tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48412471114765025252024-02-07T13:03:03.992-06:00Running With DiceA collection of rambling posts about gaming, running, and politics. (and, in 2009, photography.)Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.comBlogger648125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-22250277427164480352018-05-28T08:18:00.000-05:002018-05-29T11:08:50.376-05:00One Shot WorldToday I ran <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/242339" target="_blank">One-Shot World</a>! (It's free!)<br />
<br />
One-Shot World is a lightweight Dungeon World hack, stripped down for one shots and short campaigns.<br />
<br />
Myself and four players sat down to play. Three of them were new to PbtA style games. This was planned to be a 4 hour one-shot game.<br />
<br />
<b>Intro:</b><br />
I tend to be overly analytical about games, and want to talk about their mechanics and philosophy more than most want to hear. The night before I'd written myself a reminder not to be teach-y or lecture-y, and to just run the game. It was good advice. I just handed out the sheets and told folks to eyeball them and pick one they wanted to play, pointing out the helpful part on the "Who Are You?" side of the playbook sheet. After a minute or two, folks settled on which they wanted to play. We had a Paladin, a Wizard, a Ranger and a Druid.<br />
<br />
I asked them to go ahead and make their way through the playbook, since its pretty self-explanatory and an easy to follow process. While they did so, I started to hit them with questions about themselves and the world. I asked each about their income and starting coin, and then talked a little about bonds with their fellow party-members.<br />
<br />
This worked really well and fluidly. I was a little worried my non-PbtA players might have some hesitation about this sort of narrative and shared world-building, but everyone jumped right in. I handed a blank piece of paper to the Ranger, who dutifully started working on a map of the region.<br />
<br />
We went around the table with the players talking briefly about their background selection, and then bounced around a little, talking about the world-building and bonds bits.<br />
<br />
<b>Setup:</b><br />
When everyone seemed pretty satisfied with those parts, and there were no questions about playbooks or options, we talked about where we wanted the adventure to start. I kicked the talk off by going back through some of the threats and places that had been established in the world-building. Some of them seemed to tie together, and so with some player feedback we settled on what they were after and then were able to establish were they were -- in a tight spot.<br />
<br />
<b>Act I:</b><br />
In the party's case, they were moving to investigate orcish incursions from the mountains to the north, through a forest that they knew was home to a hostile and aggressive wolf pack. They found that there were hundreds of orcs camped in the hills, and began to retreat, but an orcish scout party tailed them. They were also being tracked by the hostile wolf pack, and so found themselves backed up against a Niagra-like waterfall (established earlier in the fiction by the Druid). The orc scouts approached from the north, a few wolves from the east, and the waterfall blocked them from the west and south. I offered that they could <b>perilously</b> cross the falls, but after some extensive discussion wanted to put some distance between them and the wolves, and try to flank or ambush the orc scouts.<br />
<br />
A dice roll later they ran headlong into the orcish scouts and took a volley of arrow fire, and everyone jumped into the fray. A flanking orc tackled the Ranger as he was about to put an arrow into one of their attackers, and an orcish berzerker charged them. The druid shape-shifted into a bear, but not before the Ranger and an orc rolled into the fast stream that they characters had just waded through. The Paladin advanced, shield out in front, and worked to defend the Wizard from the accurate fire from the archers. For a moment, the battle seemed precarious, and the party's morale wavered, as another flanker took the Wizard and Paladin from behind, but the Wizard dispatched it with a well timed Magic Missile. The Ranger managed to extricate himself from the hand-to-hand fight being waged in the stream. The orcish berzerker was felled by a combination of an arrow from the Ranger and a sword thrust from the Paladin. The Druid - having shifted into a bear, helped catch the fleeing orcs. Only one survived, and once they'd captured that orc, the Paladin was able to question it regarding the orcish forces. It revealed that the full might of the orcish tribes was descending on these lands, coming down from the lands beyond the northern mountains. There was some table discussion about whether the orcs were purely after the pillaging of the human settlements, and whether or not they'd disturb the forest and wildlife in the region. It was soon agreed that if the orcs were over-harvesting all resources like those from Lord of the Rings, that it provided more pull for the Ranger and Druid, who didn't care much for the human civilizations, but would certainly care if they planned to cut down the entire forest. The Paladin released the sole surviving orc, being unwilling to slay a helpless opponent.<br />
<br />
<b>Intermission:</b><br />
We took a short break and then settled back in and discussed their plan. The party wanted to alert the nearby settlement about the impending orcish threat. Being some distance away, the Druid decided to shape-shift and carry a letter to the Paladin's order to alert them, planning to immediately rejoin the party. The Druid found that the Paladin's order had fallen into some trouble with the forces of a distant king claiming ownership over the area, and the king's forces were drawn up around the Paladin's headquarters, ready for a siege. The Druid came into the king's camp and intended to convince them to set aside this conflict and to join forces to face the looming orcish threat. A failed dice roll later, the king's envoy flatly rejected the Druid's testimony and council, and attempted to seize the Druid, but the Druid escaped to the Paladin's order HQ. There, he informed them of the orcish threat, and gave them a number of details about the king's forces, which he felt would enable them to drive sally and drive the king's forces away.<br />
<br />
<b>Act II:</b><br />
Rejoining the party, the party moved to a regional landmark (established earlier), a powerful wizard's tower that no one had been able to gain entry to. The Ranger knew that a part of the tower had collapsed, but was unwilling for a time to reveal this to the Wizard. The Ranger had heard that there were likely <i>Magic Items</i> within the collapsed section of tower. Hoping to use these items either directly against the orcish hoard, or as collateral for convincing the nobility to summon armies, they decided to go and face the much-feared Clay Golem that was known to guard the fallen section of tower.<br />
<br />
The Wizard did some Spouting of Lore, and with a great dice roll, he knew that Golems are powered by a magical sigil or rune, and that if he could counter act the magical sigil, he could deactivate the Golem.<br />
<br />
With only about 30 minutes of our allocated time remaining, I told the players that I was going to jump us right into the head-to-head encounter with the Golem, without any of the lead-up. I pushed the encounter really hard, and started it <i>in media res</i> right in the middle of the fight. The Wizard was at half of his hit points, and I had the others take a dice of damage. When we opened the scene, the Wizard was flipping through his spellbook, looking for his <i>Dispell</i> to shut down the Golem, totally oblivious to the Golem standing over him, about to crush the life from him with its huge fists.<br />
<br />
The Paladin lept to the Wizards defense, blocking the Golem's crushing blow, but it raised its fists again, determined to crush the Wizard before he could bring his spell to bear. This time the Druid jumped in, but took the full force of the Golem's brutal attack, seriously injuring the Druid.<br />
<br />
It was at this point that the Wizard located the spell, and cast it. There was a brief moment after the spell was cast, where everyone watched the Golem's glowing sigil, and then it flickered and went dark, and the Golem went still.<br />
<br />
With the guardian defeated, the party searched the fallen tower, finding a number of magical items, which they hoped would both arm them, and enable them to enlist assistance against the upcoming orcish threat.<br />
<br />
That was it!<br />
<br />
<b>Afterward:</b><br />
Everyone seemed to have a great time. The players who were new to PbtA stuff seemed to have no trouble jumping into the world-building and narration. I encouraged and received feedback from the players about consequences, action rolls, and so forth. Only once did we have a case of a rules-type question come up and not have a solid answer. Even in that case, we used the closest rule and rolled with it, and it was no big deal (basically used Parlay despite that we didn't have leverage - it was more of a persuasion roll, maybe could've used Defy Danger or Discern Realities)<br />
<br />
I've run Dungeon World once before, rather briefly, and because I was new to PbtA at the time, it did not run quite as well then as One-Shot World did now. With that said, my comparison between Dungeon World and One-Shot World is simply that OSW is a very streamlined and rather simplified Dungeon World. As advertised, it is perfect for one shots and I'd bet even better for short campaigns. After running our 4 hour one-shot today, I find myself wondering whether we could get together and finish the story arc.<br />
<br />
I am eager to run this for some young adults and grown ups who haven't played any RPGs before, and if I'm feeling froggy, try to run it at my local con.<br />
<br />
Thanks to <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+YochaiGalUSA" target="_blank">Yochai Gal</a> for making this!Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-24172448427982168392017-11-04T10:06:00.000-05:002017-11-04T10:06:41.754-05:00Middle School RPG DemoThe Montessori school that my kids attend goes through middle school (7th/8th grade), and they have a Friday Speaker series, where parents come in and talk about their career or hobby or what have you. I've been doing one about tabletop role playing games since 2012 or 2013, and its always a lot of fun. I've learned a few tricks along the way too.<br />
<br />
Its a one hour deal, and there are usually about a dozen kids involved. So the challenge is to run a fun demo game within that time period, and being able to engage that many people.<br />
<br />
Some of the kids involved have played tabletop RPGs before, some aren't even certain what a "roleplaying game" is. Turns out they've all seen Stranger Things, when I mentioned instances of D&D and rpgs in current media.<br />
<br />
I brought a stack of game books in order to show folks that there are games for every interest, mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, etc, as well as very simple games, like the one-page Laser & Feelings, and the light weight Fate Accelerated, to more complex games like Shadowrun or GURPS.<br />
<br />
We quickly get to playing our demo game. I put a bucket of dice on the table and hand out some character sheets <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/tq5zyrpvjk5tcer/2015%20Sheets.zip?dl=0" target="_blank">(those sheets, zipped)</a>. They're very simplified, in order to not have to spend much time worrying over mechanics and system.<br />
<br />
I've found that what seems to work best is having an engaging initial setup that provides some exciting adventure and lends itself to the party being split up to approach the goal in parallel. This year they had gotten information about the evil wizard Varyx, who was holed up in his skull mountain fortress, working to complete a ritual that would summon armies of undead. I'd decided to offer a few avenues: they could talk or sneak through a mercenary camp, go through a haunted and forgotten underground tunnel, climb the side of the mountain past the wyvern guardians, or fly on giant eagles through a magical storm and shadow wraiths. I steer them toward splitting into three groups of four, and deciding how each group wants to approach.<br />
<br />
We had one group do the giant eagles and magical storm, one decide to scale the mountain, and one go for the forgotten tunnel.<br />
<br />
My overall approach is to start one group, describe their journey, throw some complication or attack at them, ask them how they're going to deal with it, and then tell them that we'll come back to them. I then turn to the next group, describe their journey, throw a complication, and leave them hanging and move to the third group, do the same, before coming back to the first group and asking them how they plan to deal with the problem before them. It takes a couple of minutes to go around, so usually by the time I get back around to a group, they've had four or five minutes to think about what they want to do, so usually they have a plan. I let them describe what they want to do, if necessary, try to frame it correctly in scale or scope, and then ask them to roll dice to see what happens.<br />
<br />
If they get a full success, I let them narrate what happened, only providing guidance if they seem hesitant or if they get well outside the scope or scale of the roll. If they roll a failure, I try to make it an interesting complication. Maybe not a simple failure, but instead a success, but that something unexpected happens -- a cleric tried to blind an approaching wyvern, but rolled a fail. He and the wyvern were both blind!<br />
<br />
I end up going around the table a few times. For this adventure, I'd basically planned that most of the action would be in the approach to the mountain. The characters flying on eagles battled against shadow wraiths, and then a particularly strong wind that threatened to blow them out of the sky, and finally against evil henchmen with ballista atop the mountain and an evil cleric. Those going through the forgotten tunnel had to deal with the ghosts of the miners who had been sealed in centuries ago. They then had to deal with a huge stretch of booby traps, and finally with a snake infested tunnel up into the mountain. This group rolled well against the ghosts and booby traps, but had failed roll after failed roll against the snakes. Finally I narrated the snakes clearing the way, but a snake with glowing eyes caused them to glow red- this was a complication which I was really unsure about, as I was running out of time and needed them to get through the tunnel and into the mountain to finish the game, but it worked out great because when they met back up with the other parties, it turned out the red glow caused the other characters to think that they were evil, and for a moment it was tense, before someone removed their curse. The party that went up the side of the mountain had to deal with perilous climbing and with wyvern nests. They had a mix of successes and failures, dispatched a dangerous young wyvern and blinded another, eventually making their way up to the top of the mountain, having to fight through a final dangerous wyvern guardian near the top.<br />
<br />
Once they were all through those perilous passages, we were nearly out of time, and I was pretty much out of material, so I narrated them making their way through the skull mountain, had the little bit about the party who glowed red, and then they had to figure out how to get into Varyx's ritual chamber, which they did and rolled some dice. Again, we were mostly out of time by now, and I'd planned that their confrontation with Varyx would just be a short bit, so they cast a spell to open up a volcano beneath him, which was a mixed success, but it stopped the ritual. Varyx fled, and they had to deal with standing atop a crumbling floor over a volcano. They cast a teleportation spell to get away, and we were done.<br />
<br />
I'm always anxious leading up to those - a bit of performance anxiety, but they always end up going really smoothly and are super fun.<br />
<br />
I have an idea about trying to be certain that every player gets enough opportunities for dice rolls that they can get a complete success and narrate the result themselves. To do this easily, I'd need to mark the players who have already gotten a complete success. I may grab <a href="http://campaigncoins.com/fantasy-board-game-set-50-coins/" target="_blank">this set of coins online</a> and give one to each player who gets a complete success, and let them keep the coin. I have each player also take and keep a dice of their choosing from the big bucket o' dice.Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-65531420875623113012017-04-09T20:45:00.000-05:002017-04-14T11:00:20.093-05:00The Sprawl RPG, Episode 1I was primed to start Blades in the Dark today, but I want to have all of the "for sure" players in attendance for the first game, and one was unavailable. I'd grabbed a copy of The Sprawl by Hamish Cameron, Ardens Ludere. It's one of the "Powered by the Apocalypse games", which I'm really very into at the moment.<br />
<br />
So we ran The Sprawl instead, and it was pretty terrific.<br />
<br />
Jacob and Billy showed up to play. Billy and I have been trying to get a game together for a year or two, so it was good to make that happen. Jacob played in my earlier Dungeon World game, and is as into a couple of RPG systems as I am. These guys come from different RPG backgrounds, Billy has played a lot of D&D for awhile, and Jacob comes from Mouse Guard and Apocalypse world and the like.<br />
<br />
We chatted for a few minutes about cyberpunk (<i>neither has played Shadowrun!!</i>), but our time was limited and I wanted to move things swiftly along toward actual play. I talked a little about how the system works, and then we started to look at characters. I felt super scattered, and sortof went back and forth about filling out playbooks, and the other early steps. We made corporations, which we were pretty minimal about - just did names and types, didn't go into any depth about their goals or themes. We spent a good bit of time on playbooks and moves and such, but I think that's unavoidable, with it being brand new to folks.<br />
<br />
As simple as PbtA is, it still does require some system understanding I think, if the choice of moves and cyberwear are to mean anything. <br />
<br />
Billy settled on playing a Tech who went by the moniker The Machine, and Jacob took a Hunter called Ritter.<br />
<br />
They made some choices about how they'd acquired their cyberware: Ritter screwed someone over to afford his, The Machine is in debt to no one, but his cyber is +unreliable.<br />
<br />
With two players, creating Links was a little wonky, but still alright.<br />
<br />
And then we moved pretty quickly to play.<br />
<br />
To be honest, I was having trouble jumping in. I just couldn't get comfortable with describing it, and felt really rusty. I had a really hard time just with the classic "Your phone rings, it's your fixer." And to be honest, the game suggests just jumping right to the interesting bits, and skipping all of the drawn out setup.<br />
<br />
Eventually though they Johnson was chatting with Ritter and Machine, and had a job - an extraction - for them. Again I felt awkward, figuring out how much negotiating to do <i>before</i> we did the move and dice roll. But again, we soon went to the <b>get the job</b> roll. They hit in the middle, and got some [intel] from the employer.<br />
<br />
Once again I struggled - they had the job, but I wasn't sure how to start on legwork. The players seem to flounder a touch as well, so I buried my nose in the book for a minute, and then started walking us through what information was already known, and what they needed to know.<br />
<br />
The legwork was probably the toughest for me, and I feel like I was really getting too consumed by the mechanics of the game, and wasn't working enough on just running a fun game.<br />
<br />
Eventually we sort of found a groove, and some contacts started appearing. They ended up planning to create a situation by getting their mark to come out to an event that they'd lure him to. It involved a corporate-world contacted named Dall, who could schedule him for it under the guise of a job offer from a rival corporation. Dal was happy to help them, but he'd need their help in return. He had a Russian mobster leaning on him for something, and so our protagonists set off to fix Dal's little issue with Viktor.<br />
<br />
Viktor has an office in a run-down strip mall, and they parked nearby to observe. They watched two guys in cheap suits hang out in a temporary-looking office space, then leave and hop into a car. Ritter and Machine followed from a distance behind, relying on one of Machine's drones to keep tabs on them. They took the north highway, which doesn't go to much other than Canada and the Docks. They ran into a traffic jam, and were considering deploying the heavy combat drone when police started showing up in force, on account of the military cargo that had overturned ahead. That curbed the violence option. After a bit, traffic was diverted, and they followed a very long, slow line of cars off of the highway and onto surface streets.<br />
<br />
Ritter called on his knowledge of the city streets, and directed them back under the overpass and up a side-street, betting that their target was heading for the Docks. And sure enough, after a while, the car with the two men from the strip mall came around the corner and pulled up to the ramp, which they blocked - and then the combat drone came out. Negotiations were swift, and Victor agreed to leave Dal alone for now, but implied that he'd be on the lookout for our protagonists in the future.<br />
<br />
In short order, Dal had set them up with the extraction target. The meeting was planned to go down in a private room at a local club. Their target believed that it was an interview with a rival corporation, so he showed up without his employer-provided body guards. Machine parked by the back door, with the combat drone in the back of the truck, while Ritter went in, and waited on the mark.<br />
<br />
Soon enough, the mark arrived and made his way to the private room - and immediately set upon by Ritter, in an attempt to quickly subdue him for extraction.<br />
<br />
Note to self: be sure to offer to let the player do the narration, since we know what the outcome is already.<br />
<br />
In this case, it led to a somewhat epic struggle between Ritter and their target. It was a brutal fight, that ended up spilling out through the floor-to-ceiling glass, and into the corridor. But in the end, Ritter had the upper hand, and despite being pretty seriously injured, he carry-dragged the extractee out and toward the back door.<br />
<br />
Shortly after the target had entered the club, another car pulled into the back lot and parked near Machine. The two guys inside were clearly corporate security types, keeping tabs on the mark. Machine was positioned closely by the back door, but made plans to open up on the security goons with the combat drone in the back.<br />
<br />
Ritter was confronted by a security guard in the back hall, but when Ritter produced his pistol, security split, and Ritter made it to the back door -- just in time to hear the clatter of the combat drone's mini-gun opening up on the security guy's vehicle. They'd armed themselves and were about to go inside when Machine moved to keep them pinned down.<br />
<br />
Ritter made it into the vehicle with the target, and they rolled out. The security guys fired at them ineffectually, and could not follow them.<br />
<br />
They contacted their employer and arranged a meet to hand over the target, and the rest of it went off without a hitch. They did the <b>get paid</b> move, and then we were done.<br />
<br />
I did have a great time at this game, but I felt really <i>off </i>my game. It took me forever to get into the groove of it.<br />
<br />
I attribute this to the still seeming-newness of PbtA, and trying to describe cyberpunk setting to folks who didn't have the same experiences with it that I did.<br />
<br />
Would I run this again? Fuck yes. I really had a good time. I'm about to start a blades in the dark campaign, but will keep The Sprawl handy as stand-by or fill in and such.<br />
<br />
That is all.Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-55581300459884378052015-03-17T13:44:00.002-05:002015-03-17T13:51:16.130-05:00I haven't gone on at great length about abstract gaming ideas in quite awhile.....So here goes.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s compare a role playing game to someone telling a story. When someone is telling a story, they are likely in complete control of the narrative. They talk, others listen. They dictate what happens in the story. The audience are just passive observers who have no control at all on what happens or the outcome. The narrator has complete control over the story and it’s characters.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-62552c18-290c-c11f-3e63-dd2e0eaeed43" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You could also consider a shared story. One person might be the primary narrator, and through some means the audience can have some impact on the story itself. It could be as simple as a binary yay/nay, up/down, and the narrator tunes the story as he or she goes, influenced to some degree by the audience who is now interacting. The narrator still has complete or near complete control, but has agreed to give the audience some voice in the story.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A more shared story might go round robin, where one person tells some story, and then the next person continues telling the same story. In this case, each person who is at that moment telling the story is in complete control. Thus participants have complete control over the story when it is their turn, and no, or little, control when it is someone elses turn.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a typical D&D style RPG, the GM/Narrator is assumed to have complete control over the story. The players don’t dictate what happens, the GM does all of that - but the GM might give players a chance to influence the story in small ways, no directly on the story but instead indirectly through their characters. Thus you find that the players can perform specific actions in the hope of having some limited control over the story. Their interface to the story is through their characters.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In other, more ‘indie’ style games, you might find an arrangement where the GM is considered to be in primary control of the story, but the players are also given some narrative ability. The difference in this and the previous D&D example is that in D&D, the players can try to convince someone of something, or to perform some physical feat, or to kill a monster, or save a friend, but that’s the limit of their interaction. In this indie example, they might still control a character in the story, but they might have the opportunity to have more narrative control - to perhaps change the story itself in some mechanically appropriate way. The electronic game Scribblenauts comes to mind. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">GM: “Men in armor with swords burst into the room. They seem to be searching for something, or someone…”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Player, exercising narrative control: “They bear the colors and sigil of Duke Harald, and the man leading them is my father!.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I theorize that a story that lets multiple participants have the control to introduce elements or in some fashion to narrate will be a better story. When we play, we all aspire to be like an author in some fashion. But unlike writing, role playing is live - you don’t have the luxury of an editor or rewrites.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Players can gain some level of narrative control - or influence perhaps - when they say to the GM “Hey, I’d like to do so and so in the game.” And the GM says sure, and later incorporates some element of that into the game. This is just a slightly different way of giving the player some control. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some systems specifically give the players means to control the story, or rather to move it in directions that they think are interesting. There are a few systems that allow a player to say “I know that person” when an NPC is introduced. Thus they can make the story more interesting, and feel/be more involved with the story. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I experimented with this in a Shadow of Yesterday game. The party was searching for someone, and had a few clues, and then wanted to go to dice to determine whether they found the person. Dice rolls are commonly seen as having a binary outcome. Did you find the person, yes or no. The players want to find the person, and the GM wants the players to find the person too, but the GM wants they players to have to work for it. A dice roll is commonly seen as that work. But what if they dice are unkind, and they say no? Instead of simply deciding yes or no, let the dice be an arbiter of what’s going on - you could say that a failure results in a twist. “Did we find uncle Bob?” If the results are a success, then great - there he is. Story continues. If the result is a failure, it does no good for them </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to find uncle Bob. The whole story revolves around him, or he’s the next step in the story. But instead throw in a twist. Yes, you found uncle Bob, but he’s about to be killed by evil aunt Wilma, or his house is burning down when you pull up in front of it, or he’s just plain dead. At best, it’s a conflict/encounter that may be interesting, but again has the potential to be show-stopping - what if the party gets TPK’d or the fight doesn’t go as planned? If you go for heavy twists (bob is dead), you can’t just drop that on your players without a plan for them. There needs to be a lead - can he be resurrected? Can the information that they needed from him be found some other way? A twist should be interesting and exciting, rather than frustrating and disappointing.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An interesting story is generally going to be one in which some sort of adversity was overcome. No one wants to hear a story about how you went to the grocery store - unless you were mugged upon your arrival. A good story is always going to have at least one conflict. Two sides who want two different things. It may not involve violence or war, but it could instead involve some sort of negotiation or compromise.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you think of stories in terms of RPGs, you can imagine the dice rolling behind any blocking or conflict scene. Is that door locked, can the party get through it? Can the party escape from their pursuers? Can the Duke be convinced to support the claim? Will the owlbear kill the party? Can the group find its way through the labyrinth? Each of these are questions that have the potential for more than one answer. The door is locked or barred and the party must find another route. What happens when the pursuers catch up to the party? And so on.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">RPGs are still basically a game about storytelling. The GM is telling a story and the players are helping. Stories require details. Details make a story come alive. Details make a story interesting. They introduce new elements or possibilities.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Player input and dice rolls are commonly going to be informational or factual. Informational might be whether they spot a secret door, or pending ambush, or interesting clue. Factual is whether they were able to succeed or fail at some task. Climbing a wall, riding a horse, killing an orc, convincing a shopkeeper. There is some logic that insists that informational dice rolling be dispensed with. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s another facet here - and that’s random twists. Much like the random encounter chart. Consider that the party is traveling through a dark and sinister looking forest. A player asks “Do I hear anything, or notice anything suspicious?” The GM has not intended to drop an encounter here, and can simply say “no”, and move on. Or the GM can have them roll a dice, the dice roll determines whether there IS in fact something to be encountered. Random twists can be fun, but they can also distract when there is a story being told. Some games could be very nearly one random twist after another - but this will result in a disjointed story.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, what kind of control do the players want? How do they want to interact with the story? Do they simply want to be told what’s happening, and try to push buttons to influence the story? Or do they want more control, and to be able to modify the story in significant ways.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When players create characters, they are making decisions about the kind of game that they want to play, and how they want to play it (and how they want to interact with the world around them, and the game before them).</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most popular RPGs, no matter the genre, boil down to the same effective level of control for the players. They are provided with opportunities to tweak the story in small ways by the mechanics and by the GM.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Consider that there are already many elements of decision making done by the GM via fiat. Is there a car on the street? asks a player. Is the castle gate open? Do the orcs notice us? Is the Baroness mad? All of these could be determined by GM fiat, or a random (or semi-random) dice roll, or even by player input. “Say yes or roll dice” is a line from Dogs in the Vineyard. That game encourages a GM to give the players what they want in the story, and if the GM is unsure of the outcome, to go to dice and let the game’s mechanics sort out the answer.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Those of us who are familiar with RPGs oftentimes have learned how to play “correctly”, or the way that we are accustomed to. People who are new to the game will be interested in exploring how much control they have and what they can accomplish. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What type of story or game is the GM going for though? If they are trying to tell a very specific story, then giving the players more control can be problematic for them. If the Lord of the Rings were taking place in an RPG environment, and the GM had already planned out much of the story, letting the players have more control could derail the story. The GM wants it to be about the difficult journey to Mordor, fraught with difficulties, and the fate of the Ring and the protagonists. Player control could send the story spinning off in some other direction though.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The back and forth of player input and GM narration can be configured in a variety of ways. Consider the question of “How will the party get to Mordor?” The party can likely choose a variety of paths to get to their destination. Each choice may result in descriptive and narrative differences, and in conflicts or further decisions. In an RPG environment, this can be approached either with the “all roads lead to rome” philosophy in which the story still progresses in much the same way. A better example is perhaps a party in a cave system. They arrive at a fork in the tunnel and can choose to go left or right. In some games, the GM may have prepared for each choice, having descriptions and encounters and such ready for either choice. This requires more work certainly, and leaves the possibility of some of that work going unused. Another approach is for the GM to let the players make their choice, and to run descriptions and encounters much the same either way. The hazard here is if somehow both choices are invoked. “Well we chose the left path, but lets go back and do the right path instead.” This forces the GM either to make sometimes arbitrary and meta-seeming decisions: “Rocks fall and block your way back.”, or to come up with something for the other choice. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A common pitfall (or feature, depending on your perspective) for a new GM is giving the players a choice, and having designed their game in such a way that the players are required to make a certain decision. If the players make a different decision, or ignore the GM’s offer/bait, then the GM is potentially left struggling with something important that was missed. “The party completely ignored the basement, where they were supposed to find the ghost!” The simplest answer to this sort of problem is to simply present what you need/want the players to find. You WANT them to find the ghost in the old house. If for some reason the ghost needs to be in the basement, then the players need to be guided to the basement, or placed into the basement (the floor collapses, or what have you). Having a McGuffin that the players need to find can result in a boring search, especially if the players realize that they are trapped in the scene - and even worse if the players don’t know what is required to leave the scene. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The party finds itself in the old McLauren house. The GM wants the players to find the ghost of old Ms. McLauren in the basement so that they can get a quest from her and put her to rest. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s the story that the GM has prepared for the night. The players are initially unaware of the ghost though. One player says that they want to look for the way out. The GM is naturally opposed, so has 3 choices. Say yes, say no, or roll dice. The GM in this scenario is unlikely to say yes or roll dice, since he wants the players to remain in the scene and find the ghost. The players may feel frustrated, and try increasingly escalating methods of leaving the house, once they see that they are blocked. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The doors are all stuck? Fine, we’ll chop them down.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now the GM is forced to start using weird meta devices, or to simply tell the players that they can’t leave, which is still frustrating for many players. Instead, give the players what they need! Have the ghost pop right out, or give them a trail of breadcrumbs to the basement. But remember that players may ignore breadcrumbs - either they fail to notice the trail, or they decide that they’re not interested, or they think that it is unimportant.</span></div>
<br />Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-25416728751473503902015-01-07T09:17:00.000-06:002015-01-07T09:17:04.568-06:00ExtremismEarly this morning, gunmen burst into the offices of a French satirical magazine and murdered 12 people. All signs point to the gunmen being radical Muslims.<br />
<br />
I am generally pretty anti-religion, but I try really hard to balance that with the principle of respecting people's right to believe in pretty much whatever they want, as long as it is not infringing on or harming others. If you want to believe that Odin is real and rides a magical Unicorn, that's your business, not mine. But when you start murdering people because they are having a laugh at Odin, then fuck you.<br />
<br />
I believe that you cannot blame the actions of a few on an entire group. Not all anti-abortion activists are murderers. Not all black people are criminals. Not all Muslim people are killing in the name of their religion. Yet it becomes increasingly difficult to excuse the actions of a small part of a larger group when it happens again and again and again. At a certain point, the group in question needs to step up and start taking some corrective actions.<br />
<br />
I am terribly sad for the families of those who were murdered. I am sad for the chilling effect this sort of thing has on journalism and on public discourse. I am sad for the many peaceful Muslim people who will likely experience scrutiny or prejudice based on the actions of a few.<br />
<br />
I think that there is a cancer within the Muslim community. I think that there is a fringe element that is actively perpetuated. And until that cancer is eliminated, we will continue to see religious extremists murdering people, and the Muslim community at large will continue to feel the backlash.Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-32135141868028286802014-04-27T18:04:00.002-05:002014-04-27T18:52:54.045-05:001st MarathonIf you're reading this, then hi. This blog has fallen into disuse, so I'm using this as a memory-space. But feel free to enjoy :)<br />
<br />
<br />
Today was my first marathon. 26.2 miles.<br />
<br />
We signed up for the St. Jude Memphis marathon for December 2013, but the thing got canceled after a nasty ice storm. That was a real let-down. I wish the weather had been different and we could have knocked it out, but there's nothing you can do about the weather. Since it was 14 degrees out that morning though, I think they made the right decision.<br />
<br />
So we rescheduled for the Nashville run in April.<br />
<br />
Last year I'd trained pretty hard. I had set out to run 1,000 miles over year (which I hit in November, I think), and had done a number of long runs leading up to the St. Jude Marathon. So I was essentially finishing my marathon training, and then immediately starting my marathon training once again. Frustrating.<br />
<br />
But I kept up my running. Not quite as consistently as last year. I was getting in 4 or 5 runs per week last year, religiously, and was doing regular 7-9 milers, with long runs on the weekend. This year I was only doing 5 milers regularly, and was doing somewhat long on the weekends, 9, 13 and 16 miles, I think.<br />
<br />
Getting up to Nashville for the marathon turned out to be fun. We left Piper and Griffin with Grandma. I would have loved to have them there, but it was not fair to leave the two of them for Krissi to manage in downtown Nasvhille for X hours. The drive up was rather fun, it was a chance for me to get into the thrill and differentness of a Marathon. We got into town, checked into the hotel, then went and picked up our race packet. The huge convention center was impressive, and we nearly got lost on account of some sort of Junior Star talent show. Eventually we got our packet and wandered into the expo, which was kinda cool and a little culture-shock for me. I don't recall having wandered through an expo - which I guess translates to "maze of vendor booths". It was neat to see all the gear and tech and kitsch, and also to people watch, and after grabbing a few little things, we got the heck out of there. We wandered a bit, trying to get some good local italian food, and ended up at <a href="http://www.mirkopastanashville.com/" target="_blank">Mirko Pasta</a> on Lebanon Pike, though we tried to figure out a place that I'd decided on before the trip, but then couldn't remember the name of (it's <a href="http://pomodoroeast.com/" target="_blank">Pomodoro East</a>; next time, Nashville.) Mirko was descent, with nice atmosphere, but my dish (angel hair pasta bolognese) was reasonable but not impressive. We headed back to our hotel, the budget minded Nashville Airport Hotel, which was across the street from the La Quinta. It was nice, we were on the third floor, our door opening out onto a balcony walkway and the parking lot. All the normal ammenities, and it seemed clean and nice. I could tell it was budget priced though by the wobbly faucet fixture. Still, for the required "place to stay before the race where I can get some sleep", it mostly satisfied. Though we were awakened twice by men walking on the walkway speaking in some southeast-asian language, and once by a loud motorcycle.<br />
<br />
We sprang from bed early in the morning, 4:55 in fact. We'd traveled light, and packed last night, so we only needed to worry about prep in the morning. I downed 24 ounces of electrolyte-water, a banana, and a couple of granola bars. We dressed and grabbed our stuff and were out the door. We'd mapped our route, and hit the road. I navigated a wrong turn off, which cost us a few minutes, but then we were on our way-- and quickly ran into gridlock traffic, leading to the bridge toward where we needed to go. Seemed like a simple case of 30,000+ people trying to get to the same place, even though it was only 5:45.<br />
<br />
After consulting our maps, we took a detour, as it looked like we could get around the bridge snarl. And it worked out. We pulled into the Nashville football stadium parking lot, and then headed toward the race.<br />
<br />
The crowd was huge, and pretty awesome. So many different types of people, and different types of runners. I'd dropped back in corral, and was hoping for a 5 hour finish time. With the difference in elevation and temperature and my training, I had different expectations than I had for St. Jude Memphis.<br />
<br />
The run got kicked off, and the corrals filtered down, and soon enough, my wave was off. The first couple of miles was through downtown nashville, then it turned south and west a little, and went down through a bunch of small and pretty neighborhoods, including a Montessori school. Then the full and half marathoners split off, and the marathon went north. And it got warm. And sunny. Mile 13 was at the turn around point north, so back we came again toward downtown. I was already starting to feel the distance, and as the warmth and sun worked on me, I slowed down. The route went through downtown and over the bridge. At mile 18 I met Krissi, who had water and nutrition, but I turned down the race goo/bars. I didn't think my stomach could take it. I put on more sunblock, and was off again. By mile 20 though, I was getting spent. The miles seemed way longer than a mile. I had to walk for a bit before running again. The route on the east side of Nashville was back through an industrial and impoverished area, and then a state park, and was an interesting route. I was pretty beat by this time, and my feet were worn out, and my body was getting tired. But I kept going, sometimes alternating walking and running, and by mile 24 or 25, I'd got a bit of a second wind, and was able to team up with another runner and motivate each other to get across the finish line.<br />
<br />
Krissi was right there cheering me on, and we took a couple of minutes to rest and chat before we moved on. Krissi had been super busy all day trying to keep up with me and the marathon, and so was almost as spent as I was. We got to the car and drove straight to<a href="http://gabbysburgersandfries.com/" target="_blank"> Gabby's Burgers</a> and I devoured a double burger in like 90 seconds flat.<br />
<br />
We headed out of town at that point hoping to get home and have the night off (from obligations and such). We ran into two awful traffic snarls that turned a 3.5 hour trip into a 5 hour trip. But eventually we were home and got to relax.<br />
<br />
I was worn out after the run, but not demolished. And today (sunday after the run) I'm in good shape, with only a small amount of soreness.<br />
<br />
In hindsight, I'm glad to have a marathon done. I hoped to do it much faster, but I'm not gonna complain. It just gives me an easy PR to beat. Krissi and I talked about whether I'd do another marathon, and beforehand I said that I wasn't sure if I'd do another marathon after this one. Having just finished my first, I think I'll do another. Not this year - but maybe in 2015. <br />
<br />
Meanwhile, I think half-marathons are just my speed!<br />
<br />
postscript - I meant to mention (actual today) the day after the marathon, Sunday. I still had some energy on the marathon itself, it was just my feet that were so completely spent. I think that next time I'll do a marathon in running shoes. And in colder weather. The day after a marathon is often tough, but I've been in really good shape today. Some soreness and a little stiffness, but if I walk around for a bit, the soreness goes away and I'm in good shape. I think I can destroy my PR at St Jude Memphis 2015Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-31128407580746636472013-01-28T12:28:00.001-06:002013-01-28T12:28:36.045-06:00Composure as a statI've played a few games that have a 'Composure' trait or something similar. I think more systems should have this.<br />
<br />
Think of it this way - most likely your character has a strength score or something along those lines. This is how the group can all have an idea of how strong the character is, and there's a way to adjudicate what he/she can do. "I bash the door down" - not with a four in strength, buddy.<br />
<br />
So what about when the group meats a 30 foot tall, fire breathing dragon? Or is involved in a firefight with bullets whizzing by? Its super easy, from the comfort of your game table, to declare that Bob the Bad Ass shrugs off care or concern and advances grimly to meet his foe. We don't get the quiver of fear in our stomach, or the paralyzing terror from having someone else try their best to kill you.<br />
<br />
Granted, when we sit down to play these games, we <i>want</i> to be heroic. And this can still work. We also want to be ridiculously strong and have awesome abs.Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-2075803607006636212012-12-14T15:21:00.002-06:002012-12-14T15:21:26.296-06:00This is all bullshit<div>
I'm going to write about something that you already have an opinion on. I'm going to hope that my compelling argument will sway you to my viewpoint and that you'll better understand my perspective Maybe I'll change your mind!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Nah. That's not going to happen.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
You've already made your mind up, and if today's events didn't change your mind, then this stupid fucking blog post certainly won't.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
America loves guns. We make a fucking ton of them. And its easy to get one. And then you're on your own! I sure hope you're not a fucking lunatic who wants to shoot my baby girl at her school! Hot dog!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So why am I even bothering to type some nonsense here? Well I'm glad you asked. Its because I am sick to fucking death of this argument. Its because I want to scream at how completely insane this is. Its because I'm furious at every friend and relative of mine who insists that guns are not to blame, and if anything, we should make them easier to possess.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
When the fellow shot up the theater in Aurora, I sat down and took the time to write a well reasoned post, complete with references and facts and stuff. I'm not going to do that right now. I'm too emotional. I have a kid who attends school. This could have been my family.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To those of you who continue to shriek "guns don't kill people!" I simply say this: fuck you. I know, its harsh. But this is an emotional subject. 20 kids just died, 11 days before Christmas. Thanks to an asshole with a gun. I know that most of you gun owners are responsible people who would never shoot up a theater or a classroom. But that's no fucking excuse. You cannot justify to me the need for you to keep your gun, while a dick head used his gun to kill 20 children. Fuck your right to keep a gun. What do you need it for? To feel safe? To feel powerful? To feel manly, or in control? I wonder how many parents at that school had a gun in their closet or bedroom, or even in their car or on their hip. Didn't help much did it? That's because a lunatic had little difficulty in getting his hands on an assault rifle and at least two handguns.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I could go on at length, but I don't feel like it.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I'll say it again, fuck you and your guns.</div>
Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-33978066192769558152012-11-12T11:25:00.002-06:002012-11-12T12:00:27.482-06:00Government Meddling (or 'How will the CEOs feed their families?')<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Government meddling
in business is nothing new. We are all
aware of recent news, mandating that employers provide healthcare coverage to
employees that meet specific criteria. Let’s
take a look back at how the government has meddled in business in the past.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In 1916 the
National Child Labor Committee successfully worked with Congress to pass the
Keating-Owen Child Labor Act, also known as Wick’s Bill. This statute prohibited the sale in interstate
commerce of goods produced by factories that employed children under fourteen,
mines that employed children under sixteen, and any facility where children
under sixteen worked at night or more than eight hours daily.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The outcry
was immediate, and in 1918 the US Supreme Court ruled the Act unconstitutional
in <i>Hammer v. Dagenhart</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And then all
was well in the world of commerce and capitalism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Until 1933.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Under
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, Congress passed the National Industrial
Recovery Act. One of the provisions of
this act established a national minimum wage of $0.25 per hour, a 40 hour
workweek, and enacted regulations for working conditions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Big business
did not take this lying down though, and in 1935 the Supreme Court declared the
act unconstitutional in <i>Schechter Poultry
Corp v. United States</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Once again,
the invisible hand was allowed to regulate things, and government was told <i>No!</i> when it comes to deciding what is
right and good for capitalism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But FDR wasn’t
finished. In 1938 the Fair Labor
Standards Act was passed, which brought back a national minimum wage of $0.25
per hour ($3.77 in 2007 dollars), a 40 hour work week, allowance for overtime
paid at 1.5 times the normal rate of pay, and prohibited children under 16 from
working.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But business
did not consider the matter to be settled.
In 1946 the case of <i>Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co.</i> reached the
Supreme Court. Employees were not being
paid for their time preparing their workplaces (walking to their station,
turning on equipment, donning special clothing, and so on). The Supreme Court upheld the Act, forcing
employers to pay their employees “portal to portal”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And now here
we are in 2012. Once again, government
is dictating how employers treat their employees. And some employers are doing the only thing
they can do: reducing employee hours to dodge the requirement, or simply
passing the increased cost on to their customers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some regard healthcare
coverage as a basic employee right, similar to a safe and harassment free
workplace, or to a minimum wage. Others
see healthcare more as a luxury. For a
low wage or minimum wage worker, it must be reassuring to know that if they are
injured or become ill, not only are they likely to miss out on work and pay at their
job, they could even be fired. That on
top of massive medical bills well beyond their ability to pay, on account of
their low wage job, and lack of healthcare coverage. For someone working to support a family, it
must be reassuring to know that the job creators, the people at the very top of
the capitalism food chain, are not taking a hit in their pocket book. For a CEO with a luxury mansion and a private
fleet of automobiles, suffering any loss in profits is absolutely
devastating. I mean, how would they
support their family?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-67803690393843759232012-08-07T11:27:00.000-05:002012-08-07T11:36:02.675-05:00ReactionaryWhen something bad happens, we react. It’s perfectly normal. Often we change something in an attempt to get different results. This applies on a micro and macro scale, and it has both positive and negative repercussions. The TSA and airport body scanners are a great example. So are seat belts, parachutes, metal detectors, stop signs and Kevlar vests.<br />
<br />
But not so with gun massacres.<br />
<br />
Well, a few people mention gun control laws and such, but they're quickly shouted down. Coverage of the Denver theater shooting was filled with talking heads preemptively explaining how it was too early to discuss gun control, or how discussing gun control would "politicize" the tragedy.<br />
<br />
Gun culture is deeply ingrained in America. I'd wager that the majority of the voting public could tell you what the Second Amendment is about. How about the Third? (Protection from quartering of troops) Seventh? (Civil trial by jury) It’s interesting to note that while Americans steadfastly defend the Second Amendment, the Fourth is nearly forgotten, and looking rather ragged lately.<br />
<br />
The Second Amendment to the US Constitution reads:<br />
<br />
<i>A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed </i><br />
<br />
So what’s this mean? Seriously – what does this mean? I’d love to sit down every adult and have them write down what this does and does not cover. Because no one really agrees. It’s ambiguous. And more than 200 years old.<br />
<br />
And <strike>this is why we have a gun control debate</strike> - actually, this is why we have almost zero gun control debate in America. Well, that and the lobbying power of the NRA. Many on the pro-gun side of this debate see it as rather black and white. We either <i>do</i> or<i> do not</i> allow guns. Or at least, that’s the message that we hear. We’re told that it’s a slippery slope, that gun laws only hurt legal gun owners, that guns are how we keep the state honest.<br />
<br />
I’ve been on both sides of the gun debate. I empathize with gun owners, and I don’t genuinely propose eliminating guns. (Because c’mon, I’m trying to have a serious conversation here. Can you imagine how this would go: “Guns are now illegal in America. Please turn your firearms in at your local police station. Thank you.” Oh man, the hilarity that would ensue.)<br />
<br />
The problem here is that the right is not even willing to discuss the issue. Every proposal, no matter how moderate, gets slapped down. You need look no further than the Federal Assault Weapons Ban that was allowed to expire, and the right seems perfectly happy that it’s dead. With it out of the way, the voting public is free to purchase 100 round magazines for their assault rifles.<br />
<br />
Some on the right want to make guns <i>even easier</i> to get. It’s the idea that an armed civilization is a polite civilization. That’s great on paper. It’s a noble idea. Until you throw booze into the equation. Or domestic violence. Or road rage. Or bullying. Or all of the other things that happen, and would continue to happen, if you armed every voting American citizen. All made worse by the level of experience and training that armed citizen has. I have a friend who spends hours and hours at the gun range every week. I also know gun owners who haven’t visited a gun range in years. The idea of them picking up a firearms and trying to use it to defend my life or the lives of my loved ones is <i>fucking terrifying</i>. “You just point at bad guys and pull the trigger, right?” of course it’s that easy. Bad guys don’t shoot back, it’s always well-lit, and people don’t run through the line of fire. And besides, good people with guns never make mistakes and shoot someone by accident, or by mistaken identity – or by just plain missing their target.<br />
<br />
So here I am yelling into the void. Despite numerous recent instances of law abiding American citizens picking up their legal firearm and using to massacre innocent people, no one is willing to have a serious conversation about how prevent this from happening next time.Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-79438282549681121352012-07-23T10:25:00.003-05:002012-07-23T11:10:39.859-05:00Guns, guns guns!<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">America has a love affair with guns. Who can blame us? Our nation was founded on armed insurrection. The second amendment to our constitution is regarding armaments. We love our guns.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But they keep killing us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">On July 20, 2012, James Holmes killed 12 and wounded 58 others in Denver. He was carrying an assault rifle (with a 100 round drum), a shotgun, and at least one pistol, and had recently purchased 6,000 rounds of ammunition. The youngest to die was a <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/veronica-moser-youngest-theater-shooter-james-holmes-victims-aurora-dark-knight-rises-movie-screening-attack-article-1.1119600">6 year old girl</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">On January 8, 2011, Jarred Lee Loughner killed 6 people and wounded 13 in Tuscon. His youngest victim was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/us/14funeral.html?_r=1">9 years old</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded 23 others at Virginia Tech.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">On October 2, 2006, Charles Roberts <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15105305/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/th-girl-dies-after-amish-schoolhouse-shooting/">killed 5 and wounded 5 more</a>, all children, in Pennsylvania.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2010, out of 12,996 murders in the US, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/10/gun-crime-us-state">8,775 were committed by a firearm</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'd stop right there, but the pro-gun crowd will quickly point out a few things. For one, I have neglected to include any cases of people defending themselves with guns. It happens. There's the case of <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-man-71-shoots-alleged-robbers-internet-cafe/story?id=16800859">Samuel Williams</a>, who drove off two robbers. But there's also the case of Zimmerman and Martin, or the case of <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-06-27/texas-stand-your-ground-sentence/55868954/1">Raul Rodriguez</a>, or <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/20/us-usa-florida-protest-idUSBRE86J1DY20120720">Andrew Scott</a> or even <a href="http://www.truecrimereport.com/2010/09/david_james_air_force_veteran.php">David James</a>. In each of these situations, someone was shot and killed during a "defense" situation, and in each of these cases, it was completely preventable. Guns do sometimes save lives. But far more frequently they are used to murder, rape, rob or intimidate. In 2006, there were almost <a href="http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/glance/guncrime.cfm">400,000 gun crimes</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The pro-gun crowd answers each gun related tragedy by some shaking of the head, a few tales about how if more of us were armed, this kind of thing could be prevented, and preemptive declarations that gun control laws won't do a thing about it, yet this is full of conjecture and muddled truth. The NRA would seemingly like to see every "law abiding" citizen armed. "That will prevent gun violence", they say. Sure - if every bank customer was packing heat, someone might be less likely to try robbing the bank. Yet this handy answer ignores a great deal. How useful is a handgun in the hands of a relatively untrained user? A hero stops the bank robber in his tracks. It's tough to call him a hero though if one of his bullets catches another customer in the crossfire. And besides, this ignores that the US is already considered <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/08/28/us-world-firearms-idUSL2834893820070828">the most heavily armed society on the planet</a>. So if having so many guns makes us so safe, why do I keep reading about murder/suicides, and children being slaughtered by people with guns?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The pro-gun crowd points out that gun control laws will only keep guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens. "Criminals don't follow laws!" they cry. And sure enough, as much as 80% of firearms in the hands of criminals come from "<a href="http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/guns.cfm">family, friends, a street buy, or an illegal source</a>", but this quick statistic deserves more scrutiny. Unless criminals are robbing the Smith & Wesson factory, these firearms are being legally purchased at some point in time. According to the <a href="http://www.dontlie.org/FAQ.cfm">Bureau of Justice</a>, 40% of these guns come from family or friends, 40% from illegal street purchases, and almost 10% from straw buys. So its true that gun control laws will not stop someone from purchasing a gun on the black market. But what if gun control laws could prevent that gun from ever reaching the black market? In 2010, a staggering <a href="http://www.atf.gov/statistics/download/afmer/2010-final-firearms-manufacturing-export-report.pdf">5.4 million firearms were manufactured in the US</a>. As I said, the black market, and criminals, get their guns from <i>somewhere</i>. Some are stolen - <a href="http://www.atf.gov/statistics/ffl-theft-loss-reports/FFL-theft-loss-statistics-01122012-update-ii.pdf">almost 75,000 over a three year period</a>. But that leaves a remarkable disparity. If 5.4 million firearms were manufactured in one year alone, and 75,000 were stolen over three years... that means that there are a whole lot of legally owned guns out there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">What's the difference in a criminal and a legal gun owner? One crime. Until early on July 20th, James Holmes was a law abiding citizen and a legal gun owner. Then he shot 70 people.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The pro-gun crowd plays a zero sum game. They accuse the left of trying to take their guns away. They claim that any restrictions on gun purchase and ownership will "let the bad guys win!". But its all smoke and mirrors. And it doesn't make any sense. I simply cannot comprehend how you can nod your head at the death of a 6 year old in a movie theater, shot by a fellow with an assault rifle and a 100 round magazine, and not think that maybe there's a problem. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban specifically prohibited high capacity magazines, exactly like the one used in the Denver massacre. Let me say that more clearly: He was able to buy a 100 round magazine because we let a gun control law expire. Now tell me that gun control laws have no bearing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I have a serious question: How many kids have to get killed by guns before we change the laws? Seriously, 100? 1,000? 10,000? How many kids have to eat a bullet to convince you that we have a problem?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Gun society in America puts so much emphasis on having nearly unrestricted access to firearms that this is simply intractable, and to be honest, no light-weight gun laws will fix this problem. While gun laws can limit the type of firearms and accessories purchased, or block purchases for people with mental illness or criminal history, or even put in place mandatory training or long waiting periods, no law will change the number of guns available to Americans, short of something drastic that makes gun owners quiver in anger and fear.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Every time someone is victimized by gun crime, the pro-gun crowd will write it off as a fluke. Either it was just a criminal, so "Gee, there's nothing we can do about that", or its a pity that there weren't more gun owners nearby who could have solved the problem right away (James Holmes was dressed head to toe in body armor, it is unlikely that anyone with a pistol would have been able to stop him).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The pro-gun crowd needs to do a little navel gazing. Sure, sometimes guns are used by bad people to murder people they don't know, or to commit other crimes. Other times they are<a href="http://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/userfiles/file/Children_and_Families/Guns.pdf"> used on a spouse</a>. Or discovered by a curious 3 year old.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="; font-family: inherit;">Something needs to change.</span><br />Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-56657365862962356502011-11-16T23:18:00.001-06:002011-11-16T23:18:10.354-06:00testingtesting, 1, 2, 3.... I should probably post here from time to time.Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-92125419615674842792010-03-25T09:43:00.001-05:002010-05-12T09:36:22.587-05:00The Health Care Bill and YouI won't mince words. I'm pro-health care. Furthermore, I'm pro-health care for <i>everyone</i>. I also have a strong socialist streak.<br />
<br />
I'm sure that there are some folks out there who feel different than me, perhaps even for some legitimate and <i>sane</i> reasons, but I'm seeing lots of opposition to the health care bill for <i>completely batshit insane stuff</i>.<br />
<br />
Let me get right to the point again: If you are getting your information about the health care bill from Glenn Beck and the folks at Fox news, then you may as well be consulting the neighborhood four year old about it. Here's a challenge for you, if you're a Fox news follower. Tell me three things that the health care bill will do. And if one of those is "Give viagra to sex offenders", then I really can't help you. Try this - look up the bill on the internet. Read about it - no, not on the fox news forum - go look it up on the rest of the internet.<br />
<br />
I know that politics gets mighty polarized, and dems and repubs sit on opposite sides of the fence on some issues, but are you really going to let Glenn Beck convince you that "The Democrats" are trying to destroy the country? Are you that gullible?<br />
<br />
I suppose the other side of that coin is that I'm flabbergasted by the Republican Congressional effort to stop the health care bill. A bill that is aimed at HELPING PEOPLE.Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-3672616491484838222010-03-08T15:13:00.001-06:002010-03-08T15:15:06.003-06:00Hawai'i!This is a somewhat brief recap of our Hawai'i trip.<br />
<br />
I apologize if its a bit hurried. Lately I just don't have the time or attention for making these posts more pretty and such. Anyway.<br />
<br />
My mother, who is a very generous woman, tries to organize and help fund family trips every year or two. This year, she'd setup a trip to Hawai'i for herself, Krissi and Piper and I, as well as my brother and his wife.<br />
<br />
We left folks in charge of all of the stuff at home, and at 5AM on Saturday morning, we were standing in the Memphis airport, ready to get on a plane.<br />
<br />
We discovered, later in the morning, that my brother and his wife, who are party animals, had stayed up till almost 2 the previous night/morning at some party or show. Stupid awesome partying people with no kids. Would you believe those jerks even slept on the airplane some? /teasing<br />
<br />
We had a plane ride from Memphis to Chicago, a three hour layover, and then a flight from Chicago to Honolulu. After boarding the plane up sitting in the aircraft for <i>an entire hour</i> waiting for a de-icing truck. Geez. Fortunately, Piper was in a good humor. During our time in the sky on Saturday, we had a couple of minor meltdowns, but nothing that was not quickly corrected with a bottle or food or some kind of entertainment or distraction. We arrived in Chicago only somewhat late, and walked seemingly a mile through the airport to reach our next gate. When we arrived there, we discovered the TVs blaring news about the earthquake in Chile, and the tsunami warnings for the entire Pacific. We all stood there, transfixed and dumbstruck. So.... are we really going to get on this plane and fly to Hawai'i.. just in time for a Big Wave?<br />
<br />
We did indeed get on the plane, and we were told that we'd fly out and if the wave hit and was bad, we'd turn around and go back to San Francisco. But it turned out to be almost nothing in Hawai'i, so we landed in Honolulu in the mid afternoon.<br />
<br />
We ate, walked out onto the beach, which was just across the street from our hotel, and spent about five minutes playing in the shallow water. Then we called it a day. I believe that the three of us were all asleep by 9. (With the time difference, that was actually 1AM)<br />
<br />
The days blur together, so I'm not going to give you a chronologically accurate rundown, instead, I'm just going to tell you the things that we did, and in some cases, did not do.<br />
<br />
We hiked to, and then up (and then back from) Diamond Head. It was a fun walk to it, across Waikiki, through the little local neighborhoods and such. The trail itself was awesome. I carried Piper in the Kelty backpack. At the end of the week, I told Krissi that I would totally do the entire Diamond Head trek again, if I could. We all went to the top and enjoyed the stunning views.<br />
<br />
We walked, <i>a lot</i>. We also had bus passes, and used them, but we got a great deal of walking done, which was cool. We rented a car for one day, and James, Keshia, Krissi, Piper and I all drove out to the North Shore, while my mom was doing an all-day volcano tour. North Shore was gorgeous, and the driving was scenic and fun. Everyone had a great time, and we saw some amazing beaches and mountains, and some cool waves.<br />
<br />
We ate some good food, but for a few days, we lamented that there weren't more yummy and reasonably priced food places where we were. Sadly, we had simply not done enough exploring. One street north of us were a number of excellent food places, including Ono's Cheese Steaks, and a bunch of others. I ate at a Golden Palace chinese restaurant that had THE BEST chinese take-out I have ever eaten. Instead of leaving me with an oily, MSG taste in my mouth afterward, this was fresh and flavorful and SO delicious.<br />
<br />
We went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, which was gorgeous. It was lots of fun swimming through the reef, looking at all the coral and fish, and we saw a sea turtle, which was just icing on the cake.<br />
<br />
Simple people watching was lots of fun. Many of the people there were simply of the "beautiful people" category. Bronze skin, gorgeous tattoos... I got a couple of runs in, but I remember commenting at least once that there'd be NO excuse for being out of shape while living in Hawai'i. You couldn't turn around without seeing a few people out running.<br />
<br />
Piper loved the sand and water. The very first time we stuck her feet in the surf, she made upset noises and did not want her feet in it. But the next day, she was all about it. She loved playing in the sand, and though that eating it was great fun, as was picking through the sand looking for rocks and shells. She loved the water, and we let her walk in the shallow bit, and carried her out deeper and swooshed her around and she had a blast. Lots of big toothy smiles.<br />
<br />
We hiked the Ma'ona falls, which was beautiful. This was another outing that we got to do a lot of walking on, due to a misunderstanding about bus routes. Again, we had a great time, and enjoyed the hike.<br />
<br />
We went to the Botanical Gardens, which were lots of fun, and very very pretty. This is a great transition into picture taking. I took GOBS of photos. Around two thousand. Of course, I will not be insisting that you view all two thousand. I've already begun to go through and delete blurry or bad photos, and will try to trim down on duplicates and such. I'm slowly going through them uploading the highlights, and hope to have maybe a hundred or two hundred photos online later this week.<br />
<br />
Although I was somewhat ambivalent about getting lots of time lying around in the sun on the beach - I'm a pretty pale dude, and I burn in no time - the others were very keen on beach time, so at least once, Piper and I took a well deserved nap while the others laid out like beach bums.<br />
<br />
James and Keshia went on a couple of hash runs, which sounded like terrific fun, and we'd thought seriously about going along on, but the timing just didn't work out. They also did some surfing lessons which sounded like a lot of fun.<br />
<br />
We went to the Ioani Palace, but discovered that the wouldn't admit anyone under 4 years old into the main building. So Krissi and Piper and I toured the gallery, and then hung outside enjoying the fantastic weather.<br />
<br />
We attended a Luau, which was neat. <br />
<br />
While out hunting for free WiFi, I discovered one of the most popular gay bars in Honolulu, which was also the only free WiFi bar within walking distance of our hotel. This is a funny story, because I did not realize that it was a gay bar until after I'd ordered my jack and coke and setup the laptop. Not that I would have necessarily avoided it - one of our guide books, as we discovered, listed it as a 'must visit' nightclub - but it certainly made me chuckle, and got a round of chuckles out of my friends. (Unnamed friend: "So you found it via an app on your iPhone, huh?", me: "Its a free WiFi locator app, I was not cruising for gay bars!")<br />
<br />
There were a number of things that we wanted to do, that we did not get to do, mostly due to time constraints and travel. I'd loved to have visited the Dole Plantation, the Bishop Museum, and perhaps the Polynesian museum and even gone to the North Shore again. Traveling with a baby though is a whole different experience, and we had to juggle nap times, and baby supplies, and so forth.<br />
<br />
The trip back was pretty good as well. It was overnight, and Piper had a few meltdowns when she got tired, but ended up sleeping for most of the flight - thankfully. Krissi and I did not fare as well though, and had about two hours of sleep each, so we were(are) kinda beat.<br />
<br />
And in the end, I know we are glad to be back home. Hawai'i was absolutely beautiful, and we had a great great time. Its always nice though, to get back home to your own house and stuff and animals.<br />
<br />
What a great trip.Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-72791282920068583922010-02-23T15:03:00.000-06:002010-02-23T15:03:38.009-06:00Me and StevenNames have been changed to protect the innocent. Chronology not perfectly preserved.<br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<span style="color: blue;">From: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">To: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Subject: FW:Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">2/22/10 2:33pm</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">FYI </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">-----Original Message----- </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">From: Mail Delivery System [mailto:MAILER-DAEMON@ourisp.net] </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 2:33 PM </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">To: prvs=16697be4e4=steven@mycompany.com </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">This is the mail system at host relay-6.dlfw.ourisp.net. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">If you do so, please include this problem report. You can </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">delete your own text from the attached returned message. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"> The mail system </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><bob@mail.yaywidgets.com>: host inbound.registeredsite.com[66.97.46.122] </bob@mail.yaywidgets.com></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> said: 550 5.7.1<bob@mail.yaywidgets.com>... Relaying denied (in reply </bob@mail.yaywidgets.com></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> to RCPT TO command)</span><br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">From: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">To: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Subject: Re:FW:Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">2/22/10 4:02pm</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">bob@mail.yaywidgets.com is a bad address, I've tested it from another host and got the same result.</span><br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">From: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">To: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">2/22/10 3:34pm</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">FYI</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> -----Original Message-----</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> From: postmaster@jimswheels.com</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> [mailto:postmaster@jimswheels.com]</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 3:26 PM</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> To: prvs=16697be4e4=steve@mycompany.com</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> Delivery to the following recipients failed.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> JimB@jimswheels.com</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> Reporting-MTA: dns;maccoad1.jimswheels.com</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> Received-From-MTA: dns;omf1.ijnet.net</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> Arrival-Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:25:05 -0600</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> Final-Recipient: rfc822;JimB@jimswheels.com</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> Action: failed</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> Status: 5.2.3</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> X-Display-Name: Jim B</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> </span><br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">From: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">To: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Subject: Re: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">2/22/10 4:03pm</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Are you positive that this email address is correct?</span><br />
<br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">From: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">To: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">2/22/10 4:07pm</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">Yes</span><br />
<br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">From: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">To: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Subject: Re: FW: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">2/23/10 10:54am</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Steven,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Were you sending attachments to this user?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">If so, what size?</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Numeric Code: 5.2.3</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Possible Cause: The message is too large for the local quota. For example, a remote Exchange user may have delivery restrictions set with max incoming message size.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Troubleshooting: Resend the message without attachments, or set the server side limit or the client side limit to permit a larger message size. </span><br />
<br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">From: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">To: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Subject: RE: FW: Bob Roberts</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">2/22/10 4:08pm</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">On 2/22/2010 4:08 PM, Steven wrote:</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> FYI</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> -----Original Message-----</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> From: lisa somebody [mailto:lisa_somebody@thirdparty.net]</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 12:09 PM</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> To: 'Steven'</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> Subject: RE: Bob Roberts</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> Try bob@mail.yaywidgets.com</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> The email that you have listed below is also correct but sometimes I can not get it to go through. The one I have listed should work.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> Thanks,</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">> Lisa</span><br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">From: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">To: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Subject: Re: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">2/22/10 4:09pm</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">I don't know what to tell you. bob@mail.yaywidgets.com does not work, and its not a problem on our side. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">I sent a test message to bob@yaywidgets.com, and as far as I can tell, it has not bounced.</span><br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<span style="color: blue;">From: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">To: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Subject: RE: FW: Bob Roberts</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">2/23/10 9:40am</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">FYI</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>-----Original Message-----</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>From: MAILER-DAEMON@mymail.myregisteredsite.com</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>[mailto:MAILER-DAEMON@mymail.myregisteredsite.com]</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 9:33 AM</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>To: prvs=167028d6a7=steven@mycompany.com</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>Subject: failure notice</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>Hi. This is the qmail-send program at mymail.myregisteredsite.com.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following >addresses.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">><bob@yaywidgets.com>:</bob@yaywidgets.com></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>user is over quota</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>--- Below this line is a copy of the message.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">From: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">To: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Subject: Re: FW: failure notice</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">2/23/10 9:42am</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">There's the problem. His mailbox is full. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">> <bob@yaywidgets.com>: </bob@yaywidgets.com></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">> user is over quota</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">It looks like you're sending very large emails, that one was 9 megs. Email does not handle large sizes very well, this is not specific to our email, most email services only allow a maximum of 2 megs, though ours typically allows up to 10 megs.</span><br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<span style="color: blue;">From: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">To: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Subject: Re: FW: failure notice</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">2/23/10 9:45am</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">but how can I get an email from my own computer to go thru every time? And Stu is getting them it is the same way with Tim B. It does not make any sense to me.</span><br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">From: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">To: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Subject: Re: FW: failure notice</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">2/23/10 9:54am</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Steven, I'm just telling you what is happening with these emails. When you send an email, and get an automatic reply that says "user is over quota", it means that the other person's mailbox is full. If he is getting some emails from you, then perhaps he is downloading/deleting emails. Part of the problem may be that you are sending 10 meg emails.</span><br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<span style="color: blue;">From: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">To: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">2/23/10 9:51am</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">here's another one. </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">-----Original Message----- </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">From: Mail Delivery System [mailto:MAILER-DAEMON@ourisp.net] </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 9:46 AM </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">To: prvs=167028d6a7=steven@mycompany.com </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">This is the mail system at host relay-5.dlfw.twtelecom.net. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">If you do so, please include this problem report. You can </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">delete your own text from the attached returned message. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"> The mail system </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><jim@jimswheels.com>: host xxx.ijnet.net[216.xxx.xxx.xxx] said: 550</jim@jimswheels.com></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> Requested action was not taken because this server doesn't handle mail for </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> that user (in reply to RCPT TO command)</span><br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<span style="color: red;">From: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">To: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Subject: Re: FW: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">2/23/10 9:55am</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Looks like you typo'd his address. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><jim@jimswheels.com>: host xxx.ijnet.net[216.xxx.xxx.xxx] said: 550 </jim@jimswheels.com></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"> Requested action was not taken because this server doesn't handle mail for </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"> that user (in reply to RCPT TO command)</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">From: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">To: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Subject: Re: FW: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">2/23/10 10:59am</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Steven,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Thus far, the issues with email have all been related either to an</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">incorrect or typo'd email address, the recipient's mailbox being full,</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">or the email you are sending being too large for the receiving server.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">In order to avoid these kind of problems, please double check the</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">following things:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">1. Is the email address correct, and without typos? </span><br />
<span style="color: red;">2. Are you attempting to send attachments to the recipient? If so, how</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">large are the attachments?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">In a previous email, you mentioned that you're sending out pricing to</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">customers. We will work on making sure that you're able to send this</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">information out in a format that will work.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Keep me posted.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<span style="color: blue;">From: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">To: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Subject: Re Re: FW: Permanent Delivery Failure</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">2/23/10 12:28pm</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">here is another one. the email address for Tom Dudefella is correct. I called him on it. </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">-----Original Message----- </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">From: MDaemon at mycompany.com [mailto:MDaemon@mycompany.com] </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 12:22 PM </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">To: steven@mycompany.com </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Subject: Permanent Delivery Failure </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">-------------------------------------------------------------------------- </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">The attached message had PERMANENT fatal delivery errors. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">After one or more unsuccessful delivery attempts the attached message has </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">been removed from the MDaemon mail queue on this server. The number and </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">frequency of delivery attempts are determined by local configuration. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">-------------------------------------------------------------------------- </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">YOUR MESSAGE WAS NOT DELIVERED TO ONE OR MORE RECIPIENTS </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">-------------------------------------------------------------------------- </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">Failed address: tom@floorsandstuff.co</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">--- Session Transcript --- </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: Parsing message<xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\pd35000295258.msg> </xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\pd35000295258.msg></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: * From: steven@mycompany.com </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: * To: tom@floorsandstuff.co</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: * Subject: Shamrock Pricing </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: * Size (bytes): 1017041 </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: * Message-ID:<13bea0ea.1cab4b5.91331e17.365f@mycompany.com> </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: Attempting SMTP connection to [floorsandstuff.co] </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: Resolving MX records for [floorsandstuff.co] (DNS Server: 216.136. xxx.xxx)... </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: * Name server reports domain name unknown </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: Attempting SMTP connection to [generalfloor.co:25] </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: Resolving A record for [floorsandstuff.co] (DNS Server: 216.136.xxx.xxx)... </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"> Tue 2010-02-23 12:21:58: * Name server reports domain name unknown </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">--- End Transcript ---</span><br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<span style="color: red;">From: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">To: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Subject: Re: FW: Permanent Delivery Failure</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">2/23/10 1:17pm</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">The error on this one is that you tried to send it to: </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">tom@floorsandstuff.co </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Need an M on the end of that.</span><br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">From: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">To: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Subject: Re: FW: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">2/23/10 11:24am</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">If you're sending a 1 meg PDF document to people and it</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">does not go through, let me know. Some of the emails that were</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">bouncing were 9 or 10 megs, which is much much larger than this pricing</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">document.</span><br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">From: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">To: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Subject: Re: FW: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">2/23/10 11:30am</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">yes, two of them I sent with 2 attachments, so yes I can see they were probably to big. But the other ones were just the pricing. And I still cant under stranded way I can send them from my other laptop with 2 to 3 attachments. its over my head!</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Thanks</span><br />
<br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">From: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">To: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Subject: Re: FW: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">2/23/10 1:19pm</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">The bottom line here is that some of these rejects are coming back</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">because the message size is too large. It does not matter which</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">computer you send it from or which email address you send it from. If</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">the guy who you are sending to cannot receive email larger than, say, 5</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">megs, then any message larger than that will fail, no matter where you</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">send it from.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<span style="color: blue;">From: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">To: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Subject: Re: FW: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">2/23/10 1:28pm</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">All I know is that I can send 2 to 3 attachments to them from my personal laptop with no problems. I guesses I will just need to remember to send one attachment at a time from this computer!!!!</span><br />
<br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">From: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">To: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Subject: Re: FW: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">2/23/10 1:35pm</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Okay. Just to be certain that I've been clear. If you are sending an email that is more than 10 megs in size, it does not matter whether you send it from your work computer and email account, or from a personal computer and email account. If the recipient cannot receive email larger than a certain size, he will <b>never ever ever ever receive it</b>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">I can't really make it any more clear.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Please contact me if you continue to have problems.</span><br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<span style="color: blue;">From: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">To: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">2/23/10 1:24pm</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">Yes that was my bad. But I turned around and resent it and it was kicked back. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">>-----Original Message----- </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>From: Jeremy [mailto:jeremy@mycompany.com] </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 1:18 PM </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>To: Steven </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>Cc: Joe (E-mail) </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>Subject: Re: FW: Permanent Delivery Failure </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>The error on this one is that you tried to send it to: </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>tom@floorsandstuff.co</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">>Need an M on the end of that.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<span style="color: red;">From: Jeremy</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">To: Steven</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Subject: Re: Re: FW: Permanent Delivery Failure</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">2/23/10 1:35pm</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Please forward me the email in which the correct address was kicked back to you.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<br />
[crickets]Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-82268169184987297692010-02-20T17:45:00.000-06:002010-02-20T17:45:50.828-06:0026 through 37I'm trying to catchup. Today is day 51, and now I'm just 14 behind.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/yESgpcoeBVetK7kT9HNuUA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdcIWXPHba7vill41JLvfaRIu4mQJ8NbBJQTv6BU8KKr7XYIfKv0LdMGljPq8ViQ_a6CGOE0nhNf7GJnjYshkaRP7oFQQ6SiHLV-o2QMkW0AFgtTvYyg5t2YiiBGunoYgGgkU1Plg8n1K1/s400/_DSC1603.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ovE6MAz-z2cTifWSpcdtnA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgilxGaKe9Y3TB0Nlgy9qVyfnV_2MoZo2jMXBZpw5b4oAwEd1XNfBBh6G4BJ9McN-nGwXyYemBNEBwFdQYHs5EFCymTfp1fB4Rb534NlRx1ehaXdyS5g3eaCNTbmZdR3JUz5zbQrH8RcAKa/s400/_DSC1451.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/9zaDb0jYgBn3Bez1Cl3UTw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRgUsrk_U_xEeOb-DCWjuKcYcVHB4-sCWUk4lCuOeOG0iOCUtZ5lg2JD5KHtI2A9LClkQ3AnRCoeiZNSQsl-bxc_yNoX-joXoPOLs2-FpKWrt2uEZDAla2M74ThIqJE-peRl17RiOg2nN0/s400/_DSC1397.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/pBNGgQWcACblP2FabXzGDg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUfZtLV97Xg0T_fYlLS2jT3N9VI55N5f1W4bbhaLOetzq60oTHRkzriTVx1Vr1A7o5zemY1-tb7KcUQ_avoRXDXxKlekTzggMM1JWfWaBQDsi9jEfMN1ALmq_H_Q8JjzzWZXa0lWB1TWOF/s400/_DSC1753.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/qB2r8U-qwt45tJRtlnZauA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihIIcmWDxVBbHXyZgaUKZfEcaYfJarxlFl3eQrbgo3I54TDWtXO0De42x2mD_Rasn5jrNwSNa4QK08tXXHf2u3hhJNslV43GwrTfZrfwPyLXB1fGdFseCZiXbLyxaZMWupS_bJKVQuw2nX/s400/_DSC1879.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/MO_2Np370eZVVEY07TNShw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhymIVFBqtQ0YZNSlYMJBbxz7I8PsZopRTWjU7-IjLuPqocWpLcjI1kxSJt9yWJq58o_0WbZ5szlVPkHYWbEcWA1br6gT3U4Q0cIi6vIK-ui8nXi8XN7h5m7iVugs4tzOb5efKhDmKKII5m/s400/_DSC1935.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/8vM4Pa2knQngX7ApNs0pOQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIGJ4mMmGWSuLA77iW6NLpsAp6jz0ieLZ_4eGqyq__gxpPRnq2g108ZQhVEy0lwJ3zT9CfWqhBKFNwwObJuuGBAuqqZA_yRWRWr3YBf1x08rwWi9CXIxXpJ-sJzfChO5hjjfOLCUXZNlC_/s400/_DSC1909.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/z1h0PnPA4a0Pk_kUG8BIuQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOA7LdA4MAUMrePQXPRK2UVhxndm0KdW0l_Hic-9khjf0hWbgrrrhxEMyQTkfqD7BRTBw9XVL8XeW8yxKHlDBjbp0L-wg0jbHm9Hx5C5Q3pjsVtonZNlrM3hqyAWCCP1oXbPDTb4J30rkH/s400/_DSC1953.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/6o9VVRzvG9Y8u4iopo3_mw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-7xiMI-wUYg3RI2_NXpYMwmA4xBf8uIT_7bT7qNF6eJSS7EcqBQuRCyYM13A4eBmkwv8AJrCZCwMZVIY8B4YXRjOmkHG4hClNLg8vdZRyzEMbMIEeUQlw42YtTWFqLlwy3-BTmuetj2O3/s400/_DSC0030.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/q-yWiNyUqS_WgV8i_qT0dQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGwAZuDNi-pVAjiuLjPjzVfgdgHogp7vy7Sh6H_kbYLVRTfsiYu0JmF6Jg0XFcM7cHFA7YhzY0cxhic8rXNslhqofY4TuD8kZj0Nqa624f0UYlqsZ3UfywT9gx74ljnKjgVkxgeyHgnr8m/s400/_DSC0043.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/aII5-I2UPWiFI7nxg2uECA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsU1rgduOa6DDbE5fz4vgOL34KE1DosPwt_uuWX7DA1QELWBPGU7PRO94r-ILvmSxMDTLIoNhkV1LOlJ4vKp9ZgCHlTjRYigUxhyphenhyphensSroDH8reNp2-41EYecAQ-rC3hSQXjsOrANkpstJyZ/s400/_DSC0164.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/iPD93foJj21ihUU-EZR6zg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimwmOEvQDdSBAle-qqvI5_VUZHX8TCvAvGFCchzKKGDNmVqTz406Cpux9HDig3fZCvhfxhic0NtbLI-0ND3QMtowBW7YkJ2Tm2X5J33ItHPPlqGK6W1oWpQJidrMmSJgL6WcHHJ-nNfLnl/s400/_DSC0229.jpg" /></a>Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-62051059833679204112010-02-13T21:34:00.000-06:002010-02-13T21:34:21.094-06:00Photos 22, 23, 24 and 25.I'm still playing catchup. Maybe by March I'll be even.<br />
<br />
Here you are.<br />
<br />
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/h7QLoJvXzl4-XvQudH47Og?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv61Th_r7ZtWiG0vHLx5lPl4N8YKjkazEJB-yWATjqyJe4ArMLmBk6rxFKHFZDRmhtaZxB71q7MHov6NLO4byKNLNm2L6_xItSaTaZJHFq0t3DpB84t3nnYN2LWvgU_4tH2PFaHqOhsQ9j/s400/_DSC1247.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/xjermx/3652010?feat=embedwebsite">365, 2010</a></td></tr></table>Piper has a serving spoon for you.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/akGApvfwFJBLu156-LatTA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb4sdHBHWMIz5oiNWWgk4VpgpmvWnjiU_81idXeKuqdZ9ECgrMI6-bNuFghiAiZlm2FZ8fx8oVsKb3OQazSF9hYAe_i_1NjU2zz9tN6DiFyZlsQ4EA1QddokqaJmqeQ7Fm0HKJppl9deOl/s400/_DSC1255.jpg" /></a><br />
Easily one of my all time favorites. That's a crazy awesome smile. For the past few weeks, when the Backyardigans comes on tv, and she hears the theme music and/or sees the characters on the tv, she lights up.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/K4dMKHf_VqE0RpsUDqwQsQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU7El7c_v8W4KFEVhqW5G08LggkZ7-t7fQ-_ANvOy7Al1JaTrSZ4TP5QYMgZSOeAEPQmoAOK58ZNG12WqTJ0rA5iuxlwidmJVJ3Brk1jeXne_tlPtS6la8-5bIwXIDrDn352huQZ0XUMHW/s400/_DSC1472.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/IxqP1uJI1ypRp7fSgM9cog?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq_L5dyVpET6Iija-1AOXms77F0f9AW6OfzP5XbN-_1QjZJdGuQU-zbls8fpXseFJA7kdT5mOv3JliJ6tjeGmXpMKjOkfS4S7TteeCbNaH9UvUYdSO35RTZYmzEzqv1NN5_qP8wumYXjiW/s400/_DSC1477.jpg" /></a><br />
The gang.Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-44877407066541409312010-02-10T20:06:00.000-06:002010-02-10T20:06:06.855-06:00More Pics!I'm on a roll.<br />
<br />
16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21.<br />
<br />
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Cr3HPDLFXdALx2EHGxsD1w?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_pTscG7qGy184Oykj8qGe97RvPcuzkT61zOjkZtyf-hyT8GHk-Q-xm6x2rJw-6ONTCrIpmlH2m3Az-6RDQe568CwWyU7nJ9m9oCpON53g6oo73SKDfUwDBxCwT_u0m2LfFJLM-F2ZAuyB/s400/_DSC0869.NEF.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/xjermx/3652010?feat=embedwebsite">365, 2010</a></td></tr></table><br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/I69YPDK-HmL98wvjvJPvLg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigfvOHz_oz8StbwBpH4JmCTNbOPo2gShBK9ouzQ8vCLKfFAV_eB1ItNoaIEYpEVYV02soNWoF91191rZWnDplVbzTnfLwC_aXg7F4lAStDq1O7kKWIHJcdkrllpBuBq2d9Np2TurSlLyVd/s400/_DSC1011.NEF.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/8V6E1ljB_m1pH_fQarHXoA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiawRrqi5toAHGhm6d5kFFk7V8NRB0IIietibWYCIhM_dQV4Ugm4BPsvvY_GkJhmIw-Dl7HX0vUsCRoGL3vYn0WtgFvYDDRopXmOekuxAdtd_bFb7vKwhjvzMv3tJGs5SGsOl3kkVWr6FzV/s400/_DSC1034.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/8_1tLpnqLbZE0dAM-2VLOQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgee_2JkCzsL0_3a-2Z74BxbsR6_1Hv2Ywy8CF9SJwOXAOSVaEUIuofttfhdF67wTUJ7FQaDKi9nZgDMBrr0FC9T_yNXTr2MqZv82tG9EauwsxCQLHVRmY_dpsfjo4xZ_UalHqP9UkzSOf8/s400/_DSC1069.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/EWHMSSpDiu4Tvm_407wdNw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBQqAmprHy3cN0aLVDvcJ6_si1B7-JBY3RGEBW0SkeuHdB9JCMjSWximcWnoUH-wtljSuZvut3EwkQ-JSKuc6UH5jMsCrmwIXEVzwSqoBNlK0cOH4eJ203Wg4UUbVTq9WLzPx4X9WoNDTI/s400/_DSC1090.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/vjZEdWJIneqa5VZhxa7kyQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFQgRj3LidXqIV5qmZNgpaOWdAetKBrsvkoIjFKrwAv9QjvFUvkO-YE1UZZb6WpO1EUhUAcM65JpiXPeJselHfIrJOzfQB0t8r08pIm8etfCF8NrX66uIGQ6vskHW9MRK87hokTm8FQ5_c/s400/_DSC1215.jpg" /></a>Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-79058298977897855122010-02-07T20:46:00.000-06:002010-02-07T20:46:25.305-06:00Wow, look at all those photos!I'm still catching up, and since I took a bunch of photos, here are some of them.<br />
<br />
9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/u7Fc0VLP_JyREAbqwXK3Pg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtw_5mIq-Qy3puBL5UUNOeZ1y1EMY4222jrWd1vDKOiixLjuwU0Kmiu3ggR1ZuhoVBjtPsFqhvrzQMRJbLgUMswLNBrtWmaGZxwjBCKqCgJk0JSGYi0a3P8lbsDT7qvhHWBpO5SL54Mp00/s400/_DSC0662.NEF.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/xjermx/3652010?feat=embedwebsite">365, 2010</a></td></tr></table><br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/CQb-tt0i5a42a6U0f1FCpQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzEGZ1bco6ZsWTUrT2lUjQ0Y77DVeuWxtd35km1miuDLvfWgv4cwAQVO0uzUPX0fwoJ3hnmT-AAMeFXCYl7aE1rxBCYA4lkjXytS9BNShsTTdybS9qC1Ejogp8N9JHCVw3f7CiNZnqCzdH/s400/_DSC0646.NEF.jpg" /></a><br />
Piper loves clapping, and enjoys taking your hands and clapping them together!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/B_XbREi6kJvDeTV1RUc6lg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj52DCOXiDQGljmB03vFIZ61Jm6MgoG0mejJ63N_Iy4qtZ0lXIt5sDZMAbdNJZqK42CaHSTe7TmcAD_R4eRiANrDxeVgfJN9fYAMHkPVPGCrlEY26fZ1R8rPUULDn_PsouSwLgVolzD92xr/s400/_DSC0728.NEF.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/X3k9y2Kqa60UndGc9sMJsw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiMk_JJNf9yr1hCfr-X4bsnfvLmNnUS6HfeS1QzGd7GlmYam_mATv70BJhJUCPtnJWpQ5hUvFec2RaltxiG5RmZRvq5sfvxWWmP5qxDjQlsMBXwKKW5lhRJ5xyXk9IVj1FWVcvvBplTw3T/s400/_DSC0684.NEF.jpg" /></a><br />
We played <a href=http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/53953/thunderstone>Thunderstone</a> over the weekend. It was very fun. It is basically Dominion, re-themed as D&D.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/JJXNvcIxaMzPgHXfpcjC6A?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKTpZiFNov47FZyO9W40E4IYZeQQjOHejEhz3VoOCi5XHgPDcVwtaSu7C_zvv6XHAePCH00Os3iogLR-BBv8bhs3ufbQmSxQ42J0BVMHDC9AHbkJuNmZEnt0LqGpOcG68AKr58N5S7pttF/s400/_DSC0804.NEF.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Vw3vvJiK1D72AjzMgVq6KA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJoWRrmTGeAFUorsGcj2bK3zakljTSbp9N26Y6E7VL2ZVGzcAD0nTYfhPFW8tY_YSpx4fnkeWdtI-7d4lMmGZH_TVIvSDHe9DOwUR0rYNEFi7PZn1j0BE_PSqjd7Xj5tXCXDUsOGSpQS7V/s400/_DSC0775.NEF.jpg" /></a><br />
Going out for a bit!<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/zkCOn1tCO22EwKAY_5jMWA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh88kz3tensgn7sa4uMrMiulMJ1ZlJyuAct4MMwh_EiuueePi5ZEn9WJUGUCiEDfdHYvF2UK3B4aFq37dndaplia0H7z8yvGNQEe5nhJaNsNGfgR8JP2eLtri_QgV7zkiuxToBQnjEGczyT/s400/_DSC0787.NEF.jpg" /></a><br />
My girl is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute.Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-69446420292263491162010-02-05T22:50:00.000-06:002010-02-05T22:50:27.108-06:00Photos #6, 7 and 8!<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/P0eT58mxs-xNUJ95neO3HA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZHFQW6s6jSw7WawO9UcST7Ero8rnZ9NyqAczuO7IXMpbYvxge2nKJAg4H63HxxIzEw6I4ayElnldDg1TnUgrhkmWczPk451eb8hmaLNL4uVSl_c96JjM2LwoBMT5OaJTcdbb3Li8YKA_/s400/_DSC0556.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/xjermx/3652010?feat=embedwebsite">365, 2010</a></td></tr></table>Model: D3000<br />
ISO: 200<br />
Exposure: 1/60 sec<br />
Aperture: 4.5<br />
Focal Length: 29mm<br />
Flash Used: Yes<br />
shot on auto<br />
<br />
<br />
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/bkK0qrAjgZ24RMC6is9rlg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqsQ4QNp4JqGFNdv704ulOjguJhfirmu3gvPRxwBnHSh7s3OmFCvXa2ElBWTfXRyekiZ_UozDUK57trTw8Vn01P8QBzeX21hL6d6OPUIVHyDSUJxdwiJqkwRBmT1ca0ILplLlTWlS-EDUw/s400/_DSC0627.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/xjermx/3652010?feat=embedwebsite">365, 2010</a></td></tr></table>Model: D3000<br />
ISO: 200<br />
Exposure: 1/60 sec<br />
Aperture: 4.5<br />
Focal Length: 30mm<br />
Flash Used: Yes<br />
shot on auto<br />
<br />
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/GzM5-SxLHRqYPtBNJUxlWw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqSEH_3bH65E7RO1qIyqCc7azwwK1R1rHxzQnbfltqfTAiz8HsXjyX0umcJ_1HpBZh91vuDgIWjoRWgEUahbWf8vVbDB2Do7MIy5DURrf3Vg-7JY7vMtX26tVWoYrwLvbYzTXYosqm6kT9/s400/_DSC0597.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/xjermx/3652010?feat=embedwebsite">365, 2010</a></td></tr></table>Model: D3000<br />
ISO: 200<br />
Exposure: 1/60 sec<br />
Aperture: 3.5<br />
Focal Length: 18mm<br />
Flash Used: Yes<br />
shot on autoJermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-47611318471197130462010-02-03T22:07:00.000-06:002010-02-03T22:07:18.232-06:00Photo #5<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Rb_BDcpMHV3gpiuTuHu0FA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxgHsoS_9DMtgdSDUyPmZdnlJ8maiYDzDBNpAhuBB8lKe2ZgO1ah5RIHyZCG6cq0wxbnd-iMzCsERQ0eHdK_r-z2iL2EGIiz7Ec8Gelzi9SnjngdcLaZG2FibFxGq1vOv4OttTusMGW71D/s400/DSC_0524.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/xjermx/3652010?feat=embedwebsite">365, 2010</a></td></tr></table><br />
ISO: 200<br />
Exposure: 1/60 sec<br />
Aperture: 3.5<br />
Focal Length: 18mm<br />
Flash Used: Yes<br />
Shot in RAW on auto, no tweaking done.Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-68815420864063455272010-02-03T20:38:00.001-06:002010-02-03T23:12:30.934-06:00RAW vs JPGFor the first time, I have the option of shooting in RAW. I know a little about RAW. I wondered "Do I need to be shooting in RAW?", google quickly led me to answers like "If you're asking if you should be shooting in RAW or JPG, then the answer is JPG." But I wanted to try it out. Heck, I wasn't even sure how to, or if I could do post processing on a RAW image. So I turned it to RAW and just started shooting stuff. It was shooting RAW and a basic JPG.<br />
<br />
I offloaded the RAW images onto my computer, having read that Picasa can display and process RAW stuff. And so it can. I fiddled for just a second with the pretty basic tools that Picasa offers, and then hit the "I'm feeling lucky button". A second later, the image adjusts a little. I do that for the whole batch, wondering what kind of results I'll see.<br />
<br />
Click this to check out a sample:<br />
<table style="width:194px;"><tr><td align="center" style="height:194px;background:url(http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/xjermx/RawVsJPG?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ylwrB7kUOwE/S2pWbeGMB4E/AAAAAAAAJVU/2fWsPKGb7pM/s160-c/RawVsJPG.jpg" width="160" height="160" style="margin:1px 0 0 4px;"></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/xjermx/RawVsJPG?feat=embedwebsite" style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;">Raw vs JPG</a></td></tr></table><br />
In some of the shots, Piper seems a bit green to my eye, but there's no denying that some of the RAW images come out better looking. What do you think? Do you shoot RAW or JPG?<br />
<br />
Although I haven't touched photoshop in 5 years or so, I'm going to see how the images look in it.Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-72860166895323257982010-02-02T20:49:00.000-06:002010-02-02T20:49:48.071-06:00Photo #4<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/lad7AJQSbD9E8NVGZGm0lw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxfJjHKGW_kp1I7AQ8IBZ-ply9IQWIKbCD2gM0JVOLdlXoVH1Lk10SS5N4NEXO-sIJEdxn0xINnmB0oWwEkcE-xcW_i0oRqZ0L6BBiCZzYUIjYuAJqB_ErdslG6SHdGyr4EDD44h9XAcCD/s400/DSC_0333.JPG" /></a><br />
<br />
ISO: 200<br />
Exposure: 1/60 sec<br />
Aperture: 5.6<br />
Focal Length: 55mm<br />
Flash Used: Yes<br />
<br />
Bath time hairdo!Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-71942884254910550672010-02-01T23:34:00.000-06:002010-02-01T23:34:54.062-06:00Photos, #2 and #3I agonized over whether to host my late 365 project here. And I think I've decided the answer is Yes. So if you're following this, I hope you're ready for tons of photos of my kid.<br />
<br />
Here's today, and its a twofer.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/32fLtk3AFq92astFzUSsgw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeFyx0NivL85bUpukndJ7zUiSQKgoQaDOlYIaIWL1GPsqKu5IAImckFxgD5PRU8puYr-oeBgHJDMDcXnC6j0gG2_xoNJ2Z857IJyeDqzDLbLNTfnqK8EVRFA0dnpzybSdfo71JG7pcz06k/s400/DSC_0111.JPG" /></a><br />
<br />
Model: NIKON D3000<br />
ISO: 200<br />
Exposure: 1/60 sec<br />
Aperture: 3.5<br />
Focal Length: 18mm<br />
Flash Used: Yes<br />
Shot on auto ('children setting') I believe<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/EvRxzA_roaI6PpsB7NZHRA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYgPiaKLYDGSbaWkmJM_jY3ZQAe27uwW1zzizA8bDfkbRGf0317pg-mAcPOhtj4MXgKSt03C_8psKu3F-2zC7YLNKNNTt51lW0uh0ZfyyEV3_rm3exUH8FDCnk6iDgdogqXX5OFdhKIUeh/s400/DSC_0174.JPG" /></a><br />
<br />
Model: NIKON D3000<br />
ISO: 800<br />
Exposure: 1/25 sec<br />
Aperture: 5.6<br />
Focal Length: 55mm<br />
Flash Used: No<br />
Shot on auto ('sports') <br />
<br />
Turns out that 1/25 is slower than I want, and I plan to try again with 1/50 or 1/100.Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4841247111476502525.post-44570808805791897562010-02-01T00:04:00.000-06:002010-02-01T00:04:57.897-06:00365, 2010 (But I'm cheating)Last year I started doing the '365 project', in which you take pictures, and post at least one picture that you've taken per day. I got 101 photos, and then I got bogged down with my awesome daughter Piper. I'm lazy as well, which does not help.<br />
<br />
I'm doing it again, only this time I'm crazy cheating. I started on January 31st, so I'm going to do a little catchup. Additionally, I'm not going to swear to never miss a day. It is going to happen. Probably a few times. I'll try to catch up. My goal is to post 365 photos in a project this year. I'll try to make them good, though I'll warn you that the vast majority of them will probably be of Piper - well, because she's awesome.<br />
<br />
Enjoy.<br />
<br />
PS - I suppose a link to said photos would help. Here you are: <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/xjermx/3652010">http://picasaweb.google.com/xjermx/3652010</a><br />
I recently discovered that I can stick picasaweb links in my google feed reader, and they work <i>like magic</i>.Jermhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01265610599062294517noreply@blogger.com0