summer - over

On the weekend we finally finished storing the pool for the winter. We didn’t clean it as much as we should have, but it is rolled up and put away.
I also finished fixing the two other screens for the bathroom and kitchen windows.
Shan cleaned off the bench in the kitchen (only slight trauma there). So, most of my summer chores have been done.

My daughter has already started decorating the house for Halloween.

Bye Bye old blue eyes

Paul Newman died on Sept 26 at the age of 83. I never met him but he was in my favorite movie – The Sting. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was a classic and always fun to watch but I usually try to watch the Sting whenever it’s on. I happened to catch it again Friday night before I had heard that he had died. It still holds up quite well.

I am too young to have actually caught it in the theatre but did see it on TV numerous times in my youth. When I used to stay up late, I would still catch it whenever I could. I still have to pick it up on DVD yet.

suit up!

Manitoba Comiccon, Boo-at-the-zoo, G/L Halloween party, school, trick-or-treating, and possibly Vallycon. Our costume slots are pretty full over the next month and a half with not a lot of time to fix, upgrade, and create. Depending on how many different changes the kids want, it’s going to be a busy time.

Personally, I’ve worn most of my basics to G/L parties – Ghostbuster, The Shadow, Adventurer (Indiana Jones-esque), and Jayne (Firefly). I need to fix the Proton Pack and make some stunt ones for the kids out of foamcore but I doubt I’ll get time.

I’m kicking around a few costume ideas of varying difficulty – we’ll see what I have time to finish.

True upsizing - 40K Rhino

http://www.thq-games.com/uk/features/show/4090
This group is making a life-size rhino out of a tank. Very cool pictures.

http://www.thq-games.com/uk/features/show/4203

http://www.thq-games.com/uk/features/show/4372

The Dark Knight

We finally saw The Dark Knight. Indeed, it is a shame that Heath died as his Joker was spot-on to the agent of chaos that he is to me. Two-Face as an agent of chance was also very nicely done – much better than Tommy Lee Jones’ version; he can be good or evil based on the coin flip – and no take backs.

I thought it was very well done. I didn’t like the first one as much, but this one does progress the series nicely. I like the idea that the movies are pretty tightly timed together. Someone could do what Batman does, but would have a correspondingly shortened time-span – maybe 5 to 10 years at most – before all the minor and major aches would catch up to him.

With Heath gone, someone could take up the Joker mantle, or they could bring Harvey back.
I’m thinking the next one should have Riddler or Hugo Strange with a side story with Catwoman, now that they freed up his love interest.

It’s definitely worth seeing if you haven’t already. It’s a close second for best movie of the year – Iron Man still holds up better for handling the origin story well inside the normal story arc.

Heath Care

People always complain about the healthcare system – about how long they have to wait to see a doctor – but I’ve never found that to be the case. Of course, I do understand the triage system – where certain types of injuries and illnesses come before others.

Case in point – a few weeks ago I finally listened to my wife and went in to the walk-in clinic to have my cough looked at. I had a dry cough for over a week followed by 2 weeks of a moist cough; with my ear starting to plug on the last week.
I went in on a Saturday morning. The waiting room was about half full, and I waited about 1 hour to see a doctor. For my symptoms, this seemed more than reasonable.

Turns out I had more than a cold – I actually had a touch of Bronchitis, or consumption as my wife calls it. A quick course of antibiotics, and I do mean quick – 6 pills, 2 to start and 1 a day for the next four days – and I was mostly better.

Listerical

There’s a big food scare on here right now with Listeria. It’s killed about 16 people so far. It turns out it’s basically food poisoning.

Maple Leaf has issued recalls on many items that they make for various companies. It hadn’t affected us until last week when two if our deli staples from Sobey’s were off the shelves – Burns salami and the garlic coil. The salami was what I had eaten for work the week prior – so we’ll see how I am in 3 months.

Mostly, I’m not worried as that kind of stuff doesn’t often affect me.

Wincon 2008 overview

I always start with a new game to test out. This year we ran the Rules With No Name. We played two games of it as it seemed to play pretty quick. I think the rules went okay but next time I would give each player a gang of 3 – 5 citizens to start instead of just one. With just one figure, you can go several turns without getting to move. It’s still worth painting up some figures, making some scenery, and trying again.

The upsized 5th edition Car Wars went fine. As usual, there was a bit of confusion with collisions but it played pretty well. We had some new players trying it for the first time as well as some players from older versions. The cars and walls looked good and the turning keys worked fine (a bit tight with the 3-D wals though). We’ll definitely play this again – probably with the normal Hot Wheels scale.

So, we were able to finish all of the tiles for an upsized RoboRally but weren’t able to finish the robots in time. I did make counters with the upsized bases but we ended up just playing it on the normal board. The race was close, with Becky beating an uber-optioned Sean by 2 moves.

Most people were fading after supper. Instead of playing the Circus Imperium with just 4 people, we ended up playing some Apples to Apples and going home a bit earlier.

There were some attendance issues, but all-in-all I still count it as a success. We’ll see how next year works though, we may go smaller until we finish the addition.

Books read - May through August

May:
The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla by Nikola Tesla
Brian Froud’s Goblins! By Ari Beck and Brian Froud
Build & Upgrade Your Own PC by Ian Sinclair
The Zeppelin Fighters by Arch Whitehouse
Computer Service and Repair: A Guide to Troubleshooting, Upgrading, and PC Support by Richard M. Roberts
Make It Right: Inside Home Renovation with Canada’s Most Trusted Contractor by Mike Holmes
Wargaming – an Introduction by Neil Thomas
Battles with Model Soldiers by Donald Featherstone
War Games through the Ages Vol.3 1792 – 1859 by Donald Featherstone

June:
The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Complete First Serial (Books 1 – 5) by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
The Horus Heresy: The Collected Visions by Alan Merrett (volume 1 – 4)

July
Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher
White Night by Jim Butcher
Dave’s Way: a New Approach to Old-fashioned Success by R David Thomas
Meatball Sundae: is your marketing out of sync? by Seth Godin
Brand Failures by Matt Haig
Retropeg: Archival photography of Winnipeg in the 70s by James Donahue
You Suck by Christopher Moore
Small Favors by Jim Butcher
The Complete Making of Indiana Jones by J.W. Rinzler

Aug
Me, myself, and Bob: a grow-up book about God, dreams, and talking vegetables by Phil Vischer
Heavy Metal: a cultural sociology by Deena Weinstein

finally finished The Mandalorian Armour by KW Jetter