Vik-Thor's Journal

Last night, Seph and I went downtown to see Barenaked Ladies at the Peabody Opera House.  Very nice interior. Not quite as opulent as the Fox Theater, but still quite nice! Won tickets through 106.5 The Arch WARH.

In August, Family Arena is going to be having an 80s tour playing, including Men Without Hats and Howard Jones! Definitely want to see that! Unfortunatley, we no longer get tickets for Family Arena at work as part of trade agreements. I will have to see how the timing works for Seph and work.

And last but not least, also in August (HOPEFULLY not the same day!) total solar eclipse!!
I am going to try to head down to Alto Pass (Bald Knob to be precise) for it, to be able to see the Moon's shadow sweep across from the height.
Also, I hear that there is supposed to be a outdoor music festival in Marion, with Ozzy Osbourne headlining, and performing during the actual eclipse... Personally, I will take the view.
This was originally posted at http://vik-thor.dreamwidth.org/185423.html. If you want to comment, feel free to do it where you originally read it.

 Why do I have so much trouble doing stuff? like keeping up with this. writing letters. keeping up with our budget spreadsheet. bleagh.

We went to go see some Vintage Baseball on Saturday, 06 May. The Belleville Stags were one of the teams, along with Vandalia OldCapital, Alton Giant, and Saint Louis Brown Stockings.

The Stags Facebook page has some videos of the day. https://www.facebook.com/Belleville-Stags-Vintage-Base-Ball-Club-290064157691261/

was fun, but we only stayed for the first 2 games, since Seph did have to get SOME sleep during the day. We both got sunburnt.
I am actually thinking of possibly joining one of the local teams. (I think there are several in St. Louis.) Looks fun. (and yet wasn't I just talking about getting stuff done?

Bowling is over for the season. Got some money back, Both Seph and myself had a payout for being having a high handicap game (or series?) don't remember which.

And something I am somewhat avoiding thinking of... Mr. Grey (our cat) is nearing the end of this life. We got him from pound when he was about 10, and we've had him for about 4 or 5 years... He has not been eating much or getting out of his bed much... Took him to the vet on monday, and they took x-rays (since he had gotten worse since the visite in early April, with no issues with bloodwork which they did in April.)
Looks like he has (probably) cancer in left lung.
*posts this before I break down crying at work*
This was originally posted at http://vik-thor.dreamwidth.org/185139.html. If you want to comment, feel free to do it where you originally read it.

Well, no gaming for the next two Mondays, Tiger and Tron are going to CLAW. One of the Las Vegas crew has formally withdrawn from group. Other one will try to skype in, so we can finish the main campaign. Trying to get my character into a PCGen template, but having issues... Android Monk (Zen Archer) / Fighter. Can't seem to get the data sets for the Zen Archer to load at the same time as the Android race...
Have also created an account @ Roll20.net.

Tonight was the last normal league night for our bowling league for the season. Next week is a free bowling night, and then there will be a party where any prizes will be given out in 2 weeks. Not sure if we will be doing a summer league or not, though I am leaning toward not... I did not really enjoy the one summer league I was in (2 summers ago, before my surgery.)

Time for me to get back on my comic box reorganization project.

Picked up some canna starts, and planted most of them. Will plant the last ones tomorrow.

time to feed the fishies, pull the laundry upstairs, and head to the Dreaming.

(speaking of which, I want to see a MLP version of The Endless.)


This was originally posted at http://vik-thor.dreamwidth.org/184958.html. If you want to comment, feel free to do it where you originally read it.

OK, right now, I am reading Goldfur's MLP stories, Specifically "Quantum Gallop" in the House of Path series. and loving it!! I have always enjoyed his writing in his Chakat universe, and this is just as good.
I get so caught up in reading it, I have been quite late to work a time or two.

I need to start setting a timer when I begin reading.

I also need to get myself organized in more ways than one. As mentioned previously, I was breaking down my long boxes of comics into short boxes, both for the space, and because some of the long boxes are probably over twenty years old, and show their age. I.....have not done any of that for quite awhile. Months probably in fact...
And new comics are building up.
and my side of the computer room is building up...

I mean to do something about it, and get distracted.... I plan on working on something when I get home from work, and end up doing something else. I plan on doing it on the weekends, and end up spending more time on my out of home errands, and getting home to late to do it.

I'm thinking of working with a bullet journal type planner, to try to get myself somewhat more organized.
I bought a Taschenbegleiter http://www.roterfaden.de/en/home/ and Hobonichi Techo http://www.1101.com/store/techo/en/ last year, and was going fairly strong for awhile, but have dropped off severely over the past couple weeks.
As Brad Dowdy dowdyism said somewhere on his Penaddict.com website (or maybe the podcast?) with the pre printed / dated planner, if you miss a few days, it leaves so much blank it feels odd. If you miss a few days or weeks in a Bullet Journal, you can just make a note, and start on the next blank page.

Oh well, I can always start once again.


This was originally posted at http://vik-thor.dreamwidth.org/184668.html. If you want to comment, feel free to do it where you originally read it.

#mylivejournal #lj18 #happybirthday

 My current main gaming group is currently split in 2, because 2 of them moved to Las Vegas last year. It has made it difficult to get our 'main' campaign finished, even though we are basically only 1 or 2 sessions from finishing it. We meet on Mondays @ Tyger's and Tron's house (Tron is the GM for the current main and backup campaign. Both are in PathFinder system. Though I think we will be switching to the StarFinder system when it comes out this summer, since Tron tends to do it that way anyway (especially the main campaign.) which does throw some oddities into it, pushing the base PathFinder system to modern/future setting.

Anyway, everyone in the group is supposed to have a campaign ready to go for when we [finally] finish the main campaign. I'm planning on proposing a GURPS Supers campaign. I need to actually WORK on getting a campaign idea set up. I'm wanting it to be something like Alex Woolfson's The Young Protectors. My trouble is just getting everything created/set down. Also, the fact that none of us have actually played in the GURPS system before…

I have started moving my cleric in the backup campaign to a digital format (PCGEn file) on my Linux box as of last night. I've been holding off on taking him up to 14th level (for in game reasons, he was thinking of infiltrating a sect of Inquisitors of Serenrae, by joining them and get some training. That plot was resolved differently.) I am thinking of doing Holy Vindicator prestige class. This was originally posted at http://vik-thor.dreamwidth.org/184121.html. If you want to comment, feel free to do it where you originally read it.

I have shot a rifle before. Long ago. I think even before we moved to Cobden. I even owned one, I even still have the stock of it, but somewhere in my (too) many moves, I seem to have lost the barrel.

With all that is going on in the USA recently, I am wanting to pick up a new one, and officially get training in use and care of it. (Yes, it is usually the Republicans who tend to do that type of stuff, because they are afraid of “Liberals taking away their guns!” with gun control. When really, most people in the country just want it so that the people who have guns know how to use them safely. At least that is how it seems to me.)

I already have a friend who has bought a shotgun for self-protection / home-protection, and he is probably one of the most ‘Liberal’ people I know, at least probably according to most of the current Christian Dominionist Republicans. The ones who would gladly take away his and my rights to even exist.

Somehow, I think that my fear of being erased from existence is closer to reality under the present administration / regime than their fear of having their guns taken away by the previous administration.

This is a bit of a test.
Ink: Diamine Imperial Purple
Pen: TWSBI Eco
Paper: Field Notes "Pitch Black" Fourth printing

President #45’s first official ‘press conference’, with hand picked reporters, still doesn’t go quite as he hoped. The first reporter went with their journalistic integrity, and actually asked a relevant question or at least attempted to before he shut them down, yelling “That is NOT an approved question! You are only supposed to ask questions from the preapproved list you were handed! You’re FIRED! NEXT!!!”

He points to another reporter, who stands, holds up a sheet of paper and says, “You mean these pabulum questions? We’ll be releasing them to the public so they know what you want to talk about, but…” tears the sheet in half and drops it to the ground. And the majority of the reporters in the room yell in unison “We want to know why you haven’t released your tax forms!”

45 gets red in the face. “Who cares! Old News! Noone wants that! You are all FIRED!!! One more chance!” Points to a man holding up his hand with a BREITBART sign in it. “Steve’s lackey, from Breitbart!”

“Mr. President, how do you feel about the rumours that there are neoNazi’s among your supporters?”

“Well now, even though that isn’t one of the officially worded questions, it is close enough. Remember in the future, when Breitbart is our OFFICIAL NEWS OUTLET! To ask the questions as they are written for you! Now obviously the Nazis are dead, we defeated them in that big war in the 40s! That my grandparents fought in! We killed them all dead! There are no more Nazis! Anyone who claims there are still Nazis around is a LYING LIAR! The Liberals want to make you think there are still Nazis around to keep you scared but they are all dead. Just like anyone who opposes us will end up being!” Pauses for a second. “After all, everyone dies sometime, right?” With a bit of a grin on his face.

Press Flack Spicer comes on stage, “NO MORE QUESTIONS! THIS INTERVIEW OVER! CLEAR THE ROOM!” As others among 45’s ‘loyal guard’ rush him back stage.

The official transcript is released the next day on Breitbart.com under header OFFICIAL NEWS OUTLET, without the last two sentences of 45’s rant. Lackey Conway says “Lord Trump never uttered those words that you think He did!”

Breitbart is DDOSed after instituting a NO COMMENTS policy on their ‘stories’, to be replaced by raw footage of the press conference, on a loop.

Where am I from?
Well, there’s no generally accepted name for our multiversal cluster or universe, so I can’t go that general. Milky Way Galaxy, Orion’s Arm. Sol System. Sol-3 (Earth/Terra). North America. United States of America. Illinois.
Then it gets a bit complicated, sorta.
Born in McLeansboro, but don’t really remember anything before about 4yo, when we were living in Oakwood. Then moved to Cobden between 5th & 6th grades, because Dad transferred to a different region. (Illinois State Police.) So most of my formative schooling, that I remember, was in Cobden, and that is where I pretty much consider I grew up. I have no real ties left to Oakwood, as I didn’t keep in contact with the friends my age, and everyone I wa close to older than me has died. (A slightly odd fact: there is a linguistic/dialect border between central Illinois (Oakwood) and southern Illinois (McLeansboro and Cobden). So since I went between the two quite regularly, I have a bit bit of a mixed accent.)
After High School, I went to Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (only about 20 miles from Cobden).
After that, San Francisco for a year.
Then Kansas City for about a decade.
Back to central Illinois (Champaign/Urbana) for a couple of years.
Phoenix AZ for another decade or so.
Now in the Saint Louis Metro.

Or:
The Big Bang creation of our current universe, for some of the Hydrogen atoms in my body (probably?) Though some are also probably products of nuclear decay of heavier elements. All the rest of the atoms in my body are the product of various stars lifetimes of fusion and explosion, which coalesced into our current solar system.

Or:
European-American ancestry. With a bit of Native American mixed in. Can’t be more specific than that, as I’ve never done much research into my ancestors, though all 4 grandparents were born here in the USA.

Or:
A conscious speck of life this universe uses to observe itself