Sat Sep 21 2024

Sleep 0500 to 1330 (8-1/2 hours)

• Dave W had to miss so CSr, Dave S and I did three of the smaller(?) Gloomhaven scenarios. We were pretty fast.

Sun Sep 22 2024

Sleep 0730 to 1415 (6-2/3 hours)

• Looks like WotC raised the prices of many classic PDFs to $7 and $8.

Mon Sep 23 2024

Sleep 0230 to 0915, 1-1/4 hour nap (8 hours)

• Blue Planet email about final order adjustments and paying shipping. Must be getting sort of close to shipping and will be about 3-1/2 years to fulfillment.

Tue Sep 24 2024

Sleep 0415 to 1045 (6-1/2 hours)

• I couldn't get my Mac mini to boot with Startup Manager (reboot and hold option key). It would just stay at black screen. Found this article: Make an Intel Mac Boot Directly to Startup Manager which basically says run "sudo nvram manufacturing-enter-picker=true" in Terminal. After that when I rebooted it stayed at black screen so I guess the problem is running Startup Manager is not working on my Mac mini. I tried resetting PRAM/NVRAM (reboot with command-option-p-r) which did restore the startup chime but otherwise trying to start Startup Manager results in black screen.
• Above means I can't use OpenCore Legacy Patcher to install macOS Sequoia. Part of the process is booting into an EFI Boot partition that OLP creates on a USB stick and for that you need Startup Manager (the partition is not a regular macOS partition so you can't set it via Startup Disk).
• Oops. The OLP Booting page has a section "Note for Mac Pros/Xserves/iMacs with unflashed GPUs". This has instructions to boot into recovery mode then manually set startup disk to EFI Boot. Once I did that and restarted it boots into macOS as if nothing has changed. But I can now go to the USB drive and launch Install macOS Sequoia and now I'm installing it so we'll see if it works all the way.
• Oops again. When macOS installer wants to reboot it went to black screen and I can't get to Recovery mode (command-R on startup). Looks like I'll have to do some sort of restore.
• Good thing I made a clone of my HD a couple days ago (using Carbon Copy Cloner 6). On startup my Mac mini booted from it I guess because it can't find any other boot volumes. It does boot quite slowly though. I guess maybe it was also quite slow with USB stick but I gave it like 10 minutes and nothing whereas external USB HD is a few minutes to show login screen.

Wed Sep 25 2024

Sleep 0530 to 1230 (7 hours)

• Tried CCC to restore but the internal HD already has a partial install of Sequoia so still broken afterwards. Erased internal HD and installing macOS 12 (Monterey) which is the last version that supports my Mac mini (late 2014).
• Once install rebooted and started using the internal HD as startup disk everything else went much faster. I guess running macOS on a non-SSD is not a great idea.
• Bought Transformers RPG Humble Bundle
• Pledged to Get It At Sutlers (Troika supplement)
• Dinner at C3's. We ate leftovers. They're getting ready for a camping trip to a park northwards of Hearst Castle along the coast.

Thu Sep 26 2024

Sleep 0815 to 1245 (4-1/2 hours)

• Looks like Twitch removed Subscribe button from iPad OS app (probably iOS too). Maybe until they raise the price on mobile.

Fri Sep 27 2024

Sleep 22:45 to 0345, 0815 to 1215 (9 hours)

• With the release of macOS 15 (Sequoia), HomeBrew drops support for macOS 12 (Monterey). Probably not a problem now but will be soon. I'm thinking of switching to MacPorts as it is BSD license. The other main option is Fink which is GPL.

Prop 5. Allows local bonds for affordable housing and public infrastructure with 55% voter approval.

"Allows local bonds for affordable housing for low- and middle-income Californians, or for public infrastructure including roads, water, and fire protection to be approved by 55% of voters, rather than current two-thirds approval requirement."

The usual pro and cons. I do feel a 2/3rds majority is an incredibly high bar.

Voting: YES

Prop 6. Eliminates Constitutional provision allowing involuntary servitude for incarcerated persons.

"Amends the California Constitution to remove the current constitutional provision that allows jails and prisons to impose involuntary servitude to punish crime (i.e., forcing incarcerated persons to work)."

There is no con argument. Seems fair that just because you're in prison doesn't mean they can make you do work. They can use volunteers (some people might want to do something useful to escape boredom) or pay some amount instead.

Voting: YES

Prop 32. Raises minimum wage.

"California’s minimum wage is currently $16 per hour. This measure increases that minimum, as follows:

• Employers with 26 or more employees would pay $17 hourly for the remainder of 2024 and $18 hourly beginning on January 1, 2025.
• Employers with 25 or fewer employees would pay $17 hourly beginning January 1, 2025, and $18 hourly beginning January 1, 2026.

Thereafter, as existing law provides, the minimum wage annually adjusts for inflation."

Inflation makes minimum wage less and less livable since we don't adjust for inflation. This amendment will fix that.

Con focuses on the fact that it's a multimillionaire that got this proposition on the ballot. Also that it costs jobs, which is the rallying cry of pro "business" advocates.

Voting: YES

Transformers RPG Humble Bundle has a $40 level for physical items and you'd think the RPG would be one of them but nope it's the GM Screen (which I guess is not included in the PDF bundle), Character Journal, and three different dice sets.

Anyway, for $18 you get these PDFs:

Transformers RPG Core Rulebook
Field Guide to Action & Adventure - 290 page sourcebook for doing crossovers with Power Rangers RPG and GI Joe RPG
The Time is Now - 162 page 4-part campaign
Decepticon Directive - 208 page sourcebook
Enigma of Combination - 128 page sourcebook for Combiner characters (e.g. Devastator)
From Yesterday to Today - adventure
Catch a Falling Starscream - adventure
Winner's Cup - adventure
A Beacon of Hope - adventure that comes with the GM Screen but I'm guessing GM Screen PDF is not included in the bundle
Freebie content

Things not included:

GM Screen
Cobra/Con Fusion - GI Joe/Transformers crossover adventure
Enter the Collection - generic adventure suitable for an Renegade Game Studios RPGs
Unnatural Disaster - adventure
Worlds Collide: Battle for the Multiverse - Crossover event designed for three groups, one each of Power Rangers, GI Joe's and Autobots

Transformers uses RGS' Essence20 system which uses d20 + skill die to determine actions.

Frankly not really feeling it but might buy it anyways.

Sat Sep 14 2024

Sleep 0430 to 1230 (8 hours)

• We visited mom and dad for mom's birthday. I drove by myself and if I had woken up earlier I would have finally tried Tracy Harbour Fish & Chips which is right there when we stop at the Starbucks for coffee and bathroom break.

Sun Sep 15 2024

Sleep 0200 to 0730, 1400 to 1530. (7 hours)

• Turns out C3 and Steph had to leave at 0900 so I woke up early and left a bit afterwards. At 1000 a lot of traffic heading back to the Bay Area although no slowdowns.

Mon Sep 16 2024

Sleep 0430 to 1230 (8 hours)

• macOS Sequoia and iOS/iPadOS 18 released. Also updates to previous release. Will probably update point release but not major release for a bit in case there is an issue that pops up that requires Apple to do a point release immediately.
• Ars Technica mentioned using OpenCore Legacy Patcher to install newer macOS versions on older PPC/Intel Macs. Might do this for my Mac mini since macOS 12 is not supported by Homebrew and I mainly use it for server stuff, not graphics intensive stuff.

Tue Sep 17 2024

Sleep 0830 to 1530 (7 hours)

• Turns out my main iPad is too old for iPadOS 18. My alt iPad tops out at iPadOS 16.
• iPhone is fine with iPadOS 18. MBP is fine with macOS Sequoia (though that will most likely be the last major OS for it). Does that mean I should refresh my iPad rather than MBP? Would be nice in terms of refreshing my iPhone/iPad/MBP as they become obsolete but I do want an Apple Silicon Mac so I can do development on it.

Wed Sep 18 2024

Sleep 1130 to 1630 (5 hours)

• Chaosium is going to do an ElfQuest RPG reprint boxed set (with all the supplements). If it's like previous re-issues it's basically good scans then printed on softcover books so it's similar to the original releases. I might buy it since it's just a reprint-and-done not an attempt to start a new RPG line.

Thu Sep 19 2024

Sleep 0030 to 0630, 2 hour nap (8 hours)

• Decided to use OpenCore Legacy Patcher and try to upgrade my Mac mini 2014 model to macOS Sequoia.
• Ordered a Belkin USB-C to Ethernet Adapter from the Apple Store and will pick up tomorrow. Want to test that I can plug in a computer to the garage switch's ethernet port.

Fri Sep 20 2024

Sleep 0630 to 1100 (4-1/2 hours)

• Office Depot at Brittan and Industrial. Got lost getting there cause I haven't been driving in that area for a couple of years.
• Apple Store to pick up my order. Long wait line because turns out it's iPhone 16 release day.
• Safeway for toothpaste and dental floss. $5 special in cooked foods section didn't look interesting.
• Popeyes. Decided to get fried chicken here instead.
• Monterra to deposit $300 since there's a branch across the street from Popeyes.
• Back home. With traffic and waiting I was gone three hours.
• Started the Swift Playgrounds Learning to Code lesson. Very simple (CJr could almost do it I think) but neat in a Logo sort of way in that you are manipulating a character moving on a grid and doing stuff.

Prop 2. Authorizes bonds for public school and community college facilities.

"Authorizes $10 billion in state general obligation bonds for repair, upgrade, and construction of facilities at K–12 public schools (including charter schools) and community colleges."

Repayment is "$500 million per year over 35 years".

This is the kind of bond that's floated every few years, which if the previous ones passed means we're getting more and more debt and still have all those olds bonds to pay off.

Con argument is that it's more debt and K-12 and Community College enrollment has declined the last six years.

Con seems rather short sighted because if our economy improves more people move into the state which means more students and if we haven't kept our education infrastructure updated you get things like 40-student class sizes in WW2-era temporary buildings like I remember from my high school in the 1980's.

Voting: YES

Prop 3. Constitutional right to marriage.

"Amends California Constitution to recognize fundamental right to marry, regardless of sex or race. Removes language in California Constitution stating that marriage is only between a man and a woman. No change in revenues or costs for state and local governments."

Con argument seems to be misinformation.

Voting: YES

Prop 4. Authorizes bonds for safe drinking water, wildfire prevention, and protecting communities and natural lands from climate risks.

"Authorizes $10 billion in state general obligation bonds for various projects to reduce climate risks and impacts: $3.8 billion for safe drinking water and water resilience; $1.95 billion for wildfire prevention and extreme heat mitigation; $1.9 billion for protection of natural lands, parks, and wildlife; $1.2 billion for protection of coastal lands, bays, and oceans; $850 million for clean energy; and $300 million for agriculture."

Repayment is "$400 million per year over 40 years".

Con is that these issues should be addressed in the general budget not by a proposition, which is an argument that moves the goals to somewhere where it will fail.

Voting: YES

Now that Marc Miller has passed Traveller to Mongoose I realize he may not be around longer so I should buy what I'm missing from the FFE Store. Looking at the available CDs:

Traveller GURPS 1 - have PDFs from Bundle of Holding
Traveller GURPS 2 - have PDFs from Bundle of Holding
Traveller GURPS 3 - have JTAS Online contents from previous subscription

Classic Traveller - own CD
JTAS - own CD
Traveller Apocrypha-1 - own CD
Traveller Apocrypha-2 - own CD
Traveller Apocrypha-3 - own CD

MegaTraveller - own CD
Traveller: The New Era - own CD
Traveller: The New Era 2 - own CD
Traveller 4 - own CD
Traveller HERO - don't own but other than core books I have supplements converted to other systems
Traveller 20 - own CD

Twilight: 2000 v1 - own CD
Twilight: 2000 v2.2 - own CD
Twilight: 2013 - own CD

2300 AD - don't own
Challenge Magazine #25-77 - own print issues but not PDFs

Dark Conspiracy 1 - don't own
Dark Conspiracy 2 - don't own

With their eternal 443 sale I guess I'd buy:

2300 AD - I like that Challenge had a lot of 2300 AD material so it's a force multiplier.
Dark Conspiracy 1 and 2 - Not really my genre but it's a complete RPG and Challenge also supported this game.
Traveller HERO - I guess for completeness, other choice is Challenge just to have it in PDF format

Hmm not the best web site coding. Adding Dark Conspiracy 2 would always put it in its own shopping cart. Couldn't get around it and didn't want to risk getting the order wrong. In the end I bought just the 2300 AD CD-ROM.

Sat Sep 07 2024
Sleep 0800 to 1430 (6-1/2 hours)

• Saw that my checking account got dangerously low. Peace of mind would have been overdraft protection which by default is off. I set it up to withdraw from the digital savings account since I keep that at $4k+.

Sun Sep 08 2024

Sleep 0230 to 1030 (8 hours)

• Gaming at David and Sophia's house. Got an almost 3-hour session in though it was basically a long fight which I found a bit boring and tiring about a couple of hours.
• We went to dinner at Chicken Meets Rice. I guess Singaporean style basic dish. It's basically a fast food type place with lots of people getting takeout.

Mon Sep 09 2024

Sleep 0730 to 1400 (7-1/2 hours)

• Apple Event: AirPods 4, AirPods Pro 2, iPhone 16.

Tue Sep 10 2024

Sleep 0100 to 0600, 1130 to 1430 (8 hours)

• One of our HOA residents is replacing their windows with double-paned (from Brothers Home Improvement, recommended by our HOA manager) and we sent an email seeing if other people are interested and with enough there may be a discount. She's doing 8 windows and it's $22k. I have two small ($2k?), one larger ($2.5k), one window door in bedroom ($3.7k?) and one big window door in main room ($5k?) so I think my place would be like $13.2k plus labor (which is about 15%).
• Unfortunately far more than I'm willing to pay at this time when I have no income. EVCS I continued to do it because it's been several years to get the project to installation and I'm expecting some amount of rebate from Peninsula Clean Energy. Yeah my windows are old and leak air like crazy but I never use my heater and live with the not that many days of hot and cold extremes.

Wed Sep 11 2024

Sleep 2345 to 0500, 0915 to 1115 (7-1/4 hours)

• MLS Season Pass is free for Apple TV+ subscribers for remainder of the season and then it'll auto-renew at $80 starting next season (Feb 2025). Which means I can watch the past premium episodes I missed, though I guess I'm not going back all the way to the beginning. But I am in the first week of Leagues Cup so I can watch those games including the elimination rounds, which were not free.
• Of course with Season Pass you don't see which games were free and Apple TV doesn't tell you what you've watched so going back would be hard.
• Huh, I can only go back in Past Matches to the start of Leagues Cup. So I guess even with League Pass eventually you can't just go back to see all past games.

Thu Sep 12 2024

Sleep 0745 to 1430 (6-3/4 hours)

• HOA Meeting. There was a surprise motion to drop our security service vendor, after like a 20 minute discussion, which did not pass 2 yes, 2 no. I voted no because it was a surprise and there is no replacement suggested other than maybe a volunteer can do the nightly door checks.
• There was also another non-unanimous vote to replace some of our front lawn vegetation that has a fungus infestation. The con is that we should redo the front lawn to a more water frugal theme. I voted yes because my reason is that changing the lawn will take months as we set up a committee and discuss options and in the meantime we should upkeep the lawn and replacing dying shrubbery is part of that.

Fri Sep 13 2024

Sleep 2345 to 0130, 0800 to 1430 (8-1/4 hours)

• Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. I kept losing connection to SHIFT which then drops me out of the session. Next time I have to remember to reset my Airport before the game.

Was reading and realized that Boot Camp doesn't work with Apple CPUs. So with an Apple Silicon Mac you have to use Parallels, which officially supports ARM64 version of Windows 11. It will run Windows x64 apps in their Prism emulator. Windows games, especially high end ones or ones with anti-cheat, may be a problem and Microsoft links to Windows on Arm Ready Software for a crowd-sourced list of games that work. Parallels itself only supports DirectX 11.1 and OpenGL 3.3 which also limits game availability.

Parallels has a single-purchase Standard Edition ($100) and subscription-baed Pro ($120/year) and Business ($150/year) Editions. For Pro and Business Edition their comparison chart says "Run professional graphics-intensive Windows applications and multiple virtual machines" and I haven't found what they mean by that. Assuming I need Pro it's rough paying yearly especially since it may or may not run any given game.

Another option is CrossOver which is front-end for Wine. CrossOver would run under Rosetta 2 and this CrossOver review says games probably work ok. AppleGamingWiki has a CrossOver page with notes on getting things to work and it has a Parallels page for using Parallels for Windows gaming. In practice CrossOver doesn't support as many games as I thought, so much so that I resorted to running Boot Camp with Windows 10 Home.

There is also Whisky which is essentially similar to CrossOver. Whisky uses Apple's Game Porting Toolkit (which in turn is a dev kit that uses Wine so that Windows devs can see how their game will run in Apple Silicon Macs). Doesn't support as many games as CrossOver but I feel those games would run faster since CrossOver doesn't yet support Apple Silicon natively.

I guess when I do get an Apple Silicon Mac I'll still have my old Intel MBP with Boot Camp to run games (and even then high-end games struggle). But I do like using just one machine for everything but always-on server stuff.

Addendum:

Microsoft's New AI Computers Struggle With Hundreds of Popular PC Games

Talking about MS's Copilot+ PCs which are Arm-based with Windows 11 and Prism for emulation. Half of the 1300 tested games had problems and I think mostly higher-end ones. Then again Qualcomm Snapdragon are not great performance chips.

Apple Watch Series 10
- Summary: slightly bigger, thinner, lighter with a better CPU.
- biggest display, 30% bigger than series 6
- wide angle OLED display, up to 40% brighter viewed from angle
- always on updates every second instead of every minute
- thinnest Apple Watch ever, 9mm
- play music or podcasts through Apple Watch
- 50m water resistance
- fastest charging Apple Watch ever, 30m to get to 80% charge
- polished titanium case option
- carbon neutral product
- S10 CPU, 4 core neural engine (suppress background noise during calls)
- Apple Intelligence: medical reminders, loud environment detection
- AI: overnight monitoring: ovulation, vitals, sleep stages, sleep apnea
- built-in depth gauge, water temperature, Tides app
- starts at $400, +$100 with Cellular

Apple Watch Ultra 2
- Summary: no significant changes.
- training mode for exercising
- offline maps
- new finish: satin black
- starts at $800 and includes Cellular

AirPods 4
- Summary: an effective Active Noise Cancellation in this form factor would be amazing
- H2 chip
- improved audio architecture
- Personalized Spatial Audio
- nod and shake head actions
- voice isolation (so other party only hears your voice)
- Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency Mode
- Adaptive Audio and Conversation Awareness (output volume adapts to environment)
- Charging case supports wireless charging
- AirPods 4 $130, with Active Noise Cancellation $180

AirPods Max
- Summary: slight changes, not enough to call it AirPods Max 2
- new colors
- USB-C
- Personalized Spatial Audio
- AirPods Max $550

AirPods Pro 2
- Summary: adds hearing protection, test and aid features
- Hearing Protection (machine learning reduces loud noises 48k times per second)
- Hearing Test (five minute test, needs iPhone app)
- Hearing Aid (boosts specific sounds you need depending on your hearing loss)
- FDA approval pending for Hearing Test and Hearing Aid

iPhone 16
- Summary: faster and adds yet another hardware control
- 6.1" standard, 6.7" plus
- Camera Control - click and slide control
- A18 chip, 6-core cpu (2 performance, 4 efficiency), 16-core neural engine
- 17% more memory bandwidth, 3 nm technology
- 30% faster than iPhone 15's A16 Bionic with 30% less power
- 5-core GPU, 40% faster than A16 Bionic with 35% less power

Apple Intelligence
- Private Cloud Compute - server-based intelligence with verifiable privacy
- PCC runs on 100% renewable electricity
- Writing tools - rewrite or proofread your text
- Dynamically create new emojis
- Image playground
- Search for photos, specific moments in a video
- Auto select photos and create a video based on your description
- Summarized emails and notifications
- Siri enhancements
- Visual Intelligence - point camera at something to get relevant info

Camera Control
- flush to surface
- click to launch camera, click again to take photos, click and hold for video recording
- haptic feedback
- light press for clean preview and show current camera setting, slide to adjust setting
- light double-tap for more camera settings, slide to choose setting

Camera Features
- 48 MP Fusion Camera: 40 MP with mode for 12 MP 2x Telephoto, 4K60 Video in Dolby Vision HDR
- 12 MP Ultra-Wide Camera, macro photography
- Spatial Capture using both cameras
- Redesigned Photos app
- Remove objects fromm photos using Apple Intelligence

Gaming
- 30% higher sustained performanced
- hardware accelerated ray tracing (5x higher frame rates than software)
- Tencent Honor of Kings: World will be released for iPhone 16

Pricing
- iPhone 16 $800 with 128 GB storage
- iPhone 16 Plus $900 with 128 GB storage

iPhone 16 Pro
- Summary: for people who want a slightly bigger screen and/or better cameras
- 6.3" Pro, 6.9" Pro Max

A18 Pro Chip (improvements over A18)
- Larger caches, next-generation ML accelerators (directly programmable)
- Advanced media: ProMotion display, Always-On display, USB 3, ProRes video recording
- New video encoder
- New image signal processor

Photography
- 48 MP Ultra-wide camera
- third camera: 12 MP 5x Telephoto camera

Video
- 4K120 video capture

Audio
- 4 studio quality microphones
- Audio Mix: machine learning to separate background elements from speech
- Voice Memos app: layer recording on existing audio, saves only recorded audio

Pricing
- iPhone 16 Pro $1000 with 128 GB storage
- iPhone 16 Pro Max $1200 with 256 GB storage

------------------------------------------------

Personally I'm fine with my Apple Watch 7 and iPhone SE and my next ones will probably be SE models. I love AirPods Max but since there is no real update guess I don't have to buy one and will stick with AirPods Pro (2nd gen).

ANC is actually a great feature and if AirPods 4 have good ANC with an air gap allowing outside sounds into your ear then that would be superior to in-ear headphones.

Overall AirPods 4 with ANC is the most intriguing announcement.

Sat Aug 31 2024

Sleep 0530 to 1230 (7 hours)

• Discworld humble bundle, $18 for 39 books. Unfortunately they're Kobo.com books and I don't want to depend on a 3rd party service (and I hear Kobo reading experience is not great).

Sun Sep 01 2024

Sleep 0530 to 1230 (7 hours)

• Humble Bundle for Lost Works of Gygax. A bunch of RPG supplements and adventures not written by him but based on his works. For various D&D-like systems and a bit too varied for my tastes -- I don't really like shovelware-like bundles.

Mon Sep 02 2024

Sleep 0630 to 1145 (5-1/4 hours)

• * I found out about Cost of Attendance which is all costs associated with going to a college. UC Berkeley Student Budgets (Cost of Attendance) estimate for new students living in a residence hall is $49k. CoA is before any financial aid since that varies a lot.

Tue Sep 03 2024

Sleep 0345 to 1130 (7-3/4 hours)

• Marc Miller passed Traveller IP to Mongoose Publishing. It's nice because Mongoose has been doing a good job with Traveller and it maintains continuity once Miller passes (he's in his 70's).

Wed Sep 04 2024

Sleep 0500 to 0900, 1030 to 1430 (8 hours)

• Dinner with CSr, CJr, Steph. Deliver from Izakaya Mai. I got Yaki Udon which was ok won't order again.

Thu Sep 05 2024

Sleep 0615 to 1215 (6 hours)

• Bought DCC Dying Earth Bundle of Holding

Fri Sep 06 2024

Sleep 2345 to 0130, 0600 to 1300. (8-3/4 hours)

• B&H Foto and Electronics have a MBP 14" M3 Pro 36 GB 1 TB for $2300 ($300 off). Additionally you get tax off if you use their Payboo credit card, though when I read the details not sure if it pays your current bill or is in-store credit for a future purchase. Still, that's the target specs for when I buy a new MBP later this year.

Bundle of Holding bundle for Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth. This is based on Jack Vance's Dying Earth books and there was a previous RPG from Pelgrane Press. This one requires DCC Core Rulebook (which I have). For $37 you get:

DCC Dying Earth boxed set (core sourcebook)
DCC Dying Earth - Casebook of Arcane Apocrypha (one of the Kickstarter stretch goals)

DCC Dying Earth module #0 - The Black Obelisk
DCC Dying Earth module #1 - The Laughing Idol of Lar-Shan
DCC Dying Earth module #2 - The Sorcerer's Tower of Sanguine Slant
DCC Dying Earth module #3 - Magnific Machinations at the Great Exposition of Marvels
DCC Dying Earth module #4 - Mind-Weft of the Moonstone Palace
DCC Dying Earth module #5 - Penumbra of the Polar Ape
DCC Dying Earth module #6 - The Great Visp Hunt
DCC Dying Earth module #7 - Phantoms of the Ectoplasmic Cotillion
DCC Dying Earth module #8 - The House on the Island

This is everything but module #9 and some other KS stretch goals.

I do like having lots of adventures and Goodman Games adventure PDFs are fairly pricey so getting them in a discounted bundle is nice. I have the Pelgrane Press Dying Earth RPG so I'm inclined to buy this one.

I learned about the Schumer box with standard consumer credit card info and I've seen these before and didn't realize they had a name. Let's look at my credit card Schumer boxes


Apple Card

Go to main page: https://www.apple.com/apple-card/
Go to bottom and note 3 link for Apple Card Customer Agreement pdf

Fees: None

This is one of the simplest ones you'll see because Apple wanted their card terms to be plain and not confusing and not nickel-and-dime their customers. There is interest charge if you carry a balance.

Note that Apple Cash is a different product and that has only one fee: 1.5% transfer fee from Apple Cash to a debit card.


Amazon Visa

Go to main page: https://www.amazon.com/amazon-rewards-visa-signature-card/dp/b007urftyi
And a little below click Pricing & Terms

Chase Pay Over Time has a 1.72% monthly fee which is how they make money for short term loans and I guess why these payment plan services are a growth industry. Although Apple Pay has interest free pay-over-time service it's only for Apple products bought from Apple.

Foreign Transaction Fee: None

I like to use this card for foreign transaction purchases, especially via PayPal because PP defaults to USD then charge a 3% fee.


American Express

Page with all their credit card agreements: https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/company/legal/cardmember-agreements/?inav=us_footer_card_agreements
Find your CC (I have Blue Cash, probably Everyday not Preferred)
https://www.americanexpress.com/content/dam/amex/en-us/company/legal/cardmember-agreements/public-site-2024-q2-pdf-cmas/cps-lending/blue-cash-everyday-06-30-2024.pdf

Interest rate of 22% is really good as my other two are close to 30%

Plan fee 1.3% per month -- I think this is the pay something in installment plans.

Foreign Transaction fee: 2.7% -- so don't use AMEX for foreign transactions.