Showing posts with label iPad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iPad. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Freeze Warning...and now it's over

We actually had low temps in the 20s (Fahrenheit) this past weekend. And today the high was in the low to mid 60s. Yep, that's autumn in NC.

I'm still trying to get the photos off my iPad. I took some pictures for my Indie+ game jam entry and resorted to posting them to a private G+ list and pulling them from there. I wrote a game based on barbecue and kind of anime battle shojo. Sort of. It's a cross between a tabletop rpg and a dice game. The materials are easy, scrap paper or index cards, dice, writing implement, and imagination. I've posted the game and game contest rules at the end, so you don't have to read them unless you make an effort.

There's been a problem with a leak outside my office for more than a year. They patch it, they work on it, they patch the wall, and the leak reappears. The leak got really bad recently, to the point another office was flooded. Monday, they took a jackhammer to the hall floor. And I started the day with a migraine. The jackhammer and drill noises did not help. But migraine meds however, did.

Our Saturday Mermaids game got canceled. So C and I went to see Doctor Strange (not Dr. Strange) in 3D. We hit the matinee so it was a scoche cheaper. 

I've had my 1st follow-up physical therapy appointment. My next one is tomorrow. The 1st PT appointment is to set a baseline and course of treatment, so in some ways it doesn't count. I've been doing the stretches and exercises and ooof, my knee hurts.



Your Vinegar is no match for My Organic Vine-Ripened Heritage Tomato!

A game of battling barbecue chefs in a manga-style cooking contest, using a set of polyhedral dice, a minimum of three players, a pen, and an index card for each player. The number of dice will govern the number of rounds of play. Sample barbecue cuisines: Western NC, Eastern NC, Memphis, Kansas City, Texas, Vietnamese, Korean.

Each player writes what order they plan to roll their dice along one side of the index card and the other player names across the top. They can also write the name of their barbecue sauce on the back of the index card.

Example: Mary, John, Rich, and Joyce are playing and they decide to use the set of 6 polyhedral dice.

Mary's card has the name of her barbecue on the back and on the front she writes d4, d10, d8, d20, d12, and d6 down the left of the card. Across the top she writes John, Rich, and Joyce.
Photo:

John's card – different die order
Photo:

Each player chooses a barbecue variant and the challenge begins. The players can select who goes first is or they can roll for it. The players go in order of roll; highest goes first and lowest goes last.

The player opens with some aspect of their chosen barbecue (heat, sweetness, tartness, etc) and the other chef(s) counter with an aspect of their own.
Example; Mary: “Your sauce is no match for the heat of my Texas Swagger Barbecue!”
Rich: “Ha, your heat is no match for the sweet of my Memphis Morass Molasses.”
Joyce: Neither of you can possibly defeat my tart Vietnamese Phi Pho Phum!”
John: “And none of you can equal my savory Brazilian Bangkok Bites!”

This establishes the key notes and theme of each barbecue (which may or may not bear a resemblance to real barbecue recipes/cuisines). The players counter each others' ingredients, complete with grandiose titles. Recommended, each player has a maximum of two minutes to describe their ingredient. Other players make a note under the round's row and the player's name for the description they liked the best or they thought best fit the sauce's theme.

Example: Mary is making Texas Swagger Barbecue so she has that written on the back of her card. Her first ingredient is Ghost Town Ghost Peppers. John likes that description and think it fits both the heat aspect and the Texas theme.
Photo:
They each roll a die. Each player writes down their result. They continue in rounds until every die size is used. Each vote for an ingredient gives a bonus to the die roll for that round.

Example: On the third round Joyce uses the ingredient Transparent Vietnamese Pho Noodles Cooked in Lemon Juice. John thinks it's a boring name but it fits the theme better than the others that round.
Photo:
The one who wins the most rounds wins the game.

If there is tie, then have a tie-breaker: the secret ingredient round. Each tied player should take a few minutes to create and pitch their sauce's secret ingredient. The other player(s) vote on the best description

Variant: die size governs how long the player has to describe their ingredient, with the longer die giving the player more time.

Optional: write the down the ingredients, complete with grandiose descriptions and look at the resulting recipes.



Announcing

Indie+ Game Jam - Let’s Get Cooking!

This is a game Jam where the purpose is to make an RPG about Cooking.

Theme: You have to involve cooking in some fashion. Whether it’s a short game where you describe sumptuous feasts from prompts, a game where you pass recipes down generations, or an adventure game where you’re hunting down a rare ingredient for a dish in a dangerous locale - as long as it involves cooking in some fashion it’s good.

Specifications: You should have a complete game, aiming to be short (around 2 pages) but no longer than 4 pages in length.

Time: You will have 60 days to complete your project (final submissions are due midnight 11/13/2016 EST). If you are interested comment in the post below, and post in the Indie+ Community if you need help, ideas, or someone to try out your game!

How to submit: Post your entry in the Game Jam Entries category in the Indie+ community!

Purpose: Whatever you submit will be collected, and shared among all the creators, and put up as PWYW on DriveThruRPG with all profits being put forward to the IGDN scholarship fund.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Still Coughing

And I'm really tired of it. I'm not nearly as sick as I used to be, but my throat's irritated and anything can trigger more coughing.

Last Friday was David Bowie's birthday, and he released a new album. Then he died yesterday. He had a big impact on my adolescence and college years. I loved the movie, Labyrinth.

I went to visit mom this past weekend. Her health is still doing good, especially for a woman her age.

Here's my Day 2 of Jane Eborall's TIAS. Day 3 came out today.
day 2 2016 TIAS





TIAS 2016 day 3

In my list of presents, I forgot to include the wallet/coin purse Chris's parents gave me. It's cute.

Classes have resumed and work is busy again. We also have a cold snap this week with low temperatures in the mid-20sF.

I've started playing a new game on my iPad. You collect koi in different colors and patterns and grow them to dragons. Here's one (the 3rd one).

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

"New" iPad

I found an iPad at a pawn shop. It cost as much as 16GB iPad Air but it has 128GB. On the downside, my restore from backup screwed up. On the bright side, I did find a back up to use. It's 11 months old but it's better than nothing.

I'm supposed to be running at a small con in Cary in two weeks. I think I should read the adventure. I downloaded it to my iPad today. It's a great con for charity and I always have fun.

I took some pictures of flowers after the recent round of storms. Aren't they lovely? It's great being able to take pictures again.
rose





crepe myrtle





















I went to visit mom this past weekend. I'm still trying to figure out how to copy VHS to DVD. I'm not sure why it didn't work. I'm going to try with my tape player tonight.

Edging report: 38" made...the end is in sight.

Now for a serious subject. Racial colorblindness:

When white people say "I'm colorblind" they are succumbing to a fallacy. I've done so myself, so I know whereof I speak. You mean, "I don't let someone's race influence me." But what we're really saying is, "I am unaware of my own privilege."


I was thinking of a co-worker today; this coworker is one I haven't seen more than a few times. I was trying to remember what this person looks like and the thought "oh, right, African-American, guess I'm colorblind." Then my second thought was, "that's stupid. There's no such thing," and I analyzed that.

Because I'm white, I don't have to think about race. Society treats me as the default. Ignoring someone else's race isn't giving them equal treatment. It's erasing their identity and their experiences. I can go to almost any store and get appropriate hair products. An African-American woman looks in the 'ethnic' aisle. If the stores aren't colorblind, how can I be?




Tuesday, July 07, 2015

Happy US Independence Day

to fellow residents in the US. For those who live elsewhere, I hope you had a good early July weekend.

I spent the weekend with friends and had a very laid back weekend. My attempt to get a replacement iPad has failed. I have other places/things to try but it's very frustrating. 

My uses for iPad: take pictures of letters before I send them, so I have a record of what I wrote and what I included; keep to do list; list of books to find; list of things to look up; and check my social networks.

Our dryer is not drying as quickly. Apparently our hose repair was not as effective as we thought. Time to do some more cutting and shifting, perhaps.

Edging report: 34"

Is anyone interested in what books I've read in the past week? I used to do that, with links to the books on Amazon or the author's website.

Someone I knew a long time ago was looking for someone else and found a mention of him on my blog, in a post from 2004. She contacted me to ask me for info about him and I had to tell her I don't remember much. My mom might remember more. I'll ask her. Anyway, I read a few posts from a decade ago and realized I almost never talk about what I'm wearing anymore and rarely talk about what I've been reading.

I found this blog, and the blogger provides mandalas to color. I've started coloring mandalas as a meditation technique. I have my crayon pencils in a bag and I pull them out at random, until the bag is empty. I return them to the bag and continue to draw.

And this blog is about notable women who disappeared from history.

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Briefly cooler

Thursday night we had a serious thunderstorm, complete with thunder, lightning, and hail. It shredded leaves and broke some branches but I didn't see anything more serious.

CD and I did some final work on the dryer hose. We didn't need to pull out the dryer (thank goodness), I could sit on it and pull up the new hose over the old one until it was straighter. I finally got some laundry done.

Unfortunately, I misplaced (not lost) my wallet on Saturday so that was the only useful thing I did.

I still need to check for used iPads. I want to check the local places before I check eBay. I'm tired of not being able to take pictures.

At least yesterday the high was only in the 80s and the humidity was quite lower. I sat outside for lunch on Monday and it was nice, most of the time. Too bad it won't last.

I've done the tatting for another bracelet. I think the beads are small malachite spheres and these green seed beads with a hint of blue. The thread is Vineyard Harvest (I think).

I resolved my edging issue. I cut open the ring, tied a knot and kept going. I think I have close to a yard made now.

BTW, at this point, most home doors do not simply open when you walk up to them. You have to use your key to unlock them. This brought to you by high humidity, high temperatures, and a stress-filled day.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Whoops! I forgot

Sorry, I forgot to write and post my blog post on Tuesday. I remembered two days later. To be fair, I woke up Monday with a horrible migraine. I took some painkillers, they didn't work so I called in sick. I took some more painkillers and slept away the worst of my migraine. I finally felt up to having a light on about mid-afternoon. I didn't turn on the tv until about 6 or 7 pm, I just couldn't stand the light or noise until then.

Our new hot water heater was installed last week. It took about 5 hours. I immediately hurried to work and just missed the bus. Since I had an hour before the next one would arrive, I dropped off some things (the stuff from last Tuesday) at Goodwill. Of course, the next bus was late.

Saturday was supposed to be another session of Wardens of the Reborn Forge, but one of the players was out and another player had guests. The other player brought his guests and rather than have them sit around, potentially bored, CD ran We Be Goblins, Too instead. 

Sunday, the Triangle Tatters met. There were 14 of us at the meeting. I showed a couple people something about tatting with beads and my bead spinner. I loaded some beads for another bracelet. L (of Something Under the Bed fame) brought a selection of her books and I found one I really want. It has bracelet patterns.

I decided I didn't really like the iPad Air, I wanted a regular iPad. Of course, I didn't find out the Apple store didn't actually have any, in stock or online, until after I'd returned the Air. I'm not happy about that. I guess I'll try Edward McKay, etc to find one. In the meantime, I have no camera or camera-like object, unless I pull out my 35mm. And I have no ebooks, except on my laptop.

I've gotten quite a bit done on my edging; it's more than 24" long now. But I made a mistake and I'm trying to open a ring and it's being stubborn.

The heat is supposed to break soon. I'm sick and tired of the head after ~2 weeks of heat indexes around 100F.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Watery fun

Went to see Mom this weekend. We went to Mayberry's again. They have such good hot dogs and such good ice cream.

As I was getting out of my car, I fumbled and dropped my iPad. The screen cracked so badly there were a couple glass fragments caught in the case cover. I had to replace. Considering the 90-day warranty on a replacement or getting a 2-year warranty on a brand new one...I bought an iPad Air. It's lighter, which is nice. But none of my cases fit. And I'm going through set up pains again. Thank goodness for restore from backup.

Our hot water heater's gone out. I've been taking cold showers, quickly. Cold showers are nice in the summer, but not first thing in the morning. I definitely don't like to wash my hair in cold water. I was going to work late today, so I could be here for the replacement. But we've been stashing stuff in the basement and there wasn't room to wheel a new hot water heater into place. C and I spent most of the day going through stuff. It's something I've been meaning to do so for some time, but not all at once.

Tomorrow the guy arrives to take away the old one and install the new one. And I will go take a hot shower and wash my hair. Thank goodness my boss understands and I had nothing urgent to do at work.
These are the earrings I made at the demo at Mordecai House. The spheres are serpentine beads. I can't remember the thread name.
My parents' wedding photo from 1960. They separated in c. 1974.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

3 weeks until Tat Days

The countdown begins. Less than three weeks until Palmetto Tat Days. I've started planning for my projects. I've reviewed Shuttle brothers alternate thread method (as per Gina Butler's video). They have pictures of the scholarship quilts. Here's the teapot quilt. I think that's the teapot I made on the lower right. Here's the flower and vines quilt; with my dragon and vines edging toward the lower left.

Here's a bracelet I made; although it still needs to be blocked and to have the findings added.

And here's where I noticed I had skipped a join and a ring.



This is after I opened the ring.
















And this is me ready to start tatting again (after retro tatting the ring and chain, with beaded join).

I have almost a dozen bracelets made. At some point, I'll need to grit my teeth and open my Etsy shop.

The camera on my iPad went out. After a few calls to service, they determined it wasn't a software problem. Since it was a manufacturer defect, and I had the insurance, they replaced it. Yay!

My niece has left for college. I wrote a letter to her today. I went to see Mom the first weekend in August. She showed me a picture of her mother's mother, as a young woman. And I could tell, even without Mom telling me, Aunt Dot was a dead ringer for her when she was young.

Other stuff has happened, but of course, I can't remember any of it.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

It's SPRING

And Impossible Astronaut day. Why do I have these hash marks on my hands?

It's the day after Earth Day. And today I remembered my sunblock.

The strap on my purse broke. The thread holding the strap to the purse just gave way. I have some sewing to do tonight, don't I?

I have almost finished the baby booties. I am about halfway through the last row. I'm almost done with another minor Norwegian dragon, too. The first wing is done, I just need to do the 2nd one. I have a teapot to tat and some other odds and ends, for the Palmetto Tat Days charity quilt. I need to email Georgia Seitz and let her know I'm going to be late.



The Pathfinder Dragon's Demand game is going well. We have one or two sessions left. In late May or June, I'll be staring to run Skull andShackles. I've started prep. I've done things like sent an email to prospective players, telling them what to expect and what things are and are not explicitly permitted. I've also started an Obsidian Portal wiki/campaign doc.

Mace West, Atomic-Con, and Gnome-con all went well. I ended up running Race for the Rune Carved Key (for level 3-4) at Atomic-con with 2 days notice. According to the players, I did a good job.



We spent some time sight-seeing in Savannah during Gnome-con. And I discovered that Badger Balm's shake & spray anti-bug does work. And quite well. We had one meal in the Pirate's Tavern and sat at the exact same table as last time. This time I sat with my back to the blocked door. And Chris thinks he can make Artillery Punch, in less than the 10 gallons mandated in the recipe.

My laptop was stolen about a month ago. They broke my car window while it was at a park and ride and took my messenger bag. The bag had my laptop, power cord, iPad cord, journal, and a USB lamp. Plus a bag of dice and my steel skwire forms. My iPad needed an OS update but I didn't have the memory on the iPad to do it. I booted up my old laptop, the one I haven't opened in 3 years.

After a week of updates, updates, and updates, I managed to finally get to the point I could update my Ipad's OS to 7-something. Yay!

Friday, January 03, 2014

Happy New Year (Gregorian reckoning)

It's a new (Gregorian) year and what has changed? Not really much. I'm still tatting, and gaming, and occasionally loom knitting. My niece will be going off to college in the fall and my namesake is a provisional black belt in tai kwon do.

R is running Dragon's Demand, a Pathfinder module, when all the players can't make her Forgotten Realms, DandD 3.5 home game. When her home game is done, I'll run the Pathfinder Adventure Path Skull and Shackles.

Interesting links I've come across recently:
Netflix micro-genres (pay attention to the block at the top)
Body Atlas reveals emotions

I've gotten more involved in Pinterest and in the Google+ community. My mom has recovered, about as much as she's going to, after her broken elbow last year. She just had cataract surgery before Thanksgiving and she says she no longer needs glasses, except to read. Which is disconcerting because she's been wearing glasses for decades.

If I remember, I'll come back and add some pictures from my new iPad. My camera died. Then so did the replacement camera I picked up used. Now my iPad is my only camera. It takes pretty good pictures, but it's a little awkward.


Thursday, June 06, 2013

Still Alive

But it's been a very busy 6 weeks, or so. Let's see.

IOLA (you know about that), then I went to see my mom for Mother's Day weekend, then off to Tennessee for Diana's graduation party/wedding reception, my birthday weekend and Tri-Tatters meeting, off to Maryland to see a friend and his wife, and this weekend back to see Mom, weekend after is Maker's Fair, play We Be Goblins, Too, and Father's day, the next weekend is prep for Contemporal and finally Contemporal. Don't ask me about July yet. I know I have a small con at the end of the month, but I'm not thinking past Contemporal yet.

Mom loved her Mother's Day present. I found a copy of Best, Exotic Marigold Hotel on DVD, on sale. A movie she loves and I got it on sale. I swear, I think she was in heaven. We both watched the movie and enjoyed it massively. All the actors are quite good, even the four I'd never seen before (the Indian actors, I'd like to see more of them). She bought me my Christmas present, an iPad. I was a little surprised, but I love it. Just in time, too. My newly installed anti-virus software was fighting with something I thought I'd turned off and it crashed my laptop. My friend in Maryland fixed it for me, fyi.

The trip to Diana's graduation was long but it was great to see her and Chris again. They've gone to Canada now where she has a job. Guess it's time I buckle down and get my passport. Since we were uncertain if it were a one-day or two-day party (there was a typo on the invitation), we ended up being at loose ends on Sunday. We went to Gaitlinburg. We went to the Ripley's Aquarium. We saw a baby penguin and found the sea turtle (she was napping, I think).

On Saturday following, my dad, step-mom and brother drove down to take me to lunch. C was able to join us after all. His car repair was going to take long enough that he had time for the courtesy van to drop him off, him to do some shopping (cooking store for the win), and have lunch with us, then catch the van back. They brought a lovely shell disk bead and turquoise chunk necklace and tea accessory kit from Ikea. The set has a lemon squeezer, honey wand, and a combined tea ball and tray. The tray suspends the tea ball over the cup or mug, then gives you a place to put the tea ball when you withdraw it. Very nifty. It was great to see them and I really enjoyed it.

The Tri-tatters meeting was loads of fun, as always. We had a couple new people as well as familiar faces.

Then it was off to Seoul Garden for some Korean barbecue. That was quite tasty and I may have overeaten just a little. The rest of the weekend was quieter and I got some things done.

This past weekend wsa the drive to see M and his wife, B. She is such a good cook. Her blueberry pie with marscapone is incredible. She also made salmon with kolbi marinade. Must look for some of that. We played two Pathfinder modules, Scene It (both teams won once), and Munchkin. We went to see Star Trek: Into Darkness. My expectations were not high, so they were met quite well.

I should try to add some pictures, but they're in my iPad. Maybe my next post will be more picture heavy.