| |
| Any people with actually current SCA contacts (or other relevant knowledge, but local SCAdian seems best bet) know of anyone who knows about Macomber looms who might be willing and able to, at some point, show me how to make one go?
(I can ask questions on the internets and the like but better kinesthetic learning especially for kinesthetic skills....) | |
|
| - Fri, 01:40: I see the conspiracy nuts are already here. I hate to spoil it, but there are eyewitness (@YouTube http://t.co/MsPocDGEf2)
- Fri, 02:01: Cliches exist for a reason. Let's see - we already have birther, 9/11, HAARP, 'false flag', (@YouTube http://t.co/MsPocDGEf2)
- Fri, 02:03: I don't know where you're looking, but this is on ALL of the major news sites - CNN, ABC News, (@YouTube http://t.co/MsPocDGEf2)
- Fri, 02:50: One hour isn't really 'way off'. It is 02:44 right now - I'm east coast. The networks aren't (@YouTube http://t.co/MsPocDGEf2)
- Fri, 06:56: @shwood Just watched the latest SS off TiVo - and got them all, but had different solutions for some.
- Fri, 07:00: @shwood 8-sq(sq(8+8)) = 8-sq(sq(16)) = 8-sq(4) = 8-2 = 6 and (4+4)-sq(4) = 8-2 = 6. I did those before I tackled 0 & 1.
| |
|
| LJ-Cut for those who don't care, and spoilers. And rage. So much rage. ( Read more...Collapse )- Mood:blank
| |
|
| - Wed, 16:18: I liked a @YouTube video http://t.co/rctE9C2DkT The Lonely Island - SEMICOLON (feat. Solange) LYRICS VIDEO #WACKWEDNESDAYS
- Wed, 16:54: I liked a @YouTube video http://t.co/SQSbFJXD0f Dragonfly Wings in Slow Motion & Close-Up - Smarter Every Day 91
- Thu, 01:43: I liked a @YouTube video from @lindsayaynpenn http://t.co/95EiK21crm GET A JOB!! 50th DINZ feat. MATTHEW JORDAN!
- Thu, 01:51: I liked a @YouTube video http://t.co/fHxo3IRUcX Pacific Rim - Drift Space Featurette
- Thu, 02:17: Catching up on Arrow... "There's at least a teraflop of data to go through." AUUUUUGGGGHHHHH! I hate when shows do shit like that, it hurts.
- Thu, 03:26: RT @bonniegrrl: OMG! That Puppy Face!!! RT @AlisonAgosti: Need an avatar change, probably to this: http://t.co/5EIAxCjCRm
- Thu, 15:16: Really @marchofdimes, asking for credit card or debit numbers when you've called *me*? NOT COOL. Bad infosec practice all around. No way.
- Thu, 15:18: Never, ever give out financial information to *anyone* who calls you. Reputable vendors should *NEVER* ask - looking at you @marchofdimes.
- Thu, 15:21: And on the off chance it was someone pretending to be @marchofdimes, the call came from 866-648-5951. Though they had my past donation info.
| |
|
| Character death was not the only big thing to go on during my weekend. Sunday was the Boston Netrunner Regional Tournament. Netrunner was originally released as an Asymmetrical Collectible Card Game back in 1996. The "Asymmetrical" part comes from the fact that there are two players: The Corporation and the Netrunner. The Runner is trying to break into the Corp's servers and steal the plans to their secret projects. The Corp is trying to keep the Runner out long enough to launch their secret projects. It was rereleased last year as a Living Card Game, which is basically the same thing only the distribution model is a little kinder to players.
I had mixed feelings going into this tournament. Most of the times I played this game, my gameplay blew up rather spectacularly during the first game, which can be pretty lethal in a tournament. I was also unsure of how many people were going to be there. The Game Nights at Pandemonium tended to cap out at 7 people, and had seemed to be petering out. Meanwhile, the stresses of my commute have been getting to me and I had not spent much time deckbuilding, nor had I played any online matches since March.
The Tournament Organizer himself wasn't sure who was showing up, and said he'd be happy if we were able to break even on the prize support ($20/person for 16 people or $10/person for 32 or more). We had 47. Pandemonium, normally largely occupied by Magic: The Gathering players, was packed with Netrunners, some of which I knew, many of which I had at least met, but many of whom were brand new to me (One of my opponents had come all the way up from Long Island).
Most of my games are a blur at this point - Netrunner is a game of bluffing, misdirection, and information control, and there are a number of strong deck archetypes that I saw repeatedly throughout the day. One thing that is not a blur, though, was that I was doing well. With 47 people, we had six Swiss Seeding rounds before a cut to the top 8 for a Single Elimination bracket to determine the overall winner. In the first five rounds, my worst score was a draw.
One of the quirks of the Swiss Tournament format is that, in the last round, you can reach a situation where actually playing the game hurts your standing. If my sixth round opponent and I came to a draw, we were both in the top 8. If one of us was badly beaten by the other, he could get knocked out, and the winner would have had only a minor advancement in place to compensate for it. The risk (and more importantly the stress) wasn't worth the effort, so we declared an Intentional Draw.
Sadly, in my first elimination round, I was quickly trounced and out of the tournament, but I walked away with some nifty prizes and the realization that yes, I am rather good at this game and had not been wasting my time (completely) and that I'm getting much better about controlling myself when profoundly nervous (the secret is Ginger Ale). | |
|
| Winkelwagentjestheologie!
Winkelwagentjestheologie!
Winkelwagentjestheologie! | |
|
| We took the kids to a gathering at the impending preschool, where they played very hard. There was a climbing arch - came I guess to about the bottom of my breastbone - and KJ went over it, smoothly swapping directions at the peak, and then FM climbed up and over and, well, I spotted her so she didn't fall on her head.  whispercricket: This child really wants to be in gymnastics. Or rock climbing. Gymnastics. Ninja training, I don't know. (Quoted for the ninjas.) | |
|
| Well, the title more or less says it all, but let me say it again.
We want to do an omnibus edition of Digger. You guys asked (repeatedly!) and we think it’s a great idea!
The downside (and the reason we haven’t done it already) is that hardcover omnibuseseses require a big chunk of cash up front—we’re talking a big print job here, on the order of the Bone omnibus edition, and that does not run cheap. (Plus, of course, while people keep asking, we’re talking a spendy beast here and we want to make sure there’s enough interest to justify doing it!) Plus, if we get a LOT of interest, we can do all kinds of neat extras, like color inserts and cover embossing and extra stories and giant wombat balloons in the Macy’s Day Parade!*
So, in a couple of weeks, we’ll be Kickstartering! And we will have all kinds of neat goodies for sponsors (postcards! pins! pickaxes!) and also all kinds of mildly absurd goodies for sponsors (I believe at one level, I name a tree in the yard after you and put a little plaque with your name on it…) so watch this space for more information! You’ll be the first to know!
(Also, hey, Digger got nominated for the Mythopoeic Award, which is neat, too!)
*One of these things is a bald-faced lie.
Originally published at Tea with the Squash God. You can comment here or there. | |
|
| Once upon a time, my roommate Daren and my friend Conor invited me to join them in a Werewolf LARP called "Crossroads". I had played a couple of Werewolf one-shots before, and it was kind of interesting, but it had not yet grabbed me. This game grabbed me. Werewolf is a game of found family, of holding the line against the darkness, of courage in the face of impossible odds, of painfully swallowing your frustration, and of letting loose your Rage...and then having to deal with the messy consequences. I am currently playing in another Werewolf LARP and had a fantastic time on Saturday. ( I died.Collapse ) | |
|
| WARNING: Biological Icky Bits Ahead! Guess what I found!?  I’m a larva! This peculiar devil is the larval form of the American Carrion Beetle! How cool is that? (They feed on mushrooms and dead bugs as well as rotting meat, so I hasten to assure you that I do not, in fact, have dead bodies rotting in the woods. At least, to the best of my knowledge.) Spring sprung and was promptly batted aside by summer, so it’s hot and humid in the garden, and I am trying to stay ahead of the stiltgrass with copious amounts of mulch, because the flamethrower is questionable in a dry pine wood and would also take out all my nice jewelweed that has established so marvelously. Thinking of trying to fight it by transplanting in Virginia knotweed, which is an aggressive loon of a plant, but native, attractive, and host to a couple of butterfly species. (I have the variegated form, “Painter’s Palette,” which comes true from seed and boy, is there a lot of seed!) Other than that, everything is blooming, the pollinators are out in force, I had a Zebra Swallowtail show up the other day (an uncommon butterfly in this neck of the woods!) and the pond is full of frogs and predacious diving beetles. On the downside, the weird cold/hot/cold/hot weather sent most of the spring veggies straight to bolting, so I got no daikons, some very sad beets, and the tomatoes are already starting to come in. Lost a bunch of peppers, too. Sigh. But the cucumbers and squash are happy, and I am holding out hope that the peas will produce a batch before the heat exhausts them. (A lot of local farmers just gave up and plowed the peas under. Can’t blame ‘em. This has been demented weather.) Craw-Bob is still in residence. Haven’t gotten a good look at him, but we’ve got the night vision cameras and just need to get them working with the house network. Mostly he’s a flash of movement into the hole as I go by. The Patio That Shall Not Be Named has been graveled, sanded, mortared, and now needs bricks. I’m traveling at the end of the week, but hold out hope of getting it done before June rolls around. (All productivity must be crammed into this month, because June is solid travel and July and August will be miserably hot.) I had a bit of a wildlife mystery this morning. Was going out to feed the birds and found—there’s no other way to say it—a pile of viscera in the middle of the path. Somebody had left their guts in a neat pile on the ground. Being me, I of course immediately poked them with a stick. Yup. That’s guts, all right. Guts and….earthworms? For whatever weird reason, there were a bunch of dead earthworms in the pile as well. I wracked my brain—had something vomited and lost guts and earthworms together? Was this some kind of weird version of an owl pellet?—until I realized that the earthworms were from INSIDE the guts. Our deceased gut-owner had been out eating earthworms, and had quite a solid meal, then something jumped him, eviscerated him, and presumably ate the tasty bits. (I would have thought the viscera WERE tasty bits, but apparently somebody was picky.) My guess is that the victim was a large frog, but I’ve got no idea what the killer was. I tossed the remains out of dog range—hopefully either Craw-Bob or the carrion beetles will find it and start the clean-up process. So that’s all the excitement around here at the moment. Guts! Bugs! Mulch! THRILLS! CHILLS! ETC! Originally published at Squash's Garden. You can comment here or there. | |
|
| Version 1.2 of Titan Icon has a new feature: you can complete the character creation and enter the game... sort of. Depending on your alignment, you'll be able to enter Atlas Park, Nerva Archipelago or Nova Praetoria, as well as a couple of other zones by using some tricks detailed in this forum thread. You can't use powers yet, but you can hit the 1 key to toggle Flight. You can also type /nocoll 1 in the chat line in order to enable "no collisions" mode and go through walls and other geometry; type /nocoll 0 to disable this mode. If you don't have the Issue, visit this page to download a copy.  | |
|
| YESTERDAY:
PAPI! NAVA! PEDROIA!
..Dempster, not so much.
TODAY: Sox @Twins, 2:10pm
Lackey vs. Hernandez
RED SOX (26-17)
Victorino CF
Gomes LF
Pedroia 2B
Ortiz DH
Napoli 1B
Nava RF
Middlebrooks 3B
Saltalamacchia C
Ciriaco SS
TWINS (18-21)
Carroll 2B
Mauer C
Morneau 1B
Plouffe 3B
Arcia DH
Ramirez LF
Parmelee RF
Hicks CF
Florimon SS | |
|
| I'm finally feeling like myself again. Back to it! LJ-Cut for those who don't care and spoilers! ( Read more...Collapse ) | |
|
| So far I get Pedroia and Buckholz as our All-stars. If Victorino were healthy, he is a real star that's for sure. Jacoby is excellent too but his AVE is too lov. John Lester is pretty solid these days with Tazawa and Uehara consistent, stabilizing forces in the pen, though I wonder how long they can log this much work
.
Then there are some unsung people like Daniel Nava, to some extent Napoli though his AVE and strikeout totals are sub-par.
...and of course, the once beloved David Ortiz who is now in the baseball limbo of suspicion. I myself like Nava's emergence as a solid player they can rely on.
Righjt now they are playing like two teams: the major league team and the AAA team. Farrell is proving to be a hands on manager who is helping the team develop. | |
|
| Still tired, but I'm feelin' good overall. LJ-Cut for those who don't care and mass spoilers! ( Read more...Collapse )- Mood:tired
| |
|
| So, if you haven’t already read Hyperbole and a Half’s absolutely brilliant write-up about severe depression, go forth and read. I’ll wait.
How ’bout that, huh?
I was talking to Kevin about the post (we’re both fans, and have both had our own bouts with depression) and as I was talking, I realized that before I had my particular breakdown, two people had said something to me—two people, one of whom I don’t know, one of whom said one word—and those two people had a profound impact on my experience with depression.
One was good, one was bad.
The first—the good one—was my doctor. When I’d gone in for my checkup after my divorce, when I was getting all the medical stuff done fast before I went off my ex-husband’s insurance, she asked me if I needed antidepressants.
I told her no, that I was fine, because it hadn’t occurred to me that what was happening wasn’t fine, if that makes any sense. Yes, I couldn’t sleep and was sobbing a lot, but I was getting a divorce! I’d moved out! Random sobbing and epic insomnia are normal in that circumstance! It’d be weird if I wasn’t miserable and irrational!
That’s what I was thinking, anyhow. I don’t know how coherently I expressed any of that, but she looked at me over the clipboard and said “Uh-huh. Well, call me if that changes, and we’ll get you started on something right away. It’s a lot easier to start it now than when you’re at the bottom of a hole you can’t get out of.”
I can’t say that this phrase saved my life, because I’ve never had suicidal tendencies (the closest I ever got was a profound hope that the atheists were right and I eventually wouldn’t have to deal with this any more) but it sure as hell saved me a lot of time and grief.
It normalized everything. It made it a medical problem. It still took me awhile to figure out that a lot of things were probably linked to depression (insomnia, say!) but when I finally broke, at some point what I thought was “Oh, hey! I’m at the bottom of that hole she warned me about! I will call my doctor. She will fix it.”
(And may Ganesh give her every blessing known to nurse practitioners, because she handled it like a pro. “Oh, no! Okay…okay…yes, that’d be anxiety.” (I believe I said “Oh! Is that what that is? Neat!” because even in a hole, I am still fundamentally me.) “Now where are you? Let’s find the nearest pharmacy, and I’ll call in what I can over state lines. Come in as soon as you’re back in NC.”)
If she hadn’t said that one sentence, I would have floundered around for ages, trying to do the brain chemistry equivalent of fixing a broken leg through the power of positive thinking. But she did say it and so when I finally realized what was going on—”Hey! This is a nervous breakdown!”—I didn’t go through any of the stages of trying to figure out how you treat that or was it bad enough or whatever, because she had set the stage.
Thank god.
The other person was…well, less helpful. And I don’t know her name and couldn’t pick her out of a line-up, but I still feel a vague bitterness toward her, because when I was newly moved out of my house and away from my garden, I went to a local garden center to ask what I could grow in pots in the shade of a building–real, true, deep dry shade, in permanent shadow.
She curled her lip and said “Plastic.”
I know I tried asking a few questions, and maybe she suggested ivy or something, but it ended quickly and she walked off with the you-are-wasting-my-time air. And I, in innocent despair, believed her and went home and didn’t garden again until I moved in with Kevin.
I know perfectly well WHY I believed her—I was depressed and getting a divorce and leaving one of the cats with him and it made total sense that of course something else I loved was going to be taken from me, because that was just how life was going to be. But I do wish I’d cracked a book open, because, as it happens, she was incredibly wrong.
I mean, jeez, I had flowerpots, I could have done ferns. Impatiens. Sedges. I could have grown moss, if nothing else. If I didn’t feel like watering, there are epimediums and cast iron plant and any number of things. Meehania will grow in a dark closet. (Fine, that’s obscure, I can’t blame her for missing that one. But I could have taken up growing mushrooms, for cryin’ out loud!)
There’s no knowing what road you don’t walk down, of course, but that definitely slowed my recovery. Gardening is what I DO. I say “I’m a gardener,” as often as I say “I’m an artist.” Gardening is where I feel the most like myself. (Art is where I don’t actually notice myself, if that makes any sense.) If I’d been digging around, I think I would have been much more resilient. (And by “resilient” I may mean “would have put grow-lights all over the living room and been living in a jungle” because if that had occurred to me, I expect I would have done it in a heartbeat.)
Plus there’s that one soil bacteria that gives your serotonin levels a boost, which is not to be sneezed at when one is fighting chemical wars inside one’s skull.
So I don’t know. Life is better now and both these things have largely faded, but Hyperbole reminded me. Much like single pieces of corn.
(Mind you, at the time I found duck decoys pretty damn hysterical…)
Originally published at Tea with the Squash God. You can comment here or there. | |
|
| |
