Health News & More

   My GoDice arrived a short while back. I got the 6 dice set that came with a charging base, dice tube and tablet/smartphone stand. Along with it, I ordered a set of D&D dice shells with bag, USB charging port, folding dice tray and dice cup. I've installed the GoDice app on my smartphone. Once I charge the dice, I can connect them to my phone via the app. Using the app and the D&D shells, I can create a set of RPG dice. The RPG calculator function allows me to roll attack, damage and saving throws with the necessary modifiers when I'm gaming. All the rolls are recorded on my phone and I can get the total damage rolled for spells like fireball etc.. 

  The GoDice have to be put into the shells in a specific orientation in order for them to function correctly. When separated, you'll see a number 5 on the inside of one shell half and a 2 on the inside of the other half. Below each of these numbers is a small number 1. You put the selected die into its shell by orienting the die so the 5 face is inserted into the shell half with the 5 in it and the 2 shell half covers the 2 face of the die. The 1 face of the die must be facing the edge with the 1. Each shell half has 4 small magnets in it. 3 are shiny and 1 is black. When you put the shell halves together, the black magnets are paired with each other. You then use the app to pair a particular die with the shell you put it in. The d4, d8 and d12 use a 24 sided shell while the d10, d% and d20 use a 20 sided shell. Each die has different colored pips in order to tell them apart. The app also has a function that allows you to light up a particular die by touching a button.

  I bought a large 9 compartment dice bag on eBay. I'm using it to organize some of my dice. About 7 complete sets of RPG dice are in one compartment. All of my odd sided dice (d5s, d7s etc.) are in another compartment. My random encounter dice set, Dice of Death of Death & Dismemberment, Dice Coins and my set of ability score, attack, defense and saving throw bonus/penalty marking cubes occupy most of the other compartments. When the second wave of my Death & Dismemberment dice arrive, they'll fill up the remaining two compartments.

  On the health front, I had a stress test on the 17th. The preliminary results indicate that I have a dilated aorta. It's at 4 cm right now. At this point, monitoring it via echocardiograms is necessary. If it doesn't dilate further, nothing needs to be done. However, should it dilate to 5 cm or more, surgery will have to be done. I wore a Holter monitor for 48 hours. It collected data that now has to be analyzed to determine how well my heart is functioning. I turned it in to the Aurora Cardiac Diagnostics Center this past Friday. It will take about a week to get the results back.

One Last Helping of Chop Suey

   This past Friday, I had two doctor's appointments. The first one was with an orthopedist regarding my knees. An earlier x-ray revealed that both knees are arthritic. The doctor told me that the cushions between my leg bones and between the kneecap and joint are worn thin and my bones are rubbing directly against each other. The term she used was remodeling. I got steroid injections in both knees, which she told me would elevate my blood glucose level. She wasn't kidding. When I checked my blood glucose level the next morning, the meter didn't give me a number, it just said HI. That put it over 500 mg/dl. I checked it again at around midnight and it was still around 475.

  While my eyes haven't suffered any damage as a result of my diabetes, the cataract in my right eye is slowly getting worse and affecting how well I see out of it. I have an appointment with another eye doctor in December where we're going to discuss the possibility of having cataract surgery. That will change the lens prescription for my right eye quite a bit, so I'll have to get new glasses.

  I've finally transferred all my gaming material onto the SD card of my Galaxy Tab a6. I've installed a PDF and document reading app on my tablet so I can read the files. Some of the files had to be modified because certain file types like rich text files and TIFFs aren't readable by the app. Now I can bring less books with me when I go gaming. I also have easy access to all my errata files. The internal storage space on the tablet is very low. I've moved what apps I could onto the SD card, and I periodically have to delete cached and unnecessary data from it in order to perform updates. Right now, I can use the tablet to access all my email accounts, listen to music, watch YouTube, look up information on Wikipedia and surf the net.

  I've placed my final Cthulhu Wars order with The Game Steward. This order consists of Dire Azathoth, Dire Cthulhu and all the remaining alternate game boards for Cthulhu Wars (Yuggoth, Dreamlands, Library of Celaeno, Primeval and Shaggai) in both 3-5 player and 6-8 player versions. With the exception of a few crossovers from other games, I'll eventually have everything currently available for Cthulhu Wars. In the course of about two years, I've spent over $1,000 putting all this together.

  I had to order a three pack of A to micro-B USB cables for my Tab a6. The original cable's micro-B plug has cracked in two places. I glued those pieces back on, but now the insulation by that plug has cracked revealing the wiring underneath. I couldn't risk further cable damage possibly damaging my tablet or battery. I've already replaced the battery twice.

  I've gone on eBay and ordered a military canteen cup stove, rubber style canteen cup lid and an American style mess kit to add to my military canteen, cup and pouch set. While I'm never been camping, I was contemplating creating a small portable cooking set up that I could occasionally use to cook a quick outdoor meal. I might add more to it over time.

Cthulhu Wars, Kickstarter & eBay

   I've purchased some new items for Cthulhu Wars. An H.P. Lovecraft bust 1st player marker and the Prophetess have been added. My other HPL marker will now be used as the Eidolon in the game. The Loyalty cards for the Eidolon, Prophetess and the 8 unique High Priests have been downloaded from the Petersen Games website and printed. I've purchased a set of 22 3D printed plastic gates for the game as well as completing my set of Colour Out of Space gates. When I downloaded the Omega Master rulebook for Cthulhu Wars, I found that two more gates had been added to the chart, a Glow in the Dark gate and a gate in the color of the Ancients faction.

  These two gates are harder to come by because they were only available as stretch goals for earlier Cthulhu Wars Kickstarters. While there's a possibility that the Ancients gate would be added to the standard gates package if the company decided to make more sets, the Glow in the Dark gate won't be made again. Luckily, I found a seller on eBay that was selling a Glow in the Dark gate and promptly bought it. I messaged said seller and asked if he would be selling an Ancients gate some time in the future. He sent me a link to his auction for said gate and I purchased that gate as well. They're in mail right now and I'm tracking the shipment. When my orders from The Game Steward arrive, I'll have quite the Cthulhu Wars collection. About the only things I don't have at the moment are the alternate game maps like Primeval, Shaggai, the Library of Celeano and Yuggoth.

  The Spiral Dice and Hexacube Kickstarters have encountered delays. The Go Dice Kickstarter has been dealing with a transistor shortage because of the pandemic. I'm currently the high, and only, bidder on a Loot Crate Demogorgon figure on eBay. This thing is sweet. If I win it, I'll have to find a place to display it.

More Updates

   The second 4Oceans mask frames order arrived as scheduled. I won the eBay auction and got another set of grey alternate handicap acolytes, all 8 investigators and the Brown Jenkins mini for only $25.71 including shipping. Considering what some of these minis are selling for individually, I made out quite well. I still want to get the Dreamlands Surface and Underground sets plus some plastic standard gates.

  My Covid-19 vaccination record card has netted me an extra $100.00 on my next paycheck. I scanned said card and uploaded copies of the file to both of my eMedTag flash drives and the MyIHR website. The original card has been locked away in my Sentry Safe box for safe keeping. This card may be needed in the future. I've ordered a Moderna Covid-19 vaccination charm from American Medical ID for my medic alert bracelet.

  My federal refund still hasn't arrived. This delay is driving me up the wall. I need that money to pay down my Aurora bill. The money in my Health Savings Account is slowly growing. Now that my paychecks are getting bigger, I don't have to pull money from it to pay bills.

  The Hexacube dice have gone into mass production. The wooden cases will now have magnetic clasp holding the lid closed which is an upgrade from the original buckle latch. There should be a major update soon.

  

Random Bits

  After spending about $1,200.00 on medical bills, I decided to indulge myself a little. First up, on 4/15/16, I placed an order with The Cabil for the latest editions of Hol and Buttery Wholesomeness. I'm still waiting for them to arrive and my email inquiries regarding the status of my order have gone unanswered. If something doesn't happen soon, I'm going to inform PayPal about this order and see if they can get a response. Second up, I've ordered a ballhood on eBay. Since it's a custom order, it will take a while to get here but it will be worth the wait. Now I realize that this wasn't the smartest move. Why order something like this when I have no sex life? It seems pointless and wasteful. Still I want to see what it's like to wear one and I had some extra money.

  A second CT scan has revealed that the lymph node has gotten bigger. This is both good and bad news. It's bad because it means whatever caused it to enlarge is still present. It's good because the doctor feels that they can retry the ultrasound technique that failed last time they tried to biopsy it. I'll be undergoing said procedure on 5/31/16. My biggest fear is that the biopsy will reveal that I have another form of cancer and I'll have to undergo more chemotherapy.
  Plans for this year's GenCon are progressing. The hotel room has been reserved and event tickets purchased. Despite my planning, things didn't work out as I'd hoped they would. I had to wait almost 4 hours before I could make my hotel reservation. As a result, I'm several miles outside the convention area and I'll have to drive to it everyday and pay for parking. It's either that or find a bus or shuttle service to and from the area. When it came time to register for events, I logged onto my account before registration went live, picked 7 events that I wanted to play and put them on my wish list. The second registration went live, I submitted my wish list for processing. The problem was I ended up 5,744th in line for processing. 5 of the 7 events filled up before my list was processed. I couldn't add any replacement events until my list was processed and then I had to get back in line. When all was said and done, I ended up with 4 events, Wraith, Doctor Who, The One Ring and Luchador. I've been paying on my credit card bill and I want to eventually shift some money to my Serve and Simple card accounts so I'll have some spending money for the convention.

Results Not Typical

  Have you ever noticed the fine print in some TV ads? Weight loss ads are prone to fine print. They show you a bunch of people that lost all kinds of weight on their drug/diet plan while the fine print states that their results aren't typical. Why won't they tell us how much weight the average person will lose using their drug/diet plan? Could it be that the average results aren't all that impressive?

  Then there's the bidding sites like DealDash.com. They talk about how you can get up to 90% savings on items like smartphones, tablets and the like. But the fine print makes it clear that these results aren't typical and that the final price doesn't include the cost of the bids placed. And while the fine print informs you of how many bids a particular bidder made on a given item, it doesn't tell you how much each bid costs. Why? What are they hiding? These weight loss and bidding sites should inform people about what results the average person can expect because that's the results most people are going to get. And the bidding sites should make it clear up front how much each bid costs. I don't like the thought of paying for bids. On eBay, if you lose an auction, you pay nothing. Only the buyer and seller pay anything. On these other sites, if you lose, you're out the cost of the bids you made.