Going Longer

Today's swim workout went 4600 yards.

Warm Up

--2 x 200 easy (no interval)

Main Set

--12 x 200 @ 2:50 (aerobic pace)

--10 x 50 kick @ 1:05

--12 x 100 @ 1:25 pull

Warm Down

--100 easy

That's my longest practice in quite some time. But I got in the zone early and felt good. Ultimately, I had to stop myself to keep from overdoing it.  Considering how tired I am right now, I might not have stopped soon enough!

RPG News & Other Notes

I don't usually do RPG-type news, but a few things caught my eye this morning:

5E Adventure Review: The Fall of Cahokiantep (Merric's Musings)
The adventure is presented as an 11-page pdf, and consists of seven “scenes”, some of which might potentially have several encounters. It’s a wild, fantastic adventure, which should appeal to those wanting more than “just another dungeon” to explore. I mean, how many adventures are there where you get to fight an astral dragon turtle?

I love the imagination of it all...

If you missed it, I put out "The Fall of Cahokiantep" on Tuesday.  For what it's worth, I always try to do my D&D-type content on Tuesdays.  As of this writing, over 400 people have read "Fall of Cahokiantep," making it one of the most successful posts I've put out.  Readership is way up in general, though, and I've been especially gratified to note that more roleplaying folks seem to be coming by for other posts, like "5 Things on a Friday."   Thanks for that!

As an aside, I badly need a cover image for "Cahokiantep".

D&D: The Fall of Cahokiantep

As promised, here is “The Fall of Cahokiantep.”  For those keeping score, this is my fifth short role-playing adventure, though it’s the first one that’s not set in some kind of fantasy version of Bar Harbor, Maine.  Instead, Cahokiantep is modeled on Savannah, Georgia, where I was stationed as a young lieutenant in the 3rd Infantry Division.

The purpose of this adventure is twofold.  It introduces Cahokiantep as a potential location for future content—either Sketch in My Notebook-style stories or else future RPG content—and it provides a bridge from a traditional swords-and-horses style campaign to a plane-hopping campaign that incorporate elements inspired by science fiction.  I wrote this piece specifically because the stuff I’ve done on Spelljammer lately has been super-popular, but it doesn’t seem like Wizards is doing much with the setting these days.  I’m hoping that leaves a little room in the market for Cahokiantep, but we’ll see how that goes.  If this adventure is well received, I have a sequel in mind, tentatively titled “Cahokiantep: Journey to the End of the Universe”.

Monday Morning: Around the World in 7 Tweets

Morning Briefing: Here's what you need to know to start your day. http://t.co/nRjfF1FfME pic.twitter.com/yQe5SwM5qf

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 3, 2015

Housatonic Boat Club

The Housatonic Boat Club is the oldest active yacht club in the state of Connecticut.  I've never though of myself as the kind of person who would join a yacht club, but the place is really nice, and they have a sailing school.  I'd love for the girls to have the chance to learn to sail.

Hannah & Sally out on the dock.

5 Things on a Friday: Race4Chase Time

Happy Friday, folks!  Hope everybody’s set to have a great weekend.

***

1. Obama Shrugs Off Global Slavery To Protect Trade Deal (HuffPost Politics)

The Obama administration outraged human rights advocates on Monday by removing Malaysia from its list of the world's worst human trafficking offenders -- a move that the activists said damages U.S. credibility -- simply to boost the president's trade agenda…

Hundreds of Democrats and a handful of Republicans had previously urged the State Department to maintain Malaysia's ranking as a "Tier 3" human trafficking violator. For years, the Malaysian government has largely turned a blind eye to sex slavery involving men, women and children. Forced labor is rampant in several sectors of the country's economy, particularly the electronics industry. In April, mass graves holding more than 130 human trafficking victims were discovered near the country's northern border with Thailand. That same month, the U.S. ambassador to Malaysia said the government needed to take human trafficking prosecution more seriously.

West Point Has Had a Good Week

#USMA is #11 on @Forbes America's Top Colleges List. @NavalAcademy is #27, while @AF_Academy is #38. #GoArmy http://t.co/H39TbHIgWq

— U.S Military Academy (@WestPoint_USMA) July 29, 2015

D&D: Astral Madness & Mutant-Zombie Ghouls

I'm going through an editing process right now for a new adventure I hope to publish here in the next couple of weeks called "The Fall of Cahokiantep".  To quote the introduction:

The purpose of this adventure is twofold.  It introduces the city of Cahokiantep as an adventure location, and it provides a bridge from a traditional swords-and-horses style roleplaying campaign to plane-hopping fantasy with elements inspired by science fiction.

"The Fall of Cahokiantep" is intended as the first part of a trilogy, but as of this writing all I have for the next part is a high concept.  I've no clue at all how the thing is going to end.

I couldn't find my shirt last night...

...when we started grilling.  Sally, of course, took this as an opportunity to start taking pictures.

Despite spending an entire day out on Long Island Sound, I still need to work on my tan.

Race Report: Swim Across the Sound 2015

St. Vincent's Hospital held their annual Swim Across the Sound yesterday, and I participated for the first time.  My friends George, Ben, and I swim together frequently at the Woodruff Family YMCA in Orange, CT, and George has been trying to get me into marathon swimming for a while now.  He's a veteran; he's crossed the English Channel, done the Sound solo, and has many other impressive marathon swim finishes.  I agreed, but not until the last minute, unfortunately, because our family's schedule has been pretty damned busy of late.  Our girls are in triathlon camp (they have their first race next weekend), Sally's their coach, she's also woring to get a little PLYOGA practice off the ground, and there's always my work in Manhattan.  Anyway, George named our team "Y Me?" because we're all YMCA swimmers, and in fact, the Woodruff Family YMCA sent two full teams to compete in this year's race.  That is pretty awesome.

5 Things on a Friday: Science Loves Dad-Bods

Hey!  It’s Friday!!!  

How was your week?

***

1. Lockheed Martin Announces Sikorsky Purchase And Strategic Review Of Services Portfolio (Forbes)

Acquisition of Sikorsky for an after-tax price less than its current annual sales will improve Lockheed’s market positioning — already viewed as the best among first-tier defense contractors — in several ways.  First, it will boost annual revenues over $7 billion by acquiring rotorcraft franchises central to U.S. military operations.  Second, it will reduce company reliance on the tri-service F-35 fighter program, which had been projected to grow to over a quarter of corporate revenue as production ramped up.  Third, it will accelerate the company’s efforts to derive a greater share of income from foreign sources, since Sikorsky last year generated nearly half of its revenues overseas (Lockheed was at about 20%).  Finally, it will provide the combined enterprise with a multi-decade stream of sustainment revenues as it supports thousands of Black Hawks and other Sikorsky helicopters in use around the world.

D&D: Expanding Mordecai’s Monster

“The Mystery of Mordecai’s Monster” is finally out from ENWorld’s EN5ider magazine.  That’s awesome, of course, and I’m super-pleased with the way that the adventure came out.  In its final form, “Mordecai’s Monster” is a svelte done-in-one (or maybe two) adventure that GMs can run for their groups without an over-long commitment to the storyline.  I like that.  Writing it that way was a serious challenge for me, and I’ve got to give a lot of credit to En5ider’s editor James Haeck for helping smooth out some of the rough edges.

Swim Across the Sound

I'm signed up for a team for St. Vincent’s SWIM Across the Sound Marathon Swim.  It's an annual charity swimming race that supports cancer prevention, education and assistance programs.

St. Vincent's Swim Across the Sound.

If you didn't know, my entire family was killed by cancer.  Both my grandmothers, my grandfather, my mother, and Sally​'s father all died as a result of cancer, and my father got cancer but survived, though it was one of the critical elements in his later descent.  If you can help support this charity, I think it is a worthy cause.  For me, it's a uniquely personal cause.

Click here to support our team!