The Tail End of Summer

   Another boring summer is heading towards its end. Gen Con has come and gone, and I wasn't there to enjoy it. Hopefully things will be different next year. I've been to the Bristol Renaissance Faire once this year and I'm hoping to go again before the season ends.

  I've backed a few more Kickstarters since my last post. The first one is The Big Conspiracy card game. Others include When the Wolf Comes, Era: Hitman v1.1, Gausahedron, Wasteland Sagas, Cthulhu Mythos Tarot and Crossroads Inn. The Cthulhu Wars: CATaclysm and Cthulhu Wars: The Daemon Sultan Kickstarters are progressing very slowly. According to the latest update, the pieces are being or have been molded. While I was unable to participate in these Kickstarters directly, The Game Steward has backed both projects. Over the past two years or so, I've placed orders with them for items from both of these Kickstarters as well as other Cthulhu Wars expansions. When all these orders arrive, I'll pretty much have everything Cthulhu Wars related. I've acquired an Eradication first player marker for the game recently on eBay.

The Financial Report

   The RAV 4 is finally sold. An inspector for the buyer came out a few days ago and looked over the vehicle. He checked the inside and outside of the car and took a bunch of pictures before he left. That coupled with the CarFax report lowered their initial offer of $11,400 to $9,000. The car has been involved in three accidents: one minor, one moderate and one severe. I accepted their offer and uploaded pics of the front and back of the title, registration and front and back of my license to them. They emailed a FedEx label to me so I could ship the signed title to their office in Georgia. The title should get to them sometime later today. Once they have the title in their possession, they will electronically transfer the $9,000 into my account. Arrangements will then be made to have them pick up the RAV 4.

  My federal refund will be in my account on the 13th. It dropped from $3,405 to $2,005. I think the reason for the drop had to do with the third stimulus payment. Hopefully, later this week, I'll have $11,005 in the bank. I'm going to shunt $1,000 into my Health Savings account and about $1,000 to $1,500 will be used to pay down my credit card. Other bills due this month will be paid as well. I do plan to indulge myself a little bit. I'm going to buy the equipment guide for Twilight 2013 and a bunch of additional expansions for Cthulhu Wars like Dire Azathoth, Dire Cthulhu, the other game maps like Shaggai, Library of Celaeno, Dreamlands etc. and the 6-8 player maps for each. The rest of the money will stay in the account. I'm hoping that the amount of money I make on a monthly basis will be more than what I pay out in bills per month. I want to keep paying down my credit card and building up my savings so I can go to Gen Con next year.

Dungeons and Dragons Museum Proposed in Lake Geneva

   The granddaddy of all roleplaying games, Dungeons & Dragons, is going to get its own museum in Lake Geneva, WI. The game was created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974. The game was an offshoot of the medieval war game, Chainmail. Both games were originally published by Tactical Studies Rules (TSR, Inc.) 

  I had the pleasure of meeting both Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson at Gen Con. Gary signed my copies of the Chainmail rules, the 2000 Gen Con guide and my first edition Dungeon Master's Guide. Arneson signed my copies of the original Blackmoor campaign setting and the 3.5 edition update.

  Dungeons & Dragons, and roleplaying games in general, have been a big part of my life. I started playing in November or December of 1979. My mom had a subscription to Games Magazine at the time. During the holiday season, the magazine had an insert listing the top 100 games of that year. D&D was listed among them. I purchased one of the early boxed sets from the local K-Mart.

  Now, some 42 years later, I have a sizable roleplaying game collection. I have horror based games like Call of Cthulhu, science fiction games like Gamma World and Cyberpunk and humor based games like Hol and Paranoia. 

Finally

   My federal refund has finally arrived. It, combined with some money from my Health Savings Account, was used to pay off my bill with Aurora. I no longer own any money to either Aurora or Ascension. To celebrate, I purchased 20 3D printed plastic gates for Cthulhu Wars off of eBay. I've also added the Dreamlands Surface and Underground monster expansions from The Game Steward to my order.

  I've backed a card game called Intel on Kickstarter and plan to back the Orbidice Kickstarter as soon as it starts. Orbidice are spherical dice that have a specially shaped hollow cavity inside. A small metal ball is inside the cavity. The metal ball slows the Orbidice down when you roll it and eventually falls into a pocket of the cavity in order to determine the result of the roll. I want to get a standard 7 Orbidice RPG set plus an Orbidice tower that looks like a curved, circular track with a basin at the bottom. You place the Orbidice in the track and let it roll into the basin. Simple.

  Now that my medical bills are fully paid off, I need to pay down my credit card. I'm getting WAY too close to my limit. I might try to use the two paychecks from the middle of the month to pay it down faster. I won't be going to Gen Con this year. If my finances improve between now and next year, I'll consider going in 2022. 

More Medical and Other News

   I'm finally eligible to get the Covid-19 vaccine. I'll be getting it this Friday the 26th. I have to get some lab tests done before I see my nephrologist this Wednesday. My eyeglass prescription has changed and I need to have my glasses updated.

  I've added more to my Cthulhu Wars order that will be coming from The Game Steward. I've added the Neutral Unit Identifiers pack for the nine currently available factions as well as the upcoming Daemon Sultan and Bubastis factions. I'm contemplating getting the Battle Dice sets for all the factions when I get my refund. I might get some 3D printed gates too. The Game Steward has sent an email stating that the Cthulhu Wars Kickstarters will be loaded for ocean freight from China by July 31st and the Game Steward will get their shipment sometime in October. This timeline isn't set in stone. Things could still go wrong.

  Gen Con has moved to Sept. 16th - 19th. Because of the pandemic, Gen Con Indy, Gen Con Online and Pop-Up Gen Con will be running simultaneously. It's unlikely that I'll be attending in any capacity this year. My hoping to be able to attend Gen Con 2022.

2020 in Review

   2020 is over. Overall it's been a shit year. My financial situation hasn't been the greatest. The $600 stimulus check helped alleviate my financial woes somewhat. I had more health issues this year. As reported earlier, my gall bladder was removed in mid July. The hip replacement surgery that was to have happened Dec. 21st. was cancelled because the surgeon had some kind of emergency. It's been rescheduled for Feb. 8th. I want to get this done. I'm tired of waiting.

  There was no Gen Con or Ren Faire in 2020 because of the virus. Everything pretty much ground to a halt because of the virus. On the plus side, the election is over and Trump lost big time and the Democrats will control the House, Senate and the Presidency. Some measure of sanity has been restored. But the MAGA maggots still exist and will still cause trouble.

  I'm putting in 40 hours/week at work. My check covering Christmas was quite nice. I'm hoping the New Year's check is nice as well. The $2,000 stimulus checks are closer to becoming a reality now that the Democrats are in control. I could use $2,000 right now.

  The House is currently listening to Representatives regarding the objection to the Pennsylvania Electoral College vote. Now the House is voting regarding the objection. So far, all the Democrats have voted against the objection while most Republicans, at this point, have voted for it. The objection was just voted down by the House. The last states are now being certified. Certification is done. It's official. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are President elect and Vice President elect. 

End of the Year Setbacks

   Today was supposed to be the day my hip got replaced. But I got a call a few days back telling me that the surgeon that's doing the operation had an emergency come up and the surgery has been cancelled. This fucking sucks. I have no idea when the surgery will be rescheduled but I'm hoping that the delay won't be too long.

  My financial situation is crap. I'm behind on my bills and I've only recently gotten back up to 40 hours at work. Some unplanned for additional expenses, like both my plates and license needing to be renewed plus medical expenses insurance didn't cover have stuck it to be good. The federal government has approved a new stimulus bill that's supposed to include $600 checks for everyone. They're saying they'll be sent out sometime in January. I could really use the money right now. Hopefully, I'll be able to file my taxes early and get a hefty refund.

  Gen Con is out of the question this year. The money simply won't be there. My credit card bill is too high so I won't be able to cover the hotel bill, gas or tolls for the trip. My debit cards are devoid of funds. I sure as shit hope this doesn't get worse.

  My paperwork regarding the surgery has been turned in to the proper people. From what I've gathered, I've filled out my parts correctly. Now the doctor and the insurance people have to do their part. If everything works out, I should be getting some money during the time I'm recovering from surgery.

  My Mom bought a new iPad a while back. While she likes technology, she doesn't really know how to work it. I'm usually the one that sets up her computers, cellphones and tablets. She had a small Samsung Galaxy Tab A6 that she never really used. She gave it to me. It only has 8 Gb of internal memory but it has a 60 Gb micro SD card in the memory slot. I've set it up so that any photos or videos I take with it are stored on the SD card. I want to use this tablet as a camera in place of my cellphone. I have a pair of Aukey Ora 2 in 1 lenses that I can clip over the tablet's camera lens. One is a 15x macro lens for extreme close ups and the other, a 0.45x wide angle lens, in combination with the macro lens, takes 120 degree wide angle photos. I ordered a combination keyboard/tablet case for the Tab A6 that should be arriving in the mail today.

More Health Issues & Stuff

  On 7-08-20, I had some stomach issues. My gut felt bloated and uncomfortable. I took some Beano and Pepto and the symptoms went away. On 7-11-20, the symptoms returned. I ended up leaving work after about twenty minutes and went home. I went to the emergency room later that day.
  After receiving an MRI, I was diagnosed with choledocholithiasis with acute cholecystitis with obstruction. In simple terms, my gallbladder was infected. Apparently, gallstones had gotten trapped in the bile duct causing the infection.
  I had to have my gall bladder removed but first they had to treat the infection. Because of the upcoming operation, I couldn't eat or drink anything. I was kept hydrated intravenously. Before operation, they performed an endoscopy where a camera was inserted down my throat allowing the doctors to clear out the gallstones and pus before placing a stent into the duct. Once the infection was dealt with, I underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
  The surgery went well and I was discharged on 7-16-20. Unfortunately, I lost several shifts at work so my upcoming checks are going to suffer. The surgery plus the heat of the recent days have made work difficult. I was sent home early Saturday because I was sweating so much.

  The family dog, Bear, passed away shortly after I came home from the hospital. He developed diabetic ketoacidosis. He was the last dog the family will have because everyone here is getting up in age and can no longer properly take care of a pet. I miss him and all the other pets we've had over the years.

  Gen Con 2020 was a virtual convention this year due to Covid-19. Badges were free and all events were conducted online. I ended up not participating because I didn't want to request more time off from work.

  My visit with my orthopedic surgeon was somewhat productive. My last a1c reading was 7.6 which is still a little too high for my hip replacement surgery. I need to get it down to 7.2 or lower. I'm seeing my endocrinologist on Oct. 27th. Some blood work will be done prior to the appointment so they can get a new a1c reading. If it's low enough, I'm going to make an appointment for surgery. The stent put in place before my gall bladder surgery will be removed Sept. 17th.

  Several Kickstarters I've helped fund have come through. The Better Backstories deck, Tavern Brawl and Book of the Dead games, Critical Hit dice set and Mythroll Armory 4:8/6:12 and 20:10 dice spinners have arrived. I'm very happy with my purchases. The Debunked card game is almost ready to ship. The Overkill and Underkill d20s should be shipping soon. The Hexacube Kickstarter has been running into problems. They've been having problems finding someone that can make a decent set of molds for the dice. They can't get the face ratios and edge geometry correct resulting in biased dice. Two different Chinese dice makers tried and failed. The second company says the molds are impossible to make. I'm not buying that. It sounds more like they don't want to make the effort. There haven't been any recent updates from the Go Cube people yet. Hopefully, they're on schedule and I'll be getting them soon. 

  My Cthulhu Wars order from The Game Stewards should be mailed out sometime in September. The problem is my order is for items from various Kickstarters and if those Kickstarters were delayed by the pandemic, then the Game Stewards won't get the items on time to ship them to me.

Nerdhalla The Aftermath

  The last day of Gen Con consisted of me buying some more dice as well as a deck vault for my Paranoia decks and dice. I drove home, rested up, went back to work and was fired five minutes into my shift for time theft. My mistake was not staying in my department until 10:00 pm on those nights I closed. Since it was dead, I figured I could give my legs a rest and sit by the time clock. It was a stupid move on my part.
  So 25 years of employment, my personal holidays and vacation time and my health insurance have been pissed away because of my mistake. I'm fairly certain my pension might also be gone because of this but I haven't found out yet. It took a couple of weeks but I've found another job. At the moment it's part time and I don't have health insurance through them yet but some goods come out of this. For some time now I've felt like I've had a target on my back at my previous job and it was just a matter of time before things came to a head. The worse part is I handed them a reason to fire me on a silver fucking platter. I'm trying to get insurance through Healthcare.gov. I've started an application but I'm waiting for my current employer to provide me with information needed to complete it.
  On other matters, some of the Kickstarters I've backed have arrived. The CNC machined Mobius strip and Random Encounter Dice are here and my two sets of Troll's Teeth will be arriving tomorrow. The Debunked card game, remaining 4 Cthulhu Mythos coins, Immersive Battle Maps book and Randice expansion should be completed and mailed out shortly. The eDice Kickstarter I joined was cancelled and restarted. It still has 21 days of funding to go before things get underway. I hope they unlock the stopwatch function. I really hope this thing goes to completion. I really want to get one of these.
  I went to the SPandme.com website and took the quiz. Here are the results; 39% Lisa Berger, 19% Kevin Stoley, 19% Kyle Schwartz, 6% Pete (Hair Flip Goth), 6% Roger Donovan, 5% Ned Gerblanski and 5% Rumper Tumpskin.

Nerdhalla Day 3

  The last of my scheduled events are done. I bought the Sleeper and Tcho-Tcho factions for Cthulhu Wars. I got 3 free Astral Acolytes with my purchases.  I played in a Luchador event that I'd played last year and made a Cthulhu style deck box in a crafting event. Here's a picture of the box.

   It's a little crude compared to some of the examples they had on display, but I like it nonetheless. There are no events scheduled for tomorrow. I'm going to get up early and get everything packed into the Rav 4, check out and head over to the 24 hour parking facility at 109 South Capitol. I'm going to make a last run through the convention center so I can get a 36 d6 dice cube, some dice to group with a lone d20 I have so it will be part of a complete polyhedral set and take some more pics. By about noon, I'll be on the road heading for home.

Nerdhalla Day 2

  The second day of Gen Con has ended. Today it was The Forge of Fury, a D&D 3.5 scenario and Time Travelers in King Arthur's Court, a Doctor Who scenario. The Doctor Who scenario was run by the same person that ran a Doctor Who scenario two years ago so I got to play Drex, a Sontaran warrior for the second time.
  I bought more dice, as if I needed more. I got a set of d10s and d6s for Cyberpunk. I got a set of Elder dice primarily for Call of Cthulhu and a set of d2 Elder Sign coins. I've wanted a set of legitimate d2s for some time now. The other d2s I have are d6s marked with three 1s and three 2s. The last purchases I'll make tomorrow are some deck boxes for my Paranoia decks, a cube of 36 d6s for the latest version of the Judge Dredd RPG and the last two factions, Sleeper and Tcho-Tcho, for Cthulhu Wars. If they have a 6-8 player world board, I'll buy that too.

Nerdhalla Day 1

  I arrived in Indianapolis yesterday afternoon. I had to go to the Will Call line in order to get my ticket for the Doctor Who event. There's a game store next to the hotel I'm staying at. I saw fellow gamer outside the store. He had purchased the Letters from Whitechapel game. It's a game where one player is the Ripper and the rest are the police hunting him down. The Ripper wins if he successfully murders 5 women without getting caught. If he's caught, the police win. I purchased a copy of the game.
  Day 1 of Gen Con is officially over. I played in a One Ring and a Call of Cthulhu based 5th edition D&D game. I had 3 hours in between gaming sessions so I did some shopping. I bought the 2019 Gen Con commemorative dice set from Crystal Caste plus two sets of polyhedral dice for my gaming belt. I picked up the hardcover Doctor Who rules and The Laughter of Dragons supplement for The One Ring. I made the mistake of purchasing The Oaths of the Riddermark supplement. I had forgotten that I purchased it at last year's Gen Con. I'm going to see if I can return it on Saturday. I also purchased the latest Luchador supplement, Masked Men of Mexico, along with a Luchador mask. My big purchase of the day was the Cthulhu Wars game and three expansion sets, Opener of the Way (Yog Sothoth), Windwalker (Ithaqua) and Azathoth. I might pick up some more expansions. I haven't decided yet. If they have the 6-8 player Earth map, I should consider getting it.
  The weather here's been hot and despite the relatively short walk from the hotel to the convention center, I still sweated my ass off. I found out that I can go from the convention center to the J.W. Marriot hotel without having to go outside. They're connected by skywalks. This will work out nicely since both games tomorrow are in that hotel. It'll be 8 hours of gaming between the D&D 3.5 and Doctor Who games

Catching Up on Things

  Event sign up for Gen Con went poorly. I tried to sign in about 2 minutes before sign up went live and failed to get on right away. I didn't get on until 5 minutes past 11. While that's not much time, it put me far enough back in line for every event on my wish list to fill up. I did find get signed up for some other events though.
  Some more of my Kickstarter rewards have arrived. The Tower of Holding, Dice Coins, Bonus  Tracking Dice, Randice and Cthulhu Coin set are here. All the others, except the Mobius strip, have received their funds but aren't ready to ship yet. The Mobius Strip is still in the funding phase.
  I purchased a refurbished Dell Latitude e6320 laptop on eBay a short while back. This blog entry is being typed out on said laptop. The laptop came with a power cable and battery. I've added a Logitech M305 wireless mouse, Targus notebook chill mat and privacy screen, a Wenger laptop bag and a 2 USB 3.0 port ExpressCard to the laptop. I have a CooSkin TPU keyboard protector guard and locking notebook security cable coming in the mail eventually. I've been following their progress through the mail system by their tracking number. And I've received 2 laptop batteries and a Logitech C270 webcam from Amazon today. The battery that came with the laptop works but I don't think it holds power as well as it should.
  I decided to get a laptop instead of an Android tablet because a laptop is more versatile than a tablet. All my character sheets and .PDF gaming books have been moved onto the laptop and I plan to put the E-Tools D&D character creation software on it as well. The laptop has an SD card slot and I want to get an SD card installed in it and move the character sheets and gaming books there to save on hard drive space. I'm going to take the laptop with me to Gen Con so I can post video updates both here and on YouTube. Some of the content will be recorded on my Galaxy S8 and transferred to the laptop.
  My a1c is at 7.9 so it's improved somewhat but my creatinine levels have been running on the high side (1.45mg/dL). A referral has been put in for me to see a nephrologist regarding my kidneys. Back on Dec. 31st, 2014, my elevated creatinine level sent me to the hospital. I'm going to have to contact my nephrologist and orthopedic surgeon regarding my kidneys and hip surgery.

The Mundanity Continues

  The polar vortex that plagued the area from Tuesday through Thursday has finally passed. The temperature has gone from -50 degrees to a much more tolerable 45 degrees. Let's hope that the super cold weather is done for the rest of the season.

  The Towers of Holding are being manufactured and the books, GM screens and plug and play tokens for the Judge Dredd RPG have been printed. Hopefully I'll be getting those soon. I've contributed to a Dice Coins Kickstarter in order to get a 10 coin set. Here's a YouTube video showing couple of d20 dice coins someone else ordered.

The set I want will consist of the following dice coins; d3 Cerberus, d4 Wizard, d5 Castle, d6 Cleric, d8 Ranger, d10 Skeleton Dragon, Percentile Phoenix, d12 Barbarian, d20 Lich and a Weather vane coin. As the video shows, each coin has a bump on the bottom that allows you to spin it like a top. You then stop the coin spinning by placing your finger on the edge. The first fully visible number to the left of your finger is the result. The Weather vane coin has words on it describing different weather conditions.
  I filed my taxes yesterday. I'll be getting back about $883.00 which will be split into my Simple and Serve accounts for Gen Con. Speaking of Gen Con, my hotel reservation has been made. I lucked out this year in that my hotel is only two blocks from the convention center. It's funny, the years when I made it a point to have the hotel reservation day off, I'd get a time when I could log into the housing portal that was 5 to 7 hours after reservations went live. This year I didn't request the day off and my log in time was 12:27 pm. It should be noted that the housing portal goes live at 11:00 am CST. I set up my hotel reservation while I was on lunch at work.
  I've been trying to lower my a1c but I'm not sure I'm making any headway. I have a fasting blood draw coming up on Thursday. I'm not sure if my a1c is one of the things they'll be determining at that time. I've got to stop the late night eating. It's not helping matters.

End of Summer Musings

  Gen Con 2018 is now a pleasant memory. I enjoyed some great roleplaying sessions and made a TARDIS dice tower and Dalek canvas bag. I would have posted some pics of Gen Con here for you to view but my new Galaxy s8 went schizo two days after I got home. Prior to Gen Con, the keyboard on the phone had kind of a dead zone in its center. Certain letters, like, the t, would be very unresponsive. It would take multiple attempts to get it to respond. I thought it had something to do with the screen protector I had installed. It was an inconvenience, but I could work around it. On Tuesday, things got much worse. I tried to open my Nagbot diabetes app other apps would open. Suddenly, my phones dialing numbers on my contacts list, trying to play music and opening YouTube. When I tried to enter text on the keyboard, 5 keys other than the one I pressed, would activate. It was a mess.

  Several things combined to cause the loss of my pics. First, I couldn't get my phone connected to the hotel's wifi. Second, the Flickr app on my phone wasn't set up to upload my pics automatically. Third, I didn't back up my phone to the computer using Smart Switch. And fourth, I failed to decrypt my SD card before letting the rep at AT&T do a factory reset on it. I thought that since the SD card was still in the device that encrypted it, things would be fine. Turns out I was wrong about that. A memory card expert at Samsung informed me that when the phone was reset, the passcode that could decrypt my SD card was erased and there was no way to retrieve it. Since my phone was still under warranty, they sent me a new phone. I had to mail the defective phone back to them within 10 days in order to avoid being charged for it. The box my new phone came in could also be used to return my old phone post paid which made returning it convenient. They sent word that the phone has been received.

  I'm still waiting for my mahogany Hex Chest and aged mithril dice set to arrive. I haven't received any emails from Elderwood Academy updating the status of my order. The only other order I'm waiting for are the two minis I ordered from Minuteman Miniatures. They make miniatures that have your face by scanning your head to create a 3D computer image. This image can then be attached to a body of your choice and the whole thing is then created using a 3D printer. I ordered a wizard and Dark Ages Viking version of myself. If they add more body types, like Victorian Age or Doctor Who, to their roster, I might order more minis from them. Their website states that they keep the scans so I can order new minis if I want.

My Gaming Future

  I've been playing roleplaying games for over 38 years now and I'll keep gaming as long as I'm able. Arrangements for this year's Gen Con are going smoother than planned. I have slightly over $2,000 set aside and my badge, hotel and event tickets have been purchased. As usual, despite creating my event wish list early and submitting it as soon as event registration went live, I couldn't get into any Paranoia or Firefly events.

  How many more Gen Cons I'll be attending is unknown. My legs aren't what they used to be and the avascular necrosis in my right hip still needs to be addressed. I've decided to no longer purchase any new editions of D&D. I only have the 4th and 5th edition core books. I'm not buying anything else for these editions. Gaming isn't a cheap hobby. New editions, especially ones that radically change the game, require purchasing new core rules and supplements. Converting older edition characters to the new rules can be quite difficult to nigh impossible. I'm not always willing to upgrade.

  I have a lot of time and money invested in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd  and 3.5 editions of D&D. I'll continue to buy supplements for these editions to add to my collection. The same holds true for my World of Darkness collection. When White Wolf ended their original WoD setting, I didn't move to the new setting. I might buy the 7th edition of Call of Cthulhu. I found a conversion document on Scribd that will allow me to upgrade 5th and 6th edition characters and monsters.

  I'm going to get new material for Luchador, Doctor Who and The One Ring. What else I decide to buy is unknown. I'm going to check out the various dice sellers and see if anything catches my eye. A gamer can never have too many dice. Miniatures are another possibility. I could use some standard D&D minis. Most of the ones I have are limited edition. I just bought the gargantuan Orcus mini on eBay. Here's a pic of what the mini will look like.

Myriad Bits of News

  I purchased the latest edition of the Paranoia roleplaying game recently along with the More [Redacted] Societies and Mutant Explosion decks, interactive GM screen and a set of four Computer dice. Having read the Players' and GM's books, this edition is quite a bit different from other editions of Paranoia I have. I want to try to get into some Paranoia sessions at Gen Con so I can get a feel for how this edition plays.

  Events go online May 6th at 11:00 am CST. I'd like to get into some Firefly and Paranoia events but that could prove difficult. Those events fill up fast. Even if I create my wish list ahead of time and submit it as soon as possible, I could still end up way back in line. I've shunted more money into my Simple and Serve accounts giving me a grand total of $1,649.00 for the convention. I'm going to continue to add money to these accounts between now and August. I'm still making sizable payments on my credit card while adding as little as possible to it. Barring any unforeseen financial problems, I should be sitting pretty by the time Gen Con rolls around.

  I've been filling out my power of attorney documents. I've given it to my Mom, niece and her husband. I still have to complete the document and sign it in the presence of two witnesses who must also sign the document. They can't be related to me by blood, marriage or adoption. I'll try and get two members of my gaming group to act as witnesses.
  On the Trump front, our Dipshit in Chief has proven to be as spineless as the rest of the GOP when it comes to the NRA. After claiming that his fellow Republicans were afraid of the NRA, Trump backed down on his call for raising the age limit to buy assault rifles to 21 and having more extensive background checks on gun purchases. It seems the only things this motherfucking prick stands firm on is lining his own pockets, giving more money to the rich and aggrandizing himself at every possible moment. 

  

On a more personal note...

  I've added a bunch of weird dice to my collection. I have dice from one sided Moebius dice to twenty sided dice and everything in between. Add to that some d22s, d24s, d26s, d28s, a d30, d34, d48, d50, d60, d100 and the colossal d120 to round out the set. I also have a set of specially marked ten sided dice that can be used as percentile, a d1,000, a d10,000, a d100,000 and a d1,000,000. Another set of ten sided dice generates numbers from .000 to .999. Most of these dice came from The Dice Shop. The Moebius dice are found at Awesome Dice.
  Plans for this year's Gen Con are underway. The four day badge has been purchased and the hotel room reserved. This year, I had to wait 9 hours and 4 minutes before I could reserve my room so once again I'm out in the boondocks. I've been paying down my credit card and shifting money to my Simple and Serve accounts. Next month is a five check month so I'll be able to shift more money into them. My state and federal tax refunds are also going towards Gen Con.

Latest Health News & Other Items

  I saw an opthamologist a short while back. My prescription has changed slightly since my eye exam about a year ago. I don't need to upgrade my glasses just yet but I might upgrade my prescription sunglasses prior to Gen Con. Both eyes are exhibiting the early stages of cataract development. This could mean cataract surgery in about 10 to 15 years. The opthamologist also noticed that I had a weirdly twisted artery near the optic nerve of my left eye and recommended that I see a retinologist. After dilating my eyes and taking some scans and pictures, the retinologist said that it was a vascular loop and, other than looking weird, was nothing to worry about.
  My tumor markers came back negative for the third time in a row. The CT scan of my pelvic and abdominal regions showed that my organs are functioning properly. Things are looking bright on the health front.
  Plans for this year's Gen Con are proceeding better than expected. I've been making large payments on my credit card while putting as little as possible on it. I have more than enough room on it to cover my hotel bill and gas. Between my Simple and Serve accounts, I have a little over $1,000.00 put aside to buy stuff at the convention and eat. I'm going to try to add another $200.00 to the total before August. I want to get some of the Doctor books Cubicle 7 is publishing for the Doctor Who RPG plus get a copy of the revised The One Ring rule book and Bree supplement. I'm also going to see if anyone is selling the gargantuan Orcus miniature my friend TJ told me about. It will go nicely with my gargantuan blue and black dragon, colossal red dragon, balrog and Great Cthulhu miniatures.
  I've recently purchased a lifetime VPN (virtual private network) subscription from VPN Unlimited. I found out from the iDrop newsletter that they were offering these subscriptions for a limited time at 92% below the normal price. The offer was too good to pass up. PC Magazine gave VPN Unlimited 4.5 out of 5 stars. I'm including some VPN related YouTube videos to provide you with further information.

Gen Con & Other News

  I got into most of the Gen Con events I had on my wish list. I was 2,900th in line and only the Firefly and Paranoia events filled up before I could check out. On a related note, I finally got a copy of Narcissist: Crash Free v0.7. This game was to be a companion game to Aetherco's time travel RPG Continuum. I came across Continuum back when Gen Con was still in Milwaukee. I was slated to play a Changeling event that particular Gen Con. All the players showed up but the Storyteller didn't. A staff member said we should wait a half hour. If the Storyteller still hadn't arrived, we could get a refund on our ticket. A table near where we were sitting was about to run a Continuum game and we were invited to join them. Since I had nothing else planned, I gave the game a try.
  That day I bought the Continuum main rule book, the Further Information supplement and the span book software program. Continuum's not a bad RPG but it is one of the more complicated ones to play. As noted above, Narcissist was to be a companion game told from the point of view of the crashers. However, for reasons unknown to me, Aetherco stopped production of any new Continuum supplements and Narcissist never became a full fledged RPG. Trying to find the printed pre releases of the v0.5 or v0.7 editions of Narcissist Aetherco put together is nigh impossible and could easily cost you quite a bit of money. The Continuum main book and Further Information are regarded as rarities. I'm not sure how rare the span book program is. I tried for quite a while to get my hands on a copy of Narcissist. There was a PDF version on Scribd for a period of time but it was gone by the time I tried to get it. Other searches proved fruitless. Finally, I found a torrent that contained not only a copy of Narcissist v0.7 but it also had PDF copies the other two books and some supplemental material. If you want a copy of Narcissist: Crash Free v0.7, leave a comment down below with your email address and I'll send you a copy. I can also email you PDF copies of the other two books, supplemental materials and span book software (with registration key).