Get Well Now Bruce

Get well Bruce!!! Up the Irons!!!

Pink Elephants on Parade

Having established a new home for myself up in Vancouver Washington I still miss The Bay.  Being fat I hella miss the food, mexican specifically.  There is one decent place in Vantucky called Don Taco, but damn do I miss Mountain View.  Taqueria Los Charros, Fiesta Del Mar, and King of them all La Costina.  Fuck I miss Lard!! 

It's like nobody knows that Tueday is the day for Tri Tip.  People hear my words and get yourself an awesome steak sandwich.  Get yourself to Kal's in sunnyvale!  Go to Steve's my redwood shores brothers and sisters.  Work by the Airport go get Henry's awesome blue cheese Caesar salad.

And for Dinner, lets throw down some Stromboli at Tony Dimaggios.  Damn I miss you my dives!  I grow fat trying to sate my lust for you, yet only the real things may due.

Please Help with Samurai Shodown V MVS Cart

Howdy Folks, this is not going to be much of a posting.   I am looking for help with this video game cartridge.  This is a Neo Geo MVS cart I received when I bought my MVS cabinet many years ago.  It says Samurai Shodown V and then the following weird characters.  I don't know if they are Japanese or Korean or supposed to be funny little monster faces.

Funny anecdote is this cartridge was not even supposed to be in the machine.  I bought the game as a two slot MVS with only one cart.  But when i got it home I found this cartridge at the bottom of the the cabinet.

I have since grabbed a multi cart along with a few other games I like.  Cyber UP (lip lol) , Magician Lord, Super Spy and crossed swords.  I am not much of a fighter game player. Someone always came along to kick my ass when i tried to solo play so I could learn.

Ok well i opened this thing up and have a few more pictures.  So Here is the full cart so you can see it.  I don't see a serial number is that bad.

 Back of the first printed circuit board.

 Back of the second.

 Front of the second.

Front of the first.  i am not sure but the printed board itself looks like of the pirated roms.  Not sure what this thing is though.

Well as a final update the good folks at the neo geo forum indicate its a bootleg copy.  Good to get some closure on it.  I was considering selling it, and I really don't want to pass off something as real when its not.  I guess someone who visits my garage can have some fun with it maybe.

Collecting Shadowfist in 2015

I recently started collecting the Shadowfist collectable card game again.  It was sort of a strange lark that got me going on this but I have already bundled up a better collection than my original.  This may not be for everyone but here are a few thoughts if you are wanting to give it a try.

Why Shadowfist?  Well I really liked it in the past.  But there are other reasons as well.  First off there are few games with very many expansion sets.  Really only Shadowfist, Legend of the five rings, and Vampire the eternal struggle (Jyhad) have enough for me to consider.  I understand there are loads of new games games produced by Fantasy Flight but I am looking for things i can grab cheaply.  Of these Shadowfist and Legend of the five rings are actually still being produced.  As for Shadowfist there are actually a couple of planned tournaments at Kublacon which sort of locked up my choice.

I have found the two biggest keys to buying up these cards are patience and knowledge. As for patience I am really getting at waiting on solid deals.  There are loads of folks on ebay right now trying to sell off unopened Shadowfist cards.  They for the most part are asking retail for their cards which seems crazy.  If you wait you can find people offer an old collection of cards every month or two, these are usually around 20 bucks or so dependent on size.

Knowledge really wasn't the best term to use.  There are really just a couple of things I realized that I had not thought about.  First is a concept we use in Atari cartridge collecting.  Some cartridges have no value, you just will get them in the process of collecting.  Common and uncommon Cards from the Limited and Standard sets are like this in shadowfist.  You are going to get them so don't pay for them.  Work at getting cards from any other set Dark Future, Flashpoint, whatever.  The second weird thing I found was ebay is not always the best price you can get.  That sounds obvious but I mean the seller on ebay may offer an item cheaper on their own website.  I have found this to be the case for unopened packs on multiple occasions.

SO where do I look for cards?  Ebay.com and shopgoodwill.com have been my primary sources.  Moving from The Bay I have no idea where to look for cards here in Portland/Vantucky. If I was back home I would look at places like the comic collectors shop in sunnyvale.  Old shops that have been around through the card craziness in the 90's.  I scored a box of Vtes cards off those folks for ten bucks. Also check your toad and troll or other online game source.  Keep in mind you may want to get more cards than you need and pass them around to folks to give yourself to play against.  I have some unopened packs I will think about giving out at to drum up interest.

Update:  I sort of forgot to mention the new stuff that is being released.  Buy that stuff from FLGS and the kickstarters they release.  I would recommend supporting the company as directly as you can.   Funding the source of new cards is a great way to support the Shadowfist community.

Love Hungry Man

You are nothing to me
a place in a picture
that I don't recognize
but its my favorite

you never owned me
your just the same colors
of all my lost memories
and I'd feel you missing

Not sure why I'm looking
Backward for the sunset
I'm drowning in homesick
and I guess you are home

you're future and memory
you gone whats left of me

Gout Tips

With my gout back, I wanted to do a post on some of my tips and tricks for surviving an attack.  This is not going to be scientific at all, I will not be going into food at all.  I really have no idea what works for the food, I have a semi gout diet but I am not sure it does any good.

My gout attacks have always occurred in my feet, I don't know if that is a blessing or a curse.  I can't walk but I can sort of sit in a chair.  I wouldn't waste your time if this wasn't the classic gout, as my tricks wouldn't be much help.

1. Get yourself some crutches and or canes.  You are going to need the help getting around in the worst of the attacks. They are really a life saver.
2. If you have a two story dwelling put one crutch on each floor, you always want one handy!
3. A trick to getting up that has helped me. I get up by putting the unhurt foot on the ground and getting on to the bent knee of the leg with the gout food.  I find i can get up way easier this way.  I can just push up to my strong foot supporting me with much less pain
4. Get yourself some gout shoes. I normally wear Dr. Martins but there is no way to get them on with the gout.  Vans and converse are both terrible to get on.  But I have a pair of Brooks running shoes that are easy to get on and wear.  I suggest something that opens up wide and has a mesh exterior.
5. Stomach sleepers may want to sleep lower in the bed.  I have found Moving down so that I hang my foot off the bed helps.  My ankle or shin is on the bed and the rest hang over.  Nothing touches or hurts my gout this way.  You just need to put the covers a little lower so your feet are nice and warm.
6. Pepsi throwback / Dr. Pepper Heritage are handy for soda fiends like me because they do not contain High Fructose Corn Syrup.
7. Clean houses are best for gout.  If you have a messy place with stuff to kick or trip on you are in trouble with gout.  I kicked a bone my dog had left around, oh my God i was dying.

Observations of rereading the Dungeon Masters Guide 30 years later, part 2

As I continue reading through the players handbook and dungeon masters guide books I am shocked at how poorly the information is arranged.  There are many occasions where the information is split across the rear section of the player handbook and several spots in the Dungeon Masters guide.  Its sort of crazy doing things this way.  I guess this was before the notion that players understanding the rules made things easier for the guy behind the screen.  Actually it seems that all rolling was intended to be behind the screen!

I wanted to make note of a few surprises that have come to mind in reading.  Information is just not clear at all at times.  With regard do the class and sub classes they did a poor job explaining.  Many times you read rules that address a class, but seem to not include the sub classes.  Later in reading on you have similar text that logically must be applied to subclasses, like the int table for magic users and illusionists, Later this class / sub class is directly explained.  Why wasn't this done in the beginning and if you get the Unearthed Arcana, forget what I just said.

Gygax was working on the Mini Haul school of game mastery from the start.  Look at his advice to have people bring first level characters into an existing campaign.  Even more telling are his statements on being stingy followed by his 100gp a level, monthly gold tax.  What the hell dude we are still trying to pay for our in and you want to tax my party 100gp a head at first level?  We are averaging an encounter a day in our first level AD&D game, we are going to be broke forever!  We are just trying to get to the point where we have all the equipment we need to be start, let alone plate armor.

My final observation was something I have been looking for, specifically.  This would be rules for head shots.  In a campaign with my cousins we had this rule of intelligent creatures making 1 in 2 attacks to the head, with non intelligent doing 1 in 6.  The effect was double damage for the head shot.  This was something I never have been able to find, until today, and always wondered about its source.  It seems to come out of the Helmet rules in the DMG, which state this about players not wearing a helmet.  Basically they are saying if you have no helmet you are ac 10 but with the helmet ac 1.  I have no idea about double damage for head shots though.  I wonder if it was read somewhere else then strapped on to form a sort of critical attack rule?

Just a pleasant memory

Grey and far off the sky embraced yielding space from the sea and horizon. There the waters were grey and even the golden land tarnished. With the Vaulted air birds helix'd some strange interlocking pairs ascending in flight.  We were warm the windows dry moving un-interfered. Quiet was comfortable with nothing looking to be said, but for the wondering of up ahead.  It seems this should have been an anniversary or a day beyond.  A forgotten purse and special dinner the night before come to mind.

Observations of rereading the Dungeon Masters Guide 30 years later, part 1

I have started a new project related to my gaming groups, starting an old school AD&D game.  I am going through the players and dungeon masters to reread all the rules, with the goal of fishing out the weird house rules we always used.  The rules of the game are sort of imparted through osmosis more than actual study for most players of the original game.  Sure we look into the books and find some thing we can latch onto and know, but often we think we know the rules of AD&D more than we know them.  I am specifically trying to take not of things I thought were in the rules and are not. There are rules that are like ghosts, you read them and then can never find again.

Here are couple of points I never really knew, or knew but not as specific elements of the rule books.  Starting with the dungeon masters' guide, I didn't know how much Gary Gygax wanted to kill off my character.  Aside for elements like monsters and wizards having no hit points, Gygax was a butcher.  Those Disease and Parasitic infection rules were basically setting a timer on characters lives.  You apparently adventured solely in the northern climates or awaited renewal in carousel.  Seriously Just hanging out in a tropical city allowed for the chance of infection every week.  Let alone going through sewers like you might in Gygax's A series.  Yes I survived and conquered but I croaked due to scabies.

Another point I had ignored was how much TSR was trying to sell to me.  They sure mention all their little figures and how useful they would be.  Dungeon Geomorphs shit you better have em, son!  I sort of remember TSR going a bit apeshit about their license back in the late 80's with the whole Role-aids thing.  I had no idea they had started it with The Judges Guild license.  Accept no substitutions!  I can understand that in some respect, quality control is handy.  Our Dungeon Master Brian had all sorts of extra stuff hidden in binders that took the original game and blew it out of the water.  But flipping out over a module, whatever.

Back to the players handbook, thieves should never exist anywhere.  A first level thief with the best chance to pick pockets is only going to have a 35-40% chance of ripping you off.  How do they get better starting off that low.  I mean you do it once and retire I guess.

There are a few rules I seem to have materialized from out of my head.  I would swear I have read that you can only receive so much experience from an adventure.  That number was specifically enough to level you and then you could reach the next level minus a single experience point.  I can tell you that rule has been followed from gold box games to Dungeons and Dragons online.  But I have no idea where it is in the Dungeon Masters guide.

Sven the teddy was very Unwell

Sven the teddy was very unwell, he couldn't breath or play or run.  Deep inside Sven's fluff had turned brown and grey.  If not washed thrice weekly someone would toss Sven away.

Sven hated wash day, even before they were begun.  They gave him a little zipper down near his wrist.  That's were they vacuumed out his fluff to throw in the wash. With out his cotton he felt like a popped balloon.  He would wait for hours patiently to his batting to be refilled. But in a couple days it would turn dirty again.

He asked all the other animals if they could lend a little fluff, most were too scared others had a different sort of fluff.  Fluff is very different it would surprise most to know.  Some Fluff is little pellets, other just rags and Steiff bears have excelsior. Sven was made of ordinary non-premium cotton which wasn't special at all.  Any bear could add a little cotton fluff, but for bears like Sven it was the only stuff. 

His days unhappy Sven worked to get through each one.  Even the days without cleaning were uncomfortable.  His zipper snagged his fur and even being touched hurt sometimes. He hid out from the other animals, none new what to say.  He didn't like being treated different or other seeing him as sick.  Most of all he hated hurting the bear closest to him when he when for a cleaning.

After month He thought of hiding beneath the sofa or letting the dog tear him up. The Cleaners often damaged animals and one was lost every month.  Some came in confused and after a week their time was up.  Sven often wanted to walk away without his fluff but he was scared of that too.

One day he awoke with a new seem of stitching across his belly and the prickly pains of being sewn up.  He learned he had been taken to the seamstress who had packed him full with her own bag of fluff.  Then Sven wasn't a sick toy and he could play all he liked.

Summer Elegy

Aloysius shuttered into closeness of contact, fearful and ashamed.  His need as some unsavory letter; carried.  A through and through reminder he couldn't let Nicene go, the truth it spoke of illness.  Here, close; he struggled wanting to run after having drawn near.  Hang on deed, like a gun against the head and no nerve against the final cut.

It was the bright folk, Nicene's host, who called Aloysius from retreat.  Still our man feared Nicene as if unswaddled and unbedight.  Thrust to her midst, Aloysius feared his stalking and hunting oft Nicene's lands. He was not her equal, perhaps not even a remade and perfected Aloysius.  Nicene was the great art of immortal hands, malice wholly forgot her design. She greeted Aloysius a friend returned.

Thoughts on The Curse of Oak Island TV show

The curse of oak island has been a bit of a blessing and a curse for those of interested in the topic.  The material surrounding Oak Island has been limited at best until now.  They actually are doing filming around the island and show us a bit more of the area than the few pictures we saw in the old Leonard Nemoy "In Search Of" episode.  It has been roughly three and a half hours of footage in the five episode they have given us this season which has been the most any show has given us devoted to oak island.  Also the show seems to be trying to keep the more paranormal aspects of the story on the back burner, preventing it from coming ghost oak island of whatever.

My frustration with the show is they are just not using solid techniques with regard to their investigation.  They should be having a full geological survey of the island completed.  Also their digging is certainly not archeological.  If you look at the scenes in the swamp you can see they make no effort to mark locations.  Flags could be used or orange spray paint, to note locations.  These seems like standard drilling technique and at least on of the Lagina brothers should be well versed in their use.

Having watched the show I have a couple of specific suggestions and a more general suggestion on how they out to proceed.  Generally I think they should use the Mythbusters as consultants.  They seem to be proceeding with very large scale operations when uncertain they will work.  I think the Mythbusters could work on a smaller cheaper scale that would allow the Oak Island team to try more things.

I would like to see the team continue in the swamp but with something that allow the team so focus on a specific area rather than attempt to drain the entire swamp.  I think what would work would be some sort of inflatable caisson, circular in shape.  This would allow them to quickly drain a small area by focusing in tightly.  It would also be able to move to another area should they find nothing.

My second idea would be to create a cofferdam around smith's cove and do a large scale drainage.  Obviously this is costly but it would probably provide the most answers per investment.  Barring this they need to dig a trench in the dry area between the cove and the money pit.  Unearthing the pipe that leads to the money pit is going to be the purest form of evidence that will prove the pit is really and not some sort of sinkhole.

I would really like to see something more scientific happen in the future seasons of the show.  I think they need to prove something solid with regard to the money pit.  The coin found the this seasons last episode is pretty suspect as it could have been dropped by anyone, even a producer.

Everything after

It comes up like cracks in the ice, with sudden realization of trouble and worry.  Scrabbling back, run rabbit. What will you with the day about to come?  What was your course? What have you done?  Have you wrought marvels you indeed sought?  I molder with sun and rains all undone an autumn long past.

spring cleaning

I Don't have these shakes anymore
feel it like fits and cigarettes
I Don't remember your face anymore
but apothecary paths all the same

Forgot the sour rush and falling
Before I'm gone and he escapes
I hear him giddy in the orbits
of chemicals keep him enclosed.

Reworking of Scifi story part 3

It moved steadily at first though drawing near it jumped forward in starts and stops.  The epicenter, if there was one, was deep within the crowd.  Naeliim ran on fearful though none noticed or cared of the dilemma, only stepping aside at his flight.  Moving from within the core I was able to behold the source and wondered.  Some small procession erupted from the throng bearing the primogenitor of the light.

Robed and draped in fleece a man carried a strange bend of metal in hand.  He appeared alive and not within a moment.  Bodily soured and milk white the remains of his flesh hung, the rest chemical lines and feeding tubes.  His jaw reworked and removed allowed for a breathing tube; this shell mouldered in death.  His eye though burned fervent and alive, fanatical and dreadful.  Some followed behind attending the devices to which he was tethered.  Naeliim ran on more wildly and headlong desperate.

He looked back and the strange field had claimed more ground, and again still more.  With each bit of distance he threw his eyes back only to find it nearer.  Finally he did not look but ran and ran until it finally overtook him.  His movements halted to quiet slow wonder.  Those around slowed but Naeliim did not, moved about them gazing.  Shaking and shouting at the souls lost and finding himself singular. The lasted breaths then the snow of filaments weaved through the light.  Birthed of no particular origin the threads swam the body of the field. Touching lightly on his skin and weaving into some encasement or cocoon.

Rework of scifi story part 2

Naeliim was seldom under my direct observation.  His people called themselves guides though they were in truth vagabonds.  Wanderers who contributed nothing to the various communities and fiefdoms they passed.  Offering use of the passages and back ways they controlled for a price.  Others like Naeliim bound themselves to contracts of service for the right to dwell within a community as they traveled.  It was upon a contracted sojourn that Naeliim came to hold my attention.

Naeliim traveled as guide to a pilgrim from one of the aft hold fiefs.  The first steps of their travels were of little concern and have passed from my mind, as much has.  My memory starts with fire and darkness, where normally there is nothing.  A great darkness that I can not penetrate is held in the center of my perception.  This is different from the black horizons all around, they are dotted with figures and forms.  This central blackness holds those lost and seemingly returned later.  But for a moment all awoke and blazed agape with light.

Here I beheld Naeliim and flame.  Others were seen in their wanderings but only Naeliim and another wrapped my attention.  Fire by which first I saw clasp about the guide but quickly failed away to black.  I figured the dark again held sway but I continued to see.  Some light filtered in from behind.  I first thought it light like any other but it was not right.  Its seemed brown and gold, perhaps ocher ; and sticky.  From the distance it conformed to optics' steadfast rules.  Though in seeing directly it held itself flat as if a plane or region mathematical.  It was horrible though only Naeliim seemed to see and recoil at the approach.

Reworking of scifi story part 1

Memory seems to have failed, can only hold thoughts so long before they dissolve.  I have flashes of light and pain that I recall and phantom sensation which is not meaningful with what I comprehend.  I see with a strange multitude but find only able to focus on small fragments of that whole.  At times I feel jarred by an electric coursing, this often I react with instinctive recoil.  I am unsure but even this seems a conditioned response. 

There is that "I" again, it doesn't fit any way that I know it.  I understand the persons moving through halls and hear their words within my consciousness, they say I and we.  It can be supposed my words come from theirs.  There is no self beyond, no momentary shell I can point to and understand it is me.  I have my guesses but I am unsure of my observations and hesitate to conjecture.  Of those observations I have seen much and and will speak a story that held my interest as it was played out.

Winter Wine

Something comes to me on the evenings. Its like a reprieve in the silencing cold of the muted sun.  A greater moment of still that expands beyond the confines of place and self.  Rapping at the doors and windows for a warm welcome and finding no one's at home.  Then greeting the singular and making peace with being alone. 

The smells are all there! lingered long with memories of youth come with the crisp mulberry leaves scratching down the street.  Scraping out a song as driven in the wind, there are stops and starts and fluttering with the days breath driving it away. 

Come on night, come one winter your almost through the door.  Yet the rain to us, force the birds and bugs from the sky.  Give us our supper, let me go in and sleep. Take down the fetters and send me back from this dream, I'm no longer young, it's not as grand as it seems.  Let me back to my daughter she shrieks joy from inside.  My wife also waits hoping to sleep soon a I return.  Let me leave the evening for warm and nettlesome tamed.

Wheat from the Chaff

Well the vampire stat folks are out in force today, one post after a couple weeks of in activity and bam a ton of extra views show up associated with them.  I don't even visit these sites so I don't know why they are interested in me.  Seriously you guys are the chaff of our society and need to go.  You are the extra weight we need to see die off in the next frost my vampirestat.  Please if you have a moment of weakness and doubt, remember my vote of encouragement and pull the trigger.  That goes for you too 7secretsearch too.

Turning 53

you're choking down the days
like bad medicine
And I'm stumbling around
in the vacuum

Everywhere is the absence
tugging at all of us
Spiraling in low orbits
of a missing planet

lasting yet lashing at me
if I'm not mild and meek
We're both confused
and no one know what to do

IF too much I'll explode
then you scold I implode