Metapost | 2018.02.27

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas tagging CJ Grove Street

Tags are live-ish. I need to reupload all old posts to link to the proper page (rather than search), but the landing pages are all there and this month works.

Also, I've added some posts to retroactively document photos and stuff from before I started the site.



Storypost | 2018.02.25

Horizon Zero Dawn DLC screenshot Aloy tracking
Cape Run

Blind Lady Ale House BLAH Cape Run 2018 normal heights pink team

February of course means the Blind Lady Ale House Cape Run. Most of the usual suspects were there this time, plus Jessica and Shar.

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thumbnail BLAH Cape Run running weimaraner dog thumbnail 2018 BLAH Cape Run dogs Toronado thumbnail 2018 BLAH Cape Run Toronado dog wants beer
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187 room

Renovation murder room concrete pour cinder blocks shelf

Steady progress on the garage annex. I leveled another section but ran out of cinder blocks (having used 100ish, total).

Renovation murder room concrete pour shelving cinder blocks tool storage

Going the other way, I've capped some of the cinder blocks and built stairs to get at the terraces behind. The near shelf could probably be used for a few high-use tools (drill, driver, sawzall) and maybe the backer could be a magnet board with open-end wrenches and drill bits.

Renovation murder room concrete pour shelving cinder blocks lumber storage

Wood storage is near the ceiling but across from the door (for easy removal of long beams). I used server pallets to create vertical sections so I don't have to stack boards and reshuffle every time I want the bottom one.
Safari Park

San Diego Safari Park tiger

For Valentine's weekend Jes and I went to the Safari Park for their overnight glampout. The vday theme was kind of unnecessary, but the benefit was that it was an 18+ event, which is especially important with tents in close proximity.

San Diego Safari Park tour lion camp feeding schedule

There's an early AM tram ride, some close-ups with armadillos and such, and a few peeks behind the scenes.

Sleeping lion San Diego Safari Park

The camp site is close-ish to the lion area, so you get to hear the occasional roar throughout the night - though the near side of the lion area is a wall of plexiglass so the sound is somewhat distorted. Seeing the cats just before feeding is like seeing a 500lb vicious Kafka before breakfast.
Horizon fin

Horizon Zero Dawn DLC screenshot Aloy view

I used my Safari Park recovery day to finish off Frozen Wilds.


Overiding the bear dudes is pretty fun.

Horizon Frozen Wilds bear combat Horizon Frozen Wilds lava cavern stealth Horizon Frozen Wilds computer
Horizon Frozen Wilds snowy peak aurora Horizon Frozen Wilds purple computer cabling Horizon Frozen Wilds stealth kill Horizon Frozen Wilds evading boss
Monster Hunter World

Monster Hunter World Tailrider Safari Palico

J, Derrick, Mark, and I have gotten a few more MHW sessions in. And our palicos have done a few not-at-all-adorably-named tailrider safaris.
Film

Film photography 35mm dog concrete murder room monochrome

I had some 35mm exposures left over from the wedding so, lacking anything specific to shoot, I put the dog in the murder room and then walked around the canyon.

Garage concrete bags motorcycles 3000GT Film photography dog weimaraner overpass Film photography dog weimaraner overpass Film photography freeway long exposure
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La Cronut Water

Le Cronut Water La Croix Coconut water

Not to be confused with cronuts. You're welcome, civilization.



Storypost | 2018.02.11

Horizon Zero Dawn DLC screenshot Aloy sparks
Monster Hunter World

After a couple of months, Monster Hunter World is finally out of beta and flying off of store shelves.


A dozen hours in, I still have very little understanding how to properly play the game. It has a bunch of everything - equipment, crafting, collectibles, stat boosters, etc. Most importantly: online co-op.

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The garage annex

Renovation murder room concrete pour shelving cinder blocks

Or, as it will hence be known, the murder room. Well, maybe if I stucco or paint the cinderblocks it'll look considerably less intimidating. More likely, I'll be exhausted enough from all of the cinder block hauling and cement pouring that I'll put everything away in my new shelving area and it'll just look semi-murdery.

Building materials delivery concrete cinder block

Rather than make a billion hardware store runs for cinder blocks, concrete, and gravel, I paid the $70 delivery fee and had it forklifted to me. Best idea ever. Having done half the area, I'm most of the way through the masonry supplies. But I have terracing going back to the crawlspace, so it should be a considerable amount of storage.

Murder room basement concrete cinder blocks Murder room basement concrete cinder blocks Murder room basement concrete cinder blocks
The Frozen Wilds

Horizon Zero Dawn DLC screenshot Aloy ice village

On to the Horizon DLC. Well, sort of. Horizon sessions tend to be more involved, so with all the manual labor I haven't made much progress.

Horizon Zero Dawn DLC screenshot Aloy smoke mountain

As the name implies, this one takes place in a mountainous, snowy environment. The story is fairly straightforward at this point: Aloy must investigate a pillar of smoke that may have to do with a machine/AI gone wrong.

Horizon Zero Dawn DLC screenshot Aloy sliding snow

Of course, the people up here use a completely different currency from the main game. Likewise most of the machines cannot be overridden (yet). I didn't want easy street, but it'd be nice to have some advantage to completing so much of the main game.

Horizon Zero Dawn DLC screenshot Aloy puzzle

There are some puzzles that are a little more geometric and interesting than crank-the-knobs.

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Warframe

Warframe Harrow screenshot temple

For those short sessions, there's still running the Warframe sorties. I've had a lot of fun with Banshee Prime. The Harrow quest was frightening but kind of meh.

Warframe Palladino he suffers while you dream Warframe nervous card Warframe Palladino
Work draft

Zetalpa Primal Dawn Storm the Vault

Source.

We did a draft at work last week, 2x Rivals of Ixalan and 1x Ixalan. It was a good combo, though having seen no Rivals, I didn't know what to go for. I ended up wanting to build my deck around an awesome white dino and a blue/red enchantment that would help mana fix. But it's hard to go dinos without green.

So yeah, four color draft deck. I told myself it'd be okay since I nabbed a bunch of dual lands and had some treasure generation and such.

Remarkably, after seven matches I hadn't once had an issue with not getting the right color mana. The deck was sort of bleh, in general, but I managed to go 4-3 overall.
New decks

I have a few cards on the way for some new EDH decks. In the meantime, Ixalan left me with some tribes that I wanted to make decks for, but keeping it chill 40-card style.

Dinos
Samut the Tested Thundering Spineback Goring Ceratops See all...

Source.

Merfolk
Wind Strider Wind Strider Jade Guardian See all...

Source.

Zombies
Sheoldred Whispering One Lord of the Pit Indulgent Tormentor See all...

Source.

Oh, and I've started generating my card library here.