doublefeh

A good firs step in any move is the triage of stuff. I have a pile of RPG books and board games that are destined for a Used Bookstore this weekend, but I figured I'd offer them out to any interested friends at a pretty good price first.

( The List; RPGs $5 apiece, board games $5 or $10Collapse )

Everything unclaimed by this weekend goes to BookBuyers.

A while back, djdigit had a great idea: get a few friends together to share selections of music for each other. He came up with a set of themes or prompts, each attendee selected a song to match each prompt, and then they all got together and played them for each other. A good time was had by all.

Fast forward to now, and I'm holding another Tunes party at my place this Tuesday. I already have djdigit and savorie, but it could use another two or so people* to get a robust playlist. It's nothing too heavy. My place at 7pm. If I have time, I'll make some pasta; otherwise we'll just order pizza. I'll send out the list of prompts tomorrow or Monday, you'll come with your track selections on some device that can take a headphone miniplug, and we'll get sharing.

(*That 2 is also a limit. 5 people, 6 songs, average 5 minutes per song is already 2.5 hours of the evening just when the music is playing)

This tree was really cool. Lots of trees around the woods had moss, but this one was growing at enough of an angle to have full-on ferns growing all the way up to trunk.

Super wide-angle lenses are fun! I finally had a chance to go play with it at Stanford last weekend. The light wasn't great, but there were still opportunities for good pictures.

Plenty here.

The best thing about wide-angle camera lenses is the sense of extreme perspective they let you bring, creating really neat effects otherwise impossible to achieve. For example, take this nutcracker:
( Cut for widthCollapse )

For the first time in memory, I went to the Sutro Baths today. It was a gorgeous day to be out and about, and I thoroughly enjoyed the site. It hits this unusual intersection of Urban Decay and Natural Seascape, with just a hint of Archaeological, a quality hard to find out here. On such a nice day, it's no surprise that plenty of other people were out crawling over the ruins or just hanging out. What did surprise me was that all of my favorite pictures from the day featured those people as central elements; this is pretty unusual for me.

On our way out of the city, Vancouver favored us with some beautiful Alpenglow. (Also, skyscraperglow)

What a week.

Norway got absolutely crushed by Canada tonight in Men's hockey. The game started out really tight; despite clearly being underdogs, the vikings held Canada to 0-0 for the first period. After that... well, either the Norwegians were getting tired or the Canadians had been holding back. It was like watching someone play against The House in Vegas. The House doesn't win every hand, but the odds are against you enough to make your chances at eventual victory pretty slim. In this case, 8-0 slim.

And if you thought the players in this picture look kind of beaten down, this was only after Canada's second goal.

This is the first announcement of the Sixth Nerdly Beach Party.

Nerdly Beach Party is a small, informal Camp Convention at San Simeon State Park on California's central coast. Registration is a mere $35, covering the campsite, breakfasts and lunches, and a weekend's worth of gaming. The menu tends to run towards a mix of indie games and small press titles, but the schedule is entirely built from what attendees are willing to bring and interested in playing.

The first step is determining the actual dates of the event. We are looking at one of:
March 26-28
April 9-11
April 18-18

Organization is managed on a Nerdly Beach Party VI Google Group. Head on over and make your preference known!

Act 1: Five minutes of narrative and character development in 40 minutes of ballet. This makes Wagner seem tightly paced.

Act 2: A bit more of the interesting stuff, but still only 50/50. Also, pretty tired of cotton candy Tchaikovsky dance music by the end of this.

Act 3.1: Well, at least the extra color and ethnic pastiche are a change of pace...

Act 3.2 (When Baron von EvilSwan arrives) to the end: WOW. Music, Drama, and dancing all working together! Amazingly engaging. Where has this been all evening?!?