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It seems my favorite online dice store is closing up shop. This is a shame since no other one even comes close to matching the variety Advancing Hordes has. Also, no other dice store site looks anywhere near as great or is as easy to use. Here are some rather poor alternatives I've found so far, so I'll have a list of places to refer to later.
G-Squared Collectibles & Hobbies - specifically the RPG Sets section
Valiant Games - dice manufacturer
Crystal Caste - another manufacturer
RPGShop - even though they've been around a while, the poor site design and spastic navigation make it look like a fly-by-night operation
Paizo's dice section
I may update this post later if I find anything better.
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Star Trek, online! (Sunday, February 24, 2008 - 2:00:34 PM)
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I love the internet!
Star Trek espisodes at CBS
Oh, and look, they also have MacGyver!
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winter skies and favorite galaxy (Monday, February 11, 2008 - 12:26:25 PM)
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This weekend was the regular monthly meeting for the astronomy club I'm involved in. That Saturday, we had absolutely clear, beautiful skies. Before we left for the meeting I remembered that my favorite galaxy, NGC 1365, might be up. A quick check of Stellarium showed that it is indeed currently visible to the south early in the evening.
We left early enough to arrive about an hour before the meeting to be able to set up the scope. I figured we'd be among the first to arrive, but nearly everyone had arrived before us! I guess the lure of clear skies and beautiful weather is hard to ignore. I had just enough time to get the scope out and assembled, with a little visiting before the meeting started. They kept it short so we could enjoy the skies--rare for a meeting night.
I rushed to the scope from the classroom and began my search for NGC 1365. I had guessed that it would be a challenge to find since we have a light dome from Little Rock to the southeast and possible tree foliage blocking the horizon. Neither were an issue, but it still wasn't easy. After a lot of searching, I thought I had found it. The star charts I had with me weren't helping since they didn't show the dimmer magnitude stars I could see in the eyepiece. So, I tried to memorize what I saw in the field of view as best I could. Once I got home, I finally figured out that I must have seen NGC 1316. Along with it's companion galaxy, 1317, they're called the Galactic Dustbunnies. It was odd that I didn't see 1317, but we did have a crescent moon. That may have been why I wasn't able to find 1365. Unfortunately, by the next new moon, this part of the sky will be setting with the sun. I've lost my chance to see it this year, but hopefully the weather will cooperate for me to try again next year.
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work day books (Sunday, January 13, 2008 - 7:42:20 AM)
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Yesterday was the annual work day for our astronomy club. Mostly we clean up the grounds and burn off the brush & trash. There was a large pile of metal and rotting wood behind Jim's observatory that we cleaned out. Hopfully we can get a member with a truck to carry off the metal scraps. This year's bonfire, though, was HUGE and HOT.
The real treat of the day came earlier. On the way down to the club site, Carolaina and I decided to stop by a small, second-hand bookstore in Beebe that we hadn't been to in a while. I'm so glad we did. I found books that I thought I would never find.
The Fafhrd and Gray Mouser series by Fritz Leiber was a major early influence on Dungeons & Dragons. Wizards of the Coast has a really good article about these books on their website. Wikipedia also has some good information about the series. The ones I found are the first 6 collections of the short stories and novel mentioned on the Wikipedia page. I so look forward to reading them, but have so many other books on my to-read pile to get through first.
For the longest time, I've been trying to track down some of the better sci-fi/fantasy books I had read as a kid. One of these was a near-future story about a set of colonies aboard Earth-orbiting space stations who want to gain their independence from the United States. The method they use declare independence is through the space station branch of the US Courts. Memory being what is is, I had thought the name of the book was "The 13th Circuit". It turns out that the name actually is just "Circuit". Also, the back-of-book blurb mentions that it's the 15th Circuit Court and not the 13th. Never trust your memory--like your senses, it can be fooled easily. I not only found this book, but also found out that it was just the first of a trilogy! The store owners pointed out and handed me the final book. Now I'll absolutely have to track down the second one.
The last two other books were the first Zork book and The Forever War. The Zork series is one of those choose-your-path adventure books. As a kid, I had the second or third book (and hope I still have it, somewhere). The Forever War by Joe Haldeman is considered classic sci-fi from the 70s and has been compared on many occasions to John Scalzi's Old Man's War book/series, which I have and love.
So many books, so little time.
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lots of life (Monday, December 31, 2007 - 11:38:14 PM)
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Every year during the waning minutes of the old year, I sit and reflect on the events of the past year and think of my hopes and plans for the next. Even though I've been neglecting it lately, my blog helps this a lot since the entries jog my memory.
A year ago, I took a character alignment survey on the Wizard's site, answering it as myself instead of as a D&D character. At the time, I tested as Neutral Good. This time, though, I've come out as true Neutral. I find that very interesting, and a little disturbing.
D&D Minis has really geared up for me this year. I got involved in a Meetup group that got started by a couple that moved down from Oregon. Ric is a level 3 minis judge, in a state that doesn't seem to have any level 1 judges! They haven't been coming to the minis games lately, and attendence has slowed because of the holidays, but it should pick back up after the New Year. I now have over twice as many minis as I did 8 months ago, most of them acquired in the past month.
I'm gearing up to host a regular D&D game starting on the 18th. Looking back, it appears that been preparing/being prepared for this for a while now. I had picked up the Player's Kit some months ago, then found the Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual used at Hastings for cheap. (Turns out the previous owner of the books was a smoker, UG!) Then, for Christmas I found a 1st-level adventure on sale (half-off!!) that I've had my eye on for a while: Scourge of the Howling Horde. It's designed for first-time/inexperienced DMs while still being a fun dungeon crawl for the players. A few days after I picked it up, I was contacted by a local guy looking for a game, in addition to a co-worker who was already interested in starting a D&D game. Now that I have everything needed: minis, the core books, a starting adventure module and interested players; it all came together and seemed to fall into my lap. I'm really looking forward to the game sessions. I have some neat ideas to make the it interesting.
My old entries from a year ago made a brief mention of running the water overnight to keep the pipes from freezing. Tis the season, I guess, because tomorrow night I'll need to do the same thing after a COLD front moves through and gives us lows in the mid teens.
Finally, Carolaina and I got some very sad news a few hours ago: her beloved Grammie died just before noon today. A few days ago she fell while alone at her house and hurt herself badly. Apparently, there was some form of brain damage involved. It was so serious that they airlifted her to a hospital in Memphis. We were told that she was in stable condition, but only had a 50/50 chance of surviving. We didn't expect her to be around too much longer since she was 83 and had been really slowing down the past couple of years. This was too sudden, though. The Pioneer Days festival in Melbourne will never be the same again. It may not even be possible for us to go without being able to stay at Grammie's house. She lived a very short walk from nearly everything around town.
UPDATE [1/3/2008]: I've come across an obituary in the Batesville Daily Guard's website.
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