Stuff and nonsense

Went back to a goatee again. Will see how long it lasts. Seems every time I feel comfortable with my hairstyle something makes me go and change it up. Most days I prefer everything to be as short as possible. I hate having wind mussing my hair or ice-cream matting my beard. Some days I do wish I had my old viking look again, all hair and beard and very little face, but the maintenance on such a setup is a bit beyond my usual level of commitment to a project. Also, if I don't shave, I don't get to use my neat-o shaving accoutrements. Oh well. The goatee isn't creepy or anything, so that's good.

Kristina's parents visited with us for a bit. Frances actually spent a few seconds NOT eating, so we were able to see a few sites. One highlight was the Aloha General Store in Haleiwa. It has pretty good shave ice. Who am I kidding? It's the best shave ice I've had. Many places either have lumpy ice, poor quality syrups or both. Aloha General Store had light, fruity shave ice. It was so good I had a rainbow and then some made-up thing (I think it was pineapple, lime and mango).

Been playing bartender a bit at home. Got a modest liquor cabinet above the fridge and I keep looking at prefab bars when we go out. They are all too small and too expensive. Our neighbour Jarret has a GREAT bar (or pub, as he calls it) on his lanai. I guess it is more of a pub, really. Great place for sipping some mampoer (yes, I do have a bottle). Mind you, I've pretty much settled on a G&T as my favorite cocktail for the moment (although I do have club soda and ginger ale for making Gin Rickies and Gin Bucks). I use Rose's Lime Cordial instead of lime juice, so I guess I'm not making those drinks right at all (I think a Gimlet is gin and Rose's Lime). Oh well. When entertaining I at least make the effort of putting a lime slice on the rim of the glass.

Come over and I'll mix us some!

Wizards of the Coast and Blizzard!

My buddy Adam talked me into getting a Magic: The Gathering Online account. I'm having fun, but Wizards has got money again. Complaints? The UI could be better. I tried MTG Online a few years back and it had this charming isometric interface where your avatar physically walked to an open gaming table to play a match. I understand why they did away with it, but I liked that part. The available cards are also limited. Last time I played MTG was back in Mirrodin block days and I'd like to be able to buy some of those theme decks. *shakes fist*

I know there have been many blogs about WoW's new expansion, Cataclysm, so I won't go on about it. Needless to say, between that, Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 I am going to be spending lots of time at the electronics section staring at the shiny boxes. I just got the new Stay-At-Home-Dad expansion "Frances" and that is going to take up all my time for a while.

Also, I am playing a little Diablo 2:

RAKANISHU!

Van Hunks Story Progress 5

4938 words / 304 new

Van Hunks Story Progress 4

Planning on restarting the van Hunk project. More updates on that as it comes.

And then there were four

Frances is here (see "Kids" link above for more information) and I am really struggling to get into a helpful grove. Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited and happy about Frances. Physically, I'm just *blah* and any small complaint I have seems petty when the person I'm complaining to has just squeezed a baby out. Still, I carry on, hoping that as I drift along I might happen upon some super system that will allow me to be organized, effective and creative. Here's to hoping.

Had a motherboard die on me. Not that sad about it, to be honest. I am hoping I might be able to find constructive things to do with my life once I stop fine-tuning things. Fine-tuning is a full time job and I'm already a house wife. I will replace the mother board soon, though. I just hope good habits set in before I get the beast running again. Fancy, fast computers devour more time than unattractive, slow computers.

My dad just left a week ago and Kristina's parents are arriving in 2 days. We all had a great time having my dad stay with us and I am looking forward to Kristina's parents visiting. We know the island a lot better now so we can show it off a bit better this time round.

Got an idea for some sort of Youtube vlog yesterday. Nothing special, I must admit. Seems to me there are plenty of product review vlogs out there, but I was thinking it might be fun to have a bizarre grocery vlog. Things like Oki Doki rice crackers, "Ramune" or Redro Fish paste, that sort of thing. I can introduce the product, eat it and give my impressions. Sure, not everything will be bizarre to all viewers. It'll just be stuff I think is weird. I can come up with a list of at least 2 people who might find that interesting. That's more than you can saw for much of Youtube.

We'll see.

Something out of nothing

Here's a quick batch of words I whipped up to work me up an appetite for writing:

4 August 2009

Word Count: 279

The sun came in steady waves, drying out every last pocket of dampness. Claus could feel his skin cracking and beginning to flake. His flesh burned dry, an opening act for the sunburn that would follow. “Not far now,” he croaked. With each step he took the sand sunk down, clutching at his feet. The futility of it all sucked the energy right out of him, just the like sun and the wind and that dry, dry air drank every last drop of water from his body. His eyeballs felt swollen, like two watery balloons. “Not far now.”

The dunes receded behind him as he made his way across what was once a large river. At the edge of sight loomed the blue peaks of Adderhorn. It wasn't far now. Blood pumped, pumped a heavy drum line in Claus's ear so that he did not hear the footsteps on the river bed. When he stumbled and collapsed, he did not feel the hand on his shoulder or the sharp relief of ice cold water on his lips.

Balung smiled. “How do they always find me,” he thought as he stooped over the crumpled body. “You are fortunate our paths crossed today, my friend,” said the sandling, “it is not often that I pass through here.” He rose slowly and let out long, clear whistle. “Count yourself luckier still that I am not traveling alone,” he chuckled, his eyes set on the large featured beast circling down to meet him. “Have you room for one more, my old friend?” Balung cried as the roc brought its immense weight down onto the thirsty earth sending sand eddying in widening rings.

On RPGs and the buying of books

It seems to me there are two kinds of RPers. There are those who buy the source books and those who don't. In my mere 10 years of RPing I've generally come across more non-buyers than buyers. I am a buyer (although I have been known to have a few gigs of PDFs here and there).

Keeping up with books can be tough. Wizards seems to release them faster than I can read them. On the other hand, sometimes you want to play an out of print game and then you have the trouble of finding anything usable. Right now I am running/playing D&D4, GURPS 4 and Scion. Thanks to DDI I don't need every D&D book, but I have more than as it is (9 books, 1 module and a DM screen). I have both Basic Set books for GURPS and as far as Scion goes I have 3 out of 5 books. I am hoping to own all 5 within the next few months.

Why do we feel the need to buy (or ... obtain) these new books? Are we often so blown away by a new book that we can't live without it? Since I enjoy running games I can justify these purchases (or in some cases torrents) to myself and other gamers. My wife, on the other hand, doesn't get it.

Kristina is a gamer, though. On occasion we have seen a book and have agreed it would at least be an interesting game. Where my impulse is to buy first and try later, Kristina's is more of a use what you already have. I think her view goes beyond simple pragmatism. What is wrong with what we have already?

When we come across a rule we dislike, don't we work around it? Surely as RPers and DMs we can find ways to make old materials fresh and new. The vast majority of games I've played have been home brewed. So why do I throw money at new books?

I guess I'm part of the crowd that's just duped into thinking that a new book will change everything just because it's new and shiny. If that's the case then just keep 'em coming, boys. I'll probably buy it any way.

Frances Caroline is here

Kristina labored for 12 hours with Edith, so we figured we'd have some time to get to the hospital when contractions woke us up a bit before 5 am on Wednesday, July 29. Turns out we were very wrong. Starting around 7am things became rather frantic. Frances was a three hour labor and she was almost born in the car (our blue '07 Kia Rio, known to some as "Pablo"). About 10 minutes after we arrived at the ER, Frances was born. The delivery room was packed with all kinds of people and machines. I felt a bit like the father in this video:

WARNING: THIS IS A MONTY PYTHON SKIT. IT IS SILLY AND RATHER GRAPHIC.



Fetus-frightenings notwithstanding, all went wonderfully and we are as pleased as can be with our tiny new addition. Once I have my feet back on the ground, I will produce some more movies and pictures. For now please enjoy Frances's Facebook profile. Non-FB users can still see her photos here.

Edith has been very sweet with Frances. This and she is stumbling about when it suits her (a max of 4 steps at the moment) and her spoken vocabulary increases weekly. She enjoys the words up, dog, woof and bye-bye (which she is starting to pronounce bye-byes which I think is to further differentiate it from baba which she uses to refer to Frances). She also stacks her blocks with speed and style, climbs up onto the couch and demands (through the use of sign language) that we read her books. In fact, we are currently using the reading of books as a motivator for eating her veggies and behaving well during nappy changes (she always tries to pat her butt when I change her diaper).

It's harder than I thought it would be, adding one more baby. Edith and Frances are far enough apart age-wise that they need to be monitored separately at the moment. I know that will change, but it doesn't seem like it will change soon. Kristina assures me it will be easier by the time she returns to work. I hope she is right. Then again, that's 5 weeks into the future and I'm the kind of person who has trouble planning more than 5 minutes in advance. I guess we will see when we get there.