Sniffly Weekend

October 20, 2025 by Adam in Family

I had a touch of a cold over the weekend - nothing too bad, just tired and sniffly on Sunday.  This morning I'm feeling a little tuckered but keeping the coffee going.  I'm going to make myself a mocha so I can enthusiastically review my coworkers for the annual reviews.

Otherwise it was a good weekend.  Saturday was Delta Green and I finally got to break out my OpenAI powered chatbot, pretending to be a conspiracy theory reporter on a BBS.  I was a little nervous that it would spout off weird things that I'd have to take back later, but it mostly stuck to the script.  There was some excitement over what to do about a possible alien baby, but I think I got things back on track by the end of the game and I think we'll wrap it up next session.

Sunday had Emma and I going to the flea market at the fairgrounds first thing in the morning and the library in the afternoon.  I made lasagna for Duncan on Sunday as it was just the two of us for dinner that night.

Yvonne is back in Portland, having had a good time visiting her dad in Rochester.  She and Jo should be back home around noon.

Mocha Friday

October 17, 2025 by Adam in Family

Jo drove Yvonne up to Portland last night, loading her on a plane to visit her dad in Rochester for a few days.  She's been doing really well getting around and taking care of things herself, which is a magical thing to experience as a parent.

It's been pretty quiet.  Data's been giving me head butts in hopes of getting pets.  I've been having fun playing with my retro Raspberry Pi computer and putting together fun "cartridges" for upcoming rpg props.  It turns out AI does a pretty good job making little video games and the cool looking scientific displays.

My checklists keep growing and things keep getting crossed off.  I think we've finally settled on Priority One for the new heat pump.  I need to do some paperwork for my car donation.  I visited with tattoo artist Kinsey and will get my ink done next Wednesday, apparently right after Jo's appointment. 

I'm super excited for my Delta Green group tomorrow.  It's been far too long since we've hung out, rolled dice, and laughed hysterically at the outcome.

Bubble Gum and Duct Tape

October 14, 2025 by Adam in Family

I'm trying to figure out all the things that seem to have failed with this web site.  The big one is that the domain expired, but instead of saying that I ended up with an annoying SSL error that made no sense.  I'm up and running again, but I've switched back to an older version of the web site since parts of the newer code seem to have failed.

I bought a new web server that I want to switch to, but I need to jump through some hoopes to get it up and running.  In the meantime, this is what you get.

Saturday I took Emma and Yvonne thrifting and Emma picked up her Canadian passport.  Eventually we made it to the library and watched Tombstone after dinner.

Sunday was the big birthday party for Hanni.  It was great seeing everyone and we stayed for quite a long while.

Now it's back to work, cursing a bit of security software that's a pain to use.  I haven't heard from Emma who started on the chocolate making machinery today.  She's probably so tuckered out she went straight to bed.

Mocha Friday

October 10, 2025 by Adam in Family

It feels like Oregon again, the rainy season upon us.  I do like the wet and green, though I miss the carefree days of shorts and t-shirts.

The big news of the week is that Emma got a job.  She's a chocolatier at Euphoria Chocolate Company, doing a lot of packing and shipping, along with helping make assorted chocolate goodies on occasion.  I think she enjoys it - she reports nice coworkers and the 90s alt rock station they listen to hasn't driven her crazy yet.

I signed up for Audible since they had a great deal, and I've been listening to Dungeon Crawler Carl.  It's definately a guilty pleasure, with a ridiculous premise and silly characters, but it makes dishes, laundry, and cooking dinner far more entertaining.  I'm a little sad that the first book is almost over.

I've also been working on 3d printing "cartridges" for my retro computer.  Basically it wraps a big bulky cartridge around a USB key, but they look way cooler and are harder to loose.  I'm a little sad that I have to wait another week for Delta Green.  I've been prepping for the next module, which looks suitably creepy.

Work continues to go well.  People sometimes ask if I worry about AI taking over my job and the reality is that I don't spend much of my time writing code.  I'm constantly dealing with change and learning new things - coordinating with a bunch of people to mostly paddle in the right direction as we move this giant ship that's constantly being remodeled.  Hopefully we sail it where it's supposed to go.

Chill Weekend

October 06, 2025 by Adam in Family

It was a generally uneventful weekend.  Emma and I finished Strange Antiquities, stopping the eldritch abomination by carefully identifying various magical curious.  We started in on Cult of the Lamb, a cute game where we cooperatively lead a cult to help free an eldritch abomination by defeating monsters and keeping our followers happy.  I've been slowly playing Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, trying to keep my young lord out of trouble, not very successfully.

We went to the library and a thrift store, with Emma picking up a midcentury lamp that she liked.  I fixed a broken casette tape my mom handed me, made in the 1970s where my grandmother and great grandmother sent tapes back and forth in the mail.  I had to crack it open and transfer the guts to a blank tape I could disassemble, but the end result was me tearing up as I heard my granny's voice for the first time in years.  I'll see if I can digitize it next.

In the absence of playing any RPGs with friends and family, I keep puttering around making AI generated pictures of scenes and looking into fun props I can make.  I've been looking at newer versions of Traveller, which would be fun to play again.  I guess I need to get some steady groups to play with first.

In other news, Jo's bites appeared again, though not mine.  At this point we think it's not bedbugs but probably something from the garden.  I suppose the upside of cold winter months is killing off those sort of pests.

Spooky Season Mocha Friday

October 03, 2025 by Adam in Family

It somehow become October, along with longer nights, dreary days, pants, long sleeve shirts, and hiking boots.  I'm always a little sad to see the sunshine go away, so I'm trying to transition into being cozy.  The mocha is helping.

It's been a fairly uneventful week.  Delta Green was postponed for a couple weeks due to player schedule changes.  I'm loving the current mission, so I'm a little bummed.  I managed to hook up a Raspberry Pi to the black and white security monitor Emma found in a thrift store.  It was remarkably difficult to get the video working, and the Raspberry Pi 2 is a little slow, but I think I got my Delta Green prop setup the way I wanted.  I mailed off the paper props from my first two Delta Green games to a coworker for their upcoming game, so I'm happy my old props going to a good home.

Otherwise I've been doing the normal things - tea with mom, chatting with Emma on the phone, playing Balatro and Kingdom Come Deliverance, and various tv shows each night.  Jo and I played video games for date night - we'll probably take a year to get through Split Fiction, but it's been a good time.  I took advantage of an Audible deal and am currently listening to Dungeon Crawler Carl, which hopefully ends up being a fun romp, if not too serious.

I'm glad it's Friday.  After my taste of vacation it's been a little bit of a slog these last few days.  I'm excited for the weekend and going on little adventures.  I'll probably drag Emma to the comic book festival at 5th Street tomorrow.  We've also got Strange Antiquities to finish.