The Make blog pointed me to some beautiful and interesting computer-generated art at www.complexification.net. The artist, Jared Tarbell, has a gallery of generated images, and most of them applications that generate the images are available to run, creating more unique and beautiful works every time.
I love them!
It’s been a busy week, and now that we’re having an ice storm, I’m holed-up at home and have a chance to write a couple of posts. Last weekend, Beloved Wife was a whirlwind of productivity as she prepared for her week of academics.
NatureBoy and I stayed out of her way by playing two games of BattleLore, by Days of Wonder.
Beloved Wife got this game for me last Solstice (2006), but I haven’t played it very often because it takes a long time to set up, and then quite a while to play. We had plenty of time, though, and we played through the third and fourth scenarios from the adventure book.
NatureBoy’s record of victory is still unbroken [sigh]. We decided that it’s a fun game and we should play it more often. Maybe with a little practice, I’ll be able to win one every now and then. Also, we haven’t had a chance to play with the Lore component, yet. So there’s more to explore in this cool game.
I was working at home in the afternoon, yesterday, and NatureBoy was keeping himself busy in the living room. After a while he made his way to the dining room where I was, making buzzy machine sound effects and moving this contraption through the imaginary sky:
His Flying Pirate Ship looks really incredible. NatureBoy said it was sort of like the Tiger Moth from Castle in the Sky, but different. I have a knack for taking crappy pictures, so let me start by saying that my attempts at a backdrop and back lighting just don’t do his creation justice.
He has built a lot of things with Klutz Building Cards. This flying pirate ship was built with the Pirate Ship set, and the jolly roger flapping proudly in the wind.
The other day, he made a U.S.S. Enterprise after we watched some Star Trek TOS episodes.
Way to go, NB.
A good time was had by all. In fact, Beloved Wife decided that we should make our reservations for Carnage 2008 before we left on Sunday.
NatureBoy and I got into all the games we pre-registered for (pre-reg early!), so we were very happy. I tried to follow the advice to try things you don’t normally play. Mixing that with NatureBoy’s interests, here’s what our schedule was like:
| Friday, 1-5 pm | Into the mouth of Milu; a d20 modern game about ancient powers on an erupting Hawaiian island. |
| Saturday, 8 am-12 pm | Avatar: the Last Airbender; a fudge-based game set in the world of Avatar. |
| Saturday, 1-5 pm | Giant Monster Smash; miniatures combat where Godzilla and his gang fight to save/smash a city |
| Sunday, 1-3 pm | P.R.A.W.N.; a LARP in a pool. |
So we arrived and found the Lake Morey Resort with no trouble.
We registered, got our schedules, t-shirts and Leis, and then checked into our hotel room. We left Beloved Wife to settle in and get some studying done while NatureBoy and I played our first game.
Mouth of Milu was held in a dark room with some sheet-good panels over a billiard table. In the center of the table was a large color map of Hawai’i. NB and I had never played a d20 modern game before, but most of it was familiar. The story involved some business people, some scientists, and a couple local helicopter pilots. I played the young female administrative assistant to a rich business tycoon. NatureBoy’s character was a physicist and astronomer, and a bit of an eccentric.
The story was pretty interesting and well-paced. It really focused on one character, which was a little disappointing. NB felt kind of frustrated at not having a significant role, but he played it well. Days later, one of the other players mentioned to me that they had been impressed by NB’s maturity and his good role playing and understanding of the rules. Well done, NatureBoy! Also, I was glad to have played in one of the theme games, this convention’s theme being "Hang 10." And Dr. Nik was a great GM.
We went out for Chinese food after the game. With directions from the front desk, we found a place north on route 5, in downtown Bradford [edit – House of Chan’s, 184 Main St.]. The was hot, flavorful food, generous servings, and lots of local color. We had enough leftovers to reheat for dinner on Saturday. We went back to the hotel and watched a few episodes from the first disk of Avatar: the Last Airbender – Book 3. It was good to get into the mood for the first game on Saturday.
BW had class, and was glad to have a shorter commute from Fairlee to Claremont, N.H., while NB and I headed off to our morning game.
The Avatar game was run by Bradford Younie, using his Fudge variant system Now Playing. NatureBoy played Toph, I played Aang, and the other player took Katara. The story was ok, with the crew seeking out a rumored surviving airbender and then escaping from Azula, Mei, and Ty Lee. NB enjoyed describing Toph’s earth-bending. I didn’t find the story engaging though. But it was our first Fudge game, and Brad let us all keep the fudge dice we used.
We went back to our room and grabbed a quick cold lunch, watched a couple more episodes of Avatar, and then set off to Giant Monster Smash.
This was the game the NB seemed to be most excited about. And what’s not to like! Giant Monster Smash uses Godzilla and other monster and robot dolls as miniatures in trying to control a city and destroy enemy monsters. The rules are based on WarMachine rules.
The GMs were super-prepared, with character sheets and rules/scoring sheets, color-coded dice in plastic dice cups, dry-erase markers, everything ran very smoothly and was lots of fun.
For dinner, we ate our left-over Chinese food, which had been reheated by Beloved Wife using a hot pot and clever application of hot water, foil and zipper-close bags. We took a trip to the dealer room to browse, where BW found a t-shirt she liked that said "you’re not the DM of me!" and NB found a set of dice for his collection. We also took NB to the rather small pool for an evening swim.
We didn’t have a game scheduled for Sunday morning, so we took a trip to the Borders in West Lebanon, because NB was interested in a book on drawing anime (in the style of Avatar). We surveyed the available books, and one about drawing robots caught his fancy instead.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by the King Arthur Flour store in Norwich. I then suggested we take the ‘scenic route’ back by following route 5 instead of taking I-91. However, I (we) missed the turn Route 5 takes out of Norwich village, and we went straight. This took us to South Strafford, and signs pointing to Sharon. Luckily, we had enough time to get back to Norwich, where we promptly got on the interstate.
After a quick lunch, NatureBoy and I got our stuff and headed to the swimming pool for our first official LARP, P.R.A.W.N. In this game, the players all are fish in a tank. There are two rival gangs, the Sharks and the Jets, hands that come from the outside sometimes feed us and sometimes take a fish away.
There weren’t many players, so the storylines were somewhat limited. But we had fun swimming after food (plastic hearts safety-pinned to styrofoam balls) and attacking other fish. Hey, it’s a fish-eat-fish world. Even BW got recruited to play the role of a cat, going around the edge of the pool, trying to catch a curious tank resident.
NB was a little disappointed when the game ended early, but they had run through the plot elements that were viable with the players we had.
One of the things that made this game convention so nice was that Beloved Wife came with us. Having meals together and having family time was a great balance to the intensity of the gaming sessions. Thanks for coming, CraftyMomma!
So, before Carnage, NatureBoy came down with a pretty bad congested cold. He coughed lots, and felt lousy. So we kept him home from school for several days. On the second day, I decided to take him to the pediatrician, just to rule out anything serious. It turned out that he tested positive for strep. So he was home from school for yet another day while the antibiotic kicked in, and then the following day was Carnage. Well, his cough continued, though it got gradually better over the weekend of the convention.
We got home from Carnage quite tired, and then our washing machine died. Beloved Wife, having inherited the fix-it gene from her shop-teacher father, had the washer on its side the following morning and had identified the problem.
It didn’t look like something we could fix easily or cheaply. So we needed to get a new washer.
I started to get sick in the middle of the week, and NB sprouted a spotty rash.
BW took him back to the pediatrician, who said it was a systemic reaction to the amoxicillin (i.e., not an allergic reaction), but we needed to stop giving him the med. And I came home from work early, because I felt horrible.
Over the weekend, NatureBoy’s rash continued to spread and get more uncomfortable.
I have gotten more tired and congested. Thankfully, BW has stayed healthy. Earlier this week, she was able to identify a Whirlpool washer at Costco that looked like a good bet. Yesterday, I juiced myself up with some cold meds, and with the help of BW’s parents, we got the washer home.
BW managed most of the install herself, and we spent the evening catching up on laundry, and watching DVDs.
Today, NB has gone off to school. BW went with him to give some benadryl meds to the school nurse, and touch base with his teachers so they don’t flip when they see the rash. She also contacted the pediatrician, who said that this is definitely allergic, increased the benadryl dosage.
I’m still feeling crappy, so I’m home, too. I got to sleep until 7:30 this morning. I wish I felt better and could have enjoyed it. Mostly I’ve been couch surfing, drinking lots of tea, blowing my nose… I hate being sick.
We watched the trailer for the Golden Compass movie yesterday, and we’re talking about seeing it in the theater (which is unusual for us). And just for fun, we each took the Daemon Test. Here’s my result.
Beloved Wife also was paired with a Tiger Daemon, while NatureBoy was matched with a Crow Daemon named Artemis.
Looks like I’ll need to pick the book up and finish it. I like to read the book before I see the movie.
I’m taking the whole family to Fairlee, Vermont, for the Carnage gaming convention. NatureBoy and I are pre-registered for a bunch of stuff, and Fairlee is a heck of a lot closer to Beloved Wife’s college. So we’re all going.
So far, I’ve only attended a couple of small conventions here in Burlington, so this should be interesting. I promise to write up a report.
For the last two years, I’ve run a Dungeons & Dragons game at the local library. This past May, I announced that the group would not be continuing in the Fall, since my Beloved Wife has gone back to college to change careers. However, the way schedules have worked out, I can run the game without creating much (additional) disruption. And I missed seeing the kids, too.
So I announced that I would run the game again. We had one player move away, and another decided that he didn’t want to continue. We also had a friend of one of the players ask to join. I now have three girls and three boys in the group. I’m glad to be doing my part to foster girl gamers.
We’ve now played two sessions of our continuing Red Hand of Doom campaign. The session we played on Saturday ended on a little cliff-hanger, with the party approaching the Town Hall in the flooded ruins of Rhest, dodging large javelins thrown by ogres on the rooftop. Then the adventurers watched the black dragon launch himself from the ruined wall into the air, his goblin rider whooping as the dragon bears down on them.
We won’t be playing again until mid-November, so I hope to have enough time to plan how the dragon will fight. I have run a couple encounters with dragons so far, and they haven’t been as impressive as they could have been. Dragons should make the character (if not the players) afraid, and I want the encounter to be harrowing. Needless to say, I’ll be looking for articles and advice on running dragon encounters over the next couple weeks.
NatureBoy ran a D&D session for me on Saturday. He sprung a nice prop on me when my character was investigating the body of a dead adventurer…
Notice the green venom stain, and the chomp-mark out of the top left corner. I really like the isometric view of the map, too.
On the reverse side is an elevation of the <cheesy echo> Hallway of Certain Doom </cheesy echo>.
Some silliness ensued when my character slipped into the pirahna pit, and then gallons of barbeque sauce poured on me from above. As a druid, my character reasoned that the fish would have a hard time breathing the molasses and vinegar, so they avoided me while I climbed out. (Hey, I’m not above metagaming when the moment is ripe!)
I came home to some furtive behavior, yesterday, so I think there’s more calamity in store for me next weekend. I can’t wait. 😀
As part of our back-to-school changes, we developed a chore chart, with NB rotating through several new responsibilities. One of those responsibilities is cooking dinner. For his first meal, he made mac & cheese from a recipe. He did great, had a good time, and invited Grandma and Grandpa over to share.
I was working on another chore at the time, and when he had put the dishes in the oven to bake, he called me into the kitchen. “Poppa, aren’t you proud of me? Go wahs your hands and give me a hug!”
Poppa VT 