Redwolf's Journal (continued)

So after some discussion about the Exalted game, we've decided to suspend it indefinitely. Not a very good stopping point, but we were looking at several sessions worth of heavy combat, and when that's the part of the game that drags the most, it's disheartening. No one I heard really disagreed with what I felt were the main problems. And instead, we're replacing it with a Shadowrun (4th Edition) game. I'm not entirely convinced that's going to be better from a mechanical perspective, but we'll see. It has opposed rolls and lots of fiddly options in combat, but that may not be as bad as the heavy use of flurries, charms, and perfect defenses. I haven't played this generation of the game (and I'd describe most of the SR3 experience as 'Shadowrun Lite'), but one thing definitely hasn't changed: character creation takes frickin' forever. Several hours over a few days with aid of a chargen program and I still had a moment of "wait,

I'm tired. On the up side, I'm vehicularly mobile, as well. The fix-a-flat stuff didn't do anything but ooze out of the tire along the rim. Granted, it doesn't advertise that it works for sidewall damage (which this was said to be at the shop), but the guy at the service counter at the tire place also said "That stuff never works. It's a scam." @whee! So there was lots of crawling around on the ice and water and mud to wrestle with the jack and getting the spare down that probably hasn't been used since it was new (certainly I don't recall making use of it). Also, the spare went flat on me on the way - probably around halfway. So that's what driving on a fully-flat tire feels like. Fun times. But they were able to fix that and replace the other one, so everything is in working order at the moment. I also made mention of a minor leak in what is probably a sewer line running through my storage unit. Someone came by and had a look today (I had

Exalted : It's been a while since I reported on this game. The group had returned to Gem. Two circle members left. In return, we get an abyssal. "Sorrow" for short (sorry, I don't remember his full sobriquet). Heavily armored, with a soulsteel steed and a personal army of sorts, he arrived in Gem to pledge himself to those who had slain the First and Forsaken Lion. This is grand in theory, but pretty much no one in the group trusts him. They don't have much reason to. The help is accepted, though, and he made an Eclipse-bound oath to work with the circle... So they depart on their way to Thorns, with plans to cure/release and enlist the aid of Juggernaut (giant being with city on his back, etc.) for the actual push against the Mask of Winter. The group stops at a swamp on the way. Why stop at a swamp some 200 miles short of their destination? Umm... I'm unclear. We didn't realize it was so far at the time. They cross on the back of a giant spider spirit

Yeah, it's something of a long walk from home. Not super-long. Perfectly doable. But when you don't get a whole lot of exercise, a sudden three-mile walk is a little tiring. Explanation: I went out, got the truck warming up a bit to drive in this afternoon, got my things, when back out, and had someone point out a flat tire. Ugh. The can of tire-inflation stuff I kept on hand has been sitting in the truck for a few years now and did little more than fizzle. So, faced with the prospect of crawling around in a couple inches of dirty ice water that is our parking lot during the day, I decided I'd walk instead. It's a temporary solution, though. Hopefully, I can get a new can of that stuff and get the tire inflated enough to get it in to be fixed in the morning. And already I was tired. As "into" books as I can get, finishing them tends to leave me feeling a little hollow. Oh, I sometimes carry away new perspectives and ideas, but there's also a let down of

Less than 24 hours after reading page one, I've finished The Well of Ascension . I had doubts that the sequel to Mistborn would be as captivating. I was right only in certain details, overall the book still drew me in near-completely. I find the story of defending a new government less compelling and epic than trying to overthrow one and I enjoyed watching Vin's transformation(s) in the first book more than the second. Still, the interplay between history and present remains as fascinating. The use of ancient prophecies is thought-provoking. The characters, though the spotlight has shifted some, are still quite interesting. Actually, the only thing I might say is not good about the book is that it definitely comes across as the second in a trilogy. There are plotline climaxes toward the end, but where the first book left some lingering questions, this one can still pick up a year later but ends with several major "what happens now?" questions. Cripes. When did fa

So it's become tradition that I make a lemon meringue pie for gabefinder 's birthday. Normally, I just buy a frozen crust and go from there. This time, I pulled a couple crust recipes from online and mostly follows one by Alton Brown. Resultant Pros: Crust that is fairly flakey on exposed portions. The pie bottom is still firm after a day while pre-made crusts are usually soaked through and mushy. Resultant Cons: I spent a lot of time going back and forth from the kitchen yesterday. Chill, chop, mix, chill some more, mold, roll, shape, chill some more, bake, bake some more... During baking of the crust, before putting in the filling, the crust shrunk a bit more than I was expecting. Verdict: I now have a crust recipe that works well, it's just labor-intensive. On the up side, it could probably done a day or two prior and the dough kept chilled before being rolled out. I like having this in my repertoire, but it wasn't so overwhelmingly awesome as to convince me it

I don't often comment on work, save for major technical frustrations. Somehow, though, it feels worth remarking on this morning. I've been working here for approaching fifteen years. I've seen a lot of people come and go. This is the first time I can recall someone being "laid off." People are fired and quit commonly enough, some under pleasant circumstances, others less so. But laid off? Simply put, there's not enough advertising being sold to support/require the current staff of ad reps. So the most recently-hired is being laid off. This is really the first hit of this economic downturn that I've seen so close to home. Companies are tightening their belts because consumers are doing so, that means less money spent to advertise, which means less money for ad-based businesses, which... well, it's cyclical. I knew yesterday, though our general manager just told a bunch of us officially a few minutes ago. She assured us that it's isolated and all

So my paladin's off doing PVP-flagging quests in Venture Bay on the weekend, and I see a drake fly by and hover near. While fighting one of the NPC Horde guards there, I look up to see a level 80 tauren death knight. I just know he's sitting there thinking, "Hey, a level 75 Alliance paladin. Target!" They didn't jump in right away, but let me keep fighting. I was at about 80% health and 20% mana when they dropped in to attack me. I certainly wasn't about to start anything, but my tanking mindset certainly involves finishing it. I could have probably ran for Alliance guards, but no. We went at it. Granted, I used a potion and my Lay on Hands cooldown, but the tauren was the one on the ground when the dust settled. Five levels lower (plus the fact that level 80 opens up several tiers of better gear) and I still win one-on-one. I have to wonder if that particular player just sucks (more than I do) at PVP combat, or if there's some real class imbalance there

I've been asked (repeatedly) is I have plans for Memorial Day, cryptic as that has been. Memorial Day? Sheesh. I don't have any notable plans this year at this point. There aren't any trips on my schedule. I blew a fair chunk of vacation time going to Florida, after all. I still haven't "recovered" from last Estrella, so I've no plans to go this time. And, of course, there's the financial aspect. I'm fairly certain my job is stable, but the economy is sucking and there's no telling that that's going to do all around. I would like to get an HDTV soon (amusingly, more to have clearer small type in PS3 games than for movie quality). I'm approaching the level of "need" as far as a new bed - oh, I can still sleep on the one I have, but it's ten years old or so, been used heavily as extra seating, sags seriously in the middle, and actually has a hole in it I discovered a few weeks back. That's at least a few hundred dollar

That would be Not My Sandbox Syndrome, a label I'll ascribe here to a psychological reluctance to mess with things not of one's own creation. It came up recently in some conversations that I don't "run" much on FurryFaire. A couple scenes in sequence with very little plotline and involving only a PC or two? Sure, I do that maybe a couple times a week. Any longer continuity, any wider influence on the setting, and I pretty much skip it. Why? A lot of reasons, actually, some of which I may discuss in most depth later. Inspiration is fleeting and fickle - I can't just conjure up applicable ideas at will, but its easier to manage in this area if there are other things going on to play off of. Time can be tricky - I have had numerous scenes fall by the wayside because when I was interested in pursuing them people weren't around or something else required my attention. My GMing skills, especially online, have waned - I have enough trouble wrangling two or