July 4th Come and Gone

July 06, 2025 by Adam in Family

It's been a whirlwind last few days, with lots of family activities and general excitement.  I think today is going to be relatively calm, though I have a to-do list with lots of items on it, plus laundry to fold, a kitchen to clean, and breakfast to make.  

Emma came over the morning of the 4th and we headed down to Seraph and Robbie's to watch the parade.  Traffice was bad, but the company and parade were fun.  Emma hadn't gone before, so the horses, beauty queens, and dirt bikes doing jumps was all wonderfully new to her.  I enjoyed hanging out with everyone and catching up.  We met Francis' sweetie Leo, who we all liked and not just because they worked at Sweet Life.  The parade eventually ended, the town cleared out, and we headed home.

Next up was Jenny's BBQ.  Another big group of people were there, including Jenny's boyfriend Rod and his incredibly good granddaughter who was just turning one.  She was the best baby ever, never crying or getting upset at being handed around to various adults.  It was fun seeing an entire group of 20 year olds hang out at the pool and do young people stuff, while the rest of us talked about retirement homes and the like.

Yesterday I made my usual hearty breakfast, followed by a trip to the library.  After lunch Emma and I headed to see Spinal Tap at The Art House, which she greatly appreciated.  I remember when it was The Bijoux and my friend Devon and I would regularly watch movies there.  Emma and I stopped by House of Records on the way home to complete the nostalgia tour, picking up a CD for Yvonne that she'd been wanting.

As for me, I've got various projects I'm working on.  For some zany reason I'm printing a retro PC case for a Raspberry pi.  The parts are all printed and now it's time to sand, glue, and paint it all together.  Our Delta Green game was postponed due to young people's party plans, but I've got a few finishing touches left to put on that.  

It's also time for a mad scramble to take advantage of energy savings tax breaks, so it's time to review the things we want to do.  We've been wanting a second heat pump for a few rooms that don't cool down very well.  There might be some other things we can do before they expire in a few months.

July!

July 01, 2025 by Adam in Family

Okay, I've completely fallen down when it comes to updating the blog.  There's no crisis or anything - I just keep getting distracted by work or projects or something.

It's been a mostly good last few days.  Saturday started wonderfully chill, with a hearty breakfast and opening the cool packages Guillaume sent us.  He stayed with my mom seven years ago to teach at the French school and our families really connected.  He sent crocheted treasures, a beautifully calligraphied letter, and various goodies from his region of France.  Not to mention a map from a roleplaying game session I still fondly remember from when he was around.

Later Emma and I went to the library and stopped in a thrift store to see if anything caught our attention. 

Unfortunately when we returned the familiar smell of backed up drains wafted into our nostrils and we discovered the usual places had filled with water.  After a lot of trying to clean the blockage I opened up the pump itself and discovered the float was apparently not going up.  Jo cleaned it, found the float had filled with water, and eventually went to get a replacement.  Not my favorite way to spend a Saturday, but we're both becoming expert plumbers at this point.

Sunday was our D&D game, where the players battled it out inside a giant robot, then each tool control of a limb to take it back home.  I based that part on a game called Crash Pandas where a bunch of pandas try to drive a car at once.  I think they had a good time, battling other giant robots and flailing about as they all tried to take actions at the same time.

Sunday evening was a writer's dinner that we hosted on the patio, where I met a bunch of Jo's writer friends and proved that I was a real husband and not a paid actor.  It was fun chatting and the patio was beautiful once it cooled down.

Now it's somehow July, with endless events and things going on.  I've got a fun medical procedure I'm taking the day off for tomorrow, which comes with a weird diet of not eaching all the things I like for a few days.  Thursday I'm having lunch with my manager Megan, who is visiting family with her husband and happens to be in town.  Friday are various Fourth of July events.  I've got Delta Green on Sunday.  Next weekend Emma and I are seeing Spinal Tap in the theaters. Then there's Jo's school for ten days, a couple birthday events, and probably some other things I'm forgetting about.  Ah, summertime.

Monday

June 23, 2025 by Adam in Family

It was a quiet, occasionally productive weekend.  Emma was at the beach, so I was mostly left to my own devices.  I finally got around to painting Duncan's ceiling and started laying the ground work for the compost cover.  It was pouring rain on Saturday so my enthusiasm was low.  It was nicer on Sunday, so I chainsawed a little, but paused for Jo to move compost bins around.

I managed to play through some of the new games on XBox Game Pass, but really only seemed to enjoy Monster Train 2.  It's a nice, bite-sized little thing that I can play a run in less than an hour, but every run is a little different.  The first one was great, so it's nice to see more of the same.

I keep printing chunks of a retro PC case that I'm making for a wireless keyboard and old tablet.  It'll end up being used for a game prop, so hopefully it's a good time.

Now it's back to work where I have a short list of difficult tasks to complete.  Time to earn my keep.

Mothership Warden Assistant

June 23, 2025 by Adam in Adam's Projects

When I do rpgs, even one-shots, I try hard to put together a special experience for my players.  I got the Mothership rpg for Father's Day, which is kinda like Aliens in terms of space horror games.  I had this vision of making a display for players that had their headshots with an EKG-like pulse that showed their current health and stress levels.  The idea is that I'd have my display hidden in secret and I can click on pictures and update player stats to have it appear on the player screen.

After a week of vibe coding with copilot, generating images, and tweaking endless parameters, I'm mostly happy with the end results.  I've got it uploaded to Github publicly, but haven't really spread the word yet.

https://adamgmiller.github.io/mothership-warden-assistant/

Mocha Friday

June 20, 2025 by Adam in Family

It's a cool and cloudy solstace, as well as our wedding anniversary.  We're going out for dinner at Soriah's and exchanging cards and prezzies, as is our tradition.

The week has generally been good, other than Tuesday night where I had a horrible migrane and was basically non-functional and writhing around until the sweet oblivion of sleep took me.  I feel fine now, but boy was that unpleasant.

Emma and her brother keep working on the house, salvaging appliances and odds and ends before the demolition happens.  They're headed to the beach with Jamie this weekend, so I'll probably end up digging into various house projects.

I've been on call this week at work, which has been a little bumpy.  Fortunately it's only once every 2-3 months.

As for personal projects, I finished Clair Obscur and enjoyed the story though the gameplay got a little old.   I played a little of the latest Doom this morning, but it's more of the same.  Monster Train 2 seems more up my alley, though I've yet to win a single run.

I've been vibe coding a web app thingie for the Mothership rpg I got for Father's Day, with an Aliens-like list of characters and heartbeats.  It's surprisingly fun to chat with Copilot and have it build "good enough" apps, though it weirdly takes a lot of skill to explain it well and debug the inevitable bugs.  Complicated things sometimes happen very quickly, which is cool.

I'm also working on a couple cyberdeck ideas, basically a retro-looking computer thing made from tables, phones, and keyboards, glommed together with a fun case.  At least that's the idea - all I've got at the moment is 1/8th of a very big 3D print that I'm having second thoughts about.  We'll see how far my enthusiasm takes me.

Daduation Weekend

June 16, 2025 by Adam in Family

It was quite the exciting weekend overall.  Saturday was relatively chill - Emma and I went to the library and a new thrift store.  It was next to where Humble Bagel used to be in the space where Evolution Gaming used to be, and Silver Screen Video before that.  It's funny how I sometimes feel like I live in the ghost of the city-that-once-was.  Metaphysics aside, I picked up a couple nice shirts - one dressy and one casual.

The afternoon was mostly spent puttering.  I helped Emma install Linux Mint on her laptop and ordered a special screwdriver and screws so we could repair the case.  We cleaned the patio and setup chairs and tables for the Sunday festivities.  I started my usual Saturday soup, this time lentels and split peas.

Sunday was Father's Day, which started with presents after breakfast.  I got some practical items like running socks, and some fun items like the Mothership RPG that I've been eyeing of late.  Later on Emma and I went for a wander around town, starting with Smith Family bookstore, Down to Earth, and the coffee shop nearby.

Eventually we returned home for a brief breather before the family horde descended upon the house.  It was great seeing everyone.  I've missed seeing Jenny and it was cool that she brought her boyfriend.  There was a secret meeting of cousins that was cool.  Plus it was great seeing everyone come together to celebrate this milestone of four kids graduating from their respective academic institutions.

Last Test Friday

June 13, 2025 by Adam in Family

Yvonne and Duncan are already done with school, having finished their last tests.  Emma's got a final this morning but will soon be free from the bonds of academia.  As for what happens next, the younger kids are in chill mode while Emma's doing some work with her big brother to help get the farm house built.  I hear things are moving along nicely.

We have the big graduation shindig at our house this Sunday where hordes will descend on our patio to eat pizza, chat, and congratulate the horde of graduates.  I don't think we've had everyone together in a very long time - I'm excited to see them all and spend some time hanging out.

As for me, work got derailed by an all-consuming customer support incident.  While I appreciated learning about the weird and wacky things our product does, I wasn't able to do much else.  Fortunately I transferred it to someone else this morning - hopefully that's the last I see of it.

In my limited free time I've been playing the occasional video game and fiddling with Copilot and Chat GPT to make images for roleplaying games.  I want to get back to my "vibe coding" project where I ask it to make complicated web pages and don't bother trying to understand the code it generates.  The results are mixed, but it's a fun process anyway.

Graduations and Evidence Boards

June 09, 2025 by Adam in Family

Saturday morning we gobbled up breakfast and went out to Yvonne's graduation event for the French immersion program.  All these kids and parents were there, people we've been running into at these sort of things for over ten years.  There were pictures and videos showing various events and each kid went up to talk about their favorite moment and what they were up to next.  It's been wild thinking that this is the last kid in high school - lots of big transitions lately.

Sunday had the cousin group and my buddy Jason come by to play Delta Green to try to stop the spread of a mysterious number that drives everyone mad.  They did a great job fabricating evidence and creating plausible motives.  I was very proud of them.

Now it's back to work for me and finals week for Emma and Duncan.  Next weekend is the graduation bash.  I hear the farm house project is coming along nicely.  I've been having way too much fun playing with AI to make images or vibe code up some interactive web pages for various roleplaying games.  The future is going to be wild and wacky.

Mocha Friday

June 06, 2025 by Adam in Family

It's another beautiful day in the valley, and fortunately my allergies have been fine this year.  Maybe after nearly half a century in the valley my immune system has decided the pollen isn't trying to kill me.

I'm still a little dazed by all the graduations and end of school events.  Yvonne's last day is today and Emma and Duncan are finished after finals next week.  In another week the family will descend upon our house for a big graduation bash.  I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed but have a general plan to clean the patio and get it slightly more organized.

The work week has been fine.  I continue to juggle a million projects at work and have gotten used to asking for help.  I just need to remind myself that there's no immediate deadline and catastrophe won't hit if I don't get around to things.  In my off hours I've been prepping for Delta Green, reading Pushing Ice, and playing Clair Obscur.  I had tea with mom and her ever-present helper, my oldest son.  The farm house project is coming along, with the latest plan being to demolish the existing house and put a new three bedroom house in the same location.  Hopefully it all turns out okay.

As for the weekend, I've got Yvonne's graduation on Saturday morning and Delta Green with the gang on Sunday.  I've got to do some patio cleaning somewhere in there and maybe I can chip away at the endless house projects.  We'll see how far I get.

Last Day of High School

June 06, 2025 by Adam in Yvonne

Yvonne has made it to the last day of high school.  It looks like she's passing all her classes, many of which are a little close with the exception of Gothic Lit.  She turned in some of her personal writing as makeup work and the teacher loved it.  Tomorrow is graduation for the french immersion program where this group of kids that started at 1st grade are now grown up and heading off into the world.  I remember going to the one for Duncan and it was remarkable seeing all these kids and their parents change over the decade and a half.

Yvonne seems pretty excited to be done with high school and feeling a little better about things.  She's applied for LCC in the fall and hopes to study marine biology.