My cat, who wasn't eating, has started again!  He's not quite eating with the same vigor, and because he's seemed to develop an aversion to nearly everything we already owned (due to him being nauseated for unknown reasons for 4 days), but at least he's eating!  And he seems to be more vocal, more perky, and acting much more normal.  So yay!

If you read the "I need some help." thread, you will be reading a whole lot of Good.

That wonderful moment when one of your players sends you the mock-up art for the PCs' school jackets, and says she wants to order actual ones for the players. As a GM? Blown. Away.

Here's to being prepared...

One of our performers choked on her lunch yesterday, upstairs in the dressing rooms, while the rest of us were down on the stage, talking.  She started beating her hand on the stair rail to get someone's attention...and someone noticed, and yelled, "She's choking!"

It's been thirty years and change since I was taught the Heimlich maneuver (First Aid training in the Boy Scouts), and in all that time, I've never needed to use it...never even seen it used, except as a gag bit in comedy movies.  But I remembered it well enough that I went into auto-pilot the moment I realized nobody else was moving.  And it worked, and someone is still alive because I paid attention in Boy Scouts a LONG time ago.

I don't share this because I find myself heroic.  I share it because it's really easy to tell ourselves, "I'll never need to know that," or, "Someone else will know what to do if that's ever needed."  But sometimes, YOU are that 'someone else'.  We can't be prepared for everything...but there are a lot of situations we can be prepared for.  Learn what you can.  It's not just an advertising cliche when they say you migyt save someone's life.

I like to say that when someone's life is on the line, it'll be saved or lost based on knowledge and skills that go unused in day-to-day life.

Therefore, unless you roll 15+ (to put it in gaming terms :), choosing to know nothing beyond day-to-day stuff will be a death sentance for someone. The fewer people with those life saving skills, the more higher you need to roll.

GEIST 2E PREVIEW! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

My brother, now two years cancer-free. They say if he hits three, he's completely out of the woods. I'm so damn happy I could cry!


And me... Eating healthier. Finding fruits and vegetables I really like. Smaller portions. I mean, granted, I'm on day four of this, and the cravings for pizza are strong, but man... I never thought I'd like good-for-me food! It's kinda awesome!

Went to my company's Christmas party dressed as an elf. Santa and Mrs. Claus visited us for cookies and milk and took photos with the children. My supervisor asked a few of us to dress up as elves and help with the kiddos. Santa came with his own troupe of elves, but we got to help out anyway. It went well and we've been invited to Elf School on Friday. After that, we'll do a few parties and the town parade this weekend. So excited!

I know the feeling. Very best of luck!

You're gonna walk out knowing how to use the longbow and longsword! Excellent! :D

Ran a half marathon in my elf costume. Almost passed out from the heat and it added five minutes to my time, but it was still great. 13th in my gender/age group. 113th overall.

Going with the 'glass is half full' line of thought, I'm glad my timing belt decided to slip Wednesday night, leaving work, rather than waiting until, say, a couple of days before Christmas, when I'd be driving to see friends and family and could have broken down twenty miles from anywhere.  It'll be fixed in time for the holidays.

I was very unhappy about it when it happened.  A little perspective has given me plenty of reason to be glad.

Me, a bit incredulously: "Alexa: play 'If I were a Rich man'".
Alexa: "Playing 'If I were a Rich man', by Fiddler on the Roof."

And the mellow voice of Topol wafts through the air.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the user at 05:13, Thu 14 Dec 2017.

I posted the eighth chapter of my web novella today. I also received my first feedback. It's a bad review, but I like bad reviews best, so the criticism is welcome.

Okay. So. I'm late to the party on this one, but I've been holding back on looking for information, hoping it might come to me first. But, I got into a debate with someone and...

https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/1.B36120

NASA CONFIRMED THE EM DRIVE WORKS! It's not like... it's still not 100% and "needs to be reconciled with physics" but it's... IT'S A THING! AND THINGS ARE... JUST... AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

Additional Paper on the subject: https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.2015-4083
Original Experiments: http://ssi.org/2016-breakthrou...pulsion-proceedings/
A well-done layman's explanation: https://motherboard.vice.com/e...ion-system-explained

Edited for a minor correction. Original Paper wasn't original paper. XD My bad.
This message was last edited by the user at 19:59, Tue 02 Jan 2018.

In reply to Tyr Hawk (msg # 760):

There was an engine tested a few years ago, I think the developers called it an Ion drive, where it slowly built thrust.
During the initial orbital test it went to nearly full operation and then shut down at the last second due to some failure?
Is this that same drive version 2?

It is not. The EM Drive has only been through the studies I linked over the past two years, and in none of them did it fail. Ion propulsion has been a thing for a while according to https://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/fs21grc.html , so if it was an Ion drive it would've been an experimental one trying something new. The EM Drive is awesome because it breaks one of the laws of physics (or at least as we understand them), and, thus far, it has only been confirmed in experiments (few as they may be).*

Truly a wondrous time to live in. :)

*Again, it is still possible it doesn't actually work the way we think it does, but 2/2 on direct experiments and 1/1 on "Well, it's not this instead" is reason to get excited in my book!

Bah!  The "Laws" of Physics are just guesses anyway.  :p

Yeah, the cool/baffling thing about the EM Drive is there is no discernable reason why it should create thrust...but it does.  I can't remember the article I saw that speculated on what makes it work (or, rather, cited a paper speculating on why it works)...

But it doesn't burn any fuel.  It doesn't have any exhaust.  It's terrible, for those reasons, for rapid acceleration.  But because it doesn't burn fuel, it's an incredible theoretical option for long-duration voyages, because it can continue accelerating beyond its initial thrust to break orbit...which means it has the potential to build up speeds that, heretofore, have been the stuff of dreams.  If I recall correctly (it's been a long time since I read any articles about it, so I may have this wrong), it is speculated that, if they can scale it up to an appropriate size and it still functions in the way it has with small-scale tests, it would cut travel time to Mars down to a couple of months or less...

Spent nearly eight hours bowling and playing laser tag with my family for my seventh anniversary Monday.  My wife even got in on the laser tag for a few games; she prefers bowling, but the kids wanted laser tag and video games.  All-in-all, a good anniversary.  She had fun shooting at me.LOL

That sounds like a great anniversary!


After an entire lifetime of being sedentary (and paying the health price for such) I am now on week 3 of biking (stationary bike in my apartment) 3 days a week, adding one minute to the ride each time. Today I crested 19 minutes 20 seconds. Super proud of myself!

In reply to facemaker329 (msg # 764):

Add in that, because there's no fuel, you don't have to allocate space for fuel in your build, which accounts for huge amounts of both volume and weight in modern rockets and spaceship design. Now, getting it to the point where it could lift a rocket off the ground is currently difficult to imagine, but for spaceships it's incredible.

Also, new Monster Hunter World trailer and beta announcement has me so hyped! SUCH NERDGASM.

WHOOOOOOOoooooooooOOOOOOO strong Onion! and Horseradish... I finally got my turkey sandwich "recipe" down pat. Very cheap, very yummy, and (sort of) SPICY! I'd be glad to make anyone one, if they want one. I'll even give you a REAL one if you ever come by my part of Kansas. Whoooo! Very strong. :'D

*Hands out onion and horseradish SPIIIiiiIIICY turkey sandwiches* This'll clear the sinuses. Well, and maybe the room. :|

Edit: I'll post the recipe elsewhere on CC.
This message was last edited by the user at 10:47, Sat 13 Jan 2018.

In reply to V_V (msg # 768):

Mind sharing the recipe? I'm curious and would love to try "V's Spicy Turkey Sandwich".

Wrapping up my third consecutive week of "gotta be done by the end of the week" projects...and everything worked out well, all three times!  Masquerade mask stencils for a New Years Eve event, a pile of clothes to be altered for a friend who left for Thailand first thing this week, and makeup for The Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and The Cowardly Lion for promotional photos for the show.

This also puts me WAY ahead of the game for the actual show run.  I've never had a chance to 'test run' prosthetics this far in advance.  I need to remake a few pieces...but I know I've got stuff that will work, and look good.