mlooney

“Hanging out with The Human. He says he doesn't care what the forecast is; his knees are telling him that it's gonna rain today. I'm helping him keep them straight.” - Explorer the Cat.

Appointment made for getting Explorer, my cat, fixed. Soonest they can do her is Feb 26, which is a little longer than I wanted, but I can live with that.

You seem to be coming up roses this month. Dancing Rodents!1 1Conga Rats.

“The Red Dot! I'm gonna chase it for a while, then eat breakfast. The Human is grunting a lot today and says once he finishes a mug of boring tea, he's going back to bed. He's not a happy kitten right now. I'll join him after a while.” - Explorer the Cat.

She's too well done as a character to not use her more. Of course, her hair seems to take some time to draw, so there is that.

I liked this one as well. I just hope it's not the end of the arc.

“We had scary weather last night. There was a bang, and the light that never gets turned off in the living room turned off. It's still raining, but not scary. The Human says he's gonna go keep his legs straight as soon as he finishes his boring tea. I'll help, of course.” - Explorer the Cat.

I'm drinking gorilla mountain tea, which is very, very mellow. It goes great with how I feel. I have nothing to do, and I'm gonna do it slowly.

“The Human is up and moving. Slowly, but moving. He says that he has nothing planned for the day, and he'll do it slowly. I'll help with either working on the butt warmer or with napping; I can go either way. He made good tea last night, and I got some!” - Explorer the Cat.

Back in “the old days,” 'Name' level was 10-12th, and you were assumed to stop being an adventurer at that, and semiretire to run you strong hold. It wasn't until 3.0 that being a full-time adventurer was a life choice. 5.0 doesn't even meantion the possibility of taking over a castle, temple, wizard's tower, thieves guild, etc. as something that a high-level character might do. 5.5 does have “bastions”, but they aren't quite the same.

I'm running a D&D 3.5 version of an OD&D setting (City State of the Invincible Overlord), doing conversions to 5.0e on the fly. One of the major rooms in the temple dungeon that the party is poking around in was a gate to the lower plane where some snake demons were coming from. The text of the room had a listing of what you could do to close the gate, none of which the party was likely to do. Almost all the methods to seal the gate need large amounts of holy water, and I don't think they have any, much less gallons. OD&D didn't have a spell made to seal gates. 5.0 does. (As does 3.x, but the conversion of CSotIO is spotty at best.) So the party defeats the first three demons, then the wizard in the party casts "Gate Seal" on the summoning area, just as another wave of demons was about to come in. He upcast it, so it's permanent now. This is gonna have a major effect on the current arc of the game. The temple no longer has a massive supply, nearly infinite, of demons to do the dirty work. This is the 3rd temple that the party has more or less toppled.

The latest One D&D has dropped. This covers Druids and Paladins. Sorta nurfed druids wild shape. Removed the "Roll a 1 get Heroic Inspiration" rule and returned it to DM's call. https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/one-dnd

Cool! Good on you!

It's semi-windy. The sunlight is coming in from my east windows. Becaue tree next to the house is blowing around, it's making the light hitting my desk “blink” on and off. This is not helping prevent a nascent headache. Thankfully this will stop in about an hour, when the sun gets high enough in the sky that it will not be directly coming through the windows.

“It's Math Rocks Day! I hope I get to help roll the math rocks today. I haven't rolled a 'nat 20' in awhile; maybe I'll get one today. It makes The Human happy when I do that!” - Explorer the Cat.

Well, flying humans are supernatural, so it should be in DGB's ball of wax.

Here it is. I seem to recall a strip about Cheerleadera needing to wear shorts early on in her career, so there was a time when her flight might have been illegal.

Because I'm having pain-related issues with falling asleep, I've been taking doxylamine succinate as a sleep aid. I believe I will stop; it doesn't seem to be working as a sleep aid, and I've been waking up with an antihistamine “hangover.” This is the worst of both worlds. I don't get a good night's sleep, and I can't work on Project X (or Spaceships and Vampires) in the morning. On another note, acetaminophen has next to no effect on my hip pain. I'm right now in the best time for it to be working (~2 hours after taking it), and moving from chair to standing up is a major pain event, and just sitting is more painful than I really want. I think if it's still bothering me when I see Dr. Ayala next, I'm gonna go with the shot she has talked about for it. It's been over a year now, and it's still affecting most aspects of my life.

“You keep trying that ribbon. How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not interested in it? Bring out the The Red Dot. That's my favorite thing to chase around before breakfast. After I finish eating, I'll help you with whatever project you are working on today.” - Explorer the Cat.

I like that the “classic” anti-scurvy drink is last on her list. She does list them in the order of the amount of vitamin C. Of course limes keep better than oranges and lemons, so that is one of the primary reasons the RN used them in the days of sailing ships.

I think it's gonna be more character growth than hijinks as such. Unless the stooges show up. Then it's gonna be a magical fight.

Another case of Diane doing deductions really fast. Some day that's gonna bite her on the butt when she gets one wrong.

Yeah, video games have a bad case of level inflation.

Riding the e-bike to Dollar General did something to my hip. Sitting in a chair is OK. Standing is a little iffy, but I can deal. Being in bed is OK. Moving from one of these positions to another hurts like a MoFo. Two and a half hours, more or less, until I can take acetaminophen again. It's barely working. Going for a walk is right out until this dies down.

I'm having issues with “Direct Express”, the card that I get my disability pay on. Hang on, this is a rant. Last night I got an email that a Patreon charge didn't go through. It's on a new card. I might have to poke it with sticks. Still didn't go through. Set it up with PayPal, still didn't go though. For some reason, I checked my Amazon orders list. My latest order showed that it was rejected. In an attempt to reset every thing, I reenter card info. Normally I use Google's auto-fill to enter card numbers, names, addresses, etc. Google asks for the security code on the back of the card. I enter it. It fails. OK, PayPal, Amazon, and Google Pay are all having issues. It's 12:30 AM, and I don't feel like dealing with the card's customer "service." Bright and early this morning, I call customer service. Enter my 16-digit card number, then my pin. Follow Teletree; get put on hold for about a minute. I got a nice lady who listened to my issues and said I might have to do an in-person transaction and enter the pin. OK, I need to get milk anyway. Pump up the e-bike's tires and set out for Dollar General to get milk. Card had no issue with them. On returning, I check the three things that failed. They all failed. I called customer service again. I explained the issue and that I had done an in-person transaction that worked. Lady did a little poking around and saw all the attempts to use the card. She said that it was from the merchant end and I should contact them. Off to Amazon's customer support. Follow menu options from their website. Finaly get a message that they can't know why a transaction was declined; contact your bank. Called Direct Express again. This time I only had to enter my last 4 digits of the card and my PIN. Put on hold for 2 minutes. I explain every thing that I had done. Lady does some poking around and says, “Oh, your card was compromised on the 14th; we blocked all online and over the phone uses. We have already sent you out a new card. You should have it in 5-10 business days.” Why didn't the first two ladies see that? Thankfull, I don't really have to use it until the 3rd of next month, so I should be good when the new card gets here. And my hip hurts. I may need my weighted blanket earlier than normal today.