Sat Mar 23 2024

Sleep 0430 to 1000, 1 hour nap (6-1/2 hours)

• Drove mom and dad home. We stopped at Daimo in Richmond for lunch. Shrimp won ton soup is really good.
• Drove home. Mom called and said her computer was unresponsive. I was half hour out so I drove back. Monitor was not receiving a signal so it kept going to power save mode. Turning computer off then on fixed it.

Sun Mar 24 2024

Sleep 0330 to 1000 (6-1/2 hours)

• Kind of figured out why CrossOver + DDO sometimes freezes. I looked at running processes and explorer.exe is using 100% of CPU. When I force quit it DDO starts responding again. I'm not sure what is randomly launching Explorer.

Mon Mar 25 2024
Sleep 0415 to 1145 (7-1/2 hours)

• I'm watching a Disney+ show that is in Chinese but since I had my language set to English it first used English dubbing track. I change it to Chinese (two different variants but I can't tell which is which and no indication which is the native language of the show) but then when I watch an American show it's in Chinese dubbing track. Inconvenient. Somehow Netflix does it correctly.

Tue Mar 26 2024

Sleep 0200 to 1215 (10-1/4 hours)

• Once again I either forgot to set my BotezLive subscription back to monthly or Twitch didn't remember. Anyways subbed for another six months.

Wed Mar 27 2024

Sleep 0800 to 1500 (8 hours)

• Dinner at C3's. We had sushi from Joy Sushi, San Mateo. I also had misubi (spam and rice wrapped in seaweed) with scrambled egg -- didn't need the egg.

Thu Mar 28 2024

Sleep 0100 to 1030 (9-1/2 hours)

• With GarageBand it's a lot faster to export a 12 hour track as two 6-hour sections then stitch them together in Audacity. 6 hour export takes a few minutes while 12 hours takes several hours.

Fri Mar 29 2024

Sleep 0400 to 1200 (8 hours)

• Dean Essig passed away earlier this week. He founded The Gamers and was the designer of most of their games (and series designer for all of them). My favorite wargames and still my favorite wargames since their lines continue as part of Multi-Man Publishing.

Dwarven Skykeep [$5.10, 70% off] - a fantasy base builder: add rooms, make resources, defend against disasters and attacks.

Axis & Allies 1942 Online [$8.50, 57% off] - adaptation of the tabletop war game. 1942 is the current version of the original, which also started in 1942.

Cult of the Lamb [$16.25, 35% off] - a cutesy game of build a cult, fight other cults, become a lamb god.

Guns of Alkenstar Bundle is a surprisingly small bundle for $30 (previous Pathfinder bundles have had more for less money). You do get core rules and supplements to run Pathfinder 2E. You get a half-sized adventure path (taking your PCs to about level 10) of three adventures centered on a Steam-tech city that has guns. You get some setting material for Lost Omens, which details the main setting world of Golarion.

Overall don't think it's worth buying.

Pathfinder 2E Beginner Box
Pathfinder 2E Core Rulebook
Pathfinder 2E Bestiary
Pathfinder 2E Advanced Player's Guide
Pathfinder 2E GameMastery Guide

Lost Omens: World Guide
Lost Omens: Character Guide
Lost Omens: Impossible Lands

Pathfinder Guns & Gear

Outlaws of Alkenstar Player's Guide
Punks in a Powder Keg (Outlaws of Alkenstar 1) + Foundry VTT Module
Crade of Quartz (Outlaws of Alkenstar 2) + Foundry VTT Module
The Smoking Gun (Outlaws of Alkenstar 2) + Foundry VTT Module

Pathfinder One-Shot: Head Shot the Rot

Sat Mar 16 2024

Sleep 0400 to 0830. (4-1/2 hours)

• Saturday Gaming at C3's place. I ran for 2-1/2 hours as the PCs found the Veiled Society cult and with the help of the guards arrested everyone. They also got a tavern ownership out of it.
• Dinner at Taste of Sha Xiang (not good), then walked to Cold Stone (which was good and we got there just before the after-movie-rush), down the street for boba then finally walk back to C3's house fairly tired.

Sun Mar 17 2024

Sleep 0400 to 1130, 1 hour nap (8-1/2 hours)

• Looked at old emails and realized that Special Assessment is now push payment. Manor portal you can go to billing then go to a third party to pay via ACH or credit card. Mind you that third party site is not the most professional looking so I guess I'll find out later this week if it worked or not.

Mon Mar 18 2024

Sleep 0500 to 1300 (8 hours)

• DriveThruRPG has a D&D Spring Sale which is 30 items, 29 of which are Roll20 VTT modules. It seems like if you bought the books then buy the modules that's like a 50% upsell. I guess you can justify it if you don't buy physical books since these VTT modules include the full books (I think) readable with a web browser on Roll20. Still, that means if Roll20 dies you lose all those purchases and I'd rather have PDF files which can be used with various readers rather than the one UI that Roll20 gives you.

Tue Mar 19 2024

Sleep 0400 to 1230 (8-1/2 hours)

• Christopher gifted me Solasta: Crown of the Magister on Steam.

Wed Mar 20 2024

Sleep 0345 to 1115 (7-1/2 hours)

• Set Apple Mail's Undo Send Delay to 30 seconds and that's saved several times. It's often that as soon as I click send I remember I need to check something. Only drawback is that I had gotten used to seeing my copy of an email arrive immediately after I clicked send.

Thu Mar 21 2024

Sleep 0330 to 1130 (8 hours)

• Time to apply for CoveredCA (health coverage). "Your COBRA coverage ends, or you stop receiving government subsidies or employer contributions for your COBRA coverage. Note: Not paying your COBRA premium is not considered loss of coverage." Apparently it's not a qualifying life event until my COBRA period ends April 03.

Fri Mar 22 2024

Sleep 0600 to 1100 (5 hours)

• Forgot mom and dad arriving tonight. Christopher picked them up and they'll sleep at his place tonight.

GOG is doing their Spring sale. These games all have Macintosh versions.

The Church in the Darkness ($2, 90% off) - top down roam around talk to people find clues game where you infiltrate a 1970's rural cult.

Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth ($2, 90% off) - point and click story game based on the book set in 12th century England. This is the season pass of three books.

Xeno Crisis ($5, 75% off) - 2 player arena shooter, I guess a port of the arcade game.

This John Carter of Mars RPG bundle is a repeat from 2021. There haven't been any new products since. For $25 you get:

MUH-51392 John Carter of Mars: Adventures on the Dying World of Barsoom (2018)
MUH-51408 John Carter of Mars Narrator's Screen & Narrator's Kit (2018)
MUH-51424 John Carter of Mars Quickstart Rules and Adventure (2018)
MUH-51845 John Carter of Mars Legacy Map & Travel Guide (2020)

MUH-51537 Phantoms of Mars (2018) - 128-page campaign in 4 parts

MUH-51466 Dotar Sojat Era (2019) - 138-page alien Martians sourcebook
MUH-51467 Prince of Helium Era (2019) - 137-page human Martians sourcebook
MUH-51468 Jeddak of Jeddaks Era (2019) - 137-page sourcebook

MUH-51465 Landscape and Location Card Deck (2019) - 52-card deck
MUH-51545 Character and Token Card Deck (2019) - 52-card deck

Other items not included

John Carter of Mars Dice Set (2018)
John Carter of Mars Players Guide (2019) - subset of the core rulebook, no new material
MUH-51405 John Carter of Mars: Airships of Barsoom Tile Set (2019)
MUH-51406 John Carter of Mars: Ruins of Korad Tile Set (2019) - both tile sets included miniatures

Back in 2021 I was not interested since there was only the one campaign. That's still the case but now it's like this is a dead line so it's like buying a complete line. I'm inclined to buy.

2024-03-31: I bought the collection. Turns out the card decks are just pictures (with card backs for characters and descriptions for locations). I guess maybe useful for randomly choosing a notable character that makes an appearance or a location of significance for the adventure. Also the books are a bit more landscape oriented so not as much text per page as normal.

Sat Mar 09 2024

Sleep 0530 to 1230 (7 hours)

• Last minute gaming at Dave and Sophia's. Christopher and I drove there (Corina and CJr had Boy Scouts activity). Dave S participated via video call.

Sun Mar 10 2024

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

• Tried making ride porridge and I guess Calrose rice is too glutinous. I used rice, chopped up asparagus and bits of ground beef. Everything cooked but it's sort of rice sludge with no extra water so no soup.

Mon Mar 11 2024

Sleep 0115 to 1115 (10 hours)

• Mom gave me a bag with hearts of romaine lettuce. Chop it up small, cook with ground beef, add to spaghetti with marinara and you can pretend they are onions rather than lettuce.

Tue Mar 12 2024

Sleep 0730 to 1000, 45m nap (5-1/4 hours)

• Construction continues. Not extremely loud though it is the hallways next to my apartment (rear entrance hallway runs next to my bedroom/bathroom/shower). Though today I woke up early for a Nemo stream.

Wed Mar 13 2024

Sleep 0215 to 1015 (8 hours)

• Picked up new distance glasses. Quite nice.
• Got a burrito at Fletch's Taqueria.
• Dinner at C3's. Noodles and Things. I had Hot & Sour Potato Noodle Soup.
• CJr and I made our Laser Kittens characters.

Thu Mar 14 2024

Sleep 0500 to 1300 (8 hours)

• Authy sending me weekly reminders that my account is going to be shut down. They really want to make sure you don't miss a chance to change your mind.

Fri Mar 15 2024

Sleep 0445 to 0830, 1 hour nap (4-3/4 hours)

• Had a call with our advisor at Stifel (where we keep our Reserve funds) and he was really pushing me to take our money out and close our HOA account. Didn't outright say they didn't want our business anymore but he kept bringing it up and I had a hard time getting him to talk about anything else.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016, $4.50, 85% off) - "Now an experienced covert operative, Adam Jensen is forced to operate in a world that has grown to despise his kind. Armed with a new arsenal of state-of-the-art weapons and augmentations, he must choose the right approach, along with who to trust, in order to unravel a vast worldwide conspiracy."

Cyberpunk stealth FPS game. I haven't played the other FPS games so not familiar with the story.

60 Parsecs! (2018, $5, 50% off) - "60 Parsecs! is an Atomic Space Age adventure of scavenge and survival. Keep your crew alive and ready for action. Make difficult choices, face soup shortages and other horrors of outer space. And maybe reach your destination. Or not."

You have 60 seconds to grab crew and equipment then take off before the space station explodes. After that I guess it's coping random encounters and disasters. Sounds fun.

ΔV: Rings of Saturn (2023, $5, 50% off) - "A physics-based mining sim, set in the thickest debris field in Sol. Every action has a reaction, lasers are invisible without a medium, and your thrust is a potent weapon. Find trade, adapt your equipment to your playstyle, hire a crew to help. Unravel the mysteries of the rings, or just get rich."

A detailed space mining simulator. Sounds both boring and awesome.

Three cheap games that look interesting.

Conglomerate 451 (2020, $3, 85% off, 64-bit macOS) - "a grid-based, dungeon crawling first-person RPG with roguelike elements set in a cyberpunk world."

I like that it's cyberpunk (rather than fantasy) and that it's turn-based.

Lovecraft's Untold Stories (2019, $3, 80% off, 32-bit macOS) - "an action rogue-lite with RPG elements. Explore randomly generated levels based on Lovecraft's stories, fight cultists and monsters from the Mythos, improve your gear, solve puzzles, and find how to defeat the Great Old Ones."

Another rogue-like from same publisher as Conglomerate 451 (different developer though). This one is action JRPG-view.

Deep Sky Derelicts (2017, $3, 85% off) - "a combination of turn-based strategy and RPG, enriched with tactical card combat and roguelike elements. Explore derelict alien ships, fight, loot and upgrade your gear, all in distinctive retro-futuristic comic book aesthetic style."

Might as well stick with Fulqrum Publishing games. A third rogue-like that is more cartoony card game.

Diary

Sat Mar 02 2024

Sleep 0415 to 1030 (6-1/4 hours)

• Back to working on old podcast rss feeds. I guess I never recorded my first BattleTech campaign. Today did my brother’s Keep on the Shadowfell feed.

Sun Mar 03 2024

Sleep 0200 to 1000 (8 hours)

• First night foot didn’t hurt when I was lying in bed. Previously, having it lie there with a bit of pressure made it start throbbing so it was hard to get to sleep.
• Created a feed for my brother’s Forgotten Realms campaign feed. That’s all the old podcasts.
• Did a search on how to cook asparagus and got this as first hit: 6 Easy Ways to Cook Asparagus. Tried microwave, 7 spears, 4 minutes, turn, 4 minutes. Came out ok, maybe a bit tough and the bottom of each spear was too tough to eat. I would say not that appealing in the end though quite edible with salmon and rice.
• (The rest of the asparagus I chopped up and made with fried rice and it was great.)

Mon Mar 04 2024

Sleep 2315 to 0800 (8-3/4 hours)

• RPGnet is merging with RPGMatch

Tue Mar 05 2024

Sleep 0115 to 1015 (9 hours)

• I think my foot is basically fine now… Then I hit it wrong and that was a bit jarring. So not quite 100%

Wed Mar 06 2024

Sleep 0615 to 1215 (6 hours)

• Two weeks after AT&T router install. Checked old phone numbers. DoorKing just rings (I was expecting disconnected). Both elevators connect to a modem. So far so good but maybe they haven’t gotten around to disconnecting the old DoorKing number. Just want to make sure they don’t accidentally disconnected our elevator phones too.

Thu Mar 07 2024

Sleep 0145 to 1100 (9-1/4 hours)

• Weird ChronoSync Express bug. Over a network sync it doesn't like a file with # in the name, caused it error reading the destination directory.
• Even a network backup is so much faster than my Drobo. Man that Drobo is old.

Fri Mar 08 2024

Sleep 0600 to 1100 (5 hours)

• DriveThruRPG's GM's Day sale and I bought eight items. Still have one Gamma World 3E module then I'd have all GW 1E to 3E items on sale on DTRPG.

Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play: The Enemy Within & More Bundle is Cubicle 7's Warhammer FRP 4E. $26 for 18 items (plus a 20% off coupon). The Enemy Within is an epic campaign in five parts (each of two big adventures). The companions are new with supplementary material and adventures.

I own some of it from a previous bundle but only Enemy Within v1 so the rest is worth buying the bundle.

Warhammer FRP Core Rules (own)
Warhammer FRP Starter Set (own)

Enemy in Shadows (Enemy Within v1) - 160 pages (own)
Enemy in Shadows Companion - 120 pages
Death on the Reik (Enemy Within v2) - 160 pages
Death on the Reik Companion - 124 pages
Power Behind the Throne (Enemy Within v3) - 160 pages
Power Behind the Throne Companion - 128 pages
The Horned Rat (Enemy Within v4) - 160 pages
The Horned Rat Companion - 128 pages
The Empire in Ruins (Enemy Within v5) - 208 pages
The Empire in Ruins Companion - 120 pages

Altdorf: Crown of the Empire - 224 page guidebook
Middenheim: City of the White Wolf - 160 page sourcebook
Buildings of the Reikland - mini supplement (own)

Night of Blood - Old World adventure, 10 pages (own)
The Guilty Party - Ubersreik adventure, 24 pages, included in Ubersreik Adventures (2020) (own)
If Looks Could Kill - Ubersreik adventure, 28 pages, included in Ubersreik Adventures (2020) (own)

Dungeon Crawl Classics & Mutant Crawl Classic Megabundle 2 is 78 items for $25 (the 79th item is a coupon and the 80th item is MCC RPG softcover for an additional $15 + shipping).

It's a grab bag of stuff including a lot of third party items -- in general I'm not interested in third party products especially since DCC and MCC have a lot of official adventures. I also own both DCC RPG and MCC RPG along with a lot of the official adventures in this bundle.

Still there's enough for $25 to make this bundle worthwhile, especially since official products are fairly pricey even in PDF. So I'll end up buying this bundle.

Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG (own)
DCC Reference Booklet
DCC Judge's Screen (own)
DCC Character Record Folio

DCC #71 The 13th Skull (own)
DCC #72 Beyond the Black Gate (own)
DCC #73 Emirikol Was Framed (own)
DCC #75 The Sea Queen Escapes (own)
DCC #76 Colossus, Arise! (own)
DCC #77 The Croaking Fane (own)
DCC #77.5 The Tower Out of Time (own)
DCC #78 Fate's Fell Hand (own)
DCC #82 Bride of the Black Manse (own)
DCC #82.5 Dragora's Dungeon (own)
DCC #85 The Making of the Ghost Ring (own)
DCC #86 Hole in the Sky (own)
DCC #87 Against the Atomic Overlord (own)
DCC #87.5 Grimtooth's Museum of Death (own)
DCC #88 The 998th Conclave of Wizards (own)
DCC #88.5 Curse of the Kingspire (own)
DCC #92 Through the Dragonwall (own)
DCC #93 Moon-Slaves of the Cannibal Kingdom (own)
DCC #100 The Music of the Spheres is Chaos
DCC #102 Dweller Between the Worlds

DCC The Empire of the East
DCC Empire of the East #1 The Hunt for the Howling God

Third Party
- Chaos Before the Mast
- Crawl #1-5 - fanzine
- The Crypt in Cadaver Canyon
- Crypt of the Devil Lich
- Librum Draconis
- Space Station M
- Star Crawl (DCC/MCC)
- Tales from the Smoking Wyrm #1 - fanzine
- The Towers of Dr Xill (DCC/MCC adventure)
- Trolls of Mistwood
- Twisted Menagerie Manual
- AL 1-5 The Stars are Falling
- FT 2 The Portsmouth Mermaid
- FT 2.5 Three Nights in Portsmouth - compilation of Blood for Cthulhu!, Trail of the Rat, The Open Tomb


Mutant Crawl Classics RPG (own)

MCC #0 Judge's Screen (own)
MCC #1 Hive of the Overmind (own)
MCC #2 A Fallen Star for All (own)
MCC #3 Incursion of the Ultradimension (own)
MCC #4 Warlords of ATOZ
MCC #5 Blessings of the Vile Brotherhood (own)
MCC #6 The Apocalypse Ark (own)
MCC #7 Reliquary of the Ancient Ones
MCC #8 The Data Orb of Mankind (own)
MCC #9 Evil of the Ancients (own)
MCC #10 Seeking the Post-Humans (own)
MCC #11 The Omnivary of Eden
MCC #12 When Manimals Attack
MCC #13 Into the Glowing Depths
MCC #14 Mayhem on the Mag-Train

MCC 2018 Holiday Module: Home for the Holideath

Third Party
- Children of the Fallen Sun
- The Desk in Room 8-10
- Enchiridions of the Computarchs
- Get Me the Juice
- Marvels of the Multiverse
- Mutant High School
- Mysteries of the Multiverse
- Phage from Below
- Tournament of Champion
- Unnatural Selections

DCC Annual (own)
DCC Day #4 Crash of the Titans
Goodman Games 2021 Yearbook
Goodman Games 2022 Yearbook
Free RPG Day 2022 Danger in the Air
DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack
Free RPG Day 2023 Piercing the Demon's Eye

Sat Feb 24 2024

Sleep 0130 to 1030 (9 hours)

• Foot feels better. Can hobble about a bit faster. I’ve been more aggressive about keeping it a bit elevating when sleeping (three flat pillows) and took a couple of hour-plus breaks to lie down and elevate.
• Looking at my electricity usage statistics spreadsheet my average since I moved in is 269 kWh per month. Last time I hit 300+ was May 2022, although Jan 2024 was 291 and not sure why that high.
• Andrew is stepping down from the HOA board. Teresa was the only candidate for the two seats so she will be elected and we’ll have one open seat which the board can appoint someone if anybody wants to serve.

Sun Feb 25 2024

Sleep 0530 to 1200 (6-1/2 hours)

• Today I can walk around (more than hobbling less than normal walk) with no pain. Foot feels stiff and knee also since when I was walking I was putting too much pressure on it walking wrong. But take it easy for another day and hopefully will be fine enough tomorrow.

Mon Feb 26 2024

Sleep 0815 to 1445 (6-1/2 hours)

• Foot a bit better. Hopefully fully fine by Wednesday.
• Migrated all Authy 2FA to Apple. There was an auto-created one for Twitch but it had broken a long time ago and didn’t realize how it was generated (when you initially set up Authy it can auto setup 2FA with a few services for you and Twitch was one of them).
• Authy has a web form to delete your account and data. Filled it out. Deleted apps.

Tue Feb 27 2024

Sleep 0215 to 1200 (9-3/4 hours)

• TV app noticeably slows down DDO. Watching an MLS game makes DDO stutter a bit. Watching a 540p video created with Handbrake and it’s even more noticeable though mostly playable — maybe not in a big fight.

Wed Feb 28 2024

Sleep 0400 to 0945 (5-3/4 hours)

• Drove to Parents.
• Arroz con Pollo for dinner.

Thu Feb 29 2024

Sleep 0300 to 1030 (7-1/2 hours)

• Drove parents to SFO airport.

Fri Mar 01 2024

Sleep 0500 to 1300 (8 hours)

• Safeway. Debated a bit about going since my right foot still not 100% and I don’t want to regress.