I was ransacked by the horses in the Fourth Hole

discuss...

Settlers Rocks! (and sheeps, and wheats and...)

Review of Settlers of Catan

Gaming is a hobby i never do enough, let alone too much...

has anybody got Wood for Sheep?

8-)

Looney Labs to the rescue!

my mom has a perfume allergy. and many more things than you would think can cause her to get the sniffles, or (if applied topically) cause her skin to break out in a rash. i personally don't like the smell of perfumes, because we weren't exposed to them growing up. sometimes it can be hard to avoid perfumes, especially if the people providing us services feel like drenching themselves in the stuff.

enter Looney Labs. Kristen Looney (iirc) also has an allergy to perfumes, to the point where they can give her migraines. to avoid hurting people's feelings too badly, they developed these cards, to be handed out when standing and explaining the problem would just exacerbate it. i got my mom a set of these, and she found yet another use for them.

at bloodmobile last week (which is at our church, so we fill volunteer positions), she affixed the card to her name tag, since we already noticed one of the collection staff was going to be a problem. it worked!

thanks Looneys!

8-)

(oh, and that's her 11 gallon pin... i'm only six donations behind her!)

"Adventurers"

most RPGs are all about the "Adventurers," but what is that?

your typical D&D-style adventurer is an explorer or mercenary, somewhere on the frontier. that frontier is the important part. in fantasy games, there's always the open ocean, or the barbarian north, or a generic "shattered lands." in western-style games, the frontier is Indian country. in sci-fi, you have the edge of "known space" or other new planets within easy reach. in modern games the frontier is the unknown, or sometimes being the unknown. you're a wizard in a technological world, or a werewolf, or vampire, or whatever.

people who stay home, or who are boring and normal in a modern game, aren't PCs. they don't "adventure."

the trick, then, to running a universe in which adventurers have something to do is to define the frontiers that it offers.

starting with a genre helps, fantasy, sci-fi, supers, western... but what if you want to make up something new...

but then... why do you have to?

clichés, i mean, tropes, are there for a reason. even the most original adventures or stories in the world can be broken down into tropes, either realized or subverted.

perhaps it is enough to decide which genres you're going to use, and therefore which frontiers will be available. then the players can choose which frontiers are most appealing, or you can hook them to where you want to go. if there are enough frontiers, you can always switch between them when you get bored or come up with a better idea.

i've obtained a pile of "adventure seeds" booklets, and i think the trick will be less finding seeds (tropes with backstory) that fit the pre-concieved notions i have about my campaign world, and more about figuring out which frontiers i want to exist, and working backstory into them, changing the world to make it more adventure-able.

or something... 8-)

a meme i snitched from Drive By Thinking.

Mark with bold the things you have knit, with italics the ones you plan to do sometime, and leave the rest.

————————————————————————
Afghan (on the needles, although i call it a blanket)
I-cord (only if i have to)
Garter stitch (please, no more??)
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down (the best way!)
Socks: toe-up (yeah, but not well...)
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hats: Top-down
Hats: Cuff-up
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting (heh, heh, heh...)
Participating in a KAL
Sweater (but none for me yet...)
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting (??)
Charity knitting (i keep meaning to...)
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan (soon...)
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own hand-spun yarn (spinning?? hah!)
Slippers
Graffiti knitting
Continental knitting
Combination knitting (best kind, baby!)
Designing knitted garments (well, making up stuff counts as designing, right?)
Cable stitch patterns (oh, yeah...)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Participate in an exchange
Scarf (well, i have one non-mobius, it's half done...)
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (not if i can help it!)
Knitting to make money
Buttonholes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dyeing with plant colors
Dyeing spinning fiber
Knitting items for a wedding (nope, only tatted...)
Household items
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on one or two circulars (nah... i likes me my little sticks!)
Knitting with someone else’s hand-spun yarn
Knitting with dpns (only all the time!)
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Tassels (reluctantly)
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton (and a sweater, to boot!)
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks (please, no!)
Knitting art
Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously (nope)
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener stitch (the only [good] way to close a sock!)
Knitted flowers
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching (sometimes... but they lie to me! i'd rather swatch with a part of the piece.)
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards (?) (if you mean left handed, then yes!)
Machine knitting
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn
Stuffed toys
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn (unfortunately?)
Writing a pattern
Gloves (well, just the one... it matched my mitten... they were both lost that first winter... sigh)
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO (maybe?)
Free-form knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/arm-warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an on-line knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting (?)
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public (on the bus every day... unless i'm tatting, that is...)

Brain Usage Profile

this explains a lot... sigh...

i took this quiz when i encountered it on someone else's blog, but didn't have time to post it then... then forgot about it... something about "problems with organization"?

http://mindmedia.com/brainworks/profiler
[My] Brain Usage Profile:

Auditory : 47%
Visual : 52%
Left : 47%
Right : 52%

dani, you are one of those rare individuals who are perfectly "balanced" in both your hemispheric tendencies and your sensory learning preferences. However, there is both good news and bad news.

A problem with hemispheric balance is that you will tend to feel more conflict than someone who has a clearly established dominance. At times the conflict will be between what you feel and what you think but will also involve how you attack problems and how you perceive information. Details which will seem important to the right hemis-phere will be discounted by the left and vice versa, which can present a hindrance to learning efficiently.

In the same vein, you may have a problem with organization. You might organize your time and/or space only to feel the need to reorganize five to ten weeks later.

On the positive side, you bring resources to problem-solving that others may not have. You can perceive the "big picture" and the essential details simultaneously and maintain the cognitive perspective required. You possess sufficient verbal skills to translate your intuition into a form which can be understood by others while still being able to access ideas and concepts which do not lend themselves to language.

Your balanced nature might lead you to second-guess yourself in artistic endeavors, losing some of the fluidity, spontaneity and creativity that otherwise would be yours.

With your balanced sensory styles, you process data alternately, at times visually and other times auditorially. This usage of separate memories may cause you to require more time to integrate information or re-access it. When presented with situations which force purely visual or purely auditory learning, increased anxiety is likely and your learning efficiency will decrease.

Your greatest benefit is that you can succeed in multiple fields due to the great plasticity and flexibility you possess.

8-)

glittens finished

it's hard to take pictures of both your hands at the same time... so i've only got the one to show, but it's much better that the last time you saw it!




this one is fitted so the tip doesn't slide around when i close my fist.

the other one, which is green, does not have this feature... but then it's a less useful hand overall.