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

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.

Just Getting Something Off My Chest

Something has really been bothering me since Saturday and I want to get it off my chest. I'm not going to go into as detailed on the specifics as I'd like to, but enough to be able to express myself.

First off, I know I don't have many friends. A few good acquaintances here and there and I'm definitely closer to some more than others, but generally not true friends. I've probably spent far too much of my life pushing people away or just trying to protect myself. Maybe I wasn't meant to have close friends.....I don't mean that in a self-pitying fashion, just that this usually isn't an issue for me....it isn't a hole I've been trying to fill.

Regardless, I am keenly aware that I don't easily form close relationships and maybe because of this I value my friendships maybe more than I should.

Years ago I did manage to become friends with someone I would never have expected to. In some ways I really felt this friends was a kindred spirit and I ended up visiting him more than I did my own flesh & blood family. We had our own inside jokes, shared a lot of ourselves, and basically were (what I thought of as) close friends despite living more than 1/2 way across the country from each other.

When he had a family tragedy I did whatever I could to be there for him, which was difficult financially for me and stung my family a bit because my parents had a similar event not three weeks prior. Didn't matter, it was the right thing to do.

I don't know when things started to go South, but eventually my friend started lying about me and to me. I told him several times how badly this made me feel, which I'm not sure he ever understood. Eventually I had to make a conscious decision to forgive him, and anyone who knows me knows I'm not the forgiving type. I honestly think I did forgive, which was probably a first for me, but I know I hadn't forgotten. Instead I just stopped doing what I was doing before and removed myself from the activities that were at the crux of everything.....problem solved, right?

We didn't even make it a year before there was more lying. My friend made a big show of force that he was being supportive while all the time he was doing the exact opposite of what he'd told me. While I didn't really care about the underlying "thing" I did care that I was being lied to. That hurt more than some dumb shit I'd never have known otherwise if he hadn't brought it up to me in that lie. Of course I confronted my friend and ended up hurting his feelings. It ends up he'd been drinking and what he heard me say wasn't what I'd said, but that didn't matter. I apologized for hurting his feelings, but didn't invalidate my own.

My buddy then shut me out and ended up trying to twist things so that I was the "bad guy" in everything. He wouldn't even consider the possibility that he might have done something wrong or offensive to me. It was all my fault and he formally ended the friendship.

That was over two years ago and I've run into him since then and tried to be civil, but the extent that I've been snubbed/ignored is quite painful to experience first-hand. I think about all this far more often than I should. I don't know if this is because of a defect of character on my part or some deep-seated desire to re-kindle what was obviously not a healthy relationship.

Trying to bring this whole thing full-circle.....Saturday I came across some of my old friend's writing that...well, just plain hurt. He was writing about a fictional character, explaining why some other characters haven't gotten rid of him:
"We all have friends with a certain degree of jerk-factor. At least I do. ;).......or simply because he's a friend and you don't quit friends."

Well, the characters in your fictional world might not quit friends, but you certainly do.

This Cool/Creepy Video Features My Buddy's Daughter!

A couple of weeks ago a buddy of mine was posting some odd pics of his daughter online. He probably explained a few things that I somehow either didn't see or just glossed over, so I just ended up assuming she was in some dance class rehearsing for a Christmas show.

New flash for those of you who don't know me all that well....I generally don't care about your kid's clumsy dance recitals. They might be fun and exciting to you and I don't begrudge you or your spawn's opportunity to have fun in dance, but please spare me from having to suffer from watching your precious snowflake's odd gyrations and off-key butchering of beloved Christmas songs....or worse yet, politically correct holiday offerings.

Ok, confession time here.....in general the pictures and videos of your kids don't really bother me unless you are just an ass pushing the pics and videos on me. That is actually what bugs the hell out me, not the kids, but the parents. Most every kid that I've seen raised as a special snowflake, yes...I'm using that as a derogatory term, has ended up being just a smaller-sized a-hole spawn that you would expect. Sometimes I think you should have to get permission to breed.

I'm also quite fortunate that the parents in my social circles are not those kinds of parents and in most cases their kids are actually pretty cool because they are just juvenile versions of themselves and not their parents. Zari is one of these kids.

I've known Zari since she was a baby and we've flown to Tennessee to visit her family and she's flown out here to visit with us. My wife and I have even managed a bona fide vacation to the "happiest place on earth" with her and her parents. She's special alright, and NOT in the snowflake kind of way.

Case in point:

GaryCon V Photos

I realized I had never posted about my trip to GaryCon last month.

In short: awesome convention.

I ran one Learn-to-Hack game at the convention and spent the rest of the time either hanging out or playing.  I got in more HackMaster in this one con than I have in the last 5 years of game conventions combined, and I've been to more than a few cons.  The last half-a-decade I'd been volunteering at the Origins Game Fair and a couple of GenCons, organizing the HackMaster events for Kenzer & Company.  All my time had been spent running events (working) and not playing in any.

To say that GaryCon was an enlightening experience is an understatement.  Not only did I get to meet and play with a bunch of old KenzerCo friends, I got to meet some legends of the industry.  Yes, these are relatively normal guys, but still....their work has given me so much enjoyment over the years.  I didn't really sign up for any games since I was there more to chill, but I was able to jump into several and there was a big pick-up game I got into.  I didn't loose any PCs, but there were a few close calls.

I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here are some of the better ones.....(click for larger pic):

Cat Sitting

This last week I've been cat-sitting for some friends that are out of state on vacation.  They have three cats, just like we do, and some of them have issues, just like ours do.

The "work" of cat-sitting is pretty much a few minutes of feeding them and scooping their litter boxes.  I do play with them a bit, but I've found what they want more than anything is to just be around.  All three cats seem perfectly capable of entertaining themselves.

Unfortunately that means doing some things they shouldn't be doing.  It is interesting to come over and see what they've gotten into while I was gone.  I try to spend several hours over here to keep them company.  They like having a warm body around so I indulge them while I hop online and work on homework....or my blog like I am now.

One cat has been hiding out big time all week.  She's a shy one that will hide under the sofa downstairs or maybe behind the entertainment center upstairs.  She wants to be around, but not seen. I think she's a "man's cat" since she wouldn't let my wife pet her, but I got to a little bit yesterday.  Today I was completely surprised to find her rubbing up against me.  I snapped a quick picture of her rubbing against the coffee table before she took off for parts unknown.

Well, unknown until I found her on top of the entertainment center along with one of the other cats.

This has been an interesting week, that is for sure.

Working On Christmas Presents

This week is my crunch week.

Not only do I have several final projects due for school, but I need to finish up making Christmas presents so I can get them shipped off in time.  Most of the stuff I made for people last year never got out and this year I'm not letting that happen.

I'll admit I'm a bit in the cynical side when it comes to Christmas.  Having worked in retail for a number of years, and having my wife still working in retail, I can be quite the Ebenezer Scrooge.

Weekend Hunt

In my youth I used to go hunting quite a bit.  As an adult....not so much, which is sad because I loved to go hunting.  For me it wasn't "the thrill of the hunt", even though it can get exciting.  I really enjoyed being outdoors and I love to eat game.

My general rule is, if I won't eat it I won't shoot it.  Of course there are exceptions, so don't be a moron and try to break into my home while I'm there to defend it.  I also have no problem using a firearm to put down an animal if needed.  I won't like it, but I won't hesitate to do so.

Before this weekend I've gone hunting once since moving away from home.....once.  Granted, it was a week-long hunting trip to Alaska, but it was still just a week of hunting in the last 20 years.  It kind of sucks when you have to stop doing something you enjoy and then just keep on continuing not to do it because it is your new "normal".

Last Night's Toastmaster Meeting

Last night I got to be Toastmaster for Boise Club 61, a feat that isn't really special or even notable, except for the fact that last night our club was visited by Toastmaster International's President John Lau.

It isn't everyday the leader of an organization of over a quarter-million, representing about 13,000 clubs in 113 nations drops by for a visit.

Thanks to a traffic accident en-route to the meeting I was almost late.  When I got to the club I was told that Mr. Lau wanted to give a speech, but he didn't have an introduction.  "He's the Internatinal President, he doesn't need an introduction."

Spirit Day

Today is Spirit Day.

To the uninitiated, Spirit Day might seem simply a day of support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, which it is, but it is a specific support that goes well above and beyond just this one group of people.....or at least it should.

Spirit Day is about stopping bullying, which does have a much broader impact because it isn't just the LGBT community that gets bullied.

Random Gaming Thoughts......

I haven't subjected my 12 readers to a good PC story in a long time.........don't worry this won't be a "good" story anyway.

I've had to cut back on a lot of my gaming recently.  Some of it was because of school and some of it was just because I wasn't having as much fun as I used to.  I was in a weekly game that traded off GMs and it was just "meh" for me.  I liked the GM and the players, but it was just too complicated for me and the whole affair seemed more like an obligation than recreation.

Right off the bat.....I'm not "dissing" the GM or the game.  The GMs had their own game worlds and a whole slew of new rules.  While I actively encourage GMs to play the game they (and their players) want, I prefer to stick as close to by-the-book as possible.  Since I do occasionally get to playtest and I do a decent amount of convention work, I find the RAW (rules as written) to be quite comforting.  If a GM wants to use a bunch of new rules, go for it...but make it as transparent for me as possible.

College Advice

On one of the forums I frequent an associate of mine, one whom I get to see about once a year at gaming conventions, announced his intention to go to college and pursue an engineering degree.

He was weighing his options with regard to specific field of study and even what type of school to attend.  He was soliciting the forum's advice on the matter.


Being an opinionated person who had to take 15 years to finish his first bachelors degree, I've got a few thoughts on the subject.  In my educational pursuits I've started (and stopped) study at three universities on a couple of continents, sometimes full time, but mostly while working another job.

I figured that my thoughts on this topic might be useful for others, so I'd share it here.

Spiced Bourbon

I'm not much of a drinker.  There are drinks I like and a few drinks that don't like me.  If you ever see me drinking tequila, feel free to either slap it out of my hand or simply steal the drink and imbibe it in front of me.  Punching me in the groin is acceptable too, but triple-check on the drink information first.

A friend of mine loves his bourbon.  He is particularly fond of Old Granddad.  While I'll take a shot now and then, it isn't really my thing.  Now I've had some infused alcohol which appealed to me a bit more so I figured I would try and make some infused bourbon that maybe we both would like.

What got me on this particular kick is that I found a source for some comically large flasks.  I though a great gift would be to get the flask engraved and fill it with a special infusion of bourbon.

Searching for some recipes for infused bourbon got me a few interesting hits, but not really what I was looking for.  I think I'm going to have to experiment.  Cooking up new and interesting alcoholic concoctions can be a blast.

My first attempt was using some 90 proof Ezra Brooks Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.  It is cheaper than Old Granddad, but not the bargain-basement stuff.  Since I knew I was going to dilute this a bit I wanted to come out close to the 86 proof that Old Granddad is.  After a little math I concluded that the liquid ingredients I was adding would bring the final infusion to about 85 proof.

My ingredient list:
1.75 liters Ezra Brooks Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
1/4 c homemade Vanilla Extract
1/3 c honey
6 cinnamon sticks (about 3-4" in length)
6 whole cloves
4 whole green cardamon pods
6 apples, chopped

That's a half-gallon flask of boozy goodness!

I put a little bourbon in a saucepan along with the extract and the honey.  After stirring it up a bit I added the cinnamon, cloves, and cardamon pods.  I brought that up to a simmer while I chopped the apples. What I ended up using were two apples each of the Fuji, Gala, and Braeburn types.  The apples got placed into a 2 gallon plastic bucket and when the saucepan came to a simmer I put all those ingredients in and then emptied the rest of the bottle.  My bucket has an air-proof gamma lid, which seals it up nice and tight.  There is enough room in the bucket to make a double batch, which is what I ended up doing.

After letting this double-batch "infuse" for a couple months I took the spices out and ran the apples through my juicer, returning the heavily spiced alcoholic juice to the booze along with the cinnamon sticks.  The pulp and spices were disposed of, but I almost left them out as a rather cool, if not boozy, air freshener.

The spiced bourbon went back into the bucket for another month or two while I worked on the flask.  I was only able to get one laser engraving place to respond to my inquiry and they wanted way too much money for the engraving.  I thought about trying to do some etching on my own, but that was a bit more dangerous than what I was willing to deal with.

I ended up going with a different look.  Hope you like it as much as the intended recipient.

July 16th Edit: I didn't realize that I hadn't posted a follow-up on this.  Now I'm not a whiskey fan, but dayum this stuff is good!  My preferred method of imbibing is 2 oz of this stuff, which we called "Owlbeast Liver Squeezings" and 12 oz of Ginger Ale.  The resulting drink, which we've dubbed an "Owlbeast Tamer" almost looks like a fresh-poured beer, but is simply pure awesome.  The only "issue" is that you really need to shake the Squeezings up before pouring because there is some tasty sediment you really want in your drink and not stuck at the bottom of the bottle.

I am totally going to start another batch soon.  In the meantime, I've shared this recipe (seriously, it is too good to keep to myself) on the Frugal by Choice, Cheap by Necessity blog.

Blogography Guest Post

This isn't Christopher, this is Dave2 from Blogography! Christopher is off testing a new kind of rocket fuel made from nitroglycerine, napalm, and Charlie Sheen's urine this week, so who knows if we'll ever see him again.

When I was asked to guest-post for Not-So-Random Musings, I wanted to do something topical and appropriate. But then I changed my mind and wanted to do something depraved and totally inappropriate. And why not? This isn't my blog... what do I care if Christopher gets arrested for not-so-random indecent blogging? But then I changed my mind again, because his wife might get upset and come after me for revenge. That would be a bummer... so what can I blog about that won't end up with me assassinated by attack ninjas for hire?

I know... HACKMASTER!

As anybody who has read this blog knows, Christopher is kind of into that game. And by "kinda into it" I mean he's totally obsessed with it.

But what is HackMaster? I didn't really know... until I tracked down a friend who's into gaming. "Is it like Dungeons and Dragons? I've played Dungeon and Dragons before!" I asked. "Well, yes... it's a role-playing game that's derived from Dungeons and Dragons, but it's a lot more detailed," he replied. "Huh?" I said... "I've played D&D where the Dungeon Masters have been pretty darn detailed. One DM I campaigned with even tracked when characters needed to go to the bathroom so they had a chance of having to pee in the middle of battling a dragon or something."
"Ah, but only in HackMaster would the GameMaster roll to see if you sprinkled on the toilet rim, then go on to tell you how many squares of toilet paper it took to clean it up." 

"Wha-? Are you serious?"

"Yes. That's why people who play HackMaster are crazy."

And then, just like that, everything became clear. Now I completely understand why Christopher would post a sixty-two-page blog entry detailing how to convert Dungeon and Dragon characters to work with HackMaster earlier this month... he's crazy! Or he just really likes obsessing over HackMaster.

But probably because he's crazy.

I'll have to roll a 2d4 to get his base sanity, then subtract a 3d6 + 5d8 for brain damage to know for sure.

NSRM Note: This is HackMaster 4th Edition Dave's friend is referring to.  The current edition isn't derived from any "lesser" game and you only have to lose 2d6p brain damage if you are a grognard.

Origins Playtest with Miraculous Dice Roll

Our first Origins 2012 playtest was cut short due to a couple of unavoidable factors, so we picked things up last night.  Were were short a player, but had a schedule to keep so one player had two PCs.

At the conclusion of the session it occurred to me that I have a pretty decent group because they pretty much maxed out the available experience points.  I wasn't expecting them to actually take some of the actions they did and I wonder if some of that is due to the break between the 1st encounter and the subsequent five.

I ended up killing two PCs.  It isn't that glorious of a victory as a GM because I screwed up a rule about critical hits.  It has been a while since the critical hit rules came out in HackJournal and of course I got them wrong.  I think I may have managed to kill one PC if I got it right, but I'd have been just as fortunate to just severely maim the fighter instead.

As a GM I'm more interested in just hurting a PC really bad as opposed to killing the PC, and this is why:

Toothless in Seattle

"Alfred" and his daughter circa 1993

Yesterday I was reminded of a story regarding an old friend of mine. I'm not really in touch with.....let's call him Alfred Pennyworth for the purposes of this post.  He was in the class ahead of me in Tech School down at Hurlburt Field and was stationed to Ft. Lewis like I was.  He had cross-trained into the job and came in as a Staff Sergeant.

For a brief time he was also my supervisor, maybe a month or two.  We were friends and I sometimes babysat for him so he could get out with his wife.  We weren't the best of buds or anything like that, but we did have a couple of moments.  There are a few NSFW moments in this post, so I'll have to save them for after the break.

Gary Con Weekend

This weekend is the 3rd Annual Gary Con in Lake Geneva, WI.  Carolyn and I wanted to go, but my financial situation precluded us from that event.

Too bad, because it seems like so many of our friends at KenzerCo are there in force.  An opportunity to game and celebrate the life of Gary Gygax.

Topher For Congress is Still Happening

I was starting to wonder if my buddy Topher was still running for Congress since he hadn't updated his blog for a while.

His wife tweeted today that there is a newspaper article in the local paper about his candidacy.

Alright.....now i just need to see what I can do to help.

Honorary Knight

There are many things my 12 regular blog viewers probably don't know about me, despite my pathetic attempts to share.  Hopefully the really bad things remain unknown and the really funny things eventually get shared.  The rest of the "facts" about my life may or may not be that interesting, although I doubt they'd be as interesting as the really bad to really funny things.

This "fun fact" is neither bad nor funny: I'm an Honorary Knight.  Now some folks already know about one "Knighthood", but I've actually been made an Honorary Knight twice.

OMG! Bethany!

I needed to look some information up about the Origins Game Fair and imagine my surprise when I saw a picture of someone I knew as that homepage's banner picture!

The picture has to be a few years old, but it was cool that I noticed it right off the bat.  Some days I'm about as observant as a brick, and other times...well this was much better than finding Waldo.

I have at least 4 of those shirts (CONduit 2005)