Regarding rope belts for the weight.

We have the three belts with which we started.

Y'kar'us found an additional rope belt in the pit trap.

Sancho found an additional rope belt in the chandelier room.

Five total rope belts, each around 4' in length.

(I'll work on the assumption that each is a minimum length of approximately 36" to account for waist circumference, plus extra length in order to tie the knots. Typically, the coarser/thicker the rope, the more 'extra length' is required in order to successfully tie a knot.)

May I suggest we figure out an optimum configuration/distribution of rope belts, and implement going forward?

Two rope belts currently are in use as Y'kar'us' meteor hammer.

Sancho has two belts, currently unused.

Lisa has one belt, currently unused.

Sancho could take possession of Lisa's belt, if everyone is in agreement, and have at least 12' of rope to work with. That's not terrible for trap checking, and if we get to a point where we need additional length for whatever reason, we could disassemble the meteor hammer.

Thoughts?

Other configurations that make sense I'm missing?

This would allow for Sancho to lead with torch and trap-checker, Lisa follow and assist in trap-checking as needed; she also has two of the more effective weapons in the form of spear/sword shard. Y'kar'us can bring up the rear.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:44, Thu 15 Apr 2021.

yep, 3x4=12.

Lisa will give up her belt if needed.


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Sorry for being quiet. I'm in the middle of a two day conference and doing that in addition to my regular stuff/chores is kicking my butt. I'll try and get a post off in the morning before the day kicks off.

No worries, I've been slammed this week as well (and probably next week, too, now that I think about it, unless it rains the whole time).

If Y'kar'us is less verbose than usual, simply interpret it as "being shaken by the horrors of human immolation" following Dall's unfortunate demise. :D ;)

1/4 of total yard area weeded. And I mean weeded.

Insane amounts of various chickweeds, corn speedwell, prostate knotweed, et al.

Spent six+ hours weeding, raking (just to be thorough), then seeding.

I went from "weeds need a home, too" and "oh, that's a pretty blue flower, I wonder if it's a weed" the last two years, to: "if it blooms kill it with extreme prejudice and salt the earth!" :| :|
:D

There are limits to a pragmatic man's hippy-dippy-ness. :|


On another positive note, eggplants sprouted today, yayzer. Still waiting for the hot peppers and round two of sweet peppers to germinate. *fingers crossed*

Got 800 lbs of concrete and peagravel (400 each) for fence post mooring.

Drinking-water safe high-end hose reel should be here by end of day.

This is not how I imagined I'd spend my money and retirement years, but there it is. :p

My only comparable feat would have been extricating a colony of kudzu vines from a slope in Philadelphia. It was just myself, the slope, and the mother of all kudzus. We had a week together.

I take it you didn't earn all of your money from card tournaments?
This message was last edited by the player at 00:02, Mon 19 Apr 2021.

Kudzu. You're a better man than I.

I rarely played 'tourney champ;' rather, I had good ROI on cards purchased on the cheap and sold many years later after they appreciated immensely.

But that is not why I'm 'retired.' By retired, I mean I work harder than I ever did 9-5, I just don't get paid for it. Raising kiddo, gardening, housework, cleaning, cooking, homeschooling is way worse than I had it when I worked any number of other jobs.

So, 'retired' is more a barb at myself than a gloat. ;)

Anyway, I'm a Jewwk of all Trades, Master of None. :p

This hose reel is nicer than both our cars, lulz!

Clearly, you mastered the dealing of MtG cards!

Luck, and being in the right place at right time.

On the topic of collectibles and value, interested in your thoughts on Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).

I first heard of blockchain and the concept of NFTs back in 2007-ish, IIRC, prior to bitcoin. Once bitcoin hit, it was largely seen as complicit with the illegal online drugs trade, money laundering, et al. I stayed away, thinking the legitimate uses were limited. I still feel that way, but with prices hitting $64,000~ recently, clearly I was incorrect. (Bitcoin obviously is fungible, but same underlying tech: blockchains.)

Now, the new rage is ripe to "replace" the trading cart and sports memorabilia markets with NFTs: block-chained "sporting moments" of which a certain number "exist," and can be "owned, traded, and/or sold."

NBA is on the cutting edge in that regard. The market seems...frothy, to say the least, but maybe I'm just too old and unhip to "get" the appeal of non-material "highlights" that I can simply Utub for free.

I'll take my collectibles in playable card games (mtg) and late-19th century silver coinage, thank you very much.

Thoughts?
This message was last edited by the player at 14:03, Wed 21 Apr 2021.

Admittedly, I only read your post once but I'm not clear on what the actual product is here beyond saying that you spent $$$ on a media moment or something or other. I don't know what that would be.

Sports trading cards do seem very mid-to-late 20th century so they do need to evolve, I reckon. Or maybe certain commodities vanish without any replacement. I kind of get the sense that sports is in decline except of course for my own: soccer.

Digital blockchain technology is used to create inherently verifiable digital collectibles of varying "scarcity."

At least that's the best I understand it.

Instead of Topps printing out unlimited numbers of 1988 baseball cards, for example, they're selling digital collectibles.

Artists are using it, too.

It's just a really weird concept to me, not having a physical item to justify your investment in something like sports collectibles and/or art. Or whatever.

But as you say, evolution is inevitable.

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Re: Soccer. What was the deal with that Euro Super League? Sounds like a fiasco but I guess I don't understand exactly why there was such an uproar.

OK. Collectibles have little appeal to me. They can be a pleasant enough pastime or they can verge into hoarding/existential anxiety territory. I don't have that innate desire to show others what I have, whatever the form of it might be (solid or digital). Even with books, I only buy the occasional one to remind myself of the authors I like to read.

It's an American vs. Other concept of leagues. American leagues are fixed with the same teams every year, excluding the occasional move or expansion. *Other* soccer leagues have seasonal regulation such that the bottom 3 teams in each league drop out and the top 3 in the lower league advance. So a country like England has like 4 or more soccer leagues that function in this manner. It's a brilliant concept that doesn't grow old. It's like a AAA baseball club getting promoted to the Majors and then winning the World Series in a season or two (like Leicester City essentially did a few years back). Or on a smaller scale, a 10-man Leeds United squad (which got promoted last season) defeating Manchester City (the #1 team by a mile) a couple of weeks ago.

That super league was too fixed in structure too appeal to European soccer fans. The top German teams hadn't even signed on. It didn't make sense for other reasons as well. Manchester City already plays Manchester United at least 2x a year in the premier league. Why add X number of head-to-head in another less important league? Oversaturation. It was, of course, a naked cash grab as well. There is only so much greed soccer fans can withstand, it would seem.

Re: Soccer. Ah gotcha, so it was more a reaction against the way association football works vs. a more American-style "exposition" league.

Re: collectibles. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean re: existential anxiety issues around collecting. I have a few close friends in the MTG world that make me nervous just thinking about their collections, and the way they obsessively collect. It's largely what made me divest myself from a large amount of my valuable cards. I still have a good solid block of $$$ cards I play with, and I do hope down the line kiddo is interested, so I saved a bunch of the "nostalgic" cards (of little value, except to my childhood memories).

But with no intrinsic value, MTG cards make me nervous.

That's why I prefer silver coinage. Silver holds a certain value even if the collectible market somehow collapses, or the coin is in bad shape, etc. So you invest in the silver, and ideally/realistically you have a premium past that based on the coin's collectibility. Conversely, if silver prices plummet (as they are known to do), then they still have value as a rare coin.

Not my main investment strategy, for sure, but a nice side hedge.

Hey hey, kiddo found her first morel!

She's a natural!

Super proud dad moment. :)

Found another 80 this morning. :)

Couple of housekeeping questions re: items

1. I assume Lisa and Sancho split the Amulet and the vial; I gave Lisa the Amulet, Sancho the vial. If incorrect, please inform me of who has what.

(I previously missed adding these to the loot list, and map.)

2. Are the glowshroomms still aglowin', and if not, has Sancho discarded them for the torch, or is he still carrying them?

I will update the map later today.

EDIT: UPDATED-FYI
This message was last edited by the player at 16:02, Mon 26 Apr 2021.

I apologize for my silence. I hadn't realized I'd been away this long.

Work has been difficult these past two weeks. I've been working twelve hour days and trying to keep up with the house chores. So, there wasn't a lot of energy for posting and I lost track of how long it had been. I'll strive to do better.

In reply to Y'kar'us the Wight (msg # 176):

I think Sancho has both.



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Re: work & lyfe! It happens, no worries...prioritize your well-being and the game will flourish even if posts come a little less frequently. I'm sure the game (and us) will patiently wait for whenever you have time to post. :)

Anyone that has worked 12-hour days knows acutely how much that can drain a person.

Re: loot. Thanks for the clarification, Lisa, I will adjust the loot list accordingly!

I'll leave it to you two, Sancho & Lisa, whether we're going to continue forward into new room or backtrack to vines. Y'kar'us will serve as rearguard.

Ooooh! Updated map again, and I see they added monster stamps, one of which was a Giant Mushroom! :)

I can't really say that I've ever worked 12-hr days. I suppose a reasonably honest 7-hr day is the norm for me. There is the law of diminishing returns to consider, after all.

Re: investments. Haha, I think I bought 20 ounces of silver on a whim in graduate school. I have like a 1980 proof set of US coins. We have a Dali print on the wall.

I don't like the way I sound when I say this but we have too much $$ for retirement to be a concern. My wife is slated to have an 80% pension from her state job. There are various accounts. There is the house. There is the looming mortality of my aged parents and their plentiful assets. There is also my lack of appetite for luxury if you will. I like library books.

Our only real expenditures are on travel and the house.

Now, I must countenance this by saying that my daughter does not consider us to be wealthy. She says we have a "rich person's kitchen" in a .... uh ... well. This is in part because her friends at CalArts are from truly wealthy families.

I think I'm just saying, Y, that I have a rather passive interest in investments. My wife and I got our degrees before the gross overpricing of higher education. And we've worked ever since.