Monday, December 31, 2012
Top Ten Things From 2012
10. WotC started releasing a new ruleset for D&D, and the playtest turned out to be really interesting.
9. The Avengers was a terrific movie.
8. Emma discovered the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
7. I worked a TON of overtime, much of it right before Christmas. Yay overtime checks!
6. Hannah started singing lessons, sang publicly several times, and even recorded a couple of songs.
5. I started coaching triathlon This led to a little freelance writing gig.
4. I finished 3rd in my age group at the Milford Y-Tri.
3. I averaged under 8 minutes/mile at the Westport Minuteman 10K.
2. Sally won her age group in not one but two road races.
1. We took the kids to Washington, DC, and did most of the tour by bicycle. We even got to spend Memorial Day with my father at Arlington.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
I Feel Like I've Learned a Few Things Today
This hasn't by any means been my favorite NFL football season of recent memory. Still, this is the last regular season weekend of the year, and so I feel like I have to watch this afternoon's games. After all, barring a miracle this afternoon this will be the last time we see the New York Giants play for the next 6 months.
So. What have we learned?
-- First, the Giants are great against defenses that suck. Against the Ravens? Terrible. But against the Eagles? Hey, pretty good day.
-- Likewise, the Giants' offense is great when they have Chris Snee in the lineup. Without him know? Again, terrible.
-- Along those same lines, counting on the Detroit Lions is a losing strategy.
-- Lastly, why don't I think that the Houston Texans can never win a Superbowl? Because they just can't win the big game. Witness today's game against Indianapolis. If they're going to drop a game like this against the Colts, wait until they have to play Tom Brady and the Patriots up in Foxboro.
I'll miss football once it ends, but the season itself has still been incredibly frustrating.
Sunday Comics: Bronx Angel--Politics By Another Method (Page 11)
Bronx Angel: Politics By Another Method, Page 11 Click here to see this page at full size. |
Saturday, December 29, 2012
News & Notes (Saturday, 12/29/12)
- Last week I wrote a bit about wanting to restart my long-running D&D campaign, The Sellswords of Luskan. Well, I actually took steps to do it. The "new" game is called Revenge of the Sellswords of Luskan, and it's being hosted on the Myth-Weavers forum, which is where I personally go to play D&D Play-by-Post (PbP). I've got four of five of my original Players back, but we haven't actually started the game yet because...
- I spent the last month writing a novella for my kids as one of their Christmas presents. What's cool about that is that because I had a concrete deadline, i.e. Christmas, I had to really buckle down and work, forcing myself to stay exclusively on this one thing. The good thing about that is that I actually managed to finish the rough draft on Christmas Eve morning, and then I finished my first re-write yesterday. So I'm actually done! But I would like to find a good test-reader or two, so if you're interested in that, let me know.
- My wife gave me a Phiten Tornado Titanium Necklace yesterday. It's supposed to help redirect your body's energy, enhancing sleep, helping you recover after exercise, and just generally giving you more energy. Personally, I can't imagine how that's possible, but I've been wearing the thing for about the last eighteen hours, and I do feel terrific. Maybe the thing acts as some kind of half-assed Faraday Cage? I can't think of another way it might actually affect your body--and for that matter, even if it does act as a Faraday cage, I don't know exactly how that would help--but then again, I'm not much on all of this new age medicine crap, either.
The Phiten Tornado Necklace |
- Triathlon.About.Com published a couple more of my articles this week:
- Finally, wow, what a difference running in the cold makes. I went out for a run with Sally this morning in thirty-degree weather, and for once she was the one struggling, and I was the one feeling great. That said, if you followed the link there, you know that I use MapMyRun.Com all the time to track my runs, and that's fine, but the app on my iPhone is only about 85% to 90% accurate. Which is another way of saying that it's 10% to 15% inaccurate, and that's really annoying, especially on longer runs. It seems to work a little better when I give it a few seconds to start up before I actually start running. And then too, it's way better than nothing, but still. I often find myself wonder exactly how far I ran at the end of a workout, and that's even with the pedometer in use.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Friday Mad Science: Power, The Hunger Games, and the Big Lie
The Humberto Ramos variant cover for ASM #700. |
Friday Hair Metal: Something to Believe In
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Christmas Time Is Here
Maybe it's me, but I think Hannah has a gift. 'Course I'm a proud daddy, but still...
Monday, December 24, 2012
2012 Christmas Letter
I hope this note finds you happy and in good health. 2012 was an exciting, happy, storm-filled year for our little family, but we survived and even thrived, and as we look forward to 2013, I can't help but feel that great things are right around the corner. I hope that's true for you as well.
For me, 2012 started normally enough. I continued to work in the City as an engineer, signed up to coach the new triathlon club at the local YMCA, and ran a few races, and in May, Sally and I took the girls on vacation to Washington, DC. We saw the Smithsonian and the National Gallery and a bunch of the monuments, and then we spent some time at my father’s grave at Arlington on Memorial Day. And then things got interesting. As the heat of summer hit the City, contract negotiations between my company and its labor union broke down, and I soon found running a crew of non-union contractors up in Westchester County in lieu of the company’s regular workforce. Needless to say, the next few weeks got a bit tense. And then, as if that weren’t enough, Hurricane Sandy slammed the City in late October, and as you might expect, pretty soon I was back up in Westchester again, this time helping with storm recovery. All in all, it was a super-busy year, but I took a week's vacation heading into Thanksgiving, and as I'm sure you can imagine, I'm excited for the Holidays. Frankly I’m ready for a return to normalcy.
Sally, meanwhile, has been at least as busy as I have. She continues to translate for Birth-to-Three here in Connecticut and contribute to the local PTSA and Student Literacy Council and run our local Girl Scout Troop, and this year, she also became a sales associate for Arbonne. And if that’s not enough, she’s also scheduled to resume her introductory art classes for children early in 2013, and oh by the way, she’s also a full-time mother and homemaker. But I remain the most proud of Sally because amidst all of that, she still manages to find time to be an athlete. Sally and I ran several races together this year, and she won her age group twice. I’ve been proud of Sally many times in our marriage, but I think that first age group win was the most proud I’ve ever seen her be of herself. Watching that was pretty awesome.
Hannah and Emma continue to be students and artists and gymnasts, but I think 2012 may well go down as the year that Hannah really committed to becoming a singer. After her performance in last year’s school talent show, it was clear that we needed to get Hannah into actual singing lessons, and now, not quite six months on, we’ve begun to see her learn the drive and discipline that only commitment to achieve a specific goal can develop. Hannah’s only in 4th grade, but I couldn’t be prouder of her. She’s trying out for the school play, and while I don’t know what’s going to happen, I do know that she’s made it through several sets of call-backs, and now she’s up for a major part. Regardless of how that turns out, I’m satisfied that she’s learned that she’s going to have to work to get the things that she wants in this life, and that’s a lesson that, frankly, I’m happy for her to have under her belt. Emma, meanwhile, is our resident soccer player, comic book fan, and all-around geek-in-training. She’s a happy kid who loves to sing and dance and read and watch TV with her daddy, and those are all great things for her to be.
So that’s us in 2012. As we look forward to the New Year, I can’t help but wonder what new adventures and challenges await. This year has been a great year for us, and God willing, next year will be, too.
Hopefully that’ll be true for you as well.
Sally, Hannah, Emma, & Dixie posed for some pics last week when we went to get our Christmas tree. |
With Love,
Dan, Sally, Hannah, & Emma
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Tim Tebow and the Jets
Sunday Comics: Bronx Angel--Politics By Another Method (Page 10)
Bronx Angel: Politics By Another Method: Page 10. Click here to see the page at full size. |
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Maneuvers and Expertise Dice in D&D Next (from the Ruleset released on 12/17/12)
WotC released this really cool wallpaper to support the release of 4e's Monster Manual 3. I have that one somewhere in the house, and so I wanna say that this is a Blizzard Dragon. The Blizzard Dragon was one of a series of elemental "disaster" dragons that came out in MM3. |
Friday, December 21, 2012
Friday Mad Science: All Triathlon, All The Time
That's me, running for home at the Y-Tri last year. |
Friday Hair Metal: It's the End of the World
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Molly Visits the Hospital
So it looks like Molly's gonna miss Christmas this year. That's Hannah with the Big Sad Face.
Personally, I told Hannah that she ought to ask the doctors if they can replace Molly's arm with one that's bionic or mechanical. She didn't think that was funny.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Comics, TV, and the TMNT
TMNT, on Nickelodeon. |
TMNT #15 from IDW. This issue rocked! |