mah homtoun haz a flavur!

Photo courstesy of om nom nom and The Triforce

Example #2,106,489,942 of the fun you can have by typing odd things into Google, and counting.

Wy-snow-ming

Compare and Contrast!

two weeks ago:


and today:


Out here in cowboy country, the snow falls sideways!

Grubbin' with Fuzzy

I'm makin' AB's Macaroni and Cheese. in less than a half an hour, I'll have (I hope) some cheesey casserole action. Sadly, I was missing the Panko Bread crumbs for the topping. I'm not really sure if anyone up here knows what they are. Heck I'm not really sure what they are.

Panko is Japanese in origin, so I figured that they were smaller and more efficent breadcrumbs, but no, they're actually more coarse in texture. Then, i figured that they had little nanites in them, seeing as how Japan is always on the cutting edge of technology, but I figured that the metallic crunch they would give isn't to my taste.

In the end, I decided to just crush up some whole wheat Ritz crackers and use that. Hopefully, the nano-flavor isn't critical to the dish.

The Confrontation

Cthulhu Eating a Butterfinger, originally uploaded by Jack Black's Stunt Double.

When we last left our friends, Cthulhu had just gotten a five finger discount on Sparky the Dragon's Candy. A Butterfinger to be exact. Will he get away with this?

Click the picture, and go through the set for the exciting conclusion!

Inside Joke

As the post title suggests, This is an inside joke for my friends. Family, you won't get it. You had to be there. Ben K, this post is for you!

Check out the last panel in this comic; it's GOLD.

Witch's Teat

This morning, it was -9 degrees. I was lucky my car started up without incident. Other coworkers were not so lucky.

Tomorrow, I hear it will warm up to 16.

Let me say that again:

warm up to sixteen degrees. Farenheit. Who can tell me what's wrong with THAT statement? Anyone?

Nobody Better Lay a Finger on Sparky's Butterfinger

Alas, Sparky does not live in a Vacuum; He must contend with the other cubicle denizens. Click the picture to observe the actions of the other toys with a sweet tooth, and keep clicking forward in the set.

Photo Meme

So my sister found a link from Sean Bonner (he's kinda big in the interwebs business) that describes a new meme for all to enjoy. Sounds like good times, so I gave it a try. Here's my Album:

Original Photo By rblxtned on Flickr.

D&D Miniatures Game: Now Fortified with 4th Edition!

Yesterday, WotC released the new version of the D&D Minis game. As I played this alot back home with friends, I decided to take a look. They made a few interesting changes:

1. Morale Saves: Gone, Gone, Gone. Glad about this one; I've watched my 140 point Gold Dragon run away when a goblin gets a lucky shot and I roll a 2. They replaced this with a mini becoming "bloodied" at half HP, which leaves him vulnerable to other attacks. This also runs parellel to how their going to impliment it in D&D 4.o, unlike the Morale Saves, which invoked a much ignored rule from the 2nd Edition D&D game.
2. Initative: instead of a bonus to your roll, a high commander champion rating will give you a 2nd roll, taking the highest. I'll kind a miss my +8 bonus that improved initative gave me, but it's no big deal. What IS a big deal is that now the first player in round only gets to move 1 mini instead of two. After this turn, each player moves two at a time like normal. This reduces the late game advantage of moving two guys first (an advantage given by lucky rolls), and still lets the init winner move his guy(s) last in the early game. I like the subtlty of it.
3. The 5 foot step: It's back. This is another example of WotC trying to sync up the Minis game with the RPG game. I got a few blank looks from D&D veterans when I told them they couldn't take a 5 ft step in minis. "Why not?" "You just can't."
4. Targeting: You used to only be able to shoot or zap the closest enemy to you. Just because. Now they relaxed the targeting rules, and only figures with the "nearest" qualifier on their ranged attack/spellcasting will need to follow this rule (but I wonder what percentage of cards they'll put it on? 40? 75? 90?). Honestly, while I can understand the dislike of this rule because it limits one's options, I kind of liked it because it let you adjust your tactics (i.e. hide Low AC archer/Spellcaster behind the metal-clad meat-wall). I guess in the long run, it makes more sense, and is certainly eaiser to remember, My friends and I were oblivious to this rule for the first several months we played! It wasn't until I read Rastlin Majere's (sp?) stats and saw "perfect targeting" that I went back to reread that part in the rulebook.
5. Ranged attacks/spells while in a threatened square: Before - You can't do it. Only touch attacks, archers could shoot the guy next to him only, at a penalty. After - You sure can attack the guy across the board while the barbarian is barbarying down on you! But you'll take an Opportunity attack from him. (Yes, I said barbarying [bar BARE ee ing]. It means engaging in activity like that unto a Barbarian. It's a real word, becuase I typed it.)

Before the end of the month, we should get updated stat cards for the Desert of Desolation expanstion. I'm looking forward to it. BTW, several of the other minis from older expanstions are also getting updated stats, so not ALL of your minis will become obsolete, just most of them. My Osyluth will be pleased by that.

UPDATE 1/24/08: This article mentions that Wizards will eventally convert ALL the minis to next edition rules. Sounds great to me... but what were the All-Star votes for again? To see what get's converted first? I dunno, made the whole All-Star process kinda moot.

Check out my Cubicle Buddy

So, my friend Pearce bought me a Gargantuan Blue Dragon before I left Pittsburgh. Sort of a going away present. The idea was that I can use it in Miniatures games, or Dungeons & Dragons RPGs. Pretty cool, but I'm still looking for players, and I'm probably going to look outside the Valley. There's just no one around here who plays, and as I mentioned on this blog before, the closest group I know is in Salt Lake. So for a while he just sat in his box, bored. You can't keep something this sweet looking tucked away in a box, so I brought him into the office as a 'pet'. His name is Sparky; simple, common, probably obvious, but suitable (he breathes lightning at those who displease him or take his candy). As I don't own cats, I decided to make a loldragon:



As to where all that candy came from, here's the explaination. The local gas stations and convieneince stores often do a promotion where they put their overstock of candy bars on sale. These candy bars will all be of a particular brand (nestle, M&M/Mars, Hershey, etc). So when I drop in for some other item, I make an impulse purchase and drop a buck on 3 candy bars. snatching up M&Ms, Butterfingers (a favorite of mine), Butterfinger Crisps (my favorite with an improved texture!), and the Take 5, a wonderful little bar from Hershey that my sister has already talked about.
My problem is that within the last year or so, I think my sweet tooth has faded into retirement. So I'll buy three, eat one, and before the last two are gone, I'll buy 3 more for a buck, resulting in a candy glut. So, I deicided that Sparky needed a horde, and seeing has I had no gold handy, I brought him my neglected chocolate. I explained to him that at least in the office, this is considered more precious than gold, so he's satisfied.

Bonus Post!

As promised, I delieved two posts before Monday, but I feel kinda bad becuase they both refered to subject matter that not all of you know or care about. To make it up to you, I'll give you all a link to my small, but growing set of photos on Flickr, Wyoming Scenery. This includes some shots of the recent snow we've been getting, plus a few that I took in the summer, but never posted on the blog. Enjoy!

Rand's Big Love

Rand's Ladies, originally uploaded by Jack Black's Stunt Double.

When my computer lets me rename the bots that I play against, I try to rename them with a theme in mind. This one, for those that don't know, are the three main characters from The Wheel of Time. (in the past, I've done Song of Ice and Fire, The Three Stooges, and Final Fantasy VII characters). I often find myself losing because these guys know the sword form called "CPU Shoots The Moon".

Anyway, the thought of passing Rand three queens amused me, probably more than it should have, but I did a screen grab anyway and decided to post it for the two, maybe three people who might understand why I'm amused.

So for those few people who know, which Queen corresponds to which of Rand's women? Let me know in the comments.

Dungeons and Dragons' New Racial Tension

For those of you that have never played D&D, this post is not for you. Sorry. Read on if you want, but you'll be bored.

Anyway, the news dropped recently that in the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons they are adding the Tiefling to the list of player classes in the Players Handbook. They're also "demoting" one down to monster status, and will be in the 4th Ed Monster Manual: Gnomes.

It makes sense to me. I really don't see a whole lot of mechanical difference between them and haflings. They're both short oddball humanoids, with the same -2 to Strength. Gnomes like illusions and pranks, Halflings like crawling around and under things and stabbing you in the back, or eating second breakfast. And it's not like you can't make a monster into a playable race. People were probably doing it so much with the tiefling that they figured it would just be easier to put it in the PHB with the rest of the playables.

Besides, the gnome doesn't seem to mind.

** YOUR SESSION WILL TIME OUT DUE TO INACTIVITY **

I know. I've been lazy. Actually, I've been a bit ill for the past few days, and just didn't feel like doing much that involved walking more than a few steps.

But I promise I'll make it up to you before the weekend is out. 2 posts before monday, at least 1 of which will include a picture. Stay tuned!

Books are Precious and Wonderful...

...becuase up here, we can burn them for heat quite easily!

This post was originally going to be a comment to this post from my beloved sister, but I think it grew to a size proper to be posted on my own blog.

My sister just recently decided to cull her library at home, because she just has too many. Some people if you told them you were throwing away a book, regardless of the book itself, would look at you like you just said that you were going eat a baby. With ketchup.
These people need to get over themselves, because babies are the new veal books just don't hold the overwhelming importance they once did. I'm not trying to trivialize reading, but look at what's in the bookstores these days. Take out all the biographies of people no one cares about, self-help drivel, and shrill political propaganda written by jackasses from either party. You'd cut out probably a third of what's there.
Books were cherished, precious items back in the 1200's when books were bound by hand with paper imported from faraway places and each and every one was handwritten. Probably cost as much a war horse.
There were also cherished in the 18th and 19th century, when printing presses reduced the cost from a warhorse to maybe a few heads of cattle.
Now between the interwebs and the fact that someone can buy a trade paperback of Paris Hilton's memoirs for about the same price as a Quizno's Sub, they're pretty much disposable.

I took out two large shopping bags of books to Half Priced Books before I left the 'Burgh and got about ten bucks for them. even without the cash, it was worth not having to drag them across 6 states.

New Year's Eve with the IT Department

Last night, I went to one of my co-worker's homes for New Year's Eve, where I experienced Raclette, sort of a Swiss take on Fondue. Instead of dipping stuff into melted cheese, you toss pieces of cheese with various meats/veggies/potatoes and slide it under a kind of tabletop broiler. Also featured another guest and his wife (coffee fiends, the both of them) preparing specialty coffee drinks to order.
The highlight of the evening (for me) was playing The Settlers of Catan for the the first time since I left home. It was fun, but one thing wasn't quite the same. Between the Mormon couple and our Baptist host, we got through the entire game without one "wood for sheep" wisecrack. But, I won, and in the end isn't that what really matters? (Bonus Settlers of Catan Tip: I earnestly believe that being the first person to build a city will instantly increase your odds of winning to 75%)
The whole night was full of the background noise of everyone's children playing, fighting, or tring to get their hands on things things they shouldn't. Ah, to be young and single! Anyway, the evening included a few phone calls from friends back east, including one of my enlisted friends who's back in town for a few weeks. One of the first things he tells me is ,"so, I hear you took a job in Wisconsin?" He is not the first person to have gotten those two confused.
You see, the word "Wyoming" comes from an old Native American word that subconsiously deflects your thoughts away from it, and onto another location, one that usually beings with the same letter or syllable. Everytime I tell someone that I've moved to Wyoming, A few minutes later they ask, "So, what made you decide on Wisconsin?"

"No, not Wisconsin." I say. "Look, do you know that big empty state above Colorado and below Montana?"
"Um.... West Dakota?"
"Nevermind."

This is why no one lives up here. Everytime someone decides to move out West to cowboy country, they fall into a transe, and BANG! They find themselves unloading a truck at their new home in Oshkosh or something.