dunno, maybe this is the reason I feel a friend's loss so acutely. Ok, I'm getting a bit verklempt.....might need to find those Bosnia pics to balance me out.

51,820 New Eagle Scouts Last Year

Wow....

Just saw some stats from a Boy Scout blog about the numbers concerning the new Eagle Scouts of 2014.

Two really loomed large for me:
51,820 New Eagle Scouts
17.31 Average Age of new Eagle Scouts

When you factor in that so few Scouts actually make it to Eagle, these numbers really hit home. I love the average age because that means, at least to me, at there are so many Eagles being good role models for the younger troops. I've seen Scouts whip through the ranks to get it "done" as quickly as possible so they can go off and do other things and I'm sorry, but the path to Eagle really is more of a journey than a destination. If it wasn't then I'd truly feel sorry for all the Scout who don't make it, as if they got nothing out of their experience.

 Here is the original post.

Remembering My Grandmother-In-Law

Last week my Grandmother-In-Law passed away. She was (I'm pretty sure) 105 and her health and memory had been slipping away for the last several years to the point where she really didn't recognize her only grand-daughter (my wife for those keeping score).

Now because of marriages, divorces, and re-marriages I've had a total of 5 grandmothers, but none were in the same ballpark as Ida. Obviously my introduction to the family somewhere around her 9th decade on this planet didn't impress her enough to remember me much, but that isn't really a surprise. By that point her hearing was atrocious and I think her memory was going more than she wanted to let on. See Ida had a HUGE independent streak and the fascinating bluntness and openness you really only see in the elderly (or me on a "good" night).