I finished the first two volumes of David Petersen’s Mouse Guard. Gorgeous art and fantastic storytelling. It was one of those stories where I was immediately drawn in and I instantly cared about the main characters. Petersen’s rich worldbuilding reminds me of when I first read Dinotopia. It seems so effortless, like he’s just chronicling the events of an actual place. Highly recommended.

If Luke Crane shows up to run the Mouse Guard RPG at PAX East, I got dibs on Saxon.

Master Mao, all around cool cat,  is recovering from whatever adventure led to his fractured foot. The vet told me to keep him inside for a week and then bring him back for an exam. True to his chill nature, Master Mao hasn’t let a splint and a cast get in his way. I even had to chase him down when one of the maintenance guys left the door open and Mao went tearing off. He likes hanging out here, but he’s used to being an outdoor cat.

He’s become even more affectionate and clingy after coming back from the vet. Maybe he understands that I helped him out. While he’s technically a stray and no one can be said to own Master Mao, he’s certainly become important to me over the last year. Seeing him with his leg all twisted broke my heart. I couldn’t *not* help him. The vet kept the cost down to $200 and even gave me a payment plan option. Not a big deal. I mean, we’re talking about Master Mao here.

Tags: cats, photos

While the iPad is not an immediate must buy for me, I still find it compelling and can envision owning one. I’ve been thinking about having some kind of electronic book reader for a while. I like the Amazon app on the iPhone, but it would be nice if it were, well, bigger. So just from an e-book reader point of view, the iPad makes more sense than the Kindle DX (the most analogous competitor in terms of size). It is the same way that it made more sense to buy a PS3 than a dedicated Bluray player. The PS3 plays your Bluray discs. Oh, and it also plays hundreds of video games. So for $10 more you can get a color, multi-touch e-book reader that also does thousands of other things. And since the Kindle app works on the iPad, the iPad for all intents and purposes *is* a Kindle.

The total cost of ownership for a book is definitely higher on the iPad, though. The same $10 book on the Kindle is going to cost you $25 on the iPad when you factor in the minimum $15/month data plan. Of course, you could amortize the charge over, say, 10 books and then you’re down to $11.50 TCO per book, which isn’t bad.

The size of the thing really does matter. There’s lots of applications on the iPhone that I wish were bigger and easier to interact with, but not so large that I would need a full sized computer to use. Playing virtual board games seems like a real possibility now. How cool would an iPad port of Carcassonne be? And how cool would the inevitable comic book reader be? I’m intrigued by the iPad’s potential to be the platform for Harry Potter-esque newspapers with interactive content. Web sites do that now, yes, but there’s something cool about holding it in your hand.

I was sad to see there was no camera, so Dave and I’s musings of super easy telepresence will not become reality.

Tonight I brought House of Whack to Boards ‘n Brews. It was good to see it on the table again. I hadn’t taught the game to new players in ages, but this was the smoothest explanation so far. There were four players, a really good size group for newcomers. We played the straight up “Inside the Box” version with nothing fancy. The Throne of Swift and Whimsical Judgment came into play and there was a pretty amusing trial as a result. Dan had a legitimate beef with Jeff, namely being forced to stand while playing and walk around in a circle. The jury was split and it came down to a roll off, which Jeff won. That’s how it goes down sometimes.

Jeff pulled ahead of everyone on the score track and took home a copy of the game. Good times!

Using a tripod and remote control overcomes my camera’s limitations and vastly improves the photo quality. I can use more appropriate exposure settings in low light situations without the usual grain or blur.

Tags: photos

I’ve been messing around with my camera some more. I joined an amateur photography meetup and went to my first meetup with them today. It was a blustery day at the state capitol building and about twenty-five of us gathered on the steps.

The guy in charge really knew what he was talking about and gave us all useful advice about basic digital camera settings. Even though this was an amateur photographer meetup, I noticed that most everyone was packing some serious hardware. I felt lens envy. Theirs were all longer than mine.

The instruction went on for several hours and it was really cold, so I ended up not sticking around to actually practice what I had just learned, other than a few random shots I got off. Even those looked a lot better in terms of exposure and picture quality than the sorts of photos I’ve taken in the past.

Fortunately, my skills at Photoshop make me look like a slightly better photographer than I actually am.

Tags: photos

I had assumed I was heading toward the usual Friday night routine of XBox and Netflix, my faithful companions. Then I got a text from Reed, inviting me out to hear his roommate play a gig at Momo’s. It is always a good idea to say yes to Reed because a good time is assured. Read the rest of this entry »

My apartment complex can be a loud place, especially with all the college age kids living here. During the first year I moved here, it was not unusual for an outdoor jam session covering Pink Floyd’s Greatest Hits to start up around midnight. I could listen or close my bedroom door and all was well.

But to be awoken at 3AM with my bed vibrating from the sub woofer downstairs is another matter. I had gone down and talked to this guy a few months ago and hadn’t had any problems since then. But now there was some kind of party with loud music, people yelling, etc.

I went downstairs and knocked on the door for a while. No answer. They couldn’t hear me inside, it was that loud. So I went back upstairs and called the police, feeling like the old man who spoils the  kids’ fun and shuts down their rock ‘n roll music.

And it wasn’t like they were listening to Disturbed. It was Dave Matthews.

It’s almost impossible not to donate to the relief efforts in Haiti. I don’t even mean from a social responsibility standpoint. Ways to donate are just everywhere, so I end up sending money without even trying. At the grocery store, at the meetup group and the most irresistible avenue: games. $20 at drivethrurpg.com was magically changed into $40 for Doctors Without Borders and $1400 worth of PDF role-playing games and supplements. I barely even know what I bought. The offer was too compelling to ignore.