Category Archives: Life

Carnage photos

We had a really nice time, both playing games and having a weekend escape. I have a few photos that didn’t make it into the earlier posts that I’d like to share.

One thing we did to make our lives a little easier was to bring quite a bit of food that we could prepare and eat in our room.

 carnage-kitchen

Above, NatureBoy is making himself some mashed potatoes and some noodle; “a starch-filled redundancy",” he would say, quoting one of the few TV shows we watch.

Here’s the view out that window. It was breathtaking. We even got to see some loons.

View of Lake Morey

 

Here, NatureBoy is reaching for some uranium to power his nuclear power plant in Power Grid.

 Power Grid board game

The big hit of our gaming weekend was Wiz-War. Here are the photos I promised, though neither my water-logged camera nor my crappy photography skills do the game pieces justice.

This shot of the full board, shows the six colored maze segments.The segments can be shifted and rotated, and the maze exits wrap around “Pac-Man-style” (per NB).

Wia-War custom game set

 

Here, my green wizard has just placed a captured red treasure on his home space.

Close-up of Wiz-War 

 

But someone has absconded with one of my green treasures. That paper token is the “buck,” a creature obstacle summoned by an opponent wizard.

 Wiz-War close-up

 

The grey wizard and the purple wizard prepare to duel.

 wiz-war-04

 

Wiz-War was a really fun game. NB and I are looking into ways we can play at home. Thanks, again, to Game Master Earl Waters for bringing so much fun to the table.

wiz-war-05

Earl emailed me Sunday night to direct me to some of the source materials he used in creating his game. That site has lots of good stuff, and links back to another Wiz-War fan’s single PDF Wiz-War package. And the Hirst Arts site has some instructions for using their molds and other materials to create Wiz-War game sets. NatureBoy has been reviewing this site and the pdf package frequently since we got back. He especially likes the idea of a custom gelatinous cube with a figure inside. 🙂

That’s so gay

My friend Dot shared these videos.

Ad Council and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network have created the First-Ever LGBT-Themed Campaign, Think B4 You Speak [press release].

More information at http://thinkb4youspeak.com/

2008 Debates Online

We’re an early to bed, early to rise crew in my family, and the important debates all start at my bedtime. I did stay up to see the Biden/Palin debate, and but I haven’t watched the Presidential debates, figuring I could watch or listen online. Yesterday, I did a bunch of looking and searching online for a podcast version of the debates so I could listen during my daily commutes. But I didn’t find anything.

This morning, I found the C-SPAN youTube site, which has video of the (first two, so far) debates.

  1. First 2008 Presidential Debate ( Jim Lehrer, PBS NewsHour )
  2. 2008 Vice Presidential Debate ( Gwen Ifill, PBS Washington Week )
  3. Second 2008 Presidential Debate ( Tom Brokaw, NBC News )
  4. Third 2008 Presidential Debate ( Bob Schieffer, CBS News )

I haven’t decided whether to stay up, tonight. But with the knowledge that I can watch it after the fact, I’m lean toward sleep.

Summer reflections 1: Climb High

My son’s sixth-grade class climbed Mount Mansfield as a celebration of their accomplishments, and I had the pleasure of being a chaperone on the hike. It was a humid day, the hike having been postponed from the previous day because of thundershowers. As we reached the top, clouds began to move in, which obscured the great view.

NatureBoy and Me at the summit.

Doesn’t he look thrilled? 😛 I couldn’t be prouder.

Happiness in an email sig

I’m purging the email that accumulated while I was out for a few days, and I noted the text below in someone’s signature.

Simple guidelines to happiness:
Work like you don’t need the money,
Love like your heart has never been broken and
Dance like no one can see you.

Maybe it’s trite and lacking in depth, but it caught my attention. And the theme I see in all three lines is to let go of fear. That’s a message that I need to absorb.

Crafting in the blood

My Beloved Wife’s blog persona is “CraftyMommaVT” and it fits her perfectly. Part of her internship early this summer involved creating a tool for the Skilled Nursing Facility where she was working. She thought through how to make it really useful, worked really hard and carefully, and the final result is beautiful.

She does a better job than I can in describing the project, but the top offers some fine motor challenges, the bottom a standing checkers game, and all of it encourages patients to stand for longer periods of time to build strength and endurance.

standing activity board

The crafty trait apparently is genetic, and Nature Boy exercises his creative energies routinely. Recently, he decided that he needed to add some diversity to his boffer weapon arsenal. See the boffer war hammer he put together? Let me tell you; it packs quite a wallop! We have more raw materials, too, so I anticipate more fun with foam, CPVC, and lots of duct tape.

foam, CPVC, and lots of duct tape

Whale’s Tale water park

I have a lot of topics to post about. Here’s a fun one from last weekend.

Beloved Wife surprised me on Sunday morning, suggesting that we head to Whale’s Tale Waterpark for the day. I was giddy. 🙂

Whale’s Tale is in Lincoln, N.H., about a two-hour drive, but it’s closer than Splashwater Kingdom, and much nicer, IMHO. BW had a cooler packed with lunches, snacks and beverages in a flash, and then bought tickets online so we wouldn’t have to wait in line.

Much to our surprise, there was no line at all. Just lots of sun, slides, and pools.

NatureBoy and me in the wave pool

NatureBoy is not a thrill-seeker. In fact, he refuses to go on most amusement park rides, and waterpark tubes and slides are no different. But he loves the wave pool, and we alternated between swimming in the wave pool, and BW and me enjoying the other attractions while NB took some pictures and even video.

In fact, here’s one of his videos, this one of BW and me riding Whale’s Tale’s most recent attraction, the Bonzai Pipeline:

BW’s blog has several more photo’s and a video of each of us riding Eye of the Storm. I really like that one! I’m hoping we get in one more trip to Whale’s Tale this summer.

Thank you, Gary Gygax

The news that the creator of Dungeons & Dragons had died spread very quickly. And Geeks around the world have been expressing their feelings about his passing.

Order of the Stick had a nice send-off cartoon. Paul Tevis, Judd Karlman and others have shared their thoughts.

And now, a tribute song from Uncle Monsterface. Rock on!

Here’s my bit:

Dungeons & Dragons had a huge impact on me as a kid. I remember being in drafting class in seventh grade, and seeing a kid pull out the basic set box (red, I think, in 1981). I was immediately drawn to it, and asked the kid if he could teach me how to play. He said yeah, but I was new at the school and it never happened.

My parents were pretty hip, though, and got me the Moldvay Basic set and made an attempt to play with me, but I don’t remember playing more than once with my dad. 🙂 I did lots of solo play, and collected the expert set, and then some AD&D stuff. But I never found anyone to actually play with.

I didn’t actually play until college, when my friends Jim, Jeremy, and Brendan and I played through Castle Amber. I still have a crayon drawing that Jeremy did of our fight with a dragon. It was very cool.

Fast-forward almost fifteen years, and I’m married with a young son who taught himself to read when he was three. He loves stories, and we’ve read Harry Potter together. I still have a few D&D books and metal minis that I painted as a kid. NatureBoy is fascinated. Then I run across the 3.5 edition Basic set in Barnes & Noble.

The first day we had it, I ran NB and a very good-sport Beloved Wife through a few scenes. Then NB decided that he wanted to be the DM. Once he understood that the DM didn’t “win” if the monsters ate all the characters, he did a pretty good job.

Now gaming is a constant thread in our lives. We’ve been to several (very local) gaming conventions, played D&D, Faery’s Tale, Cat, and lots of board and card games. We’re in the third year of D&D group I run for some area young people. I’ve even made new adult friends and have grown-up gaming time, too.

All this is to say that the thing that Gary made had a big impact on me as a child, and now it’s enriching my adult life and my relationship with my son.

Many thanks and Blessed Be, Gary.

Town Meeting Day/GMs Day

Today is the first Tuesday in March, and thus, Vermont’s Town Meeting Day. I have already been to the polls and cast my primary ballot.

I Voted sticker

Today also is March 4th, as in “March Forth!!”, and has been selected as GMs day, the day when all of us should lavish thanks and praise upon those who run our games. 😀

Hard work pays off

NatureBoy started Kempo Karate classes at the very end of January, and has been working hard. We even enrolled in in Martial Arts camp for this school vacation. Yesterday, he told us that we would be surprised when we picked him up today, and to wait for him in the car. So we arrived at the dojo, and NB came right out sporting his new yellow belt. He couldn’t have been prouder. Neither could we.

Well done, NatureBoy.