Sat Oct 24 2020

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

• I've been playing a lot of Into the Breach. Before I said it was a short game but there are 10 different teams each requiring different tactics to win the game so I'm slowly playing them all.

Sun Oct 25 2020

Sleep 0715 to 1300. 1930 to 2030. (6-3/4 hours)

• 49ers win at Patriots 33-6 and now at 4-3 with a game vs Seattle coming up.
• GoldDustTori announced she's retiring from streaming. It's sad but good for her since streaming had stopped being enjoyable.

Mon Oct 26 2020

Sleep 0400 to 1030. (6-1/2 hours)

• Alexandra back after a month-long break. Andrea kept the channel alive and did a good job.
• Got a bunch of work done. Cool.
• Missed October HOA meeting. Forgot.
• Next campaign will combine GURPS WW2 and Twilight 2K, a "what if WW3 started in the latter 1940's" setting.

Tue Oct 27 2020

Sleep 0315 to 0845. 1 hour noon nap. 2 hour evening nap. (8-1/2 hours)

• Eye exam. Mild cataracts in my right eye; could not get it to focus on any letters. Still a ways to go before requiring surgery. Meanwhile the back of my eyes look fine.
• Jeffrey's Hamburgers. My first hamburger since lockdown started in March.

Wed Oct 28 2020

Sleep 0615 to 1445. (8-1/2 hours)

• Last time I was at KFC they were advertising their Thanksgiving turkey meal. But you can't preorder online. I'll almost certainly be home alone and I nice Thanksgiving meal would be nice even if it'll last me a few days.

Thu Oct 29 2020

Sleep 1230 to 1630. (4 hours)

• Hopefully no Trick or Treating because of COVID. Not that we get anybody in my condo building.

Fri Oct 30 2020

Sleep 2330 to 0230. 0600 to 1330. (10-1/2 hours)

• Got KFC. :-)

Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG bundle is a pretty big collection for $15 ($413 at the Goodman Games store even if their PDF prices are pretty high at 70% of print). DCC is an OSR D&D-like game and they went for quirkiness. Still since this is fantasy gaming the adventures can be useful.

GMG-5070 Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG ($25)
GMG-5071 Dungeon Crawl Classics Annual ($30)
GMG-5102 Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG Judges Screen ($7)

GMG-4500 Tales from the Magician's Skull #1 (Fiction Magazine) ($15)

GMG-50665 Dungeon Crawl Classics #66.5 Doom of the Savage Kings ($7)
GMG-5066 Dungeon Crawl Classics #67: Sailors on the Starless Sea ($7)
GMG-5067 Dungeon Crawl Classics #68 People of the Pit ($7)
GMG-5068 Dungeon Crawl Classics #69: The Emerald Enchanter ($7)
GMG-5069 Dungeon Crawl Classics #70: Jewels of the Carnifex ($7)
GMG-5072 Dungeon Crawl Classics #71: The 13th Skull ($7)
GMG-5073 Dungeon Crawl Classics #72: Beyond the Black Gate ($7)
GMG-5074 Dungeon Crawl Classics #73: Emirikol Was Framed ($7)
GMG-5075 Dungeon Crawl Classics #74: Blades Against Death ($7)
GMG-5076 Dungeon Crawl Classics #75: The Sea Queen Escapes ($7)
GMG-5077 Dungeon Crawl Classics #76: Colossus, Arise! ($7)
GMG-5078 Dungeon Crawl Classics #77: The Croaking Fane ($7)
GMG-50775 Dungeon Crawl Classics #77.5: The Tower Out of Time ($7)
GMG-5079 Dungeon Crawl Classics #78: Fate's Fell Hand ($7)
GMG-5080 Dungeon Crawl Classics #79: Frozen in Time ($7)
GMG-50795 Dungeon Crawl Classics #79.5: Tower of the Black Pearl ($7)
GMG-5081 Dungeon Crawl Classics #80: Intrigue at the Court of Chaos ($7)
GMG-5082 Dungeon Crawl Classics #81: The One Who Watches from Below ($7)
GMG-5083 Dungeon Crawl Classics #82: Bride of the Black Manse ($7)
GMG-50825 Dungeon Crawl Classics #82.5: Dragora's Dungeon ($7)
GMG-5084 Dungeon Crawl Classics #83: The Chained Coffin ($30)
GMG-5086 Dungeon Crawl Classics #85: The Making of the Ghost Ring ($7)
GMG-5087 Dungeon Crawl Classics #86: Hole in the Sky ($7)
GMG-5088 Dungeon Crawl Classics #87: Against the Atomic Overlord ($7)
GMG-50875 Dungeon Crawl Classics #87.5: Grimtooth's Museum of Death ($7)
GMG-5089 Dungeon Crawl Classics #88: The 998th Conclave of Wizards ($10)
GMG-50885 Dungeon Crawl Classics #88.5: Curse of the Kingspire ($7)
GMG-5093 Dungeon Crawl Classics #92: Through the Dragonwall ($7)
GMG-5094 Dungeon Crawl Classics #93: Moon-Slaves of the Cannibal Kingdom ($7)
GMG-5095 Dungeon Crawl Classics #94: Neon Knights ($7)
GMG-5096 Dungeon Crawl Classics #95: Enter the Dagon ($7)
GMG-5097 Dungeon Crawl Classics #96: The Tower of Faces ($7)
GMG-5098 Dungeon Crawl Classics #97: The Queen of Elfland's Son ($7)
GMG-5099 Dungeon Crawl Classics #98: Imprisoned in the God-Skull ($7)
GMG-5100 Dungeon Crawl Classics #99: The Star Wound of Abaddon ($7)

GMG-52013 Dungeon Crawl Classics Holiday Module: The Old God's Return ($7)
GMG-53015A Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red ($7)

GMG-GC-2013 Goodman Games Gen Con 2013 Program Book ($12)
GMG-GC-2014 Goodman Games Gen Con 2014 Program Book ($14)
GMG-GC-2019 Goodman Games 2019 Yearbook Presents - Riders on the Phlogiston ($20)

GMG-VTT-CH0 DCC 0-Level Funnel Character Token Pack ($5)

With the presidential election coming up I guess of my thoughts about President Trump. I think I'm a moderate Republican, more towards the right in terms economy and less government and more towards the left in terms of social issues. In general I've voted Republican except for the president where I use the debates to decide on who I'm voting for (and for California governor where the Republican candidates look like idiots because no one competent wants to run) and previous elections I've voted:

2000 - Al Gore (lost to George W Bush)
2004 - George W Bush (beat John Kerry)
2008 - Barack Obama (beat John McCain)
2012 - Mitt Romney (lost to Barack Obama)
2016 - Hillary Clinton (lost to Donald Trump)

In 2016 I voted for John Kasich in the primaries because I didn't want an amateur as the Republican candidate. I think I watched a couple of the primary debates and was more impressed with Marco Rubio but he dropped out well before California primary and even Kasich dropped out a few days after I mailed my ballot.

The debates went Hillary Clinton's way. She had better answers to the issues though probably Trump lost more points because I disagreed with his stances (he did not come off as supportive of the military) and he was very rude (which he repeated to the nth degree in this year's first presidential debate).

So now we have four years of presidency and frankly I have way too many criticisms of his tenure. I think my biggest problems are increasing corruption in his government; his pettiness against anyone who he doesn't like; that he doesn't come across as wanting to help the whole country, just the people that support him; that he ignores process and bureaucracy (which I know many people don't like those but I'm a (small e) engineer and process and structure are very important); that he says whatever his current audience wants to hear and freely contradicts himself... ok, I'll stop but there are so many things over the course of four years.

And I really hate the way he corrupted the Republican party. Yes, it was already going more and more extreme as they tried to regain power in the federal government but under Trump federal-level Republicans got nasty. Maybe I'm looking through rose-colored glasses but the Republicans of my childhood were stately. Conservative but they knew that was the right course for the whole country. Now we have the Republicans of the last four years who just want to tear things down and being very short-sighted. We've become an f-you party. And conversely it's the Democratic party that is showing class and empathy.

I really hope Trump doesn't get re-elected but even if he doesn't I'm not sure the Republican party can be restored.

Sat Oct 17 2020

Sleep 0515 to 1215. (7 hours)

• VTT Gloomhaven #4. We started another scenario and did fairly well. Had to save in the last room but it should be an easy win.
• Trader Joe's for groceries.
• DDO, we finished Mists of Ravenloft non-raid adventures.

Sun Oct 18 2020

Sleep 0800 to 1345 (5-3/4 hours)

• 49ers win at home over the Rams. Back to .500 at 3-3.

Mon Oct 19 2020

Sleep 0500 to 1315. (8-1/4 hours)

• Apple TV+ free year extended three months. This was for everyone.

Tue Oct 20 2020

Sleep 0415 to 0900. (4-3/4 hours)

• Bundle of Holding Shadow of the Demon Lord + Legacies bundles. When I look at the product list for Shadow there are a lot of small PDF products so there would still be a lot to keep buying after the two bundles. Seems a bit overwhelming so I'll pass.

Wed Oct 21 2020

Sleep 0545 to 1245. (7 hours)

• After a point update to macOS Catalina 10.15.7 printing stopped working. It doesn't like the commandtohp.filter nor the LaserJet driver. Workaround was to create a new printer definition using Generic PCL Laser Printer. Good enough for basic printing though nothing specific to a LaserJet 1012.

Thu Oct 22 2020
Sleep 0415 to 0900. 1030 to 1500. (9-1/4 hours)

• Upgraded my iPad to iOS 14.

Fri Oct 23 2020

Sleep 0115 to 0445. 1100 to 1600. (8-1/2 hours)

• Trader Joe's for groceries. My freezer section was pretty much empty but after two shopping trips to TJ's it's mostly full.

Since we're already playing Gloomhaven I think a Dungeon Fantasy campaign would be redundant, even if it has a Norse flavor. Also Christopher mentioned that he's allowed to play one weekend per month so I'm thinking of running my campaign on Discord, MUD-like with 24-hour turns. Because of that it doesn't need to be a long campaign as each adventure might take months to play through.

Dungeon Fantasy / Norðlond setting - This uses Dungeon Fantasy RPG which is pretty much full GURPS minus anything not needed for D&D style dungeoneering and adding class templates. Norðlond is a Norse setting for DFRPG from Gaming Ballistic with several supplements and adventures.

GURPS 4E Prime Directive + Star Trek Adventures - Prime Directive is built on TOS and a bit more military focused but it has GURPS 4E rules. I'd adapt STA setting and adventures to Prime Directive. It would be a Federation/Starfleet setting.

GURPS WW2 + Twilight 2K - This would be a weird variant. I'd like to do something like Twilight: 2000 (which has a several Eastern Europe adventures) but on the GURPS side not that much modern day material. There is GURPS WW2 which had a good number of source books. So I'm thinking at the end of WW2 the Allies and Russia battle each other. The Allies use a few nukes which devastate Eastern Europe but causes social upheaval bringing down the Allied governments. Once again we start with the PCs as part of a US unit stranded in Poland but it's 1946 instead of 1996.

--------

Update: GURPS WW2 + Twilight 2K got three votes so we'll go with that.

Thirsty Sword Lesbians - Powered by the Apocalypse RPG about lesbian adventurers battling foes and their feelings. Even if I never play it I think I'll buy a hardcover.

Stargate SG-1 RPG - An officially licensed RPG to the TV show but maybe not the spin-offs. I guess the only concern is that Wyvern Gaming has only two other game products, both card games not RPGs. Not that confident this will ever come out or be really good.

MechWarrior & Battletech Character Sheets for Roll20 - Modest funding to create character and Mech design sheets for Roll20 and will be released for everyone. The Mech sheet will be interesting since previous Mech designers have been quite heavy.

Sat Oct 10 2020

Sleep 0500 to 1200. (7 hours)

• Los Angeles Lakers beat Miami Heat and win the NBA Finals. The whole NBA COVID-19 postseason flew under my radar once the Kings were out.

Sun Oct 11 2020

Sleep 0500 to 1200. (7 hours)

• 49ers get torched at home losing to Dolphins 43-17.

Mon Oct 12 2020

Sleep 0500 to 1230. (7-1/2 hours)

• Gotta stop working late Sunday night as it throws off my schedule the rest of the week.

Tue Oct 13 2020

Sleep 0400 to 0930. 1415 to 1615. (7-1/2 hours)

• Neat tool to compare phone sizes. For calibration to your monitor you can scale to match size of a credit card. The mini seems manageably big.

Wed Oct 14 2020

Sleep 0515 to 1045. (5-1/2 hours)

• I signed up for BallotTrax and received three notifications: when ballot was mailed to me, when I mailed ballot back, when my ballot was received. Pretty cool.

Thu Oct 15 2020

Sleep 0615 to 1200.

• Dentist for cleaning. I was late and apparently missed the messages saying Chris was sick. Luckily Dr. Dowd had free time and did the cleaning himself. He's a bit out of practice.
• Picked up a couple medium stuffed pizzas from Zachary's. Got there a little early and waited in the car. Hot day.

Fri Oct 16 2020

Sleep 0430 to 1215. (7-3/4 hours)

• We have a yearly employee survey. I think this year it's been tougher with COVID-19. My biggest complaint is lack of hard drive space in our environment. I probably wasted several days per year managing my space (spending time to clean things up to free up space or swapping environments in and out instead of having multiple environments available simultaneously). I mean it's not going to change as developer lost productivity is hard to quantify.

The Halloween Sale is not that great of a sale and not much filtering capability. The store also tends to not have Mac version of games whereas Steam store will have them. So I guess I'm just looking for interesting games regardless of price.

Surviving Mars ($10.20, 66% off) - Sim City on Mars.

Observation ($10, 60% off) - As the space station AI try to discover what happened to one of the scientists.

Genesis Alpha One ($12, 60% off) - Space exploration rogue like FPS action and ship building.

Dracula Dossier Bundle is based on Pelgrane Press' Night's Black Agents RPG, a game about Cold War era spies battling vampires. There were not that many supplements released for it and The Dracula Dossier set makes up the majority.

Night's Black Agents

• PELG-N01 Night's Black Agents RPG ($25 pdf) - base RPG

The Dracula Dossier

• PELG-N05 Director's Handbook ($25 pdf) - main campaign
• PELG-N06 Dracula Unredacted ($20 pdf) - the novel Dracula with extra margin material by Kenneth Hite, sort of like a huge clue book for PCs
• PELG-N07 The Dracula Dossier Card Deck ($15 pdf) - 52 NPC picture cards
• PELG-N08 The Edom Field Manual ($9 pdf) - sourcebook for a UK-based secret agency
• PELG-N09 The Edom Files ($17 pdf) - Eight one-shot adventures set in the Dracula Dossier universe
• PELG-N10 The Hawkins Papers ($17 pdf) - lots of handouts
• PELG-N11 The Thrill of Dracula ($7 pdf) - Kenneth Hite examines the history of Dracula in media
• PELG-Nxx The Van Helsing Letter (free) - Free RPG Day adventure

$32 for $135 of stuff (though the MSRP is a bit high). Oh, you can get PDF bundles at Pelgrane Press -- N01, N05, N06 for $60 ($10 off); N08, N09, N11 for $31 ($2 off) -- so it's $32 for $123 of stuff. In any case the collection is still definitely worth buying.

Sat Oct 03 2020

Sleep 0815 to 1615. (8 hours)

• DDO: Christopher's missed yesterday's session which allowed Woo and I to do Shaverath quests and get raid prereqs done (Christopher had already done them).

Sun Oct 04 2020

Sleep 04:00 to 11:00. (7 hours)

• 49ers lose at home to Eagles. Fairly close game. QB Nick Mullens performed poorly and was replaced by QB CJ Beathard in the 4th quarter.

Mon Oct 05 2020

Sleep 0345 to 0845, 1245 to 1545. (8 hours)

• HOA Annual Meeting.
• I hate that neither Zoom nor Team Meetings has separate volume control so you have to use system volume. Even at lowest system volume both are very loud.

Tue Oct 06 2020

Sleep 0315 to 1215. (9 hours)

• Bundle of Holding - Girl Genius. GURP Girl Genius RPG is almost done so this is a good time to pick up the first series.

Wed Oct 07 2020

Sleep 0630 to 1215. (5-3/4 hours)

• Received The Great American Witch PDF reward. It's 158 pages but seems to be digest-sized. DriveThruRPG at-cost hardcover color printed copy is $21.43 (+shipping I assume) which seems like a good price.

Thu Oct 08 2020

Sleep 0445 to 0945. 1600 to 1800. (7 hours)

• People signing me up to a lot of meetings...

Fri Oct 09 2020

Sleep 0615 to 1315. (7 hours)

• So tired didn't work at all today.

iPhone 12 Pro

• 6.1" Pro (128 GB for $1k, 256 GB for $1.1k, 512 GB for $1.3k)
• 6.7" Pro Max (+$100 over Pro)
• 5G Wireless
• 5nm A14 Bionic
• LiDAR for scanning a room, better Augmented Reality experience
• Triple camera system
• MagSafe - magnetically attach case and wallet

iPhone 12

• iPhone 12 6.1" (+$100 over mini)
• iPhone 12 mini 5.4" (64 GB for $700, 128 GB for $750, 256 GB for $850)
• 5G Wireless
• 5nm A14 Bionic
• Dual camera system
• MagSafe

HomePod mini

• 3.3 inches high, 3.9 inches wide
• $100
• 360-degree audio
• Siri
• Intercom via other HomePods

It's not a cheap iPhone but at least iPhone 12 mini is smaller than usual, although I guess still big compared to my current iPhone SE. iPhone 12 Pro Max is slightly bigger screen than previous Max versions, though 1 inch smaller than iPad mini. I can't imagine playing Raid: Shadow Legends on it though so I think my strategy is still small iPhone + big iPad.

Short (45 min) meeting since this only annual meeting, not a combined annual/regular meeting.

Board

• David
• Marcyl (treasury)
• Roger (president)
• Teresa
• Pat (secretary)

Agenda items

• Counting ballots
• Special assessment mailings went out, first payment due Dec 01, $100 penalty
• Dues: no increase for 2019, 2020, probably one for 2021
• Reserve at $757k (41%), by end of year probably 80% with first special assessment payments
• Manor: New HOA management company
• Roof replacement complete though lots of little bits of damage and imperfections to fix
• EV charging stations: PG&E fell through (they ran out of funds), investigating with Peninsula Clean Energy.
• Spa room being converted to exercise room.
• Elevator: board has chosen KONE (our current maintenance provider) to do elevator replacement.

Resident questions

• Talk about 217 who buys lots of things but takes forever to pick them up from the package rack.
• Front door: Vortex reviewed doors - they are misaligned and hydraulic mechanism needs replacement. San Mateo Locks replaced lock with a heavy duty one; old one was worn.
• St Matthews door: San Mateo Locks says mechanism needs replacement to keep from banging.
• Door between 105/106 sometimes lock gets stuck open so door won't close unless you use bar to lower lock. Same for door in lobby next to mailboxes.

Other matters

• IRS resolution 7604 - excess funds from one year can be rolled over to next year, must be authorized by membership.
• Thanks to Pat (outgoing board member) for all her help
• Next regular meeting Oct 26

Voting

• Board Election: Marcyl 28, Andrew 23, Kevin 16
• IRS 7604: 26 approved, 16 abstained, 9 nays

Sat Sep 26 2020

Sleep 0815 to 1415. (6 hours)

• $8500 AMEX statement. Yikes! I mean I definitely spent that much.

Sun Sep 27 2020

Sleep 0730 to 1215. (4-3/4 hours)

• Nick Mullens leads 49ers win at NY Giants 36-9.

Mon Sep 28 2020
Sleep 0000 to 0530. (5-1/2 hours)

• Now that I'm out of bread crumbs I pan fry chicken thighs without it and now it the skin comes out crunchy and delicious. I've been doing it wrong all these years.

Tue Sep 29 2020

Sleep 0345 to 0845. (5 hours)

• Apparently the first presidential debate went badly because Trump kept interrupting. When it's one candidate's turn to talk why not turn off the other mic?

Wed Sep 30 2020

Sleep 0815 to 1500. (6-3/4 hours)

• In Raid: Shadow Legends they changed the pairings in Arena so now I get lots of easy teams to beat. Before only got to silver tier once or twice so the quest to get 30 silver tier wins was kind of impossible for me.

Thu Oct 01 2020

Sleep 0100 to 0830. (7-1/2 hours)

• President Trump announces he and the First Lady have tested positive for COVID-19.
• I'm afraid he'll recover (best medical care in the world for POTUS) then he'll claim COVID-19 is not a danger to old people.

Fri Oct 02 2020

Sleep 0415 to 1215. (8 hours)

• Safeway shopping about 2030.

Hero Magazines bundle offhand seems to be mostly stuff I own in PDF but let's calculate it.

• Adventurers Club #1-27 (not available, $40 PDF MSRP)
• Haymaker Archives #1-7 (not available, $50 PDF MSRP) - an Amateur Press Association that ran 67 issues
• Digital Hero #1-47 ($95 PDF)
• HERO-001 Champions 1E ($5 PDF)
• HERO-001 Champions 2E ($5 PDF)
• HERO-001 Champions 3E ($7.50 PDF)
• HERO-400 Champions: The Super RPG 4E ($20 PDF)
• HERO-401 Champions GM Screen and Accessories ($5 PDF)
• HERO-500 HERO System Rulesbook ($10 PDF)
• DOJ-HERO-103 Hero System Resource Kit ($5 PDF)
• DOJ-HERO-109 Hero System 5E Revised ($20 PDF)

I don't own Champions 1E or Haymaker Archives. I do own Adventurers Club but not in PDF. So $55 for stuff I don't own, $95 for stuff I don't own in PDF. Current bundle price $28.

$28 to get stuff I don't own at half price. It's tempting. I guess the big question is if I want a bunch of APA material when there is so much official HERO stuff out there.