Okay, you're a professional wrestler. What's your entrance theme song?
It is not exactly unusual, but it has rained every day since we got here. No complaints: the area could use the rain. But Tuesday we went to Busch Gardens and in the early afternoon it just poured on us. Today we went inner-tubing in a local park and appear to have beaten the rain this time. We're learning to get all our outdoor stuff done in the morning (when it is cool) and save the indoor stuff until the early afternoon, when it either gets very hot or starts pouring.
]]>When Mrs. WQ runs, she listens to books on her MP3 player. Well, yesterday she noticed that the USB-USBmini cable that she uses to move stuff onto and off of her player was missing from her purse. We turned the house upside down looking for it, but it was gone. So we went to the store to discover that a replacement cable (which was about five and a half feet longer than the original) would be $20. But a new MP3 player with the short cable and twice as much memory as the old player was $25. So, WQRob got a new MP3 player, and we're sharing the new cable.
Otherwise, we're all good. Church was fine, but not very interesting. I have to say that the one who is having the most fun on vacation is my dog, who has surprised all of us by not running off when he gets outside of the screened-in porch but instead just meanders around, chasing squirrels and watching the lake. He lackadaisical attitude is at once both inspiring and trouble. Inspiring in that it reminds me to relax (especially about my anxiety that my dog will run away someday) and troubling in that it indicates also that he is getting along in years.
On a lighter note, I've been cruising around some of the free alt-D&D stuff on the interwebs. There's loads of "old school D&D" material out there, which I'm mining for good ideas for my own campaign
Last night I ended up being taken to the country club by my father-in-law (along with my wife) to have dinner with some friends, including a retired Dutch admiral who was sporting a red and yellow silk cravat, black shirt, and cream blazer with leather elbow pads. I'm wearing that to diocesan convention.
Today we went back to the library (in hopes of getting some better books) and I bought some supplies to make the kids marshmallow shooting guns. There's a blueprint in a book I bought Ammo Grot before the trip. All those marshmallows rolling around in the dirt reminds me of the strangest part about living here: caterpillar poop. The area is infested with these little black caterpillars that are all up in the trees. They munch on the trees and poop everywhere. We parked our RV under a tree in the driveway and now it looks like it is coated with chocolate jimmies. Blech.
Since arriving here, the weather has been uncommonly rainy and cool. It is as if we have brought Ohio with us. I am refraining from complaining too much, however: I am not a huge fan of overly hot weather and this area continues to be suffering from a lack of rain. In fact, the lake outside is about four feet below normal, and as been so long that the definition of "normal" may end up being changed.
Otherwise, we all are fairly well. We went to the local library yesterday to load up on books--the one I purchased for the trip, The Sorensen 4 Incident, turned out to be a complete dud. Tomorrow we'll take the kids to see a aviary rescue place (they are doing a special show for kids). As for today? Well, we may go see a movie, especially if it rains some more.
Yesterday we set out for Florida in Fawkes, our RV, and today we arrived at our destination. It turned out to be a pretty good trip, with little of the problems we anticipated. There one was, however, that we did not anticipate.
Dog flatulence.
Our dog has the smelliest farts, and would crack one loose about every hour in the RV. Aside from that, we managed pretty well, although it was slower going than we figured. As it got to be about 10:00 PM, we realized that we were barely into Georgia, and that unless we got through Atlanta, we'd be suck in Monday morning traffic. So we pressed on and ended up spending the night in the parking lot of a 24-hour Target. That wasn't too bad except the street-sweeping vehicle that went up and down every single aisle in the parking lot. It made a terrible racket. The only good part about pressing on until almost midnight was that it made today a fairly quick visit, and we're all settled in, including Milo the dog, who is enjoying chasing skinks out by the pool.
My son came to me this morning and asked "how is it that sometimes you can tell in a movie when someone's bad when they haven't really done anything bad yet? Like, in the movie Sky High I could tell that the girl was a villain even before she came out and told everyone she was."
"It's a device called 'foreshadowing,' where they give you clues to what is going to happen in the movie in advance. Also, you know how in a movie the guy and the girl get together? Well, in Sky High there were two girls that the guy liked, so you kinda could guess that at the end he would end up with one and for some reason not like the other."
A literary critique of Sky High, brought to you by the WQ family...
Also, I had an odd dream that I was in a gaming store (frequent theme) and that there was this new game called Kloog. It was a wargame where you could play one of three factions: cavemen, prehistoric creatures, or alien invaders. The interesting part of the game (aside from the genre) was that they didn't have a miniatures produced for the game--you had to convert your own from other companies. I'm half tempted to cobble some basic rules from Strike Force and give it a go.
Fourth Edition D&D poses a challenge to me. By "challenge" I mean, "will I bother buying this game?" I've read dozens of reviews of the game: good, bad, and indifferent. The general consensus is that the game is simpler than 3.5, quite a bit removed from the initial D&D universe, and similar to MMORPG's. Some of the complaints mention the lack of social-based skills and ability, but I am of the opinion that I'd rather see player's roleplay things like bluffing and interrogations, rather than just rolling a die.
In addition, Paizo has created Pathfinder, so of a "3.8" edition of D&D. Basically they cleaned up some of the minor problems, eliminated some unused skills, and tried to make some of the under-powered classes more attractive. They also borrowed a couple of notions from fourth edition, including allowing spellcasters (cleric and wizard) to cast 0-level spells at-will.
Pathfinder has some attraction for me because it would allow me to continue to use the many 3.5 books I already own rather than buy a whole new Monster Manual, etc. It doesn't hurt that they are giving away the .pdf of the rules. What's Paizo's angle? They are still producing a huge line of OGL material, including a series of adventures under the Pathfinder aegis. They're also figuring that there are going to be a lot of people like me who'll be interested in hanging on to and using all that stuff they've bought over the decade since third edition came out.
Of course, I'm still playing Castles & Crusades, ironically a blend of the previous two editions. But while I like C&C for its advantages, I'm still struggling under its shortcomings, and continuing to look for that game to switch to.
Last Christmas, my son received, in addition to his DS Lite, both Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl. My son started on Diamond Christmas day, and continues to play that game. It is also where I started what my son dismissively refers to as my "All Girl Team" that I've mentioned here in the past (side note: several members of my "All Girl Team" were used by him to defeat the Elite Four, the climax of the game). These days he is mostly running around collecting the 300+ pokemon that were unlocked when you defeat the elite four.
Pearl, however, has been virtually ignored. My son started it (choosing Turtwig as his starter) but soon realized that the game was identical to Diamond except for a few pokemon that could can only get on Pearl (just as Diamond has ones you can only get there). But because one of those Pearl-only pokemon is the legendary Palkia, I've been asked to play his Pearl game.
I don't mind. Pokemon is mindless fun and good to do when I need to wind down. So right now I've got the following team:
Torterra (lvl 51)
Toxicruel (level 42)
Staraptor (level 40)
Rapidash (level 41)
Meditite (level 36)
Bibarel (level 20)
As you can see, I've managed to keep them all pretty much at the same level, except the Bibarel, which is just there to learn Hidden Moves. I've already defeated seven out of eight gym leaders, but now have to get the group geared up to capture Palkia. Once I've done that I may wait a bit before going after the Elite Four and catch some of the wild pokemon I've been ignoring.
Okay, you're a professional wrestler. What's your entrance theme song?
I'm thinking of hanging up my molds and my brush for a while.
Last week I didn't have a free evening with work, and this week I don't have one with kid-related stuff, and I just don't feel like trying to shoehorn in yet another thing into my life right now. This Saturday I'll get in a gaming session with my once-a-season gaming group, but I haven't got one in for my "should be better than once-a-season but often isn't" group in a while.
I know that I'm not the only one in this situation. In a conversation I once had with Bruce Hirst, he admitted that summer was the worst season, and that he frequently tried to release interesting molds during this time.
So, a little vacation from my hobbies, perhaps mixed with a seasonal cleaning of my worktable. I haven't bought D&D 4e yet, and don't know if I will for a while. Reviews have been solidly mixed, so I may wait and see what distills out of it over time. I'm also looking at Paizo's Pathfinder, although I find it funny that I played a 2.5 D&D clone during 3e, and I'm thinking about a 3e clone during 4e. Always one step behind, that's me.