20190503

Fri May 3 09:08:11 EDT 2019 Slept from ten-thirty to six-thirty. Woke briefly around five. Rain and a high of fifty today. Work: - Review invoices Done. - Check Saturday alarm settings Done. - Add Shay's updates to disaster recovery plan Done. - Research GM unit types Done. - Research WN unit types Done. - Check on Unicorn backup Done. Half-hour walk at lunch. Overcast but not raining. More small flowering trees have bloomed. No leaves on the oaks yet, but many of the maples have leaves. Saw a red-winged blackbird and a bunch of robins. Home: - Megadungeon? https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-rise-fall-internet-art-communities > As digital imaging advanced, the internet expanded into the multimedia universe we have today, and, perhaps paradoxically, its art communities dwindled. Users traded dedicated artist communities for major social networks, leaving links to their new Instagram and Facebook accounts on their abandoned profiles. In the 2010s, users asked on forums if their beloved communities were indeed dead. DeviantArt—though it remains active—has lost its culture. And more recently, Tumblr, formerly a haven for LGBTQ+ artists, issued a major crackdown on adult content—alienating many creators who found refuge in its sex-positive, queer-friendly environment. > Before social-media profiles, artists primarily cultivated digital identities through clunky personal websites. Broskoski, of are.na, who was involved in net art communities in the 1990s, remembered making a site called “Welcometohell.com,” which listed links to other websites—a common practice at the time. “You were sort of making or creating who you were by pointing at the other things that you liked,” he explained. https://boingboing.net/2019/05/03/unspecified-spacecraft-acciden.html > ICD-10 is a standard that defines 70,000+ codes for standardizing the reporting of injuries and diseases, and it is terrifyingly comprehensive: if V95.4 ("Unspecified spacecraft accident injuring occupant") isn't enough, how about V97.33XA ("Sucked into jet engine, initial encounter") and for bisto, V97.33XD ("Sucked into jet engine, subsequent encounter"). > John D Cook has more: Y92.146 ("injuries in a prison swimming pool") and Y92.253 ("injuries sustained at the opera"). Journals of Mary Shelley: > Let me fearlessly descend into the remotest caverns of my own mind—carry the torch of self-knowledge into its dimmest recesses— http://www.informit.com/store/advanced-programming-in-the-unix-environment-9780321637734 https://arp242.net/the-art-of-unix-programming/ > Perl includes a rather complete and well-thought-out internal binding of virtually the entire Unix API, drastically reducing the need for C and making it suitable for jobs like simple TCP/IP clients and even servers. https://metacpan.org/pod/distribution/perl/ext/POSIX/lib/POSIX.pod https://crimereads.com/encyclopedia-brown-and-the-case-of-the-mysterious-author/ More thoughts on what's-in for Castle Apehawk: - megadungeon-focused, to the point that "town" might just be a decision tree - hear rumors, legends - buy gear, supplies - hire help - carousing - bank - Gygaxian-flavored: geomorph-style dungeon maps, primarily monsters and magic items from _M&T_ and supplement I - Back-port monster detail from _MM_ - Make the stock monsters interesting by giving them personality/personal identities and purpose. - Use a video-gamey boss/sub-boss setup - Have a tree of relationships between residents of different levels (strategic, business, or familial) - Each faction/boss should have a line for "underling of", "boss of", "friends/allies", "enemies". - Bosses taunt the PC's from time to time, in person or through messages. ("dungeon jerks") - Some factions should be neutral to the PC's (let that emerge during play?) - A big, obvious central staircase lets players quickly choose their level of risk/reward. - Keep the overall premise simple (e.g., a mad wizard did it) — maybe it's a family stronghold going back generations, and many family members are undead still residing there. - Establish a naming convention for each monster type - bugbears = body part + bad action, like Bonecrusher, Spleensplitter, Toestomper - goblins = skin color + body part, like Lemontongue, Flameear, Bananagut, Bloodfinger, Copperheel - kobolds = four or five letters from the name of an element, like Ydro, Arbo, Ilico, Hosp, Tani, Obal, Iobi, Stront (or maybe these would be better Gnome names or something...) Goblins versus kobolds: summarizing and extrapolating from _MM_: - Goblins: - skin: yellow, dull orange, brick red - clothes: dark, muted brown, gray, maroon - weapons: they favor spears and morning stars - tribal - rule of the strongest, oaths of fealty - leader → sub-chief + guards → chief + bodyguards (generally only encountered in lair) → goblin king - one great goblin king - while kobolds sometimes inhabit dismal forests as well as caves, goblins much prefer life underground - sometimes keep huge wolves, used as mounts - sometimes accompanied by bugbears - hate dwarves and gnomes - take slaves - take pleasure in torture - OK miners - live fifty years - Kobolds: - tribal, with family-based war bands - hierarchy of tribes, sorted by strength - reside in dismal places — above or under ground - weapons: favor spiked wood clubs, axes, and javelins Servings: grains 1/6, fruit 4/4, vegetables 4/4, dairy 1/2, meat 2/3, nuts 0/0.5 Brunch: migas, cucumber, tomato, banana, apple, coffee Lunch: yogurt, grapefruit, cucumber, carrots, banana Afternoon snack: coffee Dinner: pizza 111/69

< ^ txt