Rare southern NM snow.

Took the girls for a walk to my mom's house.

Gandalf

Put on the extended Fellowship of the Rings today, and while I was moving around doing laundry and stuff during a lot of it I made sure to stop and watch the "what to do with the time that is given to us" Gandalf speech. Love it.

Eye-roll

Me: You think there's a dungeon back here?
Paige: Whatever, dad.

Happy Pre-Xmans Eve!

Happy Pre-Xmans Eve!

Vacation 😌

Van-aerobics

Carrie asked Paige to help her carry in the groceries, came back to find this. She also spends most of her time while watching tv doing similar feats and frankly it's starting to make me feel bad about my lack of physical activity.

Ready Player...sigh

Last night I watched the end of Ready Player One. I'd put in two sessions of about an hour apiece already so I figured I might as well finish it. It was super uninspiring and trite with a bunch of nerd pop culture pasted all over everything. I enjoyed the book for the latter, but it had some of the former in it too so the movie result is maybe not too surprising. Spotting the bits of nerdery in the background was more enjoyable than watching the action, for sure.

After it was done I fired up No Country for Old Men because I wanted to watch something good and I hadn't seen it since it was in the theaters over 10 years ago. The nihilistic elements make me squirm more these days but the movie is still fantastic. Also, drinking Coors Banquet in chub bottles while I watched it felt like some kind of synergy was going on.

Come on down!

Mothership uses The Price Is Right rules for opposed checks. That's rad!

Cool Clear Water

Buster Scruggs put an itch on me that this album scratched. I listened to it on a loop while I built an add-on to the chicken coop yesterday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX-9RpAcSbE

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 30

The Pit of the Serpent by Robert E. Howard

They claimed that the old man had a knuckle-duster on his right, which is ridiculous and a dirty lie. He had it on his left.

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 29

The Return of the Sorcerer by Clark Ashton Smith

Among the weird appurtenances of the room, in that atmosphere of unmanifested evil, of untold horror, the rational part of my mind began to succumb slowly to a recrudescence of dark ancestral fears.

RPGs and me

10 role-playing games, a rough timeline:

D&D: Moldvay and Advanced
Marvel Super Heroes
RIFTS
Vampire: The Masquerade
GURPS
D&D 3e
Burning Wheel
Dogs in the Vineyard
3:16
Apocalypse World

10's not nearly enough.

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 28

Smoother by Terry Bisson

And no matter what we do, it keeps going at the same speed, winding its way around the world, smoothing out whatever is in front of it, leaving behind a mile-wide smooth strip of nothing, like a yellow brick road.

Tetri-ffected

I don't play video games much anymore, and I likely won't get into VR (let alone get a Playstation), but this Tetris Effect trailer (much like Beat Saber before it) has me fondly daydreaming about an alternate reality in which I am immersed in alternate tetrical realities on a regular basis.

https://youtu.be/PFVL6t8IHE8

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 27

Pop Tarts by Lauren Beukes‬

‪It’s a very competitive market now that everyone and their domestic worker has public access broadcast rights and a private channel to call their own. Not to mention big-time sponsor deals.‬

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 26

Inglaf’s Dream by Ama Darr Rogen‬

‪“And then, I understand that these folk believe that . . . that they are us and that we are naught but their fantasy, their playthings for an idle hour.”‬

Two dads

A wild Sage LaTorra makes a rare southern NM appearance!

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 25

The Captives by Elmore Leonard

"We're taking him with us."
"What for"
"Because I say so. That reason enough?"
"Frank, we could run him for the well and both take a crack at him."
"Get the horses."

Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves...

Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage includes two genies that each have a Disney-esque song they sing, one to harp music the other to ROCK music. So, gauntlet thrown I guess.

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 24

Dial Tone by Lauren Beukes‬

‪Sometimes she would just pick up the handset and listen to the dial tone. Sometimes that was enough.‬

20/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 23

A Stone’s Throw Away by Roger E. Moore‬

‪Tasslehoff flipped the book shut with a gasp. Hesitantly, he reached for another, hoping it was less loathsomely illustrated.‬

19/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

'Burbs

These kids have no respect for classic cinema.

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 22

Tell Them They Are Full of Shit and They Should Fuck Off by Terry Bisson

Tell them they are full of shit and they should fuck off.

18/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 21

The River by Flannery O'Connor

If he had thought about it before, he would have thought Jesus Christ was a word like "oh" or "damn" or "God," or maybe somebody who had cheated them out of something sometime.

17/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 20

The Underdweller by William F. Nolan

Stillman shuddered; he could envision them, shrieking, scrabbling at the shelves, throwing books wildly across the room at one another. Screaming, ripping, destroying.

16/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 19

An Extravaganza in Two Acts by Leigh Newman

She felt upward along her thigh, tied off, and inserted a brass syringe. "Medicinal," she said, the way she always did when he forgot not to watch.

https://electricliterature.com/performing-polite-society-on-the-alaskan-frontier-580d8b3d0321

15/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 18

Saint with a Six-Gun by Elmore Leonard

"Bohannon's downstairs."
Lyall said, "He want to see me?"
"When you go out he won't be able to help it," said Barney.

14/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

13/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 17

Nothing Goes to Waste by Hugh Howey‬

‪It reminded me of the step I'd forgotten. Juinco's insistence returning to me at the odor of my burning flesh.

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 16

Branded by Lauren Beukes‬

‪No rinkadink light show this: she's signed up for nanotech that changed the bio-structure of her cells, made 'em phosphorescent in all the right places.

"You shot me in the back!"

Ballad of Buster Scruggs. I'm in favor of it.

Stanich's

"Centuries ago (2014), when Facebook’s algorithm overlords promoted the idea of Facebook becoming everyone’s “personalized newspaper,” “best” lists flourished in a way that, like the steroid era in baseball, seems in retrospect almost hilariously false, but the traffic gains looked real, so everyone made more lists. Except there was a slight problem: good, sturdy, reliable lists requiring on the ground knowledge and reporting were actually hard/expensive to make, and few places wanted to pay for that sort of reporting, so most lists just ended up plagiarizing off of the few good ones. And, as these lists increased in frequency while simultaneously decreasing in quality, you watched the collective trust in any one list diminish."

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/portland/stanichs-closed-will-it-reopen-burger-quest#

12/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 15

Holy Water by Nathan Thomas.

If your IPA has a bird on the bottle, your IPA sucks because IPAs are mostly terrible garbage anyway. There’s a reason Budweiser is the king of beers.
http://www.hobartpulp.com/web_features/holy-water

11/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 14

Muse by Lauren Beukes

…there were fishhooks in the fingertips that drew blood with every keystroke.

My reading shelf overfloweth

10/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 13

Confirm/Ignore by Lauren Beukes‬

Aren't we all remixes of every influence we've ever come across? Love something, let it go. If it comes back, it's a meme. There's a double me in meme.

This article is about seltzer.

Content may be nothing, but nothing has two faces, emptiness and infinite potential, facts and ephemera. This duality shapes ideas of the afterlife, too. If we can’t quantify the difference between the medical definition of life and the spiritual concept of the soul, at least we know when there’s no good reason for a lamp to fall off a table.

https://www.eater.com/2017/8/30/16193300/la-croix-polar-seltzer-live-forever

9/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

FoaBD

"After a short hiatus, Fear of a Black Dragon is back! In the newest episode, Tom McGrenery and I are discussing seafaring adventures and The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh!

Enjoy!"

http://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/fear-of-a-black-dragon/the-sinister-secret-of-saltmarsh

Pick em up and put em down

20 degrees. Move it or lose it.

Holy cow! This thing is massive.

w00t!

I wrote an entry for this.

"Would you enjoy a fairytale monster manual, containing 54 creatures and the gorgeous art of HJF? Well, you can have it for free.

I'd like to thank Sébastien d'Abrigeon, Emmy Allen, V. A., HD Atkinson, Jean-Marc CHOSEROT, Dan D, Dat Epic Fish, Goblins Henchman, guillaume jentey, Daniel Lofton, Magimax, ktrey parker, Roger Giner-Sorolla, and James V West for their amazing contributions."

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/258394/Fords-Faeries-A-Bestiary-Inspired-by-Henry-Justice-Ford

Fireman birfday

Came home from work and was met with slippers, a beer, a crackling fire, and Empire Strikes back on the TV for my birthday.

…that was the plan anyway. We got there after the smoke-filled house was aired out and the fire department had stopped by. My mom got excited and forgot to open the the flue. :)

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 12

Sing by Karin Tidbeck

They leave the children and wait among the trees with their backs turned. They don’t speak of what has happened during the wait.

8/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 11

Trouble at Rindo's Station by Elmore Leonard

There was a time when Bonito might have fired at the rider far below on the road, and for no other reason than to test his carbine, since the rider was a white man.

Bandito

Rewatched Smoky and the Bandit. Turns out, despite the inclusion of Jerry Reed, not a good movie.

7/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 10

The Book Seller by Lavie Tidhar‬

I remember the first one we cut open. The filaments inside. Moving. Still trying to spread. Nosferatu Protocol, we called it.

Best Market

Saturday farmer's market includes beer and ice cream and comic books!

6/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 9

My Watch by Mark Twain

My watch began to gain. It gained faster and faster day by day. Within the week it sickened to a raging fever, and its pulse went up to a hundred and fifty in the shade.

Honeycrisps are great!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-08/the-curse-of-the-honeycrisp-apple

Piercers

"Oh Piercer King! Cold and dark. Always patient, all seeing. 300 years waiting in the underdark‘s highest dreams. 300 years amassing your mass, one long fall to dethrone the dark lich and feed on her black heart. Bestower of the divine trépanation, infuser of gravity, may your grace fall on me and make me your knight. Fasting under you, my stone blade on my tights, I wait."

Evlyn makes great stuff: https://www.patreon.com/evlynmoreau/

5/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 8

Selkie Stories Are For Losers by Sofia Samatar

No transformation happens because of a kiss. No one loves you just because you love them. What kind of fairy tale is that?

A more complete WTF is My DND Character generator...

https://lifehacker.com/use-this-ios-shortcut-to-roll-a-new-dungeons-dragons-1830290340

4/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 7

The Road of Needles by Caitlin R Kiernan

She could be a proper Rip Van Winkle, as the Blackbird drifts farther and farther off the lunar-Martian rail line. She could do the fables narcoleptic one better, pop a few of the phenothiazine capsules...

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 6

Key to Ramali by Ardath Mayhar

"C-137-D, standard- issue Camelogue,” I answered. "Used for the transportation of personnel and equip- ment on desert worlds. Very useful, but also unpredictable. Not one of our best trade items.”

3/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

Silhouettes

last night i woke up and the soft light of the wifi router was casting a shadow by the fireplace that looked like two people standing there staring at me so i stayed awake for a couple hours for no reason whatsoever

2/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 5

Ghost Stories by Julia Dixon Evans

Ghost stories and hauntings are the things you find solace in when your fears are broad and nonspecific. Ghost stories tell you: yes, be scared here, for these reasons, it’s okay.

http://monkeybicycle.net/ghost-stories/

1/20

20 films that had an impact on you, for the next 20 days.

Only post a pic.** No film title or comment.** Number them and use the hashtags below.
1/20

#20MovieChallenge #movies #film

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 4

Blood Money by Elmore Leonard

Sonny Nevarez shrugged. "Que va--it's worth a try. From no matter where you die, it's the same distance to hell."

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 3

Science vs. Luck by Mark Twain

The judge jested in a ponderous judicial way about the thing, but did not move him.

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 2

Flight to Forever by Poul Anderson

To travel hopefully, believe me, is better than to arrive.

Soothing

Gaming was cancelled. So I'm sitting on the roof in the cool fall weather, having a beer and reading Barrowmaze.

WoShoStoReMo 2018 Day 1

A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

My daddy said I was a different breed of dog from my brothers and sisters. 'You know,' Daddy said, 'it's some that can live their whole life out without asking about it and it's others has to know why it is, and this boy is one of the latters. He's going to be into everything!'

#woshostoremo2018

B-hole Kid

The other day I overheard my 8-year-old daughter trying to coach her brother into this call-and-response.

"Ok, you say, 'whatcha doin?' then I'll say, 'chewin chocolate'..."

According to the internet there are Butthole Surfers lyrics in Diary of a Wimpy Kid? Maybe?

Drones

The twins were given a pair of drones for their birthday. 2 min till one of them flew over the wall into the desert. 5 min till one of them was broken. Gifting kids toys with batteries and/or remote controls is just giving their parents another job.

Wakanda forever!

Local 'Bama beer lookin tight!

Huntspatch Bound

‪Traveling to Huntsville. Dad turns 70 in about 2 weeks. We're getting together early, gonna head up to Nashville on Monday to see Jason Isbell at the Ryman Auditorium. Dad used to listen to the Grand Ole Opry on WSM broadcast out of there when he was a kid.

Brews & Bugbears

Showed up at the brewery to deliver Ben a D&D book for his birthday and there's two randos here talking RPGs. I've overheard the words Gygax, chain-lightning, Steve Jackson, and Shadowrun in about five minutes.

Punkin Patch

We were at the Mesilla Valley Maze for almost four hours yesterday. Luckily the weather was great and the kids barely had any melt downs. See last photo, where Owen got hangry and threw a fit over not getting to take home a pumpkin that I couldn't even pick up.