branoven

Ok, so normally I do a day by day review of the event, but I've come to the conclusion that I honestly don't remember what I did on Friday night, so I think I'll just go over highlights.

( Review )

~Patrick

To all the NERO people out there that might be reading this.  Does anyone have a list of Formal Components that is formatted nicely for printing, the one on the National Website is set up horribly.

Thanks in advance if you do.

~Patrick

( Event Review )

~Patrick

Another Ravenholt event this weekend.  I'm not quite sure what to expect this weekend with the new duke and other things that may or may not be happening.  I'm kind of behind on what's going on plot wise, so other than the tournament it's kind of a blank slate in that respect.  Usually I've got a good idea of what's coming in an event, but this time...I'm not so sure.  It's kind of a weird feeling, not knowing what to expect. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm still looking forward to the event, just have this nebulous nervous feeling for some reason.  I guess I don't do well with the unexpected.

I ordered some new costuming, and it may, just may, get here before I leave for the event on Friday, if not, I've still got my other stuff so it's no big deal.  It will be nice driving down in the new car, should be much smoother.

Ah well, three days to go and I get to see (almost) everybody.

~Patrick

As the title begins to imply, we started our initial prep work for the 7V potluck and in the process got to put the Civic on the highway and see how it handled in something other than Malden traffic.  Anytime we were going North, we had stop and go traffic due to the mass exodus to NH for the weekend, I have to assume, but on the South bound portions it was bliss, the Civic rides so smooth, at least compared to Sable.  I honestly want to see how it does on a significantly longer trip, which I have a few of this month. 

On to the pot luck update for those that like your food.  Sarah and I went to Wholefoods and we now have 18 pounds of bone in Boston Butt.  We're calling it BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, but it's not going to be smoked (we don't have a smoker in our little apartment) , just cooked low and slow over night.  We'll go back out to Stop and Shop and get the makings for the barbecue sauces.  Sarah was originally planing two, but she's said something about four the other day, (I've just been told that 3 is the minimum, with a possible fourth).  So hopefully 18 pounds of pork is enough.

~Patrick

It's a New Car!!!!

So yea, finally got rid of the Sable this past weekend.  I'll give you the run down of how this all went down, most definitely not according to plan.

Couple of weeks ago, I go to drive to the store, and part way there, my brake pedal goes to the floor.  I still have some brakes, just not much, and there's no where to turn around so I drive the half mile to the store, and do my shopping and carefully drive home.  I check the brake fluid reservoir, and it's low, so not knowing if the leak is a very slow one or a "oh look the brake line is ruptured," I grab a thing of brake fluid the next day at work and refill the reservoir when I get home.  I pump the brakes a couple of times and it's going right back to the floor, and because I have the car door open I could hear a hissing sound coming from the back, drivers side corner of the car.  Looking under the car there is a big puddle of brake fluid.

Well this lead to a AAA call and a tow to a dealer where I was told the following.  I had leaks in two of the rear lines which was causing a lack of pressure, the calipers were frozen (they said for weeks, which would have included my trip to NY as well) on both the back wheels, which had caused corrosion on the pads and rotors.  All this necessitated the full replacement of the rotors, pads and calipers on the back wheels, and possible the parking brake cables if they were bad too.  I also would have needed two new tires before winter, and had been told previous that I had a coolant line that was corroding and would need replacement soon.  All this would have totaled at least $1400 to fix, well that was the final straw, we just weren't going to keep sinking money into the sable.  So in the end I got the lines fixed so I'd have pressure in the system and be able to drive, but didn't fix the rest of the issues.

So two weekends ago we went and test drove a 2009 Civic.  It was a nice car but we decided to take of thinking to make sure we wanted it.  We ended up borrowing some money from my folks, but in the end, we ended up leasing the Civic this past weekend.  So yea, I'm now leasing a 2009 Honda Civic.  It's so much newer that on the drive home from the dealer yesterday (we leased on Saturday, but they had to wait until Monday so they could do the registration paperwork), I ended up at 75 mph and didn't realize it, where as on the sable I hit the low 60s and the wheel (and car) would start to shake something fierce.  Below the cut I've tossed some pictures for those who are interested.



( pictures )
So everyone will get to see the car if they're at the 7V play test in a couple weeks, or at the September NERO.  It feels really good to be driving a new car that's not going to break randomly at any time.

~Patrick

So I just got back from the dentist, and apparently I'm grinding my front teeth at night and wearing down the enamel.  Dentist recommended I get a night guard to help stop that.  Insurance doesn't cover it, so before I drop $200 to get one fitted, I wanted to know if anyone has experience with them, or knows of someone who has experience with them.  I'm more worried that I just won't be able to sleep at night with something in my mouth.  Any and all anecdotes are welcome in helping me get some data (even anecdotal) one this before I drop the money.

~Patrick

Happy Birthday jjmarika 

At least I think I got the day right ;-)

I hope you have a great day.

~Patrick

Well, this was most certainly an interesting event.  I was busy often enough that when I had down time I was glad for it.  Certain things happened that may change how Branoven develops from here on out.  I managed to get back on track with my personal plot which is great, and Keith is handling it at the moment which is also great.  So, lets break it down by day, I'll try to remember as best I can what happened.

( My Event Summary... )

Please shout out if you notice I forgot anything.  I don't want to leave anything off my PEL.

~Patrick

Well today we wish Happy Birthday to a very good friend of ours.  kumir_k9 I hope you have a great and happy day, followed by many more.  You're a good friend, and I'm glad you decided to pick me to torture at my second NERO event. ;-)

So, what's your favorite cake flavor?

~Patrick

Well, Sarah and I got back from Vacation yesterday afternoon.  We left for Cape Elizabeth, Maine, Thursday around noon and spent the extra long weekend there.  We stayed at the Inn By The Sea, and it was great.  Technically we were in the Off Season for Maine, as it's before Memorial Day, so the rates were comparatively cheap ($179 dollars for this past weekend, compared to $450ish in July).  We stayed in a suite and we had a (distant) view of the ocean from our patio door (including a group of lobster boats that were almost always anchored in the cove, it was pretty cool).

On the trip up on Thursday we stopped by the Maine Diner for lunch, it's a great place in Wells (Take exit 19, then take route 1 North for a couple of miles, it's on your right), pretty classic diner, breakfast all day long, standard fare (with Lobster because it's Maine).  Sarah said the lobster pie she had was probably the best lobster she had that weekend.  We made it to the Hotel around 3, then took the hotel's private boardwalk down to the beach (Crescent Beach State Park).  Obviously it was a little too cold for a swim (under 50 degrees F), so we just walked down the beach a little.  We headed back to the hotel, and ended up eating at the hotel's restaurant.  Our expectations weren't high, I mean it's a really really nice hotel, but it's also a small hotel, so we weren't sure what to expect from the restaurant.  In the end however, it was really good.

Friday: Sarah had a three and a half hour spa thing at Nine Stones in Portland, she had good things to say of the experience.  While she was at the Spa, I walked around Old Port a bit, had a quick lunch at a Crape place called The Merry Table, then looked around a used book store for a bit, then headed back to the Hotel.  That was one of the best things about the hotel, the drive into Old Port was less than 15 minutes, and possibly under 10.  This made it really easy to just go in for dinner, or for me to head back and pick up Sarah.  When I got back to the hotel, I took a walk down to the beach and walked the length down to an out cropping of rocks in search of tide pools and such.  While I didn't find anything much more interesting than some periwinkles and other snails, it was a nice walk, and I took a lot of pictures.  After that I watched a little TV then swung back into Portland to pick up Sarah.  Later that evening we headed back into Portland again for dinner at Fore Street.  Sarah has apperently had her eye on Fore Street for quite a while and it didn't disappoint.  They had pretty much everything, sea food, meat.  Sarah started dinner with some mussels (fairly classic preparation) which was her first time with those, and she really liked them.  She followed this with a turn spit cooked pork loin with some home made saurkruat (sp?), and had the vanilla bean parfait, which came with a small vanilla and burbon milkshake.  It was an excellent meal and she enjoyed it.  I started my meal with a oyster mushroom confit, which was very good, and followed it with the spit turned chicken, which was just too much for me to finish completely (it was fully half a chicken), and I had the chocolate suffle cake for desert.  All in all it was very good.  We headed home after our meal full and happy at a good first day.

Saturday we stuck around the hotel room and relaxed.  We took a walk on the beach as Sarah hadn't seen it all yet, and I wanted another walk by the water.  We took some more pictures, and then headed back to the hotel.  Dinner was in Portland again, this time we hit Duckfat, which is great.  It's not your standard sitdown dinner.  They have pannis and soups and milkshakes, but what they're known for is their fries.  They fry double fry them in their name sake  Duckfat.  The place is owned by the chef that owns the big fancy place in Portland, and he just won a James Beard award for best Chef in the North East US.

Sunday was another fairly easy day, we had brunch at a place in Portland called 555 (it's address on Congress Street).  It was all very good, just simple standard brunch fare.  The rest of the day was pretty much like Saturday, relaxing, with a short outing for Dinner, this time not in Portland, but at a little Thai place just up the road from Portland Head light.

Monday, we packed up, had breakfast at the hotel (French toast for me, lobster and eggs benedict for Sarah).  We drove home and settled down for the rest of the day and headed back to work today.

Overall it was a very very good vacation.  It was good to get out of the city and to some place calming.  We both had a good time, if a little expensive, but still it was nice to get away.  Here's a link to my Flickr page which has the pictures we took as well as a couple of our cat trying to stow away when we were packing (also has some pics from Ravenholt closer 2008).

Well, feel free to discuss or ask questions if you have any, I'm more than willing to re-live the trip if necessary 8-)

~Patrick

Ok, so the Opener is a few days behind me, and I'm back to my normal 8-4 job.  I've had some time to think about the event and what I liked and disliked, and why.  So here's the review...

( My Review )

~Patrick

Well, Season opener is tomorrow, and I'm pretty excited.  Branoven has some stuff he wants to get done fairly quickly, although one conversation depends on when a certain plot member/baron shows up, but I'm not that worried just so long as I get to it at some point this weekend.  Our side of the cabin, thus far, only has four people listed on the housing list which makes it blissfully empty allowing us all to have bottom bunks.  The guild looks to have a slightly smaller team this event, but T'Kari mentioned that there are four new players or so from the Revel who showed some interest in the guilds, so we might have some extra people with them.  I have a feeling I'll end up on at least one Mod with them as fire support as I have been playing for a while, but am not a high enough level to cause the APL to spike.  I don't mind, sometimes it's fun to go on some simple stuff that doesn't involve a ton of the bigger personalities in town.

I'm looking forward to seeing what plot arcs get started, and hopefully getting involved in at least one.  For all that I've been playing for a while now, I'm never really been a proactive person when it comes to getting involved, I blame my awkwardness in social situations.  I'm trying to be proactive and get involved in stuff (it helped not being invested in the cirlce at last event as I didn't have the option of just sitting there.  Still, if any of you notice me just sitting around on my own, poke me and make me interact some, I still need some help from time to time.

I still have a little prep work to do, I need to go through my gear and make sure I have everything, I think my belt ended up in my dresser instead of my bag.  Need to go through my tags and sort out some things, I know full well that I need a new spell book having been gone for so long prior to last event.  I've got one with the new spells in it, but not one with the regular spells.  I'll just borrow Ebon's or Perdue's until I can procur one for myself.  It's easier now that we don't need one to cast, just to study at reset.  Also need to go through all my bags and consolidate my silver and gold, I have a tendancy, at the end of events, to just toss coins in my bag instead of putting them away.  Not that I have enough coin to actually buy anything useful, but still, it's good to be organized.

Weather is supposed to be nice too, so that's good as well, I really don't want to have to deal with rain and cold.

So, I guess I'll see everyone (who reads this), tomorrow at the event.

~Patrick
 

ETA: Ok, so it looks like there might be some morning showers on Saturday, and what a few showers on Sunday.  Still, there have been worse events.

So while I won't really admit it to myself, I've basically decided that I'm not going to my 5 year reunion.  At first I was all fired up about it, it was an easy choice to make as I loved Bates, and loved the people I went to school with.  It was a no brainer until I found out that Mass was holding the June event on the same weekend.  I actually had to weigh options, as I wanted to do both.  For a while I was still pretty sure I was going to go to my reunion, because...well...it was my reunion. 

It was around that time that I found out that it was going to be the cost of a NERO event to go, double if Sarah came with me.  I also found out that jjmarika  wasn't going to be going either.  I had a great time at the revel, and was actually looking forward to NERO again, making my decision that much harder.  I had to go through and make a list of who I was looking forward to seeing, and then remember that most of my friends were either in the class a head of me or behind me which drastically reduced the number of friends I would see that weekend.  I also had to ask myself just how uncomfortable I would be there.  I don't know if anyone noticed, but I'm not the most comfortable person in social situations, especially awkward ones where the people I'm talking to only live half an hour away and I've seen them once in five years or so.  NERO is a known quantity for me, reunion wasn't.  How much fun was I going to have when everyone was at Pub 33 or the Goose, drinking, and I wasn't,  was I really going to enjoy myself?  And even if I had fun, was it going to be as much fun as NERO?

And so I guess I'm not going to reunion.  I've got more friends at NERO that I want to see, that I'll enjoy hanging out with, even if I'm awkward and stick my foot in my mouth at least once.  I think I may have enjoyed college a little too much, it was safe for me, and now that I'm finally starting to be a functioning adult, I'm not sure going back to Bates for a weekend and hanging out with old friends who I've grown apart from is a good idea just yet.  Bates was my life for a significant number of years, but it can't be the way I live forever, and when you're prone to hanging onto the past you have to be careful.  NERO is a fun hobby I get to do with good Friends, in my head I guess there is a difference. 

So I'm going to make it to all four events this year.  Maybe now that NERO isn't an escape it can just be fun.

~Patrick

So we had our first Mage game session last night.  Six PCs and the Story Teller.  A couple of the people are/were new to the system so a significant portion of the time was spent with them making characters and learning the system.  I've never played before, but I've had the books since the new system came out two or three years ago, and was familiar in theory, we'll see if that stands up to repeated practice.

Everyone seemed to get along well, everyone in the group is probably between 23 and 30, give or take, with the one exception being a high-schooler.  He's going to be an issue very soon, if the ST doesn't have a long talk with him first.  I don't want to call him immature, but I think he's just not looking for the same type of game as the rest of us.  He's looking to goof off with friends, everything is a joke, lets do silly stuff to the exclusion of all else, kind of player, the rest of us (including the ST) seem to be looking for some more serious with some good roleplaying.  I think his goofyness and fooling around was getting to one of the other players, and frankly, if it's a choice between him and her, we all would rather keep her around.  He spent all last night not seeing the clues we were all giving him that his joking and goofing off wasn't going over well.

Other than that it was the standard opening night of rolling dice, slightly contrived just to get things moving right away, with a lot of the ST coming up with stuff on the fly.  Scheduling is a bit rough right now, we're meeting next Saturday, then back to thursdays, I think, but we might need a week off after next week with the ST out of town.  We'll see, I know we're meeting on the 11th, and I guess we'll figure it out after that.

If the group manages to hold together to the point where we get some momentum going, this just might work out well.  It's also just the thing to get me through to NERO Opener, which is just two weeks away.

One final note to everyone (which amounts to probably 2 people) who are going to Madrigal this weekend.  Have fun, stay dry if you can, and have a great weekend!

~Patrick

I have zero motivation, I'm tired, I want to go back to sleep, in fact I almost did on the T this morning. I feel like I have the attention span of my Labrador back home, which is to say none at all.  If I could I'd be willing to write today off as a mulligan and start over fresh tomorrow, but apparently I can't do that now that I'm not in college.

~Patrick

...which I am probably wholly unqualified to do.  Still, I should put that degree I'll be paying for until my late forties to work.
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Everyone else is doing it.

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I dislike Monday.  You'd think I'd be used to it at this point after roughly 1352 Mondays I'd be used to them, but nope.  I'm always tired which sets my week up for failure as I just get more tired as the week goes on.  I'm fairly sure I have a meeting today, although I won't be sure until I actually see the program chair in the building, and that's not even a perfect predictor.  Don't get me wrong, I don't hate my job, it may not be my favorite thing in the world, but I've done worse, and this is far from it.  It's just so hard to get motivated Monday morning.

Still I shouldn't gripe for too long or I'll get bitter.

Let's see, this weekend was pretty boring.  Watched a bunch of TV and wrote up my character for the Mage game on Thursday, hopefully it works well with everyone else's.  I'm pretty flexible with my characters, as I tend to have at least two more stashed away in my head at any given time, which makes it relatively easy to switch gears so that our little group is cohesive.  I've never played this version of mage before, so I don't know what it's going to be like.  White-wolf games tend to be far less hack 'n' slash, which attacts a different type of player on occasion.  We'll see I guess, these are the possible pit falls with a pick up game where no on knows anyone else. 

Saw two kids boffer fighting at Northeastern on Friday, that brought back memories.  I don't think they were NERO folks though as they were doing location based damage from what I could see.

I feel like I need something interesting to talk about here, to keep everyone entertained.

Hmmm, too bad I guess.  Comment away if you are moved to do so.

~Patrick

So there's no real reason for this post, I'm just going to ramble about stuff, if folks feel like reading it and commenting go for it, but it's basically a reason for me to learn what all the buttons and such do.

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