Looking forwards to the 19th.Also looking forward to the 19th as we might go see No Way Home, depending on show times.
I've missed a couple of the Spiderman films, so I think I should try to catch up on them before seeing "No Way Home". I want to see it, though. It looks pretty bombastic.
No game. Only one player could make it and I don't really enjoy running solo games anymore. So, my brother and the guy who could make it are gonna eat bad pizza and watch "Shang-Chi", instead.
How about everyone else?
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We've got a sitter for the kids, because we're going out to dinner with friends Saturday night! It feels more and more like we're beating the pandemic, but I know that that's not true in all areas and all communities. And I know that we can still regress, but for now, I'm looking forward to a night out.
The sitter is a neighbor high school girl who just moved in, and we've never used her before, so this is a good first job.
Also, we have a critter (probably a possum) living in the space between the first and second floor of our house. I need to look around and under the house for access points.
No Dice December continues here at Sweet Home Calabama. Although I tested negative for Covid on Tuesday, they suggested that since I took the one-hour rapid test I should take another test tomorrow or Sunday. I'm pretty darned certain I don't have the Rona, but I want to be sure. I do know that I'm so freakin' dizzy right now that I may go back to bed, but I don't think it's an indication I have it.
What are you all doin'?
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Today is the kids' last day of school before the holiday break, so then they've got two weeks of being underfoot holiday! Nothing planned for this weekend, but I'm sure I'll spend time wrapping presents and just preparing for Christmas. On Monday, we're taking them on a road trip about an hour north of the city, and we're staying in a small cabin in the woods for the night, just for fun. The next day we have reservations for a nearby wolf and wolf-dog sanctuary, which we're all looking forward to. My oldest is really into wolves, so this is mostly for him, but we're all looking forward to it. We'll be visiting friends on the way back for a few hours.
Nothing planned for Wednesday or Thursday, but I'll be off work those days, too. Then Christmas Eve dinner at my mom's house, we host Christmas dinner at our house, and then my in-laws are flying in Christmas Day evening and staying for... I forget. About ten days, maybe? I'll be working. :)
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Well, we got a Christmas tree. Yet another year passes where I don't get to follow through with my threat of substituting a tree for Karen the Extra PVC Pipe if other people in the house don't get their stuff together and make room for a Christmas tree.
There's always next year!
No game this weekend, obviously, though some of you might get something dicey going!
Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to everyone. Let Yule Rule!
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Happy Belated Holidays!
The past week with the cabin, the wolf sanctuary, and all the holiday stuff went great. The only downside was a possible Covid exposure my daughter had, but after multiple tests it seems that it's gone or she never caught it. Thankful for that.
The in-laws are in town for a week and a half for their near-yearly visit, so I just sort of lean back and go with the flow until their visit is over. Not sure what will be going on, but I am working from home again, which is the fullest house I've had while working virtually.
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Laptop and a decent internet connection.
Oh yeah, the wolf sanctuary! I bet that was really cool. Which one is it?
It was really cool! It's called Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary, in a town called Navasota, TX, which is about an hour and change NW of Houston.
They have six wolves, six wolf dogs, and one dog who thinks he's a wolf. In the latter case, he's there because at one point, he was mistakenly classified as a wolf dog, which limited which sort of shelters were allowed to take him in (but nobody wanted to send him to a kill shelter). They try and pair the animals up in a male/female bond, and this dog paired very well with a wolf dog who had behavioral problems. One of the factors to their pairing is that wolves and wolf dogs don't bark, so when this problem wolf dog starts acting too aggressive, her regular dog mate will bark and calms her down.
The consistent story behind the rest of these animals is that people thought that a black market wolf or a wolf dog would make a great pet, but they don't have the resources and/or patience to properly take care of them, so they become destructive and/or aggressive. They seem pretty happy at the sanctuary, and the staff goes out of their way to keep them satisfied and intellectually challenged. It was a fun visit.
You work from home? How do you make that work?
Laptop and a decent internet connection.
Hey, I wasn't trying to be funny or rude with this response. I guess I was in a hurry.
I'm not sure what you meant? Maybe, how do I work from home with the kids here, also? Something else?
I was meaning like how do you get clients/customers, what do you actually do, how does the money get to you. Basically if I want to make from home, how can I actually do that?
Ah, okay. I'm not self employed, if I gave that impression. I am an employee at a large-ish company. When the pandemic started, we all already had work laptops (for most of us, this was our primary work computer) that we could use wherever, and our IT department focused all of their efforts on making sure the company had software that could handle large volumes of video calls and chat. For most of us, our virtual jobs are basically the same jobs we did in the office, only with a heavier reliance on emails, chat, and video calls. Also, we had to find a non-distracting spot at home, and we had to supply any "extras" like monitors and office chairs if we wanted them. I couldn't tell you how any of my colleagues with more public or client-facing jobs managed the transition.
So, we worked from home for over a year, went back to the office for a bit before the Delta surge, eventually went back again, and now we're virtual again for Omicron.
I'm shoveling snow in a couple of hours.
Should be fun!
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It was really cool! It's called Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary, in a town called Navasota, TX, which is about an hour and change NW of Houston.
The consistent story behind the rest of these animals is that people thought that a black market wolf or a wolf dog would make a great pet, but they don't have the resources and/or patience to properly take care of them, so they become destructive and/or aggressive.
As soon as I read your post about the sanctuary, I went back to Facebook and there was an ad for a wolf sanctuary on my news feed where I left off before checking things here. That's spooky even for Facebook.
The people I've known personally who claim to have raised wolves or wolf dogs are the exact kind of people I wouldn't let near a pet. I know that not all people with them fall into the same category, but I've never met anyone who had one without bragging about how it "kilt someone else's dawg that wuz in mah yard" and crap like that.
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The people I've known personally who claim to have raised wolves or wolf dogs are the exact kind of people I wouldn't let near a pet. I know that not all people with them fall into the same category, but I've never met anyone who had one without bragging about how it "kilt someone else's dawg that wuz in mah yard" and crap like that.
Ugh.
Most of the animals' stories were like that, or I can imagine that they were like that. There was one animal there, though, that they called their trust fund baby. This is because it was owned by a family with money. When their daughter moved off to college, the wolf dog started getting depressed, so they searched around for places where it could be better cared for. This sanctuary said that they didn't have room, and the family responded with, "how much money would it take for you to build enough room?" and then the sanctuary had the check the next day. And then the creature was flown down in the family's private jet. Apparently, they receive a monthly donation from the family, and the girl and her family visit a few times a year.
Wow! That's pretty incredible.
Any New Year's gaming going on this weekend? None here at Sweet Home Calabama. I sent out a group email as well as posting on our group's Facebook page asking everyone to let me know if they were or were not available this weekend. I heard from one person until today, and then that guy only messaged me after another game he was in got canceled. Thundering silence from the others. Kinda peeved about that. I busted my caudal appendage putting together a game since we've not been able to gather since November and all I got were tumbleweeds. Hmm..I think I'm more than peeved.
How about the rest of us? Whether you game or not have a safe and Happy New Year's weekend!
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FINALLY!!!!
Unless some unforeseen disaster strikes gaming will take place here at Sweet Home Calabama Saturday night!!! First game of 2022! Woooo! I'm gonna be short two players but I checked with them and they're committed to being at a con in Memphis over the weekend (ShadowCon). I have six players and I've always had a sort of unwritten rule if I can get four of my group together, I'll run the adventure. Less than that and I just don't enjoy it as much.
How about everyone else? Gaming? Working? Or do you just like to dance in our goatskin pants around this ancient ruin? (50 points to Gryffindor if you know where that line came from).
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How about everyone else? Gaming? Working?
I have a virtual poker game Saturday night! We keep it low stakes buy-ins so nobody gets emotionally involved in losing or winning money, but you got have some amount of real money so that people take it seriously. We use a Steam app called Tabletop Simulator, which is slower than in-person games, obviously, but we still have fun!
Or do you just like to dance in our goatskin pants around this ancient ruin? (50 points to Gryffindor if you know where that line came from).
Dragnet! The Dan Akroyd/Tom Hanks version from the 80s! Specifically (and I had to look this part up), it comes from the "rap" music video they made.
DING! DING! DING!
I really didn't like that movie but for some accursed reason that song was in my head all day yesterday!
I'm the guy who, when asked to play Poker, says, "Nah, thanks, though. I'm really not any good at it" and my friends all nod and wink thinking I'm gonna be that guy who cleans them out. But no. I can't play Poker. At all. I have some sort of weird mental block when it comes to learning card games. I have never been able to play Poker in any of its iterations. I just can't learn how. I don't know why.
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It's damn cold outside so we'll be hibernating.
We have a couple of new board games to try out; Root, a game of woodland might and right (basically Risk but with a raccoon thrown in to make things interesting) and Legends of Andor, which bills itself as a cooperative story telling game).
Plus always a chance I'll get everyone to play Pathfinder or something.
The main thing is staying warm and sane though.
My pbp game seems to have fallen through, but I still have my friday night magic+pokemon discord game that I run.
Tonight's game was canceled at the last minute because the GM (waves) fell and banged himself up pretty badly. I don't think anything is broken and at worst I've hyperextended a tendon or two, but I'm still in a lot of pain. The pain meds would have made me drool on myself instead of rolling dice, anyway.
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That might have been pretty entertaining for the other people in your group, Cal. Hope you feel better soon!
How about everyone else? Gaming? Working?I have a virtual poker game Saturday night!
I came in 2nd! We had a lot of fun last night, except that there was one guy on that I barely know who was drunk and by the end of the game he was slurring his words and couldn't even deal without everyone telling him specifically what to do. After he just disappeared without a word, we assumed he passed out. Apparently this guy does this frequently. I said that he obviously has a problem, but nobody who knows him better wanted to hear that. So that was a damper on an otherwise fun time.
That's too bad about that guy (and his friends who seem to not be bothered by his actions). I'd say if that's a frequent thing then it's a problem.
I'm pretty sore and stiff, today. Standing up and walking is extremely painful. Provided I don't fall again I'll be pretty much back to normal in two or three days.
Alrighty, we're going to try this again. Barring any thrills, chills, or spills we'll get to play Saturday night. This being Arkansas in January there is a high forecast later today in the upper fifties while Saturday it's supposed to rain all day, the temperatures fall rapidly, and turn to snow so it's really anybody's guess as to what will happen meteorologically.
So, who's doin' what this weekend?
So, who's doin' what this weekend?
It depends on the results of my family's Covid tests. :(
My wife already tested and it's positive, but my daughter and I were sick last week (our home tests came back negative), but it feels like one of us got her sick, but who really knows. My kids and I got a PCR test yesterday, and the turn-around time is "2 or 3 days." The kids have Monday and Tuesday off for MLK Jr. Day and an teacher in-service day, so those two days we were already planning on them not being at school. So the timing could be worse.
Oh my, I hope everyone comes out fine on the other end of this! I know someone who's finally getting over a bout of it. It was likely the Omicron variant given how comparatively mild his symptoms were, but he said it's still been a rough couple of weeks.
Well, shoot. My son, who tested negative earlier this week for COVID, was told to go back to work. He just got the results of the long turn around test and it came back positive. So, no game at Sweet Home Calabama.
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RT-PCR tests are very accurate when properly performed by a health care professional, but the rapid test can miss some cases.
In the diagnostic example, for every 10,000 individuals there will be 1000 infected and 9000 uninfected persons. Of the infected persons, 950 will be detected by the test (true positives) and 50 will be missed (false negatives). For the 9000 uninfected people, 8820 will correctly have negative tests (true negatives) and 180 will be positive (false positive). The positive predictive value (PPV) is the proportion of all positive tests that are true positives, in this case 950/(950 + 180) or 84%. Thus, most of the positive tests are true positives.
Please do not spread disease misinformation in a public forum
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I'm definitely going to get a short-time test done Sunday and will likely get the more in depth one, as well. I have some other health issues that might be exacerbated by the virus so I really try to stay on top of it.
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Oh my, I hope everyone comes out fine on the other end of this! I know someone who's finally getting over a bout of it. It was likely the Omicron variant given how comparatively mild his symptoms were, but he said it's still been a rough couple of weeks.
Thanks for your concern, Cal. And good news: the PCR tests my kids and I took have come back negative! Sad for my wife, who has locked herself away in our bedroom*, but it's a weight off of my kids' shoulders for sure. Especially my older one, they're at the age where they are starting to understand things and the impacts they may have, but still too young to emotionally handle them.
* I'm a little bit jealous
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Edit: Whoops, that's the following weekend. This weekend is just anime night.
Got to keep that busy social schedule straight, TOZ.