Categories
Game Group

Upcoming Gaming

Right now, it looks like gaming won’t work this upcoming week [Friday the 20th] due to a work party replacing the game. Saturday and Sunday don’t work as reschedules– Dad’s heading out of town, Mike’s busy Saturday, and Kev works Sunday.

The following week [Friday the 27th] will require rescheduling– Jennifer’s plan arrives at 7:30 pm on Friday, right in the middle of when we’d normally play. Does anyone think playing Saturday the 28th will be a problem? Please let us know what your schedule looks like so we can coordinate.

If you ever can’t remember if we’re playing or on hiatus for a week, just click the Calendar tab at the top. It lists the upcoming month with anticipated games in red.

Categories
Books

Regenesis by C.J. Cherryh

Regenesis felt like an even stronger book than its famous predecessor, Cyteen. While still far more political than action packed, the characters develop in reaction to events, rather than over long periods of time, which makes it feel like the exciting period of Ari Jr.’s life.

The Union undergoes tremendous challenge with Resune’s special status at risk– but finally justifying itself. The cracks in the system feel realistic, with a good exploration of the damage cynical people (and groups) could do with the trust based government previously described.

Several elements of the previous book come into focus or are better explained in the context of this novel. Similarly, there’s no need to walk through a child’s upbringing or walk the “genius but still a kid” line– though Ari is quite precious as an 18 year old.

The book remains sympathetic to Justin and explains Jordan’s motivations (and misunderstandings) quite well. It’s not perfect, but it was an awfully good excuse to hop back into this interesting universe and world.

Categories
AT-43

Therian Nanogenerator Plant secured by UNA forces

(This may evolve into a more detailed explanation of the battle. For now, it’s mostly a pointer to my battle with Paul. An important note: The Frostbite tiles are just a pretty design; we ignored them for game play. That’s why everyone’s wandering all over the board, apparently sloshing through lakes.)

We played mission two, bridgehead, basically a King of the Hill type scenario. The objective we were fighting over was the cluster of three Nanogenerators in the center. We used reinforcement rules and 1500/500 armies. (The reinforcement points were generated by the other Nanogenerators; 100 per round controlled, +50 for capture.)

The pictures are:
Battlefield Setup
The battlefield at the end of each round, pictures from the two player positions and the open end.
The last turn (one picture).

Turn on titles for clarity– I don’t know of a way to arrange it automatically. AT-43 Battle slideshow

Categories
Game Group

Game Night: Friday the 13th (of March)

At the moment, the game looks like a go despite Jennifer’s absence. If anyone else can’t make it, please let me know and I’ll call around to cancel. Otherwise, full speed ahead– after an exhausting afternoon, what awaits our heroes in the siege? Will the battle be resolved by night’s end? [I hope yes, and will abstract as necessary to make it likely.]

Categories
Food

CSA Haul and the resulting dinner

Last week we got several veggies and recipes from the CSA pickup.

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I’d never really heard of rapini, or soba noodles, but figured I’d give the Soba Noodles with Spicy Rapini recipe a try. Unfortunately, I had to dial back the spice (stomachs are a little tender with the stress flying around), and that left the dish pretty bland. It’s not a bad base to build off of.

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dinner4
dinner7

The other recipe was much tastier and has made the “again please” list. I made Gingered Cabbage and Turkey, just substituting ground turkey for tofu in this recipe.

First I cooked up the ground turkey and drained it. dinner2 (See if you can find my helper in the picture!) To that I added the soy sauce, Japanese wine vinegar, and sherry. Interestingly, both recipes called for sherry tonight. That probably helped them match a little better.

dinner6 dinner8

From there, I tossed the cabbage in the empty skillet and cooked it until it was wilted and brown where it had cooked. Lots of mixing and the last spices and juices (lemon and cilantro) made it pop on the plate. I almost forgot the ginger, but it really perks the dish up. It makes a lot, so I’ll have left overs to enjoy.

Categories
Books

Watchmen

At Jennifer’s urging, I set Regenesis aside and wolfed down Watchmen. [We’re looking at hitting the movie and were advised that reading the comic is required to make sense of the plot.] After reading the comic, I’m interested in seeing how much of it they can pack into the movie… and whether it’ll be changed dramatically in the process.

It was a good book, but I don’t think it impressed me as much as it did Jennifer (and the reviewers on the back cover). The story arcs are solid and come to an end, which is nice, and I’m sure I missed a number of details. It’s a lot more fun to read than many “classics”– a mostly street level superhero story, with several twists. The character development and choices are great– not unchanging and static, but consistent enough that their changes are the result of actions, not the writer’s whim.

Categories
Game Group

Gaming, gaming, gaming

Our next game is scheduled for Friday, March 6th. After dealing with the hornet’s nest you kicked over [or watching as the spell goes awry and the city burns…], you’ll soon be on the attack again.

As ever, please let us know if you’ll have any problem making it. Thanks!

Categories
Food

Recent Dishes

On Sunday, we had a 4 star meal (on the Jennifer rating scale). The dish was Potato and Kale casserole– and I agree, it was wonderful. The recipe was in this week’s T. D. Wiley farm handout.
topped

Jennifer was feeling less adventurous tonight, so she had some Mac n Cheese, while I made Rutabega with Chard. It was tasty… but I think I’ll cut the rutabega cook time to 25 minutes (from 35) so there’s a little more texture. IMG_0359

(I substituted the swiss chard I had on hand for the red chard called for in the recipe.)

Categories
Politics

Habeas at Bagram

Hilzoy has a good discussion about Habeas in a War Zone. I found myself nodding along with it throughout– war zones shouldn’t ordinarily have Habeus Corpus, but we shouldn’t be flying people from outside the war zone into it just to dodge the hard parts of international and domestic law.

Categories
FATE Games Roleplaying

Free Tags and Aspects discussion

Monele and Leonard discuss Aspects, Free Tags, and Fiction on the FATE Mailing list. Throughout, Monele is in italics, while Leonard is plaintext.

Continue reading “Free Tags and Aspects discussion”