Tag Archives: general

Blew my streak

I had posted, even if it was just a tiny, every singe days for nearly two months. I think that was a new record for me, until yesterday.

Sadly I was afflicted with a fairly intense headache yesterday. It passed, but I had to scrambled to get ready for the D&D (3.5) game I run. This was the introductory run of a new campaign with new characters starting over at first level. Sorry I missed posting, but on the plus side the game seemed to go rather well and people seemed happy with the change in gamemastering style I started.

Tonight I shall relax by watching a Sunday Night Movie.

Cawdor update

So if you have been following my blog you know I spent a good chunk of this year working on my SF novel, Cawdor. Based on the beta-read feedback I have to conclude that this version has missed the mark and is not salvageable in its current state.

I’ve been giving it a lot of thought and I have decided to plunge into Cawdor 2.0. I think I can see where this process went off the rails and what I should do to breathe some life into the project.

Here’s how this project came about.

For more than 10 years I’ve had an idea that I would like to do an SF version of the story of Macbeth. I knew it would be novel-sized and I also knew for most of that time I had not cracked an approach to the story. I did not want to do a beat-for-beat translation.

Last year the final pieces were falling into place and I was suddenly engrossed in the most detailed world-building I had ever done on a story. The more I dug into it the more I kept finding.

I built a world and a situation that I thought would evolve the plot naturally. That turned out to be in error. I took a world that I really liked and I hammered Macbeth onto it. This is not the time nor place for a MAcbeth, Cawdor requires a plot of its own and it very nearly grew one inside the Macbeth plotlines.

This yielded a muddled novel that did not know what it wanted or needed to be.

Cawdor 2.0 will ditch any attempt to follow Macbeth and its plot will grow organically from from the situations and the characters that are stuck on the distant and dying world of Cawdor.

While driving back from my Vegas Adventure I had an epiphany where the story had to go. What crucial scene had to be excised and changed radically about. The one scene that when removed and so altered would forever separate this from Macbeth. Macbeth’s murder of Kind Duncan.

I suspect the next sic months or so will be an interesting ride.

My mind’s been blown to the 70′s

As a teenager in the 70’s there was a lot of thing I wanted that I could never have. My family never had much money so while I never wanted for the essentials of life and a few basic pleasures, I spent lusted for things in catalogs that I knew would never be mine.

One of my favorite catalogs to daydream in was from Edmund Scientific. Oh what wondrous items they had. Tonight on a whim I went to their website. To see what sort of things might still inspire and thrill me.

Here’s what I found.

That my friends is the CARDIAC cardboard computer. It as an educational tool for teaching someone the basics of how a computer worked. Seeing this at the website blew my mind because I remember by Brother-In-Law Thom (Pronounced ‘Tom’ he was and remains unique.) putting one of these in my hands. It was a throughly engaging and engrossing device.

Had I been a teenager a decade later that event would have sent me spinning down a life in computers. I am certain of it.

For decades later I would remember this device — never by name — and wonder upon its coolness. Edmund Scientific is selling them for $20 and it’s really tough to resist.

Final Vegas Posting

So after the Atomic testing Museum I ended up with more hours to kill than I had expected. I programmed the GPS in the rental for the Luxor and drove over there to see ‘Bodies: The Exhibition.’ This is an exhibition of dissected human bodies and various states of display. Some of detailed to show musculature, others focus on the organs, or other systems of the human body. It was quite interesting, but for my money I think I got a better deal from the Atomic Testing Museum. (certainly more bang for the buck.) Sadly like the Museum, no photography was allowed.

After visiting the Exhibition at the Luxor I returned to my room to shower and change into nicer clothes for dinner and the Concert. I drove to The South Point Casino and Hotel where I ate at their buffet. OH once again I was stuffed before I was finished. Truly, Vegas likes to feed you. I had more time to kill and I wondered around the casino for a bit.

Here is a photograph I took of a million dollars on display in the Casino. as you can see it doesn’t take up all that much space, but after all it is only a million dollars.

Here are a set of Slot machines that are themed on Star trek: The Original Series. Frankly all the advanced video slot machine leave me cold. I don’t know what combination are the winning combinations and frankly games of purse chance at not my bag baby.

While people played the games still from various episodes would display on the screens above them. (where you can see the orbiting Enterprise on the left.) Geek that I am I stood and played a game in my mind of how many still could I place. (Turned out to be quite a few.)

I wondered upstairs to the Bowling Alley and found a video game arcade, Ah, now this was more my speed. To my eternal delight I spotted the game pictured on the right. If you watched in the background at Pizza Planet in Toy Story you would have seen a game based on this very idea; Whack-a-mole but with chest bursters. I loved it in Toy Story and I positively giggled upon seeing that someone was un-PC enough to actually make one. I moved towards the game to play it but a young boy I guess maybe 8 or so, dashed excitedly at the games. I stood back. Who was I to stand in the way of such fun and if had parents — I saw them there – that would allow him to play the game, then he NEEDED to play the agme.

I went back downstairs and passed the next forty minutes or so playing Blakcjack for money. As I have already noted, I left the table with $10 more than I had started. No bad for my first game ever.

By this time the doors had opened and I went in the Showroom to take my seat. I was way down front, an excellent position to watch the concert.

There was no opening act, Just Sheena Easton singing and chatting and interacting with the audience. This shot was done with little or no zoom, so you can get an impression of just how close I sat.

Sheena is now 51 and not the sex kitten of the 80’s anymore, that said I throughly enjoyed the show. She has a lively wit and sharp sense of humor along with her lovely singing voice.

I took plenty of photos, but she moved around a lot and has a very expressionistic face. These sort of people are not easy to photograph and have them look good. (just ask Joh McCain.)

I throughly enjoyed my trip to Sin City — even my sins were quite tamed and under control. I look forward to another trip someday with my sweetie-wife.

Vegas continued

So if you read the postings I made during the trip then you pretty much know how I spent Saturday afternoon. What you do not know is the extent of political ads I was forced to endure.

Once I reach vegas itself I stopped using the ipod in the car. I listened at the Ipod by way of a small fm transmitter and there were so many FM stations in Vegas it was difficult to find a clear channel for my own music. Because of this and the TV in my room, (Cable but no premium channels.) I saw and heard a lot of political ads during those three days.

I never saw one ad that was pro-Sharon Angel. Oh there were endless ads anti-Harry Reid. Some of them quickly tricky. (“Ladies, Harry Reid wants to take away your right to chose.” Without explicitly stating that what they mean is chose your won healthcare.) To me the ads in Nevada were microcosm of the political winds blowing across the country. It isn’t that the Republicans are suddenly popular with their ideas, it’s that the Democrats are taking a pounding.

You can argue it is because of the way the Democrats passed their bills.

You can argue it is because they tried to push the country to far left.

You can argue it is because the economy is in the drain and they’re caught holding the bag.

You can argue it is because Obama is so arrogant and people hate that.

You can argue all these viewpoints on why, but you cannot prove any of them. You can not disentangle the factors enough to prove any single factor is the principle factor in the coming wave. However, the wave is coming, the question is what happens next year with the new Congress.

A few photos

Here are a few photographs from my weekend in Vegas.

Continue reading →

arrived Las Vegas

I loved driving the Corolla. It handled like a dream, it purred making hardly any noise at all, and I had very good visibility. The trip went by fairly quickly with me singing to my music for the 5 hour plus drive. (It’s a good thing I traveled alone.)
The GPS navigator was a god-send. When I have a car of my own I want one.
After checking into my room, (The El Cortez is an old hotel and the rooms reflect this. That said they are clean, and perfectly nice.) I played craps in the Casino downstairs..
Now if you know me you know that dice often hate me. So you might wonder why I selected craps as my limited gambling option.. Easy, I wanted to give a middle finger salute to the fates. I know the dice hate me, so I was out to show them I was not cowed.
I started at the table with a $40 stake. Every time I won, I took the winnings and set them aside. Once the stake was gone, my gaming was finished.
I walked away from the table with $93. A net gain of $53. Do I feel tempted to increase to more? Nope. I’m going to dinner soon and as far as I consider it, the casino is picking up the table for my all-you-can-eat steak experience.
Tomorrow promises to be a busy day.

I love modern technology

So All the reservations have been made for my Vegas Trip! I have my room, my tickets, my car, and even a dinner reservation for friday night at a Brazilian Steakhouse in the Mirage Hotel and Casino.

While working with my rental reservation I explored the option available to me with the Hertz Never Lost navigation system. I expect just your basic GPS unit, but it’s really much cooler than that. I had planned out my trip on-line, all the key destination I want to hit, and saved all the data to my geek-stick. Now when I pick up my car, I’ll plug the stick into the GPS system and it will be pre-loaded for my trip.

I love to plan in advance and this just make me smile.

Weekend Update

So today I hung out with my pal Bear. It was a typical Sunday Afternoon for us. First we visited our local specialty bookstore, Mysterious Galaxy. I did not buy anything as my ‘to read’ stack is currently five books high. (I personally am not a fan of buying books when I have not finished reading the ones I purchased the trip before.) Then a quick stop at our local games store Game Empire — nicely located next to Mysterious Galaxy — where I picked up an expansion deck for Munchkin as a gift to my sweetie-wife.

We had a large lunch at Outback Steakhouse. hmm I love that Sundays I do not count calories. we discussed my re-invented zombies and I am pleased to say that now two friends — both fans of the zombie movie genre — have enjoyed the ideas I bounded around about re-inventing the zombie. I still am not sure that I have a plot that will fully form, but it could be that it will just take time. My Macbeth ideas bounced around my skull for nearly a decade before they became Cawdor late last year.

I am very sorry that Conjecture’s programming looked so weak this year. I love going to my local conventions, but I am there primarily for programming and it is on that basis that I judge if a con was a failure or a success for myself.

Sad news

A Minor Tragedy: Tonight one of my sweetie-wife’s two lovebirds suddenly passed away. My sweetie is of course devastated.
Behind the cut is a photo of poor little Jack. He was spry and healthy and active right up until the end.