Whispers in the Windstorm

( Look Away If Need Be )

The good news: IT is finally in the game!

The bad news: With the new rules, you can START the game there.

Yep. Just schmoozing around with another LOTR deck again. Sorry, people. The entries will return, I promise.

( Another LOTR Deck You Don't Read )

Before I post:

HOLY CRAP! They came out with a Fifth Element DVD - with extras! TONS of 'em!

OK, now back to the show.

( A LOTR deck you don't care about )

Middle-Aged Man Rocks!

Work was thankfully slow Tuesday afternoon. I managed to get some plowing in done on my Amber games, and this morning I posted fresh to the Demon game. So, with the sad demise of the Cthulhu game, I am mostly caught up. This afternoon, if time permits, I'll do an audit of Flashback status, and I might cogitate on whether the experiment is working. I'm also hoping to write another VTES deck for tomorrow.

(Speaking of Thursdays, letting R'n'N (and hopefully Matt) know right now that I'm not available for next Thursday, but that Brian is amenable to making the 16th a 7th Sea day. (I will be occupied by entertaining a very special company of guests.) I hope it works out with Matt's schedule.

Anyways, back to Tuesday. Got home, did some light chatting while pulling cards for LOTR. It was actually somewhat nastily snowing all the drive home and the drive out to Brian's. However, I turned up the heat as soon as I got into the car from work, and had on work clothes and my parka. By the time I got home, I was a little...stuffy. So I put on shorts and a T-shirt, and wore that to Brian's. Except for ten minutes in the car after I left Brian's, it worked out fine.

Got to Brian's around 8PM, and Charlie, Brian and Rob were about to start a three-player game. I asked them to do so, as I had two decks to assemble and sleeve. Their game went fine, and I managed to get all the decks assembled, one old deck taken apart, and my spares sorted by block for filing. A job well done indeed!

Game 1 was against Brian, and was my Rohan/Gondor/Easterlings deck against his Elves/Nazgul deck. Black Riders are a little annoying (but not in an unfair-to-own way, just in a non-unique Nazgul kind of way). But having a 13-strength unwoundable damage +3! Easterling was not altogether too shabby. I think I'll pull out the Thundering Hosts and replace them with City of Men, and the Rohan guy who gets sites (but is screwed by the Shadows site rules) is coming out for someone else. Eventually Frodo got to meet an enduring Nazgul and died horribly.

Game 2 was against Rob, and was my Middle-Aged Man deck against Elves (sigh)/Sauron. This time, my Gandalf just ROCKED! That is, until I realized that he couldn't swap in for Frodo's skirmish, and wounds started landing on him like cream cheese on a bagel. (Oooh, forgot - new Foamy. Go check it out.) My Orcs were more powerful than expected - but a last-minute double-play by Rob spared him having to assign Frodo to a skirmish, so he ran all the way. Gotta get me a fourth Persistent Orc - those guys just rock for a swarm. (Kept calling the Orc Orcs Moria Orcs. Go figure.)

Both games were good, but suggested improvements in their decks - which is also good. If it wasn't the case that I'm building VTES today and building MTG either Friday or Saturday, I'd rebuild then. Perhaps Monday night (sigh).

After the games, we talked for a good long time - about Journey, Gen-Con So-Cal, LOTR Click-tech, and general stuff. I left Brian's at a rather shocking 1:25. The car was covered with snow that I had no real interest in dealing with, so I dove into the car, started it, and let the heater clear the snow. It sort of worked - after TWENTY minutes, I might add. Wish I'd brought my Palmpilot - Bookworm would have flown by. :) I got home around 2AM, and pretty much went to bed immediately.

Woke up this morning at the delightful time of 8:19. Ugh. Still feel grungy. But the morning's work is a slow project with a lot of down time - printing presentation booklets for Gary. So I can get stuff like this done. Yayyyy!

Eat Snacky Smores.

( LOTR Standard Deck, Post-Shadows: Middle-Age Man )

( LOTR Standard Deck, Post-Shadows: Two Men and a Truck of Exertions )

Oh, my GOD, has that song been stuck in my head. And it's a terrifyingly depressing song, it is.

LOTR went better than I expected. Rob wasn't obsessed about Greenleaf, and indeed actually built one or two decks I was creatively impressed with. I figure in about three weeks I'll be annoyed to death with them - or I'll start packing Terrible As The Dawn just for sport. But Charlie, Rob and I played three three-player games and they were all right. Maybe there's hope for the dear boy. He's a nice guy - which is part of the problem - but he's a pro player in a casual player's body. Sigh.

Monday night was pretty keen. After a bit of misnavigation on my part (in which I was delightfully accompanied by phone), I arrived at Sebastian's place. We played Kung Fu Chaos for a bit, and in Freestyle mode I totally kicked. That shotgun limit break is just whacked. Anyway, we then watched Season 2 of Red vs. Blue. Sebastian says it's more coherently laid out than Season One, and it's pretty darn good. I'm surprised it can be done with just the basic Halo game. The switching back from Red to Blue can be disconcerting, but the sweeps over the landscape help. Then I showed them a little Foamy the Squirrel, and they were unimpressed. Hmph. They're not getting into the cult, that's for darn sure.

Yesterday at work was annoying and busy. Plan documents are starting to sweep my way - I've got four on my desk that are halfway through, and two already done this week. And it's only a three-day week. In addition, Rick HAS to have a Powerpoint presentation done today, so I've been running that down, too. I was also tired after my fruitless attempt to pull away from chatting and HL2 on Monday night, so I don't think I was really in a mental frame for writing Amber - hence my post on the OOC thread, maudlin and all. I'm feeling okay right now, and the afternoon promises to be free. So I've got hope.

(But LORD do I feel rotten for having let it bake so long. And my players are KILLING me with their patience, bless 'em.)

I also have to write more for Laughing Boy - but I hit his first Flashback so right on the money that it's hard to go further. (And yes, Kathy, I owe you two files. I tried to send them once, but apparently I hadn't updated my email at home for current addy. Again tonight.)

Matt tried to set up a lunch, but he's way tired. I might try to find my way to Crooked Hat Games tonight, as he's playing a tournament there. (Might sneak up on Brian, too - little rascal that he is.)

And I wish someone would take my car money and buy me a newer car. Putting down so much money is terribly intimidating for me, even though I [b]do[/b] need one that can make long trips. To Iowa, dear. :)

Feelin' pretty good.

Eat Snacky Smores.

P.S. I will try to be online and connected to AIM for most of Friday. (You hear that, Kathy and Karen? AIM! Not MSN, which not only has a lesser interface in my view, but also appears to be randomly activating (sorry about that, Kathy).

Or at least, it's certainly making me suffer for my enjoyment.

Let's reverse this entry and talk backwards. First, this morning.

Got up at 8:16. AGAIN. Icky. Threw on my stuff, put White Rain on my hair as a totally inadequate substitute for shampooing, and rushed to the car. The section of Dundee immediately adjacent to my work is still closed, so I'm taking Palatine to work. (I could take Route 22, but it's got many more bottlenecks.) Went a lot less smooth than yesterday - I think I left two minutes later than yesterday, and arrived about 20 minutes later. Half a lunch for me. Got to work, had a bagel and an apple and found out that Outlook was down. Said "Unable to display the selected folder or item. The attempt to log on to the Microsoft Exchange Server computer has failed." In addition, the scanner continues to not like us. We had a guy from the copier company come out to look at the scanner. He managed to figure out that it was more than likely a result of our server thinking that it's maxed out on hard drive space. So we await the tender attentions of the good people at Sterling to look at our hard drive, our virus protection, AND our email system. Oh, the joy they will have.

After putting that in motion, I started in on today's workload, and since they can't scan things (yayyyy!), I have a respite from counting. So it's all good. :)

(Mid-write update - we can no longer back up files. The server is so full that the catalog for a backup tape can't be stored anywhere. The whole server is going to Heck in a handbasket, and Sterling appears to have given a 'whenever we get there' response. Wonderful people.)

After I got home from Mike's house last night, I told myself that now was a good time to clean off my bed, bring my laundry downstairs, and tidy for an hour. I then proceeded to play Ratchet and Clank 3 until 3:30AM. In some respects, it's nastier than Diablo in the addictiveness angle. While Diablo encourages you to continue to play through loot drops and leveling, it can be a very sedate game at times. Excluding the time spent loading levels, RC3 is rather adrenaline-filled. You're moving, running, shooting and (cooool Splitter Rifle) sniping the whole time. Plus, there's no 'lives' concept - you just play and play and play. You never have to reload a saved game - you play until you stop, you save and quit, you load and play again. Sheesh, this thing's got a moray eel's teeth.

But I've gotten to Qwark's Secret Hideout, I've bought the third level of armor (I think), I have only one weapon to buy right now (the Kwak-a-lyzer, I think), and my hit points are at least above 60 if not above 80. I have 5 skill points and have found at least 10 platinum bolts, plus the trophies for the Plumber and Dr. Nefarious. Oh yeah, and I only got 4 hours sleep - but who needs that? Silly silly.

Sebastian missed us at Mike's house, so Ernie, Mike and myself played War of the Ring. Quite a neat game, I thought. There are many Shadow side cards that allow you to kill your own guys to give the remainder combat bonuses. Quite reminiscent of Operation Human Shield from South Park: BLAU. I played Saruman, Mike played Sauron, and Ernie played the Free Peoples. (I thought Mike should have played Free Peoples, myself. But the dice do not lie.) Saruman juiced up his forces, but only attacked after Sauron had moved. The Southrons, on the other hand, rallied beneath Pelargir, and in addition...sacked Erebor. Yeah, that was a march. :) We slew all the defenders - including Gandalf the WHITE. The Witch-king invaded Minas Tirith, which went down to a strong siege. Rohan only went to war late and never mustered any troops. The Fellowship was in Mirkwood when the Fords of Isen fell to Saruman's attack. With little to defend Helm's Deep and the only substantial force of Gondor holed up in Dol Amroth, Frodo and Aragorn decided that the world was unsavable. They walked up to the nearest Orc and handed him the Ring. (Translation - Ernie was getting irritated and I offered to call the game, which he accepted.) On an unrelated note, EQ is probably done for the year more or less, as Ernie has accepted a nighttime hours post for $0.90 more per hour. Can't blame him, but I suspect Sebastian might become a little erratic as well. We shall see.

Yesterday at work was pretty reasonable. I spent the morning training Mary how to use Corbel to generate a retirement plan document. I went into the situation somewhat unsettled - it's not an easy thing taking your essential skills in your position and making sure someone else knows them. But as the morning drew on, I came to a different conclusion. To wit, the situations she was encountering were rather lame from my jaded perspective, and yet I was still asked a lot of questions about Word interface and Windows file manipulation. So even if I pass on how to USE Corbel, I'm still quite the passed master at it - which restores some of the sense of security I was feeling erode away before this. After lunch, I worked on the problem of our server a little, did some regular work, and otherwise felt busy and valuable for the rest of the day. It felt pretty good, actually. Stopped off at Randhurst Mall to look for stuff, then went to the Pretzel Bakery. Two large pretzels and a large pop, only $3 and change. Not too shabby in this day and age.

Monday's driving, despite the construction on Dundee, was really quite nice. Palatine was mostly quiet and fast, and there were only a few minutes of congestion near Waukegan. Shame, really - it was pretty comfortable. I'd no idea how annoying the same route would be that evening or the next morning. (And yes, I'm taking it tonight, too. There's just no good way north, and it's the closest reasonable east-west route south of here. Actually, I -could- take 94 - I think there's a northbound exit east of here on Dundee. I'll research it.)

(Interruption of the present - walked to Starbucks for a sandwich and brownie lunch, and when I had returned the network was back up and running. So back to work I went. Icky. :) And Decipher's announced that they are rotating Fellowship block out of their tournaments. Which means they'll be designing cards they don't really intend to be used with Fellowship block cards - which our group has no intention of abandoning. Ooooh, joy. Decipher's just gone crazy.

Once again, spent a LONNNG time Sunday night/Monday morning playing RC3. I'm thinking about going back to RC1 after I finish 3 - just because I feel funny having won 2 and 3 but not 1. Just a completionist. I've also been playing Deus Ex from time to time - played the opening mission about six times. I've mellowed from a few years ago - I'm much more relaxed about stunning the terrorists as opposed to taking head shots on them. But I'm snagging passwords for all of my co-counter-terrorists, so I've become more devious. Neato-keano. I'm trying to remember what else happened on Sunday - drawing a blank right now. Aargh. Stupid swiss-cheese head.

Tonight's LOTR promises interest. Rob is absent for a second week, having gone to Disneyworld despite having only a part-time job and 2.5 kids to feed. He can't spend $6.25 for a starter for LOTR, but he can throw airfare and vacation money around. Weird. His life, his choice. I might tune some existing decks to go to Shadows format - I won't have to lug my cards outside this time. :)

And a question for the madding crowd of fans. What do you normally do for New Year's? I'll answer it first. I'm a holiday grinch, more or less - I'll eat a meal on Thanksgiving, hide from idiots on Halloween, and give and receive on Christmas. I might say "Happy New Year's" to the world if I'm outside at the moment. Otherwise, most holidays are either annoying (because I have to work but I get no mail) or the rare occasion of comfort (because I get to sleep in - but still no mail). So what will I do for New Year's?

"What do we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world."

Eat Snacky Smores.

Time! I have TIME!

Once again, I return to these hallowed pages. And again, I'll optimistically delude myself into thinking I'll catch up with previous days as well. Aggh.

Yesterday was quite counting-intensive. And I finally finished that PDF I've been promising. Enjoy a peek at how horrible it really is to be me sometimes.

Last night was actually quite fun! I came home, took the lid off the crock pot for five seconds (which accidentally added ten minutes to the cooking time, darn it) and went upstairs to pull cards for my two LOTR decks. I managed to remember to bring in my deck lists, so I didn't need to log on and get them again (although I could have needed to, </a></b></a>). I had a wonderful chicken stew dinner, and Brian arrived and we drove out to Ken's place.

Ken's dog is annoying. I'm just sayin'.

We played a long three-player game before Charlie arrived. I was Elves/Men, Brian was Knights/Uruks, and Ken was Gandalf/Hobbits/Men Men. Nobody double-moved eveeeer, so it was rather painstaking. Ken and I were using Muster Frodo and I was using a non-unique Elf with muster, so near the end of the game, both Ken and I had nearly depleted libraries. Ken showed me the value of Lathspell (which isn't spoiled as a picture yet, sorry), and I learned how having 2-vitality Men Men ain't so grand. (But Leggie's Bow kicks some major butt.)

Charlie arrived and we played two 2-player games. Ken rolled high and played Charlie. Brian and I faced off. I played Dwarves/Nazgul/Gollum, and he played Dead Wizards' Society and Nazgul. I still can't believe I ran out of discarded Nazgul. That just blew. But I got a taste of how Hatred Stirred and Incited could get REALLY nasty, especially with 'win to play' response events like Nasty, Foul Hobbitses and You're A Liar And A Thief and even In The Ringwraith's Wake. But that deck is just rude. (Well, as Brian says, mayyyyybe for Rob.)

We left around 11:30, and Brian dropped me off at home a little after midnight. (And who knew a Mickey D's could get so dark?) I ran in, grabbed a shopping list, and darted out to Dominick's for a half hour. Shop shop shop - many pears were bought. ($0.69/pound ain't nothing to sneeze at.) I got home and unloaded, went upstairs and checked mail. I talked to </a></b></a>matt for a while, and might be seeing him this Saturday. Happy birthday, man! Then I finally got tired and went to bed.

This morning, I realized that my TV had not been adjusted for Daylight Savings Time, so I got up at 6:30 instead of 7:30. I managed to control my hour-long nap afterwards, however, and showered and dressed and got to work on time. Car's going beautifully, thank you. This morning has been the laziest in quite some time, as I channeled over 5,000 pages yesterday. I actually managed to wedge paper sideways at the back of the trashcan, and then keep going up, and keep wedging behind. I think if I'd tried, I might have gotten the paper on top of the can to be taller than the can itself. Recreation through masochism, baby.

Anyway, I'm going to be teaching Mary how to use Corbel today. Oh joy. Stop my heart from a-pitter-pattering.

Tip for the day - Change is frightening. But sometimes, not changing can be worse.

Eat Snacky Smores.

( LOTR Standard Deck, Post-Shadows: Songs Provide Inspiration )

( LOTR Standard Deck, Post-Shadows: Not Quite An Alliance of Elves and Men )

Tuesday was pretty nice. I started the day with five to six hours' sleep after pulling an all-nighter Sunday night. Dad and I were voting together, and he was kind enough to drive me over. Voting was quick and painless - but I was somewhat perplexed that there were no resolutions, initiatives, millages, or anything that wasn't 'pick a name'. Dad thought there was going to be some sort of rural firefighter initiative - but apparently our district isn't being asked to pay for it. Hmmmm. And there were two judgeships (which I'm really not sure we should be voting on) in which the Republican was running unopposed. Sheesh. Anyway, Dad and I had a vigorous political discussion all morning. Mom hates what I refer to as "animated discussions" and what she calls "just shouting" (but it isn't, really - she just doesn't like raised voices), and she was just as happy to see us leave. :) After voting, Dad drove me up the street to Starbucks' - peppermint latte and a orange-cranberry muffin. Nummy. Then he dropped me off at home and I drove to work - getting there early in I don't know HOW long. Gotta try to do that more often.

Work was somewhat energized, even if it was only page-counting, really. I took some pictures of my workload, and I plan to create a photo album showing exactly what kind of workload it is, and how much of an endless river it'll be. (Sigh - I'm alternating between writing this and counting pages right now.) But I let the trash can pile up higher than I've ever done before, just to be silly. I also got absolute CRAP done in terms of sorting my LOTR Shadows stuff, or deckbuilding with it. So I piled it into the car again and drove home as soon as I could. I finished A Bad Place - pretty good, actually, even if a somewhat sedentary epilogue. I got home, sat down in front of my PC, talked to Myra and chatted with Matt a bit, and then pulled up my LOTR database to get cracking on deckbuilding. And it was only then that I realized that my LOTR database still has around 100+ holes in it, as I'm typing information only as the cards get posted on Decipher, so that I can keep my records current as to the weblink of the picture. So - no Shadows deckbuilding for me. :( I decided that I still had some time, so I booted up Deus Ex again (and a shout out to Al Schaefer who reminded me how good it was), and I played the training level. Unfortunately, the last exercise was to get by a patrol bot and through to a door. I decided to simply throw a crate of TNT at the bot, which did two things. A) it blew my legs off, so I couldn't run or jump any more, and B) I only found out later that it set off an alarm that locked the door. So I spent around a half hour, slowly walking around, only to give up. I hate that. I grabbed my Shadows, my decks, my site box, and a spare two-lane box, and drove out to Rob's place.

LOTR was a little annoying, but all right. Rob is a rather rabid Bush supporter (which even now I still don't even comprehend, really - but that's probably part of the fabric of the cloak that's being draped over Kerry's campaign even as we speak), so it was disconcerting to hear him cheer things I was inclined to boo. But I decided to spend my time getting Shadows in order, as I could give commons to Brian, Charlie and Rob and some uncommons to Brian. (Along with the four uncommon sites.) I actually finished sorting, winnowing and filing JUST as the evening was drawing to a close (so no actual GAMES), and we sat and watched news for a few minutes. It amazes me to some extent that most networks were displaying the totals of the states they'd called already - and then displaying the individual states on a scroll bar at the bottom of the screen; even the one's they'd already called. I mean - if I'm watching the news, and it's 200-200, do I really need to know that Kansas was already decided? I think the most useful information would simply be reporting the current margins in undecided states, and races that haven't been resolved. (Perhaps breaking in once every ten minutes to report won senatorial and gubernatorial races would be reasonable.) But we left Rob's, and Brian said that he was more into LOTR now that Ken is expressing greater interest - always a good thing. Brian was considering not playing next week, but given that Ken's interested in playing, and Rob's on vacation - it made for a winning combo, apparently. Yayyy! So I drove home, getting home around 12:30AM, and decided to play through the intro to Deus Ex again.

This time, I ran by the bot, crept up to the bridge and keyed in the activation code, and slipped through. (It also took me precisely one try to run the stealth test, as opposed to ten or so the first time. I wish they'd give you a zapper for that one, though - so much easier. :) I then decided to play the main game. I got caught up in it, and I was almost halfway down the Statue of Liberty when I died - without saving. SIGH. I'm gonna see if I can afford Master Sniper next time I start - the middle ranking just isn't cutting it. I have to get too close to snipe - I'm still a little agog that at some points, it was sensible to switch from the sniper rifle to the zapper - a melee weapon. That's not right. I finally decided to get some sleep, after chatting a little bit with Karen. (Hope you feel better! Drink citrus tea and play KOTOR!)

Oh, and I got a sticker when I voted. It says "Proud to Vote", and I put it on my wallet.

Eat Snacky Smores.

First, I'm in a Champions of Kamigawa release event online right now. My rares are:

He Who Hungers (foil)
Iname, Death ASpect
Takena, Samurai General
Imi Status
Moonring Mirror

Blah.

So where I left off was Wednesday afternoon. Sheesh, that's a long time ago. (Won my first round against a W/B player.) Last you heard, I was working and getting ready to go home for dinner and Scrabble. Dinner was GREAT. The three of us went out to Fritzl's, a very nice German restaurant. I went out on a limb and had the Jaeger Schnitzel - basically breaded veal with a wild mushroom sauce. Excellent. I also got to order schnitzel with the spaezel. Very phlegmy. But we also had a quite enjoyable conversation as well. I felt pretty mature, even if I was talking to the parents I live with.

Home and two excellent games of Scrabble with my dearest - who was unfortunately distracted by the fact that her hometown Cardinals were beaten 4-0 by the Red Sox. While I, as a Cubs fan, do like the Red Sox, as they are equally cursed, I was sympathetic for the Cards, too. Awww. So we chatted for a while, and then I actually don't remember what I did after that. Possibly KOTOR, as I'm trying to drive to the finish line in Dark side before KOTOR 2 comes out. Sleep briefly.

Thursday was acceptably uneventful. I had a totally fun lunch where I ate the second half of the schnitzel and read the next section of Gilgalen's background. Very good stuff! It's kind of a shame that he can't get introduced quite yet - but just means more time to bake until he's fully toasted. Oh, and I gotta say that Subway subs are okay toasted. I never thought Quizno's was so special for toasting things, but now they're even LESS special. :)

Thursday night gaming. Brian, Ernie, and Dennis (who plays a lot of the mini games I don't play, so it's a rarity for us to play a game together). But first, I bought some packs of Reflections for LOTR. I don't have the order down any more - I sorted them, sorry - but here's what I found in ONE pack of Reflections. Oddly enough, there were NO Reflections cards in it - but I don't care one bit.

Egclaf, Courageous Farmer - FOIL
You're a Liar and a Thief - FOIL
Don't Follow the Lights - FOIL
Isengard Tinker - FOIL
Legolas' Sword - FOIL
Balglin, Elven Warrior - FOIL
Horn of Helm - FOIL
Ulaire Nertea, WInged Hunter - FOIL
Forearmed - FOIL
Easterling Polearm - FOIL
Durin's Tower - RARE FOIL
Held - RARE FOIL
Winged and Ominous - RARE FOIL
Master Broke His Promise - RARE FOIL
Break the Charge (AI) - RARE FOIL
Desert Stalker - RARE FOIL
Foul Gorde (AI) - RARE FOIL
Army of Haradrim (AI) - RARE FOIL

And the Foul Horde looks pretty awesome. My first-ever god pack, and it was quite a moment. Whoo-hoooo! Anyway, we introduced Dennis to German games with the classic - Settlers of Catan. He won it, but I'm thinking it was more because 6 came up a heck of a lot more than 8. Hmph.

(Oops - Round 2 is starting. Back soon.)

Crap. Lost it to a green critter who needs multiple blockers - and my guys were black "can't block" guys. Oh well. 1-1 is not a bad record.

Then we played Apples to Apples after Dennis left. It was a good time (as Apples to Apples always is), and we talked for a while and then ditched. I recall having to go to the bathroom as I was driving home, and I took my mind off it by calling Chris and talking to him for 45 minutes. What a trooper! After I got home, I sat down with Sony's Sound Forge for a project I've been thinking about for a month now. It was surprisingly easy to get the basic form together - I'll probably do it again when I'm more certian how I want it to sound. But here's the preliminary form. I was really happy with it, and I pestered my local Matt (as opposed to GM Matt, who didn't even SHOW UP at 3AM - the nerve) to listen to it, even though he really has no interest in the game. Thanks, man. :) Then I waited a little longer, and Karen showed up. That was cool. Then I went to bed somewhere around 5AM. I'm like that.

Friday was an unusual day, good and bad. Work was pure nothing. Bits and pieces of page counting, but that got out of the way fairly soon. During lunch, I drove down to Glenview for a bit, but midway there, my car's engine light came on. It ran out of coolant about 8 months ago, and the car started smoking. So I was relatively confident that it was a sloooooow coolant leak, and that I could handle it at a gas station. So I called Dad to confirm the problem, and he insisted I put water in it right away - a good idea. So I filled up a Snapple bottle and a Pepsi bottle at the water fountain in the building, and I put about 3ish quarts in. That got me back to work.

After work, I stopped at a gas station and got coolant. I'd never SEEN coolant before so up close, so I called Dad to confirm that it should be a gooey green. Dad confirmed this, but then told me I shouldn't be putting coolant in, as I could have a monster leak and could just be pouring coolant on the ground. I was trying to get to Be A Gamer before 7PM, though - sort of in a hurry. So I kind of blew that off, even though I did have a logical reason for being more trusting in the car. He was a little piqued at that. Wahh. So I started driving. Immediately, I took the wrong turn, which cost me a swing around Dundee and Pfingsten. I-294 was a little crowded, and I-90 was okayyyyy. I talked to Dad again. He said Mom was miffed at my rather flagrant use of the car for personal reasons when it wasn't doing so hot. I thought more clearly about this this time, and responded that the car had ABSOLUTELY no coolant put in for at least three months, if not longer. So the only circumstance that might dictate cuation was a tremendous acceleration in the leak, which I believed unlikely. And as it happens, I was right. He was only okay about it - he's very sensitive about following his advice. You really can't disagree with him (in his mind) without him thinking you don't care about him as a person. Sighhhh. So that went blag. Then I called Myra, as she was on the road to St. Louis for the weekend. She was doing well for a long drive, and we talked for the rest of the trip to BaG. I got there at 7:04, but they were still wide open, despite Ken's email saying "DON'T GO TO BE A GAMER - THEY'RE CLOSED". (Caps were used.) So anyway, Charlie shows up in a minute or two, and Ken soon after. Siighhhh. Silly people. I picked up the EQ RPG main book, the Exalted books for Aspect of Air and Aspect of Fire, the card game Modern Art, a booster of LOTR click-tech, a starter for Spycraft (which I still haven't played), and Fluxx 3.0, which has some cool new cards.

We went over to Ken's house after that. And drove through quite possibly one of the nastiest cloudbursts I've ever driven through. I've seen one as hard, but it didn't last nearly as long. And Charlie and I don't know the way to Ken's house, so we had to follow Ken's tail lights. My windshield has some interior misting problems, so oncoming headlights SUCK in rain that bad. It was quite disturbing. But it was late and not many people were as foolish as we were to be on the road, so we got there in safety. Yayyy! Then we opened stuff we'd bought and I showed them Foamy strips. Ken showed me how CoH plays (kind of cool, but I'm still not getting involved), and we left. Got home and played some KOTOR, watched bits of Prince of Tides with Mom, and traded songs with Talen. Went to sleep somewhere around 5AM, and for once woke up after 1PM. I -never- get to do that. :)

So today, I've been playing a Kamigawa release event online, and I suspect I'm going to Walker's with Mom afterwards. Coooool. Then I might go to Mike Selk's house. Tomorrow I gotta figure out how to get out of the house between 2PM and 9PM.

Hooligans.

Rats. Lost the match. But now I get to go to Walker's. Yayyyyy!

Eat Snacky Smores.

Suffice it to say that I want the God Pack next to me when I write what happened between Wednesday afternoon and Friday evening. Tease tease.

(Oh, and happy, Rich? This one's short.)

Here is LOTR's current Standard Format Exclusion (or X) List. I'm including notations as a seasoned CCG player and a strong yet casual LOTR player.

Dwarven Companion - Gimli, Dwarf of the Mountain-race - 2 P 121
- The new sites include at least three Mountains, if not more. If you arrange to make those sites 7-9, you could have quite the cake-walk in the late game.

Dwarven Condition - Aggression - 8 C 1
This was just too much card draw and AFTER THAT it was giving Dwarves the damage bonuses they craved. They've been hitting card draw for a while now - not surprised this went.

Dwarven Condition - Memories of Darkness - 10 U 2
I can't actually remember why this one went away. But rest assued it was an infinite combo - the Mount Doom designers were good at letting those slip in.

Elven Ally - Elrond, Lord of Rivendell - 1 R 40
The original card-drawing animal. He provoked both his own banning and the Rule of 4.

Elven Ally - Galadriel, Lady of Light - 1 R 45
Number of Elf Companions and Allies in the game: 58 excluding Galadriel
Number of Elven culture cards with the word "heal" in it: 21
Chances a properly constructed deck will EVER pay for an Elf: ZERO
"I play six elves and move. There's your nine pool." Oops.

Elven Ally - Galadriel, Lady of the Golden Wood - 3 R 17
The exertionless heal (as opposed to Elrond, Herald of Gil-galad) was a bit much - and now with the new rules, there's a LOT of forests.

Elven Companion - Legolas, Dauntless Hunter - 4 R 73
Um, granted the only new guy to show up was Farmer Maggot, Hobbit of the Marish. But seeing as allies are on their way out, Dauntless was going to get worse and worse.

Gandalf Ally - Ottar, Man of Laketown - 1 R 80
The other half of the old-school card drawing madness, with Elrond. And wasn't it conveeeeenient that that Elrond just happened to heal Ottar?

Gandalf Condition - Steadfast Champion - 7 U 49
With Treebeard, Keeper of the Watchwood and Stay This Madness, this turned into "During the regroup phase, discard all minions and Shadow conditions."
Umm. That's bad. That's real bad.

Gondor Companion - Aragorn, Heir to the White City - 3 R 38
Pool choke bad.

Gondor Companion - Gondorian Captain - 7 C 96
He combined with Base of Mindolluin, this would create a deck with no FP cards in it after site 3. So the Shadow side would be...rather more powerful.

Gondor Condition - No Stranger to the Shadows - 1 U 108
Pool choke bad.

Gondor Possession - Flaming Brand - 2 R 32
Kind of a weak case then and now. If Flaming Brands are allowed, it turns Nazgul into a very unpopular minion, though. So they want all the 84 cards that mention Nazgul to stand a chance to be played once in a while, so they kicked it out.

Gondor Possession - Horn of Boromir - 3 R 42
Um, Tom Bombadil. Come up here again! We need a strength 14 guy with 9 vitality! AGAIN!

Rohan Condition - Fortress Never Fallen - 4 U 276
I think this one was a tournament meta thing. I don't get it so much.

Shire Companion - Sam, Son of Hamfast - 1 C 311
"And just when we introduce Resistance as a concept to make removing burdens MORE powerful, guess which most efficient way of removing burdens is hitting the streets?" But seriously, between that and his 'pick up the Ring' thing, Sam was getting WAY too played. Decipher (and indeed, most CCG studios) don't like it when a card appears in 90% of tournament decks. That's boring.

Shire Condition - Shire Countryside, The - 3 R 113
The most recent banning, it comes with the new version of Erland, Dale Counselor that would have been "Exert him to go get Nine-fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom. Exert Merry, Friend to Sam twice to pump up someone. Use Smeagol, Slinker to add a burden. Play NFRD to remove the burden, triggering three Shire Countrysides. Remove all those three exertions. Repeat until you overwhelm Sauron." Not so good.

Shire Condition - Talent For Not Being Seen, A - 1 U 316
Pool choke bad.

Shire Event - Get On And Get Away - 4 R 304
While this logically makes sense to leave as the site path becomes infinitely more flexible, they've put in a LOT of site path manipulation in Shadows. Feh.

Shire Possession - Bill the Pony - 3 U 106
Pool choke BAD. How many times do I have to say it?

Shire Possession - Frying Pan - 3 C 108
Too many Orcs + Water Ring = No Orc wins a skirmish, and Moria has NO SHOT at overwhelming Frodo. NONE.

Shire Possession - Sting - 1 R 313
This was thrown out because at the time, Frodo had to be in every deck, so this was always playable - and it fed off the cheapest resource in the game, Hobbit vitality. I still remember when I heard pro players were saying stuff like, "You mean we'll play, and he won't know what's in my hand? Wow." That's sad.

Now, 22 cards on the list are Free Peoples. Only NINE are Shadow side. And yet in Shadows, Free People decks get no bumps whatsoever (and some damn fine cards), and Shadows get raped halfway to Australia. Makes perfect sense.

Isengard Artifact - Palantir of Orthanc, The - 3 R 67
Hey Rob - remember that look on Brian's face when you told him he was never drawing cards again? Yeah, that one?
Remember that. Or at least try.

Isengard Condition - Saruman's Snows - 1 C 138
Recent ban with Shadows. Not sure why yet.

Isengard Event - Savagery to Match Their Numbers - 1 R 139
Fierce + Damage +1 = four wounds for two cards. And the second makes it easier to win said skirmish, as well. Sheesh.

Isengard Minion - Saruman, Keeper of Isengard - 3 R 68
The original traffic cop. "Okay, Saruman's out, and there's 15 pool left. No skirmishes with him. Moving on?"

Moria Condition - Relics of Moria - 1 R 195
The funniest item on this list. This was actually announced as a ban to hurt Moria in trade for losing Frying Pan. Could they ban Goblin Scimitar? Of course not. Could they ban Plundered Armories, which I believe to be FAR worse that Relics? Nope. But it didn't matter much - this was a banning for the sake of banning. Silly company.

Ringwraith Minion - Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow - 2 R 75
A recent ban, given the Ringbearers from Reflections who all hate skirmishes. But Ferny was on the borderline for some time. An unopposable four-point skirmish pump was rather powerful and didn't require spotting a Nazgul to play. (You know, if Bill had said 'The Free Peoples player may not assign a character to skirmish Bill Ferny. Cannot be assigned to a skirmish if a Nazgul is not assigned to that skirmish.', he'd have been a LOT more reasonable. (Nazgul are so freaking huge that a 4-point bonus would be negligible.)

Ringwraith Minion - Ulaire Nertea, Messenger of Dol Guldur - 1 U 234
Took me a while to get this. Realized he was banned for hanging out in Moria, where he drew large crowds.

Sauron Event - Forces of Mordor - 1 C 248
Banned for not requiring to spot a Sauron minion. Simple, really.

Sauron Minion - Mordor Fiend - 10 C 91
Three cards chain with this to form an infinite loop - Alive and Unspoiled (which might create a pointless infinite loop, but then again - what isn't), No Defense, and Underdeeps of Moria (which isn't an infinite loop, but basically turns your deck into only a Shadow deck).

Got home, talked to Myra on the phone for a bit while unpacking and packing up stuff, and drove out to Brian's. Apparently Rob had been there for an hour, and Brian had been hiding upstairs for half that time, "looking" for Star Wars cards Rob wanted. (By the way, if anyone reading this has a foil See-Threepio from Endor, we have a buyer.) But anyway, they were in a game, and Rob is apparently pulling out decks based on opponents now, as he has played a hand choke deck (Smeagol and Faramir wandering around one site at a time) 2-for-2 against Brian, and his Gollum/Easterling corruption deck 2-for-2 against me, and then pulled out a reliable archery/archery deck for the multiplayer. He's got five decks built right now, and one is a Tower block deck. So that's one for me, one for Charlie, one for Brian and one for multiplayer. I really wonder sometimes if that's what he's doing. Sigh.

Well, anyway, as soon as Brian lost his game, we played a three-player game. Rob was (as described above) playing Elf archery and Shadow-side El Cheapo Archery. Brian was playing Gondor knights and Uruks. I was doing Elves with Eomer and Sauron site control (go-go Gothmoggggggggg). Rob and I were constantly double-moving - I don't think Brian double-moved the whole game. I'm not sure if it was always a dangerous proposition, or if he was trying to anchor down the bottom sites so that they couldn't be stolen. Anyway, I got to site 8, and Rob moved past me. If we'd had one or two more minions, it might have worked out - but once again, Legolas Greenleaf saved his bacon. (If anyone reading this can explain why Decipher hasn't put Greenie on the X-List, I wanna know. At this point, especially with Shadow cultures taking the hit they're taking in Shadows, I'm surprised that they're leaving Fellowship cultures all their old uber-toys. Rob wins, Jeff second, Brian third. Charlie arrived somewhere in the middle of this, and we played two 2-player games. Rob and I danced as usual - but I held him off until site 8 this time. I actually don't know how Brian and Charlie did - but I have a strong feeling that both of them enjoyed their game. Good for them.

We then talked about Shadows. I'd made a decision last week to get into Shadows, just because I'll see cards I want to fool around with, and I'll feel frustrated if I can't get them. (Besides, I'm just as likely to invest in Shadows heavily over time anyway - at least this way, I save money.) Brian has any number of reasons not to get involved - but the one I'll respect is that he's feeling financial and time pressure to spend more time away from us silly gamers. The others (he's not enjoying the game as much, he's enjoying click-tech games more, he's annoyed with Decipher over the shadow culture reset, and especially the song of sadness he kicked out last night about the Tengwar Anduril and how it's going to be a tournament promo. Funny enough, Brian hasn't been chasing all the pre-release and LOTR Online promos, but this one - this one gets to him. Suuuuuuure. I think his displeasure with Rob's play style has just saturated to the point where he feels it's the game's fault. But anyway, he's not buying Shadows, and he's more seriously talking about pulling back attendance. Apparently, he's not too concerned about the fact that any session he doesn't attend (unless Ken suddenly revives) is gonna be a non-session, as it will turn pretty solidly into an inability to play a game without Rob. But anyway. Rob can't afford to get into Shadows at all - but he'll probably do the paper sites thing like Brian is. Charlie's getting a few boxes. I haven't heard from Ken, Matt or Ernie yet - but I'm not all that confident. So I think my LOTR group is rather teetering on the edge of annihilation. Couple that with the fact that Brian made a big point last week of saying that he didn't feel a great pressure to play Doomtown this Thursday, and the fact that we only play Magic (the only game Brian's expressed a commitment to keep that we share), and the fact that I have no interest in playing any of the click-tech games he's fleeing Rob to play, and Brian and I might wind up getting pretty scarce. Kind of feels like an end of an era. Siiiiigh.

So after we hashed out a lot of Shadows stuff, I drove home, listening to The Bad Place. I sat in the driveway and listened to it for a while, but with zippo comprehension, as I had to rewind the tape again this morning.

Got off to a late start again - siiigh. I'm gonna work through lunch today just to remind myself that late ain't great, even though Mary is letting it slide. I'm teaching her Corbel again this afternoon, and then home for dinner and Scrabble with my dearest. (So all of my RPG buddies, wait until after 10:30 to see me.) We'll see what I have energy left to do tonight.

Siiiiiiiiiigh...

Eat Snacky Smores.

( LOTR Standard Deck, Pre-Shadows: At the Corner of Hollywood and Nine )

First, read this rather optimistic note (with particular emphasis on the paragraph on Gollum:

"...Gollum cards from Shadows will probably not add much to the solo Gollum culture deck type [often referred to as Ninja Gollum]..."

Now look at this freaking Shadow side:

Gollum Culture

4 - Condition - Hidden Even From Her - 8 U 22
4 - Condition - Not Yet Vanquished - 11 R 48
2 - Condition - Promise Keeping - 8 R 24
2 - Condition - Reclaim the Precious - 10 U 22
4 - Condition - They Stole It - 6 R 46
4 - Event - Captured by the Ring - 7 C 53
2 - Event - Horribly Strong - 11 R 43
4 - Event - You're A Liar And A Thief - 6 C 47
4 - Minion - Gollum, Stinker - 5 R 25
4 - Minion - Shelob, Her Ladyship - 10 R 23
4 - Possession - Web - 8 C 30

This WILL kill people, and it will be mondo accelerated by Not Yet Vanquished.

Decipher is just losing their minds.

Eat Snacky Smores.

Well, it's been a rather...annoying...two days since last I wrote here seriously. Let me preface my remarks by saying that I hate, I mean I HATE counting pages! It's so meaningless as to be truly Sisyphean. Our company has endless reams of paper for retirement plans that no longer exist. We are obliged to keep records, however, in case the IRS decides to suddenly look up our butt for records on the 12/31/1998 plan year for the XYZ XXX plan that was only maintained from 1997 to 2001. But we are not obliged to keep the actual paper, however, and so we are converting the lots and lots of truly old documents to PDFs. To give you an idea of the scale of the project, right now we have a directory with 20,212 files taking up 60.3 GB. GB. But when you're scanning 2,000 pages a day, apparently it's important to verify that the copier/scanner didn't pull two pages at once, or otherwise screw up. So, first I get to rename the files from the random stuff the scanner spits out to something meaningful. Our computer consultants put together an Intranet page to do this, so that's not so bad. Then, I pull stacks of folders from material that has been scanned.

Step 1 - Pick a folder at random.
Step 2 - Find the PDF that matches the contents of the folder
Step 3 - Look at the page count at the bottom of the PDF (anywhere from 1 to 400-something)
Step 4 - Count every freaking page in the folder to make sure the contents match.
Step 5 - Throw the paper away, save the folder for later re-use.
Step 6 - Die a little inside.
Step 7 - Lather, Rinse, Repeat. (Which, on a separate note, IS a good idea. The first shampooing normally just handles the oil on your scalp. The second shampooing really does the work. This tidbit is mostly for guys to learn.)

I usually call it a day of scanning when my trash can can't take any more. And that's after packing it down once or twice. And another annoying part of scanning is, of course, that alt-tabbing and typing are relatively difficult to accomplish while doing it. It's like driving at 7 MPH. It's not fast enough to actually get anywhere, but it's too fast to do something more enjoyable, like read or sort cards. You just get to sit there, making sure the gap between you and the guy in front of you doesn't grow too rapidly.

Siiiiiiiigh...

Anyway, back to the news. I last left off on Monday afternoon, I believe. I got an email from Sebastian saying that he was socked under with work, both that night and early the next morning, so he'd be missing Monday night gaming. I decided that I had plenty to do at home myself, so I notified Ernie and Mike that I would not be available. I told the folks I'd be home, and we arranged dinner at Chili's. (No, I'm not gonna link it today. There was a linkfest, and now it's over. Cry if you need to.) I had the citrus lime chicken and shrimp - definitely both a health AND delicious choice. Then it was back home. I was all ready to sort and build for LOTR - just need to check my mail. Hey, look who's here!? Cool! I get to try out Scrabble Online two days early!

And suddenly it's 11:30, and Mom's reminding me that I said I'd go to the store. But in the intervening time, I apparently had some sort of weird savant moment and won two games out of three. That never happens. I think she was just upset by the Cards losing another game in the ninth. (Or she was upset that she couldn't watch the game, because the Red Sox were taking the Yankees to 14 innings.) Anyway, we said our tearful goodbyes, and I went grocery shopping.

I love, I mean I looooooove Dominick's when I'm the only customer. It's so ME-centric. Of course, if I didn't have my headphones on, I could take advantage of this by pestering all the clerks. But that's the other bennie to shopping alone - you can wear headphones and not have to maintain your peripheral awareness. You can even walk side-by-side with your cart, so you can move faster without constantly kicking it. AND, you get to pick out semi-reasonable stuff and put it on someone else's bill. Heh heh. So that was good. Got home, unloaded and put away groceries, and went upstairs. Unfortunately, now it was 1 o'clock AM, and my motive force was quite depleted. So I screwed around with MTGO for a while, played some more Scrabble, and drifted asleep.

Tuesday. Yucky, yucky Tuesday. I don't remember when this happened specifically, but one thing I found out was that the nice book on tape I'm listening to comes on many tapes, and the first six are tapes 1, 2, 3, 4, 4 and 6. And I'm not skipping tape 5 for any reason other than it isn't in the flipping box! Arrrgh. And of course, the receipt is long gone. But I'm going to Barnes & Noble tonight to ask anyways. But far worse than the book being interrupted was the return of the counting. It was set aside (as far as I can tell) with the rush of October 15th projects, but it's back, and in spades. I'd take a picture of the stack in the copy room, but I don't want to frighten myself unnecessarily. But anyway, I picked up Return of the King Anthology, so my lunch was fish on the run. (Not on the swim - I'm not swimming to All-Star Trading.) I was surprised at the amount of Reflections in the box, and only somewhat startled that there was no Siege of Gondor. But 4 packs of Reflections, 6 packs of King and 1 pack of Doom retail for close to $45 - and Paul's listing them at $26! And then you also get the mighty fine box AND the Tengwar promos? Not a bad deal at all. And I now own four Morgul Kings, always a good thing. Of course, some idiot brakes hard in front of me on the way back (taking Waukegan rather than I-94, as I noticed on the way south that there was lane closures northbound), and the cards wound up on the floor. I picked them up quickly, but it was still one more crap to put up with.

The afternoon either sailed by very fast, or was blotted out of my mind due to the horror that IS counting. I don't know. But I don't remember much of it. I remember taking three phone calls in ten minutes on the way home (two being Chris, so they count as one), and then she called me after I got home and had sat down for a minute. I was glad to talk to her, but my mood was rather spoiled at the time. Sorry, my dear. But I decided that I'd gather my cards and take them to Charlie's, as he had asked for two cards from inventory. My new big-a$$ bag is definitely longer - I can fit four shoeboxes in it side-by-side and still have room. But it's also a little more unwieldy due to its larger size. Time will tell as to whether that is a property of the bag or of my reflexes still trained on the earlier one. I snagged a dinner in components and headed out the door.

LOTR was okay. I didn't play - merely sorted and filed - but Ken, Charlie and Rob played two three-player games. We also watched Game 6 of the ALCS. Quite neat to see Boston doing so well - it's cool to come back from so far down, and it's cool that they're another of the 'never-won-in-SOOOOO-long' teams. I cannot root for them in the World Series, as that would constitute rooting against the Cards. But I do want them to beat the Yankees, as they've gotten more than their share in recent years. And I hate foreign foils. Icky. But by the time I left LOTR, I was in a much better mood and generally felt better.

Drove back home, brought the bag upstairs, said hi to Mom, and then brought stuff up from the dining room table and made a reasonable attempt to clean up the floor. I also bumped into Garvey online, and he and I talked for quite a while. He's apparently figured out a critical feature of his wannabe chat program, so we might be talking more as time goes on. Tee hee. That was a good time. And "Five More Minutes" came back up! Foamy the Squirrel rocks. I'm contemplating getting the DVD, just to have it available away from the PC. "Jiggly Butt" is also good, albeit embarrassingly so, some would say.

Drifted to sleep around 2:30, woke up at 7:30 - and then 8:50. That sucked. Called work to say I'd be late, showered and brushed, and pretty leisurely drove to work, which was nice. I wish work started at 11AM, ended at 4PM, and gave me a full eight hours a day. Where's that job? I want it. But the counting is still here. I've progressed a little bit, but I'm also catching up to my Amber game and keeping current on the other games. I've got three of four LOTR spoilers typed out (apparently Decipher's server broke down in the middle - rats), and then we went to the October 15th Lunch. It was good, albeit a little fatty. Everyone else talked about baseball and favorite/unfavorite clients, and I stroked my beard. Just finished that a little bit ago, and I'm back to counting pages agains. Siiiigh.

I hate counting pages.

Eat Snacky Smores.