Moving

by on November 15, 2005 at 1:45 pm
Posted In: Life

For those who are not following Smudge‘s LJ….

A couple weeks ago, we got notice that the rent on our apartment would be going up at the end of the year. And they were trying to pressure us into a six-month lease again. So we went apartment/house hunting.

Our secret weapon? We had another friend, Dave Bryant, who was paying a bit much for the corner of a house he was occupying. So, we could look for a bigger place, and let the shared rent bring the average lower for all of us. We all know each other (Dave not only roomed with Baron at one point, but Dave regularly comes over to watch Anime with us.), so we know what we were getting into. Of course, he has his own business, so we’re looking for a place for four people and two businesses.

The househunting began.

While we had some early disappointments, it was encouraging to find a steady trickle of places that were more-or-less what we wanted, and were in our price range.

So we found a place that had it all (give or take a few square feet), and applied for a credit check. I’ve just gotten word from Smudge that we passed the check, and we now have a place to move to. It’s a corner owner’s unit in Sunnyvale. We just need to hammer out when, how and how much. By my understanding it’ll start around the beginning of December.

I’m afraid with all the money that’s going to be thrown around to do this, I’ll be lucky not to have to borrow money from somewhere, so don’t expect much (if anything) in the way of Christmas presents from me this year. Month-to-month outlay is going to get a lot better, but the short-term is horrible. I’m thinking of celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day instead. Or even celebrate Christmas by the Julian calendar (which turns it into Jan 7, 2006 Gregorian -_^), but that’s probably not enough time to have money again.

I’m also thinking of posting the new address and phone friends-locked here. It’ll be harder to loose than an email, and I might even be able to use it for ‘what’s my address again’ at some point. But if you want to see it, you have to be on my friends list, which means having a login that I can put on the list (this means YOU Mom & Dad… ^_^). Or not; I’m not sure it’s the brightest idea.

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Impressing the Natives

by on November 5, 2005 at 8:36 pm
Posted In: SFB

Well, today was another round of SFB. A three-way free-for-all generic patrol scenario. Well, not quite generic: we had a planet and moon on board for terrain. It’s interesting how something like that can focus the action, even though it doesn’t take any active part in it. Usually, the battle will go drifting off to one side or another, but in this case it keeps heading back to the area between the two bodies.

Y136

Mike James Mark
Klingon Kzinti Lyran
D6 114 CS 118 CC 143
D6 114 CS 118 DD 78
F5 72 FF 62 DD 78
Total 300 298 299

I had followed my own earlier advice and only loaded the left side disruptors, which meant that from the start my plan was to turn right (showing my left side) and try to manage some sort of decent pass… against the Lyrans, who started on that side of me. We both ended up near the moon in the last quarter of the turn. He caved in the #6 shield of a CS, I managed to tractor a DD at range two in hopes of getting good drone hits.

Alas, it was not to be, the end of the turn hit, and the 2:1 power ratio for a long-range tractor beam meant he could devote a lot more power to negative tractor than I could afford, even with a bigger ship. So I slowed down from the power I spent trying to keep it up, and he ran away from the drones. On the other hand I got a fair number of close-range shots, crippling the DD while the Lyrans pulled out of the drone-infested area. I probably should have gone with my first instinct and done a 270 turn right to pass the moon back on the same side I’d come from and present the opposite side from my down shield. Instead I went straight and then U-turned left to present the other side that way while keeping myself behind the Lyran force, which was now approaching the oncoming Klingon force.

While I showed this was a lot more ungainly than I first thought, the Lyrans and Klingons traded a couple shots but did not come to close-quarters, not doing much more than weaken both left side shields of the CC. And I received some more long-range shots into my down shield for my trouble.

The Klingons then engaged me, knocking down the #2 on the other CS and at the beginning of turn 3 volleying disruptors at the FF and mostly missing. Between turn 2 and 3, the Klingons built up a respectable drone wave which I refused to clean up and passed on to engage the Lyrans again at the end of turn 3. I probably should have used my forest of ph-3s to clean the drones and pursue the Klingons where they have shields to match my weapons (that is, almost non-existent). The Lyrans volleyed and mostly missed the FF again, but it still had to eat a full strength ESG. In return, I knocked down a shield on the CC and started doing internals there.

We had to pack it up after energy allocation on 4, but hope to continue it online. I’ve got a damaged CS, a FF that’s getting beaten up fast against Klingons who only have a couple dented shields and a Lyran force that still potent but a bit worn. I’m winning on points, but if I disengage now, it’d give them enough points to even it out. So watch updates here as I try to keep from losing it all….

An extra note, internals stayed pretty close to the the center of the chart today. We’ve had a grand total of one Torp hit and one Drone hit in all the internals so far (and I had to do that one the hard way, with the collumn F hit on 9 instead of the A hit on 3).

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Conifur 2005

by on October 24, 2005 at 2:04 pm
Posted In: Conventions

Well, we’re back. Four days of craziness, business, and hotel food. And, most of all, fun. I’ve been to ConiFur five years ago, but its events which have kept me away in the meantime, not a lack of desire to go.

The trip up on Thursday was also the first time I’ve ever been on an airplane. With my odd and unpredictable acrophobia, I wasn’t entirely sure how I’d react. The good news is that it didn’t bother me. Not even in the jetway which was bouncing up and down and side to side a bit (which is exactly the type of thing to set me off). On the other hand, the seats were tiny and cramped. CalTrain is a lot more comfortable, which is a good thing, since I have to do that trip five times a week.

So we got in early Thursday, and got settled in pretty quickly. We met up with Gerald and went on an outing to the Woodland Park Zoo. We got through maybe a third of the place, and got real lucky. We arrived at the Raptor Center just in time to see their hunting birds/raptors put through their paces on free-flight exercise.

Friday morning, Smudge finally got the final word on the Ebin & May graphic novels: Go. Despite a regrettable single-page snafu, the graphic novels were as good as they were going to get. We got everyone’s names, and will be shipping out corrected pages to be slipped into the book. Sales on the GN were strong, with somewhat less than a third as many coming back with us as we took to the show. In fact, table sales and the art show were pretty good for us overall.

The hotel was nice and close to the airport. In fact, it was in easy driving range of a lot of things. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a car with us, and it wasn’t really in walking range of much. So, we ate at the hotel restaurant (decent) a bit more than we would have liked. The hotel staff was very nice and cheerful, so full marks there. However, it’s due to be demolished for a mass-transit station in a couple months, so ConiFur will be starting the search for their fourth hotel.

All in all, a good show for BackBreaker, and a nice chance to relax and see some out-of-state friends.

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Branch Office

by on October 18, 2005 at 9:47 am
Posted In: MMO

I have to say, I hadn’t expected this one.

Several of the friends that we sucked onto the Uther server to become part of MinionsOfTheFickleMuse play Horde by preference. So one of them started a new Horde character on Uther. This lead to a mass creation of Horde characters by most of the main cast of Fickle Muse last Friday.

It was an interesting experience to have several other people right in the same low-level boat as you. An established character helping out a new one is pretty easy, but when everyone is dealing with the limited resources of low-level characters, it’s a bit more challenging.

WoW keeps the two sides (Horde and Alliance) from talking or otherwise communicating, so the Alliance character’s resources and guild are unavailable to Horde characters on the same server.

Last night, we picked up a couple stragglers and the Horde guild MinionsOfTheFickleMoos became official! (All my fault after noticing that most of the characters would likely be Tauren. Smudge‘s idea of ‘Horde of the Fickle Muse’ was also good.)

So I’m involved in two guilds (or maybe it’s 1 1/2), and I’m a founding member in both….

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