I really liked the short Line Signal that was highlighted on io9. Although perhaps for different reasons than the plot line. The area where she's jogging looks quite a bit like the C&O/Cumberland Trail in West Virginia/Maryland/DC. Enough to give me a slight sense of deja vu, right down to the picnic table. I can picture having a ghostly encounter out there all alone, even if I don't believe in ghosts.
LINE SIGNAL - Short Film from Meat Bingo on Vimeo.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Catch up (and not the blogging kind)
I think I'm almost caught up with most of the big things. My team was at work 8-2 yesterday (Saturday) getting our product ready to go out the door and, as a non-programming manager, I took care of tracking down representatives for systems that weren't functioning properly and working on the employee awards program work I've been putting off forever because I had/have taxes to complete and rental property fences to help with and so much other work and family time. The awards program work included fixing an Infopath form, which was the tricky bit, because I didn't have the right licensing originally and the intern who had created it wasn't around to work on it. The very last button I pushed overrode all the historic forms and wiped the team view for five years, but the data is still there, just hidden and, like a smart person, I backed up the xsn so I can get back to a few versions. At least I hope that's the case.
I have a bit left to do on my personal taxes, but my wife was still getting her data entered and I have them 99% of the way there. And I have application security work to do this week (security artifacts in the backlog as part of the delivery process - I'm not even vaguely sure what documenting that looks like yet) and a product to get out the door and a dryer to replace at a rental property, but all that stuff was also there when I had other work, so it feels more under control. I think post-Saturday work, it'll turn out to be a quiet weekend of bicycling, coffee, and treadmilling while watching the new Daredevil series on Netflix.
Ah, and I ordered the Castle Panic expansions (the Wizard one and the Dark Titan - better description from Fireside games here), although they won't get here for a few days. I really like Castle Panic, so hopefully this will get my family reinvolved. I don't think The Dark Titan released before yesterday (table top game day). Klund says I should play Star Realms, but I'm a little wary of starting a semi-collectible deck-building game. Eryn has an urge to play miniatures and I can't support two hobbies at once.
I have a bit left to do on my personal taxes, but my wife was still getting her data entered and I have them 99% of the way there. And I have application security work to do this week (security artifacts in the backlog as part of the delivery process - I'm not even vaguely sure what documenting that looks like yet) and a product to get out the door and a dryer to replace at a rental property, but all that stuff was also there when I had other work, so it feels more under control. I think post-Saturday work, it'll turn out to be a quiet weekend of bicycling, coffee, and treadmilling while watching the new Daredevil series on Netflix.
Ah, and I ordered the Castle Panic expansions (the Wizard one and the Dark Titan - better description from Fireside games here), although they won't get here for a few days. I really like Castle Panic, so hopefully this will get my family reinvolved. I don't think The Dark Titan released before yesterday (table top game day). Klund says I should play Star Realms, but I'm a little wary of starting a semi-collectible deck-building game. Eryn has an urge to play miniatures and I can't support two hobbies at once.
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
FFG Redux
We told my wife all about how much fun we had at Fantasy Flight Games, so when she was off work on Friday we took her up there for coffee, lunch, and gaming. I think we spent over 4.5 hours there and most of it was because she was having fun (not that we weren't). It was a huge gaming week at our house. In addition to two trips to FFG, we also played Castle Dice at Dunn Brothers on Wednesday night (and took a huge book on the history of NASCAR to work as a gift for Ron and left candy with the security guard), Masterpiece, and Boss Monster. Ah...and Dominion. Two sets. The shelves are having an effect.
While we were at FFG we played Cthulhu Fluxx again, three person this time. And we learned Wasabi, where you order your sushi with extra wasabi points for putting the ingredients in the right order. There are special cards for moving pieces around, stacking them, and swapping them, so it starts to be a real challenge getting the rare ingredients to stay in place on the board.
Here's part way into Wasabi. Some of the ingredients have a single tile. We tried to determine how many games are on their shelves. If you go with a reasonable 10 per shelf and 7 shelves per case, there are over 500 games there. I think it's significantly more. An amazing collection including some Kickstarter-ed games. Half the fun is just reviewing them to see what you want to play next.
We also played Get Bit! which Eryn has wanted to play since she saw it on Table Top. What do you call the first player to lose at Get Bit? Bob.
Swim faster little guys!
And we got in a game of Alhambra, which Kyle, Ming, Adam and I have played several times. Wasn't my choice, so I didn't have to feel guilty about having them play something I already knew (and my wife won! She's the red marker). They were worried because the rules were in another language, but I remembered them well enough to play. I couldn't manage to get a very long outer wall to save my life which really ended up costing me a lot of points.
My wife wanted two pictures of her win as it happens so seldom.
Eryn picked up a copy of Werewolf for her birthday party and Pooteewheet pre-ordered a copy of Dead of Winter when I mentioned they'd be doing a reprint soon. I better get my other games in before that shows up as I suspect it will be the favorite for a while.
I'm going to skip mentioning Saturday because it was a mix of taxes and Fast and Furious 7. Eryn has seen many of the other F&F movies (as in 5, 6, and 7, the ones after she was 6), so she really wanted to go. Vin did a nice job making it a goodbye to Paul Walker without subtracting from the nonstop action, although the idea of a full size military drone flying around a US city with the government knowing about it seems a bit ludicrous. Ha! Punny! Despite not being spelled the same.
While we were at FFG we played Cthulhu Fluxx again, three person this time. And we learned Wasabi, where you order your sushi with extra wasabi points for putting the ingredients in the right order. There are special cards for moving pieces around, stacking them, and swapping them, so it starts to be a real challenge getting the rare ingredients to stay in place on the board.
Here's part way into Wasabi. Some of the ingredients have a single tile. We tried to determine how many games are on their shelves. If you go with a reasonable 10 per shelf and 7 shelves per case, there are over 500 games there. I think it's significantly more. An amazing collection including some Kickstarter-ed games. Half the fun is just reviewing them to see what you want to play next.
We also played Get Bit! which Eryn has wanted to play since she saw it on Table Top. What do you call the first player to lose at Get Bit? Bob.
Swim faster little guys!
And we got in a game of Alhambra, which Kyle, Ming, Adam and I have played several times. Wasn't my choice, so I didn't have to feel guilty about having them play something I already knew (and my wife won! She's the red marker). They were worried because the rules were in another language, but I remembered them well enough to play. I couldn't manage to get a very long outer wall to save my life which really ended up costing me a lot of points.
My wife wanted two pictures of her win as it happens so seldom.
Eryn picked up a copy of Werewolf for her birthday party and Pooteewheet pre-ordered a copy of Dead of Winter when I mentioned they'd be doing a reprint soon. I better get my other games in before that shows up as I suspect it will be the favorite for a while.
I'm going to skip mentioning Saturday because it was a mix of taxes and Fast and Furious 7. Eryn has seen many of the other F&F movies (as in 5, 6, and 7, the ones after she was 6), so she really wanted to go. Vin did a nice job making it a goodbye to Paul Walker without subtracting from the nonstop action, although the idea of a full size military drone flying around a US city with the government knowing about it seems a bit ludicrous. Ha! Punny! Despite not being spelled the same.
Mall!
Hmm...where was I. Wednesday last week. Minneopa State Park. Well, I can sum up Spring Break Thursday in one word MallOfAmericaAmusementPark. I read my book, drank coffee, and tried to make up stories about the various strangers I saw, and Eryn ran around and enjoyed the rides for 8 hours. It was slightly more than 8 hours, because we were out of the ticket line before 10 and she was on the rides past 6, but maybe I have to subtract Chipotle time, DQ time, and Teavana tea-restocking time (it was our not-a-big-out-of-state vacation, so a $40 canister of tea seemed acceptable as an alternative to plane tickets and a hotel)? For my part, I read a few hundred pages out of a book of post-apocalyptic short stories and took a lot of short walks. The Mall gives me a serious case of the blahs. I hate consumerism. And I say that as someone willing to walk around Target and just look at things without buying anything while my daughter is at guitar lessons. Heck, the other day I bought a green garden gnome, stealthily hid him in the front yard garden where he's almost invisible, and named him Melvin. I'm willing to enjoy consumerism with a generalized purpose, just not hundreds of specialty shops that make no sense to me. Although other folks probably say the same things when they see me buying a Deadpool graphic novel at the local shop for Eryn, or a board game at FFG. It didn't help that a trip through Games by James revealed they're selling the same game as FFG for a $20 markup, $28 if you had pre-ordered it for a discount using the FFG pre-order program. I don't find it offensive. I find it completely nonsensical. How can anyone with a phone not look up what they're buying at the mall and decide, "I'm not f-ing buying that here."
As a bonus, while we were eating our DQ Blizzards, the stars of The Longest Ride made an appearance. There were people in line for over four hours in their cowboy boots and hats to see them. Brit Robertson is cute for someone born after I graduated from high school, but I can't imagine standing in line four hours to meet her (man, that would be sort of creepy, although there were women there my age who obviously were there to meet Scott Eastwood, barely born before I graduated high school) and I'd much rather meet her pimping Tomorrowland than The Longest Ride.
Regardless, we had fun. Eryn was exhausted but happy, and I was full up on post-apocalypticism (nice! that's a good word, even if it doesn't really exist).
As a bonus, while we were eating our DQ Blizzards, the stars of The Longest Ride made an appearance. There were people in line for over four hours in their cowboy boots and hats to see them. Brit Robertson is cute for someone born after I graduated from high school, but I can't imagine standing in line four hours to meet her (man, that would be sort of creepy, although there were women there my age who obviously were there to meet Scott Eastwood, barely born before I graduated high school) and I'd much rather meet her pimping Tomorrowland than The Longest Ride.
Regardless, we had fun. Eryn was exhausted but happy, and I was full up on post-apocalypticism (nice! that's a good word, even if it doesn't really exist).
Saturday, April 04, 2015
Minneopa State Park
Wednesday was supposed to be nice, and it was. Really nice. 80 degrees plus. Set a record in the Twin Cities for that day. So it worked out well that we planned a trip down to Minneopa State Park near Mankato to enjoy the weather with the top down and drop off a Cards Against Humanity expansion for Klund and Mrs. Klund.
The Klunds are off sampling wine, but they have housesitters. Serial killer in a van housesitters.
Minneopa was a little park. And the water wasn't exactly running high. But it was good for an hour of amusement. These signs always confuse me. Shouldn't ALL pets be on a leash? Even if they're exotic instead of domestic? I'm pretty sure they mean, "don't worry about the squirrels", but those aren't really pets. And if they were. They'd need a leash.
This sign sort of grossed Eryn out. I dared her to lick the ice flow in the falls to see if it tasted of fecal matter. Then she said, "How would I know if it tasted like fecal matter?!" I said if she's smelled it, she's tasted it. Which seemed to bother her even more. There was a more in depth sign that pointed out sometimes the falls are green with algal blooms and sometimes brown from sediment, and fecal matter is there pretty much 24x7x365. A result of being at the end of the watershed in a heavily farmed area.
Even without a lot of water they were pretty. This is the upper falls.
And a nice picture of Eryn looking at them.
Here she is with Minneopa Falls behind her. For a moment, I thought this was all there was to see. So why would you leave Minneapolis and Minnehaha Falls?
But there was more.
Panorama
At the end of the sidewalk were steps that led down into the area below the falls and back up again along a ridge. No geocaches as it's a state park, but perhaps Eryn can get herself Chived for doing what she wants. Not exactly dangerous. The sign is there because the fence is washed out way back there behind her.
You can get down below the lower falls, and there's still a bit of ice hanging out. This photo would probably bother Eryn. It looks like she's posing, but she's really just trying to get her jacket off. Remember? 80+!
The falls without people in the picture.
But not really. If you could blow it up enough, there are carvings almost everywhere. It's one of the most scratched up areas I've ever seen. Next to the falls, High on the walls right by the falls. On the cliffs near the falls. On the cliffs opposite the falls. Next to the stairs going down and going up. It's graffiti central. I think the best one can hope for is that archaeologists of the future find it interesting.
Here you can see the carving in the context of the falls.
Panorama
Eryn sitting near the falls. My wife was amused to see ERYON carved near her. She didn't do that. She knows how to spell her name.
The use wasp nests for bulbs in the state parks. We're that hardcore in Minnesota. I'm surprised they leave it there given it's near the picnic area. You'd think everyone would be surrounded in wasps.
Oh no! But that's only a fall, not falls!
There we go. Two is officially fallS.
We stopped for a sandwich in Mankato and enjoyed all the dust devils and wind. Not hard to believe Minnesota is in a drought. And hit the rest stop on our way home where we were treated to this near the Cambria warehouse. Apparently he's driving a lot more than we were.
The Klunds are off sampling wine, but they have housesitters. Serial killer in a van housesitters.
Minneopa was a little park. And the water wasn't exactly running high. But it was good for an hour of amusement. These signs always confuse me. Shouldn't ALL pets be on a leash? Even if they're exotic instead of domestic? I'm pretty sure they mean, "don't worry about the squirrels", but those aren't really pets. And if they were. They'd need a leash.
This sign sort of grossed Eryn out. I dared her to lick the ice flow in the falls to see if it tasted of fecal matter. Then she said, "How would I know if it tasted like fecal matter?!" I said if she's smelled it, she's tasted it. Which seemed to bother her even more. There was a more in depth sign that pointed out sometimes the falls are green with algal blooms and sometimes brown from sediment, and fecal matter is there pretty much 24x7x365. A result of being at the end of the watershed in a heavily farmed area.
Even without a lot of water they were pretty. This is the upper falls.
And a nice picture of Eryn looking at them.
Here she is with Minneopa Falls behind her. For a moment, I thought this was all there was to see. So why would you leave Minneapolis and Minnehaha Falls?
But there was more.
Panorama
At the end of the sidewalk were steps that led down into the area below the falls and back up again along a ridge. No geocaches as it's a state park, but perhaps Eryn can get herself Chived for doing what she wants. Not exactly dangerous. The sign is there because the fence is washed out way back there behind her.
You can get down below the lower falls, and there's still a bit of ice hanging out. This photo would probably bother Eryn. It looks like she's posing, but she's really just trying to get her jacket off. Remember? 80+!
The falls without people in the picture.
But not really. If you could blow it up enough, there are carvings almost everywhere. It's one of the most scratched up areas I've ever seen. Next to the falls, High on the walls right by the falls. On the cliffs near the falls. On the cliffs opposite the falls. Next to the stairs going down and going up. It's graffiti central. I think the best one can hope for is that archaeologists of the future find it interesting.
Here you can see the carving in the context of the falls.
Panorama
Eryn sitting near the falls. My wife was amused to see ERYON carved near her. She didn't do that. She knows how to spell her name.
The use wasp nests for bulbs in the state parks. We're that hardcore in Minnesota. I'm surprised they leave it there given it's near the picnic area. You'd think everyone would be surrounded in wasps.
Oh no! But that's only a fall, not falls!
There we go. Two is officially fallS.
We stopped for a sandwich in Mankato and enjoyed all the dust devils and wind. Not hard to believe Minnesota is in a drought. And hit the rest stop on our way home where we were treated to this near the Cambria warehouse. Apparently he's driving a lot more than we were.
Thursday, April 02, 2015
Ramen
Tuesday was the laser tag and ramen stage of Eryn's spring staycation. We went over to Grand Slam and I read David Duchovny's book about cows while she spent three hours laser tagging, using the batting cage, and playing skee ball. The place was absolutely mobbed with children and I swear the smelliest ones (including one smelly father) felt it necessary to sit in my space.
Here's Eryn hitting some balls.
Not the best form, but she connected with a lot of them. So good hand-eye coordination. That wasn't always the case.
Afterwards, we drove up into Minneapolis to enjoy some Ramen (Dramen - half and half, black and pork) at United Noodles. Best part about not showing up until closer to 3:00 p.m. is there was no line to speak of. We got our bowl immediately. I ate 95% broth and 5% noodles. She ate 95% noodles and 5% broth. We were both happy. I took my Firefly hoodie off in advance to avoid any ramen splatter. I learned something important last time.
I didn't have a picture of Eryn with her noodles, but I do have an older picture at United. I'll admit to it, because that's obviously not dramen (1/2 and 1/2) in the bowl.
We also picked up some microwave/stoptop ramen that won't burn my mouth with the spices and a package of green tea Kit Kats. Damn things cost $8.99 a bag. Green gold.
And then we spun by Coastal just because I've always meant to go and never have (and it gave us a chance to put down the top on the car). Seems like an obvious place to go for crab legs and sushi-quality fish, although we weren't in the market for anything at the time.
Here's Eryn hitting some balls.
Not the best form, but she connected with a lot of them. So good hand-eye coordination. That wasn't always the case.
Afterwards, we drove up into Minneapolis to enjoy some Ramen (Dramen - half and half, black and pork) at United Noodles. Best part about not showing up until closer to 3:00 p.m. is there was no line to speak of. We got our bowl immediately. I ate 95% broth and 5% noodles. She ate 95% noodles and 5% broth. We were both happy. I took my Firefly hoodie off in advance to avoid any ramen splatter. I learned something important last time.
I didn't have a picture of Eryn with her noodles, but I do have an older picture at United. I'll admit to it, because that's obviously not dramen (1/2 and 1/2) in the bowl.
We also picked up some microwave/stoptop ramen that won't burn my mouth with the spices and a package of green tea Kit Kats. Damn things cost $8.99 a bag. Green gold.
And then we spun by Coastal just because I've always meant to go and never have (and it gave us a chance to put down the top on the car). Seems like an obvious place to go for crab legs and sushi-quality fish, although we weren't in the market for anything at the time.
Flowers
Monday was Macy's Flower Show Day. My wife didn't have any clients, so we grabbed her as well and went to see if the flower show was worth the fuss. It was not. I find the arboretum and Como both significantly more interesting. All the flowers looked a little wilty. I suspect coming into the show after it's been on for a week you get to enjoy flowers that are suffering the effects of hundreds, if not thousands, of people touching them. I certainly saw lots of touching and bumping. It's a bit of an older lady pile up there, with a number of older men in tow. The women need their pictures with all of the flowers. It's peculiar. But perhaps that's what happens when department stores all close their photo studios (I was in Sears today explaining to Eryn where the photo studio used to be and how I got plenty of photo studio pictures when I was a kid).
We kicked off the afternoon at The Hen House downtown. A very good breakfast.
And an amusing way of differentiating the women's restroom from...
...the men's restroom.
Here we are at Macy's and the statue of David, who changed floral patterns every few seconds. As you can tell, Eryn isn't exactly keen to be there. In the grand scheme of laser tag, amusement parks, state park trips, and board game excursions, I think this ranked lowest on her list. If only the Betsy Tacey museum had opened three days earlier, I could have made her think back fondly on the flower show as more interesting.
I liked the Starry Night flower exhibit, although it was screaming, SCREAMING, for a Tardis, either in the painting or installed alongside.
I feel this is part of our daily excursion because it's in the parking ramp. What are they trying to do to bicyclists? It looks like a glorified mouse trap. Hey, follow these signs to this dimly lit, locked cage full of dirt and various other things. Put your bike in there...go on...it's safe. At least if you're under 7'0".
We kicked off the afternoon at The Hen House downtown. A very good breakfast.
And an amusing way of differentiating the women's restroom from...
...the men's restroom.
Here we are at Macy's and the statue of David, who changed floral patterns every few seconds. As you can tell, Eryn isn't exactly keen to be there. In the grand scheme of laser tag, amusement parks, state park trips, and board game excursions, I think this ranked lowest on her list. If only the Betsy Tacey museum had opened three days earlier, I could have made her think back fondly on the flower show as more interesting.
I liked the Starry Night flower exhibit, although it was screaming, SCREAMING, for a Tardis, either in the painting or installed alongside.
I feel this is part of our daily excursion because it's in the parking ramp. What are they trying to do to bicyclists? It looks like a glorified mouse trap. Hey, follow these signs to this dimly lit, locked cage full of dirt and various other things. Put your bike in there...go on...it's safe. At least if you're under 7'0".
Tie
Speaking of Words With Friends, Kyle and I tied. This is the first tie in something like almost 600 games. Not just with Kyle, but overall since around 2011. And then a few days later I tied a random competitor off the internet, sullying the close WWF bond I forged with Kyle. It's surprising how seldom this actually happens.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)