Sat Oct 03 2026

Sleep 0430 to 0730, 1100 to 1600 (8 hours)

• Finally creating podcast for D&D session 38. The recording has heavy static. I recorded using Audacity 4 whereas usually I use Garage Band. Guess I'll go back to Garage Band.
• Also in Apple Music app if I use the default view and view track info then going to next track is broken. Goes to a random song. If I use Song view (which is a list view) then it works.
• Nemo had a stream from 0200 to 0400 then another one from 0800 to 1100. Both were chess simuls at some resort in Annecy, France where they brought her in guest personality, I guess.

Sun Oct 04 2026

Sleep 0400 to 1000, 1h nap (7 hours)

• Another few days of heat. I think started Thu/Fri and continues to mid week.

Mon Oct 05 2026

Sleep 0100 to 0700, 1315 to 1515 (8 hours)

• For a few weeks now Safari downloads to my QNAP leaves the download in a .download "file" (I moved download folder to QNAP to relieve a bit of wear and tear on my external SSD since many downloaded files are further processed). I can delete the .download extension to see it as a folder then open the folder and the downloaded file is there. I did a search: 2 threads where you turning off Safari "Open Safe Files" fixes it but I already have that setting off. One Synology thread which is interesting as the issue can be Safari's permission in the folder or the SMB setup on the QNAP. Have not found a fix.

Tue Oct 06 2026

Sleep 2215 to 0130, 1800 to 2000 (5-1/4 hours)

• Car service, 180k miles + replace all tires. Took six hours. $2700 total. Today a high of 101 degrees in Walnut Creek and the waiting area was a bit warm for some reason, maybe not enough A/C reaches there and the lights are a bit hot.
• ButtercuP for a really early lunch.
• Did get to watch 4-1/2 episodes of Ted Lasso s4 while I waited.

Wed Oct 07 2026

Sleep 0400 to 1100 (7 hours)

• USPS Local XChange. Sell locally, drop off the item at a locker, buyer can pick it up with an emailed QR code. That way buyer and seller don't have to meet and it's cheaper ($6) than most USPS mailing.
• Something reminded me that some people were worried that with a bunch of Democrats running for governor the vote could be split such that two Republicans are on the ballot. Checking Ballotpedia, Steve Hilton (R) got 24.6% and Chad Bianco (R) got 10.2% of the vote. So to get both in the ballot no Democrat gets more than 10.2% of the vote. 100 - 24.6 - 10.2 = 65.2% of remaining votes means you need at least 7 Democrats to split up the remaining votes. In the Primaries 5 Democrats got at least 1% of the vote and it seems highly unlikely you'd get more than 4 good candidates as the debates can barely accommodate 6 and didn't work for 7. You'd need for there to be no good Democratic candidates which seems unlikely. Open primaries may not be great but I guess one of the goals was to make the November election only have two candidates in each spot rather than Republican, Democrat, Green, plus a few other parties that can split the votes.

Thu Oct 08 2026

Sleep 0330 to 1130 (8 hours)

• Got Flu and COVID vaccinations. Very quick as the line was only a few people. Flu vaccine I don't think I've gotten ever, or maybe since college.

Fri Oct 09 2026

Sleep 0100 to 0200, 1100 to 1445 (4-3/4 hours)

• Tried to go to sleep a bit earlier and it was only a nap.
• By about 0500 I'm feeling fairly run down as my body prioritizes making anti-bodies.

There are 14 Propositions on the ballot, which is more than usual I think.

P1. Authorizes Bonds for Housing Affordability Programs.

"Authorizes $11.25 billion in state general obligation bonds for housing affordability programs, including for California veterans, and to finance housing development projects seeking federal tax credits."

No con argument.

Voting: NO. I think Prop 37 competes with this and Prop 37 is repaid by the people benefiting from home loans.

P2. Increases State's Rainy Day Fund.

"Doubles the budget reserve cap from 10% to 20% of General Fund revenues, requiring savings until Fund's balance equals 20% of General Fund."

I guess the main thing for me is

"The State Constitution requires the state to deposit 0.75 percent of General Fund tax revenues in the state’s main rainy day fund, which is called the Budget Stabilization Account, each year."

So it's not like increasing the cap to 20% really changes anything.

Voting: YES.

P3. Provides Permanent Funding for Schools and Health Care by Extending Existing Tax on High Incomes.

"Makes permanent the existing 2012 voter-approved tax rates for high-income Californians, currently set to expire in 2031."

Looking back, 2012 Prop 30 was termed temporary for 7 years. Then we must have extended it another 12 years by Prop 55 in 2016. So now we finally come to "let's make it permanent."

This article, Should Voters Approve Prop. 3? How Top Tax Rates Have Helped Californians, convinced me because the three tax brackets introduced in Prop 30 have had their income increase much more than the rest of the population so these taxes have never been a burden to them.

Voting: YES.

P4. Repeals Prohibition Against Public Funding of Election Campaigns.

"This measure repeals that prohibition and allows state and local governments to establish public campaign financing programs for candidates who agree to specified spending limits and meet eligibility criteria."

Seems reasonable as a way to cut down on special interest money. I don't think it works the higher up you go because special interest money gets so large public funding can't keep up. But for local governments should be good and they get to set the rules and it's probably not going to be that much money anyway.

Voting: YES.

Prop 5. Changes Recall Election Process for Statewide Officers.

"Under current law, voters decide at the same election whether (1) to recall a state officer, and (2) who will replace that officer if recalled."

"Under this measure, if the Governor is recalled, the Lieutenant Governor becomes Governor for the remainder of the term or until a successor is elected. For all other recalled officers, the office will remain vacant until filled by a subsequent special election or appointment as specified in existing law; and a recalled officer may be a candidate in a special election to fill the office."

I don't particularly like where a recalled officer is given an opportunity to run in the refill election. Also I've only seen recall being used once and it turned out fine.

Voting: NO.

Prop 37. Creates Loan Program for Middle-Income Buyers of Qualified New Homes.

"Authorizes up to $25 billion in bonds to offer eligible buyers fixed-rate mortgages for up to 17% of the purchase price of a “qualified new home” (new construction or first sale of converted nonresidential property, priced below about $1 million–$1.5 million, depending on county, adjusted annually)."

This is similar in intent to Prop 1 and like Prop 1 has no Con argument.

This one the bond is eventually repaid by the homeowners through their mortgage payments. So seems fine.

Voting: YES.

Prop 38. Authorizes Bonds for Immunology Medical Research.

"Authorizes $8.4 billion in state general obligation bonds for immunology and immunotherapy research (technologies that use body’s immune system to treat disease), with half dedicated to cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s disease."

Money goes the University of California system and public/non-profit universities and institutions. Technology and drugs derived from research must be sold in California for 20% below national average price. 10% of licensing royalties are used to repay bonds until fully repaid.

This one seems fine since they have a way to eventually repay outside of indirectly taxing people, even with an undefined savings for Californians. Though it might be years and years before there would be sold-able tech for royalties.

Voting: YES

Traveller RPG Ultimate GDW Collection Bundle from Fanatical has several tiers.

$1 Tier

MegaTraveller Player's Manual [OWN]
MT Referee's Manual [OWN]
MT Imperial Encyclopedia [OWN]
MT Rebellion Sourcebook [OWN]

$10 Tier adds

MT COACC: Close Orbit and Airspace Control Command [OWN]
MT Fighting Ships of the Shattered Imperium [OWN]
MT Knightfall [OWN]
MT Hard Times [OWN]
MT Assignment: Vigilante [OWN]
MT Astrogator's Guide to the Diaspora Sector [OWN]
MT Arrival Vengeance [OWN]
MT Journal #3, #4
MT Robots (Mongoose eBook)

When Empires Fall (4-page overview of TNE)
Traveller: The New Era [OWN]
TNE Survival Margin [OWN]
TNE Referee's Screen [OWN]
TNE Players' Forms [OWN]
TNE Vampire Fleets [OWN]
TNE Fire, Fusion, & Steel [OWN]
TNE Smash & Grab [OWN]
TNE 1248 Starships 1: Small Merchant Ships (Mongoose eBook) [OWN]

TNE 1248 line of books was from a publisher that is now defunct but the rights went back to Marc Miller and now Mongoose owns all Traveller rights.

$20 Tier adds

TNE The Regency Sourcebook [OWN]
TNE World Tamer's Handbook [OWN]
TNE Aliens of the Rim [OWN]
TNE Star Vikings [OWN]
TNE Brilliant Lances: Traveller Starship Combat [OWN]
TNE Reformation Coalition Equipment Guide [OWN]
TNE Path of Tears [OWN]
TNE Battle Rider [OWN]
TNE The Guilded Lilly [OWN]
TNE Regency Combat Vehicle Guide [OWN]
TNE Striker II [OWN]

Traveller: Early Fallen (Mongoose) [OWN]
TNE 1248 Starships 2: Scout Ships [OWN]
TNE Guilded Lilly 2: Belly of the Beast (Mongoose) [OWN]
TNE Guilded Lilly 3: Into the Darkness (Mongoose) [OWN]
TNE Operation Dominoes 1: Moonshadow (Mongoose) [OWN]
TNE Operation Dominoes 2: The Minds of Idsur (Mongoose) [OWN]
TNE Operation Dominoes 3: The Isdur Gambit (Mongoose) [OWN]
TNE 1248 Sourcebook 1: Out of the Darkness (Mongoose) [OWN]
TNE 1248 Sourcebook 2: Bearers of the Flame (Mongoose) [OWN]
TNE 1248 Sourcebook 3: The Spinward States (Mongoose) [OWN]
TNE 1248 Sourcebook 4: The Freedom League (Mongoose) [OWN]

Traveller 4E: Marc Miller's Traveller [OWN]
T4 Fire, Fusion & Steel [OWN]
T4 Traveller Game Screen [OWN]
T4 Milleu 0 Campaign [OWN]
T4 Pocket Empires [OWN]
T4 Aliens v1 [OWN]
T4 Aliens Archive [OWN]
T4 Psionic Institutes [OWN]
T4 Starships [OWN]
T4 Missions of State [OWN]
T4 Anomalies [OWN]
T4 Long Way Home [OWN]
T4 Gateway! [OWN]
T4 Annililik Run [OWN]
T4 Naval Architect's Manual [OWN]
T4 Emperor's Arsenal [OWN]
T4 Emperor's Vehicles [OWN]
T4 First Survey [OWN]
T4 Imperial Squadrons [OWN]
T4 Central Supply Catalog [OWN]

$33 Tier adds

Traveller Classic RPG Collection - A previous bundle of all GDW Traveller 1E and 2E.

Now that I look through it I already own almost everything already via Far Future Enterprise CD-ROMS. So this is a skip for me.

Sat Sep 26 2026

Sleep 0500 to 1200, 30m nap (7-1/2 hours)

• D&D session 38 at W3's house. CSr, DS, DW, JW (a bit), and me. About 3 hours of gameplay with a lot of interruptions.
• Dinner at Macaroni Grill.
• A bit of MW5 and two DDO quests.

Sun Sep 27 2026

Sleep 0530 to 1130 (6 hours)

• Went with CSr to Mattress Firm and bought a Tempur-Pedic Luxe-Breeze Soft 13" Matress, Queen size ($5900 + tax). It's a very nice bead and since I've never bought a bed (I think mom and dad paid for my first bed, then I got the nice one as a hand-me-down from my sister) I'm fine paying a lot, especially since my back has been in pain now that my body finally gave up on the current 25-year old mattress (which to be fair remained pretty firm for 20 years or so it's just the last few years where it's sagging quite a bit no matter which side I use).
• CSr came with me and also bought a new Tempur-Pedic mattress. Same as mine but Firm (for back sleepers) rather than Soft (for side sleepers).

Mon Sep 28 2026

Sleep 0100 to 0930, 30 minute nap (9 hours)

• Mattress was delivered today. Was about 15 minutes from time of arrival to them leaving. Took a 30m nap and didn't feel back/leg pains when I got up.

Tue Sep 30 2026

Sleep 0430 to 1200, 30 nap (8 hours)

• I guess this time there's only a county accessible sample ballot, which is online. No PDF which is inconvenient.

Wed Sep 30 2026

Sleep 0145 to 0945, 30m nap (8-1/2 hours)

• Yesterday I woke up with a slight bit of soreness. But today I woke up feeling mostly fine so the new bed is doing its job. Reading back looks like my back ache started Wed Aug 26 so I'd been putting up with it for a month.
• Mind you still have some lower back pain later in the day but it used to be in the morning or after a nap I could barely walk.
• Trader Joe's. This time instead of tortilla chips I bought taco-sized corn tortillas which should be healthier.
• C3 dinner. Charm Thai Eatery.

Thu Oct 01 2026

Sleep 0545 to 1145, 30m nap (6-1/2 hours)

• Oracle proxy vote. You know I just realized that since Ellison has 46% of the stock he can pretty much nix any stockholder proposal he doesn't like. So I should always vote for these proposals and do my part to make the decision process fairer (I don't mean the voting process, which is quite fair, but that fairness means decisions are basically decided by one person).

Fri Oct 02 2026

Sleep 0500 to 1100 (6 hours)

• Courtyard flood testing was today which was a surprise to me. But thinking back there were two dates they had available and today was one of them. But no notices put out or anything. Oh well, everything last minute with this project. The engineer called me but I missed the call. I think on silent mode my phone doesn't vibrate -- I must have disabled a setting.

I didn't realize Pac-12 relaunched this year. After every school but 2 left it's been 3 or 4 years as they recruited new schools to join.

Current schools:

CSU Fresno (California)
CSU San Diego (California)

Gonzaga University (Washington) - non-football school
Washington State University (Washington) - old Pac-12 school

Colorado State University (Colorado)
Boise State University (Idaho)
Oregon State University (Oregon) - old Pac-12 school
Texas State University (Texas)
Utah State University (Utah)

Only nine schools with 8 being football which is minimum for a conference to participate in NCAA FBS (top-tier NCAA football division).

Bundle of Holding Heavy Gear RPG 4E bundle is $20 static-price for:

Heavy Gear RPG 4E Rulebook ($30, 480 pages)
Heavy Gear RPG 4E Director Screen and Terra Nova Map ($9)

Tempest Winds ($19, 68 pages) - mercenary adventure book with 12 scenarios and 12 Blitz wargame scenarios
One Minute to Midnight ($20, 50 pages) - high-powered adventure book with 6 scenarios + 6 Blitz scenarios

Art of Heavy Gear V4 ($19, 222 pages)


This uses their updated Silhoutte system. IIRC it was d6 die pools where you only count the highest die but if there are multiple 6's then each extra 6 adds 1 to the total result. Skills (+1 to +4 or so) add to the total result. Kind of like the ICON system for Star Trek RPGs. Didn't particularly like it because it's hard to gauge difficulties.

On the other hand Heavy Gear has always had cool Mecha art and a cool universe since these guys (now Dream Pod 9) were fans of Mecha anime and started out doing anime fanzines (I still have some Protoculture Addicts in paper and PDF formats). I never got around to the HG Mecha combat so don't know how good it is.

I'm tempted to buy this because I do like Mecha games, though in general HG has small Mecha not giant robot Mecha.

Sat Sep 19 2026

Sleep 0200 to 0800 (6 hours)

• Just realized that instead of three romantic movies I've watched three bittersweet romantic movies on Netflix, probably due to the recommendation system. Must find more cheerful fare.

Sun Sep 20 2026

Sleep 0145 to 1030 (8-3/4 hours)

• My experience is using torrents to download Humble Bundle files is a lot slower than downloading from HB servers.

Mon Sep 21 2026

Sleep 0145 to 0845 (7 hours)

• In DriveThruRPG app I changed the library folder but it wouldn't use it even after restarting the app (I copied the old folder to the new location but if you clock on an entry it opens the file in the old location). After a system reboot it finally started using the new folder.

Tue Sep 2026

Sleep 0530 to 1300 (7-1/2 hours)

• Beats 360 headphones ($350) announced. Kind of equivalent to AirPods Max but Beats 360 has IPX4 water resistance so it should not short out if you sweat a lot like my two AirPods Max did. AirPods Max have great Active Noise Cancellation so I hope Beats 360 are about as good.

Wed Sep 23 2026

Sleep 0330 to 1200 (8-1/2 hours)

• Rakuten Viki email about terms of use changes. Link goes to the whole terms of use page. 9k+ words, figure out the changes yourself. Some companies are nice and have a summary or at least which sections changed in the email notice.

Thu Sep 25 2026

Sleep 0130 to 1000 (8-1/2 hours)

• Today's Daily Illuminator shines a light on the upcoming Pocket RPG from Yarro Studios. It's a tiny miniatures set with magnetic maps and metallic 15mm figures. Draw your dungeon and let your PCs explore. Possibly too small -- a map is like two TCG cards big. But it does look cool even though I rarely use miniatures or dice to show PCs the battle area.
• Fire alarm testing. Judy was helping although I didn't think we were doing floor managers.
• HOA Meeting. Rep from CL Sigler & Associates joined to discuss our needs. We just need someone to ride herd over the project so less than they usually do. He'll get back to us next week.

Fri Sep 25 2026

Sleep 0245 to 0845 (6 hours)

• Gloomhaven for the first time in a couple of months. Took us like 4 hours to do one quest. Barely managed to win as three of us were down to 1-3 turns worth of cards.

I received an email out of the blue asking me if I'd like to try Glimshelf, an iOS/iPadOS comic book reader currently in Beta. It can read comics books from a server or local files. For server it mentions Komga, Kavita, or generic OPDS.


Komga - "A media server for your comics, mangas, BDs, magazines and eBooks"

It's been around for six years. UI is basic but workable. The demo does have a link to try the new UI which is a little more modern.

Kavita - "Lightning fast and privacy-friendly, Kavita is a self‑hosted digital library for EPUB, PDF, comics and manga — with built‑in readers (single, double page, and webtoon mode), OPDS, and rich metadata. Install and share your server in minutes."

Seems more feature rich and slicker UI. Requires SSE4.2 (for rendering I guess) so newer Intel/AMD CPUs and not Mac (Komga is Java and has a macOS application so just download and run). Does have a subscription add-on though the added stuff seems very optional and I guess the money helps support active development.

Both can run on QNAP (I checked that my QNAP has a CPU with SSE4.2). Both are available on My QNAP (a third party repository). Komga is a one-click install. Kavita has several installs since it needs to run on Apache, Qbase or QMultimedia Q6) and there's a manual step.


So if I wanted to run a server I can run it on my Mac mini with Komga or the QNAP still with Komga as that seems easier to install. And if I use a third party reader then a cool UI is less important.

Pirate Borg Bundle from Bundle of Holding is $25 incrementing price. Pirate Borg is a variant of Mork Borg and popular enough to have multiple supplements, some from third parties.

Pirate Borg RPG ($20, OWN) - 166 page digest-sized rules

Pirate org Starter Set ($20) - Player's Guidebook, 60 pages. Trapped in the Tropics, adventure.
Cabin Fever (free) - 172-page supplement from various authors
Dark Caribbean Port Generator - random tables
Pirate Borg Printable GM Screen
Terror in Tortuga - adventure

Buried in the Bahamas ($8) - 24-page adventure
The Battle of Dead Man's Cove (2pp, retail price $3)- small adventure
Cavern of Cursed Tears (6pp, retail $8)- small adventure
The Sinking of C'Thagn (2pp, retail $5)- small adventure

Faction Relics (16pp, retail price $3)
The Repentant (12pp, retail $3) - one shot scenario
Tangled in Shrouds (27pp, retail $8) - adventure

Blood in the Water (2pp, retail price $4) - small adventure
Raise the Black (2pp, retail $4) - optional rules
Sweet Tusk (6pp, retail $7) - location

Since I already have the core rules the remaining is $60 for a $25 price so not too bad. Not sure if I'll buy this as it's not one of my favorite genres.

Sat Sep 12 2026

Sleep 0430 to 1130 (7 hours)

• Still can't cancel audible.ca account so I submitted a support request.
• That was quick. Like an hour I got a response and they cancelled the membership.

Sun Sep 13 2026

Sleep 0315 to 1115 (8 hours)

• Kimi Antonelli wins his 8th race which is great for him. With 9 races left (plus some sprints) he has an 81 point lead over second. He could DNF two races and still be up at least 31 points. It is less interesting when there's such a commanding lead, which I guess is a drawback of how the F1 scoring and final standings are done.

Mon Sep 14 2026

Sleep 0530 to 1115 (5-3/4 hours)

• Went to get teeth cleaned. Was thinking of getting lunch afterwards but decided to stop by Trader Joe's and go home.
• I used Xoom (owned by PayPal) to send money to a person in Ethiopia who doesn't have PayPal. You can send to a bank account, some digital thing, or have them pick up the money. I used bank account so you need their name, address, phone, bank account info. But having that information the process was easy and Xoom sends me emails to keep me updated. Integrated with PayPal so I could use whatever payment methods I have setup there.

Tue Sep 15 2026

Sleep 2330 to 0500, 1230 to 1445 (7-3/4 hours)

• Woke up early. Termite tech arrived late but we did get 2nd floor inspected in less than hour, total of 14 units he could inspect.
• Just ate a can of cream style sweet corn that had a best by 2021 date so if I die from botulism this is why.
• Hit this weird problem in Apple Music app. In default view I can't play certain albums. It's like Play is disabled. But if I go to song list view then I can play those songs.

Wed Sep 16 2026

Sleep 0330 to 1030 (7 hours)

• Was thinking of logging a service request to Republic Services to get my phone number off their service call list. But looks like I can only either call customer service or chat, no email. Maybe another day.

Thu Sep 17 2026

Sleep 0400 to 1100 (7 hours)

• Xoom payment to Ethiopian bank took three days. Seems like a reasonable speed.

Fri Sep 18 2026

Sleep 0500 to 1115 (6-1/4 hours)

• DDO. Doing Grip of the Hidden Hand to get favor for the last PC to get to 5000 favor then we can reincarnate. Should be done in another session or two.