short takes

[cellio]

Note to anonymous driver: if you're going to ignore your stop sign while coming so close to hitting a pedestrian that your car brushes clothing, you should at least have the decency not to glare at said pedestrian. It's times like this that I long for ammunition -- perhaps a paint gun in the coat pocket, since real projectiles would be problematic.

In the "people with too much time on their hands" department, Lego Rubik's Cube Solver (link from dyanearden).

What's with all the spam lately about cleaning one's colon? I didn't realize that our punctuation had become dirty. It's probably a secret plot by the commas.

"Take one pill every six hours". Right -- whom are they kidding? Try "take one pill when you get up and one at bedtime, and space the other two as proportionally as you can". I've got to believe that that level of flexibility exists for most things.

Now that it's cold, Erik has taken to sleeping on top of the bedroom radiator. I understand the appeal of direct heat, but I would have thought it would be more comfortable with a radiator cover. Less lumpy, for one thing. But he shuns the covered radiators, which make up the majority in the house, for that one -- even in the daytime, when there's no argument based on proximity of his people. (Well, person. They are unambiguously my cats, not our cats.) Embla, on the other hand, prefers the cushioned window seats over the radiators in the living room, and Baldur is probably too fat and lazy to try any of them.

The talmud says the Almighty wears t'fillin -- obviously metaphorically, though the discussion doesn't actually bring that out. The bulk of the discussion concerns the texts that are within them. The question of regular t'fillin vs. Rabbeinu Tam is not addressed. :-)

Giant Eagle normally uses blue plastic bags, which is helpful because the city mandates blue plastic bags for recycling and they're hard to find otherwise. During most of October Giant Eagle was using orange Halloween bags instead, and I depleted my stash of blue bags at the time. Now I find that they have switched to white "winter" bags, presumably for at least all of December. I have enough blue bags saved up, but I wish Giant Eagle hadn't abdicated its responsibility to the community. :-)

I've never tried soy milk before (is it supposed to be completely non-dairy?), but was attracted to the "Silk Nog" -- particularly by the implication of "eggnog", one of my vices, and the nutrition information (90 cal/serving vs 200-300 for the real thing). Verdict: inspired by eggnog, clearly different, will drink.

Current (baked) salmon optimization for simplicity times taste: put salmon filet on large piece of foil; mix equal parts sour cream and spicy brown mustard (the type of mustard is important) and spread over; seal salmon in foil and bake until done.

More food bits: matar paneer tonight because it's been too long; my turn to bake for the kiddush on Saturday (ginger cookies, maybe?); broccoli with garlic sauce for the choir dinner Monday. Maybe the veal-cranberry stew for Shabbat lunch? Don't know about Shabbat dinner yet; inspiration is invited to strike before tomorrow's trip to Kosher Mart.

Comments

[vonstrassburg.livejournal.com]

I was very amused yesterday when the car that nearly sideswiped me while running across three lanes of traffic to cut me off at an intersection had a license plate beginning with the letters "SFB".

It's an old nickname some of our secretaries used to use for one of the less useful guys in the office. He thought it stood for something like "Super ... B----" the last bit being his name. It actually stands for "S**t For Brains".

[cellio]

*laugh* What an appropriate license plate!

StFB

[lyev.livejournal.com]

I used to playtest the game "Star Fleet Battles". When it was marketed outside the US, the name was changed to "Star Trek Fleet Battles" lest people use the acronym "SFB" for it.

Re: StFB

[cellio]

Heh. I never thought of that. I refer to it as SFB too. Sometimes abbreviations are context-sensitive. :-)

If you still play, by the way, you should let Johan know. He occasionally puts games together (one-shots, not campaigns) and would probably welcome another player. Especially a more advanced/detail-oriented one, as when I get pulled into these games it's on the condition that I can play something a little simpler. :-)

Re: StFB

[lyev.livejournal.com]

If you still play, by the way, you should let Johan know. He occasionally puts games together (one-shots, not campaigns) and would probably welcome another player. Especially a more advanced/detail-oriented one, as when I get pulled into these games it's on the condition that I can play something a little simpler. :-)


Actually don't play, have a few manuals left, thanks for the heads-up though. If Johan will be at the event this weekend I'll give them to him to see if he can get others addic- interested in the game ;-)

My philosphy on the SCA fencing rules evolved from years of SFB (er, StFB...) Too many times I've seen a game bog down into 5 minutes of playing, and 30 minutes of rules discussions. This is something that I've been trying not to let happen with the fencing rules, especially the melee rules.

It's been said that there are only 25 rules in StFB. However, each rule interacts in a special way with another rule, creating a 25x25 matrix of rules for the game (What happens when I tractor a ship and then DisDev it? What happens when my ESG hits a Tholian web?)

But the game has it's good moments too, and game me alot of enjoyment over the years. My fencing style evolves from how I flew Klingon ships (saber dancers, "move-snipe-dance") and Gorns (give up the first shot, but have one heck of a counter punch with a tractor-plasma torp combo).

Re: StFB

[cellio]

If Johan will be at the event this weekend I'll give them to him to see if he can get others addic- interested in the game ;-)

I imagine he'll be there. Failing that, his wife will be, because she's in the choir and the choir is performing. (Hmm, that reminds me -- I wonder if I can find a ride to the post-revel for an event I'm not attending. I don't drive in that part of town at night; the oncoming headlights on that stretch of road are too much for me.)

The thought of deriving one's fencing style/rules from Starfleet Battles makes me laugh, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it. I think you've got a good point: a lot of combat boils down to the same tactics regardless of the medium. Nifty.

However, each rule interacts in a special way with another rule, creating a 25x25 matrix of rules for the game

You understate the problem. The interactions are not limited to pairwise ones. It's 25^25, thank you very much!

The few times I've played my experience has been different from yours. It's not that we spent 30 minutes on rules lookups for 5 minutes of play; it's that it took all afternoon to play through one quick little exhchange of fire. That kind of molassesean time distortion just doesn't work for me. It's better when ships have fewer options, fewer guns, fewer little auxilliary things running around (shuttles, drones, torpedos, etc), but still...

And I'm not dumping on the game in general -- just saying that in many cases it doesn't work for me. Johan has put in some effort to come up with scenarios that appeal to people like me; it's good that the game is flexible enough to be able to support that.

Re: StFB

[lyev.livejournal.com]

The few times I've played my experience has been different from yours. It's not that we spent 30 minutes on rules lookups for 5 minutes of play; it's that it took all afternoon to play through one quick little exhchange of fire. That kind of molassesean time distortion just doesn't work for me. It's better when ships have fewer options, fewer guns, fewer little auxilliary things running around (shuttles, drones, torpedos, etc), but still...

I hear you -- they published a "Cadet's Game" (more fencing analogies!) for just that reason. Keep the ships small and discard all the esoteric systems and the game plays faster.

I think the B5 game was designed to play much faster, but similar principle. I really think that if Energy Allocation in SFB were discarded, then the game would go even faster.