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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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Sunday afternoon, Carolaina and I drove down to Imagine Games for an official DCI sanctioned sealed tournament. For $25, I was offered one War Drums booster and a choice of either an Underdark or Night Below booster. I chose Underdark and got a few minis I've been wanting, like the Dire Bat, a Xorn and the Marut. It was single elimination tourney to save time, and unfortunately I lost the first game. A couple of other guys both pulled the Aspect of Hextor and used them, but they both got beat by the guy who beat me using an Inspired Marshal, Khumat and a Hunched Giant plus fodder. It was still a lot of fun, though, and I'll be getting an official DCI number from it soon. Jon up and gave me a Monitor Lizard! It's a nearly useless little figure for the skirmish game, but I have been wanting one.
Also, last week I got the Legend of Drizzt icon pack. I now have Drizzt! With his epic card! Sure, it also came with a little character named Wulfgar and a... dragon of some sort. ;) Seriously, Icingdeath the Gargantuan White Dragon is nice, too. Drizzt and Guenhwyvar are finally united (for me, in minis form) and I don't think I'll ever have the heart to run CG warbands with them separated.
Right now, I'm using the official warband generator to put together some 50 point warbands, just for fun. Hopefully, I'll get to try them out this weekend.
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On the drive home from work this evening, I passed through a heavy rain shower at Beebe heading north on 67/167. Despite the best efforts of my PalmPix camera to ruin the shot, I managed to manipulate the best of the three photos to make it look like what my eyes actually saw. Yes, it was really that bright! If you look close, you can just make out a secondary rainbow to the left.
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first light for the new telescope (Friday, September 21, 2007 - 12:54:51 PM)
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About a month ago, Carolaina and I ordered a rather expensive new scope. Unfortunately when it arrived, the CG-5 mount was broken. The following weekend, we sent just the mount part back to Celestron for a quick replacement. I'm still waiting on either a repair or replacement from them, and I got the impression that it could take (in the very least) another month to get it from them.
Now, thanks to Rocky loaning me a mount, I was able to use the OTA for the first time tonight. Just like when I was a kid and used my little Sears reflector for the first time, I pointed it at Jupiter... and was amazed. I saw incredible detail and could make out a bunch of the cloud bands and some detail in them. I could even see the Great Red Spot on the edge beginning to come into view. It seems my little 11mm TeleVue Plossl eyepiece just loves this scope.
Then, I turned it to look at the moon, and was astounded! I have never seen the moon with such clarity and detail in a telescope!! I could have sat there for hours just looking while noticing more and more craters and mountains. This scope shows so much better views than our 5" Newtonian, even though it's only got one inch more aperture.
The equatorial mount was a little strange to move and point at first, but I think I'll get used to it quickly enough. I can't wait to get this scope up to the club site and try it out under dark(er) skies.
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Warm, rainy days like today make me want to sit under a canopy/porch/overhang somewhere quiet out in the country and just watch the rain come down.
I need a vacation.
Oh, look there at the calendar, I have vacation time coming up next week! Yay!
Since I'll be off work and Carolaina can't drive, I'm sure she's going to run me ragged by having us run all over town taking care of errands. I just want to sleep.
On Thursday and Friday next week, Anthony and I will be taking a backpacking/camping trip in the Ouachita National Forest. It's just a short 10 mile trail from Mt. Magazine State Park over to Cove Lake, but it will be a good introduction for us to backpacking. I so look forward to it.
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