Fallen Eagle

Tonight I made the mistake of watching one of the live streams replaying the first human exploration of the Moon in real time. The moment itself, of course, remains momentus  even 50 years on; but I'm deeply saddened by the ignorance displayed in the commentary stream, where it seems perhaps 40 or 50 percent of people have signed on simply to decry one of humanity's greatest achievements as a hoax. 

Some days I weep for us all. 

You Must Gather Your Party Before Venturing Forth

Yesterday, I had to skip lunchtime D&D at work because of a medical appointment. My character had been badly wounded in a prior episode, and I was at  death's door.  I exhorted my comrades to remember that I had an extra inspiration dice to use if I failed a death save, saying that my next character might be a bard, and no one wants that.

"I think whenever someone dies their next character MUST be a bard," said one of the other players.

"I was just going to say, a party of bards would be fantastic."

Somewhat tickled by the notion, I came up with some party names for such a band/group:

Dungeons & Dirges
F Troupe
DJ XP and the MinMaxers
Lute Not Loot
The Beatdown
Cutte, Thrust, Slash, and Perry
I of the Beholder
Jewel and the Gemstones
That Other Ring
Exclamation Mark and the Questarians feat. Interrobang

And my favourite...

Miami Wound Machine

A Tower Looms

Crazy 80s Games Plays Caverns of Kafkha

Sean and I used to play this game for hours in the early 1980s, waiting patiently for the game to load from the cassette-based Atari 410 Program Recorder into our 16K Atari 400 computer. Good times. 

An Evening With Dread Cthulhu

Pete Kickstarted a Cthulu game, and this "miniature" of dread Cthulu himself was the first piece to arrive. This photo doesn't do the piece justice. It'll look even more amazing when Pete paints it, as I'm sure he will. 

Stantec Tower in Miniature

Here's a brick-build model of Edmonton's Stantec Tower, where I work. It's a pretty good representation--and quite a large model. 

Gloom on the Horizon

Sylvia and I went shopping on Friday night, and during our excursion I finally succumbed and bought Gloomhaven, the well-reviewed but incredibly bulky board game of adventurous dungeon crawling. The box weighs 9 kilograms! 

Stallone-a-Thon

Over the course of the last few days, I have screened twelve films starring Sylvester Stallone: Escape Plan 2: Hades, all eight Rocky/Creed films, and today, Over the Top, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, and The Expendables 3. Over the Top is hot garbage that will convince you civilization is unworthy of salvation. Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot hurts the brain, but somehow manages to be (somewhat insufferably) endearing. The Expendables 3 is just sad, because it features a great cast of action stars of the past forced into a by-the-numbers revenge story. I can't help but feel The Expendables films would have worked far better back in the 1980s.

This experiment is not recommended. 

A River Unknown

This image of a rushing creek was on the same negative strip as the photo of Hope and William Woods I posted yesterday, so presumably it was shot at roughly the same time and place. I wonder what they were thinking when they shot this; what was significant about this torrent of water?

CORRECTION: Upon checking the negatives again, this photo was not on the same strip as the shot of my grandparents. Mom speculated that perhaps this was part of the road to Flin Flon back in the 1960s. 

Hope and William

Yesterday I scanned some very old black and white negatives for Mom, and among them was this photo of my paternal grandparents, Hope and William Woods. They both look quite young here, perhaps the youngest I've seen them; I have no idea where or when this photo might have been taken. 

Another Birthday for Mom

Happy Birthday, Mom! Thanks for raising Sean and I, and for keeping us looking stylish in the difficult-to-navigate 1970s.

Mom looks great in this photo, and I love Sean's deer-in-the-headlights stare. I should clean up the dust and scratches. 

Earl in the Black Lodge