Endings and Beginnings

November 24, 2025 by Adam in Family

The weekend has come and gone and already I'm itching to get some time off.  My Tesla woes are back, despite swapping out the battery.  This morning I was supposed to drive to Salem but I decided I'd try and fix the problem myself.  I added some coolant, drove around for a little without alerts, then got the recurring "steering assist reduced" message while backing into my driveway.  I might do a little more troubleshooting but it's looking like it's time to soon give up and book a service appointment during my vacation time.  It's all a little stressful.

Duncan's giant external hard drive is failing.  I'm doing my best to move files off to a new one, though the recovery software says it'll take weeks to finish.  I also ordered a 24TB internal hard drive, with the plan to backup all the other drives to this one.  He's got a lot of things he cares about on that drive, and relies upon me to fix the problem, so it's another thing weighing on my mind lately.

Tomorrow morning I have a customer call for work - they're in Europe and customer support is in India, so we'll see if it really happens.  It's in an area I'm unfamiliar with, so I'm spending the day trying to feel slightly less incompetent.

I had the final D&D session of the 4+ year campaign  on Sunday.  Marty didn't show, but the other players hopefully enjoyed the grand finale rewriting the rules of the universe and defeating the evil villian.  They used a dragon to submerge him in lava, which worked surprisingly well.  While I'm a little sad it's over, it felt like it was time to wrap it up and start something new.

Emma and I had some good hangout time, going to the library, watching Time Team, and sitting on the couch petting kitties.  I'm having fun playing Hades 2.  I'm having fun prepping for various upcoming RPGs.  Jason invited me to a Black Friday board game night.  So life's not all bad.

Mocha Friday

November 21, 2025 by Adam in Family

Well, I hopefully fixed my Tesla with a battery replacement.  I sent photos of the alerts and service screens to both Copilot and ChatGPT, who both thought the low voltage battery was the problem.  Jo and I went by Walmart to pickup a new battery for date night, which isn't particularly romantic, but at least Jo got to look through the sticker aisle. 

The one quirky thing is that there's supposed to be a venting system so hydrogen gas released by the battery doesn't pool under the hood and cause a fire risk.  The previous battery, which theoretically was installed by the service center, didn't have it hooked up.  I didn't have the right attachments to the venting holes, but it turns out drip irrigation connectors work just fine.

My AI overlords tell me I should take care of the low coolant alert next, so I'll try to pick some up and see if that alert goes away.

Yvonne continues to become increasingly self-sufficient, taking herself to appointments on her electric bike.  Duncan's giant external hard drive seemed to be failing, so I got him a new one now that Black Friday sales are starting.  It's crazy how big hard drives are getting these days.  Emma's a working stiff, though she reports she's not as constantly tired as she used to be.  The eldest kid and I had tea with mom this week and got the farm update - apparently the inspectors need more land cleared before a permit is issued.  One day they'll start building.

I've been enjoying playing Hades 2, which is theoretically just a action RPG, but has great story and Greek mythology worldbuilding.  This weekend I have the grand finale of my 4-year D&D campaign - hopefully it all comes together.  I can't stop prepping for upcoming D&D, Mothership, and Delta Green games.  I've been having a great time vibe coding an AI-powered supercomputer - it's wild that we can now talk to computers and they'll answer us back.  I've got more minis to paint for a D&D campaign I'm hoping to start in December.  Lots of fun things to plan for.

Exciting and Chill Weekend

November 17, 2025 by Adam in Family

Saturday was a blast, finishing up our Convergence Delta Green mission.  The players all ended up scarred and battered, with my oldest son's character ending up with Paranoia, but I think they all had a good time.  The threat was maybe contained, or at least blown up, and they lived to fight another day.

Emma and I went thrifting afterwards, returning with some weird things like an old speaker that contained modern equipment stuffed inside.  Emma's been trying to figure out what media to keep her music on, and starting to realize the flaws of cassette players with their warbled audio and challenges recording.

Sunday was extremely chill, hanging out at the house with a short outing to the library.  Unfortunately my Tesla, which has already been having problems, gave a new warning and power steering died.  A hard reset got the steering back, but it was troubling and I scheduled a service appointment a week from now in Salem.  Hopefully I can make it there.

Now I'm back to work, finally getting off call and hopefully returning to a more normal work week.

Vibe Coding Into the Future

November 14, 2025 by Adam in Family

My mocha is beside me, one of the things AI will never replace.  I keep finding things to do with it at work and for my hobbies, though.  I keep cranking out weird AI generated props for my games - Ouija boards, security monitors, sound boards for phone calls with a ghostly presence, music playlists, adventure notes for an Aliens-like Mothership game, and so on.  There's something magical about telling my computer "make a thing" and it does.  It's still rough around the edges, but it's getting better and is usually good enough for a home roleplaying game.

I've been on call this week, which sometimes keeps me busy.  I'll occasionally get useful things done, then have to drop it all to deal with a weird issue.  Hopefully this weekend is quiet as I've got a Delta Green game coming up.  Emma's excited to be lazy for a couple days - it turns out working at the chocolate factory is exhausting work and she falls into bed around 7 pm each night.

Life's generally doing well.  The younger kids are okay, with Yvonne continuing to do the prerequisites for an EMT program.  Jo's somewhat stressed about Wordcrafters, which always runs close to the edge financially.  The kitties are increasingly demanding about getting pets, with Data head bonks a regular occurance first thing in the morning.

Fun Weekend

November 10, 2025 by Adam in Family

I was a generally pleasant weekend, with Emma wandering over Friday afternoon to hang out and start the weekend in earnest.  This time she bought huge volumes of popcorn and the usual chocolate, one of the perks of her current job.

Saturday started with blueberry pancakes, dutch babies, whip cream, and a mocha, followed by the fam descending on the house for a Mothership game.  I'd been prepping for nearly a year, making props and pictures and music and more, so it was almost a relief that it turned out well.  There's something satisfying about starting a self destruct sequence and having it count down for ten minutes in real time as the players scramble to figure out how to get away before their ten minutes are up.

I had some good puttering time over the weekend, printing and painting minitatures for the first time in months.  I'm pondering a new D&D campaign and starting to get things ready to go.  Emma and I also went to the Picadilly flea market and ended up with a wide assortment of treasures to take home, including a cool pre-Walkman portable tape recorder that's going into my next Delta Green game for sure.  Next up was a library run with Emma before she went back to her mom's.

Jo and I worked on the basement where we built some new IKEA shelving and did a big rearranging of things.  It's been feeling somewhat chaotic lately, so we put useful things on shelves and hid the weird things a little better, which is probably a metaphor for life or something.

Mocha Friday

November 07, 2025 by Adam in Family

I'm really happy that it's almost the weekend.  Work's been more frustrating than usual, with tools breaking and mysterious problems popping up.  It's always a bummer when work feels like work.

Since Jason can't make it tomorrow, I decided to run a Mothership one-shot with the rest of the crew.  It's another roleplaying game in the style of Aliens, with the story being that they're members of a cargo hauler, docking at a mining station to drop off cargo.  I've been making props, web pages, images, and software for months in preparation, so hopefully it goes well.  I'm a little fuzzy on the rules, but they're pretty light and I figure if I have enough magic tricks they won't mind the occasional rule stumble.

I've also started prepping for another D&D campaign, this time with Jason, hopefully BJ, and some others.  For some weird reason I'd rather prep for a game than play a video game myself.  There's just something deeply satisfying in creating something from scratch and getting to show it off.

Life is full of various annoyances.  My Tesla is misbehaving and I should just bring it to Salem for service.  Canada sent back my passport application because I didn't write down the photographer on the back of my picture.  Evenings feel more glum than usual with the darkness.

On the plus side, I think we're getting the state rebate for our second heat pump, so hopefully that gets finished in December just in time for all the tax breaks.  The kids are all doing just fine, as are the kitties.  

Cold Monday

November 03, 2025 by Adam in Family

I spent some time over the weekend to take out the air conditioner in the shed.  Unfortunately I forgot to close the window so it's really cold here this morning. 

It was a good weekend, with Emma and I going to hang out at Hideaway Bakery with her big brother.  The farm house is coming along, his trip to eastern Oregon was fun, and his life seems to be doing well.  Emma and I did a bit of thrifting and our usual library trip, though mostly for entertainment purposes.  Mostly we seemed to watch a lot of Time Team.

I managed a bit of yardwork and general cleaning on Sunday, but wore myself out and mostly puttered around later in the day.  I made another radio thingie and signal tracking thingie for an upcoming roleplaying game.  With the current AI tools, vibe coding these things is shockingly fast as long as you're not too picky about how it looks.

Now it's back to work, where I have to write real code and half my time is just trying to keep my development tools functioning.

Halloween Mocha Friday

October 31, 2025 by Adam in Family

It is indeed a little spooky today, not the least that I volunteered to be on call while my coworker flew to LA to go to a haunted house with his sister.  Hopefully I don't regret taking it on today.

Otherwise life is good.  Jo and I went to a reading of The Bells at Oregon Contemporary Theater.  The author died earlier this year from ALS and her husband helped finish publishing the book.  It was sad and hopeful and an interesting night out.  I ran into an old friend from high school who's one of the few who stuck around town - we keep running into each other every few years.

I've been having way too much fun making AI generated props for my games.  This one is a radio station for the fictional town of Groversville, with songs, a DJ, commercials, and emergency interruptions.  I have a little FM radio transmitter and I can send it to a real radio, though the range is very short.

Jo's off to the writing shed tonight, sticking me with distributing candy.  Tomorrow Emma and I will visit our eldest son at Hideaway Bakery for a little visit.  Maybe I can get to a thrift store or two.  Crazy that November is right around the corner.

Rainy Weekend

October 27, 2025 by Adam in Family

It was a weekend full of lots of little things.  Emma and I made our traditional library run.  Jo had a Wordcrafter's event downtown, so Yvonne and I went down to lend a hand - it was a madhouse with hundreds of kids and parents in costume.  Coloring pages and madlibs were in short supply.

Emma loaded up on podcasts and audiobooks for the week ahead at the chocolate factory, along with playing some old school Psychonauts.  We also peeled and processed more apples, loading up the dehydrator again.  It's amazing how many apple chips we get from that small tree each year.

I vibe coded my retro Raspberry Pi cartridge project so it opens the content of the web pages on the "cartridge" and plays them on the screen, then closes it when you pull the cartridge.  It's funny how much I enjoy prepping for a game I hopefully play one day.

Now it's back to work - I've got a presentation tomorrow so I want to prep that a little.  Otherwise the week seems soggy and uneventful.

Tattooed Mocha Friday

October 24, 2025 by Adam in Family

I got my Apollo 11 tattoo this week, taking Wednesday afternoon off work to get ink done at Myth Tattoo. Kinsey had a big tv, so I put on the Apollo 11 documentary to distract from the surprisingly painful parts near by wrist and elbow.  I took the transparent wrap off last night and am happy with the results.  Some of the line work will fade over the next few weeks.  There's even a tiny red dot where I was born if you look closely enough.

As for the rest of the week, all is generally well.  Jo's working away at school and Wordcrafters.  Emma got to press foil around chocolate this week, which apparently takes a bit of artistry.  The eldest kid is off in Eastern Oregon with his girlfriend.  Yvonne has a newfound love of trauma care and has applied for the EMT program at Lane next month.  Life is never boring around here.

My Tesla is misbehaving, disabling some systems when it starts the car - nothing critical, but I'd like to have it working properly.  I'm trying to get ChatGPT do diagnose things for me, but may end up taking it to Salem to be serviced.

Otherwise I'm enjoying prepping for the next Delta Green mission, suitably spooky for this time of year.  

I have endless projects and things to fix this weekend, though Emma will likely force me to do fun things like a library run and perhaps thrifting.  She's playing Psychonauts and enjoying it's quirky sense of humor.