I’m sitting here reading C# documentation and watching an installer run so here’s a pretty picture from Disney World…
Pretty picture for the day…
Monthly Archives: October 2016
Definitely stretched…
Another weekend passed…more work on the house done. Office floor almost done…then on to the next item 🙂
SFB:
My Star Fleet Battles set is nearing complete update. I’ve got the core ships I should have and all of the important rules updates. I still have a few batches of peripheral stuff to pick up (Jindarians and such, unusual ships, omega). I’ll probably finish this up as I am interested in the new and unusual stuff. No idea when I’ll have time to go looking for opponents. Probably need to run through a few battles solo just to get my head back into the rules.
VR:
Lots of reading C# stuff over the weekend. Work related but likely to spill over into sandbox projects as Unity is C# based and seems to promise the smoothest path to simple VR coding (whenever I can find time to play with this). Got to dig into more JavaScript and Node.js stuff as well along the way. Interesting options for IoT type projects and such in there.
Basement power and networking needs to be dealt with after the upstairs floors are done. Once I’ve got power where I need it I can move the VR computer (and ideallly one other) down there where they’ll be more useful. I may wind up picking up new monitors for that area as the ones currently in play are old and dying. I don’t want to raid the back basement work bench if I can avoid it.
RPG:
Nothing much going on here. The one possibility that I talked to has gone dead. I’m assuming that game never made it to critical mass. I can’t see myself having time in the near future to run a game and I’m probably lucky that the game I might have joined as a player fell through…looking like I’ll be booked up for some months to come on various things.
Photography:
Also on indefinite hold. After the remaining house stuff gets done I’ve got a long list of other projects that need attention and haven’t gotten any in months. I may spend a little time working on England cruise pictures at some point, but I don’t really expect those to get post-processed until spring at the earliest. I’d love to seriously consider a 100-400mm L lens but if I’m not going to find time to use it, it really doesn’t make any sense.
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Updating my old Star Fleet Battles set
While I’ve been doing flooring work on the house, I’ve also been buying Star Fleet Battles and Federation and Empire game parts to update my 25 year old set. These used to be produced by Task Force Games but it appears the original company went away and the division that produced the star trek games lived on as Amarillo Design Bureau with the old series license and game designs.
Back in high school and college we had a great time killing starships on the tabletop. That got pushed to the back burner after graduation as I lost access to the groups I had played with and found my life getting much busier. Now that we’re empty nest parents, I’m hoping to find folks to play with in the area and get back into things a bit.
Federation and Empire is a game I’ve owned (back to the first version called Federation Space) since school but never found the time to place. I’ve updated my set and would love to find the opportunity to run through some strategic Star Trek combat sometime.
At this point I’m filling in the ‘New Worlds‘ modules and then just need to get the current version of the New Ship modules and Omega to be complete. I’m certainly enjoying reading through the new stuff…quite a few changes and a good bit of new material to play with. I am very interested to see what they did with Omega as this should all be new to me…working with the trade-off between material that would be useful in a near future game and stuff that I’ve never seen but find interesting…
Feeling like things are wrapping up…
The contractor installed flooring is all in. Demolition work needed is done. Appliances are actually back (mostly) in place.
Now I’ve got to get the base moldings cut and installed, the transitions from the rooms with newer hardwood in place and finish the office floor.
It is finally starting to feel like the light at the end of this tunnel isn’t a train 🙂
Unfortunately, the motherboard that I ordered for the VR computer seems to have had flaky memory sockets (I saw a number of reviews reporting similar issues) and I’m returning it. I’ve ordered an alternate (ASUS brand) board as a replacement.
Once I get past my current feeling overwhelmed by the range of issues that must be dealt with I can get back to interesting sandbox stuff.
Got to refinish the top of my desk while the office is ripped apart. I like the desk a lot but it was a bit banged up when we inherited it from the people who had rented our first apartment before us. A good cleaning up followed by a coat of stain and some polyurethane and I expect it will be very nice.
Of course, when the VR machine is together, it will need a place to live. Currently I’m in the process of setting up GFI outlets in the basement and need to grout the area around the drain channel I cut some time ago to ensure that any water that makes it into the basement does not get past the first few feet of floor.
Add in shingling the catio roof and I’m mostly done…
Still crazy busy on the home front…
Lots of work wrapping up. Office floor, kitchen floor, moldings and such. Loose ends all over but getting closer to complete at this point.
Continue reading Still crazy busy on the home front…
Been rather busy lately…
but then is it ever otherwise 🙂
I’ve been doing a lot of house related work as we get the upstairs and kitchen floors updated. Got to shingle the catio roof and deal with a few hanging details in the finished part of the basement as well.
I have been updating a couple of wargames that I’ve very much enjoyed playing in the past. I’ve bought the latest edition of Federation and Empire, a Star Trek (the old series) themed strategic board game that I owned the original version of, but never got a chance to play as it came out towards the end of my time in college and I never found the time.
I’m in the process of buying the updated pieces of the tactical game from the same company, Star Fleet Battles which I played extensively in high school and occasionally in college. I love the game though it is rather complex in its full form.
I’m hoping that as an ’empty nest’ parent I may find time and locate opponents for games like this in the relatively near future.
I also want to see what sorts of things I can put together as networked, computer managed games inspired by these old board war-games. I’ll probably do something completely crazy and impractical like building a virtual game table in VR as a sandbox project. Stay tuned and if time permits, things may happen.
Haven’t been doing any significant photography as there have been too many other things going on to eat up time and energy. I still need to post process photos from the British Isles cruise and many other things. I will get back to that stuff, just not likely any time too soon.