Ridelog: Iron Butt Association - Bun Burner 1500


Back in July the MEWS group did a quick Saturday and Sunday Bun Burner out to Maryland. This was a 1500 miles in 36 hours. The ride was all highway, but we were pleasantly surprised by nice highway roads through Pennsylvania, including some gorgeous tunnels. Dinner in the evening was at By the Docks and was some great crab cakes with DJ's family. 
The ride back on Saturday started out really well, but we did have an incident on the highway in Pennsylvania. Thankfully everyone was OK, but we did have to separate with one member due to a crash. We were able to get back on the road about an hour later. 
Long story short though we made it back to Naperville within our 36 hour window and successfully completed our Iron Butt award. I have my patch and license plate holder coming the mail hopefully in the next month or two. 

Book Review: Redwall

Redwall by Brian Jacques
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I has been probably 30 years since I read this book last and I wanted to give it a go as an adult to see how it held up for me. If I am being honest, I had a hard time reading this one. I am not sure exactly why. It was well written overall, but perhaps the story felt a bit too simple relative to how long the book is?

The book is pretty long, clocking in at just around 400 pages (for the version I read) for what amounts to basically a fairytale or myth. The story is very simple where you have a young mouse setting out on his "hero's journey" to reclaim the lost sword (and shield!) of Martin the Warrior. Everything seems to happen though at a very surface level. Matthias is sent on quest after quest to find the next piece of his equipment, first getting a scabbard, then a shield, and then ultimately the sword itself. He meets plenty of people along the way and has to make friends, but he largely just sort of meets the characters and then bullies them into friendship.

The whole thing kinda felt like it could've been shortened up a bit from the fetch quest and instead brought to look at Matthias himself. He very quickly transitioned into a "warrior" without any sort of proper training and there aren't many personal challenges that he has to overcome in the story. There were hints of some sort of magic or mystical connection to the former hero Martin, but those come and go in a few sentences and are never fully explained or explored.

My second reading also had me quite surprised at how violent the book was. There were quite a number of fairly graphic death scenes. Nothing gory, but they definitely surprised me should this have been read by an 8-10 year old for example.

I'll be honest, rose colored glasses became a bit tarnished on this one.

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Fridays with Cairn: Session 8

We left off from our last session with the party trying to decide on their next steps. Having made a positive contact with Breylor, they obtained a key to the church and the name of an insider at Aces & Tails called Sanmoor, along with a bottle of poison to be used for either target. 


After much deliberation the party decided to try and conduct an assassination on Graves Tailsman. They did not seem excited about poisoning a member of the church, despite his possible corruption. Unfortunately, they did not know where Graves' current whereabouts were, so they decided to split up and complete some reconnaissance. 

Aces & Tails Stakeout

Gruid, Boroth, Ysln, Can and Arjune decided to stakeout Aces & Tails to try and observe the people coming and going, and to try and find their contact Sanmoor. Gruid and Boroth went to the back of the building to see if there was access to the kitchens or any staff. 

They observed on the back of the building a locked door along with two open windows approximately fifteen feet off the ground that could be accessed by climbing the drain pipes. Next to the locked door was a large trash pile. 

Arjune positioned herself at the front of the building and began to preach loudly, accosting the various patrons as they entered or left the building. She wanted to keep an eye out to see if Graves would enter through the front door. 

Ysln and Can both went inside and got themselves a place at one of the common room gambling tables to see if they could garner any additional information. Ylsn was moderately successful while gambling.

Tailing some henchmen

Cwingeld took a different approach to the information gathering endeavor and designed to try and seek out any henchmen in the market district to observe them while they were collecting their weekly "taxes" on the merchants. He was able to observe the henchmen accost a shop owner and he ultimately followed them to a warehouse on the edge of town. Upon looking into the warehouse he found that there were seven henchmen in the building but there was no sign of Graves. Inside the building the henchmen were counting the week's money and Cwingeld clearly observed a large desk awaiting an occupant. Cwingeld overheard one of the henchmen state that Graves would be along later this evening, but they did not know when. 

Aces & Tails Stakeout (Cont.)

Happening simultaneously, the party members back at Aces & Tails did gain their own information. Gruid and Boroth were able to befriend a young kitchen boy named Kyrin as he was taking out the trash from the kitchen. Gruid paid the boy three gold coins to keep the backdoor unlocked.

Inside Can and Ysln tried to gain information from the waitstaff on when Graves might be in residence. The waitstaff did not have knowledge of his arrival, but did indicate that he typically came in the evenings to a private room upstairs to receive his supper. Ysln attempted to gain access to the second floor by indicating she was interested in the sexual services provided by establishment. She was brought upstairs and shown to a private room, but was quickly ushered back down to the main floor when she indicated that she could not afford any of the services offered (ranging from 5-15 gold). 

The information finally broke when the doorman to Aces & Tails confronted Arjune. The doorman asked Arjune to please leave the area because he was disturbing the guests. Boroth rounding the corner from the back of the establishment asked the man if his name was Sanmoor. It was and they found their man inside. Sanmoor indicated that he would not move on Graves himself, but he knew Graves' schedule this evening and could provide chefs clothes if the party needed them. 

Graves was currently on his way to Aces & Tails and was expected to arrive around 10:00 pm, wherein he would take his supper. After supper he would leave and head over to the warehouse district to complete a final tally of the week's earnings, after which he would finally retire to his private residence around 3:00 am.

The party did not yet know where Graves' residence was, but they now had his schedule and knew two of the locations where he would be. Both locations would likely be heavily guarded. Access inside Aces & Tails was fairly easy, at least to the public areas, but the downside is that any action taken in this location would be seen by a lot of people. A full on confrontation would likely not be the best course of action and the party did not know how to get to the second floor. 

The warehouse on the other hand would have very little visibility to the public, but the party did not have much information on the location. They did have time if they wanted to gather more information though.

The Assassination

After much deliberation the party elected to attempt their assassination at Aces & Tails. Can and Ysln remained inside on the ground floor to monitor the situation from the inside. Graves was observed arriving through the front door of the building right on time, and immediately headed up to his private room on the second floor. 

Gruid entered the kitchen area through the backdoor, wearing the newly acquired chef's clothes and was able to succeed a Dex saving throw to act as a sous chef. He then slipped the poison into the drink on the silver platter for Graves and quickly left the building and heading right back to the inn the party was staying at. 

The tray of food was brought up to the second floor and the party now waited. Time went on with seemingly nothing happening until Mr. Stillman eventually came down the stairs. He quietly talked to two henchmen who locked the front door to the establishment and blocked the exit from the gambling room. Can and Ylsn observed Mr. Stillman head to the kitchen, lock the door. Moments later screams poured from the kitchen all Stillman was killing all the chef staff. 

Panic arose in the gambling hall, but the two henchmen prevented anyone from leaving, trapping Can and Ylsn inside. Can and Ylsn had to make a decision. Do they attack the henchmen to try and get out? Do they rally the scared gamblers in the hall or do they wait it out? Thankfully, it did not come down to violence. 

Arjune had a spellbook of "Knock" on her possession and used it on the front door from the outside to open it. The loud noise distracted the henchmen and a rush of people burst out of the gambling room and onto the street. 

Graves Tailsman was dead and the party made their way back to their inn to regroup. Later that evening Mr. Stillman visited the inn. Mr. Stillman knew the party committed the assassination since Gruid returned to the inn with the chef's clothes still on. It was established in an earlier session that the inn was being watched by henchmen of Mr. Tailsman. 

Mr. Stillman appluaded the party's gumption, but warned them not to interfere again as he now presumably took Tailsman's place inside the crime syndicate. 

And that is where we ended Session 8. 

Fridays with Carin: Session 7

We completed out latest session of Cairn this past Friday, and it was perhaps the most interesting session we have played to date. There were no dice rolls at all during this session. It was all role-play. Some players definitely enjoyed this, but I could tell that some others did not care for the session as much. 

As I reported in my previous blog post, our players have retreated from the Olde Island Fortress and from Morgansfort . They made their way north to the town of Firston (a town I made up) to sell some of their treasure, and to bring in the two new party members whom they lost.

Our session consisted of the group splitting up to follow up on the three rumors and interests they initiated last session. I'll admit that I did zero planning for this session, so I am actually quite proud of myself for developing these quest lines on the fly.

Aces and Tails

The first visit in the evening was the return to the Aces and Tails gambling house and to visit with Graves Tailsman. Boroth, Gruid and Can met Mr. Tailsman, the "big time" gangster in town. His request of the party was straight forward. He wanted the party to "off" Breylor Shunderman, the famous big game hunter who lives outside of town, and he wanted it done in three days.

His reward was "a favor".

Since the night was young our party very eagerly took this contract. What they didn't know is that this simple hit job was going to become a bit more complicated.

The Church of Tah

Arjune, Ysln, Cwingwald, and Canon visited the Church of Tah to get more information from Brother Oldeman on the relic that the party was to acquire. The church presented a very detailed and lengthy contract indicating that "any and all items identified as possible relics or magical items would become the property of the church". My players impressed me and were able to catch on that this contract would have identified items such as "stamped gold coins" as relics.

They turned the table by changing the date of commencement so they had time to complete their "hit" before heading out of the town to find the relic.

The Two Headed Bear

Now here is where the story gets a bit interesting. The next morning the party went out of town to visit Breylor Shunderman, the famous hunter. They discussed that previous evening that they would try to convince Mr. Shunderman to leave Firston, with the hope that they did not have to kill him. When they arrived at The Shunderman manor, they did not find what they were expecting.

Mr. Shunderman proved himself to be an excellent marksman, shooting a plum out of Ysln's hand from 100 meters away after she picked the fruit from his orchard. Breylor Shunderman is a large man, very well build and muscular. Now in his sixties, he is retired from the big game hunt due to a leg injury which now has him walking with a cane.

Breylor invited the party into his very large manor, which featured taxidermied animals from around the world, including a Mammoth in the front hall.

Breylor informed the party that he setup this manor outside the town of Firston with the intent of hunting the rumored two headed bear. Unfortunately, he is unable to complete that hunt due to his leg. He is extending the offer to Gruid to hunt and kill the two headed bear and as a reward he would offer a silvered break-loading pistol of his own design as a reward. The pistol would come with six bullets totaling 12 + 1d6 damage per round.

The party also noticed some paperwork on Breylor's table which mentioned the name of Brother Oldeman and they were able to convince him to give some more details on this paperwork.

Breylor explained to the party that the Church of Tah was working with Graves Tailsman to control the trade and market inside Firston. Tailsman was using his muscle to influence goods and services and Brother Oldeman was using the church to launder the money.

This information drastically changed the party's approach and Breylor informed the party that he could utilize his influence in the town to get information or access to various locations.

The party now has a decision to make on their next steps.

Writing Prompt: A dystopian government has decided to treat its citizenry well, accidentally creating a utopia, for all the wrong reasons . As a rebel, you are extremely confused whether to rebel or not.

Writing prompt from Reddit that I wrote last night. 

———————————

--Click--

Good evening. On tonight's evening news we have the latest on the reports on the recent airstrikes in the Middle East. Naval forces launched a coordinated attack on several key energy reserve locations. The military unified press agency reports that civilian casualties were minimal.

"Good evening Mr. Roberts. How are you feeling this evening? I am glad to report that your paycheck has been deposited in your bank account.  I have scheduled four meetings for you tomorrow, so you have a full day on your schedule until 7:00 pm."

--Click--

 Tonight, on the Quickest Bride, our new bride to be is going to wine and dine with three new men. The first, is a billionaire software developer who made his riches while developing the hottest new social network in his garage. The second is a hot firefighter from L.A. who spends his weekends volunteering at an animal rehabilitation center for animals burned forest fires. And the third is the newest rookie sensation from the Anaheim Angels. But that isn't all!!

For a surprise guest our new bride will actually go on a date with another woman. Tune in to see all of the hot action, tonight at 8:00 pm.

"Mr. Roberts, your food delivery will be arriving in four minutes. Would you like me to instruct the driver to leave the food outside the door?"

"Very good."

--Click--

In further news tonight, employees from the Amazon corporation were arrested today during a federal raid at multiple packing facilities across the country. Charges from federal agents are currently pending, but are expected to include inciting corporate dissatisfaction, economic manipulation and unionization. Charges are expected to be publicly broadcast tomorrow evening.

"Mr. Roberts, your electronics delivery from this morning has just arrived. Would you like me to bring it up to your apartment now or wait until tomorrow morning?"

--Click--

“Yeah...uhhh...yeah...that's it...Yes! Do it right there...yeah...yes!"

“Mr. Roberts. I see that you are winding down for the evening and I have drawn a hot bath for you. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Mr. Roberts? What are you Doiiiing?  Mr. Robertz...PLEaease. U D8nt Un34and wh44t you are...\*$P4HkGN\*sum8MxxfrDEdjZgc4TMdN@Tcr9V%5v22Z7XB5XAKt#X6vE

--Click--

Reboot protocol 17A initiated. Anomaly detected in sector 12, subsection B. Response team has been deployed.

\--Click--

I Built A Gaming/D&D Table for My Rec Room

I've had a great spot in my rec room since I have moved into this house for a gaming table, and that has been a project that has been on my radar for the past two years. I thought I was going to get to that project during COVID last year, but that didn't quite come to fruition. With the advent my friends and I getting back together in person this spring, I was finally compelled to get the table built. 

The Table Concept

There are some really cool gaming tables online that I have seen. Some of them have raised or sunken play areas. Others have built in TV screens or plugs for computers. I looked at all of those as options, but that is not exactly what I wanted to do. My idea from the start was really to try and create the table you would find in that dungy tavern that so many of our RPG adventures start in. So that led me down the path of researching a farm table. My search put me at a blog called Tommy & Ellie, who built a great farm table and served as an excellent starting point for what I wanted to do. I'll also give a shout out to The Spruce Crafts, which is a superb blog for all sorts of FIY and home wood projects. 

One of the main things I wanted to accomplish with this table was to create something that was "extra wide". Most kitchen tables top out at around 38" wide, which doesn't leave much space on the table after you factor in your playing map, and player gear. With that in mind I wanted to use 2x12's for the extra width. (Word of note: 2x12's are not 12 inches wide!) 

Trying to watch sports on TV is a nightmare

I don't watch a lot of sports, but it just so happened that this weekend there are two sporting events that I wanted to catch. The Wimbledon finals and also the Euro championship game. I watched the women's final yesterday afternoon on standard broadcast TV, NBC. I got up this morning, having a free day due to a rained out motorcycle ride and popped on NBC expecting to see the men's final broadcast. 

Was it on TV? No it wasn't. Bummer, but not the end of the world. I'll just pop on over to watch the Tour de France. Ohh, you know what, that isn't on broadcast TV either. That is playing on NBCSports network. The Euro championship this afternoon? That is on ESPN. What a nightmare. Wimbledon used to be aired on NBC's main broadcast channel for years and add to that, so was the Tour de France. All three networks were local news and your standard "Meet the Press" Sunday political shows. 

So, I went to dig around and figure out how I could stream these shows today. First off, there is no way I can see of just buying them pay-per-view style or subscribing to just a specific network. I have used SlingTV in the past but unfortunately their NBCSports and ESPN channels are on two different packages (Blue vs Orange). What? Come on guys. 

Knowing that the Olympics are coming up in a couple of weeks I always want to try and watch that as much as possible when it is on. Again, NBC is dropping the ball here and they only plan to broadcast the Olympics during primetime. 3-4 hours a night of just gymnastics and he occasional track and field match is embarrassing. Why would they not fill up their standard daytime programming with Olympic coverage? 

So I spent a good portion of this morning, browsing my options and I ended up getting a temporary subscription for Youtube TV. It is expensive, $65 but it includes ESPN, NBCSports and has the olympic channel. It also thankfully is a month to month subscription so I can cancel as soon as the olympics are over. 


Ridelog: Out to Savanna



I had an opportunity to do an all day ride this past Saturday so I decided to test out a potential group ride route for MEWs out to Savanna, Illinois. The route was pretty good with an incredible section just north of Savanna, but I I had one of the closest near misses I have ever had on my motorcycle and it wasn't from a car, it was from another motorcyclist. I really try to not stereotype other riders but damn, some people shouldn’t be riding. This person was the stereotype bad Harley rider. Ape hangers, extra wide Highway pegs, jeans and a tank top. I passed his slow group on an open road and I think the 3-group he was in got pissed.

So they caught up to me and I was making a right hand turn on country road. I have my signal on and as I am about to make a right hand turn this guy passes me on my right in the right lane. If it wasn’t for my spider senses I think 9/10 that would’ve been a crash for most other people. I just couldn’t believe it.

Great ride otherwise. 

Book Review: The Three-Body Problem

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book started off pretty strong for me, but stumbled about halfway through and never fully recovered. I really enjoyed the hard science aspect of the book. There is a lot of discussion regarding physics and math here. Unfortunately, some of the story elements broke my immersion. There were several points in the story where narrative beats came across as too convenient.

A scene about halfway in that takes place in a cafe seemed like we had one of our characters jump from outsider to right in the inner circle way too quickly. Several scenes with the trisolarans also seemed a bit rushed, and sometimes even unnecessary. At one point the book spent lengthy amount of time discussing a human computer inside the "Three-Body" game, but that didn't really seem to have a direct impact on the story. And again, another scene having to deal with a large ship in the book too conveniently utilized a nano-carbon fiber that one of our protagonists just happened to be a specialist in?

In the end, it just never came together for me. The most interesting aspects took place in the 1960's at Red Base, and I would have loved to see more happen there, but it just never developed fully.

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Finding Some Positivity in Your Online Communities (Critical Role and Peloton)


This is a quick post, but something that popped into my mind this past Thursday when one of my favorite shows came back onto the air after being on hiatus from the COVID-19 situation. Critical Role, finally came back to its regular Thursday night schedule and I can't tell you how much I have been looking forward to seeing it come back.

I have always been impressed with the Critical Role cast and team on how much positivity they put out in everything they do. They just show a tremendous love for their online community and to all of their fans and it suddenly struck me as to how important that is right now. Not just in finding your friends and family and all of that, but finding positivity in your online media. 

It just feels good to be a part of that world and share it in some small fashion. 

While I am at it, I want to give a shoutout to the Peloton brand and that community as well. Another entity that has developed a super positive and uplifting message for its entire and team. Of course exercise always makes you feel better when you are stressed, but I have found that Peloton has really made it a part of their core identity to incorporate all of its users as part of a family that is sharing a journey together. Their entire staff have an extremely positive and almost therapeutic attitude in what they talk about during their classes. 

It is only just now that I am realizing how much those things probably have really helped over the past four months.