#6294 TG, Dan's Game, palmtop, E-books, pictures

[scottobear]

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yummy Chocolate Cabin and Chief Bit-o-honey
Compliments of Gallery of Regrettable food's Party Cake Houses

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Thanksgiving is a wonderful time. It's been all been said before, but it bears repeating.

I feel that it exists as one last chance to dwell in an introspective, love-filled space before the rampant commercialism of Christmas turn us all into mall-dwelling spend-monkeys. That span until Christmas actually arrives can be so crass... I think that breaking through that month-long barrier of frenzy and stress once Christmas finally comes around makes the arrival that much more festive and sacred. Thanksgiving is the last deep breath before diving in, it seems.

I am thankful for so much this year, and for the last few years now. I've learned to be more appreciative, and I think that I have more to appreciate now than in years past. I'm thankful for about every synaptic impulse that hits my noggin through the day. From Newt nuzzling me awake to play first thing of the day to the last letter of text read (on the net or on paper), before I prepare for sleep.

I just feel so lucky to have consciousness. I'm awake. (A lot of the universe isn't nearly that fortunate.) When I add in the love, joy, adventure and creative outlets in my life. I just have to pinch myself.

I'm thankful for having all sorts of love in my life, from my sweetheart, to Newt, to friendships... those that have been steady for ages, some that have been recovered recently after a wide gap, and those that started only this year, but have the potential to last well into the future. I'm thankful for a vocation that uses what knowledge and abilities I have to make a difference in the world, and help people. I'm thankful that I've got a roof over my head, a cupboard full of food, a desire and ability to continue to grow as a person. I'm thankful for all the people that have read my journal and introduced themselves to me. I've met *hundreds* of folks over time with this thing, and I feel that I've learned something good from every one of them. Thank you for being a part of my blessed life.

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Getting together with the bro today, if all goes well. I'm on call so I can't do much traveling (no more than 20 minutes from the net to place calls... I wonder if it will be crazy busy or totally quiet? There wasn't a single call last night.)

I'm wondering what we'll have. We could call the Downtown Pizzeria(they still use the ¢ sign on the menu), and get just about anything. when I worked the graveyard shift at IMT, I was so happy that they delivered until 4am, and that they had a huge selection.... I don't see the bro picking anything up on the way over. If for some reason he decides not to make it, I'll hold off, and fix something here out of what I've got in the cupboard.

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Dan's D20 / D&D fantasy game went well, he had a decent time, and the rest seemed to have a blast. Apparently strategy and tactics aren't their strong suit, but they enjoyed it, and that's really what counts. From what I hear, the GM has a lot of good potential and the players will adapt quickly enough. They fought a gelatinous cube and some sort of roof-gripping tentacled horror. (The name escapes me. I'll have to ask Danny what that was again.) Apparently they were smacked around pretty thoroughly, but nobody kicked the bucket, which works well enough. There were a lot of critical failures... the paladin rolled a 1, and fumbled into the cube headlong, and they're stuck having to draw him back out again... and the Mage botched a roll on magic missile, shooting a fighter-type rather than the aforementioned wriggly roof-monster.

Dan's still got an aversion to dice that have more or less than six sides and maps on squares rather than hexes, but I think that he realizes that the play is the thing. I imagine that once he gets the full gist of the rules, he'll enjoy it all the more. He's talking about running a game next year at the school (he's got no time or inclination this year) but I have serious doubts if he's got any kind of time.

I wonder what Gelatinous Cubes would look like if D&D maps were originally drawn on hex paper? probably still cube shaped, because they sweep hallways and the like. The cool thing about gelatinous cubes is that it neither digests nor excretes metal, giving an adventurers a reason to kill it and scoop coins from its corpse. It's like some sort of living, deadly, mall fountain.

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Many E-book sources in one place. Handy!

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Toshiba's new e805 Pocket PC – sporting a large 640x480 resolution display (the first to turn up in a Pocket PC), 160MB of memory, a 400MHz processor, and built-in WiFi.

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Art & Architecture is the Courtauld Gallery's online visual resource - some 40,000 images covering, as the name suggests, the visual arts. Sample galleries include Destroyed: ten buildings which no longer exist.. There's lots to browse here.

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This looks pretty nice - a $200 PC with Linux. I may get one. I wonder if Lycoris is a decent server OS, since it seems to be sold as a desktop system.

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Show and tell music has all kinds of great retro album covers.

One that stands out as rather twisted is Tortura. Don't forget to download the jazzy MP3.

Comments

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

The darkmantle hangs from a ceiling by a muscular “foot” at the top of its body. It can look like a stalactite, by holding its tentacles stiffly under itself, or like a lump of rock, spreading its tentacles so the membrane between them covers its body. Its shell and skin usually resemble limestone, but a darkmantle can change its color to match almost any type of stony background.

A darkmantle is about 4 feet long from the tips of its tentacles to the top of its head. It weighs about 30 pounds.

COMBAT

A darkmantle attacks by dropping onto its prey and wrapping its tentacles around the opponent's head. Once attached, it squeezes and tries to suffocate the foe. A darkmantle that misses its initial attack often flies up and tries to drop on the opponent again.

Darkness (Su): Once per day a darkmantle can cause darkness as the darkness spell (caster level 5th). It most often uses this ability just before attacking.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a darkmantle must hit a Large or smaller creature with its slam attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity.

If it wins the grapple check, it attaches to the opponent's head and can constrict.

Constrict (Ex): A darkmantle deals 1d4+4 points of damage with a successful grapple check.

Blindsight (Ex): A darkmantle can “see” by emitting high-frequency sounds, inaudible to most other creatures, that allows it to ascertain objects and creatures within 90 feet. A silence spell negates this ability and effectively blinds the darkmantle.

Skills: A darkmantle has a +4 racial bonus on Listen and Spot checks.

These bonuses are lost if its blindsight is negated. The creature's variable coloration gives it a +4 racial bonus on Hide checks.