Mocha Monday

May 19, 2025 by Adam in Family

I started feeling under the weather yesterday afternoon, so it's Advil and a mocha for me this morning.  I seem to get some upper respiratory thing every month this year - never really horrible, but it leaves me dragging for a few days until I feel better.  At least the mocha is nice.

It was an overall fun weekend despite my current state.  Saturday was the start of what appears to be a Delta Green campaign.  Sunday had Emma and I going out on the town to various thrift stores.  While the plan was for her to get something for her thesis defense, I ended up buying myself some Doc Martin shoes, a t-shirt, and some sunglasses.  Apparently I'm trying to recapture my youth when I was much cooler than I am today.

In between exciting events I started playing Clair Obscura, which has generally been good.  I've also been working on props for the next Delta Green game - pictures, newspaper articles, documents, and interactive computer terminals.  I've also got what's potentially the last family D&D game this Saturday and I'm starting to get organized for that.  I'm hoping to come up with a satisfying ending to this year-long campaign.

Last Things Last

May 18, 2025 by Adam in Adam's Games

It was finally time.

I gathered up all my props, setup my laptop and the game screen with the built in monitor, then placed an empty corkboard bulletin board on the table with all the pushpins and red yarn they'd need.  Emma encouraged me to dress the part, so I put on a jacket tie, and found some aviator sunglasses I'd squirred away.  Francis had a similar idea, showing up looking like Scully from the X-Files.  Emma, her big brother, Francis, Jordan, and my good friend Jason all arrived to get read in and discover the secrets of Delta Green.

The mission was a simple one - an ex-agent had died of natural causes and their job was to clean up any evidence he'd left.  They avoided shooting the noisy neighbor and investigated his apartment to discover he owned a cabin in the woods.  Right off the bat they found the septic tank half buried in the backyard, opened the lock, and discovered his dead wife, brought back from the grave with dark magic and begging to be let out.

It spiraled from there, with half the party wanting to kill her but decided to search the cabin first.  Soon enough they found the dead agent's tape recorder, which of course I had a prop for, and heard his dying wish to pour 20 gallons of gasoline into the septic tank and set it ablaze.  All hell broke loose, with the thing that used to be his dead wife jumping out of the tank with unnatural speed and a gunfight and tossing of flaming gas tanks ensued.  With some lucky rolls and keen thinking, everyone avoided death, they set the cabin on fire, and headed off into the night before the local police could respond.

I'd planned for a one-shot and see if everyone liked it, but they demanded we keep playing, so it looks like I'll get everyone together for another mission.  Already I'm making fake documents, photographs, and more.

Kudos Mocha Friday

May 16, 2025 by Adam in Family

My months-long work project is finally coming to fruition.  Disaster has been averted, praise has been passed my way, and hopefully I just need to monitor the rollout to the rest of the world.

I hung out with mom and my oldest son for tea on Wednesday, catching up on the latest projects he's working on at mom's house.  Fences and railings are getting repaired, the exterior is getting ready for painting, and quite a bit is getting accomplished.  He and Emma had a Twin Peaks watch night last night - it's cool seeing the two of them hanging out more.

Jo was awarded a $7.5K scholarship from the Pride Foundation, which was cool.  Between the scholarships from the school and this one, quite a bit of their school is getting paid off.  I think school is generally doing well, with all the assignments complete until the residency in mid-July.

Tomorrow is my big Delta Green game.  I'm looking forward to something that's not D&D, and curious how the players will enjoy the vibe and my overall approach.  I'm not doing maps or minis, but instead have a big murder board and lots of pictures, maps, and other props to attach to it.  I'm prepping for a second game if everyone seems to like it, though I'd also like to do some other roleplaying games too.

I do have a little health thing I'm sorting through.  My throat was feeling really dry, so I went into the doctor who didn't have a clear answer.  I'm stopping my statins for a couple weeks to see if that's it, but she suggested gastric reflux, which seems more likely.  I wonder if recent work stress has played a roll - clearly I should play hooky this afternoon for medical reasons.

Wonderful Weekend

May 12, 2025 by Adam in Family

It was beautiful last weekend.  Saturday morning I drove Emma over to the pickup point where she went on a field trip for her geomorphology class, going to Mary's Peak, Alsea Falls, and Pidgeon Hill.  She returned for dinner tired but happy to have seen the sights.  While she was doing that, my oldest son and I headed up Ridgeline Trail through the forest to hike and chat.  Afterwards I returned home to do some yardwork and fix the door of our little free library somewhat, though it'll need to be replaced.

Sunday was Mother's Day, so after Emma and I headed to the library I prepared some gifts that were mostly made from Jo, and went on a tour around town.  Ana's a little too far to just pop in, but I sent a text, visited my mom, and dropped some things off for Yayoe who was feeling under the weather.

As for me, I'm doing fine.  Work is moving along.  My God of War game is wrapping up.  I'm excited to play Delta Green this weekend and keep prepping for more potential modules.  All is well.

I sent this video to the players of my upcom...

May 09, 2025 by Adam in Adam's Games

I sent this video to the players of my upcoming Delta Green roleplaying game.  It's a mix of X-Files and Call of Cthulu and I'm really excited for them to make a murderboard, go insane, and hopefully have a good time.

Sunny Mocha Friday

May 09, 2025 by Adam in Family

The weather has been amazing lately - sunny days with a pleasant temperature and flowers blooming all around.  I wish I had more days to putter around outside, though I suppose I do have a nice window looking out on to the garden.

I sometimes feel like work is pranking me with one of my assignments - it's not completely impossible, but I don't think it's possible within reasonable parameters.  Hopefully my coworkers aren't asking for status updates and then secretly giggling with the camera off when I express my latest frustrations.

No big weekend plans.  Emma's got an all day field trip and Jo's got work.  I'm hoping to go for a hike with my oldest kid and maybe see if Jason's up for some board game time.  We'll see how it goes.

Babushcat

May 05, 2025 by Adam in Family

Emma arrived late Friday after spending a day with her big brother out at the farm setting the piles of logs on fire.  There's a ton to do and it sounds like exhausting work, but I appreciate everyone's efforts to manage the farm more than it has been.  She returned smelling of smoke and scraped up, but generally cheerful.

Jo had back-to-back work events that were a little exhausting.  Saturday was the family D&D, which was a good time.  It's wild to think that it's finally wrapping up.  I'm still prepping for a Delta Green game, and hopefully we can do more one-shots on occasion.

Sunday was generally chill - video games, library trips, and putting funny hats on the cat.  I'm loving this weather.

Mocha Friday

May 02, 2025 by Adam in Family

I've got a nearly full mug of delicious mocha, the sun is shining down into our backyard garden, the work weeks' crises are held at bay for at least the moment, and the weekend is a few hours away.

It's been quite the week with early morning incidents, post-mortems, and lots of "not writing code" aspects to software development.  It's all been interesting and educational, though I look forward to going back to writing code again.

As for the rest of the week, it's mostly been okay.  I've been fussing over mom and some of her recent health challenges.  Otherwise she's been enjoying fussing over my oldest kid as he works away at her house.  The fence he and Emma put up looks good and the front stairs are slightly less terrifying, which is a plus.  Emma and Duncan are slogging away at school.  I helped Yvonne with a Frankenstein-related assignment yesterday, doing my part to get that last kid out of high school.

Somewhere in between the dishes, laundry, and cooking of everyday life I managed to play some video games, prep for this weekend's D&D session with the family, and go out for date night with Jo for dinner and a walkabout near Friendly Street Market.  I keep thinking that Emma's birthday is right around the corner, followed by the start of summer and all the graduations and transitions that implies.  Time keeps on slipping into the future.

Tuesday?

April 29, 2025 by Adam in Family

I hopped out of the shower to find an incident underway, so I skipped brushing my teeth and shaving and spent the next few hours working the problem.  Jo nicely delivered coffee, and eventually we came to the conclusion that it wasn't too bad, no one reported a problem, and all we had to do was wait until it fixed itself.  I'm still a little frazzled, but hopefully the rest of the deployment will go smoothly.

The weekend was fairly uneventful.  Emma and I went to the library, picked up some red yarn at MECCA, and drove down to the Center for Rural Living in Cottage Grove for one of Emma's school projects.  It was a pretty cool place, showing off their various projects managing timber, weeds, sheep, and growing food.  Sunday was low-key, mostly chilling at home and doing housework.

I'm trying hard to finish up my God of War video game before starting a new one.  I've also been having too much fun with AI generated video clips which I'm using for my upcoming Delta Green game.  Should be entertaining.

Mocha Friday

April 25, 2025 by Adam in Family

Whatever illness that hit me hard seems to have faded.  Work has settled down a bit, which certainly helps too.  It's fun watching the stuff I built cheerfully compressing data and making life a little better each day.

Jo's off in Yachats for a writer's event, so the kids and kitties are stuck with me for the next few days.  It's been pretty mundane so far - tacos for dinner, video games and folding laundry  I continue to have way too much fun getting AI to make pictures for my various roleplaying games.

As for the weekend, it might be fun to do some construction projects and build a little shelter for the compost bins.  We'll see how much enthusiasm I have.